Date: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00
Publisher: traitorAIZEN
Rights: Copyrights as per source stories

Life, Once Again!

– 인생, 다시 한 번! –

- VOLUME 1 -

-AUTHOR-

Wise Dragon

어진용

[ ensj (Wuxiaworld) ]

– STORY –

Sometimes, as we go about with our lives, we all happen to think of one specific thought at least once.

What if… I could go back to “that” time?

The funny thing is, the moment you think such a thought is the precise moment when you came back to the past, from the future.

“One more time.”

Life, once again.

– GENRE –

Fantasy School Life Seinen Slice of Life

Prologue

Beep beep beep!

A bus darted down the road, its horn blaring frantically. First swerving left, then hard to the right… Whoever drove it had clearly lost control of the vehicle. The speed it accumulated threatened to flip it over at any time. The other drivers on the road frantically stopped their cars to avoid it.

The bus crossed several lanes in the road before forcing its way up onto the empty sidewalk.

Bang!

The bus came to an abrupt halt as it slammed into an electric pole, which promptly fell down onto the vehicle. The people nearby got out of their cars and started gathering around the now wrecked bus. The doors of the bus opened, with the passengers inside spilling out with a panicked look.

“Someone call 119!” A shout come amidst the escapees.

“The driver’s dying!”

October 3rd, 2031.

A bus driver by the name of Han Maru passed away. He was 45 on the day of his death.

* * *

What were your regrets in life?

It was the first thing on Maru’s mind as he opened his eyes. He heard the sound of waves crashing against the beach near him. A cool breeze washed over his face as he sat up to look around.

Where was he?

“You’re awake. I was just about to wake you up.” A voice of a woman came up from behind him, confusing him even more.

“This is…” Maru trailed off.

Thankfully, the woman seemed to know exactly what he was confused about.

“You’ll know where you are in a second. Just think.”

Maru understood his situation as soon as he heard the woman in the white shirt. He found himself being quite amazed by his realization, but immediately ended up looking a bit bitter.

“So I died.” Maru confirmed.

The woman simply affirmed his suspicions. “Yes, you did.”

“Are you an angel?” Maru asked with a curious look.

The woman smiled wryly at the question. “Sort of. Some call me an angel, others, the grim reaper. Titles aren’t very important though. What I’m about to say now is.”

The woman started walking forward with fairly wide steps. Maru paced himself a little bit faster than usual to try and keep up. After around a minute of walking, they came across the sole parasol in the entire beach.

The woman motioned onto the chair underneath. “Please, sit.”

And so Maru did. The woman continued after sitting down on a chair herself. “Mr. Han, you died precisely on October 3rd, 11:23:14. Do you remember how you died?” Surprisingly enough, Maru could remember it.

“Yes,” he responded.

Maru recalled the event almost as if it were a distant memory. He was driving the bus to its final stop. Just then, something came flying down the road, making a beeline towards him. It broke through the front window, slamming into his chest before falling down next to his seat. If he remembered correctly, it was something that resembled a hammerhead.

He felt his breathing weakening rapidly, followed by gradually loss of his motor control.

Maru stepped on the brakes and swerved onto the empty sidewalk-- he had to keep the passengers safe. At the time, making a stop at the sidewalk seemed like the best course of action. And then… nothing. He found himself at this place the next time he woke up. This led to one question in his mind.

“Were the passengers… safe?” He asked.

“Thanks to you, yes. Everyone survived. If you had given up half way you would’ve run right into a truck and killed everyone.” The woman responded.

That made Maru feel a little bit better. “That’s… good.”

Not by much, though. He may have saved others, but he was still dead. Who would take care of his wife and daughter now? That was when he remembered his life insurance.

“500 million won should be able to support my child somewhat until she grows up, right?”

The woman smiled at his question. “You must be thinking about your family.”

“Yes. My daughter’s just about to enter high school. I was never able to do anything for her because of my pay, but with that money…” Maru wiped a tear from his eye.

“Mr. Han.” the woman asked.

“Yes?” He responded.

“Would you like to live your life again?” Maru became speechless for a second.

“What?”

At that moment, an old lady in white traditional attire walked out from behind the woman. Maru knew this lady very well. She was his neighbor. The one who made a living out of picking up paper waste, Mrs. Yu Bokja.

“Mother.” That was what Maru called the lady.

She wasn’t his real mother of course. He just started calling her that as they started talking with each other.

“Mrs. Yu decided to give her chance to you, Mr. Han.” the woman said.

“Chance?” What chance?" The woman was only managing to confuse him more by the second.

“The chance to live once more.” The woman said.

That explanation didn’t really help much, unfortunately. The old lady walked over to gently grip Maru’s hands.

“I lived fairly happily thanks to you. I’m grateful for the fact that you cared for me more than my children.” Maru looked down at the lady’s wrinkled hands. He used to help her out whenever he saw her carry around that cart by herself during wintertime. He didn’t do it because he expected anything back. He just wanted to see the lady smile every once in a while.

“You’re saying I can live my life again in your stead, mother?” He asked. The woman affirmed instead from the side.

“Yes,” she said.

Maru shook his head firmly in refusal. “You shouldn’t, mother. I don’t deserve…”

The old lady cut him off in the middle of his sentence. “I’m not interested in living my life again. It was horrible. I don’t want to experience war again. I don’t want to live a life where I have to run away all the time again. This is much better for me. All my friends are with me up in heaven as well.”

The lady smiled gently before continuing. “You’re different though, Maru. You’re still young. I couldn’t bear to see you go just like that.” The lady gripped Maru’s hand a little tighter. “Consider this a gift for talking with me all the time.”

“Mother…” Maru didn’t know what to say.

“Please accept this chance for me.”

With that, the lady faded away from view. Maru just turned to look at the woman in a daze.

“There are a few restrictions, of course,” she explained. ”Your memories won’t be complete, so you can’t win lotteries with your memories.”

“Can I really begin again?”

The woman nodded in confirmation. Maru started to ponder. What would it be like… To live his life all over again? A question popped up in his head as he thought to himself.

“Um…” “You can meet your current wife.” she answered the question for him. “The choice to meet her again is up to you of course, Mr. Han. Ah, you’ll also get a few abilities going in.”

“Abilities?” What sort of abilities? Abilities that appear in comic books? Or abilities in the sense that he could cook better than others? The woman didn’t seem to want to answer his question this time, though.

“Consider it a gift for making many people happy. It’s also something from Mrs. Yu who just went back up to heaven.”

At this point, Maru started wondering just who Mrs. Yu was for the first time. What kind of a lady was she up in heaven that let her give him so many things? Again, the woman seemed to have read his thoughts.

“She’s someone who spread around unspeakable amount of kindness to the world as she lived. That’s why I offered her to live again. Though, that gift has now been given to you.”

The woman extended her hand towards him. There was a small pill sitting in her palm.

“If you eat this, you’ll be able to go back to your teenage years.”

“By that…”

“First year of high school.” she answered.

Maru couldn’t remember much of high school. Just a few friends he still kept in contact with maybe? After around two decades, most of his memories from that time had become faint.

“You’ll be able to know a bit more when you wake up.”

Maru received the pill. The woman was smiling towards him.

“Please don’t be so giving in this life. It’s good that you tried to make others happy, but you sacrificed so much doing it.”

Maru smiled faintly. “I don’t think about other people that much.”

He looked at the pill one last time. He wasn’t so sure if he really wanted to go back to his time in high school. Suddenly, a wrinkled hand appeared from somewhere and pushed the pill into his mouth. When Maru looked back in surprise, the visage of the old lady smiling greeted him.

“Please have fun this time.”

With that, Maru lost his consciousness again.

* * *

Oftentimes, many people think to themselves, “if only I could go back to that time…” By the time they recover from all of their entrance exams, they have to start worrying about getting a job. Once they find a job and settle down a little bit, they have to deal with pressure from their bosses. When they finally move up the rungs a little to catch their breaths, their kids are right about to go to college.

If they knew it would be this hard… Why didn’t they take the time to have fun back then? Why didn’t they try harder back then? Why did they make that decision back then? Every day, millions, maybe even tens of millions of people look back on their past with some regret.

And… Han Maru realized that such a dream has become a reality for him. He could hear the computer humming silently behind him. The monitor was off, but the fans of the main tower were still working hard. He noticed a little list smacked onto the wall next to him. Resolutions he made as he graduated middle school, was it?

“Phew.” He sat up as he massaged his temples with his thumbs. He could feel the heat of the electric blanket gather straight onto his butt.

Maru let out a small laugh. This small room. These messy clothes all around him. That pile of comic books in the corner, and that old book from the library that he never actually got around to reading. That half eaten bag of chips from last night next to his computer. His new bag sitting right next to his bedside, and…

Maru tried fumbling around a bit under his pillow. There it was. His phone. It was a habit that never went away even until the moment of his death. After stepping on his phone the first thing in the morning, he built the habit of leaving his phone next to or below his pillow whenever he went to sleep.

“First year of high school, was it?” he mumbled to himself.

Maru slid open the unfamiliar phone in his hand. Right. This was what phones looked like around this time. But in a little while…

“What was it, again?”

He remembered that phones changed in design, but he couldn’t quite remember how it changed.

“So it’s like this, huh.” Maru realized.

Maru recalled the words of the woman from a while back. About how his memories would be incomplete. He couldn’t recall most things from his life back when he was 45. As a matter of fact, he could remember more about the food he ate yesterday more clearly.

“Pooper, Bigfoot, Dicklord, Salmon, Bigeye…”

He could remember the nicknames of his middle school friends as clear as day. The only thing he could remember from when he was 45 was… The fact that his bus’s number was 32. He couldn’t remember the name of the company though.

Maybe this was why he didn’t feel so confused when he woke up? His previous life’s memory didn’t conflict with his current one very much. It felt like he just woke up after a very long dream. A dream he couldn’t recall so well after waking up.

There were a few things he could remember for sure though. The fact that he had a daughter who would get a minor seizure every time she smelled his foot, and the fact that he had a wife that was kind enough to love him. He could remember his family.

Maru looked up at the ceiling.

“So I really am… back.”

Chapter 1

Lee Sunji, Maru’s mother, woke up as she turned off the alarm from her phone. Her husband was away on the night shift. She folded her sheets and walked out into the kitchen with a stretch. Today was the day when Maru and Bada would start school again. Maru, in a new school, and Bada, in a new classroom. She thought of her two sleeping children as she took the pre-soaked rice from the night before and put it on the rice cooker. Right then, Maru walked out of his room without any signs of fatigue.

“You’re awake, mother?” he said.

“…What?” Why was he sounding so polite all of the sudden? Sunji stared at him for a second in surprise.

“Ah, you’re up.” Maru immediately spoke a lot more casually as he turned in nervousness.

“Of course I am. I have to make breakfast. Why are you up so early?” she asked.

“I think I just got… nervous.” he confessed. Sunji wondered what happened to the boy for him to try to be so polite. Was he trying to change how he spoke since he was now a high schooler? She was as humored as she was prideful.

“Go wash up, it’ll be awhile before the food finishes.”

“Yes, I mean, sure.”

Sunji wore a curious look as her son entered the bathroom.

* * *

“How awkward.” Maru muttered to himself quietly. His memories were mostly gone, but he did still remember a few things. It felt a little strange to talk with his mother with such a casual tone. Though… when did he decide to treat her more respectfully again?

“I think around the time when I first got my check, huh.” He found himself speaking more politely to his parents when he realized how difficult it was to actually live in a society.

“Mother. Mom. Father. Dad.” Maru found himself growing accustomed to speaking like this faster than he had thought. Alright, perfect.

He washed his face and hair. He found himself smiling when he realized it took more than 20 seconds for the water to heat up. It was stuff like this that really made him realize he was back in the past. Maru walked out of the bathroom to discover his mom making some soup. He could understand now why moms were able to wake up so early to cook breakfast all the time.

They simply wanted their children to have a good day. No more, no less.

“Need help?” looking at her cook all the food made him want to help out a little.

“I’m good. You know stuff like this won’t actually make me give you a larger allowance, right?”

“How’d you know?”

“Because I’m your mom.” she answered in an obvious tone.

Maru opened the fridge trying to hold in his laughter. He could see dad’s beer and mom’s plum and raspberry extracts inside. He forgot how much he missed seeing this. His mom looked at him with a surprised face when he started mixing some of the syrup with water to drink.

“I thought you hated stuff like this.” she said.

“Did I?” he asked back.

“You always ask for soda instead whenever I made you one.” oh, right. He did. He used to hate how it made warm water taste weirdly sweet and sour. He decided to make up a quick excuse to cover it up.

“My tastes probably changed.” Maru silently exclaimed in joy as he took another sip of the drink. He couldn’t really explain it, but this syrup stuff was really good for men, he felt.

“Oh dear, look at the time already. Go wake Bada up.” mom asked. It was already 7:00am. About time to start getting ready for school.

“Sure.”

“Don’t kick her again.” she warned.

“I know, I know.” Maru waved her off casually as he entered his sister’s room. The girl was curled up in her blankets like a caterpillar.

‘Come to think of it, we never talked after that point.’ he thought.

His sister went through a divorce once in the future. It was a common occurence back then, but he’d never imagined his own sister to go through it. He used to meet up with his sister every once in a while and watch movies together back in college, but they stopped talking after his sister started living on her own. He’d just maybe see her face at family gatherings? He didn’t have a bad relationship with her, but it wasn’t great either. Just… average, he supposed.

She just completely disappeared after her divorce, though. She would call the family whenever a family gathering happened. The last he heard about his sister was when his mother told him about how she was meeting a new man. Maru hesitated for a second when he thought about what he would call his sister. His 45-year old self would just refer to her as ‘you’ most of the time.

‘But the me of now… ’ For the Maru of the freshman year of high school… he could only recall a single name.

“Fatty.” he said as he kicked the girl’s foot lightly. He immediately felt bad about doing it, but he couldn’t change his habits so easily right away. That’s right. This was the Maru of high school.

“Ah… What the hell?” Bada glared at Maru with a half-opened eyes before burying her head back into the pillow. Maru thought about kicking her again, but decided to just lean over to her face instead.

“Wake up, it’s morning.”

“Ah, damn it.”

Maru took a close look at his sister’s face. So this was what she looked like. He couldn’t remember his sister’s future face very well. Maru poked the girl’s forehead. He couldn’t resist. She just looked cute.

“Ah, damn it! Now you’re poking me, too?!” Bada stood up as she shouted angrily. Maru escaped before the girl got any louder. Her bad temper was the only thing that stayed constant throughout that girl’s life.

‘Ah, that must be it. That was the reason behind her divorce, wasn’t it?’ he thought as he ran away.

Maru sat down on the table as Bada walked out with a sour look.

“Ah, mom, he keeps hitting me.” she complained.

“Wake up on time, then.”

The mom retorted with ease. Bada, knowing that she couldn’t beat mom in an argument, just headed to the bathroom with a pout.

“You kicked her again, didn’t you?” she asked.

“Nope.” of course, he denied it. It didn’t really work though.

“Why can’t you be more friendly with her? You used to walk around everywhere with her hand in yours back in the day.” “I did?” Maru tried looking back in his memories. Did that really happen? He could somewhat remember himself walking around town with his sister’s hand in his. They used to go to arcades and go into the mountains together.

‘Right… and then I ended up losing her once.’ Maru ended up smiling when he remembered the memory.

“What is it?” mom asked.

“It’s nothing. I just remembered something old.” he paused for a second as if he was still thinking about it. “You know, when I lost Bada.”

“Ah, then.” she seemed to remember as well. “You cried a lot back then, since you couldn’t find her at all.”

“I did?”

“Of course you did. Anyway, here, have some food before you go. You got your bag, right?”

Maru nodded in affirmation.

“Don’t get on your teacher’s bad side. Alright? Make some new friends, too. You only get your real friends in high school.”

“I know, I know. I’m not a kid you know.”

“Of course you are. Don’t hang out with weirdos, ok?”

Maru nodded with a smile. She was right.

Right now, he was just a kid.

* * *

“I’ll be back.”

“Be careful of cars!”

Mom’s goodbyes never really changed. Be careful of cars. She started saying it after Maru’s grandfather passed from a car accident.

Maru opened the door and stepped out. The cold air of the morning whipped across his face. It was march. Getting a little warmer, but still closer to winter than spring. Maru walked down to the first floor and unlocked his bike from the stand.

“Haven’t seen this baby in a while.”

A casual bike armed with a simple shift. Maru hopped onto the bike and started pedalling. The air between his fingers felt frigid. But even this made him want to shout in joy.

“I’m… really back.” he muttered. An image of Mrs. Yu flashed over his vision for a split second.

‘Thank you for giving me this chance.’ he prayed in thanks.

Maru stopped at a crossing for a second to take out his MP3. It’s been a long while since he’s seen one. He plugged the earphones into the jack and started listening. Most were songs from singers in the early 2000s.

“This is good stuff.” he found himself muttering. At least, it was far better than those so-called k-pop songs with english mixed all over the place. He much rather preferred listening to songs he could actually understand. Maru stepped on the pedal as he sang along to some of the lyrics.

“The love I have for you~”

After around 30 minutes of pedalling… He could see the school coming into view.

‘That still looks the same. Then again, it would be strange if it didn’t, huh?’

A rectangular complex made with brownish bricks. Right in front of the building was a small podium meant for the principal. The field in front of the podium was a little larger than your average school’s. There was even a basketball court in the right corner of the school. And for whatever reason they even had a little pavilion next to it as well. Around there was also a small water fountain. Maru would often get water from there during a game.

Maru walked over to the main entrance. He found more and more students around him in their personal clothes. He, too, was in casual wear as well. There was a time back when he would be jealous of all the uniforms the other kids would wear. He quickly realized how much better casual wear was as he grew up though.

As he neared the entrance, he started feeling a strange sense of nostalgia and fear creep up from inside him. He could see a familiar face standing in front of him.

‘The disciplinary teacher.’ The bald terror was standing in front of the door with a scissor in hand. Maru found himself clicking his tongue in disapproval. He had bad memories of getting his hair cut by those scissors.

The horrible thing about them was the fact that they were dull, so your hair wouldn’t get cut off, they’d just get pulled off.

“Come on, faster! Hey, you! What’s that on your hair?” One of the boys got caught by the teacher. The boy didn’t seem like a first year. He waddled over nervously in front of the teacher.

“Hah, wax? Trying to look cool on your first day?” the teacher glared.

“I’m sorry.” the kid mumbled.

“Three laps around the field and come back to me. Got it?”

“Yessir.”

“I’m going light on you since it’s the first day, alright? Go.”

“Yessir.”

The boy threw down his bag and started running. Maru passed by the teacher as he observed the scene.

‘Our mental age is similar but I still feel weirdly intimidated by the dude.’ he found. He really did feel like a freshman.

* * *

After locking up his bike, Maru walked up to the second floor where his class was. He walked into class 2 for electrical engineering with a sense of nostalgia. The real him had never come here in the past, but Maru was fairly familiar with this classroom. The quiet atmosphere with the cold air… The other kids in the classroom were looking around nervously with their hands in their pockets. Right now, there were a total of 7 kids in the class.

Maru scanned the room quickly before going back to his own thing. Though… that ‘thing’ only really consisted of reading manga and listening to music, really. He decided to sit in the middle of the class. He’s always sat around here in high school. It was a spot the teachers always missed, and he could get to the store during lunch faster.

‘Come to think of it, I never studied during school.’

Woosung Engineering High School. This was the school Maru decided to go back in the past.

‘Middle school was spent lazily as well.’

Study a bit, play a bit. One of those students that never really made big mistakes.

That was pretty much who Maru was. One of those kids who weren’t dumb, but not smart enough to get themselves into a decent school. He had gone to middle school with the dream of getting into a good high school, but changed his mind to face reality by the end of it.

‘I can remember all this really clearly. Are my memories changing?’ Maru recalled the time when he was speaking with his middle school advisor. He could remember it well. His 45 year old self was getting more and more faint as time passed. Instead, he would slowly become himself in 2003. He could feel himself actively changing as time went on.

“So I really am starting over.” he realized. Even so, Maru tried his best to remember his wife and daughter. Since the woman had told him he could remember a few key things, he didn’t worry about it too much. As he thought a bit about the past and the future… He could hear a few kids talking next to him.

“Did he check you too?” one of them said.

“Check? Oh, you mean having to take my shirt off?”

“Ah, so you got it too.”

“I was pretty scared, to be honest. The guy next to me had a tattoo on him.”

“What happened to that guy?”

“The teacher told him to get it removed.”

“Damn though, engineering schools really are something else, huh. I feel like they’re treating us like criminals.”

“Just because we aren’t as good at studying as the other kids…”

“Seriously.”

“You smoke, by the way?”

“Me? Hell yeah.”

“God damn. Let’s be friends. You got one on you right now?”

“On the first day? Hell no. I’ll think about bringing some tomorrow.”

“Fair play.”

Maru grinned as he listened to their conversation. He recalled seeing something similar to this in his memory surprisingly well. One of the kids brought a pack of cigarettes to class on the second day and ended up getting hit by the teacher’s chalk. That must’ve been him.

Chapter 2

Maru couldn’t help but look at the kids a little fondly. They looked cute, talking about exchanging cigarettes almost as if they were dealing drugs. He had smoked around this time because of a friend, but he never really grew to like smoking and instead becoming one of those kids who stopped others from doing it. One by one, more kids started flooding into the classroom.

A tall guy, a short guy… A big guy, a small guy… Ones with glasses, ones without… Handsome ones and ugly ones. Each and every one of them had their own flair. And out of these people, Maru was able to spot a few familiar faces.

‘You bastards just don’t change, do you?’ he could see the faces of his old friends match up with their younger counterparts. The lot of them all managed to grow beer bellies after they married, but he could still make out their younger selves from their faces. He couldn’t even remember their names or personalities, but meeting ‘old friends’ nevertheless made him feel good. Even now, his old memories were disappearing.

Perhaps God wanted him to live a life free of his past. Maru put his earphones back on, imagining that they’d be friends again in the future. They were all unfamiliar with each other so far. A few of them were pairing up to talk with each other, but the vast majority didn’t.

Maybe it was because this was an engineering school? He did remember feeling a little pressured by most of the kids when he came here. The lot of them looked like thugs most of the time. He quickly realized that they weren’t such bad people when he talked with them though.

‘Ah, hold on a minute. There was a really annoying guy here as well, wasn’t there?’ he couldn’t remember much about it, unfortunately. One by one, the seats were filling up. The last one to enter the class was someone who looked like he weighed easily over 90kg. The other kids stared at the boy nervously. Maru somewhat remembered the boy at the back of his head. Probably not a bad person.

Creak, clack. The old door opened with a start, and in walked a person who looked to be in his early 40s with a cue stick in hand. Maru found himself frowning automatically. He had plenty of bad memories with that person.

“Now now now. Get that earphone stuff out of ears. Hey, someone wake that guy up. You over there. Open the window. Why the hell are you boys keeping it all shut? Get some fresh air in this place. Remember the fold the curtains too.” he shouted.

The students got to work one by one when he pointed at them with the stick.

Cold air started flowing in, making the kids near the windows shiver with an annoyed look plastered over their faces.

“Nice to meet you. I’m Kim Chungsik, your damned homeroom teacher. I teach digital theory in this school. I’m forty two, married, and have a son in middle school right now. What I like is silence. What I hate is a disobedient student. The end. No one has any questions, right?”

No one spoke. Maru stayed still, too. He was well aware that getting involved with that person would be troublesome.

“I don’t care if you came here because of your delinquency or if you wanted to be an engineer. I just want two things from all of you. First, listen to your teacher. Second, follow the rules. There are a lot of people here wanting to do big things in the future, so don’t ruin it for them, alright?”

The teacher banged the podium with his stick, causing the students to flinch a little.

“Listen to your teacher when he talks, yeah?” he snarled. “Yessir.”

“Good. Respond like that whenever I ask you things from now on. I hate seeing people hesitate.”

“Yessir.”

“Now then, grab your stuff and stand up!”

The students took their jackets and bags and stood up.

Krrr. Some of the chairs made an obnoxious noise as the kids pushed it in.

“Don’t drag the chairs on the ground.” the teacher commented with a frown. The students pushed it in a little more gently.

“Now, I’ll call out attendance, so sit down accordingly. Number 1, Park Woochan.”

A student stepped forward with his bag and sat on the far side of the first row.

“Park Woochan.” the teacher said again.

“Yes?”

“Stand up.”

When Woochan stood up with a confused look, the teacher stabbed his shoulder lightly with his cue stick.

“I told you to respond.”

“Ah, yessir.”

“Don’t make me say this twice. You’ll get to know more about your teachers as you go to this school. Your seniors often call me a son of a bitch. I’m actually quite fond of that nickname. Why do I like it? Because I can really act like a rabid dog. So watch yourselves if you don’t want to get hurt.”

Woochan bit his lips as he nodded.

Ah, right. The teacher was like that. Maru found himself clicking his tongue in disapproval. In the future, such behavior was banned by law, but not right now. He remembered seeing plenty of kids getting beat up by the teachers. Though… he had no idea if that was because he was in an engineering school.

“Next up, number 2.” the teacher continued.

The students began to take their assigned seats. Watching them move along one by one reminded Maru of his time in the military. Ah! He remembered one more thing. He and his friends used to call this place the military. He could remember the memories fondly. Well, actually, maybe they weren’t so fond…

“Number 40, Han Maru.”

“Yessir.”

“Maru? As in the floor or something?”

“It’s a pure Korean word meaning sky.”

“Izzat so? Anyway, go sit at the back.”

Maru sat at the end of the fourth row. The class door opened as the teacher was looking over the classroom. It looked like another teacher had come to talk to him. The man pointed his stick at the class with a warning gaze.

“I’ll be back soon, so be quiet. You won’t have any fun on your first day of school if I hear you talking outside, I promise.”

The kids all sighed in collective annoyance as soon as the teacher got out. “Wow.”

“Holy shit.”

“Dude, we got caught by a real old bastard, didn’t we.”

The kids all became one in shittalking the teacher. Maru almost found it entertaining. If not for the fact that he himself had been called ‘an old bastard’ a few times in the past.

“God damn it! I wanted a female teacher, too!” a boy next to him said. Maru turned to look. The boy’s name was Han Dojin. With him having the same last name, the two of them were sitting right next to each other. Number 39, and number 40.

“Well, female male, potato potato. Same thing.” Maru said as he put his bag down next to his desk.

“You don’t know jack, do you? Female teachers hit lighter. Didn’t you see that cue stick the teacher was holding? That shit’s going to hurt, man.” Dojin shuddered in horror with an exaggerated look. Truly, he was a fitting character for the class clown. Funnily enough, the boy’s face felt familiar to Maru. Perhaps they were friends in the future.

“Dojin, was it?” Maru confirmed.

“Yeah. Maru, right? Weird name.”

“I like it. It’s one of those names you don’t forget.”

“True that. What ya listening to, by the way?” Dojin asked, pointing at Maru’s MP3.

“Just some pop.” Maru answered.

“Lemme listen.”

The boy extended his hand towards Maru, who smiled a little and handed it over.

“Oh, this song’s good.”

Dojin started moving to the beat of the music. Right then, the door opened and the teacher walked in.

“Hey.” The man’s cue stick pointed towards Dojin. Unfortunately, the boy was unable to hear the teacher. Maru slapped Dojin’s shoulder. The boy pulled the earphones out frantically upon opening his eyes. But the teacher had already noticed.

“What did I say about MP3s again?” the teacher said.

“……” Dojin just opened his lips in surprise without saying anything.

“Give it to me, you bastard.”

“Um, I’m sorry, sir. I won’t do it again.”

“Look at you, talking back now?”

The teacher just started poking at Dojin’s shoulder with his stick. Dojin’s shoulder got pushed back, and the boy’s face scrunched up into a frown as well. He turned to look at Maru. Maru just nodded in understanding and gestured towards the teacher.

“H-here.”

“Bring me a letter from your parents if you want this back, alright?”

The teacher returned to the podium.

“Sorry.” Dojin turned to Maru with an apologetic look.

“I’m good.”

“I’ll get it back for you, I promise.”

“Just stay still. He’ll give it back in a while.”

Maru wasn’t feeling too rushed. He might physically be a high schooler, but he had the mentality of a regular old father from South Korea. His memories might have disappeared, but his experience hasn’t gone anywhere. That is, he wasn’t so petty to get angry over one small thing.

“Just look forward. We don’t want the teacher noticing us again.”

Dojin nodded in response. Right then.

[I was a little worried because of his appearance. He seems like a good guy though. Thank goodness.]

Maru saw something strange floating above Dojin’s head.

* * *

‘Why’s he looking at me like that?’

Dojin was feeling a little anxious over Maru’s gaze. As a matter of fact, having his classmate stare at him like that was only making him feel sorrier.

‘Is he mad about having it be taken away?’ Maru turned away. But the boy’s face was a little weird. Maru started rubbing his eyes as if he had seen something.

‘Did something get in his eyes?’ he wondered. Dojin was a little confused. Well, whatever. He needed to look back at the teacher. He didn’t want to get scolded over his lack of attention.

* * *

‘What the heck is that?’

Maru, for a second, saw ‘that’ above Dojin’s face. He blinked a few times thinking that he was just imagining things. But it just didn’t go away.

‘A word bubble?’

A pink bubble was floating above Dojin’s head. Almost like he was in a comic book. He was reminded of something the woman had said. Something about getting a few abilities.

‘Could that be… Inner thoughts?’ he wondered. Since Maru had already experienced something out of this world, he was not so ignorant to pass something like that off as a mere hallucination. He would have passed the word bubble off as a figment of his imagination back in the day, but things were different now. Maru looked at Dojin again. But the word bubble wasn’t there anymore.

‘Does it have some sort of a requirement?’

The bubble disappeared in an instant. If it really did allow him to read minds…

“We’re only doing morning classes today, so don’t you dare fall asleep. Let’s have a decent one year together, you hear?” the teacher said.

“Yess.” The replies from the class were getting a little lazier now.

The teacher exited the classroom clicking his tongue. Of course, he took the MP3 with him.

“I’m really sorry. I was just going to listen to it for a second.” Dojin immediately gave his apologies.

He seemed to be fairly sensitive to stuff like this. He was a guy who knew to be sorry. That made Maru pretty happy, honestly. He hadn’t seen many people like that in his 45 years.

Compared to all the others he had to deal with in the past, Dojin was a saint.

“Don’t worry about it. He’ll give it back in a few days.” Maru said.

“Right? He should give it back, right?”

“If he doesn’t, I might as well just buy another one. It isn’t too expensive anyway.”

“Eh? It isn’t? I thought that was a new model. The ones that are like 250 thousand won?”

“Ah.” Maru ended up smiling a little in surprise. He was a high schooler right now. Plus, MP3s were currently the ‘new hot thing’, making them quite expensive. That MP3 just now was something his parents had gotten him as a graduation gift.

“It’s fine, I’ll get it back.” Maru quickly changed his stance.

“Ah, yeah. Is your family rich, by the way?”

“I was just showing off a bit. I’m gonna die if I don’t get it back.”

“Right? Ah crap, I’m so sorry.”

“You don’t have to be so sorry between friends, you know.”

Friends. Maru felt good just saying it. He hadn’t said the word in a very long time. Right, friends from high school were real friends. The type of friends you could meet at any time and call at any time, for no reason at all.

“Friend? Yeah! We’re friends!” Dojin bumped into Maru lightly with a big grin on his face.

With his friendliness… The boy could probably end up being friends with everyone in the class in just a week.

“Are we actually going to have class today, though?” Dojin asked with a concerned look.

“Probably.”

“We’re an engineering school, so we probably won’t go too hard, right?”

The two of them talked for a bit while waiting for the Korean teacher. Their conversation naturally moved onto video games, and the two realized they actually played the same MMO together. The spout turned up a notch when they had a definite topic to talk about.

Chapter 3

“I’m a healer. We should play a round together some time.”

“Sure.”

As they kept talking, eventually came the time for the second class. The Korean teacher that walked in had a bit of a square jaw with long wavy hair. He looked a bit peculiar, to be honest.

“Nice to meet you. I’m Park Moonjung, and I’ll be teaching you kids literature for the next year. I know none of you will bother remembering my name anyway, so just call me literature teach.”

The man leaned over the podium as he scanned the classroom. Unlike with his homeroom teacher, Maru couldn’t help but grin when he saw this teacher. He must’ve had many good memories with this person.

“You’re a bit disappointed, aren’t you? Since there are no girls here.”

“……”

No one answered. It was the first day, after all. And it wasn’t like Maru was a social type either. Plus, the teacher actually felt quite a bit younger than him, making him hesitant.

“Guys, come on. We can’t become friends if you don’t talk. Tell me, you guys are disappointed because there are no girls in your class, right?”

“Yes.”

A few of the kids responded with a smile.

“I do feel for you a little. Spending your youth in a classroom that smells like sweat for a year… What a waste. Why did you guys choose electrical engineering to begin with? Should have gone to art or design. Those are pretty much half boys and half girls. Ah, drawing has more girls now, actually.”

“Really?”

“No girls at all in ELEN?”

More of the students were talking now.

“Of course not. Unfortunately. Told ya, the only thing waiting for you in the near future aren’t flowers. It’s just sweat.”

“Wow…”

“That’s why you kids need to be especially careful in choosing your clubs. If you end up going into sports, you aren’t going to have a chance at seeing women at all for all three years.”

Right then, one of the more playful looking kids raised their hand.

“So what are the clubs with the most girls in them?”

“Good question! People need to know how to ask questions like these if they want to live an easy life. Applaud him, guys.”

Clap clap clap.

The teacher had a thing for making class seem recreational. Maru clapped enthusiastically as well.

“Clubs with girls… First of all, there’s the manga club. They’re the people that sell drawings and cosplay during festivals. They have a few girls there. There’s also the origami club. And then the movie review club. I’m probably going to be the advisor for that club this year. Always gets quite a number of girls. Especially since it’s a club where you just go to theaters to watch movies. The drawing club’s nice, too.”

“Which one would you recommend?”

“Hm, don’t know. We got a lot of girls this year, so pretty much any club would do. Even mech got 5 girls! Of course, elen has 0.”

With that,

“Ah, we’ve been cursed.”

“Just men?”

More kids opened their mouths one by one. Maru tried searching through his memories one more time. He was fairly sure there was a girl in his class when he was going to school.

He couldn’t remember anything about her, but there was definitely a girl.

‘So not everything stays the same.’

It didn’t seem like a perfect rollback. Perhaps several other things changed other than the fact that the year was 2003.

‘Most things stayed the same, but a few minor things seems to have changed.’

After some more casual talk with the teacher, the kids began to introduce themselves one by one. The teacher asked the students for their name, goals for the year, and things they wanted to say to the class.

“I’m…”

“Hey guys…”

“This is embarrassing…”

Maru waited as he observed a set of familiar and unfamiliar faces in the class.

“Anyhow, let’s have a good time together for the next year.”

Dojin finished his introduction.

“Lastly… Oh, Maru! That’s a pure Korean word, isn’t it? I like it.”

As expected of the Korean teacher, he seemed to know the meaning of his name. Maru answered with a ‘yes’ and stood up. He was around 175cm tall. It was considerably tall for the kids in his class. Of course, Maru was well aware that he wouldn’t grow much more after this.

“Mm, my name’s Maru Han. I’d like to live fairly quietly for my first year. Let’s get along.”

“Quiet, huh. Nice. Alright, you can sit now.”

Maru finished his introduction in a simple fashion. The teacher moved onto talking about his first love that no one asked about and wrapped up the class nicely. The kids seemed a lot more fond of him than the homeroom teacher. Everyone was having fun. Well, save the few that was muttering stuff like ‘guy talks too much’ under their breaths.

“He seems like a fun guy.”

“Agreed.”

The first period ended relatively safely. Maru took a look at the other kids during break time. Was it because he had the eyes of an adult? The kids around him all looked young and cute. Even the ones that were trying to look tough.

‘Girls, though, huh.’

Maru recalled to the time when he proposed to her in the past. He gave her the ring saying that he’d propose to her again even in the next life. His wife laughed about it whenever she looked back at it.

‘Well, I guess I’m fine with dating her.’

He was living a new life. Might as well have a fun time while he was at it. Though, there would be a few hurdles to pass in the future.

“Ah, entrance exams and the military…”

Entrance exams were fine. He was fine with studying for them. Compared to everything else in life, studying was quite easy for him. But the military…

“Ah… Sergeant Kim, that son of a bitch.”

Dojin flinched when he heard Maru curse under his breath.

“Eh? Ah? Did you say that to me?”

“No, I just remembered something.”

“Oh, I see.”

Dojin smiled awkwardly.

‘It’s still several years away, so let’s think about it then.’

Re-enlistment. His hair rose up in fright when he thought of it, but he couldn’t do anything about it. Unless the country reunited again, at the very least. The third class passed, and soon the fourth class followed suit. The two new teachers started their classes fairly normally. The only weird one was the Korean teacher, really.

“Now it’s lunch, cleanup, and home!”

Dojin shouted in joy. School finished at 2pm since it was only the first day.

“Where do we eat?”

“You see that gymnasium under construction over there? It’s right under there.”

Maru remembered himself running there almost daily when Dojin told him this.

“You know a lot about the school already, don’t you?”

“I looked around during break time.”

What a guy. He started walking towards the cafeteria with Dojin. The school was shaped like a capital ‘L’. One side was the main building with all the classes, and the other side had all the labs. The cafeteria was next to the lab building. It was quite loud with all the new construction happening upstairs.

“We can’t even use that thing even if it completes.”

“No way.”

“I’m telling ya, the only exercise we’re going to get is from cleaning it.”

“How the hell would you know that?”

“Call it really good instinct.”

Maru looked up at the unfinished gymnasium with a grin. The principal used quite a bit of money building it, but he ended up blocking it off after it completed. They only really used it for festivals. As a matter of fact, the only reason for students to visit it was to clean it up.

Maru remembered his friends complaining about having to clean up a place they didn’t even use all the time. Fond memories.

He left the gymnasium behind him and went down to the cafeteria. Thankfully, the lines weren’t very long today. The menu today was fried fish, doenjang soup, and spicy braised tofu.

“Poop soup.”

“What soup?”

“Oh, I meant doenjang soup.”

Maru looked for other kids in his class.

“Over there.”

Since most of them at least knew each other’s faces, they were all gathered around one table. The same went for other classes. No one really knew each other, though, so lunch was fairly quiet. Maru knew very well that this wouldn’t last, of course. High schoolers were very loud creatures.

“Blegh.”

Dojin frowned after his first sip of the soup. He didn’t seem to like it. Maru wasn’t much of a picky eater, so he was able to eat it well.

‘Then again, I found military food pretty tasty as well.’

Maru walked out after lunch to notice a few seniors running around the field. On one side they were playing soccer, and on the other, basketball. With kids from different classes getting mixed up everywhere, the field looked incredibly chaotic to him.

“Hoo boy, it’s a lot worse than middle school.”

Dojin clicked his tongue in surprise as he watched. Maru felt otherwise.

‘It’s the military.’

A bunch of kids with short hair were running around with all their strength. If you just took the occasional girl out of the equation, it really looked like the military.

‘Ah, right. That’s why we called this place the barracks.’

It was a really fitting nickname. Maru stepped back into the classroom. The sunlight was streaming in through the windows along with the cold air of march. The kids near the windows were already fast asleep. The lot of them were still awkward around each other, but that’d change in a week. Most would form friend groups with each other save for a few outsiders.

‘We had a few here, too.’

He couldn’t remember all too well, but there were a few outsiders in the class. Though they managed to form their own group in the end.

“I guess they were similar to bread shuttle in a way. Though the term didn’t really exist yet.”

“What?”

Dojin perked up with a curious look.

“Just talking to myself.”

“Why do you keep talking to yourself? Talk to me too, bro.”

“Just go back to sleep. You look sleepy.”

“True that, I am sleepy.”

Dojin slumped back down on his desk.

* * *

“Don’t be late. We’re going to start cleaning out designated areas starting tomorrow, so remember that. Just go back home and study, you hear? I’d hate to see your sorry faces in some weird place outside school. The end.”

The teacher exit the room after smacking the board lightly with his board. The kids stood up tiredly from their seats.

“Where do you live?”

“Guwol-dong.”

“That’s pretty far. Do you bus here?”

“Bike.”

“Don’t you feel cold?”

“Yeah, but it’s cheaper for sure.”

“Fair enough.”

“See you tomorrow.”

Maru waved as he left the classroom. The first day went by well. He thought he might make a few mistakes due to his memory, but that never actually happened. Everything felt nostalgic though. Maru changed direction on his way home and went into one of the smaller streets. He was heading to the little PC bang near school.

“This place never changed.”

He spent quite a bit of money over the three years in high school. His entire friend group would assemble in the PC bang after school whenever one of them said ‘go?’. He played Starcraft, Warcraft, and Lineage harder than he ever studied.

“I wonder if I’d play games in this life.”

Maru turned away from the PC bang as he thought to himself.

A new life.

A fun life.

What would a fun life entail? Maru couldn’t quite remember what he’d done for 45 years. He lived for his family after he married, but before that he did things without much of a purpose. He passed the college entrance exams with a decent enough score, so he went straight to college. And after failing his first exam there, he was sent straight to the military. He eventually graduated afterwards, and decided to work all sorts of jobs afterwards.

Jobs.

Maru slowed down a bit. He could see a cloud floating right above him. It resembled a wet tissue paper, moving about in the sky as the winds willed it to. Maru thought his life resembled the cloud a fair bit.

“I didn’t think I lived a bad life… But I didn’t really life a good one either, huh.”

Work before dreams. Things he had to do came before things he wanted to do. He never took risks, and he never looked far off into the future either.

Tsk.

Maru clicked his tongue without even realizing it. He did do fun things. He did experience happy things. But there was nothing that could sum up his life in one word. Well, he did have one.

So-so.

If anything, his life was just so-so.

“How do I want to live?”

That question came at Maru now harder than it ever did in the past 45 years.

* * *

Maru stepped into the house with a heavy face.

“How was school? Not weird or anything?”

Mom asked him a question after a small pause. She seemed to be a bit worried, what with him having gone to an engineering school and all.

“I’m fine.”

“What about the other kids?”

“They’re chill.”

“Chill?”

“They’re all people. It isn’t like a prison with criminals in it or anything. Don’t worry about it. I’m not going to do anything weird, they aren’t doing anything weird.”

“S-sure.”

Mom turned away from him with a bit of a surprised look. She must’ve been so surprised with her son being direct all of the sudden. Then again, he never was that direct till he went to the military.

Chapter 4

Maru lay down on the bed to look up at the ceiling for a second. He couldn’t stop thinking about how he was going to live his future.

‘Should I try going to a really good university? Become an elite? No, there’s no way I’m actually that smart. I know studying isn’t actually that hard, but trying hard in it doesn’t exactly sound like a good move.’

Maru took out a math textbook from one of the shelves. Looking at the little graphs and equations in it made him choke a little bit. Same went for the English textbook, as well.

“Ugh, studying. I’m fine, thank you.”

Maru threw the two textbooks out of sight. He did want to try hard studying and go to a decent university, but taking that first step was pretty hard for him.

“If only I knew some lottery numbers… Or companies that made it big in the market…”

He could still remember what companies made it big in the future in his head. But he realized that this information would disappear slowly in the future. Maybe the heavens didn’t want him getting confused over missing chunks of his memory?

“Should I write it down?” he wondered.

But as soon as he raised himself up to do it,

“You can’t do that.”

Someone spoke to him from behind. A beautiful woman in a tight-fitting two-piece dress had appeared in the room.

“Uh…”

“You spent the day without any problems. I think you adapted very well considering the situation.”

“Ah, yes.”

“But I can’t let you try to remember events in the future. That’s a violation of the contract.”

The floating woman slowly started to descend down onto the floor. Maru was mindful to lower his voice a little. It would be troublesome if mom walked in after hearing them.

The woman responded almost as if she had read his mind.

“Don’t worry. This place has been sealed off by me. I’m here to explain a few things to you today.”

“What kind of things?”

“Just confirming things that you should already know of. You will indeed forget most of your memories in the near future. That is, it’ll fall down into your subconsciousness. You’ll remember a few things here and there in the form of nostalgia. Deja vu, that is. Most people actually experience deja vu because they have previously experienced that exact thing in the future.”

“Are there many people living their lives again like me?”

“Of course. But not many actually realize that they’ve come back to the past. You’ve had that thought, haven’t you? ‘I could have done so much better if I went back to my younger days.’ Funny thing is, that’s the exact moment when you really have come back from the future. You just can’t remember it,” she continued with a smile, “In any case, most of your memories should be gone by the time you go to sleep today. You’ll still realize you came from the future though, so don’t worry too much about that.”

Maru raised his hand to cut her off.

“Do you have a question, Mr. Han?”

“I saw a few word bubbles earlier in the day.”

“Aha, so you have.”

“Can I really read other people’s minds?”

“Yes. It’s another gift for you from Ms. Yu.”

“A gift…”

“Of course, you’ll have to figure out how to use it yourself. That’s what makes life fun, isn’t it? You have a few more abilities to uncover yourself as well. Though you might never come across them in your life.”

“I have other abilities? Kind of like Superm-”

“Nothing that makes you like a superhero, I’m afraid. But there are abilities that would make you even more amazing than that. I can’t get very specific, of course. I can only say your abilities are related to people.”

“People?”

“Yes.”

Abilities related to people… How were such powers supposed to be more powerful than being superhuman? If the word bubbles he saw a few hours ago really let him read minds, it definitely was a better ability than being simply superhuman. To be able to look into minds whenever you want… There weren’t many abilities better than that.

‘It’s a total cheat.’

He was getting fairly excited. Life would be more enjoyable if he used this ability well.

But it also made him a bit worried. The word bubble kind of came out of nowhere earlier in the day. Things could get bad for him if it cropped up in unexpected places. He knew this from his previous 45 years of experience. He shouldn’t bite off more than he could chew.

“Looks like you figured it out. That’s right. The abilities could help you in life, but it could make things very complicated for you as well. Not everyone gets a happy ending after going back in time.”

“What a worrying thought.”

“Everything’s up to how you decide to do things. How you decide to live, and how you decide to use your abilities. Of course, it’s not like you can use your powers unlimitedly. You’ll realize it fairly quickly, but just remember that nothing is free in life.”

Nothing is free. The sentence came to him quite strongly.

Maru nodded. He’s realized again and again that he’s returned to the starting point. That made this first step all the more important for him.

“We won’t be meeting again, not unless something bad happens.”

“Is that so.”

“In any case, I hope you live a fun life.”

The woman started to fade away. By the time she’s almost disappeared,

“I hope you make the right decision.”

The woman whispered to him in a barely audible voice.

Maru stared up at the ceiling for several minutes after the woman disappeared. Mom called him out from the living room to eat dinner. He could smell delicious soup outside. Doenjang soup that smelled far better than the ones in school.

“Smells good,” he said, walking out of his door.

“Did your taste buds change overnight? I thought you didn’t like this stuff.”

“I’m a high schooler now. I’m all grown up.”

“Oh, is that so, sir? You’re all grown up?” mom asked in a teasey tone.

Maru just decided to sit down and start eating. It tasted familiar. Homely. Like something that just made him smile.

“Oh, you’re here, Bada? Here, have some food.” mom said, as she watched Bada enter from the front door.

“I’m good. It’s just doenjang soup again, isn’t it? I also had some tteokbokki with friends on the way back.”

“You can’t just eat something like that as a meal.”

“Ugh, mom, rice cakes are carbs too, don’t you know that?”

“…Sigh.”

Mom put down the bowl of rice she had been filling. Maru understood that feeling completely. Parents always wanted to see their kids eat well.

“Han Bada.” Maru called out.

“What?”

“Eat.”

Maru pulled out a chair next to him, earning him a glare from his little sister. He pointed to the chair.

“Eat. At least just one bite.”

Bada was a little surprised by her brother being so forceful. She sat down at the table with a little pout.

“You never eat since you wanted bread all the time too.”

She didn’t stop complaining until the end. Maru just found that cute, if he were being honest. Why did he stop talking with her again? Why did he stop caring for her again?

‘I just didn’t really care for her, huh.’

After all, he did hear about her divorce a full month after the actual event. Of course, at the time he did feel a little bit annoyed at her. Why wouldn’t she even tell family about that kind of stuff? Then again, he just didn’t give her a chance to rely on her back then. Some of the things he hadn’t noticed in high school, he picked up on now. Experience was an amazing thing.

“I’ll be eating here every day from now on too, so you should eat a little bit.”

“………”

Bada glared at him from the side, but he just decided to ignore it. The girl really just ate a single bite before leaving.

“You’re finally acting like a big brother, huh?” mom asked.

“It’s nothing.”

“I guess you really did grow a bit after going to high school?”

Mom stared at him with a playful grin. What kind of a face would she make if she realized there was a 45 year old man inside? He didn’t want to get dragged off to the psych ward for asking the question, so he just didn’t bother.

“Thank you for the meal. I’ll do the dishes.”

“I’m good. Just go study. Didn’t you say you wanted to be the snake’s head or something?”

Snake’s head. The word made him grin. He was reminded of the conversation he had with his mother. Instead of going to a good school to be the tail end of a dragon, he’d rather go to the engineering school to be the head of a snake.

‘It was a great excuse.’

In reality, he just didn’t want to study. For sure, all his memories from before high school were becoming clearer now. On the other hand, his memories of the future were getting fainter and fainter. He wondered how much things would have changed for him tomorrow morning as he walked into his room. Maru sat down on his table and turned on the computer with his toe. Habits were a scary thing.

“I should play some games while I’m at it.”

Though he had no idea how good he would be. Maru started playing, fully expecting to lose every single round.

* * *

A week passed. School life went by without any problems. Maru was keeping good on his promise about leading a safe school life. Maru got off his bike as he arrived to school. Today, too, there was the disciplinary teacher keeping his eyes out like a hawk over the front gate.

“Just go cut your hair already. Before I just shave all of it off.”

Today, he was holding a shaver in his hand instead of his usual scissors. There was a kid back in the day whose side of the hair was shaved on the side because he refused to get a haircut. The boy ended up having to go to a barber shop to get it completely shaved afterwards. Maru, on the other hand was able to pass by without any problems. For some reason, he was just more comfortable with a buzz cut anyway. He would have tried his best to get it a little bit longer if he was young, but long hair was just annoying to him now.

Why did he care so much about hair again? He couldn’t even remember.

Maru went to the small bike lot next to the parking lot. He couldn’t help but notice one of the bikes there. It was a rare road bike. It looked expensive even to Maru.

‘Maybe it belongs to a teacher?’

Maru changed his shoes and walked into the class. 3D-das really was great for indoor shoes. Never change, 3D-das.

A few of the kids waved at him when he stepped inside. He’s made friends with a few of them in a week. Maru took a look over the class. It was already split into several groups. A few groups formed by social kids merged together to form a bigger group in the class.

“You’re here?”

Dojin raised his head from the desk to greet Maru. There was some drool on his mouth from napping on the desk.

“Wipe away your saliva.”

“Ah, yeah.”

Dojin wiped it off with his sleeves. Maru’s made good friends with the boy over the past week. It was surprisingly easy, since the boy was already very social to begin with. The boy put on an apologetic face pretty much immediately.

“By the way, your MP3…”

“Don’t worry about it.”

“Ah, I’m really sorry dude.”

“Stop saying it before the word gets stuck to your mouth, dude. I can just listen to music on my phone.”

“Hah, I really didn’t think that guy would be that much of an asshole.”

Dojin went into the teacher’s office every day for a week to try and get that MP3 back. Despite how scary that teacher was, he worked up the courage to keep talking to the man. Maru had watched all of this from the side. Dojin really was a good guy.

“I’ll just buy you one if I can’t get it back!” He said.

Maru just waved him off. It wasn’t anything that important anyway. He didn’t want to ruin his friendship with Dojin with something so small. Actually, he was glad he was able to discern Dojin’s character with just an MP3.

“Here, Maru, try this.”

Dojin threw him a cookie from his bag. The boy seemed to have tons in his bag. He even seemed oddly proud of the fact that they took up the space for textbooks in his bag.

“You want candy too?”

“It’s fine. How are you getting those snacks all the time though?”

“Our family runs a supermarket. Don’t worry about it, we have plenty.”

Dojin’s family ran a market right next to the school. Apparently they had another market somewhere else as well?

“Yo Dojin, me too!”

“One here for your big bro as well.”

A few of Dojin’s friends reached out for candy as well.

Chapter 5

Whenever Dojin asked for a show from each one of them, the kids would respond with a random dance or an impression. The group around Dojin started laughing. Maru found himself smiling as well when he saw the others laugh as well.

Sure these kids were a bit behind in terms of grades and studying, but to most adults, these kids might seem like a problem in society. But so what? Grades didn’t reflect a person’s personality. Though… it wasn’t like he was saying all kids with bad grades were good people.

“Hey, give me one too.” said one of the kids at the back of the class. Dojin ignored the boy with a smirk.

“Come on, man. Don’t be so stingy.” the boy whined.

“Shut the hell up. Go buy your own.” Dojin sounded unusually angry. The boy on the other side just responded with a shrug.

“Pft. Trying to look cool? You could’ve just said no.”

“Looking cool my ass.”

Sparks almost seemed to be flying between those two’s glares. But the tension didn’t last long. The atmosphere calmed as the other kids walked into the class. Maru took a look at the kid at the back.

The boy’s name was Kang Dowook. He used to sit at the front, but after a few days he stole someone else’s seat and moved to the back. The victim, of course… had to sit in the front. Dowook took a seat from one of the more ‘meh’ looking kids in the class.

You know the one. Almost every class has one. Guys who aren’t that good at studying, but not that good at socializing either. Within the archetype of those only capable of responding.

Maru looked over the class one more time. If no one became friends with that guy in the front… He would definitely end up becoming the ‘butler’ of all the bullies in the class.

‘Oh, I remember.’

The official butler of the class. That must’ve been the guy. In his memories, he could remember a kid that everyone in the class used to leave their work to. They always ‘asked’ him to do it, but it was nothing more than a thinly veiled threat. Maru observed passively. He couldn’t even remember that boy’s name or face, only of his annoyance of the situation back then. Not that he did anything about it though.

It was a personal problem, after all. At least, that’s what he thought at the time. He could remember people talking about the guy during a few of the reunions where rumors that he got into a big company surfaced.

“Hey, doesn’t Minji have a really nice body?” one of the boys in the class said.

“Ah crap, I almost caught the boss yesterday too.” another one of the kids shouted from the other side of the class.

“Wanna play basketball after class?”

“What’s on the lunch menu today?”

The classroom was increasing in volume, but the boy at the front was just staring forward quietly. He wasn’t listening to music or reading either. His occasional glances to the class indicated his desire to join the conversation.

‘I have to act now,’ Maru thought to himself.

He needed to make his move while the other kids were still unfamiliar with the boy. If the boy were to be marked as a “class idiot”…then no one would even want to hang out with him. Lest the same happens to them.

“You know any other places to grind? The skeleton compound no. 8 is garbage. Has too many people as well,” one of the boys complained.

“I told you, there’s literally no better place.”

The lone boy in the front chewed his lips for a second, almost as if he wanted to say something. But… in the end, he lowered his head with a deep sigh.

Maru sighed from the back at his seat as well.

“What’s up?” Dojin asked, head up from his comic book.

“Hey, Dojin.” Maru said.

“Yeah?”

“Us guys need to help each other out, right?”

“The hell are you talking about?”

Dojin looked at Maru with a confused expression. Maru grinned back and stood up from his seat, as he made his way over to the first row.

* * *

Park Daemyung wanted to live brightly as his name suggests, but that was never the case since his time in elementary school.

“Hah! You look pretty funny, don’t you?” one of the kids said to him back then.

Daemyung’s entire life changed from that one sentence. He could still remember it clearly. He stopped talking as much after hearing that from a friend back in third grade.

Why was he so sensitive to about that? After a point, everyone in the class had started pointing out his goofy looks, he remembered. People stopped calling him by his real name. That was when he accepted his ugly appearance. He kept his head low for the rest of elementary school until he entered middle school. Spent middle school without talking much as well. He was bullied then, too.

Daemyung hated his face. His cheeks were puffy like a frog’s, and his eyes and forehead were abnormally small. He started talking less and less, but the bullying only got worse and worse. Daemyung went home immediately after his middle school graduation. He didn’t want to hear the joy in his peers’ voices.

‘I can’t keep living like this,’ he thought. From then on, Daemyung was set on changing himself. That’s why he decided to go to an engineering school instead of a normal one. Perhaps his personality would follow the change in environment.

‘And… I wouldn’t have to meet the kids from middle school if I went to an engineering school,’ that was his intention at the very least. His mother wasn’t vocal about his choice. That was her way of telling him she knew of what was happening to him at school.

And then… the first day of school. He wanted to hang out with the kids with a strong greeting, but nothing of the sort occurred.

‘S-scary.’

The engineering school kids were something else. The boy next to him brought a pack of cigarettes on the second day. One of the other ones was excitedly talking about where to buy alcohol. Everything felt unfamiliar and scary to him. Almost as if he would be punched if he spoke a word.

And then there was this as well.

“Hey, let’s switch seats,” one of the more aggressive looking kids asked him to change seats with Daemyung. The boy took his bag and quietly moved up to the front without saying a thing.

“What a freaking coward,” he could hear behind him.

Right there, Daemyung felt his middle school nightmare reappear. No, he felt something even worse this time: the contemptuous gaze of the delinquent’s friends upon his back.

Why did he decide to come to an engineering school again? He should have just stuck to normal schools. Maybe he could have become friends with normal kids if he went there?

“Bahahaha!”

“Ugh, you bitch. Please? Just 500 won?”

“Fuck off.”

People were swearing all around him. Just hearing those words made a chill run down his spine, especially since he never swore.

‘I have to spend three years like before again?’ he thought.

3 years of bullying in elementary school, 3 years of bullying in middle school. Did he have to live his life as a victim all the way through high school as well?

“You know any other places to grind? The skeleton compound no. 8 is garbage. Has too many people as well.” one of the boys complained.

“I told you, there’s literally no better place.”

He heard a few kids start talking about video games behind him. They were talking about a game he played. He also did know a better place to grind. If he opened his mouth now… could he make friends with them?

He didn’t end up talking to them. He was afraid of being treated coldly after approaching them. Plus, the kids looked like delinquents. They would surely ignore him if he tried to talk to them.

‘Yeah, maybe later… ’ he excused himself with a thought.

Daemyung knew very well that there would be no ‘later’. But there was no way for him to overcome 6 years of bullying so quickly. It’s impossible, he found himself thinking. He could feel all the energy inside him stream out. Just like last time…

“Hey.” he heard someone behind him. Someone calling out to his friend? In any case, it couldn’t be him.

“Ah, Daemyung, was it?”

“Eh, ah?”

Someone said his name? No one’s said his name since… Daemyung turned back in surprise. There was a pretty tall kid standing behind him. Han Maru, was it? He remembered because of the strange name.

‘This kid looks like a delinquent, too… ’ Daemyung couldn’t help but start worrying.

* * *

[This kid looks like a delinquent, too…]

Yet another word bubble. Maru couldn’t help but laugh a bit in surprise when he saw the bubble. Just what about him made himself look like a delinquent?

“Park Daemyung, right?” he asked.

“Ah, yeah.”

“You play World Crash?”

World Crash was the name of the game the other kids were talking about. And of course, Maru was familiar with this game as well. Why wouldn’t he be? Games were practically the only thing he did with his time instead of studying. He didn’t play this particular game much, though.

“Yeah, I do.” Daemyung answered.

“What’s your level?”

“Me? 23.”

Oh boy. World Crash launched just 3 days ago. Level 23 already? Just how much did this guy play?

“Hey,” Maru called out to the three kids talking nearby. “You guys play World Crash too?”

“Oh, of course. We were just talking about that,” one of them answered.

“What’s your level?”

“15.”

“What about you guys?” Maru asked the two others.

“I’m 16.”

“14 here.”

They all had lower levels than Daemyung. Alright, Maru’s set the boy up for a very nice play here. All Daemyung needed to do now was open his mouth.

* * *

Daemyung felt his entire body freeze up. The group of three was looking at him now.

‘Could it be… ’ He looked up to Maru, who motioned towards the three with his head. This guy… was he helping him? Why? There was no reason for this boy to help him.

‘Ah, he must be making fun of me.’ Things instantly became clear for him. How depressing. They’d pretend to be his friends again before throwing him away. He’s experienced this several times in the past.

‘Of course it would be like that.’ Daemyung glanced at Maru, who was still motioning him towards the group.

‘You… stop acting like a nice guy.’

* * *

[You… stop acting like a nice guy.]

Maru saw the word bubble as soon as his eyes met with the boy. So that’s what the dude was thinking now, with that depressed face of his. Maru didn’t feel any annoyance from the reaction, he just felt sorry. Just how much was Daemyung burnt in the past for him to respond to him in this manner?

The boy would surely live antisocially if left like this. Maru wouldn’t interfere if that’s what he wanted, but… if that wasn’t the case?

“Hey,” he called out.

“W-what?”

“Are you doing this because you’re comfortable being alone?”

He leaned forward so that others wouldn’t be able to hear. Daemyung frowned angrily in response.

“A-are you making fun of me?” he said. He sounded clearly offended by the statement.

Maru turned to look behind him. The three kids were still looking at them.

“I didn’t barge in for nothing here, right?”

“What?”

“I thought you wanted to talk with them? Sorry if I misunderstood.”

“……”

“If you were just focusing on studying… Sorry about that.”

Daemyung’s eyes were shaking a little. Maru already knew from the beginning that the boy just wanted to be friends with people.

“But… if not, why don’t you start talking with them for once?”

* * *

Daemyung looked away from Maru. Maru was right. He knew that Maru was talking because he just wanted to be nice, also that he was just lashing out because he decided to misunderstand the other boy’s intentions on purpose.

The group of boys next to him would lose interest soon if he just continued sitting there like that.

‘Is it fine if I talk to them? They won’t treat me weirdly again, would they? Is it really fine?’ all sorts of worries came up the more he thought. And he’s worked so hard to try to change himself.

‘Crap.’ it was almost like he’s forgotten how to talk. He could feel an awkward air start to surround him. Oh gods, they’re going to make fun of him again…

“Are you trying to prepare for PT (personal training)? Why so worried? They’re all just kids. Just talk about video games. Stop thinking about how you’re going to act, just do it.” it was Maru. He had no idea what PT meant, but he understood everything else.

Those words gave Daemyung courage.

“Skeleton compound no. 8 is good, but there are better places.” he decided to continue off from where the conversation was before.

“Really?” the reaction was immediate.

“You play World Crash too?”

“What’s your level?”

Oh right, this was what conversations were like. There was no need to think. Daemyung instantly found himself becoming more comfortable.

Chapter 6

Daemyung started talking easily with the other kids. Maru just excused himself a minute or two later to return to his seat.

“Ohh~ What a champ.” Dojin smacked Maru’s shoulder with a smile. “He was bothering me, too.” he continued.

“Why didn’t you talk to him, then?” Maru asked.

“I mean, it was entirely a personal problem. I didn’t want to really do anything.”

Maru thought the same way in the past. Being bullied… was a personal problem. But at the same time, it was an entirely easy problem to get rid of. That is, if someone helped from the side a little bit. He was just ignoring it because it was bothersome. He remembered what the woman said before about him being a nice person.

Maru didn’t think of himself as a nice person. No, not at all. He was just a bit more responsible than others. After all, in the past, he completely ignored Daemyung’s plight. But now?

“I’ll call you a good guy from now.” Dojin told him.

A good guy? It made him laugh, but it wasn’t that bad of a nickname.

* * *

“We’re choosing our clubs today, so start thinking carefully about it, alright?” the teacher announced to the class. He appeared out of nowhere during lunchtime to say this and left without saying anything else.

“What do we do?” one of the kids asked.

“Just get into the soccer club or whatever.”

“Do they have a PC bang club or something?”

“I heard they have a game research club here?”

The kids were talking quite a bit among each other. Maru took a look at the list as well. There were over 50 clubs introduced in it. Since classes didn’t have any morning or night study sessions, clubs were quite active in this school… or so says the literature teacher.

[Students from other schools even come to visit during festivals. I’m talking about the ones from the all girls high school next door. They used to be called the ‘Dongsung Girls School of Industry’, but they changed to ‘Dongsung Global High School’. Last year, they caused quite a bit of commotion by coming with their dance club. Heard they wiped the floor with the dance club at our school. That’s why our dance club here’s been working their asses off this year, or so I’ve heard. So if you guys want to lose some weight and befriend girls, go there.]

Maru could remember just barely as well. There were a few clubs that worked very hard to look good in the festival.

‘The music club people were something else.’ he recalled. He could remember hearing them sing right at the entrance of school during the festival.

“Yo, Maru, what you planning on doing?” Dojin asked.

Maru didn’t really have much of a plan. Previously, he picked the movie review club. It was a very average club whose sole activity was to go to see movies on Saturday, and then play games in the PC bang afterwards.

‘It wasn’t horrible,’ at least he got to watch movies every month. Maybe he should try for the same club? Nothing else really caught his eye. As he read the description for the movie club, the bell rang. English class, the war against sleep, was about to begin.

“Have some mint candy.” Dojin threw him some candy. Maru popped it in his mouth without hesitation. It helped. The coolness definitely helped.

A chubby lady entered the classroom. She was their English teacher. Not anyone extraordinary, but a simple average teacher who chatted with the students every once in a while. The woman put on a few pop songs in the background and went on with teaching. In the middle of it, someone knocked on the door.

Knock knock. The class was interrupted by a group outside.

“Ah.” the English teacher motioned the group in without saying anything else. She seemed to know what was going on.

“Hey, hey. Those of you who are sleeping, wake up.” the teacher said.

Maru raised his head to look at the door. There were a few students walking in with a nervous face. Seniors, maybe? There were two girls, and two guys. The two guys walked in stiffly along with a girl. The last girl walked in confidently as if she owned the school. Maru’s attention naturally went towards the last girl. She had quite the long hair, almost long enough to break school regulations. Wait, hold on a second. She just curled her damn hair.

The girl had clear eyes, a pink nose, and a mouth that seemed to burst out into speaking mode at any second. She took the podium almost as if she was the teacher and called the other three over.

“Come on, guys. We don’t have time.”

“Ah, right.” the other three responded. The four of them took their positions rather quickly.

What’s going on? Maru watched the four with his arms crossed.

“One, two, three.” the girl said. And.

“Hello! We are the acting club, ‘Blue Sky’!”

Well, that was loud. Loud enough to wake up all the sleepy kids, including him.

‘Ah… the acting club.’ come to think of it, there was one, wasn’t there? The high school acting club. He couldn’t remember much about them other than the fact that they went to some sort of a competition.

“Nice to meet you. I’m Lee Yunjung, the president of the acting club. I’m a second year.” the girl said. She put a lot of emphasis behind ‘second year’.

“We came to see you juniors because we wanted to promote the acting club a bit. Our acting club’s talented enough to have won a gold medal in the national teenage acting competition in the past. We’re looking for new members willing to make some memories with our club.” she continued.

“The acting club’s nice. They even have their own room, and they have their own segments during festivals, too,” even the English teacher butted in a little bit. The teacher motioned the girl to continue.

“We’re a bit short on members because all of our third years decided to quit. Anybody here watch a play before?” the girl scanned the class with a hopeful look. But no one raised their hand.

Plays, huh. Maru’s seen quite a few of them in the past. There was a time when he’s worked for a short time as a road manager in his time job hunting right after college. It wasn’t all that great. He was basically a servant for the actors and the directors. He even had to complete all sorts of random tasks for the chief manager as well.

He wasn’t even in charge of just one actor, either. He was almost like a taxi driver for all sorts of actors. He’d taxi a side character on stage, and start completing all sorts of other jobs like carrying cameras, all the while suffering the treatment of a slave. At the time, he had to visit Hyehwa station (famous for plays) a lot to pick up side characters whenever the show ran short.

Naturally, he’s ended up watching a lot of plays in the process. He even dreamed of being an actor at one point, but he quickly gave up on that idea after getting a nice desk job at a small company.

Right then, Maru’s eyes met with the podium girl’s. Her gaze intimidated Maru enough to raise his hand.

“Ah, you’ve seen it?” the girl asked.

“Yes.”

“How was it?”

“Well, some were fun, some not so much.”

He decided to be honest. Thankfully, Yoonjung seemed content with that answer. She just seemed to be happy that there was someone who watched plays in the class.

“How many people were there?”

“A few monodramas. Most of them were under eight people.”

“Whoa.” Yoonjung leaned forward. She seemed to want to jump out to talk more with him right then and there. Maru flinched and leaned back a little from the pressure.

“You must like plays.” Yoonjung said.

“What? Ah, no, not really.”

“Really?”

“Yes…”

“Do you hate it, then?”

“Uh… not really.”

“Then let’s say you like it.”

She just decided on an answer right there. Quite the decision maker, wasn’t she? Deciding what people likes or hates just then and there. And…

‘So energetic.’ she was one of those kids that made him feel alive just being near them. The type of people that dragged others to match their pace in a conversation.

Maru took a look around the classroom. The students were focused at Yoonjung almost as if class was right about to end. The girl had a talent. The talent for drawing attention.

* * *

Yoonjung took a deep breath before continuing.

“Let’s cut the BS for a sec. All sorts of people are needed in a play. We have costumer designers, prop masters, stage managers, and actors… Of course, we make our own props and costumes in our plays, since we are a club.”

BS? Maru found himself smiling at the girl’s straightforwardness. The other kids looked pretty surprised as well. To think a girl like her would say something like that… Yoonjung didn’t notice the crowd’s reaction, though.

“It’s hard. We have to get together at all sorts of times to work. We might spend a ton of time making props, and make our own costumes if we can’t rent it. We made our own props last year with planks and hammers. We needed to build a restaurant, you see. It took awhile to make something that resembled a house. Some of us got hurt as well. If you look here…”

The girl extended her hand out towards the class. There was a long scar on her left pinky finger.

“Hey, Yoonjung, stick to the script,” the other girl pointed out, as she poked Yoonjung from the back. Yoonjung jumped back in surprise almost as if she were scalded by hot water.

She seemed to be the type that fell into her own stories. Maru didn’t dislike that. Those people were annoying occasionally, but more often than not they energized the group they were in. People like her… often shone brightly in a group. Yoonjung inhaled for a second before talking again.

“That’s why we’re requesting people to join the acting club. Things will get hard, sure, but I promise it’ll be worth it. I can’t even describe to you the feeling you get when you perform an act you’ve been preparing for months. Soon… you’ll even begin to love that entire process.”

She was shining. Even the seniors standing next to her were. As she talked more about acting, they started standing straighter. Prouder.

“Of course! It will be difficult. I keep saying this for a reason. It won’t be easy at all. That’s why we aren’t looking for anyone…”

Right when Yoonjung said around this much, a different girl jumped in. She was a girl with relatively short hair. Almost boyish. But this girl acted more like a girl than Yoonjung. She even had makeup on. Well, just enough to warrant trouble with teachers.

“Of course it’ll be hard. But it’s not just that. Plays are made by all sorts of people. Actors aren’t everything. Staff don’t require as much work as Yoonjung said. Since they just help out in between plays or practice. But without them, plays wouldn’t even be possible. So… if you’re interested, please give us a visit.” the girl finished with a slight bow.

She seemed like a pretty calm and collected girl to Maru. If Yoonjung was the type that yelled “charge!!”, this one seemed to be the type to hold Yoonjung back. The type that was persuasive. When both girls stopped talking, the guys stepped forward. They seemed lackluster due to the energy the girls showed right before.

“We are the staff. We decided to help the crew more after our first year acting. You’ll be able to see a bunch of stuff when you come to our club room. They’re years of work that’s been created by our seniors. Like Danmi said earlier, we welcome anyone interested. We’re looking forward to working with you for one, maybe even two more years in this club.” said one of them.

The other one stepped forward. Unlike the first boy, who had sporty hair, this one just had a flat nose.

“Please come if you’re interested. We even have a teacher that we hire to teach us acting. I’ll leave the form here. We’re accepting till tomorrow, so please come. Ah, and of course, you’re always free to visit us in the club room. And… if you’re worried about your looks, don’t worry about it. Just look at me.”

The boy grinned. This one seemed to be the more charismatic of the two.

Chapter 7

At that moment, Maru noticed that the other three in the group were looking at the flat-nosed guy. Almost as if they were paying attention to every one of his words. To think a boy would arouse that sort of a reaction from his friends…

‘He might be more influential than that second girl, even.’ Maru thought.

These people were truly interesting. The flat-nosed guy seemed to be the type of guy who was way more thoughtful upon further notice. But why was a guy like that working as a stage manager? Well, he probably had his own story. With just four people in the entire club, it must’ve been pretty difficult to do anything.

“So just come on over. We’ll explain things later on.” the boy finished.

The four people bowed. Unfortunately, not many people in the class seemed interested in the club.

“Not a fan, man,” one of the students said after the four left.

“How difficult is it if they warn you about it from the start?”

“Easy stuff is the best.”

The four seemed to have failed to really get anyone. When Maru looked over, he found them cheering each other on. They were probably planning on making rounds across the entire floor.

“Yo, Maru,” asked Dojin. Maru turned to look over at his friend.

“What’s up?”

“Doesn’t this seem fun?”

“The acting club?”

“Yeah.”

“You’re gonna do it?”

“Dunno yet. So…”

But just as Dojin was about to finish, the English teacher tapped at the board lightly.

“Now, now. We can continue the small talk later. Flip to page 15. What day is it today?” she asked.

“It’s the 11th, ma’am.”

“Number 11, stand up and read the first sentence.”

The class resumed. Dojin immediately shut his mouth and started paying attention. Maru took a look at the list of clubs in front of him again. The acting club. Everything else on the paper became smaller and smaller until the only thing on that paper he saw was the word ‘acting’.

‘The acting club… ’ he found himself thinking.

Right below it was the movie review club. Joining that club would let him spend his first year leisurely.

‘Leisurely… ’ leisurely. He tried whispering the word to himself. What was his life of 45 years like? The question that he thought of on the way back home hit him again. How did he want to live?

“…Fun.” the answer reared its head from his mouth almost unconsciously.

* * *

‘Looks like a bunch of zombies.’ Maru thought as he looked over the entire class.

The state of the classroom after the fifth period looked like a bunch of zombies struggling to stay awake. As expected of English class… it was stronger than even most sleeping pills.

“Yo, Maru, want to check out the acting club?” Dojin asked.

“You mean the room?”

“They told us we could come so how about it? You said you didn’t choose a club yet, right?”

“Yeah.”

“Hell yeah, let’s go!”

Dojin seemed just a little bit excited. Well, quite a bit, actually.

[Hell yes! Thanks Maru! I didn’t want to go alone.]

The bubble floated above Dojin’s head briefly before disappearing.

“Let’s go after school, then.” Maru said.

“Sure.”

Dojin was humming happily to himself. Maru was starting to figure out how this word bubble thing worked.

‘I need to look at their eyes first.’

He could always see the word bubbles out of the people whose eyes met with his. This seemed to be the first condition. Second, the person in question needed to think about him. At least, that's what it seemed like. All of Dojin’s thoughts seemed to have been directed at him.

‘Same with Daemyung.’ Maru realized.

Maru called Dojin over and started staring at the boy’s eyes. Dojin seemed a bit confused, but he didn’t look away. Ten seconds of staring after…

<

“What’s up?” Dojin asked.

“It’s nothing.” Maru said, as he put a hand over his chin.

Dojin must’ve thought of something just then, amongst the lines of ‘what’s up with this guy?’ But no word bubble appeared.

“Hey, Dojin.”

“Yeah?”

“Did you think of anything when I was looking at you?”

The boy looked confused by the question, but he shook his head in denial.

“Of course not. What’s there to think about?”

Ah. Now Maru understood. Friends wouldn’t think something like ‘what’s wrong with this kid’ between each other. No, to begin with, most people don’t usually think deeply when going about their lives. Maru looked down at his hand. He was playing around with a red pen in it. Of course, he wasn’t actively thinking ‘let’s play with this pen’ as he did it. He just did it out of habit.

“Hey, Dojin.” he asked.

“What up?”

“Stand up a bit.” “The hell are you trying to do?” Dojin said, standing up anyway.

“What did you think just now?”

“Think of what now? I just stood up.”

“Right?”

“Flipping heck, is this because of the MP3?”

Maru turned to look at Dojin right there. But there was no word bubble still. Was there a different condition as well?

[Ah, this guy’s probably in trouble too, huh. Ugh, I should tell my mom about this.]

The word bubble came just then, allowing Maru to draw a single conclusion. The word bubbles only appeared when a person thought of something specific.

“No need to tell your mom. I’m fine,” Maru responded.

“No, but if you keep looking at me like th… W-wait wait wait, what? How did…”

“How do you think? Just a smart guess, man.”

“…Did I look too obvious?”

“Don’t worry about it. Can I have a piece of candy, by the way? And just forget about the MP3. I can’t believe you’re still worried about it.”

“My dad’s always told me that if I care about a person, I have to treat them with utmost respect. You’re a friend, so you deserve it.” said Dojin as he threw him a piece of candy.

Maru received it with a smile on his face. Dojin sounded like he grew up under a wonderful father. He agreed with the sentiment completely. The more you value a person, the more you should respect them.

“What a sentence,” he said.

“Agreed. Ah, anyway, are we going to the acting club or not?”

“We are.”

Maru realized that he really was treating his new life differently. In the past, he might have felt an interest in the acting club, but just wouldn’t have gone. He would just have said something along the lines of ‘looks fun, but too hard’ and turned away. But Maru knew now… that this was the only chance he had in life where he was free to do anything. He couldn’t live freely in college because by then, he had to start worrying about entering the real world. In that case… shouldn’t he do everything he could to try to live as fun a life as he could now?

A small smile crept up on Maru’s face. He had made a decision. He threw the club list away. He didn’t need it anymore.

“Ah, crap. Homeroom time.”

The bell rang alongside someone’s complaint. Maru drove off all his sleep with that as the signal. He really couldn’t afford to sleep in this one. Getting hit by a cue stick was a big no no for him.

* * *

The classes ended, and all the students went off to their cleaning areas. Those who weren’t assigned to areas ran off to the front entrance. Yoonjung ran for the club room instead. She wondered to herself how many people would come to visit.

She hoped to see a few.

She went up to the clubroom at the fourth floor of the school. The lights were still off. Yoonjung squeezed through the door to get inside.

“I should clean this all up, first.” she found herself saying.

The club room was quite large. But despite that, all the props and costumes inside made it look small. There were four hangars full of costumes, even.

“I guess… Cleaning all of it’s a bit of a stretch.”

When would she even finish? Yoonjung grew sick of cleaning the place up before she even started. She didn’t notice because she got used to the place, but… If the newcomers were to see this…

[How dirty. I’m not going to join.]

[So complicated. I don’t think I’ll join.]

[What the hell? Smells. I won’t join.]

With multiple voices of imaginary club members streaming in her head, she immediately pulled up her sleeves.

She can do this!

The club room reverberated with loud noises.

* * *

As Lim Danmi stepped outside of the classroom with her bag, a friend of hers stopped her.

“Hey, Danmi! We’re going to the karaoke. Want to join?”

Danmi found herself shaking her head without a moment’s pause.

“Sorry, I have to go to my club.” she responded.

“Acting club?”

“Yup.”

“Think you got a lot of people?”

“Dunno. Hope we did though.”

“You said there were just four left?”

“Yeah, I heard a few seniors come help every once in a while, but they’re all probably busy.”

And… there was a different reason, but there was no need to talk about that. The friend waved her goodbye with a ‘let’s go together next time’.

Danmi wondered to herself since she started going to the club so frequently. At one point, she only hung out with her friends after checking that no one was in the club room. She had no idea that she’d be working so hard when she first joined the club.

Danmi went up to the fourth floor through the central staircase, this was the staircase the third years used to get home. Danmi turned the corner with a strange sense of nervousness. And.

“Good god.” she said.

Half the corridor was flooded just… stuff. Just who did this? She stuck her head into the corridor window with a frightened face. She could see Yoonjung there coughing in the massive cloud of dust. Of course it was Yoonjung. There was literally no one else who’d do something like this.

“The hell?” Danmi heard someone talk behind her.

“Acting club?”

“They must be digging through their pile again.”

She could hear that the third years starting to take notice. She bowed to them as a quick apology before jumping into the mess herself.

“Lee Yoonjung!” she shouted.

“Ah! Hey Danmi, nice timing. Could you just…”

“Ugh, you bitch!”

Danmi pinched Yoonjung’s cheeks tightly, causing the girl to groan in pain.

“It hurts!” Yoonjung said, hitting Danmi’s hands off of her.

“Good. It’s supposed to hurt.”

Danmi took a look over the room. It was a room filled with a decade full of memories. Memories passed down between each generation of seniors. Every prop the club has ever made remained here year after year. Of course Danmi thought about fixing it up at some point. She didn’t want this place turning into a storage room either.

But why did it have to be today?

“What do you think the newcomers would think when they look at this, huh?” she said.

“Well… I tried to fix this place up really good, right? But every time I move something, more stuff just appears. So…”

“So you decided to take everything outside first?”

Yoonjung nodded energetically. Danmi could feel a stab of pain at the back of her neck. If only she could pry open that girl’s head at one point…

“How were you going to do all this by yourself? Don’t you remember? We promised to do this over the weekend.”

“I know, I know, but if the newbies came to see the club like that…”

Yoonjung had become visibly deflated. The girl’s mood changed way too fast all the time, especially in failure, she would just drop down like a doll that just ran out of battery.

“You give me a ton of stress, you know that?”

“Please help.”

“Of course I will. Didn’t you notice all the seniors saying stuff outside?”

“Ah… I knew it.”

“Oh, so you did. The entire corridor’s been blocked off by stuff. What if one of the teachers…” right when Danmi said this much, someone cut her off from behind.

“Look at all this, oh bother.”

Yoonjung and Danmi whipped around in surprise.

“I told you before, didn't I? That you need to clean all this up at some point! Ugh!”

It was the Hanja teacher. He was wearing his modified traditional clothes with a hot pack in his hand. His narrowed eyes were looking around the club room, annoyance written all over his face. The man was clicking his tongue in disapproval.

Of all the teachers, did it really have to be the Hanja one? Danmi found herself thinking. The teacher was one of the faculty members that didn’t like the acting club at all. Last time, she was scolded because the corridor outside the club room was dirty. She didn’t say anything despite knowing that the students of design from class B were in charge of it since this particular teacher really hated having students talk back to them.

“We’ll clean it up.” Danmi said. Yoonjung immediately followed up from behind.

“We’re sorry.”

Chapter 8

The hanja teacher was still dissatisfied after the two’s apology.

“Why do you keep collecting trash anyway?” he muttered to himself.

Danmi realized the scolding would go on for a while. As she was about to let out a deep sigh, someone came in.

“Teacher.”

“Ah, Bang Joonghyuk.” the hanja teacher responded as he turned.

Danmi looked next to her with a sigh of relief. Bang Joonghyuk, the boy with the flat nose, was greeting the hanja teacher.

“I apologize. We’ll clean it up right away.” he said.

“Sure sure. Clean it right up,” the teacher responded as he made his way back down the corridor.

“Yessir.”

It was a good thing Joonghyuk arrived on time. The hanja teacher was someone who had a very defined sense of who he liked and didn’t like. Fortunately, the boy was not on that list.

“Nice timing.” Danmi said.

“I knew something might be going on. Especially with Yoonjung being excited like that.”

Yoonjung looked away with an ashamed face.

“Cleaning all this is difficult right now. The auditorium in the fifth floor is open right now, so let’s just dunk it all in there,” he continued.

“Can we use it?” Danmi asked.

“I got permission.”

“Oh! As expected of Joonghyuk.”

Danmi tapped the boy’s shoulder with a proud look.

“We need to do well. Not many people in the faculty think well of us,” Joonghyuk spoke in a heavy tone.

Danmi and Yoonjung made an apologetic face. They were well aware of what the boy was talking about.

“Let’s go. We set the costumes aside and carry the hangars first. Let’s take out some props along the way. This should do for now.”

Joonghyuk continued as he took the hangars to the fifth floor. Danmi shook Yoonjung awake from her depressed stupor.

“Let’s clean up.”

“Ok.”

Danmi shook her head as she watched Yoonjung move forward lifelessly. The girl must’ve been reminded of last year. Danmi took a look at the widened club room. The room filled with memories with the seniors, but they were no longer here.

“Ugh, let’s just work.” Danmi said, as she grabbed a large bunch of clothes with her arms.

* * *

“Han Maru.”

“Yessir.”

“Just listen during break time.”

The homeroom teacher threw Maru the MP3. Maru waved the device at Dojin with a smile.

“Ugh, that guy. He really had to wait a full week before giving it back?” Dojin complained.

“Hey, at least I got it back.” Maru responded.

“You’re too nice.”

“Hey, don’t you forget. You started all this.”

“…Want some candy?”

Dojin tried changing the topic. The cleaning session was over. It took a little longer than normal since the class was in charge of cleaning the bathroom this time. Since no one wanted to touch the toilets, they played a game to decide.

“The others don’t seem very interested in the club.” Dojin realized.

“Of course not. It’s too much work.”

“Does it seem like too much work to you too, Maru?”

“No, seems pretty fun.”

“Really? Then we’re registering together, right?”

“Never said anything about registering. Let’s check it out first.”

Just as they were about to get out though, someone stopped them from the back.

“U-um.” It was Daemyung. He seemed to want to say something. “Y-you going to the acting club?” he asked.

“How’d you know?”

Dojin said with a curious look.

“I overheard you guys.”

Maru nodded. Dojin was a pretty loud guy. If he decided to get a tiny bit loud, pretty much everyone on the corridor would hear him. It really was unfortunate. The guy didn’t seem to realize how loud he was at all.

“So what?” Dojin said as he scanned Daemyung a little bit.

Daemyung stepped back a little bit with a scared face. It was understandable. The boy was just afraid of people who looked like delinquents. Dojin looked plenty like one even to Maru. Then again, engineering schools never had serious students to begin with. Daemyung was just the weird one out.

“Hey.” Dojin asked with an annoyed look. Daemyung froze up like a deer in the headlights.

“Y-yeah?”

“You’re funny.”

“W-what?”

“Why are you scared? Did I do something?”

“…No.”

“So why are you acting so scared? Just tell me straight if you want to say something. I hate indecisive people. Hah, I’m getting pissed off just thinking about it. Hey, why are you…”

Maru yanked Dojin back with a slight smile, causing the boy to lose his balance for a second.

“Gah, what the hell?”

“What are you doing?”

“You pulled me back!”

“Yeah. I did.”

“……”

“What the heck are you getting mad by yourself for? Hey Daemyung, what did you want to tell us?”

“…It’s nothing.”

Daemyung turned away with an awkward smile. Look at this kid. Maru’s eyebrows twitched a little in annoyance. This time, he grabbed Daemyung and pulled the boy back. He was pretty quick with this kind of stuff. His father was an amateur boxer, so Maru played a few different sports in his youth. Of course, he ended up gaining a bit of weight when he aged, but his speedy reflexes remained.

“Tell me straight if you want to say something.” especially since you wouldn’t get the chance to after this.

Maru felt bad about Daemyung. The first year of high school was the time when students were truly free. The time when they really could focus on having fun more than anything else. Maru was thankful that he could start life again. He knew Daemyung didn’t have this chance though. He didn’t want the boy spending his first year with shame and fear. That just wasn’t right.

Thankfully, Daemyung seemed to have understood Maru’s intent a little from his voice.

“I want to join the acting club.”

“You too?” Dojin responded with a surprised look, earning him a nervous nod from Daemyung.

“W-well… The second years told us, didn’t they? That our faces didn’t matter.”

Maru knew how much courage it took for the boy to say that. It made him feel pretty proud, to be honest. It was hard for people to change. Maru wasn’t a fan of people who didn’t even try to change themselves in life. In that sense, Maru found Daemyung’s courage admirable.

‘Come to think of it, Gaeul was around his age, wasn’t she?’

Han Gaeul was Maru’s daughter in the previous life. He could remember her as clear as day despite the fading memories.

[Daddy, the other kids told me my name’s pretty.]

Maru felt something come up his chest when he remembered the little girl’s voice. What happened to the girl as he came back to the past? Did she disappear, or was she continuing to live in the reality where he died?

“Hey, what are you doing?” Dojin slapped his shoulder.

Maru just waved the other boy off and put his arms over the two boy’s shoulders.

“Let’s go.”

Maru lifted his two feet in the air for a second, causing the two to frown.

“Ah, you’re heavy.”

“M-Maru.”

“Let’s just get a move on, guys. Ah, do you know each other’s names, by the way?” Maru asked. Daemyung nodded, and Dojin shook his head.

“Han Dojin, meet Park Daemyung. Daemyung, meet Dojin. Good, good. Now, this great Han Maru finally has his minion number 1, and minion number 2.”

“Stop speaking bull.”

“Minion?”

Maru strengthened his grip on the two’s neck.

‘I’ll be able to meet them both some day. Both my wife and daughter.’ he thought.

So… he should just focus on the present for now. Thinking this, he went up to the fourth floor with Dojin and Daemyung.

* * *

Yoonjung was pretty amazed that fifteen first years were waiting for them in the club room. It made her happy. Happy enough to want to hug the lot of them to bits. She had been pretty worried. What if they don’t come? What if all this preparation was for nothing? But they ended up getting fifteen students. Fifteen!

‘Yahoo!’ Yoonjung shouted inwardly. She coughed a little bit to gain a bit of composure as she stepped forward. The first years all looked at her with interest.

“You’re all here to join the club, right?” she asked.

“Yes.”

Only a few of them responded. Well, that was fine. They were just being shy. With a little bit of work, they’d all be smiling and laughing just like before. Right. Like before.

“Nice to meet you. I introduced myself before, but I’ll do it again. I’m the president of the acting club, Lee Yoonjung. I’m a second year majoring in computers.”

“………”

The first years seemed a bit confused by the introduction. This won’t do. Yoonjung decided to invite them into the room before things got worse.

“Come inside. This is the club room.”

There was space for fifteen people inside thanks to the prior cleaning. Good job, Yoonjung. Cleaning out the room was a nice decision. Right then, she noticed a webbed stocking on the floor. It was something they used in the last show.

“Hm,” she snuck the stocking into the corner with her foot.

No need to show something like this to the students right now. Especially not with girls here.

‘6 guys and 9 girls… Not bad.’

They all looked very different from each other as well. This was a good thing. Plays were more fun if the actors were diverse. Yoonjung was getting more and more excited. Plays would be very fun with kids like this. And with 19 people in the club… they’d be able to do a lot. That kid looks like he’d be good at talking. That kid as a prop maker maybe? That…

“Excuse me,” one of the girls raised their hand.

“Ah, yes, do you have a question?” Yoonjung responded.

“Yes, I do.”

“Fire away. I’ll answer anything.”

“I noticed you have meetings on Saturday, along with a practice day at the end of every month.”

“Yes.”

“Around when do you guys finish practice every day?”

The girl seemed very curious. This killed Yoonjung’s excitement a little bit. Right. Home. Going home was important. But… that was the first question? Really? Thankfully, Danmi stepped forward to answer the question for her.

“It’s not very regular,” Danmi answered.

“Not regular?” the female student seemed quite surprised.

“Yes. Like we said, this requires a lot of practice. Actors need to act, and stage managers need to make props and practice timings. Sometimes we have to do both.”

“So when do you finish, then?”

“Ah… well…”

“Does it end as the list tells us? 3 o’clock on Saturday, and 5 on practice days?”

“That’s unlikely to be the case. We might have to do overtime based on how difficult the play is. Because of that…”

“Ah, I understand.”

The girl stepped back. She seemed to have completely lost interest. She fiddled with her phone for a little while before saying her goodbyes.

“I’m sorry, I don’t think I can do it.”

“Oh, really?”

“I really wanted to do it, too. Sorry.”

Yoonjung found herself getting a little bit peeved when she heard that. She wanted to do it? If you really wanted to do it, you would’ve thrown everything away and done it! You wouldn’t even have worried about when practice would end to begin with.

‘No, Yoonjung, get a hold of yourself. You don’t know what’s up with her life. She might have to help out her parents after school. Or her dad might be super strict… ’

That calmed her down. Right. Everyone had their own stories. Everyone…

“I don’t want just a club taking up so much of my time,” the girl finished.

Yoonjung’s cheeks twitched a little right there. Just a club? Then… what was the entire point of her first year of high school? What did this girl even know about the acting club? How dare she…! Oh my gosh, this is stressful. This is a junior, too! But right as Yoonjung was about to unleash an outburst…

“Then go.” someone said.

It seemed to be a first year. The middle one out of the three boys in the back. He seemed pretty familiar. Where did she see him again… Right! The electrical engineering class!

“Monodrama!”

Yoonjung pointed at the boy in the middle. The other students looked at her in confusion.

“Ah, it’s nothing. I-I’m sorry.”

Yoonjung laughed nervously and stepped back. The other kids looked at the boy in confusion.

Chapter 9

“Is something wrong?” the boy asked, confusion written across his face. He turned to talk to the girl who questioned the club earlier.

“You should leave before you’re late to your thing.”

“…Sure.”

The girl looked at him, a small frown apparent on her face before leaving with her friend. That was the cue for five people to walk out of the room.

‘We’re screwed.’ Yoonjung thought to herself. It was five people! Five! They were incredibly short on people to begin with. Perhaps she should’ve offered them goodie bags or something? Right as her anxiety started to set in, someone spoke up with a question.

“What kind of plays have you done so far?” one of them asked.

“Excuse me?”

The question caught Yoonjung by surprise. She hadn’t expected that shouting ‘monodrama’ earlier would prompt this kind of a question.

“I was just curious. About the kind of plays you’ve been doing.”

“Ah.”

Yoonjung regained her confidence when the students started asking her questions she actually wanted to hear. Man, monodramas. What wonderful little things.

* * *

“Yoonjung really needs to work on her face.”

Joonghyuk found himself echoing Danmi’s statement. Yoonjung was straightforward with her thoughts and sentiments. This was a bit problematic to most people. Even now, the girl was getting way too excited when she really needed to be calm. Of course, she was completely serious whenever she grabbed hold of a script, but most times she did stuff that would confuse most normal people.

“Would you look at this for a second, first years?” Joonghyuk decided to step forward, which indicated Yoonjung to cool off.

Joonghyuk took out a picture book from the cabinet. There were 12 of them in total.

“We made one of these each year. Each book contains a full year’s worth of events in the club. Here, let’s take a look at a recent one.”

He opened the book from 2002, drawing the first years to gather around the dusty book.

“The first picture is always a group photo of the members in the club room. If you join, you’ll be able to get in the 2003’s group photo.”

“Whoa.” one of them said.

“There’s a lot of people.”

The first years all voiced their own comments. Joonghyuk found himself looking back at his friends with that last comment. The four club members all wore bitter looks on their faces.

“Yes, there were,” he said.

His voice was significantly lower than before. Joonghyuk tried to stifle the awkwardness with a cough. The others were sending him signals that he was making things look a bit too depressing.

“In any case, this was the first play we ever performed. A third year took charge at the time, and us four here were the supporting actors right… here.”

Right then.

“Supporting actor my ass. He was a lead actor, too,” Minsung butted in.

Joonghyuck immediately cut the other boy off with a low voice.

“Don’t act so friendly here.”

“Ah, sorry.”

Minsung immediately corrected his sentence to ‘this guy was a lead actor as well’ to the first years. The members of the acting club all spoke formally to their new members. They would become casual when the students joined, but before that, they treated the students as formally as possible. This was a tradition that was passed down from the very first year the club was created. Joonghyuk had no intention of breaking that tradition today.

Minsung turned the page of the picture book with a smile. There were pictures of the club after the curtain call.

“This is Joonghyuk. He’s barely recognizable, isn’t he?”

The first years nodded vigorously as a response. Joonghyuk tried to turn the page quickly in embarrassment, but Minsung didn’t let that happen.

“This guy here’s actually great at acting. Even the seniors recognized that. You’ll be able to see more of his cool side if you join.”

“Unfortunately, I’ll be acting as a stage manager this time so you can just ignore Minsung here.” Joonghyuk continued as he pushed Minsung backwards, “Here, take a look. Looking at our past accomplishments can help you make your decision.”

He’ll give them plenty of time. So that they have the freedom to make their own decision. He won’t try to force a decision on any of them. That’s just not how this club works. After around ten minutes of looking around, the first years raised their head. Joonghyuk could tell a few of them had made up their minds as well. Not in a good way, unfortunately.

“Um… that stage over there that looks like a shack,” one of them asked.

“Yes?”

“Did you make all that?”

“Yup.”

“All the hammering and sawing too?”

“Of course.”

“………”

The first year nodded with a heavy look, earning a bitter smile from Joonghyuk. If things go badly here… the entire club might consist of just four second years.

“Hm. Would you like to look at the costumes as well?” Joonghyuk exit the room after speaking. The first years followed closely behind him. When he opened the doors to the auditorium, he got a few wows out of the students.

“A lot of these were either made by us, or bought from companies. We ended up collecting this many over the years.”

Joonghyuk was proud of these costumes. They were the symbol of hard work and perseverance of the club. But the heavy looks from the first years didn’t really go away regardless. All of their accomplishments only proved how difficult the club was going to be. It was understandable. He decided to shake them up a little bit more.

“The acting club costs a bit of money as well. The budget granted to us by the school isn’t nearly enough. Plus, there’s the fee for inviting a teacher over.”

Money. High schoolers were especially sensitive to money. Joonghyuk knew this incredibly well. Almost as proof, the faces of the uncertain students changed to ones of certainty.

“S-sorry, a few of them said as they left.

Joonghyuk honestly didn’t want to take their goodbyes, but he had to. He couldn’t catch them. He couldn’t force any of this on a student. Students forced to act was just the club asking for a bad play.

* * *

The first years disappeared after saying their goodbyes. Maru could visibly see the second year’s face get darker by a little as each student left. Yoonjung especially looked like she lost the entire world or something. The other two second years seemed pretty calm on the surface, but they were fidgeting nervously in some places as well. Man, even he was starting to feel a little nervous because of them.

“They’re all gonna get out at this rate.” Dojin whispered to him.

The more the second years talked, the more people started running away. Time and money were pretty valuable, after all. Asking for both was being pretty greedy towards the first years. The picture book was pretty pressuring as well. Sure, it was cool to look at, but it served as the evidence of the dedication this club required. Making each and every prop with great care, and acting on stage… pretty much prescribed hard work. Even now, he could feel some sort of energy from the pictures. It made sense that a few first years would leave after looking at it.

“Hum, hum.”

The second year with the buzzcut stepped forward. The thing about buzzcuts was that it often made a person look pretty scary, but in this case the dude looked like an acorn with it. At least it was easy to look at.

“Looks like all the wishy-washy people left,” he said with a clap. “We’ll be introducing ourselves, then. I’m Choi Minsung, in mechanical engineering.”

Minsung sent a glance towards the girl with the short hair.

“I’m Lim Danmi, second year in design. I like talking and making costumes.”

Danmi pulled the other boy over next to her. Maru could tell that this guy was pretty much the leader of the club, despite Yoonjung being the one in name.

“The name’s Bang Joonghyuk, in electrical engineering. I’ll introduce myself more once you join.”

Now he knew the four second years’ names. Maru took a look around. There were six first years left. Four guys and two girls. The two girls seemed to be friends with each other. That left one other guy. Was he by himself? The boy had quite a big physique with a pretty large forehead. He looked pretty serious and quiet. That was a rarity in high school.

“Will you be joining?” Yoonjung asked with a gleam.

“Yes.”

The first to answer was the big boy Maru was just eyeing. He turned in his form and returned to his spot.

“Yayy!”

Well, she seemed excited. Just looking at the girl made Maru cheerier. What an energetic person she was.

“What about the two of you?” Maru turned to Dojin and Daemyung with the question.

The form in Daemyung’s hand was coupled with a determined look. Dojin seemed to have made up his mind as well.

“The three of us will be joining as well.”

Maru handed three forms to Yoonjung. The girl’s head nodded vigorously in response.

“Thank you very much.” she responded.

No need for thanks, really. Maru turned to look at the other two girls. They talked amongst each other for a quick moment, before filling out the forms right on the spot.

“Here you go.”

With that, there were 6 first years joining the club.

* * *

“We’re accepting members till tomorrow, so do try to bring more people if you can. Also, we’ll be acting a lot more casual with you starting tomorrow, so don’t be surprised.”

The group separated with Danmi’s announcement. Maru headed for the restaurant next to school. Dojin was going to treat them in celebration.

“Isn’t Danmi really pretty?” Dojin said. It was the first thing out of his mouth as soon as they got their food.

“I vote Yoonjung. Ah, the other first years were cute too.” Daemyung responded, fitting kimbap into his mouth.

“And here I thought you were a big old pussy. You’re quite the perv, aren’t you?”

“N-no I’m not.”

“‘No I’m not’ my ass! Hey! It’s normal for guys to like girls, right Maru?”

Maru nodded. He was thinking. The acting club… there were a few points of concern. Firstly, the fact that there were no third years at all. There were bound to be a few, considering how many there were in the 2002 photo book from last year. But none at all? Something must’ve happened.

The second years seemed like they were hiding from them. It made sense, thinking back on the faces they made in the club room as well. They didn’t just seem sad about having first years leave.

“Why were there no third years, by the way?” Dojin seemed fairly curious about it as well. Daemyung started thinking with the other boy.

“Do you know who the advising teacher is?” Maru asked. Dojin was the type of person who hobbied in collecting information around school. Maybe he’d know?

“Of course I do. He’s the guy that teaches us history.”

“Park Taesik? That guy?”

“Yeap. Good guy. Pretty boring though.”

Maru had a pretty good impression of the history teacher as well. The man was a little boring, but he often told old stories to the students. Just as Dojin stood up to order some more food, someone entered the restaurant.

‘Not very handsome, though.’ Maru added to his mental notes. It was the history teacher who walked in.

* * *

Taesik waved at the three students inside the restaurant.

“What are you three doing? It’s late.” he said.

“We’re just building our friendship, teacher.” Dojin responded with a joking look.

It’s been 13 years since he’s started teaching. In that time, Taesik made a promise to himself to memorize every one of his student’s names. So that he wouldn’t have to resort to ‘hey, you’ everytime he needed to call out a student. Instead, he’d refer to them by their name.

Thanks to this, Taesik knew the names of most students he taught. Though he still didn’t know the names of a few of them. It’s only been a week, after all. That kid with small eyes in the back was one of them. He didn’t quite know the boy’s name yet.

‘Dae… sik? Was it? Ugh, so sorry. I haven’t memorized your name yet.’

Loud kids like Dojin were easier to remember for sure. The quieter ones made memorizing their names pretty hard, though.

‘And that’s Maru over there.’

Han Maru. The kid from electrical engineering with a weird name. The boy was pretty well-known among the faculty. That kind of a name just kind of sticks in your head. It’s unusual, after all.

“Having fun with friends is fine, but you should eat actual food, too. Not snacks like this.” he advised.

“No worries, sir! I’ll go on over home and smack down a bowl of rice!”

“Good to hear. You’re still growing, so eat a lot.”

Taesik asked the lady to pack him some tteokbokki, soondae, and some fried vegetables. He recalled seeing the club students working hard to clean out the club room when he finished work. They looked like they were going to be stuck cleaning for a while, so he decided to buy some snacks for them.

“Teacher, I have a question.”

Taesik turned back to look at the noise. It was Maru. The boy with a square jaw and confident eyes. Looking at Maru made him think that the boy must have a very strict father back home. You couldn’t really find any of the playfulness you’d find in abundance in the other students.

The other members of the faculty agreed with Taesik as well. Especially the boy’s homeroom teacher. The homeroom teacher thought Maru was very mature.

“Sure, what is it?”

“We entered the acting club today.”

“Ahh! So you’re the three out of the new six, huh?”

Taesik bought another serving of fried vegetables to give to the three.

“Thank you, sir.”

“Thank you.”

Dojin and Daemyung started digging in pretty much instantly. Maru was more fixated on the question, though.

“So what are you curious about, then?”

“There were only four second years when we went today. We didn’t see any third years.”

“Ah…”

Taesik smiled bitterly inside. The boy just came straight at him with the hardest question from the get go. Well, it was understandable. Why wouldn’t he be curious about it?

“Did something happen? The second years seemed to be hiding something as well.”

The other two started paying attention as well. They didn’t seem to have noticed until now. What a perceptive lad, this Maru kid. He’s caught onto what was going on in the club before anyone else. He was different from the others for sure.

“Something did happen.”

“Is that so.”

Maru finished off right there, and started digging into the food as well. Well, that’s confusing. Wasn’t he curious about what happened? Why there weren’t third years, and why the second years were making that face? Why wasn’t he asking? Wasn’t he curious?

“Aren’t you curious?” Taesik asked.

“I’m curious.”

“Can you tell us?”

Dojin and Daemyung were the ones to answer in his stead. Maru just shook his head from the back, though.

“I’ll hear it from the second years. I think that would be more appropriate.” he said.

“…Right. Sure. It’d be better to hear it from them.”

Taesik stood up after hearing the lady call at him. Maru stood up with him. The other two looked at him for a split second before standing up as well. Man, the boy resembled a junior employee at a company or something. Knowing exactly how to act to avoid getting on the teacher’s bad side and all.

‘The father’s taught him well. He’s not going to give anyone a bad first impression at the very least.’

Taesik walked out with the three boys bowing at him as a farewell. Ah, come to think of it… He walked back over to the restaurant. The lady asked him from the window if he forgot something inside.

“Nope, but could I pay for their food as well? How much is it?”

“6000 won.”

“Alright. Here it is.”

Right then, his eyes met with Maru’s from inside the building. Maru bowed his head as a greeting, making Taesik smile in response.

‘Eat well, club juniors.’

* * *

“Hell yeah, managed to save a ton of cash money.” Dojin waved his hands in the air in joy. He and Daemyung seemed to live in the same direction, seeing how they were walking home together. They spoke a bit with each other on the way. There really was no better way for kids to become friends than to hang out together.

Maru watched the two walk away before heading back home himself on his own bike. The first thing he did after going back home was to finish off his homework. His mother looked at him with a little grin, muttering ‘he’s matured finally’ under her breath.

“I might be late on Saturday, mom.”

“Why?”

“I joined a club. The acting club.”

“Really? Don’t do it if it takes too much time.”

“It’s fine. I’ll call you if I’m late.”

“Ugh, like father like son. You just don’t listen to your mother, do you? By the way, Maru, do you need more allowance?”

“Still have enough.”

“That’s new. Weren’t you saving up for a new pair of shoes?”

Mom took out a 10,000 won bill from her wallet.

“Take this. Use it when you need it.”

“Just keep it. I don’t need all that money.”

“…Did something happen to you?”

“Told you I’ve matured. Just give the money to Bada. She’ll need it more than me.”

Maru pushed his mother lightly back out of his room and closed the door. If he wanted to live a leisurely life, he needed to study up first. Of course, it wasn’t like he was going to try to succeed in academics. He’s learned the hard way last time that studying just wasn’t for him.

‘But I don’t want to live my life restricted because of grades.’

He didn’t understand adults when he was younger. Why would he need math in life? What would he even use physics for? Of course, he’s learned that he didn’t really need those subjects to get by, but he’s also learned that understanding the subjects provided him with various choices.

Studying, to Maru, was just a way to give himself more options in life. But…

“Ugh.”

It didn’t really work out as he first intended.

“This is annoyingly hard.”

Maru decided to put the pen down for now.

Chapter 10

“See you tomorrow.”

After parting with her friends, Bada bought herself a snack in front of the house and hid it in her bag.

‘Not this time,’ she thought. Her older brother had a keen sense for whenever a person was eating snacks. He used to be so nice back when she was in elementary school. Afterwards, he’s become incredibly strange since she entered middle school though. Especially after that computer in the living room went into his room. They fought over it almost daily.

As a matter of fact, they had such a big fight right before the start of school that she just didn’t even go to his room as a result. Fine! I won’t use the computer, you greedy idiot! But…

‘I want to decorate my Cyworld profile… ’

The one who got the short end of the stick was Bada. Looking at her friends decorate their avatars so elegantly made her want to do it, too. Especially at times when her friends were showing off their profile. It felt like she could do it better. That was why she got the snacks to begin with. Maybe she could use the computer with this as a bribe?

The first thing she did after coming back home was to knock on Maru’s door.

“Big brother.”

Normally, she would just refer to him with a ‘hey’. The door opened. She had expected him to be on the computer as always, but surprisingly enough he was looking at a few books on the floor. They weren’t even comic books, either.

“What’s up?” Maru asked.

“No, well… Can I use the computer?”

Just as she was about to hand him the bribe,

“Use it.”

“What?”

Just like that? Bada looked up at Maru with a confused look.

“Use it.”

“Really?”

“What, you think I’d joke about something like this? Did you have dinner, by the way?”

“Not yet.”

“Have some food first. Mom made kimchi jjigae (stew?).”

“But mom isn’t here?”

“Ah, she’s visiting the neighbors. Give me a second.”

Bada turned around as Maru left the room to keep the snack hidden behind her back. Maru walked into the kitchen. Soon, Bada could hear dishes clanking against each other and the stove being turned on. She peeked over to see what was going on.

“You’re making me dinner?”

“You’re not going to eat otherwise. You can have that bag of chips after your meal. Rice won’t be as tasty if you have chips beforehand.”

Maru was setting the table with rice, soup, and a few side dishes for her. What was up with him? This never happened. Han Maru was the type of person to steal all your food if given the chance. Bada sat down on the table with a confused look.

“Put the dishes in the sink after you finish. I’ll do the dishes.”

Maru headed to the living room and turned the TV on. Was he really letting her use the computer? Well then, she had no time to waste, did she? Bada devoured the food in front of her as quickly as possible. She couldn’t have her older brother changing his mind in the meantime. When she finished up, she noticed Maru getting up to do the dishes.

‘What the heck… ’ looking at him being nice was just bizarre.

Bada scanned her brother with narrowed eyes. Did he break something of hers? She stepped into her room to check. Nope, nothing. What was wrong with him? When she stepped out, Maru handed her a plate of cut apples. “Here, dessert.”

“Ah, ok.”

“Don’t play for too long. Do your homework as well.”

“…Ok.”

This was so weird. Why was Maru acting like a dad all of the sudden? His pose as he watched the TV, all the way to how he was just looking at the news… Maru seemed more like dad than dad himself.

‘What the hell?’

It’d be way less weird if he just told her ‘nope, computer’s mine, fatty’ like usual. Bada went into Maru’s room with a strange sense of discomfort.

* * *

“Maru’s being weird,” Bada commented.

“What do you mean?”

“He gave me dinner, got me dessert, and he let me use the computer.”

Bada was talking to her mother after she returned home. It was really strange today. Her brother had to be up to something. There was no way he’d do stuff like ‘that’ otherwise.

“He’s just matured. Why don’t you do the same for a change?”

“Liar. He did something, didn’t he? Tell me.”

“Of course not.”

Mom took out 10,000 won bill from the wallet. Bada’s frown instantly turned into a smile when she saw the money.

“Allowance?”

“Yup, allowance.”

“What’s up, mom? You told me to wait when I asked for some yesterday.”

Bada shook her mom’s hand with joy. She could take sticker photos with her friends using this money. Her old photos were starting to peel off from the back of her phone, so it was high time she needed to update them.

“Maru told me to give it to you.” “Eh? Him?”

“Yup.”

Bada thought to herself as she stared down at the money in her hand.

Did this guy finally go insane?

* * *

(note, I don’t think they do it any more but back then, students had to go to school every second saturday)

Saturday. Today was the day they’d get to choose their clubs. The class was getting rowdy with all the students trying to make their last minute decisions.

“Yo, the board game club is the best. Tons of girls.”

“Hah, girls? Why look at girls when you can have fun? Let’s go to the program research club. They just game in PC bangs.”

“I gave up on the dance club. Good lord they practice so much. I don’t know about that club, man.”

The kids were trading information to find the ‘best’ club.

“Today’s menu is fish katsu with fish soup. Hah… So much fish,” Dojin sighed.

“I’ll take it if you don’t want it.”

“Buzz off. You want some peanut candy?”

“Sure.”

Like always, Maru started his day of school with a candy from Dojin. Even Daemyung from the front of the class moved back to talk with them.

“Yo, Daemyung. You want candy too?”

“Oh, sure, thanks.”

Daemyung received the candy with a smile. The two seemed a bit closer now. As it turned out, Daemyung was the type of person to smile a lot. He was still pretty sensitive to a lot of things, but time would fix all of that.

‘Good thing I decided to talk to him back then.’ Maru thought to himself.

It was a small act of kindness. It wasn’t that hard. Thanks to that little gesture, though, Daemyung found his laughter again.

“Yooo, Daemyung! Come check out what I got in the game last night!”

One of the kids entered the class with a shout. Half the kids in class were talking about World Crash.

“I got it too.”

“I got nothing. Lots of exp though. Its respawn timer was just perfect, so I just skipped dinner and hunted all night.”

“Hey Daemyung, can I ask you about a different exp farm?”

Daemyung told the other kids that he’d talk to them during lunch. Whenever the kids talked about video games, Daemyung was always at the center. His awkward self on the first day was nowhere to be seen. This was what Daemyung was like from the start.

‘Good thing I talked to him,’ Maru thought.

Maru didn’t think of himself as a person who was going to do anything amazing. He just wanted to have a leisurely school life, then fight his way up the ladder of society, find his wife again, and become a normal father. Having some fun in the process was just an added bonus.

[Please have fun this time.]

He could remember the voice of the old lady in his head.

‘Fun doesn’t necessitate a risky adventure.’

He just wanted a life that was a tiny bit more leisurely than before. That much was enough. Any more than that would be greedy, and greed is a factor in one’s downfall. He put on earphones and closed his eyes. Listening to music until the start of class didn’t seem like a bad idea.

* * *

Kang Dowook glanced at the guys talking in front of him.

‘Annoying… ’ he found himself thinking. The guy he’d been planning on toying with has found himself a friend group to be with.

It was Park Daemyung. The kid was a total servant in the making but he’s turned pretty social now.

‘God damn it.’

He needed to find someone else to do his homework now that his original target’s changed. His eyes met with Dojin’s as he was scanning the classroom.

“The hell are you looking at?” Dojin taunted.

Hah, that’s funny. That guy really doesn’t know how to stay under the radar.

“What? I can’t glance at things with my own eyes?”

“Look somewhere else. I don’t like being stared at by people like you.” “Hah, look at you, trying to act cool.”

“Stare elsewhere. No, I’ll just look away for you.”

Dojin turned away with a click of his tongue. Dowook wanted to slap the idiot’s head, but he decided to be the bigger man. He didn’t want to fight over something like this. Plus, with all the insane teachers at this school… Fighting definitely wasn’t worth it.

There was a story he’s heard from a senior. One of the ELEN kids and the MECH kids got in a fight once, but after they were completely silent after being dragged off to the auditorium. Apparently the teacher had beat both of them to a pulp with a PVC pipe. That pretty much turned Dowook away from fighting for good.

‘Even the homeroom teacher doesn’t seem normal at all.’

He didn’t come to an engineering school to push his life into the dumpster. He was planning on going to college. He tried to straighten himself up a little and started studying a little bit. He had no plans of causing any big trouble until he graduated.

‘I need a servant for that, though.’

He couldn’t just study for 3 straight years though. That was insane! He needed a ‘bestie’ to help him get by.

“Yo, Dowook, want to smoke a cig?”

Dowook raised his head. Ah, people who were kind of like him. One of them pulled out a Korean brand of cigarettes just enough for him to see it.

“Ah… damn it, you have no taste at all,” he found himself muttering.

“Fuck off. You want one or not?”

“Of course I do. Where are we going, though?”

“One of the seniors told me that the auditorium on the fifth floor is open today. We can smoke from the window there.”

“Oh, sounds nice.”

“Leggo. You got a lighter on you?”

“Course I do.”

Dowook stood up with the other kids. The fish katsu was a heavy meal for his stomach anyway. Having a smoke would make him feel better.

But right as he walked past the door, the pack of cigs fell from Dowook’s hands. It bounced off the floor and landed right next to the guy listening to music. The guy reached down and grabbed the pack. Dowook remembered him. Maru. One of the guys he’s never talked to, but was annoying regardless.

The dude felt like one of ‘those’ kids. You know, the type that tried to look like a goody two-shoes in front of the teachers. But.

“Why would you do something that’s bad for your health?” was about the only thing that came out of his mouth when he returned it. He closed his eyes again to focus on the music again afterwards. Well, that was surprising. Dowook thought for sure that the guy was going to snitch. Then maybe…

“You want to smoke too?” he tried asking.

“Sorry, I’ve quit smoking for a long time.”

“…What?”

“It’s nothing. You guys should stop too though. You’ll regret it, I swear. Especially with your daughter… Hmph! It’s nothing.”

Daughter? What daughter? What the hell was this guy saying?

“Dude, let’s go. We don’t want class to start before we smoke.”

His friends were hurrying him from the back. Dowook looked at the clock. Ah, 15 minutes before 1 o’clock.

“Let’s go,” he said.

* * *

“God, I hate even looking at the guy,” Dojin complained.

Maru looked at him quietly. From an outsider’s perspective, Dojin and Dowook looked like they’d get along very well. They both looked like delinquents. Dojin already explained about his delinquency in middle school. But at one point, his actions started to embarrass him. He’s regretted it quite a bit.

“Is that so, Mr. Retired Delinquent?”

“Dude, buzz off. I’ve been off that train for a while now. I’m a good guy.”

“Why’d you get off, by the way?”

“Me? Because it was embarrassing.”

“No, I mean, why did you think it was embarrassing?”

“Ah, there was a guy I used to bully. Hey, I’m friends with that guy now, so quit staring at me like that. Anyway, he’s told me during the second grade of middle school… that what I was doing was really immature. He was the type that kept his cool even as he was getting bullied. That’s when I started thinking: what if I was in that guy’s position? I wouldn’t even be as half as confident as him. I stopped right on that day. My actions started to feel childish since then.”

“Sounds like a great guy.”

“He really was. And the thing is, the dude was amazingly good at studying. Damn it, I should’ve studied when he told me to. I just spent my time smoking cigarettes trying to look cool while… Damn it, this is so embarrassing.”

Dojin finished his story with a smile. Friends often influenced each other greatly. Maru took a look at Daemyung. High school was a time when kids finally entered that border between maturity and immaturity. In that sense, friends were more important than family during this time. A single word from a friend could change your entire life. Daemyung smiled back at him. Ah, this was good.

‘Living life again… Maybe it’s not just me living once again, it’s us living once again.’

A good person. Thinking of that word made him smile.

“The hell you smiling for?” he heard Dojin say.

Chapter 11

Yoonjung looked at the door of the club room with excitement.

“Oh my gosh, we’re finally getting juniors. I’m so nervous…”

“Stay still, would you?” Danmi said.

But Yoonjung knew better than anyone that Danmi was just as nervous as her. Look, the girl’s legs were trembling already.

“12 people… Not as much as we need, but still really good.”

“We can have plays with more than ten people!”

“If we can. I bet there are a few kids who will volunteer to be stage managers. You have to think about that too.” Joonghyuk butted in.

Yoonjung stuck out her lips in annoyance. Joonghyuk concerned himself with reality too much. Always had to be the logical one of the group. Not that it wasn’t useful.

“Come on, have some hope. They might all want to be actors,” Yoonjung said.

“Yeah, that’d be nice,” Joonghyuk response was voiced as he moved the chamber pot to the corner. It was something the club used 6 years ago. Speaking of which…

“I wonder if the costumes we use now would one day be treated like dirt by our juniors?”

“It probably will.”

“That sucks.”

“Hey, we still got two years until we graduate.” Yoonjung booed Joonghyuk from the back as she said this. It was a habit she had from a young age. All the adults told her to stop making such crude noises with her mouth, but she was never able to get rid of the habit.

“They’re coming soon.” Danmi said, looking at her wristwatch.

Yoonjung looked at the door impatiently. Ten minutes left. Ten minutes until the first years come.

* * *

“You open it.”

“N-no.”

“You scared, bro?”

“No, that’s not it, but…”

“Just open it, then.”

“W-why don’t you open it?”

“Don’t wanna.”

“………”

Maru stepped forward after watching his friends argue with each other for a second. He grabbed the door handle. The grip coated with stainless steel was worn down from years of use. When he turned it, the door opened with a creak.

“Almost everyone’s here. Let’s begin.”

The voice belonged to Minsung. The acorn head’s. The second years isolated themselves on the left side of the room. Maru headed over to the group of the first years for now.

“Welcome. I’ll be a bit more upfront now that you’re all club members now. There’s something we need to do first. Everyone, look behind you.”

The first years turned around. There was a whiteboard Maru hadn’t seen before. On the top were the names of the second years. ‘Yoonjung Lee’ in particular was written in blue, with the word ‘Club prez!’ right next to it.

“Please write your names one by one there. Along with your majors.” Minsung continued.

The big guy who seemed pretty quiet was the first to move. He took the cap of the marker off and started writing. The two girls wrote their names as well afterwards.

Geunseok Hong, Yurim Lee, Soyeon Kim.

The three of them were all in design. Soyeon threw her marker at Maru, urging he and his friends to follow suit.

“Maru?”

He heard one of them say behind him. He was used to the reaction. Even after graduating, people were often surprised by his name when he met new people. It used to give him stress when he was young, but he looked at his name more positively when he grew older. Having a memorable name in life was a massive plus.

“We introduced ourselves yesterday, so we won’t do it again. You’ll realize that none of us are that bad as seniors or anything, so let’s have fun together, ok? Of course, we’ll still point out things you do wrong. We aren’t here to just have fun.”

Joonghyuk’s words lowered the mood of the room considerably.

“Yo, dude, why do you have to make everything sound so scary? Let’s just hear those introductions from our juniors.”

Minsung clapped, and pointed at Geunseok from one end of the line of the first years.

“You’re tall. Pretty big, too. Name is… Hong Geunseok. Right, you go first. Name, reason for coming here, and your goals. You can say more if you’d like.”

Minsung sat down with a smile.

“Hello, I’m a first year in design, Hong Geunseok. I came to this school because I wanted to come to this club. I’d like to perform a great play in the future with all of you. My first goal is to perform a play in the Seoul Arts Center.”

Geunseok spoke with a firm tone. Almost as if he were assured everything he mentioned would be realized. Instead of arrogance, Maru could feel confidence from the boy’s voice. What a guy. He looked different from the start. To think he had dreams like that…

“Hold up, Geunseok. You came to an engineering school because of the acting club?”

“Yes.”

“For real now?”

“Yes.”

“Why? Other schools have acting clubs too.”

“I wanted to experience the acting club my brother was in.”

“Brother?”

“Yes.”

Yoonjung thought for a second before heading off to the cabinet. The photo books in it contained all of the club’s history.

“I have to ask. Who was he?” She seemed to be the type that just couldn’t hold back her curiosity. She actually seemed visibly more excited than before. More lively. That’s the word. Lively.

“He’s Hong Geunsoo, from the first generation of the club.”

“…I knew it.”

The club became lively at the name. It was understandable. Hell, even Maru knew the name. He was the guy who performed monologues in the Marronnier Park was in turn scouted by a movie director. Even in his first role, he got decent reviews, and even managed to get an award for it. He primarily worked with musicals afterwards.

‘Amazing guy.’

He could remember the time when he quit his old job to become a bus driver. Hong Geunsoo’s movie hit more than 12 million admissions. He specifically remembered thinking ‘wow, that guy’s an amazing actor’ while he was driving.

“I saw him in Daehak-ro a while back. He was performing in the streets.”

“Right. I heard he was going to be in a movie by an independent director?”

“Really? Wow, a family of actors, huh?”

The second years made faces of anticipation. Even the girls next to Geunseok were glancing at him excitedly.

“Ah, there goes the main role,” Dojin muttered to himself. Daemyung was looking at Geunseok with an envious face.

The club room became pretty energetic. This was pretty good, Maru thought. At least the boy would know a lot about acting. They should be able to do pretty well as long as Geunseok is willing to teach them a bit. Right then, the door opened to let in two more people.

“I’m so sorry!”

“Sorry!”

A boy and a girl jumped into a scene. Maru let out a small ‘oh’ of surprise. The boy was pretty handsome, and the girl had big, beautiful eyes on her. Both of them looked mature.

‘They look nice.’

The second years welcomed them with an applause.

“No worries. Ah, you guys haven’t seen them before, have you? They submitted their forms just yesterday. Well, now that you’re here, why don’t you introduce yourselves?”

The boy bowed curtly at the group.

“Nice to meet you! I’m Park Taejoon, first year in electrical engineering.”

“Hello! I’m Kim Iseul, first year in computers.”

Minsung pointed at the board, gesturing the two to write their names. Daemyung gave them the markers.

“Thanks.”

Iseul took the marker from Daemyung with a smile, who turned back with an embarrassed look. By the time the two wrote their name, the whiteboard was full of names.

“Step forward, Ms. President.”

Yoonjung stepped out with a little cough.

“The twelve of us will work for a year in this club now. It’ll be hard, but let’s make sure to create a decent play during this time! We’ll be talking about basic stuff about the club during this time. We’ll also exchange contact info. Ah, by the way. Dating is forbidden in the club. Got it?”

Yoonjung said with a wink. Maru saw Dojin’s face completely fall apart right then and there.

“…That was a lie! Dating is welcomed as long as you aren’t endangering the club! But if something bad does happen… Well, you should know, right?”

Yoonjung started laughing with an evil look. What a strange character she was. Danmi stood up and grabbed the girl’s shoulders roughly.

“Why can’t you act more like a senior?”

“Whaat?”

“Ugh.”

Danmi stepped forward and took out her phone.

“Anyone who doesn’t have a phone here?”

No one stepped up.

“Good. Take them out, then.”

The first years all took out their phones. Flip phones sliding phones, what have you. Maru took out his phone as well.

“We’ll give our phone numbers, so be sure to save it. The club would gather at random times every once in a while. Especially when the opening night of the play comes near. Understood?”

“Yes!”

“Alright then, Yoonjung first.”

The second years said their names and phone numbers one by one.

“Now then, starting from Geunseok, say your name and phone numbers as well. Be sure to save it, too. We’ll all have to be friends from now on, if we’re going to get together for a full year,” Danmi said.

Geunseok started speaking pretty much immediately. His voice had depth to it. The type that just stuck to your ears like glue. Was this what talent entails for an actor? Eventually, they managed to finish off at Iseul.

“Well, now that that’s over, why don’t we just talk for a bit? Tell us about your life or something. Hold on, I’ll go get some snacks at a market.”

“I’ll go!” Dojin shouted. Danmi waved him off with a smile.

“You’re good. We’ll be making you do plenty of work in the future. Just enjoy yourselves for now. Alright?”

Danmi walked out with Yoonjung. The door closed shut with a creak. And.

“Now then, juniors.”

Minsung’s expression changed completely. The boy picked up a PVC pipe with a menacing look, silencing the room.

‘Called it,’ Maru thought. It was almost weird that the seniors weren’t trying to put them in their place.

“I’ll tell you this now, but we really do want to get along with you. I love smiling. Alright? But sometimes, other things are needed too.”

He banged the PVC pipe on the wall, making the other kids flinch.

“This isn’t just for show, alright? I’ll hit people. Regardless of gender.”

The first years looked at each other in fear. Except Maru. He was realizing more than ever before how important experience was. This was child’s play compared to being threatened in an actual company.

It was pretty cute, actually. He could feel how much the boy cared for the club. The boy clearly didn’t grab that pipe to feel power. Actually, Maru could see the boy’s hands trembling just a little bit. Probably his first time grabbing it after learning it from his seniors.

Maru turned to look at Joonghyuk, who was also trying to look as calm as possible. It was easy to tell how nervous he was, though.

“You get it?” Minsung said.

“Yes!”

“Good.”

Minsung threw away the pipe. He looked a little more relieved now.

“Seriously, let’s have a good time from now on. This is a good club. We’ll make lots of great memories here, depending on how hard you work. I’ll be hard at work with Joonghyuk as a part of the staff, so we won’t spend as much time with you. But the female seniors will, so treat them well, alright?”

“Yes.”

He was being honest. Maru could easily see how much Minsung cared for the club. The frowns on the first years slowly started to go away as they realized the same thing.

“Yoonjung’s pretty strange, though. You’ll just have to get used to that.”

Pft.

Joonghyuk ended up letting out a small laugh from the back. The first years weren’t able to laugh, though. Well, all except one.

“Heh,” Maru let out. He looked away when he noticed so many people looking at him.

“Maru! I like you. People should smile.”

Minsung slapped Maru’s shoulder lightly with a smile. This was probably what he was like from the start. He’s just not fit for intimidating at people with a pipe in hand. If something bad really does happen…

Maru looked at Joonghyuk. That guy would most likely be the one to swing that pipe.

“We’re here!”

Yoonjung and Danmi entered the club room, diffusing the awkward air completely. Sweet soda and delicious chips replaced it, bringing about a pretty happy ending to their first meeting.

Chapter 12

The first play Maru has ever experienced was a comedy about a troubled family. He bought the ticket during his college years, and sat down with his friends at a small theater.

The plot appeared complicated when he was watching it, but it turned out to be rather simple. The alcoholic father wasn’t actually an alcoholic, and the mother who always shouted was actually a big coward. The son who always swore in the house was actually a gentle soul who volunteered, and the daughter who always said she hated her family actually loved her family. The play ended with the family all coming to a mutual understanding with each other.

Being able to see each and every expression, breathing, and beads of sweat from all the actors came as a pretty big shock to Maru at the time. After that day, Maru’s watched plays pretty frequently. The reason why he decided to be a road manager to begin with was because he liked plays.

“Plays, huh,” he said, looking down at his desk.

There was a time when he wanted to become an actor. For a very short while, he’s admired actors on the stage very much. They looked like they were content with their lives. To Maru, who was struggling to find jobs at the time, they couldn’t have looked cooler.

Of course, he gave up upon realization the lives they led off the stage.

“Hey, you,” Dojin said.

It was right before the start of the 4th class. The class before lunch.

“You look really absent minded sometimes.”

“It’s not that I look absent minded. I AM absent minded. I’m sleepy.”

“No, tell me for real now. Did you…”

[Masturbate all night?]

A word bubble popped up above Dojin’s head, making Maru smile a little in surprise.

““The hell are you laughing for?”

““Because I masturbated. Why do you ask?”

“What?”

Dojin frowned in confusion.

“By the way, did you get the message?” Maru changed the topic. Thank goodness Dojin wasn’t the inquisitive type.

“About us getting together after school?”

“Yeah.”

“Course I did. Why are we getting together, though?”

“Who knows.”

Maru thought about it some more during the class, but he didn’t really get an answer. Eventually, the class ended, and the announcement for first years to go to the cafeteria played. They were running down the corridors as if a war broke out.

“Damn, look at them run,” Dojin said. He and Maru were the only ones left in class.

Eating slowly became a habit for them. There was one more person, actually. Daemyung slowly crept up to join them.

“Ah, I’m kind of scared,” Daemyung said, unexpectedly.

“What for?” Dojin asked.

“I’m worried about what the seniors might do.”

“You worry too much.”

“But you saw before, didn’t you? That pipe.”

“That was pretty scary.”

“Do you think they’d really hit us?”

“No way.”

Maru butted into the conversation.

“Joonghyuk might hit us for real, though.”

“That doesn’t sound surprising.”

Dojin and Daemyung nodded in agreement.

“Ah, I asked a third year about the acting club a few days ago, right?” Dojin said, motioning the other two closer. “Apparently something happened last winter. That’s why all the third years and most of the second years left.”

“Really? What kind of an accident? Did they fight…?”

“I don’t know the specifics. The senior didn’t know much about it either.”

“Accident, huh.”

Maru thought of a few of the possibilities. First, there was some trouble caused by two students dating. But this school didn’t care much about romance. Even the teachers mentioned students dating each other every once in a while. Dating was fine as long as it didn’t affect grades. Even Yoonjung was fine with it, unless if there was trouble with dating in the club. Then… a fight? Maybe. Or an incident might have happened.

“Should we ask?”

“When it’s time.”

“Might be better not to…”

The three of them said as they looked out the window.

* * *

““You’re all here.”

“The club didn’t meet in the club room on the fourth floor, but in the auditorium in the fifth. There were costumes and props strewn all over the place.

“‘The club room would become incredibly cramped if the props all went into the room,’ Maru realized. The club room wasn’t as big as he thought it was. With those props back in there… it might not even be able to fit all 12 of them?

“You can tell why we called you here, right? Ta-da!”

Yoonjung pointed at the costumes with an excited look, to which Geunseok responded with a question.

“Are we moving all of these to the club room?”

“Yes, but we’re going to have to sort them out first. They piled up since we never threw away any of the props. They’re all precious, but we’ll have to get rid of stuff we don’t need.” Yoonjung spoke in a sad voice. She wanted to keep all of them.

“How do we need to sort them?” Maru asked.

“Mmm, well, if you feel like you need it, put it on the left. If you feel like you won’t, put it on the right.”

“………”

“………”

There was a short moment of silence. Man, Yoonjung. You aren’t very motivated about this at all, are you? Probably got forced to do it by someone else. And that someone else probably was…

“Just sort it according to how damaged it is. If clothes have big patches on them, put it on the right. For props, put it on the right if it’s too damaged to use. Got it?” Joonghyuk said.

Knew it, had to be that guy.

“Of course old things would get damaged. But they all have memories, if we throw them away…” Yoonjung stepped forward only to be ignored by Joonghyuk.

He felt vastly different compared to his anxious self from when he introduced the club. This was probably what he was usually like. Well…

“Hey, hey! Let’s not throw that away, please?”

Some of them looked the same no matter in what context. Especially Yoonjung, with her traditional dress in hand.

Joonhyuk was absolutely merciless, though. The dress flew away to the right. It was understandable. The thing was almost reduced to little scraps of fabric.

“Boo!” Yoonjung pouted right from the back.

Joonghyuk sighed in embarrassment before turning to the first years.

“Don’t pay attention to the president. If you’re not unsure, put it in the middle. We’ll take care of those.”

He was pretty efficient about it. The type of student that teachers would like.

“Now then! Let’s finish this quickly and go home!”

The first years got to work. Maru and his friends decided to stick with the props for now. There were stuff from scissors, spoons, and even some mysterious iron sticks in the pile. Just massive amounts of iron that you could sell for quite a profit to the waste collectors.

“Oh lord, there’s a lot.” Dojin said.

Even Daemyung pulled out a fireplace scraper going ‘hey, I saw this at grandma’s place’. Just what kind of plays were they doing? There were phones and even various armbands as well. How old were these props? It kind of made sense that Yoonjung wouldn’t want to throw any of these props away. Even Maru could feel the memories in each of them.

Maru turned back. He could see Joonghyuk looking at the pile in the middle hesitantly. He was pretty reluctant, too, from the looks of it. He looked at a particular drawing for a while before putting it to the left.

“Oh, yeah!” Yoonjung jumped up in joy.

Cute. She looked so pure and innocent.

‘…Hey, Maru. You’re a high schooler too. Come on man.’

His perspective kept switching over to his forty five year old self. That wouldn’t do. He couldn’t look at these people with the perspective of an adult. He needed to be a high schooler just like them.

“Good work!”

“Here, get some food in yourselves.”

Minsung and Danmi walked into the room with a few choco pies and drinks. Taesik, the advising teacher, walked in as well.

“Work hard. Don’t stay too late though, alright? If it does take too long, just call me. I’ll tell security.”

The teacher disappeared promptly. It looked like he was the one who bought the snacks as well. Speaking of which, there was a question Maru had intended to ask. He turned to Danmi.

“I heard the teacher was the one who made the club?”

“Ah, yeah, that’s right. He gathered people to start the club in the beginning. He came up with the name ‘Blue Sky’ as well. He’s kind of like our super senior?”

“I see.”

“He’s a good person.”

Danmi offered him some more soda, which Maru received with a bow. After a short break of eating, the club got back to work.

“Uh… Senior.”

Someone raised their hands from the costume section. It was the chubby girl. She had a troubled look on her face. Kim Soyeon, was it? Yurim, the girl with the brown hair next to Soyeon, wore the same look on her face as well. Maru stood up to take a look. He could see the seniors make their way over, their faces turning similarly troubled.

“Who the hell did this?!” Yoonjung ended up shouting.

Maru could visibly see a vein pop up on her forehead. He made the way over as well along with the other first years.

There was a line of costumes on the floor. All pretty clean. Wait, there was a small black spot in every one of them. Maru lowered his head a bit to look closer at it.

“It’s cigarettes.” Dojin said. The club turned to him with a questioning look.

“Here, here, and here. Dojin must be right. I think someone burned a hole with cigarettes in each one of them.”

Joonghyuk took one of the costumes and smelled it carefully.

“I can smell it. It’s pretty faint, though.”

The second years only looked more distraught by this. Maru thought of the date for a second. It was… Monday. He’s heard that the seniors moved all this on Friday.

“Were the costumes like this on friday, by any chance?” he asked.

“Of course not. They were all fine. These two dresses were in pristine condition since they were so expensive.”

“So it happened some time from Saturday till now.”

“Can’t be,” Joonghyuk shook his head. “We locked the doors of the auditorium right after Saturday. I unlocked it myself just now.”

“So it happened from Friday to Saturday.”

“That’s right.”

“There’s no way teachers would smoke here.”

““So it has to be students. Probably third years.”

“Right then, Maru got a small flashback. He remembered seeing Dowook and his friends walk out together with cigarettes in hand. Were they talking about the auditorium at the time? Joonghyuk seemed to have noticed a change in Maru’s complexion.

“Do you know something?”

Maru shook his head. He didn’t want to point fingers just yet.

“No, I was just thinking about who might’ve done something like this.”

“Hah… Don’t tell others about this just yet, ok? The acting club’s reputation has already taken a hit from the past. This would hurt us more than it would help if we told others about this. So… just keep it a secret for now.”

Joonghyuk organized the situation pretty fast. Why wasn’t this guy the president again?

“We’ll put the costumes with the holes over here. We can just fix them. Let’s get back to work, guys. We have to finish this.”

“Yes!”

The auditorium was filled with sounds of props being moved again.

Chapter 13

“That was too much, wasn’t it?”

Daemyung looked pretty hurt, too. Almost as if his own stuff was damaged.

“Do you know anything, Maru?” Dojin asked.

“Me? Not yet.”

“Not yet?”

Maru just waved him away. Kang Dowook… The boy was suspicious for sure. Couldn’t judge a person just based on their looks though. Maru’s seen too many people whose lives were ruined because of their looks in the past.

The classes ended at 5 o’clock, but it was well past 6 now. Their class was completely empty, save for a few teachers who swung by every once in a while.

“I noticed a few third years staying after school to keep studying till night.”

“They aren’t all playing around. I heard they were trying to get jobs or go to college?” Daemyung responded, looking at the ceiling.

He could see a few classes still open when they came out of the auditorium. Probably a gathering of students studying for college entrance exams.

“Here I thought everyone would be playing in an engineering school,” Dojin said.

“Third years probably feel different. I mean, I want to go to college too.”

“Where do you want to go?”

“Somewhere in Seoul for now.”

“Damn, you good at studying?”

Maru opened the class door as he overheard the two talk with each other. Electrical Engineering, class B. He could see the field outside through the window. There was someone playing basketball way over in the corner.

“Let’s go.”

Maru picked up his bag and walked out, his two friends in tow. The three split up in front of the restaurant near school.

Maru stopped for a second during his walk. He changed his destination to go to the left side of the school. Eventually, he came up in front of a playground next to school. One that’s almost been abandoned after years of no use.

He could see several red dots floating in the air. Cigarettes. From the delinquents around town. Some of them were smoking in groups, and others were smoking by themselves. Occasionally teachers came by, but the kids were never caught. Even Maru’s had memories of smoking here in the past. He threw it away pretty much immediately, though. Tasted awful to his tongue.

Maru parked his bike and walked up. Most of the kids were wearing casual clothes. Students from his school, no doubt. Some kids were wearing school uniforms, but those were all girls. Presumably from the Dongsung Global School. That school was pretty close with Maru’s, so they visited each others in festivals quite a bit. The delinquents probably made friends with each other then.

He looked around to find Dowook. Ah, there he was. In the corner with his class friends. There was an unfamiliar face there as well. Probably from a different school? Whatever. He just wanted to talk with Dowook for now. Maru walked over to where Dowook was.

“Dowook.”

“…What?”

The boy seemed to be surprised by Maru. He passed his cigarette to his friend.

“I had something I wanted to ask you.”

“Ask me?”

“Yeah.”

“What is it?”

“You smoked in the auditorium last Saturday, right?”

“Saturday? Why?”

Dowook was looking at Maru with a smirk. So he did smoke.

‘Was I always this calm? I feel like I can read their expressions better too,’ Maru realized.

He was pretty impatient in his previous life. Especially whenever he saw injustice. He was the type of person that tried to help others as much as he could. That’s why he was always in trouble with his boss and never had employees who truly wanted to talk with him. That was why he decided to become a bus driver in the first place.

Even then, he wasn’t this brave in his past life. He wouldn’t walk into a den full of delinquents without any sense of fear.

‘Probably has something to do with age.’

Let’s just ignore that for now.

“Did you see clothes and stuff when you were smoking there?”

“No, why are you asking me this? Are you going to snitch?”

“Do you really think I’m here to do that? Seriously?”

Dowook spit on the ground before walking up to Maru.

“Fucking hell, you’re really getting on my nerves.” “That sounds like a personal problem, bud. Just tell me. Did you see the stuff on the fifth floor when you were smoking?”

“Yeah. I did. So what?”

Dowook’s face was getting closer. The smell of cigs was… man, was it strong.

“Just asking out of curiosity…”

Maru looked straight back at Dowook’s eyes. The boy wasn’t flinching at all.

“Did you burn holes in the clothes there?”

That was all he needed to say. Dowook blinked in confusion for a second, and.

[The hell is this guy saying? What holes?]

A word bubble floated above his head. That confirms it. Dowook didn’t have anything to do with the clothes. Joonghyuk might be right, it was probably done by the third years.

“What kind of a stupid-” Dowook muttered. Maru decided to cut him off there.

“Sorry for taking your time. Keep smoking. Don’t smoke too much though, or you’ll suffer for it.”

“W-what?”

“See ya tomorrow.”

At least Dowook wasn’t the type to damage other people’s property. Then again, most delinquents at around this age only wanted to look cool. Though… there were some real degenerates out there, too. Maru walked back to his bicycle outside.

* * *

Dowook glared at Maru from the back for a second before returning to his friends.

“What the hell did that guy come here for?” his friends asked.

“No idea. He just provoked me for no reason.”

“What did he say?”

“Something about burning holes in the clothes or something?”

“Ah! What, that was it?”

One of his friends seemed to know something about it. The guy had a beanie on to fuel the appeal, but that just made the dude look like some sort of a street merchant in the slums.

“What, you know something about it?”

“You got out after just one cig, right? Saying you needed to use the restroom.”

“Sure.”

“We were gonna go out as well, and then we noticed the costumes in the corner. We looked around a little, and then…”

He looked at his friend with a grin. The group of four collectively started laughing. Dowook was able to get what happened pretty easily from there on.

“So you burned holes in it?”

“Ey, it wouldn’t look good without em.”

“For sure.”

His friends took another pull from the cigarettes before shouting towards Maru.

“Hey! Han Maru! We did that!”

He could see Maru turn back to look at them. Dowook looked at his friends confusedly. Why the hell was this dumbass saying this stuff right now? His friend smiled back at him awkwardly.

“What? It’s fun, isn’t it?”

“Fun my ass. Christ, you fucking idiot.”

“…What the fuck? Why would you call me a fucking idiot for that? What, you scared?”

Scared? Dowook threw his cigarette down on the ground. He felt like shit. He’s hung out with these people for around a week now… The only reason why he talked with them to begin with was because of the free cigarettes. Because he’d look stupid if he wasn’t in a group.

“What the hell did you say?”

“What, wouldn’t you be mad if you got called a fucking idiot?”

The guy in the beanie was getting noticeably mad now. The three others who were laughing along looked between the two before crawling over to the beanie dude.

“Hah, seriously.”

Dowook suppressed his anger some more. He didn’t want to start a fight here. He’s decided that from the start. He would study his ass off and go to a good college. That was his goal for high school.

“You fucking scared?” beanie smiled at him.

It was really getting hard for Dowook to stifle his anger now.

“Hey, hey, guys, let’s stop here.”

“Calm down, Dowook.”

“Yeah, Dowook, what are you getting mad for? Hey, why don’t we just go to the PC Bang?”

The three of them calmed the beanie dude down. All the while using subtle language to put down Dowook a bit. The beanie guy split on the ground saying ‘I’m not mad, that guy’s just overreacting’. Wow. That was it. Dowook’s vision tunneled right onto that beanie dude’s chin. If he just punched right there, the guy would be down. Yeah, just one hit. He remembered that the beanie dude’s family was pretty rich, but whatever. Beating his stupid ass came first. But right as he pulled back his shoulders to punch…

“You guys did this?”

A voice came from behind him. It was Maru. How did he not notice the dude walking towards them till now? The other guys were all aware of it, though.

“I thought it was trash. Right guys?” the beanie guy said. His friends smiled twistedly with him.

“Why’d you do it? To someone else’s stuff?”

“Because I thought it was trash. What, are you deaf?”

The beanie stepped forward. Dowook tried to step forward as well, but Maru grabbed onto his shoulder.

“Is that so.” Maru said.

Dowook tried to escape Maru’s grasp, but it was more firm than he first thought. Maru dragged Dowook all the way back to his bike. At this point, Dowook wasn’t able to even say anything. This was absolutely ridiculous to him.

“So you didn’t know.” Maru asked.

“What?”

“That they burned holes in the costume.”

“Does it matter?”

“It matters. In any case, you didn’t do it.”

“Hey!”

Dowook shouted at Maru. The guy was ignoring him way too much. But just as he was about to shout at the dude, he got cut off.

“You should try to make better friends. High school friends last forever, you know? Good job on being patient back there, by the way. I saw your shoulder twitch several times. I probably would’ve punched him if I were in your shoes as well.”

“Fucking no, just liste-”

“You were very mature back there. People who are patient in fights are the real adults. I’ll see you tomorrow. It’s cold out, so be careful on the way back.”

Dowook stared at Maru for a second as the other boy biked away.

“Hah.”

He couldn’t even say anything. What kind of a guy…

“Fucking!”

He kicked a pebble right in front of him and walked out. He was just going to go home. No point in going back to his ‘friends’ right now. And…

“Why the hell doesn’t that guy listen…”

Ah! So annoying!

The wind was cold, but he was feeling like his insides were on fire. In the end, Dowook decided to buy some ice cream for himself at the supermarket.

* * *

Maru thought to himself a little after he came back home. How was he going to deal with this? He could tell the teacher, first off. Taesik would only punish the kids.

‘But I’m a high schooler.’

High schoolers had their own set of rules. It was no good getting the adults involved in this. Especially not as a first year. Plus… Joonghyuk didn’t want to make a big deal out of this to begin with.

“The reputation of the club is bad… huh.”

If things get really bad, the acting club would take all the blame for it. Teachers were a pass for now. What should he do, then?

“Should I cover it up?”

There were a total of five articles of clothes. Some of them were dresses which were harder to fix, but they could be covered up by some fabric. What then? Should he ignore it? Or should he tell someone about it?

Ignoring it would just be far easier for him. But he didn’t really want to. Right then, he heard a knock on his room. Probably his sister. Ah, so it was. He could see her face peeking in from the door.

“Can I use the computer?”

Same request as always, too.

“Go for it.”

“…Really?”

“What, do I really need to repeat that for you? Just use it.”

“Don’t you play video games?”

“I don’t.”

Right then, his sister looked at him like she was looking at some alien creature.

“What, you don’t want to play?” Maru asked.

“I do!”

Maru walked out into the living room with a shake of his head.

Chapter 14

Maru’s mother, Lee Sunji, woke up in her bed in surprise. She reached out for the TV remote. When she pressed the on button, the TV sprang to life with a beep.

“What do I do…”

7:50AM. Bada was fine since she could walk to school in ten minutes, but Maru…

“Why didn’t the alarm go off?”

Maru was going to be so mad at her. When she made her way out of the room, though, she was greeted with Maru doing the dishes.

“M-Maru?”

“You’re up, mom? I made breakfast right here for you, so have some after you dress up.”

Maru pointed at the fried rice on the plate. Sunji could only nod in confusion.

“Where’s Bada?”

“She’s over there.”

Bada was watching TV in the living room while eating some apples. She noticed her mom staring at her and blinked a few times.

“You’re up, mom?”

“Y-yeah. Did you eat?”

“Mhm. Maru made breakfast for me.”

“Phew, that’s good.”

She sat down on the dining table with an exhausted look. Maru passed her a glass of warm water, earning another confused look amongst the many he’s received from her lately.

“What’s up?”

“I’m just… surprised.”

“What’s there to be surprised about? I’ll be going now. If you want soup, there’s some on the stove.”

“Soup? What soup?”

She looked at the stove with wide eyes.

“Just seaweed soup. I didn’t have time to make anything better. Just leave it if you don’t like it. I’ll eat it when I come back.”

His alarm in the morning woke him up. He went to the kitchen where his mother was nowhere in sight. Upon peeking into her room, he noticed her still snoring in her bed. His younger self would have tried to wake her up for breakfast, so he cooked the one of the few dishes he made often, the seaweed soup. It wasn’t as good as his wife’s, of course… but it was good enough. At the very least, his sister ate it without complaint.

“I’ll be going,” he said.

“…Sure. Be careful of cars,” his mom still sounded confused. Maru waved his hand at her and went outside. It was already mid-march, but the weather was still cold as ever. He could see little bits of ice form at the front window of a car parked near his house. He had been hoping for the weather to get better by now, but… the sky seemed to disagree.

Maru put on his gloves and started pedalling, music blasting in his ears. This was the path he’s taken for 3 years of his life. The path he’ll have to pass for 3 more years. After pedaling through familiar shops, trees, and people, he’s reached the school. Along the way, he noticed a few students talking while glancing his way.

“I feel so jealous of them. Casual wear and all.”

“I hate my uniform.”

Just wait a month, you guys. You’ll realize how great your uniforms are by then.

As Maru got off his bike, he came across a few students trying to get over the school fence. Ah, that waxy hair… the disciplinary teacher would punish them with a slap on the face at the very least. Maru didn’t have such a problem, of course. Having short hair made him feel like he was on the highway.

“Good morning, sir.”

“Sure.”

Maru passed by the disciplinary teacher without a hitch. He walked over to the bike stands to lock his bike in place. Right then, he felt someone approach him. Oh, it’s that road bike from the other day. He could finally meet the owner for once.

“Oh, it’s you,” realization dawned upon Maru. It was Dowook, who immediately turned towards him with a frown on his face.

“What?”

“I was just wondering who had such a nice bike. Don’t lose it, man.”

“………”

Dowook’s frown grew more intense. Maru just walked off before the boy could open his mouth. He could hear Dowook lock the bike in a violent manner behind him.

Maru took the staircase located on the right side of the building to enter his class. It was a loud scene that displayed everyone’s friendship with one another.

“You’re here?”

“Yeap.”

Dojin greeted him with a candy toss. Ah, strawberry today, huh.

“Dude, your teeth are going to rot at this rate.”

“No worries, I’m brushing three times a day.”

“You do your homework?”

“Nope, I used that time to prepare my bribery for you. Can I copy your homework?”

“…Bribery? Just this candy?”

“Want one more?” Dojin grinned at him. Maru just threw him his notebook. Daemyung approached the two of them from the first row along with his friends.

“H-hey Maru, can I see too?” he asked.

“Nope.”

Daemyung’s face fell. Man, this guy took his jokes too seriously… Maru told him he was just joking, to which the boy responded with a grin on his face. The other boys behind him were looking at Maru with desperation.

“Hey! I had to bribe him, you know!” Dojin said, raising Maru’s notebook up in the air. Maru just snatched it out and threw it at the circle of kids.

“Just don’t copy it word for word.” he said.

Man, to think such a day would come… He’s never done his homework on time during his high school years. He only did his homework by copying others or after being scolded. At this rate, he could probably aim for a B in his class. That should be good enough.

* * *

“Han Maru.”

“Yessir.”

“You got any complaints?”

“No, sir. I’m sorry, sir.”

“Let’s not do this again, alright?”

“Yessir.”

His hamstrings were burning in pain after each slap. Maru knelt on top of his desk, getting slapped by a wooden stick. Each and every hit burned uniquely. Just what kind of wood did they use for this stuff? It’s thinner than even his finger, but it hurt like hell. Even more so than getting hit in the butt by a PVC pipe. The English teacher had an apologetic look on his face, but that didn’t make the stick hurt any less.

“I’m letting you off with just this, since this is the first time. Alright?”

“Yessir.”

“And for the guys who copied Maru’s homework today, I hope you won’t be doing this kind of thing again.”

“…Yes,” said a few of the students with a dejected voice.

Maru sat down in his chair to massage his throbbing legs. Sharing his homework was fine, but he glossed over a major problem.

He was ass at English.

He solved the problems on the homework with some unorthodox grammar rules, and the other boys copied them word by word. The teacher probably felt ridiculed after coming across the eighth kid with the same mistake.

“Yo, does it hurt?” Dojin whispered to him.

“Hurts like a mother.”

“Damn though, I didn’t think he’d just check it on the spot like that. Let’s not copy each others’ English homework from now on.”

“…Oh, you’re telling me?”

“Sorry.”

The English teacher returned to his podium. Maru thought the class would resume there, but he was mistaken. The English teacher’s mouth curled down into a frown. Another one, huh.

“Kang Dowook, Lim Jichul.”

Two this time. Dowook and Jichul stood up from their seats.

“Eh? We had a guy like that?” Dojin exclaimed. He was looking at Jichul.

Maru was pretty surprised, too. He thought he knew everyone, but he hadn’t even talked with Jichul before. The boy was incredibly skinny, wore metallic glasses, coupled with long hair to Maru’s notice. Jichul probably didn’t get caught by the disciplinary teacher because he looked so normal.

“Who copied?” the teacher asked.

Maru could tell Dowook was the one who did it. The others probably thought the same. After all, Dowook’s established himself as the delinquent pretty strongly since the first day. Jichul, on the other hand… seemed to be one of the outsiders. There was no way a kid like that would ask Dowook to copy homework. Maru doubted that Dowook would’ve done his homework to begin with either.

‘No, I’m just assuming things again,’ he realized.

Maru decided to watch for now.

“I asked who copied the homework,” the teacher said. He was sounding pretty pissed now.

The students called this teacher the pink pig, Maru recalled. Not because the teacher was fat, but because the man’s cheeks always had a pinkish hue to it. Right now, those pink cheeks were starting to turn crimson. The stick in his hand was starting to tremble from how hard the man was gripping it, too.

Man, that’s gotta hurt. Maru massaged his legs again.

Right then, he saw Jichul’s hands move a little bit. He was probably planning on confessing.

“I did it.” The answer came from somewhere else, though.

“Dowook, you?”

What a surprise. Dowook raised his hand?

“Yessir.”

“Ridiculous. You guys should realize that I’m not giving you homework to keep you kids busy, I’m giving them because they’re much needed practice for you. You get it?”

“I’m sorry, sir.”

“Get up on your desk, Kang Dowook. Don’t you know how much I hate people who let others copy their homework?”

Dowook got up on the desk without another word. Maru looked at him with a surprised face. Did Dowook really let Jichul copy his homework? Nope, couldn’t be it. Jichul was standing in his spot with a very surprised look on his face as well. Then why did he confess?

‘To get hit in Jichul’s place?’

Maru looked at Dowook thoughtfully as the teacher’s stick whooshed down with brutal retribution.

* * *

English class ended. Maru let Dojin and Daemyung leave before him to keep an eye on Dowook. It felt like the boy became a loner after just a day. He used to be pretty loud between classes, but now he was just reading comic books by himself. The kids he used to hang out with were talking by themselves, with the beanie guy being at the center of the scene.

Jichul stood up from his seat to approach Dowook quietly. Maru pretended to look out the window as he eavesdropped between their conversation.

“Um…” Jichul started off.

“What?”

“Why did you…”

“What?”

“I-it’s nothing.”

Jichul walked back to his seat. Well, that ended pretty quick. Right then, Maru noticed a new development. Dowook’s old friends were walking over to Dowook’s seat. They took their place right in front and started talking with each other.

“Hah, what a bitch. I didn’t even know a kid like that existed here,” the beanie guy started.

Maru scrolled through his memories for the beanie’s name. Ah, Jung Changhoo? Was it?

Changhoo, Changhoo… Wow, just the name made him feel disgusted. Almost like he took a suckerpunch to the back of his head, and he was greeted with a smiling face when he turned back? He couldn’t remember too well why he felt disgust at the name. Definitely not for a good reason, though. Come to think of it, wasn’t there a really bad delinquent in his class in the past? He couldn’t remember so well. But a growing suspicion told Maru that it was Changhoo.

What about Dowook, then? Was he misunderstood?

“Turns out that the skinny bitch had a friend though, huh?” Changhoo continued, as he gave a quick glance at Dowook. The boy’s friends laughed along.

“Hey, don’t be like that. Even little bitches can have friends.”

“It’s a world where cripples have to stick together, after all.”

“Hey, hey, it’s rude to make fun of disabled people, bahaha.”

The group laughed for a bit before collectively turning to glare at Dowook for a second. They stood up to leave, walking towards the direction of the deli. And Dowook was left alone with his pencil, which his fury was vented upon as he gripped it to the point of snapping. Dowook’s eyes followed the group as they left through the door. Something drastic would happen at this rate. Maru walked over to Dowook.

“The hell are you doing?” Dowook asked. His eyes were still locked upon his former friends. “You… Fuck, you have something against me or something?”

Dowook stood up to glare at Maru.

[So annoying. What the hell’s up with this guy?]

Maru could practically feel the annoyance from the word bubble. It didn’t offend him or anything at all, though.

“Don’t stoop to their level,” Maru said.

“What?”

“Don’t let yourself get provoked by cheap taunts.”

Dowook’s face morphed into one of confusion. Maru just smiled a little and pat the other boy’s shoulder.

Chapter 15

Dowook stared at Maru. The dude was going to sleep with earphones on. Just what was up with him? He wasn’t picking a fight or anything, offering some sensible advice instead… But why?

“Fuck.”

He was only becoming more confused the more he thought about it. Dowook chewed on his pencil in annoyance. Not that it brought him any sort of relief.

* * *

The classes for their day were over. For the first time, the kids were allowed access to the Electrical Engineering labs in the school. First time in this life, at the very least. Maru has definitely been here in the past. Not that he could remember it. It was a place where they soldered equipment together.

“That smelled really bad. By the way, I heard that soldering apparently kills your semen?” Dojin noted as they walked out.

“Really?” Daemyung frowned. Dojin cracked a dumb joke and laughed by himself.

It was a familiar joke. Maru felt pretty sure he’s heard it in his previous life. He momentarily as he turned the corner to a different corridor with his two friends. Joonghyuk was walking towards them from the other side.

“Hello, senior.”

“Ah, back from soldering?”

The three nodded. Joonghyuk informed them of a random soldering advice before going back on his way. Maru decided to follow behind Joonghyuk after sending his friends off first. Dojin was a little confused, but didn’t question it.

“Senior,” Maru called out.

“Oh, Maru. You’re still here?”

“I have something to tell you.”

“Really?”

Joonghyuk brought Maru to the deli down on the first floor along with him. He bought hot chocolate from the vending machine for the both of them.

“Here, drink.”

“Thank you.”

They sat on the bench next to the deli. Students were running past them towards the deli from their respective classes. The foyer quickly filled with the chatter of the students. Maru could hear the occasional yells from a teacher as well.

“So? What is it?” Joonghyuk asked after the crowd thinned a little.

Maru put his cup of hot chocolate on his lap. He told Joonghyuk about his discovery from the previous day.

“So the cigarette burns were from the kids from your class?”

“Yes.”

Joonghyuk sighed as he scratched his nose in irritation. A moment of silence passed. All the kids were gone now, too. Joonghyuk gestured to go outside. Maru complied.

They could hear a few more kids outside. Maru could make out that some of the sounds were from the soccer players next to the basketball court.

“Did you tell anyone?”

“No.”

“So it’s just you and me who knows about this?”

“Yes.”

“Let’s keep it this way, then.”

“Alright.”

Maru wasn’t surprised. That was pretty much the response he was expecting. Joonghyuk seemed to find the compliance surprising, though.

“You aren’t saying anything about it?”

“I mean, this is the right thing to do.”

“Oh, is that so?”

“You told us, didn’t you? We have a bad rep. It’s better to keep quiet for such a small problem. No need to hurt the club for it.”

At least, that’s what Maru thought. He seemed to be right, thankfully, seeing from Joonghyuk’s nod. Their eyes met for a second, which prompted a word bubble to appear.

[He’s thoughtful.]

Bah, of course I am. I’ve lived decades longer than you after all.

“And Yoonjung…”

“Never thought about telling the president from the start.”

“Oh, really?”

“Felt like she’d charge into the class or something.”

“Yeah. She’d do that.”

Joonghyuk crumpled the cup in his hand. He shook his head firmly when Maru offered to throw it away.

“I didn’t recruit more members to get myself a servant,” he threw the cup away, “and stop being so stiff all the time. It’s getting on my nerves a little bit.”

“Alright.”

“Do you have any siblings?”

“A younger sister.”

“Really?”

“Why?”

“You look responsible. You act the part as well.”

That was a surprise. Maru hadn’t expected that at all. The guy made a pretty firm judgement about him from just a few days of interaction?

“You’ll help the club quite a bit, I think.”

“No way.”

“I’m not joking. Group mentality is the most important thing about an acting club. The club needs foundation. Especially as a club that requires various types of people.”

Joonghyuk appeared to be thinking about something, noted from his expression visibly turning sour.

“Um, senior?”

“Yeah?”

“Can I ask you something?”

“Go on.”

“How did Yoonjung become a president?”

Joonghyuk laughed at that. Almost as if he remembered something he forgot about.

“She wanted to do it.”

“…That’s it?”

“You’ll see what that means in the near future. She’s a weird kid.”

He seemed entertained just thinking about her. Then again, Yoonjung really was quite the character.

“Can I ask you something else?”

“Is it about the third years?”

A soccer ball flew up high in the sky with a bang. Maru could hear the kids shouting in excitement from across the field. Joonghyuk was looking up at the school building bitterly when they heard a voice calling them out from the windows.

“Yo, Maru! Ah, senior?”

It was from the second floor. Dojin and Daemyung were looking down at them from the class.

“They’re waiting for you.”

“Ah, yes.”

“We’ll talk about the third years next time. You should go.”

Joonghyuk walked back inside with a wave.

“Thank you for the hot chocolate!”

“Sure.”

Maru turned back after taking the last sip from his cup.

* * *

There are certain things in life that causes realization to dawn upon a person out of nowhere. Stuff that just shakes the person’s entire worldview to a certain degree.

This was the case for Dowook. He used to smoke, crack dumb jokes, and go to the PC bang every day. He’d go home and eat before falling asleep. The next day he’d go back to school and the process would rinse and repeat.

But all of that has changed because of one little thing.

“Let’s go.”

“Ah, yeah.”

Dowook watched as Daemyung and Dojin walked away from the windows. His eyes met with Daemyung for a second. The other boy flinched away from reflex.

‘Fucking annoying.’

It was getting on his nerves. He used to not care about looks from people like Daemyung. There was no reason for him to pay attention to losers. But…

[Turns out that skinny bitch had a friend though, huh?]

[Retard.]

He lost his friends in a single day. They all chose to stick with the beanie. Childish bastards.

But in that case… What about him? Was he childish too? The thought just popped up in his head out of nowhere. He tried to ignore it, but the question refused to go away.

Are you any different from them?

Dowook felt a foreign emotion rise up from his chest. Embarrassment. He was embarrassed. He couldn’t raise his head from the table as soon as he sat down. He couldn’t stop thinking of the times he would laugh when he hit someone. Flashbacks of the times he took money from other kids in middle school resurfaced. Those events were starting to feel incredibly embarrassing.

No, it was more than embarrassment. It felt pathetic. Why did he even put in the effort to annoy people again? This morning, he asked one of the loser kids if he could copy their homework. That much was fine. The question of ‘How are you different from the other punks?’ lingered around in his head, but he ignored it.

But when the English teacher picked up that stick, he started thinking again. Before, he would have just laughed at the thought of the loser kid being beaten to a pulp. But not this time. The doubts he faced were bothering him too much.

So he ended up lying. Not to avoid responsibility, but to take it instead. It didn’t change anything, of course. Not even after school ended.

Well, one thing was different. His legs still hurt.

He felt like thinking about the question more would just make him explode. Why was this even happening to him?

“Fuck!”

Even feeling irked about it felt childish. So what? It was his burden to live with, he guessed. Fuck. He decided he’d feel a little bit better after getting out. He’d go back home, catch up on some sleep, and he’d walk out feeling all better. Friends? He could just make new ones. Not like they were the only smokers here. But in the end, he looked back at his class. He knew. He knew that what was really childish wasn’t the question. It was him.

“Fucking hell, it’s all his fault. ”

Maru’s image floated up in his head. If it wasn’t for him, Dowook’s life wouldn’t have changed at all.

In the end, he walked out of the classroom scratching his head. It felt like coming to school tomorrow would be really scary for him.

Chapter 16

New school, new class, new friends. The students were now beginning their third Saturday of the semester. The day when they could really familiarize themselves with their club.

The school was a massive proponent for club activities. Most likely because it significantly reduced the number of juvenile crimes after clubs were established. Of course, there were rumors that the school were ignoring certain crimes to begin with, but… having the clubs for sure did bring some improvement.

Every Saturday was a half day of school, with the other half being taken over by club activities. The last Saturday of every month would be completely dedicated to clubs as well. As a matter of fact, every Saturday of every even numbered month were completely dedicated to clubs.

The class was pretty loud. They were pretty excited after hearing that tonkatsu was being served for lunch. Five minutes were left before lunch began… The Korean teacher smiled mischievously.

“You guys want lunch, right?”

“Of course we do!”

“You were good today, so I’ll let you out a few minutes early. Don’t bother the other classes though, alright?”

The teacher was an expert at dealing with kids. Maru took a look at his watch. It was three minutes before class ended. The kids started sneaking out carefully. Almost as if they were in a spy film. It felt really nice. At least, to be able to have fun doing this kind of stuff again. But just as he was about to get out of the classroom, something caught his eye.

It was Dowook. The boy was sitting dumbly by himself. No one was asking to go with him. After last Saturday, Dowook became a quiet kid. His friends all left him. He stood up quietly with his hands in his pockets.

And then his eyes met with Maru’s.

“………”

He walked out with the other kids without a word. Well, that was a surprise. Maru expected that Dowook would say something, at least.

“What’s up with that guy?” Dojin asked.

“What, you worried?”

“Of course I am. It’d be better if he was an asshole like before. It’s annoying watching him be depressed like that.”

Maru put his hand over Dojin’s shoulder and one over Daemyung as well.

“Stop it!”

Dojin shook his shoulder, but Maru didn’t let go.

“Let’s go.”

“Hah, yo Daemyung, you wanna just throw this guy away?”

“We could, yeah.”

They got along pretty well now. Maru responded by pulling the two of them towards him.

“Come on, man. We’re friends.”

“The hell, Maru? Why are you so strong?”

“Seriously.”

Dojin and Daemyung tried to escape but to no avail. Maru glanced at his own arms. He was clearly stronger than before. He remembered being strong for sure, but not to this extent. It didn’t feel like he got physically stronger, no. It just felt like he had better control of his strength. He could feel that his muscle sensitivity and reflexes were better than ever before.

‘It’s not on the level of an athlete, but it’s definitely up there.’

It probably had to do with one of the abilities he was given.

“Let’s go, we’re gonna be late.”

Maru started running. He was at the end of the corridor already. Early bird gets the worm, as they say. He was only a hundred meters out from the cafeteria.

“Run!”

“Dude! Maru! Dojin! Wait for me!”

Poor Daemyung. He was left behind. Maru and Dojin turned back to show the poor boy a sign of their unending friendship: a middle finger.

“We’ll see you later!”

“Bye bye!”

Friendships could go to hell if food was involved.

* * *

“Huff, huff. You guys are too much, seriously, huff.”

Daemyung appeared behind them, short of breath.

“Yo, we just ran ahead to save a spot for you, man. You should exercise more.”

“………”

“You should play less games. No, no. Why don’t we start playing basketball from today?”

“I can’t play basketball though.”

“It’s okay, you’ll learn quick if you’re punched enough.”

“…?!”

Daemyung stared at Dojin dumbly, who responded with a grin. This was pretty nice. Daemyung was a popular kid in class now. After all, in a boy’s class, the only things to talk about were girls, soccer, and games. Daemyung happened to be an absolute master at the game that he played, so his popularity was inevitable.

The boy’s face didn’t have any of that timidness from the beginning anymore.

“Who the hell knows? We might need a chubby actor for the play,” Maru said, shoving another spoonful of rice into his mouth.

It was a Saturday, the day the club got together again. He was pretty excited on finding out what they were going to do today.

“I wonder if we’re finally going to choose our play?” Daemyung seemed excited too.

“Speaking of which, did you join the club to become an actor, Daemyung?” Dojin asked. The boy slowly extended his hand out towards Daemyung’s bottle of yakult.

“Yeah. I wanted to try it,” Daemyung responded with a slap on Dojin’s hand.

“I was thinking of becoming the lead, but gave up. That Geunseok dude’s definitely set to become the lead at this rate.”

“Honestly? Yeah.”

The two of them looked up with a jealous glint in their eyes.

Hong Geukseok. For sure, the guy was different from all the other kids. He came to this school solely to join the acting club. That took conviction. Conviction that Maru liked seeing.

“I went to the design class yesterday. There were so many girls. Like, more girls than guys for both classes.” Dojin continued.

“R-really?”

“Oho, Mr. Daemyung, you interested?”

“……”

Daemyung blushed pretty quickly. Man, he kind of sucks at acting. Maru took a swig from his bottle of yakult. It was almost time for them to go to the club. They finished their greetings last week, so they’d spend this week working properly.

He stood up with the food tray with all the other kids. He could see some of the other kids getting up to leave the cafeteria as well.

Out of the corner of his eye, he caught Dowook eating by himself.

“………”

Dojin clicked his tongue annoyedly.

“What, you starting to like him or something?” Maru asked.

“I have no idea.”

Dojin left to return his tray. Daemyung was looking at Dowook with a saddened expression.

“I don’t like that guy. He was pretty mean. But…”

“But?”

“I never wanted to see him like that.”

Maru knew very well what Dowook did to Daemyung. The boy took over Daemyung’s seat by force. Clearly intent on bullying the other boy in the future as well.

Suddenly, Dowook looked up to meet his eyes with Maru’s. Daemyung looked away, but Maru decided to hold his gaze. Dowook glared his way for a few more seconds before turning away first, looking back down on his tray like a scared animal. That was enough. Maru didn’t want to see any more of this.

“Let’s go.”

“Y-yeah.”

It would be better not to talk to him right now. Maru looked over Dowook one more time before going outside.

* * *

Dowook didn’t have an appetite. He returned his half-eaten tray of food before heading out. It’s been four days since he started eating alone. He tried to think nothing of it at first, but it turned out to be harder than he thought.

He could feel other people make fun of him. Insult him. Dowook ran away to the deli. He was still hungry. But when he rounded the corner, he happened upon Changhu’s group. Their eyes met.

Changhu grinned at him mockingly. He just passed by without saying another word. Dowook was relieved. At least he wasn’t made fun of.

How did this happen?

He bought himself some bread and sat down to eat it in front of the deli, but he saw his classmates coming from the other side. He didn’t want to be seen eating in front of them, so he hid his bread behind his back.

Why, he had no idea. It was like his body was acting against his will. He sat down on a random bench he found and chewed on the bread. It was tasty. It was tasty, but…

“Hah, fuck.”

Why did he feel so lonely?

* * *

Maru discovered Dowook eating by himself from the second floor window.

‘Man, he looks like a total outsider.’

An outsider since high school… Some of the other kids in the class found Dowook as well, and clicked their tongues in disapproval. Some were even laughing.

“Fucking knew it, that childish fucker.”

“Did he really think his middle school antics would work in high school?”

They all commented before returning to their original conversations. Dowook wasn’t even worth talking about right now.

Maru tapped at the windowsill as he thought. Having a rhythmic beat to listen to helped him think. Dowook… The little carnivore forced into independence prematurely.

‘You should really stop drop your act and let out your thoughts for a second, man. Is it really that embarrassing to live like a herbivore?’

Surely Dowook didn’t want to live by himself for the rest of his three years here. Maru stepped away from the window. He wanted to help, sure. But Dowook wasn’t willing to accept the help to begin with. The bell rang across the school, signalling him to head over to the club.

* * *

Daemyung was worried that people might hear the sound of his heart beating. All because of the girl standing next to him. She had playful eyes, full lips, and brown hair. Yurim had managed to hit all the bells in his mind.

“Hey Daemyung, can you move a little?”

“Y-yeah.”

Daemyung took a look at Soyeon, who was sitting on Yurim’s other side. She was pretty chubby, like the dolls that little girls played with. Honestly, she felt more like a little brother rather than an actual girl of his age. He spoke with Soyeon quite a bit already. Perhaps due to their similar physique? Yurim seemed completely uninterested in their conversations however.

‘I can’t even gather up the courage to talk to her, though.’

Daemyung gave Yurim another glance before looking to his left. Iseul was sitting there. She was talking with Taejoon, the handsome boy. He didn’t dare try to join in on the conversation. He just wouldn’t fit in if he did.

Iseul was almost terrifyingly pretty. Pretty enough to make people around her feel about themselves. Taejoon, too, looked handsome enough to be a child actor. Hanging out with those two would only give others the opportunity to make fun of him.

“Park Daemyung, was it?” Taejoon suddenly asked.

That was surprising. Daemyung didn’t expect to be talked to like that. He didn’t recall ever actually speaking to the other boy before. They had their greetings and cleaned the club room together, sure, but didn’t actually end up doing much else.

“Y-yeah. Daemyung.”

“Nice name. I like people with ‘myung’ in their names.”

“I-is that so?”

Well, that was a really weird complement. Myung is cool? Was he joking? Probably not. Taejoon looked completely serious.

‘Ah, you idiot. Why do you keep assuming negative things when friends talk to you?’

He really needed to fix that habit. If it wasn’t for Maru he would’ve become a complete loner because of this. Daemyung smiled, garnering attention from Iseul as well.

“Do you remember my name?” Iseul asked him.

Of course he did. He shook his head, though. It felt embarrassing to actually admit it.

“I’m Kim Iseul. In computers.”

“Ah, yeah.”

“You look cute.”

“Eh?”

“Haha.”

Well, that felt good to hear. A cute girl like her smiled at him. His chest felt like it was about to explode. Today felt like a good day.

Chapter 17

‘Man, Daemyung, you look like you’re about to explode,’ Maru found himself thinking.

The boy probably didn’t know why Iseul was laughing right now, yet his face was redder than a ripe tomato. Well, he seemed to be fine with it, at the very least. Taejoon and Iseul weren’t mean enough to make fun of Daemyung to his face either. Maru noticed another kid in the corner quietly reading a book by himself.

It was Geunseok.

Maru was observing Geunseok carefully since a while ago. Because of how silent the boy was. He noticed that the book in the boy’s hand had something to do with acting. Such focus. Geunseok’s eyes never left the page regardless of the ongoing conversations around him.

He had a wide forehead, big eyes, and a pretty shapely nose. He still had a youthful appearance, but there was definitely handsome aspect mixed in.

Maru turned to look over some of the other club members. Soyeon, who was sitting to the left of Geunseok, she was chubby but not ugly. Kind of cute? She looked good in her short hair. She was in the same major as Geunseok and Yurim. Design. Soyeon kept glancing at Geunseok every once in awhile. How adorable.

Yurim, on the other hand, was on her phone during this entire time. She didn’t seem to be doing much on it, really. There wasn’t a lot you can do on a phone around this time. Maybe send a text, or play a few games? Her hair was a very dark brown, but it was natural. Otherwise the teachers would have said something about it.

‘Then again, this school only really cares about hair length.’

Boys couldn’t get hair long enough to cover their ears, and girls couldn’t get hair past their shoulders. Despite the rule, students tried their utmost to keep up with trends. Yurim was one such girl. Her hair was curled right above her shoulder, a length that teachers were barely fine with. Maru turned to look at Daemyung for a second.

“The seniors aren’t coming,” the boy commented.

“Yeah.”

“You feeling hot?”

“Not really.”

“God, it feels so warm in here.”

Daemyung glanced at Yurim as he spoke. Maru wondered for a second what the boy’s face would be like if their eyes were to meet. It would be an interesting sight for sure, but he decided not to do anything about it.

He’d feel bad seeing Daemyung’s face turn red as a beet again.

The boy was talking with the attractive people in the club right now and they were getting along. Dojin was mixed in the group as well. Come to think of it, Dojin was pretty handsome as a person as well. Just… his usual expressions at class didn’t allow for any appeal to his face was all.

Not as handsome as Taejoon, of course. Taejoon looked good enough to be in a TV advertisement right then and there. If Geunseok looked like a handsome, serious guy, Taejoon looked like one of those lighthearted, fun guys. He was probably really popular in class.

Maru noticed Iseul laughing in the group. She and Taejoon seemed to be close together despite being in different majors. They most likely knew each other from middle school. Iseul reminded him of Yoonjung, actually.

No, scratch that. She was like a quieter version of Yoonjung. Then again, anyone would look quiet compared to Yoonjung. Iseul, too, had very long hair that barely dangled above her shoulders. She looked like a popular kid, too.

His eyes met with Iseul’s. Maru turned away with a shrug.

‘This is pretty fun.’

He had no idea how fun it was to observe people. They all looked so different depending on where their eyes, nose and mouth were.

That wasn’t all, of course. Everything from how their eyes moved, the way they looked at people, and the way their smiled. It made him realize once again how important body language was at conveying emotions. Even now, he could roughly tell how everyone was feeling even without talking to them. Daemyung’s emotions were as plain as day, whereas Yurim was the most difficult to figure out.

“Um, hey, guys,” Taejoon asked, getting the attention of the room, “Did anyone come here to become a stage manager?”

Finally, a constructive question.

“I want to try acting a little bit, though. Even if I end up becoming a side character.”

“Even being an extra is fine, in my opinion.”

Daemyung and Dojin responded respectively.

“Same here.”

“I want to be a side character. An important one. Or a main, even.”

Yurim responded curtly, and Soyeon carefully confessed her big plans to everyone.

“The most impactful character. Doesn’t matter who it is.”

Geunseok got straight to the point, earning some claps from Taejoon. His expression didn’t change at all though, which reminded Maru of a Moai statue for a split second. They looked similar, actually.

“I want to be an impactful character too, then!” Iseul copied Geunseok, who glared at her a little bit.

“Yeah, sure, go for it. What about you, Maru?” Taejoon asked.

Maru thought for a second. Thankfully, it didn’t take long.

“Staff,” he answered.

“Really?”

“I mean, you’ll need at least one person taking care of the stage stuff while everyone else acts. I’ll come out as an extra every once in a while for fun.”

“You don’t want to be a main character?”

“Not really. I’m having enough fun already.”

He really was. Just being able to think and talk with different kids at the same time was very enjoyable to him. Living a fun life didn’t mean he had to be in the spotlight all the time. Maru wanted to be the person who could enjoy the little things in life, one who isn’t bogged down by reality chasing big dreams.

‘Maybe this is escapism.’

Well, whatever. If there was anything his 45 years of life had taught him, it was that he needed to live a safe life. He remembered the piece of metal that went through the bus window and impaled his chest right then. The feeling of having all the blood drained out of your body. He felt dizzy enough to puke only seconds after the impact, he remembered.

“What’s up?” Taejoon asked in a worried tone. Maru just waved him away saying ‘I bit my tongue.’

“And here I thought.”

The conversation ended. It was a nice little bonding moment for them. Right then, the club room door opened. The advisor walked in with all the seniors, holding bowls upon bowls of food.

“We weren’t caught, did we?” Taesik, the advisor, asked.

“Yes, I think we’re fine,” one of the seniors responded, allowing Taesik to let out a sigh of relief.

“You didn’t wait long, did you?”

““No, sir.””

“Well then, let’s eat first. I know lunchtime passed, but you all are still growing.”

“Whoa. Did you buy all this, sir?” Dojin asked, earning a nod from Taesik.

“Thank you for the meal.”

The club members closed the door and quickly started eating. The nervous air of the room was pretty fun for Maru. Taesik kept glancing at the club door. It was probably bad for them to eat delivery food in the school building.

“Um, teach, I think the vice principal saw us earlier. What do we do?” Yoonjung asked, worry imbued in her voice.

“Don’t worry about it and just eat. It’s our first meal together.”

That was when the students really dug into their food. Maru was reminded of the military for a second. Of that time right after sports day when the troop hosted a massive barbeque for everyone.

“Eat, Maru. We need to clean this up.”

“Yessir.”

Maru answered, taking in a mouthful of noodles.

* * *

“You weren’t caught, were you?”

“Teach, who do you think I am? I’ve done this more than enough times.” Minsung said proudly.

“Phew, we finished eating, so let’s head to the fifth floor now.” Taesik said, standing up from his seat.

“The club room’s small, so most of the time we’ll be using the auditorium to practice. Even the stage feels small though.” “The auditorium feels small? Really?” Dojin asked.

The auditorium accounted for the largest place in the main building. What would 12 people need to do to make that place feel small? The group followed the advisor all the way up to the fifth floor. Maru noticed that the props there were all covered by a tarp. Probably to prevent equipment damage like last time.

Maru glanced at Joonghyuk, who gestured at him to stay quiet.

“I know you’ve been here before, but I’ll introduce it again. This is the auditorium, where you’ll be spending your time practicing for most of the year. You can run and shout here if you’d like. Of course, not during class time, but during festival season…”

Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha!

Taesik shouted like a cannon into the auditorium. His voice was loud enough to make the entire place ring, making the first years step back a little in surprise. Maru was surprised too, actually. He didn’t think a voice that loud could come out of someone who was just 160cm.

“You can shout this loudly if you want.”

“Oh my gosh, you have such a loud voice, teacher.”

“If you practice, you can become like this.”

Taesik coughed a few times before continuing.

“Now then, I’ll take off after I say everything else. First of all, you know getting a teacher for you costs money, right?”

The first years’ faces stiffened, save for Maru and Geunseok. Maru knew nothing was free, and Geunseok probably knew something about this from the beginning.

“It costs 30,000 won per person.”

“Ah…”

Someone let out. Taesik smiled,

“…But it’s been paid for. We got plenty of funding, so don’t worry about it.”

30,000 won. It wasn’t a small fee for a student. Plus, no parent would be happy to hear that they needed to pay that much money for something other than studying. Especially if their child was going to an engineering school already.

“So make sure that you learn enough to perform an amazing play, alright?”

“Yessir!”

There was no hesitation in their answers. Right then, Maru realized that the second years didn’t look so well.

‘Hold on, there’s no way the club got good funding after their reputation took such a big hit. They have very few club members, too.’

Well, that was strange. The second years’ faces probably had something to do with it too.

Taesik had been good to them. He was kind, he cared for the club, and he didn’t hesitate to give them food. In that case…

Maru scratched his cheeks. Is Taesik using his own money? That wouldn’t be right.

Hm.

Maru decided to keep watching for now. He didn’t want to say anything.

Chapter 18

“You should rest for a bit. The instructor’s going to come soon.”

“She’s coming today?” Yoonjung asked. She only heard about all this today.

‘Hah, what do we do about the money, though?’

The teacher was smiling happily at the kids talking about the extracurricular fees. Yoonjung couldn’t look at that smile straight. Especially not after hearing about the full story by accident.

[You checked the amount properly? I’m sorry about being so late. My paycheck didn’t come through on time. Yes. Please take good care of the kids.]

She heard the phone call by accident. Taesik was lying about the club funds. The budget allotted for the club was nowhere near enough, so he probably used his own paycheck to fill the rest. Yoonjung struggled with the information all day before telling her friends about it.

Joonghyuk told her to stay quiet right away. He didn’t want the teacher to be troubled over it.

[But we can’t ignore it. I don’t want to.]

Yoonjung agreed. This had to do with the club. A club she’s dedicated a full year to. Money didn’t matter when it came to club affairs.

Minsung and Joonghyuk exchanged a quick glance. Did they have a plan or something? Minsung raised his hands.

“Teach! How much did you end up paying this time? Is it the same person as last year?”

Minsung liked to ask all sorts of questions from the start, so this wasn’t such a strange question out of him.

“It’s a different person. She’s been an advisor for university clubs after working at an acting team for a while. I managed to get hold of her this time. She’s experienced, so you’ll learn a lot.”

Taesik kind of skimmed over the money part. It’d look suspicious to try to ask about it now, so Minsung kept quiet.

‘Ughh, I want to know.’

Yoonjung’s mouth trembled. She needed to know. Was it a lot of money? Could she pay for it? Oh gosh, her insides were burning in curiosity. Why did the teacher have to deal with this by himself? She stared intently at Taesik. She needed to ask!

But right before she managed to raise her hand, Danmi pinched her waist. It hurt so much that Yoonjung let out an audible shout of pain. The first years turned to look at her in surprise. Yoonjung turned to look at her friend in annoyance. Danmi, of course, was pretending nothing happened.

‘Annoying!’

Good on her for that, though. She might’ve just asked otherwise. Danmi had a really good eye for this kind of stuff. She knew what Yoonjung was about to do almost all the time.

“That hurt, you know.”

“I had to, you looked too curious. You should know, right?”

“…Tsk.”

She wasn’t wrong. Yoonjung decided to let it pass for now. She turned her attention back to Taesik. The teacher looked at his phone for a second before heading out. Probably because the new acting teacher was here.

“I wonder who it is.”

“Yeah.”

Minsung and Joonghyuk seemed nervous too. The person from last year was a very gentle guy in his thirties. The man taught each of them like he was teaching a child.

‘He was pretty hard to approach.’

The instructor was nice, but he kept a distinct distance from all the students. He was a busy guy, so it was understandable, but she still felt pretty sad about not being able to know him more. In the end, he probably just wasn’t interested in teenage acting clubs.

The instructor would ask the club members to do something, and that was it. Yoonjung remembered feeling like a puppet while being coached by him. For sure the play was getting better, but not from the effort the students were putting in. In the end, things started to go south between the students’ and the instructor’s relationship, and the instructor resigned by summer break.

Maybe that was part of the reason why all the second and third years never came back.

Yoonjung shook her head.

‘I need to focus.’

No point in reminiscing on the past right now. She turned to look at the first years again. This was a mark of a new beginning. New friends, new play. This time, she’ll achieve what she couldn’t before.

The doors of the auditorium opened with a creak. Taesik walked in first with a skinny woman behind him. She had a blonde ponytail, and was around 170cm in height. The first thing she did upon entering was to glare at all the students, almost as if she was a cat that spotted mice in her area. Yoonjung was impressed. This person seemed to be the polar opposite of their last teacher.

“This is Ms. Yang Miso, your teacher for the next year,” Taesik said, clapping a little with his hands. The rest of the club followed with the applause.

“I’ll be leaving it to you, then. Instructor.”

“Yes.”

Miso had a very high voice. Very off putting due to the contrast to her looks. Maybe she wasn’t that assertive? But right after Taesik exit the auditorium, Miso’s face stiffened up completely.

“That,” she said, pointing up to the stage.

What was she pointing at? A few props? Even Yoonjung was confused. Right then, one of the students stood up. He grabbed a fair below one of the tarps and walked back.

It was Maru.

He dusted off the seat a little before setting it up in front of the teacher. Ah, so she was asking for a chair.

“He’s the head from now.”

Head? Miso was pointing at Maru with a straight finger. Maru pointed at himself with a frown with the same though.

“Yes. You seem to understand things pretty well. I’ll be directing my orders to him from now on.”

She sat down on the chair with crossed legs. She put a hand under her chin and narrowed her eyes at the students. Almost as if she wanted to pick a fight. The other kids must’ve felt the same thing as well, seeing how they were looking at the floor nervously.

‘Is she testing us?’

Yoonjung had no idea what was going on. She didn’t want to lose, though. She looked straight ahead with as much confidence as she could muster. Miso’s eyes stopped right on hers for a second. Yoonjung swallowed. It felt really scary having to maintain eye contact with the woman.

Miso leaned forward. Almost as if she was getting ready to lunge. Yoonjung closed her eyes in shock.

And…

‘Eh?’

Nothing happened. By the time she opened her eyes, Miso had already moved onto someone else.

“Tsk,” Miso clicked.

What was going on? What was the woman trying to do? Why was she staring so much?

“Some of you are alright, at least. Others are totally a lost cause, though.”

Miso stood up.

“Everyone, get up!”

Her voice seemed even louder than Taesik’s. Loud enough to make Yoonjung to feel like her heart was shaking inside her. The club members got off their seats hurriedly. Miso looked at each one of them before continuing.

“We’re going to begin our introductions now.”

* * *

Daemyung was the one who got called up first. He looked nervous. Daemyung walked up to the chair Miso had been sitting on.

‘Self introductions?’

Maru glanced at Miso for a second. She had been glaring all of them for a second earlier. Including him, of course. He remembered seeing a word bubble pop up when she looked at him.

[This one’s alright. He knows how to take it.]

It seemed to be some sort of a test of hers. Daemyung was probably called out first because he got the worst score. It was understandable. Miso’s eyes had been more intimidating than even the worst customers he’s had to deal with. There was no way Daemyung managed to take that glare.

“Get up.”

“Excuse me?”

“Get up on the chair. Don’t make me repeat myself. You have ears, don’t you? Learn to listen.”

“Ah, yes ma’am.”

He was completely overwhelmed. Daemyung probably couldn’t think of anything right now. His head must just be a blank slate. The boy stepped up on the chair with an empty expression. His eyes were shaky, unable to find a place to settle on. It was bad enough to make even Maru feel a little nervous.

“What’s your name?”

“P-Park Daemyung.”

“Y-yes.”

“Breath deeply.”

“Yes?”

Miso smiled almost as if she had been ridiculed. She took out a pen from her pants, and stabbed Daemyung’s side with it. Very deeply, too.

“Ugh.”

Daemyung stepped off of the chair with a groan.

“Did I say you could come down?”

“E-excuse me?”

“Did I say that you could come down?”

“N-no.”

Miso gestured towards the chair. Daemyung climbed back up with a pale face. He was fiddling with his fingers constantly which seemed to give Miso more annoyance.

“Fingers.”

“Y-yes!”

Daemyung froze up completely. Maru was reminded of the military when he looked at Miso. This was pretty picture-perfect example of what usually happens in a military. Things would only get more painful for Daemyung if he kept making mistakes. What he needed to do was relax, and just endure. Maru tried to convey the message as best as he could with his eyes. Daemyung couldn’t be able to see it though. His vision was probably tunnelling really hard.

“Now then, chin up, chest straight,” Miso said, poking Daemyung with a pen. The poor guy would flinch every time the pen approached him.

“You’ll be giving your self introduction now. It’s simple. You look towards where my pen is pointing, and you talk. Talk as if you need to make yourself heard to an imaginary person waaay behind you. Talk as loudly as you can. Understood?”

“Y-yes!”

“Now then, think about what you’re going to say. You’ll be talking for five minutes. The rest of you should think about what you want to say.”

5 minutes. She was serious, huh. It wasn’t that long of a time for most people. But to Daemyung, this was probably going to be the longest 5 minutes of his life.

* * *

‘5 minutes? 5? It’s fine. I’m fine. It’s going to be over quick.’

5 minutes sounded reasonable to Daemyung. His heart felt like it was going to explode when he was first on the chair, but he calmed down a little as Miso was talking to everyone else. He’ll make this work, one way or the other. He prepared a little script in his head about his name, birthplace, likes and dislikes, all the standard stuff.

“Ready to introduce yourself, now?”

“Yes.”

“Then… Explain to them the story of Hansel and Gretel. Five minutes,” Miso demanded with a grin. The grin was almost devious.

Daemyung felt the script in his head just disappear right there. There was nothing. Just a blank in his head. He could feel the rest of the club staring at him. His heart was beating louder each second. His nervousness was returning to him really quickly.

“Ah… Um… So…”

“Ten seconds.”

“Yes?”

“Fifteen seconds passed.”

“S-so… Once upon a time there was Hansel and… uh… Gretel… Hansel was, no, Gretel was the brother, and uh… Gretel was the sister…”

“You said Gretel was the brother. She’s the sister too now?”

“No, so… Gretel was the sister. And, um… Gretel…”

He wanted to cry. He must look like a fool to the rest of the club, unable to even explain such a simple story to everyone! His mouth was becoming drier by the second. He had no idea what he was saying anymore. And after what felt like forever, Miso finally let him stop.

“Five minutes are up. Get down.”

No word of consolation, not even an annoyed look. She just ignored him completely. Daemyung crawled back to his spot, incapable of raising his head.

Chapter 19

The auditorium was quiet. No one dared saying anything. So far, five people in total have given their 5 minute speeches so far. Yurim went after Daemyung. She looked pretty strange without a phone in her hand.

She was similar to Daemyung once she was on the chair. There were definitely words coming out of her mouth, but no way to interpret them. She couldn’t even enunciate her words properly. Yurim was talking about Cinderella, but pretty much no one was able to tell. The first thing the girl did after getting off the chair was to run off and grab her cell phone.

Soyeon was next. She looked confident at first, but froze up pretty much immediately after getting up on stage. Korean students didn’t have much experience with presentations. So actually being put on stage was incredibly pressuring for them. In the end, she wasn’t able to do it well either. She was a little better than the other two at explaining the three little pigs, thankfully.

Dojin came next. He was a person who craved attention in his day-to-day life to begin with, so it didn’t seem too bad for him. At least, not until Miso decided to throw him a curveball. Something completely different compared to what the other three.

“Look at the direction I’m pointing as you speak.”

Miso pointed straight at Iseul. Dojin’s topic was…

“Pretend you’ve been a couple for a hundred days. Explain what you have planned for her in celebration.”

Dojin’s stress caused him to bite his nails as he spoke. He did manage to explain everything properly, though. In a way that actually made sense. Dojin immediately asked for water upon returning to his seat.

The next one out was Taejoon. He didn’t get a curveball or a story or anything. He was just given a self introduction. Though… he had to watch who Miso was pointing with her pen. He struggled a little bit having to keep his eyes on the audience for such a long time. He ended up connecting most of his sentences with ‘so… ’ by the end.

“A little better, at least,” Miso gave her first review. A little better.

The faces of the kids who went before Taejoon turned pretty bigger.

“You and you next.”

Geunseok got called out with Iseul. They didn’t go up on a chair. They did have to stand facing each other, though. Neither of them seemed nervous. Geunseok looked like a rock as always, and Iseul smiled like a cute rabbit.

“Five minutes. Your task is to try to convert the other person to your religion. Doesn’t matter how you do it. Begin.”

Miso finally sat on the chair to watch. So far, she was looking at the audience while the person was talking. Her eyes met with Maru’s several times, even. This time was different, though. She was looking at the two students quite seriously.

“Hello. Do you happen to have some time on your hands?” Geunseok started.

Maru was pretty shocked. The boy’s stony face instantly turned into a smiley, big brother-like face. Incredibly friendly. Iseul opened her mouth in response as well.

“Of course I do. Would you like to sit there to talk with me about it?”

Iseul reached out to grab Geunseok’s hand. The boy froze up a little bit. This was out of his expectations. Maru was enjoying this exchange. This wouldn’t have happened if even one of them weren’t here. If Geunseok was replaced by Daemyung, for example? Or Iseul with Yurim? It would’ve been just one person talking for five minutes.

Geunseok looked down at his hand for a second before putting his other hand over Iseul’s. He lowered his head and started in a prayer.

“Oh Heavenly Father…”

“Uhh…”

Iseul looked taken aback. Her conversation partner just straight up closed his eyes. She tried to do something, but whenever she did he just pulled her back towards him. In the end, Iseul could only watch dumbly as Geunseok prayed. The only words she managed to get in was ‘amen’ at the end of the prayer.

“Good job. Both of you have a good voice. Plus, you’re pretty witty as well.”

An actual compliment for the first time. Geunseok returned to his seat with a bow. Maru noticed that Geunseok’s ears had turned a little red. The boy was definitely feeling nervous as well.

‘I suppose being able to control that’s what makes him an actor.’

Hold on. Maru looked around him for a second. He was the only one who hadn’t gone now. The second years were excluded from the test to begin with. Maru got ready to stood up for his turn.

“Stand up, everyone.”

Miso spoke as if she was done with the test. The rest of the first years looked at Miso once, and Maru in confusion.

“What?”

The first years shook their head. Maru stood still. He didn’t mind not having to take the test.

“Step forward, head.”

Miso pointed at the chair. Maru stepped forward to it, noticing that the chair had become dirty from all the shoes that stepped on it. So the woman just sat down on the thing like it was nothing? Maru shrugged at the woman’s boldness before taking off his shoes and climbing on the chair himself.

“Second years, stay there and listen.”

The second years nodded.

“First years… give some push up.”

“What?”

The auditorium got a little loud for a bit, but the first years all got in their push up positions in the end. The boys seemed used to it, but the girls… Maru noticed some of their arms were trembling already.

* * *

“What’s your name?”

“Han Maru, ma’am.”

“Maru? Good name. Now, Maru will be giving all of you a speech. Five minutes. Though, being in that push up position for five minutes would be bad, right?”

“Right.”

“What do you think you should do then, Maru?”

“I should find a way to finish this quickly.”

“Right? Then… give me a five-minute speech while thinking about what the other kids did wrong. Talk about… your first impressions of me. Yeah, that’s good.”

Miso glanced over at the first years. Some of them seemed promising, others seemed completely hopeless. The tall guy at the end even looked like he practiced speeches before coming here. But none of that mattered to Miso at the moment. There was only one thing she wanted to see.

‘This guy seemed pretty tactful.’

Tact wasn’t a part of a person’s five senses. Tact came from observation. Careful observation that would lead to accurate guesses about a person’s thoughts. Maru seemed pretty good at that.

Would he understand what Miso wanted this time, though?

Miso glanced at Maru. His face was unchanging. Calm. He was calm when he was called out, he was calm when he stepped forward. Even now, nothing has changed. Well, maybe a tiny bit nervous, but that would only end up helping him focus. This was good. Amazingly so, actually.

Being unafraid of people’s gazes was essential for an actor. In that sense, Maru passed with flying colors.

“Begin.”

As soon as Miso gave him the go ahead,

“First of all, you were very skinny!!”

A shout sprang out of Maru’s mouth. It didn’t have any depth to it, since he wasn’t using his diaphragm, but it was loud enough to reverberate throughout the auditorium. Maru took a deep breath in to continue, but.

“Stop,” Miso interrupted him, “at least you remembered. First years, stand up and wait.”

The kids’ faces were all reddened. Miso took a look over them again. Some of them were fixing their clothes, others were fixing their hair, etc. Out of them, only two of them were facing her straight without even fixing their clothes.

‘Dojin and Geunseok, was it? They aren’t stupid, at least. Geunseok, especially… he’ll be fun to teach.’

“May I come down?” Maru asked behind her.

“Come down, Maru.”

“Yes.”

Maru went back to his spot with his slippers on. Miso sat back down on the chair before continuing.

“I told you in the beginning, didn’t I? Speak as if you want to make yourself heard. You couldn’t even remember that?”

The only one who didn’t avert her gaze was Maru. He had no reason to look away, though, so she let it pass.

“I’ll be giving you a few words of warning, since we’ll be together for a year now. First, you do what I tell you to do. You don’t know what you’re doing otherwise. Second, think. Don’t move just because I told you to move, actually think about it. Understood?”

“Yes!!”

“Good answer. Your voice will only get louder the more you use it. Try to practice enunciating words better for now.”

“Yes!!”

“Good. We’ll stop here for today. Why don’t we actually introduce ourselves now that we’re at it?”

Miso unzipped her jacket, making some of the kids look away in surprise. How adorable.

“Ah, third. I’m only really this serious while I’m at work. Everything else is super lax. I’m done with work now, so feel free to relax. I’ll be super strict once practice starts, though. Understood?”

Miso finished with a smile.

* * *

“See you all soon. We might even see each other tomorrow. Be sure to get my calls when I make them, alright?”

Miso left the auditorium with a grin. Right after she left their line of sight, the students all fell back with a sigh.

“Oh my god.”

“That was scary.”

“I felt a little scared talking to her afterwards, even.”

Everyone had something to comment about the situation. Miso had left quite an impression on all of them. Maru asked a question to Danmi.

“Was the last instructor like this?”

“No, not at all. The last one was very kind.”

“Is that so. Do you like this one better than the last, then?”

“Mm…”

Yoonjung was the one to respond first.

“I like her a lot. Scary though.”

Yoonjung’s eyes were sparkling, which looked a little creepy to Maru. She almost looked like an incredibly playful kid. One of those kids that was really into pain and suffering.

“I think she’s pretty cool, too.” Joonghyuk added.

That confirms it, Miso was not bad at all. Joonghyuk’s words had actual weight.

“Ah, what would we be doing next time, though?”

“Who knows. I’ve never seen someone this invested. The instructor from last time only practiced with us one hour a week.”

Joonghyuk turned to look at the clock. It was 7 o’clock. They had been together with the instructor for 6 whole hours already.

“It’s already this late?”

“Man, I had no idea.”

The students seemed pretty surprised by the clock. Maru thought of the instructor again. She definitely had charisma. Quite a lot of it, too. Otherwise she wouldn’t have the ability to keep the kids attentive for six whole hours. She was completely correct about her being super casual outside of work.

‘She’s a nice adult,’ was Maru’s impression of her.

Chapter 20

The sky was getting to the point where he could see the moon. Right next to, a little red star burning brightly.

“Must be Mars.”

“Nah man, looks like a satellite.”

“No, that should be mars.”

2003 was the year when Mars came especially close to earth. Maru remembered this only because of a certain memory he had with a friend from high school.

[Isn’t it so cool that that red thing over there can come closer to us or go away as much as it wants?]

He thought of the conversation every once in a while even as he aged. He had no idea if the person was a guy or a girl, if he was even friends with that person or what. He could only remember that it was night when this conversation took place.

“Man, thinking about that instructor’s making me annoyed again.”

“Ah… you’re right, we have to see her more from now on.”

Dojin and Daemyung sighed. They didn’t seem to hate Miso, but they definitely disagreed with the way she taught. Then again, they got hit by her at least once.

“See ya.”

“Bye.”

Maru crossed the street away from the other two. He got on the bike and was ready to pedal. He should’ve brought gloves. The air was really cold now that the sun had set.

Right then, a bike passed by. It was a road bike. A yellow one.

“Dowook?”

He was here all the way up until now? He wasn’t that good of a friend of his, so he pedalled slowly. Right then, Dowook stopped right in the middle of his tracks. Did he have something to say? Well, the boy wasn’t saying anything, so Maru pedaled past him. But after a few minutes, Dowook started biking right next to him side by side.

“What, you have something to say?”

“………”

Dowook didn’t say anything. He did want to say something, though. Maru squeezed his breaks and came to a halt. Dowook did the same.

“What’s up?”

“………”

“What, you nervous?”

“Ah, you son of a… I really don’t like you.”

Dowook glared for a second, but looked away pretty quickly with a sigh.

“Those clothes.”

“Clothes?”

“Did they get fixed?”

“The ones your friends put holes in?” “Friends my ass. Anyway, what happened? I heard it was stuff like dresses.”

“We tried to fix them up as much as we could. Don’t worry about it.”

Right then.

[And here I was worried about how bad it was. Damn it, I worried over nothing.]

A word bubble popped up.

“Worry my ass. Fuck.”

Dowook looked up at the sky frustratedly as he swore a little more.

“As long as there weren’t problems. Get going, then.”

The boy turned away with his bike. Presumably back home.

“Did you follow me to ask about that? Hold on, did you wait?”

“Fuck off.”

Dowook pedalled away. The bike disappeared out of Maru’s sight pretty quickly.

‘He must’ve been feeling a lot of stuff recently.’

People tend to think a lot when they’re alone. Dowook had been alone for a very long time in the last week. At least that’s how it seemed to Maru. He’s never seen Dowook talk to anyone, even during lunch or break time. Even his old friends had cast him out of their group.

“Well, that’s just karma.”

He wouldn’t be in this position if he spent his time helping others. Though… his situation would probably improve for the better if Maru decided to help.

“Hm.”

Maru thought of Dowook again. The boy wasn’t a bad kid. Maybe he should help?

* * *

Bada heard the front door open as she was watching TV.

“Mom?”

Instead, it was Maru. The cold air came into the house with him.

“Close the door, it’s cold.” Bada said.

“Sure, sure.”

Maru closed the door without a word of complaint. That was weird. He shouldn’t be this kind. Normally he’d say something like ‘you close it’ or something out of spite. Sure, there were times when he acted kind. But that was usually after he got his allowance or when he had food with him. Nowadays he acted kind at all times. It was really strange.

“You have dinner yet?”

Again with that! Why was he feeding her, even? He should be asking HER for food! Asking for a bite when she ate instant noodles!

“I didn’t have anything.”

“I’ll make you something. Just wait.”

He stepped into the kitchen as if it were the most natural thing for him to do in the world. Bada watched him before taking out her phone. She opened the cover and started texting her friend.

[Hey, it’s weird if your older brother starts acting nice, right?]

The answer came surprisingly quickly.

[100%.]

[What if he keeps being nice to you?]

[He’s done something really bad. 1000%.]

It was just as she had feared, but her brother didn’t do anything wrong. He even gave her his allowance sometimes.

[But what if he did nothing wrong?]

[That kind of a brother doesn’t exist.]

It was a pretty firm response. All of her other friends responded the same way. That is: big brothers were their arch-nemesis. Bada agreed with the sentiment completely. At least, she did until last month.

‘What’s happening?’

Her brother was humming in the kitchen as he cooked. Where did he learn to make food anyway? He made soups and whatnot like he did it for years. Even mom was starting to cook less now. She looked like she hoped Maru would cook dinner from now on. It was understandable.

Big brother’s cooking was actually tasty.

“Want stir-fried pork?”

“Y-yeah.”

He found where the meat was in the fridge right away and got to cooking. That was strange. How did he know exactly where the meat was? This is almost like…

‘Mom.’

Things were only getting weirder by the second. Why couldn’t he just call her a fatty like before? Right then, a message arrived from one of the girls she asked the question to. Not really a friend or anything, just an acquaintance.

[Sounds like my older brother. He’s nice.]

“…No way.”

Weren’t older brothers creatures that only existed to bother their younger siblings? Bada looked at Maru with disbelieving eyes.

* * *

‘What’s up with her?’

She was acting pretty normally for a few days, but now she was looking at him like he stole a toy from her. She looked almost offended by him. Did he do something to her? Was their relationship this bad from the start?

‘I suppose that’s why she didn’t tell me about her divorce.’

He was way too uncaring of her in his past life, even though they were family. He deeply regretted it, which was why he decided to treat her better in this life. To become a brother who the poor girl could rely on when she had to face society.

‘I’ll treat you better.’

Maru smiled back at his sister with a warm smile.

* * *

“He’s definitely gone insane, there’s no way about it.”

Her big brother? Smiling at her for no reason? There had to be something wrong for sure. Bada decided to do something about it.

“Hey,” she called out.

“What?”

“Why are you doing this?”

“Doing what?”

“Why are you treating me so well?”

“…What?”

“Ugh, seriously. Just tell me if you did something wrong. I’ll forgive you. You don’t need to go this far.”

This should be enough, right? At least, that’s what Bada thought. She was completely wrong, though. Her brother just looked at her with eyes of pity, and…

“I’ll give you a lot more meat from now on, I promise.”

* * *

Maru looked at Bada as the girl walked over to the TV with her bowl in hand. As he thought, girls her age were just hard to predict and understand. He knew this all too well, from his experience being a father of one.

“I’m home,” mom said, walking in with groceries.

“I made food.”

“I told you I’d make it.”

“I know you wanted me to cook. If you want help, you can help me with the dishes.”

Mom entered the kitchen with a smile, letting out an exclamation of surprise looking at the pork dish he cooked. Maru just smiled in response. He couldn’t just tell her something like “I used to cook it a lot when my wife was away”.

Maru went back to his room, and booted up his computer with his toe. He’s gotten totally used to the high school life now. He’s relearned how high schoolers acted by socializing with them, and got totally used to the era that was 2003. No matter how a person looked at it, Maru just looked like a generic high schooler in 2003.

* * *

Maru opened up the messenger app with his mouse. He didn’t really feel like playing games. He’s played too much of it in his past life. Maru greeted his friends through the app briefly before opening the web browser.

“Man, there used to be so many search engines back then.”

It was the era before all search engines were unified under just one. Maru opened up a familiar one in his head and typed in ‘plays’ in the search bar. The first results were all about college plays. Maybe a few blogs as well. There weren’t many bloggers around this time. Maru decided to open one of his own after looking around a little bit.

Not for any big reason or anything.

He just wanted to keep a diary of sorts for his second life. After a bit of thought, Maru settled on a name for the blog.

- Life, Once Again

And his first post:

- Let’s live a fun, fulfilling life.

* * *

Daemyung paused for a bit in the middle of typing. It’s been about two hours since he started grinding in the game with his friends. He’s called them over to play once he realized that the popular hunting spots were mostly empty.

- God, look at all this exp.

- Money’s good, too.

- Just need to get the items now and we good.

He played the game with his classmates. He honestly enjoyed it quite a bit. But right as he was about to grab the mouse again, he was reminded of instructor Miso’s shout at him. That shout of hers that made him freeze up. His frozen self at the acting club overlapped with his current self for a second. He was too embarrassed to move.

- Yo Daemyung,

- You dead?

His friends were asking since his character wasn’t moving anymore. Daemyung took a look at his avatar for a second. He invested a lot of time into this character. He wasn’t the top 1% or anything in the game, but he was definitely up there. How could he not be? He’s invested money and time into this character.

“…But that isn’t me.”

That made him feel pretty bad about himself already. Why couldn’t his life be just like the game? Why wasn’t he rewarded instantaneously for all the work he put into life? Right as he was thinking this, a part of his mind told him to just keep playing the game. But for some reason, this thought just made him want to play even less. He turned off the computer after bidding farewell to his friends.

The monitor turned black, and the room fell completely silent.

To think just a moment ago, he was having so much fun with his friends… Daemyung stood up from his seat. He wanted to go somewhere. Right, Dojin told him he needed to exercise some more. He might as well. He put on his sneakers and started getting ready to leave.

“Where are you going?” his mom asked, in the middle of making some snacks for the night.

“I’m going for a run.”

“Really?”

Daemyung realized that for a split second, his mom’s face turned into a smile. A smile that made him only feel worse about himself. So his mom hated seeing him be fat too.

“I’ll be back.”

“Alright, don’t be late.”

Daemyung stepped out with his phone and earphones.

* * *

“Don’t sleep too late. I know it’s the weekends, but that still isn’t a good excuse.”

“Ok!”

Dojin bid his mom goodbye as she stepped out for her night shift, then jumped into his room. A time without his mom in the house was a happy time. That is, porn time. He pulled one up that he received from one of his old friends. A familiar banner appeared in the beginning few seconds of the video.

“I guess the FBI watches porn, too.”

Whatever. He could just skip this. His phone started ringing right then.

“Daemyung?”

Chapter 21

The night air was cold. Dojin walked out of his home with a thick hoodie and a basketball in hand.

[You want to play basketball?]

Daemyung sounded very conservative with his request.

“Want to? Why couldn’t he be upfront and tell me he wanted to play basketball?”

Dojin thought Daemyung could get much more confident as a person. The guy was alright, but awkward expressing a lot of his opinions.

It was a week ago, for example. He, Maru, and Daemyung were trying to decide what to eat for dinner after school. Maru wanted soup, and Dojin wanted noodles. Daemyung just answered with a ‘I’ll have whatever of the two’ at the time.

Dojin was not a fan of the way Daemyung spoke. He wanted to tell the boy to be a bit brave, but Maru just kept stopping him. In any case, he made his way to the park as he lightly dribbled the ball between his hands.

It was cold, but not freezing. He could see plenty of other people in the park exercising. Some were playing badminton, and others were running or doing jump rope. Thankfully, the basketball court was empty.

“Here!”

He could see Daemyung wave at him from afar. The two of them lived surprisingly close to each other. Dojin lived in Sangdong Apartments, at house number 201. Daemyung lived right across the street, at Hanra Apartments, 403. Not even ten minutes apart.

“What’s up with wanting to play basketball and all?”

It was just supposed to be an opener for the conversation, but Daemyung took it in the worst way possible.

“R-right? Sorry. I called you for nothing. It’s too late, isn’t it? I shouldn’t have called. Sorry.”

Daemyung’s voice crawled back nervously. Dojin threw his ball into the other boy’s chest. He was feeling something hot rise up in his chest.

“Ouch,” Daemyung stepped back. He picked up the ball with a scared look.

“What’s wrong, Dojin?”

“Hey.”

“Yeah?”

“Did I say something to you? Like, I can’t play basketball, or something? Or was I complaining to you?”

“………”

“Dude, what the hell are you sorry for? I was just surprised that you were out playing basketball. Did I sound like I was picking a fight?”

“N-no.”

“Why are you being like this, then? I didn’t hit you or anything either.”

“………”

“Jesus.”

Dojin was frustrated. Weren’t they friends? Why the hell was he acting like this, then? Daemyung looked down at the floor nervously, which ended up pissing his friend off even more. He walked forward and straightened the other boy’s shoulders.

Their eyes met for a split second. Daemyung looked away immediately.

“Hey,” Dojin said.

“Yeah?”

“Are you uncomfortable around me?”

“No, it’s not that.”

“Did you do something wrong, then? Why are you so apologetic? Why do you keep trying to act pitiful?”

“…Sor…”

Daemyung stopped himself there and looked at Dojin worriedly. There it was again.

“Is something going on?”

“No.”

“You’re lying and you know it. Dude, I’ve only known you for a month, but even I know better than that. You’re a lot better than this. What’s going on?”

That must’ve been it. Daemyung dribbled the ball a little bit with a little sigh. The ball eventually escaped his grasp with how lightly he was dribbling it. The ball rolled away, and Daemyung sighed a little deeper.

“I was just thinking of old times. I used to be bullied.”

He smiled, trying to make light of the word ‘bullied’.

“…What?”

Dojin became confused. Bullying? Out of nowhere? It also made his blood run cold a little bit. Bullying… was a word that had a lot of meaning to Dojin as well.

* * *

Dowook opened the door to his home with his bike. He lived in a 2 floor single home surrounded by a tall fence. Even now, he didn’t feel very used to living in a home like this. A little dog ran over to greet him with an excited look.

The dog’s name was Little. The only thing in the house he’s gotten used to living with. Dowook had no idea what breed the dog was. He just knew it’s been five years since he picked it up from the old lady on the street.

At least it was growing healthily.

He pet the dog a little bit as he parked the bike on the wall next to him.

Dowook walked up the three stairs up to his front door. A warm air greeted him upon his first step inside. He didn’t bother saying his greetings, since he knew there was no one was home. He slipped into his slippers and walked over to the kitchen.

More cold food again for him to reheat.

He warmed up the rice and soup in the microwave. He watched the plate inside spin for a few seconds before walking out with some dog food. The dog greeted him with its wavy tail.

Good boy.

“What were you doing all this time?”

Dowook asked, pushing the food bowl towards it. It didn’t answer. Obviously. Dowook pet its head before walking back into the kitchen. The microwave beeped from inside to let him know the food was done. He started eating his food.

There was a sticky note under the bowl of rice had originally been, he noticed. It was a message from his mom, he had no need to read. It was probably the same thing as always anyway. He finished eating and turned on the TV. It was pretty cold in the living room, so he turned on the heater as well.

After laughing at a random reality show for 30 minutes or so, he went to use the restroom. A laugh track was playing the moment he stepped outside. The timing got on his nerves, for some reason. He pressed the power button on the remote to no avail. He tried again. Still nothing. Again. Finally. He walked up to his room on the second floor where he could hear the dog barking outside after finishing its meal.

He decided to ignore it. He turned on his computer and opened up messenger after a bit of hesitation. 13 friends were currently online. They were all his middle school friends. None of them responded to his messages. Then again, they weren’t really great friends to begin with.

Dowook turned to look at his phone. He scrolled through his contacts, trying to find a friend that he could call. His face turned stiffer with each scroll upon each realization that there wasn’t anyone he could really call.

“Fuck.”

He closed his phone. Why was he feeling so nervous right now? Trying to call his friends wasn’t anything to be embarrassed about so why was he hesitating?

Then again, what would he even say to them?

What was the name of the kid up front again? Ah, Jichul, right. Why was he thinking of that guy now? The guy always stayed alone by himself because of how quiet he was. Dowook could remember Jichul’s troubled expression lingering as he looked around every time there was group work.

“…Hah.”

Crap. Dowook was just like that guy right now. That was what made him feel nervous. It was even worse, actually. At least Jichul had people who occasionally talked to him. He recalled everything he said at school in the previous week.

“…There’s nothing.”

Just conversations with the teacher was all. He’s never talked to the other students. No, he ‘couldn’t’ talk with the other students. Was this what being bullied was like? For some reason, the faces of his previous victims started popping up in his head clearly.

Please, he didn’t want to remember. Crap. Their faces wouldn’t leave his mind. About how they could only ever say “I’m sorry” and “please forgive me” in school.

“Fuck.”

Dowook turned on a song at full volume. A quiet ballad shook his room like a heavy metal song. Hopefully the noise will drown out some of his feelings.

“…Crap.”

The voices of his victims still wouldn’t go away.

* * *

“Come out?”

- Yeah. I need your help. You’re better at this kind of stuff than me.

“What stuff?”

- Daemyung.

Daemyung? At 11 at night? Why? He’d have to bike for 20 minutes to get there.

“Damn it, fine.”

People don’t change that easily. Maru didn’t want to ignore someone when they needed his help. Especially friends.

“I’ll be out for a bit, mom.”

“Where are you going?”

“Friends.”

“What?”

“Don’t worry mom, I’ll be fine.”

“………”

Mom hesitated before telling him to come back quickly. That reminded him, he’s always thought of raising a kid freely when he grew up. Like his parents. That’s exactly what he did with his daughter. She’s hurt him occasionally, but she did grow to become a fine lady.

‘Helicopter parenting is no good.’

Maru peeked into the fridge as he stepped out of his parent’s bedroom. Talking with friends, huh… Well, that meant he would need a certain things with him, then. He pulled out a can of beer and put it in his pocket before walking outside.

* * *

There weren’t many people outside when Maru arrived. They all probably went home. He spotted a few couples in the park before turning to go further inside.

“Oh, you’re here.”

“Ugh, so cold.”

Maru grinned, looking at his two friends sitting close to each other for warmth.

“Why not go to a PC bang if you’re so cold?”

“We’re poor, dude. Besides, we came out for that,” Daemyung’s shivering finger pointed at the basketball.

His fault for coming out in gym clothes, Maru thought.

“Let’s go to a convenience store for some instant noodles,” Maru suggested.

“Oh, you’re paying?”

Dojin’s face instantly bloomed with excitement, whereas Daemyung’s expression brightened briefly before shaking his head glumly.

“I’m good.”

“What, you trying to lose weight?”

There was no other reason why the boy would call Dojin out for basketball otherwise.

“………”

“Just one, man. You’re going to get sick if you don’t have something warm. Let’s go.”

Maru walked into the convenience store nearby with his bike. It was a big store, so there were quite a number of people inside still. Maru bought three cups of noodles and walked over to the hot water station.

“Let’s eat first, men,” Maru said, splitting the chopsticks in his hand.

The others nodded and dug into the noodles. They smiled as they slurped in the hot soup.

“God, I feel so much more alive now.”

“Me too.”

They licked every inch of their bowls clean before walking back to the park. It was still bright out, thanks to all the lights.

“So, what did you want to talk about?” Maru asked, sitting on a bench nearby.

“You tell him,” Dojin said.

Daemyung sighed. He didn’t look like he could get it out of him.

“Come on, man,” Dojin urged. It didn’t really work.

Maru nodded. This was probably really important to Daemyung. But he couldn’t go back without hearing anything. He pulled a can of beer out of his pocket, earning a surprised look from the other two. Maru grinned.

“A medicine to make you start talking, buddy.”

Chapter 22

Dojin’s eyes were sparkling with curiosity, whilst Daemyung looked around worriedly. That alone spoke loudly of their personalities.

“Alcohol?” Daemyung asked. Maru nodded.

“Where did you get it?”

“I took it out of the fridge.”

“Won’t you get yelled at?”

“That’s my problem, not yours. You ever drink before, Daemyung?”

“Nope, never.”

Maru handed the can over.

“Drink.”

“……”

“Don’t worry, it won’t kill you,” Dojin said, looking like he wanted to try it himself.

Daemyung took a small sip of the beer.

“Ugh, bitter.”

“Is it?”

Dojin tried a sip of it himself.

“Ugh, what’s up with that flavor?”

“What?”

“No, I mean, don’t actors enjoy beer when they have it in movies? What kind of a flavor is this?”

“Just means you two are innocent.”

Maru took a big swig of beer himself. His 45 year old self could go strong even after 4 bottles of soju. His body was just tolerant of alcohol. That didn’t change much after coming back to the past.

“You like that stuff?” Dojin frowned.

“I’m not innocent like you two.”

“What the hell are you on?”

“You’ll see why this is tasty when you start suffering a bit more. Thinking badly about alcohol just shows how healthy of a life you two have.”

Maru handed the beer over to Daemyung.

“Think you can talk now?”

Daemyung shook his head.

“Have some more, then. It’ll help. Makes the cold go away as well.”

Daemyung closed his mouth and started chugging. Gulp, gulp. The beer can was emptied within seconds.

“I didn’t mean for you to just one shot that… You okay?”

“Eh? Yeah. I’m fine, I think.”

“For now, sure. Let’s walk a bit.”

The three of them strolled around the park for a few minutes.

“Hey, check Daemyung out,” Dojin pointed.

Daemyung’s face turned pink. Not completely red, but sort of pink.

On the other hand…

“Dojin, you’re so red,” Daemyung commented.

“What, me?”

Dojin was red as a tomato after a single sip.

“You should probably not drink too much in gatherings, man.”

“What? Wait, hold on. I’m red? Really? I feel fine.”

Dojin touched his cheeks a little bit and jumped in surprise.

“Hey, I’ll just do another quick lap. Man, why am I like this?” he started walking away fanning off the heat from his cheeks.

‘Is his liver bad?’

Maru decided to refrain from offering the guy alcohol from now.

“Is he fine?” Daemyung asked.

“He’s fine. Alcohol’s just not for him. How do you feel, though?”

“Eh? I feel fine. Ah, my mouth feels a tiny bit numb, though. Like the time when I got anesthetics for getting my tooth pulled when I was young. That reminds me, I was really happy back then, right? Confident, that’s the word. I didn’t even know why other kids were so afraid of the dentists. I would tell everyone else stuff like ‘why are you so afraid of dentists? I don’t even cry when I’m there!’ Hah, and now I’ve become like this…”

Daemyung started rambling on. He didn’t seem to realize it, but the alcohol definitely had an effect on him. Maru listened to him speak for a little bit. He’s never seen Daemyung be like this before. The boy was even excitedly making hand gestures for each word.

‘They’re all stories from elementary school.’

Daemyung probably became introverted some time in middle school.

“And then my desk partner in 3rd grade told me that I looked funny.”

The boy’s shoulders drooped noticeably. His voice had become a lot more quiet, too. So this is it, huh.

“The day was normal. I looked fine, I think. But she told me that I looked funny. After that, everyone started saying I looked funny as well. They probably meant well. But… I couldn’t just laugh about it. Maybe because it’s true? I mean, I do look like a dumbass.”

Daemyung smiled awkwardly. He turned to look at Maru, who just stared back without any emotion on his face.

“Keep going.”

“Eh?”

“I’m listening, so go on.”

“………”

Daemyung continued after a moment of hesitation, recounting what happened afterwards, and how he started getting bullied.

“It feels really bad to be bullied. But I couldn’t do anything about it, because it was my fault to begin with. I mean, I look funny. I can’t even refute it, either! I was begging to be bullied.”

Daemyung stopped to look at Maru, who motioned to keep going. He hesitated, though.

“Anything else?”

“Eh?”

“Anything else you wanted to say?”

“Eh…”

“So that’s it?”

Maru looked at Daemyung for a second. Did Daemyung sober up, or had he just become self-aware as he spoke? The boy looked a lot more nervous now.

“…Funny, isn’t it? I’m being so depressed over something that just kind of had to happen. I mean, I look like a retard. It was bound to happen. But it’s okay now. I feel fine. I have friends now. Friends who listen to me.”

Daemyung smiled. But his shoulders were still drooped just like before. Maru looked into the boy’s eyes. He didn’t want to see a word bubble or anything. He didn’t need it. He wanted to see a reaction.

The boy looked down without being able to meet his eyes.

“Daemyung.”

“…Sorry.”

“I had this friend a long time ago who told me this. You might not change as a person from the people you associate with, but your friends could still drift away because of them.”

Maru stood up over Daemyung. He straightened the boy’s shoulders.

“You should sit more comfortably.”

Daemyung relaxed in his seat. He still looked awkward. Hands clasped together, over his knees. He looked just like a new soldier.

“Impressions of you can change depending on who you hang out with. Some people might think of you as studious, others might say you’re awkward. You haven’t changed at all. It’s just your surroundings that makes you look different.”

“………”

“People are very opinionated. They like getting involved, whether it be in a good or a bad way. That just can’t be helped and you can’t stop them from judging you.”

Daemyung nodded.

“You’ll just have to learn to live with it. There’s something important, though.”

Maru raised his fingers and formed a ‘T’ shape out of them.

“This horizontal finger here represent what people of you.”

Maru raised his finger upward like a see-saw.

“Some of them might be good,”

This time, he moved it down.

“Others might be bad,” he continued, “unfortunately, you can’t control it. After all, you can’t control other people, right?”

“Yeah…”

“But look here, this finger in the middle.”

Maru put his vertical finger straight in the middle of the horizontal one.

“If you keep a good balance, there’s no way people’s impressions of you can lean too much towards one place. But what do you think would happen if that balance disappeared?”

“People’s impressions of you… will change.”

“That’s exactly it.”

Maru put away his fingers.

“Some people know exactly what to do to always get good impressions out of people. But we can’t all be like these people, right?”

“Right.”

“Normal people have to learn to live normally. That is, they need to find their balance. People normally have their balance set from the time they’re born. It’s very hard to shake them off of it. But there’s one thing that can very easily shake you off.”

“…What is it?”

“You should know better than anyone.”

“………”

“What was that? Weirdo? Lookin’ funny? I feel like there were more.”

“………”

“Nothing in the world can hurt you more than yourself. If you’re the one messing with your own balance… It can get very dangerous very quickly.”

Maru recalled some of the words Daemyung were called in the past. All the negative words the boy spouted before about himself. He’s always called his bullies the ‘cool kids’ whereas he was nothing more than the ‘fatty’. Maru’s seen too many people broke themselves like this in the past. Especially his fellow bus driver who ended his own life back in the day.

“Then… what should I do?”

“Don’t know. I’m not you. You should be the one thinking about it. What were you like before you started putting yourself down? Try to become like yourself from that time again. It’ll be hard, I know. People don’t just change in a day.”

“………”

Daemyung looked even depressed. He must be thinking about a lot of things.

* * *

Daemyung thought about a few things. Things that made him completely forget about the cold. He looked down at his hands. They were chubby. No, fat. How much did he weigh again? It felt like every day, he grew a few centimeters more sideways. That too was his fault, really.

“I was thinking as I was playing a game a few hours ago. Maybe video games are just a form of escapism for me. Since I can act more freely in a video game than in real life.”

“Mm.”

“Maybe I wouldn’t be so far if I used that time to play sports. I wouldn’t be such a damn pi… No, I’d be skinny like you, even. Hah…”

Daemyung scratched his head. He felt like he realized something.

“I decided. I’m gonna quit gaming and start playing sports. Maybe other people would look at me differently then? Yeah. I’ll be more confident then.”

Right. He could become more confident. He was thankful that Maru was willing to listen to him talk. It’s been a while since he was able to be honest with himself.

He should treat Maru to something sometime.

But… Maru wasn’t looking at him so kindly, he realized.

“I told you, didn’t I? People don’t change that easily. Though… If that’s what you’ve decided for yourself, I won’t say anything about it. Ah, I guess I already did, didn’t I?”

Maru smiled awkwardly. What was wrong about his resolution?

Chapter 23

“What’s wrong with my resolution?” Daemyung asked.

Maru answered after a brief pause.

“I’m aware that you’re conscious about your appearance and I’m not going to say that your looks don’t matter, because they do. It is very easy to capitalize on your looks after all,” Maru continued, “I agree that you should try to change yourself, but you shouldn’t limit yourself to appearances. You said video games were a form of escapism for you earlier? Perhaps. But it’s also a part of you, something you’ve invested a significant amount of your time on. It’s fine for you to think you should focus more on sports, however it’s not fine to make that decision on impulse. If people make fun of you for being skinny later down the line, you’ll try to fatten yourself up again. Either way, there is no happy ending.”

Maru paused for a second. This was a pretty difficult subject to talk about. There was no right answer for anything. It wasn’t like Daemyung could live in ignorance of the views of society. That didn’t mean he should mold himself in accordance to others’ ideals. Daemyung needed to find a balance, and maintain it. This wasn’t something that could be explained in words. It was something a person had to experience for themselves.

“Daemyung.”

“Yeah?”

“Just follow these three things. Firstly, don’t look down on yourself. If someone else says derogatory words towards you, just tell them to stop. Second, start praising yourself more. Even for the small things. Last of all, and this is what instructor Miso said as well. Be conscious of your voice. Speak loud enough for you to actually hear yourself clearly.”

“…Uh, sure. I will.”

“It’s a random thing I came up with on the spot. You don’t really have to follow it by the letter.”

Maru looked up at the sky for a second. He’s made that advice based on his life experiences and his readings from, but he didn’t know if this was actually good advice. At the very least, Daemyung looked more relieved about himself than before.

“Do you think I can do it though? Do you think I can become that confident?”

“I told you, didn’t I? People don’t change quickly. All that matters is that you actually try. You’ll see if you’ve changed or not if you look down the line later in time.”

Maru pat Daemyung’s back lightly. He was used to giving advice. He’s done it a lot in his past life. All that experience was helping him out in this life as well.

“Let’s go. It’s cold.”

“Okay.”

“Yo Dojin! Let’s leave!”

“Sure!!”

Despite the cold weather, he left with a warm feeling in his heart.

* * *

Daemyung walked back into his house. The kitchen lights turned on as he walked in. It was his mother.

“You’re back?”

“Yes.”

“It’s late. Go to sleep.”

“Alright.”

Mom turned to step back into her room. Daemyung called out from behind her.

“I’m going to change.”

It was a resolution of sorts. It was embarrassing, but he wanted to tell his mom that at the very least. He could remember his mom crying when she found about him getting bullied. She was even fine with him transferring to a worse school than the one he was originally set on going to.

‘Mom must’ve had it hard as well.’

He could see it now. How much his mother had cared for him.

“Y-yeah.”

Mom stepped into her room with a bit of a confused expression. Maru previously mentioned that change was difficult.

‘Even so… ’

12am. He would’ve stayed up gaming normally, but he decided to sleep. It wasn’t like he was giving up on games or anything. He just decided to turn it into a healthier habit. Balance was important.

“Work hard, me.”

* * *

“I need to apologize to him,” Dojin said.

The two of them spoke a little bit more after Daemyung left. Dojin was feeling apologetic for his friend. That was the reason why he left his place to begin with. He was the bully, and Daemyung the victim. They might have gone to different schools, but that didn’t help with the guilt.

“Just apologize, then.”

“…It’s embarrassing.”

“Hesitating is even worse. Besides, you’re going to do it anyway, right?”

“I should.”

“Just apologize and cheer him on.”

“Damn it, I poked his sensitive spot because I was a little pissed off. Damn this stupid mouth of mine.”

Dojin walked back home in anger. Maru donned his hood and started his ride back home. It was pretty late. By the time he got back, it was already 1am. He washed his hands and stepped back into his room.

But right before he could hit the hay, a knock on his door could be heard.

“Maru.”

It was his dad. Maru got back up to try to open the door.

“If you’re going to drink, at least learn how to drink from your dad.”

With that, the man walked away. Maru stepped back into his bed with a grin.

‘He’s just like me.’

He could hear the clock ticking near his bed. Maru closed his eyes. There were lots of things that happened today, at the same time it gave off the feeling that nothing happened. At least he was sure that he didn’t spend the day in vain.

* * *

Maru’s phone vibrated with a ding. Maru opened his phone for a second and closed it again. A call? This early in the morning? He tried to go back to sleep after hanging up, but the phone started ringing again. This time, he took the call with a sigh.

“Hello…”

- Wake up, Han Maru!!

The voice was loud enough to make his ears ache. Maru moved his phone further from his ear after a moment’s hesitation. Who the hell was this? It was 8:43am on a Sunday. Practically dawn. Who was crazy enough to…

Ah, Yoonjung. That makes sense.

“Yes, I’m awake, senior.”

He rose up from his bed, still unable to muster enough strength into his voice to make him sound like anything other than a sickly patient.

- Come to school.

“Pardon me?”

- Come to school.

What the hell? Maru checked the day again. Right, it’s a Sunday for sure. Definitely not a day a student goes to school.

“It’s a Sunday, though?”

- Yeah.

“Yeah?”

- I know. Come to school, okay? You can, right? You don’t go to church? You don’t seem like a religious type. Right? Right? Right?

Maru wanted to tell her to take a step back and breathe for a bit, but chose otherwise.

“I’m going to church.”

Of course, the Han family had been atheists for generations. But today especially Maru felt like he needed Jesus’ blessings.

- Really?

“Yes.”

- When does it end?

“Eh…”

When did his wife come back home on sundays again?

“After all the afternoon sessions, around 2pm? Or 3?”

- So late.

“Yes. I don’t know what it is, but I’m sorry.”

Maru grinned victoriously. He had no intention of going to school on a Sunday and he wasn’t dumb enough to sacrifice his break to school activities. But just as he was about to hang up… his sister stepped into the room with a shout.

“I’m going out to meet friends! Mom and dad went out to do something a moment ago. They left 20 thousand won, so I took half, okay?”

The door closed with a bang. Maru put his phone back on his ear with an annoyed face.

- What was that about church again?

Maru replied with a sigh.

“5th floor auditorium?”

* * *

Maru arrived at the school, still struggling to wake up. School? On a Sunday? Ridiculous.

“Ugh.”

The school was quiet. There was no way engineering students would come to school on a sun…

Oh, there goes one. And another one. There was quite a lot, actually.

“Eh?”

There was a boy running past him with a guitar bag, and a girl running across to meet her friends in baggy pants. There were more in the field as well.

“Huh.”

Students, on a Sunday. It looked like they were all here for club activities. He could make out the music club, the dance club, and even some of the sports clubs with their advisors. Interesting, he didn’t think people were this committed to their clubs.

“School on a Sunday…” he heard someone say behind him.

It was Dojin. Maru smiled tiredly back at the boy.

“Well, they told us to come, didn’t they?”

“Ugh, I definitely wouldn’t have done this if I knew it was gonna be this bad.”

“You can still change, you know. Want to?”

“No man, I was just complaining a little. We haven’t even begun our club activities yet. Plus… girls, you know?”

Dojin walked in through the gate with a small grin. Maru shook his head as he followed inwards. The two of them walked up the stairs quickly, up to the auditorium. They stiffened up when they heard a few shouts coming from inside.

“Gaaah!”

“Aaaahhh!”

Maru didn’t dare open the door. Dowook agreed with that sentiment.

“I wonder what that sound is?”

“Dunno.”

“Want to just leave?”

“I’m going in if you’re going in.”

The two of them opened the door bitterly.

“Oh, you’re finally here.”

Miso greeted them in her black gym clothes.

* * *

“Ahhhhh!”

“Louder!”

“Aaahhhhh!”

“Don’t scream. Pull it out from your diaphragm.”

The club members were projecting their voices into the auditorium. Though it looked closer to screaming at this point than anything. All 12 of them were here in the hall.

“Starting with Joonghyuk, then we’ll start moving left down the line. I’ll be on the other side. Open your mouth widely, try to clear out your throats as much as possible, and put some strength into your abdomen. Don’t try to squeeze out your voice. Push outwards with the air in your stomach,” Miso continued as she walked away, “I’ll punish you harder if you make weird noises, so do your best.”

Miso posed comfortably when she reached the other side of the hall. She shouted ‘start!’ from across the hall. Joonghyuk began with an ‘ahhhh’. This was the sound Maru heard from outside the door. Now, Maru was a part of this madness.

‘You received a quest to satisfy the demon king, Miso.’

Shouting? At this time? Maru kept his mouth wide open for now. He’s picked up a thing or two from his time as a stage manager back in the day, so he was planning on trying some of them out for this.

“Next!”

Miso’s voice sounded like she was speaking right next to them even from afar. Minsung was the next to start, but as soon as he started,

“Louder,” Miso said.

The boy’s voice got a little bit louder. This continued until they reached the final one, Iseul.

“Good!” Miso shouted.

Was this it? But right then…

“All of you, duck walk over to me. Right now,” she said with a smile.

Chapter 24

Maru thought she was kidding at first. Everyone did. But watching her face stiffen up by the second she made all of them start duck walking towards her automatically. 60 meters. It was pretty far. When they managed to get all the way to her, Miso spoke with a clap.

“Now, go back. But this time, loosen up your joints.”

Miso demonstrated this herself. With every step, she shook her wrist and ankle a few times. After every three steps, she stretched her neck as well.

“Begin.”

The club members all went back as she instructed. As soon as they all got back, the shouting practice resumed.

“Shout with that feeling of keeping your throat completely open.”

Ah yes, that mysterious feeling. Maru was reminded of an instance in his company when the advertiser came to him with a picture and said ‘I want something that feels like this’.

“Ahhhhh!”

The shouting frenzy proceeded with Joonghyuk at the forefront. Everyone was a little bit louder this time. The shouts continued all the way back to Iseul, and the entire club looked at Miso with a confident look. And the response was…

“Duck walk.”

More punishment. Maru thought that the woman was just trying to put them in their place for now. She’d probably stop after everyone got kind of tired.

It didn’t take long for him to realize this wasn’t the case, though.

* * *

“Huff, huff, huff…”

Beads of sweat were dripping from his forehead. Miso truly looked like a demon to Maru from afar. The woman gestured for them to come closer. The four left behind in the pack, including Maru, completed their duck walk just barely.

Their eccentric training had gone on for a full hour at this point. The cycle of shouting and duck walking became duck walking over and over again at this point. No more shouting, just duck walking.

“Duck goes quack quack. Chicks go?!”

“Peep… peep!!”

Joonghyuk, Taejoon, Maru and Geunseok were truly trying their utmost. Starting from the 50 minute mark, the only thing that fueled their walks was their will. Even Maru’s quads trained by daily bike rides were suffering from duck walking this much at this point. The four of them barely reached Miso with loud huffs.

“Nice eyes, boys.”

Miso smiled at them. Just what was this woman? Maru grit his teeth to stop his legs from shaking any more.

“How is it, still doable?”

“…Yes.”

They didn’t sound so confident anymore. Then again, it’s been a full hour of walking.

“You can sit now. And the rest of you, looking at the wall!”

Miso shouted across the hall. Her voice loud as usual. The other kids that tapped out in the middle turned to look over to her.

“Run over here!”

“Yes!!”

The other club members ran over hurriedly. They all looked at the tired four with a sorry look.

“Guy who gave up first.”

“Yes!”

Daemyung responded loudly from nervousness.

“We have some sports drinks next to the door. Bring them in.”

“Yes!”

Daemyung ran over to the back door. Maru watched him in his exhaustion. He’s never seen the chubby boy run that fast.

Gulp gulp.

The club members shared the drinks among each other. Finally, a moment of rest. The last four were massaging their thighs as they moaned a little in pain.

“I’m going to say a few things. Answer accordingly, understand?”

“Yes!”

“Second years.”

“Yes!”

“What festivals did you go to last year?”

“We went to the one hosted by the city, and the one hosted by Kangwoo university.”

Yoonjung responded. She looked like a real club president with her response.

“What about regionals?”

“…We didn’t go.”

“You mean you couldn’t?”

Yoonjung bit her lips. She seemed to want to say something in protest.

“Don’t you think the first years deserve to know what happened to make such a famous club fall down to the depths like this?”

“………”

“Sit.”

“Yes.”

Yoonjung sat down. Miso sat down on her foldable chair as well.

“Hey, you, first years.”

“Yes.”

“Do you know how many theater festivals there are for teenagers in South Korea?”

No one answered. Maru had no idea either.

“Really? No one? Even a guess is fine.”

Geunseok quietly raised his hand.

“I knew it. Go on, tell me.”

“There’s the national theater festival, first of al, funded by the Ministry of Culture, Ministry of Education, and the Arts Council Korea.”

“That’s right.”

“There’s also festivals hosted by universities. The ones hosted by Kangwoo, Hoecheon, and Jookyung University are quite famous.”

“Good, good.”

“There are also citywide and regional festivals hosted for the sake of the national festival.”

“Pretty good explanation. Good job,” Miso clapped. The first years followed up with their claps as well.

‘He’s different for sure,’ Maru noted.

As expected of the guy who came to the school specifically for the theater club. Geunseok looked like a guy who’d make it big as an actor.

‘Then again, I don’t think I’ve heard of an actor by his name in the future?’

He’s heard of Geunseok’s brother more times than he could count, but nothing about Geunseok. What happened to him?

Maru shook his head. He didn’t want to think about it. Perhaps with the addition of Maru into Geunseok’s life, the boy’s future could change just by a little bit. Not by a lot, obviously. But a change was a change regardless.

‘If I can… ’

If the boy ever ends up needing help… Maru wanted to be there to do so. The job of an adult was to help kids reach their dreams. Their eyes met for a second.

Geunseok looked over in confusion, to which Maru responded with a shrug.

“Obviously, the goal of all acting clubs in the country is to go for the nationals. The main festival happens during summer, and they hold regionals before that. Gyeonggi-do here will be split into four different city-wide festivals. In other words, you have to get first place in the city festival to qualify for regionals, then you have to get first place in the regionals to go to nationals. This all begins around June. Anyone know what month this is?”

“March.”

“It’s going to be hard. March is almost over, so we only have 2 months to practice.”

The second years turned wide-eyed.

“W-we’re going to nationals?”

“Isn’t it obvious?”

Danmi reeled back in surprise. Maru could see Yoonjung clench her fists in the corner of his eye.

“Um, instructor…” Joonghyuk raised his hand.

“What?”

“We have no third years.”

“I know. It’s just going to be the twelve of you from here on out.”

“………”

“Anyway. Back to the main story. Let’s talk about how the club became like this. I can explain it since I’ve heard the story from your advisor, but… What do you think, second years? Would you rather explain it yourselves?” Yoonjung was visibly deflating in the corner. Miso continued, “You should do it, right? I’ll explain what this club was first.”

Miso pointed at the group of first years before beginning.

“Now then. Let’s start. Blue Sky. The name was chosen by our teacher Taesik. It’s been 13 years already…” she had a nostalgic look on her face.

Miso looked over the auditorium once again. Maru could instantly tell she had been in the club at some point as well.

“Ah, I forgot to tell you, didn’t I? I’m your senior. I was in the first generation of the club. You guys… would be the 13th.”

As he thought.

“We were all first years back then. New teacher, new students, new building. Everything was brand new. The club was made by students back then as well. That’s how the club began. Though the teacher helped us out a lot as well. Speaking of which, did you know that Taesik just doesn’t age? He looked the same back then as well.”

She seemed to have entered her casual mode. The kids sighed in relief before starting to relax in their seats.

“I had no intention of joining the acting club back then. I was consumed by drawing. I wanted to be a shoujo mangaka back in the day. I sketched people when other kids were drawing apples. In any case, I was doing all that when some crazy guy came over to me and said ‘let’s do acting!’ He was crazy. Absolutely insane. He tried to recruit his entire class.”

Miso shook her head with a smile on her face.

“In any case, Blue Sky was created under him and the teacher. Funnily enough, the guy recruited only the craziest people for his club. It was chaos. Except during practice. We were more serious than anyone else when we practiced.”

She walked away for a second, returning with an album minutes later. It was the album for the first generation of the club. Miso opened the album with a ‘ta-da’. The book hadn’t aged well. Some of the pictures were torn, and others had turned yellow. Miso picked out one of them in particular.

It was a picture of 17 people standing on stage with bright smiles plastered on their faces. They had a big medal in their hand, and behind them was a sign saying ‘Congratulations on winning nationals’.

“You got first place on your first competition?” Geunseok asked. Miso nodded.

“The reason you go to competitions to begin with is to win. Participate to make memories? Cut out that bullshit. I told you, didn’t I? That one crazy guy gathered all the crazies in the club. I guess you could say I was one of them. In any case, we worked our butts off trying to get first place for that competition. We worked during class, we worked after school. Even during weekends were no exception. Sure, studying was important, but acting came first. We practiced after lunch, we practiced up at the rooftop if we got yelled at by the teachers, we lost our voice shouting too much in the school field. Some of us got our hands cut making props for the stage.”

She was turning more sentimental by the minute.

“Back then, we asked for a bunch of help to the other acting clubs nearby. Not a lot of them took us seriously. Especially that all-girl’s school nearby. Their club was pretty famous too. When we went to ask their advisor for well, advice, the guy just told me that amateurs like us would never get anything done. So we had to show it to the guy.”

Miso showed them the picture again. The smiles of each person in there seemed truly pure. Maru looked at the picture dumbly. The power emanating from the picture was quite something. Even after the passing of 13 years.

“That was what Blue Sky was made of. The crazies left after that, so we couldn’t get first place for our second year, but we still got an honorary mention. But then…”

Miso’s face stiffened as she looked over the second years.

“Now I come back to see the club like this.”

She looked at Yoonjung annoyedly.

“Explain. To the first years.”

Yoonjung stood up, garnering the attention of the room. Her usual energetic self was nowhere to be seen.

“I should’ve told you before. Sorry for being late about it. I told you before, right? That all the seniors and the second years quit except us.”

She sighed before continuing.

“The reason why they all quit… was because of an incident.”

Chapter 25

Yoonjung looked like she was at a loss, almost speechless. Maru couldn’t even see a sliver of her usual self at that moment.

‘An incident?’

It’s been 3 weeks since he’s started. He hasn’t seen a single senior or a second year who’s quit the club during this club. If they quit because of an incident, they would’ve come by every once in a while to say hello. But not a single one of them came.

Either the incident had to do with someone dying, or something else entirely.

“Incident?” Miso said, making Yoonjung flinch. She continued, “You really call that an incident? Really?”

Yoonjung’s face crumpled into an unsightly frown.

“That’s…”

“I’ll take over from here,” Joonghyuk stood up. Yoonjung hesitantly took her seat.

“Why the hell is she the president?” Miso asked.

“We voted on it.”

“That’s fine then, I guess.”

Joonghyuk turned to look at the first years. Maru could make out a few emotions out of the boy’s eyes. Regret, sadness, but most notably…

‘Anger?’

He could feel anger. Anger towards who?

“Something happened last year, right before summer break. The graduating class of that year and the second years… had a fight.”

Joonghyuk said the word ‘fight’ with great difficulty.

“It would’ve been nice if it was a normal fight, but it was far worse than that. Every prop that we made for the nationals that year was completely ruined by the end. We didn’t go to the nationals last year because we had a choice. We couldn’t. We ran out of actors and props.”

He smiled for a second. Miso motioned him to continue.

“Phew… The entire thing began over a pretty simple thing. The advisor told us to choose the main character by ourselves, and a third year quibbled a bit with a second year over it. The third year ended up becoming a stage manager, and the second year became the actor. Now, everything till now was what I saw. The stuff from here on is what I heard. The little squabble about the main character worsened over time. The third year tried to lecture the second years over not being able to get the role he wanted. The relationships between the second and the third years started worsening around then. We couldn’t do anything as first years, of course. They always told us to stay out of it.”

Joonghyuk took a deep breath for himself.

“And then a fight broke out at the auditorium. Us first years were waiting in the club room, but we went to check up on the noises from upstairs. And then…”

He walked up onto the stage and started moving a few things to the left, revealing a white corner. A corner that had clearly been painted over recently. Joonghyuk walked back over to the club members.

“At the time, that was where we placed all of our costumes and props. The first thing we saw when we walked up were all of our props going up in flames. The second and third years managed to put out the fire, but by then it was too late. Thankfully, it didn’t do too much damage to the building though.”

Joonghyuk’s expression turned somber as he looked at the wall.

“The event ended with us cleaning up the auditorium over summer break. The teachers knew it was from an incident, so they didn’t say much. Though a few teachers started becoming prejudiced against us after that.”

The teachers calling it just an ‘incident’ probably implied something else. The fire was probably caused by the students.

“We don’t know how the fire happened. None of the seniors are willing to talk about it. The teachers weren’t questioning any further, thankfully. Otherwise we would’ve gotten a far worse punishment. After that point, the third years refused to participate in the club. The second years were only focused on making more props. In the end, the first years were the only ones doing the acting, and we only got two participation awards as a result. Most of the students left the club after that.”

He turned to look at the other second years in the room, who were all making bitter faces with him. Joonghyuk walked back to his seat.

“You guys hear that?” Miso asked, “You guys hear how stupid their seniors were?”

The second years stiffened up.

“You.”

“Yes!”

Daemyung shouted.

“Do you think we can perform a play with just actors?”

“No!”

She turned to Taejoon this time.

“Do you think props are all there is for plays?”

“No.”

Soyeon next.

“What about a good script?”

“Probably not.”

Yurim.

“What about a pretty instructor such as myself?”

“I don’t think so…”

And now, Iseul.

“Costumes?”

“Definitely not.”

Miso nodded.

“You guys know the answer already. Tell me, head. What’s the most important thing for a successful play?”

Maru didn’t hesitate.

“All of the above.”

“Correct!”

Miso stood up.

“A play is a combination of different skills. You need amazing actors to show the play, a great script to guide the actors, lighting to make the actors stand out. You need music to heighten the mood, props to make the play seem realistic, the director, and the audience. They’re all important. Very much so. You guys are in a club at that, so every member does every one of these things. Each club member is important and you guys decide to get in a fight?”

Miso snorted angrily.

“I would’ve thrown a whole boatload of swears at them. They dare screw over the name of Blue Sky over for petty stuff? They think they can just screw over years of memories we’ve made for the club just because of a stupid role?”

She kicked over her chair like a soccer ball, her anger still apparent. To think her temper was this bad… And to think she liked the club this much to be this angry about it… They came as a bit of a surprise to Maru.

“I thought about refusing when teacher Taesik asked me to become your instructor. I didn’t think I was good enough for the club. But no, it was way worse than I thought. This place became a shithole. You know why this kind of stuff happens? Because no one ever bothers to try. Oh my god.”

A girl stood up from the second years. Oh dear. Yoonjung again.

“We all worked hard!”

“Hey, hey.”

“Come on, Yoonjung.”

Danmi and Minsung tried to calm her down, but Yoonjung completely ignored them.

“Things just became like this because of an incident. We all truly worked hard to…”

“To what? End up with this mess?”

Miso grinned.

“You like the club too, huh? After just half a year?”

“No! It’s not just that! We fought a bit, and there was an incident, but we very much cared for acting and plays.”

“Is that so?”

“Yes!”

“So you were crazy for acting?”

“Of course!”

“So why are you still here?”

“…What?”

“How are you still here? Everything you made, worked hard for, invested time into got destroyed in one ‘incident’. By your seniors at that. And yet you’re still here?”

Yoonjung stepped back.

“Being crazy for acting means you see nothing but acting in your life. You’re crazy for the craft. If you were actually mad for acting at that moment!”

She paused after raising her voice. She clicked her tongue and calmed down a little.

“You should’ve stepped in when your seniors started going crazy. That’s what you should’ve done. That’s how you would have protected the club.”

Miso sighed again, saying ‘why am I getting so angry over kids?’ under her breath.

“Sit.”

“…Yes.”

“All of you, if you were just a little braver back then… Nevermind. Let’s just move on.”

Clap. Miso tried to refresh the mood of the room a little bit.

“I’m saying it again. We will win the nationals. Understood?”

“…Yes.”

“Look at you kids. So quiet? You want to do the duck goes quack quack thing again?”

“No ma’am!”

“Good! Now stand up! More practice!”

That day, Maru barely managed to walk home with trembling legs. His mom asked if something happened, but he was too tired to even respond. He went to sleep after a quick shower.

And by the time he woke up,

“Ugh.”

It was 7am on a Monday.

Chapter 26

Maru could barely remember how he got to school the next day. Before he knew it, he was already sprawled out on his table. Dojin was snoring away right next to him. To his front, Daemyung was completely passed out too.

“Wake up, you lazy idiots,” the teacher said, walking into the classroom.

It was time for their logic gate class. Maru woke Dojin up. They needed to stay awake for four hours until lunchtime. Was that even possible…?

‘I need to study… ’

Maru’s eyes were drooping down already. Life… wasn’t very easy to try to take control of.

* * *

“I did it,” Dojin said, as soon as the fourth period ended. Maru lowered his head muttering ‘nap time’ to himself.

“You two alright?” Daemyung said, stumbling towards the two. Yesterday, Miso gave special training to him. Making him run and jump all over the place…

‘Maybe she was just trying to make him suffer.’

His thighs were still hurting. He should probably rest for the rest of the day.

“I’m doing sort of fine. What about you, Daemyung?”

“Me?”

Daemyung pointed at his foot. It was shaking violently.

“So, on that note…”

The boy smiled.

* * *

“Phew.”

“Hah.”

Maru and Dojin stood side by side next to Dojin. They were trying their best to support their friend in walking to the cafeteria. The line was already long. Maru could see a few familiar first years in the line posed similarly to him. Stooped low with hands massaging their thighs constantly.

“Geunseok,” Maru shouted. The boy looked back with a smile.

They were feeling a strange sense of camaraderie together. The boy smiled quite easily outside of the club room. It just goes to show how serious he was about acting.

‘What about me?’

It’s been four weeks since he started living his life again. He’s adapted very well. Well, it’d be better to say he’s accepted his new life pretty well. To say he adapted would be to say that he’s melded into his life. He hasn’t managed to done that before.

It couldn’t be helped. He was still 45 years old, after all. Although he couldn’t remember most of his memories, the experiences were all still there. A high schooler’s body, and a 45 year old’s mind. He looked at Dojin and Daemyung. These two were definitely his friends. But… in reality, he wasn’t looking at them as equals, but as little kids he was looking after.

Was that a bad thing? He hadn’t the faintest. He’s never experienced this before. He couldn’t ask for advice about living twice in the world. In the end, he’d have to try to find the answers himself. Only when he reached the age of 45 again would he be able to say,

“Ah, I’ve lived a good life.”

Or…

“Hey, let’s go,” Dojin waved. The line was moving in front of him.

“Sure, sure.”

Right, for now, he’d just keep on moving.

* * *

Classes were over. Maru had no idea what he learned today. Or what he did at all in school for that matter.

“Yaaawn,” Dojin stretched, “let’s go home. I’ll treat you to some fries on the way back?”

“Sounds good.”

“Daemyung! Let’s go!”

The boy at the front struggled to stand up from his seat.

“Dude, how did you even get here this morning?”

“I didn’t want to get scolded. The teacher’s too scary. Just ran my ass off as fast as I could. Hehe.“

Dojin grabbed Daemyung’s bag for the poor boy. The two of them exited through the door talking about the pain they experienced the previous night. Just as Maru was about to leave with them, though, he heard a voice behind him.

“Hey, give me some cigs bro.”

Laughter came shortly afterwards. Maru turned around. He noticed that Changhu and his friends were surrounding Dowook’s desk. The two got along well before, but after that one day they became complete enemies.

Changhu’s gang looked very bright. They didn’t have expressions of bullies. They looked like friends asking for something from another friend. Maru didn’t like that. Some of these guys were clearly following Changhu without the faintest idea of what they were doing. It was incredibly irritating to look at.

“Come on man. Just one cig.”

Changhu kicked the table lightly. Dowook looked up at the other boy before whispering ‘I don’t have any’ under his breath.

“Bahaha, just tell me straight then, dude. Why act so scared?”

A pack of cigarettes dropped on Dowook’s desk.

“Here, smoke some of this and stop acting like a pussy, alright? You were a good kid, weren’t you? Don’t bully him guys, ok? He’s a good guy.”

The kids around Changhu started laughing under their breaths.

“Dowook. We really gotta get along, yeah? The girls back at the park are looking for you. So come on, man. You know what I want, right?”

Changhu pushed the pack closer to Dowook before walking off.

“Alright, see ya.”

Maru looked at the boy curiously.

“What?” Changhu said.

“Nothing.”

“…Be careful, okay?”

“I’m fine.”

Maru pat Changhu’s back lightly, causing the boy to let out a short snort before leaving. The pack of boys each glared at Maru before leaving themselves.

This used to looked so cool to him back in the day, he remembered. Belonging in a “cool kids group” felt like the best thing to do. Then again, there were always the “cool kids group” that he wanted to be in as he was growing up. When he was a college student, it was a good college. When he was preparing to get a job, it was a corporation. When he was an office worker, it was to be a manager.

In high school, this group would be the group of delinquents that established their rules purely through intimidation. Of course, some people may disagree, but… most people would rather belong to that group rather than be bullied by it.

Dowook stood up from his seat. The package of cigarettes were crushed by his grip. He breathed for a bit before opening the cleaning cabinet from the back of the classroom. He took out a wooden broom, and tried to leave the classroom with a pale face. Maru grabbed the boy before he passed.

“Let go of me.”

“You planning on fighting them with that thing?”

“You want to fight me first?”

“Come on, man. You’ve been so patient. Why stop now?”

“Patient? Fuck, fine. I tried to be patient. I tried to study and go to college. But I can’t just sit and watch those fuckers stay like that. I need to fuck them up.”

Dowook tried to slap away Maru’s arm, but Maru only strengthened his grip. The boy frowned, and tried to exert more strength. He just couldn’t do it though.

‘I mean, I was pretty strong since childhood.’

Maru looked straight at Dowook.

“You feel sick of being made fun of?”

“Fuck, you think I wouldn’t?”

“Stop swearing. You cuss way too much.”

“Fucking hell! What the hell do you want?”

Dowook gripped Maru’s collars with a shout. Maru shrugged. “Weren’t you reflecting?”

“What?”

“Did I see wrong? Were you just being patient because you didn’t want to bother with them?”

“What the hell are you talking about?”

“That’s the stuff you used to do, isn’t it? What they’re doing to you now.”

“…Me?”

“Dojin’s told me once that he keeps dreaming of his victims at night. And that whenever he’s alone in his rooms, he can hear their voices in his ears. Isn’t that the same for you?”

Dowook’s eyes shook for a second as a word bubble popped above his head.

[How did this guy know?]

The boy was surprised. Rightfully so. Maru’s been getting incredibly good at reading people over the last few days. The biggest difference he’s seen in Dowook was the fact that the boy couldn’t look straight at Daemyung.

Probably out of guilt, no doubt.

Dowook was definitely changing. He still spoke the same way, but his treatment of others was different. The other kids in the class even started speaking with him. This was good. He was realizing what was previously wrong with his personality. Maru had been confident that the boy would be able to make new friends in the near future.

But not if he goes off to beat up Changhu with that broom. Definitely not.

“What are you talking about?” Dowook asked.

“I saw you talking and smiling with other kids this morning.”

“………”

“I don’t think you’re a good guy. But you’re not bad either. I think you can change.”

This was how Maru felt so far about the boy. Dowook seemed to understand it as well. The boy shook Maru off one last time with an annoyed look. He let go this time. Dowook didn’t look like he was about to run off anymore. The boy threw down his broom on the ground.

“Stop lecturing me. It’s annoying.”

“Sorry about that.”

Dowook left the room with a shake of his head. Maru grabbed the broom on the floor.

“Couldn’t even clean?”

But just as he was about to get out after putting the broom back… His phone started ringing. Maru didn’t pick up. He had a very bad feeling about that phone call and made his way towards the exit of the school. Unfortunately, he ended up seeing something he shouldn’t have on the way.

“Hey Maru…”

“Where do you think you’re going, bud?”

Daemyung and Dojin were looking at him with a despondent expression. Miso’s smiling face never looked more devious.

* * *

Maru smiled bitterly, looking at the rest of the club members at the auditorium.

“You didn’t answer my calls, I noticed?” Miso asked.

Maru looked away for a second as he answered.

“I have bad ears.”

“Oh really? Want me to fix that for you?”

“That’s a little…”

“Take my calls from now on. Alright?”

“Yes ma’am.”

The woman truly sounded like a demoness right about now. The club members were standing in a straight line with Miso looking over them.

“How does your body feel? With how much I worked you yesterday, a little stiff I should hope?”

‘Little stiff’? That was a bit of an understatement.

“This is because you were using muscles you don’t often use. You just haven’t trained enough.”

Well, that sounded suspicious. Maru was deeply considering whether coming to this club was a good idea. He came into this club to become a casual member, not to get trained by some crazy lady.

“We’re training again. Training your voices are fine for now. I feel like I expected too much out of you yesterday. Today, we’re going to make your bodies move more flexibly. We’re going to free up your bodies from various habits it’s built up so far. Understood?”

“Yes.”

“Why so quiet?”

“Yes!!”

“Good.”

Miso’s expression changed right then.

“There’s something I need to do first though.”

She glared at the club members intensely before speaking again.

“We need to weed out the fakes. This is going to be difficult even with the serious kids.”

She looked more serious than she ever did.

Chapter 27

“I honestly want to make this club great again. I need to get the people who are truly serious in that case. Understand?” she continued after a brief pause, “High school clubs are usually for casual things, I understand. But not here. Not as long as I’m here. I only want the crazies. I want the ones who are really crazy for acting. Otherwise you might as well just give up entirely.”

Her words had strength to it. A different kind of strength from a typical leader. Miso was a tyrant. She was trying to take over the club entirely. This was wrong, especially since this was coming from a person unrelated to the school. But… When Maru turned to look at the second years, he noticed that they had their mouths closed. Even Yoonjung. Did they talk about this beforehand? Or…

The second years might actually like Miso. She was a tyrant. One that was determined to make the club members suffer. They experienced it last Sunday already. There was probably only one reason why they tolerated Miso’s tyranny despite all else.

The woman was talented.

She started with a club that had nothing, and took it to first place at nationals. Not only that, she became an instructor for a university club, even. The second years might not like the way she did things, but they had no doubts about her abilities. Because they were crazy, they were crazy enough to stay with the club even when everyone else left. They cared a lot for the club, more so than anyone else.

Maybe Miso and the second years recognized that they both loved the club more than anything else. That might be the reason for their acceptance of her way of teaching. They moved to the left without another word, with Miso standing in the middle of them and the first years still standing to her right.

“I’ll say this again. Sunday was just a hint of what you’d get out of me. That was about the worst you’ll get out of physical training. But you’ll definitely need to be prepared. I have quite the personality, as you may have realized by now. Despite this pretty face of mine.”

Miso grinned. This woman was definitely pretty. She was expressive, and she even had a good body. But no one in the room thought that the woman looked pretty right now. Maru looked around him. To his expectations, everyone’s bodies were stiffened up even more than usual.

Except for one person.

Geunseok stepped to the left before Miso even managed to finish. He looked at Miso without another word. Miso nodded.

“Those of you who are thinking of working with me, be prepared to sacrifice your weekdays and your weekends. So think carefully. You really don’t want to be here to be casual. I don’t want people who are crazy in acting to become an actor.”

Miso looked to her left.

“I’ll torture the people to my left. Same for the stage managers as well. After all, just because you signed up to be a manager once doesn’t mean you will always be a manager in this club.”

And then to her right.

“I’ll ask for small tasks from the people to the right. Hey, can you do this? What about that? Stuff like that. I promise a fun high school life from you. I’ll let you watch plays every once in awhile as well. Sounds good, right?”

Her face wore a smile, but her eyes weren’t. She was making her position very clear to the students. The people to the left were the ‘real’ club. Everyone else were only here for the sake of it.

The first years exchanged their looks. Daemyung and Dojin looked at each other as well before turning to Maru.

“I’m doing it. Daemyung is going to as well. You too, right?”

“Dunno.”

“What do you mean, dunno?”

Dojin walked over to the left with a deep breath. Daemyung scrambled over as well. The first years began moving one by one to the left. Iseul moved, then Taejoon followed. Yurim seemed hesitant at first, but ended up following her friend Soyeon to the left. Maru was the only one left.

He looked over for a second. Everyone in the club was looking at him expectantly. Plays. He actually quite liked plays. He’s seen a countless number of them when he was a road manager. He’s even asked several personalities about becoming an actor in the past. He was interested for sure.

‘So why… ’

Maru looked inside himself for a second. Just how did he want to live? The club would be fun. The people were great. He’d be able to be with his friends. But would it be a good thing to lose so much of his time to the club? He looked over at his two friends. They probably didn’t know how difficult life would get after this.

College degrees didn’t matter for squat if you didn’t come from a big one, and you had to learn random words from different languages for the slight chance you could use them.

Learning that you couldn’t become an employee of a company even after suffering for weeks as an intern, and realizing how stupid and unreal ‘dreams’ were in the end.

That was the kind of life waiting for his friends.

Even now, Maru was trying his best to study right after school. It wasn’t like he was trying to succeed as a scholar. He didn’t even have the brains for it. But he did know the amount of choices good grades would provide for him in the future.

That’s right.

He knew.

And that was the reason for his hesitation. If he didn’t know all of this, he would have stepped to the left right away. To make all those wonderful memories with his friends. He would’ve spent his time working his ass off to try to become an actor. But even now, he was weighing his options carefully. He was thinking about how much good this would do him.

Even though he didn’t want to. He couldn’t help it. He’s cried too much suffering from society trying to feed his family in the past. Thanks to it, there was a module in his head that did all his calculations for him.

He didn’t want to do it.

He wanted to just jump in there for a year.

[Daddy, can you buy me that? Please? Ah… No, no. I don’t actually need it. I don’t need it.]

What day was it again? Christmas? Her birthday? He recalled his daughter’s exact words as she looked at something with desire. The first thing Maru thought of at the time was his empty wallet and his wife’s warning of ‘raising the rent’. He didn’t say anything and just looked down at his daughter.

The poor girl caught onto his thoughts far too quickly. It was less painful for him to suffer a beating from his boss instead. Looking at such a little girl having to shake her head with such a knowing look made him feel like the world was falling apart.

He was living in the present.

But his mind was still stuck in the past. A constant reminder of his future.

The woman said to him that he could meet his wife and child again. His past came crashing back down on him. If he didn’t want to repeat his poor life again, he would have to try hard. He’d have to invest a lot in order to succeed in life.

What he needed to invest was time.

“Well, we’ll say this is it, then,” Miso turned her back on him.

The first years all looked at him strangely. Right, this was fine. He would give up a little bit of fun in the present to gain a greater happiness in the future.

Maru… did not move from the right.

“Now, Maru,” Miso said.

“Yes.”

“You can leave now.”

“…Yes.”

He waved goodbye to his two dumbfounded friends and slipped out. What he wanted to do, he had no answer for. He was just getting chased around by the idea that he couldn’t ‘waste time’.

A fun life…

Maru scratched his eyebrow. It felt like something was burning inside him, but maybe he was just imagining things.

Probably.

* * *

Maru sat down on his table after getting dinner. He felt like a third year already. He didn’t like math or English very much, but studying it constantly at least allowed him an understanding of it.

‘I guess they were right when they said you study with your butt,’ he found himself thinking.

He looked at the clock after a while of studying. It was 10pm already. His phone beeped right then. Two text messages.

[You damn traitor!]

[Maru, this really hurts.]

They were from Dojin and Daemyung respectively. It must be over now. Today was probably bad for them as well. He would expect no less from Miso. He sent them a text telling both of them to rest before coming out to the living room. His sister was watching TV. She glanced his way for a second, did she want to say something?

“You want to use the computer?”

“No.”

“Are you hungry?”

“No!”

That temper of hers again. His father wasn’t back yet. He was at his second night shift. Mom was out at her friend’s place working. Something about building cars? Maru didn’t quite know what she did. All he did know was that all of their money was being invested right back into this household.

He didn’t know when he was young. He just thought this kind of stuff was just… obvious.

Of course the fridge would have food. Of course the house would always be warm. Of course his parents would provide for him. But… They weren’t such obvious things in reality.

He recalled the phrase ‘equivalent exchange’. This was what the house was. All the comfort he was experiencing came out from an equivalent amount of work.

“Do you want juice?”

“Oh my gosh, stop it!!”

His sister passed by him into her room after looking at him like an alien.

“Puberty, huh.”

Maru stepped back into his room with a cup of juice in hand and started studying again. He would ask the smart guy about the parts he didn’t understand tomorrow. His pen moved smoothly over his book. Right now, he didn’t understand whether the decision he made today was the right one or the wrong one.

“I’ll be able to tell far in the future.”

Maru studied for another hour before standing up with a stretch. He exercised for a few minutes before returning to his room.

It was a productive day. As a matter of fact, he probably couldn’t have been more productive. So why…

“Why am I sighing so much?”

Click. He shut off the lights in his room. Maru lay down on his heated mattress. Right as he was getting ready to sleep, he noticed a small light on the wall. It was a glow-in-the-dark sticker, shaped like a moon. Something he put up in the past.

[Moon is cool because it shines.]

He recalled saying. But he knew better now.

“The moon is a pitiful thing. It can’t shine by itself.”

The moon only shone next to someone brighter. Maru closed his eyes.

That night, Maru dreamed, looking up at the moon above him.

Chapter 28

Studying, chatting, and then going home. Occasionally visiting PC bangs and bathhouses with friends before coming back home to study. By the time Maru was done with his studies it was already 11 at night. He would blog a little, surf the web for a few minutes before going to sleep at midnight. He could hear his computer’s fan whirling in the background.

Maru stared blankly at his monitor for a second before pulling out a book. It was something he borrowed from a nearby library. He tried to find a few “self-improvement” books, but couldn’t find many of them. Come to think of it, there was no such thing during this time.

From the time Maru started working in a company all the way to becoming a bus driver, he had read a pile of books as high as him. Reading this many self improvement books lead him to one conclusion.

Self improvement books were just books about successful people reminiscing about their past.

“But I keep reading them again and again for some reason.”

One of the books he remembered most had a Japanese author: The Morning Person. The trend of this era was being active in the morning. The idea that the early birds would succeed was the prevalent thing in this time. Maru turned the page. He knew every word the author would say after each page, but still read it anyway.

It was 1am by the time he finished the book. He set it next to his bed before falling asleep. Today was a productive day. So why…

“Why did it feel so unfulfilling?”

It feels like he was on a highway with nothing around it. He knew he wouldn’t be taking any detours as long as he was on this highway. Despite that, he couldn’t help but look at people driving on the twisty local roads. At the people who were enjoying the scenery to the fullest, going on an adventure following where the road was taking them.

Being late to their destination didn’t matter, as long as they managed to arrive in the end. The only problem is…

“When you run out of fuel.”

Having to watch other people zoom by you as you sit on the road completely out of fuel. Maru closed his eyes again, this time accompanied with a bitter smile. Today, too, he realized living again wasn’t such an easy thing after all. A quiet air descended down on his room.

* * *

Time passed quickly. The entire class was used to school life by now. None of their previous confusion was here now. Everyone was in a friend group of their own, friend groups that’s been around long enough to last the entire year now.

It was currently the end of April. Maru looked out at the window as his two friends sat next to him, with bread in one hand and chips on the other. Countless students approached them asking for a bite, but Dojin shooed them all away.

“I asked for this burger from the guy at the store. Ugh, you beautiful little thing, you.”

Dojin offered Maru half of the burger with a grin. Maru accepted with a quick thank you.

“This guy needs to lose weight. At least, according to instructor Miso.”

“Just a little more, she says. Ugh.”

Daemyung sipped on water sadly. They both seemed to be working at the club well. Dojin and Daemyung both became actors. According to them, Miso told them to practice the characters they wanted to play. They both tried for the more important side characters, but failed just like that. In the end, they ended up becoming passenger 1 and co.

“I have no idea why I can’t even memorize such simple things.” “My head is still drawing a blank in front of the teach. I can’t do anything.”

Teach, huh. They seemed to have gotten closer to her. Then again, it was pretty inevitable with them getting together almost every day. Sometimes they would get together for lunch as well. Of course, Maru had no idea what they were doing. He usually just showed up on Saturdays to read a few lines and make a few props.

[You can leave now, Maru.]

That was the most he would ever get out of Miso. 5 o’clock on full school days, and 3 o’clock during half days. Miso would always tell him that when the clock reached that time. At that point, Maru would grab his bag and just leave. There were other things happening in the auditorium, but Maru has never bothered to stay.

“Is it alright?”

That was the only thing he found himself saying because of that. Is it alright? There was not much else he could ask, since he had no idea what was going on behind the stage.

“I’m dying, man.”

“So tired…”

The response from his friends were always the same as well. Always a variant of “I’m tired”. But Maru could tell that their expressions had changed. They were definitely experiencing progress. Maru took a big bite out of his burger. He’s regretted deciding to stay on the sidelines a few times after that day. Especially whenever he looked at his club members laugh about a script he knew nothing about. Then his regret would multiply even more.

But he was fine now, having gotten used to it.

“Work hard, alright? There’s only a month left, right?”

“Yeah, just about a month,” Dojin responded, sucking away at his fingers.

“Man, I’m so nervous. I hope we get into at least 8th place.”

Maru already knew about the story as well. In the city-wide competitions, 16 teams out of 80 schools would qualify for the regionals. The first and second place in the regionals would then be able to move onto nationals. It was a pretty tight schedule, especially with 11 club members and a single helper.

They might be able to take care of the costumes with the ones made by their seniors, but the props had to be made from scratch.

“Class is about to begin, man.”

“Here, have some of this, Maru.”

Maru slipped the bag of chips Daemyung gave him under his desk. To think the kid was able to control himself… He must be quite motivated.

‘They’re all doing very well.’

Again, that slight feeling of loneliness came over Maru. Though, having a few of the chips did help get rid of it.

‘I should just stick to doing what I can.’

He’s already made his decision a month ago. Thinking about it any further was just unhealthy.

“Yo Dowook, I need my notebook back.”

“Sure.”

Maru turned to look at where the voices came from. He could see Dowook give back a notebook to a friend. He’s melded into the class very well since then. He got mad every once in a while, but nothing big.

Dowook would look away whenever their eyes met. He seemed like he wanted to say something, but refused to say it himself. What a complicated kid.

The class door opened with a creak, and the teacher finally walked in.

* * *

“Hard at work, huh?”

Mom walked in with a smile. For the last two months, Maru was living by the same pattern over and over again. School, library, gym, study. It was no surprise that his mom would say something like this to him at this point.

“But… there’s nothing happening, is there?”

“What’s happening?”

“Mom’s happy that you’ve matured, but you know… It’s a bit sudden.”

Mom put down a bag of chips on Maru’s desk. He looked up at his mother, who gave him a slightly awkward smile.

“Just talk to me if there’s something going on, okay?”

“Alright.”

“Good.”

Mom closed the door quietly on the way out. By the time she was halfway through closing, she called out to him.

“I’ll knock from now on.”

“It’s whatever.”

Maru exclaimed at amazement inside. His parents were very perceptive about how he changed. Then again, he was the same with his daughter. It would actually be strange if they didn’t notice something. Mom probably thought that Maru just matured all of the sudden. It probably felt surprising to her.

Well, equal parts surprising and disappointing. Maru was well acquainted with the feeling of watching a child leave their parent’s grasps. That feeling of learning that their children didn’t need them anymore.

“I… should treat them well.”

Thousands of thoughts passed by in his head. He didn’t really feel like studying anymore today. He closed the textbook and laid down on the bed with a new book. This one was an autobiography written by an actor. The man was apparently famous, but Maru had no clue of who he was. He just picked it up because it was in the recommended section.

Maru started turning the page. After a while of it, he turned off the lights. Today was also a good day. Probably…

* * *

The weather was warm enough for Maru to bike without gloves today. It’s been awhile since he last did it. He could feel the rubber rub at his palms.

The weather was much better now. It will be May soon. People were starting to dress lighter outside. It really was the season when people started transitioning back into their usual jackets.

The bike chains rattled under him. Maru pedaled wondering if he needed to oil the damn thing today. Speaking of which, today was a day for the students to spend on their clubs. The acting club, too, was gathered completely on the 5th floor auditorium.

The two things he had on him were book he was reading last night, as well as a bottle of water. Not much has changed for Maru despite the lack of classes. Most of the props were done now, and all there was left to do was to practice acting. Maru parked the bike at the school and started up the stairs. He could hear the soccer club shouting amongst themselves outside.

They probably bet a lot of money on the oncoming match.

He could hear singing as he came up to the 5th floor. The music club, no doubt. Right next to it, he could hear the toy club mess around with a bunch of things in their room. The entire floor was loud. Only by the time he came to the middle of the floor could he finally starting to hear the acting club.

“Stretches first, and then we’ll start.”

“Yes ma’am!”

He could hear the students talking brightly behind the door. The club was supposed to meet at 9am. Maru took out his phone to make sure one more time. 8:50am. Everyone was trying very hard in the club.

Maru opened the door with a strange sense of nervousness.

Chapter 29

The first thing that greeted him was heat. The next was the 11 sets of eyes staring at him. Maru shrugged before saying his greetings to Miso.

“Hello.”

“Yeah.”

The answer was short, but he was used to it. Maru stepped up to one of the audience seats, where all the drinks for the actors were located. He sat down there with his book. He could see the actors here from this spot.

Maru turned to his left where he could see the props that were supposed to be used in this play. Sofas, tables, tablecloths, wooden plants and etc…

“Ah ah ah ah. Lower your voices a little. More strength in your abdomen. Really make use of your diaphragm. Imagine for a second that you’re looking inside yourselves. When you’re opening your mouth to go ahh, you can see your vocal cords open. The air would pass through it from your stomach all the way to your mouth. Don’t let any of the air out, though, just the sound. Try to drag out all the sound you can from your belly,” Miso said, grabbing at one of the students’ stomachs.

She held one hand over their stomach and one hand over the parts where they were messing up. Each time the club members would correct their position and try again. Maru could easily see the difference from the first time they practiced together.

First of all, the club members were way more composed. Their voices weren’t trembling either. It was deep now. All thanks to practice.

“Good, now walk fast.”

The students formed a circle together as soon as Miso said the word. They started walking as if they were trying to catch the person in front of them. They were quite fast, actually.

“Try to remember how you’re moving right now. Feel exactly what muscles you’re using with each step. Remember how you’re taking your breaths. Imagine that there’s a camera filming your head from the top, like a 3rd person point of view.”

After around five minutes of this, Miso clapped her hand, “Slowly.” The students slowed down almost as if they were shooting a slo-mo video. This wasn’t anything new to Maru at this point, though.

He’s seen a lot of this when he was a road manager. It was pretty typical for actors to do this kind of stuff. After all, body language was very important to them. He could still remember an inexperienced actor being scolded over it.

Maru’s tried that type of practice a long time ago as well. He just kind of joined in when the actual actors were practicing out of curiosity. He didn’t learn a lot, of course. Especially because he didn’t know their instructor for too long. He did hear about what the man was doing by the time he found a company to work for, though. The instructor became a salaryman at a company, just like himself.

“Don’t move your fingers or toes! Make every bit of movement meaningful! This is important right now. You don’t want any wasted movement when you’re acting. You understand?”

“Yes!!”

The club members were moving very slowly despite their quick answer. They were probably going to go at it for around ten more minutes. Despite its appearance, moving slowly like this consumed a lot of energy. An example of this was to stand at position for a length of time in the military.

One by one, the students started frowning. They sometimes even lost their balance and broke the circle at times. Every time they did this, Miso shouted at them angrily.

“Focus!”

She was a total lioness. Maru opened his book and started reading. There was no way he’d allow himself to get involved in that training routine anyway. After a few more minutes of this, they all stood in a line again. Miso allowed them 15 minutes of rest.

Maru closed his book and looked forward. He could see the club members desperately competing for water. He threw the one in front of him towards Dojin.

“Oh my god, it’s so bad!”

“You’re still alive, at least.”

“Huff, huff.”

Even Geunseok was huffing in pain from all the training in the morning. Yurim was fiddling with her phone even during recovery. At this point, it was almost an extension of her.

“My legs hurt,” Soyeon said, massaging her calves. She was noticeably thinner than before. She was still a little chubby, but she looked a lot more agile now.

Iseul and Taejoon still looked good as always. Oh, correction. Taejoon wasn’t as handsome with all the exhaustion in his eyes. The boy had surprisingly little stamina despite his physical build. He was doing even worse than Daemyung, which was saying something.

‘Is this a camp for dieting?’

No matter the intention, there was no doubt that this training routine was effective on weight loss.

“I thought I was going to get a cramp in my left leg.”

“Just ignore it.”

“Ugh, what happened to just being stage managers for our second year?” Minsung said towards Joonghyuk. They claimed to be managers for the second year, but they themselves were participating religiously in Miso’s training. Both of them managed to snatch pretty good roles for themselves. The main character’s father and uncle respectively.

“Ugh, Danmi, can you massage my legs? They hurt.”

“Shush, I’m tired too.”

“Oh gosh, you’ve turned so cold.”

Yoonjung and Danmi were talking together as well. They were all radiating with heat. Maru weaved through each of them, handing out cold water and snacks as required.

“Niceee, Mr. Manager,” Yoonjung commented.

At one point, that’s what Maru’s title had become. Not even he could remember who called him that first. It was a joke at first, but everyone became used to calling him like this now.

Manager. He didn’t think he would be referred to as such again. It was pretty strange.

“Work hard, okay?”

“We will. There’s not much time left.”

Break time was the only time that Maru could mingle a little bit. It was also the time Maru could use to figure out what the club was learning right then. The club members weaved their complaints about the intensity of the training along with their praise of her. Then again, even Maru could tell how good Miso was at her job.

“We’re going to do readings!” Miso shouted from the back.

The club members took their scripts and ran over. Maru looked at them for a little bit before taking out his book again.

“Don’t be too lonely, alright? Haha,” Dojin told him as he walked away.

Loneliness was a feeling one could only experience after having belonged to a group. Maru did feel a little excluded sometimes, but never lonely. After all, he’s never felt that same heat and passion the other club members felt. There was no way he could put himself on the same level as them.

He could hear the lines of each member hit his ears as he read. The play they were putting on this time was something called the ‘Warm Table’. A play that Miso brought in herself. It was about a play that dealt with problems that teens of their age might have. There were two scenes in the play in total. The inside and outside of the house where the story took place. Maru remembered building the props for both of those things before.

Ah, he was getting distracted again. Back to reading. The voices of the club members were starting to fade into the background of his consciousness. He realized this only recently, but he found that his focus improved a lot whenever he was reading.

Only towards normal books, though. He’s tried it for both math and english textbooks, but the focus didn’t come to him with so many weird letters and numbers involved.

“I should be able to get a full score in Korean literature though.”

He flipped the page with a small smile creeping on his face. The actor’s autobiography was describing the kind of life being the actor would lead, and what kind of roles he took. It was written well enough for him to keep enjoying the book as he read.

At one point, he reached a sentence that he resonated with quite a bit.

- I had no idea my life would turn out this way. Before I got my first role, I thought that I would become a used car salesman in the future. To think I would become an actor… Life really is a strange thing.

The writer was right. Life was a strange thing indeed. You could never know what might happen tomorrow. Despite the mystery of tomorrow, all of us kept whipping ourselves onward to make it more comfortable. So that the me of the future could live a better life than me of the present. He continued to read a few pages afterward before someone called him out again.

“Han Maru.”

It was Miso. Maru put down his book and walked towards her.

“Yes?”

“Try reading this.” She threw the script his way. It was one of the lines from the main character, where the character would monologue after having an argument with a friend. Maru started reading.

“I know what I did was wrong. But what he did was no better. He shouldn’t have gotten angry over something so small.”

He read slowly. Miso occasionally called him out to do readings like this. He still had no idea why. Perhaps she was trying to show a bad example of reading by using him?

“Good. Give it back.”

“Alright.”

Maru handed the script back to Miso and went back to reading. By the time he was finished, he looked up at the clock again. It was almost five already. Ten minutes away from when he could leave. He started packing. He put his water bottle and the book went back in his bag. The club members were still busy practicing in front of him.

“Look forward, not at the ground! Are you trying to show the audience what the top of your head looks like or what?!”

Miso was still shouting. Soyeon’s head jerked up in response. A little too much, though, earning another ‘tch’ from Miso. Maru couldn’t help but be amazed at how good Miso was at teaching. She really was keeping her word about acting. About how a person could only act well if they were crazy for it.

“To truly be crazy at something is not to just enjoy it, but to constantly be focused on it… Was it?”

Maru looked at the club from his seat, wondering where they were looking to do with their lives. How much would it help in life to be crazy for acting? Maru started calculating in his head. No matter how much he fiddled with the variables, he could only see a failed life in his head.

‘I’m going to turn into a total pessimist like this.’

He was aware of how cold and calculating he was becoming as a person. It was embarrassing, especially when he looked at the fiery club members in front of him. Even now, his brain was telling him to use this time to study more English, to study more math. Use this time to stu…

Slap!

Maru slapped himself. He felt like he couldn’t shake himself out of that sinkhole in his head otherwise. Thing was…

“M-Maru, dude.”

“What’s wrong?”

He slapped too hard. Everyone was looking at him, including Miso. He smiled a little awkwardly in response.

“There was a mosquito.”

Mosquito in April… It was a stupid excuse, but at least it’d work.

“Oh, what the heck.”

“Man, you surprised it.”

“You went at it a bit too strong there, didn’t you?”

The club members responded with a smile. Maru just kept his mouth shut with a grin. The clock reached 5. He stood up from his spot almost in a knee jerk reaction. He put his bag on and turned to Miso. He was waiting for the same old words to come out of her mouth.

“Dinner time. First years, go buy some food outside.”

Miso took out a few bills from her wallet and handed it out. The first years all streamed out of the auditorium together, while the second years started talking about the script amongst each other. Everyone seemed to be trying to take a break, one way or the other.

Even Miso was pretty much lying down against her chair. Maru approached her after waiting for a little bit.

“I’ll be heading out.”

“………”

Miso didn’t respond. Was something wrong? Maru decided that she was just too tired to respond, and turned to leave. But just as he creaked the door a little bit, a voice came from behind him.

“Going home?” asked Miso. When did she get there? The woman walked through the door first before him. Maru nodded as he headed for the stairs.

Only thing was… Miso was following him as well. About halfway down, Maru turned to look up at her.

“Do you have something you need to talk about?”

“…Tsk.”

Miso turned away with a click of her tongue. She seemed to want to say something, but closed her mouth right after opening it. Just what was she up to? Maru bowed to her once more before walking away again. Whatever it was, it probably wasn’t important.

But after the third step he took,

“Hey,” Miso called out, “we need to talk.”

Chapter 30

The rooftop was pretty breezy. Miso opened it up for the two of them with the rooftop key she got from the faculty. She must’ve told them she wanted it for practice.

“Are you busy?”

“Why would a student be busy?”

“Izzat so?”

Miso walked towards the railings. She put her hands over the concrete fence and looked down at the field below. Maru walked up next to her as well. He could see the sun beginning to disappear over the horizon. Below, he could see the members of the soccer club talking loudly with each other with snacks and drinks.

“Your stamina’s pretty good, right?”

“Well, I am young.”

“Young, huh.”

Miso looked towards him. This one… felt different. In the auditorium, she was king. Eleven people followed her words like the bible, and one sentence from her had the lot of them groveling for forgiveness. There, she was always confident and strong, even unfeeling towards the slightest bit of regret whenever she swore.

But right now, she was…

‘She’s having difficulty talking?’

He could see it from the way she moved. The wayher lips were twisting, and the occasion sigh. Plus,

[This boy’s so difficult.]

The word bubble basically confirmed everything.

“What, is there something above my head?” Miso asked when Maru glanced at the bubble.

“…Just a mosquito.”

“Ah, sure.”

“I thought you had something to say?”

“Something to say…”

Miso twirled her hair with a finger with a groan.

“What the hell are you?”

“Excuse me?”

The question came out of nowhere, but it felt like a strong jab towards Maru.

“I’ve never seen such a depressing high schooler in my entire life. Is something happening at your home or what?”

“Both of my parents are doing fine, and there’s nothing especially distressing going on right now.”

“Look at you, sounding like an old man.”

“…Is that so?”

Well, she wasn’t exactly wrong. He did try to act his age when he was talking with kids his age. But whenever he talked with adults? He didn’t even try. Maybe his 45 year old self came out completely raw in front of them.

That would explain why his mom acted the way she did at his room last night. Dowook had yelled at him about this as well. Telling him to stop acting like a damn know-it-all. He couldn’t help but smile a little when he thought about that.

“The hell?”

“It’s nothing. I just thought of something funny. What was that thing you wanted to tell me about, though? It doesn’t seem like you just wanted to critique me on my line reading.”

“…Did you come from the mountains or something?”

“No way.”

“Do you live with your grandfather?”

“He’s passed away long ago.”

“………”

“What do you want to tell me?”

Miso sighed deeply before turning to look at him.

“I’ll just be straight here. Are you going to just keep sitting there?”

“Me?”

“Yes, you.”

Miso crossed her arms.

“I’ve taught a lot of kids in the past. By your age, no matter how mature they are, they still feel a tad bit young in some areas. It can’t be helped, they just don’t have enough experience in life. That’s why kids your age care so much about belonging to a group. They want to get that feeling of ‘I’m doing the same thing as you!’ Those who are outside of that group typically feel left out and nervous because they didn’t manage to get ‘in’. ”

Miso let out a small ‘tsk’ under her breath. She was feeling annoyance at the fact that she had to explain everything.

“Kids like you always come out when I decide to take care of clubs. Kids that always stand to the right. I just ignore them. Why? Because I know that they’d either leave the club or join the left. It’s not that hard to change clubs after all.”

She looked a little bit worked up.

[What am I doing in front of a kid?]

A pink word bubble popped up when their eyes met. Maru once thought that the color might have some kind of a meaning behind it. Seeing how the color of the word bubble was universally pink, though, he figured that it was just god’s preference or something.

“But you… You aren’t either of those things. No, that’s wrong. You just keep wanting to be neutral. You’re balancing that feeling of wanting to be in the club, but not wanting to participate very very well. Most kids make their decision in just two weeks. You…”

Miso took off her hair tie annoyedly. Her yellow hair fluttered with the wind on the rooftop. She looked like a jellyfish, Maru thought, as opposed to a pretty lady. Though he wasn’t sure why that was the first thing he thought of.

‘I guess she’s a pretty jellyfish.’

“Again!”

“What?”

“You were thinking of something else again.”

She was really good at this. Maru supposed it was to be expected from an actor.

“Well, yes.”

“I knew it. Talking with you just doesn’t work. Aren’t you scared of me?”

“Well, sort of.”

“It’s really weird. How are you so calm for a high schooler? It’s been a month. No, more than a month. How are you not doing anything after all that time? I thought you’d just quit. But you’re still not late to the club meetings, and you’re even participating every once in a while. Despite all that, you never cross a certain line. Almost as if you’re very comfortable with where you are now.”

Miso grabbed the railing and shouted ‘gah!’ into the air. The kids at the field started looking around in confusion. Maru pulled her back a little bit from embarrassment, eliciting yet another a reaction.

“Oh lord, you’re driving me crazy,” Miso sighed with a defeated look, “do you know what they call people in their forties?”

“Unconfused (不惑).”

“…Do you know what it means?”

“As I understand it, it’s the age when you’re so focused on life that you never lose your sense of judgement.”

“Damn it, that’s exactly what I thought when I saw you. Unconfused. You seem very unwavering in your ways.”

“That’s a good thing, isn’t it?”

“It’s good. Sure, it’s great. But it’s a little too much in your case. I’m awareI don’t know much about you, but…”

Miso took a deep breath before continuing.

“You act like a person who knows the world will end tomorrow or something.”

* * *

Too much, huh. That was the thought circulating in Maru’s brain as he unlocked his bike. She wasn’t wrong. He always thought about his next move. He was trying his best in studying. Not to the point of getting nosebleeds. He tried that three weeks ago before realizing he definitely wasn’t cut out for that amount of studying.

People say that anything is possible if you try hard enough. That studying was one of those things as well. Being good at studying wasn’t a product of talent, but hard work. Maru only figured out the truth to this statement as he grew older. What he was told was just something the adults made up for the kids.

The kids who are good at studying worked hard. The kids who didn’t were just lazy. It was a really easy way to measure kids. It was like handing a bunch of kids a basketball for the first time and telling them to score. Sure, some would make it. The rest wouldn’t. It was obvious. Of course everyone would expect most kids to fail. But as soon as that basketball changed into a pencil, that all went away.

You need to be able to dunk too!

There’s no way you can’t do this!

That’s what the adults always said. Maru said it often as well.

“Never realized that I just couldn’t do it.”

If only he had money or power. Then he’d be able to let his kids do what they really wanted.

Ah. That’s when Maru realized.

[You act like a person who knows the world will end tomorrow or something.]

He was still thinking of his future family. Of his future wife and daughter. Maru got on his bike. He was thinking of the present, but his eyes were dead set on the future. He just didn’t care about his current situation in life because he was so concerned with something so far away. That was the only reason why he didn’t feel any strong emotions towards the club…

‘I was just too focused on something else.’

His mouth was turning dry. This was the reason why he felt so empty despite having productive days. Why he felt so cold and unfulfilled despite accomplishing things one by one. Why he was so nervous.

“What do I want to do?”

The question came at him yet again, stronger than ever. Dream. That word… Maru started pedalling. He needed to talk with someone.

* * *

Maru took a shower the first thing after coming back. He stepped out to the market nearby to pick up some snacks. Onion chips and shrimp chips. As he killed some time watching TV after coming back, his sister arrived home. She came over to him as soon as she saw the chips.

“Can I have some?”

Maru shook his head.

“Sorry, these are for someone else.”

“Someone else?”

His sister stood up annoyedly, and stopped away with ‘fine, be that way’ under her breath. Another two hours passed. The clock was nearing 8 now. Mom came back, had her dinner, and went straight to bed. He could hear her tired breaths from the other room. More time passed.

His sister came out of his room with a yawn after using the computer. She stared at his snacks with a devious look for a few seconds before going back to her room. The weekend drama finished, and the clock pointed at ten. Mom came back out to the kitchen.

“Don’t sleep too late.”

“Don’t worry.”

“What are the snacks for, by the way? TV?”

“No, they’re for drinking.”

“…Just go to sleep.”

“Ok.”

Maru changed the channel after mom went back. Another hour passed. The door opened, and a man enters with a deep sigh. It was dad.

“Dad.”

“Ah, yeah. Maru.”

“You’re back now?”

“Yes, I am. You were watching TV?”

“No.”

“Then?”

“I was waiting for you.”

“Me?”

Dad’s eyes widened in surprise. Maru took off dad’s factory coat for him.

“Here, wash up first.”

“S-sure.”

Dad stepped into the bathroom with a surprised look. Maru took out a few beers and two bottles of soju from the fridge. Along with two cups and two shot glasses. Dad looked even more confused after coming out. Probably because he noticed two glasses.

“Dad.”

“Yeah.”

“Please teach me about alcohol.”

“What?”

“You told me last time to ask you to teach me how to drink.”

“Y-yeah.”

Dad sat down in surprise. To think his son would come to him like this all of the sudden… Maru opened the bottle of soju and started pouring. He poured only half a shot for his dad.

“It’s late, so I’ll just give you half.”

“…Sure.”

Dad grabbed the soju bottle with a smile and poured Maru half a glass as well.

“Thank you.”

After a small clink, the two of them took their first shot together. Maru opened his mouth after pouring the second shot.

“I had something I wanted to ask you, dad.”

Chapter 31

“Something you want to ask me?”

Maru looked down at his drink for a second. When was the last time he talked with his dad like this? It was probably the night after introducing the love of his life. That day, he remembered hearing his father say,

[Finally, I get to have a drink with you.]

Father and son. They lived for over twenty years as family, but their relationship was still strangely awkward. Saying ‘dad’ each time made Maru feel embarrassed for some reason at the time. Only after getting a daughter himself did Maru start regretting such things. He regretted not having talked to his dad more. The man must’ve felt sad over the coldness of his own son. And now… Maru watched as his father took a swig accompanied by a happy expression on his face.

“What was your dream, dad?”

“Dream? Me?”

“Yes.”

“…You really did change a bit after becoming a high schooler, didn’t you. And here I thought your mother was exaggerating.”

Dad smiled.

“My dream, huh. I wanted to be a boxer when I was your age. I was pretty good back in high school, actually.”

“You wanted to go pro.”

“Pretty much.”

Maru knew that his dad had gone to amateur competitions several times, but not the fact that his father wanted to go pro. Come to think of it, he never heard what dad’s past was like either. He never asked, after all. He was pretty uncaring, wasn’t he. He knew so little about his own parents.

“Right. But my family didn’t have a lot of money. My dad’s household went bankrupt when I was still in school. That’s when my dad, ah, your grandfather, fell ill as well.”

Dad grabbed the bottle to pour Maru a glass. Maru lifted up his glass with two hands.

“When’d you learn something like this?”

Maru grinned. Another one of his old habits. It kind of came out of nowhere. His dad downed his shot in one gulp.

“My mother jumped into the workforce for the first time in her life, and I couldn’t keep boxing as well. With how well off my family was originally, I could’ve gone to college but I ended up just working right after high school. My sisters were in the same boat as me. No, it was worse, actually. Women weren’t treated so well back then.”

“Did you end up getting a job right away?”

“I worked at factories for a bit before going into the mines. That was around 1987, I think.”

Maru glanced at his dad’s hands. Those hands looked darker than ever to him for some reason.

“Dream… My dream back then was to get my own house. I saved up a bunch of money then. I had met your mother around that time and we got married. I gave up on the mining gig because of your mom. Since your mother was working at a company at the time, I could rest a little bit. I looked for a new job while I rested. In the end, I went into a small factory. Since your mother worked at a trade company, our income wasn’t that small. And then you were born.”

“She must’ve had to quit her job.”

“Yup. Your mother cried a lot during then. Nowadays she’s just a lady who tries to buy things on sale but she was amazing back then. The company knew of her worth, but they couldn’t keep a pregnant woman working in their company. The world was really unfair back then.”

Dad took another shot angrily.

“And then the IMF came. My factory had to close down. There was no way it could survive, especially when the 8th biggest company in the country had to close down as well. Thankfully, the boss had accumulated an insane amount of dollar bills, so we were able to start anew very easily.” (The Asian Financial Crisis)

“That was the time when the dollar bill doubled its value compared to the Korean won, wasn’t it? He must’ve made a lot.”

“You remember? This was during your elementary school.”

“Sort of. I remember you and mom being really down back then.”

That was just an excuse. He learned all of this back in the past.

“I see. Of course you kids would’ve noticed. There aren’t any problems in raising the two of you now though, so don’t worry.”

Dad smiled wryly.

“Anyway. Dreams, right? Right, dreams. Maru, Dreams are good to have, but it isn’t a problem to not have one either. Most people just talk about their dreams despite not actually having one. Even so… I hope you don’t live like me, and end up getting a dream of your own.”

“What’s wrong with living like you? You’re doing a great job, dad.”

“Oh, you.”

Dad drank with an embarrassed look. Maru put away the bottle of soju to the side. They weren’t drinking to get drunk, but rather to start opening up between each other. He opened a can of beer instead.

“I had a lot of dreams, but my current one is for you to do well like me. And maybe help out with our retirement in the future as well?”

“You’re already thinking of retirement?”

“I’m just saying it now just in case.”

“Don’t worry, I’ll take care of you.”

“…That was a joke. No parent would ever want to be a burden on their children. I just hope you live well enough by yourself. I’m preparing very carefully for my retirement, you know. Going to travel the world with your mother.”

Dad sounded like an excited child. Very different compared to his usually quite demeanor. Maru poured himself a new glass of beer. It was sweet on his tongue.

“Speaking of which, Maru. What’s your dream?”

“Me?”

“Yes, you must have one, don’t you?”

“I don’t know. I asked because I was curious. I don’t know what my dream really is.”

“Who else would know your dream other than yourself?”

“Funny, isn’t it? I should know my dream.”

Maru took another swig, annoyance plastered all over his face as he downed the beer. He chugged the entire thing in one gulp and wiped his mouth. Oops. That was a mistake. He shouldn’t have drank so much in front of his dad.

“You’re drinking well.”

“Hahaha. O-of course. I’m your son, after all.”

“Then again, I drank quite a bit myself when I delivered rice wine in your age. It was very tasty, taking a few sips from a bottle as I biked around town.”

“You didn’t get punished by grandpa?”

“Of course I did.”

The two of them talked for a while after that. Maru’s dad told him all sorts of stories, almost as if he was saving them up since the day Maru was born. Maru, too, had a lot of questions to ask dad as well. They were connecting with each other after years of excommunication. It was just a short conversation, but Maru took a lot from it.

“We should sleep now. It’s late.”

“Yes.”

Maru threw away the empty cellophane of snacks and put the alcohol back in the fridge. Dad stepped back into his room with a smile on his face. Maru grabbed onto his door handle as well. Right then, dad peeped his head back into the dark living room.

“Maru.”

“Yes?”

“I don’t know if I should be saying this to you, but you look like you can take it so I will.”

Dad paused for a few seconds before continuing.

“I think you should have a dream. Life becomes too boring otherwise. Whatever you decide to do, I hope your dream has something to do with it. But…”

Dad turned to look at Maru. No word bubble popped up. Even so, Maru was able to catch a glimpse of what dad was thinking. The man’s expression and breathing told him everything.

“I hope you know this. To have a dream is a very brave thing to do. And… People who have a dream must be prepared to give it up as well.”

His smile seemed to have a tinge of regret on it. Perhaps he was reminiscing about his boxing aspirations. Did he ever fully give up on that dream?

“Now, go sleep.” “Yes. Good night.”

Those who had a dream must be ready to give it up. Maru thought over the sentence over and over again.

* * *

“You brought the money?”

“Yeah.”

Maru watched his two friends talk to each other. The two of them always got together here to chat during break times.

“What money?” Maru asked.

“The money for the instructor.”

Each of them took out 3 ten thousand won bills. Sixty thousand won total. Maru was confused. He’d never heard of this.

“When did you guys decide on this?”

“Saturday.”

“Aha.”

“You don’t have to pay. It’s just an us thing.”

“Really?”

Good thing he doesn’t have to spend any money.

“But…” Daemyung butted in, “why do the teachers talk so formally with each other? And this money, if the advisor told instructor Miso about it, I’m sure she would understand.”

Dojin clicked his tongue.

“These people have their own pride, you know. Think about it, appearing weak to your own student from years back? Man, I’d go crazy if I had to do that. It’s no wonder the advisor used his own salary.”

“Is it?”

“It is.”

“So why are they so polite with each other?”

“Maybe they aren’t great friends. I mean, he didn’t even tell us that she was our senior.”

Dojin sounded pretty confident, but Maru shook his head quietly.

“What, you disagree?”

“It can’t be that.”

“Then why would the advisor treat her like that? I thought they didn’t even know each other?”

“I can bet that they’re like that even in private. Want to go?”

Dojin and Daemyung shook their heads when Maru took out a thousand won.

“The advisor’s just letting the instructor save face. What do you think would’ve happened if he treated her like a kid or a student in front of us?”

“Well…”

Daemyung nodded in understanding.

“You know how the advisor’s like. I’ve noticed that he treats students who graduated a few years back the same way. My guess is that he’s trying to treat them like real adults. I think that’s really admirable of him. That’s probably why he tried to handle the money problem as quietly as possible. He doesn’t want any trouble, especially because he knows the instructor so well. You said so as well, didn’t you, Dojin? The more you know someone, the more you should treat them with respect.”

“Yeah. The advisor’s a really cool guy.”

The two of them agreed.

“So how are you trying to give him the money? I don’t think he’d take it.”

“We’re planning on giving it to the instructor.”

“Oh, there’s, that, huh.”

“But you know what’s funny?”

“What?”

“The advisor buys us dinner every time. Every day. She doesn’t like hiding things much, so she told us that she gets paid 40000 won an hour.”

Maru couldn’t help but laugh in surprise. The woman really didn’t hide anything. Then again, that explained their conversation on the rooftop.

But hold on.

If she’s working as much as now…

“But she comes every weekday. Doesn’t she also stay for the entire day on weekends?”

“Yeah. It’d be ridiculous if she were to get paid for all of that. So we asked.”

“You asked exactly how much she gets paid?”

“Yeah.”

“Hah.”

Dojin was quite something as well, to have the balls to ask a question like that.

“She was supposed to be paid just 800 thousand won in total, with her coming only on the weekends. But she comes every day. She probably spent more than half of that on our food already, too.”

Maru recalled seeing Miso give out cash to buy the students dinner.

“She’s losing money doing this.”

“Right?”

“Work hard, you guys.”

“That’s the plan.”

The two of them grinned.

* * *

Time passes akin the mound of sand draining from your hand. Before you’ve realized, it’s all slipped away. The club was doing well. Everything from prop making to practice. Maru spent most of his time there making the props.

“Where the hell did you find this?”

“Just looked around a bit.”

There was a huge pile of wood all over the auditorium. They didn’t look so good after years of not being used, but they look a lot better with paint over them.

Maru helped out by nailing boards together. He couldn’t bear watching the kids figure out how to nail things on the board by themselves. It looked too dangerous.

“Dang, Maru.”

“Wow, our manager really can do everything.”

Of course he could. He’s worked this kind of job for more than just a few years. Maru put a few more wooden planks for support at the bottom and erected their store. It was built very roughly with planks, but it still weighed quite a bit. The other students came over to put it up with him.

“Ohh.”

“This’ll look pretty good with more decor.”

Maru smiled as he looked at the prop. At least he managed to contribute to the club one way or the other. That made him feel a bit better. Not much has changed after the day he talked with his dad. He still thought about his dreams every once in a while, but he had no idea what his dream was. Was there anything he really wanted to do in his 45 years of life? What were the things he had to give up on because he was too busy trying to stay alive? That was the only thing on Maru’s mind during last week.

His original question of ‘how am I going to live?’ had morphed into ‘what kind of dreams do I want?’

Dream. What did Maru want to dream about?

Chapter 32

“I told you, I’m fine.”

“Please take it.”

“Come on, teach.”

Miso sighed as Taesik stuffed the envelope in her coat pocket.

“I can earn enough money on my own.”

“I know you earn enough money, instructor Yang. But that’s a separate matter.”

“It was so much better when I was just a student, things are so awkward now.”

Taesik smiled. Miso put the envelope in her pants pocket, thinking that she really couldn’t beat this teacher.

“I know you don’t earn this much, teach. It’s ok, seriously.”

“I live alone, so it’s fine. Plus, I saw everything. You spend a ton of money feeding the kids.”

“I told you not to worry about it. You know it’s going to cost me much, much more if you were paying me properly, right?”

“That’s why I’m very thankful. I was feeling very sorry when I first called you. I thought I was taking your time, especially since I knew there were other clubs that wanted you. Ah, speaking of which, I saw that college play of yours last time. The one you produced. It was very good.”

“Oh, you did? You should’ve told me. Don’t tell me you bought the ticket?”

“Of course I did. The play deserved a proper payment.”

“Ugh, when are you ever going to make use of your student?”

Miso scratched her head. She was reminded of high school. Back when Taesik and the club members were all new to the school. Many things went badly for them, which made school difficult, but thanks to that one crazy guy, they managed to pull off their play nicely.

What would things have been like if she didn’t join the club then? Her life would definitely be a lot more boring compared to now.

“Do any other former club members come by every once in a while?”

“Of course. They’re all doing very well. I’m proud.”

“Of course they would be. They’re your students. But by the way, teach?”

“Yes?”

“Can’t you do something about that style of yours? Especially the way you talk.”

“Is there something wrong with it?”

“You sound so old talking like that. You’re not even 40, but you sound like a grandpa.”

“38 might as well be 40 at this point.”

“Ugh… at this rate you’re never going to get married.”

“That’s unfortunate.”

Taesik seemed more composed than ever. Miso took a look at the man’s clothing. He was wearing a very old jacket with stained jeans. Under the jacket she could see a knit sweater that grandpas often were to hikes.

“Do you even have a girlfriend?”

“Hum, hum.”

“I knew it. You’re going to regret it, you know?”

“I’ve thought this 13 years ago as well, but you’re very difficult to deal with, instructor Yang.”

“Why?”

“You don’t hesitate to hurt people. Well, enough about me. You should keep teaching the kids. I haven’t seen kids this motivated in a while. The props are incredibly well made as well.”

“The props were done by Maru.”

“Maru?”

“Yeah. Speaking of him, he’s kind of weird. He definitely doesn’t act his age.”

“He is a lot more thoughtful than others. Very polite as well. Well, not polite. He’s…”

“Considerate. He makes me feel like I’m drinking with a person that’s hard to deal with. He always seems to be troubled about something, and he always looks like he’s experienced everything before.”

“He’s just a lot more thoughtful than most students.”

“He’s way too thoughtful. You should talk with him sometime. It really feels like there’s an old man hiding inside of the kid.”

“That’s a little…”

“That’s exactly what it is.”

Miso took out her phone. The school bell rang, signaling an end to the school day. It was time to meet the kids again.

“I’ll get going then.”

“Sure. Good luck.”

“Don’t worry. Also, you really have to change out of those clothes. Got it?”

“I’ll think about it.”

“Don’t just think about it, just do it!!”

“Fine, fine. Just get going.”

Taesik waved her away. Miso shook her head. A freshman acting like a 50 year old, and a 30 year old was acting like a 60 year old. What the hell was this?

‘Ugh, I’ll just buy him something myself in the future.’

Looking at the man just made her feel frustrated.

‘He looks really cool if he just pays attention to himself.’

Taesik was the star of the school just 13 years ago. His looks, accompanied with his smile and speech… He was every high school girl’s crush. Miso turned back once again. She could see Taesik smiling at her, in that incredibly old jacket of his.

“Sigh.”

The years really haven’t been kind to the poor man.

* * *

Miso looked a lot worse than usual today. Maru tried to slip out of the auditorium when she wasn’t paying attention, lest he were to incur her wrath as well.

“Han Maru!”

Oh boy, it was too late. What was she going to say this time?

“Wait right there. You guys stay here practicing your lines. You better not make a mistake by the time I come back, got it?”

“Yes ma’am!”

“Good.”

Miso walked over to the auditorium entrance where Maru was standing. She seemed to have made up her mind about something, which meant nothing but trouble to him.

“Um, what…”

“Follow me.”

“What?”

Miso grabbed his arm. She seemed to be planning on dragging him elsewhere. Maru had no intention of allowing that though. He didn’t like getting pulled away without a reason like this.

“Follow me.”

“Please tell me where we’re going.”

“Aha, so you’re planning on resisting, huh? You think I’m weak because I’m a girl? Just you watch, I…”

Miso pulled at his sleeves. She was strong for sure. Especially for a woman. But Maru didn’t even budge. He could easily take something like this. His body was almost abnormally strong compared to his past self. It was probably another one of the gifts given to him in starting his life again.

“Ughhh.”

Miso pulled harder.

“Um, you could just tell me…”

“Shut it. This has to do with my pride.”

Pride? Here?

Miso tugged him with all of her strength. She was getting weirdly competitive with this. Maru looked back. He could hear voices behind him. The club members were all looking at them with concerned expressions.

“Look away!”

Miso shouted. The club members instantly looked somewhere else. Kind of like meerkats. Maru stepped forward, shaking his head. This was making him embarrassed now.

“Don’t you dare move. I’m going to make you move by force.”

“You win, instructor.”

“Hey!”

“Let’s go.”

Maru stepped down, leaving Miso behind him. He could hear her huffing loudly, but decided to ignore it. He’s dealt with a lot of actors as a road manager in the past. One thing he’s learned about actors during that time… was that many actors had a very innocent side to them.

Innocence was a really good way of putting it. A lot of times, they were more childish. Acting is an art form where a person had to throw their all into a play. Shame has no experience in acting. That’s why a lot of actors have strange personalities. Strange enough for people to misunderstand that these actors were rude. That wasn’t necessarily a bad thing. It just meant that those actors are successful. Successful and skilled enough to make money despite their rudeness. Most unsuccessful actors acted as humble as they could. But actors with stable careers typically acted with pride.

Speaking of which, he recalled that Miso was a pretty famous instructor as well. She wasn’t even over 30 yet, meaning she had a very bright future ahead of her. That is…

She was talented, so she didn’t need to act humble at all, which lead to the development of a very stubborn worldview. You can’t just keep losing to people like her. They would keep sticking to you otherwise. The best tactic to take, then, was to either keep ignoring them or to just suck up to them. Out of those two, Maru decided to just ignore her. The effect was pretty immediate.

“………”

Miso came down the stairs with an annoyed look. She took a deep breath before walking over to the parking lot to Maru’s observation.

“Come on, get over here. I’m an adult you know. Follow me for once.”

“Where are we going?”

“I want to show you something.”

“What?”

“Hyehwa station.”

“The place with all the college theaters?”

“Yeah.”

“Why?”

“Why do you think?”

Miso opened the door of her car.

“Get in!”

* * *

Miso glanced quickly over at Maru. The boy was turning another page of his book. To think a kid would maintain his pace so well like this… It was almost frightening.

“What are you reading?”

“It’s an autobiography by an actor. It’s pretty fun.”

The boy didn’t even look at her as he spoke. He was deeply engrossed in whatever chapter he was on. Miso… honestly was a little bit greedy for Maru. If a normal kid acted like him, she would’ve just ignored him from the start. But…

‘To think he’d be able to read his lines so calmly, especially with that breath… ’

One time when Geunseok was running late to the club, Miso let Maru read the other boy’s line during practice. It was a pretty long line, enough for a normal student to lose their breath in the middle of it. She was fully expecting Maru to lose his breath and stutter and everything, but then?

She found Maru reading the line start to finish without missing a single beat. His voice didn’t even shake during the reading. He seemed to be used to reading lines like this. This was the most important part. Imbuing emotions into those lines came later.

Breathing and diction are the two most important things for any actor. In that sense… Maru was a born genius. Miso was confident that the boy would catch the eyes of a judge during any high school competition if he practiced enough.

Thing was, the boy didn’t seem interested. No, that was wrong. The boy was interested. That was why he was here. He was feeling conflicted. About what, Miso wasn’t so sure. It was something clearly complicated though, far more so than anything a normal high schooler would deal with.

That’s why Miso decided to do this today. Leaving such raw talent just wasn’t her style.

“I’m going to drag that thing out of you.”

“Drag the what?”

“You’ll see.”

Miso stepped on the gas with a grin.

Chapter 33

Hyehwa station. It’s been a while. The streets were filled with the gentle breeze of May. He could see people walking around with light clothes. Were they actors or audiences? Maru wasn’t sure. He could see a man walking around with a guitar on his back. The man sat down next to a cafe and started playing like that was his stage right there.

The guitar’s noise didn’t travel very far, especially without an amp. People still flocked around him regardless. The man’s melodic voice had quite the strength to it. Various students, couples, and individuals were flocking around him.

“Want to listen?” Miso asked. Maru nodded.

The man’s music was good enough to pay to listen to. The man was surrounded by a massive crowd in no time. After finishing his first song, he gave the crowd a short bow. This definitely wasn’t his first time. The crowd opened up their wallets as the man opened his case towards them. Maru took out a thousand won, too. One of the kids even gave the man an unopened pack of bread on his hand.

“Thank you.”

The musician took a bite of the bread, giving a curt nod towards the kid. Someone else gave him a drink in response.

“Man, I’m lucky today,” the man laughed. After finishing his food, he started his next song.

He was playing purely using his fingers and voice, unaided by any devices. After singing four more songs, the man stood up from his spot.

“The next performance will be at Maronier park.”

He left with that, bringing a part of the crowd behind him like rats following the pied piper.

“Shall we go?” Miso asked.

“Where?”

“What else would we do here other than to watch plays? Let’s just watch a short one.”

Miso tried to drag Maru away by his arm again. Maru removed his arm from her grip carefully before walking by himself.

“You’ve got quite the personality, huh?”

“I don’t like being dragged around.”

“Even if you were dragged all the way here already?”

“We could go back, then.”

“…Tsk. You talk too well.”

Miso stepped forward first. There was quite a crowd in front of both of them. It was a warm Saturday. It was inevitable that lots of people would come out to play. But as the two of them stepped towards one of the smaller theaters, a voice called out to them.

“You’re here to watch plays, right?”

The voice was from a handsomely-dressed man. Probably a college student. He had a few tickets and pamphlets in his hand.

‘A part-timer, huh,’ Maru noted.

One of the few regular things you would get to see at Hyehwa station. Some of it was done by the youngest member of the troupe, but most of it was done by hired part-timers. Maru knew about them pretty well. Since their pay rate depended directly on their sales, they would often stick to you like leeches.

“This is a play that our theater is host…”

Right when the man said about this much, Miso grabbed the man’s shoulder and pushed him away.

“We’re both in the same line of business. Can we not?”

The man shut his mouth with a frown. He looked like he stepped on feces. He dusted off his clothes and walked away muttering ‘freaking unlucky’.

“What? Unlucky?” Miso snarled.

“Just leave. Don’t bother my work. Jeez.”

The man stepped off after giving Miso a short glare. Miso opened her mouth for a second with an angry expression but stopped herself after a glance at Maru.

“Ugh, so many delinquents around here nowadays,” she said instead.

“Don’t worry about it. He’s just trying to make money.”

“Right. Trying to make money. That’s why I’m being so understanding. But that doesn’t mean… wait, did you come here before?”

“A few times.”

Maru answered lazily before turning to look at the man again. He was approaching a few female students with a bright grin on his face. He was beginning to explain with a bunch of gestures, halting the students’ movements.

“He’s got one, that bastard,” Miso said.

Maru took another look at the man and the students. The man was using more forceful words by the second. He could feel the students getting more troubled as well. The man showed them the tickets. He didn’t seem to be planning on letting them go unless they bought it. In the end, the students whispered together for a second before reaching for their wallets.

Maru headed over to the group. It wasn’t bad for them to get introduced to plays this way, but… He didn’t like how the guy was doing it. Threats were a no go.

“Just go buy the love tickets.”

“Excuse me?” the students responded.

Maru could feel the man glaring at him.

“Students get to watch at a cheaper price. You should check them out.“

“Ah, thank you.”

The girls shuffled away towards the way Maru pointed. They didn’t stop even when the man shouted ‘hey hey, come back, we have better things here’ at them.

“Damn it. Had to get a few idiots blocking my way.”

The man stood in front of Maru.

“You here to sell tickets as well?”

“Nope.”

“Then what are you doing? Why are you blocking my sales? Are you from a different theater? No, there’s no way. You’re just a high schooler. Fuck.”

“Please why your language. And there’s nothing good about forcing your tickets onto poor students.”

“Force? Me? Hah. You call a nice introduction like that a forceful one? Huh? Huh?!”

The man poked Maru’s shoulders a few times. A word bubble popped out when their eyes met.

[Fucking turd.]

Well, there really was no need to see it.

“I’m sorry for being a little turd. In any case, I would actually like to apologize for interfering with your business.”

Maru bowed. He wasn’t planning on saying this much in the beginning. He was just planning on walking away after getting the girls away. But the more he talked, the more annoyed Maru became. Why was he getting so annoyed over this? This wasn’t the type of thing that should bother him this much.

“Hah, just leave. You’re annoying me.”

“Just don’t be so forceful. What if they never come here again?”

“I get it so leave. Fucking…”

The man raised his fist. Maru wasn’t too surprised. The first thing that came to his mind was ‘I’ll just report him if I get hit’. The classic method of defense against older men. He stepped forward, taunting the man to punch. The man was the one who became more troubled by that. He walked away with an annoyed face, looking for a new place to sell tickets.

“You’re quite a piece of work, did you know that?” Miso said.

Maru had to agree with that one. He really didn’t expect to be doing that. That wasn’t something neither his younger or older self would’ve ever thought about doing. So what was that? What made him so annoyed at the part-timer? He couldn’t really figure out why and thinking about why just made his head hurt more.

‘Did something happen in the future?’

His memories were just getting hazier. Watching them just sink underneath like that in real-time made him feel a little scared sometimes.

‘At least I can remember them at crucial moments.’

“Let’s go.”

“…Sure.”

* * *

The place Miso lead him to was a small theater located on the second floor of a building. The theater’s name was Blue Sky.

“Blue Sky?”

“Seem familiar?”

Miso smiled mysteriously as she stepped in. When Maru followed, he was greeted with a line of people next to the entrance. He could hear a few voices from inside.

“We’ll be accepting those with assigned seats first. I’m sorry for the wait this might cause.”

A lady was guiding the crowd with a smile. She seemed to be in her mid-twenties.

“Let’s wait a bit. We don’t want to bother the audience.”

“Sure.”

Miso was very forceful a lot of the times, but when it came to her work she was more serious than anyone else. Eventually, they were next in line.

“Senior!”

“Hey.”

“It’s been too long.”

“Too long? I was here 2 weeks ago.”

“But I wasn’t here then. Are you here for someone?”

“Nah. I’m here to show this kid a play.”

The woman’s eyes landed on Maru, who responded with a curt nod.

“He looks nice. Who is he?”

“I have no idea.”

The woman made a confused look for a second.

“You got any seats left? We’ll stand in the back if not,” Miso continued.

“We’ll probably have a few available.”

“I’ll wait, then. I want to check if you’ll get any more customers.”

“Ok.”

Maru stepped into the theater with Miso. It was dimly lit with darkened lights. There seemed to be around 70 seats in the entire theater packed into the building. It wasn’t possible to sit comfortably, but that was what made theaters charming.

“Please stop eating once the play begins. We’ll give you plenty of time for pictures after the play as well, so please refrain from that during the actual play. These are rules that are meant for you to enjoy the play to the fullest, so please understand.”

The lady at the line started talking on the stage. The audience started putting away their food immediately.

“We don’t have any spare seats.”

“I can watch standing.”

“Yes, let’s. This can be pretty fun, too.”

Miso seemed strangely excited. She actually felt quite a bit different compared to her usual self when she came to Hyehwa station. More… excited? Kind of in a way that kids were excited. The lights started to dim in the theater, signaling the start of the play. Right then, someone came up to the two of them to talk.

“You’re here.”

“Yep.”

Maru took a look at the man talking with Miso. He couldn’t make out much of the man’s face out of the shadow.

“Alright, I’ll see you later then.”

“Where are you going?”

“The director wants to see me.”

“Ugh. You’re a total star now, aren’t you?”

“Psh, this is nothing. Who’s the kid?”

“Who knows, a future coworker?”

“Hm, is that so?”

Maru squinted. His eyes were starting to adjust to the dark light, but before he could make out the man’s face, he stepped away from sight.

“Sorry you have to work with Miso. She’s a piece of work,” he said before leaving.

Maru couldn’t help but snort a little. Miso opened her mouth to say something, but the play started by then.

“It’s starting.”

“Shut up and just watch.”

“Alright.”

Ding.

The spotlight turned on with a ding of a bell.

Chapter 34

Plays were definitely more unpopular than movies. Movies you could watch anywhere. They were cheaper. Sometimes they were easier to understand as well. Because of this, plays became a pastime that no one particularly cared about.

Some people never even watched a play in their entire lives. There were just too many other things to see, namely movies. But Miso was sure that a single play would be all it takes to make a person enthralled with plays.

‘Plays have their own charm. It’s fun. You can’t deny that.’

Miso glanced at Maru a bit. The boy was thoughtful. Brave. Hard to handle. But also confused. At least, to Miso, he was. She didn’t know what the boy was conflicted about. The boy was pretty studious, as far as she could see. He would finish every task Miso would give him, and he was never late to club meetings. He was fast and efficient, like many adults she’s worked with, in the past.

Righ. An adult. Maru was acting like an adult. Almost like he was one his entire life. He interferes with other people’s lives plenty of times, but never crosses a certain line. He never gets mad, and takes care of problems calmly. He has backup plans as well. Just like when he stepped forward to get hit by that student earlier.

Maru… didn’t have any drive. He was at an age where he really didn’t have anything to lose at all. The age where he could do anything he wanted without any big consequences.

That was what made a person’s teenage years so bright. Because they could do as they pleased with little to no consequence. But Miso wasn’t able to see this light from Maru. This wasn’t necessarily a bad thing. People all have their own ways of living their lives, and Maru had clearly found his own. The first thing Miso felt when looking at Maru was ‘balance’. The boy was relaxed enough about life to be able to handle just about anything. Like a boulder that could withstand the strongest of storms.

Of course, she might just have been imagining things. While she thought she was pretty good at judging people, this didn’t mean she trusted herself completely. There was a need to watch the boy further.

Well, at least she knew Maru was a good kid at this point. And that he was quite a character. The only worrying part of it was…

‘His balance.’

Miso couldn’t help but think that this balance of Maru’s would only help him in the long run. Plays required actors to keep changing themselves. To keep adapting to their new characters and plays. It was a challenge. Acting is an art of challenging oneself. The polar opposite of who Maru was. Would the boy have the courage to keep on facing new challenges?

‘I’m overthinking things again.’

Miso shook her head. She was thinking too much, especially when the boy wasn’t even willing to act yet. Right now, all she wanted to do was to make the boy passionate about plays.

‘I know for sure that you like plays.’

“Pft.”

Miso raised her head after hearing the laughter. The actors were putting on a comedic show on the stage with a lottery ticket. Maru was laughing when the play intended for him to laugh.

‘He’s definitely used to watching plays.’

Miso looked down at the sitting audience. The people were trying their best to hide their laughter, worrying that they might disturb the actors if they got too loud. It was inevitable. Miso acted the same way when she watched her first play. She was at the front rows at the time, a place where she could see and hear everything from the actors. Everything from the beads of sweat perspiring from their heads to their exhausted huffs. She was so sure at the time that the actors could hear her if she talked. That’s why she tried her best to stay quiet in her seat. She grit her teeth to stop herself from laughing, and pinched her thighs when she wanted to cry.

Her friends were the same. They tried their best to stay quiet in their seats as well, trying not to appear rude to the actors.

‘Come to think of it, that crazy bastard was different.’

She thought of a particular person in her head. The boy who burst out laughing at comic scenes, and cried his eyes out at sad ones. Watching him at the time made Miso feel very ashamed. She knew better now though. That the boy made a better audience than anyone else in the theater.

“Hahaha!”

Maru started laughing a little bit more loudly, watching a particular actor on the stage. Miso could tell that the actor was getting visibly more excited by the boy’s laughter. Reactions from the audience were like fuel for the actor. And when the audience reacted strongly…

“Now! Let’s decide who’ll take the money for this ticket!”

The actor would act more with more passion. Miso put aside her thoughts for a second. She didn’t want them getting in her way of the play.

* * *

The actors finished their curtain call after their play and were greeted with a round of applause from the audience.

“You may start taking pictures now! Please take many of them and promote us if you could!”

A photo session finally came around after the lights turned on. Some people were taking pictures enthusiastically, while others just left. The girl who had been handling ticketing, in the beginning, was handing out surveys at the exit.

“If you bring this to us after filling this out, we’ll give you a discount. You can also fill the survey out online. Everyone counts, so please fill it out!”

Only about half of the audience took the survey sheet. Half of those threw away the survey sheet straight into the trash can. The girl took back the uncrumpled survey sheets with a smile.

“Ten people took it this time. It’s a new record!”

Ten out of seventy. It wasn’t that many at all, but it was clearly enough to make the girl excited.

“How was it?” Miso asked.

“It was fun. It’s been a while since I last saw one.”

“A while?”

“Yes. About twenty…”

Maru coughed after realizing his mistake.

“Two years. I haven’t seen one in over two years.”

“Didn’t you say twenty?”

“No way, you must’ve misheard me.”

“Alright, fine.”

The theater was completely empty by then. Miso walked up to the front of the theater to one of the seats. Maru sat down with her. After a moment of waiting, the actors approached them.

“Senior, you’re here? Especially now?”

It was the actor who played the father role. The other actors seemed equally excited to see her. Well, all but one, actually.

“W-welcome!”

One of the male actors was clearly very nervous. Miso smiled at him, saying ‘it’s about time we got a little closer, isn’t it?’

“You guys all seem to be doing well. It was fun.”

“Well, you taught us, after all. But really, why are you here? Did you come to buy us food?”

“I’d have come later if it was for food. It’s actually…”

Miso stopped talking to stare at Maru.

“What is it?”

“Do you want to try going up?”

“Up where?”

“The stage, obviously.”

Miso pointed at the stage that the actors were on just a moment ago. The actors nodded collectively before stepping aside for Maru.

“She has her eyes on you, huh?”

“Poor kid.”

“Good luck.”

This must’ve happened a few times in the past. Maru turned to look at the actors. They were taking their seats in the audience. Then… The actor was?

“Go up.”

Miso kept motioning for him to go up. How unlucky. Maru hesitated for a second, but climbed on stage anyway. There was no real reason for him to refuse her.

The stage looked a lot larger once he was on it. The audience seats looked a lot larger as well.

“How is it?” Miso asked.

“It’s bigger than I thought.”

“Right? It looked a lot smaller down there, right?”

“Yes.”

Miso nodded proudly.

“Keeping the stage occupied is our job. If that stage looks empty to the audience, it means that the actors aren’t doing a good job.”

“I see.”

Maru could see it. He’s never gotten the sense that the stage was empty during the play. In a way, Miso was praising her juniors for their skill.

“Well then,” she started.

Miso threw Maru a script, which he received with both hands.

“Lights, please.”

One of the actors stepped into the lighting room. The theater started turning dark, and a spotlight turned on where he was standing.

“Want to try reading?” Miso asked.

“Here?”

“Yup.”

Maru stared at the lines for a second before asking a question.

“Why?”

“…Can’t you just do the thing?”

“I need a reason to do it.”

“But you always did it back at school.”

“That’s because it helps with practice for the other students.”

He was thankful that she took him out to watch a play. He hadn’t laughed like that in a while. But he didn’t see why he had to read for her on the stage though. His only observation was Miso’s strange insistence for this.

“You really don’t like to lose, do you? Damn high schoolers.”

Miso turned to her juniors with agitation. But…

“Good job!”

“Yeah, show her!”

“Nice!”

They must’ve suffered quite a lot from Miso. They only shut their mouths when Miso cursed ‘you god damn idiots’ under her breath.

“This is an extension of club activities as well.”

“I’m a stage manager.”

“Your job is to convey your emotions about this to your other members. Is that enough?”

No, it really isn’t enough. Maru just opened the script regardless, unwilling to extend the argument any further. He’d rather go back to school, so he took a deep breath before reading the first line.

“It was his fault.”

The reading began.

Chapter 35

Maru zoomed across his lines as soon as he began. His eyes were fixed on the piece of paper in front of him. He spoke slowly, as if he was reading for a bunch of kids. He had pretty good enunciation as well. A bit quiet, though. But that could be fixed with time.

“How is it?” Miso looked back.

“What?” one of the actors asked, confusion etched blatantly in their voice.

“Just how did you feel about the boy?”

“Well, he was alright. Kind of good at speaking.”

“You?”

“He’s alright. Not much else to it, though.”

The others all voiced the same way when Miso looked at them. There was nothing special about him.

“Maru.”

“Yes?” Maru responded with unmasked annoyance.

“Can you stop looking at the script for a bit? Face us as you read.”

“Really, what’s the reason for doing this?”

“Just do it, please. I’ll buy you food.”

“What if I don’t want food?”

“Are you testing me?”

“…Fine, I’ll do it.”

Maru raised his head towards the audience. Miso watched. There was a massive difference between looking at the script and looking at the audience. It creates a lot of pressure for the actor to make eye contact. As soon as the actor’s attention was turned to the audience seats, countless little bits of information would make their way into the actor’s mind. This was an actor’s most likely reason for making a mistake.

So then… what about Maru? Would the boy be able to read calmly through all of this? Maru’s lips parted after a few seconds. He had his script lowered, and his eyes were right on Miso’s.

Miso laughed. The boy’s only managed to become calmer after looking at the audience. He was looking at the audience pretty evenly, as well. She didn’t ask for all of this, which was what made his performance so interesting.

The boy started reading. He looked over each member of the audience one by one, as if he was telling all of them a story. As she thought, he was very talented.

“Do you really think a boy who’s never been trained can talk like that?” she whispered to her juniors.

“Wait, this is his first time?”

“Yeah.”

“Oh, then that changes everything. I thought he was trained already. That’s why I said there wasn’t anything special.”

“Me too.”

“Same.”

These actors were pros in their own right. It was no wonder that Maru looked like nothing special when he took the stage. But after learning that this was his first time? Maru’s demeanor on the stage deserved nothing but praise.

“So he’s going to be the main spectacle for this year’s competition?”

“No.”

“Then what?”

“He’s just a stage manager?”

“Just a stage manager?”

“Yeah.”

“So why are you making him do this, then? He doesn’t look like he wants to do this.”

“That’s the thing. He looks like he kind of wants to do it. I can tell from being around him for a while.”

Miso gave Maru another glance as she spoke. The boy was hard to understand, but she did figure out one thing about him. If someone just directed him somewhere, he’d never stop moving forward.

“I felt greedy. You know I like to make kids like him do acting.”

“Yes. That’s your weird hobby. You ended up turning quite a few kids into the ghosts of Hyehwa. After all, you made me into one as well, didn’t you?”

“So? You regretting it?”

The younger actor slowly shook his head.

“I’d rather live here as a ghost than go into society as a dead soul.”

“That’s right, that’s why I brought you here. People like you need to act. Or else you’d just be living an absolutely pointless life.”

“The way you talk is just…”

“What? If you don’t like it, you can be my senior.”

“I’m good. That sounds even more exhausting. Doesn’t that sound like a horrible life, guys?”

The others nodded vigorously, earning them another glare from Miso.

“Good god, look at all of you. You really don’t know your place, do you?”

“Just means we’ve grown.”

Miso didn’t hate their response at all. In fact, she kind of liked it. There was no reason for juniors to remain juniors. They had every right to surpass their seniors and crush their competition. Miso recalled something she told her juniors in the past.

[You need pride if you become talented. That’s how you make the seniors fear for their positions, and make them improve. That’s why you should study hard and try to chase me out of this theater. That’s the best gift that you can give me as my junior.]

There was no place in this theater for her any more. The audiences of Blue Sky no longer came to see her, but her juniors.

“By the way, senior, I heard you were nearing a full box of eggs soon. Is that true?” (30 eggs per box in korea, so cracking a joke about age)

“You want to die?”

“Come on, it was just a joke.”

The juniors laughed. Miso recanted her words. These guys weren’t worthy of surpassing her just yet. Right then, Maru finished his reading. He never stopped, never stuttered, or never went out of breath. From start to finish, he read the entire script, completely calm.

Miso started wondering.

Just what would the boy look like when he started acting?

* * *

Miso walked over to her car without another word after the reading session. Maru followed, relieved he was finally getting to go back to school.

“Work hard, alright?”

The actors unanimously gave him words of encouragement as he left. It wasn’t a bad experience to try reading a script from a stage. That feeling of attention he received… it was kind of riveting. He didn’t show it though. He didn’t want Miso to know of his enjoyment.

“I hope you do acting,” Miso mentioned as she grasped the wheel of her car.

She was just going straight at it. Maru wasn’t adept at handling people who were so direct like this.

“So suddenly…”

“Suddenly my ass. I’ve been hinting at this since we talked on the rooftop. You keep coming to the club. You clearly enjoy the activities we do there. You like watching the other club members as well.”

“That’s true.”

“So why don’t you participate? It’s just moving one step forward into the club.”

“The problem is the size of that one step.”

“What do you mean?”

“The amount of time and work you need to put in.”

“……”

Maru thought for a second. The woman in front of him had unintentionally jumped into the world of acting despite being unaware, and ended up becoming quite successful. Just looking at her car was proof enough of how much she was earning. Perhaps she was living the life that Maru dreamt of living.

Living to chase their dreams with no inhibitions. Perhaps it would be wise for him to listen to her story? She was younger than him in age, sure, but that didn’t determine the value of her life story at all.

“Instructor.”

“What?”

“Have you ever regretted being an actor?”

“Regret?”

“Yes.”

Miso stopped the car for a second. She looked out of the window as she tapped at the handle. Perhaps she was looking back into a particular moment in the past.

“Of course I did. Too many times. I wanted to go into the school of acting, but my family couldn’t afford it. No money for academies either. So I came here. To Hyehwa, where I thought I could make it big. I won in the nationals after all. I thought that degrees or education didn’t really matter squat.”

Miso pulled back her blonde hair.

“So I just visited the first theater I saw. And got rejected right away. They didn’t even consider interviewing me. So I tried going to a really poor theater. I thought they’d take me as an actor. They told me that they’d only take me if I started working as a janitor. So I asked if I could at least get on a play. Do you know what they told me?”

“What?”

“They told me to give them a reason to hire me, especially when there were other kids more talented than me all over the place. That shut me right up.”

Miso smiled bitterly.

“You’ve heard of the term, right? The ghosts of Hyehwa station?”

Maru nodded. He knew the term very well. The actors who couldn’t give up on acting, left only to wander the station in search of success. They weren’t able to leave the station because of their passion. They were ghosts.

“It sounds stupid. To be called an actor. The problem is, these ‘ghosts’ are actually all very fine people. There are many, many theaters here. But there are far more actors than that. The competition is fierce. Hundreds of auditions take place for every play at a relatively popular theater. There’s no way that even a small theater would take in a high school graduate as an actor.”

As it turned out, this woman’s life wasn’t as rosy and bright as Maru had first imagined. High school acting, in the end, was just a high school pastime. Nothing compared to the world of pros.

“So? If you couldn’t attend an academy or a school, what did you do?”

He was curious. What would a person do in a situation like this?

“Me?”

“Yes.”

“By that point, my dream was to become an actor. I couldn’t live without it. But reality was ass. My dad ran away, my mom was sick, the loan sharks kept coming for me. So… I gave up.”

“You gave up?”

What? What did she mean? She was clearly living her best life right here. She gave up on her dream?

“Of course I did. I gave up, and got into a boxing match with reality. I might’ve given up on my dream, but I never stopped thinking about it. I started working in a factory for a year. It’s worked out somewhat. I used that money to shoot a monodrama.”

Miso looked right at Maru.

“So that I could keep chasing that damned dream.”

And… she grinned.

Chapter 36

To chase that damned dream, huh. The sentence hit Maru pretty hard. Especially because he knew Miso eventually managed to realize her dream. You can only realize your dream if you challenge yourself. Maru felt that Miso would say the same thing even if she didn’t become as successful as she was now.

Just wait a bit. I’ll get better for sure next time.

She was a strong woman. And it was because of her strength that she was able to live so freely. She didn’t act annoying, or said ridiculous things for the sake of being annoying. She was always confident that what she said was right. Even so…

“You’re pretty cool.”

“Right? I think I’m cool too. That’s why you should…”

“I don’t know, though. Plays are fun. They’re interesting. I hid it, but reading on the stage was actually very fun as well. I learned that getting people’s attention wasn’t such a bad thing.”

“Then what? Just do it.”

“Just do it. You’re right. I should just do it. But I don’t have the courage. I’m not crazy for acting. Even now, keeping it as a hobby sounds like the ideal thing to do.”

“Hey, you don’t even know that. You didn’t even really try acting. You probably don’t know because you’re so young… Actually, I take that back. You act too old for that to apply. Anyway, there's something you’re not understanding here. No courage? I think you mean you’re afraid, right?”

“I suppose so.”

Miso nodded in understanding.

“Yes. You might not have that courage. But you’re only feeling that because you haven’t experienced it. Fear stems from the unknown. Of course you’d feel afraid of something you haven’t tried. But you know that more often than not, it’s not very scary once you actually try it out. Right?”

Fear stems from the unknown. She was right. He was scared because he didn’t know. He’s never tried acting, so he didn’t even know where to start. He hesitated to jump in, and the hesitation quickly turned into fear and consumed him.

But if he decided to jump straight in, the activity wouldn’t be a subject of fear to him any more. It would either become a subject of joy or boredom.

Miso was right. But… she was coming at him from the wrong angle.

“People can be afraid of something because they don’t know it. But… sometimes they get afraid because they know exactly what it is.”

“Afraid because they know?”

“Yes.”

“………”

“I’ve learned a lot today. But I can’t find myself wanting to do more of this. I’ll keep attending the club, of course. I’ll help out every once in a while as well. But I don’t want to invest a significant amount of time into this. Not as long as I keep thinking the way I do.”

Fear from the known.

Would spending a lot of time in the club now affect his life in the future in a meaningful way? What if instead of going to the club, Maru decided to study instead? What if he invested more time doing something else? What if he spent more time trying to find his actual dream…

Perhaps he would spend his time in the future regretting not doing things better now.

‘Why couldn’t you have given me better abilities?’

He looked up at the sky a little regretfully before shaking his head. He was being greedy again. He got to relive life again. This in itself was great luck and ability.

- The time you wasted today, is the time a dead person longed for prior to dying yesterday.

Maru often thought of this line whenever he woke up. It was an apt description of his current situation. The Maru of the future often regretted his past decisions. He longed to get another go at life. He ended up getting that exact chance. But instead of instantly knowing what he was going to do, he was sitting here wondering what his dreams were. What he wanted to do with life. Where he should go after high school.

Studying was an investment he was making into life while thinking over this problem. But he couldn’t see the road in front of him very well. He already traversed it before, but somehow that same road was even more difficult to go through than before. All this time, he thought everything would be good once he went back to the past, but the opposite was true.

What did Maru achieve during his 45 years of life? Would he be this lost now if he had a specific goal in life then? Maybe he would have an easier time traversing through the path of life if he had a goal in mind? That just brought him back to his original problem. He knew he had to do something, but he didn’t know what.

What Maru’s life came down to was like a leaf freely flying wherever the wind went. That is, he just kind of took everything as is.

“You’re really something else. I’ve never seen a high schooler this hesitant over everything,” Miso scrunched up her nose.

“Yeah. It’d be better if I just didn’t know anything. Knowing just a little about it is enough to really turn me off for some reason.”

“…What are you talking about?”

“It’s nothing. I was talking to myself. Oh, this doesn’t have anything to do with you, instructor. You’re a nice person. Very passionate as well. I want to get heated up about acting with you, but… I think I’ve cooled down too much. I don’t have the courage.”

Maru smiled. The best way to combat an awkward situation wasn’t to get angry, but smile it off.

“That expression!” Miso pointed at Maru with a snarl, “That look, almost as if you know everything about the world!”

Well, that was a pretty strong jab. The woman was really perceptive. He couldn’t do anything about it but to smile.

“Ugh…”

Miso massaged her temples in pain. Why was this woman caring so much for him? What about him made her so interested in him?

“Instructor,” he asked.

“What?”

Maru could feel the annoyance practically ooze from her words. She was very honest about her feelings. A rare sight nowadays with adults.

“Why do you invest so much time in me?”

“You really don’t know?”

“I don’t. Wouldn’t it be more efficient to spend this time with the other kids? You don’t even know if I’m going to end up acting, so why do you keep wasting time…”

“Wasting time?”

“?”

Miso’s eyebrows angled upwards. He must’ve hit a sore spot of some sort. Her pale skin turned pink as the blood rose up to her head.

“I think I get what kind of a person you are now.”

“You get me?”

“Yes. You’re really annoying!”

“………”

Miso turned on the engine. The car started rolling back into the street.

“I get what you’re so troubled over. Good god.”

“What troubles me?”

“Yeah.”

Miso opened the window a little, letting the spring wind flow. Her face relaxed a bit as her hair whipped around with the wind.

“You’re looking too far into the future.”

“Too far?”

“Yeah. You’re looking way too far into the future. I mean, it makes sense that some kids of your age would think about this. About stuff like college entrance exams, college, and the military as well.”

Miso nodded in understanding, but her face quickly morphed into one of fury once more.

“But those are just dreams in the end. Stuff that doesn’t actually exist or has happened yet. Kids who worry over stuff like this usually start looking at the present if I shake them up a little bit. But you’re different.”

She sounded incredibly confident.

“I don’t know how, or why, but you seem to be looking at a very, very specific point in the future. Almost as if you were there before. Because it feels so real to you, you can’t help but keep worrying over it. Am I wrong?”

What an amazing person. Maru nodded. He had no reason to deny her the truth.

“I knew it. I knew it, god damn it. You’re way too imaginative. That’s what’s constantly making you think of the future. I’d be like that too! If I knew exactly what I was going to look like in the future, I wouldn’t be able to do what I’m doing now! I’d be nervous as shit!!”

Honk honk!!

Miso punched the wheel in frustration. The car in front of her moved sideways away from her lane.

“But you know, I think it’s ridiculously foolish to think so much about something that hasn’t even happened yet. Sure, you might think differently. Hell, I might as well.”

Miso breathed deeply as she turned to look at him.

“Walter Benjamin used to say this.”

Walter Benjamin. He’d heard of the name before. It was a frequent mention within the philosophy books he decided to read simpler philosophy books to try and improve himself. Thanks to it, he could tell what Miso was trying to say now.

“Progress…”

“is in each instance merely the first step, never the second, third, or n + 1.”

Miso looked at him with wide eyes. Maru thought over the quote. Along with Miso’s advice. Was he looking too far into the future? Was he worrying over something far too specific?

Progress.

He needed to step forward if he wanted to move. Without that one step, he would never make progress. Step by step, once the number of steps began piling up, he would be able to look back at what he made of his life. Perhaps he was just too afraid over something that had yet to even happen.

First step. The one step that was always the scariest one to take.

“And, to add on,” Miso continued, “if you take the wrong first step, you can just fix it at your second. If you took the wrong second step? You can still change direction at your third. Don’t be afraid. Don’t hesitate. From what I can see… You’ve thought for long enough. Maybe what you really need is to step forward?”

Miso closed her mouth and focused on driving. She didn’t seem to have anything more to say. Maru turned to look down at his two feet. Did he… make that first step yet?

* * *

By the time they came back to school, it was already 5pm. Miso didn’t choose to go all the way back to the school. She parked at the tonkatsu restaurant near school instead.

“Mister, can you fry up like 13 servings of food for us? Make it good.”

“Alright.”

She sat down on a table. 13 servings… Maru looked at Miso curiously.

“Have some. I know you’re hungry.”

“I’m fi…”

“Fine my ass! Shut it! Just eat! Do you really want to see me try to force feed you?”

Miso didn’t seem to want to let this one pass. Maru just decided to sit down lest he incurred her fury once more. He could hear the tonkatsu fry up in the kitchen. He thought back to their earlier conversation for a second.

“Come to think of it, I never heard your answer.”

“Ah, that.”

She wore an exhausted expression, appearing to lack the necessary energy to respond.

“Hey,” she called out.

“Yes?”

“Say you saw a piece of coal on the road. A really, really dark piece too. But you see something sparkling inside it as well. What would you do?”

“I’d try to wipe it to see what the thing was inside.”

“Right? You’d do that too, right?”

“…So you’re saying I’m that coal?”

“No.”

“Then?”

“Poop! You’re poop!”

“What?”

“I don’t even know anymore. Just do what you want. I don’t care. Flipping hell.”

“………”

“What? Why are you looking at me like that?”

“I was just wondering if you were mad.”

“W-what?”

“Just wondering.”

“Say that again.”

“Can we just pretend you didn’t hear any of this?”

“I’ll rip your jaw off!”

Miso was acting like a cat whose tail was just stepped on, which made Maru smile a little. He felt a lot better for some reason. Almost as if one of his problems was solved just now. Perhaps blending in with other people in such a way was a sort of a talent. Right then, Miso gave him a small glance nervously.

“Soo… you wanna try it?”

Hah. She really doesn’t change, does she? Maru shook his head.

“Nope.”

“Ugh, come on!”

“But…”

“Hm?”

“I’d like to try something else.”

One step. He decided he might as well step forward just a little bit.

Chapter 37

Maru walked up the stairs of the school building, with food in his hand. The smell of sweat washed over his face upon opening the auditorium door. He could feel the gazes of everyone in the room as they stared at him with surprise.

“Let’s eat!”

Miso put down the dishes of food with a shout. The kids all rushed over with a starving gaze.

“Thank you for the food!”

“Thank you!”

Each of them took a plastic container for themselves as they sat back down. Maru joined in as well. Looking around, he realized the rest of the club members were sitting in a circle eating together.

The group developed a strong bond over the last few weeks. They were talking about practice even during meals. Maru took his food and walked over to the stage. He was planning on eating in one of the seats there, until Miso walked over to sit with him.

“What are you doing by yourself?”

“I have no reason to be there with them. They’re talking about important stuff over there.”

Right then, the group of eleven stopped talking for a second to look at him.

“Hey! What are you doing over there? Come over, Maru!”

It was Yoonjung. She was frantically waving him over. Even Joonghyuk was giving him looks. Not to mention Dojin and Daemyung. How nice of them.

“Don’t worry, kids. I need to talk with the head for a bit,” Miso responded.

The kids made an ‘aha’ face as they resumed their conversations with one another.

Head, huh. He hadn’t heard that nickname in a month.

“So, what was that thing you wanted to talk about before?” Miso asked as she stuffed her mouth with three pieces of katsu. Maru responded after taking a small sip from his soup.

“I heard that you were going into the preliminaries in three weeks.”

“That’s right. If you want to join, you really should…”

Maru shook his head.

“I don’t want to participate in the competition.”

“Didn’t you say you wanted to?”

“I do. But not a part of the competition itself.”

“Why?”

“I don’t want to intrude on them. The rest of the club members tried hard during the last month.”

“Hm.”

“I heard the roles had all been chosen as well. The props are all finished too. Is there even space for me there anymore?”

“There isn’t.”

Miso answered right away with a nod.

“You don’t want to take their place?”

“I’m not that desperate.”

“Oh, so you will if you do get desperate?”

“There’s not much I won’t do if I want to live.”

He would do anything if it kept his wife and daughter from starving. That was the decision his 45 year old self came up with. Though he had no one to direct that mindset to anymore, he still firmly upheld its values.

“You looked kind of selfish right there.”

“Is that a bad thing?”

“No. People need to be greedy. They need to find their own place in life. They can’t just wait for things to be handed to them, they need to take it. Only then can they afford to start worrying about others.”

“That’s true.”

He recalled what the woman had told him after his death. To not be as selfless as he was before. But Maru had never thought of him having a selfless life. He just had decent manners and had common sense.

Return what you are given, and follow rules when you can. Don’t try to affect people around you negatively. Those were the only things he followed.

Then again, under the state of the contemporary world, he supposed even that could be considered ‘selfless’.

“So, what did you want to ask about?”

“I wanted to try being in a play.”

“Hm?”

“You told me, didn’t you? About volunteer plays that were done by the government. It can even be done for children. I just want to try to see what it’s like.”

“Hm.”

Miso finished off her food as she thought for a second. She slapped her belly with satisfaction before continuing.

“So I take it that you want to take it easy? Without putting in much effort?”

“I suppose so.”

“I’m telling you this now, but there are no plays that are easy. There are ones that have shorter prep times though.”

“I’m sorry. I just wanted relatively quick plays.”

“I see. So you just want to dip your toe in the water. Well, I have no reason to stop you. I have a friend who does puppet plays at different kindergartens. She works with well known stories that are usually from the Aesopica or Andersen’s stories. It’s not a very easy task. Sometimes, puppet plays are even more difficult than normal plays. It’s relatively quicker though, so I’ll introduce you. How do the weekends sound?”

“Sounds good to me.”

“Alright. Try it, then. It won’t be easy though,” Miso grinned mischievously. She took out her phone and called someone. After a few words were exchanged, she handed the phone over to Maru.

“Take it.”

“Alright.”

Maru took the phone. He could hear kids on the other side, along with a lady’s pained words: “pulling sis’s hair makes big sis go owie.” He could guess what was happening on the other side pretty well.

“Are you alright?” Maru was the first to speak. The lady responded almost immediately from the other side.

- Ah yes, just a minute, please! I’m sorry. Waaaait!

At the same time.

‘Hey! Don’t you know how scary big sis can be if she gets mad?’ The lady started to chide the kids a bit before directing a ‘please give me a break for a second’ to Maru. The other side only became quiet after 3 more minutes.

- Phew! Hello?

“Are you fine now?”

- Ah, yes.

“Kids really don’t listen during that age, don’t they? They’re devilish at the age of seven.”

- Ah… yes.

He could hear the lady’s confusion in her voice. Maru smiled bitterly. He spoke like a parent without even realizing it.

“I called because I wanted to participate in one of your plays.”

- Ah, right, right. Could we go over your age real quick again, though? I’m very sorry. Seventeen… Right?

She sounded unsure. Maru agreed for now.

- I’m thirty. A friend of Miso’s.

“Yes. You can drop the formalities if you’d like.”

- Would that be fine?

“Of course.”

- I’ll try to speak more casually, then…

Maru looked at Miso, suppressing a grin. So this is what they meant about how opposites attract. The woman was the complete opposite of Miso.

“What is it?” Miso asked. Maru put a hand over the microphone as he responded.

“I just found it surprising.”

“Surprising?”

“How her personality is so different from yours.”

“Shush with the weird comments and take the call. She’s going to cry if you keep ignoring her.”

“She cries?”

“Quickly!”

Maru put the phone back on his ear.

“Hello?”

-… Um, did I say something wrong?

“No, not at all.”

- Really? I thought I might’ve said something wrong because you suddenly went silent. Phew. That’s good.

The lady sighed in relief. She seemed to be quite a handful as well. Were the people around Miso all like this?

“You can be casual with me.”

- Oh, right. Mm… but actually, I think it’d be rude to be so casual when I haven’t even met you in person. Wouldn’t you agree?

“Haha, right you are.”

- So you wanted to try doing plays for children?

“Yes. If I won’t be a bother, I’d like to try helping out.”

- Bother? We were just in need of more hands! I did ask Miso for help, but she said she was severely allergic to children… That’s a bit mean, isn’t it?

“Yes, it is,” Maru responded after making sure Miso couldn’t hear what the lady was saying. “Is there anything that I’ll need to bring?” He continued.

- No, nothing of the sort. You just have to come right away and practice a bit.

“Right away?”

- Yes. Weren’t you coming tomorrow?

Ah, so the word “weekend” meant “tomorrow” to Miso, huh. Maru turned to look at the lady, who was giving him a ‘V’ sign with a grin on her face. What a woman.

“I am, I am. I’ll be there tomorrow. Where should I go?”

- Suwon city.

The same city, thankfully.

- Can you come out to the station by 9 o’clock tomorrow morning?

“Yes, of course.”

- Alright, perfect. Thank you, one of the people who is usually here to help us had to drop out for tomorrow, so we were about to be really underhanded.

“The one who should be thankful is me. At least I have something to do now.”

The lady finished the call after saying ‘see you tomorrow’. The way she spoke just made him smile. She had a very calming, comfortable voice.

“Done?” Miso asked.

“Yes, thank you.”

“What made you suddenly decide to act, by the way? I mean I’m happy about it, but still.”

“I decided that I might as well take that first step. I do like plays. I was interested from the start as well. I was just afraid of the time I might waste my time doing it. I’m not ready to go all in yet, though. Maybe I’ll quit after a few tries, even.”

“You don’t seem like that kind of a person to me. Kids like you get really focused on one thing once they really get into it. That’s one reason why I obsess over them a lot.”

“Who knows. I like to think I don’t get committed to things.”

“I don’t think so. People often think that they know themselves better than anyone. But many of them are also the type that won’t even realize that they have shit on their back until someone else tells them about it. Occasionally, someone else’s evaluation you might be more valuable than your own.”

“I’ll admit that.”

“Admitting is easy. You just never listen.”

“Instructor.”

“What?”

“You don’t have a boyfriend, do you?”

“………”

Maru dodged the plastic fork that was thrown at his face. He was pretty confident that he knew what kind of a person she was now.

“You really are a strange one. Go on, now. Like you said, there really isn’t a place for you here anymore.”

“Yes, I should.”

“Do think about it carefully, though. I might be totally mistaken, but I do see potential in you. You should try it. Forget about your fears. Actors begin their career by throwing themselves straight into the flame. They ignore how society might view them, how they might view themselves, and the rules that bind them and jump straight in.”

Miso stood up. The club members looked to be nearly finished with their food as well. They were all looking at the two of them, ready to start practice again.

“Don’t get jealous of them in the future, you hear?”

“Of course.”

Miso stepped forward. Maru watched the club resume practice for a few minutes before getting up himself. It was seven now. He’s never been at the auditorium this late before. He could see the others practicing their blocking as he walked over to the exit. Maru didn’t want to bother them. He quietly opened the door, and whispered “goodbye” as he left the auditorium.

* * *

The corridor of the school was still very well lit, despite being so late. Maru could hear different noises coming out of other club rooms still. The toy club had sounds of hammers beating against wood coming out of it, and Maru could hear someone in the music club practicing with their bass guitar.

They were all working very hard. Each of them were buying these skills with their time in order to get what they wanted. Hopefully they could all get what they wanted out of this. Maru headed down to the first floor with a bag of trash in hand. The first floor was completely dark, save for the teachers’ office down the hallway. It was pretty quiet, too.

It was his first time seeing the first floor so silent. It felt quite new to him for some reason. Maybe because he finally made a decision?

Maru threw away the bag of trash into one of the recycling bins before getting back on his bike. On the way back home, he found a few students walking on the streets together.

“Where do you want to meet tomorrow?”

“Are we doing anything tomorrow?”

He could hear them talking in the distance. A smile formed on Maru’s face.

“I’m going to do whatever I want to do tomorrow,” he found himself responding under his breath.

Chapter 38

Maru barely managed to wake up on Sunday morning. He pushed aside his thick blankets as he stood up from his bed. It was 7:30am. He opened the door and stepped into the kitchen. It was empty. His family was atheist, so their Sunday mornings were slow to start. He washed up in the bathroom and made himself a simple breakfast out of some rice and eggs. It was eight by the time he finished his meal. Dad came out of his room with a terrible bedhead.

“You going somewhere?” He asked.

“Yes.”

“Where?”

“I’m going to do a play.”

“Ah, sure.”

Maru grabbed the handle of the front door as he said his goodbyes. Right before he exit, he could hear his father’s delayed reaction.

“A play?”

“Yes. A play.”

“Eh?”

Maru just smiled in response.

* * *

Maru took the road that led him to Suwon station. Once he arrived, he found the floor of the station was covered in metal sheets. He remembered this station was under construction for quite a long time in his life.

It was the beginning of May. The time of year when it was getting pretty warm, but the occasional cold wind of winter was still present to disrupt the notion of spring. Maru noticed a food truck on the other side of the road. The ones that sold warm soy milk and a nice toast sandwich. There were five of them. They were all selling something similar, but the popularity between them was clearly different.

‘This gets removed soon as well, if I remember correctly.’

A few years later, government workers would place flower vases on the parking space of these food trucks. The owners of the trucks would feel quite wronged by this, but at the same time, restaurant owners in the area would have been annoyed by the truck owners not even paying property tax doing their business.

It was a situation where no clear winner could be seen on either side. Maru bought himself a toast. He’d already had breakfast, but his body was never satisfied by any amount of food he ate.

‘I don’t know when these food trucks would leave, so I might as well have some now.’

Maru walked to the front of the station after filling himself up with toast and soup. It was ten minutes before 9 o’clock.

Vrrr, the phone sprang to life.

He was getting a call from an unknown number.

- Is this Han Maru?

“Yes, it is.”

It was the woman he talked to through Miso yesterday.

- Where are you?

“I’m right outside Suwon station.”

- Really? Hold on. Can you come out to the road right below the pedestrian bridge? I’ll try to find you. I’m in a red car.

“Yes.”

Maru walked towards the road after hanging up. He could see a small red car zoom closer to him through the traffic. There wasn’t really a place to park nearby, so Maru walked over to the intersection nearby with the car in tow.

“Han Maru?”

“Yes.”

“Nice to meet you. Am I late?”

“You were right on time. Can I get on?”

“Sure.”

Maru got in the shotgun. As soon as he sat down, he got blasted with the scent of fresh lemon. It was very different compared to Miso’s stuffy car. In front of him were tiny little dolls that decorated the car. There was even a small rabbit hanging on the back mirror.

There were ten of these dolls at the very least. Maru looked back to see if there were any more. Ah, of course there were. He could even see little finger puppets in the back of the car.

“There’s a lot of stuff here, isn’t there?” The woman welcomed Maru.

Maru turned to look at the woman for the first time. She was quite pretty. Her long black hair came down to her shoulders. Her face looked younger than 30, but her eyes clearly looked older. She had a few wrinkles on her face, presumably from smiling so much. She had a small dimple on her face as well.

She looked like a soft lady. The polar opposite of Miso. He couldn’t even begin to imagine the kind of conversations she entertained in Miso’s company.

“Are these for your plays?” Maru asked, pointing to the back.

“Yes. Some of them are for plays, and some of them I give away to children.”

She changed gears and started driving. Strangely, the car she was driving was manual. She was accustomed to changing gears with the clutch. For a split second, Maru could see a visage of an experienced taxi driver overlap with her face.

“It’s a bit weird that I’m not driving an auto, right?”

She seemed to have noticed his stares. Maru shook his head.

“Manual feels way better to drive than auto. Auto is easier for sure, but when you’re driving a tru…”

Oops, he did it again. He closed his mouth and glanced at her.

“What did you just…”

“That’s what my dad told me. Manual’s just better.”

“Aha, I see. My father told me the same thing. That’s why he made me get the manual license when I first got it. I might as well try to go for a commercial driving license when I have time.”

“A commercial one?”

“Yes,” she responded, smiling brightly.

Those words were strange coming from someone with her looks, but he decided to ignore that for now.

“Ah, speaking of which, I haven’t told you my name, have I? My name is Kang Soojin. Like I said yesterday, I’m thirty, and… I just do odd jobs.”

“I’m Han Maru, a student. I’m working on our school’s play under instructor Miso. And you can speak casually to me now.”

“Would that be fine?”

“Yes.”

“Mm, then… I’ll… try to be casual?” She was having a hard time for some reason.

So even a woman of her age could be that cute. Maru looked forward with a smile on his face.

“Have you ever played with children?”

“Yes.”

Of course he has. A lot, too. He’s done all sorts of things for his daughter. He had to invent all sorts of different faces for his little princess.

“Is that so? That’s a bit of a surprise. Not many kids your age get to experience that.”

“That’s true.”

“It might still be hard, though. A few of them are pretty mischievous. Not that it makes me mad. They’re all cute. By the way… do you get angry easily?” She sounded a little nervous. Maybe she had a few people who got into fights?

“I can’t get angry. Don’t worry too much.”

“Phew, that’s good. You looked kind of scary. Oh, sorry, that’s not what I meant…”

She looked at Maru with a smile. Maru looked back into her eyes, prompting a thought bubble to pop up.

[He looked a bit scary because of his initial expression, but he seems fine. That’s good. I was a bit scared, but he looks like a good kid.]

Her thoughts were the same as her words. She turned her handle to the right with a happy smile. This was actually a pretty useful ability. It allowed him to see how different people were inside compared to their outside.

‘Even me, too.’

The car started going up a steep slope. The car came to a stop in a suburban neighborhood, 20 minutes away from the station. They were at a 2 floor daycare.

There was a woman who seemed to be a teacher of the place waiting in front. She was waving her hand vigorously at the two of them.

“She’s someone who works here. She’s nice. Let’s get off,” Soojin explained.

Soojin gave her greetings before opening the trunk of her car. The teacher came over to help out with carrying a few dolls inside. Maru picked up a few as well.

The three of them switched over to slippers once inside, and walked over to what seemed to be the living room of the building. From there, Maru could see a few kids running around with teachers inside.

“Is this private?” Maru asked.

Soojin nodded in affirmation.

‘It’s pretty nice here.’

He’s taken his daughter to a few kindergartens back in the day. The one they chose was pretty expensive, but since his wife was also working at the time, they were able to afford it. They also thought about leaving the girl to their parents but realized that wouldn’t work once they learned how difficult it was to raise a kid.

“This is pretty nice. You must get plenty of financial support from the government as well. Pretty well built, and lots of teachers… Do you guys also offer transportation for the kids?”

Soojin turned to look at him in bewilderment, making Maru cough a few times in nervousness.

“You know a lot, don’t you, Maru? You’re like an adult,” Soojin mentioned.

“I’m not like an adult. I just know a lot of random stuff. Random useless stuff.”

“No, it’s important to know this kind of stuff. You’ll be a lovely father when you get married in the future.”

Soojin smiled. Man, whoever takes this woman as his wife would be one lucky guy.

Maru put away the dolls in one of the bigger boxes as Soojin instructed. The kids walked over with a curious look on their faces. Most of them seemed to be around four years old.

“What’s this?”

“What that?”

“What?”

They were all speaking primitively.

“They’re dolls.”

Soojin kneeled down to the kids’ height as she explained. She sounded just like the other teachers as she talked. Maru watched for a bit, before remembering something Soojin said about him and going to the restroom.

That comment about him seeming scary…

He’s never heard that comment before in his life. Sure, he’s heard stuff like how he looked playful, mischievous, et cetera… But never once was he called scary.

He leaned down onto one of the kid’s mirrors and looked at his face.

‘…I do look a bit stiff.’

Maybe because he thought of random things too much? Maru tried smiling at the mirror. Good, at least his smile wasn’t stiff yet.

He heard the kids’ laughter upon leaving the bathroom. He started walking a bit faster to check out what was happening.

“Haha.”

The first thing Maru saw was Soojin wearing a rabbit’s mask. She seemed to have worn it to play with the children, but the reaction she was getting out of them… was far from pleasant.

“Monster rabbit!”

“It’s a monster rabbit!”

She did look a little abnormal. Probably because the teeth on the mask were so big. The kids were punching her as she crouched down on the floor in a fetal position.

It might seem like a punch from a 4 year old wouldn’t hurt that much. But Maru knew the answer to that very well, from having raised a daughter of his own.

It hurts like hell.

“W-wait. Kids!”

“Wahahaha!”

Well, at least the kids are happy. Maru thought back to his conversation with Soojin the day before. This was probably what was happening over the phone.

“Kids! I’m hurting!”

Of course, the kids didn’t even bother stopping. Maru watched the spectacle with a small smile on his face. At least, he did until Soojin took off her mask and started glaring at him.

“We’ll practice for a bit.”

“Ah, please do.”

Soojin left the children to the teacher and walked over to Maru. She grabbed his hand and headed for the stairs.

“We’re going to start after the kids take their naps. Other kids will be coming afterwards, so we should practice here.”

“Yes. But ah, you’re trying to be polite again.”

“Excuse me? Ah, sorry. Force of habit. It’s annoying, isn’t it?”

“I’m fine. Just do as you will, sis. Can I call you big sis?”

“Sure. Call me whatever you want. Miso calls me a white puppy sometimes.”

White puppy… Hm, that fit better than he thought.

“We’ll practice for four hours. Are you familiar with the fable about the sun and the wind, and that story about the brother and sister who turned into the sun and the moon?”

“Of course.”

“We’ll be doing those two today, with these.”

Soojin took out a few hand puppets with confidence. A tiger, two kids, a travel, and the sun and the moon.

“Looks fun, doesn’t it?”

She seemed more excited than the kids. Maru tried putting on the dolls in his fingers as well. As soon as he did, Soojin asked him a question.

“How is it?”

“Huh?”

“Is it well made?”

Her eyes were sparkling with the expectation for praise. He’s seen those eyes somewhere. Ah, he remembered seeing those eyes from his little daughter, when she handed him her drawing for the first time.

“Did you make it yourself?”

“Yes. How are they?”

“Woow, they’re really good. They look store-bought.”

“Really? They’re that good?”

Soojin smiled as wide as her dolls themselves.

“But Miso always makes fun of my dolls.”

“That lady can never hand out compliments.”

“Right? Right?”

Soojin’s smile got wider when Maru nodded. She must get teased pretty often. He could picture it with ease. That expression that Miso would wear as she teases Soojin mercilessly.

“I’ll tell you the story first. We don’t want the main content of the story changing. Ad-libbing in the play is fine, but only if I can properly react to it and if it doesn’t stray too much from the story. ”

“I don’t think I’ll be able to ad-lib. It’s my first time, after all.”

“Really? Anyway, come over here for a bit.”

Soojin opened the script she printed out. Maru stepped up next to her. He could smell the fresh scent of lemon coming off of her.

His heart skipped a beat. But right then, a picture of his pouting wife flashed in his head.

“Pft.”

“What’s up?”

“No, I just got reminded of something.”

Soojin nodded and started reading.

Chapter 39

“Don’t look away! The audience is going to think you look stupid if you do that! Dojin, you, especially! Think as you move. You’re going to overlap with the other kids if you stand there!” Miso shouted.

Dojin stepped aside with a quick apology, and in turn crashed into Daemyung. The two of them stumbled together on stage.

“Hey!!”

Soyeon and Yurim flinched from being so close to the shouting. Miso put a hand over her face and motioned the entire club over to her.

“3 weeks…”

“………”

“We need to do this in 3 weeks in front of judges. In front of audiences. You know what that means, don’t you?”

“Yes.”

“You know this, and yet you’re acting like this?! Go run a few laps outside. Run!!”

“Yes ma’am!”

The club ran out of the auditorium pretty much immediately. Miso sighed after they all left the room.

“It just doesn’t feel like enough.”

She was shouting at them, but the kids have become pretty skilled at this point already. Up to a satisfactory amount, as a matter of fact. But she still wanted more. Especially because they were all so driven.

Just a little bit more, and the play would become so much more powerful…

Miso stepped outside into one of the empty classrooms. She opened the window and looked outside. The students were all starting to run outside one by one.

The first one to finish was Taejoon. He didn’t have much stamina, but boy was he fast. The next one out was Geunseok. Joonghyuk and Minsung came afterwards, and then Dojin. Daemyung ran out at around the same time as the girls.

“Daemyung! You walking?!” Miso shouted.

“No ma’am!”

She could hear the response back faintly from the ground.

The kids started running like hell on the track. She told them that they could come in after completing five laps before sitting down on a seat. A while later, Taejoon walked back in with a loud huff. There was a bit of sweat on his forehead. The others all came in after him, with Soyeon being the last one.

Miso opened her mouth upon their collective arrival.

“Steady your breaths! Feel the way your throat opens and closes every time you take a breath. I told you the way your throat opens up when you yawn was the most ideal form you want to take when you vocalize, remember? But actors need to make different kinds of sounds for different occasions. When they’re happy, sad, tired, energetic, whatever. Right now, this is the shape your throat would take when you’re tired. Pay attention to how much you inhale, how much your lungs expand, and how your throat moves. Try to feel it. Don’t try to memorize all of it, just understand this is how your body works when it gets tired. You get it?”

“Yes ma’am!”

“You can’t act if you’re dumb! You need to feel the way every single part of your body moves at all times! Only after months of being aware of your movements can you really act. Acting naturally for the very first time? Don’t joke with me. That kind of stuff doesn’t happen in real life. You can only act when you have the basics down. Understand?”

“Yes ma’am!”

“Good. We’ll begin again after ten minutes. We’re also going to do runs like this starting next week. If you run out of stamina like this again after just a single run again… It won’t be pretty.”

The club all swallowed nervously.

“Geunseok.”

“Yes.”

The boy ran up to her immediately. He was the main character of this year’s competition. It would be a hard role, but the boy was fit for the job. He was more serious about acting than anyone.

He had the foundations, and the talent as well. In these competitions, there also existed individual acting prizes. Being able to snag them early on would help the boy get himself into a good school for acting. That’s why Miso needed to pressure the boy harder. She didn’t want him to become complacent.

“Did you analyze your character?”

“Yes.”

“Alright then. What kind of a character is Jeongsu in the play?”

Miso has never made high school club members analyze characters before. After all, kids usually joined the club out of simple curiosity, rather than actual passion. That’s why Miso just asked for a simple report of the characters from the other club members. But she was sure Geunseok was going to go professional and therefore had no intention of training the boy lightly.

“Jeongsu is a timid character. He wants to get closer to his friends, but doesn’t have the courage to do so. He’s also quick to anger. Enough to shout at a friend just because of a slightly offensive joke. And…”

“What do you think his elementary school life was like?”

“Excuse me?”

Geunseok looked a little taken aback, which caused Miso to click her tongue.

“I ask you to analyze a character, and here you are reading a script. I didn’t ask you for the surface details! Tell me about who Jeongsu is! What kind of a life he’s lived!”

“………”

“Any idiot can tell Jeongsu’s timid and hot-tempered! Everyone here knows this! It’s literally in the script! Mumbling, frustratedly, angrily, stomping the floor…”

Miso opened the script and started reading. Geunseok’s face started stiffening up, making him look way scarier than usual.

“What, are you mad?” Miso asked.

“Yes.”

“Because I shouted?”

“No. Because I thought this would be easy. I should’ve known you wanted more than just the obvious.”

Good. This boy was good. Miso handed him the script.

“Want me to teach you everything from one to ten, like I would a child?”

“No, I don’t want something like that. I want to be an actor who thinks.”

“Do your best, you hear? You seem to know what you’re missing, so I won’t speak any further. But here’s a piece of advice. If you think you’re about done, think again. Think if there really isn’t anything more you can think of. If you think more and more, you’ll always be able to find something. Then you’ll realize that you were only at step 0 all along, out of god knows how many steps. But that’s what growth is. Feeling that sense of loss is what helps you grow. Get it?”

“Yes ma’am.”

“I’m only harsh on you because I see talent. Don’t try to go for mediocrity if you really want to be good. You need to be passionate.”

“Yes!”

Miso waved the boy away. He was a good kid. She liked how the boy’s fire just didn’t die out.

‘He actually resembles that crazy idiot in a way. They even share the same last name and all.’

That idiot who started the acting club all by himself… The one with an unbelievable amount of passion. He would read the scripts again and again, enough for the script itself to start tearing apart at its edges. His passion was great enough to drive everyone else in the club forward along with him. The club wouldn’t exist without him and the advisor.

‘I wonder what I would’ve been doing without them.’

Maybe she would have become a comic book artist. She definitely wouldn’t be having this much fun though. In any case, that boy Geunseok had a lot in common with that madman. She sat down for a bit as she watched the kids read their script. Her phone started ringing.

It was a call from the crazy.

“Speak of the devil. What’s up?”

- I heard you treated our guys to a meal yesterday. Just wanted to say thanks.

“It’s no big deal. You called because of that?”

- Well, that, and I wanted to brag a little.

“Brag?”

- I met director Yoo at the set yesterday. Even exchanged greetings.

“What? Really?”

Director Yoo Chulmin. Now there was a name. The man was the director of one of the most famous playwrights in the country, the ‘Sky Seas’, and the current president of the Korean Acting Association. Every one of his works were sold out, and all sorts of famous actors were dying to be cast in the man’s movies. Miso’s seen the man a few times too, but even she has never gotten the chance to speak to him.

- I know I’d get remembered as one of the many no-name actors, but it’s still cool, you know?

“Yeah, I’m jealous. Why was he here?”

- I heard he’s basically like a brother to my current director. I had no idea.

“Isn’t this a great opportunity? You might…”

- Don’t act through connections, you remember that saying?

He cut her off right then and there. She didn’t bother refuting. She knew the man would succeed regardless.

“So in the end, you just wanted to brag?”

- Yeah, there’s that, but there was one other thing.

“What other thing?”

-… I was wondering if my brother was doing well.

“Brother?”

- Yeah. I couldn’t contact home for a few months now because I was so busy, but my brother told me a few days ago that he got into Blue Sky. That kid… he took that smart brain of his and just went into a shit school.

“Wait, is this kid Geunseok?”

- Yeah. Didn’t you notice a kid who looks like me? Tall, decent body, and a tiny bit better looking than me. Smarter, too. Wait shit, he’s just better than me in every way, isn’t he? Whatever. I’m better than him at acting anyway.

Miso could hear the man laugh to himself across the phone. It was Hong Geunsoo. Miso took a small glance at Geonseok. No wonder the boy looked familiar.

“Hey! You never told me you had a brother!”

- Oh, did I not tell you?

“You just straight up never talked about home.”

- Really? Well anyways, take care of him. He must have a reason of his own for wanting to do acting with that brain of his.

Miso looked at her phone strangely for a second. That voice of his just now… sounded very bitter. Why was he talking like that? Any other time he would sound like someone who was on a motherload of drugs.

“Anything you want to tell me about?”

- Not really. Just take good care of him.

Liar. He always said ‘not really’ when he was lying. It was one of those things that everyone except him was aware of.

“Hey, be serious here.”

-……

“Hey! Bastard!”

The club members flinched in the middle of their reading and looked over at her. Miso just waved them away before continuing.

- Don’t go easy on him.

“I won’t, obviously.”

- Also.

“Also?”

- It’s nothing. I might just be mistaken here. Just… I want him to have a dream. And even if he fails to achieve it, I don’t want him getting too hurt from it.

“Hey, I can help him achieve his dream, but I can’t be cushioning him when he fails. That’s your job. Also, come visit every once in a while. Got it?”

- Yes, yes. I will, I will.

Geunsoo cut the phone call short after that.

“Geunsoo’s brother, huh.”

Generation 1 and generation 13 of Blue Sky. Miso put her hands together and rested her chin on top. Now there was another reason to be even harsher on Geunseok. Speaking of the devil, the boy turned around to look at her.

* * *

Geunseok looked back for a second. Instructor Miso was looking at him with narrowed eyes. Her twisted lips seemed to imply that she was swearing at him under her breath.

Was she still angry?

He definitely needed to get a grip on himself. They only had three weeks from now on. Not a lot of time at all. Each passing day only worsened his nerves. He wanted to win an award, like his brother did.

‘Big bro.’

Geunsoo meant a lot of things to Geunseok. Just the word ‘brothers’ wasn’t enough to describe their relationship.

Sometimes, the man was his idol. Sometimes, a rival. Sometimes, a loving brother, and sometimes a hated enemy. When he was young, he just couldn’t understand the man.

Geunseok thought back to his elementary school years. He would come back home straight after school because he didn’t want to go study at an academy. Right as he stepped into the house, he could see his dad shouting at his brother, who was kneeling on the floor. Mom grabbed him and took him outside immediately. A few moments later, his brother came out of the house with a big grin on his face.

[Geunseok! Listen to your parents, alright?]

That was the one thing his brother always said after getting in a massive fight with dad. The man was just a bag of mysteries. Someone who never stopped hurting his parents. That was the impression Geunseok had of his brother.

He still remembered what his mother told him on that day.

[Geunseok, you’ll listen to your parents, won’t you?]

That day, he responded with a ‘yes’ without any hesitation in his voice. Just because of how pathetic his own brother looked walking out of the house.

Chapter 40

His brother didn’t contact the family again after that. Geunseok only learned this later, but his brother had gone off to do military service during that time period.

His dad’s fury was inevitable. After all, his brother practically disappeared for two years, before saying he wanted to drop out of college and become an actor.

To others, it seemed that his brother just wasn’t cut out for studying. After all, the man couldn’t stay still for even ten seconds. His father often said even if studying wasn’t all there was to life, it was still important to know the basics. So his brother always ended up doing the bare minimum. And every time, he would complain about studying to Geunseok.

Despite the five years that passed since then, Geunseok still remembered those words. He remembered how he responded, too.

“But mom and dad are happy if we do it.”

And his brother said:

“But it’s boring even if they are happy.”

In the end, his brother argued with their dad for a year straight before going to an engineering school. Apparently he won his dad over with the words, ‘I’d rather become the head of a snake rather than the tail of a dragon’ back then.

Geunseok could somewhat remember what his brother was like in high school. He remembered his mother saying ‘You were only six then. You can remember it?’ when he asked about it.

In any case, during that time his brother would come back home late everyday. He got into a lot of fights because of that, too.

Yeah, they really did fight a lot, didn’t they?

Geunseok thought of what happened during his brother’s senior year. His brother and his dad were arguing about academics vs acting again. That was probably the first time his dad hit his brother.

He remembered it really well. His brother’s face snapped sideways, and his mom dragged him into his room. He caught a glimpse of his brother as the door closed. Smiling. Victoriously.

After that night, dad didn’t say anything more to his brother. Dad didn’t even budge when his brother invited him to watch his play.

Until then, Geunseok had never seen his brother’s play. His mother wasn’t brave enough to go watch the play dad was furious about, and he didn’t really want to see it either. Around then, he was going to a small academy right before entering elementary school. It became routine at the house to see his brother come back to the house covered in sweat an hour after him.

At the time, Geunseok couldn’t understand his brother for the life of him. He wasn’t stupid. Geunseok knew that for a fact. The man would memorize entire scripts in a single sitting.

Brother was eerily focused when he looked at the script. If he spared some of that energy for studying, surely mom and dad wouldn’t have had a problem with him acting. But his brother didn’t care. It was almost as if the time spent studying was time wasted on him.

That winter, brother got accepted into a no-name college. Dad clicked his tongue annoyedly, but still offered to cover his son’s tuition. He must’ve been pretty happy on the inside. Mother also repeatedly said ‘you should study for real now that you’re in college.’

Brother just nodded.

Geunseok could tell pretty easily that his brother had no intention of listening to her. That was also the winter when Geunseok finished studying the rest of the coursework for elementary school. At that point, it became his goal to study middle school material while in elementary school. Even his teachers at the academies praised me.

“Your son is very smart,” the man said over the phone.

That was the day Geunseok attended a buffet with his parents. His brother didn’t come. Brother was in the acting club even then.

“Good job, son. Good job.”

“Geunseok, did you want anything as a present?”

Geunseok’s parents were beaming. Praises upon praises came on his way. He loved studying. It wasn’t that hard, and it made his parents happy. That was the day when the three of them went to the department store to buy his presents. His dad didn’t hesitate to use his credit card, and his mom bought him all the toys and clothes he wanted.

Why didn’t his brother study? It was so easy! His brother was just so strange to him. That day when they got back home, he found his brother cooking instant ramen for himself.

“If only he could take after his younger brother,” his dad commented.

He felt conflicted from hearing this. He was happy to be recognized by his parents, but at the same time, he felt sorry for his brother.

Maybe that's why Geunseok felt the need to walk up to him while he was eating.

“Bro, do you want me to teach you how to study?”

Dad laughed joyfully, and mom smiled as she said “Geunseok’s all grown up now, trying to take care of his elder brother already” from the back.

Back then, he really did just want to be helpful. No, he was just trying to feel prideful after hearing so many praises from his parents. In any case, his brother looked up at him quietly for a second.

Geunseok thought his brother would get mad. Or just keep eating his food with a sad look on his face. But his brother didn’t do either of those things.

“Hey, little bro, this is pretty tasty too, you know? Want a bite?”

* * *

Geunseok’s brother declared that he would leave the city for his college afterwards. He wanted to live by himself there.

Around the end of december, he also told the family that he would be performing in a play hosted by the city. Of course, their dad ignored it completely.

Mom had changed a little bit, though. She finally gathered the courage to try watching a play by her son. Dad didn’t say anything about it. He probably allowed it since this was going to be brother’s last play.

“Geunseok, do you want to come too?”

Geunseok nodded without hesitation. He was pretty curious too. Just what was it about acting that made his brother give up studying? The two of them went to city hall, where the play was taking place. They went to the waiting room first to find Geunseok’s brother.

Geunseok stood on his toes, trying to find his brother in the crowd. It wasn’t very hard, since the person in question was in the spotlight then.

His brother was… shining. Everyone was looking at his brother. A single word from him either simmered the room with a nervous air, or caused it to explode in joyous laughter. Even at Geunseok’s young age, he was able to tell how important his brother was here. It was almost like looking at a completely different person. Even his mom seemed surprised. Thankfully, his brother noticed them on his own. He walked up to them and told them in his usual tone of voice,

“Well, enjoy the show.”

Geunseok realized then that his brother wasn’t any different now than he was inside the house. The only thing that was different was how he looked at his brother.

Soon, the play began. Brother was… amazing, to say the least. That memory didn’t last long though. His brother left for college shortly afterwards, and Geunseok returned to his routine life of studying.

He felt great whenever his teachers praised him at school. That was the only thing he studied for. Praises.

While the other kids were struggling with addition, he could tell them about stuff like equations. He wrote his name in Chinese characters and introduced himself in English as well. Even the other kids told him he was amazing.

It felt great to be the center of attention. He didn’t want to forgo this feeling. Tests, quizzes, homeworks… he made sure to always score full points on them. His parents always showered him with praises when he showed them his tests. Along with presents. That feeling was exhilarating. He felt like he was loved by everyone.

By his third year of elementary school, he completely forgot about his brother’s play. The only thing he saw in that year was his brother leaving home after declaring that he was dropping out of college.

How disappointing.

Geunseok would try harder to make his parents happy.

With that, he graduated elementary school. He finished his placement tests for middle school perfectly as well. Again, his parents were ecstatic. That’s when he formed a plan in his head.

Everyone would love him even more if he went to a good college. He studied and studied, and took his first test in middle school.

And…

He got in 5th place in the class. For the first time in his life, he wasn’t in first place. 24th in the entire grade as well. The hair on his back rose up. Suddenly, he felt scared. This wasn’t good enough. This wouldn’t do anything at all.

That night, he received a bored response out of his dad for the first time.

“Good job,” he said.

And that was all. No praises, no gifts. He felt nervous. He grit his teeth and got to studying. Even when his friends wanted to play, he refused them and studied as much as he could.

Each nosebleed gave him a high, almost as if he got himself a new achievement.

It was a symbol of his at school. Each red dot on his notebook gave him confidence.

And then… the finals came. Maybe it was because he slept late studying, but he failed on the very first day. He didn’t even have to look at his grades to know. He double checked his answers with his friends, and his score only came out to about… a 70.

It felt like the world was crumbling around him. He got a 70 on all of his subjects. His friends almost looked like they were making fun of him. His teacher’s warm gaze suddenly seemed so very cold to him. He couldn’t talk to his friends on his way back home.

He came back home and showed his mom the tests. Mom sighed. She didn’t say anything else.

“How is it, mom?” he asked nervously.

Mom could only respond with a very quiet voice.

“Try harder next time. 70 is a bit low, isn’t it?”

Geunseok couldn’t sleep at all that night, and he failed the rest of his tests that week. 70s across the entire board. He came in 26th in the entire class. He failed completely. His entire life plan was in ruins. He couldn’t even hope to go to a decent high school with these grades.

He was a loser. A failure.

That 70 should have never existed in his gradebook. Even now, he could see his parents sighing.

He couldn’t breathe. He couldn’t get praises like this. He couldn’t… get loved like this.

It was a stupid concern, he knew that. But at the time, he was very desperate. Desperate enough to want to kill himself. Because a Geunseok that couldn’t get praises may as well stop existing. Right around then was when he thought of his brother.

He called his brother’s former college, and through his brother’s friends, he managed to contact the man. He didn’t even know what to say, or what he even wanted to hear. His brother asked him what was wrong. He didn’t respond, and just hung up.

He couldn’t think of anything to say.

The next day, on a Saturday morning, his brother came back home.

“You’re fine, you’re fine,” brother said, gripping his shoulders tightly.

It’s fine. That’s when Geunseok realized that… the only thing he ever wanted to get wasn’t praises. He just wanted to hear that everything was fine. How did his brother know? He asked with tears streaming down his face.

“Your breathing just sounded so hurt over the phone. You think I’d be a brother if I didn’t notice? An actor, even?”

His eyes were the exact same as 6 years ago, when he was eating instant noodles at home.

“Do you want to go watch a play?”

Geunseok nodded without hesitation. That was the first time he ever visited Hyehwa station. The streets were filled with people who had the same sort of energy as his brother. They moved like him, talked like him, and had the same eyes as him.

They were alive.

That day, Geunseok managed to find his dream. Maybe it was just a stupid dream. Maybe chasing after his brother’s shadow wasn’t all that great. But it was his decision to make. To keep that dream.

He would do things differently, though.

He kept studying. His grades got better again. Some way or the other, he managed to come in first in the entire school. His parents and teachers started praising him again. But this time, their praises all felt fake to him.

Then, the third year of middle school came.

Geunseok decided to attend an engineering high school. It wasn’t that difficult to convince his dad. He just said that by going to an engineering school, he could have an easier time going into a better college.

He didn’t say anything about acting. He knew how his dad would react if the man knew about it.

He would… probably get a slap in the face. That was fine. He’d keep on smiling regardless. Because he would be able to keep on doing what he wanted.

* * *

“Ah.”

Geunseok exclaimed to himself as the club rested after their first reading session. The boy had an epiphany. Dojin stared for at him for a moment out of curiosity.

“What’s up?” he asked, earning a smile from Geunseok.

“I found my reason to keep smiling after getting a slap in the face.”

…What the hell was that about?

“Enough resting! Come over here!”

That was when Miso called out to the group again.

Chapter 41

“Put down your scripts.”

The entire club put down their scripts. The entire auditorium quieted down right then.

“We’re going to stop using our scripts from now on. You all have your lines memorized, right?”

“Yes!”

“Good.”

Miso drew a rectangle on the floor with blue tape.

“This is the size of the stage you’ll be working on from now on.”

9 meters wide, and 7 meters tall. The eleven members of the club looked around from inside the rectangle.

“Smaller than you think, isn’t it?”

“Yes.”

“This is how big most small theaters are. But actually performing in it should change your thoughts drastically. You’ll realize how massive it is once you actually start performing in front of a crowd. Now! Let’s start again from the top. Stay focused, now. Don’t try to take it too seriously, and feel free to ask for lines if you get stuck. Ok?”

“Yes ma’am.”

“I won’t comment too much, since this isn't for real yet. Just try to figure out how the play goes as you work in real time with other actors. Now then, Daemyung, begin.”

The play began with a loud sigh.

* * *

“Hm.”

Soojin smiled awkwardly, causing Maru to put down his tiger doll.

“Is there a problem?” he asked.

“No, it’s nothing.”

Her words betrayed the look of disappointment she wore.

“Please tell me. I’m trying to learn here, so anything helps.”

“Well, ok. If that’s the case…”

Soojin took the doll from his hand and put it on hers.

“First off, your flow of speech is perfect. Even an adult who’s never heard the story would be able to understand everything after just one go. But…”

She looked at the doll for a split second before going “rawr” with a smile on her face.

“The play isn’t for adults. A good story has value, for sure. But kids want entertainment. It’d be good if we can tell them a good story and make them have fun at the same time, but children can’t focus for too long at once. In the end, what you need is something that can grab their attention. Entertainment.”

She went “rawr” again quietly before continuing.

“You’re good at explaining things, Maru. Ah, I’m not a professional, so don’t take my words too seriously.”

“You’re certainly more professional than me.”

“I-is that so? In any case, you’re good at explaining, but it’d be better if you tried to add in some funny bits in the middle. Speaking of which…”

Soojin put the tiger doll back on Maru’s hand. She walked back down to the first floor before returning with something in her hand. It was a camcorder. A small one at that. They should be pretty expensive at this time…

“Is that yours?”

“Oh, this? Yeah. It’s from Alpha. The video quality’s good, and it has decent memory. Plus…”

Soojin closed her mouth with a smile. What an interesting lady. An early adopter trying to get a truck license…

“In any case! Can you try putting on a play with that doll?” she asked.

“By myself?”

“Yeah. I’ll take care of the other voices.”

Maru put on the doll. He decided to start from the section when the mother and daughter characters would meet the tiger on the mountain.

“Rawr.”

“Oh dear.”

“You’re fearless, aren’t you?! Coming into these mountains so late at night! Sniff, sniff, what’s this I smell? Rice cakes?”

Maru decided to just go straight to his next line. Normally, a teacher would intervene here to explain the story.

“I won’t eat you if you give me one of those.”

“H-here you go. Please let me go.”

The play started again. The tiger would eat the rice cakes, and then eat the mother as well.

“Alright, let’s stop here for now. A video should explain the situation really well. Here, take a look.”

His videotaped self was a lot more awkward than he expected from the beginning. He was just staring straight into the camera with no expression at all. Once Soojin finished saying her lines, he finally opened his mouth in the camera.

“Aha,” Maru exclaimed.

“You get it?”

“Yes.”

Maru’s pronunciations were good, and his voice acting decent as well. But his face… His face didn’t carry any emotion in it at all. Apart from his hand, the rest of his body was completely still. In short, it was just really boring to look at.

“Alright, now that you got some feedback, let’s try again pretending you have an audience this time around. Here, I’ll show you how.”

Soojin donned the mother & daughter doll on one hand, and the tiger doll on the other. She took a small breath before starting.

“Rawr!”

That roar alone was enough to make Maru realize how much better Soojin was compared to him. She was moving her entire body when she performed. She tried to become the character itself as she acted out the dolls. She roared like a tiger when the doll was supposed to roar, and she shuddered in fear when the two human dolls scrunched away as well.

That face of hers bloomed into a grin one second before morphing into fury in the next. It was pretty funny to look at. She even made a sorrowful expression when the mom got eaten by the tiger. After the short demonstration, Maru couldn’t help but clap. He realized that he was looking down on finger doll plays all this time. He was trying to get into this with the wrong mindset.

“This is a bit embarrassing when you first try this for the first time. Finger dolls can only do so much to convey emotions. In the end, I realized that I had to express things myself as well. Dolls are just symbols. Mascots. You have to be the one to convey the actual emotions. Voices aren’t enough. Just moving your body a bit here and there aren’t enough either.”

Soojin frowned deeply, saying “you have to do it like this” as she did so. She seemed to be trying to look scary, but she only looked cute doing it.

“Kids are sharper than you think. They get bored if they realize you aren’t trying hard. That’s why you need to do your best.”

She gave him back the tiger doll. Maru nodded. He realized what the woman was trying to tell him. He didn’t know if he could do it well, but he might as well try.

“Smile,” Soojin smiled toothily.

“Smile,” and Maru decided to follow suit.

He had to wonder, if a play for kids were this hard… What was an actual competition like? His mind drifted off to the other club members back at school.

Were they doing well?

* * *

“Auuuuagh,” Miso said, with a strange expression.

Dojin was just looking down at the floor right in front of her.

“Abubaba?”

“………”

“Ababa, abababa. Are you trying to imitate a baby?”

“No, ma’am,” Dojin responded.

“I told you to ask if you didn’t know how to do it, didn’t I?”

“Yes, ma’am.”

“So why didn’t you? Are you trying to waste time?”

“I’m sorry.”

“Why are you apologizing to me? You’re only hurting the club here. In any case, don’t you have something to do?”

Ugh. Dojin ran outside. Ask questions if you have any… It was a great motto. A very nice way of running a club. You could always ask the other members if you happened to forget one line.

But there was a rule here. A single rule that existed to stop Dojin from asking any questions.

The rule itself was simple enough. If you forget your line, two laps around the field. If someone tells you your line, two more laps around the field. Dojin shouted annoyedly as he came out into the field.

“Ugh! Friggin’ hell! What am I supposed to do?!”

“I can hear you!”

Dojin flinched when he heard Miso’s voice from above. He ran the two laps as fast as he could before coming back in. The practice resumed afterwards.

He had his issues with Miso, but he couldn’t help but follow her instructions regardless. They were definitely working very well.

Running cleansed him of his other thoughts. The nervousness in his body disappeared. The lines slowly returned to him as the club practiced again.

“Okay,” Miso clapped her hands together.

A single round of practice without looking at the script had finished.

“We can’t just finish this with one practice round, can we?”

Dojin nodded, along with everyone else. They were pretty confident they could do better this time.

“Alright. Let’s just go at it, then. We’ll try running after one more round of this.”

Running. That is, actually putting on the play. Miso always threatened to ‘murder’ them if they made a mistake during this.

Dojin swallowed. He was the one that’s made the most mistakes in the past week. He knew what Miso was capable of when she got angry. The other club members seemed to have thought the same thing.

“Good, good. That nervousness is good. This is for real, now. Making a mistake in a run means you’ve made a mistake on the actual performance. You need to be careful. We’ll get right into it after this.”

Miso leaned back in her chair with a smile. Dojin, on the other hand, just sighed. He didn’t even want to imagine the consequences of making a mistake here.

* * *

They were crying.

One of them started first, then the other kids started crying as well. What did he do wrong? Maru looked at Soojin nervously. In the previous scene, he decided to try hard and put as much emotion as he could in showing the tiger eating the mother. He put on a big frown, shouted “roaaar!” as he bit down on the mother doll.

He thought he did pretty well. He really did. But the little girl in front of him exploded into tears.

“Ha, haha.”

Soojin laughed awkwardly before bringing out a different doll. It was a cute turtle. She walked into the crowd of crying children. Maru tried stepping in to help, but receded after the children all stepped back in fear.

“Why did you cry? Were you scared?” Soojin said, waving the turtle doll in her hand. Her voice was soothing and slow.

The crying children instantly gathered around her.

“H-he!”

“A-ate mommy!”

“Moooommmyyyy…”

Maru flinched inside. He felt like he did something wrong. But since there wasn’t anything he could do to remedy the situation, he just awkwardly scratched his head.

“They must’ve been surprised. Then again, when you roared, I almost flinched as well,” the teacher next to him whispered.

Maru apologized.

“Don’t worry about it. You were just trying hard. I don’t think we can continue with you today though. The kids will cry if they see you.”

The teacher gave Maru the doll on her fingers. Maru turned to look at the kids with a conflicted look. The kids were all telling Soojin to punish the bad tiger with a crying look.

“…Come to think of it, my daughter wasn’t a fan of playing with me either.”

He recalled the time when he threw his daughter in the air to stop her from crying. His wife smacked him for that.

Of course, his daughter only cried more from that as well.

[Ugh, have some common sense!]

The voice of his wife was still ringing in his ear.

“Sorry, I’m just not very talented.”

Maru turned to head up to the second floor. The first time he tried to help out in a puppet play, he got three strikes immediately.

Chapter 42

Yoonjung stared at the green tape under her feet. Once she stepped across it, she would be on the stage. In front of her, her friends were acting in this imaginary stage.

Joonghyuk, who was acting as the main character’s father, was sitting in a steel chair. Instead of a newspaper, he was holding his script in one hand and pretending to scroll through the television channels with the other.

“Why isn’t that idiot coming back? It’s already eight,” he said casually.

As expected of him. He spoke his line flawlessly.

Minsung walked into the stage next. As the uncle of the main character, Minsung stumbled onto the stage with his hands in his gym pants.

“Jungsoo still isn’t back?” he asked.

The uncle was a jobless character. He was supposed to be the main reason why the main character rebelled in the story.

The man was just one of those characters that decided to give up on working and live with his own family. The two characters started arguing on stage for a little. Since nothing really happened in the play so far, they weren’t really being serious about it.

This cheery air in the play would soon be broken by the main character’s rebellion, an ascension to a climax, then end with the entire family talking it out with each other on the dining table.

‘Phew, I’m getting nervous,’ Yoonjung thought.

Miso was still looking pretty calm at this point.

This practice run wasn’t as serious as an actual dress rehearsal, but they were still acting out the entire thing. She couldn’t help but get a little nervous by this.

Around this point, as the scene was about to end, Minsung ended up making a small mistake. His tongue must’ve gotten twisted. That was fine. He would just need to continue from there.

But instead, Minsung spent a brief second staring at Miso nervously. The woman’s eye twitched wordlessly.

Yoonjung felt her heart beat. There was no stopping this run, since it was supposed to go like a real dress rehearsal. Minsung swallowed before finishing off his line quickly. With this, the scene was finished.

Minsung and Joonghyuk stepped away from the stage. Yoonjung glanced at Minsung. The poor boy was nervously glancing at Miso.

Next scene.

Geunseok, the main character, walked into the house with Taejoon and Iseul, his friends.

‘As I thought, he’s good.’ Yoonjung thought.

Geunseok plopped down on his chair, exhausted. He looked very natural doing it, too. Their conversation started. The scene was supposed to focus on the main character starting to feel conflicted because of his two friends.

Conflicted about traveling, that is. His friends wanted to travel to the beach in the weekend in secret. Geunseok was tempted, but he was feeling conflicted because he didn’t have the money for it, and he knew his father wouldn’t allow it.

“Come on, man. We don’t need to get permission at our age. Let’s just go.”

“Yeah, come on.”

Geunseok said ok for now, giving into the pressure. This much was fine. The scene ended pretty smoothly.

‘The problem is me,’ Yoonjung thought.

Yoonjung played Geunseok’s mother. She was supposed to be a very mean, overbearing woman. One that judged children purely based on their grades. She was supposed to be one of the bigger reasons why the main character’s relationship with his father worsened.

“Jungsoo,” she said, crossing the green line.

The air around her changed right then. Wasn’t it spring? It was supposed to be warm. But… why was it so cold around her? Was it because of Miso looking at her?

“Yes, mom,” Geunseok nervously responded.

He looked like a saddened child. Good. She should be able to match him pretty well. She was a senior, after all.

“Your midterm grades this semester… Why are they this bad?”

“I’m sorry.”

“I knew it’d be like this. From the very moment I saw you slacking. All of my friends’ kids are competing on the national level, but look at you. You’re just embarrassing me.”

“I’m sorry, I’ll do better in the final.”

“Jungsoo, do you think I’m saying this to save my own face? I’m saying this for you. Alright? Look at me. Scores are everything for a person. Your happiness in the future correlates directly to your scores now.”

Yoonjung tried to look incredibly satisfied by her own words. To try to look as annoying as possible. Now, it was Geunseok’s turn. The scene would end with Geunseok acting out of character under his mother’s gaze.

Suddenly, Geunseok’s eyes changed. He jumped out of his seat and charged towards her. This was in the plan, of course. He was supposed to shout at her. It was even in the script.

They’ve practiced for it.

But… this was way too different. The boy almost looked like he was going to run into her. His eyes were full of anger. Enough anger to make Yoonjung forget about the play for a second and step back with a flinch.

Geunseok started shouting. He was doing incredibly well. Yoonjung only managed to regain her senses when Geunseok started trying to signal her with his eyes.

Ah, she almost missed her line!

“Y-you dare speak out against your mother?!”

Ah, she screwed up. She looked like a mother that was afraid of her son, not one that had control over her son.

In any case, she stepped back off the stage. With that, the lights went off, and the scene got cleaned up. This was supposed to be the point where the scene changed to the ‘marketplace’.

“Ugh, I’m so dead,” Yoonjung muttered, stepping off.

Danmi patted her back reassuringly. This would’ve helped normally, except this time it didn’t. She could feel Miso glaring at her. That lady had way too scary of a gaze.

“Hah…”

“Cheer up, she’s just going to scold you at worst.”

“…”

That’s the scary part…

* * *

Daemyung stepped on stage with Dojin. They were to lighten the mood of the play as they passed by a store.

They were also going to start a fight with the main character, as two 40 year old men going out for a drink after work. In the scene, they would run into the main character smoking with his friends out on the streets.

‘We can do this.’

Frankly, Daemyung was surprised by the skill exhibited from his first-year friends. Yurim and Soyeon played their roles perfectly as the mother’s friends. Not only that, Taejoon and Iseul seemed natural during their performance as well.

Geunseok was exemplary, as usual. The only people who needed to do well were Daemyung and Dojin now.

The two exchanged glances. One mistake here, and they were as good as dead. Dojin was the first to step towards Geunseok, scolding the other boy for smoking. Daemyung’s role acted as support for Dojin’s. But when the time came for Taejoon to respond with, “just keep going on your merry way, misters”, the boy just stood there dumbly.

After a few seconds of awkward silence,

“Ugh, please! Just leave us alone!” Iseul shouted.

She took over for Taejoon instead, causing Taejoon’s expression to change into a slight frown.“You little bitch…”

Daemyung changed the “bastard” in his line to a “bitch” instead. Iseul nonchalantly hit back with Taejoon’s line. She must’ve memorized all of the scenes by herself.

The third scene came to an end, and the other characters all left the scene, save for Geunseok. As soon as Taejoon stepped outside the green line, he turned to look at Geunseok with distressed.

“Ah fuck.”

There were no better words to describe the situation for them at that moment.

* * *

Kindergarten.

After a few minutes of silence, Maru started to hear the joyous sound of laughing children again. Soojin seemed to handle everything on her own quite nicely. Maru peeked down at the first floor after playing with the finger dolls by himself for a while.

The kids were smiling again. Since they couldn’t continue with the puppet play, Soojin was playing with the kids with the dolls on her hands.

Maru couldn’t help but feel a little sorry. He messed up the entire play trying to go over the top. Soojin had explained to him that his audience would be children, too… He should’ve kept that in mind when performing.

Children are naive and oblivious. If you hid behind a door for a second then came out again, they would believe that you disappeared for a second. They understood everything at face value.

Of course they would be frightened if Maru roared loudly like that. He just completely ignored what would be considered appropriate and went with it.

Despite Soojin’s efforts, she was clearly having trouble handling 50 kids all at once. The teacher offered little relief, since the kids were just going straight for Soojin since she had the dolls.

Maru watched this for a second before looking back at the second floor. He remembered seeing something there a while ago…

There it was. In the corner of the floor was a fox mask. He put it on and stepped downstairs. Soojin smiled lightly as soon as she saw him and pointed.

“Look, there’s a bad fox over there.”

“Bad fox?”

The kids immediately responded.

“Mr. Fox is trying to hurt big sis Soojin. Big sis doesn’t like owies.”

From Maru’s perspective, it almost looked like Soojin was a kid herself. She really had a knack for being a kindergarten teacher. He had to wonder at this point what her real job was.

“Waaah!”

“Bad Mr. Fox!”

Soojin pointed at Maru with a sniffle. The kids all ran towards him, grabbed his pants, and started shaking.

“Don’t hurt her!”

“Bad Mr. Fox! Bad Mr. Fox!”

“Yah! Yah!”

These little twerps had a ridiculous amount of strength in their little bodies. Maru slowly made his way back to the room where the kids came from. He could play here, but the staircase behind him could be dangerous.

That was rule one of acting. Part of its purpose was self-satisfaction, but ultimately, it was a show for the audience. The audience here were the kids, and therefore, Maru would have to put them in the proper environment, for the most amount of entertainment.

“Mr. Fox is here to hurt. Fox! Fox!” Maru said.

He waded through the crowd of kids with a light voice. He couldn’t remember what foxes sounded like, so he just said “fox fox”, but the kids seemed to enjoy that even more.

“Why would a fox go fox fox? Hehehe.”

“Then what does the fox say?”

“Eh? I don’t know.”

“Let’s just say it says fox fox then.”

Maru picked up the talking kid and shook the boy lightly. The kid seemed nervous for a second, but immediately burst into laughter.

“Me too! Me too!”

“Me tooo!”

The kids crowded all over him, completely forgetting that he was supposed to be a bad fox. Maru turned to look at Soojin through his mask. The woman was giving him a big thumbs up with a smile.

* * *

“Do you really want to go play with your friends that much?”

“No, I don’t.”

“If you really want to, just go. Make sure to call every day though.”

“…Dad.”

Joonghyuk stood up from his seat and left the stage. Yoonjung, the mother, looked at Geunseok coldly before leaving herself. Geunseok gripped the spoon in his hand tightly for a second, before standing up with a sigh.

With that, the play was over. The actors came in one by one through the green line to prepare for the curtain call. The side characters were the first to bow to the audience. Once everyone else was done, Geunseok would take his place in the center.

The eleven actors grabbed each other’s hands, standing side by side, and bowed. With that, the run was over.

“What a shitshow,” Miso blurted, “a total shitshow.”

“………”

“I knew things would be like this when you never bothered to do anything more than reading the damn script. Do you only practice when I’m around?”

No one could answer that. Of course they all practiced in their own time and of course they tried to read the script whenever they could. But at this point, anything they say would come off as nothing but excuses.

Yoonjung looked over at the kids next to her. They were all sighing dejectedly.

“Second years,” Miso called out.

“Yes!”

Yoonjung and Minsung were the loudest of the group. Probably because they were the ones that made the mistakes.

“You guys were average. Perfectly average. Is that enough for you, though? You guys did even worse than the first years.”

Miso glared.

Yoonjung didn’t dare look up. She completely fumbled on stage.

“Lee Yoonjung!”

“Yes!”

“Does it make sense for Jungsoo’s mom to flinch like that in front of her son?”

“No.”

“Oh, so you knew that, but you still thought it would be a good idea to flinch? Unless… don’t tell me that you were intimidated by a first year?”

“………”

“You have to get into character. You need to become an embittered woman that only thinks of her son as an advertisement for herself. You get it?”

“Yes.”

“You’re only good at responding quickly, aren’t you?”

Miso turned.

“Minsung.”

“Yes.”

“Were your lines gum or something? You were chewing on it on stage for some time.”

“I’m sorry. ”

“You think you’ll be able to apologize to the audience if you make the same mistake?”

She clicked her tongue afterwards. When Yoonjung glanced sideways, she noticed Minsung gritting his teeth.

Miso turned to look at the first years.

“Daemyung.”

“Yes.”

Daemyung responded nervously. Yoonjung recalled seeing the boy carry on the play pretty well with Iseul before.

“Good job. The worst thing that can happen during a play is for the audience to realize that the actor made a mistake. It’s also the most embarrassing thing for an actor to experience. You did well though. Iseul, you too. You need to step in immediately the moment you notice the idiot next to you makes a mistake. Never let the play come to a pause. Always remember, the show must go on. Understood?”

“Yes!”

“Alright, we’re going to get dinner before doing this again. I’m going light on you guys since this was your first run. But be prepared to be scolded a lot if you make a mistake next time.”

Miso’s eyes narrowed as she scanned the club.

Yoonjung avoided the woman’s gaze. Honestly, this teacher was so scary…

Chapter 43

It was June. The impatient students were already going to school in T-shirts - one of the positives of not having uniforms. Since Maru didn’t get cold very easily, he decided to wear a T-shirt himself.

He rode his bike with earphones. The scenery swooshed by him rapidly. He could see a kid walking by while holding his mother’s hand in the morning sun. He was wearing a yellow bag with a little yellow hat. They must be going to kindergarten.

‘Come to think of it, why use yellow all the time?’

Before he knew it, he had reached school. He got off his bike and walked past the disciplinary teacher casually. The man smiled at him, looking at his short hair.

Maru never really cared for hairstyles, always opting for the short sporty ones. As he parked his bike, he noticed Dowook doing the same as well.

“Nice bike as always,” he called out.

“Go buy one yourself, then.”

Dowook turned around with a little smile. The boy would’ve ignored Maru in the past, but at this point they were finally starting to exchange greetings. After that incident, Dowook had stopped being a delinquent altogether. He seemed to be melding in with the rest of his class pretty well, too.

Of course, he was still going back home alone.

Maru walked into the class and threw his bag onto his desk. Dojin shot him a tired greeting from his desk.

“Mor… ning.”

“Why do you look so spent on such a joyous Friday morning?”

“…Practice sapped me yesterday. I came back home at eleven last night. I dreamed of instructor Miso swearing at me.”

Dojin shivered, revealing a dark pair of eyebags.

“Two days left, huh,” Maru commented.

“One, actually. If you count today.”

“Come on, the day hasn’t even started. How are you guys, by the way? Doing well I hope?”

It was three weeks ago when he heard of them doing their first run. That was the beginning of May. The time when he first visited the kindergarten with Soojin.

He knew that the club was doing actual dress rehearsals at this point. With all the props and costumes and everything. They even visited the actual auditorium where they’d be performing. According to Dojin, the place was “disgustingly big”.

It was a vast space with 500 seats. Of course it would be intimidating to the kids.

“Perfect? Hehehe, perfect…”

Dojin seemed to be bordering insanity at this point. Maru spent some time watching the club during their practice sessions. For sure, the club members had changed. Firstly, they were all strictly off-book, with the exception of Miso.

Maru watched one of their runs before. Everything from the start to finish was flawless. Good enough to make him almost clap subconsciously. They must’ve been trying hard.

After the run, the club members would immediately grouped together to critique each other’s work. Miso only intervened when they got stuck on something.

‘So the practice they do after I leave was the real thing.’

The actual dress rehearsal probably began after 5pm. Of course, he didn’t actually know if this was the case. He could only hazard a guess from looking at Dojin’s current state.

“O-oh, morning.”

Daemyung stumbled over to the two of them from the front of the class.

“Hey, what’s up with the two of you looking so tired? You guys are performing in just two days.”

Maru pressed his friends’ shoulders lightly with a reassuring face.

“Right. Two days.”

“We’re gonna work our asses off.”

“You sounded pretty damn tired when you said your lines yesterday.”

“No you.”

The two of them looked at each other for a second before sighing and taking out their scripts.

“Should we do some reading?”

“Guess we have to.”

Maru’s two friends started analyzing the script that they’ve studied all these months.

“Work hard.”

Maru left them to it. He was busy with his own stuff as well. While the club was busy practicing for the competition, Maru’s time was spent on helping Soojin run her puppet plays.

He actually got a call from her early in the morning yesterday. It would seem that she received word that it was a school holiday. She immediately asked him where he lived when he dazedly said he would help.

As he looked at the time after ending the call, the doorbell rang. Soojin was here before he knew it. Right then, he could catch a glimpse of Miso’s expression.

She was starting to resemble her friend.

Maru left a note on the table and left with the woman. They were headed to an orphanage. According to her, they didn’t have any other time to do it since the orphanage was closing soon.

They arrived barely in time in Daejeon. The first thing Soojin did was hug the principal of the orphanage and cry together. They seem well acquainted with each other. Maru just watched the two of them awkwardly.

Preparations were quick to start, as Maru realized why they came here in a small van instead of the usual car. An incredible amount of toys and dolls were stored in the trunk, along with clothes and food. That did make him wonder.

Just what was Soojin’s day job?

“Me? I do a bunch of things. Hehe.”

Hehe? How was he supposed to connect that laugh with all that money of hers? In the end, he just gave up on thinking about it. She was probably born with a silver spoon in her mouth.

The orphanage took care of kids under 7 years of age. They had teenagers in the past, but after coming under hard times, they had to start sending the children away to other places. It was quite a bitter story.

“We don’t even call this place an orphanage anymore. It’s just daycare.”

The middle-aged principal smiled sorrowfully as she touched upon the rusty doors. Soojin said she wanted to give the children here their last memories before the orphanage closed down for good. It was a small forgettable event for the children, but hopefully it could make the moving experience a little bit better for them.

Soojin really was the definition of a selfless person. The show began after the three of them moved all the gifts inside. The moment Soojin entered the building, the children shouted ‘wah!’ with joy.

The lady was popular just about anywhere. Popular amongst children and adults alike. Then again, who could hate such a hard-working, cheerful lady like her?

Maru ended up working incredibly hard that morning. Before he knew it, it was already noon. He gave each of the 37 children in the orphanage their personalized gifts. Each of the boxes even included a message from Soojin. He couldn’t even imagine how much work that must’ve taken. The boxes were all even individually wrapped, with each of the gifts catered towards for each child.

“They’re probably going through really hard times, having to start over and all. I want to give them a good memory they can reference in those times. Hopefully they can look back to this moment and think ‘life was good’ at some point. Then again, they might not even remember this at all.”

Maru could easily feel how much Soojin loved each child. She knew each of the 37 kids by name. She must’ve had some special memories attached to this place.

“This was actually my home,” she said, seemingly reading his mind.

Ah. Maru never would’ve guessed from her personality and usual demeanor. She just seemed like the type of person who’s never gone through any hardship in her life. Soojin took this as a chance to speak a little bit more about herself.

“I met my parents when I was just about your age. They were good people. They scolded me when I deserved to be scolded, and they hugged me when I really needed it. They changed my perspective of hating my birth parents to being able to forgive them. That’s when I realized that I wanted to be like them. Even though they’re both far better people than I could ever be.”

Maru realized that was why Soojin’s smiles never once seemed light to him. Under those smiles were a lot of past hardships. She managed to overcome her pains and changed herself. Her adopted parents probably helped a lot in the process, but she was ultimately able to change because of herself.

Maru stopped himself from saying ‘that’s amazing’. That didn’t seem like quite the fitting reaction. He didn’t want to judge all of her life with just a few words. So he just decided not to say anything.

In the afternoon, they held a barbeque party in the backyard of the orphanage. There were enough meat and vegetables to feed 30 adult men. The kids all laughed and talked as they ate the meat Soojin grilled for them.

“Tiring, isn’t it?” Soojin asked.

“Yes, it really is.”

“Pft. That’s what I like about you, Maru. You’re very honest and direct about everything.”

“I’m good at lying. I just know when to lie and when not to.”

7pm. By then, everything was cleaned up and the kids were all sleeping together in their rooms.

“Thank you for everything.”

“No, thank you for everything.”

The day at the orphanage ended as it began, with the principal hugging Soojin. The two of them made their way back up to Suwon in a hurry.

When they came back home, Soojin gave Maru a white envelope. Maru refused immediately. He didn’t want to get paid for something like this.

He did it because he wanted to. Plus, he learned a lot from doing this as well. He was able to learn the basics of plays from this. As a matter of fact, this was the type of stuff you would normally pay to learn.

But Soojin was stubborn. She tried to hand him the envelope even as he was getting out of the car. She even said she wouldn’t go home if he didn’t take it.

“I was the one who made you work without any prior notice. So I should obviously pay you for it. This is the rule for adults. You’re an adult too, right Maru?”

She sounded like she was trying to console a child. Maru had to give in with that. He took the envelope, telling her he would use it well. He waved her off and walked back into the house.

Of course, his mother tried to ask him just where in the world he was all day. Instead of giving her a proper response, he just gave her the envelope.

He thought there would be 30,000 won in there at best, but there turned out to be a whopping 150,000 won in there instead.

“What in the world did you do?” mom asked.

“…Work?”

All that was just yesterday. Maru was also understandably tired this morning.

* * *

Several minutes before their 5th class began, the advisor for the acting club came to call on the three of them.

Maru, Dojin, and Daemyung followed Taesik up to the auditorium.

“I never thought I’d rather be studying instead of doing this.”

“Me too. Thinking of looking at instructor Miso is just…”

The school must’ve given them permission to skip class since the preliminaries were just two days away. Taesik told the three of them ‘work hard, all of you’, and Maru’s two friends nodded in response.

Everyone else was already gathered in the auditorium, including Miso. Even Soojin was there, along with an unfamiliar man.

“Hey, Maru,” Soojin waved.

Thanks to her, he got the attention of the entire club. Maru waved back awkwardly with a smile.

“What the, you know that lady?” Dojin asked, nudging him from the side.

Maru just said he kind of knew her and walked over to the rest of the club.

“Maru, you come this way,” Miso pointed at the man next to Soojin.

The man was just around 175cm in height. Similar to Maru’s height now. He had a decent frame, with a very well defined face.

Then there was his eyes.

Playful, yet focused eyes immediately told Maru that this person was someone special.

“We meet again,” the man said.

Again?

Maru had heard that voice before. Back then at the…

“Ah, you were at the Blue Sky theater…”

“So you remember. Nice to meet you. I’m the big brother of Geunseok over there, Hong Geunsoo,” the man grinned.

Maru’s jaw dropped a little bit. He definitely remembered this person. The star of the future. This was the person who starred in 5 movies that raked in 10 million views each. A person who single handedly carried the movie industry even at the age of 50. Memories from the past started flowing out once his identity was established.

‘That’s right, I was listening to this person’s radio as I drove the bus.’

But that didn’t last long. His memories immediately faded and disappeared. But he was still able to remember what the man looked like at the age of 50. A very handsome gentleman who exuded a noble aura.

“What, surprised that I’m so handsome?” Geunsoo asked, after noticing Maru’s stare.

“So this is what you were like around now.”

“What?”

“Oh, it’s nothing.”

So the actor, famous for his serious roles, was actually quite a lighthearted person in the past.

“Now then! Let’s begin.”

Miso grabbed everyone’s attention with a clap. The air in the room suddenly grew tense.

“We only have a few dress rehearsals left. Let’s make this perfect.”

“Yes!”

The club members started moving with a confident response.

Chapter 44

The club members all lined up after getting in their costumes. They had some makeup on them as well.

“We’re going to have twice the amount of makeup, now that we are going on stage. We do this to give volume to our face, since the lighting usually makes our face look flat. Understood?”

“Yes.”

“This time, we’re going to complete the sets for each scene as well. Don’t forget where you’re supposed to go. Don’t try to rush things when you take out props either. We have plenty of time, so just think about doing it perfectly more than anything.”

The club members nodded tensely. They all looked quite different once they had their actual costumes on.

Geunseok, Taejoon and Iseul had their high school uniforms on, but all the other kids were wearing all sorts of clothes portraying various age groups.

Dojin and Daemyung, for instance, were wearing suits. Gray and black striped suits. They didn’t look so bad in it, surprisingly.

Awkward, though? Sure.

The second years looked very different as well. Yoonjung had a wig on her that looked very expensive, considering how natural it looked.

Joonghyuk was wearing a white button-up shirt with dark blue dress pants. He even had a little mustache drawn on his face.

Minsung was wearing very loose gym clothes. His turtleneck really completed the jobless look.

Danmi played a shopkeeper. She wore a strangely-colored pair of pants with a white shirt and a jacket on top. Her lips were painted purple to resemble the appearance of a talkative neighborhood lady.

“Daemyung,” Miso called out.

“Loosen up your necktie a little bit. You guys just got out of work. You’re walking over to get a drink. Show that you’ve loosened up significantly.”

Daemyung pulled his tie down a little bit, earning a nod from Miso.

“Yurim.”

“Yes.”

Yurim stepped forward. She too was playing a middle aged lady like Yoonjung and Soyeon.

“Remember this well. You guys are friends of Jungsoo’s mothers, and you live better than her. You guys call yourselves friends, but you only associate with Jungsoo’s mother to look down on the woman. You can be a little toxic if you’d like. Just look down on her. Soyeon, you too. The more you girls pressure Jungsoo’s mother, the more your characters come alive. You get it?”

“Yes.”

Yurim and Soyeon nodded nervously. During the past few months, Yurim gave herself a little curl to her hair, giving her a mature look. Soyeon too, attempted the mature look, by losing an incredible amount of weight.

Surprisingly, the girl was dissatisfied about her current weight, as Maru often heard her talking about eating as much as she want after the plays.

“By the way, the people over here are friends during my year in the club. The first generation of Blue Sky. This is Hong Geunsoo, and this is Kang Soojin. Don’t disappoint them, now.”

Maru gave Soojin a little glance. He didn’t know she was a member of this club too.

“Maru, you watch the play carefully. You’re going to be the audience today. Give the kids an honest review.”

Maru went to sit down next to the seniors. Watching the club members from the audience felt fresh to him. So this was what Miso saw. He could feel the energetic gaze from each of the club members. The energy exuding out of them was extraordinary.

‘Being an instructor must be pretty hard.’

The energy from all eleven of the students was, quite frankly, overwhelming. He had no idea how Miso managed to even dare act as she did under all those gazes.

“Your friends are pretty good,” Geunsoo mentioned.

The man’s social skills were incredible. Whereas his brother, Geunseok seemed pretty difficult to approach, Geunsoo semmed incredibly easy to befriend despite the age gap.

“So why are you here and not on the stage anyway?”

“I hesitated.” “Hesitated? To do acting?”

“Yes. I still am, actually.”

“Hesitation… It’s a good thing to have. If you aren’t passionate about something, you might as well think before you act. Lots of adults demand that kids your age be reckless, but I think differently.”

Maru looked up at Geunsoo. This was a man who’d succeed big time with acting in the future. He couldn’t very well take the man’s words lightly.

Right then, Miso called the kids over with a clap.

“We’ll begin in exactly ten minutes. Treat this as the real thing. Think before you act, think before you walk, and think before you even breathe. This is your last test, so be very careful.”

The floor became awkward for a split second. Maru continued talking to Geunsoo.

“How did you get into acting?”

“Me? Hmm…”

Geunsoo looked up at the ceiling as he started thinking.

“Do you want to know what this guy’s nickname was in high school?” Soojin butted.

“What was it?”

“Lunatic.”

“What?”

A lunatic?

Geunsoo smiled, muttering ‘that’s a nostalgic nickname’ to himself.

“There really wasn’t a better name for him at the time. He just went straight to Mr. Taesik and just asked to make the acting club. In that sense, that teacher was quite amazing as well. They just made the club right then and there. The two of them got along real well, which only made things difficult for everyone.”

Soojin smiled, thinking back at the time.

“Geunsoo would always say this at the time if you saw him: ‘Do you want to try acting?’ He was incredibly persistent, too. His entire class had to endure this for a month straight.”

“Hey, I wasn’t that bad,” Geunsoo complained.

Miso butted in immediately.

“Soojin actually toned it down. He was even worse than that. He’d just scream every single day from the class podium going, ‘let’s burn our youths away with passion!’ Thought I was going to become flipping deaf.”

“To think the very first member of the club would say this to me… I feel hurt, you know?”

Geunsoo lightly smacked Miso’s shoulder, earning an awkward smile from her.

Well, that was quite a sight. Maru never imagined that anyone could shut Miso up.

“In any case, that’s how the club was made in the beginning. To be honest, I… really didn’t want to join at first. You remember what kind of a situation I was in, right?”

Soojin had told him that she was adopted in the beginning of high school. She probably didn’t want to join any club with such a heavy heart.

“But Geunsoo would just ask me again and again and again. I thought he had short-term memory loss when I first saw him. Really, he was just a complete lunatic,” she continued.

It felt incredibly alienating hearing the word ‘lunatic’ come out of Soojin’s mouth so many times. It was strangely cute, though, for some reason.

“So, did you get into the club in the end?”

“Yeah. But I wasn’t forced in or anything. I just realized I stopped thinking about my home or my life or anything else when I was arguing with Geunsoo. I mean, you must’ve experienced it too. When you focus on something, you can’t think of anything else. That’s when Geunsoo really convinced me.”

“What did he do?”

“He told me he’d make me smile for the next three years, as long as I was in the club. That really got me for some reason.”

Maru glanced at Geunsoo, who just shrugged in response.

“She looks very pure and happy now, but back then she was a real piece of work. There was rain around her face all day long.”

Geunsoo gestured rain falling with his fingers over his head. Soojin’s face immediately flushed red.

“You wanted to know why I started acting, right? It isn’t anything special. It started as a rebellion against my father. But that just disappeared after a while. The real reason why I got into acting was because I enjoyed it. As soon as I realized how fun it was, I couldn’t give it up. I started going into it with the mindset, ‘I’ll do it even if I have to die!’”

Even if he had to die, huh. That one sentence seemed to describe Geunsoo’s thoughts pretty well. Maru took a look at the first gen members carefully. Each one of them had a very strongly defined personality.

Miso and Geunsoo made acting their jobs, while Soojin turned it into volunteer work.

“You were doing puppet plays with Soojin, right?” Geunsoo asked.

“Yes.”

“How was it?”

“It… was fun. Pretty satisfying, too.”

“Was it?”

“Yes.”

“Hm, I see. Anything else?”

“Anything else?”

Maru shook his head. He was satisfied with just this for now. Geunsoo put on a strange smile in response.

“Yo, smiley,” he said, turning to Miso.

“Yeah?”

“I don’t think this kid will go really deep into acting.”

Geunsoo looked at Maru with a hand on his chin. He had a small smile on his face.

“It’s fun and satisfying, right?”

“Yes.”

“That’s good enough, then. I like to think of acting as a greedy monster with a very particular eye for things. Acting chooses people, rather than the contrary. Some people are born to become actors, while others just aren’t. And if a person is unfortunate enough to be the former… Acting just swallows those people up completely. That’s how the ghosts of Hyehwa station come to be. They’ve been devoured by the monster.”

Geunsoo scanned Maru with a sharp look before continuing.

“I don’t know what’s making you hesitate, but I recommend that you don’t think too much. If acting takes a liking to you, you’ll be taken up by it no matter what you do. If it doesn’t, you’ll never be able to make it onto the stage.”

Tap.

Geunsoo pat Maru’s back lightly.

“Oh, and lastly. You said you were feeling satisfied, right? That’s completely fine. But people who are taken by acting feel something completely different. They feel excitement.”

Geunsoo gestured towards the club members with his chin. Now that Maru looked, he noticed a flaring energy of excitement and passion coming off of the members.

“The kids this time around are all amazing people,” Geunsoo said, furrowing his brows.

That’s when Maru noticed.

The man’s face was starting to flare up with excitement like the other kids.

* * *

As soon as Maru excused himself to the bathroom, Miso slapped Geunsoo’s back as hard as she could.

Slap!

The club members looked at Miso and Geunsoo with surprised faces.

“Don’t worry about it. Focus.”

“Yes.”

Geunsoo asked Soojin to rub his back with a pained face. Soojin rubbed Geunsoo’s back with a slight grin on her face.

“I ask you to make the boy care about acting, and you just go trample on him, huh?” Miso growled.

The main reason why she called him here today was to check on the club as a whole, but she also wanted him to nudge Maru’s interests towards acting as well. But instead of saying any words of help to the boy, he just blew out the candle completely.

“And Ms. Soojin?”

“Y-yeah?”

“I asked you to help Maru become interested in puppet plays, not become interested in playing around with children. You’ve just turned him into a volunteer worker, haven’t you?”

“No, I…”

“Oh my god, you idiots.”

Miso shook her head with her arms crossed. This was bad. Maru’s eyes just now… She could just see him drawing the line with the club again. At this rate, the boy would just end up interested in volunteering, not acting.

That was no bueno.

“Why are you so obsessed over him anyway?” Geunsoo asked.

“He makes me insanely curious. He’s going to show me something if I train him well and put him on stage. That’s what my guts tell me anyway.”

“Well, I’m not doubting your judgement, but…”

Geunsoo leaned back with his legs stretched out forward.

“The way I see it, he’s not the type to do something because someone else tells him to. He’s very centered. He really has to have an interest in it himself if he wants to try something. If you force him to act, sure, he’ll do it, but he won’t be committed.“

“I know. That’s why I’ve been slowly tempting him. And then you do this?”

Geunsoo was right. Maru, unlike other kids his age, was actually thinking of his future.

Safety first.

There was no better phrase that described the boy than this. To Miso, Maru was a very tempting subject. The boy was somehow fundamentally different from everyone else. That was the judgement Miso came up with after two months she spent with him. She was crazy curious to see what the boy would be like if he actually took up acting.

“Well, you’re reckless as usual.”

“I don’t want to hear that from you, you goddamned lunatic.”

“Oh, so scary.”

Miso sighed exasperatedly.

Chapter 45

At that time, Maru was taking a look at himself through the bathroom mirror.

[But people who are taken by acting feel something completely different. They feel excitement.]

Geunsoo’s words just reverberated all over his head.

Excitement, huh.

Maru put a hand over his chest. It was beating calmly. Just quietly doing its job dutifully.

“Excitement.”

He thought back for a second. Did anything excite him back in high school?

“Basketball, video games… And occasionally good test scores. When I got my allowance?”

For sure, those things did get him pretty fired up in the moment. Winning a game of basketball for a single can of soda felt exhilarating, and getting a rare drop from a boss felt incredibly fulfilling.

Those were the things that used to excite him.

But now? There was nothing. It almost felt like he grew numb to any kind of emotion. Even today, the Maru of the mirror was making a calm, uninterested face. What kind of expressions did his previous high school self make?

It’d come to a point where he has to practice smiling every once in a while. Time really hasn’t done Maru any favors.

After staring for a few seconds more, Maru stepped away. It was time to go back. The dress rehearsal would start soon. As a matter of fact, Miso signalled the club to start as soon as Maru got back to his seat.

“The audience goes silent. The lights turn on, and the sounds of the television start playing.”

Miso turned on the TV noises through the speaker. At the same time, Joonghyuk sat down on the sofa, and Minsung walked into the scene. The first act had begun.

* * *

As more time passed, the tension between the characters started rising faster and faster. Soon, the entire first year cast was in front of the corner store.

Daemyung stepped into the scene with his loosened tie. He walked next to the shop, and found a student smoking in the corner.

The group began talking.

Taejoon was the first to burst out, an incredible annoyance written all over his face. Dojin was next, rearing forward with a similar expression. It was clear to see they practiced quite a bit.

The flow of the conversation was natural. Plus, Daemyung really did seem like a carefree salaryman right then. He tried to stop Dojin from getting into a fight before exploding himself when the students targeted him.

Really, the boy looked like any other 50 year old you’d find on the street.

“He’s good,” Geunsoo whispered.

Maru couldn’t help but agree. Daemyung was surprisingly good at this.

‘But Geunseok is the one that’s really standing out.’

If Daemyung’s acting was good enough to make you nod in satisfaction, Geunseok’s acting was good enough to make you forget about the play. The boy looked at the audience every once in a while as he spoke. He seemed to have studied that in his own time.

And then, his monologue began.

The auditorium became silent as the boy started speaking. His voice was small, but by no means was it quiet.

“Hmm.”

Maru glanced at Geunsoo. The man was looking at his brother with a very satisfied smile. He seemed to have taken a liking to his brother’s acting.

But at the same time, there was also a bit of a nervous air about the man. Why?

* * *

The family on stage came together once more after ending the feud between them. The mother still finds her son dissatisfactory, but she can’t yell at the boy anymore. The father gives his permission, and the boy finishes the final act with a small monologue. The play comes to an end as the white noise of the TV becomes louder.

Then, the characters return on stage one by one in a curtain call. Geunseok comes out in the end, finishing their bows to the audience.

Clap clap clap.

Soojin and Maru clapped. It was clear as day that the club worked incredibly hard during the past two months. The actors looked at Miso with a very big sigh.

Miso hesitated a little before starting to clap herself.

“Make sure to do a little bit better than this on the actual thing. You should have a solid chance of getting an award if you do.”

“Phew.”

The first and second years sighed loudly. They looked at each other with a fulfilled expression.

“Good job.”

“Good work.”

“Thank you all for your hard work.”

Maru put a hand over his chest as he watched the club members talk to each other. The temperature of the entire room seemed to go up for a second, but… his heart was beating the same as before.

“They’re good, weren’t they?” Geunsoo asked.

“Yes. They’re very different compared to their previous practices.”

“First time seeing their dress rehearsal?”

“Yes. They look very fitting in their roles.”

Geunsoo nodded.

“Yeah. That was a pretty good play. By the way, that suit over there… That’s something I brought over ten years ago.”

Geunsoo smiled as he pointed at Daemyung’s suit.

“My uncle ran a shop in the neighborhood. I worked my ass off there so that I could get myself a suit. I don’t regret working that hard for it, since it’s obviously still being used very well. Those dress shoes were from me as well.”

“You must’ve worked very hard for the club.”

“I didn’t attend school for three years. I attended the club for three years. I got beat up by both my teachers and parents for messing up on my tests, but what could I do? I couldn’t help but care more about the club.”

“Did you ever regret it?”

“Regret it? Well, I might’ve… I can’t remember. My brain doesn’t want to waste its space storing useless memories like those.”

Geunsoo clicked his tongue lightly. It was pretty remarkable looking at someone so focused on a single passion.

“I was pretty insane.”

Geunsoo grinned. He looked like he had seen straight through Maru.

“I couldn’t see anything else back in those days, since I was so taken by acting. Didn’t even care about college entrance exams either.”

“You can do that?”

“Surprisingly easy if you try.”

The man probably wasn’t called a lunatic for nothing.

Kids have quite a lot of worries to think about. Of course, these worries weren’t very light in comparison to what adults had to worry about.

A child whose toy just broke.

A student who forgot about homework.

A student who slept late for his college entrance exams.

A person who got into a big fight with his interviewer at a job interview.

A salaryman who got scolded by his boss.

A wife whose husband had been cheating on.

No one could possibly weigh or judge these people’s pains. Of course, some people who've actually experienced these things could say it was pointless trying to compare a broken toy with a dead person.

But to a child, that broken toy might be as valuable as an actual person. Their pain isn’t something an adult could understand. To a child, the toy might’ve been their entire world.

Giving up on studying to focus completely on acting for three years… It couldn’t have been an easy decision. Geunsoo must’ve had to muster up an incredible amount of courage to actually go through with it.

Geunsoo stated that he started acting to rebel against his father. That probably meant that he didn’t have a very good standing in the house.

To a student, school was half of their life, with family being the other. The only thing both of those groups ever wanted out of that student was to study. Geunsoo stepped on those expectations and jumped right into acting.

That… didn’t just take courage. It required the person to be a madman.

“That doesn’t sound easy at all.”

“Of course not. You haven’t actually experienced it.”

“You’re telling me that the decision’s actually easy to make when the time comes to make it?”

“No. I told you already. If the monster of acting has his eyes on you, you don’t have a choice anymore.”

“So acting is something you have to be born with?”

“That’s what I think. Of course, you’ll have to voluntarily go into the room that the monster lives in first. But it’s up to the monster to actually welcome you in. Working hard is important, sure. But not all people are born equal. It’s like how I can never hope to become Michael Jordan no matter how hard I try.”

“Talent… huh.”

“You probably caught on a little already.”

Geunsoo gestured towards the exit as he turned to Miso.

“I’ll go out for a bit. You guys aren’t practicing right away, right?”

“We’ll rest for a bit.”

“Good, good. I’ll be borrowing this kid, then.”

Geunsoo put his arm around Maru. Maru looked at Miso, who just nodded silently.

“Let’s go.”

Geunsoo started dragging Maru towards the exit. But right before stepping out, he stopped himself with a small “oops” and walked towards Geunseok.

Geunseok seemed oddly nervous. Surprising.

“Good job,” Geunsoo said. He turned around after giving his little brother a few pats on the back.

It wasn’t very hard to notice the boy’s lips turn upwards in response.

“I heard the rooftop is open. Let’s go there.”

“It looks like both you and the instructor like going to the rooftop for conversations, huh?”

“I mean, that place was our home base. The acting club’s home base. We practiced a ton there. We had the keys to the place, actually.”

“Aha.”

Geunsoo looked around for a second after opening the rooftop door.

“It’s the same as ever, huh,” he commented.

“It’s concrete, after all.”

“Can’t you at least try to be emotional?”

Geunseok waved Maru over to the balance beam next to the railings. The thing had rotted to the point of almost collapsing.

“Daaang, this didn’t go anywhere either. We put this here to use as a chair.”

“I see.”

“Wow! Nothing changed at all here!”

“You didn’t come here for a while, I see.”

“Me? It’s been a full decade.”

“You didn’t come here after graduating at all?”

“Why would I? The only reason why I would ever come here is to see big bro Taesik, but I see that dude outside the school all the time.”

Maru nodded. The man seemed incredibly free to him. Unbound like the wind. Unlike a leaf that follows wherever the wind goes, but the wind itself, free to choose where it wants to go.

“I don’t actually like to say this kind of stuff to kids, but I’ll tell you this since you seem to be pretty centered. I didn’t live that long, but from my experience… No one is born equal.”

“No one’s born equal?”

“Yeah. You can even look at a person’s physique to decide. Tall people, short people. Handsome people, ugly people. Rich people, poor people. No matter how much society tries to make people equal, there’s a very clear class divide no matter where you look.”

Maru nodded. This much was somewhat agreeable. It was the reason why he decided to give up on corporate life after 45 years. He couldn’t take it after seeing his junior receive a promotion faster than him. Especially when he clearly did more work than his junior.

‘I was innocent.’

He had no idea why this was the case back then. But he realized later on that this junior was the president’s son. In the end, nepotism was better than actual results.

“People are never equal. That’s why they all have different talents they’re good at.”

Geunsoo looked down at the field below. Maru took a look down as well.

“That kid over there might be talented at soccer. That kid playing basketball might actually be a table tennis genius. That kid sitting over there might be the future Shaquille O'Neal.”

Geunsoo continued talking as he stretched his arms a bit.

“But no one knows what kind of talent they have. Schools are built so that they can learn about their talents, but… you should know better than me that they usually hurt more than they help.”

Geunsoo started walking.

“Elementary school is, well… there for elementary education. Then middle school. Middle school’s there so you can start getting an idea of what you’re good at. At least, that’s the purpose of schools that the government always talks about, but in reality? You’re just being pushed into a chicken coop to study all day. How are you supposed to find your talents in the meantime? It’s hard. Incredibly difficult. But sometimes, the crazies still manage to stand out from the crowd. Like me, for example. Oh, this is a self-complement, if you couldn’t tell. Anyways, if you think about it, the crazies are the ones to really learn from school.”

Geunsoo grinned. For sure, the man had thought much about school. Miso definitely wasn’t lying about intelligence being necessary in becoming an actor.

“Han Maru, was it?”

“Yes.”

“What do you want to do?”

“Me?”

What did Maru want to do? He decided to answer honestly.

“I want to find a job that can feed my family without worries.”

Geunsoo snapped his fingers in understanding.

“So that’s the reason why you’re hesitating. I get it now.”

“Do you have any advice?”

“Nope, not at all.”

“Excuse me?”

“I don’t think I’m in a position to say things about someone else’s life. The only thing I can do is try to drag other people into acting. Just as I did 13 years ago. But you’re already in the acting club, so there’s nothing more that I can do.”

Geunsoo walked back to the door.

“Keep thinking. Keep hesitating, and then make your decision. You’re still going to regret it in the end, but that’s just life.”

Chapter 46

You’re still going to regret it, but that’s just life.

“Yo, head.”

“Yes?”

“Why are you so dazed?”

“I’ve been thinking.”

“You think too much.”

Miso threw him a drink. The club members went through two more runs after Maru talked with Geunsoo at the rooftop. They didn’t make a single mistake in either of them. Confidence was starting to appear in their voices, and they struggled less in their blocking.

One step closer to perfection.

After the two runs ended, it was time for dinner. Geunsoo and Soojin decided to treat the entire club out to a meat buffet. The students sucked in meat almost like a vacuum.

Maru was busy cooking meat up for his friends, which disappeared almost as soon as it was cooked. Miso crept up next to him, curious about what happened between him and Geunsoo at the rooftop.

“What did Geunsoo tell you?”

“He told me to keep thinking and hesitating. But he also told me I’m going to regret it anyways.”

“That lunatic is saying some dumb stuff again.”

Miso clicked her tongue in annoyance. When Maru stared back, Miso turned away dismissing it as nothing.

Maru could see the club members behind Miso. Though they were all happily eating the meat on their plate, there was a small air of nervousness among them.

“Don’t take his words too seriously. He’s a complete lunatic. He doesn’t think like us normal people at all.”

“You don’t seem very normal though, instructor?”

“Again with your argumentativeness. Can’t you just say ‘yes’ once? Are you going through puberty or something?”

“Who knows. Maybe I’m going for a second round?”

“What?”

“Hahaha.”

Maru grinned as he flipped some more meat. There was really only one reason why he hesitated so much in jumping into things.

It was because of his wife and daughter of the future.

Despite the fact that he could barely recall their names or what they even looked like, he still loves them all the same.

The emotions were all there, even if the information wasn’t.

But he recalled ‘that woman’ telling him that when the time came, he would definitely remember. So he needed to be ready. He didn’t want to make his family live in poverty.

The saying that ‘you can be happy as long as you have love’ was true. But if there was more money involved in the story, you could become ‘even’ more happy. That’s just how capitalism worked.

Most family feuds start with money. It was the same in his previous life. His family wasn’t in poverty or anything, but they weren’t able to live a particularly luxurious life either.

It was high time he tried living the middle class life. He didn’t even dare think about trying to become filthy rich. He just didn’t want his children to suffer from the lack thereof.

“Making money with acting must be hard, right?”

“………”

Miso frowned as she stopped herself from putting a lettuce wrap into her mouth.

“Would you like to hear the reality of it, or the ideals?”

“Well, they say hearing the worst of it first is always for the best, but… Tell me the good side of it first.”

“If you become an actor in a popular theater company, a large salary will accompany your acting. Especially if you land a role as a main character. Plus, you have a very good chance of being spotted by movie directors or managers of large entertainment companies. You could go into movies, dramas, teaching, whatever you want. There’s a bunch of things you can do to make money.”

“That really does sound ideal. The reality, then?”

Miso stuffed the wrap into her mouth. She glared ferociously at the patiently waiting Maru as she chewed.

“Most theater companies are actually very close to being bankrupt. While the ideals apply to the popular theater companies, most of them struggle to get by. The smaller ones end up doing volunteer work or plays for children most of the time. They can’t pay for their theater otherwise.”

Miso took a glug of her soda angrily.

“A lot of the time, you might not even get paid,” Geunsoo butted.

Miso glared, saying ‘buzz off’ from the side, but the man just ignored her completely.

“What’s the first thing you think of when you think of a safe job?” he asked.

Maru found himself saying ‘government worker’ almost without hesitation.

“Ding ding ding, correct. That’s exactly the answer for actors as well. Government funded theater companies. As long as you don’t do anything incredibly crazy, there’s no worry of being fired. But the number of actors who try to get into those jobs… well, there’s probably more of them than there are grains of rice in this rice bowl.”

Geunsoo took a deep breath before continuing.

“You’re lucky if you manage to get into a government funded theater company. It’s quite literally a dream job. But getting into it is harder than getting into a popular theater company. Now, let’s really talk about the reality of it.”

Geunsoo clapped his hands together. Miso was still glaring angrily, but he continued ignoring her.

“90% of the time, you don’t even think about getting paid well. What happens to most newbie actors is that they start from the very bottom from Hyehwa station.”

“Very bottom?”

“Yes. The theater calls these newbies ‘actors’ on paper, but these guys are just unpaid interns there to do the cleaning in reality. Well, they do feed you at the very least. But you have to be ready to be worked like a slave when you’re applying for a theater company with no experience. Hell, some of these companies might even disappear without a trace before you get a chance to be paid.”

“Hey, they aren’t all like that. Don’t scare the poor boy,” Miso countered. But there was a distinct lack of confidence in her voice, contrary to her character.

“Most of these people throw away both time and money just to get a chance to be on stage. In the end, they either succeed, or leave the industry after suffering from burnout. A buddy of mine worked at a theater company until he was 35. He wasn’t paid for his first year, but he stayed just so that he could be on stage. He worked shifts at night and practiced by day. He gave up on his girlfriend, family, friends just so that he could stay at Hyehwa station. He staked his life on the business.”

“So, what’s he doing now?”

“He went into a factory. He must be working his ass off there still. But you know what? He still wants to do acting. That’s what happens to people who get consumed by acting.”

Geunsoo took a shot of soju as he spoke. Though his body reeked of alcohol, he didn’t seem the least bit drunk.

“I didn’t do acting because I wanted a secure future. I didn’t do it for money. I did it because that’s what got my blood boiling. Money? I didn’t care about money back then. But you do. In that case, I can tell you this. You’ll make more money from doing two part time jobs at the same time. Or just study. But I don’t think you’re that suited for that. I’d tell you to do anything you want if you’re just looking to have fun in high school. But you’re purely here to prepare yourself to make money. In that case, I’d try to stop you from going into acting. The acting industry is disgustingly difficult to succeed in. No one cares how much you’ve worked, or how good you are at acting. No one knows who’s going to succeed in this business. Looking for a stable pay in this industry? Hah, you’re better off trying to teach pigs to fly.”

Geunsoo took another shot of soju. Maru had to retract his previous statement. The man was definitely a bit drunk. His words were packed with grandeur, as he looked around all over the place in a daze.

“Smart people don’t buy lottery tickets looking for success. They buy it for a little bit of entertainment in their lives. Maru, you’re a smart kid, aren’t you? That means you need to think. You need to think about whether you’re in this club to make high school memories, or if you’re here to become a lunatic like the rest of us.”

Geunsoo gave Geunseok a little glance from his seat. He looked like he had a lot to say to his brother. Maru finally understood why the man gave his brother such a tense look during the dress rehearsal. He was worried about his brother following him in his footsteps.

After all, the man said himself that trying to find success in this business was akin to winning a lottery ticket. You needed talent, good looks, and luck.

Maru recalled the days he spent as a road manager. In those days, many of the actors he took care of gave up on the industry and went back to leading a normal life. Only a select few of them truly managed to make it big.

‘There sure were a lot of idols back then.’

Idols were all over televisions back in the day, and those were only the ones that were somewhat well off. 90% of them were unable to even get any screen time. As a matter of fact, there were up to 200 girl groups that debuted in a single year when he was a road manager.

‘There were a lot of groups that disbanded without succeeding.’

The memories were all flowing back again. The more he thought, the more they kept popping up in droves. Almost as if the heavens were telling him to live his life as he had done before.

“Well… having fun would be for the best, wouldn’t it?” Maru said.

It was a bit uncomfortable to see Miso’s face visibly distort in the background, but he decided to ignore it.

“I have no idea, kid. That’s your decision to make. You need to keep searching for what you want to do; when you do, just stick to it as much as you can. If the monster of acting ends up catching you, you might as well say goodbye to your normal life. The fact that Miso is attached to you is a sign that the monster noticed you already. Miso has a good eye for these things. You like safety, right? Then you should make your decision quickly. Prevent the monster from coming for you.”

Geunsoo collapsed on the spot after finishing his sentence. With that, the meal was pretty much over. They couldn’t continue with the man constantly giggling to himself on the floor. The club members walked towards the school with Miso afterwards.

“We’re sleeping at school tonight,” Dojin told Maru.

They only had a single day left until the competition. They were probably trying to save as much time as they could. Maru waved the group off as he pressed Geunsoo into Soojin’s car.

“Will you be alright?”

“This isn’t the first time this happened. I’ll be fine. This guy always tries to drink way too much when his tolerance is so low.”

Soojin lightly hit Geunsoo with a frown.

“You should be careful, too. Good work today.”

“Thank you. Take care.”

“Sure. I’ll see you in two days.”

The red car revved up and started moving. Maru watched the car disappear from his sight before getting on his bike. He felt a lot more clear minded now. Geunsoo’s words really helped.

“So this much should be fine for now.”

Doing puppet plays with Soojin, and staffing at the club.

“It’s not bad as a hobby.”

Thinking about it this way comforted him immensely. The fact that he still didn’t know where he wanted to go with his life bothered him slightly, but at least this was progress.

He started pedalling forward as he hummed to himself.

That night, Maru dreamed.

An actor in a black and white mask was bowing towards the audience on stage while the curtains were closing. And right as the curtains were about to fully close, Maru’s eyes met with the actor’s.

Maru could see the man’s lips curl up into a smile.

“You can make your decision, but I’ll be the one to give you the options to begin with.”

And, darkness.

Chapter 47

“Plays?”

Bada couldn’t quite wrap her head around that word. Plays? Her brother? Since when? Why? She knew he was doing volunteer work recently, but she didn’t know it had to do with plays.

Her brother was supposed to be playful and mean.

He was supposed to be her number one enemy.

But something was different now. He changed. He cooked meals and even did the laundry. Since when did he learn how to use the laundry machine?

When her brother told her to get out of her room for a second so that he could vacuum it, Bada had to seriously start thinking about where her real brother went. Maybe he was switched with an alien?

Why else would he be so nice? He was studying hard to boot.

[Bada, mom believes you’ll do everything on your own.]

Mom would always tell Bada that whenever she saw brother studying. Normally, Bada would feel annoyance upon being compared, but she couldn’t refute it at this point.

“I might be late, so be sure to get yourself some food without me. Call me if you’re planning on going somewhere. Try to come back early,” Maru said as he put on his clothes.

Recently, Bada’s started seeing little bits of their dad coming from her brother. It was weird. Then again, she was starting to get used to it too.

“Are you going to be really late?”

“Dunno. I’ll have to see when the event ends.”

Maru raised his head for a second as he tied his shoes.

“You can tag along if you’re bored.”

Bada vigorously shook her head. That sounded absolutely horrific. Going somewhere with her brother? No way in hell! She’s gotten lost under his watch enough times already.

“Watch the house for me, then. Oh,” Maru took out a bill from his pocket and handed it to her, “use this if you need it.”

Bada could only stare at that point before shaking her head.

“What’s up with him?”

It honestly might be better if he returned to his old annoying self.

* * *

Maru’s jaw dropped when he got off the bus. He hadn’t thought that there would be this many people here for the competition, since it was only the preliminaries for the regionals. The cultural center was filled to the brim with all sorts of people.

There were people in casual clothes, people in suits, and people in military attire.

All students, of course. They must’ve come in their costumes.

“Good luck!”

“Good luck, Gunjung high!”

“Bunjung high! You’ll get number one again this time too!”

There were students cheering their teams on here as well. The teachers around them were telling the kids to be quiet, but their eyes told another story.

“You’re here?” someone called out from behind.

It was Daemyung, dressed up in a suit. Dojin was there too.

“Dang, I can barely recognize you,” Maru noted.

Both of them had their hair done and had a bunch of makeup on them. They looked a bit awkward in their costume, but that was only really because of age.

“Cool, right?” Dojin asked. His dark eyes were contrasted by his pale cheeks.

Their makeup was probably there to show that they were portraying two tired salarymen.

“Yeah, you look good. Where are the others?”

“In there. We can only go into the waiting room when it’s our turn. That’s why everyone’s outside. ”

“Do you know how many teams are here? There’s so many people.”

“21 schools and 300 participants, I think. That’s what some guy told us earlier.”

Probably over 500 if you included everyone else.

“Here, take this. It’s a pamphlet I found at the entrance,” Daemyung said.

Maru was greeted by a short introduction on all the participating teams, upon opening the pamphlet.

The competition would go on for 3 days. By its end, 5 teams would qualify to compete in the national competition. Maru moved over to the place where the club was stationed. He found the lot standing next to one of the buses in the parking lot.

“You’re here?”

“Welcome.”

The first and the second years greeted him in their costumes. They looked much sharper than usual, partially thanks to their full makeup.

“Cheer us on, please?” Yoonjung said with a wave. While Joonghyuk greeted him with his eyebrows. Minsung and Danmi, on the other hand, were busy checking each other’s lines.

“I’ll be sure to cheer all of you on, so make sure to get first place.”

“Right! Of course we’ll win! I’ll cry otherwise.”

Knowing Yoonjung, she really might just do that. In comparison to the confident second years, the first years were just looking at the entrance of the cultural center nervously. Dojin and Daemyung included.

“Hah… We wouldn’t make any mistakes, would we?”

“That would screw us big time.”

“Dang, what do I do? I can barely remember my lines.”

The group of first years were getting rowdy in their unrest. Their time were spent frantically memorizing their lines, save for Geunseok and Iseul, who were trying to meditate a little.

Maru approached Geunseok.

“How are you doing?”

“Nervous. I have a lot of lines.”

The boy must’ve been feeling the same as all the other kids despite his complexion. Maru lightly squeezed Geunseok’s shoulders.

“Just do whatever you want. That’ll be enough.”

“Right. You worked hard too. Our set wouldn’t look this good if it wasn’t for you.”

Geunseok pointed to the props for the ‘store’ leaning on the door. Maru smiled. His own props would be on the stage soon. Though he didn’t participate directly, it still made him feel satisfied with his work.

“Soon, I’ll finally start to follow my brother’s footsteps…”

Maru turned to look when he heard the other boy whisper. The boy firmly shut his mouth afterwards though. Was it for self-encouragement? Perhaps something else?

‘Why does he look so nervous though?’

Geunseok looked like he was going to collapse right there and then for some reason. Much unlike himself from just a few minutes prior. But before Maru was able to figure out what that nervousness was about,

“Blue Sky team from Woosung Engineering high school, please enter!”

One of the staff members had come to find them. The club members jumped into standing positions immediately.

Maru grabbed hold of Geunseok one more time before he left.

“Show me everything you’ve got.”

He decided not to say ‘do well’, since he felt like it would only pressure the boy. Only then did Geunseok’s tension lessen as he nodded with a slightly more relaxed face.

Perhaps that earlier nervous expression of his was just a one-off thing.

“You should go to the audience seats. Take a look at how great they’ve gotten,” Miso said, patting his back.

Maru nodded. He wasn’t planning on missing any of it. The club worked very hard for the past 5 months. He had a sneaking suspicion that they’d be able to qualify with ease as long as they don’t make any noticeable mistakes.

He could see Soojin and Geunsoo walking from where Miso was previously. By then, the woman had already entered the building with the club.

“Let’s go. We have to see how good they are.”

Geunsoo said, doing a slight stretch with his arms. Soojin walked in with a small smile on her face.

They were first to go in the competition.

Maru had no idea if this was a good thing or not. But in any case, the play had already begun. People were beginning to stream in through the doors one by one.

There were already a few people in the front seat. They were probably judges.

“Oh, I know that mister,” one of the kids said, pointing at a middle-aged judge.

Some of the older ladies began to speak amongst each other. They were talking about the morning dramas he was a part of in the past.

“Hold on, I’m going to go greet them real quick.”

Geunsoo walked towards the middle-aged man, who stood up excitedly. The two shook hands after some small talk.

“Here’s a decent place. Let’s sit here,” Geunsoo said after coming back.

The man took his place in the middle of the seats. Maru and Soojin decided to follow. Since this was just the regionals, the school didn’t send any students to cheer for the club. Apparently that would only happen if the club managed to qualify for the nationals.

“Um, senior?” Maru asked.

“Hm?”

“How was Geunseok this morning?”

“My brother? Why?”

“It’s probably nothing, but he seemed really nervous a few minutes ago. I was just wondering about that.”

“………”

Geunsoo closed his mouth tightly. That didn’t bode well at all.

“To be quite honest, I’d love it if my brother didn’t come into this industry.”

Maru wasn’t very surprised to hear this. This ended up surprising Geunsoo in turn.

“You noticed?”

“It really sounded like the stuff you told me at the restaurant was directed towards your brother.”

Geunsoo knew the industry very well. He did experience all of it first hand. He probably didn’t take it too well when his brother tried to get into acting.

‘I would try to stop my sister if she said she wanted to be a driver, too.’

Maru knew first hand how disgusting the industry was. Like anyone else, he wanted his family to have a relatively easy time in their lives.

“You caught on quite well. As expected of the boy Miso has her eyes on. You’re right, I don’t want my brother to try to imitate me.”

Imitate? That’s a strange way to put it. It didn’t sound good at all.

“My brother… is smart. He went into an engineering high school when he could’ve gotten into any other better school. I was pretty upset when I heard about it. Why? Because I was the one who exposed him into acting to begin with.”

Geunsoo leaned back on his chair, and lowered his voice.

“Geunseok is a very timid child.”

“Excuse me?”

Timid? Him?

“I don’t mean timid in that he’s very quiet or reserved. By timid, I mean… he’s incredibly susceptible to external influences.”

Susceptible to external influences. Maru nodded. He understood that meaning perfectly.

“He doesn’t know what he wants to do, because he’s so conscious of other people. He ends up trying to fit himself into a mold that other people make for him. You know what that kid told me when I asked him why he studied all those years ago? He told me he studied to get compliments.”

“Ah…”

The source of Geunseok’s nervousness was starting to reveal itself.

“My brother no longer craves my parents’ attention due to a small family incident. But…”

“He ended up looking up at you instead. Craving praises from you.”

“That’s right. My brother is incredibly smart. He’s good at studying, and he’s physically very blessed as well. I was actually pretty surprised at how good he was at the last dress rehearsal. Especially since I never taught him anything. Yet he already had all of the basics down. He must’ve studied hard.”

So Geunseok managed to get that good just by teaching himself, huh.

Geunsoo frowned dejectedly.

“I came home immediately when Geunseok told me he was going to go to the high school I graduated from. Ah, you asked me how he was this morning, right? I live separately from him, so I have no idea. But in any case, I started arguing to him right there. I asked him why he wanted to be an actor all of the sudden. Then…”

Geunsoo put a hand over his face and sighed deeply.

“He told me he wanted to follow me in my footsteps. He said the people at Hyehwa station that day shone like stars on the stage. He wanted to be one of those people. That’s fine. That’s fine and all, but… He’s missing one critically important thing to complete the equation.”

“Resolution,” Maru found himself blurting out.

Geunsoo looked at Maru with narrowed eyes as he nodded.

“That’s exactly right. My brother is just looking at the best possible outcomes. He doesn’t even stop to think about what would happen if he fails. It’s pretty obvious why. The boy has only experienced failure a few times before. But I know. I know that if he begins slipping once, he would never recover. There was a time when he did a little bit badly on his first day of tests in school. It wasn’t anything big. He would’ve easily gotten into the high rankings if he made up his mind for the next day. But he thought it was all over right there. Because he’s never been scolded over anything, a single failure ruined him completely.”

“Did you take care of Geunseok after that?”

“Of course. He called me and just sobbed silently over the phone. I briefly heard him whisper that he even wanted to kill himself. He doesn’t seem to remember that, though. I practically ran over home to tell him that he was fine. He recovered really quickly after that, which made me feel pretty proud. I felt like I did a proper job as a brother. That day, I took him to Hyehwa station. He found himself a dream that day. A dream that was incredibly small… and easy to be broken.”

“Did you try talking to him?”

Geunsoo shook his head.

“Nope.”

“Why?”

“The boy’s fully relying on me now. It’s good that he’s released himself from craving our parent’s praises, but he’s stuck to me now.”

“That just means you should’ve tried to solve this by talking.”

“That’s not possible. My brother can’t be reasoned with right now.”

Geunsoo crossed his arms and turned to look back at the stage. The stage managers were doing final checks of all the equipment.

“He’s still a kid. He may look mature due to his appearance, but he’s still incredibly childish inside. My brother’s life is built on praises. Everything he does is purely to get praises. That hasn’t changed. The only thing that changed is whom he wants to get praises from. It’s become an eternal cycle. Trying to change that with just words?”

Geunsoo turned to look back at Maru.

“The one thing that separates humans from animals is the power of communication. But humans aren’t very logical at all. While all of us try to seek facts and reality, but… Just take a look at the news for a few minutes. You’ll end up seeing all sorts of crazy people. In the end, words only really carry their meaning in certain situations. Which means… What really changes people aren’t words, it’s experience.”

Geunsoo sighed. The man hoped to see his brother fail. So that’s what was up with his troubled gaze back at school. But there was still one thing Maru was curious about.

Geunseok’s acting was perfect. He was great during all of the rehearsals. There were a lot of people here in the audience, but Maru didn’t doubt that Geunseok would do well.

But Geunsoo was here to see Geunseok fail. That was the only reason why he was here.

Did that mean Geunseok would fail?

Geunsoo continued talking after a small pause.

Chapter 48

“My brother likes being judged. He exhilarates in the fact that he’s better than others. That’s why he enjoys getting tested most of the time. But…”

Maru understood just what Geunsoo was worried about.

“He’d dig his own grave the moment he makes a small mistake.”

“He might’ve changed a little bit since middle school. But traumas of such calibre don’t get fixed very easily. If he’s recovered, then it’s something to be celebrated. But I personally think he’s going to suffer from quite a bit of humiliation today.”

“But at the same time, don’t you want him to succeed? You must know better than anyone how exhilarating it is to be an actor.”

Geunsoo grinned at that.

“You’re right. I would love to see my brother go through the proper steps and become an actor. I want him to experience failure and utter hopelessness. Only then can he start thinking about acting more seriously. He’s already experienced failure in studying before, so he’s fine if he fails in it again. But what about acting? Tests are like a duel with your own self, but acting is different. The pressure from the audience can’t be ignored.”

“You sound pretty confident that Geunseok would fail.”

“Who knows? He might not. But something tells me that won’t be the case. It’s not like knowing that changes anything though, so I’m just waiting.”

The man sounded pretty calm, but it was obvious that he was feeling nervous himself. He was tapping his arm with his finger constantly.

“It’s strange, isn’t it? I don’t want my brother to take up acting, but I would love to get on stage with him. That’s exactly why he needs to suffer from failure. If he manages to stand back up by himself afterwards… Then the monster of acting would really reach out to him. That’s when I really plan on helping him out.”

The doors of the auditorium closed right then, with the speakers saying the first play was about to begin. Maru noticed the judges in the front taking out their papers. Maru thought for a second about how Geunseok would be right behind those curtains just now.

‘Hold on.’

In the future, Geunsoo becomes an actor who makes a permanent impact on the world of Korean entertainment. Then what about Geunseok? Maru didn’t recall seeing the name anywhere.

It wasn’t because he couldn’t remember the name in his memory. Quite the contrary. In the future that Maru knew, Geunsoo mentioned in an interview about a brother that was working as a normal salaryman.

“What if he doesn’t end up being able to recover, and… tries to rely on you again?”

“I’ll have to console him again. He’s family, after all. I’ll stop him from going into acting, though. This industry isn’t a very kind one, especially not for kids like Geunseok. If you want to achieve your dreams, you need the courage to be able to give it up. Those who can’t will be used and used until they get thrown away. I don’t want my brother to live a life like that.”

Geunsoo ended the conversation coldly with just that. A person who wants to chase their dream should have the courage to give it up. Maru didn’t expect to hear his father’s exact words here.

When the lights in the auditorium turned off, the audience became quiet and directed their attention to the stage. Geunsoo looked at the stage with short huffs. He was glaring intensely, like an appraiser at an antique store.

Maru decided to just focus on the show for now as well. There was nothing he could do right now. Perhaps Geunsoo’s worry for his brother didn’t warrant another thought. Maybe the play could end perfectly, and Geunseok would be able to chase after his brother with no worries.

But the nervousness Maru felt from Geunseok this morning, and Geunsoo’s reaction held bad omens.

‘Hopefully things will end well.’

The only thing he could do was to pray.

* * *

Yurim was momentarily confused about where she was. The moment she looked out to the audience seats, she became unable to breathe. There were a lot of people there.

They were all here to see their play. That alone made her feel incredibly nervous.

‘Calm down.’

She gripped the phone next to her on the desk. This phone held a special meaning to her. Back when Yurim was still in the second grade of middle school, raving about her new phone, a black van stopped in front of her.

Several men in black shirts stepped off, asking her where the nearby elementary school was.

Right then, the first thing her mind thought of was the recent string of disappearances in the news. Something about people snatching middle schoolers to send to some far-off island. Yurim looked around in fear, but there was no one around and it was late in the day as well. She regretted everything just then.

She should’ve listened to her mom. She should’ve come back home early.

The men in black slowly approached her. She couldn’t move. She was paralyzed in fear.

The phone rang right there. It was mom.

That woke her right up. She screamed at the men and backed off. The men didn’t give chase. They got right into their cars and ran away. Yurim hadn’t let go of her phone since. It was her lucky charm. Without it, she wouldn’t even be here right now.

‘I can do it.’

She gripped her phone tightly. It calmed her a little bit. Some of her friends thought she was weird for being so attached to her phone, but it couldn’t be helped. Being without it made her feel really nervous.

Right then, someone’s hand touched her phone hand gently. It was Soyeon. The first friend Yurim made in high school. The girl was a great person who cared about Yurim’s well-being.

“We can do it.”

“Yeah.”

It was difficult for her to make friends after that incident, especially due to the reserved nature she developed from it. But Soyeon approached her first. Yurim recalled the girl’s words upon their first meeting. ‘Your hair’s such a pretty color,’ Soyeon had said.

Yurim put down her phone. With her friend by her side, she wouldn’t need to worry about anything.

“Fighting.”

“Yeah, fighting.”

Right then, they got the signal to get ready. The two of them took a deep breath in together.

“Come over here,” Miso called out.

The twelve of them all gathered at once.

“I’m not going to tell you to do well, or not to get nervous. You’ll see when you get on stage that things will be different from before. But it’ll be alright. Just throw yourselves in there. You’ll find that your body reacts almost on its own thanks to all the practices you’ve done. Don’t let fear and nervousness paralyze you. Take it all in. It’s only natural to feel afraid.”

Clap clap!

Miso stretched her hand out to the middle of the circle after a short clap. The twelve hands all gathered in the middle with it.

“Blue Sky!!”

“Yeah!”

Yurim felt the nervousness melt from her body with just that. The others must’ve felt similarly, judging by their smiles.

Except…

‘Eh?’

Geunseok looked a little strange. He didn’t look nervous. But he seemed to be putting on some sort of an air about him.

“Geunseok, I told you, didn’t I? Don’t try to do well. Just do what you can. Trust in all the work you’ve done till now. Understand?” Miso asked. She seemed to have noticed as well.

Yurim decided to stop worrying about it. Right. She’ll just try to reap the rewards from the practices.

“The show is about to begin,” one of the staff members reminded them.

Now, this was the true beginning.

* * *

Geunseok thought that this was his first step to becoming more like his brother. Since these were the exact steps his brother once took, Geunseok would have to as well. After getting first place here, he would go onto nationals and get first place there.

“Phew.”

The lights on the stage turned on, the sofa and the table shining under it. The sounds from the TV started playing as well.

It was no different from the dress rehearsal. There was no need to tremble.

Geunseok could see the audience seats from the curtain. Out of everyone there, the three people at the front stood out to him the most.

In the meantime, Minsung and Joonghyuk’s scene began. At the same time, the trio’s pens started moving in their hands. Even from the dark audience seats, the shiny reflection from the pens stood out to Geunseok.

‘They must be the judges.’

There was a need to look good in front of these people, Geunseok decided. He would try to direct his gaze to them as much as possible, to make himself more memorable to them.

‘It’s my turn.’

He stepped in after confirming that Minsung left the stage. His steps were natural. Good. As long as he kept going like this, nothing would go wrong.

* * *

The show was going on perfectly. Each scene transitioned seamlessly. The pronunciation and the projection of the club members were great as well. Their movements seemed experienced and natural, too.

Clearly, this was the result of their practices.

They really were doing it perfectly. At this rate, the entire thing would finish without a hitch, and the entire crew would be greeted with applause in the end.

Maru turned to look at Geunsoo. The man looked… conflicted. He looked at Geunseok whenever it became the boy’s turn to take the stage. Whenever Geunseok finished a monologue safely, Geunsoo would sigh in relief.

“It’ll end well, don’t worry,” Maru whispered.

Geunsoo just smiled lightly in response.

* * *

“Kids these days are so irresponsible!”

Dojin and Daemyung stepped onto the stage with a big footfall. Geunseok could only applaud the two in his head. They came in so cleanly. Even better than usual. He really felt like he was getting scolded by adults here.

Perfect. The play today was perfect.

The two friends behind him spoke out in unison. He’d heard the same line over a hundred times already.

Again, perfect.

Geunseok glanced over at the judges sitting in front. He couldn’t discern their faces, but he did see one of them nod in satisfaction. Good. They were doing well.

‘Nice, we’ll be able to score nicely.’

The play was reaching the climax at this point. As long as he did everything well from now, they should take first place with ease.

‘Maybe I’ll even get an acting award.’

Geunseok’s brother had gotten all sorts of acting awards straight from the regionals all the way to the nationals. He even received the award for best actor in the nationals.

Getting an award here was the least Geunseok could do. He’ll get one for sure. He didn’t feel nervous at all. As a matter of fact, there was only confidence in his head. He’ll be the one to end this play perfectly for sure!

“Waaaah!”

Somewhere out in the seats, a kid cried out. Where? Geunseok turned to look at the audience. There was a kid on one side. The mother quickly took the boy outside. Not a big problem. But right then, he noticed something.

‘Why’s it so quiet?’

He couldn’t hear his friends talk. They should be saying their lines about now. What’s up? They had all simultaneously stopped speaking for some reason.

He felt his insides start to burn furiously. What, they forgot their lines just because of a single kid? Unacceptable. They couldn’t move on unless someone finished here. Geunseok looked in front of him. If he looked back now, the others would only get more shocked. The only thing he could do was trust that the others would remember their lines.

Right then, his eyes met with one of the judge’s.

It was an interesting feeling, like a single spotlight was focused on just that judge. He could see the judge’s expressions clearly, even. The man had a very big frown on his face. That was bad.

There was no helping it now. Geunseok decided to turn around to let the others know about their mishap.

But right then, someone grabbed his shoulder. This wasn’t in the script. Why? As soon as he turned his head, he realized exactly why.

Taejoon was looking at him wide-eyed, with Iseul quickly saying ‘h-hey Jungsoo, are you mad because of the mister?’ at him. That line wasn’t in the script.

At the same time, he realized something.

His friends weren’t the ones who missed a line.

It was him.

* * *

Maru scratched his eyebrows as he closed one of his eyes. He couldn’t bear watching for much longer. But at the same time, he knew he had to keep watching. In the end, he just decided to close one of them to try to keep his cool.

Geunseok messed up his timing. The problem was, he didn’t even know that his timing was off. The first thing he did when the kid cried a while back was to just stare at the kid. In that short while, Taejoon and Iseul had already finished their lines.

After that, Geunseok just stared forward silently. Just what was he looking at?

“Kids who grew up on praises can’t live without it. That’s how they were raised, so they become sensitive to people who judge them. Of course, it’s important for an actor to be aware of what the audience is thinking. But the most important quality of an actor is to be in sync with other actors on the stage. An actor too focused on the audience won’t realize his mistake when he makes one. A common mistake amateur actors make.”

Geunsoo stood up, and quietly left the auditorium. The time Geunseok looked at the audience silently was around 15 seconds. Those few seconds of silence felt incredibly long to the audience.

“What the?”

“DId something happen?”

“What’s he doing?”

People started whispering all around Maru. The audience were sensitive to changes on stage. They could very easily catch onto an actor’s mistakes. They knew instantly that this silence was unintended.

In the end, Iseul stepped forward. But by then, it was all too late.

‘It’s not like we can criticize them, though. They’re just beginners.’

As a matter of fact, Iseul probably deserved praise for having the courage to step in like that. The girl opened her mouth. Geunseok’s shoulders shook a little bit, and the boy finally managed to look backwards. He seemed to have realized what happened.

The boy stuttered out a few words in shock. His charisma from seconds before was nowhere to be seen. Very uncharacteristic of who he was playing.

If Geunseok behaved like this in the beginning, things would’ve been fine. Jungsoo started off as a nervous boy after all. But they were stepping things up into the final scene at this point.

The main character by now should’ve matured, and have the convictions to go toe-to-toe against his father.

But Geunseok stuttered nervously just now. The entire character of Jungsoo just crumbled right there. The structure of the entire place collapsed. But worst of all, Geunseok was just staring into one section of the audience as if he was frozen.

Maru realized what was happening. The boy was looking at the judges. Almost as if he was trying to say that all this wasn’t supposed to happen.

And then, darkness.

It was the last scene. The table in the middle of the stage was set up. The conversation here would mark the end of the play.

Maru sighed. The seed of nervousness lingering from Geunseok this morning had finally bloomed.

“…Hopefully they don’t get too set back by this,” Soojin whispered.

She was looking at the stage with a saddened look.

The lights turned on again, illuminating the actors who were seated around the table. And a few minutes later, the play ended.

The club members all stepped into the stage joyfully with a calming music playing in the background. They looked like they completely forgot about what happened moments prior. Geunseok stepped onto the stage after everyone else.

He looked like he was utterly dead inside.

The club bowed towards the audience. Maru bowed towards the club members in return.

Good work for the last three months.

And with that, the first play on the first day of regionals in the Southern part of Gyeongi province came to an end.

Chapter 49

“It’s hot,” Maru noted, staring up at the sky.

The blazing sunlight was making his shadow look longer than normal. Grayer, too. Even the shadow started to look a bit lighter from how bright the sun was. Some of the students were even coming to school in gym clothes. Since shorts weren’t allowed by the school, they just decided to come in gym clothes instead.

Maru had done the exact same as well. It was mid-July. The students were only a week away from starting their summer vacation, the weather has turned the school into a giant steaming pot.

As a matter of fact, it was so hot that even the disciplinary teacher didn’t leave the building all day. Thanks to that, the students who had their hair done were able to proudly walk into the school without any worries.

“Summer vacation can’t start soon enough.”

After all, the best part of being a student was their vacation. Maru parked his bike and ran inside. The cold air was a huge relief.

“Phew, I feel so much better.”

Maru sat down to look at the seat next to him. It didn’t look like Dojin came to school just yet.

“Ugh, it’s so hot.”

Daemyung came over from his row to sit at Dojin’s seat. After the play, Daemyung had gained some of his weight back. He didn’t look very fat though. Just a little bit chubby.

“The fan on the front row isn’t working.”

“You have a window though.”

“The window’s only letting in hot air. It’s insane.”

Daemyung fanned himself with his mouth half-open. There was a little picture of a computer pasted onto it. He must’ve gotten it near an electronic market or something.

“You got an extra fan?”

“No, you want to use this?”

Daemyung offered his fan, but Maru shook his head.

“You've been eating a lot of tasty stuff recently?” Maru asked.

“Hahaha, yeah, I’ve eaten a fair bit. Been craving a lot.”

“Try to cut down a bit. You look perfect right now.”

“Yeah, for real. If I try to lose some again for practice…”

Daemyung’s face fell a little bit the moment he said the word.

Practice.

He hadn’t spoken the word in a while. The door to the classroom opened with a creak. It was Dojin. Daemyung stood up from his seat with a smile.

“You barely made it…”

“Man, I ran like I was going for a home steal. I flipping thought I had the alarm clock set, but when I woke up, it was eight already. I barely ate breakfast and just bolted it.”

Dojin collapsed on his seat. Daemyung fanned Dojin lightly from the side.

“Did you play games last night?” Maru asked.

“It was intense last night. Right, Daemyung?”

Daemyung nodded with an excited grin.

“We ended up catching a boss we were waiting for. It’s a popular one, so it was super hard to try to catch it.”

“We were lucky yesterday. Dojin managed to find it first.”

Right then, the rest of the kids in the class walked towards them. They seemed to have played the game together. Maru smiled looking at the familiar scene.

“The drops were so trash though.”

“Ugh, and I used so many potions too…”

“For real.”

“It did drop a lot of cash though. We should try again.”

“You should join us too, Maru,” Dojin offered.

Maru received the offer several times in the past. In his previous life, he probably would’ve played the game as much as he could from the open beta period.

He was still playing the game now, but only up to an hour or two a day. He couldn’t catch up to the other kids. In the end, his friends were way above where he was currently.

“RPGs are no good for me. Too much grinding. I’ll just play whenever I feel free.”

“Ugh, bro, I told you that I can grind for you.”

“Just carry me bro.”

The kids laughed in unison. Maru looked at his two friends for a second. This scene had become their daily life again. Contrary to last month, when they were gripping their scripts with passion.

“What are you thinking, Maru?” Dojin asked, waving his hand in front of Maru’s face.

Maru blurted out what was on his mind without really thinking about it.

“How long are you guys planning on just reading your script for the club?”

His two friends fell completely silent after hearing his words. That was a mistake, Maru realized. The two still haven’t recovered after the play last month.

Daemyung was the first to break the silence.

“We’re thinking about entering the teen acting competition hosted by Gwangho University.”

“Still?”

“Yeah.”

“Is it because of Geunseok?”

“………”

They became silent again. The bell for the first class rang right then. Daemyung smiled awkwardly before returning to his seat. Maru turned to look at Dojin, who smiled similarly, before taking out a piece of candy.

“Want one?”

“Sure.”

“Here.”

Dojin popped a piece in his mouth himself and fell silent. Maru looked at his two friends. Their minds seemed to have come to a pause after the regionals last month.

* * *

At the play a month ago, the first thing Maru saw at the waiting room was Geunseok collapsed on the wall, with the club members looking at the boy.

“If it wasn’t for that kid, if it wasn’t for him… The judges…”

Geunseok wasn’t able to raise his head. He was just repeating the same words over and over again. The club members didn’t look mad at all, they looked like they needed explanation. They didn’t understand what had happened.

Just what caused the perfect Geunseok to make such an amateur mistake?

That day, the club split apart. Miso didn’t try to assemble the club members either.

[Trying to come together on a day like this would be too cruel for that boy,] Miso had said.

The club met together the next day in the club room. The members tried to console each other saying that they would do better next time.

But the look of “how?” would still not leave their eyes. Geunseok’s mistake was just that shocking to them.

Nothing changed since then. They spent a full week consoling each other. And on the day when the results of the competition got announced, the club met again. Taesik, the teacher, was the one who announced the results. He told the club that this was a good experience for them, and that they could do better next time. But ultimately, he said the club failed to qualify.

Geunseok cried. He said in a sobbing voice that he was sorry. Daemyung was the next to burst into tears, with Yurim following the two of them. The eleven members of the club got together to console each other. Maru didn’t join in. Instead, watching from the side.

He had no place with them. They could only console each other because they worked together for the full three months. Maru didn’t have the right to cry or get angry together.

Joonghyuk was the first to recover, saying that they should practice for the other acting competitions coming up later this year. Namely, the college acting festival. It was nothing compared to the national one, but it was the one competition that started soon after the regionals.

The competition was also well-known as the ‘losers’ festival’.

As the club members nodded at Joonghyuk, Maru noticed Geunseok saying something from the corner.

[If it wasn’t for that kid…]

The boy was repeating the same words from before. It didn’t look like anyone else picked up on it. Right then, the two’s eyes met. Geunseok flinched like a surprised kid and lowered his head. Perhaps what he said just then was what he truly felt about the competition.

After that day, the club completely disappeared from the auditorium. They met on the weekends occasionally just to do some reading, but not much else. They didn’t need much practice, since they would go into the college competition with the same play from before.

There was a change, though. Miso stopped coming.

Perhaps the change should’ve been expected. She was only really here to help the club along for their regionals after all.

[I’m going into a different project this time. I wasn’t going to do it, but well, I have some time now,] Maru recalled her saying.

She tried not to show it, but Maru did detect a great amount of disappointment on her face. She loved the club more than anyone else. The loss of the club this time was probably very saddening for her as well.

Once Maru thought about this much, the door opened, and the teacher walked in. The first thing the middle-aged man said after walking in was “open your books”.

Time to focus on the class.

Maru took out his book from his desk.

* * *

It was lunchtime. Any other time, the students would have rushed towards the cafeteria, but this time everyone was walking like zombies.

It was hot as hell.

“Oh my god, it’s so hot.”

“Seriously…”

“Saying that’s only going to make it worse. Just imagine it’s cold.”

“You sound like my dad.”

“I mean, there’s a reason adults say these kinds of things.”

Maru fanned with his hand as he spoke. The summer heat lowered his appetite, and the lunch menu was also unappetizing. He was craving meat quite a bit today, but… The school decided it was time for a vegetable party.

“Braised potatoes and braised lotus root. Anyone want to trade?”

“Pass.”

“Yeah, I’m gonna pass on that too.”

The food at this school was somewhat edible, but the braised potatoes were by far the worst. The crunchy potatoes and watery sauce made the braised dish unappetizing. In the end, the dish just tasted like a whole bunch of raw potatoes.

“Huh?”

Daemyung pointed at Geunseok in front of him. The boy was going to the cafeteria with his friends. Behind him was Yurim and Soyeon.

“Am I imagining things? Why are the three of them so far apart?” Dojin said, narrowing his eyes.

Maru couldn’t help but think the same thing. The three of them were very good friends with each other. But the group seemed to have an awkward atmosphere today. Yurim and Soyeon still looked like they were good friends. But there was definitely something going on with Geunseok.

Dojin ran forward, coming right up between Yurim and Soyeon. What a social kid. He immediately waved his hand towards Daemyung and Maru. The two girls waved towards them as well.

“Let’s go.”

“Sure.”

Maru and Daemyung made their way over to the trio.

“Braised potatoes today.”

“Soyeon, want some of my share?”

“I like eating, but it’s a hard pass on that.”

They were talking about the potatoes here, too. Maru glanced over at Geunseok in front of him. The boy looked back after joking around a bit with his friends. Their eyes met. Maru raised his hand in a greeting, and the boy awkwardly did the same.

Geunseok’s definitely changed. Outside of the club, he smiled a lot, and became casual. It wasn’t like he started talking a lot more, but he was definitely more social than he was in the auditorium. But look at him now. He looked like a kid who did something wrong, not knowing what to do next.

Maru turned to look at Yurim and Soyeon. The two also had awkward smiles on their faces. There was definitely a barrier between the three of them. A pretty big one, too.

“Did you guys have a fight?” Maru asked.

He knew that he probably shouldn’t be asking something so personal, but he felt something strange was going on between the group.

The two girls shook their heads vigorously in response. Yurim, in particular, shook hard enough to make her hair flutter wildly.

“Nothing’s happening, nothing.”

Yurim clenched her phone incredibly tightly as she spoke. There was no way she would look convincing doing so. It would be rude of him to pry further though, so he decided to continue walking into the cafeteria silently.

“There’s something going on, isn’t there?” Dojin whispered.

“Let’s stay quiet for now. They’ll handle it among themselves.”

“Mm.”

Maru looked at Geunseok in front of him. The smiling boy didn’t look as comfortable as he made himself to be.

Chapter 50

“Let’s go up.”

The trio started moving before the class bell rang. On their way up, they met Taejoon and Iseul. The two of them waved cheerfully at the boys.

“Are you guys doing anything after school?” Iseul asked.

The three of them shook their heads.

“Let’s go to a karaoke bar then. Down?”

Iseul stared at them intensely. The girl had a knack of always getting what she wanted. The way things looked right now, the three of them would have to attend the karaoke bar this evening no matter what.

As the group talked, they reached the fifth floor auditorium. A month ago, the auditorium would’ve been filled with Miso’s shouts, but not now. When they opened the door, they were greeted with the second years.

“Come here.”

The first years sat down in a circle. Maru joined in as well. There was no reason for him to sit elsewhere, since they pretty much stopped practicing at this point. They just made small talk here now.

“It’s getting pretty hot, isn’t it? Good thing we can use the auditorium. Being in the club room at this hour would be horrifying,” Joonghyuk said with a grin.

The whole group laughed lightly in response. Despite the smiles, Maru caught a faint scent of unease in the air. Probably because the group wasn’t laughing for real.

“Now then! Our ever-rich senior Joonghyuk will be providing the club with drinks again!”

Minsung stood up with a shout. He, too, must’ve felt the heavy air in the club. Joonghyuk immediately started arguing about why Minsung included himself in the group of ‘Joonghyuk’s juniors’. The other boy just feigned innocence playfully. The first years smiled, lightening the mood a little bit more.

Right then, the first years from the faculty of design walked in. Geunseok was the first to come in, with Soyeon and Yurim following close behind.

“Welcome!” Yoonjung greeted the three. She moved aside a little to make space for them.

Maru observed Yurim for a second. The girl was looking down at the ground like a shy kid. Presumably because of what happened earlier.

“Hey.”

“Ah, um, hey.”

The girl spoke only when Maru greeted her. As expected, she was gripping her phone this time as well.

“Alright, let’s start off with a reading for today as well,” Yoonjung said with a clap.

After failing at the regionals, all they could do were readings. They didn’t even do it for long either. Just once most of the time, and twice if they felt good enough. That was their entire practice for the week.

Once the reading was finished, the group started talking for a bit. They updated each other on what has happened recently, and how the week was for each other. Just a small tea party between the club members.

The passion from before was nowhere to be seen.

Maru understood completely. They were all tired. People couldn’t run forever, after all. They needed rest.

‘Not like I can intervene either.’

He was well aware that taking a longer rest would only make it harder for them to start seriously again, but he didn’t really feel the need to explain it to them. The club worked harder than anyone for the past three months. They would eventually get over their feelings of defeat, humiliation, and sadness. Practice would resume, and they would return to their passionate selves once again.

Maru believed in them, so he saw no point in worrying about it. The reading began shortly after Yoonjung’s clap. The club members weren’t posturing any of the movements, but they did make eye contacts. They carried emotions in their voice after quietly communicating with each other with their eyes.

Their skills were clearly displayed with their composure. The experience from the past three months were clearly beneficial for them. They failed at qualifying for nationals, but surely they could go for an award at the college competition.

Eventually, it became Geunseok’s turn to speak.

“Yes. I understand. I’ll do it.”

The pronunciation, volume, and emotion that Geunseok put into the line was flawless. But there was one thing missing. The boy’s eyes were stuck right on the ground. Yoonjung’s eyebrows flicked up in annoyance. She tried to say something, but she was stopped right there by Joonghyuk.

This situation repeated itself for the past month. If anyone pointed out Geunseok’s mistake, then the club would inevitably have to talk about the incident from a month ago again. This was too much for anyone in the club to take. Joonghyuk must’ve realized that bringing it up would only serve to develop a chasm within the club.

Maru’s eyes met with Joonghyuk’s. The older boy’s eyes seemed to be asking him if they should give Geunseok more time. Right then, an angry voice came from a place no one’s expected.

It was Soyeon.

“Hey, Geunseok, we’re supposed to be reading.”

“Eh? Yeah. I’m reading. Why?”

“Why? Can’t you see what’s happening? The seniors are all just looking at you right now.”

Soyeon looked pretty savage in all her fury. The girl glared at Geunseok. Yurim, who was sitting between the two, just grasped her phone with a troubled look. The air in the club fell by a few degrees right there. Joonghyuk couldn’t do anything at this point either.

“Geunseok! We know you’re hurting a lot by this. But how long are you planning on staying like this? Can’t you think about us? You don’t think we’re hurting at all? You’re not the only one that failed this. We all did.”

Geunseok’s head flicked up in surprise. He lost the calm and reserved attitude he usually held, instead he looked like a surprised child who didn’t know what to do.

That surprised everyone. Even Soyeon.

“Sorry, I’m sorry,” the boy started apologizing.

He sounded like he didn’t expect everyone to be like this either. Some people in the club sighed annoyedly. Geunseok’s face fell to the ground again, making the entire club fall completely silent.

“Now, now. Let’s focus. We slipped just once. It’s not over yet. Lots of competitions to go to in the future. There’s no time to be depressed, only to practice.”

Joonghyuk stepped in to try to mediate the situation. His calm, confident voice aroused nods from everyone in the room.

Everyone except Geunseok, that is. The boy was still staring down with his two fists clenched tightly.

“I’m sorry. Because… of me… If it wasn’t for that kid then, if it wasn’t for that kid, then… I wouldn’t have been such a drag to everyone…”

“Geunseok, Soyeon just said that because she was a little frustrated. No need to get so down like that. We’re not saying that you did badly, but that it’s still not over yet. Come on, raise your head.”

Geunseok raised his head slowly. His brows were drooping downwards in shame.

“Let’s eat something after we finish reading. The atmosphere feels so annoying right now.”

Minsung took over from there. It was a common tactic that the seniors would use. They would have Joonghyuk speak some serious words and Minsung trying to lighten the mood. Usually, Yoonjung would handle what Minsung was doing here, but clearly she was in no position to do that right now.

The club looked like they somewhat recovered with that. Some of the members were starting to smile again, and they looked at each other with trust in their eyes.

Maru received some of those gazes as well.

As they did so, the club tried to pull together Geunseok again. The boy looked a little better with everyone consoling him.

“I’m so sorry. We would be at the nationals by now if it wasn’t for that kid.”

“Don’t worry about it. That’s all in the past. It was your first role as a main character in your first play. Anyone would’ve made mistakes. I’m actually pretty happy. At least we managed to get all the way to a full curtain call. Right guys? Haha.”

Danmi wrapped the entire situation up. Even Yoonjung was smiling, talking about how excited she was then. The club members all smiled excitedly.

Watching all this, Maru just smiled bitterly in the background.

‘So this is how things are going to be.’

Taking care of wounds is a good thing. Putting medicine on a wound before an infection breaks out is a thing that anyone should do. But if the wound is already infected, the first thing a person should do is to try to assess the wound. They would have to see if the wound could be treated, or if it should be cut out altogether.

Maru understood Geunsoo’s worries from the other day only then. His words about Geunseok being a child was completely correct.

One of the key traits of children was shifting the blame to others. After all, taking responsibility for their action is an incredibly difficult thing to do. It was something that only adults could do. And right now, Geunseok kept on saying ‘if it wasn’t for that kid’ repeatedly. Come to think of it, he repeated the same words back then in the waiting room as well.

Thinking that you weren’t the cause of a problem was a very comforting thing to do. Geunseok often felt very mature due to his appearance and actions. People around him probably treated him as an adult because of this. As a matter of fact, the boy was probably trying to shift the blame exactly because he didn’t want to break his usual image.

[My brother hasn’t failed many times before.]

The kid was probably afraid of the sudden responsibility that he had to take care of. This was an entirely different kind of responsibility from what Geunseok had to deal with in the past. The test was entirely his fault, so he couldn’t shift the blame anywhere. But this time, there was a target he could shift the blame to. Plus, the weight of the responsibility this time was much bigger than it was back when he failed his test.

3 months of time, multiplied by ten people.

Perhaps Geunseok was desperately trying to find something to blame for some breathing room.

Maru stepped back for a second to observe. The club was licking each other’s wounds, telling each other that things would be fine tomorrow.

But was that really the case?

[There’s nothing worse than trying to help him when he falls. If that happens, he’d just tell himself he can’t stand up by himself when he falls again next time, and give up.]

A voice popped up in Maru’s head. He couldn’t remember who it was from. Probably from someone he met in the future. The eleven club members smiled even more brightly now. They were laughing, too.

It’s fine. It’s going to be fine.

That was the only thing they were saying. No one was claiming that these lazy practice sessions were acting like poison to the club. Did they not understand? Or were they just being willfully ignorant?

“Now then, juniors! Who’s willing to go to the mart for a bit? Joonghyuk’s paying!”

As always, the club was starting to shift over to a tea party again. Maru stood up from the back.

“I’ll go.”

“By yourself?”

“Yes.”

“I’ll go with you.”

“It’s fine. I’ll go alone.”

“Really?”

“Yes. It looks like you all have a lot of things to say to each other at the moment. It doesn’t look like I should interfere, so I’ll go alone.”

Maru slowly scanned the eleven club members who were staring back at him. Some of them looked away from him in shame. Joonghyuk was the first to look away, with Iseul smiling awkwardly at him afterwards. Yurim gave a similar smile as well. At least they seemed to know what was wrong with the club.

“I’ll be back.”

Maru stepped out with the money in hand. The choice was up to them now, whether they wanted to keep applying medicine to their wound, or to assess it properly.

Chapter 51

‘I guess it’s better than fake passion, at the very least,’ Maru thought as he walked down.

Teenagers couldn’t very well burn their life away with passion. Sometimes, it might be better to just ignore something to feel more comfortable for a time being. Only when they become adults, do they truly realize when it is appropriate to do such a thing.

‘But doing that too early just isn’t fun.’

This was pretty much the last chance for these students to be acting without reservation, acting purely based on their emotions. There would be value for them to act honestly right now.

‘I guess I’m not in the position to say that though, am I?’

As a spectator, Maru had no part in all of this. Butting in right now would only make him seem rude. Especially as a person who didn’t have enough bravery to even commit. Perhaps the one who really needed to act honest was him.

As Maru walked past the teacher’s offices towards the supermarket, the door to the staff lounge opened, revealing Taesik. The man seemed to be bidding his farewells to a couple of parents.

“Oh, teacher.”

“Ah, Maru. Heading to the market?”

“Yes.”

“Let’s go together.”

The two of them started walking down the hall together. Several students greeted Taesik as they walked with massive smiles on their faces.

One of the surefire ways to see if a teacher was loved was in seeing how students greeted their teachers. In that sense, Taesik was definitely beloved as a teacher.

At the store, Taesik bought Maru’s snacks as if it was the most natural thing in the world. He refused to accept the money from Maru as well.

“How’s the club?”

Since that time last month, Taesik stopped visiting the club. He still occasionally visited, but not to cheer them on.

“It’s alright.”

“Just alright?”

“They were pretty sad about failing, but they’ve somewhat recovered.”

“Is that so.”

Taesik nodded subtly. Maru looked at the man for a bit. He personally thought the situation was getting bad, but he didn’t have to tell the man. Taesik looked at the fifth floor with an understanding look.

“Thank goodness it’s alright. I was pretty worried. Worried enough to actually think about talking to them. I didn’t think it would be good for me to intervene though, so I held my tongue. There are things that adults should be involved in, and there are things that kids should solve amongst themselves. In this case, the latter is clearly the sensible solution.”

As Maru thought, the man was a very thoughtful person. Taesik bought him a cold peach tea from the vending machine next to them.

“How are you doing?”

“I’m doing alright.”

“Well, you’re consistent.”

The two of them looped around the field in front of the school. Despite being a weekend, there were no students out on the field. Probably because there was a game today. By the time they passed by one of the goalposts, Taesik spoke again.

“I had a drink with instructor Miso last time.”

“Ah, is that so.”

Taesik paused for a second with a conflicted face. He seemed to be wondering if this was alright to tell a student. He quickly put on a smile though.

“I think I can tell you for some reason, so might as well. Instructor Miso actually cried a lot back then. She was blaming herself quite a bit.”

To think that such a tough instructor would cry just like that… Maru couldn’t picture it very well, but he couldn’t help but think it was somehow very fitting of the woman.

“Do you know the difference between a pro and an amateur?”

“Money.”

“Right, it’s money. In that sense, instructor Miso is a pro. She receives money to teach students. At the same time, she ends up feeling responsible about a lot of things. Having to teach students from her high school must have given her a lot of pressure.”

To think she could act so loud and angry all the time despite the amount of pressure on her shoulders… If what Taesik was saying was true, then she really was a pro. No one was able to tell how she really felt, after all. The woman had quite a talent for self-control.

“The reason why she was so controlling was because the lot of you were amateurs. At least, that’s what she said. Pros can act as freely as they want. They can take responsibility for their actions, after all. But giving freedom to amateurs only leads to laziness.”

“…Did instructor Miso feel regret over her methods?”

“Yes. She was blaming herself. She said she should’ve made it fun for everyone. If she just let go of her greed for the club for a second, the kids wouldn’t have frozen in front of the audience like that.”

Maru scratched the tip of his nose. Everyone in the club was regretting their actions.

“It’s not something she should take blame for. She’s pretty timid in that regard, isn’t she?”

“Timid? Hahaha, sure. She might look savage on the outside, but she cares a lot inside. That’s why she worked so hard. She wanted to show you what she felt on the stage back then.”

“She’s competitive, too.”

“Indeed. Incredibly so.”

This summer seemed to be the season of pain. The one thing that instructor Miso did differently from the students was that she was honest about how she felt. She probably felt incredibly embarrassed saying it. Talking about your real feelings was more embarrassing than even confessing to someone you liked. Thanks to that, though, she was probably comforted well by Taesik. She definitely got a chance to self-reflect as well. She received all of the rewards that an honest person could reap.

“So, what about you guys?”

The same question as before. Maru thought for a little bit before deciding to answer differently.

“I’ll be honest. Things are actually pretty bad right now, in my opinion. Dangerous, actually.”

“That’s a different answer from before.”

“Isn’t this the reason you talked about instructor Miso in the first place?”

Maru sipped on his tea with a small smile. Taesik didn’t refute him.

“As I said before, the atmosphere of a club isn’t decided by how good the advisor is. The advisor is only there to be a mascot of the club. The person who really runs the club is the president and the vice president.”

“Yes.”

“Joonghyuk is… a very thoughtful kid. But he’s not the type that actually steps up to solve problems. That’s the reason why he’s not the president of the club, but rather a stage manager. He’s a lot like you, actually.”

“I think so, too.”

“There are differences, of course. Joonghyuk is, unlike you, within the circle that is the club. When there’s a problem, he actually tries to solve it. But you…”

Taesik stopped walking for a second to look at Maru.

“You always seem to be standing at the edges of the club.”

“………”

Maru didn’t say anything. Everything the man had just said was correct. Maru stared into Taesik’s eyes. He was curious about what the man was thinking about him.

[I’d like you to solve this situation.]

“Why are you asking me to solve this?”

Was it because Maru asked before Taesik could actually say it? The man seemed surprised for a brief moment.

“As I thought, you’re very different from your fellow students. It might sound strange to you, but talking to you feels like I’m talking to a parent. I can almost feel you rooting for the club members like an adult.”

“Don’t you think that’s a bit cruel to say to a 17 year old?”

“True.”

Taesik smiled lightly.

“You don’t want to step in, teacher?”

“You should know what would happen if I do, don’t you?”

Try to do well. Stop blaming other people, Geunseok. Don’t be so lazy during practice. Be more honest.

The moment Taesik utters those words, the club really would shatter into pieces. That was the real problem with having spectators try to involve themselves.

“I know you have your own opinions and everything. I’ve heard a lot from instructor Miso. Whenever she drinks, nine times out of ten she would talk about you. She’d complain about how much like an adult you seemed.”

“She really holds grudges, doesn’t she?”

“You better not say that in front of her. A person told her that once, and she just grabbed that person by the hair right there.”

“Ah, I can sort of picture that.”

Haha, the two laughed lightly.

“You must be meeting instructor Miso a lot.”

“I do. She’s a mean student who calls me out whenever she gets drunk.”

“She calls you whenever she drinks? Does she call other people?”

“No, I was always alone. She probably doesn’t have anyone else to drink with because of her drinking habits. But it wasn’t like I could just ignore her. It does get tiring sometimes, though.”

“…And she asks you for advice a lot and everything?”

“Most of the time, yes.”

“Are you married, teacher?”

“Haha, unfortunately not. Probably for the foreseeable future as well. I mean, with a fashion sense like this, how could I be?”

Taesik smiled, pointing at his old checkered shirt and worn out pants.

‘How could such a thoughtful guy be so dense…?’

A drunk woman calling out a guy for advice regularly? An older guy at that, and not a friend? She definitely had feelings for the man.

Maru asked Taesik to wait for a second before taking out his phone. He left Miso a very short message.

[Taesik’s getting married.]

Exactly five seconds later, Taesik’s phone started ringing. When the man picked it up, he immediately pulled it away from his ear.

“What’s up?”

“I don’t know. She just started screaming.”

“Um, teacher, can I take that call?”

Taesik handed Maru the phone with a confused look.

- How! Hooowww!!

Miso sounded pretty desperate from across the phone. Maru had to stop himself from laughing right there.

“I was joking.”

- Eh? M-Maru?

“Yes. That was a gag message just now, so you can ignore it.”

- Y-you!!

“You have a pretty cute side to yourself, don’t you, instructor? Should I tell him in your stead? That you have feelings for him?”

- I’ll kill you! Don’t you dare tell him that! I’ll freaking murder you!

“Come to school, then.”

-… What?

“Come check on the kids for a bit. I’m going to shake them up a bit.”

Maru hung up and gave the man his phone back.

“What was that about?”

“It’s nothing. But ah, teacher?”

“Yes?”

“Your future wife may be closer than you think.”

Maru decided to stop playing spectator for a second. It was an incredibly difficult thing for a teacher to ask something of a student. Despite that, Taesik was honest to Maru. Even as an adult, Maru couldn’t help but want to accept the man’s request.

He’d cut out the infected bits. The club might be unable to handle the pain and start to splinter. That’s why he prepared some medicine.

‘Miso will handle the rest.’

Maru headed up to the auditorium with a big huff.

Chapter 52

Joonghyuk glanced at the smiling club members. The room became silent for a second after Maru left, but they soon returned to their usual, casual selves, talking about things that happened a few days prior.

Joonghyuk was joining in as well. He was just talking about stuff that came to his mind, like what movies he watched during the week, and what new snacks he binged on this time around. No one in the room dared say that there was something wrong with the atmosphere.

Today especially, Joonghyuk felt the auditorium was incredibly large. Back when Miso first came to the club, she told them that her objective was to make the auditorium feel very small and cramped to them. As she told him, the boy had never thought of the auditorium as being large and spacious during the last three months. But a month after they failed at the competition, the auditorium felt larger than a soccer field to him.

‘Should I tell them?’

One reading session, some small talk, no more practice otherwise. In his head, he still remembered the script and blocking. Right now, if someone told him to act on cue, he had the confidence of being able to do it relatively well.

He just didn’t know how long that confidence would last.

‘Maybe even now… ’

When skill is rooted in your casual behavior, you could call it confidence. Without that skill, though, you could only call your demeanor arrogance. Did the club have confidence right now, or were they just soaking in arrogance?

In the midst of talking, his eyes met with a first year’s. It was Yurim, the girl with the phone. She was looking at him with nervous eyes. She was definitely thinking the same thing Joonghyuk was thinking right now.

Is this okay?

He turned his head to look at Iseul. The girl was sending the exact same signals. The others seemed to realize that they were on a rotting tightrope as it was already.

'Everyone probably knows, actually.’

This time, he turned to Yoonjung. She was talking about a dream she had yesterday very loudly. She was overdramatic most of the time, but things seemed especially worse this time around. She was even tapping Danmi’s shoulder, trying to get a ‘am I right?’ out of the other girl. Perhaps she was smiling with the feeling that they were on thin ice as well.

* * *

“So I had this thought.”

‘What am I doing?’

“It was so funny.”

‘This isn’t right.’

“No, for real.”

‘This isn’t right at all.’

Yoonjung clenched her mouth shut after a loud laugh. Her thoughts weren’t matching with her words at all. This wasn’t the time for making casual talk. They shouldn’t be acting like this right now. She was thinking of a bunch of things right now on the inside, but she couldn’t help but say things that were unrelated to acting right now.

She was getting nervous. That stale air within the club didn’t leave even after a full month. Whenever the club began talking casually after the reading session, Yoonjung was assaulted by nervousness. She was scared that the silence between the club would last even longer.

Starting from a month ago, there were moments where the entire club would go silent looking at each other. Whenever this happened, Yoonjung found it extremely hard to breathe. So she would speak even louder than before to prevent everyone else from recognizing that silence. But she was clearly reaching a limit here. She didn’t even know what she was talking about at this point. Why was she caring so much about her lunch from yesterday again?

To Yoonjung, the club was a precious place. She adored the process of setting up a play from scratch, despite the fact that she was never able to complete one during her first year. Just the fact that she could smile together and cry together with other people made her happy.

But what was happening now?

She was feeling bothered and annoyed in the space that she’s loved so much. At this rate, she might actually suffocate in the club. Back in the past, she would go to the club whenever she could to talk to club members. But what about now? She started attending the club exclusively on the weekends. How did this happen?

* * *

‘Mm.’

The auditorium was quiet ever since Yoonjung closed her mouth. It wasn’t a silence that came from comfort, but rather awkwardness. The silence was so encompassing that members of the club started dividing into smaller groups.

Iseul looked to her side. The three students from the faculty of design were sitting apart from everyone else. Yurim was saying something quietly to Geunseok, while Soyeon was looking at the two in annoyance.

Taejoon was smiling, but his smile looked like one born from habit. Danmi and Minsung were whispering something to each other. Iseul couldn’t hear them, but judging from their expressions, they were probably talking about the current situation of the club.

And then there was Joonghyuk. The boy was looking at everyone with trembling lips. He looked like he had a lot to say, but the words seem to be stuck in his throat. Whenever her eyes met with his, he would just smile bitterly.

‘Hm, I feel like I should say something, but I don’t really want to.’

Iseul didn’t join the acting club because she was interested in acting. She just wanted a new experience. She already had a rock solid future set aside for her, which was to inherit her family’s restaurant.

Iseul grew up with the smell of soup in her neighborhood. She would wake to the visage of her father slicing meat, and her mother making kimchi. She naturally grew into the mindset that she would have to inherit the restaurant after them.

Iseul loved the potent smells of the bone broth boiling in the background, and that of meat that rose up when they boiled it. She adored the spicy, sour smell of the kimchi that they made. She had no qualms about inheriting the restaurant after her parents.

That’s why she didn’t even think about going to college. She promised herself and her parents that she would help them out with the restaurant full time after her graduation.

Maybe it was because of that, but Iseul thought that her high school life should be bright and flamboyant. That’s why she decided to join the acting club to begin with.

Just a month ago, she was very satisfied with her decision. Her muscles were constantly screaming at her in pain, but all she did in response was to smile. Memorizing difficult lines only made her more and more excited instead of getting her annoyed at herself. Handling costumes reminded her of the doll house play that she enjoyed in her childhood, and touching up the set props made her feel like a skilled carpenter.

Everything was a new experience to her. Back then, she thought joining the acting club was the best decision that she could’ve ever made. But what about now?

All they had left were boring reading sessions, casual talk she could make with her friends, and a few snacks.

‘This is boring… ’

What the hell was this? Everything about the club suddenly felt so gray.

‘It’d probably be hard for us to return to that time, huh.’

Iseul turned to look at Geunseok. The shining star of the club suddenly became such a boring person. Well, maybe her first impressions of him were false from the beginning. He just looked… so desperate to defend himself right now.

'To think the lead actor would become like this… ’

The acting club was finished for her. Worst of all, instructor Miso stopped coming as well. Just the instructor’s absence alone degraded the club like so.

'I’m not sure what I can do either.’

'Geunseok! Stop acting like a child! Let’s practice!’ Saying that was easy enough. What came after was the real problem.

Would the resulting play really be fun? Plus, if she said those words now, Geunseok would just leave the club right there. Without the main character, the play couldn’t run at all.

‘I guess I’ll find a different club.’

This club’s finished. At least, that’s what Iseul thought.

* * *

Dojin, on the other hand…

‘I wonder where I should farm today.’

Was thinking of other things.

* * *

Maru opened the auditorium doors. The place grew completely silent during the time he was out. The members were further spread out as well.

“Finally! You’re here!” Dojin called out with a happy face.

Maru didn’t know what the other members were thinking, but he could say with absolute certainty that Dojin didn’t have a care in the world.

‘Definitely not the type to ever get stressed about anything.’

The members started talking again when Maru put the snacks down in the middle. Nothing more than small talk, of course.

“You have good taste,” Yoonjung said, grabbing one of the snack bags.

Maru shrugged. That particular one Yoonjung picked up was the brand one she said she hated just a few days prior.

“Time’s passing pretty nicely, isn’t it? It’s already three,” Yoonjung said, pointing at a clock.

A few of the members nodded with an awkward smile, while others didn’t even bother responding. Yoonjung continued talking with a weird smile on her face. Just like yesterday. After another two more hours, the club would finish its activities. After that, the members would leave the auditorium with sighs of relief.

Maru scratched his head for a bit. He did feel a bit embarrassed to actually stand up and say something about this. But he really couldn’t let this pass, especially with Taesik asking him to solve the situation.

“Let’s practice.”

The entire club looked at him curiously. They all had the gazes of ‘why are you of all people saying that?’ on their faces.

“We got exactly two hours. Why not just get one more practice session in?”

The members looked at each other confusedly. Yoonjung nodded cheerily and grabbed her script, with the other members grabbing their own slowly.

“Might as well start reading. Maru’s right, we should practice.”

Yoonjung sent a few signals over to Maru as she did so. During reading sessions, Maru was in charge of all the sound effects and notifying scene changes. The reading would start when he says ‘the sound of the television starts playing’.

“No, not a reading,” Maru responded.

“Huh?”

“A proper practice session. You know, a run.”

Maru threw his script off to one side and looked at the eleven members.

“A proper practice session?” Yoonjung was the one who responded.

“Get the proper motions in and everything. I’ll watch from the audience seat.”

“What?”

“We’ve all been doing just reading for the past month. It’s about time you try to act it all out again. Before you forget.”

Maru scanned the club. They were all looking at him with annoyed eyes. He didn’t have the right to say stuff like this, after all. Even so, Maru asked the entire club to practice.

“We’ve practiced enough.”

Yoonjung was tightly gripping her script. Her eyes were shaking lightly. Maru looked deep into her eyes.

[This isn’t right. I should be listening to Maru.]

Humans are creatures of habit. Once they get used to doing something, they don’t try to stop. For the last month, the acting club developed a habit of making small talk and having an extended tea time. Coming out of that routine meant… change. At the same time, a fracture in the club.

Maru nodded, receiving disapproving gazes from most of the club. As he thought, these kids weren’t dumb. They knew exactly what was wrong with the club. They just couldn’t do anything about it, out of the fear that voicing the problem would only make things worse. In the end, they decided that keeping things the way it was would be the best course of action.

Maru scratched his eyebrow and repeated one more time.

“Let’s practice. Before the club becomes even worse than it already is.”

Chapter 53

“Worse than it already is?”

Yoonjung stood up, clenching her script tightly. The atmosphere of the club turned cold and silent. This much, Maru already expected.

“It’s been a month since you guys did proper practice. Summer break is a week away, and then it’s time for the competition. Am I right?”

“Y-yes.”

“So you should practice. We don’t have much time left. It’s July 15 today, and vacation starts on the 22nd. The competition begins in the beginning of August. We just have two weeks left.”

“We’re already perfect,” Yoonjung claimed.

Her eyes were trembling, though. Maru had to wonder what the girl was feeling on the inside right now.

[Maru’s right. We need to practice. But if I agree with him here…]

She knew they needed practice. But she couldn’t say it. Poor girl. She was worried about the same thing everyone else was worried about here.

For a moment, the club members turned to look at Geunseok, who promptly looked down at the floor again.

“They say your body is the first to know if you skip practice for a day. Your friends are the second to know, and thirdly, the entire world. It’s just a saying, sure, but there’s a reason it exists. You know we’ve been playing around for a full month now.”

“Playing around? We’ve been doing reading all this time,” Yoonjung said, showing Maru her script.

To Maru, she just looked pathetic.

“Do you like plays, or do you like the club?”

“…Eh?”

“When you first came to our class, you said you needed students to make a play with, right?”

“R-right.”

“I’ll ask you again, then. Do you want to make a play, or do you want to keep the club going?”

“Well…”

Yoonjung wasn’t able to answer him. Maru knew very well what her answer was. She was a passionate girl. She was honest in the face of acting. Obviously, she would like to make a play with other students.

But unfortunately for her and the second years, they shared a similar trauma amongst each other. From the event that broke the club last year. That was probably what kept the second years silent. From the fear that they might destroy the club by trying to solve it.

Until now, they probably weren’t able to think about this thanks to Miso’s intense training. But now, they were leading the club once again. They had more to think about.

Ironically, they were letting the club fall to ruin because they loved it so much.

“I must sound incredibly rude to all of you. You’ll think that a mere spectator overstepping his boundaries. That’s fine. I know very well that I have no right to get myself involved here.”

It was indeed very rude for a spectator to involve themselves. To begin with, Maru’s never even experienced this entire ordeal with them. The difference between people who experienced something versus people who never experienced it was incredibly big.

0 and 1. The difference between something existing and not existing.

Maru only ever observed how hard these club members worked. Never once did he actually take part in their pain. That’s why he had to endure the stinging gazes of the club without saying anything. Maru looked down for a second. His two friends were looking at him strangely.

If even his friends were looking at him like this… He didn’t even need to look to know what the others were looking at him were like.

“But as a spectator, I can tell you with confidence that if there’s one thing that I’m good at, it’s spectating. Right now, the club is a complete mess. The fact that the second years are having to be mindful of what the first years are saying is a testament to that fact.”

Minsung’s eyebrows ticked upwards in anger.

“Hey, Han Maru.”

“Apologies. But I’ll listen to what you have to say later. You must be feeling this to a degree as well. You should know better than anyone that if this keeps going on, the club would be in ruins. If you’re a big fan of the tea time club that this place is becoming, then I have nothing to say to you. You’ll be able to perform the play, sure. But it’ll be very different from the play you were practicing a full three months for. Like I said before, even normal people can tell the difference if a pro stops practicing for three days. We’re amateurs. Amateurs who rested for a month. Do you really think that reading… Hah. Do you think that reading words on the script is the same thing as actually acting it out on stage? What the hell was all that practice on the stage a month ago about, then?”

“You really…”

Minsung tried to stand up, but got stopped by Joonghyuk. Maru gave Joonghyuk a curt nod before continuing.

“I’m well aware of what you’re worried about.”

Maru looked down at Geunseok. The boy slowly raised his head, feeling the gaze on him.

“You. Do you even want to do acting?”

“…I do. Obviously.”

“That should be enough, then. At least you say you want to. Though I’m not very sure if that’s how you really feel.”

Geunseok’s face stiffened. Yurim stepped up to defend him.

“Um… Aren’t you being a little harsh? Geunseok also tried hard as well. He’s suffered a lot. Can’t you at least try to comfort him?”

That was strange. Yurim wasn’t the type to say her opinions often. Did she like the boy?

“Everyone’s been comforting him for a while. But personally, I can’t comfort and cheer someone who isn’t actually apologizing for his mistakes.”

“Not apologizing? But Geunseok…”

“Have you ever heard him saying sorry? Can’t you remember what he’s been saying whenever that event gets brought up?”

“………”

Geunseok opened his mouth when Yurim fell silent.

“I apologized. I was very sorry for the rest of the club, so I kept…”

“Shifting the blame. You’ve never actually apologized.”

“Me?”

Geunseok looked up stiffly, seemingly unaware of what he did.

“It’s true that you made a mistake back then because of a crying child. The cause of your mistake was the child. But if an actor on a stage made a mistake because of an audience member, the fault lies in the actor for being unskilled.”

“But the kid crying wasn’t my fault.”

“What about blankly staring at the judge afterwards? What about you acting like the entire play was over because of that one mistake? Do you even remember what you said in response to Iseul’s line?”

“T-that…”

“Even a first-timer who has never looked at the script would’ve done better than you.”

“Hey! Maru!”

Yurim shouted angrily. She immediately looked away, surprised by the volume of her own voice. Her face had gone completely red from embarrassment.

A fracture. Wherever Maru looked, there was a fracture in the club. It looked like they were about to collapse at any moment. The atmosphere the second years tried so hard to maintain was crumbling everywhere. Maru felt the club members glaring at him even more so than before. Even the second years were angrily looking at him.

Understandable. Despite being a club member, Maru had no part in any of this.

‘I’m losing out on a lot by doing this.’

If it wasn’t for Taesik’s request, or hearing that Miso cried, Maru wouldn’t have done this at all. But now after receiving the request, he had to see it through to completion.

“Are you going to keep playing around? You must be doing this knowing that you’re going to lose all future competitions, I assume?”

“Han Maru!”

Yoonjung stepped forward. Her eyes were colored with anger and shame.

“I wasn’t supposed to be the one giving this speech. This was your job. Are you a fan of the good old tea time club? Fine, then. I’ll gladly buy snacks for you any time. I’ll gladly talk about the food I ate just yesterday like you’ve been doing. I won’t say a word about acting. Is that what you want?”

“We could’ve handled this without you doing this.”

“Is that so?”

“Yes!”

“So why didn’t you?”

“…We were going to. Once Geunseok calmed down.”

Maru shook his head.

“More excuses. Geunseok shifts the blame to the kid, and now you’re shifting it to Geunseok. Everyone’s just blaming each other. What are we supposed to do, then? I guess we have to catch that little kid and get an apology out of him?”

“Stop saying that!”

Yoonjung shouted, throwing her script on the ground. Maru smiled bitterly inside. This was why people hated whistleblowers. The bitter truth never felt good to hear.

“You were just refusing to see the truth. Out of the fear that the club would just fall apart like last year. Why didn’t you nudge the club forward? Why didn’t you ask to practice?”

“Stop spouting bullshit. We’re watching all of you carefully. We just didn’t say anything because we were waiting for the right moment.”

“Waiting for the right moment? How? You saw, didn’t you? You can wait, despite seeing what was happening with the club?”

“Yes.”

“Well in that case, I can only say that you’re blind. You just pretended to see things. You need to look at this at face value. Impartial, without any personal opinions clouding your judgements. If you just take a second and take Geunseok’s pain, the club members, the event from last year and such out of the equation, things become a lot easier to look at. All we have here is a club that doesn’t practice. A club that just goes straight home after 5pm. A club that, despite all its current problems, talks about winning its next competition like it’s eating a piece of cake. Even a kid can see that there’s a problem with this.”

Maru looked down for a second with a sigh. He came up here with his mind already made up to do this, but it was still very hard. He wasn’t made to say stuff like this.

‘Well, I’m here now, so might as well.’

“Let’s make it clear once and for all. Are we here for tea time, or are we here to make a play?”

He had nothing to say now. Maru picked up his script, and dragged his chair into the middle of the auditorium. He opened the seat back up where Miso always used to sit, and sat down.

“So, are you going to practice?”

Maru looked at the eleven people in front of him. Save for a few exceptions, everyone looked very pissed. He managed to get himself ingrained into all of them as an annoyance who only knew how to talk, no doubt. Not that they were wrong.

“Fine! I’ll do it! We’ll do it!”

The second years got up first, and stepped onto the stage with their arms crossed. The first years followed suit. Daemyung and Dojin gave Maru a small smile before getting to their positions.

Now, the three students from the faculty design were all that were left. Soyeon was the first to step up. Yurim and Geunseok glared at Maru for a second before taking their positions as well.

“You better watch carefully. We didn’t just play around for a month. Even if we did, the three months of work we put into this wasn’t just for show. You probably don’t know that. After all, you never worked as hard as us. We still remember how difficult those practice sessions were. Practice, now? There’s a reason why we only did reading sessions until now.”

Yoonjung spat out words like a venomous snake. Despite her words though, she didn’t look angry at all. She looked pretty apologetic, actually. Maru understood. She was still a high schooler. She didn’t really know how to hide her real thoughts, and that was fine.

Maru closed his mouth and gave them a nod.

“Please show me that my worries were unfounded.”

“Gladly.”

The eyes of the eleven members shone. Maru started the play off by saying the words, “the sound of the television starts playing”.

The play was messed up from the very beginning. The student who was supposed to walk in first came in a little bit late, because he didn’t care so much about where he was standing on stage. He looked very awkward with his acting as well.

Maru noticed the faces of the ten students outside of the stage stiffen immediately.

It’s been a month. A pretty short period of time. But that was also the time it took for the club to get completely settled into their play.

The play continued straight to its end, just like a real run. Geunseok finished his monologue in the end, and…

“The sound of the television starts playing again.”

Maru raised his head. The club members were looking at each other with a troubled face. That is…

They all looked like they just chewed on shit.

“Absolutely perfect. I can say with certainty that you’ll win at the college competition with this.”

Might as well go all out, since he started this to begin with. Maru left his script on his chair and walked back to the spot with all the snacks. He picked up one of the bags and started eating.

“Come back here. You clearly don’t need practice. Yoonjung was right, you guys are at the peak of your skills right now.”

“………”

Maybe he was being a little too rude here? Maru flinched a little on the inside, but it was whatever. He made sure that the club wouldn’t become a casual place for tea time with this. From here, it would be up to them to go back to their usual practice sessions, or…

‘To just give up.’

The auditorium was silent, save for Maru’s crunches every once in a while.

Chapter 54

“…Phew.”

It was 6AM. Maru got dressed and stepped out into the living room. Everyone was still asleep in the house, so he made sure to try to be as quiet as possible.

“Summer is summer, huh.”

The sun was already coming up, despite the time. He breathed in deeply expecting some cool morning air, but it wasn’t even that cool. It was August now. Two weeks after summer break started. Maru shook his hands and feet, thinking about how fast time was passing for him.

His dad was the first to greet him after he came back from a run around the park nearby.

“Been out for a run?”

“Yes. It’s a bit hot out.”

“Of course it is. It’s midsummer. Your mom’s still sleeping, so try to be quiet.”

“Yes. Good luck at work.”

“Sure, thanks. You work hard as well.”

“Yessir.”

Maru chugged a cup of water after bidding farewell to his dad. As he tilted his head back forward after drinking, he noticed a family picture in front of him. In the photo, his smiling dad was holding two small children. There weren’t any white hairs on his head back then. Maru looked back. He did see quite a few white hairs on his dad’s head a moment ago.

‘He’s getting… old. Hopefully nothing happens to him.’

It’d be nice if he knew if anything happens to his family in the future, but unfortunately his memory was fairly blurry in that department. The only thing he remembered to begin with was his sister’s divorce.

‘I suppose saving a person’s life does change the future immensely.’

Any memories that might allow him to have a significant impact on society was gone. Just like memories about his family. It seemed that god wanted to place an equal value on a person’s life and the flow of money.

‘What a kind god.’

It’d be nice if this god worked a little harder to achieve a fairer society. At least that would prevent good people from giving up on life.

After thinking of a few more things on a similar vein, Maru stepped out of the shower. It was a good time to stop. Especially when he started thinking about why god existed.

God would do God's job, and Maru would do Maru’s job. He was in no place to worry about an omnipotent dude’s life.

Maru made breakfast and woke up his mom. At some point, mom gave up on her side job due to a pain in her wrist. She said she could work again after a few days of rest, but gave up after dad and Maru got together to stop her.

“You should’ve slept more. I could’ve made breakfast,” mom said, grabbing a spoon in front of her.

She’s been repeating that same line for the last few days, but she hasn’t gotten out of the bed herself as of late. She was looking a lot better after she stopped working as well. To the point where she was going out for daily exercises, even.

“Don’t worry and just eat. How’s your hand?”

“It’s fine now. What’s up with you boys and worrying so much?”

Mom still smiled as she said this. She must be feeling a bit thankful.

“I’ll be going to work then.”

“Right, be careful of cars.”

“Sure.”

Maru stepped outside with a cap on. As soon as summer break started, he found himself a part time job at a gas station. He was able to start immediately, since they just started looking for a short term part timer themselves. The pay was 2800 won an hour. Quite a lot for a gas station.

The auntie who took care of the gas station’s food was the first to greet him when he arrived.

“You’re here, Maru? Here, have some cold seaweed soup.”

“Thank you.”

After drinking some of the icy soup, Maru put on his oil-stained work clothes and got right to work. There were two gas stations side by side next to a 6-lane road. This was a place where daily revenue would change depending on how good the employees were at catching attention.

Maru waved a towel towards the cars with blinking headlights.

“Sir!! We have the best gas here, promise! I’ll wipe down your windows if you come here! Come, come!”

Maybe it was because they saw Maru’s frantic handwaves, but some of the cars that were about to go into the other gas station turned to come to him.

“Come on man. That’s a little too much.”

An employee in a blue uniform complained from the other station. Despite what he was saying though, he didn’t look all that annoyed.

“I’m sorry!”

“You should just come here instead. They pay you 2800 over there, right? We’ll give you a 100 more.”

“I can’t be THAT rude to the manager here. I’ll go over there during my winter break though.”

“Sure, sure.”

The man walked back into the building, fiddling playfully with one of his gloves. There was a reason why he didn’t care so much about what Maru did just now.

Right under the logo of Maru’s gas station were the words, “brothers gas station”. The managers of the two gas stations… were brothers.

“Welcome!”

There were a lot of cars coming in. Probably because it was the beginning of summer. No matter how hard Maru worked, he could never get the line of cars to decrease.

* * *

“Here, have some food!”

The manager called Maru over. Maru switched places with the midshift and stepped up to the office. He sat down to eat with the manager, two employees, and the auntie.

“You’re made for the market, aren’t you? You have quite the voice,” said one of the employees.

The manager smiled brightly in response.

“Our revenue did go up, recently.”

“Probably just because of the season. I didn’t do much.”

“Haha, look at how humble this kid is, big bro. Can’t see kids like these too often nowadays.”

Maru smiled embarrassedly in response.

“Maru, would you like to try washing buses?”

“Washing?”

“The guy in charge of it had to resign. Want to do it while we look for someone to take over?”

“Sure, the tips would be nice.”

The machines usually made quick work of the buses, but a person did have to stay at the end to make sure the machines didn’t miss anything. It was a tiring job, but if done well, Maru would score some tips from the bus drivers occasionally.

“You should be able to do well. Oh, and by the way, how long are you here for, by the way?”

“Summer break ends on the 24th, so probably before then. I’ll tell you a week prior.”

“Wow, look at him. This kid really looks like he’s had a few jobs before.”

“Seriously.”

Maru took a quick swig of the makgeolli that the employees offered him. The cold drink washed away the heat inside him immediately. After clearing his bowl of rice, he stood up from his spot.

“I’ll get back to work, then.”

“You should rest.”

“I rested plenty. I’d rather not spend my hours getting paid on slacking off.”

“Haha, sure. Here, take this, Maru. It’s ice water. You can just go straight to the car wash area.”

Maru walked off to where he was pointed with a nod.

* * *

5pm. Maru took off his work clothes after the manager told him to come in.

‘I actually earned quite a bit.’

Maru took out the 5,000 won and 1,0000 won bills from his uniform and stuck it inside his pants. The bus drivers seemed rather happy about a younger kid cleaning their buses so well. If he added the 20,000 won that a truck driver gave him earlier, he’s earned more than 50,000 from tips alone today. Well over his daily wage.

“It’s time for you to go home, isn’t it?”

“Yes.”

“Are you doing anything during dinnertime, Maru?”

“Nothing, really.”

“You should have dinner here then. We’re going out for oyster barbeque.”

“Can I join?”

“Of course you can!”

Maru decided to stay. He was quite the big fan of oysters. He sat down on the office sofa and tried to take out his phone. Right there, he noticed a bike magazine sitting on the table in front of him.

‘Bicycle life?’

If memory serves, this was one of the few Korean biking magazines out right now. He picked up the magazine and started flipping through it. This specific issue seemed to be about mountain biking.

“You must like biking a lot, sir.”

“Me? With this body? Stop it with the jokes,” said the manager, slapping his belly lightly.

“Oh, is this someone else’s?”

“No…”

The man trailed off a little bit. He smiled a little bitterly before walking over to the sofa. He opened one of the drawers below the table to reveal many more bike magazines. He picked up one of them.

This one wasn’t even unwrapped.

“My son seems to like them.”

“Your son?”

“Yes. I know he really likes bikes, but not much more than that. I bought these to study, but I have no idea what any of them are talking about. Before I knew it, they kind of multiplied like this.”

Maru picked up the dusty magazine. This one was a foreign one. Filled with english, from top to bottom. It must’ve cost a fair amount for the man to buy this.

“Ugh, I don’t even know how it happened.”

“Is there a problem?”

“…It’s nothing. Don’t worry about it. I shouldn’t be talking about stuff like this with a kid.”

The manager put the magazine back in the drawer. A father who studies to understand his son…

“You’re a good father.”

The man’s face stiffened slightly. He shook his head lightly.

“I’m not a very good father.”

“If you’re trying this hard, I’d say you’re pretty good.”

“…You talk like you’re my age, you know that? You definitely don’t talk like a teenager.”

“I did age quite a bit mentally.”

“Hahaha, so you say.”

“I don’t know what’s going on, but why don’t you try talking to your son? Any child would be a fan of a father that tries this hard.”

“I wish. But it’s been quite a while since I last spoke to my son. I don’t really know what to say to him.”

“How long…”

“About two years.”

“Two years?”

“I’m a bad father. I should’ve paid more attention.”

The man sat back down on the sofa after standing up to leave. He took off his baseball cap to lightly graze his sweaty hair.

“He used to follow me everywhere when he was young. I would play with him a lot, too. But I paid him less attention whenever I got busy. I have an older daughter, too. She’s turning twenty nine this year. My son is about your age. Maru, you said you were a first year in high school, right?”

“Yes. Your son was born quite late, wasn’t he?”

“He was. He used to follow his big sister so well, but then… Hah, I wonder why I’m even telling you this. So sorry for making you sit through this.”

The man stood up, whispering to himself, “to think I’m being consoled by a kid…”

“It doesn’t matter who the listener is, if all you need to do is to rant. If you ever feel conflicted, just tell me. I’ll be there to listen. Ah, I’ll be taking pay, though.”

“Hah, you have a real way with words. You’ll do well out in society.”

Just “well”? I’ve already lived that life for over a decade.

Maru smiled lightly and accepted a cup of tea from the manager.

“By the way, Maru”.

“Yes?”

“You look like you’d be good at studying. Why didn’t you just do that? That’d help your life more.”

The man stared at him worryingly, which made him scratch his head awkwardly.

“I’m not really suited for studying. I studied more than most people, but I just can’t focus afterwards.”

“You were really into that book when you were resting the other day, though?”

“That’s the weird part. It’s almost like god’s telling me I’m not suited to studying. At this point, I might as well just accept it as a fact.”

“Look at you, worrying about life already. Well, it somehow suits you though. Don’t try so hard to make chump change though. I wouldn’t tell other kids this, you know?”

“Studying isn’t the only way, just one of them.”

“Haha. I know you’re smart, so I’ll believe you for now.”

Maru smiled. He was thankful that the manager worried about him enough to tell him this. He was studying more than enough as is. Enough to get third place in class. As long as he studied hard enough, he might even be able to go to a college in Seoul.

‘I have no idea where I want to go, though… ’

Maru looked around the gas station. It’d be nice to run a place like this, as long as he had the money. He doesn’t have any though, so that’s a pass.

“Rest up.”

The manager ran outside as soon as he saw a car come in.

* * *

An oyster shell popped open on top of a coal grill. Maru took the last one. After dipping it in the chili sauce, he took his gloves off.

“You should eat more,” the manager said.

“I ate plenty. Ah, auntie, thank you for the food.”

The auntie gave Maru a roast sweet potato as he was about to leave. One of the employees commented, “She’s never given me one after all these years. So sad, so sad,” as they watched from the side.

“I’ll be going then, sir.”

“Alright, be safe.”

“Yes.”

Maru stepped outside after saying his farewells. He got out of the red gas station, and stepped past the blue one. The manager from the blue station noticed Maru and gave him a wave. Maru bowed again. As he made his way over to his bike, his phone vibrated.

A message. He took it out to check who sent it.

“…They’re doing well, aren’t they?”

Maru put down his phone to look at the sky for a second. The moon was shining especially bright tonight.

[Yo, Maru! We got first place! The prize was 300,000 won!]

It was from Dojin.

Chapter 55

“Have you been here before?”

Bada was pretty amazed watching her brother navigate Dongdaemun market like it was his home.

Dongdaemun market. It was the place to be if you were short on cash but still needed clothes. Bada was planning on coming here with friends before summer break ended, but they had a hard time scheduling. She gave up on going with them and came with her big brother instead.

‘Come to think of it, I’ve been to a lot of places with him.’

It was almost as if her brother became an entirely different person after going to high school. She found it cringey and weird at first, but at some point she became used to it. After the break started, she even went out to watch a lot of movies with him. Lots of restaurants, too.

Her brother was the one who asked her to go. At first, when she told her friends about it, they all thought he was planning something. But when this treatment continued, her friends’ words changed.

Your brother’s so kind. Or nice. Or both. To be honest, Bada was pretty proud to hear that. At the same time, she wondered even more as to why he became like this.

“A few times,” her brother answered her.

A few times? When? Bada stuck close to her brother. There were too many people here, and she didn’t want to get lost in the crowd.

“If you want to go somewhere for clothes, go to apm, doota, or migliore. The people over in this part of the market don’t like dealing with students. They tend to just overcharge and be done with it.”

“But you’re a student too.”

“I have experience already, you know?”

Maru stepped into the market with a grin.

Later that day, Maru entered a restaurant near the market. After ordering some food, he inquired while watching his sister admire her new clothes.

“Satisfied?”

“Of course! I should definitely come with friends next time. I got everything for so cheap! Thanks.”

“Make sure to only go to the places I told you about, then.”

“Sure. But by the way, are you really fine using all your money like that?”

“You can always pay me back when you grow up. Also, when you need more allowance from now, just come to me. You know how hard mom’s working, don’t you?”

“Ah, yeah.”

Bada’s excited expression immediately fell.

“Don’t get so sad all of the sudden. You can do whatever you want.”

The lady at the kitchen brought them the food Maru ordered. When Maru handed Bada a fork and a plate, she looked at him a bit strangely.

“Um, brother?”

“What?”

“You’re not sick, are you?”

She seemed incredibly worried about him. How cute.

“I’ve just turned seventeen. Why’d I be sick?”

“No, you’re just treating me too well.”

“So, you don’t like it?”

“No, of course I like it.”

“Well, that’s fine then. Let’s eat. We should go back before the sun sets.”

Bada started eating with a nod. She happily munched on some fries, seemingly forgetting about her worries. Maru watched her for a bit before turning to look at some of his own spoils. They were leather gloves and a hankerchief for his dad, and a coat for his mom. They were on sale right now, so Maru didn’t hesitate to grab them. Since he was able to haggle down the price a little bit more with the lady who had them, he considered this a great success.

‘Bada’s happy, too.’

He still remembered hearing about how his sister was divorced in his past life. He also remembered his distinct lack of empathy. Back then, the relationship between the two was practically that of strangers. No, even worse. He probably would’ve felt more sorry for a divorced stranger. In this life, his sister was smiling at him very happily.

‘Perhaps this is why god likes to give people second chances.’

He silently thanked the grandma who gave him the chance to live again. If not for her, his sister would still be a stranger to him.

“Want more?”

“Yeah!”

Maru ordered another serving of food from the lady in the kitchen.

* * *

Maru’s mom couldn’t say anything even after looking at what was inside the paper bag.

“You don’t like it?”

“No, of course I do. Where did you get the money, though?”

“I work, remember?”

“You should’ve used that money for yourself.”

“Bah, just take it. I know how few clothes you have in the closet. Just try it on during winter. It’s not that expensive, but you can even show it off if you want to. Also, this is for dad.”

Maru’s mom felt her heart tighten a little. Since when did her son become this mature? She wouldn’t feel worried even if she ended up letting him go right now. He looked like he would be able to take care of himself. On the other hand, she was a little sad. To think her son wouldn’t need her help anymore… Her nose started to tingle a little bit. Tears threatened to stream down her face at any moment.

“You should rest.”

Maru stood up and left the room. He knew exactly what was going through her mind. Maru’s mom started wiping off her tears just as the door closed. After a few more seconds, she fumbled around to find her phone, and began calling a friend of hers.

“Oh, hey, Yoonji’s mom? Yeah, it’s me. No, it’s nothing serious. But my son recently bought me this coat. Yeah, with his money. It’s amazing. I tell him I don’t need stuff like this, but he keeps giving me more. First he gets third place in his class, and now this… hohoho.”

Maru’s mom continued calling all of her friends after this. The beginning of the phone call was always the same.

“You see, my son…”

* * *

“I worked pretty hard,” Maru said, looking at a calendar on his table.

He had three days left until school began. He stopped working two days ago, and his manager ended up tacking on 200 won more on his hourly wage for his last paycheck.

[You worked hard.]

The manager was a rare person to see. From a manager’s perspective, it was difficult for them to care so much about a part-timer. They should know better than anyone how scary an extra hundred or two hundred won on an hourly wage could be.

[We should eat together some time.]

Perhaps that was why one of the most commonly used lies in Korea didn’t sound so light this time. Maru took out the white envelope he put in his drawer.

“400,000 won left, huh.”

He should probably be fine until winter break, as long as he didn’t waste too much money. He wasn’t going to get a job during the summer, but he changed his mind after watching his mom hurt her hand. Having some money was better than having none, after all.

After previewing some of the material he would be learning in the second semester of school, Maru laid down on the floor. He had texts from a few of his friends asking to play games, but they were ignored. He decided not to play anything outside of a set time.

As he was scrolling through the pages of a book in his hand, his phone began to ring loudly.

[Instructor Miso]

He stared for a few seconds before turning the phone down to silent mode. He got back to reading a book.

“To further one’s greed, and to return to propriety.”

He hadn’t thought about that phrase in a long while. It was a sentence derived from Confucius. Back in his past, he spent considerable amount of time thinking about what humanity was because of it. Especially back when he worked as a road manager.

“Do not watch what is improper; do not listen to what is improper; do not speak improperly, and do not act improperly.”

After speaking what sounded like a chant, Maru smiled.

“I still remember it, huh.”

He ended up memorizing the words at some point. It was a quote from Confucius, to ignore all that was improper. Those words spoke to him quite deeply back in his road managing days. But…

“To further one’s greed, and to return to propriety.”

Those words didn’t resonate with him so deeply this time around. Was it because of the times, or was it because he fundamentally changed as a person? Maybe it was because he realized that reality wasn’t kind enough to let people chase after ideals. As he thought, he turned another page of his book.

Right then, his phone started vibrating. It was Daemyung. Looking at his clock, it was already past 9pm.

‘Why’s he calling now?’

He put his phone next to his face as he thought this. At the same time,

- Oh, so you’re willing to ignore MY call?!!

Miso’s screams hit him straight in the ears.

* * *

‘Pretty cool tonight.’

Maru stepped out of the house dressed in a brown cardigan, white shirt, shorts and slippers. If he just lost those cardigans, he’d look like an old man on the streets.

[Come out. You have ten minutes.]

His ears were still ringing a little from Miso’s shout. To think she’d call him with Daemyung’s phone… He really couldn’t ignore him. She even said she was near his home. How’d she know that?

“I wonder if Dojin told her.”

Maru stepped into the streets with his slippers. Every convenience store on it was opening their parasols and were selling beer. Pubs were doing great. It was a cool friday night, after all. As Maru walked down the road for a bit, he found a bbq store. One that sold thin-sliced pork. Even from here, he could hear loud noises coming from one of the outdoor tables.

“Ugh,”

It was the acting club. He got the message about them getting first place around two weeks ago, winning 300,000 won. Were they celebrating?

Soyeon was the first to notice him. The girl raised her chopstick hand a little awkwardly in greeting. The other members of the club all looked at him as a result.

“Hey! Maru!”

Miso waved him closer with a shout. Instead of stepping right in there, Maru assessed the kids for a little bit.

Awkward smiles.

Expressionless faces.

A little bit of hostility,
and a few apologetic looks.

Everyone had different expressions on their faces.

‘Well, I did expect this.’

Maru walked towards the table. He said hello to Miso, then gave a nod to the second years.

“Why did you ignore my calls?”

“I was tired.”

“Why didn’t you ignore Daemyung’s?”

“I wasn’t that tired.”

“You!”

Miso tried to get Maru into a headlock. Maru just stepped back a little to avoid it.

“Oh?”

“Did you drink?”

Maru could smell the alcohol from the woman’s mouth. Her face was pretty red, too. Come to think of it, she said she called Taesik out to talk with whenever she got drunk. Did she talk a lot whenever she drinks?

‘Then again, she talks a lot even without alcohol.’

Maru ignored Miso and sat down on the table. He wasn’t planning on making things awkward for himself, so he started eating immediately.

“So, who’s paying?”

“The instructor is. She wanted to see us before school began.”

“Aha.”

Maru nodded. They must’ve used the money they won from the competition already. He should’ve expected this. Miso was the only person who’s willing to call on him now. Maru took a few bites of the food, thinking that he should leave after eating a little bit. Dojin tried to talk to him, but Maru just shook his head in response.

The entire table had become quiet. Maru told the lot of them ‘congrats on winning’ and ‘the food is delicious’ before putting down his chopsticks.

“Thank you for the food, instructor.”

He stood up from his seat. The entire club looked at him.

“I’ll be leaving. You guys can talk now.”

He noticed a few members twitching their mouths, visible indications that they had something to say. Maru decided to ignore them. There was one reason why many people hated social gatherings. Because they’d have to eat food with people they disliked. And…

Right now, that person everyone disliked was him.

‘Well, at least I feel pretty full.’

Maru stepped out into the road with a satisfied smile. But before he could take another step, someone grabbed his shoulder and pulled him back. He was pulled with enough force to make him lose his balance, yet he was able to backpedal and turned around easily.

“……”

As he expected, it was Miso who pulled him. The woman was looking at him with difficulty written across her face.

“Can we talk?”

“You know you can’t leave them right now. You’re the center of the club’s attention. If you want to talk, just call me. I’ll take it this time.”

Maru turned back around, ready to go back to his house. But.

“…Let’s talk. Ugh, please! I’m sorry! I’m sorry. I’m so sorry. I… Waah. I’m sorry! I’m really sorry!”

Miso sat down on the sidewalk and started crying. Watching a woman nearing her thirties cry in the middle of the road was… quite a shocking and confusing sight. Especially if that said woman was pulling on your shorts!

“I-Instructor! My pants are going to come off!”

“Waaaah! I said I’m sorry! I did!”

She was way more drunk than she made herself look out to be, huh. Maru quickly turned to look back at the restaurant. The club members were all looking away with an embarrassed expression. This only made Maru more embarrassed in turn.

In the end…

“Fine, fine. I’ll talk, so please let go. Before you actually take my pants off.”

“Really?”

“Yes.”

“Sniff.”

Miso stood up, pretending as if the last thirty seconds didn’t happen. It was so ridiculous to see that Maru almost let out a laugh.

‘She must make a ton of people tired when she drinks.’

Maru couldn’t help but think of Taesik for a second. To think he had to deal with this for ten straight years?

‘He’s the reincarnation of Buddha. He must be. Or Jesus.’

Maru shook his head as he propped Miso up with his leg.

Chapter 56

Yoonjung put down her chopsticks as she watched Maru leave. The meat was sizzling on the grill, but she didn’t dare pick it up.

“Maybe I should’ve invited him to the last party after all,” Yoonjung whispered.

Her voice was small enough to be buried by all the noises around them, but it was still heard by all of the club members on their table.

“He left because he didn’t like it. It would’ve been weird to call him,” Geunseok said.

The boy regained his confidence again after the competition. As a matter of fact, he was able to show off even more skill than in the regionals. They didn’t slip even once, and thanks to it, they were able to get first place.

A few members agreed with Geunseok’s words. The first to speak was Yurim. The brown-haired girl picked up the pork belly Geunseok gave her as she spoke.

“Geunseok’s right. Things would’ve been awkward if Maru was here. I mean, didn’t you see what just happened? He has no shame. He just ate a few pieces of meat and left without even saying sorry. He ruined the entire mood. He’s too much.”

Yoonjung wanted to retort, but couldn’t.

‘I have no right to say anything to them.’

That day, Maru picked a fight with the club members. He used all the right words to get them all mad. Like a woodpecker who kept pecking at their wounds. After that event, the club members got to practicing again.

At first, they began practicing to reclaim their lost pride, but at some point, they practiced to prove Maru wrong. Back then, Yoonjung didn’t even know what their problem was.

‘No, I knew all along. I just decided to ignore it. Because if I didn’t… I would get attacked.’

Maru told them to look. He told them to stop pretending, and look at the club for real. Thanks to him, the club was able to examine the problem properly for a brief second.

‘…He had to make us act, in order to make us look at the problem.’

The main reason why they started practicing again was because the play they performed that day was horrible. Maru told them to look at it directly. Yoonjung had to wonder, what was Maru thinking when he told them that? It didn’t seem like he said those words just because he was mad. That would be very unlike him.

Maru was a spectator. He was never the type to step in aggressively to taunt the rest of the club.

“Yoonjung,” Joonghyuk called out at her.

He was smiling, but his smile had no trace of happiness in it. It looked like a mask to hide his current feelings with.

“Let’s eat.”

Only then did Yoonjung snap back to reality. She noticed the club members looking at her now. Even Geunseok and Yurim seemed troubled by her. All of the sudden, Yoonjung felt like she stepped into foreign territory. Was this really the acting club?

“Y-yeah! Let’s eat!”

That was the only thing she was able to say. As she stuffed meat into her mouth, she thought to herself for a second. She finally realized what made her feel so nervous when instructor Miso asked the club to meet up.

* * *

“Come back to your senses. You’re an adult already, don’t you feel embarrassed?”

“Who said I’m over thirty?! I’m still twenty nine! I’m not in my thirties! I’m not!!”

“……”

Maru had to wonder why he was reminded of the time he had to carry his boss back after a company meal. He dragged Miso to a nearby playground, absolutely convinced that people’s weights nearly doubled after getting fully drunk. After arriving at the old playground, Maru laid Miso down on one of the benches.

“Phew.”

The unexpected workout tired him out completely. He wiped his forehead and looked around. Thankfully, there was a convenience store right next to them. Maru gave Miso a short glance.

“Nothing should happen while I’m gone…”

He ran over to the convenience store to buy Miso a hangover drink, and a soda for himself.

“These things are expensive as always.”

The tiny bottle cost him 5,000 won. During the time when a full bowl of soup with rice would only set him back by 3,000 won.

“Take this, instructor.”

Maru handed the bottle to Miso, but the woman didn’t budge. Maru didn’t want to waste time. He pinched Miso’s cheeks to open her mouth, and stuffed the drink into it. Miso coughed once after drinking it, and sat up with a small moan.

“You have no manners…”

“Just drink this already. What do you even think you’re doing in front of a student?”

“Ugh. You remind me too much of my dad. So annoying.”

“I’ll leave then, if I’m so annoying. You should go back home on a taxi.”

“Hey, hey! Where do you think you’re going?!”

“It’s 10pm. I need to go home.”

“…Ugh.”

Miso stumbled forward and grabbed Maru’s arm.

“Don’t leave yet.”

“If you want to rant, I can call someone for you. Taesik’s good, right?”

“Youu! If you call him! I’m going to cry! Ugh…”

Watching the usually strict instructor act like this was actually quite cute. Come to think of it, as long as she closed her mouth, she was quite the looker. It was just her blonde hair that made her look intimidating. Without it, she’d have the appearance of a proper lady.

Maru shook his head and walked back to the bench. There were a lot of people outside, since the night was cool. Even this old playground had a few visitors. The last thing he wanted to deal with was a crying woman in front of all these people. Experiencing that once in his life was more than enough already.

“Can we rest for a bit?”

* * *

After saying their goodbyes, Yurim quietly made her way over to Geunseok. The boy grabbed her hand gently.

“Want to walk for a bit?”

“Sure.”

Yurim liked Geunseok’s hand. Grabbing the boy’s big hand tended to calm her down. After she started grabbing his hand, the time she spent on her phone drastically decreased. It felt like his hand was making sure she wouldn’t get nervous without her phone again.

‘Warm.’

It was a hot summer, but she didn’t feel hot at all. As a matter of fact, she wanted to get closer to Geunseok. The boy changed his grip to clasp her hand gently. That calmed Yurim down even more.

Geunseok was like a tree. A tree to lean on.

“It was a bit awkward a moment ago,” Geunseok said.

Yurim had to agree.

“For real. I didn’t think he’d really come out.”

“Is it really that difficult to say sorry? He almost managed to split the club apart back then.”

“Yeah, yeah. He was saying all sorts of strange stuff. Especially about practice. We were going to practice anyway in a few weeks, but he acted like he knew everything.”

“He probably wanted to try sitting in a pedestal or something.”

“Yeah. I thought well of him until then. Turns out he was a total fake.”

Yurim looked up at Geunseok after speaking. The boy was looking down at her with a proud smile. What a beautiful smile. Yurim couldn’t be more proud of the fact that Geunseok was her boyfriend.

“Let’s not hate on him too much though. He’s a friend.”

Geunseok gently rubbed her cheek. What a thoughtful boyfriend. To think he’d still care so much for Maru after that…

“Okay.”

Yurim tightened her grip a little more around Geunseok’s hand. Right then, she felt her phone vibrate inside her pocket. It was Soyeon.

“Give me a second,” Yurim picked up the call. “Yeah. Soyeon?”

- Where are you? I thought we were going back home together.

“Oh, really? I’m going back with Geunseok.”

- Really? You should’ve told me.

“Sorry. I forgot.”

-… You’ve been forgetting a lot.

“Mm?”

- It’s nothing. Have fun. But don’t show off too much in front of me, you hear? I don’t want to die of jealousy just yet.

Soyeon hung up with a small laughter. Yurim felt even better after her best friend’s call.

‘She must be a bit jealous.’

Then again, anyone would be jealous of having Geunseok as a boyfriend. He was good at studying, good looking, and he was good at acting. The boy was just good at everything.

“Want to go to a karaoke?” Yurim asked, shaking her hand.

“I can’t sing though,” Geunseok smiled nervously in response.

How cute. Yurim could easily tell that despite looking so reliable, Geunseok was actually a little child inside.

‘I’ll take care of Geunseok.’

Yurim relied on Geunseok. She could also tell that the boy was relying on her as well. Geunseok only managed to look so firm and upstanding because of her. What an amazing relationship. Geunseok meant the world to her, and she must mean the world to Geunseok as well.

After the day she almost got kidnapped, Yurim started relying on different things for her survival. At first, it was her phone. After she entered high school, it was Soyeon. But things were different now. Geunseok needed her. She was no longer someone who needed to rely on something else to survive. She was a reliable tree that others could lean on.

Yurim grasped Geunseok’s hand even harder out of pride.

“I’ll teach you, don’t worry.”

“You better. I really can’t sing.”

“No worries.”

Yurim grinned. She could feel Geunseok’s warm gaze on her face.

“I’m so happy,” Geunseok said.

“Of what?”

“Of the fact that I met you.”

“Psh, you just realized?”

That day when Maru messed up the club, Yurim chased after Geunseok as if she was possessed by something. Then, she hugged him. She didn’t know where that courage came from. But she somehow knew that Geunseok would look at her if she did so.

The result? They ended up becoming a great couple. In that sense, Yurim was a little thankful towards Maru. If he didn’t do what he did that day, they wouldn’t be couples now.

‘I guess I’ll be a little nicer to him next time we meet.’

Yurim started walking with Geunseok’s hand in hand. Under the dark blue sky, the two didn’t seem to have a single worry in the world.

* * *

Soyeon put her phone back in her pocket. If she remembered correctly, Yurim was the one who asked to go back together to begin with. She forgot that? It was a bit disappointing to hear, but the girl wanted to go back with her boyfriend. There wasn’t much Soyeon could do about that.

“What are you doing here?”

Soyeon heard a voice from behind her. It was Dojin and Daemyung.

“What, you’re still here?” Soyeon asked.

“Yeah. Well, it’s still vacation, after all. I told my mom I’d be coming in late already.”

Dojin responded with the ever-happy face he always put on.

“Um, Soyeon. Are you going home?” Daemyung asked.

It’d be nice if this guy could show some confidence. It was pretty weird how skilled he became on stage.

“I was thinking of going home, yeah. Why?”

“Well, if you aren’t in a hurry, I was wondering if you would like to join us for karaoke. Ah, there’s a senior joining us as well.”

“Senior?”

Soyeon looked behind the two of them in curiosity. She could see Danmi coming out of the convenience store. Joonghyuk, Yoonjung and Minsung were elsewhere.

“Ah, Soyeon!”

Danmi came running towards them, frantically waving her hand. To be honest, Soyeon was a pretty big fan of Danmi. Yoonjung was too energetic to deal with, and the two male second years were a little difficult to deal with. Out of everyone, Danmi seemed to be the most casual out of all of the second years.

“You’re coming too?”

“Yeah. Let’s go. I don’t want our meeting to end on a weird note just yet.”

Soyeon found herself nodding. Thank goodness she wasn’t the only one who thought that.

“Maru… I wonder if he’s ok.”

Perhaps she shouldn’t have opened her mouth about the subject, but she was worried.

“Don’t know. I actually don’t know much about Maru. Don’t know what he thinks, don’t know what he wants.”

“Agreed.”

“Yeah.”

Dojin and Daemyung agreed pretty much instantly. The three of them said Maru was ‘definitely a good guy, but hard to predict’, before moving onto instructor Miso for a bit.

“Well, in any case, we should really be going to that karaoke. You coming, Soyeon?”

“Yes, I will.”

“Let’s go sing our hearts out. Also, Soyeon, you need to go on a diet with me.”

“Come on, I told you I don’t really care about weight.”

“No. I don’t want to diet by myself, so I want you to join me. Yoonjung just doesn’t get fat to begin with, it’s frustrating.”

“That’s true. Yoonjung doesn’t gain weight at all. She eats more than me, too.”

“Seriously! God is so unfair.”

“Yeah. Wait, I don’t care about my weight, so I don’t want to diet.”

“You look cute that way, but I totally look ugly if I gain weight.”

Danmi dragged Soyeon away, blabbering away as she went. Soyeon realized that Danmi was being a little unnatural. Almost as if the girl was trying her best to clear out the awkward air that Maru created.

“Fine, I’ll go, I’ll go!”

Soyeon stepped out to the front of the group with Danmi, trying to stop thinking about Maru and Yurim for a little bit.

Chapter 57

Maru looked sideways for a second. It’s been thirty minutes since he gave Miso some medicine. It was about time the woman started recovering. Right as he thought so, the woman’s eyes started to open slowly.

“Hah.”

Miso sat up, letting out a very drunk sigh.

“Are you okay?”

“Nope, I want to hurl.”

“Okay. Can you do it over there in the corner, then?”

“………”

“Please don’t look this way. No, seriously.”

“Why are you always so cold… Uurp.”

Miso put a hand over her mouth and rushed over to the corner. Maru noticed the people in the vicinity slowly leaving the area. After hearing the disgusting noises Miso was making, Maru put a finger into his ears to stop some of the noise.

“Hah. I feel so much more alive.”

She came back with a much brighter expression than before.

“I gave them pigeons some food. I did good, right?”

“………”

“That was a joke. Come on, can’t you at least fake a smile?”

“Well, you DID feed them after all.”

“Wow, that’s rude.”

“You just realized? Well, I’m leaving now.”

For sure, he would leave this time. Maru stood up from the bench like an athlete about to take off. But this time as well, Miso pulled him back.

“I told you, we need to talk.”

“It’s been 30 minutes.”

“I’m sorry about that. I’m much better now, so just sit down for a bit.”

She smiled, feigning complete innocence. Yup, that just told Maru that she was still drunk.

“Hah. Was this how you treated Taesik as well?”

“Why are you talking about that now?”

“Well, you know. I can kind of see why he doesn’t see you as a woman.”

“…You…!”

Maru sat back down on the bench. The air was cooling down even more. The moon was up in the sky. He could see people enjoying the night air in the streets, while a very energetic, emotional woman sat next to him. What an odd situation he was in.

“I’m sorry.”

Right then, he heard a small voice. Maru turned around, sensing how delicate the voice was. Miso was looking at him with pouty lips.

“I heard from Taesik about what happened.”

“What are you talking about?”

“I know what made you say those words. So… I’m sorry. That should’ve been my job. It should’ve been… an adult’s job.”

“Oh, just that? That was why you were crying?”

“I wasn’t crying.”

“Wipe those tears before you say that.”

“………”

Miso wiped away her tears without saying another word. What a nice lady. She was incredibly honest, especially for her age. By that age, most people realized how much of an impact words could have on other people. So most of them would use nice words or speak in roundabout ways. Because the truth always hurts, and no one enjoys feeling hurt; that’s why the truth is never spoken directly.

‘I was the same.’

Several times in the day, to his wife, to his daughter, to his friends, to his boss, to his customers, he would say meaningless ‘feel-good’ words. He ground away the sharp edges of his speech until it looked like blooming flowers.

Perhaps he was afraid. Afraid of the looks he would get by saying the truth.

“So…”

Maru cut the woman off.

“I’m fine.”

“Eh?”

“I’m fine. I didn’t do anything that would require me to apologize or receive an apology for. It just happened because it had to, you don’t need to worry about it.”

“But…”

“It’s all in the past. Plus, the club’s doing much better now. No problems, and everyone’s happy. Isn’t that right?”

Right. Everyone was happy.

“But what about you?”

Maru scratched his eyebrows.

“Well, you know I’m always fine. No matter the season or the weather.”

“Maru.”

“I really need to go now. I want to spend the last two days of my break well.”

Maru stood up from the bench. Nothing changed for him. He would still help out the club here and there after school started. It was within the rights of children to be easily angered. It was also an ability of the children to easily get rid of their anger. After school starts, Maru should be able to do just fine in one corner of the club.

“You… You really don’t want to go into acting seriously?”

“You’re pretty stubborn, aren’t you, instructor.”

“Answer me.”

“Remember what Geunsoo told me? The monster of acting chooses its victims. It doesn’t look like I was chosen, unfortunately. I definitely do enjoy it. I’m going to follow big sis Soojin after school starts to help her whenever I have the time. But no more than that.”

Maru didn’t know what he wanted to do just yet, but acting definitely didn’t seem to be a safe option to him at the moment. If he really wanted to go down that route, he’d have to be as insane as Miso. But honestly, right now he held only a little interest in acting. He wouldn’t particularly care if he stopped now.

“I’m going to study as much as I can right now. Safety first.”

“Is it because of money?”

“Yes. I want to earn money safely.”

“But you’re still young.”

“Age doesn’t equate to wealth. Just because I’m young, doesn’t make failure a good option. People often say suffering is good when you’re young, but maybe success at a young age is even better?”

“You can succeed with acting.”

“At the same time, I can become a meaningless part-timer by the age of thirty as well.”

“That’s the same even if you decide to become a salaryman.”

“Let’s just say it has more to do with probability.”

“You’re basically an iron fortress, aren’t you? I saw a tiny crack before the break. As I thought, the event at the club…”

“That has nothing to do with it. I’m young enough not to be affected by something so small. I just realized something as I was working in my part time job. Earning money is difficult. I shouldn’t try to bet my life on luck.”

“You’re just seventeen…”

“I might as well be a great seventeen year old.”

Maru stuck his hands into his pockets.

“I’ll be leaving. Please take care. Ah, also. If you’re trying to really get together with Taesik, you need to stop approaching him in such an iffy manner. That guy’s denser than a rock in that department. You just need to go right into it.”

Miso’s face reddened significantly. It seemed that the word Taesik was a magical word that just shut her right up. Maru turned around after saying his goodbyes. Right then, Miso stood up from her seat.

“What if you could do acting, not worrying about money at all?”

“Is that possible?”

“What if it is? Would you do it then?”

“They said pipe dreams are no good for you.”

“Don’t avoid the question!”

Maru thought for a little bit. Acting without worrying about money. That was definitely a charming idea.

“I wouldn’t hesitate.”

“Alright.”

She seemed to have made up her mind about something. Maru didn’t understand. Why was she so attached to him? Just what about him made her want him so much?

“Instructor.”

“What?”

“Why are you giving me so many chances? I’m not that motivated or desperate to go into acting.”

“That’s exactly why.”

“What?”

“It’s exactly because you’re not desperate.”

“………”

“And the monster inside me is whispering. It wants me to catch you. Geunsoo told you, right? That acting chooses its own victims.”

Miso grinned deviously.

“I think my eyes are pretty good at judging people, and you just happened to get caught up in it. You need to be on the stage. You need to do acting. Trying something for the first time is incredibly different from not trying it at all. I’m going to put you up on the stage, even if it becomes the last thing I do.”

Was she just saying that in her drunken stupor, or did she actually prepare those words beforehand? Maru had no way of knowing, but he could easily tell Miso was being dead serious here.

“Well… do what you want, I guess.”

Maru turned around. As far as he was aware, Miso might just forget about this entire conversation after sleep. Maybe she was saying all this just to make Maru confused.

Vuun, his phone started ringing.

“Yes, mom. No, I’m coming back now. Okay, good night.”

As Maru thought, he got a call. No matter how old he got, he would always be a child to his parents. Maru quickened his pace, feeling a little sorry about making his parents worry.

* * *

Taesik got out immediately after receiving the call. He saw Miso sitting at the bar that was playing light jazz. Since he knew the bartender, he gave the man a curt nod.

“You’re here?”

Miso waved. Surprisingly, she wasn’t drunk just yet. Taesik sat down next to the woman. The bartender slid him a Jack Coke and some canapes. ‘It’s on the house’, the man whispered.

“I met the kids today.”

“The acting club?”

“Yes.”

“How were they?”

“Well, you know.”

Miso’s pouty face turned into a smile. Taesik retracted his previous statement. The woman was a little drunk. Thank goodness she wasn’t completely hammered, though.

“Teacher.”

“What is it?”

“Maru… said he was fine.”

“………”

That must be why the woman seemed so sad and lonely when he entered. Taesik took a sip of his Jack Coke. He wasn’t a fan of drinking, but he felt like he had to today.

“It’s all my fault. I looked down on him.”

“Looked down on him?”

“It’s a strange way of putting it, but I don’t know how else to explain it.”

Miso’s eyes glimmered under the bar’s moody lights. Taesik looked forward, trying to ignore those eyes.

“When I asked Maru to handle the acting club’s problems, I didn’t expect him to do such a thing. I just wanted him to make them be a little more aware. You know, to say stuff like, ‘you need to practice’, or ‘this isn’t right’, or something. Saying that is more than enough. Especially out of a high schooler. After all, stuff like that isn’t easy to say at all.”

“You thought that Maru would stop after presenting the problem to them?”

Taesik nodded.

“That’s right. I asked him to fix it, but I didn’t expect him to restore it. I expected him to stop after making the club start to fall apart faster and I’d step in to help. Before that, I couldn’t step in at all. If I tried to mess with the club without even knowing what was happening with the kids… They would stop caring about the club altogether.”

Taesik shrugged at Miso.

“But look at what happened. Maru was even more aware of what was happening than I thought. He knew how to fix it, too. He resolved the situation like an adult.”

“…To become an object of hatred.”

“That’s right. The club needed a reason to stay together. Back then, they were together, but they had no reason to be together. Maru decided to provide them a reason in the simplest form possible.”

“Why would he!”

Miso angrily snatched Taesik’s drink to take a sip from it.

“Why does he always try to solve everything by himself? Why? Does he know he’s going to become a loner if he does that? Does he want to play the hero role? He has to be feeling lonely.”

Taesik shook his head.

“That’s what I thought too. I thought he’d be lonely. But after I talked to him last time, I learned something. Maru never sacrificed himself. To begin with, he never felt lonely.”

“What are you talking about? I saw everything. The kids just stopped talking when Maru came. I know it’s not their fault, and I know kids are all like that in their age, but…”

Taesik told Miso to calm down, causing her to pout again. She looked like she was about to cry. Taesik was used to the situation. He just patted the woman’s shoulders lightly.

“Maru was even more mature than I thought. He might even be more of an adult than me.”

“……Did he really say he wasn’t lonely?”

“I told you, didn’t I? I talked to him. He told me that loneliness was only felt by people who weren't alone from the start.”

“What in the world…”

Taesik sighed.

“You knew Maru always drew a line with the club, right?”

“Of course.”

“Maru… never felt attached to the club.”

“………”

“He also told me that playing a villain wasn’t really a bad thing. Someone had to do it, so it might as well be him, he said. He was actually feeling a little apologetic for going overboard in the situation.”

Taesik’s shock from hearing that still hasn’t left him. Maru told him those words without a single hesitation in his voice. The boy actually looked incredibly calm when he said it. Almost like there was… not just a mature person, but a fully grown adult who has already walked down the path of life before, dwelling inside the boy.

“He was worried for me and you as well, by the way.”

“What?”

“He was worried we might start blaming ourselves. You in particular, he thought would feel sorry about pushing what you thought was your job to him.”

“Ugh, he should worry more about himself.”

Miso took a fresh sip of the Jack Coke with a confused look on her face. Taesik ordered some juice from the bartender. He didn’t want Miso drinking any more than this.

Miso downed the entire glass of juice in one shot before shaking her head.

“Alright, screw it. I take back what I said about being sorry. I’m really going to go for it now.”

“Instructor Miso?”

“Never felt like he belonged in the club? So he really drew a line right there, huh?”

Miso started spitting out words into the air. Taesik could only smile awkwardly looking at her eyes. They seemed pretty dangerous.

“I’m going to put you on the stage, just you watch! Ugh, so you think you’re the only person who can act like an adult?! Do you even know how sorry I was?! Ugh, give me back my feelings!”

Miso seemed like an iron fortress when she was teaching, but in her private life, she was nothing more than an overgrown version of her high school self. Without realizing it, Taesik put a hand over Miso’s round head and started patting her. Like he would a dog.

The woman immediately calmed down. Her reddened face turned to look at him. Taesik coughed awkwardly and tried to take his hand off, but Miso was a step faster.

His hand was caught in hers.

“Teacher.”

“Ye-yes?”

“No more trying to be so formal.”

“…Instructor Miso?”

“You know, today… Maru told me one thing.”

“W-what did he tell you?”

Without saying another word, Miso put her lips straight over Taesik’s.

“Flipping finally. It’s been way too long,” the bartender let out.

Taesik was as confused as he could be. All he could see was Miso’s smiling face in his vision.

“He told me to just go for it. I did well, right? Hehe.”

And then she collapsed into his arms. All Taesik could do at this point was look at the grinning bartender with a confused face.

* * *

Later that night, Maru got woken up by the multiple notifications coming from his phone. They were all messages from Miso.

[I always get what I want.]

And.

[I followed your advice, so you follow mine too.]

Which turned into.

[By the way, isn’t Taesik oppa so cool?]

Lastly.

[Hahahahahahahaha.]

“What the hell?”

Maru turned off his phone and got back into his bed. Exactly ten seconds later,

“Wait, oppa?”

He couldn’t help but laugh a little.

Chapter 58

Going to work and going to school. The one thing that doesn’t change about life is how bothersome both of these things are.

“So hot,” Maru noted to himself.

There wasn’t any wind today, but the air felt hot enough to melt the tires already.

‘You are working way too hard,’ Maru thought, looking up at the sun.

Maru pedalled harder, cursing the August sun as much as he could. Suddenly, he had to squeeze the brakes when he saw something on the road, a roadbike.

After waiting for a few more seconds, he saw Dowook step out of a nearby shop with a drink.

“It’s hot.”

“………”

Dowook stared at Maru for a few seconds before stepping back into the shop. After a few seconds, he stepped back out with two drinks. Maru caught the flying can with his hand.

“Yeah, it’s hot,” Dowook responded, and started walking his bike.

Maru caught up to him with a grin.

“Thanks for the drink.”

“You weren’t looking at me asking me to buy it?”

“Oh, you buy people things when they look at you? Learn something new every day. I’ll be staring at you a lot buddy.”

“…Idiot.”

Unlike in the past, Dowook wasn’t sizing Maru up and down in an annoying manner. Maru was actually a pretty big fan of Dowook. At their age, it wasn’t uncommon for students like them to try to step into delinquency to escape their routine life.

As a matter of fact, Maru had a good mind to assume that everyone must’ve done something similar at some point in their lives. The real problem laid in the question if these people ever got back to their normal lives afterwards.

Before summer break started, Maru noticed Dowook apologize to some of the kids he bullied during the semester. Watching the boy apologize by himself where no one else could see him left a bit of an impact on Maru. Not even adults could apologize easily. To adults, apologies were just a way of trying to save face.

Adults would apologize without a moment’s hesitation when there was an audience. Without one, they would become arrogant and haughty.

In that sense, Maru could tell that Dowook wasn’t all that bad of a person on the inside. They don’t interact much, but Maru still felt a good vibe from him.

Right then, Maru’s eyes drifted over to Dowook’s bike. For some reason, he started thinking of the gas station manager he worked for. Now that he looked at him… their faces were similar, too.

“Do you have an older sister, by any chance?”

“Why?”

“Just curious.”

“…I don’t. Have one.”

For a second, Maru noticed a twinge of sadness, anger and nostalgia on his face. It surfaced so quickly that Maru almost didn’t catch it. As he looked into the boy’s eyes.

[Why’s this guy asking about my damn sister?]

“Oh, I see. By the way, did you do the homework?”

Maru changed the topic. Dowook had a sister. He knew that for sure now. But the boy didn’t want to talk about it, looking at his expression and his manner of speech.

‘So he has issues with his sister, too.’

Maru could somewhat tell why Dowook was being so rough just then.

“I did. Why?”

“I did it too. Nice.”

“What the hell? Are you trying to go anywhere with this?”

“Me? I just want to talk to you.”

“Ugh. I’m going first. Don’t talk to me.”

“Sure, sure.”

Dowook pedalled forward after looking at Maru like some sort of an alien creature. Maru followed after a small shrug.

* * *

“Lord, why is it so hot already? It’s just morning.”

“Oh, welcome!”

Maru sat down on his seat after catching Dojin’s happy greeting, along with his flying candy.

“Dude, were you okay back there?” Dojin asked.

“Back there?”

“Back when you went somewhere else with instructor Miso.”

“Oh, yeah, I was totally fine.”

“…Really?”

Maru nodded with a grin. He knew why Dojin was so worried. For now, Maru was basically excluded from the club. He did what he did knowing fully that this would happen though, so he was fine.

To begin with, he was never that deep in with the club anyway.

“I’ll just have to be quiet for a while, if I don’t want to be hated that is.”

“Wow, you’re quite something.”

Daemyung walked over to the two of them from his seat as well.

“Sorry, Maru. I should’ve been on your side back then.”

“Come on, guys. Why so sad in the morning? There’s nothing wrong, and there’s going to be nothing wrong, so it’s all good. Don’t try to make things even more awkward by playing sides. You guys just focus on making a decent play, ok?”

“S-sure.”

Maru gave Daemyung’s belly a light slap. They were definitely good friends, seeing how they took the time to ask him if he really was okay. That was probably why people said high school friends last a lifetime. Because they truly cared.

“Sit down, you asses!”

The homeroom teacher burst through the door, making Daemyung run over to his seat hurriedly. The teacher began the class by saying a string of useless, predictable words.

Ah, summer break was truly over.

* * *

“Maru.”

Taesik called Maru as he was headed to the cafeteria. It was lunch time. Maru told his friends to go without him, and walked outside the campus with Taesik. The teacher asked Maru if he wanted to eat anything as they entered a restaurant.

“I’d prefer to hear about what you have to say, rather than talk about what I want to order.”

“Can we order first, though? I’m hungry. You should eat too. I’ll be paying, so order however much you want.”

“That last line’s really only reserved for barbeques, isn’t it?”

“Hmm, is it?”

Maru ordered a tuna kimchi stew with a slight grin. Taesik ordered the same thing.

“I wanted to say thank you for now, Maru.”

“Is that about instructor Miso?”

“Ah… well, there’s that too.”

Taesik’s cheeks turned slightly pink. Maru smiled proudly.

‘They are definitely a couple now.’

Though Maru had no idea how far along they are in their relationship just yet.

As they talked about Miso for a few moments, the stew they ordered came out. Maru dumped his bowl of rice into it before talking again.

“Good to hear. But you’re not here to just show off, are you?”

Taesik nodded.

“I wanted to properly apologize. I’m bribing you a little as well, so I’m hoping you’d accept it.”

“Bribing with just stew? That’s a little cheap, isn’t it?”

“Is it?”

“Haha, that was just a joke. But like I said, you don’t have to worry about it. I did that because I wanted to. I’m not pathetic enough to shift the blame elsewhere.”

“I honestly didn’t think you’d go this far. I’m both thankful and a little ashamed as a teacher.”

“Well, things would’ve been different if I knew them better, but… to be honest, I don’t know them all that well. It’s really the difference of being one and two steps away.”

“Was… it really that easy?”

Maru took a bite of his food.

“Well, that was exactly why I did it. Because it really was that easy.”

At the same time, Maru remembered something. It was back when he was told that his paycheck would depend completely on how servile he was towards his boss. When he almost quit out of sheer rage, the faces of his wife and daughter floated into his vision. At that moment all the anger inside him dissipated, and his brain immediately started to calm down.

Compared to the humiliation, anger, resentment and desperation he felt back then, this was nothing more than a joke. It wasn’t like antagonizing the entire club was going to endanger his livelihood. This was just a minor event.

“You didn’t feel disappointed?”

“When my friends didn’t side with me?”

“Yes.”

“Teacher, do you decide if someone’s your friend solely based on whether or not they take your side?”

“…I asked you a stupid question.”

Maru had to admit, Taesik was a good teacher. The man didn’t take his students’ words lightly, instead using it as an opportunity to learn. It was something that only teachers who respected their students could have.

“You really are a teacher, teacher.”

“Haha.”

“If I ever get a daughter, I’d love to leave her in your hands. You’d listen to her words at face value.”

“That was a pretty decent compliment, I’ll have to admit. Do you want to eat anything else?”

“I did notice that a restaurant next to this place sells really good beef.”

“That’s… a little too much for my wallet, I’m afraid.”

Taesik smiled awkwardly in response.

* * *

Nothing changed. School food was still alright most of the time, except when potatoes were on the menu again. The old man at the school store would still throw you a burger with incredible accuracy after taking the payment. The floor of his class was still cold, the air hot and filled with sweaty smells. Students still rushed to the cafeteria come lunchtime, and come break time they would all rush over to the school field. By the time the last class came around, everyone struggled to stay awake, almost as if they simultaneously took a dose of melatonin.

There were a few things different, of course. The greenery outside the class was starting to turn brown. The gym that was under construction was finally opened, but use of it was still prohibited for students. The yellowed curtains of the class were finally washed for once. The fact that this would be the English teacher’s final year teaching after getting her second kid was a change as well.

“Hey, Dowook! Let’s go to the store!”

“Sure.”

And there was the fact that Dowook started getting along with the rest of the class as well.

“Yo, guy with the big head, can I borrow a thousand from you?”

The fact that Changhu, the class bully, started to become more overbearing was another change as well. Maru looked out the window with his chin resting on one hand. It was the last day of August. A saturday.

“Let’s go, Maru,” Daemyung said, pulling on his arm.

Maru followed his two friends with a yawn. He cursed the heat for not leaving despite it being so close to september as he stepped up to the fifth floor.

“It’s hot.”

“For real, so hot.”

The trio greeted the first years they ran into at the entrance, and entered the auditorium. The second years were standing next to the windows in their gym clothes. The first years stretched gently as they made their way over to the group. Maru joined in.

“Be sure to drink a lot of water as we train, alright? We don’t want any of you getting too dehydrated,” Yoonjung said with a clap, making the first years respond with an enthusiastic shout.

Maru responded quietly before making his way over to the audience seat. Like always, he picked up a book he had been reading and opened the page he was on last time.

Nothing changed.

And nothing will change.

Things will continue to move, calmly and peacefully. He occasionally noticed Geunseok and Yurim stare at him, but he could easily ignore that. Or just smile back in response.

Grin.

The couple turned away their heads. Nothing special.

“The instructor’s coming today, to help us prepare for the nationals in winter.”

If the national competition held in august by the national theater association was the biggest competition for acting held all year, then the one held in winter was the follow-up. It wasn’t all that different from the august one in the sense that it was also funded by the government. As a matter of fact, the payout from this one was actually bigger due to the involvement of various companies.

If the fall national competition was about honor, the winter one was about money.

The club members began practice. They were nothing like their former selves during the regionals. Everyone was going about their duties with passion and energy. The lot of them suggested switching things up to doing a different play for the winter competition. They’d have to talk it out with the instructor, but the idea of doing a different play pretty much seemed like a fact at this point.

Maru turned the page of his book. Before they started making props, there wasn’t much for him to do, save for reading his book and pondering by himself.

‘This is pretty nice.’

Recently, Maru started gaining an interest in reading classics. He read a lot of books in his past life, but they were mostly about self-improvement. From the time when all he wanted to do was follow the recipes for success given to him by other people.

‘Well, now I have all the time in the world.’

Maru wasn’t that interested in self-improvement books anymore. He’s realized how pointless they were. Instead, he decided to try and get a glimpse at the lives of his ancestors. The reason behind classics were their unchanging values and rules about the world, after all. There was value in reading it.

As Maru turned another page, with the club members acting as his background music, his phone dinged. When he flipped his phone open, he found that the message was from a person he had been expecting all along.

[I’m coming!!]

It was a short message.

“As I thought…”

Maru shook his head, thinking of the blonde lady who would soon come open the door to the auditorium with a bang.

Chapter 59

When Miso entered the auditorium, the club members all held conflicted expressions. They looked like they were excited to see the lady again, but at the same time, they looked scared of what they had coming for them.

“Instructor!”

“We thought you were busy with plays.”

They seemed more excited than anything though, seeing how they rushed over to see her. Miso grinned, explaining how the play she got involved in spiraled into a complete mess.

“And that’s why I came here to torture you kids for another half year. Nice, right?”

“Yes!”

“Wait, did you dye your hair, instructor?”

Miso’s previously blonde hair was now black.

“Well, just because.”

Miso answered the question passively, completely disregarding its relevance.

“Now now, we’re going to practice pretty much immediately, so you better be ready. I heard from Taesik that you’re going to change the play for this competition?”

“Yes. We wanted to try something new,” Yoonjung answered.

“Up for a challenge, huh? Nice. Was there a genre you were thinking of?”

“A comedy. We thought there’d be a lot to learn, since we didn’t even touch comedy the last time.”

“Comedy, huh? Those are usually challenging. Fine, there are a few of those for teenagers, so we might as well go with that.”

The atmosphere of the club came together once Miso appeared. Her loud voice had a power to gather people. Mesmerized by that voice, the passion and energy for acting came back to their eyes.

“You weren’t just playing around, were you?”

“Of course not.”

“We worked hard!”

Miso stepped into the middle of the auditorium with the students. The kids followed her like a bunch of baby ducks following their mother. Miso made a great center for the club.

Maru gave them a nod from the side. He was standing at a sweet spot where he couldn’t be seen, but still could hear everything clearly. A perfect spot. He glanced at Miso from behind Geunseok, and shot her a smile when their eyes met.

For a brief second, he saw Miso’s mouth curl up into a smile. She seemed to be telling him that she would get him this time around.

“Wait just a second. I have a few scripts for comedic plays in my car. You guys listen to the basic story and tell me which one you want. Maru, follow me.”

“Yes.”

Even before the break, Maru’s job was to lug things around every once in a while. The moment they stepped outside the auditorium, Miso started talking.

“What are you going to do? Planning on being the spectator this time, too?”

Maru nodded.

“Things are going to get awkward if I join in. I’ll just stay in the side making props or something.”

“Oh, so that’s how you’re going to do this, huh?”

Miso stepped down the stairs without saying another word. When they stepped out into the parking lot, they were greeted with Miso’s foreign car. Miso opened the trunk, revealing a cardboard box inside.

“What’s this?”

“Shirts.”

“Shirts?”

Maru opened the box, which was filled with black hoodies. The left breast of which had the words ‘Blue Sky’ embroidered in Chinese characters.

“I got inspiration from my theater’s shirts.”

Maru thought back at the black shirts the actors were wearing back at the Blue Sky theater.

“You basically just copied it.”

“Eh, copy, inspiration, same thing. It’s good though, right?”

“It’s nice. The kids should like this.”

“You?”

“Another casual clothing for my collection. This’ll be nice.”

“It’s expensive, don’t just treat it like something casual. Now, now, you go up first. I have to find the scripts.”

“Yes.”

Maru stepped up to the fifth floor with the box. Were these shirts were Miso’s way of apologizing to the club? After all, she thought the club failing in their first competition was her fault. He had heard something about her apologizing to the club last time they met, but perhaps she still felt a bit sorry inside.

“Take whichever one that fits you.”

Maru put the box in front of Joonghyuk. The club members all shouted in excitement when they noticed what was inside. They all took off their old gym clothes and put on their new uniforms.

“Wow, fits perfectly.”

“Mine’s a bit loose, I think I like this better.”

“Same.”

“It even has words on the back!”

The twelve of them all found shirts that fit them. They fit pretty well.

“They look good on you,” Miso noted, stepping into the auditorium.

“Thank you!”

“We’ll treasure it!”

The club members answered, still fixated on their new clothes. Maru put a hand over his jersey. It had a decent thickness to it. The material was high quality, and the embroidery looked pretty beautiful. This had to be expensive.

“Nice, you look good in those uniforms. Don’t cause any accidents while wearing those, though, you hear?”

“Yes!”

“Now now, get over here. If we want to participate in the October competition and then the December one, we need to work really hard.”

“October?”

“We’re going to participate at the one hosted by Gyeongi province. And then we can participate in the winter one. We didn’t get anything for the competition in spring, so might as well try everything we can get our hands on during this semester. Understood?”

She didn’t look like she was open to any opposition. A competition in October, and then one in December… It didn’t look too bad on paper. Maru nodded to himself. This was very much like Miso.

Miso threw two scripts down on the floor.

‘Critical Mass’ and ‘The People of Dalseok-dong’.

“Choose one you want to do. Critical Mass is about what would happen if someone wins it big-time in a lottery, and The People of Dalseok-dong is about what happens when a strange family moves into Dalseok-dong. They’re both fun, but remember. Comedies are hard. The entire mood of the audience can change with a snap of a finger. A lot of the plays heavily depend on an actor’s skill. I mean, there’s a reason why comedies don’t do all that well in teen competitions.”

Miso’s voice fell heavily. A few of the members even moaned a little after hearing about the reason why comedies flopped. They must be thinking of the past.

“What the hell’s up with those faces? Are you scared?”

“………”

“I was the one at fault last time. You guys didn’t do anything wrong. You know, I was so mad that time that I couldn’t even sleep. How were you guys? Did you sleep well after that?”

Everyone shook their heads.

“That’s why we’re going to really show it to those judges this time. We’re going to show them how great we are. If you think about it a little differently, a comedy is a great opportunity to just crush everyone else. That’s exactly what’s going to happen this time.”

Miso gave the two scripts over to the group. The person who grabbed hold of it was Yoonjung. The play she grabbed was Critical Mass. Joonghyuk stepped forward to grab The People of Dalseok-dong.

After scanning the script, the two of them exchanged it. The auditorium was filled with the noise of flipping paper. The two club leaders never looked more serious than this moment. They then handed off their scripts over to the rest of the club, who started reading the script as well.

Soon, the scripts came over to Maru. Maru felt the gaze of Miso on him, along with the gazes of the club members. He brought the script over to Miso.

“Looks like they made their decision.”

“Aren’t you going to read it?”

“Is there really a need?”

“I think you’ll have to.”

“What?”

Miso looked like she just fished something big out of the waters. Maru turned the page of the two scripts. He saw the titles, the synopsis that Miso wrote, and…

The characters.

“Fifteen, sixteen…”

There were a total of twelve members in the club. Significantly less than the number of characters in the play.

“You can at least play the role of a passerby, can’t you?”

“So this is how you’re going to do this?”

“What, you can’t? This isn’t going to take much time. Come on, just a few lines?”

“You know I can’t invest that much time into the club.”

“Doesn’t matter. You’ll get it quick.”

Maru glanced behind him. A few of the students looked excited, a few annoyed, and a few disinterested.

“Can I join?”

The question was directed at the members.

“Of course! We’d be happy!”

Yoonjung was the first to answer. As a matter of fact, all of the second years seemed pretty excited about the prospect. Maru turned to the first years.

“Do what you want. I don’t care.”

“Don’t care!”

Taejoon and Iseul seemed to be neutral.

“Well… I’m sure he’ll make a good decision.”

“Hmph!”

Geunseok and Yurim were sending signals for him to not participate. And…

“I’ll teach you acting, son!”

“Join us.”

“Do it.”

Dojin, Daemyung and Soyeon didn’t even hesitate. Maru turned back to look at Miso.

“I know you drew a line, but you can still participate at least a little, can’t you?” Miso whispered with a wink.

She was being persistent, but not enough to be annoying. It was kind of as if she was asking him for a small favor. Maru was sure that even if he refused her here, she wouldn’t be too disappointed. She’d probably find a different way to make him join.

‘Toge… ther.’

Maru had made up his mind to switch clubs after this year. It wasn’t like he was sick of acting, but he wanted to get a different experience altogether. Helping out Soojin was enough in terms of doing acting. He was actually thinking of joining the Chinese Language club, actually. The prospect of learning Chinese sounded pretty good to him.

‘I’m going to switch clubs anyway, so… ’

MIght as well spend the next half year with a little more effort for the club.

“Please treat me well, then.”

“No way, I’ll flipping murder you if you do badly. I won’t hold you for long during practice, though. You’re going to be an extra anyway, hehe.”

Miso grinned toothily, seeming happy with the fact that she managed to snag him into participating. Maru sighed inwardly in relief. Refusing the woman so much did seem to have a bit of an impact on him. Accepting her request just this once made him feel a whole lot better.

“Alright! The whole club’s going to be in on this play! Let’s choose which one we want to do then, shall we? Raise your hand if you like the play I call out. We’re going to go democratic here. Starting off, Critical Mass!”

Miso’s voice seemed to have a little more vibrancy than usual, for some reason.

* * *

Maru took out his script the first thing he came back home. It was The People of Dalseok-dong. Funnily enough, everyone in the club decided to go with this one, including him.

‘Maybe Miso had a pretty good grasp on what the other kids liked already.’

Leaders needed to know the people they lead. And according to Miso herself, she had an eye for people. As proof, twelve students in the club all chose one play. This couldn’t just be coincidence.

“A teen, huh.”

The character had no name and was never called out by anyone else either. He was just… a teenager. That was the character Maru was in charge of. He had very few lines, too. Just three. But he would appear in up to five scenes. He was supposed to be one of those passersby who would look at a situation and shout ‘Eh?!’ and disappear.

Basically, a part of the environment. A character that wouldn’t take anything away from the play even if he was removed completely. At least, that’s how Maru saw the character.

* * *

“Yes!”

Miso jumped up with a fist in the sky. Taesik had to ask the woman why she was so happy. Her happiness almost seemed infectious, seeing by the smile on the man’s face.

“He took the bait so well.”

“Bait?”

“Oh, I’m talking about Maru. He has no idea what kind of a character he’s gotten in charge of. Oh boy oh boy, I’m so excited.”

“Is it really that exciting?”

“Of course! I bet he thinks his role is completely useless. Alright, step one of my plan is done, and as long as I do this well, then… Hehehe.”

Taesik couldn’t help but swallow nervously. Miso was generally a good person, but she did have her devilish moments. When her mind was made up, then she really looked like a determined general.

“By the way, oppa.”

“Y-Yes?”

Taesik stepped back, intimidated by the woman’s energy.

“Can’t you at least try to be more casual?”

“Ah, yes. Of course.”

“Ugh!”

Taesik hugged Miso, and looked at the bartender with an awkward smile.

“Good times,” the old bartender commented with a hearty laugh.

Chapter 60

“I can love you because I also hate you.”

Maru read the last line of his book out loud. The sentence spoke to him quite strongly. Love and hate were basically like two sides on a coin, but in the end they were just one emotion. After all, real hatred would dismiss any care you had for a person.

“You’ve been reading a lot.”

Maru jumped up at hearing a voice come from next to him. It was a woman. She was wearing a white suit, taking a look at the child development book Maru borrowed recently.

“You almost gave me a heart attack.”

“Please don’t worry. Your heart is fairly strong, I assure you. But in any case, it’s been half an year. How is it?”

“I’m doing quite well. The past 45 years of my life almost feels like a dream.”

“That’s good to hear. Some people had killed themselves because they couldn’t get used to their new lives.”

“I see. More importantly though, what brings you here?”

“I came to check up on you. It’s one of my duties.”

The woman scanned the book quickly before putting it back in the bookshelf. This time, her curious eyes drifted over to his script.

“Are you satisfied with your new life?”

“I don’t know. There’s going to be a lot of things happening in the future. Perhaps after that I can say I’d be satisfied.”

“You seem quite prepared, though.”

“It’s the least I can do. I don’t know much about the future, but I might as well prepare for whatever might come, don’t you think?”

“That’s fair.”

The woman looked around his room, akin to a renter looking at a potential home. It wouldn’t be strange for her to ask him if the sunlight was good in this room, as a matter of fact.

“I’ll change the question a little, then. Is life fun?”

Fun… Somehow, to Maru, that was an even more difficult of a question. After a brief pause, he shook his head.

“I can say I’m keeping myself busy, but I don’t know if it’s fun. There were moments where I’ve had fun, but overall… Oh, I’m not saying I’m regretting it. I just think the word ‘fun’ is too vague to begin with.”

“That’s true. It’s a vague word. After all, you might as well say it’s everyone’s goal in life. It’s used to describe simple situations, yet no word is more complicated than it.”

The woman turned to look elsewhere. She looked beautiful, too beautiful to be human. On that face of hers, Maru noticed curiosity creeping up on it.

“Speaking of which, Mr. Maru, you’re very… Unchanging.”

“Me?”

“Yes. I honestly thought you would be a little more selfish in this life.”

“Well, I am living pretty selfishly.”

“Do you really think so?”

“I’m not harming others, nor am I being harmed by others. I’d rather not have to harm others to get what I want, so I think I’m in a good place now.”

“I see. But what about at the club?”

“The club?”

“Yes. The club you are in isn’t treating you very well. Aren’t you being harmed?”

The woman seemed quite curious about this world. Or maybe she was just curious about Maru.

“Are you talking about how the kids are looking at me?”

“That’s right. I’m new to my job, so all this is very foreign to me. I’ve met ten people so far, but you’re by far, the most unique. Aren’t you bothered by all this?“

The woman wasn’t prodding him in an offensive way or anything, she held a genuine curiosity towards his perspective. Maru was able to finally understand what he found so odd about this woman. It was almost as if she was unable to feel any emotions, almost like a robot.

“Do you have a clear sense of what good and evil is?”

“I suppose you can say so.”

“Then I suppose you can also be influenced?”

“That’s not a fitting word for us, we are constantly in a satisfied state. As such, we are not affected emotionally.”

“I’ve been curious about this for a while, but… Are you god?”

“I’ve said this before, but we’re closer to what you’ve historically called angels or demons. Of course, that’s what you humans thought of us. We are like secretaries created by ‘him’. I don’t know if I can give you a straightforward definition of what I am. Angel, demon, reaper… They all sort of fit.”

“So a higher being does exist. Well, that’s not important, so let’s skip over that for now. You asked me before, right? About if I was feeling bothered. Well, I’ll raise you a question. You see an immature child. I hope you can answer this question under the assumption that you believe that any immature person deserves a chance to mature and grow as a human being.”

“I understand.” “If that kid points his finger at you and calls you ugly, what would you do?”

“Ah, that was a good explanation. I see that you have a talent for teaching as well, Mr. Maru.”

The woman nodded in understanding. Maru knew better than anyone that Geunseok and Yurim weren’t fans of him. Their gazes were offensive from the very beginning. So, how should Maru handle this?

‘It’s too much work to even try to deal with it.’

Could you really call a person an adult if they were angered over such things? If he did, he would be berated by society for being too immature himself. Of course, Maru’s actions, from a high schooler’s perspective, would look strange to his friends.

He’s not even mad?

Is he scared of Geunseok?

Does he just not care?

Well, as far as Maru was concerned, he had no reason to be interested in what Geunseok did or what Yurim said. It’d be stranger if he was. Things might be different if they were friends, of course. If that was the case, Maru surely would have spoken to them.

“I think I understand your line of thought now, Mr. Maru. It’s almost like you’re shooting a movie.”

“A movie?”

“You’re looking at yourself through a camera. You’re looking at everything very objectively. I see why you’re so logical so much of the time.”

Maru looked up at the ceiling almost subconsciously. At that moment, it almost felt like he would find a camera filming him there. A life through a camera… It made sense. Perhaps he felt free in these stressful situations not because he was mature, rather because he didn’t treat them as real problems to begin with.

Was that… wrong?

Maru couldn’t find a quick answer to that question. It couldn’t be good, though.

“Perhaps your clock stopped on the day you died, Mr. Maru. You might be looking elsewhere, even while living here.”

“Is that a problem?”

“No, not at all. I am just observing. I’m simply asking you this to satisfy my personal curiosity. It’s up to you to decide where you want to take your life. But personally, I do hope that you would become a little bit more greedy in this life.”

“I care for myself quite a bit, I believe.”

“I think you should care more.”

“That feels a bit strange to hear, coming from you.”

Maru looked at the woman. She said moments ago that she was completely neutral. So why was she urging him to be more selfish now?

The woman smiled a beautiful smile. When she waved her hand, a silver curtain draped itself in front of Maru. It acted like a mirror, allowing his face to reflect on it.

The face on the curtain changed.

“This is…”

The face on the curtain was that of the old lady who gave Maru the chance to live again. No, she didn’t look like an old lady anymore. With her silky hair and fair skin, she looked like a fairy through the mirror. But Maru was able to recognize her despite that.

The old lady was joyously talking with other people around her. When her eyes met with Maru for a brief second, her mouth opened to speak to him. While her voice didn’t come through the mirror, Maru could still understand through her lips.

“Are you living well?”

The silver curtain disappeared. The woman in the white suit came back into his vision.

“The lady in the curtain is wishing only for your happiness. What I was telling you was just the message the lady wanted to tell you. I tried to send the message to you through a dream originally, but due to time constraints, here I am.”

“By time constraints, do you mean…”

“This is our last meeting. This will probably be the last time we meet. The splitting point has stabilized now.”

“Stabilized?”

“This world isn’t just ‘one’ world. Each and every person is capable of creating little branches of time based on what they do. Just now, your life where you died just managed to stabilize.”

“The life where I died?”

Maru felt a little numb for a second.

“Yes.”

“But I came back to the past.”

“Right. That’s where the split occurred. There’s a timeline for you when you came back from the future, and there’s a timeline where you died.”

“But I died, so how…”

“That’s why the branch was created. Over there in the other branch, the sadness created by your death just ended. It’s actually taken a very long time compared to other people.”

“My wife… My daughter… they’re continuing their lives without me?”

“Yes.”

“Oh dear!”

The hair at the back of his neck stood up in surprise. He had thought all this time that because he came to the past, his family wouldn’t have to suffer. But to think that during all this time, they were living in pain…

“That’s just life. You can’t just make someone’s life vanish. It’s not like the world without Mr. Maru makes everyone else’s life meaningless.”

Maru felt a chill run down his spine. In that case, his family was…

“That’s why I’m telling you. You need to live for yourself. It’d be cruel to make your family experience the same sort of sadness twice.”

“…Is my wife fine?”

“She still misses you. But she isn’t crying anymore. She has someone to protect, after all.”

“…What about my life insurance? Was the payout from that alright?”

“Yes, it was.”

“My daughter…”

“Mr. Maru.”

“Yes.”

“You have no connections to that world anymore.”

“…I’d still like to know. Is my daughter doing fine?”

“There’s no way a child without a father would be happy.”

Maru’s heart throbbed a little. The fact that the two women who he cared for were hurting all this time, and he was having such a good life over here made him feel very apologetic and ashamed. Tears started trailing down his face.

“Can I… Is there a way I can talk to them?”

“It’s possible. As long as you use the medium of a dream. The people you saved are all wishing for your happiness, so this much I should do for you.”

“Thank you.”

Maru thought for a very long time. He thought and thought, enough to start feeling like time was flowing slower than normal. After thinking some more, he finally managed to come up with one sentence he wanted to tell his family.

“Please, stay healthy.”

With that, Maru closed his mouth. The tear running down his cheeks only managed to make his chest hurt a little more.

Chapter 61

He woke up in his room, the room that was familiar enough for him to just conjure it from memory alone. Today, this room felt especially alien to him. Maru stroked his hand over the floor. The wooden floor gave that would give with just a little push. After pushing on it a few more times, Maru sighed.

“A… dream? Or…”

Last night, Maru saw two women on the street. The mother and daughter couple going through a crowd hand-in-hand. Maru swallowed the sadness that welled up inside of him, and walked up to the two of them. They looked at him with a surprised expression before giving him a hug. They felt warm, soft, and incredibly comforting to him. Little teardrops started to well from the couple’s face. Each time a teardrop hit Maru’s shoulder, it felt like he was getting hit by a hammer.

Maru almost let out a scream of sorrow, but by then, Maru became aware that his time here was coming to an end. Instead of crying, he told the two of them what he wanted to say.

Thank goodness he was able to wish them good health with his own mouth. And thank goodness his family looked healthy in his dream. He wouldn’t have known what to do if they looked starved and depressed.

His daughter had grown by a fair amount after six months. Or maybe not. He didn’t get too much time to look at her. But he was able to tell that his little girl had matured a little bit through his death. Thank goodness, at least there was a silver lining for her.

His wife was… still wearing the cheap wedding ring that he had given her. How foolish of her. She wouldn’t be able to meet anyone new if she kept that on. Even at the age of forty-five, she looked as young as ever. To think such a beautiful woman would have to suffer like this because of someone like him…

Maru took his hand off of the floor to rub his eyes a little bit. He could feel little sandy particles coming off from around his eyes. He probably looked like a complete mess right now.

‘Thank goodness… I got to meet them.’

His wife might simply forget that she saw him when she wakes up. After all, that’s what most dreams are like. They simply fade out of existence the moment you wake up. Maru actually hoped his wife would forget. He didn’t want her sadness to return because of a dream. All he wanted was one thing, someone who could replace him.

At the same time, a part of him screamed to never be forgotten. A part of him wanted to be a nail that’s embedded deep into the two people’s memories. Perhaps he was being greedy, cruel even.

Maru took a shower, trying to wash away those thoughts with the flowing water. He looked at himself in the mirror afterwards. Only then did he finally come to terms with the fact that in their world, Han Maru no longer existed.

“Well, at least I got myself one hell of a life insurance,” said the young man in the mirror, with tears still streaming down his face.

* * *

Dojin decided not to talk to Maru, just for today. The boy just felt so different today. Dojin tried to talk to the boy a few times, but all he could do was stare.

“…Something’s happened to him, right?”

“Definitely.”

Daemyung was looking quite troubled himself. Dojin shook his head, he had no idea how to handle this either. The one friend who was always calm and happy was sighing like the world was ending.

Right then, Dojin noticed Dowook step out of the class through the back door. The boy glanced at Maru before leaving.

To be truthful, Dojin wasn’t a great fan of Dowook. He saw his past self in the other boy. Dojin stopped glaring ever since the other boy stopped his bullying, but they weren’t really friends.

‘Why is that guy… ’

Dowook surely had something in mind when he stared at Maru. Was he looking for a fight?

“I wonder if something’s up with Dowook, too,” Daemyung noted.

Did this guy forget that Dowook used to bully him? Why was he so nice? Then again, being nice was what made Daemyung pretty charming.

A few moments later, Dowook stepped back into the class with a paper cup in hand. He must’ve gotten himself a drink from the vending machine downstairs. There were two cups, actually.

The boy stepped up behind Maru. He mumbled to himself with an annoyed look for a second, before stepping up in front of Maru and setting the cup down on Maru’s table.

“Cheer up, you bastard. And… ugh, it’s nothing.”

With that, Dowook went back to his seat.

Dojin was incredibly confused. Did that guy just try to cheer Maru up? Maru looked a little confused himself. After a few seconds, Maru smiled and thanked him.

“Were they close?”

“Dunno.”

Dojin looked at Maru and Dowook repeatedly for a few seconds.

“The hell was that?”

* * *

Maru looked at Dowook as he drank his iced tea. Since when did Dowook care about him so much? As far as he was aware, they greeted one another every once in a while, but not much more than that.

“Dude, are you okay? I’ve wanted to ask you since a while back, but you just looked so sad… Did something happen?” Dojin asked.

Did Maru really look that bad? Bad enough to make even Dojin hesitate? Maru stared at his reflection on a mirror hanging on the wall behind him.

‘I guess it’s pretty bad.’

There were all sorts of emotions flowing across his young face. Maru put a hand over it for a second. The memories from last night were still hitting him like a truck. He told himself he was fine this morning, but clearly he wasn’t.

“It was just a bad dream,” he decided to tell them.

“Was it a nightmare? Or did you get caught by your mom while masturbating or something?”

“No, it was a really good dream.”

“Then what’s up?”

“It was too good of a dream… One that I didn’t want to wake up from.”

What if he was still alive in that timeline? Thinking of that made him feel anxious again.

‘The big events of this life haven't changed at all.’

There was the world cup in 2002, and before that, the IMF. Would things change much in the future? Unlikely. No matter what he did, there would be events in the future that will remain unchangeable.

What if his death was also inevitable? Would Maru be able to try to change that?

‘No, besides that… ’

He’s become even more desperate to meet his wife and daughter after his dream. He believed that he would be able to meet his daughter. She would be his little angel that arrives after he marries his wife.

But what about his wife? What would he need to do to meet her?

‘What would… What would happen to our meeting if I live a life that’s very different compared to my past one?’

His past life was like a train track. As long as he rode on this track, like it or not, he would be able to stop at set stations. But right now in this life, there wasn’t just one train track he could ride on. There were countless tracks that he could create himself. In that case…

How many of these tracks would lead him back to his wife?

Maru subconsciously ended up turning to a rusty train track in his head. He knew how this particular train track ended. If he got on this one, he would repeat his previous life all over again. That is, he would be able to meet his wife again.

‘Where did I meet my wife again?’

He needed to remember. He had to remember.

Bang. Maru punched his table lightly. Since the class was full of students talking to each other, not many people heard him. Dojin and Daemyung were looking at him with a surprised expression, though.

“I can’t… remember.”

“M-Maru, what’s up?”

“Maru…”

Maru could hear his two friends, but he didn’t understand them. Right now, Maru was entirely focused on trying to remember.

‘Just yesterday… No, just this morning… ’

His other memories had all disappeared, save for that of his family’s faces. The memory itself wasn’t perfect, but just the fact that he could vaguely recall them gave him relief.

Right now, he wasn’t able to remember any of it. He recalled what the woman had said yesterday. Something about this being their last meeting. Was this what she meant?

‘That can’t be it. She said I would be able to recognize my wife.’

Surely the woman wasn’t lying. She was supposed to be a representative for god. Surely he would be able to recognize his wife when they meet.

“So I need to meet her?”

“Maru?”

“What’s up with him?”

Maru raised his hand to silence his friends. He thought back on his previous life again.

‘My… My daughter’s age was… ’

He couldn’t remember.

‘My marriage. What was my marriage like?’

Again, he couldn’t remember.

‘…Where did we go for our first date?’

Absolutely blank.

‘My wife’s… name… ’

Nothing. The train tracks in his mind’s eye started to disappear one by one. In the end, there was just one train track left in front of him.

One that he knew all too well already. One that… would eventually lead to his wife.

“Hahh.”

God was fair. At the same time, that’s what makes him so cruel.

Maru put his hands through his hair, and gripped tightly. The pain didn’t help at all with his memories.

* * *

Dowook observed Maru from his seat. It was kind of worrying watching the boy punch the table like that. Did something happen?

‘Ugh.’

Why did he have to get help from someone like him? Of course, Dowook felt pretty thankful about it, but Maru was just so difficult to approach.

Plus, as a person who’s never said thank you to a friend before… he had no idea what to say.

‘Maybe… Maybe when he’s calmed down a little more.’

For now, Dowook decided to leave it to his future self.

* * *

Geunseok gave Yurim a little glance from the side. The girl looked very cute with her brown eyes. She was a girl who comforted him during hard times, a girl he was very thankful to have.

As a matter of fact, recently the girl’s become his sole reason to go to school. As they decided together where to go for tomorrow, his phone rang. It was his brother.

“Who is it?”

“My brother.”

Geunseok responded a little annoyedly. His brother wasn’t his idol anymore. As a matter of fact, his brother was just a weirdo who wasn’t there to comfort him when he needed it the most.

Thank goodness he had Yurim now.

“Yeah, bro.”

- You sound good. How are you?

“I’m doing fine. What about you?”

- You know, same old, same old. How’s acting been?

“Acting? Did I not tell you last time? We won at the college competition last time. It was pretty easy once my mind was set. It’s kind of like studying.”

- That’s good. Did you tell dad?

“No, I’m going to wait a little bit.”

- Wouldn’t it be better to tell him soon?

“I said I’m going to wait. I’m going to get scolded if I tell him.”

- Well, obviously. But didn’t you join the club knowing that in the first place?

“Whatever. I’ll do it in my own time. You should just focus on your stuff. It’s not like you really ever helped me before. And don’t worry, I’ll get better than you at this sooner or later.”

Maybe he shouldn’t have said that last sentence? Geunseok thought back to the time when he saw his older brother eat instant noodles by himself in the corner.

Well, that was pretty much all his brother was worth, wasn’t it? It felt like Geunseok used to have a reason why he looked up to his brother in the past, but he couldn’t remember it anymore.

“Geunseok, it’s a green light.”

“Ok, I’m hanging up, bro.”

Geunseok hung up his phone and turned to look at Yurim. The one girl who understood him best, and judged him fairly. He was so lucky to have a girl like her in his life.

“Yurim.”

“Yeah?”

“How was my acting yesterday?”

Yurim responded with a bright expression.

“It was the best.”

The best. The word alone made Geunseok’s heart flare up in pride. It felt like it’s been ages since he’s been complimented like this.

“Really?”

“Really. You’re the best. Better than the second years.”

“Boo, no way.”

“Yes way.”

Yurim hugged his arm, which caused the boy to drag her closer towards him. If she was with him, he wouldn’t feel nervous. She was the person who convinced him that Hong Geunseok was worth something.

“You’re amazing.”

Geunseok was becoming drunk in her sweet words. There was a need for him to work harder if he wanted to keep hearing these compliments.

Chapter 62

The feeling of deja vu, and the feeling of unease. Maru decided that these two feelings would be the compass to his wife. With his memories having completely disappeared, the only thing he had left in his head were just ideas. That is, it almost felt like he was just staring at the table of contents for his life.

He only knew of the big events that happened in his life, and nothing else. He could remember some small things, but they weren’t important at all.

The only thing he needed was to meet his life. To do this, Maru started fumbling at what was left of his memories. He died at the age of 45 as a bus driver. Before that, he worked at a company. Before that, as a road manager. Before that, he was doing part-time jobs. Before that, he was a college student, and before that…

“A high schooler.”

He had no idea where he met his wife at any of these milestone events. Maybe they knew each other starting from high school?

‘Maybe one of the acting club members… ’

That couldn’t be it. He didn’t join the acting club in his previous life. The girls in that club probably had nothing to do with his wife. There weren’t any girls in his class either. That probably meant that he met his wife after high school.

“So, college?”

That was the most likely assumption. Maru decided to take a look at his personality for a second. There would be value in trying to look at himself at face value.

First of all, there was how he treated his relationships. He could say something about this pretty easily. He trusted his friends to the end. But if there was evidence against them, he would quickly resolve the situation in his own manner. In addition to his introverted personality, the 45 year old Maru didn’t have many friends.

Maru didn’t think he was that unreasonable of a person, but in some aspects, he was just too stubborn. Just taking a look at the reason why he quit his company was a good example. The real reason why he quit, even when he was able to endure through his boss’ violent actions.

‘Once I make up my mind, I just don’t change it.’

Once Maru learned the reason why his promotion was given to the boss’ son, he started collecting all the evidence he could. Then, he managed to prove it. He proved the injustice against him, and proved how corrupt the boss’ son really was. He uploaded all of this in the company forums.

Of course, those around him tried to stop him. They told him he wouldn’t be able to work in this industry ever again.

Maru knew this, too. If he stayed quiet, he probably could’ve transferred elsewhere. But Maru didn’t want to do that. Once he started anything, he had to see it to the end. As a result, the company fired the boss’ son to save face. They also didn’t take Maru’s resignation letter either. Maru still stopped working for them regardless. He had no intention of going back on his decisions, and he didn’t want to endure having to deal with his coworkers again.

Plus, his friend introduced him to a bus driving job. He was set. After getting himself a driving license, he officially began his job as a driver.

‘I’m the type that goes with the flow. Of course, if someone crosses a line, I’ll settle things with them no matter what happens. But as long as they don’t, I can endure anything. That’s the type of person Han Maru is.’

This personality trait is what compelled him to do what he did at the acting club, too. Maru was pretty cold when it came to certain things about human relationships. He likes to get involved in certain situations, but many times, he doesn’t interfere deeply. But if he decides to resolve a problem, he does everything in his power to get to the conclusion he wants.

Perhaps that was why people thought of him to be kind and reserved, because he liked to extend a certain amount of politeness to everyone. Of course, he puts time and effort into the relationships that really matter to him, but he didn’t have many of those to begin with.

It was the same for the aunty who gave him the chance to start his life again. Besides being a person to talk to, Maru hadn’t done much else. He’s helped her push her cart every once in a while, but anyone could’ve done that.

That was why he rejected the grandma’s first offer. To others, Maru’s actions might’ve seemed kind, but that wasn’t the case for him.

‘My high school life back then was like this, too.’

Of course, Maru was far more immature back then, but the fact that his relationships were simple did not change.

‘I don’t make many real friends. I also don’t like to act unless the person in question is important to me. I like to be polite, and do nice things, but as soon as things start going south, then I become a spectator. If something happens to a person who’s important to me, or if something happens to me, I have to see through to the end of it.’

That was the conclusion Maru came to. As soon as he thought this, a strange sense of nervousness hit him. Somewhere in his past life… He did something that didn’t fit his personality at all. Where?

Maru started thinking again.

* * *

'The People of Dalseok-dong’ was a fun play. What drove the play wasn’t the tension between the characters. The driving point of the play was rather how different they reacted to the new arrivals in their town. The comic reactions of the characters was what moved the play.

That was why a lot of the play looked like a stand-up comedy. The goal of the play was to make the audience laugh with little jokes here and there.

“And that’s why you need good acting for a successful play. You’ve heard of this line before, right? Actors don’t cry, they make people cry. It’s like that for this play, too. To the people in the play, the entire situation isn’t funny at all. But it needs to look hilarious to the audience. That’s what makes comedies hard.”

Miso scanned the club once.

“It’s pretty easy to make people sad. Doing the opposite is a little bit different. Everyone has their own sense of humor. That’s where acting comes in. It’s up to you whether or not you can make the audience laugh.”

Comedies need to follow a set code, but also needs to have a special comedic element. That special factor can’t be annoying or intrusive either. In a comedic play, the expressions of the actors mattered before all else.

This was a teen play. For teenagers who only do acting in their free time, making the audience laugh with their acting was a very difficult thing. Despite this, Miso didn’t discourage the kids from doing it. As a matter of fact, Miso came to the club, with the intent of making the kids do comedy.

What the club needed was impact. They would prepare as much as they could, and show those judges from spring what was up. But to do that, she needed the kids’ cooperation.

“This’ll be harder than June. Are you guys ready?”

“Yes!”

“This time, we’ll even record our runs and review it. I’m serious about this. We’re going to win, we’re going to get money, and we’re going to sweep all of the awards at that competition. And then we’ll go for sashimi with that prize money. How does tuna sound?”

Miso motioned the group closer to her with a clap. It was September now. They needed to prepare with the competition in late October in mind. That is, the teen acting competition at the Anyang Art Festival. Other cities could join the festival, which was exactly what Miso had in mind.

“Maru,” she called out. The boy’s been just staring dumbly at the air since morning.

She’s never seen him like this. Maru just came to the club today like a person who left his consciousness back home. It wasn’t like she could ask him if anything happened, given his state.

[I don’t know what happened.]

[He’s been like this all week.]

Miso asked Dojin and Daemyung if anything was wrong, but they were just as confused as her. Miso walked up towards him.

“Did anything happen?” she asked carefully.

“No. I was just thinking.”

“Thinking?”

Maru nodded, gesturing at her to stop trying to pry further.

“You’re alright?”

“Yes.”

“If you happen to need help…”

Right then, Maru looked up to stare at Miso.

“This is my business.”

Miso wasn’t able to say anything. Looking at Maru’s crestfallen face made her realize how rude she sounded when she offered her help. Right then, she got annoyed at the fact that she just got intimidated by a kid and tried to say something. She immediately felt bad about how crestfallen he was though, and closed her mouth.

‘Surely this kid is older than my dad or something. Surely.’

But the same quality was what made the boy so tempting for her. Well, she was an adult. She needed to give him some advice regardless.

“If you need to think, try going somewhere with a good view. For me, that would be Hyehwa station.”

“Hyehwa station?”

That’s when Maru’s expression changed a little bit. Almost as if he realized something he didn’t even think of before. How interesting.

‘Maybe I can use this… ’

“Instructor.”

As she started thinking to herself, Maru spoke out.

“Yes?”

“Thank you.”

“W-what?”

“Hyehwa station.” “Ehh?”

Miso was clueless, but it looked like Maru had resolved himself somewhat. His expression had relaxed a lot more to return to his normal self. Was there something up with him and Hyehwa station? Miso decided not to think about it, and turned back to look at the club.

‘Good.’

Miso decided to change the schedule.

“Everyone, change your clothes. It’s time for a field trip.”

“Field trip?”

“We’re going to the sanctuary of all actors, Hyehwa station.”

* * *

“Woow.”

“So this is Hyehwa station.”

“Where’s Marronnier park?”

Even the second years seemed amazed by the atmosphere for their first visit. Everyone was looking around with curious eyes. The first years, too, were already taken aback by the pantomime show at the entrance to the station. Maru stepped back from the group and stepped into the streets. When Miso mentioned Hyehwa station, he had remembered something unusual about himself.

‘It’s when I met that ticketing man.’

The high school girls who were pressured into buying tickets from an intimidating man. At that time, Maru decided to involve himself into the situation, which was fairly unusual.

‘I normally wouldn’t have done that.’

He could’ve just told the girls about the tickets and left. But that day, he decided to involve himself further than necessary. Was it because he didn’t like the man? Maybe. But that didn’t explain his agitation.

The only explanation for that were the high schooler girls…

‘Why?’

What made him care so much? Why did he get himself involved? As he thought, he noticed a group of high school girls stepping up the stairs towards him. They were all wearing red jackets over their uniforms. Maru found him naturally starting to focus on one of the girls in the group.

“Ah.”

Maru realized why he got angry at that place, why he helped the girls, and why he was still in the acting club to begin with. It was obvious.

Even if his memories were sealed, his soul still remembered. And it whispered to him to stay in the acting club. It told him that if he did…

“Look at him, I think he’s looking at you?”

“Eh? No way.”

“No, really.”

Maru continued staring at the group, particularly focusing on the girl in the group in front of him. Focusing on a name he couldn’t remember, and a face he couldn’t remember… It all came back to him. The woman in the white suit was right. Maru did recognize her.

She was…

“Stop it, he’s probably looking somewhere else.”

She, who was smiling shyly, was…

[Giving up acting is a little saddening, but at least I can be with you.]

Still…

[We’re not just two people anymore, we’re three. We need to earn a lot of money from now on. For our child.]

Charming.

Her eyes so fragile it looked ready to tear up with just a touch, her nose reddened slightly into a hue resembling a strawberry, and her lips that were colored like a ripe peach.

Everything about her was still the same.

Chapter 63

“Um, would you be Mr. Han Maru?”

It was a voice that came piercing through the cold dawn air. Maru looked back towards the woman standing behind him. She wore a thin jacket, despite the cold weather. Her black leggings and khaki jacket was the first thing he noticed.

“Ah, yes.”

“I’m sorry, I’m late.”

“No, you came just in time. It takes a bit of time to get to the set, so please get on.”

“Yes.”

Maru opened the door to the back seats, but quickly closed it with a bitter smile. There were too many costumes and makeup littering the back of the car.

“You’ll have to sit in the front seat. I’m sorry. I forgot to clean up the car.”

“It’s ok. Back seat front seat, they’re both the same thing.”

The woman hopped over to the other side of the car and stepped inside. Maru got in as well, and started up the car.

“Do you want me to turn on the heater?”

“Yes. I thought it wouldn’t be very cold, but it’s so cold.”

“Well, that’s just dawn for you. It takes three hours to get to the set, so please sleep if you need it. The director will give you further directions once you arrive. Your manager… you don’t have one?”

“Hehe, yes.”

“Is this your first time in a drama?”

“Yes, it is. I’m actually a replacement for a different actor.”

“Ah, I see.”

Maru already had a gist of what was going on. If he was called out to do the driving, it usually meant the actor in question wasn’t very popular. Plus, this was Hyehwa station. The only actors that really got called in the mornings here were replacements for side characters.

“You must be nervous.”

“No.”

The woman said her response pretty firmly. Maru turned to look at the woman. Her eyes were shining, as if someone sprinkled silver powder on them. They fit the dawn air very nicely.

She didn’t look nervous at all. As a matter of fact, she even looked excited.

“To think I would be on TV… I’m excited. Well, unless I just get completely edited out.”

“If they’re trying to find a side character last minute, they probably can’t afford to edit it out. Do your best. Who knows? You might be a star thanks to this.”

“Boo, no way.”

“Well, who knows.”

Of course, he was saying all of this only out of politeness. There were thousands of actor wannabes out there. Out of them, there were many who spent their lives unable to reach the screens.

Stars.

Stars were created when skilled people managed to get lucky. Will this woman manage to get lucky on today’s set? Probably not.

“Liar.”

“W-what?”

Maru was a little surprised by the woman’s sudden words.

“You’re lying.”

“Me?”

“Yes. Hmm, I’m actually really good at detecting those kinds of stuff. Well, thank you anyway. That lie wasn’t unpleasant.”

With that, the woman closed her eyes. Hm hm hm, a humming noise started to come out of her nose. She was flicking her fingers as she rythmically shook her head as well.

Looking at that made Maru laugh a little. He couldn’t help it, she looked so happy and at ease. The woman seemed to have noticed him.

“What is it?” she asked.

“No, it’s nothing.”

“Are you surprised that a person you met for the first time is humming to herself so comfortably?”

“Can you read minds or something?”

“I’m good at reading people. But did you want me to stop?”

“Not at all. That was good to hear.”

“Well, I’ll keep going, then.”

The woman hummed to herself after a deep breath. At that moment, the car felt like a carriage running through a golden field. It felt like the view outside the car was warm and beautiful as it could ever be.

The woman was drawing lines in the air with her finger as she hummed, almost as if she was conducting an orchestra. She looked adorable, but the woman was as serious as ever. A frown would occasionally surface, almost as if there was a problem in her imaginary orchestra.

“Did something go wrong?”

“Yes. I can’t remember my line all that well. I don’t think it’s mine just yet.”

“What is it?”

“This is too expensive.”

“Is that it?”

“Mm, there’s one more. Can I get this for cheaper? I’m supposed to be a newlywed lady who’s out for blood in the market. 15 seconds on screen. That’s pretty long, right?”

“Hahaha.”

The woman started flicking her finger around again. Hm hm hm. Her hums sounded like a songbird. Before he even realized it, Maru found himself humming along with her.

* * *

“Yo, Maru.”

Someone was waving their hand in front of Maru’s face. Only upon realizing that did Maru come back to reality. Dojin and Daemyung were looking at him worriedly.

“Dude, are you really ok? You’ve been weird all week. Is there something wrong?”

“You’re making us worried. Did something happen?”

Maru shook his head. He pointed at his grinning face in response.

“Does it look like something bad happened?”

“No, but you’ve been in a daze for like, god knows how long. You were like this after the play, too.”

“I just had something to think about. No problems.”

“Really? Good to hear. Here’s your food. Shrimp burger.”

“Thanks.”

Dojin and Daemyung sat down next to him. They were at Marronnier park. Thanks to the warm weather, there were a lot of people performing on the streets. Some people were from theaters, while others were completely independent. There were countless buskers outside with their guitars, and there were even some people with very strange looking instruments.

They even found a group of middle schoolers out on a field trip. Around half of them were looking at just one person. A man who was standing still in the middle of the park, in a clown makeup. The man only moved when money entered his pockets.

Whenever the middle schoolers put 500 won bills into his pockets, he would sometimes move very naturally, or sometimes very stiffly to indicate some sort of a reaction. The kids kept putting more money in, seemingly very amused by the man’s movements.

“Earning money’s hard, huh?” Dojin commented.

Maru could only nod with a smile.

“By the way, what did you talk about with the girls earlier?” Dojin asked with a grin.

“I was just curious about something.”

“Ohh! Maru, you’re a man, aren’tcha? Did you like one of them?”

“I just wanted to confirm something.”

“Confirm? Confirm what?”

“You kids wouldn’t know.”

“The hell? Just introduce me bro. Come to think of, they had pretty weird uniforms on. Don’t think I saw them around before.”

“Yeah.”

Daemyung butted into the conversation right then.

“They’re from Myunghwa high.”

“Myunghwa high?”

It was the first Maru’s heard of them. Dojin seemed to know who they were, though. He pouted a little bit in annoyance.

“Oh, so it was them.”

“Yeah, I searched them up because I got curious.”

The two seemed to know something. Did something happen?

“What about Myunghwa high?”

“Oh, right. You wouldn’t know, huh?”

Daemyung started speaking as he folded up his burger wrapper.

“They’re the ones who won the nationals this year. I tried not to think about it since we lost, but I kind of couldn’t. I found them when I searched for them online. They even have a video of their winning play. The one they performed at the Seoul Arts Center.”

Seoul Arts Center. It was the place the students got to perform at, once they got up to nationals. They could only perform at the smaller theaters in the center, but being able to perform in the Seoul Arts Center was a great honor to begin with.

‘So she started acting around now.’

He remembered the time they first met, almost as if he managed to find something he lost a long time ago inside a box. She used to be an actor of a certain theater, and he was a road manager constantly on the lookout for new jobs. His memories of the events that transpired afterwards were a little faint, but just having memories of her face, name and voice was enough to make him happy.

As a matter of fact, he felt like he was being saved by someone. Just being able to see her again made him happy again. Just today, his worries about the future wouldn’t bother him anymore.

“Man you seem happy now. What’s up with that?”

Dojin whispered ‘I almost feel bad for worrying about you’ under his breath, as he put a hand over Maru’s shoulder.

“So, you get her number?”

Maru turned away from Dojin with an exasperated face, but he ended up being greeted with an even more expectant Daemyung.

‘Look at these kids.’

He understood why Dojin would be curious, but even Daemyung?

“T-the girl at the end was cute.”

“Good job, Daemyung! Yes, if you’re a man, you must have a right mindset like that. You go for the girl at the end. I’ll go with the one in the mid-”

That’s where Maru put a hand over Dojin’s mouth. The one in the middle? Whose wife do you think you’re trying to steal over here?

“Shush. Don’t even think about it.”

“………”

Dojin scanned Maru with narrowed eyes.

“Oho oho, Mr. Han Maru. You’re worse than me, huh? You already have her marked down as your girlfriend? Or… Did you get her number already? Huh?”

“No, I just wanted to ask her something.”

“Ask her what?”

“Her name.”

“Name? Just her name? Really? What about her number?”

“Well… I’ll get that next time.”

“Ugh.”

Maru was content with just seeing her. He didn’t want to mess things up by rushing into things. Surely, they would meet again some time again in the future. He shouldn’t try to hurry, if anything, he needs to act like a gentleman.

‘I wonder if she’d accept my proposal again?’

Wait. Did he go too far?

“Dude, no matter how much you like her, if she doesn’t like you, it’s over.”

Dojin’s playful words hit Maru like a hammer.

“Y-you’re right.”

“Hey, Maru.“

“You’re right. What do I do?”

“W-what the hell? Dude, Daemyung! This guy’s getting weird!”

“Ahh. How did I not even think about that? Hold on, what did my wife like again?”

“Wife?”

Dojin and Daemyung exchanged their confused looks with one another. In the meantime, Maru…

‘This isn’t easy at all.’

Maru had turned very serious.

Chapter 64

Maru didn’t believe in soulmates. He had believed that relationships always came to an end. If a couple couldn’t release the stress and anger building up between them, their relationship is doomed to collapse.

That was… until he met her.

* * *

“What’s up with him recently? Is he in love? Is that it?!”

Daemyung shook his head as he looked at Dojin. Clearly, Maru was acting strangely today, but he didn’t think it was because of love.

‘Then again, Maru definitely looked odd this morning talking to those girls.’

The first thing Maru did after coming to Hyehwa station was to go talk to those girls. Daemyung had no idea what the other boy talked about, but he did notice that the boy was incredibly agitated for some reason.

“We should visit Blue Sky now,” Miso said, gathering all the club members together.

Blue Sky?

Daemyung looked down at his jersey. Did she mean the place where the jersey was made or something?

A few moments later, Daemyung learned that a theater called Blue Sky existed near the station. He even got to exchange a few words with the actors. The words from actual pro actors spoke pretty deeply to Daemyung. At some point, he stopped treating acting as a hobby, and started treating it as a real passion.

He didn’t care all that much about being the main character, instead placing his care on the completion of a play. At every chance he got, he started taking notes of what Miso wanted out of the club. Instead of acting, what he wanted to work on was staging a play.

‘It’s not like I want to stop acting, but… ’

Main characters were amazing for sure. They managed to enthrall an entire audience when they did their job well. But at the same time, Daemyung found himself developing respect for stage managers who managed to actually “make it all happen”. Like the audio and lighting technician who managed everything from the operating room. Daemyung had a certain respect for the man capable of enhancing the quality of the play without even being on stage.

‘Some day, at the Seoul Arts Center… ’

Once again, the desire to stand at the nationals started flickering brightly inside Daemyung’s chest.

* * *

“This is our new script. We’ll be practicing with these from now.”

Miso handed out the new scripts first thing after coming back to school. Maru glanced over at the new script in his hand. In the past, he would’ve just skimmed the entire thing before closing it. Because he didn’t need it. Because it wasn’t important at all. Not anymore. This time, he read each and every line with more focus than before. Not because he was coming out on the play.

Meeting her… made Maru think about a problem. He decided that the best way to solve this problem was to take up acting.

‘My path has changed.’

The first time he met her was after he graduated college. As a failing road manager and a failing actor. The odds of it were incredibly low. As a matter of fact, it was practically a miracle. He managed to meet his wife amongst countless other actors, even falling in love. What else could that be other than a miracle?

In this life, though, things were a little bit different. He did manage to meet her. In high school, no less. Was this simply by chance?

No, Maru didn’t think so. He believed it to be the result of his brain working overtime to make a certain possibility into a certainty.

He may have forgotten about her, but his heart told him to join the acting club. His heart told him to stay despite all that’s happened, and thanks to it, he managed to meet her. Not as a road manager or an actor, but as two actors stepping into the world of acting.

Things were different now. Due to that, he would have to make several new arrangements. Maru didn’t want to let her go. He wanted to start a family with her again, make love with her again, and meet their daughter again.

What would he need to do for that to happen?

‘Rather than try to chase after money, I’d have to win over her heart. Well, if I can achieve both, that would be ideal.’

He would throw away his bus driver life to the side, and start up an entirely new life. He needed to prepare for a new life where he still maintained good relationships with her. At this point, acting was pretty much a requirement for Maru’s life.

‘My wife is an actor to the core.’

She is an actor now, and she will still be an actor at the age of 26 when they’d meet for the first time. Right now, in high school, she is still an actor. In that case, what would be the easiest way for him to approach her?

To do acting.

The more points in common they had, the closer they would be able to get.

‘…It’s pretty creepy, isn’t it.’

For a second, he remembered what his first love felt like, but as a forty-five year old man… It was a bit difficult for him to try to fall in love like a normal teenager. Especially when he thought of the concept ‘platonic love’ as something nonexistent. But it wasn’t like he didn’t love her despite this. It was just that he wanted her more than ever.

‘Come to think of, she still looks as pretty as ever.’

Being able to see his love’s face at two points in time at once was the greatest gift to him. Maru had worried about many things as he started his life anew, but as soon as he saw her little face, all those worries melted away.

Just thinking about her made him smile. He couldn’t help it, it was pretty much biological. Kind of like how people laugh when tickled. To him, just thinking about her made him smile.

“Han Maru!”

“Yes, yes?”

“I’m a bit happy I managed to finally catch you daydreaming, but can we focus, please?”

Maru scratched his eyebrows. Miso must’ve been explaining something while he was thinking. Maru stepped into the group of club members quickly.

“I’m sorry.”

“Looks like something good happened recently. Why don’t you spill the beans? I, for one, want to know what made you smile like an idiot over there.”

“It’s nothing.”

Right then, Dojin raised his arm with a shout.

“He’s got a crush on a girl!”

“He asked a girl for her name this morning.”

Even Daemyung was butting in.

“Oho… teenage romance, is it?”

“Haha. Ha. Haha.”

Maru could only laugh in response.

“Good times. Right. At your age, you guys really need to try loving, and get your hearts broken. That’s how you get hurt less by love when you become adults. But for now, let’s focus on the lecture, okay?”

“Yes ma’am!”

Miso waved her hand in satisfaction, and opened the script in her other hand.

“As you saw this morning, the biggest difference between pros and amateurs are their reaction times. You saw how quickly the actor on stage changed his line as soon as one of the audience members sneezed, right? That kind of improv can only come from immense amounts of practice. It’s not at all something unprepared the actor just spit out. Improv is an incredibly difficult skill that can only come with experience. If you want to improv like that, you need to know the play pretty much in full. You need to know beforehand how your improv will change the play. How it would connect with the next scene, and if your fellow actor can even follow up on it at all.”

Maru thought back to the play in the morning. Someone in the seats sneezed loud enough to make his ears ring there. In that situation, the actor managed to incorporate even that sneeze into the part of the play and continued on. Almost as if the sneeze was a part of the play to start with.

“Of course, I’m not expecting something like that from you kids. You just need to be able to perform your play pretty well. I’m not expecting much more than that. No matter what the audience does, just ignore it. You can’t think about improv. Ignoring the audience is the best thing you can do right now.”

Ignore the audience. It was the biggest no-no for any pro, but for amateurs, it was a pretty perfect suggestion.

“And so,” Miso grinned.

Maru rolled his eyes a little. He knew what would be coming after that smile at this point. Even the club members were stiffening a little bit, trying to ready themselves for what would come.

“We need to throw away our shame.”

* * *

Throw away shame. Maru didn’t quite understand what that meant at first. Well, he had an idea, but this was far from what he had in mind.

“D-do I really?”

“Of course.”

Yoonjung looked in front of her. They were standing at an alleyway full of cafes, at dinnertime. There were tons of people walking in the alleyway, trying to enjoy the night air.

Currently, Yoonjung was standing in front of one of the cafes within the alleyway. There was an outdoor terrace with six tables laid out in front of her. The girl swallowed her saliva. Right now, no one was paying attention to her. They were all busy talking about their own lives.

But…

What if she starts saying her lines loudly in front of them?

‘Ahhh, what do I do?!’

She had just received her lines, without any chance to practice a single word. Trying to say lines that she had practiced was infinitely different compared to trying to say lines she’s never seen before. On a stage, an actor was in a contract with the audience.

The actor would perform, and the audience would watch. But this was a cafe. There was no such social contract present with the couples, salarymen, and the students there. Without such, Yoonjung couldn’t help but become nervous.

Her heart was starting to race. All she had to do was just spit out her lines, so why?

‘I’m scared.’

What if they decide to ignore her? Just that thought was enough to make her spiral into darkness. She knew that she just had to say her lines, but…

Gulp, Yoonjung swallowed her saliva.

Doing and knowing were two very different things, she realized.

* * *

He had to say, this was very much a Miso thing to do.

“They’re cute kids, aren’t they?”

“What the hell do you think you’re doing at my store?”

“Hey, don’t be like that. It’s a nice event. I’ll pay for the customers’ coffee too, so don’t worry about it.”

“God, you’re just… well, I guess the customers wouldn’t mind all that much. We’re stopping as soon as they become uncomfortable though. Got it?”

“Don’t worry. That’s never happened so far, you should know that.”

“That’s true.”

Miso was currently chatting away with the owner of the cafe happily at the counter. The club members all looked at Yoonjung, who wasn’t really able to do much outside.

The cafe was getting strangely nervous inside. Maru took a look at the other kids. They were all glaring at Miso woefully.

“…Man, how do people even do street performances?”

“That clown guy from a few days ago seems a whole lot more respectable to me now.”

Dojin and Daemyung noted. It was decided that the second years would be the first to go. It would’ve been less nerve-wracking if they went in pairs, but Miso forbid it completely.

Yoonjung, as the president, volunteered to go first, but… The result was as plain as day. She wasn’t even able to speak after five minutes. It was pretty understandable, considering the number of people sitting at the terrace and the number of people walking in the alleyway.

‘It’d definitely help her, though.’

Maru opened up a magazine as he ate some of the cake rolls the owner gave him. He didn’t feel nervous, for whatever reason. Going out to speak to strangers didn’t seem all that foreign to him, despite him never really doing it in the past.

As a matter of fact, he felt somewhat comfortable. Maybe this came from the time he worked as a bus driver in the past?

‘Whatever it is, it’s nice.’

He was able to enjoy all this in peace thanks to it.

Of course… the other kids all looked like they were about to die.

* * *

Miso glanced at Maru shortly. The boy was enjoying his coffee and cake like a normal customer. Very different compared to the other club members around him, or Yoonjung outside.

‘He was born talented.’

Nervousness wasn’t something a person could hide. Even experienced actors felt nervous from time to time. Why wouldn’t they? Especially with thousands of pairs of eyes staring at them.

But the actors were able to enjoy that nervousness. They were able to use that nervousness to fuel the performance of their play.

Miso often classified actors as people who were able to channel nervousness into raw energy. That was why she believed every actor needed to be able to handle nervousness to become the real deal.

“Is he a senior?” Miso’s friend asked.

She was thankful to know her. The woman always helped Miso out whenever she needed it. Miso shook her head in response.

“Nope, a total beginner.”

“But he’s still that calm?”

“That’s why I’ve kept my eyes on him.”

“…Think of the age difference, you goddamned cradle robber.”

“You!”

Her friend walked away with a grin while Miso turned to look at Yoonjung; she needed to focus on the girl right now.

“You better start as soon as possible. Trying to delay it is only going to make it harder.”

Opening your mouth, and finishing what you had to say. It sounds easy on paper. Not so much in real life. Miso glared at Yoonjung sharply.

“Let’s hope you don’t put your title as president to shame.”

Chapter 65

Saying the actual lines shouldn’t take more than three minutes. She just needed to imagine that there was a fellow actor next to her, there to respond to her lines. Right, she needed to imagine. This wasn’t a cafe, but a stage. There’s a spotlight above shining directly onto her. The doors to the auditorium opens, with the audience coming in one by one. Right now, they were still preparing. Not many people cared about her on the stage.

Right, there was no need to be nervous. Everyone was looking at the pamphlet right now. She could see the children as well as the adults. Let’s breathe a little bit.

Wait, the air smells like coffee?

No, start over, start over.

This is a stage. The people in front of her were here to watch her act. She couldn’t afford to disappoint them. She’s already practiced, so she just needs to act it out now.

‘Wait, did I even practice?’

Yoonjung sighed. She could feel a few people glancing at her. Then again, all she did till now was stare at the cafe for five straight minutes. If she delayed any more, she really wouldn’t be able to do it. Yoonjung bit her lips before saying her first line.

“S-shouldn’t you at least try to introduce yourself if you move into the neighborhood?”

She needed to become a mean old lady who lives downstairs. She needed to become annoying and grouchy. A conceited lady that has no filters on her words.

But by the time Yoonjung’s voice reached her ears, she could only swallow nervously.

She was too quiet.

Too quiet to even be heard. When she turned around, only the man right next to her was staring at her with a ‘what?’ face. She didn’t even manage to grab people’s attention. As soon as that thought hit her, she felt the blood drain from her face.

Why? Why was she like this? She couldn’t understand it. She’s already performed in front of people several times. Not much had changed, so why did this take so much effort?

Her voice was getting buried. Buried by the air, the footsteps, and the voices around her. She wasn’t able to reach out and speak to the people in front of her.

For now, she finished her lines. She finished them, but… She didn’t feel good at all. It felt like she was just talking to herself. People were looking at her, sure, but they all looked confused.

She wanted to explain this was a play. She wanted to explain her role, and what type of a personality her character had.

‘This isn’t right.’

This wasn’t right at all.

* * *

Yoonjung came back inside. She looked far less energetic than usual, which only managed to worry the club members more.

“How was it?” Miso asked.

The instructor looked like a mean boss, especially with that beige mug in hand.

“I was just… disappointed.”

“At what?”

“At myself.”

Yoonjung hunched her neck as she spoke. After sighing deeply, the girl flopped over the table.

“You couldn’t make yourself heard, right?”

“Yes. I tried to perform like normal, but no one bothered to listen. No, I don’t think they could hear me to begin with. Some of the people right next to me responded, but most people just glanced for a second and looked away. Man, it felt awful.”

Yoonjung frowned.

“You learned well, Ms. president. This isn’t a stage. There’s no microphone or anything to help you here. Here, your voice is very small. As a matter of fact, it can become even smaller depending on how strong the wind is. This place is very, very unsuited for performances.”

After speaking, Miso pointed at the next person. It was Dojin.

“I tried to get the first years going after all the second years, but that’s a little unfair, isn’t it? Let’s switch it up. Dojin, you looked a little too relaxed just now. You didn’t think you’d go next, did you?”

Maru had to say… The woman was really good at mind games. Dojin stood up from his face with a dumb look. He ran outside with his script in hand, but he didn’t look good at all.

“Watch. This time, he’s going to start shouting as much as he can, and run out of breath in the middle.”

Miso was a prophet, predicting precisely how Dojin would perform.

* * *

“Huff, huff.”

Dojin bowed, feeling the people in the cafe glaring at him.

‘God, this is so embarrassing. So embarrassing!’

His face felt like it was burning. He started off pretty well, raising his voice like Miso told them to. He managed to grab the audience’s attention.

The problem came afterward.

Breathing.

Normally, he would be able to say ten words in one breath. But right now, each breath was only able to give him around 3 words. He felt for the first time the feeling of one’s lungs shriveling up as it gasped for air. The air felt incredibly heavy around him.

Eventually, his head started spinning from the lack of air. He couldn’t even pay attention to the audience any more. All that he could think of was to finish his lines as fast as possible, and go back to his seat.

“This time, we managed to see two instances of what not to do. At first, Dojin didn’t even think about the volume of his voice, and ended up speaking like a little mosquito. Next, Dojin didn’t even bother controlling his breathing, and gifted his audience with disgustingly bad breathing rhythm and an incredibly loud voice.”

Dojin sat down next to Yoonjung silently. The girl looked at him warmly. It almost looked like she was telling him ‘you’re just like me, aren’t you?’.

“Now, next up…”

Miso ignored the two fallen soldiers next to her, and pointed at her next target: Geunseok.

* * *

By this time, the customers started to notice that something was up. Some of them were even heading out to the terrace to get a good view of what was happening.

Geunseok happened to be the one to go as they gathered on the terrace. He stood up from his seat confidently, and walked outside. Maru stared at the boy for a little bit, before taking his coffee cup back to the counter. He handed the cup to the owner of the shop before asking, “Can I order some lemon tea?”

“Hm?”

The owner took the cup from Maru’s hand. Right then, Miso walked up to him from the back.

“What are you doing?”

“Oh, this kid was just asking for some lemon tea.”

“What?”

Maru grinned at Miso.

“I’m just trying to help people out. You must be feeling good after paying for everyone’s drinks, and the owner must feel good about selling a lot of drinks. Ah, the coffee was good. That’s why I wanted to try the tea this time.”

Miso sighed, and responded with a ‘do whatever you want’. The owner poured hot water into the mug with a grin.

“You’re pretty good, kid. It’s been a while since I’ve seen such an expression from Miso.”

“Thank you. By the way, when does this cafe close?”

“Usually by 10pm. Sometimes until 11pm, if regulars decide they want to talk with me for a bit. Occasionally until dawn if I don’t want to go back home?”

“Aha.”

“Why do you ask?”

“I wanted to come some time. It’s a nice cafe.”

“With your girlfriend?”

“Yes.”

“You better be holding hands by then. I’ll give you two a slice of cake as a gift.”

The owner smiled brightly before leaving. In the meantime, Maru took a look at the terrace from the counter. Geunseok was speaking outside. He was doing pretty well, actually. Well enough to make some of the audience take pictures.

“Here’s your lemon tea.”

“Thank you.”

“Oh, he’s doing pretty well.”

“Yeap.”

“You aren’t nervous?”

“Not really.”

“That’s good.”

The owner turned back after telling him a few words of encouragement. With that, Maru returned to his seat with his tea.

“You really feel comfortable enough to get that stuff?” Dojin asked dejectedly. Maru nodded.

“It’s free. You should get some too.”

“I might throw up if I drink anything now. Ugh, I’m so embarrassed.”

“Me too.”

It almost felt like he was looking at a pair of zombies. After observing the two for a moment, Maru started hearing a weak applause from the crowd. When he turned around, he could see Geunseok step back into the cafe with a weak huff. Quite a few people on the terrace were giving him applause.

“How was it?” Miso asked.

“I was nervous, but I don’t think I made mistakes. I threw away my nervousness and said my lines. I lacked air a little bit, but I think I finished well.”

“You got applause, so you did well. For your first time, that’s pretty good.”

Geunseok clenched his fist when Miso gave him her praise. Maru could easily spot it. It seemed that for this kid, praises were what gave him meaning in life. Nothing else would be able to satisfy him.

Some would call that unconfident, others would say the boy was incapable of self-love. He was just the type of person who would rot away in the corner alone without any praise.

Of course, this wasn’t necessarily a bad thing. There was never a good or bad in how a person chose to live their life. Geunseok would, as a matter of fact, shine like a star as long as someone supported him. Of course, this only meant that he would have to work hard at maintaining his relationships.

Maru chewed on some of the bread on the table that no one’s touched.

“You did well, it was the best.”

Yurim gave Geunseok a thumbs up, further brightening the boy’s mood. On the other hand, Dojin and Yoonjung’s face only fell further. Yoonjung put up an awkward smile, and Dojin clawed away at his hair after glaring at Geunseok for a second. Right then…

“But… Do you think the people over there understood you?” Miso asked.

“Excuse me?”

“Being able to make yourself heard, and actually making the audience understand what you said are two different things. Geunseok, go ask that lady over there what she felt from your performance.”

“……”

Geunseok’s face immediately stiffened as he stood up. Miso gave him a strawberry tart, presumably to give to the woman. He walked outside with it, talked with the woman for a moment, and came back. Unlike before, he looked like he ate dirt.

“She said she didn’t really know. She forgot very quickly after hearing what I said.”

“Exactly. You didn’t make an impression at all. Don’t get too confident. The only thing you did up there was make an interesting speech, rather than actually act.”

“…I don’t think I can act without having done any sort of practice.”

That made Miso laugh.

“It’s been a full week since I gave you your scripts. Are you the type of idiot who doesn’t even look at the script if I don’t tell you to?”

“……”

“Do you think a full run is the only type of practice you can do? No, your practice should’ve begun the moment you received your scripts. Did you guys really think I gave you your scripts to use as decoration? Or are you going to tell me that you couldn’t practice because of the revised script I gave you? The only thing the revision changed was like one or two lines, and the order in which the characters appear. The main branch of the story is untouched. As a matter of fact, I didn’t even touch up your character at all, Geunseok. But you say you didn’t practice? Are you serious right now?”

“…I’m sorry.”

“You can have confidence, as long as you practice.”

The air in the cafe dropped by a degree. Dojin and Yoonjung straightened up on their seats as well. What seemed like a simple field trip was starting to change into something else.

‘That’s what I thought.’

Maru took a sip of his lemon tea. There was no way Miso brought the group here to simply play for a bit. The woman picked out her next victim with a glare.

“Daemyung.”

“Y-yes!”

“Try to do well.”

“……”

Daemyung stepped out to the terrace with a pale expression.

Chapter 66

Daemyung knew what he was getting himself into. He knew what this would be like, but he couldn’t help but be nervous regardless. The boy felt himself become a little lightheaded from all the eyes that were on him.

It was transitioning to six in the evening now. The sun was starting to set, and the shadows were lengthening around him. The ground around him reddened up a bit, making it feel like he was actually standing under a light.

“Good luck.”

“You can do it,” some of the audience said.

Thank goodness they weren’t being so cold. He would’ve just frozen up if they were telling him to be quiet. Daemyung looked at his script a little bit. He had a lot of lines. Daemyung’s character went by the name of Baksik. A student who lived on the rooftop, full of anger and resentment towards the world.

Since the day he received his script, Daemyung has been doing nothing but flesh out the character in his head.

‘The guy is a student who doesn’t even earn money. Is he thin? No, he must live on instant foods, so he’s gotta be fat. Like me. He’s angry at the world, so he better be frowning all the time, too.’

Daemyung stood in front of his audience. He frowned like he was annoyed at something, and he drooped his shoulders as well. He tried to take away as much energy as he could from his body, almost pretending to be a jellyfish or something. He put a bit more air into his stomach to make himself look a bit fatter.

‘Around thirty years old, watches TV a lot. Knows a lot about society, since that’s what he likes to complain about all the time. The character loves correcting people, and complaining about them. I guess it would be good to pout a bit too?’

Focusing on the character made him feel a little less nervous. He was starting to get his breath back too. The nervousness he felt now was actually starting to make him a little bit excited.

‘I’m nothing.’

That was true. Nothing about him really stood out to the crowd. But this wasn’t a place to showcase Park Daemyung as a person. There was no need to show the audience who he was.

So what if he was ugly? What if he was unconfident?

Sure, those were the right descriptors of him. But that didn’t matter at all. The main character of this show wasn’t Daemyung, but Baksik, his character. There was no need to be intimidated. He was on a stage. All he needs to do is to show his character. Not Daemyung, but Baksik.

Daemyung took a short breath and raised his hand. Scene one, line one.

“Man you people are loud. Do you think you bought out the entire building or what?”

Let’s try being mean.

* * *

Baksik actually had quite a lot of lines. Enough to make Daemyung run out of breath in the middle. The character was in a lot of scenes, and had weight in the entire play. Almost enough weight as the main character.

When Daemyung was first assigned this character, the only thing the club could think was “why”? But right now, not a single one of them was able to doubt Miso’s decision.

Maru took a look at his friend with his chin resting on one hand. He, too, was a little surprised by Miso’s initial decision, but he finally understood why she made that decision. In the last play, Daemyung performed his role of a 40 year old salaryman pretty well. He seemed like the perfect 40 year old, as a matter of fact. Now that Maru thought back on it, Daemyung had done a pretty tremendous job back then.

He could hear his friend’s voice coming through the terrace doors. The boy was running out of breath, making his execution speed up, but they still felt good to hear. Actually, his speech didn’t matter much at all. What really stood out in his performance were his expressions and movements. Watching him complain under his breath, pout, and kick the floor every once in a while was quite comical.

“Good. I was right in making him do Baksik,” Miso noted.

Sometimes the flow of his performance was cut by him looking at his lines, but at least whenever he spoke, he really did look like his character. Soon, after he finished his lines, Daemyung bowed with an embarrassed expression. The audience gave him a pretty big applause.

Daemyung raised his head. He bowed again with a nervous smile before walking back into the cafe.

“Phew. D-d-did I do well?”

Miso gave a thumbs up to the reddened boy. Daemyung sighed deeply before sitting down on his chair.

“How do you feel?”

“…I didn’t think much before I got the applause, but after getting them, I felt really good. This is a lot different from curtain calls.”

“Of course. Those applauses were directed towards you. Congratulations. That was a very good solo performance. More than I had hoped. Just keep doing around that much from now on, and you’ll be just fine. You might get the acting award come this competition… Well… never mind. That’s good enough.“

Miso glanced at Geunseok as she spoke.

‘The carrot and the stick, huh.’

Maru almost wanted to call Miso a human tamer. As a matter of fact, Geunseok was looking at Daemyung with a very bitter look. The boy moved exactly as Miso wanted him to.

‘Good enough, huh.’

Miso must’ve wanted something more out of Daemyung.

“Good job!” “You did well!”

Daemyung received praises from the rest of the members around him. The nervousness must’ve disappeared, too, seeing as to how he started eating the bread on the table as well. That made Maru laugh a little inside.

“Now, let’s get on with this.”

Iseul was the next to go. She instantly grabbed attention from the crowd with her face. She didn’t get too into it like Daemyung did, but she still managed to get applause from the crowd with her voice and breathing technique.

“You did pretty well, but you would’ve been better if you were more engrossed with your character.”

“I was embarrassed, hehe.”

Iseul trembled a little bit after she came back to her seat. She must’ve been very nervous, despite her calm expression.

“How was it?”

“Mm… I realized how difficult it was to actually say my lines without context. I was also embarrassed since I was in such close proximity to the audience. I could hear everything from them, which made it hard to focus. All in all, I think I just realized just how difficult street performances are.”

“Anything else?”

“Trying to show without telling is very difficult.” “Good, but is that all?”

“Ah, yes.”

“Good, that’s enough.”

Iseul was the second to pass without much criticism.

“Let’s keep going.”

Miso pointed at the second years. Joonghyuk, Minsung, and Danmi all went one by one. Since they had some time to calm down, they didn’t make mistakes like Yoonjung did. The audience must’ve gotten used to this as well, seeing as to how they were waiting for the next student up.

“We should go with the kids with the shorter lines, now.”

Miso looked at Maru.

“You’re up.”

Maru stood up with the cake still in his mouth.

“Wouldn’t this be pretty difficult for Maru?”

“Yeah.”

Daemyung watched Maru exit the cafe, feeling his excited heart starting to calm down. Dojin was right. This would be pretty difficult for Maru, especially since the boy didn’t have that many lines to begin with.

‘A little more than three lines?’

It didn’t even amount to four, when printed on an A4 paper. Plus, a lot of them were just exclamations, not actual lines. Maru’s role in the play was a ‘teenager’. A role that didn’t even have a name. The character had a lot of places where he appeared, but he didn’t actually have any real lines at all.

“Did you also feel pretty awkward out there, by the way? Plays start at act one so that people can understand what’s going on, but we had to go out there and cut everything out except our lines. It felt really weird,” Dojin commented.

Daemyung found himself nodding vigorously, he can totally relate. Not having someone there to support you was bad enough, but the worst problem was that the audience had no idea what the play was about. Instructor Miso had just told them to go out and say their lines, but Daemyung knew that wasn’t all there was to it. The others probably noticed as well.

“The instructor said a while ago that this was a one-man play, right?”

“Yeah.”

“So we probably aren’t just supposed to go there and say our line, right?”

“I mean, just look at what she said to Geunseok. She probably wants us to make the audience understand what our characters are about. Oh, by the way, Daemyung, you were amazing back there. Since when were you so good at acting?”

Dojin nudged Daemyung with his elbow. Daemyung grinned embarrassedly. Being told that his acting improved felt better than being told he was good at studying. At some point in time, acting became the center of who he was as a person. He didn’t know what exactly he wanted to do after high school still, but suddenly, acting didn’t seem like that bad of an idea. “Maybe you might even get the main role next year, if you keep this up,” Dojin said, looking at Geunseok.

Daemyung quickly tried to stop Dojin, but Geunseok had already reacted by this point. Plus…

“Well, it could be possible, as long as he gets skilled enough,” Instructor Miso poured oil into the fire.

Daemyung could only smile nervously between Geunseok, Dojin, and Miso.

‘I might honestly feel better out there instead,’ Daemyung thought, looking out into the terrace.

By this point, Maru had finished positioning himself outside.

“Hey now, look outside everyone,” Miso gestured.

The club members all looked towards Maru. Daemyung turned to look as well.

‘Maru should be fine with his lines.’

His lines were short, so he should come back quick. Plus, he’d never seen the boy embarrassed by anything, so things might end very quickly.

“Hm, hm.”

Maru coughed a few times loudly. Loud enough to be heard indoors. After receiving the attention of the entire cafe, Maru raised his script.

“It’s dinnertime already. Did you all have your meals yet?”

The boy started off with a greeting, instilling a bit of confusion from Daemyung.

“What’s he doing?”

“That’s not his line.”

He could hear the others say. They were right. Maru didn’t have such a line in his script. What was the boy trying to do?

“My name is Han Maru. The play the others from my club performed just now is called The People of Dalseok-dong, a comedy. It’s about a man who moves into Dalseok-dong, and the events that ensue from it.”

Eh? Daemyung bit his lips lightly. This wasn’t right.

“He’s explaining the play?”

“What the heck?”

“Is he nervous?”

Daemyung gripped his fist lightly. An actor, trying to explain what he was acting verbally? Nonsense. An actor’s job is to show, not tell. Trying to tell the story through words… That wasn’t right at all.

Maru continued explaining the story with his normal, everyday voice. He explained what the story of the play was about, and what characters had appeared before him so far. After explaining most of it, Maru stepped forward by one step.

“I have the role of a young man in this play. I don’t have that many lines, actually. Personally, I think my character’s role is kind of like msg, if I were to put it in terms of food. Kind of like this.”

Maru walked sideways for a second before turning to the crowd to exclaim, “what the?” His comic expression made some of the audience laugh.

“These are what all of my lines are like. Here, let me read some of my script to you so that you have a better idea.”

Maru explained everything about what was happening from one to ten, almost like he was explaining something to a child. The audience members started nodding in understanding. They seemed to be making a connection between all the students that came so far, finally.

Daemyung understood what Maru was trying to do here. Still, he thought this was wrong. This wasn’t acting.

“We told him to act, but he’s commentating instead,” Taejoon noted annoyedly. Daemyung had to agree.

It wasn’t like the students before Maru did a bad job because they didn’t know how to explain. They were just trying their best not to explain their roles to the audience.

Because they were actors.

Daemyung scanned the second years very quickly. They didn’t seem very happy either. Next, he turned to look at Miso. Sure enough, her eyebrows were pointed up straight up into the sky.

After a little more time, Maru finished his last line. He ended his little monologue with, ‘thank you for allowing me some of your time’, and stepped back inside. Daemyung found himself becoming very nervous inside. He could just see Miso shouting angrily at Maru the moment the boy came to their table.

Strangely, though, Miso didn’t say anything. So Yoonjung took the initiative to speak instead.

“Han Maru.”

“Yes?”

“What did you do?”

“The instructor told me to say my lines, so I did.”

“With plenty of explanation to go with it?”

“Yes.”

“What?”

“Is there a problem?”

“Of course there is. Instructor Miso told us to act, not explain.”

“Did she? I don’t recall her ever saying that.”

“Eh?” Daemyung found himself exclaiming. Maru was right. Instructor Miso only told the club to say their lines to the audience, and nothing else.

“But if you’re an actor, you should do your best to make the audience understand through your acting.”

Most of the club nodded at Yoonjung’s words. The girl was right. But Maru’s response was that of confusion.

“I don’t know. I don’t think I’m that good of an actor. Of course, that might be possible for you seniors and the rest of the club. Since you all practiced a lot. But such a thing isn’t possible for me.”

“Do you think we don’t know that? We know we can’t do it either. I made a mistake too, but at least I…”

When Yoonjung paused for a second, Maru butted in.

“You shouldn’t do that if you know you can’t do it. The audience is taking some of their time in the day to look at what we’re doing. We can’t let these people down with subpar performance. If you know you can’t do something, you should try something new that actually works.”

“………”

“I don’t understand what exactly acting is. I’ve never thought of myself as an actor, and I don’t want to describe myself as one either. I’m just a student in the acting club, here to learn a little bit about what acting is.”

Maru sounded confident. Daemyung found himself getting embarrassed. It felt like his lie was getting exposed. Why? Daemyung turned to look at Dojin for a second. The other boy seemed to be thinking as well.

“I know very well that I can’t let the audience understand what I’m doing through acting. When I went out to the terrace, I noticed some of the people saying, ‘what are these kids doing?’ So I asked them if they were curious. A lot of them told me to explain what was going on. So I did my best to do exactly that.”

Maru sat down on his seat as he continued talking.

“If I was a pro, I would try to solve everything by acting alone. I know that’s the best way to do things as well. But I’m an amateur. Amateurs have their own method of doing things. Pros need to do things their way, and amateurs need to do things their way. That’s what I think.”

A pro’s method, and an amateur’s method. Daemyung turned to look at the other customers in the cafe. They weren’t at a stage right now. They were in a cafe. So are those people out on the terrace not audience members?

No, they were the audience for sure. Audience members who were allotting some of their time to look at bad acting from students. Did Daemyung manage to satisfy these people, in that case?

Daemyung shook his head. He only got into his acting to get over his nervousness. Thinking back on it, he never actually looked at the audience either. All he did was spit out a few of his lines, and come back. Was that enough? Was that what instructor Miso wanted?

Once again, his mind went back to the phrase, ‘one-man play’. Daemyung felt his cheeks redden in embarrassment. He finally realized why he felt embarrassed. It was because he got praised.

He was embarrassed at himself for feeling happy that he got praised for doing something so trivial. Instructor Miso told him he did a good job. But then again, praises only came towards you when you exceeded a person’s expectations.

‘Perhaps my standards were low to begin with.’

Perhaps instructor Miso didn’t even expect them to communicate with the audience? Perhaps she was just satisfied with having the students say their lines well enough?

[Well… never mind. That’s good enough.]

Perhaps that wasn’t what instructor Miso wanted? After all, all Daemyung had done was to express his emotions to the audience without expecting a single response. Was he being too overconfident, thinking of himself as a good actor just because he said his lines without stuttering?

The word ‘actor’…Daemyung started using it to define himself without really thinking about it at some point. He thought about the actors he saw at Hyehwa station a while back. One of them even managed to incorporate noises from the audience into the play.

There, the audience and the actors were completely in sync, conversing with each other.

Pros have their own method, and amateurs have their own…

‘Maybe I was unable to even do something that I could do?’

Daemyung took a look at Maru. The other boy seemed very confident that what he did wasn’t wrong. It wasn’t overconfidence. It was an expression of a person who did something right.

“It’s a little disrespectful to the audience if we just ignore them, I think.”

Maru grabbed his cup to drink, almost as if he was finished talking. He realized his cup was empty, and walked up to the counter as if nothing was wrong. Right then, Daemyung could hear Miso mutter to herself very quietly.

“At least one guy in this club knows what a real play is.”

Daemyung felt his neck itch a little as soon as he heard that.

‘Ah.’

The three things that constituted a play. The stage, the actor, and…

‘The audience.’

Who was Daemyung’s lines directed at? For who did Daemyung act for? Daemyung chewed his lips nervously.

Chapter 67

"Be careful going in!”

“Yes!”

The kids went back inside with a bow. Miso stepped back inside the cafe with a sigh.

“They’re gone?”

“Yeah. Thanks for today.”

“I mean, this isn’t the first time. Here, have some dinner while you’re still here. I want to talk to you for a bit, too.”

“Of course, but before that.”

Miso stepped out onto the terrace for a moment. The sun had set, and the terrace was painted by a variety of colorful lightings from signboards of nearby stores.

The wind was a bit cold, it was truly the beginning of autumn. There weren’t that many people left in the terrace, either. They must’ve left to find some place to eat. Miso turned to look at the table at one corner of the terrace, there was a man in his fifties watching the people on the streets with a slight smile. The only thing he had on his table was a cold coffee, an old notebook, and a custom cigarette box made out of wood.

“How was it?” Miso asked.

She couldn’t see the man’s expression due to his hat. Was he satisfied by them, or not?

“Reminded me of the old days. It was nice. We used to do the same thing at subways. More often than not, people used to look at us very weirdly. There’s a higher risk of doing it in a subway, actually. After all, if you do it well, you’ll feel happy until you get to the destination, but… If you make a mistake, you’ll have to deal with it and the audience to the end. It’s incredibly torturous.”

The man took off his hat. His thick eyebrows, sharp nose, and a very defined jawline made for a very strong expression. Miso smiled, and bowed once again in greeting.

“I see you’re still wearing that flat cap.”

“It’s basically my trademark. I can’t just give it up willy-nilly. But to think you’d call after such a long time just to ask me to take a look at a teen actor… You’re a little too much.”

“That’s why I said sorry. Do you want me to say it again?”

“Shush. That’s enough.”

Miso sat down across from the man. They were long time acquaintances, since Miso’s started acting, as a matter of fact. The man was a senior in the acting business, but Miso never thought of the man as something difficult to deal with.

‘Then again, that’s what everyone thinks.’

The man had a gentle nature to begin with. It was to the point where his friends often said that if he shaved his head, he’d be just like a typical monk.

“This is a nice place. I can tell the owner put a lot of work into it,” the man said, looking down at the flower pots under him.

Indeed, the flowers were all real, not fake. Miso knew very well that her friend worked very hard every day to keep those flowers healthy. As the man said, there was a lot of work going into this cafe.

“It’s a bit cold, would you like to go inside?”

“Mm, I’m fine. This is good for me. It’s decently cold, decently loud, and got a decently nice view. Look over there, that puppy is very adorable.”

The man was pointing at a small pet shop from across the street. A small Shih Tzu was leaning with its front paws against the glass with their tongue sticking out. Several passersby on the streets were stopping to take a look at the puppy as well.

“You’re not planning on buying a dog again, are you?”

Miso knew very well about how many dogs lived in this man’s house. The shock from her first visit was still fresh in her memory. The man’s house was… put shortly, a complete mess.

“I’m not buying. I’m going to take it in with love.”

“You look like you’re dripping hearts out of your eyes.”

“Hearts? Mm, you must’ve entered a relationship, Miso.”

“W-what?”

“You used to say things that were much more offensive in the past, but since yesterday, your words became more gentle than before. I can say with certainty that you’re seeing someone right now, Miso.”

“………”

The man was too good at reading people. That’s right. This wasn’t the only reason why people called this man a monk. It was also because of his eye for noticing things.

There were many actors that didn’t know this man. But of the ones that did, there wasn’t a single one of them who were left unnoticed by the big management companies.

As a matter of fact, he was also known as a maestro of finding talented actors.

“We can leave the private stuff for later. Right, so of the twelve kids you’ve shown me, who do you want to introduce me to?”

Lee Junmin. This was the name of the man who Miso invited to this cafe today.

* * *

The first thing Maru got greeted with when he entered the door was the sound of sizzling.

“You’re home, brother?”

Bada stuck her head out from the dining room, holding a piece of lettuce in one hand.

“You’re eating meat?”

“Ya, come eat. It’s super good.”

Maru quickly changed in his room, and headed to the dining room where his family was grilling meat on the table with a gas burner.

“You’re late.”

“Practice got a bit long. What’s up with the beef?”

Maru turned the package of beef around to look at the price tag. It was a grade 1++ beef. The type of stuff that went for 7,000 won per 100g.

“Did something happen, mom? Why’d you buy something so expensive?”

“Why would I buy something like this? It’s a gift.”

“A gift?”

“You didn’t get the call?”

“What call?”

Maru took out his phone, remembering that he put it on silent mode when he was at the cafe. When he opened it, he noticed one missed call on his screen.

“The manager?”

It was from the manager of the gas station. Maru turned to look at his mom.

“Did the manager give us this?”

“Yeah. He asked us for our home address a moment ago. He wanted to say thank you, since he couldn’t contact you.”

“Is that so? I wonder what happened. He didn’t say anything else otherwise?”

“Nope, he just dropped this off to us.”

Maru decided to call the manager for now.

“Hello? Manager?”

- Oh, is this Maru?

“Yes.”

- Did you enjoy the meat?

“We’re just about to start eating. But what’s up with this all of the sudden?”

- I wanted to thank you. I was wondering what I should get you, but I realized there was no greater gift to a teenager than meat. Why do you ask? Do you not like it?

“It’s hanwoo. Of course I’d like it. It just felt weird to eat it without knowing the reason why.”

- Hm? Did my son not tell you anything yet?

“Excuse me?”

When he asked back in surprise, he could hear the other side getting a little noisy in the background. He could somewhat make out the manager calling someone over hurriedly. Soon, he could hear a ‘here, take the call’ from the other side.

- Ugh… seriously.

“Who is this?”

-… It’s me.

The voice was a little murky, and also pretty rebellious. Maru knew this voice very well.

“Dowook?”

- Yeah.

“Why do you…”

- This is my dad’s phone.

Maru understood everything after hearing that one sentence. The manager was having trouble conversing with his son, who liked looking at bikes. He had a pretty good idea that the son in question would be Dowook, and now receiving confirmation from the person in question.

‘Looks like things got solved pretty well.’

He remembered the time when Dowook tried to cheer him up with some peach tea in class. Was that how he thanked people? That was pretty cute.

“Did you make up with your dad?”

- Make up? We never fought to begin with.

“You know what I mean. Well, it’s good that you made up with him.”

-……

“Did you look at the magazines? They looked expensive.”

- I-I saw.

“Damn, I’m jealous. You have a good dad.”

-……

“Treat him well. He probably suffered a lot inside.”

- I know, dude. Jeez.

“So long as you do. Ah, I was actually curious about something.”

- What?

“Why did you say you didn’t have a sister before?”

-… Because she might as well not exist.

His voice dropped a tone immediately. His family seemed to be going through quite a lot over there. Maybe Maru shouldn’t have asked about that to begin with? Maru just thanked him for the meat really quickly.

- Dad wants to talk to you.

“Sure.”

The manager started excitedly talking about how his relationship with his son was restored thanks to Maru’s advice. Relationships between fathers and sons were strange. As they grew old together, their relationship became somewhat strained. The sons only tried to restore their relationship upon empathizing with their fathers.

- I’ll see you next time.

“Yes.”

Maru returned to the dining table after finishing his call. Because fathers were often the ones who had to wage war with the outside world, households often relied on mothers for support. That’s why some of these men could never manage to become a proper father and were forgotten by their children.

In that sense, the amount of work the manager put into this was incredibly admirable. He managed to achieve a perfect work-life balance. For a moment, Maru wondered what Dowook’s mother and sister did in his head, but decided not to think about it. He didn’t want to interfere with someone else’s family life.

Maru watched the meat cook for a second before standing up again. He took out a single-use plastic wrap from one of the drawers.

“What are you taking that out for?”

“I want to save some for dad.”

Mom smiled victoriously.

“I already packed the food. Don’t worry about it.”

Mom pointed at the little bag of meat lying on the countertop.

‘I guess that’s why she’s the wife.’

Maybe Maru didn’t need to worry so much about dad’s health. In that case…

“Mom, did you get your results back yet?”

“Why are you so worried, Mr. Maru? The doctor said I have no problems. He said my wrist would get better with rest, too. I’m going to go to work after some more rest, so don’t you worry.”

“That’s good to hear.”

“You worry too much. Mom is super healthy!”

Mom flexed her biceps as she said so, which made Maru smile a little bit.

* * *

The girl looked out the window at the bright, shining stars in the night sky. Maybe because all her neighbors decided to turn off their lights tonight?

“It’s big.”

The news stations all said that Mars would be particularly close to earth today. Indeed, the red dot shined particularly bright in the sky.

“I wonder if I can take a picture.”

She tried taking a picture with her foldable phone. But unfortunately, the camera captured nothing but a blurry brown sky. She wanted a closer picture. The girl looked up at the sky for a second before turning on her computer.

While it booted, she grabbed her script to take a look at it. She could pretty much recite all of her lines in one go now, but she still looked at her script whenever she could.

“Hm, hm hm.”

The girl flipped through the pages humming as her computer booted up. She redirected her attention to her monitor after the wait and clicked around a few times to find acting related blogs before finding a new blog on her screen.

The blog in question was titled ‘Life, Once Again’ loaded on the top of the screen. It was filled with diary-like posts that were updated every day or two. After clicking one of them in curiosity, the girl exclaimed to herself in pleasant surprise.

“He’s in the acting club as well.”

Occasionally, he was uploading writing about his acting club. That was a pleasant surprise for the girl.

“Hello, I’m in an acting club as well. Let’s meet in the Seoul Arts Center in the future!”

She left a comment in the form of a greeting before closing the tab, and turning on some music. She grabbed her script, and pushed her chair to the corner.

“Hm hm. Ah ah!”

After loosening her voice a little bit, the girl walked around in her room, treating it like a stage. The girl looked as happy as she could be, performing her own little play in her room.

* * *

Maru noticed a comment on his blog when he came back to his room after dinner. A comment… on a personal blog like this?

“Is this an ad?”

He clicked the comment thinking this.

- Hello, I’m in an acting club as well. Let’s meet in the Seoul Arts Center in the future!

A normal comment? That was surprising. How did she manage to find this blog? The user’s id was Black Swan. He did feel thankful that this person spent some time on this site.

“Let’s work hard.”

Maru closed the window and pulled out his math textbook. He did make up his mind to do acting, but this was only to meet her. He couldn’t just leave normal studying in the dust.

“…Why couldn’t god give me an ability to be good at studying? I wonder why I can’t understand a thing when it comes to this…”

What’s black are the letters, and what’s white is paper. Maru understood very little apart from that. He picked up his pen with a deep frown on his face.

Chapter 68

Maru felt pretty odd. It was like feeling the reminiscent of meeting a friend he knew on the street, but he was unable to remember the friend’s name.

“…Hey.”

Dowook greeted him on the street awkwardly, Maru blinked a few times in confusion before passing by. He heard a ‘hey!’ come from behind him, but he decided to ignore it. Watching a guy who was always annoyed with him suddenly smile at him just felt way too weird. It felt like someone was tickling his nose with a feather.

He parked his bike and tried to dash inside, but Dowook caught up faster than he thought.

“You’re just running?”

“The Dowook I know isn’t the type to greet me with a weird smile like that.“

“…Ugh, fuck.”

“Yeah. Just swear instead. That’s a lot better.”

Maru changed his shoes into the indoor ones with a smile. The two of them merged with the massive crowd of students to go up the stairs. Their class was, as always, right next to the stairs on the second floor. Maru stepped towards the door, wishing for another good day, but a group across the hall caught his attention.

The kids who were grinning at each other, spitting out the window. It was Changhu, the delinquent of his class, with the other delinquents from other classes. Dowook frowned as he noticed them, too. Changhu turned to look at the two of them.

The boy’s mouth moved a little. Maru couldn’t hear the him, but the boy was probably telling them to fuck off. Maru stopped Dowook from stepping forward.

“Pigeons don’t belong where crows hang.”

“………”

“Didn’t you say you were done with the childish stuff? Just ignore them. It’s not like him staring at you is going to do anything.”

Maru waved his hand with a grin at the Changhu gang as he said this. The kids on the window looked away, with ridiculing smiles on their faces.

“Doesn’t your pride get hurt when they do that?” Dowook asked, after they entered class.

“Your pride isn’t something so easily wounded. It isn’t even worth having if even kids can trample it.”

Dowook clicked his tongue in annoyance and went to his seat. The boy didn’t get as annoyed as he did in the past, probably a sign of maturity.

“What happened?” Dojin asked.

“Nothing special. Did you memorize your lines, by the way?”

“Of course I did. I don’t want to die, you know. What about you?”

“I don’t have anything to memorize, dude. It’s just three lines.”

“True that.”

The club members became even more serious with acting after their evening in the cafe. Their method of practice had changed as well.

Maru looked at Daemyung, who was speaking his lines out loud from his seat. His friends were all listening to him. Maru and Dojin decided to move up to watch as well. Daemyung’s small voice started getting louder in response.

“What did I tell you? I told you that the new guy was really strange. Just you watch. That guy’s definitely going to cause trouble for himself. By the way… Are you really going to finish all that food by yourself?”

Daemyung turned to look at his friends after speaking about this much.

“It’s good, but…”

“Is there something off?”

“Your expression is a bit too strong, I guess? I can focus, but it’s not funny.”

“Really? How about this?”

Daemyung changed his expression a little bit, earning approval from his friends.

“Well, you’re working hard,” Maru greeted.

Only then did the boy respond to the two of them with a greeting on his own. He seemed way too engrossed in his practice to even notice. What amazing focus.

After the cafe test, it became standard for the club to practice in front of an audience. Daemyung, in particular, was asking his friends to help both in the morning and lunch. It was a good way of getting pretty direct feedback, Maru had to admit.

‘He’s really focused when it comes to acting.’

Since the boy started taking practice so seriously, his friends were taking it seriously with him. Thanks to media nowadays streaming movies and dramas left and right, these kids had an eye for decent acting. They could easily catch if something was awkward or if something was good. Sure, they weren’t professional critics or anything, but they had no trouble pointing out basic mistakes.

It was like how someone said the line between porn and art was clear once you actually saw it. It was the same with these kids.

“I-is that so?”

Daemyung quickly jotted a few things down on his script. At moments like these, he really seemed like a pro actor.

‘Most people just end up confusing themselves when they get so many different opinions thrown at them, but it doesn’t look like Daemyung would do that to himself.’

If you really wanted to improve, you had to first filter opinions and reviews to find the truly useful ones. Otherwise you’d end up straining your body too much and end up self-destructing.

“Thanks. Can you help me again at lunchtime?”

“Any time.”

Maru noticed that Daemyung’s friends were starting to feel a little proud of what they were doing. After all, being put in a position to be able to judge was pretty satisfying. Since the right to judge was usually granted to those in positions of power.

Of course, these kids probably didn’t even realize that.

“You might actually get that main role when you’re in second year,” Dojin commented.

Maru peeked a little at Daemyung’s notes. Indeed, the entire script was filled to the absolute brim with notes.

“It’s fine if I don’t get to the Seoul Arts Center, but I do want to go to Dream Hall, after all.”

The nationals in summer were held in the Seoul Arts Center, while the winter competition was held in a place called Dream Hall. In terms of size, Dream Hall was much bigger, since the students would perform in a massive theater that could seat more than a thousand.

“Dream Hall… was pretty cool.”

Maru had to agree with Dojin. Miso took the lot of them there a few weeks ago to try and give them motivation. The club members spent a few minutes on stage looking down at the audience seats there.

‘It did feel pretty electrifying.’

The entire auditorium was split into two floors. The air of the entire auditorium was enough to make even Maru get excited, not to mention the club members. As a matter of fact, Maru did remember seeing a fighting spirit start to burn in their eyes back then.

[We have three months left.]

He recalled Miso saying.

“Three months.”

“Yeah, three.”

Dojin put down Daemyung’s script, and grabbed his own from his seat.

“Daemyung, can you help me practice?”

“Of course.”

The two were, as always, very hard at work.

“Work hard.”

“What about you?”

“I’ll do enough to look good, so don’t worry.”

Maru took out his book after returning to his seat. It would be rude for him to just join in casually when the two of them were so serious about this. He would help them out if they needed a practice partner, but for now, it looked like they were doing pretty well by themselves. At times, the two of them were even going as far as to act out other people’s lines.

If the practice for their first play was sort of forced by Miso, this second play was entirely filled with their own motivation and desire.

‘They’re going to improve fast.’

People who were motivated often achieved more than what even they thought they were capable of. Perhaps the club really might be able to perform in Dream Hall this year.

Maru closed his novel with a sigh, and took out his own script. He should at least try to put in an effort. Just because he was only there for the ulterior motive of romance, it didn’t mean he could be lazy.

Just because he couldn’t be a reliable support for the club didn’t mean he had to be a complete letdown. In that case…

‘I should at least be better than average.’

Since the character himself had very few lines, he would probably get by even with little practice.

“Oh, you just moved in? Welcome, welcome.”

Maru went straight into practice, with his pencil tucked a little into his mouth.

* * *

“Did you guys drink together?”

“I made her drink quite a bit, but she was fine. She has a strong tolerance.”

“Dude, I told you. You have to mix coke for it to really work well. Or just make her drink something sweet. It costs a lot, but that’s the way to go.”

“Next time. My wallet isn’t looking so good.”

Changhu split up with his group after checking the time. The lot of them had a party with the girls from the neighboring school yesterday, but no one managed to get anywhere.

“Hah, she was pretty, too.”

“The girl who was smoking that whole pack?”

That was the first thing Changhu heard when he stepped into class. It didn’t sound like any casual talk from a student. Ah, it was the acting club kids practicing again.

“They try so hard,” he commented.

“Maybe I should’ve gone to the acting club. The girls there were pretty.”

“Oh dude, yeah. Pretty sexy.”

“The senior who came to our class last time was super cute, too.”

“Not my type.”

Changhu sat down on his seat with his hands in his pockets. He could feel the two cigarettes he brought from home inside them. Since one of his friends had a lighter, he had to make do by smoking it during lunchtime outside school. There were still fifteen minutes till class started and since he stayed up late playing video games last night, he got ready to nap.

“Hey, be quiet. You’re fucking loud.”

Of course, he didn’t forget to say something to the two kids out in front. Daemyung was a total coward, so he shut himself right up when Changhu just glared. Dojin, though, really needed some verbal communication to understand.

Ah, silence. Very peaceful. Perfect for sleep.

But just as he was about to drift off into dreamland, he started hearing something annoying again. It was Daemyung and Dojin. They were quieter than before, but they were talking.

‘Those bastards… ’

Did they really have to annoy him? He was tired. When he raised his head, he could see the two still practicing.

“Hey! Couldn’t you hear me?”

Daemyung flinched and shut his mouth immediately, but Dojin just smiled in annoyance.

“What, did you buy up the entire class or something? We lowered our voice, so just go to sleep, why don’t you?”

“Hah, fuck. Your voice is still loud, so why don’t you shut that stupid mouth of yours?”

“God damn, do you think we’re in a library or something? Just put on your damn headphones if you’re so bothered.”

“You son of a…”

Dojin was an annoyance to Changhu from the start. Changhu tried to go light on the guy since he looked like he was a delinquent in the past, but there was no helping him now. The boy gave a few of his friends around him a quick glance. There were four friends of his in this class. All people he was friends with since middle school.

“You’re acting out too much, especially when you’re smaller than my fucking dick.”

“Hah, are your guys’ dicks a 170cms or something?”

Dojin didn’t miss a single beat. Changhu was not a fan. The guy really needed a lesson. Of course, he had no intention of starting a fight in class. This school has too many crazy teachers.

Instead, he would try to annoy the kid a little bit.

His friends all started walking forward with him. The kids around Dojin and Daemyung all stepped back nervously.

“You should speak a little gently, don’t you think, Dojin? You’re not a delinquent, are you?”

“No, you. Also, what do you think you’re doing? You going to hit me? You want to become pandas together? Is that what you want?”

Changhu signalled his friends. Dojin was the type to hit back, so hitting was a no go for now. Daemyung on the other hand, was a perfect target.

“Daemyung… Did I do anything to make you mad before?”

But just before Changhu could get any further,

“Guys, the teacher’s coming,” someone said.

It was Maru, who was looking outside through the back door.

“I’ll have a word with you next time,” said Changhu, returning to his seat.

Not even he wanted to go at it with the teacher who always had a PVC pipe handy. But even after a minute of waiting, nothing happened.

What the?

Changhu turned to look at Maru in confusion. Their eyes met. And…

Maru just shrugged with a grin.

“Sorry, think I saw wrong.”

Changhu felt his lips twist a little bit. His mood was totally ruined for the day, he just knew it.

Chapter 69

The sound of the bell rang from the ceiling.

“Have a nice lunch.”

Once the teacher left the room, the students all bolted for the front and back doors. They shoved each other, moving several times faster than usual.

“Chicken!”

“Let’s go!”

Today, the cafeteria served fried chicken. The students all rushed there with as much strength as their legs could muster. Maru only stood up from his seat after some of the students disappeared.

“Well, that was terrifying.”

“It’s not like the fried chicken would stop being fried chicken if you were late. Wonder why they’re in such a hurry.”

Maru motioned Daemyung over, who walked over with a script in hand.

“Planning on practicing on the way over?”

“Yeah. I can’t waste time.”

What a guy. Since when did he become so diligent again?

“Your script is going to fall apart into rags at this rate.”

As he said this, Dojin ran over to grab his own script as well. How troublesome, the two of them made even Maru itching to practice.

“Actor Han, Actor Park, please. Let’s try to focus on food during lunchtime.”

Maru dragged his friends by their shoulders outside. By the time they got to the cafeteria, all the running kids were neatly arranged in a line. Be it the past or present, it appears Koreans really went crazy for fried chicken.

“Hellow!”

Someone greeted them from behind, it was Iseul. The people around her were wearing gray shirts from other clubs, while Iseul was wearing Blue Sky’s T-shirt. Just like the three of them.

“Oh, I look better here!” the girl noted, stepping towards them.

Daemyung moved away from her slightly in response. No one noticed because it was so slight, but Maru realized right away, being next to the boy.

‘What a softie.’

It didn’t look like Daemyung was awkward because he liked Iseul, rather his unfamiliarity talking to pretty girls. He was so casual with her when they practiced, too. He was probably just bad with actual social settings.

Maru pushed the boy towards the girl, away from him. Daemyung desperately sent signals for him to stop, but Maru just grinned even more in response.

‘This is all for the future, buddy. Girls aren’t people you should just avoid. They’re supposed to be people to get used to.’

Daemyung’s face reddened almost immediately. Come to think of, it was pretty strange watching this guy become so confident on stage.

“How’s practice going for you guys?” Iseul asked.

“Perfect as always. You?” Dojin responded.

“Same old, same old. I’m just trying to make it fun for myself. And you, Daemyung?”

“M-me? W-well, I think it’s going well. Still need a lot of work, though.”

“Why so humble all of the sudden? You were great last time,” Iseul said, nudging Daemyung a little.

The boy could only laugh saying ‘was I?’ under his breath.

“And Maru… You’re probably doing fine. Right?”

“I’m trying the best I can.”

“Best? Haha. Doesn’t sound like you.”

“What sounds like me, then?”

“Trying as little as possible to get by?”

“You got me.”

The line got shorter while they talked. Once they actually entered the cafeteria, they found another group wearing the same shirt as well. The three guys from the design class, and one more person. Taejoon.

“Hello, men!” Taejoon greeted, getting the attention of everyone around him.

The attention made him silent, as he nursed an embarrassed smile.

‘He’s the type that likes to be loud, but also gets easily embarrassed,’ Maru noted.

“What are you doing here?” Iseul asked.

“What about you, then? What are you doing here?”

“Well… ok, fine. You got me there.”

Maru sat down on the table, greeting the design kids appropriately. Geunseok and Yurim waved back lazily, and Soyeon told him to enjoy his meal. It didn’t look like they were still mad about what he did back then, but they didn’t seem to want to be close with him at all.

Maru was completely fine with that, it would honestly be a bit annoying if they tried to get overly friendly with him instead.

“This feels lIke I’m chewing on rock,” Dojin commented next to him, biting into his chicken.

‘They had to fry chicken for a thousand people, of course it’s going to be like that.’

Maru was reminded of his times in the military, specifically that time they served fried chicken one day after the news of an avian influenza outbreak. The fact that the flavor of chicken from that time overlapped with the flavor of this chicken probably meant that the food here was really bad.

“This tastes good to me, though.”

Daemyung was pretty much licking the bones completely clean, Maru decided to give his chicken to Daemyung as a result.

The club met outside after lunchtime, every member was holding a cup of hot chocolate in their hands.

“We start blocking today, right?”

It’s already been two weeks since they were given their scripts. By this time, the club members were strictly off book. Today, they would start moving according to the positions Miso assigns them to, and then say their lines.

Standing still and saying your lines was a completely different thing compared to actually moving around saying it. Walking and talking at the same time was a surprisingly difficult task. Maru understood completely, having actually seen the club do it multiple times.

Right then, he could feel the eyes of the club shift over to him.

“Don’t worry, I won’t be a bother.”

He didn’t say he’d try not to be a bother, trying to imply that he wouldn’t fail. At times like these, it was just better for him to say he wouldn’t do something for sure. Plus, Maru had practiced enough to be sure of not making a mistake.

“I’ll see you guys later.”

With that, the club split up. After school, they would meet again in the auditorium.

* * *

Dojin noticed someone annoying once he entered class. It was Changhu and his group of friends, sitting at Maru’s seat. Dojin spoke up first with a frown.

“What do you think you’re doing.”

“Well, I just wanted to talk.”

“Can’t you just fuck off?”

“Can you shut up, Dojin? I’m not trying to talk to you.”

Maru stopped Dojin from stepping forward, Dojin didn’t take too kindly to that.

“Maru, guys like that learn through beatings.”

“Stop it, and go to your seat. You’re not a kid, stop trying to solve things with violence.”

Calm down. Maru pat Dojin’s shoulders a few times, making the guy step back with a glare. Daemyung stood next to Maru with a nervous face. How brave of the boy.

“So, what do you want to tell me?”

“Well, I just wanted to get along, you know?”

“Nice. I hope we can, too.”

Maru extended his hand, catching Changhu off guard.

“What the hell are you?”

“What do you think? I’m Maru.”

Changhu watched Maru’s hand and face repeatedly before standing up. Dojin was about to shout again, but was stopped by Maru. Changhu grinned seeing that.

“Good good. Dojin, you should really learn from Maru. You have no sense at all.”

Changhu walked back to his seat after giving Maru a few pats on the cheek with the back of his hand. Man, he’s learned a thing or two from movies, hasnt he?

How cute.

Maru actually had to stop himself from laughing out too loud. But right then, Dojin grabbed his shoulder and pulled him back.

“We need to talk.”

What was up with this guy, now? Maru stepped out into the hall, scratching his face. Daemyung followed the two of them with a troubled expression. Fifth class had yet to start just yet, so there were a lot of students still outside.

Dojin spoke in a hushed tone amongst the other noises around him.

“Have you no pride? Why did you just sit taking it?”

“Why are you getting riled up again? Just endure it.”

“No, dude. I can just ignore it if he was just bothering me, but… Ugh, it’s so annoying, what he does. Trying to bother literally everyone around him.”

Dojin seemed ticked off about what happened this morning, especially from seeing his eyes glance over at Daemyung for a second. He was probably worried about the boy after what Changhu did.

What a nice guy, he had every right to be angry. After all, in terms of the animal kingdom, Changhu wasn’t even a hyena. Closer to a wild dog, actually. The type of animal that attacks everything from insects to animals in a pack, but wouldn’t dare to approach the real predators. The guy probably didn’t even know how to act in front of someone that was actually strong. Guys like them were surprisingly easy to deal with, actually. You just need to bite back a little bit.

Just one fight is enough to solve the issue, but…

“Still, be patient.”

“Why? Are you…”

“If you’re going to be childish and ask if I’m scared, I’d stop right now.”

“Then why?”

“Dojin, we only have three months left.”

“What?”

“Don’t you want to go to Dream Hall?”

Maru turned to look at Daemyung, to emphasize his point a little bit. The acting club already had a bad track record, especially when taking note of the fire incident in the auditorium. Thankfully, Taesik managed to cover it up as an accident that happened due to an argument between the students at the time. But due to this, the faculty ended up getting a bad opinion of the club. The reduced budget for the club was evidence enough.

What would happen if another fight broke out now? Surely, one of the faculty members would step up to say something. Especially the hanja teacher. After all, he was the person who came to the club room most often to complain. The man would be the first to try to hurt the club when he got an opportunity.

Standing out right now was an especially bad idea, with the competition about to start so soon. Maru would’ve done something himself if it wasn’t for this. But right now, ignoring the group was the best thing he could do.

“You know Changhu tries to look good in front of the teachers too.”

“………”

“If things get bad, we’re both going to get beat up by the teachers, but the club’s going to get hurt as well. The school’s going to try and disband us by pointing out our violent tendencies.”

“But…”

“No buts. Did you forget that we need the school’s permission to go to nationals? Who knows what might happen if you get into a fight? If you can ignore it, just ignore it.”

“Hah.”

Dojin finally seemed to understand what was happening, the frown on his face melted as well.

“Delinquents would beat up students at school, all the while looking all nice and sheepish in front of teachers. Not even our homeroom teacher thinks well of our club, so just endure it. And…”

Maru glanced at Changhu through the window for a second before lowering his voice.

“If he comes in to hit you, just take it.”

“What?”

“The dogs that bite don’t bark first, it’s the same with delinquents. The guys that are really screwed up wouldn’t even say a word, they would just swing the chair at your face. The guys that talk only fight when they really have to, because they’re scared. If you just act like you’re willing to take the punch, he’s going to walk away.”

“…Maru, were you a delinquent or something in middle school?”

“I’m a well-mannered citizen. Don’t be turning me into something weird now.”

You’ll understand soon enough how stupid it is to fight with fists later on, buddy. Maru dragged his two friends back into the class.

Chapter 70

“Yo. I went to take a smoke yesterday, and fuck, I saw the gym teacher outside, right? He was beating up the kids behind the building. Shit was insane.”

“That fucker’s crazy. The guy probably comes here just to beat kids up.”

The kids said with a shiver, even Changhu knew the gym teacher. The one teacher whose background was incredibly enigmatic. It’d be more believable if the school told them they just hired a gangster to do some dirty work. After all, the teacher beat up students pretty much whenever he felt like it. Already, many of the first years were sacrificed to the man’s PVC pipe.

“We really have to be careful of that guy. He’s crazy.”

Changhu had to nod in agreement. There was a reason why engineering schools had a bad rep. It was exactly because of teachers like them.

“Ah, I heard Dansu was taking us to karaoke today. You guys coming?”

“Dansu? Him? Why?”

“I heard a kind idiot gave him some money today.”

“Hah, kind idiot? He found himself a nice wallet, didn’t he? Oh, by the way, I saw a lot of middle school kids hanging out near the karaoke. They just spit out money if we talk to them a little.”

“Wow, you’re stooping that low?”

“They have a lot of cash.” “Oh, really? Nice.”

Middle schoolers were quick to part with their money with a little bit of encouragement. They would often even cry if you had a cigarette in your mouth.

“I managed to buy a new MP3 with that money, you know. These kids have a lot of money nowadays, heh.”

Changhu’s friend took out an MP3 that was worth around 300,000 won from his pocket. It actually looked pretty nice. Changhu fiddled with his pretty new MP3 before grinning.

“Huh, I should change mine too.”

Especially if there was such a good fishing spot near school.

“In any case.”

Changhu looked at Maru, who was sleeping at his desk. The guy would often rebel at him, which was pretty annoying at times. Of course, Dojin was the really annoying guy of the two. He wanted to beat both of them pretty badly, but now really didn’t seem like the time. Especially since he knew Dojin would bite back.

“Oh, did you hear?”

“What?”

“I heard this as I was drinking with a second year, but apparently the acting club had a problem last year.”

“A problem?”

“Apparently they almost burned down the school, so the teachers all harbor a dislike of the club.”

Changhu thought back of an incident that happened a few days ago. The teacher had hit Dojin across the head, muttering ‘this is why acting club kids are… ’ to himself.

“Is that so.”

Weren’t these guys going to some competition this time? They probably wouldn’t be able to go if there happened to be an unfortunate accident. How nice.

“Hey, Dojin,” he called out. The boy immediately turned to look at him with a frown.

“Be careful of fires. I heard there was an accident? You have to be careful, don’t you?”

“………”

Dojin immediately grit his teeth. Oh? This really must be the other boy’s weak point.

“Let’s be careful, okay?”

Changhu immediately felt his shoulders loosen up a bit more.

* * *

“You endured well,” Maru said, patting Dojin on the back. Dojin looked like he chewed on something bitter.

“How’d he manage to learn about that?”

“He probably heard it somewhere. He has a good head on his shoulders, so he’ll probably try to use it against you.”

Changhu wasn’t like a typical delinquent at all, the boy knew exactly how communities worked. Now that he knew their weak point, he would start trying to test the waters to see how far he could go with this.

“If it wasn’t for the competition… Ugh!”

Dojin punched his palm with a fist. He must care about the club a lot, seeing how he managed to endure all of this still.

“You just need to lay low for a bit. He’ll grow tired of it soon enough.”

“But what about my pride? I can’t even dare imagine having to lay low in front of that kid.”

“You’re really going to be angered by someone like him? You need to get over stuff like this. You’re an adult.”

“…Well, true.”

“That’s enough then, isn’t it?”

Maru dragged Dojin up the stairs. After coming up to the fifth floor, the three of them opened the door to the auditorium where could they see Miso standing amongst all the students.

“Get over here!” Miso shouted.

Maru ran over, thinking that the fun was just about to start.

“We’re going to stretch a bit before going straight in. We’re also going to be making our props and costumes today, so you better be ready.”

“Yes!”

“Alright, mouth muscles, go.”

The students began stretching their mouths individually once Miso gave them the go ahead. Some of them stretched their mouth widely to loosen up the muscles there, and others moved their tongue all over the place to stress that too. Some even worked their lips a little bit.

“Ah! Ahh!”

“Haaah…”

They shouted loudly to open up their vocal cords, and then let out air to open up their nostrils. Maru followed suit. It wasn’t that difficult, since he’d seen them do this many times before. Actually, it almost felt like he learned this in the past. Maybe he attended an acting lesson when he was a road manager? In any case, this definitely didn’t feel like the first time.

Next up, it was time to stretch the rest of their muscles. The club members stood in a circle, and started walking slowly. One step every ten seconds. They were making sure that when they walked, that their balance wasn’t lost, their arms were in the right place, and that their feet were landing in the right places. Unlike what it looked like, this practice actually required a lot of concentration.

The club members returned to their normal pace once Miso clapped.

“Phew.”

The kids sighed in relief, but then.

“Why are you sighing?! Pay attention to your breathing!” Miso immediately shouted.

The air in the auditorium had turned incredibly heavy. After around ten more minutes of this, the club members split up to start stretching on their own.

Oftentimes in small theaters, actors were very close to the audience. But in larger ones, especially the one in Dream Hall, it was difficult to discern the audience’s faces. That’s why actors were often required to make very large movements, have very clear diction, and a very loud voice.

In everyday life, it was possible for people to make out emotions just from the way a person blinked, or the way their lips twitched. But being on a stage made it difficult to make out such expressions. Oftentimes, overreacting to everything looked just right to the audience from the stage. That was the reason why many actors reached out for the sky or whatnot during their monologues.

Small movements, as a matter of fact, only served to frustrate the audience. No matter what role you were playing, it was essential that you act “big”.

“Come here, we’re going to do one reading before practicing our movement.”

As the club members started doing the readings without their scripts, Miso moved around with her green tape, marking out boundaries on the stage. Of course, the club members knew exactly what she was doing at this point.

“This is the size of the stage in the Ansan Art Hall. The competition will take place there in October. It was built fairly recently, so the stage is pretty big, and they have a lot of tools we can use. But! The big stage will be a minus for you guys. The play will look really bad on stage if your movements are even a little bit off. I’ll take you there next time, so just be aware for now that it’s about this big.”

Last time in the competition, the club competed at the Suwon Art Center. It was not a place designated to house plays, but at an auditorium meant for various events. But this time, things were different. They were performing a play at an actual place meant for plays.

“So it’s bigger than the…”

“College competition? Of course.”

“Hah.”

The club members sighed, looking at the green tape below them.

“It’s now October 18th, we have exactly a month left. I have already registered us for the competitions, and there isn’t going to be a prelim this time around, since this is more of a festival. Most teams are there to have fun. We’re different, though. We’re here to win. We’re going to win over there, and we’re going to win at the winter competition in December. Understood?”

“Yes!”

Miso stretched out her hand with a clap.

“Ok, let’s cheer ourselves up before we actually go into this.”

The club members all stretched out their hands in unison. Maru put his hand on in the middle as well. This was the first time he was taking part in something like this. He didn’t feel anything big rising up in his chest, but he did smile.

Finally, he was a step inside the circle.

“Blue Sky!”

“Yeah!”

Practice began shortly after.

* * *

Dalseok-dong was a fictional town, a suburban town that was right between the farmlands and the city.

“On top of a big hill lies a little town. The road up the hill is littered with the occasional streetlights, with no trees in sight. The old streetlights are leaning a little forward, threatening to snap, while being covered with all sorts of posters stuck on them.”

Maru closed his eyes, listening to Miso talk. He was trying to imagine the setting, trying to immerse himself enough to become one of Dalseok-dong’s residents.

“You’ll be able to see a house next to one of these lights. The glass door that leads inside is so dirty that you actually can’t see in any more. There are small windows for the basement floor next to this glass door, and you notice yellow curtains draped inside. This house has three floors. Basement, first floor, and second floor, its exterior made out of feeble brown bricks that appear ready to crumble. Inside, you hear the scoldings of an overbearing wife, the sighs of a student preparing for college entrance exams, and the embarrassed introductions of a new couple. I hear a dog barking in the background as well. What about cats?”

Yoonjung answered with ‘I think I can hear them too’.

“Well, there must be cats around as well, then. Next to that house is a little store with a blue roof. Inside it, an old couple is arguing with each other yet again today. Granny?”

Soyeon immediately stepped up to speak. She was an old lady that lost her dentures, acting seamlessly in her role, which made Maru laugh a little.

“What about the grandpa?”

“You old hag! You’re spouting bullshit today again!”

It was Taejoon. His voice carried a lot of annoyance. Understandable for someone who received a whack in the back of the head in the midst of a chess game. Again, some laughter.

Miso closed her mouth for a second. In the meantime, Maru worked to clarify the image of Dalseok-dong in his head. The others were probably doing the same. After about five minutes…

“Stop,” Miso said.

“Try to clarify the image of your characters, using the image of the town you have. You need a very clear image in your head.”

“Yes.”

“Okay, let’s go straight in with the movement. We’re going to slowly figure this out from scene one, so make sure to take notes. We’re going to practice this once, and go straight into doing runs.”

They had to finish the play before October. It was understandable that their practices would be rushed. After all, they had only a single month to do this. Just because the Anyang Art Festival was a passing competition did not justify an incomplete play. Plus, Miso wouldn’t accept that for the life of her.

Maru stood outside the green tape with a pen in one hand, and a script in the other.

‘Well, so I really ended up doing this, huh.’

Today especially, that steel chair he used to sit on at the end of the auditorium felt far away from him. Right now, he was a part of the club for real.

‘Might as well go to the finals, at the very least.’

He was certain that she would go to the finals. He knew that for sure, somehow. They would meet once again upon the stage.

“Maru! Stop grinning and focus!”

“Yes!”

Maru fixed his expression immediately.

Chapter 71

After Soyeon wrote her notes, she slouched a little and pretended to shove something in her mouth.

“That’s when Geunseok turns around.”

The two’s eyes met once Geunseok turned around, right after Soyeon yelled at him for passing around cheap rice cakes to the neighbors.

“Right, this is where the audience is supposed to laugh. How do we do this in order to make it look more dramatic?”

“I think it’d be good to exaggerate as much as possible. The script says the granny’s supposed to cover her mouth with her hands, but what if her jaw hangs loose enough to make the rice cake in her mouth drop on the floor?”

Soyeon immediately dropped her jaw in response.

“Good. What about you, Geunseok?”

“I think I’d be a little shocked, since I don’t know much about the granny just yet. Maybe I’d smile awkwardly.”

“Good. That’s when Taejoon appears.”

Taejoon peeked out from where the little store was supposed to be. Of course, this was another instance where he is caught eating Geunseok’s rice cake.

“Ugh, damn it!”

He made a face, as if he just saw something he shouldn’t have seen. He pretended to spit the rice cake out of his mouth, and went back inside.

Huh, this is pretty funny.

Maru found himself smiling almost instinctively. This wasn’t enough to make him roll on the floor with laughter, but it did set the mood very nicely. Some of the audience might actually laugh with some proper makeup.

“Good. You guys should figure out the rest from here on. If this gets too emotional, you guys will just look like you’re fighting, so be very careful of that. Also, Taejoon, that expression was very good just now. Try to see if you can exaggerate it some more. Next!”

Miso stepped into the green tape with her script. This was where Daemyung and Geunseok would meet for the first time, and also where Daemyung’s monologue was. The nonsensical monologue was supposed to be the humorous point in this scene. The scene’s success or failure was depending on how Daemyung acted.

“Come here, Daemyung.”

Daemyung stumbled into the scene with a tired look. His hands were in his pockets, his legs stood with no energy, and his lips twitched like he wanted to start blabbering. The thirty-year old student was very much ready to start complaining about the world.

“Alright, start talking.”

As soon as Miso got back to her seat, Daemyung started talking. His voice exploded outwards very clearly. All those hours of practice at class were really beginning to shine now. On top of that voice, he started layering emotions. Daemyung started listing the reasons why he couldn’t pass the college entrance exams.

This was the turning point for the character, who’s been saying pretty logical stuff all this time.

“No matter how much I study, I can’t pass if I’m unlucky! Society is incredibly unfair!”

Geunseok pretended to hand Daemyung a rice cake as he spoke.

“I don’t think you can blame society for that though…”

“What? How old are you?”

“Me? I’m twenty-eight.”

“Clearly, you lived a failed life. Do you even know what Madam Smith’s invisible hand is?”

“Madam?”

“Yes!”

“…………”

“I knew it. To think you don’t even know who the famous Madam Smith was. This is exactly why people should study. But, no matter how much you study, you’re bound to fail if you’re unlucky! Ugh, this world is so unfair! It can’t even recognize a genius like me!”

Daemyung started pointing at the audience seats, as if he was shifting the blame on them, too. Maybe it was because of Daemyung’s kind-looking face, but the boy only managed to attach a dumb and comical personality onto his character. After a bit more of his monologue, Daemyung pulled out a phone from his pocket. And…

“What? A meeting? Of course I’m coming! Study? Haha, I’ll pass as long as I’m lucky!”

As soon as Daemyung’s words turned out to be a lie, Geunseok cleared his throat a bit awkwardly.

“You just said you studied three years straight…”

Geunseok scanned Daemyung up and down. Daemyung closed his phone before saying,

“We’re short by one dude.”

“………”

“The girls are pretty.”

“…Let’s go.”

The two exit the stage each with an arm around the other’s shoulders.

“The lights go out, and the sounds of a club starts playing. After a few more seconds, the lights turn on again.”

Joonghyuk and Danmi stepped into the stage after Miso gave the directions. Joonghyuk played the character of the weak husband, and Danmi, his wife. The characters stood in front of the little store as they spoke. Joonghyuk’s shoulders drooped more and more, managing to make himself look like a sad, wet dog in the process. Danmi, on the other hand, started making her husband suddenly look a lot better once Soyeon came onto the stage.

“Honey…”

“Be quiet for a bit.”

“I’m tired. I worked out too much at the pool today.”

“Please!”

“Can we go back ho…”

“Shut your mouth, if you don’t want to swim in the Jordan river!”

When Danmi shouted, Taejoon ran out from the store shouting, ‘It’s not my time yet! I’m only a hundred years old!‘

“Hey! You came out too fast! You have to come out immediately after the line ends!”

“I’m sorry.”

“Remember it next time.”

“Yes!”

“Also, Soyeon.”

“Yes.”

“Why are you smiling? You can’t let yourself show when you’re acting. You can’t show that kind of stuff to the audience!”

“…I’m sorry.”

“I told you that comedies are hard, didn’t I? How many times do I need to tell you, making people laugh is harder than making people cry! Focus. There needs to be a reason behind every single movement on stage, unprepared laughter on the stage is nothing but a mistake. Only when you complete the play can you even start to think about doing improv. Remember that.”

“Yes.”

“We’re going to take a short break before moving on. Think about the criticisms I gave you so far, and try to improve where you think you failed. I can’t help you much more after that. Got it?”

The air in the auditorium loosened a lot more once Miso clapped. The whole club dropped down onto the floor with a sigh. Once practice started, Miso turned into a completely different person. She shouted a lot outside of practice, of course, but everyone knew that was her playing around. But once practice started… She truly looked angry. Well, at least everyone was used to it now.

The club members formed their little groups. They got together in groups of two or three, and practiced their lines with each other. Maru just watched all of this from a step away. His character didn’t have any lines he exchanged with others. He would just step in every once in a while after a scene ended, saying ‘I knew that would happen’ before exiting. There were a few instances where he would interact with other characters, but it was so short that he honestly had to wonder if he even needed practice.

“So, how’s practice?” Miso asked.

She had dyed her hair from blonde to black. Maru didn’t know if she did this for herself, or because of Taesik, but he had to admit, black did look better on her.

“It’s as hard as I imagined.”

“Really? Not worse than you thought?”

“They say even a dog in a school would be able to read after three years. I’ve observed for a long time, so it’s a given I’d have decent expectations of what I would have coming to myself.”

“That’s three years, though. Well, not like I don’t believe you.”

Miso sat down next to Maru after looking at the clock. The club members in front of them looked like they were ready to practice until the sun went down.

“They’re pretty passionate, aren’t they?”

“Yes.”

“Why don’t you join them?”

“What use would any of them have in having a character like mine join their practice? I can just join in when we’re just about done with the planning. Isn’t that the sort of the character this is?”

“You’re right. Your character’s a bit of a strange one in a small play like this. After all, there are multiple comedic instances he has to handle by himself.”

“His lines are short, though.”

“Oh? And how many times have you spoken those ‘short’ lines?”

Miso looked at Maru mockingly. Maru thought for a second. How many times did he practice his lines again?

“Around thirty times. That’s about how many times I read them to memorize it.”

“Are you satisfied with that number?”

“I’m not sure. I don’t even know when I should be satisfied to begin with. All I want right now is to not make mistakes.”

“That’s important, yeah. But… Don’t you have any greed for acting?”

“Greed?”

Greed. Maru took a look at the club members. These were the people who had the right to stand on the stage, and decorate it. One could only be incensed by greed through hard work, and that greed could only be satisfied by the talented. Maru didn’t belong to either of the two.

“The people who should really be greedy are in front of me.”

“Of course these guys are greedy. They don’t want to repeat their past mistakes. I’m just curious what you think.”

“I just want to work hard. Nothing more, nothing less.”

“There’s a cash price of a million won in cash if you get awarded the best actor prize at the winter nationals. What do you think about that?”

“That I’m a little greedy for.”

“You’re incredibly materialistic, aren’t you?”

“Yes, I love money.”

“Why don’t you go for it, then?”

“The best actor prize?”

“Yes.”

“As an extra?”

“Scene stealers are always short, but they still leave a big impact.”

Maru watched as Miso smiled playfully, he naturally found himself looking into her eyes for a second.

[Did you think I gave that role to you for nothing?]

“Is there something different about my character?”

“You must’ve had a reason for giving it to me.”

For a brief second, Miso’s face was overtaken by a color of surprise. Maru laughed a little. So even the headstrong Miso could look like this, huh. He turned back to look at the students again. They were moving around in different poses as they practiced. They were all trying to make everything natural.

“Why me?” Maru asked.

“Why you?”

“Yes. There’s a lot of other kids who want to get into acting over there. The second years are already very passionate, and a lot of the first years became passionate recently as well. You told me before, didn’t you? You were giving me a chance because I wasn’t desperate. That doesn’t make sense now, does it? Shouldn’t instructors give chances to people who are desperate?”

Miso looked up with a thoughtful face before sighing.

“Yeah, you’re right. It’s more fair for me to give chances to the desperate. But the world isn’t very fair, is it? Remember what Geunsoo told you? The monster of acting chooses its own people. All that means is that in this business, it all comes down to talent. You might not understand this, but once you become a teacher, you become greedy. You want to create someone who can go into uncharted territory.”

Miso looked happier than she has ever been. Was that what artists were like? Maru never felt this kind of greed when he worked in an office. As a matter of fact, he only felt jealous and angry. To be more honest… He kind of wanted his talented juniors to fail. He knew that was the wrong mindset to have, but that was just reality. But this woman was telling him that she wanted to raise someone who could surpass her.

“Wouldn’t you feel annoyed if a talented junior was getting all of the spotlight on the same stage as you?”

“Of course I would. I might even regret my own actions of raising him that much.”

“So why?”

“I told you before, didn’t I? I have a very good eye for people. I take great pride in this ability as well. Thanks to it, I know pretty well how far I’m going to get. I’ve kind of hit my limit at teaching students, I don’t think I can go any further. Remember what I said about the play I was in? About how it failed in the middle, and I decided to come here?”

Maru remembered. That was the first thing she said after coming back to the school.

“That was all a lie. I dyed my hair and auditioned for a role I wanted, and I didn’t get it. I knew the director and everything, but man. It was bad.”

“I see.”

“I mean, I didn’t want you guys getting all depressed just because of me. Plus, despite all this, I’m actually really good at teaching. I’m decent at acting, too. I just can’t go above and beyond. Maybe that’s why I’ve kind of given up on bettering myself. Sometimes I wonder if I would bother to raise students if I was as skilled as Geunsoo.”

“Why don’t you practice more?”

“Of course I practice. I can land a role as a small character any time I want. But I could never take the center stage.”

Her smile didn’t seem very happy.

“You’re living a very complicated life too, huh. That’s a surprise.”

“What?”

“I kind of thought you were a single-celled organism.”

“…Do you have a death wish?”

“I still don’t understand, though. You can just push people relying on your instinct?”

“You still don’t realize that half of this world is pretty much based upon amazing accidents, do you?”

“If you’re trying to reference penicillin, I caught on already. You don’t have to.”

“…You notice things way too quick. Anyway, I just think this is one step into an amazing accident.”

“I sometimes think this, but it really feels like you have a talent for speaking like a character in a play. You’re very thick-faced. I wouldn’t be able to say a line like that from pure embarrassment.”

“I’m embarrassed, too! But that’s the kind of stuff I need to say to move you.”

“………”

Maru could only shake his head, ‘What an extraordinary person’. She was incredibly persistent. Problem was… She was actually getting him kind of excited. That expectation of hers, to be specific. Receiving high expectations from others tended to be either extremely stressful, or pleasant. Thankfully, the way Miso conducted herself didn’t make Maru stressed at all.

“Oh, and one more thing.”

“What is it?”

“You said money was why you didn’t want to go into acting, right?”

“It’s not just because of that.”

“It’s one of the big reasons though, right?”

“Well, yes.”

“Let’s make a deal.”

“Deal?”

“You just have to meet someone I know.”

Maru looked up at Miso. Meet someone she knows? What did she mean? The woman was smiling joyfully at him at the moment.

Ah, no. He had to retract that statement.

She was smiling like a wily fox.

Chapter 72

"Things are starting to look red.”

“Dang, so it’s autumn already.”

Daemyung and Dojin spoke as they walked in front of the school. It was a Sunday. While other students were just messing around in school, the acting club came to school for practice.

“The competition isn’t very far away now.”

Dojin sighed at Daemyung’s words. It was October 27th. 2 weeks away from the competition. Despite this, Dojin felt like his acting was stagnant.

“God, feel like I’m going crazy. I got criticized yesterday, too.”

“You’ll get better.”

“Oh, and you must be feeling very relaxed, huh? Because you passed?”

“I-I guess?”

Two days ago, the club went through three full runs after school. Repeating an hour long play over and over again three times in a row was very tiring for the students. Plus, every time they finished a run, Miso’s criticism would ring upon their ears. It was enough to give some of the students a stomach ache from the stress.

“I don’t even get stressed from studying, jesus.”

“Just means you’re working that hard.”

“True enough, hah. But you kept passing and I keep failing.”

Dojin was kind of jealous of his friend’s ability to maintain his smile, as it was a common occurence to receive a scolding in the club. He actually kind of felt bad when he didn’t get scolded. There were actually only three students that never got scolded by Miso during practice.

First off, there was Daemyung. The kid just completely changed character as soon as he got on stage. The guy actually kind of looked savage on there.

Second off, Joonghyuk. His acting was good enough for Miso to let him off the hook. The dude managed to play his role very well, as a weak husband in the play. He looked like he’s been practicing for months, as a matter of fact.

‘Well, I guess his personality was similar to his character to begin with.’

And last up,

“We’re late, might have to run.”

Dojin saw Maru waving at the two of them from the entrance. The two of them started making a run for it.

‘He’s the most mysterious one of them all.’

Maru was also one of the three that never got scolded. He was only in a few scenes with a few lines, but Dojin’s impression of Maru’s character had completely changed in the last few days. Most of the club probably thought the same, as a matter of fact.

“What time is it?”

“8:57.”

“Oh crap, run!”

Dojin ran into the school building with his outdoor shoes still on. Daemyung and Maru followed close behind him, Miso was not a fan of tardiness. Last time, the woman made them duck walk around the field ten times just for being a minute late. The group ran up the stairs as fast as they could, making the halls echo with their footsteps.

Finally, they managed to reach the 5th floor. Dojin ended up clenching his eyes as soon as he opened the doors to the auditorium.

“Oh, nice. Late yet again. The three of you over there, ten laps around the field. No duck walking this time, we don’t have time.”

Hah… At least this wasn’t a duck walk this time.

“What are you doing? Run!”

“Yes!”

As they ran down the stairs, they found Yoonjung and Danmi coming up with a stiff face.

“…Is she there?”

“Did you ever find her coming late? I think she might be coming down looking for you.”

“Agghh! We’re screwed!”

Yoonjung and Danmi ran up hurriedly, Dojin shook his head looking at the two. Miso was even more torturous and cruel towards the second years when it came to punishment.

“Come on, let’s run.”

Maru jumped down the stairs, making Dojin follow behind him.

* * *

Practice began at 11am. Miso decided to dedicate an hour for physical training, saying that the club was being too lazy. As a result, Maru was leaning on the walls huffing madly.

‘This feels like I’m back in the military… ’

He could almost hear the faint sounds of whistles blowing in the background.

“Get ready!”

“Yes.”

The club members stood up immediately. Miso would only work them harder if they looked tired, so they needed to move it. Miso opened her steel chair in the middle of the auditorium, and the club members lined up outside the green tape.

Maru was on the left side of the tape. Some things had changed since they started practicing three weeks ago. One of them was when Maru started, he would appear in the very first scene. Of course, he still didn’t have many lines at all.

“We’re doing this from start to finish with no breaks. If you make a mistake on stage… Well, I trust you’ll be able to handle it. We have two weeks left until we get on stage for real. Making a mistake should be impossible. If you do so regardless, you’ll have a lovey-dovey time with me, so be prepared, got it?”

Maru heard someone swallow right behind him. A one on one with Miso? Just thinking about it was terrifying. The woman was becoming more and more hysteric as time went on. They couldn’t even joke with her at this point, it only goes to show just how much this play meant to her.

Miso was the captain, the captain of a ship called Blue Sky. In its first voyage, the ship was stopped right at the docks. That must’ve hurt her pride a lot, enough to make her cry like a baby in front of Taesik. This was to be Blue Sky’s second voyage, she probably wanted the crew to be ready enough to weather any kind of storm.

“Geunseok!”

“Yes.”

“You know what I’ll do if you make a mistake again, right? We’ll abandon you. I’m not joking.”

“I’ll do well.”

Miso was especially vicious towards Geunseok. She probably wanted to make the boy as strong as he could get during this practice. She would cut out any praise, and beat the boy as much as she could.

Thanks to her tough love, Geunseok had grown pretty vicious himself, in a good way. He was still craving praises, but he wouldn’t overtly ask for it anymore. As soon as he finds another reason to act, surely he would become an amazing actor.

‘That is, only if he finishes his play properly.’

Miso sent them the ready signal as she watched the clock, this was the beginning of the run. Maru’s eyes met with Miso’s briefly. For some reason, looking at them made him think about what happened right before they went into practice.

* * *

Maru carefully observed the man in front of him. He wore a flat cap, sitting with a little poodle on his lap, and looked close to being fifty.

“Senior, you aren’t supposed to bring a dog here.”

“But there’s no one who can take care of it. I asked you, but you refused.”

“We can’t have dogs in our house.”

“Then don’t even complain. You expect me to just leave this little thing alone in my house? Look at it, the poor thing can’t even move properly.”

The man patted the poodle lightly as he spoke.

“He’s always like this, you’ll have to understand.”

Miso shook her head annoyedly.

“So why did I come here again?” Maru asked.

“I told you. I wanted you to meet someone.”

After looking at the poodle for a few more seconds, the man left the puppy to a staff member nearby. As soon as the dog disappeared, his previously tender expression grew serious.

“Name?”

“It’s Han Maru.”

“Nice to meet you. I’m Lee Junmin.”

“Nice to meet you.”

The two of them briefly shook hands. Maru noticed that the man had a very thick, vibrant voice. Probably the result of practice.

“You look a little confused.”

“Well, instructor Miso dragged me here without telling me a thing.”

“Me too. She treats her seniors too badly.”

“I understand that sentiment.”

Junmin smiled happily at that. Seeing how the man still maintained a polite attitude despite speaking to a junior of Maru’s age, he was probably a businessman. Junmin handed Maru his business card.

“JA Productions?”

Maru instinctively reached for his own business card.

‘Oh, right. I don’t have one.’

The business card on the table had two things on it. The name ‘JA Production’, and Junmin’s name. A production company… Seeing as how Miso seemed to be involved, it was likely related to acting. Maybe a management firm?

“I think I deserve an explanation from instructor Miso.”

“No, I can explain it. I’m a bit surprised myself, but I think I know what’s going on.”

Right then, Junmin’s phone rang. The man answered the call with annoyance and spoke angrily. Maru made out a few words about plays, times, and locations. After giving a few instructions, Junmin turned off his phone.

“I apologize.”

“It’s fine.”

“Now, allow me to explain. You performed at a cafe a while back, yes?”

“Yes.”

“I was there that day. I saw you and your friends act, because my little junior here called me out.”

“You were there to see us?”

“That’s right. Miso told me to help out one of the twelve kids there. She looked very confident.”

“Could it be, that one kid was…”

As soon as Maru said that much,

“I said I was surprised before, right? It was because I saw you. I actually had my eyes on two different kids. I was going to tell Miso this today, but it looks like she was in too much of a hurry.”

Miso frowned.

“You didn’t have your eyes on him, senior?”

“Yeah. I was looking at the others.”

“No way.”

“I hate to say it, but I didn’t feel much from this friend when I saw him the other day. He was neat, but he’s still an amateur.”

Maru realized this was a meeting made from a mistake.

“So I can leave, then.”

“I’m sorry.”

“It’s alright. I’m actually relieved.”

“Relieved?”

“Yes. Chances only belong to the desperate. I’ll leave, then. Thank you.”

Maru stood up from his seat and left.

* * *

“Senior.”

Miso couldn’t stop Maru from leaving. Her senior had told her that he had his eyes on two students. She thought one of them would be Maru for sure, but…

“You haven’t changed, have you? I was wondering why that kid was here.”

“Senior, he’s talented.”

“I know.”

“What?”

He knew, but he still sent Maru back?

“Why?”

“Before that, let me just ask you one thing. Do you think I have an abundance of free time just because I treat you well? Free enough to make time during a weekday, in the morning at that?”

“…I’m sorry.”

“Well, hearing that feels good, at least. You’re forgiven.”

Junmin smiled happily, making Miso sigh.

“Why didn’t you tell him anything, then?”

“I only raise pros. I only work with pros as well. Geunseok and Daemyung, was it? I saw talent in those two. But not him.”

“He has talent, but he also doesn’t?”

“Yes. Right now, at least.”

“Right… now?”

Junmin took a sip of his tea.

“That kid is definitely eye-catching. He was probably born with it, or was gifted that talent by god. When he was talking that day, I noticed the entire cafe looking at him. It was pretty amazing to behold. I almost clapped, actually. If he has enough talent in acting, then… He would really make it big.”

If those words came from anyone else, Miso wouldn’t have believed them. But this was her senior that was talking. The “maestro” as the community called him. Plus, this man was always scouted into judging for auditions whenever the production team needed actors for a massive project.

“So why? Isn’t that enough?”

Junmin laughed at that.

“I became even more confident of my decision after meeting him.”

“Confident?”

“That’s right. That kid, Maru, isn’t desperate for acting. Of course, his freedom is probably what made you greedy, but that kind of a personality doesn’t work in the world of the pros. If he isn’t desperate enough to climb the ladder with bleeding fingers, then… I don’t want to work with him. Plus, he didn’t seem to even want to work with me from the start.”

Junmin got back to drinking his tea as Miso looked down with a frustrated sigh.

Chapter 73

In the streets, a cold wind blew. A small store could be seen under the blinking lights. In front of the lights was a small table, and in front of that, a young man passed by.

The young man had one hand in his pocket, and his other fiddling with the phone. Under the blinking lights, the man looked around for a bit before eventually looking at the front.

After staring for about three seconds, the man finally spoke.

“Um, who are you guys looking at?”

After looking around confusedly for a few more seconds, the man eventually pointed at his own face.

“Me?”

The man walked sideways like a crab, after exclaiming with a surprised look. After disappearing from the view, the man’s head poked back out to ask ‘Really? Me?’ one last time before disappearing.

* * *

Maru could only be described as a natural once he was on stage. After exiting the green tape, the boy waited for his next scene very calmly.

‘Hah… How do I get him to be desperate?’

Three weeks ago, Junmin gave her some insight into Maru.

[Maru’s not the type of person who’d move from outside influences. He needs an internal motivator, he’ll only display his true worth when he finds the motivation. So I’d suggest that you stop talking to him for now. Just watch.]

Miso asked what would happen if Maru decided to do something else after that, but the man just responded with a ‘well, that’s just life’.

‘He’s a good guy, but he’s even more stubborn than me when it comes to recruiting actors.’

Maru shone like a star as soon as he started acting. It was hard to see right now, but it still was a very clear difference from the other actors on stage. Then again, even Junmin had recognized Maru’s talent.

‘He said Maru was amazing.’

The weight behind Junmin’s words was different. Just as how a flower described as ‘beautiful’ carried a different weight between a person who saw it for the first time, and a person who saw it for the hundredth time. Junmin praised Maru as ‘amazing’. Just what would Maru look like, then, if he got proper practice?

‘If only something would happen to shake that kid… ’

Miso nervously bit her thumb. She found a diamond in the rough, but she couldn’t touch it. It was driving her crazy.

“Next!”

Miso decided to focus on the run for now, they only had two weeks. After that, they needed to act out their play at the festival.

* * *

“Good work. Make sure to stretch before you sleep. Also, gargle with some warm water as well, and try to avoid hot water. It’ll dry your skin too much. We have two weeks left, so maintaining your health is just as important as practice. Got it?”

“Yes!”

“We’re definitely going to the finals in the winter. Alright, off you go.”

Miso put a hand forward saying ‘Blue Sky’, to which everyone else responded with a ‘fighting’. With expressions of having completed another satisfactory day, the club departed one by one.

“Alright, let’s go.”

Maru stepped out first with his bag, Dojin and Daemyung followed him down the stairs.

“Neither of you got scolded today, huh?” Dojin said with jealousy.

Today, Dojin managed to do his hundred pushups. Fifty for every time he made a mistake. It wasn’t such a horrible day for him in that regard, actually.

“Well, Daemyung aside… Maru, are you getting tutored or something?”

“No way, my character is just easy.”

“Heh… That character definitely isn’t easy, the way I see it. Right, Daemyung?”

Maru waved away the two’s curious looks.

“You’d be better than me if you took my character.”

“No way.”

The three of them said their goodbyes to their seniors as they left, leaving the school grounds. Dojin and Daemyung turned left here, to get to the bus station. Maru was just about to head off to the right on his bike.

“Maru.”

Maru got off the bike after hearing someone call for him. It was Joonghyuk. Did something happen? The boy clearly ran over here to speak to him.

“Let’s talk.”

“Sure.”

“We can do it while we walk. Do you live this way?”

“Yes. What about you?”

“Me too.”

The two of them walked next to each other. Maru looked at Joonghyuk as he pushed his bike with one hand. The two stopped talking to each other one on one after their conversation about what happened at the beginning of the last semester. After walking silent for a few minutes, Joonghyuk finally opened his mouth at a red light.

“Acting… Are you okay with it?”

“I’m trying my best not to be a drag.”

“Drag? No way.”

Joonghyuk looked up at the sky for a second, making Maru look up as well. The moon was shining brightly. Maybe it was a super moon? They could even spot the craters on it.

“A year ago, when we weren’t even able to participate in the competition due to the fire… Yoonjung and Danmi cried a lot.”

“I’m surprised to hear that even Danmi cried.”

“Right, I was surprised too.”

The light turned green.

“I thought a lot back then. Props are just as important as the acting. That’s why I tried to be a stage manager when I went into my second year. Though that idea obviously failed thanks to instructor Miso. In any case, I made up my mind to help these friends not cry next time. No matter what happens, I’d take them to the finals.”

“But it didn’t work out.”

“That’s right. Well, at least we got to the prelims, so it’s a lot better than last year. Honestly, if Geunseok didn’t cry that day, Yoonjung and Danmi would’ve. They were holding back trying to cheer Geunseok up.”

Maru smiled awkwardly, imagining his two seniors crying in his head.

“Once we become seniors, we won’t be able to focus on plays anymore. Everyone wants to stay in the club, sure, but we wouldn’t be able to invest as much of our time anymore. We need to start getting licenses and look for jobs. Plus, three of us are looking to get into college. This is probably our last chance at fully immersing ourselves in the club.”

“What about you?”

“Me? Well, our family runs a store, so I’ll just take over. Iseul is probably thinking the same, right?”

“Yes. Iseul wants to take over her parents’ restaurant.”

“Honestly, I couldn’t imagine her doing that for my life.”

“I agree.”

Iseul was pretty enough to look like a movie actor. To think she would don an apron and work in a restaurant…

‘Wait, maybe this could work.’

A restaurant with a pretty woman running it… It sounded like a great opportunity to make money. Maybe Maru could ask to work together in the future? As he was thinking about such things, Joonghyuk suddenly stopped walking.

“I want you to be the club president next year.”

Maru stopped his bike to look at Joonghyuk. In truth, Joonghyuk had hesitated for a long time before he could say these words. It wasn’t a particularly difficult thing to say, but in front of Maru, he hesitated.

“I thought of this for a long while. It’s not something that I just came up with either. All of us second years think you should be the president. We wouldn’t have said a thing if you kept being on the sidelines, but… Now that you’re participating, I think you should be the one taking over.”

“I’d recommend that you ask some…”

“Of course, if you refuse, I’ll ask someone else. We aren’t forcing this on you.”

“Why me, then?”

“Because you were the only one who could say the right words for the club.”

“I was just being arrogant back then.”

“I heard what happened from Taesik. Oh, of course, I pressured him until he told me. He wanted to keep it a secret.”

Joonghyuk overheard Taesik talking about Maru at some point. Afterward, he kept trying to get information from the man. In the end, he discovered how Maru took on the role of a villain for the club. Of course, he had an idea that this was the case from the beginning, but he only realized that this was the truth thanks to talking with the advisor. Joonghyuk told the rest of the second years about this, he thought they deserved to hear about this.

As a result of his actions, they had the idea of making Maru the president for next year. Once they become third years, they wouldn’t be able to work with the club anymore, so it has become a tradition for the club to choose a new president around this time.

“…You should definitely recommend the position to someone else, then,” Maru said.

Joonghyuk shook his head.

“If it was in the past, I definitely would’ve. Since you were always the spectator. But that’s not the case anymore. Aren’t you getting more serious about acting?”

Just before summer, Maru was more like an audience member in the club. Someone who did participate, but not by much. All of that changed in the fall. At some point, Maru started acting himself, and involved himself pretty deeply within the club as well. He had changed. Sure, Geunseok and Daemyung showed talent as actors, but Maru far outclassed the two in pretty much everything else. The boy even reminded Joonghyuk of his elder brother at times.

‘No, Maru’s pretty comparable to those two in terms of acting as well.’

Just looking at Maru's performance would set the scene for the play splendidly. Plus, the way he was so natural on the stage allowed even the actors to become engrossed into the play. There was something about him that attracted attention.

Maru was mature, good at acting, and his words often carried weight. Who could be better at assuming the role of a president than him?

“I’m not telling you to make your decision right now. I just wanted to let you know that this is what the club is thinking.”

Joonghyuk pat Maru’s shoulders a few times before turning away. He wanted Maru to be president, but who knows what might happen? All he could do now was wait.

* * *

“President, huh.”

The one thing Maru wanted to become in his previous life, just thinking about it made him laugh a little bit. Maru shook off the excess water from his hair and sat down on a chair. Any other time, he would’ve just refused Joonghyuk right there and then, but he couldn’t do that today.

“Talent…”

Three weeks ago, Maru ended up seeing inside Junmin’s mind.

[This guy has talent. Enough to make me want to raise him. But he has no interest himself.]

Three weeks ago, Maru tried searching for Lee Junmin on the internet to no avail. Same with JA Production as well. To begin with, searching for Lee Junmin only gave him results about an idol with the same name. But once he dug a little bit further, he could find the man in certain celebrity articles. He wasn’t mentioned a lot, but whenever he was, the nickname ‘maestro’ always followed.

Maru realized that this man was much more famous than he initially thought. The man was a producer, one that dug up famous newbies all the time. One of the articles even mentioned that the female lead of the most popular drama on TV right now was raised by him.

The man wasn’t very famous amongst civilians, but in the acting scene, he was pretty much Midas. That very man thought Maru was talented. Thanks to that, Maru ended up thinking and thinking for the past three weeks. He was given a choice. A choice he didn’t have in his previous life.

“What happens to my future if I choose this path?”

He wouldn’t be a road manager or an office worker, that much was certain. There was merit in becoming an actor, yes. But at the same time, he was nervous. He already experienced failure many times in life.

“I guess I’m just old, huh.”

And one more thing.

“I should’ve asked her for her phone number.”

He didn’t know what would happen to his and her future if he made this decision. These were the two things he was nervous about. He couldn’t take care of his nervousness just yet, obviously, but he could somewhat make do with what would happen between him and her. As long as he could come to meet her earlier this time…

‘I’ll make you happy this time.’

Maru wanted to give her the gift of a bright life. Especially because of the dreams she had to give up on in the previous life for their family. In that case… In this life… Maru wanted to give her the world that she wanted, a world where she could do anything she desires.

“I should meet her first, though.“

He needed to show the others she was taken before anything else.

“She’s way too pretty for her own good.”

Maru realized right then, that the ship that was his life just took a slight turn.

Chapter 74

She opened her eyes as she fumbled her toes that snuck outside her blankets. Grabbing her phone to notice that it was only 8AM, still 3 hours away from her meeting time.

“Ugh, so cold.”

Maybe it was time for her to get a new blanket. This summer was way too short, as always. After five more minutes of fumbling around in bed, she started humming to herself a tune that her dad frequently used. Thanks to that, she found herself humming it quite often as well.

She made sure not to do it in front of mom, though. Her mom always made a sad expression whenever she hummed. After a few more minutes of rolling around in bed, she stood up with a groan. It was 8:20AM now. She took the leftovers from yesterday and put it in the microwave. Mom seemed to be sleeping still, so she had to take out her food seconds before the microwave dinged. She snuck back up to her room afterwards and found herself a few acting videos that she saved from yesterday, turning them on.

She directed her attention to her monitor as she ate. Watching people act was always fun, even if it was a play done by students. After about thirty minutes, the play ended. She put down her food and clapped lightly.

“They’re good.”

But we’re better. She closed the window with a grin, before turning on her own blog. All the other kids asked her to use Cyworld, but that just didn’t fit her tastes very well. Instead of looking at walls of text that were glowing from the stickers decorating it, she was a bigger fan of normal blogs. Plus, normal blogs were where most professional actors gathered to begin with. There were a surprising number of blogs run by them.

The girl browsed stories about reviews, what happened during prep time, and what happened with the audience as she drew out her own dream in her mind. She, too, would eventually become someone else’s role model, just like them. Click, click. As she clicked her way across other blogs, her eyes eventually settled on a familiar one ran by a familiar ID.

Maru.

“Ah.”

It’s that blog from before, isn’t it? The blog titled, “Life, Once Again”. She left a comment there before, perhaps there was a response waiting for her? When she opened the blog, she realized that she did indeed get a reply back.

- We decided to compete in the winter competition as well. Maybe we can meet there, if we get past the prelims? Good luck, Black Swan.

The girl smiled happily. She also noticed that there were a few more blog posts here. Whoever ran the website must be a diligent person, taking into consideration the consistency of posts.

- Good luck. But we’ll get first place for the winter competition as well.

Just as she was about to submit, she stopped herself. She sighed once before putting her hands back on her keyboard.

“I sound too rude.”

- Good luck. Hopefully, we can meet at the finals!

She didn’t want to antagonize her first blogging ‘neighbor’ right off the bat. After posting her comment, she stood up from her seat. It was about time for her to go out.

* * *

Junmin asked a friend of his to watch his house. His friend liked dogs a lot, so he trusted the person to treat them safely. Junmin had a dream of retiring in the countryside where he could live completely free with his dogs. He had the money to make his dream come true, but for now, he had too much greed for his job.

It was a Sunday morning. Normally, he’d spend the day doing nothing with his dogs, but today was different. He put an earphone in one ear as he got on the subway. He had an old notebook in one hand, and a custom-made pen on the other as he started observing the people around him.

If he was told to pick one place in South Korea where the ‘faster faster’ culture was at its bottom, he would pick the subway running at 11am Sunday on line 3. It felt like there were some people in the subway, but reality proved otherwise. Everyone moved at a crawling pace like a bale of turtles. For example, just look at that woman standing in front of the subway door right there. Her neck refused to move for five straight minutes now. The teen sitting next to her was reading a novel very diligently. He too, barely moved.

On the other side of the subway was a female college student, who was sleeping while grasping the pole next to her tightly; no movement from her either. It was odd. Inside the fast-moving subway was nothing but silence.

Rumble rumble. The sound of the subway wheels rolling across the steel tracks sounded almost like a person’s heartbeat. Hearing it comforted Junmin very much. He was a big fan of this moment, actually. Whenever he needed to think, he always rode on this subway on line 3 around this time on Sundays.

He opened his notebook, the one he carried since the first day he joined the world of acting. He’s changed out the paper in this notebook countless times already. In fact, one of his cabinets at his house was filled with these papers. They were essentially a pure distillation of all his thoughts.

Today, Junmin got on the subway because of a certain problem. It wasn’t anything important. As a matter of fact, he could just make the decision right then and there. But instead of doing so, he decided to get on the subway.

‘He was pretty bold.’

Junmin thought back to a meeting from yesterday.

A call came through his private phone, not his work phone. It was Miso. When he picked it up, Miso asked him if it was alright if she gave his phone number to that kid. She sounded just as confused as he was.

That kid.

Junmin thought of Han Maru immediately and said it was alright. Shortly after, he got a call. From Maru, obviously. The student asked him if he could spare some time for a meeting. He allowed it. He was rather curious about what the boy had to say after a full month. Did something change?

They decided to meet at the cafe where they first met. When he arrived at around 3pm, he found the student seated.

“It’s been a month.”

“Yes. I’ll introduce myself again, since I didn’t introduce myself properly then. I’m Han Maru.”

Right then, Junmin got a very odd feeling. It didn’t feel like he was talking to an immature student, but rather a very experienced businessman. Maru sat back down after a curt bow. Junmin, for some reason, felt like he needed to prepare some documents for this meeting.

“We could’ve just done this through a call. I’m very grateful you decided to meet up in person.”

“No, it’s fine. I usually talk about important things in person. Plus… I was interested in seeing you again.”

“Is that so. That’s good to hear.”

“Would you like some tea?”

“I’ll get some after we finish talking.”

The boy wasn’t stiff when he talked. His way of speech was borderline rude, but he managed to circumvent that with his expressions and gestures. Was he born with this, or did he learn to talk like this from someone else? In any case, this wasn’t how most high schoolers talked. Two weeks ago, after meeting Maru, Junmin met Daemyung and Geunseok separately.

He was interested in those two students as well. After all, he didn’t dig up talented newbies just for money. At this point, he didn’t even need money anymore. There were two reasons why he didn’t stop raising newbies. First, it was because he enjoyed the work. He thought it was a blessing for him to be able to enjoy it. As a person who thought work was what made humans human, Junmin didn’t want to stop working until his body couldn’t hold up anymore. Second, he did this because he wanted to prove himself. Junmin was a fan of being looked up to. That was why he always described himself to be ‘greedy’ to others.

He had no intention of wanting to be seen as noble or humble. No, he just wanted to be respected for his talent. Junmin loved his nickname as the maestro. He didn’t want to give that up just yet.

At one point, he visited nearly every theater company across the nation in his search for newbies. He’s toned it down a notch with his age now and all, but that didn’t mean his passion waned. He was still very much willing to show his abilities when the opportunity presented itself. Therefore, it was inevitable for him to meet with Geunseok and Daemyung. Of course, the fact that these were Miso’s students also had a lot to do with why he met them. Miso was similar to him, and he trusted her judgment due to that.

In any case, his meeting with those two students went fairly well. They were incredibly happy to find out that he was giving them a chance. They said they would try their best when he asked for a small display of their talent. They would try their best as long as they were given the chance.

On the other hand… The student in front of him now was a little bit different.

“I want to know if you’re capable of handling the risk of me jumping into the world of acting because of you. If you can, I’d like to sell my youth to you.”

That was an interesting suggestion. At first, Junmin could only laugh at the boy. Whenever he talked to a newbie actor, they all said the same thing.

Please, give me a chance.

That was exactly what Junmin provided. He gave them a chance, looked at their talent, and then led them on wherever they belonged. If they didn’t have that talent? Well, unfortunately, he would have to let them go. What this kid was saying though… was very different. If he were to interpret it differently, the boy was basically saying this:

I’ll make use of that chance you give me, so you should take responsibility.

“Haha…”

Junmin stroked his chin, the back of his neck was tingling. This was a good sign. It was a sign of something new. Something to break the dull repetitive cycle in his life. Repetition, to him, was equivalent to death in life. After all, what use was life when tomorrow looked exactly the same as today? In that sense, Maru’s suggestion was incredibly fresh to him. It was the type of suggestion that would make his today, and his tomorrow different. That was also the reason why he was unable to refuse Maru outright.

“You want me to buy your time.”

“Would that be possible?”

“What’s making you this arrogant, to begin with?”

Junmin decided to abandon his manners for a second, since he had the advantage in this situation. After all, they weren’t speaking to each other as equals right now.

“Don’t you want me? If that’s just an assumption of mine, I’ll apologize right now and leave.”

“………”

“If that isn’t the case, and if you’re really tempted to take me in, I’d like you to buy me with a fairly high price.”

“High price?”

“Yes.”

“How much?”

“I won’t ask you to take care of me until the end of my life or anything. I just want you to give me enough money to have a three-person family settle in. Ah, of course, this is only if I fail in this acting business.”

“Be more specific.”

“2 billion won.”

“Hah!”

Junmin could only laugh at that number. Well, it wasn't like he is incapable of giving it. He could easily get that much money if he sold one of his buildings right now. He could even make that money back right away if he introduced a decent actor to a big management company right now.

“Billion, billion. Do you think that amount of money is a joke? Did you watch too much TV?”

“No. I’m well aware that it’s a ridiculous amount of money. After all. 99% of our population dies without ever earning that much money.”

“But you still want it?”

“Yes. Only if you value my youth that much.”

“Hah, and you think I’d actually take you up on that offer?”

“Yes.”

“Why?”

“Because you’re still here.”

Junmin could only laugh.

- This station is Chungmuro. The doors are on your…

Junmin came back to reality as he looked down at his notebook. Inside it, he wrote a single name: Maru.

“Han Maru, huh.”

Junmin got off the subway with a nod. He’s finished thinking. He just needed to tell the boy his decision.

Chapter 75

Refusal. That was the answer Junmin had in mind. He did like how bold the boy was. But that boldness needs a reason.

2 billion won. He could give up that money if someone he knew really needed it. He had that much money. But this was an investment, which was an entirely different story. Junmin saw talent in Maru. The boy would shine like a star as long as he invested time.

Junmin arrived first at the cafe, 30 minutes before the promised time.

“Oh, you’re here again.”

“The tea here tasted good, that’s why.”

“Thank you.”

Miso’s friend, was it? Junmin took his seat as he exchanged a smile with the female owner. Across the street from where the cafe was, he could see a pet shop. Two baby beagles were scratching the display window furiously.

Junmin liked dogs. To him, they symbolized eternal, innocent love. The poor things loved their owners no matter what. Every time Junmin stepped into his home, his heart would calm down upon being greeted by their tail shakes.

“Here is your coffee, and this is a cupcake that I tried making recently. I’d love it if you could give me some feedback.”

“Thank you.”

Free food was always welcome, no matter when he got it. Junmin drank a little bit of his bitter coffee and looked down at his cupcake. It was topped with a mango mousse.

“If only he had the motivation.”

The kid that asked for the money didn’t seem at all desperate. He was probably interested in acting, that must be why he was in the club. But if Junmin were to ask him if he would throw his entire life into acting, the boy would surely answer ‘no’. Maru seemed to be thinking about many things. Junmin had no idea what the boy was thinking of, but he knew for sure his thoughts were far different from others his own age.

Of all the thoughts that the boy had, what percentage of it was about acting? So far in his life, Junmin’s managed to excavate many stars. He could even brag about it if he wanted. Right now, if you turned on the TV, at least one out of the ten stars that appear in advertisements would be someone Junmin found.

The world of acting was all about feeling. It was impossible to become confident about anything in this business through numbers alone. Do handsome people become stars? Do talented people become stars? No. Even if you had both, you were more likely to disappear as nothing but an extra. It was impossible to predict or measure anything in the world of acting. In this world, Junmin wanted to become a standard.

- The actors who go through Junmin become a star.

Hearing that line was pretty much the single reason Junmin was alive. Hearing that line felt better than anything to him. After all, hearing it validated the entirety of his life. It made his hard work worth something.

‘The boy’s talent is a pass, at least according to my standards.’

That alone was reason enough for investing in Maru.

‘But it doesn’t seem like acting is everything for him.’

Geunseok and Daemyung felt like they were willing to throw their lives into acting. Geunseok was a little bit unstable, but that could easily be fixed with time.

‘If only I could get some of Daemyung’s passion and stick it into Maru.’

If he could do that, Junmin would’ve accepted Maru’s offer in a heartbeat. That was just how talented Maru was in his eyes. Every fiber of his being was screaming that Maru was going to be a star. But logic told him to reject the boy. Junmin trusted his head as much as he trusted his feelings, so he decided to think for now.

About halfway through his cupcake, Maru arrived.

“I thought I was late after seeing you in the cafe.”

“I was just thinking about something. Sit.”

“Yes.”

Maru sat on the other side. It’s only been a day since the last time they talked.

“About yesterday, my answer is…”

“A rejection.”

“So you knew.”

“It’s probably not a matter of trust or credit, but a matter of passion. Personally, I thought money wouldn’t be a problem for you. I thought you just didn’t think well of my lack of passion.”

Maru spoke as if he knew everything from the beginning. If the boy asked Junmin to reconsider, he would’ve left immediately. Strangely enough, the boy instead chose to explain Junmin’s thought process in great detail. Due to this, he felt compelled to ask Maru a question, despite knowing he would forfeit the lead in the conversation as a result.

“So why did you make that suggestion, in that case?”

“That was just a reason to get us started talking.”

“The money, then?”

“Just one of those nice-to-have things.”

Maru grinned. Almost as if he didn’t want the money to begin with… No, almost as if he wanted the money dearly, but he was willing to give it up just as easily.

“I must’ve looked like a person with a lot of choices in life to you.”

That was correct, it was the single reason why Junmin was ready to reject Maru. Because Maru didn’t look desperate at all. Maru seemed ready to move onto things other than acting in an instant if he felt like it. It didn’t matter how much talent he had if he had no passion to actually work on it. In that sense, Maru was a failure in Junmin’s eyes.

“Don’t you think it’s good to have a lot of choices, though?”

“It’s difficult to succeed in just one field even if you spend all your life in it. Why would I trust a person who’s not willing to throw his life into any particular field, and only care about getting insurance instead?”

“You think I won’t do anything once I get my insurance.”

“Yes. I can throw away my money if I want to. Even most production companies, no, all kinds of groups out there throw their money away to raise individuals. It’s like an investment. But in this case, the losses are massive. After all, you don’t know what might happen when you raise individuals.”

“But if you raise one right, that one person could easily make you an incredible amount of money back.”

“That’s right. That’s why so many places are willing to pour money into raising people.”

“But you’re not looking to make a profit, are you? I thought you were raising people to prove yourself of your talent. Am I wrong?”

Junmin leaned back on his chair. He was initially planning to leave right away, but the conversation was becoming interesting. A kid who was easily thirty years younger than him was somewhat aware of how he operated.

“I have a question.”

“What is it?”

“If you were to be born again, would you live the same life you lived till now?”

“If I was born again?”

“Yes.”

It was an odd question, but Junmin started thinking about it. How was his current life? He was satisfied now, but he didn’t want to waste away his youth again as he did. It took him 15 years of life as a no-name actor for him to reach where he was now. He didn’t want to go through that hell again. If he got born again, he’d use his current talent to…

“But, you won’t have any knowledge or information that could better your life when you’re born again.”

That changed a lot of things, Junmin began thinking again. That notebook of his that carried 55 years of his life… If he were to throw all of that away and start over, what could he do?

“Lottery?”

“Definitely not.”

“Stocks?”

“Not possible. The only thing you have in your memory is a rough understanding of how you lived so far, and a few memories about those who were close to you. For example… A forty-year-old man is sent back to the past, only with the personality he’s cultivated to that age. Without any information that could help him.”

“Hm.”

Coming back to the past, only feeling like he succeeded at something by the end…

“I’d feel nervous. Overwhelmed, actually. My head is full of experiences, but I can’t access it.”

“You’re thinking about it seriously, I see.”

“Imagination like this is very important to humans, especially in this field.”

“I’ll be waiting for a response.”’

“Drink some coffee or something. This might take a while.”

Junmin crossed his arms. He could pass answering this question with a smile, he could even scold the boy for asking such a useless question; but doing so would make him a hypocrite. If he couldn’t take a boy’s question seriously, what right would he have in accusing the boy of not being serious for acting?

‘What an interesting kid.’

He thought for a few minutes about how he’d choose to live out his past. Eventually, he settled on one answer.

“I’d invest a bit of my time into everything out of nervousness. The life I’ve lived before would only become poison for me.”

Junmin put his arms on the table.

“Let me ask you a question, then. I hope you can be honest with me here. Why are you in the acting club?”

“I have a girl I like who does acting. I’m doing acting because I feel like this would be a nice point of connection. Of course, I actually do have an interest in acting, I just haven’t found a reason to become passionate.”

“How interesting. A girl? Kids nowadays are pretty fast with this stuff.”

“In the medieval era, people married when they were teenagers. Maybe we just became slow?”

“Hahaha, fair enough. Good. I get it. I know what kind of person you are. You don’t want to put all of your eggs in one basket, is that it?”

Maru nodded. The way Junmin saw it, this kid was acting as the example from the question earlier. Filled with nervousness about the future.

“I’m not that smart. I can read books about philosophy and whatnot very easily, but apart from that, there’s not much I can do. I can’t let my family starve, though, so I’m trying to study Chinese. But I don’t think I’ll go anywhere with it in the long run. I don’t think I can succeed with studying either. Just a semi-average student in the long run? That’s why I’ve been thinking of going to the factory my dad works at. I should be able to work right away in October if I do. I was just planning on settling in as a CAD programmer there after graduating. It’s not a life full of excitement, but at least with this, I should be able to feed my children in the future.”

“That’s pretty detailed.”

“As you said, I’m nervous about my life. I tried making preparations with various things in mind, but I have my limits.”

Junmin noticed Maru balling up his fists. How interesting. Just where did a creature like this come from? Maru’s character was so unique that he was starting to want the boy. Almost enough to pay the boy that 2 billion won.

“What makes you think you’ll succeed in acting?”

“I don’t think I will.”

“What?”

“I’m simply placing my trust in you, and my instructor. In other words, I’m betting my life on you. And in the end, I don’t want to risk my entire life on a bet.”

“So in the end, everything comes back to that 2 billion.”

Junmin took out a napkin from the table. He wrote a very rudimentary contract on it with his pen.

“From what you’ve said about your factory plans, can I assume that you’re not thinking of college at all?”

“That’s right.”

“So the third year of your high school must be very free.”

“I’ll have a lot of time to invest in things.”

“Don’t you have to prepare for working in the factory?”

“No, that won’t take long at all.”

“Sounds like you’ve tried it before.”

“I haven’t, but I have a feeling that I can get used to the work fairly quickly.”

Maru grinned. Junmin stopped writing and handed the napkin to Maru.

“You aren’t annoyed by the medium of the contract or anything, are you?”

“The physical contract doesn’t matter, what I trust is your name.“

“You’re surprisingly good at flattery. Not at all like a normal high schooler.”

As Maru read the contract, Junmin sipped his coffee. His offer shouldn’t be too bad. After all, he would be paying for the boy’s time for the next three years.

“We can come up with a secondary one next time.”

“This sounds good.”

Maru folded the napkin and gently tucked it into his pocket.

“When I was speaking with your friends, I told them this. I’ll support you, so try your best. I said this because they were still amateurs. But you’re different. I see you as a pro. So…”

Junmin finished his coffee before continuing.

“Raise your price. Enough to make me want to buy you.”

Junmin stood up from his seat. He felt good. It felt as though there was a rush of adrenaline whirring his brain vigorously. He hadn’t felt that in a very long time.

“That should be good enough to make you care about acting, right?”

“Yes, it is.”

“You’re materialistic.”

“Yes, I am.”

Materialistic. Junmin smiled internally. He didn’t hate that word. In fact, he kind of liked it.

“Are you familiar with Confucius’ sayings?”

“Of course.”

“Yes. I used to be a fan of a lot of his sayings. Especially the one about winning against yourself, and targeting something greater. It’s something that many adults like to talk about.”

“Right.”

“But recently, I started identifying with a different saying, “To hold close the reality, and further from yourself the ideals.” That sentence probably isn’t supposed to be very materialistic, but it is to me. I like chasing after money. That’s why I don’t feel bad when people call me materialistic.”

Maru smiled brightly, making Junmin shake his head.

“I can’t wait until the three years pass. Show me how much you’re capable of growing. If you’re capable, I’ll write you that secondary contract on the other side of the napkin. Otherwise, it would all end there.”

“I’m satisfied, since I’m not losing out on anything. It does make me somewhat greedy, though. Are successful actors all capable of using this much money at once?”

“Think of me as the odd one out. You probably won’t find many people like me in the whole of this country.”

“So I guess I’m pretty lucky, then?”

“Lucky?”

Junmin laughed.

“We can see if that’s really the case in three years. You better use those years wisely. After all, I did buy them.”

Junmin stepped out of the cafe with a grin. The autumn air felt very fresh to him, especially today.

Chapter 76

“This might not be it.”

Miso thought as she looked down at the packed lunch she made. She made it for Taesik, but it somehow didn’t fit her. She tried making it after seeing a couple do it in a TV show, but after actually making it, she realized she was too embarrassed to actually give it to the man. Plus…

“I wonder if it’d taste good to him.”

Miso stepped out of her house with the lunch in her hand. On her way over to the car, she sent a quick text message to Soojin.

[I tried making it the way you told me yesterday. Tastes nice. Thanks.]

When she got in her car and revved up the engine, she got a call from Geunsoo. What did he want so early in the morning?

- Is practice for the club going well?

“No problems here. Why? You worried for your brother?”

-… How is that kid, anyway? Is he focusing well?

“He’s doing well, thanks to the new competition. He’s pretty soft on the inside though, it really surprised me.”

- Please take care of him. He’s never done anything by himself before, he’s going to need all the help he can get.

“You worry too much. Why don’t you just call him?”

- I already have too much on my plate as it is, you know. Plus… I don’t think I can be a good support for my brother anymore.

“What the hell are you talking about?”

- Don’t worry about it. In any case, scold him when he deserves it, and make sure to praise him too. He really needs it.

“Don’t wanna. I’m just gonna scold him all day because of you.”

- That honestly doesn’t sound half bad either.

“Well, I’m hanging up now. I have to drive.”

Miso revved up her car after hanging up. The trees outside were starting to wither in preparation for the winter, quite a lot of them were already completely bare.

“Machines fueled by praise are kind of hard to deal with.”

Miso knew very well what Geunsoo worried about. After all, she’s almost spent a full year with the kids at this point. Geunseok was a smart kid. He knew exactly what to do at a given moment, and he always managed to please. That sounded good and all, but there was a problem.

“He doesn’t have a sense of self.”

The boy only lived through the eyes of the others. Miso personally wanted to completely fix up the boy’s personality, but she couldn't do that. That was a problem for Geunseok himself.

‘His pride is the issue.’

How could these two brothers born from the same parents turn out so different? That was a huge mystery to Miso. Geunsoo’s personality was very well developed from a young age, to the point where people called him a lunatic at school. The guy did as he pleased, while Geunseok, on the other hand, seemed calm and well-mannered. But on the inside, the boy was completely empty. A common trait seen in kids who got raised on attention.

Geunseok probably didn’t even know what he really wanted to do. After all, the boy only lived to satisfy his parents.

“Maybe it was because of Geunsoo.”

Perhaps the parents raised Geunseok like a puppet, after seeing how Geunsoo turned out. The boy was probably brainwashed with his parent’s sweet talk. It was a little sad to think about, but Miso had no intention of sympathizing with the boy.

‘You’ll have to find a good motivation for yourself if you want to keep acting.’

Junmin decided to give Geunseok a chance. After all, the boy had talent. But as soon as Junmin realizes that the boy is nothing but an empty can incapable of finding motivation, he would abandon ship. If Geunseok wants to become a true actor, he’d first have to work on finding motivation for himself.

“Well, at least he’s talented.”

But that talent is useless without real motivation. They were fine for the next competition, but Geunseok would have to start working hard by the one after that.

“What the hell happened with that kid, though?”

Miso took out her phone as soon as she reached a red light to send a message to Maru. The boy asked her for Junmin’s number two months ago. What in the world did the two talk about? She was curious as hell, but the only response she received from Junmin was to “ask the boy himself”, while Maru just refused to say anything.

“Ugh. What the hell are the two doing together?”

As she thought, the car behind her started blaring its horns. Miso threw her phone to the seat next to her and pressed the pedal.

* * *

Soojin stood up after lying down in a daze for a while. Her body felt heavy, almost as if she was sinking in a swamp. She couldn’t just keep sleeping though, so she decided to take a shower for now. Soojin avoided the little dolls she started making last night to enter the bathroom.

She turned on the showerhead on max heat, and threw her body in. After a while, she exit the bathroom wiping her reddened skin with a towel, and looked down at the phone next to her notebook. Her phone was blinking, showing her a new message arrived. Soojin tied up her hair with the towel before reaching for it.

The first message was from Miso, thanking her for the recipe from last night. When the woman asked her for it last night, Soojin started wondering if Miso got a girlfriend. She didn’t want to make Miso angry with that question though, so she just gave away a decent recipe she had. Soojin flipped to the next message with a small smile.

“……”

Soojin bit her lips as she read the words on the screen: ‘Are you doing well?’ She tried to write a message in response, but she kept making typos. It made her pretty annoyed for a brief second, but she managed to finish her sentence regardless.

[I’m doing fine.]

A new message came a few minutes after her response.

[Why don’t you come back home? We miss you.]

Soojin stared at her screen for a few long minutes before moving her fingers again.

[I’m busy. I’m sorry.]

And a new response.

[I see. Stay healthy.]

Soojin threw her phone on her bed. The phone bounced, landing straight on the floor. Soojin’s body felt heavy again. The shower she took had no effect on her. Soojin kneeled and hugged her knees. Her dad probably wanted to say a few more things to her. She could just feel his emotions emanating from his texts.

“Hah.”

Soojin felt awful. She felt mad at herself, because she knew she was at fault for feeling awful to begin with. She wouldn’t feel so bad if she received a response for the mail she sent a while back. She knew she shouldn’t feel like this, but she just couldn’t help it. Soojin put on her clothes almost as if she was controlled, and picked up her dolls.

“I should… play with the kids.”

Today, she once again filled her car with dolls and headed to the kindergarten. That was one of the few places where she could feel safe, and at the same time, repent.

She should smile.

Soojin smiled. She smiled as brightly as she could. Surely the kids would like it. Right as she entered her car, she got a message from Maru.

[I arrived in Suwon station.]

Soojin slapped her cheek to snap herself out of that daze, and looked at the back mirror. She looked a little sadder than usual, but she didn’t look all that strange.

[I’ll be there soon.]

She started her car as soon as she sent the message.

* * *

“You worked hard.”

“You too, Maru. I’ll see you next week.”

“Sure.”

Maru watched Soojin drive off in her red car before turning away. He started doing this to gain an interest in acting, but at this point, it’s become a habit. It was still fun, so he didn’t feel like it was a waste of time at all.

‘Today was pretty nice.’

Soojin looked quite nervous in the morning, but she calmed down a lot after receiving a message. She should be able to sort out her problems from now on.

It was 2pm. The day ended surprisingly quickly, so Maru decided to buy a toast sandwich from the station before going home. Right then, he noticed two familiar faces in the distance. It was Geunseok and Yurim.

* * *

“Oh, it’s Maru,” Yurim said.

Geunseok looked at Maru with an uncomfortable expression. The boy was walking towards the two of them with a toast sandwich in hand. Yurim tried to remove her arm from Geunseok’s hand, but he tightened his grip.

“Date?” Maru asked.

Maru was a strange kid. The guy complained about the acting club arrogantly, but never actually left. As a matter of fact, he was even attending practice now with a role. Geunseok thought Maru’s character was nothing special, but quickly realized that wasn’t the case after a while of practice. Instructor Miso gave Maru a difficult character for sure.

Geunseok, for one, couldn’t understand what instructor Miso was thinking. Why did she give such an important character to a guy like him?

‘Why not me?’

He got the main role just like last time, but he didn’t feel good about it at all. Maybe it was because he was only getting criticisms recently. Instructor Miso never complimented him for anything, despite showering everyone else around him with praises. In that sense, Geunseok didn’t like Maru. The guy never got scolded.

“Good times. Hope you have fun.”

Even those words sounded almost like mocking to Geunseok, which made him twist his lips in annoyance. Geunseok pulled Yurim closer towards him.

“Let’s go.”

Yurim spoke to him in a sweet manner.

“He’s probably like that because he’s jealous, right?”

“Probably.”

“Of course he would be. You’re just too cool, Geunseok.”

It was a bit embarrassing to hear, but Geunseok didn’t hate hearing that. Yurim looked at him. She only took care of him, not others. Plus, she was pretty cute.

‘Big sis Suyeon would probably be better though.’

Geunseok’s gotten a little tired of Yurim recently. The girl was just too attached to him. She treated him almost like her phone that she always used to fiddle with. On the other hand, big sis Suyeon takes the lead pretty well. Every second he spent with Suyeon wasn’t boring at all.

‘Then again, Yurim needs me.’

Geunseok walked towards a popular pizza place nearby, with Yurim still stuck next to him.

* * *

“See you tomorrow.”

Yurim headed home after saying her goodbyes to Geunseok. She could head straight home if she went through the alleyway, but she decided to take the long route home using a bigger road. Even now, she was afraid of walking by herself in the dark, especially without Geunseok.

She comforted herself by clutching her phone.

‘Geunseok’s so helpless. He can’t do anything without me.’

Whenever she was with Geunseok, Yurim felt like a mature woman. Someone who could face adversity and actually win against it. Through him, she gained stability as a person. As she passed over a footbridge, she noticed someone underneath.

“Thank you! Come again!”

It was a girl. Iseul, actually.

“Eh?”

“Oh? Yurim!”

Iseul came over first. Yurim was actually a bit uncomfortable around this girl. First off, she was prettier than her, and Geunseok tended to sneak a glance at the girl every once in a while as well. Well, they were still in the same acting club though.

“You live here?”

“Yeah. My parents run a soup place. Smells good, right?”

Yurim wasn’t a big fan of how pork stock smelled, but she nodded with a smile for now.

“Want a bowl? The others are all here too.”

“Others?”

Yurim took a small peek inside. There were a few people sitting in the near-empty restaurant eating. That round boy over there was Daemyung, opposite him was Dojin. And…

“Soyeon’s… here, too.”

“Yeah. I invited them since they said they like soup. Taejoon’s coming, too.”

“I-is that so?”

Suddenly, Yurim felt excluded. It was fine if the other kids were there, but… Soyeon, too? The girl didn’t even say anything to her.

Yurim gripped her phone. And here she thought Soyeon was her best friend in school. This was too much…

“I have to go home.”

“Really? You should say hi to them before…”

“No, it’s fine. See you tomorrow.”

“Y-yeah. Sure.”

Yurim tried to hide her pout by walking away, she was disappointed. How could Soyeon hang out with the others without even telling her?

“And I thought she was a friend.”

As she thought so, she noticed a phone call she forgot to pick up from this morning. It was from Soyeon. She ignored it because she was busy hanging out with Geunseok at the time.

“…She should’ve at least texted me. Isn’t she just ignoring me at this point?”

Yurim immediately felt worse. She felt like she needed to talk about this to someone. Like always, she started typing Geunseok’s phone number on her phone.

Chapter 77

“Did she just leave?”

“Yeah, I invited her, but she just left. Guess she’s busy.”

“Is that so?”

Soyeon responded with a saddened tone. It felt like the distance between her and Yurim was increasing. Yurim didn’t pick up most of Soyeon’s calls, and even if she did, her response centered around her being busy and hanging up.

“She must be on a date with Geunseok.”

“Are they really going out?”

Dojin nodded with an ‘of course’. Soyeon smiled, looking at the two friends next to her. The two of them got along almost like a couple. The thought of Yurim disappeared a little in her head, she should be able to settle the matter later.

“So, how is it? Is it good?”

Iseul asked with expectant eyes. She fit the vibe of the restaurant very well with her white towel around her head. Despite looking so much like a princess, too.

“Amazing.”

“Yeah, amazing.”

Soyeon gave the other girl a thumbs up. Indeed, the soup was delicious. Good enough for seconds. Iseul grinned after hearing the compliment, and shouted into the kitchen, ‘Mom! Dad! They like it!’

“Be sure to come often, okay?”

Iseul was a cute girl. At one point, Soyeon was jealous of the other girl. No, she actually disliked Iseul. She was certain that all cute girls were foxes inside. But contrary to her prejudice, Iseul turned out to be a very relaxed person.

‘She’s pretty, and she has a nice personality. Isn’t that too much?’

Today especially, Soyeon felt a little loathful of her stomach. She never disliked her physique, but she felt embarrassed whenever she was standing next to Iseul. Today was no exception, she felt a sense of shame along with her embarrassment. As she continued talking with the others, the last person arrived.

“I’m here! Hi!”

It was Taejoon. Iseul smiled, giving the boy a light jab at his stomach. She sat Taejoon next to Soyeon, which made Soyeon nervous for no reason.

“Soyeon, it’s me.”

“Ah, hey.”

“How is it? Does it live up to your expectations? Iseul wasn’t hyping it up?”

“Yeah, it’s good.”

Taejoon was nice to everyone. He was giving her attention, as proof of that fact. He probably wants to talk to Iseul more.

‘Come on, Soyeon. Stop overthinking. They’re all nice people.’

Soyeon stopped herself from turning to look at Taejoon. She wanted to keep her crush on Taejoon a secret. What would the other kids think if word got out?

‘They’d make fun of me.’

They’d laugh at her, telling her that he was way out of her league. They might not mean offense when they talk, but hurtful words were still painful. So she removed the possibility to begin with. Taejoon should stop talking to her if she didn’t look at him.

“Did you drop something in that soup? Why are you staring at it?”

“Eh? Ah, it’s nothing.”

Gosh, why was the boy talking so much to her? She looked up to try and change the topic, but… she noticed Dojin and Daemyung exchanging looks with a grin.

‘Could it be… ’

Did it already begin? She felt embarrassed. Was she being too obvious? She tried to act normal, but it wasn’t easy.

“Tasty, right?” She found herself asking.

Dojin nodded with a smile, and that was it. She turned to look at Daemyung out of sheer awkwardness, but the boy was getting ready to leave for some reason.

“We need to make a call real quick. I think we might be able to call Maru here.”

“Take me with you.”

Dojin and Daemyung took off together. Soyeon couldn’t even say anything. Taejoon was still next to her, and her soup was disappearing quickly. What should she do? Should she just order more soup and stuff it down her gullet?

About when she thought this much, Taejoon became quiet.

‘……… ’

Things only grew more awkward between each other. So he won’t even talk to her without others around them. Soyeon could only pray for Dojin and Daemyung to return quickly.

* * *

Iseul chopped up some sausages before putting it in a container.

“You should rest a bit, you have friends here,” her mom commented.

Iseul shook her head.

“Ugh, mom, can’t you see what’s happening over there?”

Iseul pointed at the table with Taejoon and Soyeon. Her mom smiled immediately.

“Are they going out?”

“Nope, it’s a one-sided love.”

“The guy, huh?”

“Right? Right? But the girl doesn’t know at all.”

“She doesn’t? With him being that obvious?”

“Yeah. Soyeon never looks at Taejoon. Especially when they’re alone. Hehe.”

“You should tell her, then.”

“I should, but… That’s not fun.”

“And the other kids just left to set the mood?”

“Yeah. I mean, we came here just for this today. Oh, that and promoting our restaurant.”

“Oh my, my daughter’s become a true merchant, I see.”

“Whose daughter do you think I am?”

“Mine, obviously.”

Iseul’s dad shouted from a different room in the kitchen.

“What about me?”

Iseul smiled before directing her attention back to the table. Soyeon was still looking down at her bowl of soup. Taejoon, on the other hand, was fiddling with his spoon with a stiff expression.

“A-hem! Springtime of youth!”

Things would immediately get heartwarming and romantic if Iseul told Soyeon what was going on, but… then the club would be deprived of entertainment.

‘Well, it all ends today, though.’

Taejoon promised himself. He would confess to Soyeon before today ends.

* * *

“Hah.”

“What’s up?”

Daemyung looked at Dojin standing next to him.

“Everyone else is finding their girlfriends and boyfriends, and here I am, what I was thinking.”

“………”

“Iseul doesn’t seem interested in getting into a relationship, the seniors all seem to have their matches, but me on the other hand… Ah, my springtime is rotting away.”

“Romance doesn’t account for all of your youth, you know.”

“It isn’t, but it does account for a significant part of it. Daemyung, Maru is our only hope. I’m sure he got that girl’s number that time. We need to make use of that.”

Daemyung shook his head.

“I’m n-not that interested.”

“Liar. Cross your heart and tell me. Every dude with a dick wants love, yo.”

Dojin spoke with exaggeration as he would on stage, some of the pedestrians turned to look at them as a result. Daemyung became embarrassed, and quickly started walking away.

“Hey! Don’t leave me alone, dude. I feel embarrassed.”

“O-oh, so you’re aware that you’re an embarrassment?”

“…Yeah.”

The two of them entered a convenience store nearby.

“Taejoon was confessing today, right? You think he would’ve done it by now?”

“Dunno.”

Daemyung was pretty surprised when Taejoon informed the group of his plan. Taejoon? Liking Soyeon? Even more surprising, everyone else already knew about this?

‘Maybe I’m just slow.’

A girlfriend… Just thinking about it made Daemyung a little excited.

“Oh, it’s Maru,” Dojin said, taking out his phone.

After exchanging a few words, Dojin ended the call with a ‘meet you at the station’.

“Maru’s done with work?”

“Yeah. And here I thought he couldn’t make it. Anyway, to think he’d give up being with a pretty lady to hang with us instead… He’s a bit odd himself.”

Daemyung thought of Soojin. The woman was incredibly pretty, he remembered. She was the manifestation of purity itself, as a matter of fact. After a while of waiting, Maru came into the convenience store himself, with his hands in his pockets.

“Let’s go,” he said, before walking back out.

“How was work?”

“It was alright. It ended pretty fast, which was why I called you. What are you doing here, by the way?”

Dojin gestured at the restaurant nearby.

“They’re in there right now.”

“Ah. How was Taejoon?”

“I honestly wanted to take a picture.”

Daemyung smiled, too, remembering Taejoon’s expression. The boy’s frozen face was an uncharacteristic expression.

“We’ll probably have to wait then, huh?”

“Probably?”

* * *

And yet again, they were at a bar. Miso grinned, looking at Taesik sitting next to her. Just looking at him made her happy, the fact that this man was hers made her even happier.

“So, how has practice been?”

“Ugh, what’s up with the guys around me and the acting club? Aren’t you interested in me? Also, that politeness thing! Can’t you try fixing it?”

“I’m sorry. No, sorry.”

Miso shook her head.

“Well, practice is perfect for now. My use of the word ‘perfect’ should give you a pretty good sense of what’s happening.”

“Yeah, I can see it.”

“It’s going to be different from the first competition. Plus, Maru’s here too.”

“So the prelims aren’t going to be a problem?”

“If it is, I’m going to leave the industry.”

She was confident. Really. They were on a highway to the finals, and they would take first place as well.

“A comedy… isn’t it difficult?”

“It is. But that’s what makes us special. If we win at the nationals this winter, we’re going to sweep up every award. Just watch!”

“That'd be nice. Would be something nice to brag about.”

“Oh my, Mr. Advisor. Were you having a hard time?”

“I mean, I wouldn’t have to care so much about what the other teachers think of me.”

Watching Taesik complain was a little cute. Miso couldn’t resist pinching his cheek.

“Don’t you worry, mister. I’ll change what the school thinks of your club with this.”

Just you watch. That first place plaque was going to have the name ‘Blue Sky’ engraved on it.

* * *

Maru went back to his room after a quick shower. After checking his homework, he opened a book related to acting. Some of them were books recommended by Miso, and others were scripts from Ganghwan. The scripts from Ganghwan were the copies used by the man himself, so it was loaded with a bunch of notes written on the sides.

[Use it as reference.]

That was what Ganghwan told him as he gave Maru the scripts. For Maru, this script lined with red and blue notes was the best teacher he could ever ask for. For the last two months, Maru diverted 20% of his time into school, and the rest all into acting. He decided to work hard for three years. He did make a deal, after all.

…Or at least, that’s what he thought at first. He thought he made a great deal, what with him being able to meet his wife through this and all. But after meeting both Junmin and Ganghwan, something’s changed.

He still thought this was a good deal, and he was still going to try hard. But now, he had motivation. That is, motivation to be on stage. As a matter of fact, looking at Ganghwan’s script made him think of something Junmin told him in the past.

[I’ll be waiting until you start acting not because of money, but because of passion. I guarantee it’ll be interesting. For the both of us.]

Maru closed the script and lay down on his bed. There was a week until the prelims for the winter competition. He could see the glow light stickers stuck on the ceiling. The moon sticker was glowing faintly. The moon couldn’t shine by itself.

‘But if it becomes able to… ’

Then, like Junmin said, things would get very interesting. Maru closed his eyes. That night, he dreamed. There was a man on a stage, wearing a black and white mask on his face. He raised his hands to the sky as he spoke,

“Did you like the choices I gave you?”

Maru could only smile in the dream.

Chapter 78

Yang Ganghwan took off the newspaper covering him.

“Phew, doesn’t look like my face was paralyzed, at least.”

There were a bunch of homeless people sitting around the bus terminal. After all, it was winter, and the terminal was warm. Ganghwan had been living here for around two weeks now.

“Mr. Yang.”

The person who walked up to him with a bottle of soju was Mr. Kim. The man who was the leader of the homeless here. He was the one who decides who sleeps where.

“Drinking, so early in the morning?”

“I’m drinking because it’s the morning. Looks like you’re still doing well, that’s good. Here, have a shot. It’ll warm you up.”

November. It was getting a bit too cold to keep warm with just a newspaper. The walls of the bus terminal stopped wind from getting in, but the temperature was still cold enough to paralyze a man. Paralysis, to a homeless person, was a worse outcome than death.

Ganghwan accepted the shot of soju. He felt his stomach warm up a bit.

“Stretch a bit. Your bones are going to rot away if you just curl up like that.”

Ganghwan nodded, and started stretching. His stiffened muscles were screaming at him. That was a good sign, at least he could still feel pain. According to Mr. Kim, things were really bad for you if you woke up feeling good. Because you were too numb to feel anything wrong with your body.

“Now now! Stand up! We need to leave this place squeaky clean!”

Mr. Kim started waking up all the homeless people. Each one of them started cleaning up after their sleeping areas. To begin with, Mr. Kim was the person who entered an agreement with the terminal to begin with. Most people didn’t know this, but the homeless would go elsewhere when the terminal was open for the public. They didn’t stay in places where they would attract attention, and they always cleaned up before they left. They didn’t get into fights with passengers, and they made sure not to leave behind any unwanted smells.

“Mr. Park! Clean up your clothes!”

Mr. Park nodded at Mr. Kim’s words. As soon as the homeless people managed to clean up, the passengers started coming in in droves.

“Now now, let’s get out of here.”

Mr. Kim told the employee that they would be leaving with a smile. Right then, a thirty year old lady ran into one of the homeless people. It was Mr. Hwang, a person Ganghwan was familiar with. The man came to the terminal about three days ago, and unfortunately still had his pride with him. He often said the words, “if it wasn’t for that guarantee…” under his breath.

The woman who ran into him looked him over with a disgusted frown, her eyes made Mr. Hwang flip over.

“You bitch! How dare you look at me like that!”

Ganghwan ran over to stop him immediately, just a single report would send off all of the homeless people here out into the streets. Mr. Hwang alone could easily chase everyone out of here. Ganghwan dragged Mr. Hwang away, as Mr. Kim started talking to the lady.

“Lady, are you okay?”

“Ah, yes.”

Mr. Kim looked pretty normal, dressed in clothes ready for a hike. He also looked like a wealthy individual to begin with. With Mr. Kim talking, the lady calmed down pretty quickly. He walked her over into the terminal naturally.

“Mr. Hwang, you need to calm down.”

Ganghwan took Mr. Hwang to the bathroom before any employees noticed them. Mr. Hwang angrily huffed before turning desperate.

“How did I end up like this…”

“Go wash your face and calm down a little. Mr. Kim’s handling it well out there, I think.”

“…I’m sorry.”

Mr. Hwang smelled a little of alcohol. Ganghwan shook his head before stepping back outside. He could see the woman from before heading off to the bus stops with a ticket. She didn’t seem to have made a report, thankfully.

“Mr. Hwang?”

“He’s in the bathroom.”

Mr. Kim sighed frustratedly.

“I saw him drinking yesterday… I knew this would happen.”

“The lady? She didn’t say anything?”

“I told her to think as if she stepped on poop, she looked scared and left right away. Sigh, this is no good… If we get on the employees’ bad side before it gets really cold, we’re in big trouble.”

“Yeah.”

Mr. Hwang stepped out from the bathroom. He bowed slightly to Mr. Kim with an embarrassed expression before walking away.

“It’s because he still has that pride, that damned pride. He won’t be able to recover with it.”

Mr. Kim told Ganghwan to work hard before walking away, the man was probably headed for the job market. He probably wouldn’t be able to get anything done, though. After all, the job market was overflowing with people in their 20s. Mr. Kim, who had been a factory manager back in the day, got hit badly during the Asian Financial Crisis, and never recovered. He divorced, and that’s how he ended up becoming who he was now. A homeless man for six years and counting.

Ganghwan stared as he watched Mr. Kim walk away. This terminal was filled with homeless people, the “failures” of society. He had to wonder, did the people who made fun of the homeless know? That each one of these people used to be CEOs and heads of a department back in the day?

They failed because of circumstances out of their control, and were laughed at regardless. Ganghwan smiled bitterly as he took out his notebook, and started taking notes. He needed to write down exactly how he felt. He needed to write down what he ate in the morning, what happened during the day, how his body felt right now, what the scenery was like, and everything else. He took as detailed notes as he possibly could.

Afterwards, Ganghwan got two cups of coffee, and offered one to a bus driver he got to know a few days ago. As they started talking, the radio was announcing the daily news.

- The residential properties in Gangnam soared in price by about 20% recently.

“I should’ve fucking bought that land back then.”

“I heard prices rose by a huge amount?”

“Nowadays you can earn hundreds of thousands just by sitting if you have that land. There’s a bunch of people sleeping on the streets, and some lucky few are sweeping in cash just because they happened to have the right property… I don’t know if I should say that this world is disgusting or stupid.”

The bus driver watched as some of the homeless started walking away.

“Those guys are very unfortunate as well. They must want to see their wives and children, but can’t because they have no money. Damn it, it all comes down to money and its ability to ruin a family just like that.”

The bus driver left with just that. Come to think of it, the way people looked at homeless people were all different depending on their age. The older they got, the more sympathetic they became. Probably because they knew how easily they could become homeless themselves. Just a single mistake, and they could become one of the many people sleeping at a bus terminal.

“Mr. Yang.”

“Oh, Mr. Kim?”

Mr. Kim appeared with a bottle of makgeolli, instead of going to the job market like Ganghwan thought. Alcohol? At this time of day? That was very unlike Mr. Kim. Most people had the assumption that homeless people did nothing but drink, but that was absolutely false. Of course, there were those who blindly drank their lives away in despair, but the vast majority spent their time working hard and recovering. Of those, Mr. Kim was the type that stuck to a very strict schedule. That shot of soju he drank every morning was more like medicine to survive every day. It absolutely wasn’t something he drank for pleasure. But the makgeolli in his hand right now… It was clearly for entertainment.

“What happened to work…?”

“I wanted to send you off.”

Ganghwan trembled a little bit after hearing those words.

“I thought you might be leaving around today. How would you like a drink?”

* * *

Ganghwan threw on some soup stock over dried noodles, and crushed it up. Voila, a wonderful drinking food. The two of them started drinking at the park near the terminal.

“So, what do you do?”

“I act.”

“Act? Why are you here, then?”

“I need awareness if I want to act properly.”

“So you’re saying that being homeless is helpful for you?”

“Yes. I am playing a homeless person, after all.”

“Haha. I see that my first impressions of you were right on the mark now.”

“What did you think of me?”

“I thought you were insane.”

Ganghwan exploded into laughter after hearing that.

“It was already strange to begin with, watching a young man like yourself come into our community. You looked very much alive as well. Er, it sounds a bit awkward with me saying this, but being homeless requires you to give up everything. Pride, face, power, everything. We have nothing, so we need to act like we have nothing. At that point, we can start to see if a person’s truly alive or not.”

Mr. Kim was saying some scary things like it was normal to him. Ganghwan felt a bit apologetic after hearing this.

“I’m not trying to blame you for anything, it was just a passing comment. Anyway, did you learn anything?”

“Yes. I learned a lot.”

“Good to know. Thank goodness you had something to learn from this hellhole.”

“Hellhole’s a bit strong of a descriptor, isn’t it? I mean, this is still a place where people live.”

Ganghwan poured Mr. Kim a full cup of makgeolli. After that, Mr. Kim started talking a lot about his life story. Even things he didn’t typically talk about were shared during their shared drinks. Every once in a while during the middle of a sentence, Mr. Kim would wipe off tears with his blackened hands.

“You know now, Mr. Yang, that we aren’t like this because we want to be, right? If you look at the TV, everyone treats us like sinners. Like cockroaches that don’t even try to recover, and instead leech off of the donations that come their way. I want to say a few things to the people that complain about us. What do you know about us?! You bastards! I was a CEO too! I used to donate left and right! Did you know that? You bastards! But my factory went down. It was all my fault, so I have nothing to say. I have nothing to say…”

Mr. Kim’s rage was heated, and at the same time, very desperate. The man, who never showed any anger in front of homeless people, was venting like he wanted to let out all of his frustrations on this one day. Ganghwan listened, and engraved those words in his head. By the time Mr. Kim finished talking, he’d broken down into tears.

“Why are you crying, Mr. Yang?”

“What, can’t I cry?”

“Of course you can cry! As a matter of fact, I’m thankful that you’re crying for me!”

Mr. Kim poured Ganghwan a cup of makgeolli with a jovial laughter.

* * *

Miso headed to the theater with a single ticket in hand, the show was just about to begin. She was here to see a play by the name of ‘A Human’s Repayment’ and planned on visiting the dressing room before the play, but her tardiness led her to the audience seats.

The entire theater was packed full with 300 people. Miso tried to get a ticket herself, but it was sold out within minutes on the internet. The ticket she had now was gifted to her by one of the cast members.

“I wonder when Ganghwan will come out.”

“Yeah.”

Two girls, presumably in college, were whispering next to her. As Miso thought, Ganghwan was still as popular as ever. He was one of those eccentric actors who left a popular private theater to go to a no-name theater in a regional city. He made his name there for a while before getting scouted into a company in Seoul. From what she’s heard so far, all the big theater companies in Hyehwa station were trying to scout him right now.

‘He was born to be successful.’

A prodigy. That was the only word she could describe him with. But she wasn’t jealous. She knew how much he had to work to get to where he was now. As a matter of fact, she felt ashamed when she started comparing herself to him.

‘He’s worked enough to deserve all that attention.’

The man spent an insane amount of time practicing. As she spent a few minutes observing the stage, the lights went out. The sound of the wind blowing started coming from the speakers.

The play was about to begin.

* * *

Breathless. That was how Miso felt at this very moment. She was certain that this was shared by everyone else in the theater. This was a play for adults. Not in a sexual way, no. But in a violent way instead. Not a physical violence, but a mental one. The actors brutally acted out the cruelty of modern-day society, the cruelty that only humans were capable of.

It was insane. The person who came up with the play, the people performing the play… They were all insane. Worst of all…

The spotlight turned on, focusing on a single man.

Car horns were blaring around him, and the sounds of people talking were being played all around them. Amongst all the noise, the man spoke a sentence that marked the climax of the entire play.

“I saw a sentence written on a bridge on the Hangang river. ‘I want to go home’. Seeing that, my friend said he wanted to go home. Back to his wife and child. He said he wanted to go back.”

The man stretched out his hands. They were trembling lightly.

“Do you know what I thought? I saw those same words and thought, ‘I want to die.’ Those words that sounded so warm to you… were the same words that gave me this urge to throw myself off of that bridge.”

The man kneeled, Miso could hear the girls next to him moan. They were absolutely taken by the play, by that actor on stage.

“A failure. A loser. A nobody. That’s probably what you think of me. But know this, I didn’t become a failure on purpose.”

The man slowly raised his head. His expression, a concoction of rage, loss, despair, fear, and… a silent call for help. He looked at the audience with this complicated expression.

“You were… Just a little more lucky, compared to me. Remember this. You could be next. This cold, desperate hellscape could come to you, next. So I’ll pray for you. I’ll pray that you can survive when that moment comes.”

The man fell backwards. Flop.

And with that, the stage turned dark.

* * *

No one said anything. The audience left almost as if they were afraid of talking to each other. Some people were even ripping apart their pamphlet angrily, others were shivering nervously. Everyone had different reactions, but it all seemed to mean one thing.

They never wanted to see the play again.

Miso shook her head. This play wasn’t going to earn much money, unless it ended up becoming a sensation or something. It would probably get forgotten completely. Because… it invoked too much pain in the audience.

“It hurts too much.”

It would honestly be better if it was just sad. At least then people would watch it again. But this hit the audience exactly where it hurt, and it hit again and again. Miso found herself running into the dressing room as soon as she got outside. She knew the play would be good because he was performing, but to think it’d be this good… She quickly greeted the staff she knew before jumping straight into the dressing room. She could see Ganghwan erasing his makeup in front of one of the mirrors.

“Oh! Miso!”

“Oh my ass!”

Miso slapped Ganghwan’s head with her pamphlet.

Chapter 79

“You managed to see it to the end, huh? Getting your own play performed, that is. How did you manage to persuade the director, anyway? You probably just begged him until he gave in, right?”

Miso and Ganghwan were sitting together in a cafe near the theater.

“Begged? No way, he jumped at the idea. Plus, a true artist shouldn’t care so much about money. Don’t worry, things went well with the director. Plus, you saw how many people there were in the seats.”

“You know no one’s going to watch this play once they learn what it’s really like.”

“Do you really think so?”

Ganghwan was confident. For sure, the play didn’t have any faults in it. The actors acted very well, and the props on the stage were very well-made. The play managed to invoke feelings in the audience very easily. The only problem was, again, the amount of painful feelings it invoked.

“This play isn’t for everyone, I know. To begin with, I don’t even have enough talent to make a play that could satisfy everyone.”

“Not enough talent? Do you really think you have the right to say that? By the way, what happened? You used to hate homeless people before, but you were almost defending them in this play?”

“I mean, they say the more you know, the more you see. I lived like a homeless person around three months before I started preparing for this play. The first month was dreadful. The fact that my body hurt wasn’t that much of an issue, the people were.”

“People?”

“Yeah, the people. The characters like Mr. Kim, Mr. Lee, and Mr. Park aren’t the only types of people who are homeless, after all. Most of them do nothing but bother and annoy you, and commit all sorts of crimes. They all gave up on their lives, doing nothing but drink with the money given to them.”

“So, you decided to idealize them for this play?”

“No, I didn’t. The character I played exists in real life.”

Ganghwan took out his notebook, Miso knew what it was very well.

“From the second month, I met people who were very different from the stereotypical homeless people I knew about. People who desperately struggled to recover, despite hitting rock bottom. Those who wanted to go back into the warzone that was society. When I started talking with a lot of them, I had to wonder why they were homeless to begin with. Once I gathered up their stories, I ended up coming up with a decent character.”

“Man, what a weirdo. I feel sorry for the people who were worrying about you once you went off the grid.”

Ganghwan shrugged with a smile.

“So, what did you want to ask of me, Ms. Yang Miso?”

Miso stretched her neck forward to Ganghwan.

“I want you to mentor someone.”

“Mentor? What are you talking about?”

Ganghwan stared confusedly.

“You’ll see soon. This isn’t just a request from me, but from Junmin as well. Well, I guess it’s more of an order from him?”

* * *

Three people were sitting inside a cafe at Suwon.

“Alright, say hi.”

Maru looked at the man in front of him. The man was probably dragged here by Miso, seeing by his awkward smile.

“Hello, I’m Han Maru.”

“Nice to meet you. I’m Yang Ganghwan.”

Yang? Maru took a look at Miso. Yang Miso… They weren’t family, were they?

“He’s a friend I met through acting. He’s also going to be your mentor from hereon.”

“Mentor?”

“Oh, so that’s him?”

Maru and Ganghwan both exclaimed in surprise. It looked like Ganghwan was dragged here without any explanation as well, that was kind of like Miso.

“I don’t know what you talked about with Junmin, but I heard you said you were going to focus on acting for the next three years? Might as well learn it properly then, right?”

Maru nodded in understanding. He did say he would study using related texts, but self study was difficult. Having an experienced teacher would help quite a bit.

“Well, that’s how it is, so go on and shake hands.”

Miso grabbed Ganghwan’s arm and stretched it forward. Maru grabbed the man’s hand and shook it lightly.

“Well, I’m leaving now. I gotta introduce the others to their mentors too.”

“The others?”

“Geunseok and Daemyung. Junmin’s the type to go all out when he makes his mind to raise some kids, so I need to talk to them.”

Miso stopped herself before she went out and turned back to the two of them.

“Anyway, you guys look pretty nice together. An adult weirdo and a kid weirdo.”

Weirdo?

Maru looked at Ganghwan. His face was pretty angular, which made him look pretty masculine, but overall he just looked like a nice person. His mouth and eyebrows was a testament to just how much he smiled in his day-to-day life. This person was a weirdo?

“Why are you a weirdo?” Ganghwan asked.

“What?”

“Miso’s just making fun of me when she calls me a weirdo. Why is she calling you a weirdo now?”

“She’s just making fun of me, too. A weirdo? No way. I’m perfectly normal.”

“Right?”

“Yes.”

“That’s good. I only talk to normal people. In any case, I only know your name right now, so I have to wonder what else I’d like to know…”

“Before that, you’re okay with this?”

“With what, teaching you?”

“Yes. You didn’t seem to know about this at all.”

“I knew I was going to mentor someone before this. Rather, did you know about this? That you were going to be mentored?”

“I wasn’t told anything until just a few minutes ago.”

“That sounds like Miso, alright. In any case, I’m going to be your mentor from now on. Ah, don’t think of me as anyone special, by the way. I don’t have some magical knowledge that’s going to turn you into a fantastic actor or anything. I can only throw you a few tips here and there. Don’t expect anything special, ok?”

Ganghwan grinned as he spoke. Right then, a certain memory replayed itself in Maru’s head. He was recalling something about the man, which made his head throb a bit.

‘This person, too… ’

Ganghwan was an actor known as a very good friend of Hong Geunsoo. He never appeared on the big screen, but still managed to earn himself immense fame regardless. He managed to get both a lot of criticisms and praise, being a person who liked playing characters that reflected the dark side of society. He was especially famous for his ability to engage a character in the play like no other. As a matter of fact, many of his audiences liked to call his plays a ‘painful play’.

‘Huh, I know a lot about this guy.’

Where did Maru get this information? Surely not from the news. He probably didn’t read it from any magazines either, given how busy he was at his job.

‘…My wife, maybe?’

That was the most likely explanation. Or maybe he heard about it when he was a road manager? In any case, this was a famous person. That much was certain.

‘Ah.’

He remembered one more thing. This was the person who dragged the 44 year old Hong Geunsoo back into the world of stage acting. He remembered that interview with Hong Geunsoo on TV, even. As he recalled, Geunsoo said that he would ‘gladly go back on stage’ if the request was from Ganghwan.

“Um, do you happen to know Hong Geunsoo, by any chance?”

“Geunsoo? Ahh, I completely forgot. You were from Blue Sky. Yeah, I’m an old friend of his.”

The man made a comfortable smile as he said the word ‘friend’. They were definitely good friends.

“Care to grab something to eat as we talk? I’m hungry.”

The two of them walked out, and went to a restaurant nearby. After ordering a lunch special, they started talking again.

“How did you get to know Senior Junmin? He doesn’t like dealing with any average kid with those eyes of his.”

“Our instructor invited him to watch us secretly, and we acted in front of him for a brief period of time.”

“Ah, so that’s where you got in his eye. That guy’s still so greedy, even at his age. I don’t think I’ve ever seen him rest. He’s always out there managing and training someone. Pretty amazing. Anyway, what’s your game plan for now? Probably getting a bachelor’s in acting?”

Maru shook his head.

“I have no intention of going to college even if I keep doing acting, I want to learn in the industry.”

“Really? No college? No way.”

“Is that strange?”

“Very odd. Senior is notorious for raising kids like you for acting. He likes to say the earlier you teach them, the better. But whenever he picks up a kid around your age, he always tells them to do one thing, which is going to college. It doesn’t have to be for acting or whatever. Social Sciences, Philosophy, etc. He just wants his students to widen their worldview in school.”

That made sense to Maru, but he wasn’t one of those kids that Ganghwan just described. To begin with, the contract he signed with Junmin was something completely different.

“Also, ‘if I keep doing acting’? So you might give up in the middle?”

“Yes. I only agreed to act until the end of high school for now. After that, Mr. Junmin will decide if he wants to continue the contract. Otherwise, it’s all over. I thought this would be good for me, since I wasn’t sure of acting either.”

“…That’s really odd. He decided to take in someone like you? Did he change? Did Junmin suggest you do this?”

“No, this was a condition I set for him.”

“Y-you set it for him?!”

Ganghwan’s jaw dropped.

“So Senior didn’t tell you to do this, you just told him that you were going to quit if you didn’t like it by the end of high school?”

“That’s right.”

“And he just took that?”

“That’s why we’re here, isn’t it?”

“I’d find it easier to believe had you said that the sun was rising from the west.”

Ganghwan pulled out his phone and quickly typed a number. Then, he started with “yes, Senior. It’s me, Ganghwan.” He must be calling Junmin. After nodding a few times, he turned to look at Maru incredulously.

“Yes, I understand. Yes. I’ll come visit soon.”

Ganghwan ended the call before speaking again.

“Yeah, you’re totally a weirdo.”

* * *

‘300 million won, and third year of high school… ’

Ganghwan could do nothing else but stare at Maru. The high schooler was eating the grilled fish in front of him pretty cleanly. A high schooler like this… talked about a 300 million won contract?

“You have courage. 100 million per year? As a 17 year old? Do you really think you’re worth that much?”

“No.”

Oh? Look at the kid. He was speaking with complete self assurance.

“And yet you asked for that much money regardless?”

“Yes.”

“Did you not want to do acting?”

“That’s not it at all, I did want to try acting. I wanted to see if my talent was the real deal, after being told that by people around me.”

“Despite that, you asked for 100 million.”

“It was 2 billion at first.”

“………”

“What is it?”

“I was just wondering if the value of won dropped like a rock when I was homeless. That’s not it, right?”

“Of course not.”

“Wow, 2 billion… How much did I have in my bank again?”

Ganghwan stared intently at Maru. Just what was this kid? He could tell the kid was being serious with his words. Plus, Junmin wasn’t the type to go along with jokes.

‘He must’ve liked this kid a lot.’

Ganghwan didn’t believe that human lives were worth more than money. Money was always above humans, that’s how capitalism worked. He learned this the hard way when he spent his time being homeless. Money made the world go round, money let humans live, and money killed humans with the snap of its fingers. 300 million won… That was enough money to kill several people. He recalled seeing news about a case of someone committing suicide over 2 million won in debt a few days ago. 300 million was an absolutely ridiculous amount of money, money that Senior decided to throw at this kid.

“Do you act for money?”

“I do want money. I already earned that 300 million already as well. I plan on focusing for as much as I’ve been paid.”

Maru put down his chopsticks.

“Did what I say about acting for money annoy you?”

“No, not at all. It’s not like I expected to meet a saint when I came here. Everyone works for money. But… I’d like you to know that money can’t be a motivator in your life forever.”

You can start something to earn money. That was fine. You can focus on earning money forever in your life, too. That was also fine. But at some point, you would discover some other motivator other than money. Ganghwan experienced this, so he knew it well.

“Why do you act, coach?”

“Me? To earn money.”

“That doesn’t seem to be all, though?”

The boy was smiling lightly, Ganghwan scratched his nose. It felt like this kid was reading his mind.

“You’ll see when you start acting yourself. Everyone's the same, be they authors, singers, or comic artists. They might all start their jobs in hopes of earning money, but they’ll all end up working for a single goal in the end.”

“What’s that?”

“Having your voice heard, that becomes everyone’s ultimate goal.”

The two of them walked out after their meal, Ganghwan still didn’t have Maru completely figured out. At least he didn’t dislike the boy, he would’ve just been annoyed if Maru tried to put on a facade instead of being honest.

“By the way, about what you said about being homeless…”

“Oh, that? I was lacking notes when I went to prepare for my play. So I went to collect notes. Write some stuff about my own feelings too. Nice, right?”

“Ahh, so you went for a few days…”

“Days? What are you talking about? I’ve barely learned anything after three months. I had to stop after that since we needed time to actually prepare for the play.”

“…Three months?”

“What?”

“Do most people go that far?”

“Probably?”

“You went back home at least, right?”

“No. Why? Did a homeless person have a home to go back to?”

“So you were sleeping outside for three months…”

“Yeah.”

“………”

“What?”

“You’re weird.”

“Me? No way. I’m normal as normal could be, at least compared to you. What kind of a person asks for 2 billion won up front? I’d be way too embarrassed to ask that as a price.”

“I think I’m completely normal compared to someone who chooses to be homeless for three months just for experience. Such a dangerous thing is…”

Ganghwan looked at Maru with a frown, causing the boy to do the same. Right there, the two of them thought the exact same thing about each other.

This guy’s kind of weird.

Really weird, actually.

Chapter 80

“Mr. Junmin seems to be very rich.”

Maru and Ganghwan were sitting in front of a convenience store. A big one, that saw the faces of many people that passed by.

“He really is. You know land in Gangnam is exploding in value right now, right?”

“Yes.”

“Four years ago… At least, I think it was four years ago. I was walking in Gangnam with him for work, and Senior just casually pointed out a few buildings on the road and told me this: ‘those are mine.’ I couldn’t even laugh back then because of how nonsensical he sounded right there. But what makes him amazing isn’t his land, it’s the types of people he can call using his name.”

“I noticed he doesn’t often like to attend events with famous celebrities. I suppose he isn’t overtly social?”

“You seem very interested in him.”

“He’s contractually above me, after all. In a contract worth 300 million won at that. I thought it’d be good for me to keep that in mind.”

“…Fair enough. He doesn’t like complicated things. Well, except for messes related to dogs. It’s his dream to buy a mansion somewhere and live there with his dogs. Apparently he can do it right now if he wanted, though.”

Likes dogs… Maru thought a leash would make a nice gift in the future. For a relationship forged in business like this, small gifts were important. You never know how long you could maintain this relationship in the future, so it was always good to build trust when you could. As the two of them kept talking casually, Ganghwan suddenly put an index finger on his mouth.

“Look over there.”

Ganghwan was gesturing towards a woman in a gray coat. She looked good in it, especially paired with a hat of the same color.

“How old does she seem?”

“Twenty four?”

“What do you think she does?”

“Probably a college student? One that’s waiting for her friends.”

“What are her friends like?”

“I don’t really…”

Only detectives in novels would be able to accurately ascertain information like that, Maru looked at Ganghwan curiously.

“I’m not looking for an exact answer. Just imagine, turn that woman into a character. Notice her shoes, They’re sneakers, not heels, right? Hm, I wonder why. If she was here to meet her boyfriend, she probably did that to level the height with her shorter boyfriend.”

“Or maybe she hurt her ankle.”

“Very nice opinion. Observe a little more, but don’t try to be too intrusive. What else can you gather?”

Maru carefully observed the woman a little more.

“She’s wearing a ring on her finger.”

“As a simple accessory, or something a little more than that?”

“Looks like an engagement ring.”

“How does she feel?”

“Probably excited waiting for her boyfriend.”

“Maybe. Or perhaps she’s very mad at this person?”

“What?”

Right then, the woman in the gray coat stood right up. Her hands were clenched into very tight fists. Maru followed her gaze across the street to where she was staring. A man was walking towards the woman with a smile on his face. He was a little bigger than the woman. When he walked up to her and said, ‘sorry, I’m late’, the woman threw her phone on the ground.

The phone broke with a pretty loud crack. The man looked at it confusedly, before realizing something. He tried to explain himself, but the woman didn’t seem interested at all. Her foot swung right up and hit the man squarely in the stomach. That kick seemed to have quite a lot of power in it, too. The man fell right back.

“Wow!”

Ganghwan whistled, and clapped. The people around the convenience store all turned to look at what was going on.

“Don’t talk to me ever again, you piece of trash.”

The woman grabbed her bag and walked away. For a split second, Maru saw a taekwondo uniform with a black belt inside it.

“How did you know they were going to fight?”

“I heard her talk when you were buying the coffee.”

“………”

“What?”

“Why did you ask me those questions, then?”

“To invoke your imagination. What else? It was just a simple game.”

Ganghwan grabbed his drink on the table.

“What is an actor?”

Two days had passed since they first met each other, but Maru was already getting quite used to Ganghwan’s way of talking. The man was like a daydreamer, he stared dumbly into the air for a while before asking a question out of nowhere. Trying to get context out of this man was pointless. You just had to focus on the present moment when you were with this man.

“A person who acts.”

The topic of their conversation changed, as if the woman in the coat was never mentioned in the first place. Maru took a sip of coffee as well.

“What do you think acting is, then?”

A follow-up question. This time, Maru thought a bit before answering.

“A person who imitates an imaginary character, I think.”

“Imitates a character. Huh, that’s the right answer.”

“…How many right answers do you have in your head, coach? So far, everything I said was right.”

“I don’t think there are any wrong answers in the world. There might be a chance that my answer could be proven otherwise by you. There are no wrong answers, only possibilities.”

“What’s one plus one?”

“…Maybe in some other universe, the answer is three, you bastard.”

“I’ll take that for now.”

“The sun rose in the east a hundred days ago, it rose in the east ten days ago, and it rose in the east yesterday as well. So the sun must rise in the east tomorrow as well. In the world of logic, that may be true, but who really knows? Maybe the sun would rise in the west tomorrow.”

“Earth is going to end if that happens.”

“You know what I mean, I’m not trying to question scientific logic. Acting is one of those many jobs that require a human to be creative. But, unlike other jobs similar to it, acting shines only when you hide yourself more and more.”

“You shine when you hide yourself?”

“Ever heard of method acting?”

“Yes.”

“You’re smart, so I trust that you got the gist of what I’m talking about?”

“I do.”

Actors have a role. The role can change depending on the situation, but more often than not, it was completely different from who that actor really was. It could be a fictional character, or a real one. But what was important was that the actor and the character who they were trying to act were not the same person. Method acting, it was a type of acting where the actor immersed themselves with their character.

“Immersion. What do you think that means?”

“I think it means to focus, or to dive into something. Instructor Miso liked to describe it as ‘going insane for something’.”

“Focus, dive, insanity. Do you know what these three things have in common?”

“Um, to focus?”

“Correct. But if you go a little deeper, you’ll come to the same answer I gave you a moment ago. To forget about yourself. Do you like movies?”

“I do.”

“What genre?”

“Thrillers.”

“Alright. Let’s say your favorite actor, director, and etc decided to make a movie together. When you’re watching that movie, you’d only be thinking of that movie, right?”

“Yes.”

“You would stop thinking about petty thoughts. As a matter of fact, you’d focus right on the movie. You probably won’t be able to think of anything else during the climax, either. Do you think about what’s going to happen tomorrow, what you’re doing right now, and what you’re going to eat after the movie during its climax?”

“Of course not. I’d only be thinking of the movie.”

“That’s right. The first thing you forget when you focus is yourself. Your needs will completely disappear from your mind. You don’t even realize that you forgot about yourself, even. There is nothing else to see, you’re only looking at what you’re doing now. You stop being able to live without it.”

“Like a drug.”

“Famous actors didn’t do drugs for nothing. It lets you forget yourself. Completely. Focus is the greatest form of happiness a person can experience. So when a person can find something to focus on, they forget everything else. When they stop being able to focus, they writhe in pain.”

“That almost makes me not want to focus on something.”

Ganghwan laughed.

“Maybe. Ah, anyway. I said an actor shines more the more he hides himself, right?”

“Yes.”

“But at one point, there comes a time when your character and role become one. Art is all like that. At first, everyone imitates someone else. Even when you write a song, a story, or whatever. You imitate someone who’s better than you. Acting’s no different.”

Ganghwan stiffened his expression like a character from a sad play. His voice was still light and jovial, making him look like a character from a dark comedy.

“That’s how everyone improves, before having the ability to create something of their own. It won’t be something that is purely theirs, but you have to admit, it’s work that they’ve put their own twist on. It’s just that in the case of acting, the actor has to imitate others longer than others. You need to prove that to the characters that you’re playing, and not yourself. You’ve heard this line before too, right? I saw so and so in this movie, instead of the main character.”

“Yes. I’ve seen it at movie recommendations on TV before.”

“That line is both an insult and a praise for an actor. Let’s say a no-name actor acted on stage. If the audience tells him they thought of the main character of the play when they see him, he’d feel good, right?”

“Right. Because he was praised.”

“But the story changes when this no-name actor becomes famous. People start asking for two things at once: I want to see the character portrayed by this actor. The next step to erasing yourself is to melt yourself in your character.”

“So that’s why double casting is a thing.”

“Well, that has reasons of its own, but you’re not wrong. Some people don’t just watch a play for the play itself, but others want to see how a play is changed when a different actor assumes the same role. Jang Heebin played by Jeon Doyeon and Jang Heebin played by Kim Hyesoo. No matter how much an actor tries to erase themselves, a part of themselves will be imparted in their own character. Plus, when they get famous, the way they fuse themselves with their character would be how they’ll be judged for their skill.”

“Do you have your own character, coach?”

Ganghwan shook his head quickly.

“I’m a baby chick who can’t even erase myself completely yet, I have to think about that later.”

“So I guess I would be a baby baby chick in that sense?”

“…Don’t ever make jokes when you go out. You just smell like an old man when you joke. How do you even joke like that at that age?”

“W-who knows?”

Maru avoided eye contact for a second, which made Ganghwan narrow his eyes.

“Well, I think we can call it in with theory for today. Back to the practical stuff.”

Ganghwan stood up, which made Maru sigh.

“Do we really have to do this?”

“Actors need to use their body. They also need experience. It’s good to get that experience whenever you can.”

Maru scratched his eyebrow before putting on the sunglasses Ganghwan gave him. He closed his eyes, and grabbed the cane next to him. He stood up with Ganghwan’s help.

“Create an image of the street in your head. You saw it before already.”

“What kind of a freakish genius do you think I am?”

“You’re not a genius, I know, but I also know you have a really good memory. Just do it. Once your vision disappears, the body finds other methods to cope. Listen for noises around you. Feel the wind stroking your skin. Notice how the earth feels under your feet.”

“Does this really help me?”

“Depends on how you do this.”

“Hah…”

Maru stepped forward, relying on his cane for vision.

“Who knows, maybe there will be a blind role for you in the future?”

Maru could hear Ganghwan laugh behind him. Was he making fun of Maru, or was he really intent on teaching? It’s already been two days since Maru started walking blindly on the street.

Chapter 81

“Geunseok.”

“Yes.”

“C’mere.”

Geunseok walked towards Miso. He didn’t make any mistakes here, the run just now was pretty perfect. His lines were spoken with proper articulation, and he didn’t forget any lines either. What was she going to criticize now? He’s only been criticized recently, so he walked up to her with a heavy heart.

“What’s up with your expression?”

“I was thinking of what I did wrong.”

“Who said you did anything wrong?”

“Then…”

Miso pat the boy’s arm with a smile.

“Good job. You worked hard. What do you think about your acting from just now?”

“I don’t think I did anything wrong.”

“Satisfaction?”

“…I think I did a good job. I’m satisfied.”

“Good. That’s good enough. You just need to work on the details now, since there’s nothing more to touch in terms of general skill. Just keep working hard like this from now on. Good work.”

He hadn’t heard any praise from Miso in a very long time. Geunseok was unable to hide his smile. There probably hasn’t been a point until now when he looked at instructor Miso this comfortably during the preparation of the People of Dalseok-dong.

“How’s mentoring going?”

Geunseok was assigned to a personal mentor after signing that contract with Mr. Junmin. He was assigned to a female actor who was 27 years old, and spending time with this woman was the happiest time in his life. The actor trusted him and only complimented him. He’s also seen this woman several times on TV. Not that she was incredibly famous, of course.

“It’s good.”

“Wow, well, you look ridiculously happy. She’s a good teacher, so work hard with her. She should be able to fill in the details that I can’t touch.”

“I understand.”

“Let’s try to refine your acting a bit more from here. You can go back now.”

Geunseok stepped back, he felt confident now. Not only had he earned praise from his mentor, but also Miso as well. He was improving.

“Geunseok, you got a call.”

Yurim gave him his phone that he set on vibrate, Geunseok took the phone and picked up the call.

- Geunseok, is that you?

“Ah yes, it’s me, instructor.”

- Just call me big sis. How’s it going, by the way? Did you get scolded by instructor Miso?

“No, she said I did good. She said I should focus on the details now.”

- See? I told you. You’re doing well. You’re growing as a person.

“…Thank you.”

His nervousness all fell away. His stress was gone, too. It felt like he could practice a few more times, even.

- Don’t work too hard. You’re talented. You should be able to reach the top even if you take it slow. I’m not exaggerating here. You know that, right?

“Haha, you’re embarrassing me.”

- No way. Anyway, Work hard. I’ll see you this evening.

Geunseok hung up. He could picture the woman on the other end of the phone in his head, a woman far more mature than any of the other girls in school. That cute yet mature woman who he called a big sister treated him like a friend. She even gave him advice with a very soft-spoken voice, very different from instructor Miso.

‘That’s right. I’m not bad at acting. It’s just that my instructor was unskilled till now.’

Finally, he met a real teacher, a charming one at that. Geunseok took a whiff of himself subconsciously. A little sour, probably from the sweat. He should take a shower before he goes to see her.

“What did instructor Miso say?” Yurim asked.

Geunseok responded with a smile.

“She said I was perfect.”

“Wow, as expected.”

“You did good too. You’d do better with more practice, though.”

“Really? Oh, Geunseok. Do you want to practice with me at dinnertime? Mom gave me more allowance, so we can eat something nice too.”

“Well, that’s nice, but I have to do something.”

“Something? You’ve been really busy lately.”

“Sorry. We can go see a movie during the weekend though. How’s that?”

“Really?”

Geunseok pinched Yurim’s cheek lightly, the girl smiled brightly in response. Geunseok realized that he didn’t feel much excitement anymore when he looked at the girl’s face. Yurim’s face was overlapping with that of the female actor. The actor looked somewhat soft but somewhat feline at the same time.

‘Well, Yurim cares about me, though.’

A few months ago, when Maru flipped the club completely, Yurim stopped him when he ran out of the chapel. He was very thankful back then, and he thought Yurim was the only person who understood him in the world. But…

“Why are you staring like that?”

“Oh, you were just so pretty.”

“W-what the. Why are you being like that all of the sudden?”

Geunseok grabbed Yurim’s hand for a second before letting it go. He didn’t realize it, but he was essentially getting insurance right now. Insurance for when he would fall again.

“Hehe.”

Yurim looked at Geunseok with a bright smile.

* * *

Miso looked at the two lovebirds in front of her for a second. Geunseok was incredibly relaxed compared to usual. Then again, this was the first time Miso complimented him in a very long time. Miso called actor Suyeon again on her phone.

“Yes. Ms. Suyeon?”

- How was he?

“It worked very well. It’s almost like he’s about to pass out from happiness.”

- That’s good.

“But is this okay? This will only make him weaker as a person.”

Even if humans were intelligent animals, their nature and personality could change drastically from how they were nurtured. Geunseok was raised with his parents’ intense attention and intervention, Miso had already heard about this from Geunsoo. Sometimes, there are parents who try to project their dreams onto their children. They don’t consider their children to be independent human beings just like themselves. In other words, they only saw their children as dolls.

‘Praising when their kids study well, punishing when they don’t. Justifying all of it by saying it’s all for them. It’s a disgusting cycle.’

Miso’s family was a mess. Her father was missing, and her mother was sick. Back in the day, she used to get so many calls from debt collectors that answering phone calls became a fear of hers. Even when she told them she didn’t know where her dad was, all she got, in turn, were threats of death and insults. In an environment like that, Miso had no choice but to grow up strong. She didn’t have the luxury to pay attention to how others thought of her.

Despite this, Miso never resented her mother. She’s insulted her father day and night, of course…

Even though her mother was sick, she had a strong mentality. Miso never saw her crack under any kind of pressure. Her mother used to tell her that she respected her decision often as she grew up.

I respect your decision.

Her mother respected her. Miso could only learn how wise her mother was after growing up. Her mother accepted that Miso was different from her, despite being her flesh and blood. How amazing was that? Wouldn’t any person feel a certain feeling of possessiveness over their child, especially if they raised that child, fed that child, and taught that child for all of the child’s life? Miso’s mother wasn’t like that, though. She didn’t use the fact that she raised Miso as justification to take control of Miso’s life. After realizing what an amazing thing that was, Miso started respecting her mother more than ever.

That’s why Miso could understand Geunseok. When a parent cares a little too much about their child, they fly right over their children’s heads like a helicopter. Without realizing what kind of pressure doing so would be put onto a child.

‘He’ll have to harden himself.’

Miso knew her limits as an instructor, it’s not like she got the right to teach others just because she was an adult. It was Geunseok’s parents’ fault that he became this way, but the boy continued this behavior by his own choice. Miso knew very well that the boy had a problem, but she also knew that she couldn’t solve it for him. There were very few people who could fix Geunseok’s personality.

‘Either himself, or those very close to him.’

She tried telling him once to not find motivation from others, but from himself instead. The response she got back was a cold, silent expression. After seeing that, Miso gave up on the boy completely. It was all up to actor Suyeon now. How would that woman go about trying to fix Geunseok? She had no idea.

- Excuse me?

“Ah, yes. I’m here.”

- Sorry. I thought you hung up because you didn’t say anything. Anyway, leave it to me. If you take candy away from a child, he’d do nothing but cry. That’s not smart. You have to give him something else. Eventually, after enough iterations of switching, he would stop crying with anything in his hands.

“Alright. Senior told me to leave Geunseok to you, so I’ll do exactly that. Please treat him well.”

- Don’t worry. Ah, Ms. Miso, do you know actor Yang Ganghwan?

“Of course.”

- Um, could you set up a meeting with me and him next time? I’d like to meet him at some point.

“Alright. I’ll try contacting him.”

- Yes, thank you. Ah, I have to start filming now. I’ll see you next time.

“Yes.”

The woman was much younger than Miso, but also much more successful. Miso heard a while ago that Suyeon would be starring in a lead role in a small miniseries at some point, even.

‘Senior Junmin chose her, so things should go well.’

The guy was a real talent at handling people, after all. Miso clapped her hands towards the resting students.

“Now! Back to practice! Ready up!”

* * *

Maru got a call on the way back home after practice, it was from Ganghwan. The guy hung up after telling him to come to a restaurant near the school, so Maru had no choice but to go. As soon as he arrived, Ganghwan said some nonsense about being unable to act without meat and fed Maru.

“Why do you act?”

Maru swallowed the pork belly in his mouth before answering.

“Didn’t I answer that question already?”

“Because you need to?”

“Yes.”

“You never felt passion or any heat when you acted, right?”

Passion, huh. Unfortunately, Maru didn’t feel it just yet. Why would he feel passionate during practice, anyhow?

“Would things change on stage?”

“No. The stage only brings upon an annoying sense of nervousness. On stage, you only become colder, not hotter.”

“Is that really something appropriate to say as an actor?”

“I think those that get excited on stage are unfit for acting.”

“So when are actors supposed to get excited?”

“Well, you see…”

Ganghwan slowly tried to change his topic.

“I still can’t forget my first act. It was one done at the school. I didn’t even have many lines, but I still made a mistake. I thought I was going to die of embarrassment, even though there weren’t even that many people in the audience. My head completely blanked out on me, and I couldn’t even say anything, even after all that practice. We still managed to finish, and I went down the stage…”

“Did you get hot?”

“Nope, I cooled down like a corpse. Why? Because I wasn’t satisfied with my act. That’s when I made up my mind. I wanted to experience what it felt like to act perfectly and be satisfied with my own work. My chance came pretty quickly. I entered a teenage competition hosted by the city. I worked my ass off and performed to the end without a single error on stage, and as I went off the stage then…”

“Did you get hot?”

“Are you a parrot?”

“Did you feel the heat?”

“Ugh, never mind. I was walking down, and my legs just gave out on me. And then, nothing. I couldn’t even remember what I just did. That was all.”

“So where am I supposed to find satisfaction, then?”

“Plays themselves won’t give you satisfaction, the same goes for practice. But you see, after that moment, I was getting a drink for myself in the waiting room, right? A girl from the previous play walked up to me right there. She said I was handsome, and asked for my number. That’s when my blood really started boiling! Thus, my reason for acting was born. To look good in front of women!”

Ganghwan flipped some meat on the grill with a grin.

“Motivation is never constant. It’s not anything simple, either. So don’t try to find it. You’ll find it at some point as you focus. By that point, you’d be able to say this: Eureka! So this is what I was acting for all this time.”

“But without motivation, I can’t keep acting.”

“No, that’s not because you didn’t find motivation.”

It’s because you were searching for a reason not to act.

Ganghwan’s words embedded themselves deeply into Maru’s mind. He could somewhat understand what the man was trying to tell him.

“Did I look lost?”

“Kind of, yeah. You’re way too mature, that’s your problem. You only act after calculating everything. Sometimes, though, it’s better for you to become a kid that watches Sesame Street.”

“Sesame Street?”

“You know, just being able to enjoy something without having to think about it.”

Maru took a look at the lettuce wrap Ganghwan wrapped for him before putting it in his mouth. He spat it out immediately, it was filled with chilies and garlic.

“Just like that.”

“What the hell do you mean, ‘just like that’?”

Maru quickly picked up all the meat off the grill and put it in his mouth.

“That’s right, you got it.”

Being with this person made Maru a little childish. That was what he realized after three weeks of being with Ganghwan. That… wasn’t such a bad feeling.

Chapter 82

Ansan Art Center. It was completed fairly recently, so the facilities were pretty clean. The cultural festival that began here two days ago was filled with both artists from abroad, and from local areas, making the place shine both day and night. By the third day, the festival decorated by clubs all around the region was opened exclusively for the locals.

At the stage outside were several bands playing music, from bands in middle school all the way to bands of middle-aged men. They were showing off their skills on the instruments that the city provided. On the other side, merchants sold various snacks under white tents. There were a lot of kids running around the place, hyperactive from the cotton candy in their hands. Right next to them was a man in a clown suit handing balloon toys to children.

“Hey! There’s a pretty lady over there drawing caricatures for people. Let’s go!”

Daemyung stared at Maru as Dojin grabbed his arms. The boy clearly didn’t seem to want to go, but Maru just waved his hand with a smile.

“Have fun.”

Daemyung disappeared off with Dojin. Their play was set to start at 4pm, so Miso allowed the club to have fun till 2pm. The club members were all enjoying themselves in their makeup. Maru, of course, was no exception.

‘Nervousness… I don’t have any at all.’

The first stage, first play. Maru felt as clear as ever, and his condition was great. When he closed his eyes, he could visualize all the steps he would need to go through to perform the play.

‘I wonder what it would feel like to be on stage.’

The puppet plays he did with Soojin was fun. The reactions from the children were always very dramatic, so Maru tried to make them smile as much as possible. Today, he was performing not in front of children, but in front of an actual audience of varying ages. What would that feel like? Would he go on stage feeling nothing, just like Ganghwan said? Or would he feel an intense feeling of satisfaction?

‘I don’t really think I’d feel anything.’

The play would begin, and finishing it would definitely make him feel something. He decided to invest the three years of his life into acting, after receiving that 300 million won. This was the first real challenge Maru’s ever taken on in this life, so he wanted to succeed if he could.

Excitement. Maru wanted to feel his heartbeat thumping. Excitement that he rarely felt since he came back to the past. He’s felt it once on the day of starting anew, once when he saw his young mother, and once when he saw his young wife. Was his sense of emotion just dulled? He realized that he was very calm, and always very logical about the way he conducted himself. It almost felt like he was missing something as a person.

‘Did I become a pessimist?’

What was the Maru of his previous timeline like? He couldn’t remember much, but he did remember this. The Maru of that time smiled a lot more than this. He also cracked a lot of dumb jokes, too.

What about now?

The one thing he talked the most about are the necessities, and the one thing he thinks about the most is efficiency. He always put off things that didn’t fit in either of those categories. As a matter of fact, he couldn’t even remember the last time he played a videogame. When was the last time he read a novel? During March, he tried to limit his time playing videogames, but nowadays he lost that interest completely.

Maybe it was because he had a goal now?

Well, in any case, he had no idea if this change was for good or bad. Perhaps he gained this sort of calmness after experiencing death, not that he could ask anyone about it.

Maru took a look at the band playing right now. They were beating their drums, twanging their guitars, and expressing with all their energy that they were alive at this moment. The claps from the audience, the shouts, and the music. The noise was a testament to the fact that all of these people were alive. This was heat, the type of heat that made your heart beat fast.

Maru looked down at his hands for a second. He was calm. Even with the beat of the music playing so loudly, both his body and mind were incredibly calm. Since when was he like this? Since when did his body become so boring? Maru walked a little bit closer to the source of the music. Despite it being mid-fall, the outdoor stage was brimming with heat. Maru walked into the crowd of dancing people, he started dancing with them; he beat his feet against the ground to the beat of the music. He raised his hands to the sky and shouted. He grinned in excitement, just like the people around him.

And yet, excitement would not come. His body didn’t respond a single bit. Maru stopped and looked forward. It felt like the shouts and the music around him were becoming quieter. He felt like a foreigner. Someone who felt alien amongst all the sounds and smiles.

‘I became boring.’

Forty-five years old… That shouldn’t have been enough to make him like this. Surely he wasn’t as emotionless as this. Why did the world today seem so colorless to him?

“Well, at least I’m not broken.”

He came here after death. In the process, he was given a few abilities. Perhaps this calmness was one of them. The thought comforted him a little, but he did feel nervous at the fact that he was no longer normal. For some reason, the faces of several people started floating up in his mind. Miso, Ganghwan, Junmin, Geunsoo. Perhaps he listened so intently to what these people had to say because he admired them? Or maybe he wanted to imitate these people who were colored so brightly among everyone else?

He had no idea.

His head felt dizzy all of a sudden, he came all the way here just so that he could make her happy. Everything he’s done till now was for her happiness. Finding a dream, trying to make money, and even doing acting. All of this was done for her.

- Motivation isn’t that easy to find.

Maru thought for a second, maybe the fact that his motivation was so clear was a problem. He might be nervous. He did receive 300 million won, but that wasn’t enough in the grand scheme of things. If he were to think of the future, and the future of that future, he couldn’t help but get nervous.

Should he be satisfied with his life now? Was there anything more he could do? Maybe there’s a way to be more efficient now, for a better future?

He felt like he was choking. The sounds around him that felt so far away started affecting him negatively. Loneliness in a way that he’s never felt before started pressuring him from all sides. He had to stop thinking. He needed to get away from this place, where there was no music, no people, no anything. But just as he was about to walk out,

“Eh? You are!”

A smiling girl was looking at him. Suddenly, it felt so much easier to breathe. The music around him started sounding fun again. The voices of the people around him started making his heart beat. The change came quickly. Maru couldn’t even think anymore. All he could do was grab the girl’s arm and run outside.

“W-wait!”

He was aware of just how rude this was, but he didn’t want to stop. No, he couldn’t stop. He ran outside the stage with the girl in tow. She was wearing casual clothes today. When he paid attention, he could also see makeup on her face. Makeup for the stage.

“You surprised me.”

When Maru let go, she looked at her wrist before looking at Maru again.

“I-I’m sorry. I wasn’t trying to do that.”

“What were you trying to do, then?”

She sounded pretty annoyed.

“No, it’s just… I’m sorry. I wasn’t right in the head just now.”

“Well… you didn’t look very good, so I’ll let it pass. But again, why are you trying to be that polite? I thought we were the same age, at least from when we last talked.”

She spoke with a smile on her face. She was probably referring to the time when they last met at Hyehwa station.

“Oh? That makeup… You’re playing today?”

“Ah, yes. That’s what ended up happening.”

“What the, you were an actor too? You should’ve told me, I had no idea! I was wondering why some dude asked for my name out of nowhere last time. You recognized our uniform, didn’t you? Of course, you did, we got first place on the nationals! Hum hum!”

The girl raised her head proudly. She was like this from the past. Her expressions always became so diverse when she talked about acting.

“Well, let’s put it at that for now, sure.”

“Anyway, what was that just now? You surprised me.”

“It might sound weird, but I couldn’t breathe.”

“Couldn’t breathe?”

“Yes.”

“So what does that have to do with me?”

“Mm, well… it’s just… Well, there’s a reason for it, I swear.”

“Be honest with me. You’re trying to ask me out, aren’t you? This is what it is, isn’t it? Isn’t it?”

…That’s right, he forgot she was like this. It was a bit of a surprise, but a welcomed one nonetheless. Her unchanged personality helped him calm down.

“That was a joke! Of course, you wouldn’t be doing that. What school are you from, by the way? I heard there were four teams going today.”

“Woosung Engineering High.”

“Ah! Blue Sky!”

“You knew about us?”

“Of course, our seniors told us that you guys used to be famous. Ah, was that rude?”

The girl said ‘sorry’ with an awkward smile.

“You really should be more casual with me, though. We’re the same age after all,” she continued with a pout.

That pout… he recognized it. She only did that when she was embarrassed. Seeing that same pout all over again calmed him down even more. At least she hasn’t changed from this mess.

“Where were you!”

Her friends walked up to her in a half jog, and scanned Maru suspiciously.

“Ah, you’re that…”

“Strange guy from before.”

“Right?”

Strange guy. That was understandable. He just disappeared last time after asking for a name.

“What the, since when were the two of you so close?”

A girl who seemed to be the teasing type poked at her playfully. She crossed her arms before replying in a slightly annoyed tone.

“We met by chance. Actually, he dragged me here out of nowhere.”

“What? Dragged?”

The other girls immediately turned fierce upon hearing that word, Maru could only smile awkwardly. She noticed what was going on pretty quick, and jumped in between the two with a smile.

“Don’t look at him like that. It was just a small thing.”

“What the, that’s suspicious. Why are you helping him?”

“I’m not helping him, you guys are just being weird here. Nothing’s happening, so just go on, now.”

She pushed her friends away and started to get further away from Maru. Maru clenched his fists. That’s right. This was just a small thing, something that could very easily be forgotten. But he didn’t want to keep it like that. He didn’t want his meeting with her to just be something so forgettable.

A spontaneous feeling erupted from his chest. For the moment, Maru decided to let his body go along with the flow of this feeling. For the first time after starting his second life, Maru became emotional.

“I’ll come to find you in the future! My name is Han Maru, don’t you forget it! Maru, meaning the sky. And…”

It’s also a name you liked for sounding so odd. Maru was unable to say those last words, but he trusted that the feeling got through to her.

And…

“What the, what the. What did he say just now?”

“Whoaaa. What the heck.”

The girls were going wild.

Chapter 83

“Did something good happen?” Dojin asked.

Maru took a look at himself through the mirror. Sure enough, he was grinning like a kid.

“Yeah.”

“What happened?”

“Kids wouldn’t understand.”

“Ugh, again with the adult bullshit.”

Maru dodged Dojin’s attempted headlock and stood up. The smile from after meeting her still hasn’t left him. The air was sweet, and the nervousness from before was gone. Maru realized once again how much meaning she held in his life. He wanted nothing more than to start a family with her again and live a happy life. He wanted to meet their daughter again if he could. Surely this would be the case if god was benevolent.

“You don’t seem nervous, despite being in your first play.”

Daemyung seemed very curious about Maru's behaviour. After all, the boy was struggling to keep his breathing normal. Actually, now that Maru looked around a bit, everyone else was like this. Even Dojin seemed a little nervous.

“Yeah.”

“You really aren’t nervous?”

“Not at all. Are you?”

“A little. Actually, a lot. I’m even more nervous than before. That’s odd.”

“You have a lot of lines this time. And even a solo scene. Plus… we definitely can’t fail this time,” Dojin said.

Everyone in the room turned to look at Dojin. The surprise of realizing the cause of the nervousness washed over everyone. Dojin quickly covered his mouth, but the deed was already done.

“Right. We can’t fail,” Joonghyuk said.

Maru sent a small glance over to the second years: Joonghyuk, Yoonjung, Danmi, Minsung. They all seemed even more nervous than the first years. Most likely because of the fact that this would be their last chance to act. He recalled Joonghyuk informing him about the second years’ plan on retiring after the winter competition. They would stay in the club even in their third years, but no longer active to this extent.

This play, as a result, probably meant a lot to the second years. The prelims for the winter competition would start right after this festival. Starting off strong here would give the club a bit of confidence before going in for the real thing. This festival purely existed for them to measure their current skill before the actual competition.

“You guys all heard, right? The instructor’s invited several critics for this.”

Everyone nodded. They all heard the news this morning. Miso said she invited a few critics to review the club’s work as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. Thanks to this, the pressure on the club went up by another degree.

‘She’s going off strong.’

Miso is most likely putting the pressure on them on purpose. During the summer prelims, the club messed up after getting interrupted by the audience. Geunseok’s mistake was the cause, but the entire club became messed up as a result. Due to this, Miso must’ve decided to train the club members’ mental fortitude a bit. She would beat them like a blacksmith forging a piece of metal. After enough heat, hammering, and quenching, the metal should become hard. A human’s mind was similar to this. With enough pressure, experience, and time, it would mature.

‘If we do this successfully, the stage fright for most of the club should disappear.’

Of course, something completely unexpected could happen as well. If any one of the steps in the blacksmithing process went wrong, the metal would turn incredibly brittle and turn into something that would shatter easily. What would Miso’s strategy do for the students? Would they mature, or would they crack under the pressure?

‘We still have time.’

Even if they mess up here, there was still plenty of time to recover. Miso was probably pressuring them with all that in mind. Once the club successfully finishes here, they’d be able to work on the next play much easier. Otherwise, they’d need some more time to recover again.

“It’ll be like summer all over again. We’re getting reviewed, but there’s no need to be afraid or worried. You’re probably nervous. I feel the same. But, it’s as the instructor always told us, we need to embrace this nervousness. We need to get used to it. We can finish this play with no mistakes. We can show the audience how complete we are.”

Joonghyuk stretched out his hand. Everyone else did the same.

“Joonghyuk said everything I was supposed to say. But I’m still the president, so I should say something, right?”

Yoonjung smiled brightly.

“Blue Sky!”

The club threw their hands down.

“Fighting!!”

With that,

“Please get ready. Blue Sky will be up next.”

The staff marked the beginning of their play.

* * *

“Are you really okay with not going?”

“I’m on break for today,” Miso said, looking between Ganghwan and Geunsoo.

She told the kids that she brought experienced critics, but there really was no way that she could call on people like that. So she just dragged in two of her friends, with a bit of threat mixed in.

“How are the kids?”

“Perfect.”

“Well, that’s good to hear.”

Ganghwan leaned back in his chair with his arms crossed.

“The chair’s nice and comfy. I think I’ll sleep well on this.”

“You’re gonna sleep?”

“I mean, you said they were perfect. There’s nothing more boring than a perfect play.”

Geunsoo nodded in agreement and prepared to sleep. Miso pouted and pinched the cheeks of her friends.

“Watch, you bastards, watch.”

“Ouch ouch! I get it, I get it! Let go!”

“It hurts.”

Geunsoo and Ganghwan returned to a sitting position in a hurry. They were both actors carrying big expectations in their respective fields. Geunsoo was slowly getting popular through an independent film, and Ganghwan often got good reviews through his plays. They were both very good friends, and also the perfect critics for this play.

‘They’ll help for sure.’

Before the play started, Miso asked the two of them to review the play, along with some technical advice as well. Miso thought of herself as a critic, but she knew she was clouded by bias from their time spent together. Plus, she knew better than anyone that the club didn’t need compliments right now.

“Aren’t you expecting too much out of a high school play?”

Ganghwan said, rubbing his sleepy eyes.

“They were burned hard once already. They’re going to get first place this time, just you watch. I won’t let it happen again.”

“Isn’t that just for your pride?”

“Do you really have to state the obvious?”

“Well, that was an obvious lie.”

Miso stared at Ganghwan, who was smiling at her, before turning to Geunsoo.

“Did you call your brother?”

“Yeah. He still sounded pretty edgy, but not sad anymore. I think the trauma from the last play’s gone… Is it because of that mentor Junmin introduced him to?”

“Probably. She seemed pretty talented. She said she’d start off by complimenting him.”

“Complimenting…”

Geunsoo didn’t seem to like the word.

“Well, just watch for now. Try to come up with something you can tell them.”

Miso sighed and turned back to look at the stage. Finally, the play was beginning.

‘It’s his first play, too.’

Maru’s first play. The boy hadn’t shown anything special so far. He was good at progressing through the play, but he lacked the ability to attract empathy from the audience.

‘Man, I’m expecting way too much out of the boy.’

Miso changed her thoughts. She shouldn’t expect too much here. Talent didn’t just bloom out of nowhere. Today, she just needed to focus on seeing what Han Maru, the amateur, was capable of.

But… on one side, she couldn’t help but get a little excited.

Miso thought back to the first day she took Maru to the Blue Sky theater. When she watched the boy read a script calmly on the stage, she realized she needed to put him on the stage. After several months, she finally managed to get him there.

‘I know I shouldn’t expect much, but I just can’t help it.’

* * *

“There are so many people, gosh. I think all 600 seats are filled,” Soyeon said nervously.

“They’re not here to see us. They’re just here because of the event that takes place afterward.”

Taejoon tried to respond calmly, but his voice was trembling a bit. The boy was right, though. There was a regional talent competition that took place after the acting event. That was probably what filled all 686 seats here.

“Alright, get ready. We just need to do as well as practice. Got it?” Yoonjung said.

The president’s words made everyone nod.

“Good luck, Maru.”

“Yup.”

The play would begin with Maru’s appearance. The ‘teenager’ character barely interacted with other actors. Instead, conversing with the audience. He would talk to the audience to engage them with the story.

* * *

“A character who breaks down the wall between the stage and the seats.”

“The teenager is the critical factor in getting the audience engaged.”

Geunsoo and Ganghwan were talking.

“Miso chose this play of all things?” Geunsoo whispered so that Miso wouldn’t be able to hear.

“I hear everything, Geunsoo.”

Geunsoo shrugged and leaned back.

“He’s not wrong. If the teenager does badly, the entire play will go askew.”

“Yup, that’s exactly the issue.”

Geunsoo nodded at Ganghwan’s insight. He didn’t know much about Maru, only that Maru was a bit odd. But that didn’t make the boy automatically good at acting. As far as he was aware, the boy was just an oddly mature kid who liked to worry a lot.

Acting, through someone like that kid…

He knew Miso liked to compliment Maru a lot. Would the boy live up to her words?

“It’s beginning.”

Ganghwan gestured towards the stage with his chin. The curtains of the stage lifted, and the lights slowly dimmed.

* * *

The audience became completely silent. All 600 of them. That didn’t sound like that many, but Maru was well aware of how big of a number this was, after working in the field himself. All of these people were quiet.

Suddenly, he became even more aware of the fact that he was on stage. Not that it made him nervous. As a matter of fact…

“How interesting,” he muttered.

That’s right. It was interesting. He was curious how the 600 people would look at him. As soon as he steps out onto that dark stage, he felt something change within. How? He had no idea.

He was stepping into the unknown. And yet… He wasn’t afraid at all. Was something wrong with him? Was this a blessing? He hadn’t a clue. The audience’s breaths were clear to his ears. This was the breath of 600 people.

Maru opened his eyes. The glow sticker on the floor was the first thing to come into his vision. He focused on the x-shaped one in particular.

That was where the spotlight would be. He saw how it worked during the rehearsal. The operator up above would control it for him. The stage was completely dark. He couldn’t see the audience, and the only source of light he had was a single glow sticker on the floor.

“It began.”

Someone’s voice. He didn’t know who it was from, but he was thankful for it anyway. It snapped him out of his daydream.

Maru started walking forward. Silently. Step, step. He tried not to make a sound. Eventually, he arrived at the center. It’s been ten seconds since the darkness came onto the stage. The audience should’ve gotten used to the darkness at this point. Perhaps some of them even recognized him on stage.

He could see the audience, too.

As soon as he realized that, a feeling of absolute comfort settled inside his stomach. At the same time, he felt himself cooling off. The temperature of his head cooled, and the heat in his chest flared just a little bit.

He never experienced this feeling before. But for some reason, he was confident that he would get used to it. Why? He wasn’t even sure he would continue acting right now.

Maru tried stepping on the floor a little bit. The sound of his feet hitting wood reverberated across the stage. He couldn’t see anything, but the sound helped him visualize the rest of the stage.

Whisper, whisper. He could hear people talking.

Maru stepped on the floor again. He could see colors within the darkness. A slight hint of color that started filling up the rest of the stage.

This was the stage.

Maru raised his head. He could see the audience. They were all enveloped in darkness, but somehow, he could make them all out.

600 people.

As he expected, this was an amazing number of people. His vision was entirely encompassed by people. He felt his breathing slow down, he was getting calmer now. As if he was visiting his hometown during the spring. It felt like he could just fall asleep right now.

Right then, the spotlight turned on around him. For a brief second, he couldn’t see the audience anymore.

His head spun for a second.

Maru closed his eyes. He could hear someone say ‘it must be beginning’ somewhere in front of him.

That’s right. The play is beginning. Maru raised his right hand and stroked his hair. He put that hand in his pocket with a relaxed demeanor and started walking to the right. The spotlight followed him. Maru raised his head a bit and looked up at the light. Then, he turned left. Again, the spotlight followed him.

The audience was following his movements too.

Now, instead of looking up at the light, Maru looked straight into the audience.

“Um, who are you guys looking at? Could it be me, by any chance?”

This was the first line that would crumble the wall between the stage and the seats.

Maru became the teenager.

Chapter 84

She was fixing up her makeup in the makeup room, brightening and shading areas around her eye and mouth to accentuate her expressions.

“You’re thinking of him, aren’t you?”

She stopped fixing her makeup and looked sideways. She could see her friend grinning at her ear to ear. She tried to say “what?” at the girl innocently, but her tongue betrayed her intent.

“W-what?”

“See? You’re being suspicious. Be honest with me here. You met him before, haven’t you?”

“No, I haven’t. That was my first time seeing him.”

“Boo, liar. So this is your second meeting, and he just confessed right there and then?”

“That wasn’t a confession!”

“That’s a confession no matter how you look at it.”

The other club members came over to check out what the noise was all about. There were even second and third years in the mix.

“What the, what the. Did someone confess to you?”

“By who?”

“Senior, please!”

This is the time to stop the talk, not keep it going like this! She raised her voice a little, but all that it accomplished was to widen everyone’s grin.

“See? That isn’t very like you, getting agitated like that. Which means…”

“There’s something really there, huh? Hohoho.”

Cats. She was surrounded by a group of cats. Ones that found a piece of juicy fish in the midst of them. She closed her mouth tightly and looked into the mirror. She knew it would be pointless to try to argue here. She’d only be feeding them if she did.

“Now now, stop there.”

Right then, the club president stepped into the fray. She was a beautiful girl pulling off short hair with a rather large physique.

The president was actually one of the people she respected. The girl managed to get an acting award twice in the nationals so far, after all. She wanted to become a good actor like the president.

“The team before us finished their play. It’s our turn, we should get ready.”

“Yes.”

So the play ended. For some reason, she thought of that boy for a second. Maru, was it?

“How’s Woosung high? They were going to the winter competition this year, weren’t they? How are they compared to us?”

One of the second years asked the president. The president had a habit of watching other teams’ plays. It was a pretty amazing feat. Despite having to act in just a few minutes, the president wasn’t nervous at all.

“Hm, how are they, huh…”

The president raised her glasses up to her eyes.

“I don’t think we have to worry about them.”

* * *

Dojin felt horrible. Not because of his nervousness, not because of the audience’s cold reactions. He stared at Soyeon, Taejoon, and Maru through the side curtains.

‘……… ’

Nothing changed. It was the same as every other run. Soyeon and Taejoon were acting as usual. Soyeon played the grumpy old grandma, and Taejoon acted out the weird old grandpa. There were no mistakes, either. The play was going smoothly, but… Something was wrong. The fact that Dojin was unable to figure out what was wrong was starting to tire him.

“Damn old man!”

Soyeon stood up from her seat and stomped towards Taejoon. Taejoon quickly ran away behind the shop prop. A light laughter came from the audience.

‘And here I thought this was a pretty fun scene in the audience.’

The reactions weren’t so great. Was this it? Was he feeling bad because of the audience?

The actors on stage moved away, and darkness enveloped the stage. Right after this darkness, Maru always appeared. Maru stepped past Dojin with some very casual steps. Dojin quietly whispered “good luck” to the boy.

But Maru didn’t seem to hear him. Maru was only focused on the stickers on the floor. Like a very, very angry person. Dojin felt a chill run down his neck. It was starting to tingle in nervousness. Maru’s focus seemed pretty frightening to him. Why did it feel like he was focused to the point of not being unable to hear anything else?

“Hm, hm!”

Maru’s cough on stage marked the beginning of the next act. Dojin took a look at the audience. Right then, one of the kids pointed at Maru and shouted, “he’s here!” Since this was a festival, many parents brought their kid with them. So far, they had all been watching quietly, but one of the kids ended up getting loud. Dojin felt his heart drop.

A deja vu.

Dojin thought back to what happened in the summer. A single kid was all it took to turn Geunseok into a bumbling fool. He just stood looking at the audience forgetting everything for ten seconds. Would Maru be like this too…?

“What a bright kid.”

‘What?’

Dojin looked at Maru with his jaw dropped. Maru walked to the edge of the stage to wave his hand back to the kid, and spoke with the kid’s parents. Dojin looked at the scene dumbly. The kid’s parents were smiling. He couldn’t see them in the darkness, of course. But he could hear them laugh.

Reactions gave birth to more reactions. More kids started waving their hands at Maru, almost as if they were in a children’s play. Dojin reminisced about a Peter Pan play he once saw as a child. For a second, he could see Peter Pan from his childhood in Maru’s smile.

It took 5 seconds for Maru to interact with that kid. Thinking about having that time filled with silence was enough to make Dojin feel a little faint.

“Do you know? Dalseok-dong has a very smart friend living in it. But this guy’s kind of stupid, despite being so smart. What am I talking about? Well, see for yourself.”

Maru was a little bit faster than usual. He was probably making sure he’d still be on time. It didn’t feel unnatural at all. It was almost as if that kid from earlier was a part of the play. The lights faded, and Maru disappeared. Then, an ambient blue light depicting the nighttime came on. It was Daemyung’s turn to come on.

“Phew.”

After coming back, Maru leaned back on the wall and took a sip of water.

“Nice reflexes.”

“It was nothing. How was it, by the way? Not too awkward?”

“Not at all.”

“Good to hear.”

Maru looked at the stage with his arms crossed, Dojin decided to switch his attention as well. The audience seats became a little bit loud. The parents must’ve given up on trying to control their kids. Indeed, Maru’s performance from a little earlier made everyone get a little bit more relaxed. Some of the kids were even saying hello to Daemyung.

Seeing that made Dojin a little nervous again. The play was going well so far, so why?

‘Calm down, just be yourself. No more, no less.’

Dojin chewed on some gum. There was still some time before his scene. Even athletes liked to chew on gum to calm down, so surely this would help. Daemyung started his monologue on the stage. His stupid words and dumb logic were the comedic highlights of this scene.

‘Daemyung’s good at acting.’

Dojin knew that for sure, since the boy was one of few people that Miso wouldn’t scold. Even now, Daemyung’s lines were coming out very naturally. There was nothing wrong with the boy’s acting. But…

‘There’s no reaction from the audience.’

The audience was silent. Some kids were waving their hands still, of course. But for a comedy, no one in the seats was actually laughing. Was that why Dojin was nervous? He wouldn’t have felt this way on the last play they did. But then again, that play wasn’t a comedic one at all.

‘So this is the kind of pressure comedians feel.’

The audience that doesn’t laugh, and the comedians that have to make them laugh. Suddenly… Dojin felt afraid of the stage.

“Move.”

“Y-yeah.”

It was Geunseok’s turn to be on the stage. The boy stepped out with a confident look. Looking back, all the club members were engrossed in looking at their script. They all looked fine so far. But how would they feel once they saw what the audience was like?

‘I shouldn’t have looked.’

Dojin was quickly regretting having seen the stage.

* * *

“This is…”

“A complete mess.”

Miso didn’t miss the two men next to her talking. A mess. She would’ve tackled them any other time, but right now, she had to agree.

‘Ugh, this is bad.’

Indeed, the stage was a complete mess. Everyone was acting pretty well. No one was making any mistakes, and the rhythm of the play was very well maintained. Overall, the play was being performed very well. Enough to make Miso proud. But she couldn’t smile at all.

“There’s a gap.”

“They should get rid of it.”

Geunsoo and Ganghwan were talking, Miso shook her head annoyedly.

‘This isn’t good at all.’

There was one note in the song that stood out from all others. It was hard to notice, but it was easy to feel that there was something wrong when you listened to it.

‘Han Maru.’

Miso looked at the stage with a sigh. That one note that stuck out… That was the issue.

* * *

“We don’t have to worry?”

She put down her lipstick to look at the president. The president nodded vigorously.

“Are they that bad?”

“No, they’re good.”

“Eh? So why…”

“Mm, well…”

The president thought for a bit before making four students of similar height stand in a line.

“How is it?”

“What?”

Some of the club members couldn’t understand the question.

“How are they, when you line them up like this?”

“I mean… It looks nice since they’re all the same height.”

This time, the president stood in the line. The tall president looked like the odd one out, now.

“What about now?”

This time, all of the club members answered.

“You don’t fit in there.”

“That’s exactly it.”

“What?”

“I don’t know how to put it in words, but that’s how it feels. Woosung high’s very obviously good at acting. Even I can see that. Everyone in that club feels well-practiced. But… When they’re together, they feel odd. Nothing fits.”

“They can’t cooperate?”

“Not exactly. You’ll be able to get it when you see it. They’re good, but they’re also bad. I don’t know how else to put it.”

Good, but also bad. She tilted her head to the side in confusion. What in the world did that mean?

* * *

Curtain call. Soyeon grabbed Taejoon’s hand and stepped forward. Holding hands with him made her feel a little nervous, but she realized there was no reason to be when she was walking out on stage.

Applause.

Soyeon blanked out when she was greeted with applause. This was her third time experiencing it, but she still wasn’t used to it. It made her think, so this is why people do acting.

“Good work. Really,” Taejoon whispered to her.

Soyeon could feel her cheeks redden, so she just kept looking forward. The club members stepped forward one by one, and lastly, Geunseok bowed to the audience. This was the first curtain call. After all of the club left the stage, Maru ran into the stage hurriedly.

“Hey, guys! What about me?!”

Maru ran into the stage shouting. He did a quick kowtow to the audience before running straight back out, that was the end of the curtain call. Soyeon could hear the audience laughing outside. Did they have fun? Did they laugh a lot? She couldn’t see what the audience was like since she was so busy acting. Just saying her lines were hard enough.

‘I should congratulate everyone.’

But as soon as Soyeon turned around, she noticed everyone had very uncomfortable expressions on their faces.

“Phew.”

Everyone was sighing, as a matter of fact. Soyeon turned to look at Daemyung.

“What the, what happened?”

“…We didn’t get good reactions.”

“Ah.”

Only then did she remember what the audience was like during the play. She only heard one or two people laugh silently. There wasn’t the expected amount of laughter during any of the comedic highlights. Did they fail? How did they not make anyone laugh in a comedy?

“Well, at least Maru made them laugh.”

“They also laughed at some of the other scenes,” the other members said.

Everyone knew this wasn’t enough to satisfy them, though, so they all just went back to sighing.

“Let’s move it. The other team’s coming soon. Everyone, get to work, we need to get these props out of here.”

Joonghyuk refreshed the club with a clap of his hand. The club members went back out to the stage with a heavy heart.

Chapter 85

Maru ran into her again as he cleaned up the stage. She looked a little awkward in her heavy makeup. Probably because she was applying so much makeup on such a young face.

“Good luck.”

“Y-yeah.”

She seemed to be avoiding him a little. Maru scratched his eyebrows. Well, after saying something like that, it would’ve been weirder if she wasn’t being awkward. But at that time, he just wanted to deliver his feelings purely towards her. It could’ve been pretty embarrassing for her, but judging from her expression, she didn’t seem to dislike it.

At this point, Maru pretty much gave up on chasing after a pure teenage relationship. He was a little bit too old for that at this point. Sometimes, knowing so much was only painful to Maru.

‘Well, at least she’s pretty.’

Seeing his wife’s younger self made his heart beat with an odd, exciting feeling. It wasn’t that his middle-aged wife wasn’t beautiful, but the beauty of her younger self was shining much brighter.

‘That’s vulgar, Maru. Absolutely vulgar.’

Well, for now, Maru told himself that he was still an animal, and he couldn’t help but think what he thought. He decided to be honest, his wife was more beautiful when she was young. For a second, he could hear his middle-aged wife chide at him with annoyance in the background. Something about living happily with a young woman.

“Maru, bring that over here.”

“Yes.”

The club members were busy moving around after the play. That was one of the few charms of a teenage competition, everything from making the props to setting it up on stage had to be done by the club. In this play, much of the props were made using wooden planks, so the bigger props had to be moved with at least three or four guys.

“The girls should take care of the trash.”

The next team came up to set up once they cleared all of their props. She was busy setting up as well.

“Oh, it’s Myunghwa high.”

“Isn’t that where the girls Maru tried to talk to went to?”

Dojin and Daemyung were talking as they looked at the girls. Maru took his two friends that were staring at the girls and moved them away from the stage. The stairs below were filled with little bags of props. The club members started removing their costumes as well. Maru’s costume was just his everyday clothes, so he didn’t really need to change. He’d look the same as usual once he removed some makeup from his face.

“Good work! No mistakes this time at all! Hahaha! Good job, good job!”

Yoonjung went around patting the shoulders of the students around her. The club members started smiling one by one as well as they shook off the last vestiges of their nervousness.

“You did well too, Maru.”

“I thought I might make a mistake, but it went smoothly, thankfully. The audience laughed a bit as well.”

“…Yeah, at least they laughed. Ugh! Why couldn’t they all laugh loudly like they’re supposed to, am I right?”

Maru felt a bit of strangeness from Yoonjung right then. There was a slight pause. Right before Yoonjung opened her mouth again, she closed her mouth with a bitter smile. What did her expression mean?

“Good work.”

Miso stepped into the waiting room before Maru had the chance to respond to Yoonjung. Geunsoo and Ganghwan followed close behind.

“You should know him since you saw him last time. This is Yang Ganghwan, an actor. He came here to give you guys advice, so clap your hands.”

The club members clapped loudly.

“Alright, let’s get out of here first. The next team is about to come. You two! Come, help.”

Ganghwan and Geunsoo stepped forward, muttering “are we slaves or something?” under their breath.

“So you were dragged in here by instructor Miso.”

“Does it look that obvious?”

Maru moved a plank with Ganghwan on the other side.

“Aren’t you busy?”

“I’m pretty much unemployed, since there aren’t any plays willing to take me. I’m just living off of the money I get out of mentoring you.”

“So you need to look good in front of me, then?”

“Yes, your majesty.”

Ganghwan hoisted one of the props on a 1-ton truck with a grin.

“Anyway, how was your first play?”

“I thought I would be really nervous, but I was okay. I did feel nervous, but it was a good one.”

“That’s good. At least you’re not afraid of the stage.”

“That’s a thing?”

“It is. Well, it’s really just a fear born out of peer pressure.”

“Peer pressure.”

“A lot of times, guys that speak better than Marlone Brando in the waiting room turn completely mute on stage. They get pressured into silence by the eyes of the audience. A lot of them manage to get over it with practice, but sometimes, they just leave the industry completely.”

“You have to be born with it.”

“Kind of, yeah. In that sense, you’re blessed.”

At some point, they managed to move everything onto the truck.

“I’ll be going first, so follow me. You guys, split up into Geunsoo’s car and Ganghwan’s car,” Miso said as she got on the truck.

Maru looked at Ganghwan, who was smiling in irritation.

“I knew she’d do this when she told me to bring my car. Get on. Ah, try to bring girls, got it?”

Ganghwan walked to his car with a wink. Maru decided to take those words to heart, and collected exclusively men.

“…What kind of a pepper field did I step my foot into?”

“Yeah, what the hell? It just smells of peppers here.”

As expected, Dojin got along really well with Ganghwan.

“Eh? What happened to that chubby kid?” Ganghwan asked as he looked at the back seats.

Maru pointed at Geunsoo’s car behind them.

“Over there.”

“A baby pig in a field of flowers… My god.”

Ganghwan shook his head disapprovingly.

* * *

Daemyung fixed his eyes to the right window. He didn’t dare look to the left of him. Iseul was just sitting right there next to him. How did this happen?

“What are you looking at?”

“T-the sky.”

Daemyung’s heart was beating too fast with Iseul talking to him. He was fine during practice, so why?

“Doesn’t your neck hurt? You’ve been like that for a while now.”

“Yeah. T-the sky’s pretty, so I’m fine.”

“That’s pretty amazing.”

He couldn’t even move, with all of them crowded in the car like this.

‘Maru… ’

To think that’s what he meant when he said, ‘lucky guy’. Daemyung could only sigh whenever Maru pulled pranks like this. As he continued staring outside, he heard someone next to him speak.

“We’re missing something.”

It was Danmi. Missing… Daemyung nodded. The play was successful. They didn’t make any mistakes, which was the goal. But that’s not all there was to a play, was it?

“I didn’t notice anyone laughing during my scene. I thought my scenes were pretty funny, too.”

“You were definitely funny.”

Danmi shook her head at Iseul’s words.

“The audience clearly didn’t think the same. But Daemyung managed to get a few reactions, I noticed?”

“N-no, they must’ve been laughing at how I looked.”

“Why are you being so self-conscious. You did well.”

“Maru did better…”

“Maru did better, but he’s got the advantage of being a character with short lines that talks directly with the audience. I think in that sense, you did better than him.”

Daemyung nodded for now, but he couldn’t agree. Wasn’t Maru’s role difficult because he talked with the audience? The rest of the club could just interact with each other, but Maru had to talk to the audience from within the realm that was Dalseok-dong. Daemyung believed that to be the reason that made Maru’s role difficult.

“Good work, all. There are some regrets, but it wasn’t awful like last time, was it? Come on, smile, all of you.”

Yoonjung turned around from the shotgun seat to look at them. She was always very energetic. But for some reason, it kind of felt like she was squeezing all the energy out of herself today. Daemyung smiled awkwardly at her before turning to look out again.

‘Did we… do well?’

Just eight months ago, Daemyung had no idea what a play even was. Five months ago, he was afraid to be on stage. For sure, he’s improved. So why did he feel so oddly irritated inside? It felt like his heart was filled with emotions that failed to explode outwards. If only he managed to do that on stage…

‘Why couldn’t I do that?’

Daemyung turned to look at everyone else. Yurim and Iseul looked the same as usual. As a matter of fact, they looked as if a burden was lifted from their shoulders. While Danmi, Yoonjung, and Soyeon all looked like they lost something. Why?

Daemyung thought a bit before opening his script with a surprised expression. He needed to confirm something. After he scanned the entire thing, he realized what happened.

Was it just coincidence? No, it couldn’t be.

‘All of us, the ones who feel iffy about the play, always had scenes right after Maru.’

Daemyung thought back to the stage. He could see the quiet audience. Then, a spotlight. Maru came on stage, and caught their attention. With his character’s unique charm, he managed to make them laugh. As Daemyung observed, he realized exactly what went wrong.

‘I was hurried. And I had this feeling that I could be like him, too.’

Maru was definitely good at acting. But his level of skill still seemed easily achievable. Because of that, Daemyung ended up stepping on stage with a very high level of confidence, and put in more energy than usual.

‘And all I got was a quiet audience.’

Was that why he was disappointed? All he had to do was act a little better.

‘The seniors probably feel the same.’

Right then, Danmi opened her mouth with an embarrassed expression.

“Hah, actually… I was a little intimidated when I saw Maru act. I thought I’d get compared.”

“What?”

Daemyung felt odd hearing that. Intimidated?

“You didn’t feel that way?”

“I thought I could be around that good as long as I worked hard. Didn’t you feel that way, too?”

“Not at all. People laughed at his scenes, but they didn’t laugh in mine. There’s a difference in our acting, and that intimidated me. I even thought to myself things would’ve been better if… Maru acted normally.”

“Normally?”

“What I mean is… Ah, I don’t know. It just felt really uncomfortable acting today. That’s just how I felt.”

Danmi muttered, “disgusting, aren’t I?” under her breath.

“Why are you all being like this? We did fine!”

“Yeah.”

Iseul and Yurim butted in with a confused expression.

“I understand how Danmi feels,” Soyeon said.

Everyone had different opinions. Why? Some people thought Maru’s level of acting was achievable, and others thought he was like a distant star. Why was that? The person in the driver’s seat answered that question.

“It’s because he’s right in the middle.”

Right in the middle? Daemyung could somewhat understand what Geunsoo meant by that.

* * *

Miso watched the kids move the props, before calling Geunsoo and Ganghwan towards her.

“You all think similar, right?”

Ganghwan nodded.

“Yeah, we’ll have to get rid of it, or try to bring the other side up. But right now, I think it’d be better to get rid of some of Maru’s acting.”

“Geunsoo?”

“I think so, too. That's the fastest way to balance things.”

Miso turned to look at Maru with a complicated expression.

“If you’re going to be good, why can’t you just be really good? Do you really have to be iffy like this?”

The three people sighed simultaneously.

Chapter 86

“It’s an issue of synergy.”

That was how Miso decided to summarize the situation. As mentioned previously, plays had three elements: the stage, the actor, and the audience. The reason why the audience was one of the three was that they were who gave life to the play itself, but that wasn’t the only reason why. On stage, an actor uses all of their imagination to become a specific character. Even a hardwood floor with a very rudimentary setup could become a sandy beach, once an actor’s imagination was applied to it.

The actor would project this scene onto the audience using his acting. The audience, having been delivered the actor’s imagination, could in turn project back their emotions. They could express themselves with sounds and gestures.

That’s right.

The reason why the audience counted as one of the three elements was because of their capability to send constant feedback. Whether the feedback is good or bad didn’t matter. What’s important is that their reactions had an impact on the actor.

For example, if a steely actor makes a mistake for an unknown reason on stage, and if the reactions from the audience were negative, the actor would probably get shaken greatly. That’s how big of an impact the audience had.

The actor had to perform under the gazes of tens of hundreds of people. Because of this, the actor always needed to be capable of handling the audience’s emotions.

“He definitely has talent. He was born with it. I’ve never taught him, and he’s never had time to learn. Despite that, he already knows how to work with the audience.”

A pro actor would’ve easily been able to measure how well they were synergizing with the audience, but this was Maru’s first stage. He had no idea how well he was doing. Miso didn’t know, either. Back then at the cafe, Miso simply thought he got the audience’s attention using his unique method, but that wasn’t it at all.

“That’s definitely true. Acting ability aside, he catches the eye of people really easily,” Ganghwan agreed.

Miso thought back to the play she saw in the morning. There, Maru had the role of coming out in the middle of the play and connecting the audience with the rest of the play. In practice, Maru would’ve smoothly transitioned the play into the next scene.

‘But on stage, he was definitely different. That’s what messed up the play.’

Maru actually articulated more and gestured better during practice, he was perfectly aligned with what they had in plan. He didn’t miss a single comma, and none of his lines were spoken wrong.

The Maru on stage was different. There was no rhythm to his lines. He seemed a little bit too energetic. In some parts, he was a little lacking in breath. His movements were untimely in some areas, and his walking posture was very unlike his character.

‘He didn’t act like he was supposed to during practice. He probably doesn’t realize it though.’

When she asked the boy a few minutes ago, he said he acted the same as he always did. But he was clearly different in Miso’s eyes.

‘It’s like watching a robot puppy and a real puppy.’

Life. On stage, Maru blew life into his character. Something that no novice should even be capable of, the audience was what made that possible for him. Maru turned out to have an incredible talent for integrating the energy from the audience with his own. Miso became sure of that today.

‘Maybe Junmin thought highly of Maru because of this.’

That day at the cafe, Junmin saw Maru from the eyes of an audience. Then, he formed a contract. Miso didn’t know the specifics, but she knew that this was a very different contract compared to Junmin’s usual ones.

If there was one thing an actor did, it was practice. Every actor practiced with their teeth gritted and got on stage. Despite that, only a select few become stars. The rest have to either keep working or just leave the stage entirely.

If everyone practiced the same amount, their difference in skill would be determined by talent. The best talent that an actor could have wasn’t the ability to read, nor was it the ability to act well. It was the ability to transform an audience’s energy into their own. Those kinds of actors never got exhausted. As long as there were audiences and a stage, they would always shine.

“If only we had more time.”

“No, this isn’t an issue of time. You can’t fix something like this with just practice. Depending on what kind of experience he has, he can improve by leaps and bounds in one day, or he might stay at this level forever.”

“True, that.”

Miso listened to her two friends talk. The rest of the club was resting after organizing all of their props back in the auditorium. Miso wanted to hear what her friends thought before telling the kids about today. In the end, these two were talking about one thing.

Han Maru.

The boy had an ability to shine on stage, but right now, it wasn’t enough. That shine of his was messing up the rest of the play.

“If only he had enough charisma to just shake up the entire play.”

“I mean, there’d be no worries at all, then. Miso would probably be showering him with kisses right now, too, if that were the case.”

“Kisses my ass.”

Miso frowned when her friends turned to look at her.

“Don’t you remember what happened in high school? You tried to kiss all of us when we got first place.”

Geunsoo shivered in horror.

“Ugh! Talk about stuff like that somewhere else.”

Miso pinched Geunsoo’s lips lightly, his expression sending her a playful smile.

“Well, in the end, you’re their instructor. You have to make a decision. Will you press him down, or will you let him run wild?”

“This play definitely had an effect on him, don’t you think?”

“The boy probably doesn’t realize it, but yeah.”

“This is concerning. What do you think, Mr. Maru’s tutor?” Miso asked Ganghwan.

“If we’re just talking about the boy alone, there’s no need to press him down.”

“But what about in a play? That takes place in a month?”

“If we can’t raise the skill level of everyone else, we should just focus on pressing him down. The other kids probably noticed already, too. Though they all probably felt different things.”

“Hm.”

“Shouldn’t we hear what the kids have to say about it first? We might be overestimating them right now.”

Geunsoo gestured towards the club members at the other end of the auditorium. Miso nodded. If the kids didn’t feel anything from this play, the problem could be solved very easily.

“Get over here!”

The club ran over immediately after she shouted towards them, and stood in a single-file.

“Man, how much did you work these kids?”

“Yeah, it’s almost like they’re in a military.”

Miso ignored what the two men behind him were saying before looking at the expressions of the kids. They didn’t look so bad. Then again, they were just talking to each other casually just now. She didn’t know how much of the play they understood, but generally speaking, they all looked happy enough.

“Good work so far. You didn’t make any mistakes. I told you to perform just as well as you do in practice, so how dare you just go and do better?”

“Hehe.”

The kids looked at her embarrassedly. Well, all except the one guy looking at her like he was telling her to get on with it.

‘He’s just not cute.’

Miso cleared her throat.

“Overall, you guys did pretty well. But I’d like to hear how you felt about the play today. Be honest, anything’s fine.”

The kids looked at each other confusedly. Usually, after a play, Miso would tell them to do a run to show them they did wrong. Instead, she was just asking them for their thoughts right away.

“I’m going straight to your thoughts because you did well.”

“Ah, yes.”

Of course, this was a lie. To the director, this play was a mess. Every actor did their jobs to the best of their abilities, but they didn’t mesh together at all. Overall, a disappointment.

“President, you go first.”

“Mm… I liked everything. We didn’t make mistakes, and it was pretty fun. I loved seeing the audience smile, too.”

“Really? You liked everything?”

“Yes.”

“Let’s change the question, then. What was one thing that you felt was lacking in this play?”

“What?”

“Give me a review. Talk to me in the shoes of a director. What did you think about the play? The acting?”

Miso crossed her arms and narrowed her eyes.

“Be honest with me. Did you like the play today? Just because you didn’t make any mistakes? Really?”

She said what she wanted to say, and the resulting effect was pretty immediate. She noticed several kids stiffen up.

‘There’s no way they didn’t feel what I felt.’

Miso waited. After a few seconds, Yoonjung started talking again after biting her lip.

* * *

Maru didn’t know what he had to say. This was the first time in this life when he felt troubled by a situation. The gazes the club members were giving him were odd, and a little bit confusing to try to understand.

“That’s what some of the club members felt. What do you think, Maru?”

“I don’t know. I don’t enjoy mincing my words, so I’ll be direct. What do you want from me, instructor?”

The acting club didn’t practice just to have fun, they were practicing to win at the winter competition; to get first place. In that regard, Miso was like a captain of a ship. She needed to make sure that the ship was clear to set sail without issues.

After listening to the club members’ feedback, Miso played a recording of the play today. Looking at the play from the perspective of the audience helped Maru understand what was happening.

‘The scenes all changed immediately after I went.’

The students that went after him acted a little more energetically as he did. That in itself wasn’t an issue, but this effect didn’t extend into the scenes that followed. That messed up the harmony of the actors just a little bit. The play quickly found its balance and continued on normally afterward, but this messed up the audience’s ability to be able to concentrate.

A good analogy would be like having other noises get mixed into the music you listen to. Indeed, Maru noticed the audience talking about other things whenever the play got unharmonious. They became completely unable to focus.

“Become calm. Even more so than when you practice. That’s the advice I’m going to give you.”

“Is that how we can make our play more complete?”

“A little more than before, yes.”

“I understand. I get what you’re trying to say.”

Miso nodded.

* * *

Tssss.

“I don’t think I can eat.”

“Me neither.”

The club members just dumbly watched as the meat cooked on the grill in front of them. After Miso gave her little spiel, Geunsoo and Ganghwan each gave short lectures. Afterward, Miso dragged everyone to a karaoke. That was 5pm, and they only managed to leave at 9pm. After spending four whole hours in a karaoke, everyone was understandably drained.

“Hey, hey! The meat’s about to burn! Go on and eat, you idiots!”

The scary part was, Miso didn’t look even a bit tired despite singing more than anyone else. Maru shook his head as he flipped a few pieces of meat on the grill.

“Hey, let’s talk.”

Right as he was about to take a bite of the food, Ganghwan called Maru outside. Maru handed the lettuce wrap in his hand off to Dojin before heading outside.

“Are you disappointed?”

“About what?”

“About what Miso said. She was telling you to kill your acting.”

“I mean, what she said makes sense. Harmony comes foremost before anything else. I think the instructor was making the right decision. And to be honest… I don’t even know why I should be disappointed. I think I was just doing the same thing as usual.”

“You could hear all the sounds around you on stage, right?”

“Yes.”

“You could hear the audience talking, and you could hear your footsteps.”

“Right.”

“That’s the difference between you and the rest of the club. It’s a small one, but it’s a difference nonetheless. If you managed to get a bigger reaction from the audience, the rest of the club would’ve wanted to follow in your footsteps today. If that were the case, the play would’ve gone a lot differently.”

“So I’m just being iffy.”

“Yeah. You’re not doing ridiculously well, but you’re still having an impact nonetheless. That impact changes the way other people act. There’s a difference between those who were impacted by you and those who weren’t. Then there’s you. it’s like noticing a few rough edges on a smooth piece of fabric.”

“Either make the entire piece of fabric rough to begin with, or press down those few rough edges. Is that it?”

“That’s right. After all, what matters, in the end, is how well you get reactions from the audience. Miso needs to show results as a director, and you need to show results after signing that contract with Junmin.”

“So do I need to act more like a robot in the future, in that case?”

“No.”

“What?”

“That’d only be the case if you can’t grow. But if you grow enough to be able to influence the entire club, there would be no need to press you down at all.”

Ganghwan poked Maru’s chest lightly.

“Let’s turn you into something amazing. If we can’t, we can just go along with Miso’s wishes. If we can… pft, things will get pretty interesting.”

Ganghwan smiled mischievously, and Maru remembered that smile. Ganghwan smiled like that when he told Maru to act like a blind person. Just what was he planning right now?

“Let’s try seeing just what that talent of yours is capable of. We won’t be able to do much in just a single month, but we might as well try. Try hard in your youth, or something like that. Hard enough to puke.”

Puke? Wasn’t that going a little too far?

“Oh, I’m also curious about this one thing.”

“About what?”

“The play. Was it fun?”

Fun? Maru found himself smiling almost subconsciously.

“It wasn’t bad.”

Right. It wasn’t bad. Actually, it was even a bit exciting.

“Hah! Nice! Let’s go back in. Free meat always deserves attention.”

Ganghwan slapped Maru’s back energetically. Maru nodded, and followed him back into the restaurant.

Chapter 87

After the meal at the restaurant, the second years gathered to rest up and chat at Danmi’s house.

“So, we’re basically a little worse than Maru?” Yoonjung said, lightly tapping her teaspoon.

She would’ve been completely fine with the fact had it been someone else in the club. After all, the rest of the first years worked just as hard as them, but Maru was different. He only practiced for two months. Hearing that Maru was more capable of getting people’s attention than the rest of the club frankly made Yoonjung a little disappointed.

“Isn’t that a good thing?” Joonghyuk asked.

“It is,” Minsung answered.

Yoonjung pouted for a second before letting out a short laugh.

“Yeah! I’m kind of jealous, but this is good for the club anyway.”

To begin with, they wanted Maru to be the future president. For him to be good at acting was just an added bonus.

“I’m going to teach him everything, starting tomorrow. Everything! I’m a bit jealous, so I might as well go all out, too.”

“Ugh, she’s at it again.”

“I mean, you know she does this pretty much every day.”

Danmi and Minsung smiled lightly. Right then, Joonghyuk shook his head and stopped Yoonjung.

“You might want to leave that for later.”

“Why?”

“We didn’t get an answer yet. Don’t you remember me telling you that Maru didn’t seem too fond of the idea?”

“Oh, you’re right.”

Yoonjung took a little sip of her now-lukewarm cocoa.

“I wonder when he’ll answer.”

“Who knows.”

“Should I ask?”

“I feel like he’d just refuse if we did.”

Yoonjung nodded. Maru would probably refuse them if they were to be persistent.

“Who were you thinking of if Maru refuses, by the way?” Yoonjung asked, looking at the other three.

Joonghyuk shook his head. He didn’t seem to think of anyone just yet. Danmi said Iseul, and Minsung said Geunseok.

“Geunseok?”

“He seemed pretty weak-minded during summer, but I feel like he’s grown a lot through this play.”

“Yeah, that’s true. What do you think, Joonghyuk?”

“That wouldn’t be a bad idea if Geunseok keeps growing like this. I don’t know if the other kids would follow him, though.”

“The first years… they probably don’t all get along, do they?”

Minsung answered Yoonjung’s question.

“I think mostly everyone forgot about what happened at that time, but Maru and Geunseok are definitely an issue. Maru did call him out back then.”

“I don’t want to think about that time, honestly. I feel embarrassed as a senior,” Danmi said. Her eyes were drooped slightly.

“Agreed,” Yoonjung said, raising her hand.

The four of them still remembered what Maru had done very clearly. After all, Maru did what was supposed to be their job. But none of them were able to open their mouths at the time. Because they knew precisely how the club would fall to ruin if they did.

“He’s just mature. Plus, we all know that wasn’t an easy thing to do,” Joonghyuk said.

It was thanks to Joonghyuk that the rest of the second years got to know about what happened.

“He took responsibility for something he had no part in. Despite knowing he’d antagonize everyone.”

“Things are fine now, but I still can’t look at Maru straight. I just feel so guilty near him.”

Minsung and Danmi probably weren’t the only ones that felt this way.

“I should apologize properly after this play.”

“Why not now?”

Yoonjung shook her head vigorously.

“Now’s not the time. I don’t want to ruin the mood by bringing up the past. I want to formally apologize when everything’s over.”

“Oh? Look at you, thinking before acting for once.”

“What, did you take me for an idiot during all this time?”

“You weren’t?”

Yoonjung pinched Joonghyuk with a slight grin.

“In any case, this is the last time we’re meeting like this, isn’t it?”

“Yeah.”

Whenever the club finished a play, the second years would gather at Danmi’s place to have a little tea time. To organize what happened in the day, and to talk about the things that they did right, and what they did wrong. Yoonjung forced a smile as she opened her mouth.

“We can still meet up and talk. Well, I guess we won’t be talking about acting, though.”

“Right.”

They all liked acting, but to them, this was just a hobby. There were still jobs and schools to look forward to after high school for them, so it was inevitable that they would work a lot less in their third year. Yoonjung, too, had to start focusing on studying for her dream college. It was time for her to leave the stage and come back to reality.

“Oh, that’s right Danmi, you were looking for an academy?”

“Me? I already found one.”

The conversation naturally headed elsewhere. The four people left their regrets behind them as they continued onwards with smiling faces.

* * *

“I’m going to try harder,” Daemyung said in the bus.

Dojin asked what was up with a surprised expression.

“I want to be an actor. Well, a director.”

“Really?”

Dojin was a little surprised. He knew Daemyung took this seriously, but he didn’t realize just how far the boy was thinking.

“To be honest, I also met someone nice that made a promise with me.”

“What kind of a promise?”

“Promise for support. He said if I go to college for the arts or anything related, he would pay for my tuition. But I’d have to work on acting for one year in a theater company of his choosing.”

“Woah, when did that happen? Dang, you’re a total pro, aren't you?”

College tuition was no joke, and this person Daemyung mentioned was apparently willing to pay for it. To be honest, Dojin was kind of jealous.

“So, you’re going to become a star when you graduate?” Dojin asked, poking at Daemyung’s belly.

The other boy denied it with a smile, of course.

“Daaang, Daemyung. Don’t you go ignoring me now once you get famous, alright?”

“O-of course.”

“Should I get your signature, just in case?”

“I don’t have one, though.”

“That was a joke, bro. Tell me once you get famous. I’ll get your signature then.”

Daemyung nodded a little shyly. For someone who had such a big presence on stage, he was quite shy in real life.

‘But… At the same time, I guess he’s already preparing for his future.’

Dojin took a look at himself reflected through the window of the bus. He was a middle school delinquent that barely made it into an engineering high school. He fixed his behaviour and tendencies, but the question remained, for how much longer would he enjoy himself like this?

To be honest, Dojin looked down on Daemyung. Right now, hearing this good news from the other boy just made him jealous. As a matter of fact, a part of him even wished Daemyung to fail.

Stop it, Dojin. You’re being pathetic.

It felt like both Maru and Daemyung knew exactly what to do for their future. Neither of them seemed to have any hesitation or fear in the way they acted. They were very different compared to him.

“Work hard. Maybe buy me a house when you get really rich?”

“Ha, haha.”

Dojin swallowed a bitter smile. What did he manage to achieve at the end of his first year of high school again? What will he achieve in the next two years, even?

‘I guess… I’ll go to college.’

He’d feel like even less of a man if he couldn’t even go to a college that everyone else went to. All of a sudden, Daemyung felt so very foreign to Dojin. To think there were already people who had expectations of the boy…

“We’ll have to work hard for the winter competition, right?” Daemyung asked then.

“Eh? Yeah. Of course! Damn, you’re a total pro now, thinking that far already.”

“I-I’m not.”

Dojin pat Daemyung’s shoulder with a grin. But inwardly, he didn’t feel so great inside.

* * *

Iseul looked at Taejoon. The boy was as red as a beet. Any other time, she would’ve made fun of him, but not today.

“You like Soyeon?”

“…Yeah.”

Oh dear. The two of them often stayed behind to practice together for the grandpa-grandma role. To think they’d develop feelings this way…

“Does Soyeon know?”

“No, she’s not even looking at me.”

“Idiot, she’s intimidated by you.”

“Why?”

Taejoon looked at Iseul like a lost puppy.

“Have you never dated a girl before?”

“No.”

“Seriously? With that face?”

“I don’t know, I’ve never been close with girls before. Anyway, help me. I want to be close to Soyeon, but she won’t even look at me.”

“But you guys practice so much together.” “She always leaves right after practice.” “Really? She must hate you then. The end. Bye, I have work.”

“Come on, please.”

Taejoon was even grabbing onto her clothes now. Iseul shook her head.

“Fine, just wait. I’ll have to call the others first.”

Iseul took out her phone and messaged the rest of the club. But just before she hit send, she noticed two pretty iffy names in the message group. Iseul took out Yurim and Geunseok’s name off of the list before pressing send.

“Try being friendly first. You can do that at least, right?”

“………”

“Ugh, that face is totally wasted on you!”

Iseul pressed the bell on the bus with a frustrated sigh.

* * *

- Good work.

Geunseok smiled looking at the message from Suyeon. Finally, it felt like he met a coach who actually cared for him. She was pretty, even. Just being near her made him feel like a mature adult.

“Who is it?”

“Mm? Just someone I know.”

“Someone you know?”

“Don’t worry about it. Anyway, weren’t you tired today? Instructor Miso didn’t let you go today.”

“Ugh, yeah. My throat is completely gone. I think I might even lose my voice tomorrow.”

“Drink warm water before you sleep, alright?”

“Okay.”

Geunseok and Yurim walked to the bus station together after the meal at the restaurant. They lived in opposite directions, so Geunseok planned on walking to the station on the other side in a minute. Right then, Yurim grabbed his arm, and kissed his cheek. Geunseok looked at the girl with a surprised expression.

“You were cool today. The instructor only talked about Maru today, but I think you did better. Work hard, okay?”

Yurim got on her bus with a smile. Geunseok touched his cheek for a few seconds before crossing the road with a happy smile. To be honest, he did feel a little bad when he heard Maru was good at getting attention. To think someone who didn’t even practice would have such talent… Yurim must’ve caught onto how he felt, which would explain that kiss. It definitely helped.

“You think I don’t have talent, huh?”

Geunseok rolled up his hands into a fist. So long as there weren’t any strange audience members like last time, he would be able to shine more than anyone else on stage. He was working hard, and he even had talent. The ability to converse with the audience? He didn’t even need such a talent.

‘I’m going to crush the audience with my talent.’

The audience only existed to view his acting, conversing with them was meaningless. To begin with, how would he even try to get feedback from people who could do nothing but watch? Geunseok felt Miso was pulling words out of her ass at this point. The only thing an actor had to do was to act good enough to crush any opposition from the audience.

‘Once I put them under my feet, the only thing that’ll come my way are their praises.’

Geunseok imagined himself as a star on the stage, one that only received bright words of praise from the audience.

“This is only the beginning.”

With that contract from Junmin, he would major in films during college. After college, he would enter a theater company, where he could truly start spreading his wings. His plan was flawless.

Geunseok took out his phones with a smile. Yurim and Suyeon. Two different, charming women were sending attention his way.

‘Good. Very good.’

His relationship with Yurim was only improving by the day, too. Geunseok got on the bus, thinking he should treat her better next time.

October 27th, 2003.

The Arts festival ended. And…

There was a month left until the winter nationals would begin.

Chapter 88

It was November.

The closer the day got to the 13th, the quieter the rest of the school became. It was even forbidden to talk on the fourth floor where the third years were. For years now, the principal and the faculty worked as much as possible to change the image of the school from a school for delinquents to a school for scholars. At this point, the fact that those who stayed after school to study had the benefit of air conditioning. This right would soon get passed down onto the second years and the first years as well.

“At this rate, our school major would change from engineering to humanities,” Dojin said, rolling the candy on his tongue.

He could see a few kids gripping onto the textbook despite it being break time. They were students who came here trying to get into engineering colleges in the future. Despite having good enough grades to go to a decent school in Suwon, these kids came here instead. So that they could become the head of a snake instead of the tail of a dragon.

“You bastard, why don’t you play around a bit during break time? You study too much.”

Changhu was going around picking fights with all the studious kids. They just promptly ignored him, though. Almost as if they didn’t care about the abuse they received from him. After all, the only reason why they were at this school was to go to a better one. Changhu probably knew that messing with them would be no fun as well.

“Go to Seoul university, why don’t you.”

Changhu scanned the room for other targets with a mocking smile.

“Changhu! Let’s go!”

“Yeah.”

Changhu left once the kids from other classes called him.

“That bastard, he’s always like this.”

“Don’t worry about him, picking a fight with a dog is just a waste of your time.”

“I’m fine, since he doesn’t really talk to me nowadays, but I still feel nervous. Especially with what he said…”

“The fire at the auditorium?”

“Yeah.”

Maru turned his head to look at Changhu outside. He stopped picking a fight with them recently, probably because he found more friends. Especially since Dojin became a lot composed lately as well. This was a good sign, Maru wasn’t a fan of having to deal with delinquents himself.

‘A fight between kids is definitely scary, after all.’

Adults had a lot of things to consider. They would consider their losses first before fighting, but kids were different. The smarter ones also knew that they wouldn’t be severely punished for committing felonies as well. Even if they put a kid in a wheelchair, they would probably just have to spend some time doing volunteer work. Changhu knew that very well himself, which was what made him very hard to deal with.

“If he gets in my way again…”

Dojin cracked his fingers with a frown.

“Stop it. I thought you graduated from that stuff already?”

“That’s true, but…”

“Just focus on work. Don’t bother wasting your energy on other things.”

“I know, I know.”

“Good. Ah, right. Did you see that message by the way?”

“About how the prelims got pushed to December?”

Maru nodded. The competition that originally had its prelims in November and the main competition in December got pushed back by a month. Something about the location, according to Miso?

“More practice for two months, huh. Not like there’s anything more we can do.”

The club was repeating runs of their play after that one festival, enough to start acting in their dreams. Dojin muttered a few words of annoyance under his breath before turning to look at Daemyung. Maru recently noticed that the boy’s eyes towards Daemyung had changed quite a bit.

“Did you two fight?”

“What? No way. Me? Fight who now?” Dojin asked with a smile.

“With Daemyung. You guys aren’t talking much nowadays, right?”

“Ah, right.”

Dojin may have dismissed it, but his expression clearly said something different. Did something bad happen? Dojin avoided Maru’s gaze for a while, before finally giving in.

“I’ll buy you some hot chocolate. Can we step outside?”

* * *

Right outside the school where the school store was, was a little vending machine. One that sold little cups of hot chocolate and iced tea. To the students, this place was a sort of a pit stop. According to the rumors, the person who maintains this vending machine was rich enough to own land in Gangnam.

“Maybe I should try putting a vending machine in a school as well,” Dojin let out.

“What are you talking about, all of a sudden?” Maru said, taking a sip of his drink.

“It’s nothing.”

“You’ve been using that phrase a lot recently, now that I think about it. Here I thought the person called Han Dojin was someone with a very vocal mind.”

“Was I?”

Dojin looked down at his drink. his face reflected through the brownish liquid. Whenever he looked at himself through a mirror, he used to think he was pretty well off. Nowadays, though, he looked very ugly through the hot chocolate.

It was lunchtime. Despite winter being so close, the field was still filled with students playing soccer. Dojin looked at the soccer ball flying across for a second before opening his mouth.

“I’m jealous of Daemyung.”

He immediately regretted speaking, but it was already too late. Dojin shrugged and sipped on his drink. It felt bitter.

“Did something happen?”

Strangely enough, Dojin felt it would be alright to talk to Maru about this. It felt like the other boy would say something helpful for him.

“It looks like… Daemyung signed a contract with some sort of company. His college is going to be paid for, and he’s going to have a job afterward as well.”

Right when he said this, he noticed Maru looking away for a second. What was that about? Maru opened his mouth after a few seconds.

“So, you’re jealous of that? The scholarship?”

“No, not that. Just, um, you know. He was a little iffy-looking when we first met him.”

“He had all the characteristics of a victim of bullying. He was one, too.”

“Hey! He’s a friend, you know!”

Maru grinned at Dojin’s angry words.

“At least you think of him as a friend, then. Thank goodness, it’s not as bad as I thought.”

…Hearing that made Dojin a bit mad. Come to think of it, the other boy always seemed to know what the people around him were thinking.

Maru felt like a friend who wasn’t a friend, someone more akin to an older brother than anything.

“Who said he wasn’t a friend? It’s just… I felt so annoyed at myself. My middle school life was a mess, so I decided to come here to change things, but here I am. Nothing happened for the first year of high school. I didn’t study, I didn’t do anything special, nor did I win any awards. It’s not like I’m good at something, either.”

“And suddenly seeing Daemyung, who you looked down on, suddenly doing well made you jealous?”

“Hey, that’s a very mean way to put it. It’s not like that. I’m just disappointed in myself.”

“Be honest here. If you want to fix a problem, you need to know what the problem is beforehand. There’s a bunch of people in this world who live better lives than you, but that didn’t seem to bother you until recently. You suddenly got angry at yourself after hearing that Daemyung was doing well?”

“Yeah! Fine! I’m jealous! I hate him! Is that enough?”

He shouldn’t have asked Maru for help. He expected to hear some words he didn’t want to hear, but not to this degree…

‘…No, maybe I wanted Maru to say something like this to me.’

He was jealous of Daemyung. He was annoyed, too. Even someone like Daemyung managed to find a life for himself, and what was he doing?

Dojin’s true feelings revealed itself for a split second, making Dojin frown bitterly.

“If you knew what I was just thinking about, you’d think I’m complete trash. Good god.”

“Something about someone like Daemyung doing well, but you can’t?”

Dojin looked at Maru dumbly.

“H-how did you know?”

“They say people only manage to communicate about 30% of information through words. The rest is carried through expressions, gestures, and the context of the entire conversation.”

“Hah. Could you not tell Daemyung about this? I’m totally trash, aren’t I? My friend is doing well, and yet all I can think is… ugh.”

“You always feel worse when you hear someone close to you is doing well. The feeling of jealousy is worse depending on how well you know the person.”

“Don’t you feel anything about this? After hearing about Daemyung’s opportunity?”

Dojin was curious about what Maru thought. Was he really the only one who thought like this? Right then, Maru looked away with an awkward cough. For the second time. Dojin realized then that information really was conveyed mostly through expressions and gestures.

“…You too?”

“Yeah, something like that.”

“You! When?”

“Mine’s actually supposed to be a secret. Ah, Geunseok probably got a similar contract to Daemyung, though.”

“Really?”

“Yeah.”

“No way.”

Dojin suddenly felt very annoyed. What was he talking to Maru about this for?

“Don’t try to hurry,” Maru said.

He continued after crushing the empty cup in his hand.

“Life doesn’t always work the way you want it to. You can prepare all you want for something, but half the time, it doesn’t go the way you want it to.”

“That doesn’t help me at all, you know? Ugh, I feel like I’ve been betrayed. So I was just getting left out here?”

Maru laughed a little, which only managed to provoke Dojin more.

“You guys can only say that because there’s someone watching out for you. I’m… I just get annoyed. I’m working just as hard as you, but… This just feels like wasted time.”

“I guess it’s fair to see it that way…”

“Ugh, aren’t you supposed to say something encouraging here?”

“If people could change just through words, I’d use all of those words on you right now, but people don’t change that easily. Plus, you don’t need any advice or encouragement. You didn’t do anything wrong, nor is there anything wrong about the way you think. Daemyung and I were lucky, so we got chosen. Who knows when this luck would leave us?”

“But you guys ended up getting something anyway.”

And he was the only one left where he originally started. While his two friends were advancing on and on.

“What do you want me to tell you?”

“………”

Hearing that left Dojin a little lost for words. He was just annoyed. He knew he didn’t have the right to complain because he never prepared for anything or ever had any goals. Yet, he felt like he was betrayed somehow. He thought his two friends would be by his side forever, and yet…

“It’s normal to feel jealous, but try not to hang onto that feeling for too long. Don’t try to lie to yourself either. Don’t try to ignore Daemyung. Stuff like that is what ruins relationships. So just do what you’re good at doing: being honest. Go to Daemyung and talk to him about it. He’s probably a little worried as well.”

“Hah, but that makes me look like the pathetic one.”

“You were, though.”

“You…”

“But… thanks.”

Thanks? Dojin looked at Maru oddly.

“Thanks for telling me your thoughts. I know that’s a very difficult thing to do.”

Maru turned around after patting Dojin’s shoulder.

“Plus, I think it’s good that you’re worried about this at your age. But don’t try to look too far ahead into the future. You’re just a high schooler, and life isn’t so easy that it will always follow your plans. If you’re willing to make plans for yourself, you have to be ready to see those plans get broken.”

“You say that, but you’re doing a lot of things already, aren’t you?”

“Me?”

Maru turned around with a slight grin.

“Well, I’m doing this because I know a bunch of things. So I’m trying it all.”

Know a bunch of things? Dojin thought about those words for a second before frowning.

“Ah, whatever. I’m just going to say I’m jealous that you guys are doing well. So what if I feel pathetic? I should talk to Daemyung about this as well.”

“There’s the Dojin I know.”

“But if you guys do well, I’m going to leech off of you two hard. You better be prepared.”

“Any time. I’m willing to feed a friend whenever I can.”

Something told Dojin that Maru was being honest. Perhaps Maru would really lend him a room if he really needed it.

“Come. It’s practice time already.”

Maru gestured towards the stairs.

Chapter 89

The entire club lay down on the floor huffing. Maru, of course, was one of them. His body was emanating enough heat to make the cold wooden floor below him feel welcoming.

“It’s winter, and yet…”

“We didn’t even turn the heater on but it feels so hot…”

“Huff, huff. Feels like I’m in a sauna.”

The club members all commented.

“Tick, tock. The clock’s ticking, ladies and gentlemen. We have exactly 48 seconds left, so you better start focusing again,” announced Miso, causing the club to groan in pain.

A single minute for them to rest was a little too much.

“How many more sets from now?” Taejoon asked.

The boy was frail from the start, but he looked pretty healthy at this point. The same went for the other members. Even Daemyung and Soyeon both lost a noticeable amount of weight.

“3 sets.”

“Gasp.”

“Alright, 27 seconds left. Get up, all of you.”

Maru slowly stood up from the floor as a single bead of sweat dripped off of his chin. There were only two days left until December, and yet he could still sweat this much… He turned to take a look at the window behind where Miso was sitting. The bare trees outside were shaking vigorously from the wind. The news stations all warned of cold wind today, but the auditorium didn’t seem to be affected by it one bit.

As soon as he wiped off the sweat on his brow, Miso said there were only 13 seconds left. She was looking at her stopwatch with a devilish smile on her face.

‘Miso’s smile. Pft.’

As soon as he thought that far, Miso snapped her finger.

“Begin.”

The club members started doing push-ups right away. The girls had their knees on the floor, while the boys were doing full push-ups, all to the beat of Miso’s claps.

‘Thank goodness my physique got better in this life.’

Maru didn’t know if this was a gift in this life, but his athletic abilities were improved quite a bit in this life. But even with it, Miso’s training was still very brutal.

Jumping jacks, side lunges, jumping squats, push-ups, crunches, flutter kicks… Miso often messed with the number of reps per set, which only made things more difficult.

Each set took them around 7 minutes. 7 minutes of hell.

“Stop.”

Another set ended with a short burpee test. Maru and the others all lay down again huffing. The sweat on their faces started flowing again.

“I don’t know if I’m doing acting…”

“Or if I’m in an exercise club…”

“I’m dying.”

“The sky is spinning.”

“I want to throw up…”

“Please throw up somewhere else…”

Everyone was complaining. Whenever they started getting used to the new routine, Miso would spice things up. Maru could only admire Miso’s demonic talent whenever he saw her do this. This was even worse than the physical training in the military, at least the drill instructors there allowed them more time to rest.

“You guys might be wondering why we have to go this far just for acting. Of course, you might not need this training if you’re not a pro actor. Other instructors wouldn’t be doing this for sure. But you guys know already that I hate doing things incompletely, right? It’s always a go big or go home for me. You know that, right? Guys?”

“…Yes.”

“I told you you’d only be able to act well if you could control every muscle on your body, from your toes all the way to your hair, right?”

“Yes.”

“Alright, stand up then. You have 12 seconds.”

“Hah…”

“Okay, who sighed just now? Raise your hand.”

Dojin flinched before nervously raising his hand.

“Go run two laps on the field after this set. If you have the energy to sigh, might as well spend it on your feet.”

“I-instructor.”

“What? You want four laps?“

“No!!”

“Okay! Get on with the set, then!”

The club member snapped back to exercising with Miso’s scary shout.

“You guys went all out today too, huh,” Ganghwan said as he drove.

“Do all actors do this?”

“Theoretically speaking, Miso’s right. Actors on stage need to have a lot of stamina. They also need to be able to move their body really well.”

“So all of this does have meaning.”

“That’s right. Well, it does feel like she’s going a bit overboard, but don’t worry. You’ll get used to it. She shouldn’t come at you guys any harder than this either.”

“That would be nice.”

“But then again! She might actually make it worse, too. This is Miso we’re talking about, after all.”

Ganghwan grinned. But… if they exercised more than this, the club would soon turn into an acrobatics club instead of an acting club… Maru could only hope that wouldn’t happen.

Maru took a look out the window, he could see the dark, wintery scenery pass by. For the past month, he started following Ganghwan all the way to Anyang every day. Today was of no exception. After maneuvering through several small streets in the first district of Anyang, their car came to a stop. The two of them got off and went into the building in front of it.

They were headed to the basement floor, which was partitioned into many soundproof rooms. It was a series of paid practice rooms. When Maru paid more attention, he could faintly hear the sound of drums and guitars. It sounded like about four different bands were practicing here.

“Let’s go inside.”

Ganghwan opened the practice room marked 205, revealing what was inside. An entire wall of the place was covered by a giant mirror. The floor was matted with something soft, like sponge. On the left side was a clock and below it was a sentence written, ‘a line practiced once is different from a line practiced ten times’ in ink. Maru realized from the moment he first came here that this place belonged to Junmin. Because on the back of this place was a picture of the man glaring.

“I think this every time I come here, but I think that teacher has a really odd preference for things.”

“You’re talking about that picture, right?”

“Yes.”

“You’ll start welcoming him at some point. He’s like the identity of this place.”

When the two of them entered, several people waved their hands towards them.

“Bro, you’re here?”

“Yup. Did you guys eat?”

“Of course we did.”

“What about mine?”

“You should take care of that yourself. Maru, hi!”

“Hello.”

Maru greeted the people sitting in front of him in a circle. There were two men, and three women, all of them within their twenties. Of them, the oldest was the person who called Ganghwan a ‘bro’, Yu Dongjin. The man was about 25, if Maru’s memory served correctly.

“Shall we begin?” Dongjin said, standing up.

“Well, you’re pretty fired up today. Are you doing something with your girlfriend after this?”

“Dang, bro. You might as well set up a tarot shop at this point.”

“Hah.”

Ganghwan took off his jacket, Maru followed suit. Ganghwan threw his jacket in the corner of the room before calling everyone around him.

“We’re starting in two days, so don’t let your guard down.”

“We’re already nervous as is, haha,” a short-haired woman responded.

“Good. If you can laugh while being nervous, that means you’re at peak condition. Let’s do a light reading before doing a run.”

The actors split up into different parts of the room after nodding. Maru moved back to where the audience would be himself, with a notebook in his hand. For the past month, he would alternate between three different things at this place. First, the production of a play in the hands of pros. Second, he checked how different actors practiced. Lastly, he practiced for a short monodrama he would be performing right before the one these people were working on.

Maru’s homework was to improve on his influence on the audience and improve his ability to communicate with them. Two months ago at the festival, Maru showed Ganghwan a little glimpse of his talent.

[In the end, actors get better with each play they perform.]

Ganghwan’s solution was simple. It was to raise Maru’s skill by putting him on the stage as many times as possible. There was one more thing, of course. It was to never get drunk on the sensation of acting on stage.

Maru personally thought he never got “drunk” at the festival. As a matter of fact, it felt like his senses were heightened when he stood before the audience. He thought he acted as calmly as possible, but Ganghwan clearly disagreed.

[Want me to show you Miso’s video again?]

Maru could only bitterly smile. Indeed, there was a very clear difference between the Maru during practice and Maru on stage. He seemed freer on the stage. That ad-libbing he did with the kid must’ve come from that feeling of liberty he felt. He even forgot a few adjectives in his lines at certain points.

[That ability to improvise isn’t bad. It’s actually a very good thing. But you have to remember, you’re still an actor in a play. You need to connect with the other actors. You talked with the kid in the audience that day, right? It went well, thankfully, but what if the other kids in the audience started trying to talk to you? Did you think about what would happen if you continued to improvise there? Or did you just do it for fun? This is important. If things went wrong during your ad-lib, everything might’ve fallen apart in the play. Just because it worked well once doesn’t mean it would work well twice, either.]

Conversing with the audience was important, but working with the other actors was more so. This made complete sense. If the other kids started getting rowdy after his scene, the play would have completely fallen apart.

[Plays are done by people. What’s important is that it’s done by multiple people.]

Maru completely forgot that this was a team game. He recalled a time when a new employee did something without permission when he was still working at a company. Thankfully, nothing big happened, but that didn’t make the new employee’s actions right. Of course, the new employee was punished for what he did. Maru was the person to tell the person that this was a team game, as a matter of fact.

If a talented individual goes on to do something by themselves, everyone else involved would be stressed out. Even if nothing bad happens as a result.

[But if you get the ability to just completely overwhelm both the audience and the actors, then no one would mind even if you did a one-man show. But you’re not that good yet.]

“Plays are done by people in the end, and yet I…”

“What are you talking about?”

“It’s nothing. I just thought about a few things.”

“Hah. Anyway, monitor our run well. Try to see from multiple angles about how this play will go. Remember the expressions and gestures the other actors make, and try to see the difference between the emotions that words can convey, and emotions that gestures can convey. I can’t explain everything for you, so you’ll have to take notes on the stuff I don’t just straight up teach you. I trust you can do that much.”

Ganghwan always told Maru the same things. The man always started daydreaming out of nowhere and explained to Maru what he daydreamed about. He was a bit odd in that sense, but despite that, the man still made a very good teacher. He was very different from Miso. If Miso worked from a set manual, Ganghwan tried to make his student learn through observation.

In the end, if you were stupid, you would learn nothing from Ganghwan. That’s why Maru always needed to be careful. He could never know where useful information would come from.

“Guys, let’s begin! We might as well eat right after this, too!”

“Bro, I told you we ate!”

“Yeah? Might as well eat again!”

The play began once the music started. This play was composed of three different stories involving three different lovers. It was filled with hugs, kisses, and quite a few sexual innuendos as well. A play that only those above 18 years of age could watch. Not even Maru could watch it until next year.

Then again, he was already 45 inside.

Maru walked around the practice room quietly as he observed how these people acted. Watching people act from the perspective of the audience, the actor in the waiting room, and the actor at the side curtain was very different. Then again, Ganghwan did tell him already that distance always had an effect on how easy it was to deliver emotions.

“Okay.”

The run ended after about 70 minutes. Maru gave the actors some drinks as he asked them some questions. The actors told the boy their thoughts. After a month, they got used to this behavior from Maru.

Through these answers, Maru began to learn what acting really was about.

Chapter 90

People often said that in a company of three, one will always turn out to be a teacher. In that sense, Maru was gifted with many teachers at this moment.

“If you put too much focus on your line, you’ll just end up wasting a lot of breath. If you get overwhelmed by the pressure to say your lines perfectly, the play is just about over for you right there,” Dongjin said, stroking his neck.

The man, who knew Ganghwan for the longest out of the group, was also the one who put in the most amount of work into teaching Maru as well. The man liked to make dumb jokes before practice, but he was completely different once practice started. Because of this, Maru liked listening to Dongjin. The man often taught him many useful things.

“But I learned that all the lines you speak should be always under your control.”

“That’s true, too.”

This was right, but that was also right. Maru looked at Dongjin with a very curious look, earning him a grin.

“When you first learn the piano, you start off by trying to follow the sheet music as closely as you can, right? That’s how they all began. At first, even that’s difficult, but everyone still has to do it. Trying to skip that step entirely by relying on your creativity doesn’t work, it’s the same with your lines. Just imagine as if you’re going to a concours, and just remember the sentence structure. Eventually, you’ll come to a point where you think, ‘oh, I think it might be better if I say it like this’. That’s when the line truly becomes yours.”

“The line becomes mine?”

Dongjin nodded vigorously.

“For example, let’s say you’re acting the role of a general in a historical play.”

As soon as he finished his sentence, he took a deep breath and shouted “charge!!” with a deep, rolling voice. Maru felt the hair on his arm stand up from the sheer amount of energy he emanated.

“Shut up!”

“Please!”

The actors at the other side of the room angrily threw their shoes towards Maru and Dongjin. Maru dodged the shoes, and carefully stacked them to the side.

“How was that?”

“Very cool.”

“Right? I had a role as a young general in this new movie that came out. It was just one scene where I shout this line. Now, a question. How many times do you think I said this line?”

Dongjin smiled mysteriously, Maru knew the answer immediately from that smile. The man definitely said this line countless times. Each time with a different tone, and a different breath.

“That line isn’t on our wall for nothing.”

Maru turned to look at the wall.

‘A line practiced once is different from a line practiced ten times.’

The first thing one would see upon entering this place.

“No matter what line you’re practicing, it’s going to grow the more you repeat it. Because you yourself are increasing in skill as you practice. There are many people who say their lines hundreds of times to improve, that’s how difficult it is to become a character in a play. Of course, this is very fun in the end, but…”

Dongjin didn’t finish his sentence. Maru could just see a glimpse of how much pain and hard work the man had to suffer through to get to where he is now. How much did this man have to sacrifice to get on stage?

His studies? Friends? Family? Perhaps even all three?

“Why did you want to become an actor?”

“I started because I needed to at first, but…”

Right. He didn’t even need to start with acting in the beginning. He thought he would be able to meet her as long as he used his god-given talent well enough. But after his first play, after interacting with the actors here, something started changing from within him.

He was starting to enjoy it. And excitement. Two feelings he never thought he could experience without her. Everything about his movements and his energetic voice on stage told him that he was having fun on the stage.

“It’s changed a little now.”

“That’s good enough. The reason why you started doesn’t matter. But you’ll really have to stick through with it. This industry is like a spotlight. The place that people turn their eyes to get all of the attention, and the rest is shrouded in darkness. You’ll have to work really hard to not be buried. Mm. I think that was a pretty cool line just now. Don’t you think so?”

As soon as Dongjin finished talking,

“Wasn’t that what I told you before?”

Ganghwan walked back in with some delivery food in hand.

“What, you think your lines are copyrighted or something? It’s first come, first serve. Also, I told you we ate, but you bought food anyway?”

“I didn’t buy it for you, so don’t worry.”

“Oh, come on, big brother! Don’t be like that. You’re not mad, are you?”

“Who knows. Guys! Let’s eat!”

The other actors in the room all gathered in the middle. The smell of spicy tteokbokki started to drift in between them.

“Hey, Maru.”

One of the women, who had bunny-like teeth, called out to Maru. Her name was Park Hanna. As the one person who loved making sexual jokes, she was known as madam Park by the rest of the group.

“…Yes?”

He wouldn’t have hesitated this much if anyone else had called him. Hanna was incredibly open in terms of talking about sex, enough to make most men flee if she talked freely. Even Ganghwan raised his hands whenever she started talking. Maru, too, was very shocked when he first met her. The first thing out of her mouth when they met was ‘your nose is big. Is it big over there too?’

Maru honestly couldn’t believe the woman was 24, he believed that there was a 50 year old lady sitting in that body of hers.

“Let’s just talk about food when we’re eating, Hanna,” Ganghwan came in first.

Hanna immediately lost the smile on her face.

“What kind of a pervert do you take me for?!”

““You are one, though. Pervert Park, Madam Park, Park Madam!”” the actors responded.

On stage, too, Hanna always assumed the role of a perverted lady, to exploit her personality 100%. The one who worked as her significant other was Ahn Suchan, the person sitting next to her.

Whenever Maru took a look at the two, he thought of them as an odd couple. It felt like a meeting between a female lion and a male rabbit. Even now, Suchan looked a little lost and intimidated by what was going on. The stranger thing was the fact that they were about to get married soon.

“Maru.”

“Yes?”

“Do you have a girlfriend?”

He thought for a second. There was a woman he was planning on marrying, but they only knew each other’s names so far. He did confess, but he couldn’t even contact her because of how busy he was. He should’ve gotten her number back at the festival, but that didn’t end up happening.

“Not yet…”

“Perfect!”

“What’s perfect?”

“I want to introduce you to someone.”

“What?”

“There’s a very cute junior I know who doesn’t have a boyfriend yet. She’s the same age as you. How about it?”

“I’m fine.”

“Why don’t you give her a chance? What, you already have someone in mind or something?” “Yes, I do.”

Hanna let out a short exclamation of surprise.

“You’re a man, aren’t you, Maru? Well, that’s fine, then.”

Ganghwan joined in on the conversation right then.

“Let the kids be. Want to introduce me to someone instead?”

“I have no intention of introducing my friends to a weirdo like you!”

“What? What the hell? What did I do!”

“I mean, just going missing for three months to act like a homeless person is weird enough.”

“………”

“You’re definitely going to make your wife suffer if you marry, so don’t you even dare think about getting it on with my friends.”

Ganghwan turned to the other two female actors, but their responses were more of the same. Then again, Hanna was right. Ganghwan’s significant other would likely suffer a lot.

“Ah, that’s a shame. It would’ve been nice watching you two be awkward.”

“So that was your goal?”

“Yah. The girl’s really innocent, so I get a kick out of teasing her. Well, she’s been fighting back recently though.”

Hanna picked up the phone and started calling someone. She was whispering, so Maru turned his attention back to the fried dumpling in front of him. Right then, a name Maru couldn’t ignore came out of Hanna’s mouth. Maru almost immediately jumped to snatch Hanna’s hand.

“W-what the?”

Hanna stuttered, caught by surprise from Maru’s action. Maru stared deeply at Hanna’s phone. Hanna blinked a few times in confusion and gave Maru her phone. Maru put the phone against his ear and became silent.

- Hello? Sis?

Maru clenched his hand into a fist and looked at Hanna.

“When do you think I should go?”

* * *

She waited in front of the shoe store, staring dazedly up into the sky. She got a call from Hanna last night asking to play with her today. She wasn’t doing anything particularly special during the weekend, so she accepted.

Big sis Hanna knew all of the prettiest clothes shops, so just following her was very fun. As she waited for Hanna to appear, a high-pitched voice hit her ear.

It was Hanna.

She recognized the voice right away. The woman had a very clear, distinctive voice to her. Right as she raised her hand to let Hanna know of where she was, she found someone tagging along next to Hanna.

The person wasn’t a woman. Who is it?

By the time the two were close enough for her to make out the faces, she let out a surprised shout.

“Eh? Why? What the?”

The boy smiling awkwardly next to Hanna… He was the boy who said weird things in front of her last time. What was he doing here? What the?

“It just happened.”

What just happened?! She demanded an explanation out of Hanna this instant, but her plea was unfortunately ignored.

“Hello, I’m Han Maru.”

“I know!”

“You’re not happy?”

“Why would I be? How did you come here?”

“I came here to meet someone.”

“Who?”

“…You.”

What was up with this kid? He was so upfront! Also, what was his relationship with Hanna? And how was he managing to appear pretty much wherever she went?

She had all these thoughts, but… She didn’t dislike it, for some reason. The boy was still polite with his actions. Ah, well, a little too polite though. That was kind of annoying.

“Hah. I don’t know what’s going on, but stop trying to be so polite. It’s making me cringe.”

“Oh, okay.”

“How do you know big sis Hanna?”

“I met her in a practice room. She’s teaching me a lot of things.”

“Really?”

She looked at Hanna with surprised eyes. The woman stopped turning up at their club room recently, saying she needed to practice more. Someone like that… was teaching this kid? She glared a bit at Hanna in jealousy.

“Adult problems. You understand, right?”

“Why couldn’t you use that as an excuse to come to our club room? You didn’t turn up once no matter how much the seniors asked.”

“I was busy.”

“But you had time to teach him?”

“Teach? No way! I was just giving him some tips and tricks every once in a while. I swear!”

She pouted angrily, even after hearing that. Hanna was ignoring her school, but was teaching some high school boy that was a potential rival?

“You’re too much.”

“Fine, I’ll go sometime this week.”

“Really?”

“Really. By the way… Did you go up a cup?”

“What cup?”

Hanna smiled like a pervy old man and stared directly at her breasts.

“What, jealous?”

“…Hah, you were so cute just a half year ago, so easy to being embarrassed and all. You’re boring now.”

“Everyone’s just gotten used to your jokes now. Plus, isn’t that a bit inappropriate from someone who’s getting married soon?”

“Yes yes, I understand. Ugh, I can’t tell who’s the senior and who’s the junior at this point. You know, back in my time…”

“Hmph! You don’t deserve to be called a senior if you’re out there teaching our rivals.”

Hanna poked her tongue out at her.

“Fine! I’ll teach Woosung high instead of Myunghwa high! Beeeh.”

“You’re childish.”

“You didn’t know?”

“Hah…”

“Stop complaining, and start talking about him instead,” Hanna said, pointing at Maru.

“There’s nothing to say.”

“Why?”

“I know nothing.”

“Eh? Really?”

“Really.”

I know nothing except his name. She glanced at Maru, who was standing about three meters away from her. The boy grinned as soon as their eyes met. He smiles a lot. He was a bit odd, but he didn’t seem like a bad person.

Chapter 91

“So… what’s all this about?”

She wanted Hanna to explain what was going on. It was nice that they came to a nearby fruit juice shop. The kiwi juice she got was pretty good, so that was fine, too. But… The question she wanted to ask the most was still unanswered.

“Well… how do I explain it.”

“Explain it?”

“A date?”

“What?”

“Between you and him! Haha. Hahaha. Heh… Don’t look at me like that. I’m your senior, you know.”

She glared at Hanna for a few more seconds before turning to look at Maru, the boy was drinking his mango juice with the most serene expression in the world. He grinned when their eyes met, which only managed to annoy her further.

“Did you ask for this?”

“No, Hanna started it first.”

“Sis! You didn’t tell me anything about this?!”

Hanna twiddled her thumb nervously.

“Well… If I told you, you wouldn’t have come.”

“Of course.”

“So I kept it a secret. Surprise!”

She rolled up her fingers into a tight fist, which made Hanna look away again. To think she used to look up to this person in the past…

‘I’m the one at fault for having expectations from her after seeing that CD.’

In her school’s club room, there was a CD with some of Hanna’s performance. It was a recording of Hanna’s exceptional act of Faust making a deal with the devil incredibly well. She’s looked at the video countless times at this point, but her admiration of Hanna didn’t last long. It stopped the moment they first met, actually.

“I feel sorry for big brother Suchan.”

“Hey, come on.”

Hanna put a hand over her mouth and grinned. She could only feel sorry for Suchan, who would probably get whisked around by Hanna after marriage.

“In any case, you two should have fun.”

Hanna took out two tickets as she spoke. They were tickets to a pretty popular theater near Hyehwa station.

“Wow.”

She snatched the tickets immediately, she wanted to watch this particular play for quite some time. Did Hanna remember when she offhandedly mentioned it once? Hanna winked at her with a smile.

“You gave me a cake for my birthday, remember? It’s for that.”

“Ah.”

“And so!”

Hanna stood up from her seat.

“I’m leaving!”

The woman walked off to the exit after shouting bye. She tried to grab Hanna with her arms, but the woman evaded her with ease.

“Big sis!”

She was too late. Hanna was already gone from the cafe, and when she ran outside, Hanna was nowhere to be seen. The woman was too damn fast at running. She gave up and looked back into the cafe with a deep sigh.

“And he’s… well, him.”

Maru was drinking his juice as if all of this wasn’t related to him at all. When their eyes met, he smiled again. Does he usually smile this much? He looks better when he’s not smiling. When she walked back inside and sat down, Maru stared at her from his seat. His blatant stare kind of made her feel embarrassed.

“What are you going to do now?” she asked.

“You got the tickets.”

“Yeah.”

“We should watch it then, right?”

“…People say you’re shameless pretty often, don’t they?”

“Who knows.”

“Hah…”

Looking at the ticket, it was scheduled for today. As a matter of fact, they would have to make a run for it to watch it.

“We should probably be able to squeeze lunch in beforehand.”

Before she knew it, Maru was right next to her looking down at the ticket himself. She flinched in surprise and stared at his face for a few seconds.

“Let’s go, we’ll be late.”

Saying that, Maru reached out to grab her wrist.

W-what the!

The boy pulled her up gently. His hand was moving so naturally that she almost thought he’s done this multiple times in the past. She looked at Maru’s back in a daze.

‘Why… does this feel familiar?’

The boy’s slightly large back looked oddly familiar, as if she’s seen it many times in the past. She stretched out her hand, feeling a strange sense of sadness inside her, and gently put it on top of his shoulder. That was when she came back to her senses.

Goodness, what did she just do? She put her hand back down and stuck it right into her pocket. She was confused. What just happened?

“Did I have something on me?”

“Yeah, yeah? Yeah! Y-you had some dust on your shoulder.”

“You brushed it off? Thanks.”

“No… problem.”

She looked down, as her cheeks puffed up like a little frog. Why did she just do that? She shook her head before raising her head again with a shocked look.

“Hold on, why are you holding my hand like it’s the most natural thing to do?!”

She completely forgot in her shock that she was still holding hands with him. The boy’s hand was rough. She pulled her hand out of it and looked at Maru with a pout.

“I can’t?”

“Do you think it’s really normal to hold a stranger’s hand just like that?”

“This is our third time meeting, though.”

“…That’s true, but still.”

“Alright. I won’t do it. Just watch that play with me. I’m giving up one thing here, so you should too.”

“What?”

“Or we could just hold hands again.”

Maru stretched out his hand again. What the heck?

“Fine! Fine, we can watch it! Darn it, you’re ridiculous!”

“We should hurry, then. If we miss the train, we won’t have time to eat.”

“Oh? You’re right.”

She flipped her hand to look at her watch. Right then, Maru grabbed her hand again. What was strange was that for a brief moment, she didn’t think this to be unnatural. As a matter of fact, she probably would’ve walked forward right there with him if she didn’t become consciously aware of it.

“Ah, sorry. I said I wouldn’t grab your hand.”

This time, Maru let go first and apologized surprisingly politely. Despite doing several odd things, he was a gentleman when it came to these things. She looked down at her right wrist, she could still feel Maru’s warmth on it.

‘…What the.’

That was the only thing she could think of when she realized that she didn’t actually hate that warmth.

* * *

After coming out of the second exit of Hyehwa station, she flinched as she got hit by the sudden wind. Cold winds like these were the ones that reminded her that it was December.

“It’s co…”

A shadow rose up right in front of her as soon as she opened her mouth, it was Maru. Before she realized what was going on, he stretched his arms out towards her. She tried to step backwards, but realized there was something warm getting wrapped around her neck right then.

“It’s cold, wear this.”

“…Yeah.”

It was Maru’s scarf. A soft scarf that had a lot of fluff on it, the type that she liked. She sniffed her nose a little bit. The scarf smelled pretty good. Did it get washed recently?

“Want to try going there?”

Maru pointed to a pasta restaurant on the other side of the road.

“Over there?”

The outside of the restaurant was decorated with logs and a fancy-looking signboard. The customers inside all looked like they were either college students or older. That is, the restaurant looked really expensive.

“Let’s go. You like cream pasta and pizza with not many toppings, don’t you?”

Maru walked forward after speaking. She silently agreed with him inside, before realizing what the boy just said.

“Wait, how did you know that? That I like cream pasta?”

“…I heard it from Hanna.”

She easily caught that hint of surprise from the boy’s face. He was lying, she was sure of it.

“Really?”

Plus, she never told Hanna her favorite food. After all, Hanna was only ever interested in her own favorite food: army stew.

“…Just a feeling. Don’t girls like stuff like cream pasta?”

“Well, you’re not wrong, but… That doesn’t make this any less suspicious.”

“I just guessed.”

He regained his composure. Did he really guess? Or did he have someone telling him information about her? She could easily think of a few candidates on the spot, they probably worked with Hanna for this.

“Anyway, it’s cold. Let’s go inside first.”

Maru casually grabbed her hand again. She let out a short laugh, but didn’t pull away this time. At least it was obvious that he cared for her.

* * *

She finished her food almost as soon as it came out. Maru smiled internally. Be it in the future or right now, her appetite was unchanging. She always ate well, and she used all of that energy for when she was on stage.

‘That reminds me… ’

Memories were giving birth to more memories. One by one, Maru started remembering events that he shared with her, each one making him want to smile more and more. Most of his memories were gone, but the times he shared with her were still deeply rooted in his heart.

“You smile really often,” she said curiously.

Of course, I would. You’re right there with me.

Maru swallowed those words and brushed himself off to be the type that smiled a lot.

‘Well, it’s going well so far, at least.’

Her favorite perfume, favorite scarf, and favorite food. Maru made use of his memories as much as possible to prepare for this day. He was confident that today was going to be a success. After all, he did have quite a bit of experience with women before he married.

“Hm, hm hm, hm hm.”

She started humming in happiness. Ah, he hadn’t heard this sound in a very long time. Just watching her hum to herself made him happy. For a few seconds, he stopped doing everything else other than listening to her sing. That melody… It’s the one she sang when they first met. The one that she liked to sing whenever she was happy or sad.

[This is a happy and a sad song.]

He remembered now. When she told him that line, her face was colored with tears.

“Ah!”

She opened her eyes and immediately looked down in embarrassment.

“Why didn’t you tell me?”

“What?”

“People are watching.”

Indeed, some people were watching the two of them with a smile on their faces. A loud hum like this in the middle of a quiet store was more than enough to garner some attention.

“I didn’t want to interrupt good music.”

“No… Ugh, whatever.”

“Thanks for the music. It was very good.”

“…You’re not going to get anything out of that praise, you know.”

“Doesn’t matter, I already listened to your music.”

Maru stood up first and pulled her chair back a little.

“Do you come to places like this often?”

“Mm, no.”

It wasn’t a lie. It was his first time coming to a pasta place in this life. Of course, before that, he used to come here with her often. As a matter of fact, their dates always involved a pasta place in them.

Right then, Maru was assaulted with so many memories that he started getting dizzy. When he grabbed his head and stumbled a little, she grabbed his arm with a surprised expression.

“W-what the. Are you okay? Are you sick?”

“It’s nothing. I just tripped a bit.”

“What, you surprised me.”

She calmed down pretty fast, Maru’s head went blank again. It looked like he could only remember fragments of his memories, not full ones. He grabbed the bill and walked over to the counter. The waiter asked them if the meal was good.

“It was delicious. We’ll come again,” she answered for him.

Maru handed his card over. He finished paying and turned around after grabbing the receipt. She immediately snatched the receipt out of his hand.

“…80 thousand?”

“Why?”

“Just pasta, pizza, and a drink?“

“Well, it’s good as long as it’s tasty.”

“No, but…”

Then again, at this time, for people of their age 80 thousand won was a lot of money. She stopped at the entrance for a second before taking out a little wallet from her bag. She swallowed nervously before fishing 40 thousand won from it.

“Here, here!”

She was handing it over with nervousness on her face. That was probably a massive chunk of her allowance. Maru refused for now, but she kept pushing the money onto his face. In the end, he took it.

“I wouldn’t have come here if I knew it was going to be this expensive.”

She was shaking her head dejectedly. Maru watched her walk outside for a second, before walking back to the counter.

“Can I borrow some pen and paper, please?”

* * *

The line into the theater was pretty long. It was a popular theater, so all of the seats were filled. She recalled that lots of people gathered here since the theater didn’t even have online ticketing to begin with.

“What did you do in the restaurant just now?”

“I asked for some tissues.”

“Ah.”

She nodded.

“It’s dark inside, so please walk slowly. Thank you.”

They entered the theater, following one of the actors. For a small theater, the distance between each seat was surprisingly large. The seats were very comfy, too. The stage only had a few pieces of furniture on it, lit up by an orange light as the setting for a romantic comedy. A lot of her friends said it was really good, so she had a huge expectation for it.

“You must like plays.”

“Of course!”

“That’s good.”

Again with that smile of his. She avoided Maru’s eyes and focused on the stage. Just now… she felt something flutter up in her chest.

‘No no, I’m just excited for the play!’

Right! She should just focus on the play. She looked at the stage intensely.

Chapter 92

A romantic comedy. The play entails the on and off relationships of two couples.

‘These are all couples.’

Most of the people in the audience seemed to be couples. As a matter of fact, the people right in front of them were holding hands as well. To the right of them and to the left of them, too. She started nervously stroking the wrist Maru was holding before.

“It’s about to begin.”

“Y-yeah.”

The orange lighting faded away, enveloping the stage in darkness. She loved the silence that took over the theater in these moments. In it, she could start imagining the adventure that was about to unfold in front of her. A moment later, light returned to the stage. The actors that were just silhouettes seconds before now became fully visible.

There was a tall man, and a woman a bit smaller than him standing on stage. They looked at each other exchanging a heated gaze, and then suddenly kiss…

Wow, that was a lot bolder than she expected. After the two actors kissed, they separated. The male actor was wearing a military uniform, he was probably off to finish his service. Thinking that, she looked next to her. She could see Maru looking at the stage with serious eyes. His smiling expression was completely gone, and his finger was constantly moving as if he was writing something with them. What’s he doing? She felt like she would create unnecessary misunderstandings if she stared, so she looked forward again.

‘We’re gonna never see each other after this play anyway, it’s going to be a bye bye.’

After the first couple disappeared, a college couple came on stage. The two were talking happily, but then the woman from before appeared behind the man. Then, she sneakily grabbed the man’s other hand.

“Cheating?”

“What the.”

Several of the audience members started complaining. She decided to join in as well. She started making a “boo” sound with a slightly low voice. Low enough to not interfere with the play.

“To think she couldn’t even wait two years,” she muttered.

A response came from right next to her.

“Are you going to wait for your boyfriend if he goes to the military?”

She nodded vigorously. She didn’t even need to think about the question to answer it. Waiting two years for her significant other was the least she could do for the person she loved.

“That’s a relief.”

“…Why would that be a relief for you?”

“The play’s continuing, let’s focus.”

The boy was surprisingly adept at changing topics. If she said something to him now, she’d be the rude one. She made up her mind to ignore Maru completely from now on and focused on the play. It was turning into a complete mess.

A woman waiting for her boyfriend in the military, who was also cheating with her best friend’s boyfriend. A woman secretly talking with a man who went to the military, while her boyfriend was cheating on her. Lastly, the man who was sending both of these women love letters from the military. The plot was really giving meaning to the title of the play, “Web of Love”.

She would’ve been uncomfortable watching if only one side was cheating. But since everyone was cheating on everyone else, she could watch it while thinking “damn all of you!” in her mind. She started getting more and more absorbed into the play.

* * *

“I think the person who wrote this play experienced a lot of loss. At least, that’s how I feel.”

“Or the person’s never dated before.”

She frowned upon hearing Maru’s reply.

“How? The person wrote such a realistic play.”

“It’s not like Tolkien wrote the Lord of The Rings after actually experiencing his adventure, it is the same with other stories. A lot of times, imagination trumps reality in terms of storytelling.”

“Well, fair enough. But I still want to say that the author of this play experienced a lot of loss before writing this.”

“Why?”

“Because that’s more fun to think about.”

“More fun, huh.“

Maru nodded.

“Hah!”

She exhaled a puff of air as soon as she stepped out of the theater. A white puff of air floated up to the sky in front of her. It almost felt like the weather got colder than the time they first met.

“Want anything warm?”

“Mm?”

Maru pointed at the convenience store in front of them and she agreed immediately. It was getting pretty cold for her, and she was already thirsty. She wanted to drink some warm coffee milk.

“I’ll pay this time.”

“Sure, do what you want.”

The rest of the audience were flocking over to the convenience store as well with similar trains of thought. She started speeding up a little bit when she realized all the people coming up behind them. She reached the glass door of the store, pushed it open, and shouted quietly to herself.

“First place!”

“You still like doing th…”

“What?”

Maru said something that she didn’t quite catch.

“It’s nothing.”

“I thought you said something.”

“You heard wrong.”

Maru walked right inside through the open door. She looked at Maru suspiciously for a second before walking up to the place with the hot drinks.

“There’s only soy milk here.”

“What did you want?”

“Coffee milk.”

“Coffee milk goes bad easily, they wouldn’t keep it somewhere warm.”

“Is that so…”

That was disappointing. She grabbed the canned coffee with a disappointed face.

“What about you?”

“I’ll get this.”

Maru was holding milk. Cold milk? In winter? For now, she took it. The counter was already booming with customers. She waited with coffee in one hand and milk in the other, but she kept bumping into people in the crowd. The employee behind the counter asked some of the customers to wait outside, but of course no one listened, since it was cold outside.

She put her arms close to her chest and focused on maintaining her balance for now. As she tried to maintain her position, she suddenly got pushed forward into the people by a person walking up behind her.

“Ah, I’m sorry.”

She quickly apologized to a woman glaring at her.

“Be careful.”

“Yes.”

She smiled awkwardly as she spoke. But just as she finished her words, she got bumped by someone behind her again. The thought of the woman getting angry with her immediately crossed her mind, so she tried to turn away as quickly as she could. Alas, she was late. The woman’s back was quickly getting bigger in her vision. But just as she was about to bump into the woman, she got stopped.

“Careful now.”

“…Yeah.”

“I’m sorry. It’s a bit crowded. Can you give us some space?”

Maru asked the people next to them politely. They all stepped back a little, giving them a little bit of breathing room. The people pushing in from outside stopped as well.

“Sometimes, talking does the trick.”

“…Thanks.”

Beep, beep. The employee scanned their items. She opened her wallet to pay.

‘Ah, right!’

She gave away her 40,000 won to Maru a while ago. All she had left was her bus card and 500 won.

“1,050 won, please.”

The employee stretched his hand out. Just before she could apologize, a 5,000 won appeared from right behind her. It was from Maru.

“Here you go.”

“Thank you. Here’s your change.”

“Could you give me a straw?”

“Yes.”

Maru stepped back with the drink and the straw, she followed him a little awkwardly.

“…I’ll pay you back some other time.”

“It’s fine.”

Maru walked over to the microwave. He opened the pack of milk and warmed it up.

“What are you doing?”

“You said you wanted coffee milk, didn’t you?”

Maru took out the warm milk when the microwave stopped, he took a small sip from it before pouring the coffee in. It looked like he did this several times before, seeing how natural he was.

“Do you drink like this a lot?”

“No, I used to make it a lot. There was a person who really liked this.”

“Really? Who?”

Maru didn’t answer. Instead, he just smiled. Strangely, she couldn’t smile herself when she looked at his smile. Instead, she actually felt a little ache in her heart. Why was his smile so melancholic?

“Here.”

Maru took the can of coffee and gave her the milk. She looked inside before taking a small sip.

“Wow.”

“Good, right?”

“This is nice. Tasty.”

The flavor brought a smile to her face. She took the warm milk and stepped outside. The warmth of the drink made the cold weather a little more bearable.

“So, what now?” Maru asked as if it was obvious that they would do something after this.

“Go home, obviously.”

“It’s a Sunday, though?”

“Well, we saw that play, and I’m full. There’s nothing more to do, so might as well go home.”

She gave Maru a short glance as she spoke, the boy wasn’t even trying to hide his disappointment. She decided to try to ignore him as much as possible for now. She walked down to the subway station and arrived at the train platform. Maru followed her with such a dejected look on his face that she almost felt sorry for him.

“Hah. We can just watch a different play next time.”

She spoke without even realizing it. She immediately thought of the meaning behind her words and tried to fix it, but Maru was already smiling. But… his smile was kind of cheeky. Almost as if he intended this to happen.

“You, did you just…!”

“What?”

“On purpose!”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about. Anyway, that’s a promise, right? We’re coming here again?”

“Hey!”

She shouted in annoyance, but right then, Maru stepped right up to her. The height difference between them intimidated her a little bit.

“W-what the?”

“I’m going to take this back.”

Maru unwrapped the scarf from her neck as if it was the most natural thing to do, she froze up like a tree while Maru was taking it off. When he was this close, he seemed way more mature for some reason. He even looked old, for christ’s sake. It was probably because he wasn’t smiling right now.

- The next train is coming. Please step b…

The train arrived with a loud noise. She looked at Maru a little dumbly, as the boy put the scarf on his arm.

“Let’s go.”

Again, her arm got grabbed by his.

* * *

When she came back to her home, she jumped to her bed with a frustrated expression.

“He got me.”

That laugh at the end! He totally got her.

“But…”

It wasn’t bad. Actually, it was fun. It really was too bad that they didn’t get much time to talk about that play. Next time, they should just eat after the play…

“Gaaaah!”

She jumped off of her bed. She was already planning their next meetup? Really?! That wasn’t right.

“Wait. Is it really wrong?”

Now that she thought of it, he wasn’t a bad person. He didn’t do anything wrong either. They both acted, and he seemed to be pretty serious about it, too. He was well-mannered, kind, and kind of playful…

She shook her head. The boy was totally getting to her. Plus, thinking about all of his nice sides was making her feel like she lost. She pouted before changing. As she took off her coat and put it on the hanger, she felt something in her pocket. Something papery. When she took it out, she realized it was 40,000 won along with a piece of paper.

“………”

When did he put it in? Actually, now that she thought about it, Maru did walk pretty close up to her when he took that scarf off. He was smiling strangely back then, he probably put it during that moment.

The piece of paper had his number and his name on it. Also a line that read, “buy me something tasty next time”. She looked at the money for a while before sighing and putting it back to her wallet.

After washing up, she came back to her room and turned on her computer. She opened her blog and wrote a simple post on it. Her blog was mostly for writing about things she felt over the years. As she wrote the article about that guy, she noticed the name of a particular visitor in her logs.

“Come to think of it, this person…”

That id, Maru.

There was no way, right? No way, no way.

She opened up the blog just to make sure. The blog’s posts were coming up almost daily, as per usual. She clicked on the most recent one.

“No way!”

* * *

“Mm?”

Maru noticed a new comment on his blog when he hit refresh. It’s only been ten seconds since he uploaded the post. So soon? He clicked on his post to read the comment. It was written by BlackSwan, his one blogging neighbor. The comment read…

- You stalker!

“What the?”

Well, that was a confusing comment. Right then, he got a text message on his phone. It read…

[Stalker!]

Chapter 93

The man opened his eyes with a fluttering chest. He has a date today, a date with a girl one year his junior, they were going to watch a play today. He chose a play since he heard recently that movies were getting a bit bland. Indeed, the girl seemed pretty happy with his decision when he told her about it.

He put on his nicest clothes and met the girl at the second exit of Hyehwa station. Despite it being winter, she came in pretty, nice clothing. Just looking at her was making him feel excited.

“What kind of a play is it?”

“Mm, an erotic romance?”

“Erotic?”

She wrapped her arm around his with a smile on her face. The two of them liked to exchange lewd jokes casually, so he could choose a play like this with no problem. They had a light meal before heading to the ‘Sky Theater’. This particular play debuted around a week ago but was already very popular. Since it was apparently good for an adult couple, he didn’t hesitate in buying tickets and handing them to the woman at the entrance.

“E14 and 15. You can head to the second floor. It’s fine to bring drinks for the play, but please refrain from eating food.”

They headed to the second floor where they had a view of the hundred seats in the theater. The lights on stage were constantly changing as if they were doing light checks.

“Oh, they must be the actors,” the girl pointed.

Two couples were standing on stage, talking to the audience. He probably should’ve gotten the front seats… Looking at the sight made him feel a bit of regret.

“Thank you for coming to see our play. We did notice recently that a lot of people were talking about it.”

“You guys all came by word of mouth, yes?”

The audience answered ‘yes’ at the actors’ question. The girl next to him answered quietly as well.

“Before we begin, we need to tell you a few things. First of all, you are very welcome to take photos of our amazingly handsome actors. But please refrain from doing so during the actual play. We will have a photo session after the play, so you can take your pictures then.”

The female actor left after speaking, a male actor with a deep voice spoke next.

“Excuse me, you aren’t going to eat that piece of bread now, are you? Of course, you can eat it, but we will take it from you if we see it during the play, so please be careful! We’d be grateful if you could eat after the play.”

The male actor left as well. Now, there was only a single couple left on the stage. The female one left after imploring everyone to, “Enjoy the play!”. The male actor was the only one left now.

“Before we begin, I wanted to introduce a young friend to all of you. We have exactly ten minutes before our actual play starts. Until that time, I would appreciate it if you could watch this friend’s solo play. He just started acting, so he might be a bit awkward, but please don’t think too badly of him.”

The last actor on stage left as well. The stage became dark. At the same time, a boy came out from the left side of the stage. He seemed to be in… high school, at best? The boy bowed to the audience on the first floor first, and then waved to the second floor next. The girl the man came with waved back happily.

“I wonder what he’s going to do?”

“Who knows.”

A spotlight turned on, lighting up the boy. He casually walked to the other end of the stage and dragged out a chair. He put it in the middle, and sat down. After a small breath, he closed his eyes and opened it again.

He stretched his hand out and pretended to hold something. Something circular. Perhaps the wheel of a car?

“He must be driving.”

“Yeah, seems like it.”

As the two of them expected, the boy started driving with a hum. He stepped on the invisible clutch and raised the gear of his vehicle.

“Hello. Yes, hello. A student? Yes, yes, grandmother. Oh, you should take the change. Yes, yes.”

The boy seemed to be a bus driver. As a matter of fact, the boy seemed like he had a lot of experience.

‘Though that’s impossible, of course,’ the man thought.

Experience driving a bus? From a boy too young to even get a license? In any case, the boy continued to hum as he drove.

“Where are you going, ma’am?”

The boy asked one of the women sitting right in front of him. The man peeked down to the first floor. The woman the boy was talking to seemed to have come with her daughter.

“Me?” the woman asked.

“Yes, customer. Who else is on this bus other than you right now? Where are you going?”

“Mm, oh my, stuff like this embarrasses me…”

When the woman hesitated, the daughter responded for her.

“We’re going to Busan.”

“Busan? This bus goes to Seoul, though.”

“Can’t you make an exception?”

The daughter was getting along well. The boy laughed and pretended to turn the bus around completely. His body leaned sideways due to the laws of inertia.

“The bus is turning. You guys know it’s dangerous to sit straight like that, right?”

Most of the audience in the first floor laughed at the boy’s words and leaned as well.

“We should join!” the girl said.

“Eh? Yeah.”

The man’s date clearly enjoyed participating, he leaned slightly to the left with her. The boy looked up to where they were before saying ‘How did you know this was a two-story bus?’ Half of the audience smiled at his comment.

“Busan, huh. It’s a nice place. It’s warm, and the sound of the ocean is very nice. Lots of men, lots of women, too. You must be going with your boyfriend?”

Despite the boy’s youthful face, he spoke like an old man. That smile of his, especially, made him seem more like an old man than a high schooler. The daughter awkwardly started glancing at her mother, unable to answer.

“Boo, there’s nothing wrong with dating someone. Isn’t that right, miss?”

“I’m not going to let my daughter date anyone short of Brad Pitt.”

“Wow! Brad Pitt? Then again, your daughter IS very pretty. Ah, we’ve arrived at Busan, I see. Please get off, the two of you.”

The boy stood up from his chair, and gestured for the two of them to get off.

“Please, I need to get the next customers in the bus.”

The daughter ran up to the stage, and ran back down again with embarrassment on her face. The boy clapped, making the rest of the audience follow suit.

“He’s good, not awkward at all,” the girl commented.

“Yeah.”

The boy sat back down on his chair and pretended to drive again.

“I’ll talk about myself, now.”

Background music started playing. A calm, slow one.

“You see, I got married. I had a beautiful wife, and I had a daughter who was more precious to me than anything else. Precious enough that it wouldn’t hurt even if I put her in my eye. I used to think ‘Why wouldn’t putting a human in your eye be painful’, but I understood when she was born. It really wouldn’t hurt even if I had to dig out a hole to fit my baby in.”

The boy smiled sadly, that smile made the man shudder a little. Not because it was scary, but because of how realistic it seemed. The girl holding his arm tightened her grip as well.

“One day, at dawn, I heard someone moaning in pain. I thought it might be my wife, but she was fast asleep. I realized who was moaning right then. I jumped up and opened the door to the small room, where our daughter was. She was curled up in the bed, shivering. I could quite literally feel my heart drop to the floor.”

The boy was looking forward, but he didn’t seem to be looking at the audience, his eyes wandered past the seats. The man got chills looking at this. The boy wasn’t cute at all, much unlike what the actor in the beginning said. He looked at the girl next to him. She was looking at the boy with a stiff expression, she was immersed with the act.

“I brought my kid to a hospital, I was never more thankful of the fact that there was a hospital next to my house. The place looked very foreign to me at dawn. The light hurt my eyes, and the oddly quiet building made me incredibly nervous.”

The boy sighed before continuing.

“Thankfully, my daughter had no problems. She actually recovered right away when she laid down on the hospital bed. That’s when I realized. Ahh, when this girl goes off to marry… I’m definitely going to be crying.”

The boy stepped on the breaks after turning a few times.

“This is the final stop. Thank you for listening to this old man’s boring story. There’s just one thing that I wanted to say today. The closer someone is to you, the more you should treat them with care. So that you don’t have any regrets when they suddenly leave your side.”

The boy smiled sadly again before standing up and bowing.

A short silence.

Then, applause.

“Wow, he was good.”

“I think so too.”

In that short ten minutes, the boy became a bus driver who was sharing his life story. Were all actors his age like this? It was quite amazing. The boy bowed again towards the first and the second floor.

“They say sweet things taste sweeter after tasting something bitter. The story that’s about to unfold in front of you is sweet, sour, and sometimes very refined and deep, like a fine wine. I wouldn’t be able to watch it, unfortunately. I’m not of age, after all. There isn't anyone else that’s my age in the audience, are there? Remember, this play is meant for those who are 17 and above.”

The boy smiled lightly as the mood of the audience changed immediately. The dark stage became lit up with a bright pink and yellow light.

“Now! The main play, ‘That Autumn, Winter, and Summer’, will begin!”

The boy exited the stage promptly.

* * *

“An employee of a company last time, and now a bus driver?”

Ganghwan greeted Maru as the boy came backstage. He was dressed in a checkered shirt and jeans in accordance with his role of playing a college student that just returned from the military.

“Did I not fit the role?”

“No. The problem is that you fit the role too well. Most people do well acting characters that are around their age, but you strangely do better with the older roles.”

Maru flinched inside, but smiled externally.

“It’s good that you’re widening your spectrum, but focus on roles that fit your age for now. Why? That’s because you can act the role of a middle-aged man when you’re actually middle-aged. But having a middle-aged man act the role of a teenager is guaranteed to be strange to the audience. There are times for everything, so try to focus on the present if you can. Ah, I’m not trying to downplay your current work, of course. You did a great job out there.”

Ganghwan headed off to the stage with a thumbs up. On stage, Ganghwan was a completely different person, a college student who was still immature and had no sense at all. Maru watched the man act on stage from the side.

“Acting that fits my age.”

So he couldn’t fool a professional after all, Maru decided to act out the role of a teenager next. Ganghwan was right. He needed to act out roles that best reflect upon his current age. Maru scanned the other actors, then turned back to the stage. He was used to standing there at this point. Every day when school ended, he would come here to stand on stage. After all of it was over, he would usually come back at around 11 at night. Thankfully, his parents didn’t seem so worried anymore. They seemed to have gotten used to his current schedule.

‘How was I today?’

To be calm on the stage. In order to finish this homework that Ganghwan gave him, Maru tried to repress himself as much as possible on stage. He stopped his heart from getting excited and tried to think as much as possible. He tried to calculate every one of his movements on the stage.

“Phew, I should go now.”

Hanna put on her lipstick as she winked at Maru. She was wearing pretty tight clothes, fitting for an erotic personality such as herself.

“Good luck.”

“Of course.”

Maru sat down on a chair and opened his notebook. It was time for him to go back to studying again.

Chapter 94

“How’s the People of Dalseok-dong?”

It was an odd question, coming from a person who was laughing at a TV show while eating dinner. But Maru still answered the question without missing a beat.

“We’ve been doing run throughs and are focusing on stage details right now.”

“How much does Miso engage herself in the play?”

“Not much anymore. She does seem to call people privately, though.”

“Well, spending 4 months on a single play is a very long time, after all. By then, even beginners will have figured out what they’re supposed to be doing.”

Ganghwan finished his soup with a loud noise.

“So, the finals are starting in January, right?”

“Yes. I think that’s what’s making things so slow for us.”

“Yeah. Miso definitely tried to rush things a bit for the December stuff. That extra month is just too big of a gap. Don’t let go of your nervousness, though. The moment you do, you’ll mess up the entire play.”

Ganghwan tapped his head a few times with his finger.

“By the way, why are we at Myungdong…?” Maru asked, putting down his spoon.

It was a Sunday morning. If it were any other time, he would be busy doing puppet plays with Soojin, but today he decided to come here with Ganghwan.

“Why do you think?”

“I have no idea.”

Ganghwan stood up with a grin. He paid for the meal and walked out with a toothpick in his mouth.

“Where are you going?”

“Follow me.”

Ganghwan didn’t tell Maru their destination often, neither was he fond of telling Maru what they were going to do. When they first went to the practice room in Anyang, he just told Maru to get in the car. As Maru followed Ganghwan on the road, he slowly realized where they were headed today. There was an old building in front of them, in the middle of the forest of buildings. A building filled with memories of the past.

Myungdong National Theater.

“National Theater?”

“No, it’s an art theater now. They finished restoring it last month. They’re performing the first play in this building today.”

For whatever reason, Ganghwan started fixing up with clothes after throwing away his toothpick.

“You know, looking at that place makes me feel all respectful for no reason. It almost feels like I’m going to go meet my father-in-law.”

“Have you ever met your father-in-law?”

“Of course not. I don’t even have a girlfriend. It’s just a figure of speech.”

Right now, it was December of 2003. The building was bought by the Korean Tourism Board in 1998 from a finance company. According to Ganghwan, many actors and theater companies attempted to buy this building before the government made their move.

“It’s been five years since the construction started, looks like they did a great job.”

“The outside didn’t change much though, right?”

“The base of the building is the same, after all. Most of their work was spent reinforcing the walls and stuff.”

The first floor was filled with people looking around the theater, there were also a lot of people looking at the pamphlets with an excited look.

“Let’s go down.”

“Down?”

The two of them took the elevator down from the lobby. The first thing they saw as they stepped off of the elevator was a storehouse filled with costumes, they could hear a piano playing from somewhere as well.

“I’m here.”

Ganghwan was entering the practice room of the Myungdong Art Theater. It was a bit small for a practice room, actually. It did have a mirror and everything, but the table on one side of the room made it a bit difficult to actually practice. Maru noticed a familiar face sitting at the table.

“Oh, you came empty-handed?”

It was Junmin. Next to him were two men in coats with a lot of pockets.

“Empty-handed? No way, I have a gift right here.”

Ganghwan pushed Maru forward after he spoke. Maru began with a greeting for now.

“Hello.”

“It’s been a while.”

“Yes, it has.”

Junmin held up his hand briefly, the two of them waited a few steps away from the table.

“Check the lights in row C again during the technical rehearsal.”

“Sure.”

“Take a look at the tape in the storage room as well. Apparently the labels became hard to read.”

“We’ll replace them.”

Junmin seemed to be talking to the stage technicians. In particular, he was talking to another elderly man around his age, with a younger person nearby frantically writing down notes. They were probably a student and teacher. The younger man looked very young, actually. Young enough to be a freshman at a college. He was either working in the industry at a very young age or just looked really young.

“There’s a generational change happening in this business as well,” Ganghwan whispered.

Plays. Plays sounded a lot more intimidating than normal movies. If movies are something you could just watch on any particular day, plays were there for special occasions. Maru assumed the rest of the general populace had similar thoughts. The numbers were more than enough proof as a matter of fact. Plays were not only more expensive than movies, they were harder to justify watching as well.

“That’s why the reopening of the Myungdong Art Theater is so meaningful. It’s the reopening of a building whose sole purpose is for plays. If this ends up going well, Myungdong will turn into a Mecca of art once again.”

Ganghwan smiled mysteriously. Despite being someone who often made very lighthearted jokes and some very dumb things, he wasn’t someone who could be taken so lightly. A dreamer. That’s what the man seemed like, at least to Maru.

‘A dreamer who turns their dreams into reality.’

In the future, this person would bring a top star known as Geunsoo back into the world of plays. Maru could somewhat remember the tickets at the time getting sold for up to 400 dollars at the time. His wife pretty much sang about wanting to watch this play as well. He could remember the news at the time, too. About how all of the younger generations were starting to flock to theaters because of these two.

“This will go well.”

“Hah, that makes me pretty confident, actually.”

Ganghwan bumped Maru’s arm with a grin.

“I’ll leave it to you, then.”

“I’ll wait for you at the final checks.”

The two people at the table finished talking at this point. Ganghwan greeted the old man in the coat first. Maru followed suit.

“Ah, actor Yang, it’s been a while.”

“I’ve been busy.”

“I heard. You were missing for three months? You should really stop that kind of stuff. Stop making the people around you worry like that.”

“Yes. By the way, you’re planning on permanently moving here now?”

“Yes. The new equipment was way too tempting. It’s great over here, though. Come to the stage some time. The lighting and sound equipment is absolutely top-tier.”

“I can just take a look at it when I come to act.”

“Can you even do that? There are so many reservations here right now that even a team from Broadway would have to wait a full year.”

“It’s that bad?”

“Just means everyone was waiting for a very long time.”

The two of them shared a deep look before exchanging a short handshake. In the meantime, Maru exchanged greetings with the younger man from before.

“Ah, who’s this one, by the way?” the older man asked.

“A young sprout.”

“A sprout? Were you old enough to be growing one of those?”

“I’m old now, too.”

“If you’re old, then I’m already sitting in my grave. Ah, you should properly exchange greetings, then. You might meet each other in the future.”

The old man grabbed the young man and pulled him in, the young man looked at Maru in a slight daze. Maru waited for the man to extend his hand, but after receiving no response, he decided to extend his first. It was a little rude of him, but what could he do?

“Hello, I’m Han Maru.”

Only then did the young man grab Maru’s hand with a little “ah”.

“Hello, I’m Yoon Mintae.”

“Hey hey, Mintae. Why are you using both of your hands? You’re obviously older.”

The older man pulled Mintae back, making the man smile awkwardly.

“Anyway, I’ll see you later, actor Yang.”

“Yes, see you later.”

The two men disappeared with a curt farewell. Maru looked at the hand Mintae grabbed just now. It felt a little strange, almost as if they really were going to meet again, as the old man said.

“Hey, you two. Stop standing around in a daze and come over here.”

Junmin tapped at the table with his pen.

* * *

Bada changed her clothes before opening her brother’s room.

“He’s not here again.”

She stopped seeing her brother as of recently. He started coming back home past 11, and he went out in the morning on weekends. They lived together in one house and yet she hadn’t seen his face in close to three months. It was an odd feeling, to say the least.

Bada stepped inside and took out a book called ‘The Habits of Life’ from the bookshelf. She opened the middle, and found several 10,000 won bills inside it.

“Thanks, brother.”

- If you need money, just come here instead of going to mom. Just write down what you used the money for.

Bada smiled, recalling her brother’s angelic words at the time. Just a year ago, her brother was an evil incarnate. He would scream for snacks, and they would fight almost daily over the computer… They were rivals of the century at the time. But nowadays, her brother turned a completely new leaf. She used to be a little weirded out by this change, but she was used to it now. She even started bragging about her brother to her friends.

Bada took her money and wrote down “going around Myungdong with friends” on the post-it note inside. She returned the book to the bookshelf. Right then, her phone rang.

“Yeah, Hyeji?”

- We’re at the station. Come out!

“Yeah! I’m coming.”

She decided to go after hearing about lots of pretty clothing stores in Myungdong. This was her first time visiting the place, so she was a little bit excited. Before going outside, she opened her little wallet. She could see the money she collected for clothes, as well as the money she took from the bookshelf inside it.

‘Mm.’

Maybe she should buy something for her brother, too. She’d have less money for clothes, but she wanted to give back to her brother at least a little bit.

“Myungdong, huh.”

Bada ran towards the station with a grin on her face.

* * *

“Really?”

Changhu nodded at his disbelieving friend.

“Yeah. I asked big sis Gongsoon to come and she actually came.”

“Wow, Changhu! You’re talented!”

“You know I’m good at talking, it’s all good as long as I say whatever she wants to hear.”

“You think you can get her? Hm?”

“She’s not that easy, unfortunately. She’s fun to play with, though. She has a lot of money, too.”

“Dang, people with money are the best.”

Changhu stopped his friend from talking right then inside the PC bang, he put out his cigarette before taking the call.

“Ah, sis. Yeah. Of course, I’m free. Come over? Really? You’re free today? Of course, I’m coming. You have friends? Can I bring mine? Yes, yes. You’re paying? Wow! You’re the best, big sis. I’m coming right now. Where should I go?”

Changhu turned off his phone after a long call.

“Yo, let’s go to Myungdong.”

“Why?”

“She’s asking me to come. We might get lucky if we do well today.”

“Us, too?”

“Of course, you’re my bud!”

“Ya!”

The three of them walked out of the PC bang quickly.

Chapter 95

“I was very surprised when I heard about you from him.”

Junmin turned to look at Maru after glancing at Ganghwan. It was a surprise, to be sure. He did expect something out of Maru, the boy had talent. But just a few weeks ago, he was a bit lacking compared to acting students his age.

‘But his schedule honestly makes me want to tell him to take a break now.’

It wasn’t like Maru wasn’t studying, either. After all of his classes, he would go all the way to Anyang to study acting. Even on the weekends, he stuck around with Ganghwan to learn more. One could say Maru was just studying according to the money that was given to him, but Junmin could tell that Maru wasn’t doing all of this just for the money. That energy coming from Maru right now… that was passion. Something that money can’t buy.

“So you found your motivation, I see.”

“I learned the joy of being on stage.”

“Joy, huh. Good times.”

Right now, joy should be enough.

‘But what really makes people grow are trials.’

If Maru thought the stage was fun, it meant that Maru only saw the surface of what the stage truly was. As soon as the boy realizes what it really means to act professionally, and what it feels like when the character he’s acting no longer speaks to him… Acting won’t be a joy, it’ll be nothing but a burden.

But then again, only the prodigies ever got that far. Junmin believed that the difficulty of this trial scaled directly with the actor’s talent.

“So you were directing over here?” Maru asked, looking over the practice room one more time.

“It’s the first play of the theater, ever. The older actors recommended the actors themselves, and we held an audition to screen them. After all, the older generation knows that it’d be better to let the young start taking over.”

“You’re saying the same thing as Coach, I see.”

Ganghwan smiled upon hearing that, Junmin nodded. Creatures whose blood doesn’t flow would die. For the creature that was acting to live on, it needed blood to continue flowing. Those above Junmin put a lot of work into restoring this theater. To blow life into it was the younger generation’s task.

“You’re doing a little monodrama before plays?”

“Yes.”

“A script?”

“None. It’s kind of like conversing with the audience, rather than an actual play.”

As soon as Maru finished, Ganghwan jumped in.

“This kid is quite something, especially at acting the role of old men. It’s actually weird that he’s a high schooler.”

“I can understand that sentiment.”

Junmin didn’t know what kind of an environment Maru grew up in, but it couldn’t have been normal. To begin with, what kind of a high schooler would ask for 300 million won upfront? The boy clearly liked to bet when he knew he would win, almost like an experienced businessman on the negotiation table.

“By the way, why did you call me here today?”

“We decided to start a few programs with the opening.”

“Programs?”

“We’re trying to make plays a little more accessible. First, we’re starting off with tours of the backstage. Then, doing performances by amateur casts.”

There were a lot of ideas thrown around to spread the name of the Myungdong Art Theater, the most popular out of these turned out to be the backstage tour and the amateur performances.

“We’re going to select a few people to tour around, show them what the waiting room looks like, what the practice room and the actual backstage looks like, et cetera. Apparently these internet blogs are popular nowadays, right?”

“I know people do them, but I don’t know if they’re popular. Don’t most people use Cyworld or something?”

“We’re both bad with this tech stuff, so I guess it’s inevitable we wouldn’t know. What do you think?”

Maru scratched his eyebrows for a second before responding.

“Well, I am running a blog…”

“Is that so? That’s good. Try posting a blog post as an experiment. Take some pictures, too. It’ll be a good reference.”

“Is it okay for me to do it?”

“It’s an experiment, so it’s fine. If the tour is successful, we’re planning on making it permanent.”

“I understand.”

Junmin wrote down what he just said in his notebook.

“Also, the reason why I called you two… No, you, is because of the amateur plays.”

“You aren’t planning on making him participate, are you?” Ganghwan butted in.

Junmin nodded without hesitation.

“He won’t have much time.”

“This is for people of all ages in all sorts of professions. The catchphrase being ‘plays for the masses’, after all.”

“Even office workers? Scheduling this is going to be a mess, in that case.”

“We’re not trying to make them perform a perfect play. We just want to show people that anyone can take up acting. We’ll start recruiting next February, and start training in March. Hopefully have them perform in May.”

“So the reason why you called Maru is…”

Ganghwan put a hand over Maru’s shoulder, Junmin shook his head.

“I can’t just put Maru in there, since we’ll have a public audition. But this is also a trial in the end, so all we need right now is to see what the general public thinks about this. For now, we decided to recruit those who are freer than others. That is, acting students around Seoul. We’ll create two crews, one for high school and one for college.”

“Gaah! No way! This kid is going to get to perform in Myungdong Theater faster than me? No! I’m dead against it! No way! I can’t be doing worse than my junior when I’m still coaching him!”

There was playfulness in Ganghwan’s voice.

“Stop making dumb jokes. Anyway, you should know why I called you here, right?”

“You’re not telling me to coach the high schoolers, are you?”

“Bingo.”

“I have a job.”

“But you’re very free.”

“If I focus on one play…”

“I heard news about sightings of you in Hongdae.”

“…I’ll work harder.”

“It’s going to be difficult during the weekdays anyway, so you’ll just have to handle the weekends.”

“But… If we only have one month to prepare, wouldn’t the resulting play be a mess?”

“Again, we aren’t too worried about how good of a play this will be. We’re just trying to get the general public to participate. Plus, this is just a trial session. The audience will be aware of that as well. Lastly, this will be paired with the backstage tour, so we shouldn’t get many complaints about the play. The producers for this event aren’t stupid, so don’t worry too much.”

Ganghwan wasn’t able to dispute Junmin at this point, so he just sighed. Ganghwan was someone who focused incredibly well when he found a play that he liked. But at the same time, he was easily distracted if he wasn’t interested. What made it worse was that the man only found interest in controversial plays.

‘Hopefully he’ll change. After all, he knows better than anyone that tragedy isn’t everything in life.’

Ganghwan probably liked to act in these brutally real plays because he felt a need to portray reality. He might give softer, more relaxed plays a chance after satisfying himself to a point. The man was simply filled with talent, so he would easily be able to draw in a crowd at that point.

“So the fact I have to stick around with this kid doesn’t change?”

“Not at all.”

“I’ll do it, then.”

Ganghwan took up the offer immediately. Junmin turned to look at Maru.

“How much time would this take, for me?” Maru asked.

“We don’t have anything set in stone, but at least half the day for both Saturday and Sunday.”

“Wouldn’t this be a problem with the winter competition coming up?”

“Let me ask you instead. Are the lessons you’re taking difficult, at all? Enough for you to stay for the entire time?”

Maru thought for a second before shaking his head.

“Not really.” “There’s your answer, then. The winter competition is important for sure, but the opportunity to perform at the Myungdong Art Theater gives it a run for its money. Try to pace yourself, and see if you can succeed in both.”

“I understand.”

Maru gave in very fast as well. Ganghwan, who was too immature for his age, and Maru, who was too mature for his age… Indeed, it was a good idea to pair the two together.

‘The two of them should be good influences for each other.’

Hopefully, they both take from each other’s good sides.

“Ah! Right, senior!”

“Mm?”

“Did this kid really ask for 2 billion upfront?”

“He did.”

“And you promised him 300 million won?”

“I didn’t just promise him. I already gave the money.”

Ganghwan immediately turned to glare at Maru.

“You.”

“What?”

“Pay me back for lunch.”

As always, the man liked his immature jokes way too much. And…

“Here you go.”

The boy just seemed to go with it.

“Hahaha. What a great duo.”

Junmin smiled proudly.

* * *

“So this must be the path to the Myungdong Cathedral.”

“Wow.”

Bada took a look at the panel erected next to the uphill pathway. It had writings about the cathedral written on it, along with pictures from artists. The group slowly made their way uphill.

“Let’s take pictures.”

Even as they went back down, they took pictures. Bada took one herself, with the cathedral in the background. Unfortunately, the building didn’t fit that well on her camera screen.

“Where should we go next?”

The girls were excited at getting to play in Myungdong. Bada was no exception.

“I heard if you follow this path here, you’ll reach the Myungdong Art Theater. How about it? I heard it just opened, so we can go inside.”

“Theater? That sounds kind of boring.”

“Yeah, it’s boring. What about clothes shops instead?”

Bada stepped forward and started dragging her friends.

“Let’s go.”

Theater… She heard her brother talk about it a few times. He told her that theaters were fun places to visit. That they had a very different vibe compared to movie theaters.

“Well, if Bada wants to go, we should.”

“Let’s go.”

Bada’s three friends quickly changed their minds, and the group made their way down from the cathedral.

* * *

Soojin was nervous. She took a sip of coffee to try to calm herself, but it didn’t help.

Ah, maybe the caffeine would only make it worse?

She turned to look outside. She could see the Myungdong Art Theater, reborn with an outdoor stage. As she stared at the building, her phone vibrated with a new notification.

[Why don’t you try talking now?]

A message, from her father. Today, Soojin made up her mind and decided to meet him. It’s been ten years since she last went back home. She became independent upon graduating high school.

In reality, she was escaping. Out of apologetic feelings.

After fiddling around with her phone for a bit, she opened her phone. There was a call.

- We’re almost here. We’ll see you at that restaurant we used to go to.

It was her father. And…

- It’s been ten years since you saw Dowook as well, hasn’t it?

“…Yes.”

-… Right, I’ll see you soon.

Soojin hung up and sighed. She was about to meet her brother after a full decade.

* * *

“Where are we meeting?”

“Myungdong cathedral, apparently?”

“Cathedral?”

“Dunno. She just told us to go there.”

Changhu took his two friends and walked to the Myungdong cathedral. Just thinking about playing around with that dumb lady had him excited.

“Is she pretty?”

“Kind of.”

“Good at drinking?”

“Dunno. I haven’t seen her get drunk yet.”

“I hope she goes out after just a shot.”

“The fuck? Girls like that don’t exist. She probably drinks more than you, bro.”

“Ugh, I guess fucking’s just a pipe dream at this point, then.”

“Just drink, you stupid fuck. Is fucking the only thing you can think about?”

The three of them arrived at the cathedral in high spirits.

Chapter 96

“This is the makeup room and it’s exclusive for the main characters of the play.”

Ganghwan looked at the door of the room with both a jealous and nostalgic look on his face. Under the tag of the room, there was a name written “Kim Jiyoon”.

“Someone you know?”

“Not at all. I was just wondering if I could ever enter one of these myself.”

Right then, the door of the room opened and an actress walked out. Ganghwan and Maru flinched a bit before stepping back.

“Do you have business here?” the actress asked.

“We were just looking around. Were we being a bother?”

Ganghwan answered politely, the woman relaxed a bit after hearing Ganghwan’s response.

“No, you weren’t. Have we met before, by the way?”

“I’m just a no-name in the business.”

“Is that so?”

The woman narrowed her eyes for a few seconds before exclaiming in surprise.

“Wait, could you be Mr. Yang Ganghwan?”

“You know me?”

“You are! I enjoyed your most recent play. Ah, perhaps that’s not the right word for it.”

The actress smiled before telling the two of them to wait a bit. She walked back into the makeup room and came back with a pen and paper.

“Could you give me your signature?”

“My signature?”

“Yes.”

Maru saw Ganghwan’s mouth curl up into a grin right there. Then again, there weren’t many men that would be displeased from being asked for a signature from a pretty woman.

‘A female lead at the reopening event… She’s probably a rising star or something.’

The actress went back to her room with a smile after getting the signature.

“You should’ve asked for a number.”

“…Maybe, yeah.”

“Didn’t you say you didn’t even have a girlfriend? You have to pay attention to the small meetings like this if you really want to succeed.”

“Hah. I hate how I can’t even talk back to a high schooler right now.”

“By the way, was that lady someone popular?”

“In Hyehwa, yeah. She left a government funded theater company for a private one.”

“Left a government funded company? Wow.”

What an amazing woman. Did she receive an offer better than a stable pay from the government? Or did she choose to challenge herself?

“Huh, I guess I would be pretty amazing, too, then?”

“What?”

“I was in a government funded one, too. Obviously, I got out. How is it? You feel that respect rising up inside of you yet?”

“…They don’t just pick anyone over there, do they?”

“Hey, stop looking at me like that.”

Maru smiled slightly. This was the first time he heard of this fact. So this person was sort of amazing, after all.

‘I guess that’s only to be expected from someone so popular in the future.’

Maru followed Ganghwan to look around some more at the Myungdong Art Theater. There were a lot of restricted areas, but they were allowed access with their staff name tags. They could even look at the top of the stage where all the lights were, with the help of the lighting crew. Apparently even the team didn’t like to frequent here because of how dangerous it was.

“This is pretty amazing.”

The ceiling of the stage was dotted with black rods, it almost looked like they made a spiderweb out of steel. The lights hanging off from this network of steel was what lit the stage below.

“The bigger the stage, the more effort an actor has to put in for a successful play. But the stage managers suffer just as much in that regard, you can’t just make a stage bigger just like that. You have to focus on how the lights hit the stage and making sure that everything is in complete coordination.”

Maru nodded. Even now, he could see many of the staff running around trying to fix the smaller things. Ganghwan noted that the staff didn’t just have to take care of the ceiling and the stage, but also the area under the stage, too.

“Whenever I look at this, I feel responsible. I feel like I shouldn’t make mistakes. Sure, not making mistakes is important for the audience, but I can’t ruin things for the many people that are trying to make this play a success. That’s why actors often like to come to the stage mid-production. Cheer on the staff, while trying to keep themselves nervous. To actually engrave in themselves the fact that it’s not just them that’s trying to make this a success.”

Ganghwan put a bit more strength into his words, the man’s words resonated with Maru. These words weren’t something born out of mere theory, but something that was dotted with experience.

“Let’s go down.”

“Where?”

“To eat.”

“Again?”

“Again? It’s already 3 o’clock. Three hours passed since our last meal. Also, senior Junmin’s downstairs, so we might as well ask him for a free meal. Hmmm… Beef, yes. Beef sounds good. Hehe.”

What the hell happened to the cool guy from before? Maru shook his head as he followed behind Ganghwan jumping down the stairs.

* * *

“Hey, why aren’t you coming?”

“Wait a second.”

Changhu glared at his friends for a second before taking out his phone. It was 3 o’clock. Their meeting time.

“I got a call.”

Changhu cleared his throat before taking the call, he had to pay particular attention to how he talked. These girls liked it when he acted cute.

“Yes, big sis.”

- Sorry, Changhu. I told you the wrong place. The cathedral doesn’t have any good restaurants nearby. Come to the Myungdong Art Theater. Do you know where that is?

“Myungdong Art Theater?”

- Yeah. It’s pretty famous, so you can probably get directions if you ask around a bit. You’re coming with friends, right?

“Yes. They’re nice kids. Your friends are here, too?”

- Of course. Anyway, come quick. I’ll pay for the meal. We can just go hang at a karaoke afterward. Karaoke during the day is super fun.

“Sure. Alright, we’ll be right over.”

Changhu spat on the floor as soon as he hung up.

“Hah, does this bitch think we’re dumb dogs or something?”

“Why?“

“She’s telling us to go to the Myungdong Art Theater now.”

“Myungdong Art Theater? The hell is that?”

“Apparently we can just ask around for directions.”

“Really? Might as well go. I’m freezing my ass off. I should’ve worn more layers.”

“You idiot, why didn’t you bring a jacket or something?”

“I thought we’d go somewhere nice right away. Plus, thicker clothes make me look fucking fat.”

Changhu and his friends headed down from the cathedral, laughing amongst themselves. On the way down, they learned the whereabouts of the theater from an old lady.

“Yo, by the way, Seoul has a lot of pretty women,” one of Changhu’s friends said.

Changhu had to agree. There were a lot of women walking around in skirts even during the winter. Some even had tights on, too.

“Our town is kind of trash, dude.”

“If only we had girls like this.”

“Yo yo, dude, look at those breasts. That’s at least a C cup, isn’t it?”

“Isn’t it bigger?”

“Dunno. I’d have to sleep with her to know. Ah, you think I can lose it today?”

“Good luck. I don’t think you can do it though, you look too much like a baby.”

“You bastard, I’ll show you what a real casanova looks like.”

As the four of them walked, they eventually reached an odd building. It had loads of posters about acting taped to the wall.

“That must be it.”

The building just looked like a theater from the outside. Indeed, walking closer, they found that they were right.

“Over here.”

The group could hear someone call out to them from a bank on the other side. Changhu waved his hand towards where the voice came from.

“It’s them, what do you think?”

“Oh, hell yea.”

“I’m happy.”

“Dude, peach stockings are mine.”

Changhu explained to the others to call the women ‘big sis’, and to act cute in front of them.

“And then you can start to think about leading them on. Girls like that sort of stuff.”

“I know, I saw it on television.”

“No dude, theory is different from the real thing. Just watch how I do it before you try it. Trust me.”

“Okay, okay. I’ll let you play the king role today, Changhu.”

Changhu walked to the women with a smile, they all came out in pretty casual clothing. But the fact that these women were loaded and had nice bodies didn’t change. That alone made Changhu very happy.

“Hello, big sis.”

“We’re Changhu’s friends.”

Nice, they were going with the plan. Maybe Changhu shouldn’t even have bothered worrying so much.

“Are they really high schoolers?”

“Pretty nice looking for high schoolers.”

The other girls seemed pretty happy, too.

“Ladies, young men are always the best. Don’t you know that? Besides that, we’re cold. Are you going anywhere?”

“Oh dear, you were cold, Changhu? I’m sorry.”

“Buy us something tasty if you’re sorry.”

“Sure! I’ll pay. Does everyone like meat?”

The blonde woman smiled as she took out a card from her wallet. Changhu exchanged a quick look with his friends.

‘See? This girl’s rich.’

‘Nice.’

Changhu and his friends immediately dragged the girls over to a restaurant, they all stepped forward to grab the hands of the women they took a liking to. The women didn’t seem to hate it.

‘Good, good.’

It was time to drink.

* * *

“Why don’t you try having some shame for a change?”

“I know you’ll buy us food even if you say that, Senior.”

“You only take this senior’s word seriously when you’re asking for food.”

Junmin sighed in defeat before standing up. In the end, Ganghwan’s begging actually worked.

“Maru, I’ll let you have some nice meat today.”

Ganghwan proudly took the first step outside.

“He never changes, does he?”

“Never and not in the good sense, either.”

“How did you meet with Coach, sir?”

“Me and Ganghwan? It’s been a while. More than a decade now, actually. He was a college dropout that appeared out of nowhere asking to act at my theater company.”

“I… can sort of imagine that.”

“Whatever you’re imagining, it was even worse. He wouldn’t listen to any sort of sense or logic.”

“I did expect that to be the case, after hearing about him living homeless for three months. He’s pretty amazing, isn’t he?”

“Well, in that sense, you’re pretty odd as well. That 300 million… Use it well.”

Junmin pat Maru’s shoulder with a faint smile.

“Come on, walk faster, senior! The beggars in my stomach are about to start a coup d’etat!”

“Does he really want to act like that in his thirties?”

Junmin sped up his pace as he clicked his tongue, the three of them stepped into a little alleyway after coming out of the theater. According to Junmin, there was a pretty nice bbq place inside.

“I haven’t had beef in a while, I’m excited.”

“Can you not be so excited by stuff like that?”

The two of them were exchanging words like experienced comedians. An odd combo, for sure. Maru smiled faintly.

“Over here, right?”

Ganghwan asked as he looked up at the second floor, there was a massive signboard written “beef” on the building.

“This place is a restaurant and a butcher shop, all in one. It’s pretty cheap, but also delicious.”

“Whatever you say, Senior.”

Ganghwan headed up the stairs first.

* * *

“It was big, right?”

“Yeah.”

Bada headed out of the Myungdong Art Theater with her friends. There was a little tour for what the backstage looked like before a play and they were lucky enough to join in. The theater from the inside was massive.

“They even had three floors for the audience.”

“They had rooms on the left and right side, too. Probably for the VIPs, right?”

“I want to try watching from there, too.”

Bada took a picture in front of the entrance with a grin. “Where should we go now?”

“What time is it?”

“3:20.”

“Should we start exploring clothing shops now?”

Right then, one of Bada’s friends raised her hand.

“Want to get some waffles before that?” she said, pointing at a store nearby.

Bada nodded vigorously. Just thinking about waffles made her mouth start to water.

* * *

“Dad, where are you going?”

“There’s someone that wants to meet you.”

“You’ve said that already. Who is it?”

Dowook followed behind his dad, who told him to stop asking so many questions. Just who were they going to meet?

“Ah, maybe we should buy some of that,” dad said, looking at a waffle shop.

“You said we were going to eat something, though.”

“Well, she likes waffles a lot.”

“She?”

“Anyway, let’s buy it. Don’t you like waffles too?”

“…I got sick of it after eating it so many times.”

Dowook immediately regretted what he said. Indeed, his dad’s expression was darkening.

“I’m sorry. I should’ve paid attention.”

“…Just buy it already. I’ll eat the jam.”

As he walked towards the waffle store with his dad, a group of middle school girls passed by him, laughing with each other.

“We should’ve moved a little faster,” his dad commented.

After arriving at the store, Dowook ordered three waffles. Dad took out his wallet and handed the money.

“I’ll make a call real quick.”

Dad stepped outside. Just why did he keep having to leave to make the call? The man clearly wasn’t talking to any of his gas station employees, judging from his expressions.

“Wow, he’s handsome.”

“Shh, he’ll hear you.”

Dowook turned around, making the middle school girls turn away with a flinch. Dowook quickly turned back awkwardly to look at a mirror on the wall. Wow, he looked like a delinquent.

“Oh yeah, I saw your brother,” he heard one of the girls say.

“Bada’s brother? Ah, Maru?”

‘Maru?’

Dowook turned around, hearing a familiar name.

Chapter 97

Bada’s eyes met with that of the scary person in the waffle shop.

‘Whoa… ’

So that must be what delinquents look like. Bada was pretty headstrong back in school, but this time, she had to avert her gaze.

“I wonder if he heard us.”

“He’s still looking at us.”

“I told you to speak quietly.”

Her friends lowered their voices as well, at least the man couldn’t do anything to them in the store.

“Here you go, your waffles are out.”

The employee handed them a paper bag. Bada took it and quickly walked outside. After the group exit the store, they quickly moved as far away as they could.

* * *

“My god.”

Did he look like he was gonna to bite them or something? Those girls were looking at him like a hoodlum. Then again, his eyes did look pretty fierce, what with them being stretched out so wide. It was something he inherited from his mother.

“Here’s your waffle.”

Dowook took the waffle and stepped outside, his dad was waiting after finishing the call.

“She’s at that cafe over there.”

“Who is it?”

“Let’s go.”

Dowook noticed an awkward smile from his dad. Just who was it? His relationship with his dad improved recently thanks to Maru. As a matter of fact, they were even going on fishing trips quite a bit. They didn’t talk much, but that was fine. Dowook didn’t expect a ten-year gap between them to be closed so quickly.

‘I guess that’s why I can understand him not talking to me about this.’

Dowook stepped forward, following his dad into the cafe.

* * *

“So this is what it looks like when you eat normally.”

Ganghwan grabbed a piece of beef, put it in his mouth, and chewed.

“But sometimes, people eat like this, saying that they’re just trying to act.”

Ganghwan dramatically picked up a piece. His elbow was pointing to the sky, making him look very uncomfortable. He looked at the meat he picked up for a brief moment before putting it in his mouth. The highlight was him letting out a loud “mm” as he chewed loudly.

“No way,” Maru said, eating a piece of meat himself.

“Doesn’t seem real, does it? But there are actually a lot of people who act like this. Help me out here, Senior.”

“There’s a lot of those, yes.”

Junmin took a sip from his shot of soju, Maru thought that was an amazing feat in itself. The man was already taking his sixth sip from his tiny glass.

“People act awkwardly when they’re incredibly nervous. Like in the military… you wouldn’t know since you’re still too young, but people turn into idiots as soon as they step into foreign territory.”

“I see what you mean.”

Junmin’s words came to him very easily, he’s seen many people who act incredibly strangely in the military as well.

“See my ass. Say that after you go,” Ganghwan laughed.

“In any case, actors have to work from an uncomfortable position. They have to keep in mind how they act, but when they become too aware of their actions, they can’t act well. But if they try to act too casually, they make simple mistakes. They need to control themselves, and at the same time try to act naturally. It’s a strange profession.”

“How are you at doing that, Coach?”

“Me? I’m… just a noob, really.”

Honestly, Maru thought that at Ganghwan’s level, it would be okay to not try so hard. After all, the man was skilled enough to act in a play with his name on it and receive good reviews. That was no small feat.

‘In that sense, Junmin is… ’

Maru turned to look at Junmin. This man in his fifties was pretty well-known throughout all of the industry. As a matter of fact, the man was even directing the first ever play of the Myungdong Art Center. In the world of acting, Junmin was a colossus.

“If you’re a noob, then I might as well stop calling myself an actor altogether,” Junmin said with a smile.

“Oh, come on, Senior. Well, I guess I’m a bit better at acting than you.”

Ganghwan easily said words you could only say to a good friend, Junmin took those words in stride as well. The two very clearly had a very good relationship.

“I am better than a no-name actor, for sure. I used to dream of starring in a play myself, but I’m doing something completely different nowadays. I don’t regret the decisions I made, but I do like to think of the ‘what ifs’ often.”

“Call me anytime you want when you want to act, I can easily give you a role as something like villager 1.”

As Ganghwan filled Junmin’s shot glass with a smile, Maru flipped the meat in the meantime so that it wouldn’t burn on the grill.

“You should try to learn a lot from Ganghwan. He likes to say silly things, but he’s very talented in terms of acting.”

“Yes.”

Right then, Junmin grabbed his phone and stood up. After saying a few words, he gave Ganghwan a few glances.

“Stay here for a bit. We’ll be back real quick.”

The two of them left the table for a bit. Maru thought back to the conversation they just had and started filtering it for useful information. As a forty-five year old man, Maru couldn’t agree completely with what the two men had just said. As he organized his thoughts, he could hear a loud noise come from behind him. Voices of several men and women were making the restaurant get louder, ruining the peaceful meal Maru had until now.

“Big sis is paying!”

“Ohh! You’re the best, sis!”

“Can we order, please?!”

The group headed into a private room. Maru chose to ignore them as he continued grilling.

* * *

“Hold on, is that Maru?”

“Oh, it is.”

One of Changhu’s friends pointed towards the hall. The group could see Maru grilling by himself on a circular table.

“What a pleasant surprise.”

As they watched, an older man wearing a hat and a younger man sat down next to Maru.

“Is that his dad?”

“Probably.”

Changhu stared at Maru’s back for a while before nudging his friends with a grin.

“Yo, let’s go earn some cash.”

“Cash?”

His friends quickly caught onto what Changhu was talking about.

“Sis, we’ll be back real quick. We’re going to chat with a friend.”

“Friend?”

“Yeah, that guy over there. We’ll be back quick.”

Changhu walked towards Maru with his friends and tapped Maru’s back in a friendly manner. “Maru.”

The boy had been pretty rebellious in the beginning, but he was docile now. Maru turned back to look at Changhu.

“Yeah.”

The boy didn’t look very surprised. Changhu was very dissatisfied with Maru’s expression, but he decided to carry on with a smile on his face.

“Hello, we’re Maru’s friends.”

The older man nodded quietly, and the other one greeted them with a smile.

“Oh, right Maru. I wanted to talk to you about something. Excuse me, we’ll talk to Maru real quick.”

He pushed Maru’s shoulder a little violently as he spoke, in an angle where the adults wouldn’t notice. Maru stood up after putting down his chopsticks.

“I’ll be back quick.”

It was nice that he was being so docile. Changhu headed to the bathroom outside the building with a smile on his face. He made Maru stand near the urinals as he surrounded the boy with his friends.

“Heey, Maru. It’s nice to see you outside.”

“We’re not that good of friends, but I’m glad you’re so excited about seeing me.”

“Hah, you like to speak pretty words, don’t you?”

Changhu slapped Maru’s cheeks lightly with the back of his hand, the boy seemed to have feelings of rebelliousness in his heart. These types tried to hit back when you brutally stepped on them. You had to slowly bully them into submission. Maru grabbed Changhu’s hand and slowly put it down, making Changhu smile.

“Maru, we’re friends, right?”

“Let’s say we are. What do you want?”

“Hah, you like to get to the point, as usual. You’re a great friend for sure. So, the thing is… We don’t have cash. You saw just now, didn’t you? We came with some pretty girls, but we don’t have any cash. The girls have money, but we have to save face, man. We just need enough money to at least buy dessert.”

Changhu sent glances at his friends. One of them blocked the door, and two of them stepped closer to Maru.

“We’re really good friends, so I’ll say this now. Lend us some money. You know that’d be best for you, right? You don’t want the adults outside worrying about you, do you?”

Changhu tapped Maru’s cheeks one more time. He was ready to punch Maru in his stomach if the boy refused him. Changhu was a fan of beating that spot because it was hard to see. Maru scratched his eyebrow calmly.

“So, how much do you need?”

Bingo.

“We’re friends, so I don’t want to take too much. I think just… 100 thousand is enough?”

“100 thousand won?”

“Yeah. That’s easy enough to get, isn’t it?”

“Hm, 100 thousand, huh.”

Maru muttered to himself as he took out his wallet. Changhu had to let out a whistle a little when he saw the contents.

‘…The hell is this kid?’

He could see several checks inside. Next to those was a thick stack of 10,000 won bills.

“You’re rich, aren’t you?”

“Sure. Anyway, we’re friends, so I’ll keep it pretty cheap, too. 10% interest, to be paid out in 10 daily installments. 11,000 won every day. Not bad, right?”

Changhu stared at Maru dumbly. What the hell was the guy talking about? 10%? Daily installments? What?

“Hey, this is cheap, you know. Normally you’d have to pay 20%, but I’m keeping it cheap because we’re friends.”

A small smile appeared on Maru’s face, the boy was handing Changhu a white check.

“You’re not taking it?”

“What?”

“If you don’t want it, sure.”

Changhu was rendered speechless for a second. Maru didn’t seem normal just now, either. But Changhu soon returned to his senses and pushed Maru back with gritted teeth.

“You bastard!”

Right then, Maru quickly dodged and grabbed Changhu’s wrist. The boy twisted his wrist, making Changhu shout in pain.

“Why can’t you just stick with one thing? If you want to play with money, go for that. If you want to bully people, just stick to that. Stop trying to confuse me by doing both. Also, stop acting so childish. If you need money, just ask for it. I’ll take an interest, but I can easily lend it to you. We’re friends, after all, right?”

“Ouch! Ouch! Fuck! Let go!”

“Stop shouting, you’re going to attract people.”

Maru let go of Changhu’s hand like he was throwing away a piece of trash. Changhu glared at his friends, but they were flinching in a bit of fear.

“Take this.”

Maru handed his money to a friend nearby.

“I don’t need interest, so just pay me back in due time. Also, let’s not try to ruin our relationship, yeah? I’d like to be on decent terms with you all as well.”

Maru headed out of the bathroom.

“Fuck, damn it.”

Changhu swore as he caressed his wrist.

* * *

“What happened?”

“They were asking for money.”

Maru came back and immediately started grilling again. There was quite a bit of burnt meat on the grill. Clearly, the other two men didn’t care for the food.

“So why are they glaring at you?”

Ganghwan asked, looking at the private room behind them. Maru told him it was nothing. He didn’t want to explain something so childish.

“Are you being bullied?”

“You realized just now? I’m a pretty famous victim.”

Maru casually continued cooking. The other two men smiled slightly before continuing their conversation.

‘Daily installments… ’

The word brought back memories from his road manager days. That’s when he realized how many bullies there were in the entertainment business and how many poor actors wasted their lives away under them. He even met a person who lived solely off of giving loans with daily installments.

‘Maybe that's why I stopped working in that industry. Because I got sick of seeing that.’

Maru put down his chopsticks slowly before asking a question.

“I heard there were those in entertainment companies who liked to bully people with violence.”

“Of course. There’s trash no matter where you go.”

Junmin answered casually.

“Why do you ask, though?”

“I just thought of it.”

“It’s an unfortunate thing. Having your passions taken advantage of is one thing, but to be beaten up at the same time.”

Maru nodded before grabbing his chopsticks again.

“You aren’t asking why I’m not helping them?”

“People would’ve already helped them if they could be helped. The fact that no one’s helping them just tells me the mess they got themselves in goes very deep.”

“I keep saying this, but you’re brutally realistic.”

“That just makes life easier.”

“I still don’t quite understand you.”

“I just try to do some good where I can.”

“God damn, are you really a teenager?” Ganghwan asked, putting Maru in a headlock.

Maru didn’t answer that question.

Chapter 98

Changhu glared at Maru, still caressing his aching wrist. He’s never felt this humiliated in his life.

“Is your wrist okay?”

“It’s nothing. I was just surprised. Fucker’s trying to act cool.”

He felt incredibly annoyed, but he still smiled in front of the girls. He could just step on Maru later. He was here to play, so he wanted to do just that for now.

“I’ll just kill him later.”

“Sounds fun.”

His friends started smiling as well.

“What happened?” the girls asked, as soon as they entered.

Changhu said it was nothing special and started grilling the meat.

“You guys want to drink?”

“Of course.”

The sis raised her hand to call for an employee. A woman in her early twenties entered. Probably a part timer?

“Hey sis, can you get us four bottles of soju, and shot glasses for everyone here?”

“What? Everyone?”

“Damn it, can’t you listen? Four bottles of soju, shot glasses for everyone. Okay?”

“Um, excuse me, but these people look underage?”

“Underage my ass. They’re grown boys, so just bring on the alcohol, sis.”

Changhu sent a wink to his big sis. She was a great person to have on his side, for sure.

“Um, excuse me, can I check your id…?”

The part timer turned to Changhu and his friends. Changhu swore under his breath in annoyance. Hearing that, the part timer stiffened a little bit.

“Changhu, sis’ll handle it.”

“Sis, you’re too kind. You need to be more tough on the businesses that take light of their customers.”

“I know, I know. I’m too kind. So, Ms. Part timer? Why don’t you bring the booze while I’m still being nice?”

“………”

“Fuck, whatever! Just bring four bottles of soju and four shot glasses! You think we’re a total fucking joke, don’t you?”

“N-no, I don’t.”

“ Then why can’t you just bring it when we tell you to, you fucker? You think you’re the boss of this place or something? Huh?”

“…No, I don’t.”

“Bring it over, then. What the hell’s wrong with you?”

Changhu gave his friends a little glance, and they all started clapping in unison. The big sis flipped her hair back, as if what she did wasn’t anything special.

* * *

The voices from the room were heard by everyone in the hallway, making the rest of the customers shake their heads.

“They don’t seem to be your friends,” Junmin commented.

“They’re delinquents.”

“Wait, are you actually getting bullied right now? Isn’t this bad?”

“I’m not dumb enough to get bullied by them.”

“Well, that’s a relief. But man, kids nowadays are scary.”

Right then, they could hear one of the women inside screech. She was screaming at the part timer to bring the alcohol, and the part timer stepped outside with a pale face.

“Those uncultured motherf…”

Ganghwan stood up. This was not good. To begin with, Maru gave Changhu’s group money to keep them quiet. The time he was spending with these two people was valuable. Having that time wasted by delinquents wouldn’t be good, so he gave them money, but… the real problem turned out to be the girls that they came with.

‘Likes attract likes, huh.’

That saying never felt truer to him than now.

“I’ll go have a word with them.”

Just as Maru was about to stand up, Ganghwan pushed down his shoulder.

“No, these kinds of idiots only listen when you go wild. Senior, I’ll be back in a bit. I’m not much of an upstanding citizen myself, but at least I don’t act like trash to business owners.”

Junmin stopped Ganghwan from leaving himself.

“Don’t try to start trouble. Getting mad so easily isn’t a good attitude to have.”

“But, as a person…”

“You’d start a fight as soon as you head over, I just know it. That’d be worse for the business owner. I know the man somewhat, so I don’t want to trouble him. Just watch. I’m sure the owner has his way of dealing with this.”

“You’re way too cold about this kind of stuff, Senior.”

“I’m simply choosing the path of least resistance. So just eat. The meat’s about to burn.”

Maru nodded. He agreed with the way Junmin handled this. It was fine to get yourself involved in a situation like this, but you couldn’t let yourself be affected so much by your own emotions. Besides, this was a business. If you worsened the mood of the restaurant by starting a fight, you’d only be putting the owner in more trouble. Junmin said he knew the owner, that was probably what made him so calm.

“Well, if you say so.”

Ganghwan sat back down after glaring at the room for a second. After a bit of time, the restaurant became quiet again. The room was still pretty loud, but since they were just laughing amongst themselves, it was fairly easy to ignore.

“Here you go, some plum tea.”

“Oh, you didn’t have to.”

A man who seemed to be in his mid-40s brought out a pot of plum tea for them. Probably the owner, by the looks of things.

“You’re a regular, this is the least I can do. Please come again.”

The owner left after a short greeting. Maru took a sip of the tea. It was a blend of slight sweet and sour. Delicious.

“This is good.”

Ganghwan seemed to be a fan as well.

“The meat’s good here, but this is honestly the real reason why I come here,” Junmin mentioned with a smile.

Maru listened to the man talk about the Myungdong Art Theater after the meal was over. After a bit of time, four girls and four boys stepped out of the private room near them. Maru could feel Changhu glaring at him, but paid him no mind. The owner stepped out to handle the bill. Probably because the man knew that this wasn’t going to be easy.

But then.

“Even if you say that…”

The owner was speaking in a troubled voice. What happened? Maru turned around with a curious look. The four girls were standing in the back, while the four boys were saying something to the owner.

“Those…”

Ganghwan got angry again, Maru stood up too. This time, he didn’t want to stand back. These people were just continuing to eat away at his precious time one way or the other.

“They really don’t like listening to words, do they?”

Even Junmin started walking to the counter. For now, Maru decided to watch what the man would do.

“What’s wrong?” Junmin asked.

The owner smiled awkwardly, saying it was nothing special. Maru looked at the owner, Changhu’s confident expression, and the amused girls at the back before realizing something.

“Were they saying something about selling alcohol to underaged kids?”

Right then, Changhu and his friends started glaring at him. Bingo. The owner waved his hands as if that wasn’t the case, but the man’s gestures looked too unnatural.

‘Well, this is pretty obvious.’

Maru knew very well that there were many high schoolers that enjoyed screwing over restaurants like this. In Korea, only restaurants ever got punished for stuff like this. If a restaurant sold alcohol to underaged people were to get caught, they had to pay a fine. If it was a repeat offense, they would just get shut down entirely. Just a single report was a critical hit to these restaurants as a result.

Maru turned to look at the girls, they were still looking at this with amused expressions. What idiots. If they had anything left in their heads, they wouldn’t even have thought about doing this. To think they’d act like this even after turning into adults…

‘They’re the type that’ll try to play this off as a joke if things go wrong.’

Right then, Junmin opened his phone and made a call somewhere. It was something about having lunch, but the contents of the call seemed pretty interesting.

“Ah, yes, lawyer Kim, lawyer Lee. I’ll see you here. There’s something interesting going on. Ah, you have a customer as well? Haha, bring him over! This is a nice place, and this just sounds like a great opportunity to expand your networks. Yes, yes, I’ll see you soon.”

Junmin loudly closed his folder phone, Maru shook his head silently.

‘Man, this guy.’

The man knew very well what it was like to crush people with status. Indeed, as soon as he put the word ‘lawyer’ in his mouth, the group of eight all turned completely pale.

‘He’s a great person to have on your side, for sure.’

In his previous life, Maru was always on the receiving end. But in this life, Maru had a very, very powerful man by his side. Life was quite strange, indeed.

“Well, would you like to wait a little, or?”

As soon as Junmin finished, one of the women quickly took out her card.

“We’re not involved in this at all, this kid was just trying to show off. We were going to pay from the start. There’s no problem, right?”

“Did I ask?”

The woman turned bright pink, the owner quickly took the card and processed the bill. The four girls glared at Changhu and his friends before leaving first.

“S-sis.”

“Take us with you.”

And with that, the group of eight were all out of the building.

“Thank you for helping, sir.”

“This is a good restaurant. I’d rather not see any bad things happen to it. Ah, could I get some plum tea for the guests coming for dinner as well?”

“Of course. But didn’t you say they would come now…?”

“Oh, that? I was lying.”

“I-is that so? Ha, hahaha.”

The owner laughed. Maru couldn’t help but laugh a bit as well.

“What would you have done if they didn’t leave?” Ganghwan asked, sighing in relief.

Junmin answered with a very calm look on his face.

“Well, I could just make them show up a bit early for dinner, then.”

“What? Then those people you mentioned… were they real?”

“You get into a lot of trouble in this business. Plus, there’s nothing wrong with getting on the good side of a law firm.”

“So that thing just now…”

“Apparently a pretty famous person just joined their law firm. They wanted me to join them for dinner.”

“Wow, Senior. It’s like you live in a different world compared to me.”

“Is that so?”

“Can you help me out if I get into trouble in the future?”

Ganghwan got out of the restaurant with a grin.

“Hey,” Junmin called out to Maru, “was my acting all right just then?”

“Haha, I couldn’t believe you used to be a no-name actor.”

“Right?”

Junmin smiled proudly.

* * *

“Ah, fuck off. So annoying.”

Changhu grit his teeth as he saw the girls leave.

“Ah, fuck.”

“Dude, Changhu, didn’t you say this would work?”

“This usually works. It was about to, since the owner looked dumb as shit, but they had to intervene…”

Changhu was more annoyed at Maru than anyone else right now. If that kid wasn’t here, his night would be a lot more fun right now

“So, what now?”

“What do you mean, what now? We don’t even have cash, so we might as well go home.”

Right then, one of the friends smiled as he raised his hand.

“Yo, we got cash. Remember Maru?”

The boy fished out 100 thousand won as he spoke. Changhu smiled bitterly as he grabbed the bills.

“Want to go play billiard?”

“Let’s go to a karaoke instead. Billiard fucking sucks if you go to the wrong place.” “That’s true. Let’s just go wherever, then. We can have some drinks afterwards.”

“Sure.”

Changhu looked around for a second before trying to find a karaoke bar.

* * *

Dowook finally understood why his dad was being so awkward all this time.

“………”

He looked at the woman in front of him, who was just looking straight down at the floor all this time. It was Kang Soojin, his sister. The sister that he hadn’t seen in a decade. His dad coughed nervously. Dowook sat down, biting down on one side of his cheek. His sister was still looking at the floor.

“Soojin, Dowook.”

He could hear his dad say something in the background, but he didn’t really understand anything the man was saying. Dowook ignored his dad and said something to his sister. Really, he just spat it out.

“You make me sick.”

Soojin flinched.

“So, you’ve been talking with dad all this time.”

“………”

“I’m leaving, dad.”

Dowook stood up instantaneously, He felt disgusted with annoyance. He could hear his dad call out to him, but he didn’t stop.

Dowook grit his teeth in anger.

* * *

“This is too expensive.”

“Too late, you bought it. Also, it’s pretty.”

Bada held up her shopping bag with a smile. She managed to buy some nice clothes, and a present for her brother as well within her budget.

“Where to, now?”

“My legs hurt after walking so much.”

“Should we rest somewhere, then?”

“Rest my ass! Karaoke! Gogo!”

One of the more energetic friends immediately walked forward. Bada shook her head as she followed her friend.

“I saw a place that does student discounts near the theater. We should go there.”

“Okay.”

That’s good. She was running kind of low at this point, too. Bada walked as she started thinking about which songs she wanted to sing.

Chapter 99

As the group of girls walked to a karaoke bar, they started hearing swears coming from somewhere behind them.

“Hey hey, don’t look back. There are some weird people behind us.”

Bada nodded. This was a foreign town for her, she didn’t know what kind of people lived here. In the past, she once got hit by a lady just because their eyes met. She remembered going back home crying at the time, and her brother ran outside shouting in anger.

‘He was really impatient back then.’

Just a year ago, her brother was a very selfish villain, but he’s changed a lot since then. Almost a different person now. Honestly, that was the only reason why she bought him a gift today. Bada looked down at her bag. There was a pair of shoes she bought for her brother. She noticed how he still wore those shoes of his that were turning into rags at this point. Even when mom said he should buy a new one, he said he’d only do that when the soles fell out.

‘The way he spent money changed, too.’

Her brother, who used to beg for expensive shoes and clothes, started buying clothes from cheap stores. Even when she went to Dongdaemun market with her brother, he grabbed a piece of clothing from a street seller saying “this stuff looks durable”. He really looked like an old man back then. Especially since the clothing he picked out looked like hiking clothes that their dad liked to wear. Do all men turn into dads or something as they age?

‘Hold on, was his shoe size 270? I don’t remember.’

She checked this morning for sure, but she couldn’t remember all that well. So she just decided to pick a decent one.

“God damn it, if it wasn’t for that bastard…”

“It’s okay, we can just beat him up some other time.”

They could hear swears from behind them again.

“Aren’t they embarrassed?”

“Yeah. I guess guys think they look cool when they act like that.”

Her friends laughed amongst themselves quietly, they had boys like this in their classes as well. The kids that liked to swear day in and day out. Bada swore too, but not in public like this.

“Let’s leave.”

Bada pushed her friends’ backs, she wanted to sit down somewhere. Her friend pointed to a building with a sign on it. Ah, student discount, there it was. That must be the place.

“Han Maru, that fucking son of a bitch.”

Just as she was about to enter, she heard someone swear again. Bada flinched. That was her brother’s name. She tried to ignore it and go inside, but alas, she already looked back.

“What?”

There were four boys behind her. They didn’t look very mean or anything. Somewhat handsome, actually. But judging from the way they spoke earlier, they probably didn’t have great personalities.

“What are you looking at?”

The boy at the front glared, Bada turned around to get on her way. She was a bit afraid. If she got away here, she’d probably be able to get away with hearing a few bad words. Her friends were trying to pull her away as well. Bada nodded and started stepping down the stairs.

“Wow, what a fucking day. First Maru, and now some little brats are glaring at us?”

Again, her brother’s name. If it was a year ago, Bada would’ve stepped down without thinking another thing. But right now, she wanted to do something. Of course, these boys might not be talking about her brother. Han Maru wasn’t a common name, but there could always be others of the same name, after all. The reason why she was annoyed regardless was because of how kind her brother’s been to her in the past year. Bada glared at the boys behind her with a frown. She didn’t want to pick a fight, but she felt like glaring was warranted.

“Oh?”

The boy in the front grabbed her left arm with an annoyed look. Bada tried to pull away, but the boy dragged her outside anyway.

“Bada!!”

“Let go of her!!”

For a moment, Bada was proud of having such good friends. She was in danger, but they were trying to help her regardless. Thanks to that, she didn’t feel so scared. As a matter of fact, the boys in front of her almost looked comical.

“You bitches. Did we beat you up or something? What are you shouting for?”

The boy who grabbed Bada shouted. Bada’s friends closed their mouths but didn’t leave Bada.

“Let go,” Bada said.

The boy didn’t let go.

“Why did you glare?”

“Because you kept swearing behind us. So what!”

“What the hell does this bitch think she is?”

The boy raised his other hand at her. Bada flinched but didn’t close her eyes. She was Han Bada, you know! The one girl who even got into fistfights with boys! The boy who was holding her frowned even deeper. Bada could feel her body get pulled forward right then. The boy was tugging her violently towards him.

Bada didn’t fall, but the paper bag in her hand ripped from the sudden shock. The clothes and shoes she bought rolled all over the floor.

“You!”

Bada felt anger rise straight up to her head, the present she bought for her brother was getting dirtied to bits.

“You? How cute. Do you really have a death wish?”

The boy raised his hand, this time with the intent to actually hit her. Bada jumped forward in anger, she’s fought with her brother multiple times. She could handle this. Thinking that, she headbutted the boy’s stomach. Bada fell on the floor, and the boy fell back on his butt.

“B-bada!”

Her friends helped her up immediately. Bada got up, still huffing. The fear in her head completely disappeared after she actually attacked him.

‘What the.’

The boy fell backward, just like that? The boy stood up, swearing at the friends around him, he seemed to be really mad. Bada looked around. She’s retaliated, so it was time to look for help from adults now. She looked around quickly. Ah, there was an older man looking at them from a nearby convenience store. Perfect. Just as she was about to shout for help, though, the man turned around with a shake of his head. Was he thinking that they were friends?

‘Oh no.’

She could see the boy step closer. He had his fist balled up tightly, too. Would getting hit by that hurt? She started feeling sorry for her friends. She should’ve just tried to be quiet.

“Should we run?”

“L-let’s fight back.”

“Can we win?”

Pft. Bada almost laughed. She was thankful that her friends didn’t run away. They were even thinking of fighting! What brave girls.

“Hit us, I dare you! We’re not gonna stand still!” Bada shouted.

She raised her voice for a reason, the people around them started directing their attention towards them. The boys seemed a bit surprised, too. Bada remembered that advice her brother gave her a long time ago.

- The loud one always wins. If things go badly for you, just shout. I promise it’ll be helpful. Just don’t freeze up, that should be enough.

She didn’t know what he meant back then, but she did now. The eyes directed here were all on their side, she could see the group of boys start to hesitate a little. Just as she started to calm down, the boy from the start charged at her. Oops. She didn’t realize how angry this boy was. The boy’s hand got raised up, and Bada closed her eyes tightly.

Pow!

The boy flew back with a loud noise, he actually flew backward. Bada opened her eyes in surprise. In front of her was a boy she saw from the waffle shop, the scary-looking boy opened his mouth angrily.

“Well met. I was getting pretty pissed right about now, too.”

The scary boy turned to Bada for a second.

“They’re the bad guys, right?”

Bada nodded dumbly.

“I see. You can leave now.”

He didn’t seem to be helping her in particular. Really, he just seemed to have business with the group of boys here.

“Ah, what the actual fuck is wrong with today?!”

“Changhu, it’s so nice to see you outside of school.”

“Dowook, you son of a bitch.”

“Shut it. You better prepare yourself. There’s no teacher to hide behind here.”

The boy called Dowook ran forward after finishing. Bada exclaimed a little in surprise. Dowook managed to send Changhu flying again with a kick.

“W-what the.”

“Is he helping us?”

Her friends came over to ask if she was okay. Bada nodded.

‘In any case… ’

It was a four on one, but the other three boys were just watching right now. Changhu was looking at Dowook nervously, too. Bada took a look at Dowook’s back. The boy looked pretty thin all over, but he did have massive thighs.

People started gathering to see what was going on. Some adults were beginning to intervene as well. And…

“Eh?”

“Oh! Brother.”

Bada’s brother was one of these people, the four boys ran away as soon as the adults started gathering. Bada snorted at them before turning to look at her brother.

“What happened? What’s up with your hair?” her brother asked.

Ah, her hair probably got messed up when she got caught earlier. She started fixing up her hair again. In the meantime, her brother turned to talk to Dowook.

“Dowook.”

“What?”

“Wait, you two know each other?”

Bada looked at the two boys in front of her in confusion.

* * *

“See you tomorrow. Be careful.”

“Yes, I’ll see you tomorrow.”

Maru said his farewells to Junmin and Ganghwan before stepping into the convenience store where Dowook was.

“Thanks for before.”

He already heard what happened from Bada. Maru told her it’d be best to head home, so the girls already left Myungdong at this point.

“I was just annoyed, and they happened to be a good target. I wasn’t trying to help.”

“Well, you helped regardless. Did you eat, by the way?”

“No.”

“You should eat, then. There’s a kimbap place right there.”

“I’d rather have cup noodles. Are you paying?”

“I could, sure.”

“It’s fine. I don’t want to get anything out of you. It feels weird.”

“Weird my ass.”

Maru stepped out and came back with cup noodles and a few rolls of kimbap.

“So, what are you doing at Myungdong, anyway?”

“………”

Dowook didn’t respond and just silently ate the food in front of him. There must be something going on. For now, Maru opened a can of soda and started drinking from it. After finishing the cup noodles, he stared at the empty cup for a second before opening his mouth.

“Before I say anything else… Thanks for the thing with my dad. I can finally breathe easily at home now.”

“Good to hear. He’s a cool guy, so I hope you get along better with him.”

Dowook smiled. “Hah… Don’t you ever get worried about anything? I don’t get how you’re always so calm.”

“Something happened, huh?”

Dowook wasn’t the type to talk like this. He was a proud kid, so the fact that he was opening up this easily meant something really bad happened. Dowook fell silent again. After a minute of silence, he started off with an “if” on his mouth.

“If… If your sister, who was silent for a whole decade, the one person you didn’t expect to see for the rest of your life… If she appeared out of nowhere, what the hell am I supposed to say to her?”

“Sister?”

Maru started paying closer attention to Dowook’s words.

* * *

“I’ll be leaving. I’m sorry, dad.”

“Soojin.”

Soojin left the cafe biting her lips. She just sat there quietly for an hour, she still couldn’t forget the way Dowook was looking at her.

‘He still feels hurt.’

She shouldn’t have come, it would honestly be better for her to keep living in regret as she did now. Her brother grew a lot after ten years, she could barely recognize him. But as soon as she looked into those fierce eyes of his, she realized that he was her brother after all.

‘I’m sorry.’

Soojin started her car as soon as she got on. Today, too, she was running away. The names of countless kindergartens appeared on her head. She should volunteer during the weekdays as well so that she wouldn’t have to think.

Soojin’s red car slid down the road, making a rather depressing hum as it drove.

Chapter 100

“Leave.”

Dowook waved Maru away in the middle of walking together, Maru watched the boy walk to the bus station for a while before turning away. In a single day, a lot has happened. First off, he got a new assignment, amateur acting classes. He would attend the first meeting on Monday evening, at 8pm. Junmin really knew how to act once a decision was made. Maru got on the bus back home. As he watched the scenery pass through the window, the phone in his pocket vibrated.

[I’ll pay you back soon, so just wait.]

It was her. The message didn’t have much to it, but Maru smiled regardless. He immediately started typing out a reply.

[Try to pay me back on a weekend, if you can.]

The reply came a few minutes later.

[Why?]

[That way we can go on a date.]

Maru quickly stuck his phone back to his pocket. His phone started vibrating with new messages. Without even looking at it, Maru knew she was probably saying something along the lines of, ‘are you crazy?’ She’s really never changed at all. Once he got off the bus and came back home, his sister greeted him. Maru scanned his sister one more time.

“You really didn’t get hit?”

“I didn’t. I actually hit back, instead!”

Bada grinned, pointing at her wide forehead. Thank goodness she didn’t get hurt. She might be a tomboy, but she was still a girl.

“But besides that, was that boy your friend?”

“Dowook?”

“Mm, yeah.”

“Same class. The boy you hit is also in the same class, too.”

“What? Really? That asshole?”

Bada seemed to be thinking of what happened this morning, she frowned and huffed.

“Is that asshole your friend too?”

“No way.”

“He was soo bad. He’s a delinquent, right?”

“He’s childish. I didn’t think he would be that bad, though.”

“I was so surprised. He just pulled my arm out of nowhere.”

Bada started explaining what happened, just hearing what happened was starting to irk him more and more. At school, Changhu would never use his fists. He was a smart kid in school, after all.

‘No, maybe that’s not the case.’

There is trash out there that will resort to violence whenever women get involved. There were a lot of them, actually. Was Changhu also one of those budding abusers? Maru didn’t like to get involved as long as he wasn’t affected, but since he was involved this time around…

“Brother?”

Maru quickly wiped his frown away when he heard his sister’s voice, Bada was looking at him worriedly.

“What? You’re making me feel awkward.”

“No, you were…”

Bada stopped herself there and shook her head. Maru knew well that he didn’t have a particularly friendly-looking face. His resting face actually looked pretty scary, even. If you added a frown on top of that… It probably didn’t look good at all.

“Oh, right!”

Bada ran into her room, trying to change the atmosphere. She hesitated a little bit before handing Maru a box. It was something Maru saw earlier in the day. He knew there would be shoes inside, but he feigned ignorance.

“What’s this?”

“Present.”

“You should’ve spent that money on your clothes.”

“Don’t worry. I’m never buying you a gift again. I don’t know if it’d fit though. You were 270, right?”

Mm, it was actually 275. Maru didn’t say the truth though, and agreed with her for now. He tried taking the shoes out and put them on. The white sneakers were a bit tight, but he could still wear them.

“Thanks.”

“My friend recommended that one. It’s pretty, right?” “It is. I’ll wear it well.”

Maru put the shoes in the shoe closet and stepped back in his room. It was a busy day, but the day would end just like any of his other days. First, he would read the script for The People of Dalseok-dong. The quality of the line he said for the first time and the line he said for the thousandth time was very different. Keeping that in mind, Maru spoke his lines. Recently, he started trying to introduce different personality traits to his character. In the beginning, Maru portrayed the teenager as someone very cheery and playful. The script described the teenager like this as well.

“How about a cynical teenager, though?”

The teenager was the gateway between the audience and the stage. He would need to talk with Miso before changing the character, but he thought about it anyway. Ganghwan did tell him that analyzing such characters would be very useful. After reading the script for about an hour, Maru went to take a shower. He organized his thoughts in the shower and came back to his room to write a blog post. Recently, he started getting a bit nervous whenever he went to his blog. He was hoping to see a comment from her. To think he could be so happy over such a small thing… They’d have a very fun time if they started dating.

Even though she was adamant that they would stay friends for now.

“I guess I’ll really turn into a dad in the future.”

Same with his friends, too. Maru fiddled around with a CAD software for a short bit before taking out his schoolwork. He didn’t forget anything today, either. Looking at the time, it was midnight. He finished off the day by quickly checking some of the news online. He looked at his table for a moment before taking a long piece of plastic from his jacket. He got this from Junmin before they split up.

“Hope we can stay ‘friends’, Changhu.”

Maru put the piece of plastic back in his bag. He hoped that he wouldn’t have to use this in the near future.

* * *

“Hah.”

Changhu ran up to Maru as soon as he entered the classroom. Maru dodged the boy and quickly took his seat.

“Han Maru, you son…”

“Teacher’s coming.”

Changhu stepped back as soon as the teacher entered.

“Sit the hell down.”

Maru felt like the left side of his face was going to melt away or something during homeroom, Changhu glared at him nonstop.

“What’s that bastard doing?” Dojin asked.

“I don’t know. Maybe it’s puberty.”

Changhu was gritting his teeth, looking at Dojin and Maru repeatedly. The guy was probably looking for a fight the minute homeroom ended.

“Don’t get in trouble, and if you get caught with a cigarette, you better get ready to experience death. Got it?”

“Yes.”

The teacher headed out after lightly banging on the podium. As soon as the man left the room, Changhu stood up. Dowook did the same. Changhu’s friends started standing up as well, almost like domino pieces.

‘Oh dear.‘

What kind of a teenage drama was this? Maru shook his head. At times like this, he just had to set up an arena for them. Kids often became nervous if you started making an event much bigger than they intended it to be. The other students in the class started clearing up the middle of the classroom, realizing something was about to happen. One side looked on with excitement, while the other looked very worried. Maru decided to keep the latter group in his mind for now. They were probably kids who got bullied by Changhu.

“You guys fighting? Hey hey! Clear it up, clear it up! They need space to fight!”

Well, Maru might as well turn this into a big event. If he didn’t, Changhu’s gang really might go wild. For now, he needed to get the rest of the class on his side.

“Ooh, yeah. Let’s clear out the tables a bit.”

“Wait a bit, guys! Ya bro’s gonna make you an arena.”

Some of the kids who weren’t intimidated by Changhu stepped forward first. They moved the chairs away as they told Dowook, ‘don’t go for the face, guy’s a damn snitch’ with a grin. Changhu didn’t have many friends in this class, being a delinquent. Dowook, on the other hand, after turning over a new leaf in the middle of school year, had a lot of friends in the class. An arena was made in the middle of the class pretty quickly, Maru pretended to grab a chair near Dowook as he opened his mouth.

“Don’t actually fight.”

“Wasn’t planning to. There’s nothing good I’d get out of fighting someone like that. I would’ve murdered him outside school, though.”

“Nice.”

At this point, the one who was the most troubled by this was Changhu. Things were starting to look like this was going to turn into a one on one, and the other kids in the class were trying to make sure it would stay that way. In the end, Changhu was the one who gave in first.

“Hah, so immature. Are you guys in elementary school?”

He stepped outside along with his friends.

“That coward.”

“I bet he was counting on his friends.” “What a turd.”

The kids put the desks back with a grin. Nice. Maru decided to end the situation here. He took out a plastic stick from his bag, put it in his pocket, and stood up.

“Where are you going?” Dojin asked.

Maru didn’t answer. He still had 30 minutes left till classes started. Maru stepped out into the hallway and looked around.

‘There they are.’

He could see Changhu’s gang go down the stairs. There was a smaller kid following the group with his head down. Probably an unfortunate victim.

Maru started following them with light footsteps.

* * *

“We can just keep an eye on that Dowook bastard for now. The real problem is fucking Maru. Ugh.”

“Don’t get too angry, Changhu.”

“Me? Angry? Hah! Are you kidding? Angry? No way. I’m just annoyed. I just don’t like how that little brat’s acting. I’m not angry.”

“………”

Changhu felt a little bit better when his friends shut themselves up. Right, this was supposed to be what a normal response looked like. But Dowook and Maru just continued to get on his nerves.

“Hey.”

“Y-yeah?”

“Yeah my ass. What happened to the thing I asked of you from last time?”

Changhu pushed the brat in front of him to a wall. This was the idiot that one of his friends told him about last time, the rich kid who handed money like it was paper.

“Well…”

“Hey, didn’t I say I need to buy my textbooks? I’m trying to study here. A good cause, you know? So don’t make me speak too much. Let’s keep it short. Do you have the money?”

“…Yeah.”

The kid took out three ten thousand won bills.

“You’re doing good, so have some pride. It’s not like I’m bullying you for cash, so why act so scared?”

“Y-yeah.”

“By the way, you’re not going to do something retarded like tell on the teacher, are you? Just making sure.”

“Yeah…”

“Good, you’re a good friend. Let’s go to a karaoke next time, I’ll introduce you to some hot girls. Sounds good, right?”

Changhu stuffed the money into his pockets. Even in engineering schools, there were kids like these. As long as he took good care of them, he should have a pretty thick wallet throughout the rest of high school.

“Anyway, what do we do with Han Maru? I really think we should do something to the acting club if we want to fuck him over.”

He didn’t like Dojin either, anyway. The best way to screw over both of them was to mess with the club they were in. Especially from seeing how much the two cared about the club.

“Oh?”

Right then, one of his friends pointed to one side.

“Hah.”

It was Maru.

* * *

“Where’s Maru?”

Daemyung asked, coming back from the bathroom.

“Dunno.”

“Did he go to take a shit?”

“Dunno.”

Dojin got up from his seat. This was a little odd, it seemed like Maru followed Changhu outside.

“Daemyung, come with me for a second.”

Dojin started moving, remembering that the delinquents liked to hang behind the schools even during break time.

Chapter 101

“That crazy son of a…”

Changhu couldn’t even laugh at how ridiculous this is. Did Maru even know where he was right now? The boy was staring at Changhu’s victim intently, which irritated Changhu to no end. In the end, he leaned towards the idiot in front of him and whispered.

“Don’t mind that kid and go back to your class, okay?”

“…Okay.”

“Nothing happened today. You should know that though, right?”

The idiot nodded, and Changhu pushed him away with ease. Thankfully, idiots like him were easy to silence. Changhu knew very well that speaking in a roundabout way instills greater fear upon them. The idiot disappeared off to the other side of the school.

“You have business here?” Changhu asked.

“You’re going all out, huh? I thought you were just a show-off, but you’re just a complete asshole.”

“Hah, you son of a…”

Changhu glanced behind Maru. He needed to check if the other boy brought friends along. It didn’t look like he did.

‘Fucking poser.’

Changhu gave his friends a few glances as he walked towards Maru, he didn’t want to fight. He was just going to scare the other guy. Just as he got about two meters away from Maru, the boy opened his mouth.

“I came to get my money back.”

Changhu stopped walking.

“Money?”

“Yeah. Money.”

“Ahh, that hundred thousand?”

Changhu started laughing with his friends around him.

“What, you came here for money?”

“What else would I be here for?”

“Motherfucker, you’re way too unpredictable.”

“I’ll keep it short. Give me my money back.”

“Hundred thousand won… Yeah, I did borrow it, but… I don’t want to pay you back. So stop being so petty about it. We’re friends, aren’t we?”

Changhu lightly pushed Maru’s shoulder with a smile.

“Didn’t you have a lot of money anyway? Why do you even care about chump change like this?”

“Don’t change the topic. Give me my money back.”

“Don’t want to.”

Changhu grinned. He did have the money, but he didn’t want to give it away.

“Do you do this to other kids as well?”

“Why would you care? What? You want to join them?”

Changhu pushed Maru one more time and turned away.

‘This kid doesn’t fear fists.’

He realized that in the bathroom last time. That kid doesn’t like to get violent, but he was the type that lays the smackdown on one person exclusively when he got in a fight. Changhu knew very well that Maru’s target would be him, so he didn’t want to instigate a fight just like that.

“So, you don’t want to pay me back?”

“Think what you want, do what you want. Snitch on me if you want, I’ll give you your money back then. I’m sure you won’t do something so childish though, right?”

“I’ll ask you one last time. Think carefully before you answer. You asked for a hundred thousand won, and I gave it. You’re saying you’re not going to pay me back?”

“Motherfucker, do you really have to make me say it twice? I’m not going to give you your fucking money back.”

Right then, two more people appeared behind them. It was Daemyung and Dojin.

“What the hell’s going on?” Dojin stepped forward with a glare.

Of all the people to appear, did it really have to be that guy? Dojin was harder to mess with than Maru. The guy was most definitely someone who played around back in the day. He also seemed pretty good at fighting, too. Changhu didn’t like to mess around with people who were capable of fighting back.

‘I’ll have to beat him senseless if things go wrong, though.’

It was a good thing Changhu was with his friends. He might as well really scare these kids while he still could.

“If you want a fight, come at us. But we’re going to spread bad rumors about your pretty club. We’ll tell the teachers, too.”

“You’re a fucking child.”

Dojin stepped forward, gritting his teeth. Changhu stepped forward as well, he knew the other guy wouldn’t be able to hit him anyway. He confirmed it last time, too. The acting club seemed like a very precious place to Dojin. Plus, it wasn’t like getting hit would kill him or anything. If Changhu could have more fun at the expense of some pain, he would get hit in a heartbeat. Changhu turned his cheek, taunting Dojin to hit him. Dojin, of course, could only fume.

‘As I thought.’

Changhu grinned. It was very obvious at this point that the acting club was these kids’ weak point.

“Let’s go.”

“Hey! Han Maru!”

Maru retreated without another word. Dojin ran towards the other boy with angry huffs. Daemyung stepped away quickly as well.

“Coward.”

“What do we do if Maru snitches?”

“Don’t worry, he won’t. Fucker has pride for some reason.”

“Does he?”

“Plus, even if he does snitch, we can just tell the teacher it was just a simple misunderstanding. Teachers hate having to deal with trouble, so they’ll just pass it off as well, 100%. Remember what middle school was like? It’s the exact same here.”

“You’re right, Changhu.”

Changhu grinned, messing with people’s weak points was always cathartic for him. The knowledge of being able to treat them however he wanted made him feel like he was the top of the world. As a matter of fact, he could feel no greater joy when he beat someone up, and all the other party could do was stare lifelessly like a broken puppet.

“They should be quiet now, too.”

* * *

“You shouldn’t have come.”

“You would’ve been in big trouble if we weren’t there, you know that?”

“No way.”

“Anyway, why were you there to begin with?”

Maru scratched his eyebrows at Dojin’s question.

“Might as well finish what I started.”

“What?”

Dojin looked at Maru with a confused expression.

* * *

Byungsoo from class 2 was spending most of the day watching the clock again. He couldn’t wait until the last class was over.

“Hey, let’s go to a PC bang.”

“Didn’t you want to go play billiards?”

“Screw that, let’s go to an AYCE bbq. I’m hungry as balls.”

All the other kids were talking about going places in groups. Byungsoo wanted to be one of them at one point, but not anymore. Nowadays, the only thing he could think about was going home as quickly as he could.

“Hey, Byungsoo, go clean that blackboard eraser for me.”

“Byungsoo, throw this away for me.”

Byungsoo silently got up to pick up the eraser and the piece of trash. Since when did he become like this? He felt a bit of anger flare up inside him, but he repressed himself. People were watching him. He quickly cleaned the eraser and threw out the trash before returning to his seat.

At that point… he was back to being invisible. He could see his two friends laugh together a bit of a way away from him. He used to talk to them a lot, but they wouldn’t even greet him now. How did this happen? Byungsoo shook his head. He should just stop thinking, thinking just made everything too painful. He gave up on thinking why no one liked him, he just tried to go with the flow as best he could. At least that way, the other kids didn’t torture him.

‘I wonder if things will change in my second year.’

Thinking that, Byungsoo hoped to himself that this horrid winter would pass. The teacher eventually came into the class and announced the end of the school day.

“I’m ending it early for all of you, so don’t do anything funny and go home.”

Byungsoo grabbed his bag as fast as he could and walked out, he didn’t even have anyone who’d call out to him anyway. His desk was like an island, an island he needed to escape from as fast as possible.

Byungsoo’s phone rang, it was from his middle school friend. He took the phone call with a little bit of excitement.

- Byungsoo! It’s been a while. How have you been?

“O-okay, of course.”

- You should call every once in a while, you fuck. How’s school? Does it have a lot of delinquents?

“No way, they’re all nice.”

- That so? Yo, the other guys all want to meet up soon, so how’s the weekend sound? You free?

“Course. Been a while since I saw everyone.”

- You should really give us a call every now and then. You don’t even come on the chat anymore! You should come over there too.

Byungsoo quickly hung up after saying “okay”. Immediately, the thought of middle school got him feeling a bit depressed. He used to have so many friends back then, too. But nowadays, he no longer frequented the messenger, because his friends tab was completely empty at this point. His middle school friends were all getting along with their new high school friends, and yet… He was getting bullied, like this. It wasn’t like he could tell his friends that either. What if they just turn away from him too, as everyone else did?

Right then, he got a new call. It was his mom. Byungsoo took the call with an annoyed face.

“What!”

-… Mom might be a little late.

“You’re always late. You wanted me to eat instant noodles again for dinner?”

- I’m sorry, dear.

“Sorry my ass. I heard my friends’ moms all do a bunch of things for them. And here I am, doing all the chores, making all the food… What do you even do for me, mom?”

- Sorry, dear. Mom’s just…

“Stop it. Words are just words. No wonder you got divorced with dad.”

-… You should buy something if you want to eat it. Mom left money on the dining table.

Mom hung up. Byungsoo stared at his phone dumbly for a second.

“………”

He could think of nothing other than “I’m an asshole” right then. He was expressing his anger at someone completely unrelated. He started moving faster, feeling tears start welling up in his eyes. He was still in school and he couldn’t afford to show his weak side to his classmates, lest he get bullied even more. He ran down the stairs and quickly put on his outdoor shoes. The front entrance of the school was shining in front of him like a gateway to heaven, he needed to leave this hell. In the middle of walking, he suddenly turned around towards the bike stands.

‘Why are they… ’

“They” were waiting at the front gate. The delinquent in his class, the guys who always liked to take money from him. They had pretty girls next to them. Byungsoo wanted nothing else than to pass those gates without a bit of fear, but he knew that was impossible for him. He pretended to unlock his bike as he glanced at the gates. As he tried to kill time waiting for them to leave, though…

“That’s not a very good place to hide.”

A voice came from behind him, Byungsoo turned away in shock. There was only a single type of people who talked to him in schools: delinquents. But… the kid behind him was someone he’d never seen before. No, actually, he saw the boy behind school earlier in the day.

“Why are you so surprised?”

“Eh, ah… well…”

“That bike’s mine, by the way.”

“Ah! Sorry.”

Byungsoo quickly let go. This was someone who talked with Changhu without a hint of fear. Probably a delinquent, in that case. That meant he had to lower himself as much as possible.

“Lee Byungsoo, right?”

“…Yeah.”

In the end, it comes to this, huh. Byungsoo thought of the 20 thousand won in his pocket. Would this be enough? But the kid in front of him ended up saying something completely unexpected instead.

“Can we talk for a second? Ah, that’s what the delinquents over there like to say, isn’t it.”

“……”

“Anyway, I wanted to talk to you about something.”

The boy spoke, scratching his eyebrow. Byungsoo nodded, almost subconsciously.

* * *

“Instructor Miso, Maru…”

“I got a call from him. He has work, right? We were just going to finish with a simple reading session today, so it’s fine.”

Dojin stepped back with a loud shout of acknowledgment. Miso got a call from Maru just before she arrived at school, the boy apparently had business at Myungdong today. She would’ve rejected them if it were anyone else speaking, but she let Maru go. She knew the boy was very responsible about his words, so she trusted that the boy wouldn’t be wasting time.

“We need to go somewhere after we do our reading.”

“Where?”

“The theater where the prelims are held. It’s in Anyang. We’re all going to look around together, so get ready.”

“Yes!

“Good, get together, now.”

The club gathered at Miso’s gesture.

* * *

Byungsoo followed Han Maru carefully, it honestly didn’t feel good coming back inside the school building. As they walked towards the school store, they ran into some of the kids in Byungsoo’s class. Their eyes met, but nothing really special happened. It probably didn’t even register to the others that someone called Byungsoo even existed.

“Same class?”

“Ah, yeah.”

Maru nodded.

“Let’s get a drink before we do anything else.”

Chapter 102

Byungsoo couldn’t tell if he was drinking hot chocolate through his mouth or his nose, his brain went into overdrive as he looked at Maru. Some kid he met for the first time in his life was buying him hot chocolate for no reason. In the past, he would’ve drank it happily with no worries at all, but right now he was trying to figure out why he was being given this drink. He didn’t like how far he was thinking into this, but that didn’t change the fact that this was what he was thinking right now.

“I ended up hearing your phone call a moment ago.”

“………”

Embarrassment washed over him immediately, to think that the fact that he was a horrible son got exposed in school…

“Do the others bully you a lot?”

“…N-no. They don’t.”

Byungsoo felt a chill run down his neck. Maybe the delinquents sent this guy to test him? Changhu could easily do that to him, he closed his lips tightly and smiled. At the same time, Byungsoo curled up his toes from the sheer amount of shame he felt.

“Saying yes is always difficult.”

“W-what are you talking about? They’re all nice people. You’re not even from my class. You don’t know what my class is like. They’re all… Good people.”

He started saying all sorts of stuff to cover for himself. The only thing he got better at after entering high school, it looked like, was lying. Much unlike his grades, unfortunately. His mind is an utter mess, Byungsoo continued speaking good things about his friends with as much passion as he could gather. Funny thing was, talking like this was actually starting to reduce the amount of anger he felt at them. That’s right, they were all nice people from the start. I’m the weird one. Changhu’s the same. He wouldn’t be like this if I did a bit better.

After repeating the same words over and over again, Byungsoo stood up from his seat, saying he would leave. So who cared if this was Changhu’s test? He didn’t do anything wrong, he should be able to go home safely.

“You might actually start thinking that for real if you keep brainwashing yourself like that.”

Byungsoo turned to look at Maru, who was staring directly at him.

“Brainwash? I really…”

“There’s no better method of brainwashing than repeating lies to yourself.”

“I never lied.”

“Is that so?”

Maru suddenly walked over and put a hand over Byungsoo’s shoulder. What was this guy thinking?

“Changhu’s probably still at the school entrance.”

“W-what?”

“You said you guys are friends, right? Let’s go.”

“No!”

“Why? I thought you were friends?”

“Y-yeah, but we aren’t that good friends.”

“Friends are friends, though. Come on, let’s go talk with him.”

Byungsoo gritted his teeth and pushed Maru away. He realized he made a mistake, but this was better than getting dragged away to Changhu. Byungsoo apologized immediately.

“Sorry, I didn’t hurt you, did I?”

“I see what you’re thinking. You think I’m with Changhu, don’t you? I’m not with him. I’m actually here with you because I want to silence him before he goes wild.”

What in the world was this kid talking about? He’s here to silence Changhu? Byungsoo couldn’t understand what Maru meant by that. What could a victim like him even do?

“Don’t you imagine it often? Fighting back against the guys that bullied you?”

“……”

“Coming to school isn’t very fun anymore, is it? You just want to go home, staying in school just makes you feel more painful. You just end up expressing your anger at your poor parents.”

Byungsoo’s stomach turned, it felt like he was close to throwing up. He could feel anger and resentment boil up inside of him. How dare this kid act like he knows everything?

“You must be treated like an idiot at school. You don’t even have friends to go back home with. You don’t even know how much money they took from you at this point, do you? Since calculating just got too painful at some point.”

“………”

“You must think of the past a lot. I used to have so many friends in middle school. Ah, were you perhaps bullied in middle school, too? Did you ever have a single friend in your life? Is it that bad?”

“N-no, it’s not…”

“You had friends in middle school?”

“Yeah.”

“Pft.”

Byungsoo gritted his teeth hard enough to hear it creak, the other boy’s laughter was making his head start to swim. How dare this kid…

“You’re lying. You were probably bullied your whole life. You just look the part. You were bullied in elementary school, too, weren’t you? You were probably that kid who would get awkward whenever the teacher singled you out. Be honest with me. You were alone for all of your life, weren’t you?”

“I wasn’t.”

“Wasn’t? There you go, lying again.” “I really wasn’t. Even I, back in middle school…”

“Even I? Eh? That’s an odd choice of words. So you’re being bullied now? You just said you had a lot of friends though. So you were lying, after all?”

Byungsoo became dizzier the more he heard Maru speak. Why was this kid being like this? What did he do wrong? He really did have a normal life in middle school. He played soccer, he went to PC bangs, and he went out to play with his friends on the weekend. He wasn’t lying. In fact, his friends just called him not long ago. He wasn’t making any of this up. For the first time, Byungsoo raised his head, and whispered bitterly.

“What do you know?”

He ended up spitting those words out in bitter anger. Maru’s face turned into an angry frown, which woke Byungsoo up immediately.

“I… That wasn’t what I meant, I was thinking of something else. I’m sorry, I’m not lying.”

“Why do you get so defensive?”

“………”

“Don’t you have something else you want to say?”

“That’s…”

Maru’s frown disappeared off his face, Byungsoo sighed in relief. Thank goodness, it didn’t look like he would get hit.

“The fact that you’re lying tells me you feel pain from the truth. Saying the truth is difficult, isn’t it? Neither of us has that kind of bravery, after all. But there comes a time where we have to gather up our courage and say the truth. Don’t you feel like you’ve been driven to the edge of a cliff sometimes?”

Even in the loud classroom, there was no one who greeted Byungsoo. Byungsoo also thought it was normal to not be talked to. As a matter of fact, he got scared when someone talked to him. What were they going to make him do now? What did they want from him this time? The classroom made Byungsoo feel like he was choking. Whenever he was inside, he counted each second, each minute, waiting for the hours to pass.

‘I guess I’m at the edge.’

Recently, the stories of students who committed suicide didn’t sound like such a foreign idea to him. Of course, he didn’t like the situation he was in. Who would? He wanted to struggle, and try to make a change in his life but lacked the courage. His voice always crawled somewhere deep in his body, sitting there until it eventually transformed into anger and hatred. Anger that he expelled to his mother. He knew this was wrong, but he didn’t know how he would change anything.

“I know why you didn’t say you dislike your situation. No, why you couldn’t say it. After all, if you could say whatever you wanted from the very start, you wouldn’t have a single worry in the world.”

“…What do you want from me?”

Byungsoo was confused. He would honestly feel better if someone like Changhu was beating him right now. In his head, he could tell where Maru was trying to go. But he didn’t have the courage to say that with his mouth.

“I can’t do anything. I’m a coward. I’m just… dumb. No matter what the other kids say to me, I can’t say anything back. Even when they take money from me, I can only smile. If I don’t, I’m just going to get hit, so how am I supposed to fight back?”

He felt the strength sap from his shoulders. He just said whatever came to his head and he felt embarrassed. He felt pathetic for saying something like this. Maru probably thought of him as a bug at this point.

“Done.”

A happy voice. Maru was smiling.

“What’s done?”

“That’s good enough. That’s how you take your first step. And once you take that first step, everything else just becomes that much easier.”

“What did I do?”

“Talk. Talk honestly. You can only lie if you still have a place to run to. If you really get pushed to the edge, that’s when you start doing drastic things. Most people just end up giving up on themselves since that’s the easier option.”

“…What are you trying to say to me?”

“Don’t you feel alone at the edge of that cliff?”

* * *

Byungsoo always felt nervous when he came to the back of the school, he didn’t have any good memories here. As a matter of fact, this was where all of his bad memories began. At the beginning of the school year, he got dragged here by the school delinquent and ended up parted ways with his 30,000 won.

“Why are we here?”

“We need to prepare if we want to start something.”

Maru stepped closer.

“Put some strength in your stomach.”

“What?”

“Did you?”

“Y-yeah.”

Immediately, a loud ‘pow’ hit Byungsoo’s ear. Byungsoo dropped down with a frown. He couldn’t breathe for a second.

“How is it?”

“Kah, kuh. W-why are you being like this, all of the sudden?”

Byungsoo stood back up with a hand on the wall, his body was trembling in fear. Did he get tricked? Thankfully, Maru didn’t hit him again.

“It doesn’t hurt enough for you to die, does it?”

“That’s obv…”

“Now, hit me.”

“W-what? Why would I?!”

“Just do it. Ball up your fist real hard. If you keep it too loose, you might hurt your hand.”

Maru taught him how to hold a fist, and pointed at his stomach. But what kind of a sane person would go around hitting other people?

“I’m not interested in fighting them, I don’t want to. If you’re trying to teach me how to fight, it’s pointless.”

“Who told you to fight? I just want you to know what it’s like to hit someone, and what it’s like to be hit by someone.”

“Y-you really want me to hit you? That’s dangerous.”

Maru shrugged before pointing at his stomach one more time. In the end, Byungsoo punched with a deep frown. A much weaker ‘pow’ sounded, and Maru continued talking with a dull expression.

“You’re afraid of getting hit, right?”

Byungsoo nodded, he was afraid of getting hit, that’s why he was always subservient to others.

“You’re afraid of getting hit because you don’t have the courage to hit back.”

“Courage to hit back?”

“Right. You don’t have the courage to fight back, so you become afraid of getting hit.”

“That’s inevitable, isn’t it? I can’t fight.”

“I’m not telling you to fight. Fighting is pointless.”

“Then?”

“You need to learn to be patient, knowing you can hit back.”

“Stay patient?”

“The other kids aren’t going to stop hitting you. They aren’t going to flinch even if you try to fight back. As a matter of fact, trying to fight back is only going to make them happier.”

“…Nothing’s going to change if I just keep getting hit.”

“Of course not. But once you have the confidence to fight back, that’s when your voice can finally be heard. Since you know you’ll get hit anyway.”

“I can speak back to them?”

Maru nodded.

“But that’s not going to do anything to them,” Byungsoo said.

“No, there comes a point where your words carry greater power.”

Right then, Maru took out a little plastic stick from his pocket. When Maru fiddled with one of its buttons, a sound started playing from it.

“Our voice.”

A pretty clear voice came from the device. There were other noises mixed in there, but the conversation from a moment ago was recorded perfectly.

“Are you…”

“This is the reason why I need your help, but you do need some courage to be able to speak while holding this in front of them. Courage isn’t anything special, though. It’s enough as long as you can be honest with yourself. All you have to do then is to say the words that pop up in your head.”

Byungsoo gulped.

“Are you telling me to be honest in front of them? Then…”

“You’d get beat up like never before.”

“Hey!”

This guy was being unfair. He was asking Byungsoo to do the difficult things. If Byungsoo actually followed through, he would get in big trouble. If he told them to pay him back, to stop bullying him, and to stop hitting him, he’d get a punch thrown at his face in an instant. Maru put the recording device back in his pocket.

“You made your bed, so you might as well lay on it.”

“You’re telling me to deal with it myself?”

“Right. You were honest with me, so I’ll be honest with you as well. I can’t help you with everything. That’s impossible. Some things can only be attained through sacrifice.”

“You’re saying I have to get beat up for this?”

“Yeah.”

“But it’s just voices. What will we do with that? And if they learn about what I did with it… I wouldn’t even be able to come to school anymore.”

Horrible. If the delinquents found out he tried to fight back, they wouldn’t just stop with a normal beating. He was being told to do something that dangerous? Something that could make him get bullied even more?

“Evidence is the most important thing when it comes to school violence. It’s incredibly important to get evidence over how much money they took from you, how long you’ve been bullied, and how many people bullied you.”

“But all that would just end with a scolding from the teacher! What about after that? Then I would…”

“Who said I’d be going to the teacher?”

“Then what?”

“We wouldn’t be doing this if we wanted to finish this with the school. If we start something, we might as well see the end of it.”

Maru spoke with an annoyed look, which somehow made a chill run down Byungsoo’s spine.

“There are a lot of kids that are being bullied by Changhu, actually. This will be pretty worth it if we go through with it.”

“What are you thinking of doing…?”

“Well, it’s obvious, isn’t it?”

Maru took out the recorder again.

“I just want to show them that the law is much more powerful than a fist.”

“Law? W-what, you want to sue them or something?”

Maru nodded calmly. Did this guy even know what he was talking about? Suing? That kind of stuff only happened in the world of adults!

“I’m going to explain to you what I can do, and what I can’t do. If you like what I tell you by the end of it, take the recorder. If you don’t, just give me a signature when I write a petition. I can always leave the act of recording to someone else.”

Byungsoo looked at the device with trembling eyes. For some reason, he felt like he could trust Maru, despite meeting him for the first time today. It didn’t look like Maru was being lazy about this, either. A recording device… where did he get a hold of that?

“Will you really help me?”

“It’s a win-win situation, really.”

Byungsoo thought to himself for a bit, it didn’t take him long to come to a decision. He already hit rock bottom a long time ago, he really didn’t have anywhere to go from here. If he was going to be bullied till the end anyway… He might as well go out with a bang. He was scared, but with this guy helping him, he had the support to pull it off. Byungsoo grabbed the recorder tightly from Maru’s hand.

“I’ll do it.”

“Listen to what I have to say, first. Oh, don’t grab that so tightly, by the way.”

“Why?”

“It’s not even mine, and it’s also eight hundred thousand won.”

“E-eight hundred?”

Byungsoo let go with a flinch. Just what was this guy?

“Anyway, I’ll explain what we’re going to do.”

Maru began talking with a serious look.

Chapter 103

School. Byungsoo could see one of the teachers frowning as he stood at the front gate. The man was beating several students with a stick with all his strength. Ah, yes. A typical morning at an engineering high school.

Byungsoo took a deep breath before walking into the gates. He’s never gotten scolded by the teachers in his life, perhaps the teachers didn’t even know someone like him existed. Such thoughts made him a little depressed. This feeling wouldn’t last long, though. Such casual feelings would disappear once he enters the classroom.

“Byungsoo.”

Some kids approached him as soon as he entered. They didn’t bully him or anything, but they always wanted something from Byungsoo. Byungsoo took out his English homework for them. They took it and left without even saying thanks, he was used to this sort of treatment at this point. Eventually, the kids finished copying his homework and left, leaving his own homework all dirtied up on a desk a few meters away. Byungsoo picked the notebook up and put it back on his desk, the other kids would come to take it away later anyway.

At the same time, something similar was happening on the other side of the class. Byungsoo took a look at the kid with glasses who was looking down at the desk, the kid turned to look his way. Just a few days ago, Byungsoo chose to ignore this kid when his eyes met. Because of that little pride he still had in his heart, the belief that he was better than this kid still.

‘You’re here?’

‘Yeah.’

The two silently exchanged greetings with each other. If there was one thing that he learned from Maru, it was that he had comrades. They no longer ignored each other, instead forming an understanding with one another. They didn’t share pain with each other, but rather strength. The kid with the glasses was called Jinho and this kid might very well become Byungsoo’s first real friend in high school.

* * *

One should never rush work. Instead, he should always go about it calmly and carefully. Maru knew very well that what he was about to do should be done very, very carefully. There could be no emotions attached. Thankfully, Byungsoo, Jinho, and all others involved understood this as well.

“Byungsoo, throw this away for me.”

More trash got thrown his way today. Byungsoo wasn’t even mad, he just picked up the trash as usual, and threw it away. Thinking none of this would change tomorrow made a feeling of anger flare up within, but the fact that he was at least able to prepare for tomorrow made it all bearable.

‘No, this isn’t right.’

[You’re not trying to endure your way through it. Remember that. You need to remember everything about how people treated you. You can even take notes. You might want to swear, or you might want to cry when you look at your notes, but this is essential. I’ll tell you this again. You’re not just enduring it anymore, you’re also collecting evidence.]

Byungsoo remembered the name of the kid who threw trash at him, the kid who made him do his homework, and the kid who always hit him for no reason.

[Change never happens in an instant, people can’t change with the snap of a finger. They only pretend to change in order to avoid adversity. But, there is one time when a person really does change, when they’re driven to a corner. They need to survive, after all. That’s when people really change. So don’t try to rush things. Though it sounds ridiculous, you did manage to come here safely after all this time, after all.]

Come here safely. Byungsoo remembered getting really surprised as he talked with Jinho, the other boy had been considering suicide many times before. Whenever he looked out the window, as a matter of fact.

[The funny thing is… I can’t die, since I’m afraid people will think I’m pathetic if I kill myself. Pathetic, isn’t it?]

Byungsoo disagreed almost immediately, he remembered some other kid Maru found saying he couldn’t kill himself because of the porn stash on his computer. It almost made him laugh, but it also sent a chill down his spine. So everyone’s considered suicide at some point, after all.

Lunchtime. Byungsoo quietly ate lunch with Jinho before coming back to class. The others were laughing and pointing at the two of them, talking about how likes attract likes.

12:40pm. Byungsoo and Jinho exchanged looks before stepping outside, they were headed to the auditorium on the fifth floor. The place was usually occupied by the acting club and no one else, making it a good place to meet up. Byungsoo looked around for a second before carefully entering the auditorium.

“Oh, you’re here.”

Inside, there were around fourteen people. All students who got bullied by Changhu and his friends. Byungsoo greeted the teacher next to Maru first, it was the acting club’s advisor, Mr. Taesik. Thinking about how a teacher was on their side gave strength to Byungsoo.

Maru and Taesik were quietly talking with each other, this was already pretty amazing to Byungsoo. To be quite honest, he didn’t think Maru would put this much work into all of this for them. Watching Maru work honestly made Byungsoo question if the boy really was a high schooler. Byungsoo leaned forward, trying to listen in on the two’s conversation.

“Did you try talking about it in the faculty meeting?”

“The faculty’s trying to improve the school’s reputation, so they’re trying to get rid of as much school violence as possible by next year.”

“What about right now?”

“It looks like they’ll open a meeting on mitigating school violence, no matter how I look at it. It’s unfortunate, but they’ll try not to let this go any higher than that. School parents get very, very sensitive over news like this after all.”

Something wasn’t right, the two didn’t have a very bright look on their faces.

“But if they hold a mitigation meeting, everything’s just going to end after some short volunteer work.”

“Indeed. No school wants to expose their dark sides to the public. They’ll try to downplay everything as much as possible, I don’t think anyone will get expelled or transferred.”

“What happened at the last mitigation meeting?”

“Like you said, it just ended with simple volunteer work.”

“The victim?”

“…Transferred.”

“I see. Thank you for listening to my request.”

“I have my debts to pay still, but it looks like this is about as far as I can go. If I tried to intervene here, the rest of the faculty’s just going to use it as a chance to drag down the acting club further.”

“Right. I don’t want that happening either.”

“But when did you prepare all of this to begin with? You even managed to get legal paperwork?”

“I was recently introduced to a lawyer from someone I know, I might as well go big since I decided to start something.”

“You must be busy. With this, Myungdong, and even the stuff from the acting club… Don’t overwork yourself.”

“Of course. Ah, besides that, I heard some rumors about a marriage this year?”

“Haha, oh you.”

Byungsoo said his farewells as Taesik stood up and left the auditorium. It felt like things would’ve been very different for him if someone like that had been his teacher.

“You guys wrote your stuff?”

Everyone handed Maru a sheet of A4 paper. There was a list of everything that happened today written on those papers. Maru took it and carefully put it in a plastic case.

“As you heard, things would just end with volunteer work if we tried to take this to the school. Some of the delinquents wouldn’t even be punished either.”

“J-just that?”

One of the kids spoke in a defeated tone. Byungsoo knew this kid as well, he’s gotten beat up with the kid in the past.

“We have to take proper steps with these things. People in power like it when you take things step by step. In this school, the people with the most power would be the principal. Nothing good would come from offending someone like him, so we need to start off with a mitigation meeting no matter what. We can see the results from that before making our decision.”

“Decision?”

“Right. A decision you guys will be making.”

“Us?”

Byungsoo blinked. Them? Make a decision?

“The school would have to open a mitigation meeting whether they like it or not, with solid evidence like this. They’ll have to call on everyone that’s listed on this paperwork, you guys will be questioned as well in that process. What’s important here is that you guys be completely truthful.”

Everyone nodded.

“Once that ends, the school will come up with a punishment. Anything ranging from a simple scolding to a full-on expulsion. Once they come up with a punishment, that’s when you make your decision. Whether you want to stop there, or…”

“Or?”

Byungsoo gulped.

“We can turn this into a full-blown lawsuit.”

* * *

“Where the hell have you been going recently?”

Maru just smiled at Dojin’s question, he’s never wanted to have duplicates of himself so badly.

“We’re going to a karaoke bar in the weekend. You should come.”

Maru could only apologize.

“Let’s go play when I’m done with all of this.”

“What in the world are you doing?”

“Can’t say. Secrecy’s important here.”

“What are you even going on about?”

Dojin seemed incredibly confused. Maru said his goodbyes to his two friends and went to the boxing gym in town. He could see the others waiting for him already.

“Why didn’t you go in without me?”

“It felt awkward to just go in by ourselves.”

“Come on, guys. It’s been three days. We might as well get used to it at this point.”

As soon as they entered, they were overwhelmed by the smell of sweat. Maru gave his greetings to the trainer in the corner.

“I’ll leave them to you, as always.”

“Sure.”

“Ah, right. My father wanted to know if you had time in the weekend…”

“Why wouldn’t that guy just call me directly? Why does he need me for the weekend?”

“BBQ and soju…”

The man cut Maru off, saying ‘I’ll be there for sure’. The trainer here was a friend of his dad from dad’s amateur boxer days. When Maru explained what happened at school to him, the man told him to bring the kids here ‘no matter what’. Thankfully, the price for all of this was completely free.

[I actually have some debt towards your dad in the past. I paid him back, but I’m still very thankful for what he did. After all, half of this gym was funded by him.]

“Make them a little more energetic, please.”

“Energetic, you say? Well, if they just learn how to get hit, they wouldn’t lose in a fight anymore. I’ll fix them up real good, so that they start beating the bullies before anything.”

The kids started moving at the trainer’s words. Even if the bullies get punished, the root of the problem wouldn’t be so easily changed. In the end, the person has to be fixed from the ground up. Maru wanted to help these kids as much as he could.

‘I do feel sorry for them regardless.’

He didn’t start this because he felt sorry for the kids that got bullied. In the end, he started this to solve his own problem. Changhu was sure to hurt the club in the long run, especially since he actually knew how to use his brain. Honestly, if it wasn’t for Changhu, Maru wouldn’t have stepped in at all. He wasn’t immature enough to extend his hand out to those he wouldn’t be able to help for sure.

‘But I started this already.’

If he started something, he might as well end see it through to the end. That’s how Maru worked. The fact that Changhu touched his sister became another motivating factor for him. Trash that dared hit women just needed to disappear, at least in Maru’s head. He wouldn’t even try to scold trash like that, trash like that would only learn once they got a proper beating.

‘Might as well give them one, then.’

Maru realized that his sense of justice was pretty much ingrained into his personality. Even when he quit his company, he exposed all of their dark deeds beforehand. He didn’t like to get into action for many things, but he was the type that had to do something once he unsheathed his blade.

“Thank you!”

Maru stepped back out after saying goodbye to the trainer. Delinquents were only scary because they knew how to use violence. Once you believe you can resist their violence, they become trivial matters.

‘He’s a bit odd, but I guess that would be better for the kids in the long run.’

In the end, fear was subjective. Once these kids experience what punches from a real boxer is like, they’d naturally gain resistance to delinquents. It may be difficult for them at first, but surely they will grow in the future. The body was honest in that way. If you put in work into your body, it would pay you back in equal amounts of muscle. And these kids… After hitting rock bottom, they would try to climb back up with all their strength.

But if they give up there? Well, in that case, not even Maru could do anything. He didn’t have a way of helping someone who would willingly jump off a cliff.

“They should do well, though.”

In the end, you start feeling like you’re getting bullied if you get swept up with the rest of the class. These kids don’t get bullied because there’s something wrong with them, they get bullied because that’s just what happened as the class went on. That’s why most kids in class would feign ignorance when they get asked about bullying in their classes.

They were unaware that they were even bullying someone in the first place. In that case, Maru would have to let them know. Let them know that the person they treated like air were human beings, just like them.

“Oh boy, look at the time.”

Maru could just imagine Ganghwan annoyed look from waiting for him. It was the day of the amateur acting practice, he needed to run to Myungdong right away. Sure enough, he could see Ganghwan fiddling with his phone with a deep frown at their meeting spot.

“Sorry, I’m late.”

“Oh, so you’re well aware of that, huh?”

“We’re late, so let’s just go.”

“God damn it, if I wasn’t being paid for this, I’d just…!”

“I’ll try to find a girl for you to go on a date with in the near future.”

“…Dear disciple, please get in the car.”

Ganghwan even opened the door to the car for him.

“We’re getting our parts today, right?”

“Yeah. Everyone’s in an acting club already, so they know what they’re supposed to do.”

Maru smiled brightly, thinking of the Myungdong Art Theater.

“Why the hell are you smiling like that all of a sudden?”

“What, I can’t even smile?”

“Ugh, kids these days. Speaking of which, you seemed to be good friends with a girl there last time.”

“You saw?”

“Of course. I was looking around for cute female instructors as well in the meantime, but they all turned out to be really old. Hah…”

Maru turned away from Ganghwan to look at the window. “She” was in the amateur class with him. Of course, this wasn’t luck or anything. Maru asked Junmin to put her in, a good use of his power.

“I wonder when I’m going to get an SO.”

Ganghwan hummed to himself an unknown tune.

Chapter 104

Byungsoo’s jaws hurt like hell. He thought back to the boxing trainer who punched him with incredible strength with those mitts. The old man had so much strength behind him, despite having such a beer belly.

‘This pain will help though, I’m sure.’

It really did feel like he was starting to gain confidence. Right then, he thought of something that the trainer told him, which made him grin like a kid.

[You know those chairs in class? If things go badly for you, just grab one of those. Don’t actually swing it, obviously. If you actually hit someone with that thing, things might actually get fucked for you. Just grab it and glare, it should work about once. Also, start exercising from now on. The confidence of a man scales directly with his muscle mass. Throw those computer game things out for a while. If you have the time to move that mouse of yours, you have time to lift dumbbells instead. Exercise only gives back to those who really try hard.]

Byungsoo turned off the computer and started doing pushups, his arms started trembling after he did just five. Even so, he gritted his teeth and did one more. The feeling of satisfaction started spreading in his chest.

* * *

“That fucker’s been glaring every once a while.”

Changhu licked his lips, thinking of the idiot he’s been bullying recently. In the grand scheme of things, nothing changed. The idiot still gave him money when he asked for it, but something was off. The idiot has started talking back to him.

Stuff like ‘when will you pay me back?’ or ‘can you stop already?’ Even when Changhu beat the kid up, the idiot kept parroting the words at him.

“His defense points probably went up after getting beat up so much, hah!”

“Haha, is this a video game or something?”

Changhu laughed his worries away just like that, these idiots couldn’t do anything to him anyway. The best they could do was to tell the teacher, but Changhu was long prepared for that outcome.

‘I’ve been acting pretty well all this time.’

He didn’t do anything that would lower the teachers’ opinion of him. He never got caught smoking, he had never been caught beating someone up, he would always greet his teachers, and he took good care of his grades. On the outside, he was a perfect student. If an issue occurred about him in the future, he should just be able to pass it off as a simple misunderstanding. All of this was something he learned from his senior that went to a different engineering school.

According to his senior, the man earned himself around eight million won just by beating kids. He graduated safely despite that and is currently going to a college inside Seoul. Changhu looked up to that senior as his role model.

“C-Changhu!”

Right then, one of his friends ran into the class with a surprised expression. Changhu greeted him with a smile.

“What, you got caught doing something bad again?”

“N-No! It’s not that!”

This friend of his liked to overreact a lot, so Changhu didn’t pay much attention to it. But his friend’s face only got paler by the second, only then did he realize something was wrong.

“What? What happened?”

“Jungsoo got called away.”

“Yeah. So?”

There were a lot of students who got dragged away to the faculty offices. Jungsoo was one of the stupider kids, so he got dragged away to the faculty office every other day. The fact that the kid got dragged away wasn’t even news.

“He didn’t get called for just a beating!”

“What?”

“They’re opening some mitige- mitiga- some big meeting. Everyone’s getting taken away!”

“…What?”

Right then, their homeroom teacher burst in through the door. The man literally punched the door open hard enough to make it creak a little bit as he walked in.

“You! You! You! And you! Follow me!”

The man’s cue stick was pointed at Changhu, Changhu finally clued in on was happening. He didn’t know what this meeting thing was about, but it looked like the idiots finally told on him. The homeroom teacher walked out with a frown. Taking that as a sign, Changhu walked right up to Gijung.

“Was it you?”

“……”

No response. That in itself was good enough as an answer, this kid was the culprit. Changhu raised his hand, and punched the back of the boy’s head. The entire class quieted down, but Changhu didn’t care about that right now.

“I asked you a question, you fuck.”

“God fucking damn, did you really?”

His friends came over to surround Gijung as well. Changhu thought he’s been taking good care of this idiot recently, to think he would get blindsided like this… he could only laugh.

“So an idiot manages to get a hit on me, finally. But oh dear, I’ll probably get away scott-free anyway.”

Changhu grabbed Gijung by the collars and lifted the boy up.

“Good job for mustering courage, idiot. We’ll be having a private meeting after this, though.”

Changhu threw Gijung back on the chair, which made the boy fall back loudly.

“You can’t even fight back, so how dare you backstab me like this? I’ll show you that little bit of courage you showed was a mistake.”

Changhu could only laugh. These were all trash in the end who couldn’t even fight him, they should’ve just focused on their studies instead. Then again, what could he even expect from these insects? They couldn’t even play, nor could they even study. They all had a reason for being bullied, really. That’s all they were good for in the end.

“…Yeah, I’ll see you later.”

He heard that voice come from behind him just as he was about to go outside. Changhu thought he heard wrong, but the voice was much too clear to just be a figment of his imagination. Behind him, Gijung was getting back up with a frown. There wasn’t any fighting spirit in the boy’s eyes, but there wasn’t fear, either.

Changhu realized something very quickly. This kid… wasn’t looking away from him.

“Hah, that fuck. He’s very funny.”

“Yeah, is he crazy, or what?”

His friends were all laughing, but Changhu wasn’t. He had a very bad feeling about all of this. The fact that the kid was different from before meant that the kid had someone to rely on. There was no reason for someone like that to change otherwise. Changhu knew very well that people didn’t change unless they were put in a corner, he knew this well from years of experience as a delinquent. After all, he didn’t really want to drive a person to suicide, either. That’d leave a bad taste in his mouth.

In that sense, Gijung was like all of the other idiots. The type that would go back to normal once he left the boy alone for a bit. But those eyes from before weren’t like the usual, the boy was clearly looking for a fight. He could see Gijung get back to his seat with a calm expression. Changhu thought about beating the boy up on the spot again, but gave up. Something was very wrong right now.

“Let’s go.”

“Yeah.”

Changhu, after walking outside into the hallway, looked into the class through the windows. He could see Gijung trembling inside, the boy was scared of him for sure. So where did that boy’s confidence come from, just now?

Right then, he noticed Gijung looking to the back of the class. Changhu turned to look at where the boy was looking. And there… He could see Maru yawning.

‘Could it be?’

“Changhu, let’s go. We don’t want the teacher getting mad at us even more.”

For now, Changhu decided to go up to the faculty office. He did wonder, though. Did Maru get involved with this somehow? No, the boy had no reason to. Was it because of the money?

‘No, no way. I’m just assuming things too much. This is just going to be another one of those small things.’

But when Changhu entered the faculty office, he realized that this wasn’t going to be like “another one of those small things”. Especially with that amount of paperwork he saw on the table.

“You motherfuckers.”

That was the first thing that came out of the teacher’s mouth.

* * *

“It starts today.”

The kids all nodded at Maru’s words. Byungsoo could feel his heart beat. It’s finally begun. They couldn’t take any of this back now. They drew their swords, and someone was going to go down, no matter who it was. Now, it was time for them to lay low, and make sure they wouldn’t get hurt themselves.

“You guys probably met one on one with the teachers at this point. Like I said before, you guys should just say the stuff that’s happened to you without any exaggeration. Even if the teacher keeps telling you that you’re just making stuff up, you have to keep denying them. Just keep parroting the truth. The disciplinary teacher’s also gotten selected to be in the mitigation meeting. The board members for this one are going to be chosen by the principal, so I can’t do anything here. You guys are on your own from here.”

“I did exactly what you said.”

“Me too.”

“The disciplinary teacher kept trying to scare me, but thanks to the boxing trainer, he wasn’t scary at all.”

Byungsoo noticed small smiles appearing on his friends’ expressions. He could feel a deep sense of gratitude flowing up towards the trainer on the inside, their trainer was trying to help all of them earnestly. Thanks to that, Byungsoo got pretty bad muscle aches, but he did attain confidence through it.

“I’d look pretty pathetic for being proud of this, but I managed to talk back at Changhu today,” a boy named Gijung spoke up.

Everyone in the room gave the boy a thumbs up, this was definitely an improvement for all of them.

“They got the complaints from the victims, so they’ll hear the story from the bullies’ side of things. You saw them getting dragged away, didn’t you? After that, they’ll set up a meeting for both sides, and then they’ll come up with a punishment for the bullies.”

“By a meeting… you mean we’ll have to be in the same room as them?” one of the kids asked.

Maru shook his head.

“It’s normal to call both sides one by one. If they put all of you in the same room, just complain right there and then. This is your right.”

“Y-yeah.”

“And like I said in the beginning, I can’t help you anymore from here. I can always talk to you, but I’m not going to reveal that I’m connected to this at all. You should all know the reason why at this point, right?”

“We’re happy with all you’ve done for us already.”

“Yeah.”

“We’ll… take it from here.”

Maru nodded. He’s already explained to the group about the reputation of the acting club. Byungsoo understood as well. If Maru were to be found out for helping them, the acting club might end up getting in trouble. Honestly, the boy’s already done more than enough for the group.

“Focus. All the way up until the meeting ends.”

“Okay.”

“Your classmates will start treating you differently from now as well, I hope you can take care of that as well. Remember what the trainer said?”

“People don’t hit sandbags that can fight back,” Byungsoo said.

It was something that the trainer liked to always talk about.

[You guys are sandbags. You can’t just turn into someone who’s good at fighting overnight. But! You can turn into thorny sandbags at the very least. That’s where we’ll start.]

“You guys worked hard. But it’s still not over yet, so don’t let your guard down.”

Maru extended his hand forward. The others all put their hands over his and said a quiet “fighting” under their breaths.

Chapter 105

After that day, the delinquents all became quiet. They were glaring harder than ever before, but Byungsoo got used to those glares very quickly. He’s learned that glares don’t hurt, no matter how much you receive them. As a matter of fact, looking back at these delinquents just reassure him of his victory. They all looked visibly worried at this point.

Like Maru predicted yesterday, they were all called out to speak with the teachers. They were getting interviewed so that the teachers could make sure they were getting the truth from both sides.

What really surprised Byungsoo was how the disciplinary teacher took it. All this time, he thought the disciplinary teacher came to school to beat up kids, but that scary teacher was listening to his story quite seriously. The man even commented that ‘kids with no chance at redemption like that need special punishment.’

Of course, not all teachers were like this. All the other teachers in the mitigation meeting only pretended to understand Byungsoo, while trying to downscale all of this as much as possible. Looking at these people's work made Byungsoo very surprised. He even told them that he was considering suicide and all these people told him was ‘but they’re friends, so you should be understanding’. Listening to them made Byungsoo think back to something Maru told him.

[In the end, school is also a form of a business. Businesses only work when people actually come to it. In order to make people come, you need to have a good reputation. In that sense, our school has every reason to shake off any rumors involving delinquency. That’s why a lot of the teachers will try to hide that this bullying stuff ever happened.]

Maru did warn that the teachers would try to downplay everything, but actually seeing that happen in front of him just made Byungsoo laugh in dejection. He didn’t hate the teachers for what they did, though. As he prepared for all of this with Maru, he’s thought a lot about this. His other friends probably did the same.

‘Everyone has their own sense of justice.’

Some teachers think justice is to fight for kids like them, some teachers think justice is to work hard for a promotion or to work for their own family. Everyone has their own reasons for working the way that they did. Byungsoo’s learned that at this point that everyone has their own reasons for living the way they did. At the same time, he’s realized that he would need a more solidified worldview for himself.

‘Other people’s perspectives are, in the end, their own.’

Just because Byungsoo understood why people did the things they did didn’t necessarily make him agree with it. Byungsoo shook his head when the teachers told him to let this pass easily, they frustratedly told him to think about the future instead of focusing on getting instant gratification. Hearing that made Byungsoo’s opinions even more set in stone, he said on the spot that he wanted to see the bullies get punished. That his thoughts on the matter wouldn’t change no matter how much they tried.

He didn’t sound that cool at the time, of course. He was actually stuttering and everything, but that didn’t make him feel any less proud of saying what he said. For the first time in a long time, he managed to say his opinion to someone else.

Byungsoo saw one of his other friends being called into a teacher’s office on his way back to class. Another one of his comrades in arms. He recalled smiling at this friend as he passed by. He realized then, that he finally had enough confidence to start cheering other people on. Just this realization was enough to change his life for the better, he actually started enjoying school a bit more.

“Yo, weren’t my punches pretty great yesterday?”

“Yeah bro. There were some nice sounds coming out of those mitts. Are we doing roadwork again today, by the way? Doing that always makes me want to throw up.”

“Obviously. If we try to skip it, the trainer’s going to kill us.”

He’s finally gotten a friend to talk to during break times as well. It was just one person, but a friend was still a friend. The fourteen friends he met during this time felt especially precious to Byungsoo. Not just because they shared a common pain, but because they were all fighting the same battle. Without it, they wouldn’t be as close as they are now.

Lunchtime. Byungsoo stopped heading out of the classroom in a hurry, he’d casually waited for his friends in other classes before heading down happily. The gazes from other students around him… felt normal, surprisingly enough. To be honest, he was a little scared at first. He thought he’d get bullied by the class for selling out a delinquent in his class, but the reactions he got from his classmates were very, very normal. They just didn’t care. Apparently it was the same in the other classes, too.

There, Byungsoo and his friends learned one more thing, people wouldn’t care about others if they weren’t involved. Byungsoo thought back to his middle school days as well. Back then, there was a kid who was a little slower than others. He didn’t actively bully the kid, but he and his classmates teased the kid about it.

Looking back, he definitely took part in bullying. Perhaps that kid was getting beat up where he couldn’t see as well. But at the time, Byungsoo didn’t have any interest in the kid at all. He just threw a joke or two about the kid every once in a while, because everyone else was doing it.

That’s right, he didn’t care at all at the time. In the end, the kid was like a prop on a stage, something that he actively ignored.

‘It must be the same for them, too.’

His classmates probably thought the same. There probably weren’t many in his class who were bullying him for the sake of bullying.

That didn’t mean he forgave them for their actions, of course. They knew he was getting bullied, but didn’t do anything about it. He did, however, stopped blaming them for everything. He realized how pointless it was to try to shift blame onto other people. In the end, problems could only be solved if you came to face it directly.

[If you can dodge a problem and have it be solved, just dodge it. But if you can’t, in the end, you’ll have to face it. No matter how much you dodge it, eventually, that problem’s going to come and catch up to you.]

That was another thing Maru told him. Of course, Byungsoo didn’t believe Maru’s words all the time. In fact, he disagreed with Maru often as well. Whenever that happened, Maru took his words into account and came up with a different decision. Byungsoo could sense a lot of experience from the boy in those moments.

At the same time, he felt very foreign to Byungsoo. When he asked around, he found that all his other friends felt the same way as well.

“Doesn’t Maru always talk like he’s not involved in something?”

“Yeah. He treats certain things like he’s not involved in it at all, despite being the one to instigate this in the first place.”

Maru was always very calm in nature, adding a sense of maturity which made him seem much older than he actually was. The boy had a very good head on his shoulders. But strangely, Byungsoo didn’t want to become the boy’s friend at all. Was it because of the boy’s ever-bored expression? Or the boy’s confidence?

For sure, Maru was a great ally to have. But that’s all there was to it. Something made Byungsoo very sure that the two of them would never get very close.

‘I guess it doesn’t matter that much, though.’

To begin with, Maru had no reason to hang out with kids like him in the first place. Byungsoo’s learned through all of this that Maru was shouldering expectations from a lot of people. The boy received calls all the time, mostly from adults.

Even Maru’s school friends seemed amazing. Then again, everyone in the acting club looked very quirky and charming. Again, Maru… had no reason to be with them. Regardless, Maru had some sort of an aura about him that made him hard to approach.

Not his talent, or personality. Just something odd that made him hard to befriend. The others thought the same as well.

“Maru’s kind of… It feels like he’s there, but also not there? It's a bit hard to describe.”

“Yeah, he’s a good guy, but…”

The others didn’t think deeply about it. Regardless of what Maru was like, the fact that the boy was their savior didn’t change.

* * *

“…Yawn.”

“You’ve been yawning a lot recently.”

“I’m tired.”

Dojin looked around for a second before leaning towards Maru.

“You’ve been together with the bullied kids recently, I noticed. Were you the one that made them do all of this?”

“I only helped them a little.”

“I knew something was off.”

Dojin handed Maru a cherry flavored candy. Maru took it and popped it into his mouth. Perfect timing, he was craving the sweet stuff just now.

“Is this because of Changhu?”

“For now, yeah.”

“You’ve really made up your mind, haven’t you? But wouldn’t this be dangerous if he finds out? You know he gets really petty with stuff like this.”

Dojin pointed very carefully at Changhu, Changhu and his friends have been getting called out to the faculty offices almost daily in the past few days. Because of this, pretty much every student in the school knew what was happening at this point. No matter how quietly the teachers tried to handle things, the rumors still spread like wildfire.

“I’m not doing anything that’d make me visible, so don’t worry. Plus, Changhu probably doesn’t even have time to think. His parents should be receiving a call sooner or later.”

“God damn am I glad to be your friend. You cruel bastard.”

“Cruel? No way. This is just karma.”

“So this is why you’ve been so busy recently.”

“It’s almost all over, so I can finally breathe a little.”

“Here, eat this.”

Someone else jumped right onto their conversation in the middle. It was Daemyung, who handed them both a burger. The boy’s been gaining weight again after the club started training, apparently, Miso’s been making plans to make Daemyung lose weight for good in the near future.

“I just thought I wouldn’t be able to eat however as much as I wanted after this point. Hehe.”

“You’re going to get fat again. Control yourself.”

“I will, I will. I’m going on a diet tomorrow.”

“That’s what they all say.”

Dojin and Daemyung talked to each other with a grin. Maru, in the meantime, chewed the candy in his mouth before turning his attention towards the burger. On the weekdays, he had club practice and Ganghwan’s private lessons. On Wednesdays to Fridays, he had training for the Myungdong Art Theater. On Saturday he needed to go to Hyehwa station, and then back to Myungdong in the evening. Sunday was the same. As a matter of fact, he didn’t have time to meet Soojin for the past month.

‘Come to think of… ’

There was that thing with Dowook as well, Maru wanted to help the guy if he could. Maru thought of his schedule for this week.

He’s learned a lot from Soojin. He didn’t want to interfere with her family life, but he did want her to come to an understanding with her brother if he could. He’s received a lot from her, so he thought it would be only fitting to pay her back.

Maru felt himself becoming busy, he spent too much time working nowadays. He wanted to go on another date with her as well, but he just didn’t have the time. To think he’d be even busier than his adult life back in the past… This was ridiculous.

“Hey, Maru.”

Maru opened his eyes, hearing Dojin call out to him.

“You look tired man, you should sleep.”

“Yeah, I should. Wake me up when the teacher comes.”

“Course.”

Maru decided to sleep for now.

* * *

There was only one thing the kids wanted and that was to expel the bullies. They didn’t want anything else and that’s exactly what they told the faculty. Perhaps this was why rumors about this event spread so fast around the school.

The teachers were starting to get busier around the school. The bullies had to start talking a lot more, and the victims were getting calmer by the minute. Eventually, the parents were summoned as well. Most were mothers, but even dads decided to come occasionally.

Maru took a look at the people gathering outside. By the looks of it, the school was about to get very loud again.

“Should be alright, though.”

Maru licked his lips as he looked at his contacts. Recently, he’s come to realize why people in power were so desperate to keep their power.

* * *

Changhu’s trusted friend shook his head with a pale expression. This guy’s mother had a very good relationship with the chairman of the school, so Changhu expected good news, but… That was not the case.

“Dude, I thought your mom had power.”

“Well… she said it would be good for us to follow the school’s decision.”

“Why?”

“If this ends up going to court, then… We’d really be screwed. She said expulsion might be our best bet.”

“What? You gotta tell me more. What the hell’s happening?”

Expulsion? Best choice? What kind of bullshit was this? Changhu could feel the blood rush to his head. At the same time, he noticed Gijung reading a book at a desk. He knew he shouldn’t, but he couldn’t control himself right now. He ran forward and kicked Gijung as hard as he could. The boy fell backward loudly, attracting the class’s attention.

Changhu realized what he’d done, but the water was already spilled. He might as well finish what he started.

“You son of a bitch, try to be quiet.”

“You’re too loud. Dude, you think the class belongs to you?”

“Motherfucker, can’t we catch a break during break time?”

All the kids in the class said something to him. Even though they didn’t say anything to him in the past… Come to think of it, these were also the guys that Gijung exchanged greetings with every morning. Were they friends?

“This guy’s trying to survive, too. Just stop. At this rate, you really are going to get sent to a detention center.”

“Yeah. Calm down, tard.”

Changhu grit his teeth. He turned around, ready to beat up the guys who dared talk back at him, but he could feel his fist start loosening up once he noticed that there weren’t just a few people looking at him disapprovingly.

To be honest, Changhu didn’t have that much confidence in fighting. He’s also realized. Many of the kids in his class were actually very good at fighting, unlike him.

“Oh dear, our Changhu’s fucked, isn’t he?”

Dojin’s voice stabbed its way into Changhu’s ear. In the end, all Changhu could do was leave the class with a loud huff.

Chapter 106

“It’s because of bastards like these that our school has fallen to this state.”

“Please, calm yourself, Mr. Lee. You’re a teacher, you shouldn’t speak so rashly like this.”

“I understand my language isn’t very proper right now, but what these kids did is just too much.”

Mr. Lee threw the stack of A4 paper on the desk, the teachers looking at the paper looked with incredibly uncomfortable expressions.

“Of course. I am well aware that they crossed the line. But Mr. Lee, it’s almost admission season. If bad news spreads about our school because of this, we’ll be in hot water. Don’t you remember what the principal told us?”

The one who was speaking was the Hanja teacher of the school, the man was someone who came up to the city from the rural part of the country. He was a prime candidate for vice principal after multiple promotions.

‘He thinks he pretty much owns the place now, doesn’t he?’

Mr. Lee looked disapprovingly at the Hanja teacher.

“You said the school was trying to improve its image, didn’t you? We should take this as a chance. Things only got this bad because we never punished the delinquents!”

Mr. Lee boldly stepped forward. The school managed delinquency issues in its past. The kids in this school were rough, so fights broke out a lot, and things often took a turn for the worse. That’s why the mitigation committee existed, but most of these meetings ended with just a slap on the wrists for the bullies. Mr. Lee wasn’t a fan of this. Each time he advocated for harsher treatment for the bullies, it never worked.

To begin with, the committee was run by four parents and three teachers chosen by the principal. Mr. Lee managed to be one of those three teachers at first, he was the one who gave fitting punishment to the bullies. But at some point, his relationship with the principal went awry. Now he wasn’t even able to set foot in a single committee meeting.

“We’ll handle it, so don’t worry.”

The Hanja teacher got up from his seat with a frown. The other two teachers selected for the committee told Mr. Lee to calm down a bit before leaving as well.

“It’s all screwed.”

Mr. Lee started gulping down a cold drink from a freezer after everyone else left. Some of the teachers in the faculty called him an “outdated teacher” behind his back, he even got scolded for trying to solve an issue the right way.

“What kind of an educator wags his tail in front of someone that needs punishment?”

Teachers needed to punish kids who deserved it, it didn’t have to be corporal punishment. There still needed to be something that could make the student fear the teacher in some way, everything else would come after that. If a student did something bad, they would need to be punished before anything else.

High schooler.

A very long time ago, people at this age would’ve been raising their own kids already. It seemed that the world wanted people to keep being children for as long as possible as time went on.

“They should know just about everything by now, too.”

Nowadays, these kids were even smarter than the teachers thanks to the internet. The minute something goes against their liking, a video recording would be sent to the ministry of education with a formal report. Hearing about this kind of news from other schools annoyed Mr. Lee to no end.

“Bastards.”

Mr. Lee read the names written on the A4 paper. Just how much did these bastards look down on teachers, if they thought they could get away with this?

Reality couldn’t be more bitter to him than this moment.

* * *

The Hanja teacher looked into the break room one more time before clicking his tongue.

“What era does that guy think he’s in?”

The era of teachers being in power was long over. Back then, students and parents were the ones who had to watch out for the teacher. Not anymore, now, it was the other way around. Just twenty years ago, teachers could earn a decent sum through bribes. Parents just threw the money at teachers even when it wasn’t even asked. Teachers had power back in the day, it really was a world made for learned men.

But what about now?

Everyone was a learned man at this point! Everyone! To be quite honest, the Hanja teacher was afraid to go into a class sometimes. At least he was at an engineering school where all the dumb kids were. According to his friend, private schools were absolutely terrifying.

[The students don’t even listen to me. They only raise their heads when I say something’s going to be on a test. They only bother working on stuff given to them by academies while they’re in school! Public education? Stuff like that can go burn in hell! Teachers here just spend their time trying not to step on any of the kids’ toes. We don’t even get treated like a teacher at this point!]

The Hanja teacher agreed very strongly with his friend's words, schools were useless at this point in society. Whether it be online videos, academies, or tutors… there were places to learn everywhere. The entire scene for education has changed, all except for public education itself. Public education in South Korea was practically rotting in the gutters at this point.

Teaching the kids?

What a funny joke. The Hanja teacher snorted as he looked back at the break room one more time. Mr. Lee, being a disciplinary teacher, was still unable to get out of the glory days of education. How some of these people could be so slow despite being his age was honestly beyond him. Schools have changed, society as a whole increased its demand for college graduates. In high school, most kids only thought about going into college. As a result, even in his classes, kids were studying math when he was teaching Hanja.

Back in the past, this sort of behavior made him furious. Nowadays he was used to it. After all, math was hundreds of times more important than Hanja in college entrance exams. Sometimes, he even told his students to ignore his lectures completely if need be.

‘This is just business.’

The Hanja teacher knew that his reputation in school wasn’t so great, but he still got a good reputation from the really important kids.

That’s right, the important kids. The ones who were studying to go to college.

Even an engineering school can send students to one of the SKY universities! No, it’s even easier to go there from an engineering school!

Such rumors were key to improving the reputation of the school. Indeed, last year when a kid from their school got into the famous Seoul University, they put a placard about it all over the school. What did that mean?

‘It’s all just business! Business!’

It was an open secret at this point, schools were just companies with a different name. They could only survive if they had a good reputation. Survival of the fittest, the schools that adapted to the current environment could not only survive, but also thrive.

Nowadays, the world of education revolved around students and parents. In the end, the pride of an educator and whatnot was chump change compared to hard cash.

‘It’s actually even better in some aspects because of that.’

A long time ago, parents would give teachers money asking for good grades. Nowadays, though, parents give teachers money if their kids actually did well on their own. Recently, a ton more students started coming to their school to try to get into a better university. Among those students were some who came from very wealthy families.

‘Really, I’m just trying to look good to my potential customers.’

He couldn’t even get treated like a proper teacher anymore. In that case… he might as well be a service provider who tries to satisfy his customers. That was for the best.

“Mr. Lee, you’ll learn soon enough yourself. Students aren’t people you teach, they’re people you try to look good in front of.”

The Hanja teacher looked at the four parents who got invited to the mitigation committee. If he could get a proper understanding from these four, this meeting should end pretty easily just like the other ones.

‘Ah, those two are here too, as always.’

The Hanja teacher already had words about who would be coming to this meeting. He also knew that the two women in front of him right now were the ones who had real power in this committee. These women happen to have a very good relationship with the bullies’ parents in this event.

Committees like these were only attended by parents from well-off families, especially since the ones from poorer families simply couldn’t find time for the small stuff like this.

‘Plus, stuff like this takes money, too.’

Committees like these were organized by the rich. As a result, the rich were the only ones who benefited in a meaningful way from the school.

“You look good today, teacher. The ginseng I sent you must’ve worked very well.”

“Thank you, it’s helping me get through this cold winter indeed.”

“That’s good to hear.”

The Hanja teacher lowered himself in front of them, these people were customers. VIP customers, as a matter of fact. They were the type of people who contributed a significant sum of money to his retirement fund. As a result, he would have to do pretty much anything they asked of him to get on their good side.

“Joonyung’s mom seemed very disappointed by this.”

“I see.”

Joonyung. That was one of the bullies involved in this situation, one of the worst out of all the others. The boy was actually redoing his grade this year.

“Joonyung’s not the type to do something like this.”

“That’s what we think as well.”

“Right? Right? To be honest, I think it’s a bit foolish to gather for something this trivial. In the end, it’s just kids playing with each other.”

“Right you are.”

The woman in her forties smiled at him brightly. Despite her age, her skin was smooth like she was still in her twenties.

“The chairman’s too much, too. We asked him to handle it well and he just told us we should follow the decision that comes out of this meeting. He even said we should get ready for our kids to face expulsion.”

“Hahaha. Surely he was just joking.”

This actually confused the Hanja teacher a bit as well, opening the mitigation committee was necessary. In fact, it would’ve been weird if they didn’t, given the amount of evidence thrown at them. Like usual, the committee would open, they would zoom through the meetings, and sweep everything under the rug. That’s how the chairman and the principal liked to handle things. Strangely enough, only the principal was the one who was handling everything this time. The chairman was keeping his mouth shut, which was very unlike the man.

“It looks like there was a misunderstanding with Joonyung and his friends, which ended up like that. They think they might even be expelled…”

“There’s no way that would happen.”

“Is that so? I wonder why I keep hearing about it. It’s very worrying. Joonyung’s mother just keeps sighing like the world is ending, but the chairman isn’t saying anything. Even after all these gifts we gave to the school…” “Of course.” The Hanja teacher tried his best to try and make his customers happy. He didn’t know where these ridiculous rumors were coming from, but they were completely false. The decision from this meeting was pretty much set in stone already.

20 hours of in-school volunteer work, and a verbal apology to the victims, that should be a fitting punishment.

‘So what if the victims don’t like that punishment?’

The school had no intention of punishing the bullies.

“I’ll try contacting the chairman separately, don’t worry. Ah, we’ll have to start a formal meeting later for everyone else after this, so I’d appreciate it if you could wait a bit longer.”

“I understand. Ah, it’d be nice if we could have a meal with the teachers here afterward. What do you think, Yoonsung’s mom?”

“Of course, that sounds great.”

The sounds of merry laughter came from the break room. The Hanja teacher calmed down, seeing how this meeting was going just like all of the other ones.

* * *

“………”

“I think you guys would be satisfied with this decision, I understand the pain and suffering you felt through all this. But you also have to understand, these bullies are repenting themselves from the bottoms of their hearts. You need understanding and learn to forgive them.”

Byungsoo looked at the Hanja teacher dumbly. They worked so hard till now, they gritted their teeth to get these bullies out of here. But… the only thing they got, in the end, was a slap on the wrist. And…

“I’m so sorry, dude. God, you guys are so fucking petty. It’s just a chump change. Fine, I won’t take your money anymore, idiots.”

“Sorry for everything, retards.”

An apology that was nothing more than a thinly veiled insult.

“I got scared for nothing. That fuck scared the shit out of me.”

“Apparently that was because there was a miscommunication with the chairman.”

“Yeah, that was all it was, right? Man, Joonyung’s mom really is the best.”

“But what do we do with these fucks now?”

“What else other than to fuck them over?”

The delinquents were laughing amongst themselves without even a care in the world, Byungsoo found Joonyung’s gaze to be the scariest out of all of them.

‘Is this the end? Do we really have to sue?’

Just as thoughts like these began to fill his head.

Bang!

The Hanja teacher banged the door open and entered. His hair was fluttering from how quickly he entered the room, Byungsoo caught a few beads of sweat running down the man’s face as well. The Hanja teacher raised his finger at the delinquents with a trembling hand.

“C-come here for a second.”

He gave Byungsoo a glare before leaving promptly, the delinquents followed the teacher with a confused expression. After exactly 20 minutes, they all came back to class with pale faces.

‘What happened?’

* * *

Maru fiddled with his phone dumbly on the windowsill. Money and power, what great things.

“Dude, the chairman came to our school.”

“What’s happening?”

“Dunno. The Hanja teacher got dragged away though.”

“I heard him shouting in the hallway. Something about wanting to see him die?”

“What the hell?”

“Dunno.”

Maru started humming to himself, listening to those around him talk.

“Hm hm. The law, the law. What a great thing it is.”

Chapter 107

Junmin walked into a building at Hyehwa station, with some honeyed water in hand. He stepped onto the elevator. Inside this building was a practice room that was exactly the size of the Myungdong Art Theater stage. The theater had a practice room underground, but it was much too small for its intended use.

When he entered the practice room, he could see many actors already practicing by themselves. There were quite a few of them, actors that already made a name for themselves in smaller theaters, and actors you could only see from very expensive theaters. They made sure to select the truly talented actors to commemorate the opening of the theater.

The one who cast them, to begin with, was Junmin. He was probably working harder on this play as a casting director than on any others to try and make it a success.

“Coffee, so early in the morning? You’re going to ruin your stomach.”

An old friend of his greeted him, pointing at a seat. Junmin scanned the actors once more before sitting down.

“It’s not coffee, just honey water.”

“Honey? Let me try some.”

His bearded friend extended his hand with a grin on his face. This happened all the time, so Junmin didn’t even respond. This guy was the director of the play and a good friend he’d worked with many times over the years.

“How’s the play going?”

“Just a few months ago, the newbies weren’t able to handle the veterans at all, but…”

“Newbies? They’re pretty popular in their respective theaters, you know.”

“Everyone here is. Anyway, they’re making jokes together nowadays and everything. Then again, it’s been four months, so I guess it’s about time they got used to each other.”

“That’s good.”

“Just thinking about the amount of work I did because of you, then… Ugh. Making these guys mesh well together was a disgusting amount of work.”

“I brought you an all-star team, though, only because I knew you could make them work together.”

This was a room full of veterans, each and every one of them had their own quirks. Lots of them were starring in movies and dramas as well. Normally, it was impossible to cast even one of these people in a play. But with the reopening of the Myungdong Art Theater being as special as it was, many actors volunteered to act in its opening play. Junmin had selected the most talented actors of the bunch, and that was exactly who the people in front of him were. It would probably be near impossible to get a cast like this ever again, at least anytime within the next decade.

“Ah, you’re here.”

An older actor walked over to the two of them with a bag on his back. This man was an honorable senior of Junmin and his director friend that they would have to pay respects to even after passing the age of fifty. The two of them stood up from their seats immediately.

“Sit, sit. I didn’t greet you two to be paid respect.”

Junmin quickly brought out a chair for the old actor, the actor smiled before taking his seat.

“You must be suffering quite a bit in preparation.”

“Not at all, sir.”

“Suffering? Not at all.”

The man who Junmin was calling “sir” was Yoon Munjoong, an actor who turned sixty five just this year; a man who had the most influence in the industry during the 80s. The man retired in the late 90s, but came out to act due to Junmin’s request.

“Teacher.”

“Mm?”

“Is there anyone that catches your eye here?”

Munjoong laughed at Junmin’s question.

“They all look great.”

“If anyone catches your eye in particular, though, please let me know.”

“You probably have better eyes than me.”

“Don’t say that. Please tell me, I heard from this guy that someone caught your eye…”

Munjoong was one of the few actors that Junmin really looked up to, knowing an actor that this man had his eye on would be very helpful for Junmin.

“If I really had to pick someone out…”

Munjoong’s eyes turned to a corner of the room. This play had about thirty actors in it. Considering how the stage could only take about ten people at a time, it was an incredibly large number of people. Due to this, the actors mostly practiced in teams during practice sessions. Most of the talented ones practiced in the middle and the less experienced people naturally ended up in the corners.

Minjun’s eyes followed Munjoong’s, into the corner where several young actors were practicing together. His eyes focused on one man in particular, the one that was making big gestures in front of the mirror with a frown. Someone Junmin knew very well himself.

“How is he? You had your eyes on him as well, yes?”

“Oh dear. It does feel great knowing that we had our eyes on the same person.”

“Is that so? Hahaha.”

Munjoong stroked his beard lightly before continuing.

“That young man… I like the way he goes about practice. He knows how to think and how to act. His concentration is quite amazing, as well. It’s almost like he forgets everything around him when he becomes immersed in the play. If I was still running a theater company, I would’ve scouted him for sure.”

Junmin nodded. Indeed, focused was one of the correct descriptors for the man they were looking at.

“I heard he was doing independent movies now?”

“He starred in one already, and he’s now shooting his second film with the same director.”

“Is the director someone you know?”

“Yes, I’ve met him several times. Ah, he’s also worked with director Yoo.”

“You mean Chulmin? Why?”

“The current director he’s working with was good friends with director Yoo Chulmin, the man caught director Yoo’s eyes when they met.”

“Hah, that guy? I thought he was busy since he wasn’t coming to any of the association meetings, so this is what he’s been up to.”

Director Yoo Chulmin was the owner of Sky Theater, which was one of the most famed theater companies in South Korea. Right now, he was also the chairman of the Korean Acting Association.

“And here I thought I was the only one who found a diamond in the rough. Everyone’s had their eyes on him already, huh,” Munjoong muttered.

The man told Junmin to raise the actor well before standing up from his spot. As the man walked away to the exit, Junmin could visibly see the actors tense up in nervousness. That was understandable. The old man may have look very lax and kind right now, but he became venomous and terrifying during actual practice. Junmin’s director friend, in the meantime, was still looking at the actor the two of them were looking at seconds before.

“He’s that talented?”

“Of course.”

“Hm.”

“See where you can go with him. It’s probably going to be difficult to see him in plays from now on.”

“What, you planning on taking him to Chungmu-ro?”

“If possible.”

“Well, this is you talking, so I’ll assume that’s exactly what’s going to happen for now. Hong Geunsoo, is it?”

The director looked at the clock for a second before standing up, the man was probably about to start practice again. Junmin told the director about a few changes regarding the play before standing up to leave himself.

The street outside the building was incredibly breezy. Junmin observed the empty road in front of him briefly, before answering a call from his pocket. It was Munjoong.

“Yes, sir.”

- I see you left already, you’re very busy.

“Haha, I could go back up again if you have something to say to me.”

- No, no, you’re fine. I can just tell you over the phone. I just wanted to ask if you’re still digging for young talents.

“It’s my job, so yes, I am.”

- Is there anyone special? I’d like someone in either middle or high school.

“There’s a few. May I ask why you’re asking?”

- Taking up acting again was giving me a pretty big hit of nostalgia. It’s nice living a lax life as someone who retired, but it does feel like I retired a little too early.

Junmin caught onto what Munjoong was trying to hint at immediately.

“You want to raise newbie actors again, sir?”

- You catch on quick.

“Really? Teacher, if you really do this, literally any actor, no matter how young or how old would ask to be taught by you.”

- I don’t like things to get that loud. I just want to teach young kids in my spare time, kind of like a hobby.

“I see. I understand. I’ll send you a list quickly.”

- That would be nice. Bring me some of the smart ones, please.

“Um, sir…”

- Hm?

“Are you perhaps thinking of starting up your theater company agai…”

- No, not that far.

To Junmin’s disappointment, Munjoong hung up promptly after that. Back in the day, Munjoong’s theater company had a reputation as one of the two most famous theaters in Hyehwa station; even Junmin had tried to get into the company in the past. He hoped for a second that the theater company of his dreams would be revived, but unfortunately, that didn’t seem like it would happen any time soon.

“Even so…”

At least the man was willing to raise young actors. There were a lot of actors nowadays, but there weren’t any that were talented enough. Plus, idols were starting to use their popularity to nudge their way into the world of acting as well. The world was quickly entering an era where actors had to truly show their worth.

“Kids, huh.”

Junmin had quite a lot of young actors around him at the moment. Who should he choose out of them? He should probably call his senior later to see how many people the man was thinking of teaching as well.

Right then, Junmin’s phone rang. He looked at the number on the phone curiously before taking the call.

“Lawyer Park? Is something wrong?”

- I called because of that kid you introduced to me, I felt like I should at least make a short report to my client.

“Ah, Maru?”

Junmin thought back to the boy’s ever-bored expression. The boy looked like he was starting to develop a serious interest in acting, but before he really managed to get into it, he got himself involved with an odd case.

School violence. Maru called a few days ago, claiming that the acting club was involved as well. The boy’s request was short, but that didn’t make it any less bold. The boy wanted to be introduced to a lawyer.

It was Junmin’s job as a producer to help an actor focus solely on acting. He had a good impression of Maru as well, so he easily accepted that request. Lawyer Park was the person he ended up introducing to Maru.

“How did it go?”

- It was simple. I was preparing a lot since you asked me to help him, but he came in with a ton of evidence from the start. He knew some of the lingo as well. He understood my words better than most adults, which felt a bit odd.

“The boy’s like that, yes. So, did it end up going well?”

- For now. Then again, just our law firm’s name solves most of our problems.

“Ugh, again with that bragging. Anyway, what about your pay?”

- It’s 120 thou per hour. Are you really willing to pay?

“…That’s a bit.”

- That was a joke. Consider this just one of those friend things, pay me back with actor Jung Woosung’s signature some other time. My daughter is a big fan.

“I’ll do that.”

Junmin hung up promptly.

* * *

Maru stood up from his seat after bidding farewell to lawyer Park, today should be the last day he would have to visit this law firm in Seoul.

“How bougie.”

The building that held the most influential law firm in the country looked much fancier than even the buildings around it, for whatever reason. This was a place full of lawyers who took a million won as base pay, with half a million as hourly rates. A true holy land for lawyers.

“Names are scary indeed.”

The moment Maru heard about the school committee’s decision, he went to work. He thought about making a report to the ministry of education, but that would be complicated. The government wasn’t especially good at their job when it came to things like this. Maru wanted to finish this off as fast as he could, so he got some help.

He didn’t want to ruin the acting club’s reputation by stepping forward, so he started off by using one of the victims to send threats to sue towards the principal and the chairman of the school. Lawyer Park sent a warning to the chairman in the very beginning, but there seemed to be a miscommunication between him and the principal. So while the chairman stepped back into the shadows, the principal simply worked as he always did.

The committee members probably laughed when they saw the threats to sue as well. They were composed of well-off parents, after all. The name of the KY law firm changed everything though. There was only one thing the school could do when faced with the biggest law firm in the biggest nation.

A white flag.

Plus, one of the victims’ parents was actually one of lawyer Park's high school friends. They rekindled their friendship through this case, and lawyer Park motivation shot up as a result. The school surrendered fairly quickly, which marked an end to Maru’s meetings with lawyer Park.

‘The change should be reported tomorrow.’

The bullies should receive word about the new decision tomorrow. They should be facing a transfer at the very least.

“A power behind a name…”

This was why a person needed to become famous before doing anything else, power followed fame. If Junmin didn’t help him, things would’ve been very troublesome for Maru.

Maru turned around from the building with a bitter smile. The law was scarier than violence and money was scarier than the law. But in the end, connections were the scariest above all else.

Chapter 108

In short, there were now four empty seats in the class. The bullies tried to transfer, but the school decided to expel them in the end. Byungsoo told Maru privately that in truth, he felt a little disappointed by the result.

[I did want this, but… It doesn’t feel like we won.]

A 20 hour volunteer work turned into an expulsion in just a few minutes. The intended result was achieved, but Byungsoo probably didn’t like how they achieved it. After all, if it wasn’t for Maru’s intervention, the school never would’ve acquiesced.

“The Hanja teacher will take an indefinite break due to a private reason. He seems sick, so be sure to write him a letter.”

The Hanja teacher would probably have to give up on education completely. This was a private engineering school. His relationship with the chairman was ruined for good, so he probably couldn’t continue working here. According to lawyer Park, the chairman was just cutting off his tail. The man probably suggested to the teacher to quit quietly while he still could.

“I heard the Hanja teacher was super corrupt.”

“Maybe that’s why he got fired?”

Maru had to wonder just who was spreading these rumors among the students. Sometimes, they were scarily accurate to what really happened. In the end, the classroom was still as lively as ever, no one even cared about what happened to the bullies. Then again, the people who would care got expelled, too.

The boy called Gijung who used to get bullied by Changhu was still as quiet as ever. He did seem a little happier though, thankfully. The boy was starting to come back to class after break time with a smile on his face.

Despite all that, the relationship between the victims and the rest of the school wouldn’t improve by much any time soon. Most students probably thought of them as snitches at this point. Plus, everyone was in their own social circles already, it would be difficult for the victims to try to get in there.

‘But then again.’

It looked like the victims went on to form their own social circle. A good sign. They would probably maintain a very good relationship together for a very long time.

Maru’s eyes met with Gijung’s. Maru shrugged, causing Gijung to look away with a bit of shock.

“Hm.”

Maru told them multiple times that he was only helping them for the acting club, perhaps that’s why Gijung looked so shocked. He didn’t do all of this for a reward or anything, but that kind of reaction was still a little troublesome.

‘Byungsoo was like that, too.’

The other boy gave Maru a bit of a forced smile the last time they met. The boy practically ran away as soon as he saw Maru, making Maru wonder if he did something wrong.

“Wonderful. The class looks so nice now,” Dojin said, looking at Changhu’s seat.

“I heard one of the kids in that group had ties to the chairman, I’m surprised that the chairman cut them off. I wonder if that guy’s actually a nice person?”

Dojin popped some candy in his mouth with a grin, Maru decided to leave the boy be. If he revealed the truth here, he’d be chased by Dojin for the next several days for details.

“I kind of feel sorry for the bullies.”

“Oh, you big softie, you.”

Daemyung was commenting as he looked sadly at the empty seats. Apparently, if you get expelled by the school, you’d have it on your record for the next two years. They’d probably have to study independently and do a test through the government to get a high school diploma. Only then would they be qualified to take the college entrance exams. At that point, they would be able to go around telling people that they dropped out of school instead of talking about what really happened.

“You don’t have to worry about it, they probably already hired good tutors to study. Maybe they’re even planning on doing international study. You know they’re all filthy rich.”

“T-that’s true. But… That guy worries me a bit.”

“Hosung?”

Daemyung nodded. There was a kid named Hosung in Changhu’s group. Unlike everyone else in that group, he alone seemed to have come from a poorer family.

“It’s totally his fault for acting like that, to begin with. Daemyung, this is just karma. Ignore it and move on. Man, you’re too kind.”

Daemyung smiled awkwardly. The boy was right though. Since Hosung wasn’t blessed with money like the others, he would have to work very hard by himself. That would be no easy feat.

“I really have to earn a lot of money.”

“What the hell?”

“Money?”

Maru told the two of them to think about what they want before falling over on his desk. Finally, he would be able to rest a bit. He was still busy for the rest of the week, but at least this was one thing off of his list.

“I’m sleeping.”

“Fine, fine. Sleep!”

* * *

“Maru’s… a bit weird.”

“Hm?”

Daemyung asked what was up as he passed a cup of hot chocolate to Dojin. Maru? Weird?

“He’s been a really cool guy from the day I met him. He also thinks really differently compared to all of us.”

“So?”

“It feels like there’s a distance between the two of us.”

“Well, he’s busy. He goes to a lot of places for acting. Maybe it’s because of that?”

“Well, there’s that, too, but… How do I put it? I feel a bit annoyed when I look at him.”

“Annoyed?”

Daemyung stepped sideways, dodging a female student running towards him. He almost spilled his drink. Daemyung took a sip from his cup before it spilled over before sighing.

“I get that he focuses on something a lot if he puts his mind to something. I also get that he cares a lot more for people than he likes to let on. After all, our relationship could only improve like this thanks to Maru.”

Dojin continued with a hint of embarrassment, Daemyung started feeling a bit embarrassed as well. This guy said too many cringey things whenever they talked. Well, that was his charm, Daemyung figured.

“But if you look at him, you’ll notice that there’s always a reason why he does something.”

“Well, he’s only doing something because he has a reason.”

“Ah… Damn, this is so hard to explain. It just feels like he’s a bit up in the air. He’s always busy and hardworking, but he has no motivation. No, he has motivation, but… Yeah! He’s just circling around!”

“Circling around? Maru?”

Daemyung thought for a second. Maru? Circling around? Sure, he was doing that at the beginning of the school year for sure. He was always sitting at the edges of the club, never getting himself deeply involved. He was studying Chinese, CAD softwares, and sometimes even study guides for government employees. But recently, Maru was focusing solely on acting. How was that “circling around”?

Then, Daemyung came to a stop. Maybe Dojin was onto something.

“I don’t know if it’s because I’m weird, but that’s what I feel whenever I look at Maru. He seems motivated but it doesn’t make sense why he’s motivated. It makes sense when I compare him with you. You’re clearly working hard because you desperately want to get good at acting, but Maru doesn’t give me that feeling at all. Even when he’s working even harder than you. I might just be worrying too much, but… It feels like the more I know about Maru, the further I get from him.”

A single word crossed Daemyung’s mind.

“Empty…”

“………”

With a short exchange of glances, Daemyung realized that this one word explained everything Dojin was trying to say all this time.

* * *

Maru felt exhausted. He was glad that there was a heater running right above him. The school finally decided to unseal the heaters when the weather became cold. Thank goodness. Looking around him, he noticed that Dojin’s seat was empty. He couldn’t see Daemyung either.

“Did they leave to get snacks?”

There really weren’t other places to go at this time. Maru yawned as he took out his phone, his mailbox was completely empty. In the past, when he really was this young, he used to text his friends nonstop. But as he aged, he grew tired of even asking for an update or making small talk with them. His tendency to call people instead of messaging them probably contributed to his empty mailbox, too. But there was one person he always looked forward to getting messages from.

Her.

He wasn’t even able to send her a message with how busy he’s been.

“What’s up?” he said, sending the message.

A reply came in just a few seconds.

[Waiting for food.]

Ah, right. She had quite an appetite. He recalled how she used to frown often whenever she got a new role in a play, the new memory lightened his mood even more.

“Do you have time on the weekend? I still haven’t gotten my money back.”

Again, a beep.

[We only have two weeks till the prelims. No time to play! Are you practicing well?]

“Well, you know.”

I’m working hard, just for you. Maru couldn’t bring himself to actually write that, so he just told her he was being lazy.

[Lazy? Wow, so confident. Well, we’ll be taking first place in the winter nationals, so just you watch! Plus, we see each other three times a week already. Do you really have to ask for money through the mail? Don’t you try anything weird, now.]

“Weird? No way.”

Maru dropped back down on the desk after responding, “ok”. He’d be seeing her again today as well. She was hard at work, even in the amateur classes. Her motivation was almost blinding in his eyes.

‘Come to think of it, I need to be careful of him.’

Her charm was already starting to attract the attention of a few boys in their class.

“Why couldn’t she just be a little pretty?”

Maru got a little worried, thinking that someone might steal her away from him. He thought of the future after high school, before shaking his head. He didn’t want to think about such things right now.

‘If she really does get together with someone else, then I… ’

The door behind him opened, cutting Maru’s thoughts right then and there. It was Dojin and Daemyung. Strangely, they didn’t have a smile on their faces.

“Did something happen?”

“No, it’s nothing.”

What happened? Maru looked at the two with curious eyes.

* * *

Miso absolutely wasn’t a fan of the extra one month given to them. She had created a schedule to try and make the club feel as nervous about the play as possible, but the extra month ended up ruining everything. They started practicing in August. They started doing runs in September, and they held the play at the festival in October to figure out extra problems. The plan was to enter the prelims perfectly in November. Miso’s plan was perfect, but…

“We’re getting lazy.”

They were entering their fifth month of practice. Even pros only practiced for up to 2 months. Especially because extra practice could sometimes negatively impact a play, but they were entering their fifth month at this point. Everyone was visibly lax at this point.

“Everyone, come around.”

Miso gathered the students around her.

“I’ll give you guys homework.”

“Homework?”

“Yeah, homework. You guys need something a little extra.”

They all looked at each other after hearing the word “extra”. Miso snapped her finger before continuing.

“Prepare a short one-man play. Your play will be about the person standing to your right. Observe your target carefully before making the play. It doesn’t need to be anything special. You’re just going to be imitating your neighbor.”

“What?”

The club members looked at Miso in confusion.

Chapter 109

“Observation?” she asked, taking a sip of her barley tea.

“We have to make a one-man play using the characteristics of the person next to us. It’s a bit harder than I thought,” Maru mentioned, thinking of what happened yesterday.

He was a little surprised by the word that Miso used. What did she mean, “observation”? But as soon as he carried out the task she gave him, he understood what she was trying to do. As a matter of fact, it was exactly in line with what Ganghwan often liked to say: “there’s no better training than observation.” Carefully observing his target alone was giving him a very different impression of that person than what he normally felt.

“Hm, observation.”

She thought for a second with a slight frown before turning to stare at Maru intently. Maru returned her gaze, mostly because he found her eyes adorable. She avoided his gaze first with a little cough. A little word bubble appeared above her head, probably because their eyes met. Maru chose to ignore it. He didn’t want to learn about what she was thinking using such underhanded tactics.

“Don’t you ever get embarrassed about anything?”

“Embarrassed about what?”

“No, well… whatever. It always feels like I’m losing out if I start talking with you.”

She stood up with a light snort. The two of them were currently in the Myungdong Art Theater. On days when they had their amateur classes, the theater would close a tad bit earlier, and the high schoolers and college students would practice together on stage. Maru remembered being shocked when he first started speaking on stage. Despite the auditorium being as big as it was, his voice could reverberate throughout the place easily. He could tell from just that one experience that indeed, the building was built specifically with acting in mind.

To say it was different from a small theater would be an understatement. Maru felt incredibly insignificant as soon as he looked out into the seats from the stage. To fill out a stage as big as this with one’s own presence… would require an incredible amount of work.

“Hey, hey. Stop talking and get over here.”

Ganghwan waved the high schoolers around him back over. There were twelve of them total, all from high school acting clubs near Seoul. Among them, there were even people who already made their debuts in the industry. Indeed, the producers for this project were incredibly careful in selecting candidates.

“I know you guys are all very busy with the festival. You have two weeks left now, right?”

“Exactly two weeks,” one of the girls said nervously.

This girl was someone who went to Bosung high, a school that ended up getting second place in summer nationals, right after Myunghwa high. As a result, Maru often found the girl looking at her a lot. Whenever her eyes met with the girl’s, she often waved back with an awkward smile. This caused the girl to wave back with a little bit of anger, little bit of defeat, and a little bit of a forced smile all at once. The two would surely become good friends.

“Han Maru.”

“Yes.”

“Come out here and say your line,” Ganghwan said, pointing towards him.

The first thing Ganghwan did after the amateur classes started was to give a script to each of the students. He gave them a temporary role and made them practice. After a few days, he held a quick reading session before making them act right away. He took careful notes as he watched the team perform a half-baked run, then assigned roles the very next day. As he assigned roles, he told them, “if you want to change roles, prove your skill to me.” Meaning, they could switch roles with someone else as long as they were good enough. And today was the day when they could prove themselves to Ganghwan.

The amateur acting class was performing a play called ‘class 3, grade 3’, a casual play describing school life. It was a fairly average play, where none of the characters had any significant age differences.

Maru played the class president. A boy who excelled academically, but secretly admired the delinquents. Maru took a deep breath before imagining the classroom surrounding him. The classroom was tinted with a yellow hue from the warm afternoon sun. The blackboard was washed clean, and there was a little Korean flag hanging on its top left corner. He could hear some of the students making plans to go somewhere in the hallway. At the same time, he could hear the teachers yelling at the kids to not pick up any weird hobbies outside.

‘Page five.’

The class president feels his heart start to beat, as he watches his friends he previously mocked start to dance. Once everyone leaves after school ends, he would look around carefully and start dancing himself, humming the song from earlier in the day. The door of the class opens, and his eyes immediately meet one of his friend’s. What would the class president feel in that moment?

“………”

He was supposed to say ‘no, this isn’t what you think it is’ in the script, but Maru had a different idea. He decided to be silent, and communicate through gestures instead. He closed his eyes tightly for a second before scratching his head awkwardly. He felt if he were in the same situation, he wouldn’t be able to say anything. He fidgeted around nervously before walking away with a ‘I’m leaving’.

“Okay, Kim Sihoon, you’re up next.”

Ganghwan nodded silently before calling on the next person. Maru walked back to where she was standing.

“Did I do well?”

“Mm, you were better than the script, at the least. But the audience wouldn’t be able to see you fidgeting from afar, so maybe you do need some more dialogue to compensate.”

“Hm, is that so.”

“It’s a pass, in my opinion. But I’m not the instructor, so don’t take my words to heart.”

The boy after Maru also acted out a short scene. Again, Ganghwan simply said ‘okay’ before calling on the next person. There was no feedback from him whatsoever, making this entire test move along incredibly quickly. The kids around Maru were talking to each other about the scene they would act out on stage.

“You want to hang out this weekend?”

“I have practice.”

“Your club’s pretty insane, huh. Weekend practice?”

“I know you guys practice just as much as us, so shut it.”

“Rest is important, too.”

“No, you. I’m going to practice more, and get that best acting award. My senior took it this summer, so I’m gonna go for the winter one.”

“Just where is that confidence coming from?”

“Practice, obviously.”

What a workaholic… Maru gave up on going on a date this week, as well. As he expected, her mind was set in stone whenever it came to acting. Even in his brief memories of the past he could see her practicing during their dates. He didn’t hate seeing her do that, though, so he didn’t mind.

The kids stepped up one by one to act. After the last kid finished, Ganghwan gave his notebook one last glance before gathering everyone up.

“Good job doing practice, first of all. You have a pretty decent grasp of your characters even while practicing for the winter nationals. And here I was getting ready to scold you for being lazy, too. I’m relieved that you’re all so hard working.”

It looked like everyone passed, for now. Ganghwan continued talking as he flipped through his notebook.

“As you guys know, this amateur class is a test run. It’s not really about holding a successful play, but more about figuring out how to schedule everything. It’s not a competition or anything either. Sure, it’d be good practice for you guys to act at a stage as big as this, but that’s not good enough of a reason to try so hard for this, is it?”

A hint of playfulness crept up on Ganghwan’s face. He was starting to rev up, clearly. Whenever the man put on a face like that, he always liked to start something ridiculously annoying. Maru had a small flashback to when the man made him walk blindly on the streets with that same expression. Saying that it was for developing Maru’s ‘other senses’ or something.

“I heard that many of you are dreaming of becoming professional actors. Some of you even worked as a child actor even. That’s why I wanted to show you how professional actors get the roles that they want. Ah, I’m not actually showing you how that would work. I’m going to make you do it.”

“Meaning…”

“I told you, right? If you want a role, prove your worth to me. From what I saw today, all of you are pretty average. None of you’re particularly talented or anything. So, we’ll hold a proper audition, starting today, all the way to next week. We’re going to hold an audition for several roles each day. If you want a particular role, you should apply for the audition and challenge yourself.”

Ganghwan stroked his chin with an odd smile.

“But just a simple audition is too boring. We need additional motivation. Am I right?”

The kids reluctantly nodded. Maru had to wonder just what that human was up to this time on the inside.

“You might know if you’ve seen a play, but normally there are four important roles, four side characters, and four characters that are no better than props. Occasionally you will see people saying that all characters in a play are important, but they’re wrong. After all, you can’t say that Romeo’s friend in Romeo and Juliet is more important than Romeo, am I right?”

“Yeah.”

“That’s the same with this place. The class president, the delinquents, and the teacher. Roles like these appear in every scene, and they always take the center stage. I’m planning on modifying the script to make these four characters have more importance in the play. Meaning… the stage time for other characters would be cut.”

Ganghwan twirled with a little grin on his face. The students, who were used to Ganghwan’s odd movements at this point, waited silently. But knowing well that this conversation could go somewhere very odd if Ganghwan was left alone to talk by himself, Maru stepped in.

“So what’s the reward?”

“Reward! That’s right, rewards are important. You know that our play is going to be put on for free, right?”

“Yes.”

“That’s it.”

“What?”

Ganghwan made another odd look.

“A teacher that I respect greatly will be coming to see this play. Not just to watch the play, obviously. If you truly have dreams of becoming an actor, then… Don’t miss this chance. Appeal yourselves to this man.”

Ganghwan muttered ‘if only I were 13 years younger’ to himself dejectedly.

“Who’s coming?”

“You can see for yourself on the day of. You guys might not know about him, though. He’s a bit of a legend. Haha.”

* * *

“I’m leaving! See ya!”

“……”

She disappeared in a flash. Her eyes changed immediately after hearing what Ganghwan said. For someone who wanted to be an actor, this chance Ganghwan offered must’ve been incredibly tempting for her. Maru didn’t know who Ganghwan was talking about, but he could easily tell it was going to be someone extraordinary.

“Not just to watch, huh…”

Was the man there to cast some of the actors? Or what? Maru thought for a bit, but gave up thinking in the end. Honestly, he wasn’t very attracted by this offer. He was busy enough. If he were to get any busier from here, he wouldn’t be able to spend any time with her. That would be troublesome. After all, he was only working hard right now for his family.

“Hah, I guess I have to work on Miso’s assignment, now.”

The sun was setting, but he still had a mountain of work to do. Maru took out his phone and started scrolling through his contacts.

* * *

Daemyung was on the way back home after finishing his lesson with his coach. His coach worked as a principal of an acting school after working for years around Hyehwa station. The coach always taught him acting very kindly, always relating to personal experiences to help Daemyung understand the harder concepts.

‘Hah, I need to lose weight… ’

The one thing his coach gave him as homework was to control his weight. Daemyung wasn’t very ashamed of his body, but he could only agree with the coach when he was told that actors needed to freely control their weight. But just as he shook off his hunger and got on the bus, his phone rang. It was Maru.

Chapter 110

Wednesday. The middle of the week. As expected, there weren’t many people walking around in the park, as if to show that the weekend was still far off. Daemyung walked into a convenience store to take shelter from the cold wind. His eyes immediately wandered to the snacks and cup noodles, but he couldn’t grab them because of his coach’s instructions. So instead, he opted for a warm drink. The door to the convenience store opened, and a couple around his age walked in. Daemyung walked to the corner of the eating area, feeling self-conscious for some reason.

‘How nice.’

There were three girls in the club, but he’d never hung out with them outside of club activities.

‘They all have their matches as well.’

Geunseok and Yurim were a public couple, and Soyeon and Taejoon liked each other. Iseul… was hard to approach, so he’d pass.

‘Come to think of it, they were setting up something for Taejoon, weren’t they?’

Iseul had decided to help Taejoon after watching the boy struggle for all this time, saying that she’d pick a day to invite the two of them to her parents’ restaurant. Daemyung didn’t know the specifics of when it would happen, though. Maybe it’d be on a Sunday, when there was no practice? As the couple in the convenience store walked out, Maru walked in.

It looked like it’d gotten even colder out there. Daemyung felt he got a little colder when Maru walked towards him.

“Cold, right?”

“Pretty cold. Did you see it snowing outside?”

“Really?”

Indeed, it was snowing outside. Daemyung could see the couple smiling at each other through the window. They must be on a date. How nice.

“Hey man, there’s nothing wrong with experiencing the first snow of the season with a guy.”

“Yes there is…”

“Hmm, you planning on getting a girlfriend now, Mr. Daemyung?”

“W-what? No way? Someone like me has no chance.”

“Oh, to be young.”

Maru bought himself a piece of bread and milk before coming back.

“Did you not eat yet?”

“Yeah. I forgot to eat dinner. You’re not gonna eat?”

“I’m fine.”

Daemyung looked at his stomach with a smile.

“The coach told me to lose weight, so I’m going to try and shave five kilos.”

“Must be hard. Want cup noodles?”

Maru ate his food with a slight smile. Daemyung looked at Maru carefully. His target of observation for Miso’s homework was Maru, but he was pretty much done at this point, so he didn’t need to observe the other boy.

“Don’t look at me so intently, you’re going to make me fall for you.”

“F-fall for- what?”

Maru continued eating, ignoring Daemyung. He must’ve been pretty hungry.

“My head was spinning from how hungry I was. Are you really not going to eat, though? If you try to lose weight so quickly, your body’s not going to enjoy it. You gotta be slow with this stuff.”

“It’s okay, I had an egg already.”

“Really? That’s enough?”

“Probably not, but I’m gonna try my best.”

“Want cup noodles?”

“Stop saying that, you’re really making me hungry.”

Daemyung glanced at the cup noodles section one more time before shaking his head. A single cup noodle had at least 400 calories. He would need to walk for at least 40 minutes to burn all of that off. 5 minutes of happiness for 40 minutes of pain… Daemyung knew it was a bad deal, but his mouth just kept watering regardless.

“Is your observation period almost over?”

“Pretty much, yeah.”

Daemyung took out his diary.

“Did you even have anything to write? I’m a pretty simple guy.”

Maru extended his hand, and Daemyung handed him his diary.

“I didn’t write much.”

“Really?”

Maru started flipping through the diary with a hand on his chin. For some reason, Daemyung felt like he was getting his homework reviewed by a teacher. Maru was reading the pages with a lot of focus. It honestly made Daemyung feel pressured. Right then…

“This…”

Maru was pointing at a particular point on a page. Daemyung leaned to take a look, then took the diary out of Maru’s hands.

“T-these are just personal thoughts. Don’t worry about it.”

“But you still got those feelings while you observed me, didn’t you?”

“It’s all just random bullshit. Really. I just forgot to throw it away.”

That was a section Daemyung hadn’t planned on showing Maru, he shouldn’t have passed his diary over so casually.

“Something I shouldn’t have seen…”

“W-w-what?”

Daemyung stuttered. He felt like he got found out-- no, he got found out. Had he been that obvious?

‘Then again, even I would get suspicious.’

He should’ve just laughed it off. Why did he have to act so suspiciously? Daemyung tried to laugh it off, but Maru wasn’t one to let him go just like that.

“I’m not trying to scold you or anything, I just want to know how you see me as a person.”

“…I really just wrote that for no reason.”

Maru looked absolutely serious. In the end, Daemyung had no choice but to hand over the diary again.

“I just wrote it for fun. Don’t read into it too much or anything.”

“Wait.”

Daemyung closed his mouth tightly. Was he mad? Then again, he did write something that could be pretty offensive in that notebook. Daemyung deeply regretted writing it down in his notebook. As expected, Maru had a pretty deep frown on his face, which was enough to make a chill run down Daemyung’s spine.

The boy was reading through Daemyung’s writing with intense focus, even going over the same pages repeatedly. Maru really was reading the notebook as if he was reading a novel.

‘Maybe he isn’t mad.’

Daemyung realized that Maru’s frown wasn’t actually directed at him. Once Maru finished reading, he closed the book.

“M-Maru.”

“So this is what you thought when you looked at me?”

“No, I…”

“I’m not mad, so just tell me honestly. I just want to hear what you have to say.”

Maru was talking very quietly. Unlike usual, his voice lacked confidence. The boy had always seemed to have the confidence to come out on top in any given situation, almost like an old man, but not anymore. Daemyung realized right then, Maru really did need his opinions. In fact, he didn’t even need to make his words sound better. It would be best if he was honest with Maru right now.

“This is something I thought of with Dojin last time.”

“Dojin?”

“Dojin felt the same thing as me. I realized my feelings weren’t wrong when I actually started observing you. I tried asking the other kids to make sure and they told me similar things.”

“If even the others felt this way, then this might as well be a fact about myself.”

“It’s just a feeling in the end, but…”

Daemyung fidgeted for a second before making up his mind. Maru always helped him out with his problems. This time, the other boy was the one who needed his help. He felt it was his responsibility to help the boy out as much as he could.

“I’d like to say some things if you don’t mind listening. Again, this is just an observation. Do you remember when you first talked to me in class?”

“Of course.”

“I’m thankful you did that. If you didn’t, I might be a victim of bullying by now, just like Gijung.”

“Well…”

“In any case, you’re a nice person who likes to help troubled people out. But recently, I started thinking that you’re not just nice. This is just me who thinks this, but I think you have a specific rule for helping people.”

“Rule?”

“First, you can’t get impacted negatively from helping someone out. Don’t get too offended, this is just an observation like I said.”

“Alright. Please continue.”

“Remember when we hung out together after your summer job at the gas station ended? And some people got into a fight where we were?”

“Of course.”

“I thought you’d stop them right there, but you just decided to leave instead. There’s been a lot of moments like those, actually. You do help people, but you never step in if you think you’re going to be affected.”

“Mm. That’s right.”

Maru didn’t disagree.

“I think you’re pretty amazing, regardless. Most of us usually don’t decide to help people at all.”

“Thanks for the compliment, but that’s not what I want to hear right now.”

“Y-yeah.”

Daemyung opened the diary and started reading everything about Maru from it, reading it reminded him of exactly what had happened in all of those moments.

“Back then when you saw the kids getting bullied, you didn’t help them. I heard you only helped them because of Changhu. Is that true?”

“Yeah.”

“The Han Maru that I’ve observed never does anything that would harm him, he’s not really a figure of justice. But strangely, this rule doesn’t actually apply when it comes to acting. Remember when you shook the club upside down that one time?”

“Oh, that?”

“I asked Mr. Taesik about what happened.”

“You worked hard for this, didn’t you?”

“It’s homework, after all. You know my dream is to be a director. I think studying actors in detail is good practice, so… Hm, hm. In any case, you shook up the club, despite knowing that you would be impacted negatively as a result. Same with how you always did the menial tasks for the club. Whenever something involved acting, you really went out of your way to do certain things even if it would be bad for you.”

“Right.”

“That’s when I started thinking, maybe acting has some great meaning to you. But that makes something else even stranger. You said at the beginning of the school year that you weren’t interested in acting, that it wasn’t worth investing time into. That was why you always skipped practice, but you’re working harder than anyone now. That’s when I realized that maybe you were trying to get something out of acting, and that was why you were trying so hard.”

That’s when Maru closed his mouth and the boy nodded in agreement silently.

“That’s when I started looking back on your character. You studied really hard when school started. But now, you’ve started skipping homework and you’re focusing most of your time on your scripts. You’re working very, very hard on acting, but I couldn’t help but get the feeling that… You might give up on acting very easily.”

Maru focused most of his time on acting when December came. He’d even used most of his time on the weekdays to work on acting, while weekends were reserved for practice in Myungdong. Clearly, the boy was dedicating most of his life to acting right now. But… Daemyung couldn’t shake off a certain feeling. Was Maru trying this hard for acting because he truly cared for it?

Looking at the boy again with that in mind made Daemyung come to ‘that’ conclusion. Empty. No matter how you tried to spin it, it wasn’t a very nice thing to say to someone. That was why Daemyung had snatched the diary from Maru’s hands in the beginning.

“And the conclusion is?”

“What?”

“If you’ve observed Han Maru this much, you must’ve come to some sort of a conclusion about your character. Some sort of a theme that you can use for the character. Am I right?”

“Ah, yeah… yeah.”

“Can you tell me about it?”

Daemyung hesitated for a bit before opening his mouth.

‘There’s two versions.“

“Two versions?”

“Yeah. The first was to portray you as a hardworking actor. A character that manages to do just about anything he wants, as long as he makes up his mind about it. A character that’s strong and kind at the same time.”

“I suppose what I’d want to listen to would obviously be the second one.”

Daemyung nodded. Honestly, he’s only thought about the second one. He didn’t really want to talk about it and he wasn’t confident that he would be able to act it out that well either. Unfortunately, he didn’t have a choice to stay silent since the boy wanted to hear about it.

“The second…”

Daemyung opened the last page of his diary.

“I thought about what you ultimately want to get through acting and what you would be like if you lost that thing.”

Daemyung carefully continued speaking.

“This might just be my imagination. Maybe I’m thinking too much. You can insult me if you want; after all, I’m saying stuff like this when you’re putting your all into acting. But I really can’t shake off this feeling. Ah, there’s one more thing. I came to this conclusion after thinking about the previous two things I mentioned, but… It really feels like you’re acting a character called Han Maru.”

Saying this was bound to make Maru mad, Daemyung thought.

Chapter 111

Maru didn’t say anything for a long time. No, maybe it was just the awkward air between them that made the passing time feel so slow. Daemyung looked at Maru carefully for a second before leaving to buy himself a drink. He bought a fizzy lemon soda. Perhaps the sour taste of the lemons could help kill his nervousness a little bit. Sadly, all it did was tickle his throat.

Tok tok tok. Maru was tapping on the table, looking out through the window in front of him. What was the boy thinking? Thankfully he didn’t seem very mad.

“Hey Daemyung.”

“What?”

“What’s the most important thing to you right now?”

“Well, I can’t really choose. My family’s important, my friends, acting…”

“Right? It’s ridiculous to choose just one thing in your life, right?”

“………”

“But let’s say there was a person who lived just for one thing. What would happen if you took that one thing away from them?”

“He’d become really sad.”

Was Maru talking about himself? The boy still hadn’t denied anything Daemyung had written in his diary. Maybe Maru was talking in extension to what Daemyung initially wrote. Did that mean Maru could choose “one thing” in his life that was the most important?

Daemyung couldn’t imagine it. Everything in his mind, from his family to friends to acting, were pretty much on equal footing. He wouldn’t be able to choose one thing that was more important than the others no matter what.

“Han Maru, acting out the role of Han Maru.”

“I just wrote that down for no reason. Don’t worry about it.”

Maru nodded with a smile, but his mood seemed dark. He was probably thinking about what was written in the diary, and Daemyung started feeling bad for making Maru so concerned.

“A lot of these are just dumb predictions, so… Don’t keep it in your mind too much.”

He put the diary back in his bag. Making judgements and observing his friend had been a pretty fun experience. He thought he knew a lot about Maru, but that immediately turned out to be untrue. Learning several new things about his precious friend was definitely a great experience, but he didn’t realize that showing his observations to his friends would be so burdensome on his mind. Reviewing a person… The act of doing so was simple, but the results were incredibly stressful. Perhaps instructor Miso had all of this in mind when she gave them this homework.

At this point, Daemyung could only hope that his words wouldn’t hurt Maru. Hopefully this wouldn’t make Maru develop negative thoughts about him. After a few more seconds, Maru sighed, the dark shadow on his face starting to go away. He cracked his neck a few times, smiling a bit mysteriously.

“Thanks.”

Thanks? Daemyung was confused. He’d written a very negative impression of Maru on that paper. He wasn’t mad about this? Was he being sarcastic? That didn’t seem to be the case. Maru seemed honestly thankful for what Daemyung had done.

“Can you do something for me?”

“Something?”

“Yeah.”

“What is it? I’ll do anything if I can.”

“It’s a bit difficult, but I hope you can do it. I think you’d do a really good job.” “Me?”

What did Maru plan on asking? Looking into the boy’s eyes, Daemyung got an inkling of what Maru might want from him. Indeed, his prediction turned out to be correct.

“About that one-man play… Can you act out your second impression of me? I want to see it.”

It really sounded more like a command than a simple request. Daemyung could only say ‘yes’ to Maru’s words.

“Observation is an amazing thing, isn’t it? I honestly had no idea that Daemyung was so good at seeing through people.”

“…Really?”

“They say everyone has a talent, right? Maybe yours is observing people. Why don’t you try going into criminal psychology instead of acting?”

Maru stood up with a slight smile.

“I’ll tell you what I get after observing you as well in the near future. You observed the hell out of me, so I have to reciprocate. Get ready, you bastard.”

“Y-you don’t have to go that far, Maru.”

Daemyung quickly waved his hand. He had a feeling that Maru might even chase him into the bathroom for observation.

“I’ll get going first.”

“Ah, yeah.”

Daemyung watched Maru walk out of the convenience store. Thankfully, the boy didn’t seem in as dark a mood as he did a few minutes ago.

“That’s good, I guess?”

Daemyung scratched the back of his neck nervously.

* * *

Eleven o’clock. She was lying down dumbly on her bed. It felt like she could’ve just collapsed and drifted away into sleep when she arrived home, but once she took a shower, she felt wide-awake again. After rolling around on her bed with her worn script in hand, she stood up. Her phone was ringing. For some reason, just looking at the phone gave her an idea of who was calling. She took a look at the screen just to make sure. As she thought.

‘What kind of a dumb sixth sense thing is this?’

It was Maru. Should she be happy for being right? She took the call with a small smile. What did that weird kid want to talk about today?

“It’s not polite to call someone so late, you know.”

- Sorry, were you sleeping?

The boy would usually counter her with a very witty joke. Oddly, this time he apologized immediately. That surprised her quite a bit.

“Why are you apologizing all of the sudden? Just be normal.”

- I really don’t think I should, not today.

“What do you mean?”

She dropped back down onto her bed, her old mattress giving in with a little creak. She started listening a lot more carefully, feeling the blanket below her. No matter who it was, a call from a boy who had attention on her made her heart flutter just a little bit.

- I’m going to say something that I’m going to be even more sorry for, that’s why.

“Sorry for?”

- Yeah.

“What is it?”

- Can you come out right now?

“…What?”

She looked at the clock in her room. It was five minutes before eleven. The sun had set a very, very long time ago. He wanted her to go outside at a time like this?

“Are you crazy?”

- I know, I’m sorry. But can I see you?

“Hey, it’s eleven o’clock. What the hell’s going on?”

- I wanted to tell you something.

“Just tell me over the phone.”

- I don’t think I can.

“…What the heck?”

She found herself being surprised by her own actions because, even as she answered, she realized she was starting to consider if her mom was in her room or not. Not only that, she was already getting dressed to go outside.

‘Crazy, this is all crazy.’

She got back on her bed again. It was 11. Her mom wasn’t very strict, but she was sure to say something if she went out now.

“No way, tell me over the phone. If you can’t just tell me tomorrow. We’ll see each other again anyway.”

- Well, that’s true. But I really think it needs to be now.

“You’re really stubborn.”

- Because I know.

“What?”

- That you don’t really hate stubborn people.

Right then, she heard a bus announcement through Maru’s side. The typical boring music along with a ‘Sky Dentist is located on the other side of the station’. It was an ad she was all too familiar with. She flinched, knowing that the station in question was right in front of her apartment complex.

“Are you actually?!”

She stood right back up and looked outside. She could see the entrance of the apartment and, past it, a bus station. She could see a bus moving right away from the station. Where the bus had been was a single boy. How strange. There were so many other people on the street, and she couldn’t even make out their faces. But why was it that she could recognize him so clearly regardless?

“There’s no way, right? Yeah, no way.”

As soon as she said that, the boy on the street started waving his hand. She felt the blood start to drain from her face. What was he doing?!

“Are you crazy?! What are you doing?!”

- Oh, so you can see me. I don’t even know where you might be, so many apartment buildings here.

“Hah.”

Absolutely ridiculous. To think he was coming here all this time… Cold wind began blowing in through the open window. It was cold. She crossed her arms as she continued looking out. She could see Maru standing around dumbly on the street.

“You’re not leaving?”

- It’s cold.

“You ass!”

- Yeah, I know I’m an ass today. I came to a girl’s place without even telling her about it. I can’t say anything back even if you call me names.

“You came knowing that?”

- Because I wanted to talk to you.

She hung up as she bit her lip. The boy was too headstrong. She wasn’t even ready! Her hair was still wet, she had a little acne she didn’t take care of yet as well. She didn’t have any nice clothes to wear right now, either.

“Wait, what am I…”

She got angrier when she realized she kept thinking about going outside. Even more ridiculous was the fact that she was grabbing that 50,000 won she owed him, as well as a scarf just in case he was cold.

Damn it, whatever!

She changed as fast as she could and stepped outside her room.

“Are you going somewhere?” mom asked, raising her glasses.

Her mom was sitting in front of the notebook. Clearly still at work. She stuttered out some excuse about leaving to meet a friend, thankful that she was better than normal people when it came to controlling her breathing. Acting really was something that was useful in casual life as well. But…

“A boy?”

“N-no it’s not.”

“Stop lying. I was a girl too back in the day, you know. You look exactly like I did when I went to meet your father.”

“………”

It felt like her face was about to explode, but she couldn’t do anything.

“Can I go out?”

“You’re a grown girl now, you don’t need permission. Try to come back before midnight, though. Don’t make your mother worry, you hear?”

“Yeah!”

Mom was the best! Though… upon realizing that she got this nervous for just meeting that guy, she got a little depressed again. Plus…

“Boyfriend?”

“No!”

“Oh, so a soon-to-be?”

“…Stop turning everything into a romance novel, mom.”

“Oh my, sorry. Force of habit, you know. It’s my job, after all.”

Her mom pointed to her notebook with a light smile. She shook her head as she stepped outside. She pressed the elevator button. Unfortunately, it was stuck on the 17th floor. It’d take too long for it to come down, so she headed to the staircase with a frown.

“Why am I…”

She muttered to herself in annoyance as she walked down.

“Even though it’s this annoying…”

Despite her complaints, she was moving faster and faster. On the way down, she started thinking of her memories with him. She met him for the first time at Hyehwa station and learned his name at the festival. The boy had said something like a confession back then. She’d thought he was just weird back then, but she really didn’t think she’d keep meeting him after that. They went on a date, by chance, some time ago. Honestly, she didn’t hate that date at all. After that date, Maru had kept asking her if she was free, and she turned him down a few times before finally saying yes.

To begin with, if she really hated him, she wouldn’t have even taken the call. No, she wouldn’t have told him her phone number at all. In any case, they continued to meet, and now they were meeting each other more than four times a week despite going to different schools. Maru always smiled, was considerate, and always worried for her. He was an odd kid who always asked to go on a date during the weekend. Before she knew it, she realized she’d stopped meeting other people during the weekend. Despite the fact that she was always annoyed when taking his calls, she still took them anyway.

She knew what all of this meant, but she didn’t want to accept it as fact. Because…

“He’s like an old man.”

He talked like a very mature person. Enough to make him almost seem a little cold compared to other people his age. But, whenever he looked at her, he smiled like an idiot. He might even give her his kidney if she said she needed it. She… really couldn’t hate someone like that. No, she couldn’t help but like him.

“Even so.”

She stepped out of the apartment entrance. She could see Maru standing on the other side of the street.

“There’s no way I’m going to be saying that first.”

She stepped towards Maru, tightly gripping the scarf in her hand.

Chapter 112

A bright neon light was flickering through a hole in an old sign for a jewelry shop that had one of its letters missing. Right next to the sign was the ever-familiar spinning pole of a barber shop. Maru really was standing next to a series of very old buildings. Based on how they looked very unnatural next to the other apartments, these buildings would probably get cleared out for renovation in the near future.

“Hah.”

Maru gathered his hands and blew a puff of air into it. He was being way too irresponsible. Calling a girl out at 11pm at night… That didn’t look good, no matter how he thought about it.

“But…”

He couldn’t help it today. He knew she wouldn’t be happy, but he had to do it. He needed to hear from her. And he wanted to convey this feeling he had to her as well. It was starting to snow a little harder now, the snow was starting to stack on the floor below him.

‘First snow, huh.’

He’d seen news a while ago about the first snow, but to him, this was what first snow was. He tried catching a piece of snow, just like he did when he was a child, and the snow maintained its shape for a second before melting in his hand. He watched the snow melt for a second before trying to catch some more. Right then.

“Are you a kid or something, getting excited over snow like that?”

She was standing next to him already, holding a scarf in her hand. She wore pink pajama pants with a blue padded jacket over her, and Maru’s eyes drifted over to her feet. The ankles that were exposed to the open air seemed pretty cold. Maru grabbed her hand.

“W-what the.”

“It’s cold. Let’s go somewhere first.”

“You said you wanted to say something though.”

“What?”

She started slowly moving along with him, and the two of them went into a nearby fast food store. It was a 24 hour restaurant, which probably explained why there were so many people there.

“You want anything to eat?”

“You’re gonna get fat if you eat at night.”

“What about hot chocolate? Drinks are fine, right?”

“They’re basically the same thing…”

She didn’t say no, though, so Maru ordered it. A bulgogi burger, a nugget set, and a hot chocolate. He had a piece of bread as he talked with Daemyung, but that had turned out to be way too little. Just as he finished ordering and decided to turn around, he felt someone poke at his back. She was looking at the menu with a slightly bitter look.

“That.”

She was pointing at the burger the franchise released a while ago. Maru ordered the burger for her with a smile.

“It’s okay, as long as you eat before midnight, it might as well be zero calories.”

“Who says that kind of stuff?”

“Mm… someone I know really well.”

You.

She used to say this almost every time she had a night snack. After they got married, she even went so far as to say that it was fine to eat as long as she ate before 1am.

“Well, that’s very irresponsible,” she said, trembling a little bit from the cold.

Maru had to wonder what kind of a face she would make if she realized she was the one who used to say that line.

“Go up first, I’ll bring the food later.”

He sent her upstairs first, waiting for the food before going up himself. There were a bunch of college students upstairs. They were probably taking a break after studying all day. Some of them still had their textbooks open.

“Over here.”

“It’s your fault if I get fat.”

“Don’t worry, I’ll exercise with you.”

She was sniffling a little bit, so Maru took off his jacket to cover up her legs.

“It’s cold, you should’ve worn thicker clothes.”

“I didn’t have time because someone decided to call me out right away. That person has no manners, seriously.”

“Yeah, sounds like an asshole.”

“Oh, so you know?”

“That’s why I’m thankful that you came out.”

She took a sip of the hot chocolate with a frown, as the college students behind them began leaving together. A minute or two later after they left, an employee came up to clean up after their mess with a sigh.

“So, what did you want to say?”

She took her lips off of the cup as she asked. Even now, Maru was just messing with the burger in his hands.

“If you don’t have anything to say, I’m leaving.”

For a person saying that, she looked like she’d really settled in. Maru rested his chin on his hands and looked at her.

“Why did you start acting?”

“…Did you call me out on a cold winter night just to ask this question?”

When Maru simply shrugged, she pouted angrily as she looked at him. Maru looked back without saying anything, and their eyes met. To Maru, she almost seemed like the only person colored in in this gray world around him. The second floor had been very loud the entire time, but he couldn’t hear anything anymore. He probably wouldn’t be able to hear anything until she decided to speak.

She didn’t talk, though that pout of hers started disappearing after a few seconds. Her frown had disappeared as well. Now, she was looking at him quietly. Again, a word bubble popped up above his head. Again, Maru decided not to read it. He simply waited until she decided to open her mouth.

“…I’m gonna say this now, but don’t do this ever again. I’m not going to come out the next time you do this.”

“I promise.”

“Hah. I don’t know what’s going on, but I get you’re not just playing around. What happened?”

“It’s just…”

“…Will my answer help?”

“Maybe.”

She squinted a little bit before looking outside. Maru followed her gaze outside as well. It was snowing outside. Snowing so much that it almost looked like a massive white curtain was being draped over the earth.

“I made up my mind when I first went to a theater with my dad. I wanted to stand on stage.”

Her eyes seemed to be searching the skies as she put the word “dad” in her mouth. Maru knew, of course. He’d never met her father even in his previous life, her father passed away when she was in her first year of middle school. Even in his fading memories, this he remembered clearly. The day when he proposed to her, she had cried and told him there was somewhere she needed to go.

That place was the mountain where her dad was buried. That was the first time Maru managed to meet her father.

[Dad, this is him. He said he would make me happy. He’s said it with such stubbornness in his voice… It’s him.]

Maru looked at her hands. They were trembling ever so lightly as they rested on the table. He couldn’t just leave them to keep trembling like that, so he put his hands lightly over hers. She looked at him with surprise in her eyes, but Maru didn’t retract his hands, and the trembling stopped.

“My dad… worked at a publisher. He wanted to be an author, but he gave up after a few slips. He still liked literature though, which is why he went to a publisher. That’s where he met my mom.”

She was speaking almost as if she was recalling something she had read a long time ago. Maru nodded along, silently.

“Both of them were really into art. In fact, I used to go to art exhibits more often than anything else when I was young. It was boring, obviously. I couldn’t say anything, I couldn’t run, and I couldn’t brag about it to my friends.”

She smiled lightly, seemingly remembering that exact moment in her life.

“When I told my dad I was bored, he said we might as well go somewhere else.”

“That must have been the theater.”

“Yeah, I still remember it. The lady who was giving out tickets, the small path into the theater, the seats that were stuck very closely together. The purple lights above, and the actual play itself. My dad really was something else. He took me to small theaters, big theaters, you name it. After a certain point, plays ended up becoming my dream. I started wanting to be on stage myself and speak to the audience, so I joined a children’s theater when I was in middle school. We practiced a lot together, despite the fact that there wasn’t a proper teacher.”

“Was it fun?”

“Very. I still talk with those kids. The ones who found an acting club at their schools all joined, as well.”

She kept talking with a bit of sadness left on her face.

“There’s no amazing reason why I took up acting; it just kind of happened. But I’m grateful that it did. Grateful that my dad introduced me to acting.”

“Acting… must be precious to you.”

She closed her mouth for a second, before replying ‘it has to be’ very quietly. Her face seemed like it could explode into tears at any moment.

“It’s one of the few memories I have left with my dad. Of course… It’s very precious to me now.”

She squinted to prevent her tears from falling. Be it now or in the future, the fact that she cried whenever she talked about her dad didn’t seem to have changed. Maru couldn’t just keep watching her crying, so he raised his hand to wipe away a single tear running down her face. She watched him dumbly for a second, another tear running down her face.

“Sorry for asking you a question like that.”

“………”

They didn’t talk for a moment, and Maru took the time to organize his thoughts while she calmed herself down. Before he came here, there were a lot of things he wanted to say in his mind, the number only increasing after they met. But right now, there was only one thing he wanted to say.

He knew saying it would make him seem incredibly rude and ridiculous; however, Maru was unable to think of anything else he could say. After all, this was the one thing that was the most perfect thing he could say in this moment.

“This is why guys carry a handkerchief around. Too bad I don’t have one.”

“Take one around with you next time.”

She smiled again. After that, they continued eating their food making some small talk. At some point, the burgers had cooled, and the nuggets were cold, but the meal was still delicious. Maru smiled as he watched her finish her burger and begin eying some of his nuggets and fries.

“So why did you start acting?”

She was asking a question with ketchup stuck next to her mouth. Maru pointed at it to draw her attention to it, but she didn’t understand. In the end, Maru took out a tissue to wipe her mouth with it himself.

“…I’m not a kid.”

“I know.”

Maru gathered the trash onto the tray in front of them as he spoke.

“I didn’t start acting naturally like you did. I started with something very specific in mind.”

“Specific? Are you planning on becoming an actor, too?”

“Not really.”

“Then what?”

“I just decided to use it as a stepping stone. A meaningless stepping stone. I could’ve used anything other than acting to use as a stepping stone, but I picked acting because it seemed appropriate.”

“What do you mean? I don’t get it.”

“Obviously. That’s because I don’t get what I’m saying either.”

“What?”

To explain this, they would have to talk about his memories and his past life. But he would get sent to a mental asylum the moment he said he’s her future husband. That’s why he could only pass it off like this.

“Hold on. I don’t get it, but you don’t really care about acting, is that it?”

“Kind of.”

“Then why are you acting?”

“Because I need it.”

“Why do you need it?”

“Because a person very important to me is doing it.”

He was both the high schooler Maru and the middle-aged Maru. Maru’s memories were that of his high school self, but his personality was closer to his middle-aged self. When Maru paid careful attention, he realized at some point that his self was split into two. He probably didn’t notice because he hadn’t paid too much attention to it. Then again, how many people would be suspicious of themselves in this life to begin with?

‘If it wasn’t for Daemyung, I wouldn’t even have thought about it.’

In the beginning of the school year, he’d thought about how to achieve his dream. But at some point, he’d given up on his dream altogether. He’d decided that he would need to find a way to survive the coming future. But in his heart, his young self was still screaming. His young self wanted to help others and act mature to look good in front of others. His young self who wanted to chase a dream was still there. On the other hand, his adult self was there as well. His self that seeked safety more than anything.

Perhaps acting was a result of his younger self conflicting with his older self. On the surface, he thought of acting as just a method of being able to meet her. But inside, Han Maru was excited about being on the stage. Daemyung had told him before that he was like a Han Maru that acted the role of Han Maru. A middle-aged man who was in a shell that was his high school self. But after a certain point, that shell that was himself was starting to disappear. Han Maru was starting to become Han Maru.

Maybe all this time, Maru was afraid of how he was starting to like acting. Because on the inside, he just wanted to keep his family safe. But recently, that mindset was starting to break. He was caring more about acting. He started because of money, but now he’s realized what it felt like to be on stage. He realized that his desire to be on stage was only growing even more over time.

What started off as a simple stepping stone to his goal was starting to grow into something even more. It was a dangerous sign. He’d realized that the stories of the ghosts of Hyehwa station didn’t even sound bad to him. Was this okay? Maybe he should give up acting right now and do something else altogether. That would be better for her, wouldn’t it?

He was scared.

Daemyung’s words cut into his heart deeply. She was starting to become a stranger, someone who didn’t matter in his life at all. That scared him a lot. He didn’t even think about it because he was scared. Because it was easier to simply think that she would be his no matter what happened. He needed to face reality now, though. Maybe it was too early. He didn’t even know what kind of a change this would bring. But he needed to say it now. He needed to bring about a change in his life.

“I like you. I really… like you.”

Among all the words in the dictionary, that was the only thing he could use to convey his feelings.

Chapter 113

Maru got on the bus. She watched as Maru waved at her and didn’t even think about waving back. She was just dazed. Dazed enough to keep standing in the same place even ten minutes after Maru had left.

She only managed to come back to her senses when the snow piled on her head melted onto her face. She shook her head, dislodging the snow that had piled up.

“Crazy, crazy.”

She waited until the signal changed before crossing the road. As she waited, a car passed by next to her, the resulting wind making her squint a little bit. As she squinted, her mind returned to Maru waving at her again.

“Crazy.”

She walked across the road with a shake of her head. Her home was around five minutes out. The chill returned to her arms and legs as she walked, causing her to speed up a little bit more. Shaking off the snow on her shoulders, she entered the apartment building. Inside, she could see rows of postboxes, several advertisements, and a little square mirror hanging on the walls. When she walked past the mirror, she took a step back in surprise. Her face was as red as a beet, even with all the cold she experienced outside.

She tried putting her hands on her cheeks. They were hot, like the time she accidentally drank soju at a wedding hall.

“If mom sees this…”

Mom wouldn’t let this pass easily. Her mom would try to get a story out of her, and she would inevitably give in. That wouldn’t be good at all. She stood outside for a few minutes to cool down, but the heat wouldn’t leave her face at all. It felt like they actually got hotter, even.

“Are you waiting for someone?” The security guard asked, worriedly.

She replied saying, ‘it’s nothing, I’m just hot’, making the guard look at her a little oddly. Then again, it was a very cold night in early December. Even so, she really did feel very hot right now. She looked at the clock inside the security office. It was 20 minutes before midnight. She would need to go back within twenty minutes.

It was an odd feeling. Her face was hot, but her feet were freezing. As she stood next to the entrance, she could see a couple pass by next to her.

“That place should be good for the wedding, right?”

“Yeah, I think that’d be good. I still want to see a few more places though.”

“Of course. How many people are we sending invitations to in the company, by the way?”

“Just a few friends. I don’t want to invite everyone.”

They seemed to be getting married soon. The woman especially seemed to be emanating some warmth of joy from her. Do all people become like that when they experience love?

Love.

“Gaaah! This is crazy!”

She glared at the clock. 15 minutes till midnight. She touched her cheeks again.

‘It might as well be a heater.’

She kept thinking about it because she kept telling herself not to think about it. In the end, she decided to give up. She was still red, but she couldn’t stand the cold anymore. As she was about to get on to the elevator, she noticed the staircase next to her. She smiled lightly before taking her first steps. Then, she immediately sprinted up as fast as she could. Two at a time.

By the time she reached the tenth floor, she was sweating a little bit. Opening the door, she entered her home immediately.

“I’m home.”

Mom was still typing away in the living room. The only thing that changed about her was the fact that she had a little glass of water next to her now.

“Did you run up?”

“Ah, yeah. The elevator was slow, so I just decided to take the stairs.”

“You must be tired.”

“Not at all.”

Alright, a success. She took off her shoes and came inside, but just as she was about to enter her room…

“So, did your conversation with your boyfriend end up going well?”

“He’s not my boyfriend!”

“If he isn’t, then he isn’t. Why are you getting so agitated over it?”

Mom was smiling like a devil. She really couldn’t win against her mom with things like this, so she quickly retreated into her room. Behind her she could hear her mom go, ‘my little girl’s all grown up now’.

“Hah.”

She collapsed on the bed as she touched her cheeks. Still hot. Would this even go away by tonight?

‘What the heck.’

Her face wasn’t the only thing that was boiling hot. The hand that Maru grabbed was almost throbbing with heat as well. It was… a good-feeling kind of pain? She didn’t know how else to describe it.

“If he just comes at me like that…”

She had had a feeling that he would ask her out at some point. She wasn’t that much of an idiot. She just didn’t think it would be today.

I like you.

The words were still spinning around in her head. Her face reddened again. She could only stare at Maru dazedly when he said those words. They were simple words that weren’t decorated with anything special, but for some reason they shook her deeply. She plopped her face down onto her pillow. The boy had just left without even listening to her reply.

‘What the, he left thinking I’d just allow it?’

“Wait a second, is that really how it is?”

She jumped straight up from her bed. This was actually pissing her off. He just left without even listening to her reply? Just like that? She took out her phone in anger. But just as she was about to press Maru’s phone number… she realized she couldn’t do it. Why? Why? She didn’t have the courage to make the call.

Just as she felt like she finally gathered the courage to press it, Maru called. Almost as if he knew exactly what she was feeling right now.

- Hello?

“Why did you call?”

She made herself sound much colder than she intended. She even covered up her mouth in surprise, but Maru didn’t seem all that surprised.

- Come to think of it, I didn’t even hear your reply.

“Are you s…”

- I was nervous. I don’t think I had the courage to hear your reply on the spot.

“……”

Scared? That Han Maru? That Han Maru, who never got nervous about anything?

- I’m even more nervous now that I said it. I’m scared, even.

“…Hey, being scared is a little too far.”

She wasn’t kidding when she said that. She could feel a bit of fear apparent in Maru’s voice. Why? Just because of her reply? Just because of that?

‘Well, maybe it’s not so insignificant… ’

She might be overexaggerating things in her head a bit, but maybe she was someone very precious to Maru? She immediately wiped that thought from her head. She was thinking way too much.

- Thanks for listening to me. And, I’m sorry.

“Sorry for what?”

- You know, visiting you suddenly and confessing out of nowhere. Just… everything.

“A lot of things you need to be sorry for, huh?”

She calmed down once she heard his voice. The heat on her face was fading as well. Her heartbeats were returning to normal, too. She was getting calmer. Phew.

“Oh, now that I think about it, that was weird. Did you really have to confess like that?”

- I guess I didn’t set the mood at all, did I.

“Right. Confessing in a fast food store? It would’ve been better if you did it in a classroom.”

- Sorry.

“…Now you’re making me feel sorry. Just be normal. Wow you’re awkward to talk to right now.”

She smiled a little. It felt like she was leading the conversation for once.

Grin.

Thinking of Maru being nervous on the other side made her want to tease him as well. Yes, she might as well do it.

“I like you.”

She became numb for about three seconds. She was planning on teasing him, but something entirely different ended up coming out of her mouth. Her face grew warm again, her heart pumping incredibly quickly. Putting a hand over her mouth as she looked up at the ceiling, she hung up. She didn’t know what to do. In the end, she just jumped on the bed, unable to make up her mind.

Ding. A phone alarm rang. It was a message.

[Thanks.]

She ended up smiling after reading that one word, her nervousness melting away immediately. She smiled for a few seconds by herself, before biting the corner of her pillow and gleefully rolling around. The heat in her face going away.

* * *

Maru looked out of the bus with a dazed grin. He’s finally made that step forward. This day felt especially valuable to him compared to all of the past year. This was simply the beginning, but he was still happy.

Of course, he was also confused. The fact that Han Maru, himself, didn’t exist in Han Maru’s life was a problem. This was probably because she was taking up such a large part of his life. He needed to find a balance.

‘Can I be greedy?’

He was afraid of failure. He only tried something new if he knew he had a backup plan. Could he… get rid of a backup plan just like that? Could he throw his life into it, knowing that it could potentially make her suffer?

The yellow neon lights passed above him. Seeing them flicker out of sight so quickly almost reminded him of his current life. Just as he was watching the lights pass by… a message came. It must be from her.

[It’s cold, so you better wear that scarf well.]

He smiled, his worries disappearing for a brief moment.

“For now, I should just be happy.”

Maru fidgeted with the scarf around his neck. It smelled very faintly of her.

Chapter 114

Yoon Moonjoong opened his eyes before the alarm clock even sounded. He looked at the digital clock after slowly waking up. 05:59:57. Moonjoong started his day by gently pressing on the button on the beeping clock.

Moonjoong had started to wake up before the alarm clock rang when he hit the age of 60. He felt that the saying, ‘You sleep less as you grow older’ should instead be, ‘You get a clock built inside you as you grow older’. It is only natural that a body thrown into the flow of time for a long time will remember that flow.

Moonjoong relaxed his slightly cold waist as he came out to the kitchen and yawned while boiling some egg soup. Putting water in a pot and cracking in two eggs around the time the water boils completed half the steps to making the soup. He took out the side dishes that were sent by his children and prepared a table for a simple meal.

It was a table for four, but he always sat alone. His eyes unconsciously swept the empty seats next to him and then went towards a frame hung next to the dining table.

The smiling face of his wife could be seen under an origami flower. She was probably around 50 years old then.

“Are you eating breakfast there?”

Moonjoong muttered a few idle words before picking up the utensils. His wife, who had promised to grow old together with him, must have had no more regrets, because she passed away after seeing their two daughters get married. It was due to heart disease but she left indifferently without giving him time to attempt anything. Even when she was alive, she was usually so impatient that she didn’t even say her goodbyes as she left. On the day of the funeral, Moonjoong tilted a glass of alcohol to himself while staring at the portrait of his smiling wife. He’d repeatedly muttered that she had no affection.

Moonjoong went to the living room and turned on the TV after finishing a plain meal with egg soup and pickled vegetables. It was the TV that his first daughter gifted him, a bulging 30 inch CRT TV. An acquaintance had once offered to buy him a 40 inch LCD TV, but he had refused, saying that he had a better one at home.

He changed the channel to the morning news and picked up the newspaper. The empty house was turned into a somewhat lively place as Dalgu came over panting and turned over in front of the sofa.

Moonjoong patted Dalgu’s head. Dalgu had been gifted to him by Junmin and was the child of a Shiba Inu. Moonjoong especially favored it because of how loving and joyful it was. Dalgu’s mother passed away three years ago.

“Recently, a woman in her 30s was arrested for fraud against a nursery school. Detailed news will…”

After briefly reading the newspaper, the hour hand on the clock pointed towards 9. It was a day like any other. Moonjoong attached a leash to Dalgu’s neck and went outside.

A chilly breeze hit his face. Moonjoong adjusted his collars and slowly left on a walk to a street where only churchgoers could occasionally be seen. Moonjoong liked this street because it was filled with a tranquil atmosphere.

“Good morning.” Mr. Park from the convenience store greeted him. It’d been 10 years since he had set foot in this neighborhood. There were people who he could start calling neighbors and Mr. Park was one of them.

“Hope you sell a lot today, too!”

“Yes. I should sell a lot.”

Mr. Park had good manners. At some point, Moonjoong became able to tell the difference between heartfelt laughter and feigned laughter. His own eyes had been trained with false laughter, which perhaps made it natural that he could distinguish between the two.

He started to swing his arms while walking with the panting Dalgu. Moonjoong let out a pleased laugh as he looked at the unchanged streets. Changes become increasingly frightening as one ages and the same applied to the environment. Moonjoong knew how to appreciate the things that were supposed to be there, being there.

Moonjoong walked past a busy elementary school and began climbing a hill. He didn’t skip out on exercising since youth, so he was physically fit. He had a slightly herniated disc, but the chilling sensation disappeared after he worked out. His primary physician had told him that daily exercise was more important than physical therapy as well.

“Let’s go, Dalgu.“

Dalgu was excited as it ran up the incline. Moonjoong mustered up a bit of energy and ran after it towards a poor hillside village some distance off the pretty residential district and apartment complex. Moonjoong walked past a shack that was undergoing demolition. This place will also be turned into a box of matches soon.

After a gradual descent with Dalgu, Moonjoong arrived at today’s destination - the Dalgureum Nursery Center. Dalgu started to run around wagging its tail upon seeing the nursery building.

“Are you happy, little fellow?”

He took Dalgu and went inside. The director came out to greet him in a slightly high pitched voice. “Teacher!”

“You’re here.”

Moonjoong nodded with a smile on his face. The director went inside to call the other teachers right away. Moonjoong took Dalgu to the living room where the children were. The children were moving about carrying their own bowls after having finished breakfast.

“Ah! It’s Dalgu!”

“Dalgu!”

The children who found Dalgu ran over in packs. Moonjoong unfastened the leash and released Dalgu in between the children. It’d been 3 years since they started playing together like this. It was Dalgu’s mother who visited before, and after her death, it was now Dalgu who became the friend of these children.

“Hello, grandpa.”

“Hello!”

The children bowed, led by their eldest brother who was now in 2nd year of high school. Moonjoong made a satisfied smile and nodded.

“Teacher, you like ginger tea right?”

“I’ll drink it if it’s given to me.”

Moonjoong went inside the director’s office after leaving Dalgu to play with the children.

“The children like it whenever you visit.”

“They like Dalgu more than me.”

He drank a sip of the tea that was giving off a sweet fragrance. 16 years had passed unknowingly since his relationship with this place began.

“I’m really grateful for the money you sent to us for the children’s tuition.”

“Let me know if there’s anything you need.”

“How could there be anything when you’re taking such good care of us?”

A substantial amount of money was flowing into this nursery. However, Moonjoong never once thought of it as being wasteful. It was the money he earned with the attention given by the public. Moonjoong thought it was logical to give the money back to the public.

Right as he was talking about this and that with the director, “Ah right.” The director excused himself and stood up from his seat. Moonjoong asked what was going on.

“A person that I’m grateful towards will be coming today. She started volunteering for us since last time, but, ah. Now that I think about it, she’s never met with you before.”

“Volunteer?”

“Yes. She does puppet plays and the children like it. On top of that she’s good with her hands so she personally makes pretty dolls and gives it to the children as gifts.”

“So there’s a person like that.”

“She’s a young lady. She has a nice heart and a pretty face. If I had a son who didn’t marry yet I would immediately introduce him to her.”

If the meticulous director was saying such good things about her, the person who scheduled to come today definitely had to be a great person.

It felt lonely being in the room by himself, so he snuck out. A red sedan could be seen coming towards this direction from far away. She must be riding in that.

The car parked in front of the building. The driver and the passenger both opened the door at the same time and a tall lady along with a boy of similar height appeared. The lady looked as if she was in her late twenties, and the boy looked like he was a high school student but gave off the feeling of being older than he appeared.

Moonjoong observed the two while the director smiled and invited them inside.

“This person here is our nursery’s largest shareholder, Yoon Moonjoong.”

The director laughed out loud giving the introduction. Moonjoong was unaffected by it as it was an introduction that the director frequently made towards customers.

“Hello, I’m Kang Soojin.”

“I’m Han Maru.”

They might’ve been flustered at first, but the lady smiled right away and introduced herself with the calm boy. Maru. It may have been due to the unusual name, but the boy was quickly ingrained in Moonjoong’s mind.

“Nice to meet you. The director said that you do entertaining puppet plays, would it be okay if this old man spectates from the side?”

“Of course.“

Moonjoong nodded and turned his body. The sound of the director chatting could be heard from behind.

“Ms. Soojin, you don’t recognize that person?”

“Hrm?”

“Ah, what should we do with our Teacher. I suppose the current generation doesn’t know too much about him.”

Moonjoong chuckled at the director, who was speaking as if it was too bad. When he was young and naive, he felt inferior when people didn’t recognize him, but nowadays he was rather grateful when it happened. It just meant that there were that many more outstanding actors who came out to take the spotlight from the retired old man.

“Director. Stop with the ridiculing and come in.”

“Yes yes, Teacher.”

The director who said that he’d come in kept going on for a short while after. He heard with his ears that stayed sharp despite his age, “He was an amazing actor.” Like everybody, he couldn’t help but be pleased when he heard his praises. He went to the director’s office to grab the ginger tea that the director had brewed for him and went back to the living room. The children who were playing with Dalgu shifted their attention to Soojin and Maru upon seeing them. Thanks to that, Dalgu became lonely.

“Tsk tsk, this kid.”

Moonjoong did a hand gesture to call Dalgu over. Popularity has always been something that’s short-lived, my child. He waited a bit, touching Dalgu’s cheeks. They felt like steamed bun cakes.

Soojin came back holding gifts and costumes after making a few roundtrips to the car. An exquisite costume and dolls that were worthy of deserving the director’s praises were soon settled in the living room. Toys for little boys could be seen as well. It must have been quite expensive. Moonjoong looked at Soojin and Maru with a warm gaze.

“There aren’t many people like that lady these days.”

“It appears to be so.”

The director left to answer a phone call and the puppet play started once all preparations were complete. It didn’t have much structure, but Moonjoong thought it was an amazing play that brought joy to the children.

“Can you give me a hand?”

The children wore puppets on their hands when Soojin requested for help and began to play together. Moonjoong had a comfortable feeling as he looked at the children. He was grateful that a young lady was willing to come to a place like this to play with the children.

I should properly greet her. When he was waiting for the play to end with a satisfied expression, Moonjoong’s eyes twitched. He wondered if he mistook it and looked at Soojin once more.

‘…… ’

Her laughter was dull. It was clear that the laughter was coming from her heart, but it looked like she herself wasn’t enjoying it. Moonjoong let out a weak grunt as he carefully observed her. Soojin’s laughter was something that could only be made by people making excuses.

‘Have I gotten old?’

There was no way a person doing praiseworthy work like this would have different intentions. However, even after checking multiple times, it was a smile that bothered him. There were no problems when she was doing the puppet show, but her smile seemed very uncomfortable when she made eye contact with the children. Although it seemed like a normal smile filled with benevolence, the subtle differences were caught by Moonjoong.

She probably didn’t approach us with impure intentions, right?.

He was reminded of the news that he watched in the morning about a nursery fraud. The scary thing about black-hearted animals is that they take apart and eat from the people who have nothing. He felt bad for judging people who came to look after the children, but he decided to keep watch just in case.

Soojin and Maru spent around 30 minutes playing together with the children. Other than the ambiguous smile that she showed every once a while, it was perfect. Come to think of it, they probably would be dealing with the director rather than the children if their aim was to commit fraud. It seemed like they were more than close enough already.

“Here, a present.”

Soojin shared the presents amongst the children and stood up. Moonjoong approached the two who were cleaning up their areas.

“You’re already leaving?”

“Ah, yes. We have more places to go to.”

“It looks like you’ve been doing this type of work for a while.”

“Yes. It’s been around 10 years.”

“Huh, 10 years.”

It really appeared that there was a misunderstanding. Then, what could be the reason for that uncomfortable smile? The director finished his phone call just in time and came inside.

“You’re leaving now?”

“Yes.”

“You should have a meal before leaving.”

“We have other appointments.”

“You’re so busy that you can’t eat?”

Soojin considered for a short moment before replying. “I’ll eat before leaving.”

“You’ll be eating with us, right Teacher?”

“Let’s do that, will it be fine for me to join?”

He asked looking at Soojin and she nodded without hesitation.

“Of course.”

Chapter 115

The place that the director brought them to was a traditional Korean cuisine restaurant, this was a place that Moonjoong frequented as well. Due to the fact that he lived alone, he ended up eating most of his meals outside, with the exception of breakfast. Moonjoong liked this restaurant, as it had the scent of a regular household home.

The four people sat by a table after being greeted by the owner. A well-cooked mackerel, a savory bean sprout dish, and a steaming soybean paste stew arrived. Bland seasoning was one of this restaurant’s qualities.

“It might not taste as good to young people.”

“I like it bland. It’s delicious.”

The way Maru spoke was quite mature. Moonjoong looked at Maru and thought of him as a dignified child. Most children his age would probably find a similar occasion uncomfortable, but Maru seemed like he was used to it as he sat on his seat, relaxed.

The director, who was good at socializing, got the owner of the restaurant to join them at the same table as they all started chatting. The topics ranged from the area being noisy due to reconstruction, to there being a fight at somebody’s house, to their son being discharged this year… By the time the meal was over, Moonjoong had heard all sorts of matters both big and small about this neighborhood.

“Ah, director. Come over here. I made some plum extract, bring some and give it to the children.”

The director had a wide smile on his face as he stood up at the gestures of the owner. “You guys keep talking.” The director left his seat after leaving those words. Three people remained at the table.

Moonjoong let out a hollow laugh as he started talking. “I wonder if we spent too much of your time. I heard you had an appointment; will it be fine?”

“I just gave them a call saying that I’ll be a bit late. To be honest, the director asks us to a meal every time and I didn’t think it would be polite to keep refusing.”

She was a person whose pretty eyes crinkled when she smiled. Moonjoong looked deep into Soojin’s smile, her current smile had no uncertainties within them. A literal expression of emotion. It was questionable how someone smiling like this would make such forced smiles in front of the children.

It was a matter that he couldn’t understand.

Moonjoong continued on with the conversation. He usually didn’t stick his nose into other people’s businesses, but he wanted to make sure as this was related to the children.

“I can’t believe you’ve been looking over the children for 10 years, it must’ve been hard.”

“……It’s fun meeting the children and it’s worth it. There wasn’t a single time when I thought it was hard.”

A bit of hesitation. Moonjoong clicked his tongue at the sadness hidden within the brief pause, she was definitely somebody with a backstory. It didn’t seem like she approached the children with impure intentions, but he was worried that the children would be hurt by the mixed intentions behind kindness that she was showing.

Moonjoong believed that people have two kinds of noses: A nose that smells literal scents and a nose that smells emotions. No matter how well packaged this kindness was, some of the sharper children were bound to notice that there was some sort of darkness hidden deep within the kindness.

Children were more sensitive to these things. This was because children, who lack the ability to protect themselves, would more keenly observe the adults. Changes in their facial expression, how much their speech is stressed, the pitch of their voice… they would pick up subconsciously on changes in body language and speech.

The problem was that they couldn’t logically process these changes. The malicious and negative emotions that adults secretly exude could be psychologically harmful to these children. Rotten food emits foul odors no matter how well you package it.

Moonjoong knew that it could be inappropriate but asked anyway. “Can we chat in private for a bit?”

Moonjoong asked leisurely. If he seemed offensive, it would be obvious that she would start protecting herself, so he spoke in a casual manner. Interestingly enough, Maru, who was sitting next to Soojin, pushed his chair back and stood up.

“I’ll excuse myself for a bit.”

The boy’s ability to catch onto things was amazing, his sense of intuition is uncanny; he stood up after reading our expressions. This was the power of observation rather than coincidence. Moonjoong narrowed his eyes and watched Maru leave the restaurant. This was a child with a strict set of principles. He’d only known the boy for a short time, but it was easy to tell.

“Um, what did you need to speak about…” Soojin asked.

Moonjoong shifted his sights from the entrance back to Soojin. It was time to push back his interests and ask the questions he had. “I’ll start off by apologizing.”

“Yes?”

“I don’t have any ill feelings towards you. I’m grateful actually. I’m only asking because there’s something bothering me, so if you don’t want to discuss it you can just say no.”

“Ah, okay.” Her face showed that she was flustered. Moonjoong waited a moment before bringing up the main topic.

“The children at the nursery, they’re like my own sons and daughters. That’s why I carefully observe the people who approach them, and you caught my eyes.”

“What do you mean by that?”

“I’ll get straight to the point. Are you really doing this for the children? Or do you have a different aim? I hope you can be honest with me. If my eyes were mistaken, tell me. If not… I’m going to have to hear whatever you’re hiding.”

He emphasized the last part in an intentionally overbearing manner. It could be that he was being excessively wary, but the sixty-five years he experienced showed him that it didn’t hurt being on guard. Moonjoong believed that people were born good and that it was the environment which made them evil. In addition, the current world was more than enough to turn somebody into a villain. He didn’t necessarily believe that this woman was a bad person, but was just worried that her feelings towards the children weren’t innocent.

He hoped that it was a mistake, just some nonsense from an old man.

However, Soojin stared at him with a frozen expression, her pupils were shaking. She tightened her lower lips and her shoulders that were relaxed until just a second ago shrank. A clear sign of defense, as well as proof that she had lied.

“I can tell even with my ignorant eyes that you’re not a bad person, but I can’t let go of the fact that you’re not being benevolent towards the children because of purely positive intentions.”

“That…”

“10 years. A very long time. You must have taken care of numerous children during that period. I’m not judging those actions. However, have you ever thought about this? There might come a day when you’re playing with the children and one sensitive child picks up your dark side and becomes hurt. Of course, it’s just a possibility. The children might not realize these things and ignore them.”

“………”

“But a parent is someone who worries about even the smallest things. Could you tell me about your situation? Why would somebody who's looked over children for 10 years appear so guilt-ridden? Why does it feel like there’s a mask on?”

The young lady in front dropped her head, she placed her hands that were tightened into a fist on top of her legs. Moonjoong felt pity for her. She looked like a little child who didn’t know what to do after being caught lying.

Moonjoong could tell that she was someone who had a lot of affection from her posture and at the same time knew that there was something binding her for 10 years.

He relaxed his pressing demeanor and gave her a pat on the shoulders. She was a kindhearted child. She could’ve continued her lies and denied everything, but instead she had fallen silent.

“I’m… sorry. I’ll be right back.” Soojin stood up. Moonjoong saw tears gathering in the corners of her eyes and sighed deeply.

Maru came in as soon as Soojin left, as if he was waiting for it. It seemed like he saw her leaving while covering her mouth. “Can I ask what happened?”

“It would appear I touched on a painful topic.”

“By painful topic you mean…”

“It looked like she had a story so I asked about it, but it seems quite complicated. How can a gentle lady like her make those kinds of smiles in front of the children?”

Maru lowered his head as he heard those words, then left the restaurant as well. A short while later, he came back by himself.

“First of all, I’d like to apologize for speaking as I please. I don’t think she’s in a condition to talk.”

“Is that so?”

“Actually, I too had something to speak to her about today. I’m telling you this after having already received her permission. She has a little brother.”

“Little brother?”

“Yes. A little brother with a rather big age gap, but I heard he was in an accident when he was young because of her.”

“Oh my, it must have been a big accident.”

“It was, to the extent that he had to live his daily life while undergoing rehabilitation before he was ten years old. There are no problems now because he received the treatment persistently and exercised regularly, but the relationship between the two became distant after that incident.”

“Don’t tell me that she’s avoiding that little brother…”

“You guessed correctly. She hasn’t spoken to him for the past 10 years, because of her guilt. The little brother’s school life was a mess because he had to receive treatment and couldn’t adapt. Children are innocent, but despite that, they can also have a scary side to them.”

Moonjoong nodded his head at those words. It was obvious that bringing together 40 to 50 children in a single class would cause problems if they spoke in an intolerant way. If within their ranks was a child whose body was uncomfortable due to receiving treatment… he probably would’ve been made fun of. This bullying sometimes could become horrible to an extent that adults couldn’t possibly imagine. Because children are so simple minded, they often don’t respect any boundaries. Children can easily cross lines that shouldn’t be crossed.

“It could be because of the way he was treated by the other children, but as he graduated elementary school and became healthy, he went astray. He might have come to learn that you need to be rough to be treated like a human. Fortunately, he’s corrected himself now.”

“He experienced a nasty society when he was small, but it looks like you’re an acquaintance of that little brother.”

“I’m in the same class as him, he’s my friend.”

So that’s why he knows the details. Moonjoong kept watching Maru, who spoke the truth in a composed manner.

“I learned the truth through my friend not too long ago and I also heard about how he felt. It’s true that he hates his sister, who was the cause of the accident then, but what he despises even more is that she had nothing to say to him for the past 10 years. It seems like there was a time when they spoke to each other, but the way they met was also something he didn’t like.”

“That lady probably said that she didn’t want to meet in person.”

“How did you…”

“If you put together what you can see, you’re also able to understand other things. Right, so that’s what it was. The cause for the guilt was this.”

So this was why she had eyes like those while looking at children. Why she went around volunteering despite having such eyes. Moonjoong understood Soojin. Going around nurseries for her might have been a form of repenting. She could receive consolation by looking after the children and doing things that she couldn’t do for her little brother.

“It’s not as good as it sounds.” It was something that started from avoidance. The results were initially nice, but it was bound to break down sooner or later. These emotions that deepen will eventually spiral out of control negatively.

“I want to offer help, but because the situation isn’t simple, I’m honestly not sure what I should do. On top of that, it’s been a long time since I’ve last met her so it’s not easy for me to bring it up either. I can’t recklessly trespass on her feelings, they have been building up for the past 10 years, afterall.”

Deep consideration could be felt across every word spoken. Although the emotional side was unknown, it was clear that he was a very logical child. Moonjoong nodded. It was an unfortunate situation. But, it wasn’t a problem that could just be left aside like this. It wouldn’t be good for either the children or the young lady to carry on this relationship with such warped feelings.

“Did it look like your friend felt disgusted by that lady?”

“No. It wasn’t like that. When my friend was spilling everything to me, he also told me that he himself wasn’t sure of what to do. I’m not sure if he wants to reconcile with his sister or remain angry at her.”

“It became a problem because the two have yet to talk properly. In a situation like this, the best solution is to have a conversation.”

“But one is scared of meeting, and the other is avoiding it…”

“Well, people’s intentions can be expressed through more than just their voices.”

Soojin came in just in time. Her eyelids were red. Moonjoong felt bad and quickly apologized.

“It’s okay. I knew that what I was doing was wrong, but I couldn’t stop despite knowing that. My heart wouldn’t be at ease if I didn’t do this.”

“I understand. But it’s not something that can be kept pushing back.” Moonjoong looked at Soojin’s face as he spoke. “Will you try following the advice of a nosy old man?”

* * *

“I’m sorry for asking you.”

“Don’t be. Rather, will you really be fine?”

“Like that grandpa said, it’s not something I can keep avoiding.”

Maru nodded as he closed the car door. The red sedan skid as it disappeared.

“A letter.”

Maru looked at the letter held in his hands. The advice of the elder was simple. It was to write down everything she wanted to say. But, he had emphasized that she should never censor her words. Soojin heard those words and wrote for a long period of time. A letter containing 11 pages was inside this envelope. Even this wasn’t enough, as Soojin went home saying that she would prepare more.

“I hope this will help.”

Dowook definitely felt hate for his sister. And yet, it also didn’t seem like he never wanted to see her again. If he really despised her, he wouldn’t have held himself and lamented that day at Myeongdong.

It is possible that he is also looking for a solution. Hopefully this letter will turn the tide of the blocked emotions, Maru mused while taking out his phone.

He looked at the new contact that was registered today. Yoon Moonjoong. The elder had given his personal number, asking to be told the results.

“Yoon Moonjoong…” It was a name that felt familiar. Maru scratched his eyebrows as he went home.

Chapter 116

Snow was pouring down and the road turned frighteningly white.

“Trash is falling.”

He walked away from the muddy snow and ended up in front of the school. The snow was falling so heavily that nobody was standing at the gate.

“Do you want to build a snowman during lunchtime?”

“Are you a kid?”

A smile blossomed on the faces of the children who were walking to school. It was understandable because they were at an age where snow was still welcoming to them. He shook off the dirt that was on his sneakers and changed to indoor slippers. After shaking his umbrella to get rid of the snow, he entered the hallway. He arrived at his class, together with classmates that were talking with him. Dojin was sitting in front of the back door. For some reason he arrived early.

“You’re here? It’s snowing a lot right?”

He made a refreshing yawn as he asked.

“You’re here early.”

“There needs to be days like this too. Here’s a morning candy.”

He caught the candy that was thrown and popped it in his mouth. The candies became a habit unknowingly. If Dojin didn’t give him a candy in the morning, he might even be sad.

Maru hung his backpack and looked at the last seat of the first row. Dowook was bent over, sleeping. Maru gestured at Dojin, who was saying something next to him, and walked towards Dowook.

Dowook opened his eyes as Maru touched him.

“What?”

“Relax your face. You’ll regret it after aging.”

“…Why did you wake me?”

“Let’s talk for a bit. There’s still some time left until homeroom.”

He brought Dowook to the convenience store. The kids who skipped breakfast were gathered at a corner, eating bread.

“Do you want coffee?”

Dowook nodded without saying anything. Maru picked out two canned coffees from the vending machine and handed one to Dowook.

“What did you want to talk about?”

“It’s related to sister Soojin.”

Chik, the conversation stopped with the sound of the can opening. Dowook looked down at his canned coffee without speaking. The conversations of the people next to them were flowing over. Something about it being tedious eating bread for breakfast.

“What about her?”

Dowook who had been staying quiet spoke up while drinking his coffee. It could be seen at a glance that he was trying to act composed. His eyes weren’t sharp like they usually were.

“I didn’t tell you before, but I’m familiar with your sister.”

“You?”

“Yeah.”

“How?”

“It’s a bit too long to explain. I don’t think you need to know either. In short, we just go volunteering together.”

Maybe Dowook understood, because he didn’t complain.

“I met her yesterday and we talked for a bit.”

“What talk?”

“About you and your sister, and this is what your sister wants to tell you.”

Maru handed over Soojin’s letter, the letter that was writen with tears.

“……It’s like this again. If she has something to say, tell her to say it herself.”

Dowook returned the letter, Maru shook his head and refused to take it.

“She wrote it with difficulty because it was hard to convey her feelings by talking. I don’t think it would hurt to give it a read at least once.”

Dowook’s hands stiffened at his words.

“How about you listen for once. It’s said that conversations start by listening.”

The wound that’s festered for 10 years. If everything’s brought up at once, their feelings will just burn hotter. This was what Moonjoong had been worried about as he told them to first try writing a letter. I wonder how effective it’ll be. Maru gave Dowook’s shoulders a pat as he walked past him.

“You gave him the letter?”

-Yes. I don’t know if he read it or threw it away, but I gave it to him.

“It must have been hard, good work. It’s fortunate that her little brother has a good friend.”

Moonjoong gave his thanks for telling him and hung up the call. How nice would it be if the kind lady could use this opportunity to let go of some of her burdens? If that happens, then he could entrust the children with her without being worried.

“This child, it looks like you’re hungry.”

Dalgu came up to his feet and rolled over to expose his stomach. Moonjoong poured some food in a concave bowl. Maybe it was because it was winter, but Dalgu had gained some weight.

Dalgu started to munch on the food while wagging his tail. Moonjoong looked at Dalgu for a while before turning his head towards the dining table. There was a phone call.

“Hello.”

-Ah, Teacher.

“Is it Junmin?”

-Yes.

“What is it at this time?”

-The thing that you spoke to me about previously. About wanting to have someone be recommended to you to grow as a student.

“I remember.”

-I sent you an email after narrowing the list to a few people between middle and high school. I attached a picture as well as how I felt about them next to it. I would appreciate it if you could help grow three, no, four people.

“I’m just going to listen to the kids talk to kill some time. One person is enough.”

-You’re too much. Please give me some face, and consider two people.

“If there’s a kid that I like. Ah, was it amateur class? I need to give that place a visit too.”

-Weren’t you planning on coming during a performance?

“That’s what I was planning, but I think I’ll have to see the preparation process to understand their personalities.”

-Then please come on either Monday, Wednesday, Friday, or the weekends, whenever you’re free. I’ll let the teacher in charge know. About meeting the children…

“I’m just going to quietly observe.”

-Understood. That’s how I’ll tell them. Ah, speaking of which, Teacher. I received some good pine mushrooms as a gift, is it okay to visit you sometime soon?

Pine mushrooms. His mouth started to water. He didn’t know about anything else, but the pine mushrooms that Junmin brought was something that couldn’t be denied.

“Bring Andong soju as well.”

-Of course. I’ll go during the night.

This busy friend was hardworking as well. Moonjoong smirked and opened up his laptop. The laptop had been gifted to him by his second daughter. At first, he thought that he would never be able to handle things like this, but as he fiddled with it, he was able to check things like his email. He blinked his tight eyes as he opened the inbox. He only told a few close people about his email so it was usually empty, but a new email had arrived.

He clicked it and received the files inside.

“Let’s see.”

It might be because he was getting old, but when he looked at things nearby, his eyes became blurry. He put on the glasses hanging around his neck and checked the screen, the left side had a picture and the right side had information written by Junmin. It was similar to the personal information you received when taking an audition, it was clear that he was involved in this area of work as the organization was very clean.

Moonjoong took the time to read them one by one. He realized while preparing for the play that would be held at Myeongdong Art Theater, that he still had a passion for plays. The seed of passion differed from his earlier days, however, and it grew by raising students rather by personally performing in them. Moonjoong remembered the theater that no longer existed, as he stopped scrolling.

“This child…”

He took his hands off the mouse and observed the screen. Han Maru, the friend that he saw yesterday, and spoke on the phone just earlier was inside the monitor.

So he was a child who performed in plays.

“Then his observational skills are quite…”

The core of acting was imitation. Because the foundation of imitation was observation, the fact that somebody’s observation was good meant that they had a solid groundwork for acting.

“Is it fate?”

Now that he looked back, when Maru was performing the puppet show for the children, his acting wasn’t sloppy. The principle of being serious no matter where the stage was set, it would seem that he already had the virtue that actors worked to preserve.

“His actions of being considerate are good too.”

It was a work involving people in the end. No matter how scum-like people were good at acting, he didn’t have the intention of teaching them. In that sense, Maru deserved high points. He read the details that Junmin wrote.

“Hoh-oh.”

Junmin as a person was gentle. Despite being 50 years old, he had a broad smile on his face whenever he looked at dogs. However, when it came to work, he was a professional unlike any other. To become a casting director, you needed the ability to look through a person. It’s because whether it be plays, dramas, or movies; no matter how outstanding the scenario, staff, and acoustics were, if the actor who had the role of telling the story was bad, the whole thing was thrown down the drain.

Whether the product will end up rising or falling is first and foremost determined by the casting, Junmin was especially strict when he looked at people because he did this type of work. It was to the point that even Moonjoong, as an actor, would avoid meeting Junmin.

“A person like that has this much expectations for him.”

Expectations. The weight that this one word carries is more than what it seems.

Moonjoong crossed his arms.

“Let’s try seeing him in advance.”

***

“Hi.”

“……”

“At least take my greeting.”

“Yeah, hi.”

She received his greeting as if it were her first time seeing him. Maru scratched his eyebrows and took a step to her side.

“What, what is it?”

She jumped in surprise and widened the gap. She has a cute side to her too, Maru awakened his mischievous personality for the first time in a while and kept inching closer. She didn’t know what to do and ran up the stage before stopping and sighed.

“Is it fun?!”

“Yeah.”

“Seriously, I can’t live.”

“We’re a couple, let’s stick together.”

“C-Couple? Who? Me? With you?”

“Are you not?”

“……”

She didn’t deny it. Maru’s mood brightened and he tightly grabbed her hand to pull her to a side of the stage. The other students had yet to arrive, they were the only people in the open stage.

“I like you.”

“What, what, what?!”

“Why are you so surprised? It's what you said.”

Her face immediately blushed. So she was someone who reacted this simply when she was younger. In his past life, they had met when they were both adults. One was an actress who had lived her life in theaters while acting as cameo for dramas; the other was a road manager for such schedules. When she was old enough to know everything there was to know, she only snorted when he made these jokes. Rather, she had been the one to play pranks with Maru not knowing what to do.

“Hi!”

“You’re here early.”

The entrance on the first floor opened and other students appeared. Maru slowly let go of the hand that he held. She took notice of that and pulled her hand back.

“Aren’t you blushing too easily?”

“What can I do when it’s genetic.”

“Ah, mother-in-law also……”

“Mother-in-law?”

“Nevermind, it’s nothing.”

Maru faked a cough and ignored her glare. He vaguely remembered his mother-in-law who wrote romance novels. As she said, she had been someone who’s face easily turned red.

“Don’t space out and warm up your throat and bodies.”

Ganghwan stepped forward, behind him were five students who dreamed of becoming actors.

“We’re going into practice in 20 minutes. Like we discussed before, we’ll be choosing roles and taking auditions starting tomorrow so be prepared.”

“Yes.”

“Then warm up your bodies and voice accordingly. I’m going to lie down for a bit.”

Ganghwan spoke as he laid down on the floor. It wasn’t once or twice so the students shrugged and relaxed their bodies.

***

“Try to express more emotion, as if you’re screaming. You need to pay attention to your voice because it’s a play without mics. Even if it’s an amateur play, you can’t make the audience who took the time to come here feel a sense of loss. Again!”

Ganghwan threw the cue sign and spun around. He spoke like that, but the overall atmosphere was good. Everybody grew basic knowledge while staying in the acting club. They were like chicks, but it had been satisfying teaching them because they knew what to do.

“Uh, Senior.”

“Are you busy?”

It was Senior Junmin. He must be busy because of the main play that’s opening at this theater, Ganghwan wondered why he’s here. Ganghwan told the students to continue and walked towards the entrance.

“What is it?”

“There’s a friend that I need to take.”

“From there? Is it Maru?”

“Yeah.”

“Are you going to treat him to meat?”

“Not meat, pine mushrooms.”

“Ah! I’ll go too. Please show me some favoritism too.”

“Stop being so cringy. I’m not the host today, so it’ll be difficult.”

“Then who…”

“Teacher Yoon Moonjoong.”

“……I really want to go.”

Ganghwan had two actors who were his idols, and one of them was Moonjoong.

“I met him a year ago and haven’t been able to see him since.”

“You should come to the practice room at Hyehwa station.”

“How can I go to a place where the seniors are practicing. There are other senior actors there too.”

“Hmm, then shall we try giving him a call?”

“Senior! I love you!”

Ganghwan waited patiently while hugging Junmin’s arms. After the short call ended, Junmin said, “Come with us.”

“There’s still 2 hours left until practice ends, so please wait until then.”

“You’re not going to end it early?”

“Is that what you want?”

“No. If you did that I would have cursed at you.”

“Right?”

“The kids, how are they?”

“Should I say it’s to be expected? They’re definitely different from the usual pack because they’re all kids who have been recommended. If they’re polished just a little bit, you could probably let them out without being embarrassed.”

“Do your best. You know that teacher Yoon will be coming to the practice play right?”

“Of course, it’s making me nervous too.”

“Somebody who’s nervous was laying down on the stage?”

“Hm hm.”

He laughed while avoiding Ganghwan’s gaze.

Chapter 117

“Stop.”

The children let out deep sighs as they relaxed; the last run through had ended. Ganghwan gestured for everybody to gather in one place. Like always, the practice would be concluded by everybody reflecting back on their own performance.

“I wanted to use stronger intonations to speak louder, but it didn’t go as I wanted. It was hard to control my breathing as the pronunciation became stronger. Anyway, it was hard.”

“Even if you gather strength in your stomach to voice out the sounds, in the end, the voice is formed by your mouth. If the form of the vibration is changed, then the balance will break. It would be nice if you could overcome it by controlling your breath, but if it’s hard, it should be better to give a point to one word, rather than emphasizing the entire speech. Do you understand what I’m saying?”

“I’ll try it once.”

“Good, next.”

Ganghwan looked at a girl standing next to them. Lee Yoojin, she attended Bosung Girls High. She received an Excellent Acting Award at the Youth Theater Festival that was held this year. Her team performance resulted in the Best Acting Award just short of the grand prize, but individually, her acting was superior to everybody else here. She’s already made her debut through the TV as well. Despite being a minor role, the experience she gained from working together with professionals couldn’t be ignored.

“It felt good because a lot of my nervousness disappeared. I could see more of the stage too. I was only able to see the center of the auditorium yesterday, but today, I was able to see the sides too.”

“Good. The fact that your field of view widened means that you’re more relaxed. Was there anything you didn’t like about your performance today?“

“Nothing in particular.”

“You’re confident, I like it.”

In the end, they were the first ones to see their own acting. It wasn’t possible to please others if they themselves weren’t pleased with their own performance, actors had to carry a bit of arrogance that came from believing that their acting was the best. It was a world that they couldn’t survive in by just being flung around.

“Is there a role that you’re aiming for?”

“I would like Seulmi.”

“Hm, the female lead. The competition will be fierce.”

She could be called the protagonist of the scenario, ‘Year 3 Class 3’, that had been chosen for the practice performance this time around. In addition to Seulmi, there was the class president, teacher, and Chuljin. These four characters made an appearance in all the scenes. Ganghwan went a step further and extended the script for these four characters while creating a point of conflict amongst them.

Twelve students were participating in the play and there were four major roles, the auditions starting tomorrow would be competitive. The students that were here were all greedy for acting, nobody was doing it half-heartedly. On top of that, Yoojin, who already starred in a TV program, had been gunning for the main role.

Look at their eyes.

There were five girls out of the twelve students. The five of them had to fight for two main roles, Seulmi and the teacher that could be played regardless of gender. It was obvious that they all wanted one of the two.

It’s going to be fun.

Ganghwan went across the four remaining girls and asked.

“Is there anybody else who wants to play Seulmi?”

Three people immediately raised their hands. The one person who didn’t raise her hand said that she wanted to play the teacher.

“4 people. Are all of you confident?”

“Yes.”

Nobody backed off. Everybody had an expression that showed the role was theirs. As I thought, kids these days are scary.

“Good, then Seulmi will be the first role that we’ll be auditioning tomorrow. Everybody should come prepared. Let’s see who best fits the role of Seulmi. Ah, I won’t be doing this evaluation by myself. You’ll be doing it as well. However, my evaluation will carry the most weight.”

“How will the evaluation process be done?”

The one who asked the question was Maru. Ganghwan spoke as he stroked his chin.

“It won’t be split into detailed categories. You’ll be stating your impressions, while I’ll be giving the overall score. It’ll probably be fun. You’ll get to be the judge while also being judged.”

Ganghwan took out his phone and checked the time. It was almost time to wrap up.

“Good work today too. Pack your stuff and let’s leave.”

“Thank you for your hard work!”

The children stretched after giving a short bow.

“Han Maru.”

Maru was preparing to go back with her, but looked back after being called. Ganghwan made a hand gesture. I wonder what it is.

“You have time today right?”

“Huh? Why are you asking?”

“Don’t ask. Do you have an appointment?”

“No, I don’t have any appointments.”

“That’s good.”

Ganghwan took out his phone and made a call somewhere. He had a bright expression as he took the call. His first words were, “Senior Junmin.”

“Teacher?”

“Senior, I’ll be leaving with Maru right now. Yes, yes. I’ll see you in front of Teacher’s house. I’ll be there soon!”

Ganghwan ended the call and walked towards the door.

“What is it?”

“We’re going to have to go somewhere together.”

“Where?”

“To the house of a teacher who I respect.”

“Huh?”

“That teacher wants to meet you. Bastard, you’re pretty popular. You probably don’t know because you’re young, but he’s called Yoon Moonjoong…”

“Ah, it’s that elder?”

“You know him?”

“Yes, I met him by chance when I went volunteering at a nursery.”

“I see, so that’s how he knows you. Anyway, let’s go.”

“Right now?”

“Yeah, right now. Stop talking and follow me.”

Maru scratched his eyebrows. It wasn’t that he had other plans, but going to the house of somebody he’s only met a single time bothered him. On top of that, it was somebody who Ganghwan addressed as teacher. It looks like Teacher Junmin will be joining too.

-He was a super popular actor back in the days.

Maru remembered the words of the director from yesterday. It appeared to be true.

“Can you give me a moment?”

Maru went out the exit and looked towards the bus station. She was standing there while looking around, she didn’t get on even when a bus that headed towards her house had arrived.

I forgot.

He had made a promise to go back together. Maru felt sorry while running towards her.

“Where were you? The bus already left.”

“Sorry, I have an appointment.”

“An appointment?”

Maru pointed at Ganghwan who was walking towards a black car.

“With the teacher?”

“Yeah, he suddenly wanted to take me somewhere.”

“Ah, you should’ve told me earlier if that was the case.”

She pouted.

“Sorry.”

“You were the one that wanted to go back together. Whatever, it’s fine. It’s not like we went back together before anyway. You can go.”

It was extremely uncomfortable. If he turned around like this, it was clear she would nag at him later. He knew from his numerous experiences. What should I do…

“Follow me.”

“Huh?”

Maru grabbed her hands and walked towards Ganghwan’s car. Ganghwan opened his eyes wide as he looked back.

“Huh?”

“Coach.”

“Uh, yeah.”

“I have a request.”

“People without girlfriends are going to be too lonely to live.”

“Don’t be like that, it’s too late to send a girl back by herself. I planned to take her back home but I can’t do anything about it because of the appointment.”

“Yeah, yeah, you’re the best.”

They were on their way back to Seoul after going to Suwon from Myeongdong. It was almost 10pm. Ganghwan stepped on the gas after getting on the Gyeongbu Highway.

“I can’t believe I’m acting like a chauffeur for a kid at this age. It’s sad.”

“I’ll introduce a girl to you next time.”

“What, really?”

“If possible.”

“I have faith in you.”

Ganghwan’s mood did a 180. Maru knew that Ganghwan wasn’t behaving like that because he was lonely, it was just a habit. He never once saw Ganghwan go out of his way to attempt to be in a relationship, acting always came first. That’s why Maru was curious how Ganghwan would react if he really did introduce a girl to him.

“Anyway it’s getting pretty late, will you be ok? Teacher said it’s fine if we meet at a later date.”

“They say to take the iron out while it’s hot. We might as well go since the situation is already like this.”

“What about school?”

“Please take care of me.”

“…”

“I already let my mother know that I won’t be able to go back home tonight.”

“You need to respect your coach a bit more. I’m going to tell you right now, but I’m not your chauffeur.”

“I know, but I believe that you’ll take me to school. You know Suwon’s a bit too far from Seoul. I’ll spend a night at the elder’s house before going back down.”

“You’re really shameless, asking to sleepover at a person’s house you’re visiting for the first time.”

“The situation calls for it, and I already received permission.”

“What? When?“

“Earlier through the phone. I asked if I could spend a night because the distance was too far.”

“Meticulous kid.”

“I’ll take it as a compliment.”

Ganghwan clicked his tongue and turned the steering wheel.

Ganghwan turned off the engine of the car that was parked in front of a house. There was a pine tree in the courtyard that looked over the house, with an old chair in front of it. A pathway built out of pebbles led to the residence. It felt more cozy than elegant. The steel door attached to the wall was slightly open. Ganghwan couldn’t find a doorbell no matter how much he looked, so he ended up making a phone call outside the door.

“Yes, senior. I’m here. Ah, you want us to just come in? Yes, okay.”

It appeared that permission had been granted, Maru took a step inside the door. The sound of pebbles being stepped on could be heard, followed by faint barking from inside the house. A savory fragrance wafted over.

“It’s meat and pine mushrooms. As expected, beef goes together the best with pine mushrooms.”

Ganghwan hummed as he opened the door to the house. Maru took another look at the old chair that was left by itself in the courtyard before going in. As soon as he was inside, the strong scent of beef filled the air along with the smell of the pine mushrooms.

“Teacher!”

“A pleasant guest is here.”

Moonjoong and Jumin were sitting on the floor. He wondered why they left the perfectly fine sofa to sit on the floor, but it was because they were lighting up the stove in front of them. The beef and mushrooms were being cooked on top of the small stove.

“Hello.”

Maru bowed in the direction of the two teachers.

“Welcome, it was an unreasonable request, but thank you for agreeing to it. Come sit, let’s talk after eating.”

“Yeah, yeah, let’s listen to the teacher and eat first.”

Maru placed down a drink set that he brought as a gift by the entrance.

“You’re empty handed?”

“Haha, teacher. I’m the gift, you’re being too stingy when we haven’t met for a year.”

“Tsk tsk, you can’t help but hate him.”

It looked like Moonjoong and Ganghwan had a good relationship from the level of friendliness they showed. Maru grinned and took a seat.

“Maru.”

“Yes.”

“Do you like pine mushrooms?”

“Of course, I can’t eat it because I don’t have any.”

“Haha, that’s good.” Moonjoong laughed out loud. Judging from his face that had a red tint, it appeared that they already had a drink or two. As if to prove this, there was a ceramic bottle next to the box of mushrooms, with the words Andong Soju engraved.

“Hey, come here and flip over the meat.”

“Yes, Teacher!” Ganghwan answered merrily.

“We’re going to go out for some fresh air.” Junmin took the drunk Ganghwan out with him. Ganghwan wanted to stay inside because it was cold, but Junmin brought him out.

“Who did you learn how to drink from?”

“My father taught me.”

“Good job, it’s good practice to have your first drink with an adult. If you make a mistake with the first drink, you won’t know the true taste of alcohol.”

Maru kneeled and held out his cup. It was already the third cup.

“This is the last cup.”

“Thank you.“

The soju flowed out and made a circle in the cup. It was Maru’s turn to take the ceramic bottle and fill Moonjoong’s cup.

“You don’t need to force yourself to drink it.”

“It’s a precious drink, I can’t waste it.”

“Hut hut, this child.”

The two people quietly emptied their cups. Maru placed some meat and mushrooms on top of the empty grill.

“What made you start acting?”

Maru took a moment to think, and spoke truthfully.

“I’m not acting because I like it. I’m doing it to earn money.”

“To earn money… Good, that’s good. I was like that as well. I wanted to become a singer at first, but my father said he would break my legs if I became an entertainer, so I ended up becoming an actor instead. It’s strange, they’re both occupations that deliver joys and sorrows to others, but one has a higher status than the other.”

“I heard it was like that in the past.”

“Everybody’s trying to become a singer now. It’s a good job. People shouldn’t be treating it so disdainfully.”

Maru took notice and filled up the glass again. Moonjoong drank a bottle and a half by himself, but he was perfectly fine, he has amazing alcohol tolerance. Maru thought as he put aside the bottles.

“I heard you were late because you wanted to take a girl home.”

“Yes, I was scared of sending her back alone. I’m sorry.”

“No, no, I was the one that made the request, so there’s no reason for you to be sorry. She must be a precious friend.”

“She’s somebody who I’m giving all of my heart to.”

“Hut hut! You’ll get headaches later if you start talking about love at such a young age.”

“I think so too.”

The flow of the conversation was comfortable. As expected, a quiet seating like this suited Maru more than mindlessly talking with other kids. The sizzling of the food being cooked, Moonjoong’s soft laughter, as well as the occasional sound of the wind blowing through the window created a tranquil atmosphere in the living room.

“Is the reason you’re acting because of that girl?”

“……Was it that obvious?”

“How would I not be able to tell when such a clear child starts grinning nonstop when talking about her. So it’s for love. That’s also good.”

Moonjoong made a pleased smile and turned towards Maru.

“I felt this when I first met you, but you’re really mature. However, it’s almost weird because the maturity seems so natural. When I look at your peers, I can roughly tell what kind of life they’ve been living, but it’s different when it comes to you.”

“…”

“The reason I wanted to meet you tonight isn’t anything special. I just wanted to know a bit more about you. Would it be possible to tell me about yourself? Anything is fine. If you have any concerns, I can listen to them as well. The wits of an old man can sometimes become medicine.”

Concerns.

Maru put down the chopsticks that he had been holding. It wouldn’t hurt to talk about some of the things I’ve been worried about to a senior in life.

Chapter 118

“Teacher, you prefer black right?”

“I like variety.”

“Then I’ll buy something like citrus tea.”

Ganghwan went inside the convenience store, then came back with a coffee and a citrus tea. He got in his car and handed the citrus tea to Junmin, who was sitting next to him.

“It’s quite chilly.”

“It’s because it’s winter. At least it’s not snowing. It’s cold enough, but if it snows on top of that, ugh.”

“A young guy like you shouldn’t be complaining about the cold.”

“Senior, just because I’m younger doesn’t mean I’m more resistant to the cold.”

Ganghwan sipped on the coffee and looked at the clock. It had been 20 minutes since they left Moonjoong’s house.

“Should we start heading back?”

“Let’s wait for 10 more minutes.”

Junmin crossed his arms and leaned on the seat. It looked like he would fall asleep as soon as he was left alone.

“You can’t fall asleep.”

“I won’t.”

“Anyhow, it’s unexpected. I wonder why Teacher wanted to meet Maru.”

“I didn’t tell you?”

“What?”

“It looks like Teacher will be taking in students again, like he did in the past.”

Ganghwan’s eyes became round.

“Is that true?”

“Yeah. Not big kids like you, but it seems like he wants to pick and teach a kid with potential. I sent him the list of candidates earlier today, and for some reason, he chose Maru.”

“I heard they met each other before, could it be because of that?”

“He’s not a person who would arrange a meeting just because he met somebody by chance.”

“That’s true, anyway, it looks like he favors Maru quite a bit.”

“It’s because he’s talented, charming, and determined. There used to be times when he would be flustered, not knowing what to do, but it recently disappeared. He doesn’t have any flaws to pick at.”

Ganghwan nodded at the fitting description.

“Is there anybody that you wanted to be chosen personally? If you were the one who organized the list, then there must’ve been a few that you liked.”

“I wonder. I have too many students that I’m already taking care of, for me to pay attention to others. If I had to choose one, it would have to be Maru, but even then, what I saw was only a possibility, not a guarantee.”

“You become too strict when you start judging people. You just need to say that you want Maru to be chosen.”

“I realize this whenever I work, but in this field, it’s important to draw a line between work and personal relationship. After all, my work is basically managing people. I’m bound to make a loss if I operate based on affection.”

“Somebody like that donated 300 million won?”

“That’s how investment works.”

“Invest in me too please.”

“Are you in need of money these days?”

“It’s a joke.”

Ganghwan knew that if he asked sincerely, Junmin would offer him an enormous sum of money without hesitation. However, Ganghwan had no thoughts of making a request like that. Even if he became penniless, he vowed to never ask others for a helping hand. Money was something that could be earned and lost, but the moment you lost a person, it ended there. Relationships were something that couldn’t be recovered. Instead, they had to be forgotten and started over from the beginning. A ripped piece of paper remains ripped even if it was pieced back together.

He would live the same life regardless of whether he had money. Ganghwan saw countless people whose relationships had broken down because of money related problems. He’d learned enough lessons through them.

“Senior.”

“What?”

“Please take care of me next year too.”

“…It seems like next year will be tiresome as well.”

***

Maru knelt on his knees.

“I don’t have a knack for speaking, so I’m not sure if I’ll be able to get the meaning across, but…”

Maru paused and organized his thoughts. Everything should be looked over at least twice before being spoken out. He opened his mouth after composing his thoughts.

“It might sound absurd, but… I had a certain dream.”

“Dream?”

“Yes, it was a really vivid dream where I grew up, got married, and lived a regular life before eventually dying.”

“Hmm.”

“I have trouble believing that it was a dream because of how clear it was. After having that dream, the direction of my life took a turn. You told me yesterday that I was well-mannered, but a lot of that is because of the dream. In the dream, I was 45 years old and the head of a household.”

Maru spoke as truthfully as he could while mixing in a few lies. His feelings grew complicated as he spoke. He could never grow used to remembering his death, as well as the family that he left behind in that life.

“I can tell you’re serious by your expression. Continue on, let’s hear the rest.”

Moonjoong’s eyes became calm, Maru told his story more carefully after seeing his attitude.

“I was married and had children in that dream. Then… I died from an accident. I had a billion different thoughts after waking up. I wondered if I could keep living like this, without aim, and my attitude changed since then. I’ve decided to do my best for the people I loved and to prepare for my future. The influence that one dream had on me was massive.”

“And so you decided to take up acting.”

“That’s right.“

“I heard from Junmin, he said you wanted 300 million won?”

“Yes.”

“I thought you just wanted to strike it rich, but it seems like that’s not the case. The 300 million must be something like an insurance for the future.”

“Other people might’ve laughed at me if they heard the request. After all, a mere third-year in high school was asking for 300 million won. However, I needed something that I could be sure about.”

“You had a lot of fears.”

“Yes.”

“It’s only natural to be scared if you really did experience something like that, a man who shoulders the weight of his child can only be scared. I was like that too.”

He felt anxious just thinking about the daughter that he’ll have in the future. He wanted to prepare everything for the child whose face he couldn’t even remember, and for that, he needed money.

“You can’t help but be greedy for money when you’re the head of a household. After all, money is required for a minimal amount of happiness.”

Moonjoong emptied his glass, and put the glass aside.

“Okay, I understand that you asked for money because you were scared, but this can’t be called a problem. Didn’t you say that you had some concerns?”

“I only started looking back at myself recently, and my thoughts became complicated. It was fine up to the point where I chose acting and asked for money. The problem is that my interest in acting is growing.”

“It’s a problem that you’re interested in?”

“Yes, if it was just slight interest that improved my focus, it would be fine, but the problem is that the amount of interest is growing without stopping. At first, my plan was to practice for 3 years and give acting a shot. If my skills weren’t up to par after the 3 years, I was going to give up and go back to the plans I had before. Then it would’ve meant that I made 300 million in 3 years, which is a pretty good deal.”

“But your concern now is that you’ll still have feelings for acting even after the 3 years?”

Maru nodded in response. It was a problem that was simple, yet important. Forty was an age where you no longer felt temptation. He’s definitely passed that age before. Back then, he gave up everything and only lived for the sake of his wife and daughter. He never wavered and reduced the time he spent on hobbies, so that he could deposit money into an account under his daughter’s name. He thought it was the logical way to live.

However, the now young blood in Maru kept tempting him. He could imagine himself continuing to attempt acting even after hearing that he had no talent.

Looking at it now, that future appeared sweet. The face of himself challenging his limits accompanied by his spirit and dreams. The twenties was an age that shined brilliantly with vigor. If he didn’t know the future, he would have been able to lead a life like that.

However, the problem was that he knew.

He found out.

He ended up knowing.

The job market would continue to freeze over. If employment was easy, he wouldn’t have had to become a bus driver. He could vaguely remember society’s atmosphere back then. The unemployment rate definitely wouldn’t decrease, if anything, it increased.

If it was 300 million won, he might be able to try something.

If he gave up after being told that acting wasn’t his forte, anything was possible.

As long as he could give up.

“I don’t want to lose the girl I love, nor do I want to make it difficult for her. This might sound premature, but I also don’t want to raise my child in a lacking environment. My concern is the attitude that I should have towards acting.”

Maru stared at Moonjoong, wondering what kind of answer his insight will result in.

“It seems like a concern is giving birth to more concerns.”

“…”

“There’s nothing that can be done about that, concerns build on top of each other. In the end, it grows to a size that people can’t handle.”

“That doesn’t mean that you can live a life free of concerns.”

“That’s why a concern is a concern.”

Moonjoong laughed.

“Unfortunately, I can’t give you an answer to that type of concern. I’m sorry that I can’t be of help.”

“…”

“However, I can offer a piece of advice.”

Advice.

Maru corrected his posture once more and listened.

“Don’t look at the world as if it’s a scenery, but rather face it like reality.”

“Face it like reality…”

“I can empathize with your feelings after listening to your story. I can also tell how realistic that dream must’ve been from your actions. I’m sure you must be worried about the girl you’ll marry, the family you’ll make, as well as the child that you’ll have. While your life is filled with these worries, you’re taking a step back to observe everything as if none of it has anything to do with you.”

“You’re telling me that I’m taking a step back?”

“Aren’t you nowhere to be found in any of the things you spoke about?”

“……”

“And plus, you aren’t an omnipotent child of god, one of the many who are walking along a narrow cliff called life. The same applies to me too. Nobody can be sure of their life, but here you are, trying to be responsible for everything.”

“But if it’s not me…”

“You said you had a girl that you liked?”

“Huh? Ah, yes.”

“From the way you described her, she seems to have some talent.”

“…She has more than just some talent, she’s the heroine.”

“Then let me ask you, you seemed to be serious about her. Are you planning on marrying her?”

“That’s what I’m hoping for.”

“Then it becomes easier. Hmm, it’s 12am, what time do kids sleep these days?”

“She’s probably still awake, she picked up when I called her before too.”

“Then give her a call.”

“A call?”

“Yes, a call.”

Maru showed a moment of hesitation before taking out his phone to call her. It rang a few times before she picked up.

-Why are you calling this late?

A tired voice could be heard. She might’ve woken up from her sleep to take the call. Maru looked at Moonjoong. He did as he was told and made the phone call, but didn’t know what to do after.

“Ask her.”

“Ask her what?”

“You know, the things that you’re worried about.”

-Hello? Maru, can you hear me?

Maru let out a sigh. He knew what to ask, but because it was so sudden, he had trouble speaking.

-I’m going to hang up!

“Wait.”

-Ah, I can hear now. So, what is it?

“Hey, just suppose, as a possibility.”

-Just suppose what?

“If the man that you marry has trouble earning money and goes around chasing after his dreams… What will you do?”

-What are you talking about this late at night? I’m going to hang up if you’re just making a joke.

“It’s not a joke, I wanted to hear your opinion. I’m serious, please believe me.”

-…… Really, what is it? I felt this last time too, but you’re weird.

“Sorry.”

-As always, you’re good at apologizing. Sigh… So what’s the guy that I’m marrying like?

“Huh? Oh, let’s just say that he’s somebody you love a lot.”

-Somebody I love a lot? If it’s somebody like that, I’ll probably yell and nag at him and tell him to wake up. After telling him to act his age and to start thinking about his family, I’ll……

“You’ll?”

-I guess I’ll just earn the money instead. You did say it was somebody I loved. My mom says this often, but love is being a bit happy when the person you love is hurt. If they get hurt, it means that you can look after them and help them. For that reason, he might be pathetic and frustrating, but… if I love him, I’ll just carry him on my back. Hey, maybe I should just make him be the housewife! Haha, he’ll have an apron on, and watch the kid. Meanwhile, if I become a popular actress, there won’t be anything to worry about. Not bad, right?

“Yeah, yeah, not bad.”

-I don’t know what the problem is, but I think it’s pointless to worry about something like that. The question itself is biased, if the guy can’t earn money, then the girl can do it. Do you think women are just parasites who leech off men? Now that I think about it, this is making me mad. Who was the one that told you to ask a question like this? I heard a voice next to you earlier, don’t tell me it was teacher Ganghwan? Was it?

“No that’s not it.”

Maru couldn’t hold back and broke out in laughter as soon as he answered. He was unable to answer despite hearing, “Hey!” from the other side of the phone.

In the end, she hung up the call. Maru could envision the nagging that he was going to hear tomorrow, but for now, he was enjoying it.

Maru looked at Moonjoong after barely managing to contain his laugh, Moonjoong looked back with a satisfied smile.

“When a concern remains a worry, it’ll look like a wall impossible to climb. However, if you collide with it, it often ends up not being much. The phrase, ‘Life is a tragedy from up close, but a comedy from faraway’, isn’t there for show.”

“It seems so.”

“The distancing is important, you can’t be objective from too far away, nor can you be emotional from too up close. The reason moderation is emphasized so much even in this day and age, is because it’s closely related to life.”

Moonjoong grabbed the glass that he put aside and signaled Maru to grab his.

“Let’s have another drink, the night is still long.”

“Yes, Elder.”

“Elder? Hut hut, good, it’s better than hearing something old-fashioned like Teacher.”

The concerns melted away with the glass and flew away with the fragrance of the alcohol. The only thing remaining was the bittersweet glass of alcohol that perfectly described life.

Chapter 119

Dojin opened his eyes and woke up while scratching his bushy hair. He saw his mom boiling soup as he came out from the restroom after washing his face.

“Doenjang soup?”

“Yeah.”

He put on his clothes as he sniffed the savory smell and placed the script that he was reading until last night into his backpack together with the candies that his dad always brought home.

“Will you be late today too?”

“I think so, don’t worry about it, Madam Lee.”

“You should try being a parent too, that’s not as easy as it sounds. Make sure to call me if you’re going to be really late.”

His mom yawned as she went back into her room. Dojin mixed a bowl of rice with the Doenjang soup and placed a fried egg on top. The yolk of the over-easy egg popped open when he poked at it. As expected, it’s good. Dojin made a satisfied smile and brought his bowl in front of the TV. He powered it on and turned it to the news channel.

Just a few months ago, Dojin watched the game channels while eating breakfast. His day usually started by watching the highlights of big games.

However, his life pattern changed after meeting Maru and Daemyung. Those two friends had already stepped into society despite being the same age as him. People had expectations for them and they worked hard to meet those expectations. It was the world of adults.

The reason he started to watch the news was influenced by Daemyung more so than Maru. The guy that used to play games together with him until midnight no longer appeared online. When Dojin asked him what he was doing, almost every time the reply was ‘thinking about acting-related stuff’.

Whenever Dojin heard those words, he felt pathetic. It wasn’t that games were bad. Even now, he thought of them as an outstanding source of leisure. However, when he looked back at his life, he played games to the point where they could no longer be called leisure.

Dojin wasn’t like adults who were old-fashioned and thought that games were a waste of time, but he did realize that it had to be done in moderation. Although he knew not to spend too much time on games, he didn’t know what else to do. He tried to read books like Maru, but could never concentrate. He felt exhausted just from looking at the words that were closely packed together, so he simply gave up. While he was thinking about something else to do that was adult-like, he heard Daemyung talk about current affairs.

That’s right, it was the news. If it was the TV, he could watch without being tired of it.

This was how he first encountered the news. It started with a childish reason, but it didn’t matter. The fact that he was doing something adult-like with his two friends made him feel relieved.

“Are you watching the news?”

Dojin nodded at his dad, who had just come back from hiking. He could feel his dad look at him in a satisfied manner. It was definitely different; when he watched game channels, his dad would go to the restroom without saying anything, but now that he watched the news?

He started to make conversations about current events and politics. His dad seemed like a character from Romance of the Three Kingdoms, as he spoke about the different congressmen with difficult to understand words. It appeared that being able to have such conversations pleased him. Dojin’s interest in the adult world grew after seeing his dad’s changes and he hoped that he would one day become the real deal like his two friends.

“I’ll be back.”

“Okay, be careful.”

Dojin said goodbye to his dad and left the house. Even as he walked, he was thinking if it was a good use of his time. He felt as if it were a meaningless struggle to try and catch up to his friends when he lacked the abilities, but it was too late to go back to the way he previously was. Dojin knew that he would become a member of society eventually, but he never would’ve imagined being concerned about it this early. Rather than being envious about his friends who went on ahead, he felt burdened by himself who stayed at the same place every day.

Dojin stepped on the bus and weaved in between the students who had uniforms on. When he took the bus in the morning, he sometimes felt like a college student, because Woosung High didn’t have a uniform.

“I looted an OP item yesterday.”

‘Really? Then help carry me.”

“Okay.”

A nostalgic conversation entered his ears. These kinds of conversations used to be normal to him, but he couldn’t mention the letter ‘g’ from game in front of Maru and Daemyung, because they didn’t play any games.

“Yes, yes, I’ll get a confirmation. Yes, I’ll let you know after speaking with team leader Lee.”

A man that was in his thirties had a suit on as he spoke on the phone. His speech that showed perseverance as he finished the call looked cool to Dojin.

Suddenly, he thought of Maru and the incident that completely turned the school over on its head this time. 4 transfers and 7 expulsions. Although the teachers kept quiet about it, rumors spread as if somebody went around talking about it. Some kids that were being bullied hired a lawyer and got their revenge. The lawyer was such an incredible person that even the chairman couldn’t speak up. On top of that, the kids who were outcast were exercising in the gym and were definitely different from how they were in the past. There were several similar rumors.

Nobody knew that Maru was the person behind the incident. Dojin once again realized that he was the real deal. In between the gaps of the law, the lawyer, and the chairman, he solved the problem beautifully with the identity of a student. Although the one who showed off the most power was the lawyer, the person who orchestrated it was Maru. Even after doing something as amazing as that, Maru never showed it. Rather than brag about it, he was instead glad that there were no rumors involving him. Dojin grew restless when he thought about how relieved Maru had been because it didn’t bring harm to the acting club.

Everybody around him was moving forward. Geunseok, Maru, and Daemyung, they had all been recognized and were guaranteed universities. It wasn’t limited to universities, once they showed their talent, they’ll be able to step into the acting world and the world of celebrities.

Similarly, Iseul, who was firm on taking over the rice soup restaurant and showed happiness whenever she talked about the owner who provided meat, was a full-fledged adult.

All the members of the acting club seemed to have clear goals and were making big strides towards them, even the ones who didn’t seem to possess something special.

Dojin could only sigh whenever he thought about them. He wanted to aim for something further than studying, something more special.

He looked at the back of the man who ended his call and left the bus. The others will probably become like him.

Dojin exited the bus and walked towards Woosung High. It’s going to be practice today too after school. These days, Dojin had felt that even practice wasn’t that enjoyable. It was worth practicing when coach Miso gave him advice, but nowadays, she was always quiet. He wondered if she stopped caring or if he was so bad that he wasn’t even worth criticizing. At least up until two months ago, he could imagine a scenario from the script, but these days, everything was blurry.

“Hey, we’re going to be late, let’s run.”

He ran with a classmate that he met on the road and barely made it in time.

“How come you’re never online these days? Is the acting club that busy?”

“Something like that. Bastard, make sure to loot a lot of items. I’ll help you by taking them from you when I return.”

“Get lost, I’m not giving you anything.“

A normal conversation; it was a situation where he was supposed to be laughing, but he had a dry expression instead. This isn’t the time to be playing games, my friend. He opened the rear door and went into the classroom. Maru was seen bent over sleeping. He’s sleeping in the morning, that’s unusual. Maru was somebody who only slept during lunchtime, as if it was scheduled.

“You’re here?”

Maru woke up at the sound of the chair being pulled out. He yawned while stretching, but his face was no joke. His hair was bushy as if there had been a bird that sat on it and his face seemed like a person who didn’t get sleep for several days. It was accompanied by dim eyes that were typically hard to see from Maru.

“Did you stay up overnight?”

“I had something to do, I drove down from Seoul at dawn.”

Yawn.

“Seoul?”

Dojin went through his bag and took out mint candy. If it was any other day, it would’ve been plum candy, but mint seemed appropriate today.

“Thank you, my mouth was feeling a bit stale.“

“Why did you go to Seoul?”

“Some elder summoned me, ha.”

Maru suddenly started to laugh.

“I went to get some life counseling.”

“You? Counseling?”

“Yeah.”

“………”

To think that Maru would get advice from somebody. That’s new. Maru had always been somebody who gave out advice, rather than receive them.

“What do you mean by life counseling?”

Dojin was curious about the worries that Maru had. They’re probably something that I can’t even imagine.

However, the words that came out of Maru were completely different from what he expected.

“It was about how a man should meet a good woman, and how if you listen to adults, you’ll profit even in your sleep.”

“Huh?”

“I’m going to sleep again, wake me up if the teacher comes.”

“Y-yeah”.

What should I say?

The Maru who made a hearty laugh just now was like a completely different person. Should I say he seemed a bit less serious? He even seemed a little childish. If he had to describe it…

“Hey hey! Give me your phone, let me play some games.”

“Fuck off, I’m out of batteries.”

He looked similar to the immature kids who were laughing and chatting in the front. It was only for a moment, but from that short moment, that was the feeling that he gave off.

What was that?

“Hey, Dojin.”

A girl called out to him when he pulled out his chair to get some sleep. He turned his head to the rear door and saw Iseul standing there with a smile.

“Huh?”

Why’s she here? Dojin was at a loss for words.

“Come to the club room.”

She disappeared after leaving those words.

And then.

“Dojin~!”

“Who was that? She was super cute.”

“I think it’s better to say that she’s pretty, is she in the acting club too? Huh?”

The kids came over in hoards. Dojin squeezed by his friends and went up to the club room. When he arrived, he knew why Iseul had looked for him.

Dojin opened the door and went inside.

“Is it for the observation?”

“Bingo, it’s a different class so it’s hard to make time, right? It’s hard to see them when we’re at the auditorium because we need to practice too.”

“So what do you want to do here?”

“What do you mean what, we’re going to talk. You can’t just stare at them as if you’re checking the freshness of meat.”

Dojin sat on the floor while scratching his head. It’s been a while since he was last in the club room, there was no reason to go to the club room since they usually practiced in the auditorium. It was an area that was more fit to be called the storage room rather than the club room. The faded stage costumes looked different today.

“And we need to see something fun too.”

“Something fun?“

“You know that Taejoon likes Soyeon right?”

“Yeah.”

“Hoo hoo, they’re talking in the auditorium right now. It’s going to be awkward if I get caught peeking by myself, so let’s go together.”

She spoke as she grabbed Dojin’s arm. Dojin became startled because she suddenly became so close. It was abrupt, but she really was cute.

“Ah, speaking of which, do you have time this Sunday?”

“This weekend? Why?”

“Let’s hang out at my house, I don’t think Taejoon and Soyeon will make any progress like that. Let’s all meet and then leave those two alone by themselves. Doesn’t that sound fun?”

She made a bright smile.

Dojin was speechless; it was like looking at a fox.

She’s a total kid.

The Iseul in his memories was a wonderful girl who led a family business, but after seeing her today, she was just a normal kid who loved to mess with her friends. Of course, her looks weren’t normal.

Maru and now her, what’s happening.

All of a sudden, the childish, yet serious concerns that he had just earlier in the morning felt meaningless. However, even these feelings disappeared quickly, as Iseul crossed his arms with hers and pulled.

“They might leave soon, let’s hurry up.”

“Oh, yeah.”

Her hair fluttered as she spun around.

Dojin took a note mentally.

Kim Iseul, she’ll do anything to have fun. Also, she’s cute.

***

It was something that he often felt, but his body became a lot healthier after being reborn. His reaction times, as well as physical capabilities, were also noticeably better than his previous life. In most cases, he wouldn’t feel tired, and even if he did overwork himself, he felt refreshed by the next day.

However, even this upgraded body couldn’t handle drinking until 4 in the morning. How nice would it be if I had an ability that could expel the alcohol out of my body like in those martial arts novels?

But I’m still better than the coach.

His coach said that he would never drive while being drowsy and dowsed himself in cold water. This was during the middle of the winter. Thanks to that, they safely arrived at school, but Maru felt bad when he saw the coach shivering in the car.

I should get him a pack of herb medicine later.

A rowdy classroom.

It was the same area as always, but it felt especially affectionate today. Before, he wouldn’t take a single step from his seat that was in the 4th row and only talk to Dojin. It might’ve been because he was prejudiced with the thought that everybody else was childish and that there would be nothing to gain from talking with them. However, after listening to the advice Moonjoong gave, he joined the other kids and talked amongst them. Although there were many topics that he couldn’t follow, he still laughed and talked.

-It’s your life, but Maru is nowhere to be found.

It was a voice that pierced the brain.

A voice which said that he was watching his life as if it were a scenery.

I neglected the Maru who was a high school student too much.

I took the age of my physical body too lightly.

I acted as if I carried the concerns of the entire world.

-I can be the one to bring food to the table.

He recalled her confident voice.

He started to laugh again. It seemed like he would be laughing without rest for a few days. He hoped that he wouldn’t be mistaken as insane.

Jump in.

Maru took out his script and held it. Until yesterday, he looked at everything that was acting related as if it were his homework, but now it was different.

Nobody was telling him to do it; he wanted to do it of his own accord.

He pushed back his fears.

If the monster called acting swallowed him, he would think about it then. If it was hard for him to escape, he just needed to borrow her strength.

He remembered the spicy palm that would fly at him whenever he thought about weird things. As long as he had the palm that slapped his back, he was sure that he could wake up.

“Daemyung.”

“Huh?”

“Let’s do some reading.“

Chapter 120

Time passed, and it became Saturday. A week had passed since Maru had the conversation with teacher Moonjoong.

Maru grabbed his backpack after finishing the last period.

Whenever school ended, it became natural for him to head to the auditorium as if he were a salmon that was trying to remember it’s own birthplace. Even on the days without practice, he found himself auto-piloting there. Today was a day with practice, it was also a day where they would be getting their homework checked.

He turned the doorknob and went inside.

“You’re here.“

The second years welcomed him. Recently, the participation rate for the second years kept decreasing. It might’ve been because they were focusing on the fact that they were about to become third years, along with things like applying to universities and jobs.

Maru greeted his seniors and started to warm up, stretching was the basic among basics. Everybody did stretches when they entered the auditorium even without being told to. Daemyung and Dojin, who were on clean-up duty, arrived at the auditorium late.

“Huh? Not everybody’s here yet. Hello, senior!”

“Dojin is full of energy today too.”

Maru looked at the Yoonjung who was waving her hands above her head. He recalled the time when Yoonjung came into his class earlier in the semester to talk about acting. She carried a lively smile, a flawless personality, and piqued Maru’s interest in the acting club with her passionate speech.

Now that he thought about it, Maru might’ve been inclined to joining the acting club because he saw a shade of ‘her’ within Yoonjung’s face.

“Maru, why are you staring at me like that?”

“Because you’re pretty.”

“………”

It was for a brief moment, but the eyes of the second years became complex. Four people gathered together and started muttering amongst themselves. Things like, “I think there’s something wrong with him after all,” could be heard.

“You’ve been strange since a few days ago, but you’re extra strange today. Are you okay? Are you really Maru?”

Dojin came to his side and whispered. Daemyung had a look of agreement.

“What’s strange about me?“

“You know, you’re just completely different from how you usually are.”

“How am I usually?”

“What do you mean how? You always have your mouth shut and scan your surroundings with a look that says you know everything. Right, Daemyung? But recently it’s been different.”

“Y-yeah.”

His two friends made a puzzled expression. Was I normally like that? Maru couldn’t remember, but he had to admit that he had been different. His body was light as if he had weights taken off, and he felt mentally relaxed. I wonder if that’s the cause for the change. Maru escaped from the auditorium and went into the restroom that was to the right.

The face that was reflected in the mirror was a mess. His bangs shot up to the sky because he took a nap during lunch and his eyes were sunken in from going to sleep late the night before.

Despite all this, he seemed to be full of vitality. It might’ve been because of his mouth that had been making a smile unconsciously.

“It’s good to see.”

Maru washed his face and pressed down on his hair with his wet hands. When he figured it was enough, he let go of his hands, but the hair stayed the same. He thanked his healthy hair with a bittersweet expression.

The rest of the first years had all arrived by the time he returned to the auditorium.

“Haha! Are you a super saiyan? Your hair’s no joke.”

Taejoon laughed as he asked. Maru nodded and went to where the first years were. They were sitting in a circle as they stretched.

Geunseok and Yurim could be seen right in front of where he sat. Yurim looked at Geunseok and smiled like she normally did, but Geunseok didn’t smile back as he did in the past. However, he did reply to everything that Yurim said.

There was a rumor going around the kids that the two were going to break up soon and the common opinion was that Geunseok had grown cold. However, it didn’t look like the two were going to easily break up from how closely they sat together. In the first place, when students were in a relationship, it was hard for them to break up because of their friends.

“Are you going to Anyang today too?”

Maru shook his head at Iseul who sat next to him and asked. It was almost time for the preliminaries and he was scheduled for amateur classes as well, so he decided not to go to the practice room in Anyang for the time being. Of course, he would go if he had time, but it would probably be difficult. Ganghwan also advised him to build teamwork with the members of the acting club.

“Really? Then can you stay for a bit after practice?”

“What is it?“

Iseul whispered back.

“It’s about Taejoon and Soyeon, hehe.”

Ah. Maru knew what she would say as soon as he saw her mischievous face. It looked like she already told Daemyung and Dojin as well. The three of them shared a firm, but playful determination.

After doing some simple stretches, they joined the second years and started to talk about this and that. Suddenly, the door slammed open and Miso ran in.

“There’s so much damn traffic!”

“……”

“Hoo, at least I’m not late. How is it? The charms of an adult who keeps her promises?”

It was a Misoface that wasn’t lacking compared to a pokerface today as well. Miso’s hands held onto two black plastic bags filled with snacks and drinks.

“Today’s the big viewing day, so we can’t be missing any of this.”

It was today. They would be acting out the characteristics of their partner that they’ve observed thus far. The members of the club who’ve been chatting until now became slightly nervous.

“Good, good. Your expressions are all very good. As expected, there needs to be this type of tension between people. Now, now, you guys should go and prepare. The method is simple, you just need to go out and give a brief description of what you’ve seen and give a well-organized performance. You’ve all seen what a monodrama is, so you just need to do something similar to that. You’re excited, right? Doesn’t it sound fun?”

Miso made a face full of expectations as she observed the members. Maru found something that shouldn’t have been there as he organized the snacks and drinks.

“Coach.”

“Huh?”

“This beer…”

Maru took out a canned beer. They could see fried almonds and anchovies in between the snack bags too. Miso hurriedly grabbed the can of beer and side dishes as she grinned.

“They’re mine, so don’t worry about it.”

So that’s how you’re going to come out, teacher Taesik should’ve been here to see this. Everybody knew it would be pointless to stop her, so they simply said “Just don’t get drunk.” Although, there was no way a heavy drinker like her would become drunk from a single can of beer.

“Then who should we start with?”

She opened the can as she spoke. It was known that presenting first was better, but nobody wanted to be the first one to present.

“As usual, the one to take the lead should be the second years right? You guys did live a year longer.”

“Wow, that’s discrimination.”

“If you don’t like it then why don’t you be the coach instead, Yoonjung?”

“……Tsk.”

“Tsk? Okay! The club president will be the first one to go to set an example for the others.“

“It was like that last time too!”

“So it should be like that this time as well. I’m conservative you see.”

Yoonjung must’ve realized that she would never win an exchange of words because she stood up with a gloomy face. As Yoonjung went up, everybody started to take out something like a paper or notepad to write down their summaries and evaluations of the performance.

Maru took out a notepad together with everybody else. He paid extra close attention when he observed his friends, as a way of replying to Daemyung’s advice. He learned how interesting it was to look into others through this homework.

People all had characteristics of their own. However, these characteristics weren’t something that always appeared, because people were bound to change according to the situation. Although it wasn’t something that always appeared, it was possible to get a sense of their behavior by observing them for extensive periods of time. By gathering small details to form a framework, then attaching the body to it, he was able to roughly explain the person called Daemyung.

“Maru.”

“Hm?”

“……Please perform something cool.”

Daemyung requested as he made a faint smile.

Although they spent the past year together, it was strangely nerve-racking. Speaking of which, it was the same when they had presentations in class too, despite it being just talking in front of the kids that they laughed and spoke with. It made you strangely nervous, and unable to calm down.

This time, it wasn’t even comparable to just giving a presentation in class.

Soyeon tried to control her breathing as she went up. She could somewhat understand why the second years were so nervous. It was a different experience from standing on stage.

I can see too clearly here.

If you stood on the stage, it was hard to see the audience clearly because the lighting that shined down blurred their faces, and this blur gave a unique feeling of stability. The thought of the faces of the audience being imprinted in her was enough to send shivers through her body.

Soyeon felt her hair standing on edge. Why do these familiar faces feel so new? It was unexpectedly hard to perform in front of people you knew.

“Why are you nervous? This isn’t like you, Soyeon.”

“You were stiff up there too.”

Danmi poked directly at Yoonjung. Like she said, Yoonjung was slightly nervous when she stood in front of everybody too. When they were sitting down, they found that side of Yoonjung fascinating, but they understood it the moment they went up.

It’s similar to that time.

The very first practice that coach Miso made them do - to stand on top of a chair and read the script while receiving attention from others. She felt the nerves from then come back.

Will I be able to do well?

Senior Yoonjung seemed nervous up until her introduction, but as soon as she started acting, she did an amazing job as if what she showed before was just a pretense. Will I be able to be like that too? It’ll probably be hard. I might mess up my pronunciation at the state I’m currently in.

She started to give an explanation about Taejoon while thinking that.

The memories of the days when she observed Taejoon brushed by her. In the beginning, she couldn’t even take a proper look at him because of how nervous she was. She tried to not be conscious of him, but because of the time they spent together increased, she couldn’t help it. This grew to the extent where her palms began to grow sweaty from how nervous she became. Taejoon had good looks, but on top of having good looks, he had deep consideration for others. Her heart shook at the kindness he showed while asking all sorts of things. However, because she knew that they wouldn’t look good together, she had to give up her interest in him.

At first she had thoughts like ‘a fatty like me wouldn’t stand a chance’, but she soon corrected herself. She wasn’t pathetic enough to shrink back because of outer appearances and men.

It’s good enough that I’m getting butterflies in my stomach. Having a crush isn’t too bad either. When else will I ever get to experience an innocent love like this? When she started to think like this, it became more comfortable for her to confront Taejoon.

Good.

First of all, Taejoon speaks a lot. It was almost miraculous that he didn’t run dry of topics to speak about after talking with girls for an entire day. He’s also good at listening to others, remembering little details, pleasant and affable.

Of course, there were parts of him that were a bit over the top.

As for the downsides… Maybe love had blinded her, but she couldn’t see any. Ah! Maybe that his stamina is a bit lacking?

She used these facts to lay a groundwork for the character called Taejoon, and left it to the members who sat in front of her to judge how similar it was to the real Taejoon.

“This is the Taejoon that I observed.”

She concluded her brief explanation.

Now, let’s start acting.

She stopped shaking the moment she created a mental image.

It looks like practice doesn’t lie.

Soyeon started her act by making a fuss like Taejoon.

“Hey, hey, did you see that? Did you see it? Hey, hey! Look at me for a bit.”

“Even though there’s no fun like this, it looks like everybody came well prepared.“

It appears that Miso was looking forward to something else.

The only two left now were Geunseok and Daemyung. Maru expressed Daemyung as an outstanding observer, and acted out the Daemyung who spoke shyly normally, but did a 180 when he went on the stage. Everybody nodded in agreement. Similar to a person who’s personality changed as soon as they grabbed the steering wheel, when Daemyung went on the stage, he had more confidence than anyone else.

“Next up is Hong Geunseok.”

It was Geunseok’s turn. After he started receiving private lessons, Geunseok underwent a lot of changes. If Daemyung’s ability to observe and understand his surroundings went up, then it could be said that Geunseok’s ability to express things had dramatically increased. Geunseok was somebody who was good at acting in the past too, he dove into his character more than anybody else to make that character a reality.

Miso believed that if he trained his mental fortitude, his acting would evolve one step further. Apparently, Geunseok’s coach was a supporting cast from a recent TV mini-series. Suyeon, if Maru remembered correctly.

“I’ll be starting.”

Geunseok spoke with a voice that showed no hesitation, the target of observation for Geunseok was Yurim. It was clear that Miso had her own intentions from the way she had assigned these partners. The Geunseok that Yurim performed a little earlier was quite average, a quiet boy who was good at acting. The performance was peppered with love from Yurim, making Geunseok look quite romantic. Geunseok opened his mouth after a brief moment of silence.

“I think it’s becoming a bit awkward with the others, what should I do?”

Maru scratched his eyebrows as soon as he heard the line that Geunseok threw out; he could feel everybody’s line of sight go towards Yurim, it was the first time a character representation had been negative. Maru glanced at Miso and saw her watching with her arms crossed. She had taken her hands off the can of beer for the first time.

Chapter 121

The air in the auditorium froze over. The negative portrayal of the character wasn’t the only reason. It was the way that Geunseok acted Yurim out that made things become like this.

The acting was done in a simple conversational style without any dramatic development. The character’s concept was one with dual personality disorder. The acting portrayed the inner and outer self of Yurim.

“Do I need to be friends with others? No. I don’t think so. I want to feel comfortable, but I don’t want them invading my bubble. It feels lonely though. But I can’t depend on others forever.”

Geunseok imbued a simplistic expression of a character with dual personality disorder. Most of his gestures during his performance was composed of simple shoulder movements to indicate nervousness and confidence and nothing else. The rest was conveyed through his facial expressions.

“I’m still afraid of going outside at night. What should I do? I have to overcome it. I’m not that brave though. What, aren’t you even going to try to overcome it?? Give me courage. Courage isn’t something others can give. You have to make yourself courageous.”

Maru silently turned towards Yurim. What Geunseok was saying wasn’t something that could be observed. It felt as though something deeply private was being brought out. Maru had to wonder what Yurim was thinking while watching Geunseok’s acting.

‘Hmm.’

Yurim’s facial expression was rigid. But as Geunseok continued acting, Yurim’s expression also slowly returned to normal. Her expression ran through a gauntlet of emotions, from embarrassment, nervousness, anxiousness to relief, confidence, and faith. The most assured point was that Yurim was not looking badly upon Geunseok.

“I need the helping hand of others. I’ll definitely give up without it. Do you really think so? You’re already fully supporting another person. I am? When I’m like this? Sure, you’re fully supporting at least one person in your life.”

The lines finished off as they started, as though a grandmother was calmly retelling an old tale with a steady tempo and temperate demeanor. There was no word for a while inside the auditorium. The sense of void and emptiness were brought to an end with Miso’s voice.

“What part of Yurim did you base your character on?”

“I heard it from her, about her difficult and hurt-filled past.”

“The past, and you based your portrayal on that?”

“Yes.”

“What was the intent of acting out the outer self for others and an internal self?”

“I thought about how the portrayal and verbal lines were short but would still be in front of others. Therefore, there should be a message to convey. I came up with acting and delivering a message for a single person.”

“For Yurim?”

“Yes.”

Miso crossed her arms and closed her eyes. After rocking back and forth on a creaky, foldable metal chair, she suddenly stood up from her chair.

“Clap three times.”

Clap, clap, clap. The acting club members clapped as if they were kindergarteners who wanted to see what came next.

“Acting to deliver a message. I observed it well. Since the audience seems to have appreciated your message, I’ll give this acting a hundred points. It seems like you put a lot of thought into this. Good job.”

Geunseok’s expression brightened. This was to be expected, as Miso did not once praise him to this extent since the end of summer vacation. With a satisfied smile, Miso sat back down on her seat.

“Oh, nice going!”

“As expected of the future of our club.”

Yoonjung and Danmi cheered out as they gave a thumbs up to Geunseok, who was returning to his seat. Geunseok had a suppressed smile as he sat next to Yurim.

‘A message… ’

Though the acting went into the dark, inner depths of her mind, the person in question looked very satisfied. What did this mean? Was there something beyond the surface that may have affected her in the deepest parts of her being? Only those two would truly know.

“But!”

Miso crossed her legs and started explaining.

“This acting would be very uncomfortable for an audience that has no inkling of what’s going on. Acting to send a message to one person is good, but next time, try to bring out the applause of the many audience members instead. Also, you should get prior consent from the person for whose private, personal story you’re using. Otherwise, it can get complicated and messy.”

Maru observed a passing frown in the boy’s previously proud face. Miso didn’t even give a look to Geunseok. Geunseok’s mouth could be seen moving up and down, side-to-side, probably murmuring something along the lines of ‘what does she know’.

‘She could have just left it as is.’

He thought some rare praise came his way, but, of course, it ended as a lesson to learn from and improve upon. That was her way of doing things, so oh well.

“Next! Daemyung.”

“Yes.”

Daemyung walked stiffly to the front. No matter what others say, currently, Geunseok was the best actor in the acting club. Geunseok’s acting had power. With solid fundamentals, one couldn’t help but give attention to him. On top of that, he had a refreshing way of speaking and various ways of expressing. Junmin also mentioned in the past that if he had to choose someone among the students he was actively observing, it would be Geunseok. He mentioned then that he would have paid up to 500 million won if Geunseok asked for money.

Though a person’s worth should not be talked about in terms of money, it is true that many important things in life have an essential connection to it. His value of 500 million won alluded to his potential.

- Of course, being Geunsoo’s younger brother probably factored in as a large part of that potential. Geunsoo would obviously become a hugely successful actor, and if he were to give direction and help to Geunseok, the synergistic effect would be enormous.

Junmin made people into products. His job was to find prospective, sellable products. Coaches would be responsible for developing and nurturing. Casting directors would then choose which products were sellable. Furthermore, there needs to be an attractive element to be sellable, so the label as the younger brother of a future superstar was enough for Junmin to invest in Geunseok.

In that sense, Junmin really had a good eye for opportunity and talent. He already foresaw that Geunsoo would become successful. He also had Ganghwan. He already had two superstars under his management.

‘If I try hard, I wonder if I can also become a winning lottery ticket.’

Regardless, Maru did attract his attention. He decided to put his faith in Junmin.

‘I’m ready to jump into acting with everything I have.’

After laying down everything to elder Moonjoong, he started seeing and perceiving everything in terms of acting. An unexpected sense of pure joy arose from being able to put my all into one thing. This moment, of preparing to act in earnest, was immensely enjoyable.

As he was thinking about these things, Daemyung ended his explanation. Before starting his lines, Daemyung glanced towards Maru with a little hesitation, but Maru was just shaking his head slowly from side-to-side, organizing his thoughts to himself. Geunseok’s acting style focused on peering into the darkness. On the contrary, Daemyung’s acting style did not seek to poke and prod anyone’s sensitive points. Daemyung’s acting style was something Maru wanted to boast about to others and followed Miso’s lesson of being considerate and appealing to the entire audience.

Daemyung had prepared extensively. Though he said his script was simple, the few lines that Daemyung showed Maru defied any notion of simplicity, as the lines were filled with deeper, interpretive meaning here and there. Daemyung awkwardly looked around and brought up a chair. This was the Daemyung before starting a play, a little bit of confusion mixed with a little bit of awkwardness.

“Start when you’re ready. Don’t make us wait too long.”

Daemyung nodded his head at Miso’s words.

“I’ll start now.”

Daemyung could be seen sitting on the chair taking deep breaths. With a long exhale, he finished his preparation. A change could be seen as he slowly opened his eyes. Though he did not have Geunseok’s powerful energy, he had a way of pulling in the attention of the audience. When a singer grabs the microphone, the viewing audience eagerly awaits with anticipation, already imagining the song that will follow.

This is what Daemyung brought to the table. Everyone here was familiar with Daemyung’s acting skills. In their very first play, he became a 40 something year old office worker without flaw. His acting was not noticeable. This is not a bad thing, it just meant that he melded into his role naturally. He brought his abrasive high school student self to his character’s life in the People of Dalseok-dong.

‘The essence of Daemyung’s acting is naturalness.’

He doesn’t have a singular, forceful punch. Just the roundness of his figure proved that the characters he portrayed were not that type. However, he did have a softness that enveloped the audience as if in a hug. Giving comfort to the audience with an appropriate tone of voice, no excessive expressions, and weightiness in his voice rather than extraneous actions, he exemplified an actor who was starting to develop his craft.

Furthermore, Daemyung’s role in this play emphasized and maximized his strengths. He has good sense. He decided to play to his strengths rather than focusing on covering his weaknesses. His conscious choice of using a chair as a prop also factored into this, he didn’t decide on a whim to perform while sitting. Daemyung passed off his extensive preparation with bashful shyness, but Maru saw all this with admiration. If there was a god of effort, that god would be looking down on Daemyung with a knowing smile. That smile would also bring the god of talent to Daemyung’s side.

“What should I do.”

Daemyung started speaking with clasped hands as if he was praying.

“If you’ve heard my prayers at least once, my god, please send down, just this once, a helping hand. The single thing you’ve taken away represents everything to me, as you well know, my god. I know you are not cruel. Thus, I beg of you, please return what you have taken away and not let my faith be broken.”

The grieving prayer of a man quietly lifted the curtain to the act. There was no Daemyung.

And.

Maru projected Daemyung’s words into his own images of her, causing Maru to sit still with his mouth shut tight while watching his friend’s play.

* * *

She smiled while gently thumping her fingers on the steering wheel.

“Something good must have happened,” Taesik asked with a respectful tone.

“Yeah. Remember, tone.”

“Ah, of course. Hum hum, so what’s so good?” He said while changing his respectful tone.

“I saw my kids develop quickly. Personal training assistance really does make a big difference. I’m lucky they met some good teachers.”

Today was the day that Miso saw the likelihood of succeeding in the winter nationals. Geunseok and Daemyung. It would be fun to see both of them together. Once the People of Dalseok-dong play is over, if there’s time, she would create a play with both of them as leads. She felt an eagerness and anticipation that she hadn’t felt in a long time. Their acting was that satisfying.

While smiling, she rubbed Taesik’s shoulder, who was sitting next to her. It was a long overdue date. She felt a little sad that she had to drag out this boyfriend of hers who only wanted to stay home.

“Let’s go out on Sunday’s at least.”

“It’s cold though.”

“Anyways.”

Miso squinted while lowering Taesik’s side window. Taesik quickly begged for mercy.

“So how are the kids? I’ve been so busy that I haven’t been around to check up on them.”

“Everything’s good. The only thing is that I didn’t get to see someone’s potential blossom and meet my expectation.”

“Expectation? You mean Maru?”

“Yeah. It seemed like he gained a lot of experience after going here and there, but I feel he hasn’t been able to properly digest everything. Well, he could have experienced too much in too short a time.”

“He’s a smart kid, so he’ll regroup and show something soon. He’ll do at least that if not more.”

“Right, I think so too. Hey, where are we going?”

“…Anywhere…”

“Dang it! I really don’t understand why I started liking you!”

Even with someone shouting at him, Taesik warmly smiled and apologized. This was why Miso couldn’t contain her love for him.

“Okay, then don’t say anything to the contrary and just follow my lead today. Alright?”

“Do what’s comfortable for you. However, we shouldn’t be out too late at night.”

While watching Taesik continue to calmly speak, Miso started having naughty thoughts on whether she should take the initiative now.

* * *

“You’re not receiving anyone?”

“That’s what it’s come down to.”

“You mentioned that you had your eyes on this student.”

Junmin showed a picture of Geunseok while speaking.

“He’s the guy I met with Suyeon, right?

“Yes, Teacher.”

“He has potential for sure. He’s the type that’ll motivate one to teach.”

“Then why…”

Moonjoong shut his mouth after taking a sip of his tea, Junmin kept his eyes on Moonjoong’s lips.

“I don’t want to teach anyone. Now that I think about it, I was just bored all this time. That young man… Maru, was it? Was more interesting to talk to than teaching.”

“Then you can teach Maru…”

“I’d like to keep him as someone I meet once in a while over drinks, like a drinking buddy.”

“Teacher.”

“If I feel like it later, then it’ll happen.”

Moonjoong got up from his seat while laughing; Junmin was sorry to lose this opportunity. If Geunseok was to learn under the guidance of Moonjoong, he could have learned a lot. However, what’s passed has passed. If Moonjoong says no once, he fully meant it.

“That young guy really seems like an upstanding human being, it’s been a long time since I met such a good drinking buddy.”

“He’s still a first-year student in high school.”

“Is there age when one drinks.”

“……”

“It’s become like that, don’t worry.”

Junmin bowed towards Moonjoong as the man left through the door. At least he’s keeping Maru close by. Moonjoong gave his soul to acting. One can learn and obtain a lot just from being next to someone like that.

‘Who knows, he might turn around and want to start teaching again.’

Junmin put away the photo of Geunseok in his folder. Unfortunately, this road ended here.

* * *

Maru handed a letter over to Soojin. It was a letter that Dowook handed Maru as they were leaving school yesterday, a Saturday.

“Read it when you have time.”

“…Thank you. Really.”

“Though it’s just a letter now, you’ll probably get closer over time.”

“I hope so.”

Her eyes were red, but her face was filled with a smile. Soojin stepped on the accelerator, they were on their way to see the awaiting kids at the nursery today. Looking out the window at the snow twirling in the wind, Maru took out his flip cell phone.

- We’re meeting at the soup restaurant today! Geunseok and Yurim probably won’t be coming. They mentioned that they already had plans for Sunday before I brought anything up. Anyways! Make Soyeon come no matter what. Okay?

It was the group message that Iseul sent out. It was today, huh. Maru briefly smiled as he closed his flip phone.

Chapter 122

“Whatcha thinking about?”

“Oh, Senior, you’re here?”

Junmin stopped Ganghwan from standing up from his seat.

“Did you eat?”

“Yes, but I’m not one to turn down a free meal.”

“Your intestines are massive, as always. What are you looking at?”

“This? I had an audition recently.”

“Audition? For what?”

“It’s not for me, but the amateur class. They have a lot of motivation, so I didn’t want to give them roles and make them stick with it. I made them audition for their roles.”

“Hmm.”

“A few of them made up their minds about coming into this industry, so I really tried to make it official. They did really well. They looked out of the box a lot when it came to their character analysis, probably because they’re young.”

“It’s probably because they didn’t know, rather than them being young.”

“Again with that? Just look at them well for once. Anyway, I chose the roles, but one character’s still iffy.”

“Side character or the main?”

“The main. All four girls tried for it and I was able to fail two right away, but the other two are a bit concerning.”

“Looks like you’re putting a lot of work into this when you said you were going to go at it casually.”

“That was the plan, but it became really fun. Plus, I’m just about done with the play I was in, too. I’m about to go back to the poor life.”

“I’ll buy you a meal, so don’t starve yourself.”

“Of course. I’ll stick to you for meals as much as I can. But anyway, I’m worried about who to take between these two. It’s a test in the end, but it’s still a chance to act in the Myungdong Art Theater. You can’t pass this up if you’re an actor.”

“Want me to take a look at them?”

“Do you have the time?”

“Well, I’m here already, so might as well.”

“Why don’t we wait for them as we have a little dinner?”

“Ugh, again with food… Fine.”

* * *

“Want to get a chicken skewer?”

Her eyes widened at the sound of chicken, just thinking about it made her drool. She remembered her mom talking about being unable to eat chicken during her pregnancy. Something about how being deprived of chicken only made her mom end up liking it more in the long run.

“Medium spice, right?”

“Yeah.”

“Just a little bit of cheese?”

“Yeah.”

She nodded almost subconsciously before turning to look at Maru oddly. He knew her preferences too well…

“What?”

“It’s nothing.”

They might just have similar tastes, so whatever. Now that she thought about it, there were a lot of instances like this, Maru was always detailed about the small stuff. He always chose things that she liked, making her wonder when she talked about it to him.

“Here you go.”

The two of them crossed the streets of Myungdong. She had a slightly-burnt chicken skewer in one hand and Maru’s hand in the other. After their confession, they started holding hands a lot more.

“It’s cold. You should’ve worn thicker clothes.”

“This much is fine.”

“Look at you, you’re sniffling already.”

Maru told her to wait for a second. He walked into a store nearby before coming out with a pink little hat. She liked it the moment she saw it, so she stayed still as Maru put it on. It was warm, which induced a little smile out of her.

“Let’s go. We’re going to be late.”

* * *

Maru jumped a few times to loosen himself up, feeling the hardwood floor under him. Their character roles would get assigned today. After that, they would go straight into practice for a month and then they would go on stage. The practice with them switching roles every time would end today.

“How is it? You think you can get the main role?”

She shook her head at his question.

“Yoojin’s good. I’ll have to give up this time.”

“What the, you’re just letting it go?”

“I don’t want to put so much effort into something I can’t do. I’m going to do my best with delinquent number three, though.”

She sounded a little depressed. Three days ago, she competed with three other girls for the role of Seulmi, the main character of the play. The other kids saw the girls act and judged themselves, Ganghwan took those opinions into consideration to come up with a final decision. He was quick with all of the other roles, but he was really taking his sweet time with the main character.

“He said he’d let us know by today, right?” she asked, stretching her arms to the side.

Her body was bending smoothly like a yoga instructor.

“Since today’s the day we start doing runs, yeah. You’re really flexible, by the way.”

“Do you even know how much I stretch at night? Flexibility needs to be practiced really hard.”

She bent her back backward with a small groan. Maru smiled. So she’s been maintaining it from a young age. She bent her back further and put her hands to the ground. Her shirt started slipping a little bit, revealing the white skin underneath. Maru quickly took off his jersey to cover it.

“You need to be careful.”

“Of what?”

“………”

He didn’t know what to say, especially with her sounding so innocent. She threw his jersey back at him, Maru caught it with one hand as he watched her. She was around 164cm tall. She would grow up to 170 when she enters high school. Her arms and legs were quite long, making her look pretty beautiful despite still being in a growing phase. Now that he thought about it, she was always very proud of her body more so than anything else. She always loved getting compliments about it even though she tried not to show it.

‘Though… ’

Maru scratched his eyebrows as he thought back to their first night, it was around eight months after they started going out together. She laughed when he asked to go on a one night trip with her and bought a condom from a nearby convenience store, Maru could remember laughing at how bold she was.

He rented a pretty expensive cottage for the two of them and had his first time with her there. He couldn’t remember what they talked about or where that was. But he remembered one thing she said back then: Why don’t boobs get fat?

“Whatcha thinking about?”

“…Nothing.”

“Why do you look so suspicious, then?”

She walked up to look at him, with her long hair draped over her shoulder. This was really bad timing, he could see her body from back then getting overlapped with her right now. Maru couldn’t help but look away, this was a little too much right now, especially looking at her adult body overlap with her younger self… it felt like a crime, somehow.

“What the.”

“Just finish your stretches.”

Maru pretended nothing was wrong. He saw her everything, but that was in his past life. He didn’t want to have to explain what he was thinking to her right now.

“You’re all here?”

Ganghwan walked in from the back door, Junmin was following close behind him. As soon as they got on stage, they called her out with Yoojin.

“Is it these two?”

“Yes.”

What were they talking about? Junmin put a hand over his chin as he looked over the two female students.

“Why don’t we take a look?”

“Sure. Alright guys, act out Seulmi in front of us. Yoojin, you go first. This is where we make our last judgment, so work hard.”

It looked like Ganghwan ended up asking Junmin for help.

“Should I begin now?” Yoojin asked confidently.

As expected of her. Yoojin had confidence in her acting and she had the skills to support it. Yoojin’s greatest strength was in her pronunciation, Ganghwan admitted that as well. She was incredibly at conveying language. Maru sometimes saw her practicing her pronunciation holding a pen in her mouth, her skills right now were surely something born out of hours of hard work.

The character Seulmi was very headstrong, a strong girl who always got into a conflict with the delinquents. There were a lot of scenes where the character would lecture the delinquents. In those scenes, Yoojin looked more like Seulmi than anyone else.

“Is it really that fun to bully kids? Look at what you guys are doing. This isn’t a play! It’s violence. What, you’re going to glare at me? Planning on hitting me too? Fine! Come at me! But I won’t stay quiet. You know what I’m like, don’t you? I’m going to spread rumors about what you did across the entire school. Come on, let’s go!”

She said her lines as if Junmin was a delinquent standing in front of her. She was good. Then again, she was a child actor. Maru had to wonder what the world of the pros looked like when even the child actors were already this good.

Yoojin stepped back with a huff. Junmin and Ganghwan talked briefly and it was now her turn to act. She could’ve picked out a different scene for her character, but she ended up choosing the scene Yoojin did. That was very like her. Ganghwan and Junmin talked again after she finished.

“Yoojin should take Seulmi’s role.”

“Thank you,” Yoojin said with a smile.

The girl had a very satisfactory smile on her face. On the other hand, she looked very dejected, but not defeated. She probably saw this coming.

“Please take good care of delinquent 3.”

“I’ll do my best.”

“And that’s that with the roles. We’re going to work our asses off for the next month before the play happens. Ah, were the prelims for the winter finals starting next week?”

“Our region’s next week, but the region to the south of us already started,” one of the male students answered.

Since they were all from an acting club, they knew information like this very well. The winter competition was backed by theater companies and various other entertainment companies. As a result, it had quite a bit of prize money compared to all other high school competitions. Aside from that, everything was the same as the summer nationals. The prelims were regional and the main event will be held in Seoul.

“I understand that you’d be more worried about your competition than this. You did volunteer for this as well though, so don’t get too lazy. I hope none of you would act like a third rate just because the audience is watching for free.”

The kids all nodded grimly at Ganghwan’s words since both the winter nationals and the play at the Myungdong Art Theater deserved great attention.

“I don’t know if you still remember this, but a very important guest will be coming as well. You’ll have to do well.”

Ganghwan smiled proudly. Right then, Junmin tapped Ganghwan’s shoulder and whispered something into the man’s ear. Ganghwan stepped back in surprise, saying “Really?” quite loudly.

“Guys, focus a lot on the winter nationals. You can put your leftover energy into this thing afterward. Got it?”

Ganghwan suddenly changed his words. By the looks of things, the so-called very important guest was no longer coming. The students all suppressed a little laughter.

“Now that we have our roles… We should do a little celebration.”

Ganghwan turned to look at Junmin with a mischievous grin, Junmin shook his head before taking a seat in the audience seats.

“So, what will you be eating?”

Aha, so that was what it was. Maru looked between Ganghwan and Junmin. The former was jumping around happily and the latter was shrugging in mock defeat.

“Yes! Guys! Lord Big Senior is going to buy a meal for us! Let’s practice hard and get some good food!”

Clap! That was the signal of the start of practice.

* * *

In the end, the group ended up going for pork belly after Ganghwan’s incessant nagging. Maru didn’t mind, personally. Free food was free food.

“Yeah, I’ll be late. I’ll have dinner, so don’t worry.”

She closed her phone, she was probably calling her mother.

“I should drop by to say hi some time.”

“To who? My mom?”

“Yeah. Since I’m your boyfriend and all.”

“You’re crazy. If mom sees you… Ugh, I don’t even want to imagine it. She’s going to ask for more information, like, every night.”

“That just makes me want to go even more though?”

“Don’t you dare!”

She glared at him murderously. Then again, his mother-in-law was pretty sadistic, in a way. Maru remembered getting nervous as hell whenever he visited during holidays.

In any case, the group ran straight over to the barbeque place. It was 9 pm on a Sunday. As a result, the restaurant was filled with people. Three tables were empty, thankfully. Junmin and Ganghwan took their seats on one of the tables, and the 12 students split up between the other two tables. They ordered and waited for their food to arrive.

“Maru.”

“Yeah?”

It was Yoojin. The girl was sitting on a different table, but she was right next to him before he knew it.

“What’s your phone number?”

“My number?”

“We’re a couple, so I need to know.”

Couple? That threw Maru off for a couple of seconds. But it didn’t take long for him to realize that his character in the play had a romantic interest with Yoojin’s character.

“I might message you often for questions.”

“Sure. Whatever makes you happy.”

Maru glanced at her after taking Yoojin’s phone. She was putting a lettuce wrap into her mouth, completely uninterested in what was currently happening.

‘Well, that’s very like her.’

Maru put his phone number into Yoojin’s phone.

Chapter 123

“So you guys had an argument?”

“A little bit. I should apologize first, right?”

“Apologize if you mean it.”

Inside the swaying bus, she was recounting what happened in her class to Maru. The argument started when her friend borrowed her manicure. Even close friends have these moments, no? She felt like she needed to say sorry but dreaded taking the first step. She felt some of that dread lift off her shoulders as she spoke to Maru. She now felt that she could approach her friend.

“There’s nothing more than this, right?”

“It’s not like I’m person who dutifully stores past slights. This sort of thing rarely happens. I usually resolve it right then and there.

“Yeah, you do tend to do that.”

At that moment, the bus came to a screeching halt. Her body started to sway to the point of losing control despite tightly grasping the overhead handle. Right when she was about to collide with the guy next to her, Maru grabbed and supported her arm.

“Be careful.”

“…uhuh.”

She looked at her right arm. Maru, who was looking out the bus window without a care in the world, steadfastly held and supported her. She felt like there was a safety net wherever she went with him. It was these little things that Maru was always good at.

“Karaoke this weekend?”

“I can’t this weekend. I have practice. Doesn’t Woosung have practice too?

“Yeah, but I can just say I’m sick.”

“Ugh, it’s one week before preliminaries. At least show some effort.”

“I’m actually putting in a lot of effort, but you know sometimes too much effort causes bodily harm. It’s just as important to get some rest.”

“Then rest at home yourself instead of causing trouble for others,” she playfully said while letting out a laugh and sticking out her tongue.

Maru really did have a direct way with words, but that’s what made it easy for her to talk to him. It seemed like yesterday that they first met, but she felt that their relationship extended far before then.

With Maru supporting her arm, she didn’t worry about the bus swaying. She took this bus to Myungdong 3 to 4 times a week. Without fail, Maru was always with her, as if he and she were attending the same school. She glanced at Maru and noticed his light pink lips curved upwards into a smile.

‘He’s changed a bit recently.’

She noticed that he previously acted cold to every other amateur acting group member except her. Maru was like a government employee who limited his words and actions to limit personal exposure.

However, the Maru now opened up and joined others in conversation. She knew how talkative Maru was, so it didn’t come as a surprise when Maru immediately started getting along with others in the amateur acting class.

She felt deep down that Maru always truly listened. Her heart stirred whenever she talked and looked into Maru’s calming eyes. Maru was like a professional psychologist, listening wholeheartedly and sympathizing with empathetic nods.

“What?”

“Nothing. You’re smiling more often now.”

“Have I?”

He didn’t seem to realize the change himself. When he lifted his hand to his face in thought, she saw his surprisingly toned neck. She felt it every once in a while, but Maru really had a developed body, being 178cm and all.

“Have you been working out?”

“Just some boxing with my dad here and there.”

“Wow, boxing?”

“My dad was an amateur boxer. He won quite a few times too.”

“Really? That’s amazing. Have you ever competed?”

“Just sparring.”

“Oho! You must be pretty good at fighting?”

“If a fight breaks out, I’m the first to run away,” Maru replied as he broke out another smile.

She really liked this about Maru. He didn’t put up a fake bravado front nor did he take every chance to complement himself like other guys. Whenever she saw this side of Maru, she could picture him saying ‘So what?’ It was tiring to be around guys who flaunted their fighting prowess. It’s not like being good in fights or hurting others is a good thing.

“Have you ever fought with your classmates?”

“Nope, not once. I’m too scared and cautious to let things get to that point.”

She saw Maru flex his shoulders subconsciously. She asked half-jokingly,

“If I get implicated in a fight, what are you going to do?”

“Knowing you, I don’t think you’d ever let yourself get in that position.”

“If, what if it happens.”

“Then I’ll work it out with all the parties involved and try to bring a non-violent resolution,” Maru stated with a smirk as if pleased with his answer. She saw this and poked his side, only to see Maru avoid her by twisting his body.

They didn’t talk much after that. Everyone on the bus must have been tired too as it was silent inside. The only sound came intermittently from a couple girls talking at the back of the bus. She heard the bell for the next stop and saw out the window. Maru’s stop was the one afterwards.

“It’s your stop soon.”

She extended her arm and pressed the red button to signal for the next stop. A notification went off in the bus to signal that a passenger wanted to get off. There were only a few blocks left before Maru gets off. As she was mentally preparing some parting words, Maru turned his head and said,

“If a fight ever were to break out, I’ll stand in front and take everything… you make sure to run away. If you can, call the police too.”

Maru’s gently patted the pink hat atop her head and then got off the bus. She peered out the window and caught Maru waving his hand with a large grin on his face.

* * *

“Hmm… The Youth and Chuljin.”

The preliminaries were a week away. If they made it to regionals in January, that meant that he would have to act in two plays, ‘People of Dalseokdong’ and ‘3rd Year Class 3’.

Having had ample time to prepare, Maru had a good grasp of the teenage character he needed to play in Dalseokdong. The character connected the separate acts of the play by helping the audience organize their thoughts and catch their breath. Thus, overacting and sticking out like a sore thumb should be avoided. After reviewing his Dalseokdong lines once more, Maru picked up the script for ‘3rd Year Class 3’.

Though it was just an hour-long play, the story developed quickly. The entire play dealt with the struggles that happened within the confines of classroom 3. The main storyline was about the disagreements that started due to a few classroom bullies and the ensuing story toward resolution. The Class 3 student representative wraps up the play after exploding his frustrations on the homeroom teacher. The play doesn’t neatly resolve any issues. The main focus is on the commonly arising situations in the modern Korean classroom, a reflection on the larger issues plaguing Korean society. Through this play, Maru was again reminded of how the emotional unraveling of a storyline could change 180 degrees based on the director’s intention.

“This story was originally about growth and development.”

The original storyline neatly resolved the issues and struggles of youth in ‘3rd Year Class 3’ and brought peace to the classroom, much like the first play in the amateur group, ‘The Cozy Table’. However, the play was now more nuanced and interpretive.

Ganghwan seems to have really taken creative interpretation to heart on this play. Maru had to acknowledge that this form of creative interpretation was mild compared to Ganghwan’s ‘Human Repayment’, where the heavy topic of suicide was dealt with. Just thinking about it made Maru’s skin crawl.

Maru tried spitting out Chuljin’s lines while flipping through the script. He wanted to get into character rather than memorize lines. Memorizing the lines was just a point Maru needed to get to. It was more important for Maru to understand the emotional development and direction of the story and to naturally bring forth the dialogue that matched the appropriate scene.

This was also what Ganghwan expected of Maru. Either the actor or the director must take the interpretive lead. Since Ganghwan stated “You guys should show me your personal interpretion,” Maru understood that he didn’t need to strictly stick to the lines on the script.

“A student who is outwardly bright and cheerful,” Maru murmured.

There’s a student like that in every class, someone who easily fits into any social circle, and the person students half-jokingly choose as their class representative. This outwardly carefree character named Chuljin had a private side too, like anyone else.

Although the character of Chuljin could be close and friendly in any clique, the character was skeptical of these shallow relationships. Ironically, Chuljin’s closest friend in the class is the class representative. From Chuljin’s point of view, the class representative seemed like a free spirit due to his deep devotion and friendship to a handful of classmates.

Just as Chuljin envied the class representative, the class representative envied Chuljin’s ability to get along with the bullies in the classroom. These unspoken thoughts and the absence of understanding among the main characters slowly evolved and nurtured a powder keg that threatened to explode into violence.

“And then there’s Seulmi.”

Among the characters in the play, she was the only one that didn’t have a conflicting outer and inner self. Seulmi’s courageous conviction made it so that she couldn’t bear to see any slights or ignore bad actions. This heroine-like personality of hers often led Seulmi to cross the line of what was appropriate, putting herself in the middle of a conflict.

Then there’s the standard bad homeroom teacher who didn’t even make the effort to memorize the names of his students. He was the first to think of an excuse and to point fingers at students whenever a problem arose. This homeroom teacher amplified the conflict among the class representative, Chuljin, and Seulmi. An amateur actor who had an abrasive, bitter outward appearance took the role as the homeroom teacher.

Along with these four main characters, the group of bullies and teacher #2 rounded up the cast of ‘3rd Year Class 3’. As Ganghwan mentioned before, the importance of developing the main characters led to more scenes and lines for these 4 actors compared to the eight others in the amateur acting group. The increase in his character’s screen time led Maru to color a large part of the script with his orange highlighter.

“Phew.”

The first thing Maru did after receiving the script was to highlight his lines and his character’s influences on others with an orange highlighter. For the first time, Maru felt the importance of his character after seeing the sparsely separated black characters trapped in an orange highlighted jail. At the same time, Maru was greedy. Had it been a couple of months ago, he would have run away from this level of commitment. However, the current Maru was glad for the opportunity to stand on stage longer and tell his story to the audience.

Maru got up with the script in hand. To save time, Maru decided to focus on 'People at Dalseok-dong' at school and '3rd Year Class 3' at home.

“I laughed and talked with others so much but yet I’m all alone again. Is this some sick joke? Am I really the person who was so affable just a while ago? Why don’t I have a friend I can speak to without concern,” Maru read the lines of Chuljin who is speaking his thoughts aloud in the empty classroom before Seulmi walks in.

“Both of the characters look at each other briefly before ignoring the other. The class representative is the next to come in and frowns upon seeing the two other students.”

The class representative, who secretly likes Seulmi, eventually finds out that Chuljin and Seulmi are dating each other. This realization leads to a confrontation with some classroom bullies and quickly escalates into the main conflict point in ‘3rd Year Class 3. The audience should start to feel a sense of nervous foreboding.

Maru read the script notes that detailed some rushed footsteps coming from off stage. This gimmick and the acting needed to mesh well together in order to build the appropriate tension for the audience. Maru walked around his room while reading the script. He couldn’t get into the character of Chuljin by just reading the lines, he needed to understand and become Chuljin himself.

It was at that moment.

Maru saw his sister silently open his door and peek in. She didn’t open the door haphazardly like she did before.

“Big brother, what are you doing?”

“I’m reviewing a script.”

“Are you busy?”

“Why?”

“You have time to eat some snacks together, right? I’ll gain weight if I eat by myself, so let’s gain weight together, yeah?”

“It’s past 11.”

“But I’m hungry…” Bada pouted.

“…Okay, then I’ll have some ice cream. You’re going to get it right?”

“Yeah, I’ll get it. Wait here, I’ll be back soon!”

Maru could hear his sister’s scurrying footsteps reverberating across the floor. A smile crossed his face as he laid down the script.

Chapter 124

“Hmm, this one or this one,” Bada said as she happily contemplated between the snacks, eventually choosing the chocolate flavored snack.

Bada shrunk back from the sudden gust of cold evening wind as she walked out of the convenience store, with her snack and Maru’s ice cream cone in hand. As she was telling herself to quickly get back home, she saw a figure across the street walking with his sleek bicycle.

“Oh!” Bada involuntarily shouted.

She didn’t know him well, but she recognized his face. Dowook stared at Bada for a while before realizing who she was.

He let out an “Ah” himself.

“You’re Maru’s sister, right?”

“Yes, and you’re brother’s friend, Dowook, right?”

“Yeah.”

She recalled being saved by Dowook and the awe-inspiring roundhouse kick he gave that weirdo bully in Myungdong. Bada recalled this older brother’s full name, Kang Dowook. Maru told her to hurry and go home that eventful day, so she never had the chance to thank Dowook personally.

“Thank you for your help that day.”

“No worries. I wanted to give him a piece of my mind anyways.”

“Do you live nearby?” Bada asked.

“No. I came to meet a friend.”

“My brother?”

“No.” He kept his answers short. It was awkward enough for Dowook to be receiving thanks, so he wanted to end the conversation as soon as possible.

“I’ll see you around.”

“Oh, okay,” Bada responded in surprise as Dowook passed by with his bicycle in tow. Bada felt that Dowook’s personality was as cold as the sharpness of his eyes.

Just as Bada started to head home, she looked back at Dowook’s receding figure and remembered what her mother said about receiving help from others, ‘A responsible human being always pays back for the help received.’

Bada rushed back into the store, grabbed a hot drink, and ran towards Dowook.

“Um, here! Please take this,” Bada quickly said as she handed the confused Dowook a warm canned drink.

This fulfilled her obligation as a responsible human being. Relieved of her obligation, Bada turned back only to immediately feel a tapping on her shoulder. As she turned around, she heard Dowook say,

“I don’t like Red Ginseng.”

Dowook tossed the canned drink back at Bada. The surprised Bada somehow caught the tossed can but immediately replied back,

“Just drink it. It’s a gesture of appreciation.”

“You drink it,” Dowook snapped back.

Dowook lightly jumped onto his bicycle and powerfully pedaled away, quickly becoming a dot and then disappearing from the street. Bada stuck her tongue out in his direction and put the canned drink into her plastic bag.

“Hmm! As if I care if you drink it or not!”

* * *

Dowook stared at the blank letter on his school desk. His thoughts flooded onto the pages when he wrote his first letter to his sister, but he was truly at a loss for words right now. He recalled how each word was filled with sorrow, hate, and disappointment. The words rushed out onto the paper. He also recalled how each word helped him slowly release the pent-up frustration he carried around all these years. That was the first letter. This letter seemed infinitely more difficult.

He didn’t expect much from his sister. It wasn’t his sister’s fault that the accident happened and that he needed to go through a period of grueling physical therapy. He never blamed her for the accident, but he did hold her absence against her. All he wanted was someone to talk to.

However, his sister chose to leave the house. She ran away from the mother who blamed her and the father who gave her pitiful glances. After she left, Dowook spent his days retraining his muscles on the physical therapy machines at home, laying on the cold gym floor while his classmates enjoyed PE, and could only look at the backs of the neighborhood kids who went out to play. He naturally became an outsider at school and didn’t smile or laugh even once up all the way up to 5th grade.

Dowook started bicycling after his schoolteacher mentioned that it would help reinforce his muscles. Once he started seeing improvement, Dowook started playing all the sports that he missed. Immediately, his muscles started growing and eventually, bulging. He also started growing taller. Then came middle school. Due to his outsider status in elementary school, Dowook didn’t have any prior friends to hang out with, so he started hanging out with the wrong crowd. They made him feel powerful, as he was now on the side of the oppressor rather than the oppressed.

Thinking up to here, he picked up his pencil and decided to write about the past 10 years. Just as he was finishing the first sentence, a clanking noise resounded out from a can that landed on the corner of his desk. It was a Red Ginseng canned drink. Dowook raised his eyes toward the person whose hand was still on the can.

“Delivery~” chimed Maru with a grin.

“Delivery?”

"Bada came back late last night from the store huffing and puffing about you denying this drink, so I came to deliver it myself.”

"Ah…”

"Are you allergic to Red Ginseng?”

"No. I just don’t like it.”

"Then drink up. That poor little kid put in a lot of thought to give this to you.”

As soon as Maru finished the sentence, he opened the can and put it in front of Dowook. Dowook knew Maru was bullheaded, so he just sighed and resigned himself to drinking the canned drink. He one-shot the drink and handed the empty can to Maru.

"Done?”

"Thanks~ Is that the letter you’re writing for your sister?”

Dowook hid the letter from Maru with his arms. He knew that Maru was a trustworthy, good guy, but he still didn’t want to show him the embarrassingly emotional letter.

"Hey, write it nice and clear. I’ll make sure she gets it.”

"Yeah.”

“Older sister Soojin was relieved and happy to receive your last letter.”

"…”

Maru gave a refreshing smile. He’s changed, Dowook thought. It’s as if a heavy burden has been lifted off his shoulders. His relaxed demeanor and facial expression seemed to proved that something good happened recently.

"Ah. Dad asked me if you were planning to work this winter break.”

"Unfortunately, I’ll have to pass. Something came up.”

"Yeah? Dad’s going to feel sad. He was really looking forward to it.”

“Let him know that I’ll come visit in the near future.”

Maru picked up the empty can and walked back to his seat. As Maru casually opened up a book, Dowook couldn’t help but look back and think of how his life changed because of Maru. If it wasn’t for him, he may have been dismissed from the school like Changhu.

Dowook focused back on his letter and started to write. He finished writing as the bell rang to signal the end of the lunch break. All that needed to be done now was the delivery, but Dowook felt something was missing.

He shook his head and started writing another paragraph,

‘I’ve made a good friend at school, so school life hasn’t been too bad.’

* * *

“I want a girlfriend!” Dojin shouted.

“I knew you were going to say that,” Maru replied.

In the last period of the day, the teacher talked about his first love experience. The juicy bits of his story made all of the class students hang on his every word, enough so that they wouldn’t let him go even after the final bell rang.

“Spring will come for me too, right? I’m surrounded every day in a field of sausages. When will my day come?”

"What about Iseul?”

“…hey, why did you bring her up all of a sudden?”

Oho, look at this. The only single girl I recalled around me was Iseul, so Maru threw out her name. Who knew that it would garner such a wonderful reaction from Dojin?

"If you like her, just tell her straight up like a Korean man. Like Taejun.”

Ever since Taejun and Soyeon successfully became a couple at the soup restaurant event, Dojin seemed to fall under the spell of the dreaded ‘solo disease’. He acted like his innards were painfully twisting whenever he looked at the two couples in the acting club. Maybe it’s not a ‘solo disease’, maybe he’s just a delirious animal. Maru looked at Dojin and asked,

"Iseul’s doesn’t look good enough for you?”

"Not good enough?! She’s pretty!”

"Then her personality?”

“She’s nice and sweet, and cute too!”

“I don’t think being cute is part of one’s personality but whatever. So, you like her then.”

“Well, I’m not sure if I like her… hey! Why are you steering the conversation this way?”

“You don’t have to look that far to make a girlfriend.”

“…you’ve magically become an omnipotent love guru now, aye? What about you?”

“Me?”

“Yeah, you! You and I are in the same field of sausages, man.”

It was then that Maru’s cell phone rang. He flipped the phone with his thumb and silenced Dojin for the moment.

“Hello?”

-Is this Han Maru?

"That’s right. You should know from my voice.”

-Oh, so it is you. You sound different on the phone.

The person on the other line was Yoojin. Just when Maru was about to ask why she called, Dojin rushed close to Maru like a starved beast.

-You still there?

“Yeah, talk.”

Maru could see Dojin’s eyes on the precipice of releasing a cascade of tears.

Having heard a female voice on the other line, Dojin put on a frown that reflected the deepest sense of betrayal from his fellow man.

-Do you have the script nearby?

“I do.”

Then turn to page 27 where bully number 2 and 3 come out.

Maru slowly closed his eyes and reopened them. At this point, he already memorized the whole script. The scene in question was right after the student representative was beaten up by the class’ bullies. Chuljin and Seulmi just stepped into the classroom and were about to ask what happened to the student representative…

-What’s your interpretation of your line? How are you going to deliver it?

“What?”

-I’m not certain on what’s going on emotionally for you in that scene.

Maru pushed Dojin away and started to visualize the entire scene. Previously, Chuljin tried to befriend the student representative, but their underlying envy of each other became a barrier that caused an argument. Right before the scene in question, the student representative tried to hang out with the bullies, only to be ignored and then beaten up. Having seen this unfold, what would Chuljin be thinking? He’s probably thinking of getting back at the student representative, making this scene into a larger issue for the rep, right?

“The student representative sure is something, huh? Getting all friendly with you guys without reason,” Maru stated his lines unabashedly to Yoojin.

Dojin squinted his eyes and asked Maru, “The hell’s going on?”

Oh. I see. It’s like that. You changed the lines a little too.

“It’s after they’ve just had an argument, right? Chuljin’s probably not too happy with the student representative. It’s the perfect scenario: he wants to look down on the student rep, this situation falls into his lap, and his girlfriend is standing right beside him. Chuljin’s probably ready to pounce and take advantage of the situation to get back at the rep.”

-He’s that type of character? Isn’t he a well-rounded guy?

“He often says that he’s lonely. How would he feel if the representative approaches even his set of shallow friends and tries to befriend them? Wouldn’t Chuljin feel disgusted that the representative, who seems to have it all, would even take away what little bit he has left? That’s what I think, so I changed the lines accordingly.”

-Oh~ So that’s how it is. That’s pretty impressive Maru!

“It’s not really impressive. Are we done here?”

-No.

“There’s more?”

-I feel like I won’t truly get it unless we do it face-to-face.

“Then I’ll see you tomorrow.”

-Okay. Did you make notes regarding the characters in your script?

“Somewhat.”

-Can you show me?

“There’s no reason I can’t.”

-Great. I’ll see you tomorrow. See you later, boyfriend~.

The way that Seulmi said ‘boyfriend~’ was how she practiced for the play.

As soon as Maru hung up the call, Dojin shouted,

“You bastard!”

“What’s up with you?”

“You’re going to escape the field by yourself? What about Daemyung? What about me?”

“We were just going over our lines for the play.”

"She said boyfriend!”

"Haa,” Maru let out a long sigh.

How can Maru calm down this fiendish, tunnel-vision animal? He gave a quick chop on Dojin’s Adam’s apple with his hand, sending Dojin back a few steps with a sudden ‘Keuk!’ sound.

“Those who are thirsty should dig their own well. It’s not a saying for nothing.”

“…where’s the well?” Dojin croaked out.

“Somewhere.”

“Damn it!” shouted Dojin.

Maru ignored Dojin’s howls and calmly started reading his script.

* * *

“Han Maru.”

Today is Miso’s off day. After finishing his run, Maru was catching his breath when Joonghyuk called him over. He told Maru that they should speak in private, so they went outside.

"So, what we talked about the other day. You should have an answer now, right?”

"About being the President of the club?”

"Yeah.”

"I don’t think I’m the right person for the position.”

"Alright. I’m sorry if I put any undue pressure on you.”

"But, I would like to recommend someone.”

"Who?”

"Daemyung. He’s a responsible guy who’s passionate about acting. I’m certain the others will understand and agree.”

"Hmm, I agree with you that he’s passionate and responsible, but he lacks the disciplinary leadership to whip the younger incoming students into shape.”

"Senior, you’re considering Geunseok, right?”

Joonghyuk gave a brief nod and replied,

“He seems to have matured greatly since the beginning, plus he’s good at acting. He’s dead set on becoming an actor and has the charismatic presence to get the job done for the club.”

The stone statue-esque Geunseok versus the round ball of Daemyung. Since Joonghyuk prioritized discipline over every other quality, I guess it’s going to be the statue that wins out against the ball.

"Geunseok’s a great choice, too. My only concern is that he lacks the motivation and responsibility to carry on.”

"Us second years are discussing the same thing. Normally, you guys should decide who the next president should be, but we have a club tradition of upperclassmen actively vouching for and solidifying the next president. I guess we’ll have to choose between Geunseok and Daemyung.”

"Wait, what about Dojin? I’m certain he can take care of the underclassmen.”

"Yeah, sure. He’ll probably start hanging out with them. Just look at the current president. That’s why this responsibility fell to me.”

It was an apt comparison without fault.

Joonghuk continued, “I get what you’re saying about the others. Let’s go back inside.”

"Yes,” Maru respectfully replied.

The reason Maru declined the president’s title was simple. It didn’t make sense to wear the emperor’s cape if it couldn’t protect the wearer from anything. Plus, constantly monitoring other people didn’t fit with Maru’s personality.

"How’s preparation going for that separate play of yours?” Joonghyuk asked.

"We’re constantly practicing, but I’m not sure if it’s going well. My ability is so low, but I went ahead and signed myself up for two plays. It’s a headache.”

"Don’t discount your ability. Blue Sky has over 10 seniors who’ve gone on to become successful actors. Furthermore, in the future, who knows? Maybe Geunseok, Daemyung, and you will be next.”

"That would be great. We’d also be fairly well off by that time, too.”

"Yeah, that would be great.”

The silly, dream-like subject matter was too whimsical to continue with a straight face. They chuckled together before entering the auditorium.

Chapter 125

Maru took out the frayed script. He couldn’t help but smile, ruminating on the long journey he undertook when first receiving the script 4 months ago. During the past 4 months, his perception completely changed. It was a pleasure to start with this script once again.

"It’s been a long time doing a reading with the script in hand.”

"Yeah. I haven’t taken it out except for the occasional reference.”

Everyone showed the same nostalgic feeling. Today, a week before the preliminary round of the winter nationals, the acting club members returned to where it all began, with the fundamentals of script analysis and reading. It's a script they knew by heart, but a month away from the script rejuvenated the members to review and re-interpret many parts. Every member was confident about his or her character, but minor modifications were still being made to the lines following their creative interpretation. Of course, this was all done under the supervision of Miso.

“Make the lines come alive. Dead words only have meaning in old literature; we’re doing a modern play, adjust the dialogue to match the times. Don’t use too much current lingo or else the play will get messy and the essence of the drama will disappear,” Miso instructed.

“It's like a modern novel,” said Daemyung.

Miso followed up Daemyung’s words with a “Bingo” and then continued,

“Every play has a script. The script may look different in form, but it's still a part of a novel. If you change the directives to narrative phrases, the words will take the form of a novel. Just like how a cliché-filled romance novel isn’t enjoyable, so too if the novel is only reflecting reality. One needs to navigate the line between reality and fantasy. Take Daemyung’s high school student character. In reality, there’s no such character, but I can understand and relate to the student as if he were real. A logician can probably conjure the most logical character, but the question is whether people are willing to understand or empathize with the character. I don’t usually go deep into this stuff… since you’re all smart and get my drift, I’ll end the lecture here.”

Everyone started heavily editing the script.

Since there was only a week left before the preliminaries, the editing was light. Most changes dealt with changing words and lines here and there. However, those little changes drastically changed the feel of the scenes. The members felt the difference after an initial run-through. With greater focus, the members focused their attention on the changed script.

“If we do some more changes tomorrow…” Yoonjung spoke with a twinkle in her eyes.

However, Miso firmly shook her head and stated,“The changes are up to here. We’re not going to change anything starting tomorrow.”

“Why? All the changes seemed to enhance the script. Wouldn’t some additional changes make it even better?”

“That’s a trap. I’ve only allowed you guys to review the script this close to the preliminaries so that we can limit our edits. You’ll never be fully satisfied no matter how many edits we make. Furthermore, this script wasn’t written by you guys. Some simple changes here and there can actually change the entire direction of the play.”

Miso raised her hand towards Maru. Maru handed over his script, which was filled to the brim with character notes and analysis. Seeing these notes, Miso grinned and said to the group,

“We’re only going to edit today. Change your lines if you feel it will benefit the scene. You’ve all lived and breathed the characters on the page, so you should know what works and what doesn’t. I want the lines to be lively yet still stay true to the character and direction of the play. That’s the script we’ll end with and use.”

Liveliness. Lines with breadth and depth.

Maru pondered on how to slightly alter his words to become theatrical lines.

‘Good lines are lines that seem like they would be used in real life but are not.’

Maru started putting red lines on his script. The increasing red lines were as if the script was changing clothes and transforming into something else. He did this late into the night. Focusing on edits until the moon was visible, Maru raised his head and saw that the other members were also peering at the scripts in their hands. Miso’s words made sense. There’s no assurance that everyone would be just as focused as today. There’s a limit to how long one can focus, so getting as much done in a short amount of time was essential.

“So hungry!”

“Wow, I haven’t even studied as hard as this.”

“Oww, my back.”

The members who hit their limit started to slowly open their mouths. It was already 9 PM.”

“You guys hungry?”

“Yes!”

Miso took out a credit card from her wallet.

“Good work. Let’s eat something first before reviewing the changes.”

Miso’s card flew through the air and was caught by Maru with both hands, as if he were praying.

“Some comfort food?”

“Does anyone want anything in particular?”

“I don’t want to wait, so let’s get some rice cakes, sausages, and tempura.”

“I agree!”

Maru nodded his head and got up. There were four fast-food type comfort food places in front of the school, 2 outdoor stalls and 2 attached to the neighborhood department store. The one’s near the department store were probably closed, but Maru expected that the outdoor stalls should still be open.

“I’ll go too,” Daemyung said as he got up to follow Maru.

“Why don’t you take a break and rest?”

“Going by yourself is boring, no?”

Daemyung’s round cheeks rose up and down as he talked. Maru couldn’t help but acknowledge Daemyung’s kindness. As they went out together, they saw that the school was blanketed in darkness. The only visible specks of light were coming from the fifth-floor auditorium.

“It’s kind of scary at night, right?”

“You see it all the time. You’re still scared?”

Maru kept walking in the frigid evening and crossed his arms to keep his hands close to his sides. Daemyung pulled out a pair of gloves and asked,

“Want my gloves?”

“You should put them on. Also, this kind of offering should be done for girls.”

“…ha ha ha.”

“Earlier today, Dojin had another episode about making a girlfriend.”

"He’s always like that. He riles himself up and then becomes pensive and worried about his future. I don’t know what to expect next.”

"That’s Han Dojin alright. Anyways, I wonder what kind of girl will be wooed by you, Daemyung.”

“I-I’m not interested in dating.”

“A doctor’s shot in the arm doesn’t hurt.”

“Huh?”

“It’s similar in truth to what you just said.”

“…”

“Should I try setting something up?”

“No! I really can’t do anything like that. No, don’t do it.”

“You need to hang around girls to feel comfortable around them. I don’t want to force it on you though.”

“That’s… I don’t know what to say to girls. If I’m left alone with other girls in the classroom, I’m lost on what to say.”

“You’re fairly confident when you’re acting with girls.”

“That’s because it’s acting.”

“Why don’t you approach it in that way then?”

“That’s easier said than done. I was born this way, what can I do.”

Seeing Daemyung put on a meek smile as if accepting his fate, Maru couldn’t help but acknowledge that Daemyung was truly a kind soul. Dojin would jump at the chance to talk and get close to girls if Maru offered, but Daemyung would probably shy away and be quiet the entire time.

If Daemyung was just another classmate, Maru wouldn’t have cared so much, but wasn’t Daemyung one of those friends you just wanted to take care of and see happy? Maru surmised that the loneliness and bullying Daemyung faced in elementary and middle school made him shy. Also, he must have been teased to no end for his round body. Those who teased him probably did it without any malice, but it must have been painful for him. His year in the acting club helped him somewhat get out of his shell, but he still acted awkwardly in front of girls.

Maru understood that empty words like ‘have confidence’ or ‘you’re a great guy’ wouldn’t resolve the situation. Daemyung already knew he needed to change, stating the obvious could sometimes drag one further down. It could also drive a person to believe that he or she isn’t capable of doing anything at all.

“If you find that someone, don’t hesitate. You’ll regret it later on.”

“I-If I find someone, I’ll consider it,” Daemyung replied with an embarrassed smile.

* * *

After practice, Geunseok walked Yurim to the bus stop and then turned to leave.

[Get home safely]

The text came from Yurim who had just gotten on the bus a moment ago. Geunseok sent a simple reply, ‘Yeah’, and then scrolled down his past call list, stopping at Suyeon’s number. He pressed call.

"Instructor Suyeon. I just finished.”

-Okay, you finished pretty late.

"Yeah, it somehow became like that. Can I go over right now?”

-Coming over to a single lady’s apartment in the late evening is a little too scandalous, no?”

“Oh, is it?”

Geunseok enjoyed the quick banter he had with Suyeon. There’s nothing like this with Yurim, she just listens. Sometimes Yurim doesn’t say a word and just nods her head, agreeing to whatever he said, making him feel like he’s talking to a wall.

Suyeon was different, she not only had a pretty face but also charisma. She made him want to indulge her wit and tease her even more. Though she’s five years younger than Instructor Miso, she seemed much more mature.

Geunseok recalled feeling out of place when Junmin first introduced him to Suyeon, an actress who often came out on television. Though only playing a minor character, she was part of a popular TV drama series. After the first meeting, Geunseok received a string of practice sessions at Suyeon’s apartment. He remembered that Suyeon said she had a home in Seoul but would come down to her apartment in Suwon station whenever she was free.

-Come if you want, but aren’t you tired?”

“I’m not tired.”

-Alright then.

He quickly got into a taxi after ending the call. He felt his chest warming, this is how it should feel when dating someone; it was different with Yurim. Geunseok felt excited just thinking about visiting Suyeon. Her crystal-clear eyes, shapely nose, blemish free skin, and perfect body… She was superior to Yurim in every way. Just looking at Suyeon made him dazed. It also made him want more.

He wondered if she was teaching him purely because he was her understudy student. A sense of desire reared its head within Geunseok. Being with Yurim didn’t make him feel like a valued man. He wanted to go one level, no, multiple levels above Yurim and date Suyeon.

Conversations that weren’t bland and childish, a lush and mysterious gaze, and a beautiful female body… Geunseok wanted it all. He wondered how to obtain it.

“I need to do something out of the box.”

As a first year in high school, Geunseok couldn’t contend with her in wealth or social standing. Then what can he put forth? He needed to be an understanding, attractive, and responsible human being. What else? While he was thinking, the thought of his brother and his group of well-known staff and directors passed through his mind.

‘Those are all part mine too, right?’

He started to chuckle. A plan was forming.

* * *

“You can’t underestimate the power of being well-connected, connections are important. Some problems can be resolved just by knowing a person. However, being well-connected is not tangible. If I can’t even pull my own weight, all those connections will sever. Relationships are like that. If one doesn’t get to the same level, the relationship will deteriorate. An exception to this is individuals who’ve connected on a deeper, more humanistic level, but even that means that someone possesses a humanistic trait, which could be seen as that person’s skill.”

Daemyung stopped what he was saying as he realized he was lecturing on his own personal philosophy of human relationships. This all started when Dojin mentioned that he could probably hang out with a lot of pretty girls if he were to befriend a rich guy. Daemyung tried to give a simple answer but found himself diving into human philosophy.

"Yeah, yeah, you’re so knowledgeable so you already have a girlfriend, right?”

“Do whatever you want.”

“Oh, omnipotent being! Please excuse this lowly human and from your graciousness bestow upon this poor soul an introduction to the fairer sex.”

Everything was circling back to the beginning. Dojin was always singing about dating girls in the past, but he seemed to have calmed down recently. Daemyung thought that Dojin was starting to mature and see the bigger picture, but the recurrence of his ‘solo-disease’ these past couple days proved otherwise. Dojin either lost patience or gave up on his internal struggle.

“If you’re serious about it, then I’ll ask,” Maru stated.

“Truly?”

“Sure.”

“Yes! Yes!! Hey Daemyung, we’ll have our blossoming spring time too.”

“I-I-I’m fine. I can’t imagine doing anything like that.”

“Hey, if I go and meet 1:1 it’ll be awkward. So, let’s make it a 2:2…”

“I don’t want to go. You go do what you need to do. I’m going to wait patiently.”

“Daemyung, at this rate, we’re going to waste half of our youth attending a technical college and fulfilling our military service. You know that the majority of engineering high school students go to technical schools afterwards, right?”

“…but I’m going to major in theater.”

“…this guy…”

Dojin’s passionate pleas and Daemyung’s shy, but firm, retorts continued. They were like water and oil, which may look good together but don’t mix. Maru was questionable on whether Dojin’s recent fiery passion to get a girlfriend wouldn’t come to fruition. Maru thought that Taejun and Soyeon’s success really pushed Dojin off the edge toward a sea of fervent passion.

While Maru was following his friends and observing their animated conversation, he got a call from her.

Chapter 126

“There must be something for you to call first.”

- What, you don’t like it?

“No. I like it.”

- You always say you like it no matter what I do.

“It’s better than not liking it. So, what’s going on? I’m sure it’s not calling to see me at this late hour.”

- I’m going to have to miss practice tomorrow. It’s the anniversary of my father passing away, so I’m going to spend the day with my mom.

“Oh, right. Should I come visit and bring you something?”

- Yeah right. I know you don’t want to come.

She was right. Maru wanted to be by her side, but he had no plans to visit her house and concern himself into her family matters. It was too early for that. Plus, it would be better for each family member to fill the hole that their past father left in their hearts. Maru decided to just pray for her from afar.

- You’re not misunderstanding what I said, right? I didn’t mean that you didn’t care.

“I understood you, don’t worry. Spend a good day with your mother.”

-… Okay.

“Don’t cry too much.”

- Who’s crying? I’m used to it now. It just feels hollow.

“Sure, it’s good to hear that you’re not going to cry.”

Maru could picture her gently biting down on her lower lip on the other end. Even as an adult, she always cried on the anniversary day of her father’s passing. Even when so much time had passed, she’d cry like a broken fountain. He understood that all this came from her inner tenderness and love, she’s truly a warm person at heart. Her tears would roll down like a little child’s, proving the pureness of her emotions.

Being a confident woman, she never wanted to show this side of her to others. Maru always loved that she could be such a responsible, mature woman on the outside but possess a sense of tenderness and innocence on the inside.

Immediately after hanging up the phone…

“Who is it? Who is it, huh?”

Maru didn’t know how to respond. He said a few words to placate Dojin and misdirect, but Dojin was still glancing at Maru with doubt.

“It was a girl, right? Right?”

Dojin sure had an active sixth sense.

Maru just shrugged.

* * *

“Come in.”

Geunseok gulped down hard as soon as he heard the door opening. He saw Suyeon wearing skin-tight orange leggings and a loose tank top that showed off her midriff. He could see a yoga mat on the floor and a Yoga instructor giving instructions on TV.

- Stretch out your legs, Now take a deep breath and…

He followed her into the living room while listening to the instructions softly coming out of the TV. Suyeon pointed toward the sofa with her chin and told him to sit.

“Let me just finish this part.”

“Okay.”

He felt that Suyeon’s smile was mysteriously sexy, the sexiness of her smile was amplified by her clothes. On top of the smooth mat, Suyeon sat with her legs stretched forward and bent her upper body downwards. Her body was like a flip phone, completely folding down. Her chest was touching her legs and her hipbone was showing its oddly attractive contours. In this position, her butt looked as tight as fully expanded water balloons. All of this was accentuated from the skin-tight leggings, he can even catch a glimpse of her underwear. Geunseok couldn’t take his eyes off of her. Utter fascination. Yurim’s skinny body couldn’t compare to this developed female body.

"Phew~”

The ridges on her back smoothed out as she slowly exhaled. He could see her toned and developed muscles come alive with each small action. She unraveled and started sitting on top of the backs of her feet. On TV, the words ‘Downward Dog’ rang out from the instructor. Suyeon bent down again and stretched her upper body with the palm of her hands far in front of her on the ground. With her back bent in this position, he could see her top open up and see the black lining of her bra. Geunseok balled his fists on top of his knees and squeezed. He found that just looking at this developed woman excited him. He started staring at her feet when she arched her back and lifted her chin towards the ceiling. As he moved his gaze upward, he couldn’t see a single wrinkle or imperfection on her beautiful face.

His throat started burning, he wanted to drink some water but was unwilling to get up. He wasn’t stupid enough to miss this sight for a drink of water. He wished that his eyes could record so that he could store this sight forever.

Suyeon continued with her yoga exercise for a further 30 minutes. Looking at her flex her body this way and that, he didn’t realize time flying by.

“Phew. Geunseok.”

“Y-Yeah?”

His voice came out weak and cracked, as he suddenly spoke after being enraptured.

“Are you sleepy?”

“O-Oh, no. Did you need something?”

“Can you help out?”

“Huh?”

“Press down here.”

Suyeon laid down on her stomach and gestured at her ankles. Geunseok nodded his head, slowly came up to her, and gently pushed down. He felt her lively vigor from his fingertips, her skin felt firm yet supple. He could tell that her toned, developed legs came from rigorous training.

“Thanks.”

She smiled briefly and then started to curve her back and lift her upper body. He couldn’t help but appreciate her flexibility and upper body strength. Her back arched like a bow as that had its string pulled. He marveled at the beauty of her curved back and the firmness of the two mounds right below.

“Can you press down a little above my calves?”

“Huh?”

“Come up a little more.”

He nodded his head and slowly brought his hands upward. He could have lifted his hands and placed them on top of her calves, but he slowly slid his hands up her knees as if he was giving her a massage instead.

“Hahat~ That tickles.”

Luckily, Suyeon didn’t seem like she minded. His lips were parched and dry, a sense of nervousness and anticipation arose. She started raising her upper body once more. She didn’t lift herself as high this time, but he was still able to see the muscles showing right underneath her shirt rippling.

“This time, push down here.”

Geunseok hesitated. The place she was pointing to was just above her butt. It was where her orange leggings and open skin met, this was pretty much the upper part of her butt.

“Here?” he asked at a loss.

“What? Are you being self-conscious? Because you’re a guy?” she quipped.

Suyeon gave a quick smirk. Hearing her playful tone of voice, Geunseok felt a little slighted. “No problem,” he said and quickly placed his hands where she instructed. He could feel the softness underneath his fingers. A feeling of wanting to touch everywhere arose in him.

She refocused on her yoga and carried out the instructions on TV, her face didn’t show any noticeable emotion. As she was going through the motions, he started lowering the position of his hands. This wasn’t overconfidence. He felt that the mood was leaning in this direction, as if there was some mutual understanding that he could go lower.

As if to prove this fact, Suyeon continued like nothing happened. She actually started tightening her butt even more, as if saying ‘how about this’.

Geunseok had been putting a lot of downward force. What he felt was not the flexing of the hips but a part that had its own bouncy quality, it was soft and somewhat nonconforming. A bunch of erotic thoughts crossed his mind, he had to take a few meditative breaths to calm his racing heart. This was probably the finish line. She probably only wanted to go this far as a coquettish tease. If he took a further step from this point, it would just make him a pervert. He told himself that he should enjoy this moment, within the boundaries.

He couldn’t stop his deepening infatuation for her. He never knew that women were such attractive beings. He couldn’t even remember all the girls he dated in middle school. No, wait, could those relationships even be called dating?

His relationship with Yurim… was definitely different since there was some emotional support and dependence involved. Yet, he couldn’t get away from the childish feel and nature of the relationship. Yurim was the type of girl that he got tired of soon. It was comfortable and nice having her around, but he wouldn’t miss her if she wasn’t around. She was that type of existence for him.

“Thanks,” she said with a smile. He felt something dash through his stomach as he watched her gently lift away her slightly damp hair.

“One moment. Let me quickly wash up.”

“You can take your time.”

“It’s so late already. Won’t your folks be worried? It’s already 11pm.”

“It’s okay. My parents trust me.”

“Oh? Okay then.”

She playfully squinted one eye and walked to the bathroom. A little later, he could hear the sound of water flowing out. He started imagining Suyeon washing her sweaty body. While in the middle of his daydream, he took out his phone and flipped it open. Of course, it was Yurim.

“Yeah.”

- I got home. You?

“I’m home too. I’m actually getting ready to sleep.”

- Already?

“What do you mean already? It's 11pm. It’s time to sleep.”

- Oh, okay. I guess you can’t talk right now then.

“Sorry. I’m a little tired today. I’ll make up for it tomorrow and listen to whatever you want to say.”

- Don’t say sorry. It’s fine. Go to bed then. Dream of me.

“Yeah. I hope I dream of you too.”

As soon as he hung up, he took out the battery. She couldn’t even read between the lines. He realized that girls who put guys on a pedestal were the most boring ones. There needs to be some tension, some give and go. Yurim didn’t have any of this. It was kind of a waste to just let her go, so he decided to keep her around for now.

After waiting a while longer, Suyeon stepped out of the bathroom wearing a gown. She was drying her hair with a towel when she sat down on the sofa with her legs showing between the split in her gown. There were a variety of cosmetic products on the coffee table in front of the sofa.

A wonderful fragrance wafted from her body. He could see the drops of water on her chest, where the gown opened up in a V-shape. He felt a sudden urge to touch her.

"Our instruction time is tomorrow, but why did you want to see me today?”

"I had a few things to ask you.”

"Hmm, few things? Okay. Ah! Geunseok, can you hand me that?”

Geunseok, quickly grabbed the purple glass bottle of skin lotion and handed it to her. She started dabbing skin lotion on her face with a cotton pad.

"How’s the acting club?”

"We edited the script a little.”

"This late? With just a week left?”

“Yeah.”

“Wow, instructor Miso must really have a lot of faith in you guys. You can’t do that with people you don’t fully trust.”

Suyeon twisted her torso and put her silky white legs on top of Geunseok’s lap, his body slightly shook.

“You see that body cream there?”

“…yeah.”

“Can you apply that on my legs? It’s gotten so cold recently that my legs have been drying up. I’m not sure if my stockings will survive.”

She had on a wide smile.

* * *

“I’ll take off now.”

“Next time call earlier. Come by when you specifically need something. It’s not good to waste time like this when you’re so busy.”

"Okay, I’ll do that.”

She smiled and waved goodbye. Geunseok bowed and left the apartment. As soon as the door closed, Suyeon started laughing and said aloud,

“A little child trying to act like a man.”

When he had slightly lowered his hands onto her butt, she had to hold in her laughter. He must have felt that he was going with the flow, but for her, it was like dealing with a curious little child. This is why she disliked young kids. If you spend a little time with them, they suddenly think whatever they want.

“Still, he’s not half bad look-wise, so I’ll let it pass.”

He had wide shoulders and was over 180cm tall. Outwardly, he had some handsome features, but he was a little kid inside. She thought it was at least fun to play around with him, but not enough fun to do it for nothing. She received money from Junmin to help out and guide him, but this wasn’t reason enough.

“How can I benefit from this?”

She walked toward the sofa, sat down, and started putting cotton balls between her toes. She decided that pink would be good today. After giving herself a pedicure, she opened her laptop on her lap. She went onto the actor information exchange website and clicked around until she arrived at the independent film page.

“Now this is a man.”

A picture popped up from her screen. It was a picture of a guy with the director and staff members all happily smiling at the camera. Suyeon tilted her head and focused on the guy.

“I want him.”

Hong Geunsoo.

She accepted Geunseok’s childish ways for one reason, to meet Geunsoo. If she were to be introduced by Junmin, there would be too much of a business vibe. There were probably other women who tried that way. But what if she approached him through his brother?

“Let’s think about this more later.”

Geunseok’s feelings and self-confidence may take a hit, but she didn’t care. It was nearing the end of her promise with Junmin anyway. It was until the end of the year, so her obligation to spend time with him was essentially finished.

“Goodnight, my darling~”

Puckering her lip, she blew a kiss at the screen. Suyeon was a woman who knew what she wanted and what she had to do to get it, not to mention men. Geunsoo would be able to fulfill her in bed and also in business. Of course, she wanted him.

“That came out well,” she said as she looked at the sparkling nail polish on her toes.

Chapter 127

“You’re alone today?” Yoojin asked as she approached Maru, who was seated near a side curtain.

She didn’t see the girl who was always next to Maru, or was Maru always next to her?

“Something came up.”

“What happened?”

“The anniversary of her father’s passing.”

“Oh.”

Silence ensued for a moment. Yoojin scratched her cheek as she sat next to Maru.

“Did I ask something that I shouldn’t have?”

“Just don’t say anything in front of her. Anyways, did you finish editing your lines?”

“For now. I wanted to go over it with you.”

She opened up her script and suppressed a yawn, she had stayed up late last night to review a production from one of her favorite actresses.

“You should try getting a nap in if you’re tired.”

“How can I sleep here.”

“Sometimes, it helps to just close and rest your eyes,” Maru said as he started to slowly close his eyes. There was nothing to lose in trying. Warmth started to come back into his fatigued eyes. After about five minutes, he felt his mind clear.

"Not too bad, right?”

“Yeah. I thought sleep was the only answer.”

“If your body is well rested, it’s not too difficult to stay up a couple days in a row. Though near the end, you probably won’t even know if someone is carrying you on their back,” Maru said while shrugging his shoulders.

Yoojin stretched out her arms and gave a big yawn before focusing on her script.

“What’s your thoughts on Seulmi? What type of person is she?”

“Seulmi? Like a heroine figure. More importantly though is the question how she became like that.”

Hmm? Yoojin gave a surprised but interested expression, she’d heard the exact same words before. When she visited and asked a more senior actress in the industry, she also mentioned that Yoojin should deeply consider the character’s background rather than simply interpret the character on preconceived notions. The only member in this amateur acting club to give her similar advice was Maru. Although everyone here wanted to become a professional actor, they were still just a bunch of inexperienced high school students.

“Wow, that’s really deep and insightful.”

"I just heard it from somewhere.”

"Can I see your script?”

Maru handed her his script. After glancing at Maru briefly, she started scanning the pages. She exclaimed quietly.

'What’s all this?’

There were two scripts attached, the original and a photocopy filled to the brim with his notes.

"This is all character analysis?”

"It’s not all analysis. Some are thoughts that arose in the moment, there was nothing else to do anyways.”

Yoojin thought ‘there’s nothing better to do so you do this?’ She set down her own script and started focusing on Maru’s. His analysis and notes on Chuljin covered the character’s experiences from youth to high school, his interaction with various people throughout his life, the influences he received from parents who weren’t even in the script, and the impact from his surrounding environment. She couldn’t help but exclaim at the thoroughness of Maru’s analysis, especially because the play was a one-off trial.

“Isn’t this a waste of energy?”

“I don’t know much about acting or theater, so there’s no such thing as waste. Everything helps me grow and develop as an actor.”

Nothing is wasted on something you don’t know. Yoojin took Maru’s words to heart.

"Can I read this a little longer?”

"Yeah, feel free,” Maru answered.

He closed his eyes like he did before, it looked like he was imagining something rather than sleeping. Yoojin briefly looked at that face before falling into a seemingly new world in Maru’s script.

‘Even his writing is neat.’

The script was jam packed with neatly written notes. Each note was well organized without a single crooked line. She felt these notes fit well with the sharp, keen impression Maru gave off. Maru’s exhaustive analysis on the character Chuljin was flawless. She couldn’t believe that someone who said that he wasn’t knowledgeable about acting could do such thorough analysis. Flipping through page after page, her astonishment only grew.

‘If I’m not careful, I might get pushed out.’

The character in a play changes based on the actor, which illustrates the importance of an actor’s ability. This is the reason why some people say ‘so-and-so would have been so much better in that role” when watching a TV show. The character Chuljin in this play was front and center with many lines. With such heavy usage and presence, the actor who portrays him will inevitably be scrutinized. A high level of scrutinization also meant that the actor would receive a commensurate level of recognition and reward.

Yoojin was confident in herself. Among the amateur acting group members, she felt that none could match her level. However, her firm confidence was betrayed by the presence of his script. She didn’t feel nervous. Far from it, she felt a sense of anticipation. A rival. She firmly believed that development came after overcoming struggles and beating rivals.

The characters Seulmi and Chuljin would be conversing line after line to each other throughout the play. If Chuljin shines, Seulmi would be pushed off to the side.

A fiery fire ignited in Yoojin’s eyes and her excitement grew. She heard that current professional actors would be attending this trial play. Instructor Ganghwan mentioned that an important figure would not be able to make the play, but in her eye’s, all the people who were attending had standing and value.

She heard that 70% of the audience would be from the general public, 20% from the professional actors’ crowd, and the rest from those who were in the industry. She had her eyes set on this last group. Who would show up for no reason? They were coming because it related to their work.

The amateur’s play would be on the final day of the main play, which kicked off the celebratory opening of the Myungdong Art Theater. On that final night, current actors in theater and cinema, celebrity actors on TV, and hot new actors from smaller theaters would all be in attendance to celebrate the main play’s curtain call. They’d also be the audience that would watch the amateur’s play.

All 12 members of the amateur acting group were picked from separate high school acting clubs. Though they were set to perform a one-off play, no member took it lightly. Even the famous director Lee Junmin would often come and watch the practices. Though he often came to visit Ganghwan, he would also come unannounced and observe practice sessions.

What did this signify?

This space was more than just a practice and learning facility to give amateurs a chance to hone their skills. It was also a training ground that allowed directors and agents to recognize up and coming stars in the field. There were probably even more savvy industry people keeping a close eye on the college amateur facility. All the members of that acting group were already semi-pro.

‘I like acting. It’s fun. So, I want to succeed even more.’

Do I need to always be fearful, cautious, and calculative when chasing my dream?

Does someone in the arts always have to live that way?

If an actor becomes commercially active, does his or her value drop?

Yoojin didn’t think so.

She recalled an actress who started in theater and later became a superstar after starring in a movie. The actress wasn’t that well known even in the theater scene, she was an actress when the curtains went up but worked part-time when away from the stage. Once she found fame through her movie role, she started taking every commercial marketing opportunity offered.

The long hours spent crafting and honing her skills in the theater allowed the public to recognize and acknowledge her acting chops in her movie role. However, after chasing lucrative commercial opportunities one after the other, the actress was often attacked online as being too greedy and shallow. Whenever Yoojin saw these negative online comments, she disagreed. Why are people in the arts singled out as greedy when they take advantage of opportunities presented to them?

There was a turning point in public perception for the actress. After shooting commercials one after the other, she later starred in an independent film and brought herself back into the forefront of the public eye. There was no pre-marketing or advertisement about her participation in the film, which was made by recent college graduates. People started recognizing her only after they saw her appear on screen in the film.

She then started an amazing film career that highlighted her wide breadth and exceptional acting skill. She appeared in a movie dealing with homosexuality, a film about the corruption in modern corporations, and even a B-rated horror film. She didn’t look back on the romance role and genre that initially made her into a star. Yoojin watched all this with amazement. In a specific hair-raising and eye-opening moment, Yoojin decided that this was to be her ‘dream’ too.

At a later point in the actress’ career, she gave an interview and stated,

- I don’t have to worry about money anymore, nor do I feel that I need to conform to other’s expectations. I may not be able to do cosmetic commercials, but I can choose any role or shoot any film I want. My early life plans and decisions led to success, so I’d like to take this opportunity to say something to the detractors. Eat X.

Even though the magazine used an ‘X’ instead of the actual word, Yoojin recognized the phrase and had the word ‘shit’ echo in her mind. She re-read the article countless times. From that day forward, whenever she was asked if she looked up to someone, she replied confidently without a shred of doubt. First were her parents who raised such a finicky daughter and second was the actress who gave Yoojin her dream.

Yoojin didn’t have an exact role or specific project in mind. However, she was motivated to earn as much money as possible for her future. Therefore, she needed to show her value now.

Your drama will shine if you cast me.

That’s how it’ll be.

‘I’m not going to be pushed around.’

Yoojin gave a refreshing smile, she welcomed her fellow actor preparing so thoroughly on his end. The tension wouldn’t be there if her counterpart were to be underprepared or less motivated. She believed that one could only shine if there was a sense of nervousness and eager anticipation amongst the actors who worked together on a play.

Though she couldn’t base his acting level purely on his script, she knew from watching him practice that he was not an unskilled actor. He sometimes showed signs of inexperience, but she could see his potential blossoming and then exploding onto the acting scene in the future. Since Ganghwan and Junmin often focused their attention on Maru, she knew her thoughts weren’t unfounded.

“Thanks. I got a lot out of it.”

She handed over the script to Maru, who opened his eyes.

“You look happy.”

“Yeah?”

She replied with a lilting voice and an eyebrow raised. She then picked up her own script. She understood that he was putting his all into the play. She needed to cooperate and synergize with her counterpart with as much effort and focus.

“I want you to know, I’m the main.”

“…fine.”

“I’m going to steal the show and make an impression, so you need to do well too. You need to do well in order for me to shine.”

She turned and left the confused Maru.

This one-off play and nationals.

The time to shine was right in front of her.

* * *

Yoojin stood in the middle of the stage and read her lines with a confident, loud voice. There were some who stopped what they were doing to look over, Maru also took a glance. She had a clear voice and perfect diction. He felt a sense of competition, having someone with such exceptional skills would also help him develop.

"The main, huh.”

He felt like a general who received a declaration of war.

Maru got up from his seat. He thought today would be uneventful since his girlfriend was absent, but he found an unexpected source that set off his competitive spirit.

‘Sorry, but there’s no one who likes to lose.’

He felt the motivation to act.

He wanted to thoroughly enjoy his time in this field before focusing on money. This sense of enjoyment spread throughout his being and turned into an unstoppable force.

Maru already received the go ahead from his past life’s wife. She already said yes, so what’s there to worry about. He would firmly show the experience and understanding he accumulated in his past 45 years.

The wisdom and experience gained over such a long period of time is also an influential part of acting. If he were to put on ‘fake smiles and tears’, he could take his acting craft a step further.

Maru stood off at a distance from Yoojin.

He then started reciting his lines to the empty audience seats.

* * *

“Hmm.”

Ganghwan looked at the stage with his hand supporting his chin. It was a practice like any other day, but there was one person taking the spotlight, Yoojin. It was as if she was competing with someone. He felt it was good to see.

“Is she thinking of someone?”

The stage is where an actor develops, it widens one’s spectrum and heightens one’s confidence. This is why everyone wants to be on stage. No matter if it’s the main or minor role, everyone benefits and takes away something by being in that space.

And another reason.

There’s something that allows an actor to develop.

That something is the counterpart, the actor on the opposite side.

Older plays often had a hero-like figure as the main character. The hero would struggle and overcome hardships and shine in front of adversity. However, the hero’s shine is incomparable when standing next to the sun, that’s why a shadow is needed.

Every hero needs an opposing rival.

Just as light plays off dark, having opposite, competing forces is essential.

Ganghwan didn’t know why, but it seemed that Yoojin had Maru on her mind. That influence pushed her to amplify her strengths, her clear diction that often-lacked emotion was now full of emotion. In the industry, the phenomenon when a character suddenly comes alive was commonly referred to as ‘attached’. Today, Yoojin was definitely ‘attached’. If someone were to come in and observe just for the day, they would think that she was the main character who would carry the play.

“You’ve gone off and ignited the fire in someone, but where are you, Maru?”

Maru’s acting was fairly good, he had a way of capturing the audience’s attention. His acting training and short performances in Anyang became something like a nutrient for his development. Now, Ganghwan thought, all Maru needed was to absorb that nutrient.

Maru recently changed.

Previously, he was realistic and calculative, but now, he seemed more relaxed and able to see the forest for the trees. Ganghwan, who saw Maru daily, could feel the change. Teacher Moonjoong’s must have also been a large influence.

The stage was set for change.

There was now a motive for that change.

“Good. Good. It’s a great environment for growth.”

Everything now depended on Maru.

Chapter 128

Her friends were waving to her with concerned faces. These were the same friends who she would laugh out loud with while walking together on any other day. Seeing their concerned expressions, she couldn’t help but feel supported and loved. She was blessed to have people who cared for her.

"See you tomorrow,” she said as she got on the bus.

She hadn’t gone straight home after school in a while. Even when she didn’t have scheduled practice sessions, she often visited the acting club room after school to hang out with other members. However, today, she was quietly going back home.

Before the bus took off, she leaned onto one of the poles. She thought of Maru. If he was here, he would have held her hand without any word.

'How did this relationship move so quickly.’

He was a weirdo who went up to her and asked her name, then there was the time he professed his feelings for her, and now he was someone that gave her comfort whenever she thought of him. She cried a little last night after speaking to him over the phone. When he said she shouldn’t cry, she felt a sense of release and cried.

The front of her nose started tingling again. She always cried like a fountain on the anniversary day of her father’s passing. She thought she was okay, but her eyes were truer to her feelings.

‘Eek.’

She felt that she’d start crying immediately, so she forced herself to smile. Taking out her cell phone, she called her mother.

"Mom, I’m heading home. I’m thinking of buying some barbeque chicken. What do you think?”

- I’ve already bought some.

“Oh, really?”

- Buy some strawberry milk.

“Okay”

They didn’t have anything special planned for the anniversary. Her father enjoyed barbeque chicken and strawberry milk, so they decided to eat those at home today. Though it’s the anniversary of his passing, they rarely spoke about him. This was a silently acknowledged rule between her and her mother. Once they started talking about their father… a river of tears would burst out.

'Mom really cries a river when she cries.’

Her mother was usually very proper and strict. When she’s speaking with an editor, she even sounds intimidating. However, whenever her father was brought up, her mother would wither and become lifeless. It was as if her soul had left her body to float around outside. That’s why she tried to avoid bringing up her father. It’s his anniversary day, but any mention of him was avoided as much as possible.

She got off the bus and bought some strawberry milk from the corner convenience store. She carried the milk in a plastic bag in one hand while stuffing her other in her pocket. While the plastic bag made a crinkling noise whenever it swayed, she started humming a tune.

Um-mm… heung. It was a tune she hummed since she was a little child. Her father was the source. Whenever her father was focused on something, he would hum this tune. It wasn’t a popular nursery rhyme or song, but it was a tune most people would feel familiar with. Her father’s habits had now become his daughter’s. She walked up to the elevator humming the tune but stopped immediately once inside. The tune reminded her of her father. She often saw her mom humming the tune while looking out the window and inevitably crying.

“I’m back,” she said aloud after opening the door.

Her mother, who was seemingly wrestling with her laptop in the living room, looked towards her and smiled.

“And the strawberry milk?”

“Of course, I bought it.”

“Then let’s eat dinner.”

Today was the anniversary day of her father’s passing.

It was barbeque chicken and strawberry milk day.

And.

It was the day to hold back tears.

* * *

“Is that your plan? Tell the teacher everything? You think our homeroom teacher will understand any of this? He’ll probably see this as an opportunity to get us all suspended. But you’re saying we should tell him everything? Aren’t you even considering what would happen to our class representative?”

“Hey, why are you bringing up the class representative? Why do I need to be considerate towards him?”

“Considerate? When did you become so childish?”

“Lee Seulmi. Watch what you say.”

“I should have known once I saw you befriending and hanging around those guys. This selfishness is the real you, right?”

“Me? You think I’m selfish? That fucker is the one who’s selfish!” Maru shouted while huffing and puffing.

Yoojin shrunk back inside. For a brief moment, Yoojin broke out of character after seeing his fiery stare. If it was the character Seulmi, she wouldn’t have backed down. Actually, Seulmi would have instantly replied back. However, for that brief moment, Yoojin broke character and felt her body stiffen from Maru’s stare. Once she realized what was going on, Ganghwan has already said “Stop there.”

"Since it’s not the actual run, we’ll stop here. Everyone, gather around.”

Yoojin bitterly smiled. The instructor recognized what happened quickly, there was no way that anything would pass by his discerning eyes. She felt exposed from the quick recognition and action from Ganghwan, she felt embarrassed and a little ashamed.

"Is it because bully #3 is not here? Why are all the bullies without energy today?”

"There’s a break in the flow of our lines, so I don’t think we can help it.”

"That’s why I’ve been reading bully #3’s lines for you guys.”

“C’mon instructor, it’s different hearing the lines in a man’s voice. Plus, your voice is so deep.”

Everyone started giggling, Yoojin included. Ganghwan conducted practice and his instruction in a relaxed, comfortable way. He gave precise feedback when needed but was mostly easy-going during practice.

"Yeah, I guess so? Still, let’s focus. There’s exactly 29 days left. Let’s be more careful and focused.”

"Yes, instructor.”

“And Maru…” he said while gesturing with his finger to come forward. Maru, who was in the back, walked to the front.

"Don’t put too much force into your acting. Are you trying to pick a fight?”

"It’s the scene where we fight, though.”

"It’s a good portrayal, but you need to understand where you both are emotionally. Although you’re both angry at the situation with the student representative, you were both happily walking back from the cafeteria in the previous scene. There needs to be a reason for such a powerful show of emotion. This is especially true for the character Chuljin, who’s been on friendly terms with everyone. Obviously, Chuljin goes astray towards the latter half of the play, but we’re only at the transition phase right now. If you go full on angry right now, then it’ll have to be much worse later on. This play isn’t that twisted and cynical.”

"I understand.”

"You did well to hold back when I told you to do so before, but you’ve seemed to have reverted to old habits recently. If you show strong emotions at logical times then there’s no worry, but if you’re getting swept up in the heat of the moment then you’re overdoing it. You have to better control your emotions.”

"It’s difficult.”

"Anyone can scream or cry. But few people can cry while smiling or laugh while crying. If you can convey sadness with a blank face, then you can say that you’ve become an acting god. Let’s go slowly. Develop the character and then release your emotions. Okay?”

"Yes, I’ll do that,” Maru answered as he nodded his head in agreement.

Yoojin was jealous of Maru. Ganghwan had two ways of giving advice. He could go with the flow and comfortably speak as he did with the bully characters or be detailed in his explanation to an individual, as he did with Maru. When he was largely unsatisfied, he would go with the flow and give general feedback, but when he gave specific feedback, it meant that he was satisfied with everything else outside that one detail.

"And Lee Yoojin.”

"Yes?”

"Don’t get surprised. Do you understand what I mean?”

“…yes.”

"For the most part, you did well. But you were definitely losing to Maru right now. He can’t control his emotions well right now, but it’s also a problem if you can’t appropriately react to that. If you guys can match each other’s level of emotional output then there could be some positive synergy, but just now you lost the initiative, causing your character to wilt. Your character was domineering over Maru just a moment ago. Once you lost and got pushed into a corner, I couldn’t enjoy your character anymore.”

"Just now… It was my fault.”

“If you know then I won’t waste words. You’re smart, so you should understand what I mean. And student representative!”

"Yes!”

"You little… come over here.”

Ganghwan put on a playful face while shaking a leg. The actor playing the role of student representative gave a smile and walked forward.

"Aren’t you motivated? You need to ignite a fire in your stomach and bring it outward. You saw those two next to you, right? Han Maru and Lee Yoojin. If you’re not careful, your main character role will become a side character to those two. You know how important your character is, right? Your character is supposed to ramp up the anxiety and nervousness level. But you’re standing back and losing? You can’t do that. You can’t! You should be the one oppressing those two. Take that to heart when you’re acting. Act as if only you can shine in this play.”

"Yes!”

"And…”

Yoojin drifted away from the ongoing conversation and started to reflect on what happened between her and Maru. His stare was unsettling. When he started ramping up emotionally and shouted, she froze. She felt as though he was going to rush at her at any moment. The acting seemed too real. If this were easy, then anyone could be an actor.

Acting is a form of lying, an actor portrays a character in the character’s made up personality within a fictitious world, but one cannot truly impress by just lying. Only when a lie is wrapped up in some truth does it become effective. Then what truth could she find. The answer was emotion.

She needed to wield her emotions to transform a lie into a truth. Maru excellently showcased this transformation.

'Alright. So, you want to compete, huh.’

She became determined. To combat the intensity of Maru’s emotions, she had to face him with as much intensity. Until Ganghwan says, “Don’t overdo it,” she was planning to meet Maru’s force with force.

* * *

'The heat’s certainly rising.’

Maru felt Yoojin’s glaring stare, he waved his hand towards her in response. He meant it as a gesture to stop staring so intently, but she must have taken it a different way. Her pretty forehead scrunched up, forming deep lines. He felt guilty for no apparent fault of his own.

"Maru.”

"Yeah.”

The actor who played the student representative called Maru. His name is Kang Baekjoon. Wearing frameless glasses and having wavy hair, this amateur acting group member was like the real life Chuljin. Though there were only 12 members in the acting group, there were already some cliques that formed, but Baekjoon was able to join any clique fairly easily.

"Should I be more abrasive?”

"I don’t think the instructor meant for you to go in that direction.”

"I know. It’s just that I need to act a little psychotic, but it’s too difficult. If I yell and scream, won’t it seem like a couple of screws are loose?”

"That might work.”

"So, you know the scene when I get hit by the bullies and you come in and speak to me like you knew something like this would happen.”

"U-huh.”

"Can you push me at that moment? I’m not exactly sure where we’ll end up on the stage, but can you try doing that without blocking the audience’s view?

"Okay.”

The placement and pathing of the characters were not set yet. Outside of the larger storyline, Ganghwan’s teaching style left much of these smaller details up to the actors to resolve. Each of the actors were responsible to find the most effective pathing and positioning on stage.

"Hey Yoojin!” Baekjoon called out.

The homeroom teacher was also a main character, but his scenes rarely overlapped with these three other main characters. Maru, Yoojin, and Baekjoon gathered together.

"Why did you call?”

"Let’s figure out the positioning and pathing for this scene.”

Baekjoon grabbed her shoulders and moved her around the stage like a mannequin before putting her at a spot in the corner. She crossed her arms and stuck out her lips.

"You want me to just stand right here?”

"I need to see how it looks, so just indulge me for a moment.”

"Ugh, just hurry it up.”

"Okay.”

Maru looked over and smiled. Baekjoon knew how to interact with others without making them feel uncomfortable.

"Let’s say our lines and start moving around. You both cool with that?”

Maru nodded his head and stood next to Yoojin. They flatly stated their lines since they were focused on pathing. Maru slipped past Yoojin and stood in front of Baekjoon.

"Why are you looking at me like that? You think this is funny, huh? A fucker like you will never know how miserable it is for me.”

Baekjoon read his lines as if he was fighting through tears. Maru felt awkward, as he had flatly stated his lines before this sudden outpouring from Baekjoon. It seemed like Ganghwan’s advice made an immediate impact on him.

"Should I push you at this moment?”

“Yeah.”

"How hard?”

“A little hard, at least with enough force to push my shoulder backwards.”

Maru put his hand on Baekjoon’s shoulder and gave a strong push. Baekjoon suddenly cried out, “Woah woah!” as he tumbled on the ground.

“…a little less force,” Baekjoon said as he stood up.

Maru looked down at his hand.

'My body has certainly gotten stronger.’

"Your thick forearms are definitely not just for show. You surprised me there. It felt like I was lifted into the air,” Baekjoon said as he chuckled.

Controlling his strength, Maru pushed again. It must have been the right amount of force as Baekjoon took a couple steps back and then delivered his final lines. He then exited the stage. As he came back on stage, Baekjoon gave Maru a thumbs up.

“This should work out, right?”

“As long as the instructor okays it.”

“Alright, I’ll go ask him right now. Thanks Yoojin!”

Baekjoon happily skipped towards Ganghwan.

Maru felt that he was seeing the real-life version of Chuljin and smiled.

Chapter 129

“Alright, we’re done!”

“I’ve always felt this, but it feels like our instructor is always the most excited when practice is over.”

“Of course. This is work. You’ll understand once you get older. No matter how much you like something, once you start accepting another person’s money for it, it becomes harder.”

“Like forcing yourself to do homework?”

"Bingo.”

Everyone started laughing at Ganghwan’s words. 9:30pm. The amateur acting practice session finally concluded.

"How did you all feel about today’s practice? Have you all gotten used to your characters?”

"Not yet. I’ve definitely memorized all my lines, but it’s not coming out the way that I want.”

"I get confused with the character I’m playing in my school’s acting club. Our school’s play is also set in a school, so I get some parts confused between the two.”

"It’s difficult since we have to decide ourselves on a whole host of things.”

Everyone started voicing out their frustrations. Ganghwan nodded in understanding.

“As you guys mentioned, doing two plays at the same time is difficult. Even a seasoned veteran chooses to do only one play at a time if he or she wants to really get into character, but you guys are young and trying to do two at the same time. Obviously, it’s difficult.”

The members who related to his words started nodding their heads in agreement. Maru nodded his head with the others but didn’t feel confused like the others. Strangely, he found it easy to absorb and become each character. When focused, like flipping a switch, he could put on the character like how one puts on clothes and truly become that character.

Maru’s main concern was that the scattered practice times may affect the overall plays themselves. His acting was still unrefined. Until he proves to himself that he can do one role and play perfectly, he’ll keep feeling this way.

"Still, your difficult experiences now will bear fruit later. Being young means what! It means your mind can absorb everything, right? Get to my age and you become a sad animal that only has the mental capacity to do one thing at a time.”

“Instructor, you’re only 31 this year.”

“That’s right. You’re not even old and yet you keep saying you are.”

“Boo~”

The girls cupped their hands around their mouths as they started booing. Ganghwan tried to retort by saying, “The difference between people in their teens and in their 30’s is like heaven and earth,” but the students were having none of it.

"Man, youngsters these days.”

Ganghwan couldn’t help but laugh out loud after saying a commonly spoken phrase from the truly older crowd.

"Does anyone need to get back soon?”

Everyone shook their head because they knew what was coming next.

“Then, should we get something to eat?”

“Sounds good!”

Since 7pm, they moved around for two and a half hours. At an age where anything seems edible when hunger strikes, the students were famished after expending their mental and physical effort during practice. Even Ganghwan spent a lot of energy giving advice.

“My wallet is not as happy as it used to be, so let’s be satisfied with hamburgers.”

"What about fries?”

"I can cover up to there. I’m deciding on the menu though.”

They weren’t the type of students that would let him off that easy.

"I want a shrimp burger!”

"I want a marinated beef burger!”

"I want that new burger that just came out!”

After seeing the talkative, elated faces of his students, Ganghwan resigned himself to his fate and walked outside while shaking his head.

"Hey, I need a helper! One of you needs to help me carry the food back.”

As he was gesturing for volunteers, Maru got up and followed him out. As they were leaving the hall, they heard, “And ice cream too!”

“They said ice cream too.”

“In this freezing weather… strawberry or chocolate flavored ice cream?”

“Let’s go with strawberry.”

“Isn’t it usually chocolate?”

“I like strawberry.”

It’s what she liked too.

Both entered the fast food restaurant next to the theater. As the restaurant was situated at the heart of Myungdong street, it was crowded inside. They weaved through the crowd and put in an order before sitting down.

"Your expressions have improved a lot. It’s good to see that you’re putting a lot of thought into the details, even your finger movements.”

"I’m trying to be purposeful and aware of all my movements, but it’s not as easy as it sounds.”

"Of course, it’s difficult. How old are you right now?”

"Seventeen I believe.”

"If you’re seventeen then you’re seventeen, what’s with ‘I believe’. Regardless, did you ever consider the angles of your spoon when fitting it into your mouth in the last seventeen years?”

"No, I don’t normally think about those things.”

"Exactly. We actually do most things subconsciously. Especially those things that we do every day. We also start to daydream and think of other things when doing something that we do repeatedly. Our body is like a fine-tuned machine that automates processes.”

He then raised his left hand to eye level and his right hand at chest height.

"The left hand is the area where I’m conscious of and the right hand is the subconscious area. Most of our body movement happens in this subconscious area, so if we need to bring our consciousness to this area…”

He slapped his hands together.

"There’s going to be a shock to the system. Even those things we did well subconsciously start becoming difficult. Once we start bringing our consciousness into the realm of actions that were previously done subconsciously, we start to question ourselves, ‘did I always do things this way?’. Since the brain is asking a question towards the body that has always done it a certain way, confusion ensues. For example, how do you breathe and when do you blink your eyes?”

He smiled as he asked. Hearing this, Maru started becoming aware of his breaths and annoyed by his blinking.

“You said something unnecessary to prove your point.”

“A student’s pain is this instructor’s happiness.”

"Oh gosh.”

"Think carefully before moving. You first need to observe. You can record your movements and see the tendencies that you have. Once you start recognizing these tendencies then you’ll be able to start controlling your bodily expressions.”

He stated the major points and the road towards them, but he left the rest to be done by Maru. Ganghwan would put the spoon in your hands, but the person with the spoon had to grab it with the right amount of force, guide it to the food, and then bring it back to eat it. Of course, while finding one’s way through this path, there could be a patch of thorny bushes to go through or a steep cliff one had to miraculously clear.

"Your order is ready!”

Since the order was for 12 people, there was a lot to carry. With numerous bags in hand, they went to the theater where the students eagerly greeted them. With a proud face, Ganghwan expected some praise but was largely ignored as the members devoured the food.

"Hey, at least say thank you.”

“We’ll eat well!”

“Instructor, you’re the best!”

“…it’s not the same when you ask for it,” murmured Ganghwan as he joined the students.They talked about each other’s school plays, what types of practices they were doing, what roles they were playing, and other related subjects.

“When are your preliminaries?”

“This Sunday.”

“Woah, you only have three days left. Ours is the following Sunday.”

“How many teams are participating in this region?”

“I think a little above 18.”

“Wow, that’s pretty competitive.”

With the Kyoungkido province being so large, the preliminaries were divided between north and south with the south already sporting more than 18 teams. After the contenders come out of the north and south, two teams would come out of the province as representatives. There would be two representatives from Seoul, two from Kyoungkido Province, and one each from the other provinces. 16 teams in total would compete in the nationals.

“I guess we’re competitors now.”

Everyone nodded at the short haired girl’s words. They were talking and laughing together while preparing for this play, but once they turned around, they’d be competing against each other in the prelims.

They were all 1st year high school students.

Though they just started acting, they each had their own levels of passion and skill. This was why they were all able to come together here, being hand picked or referred.

“Our region has Myunghwa High, so it’ll be hard to even get through prelims.”

“That’s true.”

Maru noticed that the name of her high school became the main topic of conversation. They recently won the summer nationals. Myunghwa high had a storied history. The Woosung high acting club won nationals in each of the first three years since its creation but hadn’t won since. However, the neighboring Myunghwa high were like seasoned hunters. They didn’t have as much luck in the winter nationals, placing second at best, but were regular podium visitors in the summer nationals.

Even Miso mentioned that it would be easier after going through Myunghwa high.

“By the way, why isn’t she here? Did she skip this to join her school’s practice?”

“She had something come up. It’s not practice,” replied Maru on her behalf.

“What came up?”

“Something personal.”

“C’mon. You’re protecting her with excuses, right? Just because you’re together?”

“If you really want to know… today’s the anniversary day of her father’s passing. She didn’t come because of that.”

“Ah…”

The short-haired girl who was speaking so brashly suddenly closed her mouth and had an apologetic expression on her face. The light-hearted laughing and talking suddenly became silent.

“You guys finished eating? Let’s clear this out.”

Ganghwan broke the silence. His words came at just the right time, allowing the students to forget the awkwardness and resume their lively talk while picking up their trash.

As Maru was picking up his trash, the short-haired girl approached.

“I’m sorry.”

She spoke with a meek voice. He told her not to worry about it. It wasn’t like she was saying something wrong. She was just curious. Still, he was relieved to be amongst people who cared enough about others to apologize. The older generation might say ‘youngsters these days… ’ but even younger people had to be differentiated on a case-by-case basis. There were young people like Changhu, but there were also people like this short-haired girl.

After cleaning up, everyone said goodbye to each other and headed out. It was the first time in a while for Maru to leave alone. As he was waiting for the bus to arrive, he heard an approaching mid-size vehicle honk its horn.

“Hey! Get in!”

Isn’t this the famous line for the notorious ‘Hey! Get in!’ playboy crew?

Maru gave a brief smirk before walking to Ganghwan’s car.

“What’s going on?”

“I’ll take you home.”

“You live in Seoul. I’ll just take a bus down.”

“When your instructor tells you to get in you should get in. I haven’t spent time with you in a while. I’m supposed to mentor you, but I seemed to have shirked some of my duties recently.”

“It’s already hard digesting everything you’ve taught me so far,” said Maru while getting into the passenger side seat and buckling up. Ganghwan checked his side mirrors and was about to take off when he heard someone knocking on his window. She was wearing a grey-brown fur coat. Her make-up naturally blended with her face and gave off an erotic vibe.

"Ganghwan?” asked the woman outside.

He looked at the woman with an awkward smile. He was part happy to see her and part not, it was a unique sight.

“Ah, yes. Ms. Suyeon. I didn’t expect to see you here.”

"You don’t have to use a respectful tone. I’m five years younger than you.”

"I still have my manners.”

Suyeon, the woman who Maru had never met, smiled blatantly at Ganghwan.

As if it didn’t feel right to be in the car, Ganghwan opened the door and got out.

"Let me have a word. I’ll be back.”

"Sure.”

For a guy who longed for a woman, Ganghwan didn’t seem very happy to meet this attractive woman. What type of person is she? Since he was in the car, he couldn’t really hear their conversation outside. The woman, Suyeon, seemed to be happy to see him but Ganghwan had on a forced smile. Did they have an awkward or embarrassing past? Or was there another reason?

Maru thought that the talk must have ended, as Ganghwan returned to the car. As he released the side brake and got ready to take off, the rear driver side door opened. With a shy smile, Suyeon got into the car. Ganghwan stared at her with a dumbfounded look. Maru thought, ‘they didn’t plan this?’

“We haven’t seen each other in so long. You’re just going to leave like that?”

“Oh. It’s just that, this guy right here, he has something really important to discuss with me. Really important.”

Ganghwan actively appealed on behalf of Maru. Maru felt like a product that was getting tossed around, but seeing Ganghwan’s nervousness, he decided to stay silent.

"Ha, I’m just joking. I just got in to see your face once more. Your car is really clean by the way.”

“I just had it cleaned. Ha Ha.”

“It’s a great car to take out for a spin.”

"No way. The shocks are so worn that you can feel every bump on the road.”

"Oh really?”

"Of course.”

"Do you not like me, by chance?

“What are you saying all of a sudden. Why would I dislike you, Ms. Suyeon. It’s just that it’s so sudden that I’m lost for words.”

"That still makes me a little upset. We haven’t seen each other in so long, but it seems like I’m the only one who’s excited. Ugh.”

"Let me treat you to a meal next time. I’m really busy today.”

Ganghwan gave Maru a look. Maru turned to Suyeon with an apologetic look.

"Then I guess it can’t be helped. But I expect you to treat me tomorrow.”

“T-Tomorrow?”

“Tomorrow doesn’t work either?”

She pouted her lips. Ganghwan, at his wits end, ultimately made an appointment with her. It was only then that Suyeon smiled brightly.

"But what’s the name of the kid in front?

"Him? His name is Maru, Han Maru.”

"Wow, that’s a really unique name.”

Since his name came out, Maru turned around and gave a greeting bow toward Suyeon. She waved her hands and smiled.

"I’m Kim Suyeon. I’ll see you later,” she said as she got out of the car.

As if afraid she might return, Ganghwan stepped on the accelerator and hurriedly left as if he was running away.

Chapter 130

Ganghwan slowed down his car when he could no longer see Suyeon from his side mirror. He let out a sigh.

“That’s the first time I’ve seen you like that.”

“Like what?”

“Surprised.”

“Me?”

Maru nodded confidently. Ganghwan looked absolutely terrified just a moment ago, which was very unlike him. The man was usually the one who surprised people, not the type to retreat like this.

“Was I that obvious?”

“You probably know the answer to that yourself, don’t you? You even looked kind of rude.”

“That bad?”

“Why were you so surprised? She was pretty, too. Don’t you sing about wanting to meet pretty women all the time?”

“Yeah, she’s pretty. But I don’t know if I’m into her.”

“She’s younger than you, too. So why?”

Ganghwan was usually very friendly towards just about anyone he met, but he put up an immediate wall in front of Suyeon. Very odd, considering how pretty of a lady Suyeon was. Didn’t Ganghwan always talk about treating women nicely? Ganghwan opened the window slowly, letting the cold winter air in.

“How was Suyeon, in your opinion?”

“She seemed gentle. Kind of cute, considering how she seemed to want to get friendly with you.”

“By the way, you know you sound really experienced with women sometimes? Also what the hell’s up with you describing Ms. Suyeon like a kid? You know she’s six years older than you, right?”

“Really?”

Maru shrugged. He hadn’t been able to change his way of talking since he got back, so he gave up on it altogether. Whenever people asked him about it, he just told them he picked it up from his grandmother.

“Anyway! She looks really nice and pretty.”

“Nice body, too.”

“…You saw a lot in such a short time.”

“What can I say, men are naturals at this kind of stuff. It’s like how girls like to pick out changes from each other when they meet their friend after a long time.”

“Fair enough.”

Ganghwan grinned.

“Right. She has a great body, cute, and has a nice personality, so it’s all cool if I meet her at work, but…”

“But?”

“I never want to see her in a casual environment.”

“Why not? She’d look great with you, coach. She resembles your ideal girlfriend a lot, too. Long hair, sexy boobs, nice body.”

“…You sound way too much like an old man right now.”

“I’m still a young lad in my teens, you know?”

“You’re a huge pervert, you know that? Wait, could it be, with that girl… you’re not going too wild, are you?”

That girl. Maru shook his head as he thought of her.

“I’m taking it slow. You should savor what you truly value.”

“Look at you.”

“Stop changing the topic and please answer me. What don’t you like about her?”

“Mm, if I had to put it in words, I’d say that she knows she’s charming too well.”

“She knows she’s charming?”

“Man, what am I saying in front of a kid?”

“I’m in my teens, I’m all grown up.”

“Didn’t you literally just say something about being a young lad?”

“People need to learn to be flexible with their words in society.”

“Give me your damn ID. You’re actually over thirty, aren’t you?”

Thirty? No way. Forty five was more like it. Maru just decided to grin lightly in response.

“That doesn’t sound like a bad thing though.”

“That’s true, but… No, it’s fine. I shouldn’t be talking about stuff like this.”

Ganghwan changed the topic right away. Maru caught the man’s expression pretty quickly, though.

“She’s a vixen?”

“Man, you’re too persistent.”

“I’m curious. I want to know what about her has you like this.”

Ganghwan let out a defeated sigh before brushing his hair upwards. The car came to a stop on a streetlight and Ganghwan finally started talking.

“First off, I don’t judge how other people live as long as they don’t hurt others. Got it?”

“That sounds like an excuse for whatever’s coming up, but okay.”

“Hm hm. Miss Suyeon uses the fact that she looks charming to the best of her abilities. Most men just fall for her right away. I worked with her once before in a play and there was an incident. It wasn’t her fault, but if you really dig into it…”

“She wasn’t really at fault, but she was the source of the problem?”

“Pretty much.”

“Crime of passion, basically?”

“Where’d you learn something like that? You watch way too much TV.”

The light turned green and the car started moving again. Ganghwan drove towards the bridge nearby.

“Not that bad. Well, maybe it was. One of the writers and an actor both fell in love with her at the same time and that’s where the trouble started. They’re both pros, so the play ended well, but the two of them basically became sworn enemies afterward.”

“That sounds fair. Doesn’t sound like a big issue.”

“On the surface, yeah. It sounds perfectly normal.”

“Was there something more to it?”

“I learned this later, but the writer ended up moving to a project Suyeon was doing. Originally, he was supposed to work with the actor together on something else. That entire project went up in flames after what happened.”

“You think Suyeon destroyed their relationship just to take that writer with her?”

“Who knows? Suyeon actually looked very sorry about it when the thing actually went down. But then…”

Ganghwan narrowed his eyes a little, as if he was staring off into a point in the past.

“Something similar happened one more time. Also, I ended up meeting that same writer in a different project. Since the industry’s small and all.”

“Right.”

“I thought those two would naturally be going out together. After all, he was very deeply in love with her at the time. But they weren’t actually dating. They were just friends. He actually confessed to her beforehand, but she said she was afraid to get in a relationship. At the same time, one of the more famous actors in Hyehwa station followed Suyeon into her new project.”

“Because the actor was into Suyeon?”

“According to the writer, yes. The writer became uncomfortable watching the two acting like they were dating, so he just co-wrote one of the scenes and left the team. What’s scary is that immediately after he left, Miss Suyeon brought in a new writer…”

“A male one?”

“You get it now?”

“Yes. Sort of.”

“I’ve no intention of judging people with this, of course. Everyone has their own ways of living, but she’s definitely not the type of person I would work well with. So I’m trying to distance myself from her, I’m only okay with her in a work relationship.”

“She’s quite charming, isn’t she?”

“She is. That’s why people follow her.”

“Why don’t you just go for it anyway? Who knows, you might turn her into a princess just for you.”

“Nothing good ever comes from gambling.”

Maru nodded. He understood what kind of a woman Suyeon was. Every person had a weapon of their own and Suyeon’s weapon was her charm. Knowing what he did about the wars waged in the name of this woman… Her weapon was very powerful.

“How’d we start talking about this, anyway? I had so many other things to tell you today.”

“Stuff like this is nice to talk about every once in a while. Knowing how the rest of the world works can also help with my acting.”

“Did you grease your tongue with oil or something? Since when did you have such a smooth tongue?”

“It smells very nice, doesn’t it? I used butter.”

“Damn it, give me your ID. I actually need to check your age.”

Maru grinned as Ganghwan pinched one of his cheeks.

* * *

“Hello, Teacher.”

“You’re here.”

Junmin glanced at his friend, gesturing to speak a little later. His friend, the director, nodded before getting ready to leave with his assistant.

“You should stay, sir,” Suyeon said with a smile.

“We have no place in actors’ talk. We’re much more comfortable talking about the backstage.”

Junmin asked his friend to wait outside for just a little bit.

“Why did you call me out yourself? I was surprised.”

“I was wondering how you were doing.”

“Very well, as usual. I’m teaching that kid you introduced me.”

“I see. How’s Geunseok?”

“He’s alright. He has a great sense for things and he knows exactly what he needs to do to make me happy.”

“Sense, huh. Of course. That’s what he was raised for.”

Junmin nodded. After asking a few more questions about the boy, he changed the topic.

“The filming for the drama’s over now?”

“Yes. I’m annoyed that it isn’t doing too well on TV. It’s getting pushed back by all the other shows.”

“How many episodes left until the end?”

“Four.”

“6% for the ratings, was it?”

“It’s a total failure.”

“You must feel quite depressed about it.”

“Very. It was my first time as one of the more important side characters, but the show’s not getting any views. It almost feels like my fault.”

“Stop lying.”

“Heh, was I that obvious?”

Suyeon smiled cutely, Junmin had to wonder how many men she charmed with that smile. He knew Suyeon very well. The woman knew how to grasp the hearts of men, she was born with the talent. The only reason why Junmin took her under his wing was because she knew how to use that charm of hers for acting.

“By the way, Teacher.”

“What?”

“Why did you stick that kid of all people to me? I was surprised.”

“Do I ever tell people the reason for why I do certain things? Find out for yourself. Anyway, what happened to your movie audition?”

“I’ll have to work hard for it in my own way.”

Junmin nodded. He silently wished luck towards the director of whatever that movie she was auditioning for was.

“There’s a person from the Woonjung theater company on the first floor. Go greet them if you can.”

“Yes. Ah, Teacher.”

“Mm?”

“Would you like to have dinner today?”

She accentuated her chest a little bit as she spoke, her usual innocent self was gone and in her place was someone a bit more erotic. Junmin took a sip of his tea as he blinked once.

“I have a meeting with that friend over there.”

“Man, I got rejected twice today already, boohoo.”

“Twice?”

“Yes. I met Ganghwan outside and he just avoided me. I’m pretty mad about it.”

“Haha.”

“Anyway, I’ll go meet that Woonjung person now.”

“Sure.”

Suyeon stood up from her seat and walked towards the stairs. Her hips swayed sideways naturally. It didn’t feel erotic or anything, but rather very controlled. She looked like a total model.

“I’m impressed that you’re managing to keep her with you.”

Junmin’s friend came back. His assistant wasn’t with him anymore, probably got sent to do work elsewhere.

“Everyone has their uses somewhere.”

“I don’t think this often, but man you’re evil.”

“I’ve worked here for 30 years now. This industry’s littered with people who only look nice.”

“I heard you put one of your kids with her?”

“Yup.”

“Isn’t that dangerous? I feel like she would just rip apart a young boy who hasn’t even matured yet.”

“That’s the hope, actually.”

“What?”

“The boy’s still in his shell, he doesn’t even know why he’s acting just yet. He started because of Geunsoo and that can’t continue as his motivation. Not only that, the boy often acts subservient in front of you, but he’s actually laughing at you behind your back.”

“Rotten to the core, is it?”

“He has talent, though. He’s Geunsoo’s brother, after all. I don’t want to throw away something that has potential. That’s why I stuck him with Suyeon.”

“What if he turns into a puppet?”

“That’s just his luck. I’m not a nice person. I like to help people, but only if I profit off of it. Why would I keep someone who has no value?”

“The maestro’s actually a very cold person, is that it?”

“Don’t look at me too badly, I’m doing pretty nice things too. I just don’t like people who like to try to leech away my time and money.”

“What about that kid called Maru, then?”

“…I have no idea about that kid, actually. Haven’t felt like this in a long time. The boy’s finding answers by himself. He has his reason for being confident, he’s not overconfident, though. But it’s not like he’s conservative about his actions. It’s odd. Very odd.”

“He’d get along with my Mintae very well.”

“They’d probably become very good partners.”

Junmin’s friend nodded. Junmin opened his notebook to check his next schedule. Time was, to him, equivalent to people. Junmin couldn’t miss a person even if his life depended on it.

Chapter 131

Suyeon knocked on the door of the makeup room with a bottle of aloe juice.

“Who is it?”

A woman’s head poked out from the room, she was probably one of the actors that Junmin talked about.

“Hello, I’m Kim Suyeon.”

She smiled and handed the woman a drink for now. First gifts should always be small. Something that one could easily get rid of if they didn’t like it. An expensive first gift would only garner suspicion from others.

“Ah, yes.”

The woman took the juice, confused. Success. Suyeon smiled, looking inside the dressing room through the open door. There was a sandwich inside, indicating the people inside must’ve been talking while eating.

“Oh, what nice timing. We can talk while you eat.”

She stepped in very casually. Doors were amazing things. They managed to split one space from the other both literally and figuratively. That’s why she always needed to pay attention when she was crossing doorways. If she just stepped in right away, they would be wary for sure. So instead, she’d step inside after a little bit of a positive greeting, thus they would welcome her. Her beautiful face helped with this, no doubt.

“Who are you?”

A man stood up from his seat to look at her.

“Hello, I’m Kim Suyeon.”

“Ah, yes.”

It doesn’t matter even if he didn’t know her. What’s important was telling the person his name. If she was able to use something to instill a good impression to her name, it would also make their conversation much easier.

“I heard from Mr. Junmin that there were very amazing actors in the makeup room. I just dropped by to say hello.”

Just mentioning Junmin’s name managed to change the expressions of the four people. This was why names were important.

“Are you talking about Director Lee Junmin?”

“Yes. Ah, I should introduce myself again. I’m Kim Suyeon, a hardworking actor. I’m working under Mr. Junmin.”

One of the men exclaimed lightly in recognition.

“Oh, the one from the TV miniseries…”

“Wow, you recognize me? Thank you! It’s my first time.”

This would be good enough for greetings. She had to be careful to not downplay herself, she couldn’t afford to let herself get looked down on by others. She needed to be humble, but not overly so.

“I’ve been enjoying your drama very much.”

When one person recognized her, the others started approaching her with a smile. This was why first impressions were so important. The gift she brought was very small, but it was also indicative that she prepared to meet the other party. Suyeon knew very well that this was very important in starting a good relationship.

“Thank you. Wow, I had no idea other actors were watching as well. It’s kind of embarrassing.”

People often feel charm not from a person’s good parts, but rather a person’s bad parts. The phrase “be humble” was honestly enough to describe everything about all human relationships. As long as she compliments the other side somewhat and leaves some room for herself to be complimented as well…

“Embarrassed? No way. You did very well.”

Suyeon smiled shyly one more time. She was already pretty much inside the room, but she didn’t make any motion to get further inside.

“Please, sit here.”

That was the cue she was waiting for. She didn’t think of sitting, of course. She knew very well that regardless of the situation, a surprise guest would only make people uncomfortable.

“No no, it’s fine, please keep talking. We can talk some other time when you’re not so busy. I’d definitely want some acting advice from seniors like you.”

“Haha, we’re not that skilled ourselves.”

“Even so.”

Suyeon stepped backwards and bowed. These people were all in their mid-twenties and thirties. Despite that, she still bowed to all of them politely, even to the women. She actually needed to pay more attention to women, since they had a very good eye for judging each other. If she needed to put in 20% of her effort impressing the men, the other 80% of her effort would go to impressing the women.

“Ah, that bracelet looks great on you.”

“This?”

She mentioned it on the way out, pretending as if she thought of it just now. The actress showed her bracelet with a shy smile, it was a bracelet made out of little dark stones. Honestly speaking, it didn’t fit the woman. Women with cat-like eyes, like her, were better accompanied with flashy accessories, such as gems. Of course, that was only something Suyeon thought to herself while making the compliment.

“Yeah, bracelets like that really don’t fit a person unless they have a thin wrist like you do. I tried it in the past, and oh dear, I could only sigh.”

“Why? I think it would look good on you, Ms. Suyeon.”

“No, not at all. I have a darker skin tone, so darker bracelets like that just don’t fit me.”

Suyeon stared at the bracelet for a bit before stepping back in surprise.

“I’m sorry, I must’ve wasted a lot of your free time.”

“Not at all.”

The men sat down as they bid their farewells and the actress that Suyeon complimented even walked her to the door.

“I’ll see you next time. With some alcohol, between us girls. How about it?”

“Sounds great.”

Suyeon said her goodbyes multiple times after hearing the actress’ name. They were of the same age, so they should be able to get along nicely if they meet next time.

“Then,”

Suyeon turned around and sighed. Junmin probably told her to meet them for a reason. After all, that man always had a good reason for making her do things. That was one thing she really liked about him, he was efficient. Of course, what she felt was merely admiration without an ounce of romance. After all, he was one of the few people she decided to take up as a mentor. After meeting the actors, she headed downstairs. On the way, she ran into the director of the entire stage. He seemed to have a man around her age next to him.

“Oh, you’re leaving, sir?”

“Of course. By the way, actress Kim. You’re only getting prettier by day, aren’t you?”

“Thank you.”

“This is Mintae, my student. Treat him well if you ever end up working with him.”

After shaking hands with the man introduced to her as Yoon Mintae, she walked over to find Junmin. Junmin was looking at his notebook with a very concerned face.

“Why don’t you buy a laptop at this point? The recent ones are pretty light and slim.”

“If my thought wanders off before the laptop even loads, what am I supposed to do?”

“Isn’t it uncomfortable, just writing away like that?”

“Are you uncomfortable with breathing?”

“Gosh, I don’t know what to say if you’re coming at me like that.”

Suyeon handed Junmin a new notebook as she spoke. It was an expensive brand, made by an artisan in Italy. It was expensive, but Junmin was very deserving of a gift like this. The man gave it a glance before taking it from her hands with a smile. He looked at it here and there before putting it in his pocket with a nod. He must like it.

“It’s good, isn’t it?”

“Why wouldn’t it be good? You gave it to me after all.”

“Oh my, that’s a compliment, isn’t it?”

“Of course it is. Only that it was directed at the notebook, not you.”

“Boo.”

Suyeon sat on Junmin’s other side, being with this man brought her peace. She didn’t need to put on a mask. That is, she didn’t need to act fake or be needlessly nice in front of him.

“Why are you looking at me like that?”

“Just thinking of the old times. Wondering why you took in someone like me, and whatnot.”

“You should know that better than me.”

“What?”

“You’re good at charming people. That’s an amazing skill. Charm is usually cultivated, but some people are born with it. I recognized that you were one such person, so I took you in.”

“Don’t you regret it? I heard some people have bad opinions of you because of this.”

“You’re talking about the men who feel like they lost because they got tricked by a woman? Why would I need to feel regret about that? If not by you, someone else would’ve come along and done the same thing anyways.”

Junmin closed his notebook and took off his glasses. Those glasses dangling on his neck couldn’t look sexier to Suyeon right now. Middle-aged men always had a certain charm to them.

“Just be careful not to break the law. There’s nothing wrong with a woman trying to take advantage of her gender. Whether you try to look like a slut or simply a beautiful woman is all up to you.”

“You’ve never thought of me as disgusting, teacher?”

“Did you ever think that way about yourself?”

“No, not at all. I’m just very good at manipulating people.”

“That’s enough, then. If men are creatures who use their strength to take women, then women are the ones who actually control the men. Men are drawn to beauty, the same way that women are drawn to power. It’s a natural thing. We were born this way and we’ll die this way.”

“Is that so?”

“Do what you want. But always make sure you can take care of it. If you cause too much trouble, I’ll cut you away immediately. Just like you have a talent for charm, I have a talent for severing relationships.”

“How cruel. If that’s the case, why do you raise so many dogs?”

“Because dogs love you back just as much as you love them. Humans, on the other hand, start rebelling against you if you show them love. If you treat them well, they treat you like an idiot. If you get mad at them, you’re a bastard. I’d rather be a bastard than an idiot. At least that way I can get some food on my table.”

“You’re way too cynical for someone who deals with people for a living, do you know that?”

“Of course I do. That’s why I have you around, because you’re useful.”

“Really? Just because I’m useful? Nothing else?”

“If I didn’t care about you, I wouldn’t be telling you this to begin with. As long as you’re with me, I’m going to be kind to you.”

“Ew, sounds so cheesy.”

Suyeon laughed to herself loudly. This was why she couldn’t leave Junmin. This person gave her confidence, confidence that she would be able to thrive even if she were to throw her mask away.

“I’m going to ask you this one more time. Do you want to have dinner with me tonight? I know a great hotel.”

“I don’t eat anything too expensive. Go find someone else.”

“Wow, aren’t you picky.”

Suyeon stood up with a wink.

“Ah, by the way, the boy that’s under Ganghwan. Is that someone under you, too, Teacher?”

“Han Maru?”

Junmin smiled even brighter than when he got the notebook when he said the name.

“Wow, he must be something else if you’re smiling that widely.”

“He definitely is, I still don’t know what he is. I’m even more excited by the fact that I can’t tell just how far he can go.”

“Hmm, is that so?”

“Are you thinking of playing around with him?”

“If you allow it.”

“It probably won’t work that easily.”

“Why?”

“He’s… a bit of a strange one.”

Junmin put on a mysterious look as he spoke.

“Mm, now you’re scaring me a little. I’m gonna give up.”

“You should meet him, though. It’ll be pretty fun.”

Junmin looked down at his notebook, indicating that the conversation was over. Suyeon bowed. She watched Junmin wave back before leaving the theater.

“Ah, Ms. Suyeon.”

It was the actress from before. Suyeon put on her mask again, approaching the actress with a smile on her face.

“It’s over?”

“Yes.”

“What a coincidence. Would you like to go for a drink? Ah, do you drink?”

“A little bit.”

“What happened to the men from before?”

“We were all a bit busy, so we split up.”

“Ah, are you busy?”

“No, I’m free.”

“Good to hear. Let’s go!”

Suyeon locked her arms with the woman’s. She needed to be good at skinships if she wanted to be social. Judging from the actress’ reaction, the woman didn’t seem to hate it. In fact, she seemed to be welcoming of Suyeon’s friendliness.

“We’re the same age, aren’t we?”

“Yes.”

“Should we drop formalities, then?”

“Sure.”

And with this, a new connection was formed. Suyeon thought carefully about what she could get through this relationship as they walked down the street.

* * *

“Take care.”

“Yes. You too.”

“Of course.”

Maru started moving after seeing the car take off. Thanks to Ganghwan, he managed to get home with ease. The man told Maru that he was going to teach Maru a lot of things, but they ended up talking about girls instead because of Suyeon. Since men were always into pretty women, Maru just went along with the conversation all the way till now.

“Oh, you came back early today.”

His sister greeted him when he entered, she’s been treating him nicer recently. Did she get mature, or did she just give in after all the money he gave her?

“Ah, I gave Dowook that ginseng drink.”

“Really?”

“Yeah.”

“Of course.”

“Heck yeah, he deserved it.”

“Hey, what’s with your language? I thought it was a gift.”

“But he didn’t take it. He must’ve drank it without even wanting to, so he totally deserves it.”

“You should try to be nicer.”

“I’m nice enough already.”

Bada grinned happily. How did such a bright girl get divorced? Maru realized once again how uncaring he was towards his family. He smiled bitterly, once again realizing that his parents weren’t all there was to it.

“Dinner?”

“I ate already.”

“What the.”

“Why?”

“I bought that already since I thought you haven’t eaten yet.”

His sister was pointing at a cup noodle on the table. Maru could only smile.

“I’ll eat it.”

He’d probably get scolded by her if he didn’t actually eat it. Plus, he did still feel a little bit hungry after the burger. As he stood around in the kitchen waiting for the water to boil, he got a message. It was from her.

[You didn’t feel lonely or anything without me, did you?]

Oh?

Maru thought about sending a teasing message before changing his mind.

[Really lonely.]

No response. But just thinking of her being happy at his message made him feel happy as well.

“Bro! The water’s boiling!”

“Yeah.”

But before anything, he should eat before his sister becomes cranky.

Chapter 132

It was a Thursday. Thursday in the middle of December, a week before Christmas. It was also four days before the prelims for the nationals.

“So, the reason why I know this is because…”

Dojin had been reading from his script since morning. He was carrying it around everywhere, saying that he just couldn’t memorize his new lines from the edited script. It was probably because he was nervous. After all, the prelims was dead ahead.

“Gaaah! Why can’t I think, god damn it?!”

He’s even gotten to the point of starting to insult himself. As a matter of fact, his behavior was starting to get to Maru as well.

“Just stay calm. You memorized this already, so why are you getting so worried?”

“It’s all changed slightly, so I can’t remember it. If it keeps going like this, the instructor’s going to murder me for sure.”

“It’s not like you never got scolded by her, you’ll be fine.”

“Dude, you might get screwed over too.”

Dojin was looking down at the script then the ceiling repeatedly as he said his lines. By the looks of things, this would likely continue for the rest of the day. Maru could already imagine Miso shouting at Dojin in his head.

“Math is our last class?”

“Yeah.”

“I’m going to have to give up math.”

“You’ve always given up on math though.”

“I’m going to sacrifice math for my acting.”

“Nice excuse.”

“Ugh, please!”

Dojin flipped at his hair for a bit before realizing he didn’t have time for this and got back to memorizing his script. His hand was moving quickly as well, writing down the lines he said in his notebook. If only he would study this hard… He’d probably score in the ninetieth percentile with ease. Maru took his eyes off of Dojin for a second to look at the front of the classroom. Daemyung was chanting out his lines as well out of nervousness.

“You memorized everything, right?” Dojin asked.

Maru nodded. These two friends of his memorized their lines well from the start. They were probably only this worried because of the text they got last night.

[If you make a mistake, you’re dead.]

A short, sweet, and terrifying message. It came at 1am, too. Anyone who saw it before going to sleep most likely didn’t get a good night’s sleep. Miso probably wouldn’t murder anyone, since it was illegal. Just that, it was easy to imagine she’d get very close to it if given the chance. In fact, Maru could still hear the club members screaming during the fall exercise sessions. Maru carefully took out his script. He knew he was perfect, but just in case… He really didn’t want to mess with a tiger that just sharpened its claws.

“I can’t memorize it!”

Maru started focusing on the script, treating Dojin’s screams as something like background music.

* * *

The last class of the day ended. For some reason, their homeroom teacher told them he wasn’t going to check the class for cleanliness as he left. Thanks to that, the cleaning team had the fortune of going home early. Maru, Dojin and Daemyung were also a part of those who experienced this fortune.

“They’re probably all there already…”

They weren’t fans of getting to go early, though. Dojin looked at his script one last time as he started moving. Maru could only shake his head.

“You still haven’t managed to memorize it?”

“I don’t get it. Why? This never happened before.”

“Must be because you’re too nervous. Just be normal man, normal.”

Right. Being normal was important. In the end, they just didn’t have to mess up. They just needed to do as they always did in practice.

…Though, once Maru actually managed to reach the auditorium doors, he had to retract his previous statement.

He could hear a chilling shout come from behind the iron door.

“Are you crazy? Are you actually for real?! Why did you stutter there! You must be going mad, aren’t you? Aren’t you?!”

“I’m sorry!”

The person who screamed in apology was a second year. Minsung, to be exact. Hearing the boy’s scared voice was enough to make even Maru get nervous. It seems that Miso really came here with the intent to kill today.

“…Want to run?”

Why was it that Dojin’s idiotic suggestion seemed so tempting today? But it was too late. Before he even realized it, Maru was already opening the door. Then again, he might as well get this over with.

“Get over here, you lazy idiots!”

The first thing they got when they walked in was a shout. Maru threw his bag on the ground and started running. The other two behind him did the same.

“Han Dojin.”

“Yes!”

Miso glared at Dojin for a second before flipping through her script. She came to a spot somewhere in the middle to read a line.

“Hello, I just moved in upstairs. This isn’t much, but please have some rice cake.”

That was Geunseok’s line, in a scene where he was handing out rice cakes to all the neighbors of Dalseok-dong. Dojin stared at Miso confusedly. After exactly three seconds,

“You lost your mind, didn’t you?”

“W-what?”

“You don’t know what you’re doing, don’t you? You don’t even know what we’re doing, do you? You weren’t even memorizing your lines, weren’t you!!”

Miso rolled up her script into a stick and started poking Dojin’s stomach with it.

“20 laps around the auditorium. Sprint.”

“Yes!”

Dojin stepped back with gritted teeth. Like Minsung, he started sprinting as well. The auditorium took up a massive section of the fifth floor. Sprinting twenty laps around it would most definitely be a difficult task.

“Park Daemyung.”

“Yes!”

This time, Miso didn’t even look at the script as she said her line. Just like before, it was one of Geunseok’s lines. Daemyung immediately turned bright when he heard it, he needed to know this part. Daemyung calmly said his line back at Miso.

“This country is rotten. All sorts of animals are trying to become government workers just because it’s ‘easy’. Ah, what am I doing, you ask? I’m unemployed.”

There wasn’t anything wrong, at least from how Maru heard it. This was probably a pass, right? But when Maru looked at Miso, he found an even scarier face than when Dojin forgot his line. It looks like they were screwed no matter what they did today.

“What are you doing?”

“Um, what?”

“Are you reading a textbook?”

“………”

“You must be crazy. Hey, Daemyung.”

“Yes!”

“You must’ve gotten very lazy after all these times I’ve complimented you. Isn’t that right!”

“Not at all, ma’am!”

“Then why the hell are you saying your lines like that? Are you a pro? You think you can just say your line perfectly when you go on stage without any practice?”

“…No, ma’am.”

“So why are you reading your line like it’s from a textbook? Are you trying to show off just because you memorized your line? You run 30 laps.”

Daemyung stepped back with a defeated expression. Maru looked at his friends nervously, something told him that he would be joining them soon.

“Han Maru.”

“Yes.”

“You’re not focusing, are you? You don’t care about any of this?”

“………”

“40 laps.”

Good god.

Maru started sprinting right past his friend Daemyung.

* * *

“Focus! We’re doing one more run with no mistakes. Don’t stop being nervous. Got it?”

“Yes!”

They were entering their third run at this point. The clock pointed to 9pm. Maru already decided to skip the amateur acting class for the nationals, but he really missed that place right around now. Miso was glaring at them still, telling them to hurry up. The club members exchanged looks and began the play. Every time they made a mistake, Miso would unleash her wrath upon them. They really needed to focus today.

The play began with Geunseok stepping off of the stage. The club members looked at their scripts whenever they were outside the current scene. On stage, Geunseok was carefully saying his lines, making sure not to make mistakes.

‘Maybe Miso’s the nervous one here.’

This was honestly the first time Miso’s gotten this brutal towards the students. Perhaps it was because her pride got shattered during the last nationals. Moreover, she was a professional. Professionals needed to show results to prove their skill and she already failed last time in doing this.

Of course, Maru knew very well that Miso wasn’t the type of person who’d get nervous over something like this. It was probably just one of the reasons why she was acting like this today.

‘Let’s focus.’

He wasn’t nervous even on a real stage. Then again, acting in front of strangers was always easier. Strangers couldn’t tell when you made mistakes, but Miso wasn’t a stranger. Today, she was a strict queen striving towards perfection. The moment any of them makes a mistake, they would all be sent to the guillotine.

* * *

“You can rest.”

“Yes.”

The students gathered with their scripts. Looking at that, Miso sighed in relief. During the extra month they were given, Miso tried to give the students all sorts of experiences. She dragged actors she knew to show them what good acting looked like. She also let them practice on a bigger stage, like the one in the Blue Sky theater in Hyehwa station. She even gave them homework to observe each other. She didn’t regret her decision. If they just kept on practicing for a month, the club would’ve only gotten lazy.

When she came to the auditorium two days ago, Miso could only laugh from how ridiculous the sight in front of her was. She wasn’t supposed to come to school that day, it was a day when the students would practice by themselves and go home. It just so happened that business on her end ended quickly, so she dropped by the school with a few snacks. What greeted her was darkness. It was only eight, yet the auditorium had clearly been deserted for a few hours. That was when she could feel the heat rise to her head. She picked up the phone and asked Yoonjung casually, ‘what did you do today?’ The answer she got was a ‘we went back home after a single run.’

“Crazy.”

That was all Miso could say. Freedom always comes with responsibility, freedom without responsibility was nothing but laziness. She would’ve felt nothing if this was done by the pros. They would’ve practiced in their own time, after all. But these were students. Amateur actors. They dared go back home after just a single run? Proudly, at that?

“They need to get beat up. Badly.”

Miso sighed furiously. She only stopped here because these were students. If these were actors from the Blue Sky Theater… She really would’ve murdered them. Taesik’s been struggling a lot recently because of the club, too. Yet, the students were all going about their lives very lazily. Miso kicked the wall next to her angrily before going back into the auditorium.

* * *

Practice ended at midnight. Miso stopped the club in the middle of their fourth run and put them through physical training. Then, they did their last run. Thankfully, they didn’t make any mistakes.

“Don’t you have any greed?”

That was the first thing Miso asked the club members. Greed. Maru shook his head. To begin with, there weren’t any people on earth who didn’t have any greed. Indeed, the other students answered ‘no’ as well. Miso smiled mockingly at them.

“Oh, so greedy kids like you dared go home after just one run?”

Maru understood exactly why Miso was so mad then. At the same time, he felt a little apologetic towards everyone else.

“Who said you could be lazy just because one person wasn’t there? You should’ve worked just as hard, if not harder without Maru! Do you think this is a joke? More than that, don’t you feel bad about treating acting so lightly, after all the time you invested into it? Ugh, seriously. Do you like it when I treat you like this?”

“No, ma’am.”

“You’re all grown up now, you don’t need to be told what to do. Even babies cry when they have something they want. You guys can’t even think about crying? Is that it?”

“………”

“Was I the only one who hoped to win at the winter nationals after our failure?”

“I’m sorry.”

Miso sighed in annoyance.

“I’m from Blue Sky, too. I sacrificed my youth into this club. I told you, didn’t I? If you don’t plan on taking acting seriously, you might as well leave. What did you say back then? Except for Maru, all of you said you’d try your best. Keep your words. Keep your words if you’re a human being. Hah. I’m sorry for being so mad. Go home and get to sleep. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

Miso left right away, without sticking around to hear a single goodbye.

Chapter 133

Everyone has expectations. When the other party fails to meet those expectations, a person would not only feel disappointment, but also a little feeling of betrayal as well.

“It looks like things became like this because of me. I’m sorry.”

“No, it’s not that at all.”

Yoonjung waved her hands with a small smile.

“We did end up getting lazy. You weren’t the issue or anything here.”

Joonghyuk agreed. He was still staring at the doors Miso left through.

“Let’s go back for now. It’s too late. Ah, right. Which of you are going by bus, again? Daemyung, Dojin, Soyeon and Geunseok?”

Yoonjung spoke with a worried voice. It was already past midnight. At this rate, everyone would have to walk home.

“We can walk back home. It’s just 40 minutes.”

“Will you be okay?”

“Daemyung needs to lose weight anyway.”

Dojin wrapped his arm around Daemyung with a giant grin. Daemyung nodded with a pretty calm expression.

“It’s going to be cold, though.”

“We can run, then.”

Yoonjung was probably worried about the mid-December weather. The second years got together and spoke for a second. Moments later, Yoonjung called everyone over to her.

“Here.”

Yoonjung handed them four ten thousand won bills.

“Go back by taxi. Yurim and Geunseok can ride in one taxi. Daemyung and Dojin can ride in the other.”

“We’re fine.”

“It’s cold. You’re going to catch a cold. You really need to take care of yourselves. Plus, you guys sweated way too much. Trust me, with clothes like those right now, you’re going to freeze.”

Danmi took off her scarf to wrap it around Yurim. The girl tried to refuse the scarf at first, but eventually gave up resisting. Soyeon, Taejoon, and Iseul thankfully lived within walking distance to their homes. They usually got back home by bus, but they could easily walk it.

“Sorry. It’s all our fault.”

Yoonjung looked at the floor dejectedly. The weight of being president was probably bearing down on her.

“We’ll focus again tomorrow, so that instructor Miso won’t be disappointed. She doesn’t hold grudges, so we’ll be seeing each other with smiles on our faces tomorrow. Promise.”

Yoonjung often made herself seem a little childish, but she looked very much like a president right now. Maru listened to the girl as he calculated taxi fees inside his head. He was thinking of giving the kids a little more outside if they were a little short, but ten thousand per person should easily cover it.

“You guys go back first. We’ll stay back to clean things up.”

“We’ll help.”

“It’s fine, your parents must be worried. You should really go.”

Yoonjung dragged them out of the auditorium one by one. She waved at the club members with a smile before slowly closing the door on them.

“I feel sorry for them.”

“Yeah.”

It looked like everyone felt a lot from this experience, even Maru felt a little heavy.

[Do you guys think this is a joke?]

Perhaps Miso, their instructor, was taking the play far more seriously than the actors themselves. Looking back, the woman liked to use the word ‘definitely’ a lot. As light as the word seemed, it carried a lot of weight behind it. After all, the word indicated that something would get done no matter what.

The eight members walked down with a deep sigh. When the security guard found them and asked why they were leaving so late, they told the guard that there were still people upstairs.

“Still? It’s almost dawn now.”

The guard looked up at the stairs with wide eyes before going back to the security office.

“Yeah, it’s definitely late.”

“Holy moly, I just checked the phone and I got so many calls from my mom. I’m dead…”

Dojin paled as he stared at his phone. The others seemed to be in a similar situation, judging from their expressions. None of them had the time to check their phones since they were so busy with practice. Even if they had the time, they probably wouldn’t have been able to check it, given how angry Miso was.

“Call them first. They must be worried.”

“Of course.”

Everyone started calling their parents with their phones. In the meantime, Maru checked his phone as well. There was a single message.

[You’re late. Be quiet when you come inside.]

The end.

Maru’s mom had a very laissez-faire approach to raising her children. Honestly, Maru would appreciate it more if his mom would occasionally send him a text out of worry. He messaged her back, saying he was going back now. He knew that his mom was worrying about him despite writing a message like this. Parents tended to go to sleep nervously, despite knowing their children were safe. Maru knew that feeling well. Children just felt so fragile by themselves, no matter how old they were.

Once he looked up, he noticed that everyone had a frown on their faces, likely from the scoldings they received from their parents. What a day. First Miso managed to land several hits on them during training, then their parents basically scored a home run.

“I feel like my allowance is going to get a cut…”

“Congrats. You’ve jinxed yourself.”

“God damn it.”

They did seem to relax a little though at the prospect of going back home. They were stiffening up again at the prospect of seeing Miso tomorrow, but it’d be alright. Like Yoonjung said, Miso wasn’t the type who held grudges. As they stepped outside the building, they were greeted with four taxis waiting for them at the entrance.

“What the hell were you doing in there?! You guys don’t want to go back home?!”

Miso was shouting at them from next to her car. Maru let out a small laugh when he saw her. The other kids were still looking back and forth between the taxis and Miso with confused expressions. Maru stepped down first as the other kids stood dumbly from atop the stairs.

“You didn’t leave yet?”

“I knew the last bus left already, so of course not.”

“You know you’re breaking that terrifying image you built all day by doing this, right?”

“I know you guys aren’t idiots. I trust that you’d understand my intentions after a small scolding. Am I wrong?”

Maru could only shake his head.

“Where are the second years, by the way?”

“They’re cleaning up upstairs.”

“Hah, so they’re seniors, is that it?”

“They’re very good seniors, even gave us money to go back home.”

“Good lord. Look at those little things pretending to be adults.”

That being said, Miso was looking up at the fifth floor with a tiny smile.

“First years.”

“Y-yes!”

“Go back home. Just tell your parents that your instructor went way off the rails today and didn’t let you go. If there’s a problem, just call me. Got it?”

“…Yes.”

“The drivers are waiting. Get moving.”

Miso sent the seven kids off on their way. Three of the taxis left. Miso told the last driver to wait a second before stepping into the school. A little later, she stepped out dragging Yoonjung and Danmi by their arms, Joonghyuk and Minsung were following closely behind them. Miso stuffed the four of them into a taxi before asking the driver to leave.

“So you know where everyone lives.”

It looked like Miso had an idea of in which direction everyone lived.

“I’m your instructor, so why wouldn’t I? By the way, you commute by bike, right?”

“Yes.”

Right then, a strong wind blew. The type that really showed that it was winter. It felt like Maru’s skin would peel off from the harsh wind.

“How long does it take?”

“Not that long.”

“I don’t believe you. Give me a number.”

“…40 minutes?”

“Are you crazy?! In this weather?”

Miso shouted before grabbing Maru’s arm. Maru just stared at his bike from afar.

“Coming to school’s going to be annoying tomorrow without that, though.”

“So, you’re going to ride it?”

“I’m not going to die in this weather. I can do it.”

Unfortunately, that was exactly when a bit of snot dribbled down his nose. Miso narrowed her eyes at him.

“Get on.”

“………”

“Want me to throw you in?”

“I get it, I’ll get in.”

Goodbye, my horse.

Maru gave his bike one last look before getting in the car. The heat from the car made him shiver a little when he stepped inside.

“Seriously, I can’t believe you thought about biking in this weather.”

“I heard people used to walk for several tens of kilometers for school during winter though.”

“We don’t live in those times anymore. Just put on your seatbelt already.”

Maru put on his seatbelt with a smile. The car exited the school and the two of them stopped talking for a second. Maru looked out the window for a bit before opening his mouth.

“Is there a different reason other than the fact that we were lazy?”

The dolls on the back mirror were shaking side by side. Miso glanced at Maru before opening her mouth.

“The part where I got angry?”

“Yeah.”

“Why do you think that?”

“Just a feeling. You scold us a lot, but you never put any personal feelings into it. You’re a professional, after all. But today was different. You seemed genuinely angry.”

“Did the other kids think the same?”

“No, it was just me.”

“………”

Miso didn’t say anything for a while, an awkward silence flowed between them. Maru seemed to be right on the mark here. What else made Miso mad today? No matter what he thought, there weren’t many things that could’ve made her mad. That meant she was mad because of something else. But she was a pro. She wouldn’t take out her anger on the students.

That meant one thing. There was something bothering her immensely and it was about the acting club. What was it?

“Taesik, no, your teacher told me that the club might have to vacate the auditorium.”

“The auditorium?”

“The fifth floor auditorium always belonged to the acting club. After all, the acting club were the only people who could use it during practice. No one cared. We even got awards from local competitions and everything. We even got a lot of famous actors, too. But the club hasn’t gotten anything done recently. You know that, right?”

Maru nodded. They lost during last year’s winter nationals. That wasn’t the club’s problem. They couldn’t participate because of the fire. The club the year before that participated, but they lost as well. Geunsoo’s club was the golden age of the acting club, the club’s only been in decline since then.

“Back then, the school funded everything for the club. But as you know, the teacher is the one funding the club now. Back in my day, students used to come to our school just to come to our acting club. That fact alone gave the lot of us pride. After all, there were students who came to our school just because of us. We worked very hard, and even got first place in the nationals in our third year as well.”

Miso frowned before continuing.

“Your teacher told me that we might have to give the auditorium to the baseball team.”

“The baseball team?”

The Woosung baseball team managed to win during their high school competition this year. The baseball club finally managed to bring in results for the school. Thanks to them, the entire school even went to cheer for the club instead of taking classes.

“It looks like the chairman’s getting greedy. He wants to get rid of the auditorium to build a fitness center for the baseball team and wants to convert the gym building into a makeshift auditorium.”

A good baseball team could be a massive selling point to any high school. That’s probably why the chairman was thinking about investing a lot into this. Instead of funding the acting club that almost started a fire and continued failing in the prelims, it would be better to fund the baseball club. Even Maru thought this was a sensible decision.

“This is a matter of pride. Plus, that place has been ours for years.”

“But it’s about to get ripped away from us.” “What the, giving up already?”

“This is a matter of money. Students can’t do anything about this. We might as well be thinking about something else since this is pointless.”

“Ugh, this is why I didn’t want to talk to you about this. At least the other kids would tell me to cheer up or something.”

“There’s a difference between something you can do and something you can’t do.”

“…I won’t watch you guys get kicked out of there for the death of me. My pride as a Blue Sky member is at stake here.”

“So that’s why you were so angry.”

“It’s complicated. Watching you guys get lazy when our home was about to get stolen… that did make me really mad. We tried so hard to get that place…”

“I’m sorry.”

There was nothing else Maru could say. In truth, it was possible to just tell her she was overreacting and that the club could always find somewhere else to practice. The world would be a very boring place if everyone was logical like that though. It’s because people like Miso existed, who cared about memories, that life could be interesting for everyone.

“Do you think we’d have a chance if we win the nationals?”

“I don’t know. If the chairman already made his decision, we’d get kicked out no matter what. We can always practice in a classroom or something, but… I’d feel horrible about it.”

Miso gripped her handle with a pout. Maru could tell from her actions just how much she cared about the club.

‘Then again, her theater in Hyehwa station has the same name too.’

The name definitely had a lot of meanings to her. After all, it was what really kicked off her current life to begin with.

“So we’ll have to get something even bigger.”

“Big enough to tempt the chairman.”

“I see.”

“Why?”

“No, I was just thinking about it.”

“Hah, I see. Anyway, you guys have to practice like hell from now. Forget passing the prelims. You need to sweep in all of the awards at the nationals. Got it?”

“We’ll try.”

“Trying isn't enough! Damn it!”

Maru smiled as he turned to look forward again.

Chapter 134

Maru headed home after stepping out of Miso’s car. He thought he’d opened the door quietly, but he could see his mom coming out of her room.

“You’re home.”

“Yeah. Why did you wake up? You must be tired.”

“No mother would sleep soundly with her son being out late. Go take a shower before you go to sleep.”

His mom sounded cool in the message, but she really must’ve been worried. She stepped back into her room with a small sigh. Maru silently bowed towards her before going to the bathroom for a shower. By the time he came back, it was 1am. He considered going to sleep just like that before sitting down at his desk.

‘The auditorium, huh.’

He took out his script and grabbed his pen. He could still see Miso’s frustrated expression in his head. She probably couldn’t accept the fact that the tower she built with her friends was about to crumble so easily, her words were filled with rage and frustration back in the car. Hearing emotions like that honestly made Maru feel like he was partly responsible. Humans always walk towards the future, but their motivations often stem from memories.

If Miso didn’t get so mad in the car, Maru would’ve just accepted the situation as a fact of life and moved on. After all, the club could always practice in their club room instead of the auditorium. But Miso did get mad. In fact, she even took out a part of this anger on the club members. Maybe this was her way of asking them to help her. After all, she wasn’t the type that could simply tell people to do well. She really needed to whip them into a shape that she knew they’d do well.

To be honest, Maru was touched from the side of Miso he saw today. It was difficult to see people who not only truly cared about the work they did, but also had the conviction to take the harder route regardless of easier ones. Miso wasn’t even a member of the Blue Sky club anymore. Despite that, she was putting in more work into the club than anyone else.

Not even pros did this. Pros proved their worth to people and received compensation for it. The money the school paid Miso was pitifully little, especially considering her value. No pro worked in a place that refused to pay them for their worth. Plus, working as an instructor for a school really wasn’t particularly good for Miso’s resume either. Not only that, she was putting a considerable amount of work into this club as well. In the end, she was only here for personal reasons.

The club was very precious to her. That’s what made Maru feel sorry for her.

Maru spun the pen in his hand as he focused on the script. There wasn’t much else he could do right now other than this. He needed to breathe life into his character, so that his character could be as real as real could be on stage.

“I need to work hard now that I saw how serious she’s going on about this.”

He wouldn’t be a proper human if he didn’t reciprocate even a little bit to her emotions. Maru spent the next few minutes analyzing his lines and imagining himself on the stage. As he was going about it, his phone vibrated. It was a message from Daemyung.

[You asleep?]

Maru responded with a ‘no.’

[Instructor Miso seemed really disappointed, didn’t she? I keep thinking about her telling us we were being lazy.]

Maru could almost see Daemyung drooping dejectedly from the other side of the screen. The boy probably became even moodier than usual as more of the night passed. Maru thought for a second before sending him a small briefing of what Miso told him. Daemyung was good at keeping secrets, so he should be fine even if Maru told him about what was happening.

[Really? So if we fail here, we’ll get pushed away by the baseball club?]

[Probably.]

[What do we do?]

[We just do the best we can.]

Maru didn’t get a response after that. Daemyung was probably reading his script.

“Do the… best we can.”

It was a promise Maru was making with himself. Often, people say that they don’t know what to do, but most of the people asking this question already knew the answer deep in their hearts. That was because the answer was simple. If you want something, chase it. Just modifying that sentence was enough to bring about a satisfying answer.

In the end, the method wasn’t what’s important. All that mattered was how much focus you were putting into your work.

Scritch scratch.

Maru’s pen moved across his script. This was going to be a long night. He was sure of it.

* * *

It seemed that Maru wasn’t the only one who decided he needed practice last night, he realized such when he noticed the dark circles hanging around Dojin’s eyes.

“Didn’t get any sleep?”

“Not like I could get any.”

Dojin raised his worn out script with a grin.

“Morning… yawn.”

Daemyung stepped into the class next with his eyes half-closed.

“When the hell did you sleep?”

“…Like four?”

“How did you wake up?”

“Alarm clocks, man. I feel like I’m gonna collapse.”

Daemyung put his bag on his desk with wobbly legs. The trio looked at each other before grinning.

“What was our first class today?”

“Math.”

“So if we sleep, we’re dead.”

“Just tape your eyes open, dude.”

Maru gave the two of them a piece of gum. He always carried some in his pocket, which was a habit he picked up after spending many night shifts driving a bus.

“Work hard until lunch.”

“I’m gonna sleep till first class first.”

“Me too.”

Maru flopped down onto his desk along with his friends. This situation reminded him of a friend he had back in school that always slept through classes. He couldn’t remember the boy’s name or face, but he did remember that the boy showed up to their high school reunion in a Benz. Everyone wondered at the time how the boy managed to get so successful despite sleeping so much, but Maru felt like he knew why this was the case now.

‘What you see isn’t everything, huh.’

Maru closed his eyes.

* * *

“We survived.”

“Yeah.”

They somehow managed to stay awake until last class by pinching on their thighs. As soon as their homeroom teacher told them they could leave, they ran up to the fifth floor.

“I always wonder, how the hell does all of our sleepiness disappear as soon as school ends?”

“Come on, you’re trying to solve humanity’s greatest mystery now, of all times?”

Dojin nodded at Maru’s words. For now, they needed to stop thinking about random things and focus on practice. The three of them opened the doors into the auditorium. There wasn't anyone else there yet.

“Alright, let’s begin.”

Some people might ask, ‘why try so hard when the prelims are so close? It’s not like you’re going to improve much more anyway.’ But one could retort: ‘If you don’t work hard to the end, you don’t even have the right to feel regret if you lose. Is that really what you want?’

They stretched quickly before going straight into reading. They weren’t just reading their lines this time. They were putting as much emotion as they could into it. They went on with practice by quickly filling in for the students that weren’t there yet.

“Wouldn’t it be better if you raised your hand here?”

“That might be confusing, wouldn’t it?”

“Here, take a look for me.”

Maru and Daemyung went over to Miso’s usual spot and sat at Dojin’s request. Dojin said his line and raised his hand as he said he would. Dojin seemed to want to change the part where his character ‘scratched his head awkwardly’ to ‘raised his hand before putting it back down’. Dojin raised his hand towards his head before stopping in the middle and smiling.

“Hey, that’s not bad.”

“Right? I thought it was a bit odd to smile as I scratched my head last night.”

After that small change, they continued their reading. Instead of their normal, almost mechanical practices, they held discussions about any concerns regarding a line. That small change made them feel like they got out of their usual lazy cycle just a little bit. For sure, the club worked hard. But if asked if they practiced with thought and care, they wouldn’t be able to say ‘yes’. Practice with a decent amount of nervousness helps a group become perfect over time, but if they become too used to their routine, they would eventually slack off. Were they working as hard as they could, or were they being lazy? Miso’s behavior last night was a good enough answer to this question.

As they practiced by themselves, the other members started arriving one by one. The funny thing was, they all looked sleepy as hell. They definitely didn’t get any sleep last night.

“Did you guys all get back well?”

“Yes, what about you, senior?”

“I did, too. Now now, since we’re all alive, let’s get to practice.”

They returned to act one every time a new member arrived. After a few times of doing so, the entire club was here before they knew it.

“Let’s try to do a run without a single mistake first before trying to improve our acting. We should try to finish two runs before instructor Miso comes.”

Yoonjung gave a slight glance to all the members as she extended her hand. Maru put his hand above hers and the others followed suit.

“Blue Sky.”

“Fighting.”

They all separated with a short cry. They were in the same space at the same time with the same people just like yesterday, but something was different. The bomb Miso threw at all of them served as a great wakeup call for everyone. Maru could feel a fire swelling up inside himself as well.

In fact, he started smiling. What would the acting club do? The club came to a very simple, smart answer together. The answer that none of them thought of till now because it was so simple, they were going to act. Just as they got ready to practice, the doors of the auditorium opened.

Was it Miso?

“Oh dear, there’s already students here.”

The person who entered was a kind looking middle-aged man, behind the man was a smaller man with a familiar face. It was the principal that the students liked to call a “dwarf” due to his height. This meant… The taller man in front of the principal was the chairman of the school. Maru stepped forward first while the others were busy standing around in confusion.

“Hello, Mr. Chairman, Principal.”

“Ah, yes, hello. How did you know I was the Chairman? Haha.”

The chairman laughed gleefully. The principal smiled proudly as well.

“You kids should step outside for a second,” the principal said.

Maru smiled bitterly inside. He could tell what was going on. The chairman seemed pretty greedy to take over this place. Right then, someone new appeared from behind all of them. It was the baseball coach.

The club members stepped out of the auditorium, still confused as ever. Maru closed his mouth and gave Daemyung a small glance. This needed to be explained to the club by Miso or Taesik. Neither of them had the right to say anything right now.

“Isn’t that the baseball coach?”

“Yeah.”

“What’s the Chairman and the Principal doing here?”

“No idea.”

The second years started muttering to each other. They definitely didn’t hear anything just yet. After around twenty minutes of waiting, the three men came back out from the auditorium. The three of them walked down the stairs with very happy expressions, telling the club to work hard.

To Maru, their words sounded like a death penalty. Kind of like how a CEO would assure a recently fired employee that “everything would be fine”.

“What’s going on?”

As they all stood around in confusion, they saw Miso stepping up the stairs. She came across the Chairman on the way up and she just ignored the man completely. Maru noticed that the Chairman and the Principal’s displeased faces.

Miso only said one thing as soon as she got up to the fifth floor.

“They’re annoying.”

“…You know that was the Chairman and the Principal, right?” Maru asked.

Miso nodded as if that was the most obvious thing in the world. What an amazing woman.

Chapter 135

Miso’s next move was obviously to explain the situation to the club members. Maru made sure to fake a reaction as he listened. If he was listening too calmly, Dojin would definitely pick up on it.

“Things are moving much faster than I expected. They might already have things set in stone at this point.”

Miso looked around the auditorium slowly. The second years’ expressions turned dark. They spent a pretty long time at the auditorium at this point. Having this place be taken away from them must feel pretty bad.

“Is there a way to stop this? We can’t get kicked out of here,” Yoonjung said, clasping her hands together.

The girl liked being in the acting club more than the acting itself. To her, this place was like a shelter to her. Losing one’s shelter is a catastrophic event. She would, of course, become inactive by the time she enters her third year, but that didn’t mean her time spent here would become any less important.

“We’ll have to try our best.”

“But besides that?”

“We’ll have to try harder. As someone told me, this is a problem for adults concerning money. Students have no place in this issue. The best thing you guys can do is to get attention from your entire region, but the competition isn’t really that big of an issue anymore. It’s not like acting gives you any merit, either. After all, there’s so many other things to watch nowadays.”

Hearing that from a real actor made Maru’s heart ache a little bit. Miso smiled bitterly before clapping her hands loudly.

“Alright, back to practice. We need to work harder than ever. Got it?”

“…Yes.”

“I can’t hear you. Louder.”

“Yes!”

“Good. It looks like you guys are all warmed up already, so let’s begin. We’re going to check up on the stage and our costumes today as well. We’ll fix up what we can and buy what we can’t. There’s only a few days left. Focus.”

* * *

The start of the play breezed through in the blink of an eye. Before they knew it, Geunseok was already on his way home after Daemyung’s odd monologue.

“Hey, young man!”

“Yes?”

“You must be having a hard time adjusting because of the odd residents of this town, am I right?”

“Not at all. I’m actually quite happy. Everyone has such great quirks here. The town I was in before had very boring people. They even treated me like a weirdo for passing around some rice cake after I moved in!” “It’s because we’re living in pretty dark times right now. Just turn on the TV, and all you get is news about crimes… it’s scary. Here, here. Come sit for a second.”

Maru nodded as he saw Soyeon’s acting. When they first started practice, he got the feeling that the girl was only imitating an old woman. Her acting now made her seem like one. If she put on a costume and some makeup right there… she’d totally be an old lady.

Geunseok was still being as good as ever, his role as the main character was to bring out the personalities of the other characters even more. The effectiveness of the play would vary depending on how well he could motivate the other characters. Then again, that was why he was the main character.

People often say that you could only see as much as you knew. To Maru, the things that the other actors showed and told him became experience, and he felt like he could see just that much more as a result. Thanks to it, he finally realized what all the adults meant when they said Geunseok was good at acting. It wasn’t just because the boy had a good voice and enunciation. That was just the basics. Not only did Geunseok have the basics pretty much set in stone, the boy was also natural.

Natural.

Maru realized just how difficult it was to act natural on stage through experience. Acting naturally took a ton of practice and hard work. In the end, a person could only be natural on stage only if they were experienced. They could only act naturally if they knew roughly every possible thing that could happen to them and knew how to react to those situations. If he went back for a second and thought back to the times when Miso told him he had talent, he realized one thing.

‘I’m incredibly lucky.’

He was already natural on stage because he already had all the life experience he needed. He didn’t know if it was god’s gift to him or just something he developed in his 45 years of living, but he never became nervous on top of the stage. In fact, he didn’t feel anything. It just felt like he was standing in a place that people liked to look at often. Now that he thought about it, he realized this was a blessing. He held an advantage compared to his peers. That is, he was starting out from a location that others took years of practice to get to; even the fact that he liked to read literature became a strong point for him.

Maru didn’t know how much Geunseok worked to get to where he was, but it could be no small amount of time and effort. It was obvious. After all, the boy was good at studying and acting. People might say acting was simply a result of talent, but Maru could say for sure now. Acting wasn’t just talent, it also took an incredible amount of hard work, just like studying.

“Stop there. We’ll rest for a bit before continuing again.”

“Okay.”

The club members all collapsed, they must’ve been pouring a lot of energy into this. They didn’t even waste the energy to talk. Instead, what little energy they had left was focused on thinking about their respective characters. A heavy air emanated across the auditorium. Not the sort of air that made people nervous, but the type that made one want to focus on work.

Maru was also thinking about his character, trying to think about how to make the teenager more realistic. Right then, he started feeling vibrations coming from his pocket. He took it out. It was Ganghwan.

- Going well?

“I don’t know, but I’m trying hard.”

- That’s fine and all, but all that matters in the end are results.

“That’s true. What’s up with the call, by the way?”

- The prelims are getting close, so I decided to cancel practice today. I don’t want to bother you guys when you’re all so busy.

“So you called me because you were bored?”

- Kind of, yeah. All my friends are busy and I’m the only one without work.

“If you’re that bored, why don’t you come here?”

- Eh?

“Instructor Miso’s here too, so why don’t you come to help?”

- No, just because I’m bored doesn’t mean I’m going to work…

“Come on, this is your good student asking you for a favor here.”

- I don’t recall you ever doing “good” things for me though…

“Hold on.”

Maru walked towards Miso, who was sitting down with her eyes closed. He initially thought she was just closing her eyes, but soon realized she was actually fast asleep. What a woman. To think she’d be able to sleep even when students were muttering their lines all around her… He also felt a bit sorry for her. She was clearly working hard enough to need little naps in the middle of work.

“Instructor.”

Maru called at her silently. He remembered getting beat up in the military when he tapped his senior awake and he didn’t want to go through that experience again. Miso opened her eyes after a few moments. She turned to look at him briefly before flinching backwards.

“Ugh, you surprised me.”

“Tired?”

“Yawn, yeah. I shouldn’t sleep, but I just can’t help it.”

“Do you need any reinforcement?”

“Reinforcement?”

Maru handed her the phone, making her put on a confused expression.

“It’s Ganghwan.”

“Him? Why?”

“He said he was bored.”

“Reaaaally?”

Her eyes shone brightly as she immediately put the phone against her ear.

“Yang Ganghwan! Get the hell over here if you’re free. This is Woosung High. Just search your navigator if you don’t know where it is. What? Seems like too much work? You said you were bored yourself. Big sis will play with you, so get the hell over here. Ah, get some food on the way here. You don’t plan on coming here with nothing, are you?”

Miso hung up before the man even had the chance to respond. There was a hint of something sinister behind her grin.

“Ganghwan’s going to be a great reinforcement for sure. I’ll make him do all sorts of stuff once he’s here.”

“Don’t work him too hard, though.”

“He said himself he’s free as balls. All that tells me is that I can use him as much as I want. He must’ve been feeling really bored with him not getting casted for any roles.”

Maru shrugged as he took his phone back. Ganghwan was a great teacher, a better actor than Miso as well. If Miso specialized in the overall flow of a play, Ganghwan specialized in bringing out the individual skills of the actors.

“Let’s rest a little more. We can start when our guest comes. We might be going back late today as well, so tell your parents.”

The club members quickly took out their phones. Some of them were making phone calls as well. After about ten minutes, the door opened with Ganghwan on the other side. The man was holding bags of snacks from the convenience store.

“You guys are all working hard, aren’t you?”

The man handed the club members a piece of bread from the bag. He said he didn’t want to work, but he came very well prepared. Miso pulled back the grinning man towards her as the club looked at him oddly.

“You remember him from last time, don’t you?”

“Yes.”

“He’s a jobless brat right now, so I called him. He’ll teach you acting. It’ll only be for a few hours, but there’s value in learning from him.”

“Hey, who said I’m a jo…”

Miso put a hand over Ganghwan’s mouth, making the man step back with a frown.

“Show him how much you practiced. Alright, let’s do a quick run.”

The club members stacked their breads into one place before walking back to the stage. They must’ve gotten excited about getting judged by someone other than Miso, given their excited looks.

“Alright, begin when you’re ready. Ganghwan, come over here.”

Ganghwan sat right next to Miso. Hearing an advice from this man, who was set to become a massive star in the future is most definitely an honor for everyone here.

“Phew.”

Someone on the stage sighed. That was the beginning of their run.

* * *

“Not bad!”

That was the first thing Ganghwan said after the run. The club members brightened. To them, Ganghwan was equivalent to Miso in status. Being accepted by someone like that was bound to feel good.

“The play is well balanced. You guys are definitely a lot better than last time. I’m actually very impressed by how well you guys are stopping yourselves from looking at the audience. Some actors like to stare intently at the audience to try to communicate with them, but all that ends up doing is breaking the promise between the stage and the audience.”

“Promise?” Daemyung blurted.

The boy immediately looked down in embarrassment.

“Yeah, promise. In the end, plays are nothing but a figment of your imagination. The audience sees it as reality, if only for the moment. If the main character can’t control himself and keeps staring at the audience, the audience would no longer be watching a play. They’d only be watching some actor that stares back a lot. This is unacceptable behavior.”

Ganghwan was being absolutely certain with his words.

“In that sense, you guys did a great job with your eyes. Some kids in high school clubs like to look at odd places during the play out of nervousness, but I didn’t see that here.”

“So we did well?”

Ganghwan nodded without missing a beat at Yoonjung’s question.

“But, I don’t like how you guys are moving so stiffly.”

Ganghwan turned to look at Miso, who gave him a curt nod.

“Did you guys go see the stage yet?”

“Yes.”

“Do you remember how far the audience was from the stage?”

“Around seven meters, if you think of how high up the stage was.”

“Maru, go stand about seven meters from over there.”

Maru walked away from the rest of the club.

“Say your lines for me.”

“Which one?”

“Whichever one that has movement.”

Maru nodded as he thought of a line. As the teenager, he was often in odd poses. This time, he decided to go with the intermission between act 7 and 8. The scene where he would jump into the stage before cracking a joke like a comedian.

“Isn’t it odd, everyone? People this odd, living in such a small town? What a ridic…”

“Stop there.”

Ganghwan waved Maru back before continuing.

“His movements seemed small, right?”

“…Yes.”

The club members answered nervously. Maru was shocked. He thought he was pretty expressive, but his movements were small?

“Miso probably told you herself that you’d only look annoying if you didn’t make large gestures.”

Indeed, Miso told them exactly that. That was why Maru made large movements, so why…

“You were fine for the most part, but your hands are the real problem here. You guys look way too conservative with your hand movements.”

Ganghwan walked back to where Maru was before while holding a script of the play in hand.

“Here, let me show you.”

He flipped through the script for a bit before finding a line he liked. He moved to the left before starting his act, he was acting out the part that Maru just acted out himself. The man jumped in, with his expression looking like a little clown.

“Isn’t it odd, everyone? People this odd, living in such a small town?”

Ganghwan calmly took in a small breath.

“Let me show you a different act this time. The scene that the girl just played, the one with the old lady.”

Then, he went back to acting.

Chapter 136

He was… different. There was nothing else they could say about it. The man spoke the same lines from the same characters, but he looked so very different compared to everyone else. The club members all looked at Ganghwan dumbly. The man was showing them the difference between a pro and an amateur.

“Did I overdo it?”

Ganghwan smiled after doing a short performance of all twelve characters. The man’s arrogant comment was even sounding a bit like words from a wiseman after such a shocking performance. Now that Maru thought about it, he’d never actually seen Ganghwan act. Ganghwan was acting in an adult play at the time since Maru joined him. They practiced together a lot, but they’ve never worked together on the same stage. Maru had to wonder what it would feel like to exchange lines with someone that skilled. He couldn’t even imagine it right now.

“Starting off from the basics, we need to focus on accents. I’m not telling you to follow me. You need to go develop one yourself. There are tricks, though.”

The club members flocked around Ganghwan at a flick of his hands. Miso was watching him intently from afar, her eyes filled with respect. Not respect as a friend, but as an actor.

“Acting out a character much older than you is actually very difficult. If you want to act out a character seventy years older than you, you need just that much experience to do well. That’s not easy. For us pros, we go to the scenes itself in order to get experience, but that’s not an option for you guys. So the only thing you guys can do is take tips and tricks and do your best with those.”

“What would those tips be?”

Soyeon and Taejoon widened their eyes in surprise. Ganghwan told the two of them to just focus more on their bodies than their lines.

“If you try to make yourself sound old, all you’d really be doing is ruining your projection. Not only that, you might end up damaging your throat as well. Most people mistakenly think that old people have a very lethargic, airy voice. In this industry, it’s almost like a promise between the actor and the audience as well. The actor’s basically telling the audience that he’s acting an old character, so the audience needs to understand that as a fact.”

Ganghwan looked over the club members.

“Does any one of you live with your grandparents?”

No one raised their hands.

“Well, it’s pretty hard to see people living with their extended families nowadays, so I guess it’s understandable. It must be hard for you to see what old people are actually like. That’s why you act out your roles based on the stereotypes of old people you see in society.”

Maru thought for a second. When he entered his forties, the only times he went to see his parents were during holidays. His parents were over their seventies by that point. They weren’t incredibly old, but they were getting there for sure.

“This is a strange case, but this is easier for you if you think of yourselves as voice actors. Your voices can’t change by an incredible amount especially after you pass puberty. There are even old men whose voices don’t change at all from their younger years. What should you do, then? In the end, it all just comes down to the details.”

Ganghwan brought over a chair.

“The old lady in front of the shop is always described to be sitting outside her store. She often says her lines from her chair, right?”

“Yes. She stands up too, but she often says her lines from the chair.”

“The age range of the character is?”

“Late 70s.”

“Health?”

“Not that bad, since she can still come outside. She’s not that lethargic either since she can hold her own in an argument still.”

“Good. If you’re aware of all the details, then the rest of it should be pretty easy. Just convince yourself that you’re actually old. When you get back home, try to find videos on actual old people talking.”

“Yes.”

“One of the first things that happens as you age is that your skin starts stretching. Studying how that would affect the rest of your body would be most useful here. But since this is a bit rushed, just follow me first.”

Ganghwan put on a slight frown as he stretched his jaws and cheeks downwards, making him look a little bit depressed. Soyeon followed suit, albeit with a little bit of confusion.

“If you age like this, the overall muscles in your face lose energy like this. Open your mouth here. You’ll notice you can’t open it as much.”

“Yes, you’re right.”

“The reason why old people have bad enunciations is because their muscles don’t work so well anymore. But it’d be horrible if an actor had bad enunciation. You’ll have to put in the practice to make yourself maintain that ‘old person vibe’ while managing to keep clear enunciation. But you definitely don’t have the time for that right now, so save it for the next nationals.”

“Thank you.”

“As for your gestures…”

Ganghwan was very different here from his usual self in his amateur classes. Back there, he only showed the actors the directions they could take for improvement. Now, he was actively pointing out places where each student could improve. If he focused on the theory for the amateur acting class, over here he focused a lot on the practical information.

“Name?”

Ganghwan’s next target was Geunseok.

“I’m Hong Geunseok.”

“Ah right, Geunsoo’s brother. I don’t have much to tell you. Good job. I think you have a very decent grasp of what your character is like.”

“Thank you.”

“As expected of Geunsoo’s brother. Good job, good job.”

Ganghwan gave the boy a thumbs up. Geunseok put on a very comforted smile.

“Alright, next…”

Ganghwan moved onto the next person.

* * *

Ganghwan and Miso stepped outside the auditorium. By the time they finished another run, it was already 9pm.

“You planning on keeping them around for a bit longer?”

“I have to. The prelims are in two days.”

“Don’t pressure them too much, they’re just kids. You get way too rough sometimes, you have to be softer with them.”

“If I was soft too, wouldn’t I be way too perfect?”

Ganghwan firmly shook his head. This woman didn’t have any humility. Then again, that was the source of her charm.

“How’s your work going on that side?”

“My kids are elites, so they’re all doing very well.”

“Elites, huh.”

The two of them walked into a restaurant nearby. They ordered some food before sitting down. The lady at the store told them it’d take around 15 minutes.

“Are you paying all of them for their food?”

“What, would I be making them pay then?”

“Dang, Miso. You must be earning a lot of money.”

“Hell yeah I do.”

“Why don’t you invest a bit of money into my play, then? I promise we’ll make good returns.”

“Go find someone else. I’m too young to be investing any money right now. Plus, I don’t have that much money to begin with. Why don’t you just go to senior Junmin?”

“I’d rather die before asking him. I don’t want to become even more indebted to him when I’m already knee deep inside. I don’t want money ruining our relationship.”

“…Oh? So you’re fine if our relationship gets ruined?”

“You just realized? You, me, and Geunsoo. We’re terrible, terrible friends.”

“You’re not wrong. Ugh.”

Ganghwan watched Miso as she flopped down on a table in front of her. It’s been a while since he last saw her this tired.

“Something wrong?”

“It’s just the acting club. Everything else is fine. Hah…”

She sighed loudly enough to make her hair start moving on her desk. Looking at that, Ganghwan started twisting her hair with a grin.

“Hey!”

“You surprised me.”

Miso stood back up with a massive frown.

“This is why you don’t have a girlfriend.”

“Hey, don’t hit me where it hurts like that. It’s not like you have a boyfriend either.”

“Me? I do.”

“…Hah! That’s the funniest joke I heard all year. You? A guy? Are you sure he’s not involved in some pyramid scheme?”

“You want to get beat up?”

Ganghwan stepped away from her into the kitchen for a bit. In the meantime, the lady from the store came back with bags of kimbap and stir fried pork.

“Do you need chopsticks?”

“Yes, can we have fourteen?”

The two of them stepped outside, each one holding a bag of food in their hands.

“Are you actually dating someone, though?”

“I do.”

“Who? Someone I know? Which actor is it?”

“…No, he isn’t related to this industry at all. Well, wait, I guess he kind of is.”

“Who is it?”

“Ugh, why do you want to know so badly?”

“Why? I’m curious! I want to know who would date someone with a terrible personality like you.”

“Do you actually have a death wish?”

Ganghwan didn’t stop teasing her, despite all the threats. Miso said some terrifying things, but Ganghwan could tell she was actually embarrassed. He’s never seen that side of her before, he couldn’t stop teasing her here.

“…He’s a school teacher.”

“Really? I suppose it is the mission of teachers to rescue lost little lambs. Where does he work?”

“Woosung high.”

“Really? This one? Wait, so you met him through the club? So it’s been like a year, huh?”

Finding love from your high school… Love really was a strange thing.

“It’s been more than ten years.”

“What?”

“I had a crush on him for a full decade. I’ve only managed to get somewhere with it recently.”

Miso’s face was as red as a beet. Ten years, though? What was up with that?

“He’s the person who made the acting club with me while I was still here. He was really cute back then. Not that he isn’t cute now.”

“Hold on.”

“What?”

“So you’re dating a teacher you had a crush on while you were in high school?”

“Yeah.”

“Hahaha, don’t joke with me. Are you the heroine of some romance novel? You should at least make your stories believable.”

“Do I look like I’m lying?”

Miso frowned annoyedly. Ganghwan’s face stiffened. A teacher who dates his student?

“Really?”

“Yeah.”

“Really really?”

“Yeah yeah!”

“…Ha. Haha. Life is meaningless. Ugh.”

Ganghwan sighed deeply in defeat.

* * *

“Thank you for the hard work,” Maru said.

“Hard work? Nah. It was fun. It was like I was back in high school again. The kids in Myungdong all know what they’re doing, so it’s no fun teaching them.”

“Does that include me?”

“Nah, of course not.”

Ganghwan got in his car with a grin. Maru was thankful that the man managed to take out his time for something like this. He’s learned a lot from just this one day.

“Miso taught you well.”

“She’s passionate, if nothing else.”

“Individually, you all have something to be desired, but you guys have a really nice vibe going when you’re all together. You might actually manage to win something. But! Your role is critical in making that happen.”

“Please don’t pressure me like that. I’m just an extra.”

“A very important extra. Oh, also, try to get on good terms with Geunseok.”

“Geunseok?”

“Yeah. The kid knows what he’s doing. He definitely studied a lot in his own time as well. He’ll make a great partner.”

“Well, sure.”

He probably couldn’t get close to Geunseok anymore, though. Maru swallowed his thoughts as he smiled. Ganghwan told Maru to do well in the prelims.

“You aren’t coming to see us?”

“I can’t blatantly favor you when there’s so many other kids I’m teaching involved.”

“But we’re kind of in a master-disciple relationship, aren’t we?”

“Still, it’s a no. Plus, I’m going to be busy.”

“Are you going into a project?”

“Probably. And… it’s nothing. I’ll tell you some other time. But definitely be alert for something.”

Ganghwan was saying some mysterious words. Did his business have something to do with Maru as well? For now, Maru just nodded. He’d probably have to prepare for something.

“Ah, also.”

“?”

“Do you happen to know any cute female teachers?”

Maru smiled and told the man to get a move on, Ganghwan shrugged before leaving in his car.

“Maru! Let’s go!”

11pm. It was minutes from before the last bus of the day left. Maru walked towards his friends alongside his bike. It took quite some effort to get Miso away from him, but he managed to get his bike today.

“Hah,” Dojin sighed.

“What’s up?”

“Let’s work hard.”

“Well, that came out of nowhere.”

“You two really need to work hard. Especially since that’s your dreams now. I… Just need to get along for the ride.”

Dojin was smiling a little awkwardly. Maru pat the boy’s back. Daemyung, too, awkwardly pat Dojin.

“Don’t forget me if you become famous.“

“Don’t dream too much about the high life, since it’s not going to happen.”

“In any case, at least mention my name if you get on TV.”

“Any time, friend.”

Daemyung said ‘me too’ under his breath as well.

“Let’s work hard.”

“Yeah.”

“Definitely.”

Work hard. The phrase warmed up Maru’s chest ever so slightly.

Chapter 137

Moonjoong looked downwards as he chewed on the candied ginseng his daughter sent him. Dalgu, who had gained a lot of weight recently, was begging for food below him. So even animals know what was good for the body, huh.

“Dalgu, you fool. You have too much heat in your body. This won’t be good for you.”

Moonjoong didn’t actually know that with certainty, but that didn’t change the fact that he wasn’t going to share his food. He did feel bad about just watching his dog walk away sadly though, so he gave the poor thing some dog food. As he watched his dog eat with a smile on his face, he noticed someone outside his door. The person had a confused expression as they pressed on his broken doorbell. Moonjoong looked through the door in confusion at the spectacle.

“What the… what’s he doing here?”

Moonjoong went to greet the man, neglecting to even put on his shoes. The wind from outside was terribly cold, but he didn’t even feel it from how surprised he was right now.

“My, aren’t you a pleasant surprise.”

“Haha, Moonjoong!”

The person in the grey coat was Yu Chulmin, Moonjoong’s old friend. He stood in front of an expensive-looking car parked in front of his house.

“What brought you here all of a sudden?”

“Nothing special. I just wanted to see if my dear friend was still alive. I’ve been telling myself to go see your plays, but I never did find the time.”

“So that’s why you came all the way here so early in the morning?”

“Of course.”

Moonjoong brought his friend inside with a happy grin. Dalgu stopped eating its food and immediately ran over to Chulmin happily.

“Oh, so you remember me, huh?”

Chulmin rubbed the little dog’s head.

“Here, here. Take a seat. Did you have breakfast?”

“Not yet.”

“Your wife didn’t make you anything?”

“She never makes me anything anymore. She’s gone to Jeju island with her friends, actually.”

“What stamina.”

“Indeed.”

Moonjoong scooped up a bowl of rice, some soup, and some side dishes as well. It wasn’t anything very fit to serve a guest, but Moonjoong knew very well that his friend wouldn’t care.

“It’s been a while since I last had a meal at your house.”

“It really has been. To think that I used to see you so damn often forty years ago, too.”

“Too often. Way too often.”

Four decades ago, the two of them worked in the same movie company. Back then, movie companies produced movies like crazy. They even hit 200 movies released in one year back then. After all, movies were the best form of entertainment anyone could experience without a TV. The two worked as extras for various movies during that time. Of course, they weren’t paid well at all.

In those times, actors were treated horribly. Even more so for actresses, they had to do very shameful things in order to get into a film. In the end, the two of them left the industry to go into plays. They made a theater company. More and more people started coming and before they knew it, they were even taking on sponsors.

That was around the time when TVs became more commonplace to the people. Movie companies started going out of business left and right, while more and more actors started joining their company. That was also when Seoul university relocated closer to Gwanaksan, more artists started gathering towards that area as a result. The two of them decided to move as well. That’s where Marronnier Park now stands and became a safe haven for artists nowadays.

“Gosh, we suffered quite a bit back then, didn’t we?”

“That we did. Do you remember? We tried making the stage by ourselves, but all we ended up doing was ruin the floor completely.”

“Of course I remember.”

Moonjoong watched as his friend wiped his bowl clean.

“Wait a second.”

Moonjoong brought out his candied ginseng.

“This stuff’s been slathered with honey and it tastes quite amazing.”

“Oh, that sounds so expensive.”

“It’s from my daughter. Try it.”

“Hey, you should keep stuff like this for yourself. Don’t be sharing it willy-nilly just like that.”

“I have too much.”

Moonjoong actually had very little of the stuff, but he wanted to share the good stuff with his friend who worked with him for most of his life.

“Well, thanks for the food, then.”

Chulmin smiled as soon as he put a piece of the ginseng in his mouth.

“Want more?”

“One’s just fine, thank you.”

Moonjoong put away the ginseng somewhere else with a nod, Dalgu started sniffing the thing curiously.

“Can dogs eat ginseng?”

“Probably not.”’

Moonjoong took the ginseng and put it out of Dalgu’s reach. He had to wonder sometimes just who the dog took after to become such a glutton.

“So, mind telling me the real reason why you came here? You couldn’t have just come here to see me. You’re too busy for that.”

“Well, I really did come here to just see you. Plus one more small thing.”

Chulmin took a sip of a drink Moonjoong gave him.

“Do you have time?”

“Time? What time?”

“Time for a project.”

“Project?”

Chulmin nodded.

“You have no idea how happy I was when I heard you were going to be on stage again.”

“That’s because Junmin begged me to come back. Plus, there was a great meaning behind it. I mean, it’s the reopening of the Myungdong Art Theater, after all.”

“That doesn’t change the fact that you’re back on stage. I’ve started hearing some good rumors about you coming from the younger folk, too.”

“The younger actors just have a good impression of me is all.”

“Don’t be so humble, I know your skills better than anyone. You were nominated for the position of Chairman of the National Theater Association even before me, remember?”

“That’s so long ago. Plus, they were just asking me that in passing.”

Hearing the current chairman of the association say something like this was rather embarrassing for Moonjoong.

“In any case, how was acting after years of retirement? I don’t even know what acting is like anymore since I haven’t done it for so long.”

“Haha, don’t joke like that.”

Chulmin smiled playfully. The man wasn’t wrong, though. As the Chairman of the National Theater Association, a social worker, an advisor for playwrights, and a college professor, he was simply too busy to do anything else. That was why Moonjoong didn’t even feel bad when Chulmin told him that the man was too busy to see his plays.

“Alright, stop changing the subject and just tell me. How was acting? Isn’t it more fun than just teaching? I heard you’ve been smiling all the time in the practice room.”

“Now I’m getting curious about just who your source of information is. Is it Junmin?”

“He’s one of them, sure.”

“Don’t force people to do too many things for you just because you’re a chairman, you hear?”

Moonjoong closed his mouth for a second to think. Indeed, acting again was very fun. Watching the passion of the younger actors, experiencing new technology on the stage, and looking at the audience members again. Everything felt new to him and that came as a very fun, fresh experience.

“It was fun. I guess acting really is the perfect job for me.”

“That’s why I brought this up in the first place. Why don’t you try acting in a movie?”

“A movie?”

“The script, the cast, the investors. They all want you.”

A movie… When was the last time he shot a movie? He left the movie business to go into plays. After making his name there, he went back to shooting movies and starred in over 50 movies. That was when he was in his forties, it’s already been three decades since.

“Why are you dragging out someone that’s been forgotten?”

“I told you. People know that you aren’t dead anymore.”

“Oh, dear.”

“It’s not anything with a high budget, but the people behind you will be fantastic, I guarantee it. So how about it? Don’t you want to show the young ones that the old guys are still going strong?”

“…Why are you talking about that now all of a sudden?”

“Because I’m that investor.”

“Hah!”

“I’d like to see you on screen again.”

“You…”

“I’ll send you the synopsis by today. The script, too. You’ll probably want to meet with the scriptwriter and the director as well.”

“I didn’t tell you I was going to…”

“I’m going to pretend you said yes. See you. The food was really good.”

“Hey! Hey, stop right there!”

His friend took off just like that. Moonjoong tried to catch up to the man, but Chulmin just jumped into his car shouting, ‘No need for farewells!’

…Then, the man got off the car and came back to the doorstep.

“Actually, come with me.”

“…You haven’t changed at all, have you?”

Even while saying that, Moonjoong grabbed his jacket. He was leaning towards saying yes to his friend’s offer already, he knew his friend wanted the best for him. Moonjoong trusted Chulmin, which was why he didn’t need to hesitate on trying to make a decision.

Moonjoong got inside Chulmin’s car. He thought he would be alone with his friend, but there turned out to be someone else in there. A young man with a very well-defined face. Someone Moonjoong knew very well.

“Hello, sir.”

The young man greeted him very politely.

“Ah, so it’s you, Geunsoo.”

“Yes.”

“What are you doing here?”

“I got hired as a temporary driver,“ Geunsoo said with a grin.

Moonjoong couldn’t help but glance at Chulmin.

“Are you at least paying the poor kid?”

“What, you think I’m a CEO of a black company or something? Geunsoo, am I making you do this for free?”

“No, sir. I’m learning a lot.”

“See? Why are you making me out to be the villain, when I’m so kind?”

Moonjoong and Chulmin burst out into laughter together, Moonjoong hadn’t felt like this in a very long time.

“Let’s go.”

“Yes, sir.”

“So where are we going, anyway?” Moonjoong asked.

“There’s an event the director of the movie is involved in, so I was just thinking of dropping in for a chat.”

“An event?”

“A competition for the babies. It’s the nationals starting today.”

“I thought that was in summer?”

“That’s the one held by us. This one’s backed by industries and production companies. Much smaller than the one we hold.”

Geunsoo decided to butt into the conversation.

“But the industry rates the winter competitions with higher regard than the summer one. I don’t know if you remember, but I won in the winter competition three times back in high school.”

“I know, I know. You’ve bragged about it so much that I remember it by heart at this point,” Chulmin responded, clicking his tongue.

Geunsoo started coughing embarrassedly.

“You’ll see a lot of familiar faces once you’re there. We’re not actually going for the competition, but rather the drama production announcement meeting being held in the building next to it.”

“I see.”

“You should try watching how the younger kids act too if you have the time.”

“Younger kids, huh.”

Moonjoong turned to look outside the window.

* * *

"You didn’t forget anything, did you?”

“Nope.”

“Check again, just to be sure.”

“You look even more nervous than us for some reason, Instructor.”

“You’re literally the only person calm here!”

Maru watched as Miso walked away to somewhere else. Today was the day of the prelims, so the acting club was especially busy.

“Maru! Help me with this!” Soyeon called out.

Maru ran over. They needed to move their props over to the stage in Anyang. He put on the chair Soyeon was holding into a truck in the middle of the school field.

“Pretty much done, right?” Dojin asked.

The costumes were carried by the girls. They checked everything last night, so they definitely didn’t forget anything. Things should be fine as long as the props arrive safely at the stage.

“Careful not to break them. They’re made of wood.”

They tied the wooden props to the top of the truck under Joonghyuk’s instructions. In total, they had a building prop, streetlights, trash cans, a store, and a few desks to go in front of said store as well.

“Here, let me see.”

An employee of the moving company checked things over one last time before covering it up with a tarp and tying it all down with more ropes.

“Phew, finally.”’

The club members let out a sigh of relief. They’ve done this several times already, but they always got stressed anyway. They didn’t want their precious props breaking on them, after all. Unfortunately, it’s already happened twice to them so far.

“Please take good care of it, sir.”

“Of course.”

The truck left first. The club members split up between a taxi, Miso’s car, and Ganghwan’s car.

“You should just come in as our secondary advisor at this point,” Maru commented, getting into the shotgun seat in Ganghwan’s car.

“Hey, don’t say that. You’re going to jinx it. Oh, guys, it’s a little dirty, but please bear with me.”

“Yes.”

Indeed, the back seats were littered with Ganghwan’s clothes, scripts, and various tools. Daemyung, Taejoon, and Dojin carefully moved everything to the side before they settled into their seats.

“We’re leaving.”

Ganghwan pressed on the pedal as soon as he saw Miso leave. It was 11am when the club finally made their way towards Anyang. Maru took out his phone to read a message he received just yesterday.

[We’ll go easy on you for the prelims, so good luck. We’ll win at the finals though.]

It was her. Looking at the message just gave him strength.

“Nervous?”

“Yes.”

“Well, aren’t you good at lying. You don’t even feel anything, do you?”

“Am I that obvious?”

“Very. At least try to fake it better. I told you, didn’t I? You’re the type that gets stimulated on stage, so some nervousness beforehand is really good for you. If you go wild by yourself, that’s not acting anymore. If you want to communicate with the audience, you need to become calm on the stage.”

“I understand.”

Ganghwan started speaking to the kids behind him as well.

“And you guys need to stop being so nervous! Gosh damn it, what’s with you guys? The person next to me has the problem of being too calm and the people behind me are way too nervous. Come on, this isn’t like your second or third time on stage, is it? Hm?”

“…It is.”

“Oh, right. Sorry about that. I guess it’s right for you to be that nervous, then. You really can’t do anything about that.”

Maru knew Ganghwan wouldn’t stop talking there. Indeed, the man continued talking.

“Accept the fact that you’re nervous, though. This is a feeling you’ll have to live with forever, so learn to enjoy it. It’ll be a thousand times better than trying to suppress it. I promise.”

The three kids behind them nodded.

Chapter 138

The first thing her mom asked her when she said she was going out on a Sunday morning was, ‘Are you going on a date?’ She couldn’t answer. All she could do instead was to run out the door. As she went down the elevator, she checked her scarf and stockings for any tears. She was good, thankfully.

“Hah.”

She puffed out a breath of white against the chilly winter air before pulling the beanie she received from Maru down to her ears. She felt warm again pretty quickly. Once she got on the bus, she took a look at the time. It was ten o’clock. The play would begin at noon, so she had plenty of time. As she watched the scenery pass by out the window, she grinned. She didn’t tell Maru that she would be visiting today, he would definitely be surprised if she visited him in secret.

After getting off the bus, she turned to take a look at the community center. It was filled to the brim with high schoolers and cars, cars filled with stage props.

“Hurry up!”

“We’re next.”

Everyone was moving in such a hurry. She’d become one of them next week as well. She still had an hour till the play, so she headed to a convenience store nearby. She could visit Maru while she had the time, but she didn’t want to bother him when he was so close to starting.

“I’ll buy this.”

A high schooler in a costume was buying a hot drink for himself. The poor boy looked incredibly nervous. She muttered ‘good luck’ under her breath. They all had to fight for the ticket to the finals, but that didn’t make them sworn enemies.

As she sat down to drink some coffee, she saw a familiar face walk towards the store from the hall. The girl didn’t seem to have recognized her even as she walked into the store.

“Yoojin,” she called out first.

Lee Yoojin. The girl was someone who practiced in the amateur acting class with her. Yoojin smiled as soon as she discovered her.

“What the, you are on today?”

“No, I’m just here to watch.”

“Really? That’s the same as me, then. Ah, I’m here to spy I guess?”

Yoojin grinned. Spy, huh. What a funny way to put it.

“Did you come here with your club?” Yoojin asked.

“No, by myself.”

“By yourself?”

Yoojin looked a little confused, most people wouldn’t be coming here by themselves. It felt a little embarrassing to say that she was here to see Maru, so she just said she had business here. Yoojin continued despite her confusion.

“I came with my mom.”

“Your mom?”

“Yeah. There’s apparently this drama event happening around here. She said she had work to do there, so I just followed her.”

“Wow, your mom works in the drama industry?”

“She runs a hair shop, but she’s involved one way or the other. That’s how I managed to become a child actor, to begin with.”

“I see. You must’ve seen a lot of celebrities.”

“Sure. From afar.”

She knew that Yoojin acted as a child actor, but she had no idea that Yoojin’s parents were involved in the industry as well. They must be pretty close to the actors if they were involved in events like this. Or maybe it was the producers instead?

“Oh, by the way… You look really mature, you know that?”

“Who, me?”

“Yeah. Didn’t you greet a lot of people for the event, too?”

“Sure. My mom would introduce me, I’d bow, and leave afterwards. I just managed to escape it.”

Yoojin spoke with a tired voice. She put her chin over her hand as she sighed.

“Sounds horrible.”

“It’s not that bad if you consider it an investment for the future. It might be tiring now, but this is just an opportunity for later.”

Yoojin sounded very calm about it, which was pretty amazing. As expected of a real actor, the girl emanated the energy of a pro.

“When does it begin?”

“11.”

“So it’s started already, huh. Why aren’t you going in?”

“I’m here for the one that’s going at 12.”

“12?”

“We still have time, then. Did you have lunch?”

She looked down at her empty can of coffee as she muttered, ‘this is lunch.’

“Good lord. That’s lunch? Are you on a diet?”

“Not really. There just isn’t much for me to eat here. I don’t really want instant noodles either.”

“Mm.”

Yoojin tapped her lips for a second before widening her eyes.

“There was a katsu place nearby. Want to go?”

Katsu… she liked it, but she didn’t have the money today. She only brought enough to be able to go back home.

“By the looks of it, you need me to pay, don’t you?”

“I’m fine, really.”

“I’m not. I don’t want to eat alone. Can you come with me? Eating alone feels awkward.”

Yoojin approached to put an arm around hers. Were they this friendly with each other before? Well, whatever. She just smiled. She wasn’t the type that got uncomfortable by something like this. Plus, the girl was offering food.

“I’m going to get the one with cheese!”

“Me too.”

“Let’s go.”

She followed Yoojin into a restaurant behind the hall. It was a place decorated with logs on the outside. Once she entered, she let out a small exclamation of surprise.

“It’s so pretty.”

“Right?”

It must’ve been a popular place considering how many seats were filled. There were a lot of couples inside. The restaurant didn’t have seats left on the first floor, so they had to go up. Thankfully, they could find a seat quickly on the second floor.

“A window seat! Lucky!”

Yoojin put her bag on one of the chairs as she sat down. Only then did she notice Yoojin’s bag, it was a very expensive looking clutch bag. Noticing her gaze, Yoojin started showing off the bag.

“I got it as a gift.”

“It looks expensive.”

“It was from a regular in our shop who runs a jewellery shop. I couldn’t ask for the price either since I was too scared to ask. That lady drives around in a Maserati…”

“What’s a Maserati?”

“It’s just this car thing. It looks better with older men, but the regular told me she really likes it.”

Yoojin didn’t talk all that much in the acting class, but the girl was really going off today. She must be very sociable outside of work, they might even be able to become good friends. She took a sip of water with those thoughts in mind.

“That hat looks good on you.”

“Oh, this?”

She smiled as she put a hand over her hat. To be honest, she did want expensive clothes and bags. She’d get it if she could, but more than that, she wanted a gift that had thought behind it. That’s why she liked this hat Maru gave her much more than the clutch that Yoojin carried around. It’s something Maru bought this for her with the hopes that she wouldn’t get cold.

“Ooh, is it from a guy?”

“………”

She was embarrassed to admit it, but she didn’t want to deny it. So she just closed her mouth.

“I’m so jealous. Who is it? I feel like it’s from someone who likes you, you must get a ton of confessions thrown your way.”

“Confessions? No way. I don’t get a lot of those.”

“Liar. You said ‘a lot’, so you do get them.”

“What about you? I feel like you would’ve gotten a lot as well.”

The two of them stopped talking for a second before smiling awkwardly. If they were better friends, they would’ve started cracking silly jokes here. But well, they weren’t good friends just yet.

“You must be really interested in acting, by the way. Especially if you’re coming to watch on a day off.”

“R-right.”

She did enjoy watching people act. That was the one hobby she used to share with her dad, but she definitely came here today for personal reasons.

“Is Myunghwa high aiming for the first prize this year, too?”

“Of course. Our seniors are ready to go all out. We might get overtaken by Bosung girl’s high if we aren’t careful.”

“What the, you guys were watching out for us? Then again, we’re getting ready to beat you guys, too. Ugh… Our seniors are scary. They’re so nervous now that we’re a week out from the prelims. Hold on, if you guys win this one… You guys would be winning four nationals in a row, right?”

“You’re right, now that you mention it.“

“Can’t you go easy just this once?”

“No way, never.”

“Ugh, you’re too greedy.”

Yoojin smiled playfully. The server walked over to serve them the food they ordered. It came on a heated stone plate, vastly different from the katsu stores near her school.

“It’s not that expensive, so don’t feel too bad about it.”

“Was I being too obvious?”

“Very. You have a pretty cute side to you, don’t you? I thought you’d be really stiff when I saw you in Myungdong.”

“Same here. I thought you’d be awkward, too.”

“Hm, then again, we never really talk to each other. After all, I’m… the main character. Hehe.”

“Ugh, good for you.”

She did want the role of Seulmi, the character that’s often paired with Maru’s. She had to admit that Yoojin fit the role better, so she gave up. She didn’t want to ruin the mood of the place with pointless greed. In the end, she wanted to get along with the rest of the crew.

“Ah! Come to think of it, isn’t Han Maru acting today? He was in Woosung high, wasn’t he?”

“Y-yeah.”

“Right, you guys are always together, too! Are you guys going out?”

Her mouth twitched a little. But before she could say anything, Yoojin spoke first.

“No, you didn’t seem all that interested when I saw you two at the bbq last time. You guys live in the same direction, right?”

“Y-yeah. Suwon.”

“I thought so. Maru doesn’t seem to be the type that’d get along with girls. No, he’s changed a bit recently. He always seemed to be thinking about something before, but he started speaking a lot more now. He doesn’t seem as hard to approach as before.”

“Really? I had no idea. He honestly goes around saying so many silly things.”

“Silly? Huh, interesting. I never got that from him. Ah, right. Did you know? Maru’s actually really thoughtful. He’s really hardworking when it comes to acting, too. I saw his script last time, and wow… I’ve never seen more detailed notes on a script. It was pretty cool.”

“Cool? Maru’s not cool, he’s just really stubborn about everything he does.”

She felt a little offended for some reason. She should be happy since the person she’s dating just got praised, but she didn’t feel that way at all.

‘Hold on, we are dating, right?’

They confessed to each other and now they were going places together, so they were… dating, right?

‘Come to think of it, he never gave me a proper response!’

Suddenly, it felt like she was losing out. The boy shook her after coming to her house at night, then called her again later. Did she ever get a single word out of him about how he felt then?

“Hey.”

“Hm?”

“Why did you become so dazed all of a sudden? Your food’s gonna get cold, let’s eat.”

“Y-yeah.”

She started eating for now, just like Yoojin said. All the while thinking about what she would say to Maru.

* * *

“This is unrelated to dramas, but I just have to ask this, given the number of rumors. Ms. Suyeon, are you dating anyone? I heard you were very close with actor Choi recently.”

“Ah… For now, I think hearing such rumors are a great honor for me.”

“By that you mean?”

“Mm, honestly, I would love to date someone. But who are you talking about? Actor Choi? There’s quite a lot of actors with that last name.”

Suyeon passed the reporter’s question with a bright smile. The reporters let her go with laughter as well. This time, a different reporter asked a question.

“You have some great wit, actor Suyeon. You’ve been a rising icon in the industry. Did you know about that?”

Suyeon pointed at herself in surprise.

“Me?”

“Yes. You recently got very good reviews on the drama that you finished, ‘Blue Sparks’. It didn’t get that many views, but many of the reviews said that it was a pleasure watching you.”

“I’m very grateful for those reviews, but that’s also quite a bit pressure. I would rather not be called an ‘icon’ or anything of the sort when I’m just starting out in the business.”

“Isn’t ‘just starting out’ an inaccurate description? I heard you were very famous back in Hyehwa station.”

“Dramas are very different from plays, after all. In this world, I am nothing but an outsider and a student trying to get better. Again, I’m grateful for all the attention, but I really do think the term ‘icon’ isn’t befitting of me just yet.”

“By ‘just yet’, do you mean that you would become an icon in the future?”

“Mm, yes. I’m not trying to be arrogant here, only greedy. I want to shake up the viewers after I mature a bit more as an actress.”

“Thank you for your response.”

The actress sat back down with a grin.

Chapter 139

Suyeon’s mouth was hurting from having to smile so much. She took a sip of water as she stretched her jaw a little bit. After her first miniseries with the K broadcasting company ended, she immediately received another job offer. The K broadcasting company was recently losing views to the S broadcasting company, which was why they were in a rush to start a new miniseries.

Suyeon looked to her right. That was the main character’s seat in the announcement table, a spot she couldn’t even dream of sitting at. She thought she was getting some attention initially, but in the end, all of the attention shifted over to the main character. As a ‘rising star’, she couldn’t hold a candle to the real thing.

“Mr. Kang, you’re asking such an embarrassing question.”

The man talking right now was a male actor, the one actor who managed to grab the attention of all the women in the country. The romance drama he starred in held incredibly high ratings and the thriller movie he starred in later in the year gathered up to six million viewers. The man, who had just reached his thirties, was pretty much the ticket to success for just about any drama or movies right now. The K broadcasting company had somehow managed to cast the man in spite of his popularity. Also, there was one more person.

“It feels odd coming here now, I can’t get used to it. Honestly, I need a shot of soju in me before I can really get going.”

The actress who clearly didn’t have a filter on her mouth. She managed to become a star a few years ago by demonstrating her massive talent as a side character in a movie. Her fame didn’t last, though. She immediately turned her attention to shooting commercials, people insulted her for her greed back then. Not anymore. After she earned her money through commercials, she turned her attention to independent films.

By that point, she didn’t give a damn about money and acted exclusively in the films that caught her attention. Just a while ago, she starred in a film about a gay character. The film got blasted by Christian media, but all of Korea back then got into a heated debate about whether or not gay love was right. The woman acted in a ton of films afterwards, but she didn’t appear on TV shows or dramas. Suyeon still remembered reading her saying ‘to the guys that tried to tempt me with money… fuck you,’ on a magazine interview.

Ahn Joohyun.

The woman was finally going to appear on television once again. Suyeon didn’t have a problem with it. As long as the woman didn’t harm her in any way, she didn’t care. But, as soon as Suyeon heard that she was going to be in this drama, she did everything she could to get a role here. Joohyun was a woman who always brought controversies. That meant that there was a higher chance that Suyeon’s name would appear on mainstream media alongside her. Not only that, the main character was the most popular male actor of the year. This drama was too tempting to be ignored.

“Hahaha, you’re very liberal about your views as I expected, Ms. Joohyun.”

“Liberal? No way, I’m just rude. I still remember what your company wrote about me. Ahn Joohyun, dragged down into becoming a CF queen. Her acting? A tragedy of an actress who chases money. That was the title, wasn’t it?”

The reporter who had initially asked a question froze up. Not even the people in the VIP seats had a very bright expression on them. Right now, only the general audience was laughing at what Joohyun said.

“You should’ve at least expected this much if you were from that news company.”

“………”

“Write whatever you want. You’re going to write about how I’m a barbarian with no manners this time, aren’t you, Mr. Reporter?”

The reporter started looking around himself nervously. Given his reaction, he was probably fresh in the business. That could only mean one thing. The senior reporters of the company all knew how Joohyun would act towards them, so they sent a newbie as a sacrificial lamb.

“Hahaha, please don’t get so surprised, Mr. Reporter.”

A comedian host tried to intervene right then. The other actors tried to make the situation a little better by smiling, but the reporter in question couldn’t even lift his head.

“How is it? It’s very easy to make a person look like an idiot, isn’t it? I’m confident in my work. How about you, though? Do you take pride in insulting people like that?”

Joohyun froze up the hall yet again. Suyeon was astounded. It was essential for actors to be able to deflect a situation that could go awry. After all, actors should never get on the bad side of reporters, but Joohyun didn’t care. The woman said whatever she wanted, there was probably no one else in the entire country who was like her.

That alone indicated success in the business. At least, as an entertainer.

“Ms. Joohyun, please don’t get so aggressive, you’re scaring me.”

Only when the male actor said something did Joohyun sigh and stop. The woman would’ve probably kept going until she chased that reporter out the hall if someone didn’t stop her. Suyeon noticed the reporters typing away busily in the background. No matter what Joohyun said, these people would continue making a living out of insulting actors. They would probably write something with a title along the lines of ‘there’s an actress who bullies newbie reporters?’

Suyeon did her best to put on a calm smile. There was a high chance the reporters would stop asking questions to the main characters after getting bit like this by Joohyun. That meant she had a chance to get the attention to herself again. If she did well here, she could get herself on the title as well. Something like, ‘an arrogant actress and a humble one’, maybe?

* * *

“She’s a tyrant, that one.”

“Right you are.”

Moonjoong and Chulmin were a little surprised at how bold Joohyun was. Personally, Moonjoong was a fan. As he grew up in his early years, he was stuck under the assumption that women had to be lady-like. That is, quiet, obedient, and unseen. But the more he acted, the more he thought about the nature of humans and the more he realized that that assumption itself was inhumane.

“It’s odd. You need money if you want to even begin to speak like that,” Chulmin noted bitterly.

“You know, that sounds really unrealistic coming from someone as rich as you.”

“Damn it, can’t you agree with me for once?”

Moonjoong scanned the actors for a second after teasing his friend. On the table were eight actors that were getting fairly popular recently. Usually, the producers would only bring the main characters to a place like this, but the side characters were here as well. They probably wanted to show that even their side characters were famous people.

“You see that kid at the edge of the table over there?”

“I can.”

“That’s the kid that Junmin said was particularly smart. Suyeon, I believe.” “Smart.”

Moonjoong thought of the word as he looked at the girl. The girl had a nice first impression, but when Junmin said someone was smart, that didn’t mean a good thing at all. Whenever Junmin introduces a friend, he refers to them as a ‘good person’.

“She’s someone who can take advantage of scandals very well.”

“Ah, smart in that sense?”

“I heard there are quite a few people who fell for that smile of hers. She’s a vixen, that one.”

“She must have quite the dream.”

“Indeed. Personally, I’m afraid of young ones like her.”

“Haha, don’t worry. She’s probably not even interested.”

“You fool, I might look like this, but I’m a president.”

“Oh dear, so you qualify to play with the younger girls, is that it?”

“No, I mean… You know what I mean.”

Moonjoong knew well that Chulmin loved his wife more than anyone else. A long time ago, an actress approached him with vicious intent and the man had promptly cut ties with her right then and there. Chulmin was like a stone, unchanging and unrelenting.

“Ah, I forgot to say. Joohyun and Suyeon over there are both going to appear in that movie you’re going to be in.”

“You’re already casting? What if I say no?”

“That’s a problem for my future self.”

“I see that side of you never changed.”

“Anyway, let’s go to the civic hall next after this event ends. We can take a look at the young kids acting while we wait for our next meeting. The director in question is coming from Seoul right now, so everything should fit quite nicely.”

Moonjoong nodded. It looked like this event would be over soon anyhow, the actors were already starting to take group pictures.

“Thank you.”

“Please pay a lot of attention to our drama!”

When the comedian MC announced the end of the event, the general audience started flocking to the exit. Moonjoong and Chulmin tried to blend into the crowd and exit quietly. But unfortunately, someone recognized them.

“Oh, Teacher!”

A man ran over to say hello to Chulmin. Chulmin smiled and extend his hand, making the man grab it and bow again.

“This is the program director for our drama.”

“Aha.”

The program director looked up to take a look at Moonjoong this time. Moonjoong responded with a smile and the man’s jaw dropped like a rock.

“Would you happen to be Mr. Yoon Moonjoong?”

“Oh, you recognize an old man like me? What an honor.”

“Sir! I know this isn’t really the place to say this, but I was a massive fan. You’re the one who made me want to get into this business to begin with.”

The man shook Moonjoong’s hand firmly. Moonjoong smiled slightly, so there was someone who still remembered him after all. He thought he was past all the attention-seeking habits back in the old days, but he clearly didn’t shake off all of it.

“If you told me, I would’ve put you in one of the VIP seats.”

“No, no. We were just dropping by since we had the time. Don’t worry.”

“At least a meal, then…”

“We have somewhere to be, actually.”

“May I ask where…?”

“The building right next door. Just to say hi and to cheer on the young folk a bit.”

“Ah! Is it the high school competition?”

“Yes.”

“As expected of you, Teacher. You care quite a bit about raising the next generation.”

The production director looked touched, Moonjoong couldn’t help but smile inside. They were only going there to kill time, but somehow a greater meaning was attached to it. It didn’t look like Chulmin was going to correct the man, either.

“Would it be alright if I could join you?”

Right then, the actors started walking towards them. Why wouldn’t they? Their director was talking so intently with someone at the entrance.

“These are our actors, sir.”

By the looks of it, most of the actors with the exception of the younger ones all recognized Chulmin. They all bowed in greeting.

“Dear, dear. I caused too much commotion when I was just dropping by, didn’t I? We’ll take our leave now, so take care.”

Chulmin clearly didn’t want to cause a commotion. Moonjoong was of the same opinion, so they tried to leave as quickly as possible.

“Can I follow you, Teacher?”

“Eh? There’s no need, though.”

“It’s a great chance to meet talented younglings. Plus, I don’t want to send the two of you off just like this. Please, sirs…”

The man told the actors that he would be leaving before walking out the door. The actors said their farewells to the three men with a confused expression before taking their leave. All except two of them.

Suyeon and Joohyun.

Chapter 140

“I like the ones with chocolate on top.”

“I like cream.”

Before she knew it, her hand was getting dragged around by Yoojin’s. She had a cup of coffee in one hand and Yoojin’s hand in the other, it almost felt like she followed her mom outside.

“Oh? It’s almost time.”

“You’re right.”

The two of them turned to head towards the civic hall. The sun was shining brightly above them, making the weather a little warm for winter. She took off her beanie and put it in her bag as she entered the building. Inside, she could see a bunch of high schoolers running around busily in their makeup. She became fired up because of it. The winter competition had finally begun.

“Why are there so many people?”

“No idea.”

This was just the prelims. A regional one, too. Most of the time, high school acting competitions never got attention. Unless a school takes all of their students out to cheer for their club, the audience seats were usually empty. Plus, this was a Sunday. No school would be able to force their students to go watch a high school play on the weekend. Except for Myunghwa high, of course. Her school was very generous to the acting club. Anyhow, that didn’t change the fact that there was an unnatural number of people in the building right now.

“Wow, are those cameras?”

Yoojin noticed the large cameras that were carried around by some of the people, she looked at the cameras strangely as well. A broadcasting camera, at an event like this? Why were there so many reporters as well?

“Is something else happening here today?”

“Probably not, it’s just going to be the competition all the way till 6.”

“What is this, then?”

“Did someone famous come?”

“Ah, maybe.”

She moved to the first floor, wondering if a TV star came. Since the event wasn’t anything special, you could sit anywhere you want. Except of course, for the reserved seats. Interestingly, there were a lot of reserved seats here today. She sat down on one of the middle seats, waiting for the next play to start. Right then, Yoojin received a call.

“Yeah, I’m in. What? You’re coming? Oh, so that’s what it was. Is big sis Joohyun coming too? Did she disappear in the middle? What the, and here I wanted to say hi.”

Even she knew who Ahn Joohyun was, she was a controversial actress. After hanging up, Yoojin continued talking.

“The people from the drama event are all coming here. Something as a celebration?”

“I see. So will there be famous people coming?”

“Don’t know. I think the actors are all gone because of something else, though. The people coming here are all most likely from the production crew.”

“That’s boring. You reckon they’d come on stage to talk about something boring?”

“Probably. They probably have the cameras here for advertising purposes too. Damn, and here I was all excited for nothing.”

Yoojin set her phone to vibrate with a tiny frown. She turned her phone off as well.

“We’ll introduce our next play now. This is the ‘People of Dalseok-dong’, performed by Woosung high. We’ll begin in ten minutes.”

Yoojin blinked her eyes in surprise.

“Maru was in Woosung high, right?”

“Yeah? Yeah.”

“Hmm, I should see how good he is.”

Yoojin let off a gaze like an experienced reviewer.

‘He should do well.’

She’s never seen Maru on the stage. All that she’s seen of him were during their practices, but she knew very well watching through practice and watching acting on stage couldn’t be more different. Maru’s acting, to her, felt calm. She occasionally heard instructor Ganghwan tell him to try and not get excited. She couldn’t understand what the man meant by that at all. Just what about Maru made him look excited?

“Yoojin.”

“Eh?”

“What’s Maru’s acting like to you?”

“Maru? Mm, he’s nice. His acting’s nice, but… It’s not eye-catching. Kind of like a floor that you know won’t give out?”

“So why did the instructor tell him to be calm?”

“Now that you mention it, I do remember him saying that. I don’t know. I don’t think there was a reason for it though? Maru never seems particularly energetic when he’s acting. Chuljin’s a really energetic character and Maru seems a little boring to watch when he plays the character.”

She must’ve thought similarly.

“But surely the instructor had a reason for saying that.”

Yoojin seemed to be pretty excited for this.

“He’s my rival for the nationals, but he’s also a partner for a play we’re working on. I hope Maru does well. If he doesn’t, that would just mean that he’s not suited to be my partner. Maru’s decent right now, but there needs to be something more. I want to act with someone who can charm me. Well, Maru’s a decent kid after all, so depending on how things go today…”

“Why are you talking about that all of the sudden?”

She cut off Yoojin right there in surprise. The girl was suddenly saying some dangerous words in front of her.

“What the, what’s with that reaction?”

“Eh?”

“I thought you didn’t think of Maru that way?”

“That’s…”

“What the, you like him?”

“………”

“That’s a surprise. I don’t mind, though. It’s not like we’re meeting people at this age to marry them. It’s natural to date someone because you like them and breaking up if it doesn’t work out. No, especially our age, I think we should get into very casual relationships. To develop an eye for men. Don’t you agree?”

“I do, but I think it’s better to just stick it through with one guy.”

“Well, that’s not bad either.”

Yoojin seemed to be an open girl. On the contrary, she’s never thought about boys like that before. This was the first time she’s come to like someone and the first time she’s ever confessed back to someone. Dating a different boy? She couldn’t imagine it.

“Oh, it’s starting.”

Yoojin turned her attention back to the stage. She threw away her needless thoughts as well. Thinking about other things during a play was very rude to the actors. Plus, she knew that Woosung high swept all the nationals until eight years ago. Not only that, she also knew that one of the graduates of the club was the one teaching the club right now. She wanted to cheer for Maru, but she also needed to know just how good Woosung high was.

Just as much as she liked Maru, she also liked acting. Competing with someone she liked was fun, but she also had no intention of losing. In the end, Myunghwa high would be the one to make it to the finals.

* * *

‘She’s quite something as well.’

Yoojin was impressed with how the girl next to her was focusing so intently. In their region, Myunghwa high was known for its acting club. Their club even had an admissions test for the students. Receiving such an important role in a club like that and then winning at the previous nationals meant quite a lot. Yoojin wanted to assemble a nice portfolio for her future. In that sense, this competition was very important to her. As such, there was no helping the fact that she could only be wary of the girl next to her.

‘She’s kind of cute, though.’

It was painfully obvious that the girl was going out with Maru. But since the girl was refusing to admit it, she could only assume that the girl was a newbie to romance. It was honestly great fun to tease the girl about it. They talked pretty much for the first time today, but she was appreciative of the girl’s view on acting.

“Maru’s kind of tall, too, huh?”

The girl looked at her with wide eyes when she asked the question. How adorable. The girl probably had no idea what she even looked like whenever they talked about Maru.

“Pft.”

She should stop with the teasing here, though. They had a play to watch.

* * *

Geunseok took a deep breath. He thought back to a small accident that happened in summer, the day that got completely ruined because of some small kid.

‘It’s nothing. I got over it already.’

He calmed himself down to allow himself to focus, very different compared to his past self. He even managed to win at the college competition after the summer nationals, he didn’t have trauma from that incident.

“You must be nervous.”

Yurim came to talk to him, her cheeks were slightly reddened. The girl didn’t have the charm that big sis Suyeon had, but he did think it was good that he had her with him.

“A little. You?”

“I’m trembling.”

“Don’t be too nervous. We’ll be up there together.”

“…Right, together.”

They held hands tightly together before letting go. Just as Geunseok flipped through his script one last time, he got a call.

- You’re about to go now, right?

Big sis Suyeon. A smile automatically formed on his face. Yurim looked at him a little oddly, so he turned away from her to hide his face.

“Yes, we are.”

- Good luck. If you pass, I’ll hold a little party for you or something.

“Really?”

- Yup. Good luck.

He could hear the sound of a kiss from the other side. Geunseok trembled a little bit.

“Who was it?” Yurim asked.

Geunseok frowned a little bit. So boring. Suyeon’s face was still fresh on his mind. Compared to a woman like her, Yurim was a total child.

“My instructor.”

“Ah, I see.”

That smile’s kind of cute, though. Geunseok closed his eyes. Yurim probably wouldn’t talk to him like this. Thankfully, she went elsewhere after telling him to work hard.

‘Good, my emotions are at an all-time high. I can do this. I’m experienced and I’m better than everyone else in the club. I just need to believe in myself.’

He was getting drunk on confidence, he just needed to push through like this.

“Let’s do well.”

“Fighting.”

The seniors all gave him words of encouragement. They all looked at him with trust as well. In the end, he really was the only person the club could rely on.

“Alright, let go of your scripts. We’re five minutes away from starting. It’s meaningless to look at it any more,” Miso said.

Geunseok let go of his script. Despite that, it felt like he was still holding it in his hands. He felt great today. Things should go very well for him.

“You practiced harder than anyone. I swore at you and got mad at you during practice, but I don’t even bother doing that to people who I don’t even see talent from. You know that, right?”

“Yes!”

“We worked for four months. In that time, you all definitely improved. Have confidence and run wild.”

They all gathered in one place before chanting Blue Sky under their breath. Geunseok felt his heart start to beat, he loved this nervous air and the eyes that were focused on him.

‘Is this why people act?’

He grinned. It was time to show people his talent. The other schools that came before them? They were clearly all trash. They were awkward and pathetic. This club wasn’t that good either, but they were better than… that. Plus, this club had Hong Geunseok. The boy who was recognized by everyone, whose brother was a talented actor.

‘I’m not going to be cast at a real play right here, am I?’

It seemed possible. He heard something about some very famous people from the industry coming today. He saw cameras and reporters outside. If he gets in the eyes of someone like that…

‘I can rise even without Lee Junmin.’

Lee Junmin, Geunseok didn’t actually like this man that much. He was thankful to the man for introducing Suyeon to him, but that was all the goodwill Geunseok held towards him.

‘He should support me more, especially with my talent. Just you watch, I’ll leave the moment I find something better.’

Making himself known through his brother shouldn’t be bad as well. Geunseok imagined the reporters all flocking towards him as he waited for them to get called out. Then…

“Woosung high, please come to the stage.”

The staff gave him the go-ahead.

Chapter 141

"So it's begun."

Moonjoong quietly opened the door.

"Um, sir, if you may, could we have a few words…”

One of the reporters followed behind him, Moonjoong turned to glare at the reporter angrily.

"The play is about to start"

"Ah… I apologize."

Moonjoong clicked his tongue in disapproval, he could see Chulmin smile bitterly as well. The door was already open and the kids inside were acting. These kids surely worked very hard to get on stage today. Moonjoong respected the amount of work these kids put into their plays and he didn't want to disturb them. After confirming that the reporter went elsewhere, Moonjoong quietly entered. The corridor lights were already turned off and only the lights indicating where the stairs were were left on. Moonjoong could see little silhouettes of people moving at the stage in front of him, the play seemed to have just begun.

"It's been too long," Moonjoong whispered.

He's often attended plays held by the government acting theaters, but he hadn't seen a play done by students in a very long time. What did these unpolished gems in front of him have to show? He was starting to get a little excited.

"Are you going to stand?"

Moonjoong nodded at Chulmin's question. The play would likely last for a full hour. Instead of making his way through the crowd of audiences, he would much rather stand calmly at the back.

"You folks should go sit over there." Moonjoong told the young actors that followed him.

"It's alright, sir."

Most of the actors shook their head, but Joohyun whispered 'yes' as she took her seat. Moonjoong couldn't help but appreciate the woman for her confidence.

"It's starting."

The lights turned on, painting the stage with a blue hue. The speakers started emitting sounds of a cold wind blowing. The spotlight turned on, focusing on a young man walking out from the right side.

“In the end, I moved here. I should try to earn money as fast as I can and move to the city. Well, at least the town looks quiet.”

The boy said his line with a slight smile before walking to the other side. The sound of a car passing came from the speakers and then the sound of construction workers.

“Nice sound effects.”

“Yeah.”

The lights came back on again. There were a few houses, a store, and a table. The boy from a moment ago walked towards the store.

“Damned granny! I told you that’s not it!”

“Do you want to get on an express train to hell, old man? I told you I’d break all of your fingers if you gambled with old man Kim again, didn’t I?”

“Y-you…! Watch your language, woman!”

A boy dressed up as an old man quickly ran out of the store. Soon, a girl in grandma’s makeup ran out with a broomstick in her hand. Moonjoong was a fan of the abrasive nature of their dialogue, he also noticed the detail in the way the boy walked. The boy intentionally made a turtle neck as he stumbled forward. Clearly a lot of research was put into this.

“Stupid old man.”

The grandma character threw the broom to the side of the stage. She threw it with such force that the broomstick spun out of sight. From behind the curtains, the audience could hear the old man shout, ‘ouch!’ The audience laughed lightly as they saw the old lady humph satisfactorily.

“H-hello.”

The boy awkwardly greeted the grandma. The club seemed to be trying to portray the situation with a bit of surprise from the main character, but it didn’t feel awkward at all. Some actors often overreacted when they showed surprise. That was a mistake. In the end, acting is grounded in reality. It was true that an actor would have to accentuate the drama on stage, but the actor still needs to maintain a balance. Moonjoong narrowed his eye as he looked at the stage, he’s seen the main character somewhere else before.

“Ah, he’s the kid that Junmin took in.”

“Junmin?”

“He showed me the kid a while ago asking if I was interested in raising him.”

“I see. He’s gotten very busy, hasn’t he? I feel like he’s involved in just about everything nowadays.”

The boy was called… Hong Geunseok? The name reminded Moonjoong of someone else. He looked behind him in curiosity with Chulmin.

“He’s my brother,” Geunsoo responded.

Moonjoong nodded. The boy must’ve developed an interest in acting through his older brother. Very nice. Oddly enough, Geunsoo looked a little conflicted when he looked at the stage. Did something happen between him and his brother? Moonjoong was a little curious but decided to leave it for now.

“A comedy, huh.”

“They chose a difficult one. I don’t know who their instructor is, but they must be very bold.”

Making people laugh was much more difficult than making them cry. Take a person crying in a subway, for example. Most people would feel sorry for that person. Sadness was a very easy emotion to share. No other emotion in the world was as infectious as it. Laughter was different. Again, back to the subway example. If someone in front of you was laughing, most would think it to be odd. Some might even find it irritating. In fact, 90% of the time people would wonder why that person is laughing. For crying, it’s very easy to start from that same thought and come to the conclusion of, ‘I should help that person’. The same thing doesn’t happen often for laughter. Because laughter is often a mixture of several different emotions.

“Challenge doesn’t always land you good scores.”

“They’re doing very well, though. They clearly got the basics down.”

Moonjoong nodded. It was very easy to tell from the way that the students acted that they practiced a ton for this play. Their pronunciation, movements, and vocalization, though lacking in some areas, surpassed the standard.

“They were taught well.”

“That I agree with.”

They even wanted to see who the instructor was.

“Ah, Blue Sky, was it?”

Blue Sky. Moonjoong had heard of the theater company a few times as well. It was a place where the younger actors of Hyehwa stations liked to experiment, he’s even visited the place a few times.

“It’s a place where I’m currently staying. The people acting there are all my juniors,” Geunsoo responded.

“You must feel quite proud.”

“Yes. I really am. I hope they win an award.”

“Just like you?”

“Of course.”

Moonjoong smiled and turned his attention back to the stage. A plump little boy walked out this time, wearing slightly worn clothes with a book in his hand. Geunseok greeted the boy. They exchanged small talk for a few seconds before the plump boy’s line really began.

“The world, you know, is rotten! Everyone’s trying to get into the government job market, because it’s dumb easy. How stupid is that? If you ask the kids nowadays what they want to be, it’s no longer stuff like the president or a scientist. It’s a government worker or an office worker. Tsk tsk. People need a vision nowadays, don’t you think?”

“R-right.”

“No matter how hard life is, you need to chase after your dreams! Everyone wants to be a government worker. A government worker! Ugh! No wonder the country is becoming like this. What are you doing, by the way?”

“I’m an office worker.”

“An office worker? I pity you.”

“…What do you do, sir?”

“Me? I’m studying to become a government worker so that I can help society.”

The plump boy looked at the audience seats with pride, the boy had such pride in his eyes that made him comical. The audience laughed a little here and there. No one was laughing particularly loudly, but the general mood of the play seemed pretty set. A difficult feat to achieve, especially for a comedy.

“They’re doing well.”

“That they are.”

Geunseok played a very average office worker, the very definition of average, as a matter of fact. On the other hand, all of the side characters in this play were very, very odd characters. In a normal play, a character like Geunseok shouldn’t exist. After all, a play is just fantasy in the end. It would be boring to put someone so average in a play. But the comedic basis of this play came from the interactions between eccentric characters and the reasonable main character. That is, instead of making the story the main point of the play, the characters took the center stage.

Plays like this depended highly on the actor’s talent. Either the play could ingrain all of its characters into the audience’s head, or remain completely immemorable.

“The instructor understands the kids very well.”

“It’s not a risky bet, it was a challenge. Or a winning lotto ticket.”

Geunsoo quietly butted into their conversation.

“I might look like I’m bragging, but the instructor’s my friend.”

Chulmin lightly thonked Geunsoo’s head with his fist. What an amusing guy. Moonjoong’s been surprised and amused many times by Geunsoo’s acting. The man had a ton of passion for acting.

“I kind of want the plump one,” Chulmin commented.

Moonjoong nodded. The plump kid was very good at displaying his character’s personality. He was doing it by showing, instead of just telling. The best part was that shaky legs of the boy right now. If you looked closely, you’d notice that the boy’s left was moving with a certain rhythm to it, meaning that the boy was already calculating all of his leg movements in his head. The fact that his small mistakes were starting to look like a part of his character’s personality was a testament to the fact that the kid was trying very hard.

“Damn, this world is disgusting.”

When the plump boy exit the stage with a small frown, Geunseok followed the boy out with a big sigh.

“Um, that bread over there. That’s mine!” Geunseok said on the way out.

The stage became dark again. It looked like the scene was about to change, but that wasn’t the case. As the stage regained its blue hue, a kid stuck his head out from the side curtain on the left.

“It’s really loud, isn’t it?”

The character talked to the audience as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. The spotlight weakly focused on the actor, making the entire stage feel a little dream-like.

“The lighting’s very good, too.”

“They made good use of what little they have.”

Moonjoong didn’t want to analyze the play, but he really couldn’t help it. Chulmin smiled, realizing exactly what Moonjoong was thinking.

“We can’t watch plays normally anymore. We’re too old.”

“I’m not old.”

Moonjoong let out a small laugh before focusing on the play again. He couldn’t help but take note of the staging more so than the actors. The instructor was Geunsoo’s friend, was it? That meant the person was likely to be in the industry. It looked like the high school really went all out this time to hire a good instructor.

“In any case, this play really does have everything.”

“Breaking the third wall… It looks like whoever wrote the script did so in the reference of a standup comedy. Do all high schools nowadays like to try new things like them?”

“No, it’s just this one.”

“I like it.”

“Agreed.”

The actor on stage was standing precariously at the edge of the stage. He was even lifting his heels up, frightening some of the audience members at the front.

“You can see me?”

The actor, who looked like he was about to jump into the seats, took a small turn to return to the center.

“…This is a surprise.”

Moonjoong crossed his arms. Occasionally when you run a theater company, you get to meet odd actors. Ones that don’t seem special, but still manages to entice the crowd. It’s not like they’re handsome, good at acting, or good at displaying emotions, but they still get the attention of the audience more so than the main characters. Those who are called scene stealers in movies. Of course, that didn’t mean the said actors were bad at acting. It just meant that the actors were more average compared to the others, the odd thing was that you couldn’t help but focus on that actor in spite of it all.

“He has energy,” Moonjoong muttered before looking at Chulmin.

Chulmin was silently focusing at the boy on stage. Moonjoong silently took a peek at the audience. Every single one of them was following the movements of the little actor on stage.

“Dalseok-dong is a very noisy place. There’s an odd student living here, there’s a very loud grandma and grandpa here. Ah, there’s also a lady who likes to overprice everything she sells. She’ll come out a little later. How do I know that? I read the script. It’s all there.”

The boy moved left and right with each line, almost as if he was talking to a friend. He managed to break the wall between the audience and the stage perfectly and was communicating with the audience. It almost felt like he was whispering words to all of them right next to their ears.

“He’s very well-practiced. Good.”

Chulmin was smiling. This friend always became happy when he found the star that shone in a play. The boy clearly knew how to grab attention even with a quiet voice. He knew how to talk to a crowd and he was very used to it. He directed attention using the gestures of his hands and he naturally gestured at his face as he stared directly at the crowd.

He was bringing the audience close to him. Quietly.

Moonjoong could tell that the boy was boiling over with energy inside, yet he was doing his utmost to try to control it. Left alone, the boy would be able to run around the stage, gripping the attention of the audience, but doing that would break the nature of his character. The boy knew exactly what he needed to do to make use of the dreamlike scene given to him.

When you walk along Hyehwa station, you end up seeing many young actors acting on the street. Among them, there are many artists who can easily become pros, especially the singers. Many of them are frighteningly good at what they do, but you never end up watching them for long. That’s the difficulty artists face with audiences. Skills? Of course, the skills were important, but it’s not everything.

You can occasionally see it. A singer who occasionally breaks up and stumbles on a chord, he doesn’t even use an amp to help him along. Despite that, he gathers a massive crowd around him. He fills up his mistakes with the guitar with his audiences singing along with him and hides his breaking voice with the cheers from the audience. The quiet noise of the guitar only draws the audience closer to him.

An artist that the audience loves. The children who are loved by the muses. Those who grip the attention of the audience purely through the energy that they emanate.

“Oh, the villagers are coming now.”

The boy turned to the left after saying that. He turned so quickly that the baseball cap fell from his head. It must’ve been intentional, given how the boy quickly looked at the audience with a “sh” gesture and ran away.

Moonjoong couldn’t hide his smile as he watched the boy’s expression.

Chapter 142

Maru exhaled behind the curtain. His breath felt sticky, almost as if there was still something stuck in his lungs.

'Phew, this is hard.’

He felt stuffy. Maru thought back to the advice he heard all along. Don’t get overexcited. He got on stage thinking that and didn’t forget that advice even as he got off. Maybe it was because of that, but every one of his actions felt tiring. It felt like his arms and legs were chained up with steel bindings. He barely managed to stop himself from trying to get closer with the audience. Maru breathed slowly, trying to calm himself.

“Good job.”

“How was I? Did I make any mistakes?”

“Not at all. You were amazing.”

Iseul gave him a thumbs up. Maru stood up straight as he looked back at the stage. Yoonjung and Joonghyuk were making their way out, their characters were a married couple. Joonghyuk was the weak husband and Yoonjung was his powerful, dominant wife. The rest of the play was coming along smoothly.

“I’m next. Hah…”

Dojin shook his shoulder lightly. His character was one that teased everyone else with a smile on his face.

“Just do as you normally do.”

“That’s what I’m hoping.”

Dojin licked his lips nervously. He looked too nervous… Maru stood right in front of the boy, who looked back at him dumbly.

“Why are you so nervous?”

“…I feel like I’m gonna make a mistake.”

Dojin opened his script. Just where did that laid-back self of his disappear to? He was even starting to make Iseul, Taejoon, and Yurim start freezing up themselves.

“Oh, yeah. You moved in? That rice ca… ah, crap. Why am I being like this?”

He must’ve bitten his tongue or something. He moved onto his next line quickly, as the stage got ready to switch to the next scene. Dojin would have to step out once the two seniors on stage get back. If Dojin was sent out like this right now, he’d most likely just stare dumbly at the audience. That was no good. What could Maru do?

He couldn’t just erase the boy’s nervousness. If he could do that, he’d practically be god. He just had to distract Dojin into focusing on something else.

“Hey.”

“Yeah?”

“Clench your teeth a bit.”

Dojin followed suit like a little kid. After confirming it, Maru slapped both of Dojin’s cheeks lightly. It wasn’t painful, despite the loud noise it made.

“……”

“Just say your lines. Don’t try to overreact or do anything dumb.”

“…Yeah.”

“Want me to do it one more time?”

“No, I’m fine. I got it.”

Dojin walked forward, massaging his cheeks a bit. Yurim, Taejoon, and Iseul looked their way curiously from the back.

“What, you need one too?” Maru asked.

“Pft. I’m fine. I’m not frozen up like someone over there,” Iseul noted.

At that…

“Who’s frozen up? I’m just a tiny bit nervous, that’s all.”

“Really?”

“Yeah.”

“Do well, then.”

“I know.”

“I’ll give you an award if you do well.”

“What is it?”

“Want a kiss?”

Iseul grinned playfully, but Dojin managed to answer her surprisingly calmly.

“It’s a promise.”

He was getting very bold now. On the other hand, Iseul was looking at Dojin dumbly. Dojin’s legs stopped trembling; Maru nodded at the boy. Yoonjung and Joonghyuk had just come back.

“Phew, I’m leaving.”

“Yeah. Good luck.”

Dojin stepped out with wide footsteps.

“What’s up?” Yoonjung asked.

“I helped him come to his senses.”

“Really? Good job.”

Yoonjung pat Maru’s shoulder as Maru watched Dojin from the side. Dojin would have a thirty-second monologue, he would need to fill up the stage for the 30 seconds that Geunseok was absent for. Dojin coughed and began to talk. His first sentence was a little cracked, but the rest was fine. The lines he must’ve practiced for god knows how long filled up the stage.

Maru could still see a hint of nervousness from Dojin, but it was barely noticeable. The boy’s voice didn’t carry a hint of it, as a matter of fact. Just as he continued watching Dojin on stage, someone grabbed his shoulder.

“Good job, you guys.”

It was Miso. All this time, she was running around behind the stage checking if everything was okay. She looked calm, but Maru could tell that she too, was a little bit nervous. Nervous just like the rest of them.

“You guys are doing perfect. Just keep going exactly like this, you guys are at your best right now.”

Miso wasn’t holding back with her compliments, which inspired the club members to nod energetically. Miso told them the play wouldn’t take much longer before moving elsewhere. Maru followed her.

“Are we fine like this?”

Miso carefully looked over Maru for a second, Maru looked into Miso’s eyes. A word bubble popped over her head.

[Is it alright to tell him this?]

Surprisingly, she was nervous on the inside too. Very unlike her. This was why Maru didn’t actually like this ability. It let him know too much about the people around him and that wasn’t necessarily a good thing. Humans, to him, only looked as natural as they did when they were composed of 80% truth and 20% self-preservation.

“If you’re asking if there’s a problem, then no. You’re fine.”

“You know that’s not what I’m asking. I’m asking if my acting is satisfactory to you.”

Maru was still unable to judge himself fairly. Then again, self-evaluation was probably amongst the hardest things a person could do in the world. That’s why Maru needed someone else’s feedback, he was curious. What did his restrained self look like to the audience? Would it be fine to keep going like this? He needed an answer.

“You’re kind of like a kid when it comes to this.”

“Asking about things you don’t know is a privilege of the children, isn’t it?”

“What do you think? Are you satisfied?”

“I… don’t know.”

“I’ll change the question, then. Are you having fun?”

He didn’t even need to think about that question. He nodded. Miso grinned at him brightly in response.

“That’s all there is to it. Don’t try to chase after perfection, you’re just an amateur.”

“But then the results…”

“Maru.”

“Yes?”

“Don’t try to go so fast, you’re doing well enough as is. I know you’re frustrated, but your character isn’t anything special. You’re not meant to garner attention. That’s why we told you to restrain yourself. But! You’re already garnering attention as is. The audience might become too attached to you if you go further from here, and that would only manage to hurt the play.”

Miso lightly patted Maru’s shoulder.

“Is that a good enough answer?”

“No. But… I understand it to an extent, now.”

“You’re too much. Bring out your everything when you’re able to control yourself perfectly. Not even amateurs do things when they know they’re not ready. That’s just an idiot at work.”

With that, Miso walked away elsewhere. An idiot… Maru scratched his eyebrow. He honestly didn’t really know right now. Could he keep going on stage like this, feeling really stuffy inside like he was now?

‘Well, she said I’m fine, so whatever.’

If you’re sick, go to the doctor. If your car breaks down, go find a mechanic. If you have questions about acting, go ask your instructor. The instructor said he was fine, so what could he do? Especially when that instructor was a pro like Miso.

“Hah!”

Dojin quickly hid himself as soon as he got off the stage, he immediately started huffing like he was out of breath.

“How was I?” he asked.

“I didn’t see,” Maru responded with a smile.

“Ugh, you turd!”

“But looking at the audience, I think you did alright?”

“R-really?”

Dojin flicked his head back to look at the audience, his nervous expression straightened immediately. Maru could tell why pretty easily. The man in the front, the one with the particularly scary face, was smiling.

“We can go… right?”

Dojin was asking the question to everyone around him. No one asked him ‘where’ they were going. They all knew what he was talking about.

“Of course.”

“I won’t be able to sleep if we don’t go to the finals.”

Plus, the fate of their auditorium was at stake this time. No matter what happens, they need to go to the finals. They needed something they could use to appeal to the school.

“Maru, it’s your turn.”

“Yeah.”

Maru got ready to go out again. This time, he was doing a baton touch with Daemyung. He could see an angry student walking towards him from the stage. He slowly took off his first step as well.

“Good luck.”

“Of course.”

They exchanged a short greeting as they passed. For some reason, the stage in front of Maru didn’t look so empty, despite no one being there. Probably because of the amount of passion that got spilled onto the stage seconds before. He could still feel energy emanating from the empty stage.

“They’re very stubborn, aren’t they? My goodness, I felt so frustrated looking at them from off the stage.”

Maru would collect the passion that’s left over on the stage, gather it, and pass it onto the people in the next scene. To do that, he needed to abandon his desire to show off. He couldn’t fill up the stage as much as he wanted to just yet. For now, he needed to listen to the instructor. Hopefully he could go wild some day in the future, but today, he needed to be calm.

‘It’s still fun being up here, though.’

The feeling of the wood under him was great. The heat of the light above him was nice. The silence on the stage felt good. The gazes from the audience felt exhilarating. Acting… was exhilarating.

“I wonder what these people are going to do next. I can’t wait. How do you guys feel?”

* * *

Geunseok was good at acting, Suyeon could tell that the moment she saw the boy. The others were alright, too. More than alright actually, she was pleasantly surprised. They were quite harmonious together. Most high school plays were a little lacking by nature, but this school was different. Instructor Miso was definitely quite talented.

To begin with, the woman was asking Suyeon about what she wanted to do with Geunseok. She was sharp. Probably the reason why the club turned out to be so skilled as well, but there was one person Suyeon was more concerned about.

‘Han Maru… ’

The boy she first saw when she met Ganghwan. She was unsure what Junmin meant by him being odd, but she understood the man perfectly now. If she saw skill from Geunseok, she saw possibilities from Maru. Right now, Geunseok was objectively better than Maru. On the other hand, Maru had a skill that Geunseok didn’t have. She might simply be mistaken. This was her first time seeing him act, after all.

‘But I have this feeling.’

Feeling. There was no other word that was as iffy as it. Suyeon only reserved this word for those she believed held more value than they let on. She could tell if she was right after some time, but for now, she was sure that Maru was different. Suyeon tapped at her lip lightly with her index finger. She was thinking. Calculating. How long would it take for her to establish a relationship with Maru? What could she gain from it?

The abacus in her mind quickly came to a conclusion: It would be profitable.

Suyeon felt a need to agitate Geunseok even more. If she used the boy well, she could establish a relationship with both Geunsoo and Maru.

‘Speaking of which, how could he just completely ignore me like that?’

She was ignoring Geunsoo because she didn’t want to greet him first, but Geunsoo didn’t even seem to notice her. It was a little humiliating, but for now, she put Geunseok higher on her list. She would have a lot of fun breaking him down.

‘I’m getting a lot out of this.’

It was a good day.

Chapter 143

The stage was a lot of fun for sure, Maru felt a lot better just saying his lines. Whenever a new reaction from the audience hit him, it felt like more and more of his senses were being liberated.

“It looks like I’ll have to go back inside.”

He gave a slight bow before coming back off stage, he nodded at the club members before grabbing a water bottle on the floor. He was wearing very light clothes, but he was still very sweaty inside.

“Not much left.”

Miso told them to focus until the end, the play was quickly reaching its climax. Since the characters never really went through a big conflict, the climax wasn’t particularly tense. It was just a traditional comedy. The play would be considered a success if the audience was smiling until the end. Maru could hear Geunseok speaking on stage. Despite playing a character with no real traits, Geunseok could still attract attention to him. The boy’s voice was trying its utmost in order to not get buried by the other kids around him.

The quality of the play was going up, purely thanks to Geunseok’s work.

* * *

“They’re good.”

“Yeah.”

“Didn’t Woosung High fail the prelims last summer?”

“Yeah, that’s what I heard.”

She was whispering quietly with Yoojin while looking at the boy in front of her. The boy on stage was tall and had very well-defined features. The boy’s charming voice and energy were almost incredible. That wasn’t all. His acting was so natural that the character he was playing almost felt real.

“I wonder why they failed?”

“My senior watched the play, and… Apparently they made a mistake?”

“Mistake?”

“Yeah, apparently it was from the tall kid, so… Probably him?”

“Maru’s tall too, though.”

“Maru didn’t participate in the summer competition.”

“Really? So he only started practicing in Fall?”

“Pretty much.”

“That’s surprising. Really surprising.”

Yoojin rested her chin on her hand. It really was surprising. Looking back, Maru told her that he worked a part-time job over the summer. Meaning, he didn’t practice at all. He only started practicing in the Fall, so… four months. In any case, the people on the stage left and the stage turned blue again.

“Maru’s coming,” Yoojin noted.

Maru stumbled out from behind the curtain. He carefully walked to the center before looking around, as if he was about to tell them a secret. His movements were well-rehearsed and flowed well.

“The tall kid is better at acting for sure, but my attention is drawn more to Maru. Is it the lights?”

“Don’t know.”

She was curious about that as well. She came to see Maru as a fan of plays, not as his lover. Maru was standing in front of her, speaking calmly and easily on stage. His character was unique for sure. It only made sense that he would attract attention, but was that really all there was to it? His character was unique, but not to that extent. There were plenty of other characters in the play who looked nice as well. It wasn’t like Maru was significantly better at acting than everyone else, either.

So what made him so much more charming? She thought it was simply because she liked him, but Yoojin felt the same way as her. There had to be a different reason.

‘Tone? Expression? Or synergy with his character?’

What was it? She felt herself getting nervous by the second, she didn’t want to lose to Maru in terms of acting. She was Maru’s girlfriend, but she also didn’t want to lose. Especially not as an actor from Myunghwa high.

“I can’t read the judges’ minds, but they’re going to do pretty well, I’m sure of it.”

Yoojin sounded confident and she had to agree. She’s followed her dad to watch many plays in the past and she had felt what she’s feeling now whenever she looked at good actors. She put a hand over her chest, she could feel it beating.

‘He’s good. I’m not going to lose, though.’

It suddenly occurred to her that she’s never thought this while she practiced with Maru.

“Yoojin, what was it like practicing with Maru? Was he like this?”

“Mm… Not at all. He’s completely different. Maru’s very boring when he practices. Not in a bad way. He’s really good and well-balanced. Very good to practice with. But it feels like he’s always missing something.”

“What about now?”

“You can see for yourself, he’s very different. Maru on the stage looks… kind of dangerous. It feels like he’s walking on a tightrope. You get dragged into focusing on him, because it almost feels like he’s going to make a mistake. More than anything, you can see him having a huge amount of fun. You smile before you even realize it.”

That was it. She nodded in agreement. Maru had life on the stage, unlike during practice. It almost felt like he was going to charge into the audience right now. Looking at that just made her start focusing on him. His acting was exciting, to say the least.

“Woosung high. I’ll have to tell my seniors about it.”

“Me too.”

She balled up her hands into a fist. What would Maru look like when they got on the stage together? She looked forward to it. She wanted to see the actor that was Maru as soon as she could.

‘What the, he’s pretty cool.’

She turned to look at Yoojin for a second.

“What is it?”

“No, it’s nothing.”

“Maru’s cool, right?”

Yoojin smiled oddly. That surprised her. She almost denied Yoojin adamantly. No, she almost told Yoojin to stop looking at Maru so positively. She felt her cheeks redden, so she quickly turned away. She was still looking at the stage, though. She didn’t want to miss it.

“You’re really adorable, did you know that?”

Yoojin pinched her cheeks with a grin. She put on a small frown on her face. Right then.

“By the way.”

“Mm?”

“I’m not the type that gives up even after seeing a goalkeeper.”

Yoojin looked back at the stage after saying that. She widened her eyes in surprise. The girl said something pretty cryptic. She could only tell herself that Yoojin was talking about something else, but she was staring very intensely at the stage right now.

“He’s mine.”

She realized what she said only after it got out of her mouth. Yoojin put a hand over her mouth with a grin. That’s when she realized, she’s just been played for.

“You…”

“Shh. The play’s still going on.”

“…I’ll see you after the play ends.”

“Any time. I wasn’t lying about that last part though.”

The girl looked confident, she didn’t look away. They glared at each other for a second before looking away.

“Come on, what about loaning him out?”

“No.”

“So you guys ARE going out then, aren’t you?”

“That’s…”

“You need to get lessons on dating. You’re totally a newbie in that area, aren’t you? I couldn’t help but tease you.”

Yoojin grabbed her face before snapping it back towards the stage.

“Your boyfriend’s about to leave the stage.”

She wanted to say something, but she lost the motivation after seeing that grin on Yoojin’s face. She should just focus on watching the play.

* * *

"Looks like we got a winner here.”

“Right?”

“Wow. A comedy. And it doesn’t suck, either. It’s been a while since I’ve seen that.”

The judges nodded in unison. The prelims would continue until the next week, but they would be hard-pressed to find any teams better than Woosung High.

“So it’s Myunghwa High and Woosung High, then?”

“Myunghwa High didn’t even go yet, though.”

“The kids from that school are very good, remember? I went there last time since I had business at the school, and wow… Their practice room is better than most theaters in Hyehwa station, they even have their own dressing room. The school’s going all out with them.”

“Makes sense. They’re famous for their acting club, after all.”

“The prelims should be nothing for them.”

Everyone nodded yet again.

“But disregarding that for a second, Woosung High really prepared a lot for this.”

“Yeah. I heard one of their graduates is their instructor?”

“Miss Yang Miso.”

“Ahh, I know her. She’s very popular at such a young age. She used to be a powerhouse in the Blue Sky theater. So she decided to become an instructor, huh?”

“She probably had a change of mind. It does feel nice seeing a school that used to be famous start to climb back up like this.”

“Haha, don’t try to score them too well though because of it.”

The judges finished their conversation with a smile. At the same time, the play ended. The young club members started to come out one by one for a curtain call.

“That one was really good,” one of the judges said, pointing at a tall boy in the group.

Everyone else nodded in agreement.

“And him… we’ll have to watch him, but he does have great potential. It’ll be fun to watch him.”

The odd character that started talking to the audience out of nowhere. It was a character that could’ve gotten completely ruined, but the boy handled it very well. The judges were able to have a nice time watching the play thanks to it.

“Really? I don’t know. It just felt like I was watching a kid who was unable to control himself.”

“It does kind of feel like that too. He’s like a diamond in the rough? He’s good to watch, though, since the tall boy supports the rest of the play so well.”

“That’s true.”

By then, the club members finished their curtain call. The judges put down their pens and clapped with the rest of the audience.

* * *

"Good job.”

Miso comforted the club members who returned to the dressing room. She was very satisfied. The club did very well. The judges probably had nothing bad to say about them.

“Phew, it’s over.”

“No mistakes. Hah…”

The kids finally started relaxing a bit.

“Good work. The next team will come in soon, though, so let’s get ready to leave.”

Miso wanted more time to talk, but the situation wasn’t so good. They couldn’t take up the space for too long, given the nature of the event. In the end, they had to get out carrying props without even being able to erase their makeup.

“We have to use these props again, so careful!”

It only felt like their work was truly over when they carried everything outside.

“We did well, right?”

“Yeah, we were awesome.”

Miso called the club members closer.

“We’ll have to wait for the results, but I don’t think we’ll fail at all. We can worry about that when we actually get into the nationals. So let’s go straight back to practice!”

The kids all nodded at the word. They probably felt it at the stage themselves, the power of practice.

“They’ll announce the results next week. Three days later, we’ll go into regionals. Ten days later would be the finals. We don’t have a lot of time.”

Miso wanted to let them go more than anything else just for today, but she didn’t show it. It wasn’t over just yet.

“Let’s review our work when we go back to school. Think of what you did well and what you did wrong on our way back.”

“Yes!”

“I’ll say it again, but you guys did tremendously well today. This is only the start though, so stay nervous.”

“Yes!!”

“Good, let’s get going. From here on out, it will be a race against time.”

Miso looked back at the city hall, she could feel the kids staring at it with her from behind. Finally, they managed to move forward by one step.

Chapter 144

It was for one hour. They practiced for four months, just for that one hour. Maru didn't have much left in his head. As soon as he got off the stage and moved onto cleaning, the excitement in his head just vanished. The only thing that was left in his head was the fact that they were finally finished with the play.

“Lay that over sideways. It might fall over if we’re not careful with it.”

Maru nodded at the moving employee’s advice. He laid the prop down flat and the employees stacked more props onto it. Maru took off his hat and threw it in a corner somewhere.

“I don’t feel quite satisfied.”

Looking back on his performance, Dojin felt he could’ve done better. Maru stretched as he listened to the boy mutter to himself. Personally, he felt like they showed the audience everything, at least with the amount of practice they had. Dojin probably felt a little lacking because he wanted to show the audience more than they were already capable of.

“We did well, still.”

“…Yeah.”

Dojin got back to working with a shrug. Looking at the boy, Maru realized that the club had a lot more props than he first thought. Where did Miso even get some of these?

“Get moving, you lazy asses. You’re only first years, you don’t have the right to be lazy.”

Before he knew it, Miso came up behind him to push him. Her sudden push almost made Maru trip over.

“Do I get compensated for injuries sustained at work?”

“Work injury my ass.”

Miso handed him a drink, it was a can of cold plum juice. It seemed that she took a few minutes to go buy drinks at a nearby convenience store. It was winter currently, but Maru was more than happy to have a cold drink in his hands.

“How was it?”

“What?”

“How does it feel to properly finish your first play?”

“It’s not exactly my first play, so I don’t know.”

“It’s definitely your first play. At least, one that uses this.”

Miso tapped at Maru’s head, making him smile lightly.

“You make it sound like I’m someone who doesn’t even think.”

“You aren’t?”

Miso passed by him after telling him to move his luggage. As Maru loaded a box of makeup onto a truck in front of him, Miso spoke out to him once again.

“Taking up acting was a good choice, wasn’t it?”

She was speaking with her back to him, Maru nodded at her in silence. Strangely, she put a thumbs up over her head, as if she saw his gesture.

“You got everything up?”

“Yes.”

“Alright, let’s get out of here.”

Maru helped the employee put a cover over the truck’s trunk before it took off, Maru watched it carefully until it disappeared from his sight. He didn’t want the cover coming loose as the truck moved.

“Is it gone?” Daemyung asked, coming up from behind Maru.

The boy was looking at the empty parking lot with a desperate expression. Upon closer inspection, Maru realized that Daemyung was holding a chair in each hand.

“Yeap. We forgot a few things?”

“Yeah. I found it as I took out the trash.”

“Man, we’d be so screwed if this was a gas mask.”

“Gas mask?”

“You don’t want to know about it. We’ll have to take this back one way or the other, though. Let’s put it in the instructor’s car.”

The two of them walked over to where the club members were with the chairs. They were all catching their breaths as they sipped their drinks.

“What’s that?”

“A mail we forgot to send.”

“What?”

Maru passed Miso to open the back door of her car. There were clothes strewn all over. There were dresses, even. Probably for other plays.

“Can I move this to the side?”

Miso told them to ‘be careful’, seemingly having realized what they were doing. Just as Maru was about to stuff the chairs in, he found a little white envelope named ‘script’ in front of him. The title of the play was “Statute of Limitations”.

“Must be her next play.”

She was an actor by trade, so it only made sense for her to have a script. Maru carefully cleaned up the clothes some more before putting the chairs inside.

“Check one more time to make sure if you forgot anything. Check your costumes as well.”

They all sent her an ok sign.

“Alright, we should get going.”

Miso would go back by car and the rest of them would take the bus. They should be fine since their costumes didn’t look too odd. But…

“Can we remove our makeup?” asked Yurim and Taejoon.

The two of them played older people, so there were a lot of wrinkles drawn on their faces.

“I’ll be leaving first to take care of the props,” said Miso, as she took off in the car.

“We’ll get going after we wash up ourselves.”

“Sure.”

There was no need for them to move as a group, so the club decided to take off without the two. Thinking about going back made Maru finally realize that the prelims were over.

“Hey, Han Maru.”

As Maru walked towards the bus station next to the city hall, he heard someone call out from behind him. A person he didn’t expect to see at all was standing there.

“What are you doing here?”

“Coincidence.”

It was Yoojin, she was grinning as if something good happened. The girl looked very stiff and cold most of the time, but she had a very bright smile. It looked good on her. Maru could feel the club members in front of him stop to look at what was going on. He motioned them to go on without him, but that prompted them to move to him instead, especially Dojin. The boy seemed way too expensive.

“Yoojin.”

“Mm?”

“How do you feel about him?”

Maru pointed at Dojin behind him, Yoojin pretended to think for a second before shaking her head.

“Maru! Will you be late?”

Yoonjung waved at Maru with a smile, her energy seemed to be emanating all the way over to them.

“Friend?”

“No, senior.”

“That’s surprising. I thought Woosung High would be strict.”

“She’s just like that. She’s always radiating with energy. Kind of gets tiring.”

“Oh, I get that feeling.”

Yoojin seemed to have a similar senior back at her school.

“You should go first. I’ll follow you later.”

“Yeah. Have fun on your date! Don’t be late!”

Yoonjung turned around with a wink, the other kids turned away as well. Daemyung was even dragging away Dojin himself.

“Why isn’t she coming, though?” Yoojin blurted.

“Who?”

Yoojin looked around for a few seconds before pointing somewhere beyond Maru’s shoulder.

“There she is.”

Maru looked back. There was a girl running towards the two of them, passing the club members on her way. It was her. She was wearing the hat he gifted her at Myungdong.

“Must feel nice having your girlfriend here,” poking Maru at his side.

Maru grinned, which made Yoojin frown a little. She must’ve wanted to see his surprised reaction.

“What the, that’s no fun.”

“Don’t tease her so much. She gets mad surprisingly easily.”

“Oh? Got any proof of that?”

“I can tell just by looking at your face.”

“…I have nothing to say to that.”

She gestured at Maru to leave, so he started walking towards her. Maru could see Dojin and Daemyung’s eyes start to widen as she ran over. Ahh, Maru was going to be bombarded with questions later. Dojin was already mouthing words at him.

“What’s up?” Maru asked.

“What, I can’t come over?”

She handed him something with a little pout, it was hand warmer. The kind that generated heat if you shook it.

“Cold, isn’t it?”

“Not very.”

He still took the hand warmer gladly, his hands were starting to warm up.

“Did you watch the play?”

“Yeah.”

“That’s embarrassing.”

It really was embarrassing. He was fine with other people watching him act, but knowing she was watching made him feel embarrassed. Where was she watching him from? Could she look at him well? What did she think?

“You were good.”

She was curt with her opinions, as always. She sounded a little bit nervous, though. What was up with that?

“By the way…”

She opened her mouth before Maru even finished talking.

“Our play is at 11am next Sunday.”

“I know.”

“Come watch. Promise me. I’ll… do well, too.”

She was burning with passion, for some reason. Was it because of him? She grabbed Yoojin’s hand before walking off to the other side.

“You should get going. Your friends are waiting for you.”

“…Yeah.”

Maru pocketed the hand warmer before walking towards his club. After a few steps, he turned to look back. She was walking back to the hall with Yoojin. He didn’t know how to explain it, but he didn’t feel too bad about what just happened. Well, that was enough. He took out his phone as he watched Dojin walk towards him with a massive frown. He quickly sent a message.

* * *

[Thank you for coming to watch.]

It was from Maru.

“What the, that was Maru, wasn’t it?”

“Yeah.”

“What did he say?”

“He said thank you.”

She showed Yoojin her phone before putting it back in her bag.

“You should’ve kissed him.”

“What?”

“Be honest with me. How far did you go?”

“You…”

“That’s… Pft, you guys are still just holding hands, aren’t you?”

Yoojin immediately smiled, telling her it was just a joke.

“Why were you being so cold to him, by the way?”

“Me?”

Cold? She didn’t think she was being so cold to him.

“You cut him off after you said what you wanted.”

“Oh, that.”

She turned back to look at Maru. She wanted to congratulate him, but the first thing she thought of when she saw Maru was the stage. He grabbed everyone’s attention. Just thinking that far suddenly made her feel competitive. She liked him, but their relationship and acting were two different things. This was the first time she ever caught herself staring dumbly at a person her age. She felt happy at seeing something new and she also felt a little jealous of Maru. She would’ve felt Maru was just amazing if she didn’t even know him. Indeed, the tall kid back there was amazing. She felt nothing more, nothing less. But since she knew Maru well, she started feeling a bit more competitive. She didn’t really want to win, per se. It was more that…

“It feels like I’m falling behind.”

“Behind? In what?”

“…No, it’s nothing.”

The boy who likes acting, it would be fun to be on stage with someone like him. But if the boy was that much better than her, then… Could she really say she would be standing on stage with him?

“Hey, where are you going?!”

Yoojin shouted at her when she started speedwalking. She responded with a small frown on her face.

“Practice.”

“What?”

“I need to practice.”

“Why, all of the sudden?”

“I want to stand beside him.”

“Beside him?”

Yoojin smiled in understanding after a few seconds.

“Wow, you’re too cute.”

The girl pinched her cheek. She tried to push Yoojin away with a pout, but the girl kept chasing after her.

“You’re head over heels for him, aren’t you?”

“No, I’m not!”

“Liar.”

Yoojin started dragging her towards the hall.

“Where are you taking me?”

“Mom. You have time, right?”

“Practice…”

“Experience is practice, too. I’m gonna go on a date with mom, so come with me.”

“What?”

“Don’t feel so pressured. My mom is… kind of like me. Worse, actually. She’ll love you.”

“W-wait.”

She tried to resist, but Yoojin was too insistent. In the end, she was dragged all the way to the hall.

Chapter 145

Moonjoong separated from his group when he got the chance. Chulmin gestured for him to stay, but Moonjoong wasn’t a fan of such meetings. He decided to leave while Chulmin was busy talking with the event organizers. Inside the hall were a lot of students, all holding a packed lunch in their hands. They had an hour of rest. Even as they ate, they were practicing their lines. What passion.

Moonjoong couldn’t be more thankful that these kids existed. Nowadays, there were many other things to watch for entertainment than just plays. Plays were a very niche genre of entertainment at this point. Despite that, these kids were acting. They were enjoying it. As long as kids like this existed, the art of plays would never disappear. In that sense, the industry needed hard-working people like Chulmin and talented people like Geunsoo.

“You’re working hard.”

“Ah, yes.”

The kids looked a little wary of him. The makeup on their faces looked a little awkward, but their eyes were like that of a pro’s.

“Is acting fun?”

Moonjoong wondered for a second if he was coming off as nosy, but the kids answered him surprisingly kindly.

“It’s not always fun, but… It feels good to complete a play we’ve been practicing.”

The kids had such a pure smile on their faces. Moonjoong told them to perform a play they could be satisfied in before taking his leave. Looking at young kids like this reminded him of someone. He put on his glasses and started pressing the buttons on his phone. Soon, a voice came from the other side of the phone.

- Yes, sir.

“Maru?”

- Yes, that’s me.

“I can’t find you nearby.”

- By that, do you mean…

“I’m here at the Anyang hall. Did you leave already?”

- You were there in the building?

“I ended up here one way or the other.”

- We just came back to the school after cleaning up. The waiting room is small, so we had to get out quickly.

“I see.”

So that’s why he couldn’t find Maru anywhere. Moonjoong thought for a brief second before opening his mouth.

“Is your instructor next to you?”

- Yes.

“Ask her if she minds if I visit, would you?”

- You’re coming here?

“In about one or two hours. If you’re there by then. It’s nothing special, just…”

Moonjoong looked behind him as he trailed off at his last sentence. He could still see the students practicing in the hall.

“…I was curious about the person behind that play and I would like to say a few things to you if I have the chance.”

- That would be an honor.

“Haha, it’s nothing.”

- I’ll ask my instructor in that case, sir. I want to hear you speak any time, but the instructor…

“Ahh, of course. I just wanted to visit with the instructor’s permission.”

- If the instructor declines, I would like to visit by myself. I thought I got on your bad side when you didn’t contact me.

What a kid. Moonjoong often found himself wondering if Maru really was just a teenager whenever he talked to the boy.

“I’m quite grateful you think of me so highly.”

People say you get stubborn as you age. At the beginning of his career, Moonjoong was definitely quite stubborn. He was arrogant, too. He used to think that plays couldn’t be successful without him. That those who didn’t cast him were out of their minds. He thought his fame would continue forever. He stopped telling himself to be humble at some point and he started thinking that those who tried to become more successful than him were simply foolish. Around then, he left the industry to take a break. He was in his mid-fifties then and the year-long break taught him many powerful lessons. One of which was that relationships established through fame were as fragile as glass.

That was when he decided to take a step back to teach the children. It wasn’t that he lost his passion, he was just embarrassed. He thought he had everything in his grasp, but it was actually flowing out like sand. He only realized that people mature within their loneliness when he turned sixty. The one relieving thing he’s realized though was that the person that was Yoon Moonjoong wasn’t as big an asshole as he thought himself to be. The worst thing he’s heard about himself from his peers only described his behavior to be ‘expensive’. Hearing that question could only make him laugh.

After he retired from the industry, people started treating him like some grand old thing. Frankly, it was pretty embarrassing to be treated with such respect, but ah well. From then on, the first thing he felt whenever people came to him for something was thankfulness.

- I’ll call you back in a few minutes, sir.

“Take your time. I’ll have to stay here for about two more hours anyway.”

Moonjoong hung up with a smile. He knew how difficult and dangerous it was to raise a person, that’s why he made it explicit to Junmin that he was willing to teach just a single person. Teaching someone meant that you were influencing that person’s life. Like it or not, you were changing the person’s trajectory in life one way or another. Taking such an act lightly would be a sin, that’s why Moonjoong didn’t use the word “teach” a lot. The most he usually did was to give advice to people based on his experiences. As he walked around a bit more outside, he heard someone call out to him. It was Chulmin.

“What’s the main character of the show doing outside?”

“Main character? No way.”

“The director and the writer are here. Talk to them for a bit.”

“Will it take long?”

“No, this is just a simple greeting. We can talk about the specifics some other time. We just need to make sure that you’ll get along.”

“You think an oldie like me would care about who I work with?”

“Is that really something you should say, Mr. Yoon?”

The two of them walked back inside with a grin.

* * *

“Who?” Miso asked again.

“Mr. Yoon Moonjoong.”

“Who is that, a teacher?”

“No, the actor.”

“…Who?”

“The actor, Mr. Yoon Moonjoong.”

“Just a person with the same name, right?”

“Don’t think so.”

“Is it who I’m thinking of right now?”

“Probably.”

“And he’s coming here right now?”

“He wanted to know if you were fine with it first…”

“Fine with it? Of course I am! Of course he’s welcome here!”

The club members all looked at them weirdly from all the noise Miso was making.

“He’s not coming here right now. He said he’s going to take some time.”

“How long?”

“About two hours?”

Two hours. Miso looked around the auditorium. Was there a place for him to sit? No, was this place even good enough for him?

“He also told me to tell you to not make a scene just for him.”

Miso couldn’t calm down despite hearing that. The name Yoon Moonjoong held many meanings to her.

“Do we have any nice chairs here, instead of these wooden ones?”

“Probably in the faculty room.”

“Come with me.”

The two of them walked right down to the first floor. There were quite a few teachers here despite it being a Sunday, they picked a chair that looked pretty comfortable and asked the teacher if they could take it. They looked troubled at first, but their demeanor changed as soon as they heard the name, Yoon Moonjoong.

“Really? Mr. Moonjoong is coming?”

The reaction from one of the older female teachers was quite something. The woman gave them a blanket and even a yokan as a snack. She asked for a signature as well, prompting a nod from Miso.

“Hold this.”

Miso held the blanket and Maru carried the chair. The club members asked them what was happening when the two of them returned to the fifth floor.

“A heavyweight senior might be coming to visit us. Guys, get to practice. Write a list of everything you were unsure about. This is a once in a lifetime opportunity. You can’t buy experience like this even with money.”

The kids understandably looked a little confused even after hearing Moonjoong’s name. Miso was more than ready to explain how amazing this actor was, but she decided to let it pass for now.

“Ugh, I’m so nervous.”

“Just be yourself, this isn’t normal for you.”

“You’re the weird ones. This is the teacher Yoon we’re talking about. Ahh, to think I’d experience a generational gap with something like this… It’s just a single decade, too.”

“You’re old.”

“Do you want to die, Maru?”

Maru shrugged.

“How did you get to know teacher Yoon, anyway?”

“I met him through Mr. Junmin. He told me a lot of good things.”

“You should’ve told me about that.”

Maru saluted her like a soldier and said “Yes, sir. Any time.”

“What’s he like anyway?”

“He’s a kind person. He listens seriously in conversation, even to the boring stuff. Well, I’ve only met him once, though.”

“Hah, I’m nervous.”

“I could just tell him to not come.”

“Are you kidding me? He retired from the industry by the time I started acting. I had no chance to ever meet him because of that. I can’t believe I’m going to meet him like this.”

Maru looked very cute today to her, all of a sudden. Miso grabbed the boy’s cheeks and shook him sideways.

“Aghh…”

“You damn cutie! You’re a little ball of luck.”

“It hurts.”

“It hurts? I’ll do it more!”

Miso grinned like a child, making the club members stare at the two of them in even more confusion.

* * *

“It was an honor to meet you,” the director said, stepping back.

“An honor, he says.”

“I feel so embarrassed to hear comments like that nowadays.”

“Don’t lie to me. I know you like it.”

Their short meeting ended. The director showed aspiration and the writer showed ambition. When Moonjoong asked the director if he would still be popular on the screen, the director told him that views weren’t an absolute metric for success. The young director had quite the spirit.

“I just hope he doesn’t get corrupted by money.”

“That’s what we all hope, but to be completely honest, how many people do you see that aren’t tempted by money? People only try new things here when they have nothing to lose.”

“Of all the people he could’ve chosen, he got someone like me…”

“Come on, since when did you have so little confidence? You used to go off about how movies couldn’t succeed if you weren’t in it.”

“Why do you keep bringing up stuff from when I was immature?”

“You call 50 immature?”

Chulmin seemed to be taking a great enjoyment out of teasing him. Men just never grow up.

“Alright, I’ll be taking my leave now,” Moonjoong said.

“Where?”

“School.”

“School?”

Moonjoong nodded.

“Is it for that kid?”

“Damn, you’re good. You should make a living off of being a prophet instead of this.”

Moonjoong stepped out of the building, leaving Chulmin inside. When he called Maru a few minutes ago, the boy handed the phone over to the instructor. The instructor introduced herself as Yang Miso and she told him that she would come to greet him right away. He said he was fine, but she was so insistent that he had to give in. Chulmin stepped out of the building behind him with a curious expression.

“Maybe I should go.”

“I thought you were busy?”

“I’m interested in this.”

“Haha, just take care of the people under you. Also, Geunsoo.”

“Yes, sir.”

“Yang Miso was your friend?”

“Yes.”

Moonjoong nodded. Blue Sky… It turns out to be a nest full of dragons. It felt like kids from that club were all incredibly talented. He was kind of excited, actually. What are these kids like? What does Maru look like in practice?

“Let’s go for a drink some time.”

“Sure.”

Chulmin quickly left the area with Geunsoo. As he thought, the man had a lot of things to do. After a few minutes of waiting, a car sped towards him from afar. A young lady got off the car after stopping in front of him.

“Hello! I’m Yang Miso.”

The woman had quite the voice. Moonjoong got into the car with a smile.

Chapter 146

“Could you… Look in front of you, miss?”

“I’m looking very well.”

“No, not me. The front.”

Moonjoong pointed in front of him with a small smile, the light was turning green. Miso bowed apologetically before stepping on the pedal.

“Do I really look that interesting?”

“Well, it’s just… No, I know this is really rude to say, but yes. Also, please speak casually to me. You’re a senior.”

“But this is our first time meeting.”

“It’s fine, really.”

“…Alright, fine then.”

Moonjoong looked at the books, notes, and scripts strewn about inside the car. He used to put all sorts of stuff in his car at some point as well, for the sake of conserving time. He started sleeping in his car instead when he realized that proper rest was also a part of his work.

“Can I look at these?”

“Of course.”

Miso was a very energetic woman. Most men probably can’t assert themselves in front of her. Moonjoong picked up a script and slowly started reading from it. Scripts were essentially a notebook of an actor’s life experience, it was a valuable source that told him about an actor’s personality. The cover was a little wrinkled and quite dirty, but the script inside looked brand new. She didn’t seem to have taken notes in it. Moonjoong noticed a notebook next to where the script used to be, she seemed to have written her thoughts over there.

“You throw your script against the wall when you can’t memorize your lines?”

“……Hm, hm.”

Miso smiled awkwardly.

“I used to do that a lot myself, especially when I practiced accents. I used to throw my script at something almost daily. It really annoyed me. I could never get the little nuances right, no matter how hard I tried.”

“You have experiences like that as well, sir?”

“I wasn’t always good at acting, after all. Not that I’m good now.”

“Please don’t say that. If you’re not good at acting, then what does that make me?”

“Acting changes and evolves over time, like anything else in the world. Looking at the actors nowadays always astonishes me.”

“No, that’s not it at all.”

Miso looked a little angry. How funny. He was thankful that she thought of him that way.

“Isn’t teaching the kids difficult?”

“Sometimes, yes. The club exists only for a student’s enjoyment, but there are also kids whose enjoyment depends on results. If I can’t bring results to those kids, then… I can’t help but feel a little useless. Ah, not that results are everything, but…”

“Most of the times, it is.”

“Right.”

“It looks like there’s something going on.”

“…I have a very big worry, at least for myself. It’s not a very big problem, but my pride is at stake.”

“Could you tell me about it, if you don’t mind?”

“Mm, putting it simply, the club I’m working with is about to lose their practice room because we lack the results.”

“Oh, dear.”

“This is also the club I spent my high school years as well.”

“Ah, I heard about that from Geunsoo. You graduated from here?”

“Yes. Eh, you know Geunsoo?”

“Of course, I’m working on a play with him.”

This was news to her. Moonjoong smiled lightly.

“Could it be, the Myungdong Art Theater reopening…”

“Oh, so you knew.”

“Really? I’m so sorry. I would’ve gone to see you if I knew.”

“No need to be sorry. Don’t try to come when you’re so busy either. It looks like you’re doing a lot of things other than teaching anyhow.”

The back seat was littered with all sorts of costumes. That probably meant that she was about to perform in a play. Teaching and acting… Two very hard things to do at once.

“No, not at all. I’ll come this, no, next week.”

“We’re going to hold the play until the end of January, so take your time.”

Hearing from others that they would come to see his play always brought joy to him. It also shouldered him with the responsibility of making the play a success, to a degree.

“Um, Teacher.”

“Mm?”

“How did it feel to pick up acting again?”

“Hmm.”

What did this energetic woman want to hear from him? Moonjoong put on a wide smile when he came up with an answer.

“It’s fun but difficult. Sometimes I want to give up, but I also want to keep doing this. You know the drill.”

Miso grinned in satisfaction.

* * *

Miso returned with Moonjoong by the time they were about to go into their second practice. The club members all tensed up as they saw an old man enter the auditorium.

“I’m sorry for interrupting you all.”

“Interrupting? There’s no way, sir.”

Miso tried to line up the kids, but Moonjoong stopped her.

“Just keep going with practice as if I am not here.”

Maru brought Moonjoong a chair.

“Thank you.”

The man sat down next to Miso. The club members still looked a tad confused, at least until Miso opened her mouth.

“Keep practicing.”

“Yes.”

It was just a single audience member, but according to Miso, this old man was someone extraordinary. The club members all looked a little nervous because of it. Maru, too, could feel himself tense up a little bit. They were acting in front of an old school legend right now. The president thought a little about whether they wanted to start from where they left off, or start from the very beginning. In the end, they decided to start all over again.

* * *

“How are they?”

“Very good. The young ones are good at acting like I first thought.”

The man might’ve just been saying things to be polite, but it was good to hear nonetheless. Miso brought out the tea and the yokan she prepared for him.

“I’ll have some after I finish watching them.”

A very clear, and yet soft, refusal. Miso didn’t ask twice and put the snacks elsewhere. The man was watching the kids very carefully, he wasn’t just skimming them over. Because of it, Miso was even more on edge than the kids. What would he say after this? Eventually, the run ended and the kids looked their way.

A short applause came from Moonjoong. Miso felt proud, as if she was the one who was praised.

“This is too good to be a free play.”

Moonjoong stood up from his seat.

“Teacher?”

“I don’t have much to say. I feel like I just wasted your time. I’m sorry about that.”

“No, sir.”

Miso stood up as well.

“The kids would only feel uncomfortable if I stay, so I should take my leave.”

“Already?”

“They’re good kids, so I don’t have much to say. Especially when they already have such a good teacher.”

“Please don’t worry about me.”

Miso quickly called over the club members. Moonjoong tried to stop her, but she couldn’t allow him to leave like this. She didn’t know when she’d even be able to see him next time.

“Please, sir. I’m still very lacking. I have a lot of things I would like to do for these children, but I’m lacking. You’re different.”

“I’m not someone that amazing either.”

“But you’re still much better than me. Please don’t deny it.”

That was how Miso felt. Even now, she referenced a lot of Moonjoong’s works when she practiced. Everything from his black and white films, to colored ones. Hearing advice from a living legend like him would surely help the kids greatly.

Moonjoong smiled awkwardly. Did he have other arrangements he needed to attend to?

“Are you busy, by any…”

“No, not that. It’s just… haha.”

Right then.

“Sir, could you just give us small advice, like something you’d tell your grandson?”

It was Maru, Moonjoong thought for a second before sitting back down. Miso threw the boy a thumbs up. What a good kid.

“I can’t give you advice as an actor, since I’m too old for the industry now, but… If it’s just simple advice, then I can give you something. Would it be alright for me to take some of your time?”

Moonjoong looked at the club members carefully.

“Thank you,” Maru said, taking a seat.

The other kids followed suit, things were a lot less awkward once Maru got involved.

“You probably wouldn’t know me very well. I’m just an old man who chased after acting all my life because I happened to like it. Are there any of you that are considering taking up acting seriously?”

Three kids raised their hands at that: Maru, Daemyung, and Geunseok.

“So the rest of you are doing it as a hobby.”

“Yes.”

Moonjoong closed his eyes for a moment. His wrinkled eyes were trembling. Everyone became silent as they watched the man reminiscing about the past.

“Acting… was my life. It was how I made my living, it was how I raised my child, and it was how I prepared for my retirement. There were a lot of tiring moments, but I also had a lot of fun doing it. I wanted to give up at certain points and I was sometimes relieved that I decided to take up acting. That’s why I always want to say two things when I look at kids like yourself. First, to keep on practicing. Second, there are quite a lot of good things that will happen to you in the industry, no matter how bad things may seem.”

Moonjoong tapped his knees a few times.

“If you take up acting as a hobby, there probably won’t be a more fun one for you. You’ll be able to meet a lot of interesting people and become a handful of interesting characters. Your life would be full of excitement and smiles. That’s why I would like to tell you, the hobbyists, to continue on with acting for as long as you can.”

Most of the kids nodded. Miso noted that the three that said they would take up acting as a career weren’t nodding at all.

“For those who want to make a living out of acting… I want to tell you to be afraid of yourself the most. You’ll experience a lot of things as you act. You’ll experience bitter failure, and sweet success. It’ll help you all grow for sure and your skills would improve along with it. But I want to tell you that having good acting skills is not paramount for success.”

Bitter words, but these were words that the three of them needed to hear the most.

“If, by some chance, you end up getting popular, you will need to constantly take time to reflect on yourself. What’s more dangerous than other people’s tongue is your own and your eyes are more dangerous than that of the others. The moment you get swallowed by your own pride, then you’ll instantly turn from a popular actor to a mere pebble in the road. And…”

Moonjoong stood up again. This time, Miso wasn’t able to stop him. The amount of force that came out of him was incredibly intimidating.

“I always tell this to the kids who ask me to teach them. Always endure when you want to give up. Leave when you feel like you’ve done enough. That’s the best way to not get swallowed up by your own pride and money.”

* * *

Moonjoong looked up at the fifth floor as he exited the school.

“Dear.”

He wanted to say a lot of things, but he came out in a hurry. It wasn’t that he was busy or that he didn’t like the atmosphere. He was just too excited. Watching the kids act in such joy made him want to act as well. He just said what he wanted to tell them before walking straight out.

“I guess I’m an actor no matter what I do.”

Moonjoong smiled as he walked out of the school entrance. He couldn’t wait to lay his hands on his new script.

Chapter 147

"Did something happen?”

“What?”

“You were a bit scary. I thought you were going to swallow me whole.”

Her senior told her to relax a little.

“Was I weird?”

“You were a bit too into it?”

“I see.”

“Are you nervous since we’re going tomorrow?”

“Not really, just… Hah.”

Her senior clapped her hand for everyone’s attention.

“Let’s rest a bit. We can’t overdo practice today. We’ll move to the hall after this to practice there as well, so get ready.”

“Yes.”

She dropped down on the spot. She was more tired than before, for sure.

“Tell me if you have any worries. I’m all ears,” the senior told her.

There probably wasn’t anyone else in this club who was more fitting to be the president than this senior.

“I feel like I’m just hurrying a bit too much.”

“Hurrying?”

“I actually went to watch a play from a different school last week.”

“Prelims?”

“Yes.”

“By yourself?”

“Yes.”

“You should’ve called me.”

She couldn’t bring herself to tell her senior that she went to watch her boyfriend. She glossed over that part and went straight to her thoughts about the play.

“They were from Woosung High and… They have a lot of really good people. Three of them, especially.”

She felt a lot of things when she looked at Maru’s acting. She almost felt like… She discovered something she didn’t expect at all from a friend of hers? A bit of jealousy as well? Worst of all, Maru was starting to look a little bit foreign to her and she hated that. After the prelims, they would get on stage together in the Myungdong Art Theater. Maru would be one of the main characters, she would be an extra. There was also that massive gap between them.

In the past, she was happy just knowing that she was acting with other people. It was different now. When she looked at Maru, it didn’t feel like enough to just stand on the same stage as him. She wanted to be on equal footing with him, like Yoojin.

“So? Did you felt unmotivated? Because someone was better than you?”

“No, but…”

A loud slap resounded. Her back was tingling with pain and her senior was looking at her with a massive frown.

“I don’t know what you saw, but putting on such a face isn’t helpful.”

Her senior put a hand behind her back and rubbed hard. She barely maintained her balance as she looked at the girl next to her.

“It’s simple in the end, isn’t it? We just need to pass them in the competition. That would easily testify our skills against theirs. Isn’t that enough?”

“Yes, but… Hah, I don’t know. I have no idea why I feel like this.”

The girl narrowed her eyes before whispering into her ear.

“You got a boyfriend, didn’t you?”

“…!”

She tried her best not to react. She really did. Her senior was still grinning like a kid in front of her though.

“So he’s at Woosung, huh? Look at you. He’s in your acting class, isn’t he?”

Did she have everything written down on her face or something? She rubbed her cheeks just to make sure she didn’t.

“I’ll keep it a secret, so tell me. Is the good kid your boyfriend?”

“…Yes.”

“No wonder you were looking so depressed out of the blue. Men are always the problem. Ugh. I guess I’m in the same boat as you, though.”

“What? You too, senior?”

“He says he’s going to do his military service. But my gosh, he didn’t even bother telling me about it until two days ago.”

“M-military?”

That meant his age was… She quickly gave up on thinking about it. Her senior was in her last year of high school. The girl was plenty mature as well, so she would probably get along well with a college student.

“I don’t know what your problem is, but you can still see him close by. Don’t let your problem get to you and just ask. Men are idiots when it comes to trying to figure out their girlfriends’ issues.”

Her senior got up after saying that. Should she try to console the girl a little bit? Knowing that she could meet Maru whenever she wanted… It was an obvious fact. It comforted her more than anything for some reason.

“Maybe I’m being jealous.” “Jealous? Of who?” her senior replied.

“Him.”

Her senior smiled.

“He must be a good guy. Try not to lose him. Then again, if he has half a brain then he would know not to let you go.”

“Senior, please!”

“In any case, don’t worry about any of that right now. Just focus on that prelim.”

“Alright.”

For now, the prelims came first. Hearing that cleared her head a bit. She should thank her senior for that.

“Did you schedule a date with him after this, by the way?”

“What? What date?”

Her senior simply pointed at the calendar on the wall. There was a single date that was circled with a red pen. The day of the prelims. And also… A very special day for a select group of people.

“Merry Christmas.”

“………”

“Just don’t break the speed limit, alright?”

That was when her head turned completely pink.

* * *

"An actor’s performance can shine or wither depending on how they were directed. This is why directing is difficult. You can’t just focus on one thing. You have to see the bigger picture.”

“Is there a way to study it by myself?”

“There is. Watch a lot of plays. There’s plenty of resources nowadays. Keep a notebook specifically meant for it. Take notes on how they set up the beginning, middle, and end of the play. Why did they use that music in that scene? Why did they use colored lights in this scene? Why were the actors placed in such manners? Think carefully about all of this. At some point, you’ll be able to discern which director did which play just based on how the play got set up. That is, you’ll be able to recognize that particular director’s specialty. When you study just about anything, you have to start off from copying. That never changes even here.”

Daemyung tried his best to memorize what his coach just told him. Acting was fun, but he really wanted to do more than that. He wanted to produce and direct his own play. To him, that sounded more exciting than just about anything else.

“Getting first hand experience in the industry would be for the best though…”

Coach scratched his chin for a second before making a call somewhere.

“Yes, senior. There’s a really nice kid that big bro Junmin brought in, and… Yes, don’t you already have a junior who carries around a student nowadays? Yes, yes. Ah, Mintae. I wanted to introduce this kid to him. The kid’s interested in stage tech. It seems like a bit of a stretch to try to put him under you, Senior. I thought it’d be nice for him to do a few things with Mintae instead. Yes. I’ll see you in Myungdong, then.”

Coach gestured at Daemyung after hanging up. Daemyung grabbed his bag and walked outside. The moment they got in the car, the coach revved up the engine.

“By the way… You don’t have anything planned on a Saturday like this?”

“Anything?”

“Like a date.”

“………”

“Ouch, did I hit you where it hurts? Sorry about that.”

“H-haha.”

Daemyung just scratched his head awkwardly in response.

“Then again, I didn’t have a girlfriend when I was at your age either.”

Well, that was a surprise. Coach looked incredibly handsome. Not only that, but he was also a very popular actor as well. Daemyung even remembered being absolutely shocked at the number of gifts the coach received from his fans. Someone like that didn’t have a girlfriend in high school?

“Here, let me show you something fun.”

The coach took out a picture from his wallet on a red light. It was a group of young boys.

“Find me in this picture.”

The boys in the picture all looked around Daemyung’s age. Considering how his coach was in his late thirties, this picture was probably more than twenty years old. Daemyung chose the boy who looked the most handsome out of all of them.

“You think that’s me?”

“Yes, I think this one resembles you the most.”

“That’s my older brother. I’m the furthest one on the left.”

Daemyung’s eyes slid over to the left of the picture. He could see a fat boy he previously overlooked.

“This is you, coach?”

“How is it? I look like a pig, don’t I? I think I was around 98 kilos back then.”

Daemyung scanned his coach up and down. Someone this fit used to be so fat back then?

“I’m not telling you to lose weight just for the sake of losing weight. I’m not against people being fat. As a matter of fact, I still like the way I looked back then. Some people hate being fat. That wasn’t me at all. It was nice not having to watch what I ate. Sure, not being able to score a to date was a big loss. But I never felt bad about it.”

The coach had a massive smile on his face.

“Anyway, the lesson here is that self-love is very important. You know that it shows on your face a lot, right? I can see you getting noticeably depressed when we started talking about appearances.”

“R-really…”

“One of the first things a person needs to do to look charming is to get self-confidence. Manners and everything else comes after that. Be honest with me. You think you look ugly and fat, don’t you?”

Daemyung nodded.

“You were hurt by that, too?”

“…Yes.”

“What about now? Is anyone making fun of you for your appearance nowadays?”

“No.”

“So why are you still hurt by it? No one’s making fun of you for your body. Just who’s bullying you now?”

Coach gripped Daemyung’s shoulder tightly.

“There’s a saying that a teacher I respect likes: your tongue is more dangerous than the tongues of the others. The type of pain that gnaws away at your heart is often self-inflicted. It’s impossible to live without caring about how other people view you. So the least you can do is to care more about yourself. I hope you can smile more easily the next time I ask you something about a girlfriend.”

Daemyung nodded slowly. He thought he was over it, but he realized now that he never really shook off his inferiority complex. Hopefully, he can be more confident in the future. No, even before that, he hoped he could smile like his coach just said in the future.

“By the way, coach.”

“Hm?”

“Why did you lose weight?”

There was no reason for his coach to lose weight, was there?

“Why? Isn’t it obvious? What’s my profession?”

“Musical… Ah.”

“I’m always ready to get fat again. If there’s a fat character waiting for my portrayal, I’m more than ready to sit on my ass and start eating.”

It was a confident answer.

* * *

“Where are you going?” Bada asked, coming out moments before Maru left.

“I’m going to Anyang.”

“Anyang? For what?”

“Girlfriend.”

“………”

Maru waved at his dumbstruck sister before walking out. Right before the door closed, he heard his sister shout ‘mom!!’ from inside, but he decided to ignore it. He jumped down the stairs as he checked the time. 10 o’clock in the morning. He had plenty of time. He could see the nearby church handing out cookies when he walked outside his apartment complex. Merry Christmas, they greeted, as they handed the snacks out to smiling children.

He stuck his hands into his pockets as he walked to the bus station, he could hear Christmas carols all over the place. Everything from funny covers by comedians, to quiet, touching ones done by singers. It was a Christmas, on a Sunday to boot. The streets were packed with people, the bus was of no exception. Were all of these people headed to Anyang?

"I hope she does well.”

He already told her that he’d go watch. Then again, he didn’t really have a choice given how she demanded his attendance. He looked outside the bus window, counting the trees lined outside. A happy Christmas, for all of us.

Maru put a hand into his coat pocket. He did prepare a gift. Thinking about it now, it was probably too big of a gift for people their age. Perfume and couple rings that she used to like, ones made of silver with a simple design. She often told him to save those gifts for the bank whenever he got them, but he never did miss that smile of hers that she tried to hide. He thought about calling her before giving up on it, he didn’t want to be a bother to her right now.

Maru got off in front of the city hall, the street here was packed with people as well. Christmas was something else. He walked right into the hall since he didn’t have much business here. The prelims began at 10am, so they should be about done with their first play. He quietly opened the closed doors to the auditorium. It was packed inside, just like last time. The only difference was that this time, the auditorium was filled with families, not industry workers.

Maru leaned back on the wall. There were only female students on the stage. An all-female high school? They were all dressed in white, giving off some sort of a sad vibe. The curtain call began before he could even get a sense of what the play was about. He really walked in at the perfect time.

“We’ll have a fifteen minute intermission before the next play,” the staff member said.

Chapter 148

The lights near the audience seats turned on and the audience started getting up one by one, Maru narrowed his eyes as he observed them.

‘Quite a lot of students.’

It made sense that there would be a lot of families since it was Christmas, they probably came here after finding that free play sign outside. The students, though? What were the chances that a normal high schooler would come to watch a play?

“Myunghwa High now, right?”

“Yeah.”

“I wonder how good they’ll be.”

“I hope they make a mistake, don’t you?”

“Dream on. You think they’d make a mistake?”

It was a conversation from two passing high school girls. In fact, most students were talking about Myunghwa High right now. Maru could tell that most of these students were from various acting clubs.

‘I guess they’re pretty amazing, huh.’

Myunghwa High. The school that she went to. It wasn’t very famous for its academics but for something else, their acting club. Considering how the school even made a special club room in their new building, they were really investing a ton of money into it.

‘But our club’s about to get kicked out.’

That was a little depressing to think about. He also knew that the graduate actors of Myunghwa High maintained a very good network among each other as well. Even famous actors could be seen roaming around during the school’s festivals.

“Myunghwa’s definitely taking one of the spots, so I guess we’ll have to fight over the other one?”

“Pretty much. Ugh, I wonder when our school’s going to pass the prelims.”

“For real.”

Myunghwa qualifying seemed to be set in stone at this point. How well would they do? He was getting pretty excited. After about ten minutes, the audience started coming back one by one. It actually felt like there were even more people than before, with most of them being students.

“Maru?”

One of the girls who was passing by started talking to him, Maru raised his head from looking at his wristwatch.

“Oh, it is you.”

It was Yoojin. What was she doing here?

“Yoojin, get over here.”

“Wait a second.”

There were a few girls calling out to Yoojin.

“Acting club?”

“Yeah.”

Yoojin turned around and told her friends to get going first.

“Did Woosung High come too?”

“No, by myself.”

“Wow, you guys are really getting it on. For your girlfriend?”

Yoojin stood next to him. She took a hair tie and tied up her shoulder-length hair. Each time her hair swished to the side, a smell of lavender puffed into Maru’s nose.

“You came with your club members, Yoojin?”

“Yeah. We don’t have to watch the other schools, but Myunghwa High is a different story. Everyone was talking about how we had to watch it. Who knows? Maybe we’ll even learn something.”

“So you came all the way to Anyang? That’s amazing. The prelims in your region’s over?”

“Yesterday, yeah. We’re definitely passing,” Yoojin said with a nod.

“You sound confident.”

“Of course. We did well. It wouldn’t make sense if we failed.”

“Nonsensical things are often pretty f… not funny.”

Maru quickly corrected himself when Yoojin raised her eyebrows. Jokes were more common amongst their exchanges now that they became friends. They practiced a lot together, so it only made sense that the main characters would become friends together.

“You saw her?”

“No. I didn’t want to distract her, so I’ll meet her afterwards.”

“Pft. You guys both think way too similarly.”

“You don’t need to go back over there?” Maru asked, pointing at the girls at the fourth row. They were Yoojin’s club members.

“It’s fine. They’re friends, so I don’t need to be careful of what I do around them. The seniors didn’t come.”

“You juniors work hard, don’t you?”

“The real goal is actually to just play around in Anyang! This is just our secondary objective.”

Ah, is that so. She did look like she was out to play, judging by the makeup she had on. She did look a little more mature thanks to it, but her childish personality was in plain sight.

“Why are you looking at me like that?”

“Your makeup doesn’t look half bad. Nice job.”

“…Is that a compliment or an insult?”

“Depends on how you want to hear it.”

Maru quickly stepped aside as Yoojin raised her hand.

“They say violent women aren’t charming, you know.”

“I don’t need to look charming in front of someone like you.”

In the end, Maru got hit. It stung.

“You did that to yourself. I thought you were quiet and serious when I first saw you, but you’re turning out to be a tissue.”

“Tissue?”

“Light enough to fly away with a puff.”

Maru shrugged. He did feel like he changed a little after talking with Moonjoong. He was no longer observing life from the sidelines anymore, he stepped in to experience it. He didn’t deny his adult self, but at the same time he recognized his teenage self. That’s when he started talking a lot more easily with the kids around his age. Before this, he had to admit, he had a difficult time.

“Anyway, it’s Christmas,” Yoojin leaned on the wall behind her, “Merry Christmas.”

“You too.”

The girl extended her hand towards him. Did she want something?

“What, no gift?”

“I’m not Santa.”

“Tsk tsk, so cheap. You got a present for her, then?”

Her expression was kind of funny, so Maru ended up smiling. He took out the perfume and the box with the couple rings.

“What is it?”

“Perfume and couple rings.”

“Can I see?”

“Why would you? They’re not meant for you.”

“Girls know girls, you know? Did you even get something that would look good on her?”

Sorry, but I’ve lived with her for twenty years, Maru thought. He couldn’t say he knew everything about her, but… He probably knew more about her right now than most other people.

“Can’t I see?”

Maru sighed and opened the box a tiny bit. The rings were decorated with little bunnies. He picked them with her preferences in mind. Indeed, the wedding ring he got her didn’t look far off from this either.

“You’re going to be wearing that?”

Yoojin barely suppressed her laughter. Please stop laughing… he didn’t get this because he wanted to.

“Well… it’d look good on her though. You have good sense.”

Phew, that was a relief to hear. He had to wonder though, did she have the same tastes as her adult self right now? He’d be screwed if that wasn’t the case. He didn’t want to be made fun of for bringing something so childish looking.

“It’s about to begin. You’re going to watch from here?”

“Yup.”

Yoojin waved him farewell and walked back to her friends. The storm’s finally passed. Maru leaned back on the wall with his arms crossed, it was time to watch her play.

* * *

She practically ran away to the waiting room.

“It’s our turn. Get ready.”

“Y-yes!”

“What the. Are you nervous?”

She shook her head. She wasn’t nervous. But… she saw something she shouldn’t have seen.

‘Why were those two… ’

She saw Maru when she got out of the waiting room. She was about to run over to say hello, but she noticed a girl right next to him. It was Yoojin. She’s seen them together often, so she just had to go over… she couldn’t do it. They looked too much like a couple. She knew that she was the one who was going out with Maru, but she felt afraid to approach them for some reason.

‘Why did I feel this way?’

She just had to walk up to him. Why did she feel jealous? She was getting depressed, too. Was Maru kind to all women around him? Or was it just to Yoojin? Which was worse? She knew that they had a lot to talk about since they were both main characters. She understood it, yet her heart couldn’t accept it. She was being childish. So childish. She should’ve stepped in front of the two of them.

‘But why were they together?’

“Alright guys, focus! Let’s go wild today.”

She came back to her senses at the club president’s voice. She couldn’t afford to think about other things right now.

* * *

Maru touched his lips. He was smiling. Just watching her on stage made him feel so happy.

‘I guess it’s about to end?’

Myunghwa High’s play was more than good, as expected. He’s watched many plays with Ganghwan at Hyehwa station and this play does not pale in comparison. As he expected, the play ended after just a few more minutes. She was the main character, so she appeared at the end of the curtain call. The entire club bowed towards the audience. Maru clapped.

“They’re good,” Yoojin said, walking up to him.

“Go play with your friends. Why do you keep coming here?”

“What? Are you intimidated by me?”

Yoojin was smiling like a fox. Maru pushed her away with a finger, making her frown.

“What are you going to do now?”

“What?”

“You’re going to be seeing her, won’t you?”

“Of course.”

“Huhuhu.”

She was laughing like a witch. Was she planning on following him? He tried to escape the hall quickly, but Yoojin was quick on her foot.

“I can’t miss this. She gets really embarrassed by this stuff, so this has got to be fun.”

“Man, you’re evil.”

Yoojin even told her friends to get going without her. Maru scratched his eyebrows. Should he run away from her? No, he needs to come back here later anyway. He had no way to escape.

“I’ll be hiding.”

“Hah…”

“Hehe.”

Maru figured he might as well let her do whatever she wants. He walked over to the waiting room. He could see the actors from Myunghwa High working among everyone else. Among them, she was moving around props very busily. He might as well wait until she finishes. Maru bought himself a drink from the vending machine.

“What about me?”

“Use your own money.”

“Cheapskate. I bought her a meal last time, you know. Pay me back in her stead.”

Maru was at a loss for words. He scanned the vending machine for a really disgusting looking drink. Ah, ginseng. Bingo. Sure enough, the girl had a big frown on her face when she received it.

“I paid you back.”

“Ugh.”

Yoojin still drank it. Her face scrunched up in pain. Sweet victory.

“Looks like they’re over?”

The Myunghwa High students were coming out of the waiting room.

“Alright, those of you who need to get rid of their makeup, do it now. We’ll leave in 30 minutes, so be at the bus by then. Be sure to take pictures with your parents as well.”

The students all split up with the president’s word. The bus… Ah, he remembered seeing one outside. He vaguely recalled seeing the name of Myunghwa High on it.

“As expected of Myunghwa High… They even rented a bus. Our school should take after them,” Yoojin commented.

The club members were all headed towards their parents, it looked like the parents were heavily invested with the club as well. She was standing among the others all alone by herself. Was her mother not with her? Maru walked up to greet her.

“You were good.”

“…Ah.”

She smiled at him awkwardly. Maru knew that smile well. She always smiled that way when she didn’t like something. She was good at arguing for what she wanted a lot of the time, but whenever she couldn’t, she smiled like that. This didn’t feel good.

“Um, thanks for coming.”

She wasn’t being normal. Why wasn’t she as energetic as she usually was?

“Did something happen?”

He decided to ask directly. She looked away. Something was wrong for sure. But before he was about to ask if something happened, she walked away somewhere else. He watched her for a second before walking to follow her. He could feel Yoojin following close behind. Once he got out of the hall, he could see her looking around for something.

“What are you doing?”

“No, it’s, just… it’s nothing.”

She tried to run away again. Maru wasn’t a fan of playing hide and seek like this, so he grabbed her wrist.

“Why are you running away? That’s not like you.”

“I’m not running.”

She was sensitive to the word ‘running’ as always. She glared at him for a second, but she immediately became depressed again. It was kind of endearing to watch.

“What’s wrong?”

“………”

“I’m sorry, but I can’t read your mind.”

Well, only kind of. He could look into it and see what the other side was thinking every once in a while. He didn’t want to use it on those who he held dear. He would feel like he was cheating them if he did.

“I just feel pathetic.”

She bit her bottom lip.

“Pathetic about what?”

“Just everything!”

She shouted. She was a mess today. How did she act so well today?

“Did I do something wrong?”

“No! No, yes!”

“What did I do?”

“T-that’s…”

She closed her mouth. She looked at the floor for a few seconds before raising her head. She was… crying. Why? For what? What was wrong?

“You! You didn’t even start acting until recently, so how are you so good?!”

“…Is that bad?”

“No! Not at all!”

“Then what’s the issue?”

“I’m the issue. I feel pathetic. Like an idiot.”

Tears were dripping from her face. Ah, he remembered now. He fought her a few times already in the past. Every time they did, she would cry. She always blamed herself, too, never pointing fingers on anyone else for her anger.

“You have no problems. You’re not pathetic, nor are you stupid.”

“……”

Maru hugged her, he could feel her crying in his arms. She was such a strong woman and yet she was so weak right now. He waited until she calmed down. She’s a smart woman, so she should come back to her senses quickly.

“I saw.”

She was still sniffling a little.

“What?”

“…You were with Yoojin.”

“What about it?”

“I know it’s not anything special. It’s just… You guys get along so well together…”

She was young. He’s realized now that she was very different right now compared to her 25-year-old self. She was an entirely different human being compared to herself in her forties. What should he do to calm her down? He wasn’t good at talking, so he had to do the next best thing.

“You worried about something so stupid.”

He hugged her. Tightly.

“………!”

She struggled for a bit. She calmed down quickly after a few pats.

“You were honest with me, so I’ll be honest with you too.”

“W-what?”

“I’m going to marry you.”

“…What?”

“I’m confessing in advance.”

She pushed him away with both of her arms.

“You’re crazy! M-marry? What?!”

“What, I can’t?”

She became quiet again with a troubled expression.

“Ah, were you jealous, by the way?”

“I wasn’t!”

“Liar.”

“…Ugh.”

She looked like she might cry again if he teased her more. Maru stopped here and grabbed her hand. He looked her straight in the eye, he could feel her hands tense a little. The world around them became completely silent. Maru lowered his head slowly. He could see her eyes getting wider as his face got closer to hers.

“You’re supposed to close them here.”

* * *

“…Wow.”

Yoojin looked at the two of them dumbly. She followed Maru because it looked like things were about to get fun, she just ended up getting jealous instead.

“My daughter’s pretty wild, isn’t she?”

Right then, Yoojin heard a voice behind her. She looked back in surprise, there was a grinning woman standing behind her.

“Kids nowadays go into things so fast, don’t they?”

“W-what? What?”

Yoojin was confused. Daughter? Did the woman just say, daughter? Could it be…

“Now now, us spectators should just leave.”

Yoojin nodded. She’d get in a lot of trouble if she got caught here.

“By the way.”

“Yes?”

“I’m a little annoyed she didn’t tell me.”

Why did the woman’s smiling face look so scary right now? Yoojin wanted to go back to her friends as quickly as she could right now.

Chapter 149

Maru took his lips off and looked at her as if nothing had happened. Her eyebrows shot up to the sky, fell back down, and then shot up again.

"Y-you!"

"What?"

"Are you crazy?"

"Very normal."

She didn't say anything for a moment. Her lips twisted for a second before opening back up again. She looked very, very surprised.

"Who told you to do that?!"

"I couldn't?"

"That's…”

"I really took my time with it on purpose. I tried to give you as much time as I could."

"Are you really saying that right now?"

She shook her head sideways.

"T-they didn't see, did they?"

"Who? Your club members?"

She nodded lightly. Maru looked behind him, he couldn't see Yoojin anymore. She probably left after seeing what was going on. In any case, they were alone.

"There's no one."

"Hah."

"What? You don't like being seen with me?"

"Of course I do!"

"Really?"

"………”

"Really really?"

Her frown was deepening the more he asked her. He wanted to tease her a bit more but decided to stop there though. He didn't want her to cry further, so he took out the gift in his pocket.

"Here."

She looked at his gift once and at him once.

"It's heavy, take it."

"What is it?"

"Merry Christmas. It's a gift from Santa. I'm not supposed to give them to kids who cry, but I'll make an exception. I'm a very nice Santa."

Maru wiped her eyes with his jacket sleeve, she stepped back with a flinch.

"Want to blow your nose, too?"

"I'm fine."

She wiped her eyes as she sniffled, she resembled a squirrel washing its face in the morning. As weird as it sounded, she was really fun to tease at her age. What happened during the next eight years? What turned this girl into a vixen who waved a condom at him with a grin?

‘Maybe it’s her mother.’

Maru’s ears tickled for a moment. Was someone swearing at him from afar? She opened the box he gave her. He looked at her carefully. She still had a frown on her face, but her eyes were clearly smiling. Maru took out one of the couple rings and grabbed her hand.

“W-what are you doing?”

“We need to see if it fits.”

Maru put it on her ring finger, the itty bitty rabbit ring fit perfectly on her. She raised her hand up to observe it a little more carefully.

“It looks good on you.”

“I look like a kid.”

“Don’t you like this kind of stuff?”

She couldn’t refute him. She took off her ring with an annoyed look.

“Our school bans accessories.”

“That’s a shame.”

Maru put the other ring on his finger. A grown man, wearing some rabbit-shaped ring… It was a bit hilarious to think about, but at least they were connected through it.

“You’re going to keep it on?”

“Might as well since I bought it.”

“You don’t look good with it on.”

“I know.”

“Then why?”

“It’s a sign that I’m taken.”

Her face reddened immediately.

“Everyone says couple rings work better the more childish they look, so this is a really good one.”

“I’m not going to wear it.”

She handed the ring back to him.

“Well, I should give it to someone else then. It’d be a shame to throw it away. I wonder if Yoojin would like this.”

Maru put the ring back in his pocket and looked at her. She had a scary expression on her face. Maru smiled as he took the ring back out.

“I’m telling you this again. I’m yours. Don’t worry or be suspicious of me. I don’t want to force your expectations of me back on yourself though. You do whatever you want. I want you to like me and only me for sure. I’m not going to force that on you.”

He carefully put the ring back on her finger. This time, she was quiet as he put it on.

“I’ll just have to work a little overtime making sure your heart doesn’t get stolen by someone else.”

He turned the ring a little so that the rabbit would be on top before letting go. She brought her hands to her chest. She was looking at the ring.

“I’m sorry if I was being too forceful. I won’t do it again.”

It was true that Maru was desperate to have her. He was lying when he said it would be fine for her to have her heart stolen by someone else. That, of course, was a white lie. He didn’t want to ruin the relationship by being too desperate. He handed her the perfume after, she didn’t say anything still.

“Merry Christmas again. I hope you like the perfume.”

He did come on a little strong at a girl who’s never dated before, maybe he was the one who was too worried. Perhaps he should’ve taken his sweet time? Well, whatever. He didn’t have any regrets. Maru decided to head off though, he didn’t want to become too nervous in front of her. Maru turned back slowly, but a hand grabbed him before he could walk away.

It was her. She pulled him back and grabbed his collars. Before he even realized, they were staring at each other face to face.

“Stop doing whatever you want.”

Her lips closed over his, it was a surprise for Maru this time around. Looking at her expression relaxed him immediately though. In fact, he even wanted to burst out into laughter. Her eyebrows were wrinkled because she clenched her eyes tightly. He thought about putting a tongue in there but quickly abandoned the thought, he didn’t want to get slapped. He put his hands around her hips, it took his everything trying to stop them from moving a little further down.

“Hah!”

She snapped her head back with a loud huff, her face was completely red. It looked like her face was close to exploding, so Maru tried poking it.

“Hah, hah, hah.”

She was huffing like she just ran in a marathon. Maru smiled as he let go of his hands around her, she didn’t step back.

“There’s one thing I want to make clear.”

She sounded a little mad.

“What is it?”

“I like the ring, for now.”

“Thanks.”

“I also like you too.”

The little string of nervousness snapped in his chest with that making Maru sighed subconsciously.

“I’m also going to return what you said right back at you. You should go meet other women, too! I’m going to work hard too. So that you’ll continue to like me.”

She spat out her words before finally stepping back.

“By the way, you…”

“What?”

“H-how many times have you kissed people?”

“Would you believe me if I told you that it was my first time?”

“Liar!”

“No, really.”

“T-then how were you so natural with it?”

“Men like to study stuff like this, you know.”

Maru gestured for another kiss playfully, her hand immediately flew to slap his lips. It kind of hurt.

“Pervert.”

“Says the lady who just gave me a passionate kiss mere seconds ago. You even grabbed my collars. Are you into that stuff?”

“Hey!”

He hugged her without permission one more time. Her round head only reached up to his chin. She had such a wide forehead.

“Thanks for being jealous. Thanks for telling me that I’m worth something to you. I was actually nervous that you didn’t really care for me.”

It was better to be frank, at a time like this. Maru decided to tell her the truth without hiding anything. It might burden the listener a bit, but that was exactly what Maru wanted. It was mean if one were to think about it, but Maru wanted to imprint as much of himself as he could in her mind.

“It’s unfair… How good you are at talking.”

She reached out to grab his coat for the first time, she didn’t seem to have the courage to actually hug him just yet. He did feel slightly greedy, but he decided to stop it here. He was glad she already had the courage to kiss him.

“Merry Christmas,” she said.

It would’ve been nice if this continued for a bit longer. Unfortunately, their sweet time was interrupted by a text message. She raised her head and Maru let go of her. She took out her phone to check the message.

“Hup.”

She inhaled sharply before looking around like a meerkat. She was incredibly alert, her cheeks were turning completely pale in fear.

“What’s wrong?”

“S-saw.”

“What?”

“She saw!”

What did she mean? She handed the phone to him with a frightened expression. There was a very short line written on the screen.

[Try not to bump your teeth. It’s absolutely embarrassing.]

One of his cheeks twitched. This didn’t feel good. He raised his eyes to take a look at the sender of the message.

‘Ah, dear mother-in-law.’

He swallowed nervously as he looked around. Was she still around looking at them?

“Y-your mother saw us?”

“Can’t you tell?”

“T-that’s troublesome.”

“It’s your fault!”

“…I’m leaving. Good luck.”

He was serious. Reincarnation or not, there were still people he didn’t want to have to deal with. One of the worst amongst those people was his mother-in-law. She was a good person, of course. One of the nicest in fact. She was someone who cared about her daughter’s troubles very much.

At the same time, mother-in-law positively loved to tease people. If she finds out her daughter got a boyfriend… well, he need not imagine the consequences. She’d be smiling in front of you as she asked you some incredibly embarrassing questions. He still remembered the first time he went to her wife’s house, the first thing his mother-in-law asked him was if he was carrying a condom.

Maru turned back and tried to leave, consumed by his survival instincts. She didn’t let him go. As a matter of fact, she was smiling with vengeance on her face.

“Can you let me go?”

“Hmph, don’t want to.”

“I’ll do good from now on. Please?”

“Too late.”

His neck was starting to tingle. This was bad. He started looking behind him slowly, there were Yoojin and a pretty woman in her early forties.

“Nice to meet you.”

Winter. Was this what frogs feel like in winter when they wake up for a moment during their hibernation only to be confronted with a snake? He could almost hear someone from the distance welcoming him to hell.

* * *

“Everyone’s here, right?”

“Yes.”

“We’re leaving. Make sure you didn’t forget anything.”

She checked her belongings again at the president’s behest. She wasn’t missing anything. Thank goodness.

“Phew, it’s over for now,” her friend commented.

She nodded with a big sigh. The prelim was hard, but that weirdo made her feel even more nervous.

“What’s that?”

Her friend must’ve seen the perfume in her bag. She was curious, so she took it out as well. The bottle was shaped like a droplet.

“What is it?”

“Perfume.”

“Perfume?”

Her friend looked curious. She took off the cap and tried spraying a little on her wrist. She’s never used a perfume before, but she knew roughly where she was supposed to spray.

“Mm, it’s good.”

Her friend responded first. She closed her eyes as she took another whiff. The scent was incredibly fresh, like a breeze passing right under her nose. It wasn’t strong at all, she liked it.

“Doesn’t this fit guys more though?”

“I think so, but I still like it.”

“Who did you get it from?”

She just smiled in response.

“Santa.”

“Santa?”

Her friend only seemed more confused.

* * *

“Dig in.”

“Yes? Ah, yes.”

He was uncomfortable. Very uncomfortable. Sure, the cafe they were in was nice, but his future mother-in-law… Plus, the reason why they were sitting together was that she saw them kissing… This couldn’t go well for him.

“I’m not going to scold you, so relax a little.”

“Y-you don’t have to be so polite, ma’am.”

“Oh? Sure.”

She was just coming right in. Maru decided to put on a fake smile. He couldn’t smile in any other way. Their coffee arrived. The drink was a welcomed change to their silence, but Maru wasn’t able to even take a sip. She threw him a question just as he grabbed his cup.

“Alright. So, what did you like about my daughter? I hope you can be honest and persuasive. Don’t give me a bad reason.”

Mother-in-law grinned. She was pretty, but that’s not what’s important right now. If he didn’t give the woman the right answer… He’d have a bad time.

“Can I think for a bit, please?”

“Of course.”

He needed to take care. It seemed that Santa decided to give him a box of coals, just because he decided to tease his girlfriend.

Chapter 150

“Shall we drink in the meantime?”

“Ah, yes.”

Thank goodness she offered him a drink. He caught his breath as he took a sip, he needed to explain what he liked about her daughter. This felt worse than writing his college entrance exam since tests always had a set answer. You just had to read the problem and figure out the test writer’s intent, but this didn’t. He might fail even if he comes up with a good answer. Then again, that was what most essay questions were like.

“Tick, tock, tick, tock.”

That wasn’t an actual clock ticking, it was just his mother-in-law making sounds with a smile. This lady knew very well how to make a person feel nervous.

“Hold on.”

She took out a phone from her bag.

“Yeah, honey?”

It must be her daughter. Maru tensed up even more. The woman’s lips were curling up into a mischievous smile again, that wasn’t a good sign.

“Why did I come when I said I wouldn’t? Well, I finished writing pretty early today. So I wanted to come over to surprise you. Who knew you’d be the one to surprise me instead?”

She gave Maru a short glance. All he could do was to smile.

“Your boyfriend’s smiling at me.”

She put her phone on speaker mode.

- Mom! You’re with Maru?

The voice on the other end sounded incredibly nervous, Maru wanted to send his thoughts and prayers. He really did. All he could do right now was just to hope that the topic of conversation would change to anything other than him. Having to deal with his mother-in-law was too stressful. His mother-in-law motioned him to be quiet.

“So he’s called Maru?”

- That’s not important. Why are you two together? Did you ask him anything weird? Did you?

“We weren’t talking about much. He has a heavy mouth. I haven’t gotten a single answer from him yet. Oh, so troublesome.”

Oops. He forgot about that. Time to think again. He needed to come up with a good answer.

- What are you asking him?!

“Just why he likes you. Stuff like that.”

- Mom!

“I’m gonna hang up. Bye.”

She closed her phone with just that. It rang in a flash again, but she didn’t pick it back up. So it was his turn again, huh. He took in a breath and got ready to answer her.

“Let’s go outside.”

“Yes?”

She stood up first, Maru followed her in a hurry. He tried to walk past her to try and pay for the food, but she stopped him.

“I don’t like being paid for.”

Maru put his card back into his wallet. They stepped outside. It was winter, but it didn’t feel so cold for some reason. Was it because of how nervous he was?

“Um…”

He still hadn’t thought of a good answer just yet. Before he could answer her, she opened her mouth first.

“Please don’t hurt my daughter.”

The way his mother-in-law stared back at him and the way she politely, firmly, and yet sternly said those words… It made Maru forget to breathe for a second. She bowed to him lightly. Maru returned the bow.

“Have you heard about our family from my daughter?”

“I heard her father passed away a long time ago.”

“What else did she tell you?”

Maru slowly raised his head, he decided to just be honest here. He threw away his filter and said everything. Why she liked acting, why she liked to hum, why she smiled or cried whenever she hummed, what happened with her friends, and what she liked to eat. Just about everything she’s told him came out of his mouth. It felt like he talked for some time. His feet were starting to succumb to the weather. Once he finished, he looked back at his mother-in-law’s eyes. She was smiling.

“I’m not the type of person to trust others very easily. But… I’m also not stuck-up enough to distrust someone that my daughter trusts.”

She nodded before stepping forward and grabbed Maru’s hand with both of her hands.

“Please come over sometime.”

She sounded a little more relaxed again, it felt like a wall broke down between them. Just before he could sigh in relief, she whispered a few words to him.

“But please think before swooping in for a kiss. You don’t want to give her or me a trauma, do you?”

“Y-y-yes!”

“I’ll be more casual with you the next time we meet. Goodbye.”

Maru stuttered from shock. He could feel cold sweat running down his back. Only after she disappeared from his vision completely was he able to sigh in relief.

“…This is too much.”

It felt like he wasn’t able to do anything other than sleep at home now, but Santa wasn’t ready to make him experience happiness just yet. He got a call. From her.

- Hey! What did you tell her?!

“Hah.”

A mountain after a mountain.

* * *

“Don’t do anything stupid just because it’s vacation, understood?”

“Yes!”

“You all answer nicely, sure. Go clean up your desks. Don’t you dare come back after school closes asking to go back inside.”

The teacher looked at the clock before giving Daemyung a slight glance, Daemyung opened the TV drawer to click on the ‘on’ button. The TV took a second or two to load before the face of the principal appeared.

- Hm hm, ah ah.

That alone was already enough to make them want to fall asleep. Did all principals just have the natural ability to make people sleepy?

“Take this.”

“Thanks.”

Maru popped Dojin’s candy in his mouth, the mint definitely helped. It was the 26th. The day after Christmas and also the day before winter break.

- Us Woosung High…

Well, there he goes again. The homeroom teacher was already sleeping on a chair. One by one, the students started drifting away into dreamland as well.

“When do they announce the results?”

“Thursday.”

“Will we pass?”

“Who knows.”

The results of the prelim would come out on Thursday and the regional finals would start on the following Tuesday. After that was the prelim for the nationals.

- We, who won’t break even through the cold wind…

“I wonder when he’s planning on finishing that speech.”

“Dunno, when his throat hurts?”

Maru put his phone back in his pocket as he turned to the TV, he could see the principal still flipping through the pages of his speech. Probably at least two pages left to go?

“What happened with you and Iseul, by the way?”

He got reminded of it all of the sudden. The question made Dojin flinch and turn his way. That’s quite a reaction.

“W-what?”

“Oho, so something really did happen?”

“Nothing happened, really.”

“So why are you surprised?”

“………”

Dojin leaned towards Maru after a few seconds.

“I… I think I like Iseul.”

“Why are you being so secretive over something so obvious?”

“Obvious?”

“Daemyung probably knows as well.”

“Liar. Stop lying. You think I’m that obvious?”

…Oh? Maru gestured at him to wait for a little. Once the principal finished his speech after a few minutes, the teacher woke up from his nap and stood up.

“Alright, take your homework. Do them well. Don’t smoke. Don’t do anything stupid. I’ll see you in February. Ah, class pres, follow me out after this. Dismissed.”

“Waaah!”

The whole class started shouting. The infectious shouting spread through the hall and all the way to the other floors. Finally, their break had begun.

“Daemyung.”

Maru dodged around all the other kids and walked up to Daemyung.

“Hm?”

“Do you know who Dojin likes?”

“Is it Iseul?”

Dojin’s expression turned dumb.

“What do I do?”

“What do you mean, ‘what do I do’? Just do what you have to do.”

“Give me some tips.”

Dojin’s insistence didn’t change no matter how much Maru tried to push the boy away.

“So you’ll do what I say, then?”

“Yeah.”

“You’re not going to go back on your word?”

“Okay.”

Maru put his hands in his pockets and walked out, Dojin and Daemyung followed behind him. He walked to the other side of the hallway to the classroom inside, everyone was still sitting inside. The teacher here must’ve just finished his speech.

“Why are we here?”

“Why do you think?”

He opened the classroom door and looked around. He could see Iseul sitting in the front.

“Eh?”

Iseul waved her hand at Maru, so he waved back.

“Why are you guys here?”

Maru grabbed Dojin’s shoulders and put the boy in front of her. He didn’t even want to give advice. So, he might as well send the boy straight into battle. Dojin was just standing there fiddling with his fingers, Iseul seemed to have understood what was happening at this point though.

“I wanted to leave a kid here.”

“To me?”

“Yeah.”

Iseul thought for a second before grabbing Dojin’s shoulders with a nod. Maru observed Dojin stiffen up more and more before turning away.

“Hey, hey, hey!”

He could hear the boy call out to him from behind, but he ignored it. This wasn’t his problem. Iseul also seemed interested anyhow.

“Well then…”

“Time to leave?”

Maru nodded at Daemyung’s response. To begin with, he didn’t even have time to play with Dojin after school. He already had other arrangements. Well, arrangements that Daemyung had set up. He was just joining in.

“Mintae, was it?”

“Yeah.”

“Seoul, right?”

“Myungdong.”

“We’ll have to hurry.”

Yoon Mintae. Maru’s met him once before through Junmin. Someone who works in staging? The guy was in his twenties, if he remembered right.

“It’ll be fun.”

Daemyung had a rare look of confidence which made Maru excited as well.

“Well, we’re making a play together after all.”

He seemed like he was stating a fact, not a statement.

* * *

“Hah.”

Yurim sighed lightly as she took her lips off. Her heart was beating loudly in her chest. Did Geunseok feel the same way?

“Want to drink something?”

Geunseok was looking at the menu casually as if nothing had happened. Yurim rubbed her lips lightly. They kissed just now, right?

“Want cola?”

“Hm? Ah, yeah.”

“Wait a second.”

Yurim looked at Geunseok desperately, it was her first kiss. She was trembling and she was a little scared. It was Geunseok though, so she allowed it. It felt soft and their breathing was warm, but she didn’t feel any emotions for some reason. It almost felt like… She was showing love to a wall.

‘It must be because he’s nervous, right?’

Must be. That must be the case. Wait, what if that wasn’t the case? But just as she was about to move onto doing something else, she saw Geunseok’s phone vibrate on the sofa. She knew she shouldn’t, but she grabbed it anyway. It didn’t have a password either.

It was a text message. Most of his texts were with someone named Suyeon, their texts were particularly expressive. Yurim’s face turned incredibly pale. She checked the messages he’s exchanged with her, most of his responses were curt. She thought that was just what his personality was like, but that wasn’t it at all. He was incredibly sweet towards this Suyeon person.

She looked at the door nervously, it didn’t look like he’d come back any time soon. She flipped to the photos tab quickly. His photos with her were all on the bottom. The recent ones were all… with a woman she didn’t recognize. An older woman. Why did this woman look so familiar?

“Drama.”

It was an actress. The two were smiling in a picture together. Yurim’s teeth started clacking together. She’s felt this way before, back then when she was about to be kidnapped.

“Geunseok’s… Supposed to be relying on me.”

She couldn’t take her eyes off of the other woman.

* * *

“You aren’t going to sing?”

Geunseok looked at Yurim after he stepped back inside. Man, it was so boring even playing with her nowadays. What was this girl even good at?

“Ah… it’s nothing.”

Yurim smiled back at him in response. What an average smile. Well, what could he do? The girl still cared about him. He was tired of her now, but he still kept her around because she cared so much for him.

“Let’s sing together.”

“Yeah.”

“Why are you so stiff? Oh, was it the kiss? Did you like it that much?”

“Mm? Ah… Aha. Yeah. It was good.”

“Oh, so cute.”

Geunseok kissed her cheek lightly, her cheeks were soft. Geunseok’s eyes naturally wandered a little further down. He could see some skin under her shirt.

“Song… This one seems good.”

Yurim stood up from her seat. Well, he might as well go for it next time. Geunseok smiled before standing up himself.

Chapter 151

It just… kind of happened. There was no other way Dojin could explain his current situation.

“A friend?”

“Yes!”

Dojin replied loudly to Iseul’s mother. He didn’t reply too loudly, did he?

“You can work him as much as you want, mom. He’s a worker for just today.”

Iseul slapped Dojin’s back with a big grin, the boy was starting to learn just how strong she really is.

How did he even get here, anyway?

Iseul asked him if he had anything to do at school, and he replied no. She told him to follow her and before he knew it, they were at her family’s restaurant. By the time he came to, he was wearing a kitchen apron peeling onions in a corner.

“Bite on this if your eyes hurt too much.”

Iseul handed him a green onion as she peeled the garlic from next to him.

“Wouldn’t this just make it worse?”

“Just trust me and do it.”

Well, he had no choice then, did he? She was smiling at him so prettily. He put the green onion in his mouth and went back to peeling. Huh, she was right. It really didn’t hurt anymore.

“You were right.”

“Just a little business know-how.”

Iseul wiped her nose with a finger, she looked like a total princess but acted like a tomboy.

“You two should go out and play after you finish that,” Iseul’s mom said.

“We’ll help until dad comes back.”

Iseul seemed to be used to working at the restaurant, she immediately stepped out to take orders whenever new customers came. It was a small place, so the tables were always full. The two of them weren’t able to talk properly due to how busy the restaurant was. Only when the time became 2 o’clock were they finally able to start talking a bit more.

“Thanks for the help.”

They stepped out after taking off their aprons. Dojin’s legs were aching from how long he was squatting, but he didn’t feel too bad. At least he was with a girl he liked.

“We should have lunch.”

“Where?”

Iseul just grabbed his arm in response. Before he could even do anything, she dragged him away; he once again realized just how tall Iseul during that moment. Her limbs were pretty long as well and the proportions of her body were well balanced. He wondered for a split second if he even had a chance with this girl, he gave up on worrying about it pretty quickly. Dojin wasn’t good at worrying about stuff, so he might as well not do it at all. What mattered right now was that he was happy. The two of them eventually arrived at a four-story apartment.

“What’s this?”

“My home.”

And here he thought they were going to a restaurant. Dojin got nervous for no reason. The two of them walked up to the second floor and entered the unit numbered 202. Unlike their restaurant, the house was quiet, bordering on feeling abandoned.

“We sleep at the restaurant pretty often.”

That’s right, the restaurant had a little room stuck next to the kitchen. Since the restaurant opened until dawn, the family must’ve spent many nights there. Dojin sat down on the dining table and Iseul stood in front of the fridge. She started taking a bunch of things out and started cooking. She made fried rice, some pancakes, and stir-fried sausage.

“Here you go.”

“Thanks.”

He took a bite of the rice. Absolutely delicious. Then again, even if she made him instant noodles, his reaction wouldn’t change. Just as he was about to take a spoon of the soup, Iseul asked him a question.

“Do you like me?”

Dojin almost dropped the spoon. He wanted to try to maintain his calm and deny it, but what he came out of his mouth was something entirely different.

“……Yeah.”

Wow, he must look pathetic right now. He couldn’t even look her in the eye, but he did feel a little expectant. If she was asking him outright, did it mean…

“Sorry, I’m not very interested just yet.”

She was very firm. Her words woke Dojin right up. It felt like blood was draining straight out of his fingertips.

“I’m thankful that you like me. I don’t dislike you either. But you saw what the morning shift was like, didn’t you? We were swamped. I don’t think I can even continue with the acting club next year either. My dad got hurt, so I’ll have to stand in for him.”

“I… see. I didn’t know. Is he hurt badly?”

“Kind of. It looks like my mom will have to handle the restaurant alone for a while. She looks really tired though. I can’t just sit around playing looking at that.”

Dojin didn’t even want to eat anymore. Thankfully, he had just finished. The two of them started moving the dishes into the sink. He had no idea that the girl shouldered such burdens. Back in the club, she was always smiling. He felt sorry that he never noticed.

“I hope he gets better soon.”

“Of course he will. Mom would collapse otherwise.”

She was smiling, but it really wasn’t something to smile about. Working in a restaurant was incredibly taxing, Dojin noticed. Doing it by herself with her mother… It probably exhausted her. The dishes clacked together as Iseul started washing. Dojin just watched her work from the side, he didn’t know what to say. Emotions like happiness or love were long gone from his heart right now.

Iseul finished washing the dishes and wiped her hands on the towel.

“Let’s just stay friends. I think that’d be better for the both of us.”

“Will you really stop coming to the club in your second year?”

“Well, even if my dad’s hips get better, he wouldn’t be able to work as he did before. I’d need to step in to stop him from overworking. I do want to continue going to the club, but that doesn’t seem possible at the moment. I like to go all in on something if I start it, but I don’t think I can do that with acting if I work at the restaurant.”

“………”

“What about you?”

The two of them returned to the table, Iseul poured some juice for him. Tomato juice. Dojin started thinking as he looked at the red juice in front of him.

He grabbed Maru and entered the club for the hell of it. It looked fun and the seniors looked pretty. That was it for him, no deep reasons. Before he knew it, a year had passed. Nothing much had changed. He wasn’t desperate to get good at acting, nor did he have a set path for that acting life in front of him.

“I don’t really know.”

“If you like it, you should keep going.”

Iseul took a sip of the juice. Her eyes, slightly visible atop the mug as she drank, was looking at Dojin.

“…I’ve been thinking about it for a while, but I really don’t know what I want to do. Acting’s fun, yeah. But how should I put it? It occasionally feels like I’m idling by while everyone else is moving forward.”

He smiled awkwardly.

“But it’s not like I have a dream in acting either. I think about this and forget about it on the next day as well. It’s like I’m on a constant loop.”

Dojin stopped talking there, it felt like he was just making himself look worse in front of her.

“I think it’s that way for everyone,” Iseul began as she put down her cup, “it’s not like I have a goal either. I only want to inherit the restaurant because it’s all I’ve known in my life. There’s nothing else that I really want to do… I just kind of… do it because I have to.”

It was a difficult topic to talk about. She tapped the cup in front of her a few times.

“At least I don’t dislike this though. I like the restaurant my parents made. I like the fact that I can work here. It’s a blessing. At least I don’t have to think about stuff like entrance exams…”

“You said you won’t be going to college, right?”

“Yeah. It’s not like going to college would improve the flavor of our food.”

“Did your parents allow it?”

“No way. They’ll probably get really mad at me. I’m going to make them give up though.”

Iseul grinned.

“…Aren’t you worried? I can’t imagine not going to a college.”

Dojin tried to stay silent because he didn’t want to appear weak, he couldn’t help himself though. Iseul looked powerful, she looked alive; just looking at her gave him strength. He didn’t want to hide anything in front of someone like that.

“Why are you being like this right now? Are you really Dojin? Why are you being so depressing?”

Iseul slapped his back one more time.

“Of course I’m worried. All of my friends would go to college. They’re already talking about it now. But that’s why I think I’d need to be even more careful. I just think that as long as I don’t regret my actions, I’d be happy with my life. College isn’t necessary to success after all.”

Iseul finished her cup of juice.

“Plus, I don’t want to just imitate other people.”

* * *

They were on their way back to the restaurant. Dojin turned to look at Iseul next to him. He wanted to say something to her, but nothing came to mind. Soon, the two of them arrived at the restaurant.

“I’ll buy you something tasty next time. Seriously, thank you for today. You helped out a lot.”

Iseul waved her hand at him. Instead of saying goodbye, he decided to say something else.

“I finally found something I want to keep on doing today.”

“Mm?”

Iseul looked at him curiously. Dojin suppressed the embarrassment inside him and looked straight at her.

“I’m going to keep liking you until I graduate.”

Iseul burst out into laughter.

“Alright, fine. But I’m going to keep making you work at the restaurant until then. I’ll call you out whenever you’re free. Are you okay with that?”

“Whenever! I’m always free!”

“That doesn’t sound charming at all you know.”

She waved her hand one last time with a smile. This time, Dojin waved back.

“Bye.”

“See you.”

Dojin got on the bus, his heart felt like it was about to explode. He found something he wanted to do for the first time. It was kind of stupid and the reason why he wanted to do it was even more stupid. But whatever.

As soon as he arrived back home, Dojin turned on the computer. He typed “cook” on the search bar. He knew he was being very hasty right now, but when has Dojin ever not been hasty? Right now, his eyes were shining brighter than anything else.

* * *

“Over here.”

Maru bowed at Mintae from afar. Mintae flinched a little from the distance before bowing as well. By the looks of it, the man only noticed Daemyung before this.

“Bro, this is Maru.”

Daemyung acted as the mediator between the two. Maru recalled meeting this man before, though he had to wonder if the man remembered him.

“We met before, didn’t we? I’m Yoon Mintae.”

The man, who was in his mid-twenties, extended his hand out for a shake. Maru grabbed it firmly.

“Please don’t be so polite in front of me. You can treat me as you do Daemyung.”

“Well, sure then.”

Mintae smiled brightly.

“Did you guys eat yet?”

“No, not yet.”

“Alright. Might as well get something. I haven’t eaten yet either.”

Mintae took them to a BBQ place. It was already dinnertime, so the place was crowded.

“Daemyung told you why you’re here, right?”

“Yes.”

They were making an original play completely from scratch, everything from writing the script to the stage tech would be done by them.

“We’re not planning on making this a short-term project. The idea is to rent out a theater in Hyehwa station later on to begin our first play.”

“What about the script?”

“Daemyung decided to give it a go. We’ll have to help him obviously.”

The two of them looked at Daemyung, who smiled nervously at them. The boy seemed dead set on entering into the industry as a director.

“So just us three, then?”

“For now. We’ll need more later though. First off, we need a writer. Someone who can breathe life into the writing. It’s going to be a little difficult for just Daemyung to write it, since we’re all just beginners.”

Making a play. It was a tempting offer. It would be a difficult, yet rewarding project.

“I can decorate the stage,” Mintae began.

“And Maru can take care of the acting,” Daemyung replied.

The two of them seemed to have thought of the roles already.

“How is it? Want to try it?”

Maru nodded after a few seconds of thought.

“I don’t think I can join in right away though. I have to take care of a few things.”

“Of course. I know you guys have that festival. Focus on that first. We can set up the other stuff afterwards. I just wanted to meet you for today.”

Mintae had a wide smile on his face.

Chapter 152

Geunseok’s phone went off again, causing Yurim to bite down on her fork a bit harder than she intended. Her front teeth were throbbing slightly in pain. Already, Geunseok’s stared at his phone four times throughout their date. He just told her he was talking with his coach whenever she asked about it. She wanted to ask what the coach was like, but she lacked the courage each time. The boy already looked annoyed by her. He would hate her for sure if she overstepped her boundaries. So instead, Yurim handed him a piece of a fried dumpling.

“Try this, it’s good.”

“Sure.”

Right then, his phone vibrated again. Geunseok put down his fork with a smile. Yurim felt like she was choking.

“That dumpling’s tasty.”

“Yeah, I know.”

“You’re not going to eat it?”

“I will, after this.”

“If it cools down…”

Geunseok raised his hand with an annoyed expression. That face didn’t last long though. After just a second, he had a smile on his face again.

“I’ll eat it on my own time. You should eat it too.”

Geunseok went back to reading his phone. The boy had an incredibly energetic look on his face as he read. Yurim looked at him dumbly before putting a piece of tteokbokki in her mouth. It was sweet. Salty. Spicy. No, it didn’t taste like anything. Since when was this dish so bland? The sticky rice cake felt awful in her mouth. She rolled it in her mouth as she chewed and ended up biting her tongue. She let out a slight moan in pain, but at least with this, she might be able to get Geunseok’s attention…

“Pft.”

Geunseok was laughing while looking at his phone. Yurim tasted blood in her mouth. She thought back to that woman named Suyeon in Geunseok’s phone, that was probably his coach. She looked down slightly. She tried hard to look good with her beige pants, so why did she feel so out of style right now? Also, since when was she so fat? Her hips felt like they were about to explode.

She looked a little further upwards. She could see her stomach. She touched the skin hidden under her shirt, she could feel the fat underneath. The woman in the picture probably didn’t have anything like this. Lastly, her chest. Why was she so small? Her chest hurt a little, so she tapped it a few times with her fist. Even then she was looking at Geunseok. Maybe he’d ask her if she was hurting anywhere?

“This sis is just…” Geunseok said.

He probably didn’t mean to say it out loud. Unfortunately, Yurim heard everything. Geunseok looked up, seemingly realizing his loud voice. Yurim quickly stretched to grab a tissue.

“…I spilled something,” she said, trying her best to hide the fact she heard him.

Geunseok clicked his tongue in disapproval.

“You should be careful. So unladylike.”

“Y-yeah.”

Yurim smiled as she wiped down the already clean table, this was the first time their eyes met since they started eating.

“Geunseok,”

“Yeah?”

“Do you… have anything that’s been bothering you recently?”

“What are you talking about all of a sudden?”

“No, just… I wanted you to know that I’m always here to help you. Just like last time.”

She barely managed to squeeze the words out of her. That’s right, the two of them had a bond that no one could break. Geunseok was relying on her. Speaking the words out loud calmed her down significantly. Surely the boy would come to her if hard times fell on him.

“Like last time?”

Geunseok responded coldly at her words, cold enough to make her flinch. Yurim was afraid of Geunseok’s glare, so she could only stutter out a response.

“N-no, u-um…”

“Explain what you meant by ‘last time’?”

“No, I spoke wrongly.”

“Tell me.”

Geunseok leaned forward, casting a shadow over his face. Yurim felt afraid, his pressuring gaze made her heart tremble. At the same time, she felt oddly comforted. At least he wasn’t looking at his phone anymore, he wasn’t giving that woman any more attention. His eyes were on her and her alone.

She had to suppress a twisted smile appearing on her face. Yurim looked around carefully. She’d be losing to that woman if she didn’t reign in this opportunity. She organized her thoughts before opening her mouth again.

“You know what happened last time. When Maru said those things about you. You were… crying a lot.”

She looked straight down, she could just imagine what kind of a face Geunseok had on him right now. His gaze felt pretty hot on her, but the fact that she could control his emotions made her feel a little bit excited. She knew well that she couldn’t take back the words that she said. She continued talking regardless.

“You remember how I hugged you last time? You looked really sad. You cried a lot in my arms. I still remember you from then. You told me that I was of help to you. That you felt happy when you were with me. Right? I’m… always on your side.”

She looked back up with that. Surely he was fuming now, but at least he’d be looking at her.

“Ah.”

A moan crawled out of her mouth. Geunseok wasn’t looking at her anymore. He was staring at his phone with a smile on his face.

“Geunseok.”

“Yeah?”

“Did you hear me?”

“Yeah. Sort of.”

Sort of. Yurim felt a chill run down her neck, she wanted to throw up. She put a hand over her mouth as she stared at Geunseok. How could he be smiling so happily like that? Come to think of, when was the last time he smiled at her like that? She couldn’t remember. She was at a loss. It felt like her precious treasure was slipping out of her fingertips like sand. She tried her best to keep it together in her hands, but her efforts were futile.

“Um, Geunseok.”

Her voice was like that of a mosquito. She could only hope that Geunseok would reply regardless.

“Geunseok.”

He still didn’t respond.

“Hey, Geunseok. Geunseok?”

She was losing the energy to even talk now. Geunseok was moving further away from her. Upon that realization, she found it increasingly difficult to breathe. There were girls talking around her. Couples looking at each other. Boys loudly talking behind her. All of their words were fusing together into one incoherent mess. Suddenly, the calm atmosphere of the restaurant was spiralling into something more chaotic.

“Hah, hah, hah.“

She started huffing. Did Geunseok no longer need her anymore? She was starting to suffocate under a feeling of loss and nervousness. She became strong for Geunseok. She was cowardly and weak, but she was ready to stand up whenever Geunseok needed her. Suddenly, the boy didn’t need her anymore. He wasn’t looking at her anymore.

‘Phone, phone, phone.’

She started digging her bag in a hurry. Her old flip phone quickly came into her vision. She used to have it in her hands all the time, but she started not needing it when she was with Geunseok. In the corner of her mind, she could hear the honks of a car. The laughter of unfamiliar men rang in her ears as well.

- Can you tell us the way to the nearby elementary school?

‘No, I don’t know.’

- Don’t be like that.

The group of men in black shirts started walking towards her. Yurim gripped her phone tightly. She knew all this was in the past. That didn’t make it any less scary though. Her consciousness started to fade away into darkness.

“Are you sick?”

Suddenly, a hand came over her forehead. She let out a sigh as she raised her hand. Geunseok was looking at her worriedly.

“Did you choke on some food?”

“No, it’s nothing. Nothing at all.”

“Really?”

The grip on her phone loosened. She’s realized. She needed Geunseok in order to survive. So then… how could she make the boy look at her again?

‘Maybe… I could be his support once he gets in trouble again.’

A smile came over her face. Geunseok just needs to experience another tragedy. The boy would look for support and she could come over to help him. Her heart trembled with joy. She was getting excited all over again.

‘I wonder what I’ll need to do to make him hurt.’

It didn’t matter if these were twisted thoughts. She would help him keep going anyhow.

“Geunseok.”

“What?”

“Is there anything you’re concerned about now?”

“…What is it, all of a sudden?”

“Just curious.”

She smiled lightly. Geunseok put the phone down on the table for now.

“Right now? Plays.”

“Plays must be pretty precious to you.”

“Well, isn’t it obvious?”

“In what way, though?”

She looked at Geunseok with curious eyes. The boy liked being praised. He enjoyed people’s attention to him. Indeed, he smiled as he started talking.

“Because it brought me a lot of change. I’d be living a boring life if I didn’t act right now.”

“You said you were going to go into college for movie acting, right?”

“Yeah. I know it sounds odd for me to say, but there’s more than just a few people who recognize my talent. The person who assigned a coach to me also promised me scholarship money. Did I tell you about that already?”

“Yeah, you did.”

“That’s why the prelims are important. Because they’re pretty strict. He might lose interest in me if I don’t give him results. My acting doesn’t matter, of course. You saw how everyone was praising me, right?”

“Of course. You’re perfect, Geunseok.”

“That is… true.”

“We just need to do better.”

“That’s the issue. You guys need to support me well. As long as you don’t make mistakes, we should be able to get through easily.”

“So I just need to trust you?”

“Of course.”

Fun. Talking with him was fun. No one was interrupting them at this moment.

But the vibrations from Geunseok’s phone made Yurim clench her hands. The boy was looking at his phone again. She hated that phone. She wanted to break it. She gripped her fork tightly. Would the phone break if she stabbed the phone with it? No, Geunseok would be mad at her if she did it. That couldn’t happen. She needed to push him over the edge without his knowledge.

Yurim looked down at her own phone. She got a text. She checked the message with a dumb look.

[Do you have time tomorrow? Want to buy clothes together?]

It was Soyeon. She felt tempted for a second, but she remembered them having fun without her at Iseul’s place last time. Traitor. They were all traitors.

[Busy.]

She closed her phone. As long as Geunseok was with her, she didn’t feel nervous. She didn’t need her phone when Geunseok was with her.

‘That’s why the prelims are important.’

The sentence reverberated inside her head. Right then, she thought of the wall in the auditorium. That black corner of the room. Fire. Burnt costumes and props. The seniors who weren’t even able to get to the prelims.

“Pft.”

She let out a small laugh.

“What?”

“It’s nothing. Nothing at all.”

It’s that. She could use that to break Geunseok. Surely she could use this to get his attention again.

‘You can cry whenever you want. I’ll always be ready.’

She didn’t ever want to return to her old self again.

‘I’m not weak. I can help other people. I can be his support.’

She became calm again. She was happy.

* * *

“Method acting isn’t anything special. You just need to completely immerse in a character. The problem is, the better you get at acting, the better you get at erasing yourself. In the end, you might erase yourself for good. If things get really bad, your actual personality might permanently change. Some people even end up having to get treatment because of it.”

“That actually happens?”

“You ever saw a pathological liar?”

“From a TV a few times.”

“That’s kind of similar to what method acting’s like. Pathological lying starts to turn into reality for a person. If things get bad, you might even start trying to turn that lie into reality. There’s an actor in France who assumed the role of a father that lost his son. Things got so bad for him that he started forgetting his own son.”

“I see.”

Maru nodded at Ganghwan. It was an interesting story. To think immersive acting can actually ruin a person…

“Acting’s complicated, isn’t it?”

“That it is.”

Ganghwan pressed on the pedal with a sigh.

Chapter 153

The Myungdong Art Theater. It was his first time back here in two weeks. He found the kids huddled together once he walked onto the stage. Baekjoon, who played the class president, and Yoojin greeted him in turn. Next to them was Choi Areum, who played their teacher.

“Long time no see,” Baekjoon received Maru with a slap on the shoulder, “how was your prelims?”

“It was okay.”

“Stop pretending to be humble. Yoojin told me you guys were no joke.”

What did they talk about? Maru turned to Yoojin in curiosity.

“I just told him you guys did well. By the way…”

Yoojin approached him to whisper.

“How was it after that?”

“After what?”

“Didn’t you get dragged away by her mom?”

“You saw?”

“Of course. I was caught by her too. I was just watching you guys kiss before she suddenly appeared behind me. I almost shouted from surprise.”

Oh, so she saw that? Yoojin grinned when he glared at her slightly.

“No worries. I’ll keep it a secret. Tell me a bit more about what happened afterwards though. I’m curious as hell.”

“Not much. I just talked with her a little.”

“What? That’s it? Nothing special?”

“What the hell do you even want to hear?”

“Um… something from a drama?”

“Hah.”

Areum and Baekjoon tried to join in on the conversation as well.

“What are you two talking about?”

“Let us join.”

Maru shut himself right up. These two were oddly energetic together, so he couldn’t trust them to keep any secrets. They were almost like twins.

“Well, you see, Maru…”

Yoojin smiled mischievously. Maru raised his hands in resignation, which made her shut her mouth right up.

“Oh, you two are suspicious.”

“So suspicious.”

Maru turned his back to the two and raised his script. It’s been a while since he’d last seen it. It would take a while for him to regain his feel for it. As he read, the other students started arriving one by one. It really has been a while since he’s seen all of them, so he talked with them happily. They talked about a lot of things, but all of their conversations circled back into one topic.

“Do you think you passed the prelims?”

He didn’t know who said it, but they were loud. While it wasn’t directed at anyone in the room, but it aroused everyone’s concern. The northern and southern areas of the Gyeonggi province, and Seoul. Unlike all the other regions in the country that picked one team to go to the nationals, these areas picked two teams each. Out of the 12 students in this amateur acting class, 7 of them were from high schools in Seoul. Each of them was from a different school, so at least five people here would fail. The same applied to the students from the Gyeonggi province.

“I heard Ilyang High and Daejin Woman’s High are the representatives for Seoul.”

“It would probably be Myunghwa High for Gyeonggi, and… Is there anything else?”

The students turned to Maru and Yoojin, since they were the only two from Gyeonggi that were here right now.

“We still have a single prelim left. The northern area finished their prelims last week though.”

Yoojin shrugged as she answered.

“Your province has two different prelims?”

“Yeah, because it’s so huge. 2 from the North, 2 from the South. We’ll have another prelim after that to pick out the final 2 from our province.”

Baekjoon nodded in understanding.

“No wonder your province wins all the time. You guys have so many schools.”

“Maybe. But isn’t that really just because of Myunghwa High? They’re the only one that won.”

“Wait… I heard Woosung High used to win all the time as well?” Baekjoon muttered to himself in confusion.

Everyone turned to look at Maru. He had to put down his script for a moment.

“A long time ago, yeah. A very long time ago.”

“Woosung High’s really good this time. They were pretty good. No, they were amazing.”

Yoojin nodded confidently. The kids started looking at him even more carefully, making Maru sigh. Yoojin had a lot of influence here, so of course people would look at him like that. Why did the girl even have to say that? Well, it was pretty obvious, he guessed.

‘She’s totally enjoying it.’

Yoojin was grinning ear to ear. The kids started flooding him with questions about what plays they were performing and Maru ended up having to answer all of them.

“I’m telling you, Maru’s completely different from practice. He literally starts flying around when he’s on stage.”

She was like a bard in a tavern, the type that gets paid money to gossip with people. Maru gestured at her to stop, trying to silently send a message that he’d tell her everything. Yoojin finally smiled back at him and redirected the conversation elsewhere. In the end, they started talking about the famous actor that was going to come to their class.

Maru remembered hearing that Yoojin’s mother worked in the drama business. He didn’t quite remember what she did, but he finally calmed down when the kids focused back on Yoojin.

“What are you doing?”

Someone put their chin on Maru’s shoulder. A smell of perfume swept his nose. Perfume that he bought for someone.

“You’re here?”

She was standing right behind him. He looked at her smiling face before looking slightly downwards.

“Sorry, didn’t wear it.”

She extended her hand out to Maru. He couldn’t see a ring anywhere. He expected this already, but it was still kind of disappointing.

“You look disappointed?”

“I was wondering if you’d wear them.”

She smiled before taking out her phone. Her ring was hanging dangling off of it.

“They don’t allow accessories, but they won’t touch my phone. You should just be satisfied with this.”

The ring was spinning under her phone. Maru put his hand next to it and the two rabbits met together in the air.

“What’s this?”

Yoojin grabbed Maru’s hand and her phone before he realized it. She tried to take back her phone in surprise, but Yoojin was faster.

“Oh, so you two are going out publicly now?”

“W-what?”

She was surprised. Maru remembered then that she still didn’t know about Yoojin seeing them on that day. The girl grinned playfully before gesturing for a kiss.

“Kiss kiss kiss. A kiss of passion.”

She widened her eyes and put a hand over Yoojin’s mouth.

“Y-you!”

“I saw you two really well. Kids today are so fast.”

“How…”

“The world has many eyes, baby girl.”

Yoojin pinched her nose lightly. It was like watching a mouse sitting in front of a cat.

“Maru…” “Sorry.”

He decided to just apologize for now. He should stay quiet today.

“You’re here, all of you?”

Ganghwan finally appeared with a bottle of water in hand. The kids started lining up together in front of him.

“Did you guys finish your prelims well?”

“Yes!”

“Think you’ll pass?”

None of them was able to answer him easily. Then again, all twelve of them were pretty much competitors. If one of them passes, one of them fails.

“Welcome to the world of competition. You’ll always have to compete with each other in this line of work. This isn’t bad at all. There are many auditions where you’d have to compete with a hundred other people. Enjoy your high school life, you guys.”

Ganghwan grinned playfully, earning a ton of boos from the students.

“Now then, let’s go do a few runs. I hope none of you forgot your lines in your weeks of absence.”

And so, practice began again in Myungdong.

* * *

Tsss. Tsss.

Yurim kept turning the flint on her lighter, causing a few sparks to appear. Yurim’s eyes followed the flame very intently.

It was December 31st. The last day of 2003.

Yesterday, the results of the prelims appeared. Woosung High passed, so the club went out to have a fun time with instructor Miso yesterday. She told them that they’d be able to go to the nationals as long as they did well on the second part of the prelims. Everyone smiled. The air between them was warm, but Yurim wasn’t satisfied with this. If the club did well, Geunseok would get further away from her. That was obvious. The boy would get more private lessons if he does well. Meaning, he would spend more time with that beautiful lady.

Yurim lost the strength in her hands when she thought of Geunseok disappearing. Her lighter dropped to the floor and she just stared at it dumbly.

“This can’t go on like this.”

She hoped they’d fail, but they passed. Geunseok became even more proud of himself. She couldn’t take him back like this. She needed to make him crumble and break this current flow to make him lean on her.

“Geunseok needs me. It can’t be anyone other than me.”

Yurim clenched her eyes as she muttered to herself.

“……No, I can’t exist without him. I need him.”

Her hands trembled nervously. Her breathing started getting faster. She needed to make a choice. It was the 31st. If she was going to do it, she needed to do it tomorrow. She had to do it tomorrow. Yurim grabbed a pack of glue and lighters and put them back in her bag.

* * *

Maru looked up at the clock from his room, it was almost midnight. He walked out to the living room, his family was sitting outside looking at the television.

- Hello everyone! The new year is almost upon us! Let’s wrap up our last moments of 2003 well, and get ready to greet 2004!

The faces of many people standing outdoors somewhere, waiting for a bell to ring, came on the screen. They were all looking at the countdown with expectation plastered all over their faces. The reporter was going around asking them for their wishes. In the meantime, Maru joined his family on the sofa.

“We worked hard this year too,” his dad said, looking at the screen.

- Alright, ten seconds left until 2004! Come count down with us!

The number on the bottom right of the screen started counting down. Bada started counting audibly when the number reached five.

- Happy new year!

The bell rang on the TV. Everyone on screen shouted ‘Happy New Year’.

“Good luck to you in the new year,” Maru said to his parents.

The same went to his sister as well.

“You too, big bro.”

Maru walked back to his room after speaking to his family for a second. The first thing he did was to call her, she got the call immediately.

“Good luck in the new year.”

- You too.

“Tell it to your mom as well for me.”

- She’s actually right next to me.

Maru could hear someone go, “boyfriend? Maru?” from the other side. She hung up the call with a sigh. The two of them got along well, as always.

“Two days left.”

He threw his body to his bed. They would have to compete once again in two days. They should go check the props and the costumes one last time for it. There shouldn’t be any issues. Maru breathed in before closing his eyes.

Let the beginning of 2004 be peaceful.

Chapter 154

Nothing much changed with the new year, but the joy of its greeting still made Maru smile.

“You’re going to school today too?”

“Yup.”

“Is acting really that fun?”

“Try it if you get the chance. I know some middle schools have a club.”

“Should I?”

His sister ate her cereal with a grin on her face. Her new year’s resolution was to wake up at 7am even during her vacation. Maru had to wonder how long this would continue. Probably just three days. She’d struggle to wake up tomorrow, he just knew it.

“I’m going to exercise as well tomorrow. Gonna run in the park.”

Well, it looked like she set up grand plans for herself already.

“I hope you keep your resolution.”

“What the heck, you think I won’t? I’m really good at this. Right, mom?”

All she got back was an empty smile. His sister pouted and told them to just watch.

“You’re going to be home late today as well?” His mom asked.

“Don’t know. I’ll text you if I’m gonna be late.”

His mom yawned. Maru remembered her still talking to his dad by the time he went to sleep. It only made sense that she’d feel tired.

“You should sleep.”

“Don’t be too late.”

Mom walked into her room with yet another yawn.

“Bro.”

“What?”

“Want me to check your horoscope?”

“Horoscope?”

His sister brought back a magazine from her room before he could ask what this was about. She was holding a woman’s magazine. She’s already reached that age, huh. The girl flipped through the pages before reaching ‘horoscopes for the new year’.

“When was your birthday again?”

“July 25th.”

“So you’re a Leo.”

She stuttered out a few words as she started reading.

“Your long-awaited results will arrive at last. It might not necessarily be to your desire, so be extra careful. If you are lazy about it, great misfortune will befall upon you, but otherwise, things should go well. Hm, is that a good thing or a bad thing?”

Maru smiled lightly. Stock spiels. A type of writing that always turned out to be generally true. Of course, you might get results you don’t want when you do something. Of course, things might go wrong if you are lazy about it.

‘I guess that’s what makes it a magazine article.’

He wasn’t about to get offended by what the magazine said or anything.

“Is that all?”

“Wait, there’s some more.”

It was more detailed than he thought. His sister started reading energetically when he expressed his interest.

“Ah! There it is! It says you need to watch out for Aries. You guys won’t get along together.”

“Aries?”

“Yeah. And you need to watch out for what you wear. That’s how good things would happen in your workp… Hm?”

“Does school count as work?”

“What the, they only have stuff about work here.”

Bada closed the magazine disappointedly after flipping through a few more pages. Maru immediately understood what was up when he looked at the cover. The magazine was targeted towards women who were in their 20s. Of course, they wouldn’t have anything about school here.

“Ugh, this is why you shouldn’t trust horoscopes.”

That didn’t seem like something a girl who got so excited about horoscopes just a few minutes ago should say. In any case, Maru thanked her and got up from the table.

“Brother,” his sister extended her hand out to him.

“What?”

“Allowance, please.”

Oh, so that’s what she was after.

“What about the allowance I gave you last time? And the emergency money?”

“Um… I used it all.”

“I thought I put around a hundred thou in there.”

His sister nodded.

“What did you use it on?”

She fumbled a bit before reluctantly opening her mouth.

“It’s dad’s birthday. I tried to buy some gifts for him, but I was lacking in some cash. A lot of cash, actually.”

Ah. Maru turned to look at the calendar. He completely forgot. January 8th. Their dad’s birthday wasn’t very far away anymore. What a good kid.

“What did you buy him?”

“I got dad a shirt, and I got mom a new wallet. She was still using that old wallet dad got her.”

“Oh, the brown one?”

“Yeah.”

“Yeah, it’s about time she got a replacement.”

Maru told her to sit still and walked into his room. He opened the box where he hid the emergency money for his sister, he’d forgotten to check it recently because he was so busy. It looked like she’s consistently been taking money from it, judging by the number of logs she wrote down.

- Mom and dad’s gift

That was the latest one on the list. She was being pretty spontaneous with her money, but looking at how she used the money made Maru feel a little proud. This was probably why dads tended to favor daughters over sons most of the time.

‘…I hope she’s living well.’

He could barely remember his daughter’s face anymore, she was probably living in a world without him right now. His chest hurt a little. All he’s ever done for her was to scold her. It felt like his entire life with her passed before he could even make good memories with her.

Maru opened his wallet and took out his debit card. This was a little early for his sister, but you could never start too early when it came to money management. Maru walked back out to the kitchen and gave his sister a debit card he got from a different bank account than one of his own.

“What’s this?”

“A debit card. I’ll put money into it every month, so use it wisely.”

“Really?”

She looked at the card curiously.

“But! Be sure to keep an account book. Write where you spend your money.”

“…Will you check?”

“No, just try to get a handle over how to manage your money. It’ll help you. It’s a debit card, so you can’t spend more than you have. Try to be strategic with your money. You can just save the rest for yourself.”

“Wow.”

His sister brought out a wallet from her room and put the card inside it. She looked incredibly proud of herself.

“Can I really use this?”

“Do what you want. Just don’t spend all of it.”

“I won’t. I’m not dumb.”

“Look at how you’ve matured. Ah, don’t tell mom.”

“Mm, got it.”

The Bada in his memories wasn’t bad with money, she even held a smaller wedding to save money. She was definitely very resourceful with her finances. Come to think of it, he always heard from his mom that she was doing fine. Why did she divorce all of a sudden? Did it have something to do with their personality? Something else?

‘Man, I really didn’t care, did I.’

He kind of felt sorry looking at Bada. He didn’t pay her any mind once he entered college.

“What, you have something to say?” Bada asked.

“I’ll keep in touch with you even after I get married.”

“…The heck does that mean?”

“No, sorry. It’s nothing.”

He told her to rest as he stepped outside the house. He walked down the stairs and got ready to get out of the apartment building before stepping in front of a mirror.

“Be careful of how I dress, right?”

He didn’t believe in horoscopes, but it didn’t hurt to follow them regardless. He straightened out his shirt just a wee bit. There. He looked a lot better already. Here’s to hoping today’s a good day. “Phew, it’s cold.”

He walked out into the streets with his hands in his pockets.

* * *

“You checked everything?”

“Yes.”

“Any missing or broken props?”

“None.”

Miso nodded. Maru took a look at the props and the costumes to the left of the auditorium, they were all well-cared for. All they needed to do now was to act well in them.

“Just rest at home today and don’t do anything else. Don’t you dare get sick by going out. Stay home, get home by 8pm. Got it?”

“Yes!”

“Good! Leave!”

Maru checked the time with his phone. It was 11am. The earliest the club disbanded ever. It just showed how much Miso cared about the condition of the club members. Then again, it would truly be infuriating if the club failed just because a few of the members were tired.

“I’m leaving first. See you guys tomorrow.”

Miso ran out first. By the looks of it, she had some other arrangements she needed to attend to. The club members naturally turned to look at Yoonjung as a result.

“Let’s just end it here, yeah. Read your scripts one last time when you get back home and rest up. Don’t go anywhere weird.”

“You’re the most problematic one here.”

Yoonjung pouted at Danmi’s comment.

“Alright guys, good work. See you tomorrow.”

As always, Joonghyuk was the one to end the club meeting.

“You guys leave first. We’ll have to drop by the clubroom for a bit.”

The seniors all left, leaving only the first years around to socialize.

“Ah, right guys. It’s Yurim’s birthday soon.”

Soyeon spoke as she pulled Yurim’s hand, Maru noticed Yurim let go with a slight glare. Soyeon smiled awkwardly and put her hand in her pocket.

“What, it was almost your birthday?” Geunseok said.

This time, Yurim responded with a noticeably brighter smile.

“Yeah.”

“When?”

“January 5th.”

“We only have a few days left. We should have a party.”

“It’s okay.”

“Should we have a party after the next competition?” Iseul butted in.

Dojin shouted his agreement almost immediately, they spoke almost too perfectly together. The boy avoided Maru’s gaze, Maru noticed.

‘Iseul must’ve said something.’

It didn’t look like Dojin got rejected, but it didn’t look like they were going out either. Hm.

“We can’t just let a birthday pass right under our noses.”

Taejoon seemed excited as well.

“Looking out for your girlfriend?” Dojin asked with a grin.

Taejoon nodded confidently in response.

“Why don’t we go to a karaoke after the prelims, then?”

“Sounds great.”

Everyone was making plans already. In a flash, it was decided that they would hold the party shortly after the competition.

“I should bring money tomorrow then.”

“Don’t bring too much.”

“Now now, let’s go! Go rest up!”

They started coming out one by one with their bags and gathered at the school entrance.

“Wait, where’s Yurim?” Daemyung asked.

“Wasn’t she around here just a moment ago?” Iseul noted.

Where did the girl go? Maru turned to look back into the building, there was no one there. When they waited a few more minutes, the girl finally appeared with the seniors.

“Ah, she waited for them. That’s polite,” Iseul grinned.

“Guys, let’s go!” Yoonjung shouted from afar.

Everyone shook their heads as they started walking.

“Wait, let me get my bike.”

“I’ll go with you.”

Maru said his farewells early with the crew before walking back inside, Dojin and Daemyung decided to tag along with him.

“Biking still? It’s so cold.”

“Just ride the bus.”

“It’s fine, I developed resistance.”

Maru realized something just when he unlocked his bike.

“Ah, I forgot my phone.”

He’s left it next to the costumes, he remembered.

“Ugh, hurry up.”

“Want me to come with you?”

Dojin told him to hurry, and Daemyung offered to come with.

“I’ll be back quick, so guard my bike for me.”

He changed his shoes again after giving his bike to Dojin. Just thinking of running back upstairs made him tired already.

“Ugh, my hips.”

He stood in front of the auditorium doors as he complained to himself, he grabbed the door handle and twisted. He could see a little red light slipping through the cracks.

Wait, red?

It was a cloudy day today. So what’s up with the lights? Maru slammed the door open as fast as he could.

“…Damn it.”

What greeted him was the sight of bright red flames licking the props. What an unlucky day.

Chapter 155

Parents often become sensitive to their child’s well-being, Maru was no exception. He started seeing corners of desks as a horrific weapon once he had his daughter. He started putting sponges to cover the corners and went so far as to ban all sharp objects from the house. He used to think his friends were overreacting with their kids, that all kids were supposed to get hurt as part of growing up. But once he had one of his own, he understood. Just watching his daughter cry made his heart drop. He wanted to take care of all sources of danger before she could get hurt.

One day in the past, he was talking with his fellow bus drivers about his cute daughter with a cup of coffee. He got a call from his wife, she told him their house was on fire with a very calm voice. Maru was surprised enough to spit out his coffee, but his wife just hung up casually. He told his boss about what happened and ran straight back home. The door to his house was opened and there was a crowd surrounding his house. The first thing he saw when he ran inside was his wife opening the door to the veranda with their daughter in her arms.

The cause of the fire was a phone charger, it caused a spark that turned into a burst of flame. Their daughter was sleeping right next to it at the time. When the fire happened, his wife quickly draped a towel over their daughter. The blood drained from Maru’s face when he learned of the situation. A fire? From electricity? What if she shocked herself? She glared at him and shouted when he told her that she was being too rash.

What if our daughter got hurt!

That was when his wife burst into tears, Maru realized only then that he'd made a mistake. His wife was shivering like she was exposed to the exposed cold, she couldn’t be more scared. It was just that… besides just being his wife, she was first and foremost a mother.

After that, quite a few people from the phone company came back to take care of what happened. That was one of the few times when he saw his wife get so mad at people, even Maru’s anger calmed down just looking at her. This incident made him decided to get a fire extinguisher for their home. It would be best that it go unused forever, but life is unpredictable.

* * *

‘A fire extinguisher!’

That was the first thing that came to mind. That, and a phone. He was only able to stay calm thanks to the sudden flashback. The fire burned where the costumes and props were. The important thing was that the phone was right next to them, he didn’t think it survived the heat.

Maru ran out of the auditorium and looked to his left, he could see a mini fire extinguisher. He grabbed the dusty extinguisher in a flash, he took off the safety pin before running back in. Thankfully, the fire was still small enough to be dispatched by an extinguisher.

“Thank goodness it isn’t that bad yet.”

He squeezed down on the nozzle, white foam started gushing out with a gasping noise. That was all. The fire extinguisher died with just a little bit of foam. His eyes immediately focused on the date the extinguisher was last inspected: 2002.

“Damn it!”

Maru threw the extinguisher away and ran to the fire alarm. The rest of the school would know there was a fire from the acting club if he pressed it, but he had no choice. He couldn’t let the fire spread. He strongly pressed the plastic covering on top of the button.

“……God damn it!”

The alarm didn’t go off, even this was broken. Was this school a symbol of laziness or something? His phone was melted in the fire and the fire alarm didn’t ring. Maru ran into a class on the other side. Inside, he was greeted with a bunch of sinks. It was a classroom the cooking club used. He started filling a bucket he found with water and ran to the windows.

“Han Dojin! Park Daemyung!”

He screamed out their name. His two friends soon appeared in his vision with his bike in hand.

“Get over here!”

His friends ran straight inside despite such little explanation, they picked up on the desperation in his voice. Once Maru confirmed that the bucket was full, he carried it back to the auditorium with both hands. Black smoke was starting to fume out of the open doors, Maru grit his teeth and walked inside. The fire was starting to spread to the smaller props now, after those came the wooden stage props. He wouldn’t be able to do anything once the fire spreads there.

Right then, he had a thought. He always thought that safety came first in life. Staying away from the fire would be the smartest move and the best thing to do was to wait for the firefighters. He was just one man, there was a limit to what he could do. Waiting for help to come just made sense, but Maru’s body was already moving. The fire couldn’t be suppressed with just a bucket of water anymore. He knew that. He got the water for something else.

“I must be insane.”

Maru dumped the bucket onto himself as his two friends ran up right behind him.

“W-what the!”

“Fire!”

Maru summarized the situation to his friends.

“Keep getting buckets of water from the class next door. Call the fire department if you feel like things get out of hand. Try not to call them if you don’t have to.”

With that, Maru wrapped his wet jacket over his head.

“Maru?”

Maru jumped to the props as he heard Dojin’s confused voice.

“Hey, you crazy son of a bitch!”

He could only agree to the voice behind him, he must be completely insane. But if he acted now, he could at least save the stage props. They could easily replace the costumes since they were doing a modern play, the same couldn’t be said about the stage props. Those took way too long to make.

The fire wasn’t as hot as he thought. What was really the problem was the hot air seeping into his lungs, it felt like they’d melt if he breathed wrong. His wet clothes would probably burn away soon as well. He only had a few seconds, still plenty of time. The first thing he grabbed was a deck bench, they usually had it split into different sections, but not now. The full thing was incredibly heavy, still, Maru pulled at one of the legs of the bench with gritted teeth. It started slowly leaning away from the fire.

‘Good.’

The building props still haven’t caught on fire. As long as he gets this deck bench away from the fire…

Right then, his body started getting pulled back to the direction the bench was leaning. He could see a part of his jacket stuck in the bench.

‘Was this why they told me to dress well? Damn horoscopes!’

His body fell towards the bench. The only thing he could do at this point was to twist his body away to protect himself as much as possible.

“Maru!”

With Daemyung’s shout,

Bang.

The bench fell back.

* * *

Junmin turned on the light next to his bed and picked up a book next to him. He’s had a lot of late nights recently. It was only dawn, but his body was screaming at him to go to sleep.

‘I guess I really am old.’

He could easily go back to sleep at a normal time after just a day a few years ago, nowadays, it took him around two. Maybe he should start going to a gym? Right then, Makdoong jumped onto his bed with a slight moan. Makdoong was a Shih Tzu he’s been raising at home. He was already raising three Shih Tzus, but Makdoong was the only one who really liked jumping onto his bed. Junmin helped the little thing up come fully onto his bed. The dog yawned as soon as it came up and buried its little head into the blankets.

“Are you a human or what?”

Junmin stroked its tiny round head. Just as he turned back to his book, he got a text message.

[Senior, I’m going to go visit Maru today. Will you come?]

Junmin took a look at the calendar on the wall. He still hasn’t visited the boy now that he thought about it, did he? He quickly pressed the buttons on his phone to send the text to Ganghwan, he was asking the man for a ride.

“Goodness, I can’t tell if he’s lucky or unlucky.”

Junmin got up from his bed as he pets the dog’s head one last time.

* * *

It wasn’t a big injury. There were a burn plus fracture in his leg and his thigh was also torn, which required stitches. The doctors told him that he’d have to rest for two weeks, but he didn’t think it was that bad. No one else shared that opinion.

“Why don’t you just give up on the club?”

“Mom, it’s not that bad.”

“Don’t get hurt then. How much are you planning on making me worry?”

“I’m not that bad of a child, you know that.”

“Look at you, you’re not missing a beat with your replies.”

His mom slapped his back. It didn’t hurt though, since he knew she did it with love. His dad told him to take care of himself. The man was right, so Maru couldn’t offer a rebuttal. Bada repeatedly visited him from home multiple times. She cried apparently, but any mention of it would earn him a glare. In any case, his family went back home after causing quite a scene at the hospital. It actually took quite a bit of work trying to stop mom from coming every day.

“I knew you’d get into an accident today.”

“I’m regretting it a lot, so please forgive me.”

Maru looked outside, it was snowing, more like a blizzard, actually. It was actually worrying how much snowfall there was right now. Bada crunched on the chips Dojin and Daemyung brought as she read a magazine.

“Go home if you don’t have work.”

“I don’t have anything to do back home. There’s just too much snow to go out as well. Want some?”

Maru took a chip from his sister’s bag. Don’t most people bring low-sodium snacks when they come for a hospital visit? At least it was tasty.

“You’re too rash, brother. What made you want to jump into a fire? I thought you were lying when I heard the story from your friends.”

“I thought about it a bit when I went in. I wasn’t being rash.”

“You still got hurt.”

His sister pulled out a marker from a shelf and wrote ‘idiot’ on his cast. Of course, she was the one who wrote ‘dumbass’ and the ‘bad son’ on there as well. Daemyung was the one who wrote ‘get well’, and Dojin wrote ‘fireman’.

“Are these your only friends?” Bada asked with a grin.

“Sorry I don’t have many friends.”

“You should be nice to people.”

“I wonder where I’d have to call to trash that debit card…”

“Oh dear brother, that’s not fair is it?”

Pft. Maru grinned.

“Your girlfriend isn’t coming?”

Oh, so that was why she was still here. Maru shrugged. He tried to hide it as much as he could to her, but he couldn’t hide the fact that he would be in the hospital for two weeks. He got scolded a lot over the phone, it’s been three days since that point.

Thankfully, he managed to save the stage props pretty well. They were still able to go to the next competition that happened two days ago. Thank goodness he was the only one who got hurt. His character wasn’t anything that could ruin the play, so they should be able to manage just fine without him. According to Dojin, they incorporated his lines into more of Geunseok’s monologue. The boy apparently handled it pretty well.

Anyway, it was good. The school managed to finish things off pretty well, they will get their results tomorrow. Considering how Myunghwa would probably pass, it was a competition between three schools.

‘I hope we pass.’

He wouldn’t be able to join them even in the nationals. Worst of all, even in the amateur acting club, they got someone else to take over for his role. Thanks to it, his January schedule was completely empty. The only thing he could do was just to read or watch TV. Plus…

“You’re not eating this, are you?”

“…Have fun eating.”

The next best thing he could do was to just talk with his sister? Maru leaned back on the bed with a yawn. Right then, the doors to his room opened.

Chapter 156

"You've been looking dazed all day."

"Excuse me?"

Her club president put an arm around her shoulder, she lowered her head with a slight frown. Oh wait, she should've smiled here.

"Did something happen?" the president asked.

All the other members were singing gleefully, she listened to the loud music around her for a second before opening her mouth.

"My friend got hurt."

"Really? Badly?"

"I think so. He's going to be hospitalized for two weeks."

"No wonder you looked so depressed all day."

She clenched her lips together, she tried to look happy and energetic since they received word about passing the prelims. She still couldn't fool the president though.

"Sorry for not noticing," the president said, grabbing her hands.

She shook her head vigorously.

"No, I'm fine."

"Liar. It's written all over your face."

The president twisted her cheek lightly. Was this what it felt like to have an elder sister? It really was heartwarming knowing that there was someone who could understand you.

"You should go."

"What?"

"We're almost done over here. Might as well leave a little early."

"No, I'll stay."

"It's fine. I'll tell the others about what happened, so let's leave first."

The president whispered something to a second year next to her, the second year smiled and waved them goodbye as they left.

"Damn, there's so much snow. Do you have an umbrella?"

"Yes, I brought one."

The snowfall was heavy, seeming to be dumped from the sky. She took out an umbrella from her bag and opened it. The umbrella felt like it would break by all the wind.

"Take care. I'll see you on Friday."

The president saw her off to the entrance, she turned around after bidding farewell. Her thankfulness to the president didn't last long. By the time she got to the bus station, she had a massive frown on her face.

"Han Maru."

She had wondered what happened when the boy didn't appear at the Myungdong class, he wasn't the type to just skip class like that. She learned the next day from instructor Ganghwan that he got himself hurt. Before then, Maru only told her it was 'nothing special'. Only when she started pressuring him about it did he tell her everything. A burn, a fracture, and even stitches to boot… She was so surprised when she heard details that she couldn't even say a thing. Fine, she could understand him trying to hide it. It made sense in her head, but her emotions were another matter.

'Ugh, boys!'

She sighed at the bus station before turning to walk into a fruit shop and bought a small basket before getting on the bus. She was mad enough to go empty-handed, but she wasn't that rude. The bus didn't have many people, she took a seat somewhere and took a look outside.

'Doesn't he have any fear?'

At first, she thought he just hurt himself playing soccer. She honestly thought people were joking when they told her he jumped into a fire. It wasn't a joke, the boy really did jump into a fire. To think he did that to save a few props… What if something terrible had happened? It made her mad just thinking about it.

The bus came to a stop in front of a hospital, she stepped off with her umbrella. She could see the white hospital on the other side of the street. She could feel herself getting worried again. Will she be able to scold him like this? She put a hand over her chest and took a deep breath. Hearing about Maru getting hurt made her think of her father, she wasn't a fan of people close to her getting hurt again.

"I'm going to scold him for sure."

She steeled herself before stepping into the hospital, walking along the hallway trying to find the right room number. Eventually, she came to a stop after passing an old man in a wheelchair.

"Han Maru"

"Oh, it's here."

She quietly opened the door. Three of the four beds in the room were empty, she could see Maru near the windowsill. She could also see a girl eating chips with a grin. Probably his sister?

She stared at Maru from the entrance for a second, it didn't look like he noticed her just yet. Watching the boy flip through the pages of a book so calmly roused her anger. She lost sleep because of him and he had the nerve to be so nonchalant?

That was when Maru turned to look at the entrance. Their eyes met. Maru's lips flopped downwards slightly before curling back up into a smile. That awkward smile made her open her eyes widely.

"Someone's here?"

The girl who seemed to be the little sister asked. She waved her hand with a smile as she walked over with the fruit basket. She could see Maru laying down to try to go to sleep.

"Who are you?"

"This guy's friend."

She threw the fruit basket at Maru. The boy caught the basket in his hands with a surprised look.

“…You're here?"

"Yeah. I'm here."

"It was snowing a lot."

"A ton. It's still snowing. It was very hard coming here."

Should she console him, or should she scold him? Looking at him right now really made her want to scold him.

"Are you Maru's sister?"

"Yes? Ah, yes."

"You were surprised, weren't you? I'm sorry."

"It's okay."

Maru's sister smiled looking back and forth between her and Maru. What a cute kid. She looked much nicer than Maru over there, who was trying to ignore her on that bed.

"Um, big sis."

"Yeah?"

"Are you big brother's girlfriend?"

The sudden question caught her off guard.

"So you are!!"

The happy reaction was welcomed, but that didn't make any of it less surprising.

"Man, and here I thought my brother was joking. Sis, he’s a waste for someone like you. Why do you go out with him?"

"T-that's…”

"He's matured a lot recently so he's better. But oh dear. You're just way too pretty for him."

The girl was going around saying embarrassing things despite being so young. She was just like Maru in that regard. Worse, actually.

"Really?"

"Yes. What kind of an idiot jumps straight into a fire? This one, apparently."

Maru's sister laughed to herself quietly. She was quite a fan of this girl called Han Bada. The little girl talked about how ridiculous a person Maru was for thirty minutes straight, it really felt amazing gossiping about someone to their face.

"Have some of this, big sis."

"Thanks."

They were already so familiar with each other. In the meantime, Maru was just staring outside the window. Like some character from a drama.

"Idiot. Idiot. Idiot."

Bada wrote 'idiot' on Maru's cast.

"Want to write something too, big sis?"

"Should I?"

Now that she looked at it, there were a ton of words written on Maru's cast. The one that stuck out to her, in particular, was 'get well'. Well, she'd only feel bad if he stayed wounded for a while, so…

'get well soon'

"Ohh, sis."

"What?"

"Watching out for him because you're his girlfriend?"

"He's pitiable like this."

"That's true."

As the two of them started talking again, the door to the room opened. Two men entered. It was instructor Ganghwan accompanied by a man in a hat.

"Eh? Instructor?"

"Oof, did we come at a bad time?"

She bowed to the instructor before turning to look at the other man. It was producer Lee Junmin.

'Why is he… '

She's seen the man talk to Maru a few times, but they were close enough for him to come to visit?

"Teacher."

Junmin stopped Maru when the boy tried to get up.

"Thank goodness, it doesn't look like you're that hurt."

"Yes, I got lucky."

"Be careful. That body of yours doesn't belong entirely to you."

Hm? What an odd choice of words. She looked back and forth between Maru and Junmin. What kind of relationship did those two have? Junmin turned around after a few minutes of talking.

"We'll take our leave now. It won't be good if too many people came. We’ll talk again some other time."

"I'm sorry I can't see you off."

"Shush. Getting farewells from a patient is just shameful."

Junmin gestured for instructor Ganghwan to put down the fruit basket they brought. It was almost too big for the cabinet. As a matter of fact, it would probably be able to fit Bada inside it if it was a little bigger.

"Sir, I don't know if I can even eat all of this."

"Just take it."

The two men left after a curt farewell, it felt like a storm just passed over the room.

"Who was that, sis?"

"Someone really famous."

"Really?"

"Yeah."

As the two of them stared at the fruit basket, the door opened again. She became a little amazed looking at the woman who opened the door. The woman, who had a big teddy bear in her hands, was incredibly beautiful. White skin, long black hair, a smiling face, everything.

"Oh, sis Soojin."

"I heard the news. Are you okay?"

The lady called Soojin handed over the teddy bear to Maru. Why a doll, though?

"Hello."

"Ah, yes, hello."

“…Hello."

She and Bada took the woman's greeting awkwardly. Soojin and Maru talked together for a bit, the two of them seemed incredibly friendly with each other.

"Dowook told me."

"How are you two nowadays?"

"Good enough to call each other?"

"Wonderful."

"All thanks to you. We're going to have a meal together soon. Want to join?"

"I shouldn't stick my head into family affairs."

"Come on, you're no stranger to our family. Dad wants to see you too, so come join."

"Okay."

"Did Dowook drop by?"

"I got a call from him, so I told him to not waste his time."

"I see."

Soojin nodded with a smile. She watched Soojin alertly from the side, she felt like she was losing to this woman somehow.

"Can I write something too?"

"Of course."

Soojin wrote 'health' with a marker. They talked for a few more minutes before Soojin finally got up.

"I'll get going then. Take care."

"Yes, see you."

"I'm sorry for interrupting, you two."

Soojin was polite until the very end. She looked at Maru along with Bada as soon as the woman left, they needed an explanation. But before Maru could say anything, the door opened again.

"Oh, so it's here."

Again, a woman. If Soojin from earlier felt innocent, this woman felt very provocative. As a matter of fact, she was even wearing a very deep v-neck shirt. The woman in the leather jacket walked forward, click, clack, in her high heels. She, too, was very beautiful.

"Remember me?"

"Ah, yes. I do."

"Oh, that makes me so happy."

Looking at the woman made her think of a fox right away, a very fierce one at that.

"Hello!"

“…Hello."

"Who are you two?"

Bada was the first one to respond.

"Sister."

She put a bit more strength behind her throat as she replied 'girlfriend', she felt a tiny bit embarrassed to say it.

"Oh, so Maru had such a cute girlfriend with him."

The woman put the potted plant she brought on the windowsill.

"Perfect. How is it?"

"Well, it's alright."

"You're not happy that I'm here?"

"Just surprised. We don't know each other that well."

"Well, you're surprisingly cold."

The woman sat down on the edge of the bed with a smile, she clenched her fist right then. This felt weird. Soojin felt like a friend when she talked. This woman was vastly different, the smiles she put on didn't really feel like a smile. They probably wouldn't become friends with each other.

"Ah!"

Bada shouted with a hand over her mouth. Why? She turned to look at the woman again. The woman had taken off her sunglasses and she too realized why Bada made that reaction.

"Suyeon, right? I saw you in a drama!"

Bada was shouting pretty gleefully. The woman, no, Suyeon smiled as she grabbed Bada's hand.

"Thanks for recognizing me. People don't often recognize me since I'm a no-name actress."

"No-name? No way! I'm your superfan. I loved your drama."

"Oh, I'm glad to hear that. Thanks for the compliments."

Suyeon pat Bada's hair with a smile, even that felt fake to her right now.

'This isn't right.'

Judging a person was a bad habit to have. Plus, this person came to visit Maru when he was hurt. There was no reason for her to have a bad impression. Right then.

"Oh? There's a lot of people already."

“…Again?"

She audibly commented without even realizing it, she put a hand over her mouth when she noticed all eyes in the room turning towards her. The woman on the door was someone with short hair. Again, beautiful. She looked healthy, too.

'What's this?'

She felt depressed. She was getting increasingly conscious of her looks just because of how pretty all the visitors were. She was starting to get embarrassed about herself, even.

"Instructor Miso," Maru said.

So the woman was called Miso.

"Wooow, you're quite popular, aren't you, Maru?"

Miso walked in with a loud laugh.

Chapter 157

She had a very beautiful smile. Judging by what Maru called her earlier, her name was probably Miso. The woman walked over to them as she looked around the room. Her eyes fell on the teddy bear and she smiled.

"So Soojin's been here?"

"Yes, I feel like a little girl," Maru responded as he tapped at the teddy bear's head.

Miso's eyes turned to look at Suyeon, who was still sitting on the bed.

"Eh? Ms. Suyeon?"

"Long time no see, Ms. Miso."

"It hasn't been that long. I heard your voice through the phone several times already."

"But it's been six years in reality, hasn't it?"

"That's right. How odd. People in this industry tend to meet often too."

"It really is odd. We haven't even tried to avoid each other either."

"Would you like to go for a drink, since it's been so long?"

"No, I have work."

"Ah, I see. How about you leave, then?"

"No thank you. Plus, investing time into Maru doesn't feel so bad."

Suyeon smiled at Maru after finishing her sentence, she wasn't a fan of Suyeon's movements for some reason. Miso wasn’t particularly friendly towards this woman either.

“You must know Maru,” Miso asked Suyeon as she handed over a juicebox.

She received the juice box awkwardly as Miso finally turned to greet her.

“Hello.”

“Ah, hello.”

“Mind if I sit there?”

Miso was pointing at the chair next to her. She nodded. Miso took her seat and crossed her legs. She kept glancing at Miso from the side, the woman had really thin legs.

“I don’t know him that well, honestly. Hopefully it doesn’t stay that way, though,” Suyeon finally responded.

“I heard it’s pretty rude to visit strangers in hospitals.”

“Really? I disagree.”

They went straight back to arguing again. What was up with all of these visitors? None of them were normal so far.

“Big sis.”

Bada was pulling at her clothes, the girl seemed to want to go outside for a moment. She slid out of her seat and got a little further away. Even now, Miso and Suyeon were still bickering with each other. Maru watched them for a little while before getting back to reading his book. Maru was flipping through his pages with a yawn. The two women continued arguing with each other, completely disregarding him. Just what was happening?

“These two don’t like each other, do they?” Bada whispered.

It really wouldn’t have mattered if the girl raised her voice though. The two women were talking so intensely that they didn’t look like they could hear anything.

“I think so.”

“What the heck does my brother do outside? Why are there so many adults visiting him?”

“I’m wondering the same thing.”

Bada looked at the bed with a confused expression, She turned to look as well. Maru let out a sigh as he closed the book in his hands. Its hardcovers closed with a snap, the two women finally closed their mouths.

“Thank you for coming. But any more of this and I’m really going to get a headache. If you two have something to talk about, I recommend the cafe next to the hospital. Also, instructor.”

“Yeah?”

“Did we pass?”

“Ah, right. That’s what I wanted to talk about.”

Miso made a ‘v’ with her hands.

“Passed with flying colors. The nationals are next week. We’re representing the Gyeonggi province with Myunghwa High.”

“I expected as much. You told the kids to not text me about this, didn’t you?”

“Of course. Such good news shouldn’t be delivered by text.”

“No wonder no one responded.”

Maru turned to look at Suyeon this time.

“Thank you for coming. But I am a little bit disturbed by your presence, if I’m being honest. We’re practically strangers, Ms. Suyeon.”

“Call me big sist…”

“We can think about honorifics later down the line. But if you have nothing special to say, I’d appreciate it if you could leave. Things would probably get loud again if the two of you stay here and it’s not like I can kick out my own instructor.”

“You’re surprisingly cold, seeing how you just draw a line.”

Suyeon leaned forward to Maru. Looking at that, she frowned from across the room. The woman was clearly taunting Maru. She retracted her previous thoughts about the woman, this Suyeon has bad news written all over.

“I won’t be able to see you off. My leg’s a little bit damaged, as you can see.”

Maru spoke as he scratched his eyebrows. Suyeon pouted, seemingly having expected a different answer. She ended up shrugging in defeat.

“Please be a little bit more friendly if you can next time. I want to be on good terms with you if possible.”

“Of course, if I get the chance.”

“If you don’t?”

“Well, life will go on regardless. Can you please leave now?”

Suyeon’s eyes widened. Maru’s voice was calm and relaxed, but he had strength behind his words. The woman’s lips straightened, and her eyes were frigid for the briefest moment. A smile returned pretty much immediately, but she definitely caught it. This was a scary person, she just knew it.

“You’re too much. I even took out time on my schedule to come to visit you.”

As Suyeon raised her hand to towards Maru’s face, he grabbed her wrist firmly from the air.

“…That’s cute.”

“There’s no way such a big dude like me would be cute.”

“You seemed like such a quiet kid the last time I saw you. Who would’ve thought you’d be so feisty? So that Maru I saw on stage wasn’t anything exaggerated after all.”

Suyeon retracted her hand with a slight pout, she buttoned up her jacket and picked up her bag.

“I’ll see you next time, Maru.”

“Please take care, Ms. Kim Suyeon.”

“Wow, cold until the very end.”

Suyeon got up as she flipped her hair back. She watched the woman step out of the room, catching a glimpse of the woman’s face before her figure disappeared entirely.

‘A wild dog.’

That was the only impression she could get from it.

“I feel sorry for no reason,” Miso said as she licked her lips nervously.

“Seriously. Did you two really have a reason to start fighting in front of a patient? I thought my wounds were going to explode again.”

“Hey, it wasn’t that bad.”

The atmosphere of the room loosened up again.

“Oh my, I forgot to even introduce myself. I’m the instructor for the acting club he’s in.”

Miso put a hand over Maru’s head and shook it. This time, unlike what he did to Suyeon, Maru let her do it. Looking at that made her realize that Maru was actually very picky when it came to people, that made her feel a little relieved. The boy always loved to tease her. That was a good sign, wasn’t it?

“I’m his sister.”

“Ahh, Maru had a younger sister, huh? How’s he like at home? He’s a total meanie that says whatever he wants, isn’t he?”

“That’s right. He has matured recently though.”

“Is that so?”

The two of them shared a hearty laugh, she let out a small giggle as well. Miso looked towards her.

“You’re a sister as well?”

“No, a friend.”

Bada butted right in.

“She’s his girlfriend.”

“Oh my god.”

Miso put Maru under a headlock and shook him. The boy could only manage to squeeze out an “I’m a patient”. She smiled, feeling her cheeks heat up a little. She was embarrassed, but it also felt good hearing that from Bada.

“Were you surprised to hear that he got hurt?”

“Yes.”

“Was he honest with you?”

“No, he had the gall to tell me he was okay at first.”

“I knew it. This kid worries way too much about everything. Especially about other people. Well, I guess that’s what makes him so likeable.”

Miso seemed to know Maru very well. Then again, she was his instructor. Maru managed to get out of the headlock and fixed up his hair before talking again.

“So we both managed to go to the nationals.”

“Looks like it,” she nodded.

“Eh? What do you mean?”

Miso blinked in confusion. Ah, she didn’t explain, did she?

“I’m from Myunghwa High’s acting club.”

“Really?”

“Yes.”

“Mm, so a competitor?”

“Y-yes, pretty much.”

Miso narrowed her eyes, the woman’s gaze felt hot and pressuring. It was kind of becoming a little too much, actually.

“Aren’t you going to celebrate?”

Maru took Miso’s attention away just at the right time. The woman sighed lightly in response.

“I was hoping to leave when the kids get here.”

“When the kids get here?”

Right then, the hallway outside started getting very loud.

“Is it here?”

“I think so.”

The door opened. Yoonjung was the first to step in with a big smile, the other club members followed in behind her.

“We’re here!”

“Maru, are you okay?”

“Seriously, you…”

She stepped aside to look at the club members. They were all people who worked alongside Maru to create such an amazing play. Being all people from the same club, they seemed to be good friends with Maru. Well, all except two of them, by the looks of it. One of them was the tall boy. She recognized him in an instant.

‘The boy who was good at acting.’

She could remember the boy’s acting as clear as day. He had quite the charisma on the stage, so it was hard to forget him. Next to him was a shorter girl. She looked rather cute, but also incredibly nervous for some reason as well. Her eyes went to extraordinary lengths to avoid Maru.

It was odd.

She started staring at the short girl without realizing it. Their eyes met for an instance and the girl paled like she just saw a ghost. She turned away. Was the girl sick? Or did the girl have bad memories of the hospital? Ah well, at least she came to see Maru.

“Was the cause of the fire discovered, by the way?” Maru asked Miso.

Miso’s smiling face stiffened.

“We found a tube of glue next to the burnt costumes. They’re not something we use. We only used silicon, to begin with.”

“That means…”

“We don’t have anything solid yet, but the fire might’ve been intentional.”

“I see.”

Maru looked towards her as soon as he got that far.

“I’ll leave for a bit,” she said as she turned.

Maru stopped her.

“No, we shouldn’t talk about this here anyway.”

Miso joined in with him.

“Yes, you should stay with Maru. We need to leave soon. I’ll give you a call once this all gets sorted, Maru.”

Miso left first after telling Maru to get better. One by one, the club members promised to come again before walking out.

“Who’s that, by the way?” A boy sucking on candy asked.

He was being quiet about it, but she heard him regardless.

“Girlfriend.”

“…What?”

“Dojin, can I just be alone with her for a bit?”

The boy exited the room visibly dejected when Maru waved him out. The room was quiet once more.

“Phew, finally. Bada, can you buy me some kimbap outside?”

“Mm, sure. I’ll be out for a few minutes.”

Bada went outside with a grin.

“Finally, just us two.”

Maru was saying something so embarrassing so calmly. She smiled lightly as she took a seat.

“Aren’t you popular, Mr. Maru.”

“You just realized?”

“My goodness.”

“You’re a lucky girl, did you know that?”

“You…”

“Kidding. I’m the lucky one here.”

“………”

Maru extended his hand towards her, she grabbed it.

“I’m sorry for getting hurt. For making you relive those memories.”

Just how much of her mind did he read? She could only smile defeatedly, she couldn’t get angry like this.

“…Don’t get hurt from now on. Don’t lie, either.”

“Okay.”

“If you’re going to get hurt, ask for permission first.”

“Okay.”

“You’re just saying okay to everything.”

As she looked at Maru with a smile, his face started inching closer to hers. His lips pecked away at hers quickly, she blinked in confusion for a second before pushing him away.

“Youu!”

Maru pointed at his cast with a grin when she tried to push him harder.

“I’m a patient, go easy on me.”

This guy… Well, she didn’t… hate it.

“Ohh.”

A sound came from outside the room, she turned around in surprise. Bada was looking at the two of them with a smile.

“You’re a brave one, aren’t you, sis?”

Hah… Was everyone in Maru’s family like this?

Chapter 158

“It’s five.”

“That it is.”

Maru watched as she peeled an apple next to him. She was carefully moving her fruit knife with squinted eyes, but she peeled more fruit than skin.

“It’s hard.”

She put down the apple she just finished peeling. It was completely uneven. Maru smiled as he looked at the fruity sculpture, she pouted angrily.

“Don’t smile. I worked hard on that.”

She cut the apple into bite-sized pieces and placed them onto the plate in front of her. He didn’t want to bother her, so he stayed silent. Her hand slipped a little as she cut one of the apple pieces. The plate leaned sideways a little bit, but she regained her balance just in time.

“…Ha, haha.”

She smiled awkwardly.

“Give that to me.”

“I’ll do it.”

“I feel nervous just looking at you. Give it.”

He took the plate, knife, and apple from her hands. As a Korean husband in a Korean family, he learned how to cut apples nicely for ceremonies years ago. She complained as she watched Maru peel the apple smoothly.

“Why are you good at doing that?”

“Men who can cook are what’s hot nowadays. I’ll make you some good soup when we get married.”

“…Crazy. You’re crazy.”

“You don’t seem to dislike it, though?”

“I do. Satisfied?”

Maru was speaking playfully, but he was doing this to lay down the groundwork. So that she could accept his proposal easily when the time came, even if that was still very far along the road. He cut the apples into bite-sized pieces before giving it back to her.

“It’s pretty late. Shouldn’t you go back home?”

She’s been here with him since morning. He was happy that she was with him for sure, but the sun was setting now. Combined with the snow, it would honestly be best if she left as soon as possible.

“It’s already dark.”

“It’s going to be hard to ride the bus because of all the snow. You should take a taxi.”

Maru extended his hand out towards his wallet. It’d probably cost her quite a bit to go all the way back home on a taxi, but she snatched his hand from the air before he could actually grab it.

“I came here because I wanted to.”

She grabbed her scarf as she finished her sentence, Maru nodded with a smile. Good deeds didn’t always come off as such. If his actions hurt her pride, then it was for the best that he stop.

“Buy me some expensive porridge next time you come then.”

“Your stomach isn’t even hurting. Why would I get you porridge? Just have some fruit. And… It’d probably take you forever to finish this, so don’t even think about eating anything else.”

She spoke as she took a look at the pile of fruit baskets next to him. Among all the small ones was a massive one sitting in the middle, like an ostrich egg sitting next to chicken eggs. It was the basket from Junmin.

“You should take that.”

“What are you talking about? It’s a gift. You should eat it thankfully.”

“This is more than enough for me already. It’s going to rot just sitting her. I don’t want to waste food.”

“Take it to your home.”

“My family doesn’t like fruits that much.”

Maru stood up on his okay leg.

“You should sit.”

“I’ll see you off to the entrance.”

Maru held the crutch in one hand and the fruit basket on the other hand.

“Seriously, it’s fine. Eat it yourself.”

“Give it to your mom at home. She likes pineapples and plums. This basket is filled with it.”

“…How do you know that?”

“…You told me last time.”

“I did?”

“On the bus. You mentioned it in passing.”

“Really?”

“Really.”

Maru sighed internally as he motioned her outside. Just as he stepped outside of his door, she snatched the basket away from his hands.

“It’s heavy. I’ll hold it for you, so give it back.”

“It’s fine. You look super unstable from the back, did you know that?”

She supported his now-empty arm from the side, she shrugged with a big grin.

“You aren’t going to get this kind of support again once you get better.”

“I better stay hurt, then.”

Maru stepped forward with a similar grin.

* * *

She told Maru to step back inside from the bus station. It was snowing hard and the amount of snow gathering on his shoulders was starting to get ridiculous.

“You’re going to get sick.”

“Not with this, I won’t.”

“You’re sniffling already.”

The bus came right then, she pushed Maru away one last time before getting on. The boy kept staring at her even after she got on. He would turn into a snowman at that rate. He finally started moving when the bus started moving. He looked so fragile, walking in the snow with a clutch like that.

[Be careful, I’ll be back again.]

She sat down after sending the message.

“What do I tell mom, though?” she said, staring at the giant fruit basket in front of her.

* * *

‘It’s cold.’

Maru wanted to cross his arms for warmth. He couldn’t let go of his clutch, so he opted for putting his hand in his pocket instead. His clutch hand was cold. Alas, small sacrifices were necessary for the greater good. Maru thought about taking the elevator back up, he decided to exercise a little since he had the chance. He hopped up the staircase using his one good leg. He’s felt this over and over again, but his body really did get a lot better. His injuries were only minor because of how fit he was.

‘Well, I wouldn’t be involved with this in the first place in my past life.’

Maru stepped up to the fourth floor, he wasn’t feeling much pain in his leg anymore. He went back into his room and lay down. The exercise was good, but laying down felt best. He turned on the TV with the remote on the wall. He was using the entire four-person room by himself, so he could turn on whatever he wanted. A privilege he was quite fond of having.

He turned on the news, South Korea was getting rowdy again with all sorts of events. He put his pillow behind his back and looked out the window. It was still snowing as hard as ever. Would people even be able to drive in all of this snow? Even the news outlets spoke of the historical blizzard. There was also news about firefighters not even being able to extinguish the fire at a mansion because of all the snow, an unfortunate combination of a natural and human disaster.

“In any case.”

Maru started thinking as he crossed his arms. The fire on the fifth floor, there was no way it was natural. Miso said she found a tube of glue. No one in their right minds would purposely throw a flammable material like that next to wooden props on purpose. There was also no way for that tube of glue to set itself on fire.

So, the fire was intentional.

Moreover, it was during winter vacation. At the time of the fire, there was no one in the school other than the acting club. Though there could always be someone who was hiding in one of the classes before they left.

‘No.’

In the end, the first suspects were the acting club members. Who set the fire, and why? Maru scratched his head. There were many teachers who didn’t like the acting club. Was that reason enough to commit arson? Especially when the fire was incredibly damaging to them? To begin with, the only reason why the faculty disliked the club in the first place was due to a fire.

“Can’t be a teacher.”

The best way to figure out the intent of a crime was to figure out what someone wanted to get out of it. Maru thought for a few minutes before sighing in defeat.

“There’s no reason why anyone would start a fire.”

No one could gain anything from a fire. Was it just a prank then? No, it couldn’t be. The fire was definitely well-planned. It was done by someone who knew exactly when the club met and when they left, they even chose the day before the competition to start the fire. Clearly they knew exactly what the club was doing.

Maru briefly thought of a different school. Perhaps this was the sabotage attempt from a different school. But if any student wanted to sabotage a school, they would’ve chosen Myunghwa High.

“Hah, and the police likely won’t investigate anything either.”

The school knew there was a fire, they just didn’t want to make the news big. A school with a pyromaniac? It would damage the school’s reputation immensely. Coupled with the bullying incident… the school would cross a point of no return. If the police don’t get involved in this matter, then catching the criminal would be up to the school and the club. The school definitely wouldn’t try to get involved, so in reality, only the club would be the ones to investigate.

‘It’s not like we really have to find the criminal, but… ’

It would be fine to brush it off as a simple accident, especially since the incident was contained. The problem lay in the possibility of a recurrence. If something like this happens again, things could get very bad for the club.

They were able to keep this under wraps thanks to mutual agreement between Miso and the school. The acting club had to lose a few things, but it wasn’t anything too big. But what if the same thing happened again? The school could make one of two decisions. They could call the police, or…

‘Get rid of the problem entirely.’

If the school decided there was a pyromaniac going after the acting club, the easier solution would be to just get rid of the acting club instead of trying to find the criminal. They could turn the auditorium into a gym in the process as well. They wouldn’t be losing out on anything.

‘As long as I can learn their intent… ’

The intent of the crime. What one could gain from that fire. Maru smiled bitterly and grabbed a notebook, he put his book down for a second.

“I can only hope it’s not true, but…”

It couldn’t have been done by an outsider, it had to be done by a club member.

‘Why did god have to make my ability so tricky to use?’

He would’ve gone straight into finding the perpetrator if he could read everyone’s minds, but he had his restrictions. He needed to look them in their eyes and they needed to be thinking about him.

“Can’t be the guys from the morning.”

Dojin, Daemyung, Miso. Their minds were filled with worries over him when their eyes met. Won’t the perpetrator think something more along the lines of ‘I failed because of him’ instead?

So those three were out, he wasn’t able to check the others because of how busy he was. For now, he started writing down a list of the club members’ names.

“Hold on.”

Maru frowned.

“I might end up being a total whistleblower if things get bad.”

He had a feeling that this might get out of hand.

Chapter 159

Tok, tok. The notepad was starting to get dotted with black ink. Maru looked at the names of the club members for a bit before putting down his pen.

“Hm.”

The number one suspect in any given crime was the reporter of the crime, it was only logical. In this case, given the result of the situation, Maru clearly wasn’t the perpetrator. He shouldn’t be affected much even if the police become involved.

“But what if I was the perpetrator?”

Given the evidence, the perpetrator had to be a student. In addition, they were most likely to be in the acting club. If that was the case, perhaps he could try to get an understanding of what they are thinking of right now? The goal of the crime appeared to be the destruction of the props and costumes, but the only thing that managed to get burnt were the clothes. They even finished the play successfully.

The perpetrator would then start wondering why their crime failed, they’d realize that they failed because of someone called Maru.

They would probably hate him.

‘A crime with purpose. Arson isn’t easy to pull off.’

The perpetrator was deadset on their objective, enough to start a fire. But they failed, so it was likely that they felt somewhat mad. They might’ve also felt guilty when they looked at Maru. After all, they likely didn’t intend for someone to actually get hurt.

‘Anger and nervousness, I guess?’

Everyone feels nervous at first, the same was true in the case for any sort of crime. What if he uses this?

“What if I become a scapegoat?”

Perhaps they might feel something if he does something they want? Maru scratched his eyebrows for a bit before reaching for his phone. He needed to make sense of all of this first.

* * *

Miso parked her car and opened the trunk. The trunk had some paint and paint rollers inside. Soon after, a small pickup truck drove towards the school. A man walked out from it.

“Is it here?”

“Yeah. Sorry for taking your time. I’ll pay you well, so please help.”

“Taking my time? No way. Just help me when I need it as well.”

“Anytime.”

The kind-looking man in front of her was Yoon Mintae, he was a friend of Miso’s that she recruited to fix up the auditorium. He was a polite young man, age 25, and he was currently working under the set director of the Myungdong Art Theater. Daemyung got off of Mintae’s truck as well, the boy was holding rubber gloves along with arm sleeves.

“Will we be able to finish this quickly?”

Mintae shrugged at the boy’s question.

“We’ll have to see it first. Let’s take our tools up. You get those, Daemyung and I’ll take the cleaner.”

Mintae took out the wheeled high-pressure cleaner from the truck.

“Is that something you use in the theater?”

“Yes. I got permission from the director and brought it.”

“Wow, so reliable. Need any help?”

“Could you take the paint and the tools from the trunk?”

“Okay.”

“Let’s finish cleaning first. We can do the floors a little later.”

Miso took the paint and walked upstairs. The school was completely empty for winter vacation and she couldn’t be more thankful for that fact. Things would’ve been incredibly troublesome if this happened during the semester. Daemyung, who went up first, opened the door to the auditorium, he’s opened all of the windows inside as well. Miso put down the paint and looked next to the entrance, the wall over there was burnt black.

“This isn’t too bad at least. We should be done with it in a jiffy.”

“Yeah. All thanks to you guys.”

There were roughly four meters of damaged wall by the entrance. Parts of the wall that actually touched the fire were burnt completely black while the rest of it was grayed out slightly.

“So this is where Maru took out that bench?”

“Yes. I took him out to the hallway with Dojin when we saw him fall. It was thanks to him that the fire didn’t spread much outside of the costumes.”

“I’m surprised that you guys didn’t call the firefighters.”

“Well… Maru told us not to call them. He said he didn’t want to make this a big incident. I brought the fire extinguisher from the fourth floor while Dojin tried to keep the fire small and that turned out to be enough.”

“There isn’t much that could get burned by this after all.”

Miso knew the rest of the story very well, Maru got sent to the hospital in an ambulance after the fire was taken care of. Miso got information about this sometime during the fire and called Taesik over to the school immediately. She felt doomed, but she was quite relieved to hear that Maru was alright. The first thing she did after that was to call the principal, Taesik took care of this part.

Miso observed the burnt wall in the meantime. Why was there a fire? As she looked around, she spotted a burnt tube of glue among all of the ash. There was no reason for something like that to be there. So, the first thing her mind went to was that someone started the fire on purpose. To begin with, there was no other option. She started thinking. Should she be truthful with the principal, or should she tell him it was just an accident?

The principal came to the school quickly, he was visibly angry. The first thing he did, in fact, was scream about how poorly they managed the kids. That’s when Miso made her decision, she told him that it was all an accident. Surprisingly, the man calmed down quickly when she said she’d take care of it with her own money. Miso told the man it was her own mistake when he asked about the cause of the fire, the principal clicked his tongue at that.

- Trying to cover for the kids is very dangerous for their growth. It’s obvious that they started the fire while trying to make a snack.

The principal also seemed rather happy.

- Well, given the club’s prior incident with fire, I don’t think I can let them use the auditorium anymore. Mr. Taesik, please give the kids the news. Understand?

It was an expected result, but she still felt bad about it. Had she told him the fire was intentional, the principal would’ve become very serious. He would’ve judged that the perpetrator was in the acting club. In that case, the club could no longer act at all during the competition. They would have to give up on the nationals.

No, that was fine. There were more competitions down the road, but what if the principal called the police? Doing that could very easily hurt the kids. By the time Mintae arrived with his cleaner, she got a call from Maru.

“Yeah, Maru?”

- Are you free for a chat right now?

“Yes.”

Miso gestured at the other two before stepping outside. Maru clearly didn’t call her to catch up.

“What’s wrong?”

- Are you partying right now?

“Mm? Yeah, yup.”

Miso leaned on the wall. She did tell the boy they were going to have a party without him, but it really wasn’t the time for such a thing.

- Bit too quiet for a party.

He seemed to have caught on already, too.

“Hah, yeah. Parties my ass. I told the kids to go rest. We just gathered to see you.”

- You should’ve celebrated. It was the perfect time, too. “Shush. Why did you call?”

- I had a few things I wanted to ask you. The people higher up didn’t say anything much about the fire, judging by the faces of the club members, right? So you didn’t tell them that the fire was intentional.

Miso took her phone off of her ear for a second dazedly. What was up with this kid?

“Who told you?”

- Just a theory.

“Hah. Yeap. I told the principal that it was my mistake. That’s how I’m cleaning things up with Mintae right now. Ah, do you know Mintae?”

- Yoon Mintae?

“Oh? You know him?”

- Yes. I’m working with him. Anyway, good job. Things would’ve gotten too complicated if you told him it was intentional. There’s a low chance the guy would report the incident to the police, but anything can happen after all.

“‘The guy’? You mean the principal?”

- I can be as rude as I want to him when no one’s listening.

“Oh? So you talk about me rudely when I’m not around as well?”

- I’ll leave that to your imagination. Besides that, instructor.

“What?”

- Where do you think the perpetrator is?

“Where?”

Miso frowned. She could tell where Maru was going with this.

“You think someone in the club did it?”

- Isn’t that the most logical conclusion?

“Hey!”

Being suspicious of a friend? Unthinkable. But she couldn’t help but agree with him a little bit. The only people who were at school on that day were from the acting club.

- I’m hoping it’s not true either. But as long as there’s the possibility, we have to consider it.

Miso frowned even more. She already told the principal that this was an accident, the school was quiet about this as a result. If they were going to do this, the acting club would be alone in its investigation.

- This might not end with just this one incident.

Miso bit her nails, an old habit of hers that resurfaced. To her, the acting club was a place filled with pleasant memories. She didn’t want to lose it and she didn’t want to see its image sullied. She wanted to keep the place clean for the future students of the school, but what if there was a kid who was planning on starting trouble in the club again as Maru said?

“You know you’re the most suspicious one for bringing attention to this, right?”

- Of course. But it’s pretty obvious that I’m not the one.

That was definitely true. It wouldn’t make sense for a person who started a fire to jump inside it. Plus, Maru did his best to stop the fire. It was obvious it wasn’t him, Maru also came down from the school with everyone else. The people who came out late back then was Yurim and the second years.

- But I was the one who did it.

“What? What are you talking about?”

- It’s a bit obvious, but I’m asking to lay a trap for the perpetrator. If there really is someone who started the fire in the club, they would hate to attract attention. So we’ll set up a stage for them. That there’s someone who started the fire in the club.

“You want me to announce that?”

- Yes. Tell them that as a group. They’ll all try to deny it. After that… meet them one by one and tell them your ‘true’ feelings. That you’re suspicious of Maru.

“And?”

- Bring the ones who have even a bit of a reaction over to me. Or someone who actively tells you that I’m the perpetrator.

“…Be honest with me. You’re certain that it’s someone in the club, aren’t you?”

- When you eliminate what’s impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth. Plus, given our knowledge, it can only be someone in the club, don’t you think?

Miso smiled bitterly.

“I suppose there’s value in trying it.”

- At the very least, we can trust everyone again if we don’t find anything.

“But if we do?”

-… I’d rather not think about that.

Miso nodded. She didn’t want to even imagine it either.

“But why bring them to you? Do you have a secret plan or something?”

- It’s not for certain, but I have my ways. I can read minds pretty well.

“…Hah, you can joke even now? Alright, fine. I’ll do what I can.”

She hung up and put the phone back in her pocket.

“Ugh, what a nerd. He reads too much.”

Miso shook her head, thinking back to what Maru had just said.

* * *

Maru sighed after hanging up.

“I hope it’s not true.”

The snow outside mirrored his current feelings. For now, Maru decided to leave this to Miso since he needed to rest. He opened the hardcover book he was reading, Sherlock Holmes: The Sign of The Four.

Chapter 160

“Let’s clean up first.”

There was one thing she needed to do before catching the perpetrator. When Miso rolled up her sleeves and walked into the auditorium, Mintae had just managed to rev up the high-pressure washer.

“Let’s clean off the burnt bits and soot first. We can scrape off the parts that don’t get washed off afterwards. I think we just need to wax the floor as well, given the damage.”

“What a professional.”

“There was a fire at a theater I used to work at. I learned a lot. And there were also the seniors I followed around for theater construction.”

“You’re really reliable, you know that?”

Miso poked Mintae’s hips.

“It might splash a bit, so please step aside. Daemyung, use that squeegee to take the water into the bathroom.”

“Got it.”

The motor rumbled loudly as the machine started shooting water.

* * *

Yurim sighed as she got back up from her bed. It was 2am, and her neck was covered with sweat. She’s been lying down for 3 hours, completely unable to go to sleep. She was fine until yesterday when they went to visit Maru, the sight of him in the morning with his injuries and cast had kept her awake. According to Dojin, Maru could’ve easily fallen into the fire if things went wrong.

“…But he didn’t get hurt. So it’s ok.”

She tried to console herself as she closed her eyes again. Looking back on it now, she had to wonder how she even mustered the courage to start the fire, to begin with. She hesitated to the very end, but she got the perfect chance to do it. It was almost as if the world was telling her to do it. All of the club members were gone and the auditorium was completely empty. The second years were cleaning up on the fourth floor as well.

A light went off in her head, she hurried back up in the middle of walking down with everyone else. She tried to put the clothes on fire with the lighter, but it wasn’t easy. She ended up squirting the glue on the clothes and the floor before setting fire to it. The fire greedily licked the glue trail and set it ablaze. The clothes were on fire in an instant and Yurim knocked on the fourth floor clubroom as if nothing had happened.

Inside, the seniors were organizing the last bits of the props. Yurim tried to calm her stomach as she helped them. They finished quickly and they came down to the first floor together. It was perfect all the way up to then. If everyone went back home, the props would’ve burnt to ashes.

But Maru decided to go inside. He saved the props, and the play went on without him. Geunseok was the one to perfectly filled up Maru’s empty spot. Rather than making the boy desperate as she intended, she bolstered his confidence instead. Everyone praised him, and even the seniors looked a lot more trusting of him. As a result, Geunseok became even stronger. That small glimpse of weakness she saw before was completely gone.

That’s when she realized he didn’t need her anymore. She approached him after the play ended, She told him that he did well. She wanted him to grab her hand as always, telling her that it was all thanks to her.

‘…I got nothing.’

That day, Geunseok nodded as if he was told something obvious. No more, no less. She felt incredibly distanced from him. The cowardly chick from a few months ago grew into an eagle that flew away from her arms.

That feeling of loss… That realization that Geunseok didn’t need her anymore. Yurim wanted to faint. This wasn’t possible. She needed to console Geunseok after shaking him to the core. What was the point of even starting the fire otherwise? She only did this, to begin with, because she believed she could get close to him again.

‘What do I do now?’

On the way back home, she noticed him talking in a very loving tone with someone over the phone. She could tell he was talking to Suyeon. What were they talking about? How could he have such a happy face on him? Why wouldn’t he smile at her like that?

Geunseok was cold to her, he was scary. It felt like he would never even talk to her again and that made her afraid. Yurim approached him inside the bus, she tried to talk to him like they usually did.

- Why are you being so annoying?

What she saw then was definitely irritation. She didn’t want anything special, just a simple conversation. Even that was denied to her. And today… she wasn’t even able to get a word in with him on the bus. Soyeon kept trying to talk to her, she couldn’t hear it. She had stopped talking with Geunseok completely for two straight days. Her hands were sweaty and her lips were drying out. He was completely ignoring her.

Tick, tock. Tick, tock. The clock on the wall was so incredibly loud. Was it always that loud? She blocked her ears with a pillow. The noise seemed to have gone away for a second, but the ticking noise managed to pierce through the layers of cloth into her ears. She bit her lips and curled up on her bed. Ignore it. Ignore it. The sound of the clock only got sharper over time.

“Shut up!”

She threw the pillow at the clock. Crack. The clock broke upon falling onto the floor. She stared at it dumbly before realizing what she’s done, she stood up to clean up the mess before yelping in pain.

“Ugh.”

A sharp piece of plastic dug into her feet, it hurt too much. She sat down on the floor in pain. All she could see was plastic, blood, and a cut.

“What’s wrong?”

Her mom entered the room. Yurim mumbled for a bit before squeezing out a response.

“…It fell while I was sleeping.”

Mom turned on the lights in surprise. Drops of blood were falling on the floor.

“My gosh.”

Mom quickly brought over some bandages.

“I’ll do it, you should go back to sleep.”

Yurim pushed her mom back out before dropping down onto the floor. She felt awful. Pathetic. She buried her face into her knees. She was afraid. Annoyed. Scared. Angry. She wanted to ask for forgiveness. It was all because of him.

All sorts of thoughts and emotions danced inside her. Her feet hurt. How did this happen? She was happy for the first time in high school. She wasn’t scared of alleyways anymore. So why?

Tears began flowing down from her face as she picked up the broken pieces of plastic. Why was she the only one to suffer like this? She lay back down on her bed. It was 3am, she still couldn’t sleep. Even though the noise from the clock was gone now. In the darkness, she started flipping through pictures on her phone. In the beginning, there were a lot of pictures she took with Soyeon. At the karaoke, at a restaurant, at a bingsoo place.

“Traitor.”

Did Soyeon forget about all of the fun times they had together? Why was the girl hanging out with other people instead of her? She hated Soyeon. She hated her. She tried to erase the pictures on the phone, but her finger wouldn’t move. In the end, she just moved onto the next page. After that came all the pictures she took with Geunseok.

She flipped through all the fond memories she had had from August to December, a smile appeared on her face just looking at the pictures. She could feel her chest warm up, but time passed, the smile on Geunseok’s face gradually stiffened. By the end, the boy’s eyes weren’t smiling at all. They were cold.

Yurim’s expression stiffened as well, something was very wrong here. Her heart was getting filled with fear and loneliness. She needed to catch him, she couldn’t let him distance himself from her like this. She didn’t want things to go back to the way they were.

Yurim stroked Geunseok’s smiling face on the phone, they needed to go back. As long as there was a proper fire, they could’ve gone back to that time.

‘He’s the bad one. It’s all his fault.’

The reason why the noise of the clock was so loud. The reason why her feet got hurt. The reason why Geunseok became cold towards her. It was all ‘his’ fault.

‘If only he didn’t go into the auditorium.’

No, if only he got really hurt in there instead…

Yurim flinched. Did she really think of such a horrible thing? She closed her phone hurriedly. That wasn’t her intent at all, but a corner of her mind kept whispering to her. What if he got hurt? Wouldn’t the play have stopped then?

‘…It probably would’ve.’

So in the end, he was the issue. He shouldn’t have jumped into the fire, he should’ve run away. It’s all his fault things went wrong, he messed up all of her plans.

Yurim clenched her eyes shut. Somewhere outside, she could hear the noise of a black pickup truck driving.

* * *

She woke up with terribly heavy eyes. It was vacation so she could’ve just overslept, but when she checked the clock, it was 7am. Yurim sighed and looked at the empty wall. Right, she broke her clock yesterday.

She told her mom that she was fine and ate her meal by herself at home. By the time she finished eating and watched some TV, it was already 9. She got a message, it was from instructor Miso.

[We have to organize the auditorium and have to practice, so come to school by 11am.]

Her stomach hurt when she read the word ‘auditorium’. She didn’t want to go, she really didn’t want to go. Sadly, it is the week before the nationals, she had to go. If she skipped here, Geunseok would judge her. She washed her head in the bathroom. By the time she finished styling her hair, it was already past 10am. She put on the shirt Geunseok liked and walked outside.

The outside was draped with snow, the scene made her forget about her worries briefly. She stepped into the snow, her shoes got slightly wet, but it didn’t matter. Her astonishment and happiness didn’t last long, thinking about having to see the burn mark rekindled her nervousness.

‘Will there be cops?’

She was getting worried about all sorts of things. The school didn’t have CCTV, they wouldn’t know who started the fire for sure. She just needed to be careful. She smiled awkwardly. If she gets caught, everything would be ruined. She got on the bus. She immediately realized why criminals always got caught in movies, her legs were trembling and the same went for her arms. How many times had she swallowed nervously? A boy in front of her was staring at her oddly. Did she look suspicious?

All sorts of imagination flew around in her head. Yurim shook her head, this wasn’t good at all, she needed to get calm. In the end, she decided to try to act out ‘Yurim’. A girl who speaks little and smiles occasionally, a girl who can only act confident next to Geunseok.

‘Just be normal. Don’t be scared. No one’s being suspicious of me. I’m safe.’

She was at school before she even realized it. The school seemed even more desolate than normal today. Why?

“You’re here?”

A voice came from behind her. Soyeon. The girl seemed to have lost weight. Yurim did recall hearing that the girl started exercising since she started dating Taejoon. She ignored her and stepped up, Soyeon followed her up and greeted her again. What was this traitor thinking?

“Did something bad happen?”

She felt a little nervous inside, she ignored it. Soyeon kept following her silently before quietly muttering out a question.

“Yurim, we’re still friends, right?”

Yurim stopped for a second and turned to look at Soyeon.

“Why did you ignore me and go to Iseul’s restaurant that time?”

“I didn’t ignore you. I called you. But you…”

She could somewhat remember it, she definitely got a call. She ignored it because she was with Geunseok, her facial muscles twitched. She knew Soyeon wasn’t at fault at all, but her pride wouldn’t accept it.

“You would’ve insisted me to come if you were a real friend.”

“Yurim.”

“Stop it. Don’t try to act so friendly all of a sudden.”

Yurim turned around, biting her tongue. It felt like something snapped inside her. At the same time, she realized she couldn’t lose Geunseok more than ever now. She rolled up her fists and walked up to the auditorium. Now, it was time to act.

Chapter 161

The first thing that invaded Yurim’s nostrils upon walking in was the smell of paint, the type of smell that would nauseate you if you smelled it for too long.

“Woow.”

Soyeon exclaimed in surprise behind her, Yurim would’ve done the same under any other circumstances. The wall was colored in sky blue paint, the traces of fire completely disappeared in just a day.

“Clean, right?”

Instructor Miso appeared behind them, the woman was looking at the wall with pride.

“What happened?” Soyeon asked.

“Humans are amazing creatures. We managed to clean it all up in a flash. I did get a lot of help, though.”

Right then, several people entered the auditorium with a yawn. Joonghyuk, Minsung. Taejoon, Daemyung, Dojin and Geunseok were there as well. All of the male club members were there except for Maru.

“You’re here?”

“Yawnn. You came.”

They all looked tired, their clothes were a dead giveaway of how their days went yesterday. They were spattered with drops of paint. Blue, white, blue. The fact that the auditorium returned to normal in a day wasn’t magic, it was hard work.

“You stayed up all night?”

“We didn’t go that far.”

Joonghyuk responded with a smile to Soyeon’s worried question.

“We just didn’t sleep until it was pretty late.”

“3am, was it?”

“Think so.”

Minsung and Dojin exchanged words casually. 3am. while Yurim struggled with insomnia, the two of them were working hard.

“Are you okay? You have paint on you here.”

Yurim stepped towards Geunseok. The boy looked just as tired as everyone else.

“You think? I almost stayed up all night.”

Geunseok stepped away to the windows with an annoyed look, Yurim’s heart dropped inside her. She quickly smiled and followed the boy.

“Y-you were tired, weren’t you?”

“Are you trying to make fun of me? Can’t you tell just looking at me? I was stuck here cleaning and painting all day. Fuck. It wasn’t even my fault, and I ended up wasting a day. I don’t know which bastard did it, but if I catch him…”

It was easy to guess where the sentence was going. Her stomach hurt. What if he learns that she was the one that did this? A cold shiver that started from her feet climbed all the way up to her head. He couldn’t know of this. If he did, he would absolutely hate her.

‘No. I can’t. No. No.’

Her heart was thumping. They needed to talk about something else. She thought desperate for a while before coming up with a topic he would like.

“Is… that instructor a good person?”

Yurim felt her body stiffen. Inside, she’s already come to accept that Geunseok no longer liked talking about ‘Yurim’, but enjoyed talking about ‘Suyeon’ instead. She’s been trying to avoid that topic because she knew how Geunseok would react to that word.

‘No.’

A scream echoed inside her ears, she slowly looked up to the boy’s face. He was smiling now, the smile was sharp enough to cut her emotions into pieces. It ripped her apart, her head completely blanked out. She didn’t know what to say. She didn’t know what kind of a face to make. All she could do now was listen as Geunseok talked gleefully about his instructor.

“She’s great. She tells me everything I need so kindly. And…”

His voice was ringing around in her ears. Yurim felt a little sick, so she grabbed the windowsill to try and support herself. At some point, the boy’s started settling into her very own being. At that point, she realized. The moment she’s away from Geunseok, she would suffocate. It felt like such an amazing shackle when he actually paid attention to her. Without it, it just made her feel lonely and desperate for attention. Worst of all…

“I… see. Your instructor’s a really good person.”

She needed to speak things that made her stomach twist with a smile. If she frowned here, Geunseok would glare at her. She looked down with a smile, it was hard to control her expression.

“Now then, girls! Help us finish up. Let’s throw out the trash and clean up.”

“Yes!”

Iseul was the first to start cleaning energetically. Yurim ran over, she couldn’t bear staying with Geunseok right now. The others arrived as she worked. By 11am, everyone with the exception of Maru was here. They cleaned up all the way till 12. Thanks to the boys completing the brunt of the work last night, they finished up quickly.

“You slept at school last night?”

“Yeah. Ugh, I feel so stiff.”

“You should’ve called us. We would’ve helped you.”

“How could we? We had to sleep in the classroom.”

“What the, you’re looking out for me now cuz I’m a girl?”

“Because I’m a gentleman!”

Iseul laughed at Dojin’s response. Yurim felt her stomach twist. Here she was struggling with worries and these two had the gall to play around?

“Yurim, are you okay?”

It was Soyeon, this girl looked so fake with her worried expression. A thought that the girl truly cared for her and that this expression wasn’t fake at all floated up in her mind, but it was quick to dissipate. She was a traitor, after all.

“So what if I’m not okay?”

“…Did something actually happen? Why are you so cold?”

“Think about it. Do I really have to explain everything to you? You’re too much. Are you even a friend?”

She felt a little good inside to let that out. Soyeon looked down sadly, the girl looked like she was about to cry. Yeah. Go on, do it. You deserve it, traitor.

Yurim regretted her words almost immediately though. She grit her teeth, Soyeon didn’t deserve any of this. Soyeon never even did anything wrong. She was only being so mean to Soyeon right now because of the suffocating feeling she’d feel if she didn’t.

‘Don’t talk to me. Don’t worry about me. Please don’t… act nice to me.’

She wanted to cry. How did this happen? How did she become so twisted? Why couldn’t she fix herself even when she’s aware of all her flaws? Yurim wasn’t able to keep going without blaming other people. She balled up her fists and looked forward. Thankfully, Soyeon stopped talking to her. Though she couldn’t tell if that was a good thing or a bad thing.

“Good work. I tried to get this done by myself yesterday. It was way too hard, which is why I called all of you here. Thanks for coming.”

“It’s our club room. It only makes sense we’d look after it.”

The boys nodded in agreement. Miso told them she originally tried to do this with Daemyung alone. They realized they needed more people, which was why they called out the other boys.

“Let’s eat first. We can talk after that.”

Instructor Miso was frowning when she put the word ‘talk’ in her mouth. Everyone became a little bit quiet. What did she want to talk about? They all tried talking about it as they ate. When they finished eating, the instructor gestured for them to get close to her.

“What I’m about to say now isn’t good for anyone of us. But we have to go over it, so listen well.”

Yurim felt herself becoming nervous. This atmosphere, those eyes… She could tell what instructor Miso was about to say.

“You probably all know this, but this fire was intentional. A fire couldn’t have started on its own in the auditorium, so it had to be done by someone.”

Silence. Yurim couldn’t hear anything other than the instructor’s voice. The air around her felt like lead, weighing down on her.

“There was fire and there were damages that resulted from it. We can’t just let this pass.”

Instructor Miso looked around the auditorium silently, the other club members looked around as well. Yurim, on the other hand, just stared directly at the floor.

“I heard recently that they’re going to renovate this place soon. It won’t be the acting club’s anymore. It’ll be the baseball club’s training room.”

“So next year…”

“We’ll have to work in an empty classroom. Well, we can practice anywhere. The problem is that we’ll run out of place to store props. How’s the fourth floor clubroom? Is it still full?”

“It’s only been getting fuller after you graduated, instructor. We have a lot of things we don’t use, but it’s not like we can throw them away.”

Instructor Miso nodded with a smile.

“Thanks for putting it that way. In any case, we have to leave this place, so start thinking about that. Ah, that’s not what I wanted to talk about. Sorry, I really don’t want to talk about this either, so I keep changing the topic.”

Instructor Miso sighed. Her eyes turned sharp again.

“Only the acting club was in the school when the fire happened. You should know what that means.”

So it’s come to this. Yurim wasn’t able to even look at instructor Miso, she might pass out if their eyes met.

“I’ll cut to the chase. It’s only logical to think that the one who started the fire is one of us. Right?”

“……”

No one responded. Why would they? No one wanted to admit there was a criminal among them. Yurim hoped that this awkward atmosphere would dissipate quickly. That they would quickly dismiss such a thought as immoral. But.

“There’s definitely someone among us. We need to find out who it is.”

Instructor Miso stood up with that, she walked outside the auditorium. Before she left, she quietly uttered a few words.

“One by one, in that order you’re sitting in, come to the classroom in front of the auditorium. Got it?”

Instructor Miso was speaking with an incredibly scary glare. Yurim shivered. Did the woman find something? Did she have a suspect already? The doors closed. The club members stayed silent for a few minutes, Yoonjung was the first to stand.

“I’ll get going first. We’ll go in the order of the people to the right of me. Got it?”

The girl was clearly forcing a smile.

“I’ll be back.”

Yoonjung took her first steps with a concerned look.

* * *

Miso sat down on a chair, waiting for a student to enter. She already had an idea of who might come first. Yoonjung, the club president. The door opened with a creak. Indeed, it was Yoonjung. But right now, the girl wasn’t smiling.

“I’ll be direct. Did you start the fire?”

“No, I didn’t.”

Yoonjung waved her hands in surprise. That was the right reaction. No one could remain calm if they become a target of suspicion.

“Is that so?”

“Yes.”

She noticed the girl ball up her fists, her eyes were firing up with life. This one probably didn’t do it.

‘There’s no way kids like these would’ve started a fire.’

Miso wanted to believe that there couldn’t be a person who started the fire in the club, she wanted to believe that Maru was mistaken. She sighed before saying the sentence she prepared beforehand. What would this girl’s reaction be?

“I trust that it’s not you either.”

“……”

“What about Maru, then?”

“What? M-Maru?”

“I heard he came out the last out of all of you. Isn’t that suspicious?”

“No. There’s no way he could’ve done that. And!”

Yoonjung jumped up from her seat with a frown.

“You know what he’s done… how could you get suspicious of him?”

This was the first time she’s ever seen Yoonjung react so strongly to something. The girl was usually so incredibly positive, but right now she was looking at Miso with disappointment. Those eyes of hers… Miso was glad to see it.

“So you think it can’t be Maru?”

“Yes!”

“Anyone else you might think it might be?”

“No!”

The girl sounded confident. Miso nodded.

“Alright, good. Go back inside. Keep this to yourself. I’ll trust that you’ll keep it that way.”

“…Yes.”

Yoonjung turned around with a saddened expression, Miso felt sorry that she had to burden the poor girl with something like this.

‘Han Maru, if you did this without giving it any serious thought, I’ll kill you.’

It was difficult to act suspicious of the club members. The thought of how Maru could be sitting in the hospital relaxing while she was doing this was starting to annoy her. She’d bother the kid at the hospital after this for sure.

“Alright, call the next kid.”

11 people left.

Chapter 162

Maru’s ears itched for some reason. Was someone insulting him behind his back? He stood up from the bed with a stretch. The view outside the window was like a canvas, everything was so white the grey road that the shovelling truck swept was looking alien.

“Laziness is good.”

Looking back, he’s tried hard enough already. He was way too busy for a normal high schooler, maybe this was god’s way of giving him a break. He might as well take full advantage of it. He reached out to pick up a banana, eating a tropical fruit in the middle of winter… What an odd situation. He picked up his book as he ate. Just about everyone who would come to visit him already left. He told his family to not worry about him, so he should be free all day. After turning a few pages, Maru looked up from his book.

‘I wonder if she’s doing well.’

1pm. About the time where everyone was together, Miso might’ve already started talking. Right now, she had to play the bad cop. After all, people hated being the target of suspicion. Having to take on this role was no easy burden for her. It would’ve been better for Taesik to have taken this role, actually. He was the advisor of the club and Miso was technically an outsider.

Emotionally speaking, Miso was a lot closer to the club. In terms of asking such questions, Miso was definitely the person for the job. Plus, she cared about the club more than anyone else. She probably felt personally responsible for what happened, but that didn’t change the fact that Maru was sorry for making her do this.

“…Ah, is she actually insulting me behind my back?”

That would explain the bad dreams he had last night, he could just see Miso gritting her teeth in his head. But so what? That was her job as an adult.

“…Being a kid is the best.”

Maru took a bite out of his apple.

* * *

Daemyung first wondered why the second years all came back with a frown. Just what did instructor Miso ask them? He only realized now why the second years all looked so annoyed and slightly offended a few minutes ago.

“I’m suspicious of Maru.”

He legitimately couldn’t understand what Miso said. Did he hear her wrong? No, judging by her expression, he clearly didn’t.

“What do you…”

“Maru was the one who was on the 5th floor when the fire started. You know what the implications are.”

“Instructor.”

“Be honest with me. Aren’t you suspicious?”

Daemyung liked instructor Miso, she was always very passionate and he respected that. He always enjoyed her difficult and strict practice sessions because he could feel her passion. He’s never seen her badly once in her life. But right now… he despised her for the words that came out of her mouth.

“Are you being serious?”

He’s never gone against an adult, he’s never refuted what an adult told him. He used to always think adults were always right. But what’s this? Did instructor Miso really suspect Maru? He was confused. Here he thought she would always support him.

“Yeah. It just makes sense. You guys were on the first floor and Maru was on the fifth floor. A fire started. What does that make you think?”

Miso crossed her arms. Did she really think that? She was truly worried about Maru just yesterday, she even said that it was a relief that Maru didn’t get really badly hurt. She was also truly mad at Maru, mad at him for being reckless.

Could a person like that change her behavior just like that? Was she really speaking the truth? She usually didn’t talk like this either. She wasn’t the type to call in people one by one to interrogate them, she was the type that spoke her thoughts and asked the same of others. If she was really suspicious, she would’ve asked Maru on the spot yesterday at the hospital. If he said no, she would’ve just dropped it.

A person like that… calling people one by one to talk in secret? That wasn’t the way she worked. Instructor Miso hated doing tasks that took a lot of work. This type of strategy, this roundabout way of reaching their goal rather than running straight for it… The one who usually worked like this was…

“Um, instructor.”

“Yeah?”

“Can I make a call?”

“To who?”

“Maru.”

“What?”

“I won’t tell him what you told me. I just want to ask him something. Is that fine?”

“S-sure.”

Daemyung walked to the corner of the room before calling Maru, who picked up the call with a dazed voice.

“Hey Maru.”

- Yeah?

“Can you be honest with me?”

- If you’re asking me that with no context at all, I’m going to have to tell you no.

“I hope you can still be honest.”

- What’s this about?

“You asked instructor Miso to do something regarding the fire, didn’t you?”

He didn’t get a response back for a while. Did he get the wrong impression?

- Man, I keep noticing this, but… You’re really sharp.

“Does that mean…”

- You got it. I think you know why as well.

“Y-yeah, a little.”

Maru must’ve wanted to believe that it wasn’t a club member who started a fire as well, but he needed to prove that was the case first. Daemyung understood that feeling all too well. In fact, he completely agreed with finding evidence instead of just blind faith. Assumptions made about him were how he was hurt by others until middle school, after all. He’s fat and slow, so it’s okay to bully him. It’s okay to bully him because he’s ugly. Daemyung grew to hate assumptions because of it.

“There can’t be anyone in the club who did it though, right? That doesn’t make sense at all.”

He thought he’d get a response quickly, but Maru stayed silent for a surprisingly long time. That could only mean one thing.

“Wait, do you actually…”

- Please play along with my game for now. I do have a proper plan in mind.

“Do you actually think one of us did it?”

- I’m just being open to all possibilities. I don’t want to be blindsided.

Maru sounded almost pained when he said that. Did he go through something in the past?

“Alright, fine. I’ll keep quiet for now.”

- Thanks.

“But tell me next time. I don’t know if I can help but… I really don’t want to get tricked by a friend.”

- Yup, got it.

Daemyung hung up and started thinking. Did Maru already have a suspect? Or was he really just being open to all possibilities? How was he planning on finding the perpetrator anyway? He only had questions. Then again, he was never able to figure out Maru’s plans until the boy was completely finished. That was the case with what happened before their summer vacation and that was the case with the school violence incidents as well.

‘I just hope he doesn’t use himself as a target.’

Maybe Maru didn’t even care about becoming a target of hatred. Daemyung started thinking. Creating a situation where you become a target of suspicion and using that? He wouldn’t even think about doing such a thing, personally. But Maru did, he differentiated between what and what not to protect. Then, it seemed that Maru classified himself as something he didn’t have to protect, he would protect those around him rather than himself. That behavior has lessened recently, but it definitely hasn’t disappeared. In fact, he still looked like he was working very hard for someone. Though Daemyung wouldn’t know who that someone was until Maru talked about it.

“Looks like you heard everything from him.”

“…Yes.”

“Please play along for the time being. We might as well finish this now that we started.”

“Do you think the perpetrator is in the club, like Maru?”

“No, I don’t.”

Miso seemed confident.

“Now. Bring me the next person. Two left now?”

“Yes.”

“That Maru’s definitely working me to the bone. I’m going to tease him a ton when I go visit him.”

“He’s still a patient, so please be gentle…”

Daemyung smiled awkwardly. Just before he walked out, he turned around to ask a question.

“No one’s been suspicious yet, right?”

“Of course.”

“That’s good.”

Daemyung gave a glance at Geunseok as he stepped back into the auditorium. Geunseok got up to go to speak with Miso next.

* * *

“Maru?”

“Yes. What do you think?”

Geunseok closed his mouth. Maru? A fire?

‘Well, it’d be good to hear, honestly.’

He really didn’t like Maru, the boy was annoying from start to finish. It’d be great if someone like that was the perpetrator, but he had to shake his head in disagreement here.

“He’s a bit annoying, but I don’t think he did it.”

“Really?”

“Yes.”

“Alright. Anyone else you’d be suspicious of?”

“I don’t really know. But I hope you know that I didn’t do this. You should know that I’m working very hard for the club.”

Miso nodded, gesturing for him to get up.

“Yurim’s the last one, right?”

“Yes.”

“Bring her over.”

Geunseok came back to the auditorium, none of the club members were talking. Then again, they were all pretty shocked by Miso. There was no reason for any casual conversation to be taking place. He called out to Yurim, the girl flinched like someone who just got woken up.

“Why are you so surprised? You’re next. Go.”

“…Okay.”

Yurim barely managed to stand up, she shook off Soyeon when the girl tried to help her. Did they fight? Yurim walked out of the auditorium with a dark look.

* * *

Yurim felt even more nervous than the first time she got on stage. What was instructor Miso planning inside? No one told her what had happened. But, given their expressions, it couldn’t have been anything good. She opened the door, instructor Miso was sitting down with her arms crossed. There was a chair in front of the instructor, so Yurim took a seat before anything else.

“I’ll make this quick. Just listen to my opinion and tell me what you think.”

“Yes.”

“I’m suspicious of Maru.”

The hair on her arms stood up. What did Miso mean by that? She looked at the instructor with trembling eyes. Why was the instructor suspicious of him?

This was a chance.

She was sick of feeling so nervous, she wanted to be done with this. It felt like she would go insane if this dragged on for any longer. Miso was suspicious of Maru, agreeing with that outright would make her look suspicious. Maybe she could imply her agreement a little bit instead?

There was no proof that she did it anyway. Right. If she says it might be Maru here… the nervousness inside her disappeared. This was a chance. A chance granted to her by the heavens.

“Yurim?”

“Y-yes?”

“What do you think?”

“Um… I…”

She felt conflicted, but her feelings quickly got swept over by the desire to feel comfortable again.

“Maru’s suspicious for sure. I’m not saying he did it of course. It’s just… anyway, there wasn’t a fire until we came down, but the fire appeared when he went up.”

“Right? I thought so too.”

Miso immediately put a small smile on her face, the woman was clearly a bit happy to hear this. Maybe this would go over more easily than Yurim first thought?

“Do you think the same way as me, instructor?”

“Mm, yes. Pretty much.”

“Maru hated acting at first. He just joined out of the blue. Plus, remember when he said those mean things to all of us? He might actually be a bully inside.”

Yurim closed her mouth in surprise. Maybe she went a bit too far here? Thankfully, instructor Miso was still smiling kindly.

“I heard your opinion well. You can go now. Do keep this to yourself though.”

“Of course.”

That’s good, instructor Miso was suspicious of Maru. Yurim really might’ve let out a smile if she wasn’t still in front of the woman. Instructor Miso stepped back into the auditorium after a brief wait.

“Good work, guys. You can all go home now. See you in two days.”

Everyone got up with dissatisfied expressions. They all left the auditorium one by one with their bags. Yurim approached Geunseok, but the boy left telling her that he was busy.

‘Can’t be helped.’

If she pushed the boy further, he’d hate her. She ignored Soyeon calling out to her and walked to the bus station. She really wanted to sleep, it felt like she could finally get some good sleep for the first time in a while. Right then, she got a call.

“Instructor?”

- Yurim, where are you?

“I’m at the bus station.”

- Can you wait? I want you to go somewhere with me.

“What?”

Instructor Miso’s car rolled right up to her.

“Get on.”

Yurim got on and the car took off immediately.

“Instructor.”

“What?”

“Where are we going?”

“Hospital.”

“What?”

The hospital? Were they planning on punishing Maru? Good. She was starting to look forward to getting there now.

Chapter 163

The car came to a stop after driving on the slush-infested road for quite some time.

“Shall we go?”

“Yes.”

Yurim felt like instructor Miso’s secretary right now, she got on the elevator of the hospital with a grin. In a flash, they arrived at Maru’s room.

“Go inside.”

“What about you, instructor?”

“I need to think about something really quick.”

“…Yes.”

Well, that’s a bit odd. Yurim stepped inside, for now, on the bed was Maru with a book in hand. It felt uncomfortable to be around him, to be honest. Oh well. She opened her mouth to try to say hi.

“Let me ask you just one thing,” Maru cut in.

The boy was staring at her kind of scarily, their eyes met.

“Did you start the fire?”

The question came out of nowhere, punching Yurim’s throat completely shut. Why was he asking that? He looked like he knew something. Wait, did he know?

The boy shut the book with a loud clap. Maru’s cold, calm expression grew icier by the second. He kicked away the blanket on him before standing up on one foot. Something was weird, Maru was approaching her. She couldn’t breathe. Maru leaned over to look over her, she stepped back with a gasp.

“So it’s you.”

“W-what are you talking about?! You were the one who started the fire!”

“Me?”

“Yeah!”

“Why do you think that?”

“T-that’s!”

She didn’t know what to say. She knew Maru wasn’t the perpetrator, so she was speechless. She desperately tried to continue her words.

“Did you see me start the fire?” Maru asked.

“No. But there wasn’t a fire when I came out. So it has to be you. It has to be!”

“I really started the fire?”

“Don’t you even know? You started the fire with a tube of glue. The instructor already said you’re suspicious. Be honest. It’s you!”

“I started the fire with glue?”

“Yes. You started the fire and then called everyone else here!”

She shouted before looking at Maru. How dare he get suspicious of her! He didn’t even have proof!

“Mm.”

Maru loosened his expression before stepping back.

“Sorry.”

“What?”

“I was just really mad. I didn’t mean to shift blame.”

Maru looked down apologetically. Yurim thought for a second, so Maru really didn’t know anything.

“But it’s not me either, please believe me.”

Maru went back to his spot with a sigh, he looked tired for some reason.

“I was just feeling chaotic because I was hurt. Sorry. I got too agitated.”

He looked like an apologetic sinner, Yurim relaxed a little bit.

“Well, fine. I’ll take it. But you really didn’t start a fire?”

“Yes. Please believe me.”

“But instructor Miso’s suspicious of you. I don’t think so either, but the fire did start after you went up.”

“That’s true. But if I started the fire, do you think I would’ve tried to save the stage despite risking injuries? It’s really not me. Believe me.”

Maru balled up his fists, his emotions must be a mess right now. He was getting blamed for something he didn’t even do, after all. That would explain his previous actions as well.

‘Good. He doesn’t know anything.’

What should she do? Should she push him a bit further? No. She decided to just watch him, it kind of felt good watching the boy struggle with his thoughts. That’s right, you shouldn’t even have thought about jumping into the fire!

“I heard from instructor Miso that we wouldn’t take this to the police. The school only thinks of this as a mistake as well.”

“What? Really?”

Yurim’s complexion improved in a flash. She’s been worried all night about what she could do if teachers or the police get involved, she didn’t want to get arrested. That would put her in a fate worse than death. But if the world saw this as a simple mistake? Nothing would happen.

It was like the nervousness and regret that’s been stabbing away at her heart suddenly disappeared, it felt good to breathe again. Her vision cleared up and she began to notice things, like the little mountain of fruits next to Maru. Color was starting to come back into her world. Ah, she’s just noticed how pretty the snow is outside. Yurim smiled lightly.

“I don’t think it’s you either. There’s no one here that’d do something like that.”

“Thanks.”

Maru sighed in relief, she felt a little less hateful of Maru now that she’s relaxed quite a bit. It’d be nice if the incident just gets forgotten like this… She took a sip of the plum juice Maru gave her and sat down, only then did she notice Maru’s hurt leg.

“Were you hurting a lot?”

“I’m fine now. The fracture doesn’t seem like anything bad.”

“That’s good. I was worried.”

Their conversation smoothed out. The plum juice was sweet. She felt like she could fly. Finally, she’d be able to sleep well for the first time in a very long time. Instructor Miso entered through the door. She didn’t feel guilty anymore when she looked at the instructor.

“Yurim, can you step out for a bit?”

“Yes.”

She stepped outside. Once they were out of Maru’s view, instructor Miso started asking her questions.

“How was he?”

“He seemed suspicious, but I don’t think it’s him. He looked really guilty, so I felt sorry for him.”

“Really?”

Right then, instructor Miso took out her phone. She must’ve gotten a message, she checked her phone after telling Yurim to wait for a second. She put the phone in her pockets after reading it.

“Hah, so no one in the club, I guess?”

Yurim nodded for now. She needed to snuff out any further reason for instructor Miso to investigate further.

“Alright. You’re all good kids, so I believe it. I’ll just think of it as unlucky.”

“Yes, I think it’d be for the best. It feels bad to be suspicious of my friends.”

“You’re a good kid.”

Miso patted her shoulders. Yurim felt freed from all of her shackles, she actually had to suppress a grin from coming up on her mouth.

“Yurim, I hate to say it, but can you go back by yourself? I want to talk with Maru.”

“Yes, that’s fine.”

“Here’s your money for the taxi. Good work. I’ll see you in two days.”

“Yes.”

What a good day. Yurim dropped all of her worries and stepped outside.

* * *

Maru stretched; his hips hurt from sitting for too long, he twisted his hips to loosen them up a bit.

“She’s gone.”

Miso entered the room. Maru handed her a plum drink to her as well.

“Here, it’s good.”

“Your words make you sound like a liar.”

And he was. It was honestly a bit too sweet for his tastes, so he’s offered it to anyone who comes to visit him. Even with that, he had eight bottles left. When would he be able to get rid of them? Just as he opened a bottle of orange juice for himself, Miso snatched the drink out of his hands and switched it out for the plum drink.

“Plums are good for your health.”

“Hah.”

“Don’t sigh, you’re still young.”

Miso gulped down the drink in one shot. She must feel pretty stuffy inside. After all, a criminal emerged from the club, when she was so sure that they wouldn’t be in there. Miso frowned in annoyance.

“Alright, so. How’s Yurim the perpetrator? And why did you just send her back?”

Miso spoke as she took out her phone with Maru’s text opened.

[I think Yurim did it. Send her back with thanks for now.]

Maru took out a voice recorder from his pant pocket.

“What’s that?”

“A recorder.”

“What?”

He wordlessly played the recording. The conversation he had with Yurim played out.

“……”

Miso’s frown deepened.

“You didn’t tell the club about the glue, did you?”

“Of course not. I didn’t want to talk about it.”

Miso played the recording multiple times, Maru smiled bitterly looking at her. The woman was a fan of humans, so an incident like this must’ve been quite a shock to her. To think her student would try to trick her and pin the blame on Maru…

Maru realized that Yurim was the one who did it as soon as she stepped into the room. A giant word bubble popped up over her as soon as their eyes met. The word bubble was shaky and spiky, reflecting her current mental state. Moreover, it had the words ‘did he find any evidence?’ written on it. But of course, that wasn’t good enough as evidence. So he brought his recorder.

“I wonder why she did it,” Miso sighed.

“Yurim’s probably the only person who knows.”

“Hah, I should ask her.”

Miso’s eyes narrowed like a hawk’s. Maru grabbed her wrist with a shake of his head.

“What?”

“Leave her be.”

“What? Leave her be?”

Miso shook off Maru’s hand with a confused expression.

* * *

“I understand that you care for her. But we can’t just let this go. She started a fire. Someone got hurt. You can’t just forgive…”

Miso couldn’t even finish her words properly. The quietest girl in the club started a fire. Maru was telling her to just let it go though, that wasn’t right.

“Who said I was going to forgive her?”

Maru looked as calm as ever. Emotionless, really.

“If you commit a crime, punishment awaits. That’s why laws and society exist.”

“Why did you tell me to let her go, then?”

Maru pushed his book over to one side.

“As you know, I need to show Mr. Junmin some results. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to get into the nationals because of this injury. But if we win even without me, at least I can put my name under the team.”

He was speaking slowly. Emotionlessly. As if this and the fire were two completely different matters.

“Nothing good will come out of trying to damage Yurim right now. She’d either ask for forgiveness or play innocent till the end. Either way, it’s not helpful for the play. That’s bad. Yurim needs to act until the end at her best condition.”

Maru cracked his neck sideways. He smiled a little in satisfaction.

“I like and respect people who are close to me, but I’m not a philanthropist by any means. I’m quite greedy, as a matter of fact. I try to get as much as I can from what benefits me, and I throw out what doesn’t help me. In that sense, Yurim still has some value. So, unfortunately, I’m going to have to ask you to play coy until the nationals finish, instructor.”

Maru’s eyes were cold. They were a bit alien, but she did think that this might be what the boy was actually like. This boy was extremely lenient when he was getting harmed by his own volition. He didn’t think much about making sacrifices, but he didn’t have any mercy when he had to take losses from other people’s actions.

Miso was reminded of what Taesik said a while ago, back when the school was getting rowdy with talks about school violence. Taesik described the boy back then as the ‘Hammurabi code of laws’ back then, she sort of understood what he meant by that now.

“Let’s smile until the end of the finals. So that Yurim doesn’t get too shaken up.”

This was for the best, everyone would benefit from this for sure. But how did Maru personally feel about this?

“Aren’t you mad? Can you take it?”

He got hurt by the fire, he could’ve gotten seriously injured. He missed his spot in the nationals as well, a spot that could’ve possibly earned him a lot of interest from industry workers. He lost a great chance just because of Yurim’s foolishness.

“Of course I’m mad, but I have much to gain from being patient for a moment. Profits come first and foremost, emotions can come later.”

What a smart boy. He looked like the type of person who’d survived for years in society. Just where did someone like him come from?

“You should just start a company instead of acting. No, just start up a cult. You’ll succeed for sure.”

“I did think about that, but I don’t really look that kind or gentle.”

Maru smiled brightly, softening the mood of the room immediately. What a strange kid.

“Alright. I’ll go with it for now. What will you do after the nationals though?”

“I’ll ask why she did it. We can think about what to do after my curiosity is satisfied. I want to know what made her do this.”

Miso nodded as she stood up. She needed to take care of the club, now that it’s come to this. For now, she’d tell the club that it was all just a misunderstanding. They’d hate her for some time, but whatever. She was an adult.

“Ah, what if she did it for a legitimate reason?”

She asked before she stepped out. Of course, the girl probably didn’t have a good reason to start a fire of all things, but she was curious about what Maru would say.

“A legitimate reason. It’s unfortunate, but that doesn’t change anything. Reasons aren’t indulgences. One needs to be ready for the consequences of their actions.”

His last words sent a slight chill down Miso’s back. She nodded before closing the door behind her.

Chapter 164

Miso left. The smile she showed him before stepping out seemed hollow, she seemed dissatisfied that they weren’t able to immediately take care of this incident. It’d be easy to make Yurim confess, it’d be easy to make the girl tremble in fear. The problem wasn’t that, it was the fact that the nationals were just a week away. Yurim needed to keep her spirits up until then, for both him and the club.

“But why did she start the fire?”

Yurim’s motivation was still a mystery to him. What led her to starting a fire? Without any evidence, he couldn’t figure out why. Her plans were too elaborate to be dismissed as a simple mistake. She made up her mind to start a fire and she did it. Why?

Cold wind seeped in through the open window, people often said the day after snow was a little warmer, he didn’t agree. The wind was cold enough to give him goosebumps, but he opted to keep the window open for now.

‘Just don’t think about it. No way to tell what the other person’s thinking.’

Maru instead decided to think about what to do from now on, he had asked his sister to bring a few scripts. Looking at them now, he couldn’t help but laugh a little. They were useless to him now. In just a few days, the two plays he’s prepared for for several months will end. He couldn’t get on stage, though he might be able to at least watch it.

He did feel very disappointed. If he didn’t feel any disappointment after being unable to perform for something he’s been preparing for months, he might as well be Jesus. He was able to accept what happened easily enough though. Stuff like this just happens, maybe it was even fate. He didn’t believe in such a thing in the past, but after an encounter with god… well, it was a lot easier to believe than before.

‘I want to complain though.’

Did you really have to do this, god? In the end, he was the one who made the conscious decision to jump into the fire. But what if god made him remember to take his phone as he got out? What if god stopped Yurim from setting a fire to begin with?

“Yaawn.”

People stuck in a room by themselves become one of two things, they either achieve enlightenment or they go crazy. In the end, the only thing you can do by yourself is to think. Well, daydreaming, really. The play was over and the lights were out. The actor lost his job, so now he needed to move on. Should he try harder to figure out Yurim’s motivations? No, never mind, he wasn’t a fan of looking for a needle in a haystack. He finished his book as well and the TV was boring. So then…

“I should sleep.”

Truly, a fitting choice. The hospital bed felt a little harder than usual under him, perfect. He had gotten used to sleeping on hardwood floors. He could only sigh when he thought about what to do after this, but for now, he decided to simply not think about it. Just as he closed his eyes, the door to the room opened. He opened his eyes slightly. As soon as he saw who entered, he got back up.

“Sir.”

It was Moonjoong. The man looked incredibly stylish in his fedora and trench coat.

“No need to get up.”

“I’m not that sick, sir.”

Maru returned to his sitting position on the bed.

“Your face looks healthy, thank goodness. You’re healing up well?”

“Yes. They said I’d need to be here for two weeks, but I think I can get out before then.”

“The heavens must’ve helped you. I thought you went crazy when I heard the news from Junmin. To think you’d just jump into a fire…”

“It does sound crazy without context.”

“Haha.”

Maru offered the man a seat and took out a drink.

“How does sikhye sound?”

Maru gave the one drink he’s been saving up to the man. After taking a sip, Moonjoong opened his mouth.

“You must be disappointed after all the work you’d put into the plays.”

“It can’t be helped. I’m trying to move on, since my feelings wouldn’t change anything.”

“You’re right. Disappointment does you no favors.”

Moonjoong nodded in agreement.

“So what will you do now?”

“I was about to sleep, actually. There’s not much to do here. I brought a few scripts here out of habit, but there’s no point in practicing anymore.”

Maru turned to look at the script next to him, prompting Moonjoong to grab them.

“May I?”

“Of course.”

Moonjoong looked at the scripts for quite some time.

“You’ve put a lot of effort into analyzing your characters.”

“I don’t know much about acting, so I gave my all into the one thing I knew best.”

“How was it?”

“It was easy at first. Since I just needed to think about the type of person my character was.”

“But then?”

“It got harder the deeper I got into it. That’s when I realized complex characters aren’t created overnight. It felt like I could write a book purely based on my analysis.”

That was when Maru really felt like there was no end to this. The moment you start working towards creating a meaningful character, a whole world opens itself for you to explore. Maru had quite the fun time navigating through these worlds in front of him.

“It’s very fun to think about characters,” Moonjoong put down the script with a beaming smile, “but try not to delve too deep into it.”

“Why?”

“Because people aren’t machines. The characters we act are too dramatized to exist in real life, but in the end they are human too. Thinking about the place they were born in, the people they met, the things they like is good for studying. But on stage, a vast majority of those things won’t matter at all. The only thing that remains are the character’s personality that grabs the audience’s attention and the character’s greed that drives the play. That’s all. Because in the end, everything about a character points to their greed. The ultimate point of character analysis is to use the character’s greed in such a way that it shocks the audience. At least, that’s what I think.”

“Greed…”

“Of course, this is just my opinion. Other people probably don’t think the same way. So make of it what you will and come to your own conclusions.”

Moonjoong laughed before taking out a book.

“Here, read this.”

It was a book with a white cover, titled ‘Twilight Struggles’.

“This is…”

“I’m going to be in a movie soon and this is the source material…”

Many movies were adapted from books, so this didn’t come as a surprise. Maru was curious about why he was given this, though.

“We need an actor.”

“Excuse me?”

“A side character. One that might as well get erased during the editing process.”

“That means…”

“If you’ve made up your mind to be an actor, it might be good to get hands-on experience. Of course, there’ll be an audition. It’ll likely happen once the production crew comes together. Their name is Yongsoo. See if you like it.”

Moonjoong got up from his seat.

“You’re leaving already?”

“I just dropped by to give you that. You look healthy, so no reason for me to stay any longer. Do try to be more careful, if you don’t want to suffer in your old age.”

Moonjoong smiled slightly as he stepped back. Maru tried to stand up, but the man held his shoulders down.

“I’ll get going.”

“I’ll see you next time, sir.”

“Sure.”

The man finished off his last line as he stepped outside.

“It’ll be fun to work with you on the field. The movie industry has its own charms. Though, I suppose it’s also a lot more bitter as well.”

Maru bowed at the closing door with the new book in hand.

“Did you throw me this because I was complaining so much about not having work?” Maru said, looking out the window.

It felt like he could see the God of Fate winking at him. He opened the book in front of him. The moment he saw the name of the author on the first page, Maru gasped in surprise. He knew the author of the book. Not personally, of course. Just that he recalls a movie of the same name doing well in the box office. This happened in his thirties though, so it will be a while away.

“…Why couldn’t you just let me remember a winning lottery ticket number?”

Or a company whose stocks would go through the roof? Maru thought of the 300 million won he owned. Thinking about it did make him happy, but it also made him feel a little frightened. He took a look into the real estate industry for investment. He only took a look to get a feel for it, because he needed to be a legal adult to be able to invest, but then… the real estate industry took a dive to the floor. So he opened a Cash Management Service account with a bit of his money to play around, but the bank where he opened the account closed down suddenly. The media was still going wild with those news. So after that, he just decided to keep his money in his savings account. Those two events were probably a sign from god that investment wasn’t worth his time.

Of course, it might just be coincidence. He was still thinking about investing in his later years, but that was not a worry for his younger self. He might as well think about doing this when he turns 45.

‘Besides that, a movie, huh… ’

He started acting because of her. Now, even without her, he found acting fun. Movies are different from plays, it did garner some interest from him. He’d need to pass the audition first of course, at least he had all the time in the world to prepare. Maru opened the first page of his book, he needed to figure out what the book was even about.

* * *

The fifth floor auditorium was now off-limits, that wasn’t much of a surprise. It was still depressing to think about how he’d never be able to go back there again. Daemyung looked at the calendar, the nationals were just a day away now. Miso concluded that the perpetrator wasn’t in the club, Daemyung felt a little bit hurt inside when he heard the rest of the club saying mean things about Miso behind her back. Thankfully, Yoonjung quelled the situation by saying instructor Miso was just doing her job. It was also good that the nationals were so close. The mood of the club quickly returned to normal because of how busy they were.

‘What was instructor Miso and Maru trying to do, though?’

Maru just told Daemyung that it wasn’t the right time yet whenever he asked about it. Daemyung knew that the boy figured something out already, but just didn’t tell him about it for a reason. Maru did promise to tell Daemyung what happened when all of this was over and he was happy with that.

“So it’s tomorrow.”

He wasn’t nervous for some reason. Was it because he’s acted in plays several times already? If he got on the stage right now, he was confident that he could finish without making a single mistake. He got a few calls before bed, from other club members and Maru. They all told him to work hard. When he promised Maru he’d ‘work even harder for Maru’s sake’, the boy just told him to not make any mistakes with a laugh.

In any case, he was in peak condition. Like always, Daemyung got into bed at 12am. He drifted asleep very quickly.

* * *

“I don’t think this will disappear,” Maru exclaimed in front of a mirror.

There was a scar on his forehead, a faint line running above his left eye. Thank goodness his hair would be able to cover it up easily.

“Let’s go, brother.”

“Sure.”

It was finally his discharge date, Maru left his room for the past two weeks behind and went back home. Laying down on the hardwood floor, Maru thought to himself.

‘Home is best.’

His legs were fine, they healed up very nicely. He decided to keep the cast that was split in half, it felt like a waste to get rid of the writing on it. So this is what they meant about getting emotional over random things in old age.

He looked at the calendar on the wall, there were two red circles on it. Not birthdays, but the dates of the nationals and the performance of the amateur acting club. Both of them ended in early January. He wasn’t able to participate, but he did have a great time watching it. They all did very well. Enough to cover for his absence perfectly.

“Third place.”

They weren’t able to take first or second place in the end. As always, Myunghwa High took first place. Second place was taken by Yoojin’s Bosung High.

‘Better than nothing, I guess.’

It was still a great achievement for Woosung High to get a prize, even if the prize itself inspired great anger and disappointment from Miso. The amateur acting class ended its performance well, too. Many of the students from the class got noticed by industry professionals thanks to it. Baekjoon, as a matter of fact, got casted for a movie on the spot. It was as an extra, but it was still something to be congratulated for. Yoojin told him she might get contracted with an agency as well.

“So it’s all over for now.”

He wasn’t able to participate in any of these despite having prepared hard for it. He acted as calm as possible, but his disappointment lingered nonetheless.

“Brother! Come have dinner!”

“Sure.”

He might as well eat first. Maru took out the voice recorder from his bag and put it on his desk. The festival was over, and there was a debt to collect.

“I wonder how she’ll come out.”

There was a saying about how a person’s words could either absolve them of all debt or add another million dollars to it. Yurim’s fate would be decided on how she responds. Of course, there was no reason for her to be completely forgiven. Because with all things considered, Maru was actually very frustrated about having to waste two weeks in bed.

Chapter 165

Yurim was feeling excited for the first time in a long while, it was to be her first time seeing Geunseok again in a few days. She did call him several times, but their calls were short. Yurim always hung up, gritting her teeth at the fact that she knew exactly who was next to the boy at the time.

‘But well, I get to see him today.’

She went to school with nervousness, fear, and excitement. She subconsciously walked up to the fifth floor and ran into the words, ‘don’t enter’. She forgot the place was going under renovations, she came back down to the fourth floor without thinking much about it. Their clubroom felt very cramped with all of the props inside.

“You’re here?”

She nodded towards Soyeon, she’s gotten a lot better since the fire incident. She still didn’t have great feelings for the girl, but she could at least reply to greetings.

“It’s so cramped. Was it always this cramped here?”

“Yeah, it feels like it got smaller.”

“It’s because of all the recent props we used. I don’t think the seniors would even be able to make it inside.”

Dojin spoke as he leaned on the wall. The clubroom only had Dojin, Daemyung, Taejoon, Soyeon and Yurim inside currently, and it was already quite stuffy. Yurim pushed a tea kettle on the floor aside, there really was a mountain of props inside.

“So we have to organize all of these by today.”

“It’ll take forever.”

They all sighed. As they started talking about how they were going to go about organizing everything, Miso and the second years arrived.

“Bit cramped, isn’t it?” Instructor Miso said, “It really might be about time to sort out the trash.”

The second years all sighed in defeat.

“As expected, huh?”

“We don’t even have space for it, after all. We should just keep the reusable stuff and stuff the costumes to somewhere compact. I think we’ll have to destroy the bigger stage props though.”

The cleanup method was decided under Miso’s instructions, the expensive costumes would be organized first before everything else would be taken care of. By the looks of things, they’d need to clean out at least half of the props in the room.

“Sorry, we’re late!”

Iseul and Geunseok were the last to arrive. They weren’t actually late, the club was set to meet at 11am and they arrived at 10:50am.

“Alright, let’s take everything out first. Hold your breaths, it’s going to be very moldy.”

The boys took out the props and the girls took care of sorting it. Everyone worked together when it came to taking out the stage props. By the time Maru arrived, the hallway was absolutely cluttered with props.

“Oh, so much stuff.”

“Yo! Maru!”

“You’re here!”

Yurim gave Maru a short nod. Thankfully, he appeared to be in great health.

“You’re late! Get to work.”

“My leg hurts, instructor.”

“Stop bullshitting me.”

The club was vibrant with energy, Yurim used it to try to talk to Geunseok.

“This will take a while to clean up.”

“Probably.”

“I don’t really see a need to do it during vacation.”

“Maybe.”

“Ah, that! We used that in the beginning, didn’t we? It was just a few months ago, but it feels like it’s been years.” “Dunno.”

That was their entire conversation. Yurim spent her entire time prolonging it, but Geunseok left her for the clubroom before she got a word in. Why was he being so cold? She bit her lips as she looked at the boy, she’d to get back to how things were in the past. She was sure of it.

“Did you two get into a fight?”

Someone spoke to her from behind, she flinched and looked back to see Maru was standing behind her with a bag of trash.

“W-what are you talking about?”

“Boys usually look into the eyes of girls they like in conversations. It’s just instinct. Or they look away out of embarrassment. But Geunseok just now looked completely uninterested. That could only mean two things. You guys had a fight or he really isn’t interested at all.”

Yurim glared at Maru.

“Stop joking. We’re just used to each other. You know nothing about us.”

“That would be for the best.”

“You’re really a mean kid, aren’t you? Do you enjoy ruining relationships like this?”

“Me?”

“Yeah.”

“No way. I’m not good at that. I am, however, very good at catching lies instead. Ah, care to hear something interesting? My lie radar recently caught a very big fish.”

What was the boy going on about? Yurim was confused by Maru’s sudden approach. The boy usually doesn’t talk to her like this. Right now though, he was stepping forward towards her with narrowed eyes. This didn’t feel good at all. She tried to glare at him before leaving, but Maru caught her with his next words.

“I wanted to ask you something.”

“What?”

“Why do you think people start a fire? I seriously can’t seem to come up with a satisfactory reason for it.”

Yurim felt the hairs on her arm stand up. Why was he talking about this all of a sudden? She put on a smile trying to disguise her nervousness.

“How would I know that?”

“You don’t?”

“Why would I?”

“Really? That’s a surprise.”

Maru scratched his eyebrows.

“And here I was so sure you’d know.”

The boy seemed incredibly confident, Yurim felt like her heart was about to stop. The boy knew something for sure, he wouldn’t have spoken about the fire otherwise. Her hands got sweaty and her mouth was drying up, she curled up her toes out of nervousness.

“H-how would I even know anything?”

Maru tilted his head sideways with a slight smile.

“Don’t be that surprised. I don’t want to hear your confession so quickly.”

“……”

She couldn’t even talk, Yurim looked around her. They were pretty far away from the club, so no one could hear them.

“Care for a change in scenery?”

Maru stepped down the stairs. The boy didn’t explicitly tell her to follow him, she could always choose to ignore him and go back to the club. Nonetheless, she found herself close behind, with his enigmatic words echoing throughout her head. By the time they were halfway down the stairs to the third floor, Maru stopped.

“Sometimes in life, you need to have some clout. If you follow me like this without even pausing, then you’re practically announcing to the world that you did it.”

“What are you talking about, I just followed you because you told me to…”

“Pretty weak response, don’t you think?”

Maru put down the bag of trash on the floor before taking out a long object from his pocket. Mary pressed it with his thumb, causing voices to come from it. It was the conversation they had in the hospital on that day, Yurim flinched in shock. He recorded their conversation? She didn’t complain about it. There was nothing he could do with it anyway, but his next words completely shattered this belief of hers.

“How did you know the fire was started with a tube of glue?”

Yurim lost strength in her legs the moment she heard those words, it felt like she took a hammer to her head. She put a hand on the wall and leaned on it, she couldn’t even stand. Maru walked over to hold her shoulder.

“Don’t fall down. I don’t want to be blamed for something I didn’t do again.”

Yurim trembled, she did actually consider falling down the stairs just now. Maru seemed to know about everything, unfortunately. She tried to shake off Maru’s hands, but the boy was incredibly strong. She thought about screaming, but she was afraid of what might happen afterwards.

The same old unperturbed face stared back at her, it looked like a predator’s to her right now. She was scared. If things continued like this, the truth would be exposed.

Yurim opened her mouth widely towards Maru’s arm, then bit down. She’d roll down the stairs once Maru gets off of her. Sexual assault. She might as well use that as an excuse. Blood started pooling inside her mouth. She really went for it.

‘Soon… ’

Soon, Maru would scream and push her back. That would be her chance. But…

“Now you’re really making me curious. What pushed you this far?”

The boy sounded completely calm. Yurim lost strength in her jaws, she pulled back with a disgusted look. Maru didn’t seem at all surprised to be looking at his wet, bleeding arm. As a matter of fact, he merely took out a handkerchief and slowly wiped the blood and saliva off.

“………”

She tried to take a step back to run, she needed to get out of here; she didn’t even want to think about what would happen next. As if Maru would let her, he reached out to grab her left arm. Yurim wanted to scream, it felt like she was completely paralyzed. A million thoughts passed by in her head. If everyone finds out she started the fire… If everyone finds out she lied… She could imagine the club members looking at her in horror. At the same time, she could see Geunseok turning away from her.

“I-I’m sorry. I was wrong. I was just scared. I didn’t mean to do it!”

“So?”

“…What?”

“So what?”

“…I’m sorry. Please forgive me. I won’t do it again. I won’t do anything bad ever again. Please just forget about it this one time. Please don’t tell anyone else about this. I’ll be hated. Geunseok would hate me.”

Her body was trembling, she gathered her shoulders and squatted on the floor. A thought crossed her mind, she looked up and glared at Maru.

“If you tell the other kids… I’m going to kill myself. You’re going to be killing me. Do you know that? I’m going to die because of you.”

She gulped. Did she manage to scare him? Maybe she might be able to solve the issue with this?

“If you’re trying to use death threats to solve the situation, you’ve come to the wrong place. I really don’t care if you kill yourself. Why? You and I are strangers. Sure I might feel a little bit guilty. But how long would that last? Not long, I assure you. After that, I’ll use you as a topic of conversation. Hey, you guys remember that girl who killed herself after starting a fire? I guess the other club members would remember you well. After all, you did start a fire.”

Maru’s words dug straight into Yurim’s skull, she trembled in fear. Maru felt like a ghost to her, she grabbed the stair railings and stepped back. She just couldn’t muster the energy. Tears were flowing out of her eyes, her teeth were clacking together.

Someone help me, please. Someone take this person off of me.

“Why couldn’t you apologize faster? Even apologies have expiration dates. What you’re giving me smells like it’s been rotten for weeks.”

“S… sorry… I’m sorry… Sorry…”

She couldn’t say anything else. She was scared. The boy in front of her was too scary. It felt like he’d read her mind again if she looked into his eyes. The humiliation and fear were starting to choke her.

Right then.

“…Really?”

She heard a voice from above, Yurim looked up in fearful trepidation. Soyeon was looking at her.

* * *

Miso poured Maru a glass of soju.

“I’m a student, you know.”

“Milk, then?”

“No thank you.”

Maru flipped the meat on the grill, the sound of the meat sizzling spread across the table.

“So, what happened with Yurim?”

“I met with her parents first.”

“And here I thought you were going to bury her.”

“I was going to at first, but there wasn’t a good enough punishment. It’s not like I could legally punish her either since she’s still a minor.”

“You can do it if you want, I know that. I heard from senior Junmin that you asked for a lawyer in the past?”

“…Being honest, there’s no reason in me decimating a kid’s life. The girl just broke down like some puppet when I pushed her a little.”

He could’ve at least made her do a few hours of community service if he wanted. But looking at her trembling, crying face… Damn it, he ended up thinking of his daughter. Maru gulped down his drink. The moment Yurim’s face overlapped with his daughter’s, he started wondering what the hell he was doing to a poor child.

“Decimating? What a word.”

“I’m a bit cultured, you see.”

“Are you drunk?”

“I wish.”

His daughter was around Yurim’s age. More so than anger, Maru was curious about the motivation of setting the fire. Still, it wasn’t a matter that could be settled purely with words either. So instead, he met with the girl’s parents. If they tried to argue to him about how their daughter did nothing wrong, he would have gone straight to the police. Thankfully, they were very polite and calm.

“What did Yurim’s parents say?”

“Therapy.”

“Not an easy decision, huh.”

“She’s had prior experience with something similar.”

“…Okay, I didn’t really want to know about that.”

“I didn’t let the parents tell me more either because of the same reason.”

Maru didn’t want to know Yurim’s story, he was just curious as to why she started the fire. Yurim said it was because she wanted to be closer to Geunseok, the reasoning just made Maru laugh. Just where the hell did she get that idea?

“I suppose just about everyone gets blinded by love.”

“Stop talking like an old man, please. You know you give me goosebumps sometimes, right?”

“It’s because I’m drinking.”

“I’m surprised about Soyeon though.”

“Right. She’s an incredibly kind girl.”

“I’m glad at least one person’s looking out for Yurim.”

“Don’t know. I just hope Yurim doesn’t get too attached to Soyeon this time.”

“We both know that won’t happen though.”

“Ah, true.”

“A school in Jeju island, was it?”

“Yes.”

“I suppose it’s a good thing her family’s well off.”

“Well, accidents are always caused by the rich for a reason.”

Maru got a call from Yurim’s dad that the family would move all the way down to Jeju island. Amongst a myriad of apologies he received, Maru tried to cheer him up. He could only feel sorry for the man as a father himself.

“Good lord, what do we do with the club now?”

“Dunno.”

“‘Dunno’, again?”

“Why don’t you lure in some freshmen if you’re so worried? The club really might disintegrate at this rate.”

Maru shrugged. The new semester was about to begin. The second years would all be gone and who knew how many of the first years would stay.

“No place to practice and the clubroom’s so small, too.”

“You still have to come, instructor.”

“Only if you get ten members.”

“Hah…”

“Don’t you dare sigh. I’m the one that wants to cry here.”

Miso took a swig of her drink. She was right, the club that nurtured her dreams was a mess.

“Pace yourself, please,” Maru said, as he poured her another drink.

Chapter 166

Twilight Struggles. It was a book whose title told you everything, a story of an abandoned old man who goes into a cruel killing spree. Maru was reading the book laying down in his room with his windows opened. It was February; the white snow of January had completely disappeared and all there was left was an incredibly cold wind. In the end, Maru closed the windows. It was a bit too cold for his liking.

“I wonder when Spring will come.”

He missed Winter in Summer and he missed Summer in Winter. He wished that the entire year could just be Spring and Autumn, but if that were the case, he’d probably complain about the boring weather. Humans can never be satisfied for long.

‘…Is it because of the book?’

The book was clearly feeding him too much ill will towards humanity, he was reading through it for the fifth time now. He’s been constantly reading ever since he was at the hospital. It was an odd book where each read through took longer than last time.

The main character of ‘Twilight Struggles’ was an old man in his sixties long forgotten by his children, that age immediately made Maru think of Moonjoong. The main character lived a life like any old man of habit, he was someone who went around town collecting scrap paper for money with his bike. Since he had to wake up a bit earlier to get as much paper as possible, he got into a habit of waking up at 5. He ate cold rice in water for lunch at home and went out to pick up more paper afterwards. At night, he comes back and goes to sleep with his broken TV on. The book described this old man’s mundane life in great detail. The writing depicted everything from his feelings to even what his room looked like.

A change occurred to this man, someone stole the old man’s bike. Without it, the old man had to walk around town in his sneakers all day. Only at night was he able to find his bike, the criminal was another old man who picked up scrap paper. They got into a fight and they ended up going to the police. The main character shoved the thief out of anger, causing the man to call upon his children for retaliation.

Being pushed around by younger people made the old man call his own kids out of sheer anger. But his kids didn’t come, and in the end, he was only able to get his bike back thanks to police involvement.

On the way back home, the old man keeps calling his children several times out of anger. None of the calls went through, so he walks all the way to his eldest son’s home. There, he learns that his son has been ignoring his calls on purpose. Out of desperation, he goes to see his second daughter and his youngest son. There, he hears from them that they don’t want to support him anymore, that they don’t want him contacting them either.

The old man buys some soju on the way back home and drinks. He sacrificed his youth for his children, but all he got in return was coldness. By the time he starts falling asleep in the cold, he started feeling a few young men start touching him. He thought to himself that there are still some people who care for him. He got immediately let down when the young men beat him and started running away with what little money he had.

At that moment, the young men’s expressions overlapped with that of his children’s. Flames of rage took over his heart right there and then. Moreover, the words that one of the young men said as he ran stabbed him even more.

- How fucking retarded do you have to be to be alone with nothing at that age?

The old man comes back home and leaves his children a message. That he’s lonely, that he wants to talk. All he got back was silence. The old man takes a look back on his life at his seat. He spent his life at work, since his wife’s passing at a young age. He retired from his company at the age of 50. Then, he spent five years as the CEO of a smaller company and then he spent the rest of his time maintaining a restaurant.

By the time he sent off his youngest son to marry, all he had left was a tiny room and a broken bike. He was living on telling himself that he raised his children well. Looking back, he really was a ‘retard’ like the young man had said.

He gave his children money for college, houses, money for marriage, everything. He thought that was love, he thought this love would be repaid to him in time. In the end, all he received was nought. That’s when he realizes that his children hadn’t contacted him for the last three years, he got nothing back in return. He sat down thinking to himself all night and by the time it was morning, he was holding a hammer in hand.

The story speeds up afterwards, the old man’s sighs soon turn into madness and the rest of the book dyes red with bloody carnage. Maru still couldn’t forget the old man’s last line at the end of the book at the face of his death.

- I can finally see myself.

Maru tried imagining this scene with Moonjoong. An old man who always looked so nice, acting in the role of a crazy actor? He couldn’t imagine it.

“What’s so wrong with using my life to teach wild dogs?”

Maru said the lines in the book as he rolled around, he emphasized with the main character since he was a father himself. If he was still alive and well, he would’ve grown old with his wife after sending his daughter off to marry. He had to wonder what his daughter would be like during the twilight of his life.

Surely his daughter wouldn’t be this cold, but he did have some doubts. This book only had shades of grey. In view of the law, the main character was a demon. From an emotional standpoint, the children who said ‘our dad just won’t die already’ were the evil ones.

The old man uses his broken body and his broken morals to unleash a demonic evil. Somewhere within this man, you were still able to see a vestige of a human you could still relate with. This book was bound to be a success.

He didn’t know how he felt towards the movie’s success. It wasn’t a family movie and it was the type of movie that would look terribly frightening to people.

‘That’s just a prediction, but… ’

Something might happen if the movie became a sensation, perhaps they might succeed if word about the movie spread.

“Bro, come to dinner,” Bada said, walking into the room.

Maru closed the book and stood up. Three days until school starts back up again. He might be able to read it one more time before then.

* * *

The frigid winds were as cold as ever, even during March. The school still looked square and the disciplinary teacher was still outside passionately ‘educating’ tardy kids. Thanks to it, the front entrance was lined with late students. Nothing much changed with the start of their second year. Maybe just the fact that he had to go up an extra set of stairs?

“Ugh, so cold.”

Dojin was coming up the stairs behind him, Daemyung was there, too. They didn’t end up splitting up as they headed up a year. The air was warm inside the classroom. Like always, Maru’s seat was next to the back entrance, with Dojin sitting next to him. The one thing that changed was that Daemyung was right in front of Maru now.

“I just can’t be rid of you fucks, can I?” Dojin said with a laugh.

Those ‘fucks’ included Dowook as well, the boy sat down in front of Dojin with a slight frown. They were sworn enemies at the beginning of the first year, but they were on fairly good terms at this point. They got along together pretty well given their faces and personalities.

Maru looked forward, popping one of Dojin’s candies in his mouth. The blackboard had the words ‘membership in a club is required’ written on it.

“Come to think of it, it’s today.”

“What is?”

“Advertising.”

“Advertising?”

Daemyung looked slightly confused, so Maru pointed down at the floor. Only then did the boy nod in understanding.

“We should go.”

“You, me, Geunseok, huh.”

“Yup.”

Maru bit down on the candy in his mouth before turning to Dojin, the boy looked down shamefully.

“Just three people.”

“S-sorry.”

“So long as you are, help us advertise. Geunseok’s pretty handsome, but he’s way too cold for this kind of stuff. We’ll need you to look welcoming.”

“………”

Dojin didn’t seem to know what to do, Maru decided to stop with the teasing here.

“Just kidding. Have fun in the cooking club. You’re going in with Iseul, right?”

“Yeah. They were all nice people. I liked it.”

“I heard marrying into a girl’s family is always really difficult.”

“The hell does that mean?”

“Good luck. Let me try some of your food next time.”

In the end, the acting club was just left with three members. Aside from those who wanted to take up acting as a job, everyone went somewhere else. Dojin and Iseul went to the cooking club, and Taejoon and Soyeon joined the movie watching club. Taejoon didn’t seem to mind staying that much, but when Soyeon told him she was leaving, he made up his mind as well. They all apologized, but Maru told them not to worry about it. He didn’t want to tie down the club members with their sense of responsibility. After all, this was their last chance for any of them to do what they wanted. All the other current third years left the club, as they previously said they would. They decided to put as much work as possible into job hunting. They did say they would come by to help though, which was great.

The fifth-floor auditorium transformed into a fancy gym, which has been filled with a ton of new equipment. Looking at it made Maru feel a little bit empty inside. It felt like the half-year he had spent there was completely fake.

“This is the script.”

Daemyung handed Maru the paper, it was for today’s ‘advertising’. A little thing they would use to pull the first years into the club.

“…I wonder if I’ll be able to get a female underclassman?”

“Hah.”

Daemyung waved his hand, implying what he said was a joke with an awkward smile. Maru caught the little glint of seriousness from the boy though.

“Now now, let’s take a seat.”

The teacher walked in calmly, Maru looked at the man with a slight smile. It was Taesik, their homeroom teacher.

“We’re going to be choosing our clubs today, so think well. There’s a lot of hard-working and rewarding clubs out there. Like the acting club… for example.”

Taesik was talking with a smile on his face, making Maru shake his head.

Chapter 167

And here Maru thought he paid attention in class. He looked at the math equation on his notebook and sighed. His memory and focus improved for sure, but he just couldn’t make use of it with stuff like this.

“Maru, we’re going to the clubroom after lunch, right?”

“Of course.”

Maru closed the notebook before looking at Daemyung, they were planning to advertise the club during the fifth period. There were a select few clubs in Woosung High that were granted the privilege of being able to advertise like this, most of these clubs were ones that did well in the nationals and whatnot. The acting club was able to advertise thanks to its past glory, but who knew how long this would last?

“The fifth period of the computer classroom is hanja. What do we do?”

“Well, we might as well try. If they don’t want us there, we can leave.”

The hanja teacher still hated the acting club as much as ever, so they probably won’t be able to advertise their club.

“Alright, let’s eat,” Dojin said, standing up.

Dowook stood up silently as well, he seemed to be having fish soup for lunch today. Or it may be a soup that smells slightly of fish, really. As they walked to the cafeteria together, they came across the design students on the other side.

“Looks nice,” Dojin muttered.

He must’ve seen Geunseok among the group of girls.

“Why don’t us electrical engineering students get any girls?”

“Dude, just look at the name, it stinks of men.”

Maru joked as he stuck behind the design students, Taejoon and Soyeon were there as well.

“Yo, Taejoon, weren’t you one of us?” Dojin asked.

“I’m in design only when I eat. Didn’t you know?”

“Tsk, tsk, this is why romance shouldn’t be allowed in schools. Such disgusting deeds happening in sacred educational grounds…”

Someone snatched Dojin away by his collar as the boy tried to nudge his way in between Soyeon and Taejoon, it was Iseul. She was here before they knew it, along with the rest of her fellow computer students.

“Stop ruining the mood.”

“O-okay.”

Dojin got quiet with an awkward smile. They looked like quite the couple when they were together, an energetic queen and her comical jester, Maru could already picture them together in his head.

“I heard the acting club is going to advertise today?” Iseul asked.

“Yup, with us three dudes.”

Iseul crossed her arms and nodded.

“Lots of girls should come for just Geunseok alone. Good luck.”

“Good to hear.”

It would be easy to drag in boys if they had Iseul, but it wasn’t like they could ask for help from someone who wasn’t even in the club anymore.

“How’s the cooking club? Dojin was happy with it.”

“It’s no joke. One of the upperclassmen already has their baker’s license. Another one already has a job in a Chinese restaurant. I think we’ll learn a lot. We’ll also be visiting famous restaurants twice a month. It’s gonna be great!”

“Good luck. Take care of him for me.”

Iseul gestured towards Dojin, who was nervously glancing at the two of them.

“Depending on how he does, maybe,” Iseul grinned. “Ah, what’s happening with the instructor? Is instructor Miso coming back?”

“Mr. Taesik asked, but it’s gonna be difficult.”

“Why?”

“She found herself a part in a play. She’s going to go on stage in about two months and she isn’t sure what her schedule’s going to look like.”

“Makes sense. She’s an actress after all.”

She probably wouldn’t be able to instruct the club full-time like before. She had the passion, but not the time.

“Think we’ll lose our funding, too.”

“…Because of the fire?”

“If they liked us, they wouldn’t have chased us out of the auditorium to begin with. We’ll probably get a significant cut. Or they might just get rid of the club altogether.”

“Man, now I feel sorry for leaving at the worst time.”

Iseul looked down at the floor bitterly, it wasn’t a pretty sight seeing her sad like that. Maru tapped the girl’s arm to try and cheer her up.

“We’ll make do. I’m more worried about the underclassmen. If we don’t get any new students, we’ll have to go on with three people. That’s impossible.”

They would need at least ten people. That was the rule for school clubs. If they couldn’t get the ten required people, the school would no longer recognize them as a club. At the same time, they would be penalized greatly. That is, their clubroom would disappear.

There weren’t many clubs that had their own clubrooms in the school. Music, acting, cooking, and Korean percussion. The other clubs made do with the empty classrooms during the weekend. In a situation like this, a permanent clubroom acted as a huge positive for the students. It was their home base. Losing the clubroom would negatively impact the acting club in a huge number of ways with the props were the biggest problem of them all. There definitely wasn’t a place nearby where they could store everything.

“We’ll need at least three for sure.”

The former second years would no longer be working with the club, but their names were still on the list. Joonghyuk decided to help them out after hearing about their situation. There were four second, no, third years on the club list, along with three second years. They needed three more students to meet the requirement.

“We’ll get three, right?” Daemyung asked nervously.

Maru shrugged.

“That’s the hope, but who knows?”

It was always good to think of all contingencies. Maru thought of a few friends in his class, they were the kids that didn’t like to take part in clubs. If he told them he’d let them go to PC bangs so long as they just put their names in the club, they’d put their names on the list. Maru would have to talk to Taesik about it, sure, but he’d probably let it pass. It was against school rules, but they weren’t in the position to care about that.

“They’ll come for sure,” Dojin said, as he tried to allay their worries.

* * *

“What’s this?”

“Advertising slogan.”

Maru handed Geunseok a piece of paper, there were lines on it that Daemyung thought up. Geunseok seemed to think it was pretty childish, but the boy was reading through all of it regardless.

“At least three people. More is better, of course.”

“We’ll get three easily. All girls too.”

Geunseok was smiling confidently, the boy was quite a relief to have around. Personality aside, he was very handsome.

“I’ll do comedy with Daemyung. You should put weight behind our words.”

Geunseok nodded, Maru turned to Daemyung with a grin. The boy wrote the script, knowing full well what Geunseok’s personality was like.

“Alright, let’s go.”

Last year, they were the ones lulled into the club. This year, they were the ones left to advertise the club. They needed to drag in as many first years as possible, their first target was mechanical engineering. They opened the class door after a small knock, the teacher recognized them and motioned them in. Maru started his spiel as soon as he saw the teacher sitting down with arms crossed.

“Hello everyone, we’re the Blue Sky acting club of Woosung High.”

Might as well start off strong.

* * *

Maru asked a question as he closed the door behind him.

“Next?”

“Design.”

“Hah.”

Daemyung took a sip of water nervously, the boy still hadn’t built up any resistance towards girls. On the other hand, Geunseok stepped in front of the class with a confident look. They’ve done rounds on six classes so far. Mech, Electrical, Computer engineering. Those classes were all filled with boys, so the reactions they received were very uninteresting as well. When one of the students asked them, ‘are there any pretty seniors?’ all Maru could say was, ‘we’re about to get some pretty underclassmen’. As expected from an engineering school, they needed girls. Only now was Maru able to realize why Yoonjung and Danmi were the ones advertising way back then.

‘One girl is better than a hundred boys.’

That was the truth, at least to a normal highschool boy.

“Let’s crossdress.”

“W-what?”

“I’m joking.”

“Don’t speak so seriously, I almost fell for it.”

Maru pat Daemyung on the back before knocking on the next class door. Geunseok would need to do well here, especially considering his appearance and his conversational skills. Given that not many students even cared for acting nowadays, these were the only two things they could rely on.

“Come inside.”

They opened the door at the teacher’s words, the first years all awkwardly looked at the three of them.

‘So this year too, the boys are going to be slaves in the design class, huh.’

The ratio of girls to boys was eight to two. In cases like these, the boys were submissive under the girls. If the boys don’t understand or learn the politics between girls, they can often get chewed up to death before even knowing it. Only a select few boys here would be able to live out a happy high school life surrounded by girls. The rest? As mentioned before, slaves.

Maru gave Geunseok a glance. Already, most of the girls were looking at the boy.

“Hello, underclassmen.”

Geunseok stepped forward with a greeting, Maru and Daemyung stuck very closely behind him. Please don’t make a mistake, please don’t make a mistake… Daemyung’s plan here was very simple: a handsome boy, and the dumb and dumber. As Geunseok talked in front of them, they danced rhythmically with a silly face. They got good reactions, thankfully. The girls were smiling.

“Don’t worry about the guys behind me. They’re kind of like a signboard of the club.”

Geunseok went on according to Daemyung’s script. He was clean. This too, in the end, was acting. He commanded attention with his calm voice. Noticing that most of the class’s focus was on them now, Maru gave Daemyung a glance. Their silly faces were only there to loosen up the mood, they clearly didn’t need it anymore.

The two of them went back to looking serious. Geunseok started to explain about the specifics regarding the acting club. Some of the students frowned hearing that the club would be difficult, it was understandable. No one wanted to put time and effort into something difficult.

“But you can’t exchange the joy you feel on stage when you get applauded with anything else. You know the word ‘catharsis’, don’t you? The cathartic feeling you get then is unforgettable. You can’t exchange it with anything. The acting club is definitely difficult. But I can at least guarantee this. The one year you spend in our club will completely overshadow everything else about high school.”

Geunseok took a step back to breathe. As Maru expected, Geunseok was done here. The nervous air in the class was still there. Maru looked at Daemyung, the boy looked satisfied.

“…Point is, you definitely won’t lose out on anything as long as you’re serious about acting. The acting club’s clubroom is located on the fourth floor, right to the left of the central staircase. You can register until Saturday, so please drop by!”

It was very clean. As expected, Geunseok could be trusted with stuff like this. Daemyung started handing out papers about the club.

“Please take a look and come by if you’re interested. You don’t need to be pretty to be a good actor. You’ll be fine as long as you’re interested. I mean, just look at me!”

Daemyung smiled before saying his last line.

“Let’s make a play together.”

* * *

By the time they finished looking around, the fifth period was almost over. Maru came back to his seat in the class as he cracked his neck sideways.

“How was it?” Dojin asked.

Maru raised his thumb.

“I’m happy for now. I don’t know how they’ll react, but Daemyung was really good with setting things up. Geunseok did well, too.”

“I didn’t do much…” Daemyung smiled awkwardly.

“How are they, though?”

“Who?”

“The first years. Are they pretty?”

Maru looked at Dojin for a second before sending a text message to Iseul. Exactly a minute later, the girl appeared in their class with a smile on her face. Maru looked at the clock after taking care of Dojin, there were three hours before five o’clock. How many students would come to visit them after school?

“You idiot, you just love making work for yourself, don’t you?” Dowook said, flopping down on his desk.

Maru threw a pen at the boy.

“I wonder how many people will come,” Daemyung said nervously.

“There were like four or five people who were really interested, so maybe three?”

They got good responses from design and chemical engineering. They should get three. Hopefully.

Chapter 168

“The acting club, right?”

“The senior at the front was really handsome.”

“Tall, too.”

“Will it be fun?”

“Don’t know. But they said it was hard, right? A big time investment.”

“Hmm, maybe we should just go with something simple, after all?”

“Maybe.”

“Do you still want to visit? Acting sounds interesting.”

“Should we?”

The girls decided to give the acting club a visit after school. They weren’t interested in joining, but were curious enough to take a look. Acting. The girls wanted to see what this was all about.

“Lee Jiyoon, want to come with?”

The girls turned to look at Jiyoon, who was sitting quietly next to the window. They’ve grown acquainted with one another during their week together. By now, everyone had some sort of an idea of what each other were like. Girls who were tomboyish, girls who were talkative, girls who liked to talk behind other people’s back. According to this metric, Jiyoon was classified as the ‘quiet girl’.

“Me too?” Jiyoon whispered.

The girls surrounded the girl with a grin, Jiyoon widened her eyes in surprise. She looked more like a baby than a high school student right now. Her cheeks were round and soft-looking, and her eyes were large. Combined with her tiny figure and her bobbed hair, she was already being called ‘round’ within the class.

“Yeah, you. Are you busy?”

“No.”

Jiyoon shook her head sideways.

“Let’s go, then.”

The girl was just adorable, she was the type of person that made anyone want to care for her.

“I wish I had a sister like you, Jiyoon.”

“Someone I can go buy clothes with.”

“Hey hey, forget it. Siblings hate each other the moment they’re born. I’d rather… have a daughter like Jiyoon.”

Jiyoon looked down when the girls laughed amongst themselves, she must be embarrassed.

“Hey hey Jiyoon, mom’ll treat you well, so will you be my daughter?”

Jiyoon shook her head, making the girls all laugh loudly.

“Oh, class is about to begin.”

They all collectively returned to their seats after looking at the clock.

* * *

Jiyoon put the paper down on the desk, she rubbed the words ‘acting club’ on it carefully. She could feel the texture of the hard paper under her fingers.

‘This is… that acting club.’

Jiyoon saw a play in the civic hall with her friends at Anyang last December. She wasn’t interested in acting, it was just that her friend’s sister was acting and she couldn’t refuse her friend’s request.

The weather was pretty cold, she remembered.

Her friend had brought a ton more friends with her, Jiyoon honestly wasn’t a big fan of the loud noise. She stayed in the end because her friend had asked to watch the play. Thankfully, she didn’t have to stay long, since her friend’s sister’s play was up first.

- There are so many people.

- Eh! I know that person! I saw him on TV!

- Me too, me too!

It was an odd feeling. She heard it was a high school competition, but there were so many people. Were they all like this? Jiyoon held her breath as the play started. She was at the furthest seat from the theater, so she couldn’t look at the actor’s faces, but that no longer bothered her by the end. Looking at the people go back and forth on stage, watching people who weren’t much older than her act like that… was pretty amazing to behold.

Every time the light went off and the music switched, a change happened on stage. Jiyoon couldn’t stop her jaw from dropping every time. It was a completely different experience from watching a movie. She found herself watching the stage nervously. She clapped in joy when a scene completed perfectly, she gripped her fist tightly whenever the actors made a mistake. By the time the play was over, she was completely exhausted.

- Cool, the play’s over. Let’s go, guys. I’ll get you something tasty.

When Jiyoon’s friend left with everyone else, Jiyoon headed back inside. She figured that they might just forget she was there. Plus, she didn’t want this excitement in her chest to leave. She sat down quietly at the end of the theater. She wanted to go to the front, but she couldn’t see any seats open. The lights went off quickly and the play began. Which play was next? As she looked at the stage, she couldn’t help but notice the name ‘Woosung Engineering High’ appear. She was shocked, that was the school she was supposed to be going to. She sat there feeling an odd sense of nervousness. Right then, she saw two grandpas behind her. She did notice there were empty seats, but she still asked them if they needed a seat.

- I’m fine.

The grandpa spoke with a very kind voice, Jiyoon nodded and looked forward. The play was starting. From the very beginning, it made her laugh. To begin with, she was a fan of comedies rather than tragedies.

‘Amazing.’

Were they not nervous? It wasn’t just one or two people watching here. The actors made no mistakes under everyone’s watchful gaze, Jiyoon flinched in shock when she tried to imagine herself on the stage for a second. Just imagining it was this difficult. How bad was it to actually be on stage? It was amazing. She put her hands together as she watched the play, she had no idea plays could be so fun. It was so breathtaking, she literally forgot to breathe at one point as she watched the play go on.

Right then, the lights suddenly turned blue. A new character popped out on stage, he literally popped out. The man jumped to center stage, threw his hat upwards and caught it before finally introducing himself. She was wondering what he would do. As a matter of fact, she was incredibly surprised to find that the man was talking straight to the audience.

He was so natural at it that Jiyoon almost thought the play was over, but it wasn’t. The man on stage was reviewing the other actors with a very playful voice. Jiyoon couldn’t help but think back to the kid’s play she saw a few years back. A monster wearing a very scary mask came up on stage and a pretty lady stepped up with a microphone as well.

- Kids! If we want to punish this bad monster, we’ll need your strength! Let’s call for a hero who can save our princess here!

She looked for a hero as she sobbed, she still remembered this moment because her mom always teased her about it.

Looking at the man on stage right now reminded her of the woman from back then. An actor who was in the play, but who also wasn’t in the play. Though she couldn’t see the man’s face, she was sure he was smiling right now.

If only she could see at the front…

In a flash, the man vanished behind the curtain. Again, the story returned to the people. The story continued as naturally as it stopped.

“An energetic kid.”

She could hear one of the grandpas behind her say. She couldn’t see them well, but it was the one with the big beard. They were talking so quietly behind her, that she could barely make out their names. Chulmin and Moonjoong. In any case, Jiyoon could only agree to what that grandpa said. She couldn’t describe it well, but the man on stage was energetic for sure.

“Hah, stop dozing off and open your books.”

Jiyoon snapped her head upwards. When did her teacher come inside? She hurriedly pulled out a textbook from her desk. Sixth period was hanja.

“Why does that teacher look so tired?”

“I heard he just got back after sick leave.”

“Really? Is he sick?”

She could hear her friends talk next to her. Hearing that, she felt a little sorry for the hanja teacher. Was he sick?

“Hah.”

His throat seemed to hurt as well. Oh man, what should she do? She was so worried.

“No, I heard from a senior that he just messed up in school politics.”

“Politics?”

“Yeah. I don’t know the specifics, but he isn’t a great teacher. The senior told me he wouldn’t be surprised if the guy gets fired.”

“Really?”

Right then, the hanja teacher turned around and threw a textbook at the talking kids. The textbook bounced off a desk before hitting someone. Problem was, the book came flying at Jiyoon.

“Which idiot thought it was a good idea to talk during class, huh?!”

The teacher yelled with a scary glare, Jiyoon swallowed nervously. The man looked scary.

“Kids these days…”

The teacher was walking towards her, Jiyoon was just frozen there on the spot. The teacher kicked her desk with a big frown.

“Pick it up, dumbass. Are you trying to make me pick it up, huh?”

“Ah, yes.”

Jiyoon picked up the book and gave it to the hanja teacher. The teacher clicked his tongue before slapping Jiyoon’s head with the book.

“Kids these days… You just don’t have respect for your teachers. You always twist teachers’ pure intentions into something evil. Because of you…”

Jiyoon clenched her eyes. The book came at her again. Slap. It kind of hurt.

“Sit down!”

“…Yes.”

“Go sue me for violence again, why don’t you.”

The hanja teacher stomped back to the blackboard. Jiyoon had to hide her trembling hands under her desk, she almost cried.

“Hey!”

A shout came her way as she tried to calm herself, Jiyoon raised her head in surprise. The teacher was glaring at her again.

“Pay attention. Don’t look down like an idiot.”

Jiyoon tensed up nervously. If only she had more bravery here… If only she could tell him she wasn’t the one that talked.

Right then, a piece of paper floated in front of her. When she turned to look next to her, she could see the friend that was talking a few minutes ago looking at her worriedly. She paid attention to the teacher as she opened the paper. It was written ‘I’m really sorry’ inside. Jiyoon shook her head. They did nothing wrong. She was just angry that she didn’t have the courage to speak up for herself.

“Pictographs are…”

The hanja teacher’s lecture resumed. Jiyoon looked at the blackboard with reddened eyes.

* * *

“Ugh, so annoying.”

“You call that a teacher?”

Jiyoon told her friends to stop with an awkward smile. It’s already in the past, she didn’t want to think about it. Plus, talking about it more only made her ashamed of her cowardice.

‘If only I was a bit braver… ’

Round. Kind. All words she had heard from her childhood, she wasn’t a fan of hearing them. When her cousin cried for her doll, she gave it despite her utmost reluctance. She did it because she was fearful of what the adults might say. What she heard after giving away the doll was ‘Jiyoon’s such an adult.’ She didn’t like hearing that either.

“Alright, fine. I’m buying tteokbokki for Jiyoon today!”

“Really?”

“Just for Jiyoon. You guys pay for yourselves.”

“Ugh, you cheapo.”

Thankfully, she felt calmer next to her friends. They walked up to the fourth floor through the central staircase. When they turned left, they found quite a few people. The classroom next to the staircase was marked with the words ‘Acting Club’.

‘So this is it!!’

She could feel the play from back in December come back to life in front of her, she tried to step forward towards the club before her friends.

“What the hell are you doing, blocking the road!”

Jiyoon flinched backwards, the hanja teacher was walking towards them with an angry frown. As soon as he took out his little whip, the people around the clubroom all disappeared. Jiyoon moved a bit slower out of fear, that must’ve looked annoying to the hanja teacher.

“You… from the morning, right?”

Oh dear. Jiyoon didn’t know what to do, her friends were looking at her nervously from nearby. She didn’t feel annoyed that her friends weren’t standing up for her, the hanja teacher was that scary.

“Acting club. Barbaric bastards. You’re thinking of joining? I knew it. You just looked like a delinquent.”

The teacher was walking towards her, brandishing his weapon viciously. Jiyoon couldn’t even move away. She just stood there fearfully as the teacher came closer.

By the time the sound of the whip got too close for comfort…

The door of the acting club opened and a boy walked out. He looked at the hanja teacher for a second before turning to her and scratched his eyebrows. Jiyoon recognized this person, one of the three boys from the morning, the one who stayed quiet.

Before the hanja teacher was able to say anything, the boy started whispering something into the teacher’s ear. Jiyoon was able to hear the voices thanks to being so close. The boy’s words were short. Something about a Lawyer Park? The color on the hanja teacher’s face drained from shock, the man quickly turned from a scary hunter to a scared victim.

“H-how do you…”

“Let’s keep things civil, shall we? Unless, if you want to lose your pension, do you?”

She could clearly hear that last bit for sure. The hanja teacher took a few steps backwards before practically running down the stairs, the students who had walked away previously all gathered back curiously.

“Hm, are you guys all thinking about joining? That would be nice.”

The senior spoke as if nothing had happened.

Chapter 169

“Alright, raise your hands if you’re here to look into the acting club.”

Most of the students raised their hands at the senior’s words, Jiyoon quickly joined in as well.

“Around 15 people, huh? Thank you all for coming. I was worried that no one would come.”

The senior stepped back before coming out with some yakult in his hands, he handed one out to each of the students.

“Would you all come inside, please? It’s a bit small, your understanding would be appreciated.”

The door of the clubroom opened, revealing what was inside. The first thing Jiyoon saw was a steel shelf, there were all sorts of stuff laid on it. A pretty lantern, a massive dice, a set of knives… a bottle of some sort? It was a collection of all sorts of odd things.

“Try not to step on each other.”

Jiyoon walked inside at the senior’s gesture. It was small indeed, barely enough space for the 15 people that were inside. Jiyoon looked to the left of her, there were a bunch of clothes that were wrapped in plastic. Next to the tower of clothes was a hanger rack, which had clothes all over it as well. They probably had more than a hundred, now that she looked at it. Hanbok… suits… dresses… even a Chinese dress. Qipao, was it?

“Good thing it’s not summer, at the very least. Alright, let me explain what the club’s about. Obviously it must be about acting, right?”

The senior took out a large book. Inside it, there were a ton of photos.

“The acting club is 13 years old. A lot of seniors have come and gone through this place already. If you join this club, you’ll be the 14th generation of the club.”

The senior took out a different album. In this one, he was in the picture as well. There were other seniors holding hammers, ones in makeup, ones acting, et cetera. He handed out each album to the underclassmen.

“Take a look while you listen. The acting club has a set purpose. That is, to win the summer and winter nationals.”

“There are competitions?”

The senior nodded.

“You probably don’t know this, but there are a ton of acting competitions out there. The biggest ones are the summer nationals and winter nationals as I’ve just mentioned. Each province holds its own preliminaries and the winners of those, compete. You guys heard about the Seoul Arts Center, right?”

“Yes.”

Jiyoon responded here as well.

“That's the stage for the finalists. We managed to go there last year, too. I didn’t get to participate, unfortunately.”

The senior showed them the pictures of last year’s competition, there were a lot of photos taken in the Seoul Arts Center. In the middle of the seniors with makeup on, Jiyoon noticed one wearing a cast on his leg. It was the one who was talking to them now, he must’ve been unable to participate because of that injury.

“Since we’re aiming for such a big competition, we can’t just sit idly by like some other clubs. While other clubs meet like twice a week, we’ll be meeting basically every day.”

“Every day?”

“Yes.”

“Then the weekends…”

“They might as well not exist when a competition nears. We might even practice till night starting from the morning.”

The room turned a little awkward, Jiyoon was a bit surprised too. She knew that she’d need to invest a lot of time into the club, but even the weekends?

“The weekends are a bit…”

“Right?”

She could hear her friends whispering behind her. Jiyoon turned to look at the senior for a second, the senior was smiling with eyes that seemed to say that he expected as much.

“Of course, you’re free to join casually. Plays aren’t made through just actors, after all. We do need staff members that can make props. Joining in as a stage manager is one of the ways you can contribute if you’re short on time. I used to be a stage manager myself before Autumn. You get a lot more time to yourself that way. You don’t even need to come during the weekends.”

“But um… you’d need to practice a lot in order to act, right?” One of the girls whispered.

Jiyoon was curious about the answer here as well.

“If you want to participate as an actor, you’ll need to invest a lot of time, as I’ve mentioned. You can make props by yourself, but you can’t act in a play by yourself. The reality is that time investment is necessary.”

The senior crossed his arms before sighing lightly.

“It’ll be good to make things clear now, so might as well. We don’t have an instructor yet, but once we do, you’ll have a lot less free time. Depending on the instructor, you might even get strained both mentally and physically. The one from last year made us stretch for at least an hour before going into practice. She made us exercise a lot, too. We did get pretty nice bodies thanks to that, but it wasn’t easy.”

The senior fiddled with his eyebrow before smiling awkwardly.

“It’d be terrific if you all joined, of course. Clubs need people, after all. But people feel stressed when they end up doing something they didn’t think they would do. Plays are fun from the perspective of an audience. Has anyone here watched a play before?”

A few of the underclassmen raised their hands, Jiyoon raised hers after a moment of hesitation as well.

“Quite a few. How was it?”

The senior asked the question to one of the boys at the front. The boy paused for a moment before responding ‘it was fun’.

“Sorry for the sudden question. But at least I got the answer I wanted. Plays are fun to watch. Because unlike movies, you’re physically close to the actors in plays. When we watch movies, we don’t much care for the present since we know that an actor isn’t going to make a mistake. We just think about what’s going to happen next. Because obviously, movies are edited almost to the point of perfection.”

The senior put his hands together in front of him gently.

“I’m not saying plays aren’t perfect. But unlike movies, plays take place in real-time. There’s a chance that the actors could make a mistake. That’s what makes plays fun. Having your heart strain a bit in nervousness as you watch.”

Jiyoon found herself nodding, he was right; she remembered watching the play with a strange sense of nervousness from back then.

“There’s also the matter of focus. We watch movies from the perspective of the director. We aren’t watching what we want to watch, we’re watching what we’re shown. Plays are different. It’s up to the audience what they want to watch in the play. The light might be focused on the main character, but the audience may always choose to keep their attention focused on the villain in the shadows instead.”

“Ah.”

They all nodded in understanding.

“Plays are very fun. But fun things come at a cost, as you might all know. It costs someone else’s effort. I’ll say this again. We need people who can put in the effort. It doesn’t matter if the results are good or bad. All I hope is that we try hard getting there in the end.”

The senior sounded as kind and gentle as ever, but his words had weight to them. The underclassmen all closed their mouths and looked at the senior. Looking at him now, he looked kind of strict. He was talking gently, but his face looked a little bit scary.

“If you’re thinking about joining the club, please understand this. The club will be difficult. It might not even be fun. So think about it carefully. It’d be very troublesome if you think about leaving midway.”

The senior clapped his hands and relaxed his posture a bit, that alone was enough to make him look completely different. He already looked much kinder than before.

“Though I say this, I’m actually pretty worried. Hopefully at least a few of you get in.”

Right then, the door of the club room opened and the other seniors walked in. The tall handsome one and the plump one.

“We’re a bit late. Hello, hello.”

The tall senior spoke with a big grin, he seemed like a cold person to Jiyoon in the beginning. Judging by his smile, that didn’t seem to be the case. The plump senior was the same as ever though, he was smiling behind the tall senior quietly.

“Did you already hear about the club?”

“Yes.”

“How was it?”

The students started speaking one by one after a moment of silence.

“Hm, I think it might be fun.”

“It might be difficult.”

“Does it really take that much time?”

“I want to know how you guys practice.”

The tall senior nodded before sticking out his hand, he was holding a bag full of snacks. He was probably late from going to the convenience store.

“Why don’t we talk over some food?”

Everyone nodded at the sound of the plastic bag. Jiyoon was a bit excited, she might even be able to ask a few questions herself.

“Let’s go to the class next to this one, then.”

They walked over to one of the third year classes near the club. Since school was over already, there was no one inside. The desks and the chairs were all moved to the back of the class. Probably done by the seniors here beforehand.

“You can ask whatever you want. Private, public, whatever.”

The senior who had been talking all this time closed his mouth when the tall senior stepped in, the tall one must be the president of the club.

“Is becoming an actor difficult?”

The tall senior replied to the question.

“It’s different for everybody, but not really. You know what it’s like memorizing a textbook when you take a test, right? You just have to memorize a bit less than that.”

“But the senior from before said it’d be difficult…”

The tall senior clicked his tongue at the calm-looking senior lightly. Jiyoon only managed to hear it because she was near the two.

“It must’ve been too difficult for him. Like I said, it differs per person.”

“Is that so?”

“Of course.”

“Um, senior. I heard the club meets pretty often. How many times per week?”

The tall senior answered the question again.

“Almost every day last year. But think about it. How efficient would that be in reality? I think it’s obvious that the talented practice less, and the talentless practice a lot. Don’t worry about the time. I’m thinking of lessening practice time greatly.”

Completely different from what the other senior just said, Jiyoon was a bit confused. As a matter of fact, she could see the plump senior make a troubled expression. He seemed to want to say something, but the calm looking senior was stopping him.

“Plays are led by talented actors. The others just need to pay attention to the set. We’ll be able to put on the play after just a few practice sessions. Don’t worry too much about it.”

“Could I be a main character too?”

One of the clown-like kids raised his hand with a grin. The tall senior just responded with a ‘if you have talent’. Jiyoon could feel a ton of pride from him. Was he the leader of the club?

“Which one of you is the best at acting?”

Jiyoon could feel her cheeks get red, she couldn’t believe someone could ask such a question.

“Mm, I don’t know if I want to answer the question myself.”

The tall senior looked back, prompting the calm looking one to talk.

“Geunseok. That is, this tall guy over here’s the best at acting out of all of us. There’s a lot to be learned from him.”

“Wow.”

Everyone turned to look at the tall senior, no, Geunseok. Jiyoon thought back at the play she saw in December. The person who took center stage back then… That must be him, then?

‘So this one… ’

Jiyoon looked at Geunseok curiously, their eyes ended up meeting as a result.

“You have a question?”

“What?”

Jiyoon was surprised at the sudden attention, everyone was looking at her suddenly. She could even feel her heart start to beat faster, it felt like she couldn’t say no.

“U-um.”

“Go on.”

“C-can I act, e-even though I’m introverted?”

She immediately looked down nervously, her face was super hot.

“Mm, it’ll probably be difficult to make it as an actor, logically speaking.”

Geunseok replied without holding back. Jiyoon let out an ‘ah’ of understanding. She asked a stupid question.

“Next?”

They all looked away from her. She was still nervous, she shouldn’t even have thought about acting. She got up first to leave, it felt like she could change something with a bit more bravery, but she couldn’t do anything. She stepped outside to take a breather. Just before she could step back inside, the calm-looking senior stepped outside.

“Being introverted means that you’re more sensitive. That you have more tender emotions than most people.”

“………”

“That might work to your advantage. Personality isn’t what’s important when it comes to acting. It’s greed. It’s fine if you’re an introvert. That doesn’t matter in the end.”

The senior turned around with that. She only realized after a moment that he was trying to console her, his words did calm her down a bit.

“T-then, can I do it?”

“As long as you’re greedy for acting, then yes. Life is all about patience. Ah, I’ll have to admit though, talent does matter.”

He wasn’t just being nice to her.

“Do you think I have talent?”

“Only one way to find out, right?”

“C-can I try?”

The senior turned back around, he looked a little bit cold.

“That’s not my decision to make, but yours. Ask yourself that question, not others. The answer’s surprisingly easy. Keeping through with it is what really matters.”

Chapter 170

“The tteokbokki here is great, I’m telling you.”

Jiyoon followed her friend to a restaurant. It was a small one that was a bit of a way from school. The walls were decorated with childish drawings, it was a calming place.

“You’re surprisingly good at finding places like this.”

“Finding good restaurants is a responsibility of any good student!”

Jiyoon laughed along quietly with the rest of her friends, before ordering tteokbokki, kimbap, and instant noodles. Her friend suggested they pay in advance. Jiyoon quickly took out her wallet as well.

“You don’t have to pay, I told you I’d buy for you, remember?”

“But…”

“Just pay for my food next time. Alright, the rest of you, pay up.”

Jiyoon’s five friends paid up. Jiyoon tried to sneak in a thousand won, but her friend caught on and slapped her hand away. In the end, her bill was returned to her wallet.

“The acting club did look fun.”

“Oh, yeah. The album they showed had a ton of fun pictures. I wanted to join in!”

“Me too, me too.”

Their topic of conversation quickly shifted towards that of the acting club. Jiyoon picked up a steaming piece of rice cake as she listened in.

“But I don’t know about the time investment.”

“The handsome senior said they were going to lessen it, though?”

“Well, they’re still going to meet up more than other clubs, right? Going to school on the weekend… ugh.”

“Really? I think it might be pretty fun.”

“You’re thinking of joining?”

“Nope.”

“What the, I thought you would.”

“I’m just sharing my opinion.”

While her friends were giggling amongst themselves, Jiyoon took a small sip with a slight nod.

“Jiyoon, come on, say something.”

“Yeah, you’ve been quiet for a while now.”

Jiyoon smiled nervously when everyone suddenly started looking at her.

“Is the talk about the acting club boring?”

“No! Not at all…”

“Then why aren’t you talking? Are you bored?”

“…I couldn’t find the right time to jump in.”

She fumbled with her fingers as she talked, she didn’t dislike talking at all. In fact, she wanted to try gossiping really hard like all the other girls. The problem was that she never knew where to start.

“Couldn’t find the right time?”

“Yeahh.”

“Hah. Just talk. It’s not like you’re presenting.”

“Right, right.”

“But…”

She was like that from a young age. Whenever it was her turn to talk, her head would turn completely white. Not one of her friends made fun of her for it, but if she had bad friends… she didn’t even want to think about it.

“Ugh, you’re worried about something so pointless!”

“Hey, but it’s really like Jiyoon though! So cute!”

“So that’s why you’re quiet all the time?”

Jiyoon nodded, her friends laughed loudly around her.

“Then again, it’d be odd if Jiyoon suddenly started talking a lot.”

“Alright, I’ll talk more in her stead then!”

“You need to talk less. If you just talked a little less, you’d have a boyfriend already.”

“What the, you’re taking it there now? Do you have a boyfriend?”

“Our class doesn’t have any lookers. They’re all stupid!”

“I kind of get it. There’s four of them, and thirty of us. It’s only obvious that they’d feel self-conscious.”

The talk shifted over to boys. There were a total of 35 students in the second design class. 31 of them were girls, and 4 were guys. A week had already passed, but the boys couldn’t properly settle into the class. Their table started getting noisy again, so Jiyoon hid in all of the noise. She was happy with staying quiet for now. Her friends were talking about some of the handsome guys in class. But in the end, everything circled back to ‘there’s no one good in our class’.

“Come to think of it, that senior in the acting club was really handsome.”

“Tall, too.”

“He has a great body, too.”

“Oh my gosh, you pervert.”

Jiyoon thought of senior Geunseok. The one that was really confident as he talked.

“He’s kind of annoying though.”

“For sure.”

“He must think he’s a prince. 100%. Looking at him gesture at the other two to praise him was so irritating.”

They laughed for a bit before turning to Jiyoon again, Jiyoon widened her eyes like little plates.

“Jiyoon.”

“Yeah?”

“What do you think of that senior?”

“Me?”

“Just for fun. And also, maybe someone you like in class?”

Her friend handed her a spoon like a microphone, Jiyoon just bit her lips nervously.

“We’re not serious about it, so just answer as you please. Otherwise, it’s going to be too quiet.”

“Y-yeah.”

Jiyoon thought for a second before giving an honest answer.

“He’s probably really talented for sure. I mean, the other seniors did acknowledge as much.”

“That’s true. But what about his personality?”

“…E-everyone’s unique.”

“Oh? Look at you! You’re avoiding the question!“

Her friends grabbed her arms and started tickling her sides. Of all the weaknesses Jiyoon had, she hated getting tickled the most.

“I’ll talk!!”

She ended up squealing. Oh dear. She looked at the lady inside the kitchen with a flinch, the lady was looking at her with a small laugh. She was so embarrassed.

“The boys are all nice. But I don’t want to date anyone just yet.”

“Ohh, they’re nice, huh? Ms. Choi, what do you think?”

“Yes. It’s game over when a girl says a guy is nice! An even worse review than saying a guy is mean!”

Jiyoon closed her mouth with a slight frown.

“Alright, what about the three seniors, then?”

She tried to keep her silence, but a tiny jab on her sides caused her to raised the white flag. She really couldn’t handle tickles.

“They all seemed nice.”

She gave her friends a small glance after speaking. They were still glaring at her, they clearly didn’t like the answer.

“What if the tall one asked you out?”

Her friend suddenly asked the question. What the? She just sat there nervously, but her friend was only staring harder with an odd smile.

“Ooh, I want to hear this one.”

“Yeah, this one’s a must! How is it? Would you date him? Or will you reject him?”

She knew there were more tickles headed her way if she feigned ignorance. Her friends were creeping towards her, in fact. In the end, she answered honestly.

“I don’t want to date him.”

“Why?”

“…He doesn’t seem nice. W-well, that’s just my personal opinion. That might not be the case. N-no, not at all, actually. I’m sure he’s a good person.”

She was fumbling around endlessly, but her friends all nodded in understanding. She became sorry for that senior for no reason.

“Hoh. Finally, something bad coming from Jiyoon’s mouth.”

“So it’s confirmed! That senior is a bad person!”

Her friends were giggling, Jiyoon didn’t know what was going on. This was the first time she had such energetic friends in her life.

‘It’s not bad, though.’

Talking was still difficult and she didn’t like voicing her opinions, but she didn’t mind the noise. That’s because of her friends that were looking out for her.

“Are you guys going into the acting club, by the way?”

Her friends all simultaneously answered “no”. Jiyoon refrained from answering.

“Eh? Jiyoon, are you thinking about going in?”

“Really?”

Jiyoon shook her head, she didn’t make a decision yet. She did want to get on stage, but she was afraid of the amount of work she’d have to put in.

“Just do it. I’ll cheer you on.”

“Me too!”

She felt like courage swelling up inside her from her friends’ words. At the same time, she thought of something the other senior said.

- Ask yourself the question instead of others.

Did she really want to act? Jiyoon started pondering on the question seriously.

* * *

By the time they put the chairs and desks back in place, it was already 6 o’clock.

“Thank goodness so many people came.”

“15’s definitely a good sign. I think we’ll get 3 members for sure.”

It was a relief so many people came. It was still a mystery how many of them would join, but this at least meant that they had a chance.

“By the way, Maru.”

“Yeah?”

“Why didn’t you become the president? I heard from Joonghyuk that you were the first to be offered the position.”

“Oh, that?”

“Wouldn’t that have been better? I mean, Geunseok’s not bad, but…”

“I don’t want extra responsibility that comes with no benefits. It’s not like being a president gives you a ton of power. Plus, jobs like those are best taken by the people who want them.”

“A typical Maru response. But it just felt like Geunseok wanted to do whatever he wanted.”

“What’s so bad about that?”

“He said he was going to shorten practice time. He was also beating some of the students down before they even joined.”

Daemyung definitely must’ve gotten bad vibes, considering how seldomly he talked badly about people. Maru understood completely, Geunseok did say some pretty harmful things a while ago.

“But you can’t say he’s wrong.”

“………”

“Plus, if they got discouraged from joining from just that… It’s better that they don’t come.”

“Aren’t you being too cold?”

“Did you ever see me being kind?”

They stepped out of the classroom after tidying things up, Daemyung walked next to him after he grabbed his bag.

“Are you really fine with shorter practice times?”

“That’s up to the instructor to decide. It’s not something Geunseok can change.”

“But that’s what he said he’d do.”

“I’m sure president Hong can take care of it.”

Daemyung stopped Maru in his path as he yawned, the boy seemed agitated.

“Aren’t you a bit too calm about this?”

“About what?”

“Geunseok’s changing the rules however he wants.”

“Rules? We had rules?”

“No, traditions! Yeah, traditions.”

“If raising morale by staying together for a long time is just tradition, then it might be better for Geunseok to get rid of it. He didn’t say anything wrong.”

“That’s true, but…”

Daemyung frowned sadly. Maru thought about giving the boy a chance to think it through on his own, but felt he couldn’t leave it at that.

“Alright, I want to make something clear. You refused the offer to be president when it was handed to you, didn’t you?”

Joonghyuk offered Daemyung the presidency after the nationals and Daemyung refused. Maru didn’t know the reason, that was all he heard. Daemyung nodded slowly.

“I understand what you’re worried about. But I think it’s rather stupid that you’re trying to have your way, especially when you avoided the responsibility when given the chance.”

“I just… want the acting club to turn out well.”

Daemyung dropped his shoulders. What a nice kid, he’d basically be perfect if he was a bit more confident in life. Sadly, it seemed that all god decided to give the boy was a passion for acting and nothing for his manliness.

“Do you dislike Geunseok?”

“Not really, but,”

Maru cut the boy off before he could talk.

“Be honest with me. Don’t try to speak about it in a roundabout way.”

“…Honestly, I was really disappointed with the way he was shifting the blame during the summer prelims. I know some things happened afterwards and that he’s really good at acting. I know he’s talented, but I don’t really like him.”

“Then what should you do?”

“Eh?”

Maru scratched his eyebrows. High schoolers were at an age where they could start figuring things out about a person, they were at an age where they could start to detect problems like an adult. But what about the next step?

“If you don’t like Geunseok and his way of doing things, shouldn’t you have a vision about what you want to do yourself? If you just complain without having a plan in mind, you might as well be a child. It’s fine that you dislike his ways. But what about it? Are you going to tell him to leave?”

“That’s not right.”

“Then what?”

“…Praise him the right way?”

“Bingo.”

A smart lad indeed, Daemyung was following him well.

“Let Geunseok do what he wants. He’s not dumb either, so he won’t go too far. He was just saying stuff to make himself look good, not to flip over the club completely. I’m sure he’s not really thinking that.”

There was a kid begging for praises. If you praise him, he does a good job. If you complain about him, he gets angry and blames you. What should you do in that situation? Do you get angry at the kid? No, that’s a waste of both time and energy. There’s one thing you should do, praise him. Praise him to work harder and better, then the kid would work hard. All that’s left is to watch him from the back and reap the results.

“You’re right, but I don’t really like that method. It feels like… I’m looking down on him. I don’t like Geunseok, but… Ah, I don’t know. I can’t explain it.”

Daemyung’s lips curled downwards.

“Would you have done the same if I acted like Geunseok?”

“You wouldn’t do such a thing.”

“Just out of curiosity.”

Maru smiled. He already knew the answer.

“If you acted that way, I would’ve even gone to using my fists to make you come back to your senses. But I don’t care about Geunseok.”

Daemyung brightened in a flash. What an easy kid to read.

“Plus, you don’t have to worry about it. He’ll step up once the club activities start.”

“How do you know that?”

“Opportunists never do something that would so obviously harm themselves.”

Right then, they saw Geunseok walk up to them from the other side. Maru whispered to Daemyung quietly.

“Old sayings are almost always right. Think about what it means to give rice cake to someone you hate.”

Daemyung nodded.

“You guys aren’t leaving?”

“We are.”

Maru looked at the club sign one more time before turning away.

Chapter 171

“Alright, see ya.”

“See you.”

Maru pedalled towards the market on his bike. The two of them used to hang out with Dojin after school all the time, but nowadays it was a lot harder to catch a glimpse of the boy. It looked like he chose to continue working part-time at Iseul’s store even after school started. Something about him volunteering to help when Iseul’s dad became sick? It looked like Iseul “gave up” under his persistence, she did look incredibly happy about it though. In any case, Daemyung started riding the bus home by him lonesome because of it. He said he was fine, but he did seem pretty lonely.

Maru bought some pork belly, lettuce, and perilla leaves from the market according to Bada’s request.

‘I wonder what would happen if my relationship with Bada keeps going like this.’

In the future, his sister divorces. He doesn’t remember much about her, but he knew at least that much. His past self barely ever talked with his sister, to the point where he only learned of this information through his parents. Divorces are like a world-shaking event to a family. They do happen surprisingly frequently in the modern age, but it didn’t make it any less difficult to deal with. Maru thought the fault was with himself. Just how untrustworthy did he seem to her, if she didn’t even bother contacting him?

‘Troubles persist.’

He’s gotten closer with his sister, he managed to meet ‘her’ several years earlier than they originally had, he made new relationships and broke old ones, things no longer follow their original path. They say even a flap of a butterfly’s wings could turn into a storm on the other side of the planet. How would these changes in the past affect the future?

Of course, Maru came to a conclusion about this already. He wouldn’t know until that moment actually came. In the end, the train of life never informs you of your stop before your arrival. This was both terrifying, but it was also a sign that there was an infinite number of possibilities he could choose from. Possibilities that differ from being something other than just a simple bus driver.

“Can’t help but be worried about it.”

Maru spoke to himself after parking his bike next to the apartment. He knew the answer already. Although he wouldn’t know until it actually happened, he just couldn’t help but be nervous because he already knew one of the numerous futures. One of those futures was about Geunseok, he never recalled seeing Geunseok being an actor in the future. Perhaps the actor ‘Geunseok’ existed, but he just didn’t hear about it. That possibility immediately disappeared when he recalled Geunsoo’s interview. The man mentioned his younger brother to be a normal office worker in the interview.

Right now in the present, Geunseok made a deal with Junmin. He’d be going into university as long as things go well. Objectively speaking, the boy was good at acting. Good actors sucked you into their world. Geunseok wasn’t that great, but at least he wasn’t awkward. He didn’t suck you into his own world, but at least he managed to act in his own world perfectly.

Junmin did make it clear back then, the man wasn’t doing charity work. Junmin probably was a fan of the idea of signing two famous actor brothers. If Geunseok just stayed on this path and debuted in a decent film, he would make a good actor… so why did the boy become an office worker? Maru thought of the past as he walked upstairs.

‘Is it me?’

During the summer competition, the boy made a terrible mistake, which cost them their chance at the nationals. The acting club afterwards was a total piece of work, everyone was just busy licking each other’s wounds. Everyone knew that something was wrong with the club, but no one wanted to admit it. That’s when Maru sacrificed himself for the sake of the club. He wasn’t interested in acting and he didn’t care even if they talked behind his back. If he really did care, he would’ve dealt with the situation in another way.

In any case, things finished off well enough. The acting club got together once they had a common enemy, they then went to the college competition and claimed victory. Geunseok regained his confidence and the acting club, its energy. If Maru didn’t get involved then… Geunseok was a kid who only sought compliments. Would the boy have been able to take it if he could only watch as the club crumbled to the ground because of him? Geunsoo told Maru before that Geunseok fell apart after getting a bad grade for the first time, the boy probably hated being in the club back then.

That’s probably when he gave up. To save his pride, he might’ve just switched over to studying instead. It made sense, Maru nodded to himself as he opened the door. His sister said something to him as he walked in, he couldn’t hear her. He briefly greeted her as he threw his bag into his room.

‘There’s a chance that Geunseok becomes an actor.’

Was this a good thing? Maru couldn’t tell right now, but he would be impacting the future greatly if Geunseok ends up becoming famous because of this.

‘No, no.’

The woman who introduced herself as an angel said that there were multiple timelines. Just as how Maru may be alive in this timeline, there exists another timeline where Maru was dead. Then “changing the future” wasn’t the right term to use here, only Maru knew of the future where Geunseok doesn’t become an actor. Since the future was still a realm of the unknown, it might be better to say he was just “suggesting” a possibility.

A person’s action can change a person’s future completely, Maru thought back on how much he’s influenced other people thus far. He did have several advantages compared to others. His knowledge, experience, and the abilities god gave him. Using these would give him more possibilities to choose from for sure.

That’s when he thought. Was it okay to live like this? There were definitely people whose lives were influenced by Maru. Most of the time, he’s only worked to push people around him in the right direction. But what if this was the wrong thing to do?

‘There were no issues when I just thought about myself either.’

When Maru was working hard for his family’s safety and his own success, he didn’t even have the time to think about things like this. With more time on his hands now, his mind drifted towards more ‘useless’ subjects. Sadly, they weren’t issues he could just ignore either. He knew god existed and he knew that this god cared about stuff like this. He didn’t want to get punished after death for screwing over other people’s lives.

This was the reason why Maru started looking into churches and temples as of late. He used to believe that religion was a product of a lack of knowledge, but now that he knew god did exist… Should he just worship all of the gods he could find?

“Hah.”

He didn’t know what to do, he was kind of amazed that he was able to go through high school without thinking in his past life. Maru grabbed his book, shedding away all other thoughts. ‘Twilight Struggles’. Reading it made him distrust humans quite a bit, which was annoying, but at least the book provided something to focus on. Just as he opened the first page of the book, he heard the door to his room open. Come to think of it, it was dinnertime. His parents went down south to commemorate his maternal grandmother’s death. They said they’d come back in the morning, so dinner was up to the two of them.

“I’ll cook some meat for you, so just hold on.”

That was when Maru remembered the pork belly inside his bag. If he washes the lettuce and perilla leaves and makes doenjang soup…

“Alright, I’ll leave it to you, then.”

The voice that came from behind him wasn’t Bada’s, Maru turned around with a surprised look. Gray shirt and jeans, it was ‘her’. Maru blinked a few times. Was he dreaming? What was happening?

“What are you doing? Bada’s hungry, you know.”

“Brooo! Meat! Meat!”

He could hear Bada outside, he wasn’t dreaming. He got up from his chair awkwardly, she stepped towards him lightly.

“Why are you looking so dumb?”

“This is our house, right?”

“Yeah.”

“So why…”

“Broo! Meat!”

Bada’s voice was getting louder by the second. For now, he walked out to the kitchen with her. What in the world was happening? She was acting like she totally owned the place.

“I asked her to come.”

Bada’s explanation was all he needed to understand, he still didn’t get it though. Were these two always this close? They were acting practically like sisters. She continued to explain what was happening.

“You remember that fruit basket you gave me?”

“Oh, that?”

“Mom said it’d be rude to just take something like that without giving anything back.”

She pointed her finger towards the sink, there was a pot he hadn’t seen before. Inside, he found beef rib stew.

“My mom’s really good at making beef ribs.”

‘Ah, I know.’

Maru was still in a state of shock. He wanted to ask a lot more questions, but for now, he started grilling meat for his hungry sister.

“You came to give us that? How did you know I even lived here?”

“I was calling Bada. She asked me to come, so I did.”

“Mom and dad aren’t here, so I told her to come. I did a good job, right?”

His sister grinned playfully. Since when was the girl this cute? He should really increase her allowance. With that thought in mind, he warmed up some rice and set the soup to boil.

“You can cook?”

“Bro’s surprisingly good at cooking.” “That’s definitely a surprise.”

The two girls were whispering behind him, Maru shrugged as he seasoned the soup to taste. It was savory and salty, just as he liked it. He set up the table with the sizzling meat and the bubbling soup.

“Thanks for the meal.”

She smiled brightly after trying a spoon of the soup, Maru watched her eat silently for a second. It reminded him of their newly wed days. There were times when she asked him to feed her after a morning shoot. Whenever that happened, Maru just got her a simple toast with some salad.

“What are you looking at? Eat.”

Bada was staring at him, Maru nodded as he grabbed his spoon.

* * *

“I’ll take care of the dishes.”

“You’re our guest, so no way. Go play with Bada.”

She took a look back, Bada was sitting in front of the television munching on some snacks.

“It’s a bit late, by the way. Don’t you need to go back?”

She looked at the clock at Maru’s words, it was a little over seven.

“It was an early dinner. I’m fine.”

“Call your mom, then. Tell her that you ate and you’ll be going back soon.”

Maru sounded a lot like a mother, she stuck her tongue at the boy before walking over to Bada.

“Sis.”

“Hmm?”

“Why are you going out with my brother?”

“You know, I don’t really know how I should respond to that.”

Why date? Well, because they liked each other. Why do they like each other? Well…

‘I guess it’s because he was so direct.’

He did come over to her house out of nowhere in winter to confess. He was very rude and irresponsible when he did it, but she didn’t hate that. What if someone other than him did the same thing? She might’ve rejected him on the spot.

“You’re going to get fat,” Maru said, walking towards the two of them.

Bada glared back at him, shouting ‘I’m not gonna get fat!’ She had to suppress laughter. These two were on very good terms, clearly.

“Come to think of it, I’m getting in the way of you two.”

Bada looked at the two of them with a grin, she couldn’t say anything from the sudden jab.

“If you know, then step outside for a bit. Care to buy us drinks?” Maru asked.

“Of course.”

She could only watch as Bada quickly slipped away with Maru’s money.

“You guys get along really well.”

“Money tends to solve most issues.”

Maru sat down next to her with mysterious words.

“Did you call your mom?”

“Ugh, don’t worry about it.”

“Do it before she gets worried. Any parent would get worried when their grown daughter goes to a boy’s home.”

“Fine, fine. You’re like an old lady, seriously.”

“You try getting old too. You’ll become like this in an instant.”

“You know we’re the same age, right?”

She took out her phone with a slight grin.

Chapter 172

“Yeah, I’ll be back soon.”

- Don’t be late.

“Mhm, okay.”

- Remember, anything more erotic than a kiss is reserved for adults.

“Mom!”

She felt her face heat up in embarrassment, especially because Maru was looking at her. She tried to hang up, but her mom asked to talk to Maru. What sorts of weird plots is her mom planning now?

“Mother, thank you for the beef ribs. We’ll enjoy it.”

Maru chimed in happily from the side, looking at him kind of made her annoyed for some reason.

“Take this.”

“Mm?”

“Mom wants to talk to you.”

“………”

Maru’s expression stiffened almost immediately. Oho. She nudged him more to take the call, the boy took her phone respectfully with both of his hands.

“Yes, mother. This is Maru.”

Maru got into a kneeling position as soon as he received the phone. It was such a refreshing sight, watching his anxious expression. It was nice having something fun to watch. As Maru continued the conversation, he kept nervously twitching or stretching around. She laughed out loudly from right next to him.

“Yes, I’ll come visit next time. Goodbye.”

Maru flopped down on the floor as if he just finished an important test.

“Come on, so nervous over just a single call?”

She poked Maru’s forehead with a finger. Maru fumbled upwards like a robot that got turned on.

“Mother’s still the same as ever.”

“Still?”

“…You don’t want to know.”

She narrowed her eyes at Maru.

“You know, sometimes it’s incredibly obvious that you’re trying to change the topic.”

“Really?”

“Yeah.”

“I’ll do better next time.”

“You’re just saying that.”

Maru sat down in front of the glass coffee table in the living room and rested his chin on it. He looked exhausted, even more so than when he cooked. “Did something tiring happen?”

“Mm?”

Maru looked at her with some confusion. Normally, he’d immediately say ‘no’ or make a joke, but today he missed a beat before he responded.

“Is it because you talked with mom?”

“No, not at all. That’s… well, that does take a lot of energy, but it doesn’t really tire me.”

“Then what? Now I feel sorry for dropping by while you’re so tired. I feel like I interrupted your rest.” “Interrupted? No way, I’m happy you came.”

Maru stood up, scratching his head. He looked like he was thinking about something. He was smiling, but every bit of her womanly senses told her that this was a fake smile.

“Something did happen, right?”

“Nothing. I’m just a bit exhausted with the seasons changing. Nothing you need to worry about.”

Maru was drawing a clear line here, she wasn’t a fan of that. Did Maru not trust her? Was that what this was? She pouted and glared at Maru angrily, he avoided her gaze with an awkward smile for a bit before finally raising his hand.

“I’m just a bit tired from all the things I’ve been thinking about. Nothing else is really going on.”

“Thinking about what?”

“You know, this and that.”

“So what’s this and what’s that?”

Maru scratched his eyebrows nervously, his lips were twitching a few times from how troubled he was. To think Maru who was always so positive and quick-thinking was hesitating like this… She got kind of scared. He said that things were okay, but maybe this was a super big issue? Right then, Maru finally opened his mouth.

“I’ve been thinking. About the people around me… and about what might happen in the future.”

Maru emphasized that this wasn’t anything serious. He didn’t look like he was lying, so for now she sighed in relief.

“Nothing’s wrong, right?”

“I swear to god, yes.”

“That’s fine, then. I really did think there was a problem for a second.”

“I wouldn’t hide anything if I needed to talk to you.”

That was a little embarrassing to hear, but it did calm her significantly. Probably because of how serious he looked.

“But in any case, you were worried because of the future?”

“It’s a bit more complicated than that, but yeah.”

“Ugh, you know, it’s not really time to think about that.”

“That’s why I said it wasn’t anything important. I just started thinking about this because I’ve been lying down daydreaming in the hospital for so long.”

“Daydreaming?”

“What, want to find out? It’s super perverted.”

Maru stepped closer to her with a perverse grin. She tried to do a neck slice to stop him, he dodged pretty quickly. Come to think of it, the boy never got hit by her.

“Hey.”

“What?”

“Let me hit you, just once.”

“What? Why?”

“You always dodge! I’m not that slow either.”

“Violence is bad, miss.”

“Is that so?”

An opening! She tried to poke Maru’s cheeks with her finger, Maru’s done this to her often already. Once again, they crossed empty air.

“…You’re making me feel oddly competitive.”

“Don’t get competitive over stuff like this…”

“You know it’s actually really annoying that I can’t tease you when you’re always teasing me, right?”

“Do you really have to get annoyed over something like that?”

“Let me poke you.”

“No.”

“Why?”

“Just because.”

She wanted to do it, at least just this once. She started jabbing at Maru relentlessly, she still wasn’t able to hand a single hit. Maru dodged all of her strikes with a smile on his face. She started this out of playfulness, but this was actually annoying her at this point.

“Stay still. Let me poke them just this once.”

“Were you always this perverted?”

Maru crossed his arms to cover up his chest, she felt her face heat up almost immediately. At the same time, she got angry again at getting teased again. So this is how you wanted to play it, huh? She stood up and jumped at Maru. He’ll probably dodge this one too, right?

But nope, Maru opened up his arms to catch her. She tried to jump back in surprise when she felt their bodies come together, but her center of mass already leaned towards Maru. Maru fell backwards, ending up in a sitting position. She only managed to maintain her balance by grabbing his shoulders. Her body, which was leaning forwards quite a bit, lowered slowly until she could kneel. She took a look at Maru’s smiling face once, her hands that were on his shoulders once, and his hands that were around her waist once.

“Y-y-you…”

“You’re light. You need to gain more weight.”

She felt Maru tighten his grip around her waist. What was he going to do? Right then, Maru lay down on his back.

“Woaaah!”

Her body was lifted up into the air, similar to the airplanes that her dad used to give her on in her childhood. She quickly put more strength into her hands on Maru’s shoulder to not fall forward.

“Normally I’d hold you up with my feet too, but I don’t think that’s really proper.”

“Hey!”

“This is kind of tiring, actually.”

“Ughh!”

She used one of her hands to twist Maru’s cheeks. Maru immediately said “ouch” very quietly as he loosened his grip on her. Thanks to their antics, they were closer than ever before. She couldn’t even open her mouth, Maru’s smiling face was right in front of her. She wanted to ask him what he was doing, but she was pretty sure her mouth still reeked of dinner. She couldn’t do anything here. So…

Bang.

She headbutt him, but this brought about an unexpected result. Instead of pushing her away, he hugged her tightly. Their chests met together and their cheeks touched together briefly. She could see the wooden floor in front of her, she could see the side of Maru’s face right next to hers as well. She could hear his entire body. His heartbeat, his breathing, and even his eyes closing, to an extent.

“Let’s… let’s just stay here like this for a bit.”

Maru was being up front. He wasn’t asking her to stay like this, not that he was giving her a choice to begin with. What should she do here? Should she get angry or should she just ask what he was doing? In the end, she opted for a pat on his head. Maru seemed very anxious today, everything from the way he spoke and the way he was acting just screamed anxiety. It felt like he was struggling hard with a problem.

Looking at that made her feel very sorry for him, she just wanted to hug him for a bit. She didn’t know why she felt this way, but she just did. Why did it feel like she’d been comforted the same way by this person at some day she couldn’t remember?

“Han Maru.”

“Yeah?”

“There’s a movie that I really like.”

“Which one?”

“Dead Poets Society.”

“Oh captain, my captain.”

She let out a small laugh, it was funny watching him say the line a bit seriously. She could feel the breath that Maru was letting out pass by her ear like a breeze.

“I really like the word carpe diem.”

“Carpe diem, huh.”

“I don’t know what you’re worried about. I can tell it’s no simple matter, though. But… if you waste away today just worrying about the future that’s yet to pass, I think you’ll regret it.”

She was able to talk about whatever that was in her heart when she was with Maru. She closed her mouth and slowly raised her body from Maru’s, the boy was looking at her from the floor.

“Do you know why I like you?”

She tilted her head at the sudden question.

“Why?”

“Because you can read me. You can read me oddly well.”

Maru slowly raised his hands around her neck. By the time she felt the warmth around her neck, her head slowly lowered. Maru was pulling her towards him. The distance between their lips were closing in. She gave up on resisting, looking at his smiling face. No, maybe Maru was just too strong for her. Her long hair draped all over Maru’s face. Just like reaching for a little spring amidst a forest of vines, she carefully reached for Maru’s lips.

And…

Beep beep beep. The apartment door opened.

“…Wowee.”

Bada made a small noise in surprise.

She wanted to cry.

No, she kind of wanted to pass out.

* * *

“Hah…”

“Don’t worry. I’ll talk to Bada.”

“What are you going to say?”

“That we’re going to get married.”

“…Oh my god. You’re crazy. I’m crazy.”

She got on the bus exhausted, Maru waved his hand towards her energetically. He couldn’t feel more refreshed than this. Though… she did look pretty tired right now. The moment he came back inside, Bada started questioning him about all sorts of things. He knew kids these days were pretty fast with stuff, but he didn’t know Bada was this knowledgeable about romance. None of his excuses worked, and in the end, the girl even cheered him on.

“I’ll keep it a secret from mom. Since I owe you a lot.”

“Oh, thank you so much.”

“Ahh, I want a boyfriend too.”

“You can date all you want in college.”

“Said the high schooler.”

“……”

He didn’t have a response for that.

“Ah, right, bro.”

“Yeah?”

“You know that older brother from before?”

“Who?”

“The one with the flying kick.”

“Dowook?”

“Yeah!”

She didn’t look normal. Before she could say anything more, Maru bolted for his room. He locked the door as soon as he got inside.

“Hey! Han Maru!”

She was shouting outside, Maru put his hands over his ears. This didn’t feel good. Dowook was handsome and he did save his sister once. Bada hated boredom and loved trying new things. Knowing that… he didn’t even want to think about it.

“Hey!”

Her normal personality was starting to come out. The moment things started to go badly for her, she changed immediately from ‘bro’ to ‘hey’. Maru wanted to put his foot down as an older brother, but he just didn’t want to talk to her today.

“Date in college!”

“What about you?!”

“Fine, I’m an asshole! Go away!”

“You don’t even know what I was trying to say!”

Maru ignored his sister as she twisted the doorknob and threw his body into the blanket. He’ll go to school at dawn tomorrow for sure.

Chapter 173

“Don’t start anything unruly, don’t sleep during lectures. Let’s start today off well as always. Class pres, come over here. I have something for you.”

Taesik’s brief morning announcement concluded. Despite what the homeroom teacher just said, the students all collapsed onto their desks as soon as he left.

“Quite a few students came yesterday, I heard?” Dojin asked, tossing Maru a piece of candy.

It was a grape flavored one today. Maru popped it into his mouth before responding.

“Fifteen.”

“That’s a lot. Three’s no problem then, right?”

“We’ll have to see, but yeah, I think so.”

Fifteen students came on the first day. They looked pretty impressed with the club, so Maru did have some expectations.

“I’ll help you guys out if you need props. Hit me up any time.”

“Was planning on it already.”

Everyone may have left the club, but their passions were still here. Taejoon and Soyeon also volunteered to help at any time.

“Hope we get someone talented.”

“Right.”

It’d be nice if they got someone who was very deeply interested in acting. Maybe about ten of them? With that that expectation in mind, Maru pulled out his textbook for first class.

* * *

“………”

The three members were speechless when they gathered at the club. It was 5:30pm, the first years were probably long gone from school already.

“No one came.”

Geunseok stepped outside to check one more time before coming back in, he had a frown on his face.

“What the heck? Why’d no one come?”

“How would I know?”

“You sure you didn’t say unnecessary stuff to them yesterday?”

“They needed to know that the club’s going to be hard. We don’t just play around all day, you know.”

“But what if no one comes because of that?”

“We don’t want people who are just looking to play, either.”

“Hey, don’t talk back to me like that. I’m the club president. What are you going to do if no one comes?”

Geunseok angrily picked up his bag from the floor, Daemyung hurriedly called out to the boy.

“Where are you going?!”

“They aren’t going to come anyway. I have a lesson today. You guys can take care of everything else.”

“But you’re the president like you said… If you aren’t here…”

“But there’s no one coming. What am I supposed to do?”

“Maybe we should think of the reason together?”

Geunseok put a hand over his head angrily as he opened the clubroom door.

“I’m busy, unlike you guys. You can think a bit yourselves. You know it’s your fault if no one comes, right? Han Maru?”

Geunseok left with just that. Daemyung sighed and turned to look at Maru.

“What do we do?”

“We’ll have to do something starting tomorrow, obviously.”

“Today?”

“You should go back yourself today. You’re supposed to be working on that scene with Mintae anyways.”

Mintae and Daemyung were working together on making a script recently. Daemyung was in charge of the main story, while Mintae and Maru were in charge of the refinement.

“What about you?”

“I’ll stay here for a bit longer as I clean up. Who knows, maybe someone will come.”

Daemyung stood up with a nod. With his time divided between practice with his coach, scriptwriting with Mintae, and working for the club… the boy had pitiful little time every day. Maru wanted to help the boy out a little bit.

“I’ll take it from here, so you go work hard on that script.”

“Got it. You should go back early as well. Let’s figure things out tomorrow.”

With that, Daemyung left as well. Maru took a look around the empty clubroom. In the past, there was so much stuff inside that only five people could squeeze in. Nowadays, fifteen people could easily sit in it. It was still a bit small in retrospect, but it felt quite spacious now that he was all alone. They worked hard with the mindset that they would make new memories in the coming year. But at this rate… memories be damned, the club might be disbanded altogether.

“I guess there’s no choice.”

He’ll have to find a few lazy kids and enlist them in the club. That should at least let them keep their clubroom, but they wouldn’t be able to participate in the nationals. With three people taking care of props, acting, and everything else… running a play was entirely impossible. They could manage at the cost of their spare time and their schoolwork would also suffer, it wasn’t a good method in the slightest.

‘Can’t advertise even more… ’

Teachers only allowed clubs to advertise once in their classes. Doing it again would mean that they’d have to approach the first years’ while they were on break, taking time away from them during their rest break wouldn’t be a good thing at all.

‘Guess we’ll have to throw out posters one more time.’

If he didn’t want to waste their time, posters were the way to go. He’ll probably have to hand them out using the student board with some chocolates attached. As Maru thought about a way to draw interest to the club, he turned to look at the window. He could see a little shadow on it, someone was trying to look inside.

‘Who is it?’

Maru opened the clubroom door with a creak.

“O-oh!”

The male student in front of the door stepped back in surprise. He was a very short individual, no taller than 155cm, the boy only stood up to Maru’s chest. He had a poster on his hand, the one for the acting club.

“Did you come to take a look at the club, by any chance?”

“What? Ah, yes! Hello! I’m Ahn Bangjoo, first year in mech engineering!”

The junior greeted Maru with a 90 degree bow, he was so loud that even Maru had to take a step back. The third years who were still in the school looked towards their clubroom in surprise as well.

“You’re a bit loud.”

“I’m sorry! I am a bit loud, yes!! I apologize!!!”

The boy’s voice rang across the hallway one more time, the third years that were studying inside the college prep classrooms stepped outside with a frown. Maru quickly pulled the first year into the clubroom before apologizing to the third years.

“Let’s be quiet. I know this is the acting club and it’s our jobs and all, but you know what I mean, right?”

The third year pointed at his class sign. ‘College prep’. Maru apologized once again. Right then, the first year popped out of the clubroom and bowed towards the third years.

“I’m sorry! I won’t be loud again!!”

He was still as loud as ever, the third years could only laugh it off as they waved the two of them away. Maru pulled the first year back with his hand before closing the door.

“Ah…”

The junior seemed to have realized what he just did.

“Nice voice.”

“What? Ah, yes! I’ve heard that my voice is quite loud from a young age! My granny… no! Grandmother said I’d be a great…!!”

Maru quickly put his hand over the junior’s mouth. Their clubroom wasn’t soundproofed, being loud here wouldn’t be very good.

“Quietly. Got it?”

The junior bowed when Maru took his hand off. Was this kid just energetic, or stupid?

“I’m sorry. I get loud when I’m nervous!”

“Better than trembling, I guess. Ah, sorry, I might’ve been overly casual with you. I hope that’s fine?”

“Of course!”

The boy was starting to get loud again, Maru quickly stuffed a bottle of yakult into the boy’s mouth.

“Thank you.”

Energetic. Maru smiled and motioned the boy to take a seat.

“Sorry, we don’t have any chairs.”

“It’s alright. Grandmother used to always say that ‘good men always needed to keep their privies cold.’”

“…True.”

Maru sat down in front of the first year. Ahn Bangjoo, was it?

“You came to take a look at the club, right?”

“Yes!”

“I see.”

At least they got one person.

“So, let me tell you about our clu…”

“Senior!”

Bangjoo widened his eyes as he looked over at Maru, Maru ended up closing his mouth in shock.

“I want to be like Jackie Chan!”

“…What?”

“My dream is to be like an actor like Jackie Chan!”

“Who?”

“Jackie Chan!”

Bangjoo had fires burning in his eyes, the boy was serious. Ah. Maru felt his head start hurting. A total weirdo came.

* * *

Her long hair slid down her white shoulder, Suyeon slid her hands over the chest of the man below her as she pumped her hips. The man moaned pleasurably with the loud sound accompanying it. He raised his hand, Suyeon knew that the man liked her chest. As she rubbed her hips sideways, she leaned forward. The man started massaging her breast with his hand.

“Very firm.”

“You only realized that now?”

“I can’t get enough of a toned woman’s body.”

“Oh my, how perverted.”

Just like how children tend to hang onto the toys that they like, the man couldn’t get enough of Suyeon’s breast as well. Suyeon thought it was about time to end this, Men seem to think of women’s breasts as playthings at times. They just had no idea of just how sensitive breasts were, and how much pain they’d suffer. Suyeon sped up the movement of her hips, she could see the man try his best to endure with gritted teeth to no avail.

“W-wait.”

“Don’t want to.”

Suyeon was a fan of this position, the cowgirl. She liked being above men, thinking that she had this man under her control fueled her libido. Besides, she could end this whenever she wanted. She bounced her hips as hard as she could, the man tightened his grip on her chest. Suyeon moaned loudly before dropping down onto the man, she could feel the strength sap away from his hips through her flesh.

“Was it good?”

“Hah, the best.”

Suyeon got up from the bed first, she flicked the man’s floppy thing once before heading into the shower. When she finished cleaning herself up and stepped out, there was food in the room, courtesy of room service.

“I’ll be going first, so enjoy your meal.”

“You should eat.”

“Excuse you, producer, but I’m not about to bring my private life into this.”

“Ah, that’s right. Sorry.”

“Besides that, when’s that next drama happening?”

“Probably the next quarter. Besides that, you’re already looking for work? Don’t you need to rest?”

Suyeon shook her head. Her miniseries ended last week, it was a big payout, 30% viewership. Even so, Suyeon wasn’t satisfied.

‘That woman.’

The main actor, Ahn Joohyun, took all the spotlight. Worse, Suyeon had to admit that this woman was better than her. She felt humiliated when Joohyun was next to her.

The woman, who didn’t care much for money and whose work spanned many different genres. She was a bonafide professional, her skills had the media following her every move. Suyeon initially planned to be a side character that could eclipse the main character, but she was completely buried. She couldn’t even get an advertising contract signed from this.

“I don’t need rest. Thinking about that Ahn Joohyun just makes me so pissed.”

“Why don’t you rest though? Just come with me to Guam and…”

“Producer? I already told you to leave my private life out of this.”

“Ugh, you’re so cold.”

“That’s my charm.”

“Fine. You can go now.”

“I’ll see you next time.”

Suyeon stepped out with her clothes. She came down to the lobby through the elevator and checked out with a different room key. Just as she was about to step outside, her phone rang with a call from Junmin.

Chapter 174

“Yes, teacher.”

- Are you busy?

Suyeon could hear loud noises from over the phone. Was he at a set?

“Nope. I’m always free if you need me.”

- That’s good. I’m at Kyungbook. Can you come here right now?

“Kyungbook? Why?”

- I’m scouting out a location for filming, and you came to mind. You don’t have to come if you can’t.

“Calling me from Kyungbook on such a short notice? That’s a bit too much, don’t you think? I’m in Seoul.”

Even as she said this, Suyeon was already working the navigator. Junmin wouldn’t call people out without a reason.

“Where exactly in Kyungbook?”

- You’re coming?

“Why wouldn’t I go?”

- Juwangsan National Park. Call me when you arrive, I’ll give you the details when you’re here.

“Looks like I’ll be there in six hours. Do they provide meals when I get there?”

- Of course. It’s six right now, so you’ll probably be able to arrive before midnight if you leave right away.

“I’m going to take it slow. But scouting? Since when were you a location manager?”

- Well, I got a picture of a decent place I was told about, and I had a good feeling. So I came here to check it out for myself.

“I mean, that place is already famous for filming.”

- It’s a bit away from the actual park. Almost a wild mountain. Looks good, though.

“Ugh, you’re too much. I’m an established actress, you know that? Not a personal servant.”

- You don’t have to come then. Ah, put that over there.

A voice belonging to a different man spoke over Junmin’s, Suyeon felt one of her eyebrows twitching.

“Teacher.”

- What.

“Is there someone next to you?”

- People.

“I think I heard Mr. Geunsoo just now.”

- He’s here. He was my driver.

“How could you just use such quality people for menial tasks like that?”

- Because I pay them. Anyway, get over here. You might catch us leaving if you dally for too long.

“Fine! I’ll be there quickly, so don’t say something so scary.”

She revved up the engine after hanging up. She thought about her day thus far. She didn’t have much to worry about since her drama was over. It was the evening of a weekday, the highways should be clear right now. She should be able to get there before midnight. She bought some food from the convenience store before coming back to her car. Right then, her phone rang. Was it Junmin? Ah, Geunseok.

“Ah, there was him, huh.”

She forgot she even had a lesson with the boy and didn’t much care for it. She originally got close to the boy in the hopes of closing in on Geunsoo. At this point, she might not really need him.

“Yeah, Geunseok?”

- I’m about to arrive, coach.

“Sorry, something urgent came up today. I don’t think I can make it.”

She got in her car with her phone sandwiched between her shoulder and cheek, she could hear Geunseok’s surprised voice from over the phone.

- What? But today’s when we have the lesson…

“Sorry. Just rest for today. Maybe go play with friends?”

- Coach.

The boy was calling out to her desperately. Ugh. This was why kids were annoying to deal with, they just didn’t know when to give up. They wanted to always take, take, take from a give and take relationship.

“Geunseok, I’m disappointed.”

- What?

“You’re not like a man at all. I thought you were a gentleman who cared for ladies. I’m very disappointed.”

- No, that’s not it at all.

“Right? I’ve been mistaken, right? Anyway, don’t come over. I won’t be there.”

- Are you going far?

“What does that matter to you?”

-… Never mind.

“I’m hanging up.”

- W-wait!

Suyeon hung up without hesitation, he was getting more and more annoying to deal with. Probably time to draw a line at this point.

‘And here I thought he was someone smart.’

She thought the boy would strike deals with the other side’s desires in mind. In the end, he just turned out to be a stupid gambler, one that chased after short-term gains. Suyeon mentioned Geunsoo in their meetings once or twice, Geunseok definitely noticed what she meant whenever she mentioned his brother. That’s when the boy was supposed to introduce her to Geunsoo, but the boy just kept pushing it away. Likely because he was afraid of losing her.

“Are they really brothers?”

She threw the phone to the passenger seat. It was still vibrating, but she didn’t even look at it. Geunsoo and Geunseok. They’re brothers in that they’re both very talented, but their personalities were vastly different. Geunsoo had a powerful aura to him, she knew the man would succeed when she saw the independent film he was starring in. He looked like a great person, so much that he is one of the biggest reasons for her six-hour drive. Geunseok wasn’t like that at all. He was talented, sure, and had some leadership qualities. That was it though, a genius with no charm at all.

Of course, life experience might change the boy, not she has the time to wait. Especially with all of the already magnificent men shining around her.

“I hope I get paid for how much I’ve worked so far.”

Junmin was calling her out, this might turn out to be a great chance for her to form a connection with Geunsoo.

“Being a delinquent is the best.”

Suyeon drove with a pop song playing on the speaker.

* * *

“Damn it.”

Geunseok fell back on his bed after coming back home. His silver lining for the week was gone, just like that. Suyeon didn’t tell him anything, either. She probably left the city. He was annoyed. Club work included, there wasn’t anything that was going his way. He called a few girls he knew out of frustration, a few of them readily agreed to come out.

‘Should I play?’

The girls were nothing special compared to Suyeon, but whatever.

“I’ll be out for a bit.”

His mom gave him a bit of allowance on his way out, he has been getting first place at the academy he went to every week. His dad gave him a brand watch as a reward, there was a bit of pressure to take first place on the next test, but he wasn’t worried. He should be able to take first place easily with some work. He met the girls in front of a karaoke nearby, they all dressed up for the occasion, but they all seemed awkward.

“I’m paying.”

“Wow, as expected of Geunseok.”

He was letting out stress at the karaoke with the laughing girls. Right then, he got a call from her brother. It wasn’t a great call, but he took it for now.

“What?”

- I was just curious about how you were.

“Well.”

- Good to hear. How’s the club? I heard you guys were in a bit of trouble.

“Trouble? From who?”

- Maru.

“Why would you listen to an idiot like that? I’m in charge of the club and I’m telling you there’s no problem. I’ll take care of it, so you work hard yourself. How long are you going to chase your dreams? Dad is incredibly worried about you. With you rolling in the mud in the independent film industry and all.”

- Haha, true that. Good to hear that you’re focused. Mom and dad must be happy.

His brother sounded as positive as ever. Geunseok was sick of it.

“I’m hanging up.”

- Geunseok.

His brother didn’t respond even after calling him. Just before Geunseok hung up with a click of his tongue, a voice came through the phone.

- You’re doing acting because it’s fun, right?

“What are you talking about?”

- You’re acting because you’re desperate for acting and for no other reason. Right?

Geunseok let out a little laugh. What the hell was he on about?

“Is that important? I’m talented as all hell.”

He dropped the phone call and went back into the room, his annoying emotions disappeared as he heard the cheery beat inside. His worries were fading in an instant.

* * *

“The first movie I ever watched starred Jackie Chan, I still remember it very well. I actually watched it several times over in just one day. He was jumping over cars, beating people up with just clothes, and… when I learned that he was doing that with only practical effects, my mind was set. I want to be like Jackie Chan.”

The boy seemed completely serious. Well, at least he was passionate about what he wanted to do.

“We don’t teach stunts here though.”

“But I heard the training here is difficult. I learned that overexercising from a young age can ruin your joints or your growth. That’s why I planned on exercising in high school and joining a stunt school afterwards.”

The boy actually seemed to have a plan, thankfully. Maru was a fan of that.

“I don’t know how much we’ll be of help, but we’ll do our best if you join.”

“Thank you!!”

“Shh!”

Maru gestured at Bangjoo to lower his voice, the boy nodded with a shocked look.

“So you want to be an actor like Jackie Chan?”

“Yes. I know it’s a ridiculous dream. But that’s why I want to be here.”

Bangjoo’s shining eyes were a bit intense, Maru gave the boy another bottle of yakult to try to change the mood. The boy grabbed the bottle with his two hands. Now that he looked at it, he was pretty well-built. He must’ve exercised hard already.

“Are you exercising, by any chance?”

“I’m boxing a bit.”

“Really? I used to box too, just a little.”

“Is that true?”

The boy’s eyes were starting to shine again. Maru just responded with a “just a little bit” with an awkward smile.

“As I thought, judging by your physique.”

Bangjoo nodded in understanding. He must be living with his grandparents, judging by how he constantly brought up his grandmother as he talked. Well, at least his manner of speech was very polite.

“Um, senior. The others…”

“They’re all out because of personal matters. I’m here by myself today.”

“I see. Then, could you tell me how many other freshmen are here? I’d love to know how many comrades I have in arms.”

Bangjoo clearly seemed very eager to know. Maru hated that he’d have to tell this young lamb the truth of the club, but he had to. He explained the situation shortly to his junior.

“So if three people in total, including me, don’t join…”

“This place will disappear.”

“That can’t happen!”

“Um, don’t get too fired up. We still have four days, so we have time to think.”

Saturday was the last day for clubs to turn in their members list, Maru needed to bring the club registration forms from the new members to Taesik by then.

“Please tell me if I can help. I can do anything.”

Maru felt like he was about to get burned by Bangjoo’s passion, he was very interesting for sure.

“We need to promote the club. Ideas?”

“To promote the acting club… There’s no better thing than acting, right?”

“Mm, that’s true, but…”

Maru gave Bangjoo’s body another glance. He probably had a lot of stamina.

“Are you patient?”

“I’m very good at staying patient. My sister trained me in that department well.”

“Sister?”

“…Yes, I have an odd elder sister. You don’t have to worry. She’s odd, strange, and monstrous.”

Bangjoo shuddered like a mouse in front of a snake when he talked about his sister. Trying to know more felt like it would bring Maru trouble, so he decided not to pry.

“Can you stand still for about an hour?”

“Of course.”

“Alright, help me out tomorrow then.”

“I understand.”

“Ah, you might have to skip lunch. Is that okay?”

“………”

The boy looked the same as when he was talking about his sister, he must care about meals a lot.

“You can eat bread to take care of hunger.”

“That’s fine, then.”

He looked brighter already.

“But senior, what are we going to be doing tomorrow?”

Maru decided to give the boy the shortest, most direct answer.

“Performance art.”

Chapter 175

“Ugh, my back.”

Long distance driving was as exhausting as always, Suyeon stepped out of her car to take a look around. There was a single villa standing in the middle of nowhere, this was supposedly where Junmin was. The ground was slightly muddy below her, Suyeon frowned as she looked at her suede shoes. She actually liked these shoes, so she couldn’t bring herself to set her foot down on the ground. Just as she started looking around in hesitation…

“Ms. Suyeon?”

Someone appeared before her, it was Geunsoo holding a flashlight.

“Oh? Hello.”

“So it is you. I was told to step outside since you arrived. The ground is quite the mess, isn’t it? It rained a lot.”

“Yes. I’m not sure how I should go inside.”

“I’ll bring you some sneakers.”

“Can you just carry me instead?”

She made it sound like a joke so as to not pressure him, Geunsoo thought for a bit before stepping towards her.

“Here, get on.”

“Woww.”

It was a good start. Up close, Geunsoo had an aura of playfulness about him like a child, to think that someone like this would turn into a madman on the stage. Suyeon was a fan of this aspect of Geunsoo, and even loved him, to an extent. She wanted to add him to her collection.

“Heavy, right?”

“Yes. You should consider losing weight.”

“Wouldn’t a gentleman tell me I’m light?”

“Sorry, I’m terrible at those things.”

Geunsoo put Suyeon down in front of the villa. She rubbed her chest against his back pretty hard on purpose during the piggyback ride, but it didn’t elicit much of a reaction from him. As she thought, he was just as difficult to manipulate as the rumors said.

“I was surprised how good Geunseok was at first when it came to acting. I understood right away when I heard your name though.”

“My brother never learned anything from me. We just watched plays together a few times.”

“………”

A hurtful smile. Something was wrong. Did the two not get along well? She should stop talking about Geunseok in that case. Still, she decided to pry a tiny bit further.

“Looks like Geunseok wants to take after his brother.”

“He doesn’t want to be like me. He just wants the attention I have on stage. I thought he finally found a dream of his own when he went into the acting club at school, but…”

Geunsoo shrugged with a smile.

“Sorry, I shouldn’t bore you with family drama. Just teach him well, please. He’s talented, as you’ve already seen. I’m sure he can turn out to be a good actor as long as he can grasp his strengths.”

It seemed that she picked the wrong topic to talk about, Suyeon started regretting the amount of time she poured into Geunseok. The two didn’t even get along.

“I’ll do my best. In any case, I didn’t think there’d be such a nice villa in a place like this. No wonder Mr. Junmin was so impressed.”

She quickly changed the topic from something other than Geunseok, but Geunsoo just walked forward without responding to her. He passed through the front gates and entered the building, the first thing Suyeon saw as she entered was a wooden staircase upstairs. Next to the staircase was the living room, which already had a few people inside.

“Hello.”

She didn’t know any of them, but there was nothing to be lost from saying hello. There were all sorts of people, ranging from ages 20 to 50.

“Hello.”

“It must’ve been a difficult drive here.”

None of them was surprised, they probably received word of her coming here a long time ago. The carpet on the floor was littered with poker cards, she could spot quite a few bottles of alcohol as well.

“Here, follow me.”

She went up to the second floor with Geunsoo. There wasn't anyone else inside the villa, they must’ve rented it for the day. Geunsoo knocked on one of the doors located further away from the staircase.

“May we come in?”

“Sure, come inside.”

She could hear Junmin’s voice inside. Suyeon entered the room with a slight smile, but froze up completely when she saw who else was inside.

“You should say hello.”

She finally came back to her senses after hearing Junmin’s words and greeted the other man in the room.

“Hello, senior Yoon Moonjoong.”

“You know me?”

“Of course. I was inspired by your performance at the Myungdong Art Theater.”

To think someone so influential would be here… Aside from him, there was also someone else in the room, he looked to be in his late 20s. The man was looking at her with his hand on his black horn-rimmed glasses, his gaze didn’t look very kind.

‘Who is it?’

The man couldn’t be someone normal, especially if he was with Junmin and Moonjoong here. Suyeon greeted him with a bright smile.

“Hello, I’m actress Kim Suyeon.”

The man gave her a silent nod.

“Please understand. He just doesn’t like talking. Or maybe he’s embarrassed about talking to pretty girls.”

“That’s not the case at all.”

The man refuted Junmin immediately. Suyeon felt her stomach twist inside at the thought of getting ignored, but she still maintained a smile.

“Do you not like me? We could at least trade names. Are you an actor?”

He’d probably be an incredible rookie if he was an actor.

“I’m not an actor. Just a writer.”

“Writer? Then a scenario…”

“I just published a single book so far. No more, no less. Is that enough?”

“…Um, did I do something wrong by any chance?”

“You didn’t. I just talk like this, so please don’t take offence. Or just ignore me. It’d be better if you don’t talk to me entirely. Since I don’t like talking.”

The man ended his sentence with the same expression he started speaking with. Wow, this one will be difficult. She didn’t even want to approach him any further, guys like this were hard to take down with just words. She would’ve just ignored him like he said if he was a normal person, but…

‘He has this vibe.’

The man took a sip from a can of beer in front of him. Suyeon changed targets and asked Junmin a question.

“So who’s this mysterious writer right next to me?”

“The original writer of the movie we’ll be producing. Did you hear of a novel called ‘Twilight Struggles’?”

“I didn’t, unfortunately.”

Junmin took out a book from his bag. The cover was decorated with black and grey.

“You like books, right?”

“Well, now I do. Should I read it?”

She was getting greedy to read it already, Junmin definitely didn’t call her here for nothing. Perhaps he was thinking of casting her in this film?

“Finish it by tomorrow morning.”

“You’re too much. It’s 1am, you know?”

“So you aren’t going to read it?”

Suyeon grinned and waved the book in front of her face a little. She didn’t enjoy reading very much, but she still read during her spare time. There were no better tools for self-improvement than books, after all.

“So she’ll be taking on that role?” Moonjoong said.

“No, sir. I’m just taking her out for a test run. You’re going to have a huge say in terms of casting, sir, so please tell me if you happen to have anyone in mind for a role.”

Suyeon smiled, making sure no one saw her doing it. A movie Moonjoong was starring in, with Junmin as the casting director… This was going to be big. It didn’t even take her a second for her to realize that this was a once-in-a-lifetime chance.

“Please take care of me from now on, sir.”

“I’d have to ask the same of you if we work together from now on, miss.”

“Please drop the formalities. I want to be adored, too.”

“Haha.”

Suyeon bowed at the two teachers and nodded at the young author, the author didn’t even spare her a glance as he continued sipping on his drink. Ah well. It was a shame, but it was about time she left. She closed the door as she exited.

“That guy’s a bit sensitive around people. He’ll at least greet you if you get close with him.”

“Are you close with that author?”

“I don’t really know. He isn’t very expressive.”

“I see. Are you participating in this project as well, by the way?”

“I’m not sure. I’ll consider it when the auditions begin.”

“So you really came here for a leisurely drive today?”

“I told you from the start. It must’ve sounded like a lie to you, Ms. Suyeon.”

Suyeon felt thorns coming off of Geunsoo’s voice, he clearly didn’t have a very good impression of her.

‘Maybe he heard rumors about me.’

She knew she was being called a queen bee behind her back, she didn’t deny it, it was true. Yet the men who knew fell when she approached them. Men were all foolish like that.

“You’re not mad because of it, are you?”

“Of course not.”

Geunsoo let it pass smoothly, he was going to be a hard one to tackle. Suyeon followed the man into an empty room.

“There’s not much that’s going to happen till 1 o’clock tomorrow, so please rest.”

“Doesn’t look like I can even if I want to, because of this.”

Suyeon lifted her book, garnering a nod from Geunsoo.

“It won’t be boring, at least.”

Geunsoo slowly closed the door, Suyeon turned on the bedlight and lay down on the bed.

“Alright, let’s take a look,” she said, as she flipped open to the first page.

* * *

Daemyung looked at the clock nervously, it was almost lunch. The teacher was looking at his wristwatch from the front of the classroom.

“I’ll let you go five minutes early today, so don’t run. Alright?”

“Yes!”

The students in the classroom pushed their chair back, getting ready to run. The math teacher organized his textbooks and gestured to the class rep. The class rep got up and shouted “stand”, which signalled for each chair in the room to scrape against the floor all at once. The math teacher waved at the students with a wry smile.

“Thank you.”

“No problem. Enjoy your meals.”

With that, the students ran out of the room. Daemyung immediately turned to look at Maru.

“Let’s go!”

Maru grabbed a large bag next to him and ran out at full speed, Daemyung had to hold his breath as he followed after the boy.

‘Why’s he so fast?!’

Maru zoomed right through the empty hallway, he was so fast that Daemyung immediately lost hope in trying to follow him. He huffed his way down the central stairs as he watched a smaller kid catch up to Maru.

“Let’s go, senior!”

The boy had a massive voice. Maru and the small kid ran together, so Daemyung tried to follow behind as much as possible. He heard someone shout ‘don’t run!’ behind them, but Daemyung couldn’t, at least not today. Before they knew it, they were the first students in the cafeteria.

“Alright. Just an hour, Daemyung.”

“Got it.”

Maru took out a sign from his bag, the type that you could hang over your neck.

- Acting club. Looking for members. Please take a sheet! First years welcome!

Daemyung stepped forward after hanging it over his neck.

“Senior! My name is Ahn Bangjoo! Please take care of me!”

“Ah, yeah, sure.”

This must be the junior Maru mentioned this morning, the boy was wearing the same sign as well. Instead of standing like Daemyung, the boy was posed as if he was running somewhere. It seemed hard to maintain balance, but Bangjoo looked confident.

“Alright, then.”

Maru posed as well. He put the box of paper down in front and reached as if he was picking up money.

“Won’t it be hard, Maru?”

“I can just change my pose a little every once in a while.”

“Why can’t you just stand…?”

“It’s not impactful that way. But anyway, you guys both remember your actions, right? Do them whenever someone takes one of these. Remember, this is a battle of patience. Try not to move as much as possible.”

“Got it.”

“Yessir!”

Daemyung sighed and looked forward, he could see the two goalposts outside the building in front of him. A few minutes later, he started hearing noises coming from his left. There were students running their way.

“They’re coming. Let’s try to get as much attention as possible. Don’t smile.”

“Y-yeah.”

He was nervous despite this not being a stage. Daemyung tried to cheer himself up as he told himself that stillness could be more stressful than just moving as Maru told him. Finally…

“Hey! Get my plate too!”

“Got it!”

“First place!”

The others have arrived.

Chapter 176

Bangjoo was excited. To think he’d have the chance to act before he even joined the club…

‘Alright. I’ll support the seniors as best as I can!’

He carefully looked at the hallway next to the cafeteria, he could hear students coming from behind him, but didn’t look back. Maru told him that the core of this performance was in not moving. He was planning on abiding by it as best he could.

‘Come already!’

Bangjoo stared at the box of posters intently, that was his movement. Someone needed to take the poster quickly.

- When someone takes the poster, we express our thanks by doing a mini-performance. I’ll leave it to you guys what pose you want to strike. Just don’t talk. Silence attracts more attention for this type of stuff.

Bangjoo was thinking of kowtowing to whoever took a poster, he’s done this more than enough in his life already thanks to his grandmother taking him to temples and all. He liked doing it, in fact.

‘They’re coming!’

He could feel the students coming close, he’ll surprise them as soon as they arrive. Just thinking of them laughing at him was already making him excited, being able to make other people happy was truly a joyous thing. Right then, the first student passed by the box of posters… and passed over it.

‘Eh?’

Bangjoo looked at the back of the student running into the cafeteria, he didn’t even glance at the three of them. The second student passed, then the third, and so on. They all merely gave them a glance before stepping into the cafeteria. In fact, most of them didn’t even bother to read the signs on their necks. There were some female students who laughed at them from afar, but none of them came close. Like that, around two class’s worth of students passed by them. There was a bit of a delay before the next class came.

“As I thought,” Maru muttered.

“Is this alright, senior?”

“Why, are you nervous?”

“No, I’m just disappointed. I was ready to impress everyone, but no one took the paper.”

“Haha, you were practicing, weren’t you?”

Bangjoo turned to look at Maru, the senior was looking ahead calmly. Looking at that expression made him realize that there was no need to be nervous.

“You wouldn’t know because you’re a first year, huh?”

“What?”

“Today’s menu is the one thing that’s kind of edible here in this school. Pork katsu and fish katsu.”

“Is that why everyone’s running?”

Maru nodded.

“To begin with, we’re only interested in getting the attention of the students as they leave.”

“Aha, so that’s why our sign had two sides.”

The sign Maru was wearing had a back side to it as well. There, it read:

- Acting club. Recruiting members! Please take a sheet. First years welcome! Take a piece of complimentary chocolate for dessert.

“If you hand these out on the way into the cafeteria, there's a high chance that the papers would be thrown away in the trash can inside the cafeteria. On the way out, though, the students have to carry it all the way back to their classes. After all, the teachers here despise littering with a passion.”

“Right. I did hear a thing or two about the cleaning.”

Even when he looked around, he couldn’t see even a piece of trash anywhere. That was because if a student was caught littering, they were sentenced to clean for three hours straight.

“That’s amazing, senior!”

“Not at all. It’s just basic marketing. Alright, get back to your pose. They’re coming back.”

Bangjoo turned his head back, his nervousness was long gone now. He should be fine as long as he follows this senior.

‘Just twenty minutes!’

Students would start walking out of the cafeteria in twenty minutes, surely something would change by then.

* * *

Lee Jiyoon was getting squished by her friends on both sides. This happened because… one of her friends tried to carry her on their shoulders but failed. So her friends decided that they might as well carry her together.

“C-can we not?”

“You don’t have a choice in this matter!”

“Yeah!”

Ughh. Jiyoon clenched her eyes tightly as she walked over to her friends, thank goodness she was wearing pants. As soon as she got her legs in between her friends’ arms below, they stood up. Jiyoon screamed as she put a hand on their shoulders.

“Ohh! I knew we could do it, Jiyoon’s so light!”

“Let’s go!!”

She’s only had quiet friends in middle school, she naively thought that it would be the same for high school as well. Unexpectedly, these girls were almost as energetic as the boys in school. The three of them walked around the first floor hallway in that manner, every student in the hallway was staring at them. Jiyoon wanted to try and hide her face, but it wasn’t like she could take her hands off of her friends.

“Alright, to the cafeteria!”

“Let’s go!”

These two clearly didn’t have plans on stopping. Jiyoon asked to switch very quietly. Of course, she just got ignored. On their way to the exit, they ran across a teacher. Jiyoon thought the teacher would tell them to stop because this was dangerous. But…

“Take it slow, girls.”

That was it, to top it off, the teacher was actually smiling. Jiyoon wanted to cry, she just gave up by the time they got outside. Whatever, she didn’t care about what would happen anymore. On their way to the cafeteria, she spotted three boys just standing still on the way. No, they weren’t just standing, they were posing.

“What is that?”

“Don’t know.”

Her friends seemed to be curious as well. Right then, Jiyoon felt trepidation. In fact, those bad feelings worsened as they got closer.

‘T-they’re seniors from the acting club!’

The plump senior’s name was Daemyung, she recalled. She has never seen the smaller person before, but he has to be in the club as well. Then there was the person who was posing as if he was picking something up from the floor.

‘Senior Maru.’

- Ask yourself that question, not others. The answer’s surprisingly easy. Keeping through with it’s what really matters.

She instantly thought of the advice he gave her, she really didn’t want to display herself like this to someone who talked so seriously to her.

“Looks like the acting club.”

“What are they doing?”

“Don’t know.”

None of them seemed interested. Thank goodness. Jiyoon tried to hurry her friends under her, she didn’t want to be seen like this to her seniors.

“L-let’s go.”

“Hey! Our little miss is hungry!”

“Leggo!!”

Her friends ran forward with a shout.

* * *

“I wonder if they’re sports students.”

“N-no idea.”

Daemyung smiled thinking of the girls that just passed by. To think they’d enter the cafeteria while carrying a girl…

“There’s more coming,” Bangjoo said.

Daemyung looked at the door of the first floor, there was a new group of students coming towards them.

‘Second years.’

There were a lot of familiar faces, a few of them wished them ‘good luck’ on their way inside as well. That alone gave Daemyung energy. Just as he readjusted his position, he heard a very familiar voice.

“Eh? What are you guys doing?!”

It was Iseul, she was here with Taejoon and Soyeon. Daemyung wanted to speak very badly, but he had to endure.

“What the, you should’ve told me that you were doing this. I would’ve helped!”

“Yeah!”

Daemyung was thankful for his friends for their support, it looked like they figured out what was happening since he and Maru weren’t saying anything as well.

“Good luck. Call us if you need anything.”

“Work hard.”

“Good luck!”

Daemyung nodded very subtly, the three of them smiled as they walked into the cafeteria. Daemyung was actually planning on calling them for help at first. Maru stopped him, saying that it was important for actual members to be the ones working during recruiting season. Daemyung understood why after a bit of thought. Sure, they’d be able to get more attention if they got their friends’ help. But their friends were no longer club members. If some of the first years got into the club because of their friends, that could end up becoming trouble.

‘We need to solve this ourselves.’

Daemyung tried to adjust his posture one more time. Right then, a shadow drooped over him, it was Geunseok.

“Ridiculous.”

That was all the boy said as he left, the students around him were muttering confusedly.

“Geunseok, aren’t you in the acting club? Like them?”

“They’re promoting the club because no one’s coming.”

“Really? Why aren’t you doing it, then?”

“I told them to do it. Plus, there needs to be someone to explain to the students who come after seeing the promotion. That’s my job as the president.”

“Ah, you’re the president?”

“I didn’t want to do it, but the seniors said there was no one more suitable.”

“I see.”

Geunseok walked away with a smile, Daemyung felt a bit bitter. He did ask the boy to join in as well. All Geunseok said was that such a childish act would accomplish nothing. Daemyung wanted to say something. Again, Maru stopped him.

“Daemyung.”

“Yeah?”

“Still face.”

“………”

Daemyung sighed as he fixed his expression as he admired Maru. The boy was scarier than anyone else when he got mad, but most of the time, he was able to let things pass with a smile.

‘Same with the fire.’

Daemyung was a little suspicious that Yurim might be the culprit, everything from the timing when she moved away and the fact that Soyeon never mentioned the girl was proof enough. Miso wasn’t talking about it either. Maru looked like he knew who the culprit was and he even set up a plan with Miso. It looked like everything was resolved in the end, though Daemyung couldn’t even imagine what happened in the process. So he decided to ask Maru about it the day before school started. Maru avoided the question as much as possible, but he did leave a clue.

- The person in question received their punishment.

Daemyung didn’t ask any further, he was kind of afraid to know.

“Senior Daemyung.”

“Y-yeah?”

“Isn’t the person who just passed by senior Geunseok?”

“That’s right.”

“So why isn’t he doing this with us?”

“N-no idea.”

Daemyung didn’t respond properly, he didn’t know how. He didn’t want to say there was tension between them, but he also didn’t want to say Geunseok was excluded from this activity due to his presidency.

‘Hopefully we can smooth things out with him.’

Geunseok was definitely a necessary element of the club, but how should they deal with him now that his inflated ego set in?

“Oh! They’re coming,” Bangjoo said.

Daemyung gave up on thinking for now.

* * *

“What was that white sauce again?”

“Tartar sauce?”

“Is that it? Whatever it was, it was good.”

Jiyoon stepped out as she nodded, that was definitely the best meal they had from school. As she walked back towards her classroom with a feeling of happiness, she saw the acting club seniors in her vision again.

“Wow, they’re still doing it.”

“Yeah.”

It was a windy day in March, these guys were probably standing here for 30 minutes at least.

‘No one’s looking at them.’

Many of the students just passed by them. Jiyoon felt like she could feel what the seniors were feeling right now, despite being so far away from them. They must be feeling horribly disappointed.

“Ugh, so cold. Let’s go inside.”

Her friends walked forward with their arms crossed, Jiyoon once again got dragged by them. Just as they passed by the seniors, she noticed Maru’s fingers trembling slightly. It must’ve been incredibly tiring for him to keep that pose for thirty minutes straight.

“What’s wrong, Jiyoon?”

Jiyoon stopped. Was it alright to pass by like this?

‘He gave me word of advice back then.’

They were all laughing along with Geunseok at the time, no one cared about a quiet girl like her… except Maru.

“C-can we take a look real quick?” Jiyoon asked as she looked at the club.

This was the first time she suggested anything to her friends, she felt very conscious of them as soon as she spoke. Maybe she should’ve kept her mouth shut?

‘What if they say something?’

Maybe she shouldn’t have tried to overstep her boundaries.

“Sure, let’s go.”

Her friends turned to the club with no hesitation, Jiyoon sighed in relief.

“What’s with the sigh?”

“Eh? Ah… I was just wondering if I said something pointless.”

“Pointless?”

“Well… I thought I was wasting your time… Especially when we’re going to class…”

“Hey.”

“Yeah?”

“You need to relax. And treat us like real friends. Right?”

“Right. Jiyoon, you’re always way too serious.”

Her friends dragged her by her hand, Jiyoon took a step forward with a slight smile.

Chapter 177

“We came because of her!”

Maru looked at the numerous shoes that were suddenly in front of him. He couldn’t raise his head, so he didn’t know who had arrived. He could only infer from the voices and legs that these were girls.

“U-um, we’re not bothering you, are we?”

From what he could hear, the girl sounded nervous. Maru thought that she might be one of the first years who visited the club two days ago.

“Oh, they have posters here. It has chocolate, too.”

Maru remained silent, the girls chatted a little more before grabbing a poster for themselves.

“Wow! Thank you!” Bangjoo excitedly dove and prostrated himself before the girls. Even Maru was surprised at that. To think Bangjoo would go so far… he hadn’t expected it at all. Maru rose slowly and took out a piece of chocolate for each of the girls.

“Wow. You’re giving them to us?”

Of course, he didn’t speak.

“Must be one of those silent performances.”

“Wait, then what about this senior?”

It seemed that the girls had misunderstood Bangjoo, the boy nervously stood and returned to his spot. He made a distraught expression that seemed to win the girls over.

“Haha, that senior’s hilarious.”

“Did you see how he was glancing at us nervously?”

The girls had infectious laughter, and one by one, other students started crowding around the acting club.

“What the—what are you guys doing?”

“Hey, try taking a poster from here. It’s pretty hilarious.”

“What’s hilarious?”

“The frog!”

“What?”

The students each took a poster with bewildered looks. Maru glanced at Bangjoo and the boy peered back at him like a frightened puppy.

“Just do it!”

“Okay!”

The encouragement worked, Bangjoo leapt into the air. His jump was incredibly high, like some sort of martial arts instructor, before coming back down onto the floor. The students around them clapped, impressed.

“What the—?”

“I think they’re doing something over there.”

“Hey! They’re doing something over there!”

The students congregated in a flash. Bangjoo started jumping repeatedly, smiling, and Maru did his best to pantomime a frog as he handed out pieces of chocolate. Before they knew it, the box of posters was completely empty. At this point, even the teachers were watching their performances out of sheer curiosity.

Some of the girls even poked his body nervously. The boys just smiled from afar, but the female students were getting braver.

“You aren’t going to move even if we do this? Or this?”

Iseul popped out of nowhere as the number of students like this grew, she put her chin on top of Maru’s curved back.

“Hey, take a pic of me, please.”

Iseul was lightening the mood. With that, they thankfully managed to ingrain the acting club into the minds of the amassed students. It was a success, for sure.

“Is this good enough?” Iseul whispered.

Maru gave her a silent thumbs-up, Iseul was beautiful and her doing this was even causing some of the boys to take pictures.

“It’s the acting club.”

Taejoon joined in as well. With the two of them guiding the atmosphere, more students began taking pictures. Despite the event being nothing special, the students were still enjoying it to their fullest.

“We are the acting club! Our clubroom is next to the central staircase on the fourth floor! Please come whenever! We’ll have our arms open at all times!”

Bangjoo started promoting the club, he and Maru had discussed beforehand the use of loud voices to announce their presence once enough people gathered. Bangjoo’s voice rang throughout the school.

* * *

“Did you see what happened during lunch?”

“Ah, the acting club?”

“Yeah. I thought there was an accident! There were so many people.”

“Me too.”

Jiyoon had a slight smile. School was finished, and everyone was talking about the acting club. For some reason, she felt her heart flare up with pride.

‘I think I helped.’

Jiyoon held a registration form in one hand, it was the form she had decided not to turn in after filling it out. She would’ve just gone back home if nothing happened, but she did end up seeing something. It was the members of the acting club smiling joyfully, surrounded by people. They weren’t on a fancy stage or anything, but the air was hot with passion at the time. After seeing that, she decided to take the chance.

She might not be of any help, she might even be called a hindrance. Even if she couldn’t do it, it was the first time she had something she wanted to do. She had gone so far as to refuse her friends’ offer to watch a movie for this, she walked up to the fourth stair in anticipation and nervousness. Each new step she was taking only added to her anxiety. Why was turning in a simple sheet of paper so nerve-wracking?

When she came up to the fourth floor, Jiyoon was greeted with an empty hallway. Why? So many people had been there earlier, but she was the only one in the entire hallway now. Right then, the club room opened and a tall senior walked out. It was Geunseok.

“You’re…”

Jiyoon felt a chill as he directed his gaze onto her.

“What, you’re thinking of joining?”

“What?”

Jiyoon hid the registration sheet behind her, Geunseok seemed greatly disappointed for some reason.

“Why are you hiding it? You’re registering as a stage manager, right?”

“I-I… want to be an actress…”

“Actress?”

The sound of him laughing pierced deep into her ears, It felt like a massive wall was rushing towards her. Jiyoon took a step back without realizing it.

“Well, I suppose you can, since this is just a high school. But it’d be quite troublesome if you can’t even say a single word on stage.”

“Can’t I just try hard?”

“Ah, right, right. Trying hard. Sure, sure. Well, give me the form. We can think about that later. We just need members right now.”

Jiyoon glanced at Geunseok, the boy appeared incredibly annoyed to have to deal with this. He extended his hand to her as if the only thing he wanted from her was the form.

She thought back to the play she saw in December, the actor who cheerfully talked to the audience from back then… He was unique and Jiyoon was absolutely a fan of his acting, he had instilled a spark of interest in her for acting. The seniors of the club told her that Geunseok was the best at acting, so the person in question must be him.

‘So his acting is completely different from his actual personality.’

She felt depressed all of a sudden, hearing that she wouldn’t be able to succeed from her idol sapped her energy. Her past bravery suddenly seemed so foolish.

“Hand it over. I’m busy.”

“Ah, uhm…”

She shook her head as she took a step back. She was suddenly afraid, observing how different the acting club was in reality. She even felt a little betrayed, thinking that the shining stage was really like this.

“This is precisely why you can’t do it,” Geunseok commented.

Jiyoon flinched.

“Your actions right now are the reason why you can’t succeed as an actress. Why are you so annoying? Trying hard? Why don’t you just think for a second? You think trying hard solves everything? I can just tell what you’re going to be like when I look at you. Do you think you’ll be able to stand on stage? When you can’t even talk to me right now?”

“That’s…”

“That’s why I’m telling you to give up and become a stage manager instead. Your hands look nice. Do you sew? Sewing is good for a woman. Don’t try to succeed in something you have no hope in.”

Geunseok stretched out his hand as he took a step forward. Jiyoon stepped back, shaking her head.

“You’re annoying. Just leave. Stop being so iffy. Are you trying to pull a prank on me or what? I knew you’d be trouble since I first saw you. I remembered your face even though I didn’t know your name. You were annoyingly introverted. Can you even survive in society like this? Or make friends? You’re pathetic. I’m only giving you this advice right now because I want to give you a chance. You need to fix yourself. Fix your entire personality.”

When she heard the word ‘advice’, she felt a burst of rage. How was any of this advice? There was no way those words were meant to help someone. Were hurtful words like that advice? Jiyoon was furious. For the first time, she felt angry enough to talk back to someone.

Why was she so mad? Ah, after a bit of thought, she got it. Pathetic. That word kept spinning around in her chest.

“…I’m not pathetic.”

Geunseok smiled mockingly.

“That’s what they all say. I gave you a way to fix yourself. You just have to go ‘ah, I get it’, and do it. Tsk.”

“So becoming a stage manager is that method?”

“This is why idiots are so annoying to deal with. You’d be able to learn something if you work as a stage manager. You can use that experience to become an actor next year.”

“But you just told me trying hard wouldn’t do anything.”

“Well, I guess you’ll stay as a stage manager then.”

“What about my dreams of being on stage?”

“What the hell would I know about your dreams? Hah, you’re hilarious. Why don’t you try becoming a comedian instead? You’re clearly talented in that department.”

“………”

Her throat became dry, she didn’t know what to say. She knew he was being unfair, but she couldn’t say anything to refute him. She felt like she was about to go crazy with resentment. She felt like she would cry if she stayed any longer, so she decided to give up. She definitely didn’t want to go to a club with someone like this in it, she didn’t even want to say farewell to him. Instead, she just turned around to leave.

“You’re so impolite. Do you think seniors are a joke? Hey, what class are you in? Talk to me.”

Geunseok grabbed her shoulders.

“Are you trying to rebel?”

He looked terrifying, he was squeezing her shoulders harder and harder. She couldn’t say anything, she was paralyzed with fear. Right then, she felt someone put their hand on her back. She looked back sharply in surprise, Maru was reading her registration form.

“Your writing is quite pretty.”

“…What?”

“I’m jealous of people with good writing. I suck. Here, take this back.”

Maru handed her form back and Geunseok released her shoulders.

“Geunseok.”

“What?”

“If you aren’t thinking of working, just leave. I’ll take care of the rest.”

Jiyoon found herself hiding behind Maru, the two seniors glared at each other so intensely that she forgot to breathe for a second.

“Who the fuck do you think you are, trying to command me around like that?”

“If you don’t want to be told what to do, why don’t you work properly? Why do you have to be so half-assed?”

“Hah, look at you speak. Hey. Han Maru.”

“Don’t say my name threateningly and just work. You said yourself that you were here to consult potential members. So just do your job properly.”

“You son of a…”

The atmosphere was only getting fiercer. As Geunseok stepped forward to leer down at Maru, Maru tilted his head back to glare up at him. Jiyoon looked around. She needed someone to dissipate the situation, but there was no one in the hallway save for the class of third-years.

‘If something happens… ’

She stared at the third-year classroom, she would run over there if things went awry.

“If you’ve made up your mind to do something, then take responsibility. If you don’t want to, then just don’t do it at all.”

“Are you crazy?”

“Don’t try to change the topic and answer me. Will you work properly, or will you just give up?”

Jiyoon couldn’t see, but she could somehow tell that Maru had a chilling expression on his face. Geunseok scowled at Jiyoon from over Maru’s shoulder, she flinched and looked down.

“Are you trying to look good in front of that girl behind you? Is that it?”

“You’re making my mouth hurt at this point. I’ll ask this one last time. Will you work, or will you give up? Just answer me.”

“Han Maru, you son of a bitch. You have a fucking weird fetish, don’t you? Sure the girl’s cute, but going that far? Fucking hilarious.”

Geunseok raised his hand to push Maru’s shoulder, but Maru swivelled at the last second and Geunseok’s hand swiped through thin air. When the boy lost his balance and stumbled forward, Maru grabbed his hand and pulled him back.

Jiyoon couldn’t help but think of a scene of a woodsman felling a massive tree. Geunseok collapsed forward awkwardly, making quite the noise. He looked up at Maru with a savage glare.

“Sorry. My neck hurt having to stare up at you like that.”

Maru was grinning.

“Y-you bastard.”

Geunseok threw his bag aside and sank into a charging stance. Jiyoon readied herself to sprint to the third-years, thinking that this was it. But before the other boy could start running, Maru opened his mouth.

“I noticed you’re the first in our grade. Your parents must be happy.”

“………”

Geunseok hesitated.

“You should know about what happened last year regarding school violence. The chairman and the principal are incredibly sensitive to it right now.”

“W-what are you talking about?”

“I’m just talking about the what-ifs. What do you think the school would do if you committed an act of violence? I don’t think they’ll take it lightly given what happened before, don’t you?”

“……You son of a bitch.”

“Hey, don’t get mad. Again, these are just the what-ifs. Personally, I don’t think there’s anything wrong with boys growing up throwing a few punches around. It forms this wordless connection between them.”

Maru casually stepped forward and Geunseok took two steps back, the atmosphere had tilted in Maru’s favor in an instant. Jiyoon felt uncomfortable. Geunseok was obviously the rude one here, but Maru didn’t seem like such a good person either. He seemed like a very scary person who knew how to take advantage of other’s weaknesses.

“I heard you persuaded your parents saying it would be easier to go to college through an engineering school. Is that right?”

“……How do you…”

“Just found out as I spoke with senior Geunsoo. Ah, let me ask you one more thing. Do your parents know about you acting? I understand that senior Geunsoo’s pretty much a forbidden topic at your house. So how are you fine?”

Geunseok’s face swiftly paled as Maru took out his phone from his pocket.

Chapter 178

“You weren’t planning on telling them you studied hard at the library, were you? There’s no way you’d be that foolish.”

“S-stop spouting bullshit.”

“Ah! One more. I noticed your parents didn’t come to nationals last year. How cruel of them. Or… did you perhaps not tell them? I think almost everyone’s parents came except yours.”

“They were just busy…”

“Alright then. I might as well call them and say you’re doing an excellent job at acting. I’m a friend after all.”

As soon as Maru opened his phone, Geunseok dashed forward, eyes wide with a hint of insanity. Jiyoon froze, terrified.

‘Senior Maru!’

Just as she thought Maru was in trouble, he stepped forward and thrust his shoulder forward, striking Geunseok squarely in the chest. Geunseok crashed backwards with a gasp. Jiyoon covered her mouth in shock as she watched Geunseok on the floor. The boy struggled for air, all the breath knocked out of him from the collision. Maru crouched in front of Geunseok and patted his back.

“You idiot. How would I even know your parents’ phone number? You’re so bad with stuff like this.”

“Cough, cough.”

Geunseok was starting to regain his breath at this point, but his eyes were full of tears. Maru pulled him up by his arm, handed back his bag, and brushed him off. Jiyoon was afraid that a fight would break out again, but Geunseok only observed Maru’s movements warily.

“Geunseok, why don’t you just cool down at home today, and we’ll talk it out tomorrow? We have a lot to talk about anyway, I can only take your childishness for so long.”

Maru loudly slapped Geunseok’s back, the boy jumped before silently slinking away. Jiyoon stared at Maru, dumb-founded. She had thought they would start throwing punches like the other boys she had seen in school, but none of that took place. It was a brief conflict, but Jiyoon couldn’t help but feel it had been a dirty one. That wasn’t a fight just now, it was a…

“Sorry, you were surprised, weren’t you?”

“What? Ah, n-no.”

“You’re probably not going to hand in that registration form, are you?”

Maru scratched his eyebrows with a troubled look. He was quickly returning to his normal, relaxed state. Jiyoon looked at the form in her hand. She originally came to turn it in, but now she just wanted to leave. She had been insulted by the one person she admired and the senior in front of her scared her as well. Although the club didn’t seem safe, it felt wrong to just say no and leave right away, so she tried to change the topic instead.

“U-uhm, is there no one else here other than me?”

“Unfortunately. I thought we succeeded in promoting the club, but it’s too bad. Ah…”

Maru smiled.

“Thanks for what you did this morning. You made our performance a huge success.”

“…You knew it was me?”

“When you were being carried or when you were in front of me?”

“Y-you saw?”

“I saw your friends running. They were fast.”

She thought he hadn’t been able to see her. Jiyoon sighed dejectedly, it felt like a dark secret of hers just got revealed.

“I’m joking. I didn’t actually see. I just heard from the other two later. Here, since you’re here, have a bottle of Yakult.”

“Ah, yes.”

She didn’t feel relieved by his words at all. Maru opened the clubroom door and Jiyoon saw a full row of Yakult inside, each with a straw inserted in them.

“What are you going to do with all of that?”

“Guess I’ll give it to the third-years. I can’t drink at all myself.”

“………”

She felt a little bad after that, but it seemed rude to give the Yakult back, so she drank it anyway. She exhaled loudly after finishing the bottle.

“You didn’t have to drink it so fast.”

“What? Ah, I’m sorry.”

“It’s nothing to be sorry for.”

“S-sorry.”

Maru didn’t seem to like her attitude and pouted, causing Jiyoon to tense up nervously.

“I know I might be overstepping my boundaries here, but I’ll say this. Don’t say sorry habitually like that. You might not be able to apologize properly when you really need to.”

Maru took the Yakult bottle from her hands and Jiyoon almost said sorry again as she covered her mouth in surprise. Maru smiled at her and at that moment Jiyoon felt the nervousness flee her body completely. This person may be intimidating, but he had a gentle side, she knew that for sure now.

“Um, senior.”

“Mm?”

“Can I ask you something?”

Maru nodded, Jiyoon’s question was simplistic but important.

“Is it possible to become an actress through hard work? It doesn’t have to be a major character or anything. I just want to try being on stage.”

She was surprised at how easily the words flowed from her mouth, she hadn’t dared to speak like this when faced with Geunseok. Jiyoon watched Maru’s mouth with bated breath, she couldn’t wait to hear his response and she hoped he would encourage her again.

“No one would know the answer to that.”

“…What?”

“There’s definitely a chance you might not make it even after trying hard. After all, there’s a lot of people who fail despite trying hard.”

Jiyoon nodded in understanding. Thinking about it, he was right. If everything went perfectly, simply because people tried hard, then no one in the world would be sad. Geunseok was correct. She didn’t have talent, so hard work would be useless for her.

“It’s the same as what we did earlier today. The three of us stood in the cold for an hour, but nothing came of it. You appeared, but you aren’t about to register, so it’s ultimately pointless.”

“I’m sorry.”

She shook her head immediately since he had told her to stop apologizing, but the apology had already left her mouth.

“Did you see us on stage?”

“Yes.”

“Thanks. It must’ve been quite amateurish.”

“Not at all! I enjoyed it very much. Really.”

Both the actors and the stage shone brilliantly back then. She wanted to join them, but it looked like she’d have to give up on that dream.

“I’ll come to watch when you guys are on stage again. Really.”

“Thanks. That’d be great.”

She thought about leaving then, but something rose in her chest. She had been told the same thing twice in a row, that some things couldn’t be accomplished with only hard work. Was that really the case? Then what of the people who actually did try hard? She wanted to speak up, but she lacked the courage to do so. She stayed silent, not knowing what to do for a few seconds.

“In reality, the phrase ‘hard work’ is a trap.”

Maru spoke as she grabbed another bottle of Yakult from the clubroom. He offered her a third, but she shook her head.

“What do you mean, a trap?”

“You can’t be an actor without hard work, it’d be impossible. ‘You can do it with a bit more hard work’. You know, stuff like that. Why do you think people say these things?”

Jiyoon pondered for a bit before answering.

“To cheer up those who work hard.”

“That’s the trap.”

“What?”

Work hard, try harder, and harder, and harder. How were these words a trap?

“The phrase ‘hard work’ only exists for those who watch the people that try hard.”

“Those who watch?”

What was he talking about?

“Let’s say there’s an important test happening. You end up passing that test with hard work. Then you’d hear people around you say ‘See? Hard work pays off.’”

Jiyoon nodded, she’d heard that phrase countless times in her life, ‘hard work pays off’. She had to wonder how many people hadn’t heard it before.

“Then, on the other hand, won’t the people say ‘you just didn’t try hard enough’ if you fail?”

The idea that hard work pays off and someone failed because they didn’t try hard enough sounded logical to Jiyoon.

“Do you know how easy it is to say these words? The phrase ‘hard work’ contains both success and failure. That’s why you can easily tell people who already work hard to work even harder. Because the phrase works for just about any situation. If things go well for you, it’s thanks to hard work. If things go poorly for you, it’s thanks to the lack of hard work.”

She suddenly felt betrayed by the phrase, to think that was the reality of it…

“There’s no good analysis required when you use it. It just crushes everything and instantly justifies what you said. How great is that? It’s incredibly difficult to give people a good answer to their current situation. After all, you would need to analyze everything about what they’re going through. But the phrase ‘hard work’ just lets you skip all of that. You failed your test? You didn’t try hard enough. Your English sucks? Try harder. You keep failing your interviews? Maybe you didn’t try hard enough compared to the others?”

Strangely, Maru’s expression changed as though he had sinned against someone.

“The phrase is like an escape route. It lets you judge someone without knowing anything about them. You don’t have to think hard about their issues at all.”

Maru scratched his head with an apologetic look.

“I’m the same, actually. I want to give you a good answer, but I’m still very lacking. In the end, I can only tell you to try hard. But I hate having to say that, because if it turns out that your hard work was for naught, then no one would be there to pay you for the time you’ve wasted. That’s why I don’t talk optimistically. I’d rather tell someone that hard work might not pay off. It’s the least I can do.”

Jiyoon stared at Maru, who shrugged back. In the end, he was saying the same thing— that he didn’t know what would happen—but the way he conveyed it was completely different from Geunseok. His words reassured her more than anyone else’s.

“So my hard work might not pay off.”

“That’s right.”

“But it also might pay off?”

“Eh… so what I’m saying is…”

Before he could finish his sentence, Jiyoon handed him her registration form.

“I’ll try. I-I can’t talk very well and I’m very shy, but I’ll try my best.”

“Did you understand what I told you?”

“Yes!” “…Are you sure?”

“Yes!”

She didn’t care if she couldn’t stand on stage. It felt like she’d have a great time if she could work with a senior like this one, and hey—she might actually be able to get on stage again!

“And senior?”

“Y-yeah?”

Maru looked at her awkwardly.

“Were you there on the stage at Anyang during the competition in December?”

“I was. Since my leg was fine back then.”

“What role did you take back then?”

“Me?”

Maru took two steps back before jumping up from his spot, he ambled playfully for a bit before raising his hand into the air. He motioned as though he was grabbing something from the air, then bowed deeply. Jiyoon instantly recognized who he was.

“I did something like this. I wonder if you can remember me.”

“The one that spoke with the audience…”

“Oh, right. You barely remember, do you? I didn’t have a name. Just a teenager.”

She couldn’t suppress her smile. The person from back then wasn’t Geunseok, it was Maru. Her heart seemed to be melting, her dream was coming back to her. If this person helped her, she’d be able to flourish for sure. At the same time, she found herself becoming flustered and didn’t think she could even look at Maru.

“I-I’ll be leaving now.”

“You’re leaving? Why don’t you have some more Yakult…”

“No, no. I-I’ll be going now.”

Jiyoon turned around with a bow, her smile didn’t disappear even as she descended the stairs. She was unable to keep her heart from pounding in excitement, she couldn’t wait to experience what the club had to offer.

‘I can do it. I can do it!!’

Jiyoon bounded down the stairs in delight.

Chapter 179

He felt humiliated. He wouldn’t be this embarrassed if this happened just between him and Maru, the problem was that their junior was standing behind him. Thinking of how he was humiliated in front of something he was actively looking down on angered him to no end. He kicked a trashcan next to the bus station, looking at the trash spill out made him feel a little bit better.

“Hey, you bastard!”

Just before he could leave, he heard a deep voice from behind him. It was a scary-looking old man, Geunseok glanced a few times before picking the trash up.

“It was a mistake. Just a mistake.”

“Really?”

Geunseok smiled awkwardly as the man scanned him. He was swearing as much as he could inside, but he couldn’t show this on the outside; today was an unlucky day. Once he came back home, Geunseok opened the door with a frown, he kicked his shoes off and tried to get in. Once he saw his father reading the newspaper in the living room, he straightened his shoes carefully.

“You came back early.”

“Ah, yes.”

“Studying?”

“I was going to pick up a notebook from home.”

His father gave him a nod, the man was still looking at the newspaper.

“Geunseok.”

“Yes.”

“I enrolled you in an academy. Go there.”

“What?”

“It’s a Chinese language academy, English isn’t enough nowadays. You need English as a base and Chinese as a secondary language.”

“…Um, father.”

Geunseok was about to say self-study was enough, his father slowly closed his newspaper and looked straight forward. The man’s eyes, shining behind his gold-rimmed glasses, was full of disappointment. Geunseok closed his mouth straight away.

“You made a face very similar to ‘that guy’ just now.”

‘That guy’. There were many people his father referred to as ‘guy’, but there was only ever one ‘that guy’. Geunseok’s brother.

“What, you want to rebel against everything I say and leave the house, just like him?”

“N-no.”

“Then what should your answer be?”

“I’ll go to the academy.”

“Of course you will.”

Only then did his father looked away, his father folded the newspaper and took out a wallet.

“Here. Take this. A reward for taking first place amongst all of the first years.”

His dad was giving him a card. A black card.

“You’ll need a lot of money if you want to hang out with the smarter kids. Don’t make them pay for anything, always offer to pay. That’s how you start differentiating yourself from them. You can only make real friends once you get out in society. School friends? Such things don’t exist. The only people you can find in school are competitors, people you need to beat. Rise in the society that the winners have built and make your mark in it, only then can you make friends. Don’t waste your time on emotions, not if you don’t want to end up like him.”

Geunseok took the card with both of his hands. The card only granted him more freedom, so why did it feel more like chains?

‘But I can’t do anything about it. So be it. I’ll keep on living like this.’

He bowed and walked back to his room. Once he put down his bag, he let out a deep sigh.

“Fuck.”

What a shitty day. It felt like his dad was mad because of Han Maru. If only the boy didn’t get in his way… Geunseok chewed on his fingertips as he took out his phone, he punched in Suyeon’s phone number and started a call. Suyeon delayed their lesson for two days and went radio silent. He thought he’d be able to meet her just the next day, but she didn’t send him anything.

- Excuse me?

“Um, coach?”

- Yeah. What?

Suyeon was breathing incredibly heavily. Geunseok rolled his eyes as he spoke.

“When can I get my lesson?”

He was annoyed at everything, he felt like meeting Suyeon was the only way to rid himself of this annoyance. Suyeon would use her maturity to console him well, like always. But…

- I’m not planning on doing any lessons for a while. You’re talented, so learn by yourself for a bit.

“What? What do you…”

- I’m busy. Bye.

With that, she hung up. Geunseok caught an old man’s voice from the other side just before the call ended. Bang. Geunseok punched his table angrily. He flinched in surprise and looked at his door. His father didn’t hear, did he? He put his ear against his door nervously. Thankfully, all he could hear was the sound of classical music. A sigh of relief slipped out of his mouth before he sat down on the bed. Everything had wrong today. Today was easily one of the worst days of his life.

‘Han Maru, that bastard… He’s not going to tell on me, is he?’

If his father finds out about him acting… He didn’t even want to imagine the consequences. He still remembered his father from back then, the man delivered an incredibly hard slap to his brother’s face when he came back during college. Geunseok felt like his heart was going to stop whenever he remembered the pair of blood-shot eyes that his father used to glare at Geunsoo at the time.

“He can’t know.”

Geunseok had a plan, Junmin promised a reward if he brought in results by his third year. A full scholarship was one thing, but he was also promised a network of actors and even a chance to act on a big project. Geunseok saw his future in that promise, he would be a star outshining all else. Money, women, and fame would follow him on this path.

His father didn’t suggest any particular path to follow in life, all the man wanted out of him was ‘success’. To his father, the easiest path to success was in studying. Even after Geunseok’s brother left home in rebellion to this philosophy, his father didn’t even bat an eye. In fact, the man said that his brother would come crawling back in just a few days. Ten years passed by like that and his brother was still a no-name actor.

His father was correct, foolish challenges held no meaning. Perhaps things could be different if success was guaranteed, that’s why he thought he’d be able to persuade his father with Junmin’s contract. Junmin was well known within the entertainment industry, someone who had connections with many huge companies. His father should be accepting of his actions if Junmin was backing him.

But now was not the time. Right now, Geunseok had nothing to show. If his father found out about him doing acting at this moment, the man would say ‘use that time to study’. Of course, Geunseok didn’t have much affection for acting. It didn’t really matter if he went into acting professionally or if he just studied, but if he took the latter route, he wouldn’t be able to get in the spotlight. He wanted recognition, rather than just to earn a lot of money. Just look, even at his position right now, he was able to be with a beautiful, charming woman like Suyeon. There were just too many things to lose if he left a field like this.

‘I just have to stay quiet just this once.’

If he lay low a bit, then Maru would cool off as well. He could use the juniors then to attack Maru, the idiot would explode just like last time, because he was a ‘guardian of justice’ or whatever.

“Alright, I just have to endure just this once. That’s all I need to do.”

Maru and the girl who was hiding behind him… He could just expel them to the stage manager roles. Honestly, he was more pissed at the girl. He wouldn’t even have gotten into a fight with Maru if she stayed silent. Right then, he heard the front door open. There was no way his mother was back already. Did his father order delivery food? Just as curiosity seeped into his head, he heard a voice.

“Father! It’s been too long.”

A bright and jovial voice, it was his brother. A frown instantly formed on Geunseok’s face. How dare his brother sounded so happy, especially when he was practically kicked out of the house? Was he just trying to show off? How pitiful. His dad should shout soon enough. Or perhaps his brother would get slapped again.

But all he heard was silence. What was going on? His dad wasn’t someone who could endure an occurrence like this for very long.

“Let me introduce you. This is senior Lee Junmin, someone who I greatly respect. I believe he’s around your age?”

“Hey, watch your language, Geunsoo.”

“It’s fine, senior. I was practically born like this from the start, so my father should understand. Isn’t that right?”

Geunseok widened his eyes. Junmin? He slowly opened his door and peeked out through a small crack, it really was Junmin. He was holding tomato juice, a long-time favorite of their father.

“Who are you?” his dad asked stiffly.

Then again, there was no way his dad would look too kindly on an acquaintance of his brother.

“My name is Lee Junmin. I work in the entertainment industry. Geunsoo kept begging me to come, and I acquiesced. Pardon my intrusion.”

His father looked at Junmin for a second before letting him take a seat. As soon as they sat down, Junmin took out a piece of paper from his bag.

“This guy was saying some odd things about how he needed to show you this contract.”

“What is this?”

“Please read it.”

Geunseok could see his father read the contract slowly. What was it about? After what felt like forever, his father slowly put the paper down on the table.

“You must’ve suffered quite a bit because of my foolish son.”

“You’re right. He’s very childish even at this age.”

Geunseok was shocked, his father was smiling, brightly at that. His father took off his glasses before continuing.

“You see, I’m someone who absolutely despises failure. I was born in what seemed worse than even the city sewers and grew up selling gum and cleaning shoes on the streets. Back then, I only thought of one thing. Success. Money.”

Father looked at the contract again, the smile on his face only deepened.

“No matter what other people may say, money comes before all else. After all, you’re worthless without it.”

“You are correct.”

“I succeeded, at least to a degree. I studied in that pool of mud, using a piece of charcoal as my writing utensil. I used my first pencil until it literally crumbled in my hand. I studied and studied to get where I am today. To me, studying is the easiest way to success. That’s why I was furious when that guy told me he’d succeed through acting, because I knew he wasn’t stupid. He just wouldn’t listen no matter how many times I told him to study.”

“So he was stubborn since back then.”

“Right. That’s the sort of boy he was. I still remember when he ran out of the house. He told me he’d succeed with acting back then. I felt like he was rejecting my entire life right then. Ridiculous. Was success through acting easy? Not at all. The way I see it, succeeding through art in this country takes a ridiculous amount of work and luck. Don’t you think so?”

“Very correct.”

“That’s why I waited until he would come crawling back to my house. I trusted that he would come back to study. But he didn’t. Not even after ten years.”

Geunseok’s brother smiled brightly.

“Twelve, to be exact. I’m thirty one now.”

“You’re already that old?”

“Of course, father. I’m already starting to get wrinkles just like you.”

An unthinkable number of jokes were being exchanged between the two. Their father, who should’ve stood up flaming with rage at any other point in time, smiled brightly. Because Junmin was here? No. Geunseok’s father wasn’t one to care about who was watching when he got mad.

“Twelve years. After all those years, he finally brings home success.”

“How is it? Don’t you think he’s lived a worthwhile life, with this? Well, while money isn’t the sole metric for a person’s entire life, it is a decent metric, after all.”

“You are right. Not many people can score something like this in their early thirties. This is a success, for sure. Indeed.”

Father pushed the contract back towards Junmin. Geunsoo was the one to retrieve it.

“We’ll take off, then.”

His brother stood up from his spot, Junmin seemed a bit confused.

“Leaving already?”

“Of course we are. Father, I can go, right?”

His father put on his glasses again before replying, the smile from before was wiped off from his face.

“Leave. I don’t want to see you ever again.”

“At least I didn’t get slapped today. That’s a success in my book.”

His brother turned around with a grin. Right then, Geunseok’s eyes met with his brother’s. His brother shrugged before stepping outside.

“Please take good care of him from now on.”

His father bowed towards Junmin once his brother went outside. His father, bowing? Geunseok felt his head turn blank, he’s never once seen this in his life.

“You don’t even have to ask. Geunsoo has a very good head on his shoulders.”

“I see. He was very free from a young age for sure. He did everything by himself. That’s why I disapproved of him. Because it felt like he was constantly trying to escape my grasp.”

“Even so, don’t you feel proud now watching him succeed like this?”

“There’s no parent who would feel anguish at their children’s success. However, I do feel a little annoyed that he succeeded without my help. It feels like he’s completely escaped me at this point.”

“Boys only miss their parents once they leave their homes. I tried to send him over by himself today as well, but he was very embarrassed.”

“Haha, embarrassed, after hurting me like so all those years ago? What a bad child he is.”

“Probably because he takes after you.”

“He takes after me, you say?”

“Where do you think that stubbornness and strength from your younger years went? He probably knew himself that studying was a safe route to success. He would’ve just found it boring.”

Junmin stood up from his seat, prompting Geunseok’s father to follow.

“Here is my business card. Let’s go for a drink sometime. I feel like we’ll get along.”

“This is the first time I’ve gotten a business card from someone in the entertainment business.”

“What an honor.”

The two men walked to the front door, smiling like they were very old friends. Geunseok closed the door with a trembling hand. This wasn’t right, his brother shouldn’t be the one to get recognized by his father.

“Ah, your second son, by the way.”

He could faintly hear Junmin’s voice. Geunseok felt a bolt of lightning strike his head right then.

“Geunseok?”

“Yes.”

“How do you…”

“You didn’t hear? The boy’s under my tutelage for acting at the moment.”

“Aha, I see.”

“Please come to my theater together with him when you get the time. I’m sure you’ll enjoy it.”

“I understand. I’ll try to make time.”

“Farewell, then.”

Geunseok heard the front door close, he gripped the door handle of his room with trembling arms. Right then, the door barged open. His dad was staring at him with a cold expression.

“You lied to me.”

“U-u-um, father.”

“Your brother rebelled against me, but at least he didn’t lie.”

“Father! Father!”

Geunseok kneeled. His father quietly entered the room and closed the door slowly behind him.

“We should talk.”

Click. The door closed behind them.

Chapter 180

The first thing Suyeon saw upon waking up was a group of bugs she has never seen before on the windowsill, there were caterpillars with exotic patterns dotted with little spikes and something that looked like an enlarged cricket. There was even a time when she looked out the window wondering if she had found a bird sitting on it, it turned out to be a moth bigger than the palm of her hand.

Suyeon walked down to the first floor; this marked her fourth morning in the villa. The location manager, film director, editor and the storyboarders all left on the first day. The only people living here were Moonjoong, Junmin, Geunsoo, and that author she still didn’t know the name of. Junmin and Geunsoo actually left for Seoul shortly yesterday morning, so there were actually just three of them in the house right now. Thanks to that, Suyeon was the one to prepare breakfast. She walked over to the kitchen with a little bit of expectancy, but there was obviously no one inside.

“Ugh, a lone lady’s cooking for three people by herself and that guy has the gall to stay inside?”

Just thinking about that author pissed her off. She tried her best to strike a conversation with him during the past few days, but she’s been ignored all this time. Was he just incapable of socializing or something? What was shocking was the fact that the man actually has a girlfriend. What was even more shocking was that he was incredibly cold to his girlfriend as well. Just what kind of a person was his girlfriend to be able to take that kind of attitude? Was she buddha?

“You’re treating me like a cafeteria lady? Ok, fine.”

She rolled up her sleeves and got to cooking, she was planning on making some seaweed soup and an omelette for Moonjoong. She has been living by herself for seven years now and has quite the confidence in her cooking. She set the table with food before walking back upstairs.

“Sir, you should have breakfast.”

A little while after she knocked, Moonjoong walked out.

“You didn’t have to think about me.”

“How could I not?”

She put her arms around his naturally as if she was his granddaughter, Moonjoong nodded and walked over to the kitchen.

“Oh my, you’re quite good at cooking. Whoever marries you must be very lucky.”

“Don’t just say that. Can’t you introduce someone good to me?”

As they talked, the author slowly made his way down to the kitchen as well. The man gave Moonjoong a curt nod before coming to the table. Suyeon didn’t prepare a bowl of rice for the man, it was her own way of paying him back for his attitude. Just thinking of the man looking at her in surprise made her feel good already.

The author blinked as he looked at the table, Suyeon smiled. If he wanted breakfast, he’d have to talk to her first. Right then, the man walked over to the fridge and casually took out milk and cereal.

“Why don’t you have some warm rice?” Moonjoong asked.

“That woman doesn’t seem to want to give it to me. They say eating food made by someone unwelcoming can make you sick, so I’ll settle with this.”

Moonjoong turned to Suyeon with a little laughter, Suyeon grit her teeth as she spoke.

“What are you talking about? I was about to get you a bowl right now.”

“It’s fine. I don’t like seaweed soup.”

“That’s odd. I thought I saw you eating it when Mr. Geunsoo made it a few days ago.”

“I’ll correct myself. I don’t like unappetizing seaweed soup.”

The author silently started eating his cereal without saying much else. Moonjoong smiled before getting back to eating himself, the man seemed to be enjoying the situation quite a bit.

“I wonder why that man dislikes me so much. Do you know, teacher?”

“Who knows. They say not even god can know the happenings between a man and a woman. I can’t even begin to imagine what’s happening here.”

“Hah. Teacher… Can’t you just tell me his name? He won’t answer me and I kind of feel foolish for asking at this point. And apparently that name on the book is just a pen name?”

“He’s just very shy. You should take your time with him.”

Moonjoong stood up as well, having finished his meal. Suyeon started organizing the table with a sigh, she’s gotten used to this life already. She thought she’d be back home in just a single day, but she was already headed towards her fifth day here.

‘At least I’m getting a lot out of it.’

Her tension with the author wasn’t anything special, her real objective here was to observe Moonjoong. The man would usually go on a walk after breakfast, along with the author. Today was of no exception. Moonjoong stepped out of the villa with the author.

“Let me join.”

Suyeon walked outside with the book in her hand, the three of them walked the garden path behind the building. After a few minutes of silence, Moonjoong came to a stop in front of a rotting tree.

“There’s a scene where the second son gets murdered with a baseball bat.”

“Yes,” the author replied.

“How do you think he felt?”

“The implication was that he was taking back what was originally his.”

“Originally his?”

“Yes. The sentence that best describes the crazed old man is ‘what’s so wrong about training wild dogs, using my life as bait?’ The old man simply felt that he was taking back what he gave to his sons in the first place.”

“Taking back, huh.”

It’s begun, Suyeon quietly followed the two from behind. The reason why they were here right now wasn’t just to scout out a good location for the movie, they were also fleshing out Moonjoong’s character. Apparently the author was the one who demanded this method. He said his book couldn’t be turned into a movie unless he got to speak deeply with the actor, which was why Junmin prepared this place.

In some ways, the author was an amazing person. How did he have the courage to demand such a thing when this was just his first work?

‘Then again, he isn’t all talk at all.’

He would’ve been shot down immediately if he was an amateur writer, but his book was the real thing. The book was incredibly immersive despite it being his first work. The night Suyeon got the book, she stayed up all the way till four reading. She couldn’t even go to sleep right away afterwards because of the chills she got. The crazed madness of the old man, the disgusting side of humanity, and yet, the love humans still carried for each other… The book had everything, she wouldn’t have hesitated to fund a movie based on this book if she was an investor as well. It was just that good.

“He’s a very pitiable human being.”

“The problem is that there are too many people like him.”

“Committing murder towards the son that cast him out… Thinking about it keeps making me question what is true justice.”

“That’s why we need to keep talking about this. Even my views have changed as I keep talking with you, teacher. I’ll have to consult the director, but I did feel like we might want to get rid of some of the dark feelings in the movie.”

“So you’re thinking of normalizing murder.”

“Sort of. I think the message will carry through regardless.”

“Sure, sure. I don’t have much of a say in terms of production, so do what you want.”

The two started walking again, Suyeon organized her thoughts as well as she stepped forward. These two in front of her were setting up the framework of the movie. Even the investors and the producers had to give weight to Moonjoong’s opinion, so their conversation here was very important.

The author was especially tempting to Suyeon the more she looked at him, the man said that he’d use the conversation here to talk to the scenario author later on. He even seemed to be preparing for his next work using his ideas from here, Suyeon had a lot of expectations for his later works because of this. Junmin seemed to want to turn this man into something big, There was no way he’d let the author have his way with this otherwise. This meant that the author’s later novels had a high chance of getting a drama or a movie based on it. If she manages to give him a decent idea, he might even base a character off of her. That would automatically give her an edge over everyone else.

The wind was getting colder. The two men made their way deeper into the mountain, Moonjoong slowly looked up to the sky as he passed by a pine tree.

“Is killing a person really that bad?”

Suyeon felt a chill go down her back, the man was eerily calm. Suyeon has been observing how Moonjoong tried to take hold of his character ever since she got here. His method was very simple, method acting. The thing was… Moonjoong seemed to become more and more like the old man in the novel as time went on. Every time she saw him say something frightening so calmly, she couldn’t help but feel a little envious and be impressed at his skill. She even wanted to steal his practice method.

Of course, there was nothing she could do to steal something that could only come through age and experience. The best she could do was to try to learn from the side, she could only observe what Moonjoong did to focus.

“No, no. Killing a person is wrong.”

“I share that sentiment, but I do find myself getting confused at the edge cases. If a family of a victim kills a serial killer, is that really a wrong thing?”

“I suppose it’s a matter of ethics and justice.”

“I occasionally think this, but the law is far too inhumane. Laws carry no love. Living in this era where personal revenge is forbidden romanticizes the violence in movies.”

“Was the old man right in his acts?”

“That’s what I’m hoping you would express. I don’t have a feel for it at all as of now.”

They walked forward with a mutual nod of understanding. Suyeon could only think of one thing when she saw them, a damn bunch of lunatics.

‘But that’s what makes them so charming.’

The world wasn’t for normalcy, it wanted the crazies. Suyeon followed them quietly today as well, hoping she could imitate some of that craziness that these two were expressing.

* * *

“It’s all because of you.”

Maru had to think for a few minutes about what he should even say when Geunseok told him that out of nowhere.

“You ruined everything. God damn it.”

Geunseok disappeared out of his sight with just that, Maru only found out the day after from Taesik that Geunseok quit the club.

“He switched clubs?”

“The study club, yes.”

“Why so suddenly…”

“He said he got bored of acting.”

“Bored?”

Maru couldn’t understand what was happening for the life of him, so he went to visit Geunseok at lunch. He tried to talk to the boy but was met with complete silence, it would’ve honestly felt better to just speak to a wall.

“Let’s see how you guys can thrive without me.”

That’s the only thing Geunseok told him in the end. Maru didn’t even feel the need to respond to that smirk, so he just left.

“So what now?”

“You, me, Bangjoo, Jiyoon. And the four third years.”

“We still need two more people.”

Daemyung had a crestfallen face. They turned to look at the calendar at the back of the classroom, it was Saturday. The last day the students would get to choose their clubs. If they didn’t turn in forms by today, they would lose their clubroom.

“The filmmaking club was requesting their own clubroom. The vice president of the school council told me.”

They got some information on current events thanks to a friend. At this rate, the filmmaking club would take over their clubroom.

“I suppose we’d have to find two randoms.”

“Yeah, there’s no other way.”

“I mean, we need to keep our clubroom first and foremost. We can just change things again next week.”

They had no choice but to recruit first years next week. Maru stood up from his seat and walked to the front of the class, he gathered everyone’s attention by knocking on the blackboard.

“Anyone down for a part time job?”

They needed club members before anything else.

Chapter 181

"We got the registration forms for now.”

Maru handed the forms over to Taesik. There were four third years who were just there by name, two new first years, and four second years.

“Oh, new kids from our class.”

“Yes. I just wanted to fill in the numbers for now.”

Clubs with less than ten people didn’t have the luxury of a clubroom, so Maru met the quota using ghost members.

“You must be thinking of finding other members next week.”

Taesik leaned backwards with a troubled look.

“Is there an issue?”

“The rules have changed, unfortunately. The school recently had a meeting about this after they received a request from a student.”

Taesik got up from his seat and walked out of the teacher’s office, Maru followed behind him. Taesik ordered two cups of coffee from the vending machine next to the school store before walking over to a corner.

“The faculty talked about how some clubs had clubrooms since the beginning of school. The principal seemed oddly willing to talk about this topic for some reason. Usually, he leaves this kind of stuff to the school council.”

“…Could it be…”

“The school council decided to let other clubs try having clubrooms as well and the faculty agreed. So they decided to perform an investigation on all clubs that had clubrooms for more than five years. Ah, sorry, they already finished the investigation and made their decision.”

“So what happens to the acting club?”

“We’re losing the clubroom. The reading, music, and toys club get to keep their clubs due to their results in various national competitions, but not us.”

“So the winter competition wasn’t appealing enough.”

Taesik nodded.

“I couldn’t say anything to the school wanting to let other students have a chance at getting their own clubrooms. Especially since they are right.”

Taesik gulped down the chilled coffee, Maru finished his in one gulp as well.

“How long do we have?”

“The third week of March.”

“It’s going to take a while to move all of the props.”

“Worse, finding a place to keep all of it.”

“You don’t happen to have a storage room somewhere, do you?”

“Of course I don’t. What made you think I would?”

“I was just asking out of false hope.”

Maru was reminded of a time when the landowner decided to raise his rent. It must’ve been an obvious decision to the landowner, but Maru recalled the feeling of having his world crumble around him when he heard it. It almost felt like he got betrayed by his own house, even though that house was never actually his, to begin with. It was the same with the school, the clubroom wasn’t actually theirs. It was the school’s and there was nothing they could do about the school’s decision.

“We’ll have to find a new place first.”

“I’ll help as much as possible.”

“Do you know of a storage space the school doesn’t use?”

“Don’t know. I’ll take a look around.”

“Thank you.”

Maru returned to the classroom after finishing his conversation with Taesik, Daemyung greeted him with a bright smile.

“How’d it go? Did it work?”

“Nope, we’ll have to leave.”

“What? Really?”

“The rules have changed. Can’t do anything about it. We’ll have to leave.”

Maru gave back the registration forms he collected from his classmates.

“What the, what’s going to happen to you guys then?” Dojin asked worriedly.

“We’re screwed, obviously.”

“…Is it because I left?”

“You’re definitely not enough to influence this decision, so don’t worry. Explain to the others as well. We’re doing this because the school’s telling us to do it, not because you guys left.”

Maru didn’t want the former members feeling guilty over this, they left because they all had their own paths to walk. Maru didn’t want to place any unnecessary burdens on them.

“So how did this happen out of nowhere, then?”

“Well, that’s the odd thing.”

The principal probably took a liking to the school council’s suggestion. After all, the man disliked the acting club as is. But why did the school council speak out against it to begin with? Maru tried asking the vice president’s friend, but he didn’t get a decent response.

“I just know that the idea came out and it reached the principal’s ears.”

Was it just coincidence?

“Let’s head to the clubroom after lunch. We’ll need a plan if we want to move everything out.” “So we really are leaving, huh,” Daemyung sighed.

It was a done deal, so they couldn’t help it. They’d be better off trying to plan things out as fast as possible. On their way to the cafeteria after their fourth period, they ran into Taesik.

“They said there wasn’t a good place inside the school.”

Bad news never comes alone, does it? The school didn’t even have a single storage room to spare.

“Thank you for looking.”

“I’m looking for clubs willing to give up their clubrooms, but this isn’t easy either.”

“You probably won’t find any, since people dislike letting go of things they have.”

“Right. But I still have hope for now.”

“We’re going to organize the clubroom after lunch. We’ll start with the heavier stuff close to the door first.”

“And we’ve moved everything just two months ago too.”

“We can’t help it, I guess. Please enjoy your meal.”

“You too.”

Outside the school… Maru didn’t have a very good place in mind. Just as he walked with a deep frown on his face, his back suddenly turned hot with a loud slapping noise. Yoonjung was smiling awkwardly behind him when he turned around.

“D-did it hurt a lot?”

She seemed to misunderstand the reason behind his expression.

“It’s fine. I was just frowning because of something that happened. Did you have business here?”

“…I heard the news about the clubroom.”

“Right.”

“Did you find a place yet?”

“Mr. Taesik couldn’t find a good place, so I’m a bit stuck. We’ll have to move out.”

“Out? Out where?”

“That’s the issue.”

Maru scratched his eyebrows. There were only residences next to the school, was there a building that could house their stuff nearby?

“What about a tent?” Yoonjung asked with her index finger pointing to the air.

A tent, huh.

“We could get a shipping container.”

“A c-container?”

“Used ones go for about two million won, so it should be a short term good solution. Oh, it might actually be a bit cheaper around now.”

Just as he was thinking a little more about the solution, he heard Yoonjung let out an exclamation of surprise.

“You really know everything, Maru.” “Yes, well.”

“You should’ve been the president after all.”

“Mm, that’s how things turned out.”

“Really? What about Geunseok?”

“Something happened to him. He left.”

“Really?”

Yoonjung widened her eyes, then left saying that she’d be talking to the boy.

“She’s the same as ever.”

“She’d be popular with the boys too if she wasn’t so energetic all the time.”

Maru could only nod at Dojin’s statement.

“A container, though? Can you even buy that?” Daemyung asked.

“There’s quite a lot of supply. If we ask the right people, we could even get it delivered for free. It could be even cheaper if all we’re looking for is a waterproof one.”

“B-buying one? You said it was over two million.”

“Well, if we can get permission from the school, there’s no reason not to.”

“What about the money?”

Maru smiled at Daemyung.

“Alright, we found one solution, so let’s eat.”

“No, but what about the money?”

“Let’s go. Noodles for lunch.”

“What about the money?!”

Daemyung chased after Maru with a confused expression.

* * *

“Who was that girl at lunch? She was pretty.”

“Someone who’s into me.”

“Seriously?”

Geunseok shrugged at his friend. Yoonjung came to ask him why he left during lunchtime. He was annoyed at her for asking so many questions, so he just told her that he found the club annoying. He led her on a bit because it was cute watching her asking him to come back, but he had no intentions of going back. Well, not that he could to begin with. His dad wouldn’t allow it.

Nothing bad happened on the day his dad found out, thankfully. But he was told to give up on acting completely. Geunseok knew that he wouldn’t be able to change his father’s mind at all.

“Hey, Hong Geunseok.”

He met his friend right in front of the council room, it was the council’s vice president. A few days ago, he gave his friend a little suggestion. To change the rules so that more clubs would be able to use clubrooms.

“Your request went through.”

“Really?”

“The senior really liked it. The principal was a fan too.”

Geunseok smiled.

“That’s good.”

“Why did you ask for a change like that out of nowhere?”

“Just because? Fairness, I guess?”

“What the hell are you talking about? Ah, I was going to hang with a few girls, want to join?”

“When?”

“Tomorrow.”

“Fine. Food’s on me.”

He felt better already. He’d need to wait to hear the specifics, but the acting club would probably have to move out because of this. Geunseok walked up to the fourth floor through the central stairs. He noticed that the acting club’s door was open. Looking inside, he could see the club members moving several props.

“What are you doing?” Geunseok asked, suppressing a laugh.

“Organizing.”

“Organizing? Why?”

“They said we need to move out, so we don’t have a choice. Want to help?”

“You think I’m as free as you people?”

He almost let his laughter slip out, Geunseok turned around after wishing them luck. He felt good already watching them being put to work, it’d take a lot of effort to move all of those props.

‘Should’ve acted tame from the start, fucker.’

Geunseok took a look at the sign of the acting club before stepping downstairs. Acting was pretty fun. He didn’t have many regrets about stepping away from it, it definitely had its own charm. Too bad his father didn’t allow it, it wasn’t like he could rebel against the man anyway. Only crazy people like his brother did that, thinking about his brother made Geunseok’s stomach twist. His brother managed to get recognized, disgusting. The person who couldn’t even chase after his shadow was now acknowledged by his father.

“I hope you fucking fail. All of you.”

Geunseok took a step forward with a bitter frown.

* * *

“I didn’t think you’d contact me out of nowhere like this.”

“I happened to have the time and I also happened on some troubling news.”

Hong Janghae took a sip of the porridge a fancy waitress had brought him. This multi-leveled Chinese restaurant wasn’t that big, but it was a place that many celebrities frequented. Janghae knew very well how difficult it was to reserve a seat here.

“Geunsoo told me that you enjoy Chinese food.”

“Yes, quite a bit. This is a place I’ve been meaning to visit for quite a bit. I didn’t think my first time here would be for such an occasion.”

He came thanks to Junmin’s invitation today, Janghae was a fan of the food and the quiet environment here.

“Do you drink?”

“I enjoy it.”

Junmin put in an order after hearing that, a golden bottle of alcohol arrived shortly after.

“Please, have a drink.”

He took a glass from Junmin. The orange lighting of the restaurant attached an ethereal quality to the alcohol, Janghae poured Junmin a glass, too.

“This drink is good as an appetizer. Let’s talk after our meal.”

“Sounds good.”

Janghae didn’t refuse, he was hungry. He slowly savoured each dish from the courses. The tantan noodles in the jade dish were the most inspiring. Once the meal ended, Junmin opened his mouth to speak.

“I heard Geunseok left the acting club.”

Janghae nodded.

“I made him do it. Geunsoo is a very stubborn boy. I wasn’t able to stop him because of that, but Geunseok’s different. He listens to me very well. He returns to his rightful path with just a few words.”

“I see.”

Janghae let go of the glass he was holding just a moment before. He had the feeling he wasn’t going to like what he was about to hear.

“I dislike small talk.”

“Me too. So I’ll cut straight to the chase.”

Junmin put his two hands on the table.

“What do you think about letting Geunseok continue acting?”

Chapter 182

“Acting? My son?”

“Yes, that’s right.”

“My, I’m a bit shocked.”

It’s only been a few days since he told his son not to take after his older brother.

“I think I’m good with having just one son stray off the right path.”

“I’m not forcing it, of course. I’m just asking you to open up to the possibility of letting your son try acting for two more years. So that the boy has options to succeed.”

“Success… Do you think Geunseok has what it takes to be successful in acting?”

“For now, yes.”

“For now?”

“As you know, Geunseok doesn’t really have a process. He has the motivation to become successful, but he doesn’t really know what he wants to do.”

“He’s not matured, after all.”

“That’s why I’m asking you. I understand that Geunseok wasn’t taking his studies lightly even when he was acting?”

Janghae smiled slightly in pride.

“He always placed first.”

“I don’t know if you know this, but the team Geunseok was in charge of won the cultural recognition award in their last national acting competition.”

“I never heard of this.”

“It wasn’t first place, but he did manage to earn the acting club its first award in a few years.”

“Hoh, he did?”

“Yes.”

“So he really might have talent after all.”

Janghae took a sip from his oolong tea, he was wondering what Junmin was thinking of right now. Did his younger son have that much talent?

“What do you think about letting him do acting so long as it doesn’t interfere with studies?”

“I still think that time would be better spent on studying instead.”

“Grades don’t linearly improve with the amount of time invested. It’s best to think about efficiency.”

“You mean…”

“If you allow it, I’ll arrange a good teacher for Geunseok. They’re people who studied abroad, so I’m sure you’ll take a liking to them.”

“Personal tutoring?”

Junmin took out a small folder without saying any more, inside were documents detailing several people who graduated from famous foreign colleges.

“I’m confident that this wouldn’t negatively impact Geunseok’s grades.”

Janghae closed the folder to look at Junmin. He was starting to become increasingly suspicious. Why was this man so desperate to have Geunseok become an actor?

“Is Geunseok really worth this much investment?”

“He’s definitely worth it, but there’s something else as well.”

“Something else?”

“Yes. Sir, what do you think a person needs most when they grow?”

Janghae didn’t even hesitate with his answer.

“Hardships.”

“Indeed. I agree.”

“You think my son will become a hardship for someone else?”

“If I were to be direct, then yes. It won’t be a bad contract though. If Geunseok follows my curriculum well and decides to go into acting after high school, I plan on giving him my full support. I promise you that I’ll raise him with every method I have available to me. I’m a bit embarrassed to say this, but… With my name value, it’s not that difficult to have your son appear on every major TV channel.”

“Hmm.”

Janghae stroked his chin. He did take his time researching this Lee Junmin in his spare time, he knew very well that this man wasn’t bluffing right now.

“And even if Geunseok loses interest in acting, I won’t cut my support for his education. What do you think, isn’t this an alright deal for his current value?”

“It’s not just alright. It’s amazing. It does make me curious. Just who are you planning on raising to use my son as a stepping stone?”

Janghae continued with a small pause.

“Also, what would you do if my son reverses the outcome?”

“I just have to raise Geunseok in that case. No need to think that hard.”

“Weren’t you planning on sacrificing my son because you cared very much for the other side?”

“Sacrificing? No way. I like Geunseok. I like people with value, not people who can’t do anything even after taking my money. If you can’t rise up, then you’ll only get trampled on. I want to lead the people who are capable of rising up.”

Janghae had to change his impression of Junmin. He thought the man was just a nice, gentle representative of a management company last time. Completely different from the man right now who was incredibly cold and calculating. He was showing his kinder qualities to Geunsoo, who succeeded, and coldness to Geunseok. Janghae emptied his glass of alcohol before letting Junmin pour some more.

“Fine. Let’s do it.”

“Good decision.”

“Please take good care of him. Geunseok’s a bit frustrating, but he does make good results as long as he focuses.”

“I am well aware.”

Janghae emptied his new glass immediately.

* * *

Junmin took out his phone after meeting Janghae.

“Geunsoo.”

- Yes, senior?

“Where are you?”

- I went to Maru’s school to pick him up. I think it’ll take some time though.

“What’s up?”

Junmin received word of Maru’s situation through the phone.

“Alright, I’ll take care of it, so take Maru down there as soon as you can. You’ll be there by dawn if you leave now.”

- You care about him a lot, huh?

“I care about him just as much as I cared about you. At least he didn’t leave home like someone else. There’s no helping the fact that I’d care a lot more about him than someone else who ran away penniless.”

- Wow, sounds like one crazy dude. You’re talking about Ganghwan, right?

“Shush, just hurry up. Teacher’s probably waiting.”

- Understood.

Junmin took out his notebook and checked his schedule. Thankfully, he was free until next weekend.

“Alright then.”

Junmin took out his phone again and called Lawyer Park, he immediately hung up after getting a voice message. Just a few minutes later, he got a call back from Lawyer Park.

- What’s up?

“Do you have time?”

- Time? What do you mean by time?

“You remember meeting the chairman of this one high school because of Maru’s case?”

- Chairman? Oh! Of Woosung High? Of course, I do. We drank quite a bit together.

“I was wondering if I could see him today. For a favor.”

- A favor? Are you planning on branching out into schools now?

“Not at all. Just come to restaurant Yongjung for now. You like their fried rice, don’t you?”

- Are you trying to flex on me? Meeting at a place like that just for fried rice?

“So? Not coming?”

- No, of course I am. By the way, what would you even have done if I didn’t have a retainer agreement with you? Do you think you can just call people like me out in an afternoon?

“I know you’re not that busy with your current case, so get over here. You can leave your current work to someone under you.”

- Ugh. So, you’re planning on seeing that chairman now?

“I mean, it’s dinnertime. Might as well meet him here.”

- I’ll try asking him then.

“Don’t ask. Make him come here.”

- I hate how you always make such troublesome requests.

“But you always do them.”

Junmin closed his phone and waited. Lawyer Park was a very straightforward person, he always told you what he could and couldn’t do. If the man was hitting back with a joke like he did just now, then it meant that he could do it.

Junmin drank from the tea the employee gave him as he waited. After about thirty minutes, Lawyer Park entered the room. The man took off his blazer immediately and hung it over his chair.

“So hot. It’s Spring already.”

“It’s just March. Isn’t Spring still a bit of a way off?”

“I get hot easily.”

“Anyway, the chairman?”

“He’s coming soon. He didn’t understand what I meant by the CEO of JA production, so I just told him you’re someone big in the entertainment business.”

Lawyer Park complained about the lack of food immediately after taking a sip of cold water.

“I’ll order a full course once the chairman arrives, so be patient.”

After about twenty more minutes of waiting, the chairman arrived as well. The man had a smile on his face, but his eyes were betraying his true feelings. Junmin stood up to greet the man with a smile.

“Hello. The name’s Lee Junmin.”

“Nice to meet you. I’m Cha Iltae.”

Junmin ordered the food immediately as the chairman sat down. Since he ate with Janghae earlier, Junmin settled on some fruit for himself instead.

“I’m a bit shocked by the sudden call.”

“I apologize. I should’ve scheduled a meeting at a later time, but I wanted to see you in a hurry, which is why I contacted you through him.”

Junmin pointed at Lawyer Park as he spoke, who smiled as he picked up a piece of chicken.

“I see. But why did you want to see me…?”

“You’re probably very busy, so I’ll cut straight to the chase. It’s about the acting club.”

“Acting club? Woosung High’s acting club?”

“Yes.”

“What about it?”

“I wanted your help regarding them.”

“Help… Are they disappearing or something?”

“Not necessarily, I just heard that the school’s kicking them out of their clubroom. So I wanted to get a shipping container into the school to give them some storage space. I was wondering if that would be okay.”

The chairman gave Lawyer Park a little glance. The two of them started off on an incredibly bad footing, but they ended up becoming good friends by the end of the school violence incident.

“This friend pays people back in multiples. If it doesn’t harm you much, I think it’d be good to take him up on his request.”

“If you say so, Lawyer Park. There’s space for a shipping container behind the school, so the acting club is free to use one.”

“Thank you. Oh, and one more thing.”

“What is it?”

“Could you pass along a message to the principal?”

“What?”

“To allow the acting club to split in two later on. A student will probably request for such in the near future. I hope you can allow this to happen.”

“Two acting clubs? Why?”

“Well… Let’s just call it greed.”

“Mm, it’s not very difficult, so I can easily do it. Is that really enough?”

“Yes. More than enough.”

“Haha, I was actually quite nervous. Lawyer Park introduced you as someone amazing, so I thought your request was going to be equally troublesome.”

The chairman became noticeably more relaxed.

“I can fulfil requests like these anytime, so please contact me whenever you want.”

“Thank you. Ah, let’s get back to eating, shall we? Before the food gets cold.”

Junmin smiled.

* * *

“I’ll be back either late Sunday or early Monday. Yes. Please don’t worry. It’s like… camping.”

“Please don’t worry, mother! I’ll take care of Maru!!”

Geunsoo was shouting right next to Maru, who hung up after hearing his mother tell him to be careful.

“Juwangsan National Park? At this time of day? Mr. Junmin’s a bit too much sometimes.”

“You can sleep on the ride, but I have to keep driving. Ugh, what a life.”

“Want me to take over?”

“I’m not planning on an early grave.”

The car slid down the highway with ease, a sharp blast of wind whistled into the car through a small gap through the window.

“What’s Senior Moonjoong doing over there, by the way?”

“Getting his feel for acting back. You’ll see when you get there.”

“What am I supposed to do once I’m there?”

“Study.”

“Study?”

“The auditions for the movie’s starts next month. Weren’t you preparing for it?”

Maru nodded. Auditions. Auditions for the movie adaptation of the book Moonjoong gave him… so it was this close already, huh.

“Teacher probably wants to demonstrate how he prepares. I think he wants you to snag a role.”

“That’s quite a bit of pressure.”

“That’s why you need to work hard. There’s a lot of people counting on your success.”

“Me? But I didn’t even do anything.”

“Eh, there’s probably a reason why all the bigwigs have their attention on you regardless. They probably saw something inside you that you can’t see yet.”

Maru looked down at his hand. It was nice knowing that he was in the spotlight, but it really was a bit stressful. He wasn’t very confident just yet, acting on a stage was entirely different from an audition.

“Ah, Ms. Suyeon’s going to be there, by the way.”

“That’s not good news.”

“Why?”

“I don’t want to get close to her. Her personality isn’t compatible with mine.”

“I-is that so.”

“Yes.”

“You’re very direct, aren’t you?” Geunsoo smiled awkwardly.

Chapter 183

“Til next time.”

The chairman got into his car after shaking hands.

“So it went well?” Lawyer Park asked.

Junmin nodded with a smile.

“But why is Lee Junmin of all people taking the time to take care of little kids?”

“The more time an investor spends on his investment, the more he’ll get out of it.”

“You think Maru has that much value?”

“There’s that and I didn’t want to lose Geunseok so abruptly. It’d be nice to see both brothers become a pair of stars in the Korean entertainment business, wouldn’t you agree?”

“Ugh, again with that habit of yours, you were like that since college. Then again, you always liked to profit off of other people’s success.”

“I mean, the only thing I got out of my fifteen years of acting was just debt. That’s when I realized that I couldn’t make it big by myself.”

He realized a long time ago that he had no talent in acting, the reason why he tried it regardless was because of false hope. He has spent his mid-thirties struggling to make it big. He realized his foolishness when the theater company he worked at crumbled to the ground.

“Why don’t you travel and get some rest now? I’m sure you have more than enough money at this point.”

“Nope. I don’t want to retire yet. There are still so many things I haven’t done.”

“You’re still greedy, after producing so many big stars in Korea?”

Junmin nodded. Money no longer motivated him, it didn’t matter if he threw away all his money to get what he wanted.

“There are many people who are good at acting. They’re all great, but they don’t meet my requirements. They’ll never meet it.”

“…I think that person’s still got you in her grips. What was her name again?”

“Jung Haejoo.”

“Right. Her. I remember that time. It was around now. You were laughing like a madman, telling me you finally found it.”

“Right. She was the one person who really met my standards. Someone who could’ve become a true star.”

“I don’t want to bring up a dead person, but I was curious from the beginning. Did you like her?”

“…She liked dogs very much.”

“So that’s where your love of dogs comes from. Is that why you’re still single?”

“Maybe?”

“Hey, get married already. Don’t get tied down to your past so much. Her acting back then was probably amazing, but was it amazing enough for you to think about it even now? Memories are always beautiful. It can’t be helped that the Haejoo of your memories is better than everyone you’re seeing now. You’re past the age to be chasing after dreams. You should come to an agreement with yourself and enjoy life a bit more.”

“So, that’s why you keep calling me on your anniversary, to keep telling me you’re tired as hell?”

“Ugh, you and your memory.”

Lawyer Park stepped onto his car.

“It’s all subjective in the end. I don’t think there’s an actor who can charm everyone. Lower your hurdles a little bit. Make yourself comfortable.”

“I must look horrid if you, of all people, tells me that.”

“You only just realized? You’ve raised so many people over the past two decades. Just grab anyone on the street and ask them. Ask them if the people you’ve raised are average. Everyone’s going to say that your people are fantastic actors. So stop chasing after your memories. You’re amazing enough as is.”

Lawyer Park left, waving his hand through the window. Junmin watched the car get further away from his vision as he muttered.

“But friend, I’ve already seen it. I know what acting that can caress a person’s soul looks like. As you said, it could just be a ghost of my memories. But I can’t forget it. The play on that day, her acting on that day… I can’t help but chase after it, even if it’s but a ghost. I still haven’t stepped a foot away from the auditorium since that day.”

Junmin pressed down on his hat before walking away.

* * *

They arrived at Juwangsan National Park at around 1am, Geunsoo turned his car towards the still-lit villa.

“We’re here. You must be tired.”

“The one who should be tired is you.”

Maru followed Geunsoo out of the car into the villa. He could feel that there were people inside it, but there was no one in sight. The TV on the first-floor living room was making noises by itself.

“They must all be on the second floor.”

The two of them put down the food they bought on the way before walking up, they could hear noises coming from the room right next to the staircase. A voice of a woman. Geunsoo knocked on the door. A few seconds later, the door opened roughly. A blast of heat hit Maru on the face immediately. Heat not from a heater, but from a person’s energy.

“You’re here?”

Suyeon greeted them with a smile, her eyes glided down to the side onto Maru. Her smile deepened.

“Maru?”

“Yes. Well, hello.”

“You’re still not cute at all.”

Maru dodged Suyeon, who tried to pinch his cheeks lightly.

“Expensive as always. Well, come inside.”

Suyeon smiled as if she was used to this sort of treatment. Inside the room, there was a man with very short hair. In front of the man was a can of beer and a notebook, he raised his horned glasses to look at Maru.

“Who are you?”

Geunsoo was the one to answer that question.

“Mm, a complicated youth!”

Geunsoo spoke as if he was in a play.

“Did you two finally start to get along?”

“Nope, this author still hasn’t told me his name. Isn’t that a little too much, Mr. Geunsoo?”

“He’s just like that, so please be understanding.”

Geunsoo sat down next to the author, Maru sat there as well.

“What were you doing, by the way?”

“That woman was asking me to review her character, so I was watching.”

The man spoke with a very bored tone.

“I’m not ‘that woman’. I’m Kim Suyeon, I told you so many times already, Mr. Author.”

“Geunsoo’s here so I’ll be taking my leave.”

Suyeon blocked the door when the man tried to stand up.

“I’d like feedback from the author, please.”

“I told you already. It’s all good. I don’t know much about acting. Why is a professional like you trying to get feedback from me? Just do what you want.”

Maru smiled a little watching the two, watching Suyeon’s desperate behavior was a little amusing to him.

“Just help her out, why don’t you? You might end up working with her.”

Geunsoo pulled the man back as well, the man glared at Geunsoo before sitting back down.

“Alright then. Since the three of you are all here, please give me some feedback. I wanted to act out this bit right here.”

Suyeon opened the middle of the ‘Twilight Struggles’, she was pointing at the line of the second son’s daughter. Maru could remember the scene almost immediately, it was the result of reading the book ten times already after all.

Suyeon took a deep breath before collapsing down on the floor. She had an incredibly scared, frustrated look on her face, making it almost seem impossible that she was smiling a moment ago. She scratched away at the carpet below her as she slowly opened her mouth.

“…Grandpa, please don’t. Please? Please just calm down. There has to be a misunderstanding. Grandpa, grandpa! Agh!”

Suyeon moved backwards as if she just witnessed a massive snake in front of her. Maru could imagine a scene of an old man striking his dead son with a blunt tool once again. Crack. Crack. Crack. He could hear the horrible noises in his ears.

“Dad! Dad! Dad!”

Suyeon started crawling forwards again, pretending as if she was trying to help someone up. Surely there was a corpse in front of her right now, her expression was colored with desperation and fear. Terrifying, odd noises squeaked its way out from her open mouth. Her abnormal breathing, her trembling eyes, and her lost hands… She hugged the corpse in front of her before abruptly raising her head. She then fell back, as if she was hit by something.

‘As expected.’

A person without talent was sure to fail if they relied on relationships to move up in the world, but Suyeon was different. Setting aside the rumors about her, her acting skills were very real. She stood up from her spot after a short moment, she took a few seconds trying to calm herself without saying anything. Her hand on her chest was trembling slightly.

“How was it?”

Suyeon managed to open her mouth tiredly. Maru looked at the author, the man said ‘very good’ with a bitter smile.

“I told you, didn’t I? You’re a professional. It was flawless in my opinion. So asking for my feedback is pointless.”

“I don’t think so.”

Suyeon was speaking confidently again.

“You see, people are very good at judging art even if you don’t teach them about it. They have an objective standard for what good art looks like. I’m asking you, the author, as a result. Did my acting just now satisfy your standard? You said trying to get feedback from you was pointless? No way! I can tell from your face that you think my acting is bad.”

Maru had to change his impression of Suyeon right there, she was greedy for success and she was talented. She was showing him right here that her eating up other men, in the end, was just one of her abilities. Of course, this made him want to distance himself from her even more. He did realize though that he should probably maintain a good relationship with her. After all, who knows when they might end up working together?

“You’re very persistent.”

“You just realized?”

The man raised his book with a shake of his head.

“The daughter of the second son realized throughout the conversation that she would likely die with her father. That’s why she’s desperate. I don’t know how to put it, but you’re missing that. It looks very uncomfortable to look at your acting, but I can’t sense desperation from it. That’s all I can say.”

Suyeon put on an incredibly satisfied smile.

“See? You can do it if you try.”

“Can we rest now? I’ve been stuck here for an hour already.”

Suyeon stepped out with a nod, Geunsoo and the man followed behind her. The room was empty, Maru picked up the book from the floor and read the part Suyeon acted from again.

“Desperate.”

“What is it?”

Maru reflexively looked up, the man was looking at him from the doorstep. Didn’t he walk down with Geunsoo?

“You look dissatisfied.”

“It’s not much.”

“So just tell me. What is it?”

Maru thought for a second, it was probably very rude to criticize someone else’s creative work. Especially when said criticism came from a high schooler, he should just say something else here.

“I hate it when people make up words to avoid answering properly.”

Maru smiled bitterly and closed his book, so this was someone who only preferred honesty, huh.

“I just didn’t really like this part.”

“Where?”

“‘She hugged the corpse on the floor shouting father.’ This woman saw her grandfather murder her father cruelly. She even saw the man continuously strike her father’s corpse even after death.”

“Right.”

“The woman wants to live. She has enough judgement to be able to speak even after witnessing a murder. There’s even a scene of her trying to persuade her grandfather just before this one.”

“So?”

“I found it a bit odd for her to hug her dead father when her life was in her grandfather’s hands. I wondered what it would look like if she grabbed his pants and shouted grandfather instead… It’s nothing big.”

The man stretched out his hand as soon as Maru finished, he seemed to be asking for a handshake.

“I’m the person who wrote this book.”

“Ah, yes. Mr. Gwak Joon, right?”

That was the name on the book’s cover.

“That’s right.”

The handshake was very sudden, but Maru accepted it regardless. Right then, he heard a banging noise from downstairs. It was Suyeon.

“What are you doing upstairs?”

“We were just about to get down,” Gwak Joon responded.

Suyeon glared at Gwak Joon before turning to Maru.

“Maru, this person’s very cheap. He still hasn’t told me his name after all this time.”

“What? But the book…”

“That’s his pen name. What an odd author, don’t you think?”

Maru looked at Gwak Joon confusedly. He could see the man put an index finger over his lips behind Suyeon’s back.

“Haha.”

“What?”

“You’re totally being played.”

“What are you talking about?”

“Who knows?”

He could smell a spicy aroma from downstairs when he stepped out, his stomach was starting to churn in hunger.

“Did you eat?” Gwak Joon asked.

“Nope.”

“Let’s eat first. I’m a night owl so this is about the time I wake up. How about you?”

“I’m the same.”

“Alright, we can talk after the meal then.”

“Sure.”

Suyeon followed behind them with an annoyed shake of her head.

Chapter 184

“Where’s Senior Moonjoong, by the way?” Maru asked as he sat down.

“He said he needed to think, so he went out,” Suyeon answered.

“At this time?”

Was the man walking on a mountain at one in the morning?

“I think he just wants to organize his thoughts from somewhere quiet. More importantly, how’s the gamjatang? Good, right?”

“Bit salty for me.”

As soon as Maru responded, Gwak Joon followed up with ‘definitely salty’. Suyeon’s eyebrows rose up a little bit.

“Don’t eat it if you don’t want to. You know you look like an asshole if you complain about food though, right?”

Suyeon smirked. Gwak Joon immediately got up to grab cereal and milk from the fridge.

“Want some?”

“Yes please.”

Maru would gladly eat blocks of salt if it was for ‘her’, but definitely not for Suyeon. He poured the cereal in milk and topped it with some almonds.

“You’re too much.”

“I hear that a lot. Let’s go upstairs.”

Gwak Joon told Geunsoo that he would be taking Maru for the time being. Geunsoo tried to get up as well but sat back down upon receiving Suyeon’s glare.

“Ugh, the men here are all just…”

Maru and Gwak Joon got to the second floor, leaving Suyeon to fume by herself downstairs. They entered a room that was a distance away from the staircase.

“Come in.”

Maru followed the man inside, there were two desks and a single bed inside. One of the desks matched the overall design of the villa and the other one was a well-used, beaten steel desk.

“I can’t write if I’m not on that desk,” Gwak Joon said, pointing at the steel desk.

He seemed to be the type that couldn’t work without certain things, Maru encountered such people in his officer worker days as well: the employee who became nervous without her doll on the desk, the supervisor who needed to have his family picture on the table, and the vice president who always needed to sign contracts with a fountain pen.

‘It’s almost dreamlike, but I did live through those moments.’

Maru briefly recalled faint memories of those people before they faded away as quickly as they came. He looked at Gwak Joon’s desk with a sense of deja vu as a result, he could feel the author’s energy almost emanating from the table. The post-its that were stuck all over the table, the edges that became blackened from overuse, the drafts that were strewn all over it, and the laptop…

“You were writing a novel?”

“When I can’t type on the laptop, I escape to paper. It does make for a nice change of pace.”

It was an interesting use of the word ‘escape’ for Maru, he nodded as he walked towards the windowsill with its opened windows. The wind blowing inside was cold, but the air coming from the mountain was very refreshing.

“This is a good place to write.”

“Yes, I agree.”

They didn’t continue their conversation until after they both finished eating.

“That part from before… Did you think of it on the spot?”

Gwak Joon asked as he put the empty bowl on the wooden table.

“No. I started thinking the part needed a fix on my fifth read. It’s not weird without the fix though.”

“No, that part you caught is definitely a mistake.”

“A mistake?”

“A mistake that happened when I exchanged drafts with the editor, the final draft was one where the daughter hangs off of the grandfather. It’s written a little less dramatic than the way you put it though, I didn’t want her approaching a bloody old man for the sake of survival.” “I see.”

For sure, having the daughter scramble backwards out of fear would be more realistic than her hugging the old man’s waist.

“But by mistake, you mean…”

“They ended up printing from one of the past drafts. It was a mistake. Well, my mistake. I should’ve read it one last time before I gave the go-ahead for the print.”

“Can you fix it on the second print?”

“There’s no way my work would get a second print. The world of novels is a very competitive place.”

“But don’t you think you might get a chance if your movie succeeds?”

“That would be nice. I would be able to focus solely on writing if it did. I thought it was funny hearing that you needed money to write in the past, but I’m really suffering because of it now.”

Maru knew that many authors had trouble earning money. It would be best for the author to live solely off of money from their publications, but he did hear that most authors worked multiple jobs to survive.

“For sure, opening other people’s wallets is a very difficult thing.” “You sound like a know-it-all.”

“I worked part-time in the past.”

Among other things. Maru glanced at the post-it notes on the steel table, they must be ideas for Gwak Joon’s next projects. The notes were filled with odd scribbles. “Gun”, “Yum yum yum”, etc… What would he do there? Stuff like that.

“Were you writing your next novel?”

“Novel? No way. I was just scribbling my daydreams.”

“Twilight Struggles was almost too good to be just called a daydream. I did read it ten times after all.”

Gwak Joon smiled lightly at that, Maru felt as if he just caught something rare from the man.

“You were auditioning, I heard?”

“How did you know?”

“Mr. Moonjoong told me that he had a kid he wanted to work with.”

“Wow, how troublesome. That makes me nervous already.”

“Nervous? You don’t seem like the type that gets nervous.”

The man glanced at Maru through his horn-rimmed glasses, he had very good senses. In the end, Maru gave in and told the man he wasn’t nervous at all.

“The delinquent role, correct?”

“Yes.”

“Are you preparing for it in any way?”

“Other than reading the book? No. I don’t even know what to prepare for since I know nothing of auditions.”

The number of people he would be auditioning in front of, how many lines he’d need to act out, if he needs to mix in movement… He knew none of it. He knew he’d have to pay attention to it one way or the other, but he was busy enough as is with the acting club.

“I don’t know how auditions work either, so I can’t tell you much on that front. I can, however, tell you my thoughts when I wrote your character though.”

Gwak Joon sat on the table and motioned Maru close to him, he picked up one of the notebooks on the corner of the table.

“This was what inspired me to write Twilight Struggles.”

It was a little scrap of an article from a newspaper, a case of murder. Maru remembered it, it was about a young man who planned out his parents’ murder during desperate times amidst a financial crisis.

“Do you know the backstory of this case?”

“Wasn’t he caught? I know he had to serve his sentence.”

“That’s the end result, but the story that took place to the end was incredibly sad. The mother called the insurance company when she was stuck in her flaming house at her last moments. She checked that her son would receive the money on her death. She apparently sighed in relief when she got confirmation.”

“………”

“That’s what made the insurance company wonder if this was a fraud. They launched an investigation and that’s how they found out that this was first-degree murder.”

It was a heavy story. The son sold his parents to survive while the parents worried for their child until the very end.

“That’s when I became curious. Would all parents sacrifice themselves for their children? How would parents that gave away their everything to let their children live on feel? What if they regretted their decision?”

“So that was the start of the novel.”

“That’s right. ‘Twilight Struggles’ is a novel that had all familial love stripped away from it. There is no joy in this novel. Everyone walks to their own path of self-destruction until the very end. But there is one person who smiles at the end.”

“The… old man.”

“That’s right. As a result, the movie I envisioned was something absolutely filled with madness. I hoped that all of the characters would be overtaken by insanity. The moment an old man’s hope in a crumbling gray city shatters, the movie starts accelerating to its eventual doom.”

Gwak Joon flipped the page on the notebook, he flipped through several pages of scribbles before reaching a certain page.

“This is the delinquent.”

There was just a single word and a drawing on that page. A revolver and a word reading “trigger” below it.

“I spoke with the scenario writer and the storyboard author. The delinquent appears for thirty seconds in the movie and his lines are only ten seconds long. But that thirty seconds is critical to the movie’s story.”

Gwak Joon raised his head, his eyes were filled with confidence for his story.

“I told everyone who joined this project to give these thirty seconds to me because this is the moment that blows life into this story. As I wrote this book, I spent a full month editing the delinquent’s lines. I wanted to keep working on it, actually. Even now, I still want to keep working on it. That’s why I want the actor for this role to be crazy, like me.”

Maru was faced with a passionate soul. The man looked like a crow on the outside, but inside, the man was like a molten core. His fervour was almost palpable. Then again, that was probably why he could write a novel like this in the first place.

“It’s an important hint, isn’t it?”

“Consider a gift from a like-minded person. I judge people purely based on their first impressions. I don’t believe second or third impressions truly matter. In that sense, I like you. I’d like to see you act out that scene.”

“But you don’t know much about me at all.”

“I just said, I judge people based on their first impressions.”

Gwak Joon handed Maru his notebook.

“Read this. And try it. There are lots of people downstairs you can ask for help from in terms of the audition. I don’t particularly like the woman, but she is very talented.”

Maru nodded.

“Can you just give something like this to me, by the way? Don’t you need this?”

Gwak Joon raised a finger to his head and poked it.

“It’s all in here. The paper was only necessary to organize my ideas.”

“…Ah, yes.”

Maru couldn’t even say anything in response with how confident the man sounded. He took a look at the notebook before realizing there was a familiar ‘S’ logo written on it, it was from Seoul university. Flipping the notebook, he realized it was from the law faculty.

“Um, this school…”

“I lost interest in the middle, so I dropped out.”

“Dropped out of Seoul University’s law school?”

“Why?”

Maru looked at Gwak Joon with a slight smile, perhaps this man’s writing was filled with madness because the man himself was slightly crazy.

‘To think he’d drop out of a dream school for practically everyone in Korea… ’

The world really was unfair. How could it just give all the talent in the world to someone like him?

Chapter 185

“Weren’t you scared?” Maru asked as he closed the notebook.

“Of what?”

“When you dropped out. Many people spend 12 years of their lives working with Seoul University as their goal. Yet you dropped out regardless. Weren’t you scared of what might happen afterwards?”

Gwak Joon started spinning his pen between his fingers.

“My father always loved to talk about law school. He said law school was heaven on earth and it would be my sole goal in life. That made me believe I’d have to go to law school when I grew up. I didn’t know why I had to go to college, like everyone else at the time. I just thought I had to go because, well, my parents wanted me to.”

The man was right. Maru was whisked into college as well since everyone else had gone at the time, he didn’t want to stray from the norm.

“The current state of society makes it so that you have to work to bring capitalists profit. To these capitalists, the greatest form of profit are laborers that don’t question their decisions. Not the smart people, mind you. So how would you go about making these laborers?”

“If you want to make submissive ones… education.”

“That’s right, education. This country’s education is completely centered on making easy to manage people. It’s a very efficient factory in that sense. Ok then, tell me this. If that factory creates an unusual part, what would the factory call that part?”

“A defective product.”

“Exactly. This country doesn’t accept diversity or uniqueness at all. They think you’re crazy to try to escape this factory they built for you. Things were the same when I dropped out of college. They told me that I was crazy for giving up a possibility for an easy life.”

Gwak Joon suddenly tightened his grip on his pen.

“Was I scared? Of course I was. Was I nervous? Incredibly so. Because I was transitioning from a machine to becoming a human. I’m not trying to mock those who stay in the factory lane. If they stay on that route and have a definitive goal for themselves, that makes them human as well. But I do wonder sometimes. How many people actually do the things they do because they want to do it?”

Maru might’ve laughed at the man in his previous life, but he could understand the man now. At some point in your life, you start getting desensitized to everything. The word ‘why’ disappears from your vocabulary. Why do I study math? Why do I go to school? Why do I study, to begin with?

You start accelerating, in the bad sense of the word.

The barricades set on the sides of the road stop looking like barriers, they start looking like the environment instead. Instead of wondering what’s on the other side of those barricades, all you care about is how fast you can go on the road. When you start seeing those who try to get out of those barricades, you end up only being able to say one thing.

You’re crazy.

When you see those who actually go over those barricades and succeed, once again you can only ask one thing.

How the hell did that guy succeed?

“If you keep following a path because that’s what you’ve done for the past twelve years of your life, then what becomes of the eighty years you still have left in front of you? I dropped out as such a thought occurred to me. I don’t want to recommend my path to anyone, but I did manage to do what I wanted in the end. Personally, I’m satisfied.”

“Wouldn’t you have regretted your decision if you weren’t even able to get a single book out?”

“If that was the case, I would’ve been sighing every time I looked at Seoul University’s logo. But even so, I’d rather regret having done something rather than be relieved that I didn’t do something. Regrets spawn from decisions. I’d rather have the freedom of choice rather than be free from regret.”

Freedom of choice.

“I suppose some of that mentality applies to the old man in the book as well.”

“The old man lived that life as well. He invested his all into his children like everyone else around him. He raised his children and expected filialty from them. But in this horrible cycle, a mere pebble in the road can break this relationship completely. The real world proves this time and again, as a matter of fact.”

“So the old man made a decision in the end. Through murder.”

“He wanted to prove himself, no matter how violent the method was.”

The old man lived an average life. In the end, he decided to throw away that mundaneness of himself. Was the old man happy as he murdered his own children?

“I personally think that the parent-child relationship should be a lot more relaxed than it’s supposed to be right now. Humans are very annoying creatures. Most animals can take care of themselves after just a year. But human children need twenty, sometimes even more, years of looking after. It’s absolutely ridiculous. That’s why you have parents who think of children as a sort of insurance. They invested through their effort into raising their child, so they expect that much back in return from their kid. I greatly dislike that mentality.”

“Parent-child relationships would certainly improve without that mindset.”

“Right. Of course, I get why parents think this way. It is a huge investment, after all. But I think that’s precisely why parents and children need to draw a line on both emotional and financial investment. The parent should allow their child to live freely after raising them. The child should live a life of their own. Rinse and repeat. Don’t pressure your child and don’t see them as insurance.”

It made sense. Every parent wanted to see their child do well. Why? Digging deeper into that question reveals some complicated and sometimes disturbing reasons. Maru tried looking back to his own past, he somewhat remembered chastising his own daughter for doing badly in a test. He recalled his ruthlessness to his daughter at the time. Did he do that for his daughter? Because he really cared for her future?

Perhaps what he really should’ve done is cheer her on, telling her she worked hard. She must’ve gotten chastised enough at school, so could he really scold her again in the name of love? All his life, Maru told himself that home should be a place to rest your body and soul. Realizing that he’s betrayed that notion to his daughter made him let out a laugh of self-mockery.

If he scolded his daughter for bad grades and praised her for good ones, then what became important to him were grades. He loved his daughter and not her grades. So why did he scold her? Perhaps he, too, was thinking of her as an investment of sorts.

“Raising your own child is a responsibility. The moment you try to use the logic of contracts into that relationship, it’s ruined.”

The child can’t choose their parents, the child gets born through the parents’ decision. So, raising a child is the parent’s responsibility. The parent needs to make sure that the life that they gave birth to by their own volition can grow up to be independent.

“Perhaps I was mistaking responsibility for love.” “What?”

“It’s nothing. Just talking to myself.”

The conversation they had today gave Maru insights in raising his child. He shouldn’t look at the minor benefits that his child would bring him, rather look at the child itself. This idea struck closer to home than just the idea of ‘familial love’.

The two of them talked more about the book for another twenty minutes after that, Maru asked several questions that came to him as he read the book. He got answers to some and they contemplated several of the other questions together.

“Interesting, isn’t it? I was the one who wrote the book, but I always discover something new when I talk about it with someone else. That probably means I’m still inexperienced.”

Just as Gwak Joon put his pen down, they heard a sound of an engine from out the window. The bright light of a car’s headlights struck their window briefly before disappearing.

“He’s back.”

Gwak Joon got up from his seat. Was it Senior Moonjoong? Maru stepped down the staircase as well.

“I was wondering why it was so quiet.”

They could see an empty soju bottle, Suyeon was sleeping on a sofa and Geunsoo was passed out right under it. It hasn’t even been an hour. Maru shook his head as he walked to the front door, the sounds of the engine stopped from out the door. Moonjoong stepped inside shortly after, wearing a big padded jacket.

“Welcome back,” Gwak Joon said.

Maru tried to greet the man as well, but Moonjoong looked a bit odd. The old man looked at the two of them with disinterest before heading straight to the second floor.

“…He looks really mad.”

“I don’t think that’s it.”

Gwak Joon seemed totally aware of what was happening.

“Help me make some tea. It’s supposed to be that woman’s job, but she’s clearly passed out right now.”

Maru put some water on boil using the coffee pot in the living room. In that time, Gwak Joon put a spoon of honey into a teacup. They put the boiling water on top of it and headed to the second floor. Gwak Joon knocked on the room on the left side of the staircase.

“Sir, this is Joon. I have some tea for you.”

There was no immediate response from inside. A few moments later, Moonjoong opened the door with a tired expression. He looked absolutely exhausted, but his eyes had some warmth back in it.

“Sorry about before. I had some scraps left inside still. Come inside.”

Maru paid particular attention to the man’s walk. He was stumbling a little bit like someone who just finished a marathon. What in the world was this person doing in his car?

“You should warm up a little,” Gwak Joon said as he handed the cup over.

Moonjoong looked a lot better with a sip of honeyed water inside him.

“You did it today as well?”

As well? Maru waited for Moonjoong’s reply. The man slowly responded after taking another sip of water.

“It was worse than yesterday. Thanks to it, I was very annoyed when I saw the two of you earlier. I wasn’t able to get all of the emotional scraps out of me.”

“Won’t you ruin your health at this rate?”

“It’s not that bad. Well, I suppose I should try to limit myself considering my age, but… This is very fun.”

Moonjoong smiled happily, the man didn’t match himself at all from when he first entered the house. What happened?

“You must be confused.”

Maru nodded.

“I wondered if I made a mistake in front of you.”

“Haha, nothing of the sort. Just…”

Moonjoong looked up into the ceiling.

“I’m in the process of becoming the ‘old man’.”

Chapter 186

Moonjoong let out a small sigh after taking a sip from the tea.

“I was a little bit lost since I’ve never acted out a role like this one, but preparing for it is still as fun as ever.”

“Did you go to the lake again, sir?”

Moonjoong shook his head at Gwak Joon’s question.

“No, I went to a better place. It helps me focus. There isn’t anyone around either.”

“It’d be troublesome if someone was there. You’d get reported for sure.”

“That’s true.”

It was difficult to grasp what the conversation was about. Maru opened his mouth silently.

“…A report?”

“I get a little bit loud.”

“You’re not just loud. It’s spine-chilling. Watching you act makes me reach for the phone almost instinctively, sir. I almost dialled 119 yesterday.”

Gwak Joon sounded like he was joking, but his words weren’t light at all. Moonjoong waved his hand with a laugh.

“What about you, then? You sound like you’re having a tantrum when you write in your room. It honestly made me wonder if you were crazy.”

“My tantrums are nothing compared to you, sir.”

It seemed the two men already formed a deep bond, that was unexpected. Gwak Joon seemed like an incredibly logical and judgemental person to Maru, someone who was as far away from jokes as one could ever be. The way he was talking to Moonjoong seemed to Maru like that of two old friends, he even had a light smile on his face.

That wasn’t all. The man was speaking lightly, but still maintaining his politeness. Maru felt like he was looking at two very experienced, very skilled giants from the way they treated each other. Two titans of their respective field who recognized each other.

“You must have something to say to Maru, sir.”

Gwak Joon got up from his seat.

“I’ll take this away.”

He opened the door with the teacup in his hand.

“Goodnight.”

“Yes, good night.”

Gwak Joon left, only then did Moonjoong finally take off his coat.

“Joon is an incredible person. It’s difficult for someone his age to have such a mindset. He feels like a very mature, full person on the inside.”

“I think so as well.”

“Did you talk with him for a bit?”

“Yes. I learned a lot from him. He changed the way I thought about things a lot as well. He’s a bit sharp around the edges, but that only adds to his charm.”

“He’s very sharp indeed. That’s what makes him who he is. He doesn’t look at things the way most others look at it. Rather cutting it vertically, horizontally, and even disassembles it completely in the end. Thanks to it, he often brings a new perspective to the table that others haven’t considered before. I’ve worked with many authors, but there weren’t many I could really address as such… Joon is a great author for sure.”

“He seemed very embarrassed by that title.”

“I like that part of him too.”

Moonjoong sat back down.

“Right, didn’t you tired getting here?”

“Geunsoo treated me well.”

“He’s working very hard as a driver.”

It was a six hours long round trip. By the sounds of it, this certainly wasn’t Geunsoo’s first trip. Knowing how difficult long-distance driving was, Maru felt pretty bad for Geunsoo. The man said he was fine with it, but the accumulated fatigue must’ve been immense. It was obvious from how he was sleeping in the living room.

“I have to ask him to drive me up again tomorrow. I feel very bad about it.”

“Massage his shoulders some time.”

“Yes. I really should.”

“Anyway, did you read the book?”

“Over ten times, yes. It’s a problem. I can’t let go of it once I put it in my hands.”

“Joon’s book is an amazing piece of work. You get sucked in as you read it.”

“I think so as well.”

“That’s what worries me more. We’re going to have to surpass the original work without hurting it. There are numerous writers and sub-writers working on the scenario still, but they still don’t like the latter part of the movie. We can’t even properly work on the storyboard without the script and the scenario either.”

“I heard the term in the morning as well, but what is a storyboard?”

“Ah, yes. You haven’t seen it before. I keep talking to you as if you already know everything about the industry. How odd.”

“I’ve only started acting half a year ago. I have a lot to learn.”

Moonjoong nodded and started looking around the drawers next to him, he grabbed one of the papers in front of the stand and gave it to Maru.

“This is a storyboard. It’s a little bit different for every author, but generally, it looks like this.”

Maru started turning the pages one by one. There were drawings inside little rectangles on the paper, almost like 4-cut comics in newspapers. Outside the rectangles were a bunch of words he didn’t recognize.

“Industry terms. Mostly regarding camera work. The director uses this to plan out the angle and the position of the camera before actually filming. A good storyboard is a movie of its own.”

Maru flipped through as he listened to the man’s explanations, there were a few pages with very detailed cuts and few pages with more words than pictures. It wasn’t difficult figuring out the overall plot of the movie despite not knowing all the words.

“There wasn’t anything like this back in my days. It’s rather new to the industry. It lets the director see their final product before filming and it reduces having to travel so much for filming.”

“So it’s like a manual.”

“That’s right. A very kind manual for a good movie.”

“So the filming will start once the storyboard for ‘Twilight Struggles’ is complete?”

“Correct. I heard we finished the introduction and most of the main plot. Once the screenwriter finishes the latter parts, we can go straight into filming.”

“And the auditions would happen before that. I heard it was next month.”

“It got delayed a little bit. It’ll probably be the first week of May.”

“A little more than a month, then.”

Maru responded as he stared into the storyboard, the paper had a very detailed description of how the director wanted to see each scene. There was probably no better piece of work than this in trying to see what was going on inside a director’s head. Maru’s hand came to a stop after flipping through a few more pages, they were blank like Moonjoong had said.

“Movies are pieces of art that take a truly large number of people to create. That’s why you have to act with even more care and focus. Being unable to act adequately in a movie is rude towards everyone else who’s worked with you on it.”

Heavy words. The plays performed by school clubs were created by the pitiful few members of the club, that made it much less pressuring as a result. It would feel bad if the play failed, but at least you weren’t hurting other people as a result. The story was different in a movie though, hundreds of people worked together to make a movie. Filming, sounds, lighting, editing, special effects, action scenes, location scouting, sets, food… Even Maru knew that a single movie would cost an incredible amount of money.

“The scary thing about films is that the actor is the only person who’s going to be on screen.”

Moonjoong spoke with a very scary look. He didn’t seem to be explaining the movie industry to a student, it looked like he was warning a fellow actor of the industry.

“Hundreds of people gather to complete a single movie. But in the end, the deciding factor of success largely lies in the actor’s ability. No matter how good the story is and no matter how fancy the special effects are, if the actor on the screen is just a wooden doll, it can never succeed. That’s why you always need to stay nervous.”

There are times when high budget films crash and burn while low budget films rake in an incredible amount of cash. Most of the time, the amount of cash invested directly correlated with the amount of money the movie was going to make, but the complete opposite could happen very easily as well. As Moonjoong said, everything was up to the actor in the end. There were directors who could overcome an actor’s shortcomings for sure, but in the end, they too liked to work with skilled actors.

“It makes me feel like I’m choking sometimes. Whenever the staff tell me that we need to succeed and tell me how much money went into the project, I want to run away. The director keeps asking for more retakes, the whole set gets filled with a nasty, cold air… It’s a horrid combination, especially coupled with the fact that I can’t act to their satisfaction.”

“How did that movie go?”

“We managed to turn up a profit, thankfully. Back in my day, we used to have hundreds of movies coming out yearly.”

“Hundreds?”

Moonjoong nodded.

“Because there weren’t any other forms of entertainment back then. It was shortly after our liberation as well, so many of us wanted to jump in with the intent to revive our culture. Many of us became odd by the end because of money though. That’s why I moved back into the playwriting business.”

Moonjoong’s story was rich with history. Then again, the man was there from the very beginning. Just listening to his story gave Maru valuable knowledge.

“You must’ve felt very odd thinking about standing in front of the crowd again.”

“To be honest, I’m nervous. Almost as if I was back shooting my first film. I’m also a little amazed that so many people are willing to risk their money on an old man like me.”

“Please don’t say that. There were so many people who came to the Myungdong Art Theater just to see you.”

“You’re only getting better at complimenting people by the day, aren’t you?”

“I might as well be the tongue in your mouth, sir.”

Moonjoong raised his eyebrows a little bit with a mock frown before smiling again.

“I hope you don’t lose that confidence. Please succeed in the audition.”

“I’ll try my best. But there’s no way good actors won’t come to audition for a project like this one. I’m a little scared that I might not come through in the end.”

“Regardless, try your best. At least try for the delinquent. The more time you spend in the industry, the better you’ll get.”

“I understand.”

“Ah, by the way, the time…”

“It’s 2:33am.”

“Time for bed, I see. You should go to sleep. We have somewhere to be tomorrow morning.”

“Somewhere to be?”

“I didn’t call you here just to talk to you. I wanted to show you something. Something that could help you with your acting.”

“Is it the lake, by any chance?”

Moonjoong nodded slowly.

“Geunsoo will be joining us as well since he has a role he’s trying to get.”

“Which role is it?”

“The third son. The one that dies first.”

“Isn’t there a fight scene? I recall the old man wasn’t able to take the son on his first blow in the book.”

“That’s right. We’ll have to roll on the ground several times. I’m exercising again because of it. I’m going to have to lose more weight as well.”

Only then did Maru realize that the man looked much skinnier than last time.

“An old man who lives by picking up scrap pieces of paper can’t afford to be this fat.”

“You aren’t going to become unhealthy by doing this, are you sir?”

“I spent half of my life acting. If I can’t even control my body, I might as well give up my title as an actor.”

He seemed to have slowly lost weight over time through maintenance. Perhaps Moonjoong had an idea of what the ‘old man’ was going to look like by the time he got the book and started modifying his body accordingly. In any case, the man was amazing.

“I’ll be taking off then, sir.”

“Right. Close the windows before you sleep. The air gets very cold at night.”

“I understand.”

“Be sure to cover up your belly as well.”

“Yes, sir.”

Moonjoong sounded like a worried grandfather. Maru stepped outside, his chest feeling a lot warmer than before.

Chapter 187

Suyeon opened her eyes slowly, having been woken up by the sunlight hitting her eyes. The rays shined through the window in the terrace. She got up as she wiped her eyes, only then did she realize she was on a sofa.

“What the.”

She remembered drinking soju with Geunsoo last night. She was planning on drinking until he got drunk, but it looks like she fell asleep first. Looking around, she could see a well-organized set of bottles next to the trash can. Geunsoo must’ve cleaned everything up first.

“Hah. He’s just so difficult to deal with.”

Alcohol often makes a person’s mind soft and malleable, Suyeon has never seen a man who could push a woman away in that state until now. Of course, she didn’t actually want to approach Geunsoo like that. She only wanted a closer relationship with him. Maybe even marriage, if they fit together well enough. He has become more and more appealing the longer she talked to him.

“Dating, huh.”

Suyeon hugged her legs with a smile, she gave up on normal romance in her first year of college. She went into the school of arts with many dreams, she fell in love with a passionate senior and Suyeon thought their love would last forever.

Her first time at the hotel was very painful, but the man was happy and that in turn made her happy. After that day, their dates became a symbol of sex. Every time the two of them met up, they had sex. Suyeon wanted to make different memories with the man of course, but he only wanted sex. Having believed sex was just a way of expressing one’s love for someone, Suyeon followed him. Eventually, they started meeting less and less. Whenever they did, sex was all they did together.

Even then, she believed what they had was love. After another half year of this, he broke up with her. Through text, he told her that they seemed to have gotten sick of each other so it would be best that they don’t meet again.

Suyeon didn’t believe depression was a real thing before then, she actually looked down on people who said they had depression. Adults who couldn’t even control their own emotions? What a joke, she thought. But the day she got the text, she just sat there on her bed staring emptily into the air all day. That’s when she realized, so this is how people die.

She went to the school again to try to recover a little bit. Thankfully, she didn’t see the senior. He apparently took a break from school, she decided to spend her time trying to recover from her initial shock.

That was when one of her good friends asked her out on a date, he was very careful about it and also shy. He stuttered three times over asking her out to watch a movie with him, he didn’t seem anything like the senior from the past. He looked like a young boy who was stepping into unknown territory for the first time in his life, Suyeon felt love again looking at his face.

Her second relationship wasn’t as fast as her first one, it was slow and soft. Unlike the senior, her friend had a difficult time even trying to grab her hand. Suyeon was relieved, so not everyone was like the senior. After a month, Suyeon took the initiative to grab hold of his hand first. They were moving very slowly, it took her just a single month until she had sex with the senior, it took a month between her and her friend to hold hands. Suyeon remembered squeezing his hand hard because his shocked expression was absolutely adorable.

She felt love sprouting inside of her again, light shone through the darkness in her heart. Energy returned to her life and she started enjoying the time she spent with him. During winter break of her first year, she went on a trip with him. They went to see the winter sea where they walked the empty beach together, that’s when she realized that they would have sex for the first time. She was right, there was a single booked room. Despite this, she felt comfortable. She knew she wouldn’t get thrown away. So they spent their first night together. And what greeted her was… a disappointed smile.

- This isn’t your first time?

Suddenly, her friend looked at her like a dirty used toy. After that, he had very rough sex with her. Suyeon had to suppress a scream, she felt all sorts of disgusting, horrible emotions welling up inside of her. Her friend collapsed on top of her after tiring himself out.

- So, was it good, huh? How was mine in comparison?

That’s when she realized, this boy wasn’t nervous out of consideration for her, he was just lacking confidence. He got on top of her again at dawn, he kept asking her if she was satisfied. Suyeon remembered just staring at the ceiling dumbly all the way till the morning. She snapped out of it at the sound of his snoring and made her way back to Seoul. She got a call, she ignored it. Time passed and she became a second year.

The first thing she heard when she came back to school was, “Kim Suyeon is a prostitute”. It wasn’t very hard to find the source of that rumor, it was that friend. He very proudly told his friends that he ‘screwed that bitch’ like some sort of a war hero, that’s when Suyeon became afraid to go to school. At the same time, several men approached her asking her if she was alright. Men who never even talked to her in the past, they looked very intently at her breasts and legs.

There were some people who were truly worried, yet they didn’t help. It felt like her emotions had completely disappeared out of her, it felt like she was turning into a doll that could only breathe. When she was almost drowning in despair, she ran across that senior again. He greeted her with a bright ‘hello’, there was a woman she didn’t know standing next to him. That greeting hit Suyeon in the head with a bang. She finally realized something. Her purple, beat-up heart became colored in bright blue, her vision cleared and her breathing came back to her.

She ran forward and gave the senior a kiss on his lips. The girl standing next to him screamed and he started frantically trying to explain. Suyeon grinned looking at the two. So that was what it was. So this was what all relationships were like, it was just a game. The one who wants it loses, the one who craves it loses. You can’t let the other side be satisfied, you always need to make it so that they crave you enough to come back.

After that day, Suyeon became free. She formed relationships without thinking about anything else. By giving other people the satisfaction of love, she took back material goods for herself, a win-win relationship for everyone. After all, all men wanted was ‘love’ in the form of sex.

There was a man during this time who told her that she shouldn’t live this way, that she should think more about herself. Suyeon almost fell for it. Maybe she could try entrusting herself to him? The result was a disappointment, they became awkward after sex. She didn’t get any response back from him no matter how many words of love she whispered into his ears. As they ended the relationship, the man told her this. He was sick of it, Suyeon could only laugh. Didn’t he start this knowing that would happen? What happened to the person who was so sure that he could take care of her? Or perhaps… she was the one who ruined everything? She caused the relationship to break down? She was the bitch in the relationship?

Ah well, she didn’t feel anything particular upon that realization. Her heart had too many scars on it for any further feelings of pain, it was for the best. These scars would serve as armor that would protect her. After that point, she became a lot more reserved in using her body. She lived like a nun, two semesters’ worth of breaks was enough to get rid of rumors about her. Suyeon became a gentle lady, she could be as perverted as anyone out there, but she kept that side of her under wraps.

She loved again when the rumors died down completely. Love without love, she realized that giving her body to the other side was the last resort. Even when the man was desperate for sex, she didn’t give it. Sex was her ultimate weapon, but it was also a double-edged blade. Once she used it, she would only be seen as used goods. So she only did it when it really counted, enough for her to ensnare a man’s soul. By the time she graduated from college, she became a well-established actress thanks to it. She even debuted in a drama.

A result of perfectly making use of hard work and relationships.

“Men are all the same.”

She extended her legs out of the sofa with a low grumble. Right then, her feet stepped on something squishy, she raised her legs back up in shock and looked down.

“Sorry, but I don’t have a fetish for being stepped on.”

It was Geunsoo. He was rolled in a blanket like a caterpillar.

“W-why are you…”

“I was sleeping.”

Geunsoo stood up and started folding his blanket. Suyeon usually kept her calm through most things, but right now she could only stare dumbly.

“You should fold your blanket as well, now that you’re up.”

Geunsoo stepped up to the second floor with a yawn. At the same time, the author came back down on the stairs. The author looked at her with an annoyed look before stepping into the kitchen, he walked out with some cereal and stared at her again.

“What!”

“Do you really have no idea? You should learn to take care of yourself at this age.”

He was right so she couldn’t even say anything in retort, Suyeon grit her teeth as she folded her blanket.

“Satisfied?”

“If you’re done, you should go apologize to Geunsoo.”

“…What?”

“You don’t remember? It got very cold here, so I tried to wake you up with Geunsoo. You just wouldn’t move. So Geunsoo tried to get you up himself. That’s when you woke up and slapped him on the face. You swore at him telling him not to touch you. And then you stuck yourself in that corner of the kitchen. Don’t tell me you don’t remember this either?”

“………”

“Geunsoo got hit all over the place as he tried to put you back on the sofa.”

The author clicked his tongue.

“If you aren’t a child, learn to take care of yourself. It’s none of my business what happened to you in the past. Just don’t hurt others using it as an excuse. It’s incredibly annoying to have to deal with it.”

Suyeon stepped up the stairs after giving the man a glare. On her way up though, she apologized to him. Once she got up, she saw Geunsoo come out of his room. She noticed a long cut on his cheek. She looked down at her hands. One of her fingers had a bit of manicure missing.

“Um, I’m sorry. I heard I hurt you last night.”

“This? It hurts a bit but it’s not anything important. It doesn’t look like it’ll scar anyway.”

“I’m so sorry.”

“Well, if you are, could you prepare some lunch? We’re going to need food for Senior Moonjoong and Maru when they come back.”

Suyeon looked down at her wristwatch. It was 11am. Geunsoo passed by her with a nonchalant expression.

“Um, if you ever need anything from me, please feel free to ask. I feel like I owe you something.”

“Sure.”

Geunsoo came to a stop on the way down.

“Oh, that reminds me.”

He looked up to her.

“Did you ever sob loudly?”

The question came out of nowhere. Suyeon subconsciously shook her head, she never cried. She was always too tired to do so when she got betrayed. Later on, she just didn’t have a reason to cry at all.

“Well, I’ll give you a list of sad movies later on. You should take your time crying from watching them.”

Geunsoo made his way back down with a grin. That’s when she remembered, she was stuck in the corner last night shaking quietly by herself. She must’ve looked pitiful.

“Does crying solve anything? It’d just make me look more pitiful.”

She spat those words out without even thinking about it, Geunsoo responded to the question quickly.

“You wouldn’t just be pitiful if you forgot how to cry. Well, I think you’ll figure it out regardless.”

Geunsoo ended the conversation with just that. Suyeon felt her eyelids trembling, it’s been a while since she received sympathy from a man. It made her oddly excited, she was reminded of her past self for a second.

“Can you watch one with me then?”

“Don’t want to.”

“Why not?”

“A girl with a pretty smile called Miso told me that crying women are invincible. That’s why I try to stay as far as I can from crying women.”

With that, Geunsoo disappeared from her vision. Suyeon stepped down the stairs herself feeling oddly competitive. She didn’t feel bad though, for some reason.

“Did Teacher and Maru go out?”

“At dawn, yes. Around six?”

“Where?”

Geunsoo turned to look at the front door upon hearing the question.

“Somewhere a little spine-chilling.”

* * *

Knock knock knock.

Maru opened his eyes. The door opened ever so slightly and Moonjoong entered the room.

“It’s about time we head out. Would that be alright with you?”

Maru checked the time with his phone. It was 5:50am.

Chapter 188

Maru gave himself a shake after getting up. He put on a coat and socks that he hung next to his bed.

“You’d best wear a scarf. It’s very cold outside.”

“Thank you.”

He wrapped the scarf Moonjoong gave him around his neck. Moonjoong was dressed in hiking clothes, with a cane in one hand and a bag in the other.

‘A cane?’

It wasn’t a walking stick that people liked bringing to hikes, it was an actual cane that old men used for walking. Did his knees get worse? Moonjoong smiled lightly when Maru looked at the man worriedly.

“It’s just a prop. Don’t worry.”

“A prop?”

Maru recalled that the old man of the book walked with a cane as well, the old man liked to go out on walks in hiking clothes with his cane when he was off work. Moonjoong was in character already.

“I’ll hold the bag, sir.”

He put the bag over his shoulder and walked downstairs, he could hear faint sounds of breathing in the dark room. Suyeon was lying down on the sofa, while Geunsoo slept right below her.

“They’re young.”

Moonjoong smiled silently and put a blanket over the two of them. Maru noticed that Suyeon’s eyes were a little puffy, she must’ve cried. A vixen like her, crying?

‘I guess she just yawned a lot?’

They put a blanket over the two of them before stepping out of the building. Moonjoong got onto the sedan next to Geunsoo’s car, Maru followed and sat in the passenger seat.

“We’ll head downtown first. I know you probably have a lot of questions, but please just observe for today.”

The car slid forward with a slight tremble, it ran over the unpaved road with ease at a good pace. Moonjoong drove a lot like how he lived, Maru noticed. When they finally left the mountain range, they were greeted with asphalt. The sun still hadn’t come up yet, they crossed the cold fog and headed straight to town.

Since the region was surrounded by mountains, they didn’t run into a single car on the way. The sun reared its head as they drove. After driving for a full two hours, they finally reached the city. The little farms dotting the scenery finally disappeared and their view started getting slowly replaced with grey buildings.

“Let’s eat first.”

Moonjoong parked his car next to a beansprout soup restaurant. There were about seven people in the restaurant right now. It was eight in the morning, so the people eating here were most likely to be nearby factory workers. The bottles of makgeolli on their table was proof enough of their difficult workday.

“Do you like bean sprout soup?”

“Red, white, I’m a fan of both.”

Moonjoong smiled as he ordered two bowls, an old lady got up from her seat to prepare their meal. She scooped some rice into each bowl before pouring some soup on top, Maru noticed that she actually poured off the soup several times and replaced it over and over again.

“This takes a lot of work, but it really changes the flavor of the rice. Finding a place that still does something like this brings joy to my heart.”

Maru set up the spoons and chopsticks as Moonjoong spoke. A little later, the old lady put the two bowls on their table.

“Enjoy your meals.”

“Yes, thank you very much.”

Maru sprinkled a spoonful of red pepper powder over the white soup before taking a long sip. The hot, refreshing broth slid down his throat, the taste of it was incredibly savoury. Just as he thought he’d have a very nice meal for himself, a hand suddenly entered his vision. The hand was holding some roasted mackerel, an omelette, and some stir-fried pork.

“Have some of this, too.”

The old lady put the food on their table with a little smile, Maru found himself a little confused. This was a little too much food for appetizers.

“Please, you don’t have to.”

Moonjoong spoke with a bit of an embarrassed look, the old lady smiled nervously herself before turning away.

‘Eh?’

That just now… felt like the type of nervousness that a young girl would show.

“Do you know her?”

“…A fan.”

“Aha.”

No wonder the lady kept glancing their way.

“Shouldn’t you give her a signature or something?”

Moonjoong instinctively looked sideways at that question, Maru looked over as well. Right next to the old calendar that turned yellow with age was a piece of laminated paper. Looking closely, he could make out the words ‘Yoon Moonjoong’ written on it. Maru smiled a little at Moonjoong’s embarrassment, so he had a side like this to him as well.

“Please come again.”

They stepped out of the store after their meal. The weather was cold still, but the soup in their stomach made it feel less so.

“I won’t be talking much from now on. I might even pretend I don’t know you. Don’t feel offended by it.”

“I understand.”

Moonjoong cracked his neck sideways before leaning on his cane with a deep sigh, Maru let out a small exclamation as he watched the man deflate. The old man in the novel invested his all into his children and lived by picking up trash paper. It would look odd if someone like this looked healthy, so this was why the senior was losing weight.

“Follow me slowly.”

Moonjoong suddenly sounded a lot colder than before, he also walked in a hurried pace as well. His feet took off almost as soon as his cane reached forward, it was almost as if he was getting chased by something. Maru followed him from a bit of a distance.

The place Moonjoong headed to was the town hall. Or rather, the little pavilion right next to it, there were a bunch of old men sitting in it. There was a drum burning hot with a fire nearby where even more old men gathered next to it, either staring forward with blank expressions or conversing with each other.

It was nearing nine now. The old men just kept coming, Moonjoong stumbled forward himself and took a seat on one of the chairs nearby. He was staring emptily into the air, making him look entirely different from his usual self.

Just like this, he blended in.

Maru slowly inched forward towards the pavilion himself, he didn’t want to interfere. There were a few Korean chess boards at the pavilion, two old men were playing a game at the moment.

“Is Kim not coming?”

“Dunno. He’ll come when the time comes.”

“Wasn’t he stumbling around yesterday?”

“He’s been like that all the time. Here, checkmate.”

The chess piece moved with a loud clack. Maru sat a little bit away from the two old men, this place seemed to be the hot spot for the elderly people in town. Maru observed Moonjoon from a distance. What did the Senior come here for?

Eventually, a white-haired man walked up to Moonjoong. That was when the senior finally opened his mouth to extend a greeting. The white-haired old man must’ve been a friend Senior made here. Maru couldn’t hear anything about what the two were talking about, but they were clearly having a good time.

For a second, Maru was reminded of Ganghwan. Moonjoong’s face overlapped with Ganghwan’s as he remembered the story about living with homeless people for several months. The white-haired man moved away after talking joyfully with Moonjoong, Maru observed the man carefully as well. This old man had an old bicycle. There was a plastic shopping basket that one would see in grocery stores attached to it, which was filled with scrap paper.

Moonjoong stood up to walk towards the old man, the old man handed Moonjoong the basket before disappearing somewhere else. Maru stood up when Moonjoong waved for him to come closer.

“I will be picking up scrap paper from near here now.”

“What should I do?”

“Nothing. Just watch.”

Moonjoong pushed forward the rusty bike. He moved without stopping, he was clearly familiar with the geography of the neighborhood. He spun around the local store to find some paper and turned towards the house on the other side of the street. There was a bunch of paper, plastic, and other miscellaneous trash laid out right below one of the streetlights. Moonjoong dug through the pile of trash picking out the recyclables himself.

Right then, a woman walked out of the house next to the streetlight with a massive frown.

“Hey! Old man! What do you think you’re doing, going through the trash like that?”

Maru made sure not to intervene here.

“I’m sorry. I’ll clean it up afterwards.”

“You’re too much. Aren’t you the person who ripped a hole in the trash bag last time?”

“I’ve never done such a thing.”

“Liar. You obviously live off of doing stuff like that. Tsk.”

The woman clicked her tongue before throwing a bag of trash in front of Moonjoong.

“What the hell does he think he’s doing at that age? No wonder there’s no one taking care of him.”

She stepped into the building spewing incredibly hurtful insults casually, Maru walked towards Moonjoong with a frown.

“Are you alright, sir?”

“I’m fine. I’m used to it.”

Moonjoong smiled as if nothing special had happened, that smile of his rubbed Maru the wrong way. It was the type of smile found on a businessman during an important transaction.

More so than what the lady had just said, Maru was disturbed by this smile. It felt like the entire person changed, the person who always said wise words to him was nowhere to be found. Instead, the person standing in front of him was an old man sick of life.

Moonjoong motioned for Maru to move away. As soon as Maru did, he went back to digging through the trash. After he was done, he grabbed his bike to move to his next destination. By the time he was done and was back at the town hall, three hours had passed. The original owner of the bike was standing next to the building.

“Thank you.”

“It’s nothing. I’m sorry I couldn’t get you more. I’m still very bad at this.”

“This is still enough for a bottle of makgeolli. I’ll go sell it quickly, so just you wait.”

The old man disappeared with his bike. Moonjoong sighed and sat down on the bench next to the town hall, it was a small distance away from the pavilion.

“It smells.”

“Because you sorted through so much trash. Is this even worth it? I feel like I can get a sense for things just by observing how you work…”

Moonjoong was horribly abused. For someone as respectable as him to be insulted so early in the morning, how was any of this helpful towards acting?

“Feel, yes. Observing is enough for you to get a feel for how things are. People are smart, after all. But you see, having a feel for something and actually doing it are two completely different things. If I didn’t do all of this myself, I wouldn’t have gotten insulted. If I didn’t experience this, my character would be incomplete. I can obviously leave what I can imagine to my imagination. But if I can do it, I might as well try it.”

Moonjoong looked down at his dirtied hands with a proud smile, it was the smile of someone who created a masterpiece.

“Are you satisfied?”

“Of course. Thanks to the lady, I learned what kind of an environment the old man was living in. Well, I’ve heard things like that plenty of times already though.”

“Plenty of times?”

“I tried picking up scraps of paper in Seoul before I came here. There were some who wished me good luck. But most people looked at me like some object of amusement. It was very interesting. The people who so kindly asked me what I was looking for when I was looking at the pile of trash with a suit on… Suddenly looked so cold and hateful when I wore dirtied clothes. Humans are very judgemental.”

Moonjoong wiped his hands on his pants as he stood up, the owner of the bike had returned with a bottle of makgeolli.

“The rest of today will look like this, so take what you can from it.”

Moonjoong looked like he was born here as he walked towards the bike owner. He laughed loudly and blended along with the rest of the old men, but the laughter of the men here had a tinge of sadness within.

“You see, my daughter…”

“My son, he…”

“My grandson…”

There were many stories being exchanged between the men. None of them was ever about themselves. Maru was able to realize from it what life looked like when progress ceased, the only thing that remained was a terrible sense of loneliness.

’An old man… and the old man.’

The real twilight struggles weren’t as far away as he thought.

Chapter 189

Maru felt like some sort of foreign substance. The old men would occasionally glance at him with incredible confusion, they seemed to wonder what a young man like him was doing there. He thought about playfully approaching them, but as soon as he took a step towards them, their confusion became hostility. Was it because Maru was an outsider?

Right then, an old man started walking nervously towards the town hall, the man was clearly coming here for the first time. The old man walked near the area, seemingly not knowing what he should do. Right then, one of the old men in the pavilion walked out to greet the new one with a smile. He dragged the new person into the pavilion as if this was their old friend.

“First time?”

“Well, yes.”

“Where did you live before this?”

“In Seoul with my children…”

“Oh my, so we’re from the same place! Everyone here has come down from Seoul. We all came down to take a break after raising our kids. The air here is so refreshing after all.”

Right, right. The people around all exclaimed in agreement. The old men sat the newcomer down in the middle before continuing to play Korean chess, the new person fit in within minutes.

So being an outsider had nothing to do with it. Thinking about it for a second, Maru quickly realized the difference between him and the new person.

‘Age.’

Maru walked around the town hall a bit after getting up from the pavilion. Most of the old men clicked their tongue at him, they looked incredibly hostile for some reason. Eventually, his eyes met with one of the older men in the group. The man looked around for a second before motioning at Maru to follow him.

The two of them met up behind the town hall building.

“You won’t get anything good out of staying here, so you better get going.”

“I’m sorry if I sound rude, but could I know why people here seem to hate me?”

“None of us really hates you. It’s just that all of us here have been burnt very badly by our children before.”

“Burnt?”

The white-haired old man looked at a passing scrap of paper bitterly.

“Everyone here has been cut off by their children. We all say that our kids are the best. But none of them actually comes to visit us ever. The only young people in this small town are the factory workers. Really, the only people that live in this town are us, seventy-years-old men.”

Maru was unable to spot a single child in town. Not even a shadow of them, despite hours of wandering. Come to think of, there wasn’t even a school nearby or any entertainment businesses. The entire town felt abandoned.

“None of us wants to admit that we’ve been abandoned. But we all know it. We know we’d spend the rest of our lives here and die in the same manner. That’s when our kids will finally come to take our corpses back. We’ve seen this happen more than just a few times.”

Meeting your children upon your death… Maru felt a little bit guilty inside as well, he didn’t even call his parents back in his previous life. He always said that he would go visit, but he never actually did. Aside from holidays, he seldom visited his parents.

“It’s absolutely pitiful. The only thing we have left to be proud of are our absent children. So we become childish and stubborn as a result. That’s why so many of us look hostile to you. I don’t know what you’re doing here, but I don’t think you’ll be treated well if you stay.”

The old man stepped away with a click of his tongue. Maru stood there on the spot contemplating the amount of loneliness the old man must’ve felt, it was just like ‘Twilight Stuggles’. They’ve all sacrificed their lives for their children, yet they were stuck here.

‘Would they feel happy inside?’

None of them looked too trusting of a young person like him. Was it a result of betrayal? Perhaps the book wasn’t just trying to convey a message of madness, perhaps it was a commentary of sorts. A surprisingly big stone that’s thrown into the pond of society.

Maru watched as Moonjoong listened to the old men around him, they say actors start off as imitation. Going further, the actor needs to develop his own personality within that imitation. That gives the actor his own voice, a voice that speaks to the masses.

Perhaps Moonjoong was trying to understand these old men not because he wants to act well, but because he wants something more out of it? Maru crossed his arms and started to think. An actor who doesn’t just imitate, but carries with him a lifetime of hurt… He was starting to get an idea of what he wanted to be.

* * *

“Sir, can I ask you something?”

“Any time.”

“Why did you make rounds around the town on someone else’s bike? I’m sure you could’ve gotten the experience you needed with your own bike.”

The two of them returned from the city after sunset. This time, they were in a soft tofu soup restaurant as they spoke.

“The most sorrowful thing in the world to a person is to have their job stolen from them. I can’t do such a thing. Plus, these people have their own rules. They try not to cross paths, and if they do, they work at different times. I can’t just interrupt their entire system because I want to experience their way of life.”

“I see. I didn’t think that deeply about it.”

Their soup arrived in the meantime. It would’ve been very bland if Maru had the tastes of someone more his age, but this was perfect for him right now.

“We’ll do another lap after the meal before heading somewhere else.”

“Could it be, the paper…”

Moonjoong shook his head with a smile. After the meal, he went to a nearby grocery store to buy a large amount of bread and milk. Moonjoong headed towards the houses near the town hall afterwards, Maru chased after him with full bags in hands. The group of houses looked like they would crumble at any moment. Once they walked through the rusted doors, they found an old man watching TV inside. Maru bowed before maintaining a little bit of distance.

“I brought some snacks.”

“Oh dear, you shouldn’t have.”

The two of them spoke for a little while. Moonjoong was mostly on the side of listening.

“Take care.”

“I’ll see you next time.”

Moonjoong stepped out to knock on the next house. And the next one. And the next. Moonjoong visited around ten houses, listening to each old man along the way.

The last one asked them to have some coffee, so Moonjoong and Maru sat together on the patio as they drank.

“Your grandson?”

Moonjoong laughed at the old man’s question and nodded, to which Maru nodded with a smile as well.

“You two look very nice. I have a granddaughter around your age as well. I hope she’s well.”

“She couldn’t come over during the holidays?”

“Why would they? They’re busy. Just a phone call is enough for me.”

The old man responded casually, but it failed to hide his frustrations inside. After finishing the coffee, the two of them stood up. The old man asked them to stay, but it was getting a bit late at this point.

Moonjoong stepped out and looked up at the sky. Maru followed suit. The lack of streetlights here made the stars stand out a little in the darkening sky.

“Being old means that you can’t become as honest as you were in the past. That’s why old men are often wistful. There are too many stories here that I can only relate to.”

Moonjoong’s sigh became a white puff of air that flew up towards the sky. Though the breath disappeared very quickly, the emotion lingered on. Moonjoong looked incredibly depressed.

“The reason why I decided to take this job wasn’t just because I liked the writing. It was because it was showing a reality that was incredibly hard to face.”

Moonjoong started walking with Maru close behind, almost like he was his disciple.

“I am but a single actor. A forgotten one at that. Not many people would pay attention to me if I started speaking out in the streets. But using art, I can start to gather a little bit more attention. What I want isn’t anything amazing. I just want to stimulate the minds of people when they watch this movie. I would like nothing more than to change their whole perspective on the situation, but obviously, I’m not talented enough.”

“You’re amazing as is, sir.”

Maru wasn’t just saying that to compliment the man, he was honest. Moonjoong laughed in response.

“This movie will be a success for sure. Many people will watch it. Many people will think about it as well.”

“What, are you a prophet?”

“Of sorts, yes.”

“Haha, you.”

Before they even knew it, they were back in the sedan.

“Where are we headed now, sir?”

“A quiet lake nearby.”

“A lake?”

He recalled where Moonjoong was yesterday.

The car drove down the dirt road again. After just a few moments, a body of water came into their vision. It was a massive lake, one so big that it was difficult to spot the other side. Moonjoong alighted and opened the trunk, Maru frowned when he realized what was inside.

A hammer, and a bag of rice.

“This is…”

“Something to help me grow my cruelty.”

Moonjoong dragged the bag of rice towards the lake. That alone looked like a scene from the movie by itself, when the old man kills his third son and throws the corpse into the lake.

“In order for a movie to send a message to society, it must first become popular. For that to happen, the makers of the movie need to put their souls into it. Meaning, they need to put their best into their work. I’m trying to act out the role of a pitiful old man… but also a cruel killer.”

Moonjoong looked at Maru after putting down the rice bag.

“From now on, I’ll say some very cruel words. Don’t come near me until I tell you I’m done.”

Moonjoong’s eyes almost seemed clouded with madness, it was impossible to conceive that this man was the smiling old man from earlier in the day. Moonjoong took a deep breath before smacking the rice bag with his hammer.

“You son of a bitch! I wouldn’t feel good even if I ripped you to pieces! You don’t even know how to recognize your own parents!”

Every time the hammer hit the bag, a disgusting sound rang out. Moonjoong stumbled sideways as he smacked the bag continuously, the sounds coming out of his mouth no longer sounded human.

Chapter 190

Hatred seemed to have surged out of the man. Moonjoong struck the bag with a bestial roar, the bag of rice was torn apart a little more with each strike from the hammer. After spitting out many horrific, nigh unspeakable words, he finally collapsed to the floor exhausted. Maru approached Moonjoong out of worry. Despite it still being winter, Moonjoong was sweating furiously.

“Sir, are you alright?”

“I’m good. Don’t worry about me.”

Moonjoong spat out a breath of air as he fell back. He was healthy, but he was still in his seventies. Maru was worried. Who knows if something goes wrong here?

“Have some water, sir.”

Maru put a bottle of water next to the old man before turning to look at the rice bag. The rice was spilling out from the tears. To Maru, the rice seemed like blood.

“What do punches full of hatred and evil look like? What do punches of despair look like? I can only imagine it so much. At some point, I need to take it into my hands and put it into action.”

Maru helped the man get up, who stood with a groan.

“A foolish method indeed, but there’s nothing better than this. I’d have to talk about the actual movements with the stunt coordinator, but it’s all up to the actor to put emotions into these strikes.”

Maru looked at Moonjoong’s trembling hand.

“Let’s go back now, sir.”

“Yes, let’s. It seems I’ve taken up far too much of your time.”

Maru got onto the car with the empty bag and the hammer. Moonjoong caught his breath at his seat for a second before starting up the car. It was now 8pm.

“Dear. It’s very late already.”

“It’s fine sir. I can just sleep at school.”

“That wouldn’t do. Your studies are important.”

“I may not look it, but my grades are actually on the higher end. Besides that, are you alright?”

Moonjoong’s eyes were bloodshot, probably from the way he swung that hammer. His face was completely pale too. Worst of all, his driving got pretty rough as well. This wasn’t like his normal self, he resembled himself when he came into the house last night. Those uncaring eyes. The way he spoke was polite, but he raised many red flags in term of his condition.

“I’m just calming myself. Don’t worry.”

Moonjoong turned the wheel violently, the car left the lakeside and back onto the road. As they drove on the four-lane road, a bigger car suddenly tried to switch lanes in front of them. Moonjoong clenched his teeth and pressed the horn multiple times. He was looking violently angry, angry enough to try to cause a car crash.

“…Sir?”

It was incredibly worrying watching someone who was usually very calm act like this. At the same time, Maru was confused. Actors often talk about “getting in the mood”. To not just understand the main character, but to mentally and emotionally become that character as well. Looking at Moonjoong gave Maru the feeling that the man wasn’t just trying to act the ‘old man’, but rather become the ‘old man’. Maru didn’t know much about acting, but he had a feeling that these were two very different things. The latter sounded much more dangerous as a matter of fact.

Moonjoong slowed down after a few minutes, he leaned back on his seat like an exhausted person.

“Um… sir?”

“I’m sorry. I lost my cool for a bit.”

The man looked exhausted. Maru wanted to drive in his stead, but of course with his age, he couldn’t. After a while more, the car finally came to a stop. Maru quickly got off and opened the driver’s seat.

“Thank you.”

Moonjoong stumbled out of the seat, Maru walked over to open the front door of the villa as well. Geunsoo came out from the kitchen, having heard all the noise.

“Sir!”

Geunsoo grabbed the man with Maru and headed up to the second floor. Moonjoong repeatedly said he was alright, but he really didn’t look the part. He was completely pale, even more so than Maru originally thought.

“Sir, please think about your age.”

Geunsoo put the man on the bed carefully, Maru ran downstairs to boil some water.

“What? What’s happening?” Suyeon asked in confusion.

Maru didn’t have the time to explain, so he just took the warmed water and ran up to the second floor. He could hear Suyeon walk from behind him.

“Please have some water.”

Moonjoong took a sip with a little smile. He repeatedly brushed himself off as alright, but Maru didn’t believe him one bit.

“I’ll be better once I catch my breath. No need to worry.”

Moonjoong spoke with beads of sweat dotting his face.

“This is too much. Please just rest at home tomorrow.”

Geunsoo took away the books, scripts, and the notebooks away from Moonjoong. He didn’t forget to take the laptop as well.

“I said I’m fine.”

“You saying that is what worries me the most. Please listen to me this time. I’ll call Mr. Junmin if you don’t.”

“Hey, don’t do that. He’s going to make a huge fuss out of it if you tell him.”

“So just rest tomorrow, sir. It would be terrible if the main actor in a movie collapsed before the filming even started. You always told us that rest is another form of training, so please listen to yourself.”

Geunsoo turned off the lights and stepped outside.

“Ugh, his stubbornness is something else.”

“Stubbornness?”

Moonjoong and stubbornness, it sounded like a foreign concept to Maru. Here he thought the word that suited Moonjoong the most was ‘conviction’, Geunsoo shook his head as he made his way down.

“The president of the acting association told me before that ‘he’s really bad at being lax on himself’ before. I thought that was a plus side, and not something to complain about at the time… I understood why it was a bad thing once I actually met Mr. Moonjoong.”

“What does that mean?” Suyeon asked from the back.

“He’s incredibly bad at treating himself well. It’s an incredibly dangerous attitude to have, especially with a perfectionist like him.”

“Ahh, I get it.”

Maru understood as well, Ganghwan had talked to him in the past about immersion. Immersion was about forgetting yourself, he still remembered. If a very talented person attempted to immerse themselves into their role, they would erase their own persona. How dangerous was that?

Geunsoo stepped back into the kitchen to give Maru a cup of juice.

“Do you know about the story of an English actor called Bron?”

Maru shook his head, he’s never heard the name before.

“The actor was incredibly famous. Every time he was in a play, numerous famous people would come to watch. He was famous for just one thing, his incredibly realistic acting. At one point, he took on the role of a father who lost his daughter. After he took on the role, people started saying he has finally gone crazy. When worried friends came over to check up on him, Bron would respond with words like, ‘I can’t remember my dead daughter’s face’.”

“That’s a little terrifying.”

“It might be an exaggeration since it’s just a story. But there are actors who go that far into their roles.”

“So it’s the same for Mr. Moonjoong.”

“Pretty much. He takes everything seriously. It honestly worries me. He was fine doing it when he was young, but… his body can’t keep up anymore.”

Maru thought of the Moonjoong he’s observed all day today. Moonjoong blended in with others and maintained an emotional connection with them, even after getting the information he needed.

Think about it for a second, getting friendly with someone in itself was a tiring act. Moonjoong’s role for most of the day today was listening to others and consoling them. How tired must he be if he’s done this for several days straight? Even psychologists needed therapy because of their job. Moonjoong was doing all of this himself without break.

It made sense that he was completely pale, the mental strain must’ve been immense. Afterwards, he started beating away at a bag of rice saying that he needed to act cruel for his role. Even swears started feeling bad to say after a certain point. Perhaps he spent the entire day just whipping at himself.

“He told me to observe him for all of today. I don’t think he told me that to just learn anymore.”

Moonjoong told Maru to take what he could from this experience, perhaps Moonjoong knew better than anyone just how dangerous this method was.

“Perfection always comes with a cost. The only thing that can be perfect by itself is a god.”

Geunsoo downed his cup of juice in one gulp.

“Alright, let’s get going. It’ll be four in the morning if we leave now. Can you even go to school?”

“Why don’t we sleep and leave early in the morning to school instead?”

“Sounds good for me, but what about you?”

“I’m not the one driving. Plus, I can sleep at school.”

It was a six-hour drive. Maru wanted to make it as easy for Geunsoo as possible.

“You should get some sleep too, then. We just have to get there by eight?”

“Doesn’t matter if it’s by nine. Our homeroom teacher is Mr. Taesik.”

“Aha, I guess we can be a little late then.”

Geunsoo headed up with a wave of his hand, Gwak Joon peeked down from the second floor in the mean time. The man waved his hand at Maru before heading back inside, He looked tired as well. Probably from working on his second work.

“I’m jealous, Mr. Moonjoong seems to like you a lot.”

Suyeon commented with a pretty smile, Maru responded with a “yup” before preparing to head up himself. Suyeon grabbed his sleeve.

“Aren’t you being a little cold? I’m trying to be nice to you.”

“Dad always told me to be wary of people who are nice for no reason.”

“Oh, so cold.”

Suyeon lightly pinched Maru’s cheek.

“I’ve been wondering for a while now. Why are you showing so much interest in me?”

“Interest? Oh you.”

“Oh, it’s not? Thank goodness. I’m sorry for the misunderstanding.”

Just as Maru tried to turn away, Suyeon put one leg over the other. She seemed to be trying to show her sex appeal in those short shorts.

“Please don’t be so cold. I only wanted to maintain a good relationship with you. Because I think you’ll succeed.”

“I hope I do too. I want to be rich.”

“Oh, what a coincidence. Me too. We have something in common!”

Maru shrugged.

“Let’s keep in touch from now on. Try to help each other out where it counts.”

“I don’t think I can help you much as a high schooler. Feel free to reach out regardless. I don’t think there are any negatives in knowing you either, Ms. Suyeon.”

“When will you drop the formalities? Ugh.”

“I tend to act politely to people I’m not friends with.”

“We’re not friends?”

“Of course not.”

“Why not? This is our third time meeting already.”

“True. But friendship doesn’t count on the number of times we met.”

“Ugh, so tricky.”

“That’s just the way I am.”

“You don’t think that’s cool or anything, do you? Acting like that to a girl is a huge minus.”

“Of course not. I act cute in front of girls I want to look good too. I’m a man after all.”

“Look at you go. Are you sure you’re a high schooler?”

“Probably.”

“You really don’t miss a beat, do you?”

Suyeon rubbed Maru’s thighs with one of her legs with an odd smile, Maru stood there scratching his eyebrow. Suyeon’s erotic smile slowly faded away and in its place was a frown. Maru smiled.

“That’s it?”

“…What?”

“I was hoping you might show me more.”

Maru grabbed her leg lightly to put it back down, Suyeon looked at Maru dumbly.

“I’d like to request something hotter for the next time we meet. Ah, pretty legs, by the way.”

Maru turned around with a smile, it seemed that the rumors about Suyeon were true. He didn’t have any intentions of judging her for it though, it was just her way of life.

“Hahaha! You’re quite a piece of work, aren’t you?”

He could hear Suyeon laughing behind him, Maru yawned as he waved. There were a lot of things he needed to take care of at school. With the audition on top of it, he was going to be very busy.

‘Find my own way of acting… Perhaps that’s what Mr. Moonjoong wanted to show me.’

Acting that made you want to throw your entire body to test its limits. If he masters it and manages to fine-tune his body closer towards perfection… Perhaps that’s how truly realistic acting was born.

Chapter 191

It was 2am when he woke up. Maru picked up his clothes, thinking back to his days in the army. He was greeted by Gwak Joon outside.

“Leaving?”

“Yes. You weren’t sleeping?”

“I told you, I’m a night owl. I write better at night.”

He was holding a cigarette butt in his other hand.

“I’ll see you next time. Be careful.”

Gwak Joon raised his mug at Maru as a form of goodbye.

“Wow, what a sight. He's actually saying goodbye?”

Geunsoo commented as he stepped up with a yawn, he looked exhausted.

“Will you be alright on the drive?”

“What, you scared?”

“Yes. I’m too young to go.”

“Haha, don’t worry. I’ll keep the windows down on the way.”

“…With this weather?”

“I thought you didn’t want to die?”

“I might freeze to death.”

They headed downstairs with a smile, where they were greeted with two mugs and a bottle of hot chocolate in the kitchen.

- Have some.

It must’ve been prepared by Suyeon.

“Let’s have a cup.”

The two of them shook off their sleepiness with the hot liquid and headed out, there’s nothing better than a warm drink to chase away the cold after all. It wasn’t windy, but the air was cold enough to make their skins feel like it was about to freeze over.

“This town is unreasonably cold.”

Geunsoo revved up the engine, the heater started releasing hot air.

“You should sleep.”

“When I’m sleepy. We can talk in the meantime.”

Geunsoo stepped on the pedal with a smile. After several minutes of driving on a dirt road, they finally reached an asphalt road.

“I hear it’s impossible to get in an accident even with your hands off the wheel if you’re on the autobahn,” Geunsoo said, taking his hands off the wheel.

The road ahead of them was completely empty. They could really be safe driving like this, at least until they got to the highway.

“If only life was like the autobahn, isn’t that right?”

“Life would be boring without any twists or turns on it.”

“That’s true, but sometimes I want to just drive on a straight road.”

Geunsoo looked into the distance dumbly, he seemed to be thinking about something.

“Is something wrong?”

“Wrong… I guess it is if I think of it that way, but it also isn’t if I don’t. Well, let’s say something’s wrong though.”

“Do you want to talk about it?”

“Oh, of course, sir. I’d do anything to be consulted by Doctor Maru.”

The two of them exchanged a small laugh at the same time.

“It’s my brother.”

“Geunseok?”

“Right. I’m a bit worried if he’s doing well.”

Geunsoo tapped away at the wheel with his index finger.

“Why don’t you ask?”

“I’m not a very friendly older brother. I’m just incredibly concerned with my own work.”

“I don’t think that’s the case.”

Geunsoo was the one person who truly cared for Geunseok, he was the only person who came to see Geunseok’s performance. There was no way a person like him could be cruel.

“I went home a few days ago to see dad. To make a report.”

“A report?”

“A report of my success. I think he was satisfied, given that he actually sent me off.”

“I thought he was very strict…”

“I don’t know whether to describe him as strict or if he just has a very clear worldview. He’s a stubborn person, but he isn’t that horrible in reality. He was a bit cruel when I was young though. I said I wanted to do something I liked and he did everything in his power to try to stop me.”

“But you ended up doing it anyway, I guess you do take after him in that regard.”

“The stubbornness just runs in our blood.”

Geunsoo smiled self-mockingly.

“I started thinking about what I wanted to do in life after high school. College was too much for me. I didn’t have the money. I thought for a while about what I could do. Eventually, I went to Senior Junmin and just asked him to raise me.”

“…That’s pretty remarkable. In the bad sense of the word.”

“I was scared at the time. Once I stepped outside my home, I was immediately faced with reality.”

“You didn’t even have a place to live.”

“That’s right. At least in high school, I had a roof over my head. I had meals and I had a bed to sleep on. But once I was outside, I had nothing. I chased after my dreams. I only realized once doing so that dreams were only meant for people who had the money to chase after it.”

“So that’s why you invaded Senior Junmin’s place?”

“Invade? That’s a strong word. I just politely caused a scene at his house.”

“Instructor Miso went into a factory to fuel her dreams.”

“She’s too much of a realist. The romanticist inside of me can’t stand her.”

Geunsoo quietly muttered ‘but that’s what makes her so smart’ immediately after saying that.

“I spent a bit of time as a homeless person before Senior Junmin took me in. Every morning, the words my father said to me chips away at my heart. I understood why he was so against me chasing after my dreams.”

“It’s difficult for artists to make money after all.”

“That’s right. No parent would gladly allow their child to throw themselves into a fire.”

“So you matured then.”

“Haha.”

What would Maru have said if his daughter said she wanted to be a singer? Moreover, if she tried to put aside her studies for it? He would’ve told her to stop immediately if she didn’t have the passion to work on her studies as well. Although if she was able to work hard on both and succeed on both at the same time… She would’ve been a genius.

Parents often take two routes and start comparing the two. Which route was a safer route to success? The moment they put the question in their minds, their heads freeze over. The answer is set.

In the end, it becomes a matter of compromise. If the child is still set on taking the hard route even after learning the parent isn’t able to support them, then all the parents can do is to let the child go. It’s not easy, obviously. There are many, many horrible things in society, there were more than plenty of examples of people who were crushed while chasing after their dreams. Having seen all of this, the parents can’t help but worry about their child.

“Father must’ve had it hard as well. Since his oldest son went out of the house just like that. Well, he might’ve been fine, but… I think I made things needlessly difficult for Geunseok.”

“You think your father had been extra hard on Geunseok?”

“That’s right. That’s why I feel sorry for my brother.”

“Now that I look at it, you’re a total saint.”

“Me?”

“Yes. I would’ve just cut ties right there.”

Geunsoo turned to look at Maru.

“Until recently, I thought Geunseok was a necessary person in the acting club. Despite all the happenings between us, the boy was still very invested in acting. That’s why I supported him when he became president.”

“But then?”

“Several distasteful events happened recently. Some of his actions I can understand. But the rest… he crossed the line like it was nothing.”

“Geunseok?”

Maru nodded.

“My rule in life is to try not to even interact with bastards that hit women or ignore words that people mustered their courage to say. Geunseok crossed both of them. I thought he was just immature in the past. Not anymore. He’s twisted to the core.”

“…That’s very disappointing to hear.”

“I’m sorry. I’d rather not lie about something like this if I can help it.”

“I know. That’s why I’m thankful. White lies are always easy to say.”

The car passed through the toll gates, Geunsoo opened the windows a tiny bit. The sounds of the trucks passing by were accompanied by the cold air.

“You said Geunseok left the club?”

“Yes.”

“By himself?”

“I got the news out of nowhere as well. He said he wasn’t interested in such a thing.”

“Hah. And here I thought things might’ve changed. In the end, he’s still in father’s grasps.”

“That’s probably what’s easy for him, because there’s no pain involved.”

“Would you take my brother if he comes to join the acting club again?”

“Do you think there’s even a chance of that happening? He did say acting was boring.”

“Just as a hypothetical situation.”

“…He’ll have to apologize to many people if he decides to. But I’m personally against it. I’d welcome him with a forced smile if I have to. I don’t think it’d come to that.”

“I’ve felt this before, but you’re way too cold.”

“I thought I gave people plenty of chances before finally giving up on them. But why are you…”

Geunsoo shrugged. There’s definitely something going on though…

“You’ll see once you go to school. Or not.”

“What?”

“I didn’t have any say in this, by the way. Blame Senior Junmin, if anything. He does odd stuff like this sometimes.”

“What are you…”

“He told me he had a talk with my father. And father actually allowed Geunseok to continue acting.”

“Ah, I see why Geunseok gave up all of the sudden. So his father found out. But why the sudden change?”

“No idea. Both my father and Senior Junmin are the type that house thousands of snakes inside them. There’s no telling what they’re thinking at all, but I’m sure they have their reasons.”

“I have a feeling this will get annoying.”

“I think Senior Junmin has taken a massive liking towards you. He made an odd expression when Mr. Moonjoong kept talking about you… and then this.”

“He’s pushing Geunseok because he likes me?”

“Can’t be all of it. I think he didn’t want to let Geunseok go just like that. I guess… a win-win strategy if anything?”

“I’m not getting anything out of this though.”

“Mm… good luck. I have no idea how this will go, personally.”

“I’ve no plans on being friendly with him even if he pushes his way back. It’s petty to use club politics against someone, but I will if I have to.”

“Hey, hey. Stop being so scary. He’s still my brother, you know?”

Geunsoo smiled awkwardly. So blood really was thicker than water, wasn’t it? To think how Geunsoo could still smile like that after being looked down on by his brother for all those years.

“I won’t be nice to him, but I won’t cast him out so quickly. Though… I don’t think the other people in the club would welcome him either.”

“R-really?”

“Yes.”

Coming back to the acting club? Maru had no intentions of letting the boy back in. Thinking of what happened between Geunseok and Jiyoon, Maru was prepared to do anything to keep the boy out. He didn’t want any internal conflict within such a small club. Denying Geunseok’s entry was the best decision for Maru.

“Well, that’s too bad. But acting is all about teamwork, so I get it.”

“Right. We have it hard enough as is. Any more conflict would end everything.”

“So it’s over. My brother has nowhere to go. I suppose he could rely on a place outside of school if he really wants to take up acting as a career though. He won’t be able to go to tournaments, but so what? Right, right.”

“It looks like you’re trying to persuade yourself.”

Geunseok smiled lightly.

“Ugh, my poor brother.”

“You’re not going to persuade me with that. I’m not going to let him in.”

“Oh, that didn’t work. Well, whatever. Tsk, and I made the club, too.”

Maru shook his head looking at Geunsoo.

“There’s nowhere for Geunseok to go. Unless there are two acting clubs in the school.”

“…Oho.”

“What do you mean, oho?”

“That sounds pretty likely.”

“Two clubs?”

“Even back in my day some of the bigger clubs were partitioned. Isn’t that the case now too?”

“Well, yes… There’s a few.”

“The acting club can do that, then.”

“What?”

Geunsoo smiled. He was smiling a lot like Junmin, actually.

“You’re planning something with Mr. Junmin, aren’t you?”

“What? Planning? Me?”

“You weren’t saying all that just now for no reasonthing, were you?”

“No no, of course not.”

“So why are you smiling?”

“Well, I’m just happy.”

“…I’ll hope this is just a freaky coincidence.”

“Don’t worry.”

Geunsoo didn’t sound trustworthy at all. The man drove for a while without speaking a word more, Maru too just watched the scenery pass for a while. Just as he was starting to get sleepy…

“Odd, isn’t it?”

“What is?”

“It became like this in the end. The boy who was iffy about taking up acting is already auditioning for a role.”

“True.”

“I told you, didn’t I? The monster of acting swallows up the people it takes a liking to. How does it feel to be halfway inside already?”

“It’s fun. Also nerve-wracking.”

“Very good.”

“I won’t get swallowed up just like that. I’ll try to tame it. And sell it. I’d like to take over acting completely.”

“Hey, give me a piece of that cash if things do go according to plan.”

“I’ll make you a regional president or something.”

Maru closed his eyes with that, the hum of the car lulled him slowly to sleep.

Chapter 192

“I’ll get going, mom.”

Daemyung stepped out of the house after saying goodbye to his mother. The sky was bright blue. Normally he would’ve stretched happily in weather like this, but he was in no mood to do so right now.

‘I hope big bro Mintae’s doing alright.’

He was doing his best with Mintae to make some progress into their production project. Unfortunately, they were stuck. Currently, Daemyung’s goal in the project was to produce a play with three people before opening the project to investors.

Daemyung got onto the bus headed towards school, it was packed with other students. Several female students were in front of him as a matter of fact. In the past, he would’ve looked down in nervousness. Out of fear that the girls would be laughing at him on the inside, but he’s realized at this point that people don’t care so much about others.

‘And if they do, so what? It’s not like I’d need to form a relationship with them anyway.’

Daemyung slowly observed the people inside the bus. There was a man in a suit with waxed hair, probably a new hire. Or maybe he just has a very troublesome boss. Or maybe he’s even a perfectionist?

‘A perfectionist character sounds pretty fun.’

Daemyung’s eyes drifted over to a girl this time, she was wearing a high school uniform from a very famous school. She was holding onto the handle with one hand, and a notebook in the other. She was exchanging words with the businessman next to her every once in a while. Words about her studies.

“Math?”

“Nope, English first.”

“What about Physics?”

“That comes last. It really hurts my head.”

“That’s when you pick up Korean literature. To take a breather.”

“Yup.”

Daemyung slowly mouthed the conversation he was hearing, lines from a play needed to be as realistic as possible a lot of the time. Practicing like this would help him very much in creating a three-dimensional character later down the line.

“What the heck? Is that guy following our words?”

“No way.”

Daemyung quickly closed his mouth in surprise. Eventually, the bus came to a stop near his school. He checked the clock after getting off. 8am. He still had a lot of time. As he took a step towards the school entrance, he felt a slap on his back.

“Good morning!”

“Ah, morning.”

It was Iseul. The girl who was always smiling.

“Where’s Dojin?”

“How would I know?”

“A-ah.”

Dojin and Iseul started dating at the beginning of the semester, Iseul seemed pretty hesitant at first. She apparently changed her mind when Dojin really started helping her family out.

“How’s the acting club? You guys only have a week left, right?”

“We have two juniors for now.”

“And?”

“…The end.”

“Didn’t you say there were a lot of juniors who came?”

“There were only two who were interested enough to join. I was pretty excited too, but it can’t be helped.”

“So it’s just four people in total.”

Daemyung nodded. Four people, the third years were only there in name.

“That’s troublesome. You can’t even do anything with just four people.”

“We’ll have to find a play with fewer people. Or take on multiple roles at once.”

“Think you guys can handle that?”

“…Dunno. I think Maru can.”

“What the, scared already? You need to be a role model for the juniors.”

“You know I’m not good at that kind of stuff.”

“Well, better get practicing then. You and Maru are the only capable ones in the club now.”

Iseul pat his back one more time. Unfortunately, this just made Daemyung want to sigh more. Could they even get anywhere with four people? It was a horrifically low number, he wasn’t even sure if they could make a stage.

“Hey, stop making a face like that. You’re making me feel guilty.”

Daemyung waved his hands in denial after seeing Iseul looking at him dejectedly. He must’ve shown his feelings while he thought to himself.

“No no, don’t worry. Seriously.”

“How can I not? If you need someone to help you make props, just let me know. I’ll be really sad if you don’t!”

“Y-yeah.”

They’ll be perpetually shorthanded from now on, there isn’t much they could get done with just four people. It wasn’t like they could keep asking for help from others though. Maru told him already that getting help once from someone was bad enough.

- The guys would help us out every time if we asked. That’s exactly why we need to do this ourselves. They are outsiders now. We don’t want to make them do unnecessary stuff just because we’re lacking in people.

Maru wasn’t wrong, the acting club needed to take care of itself.

“Eh? What’s that truck?”

Iseul commented just as they were about to get into the school, a truck towing a shipping container was slowly entering the school. The teacher guarding the entrance looked with wide eyes, he clearly didn’t know anything about this either.

“If you could let us in, sir,” said the truck driver.

The teacher quickly had a talk with the driver. After a few nods, the teacher led the truck inside, a forklift behind the truck followed them inside as well. Daemyung watched all of this dumbly before realizing something, he dialled Maru’s number on the phone. After a bit of waiting, someone finally picked up.

“Maru, um…”

- Sorry, I’m not Maru.

“What?”

- Maru went to the convenience store for a bit. He’ll be back soon. Call him again in five.

“Ah, yes.”

He’s heard the voice somewhere else, he couldn’t tell who because of the background noise. Daemyung said goodbye to Iseul before following the truck to the back of the school, the forklift was positioning the container at this point.

“There’s no way, right?”

Maru did talk about a container, but it was impossible to have it here already. They needed the school’s permission. More than that, they needed money.

“Good! Put it over there!”

It was a pretty clean container. Big, too. If only they could use that… Daemyung watched for a few minutes more before heading back to the class.

“I saw a truck coming in. What was that? I thought we were done with building the gym,” Dojin asked.

“They’re putting a shipping container behind the school.”

“A container? Maru?”

“Don’t think so. He mentioned that on Saturday. No way he got permission in two days. It’s also like 2 million won.”

“2 million? Yeah, there’s no way then.”

That’s when Dowook raised his head from his desk.

“Container? You guys need one?”

“Yeah? Yeah. We might.”

“Tell me if you do. I can ask my dad about it.”

“Really? You guys have a shipping container?”

“There’s an unused container right behind the gas station. I’m sure my dad will sell it for cheap if I tell him Maru needs it.”

That was good news. It was a mystery how much the man would sell it for, but as long as it was below market price…

“Wow, rich people are different after all.”

“Rich my ass.”

Dojin smiled as he tickled Dowook. Dowook stood right up and tried to grab Dojin, prompting the other boy to run out of the classroom with a shout. What good friends. They all got off to a bad start, but they’ve all become very good friends.

“So energetic. Running so early in the morning are we?”

He heard Maru’s voice from behind him, Daemyung turned around in surprise.

“…Did you stay up?”

“Eh? Ah, kind of.”

Maru looked horrible. His bedhead was incredible and his clothes were kind of dirty. Looking now, they were the clothes he’s been wearing since Saturday.

“Ah! That was Senior Geunsoo on the phone, wasn’t it? Were you guys together since Saturday?”

“Yup. I was imprisoned.”

“I-imprisoned?”

“It was fun though.”

Maru sat down with a long yawn, he started taking out convenience store food from his black bag and ate them.

“You didn’t even have breakfast?”

“I have been in a car since dawn. Didn’t have the time.”

“What the hell did you do over the weekend?”

“I told you, I was imprisoned.”

Maru grinned and told Daemyung he’d explain himself after the meal.

“What was that about the container by the way? Dowook spoke to me about it as he ran just now.”

“There’s a container at school.”

“Just like that?”

“Just like that. You didn’t do this, did you?”

“I had plans, but nope. Why do we…”

Right then, Maru’s phone rang. Maru took the call immediately, he lowered his voice as he spoke to the person on the other side. His expression was a bit odd.

“Yes, thank you. I appreciate the gesture.”

Maru smiled lightly after hanging up.

“What? What’s happening?”

“The container is a gift from Mr. Junmin. He already talked to the school about it. Hah, Senior Geunsoo did tell me something was going to happen, but…”

“So the container behind the school is…”

“It’s ours.”

“Really?”

The world around Daemyung instantly brightened. If that container was theirs, their prop issue was fixed. That alone was a big plus.

“Let’s start our move after today. We can get it done by the end of this week if we start now.”

Maru spoke as he took the wrapping off of his kimbap.

* * *

Geunseok thought with his chin resting on his hand, his father told him out of nowhere that he could continue acting. There was a condition, but it was nothing big. He was within the top three of the school all this time.

‘Mr. Junmin definitely has an eye for talent.’

Junmin was the one who persuaded his father, that person must treasure Geunseok very much.

‘But what do I do?’

Geunseok had no intentions of returning to the club, he’d rather give up acting entirely. Thinking about the humiliation he suffered from Maru made him grit his teeth subconsciously. Those arrogant eyes… He should’ve thrown a punch back then.

- If you’re going to do something, go all out.

Those were the words his father told him. Now that he’s gotten permission, there was nothing stopping his path. All he had to do was to show off his talent.

- You too need to learn how to lie. You need to learn how to compliment others. You need to learn how to be trampled like your brother if need be.

Hearing that was even more humiliating than the time with Maru. Being compared to his older brother… As the more talented brother, the thought was absolutely shameful. It was so obvious that Geunseok was better, especially since Junmin was eyeing him.

Geunseok smiled.

“Become kind, huh.”

He’s learned a thing or two about life through this, he needed to learn how to act wisely like Maru. For now, he’d start off with turning his classmates into his allies. Geunseok went around the classroom dropping a few words here and there. Many of his classmates listened to him thanks to their good impressions of him.

“They were too much. They kicked you out just because of that?”

“Yeah, seriously. Geunseok, you’re too kind. You should’ve been more firm.”

“I mean, you’re the reason why the club succeeded in the first place.”

Geunseok smiled, so it was this easy. He shouldn’t have tried to use force at all in the beginning.

‘Father was right.’

Humans needed to learn how to stay low, they needed to learn to compliment. Just a few smiles and a few words here and there already earned Geunseok so many allies.

“By the way, you can create your own club as long as you have a few people, right?”

“Yup. As long as you have an advisor and a few members.”

Geunseok nodded at the vice president’s words, Junmin told him about this previously. Clearly, the man wants Geunseok to succeed.

“Really? Can you help me out then? I think I can count on you.”

“Of course.”

The vice president stepped up with a big smile. So this was it, this was how you use people.

“Thank you.”

Geunseok had a feeling he’d be using the phrase a lot more in the future. He was confident of it, in fact. This too was but an extension of acting.

‘So easy.’

A twisted smile creeped its way out of his lips.

Thank you.

What an easy phrase to take advantage of.

Chapter 193

“What an amazing present.”

“His gifts are as grand as his wealth.”

Maru smiled looking at the container, he didn’t think he’d really get one, in just two days no less. Maru headed to the clubroom, leaving Taesik to revel at the container by himself.

“Senior.”

“Hello!”

Jiyoon and Bangjoo were waiting next to the clubroom.

“I’m sorry for calling you out during lunchtime.”

“It’s alright!”

Jiyoon flinched a bit at Bangjoo’s energetic reply, the two of them were polar opposites. Can they work well together?

“Alright, we’ll start off with cleaning the container itself. It’s going to be our new clubroom, so take care.”

“Yes.”

Daemyung appeared with a handful of cleaning supplies. For now, they prepared some floor cleaner and mops.

“Take this down with you. Mr. Taesik is waiting on the bottom.”

“Sure.”

Daemyung left the clubroom with the freshmen, Maru took the ruler in the clubroom and started measuring the bigger props. “This should all fit nicely.”

As he made his way down the central staircase, he bumped into Geunseok coming up with his group of friends.

“Well, you guys look busy. Need help?”

Maru scanned the boy from top to bottom, the boy was smiling brightly at him. What was happening? When Maru frowned in confusion, Geunseok’s smile only deepened. The boy’s friends started muttering among each other nervously.

“Is he that acting club dude?”

“Think so.”

Geunseok’s friends stared at Maru with a bit of hostility. Maru thought for a second. Did he ever get into a point of conflict with these people? Not at all. He has never even talked to them before. So what was this?

“If you want to, sure. We do need people.”

“I’ll head over in a bit then.”

A girl standing next to Geunseok poked him with an annoyed look.

“Hey, you really shouldn’t.”

She was whispering, but Maru heard everything. Well, this was odd. Maru tried looking deeply into Geunseok’s eyes.

[Confusing, isn’t it? Maru, I can fucking bury you if I just try a little.]

The word bubble above his head was a shade of bright pink, but the words inside were absolutely disgusting.

“He’s a friend, so of course I should. I may not be in the acting club anymore, but I’m still his friend.”

Maru couldn’t hold back his laughter after hearing that, to think that the boy would act in real life the way he would in a play… Geunseok looked at him a little oddly.

“No, don’t worry. What should I say… Trying hard, or just immature? Well, it was nice to see. Why don’t you try pushing forward a bit more with that character, now that you’re at it?”

“What are you talking about, Maru?”

“Hey, it’s seriously weird watching you acting friendly. More than that, you’re absolutely hilarious. God, what a show.”

Maru walked towards Geunseok and his friends, who were glaring at him. He put a hand over Geunseok’s shoulder with a smile.

“This isn’t how you start a party though.”

He continued down the stairs with that. The boy seemed to be trying to spread rumors about him, it was a novel idea accompanied by terrible execution.

“Geunseok, what a lad. Good job, man.”

Maru didn’t forget to give Geunseok a thumbs up before stepping further down. What little was left of the boy’s smile completely shattered. The boy’s friends were looking at him ridiculously, but whatever.

“W-what the, so annoying.”

“What’s he talking about?”

Maru headed down ignoring the group, he stepped into the container with a big smile on his face.

“What’s up with the smile?” Daemyung asked.

“Geunseok was being cute.”

“What?”

“I thought he was smart, but apparently not.”

Daemyung refrained from asking more despite the confusion, he clearly didn’t want to hear any of it.

“How’s the inside?”

“Pretty clean.”

They took a look at the other side of the container, Taesik was looking inside with the two freshmen. As Daemyung said, the container was pretty clean with very little rust on it as well.

“It’s in good condition. We can use this. But can we fit everything inside…?” Taesik asked.

“It will. We just have to stack it with a path down the middle for people to move through. It’s twenty feet wide, so it’ll be enough space.”

Daemyung made a confused expression.

“How do you know that? What’s a feet?”

“Kids don’t have to know.”

Maru still retained some knowledge from when he still worked in the trading company, his memories of containers were pretty clear from the amount of time he worked with them. Maru took a look at it from the outside this time.

“Side panels look alright. We’ll just have to check the roof.”

“The roof?”

“The top.”

Maru popped open the top hatch and climbed up, he could hear Jiyoon squeal quietly in confusion below him.

“Looks nice.”

It was well kept for a used container.

“We’ll just have to tidy it up with a new coat of waterproof paint. There’s no need to do wiring on the inside, so I think sweeping is enough for cleaning.”

“You know this well. I was planning on helping out a bit, but clearly you know a lot about this.”

“You’ve helped plenty already. This is school property now by the way, right? Do you think you can get some of the school’s budget for fixing this up?”

“I don’t know about that.”

“Well, alright. I can buy the paint with my own money then. It’s cheap anyhow.”

It was a perfectly-sized container, so there wasn’t much to do. All they needed to do was to clean it up and move the props.

“You should leave first, Teacher. We’ll take care of the rest.”

Taesik bought them a few drinks before heading out.

“Alright, onto the cleaning.”

“Yessir!”

Jiyoon and Bangjoo both replied energetically with a mop in hand.

* * *

‘That son of a bitch.’

Geunseok grit his teeth, he didn’t get the response he wanted. He wanted to see Maru confused and angry, not smiling back at him. His original plans to crush Maru with kind words failed.

“Geunseok. I heard from the faculty that you just need club members. Ten people by the end of this week and a signature from your advisor.”

The vice president handed him a piece of paper. With this, Geunseok would be able to create a rival acting club.

‘Good.’

He was a bit annoyed, but things were going well. Geunseok decided to gather a few people from his class first.

“Acting? I’m already in a club.”

“I heard it takes a lot of commitment though.”

“I have to study.”

To his surprise, not a single person agreed to join. Geunseok quickly calmed down though and started thinking.

‘I’ll go to the first years again. I just have to emphasize that it won’t take too much work.’

Geunseok was whisked into a feeling of nervousness as he headed down, Junmin was the one who suggested that he make a new club. All the preparation was done already, but can he even make one in the first place?

He decided to head into a mechanical engineering class first, most of the students were sleeping inside since it was nearing the end of the day. He steeled himself to walk up to the front of the class.

“Um, hey, guys? I’m sorry, but mind if I spoke for a second?”

A few of the kids raised their heads, Geunseok quickly started talking about the new club. Something wrong happened with the original one, so he was trying to make a new one. The new one emphasized personal freedom, Geunseok took a look at the freshmen after finishing his speech. Some were looking at him with annoyance, but most were fast asleep. Geunseok bit his lips. Sleeping? In front of a senior?

“Guys, listen to me!”

He punched the lecture stand below him, he could feel eyes gather to him in an instant. They all looked annoyed, Geunseok tensed up a little bit. He forgot that this was a school full of delinquents. Geunseok wasn’t a fan of these gazes, he feared violence, he feared getting hit.

“Um, Senior?!”

Right then, one of the freshmen spoke out loudly. It was a kid with very short hair, he’s seen this kid somewhere…

“I’m in the acting club. If my memory serves right, didn’t you leave of your own volition? Senior Maru told me that you got bored of acting.”

“W-what?”

“Is that not the case? I’m sorry. I’m a bit stupid.”

The kids in the classroom started muttering, after waking up from the boy’s shout.

“Bangjoo, quiet down a bit.”

“So loud.”

The class was clearly uninterested in the acting club, Geunseok nearly fled from the first year’s class.

* * *

“That really was an unexpected gift. I didn’t think you’d send over something this big just like that.”

- I just happened to have a spare one lying around.

“Do you happen to have some more? I’d like them if you do.”

- Very funny. Ah, did you only call to thank me?

“That’s one of the reasons.”

- One of them?

Maru leaned on the back of the wall.

“I heard Geunseok was trying to make his own acting club.”

- Hm.

“But no matter how much I think about it, he’s not the type to do something like that. He’s not someone who would step out to do something all by himself after all. Thinking about it, I had a feeling you put him up to this.”

- Yes, I gave him some motivation.

“Can I know why?”

- He’s too good a card to lose. I already invested a bit into him as well and Suyeon is quite the expensive tutor.

“Ah, so she was his coach. In any case, why didn’t you just give him a different method? He won’t be able to make a club anyway.”

- Why not?

“We already ran a circle around the whole school. At this point, no one else is willing to join our club.

- Fair point.

“I was just curious why you put Geunseok up to this. Especially when you’re such a busy man.”

- I wanted to see a reaction.

“Reaction?”

- I thought about two things. I spoke with the school to ensure that two acting clubs can exist. If Geunseok has talent, he’d be able to create a nice rival club in the school.

“You’re too much, we’re lacking in people as is,” Maru responded with a smile. He could hear laughter from the other side.

- It would’ve been fun if one really did get made. Well, if that’s not possible, I have no choice but to wait for the second reaction.

“Reaction?”

- The breaking of his pride.

“Aha, so that’s what you were going for?”

- Ugh, and here I was just planning on watching. You’re making me feel quite troublesome with your words.

“I hate having to go through trouble. I’m just going to say this now. No matter what Geunseok does, I’m not going to take him back into the club.”

- You talk as if the club’s yours.

“I’m the representative for now, so yes.”

- If I try to force you?

“I don’t think you’d do that.”

- Why not?

“Because you have expectations for me. Isn’t that reason enough?”

Maru put an index finger over his lips towards Dowook, Dojin, and Daemyung, the three of them were staring at him.

- I dislike smart people because of this. They just do what they want.

“I thought you actually liked them? Senior Geunsoo, Coach Ganghwan, Instructor Miso, and Ms. Suyeon on top of that… Oh my, what a roster you have there.”

- Bahaha, you’re right. I dislike people who only know how to obey. That’s why I made Geunseok do this, I want the boy to break out of his shell. He has talent. He’s smart. He’s also pretty stubborn, but he has no motivation. He doesn’t know what to do. He’ll do well if I just tell him what to do, but he won’t do any more than that. I’m not looking for slaves here.

“He’s trying to do something in front of me. What should I do? I understand your intentions, but I’m no fan of letting mosquitos do what they want.”

- Do what you want. I gave Geunseok a choice. He can either try to carve out his own path, or he can just learn to swallow his pride. He’ll become interesting if he learns how meaningless pride is. If he doesn’t… well, that’s just his fault.

“How cold.”

- Working people isn’t child’s play, so I have to be cold. I’m an investor. If something I invest in doesn’t show results, I need to move onto better things.

“Could you tell me why you’re so set on finding new rookies?”

Junmin became quiet for a second, Maru watched the clock in the classroom slowly tick away. After about fifteen seconds, Junmin finally opened his mouth.

- I want to see perfect acting. That’s all.

The man’s voice seemed to be colored with nostalgia.

“I understand. I’ll take care of it on my end then.”

- Sure. I hope you can lead him, but… I see what you’re thinking now, so I won’t expect much.

“It’ll depend on how he acts.”

- Sure. Whatever you want.

Junmin hung up.

“What was that? That sounded pretty scary,” Dojin asked. Dowook was watching curiously as well.

“A debate on what to do with a lost lamb?”

Maru smiled.

Chapter 194

“Hey Geunseok, we’re heading to Anyang. You coming?”

The girls were asking him to play, they were pretty cute too. Geunseok wanted nothing more than to play with them all day. Unfortunately, he just didn’t have the time today.

“Sorry, next time.”

“Whaat, why? Let’s go.”

The girl dragged out her words as she tugged at his arm, the other girls were asking him to tag along as well. Geunseok could feel a tinge of annoyance creeping up his head, these brats just didn’t know when to give up. They were like little flies that didn’t know when to leave. He wanted to shout at them, but he did his best to maintain his composure.

“I have work to do. Let’s go together some other time. I’ll play with you then for real.”

“Well, alright, fine.”

The girl let go almost immediately, her eyes seemed to have lost all interest. The other girls were no longer smiling as well.

“That’s a pity. Everything’s free if he tags along too.”

“Didn’t he buy everything last time?”

“Yep.”

He could hear them snickering, Geunseok glared at the girls. They ran away almost as soon as their eyes met.

‘Bitches.’

He could feel anger rising all the way to his neck, he forced himself to calm down. Girls were all like this anyway. He headed down to the freshmen classrooms, this time his destination was the design class. He might be able to score a few points if he uses the fact that he’s also in design. Unfortunately, he got nothing. Not a single student was interested in joining the acting club, this was troublesome. He won’t be able to make a club at this rate, his stomach was starting to hurt due to the irritation.

Right then, he saw one of the freshmen girls laughing in front of him. She wasn’t even listening to him talk. Instead, she was just talking to the girl right next to him. Geunseok decided that he might as well use this as a chance to let out some of his stress.

“Hey, you think I’m a joke?”

“What?”

The girl responded back to him with a smile. How disgusting. Geunseok continued with a frown on his face.

“You think I’m a joke? You can’t hear me talking right now? You have the audacity to ignore what I’m saying when I’m in front of you? Huh?”

The wide-eyed girl immediately lowered her head, same with the other girl she was just talking to. Geunseok felt relief looking at their reactions, lowering their heads was a sign of weakness to a carnivore like him. He relished his control of the situation, they were obeying him, a good behavior to have. He was too scared to speak out against the big one behind the girls, but he could always crush herbivores like these.

“Watch out from now on, got it? I’ll remember your faces. Understand?”

“…Yes.”

“Good. You should respond like that to seniors from now on. What club are you two at right now?”

“U-us? We’re in the movie watching club.”

The girl looked at him with fear on her face. It was pretty satisfying to look at, but Geunseok knew very well that this wasn’t the right way to carry the conversation. He wouldn’t be able to get club members with a whip alone.

“Why are you guys scared? I was just kidding. Did you really think I was really mad?”

He immediately got rid of the frown on his face, he kneeled a little and got on the two girls’ eye level.

“Sorry about that. I was just playing around a bit so that I could get close to you. I think I went a bit overboard with my acting. Were you scared?”

“What? N-not at all.”

“Right? I’m not really that scary.”

He immediately continued, so that the girls wouldn’t be able to recover. Girls at this age often agreed to whatever as long as you pushed them around a bit.

“Won’t you try acting?”

“What?”

“I need cute girls like you. You have very good diction, too.”

“Me?”

The girl looked confused, Geunseok didn’t even pause as he continued.

“Yup. You have good eyes, too. You’d come right to life on stage. I feel embarrassed to say this with my own mouth, but I got the best actor’s award in the nationals. My teachers told me that I have an eye for good actors as well. You guys need to act. Are you guys really going to spend all of your exciting high school life just watching movies? This is a secret, but the acting club I’m making is going to be backed by some seriously famous people in the industry. In other words, I’m giving you two a chance. I don’t give this to anyone.”

“But just before, you were talking to everyone…”

“I was trying to get a reaction out of them. I don’t see many people in the class with talent, but you’re an exception. Do you know Kim Suyeon? The actor in the SBC drama?”

“I do! She was really pretty!”

“I’m very close to her.”

“Really?”

“I don’t lie. Moreover, I’m trying to create an acting club of elites. The one that exists right now is just garbage. I don’t like talking bad about people, but the guys there right now kicked me out just because I was too good at acting. So a big guy in the industry took pity on me and decided to back me fully. If possible, I’d like to start this off with you two. If you come along with me, acting won’t just be a hobby for you. Have you ever wished to stand on the big stage?”

“Well… yes.”

“Me too.”

The two girls nodded together, this was his chance. His first goal was to compliment them until they became dizzy and get their signatures on the signup form. After that, he’d raise the talented ones and leave the talentless ones to make props. He would use them for the next two years to make a play that makes himself look good, he just needed the individual actor’s awards. If they didn’t get the overall awards, he could just fault that on the club itself.

Geunseok was confident that he could get things moving once he dragged them into the club. In the end, plays were propped by one talented actor. The others were just along for the ride, that was just reality. No matter how good you were, you wouldn’t be remembered unless you’re the main actor. The star.

He’d be that star as long as he got people under him. If they didn’t listen, he might even beat them to make the play happen. A star was born by stepping over those underneath him. Right now, Geunseok desperately needed people to step on.

“But…”

“This is a chance. You guys have the talent. Are you going to toss away that talent just to watch some movies? That would be such a shame. You’d just be damaging yourselves if you did that. I’m just regretful that you’d be willing to waste yourselves just like that. I can just see what you’d be like within the next year if you join me. It’s fine to watch movies with your friends on the weekend. Sure, it’d create good memories. Not the best memories though. It’s a bit harsh, but you guys know it’s true. What’s normal is, in the end, just trash. What’s truly unique is what’s really valuable. Just look at the people behind you.”

Geunseok gestured towards the laughing group at the back of the class, he could tell that they were delinquents almost immediately.

“Are you close to them?”

“N-no.”

“Right? They’re delinquents. They’ll waste away their lives in an engineering school. You two are different, you guys ended up coming here due to some reason. You have a vision, either to go to college or to get a job right after high school. Am I right? You’re different from braindead idiots.”

The two girls nodded with an awkward smile. Again, Geunseok realized that everyone liked being complimented.

“I knew it. I knew I wasn’t wrong. You two are different. You’re not the types that would settle for normal high school life, you can get something more than this. I’ll help you, so long as you allow it. This is a plea. I don’t talk to those without talent. Behind me, I have someone big in the industry. I’m going to create something amazing with people that have real talent.”

He knew his words had a lot of holes in them, but he also knew these two were too stupid to realize that. They were almost done being persuaded, he just said someone big was behind him and they believed him just like that. How stupid was that? People were so easy to manipulate, he should be able to recruit more people if he kept going like this.

“…What you said is wrong.”

Right then, a high-pitched voice cut into their conversation. Geunseok immediately realized who the voice came from, it was that idiot that came to hand over the signup form last time. Lee Jiyoon, was it?

“Senior Maru told me that plays aren’t done by just talented people. It can’t succeed unless everyone tries hard together. Stars can’t make a play successful by themselves.”

She spoke her mind despite the fear she exhibited, that annoyed Geunseok to no end. Thinking about it, she was the cause of conflict with Maru as well. He wanted to shout at her, but he couldn’t afford to look bad in front of the two girls.

“He’s just wrong.”

“…No, you are.”

“What do you know about acting, huh?”

“T-that’s…”

“See? You have nothing to say. Jiyoon, was it? Don’t try to do stuff like this. Trying to tear down a person with baseless arguments is a bad thing.”

Jiyoon shut her mouth up, she didn’t seem to be a person who knew how to organize her thoughts in an argument. Then again, he supposed she couldn’t, especially when he was glaring at her like this.

“I told you, right? Your acting club right now only knows to tear people down like this. I’m sorry for insulting a classmate like this, but I don’t think she can be helped at this point.”

The two girls glanced at Jiyoon with that, Jiyoon stepped back with a flinch. He’s won. Girls were so easy, he might as well use this as a chance for revenge…

Right then, a slipper flew towards his face. It hit his head and bounced onto the floor. Geunseok glared, putting a hand over his numb forehead. The delinquent-like girls were glaring at him.

“It’s that annoying senior from last time.”

“He doesn’t even deserve to be called a senior. Hey, what the hell do you want?”

“Our girl didn’t do anything wrong.”

The girls were all walking towards him. Geunseok raised his body, thinking that there was no way he’d get beat by girls. He ended up swallowing a little when he saw their faces, they weren’t the typical girls he knew. They were the rowdy type, they looked very athletic.

The boys started moving as well. Geunseok paled a little, looking at the big one headed his way, this one was even bigger than him.

“The fuck you want?”

Geunseok looked around frantically before looking at the girl who was just listening to him.

“…It’s nothing.”

“Scared, huh?”

Geunseok stepped out in a hurry, he could see the bigger boy step out behind him. He ran towards the central staircase but ended up running into the one person he wanted to see the least. It was Maru, he was grinning with a phone in his hand.

“I’ll hear the rest of it from Jiyoon. I’ll come to talk to you after that.”

Maru patted his shoulder lightly, Geunseok couldn’t even move a single inch. Right now, Maru looked absolutely terrifying to him.

Chapter 195

She felt a lot better after sighing. Where did she even muster all that courage from?

“Are you okay?”

“Want us to go scare him?”

Jiyoon told her friends that she was fine now, she was trembling when Geunseok was right in front of her. With her friends here, she could stand her ground. Her friends may be odd and rough, but they were very good friends nonetheless.

“Um, mind if I come in?”

Maru appeared by the entrance of the classroom, Jiyoon had called him as soon as she saw Geunseok enter the class.

“What are you doing here?”

“Why are all of you in such a hurry to bully this poor girl?”

Jiyoon had to frantically stop her friends from stopping Maru.

“No no, he’s fine. I called him here.”

“Really?”

Jiyoon stepped towards Maru.

“Geunseok just left.”

“I know, I saw him. What happened?”

“Nothing bad, just…”

Jiyoon turned to look at the two girls at the front of the class. She knew them by name, but not much else apart from that Maru approached the two and asked for a summary. Jiyoon couldn’t help but notice how nice of a person he was, especially with how he kindly consoled the two girls.

“I’ll apologize first. It looks like he’s tried to bully the two of you.”

“N-no, it’s fine.”

Maru apologized to the girls and corrected the things Geunseok had said at the same time, the girls nodded with understanding.

“I had no intention of joining, to begin with. He was really weird, he was definitely mad when he first spoke to us. He kept repeating he was just kidding, but it definitely didn’t feel like he was joking around though. I didn’t even want to talk to him, but I was so scared so I kept listening…”

“Me too.”

The girls spoke with trembling voices, Jiyoon felt sorry for them. If only she intervened earlier…

“Hey, you idiots. You should’ve said no if you didn’t like the situation. Why did you just keep listening? I thought you knew that weirdo.”

One of Jiyoon’s friends stepped up with a frown, Jiyoon tried to stop the girl. She knew her friend didn’t have any patience when it came to situations like this.

“Stop it, the one at fault is that senior.”

“In cases like these, the victims are also at fault. Stop being iffy and allowing yourself to get whisked away in such a situation. If you don’t like it, just say no.”

Jiyoon understood why her friend was mad, but she was also baffled at how she would try to remedy the situation. At the same time, she was a little envious of her friend’s confidence.

“What you said isn’t actually very easy, you’re the amazing one for being able to say no. There’s nothing wrong with the girls here.” Maru butted in.

Jiyoon’s friend glared at Maru. Jiyoon stepped in with a smile, but she couldn’t really do anything.

“Aren’t you a friend of that senior from a while ago? You’re both in the acting club. It’s also partly your fault for not taking care of your friends. How could you let someone like that rampage at our class?”

“First and foremost, I’m not his friend. Also, I’m sorry. You’re right. It’s my fault for not talking to him first. I didn’t even realize it until you told me. Thank you.”

“…Ah, yeah.”

Jiyoon’s friend seemed to be confused. This girl was a true tomboy, the type who was incredibly sporty since a young age. Her fiery personality stemmed from the fact that she often exercised with her brothers, Jiyoon was a bit surprised that someone like that could look so confused like this moment. She was more surprised that Maru was able to render her friend to this state.

“What the, backing off just like that?”

“Yeah, really?”

Jiyoon’s other friends laughed with playful mockery. In the meantime, Jiyoon sighed in relief. Thank god the situation didn’t escalate.

“I don’t like people who just admit their mistakes like that, it makes me just lose all of my adrenaline.”

Her friend pouted annoyedly, Jiyoon apologized to Maru for the scene.

“Again with your habit. Your friend did nothing wrong, your apology makes it look like your friend was in the wrong. Apologize only when necessary.”

“Ah, yes, I’m so… I understand.”

“Anyway, things got pretty annoying. I’ll try not to let this happen next time.”

Maru left Jiyoon’s friend an interested glance.

“By the way, didn’t you come to the acting club last time?”

“Me?”

Maru nodded after Aram pointed at herself with a finger.

“I went that one time earlier in the semester, I left because I wasn’t a fan of that bastard talking. I have a potty mouth, by the way, so you’ll have to be understanding of my language.”

“That’s not even really a bad word in high school. Besides that, would you like to join the acting club? We’re a bit short on people.”

“I’m good. I like moving my body, so stuff like that’s no good for me.”

“Acting is a very active activity.”

“But it takes a lot of time.”

“An incredible amount, subjectively speaking.”

“Why would I join a club like that?”

“Because it’s fun. The amount of fun you’ll have increases exponentially with the time you invest in it, it’s also that much annoying and tiring though.”

“Do you really think anyone would join from such words?”

“You think? I have no other way of explaining it. It’s just the way it is. Let me know if you find anyone else interested in acting around you. We’re recruiting until the end of the week.”

Maru spoke with a smile on his face, being quite frank with Jiyoon’s other friends for a second before finishing off by asking them to drop by once in the future. Jiyoon was reminded of a lady merchant in traditional markets during the whole exchange. She thought Maru was a very weighty, serious senior, but it felt like she saw a new side to him today. He seemed very friendly with his words.

“It’s almost the end of the break, thanks for listening to me talk. Be sure to drop by when you’re bored, I’ll show you a play we filmed last year.”

Maru took a look at the clock before finally stepping out.

“This one doesn’t seem like an asshole, thank goodness.”

“Yeah. He’s alright, actually. Kind of cute.”

“What, thinking of making a move?”

“Hey, don’t make this weird.”

Jiyoon’s friends started returning to their seats. Jiyoon thought of the acting club’s current situation. Maru sounded very casual about it, but Jiyoon knew full well how much trouble they were in.

“Hey, guys?”

“Yeah?”

“W-would you like to try acting with me? I just started myself, but the people there are really nice. It’s probably going to be tiring as the senior said, but it’s also going to be fun. Eh, so… so…”

She wanted to speak as seamless as Maru, but she couldn’t elaborate her train of thought. In the end, she just ended up finishing her line with an “it’s also going to be fun”. Her friends smiled.

“When will you stop being nervous in front of us?”

“Can’t be helped. We better take her on a lap around the school on top of our shoulders every time she stutters.”

Jiyoon ran away from her friends trying to ticker her into a corner of the class.

“Well, I want to try it, but band is pretty fun already.”

“Same, but with cooking.”

“I’ll watch your acting, so good luck.”

Unfortunately, they all refused. She wanted to be of help to Maru, but it proved more difficult than she initially thought.

“Hey, open your textbooks.”

The teacher entered the class, Jiyoon got back to her seat and opened her textbook. Right then, a ball of paper landed on her desk. She raised her head to see where the paper came from, Aram was pointing at the paper. When Jiyoon opened it, she found a message inside.

[Is the acting club really fun?]

* * *

[I think Geunseok has been spreading weird rumors.]

It was a message from Soyeon, who was in the same class as Geunseok.

“What’s this?”

Dojin leaned sideways to take a look at Maru’s phone. How brave of the boy, especially during class. Not that Maru was the one to talk, what with the phone under his desk. Maru showed Dojin the screen, causing the boy to frown.

“That bastard never changes.”

“You in the back. Be quiet.”

The teacher spoke as he smacked the chalk into the blackboard, Maru shut his mouth and focused on the lecture. The lecture about the crusades suddenly changed its course to king Lionheart, which eventually ended with the teacher recanting an epic of king Lionheart’s adventures.

“Don’t try so hard to memorize the latter part of the lecture. I’ll tell you what’s going to be on the test later.”

Engineering schools were odd in the fact that as long as you paid attention two weeks before the test, you could still easily get a hundred on the tests. The teachers were very lax in their classes as well.

“I, King Dojin the lion, will head off to punish that idiot now.”

“I bid you stay in your seat. I will take care of the matter myself.”

Maru pushed Dojin down by the shoulder as he stood up.

“I’ll come with you.”

Daemyung joined, Maru had no reason to stop a fellow member of the club from tagging along. Maru entered the design class, who were currently cleaning up the classroom before heading back home. He found Geunseok talking with his friends next to the television.

“Maru.”

Soyeon looked at him worriedly, Maru smiled at her gently before stepping towards Geunseok. Due to his sudden visit, the entirety of the class focused on him.

“What the,” Geunseok widened his eyes. He didn’t seem intimidated thanks to the presence of his friends.

“Geunseok.”

“What.”

“The only thing you should do with your mouth is to speak, not shit with it. You’re a smart kid, so why are you going around saying things you can’t even handle?”

“You son of a bitch.”

Geunseok stepped forward, he didn’t immediately attack though. Geunseok’s friends started observing the situation alertly, they looked like they would step in to help Geunseok as soon as things went awry.

“Just where did you learn to swear with every sentence? Can’t you be a little polite?”

“Are you crazy? Hey guys, look. This is the kid I was talking about. The one that kicked me out due to jealousy and his own incompetence. What a bastard.”

One by one, the students in the class started gathering. Maru actually welcomed the attentio, he wouldn’t have come here if he wanted to settle things peacefully in the first place. Maru raised his voice loud enough so that the class could hear him speak.

“Why are you saying such baseless things, Geunseok? Alright guys, think for a second. Do you think I could’ve kicked Geunseok out if he really was so talented?”

The students started nodding, causing Geunseok to immediately retort.

“Talent be damned. You kicked me out with that damn pig standing next to you. You did it out of jealousy.”

“So how the hell did we do it, if we even did it, to begin with?”

Chapter 196

“That’s… You…”

Geunseok couldn’t think of a response immediately. His words were based on lies, so it only made sense that his next one would be a lie as well. To lie convincingly over and over again needed an incredibly logical mind, one that could keep formulating lies that made sense. The more you lied, the more difficult this became.

The boy would be able to come up with a good lie given time. Unfortunately, Maru wasn’t about to give him any. He waited just a few seconds before dragging in the class further into their conversation.

“Look carefully. We’re just students. Do you actually think I have the ability to kick you out? Is there a rule that lets students regulate other students? I don’t think so.”

Maru looked around with a shrug, a few kids agreed. Maru quickly scanned the classroom. Geunseok was smart, but there was no way he managed to become friends with everyone in the club. To begin with, the boy probably tried to get along with the smarter kids.

Maru immediately realized that the six kids standing to his right were looking at Geunseok in annoyance, they were vigorously agreeing with everything Maru said as well. Besides that, six kids to his left were slowly making their way closer to the boy. The other twenty people in the class were probably neutral.

‘Geunseok, what’s important about forming a party isn’t what’s black or white. It’s what’s grey.’

The enemy of your enemy is your friend, what you really need the support of are the people in the middle. Maru purposefully took the neutral stance as he spoke.

“I’m just worried for you, Geunseok. Why are you lying over and over again? I keep hearing rumors. Rumors about you talking behind the acting club’s back. Why are you talking so much behind our back? If you have a problem, ‘be a man’ and come talk to us about it. If you really felt injustice towards your situation, shouldn’t you have been more confident about it?”

Be a man. What a magical phrase, they were words that boiled the blood of any youth who heard it. At this age, being told your action ‘wasn’t manly’ was synonymous with being immoral.

“I never lied!”

“Geunseok, would you feel better if I asked for Mr. Taesik’s testimony?”

“W-what?”

“I’m honestly worried about you. I wanted to finish this off nicely if I could, it’s troubling if you come out like this. You stepped out of the club on your own. Isn’t that right?”

“………”

“You left then told me you were bored with acting. Now you’re talking behind our back? I’m confused. Why are you the only one having a different memory of what happened?”

“I-I never…”

“Oh, so I can call the teacher? Ah, but it’s rude to call him out when he’s so busy. But if that’s the story you’re going with, I’ll call him. Is that what you want?”

“The teacher has nothing to do with this.”

“Of course he does, he’s our advisor.”

Geunseok started rolling his eyes in confusion. This was why lying was so dangerous, the boy should’ve thought a bit if he was going to use this route. Foolishly for him, he built his tower on a single lie that could be broken by Taesik alone.

Maru took a look around, half of the kids in class indulged in mocking laughter. To them, the seriousness of the situation didn’t matter at all. All they wanted was entertainment, the actions of Maru or Geunseok didn’t matter to them.

‘No need to insult him for me. They just need to laugh.’

This was just a happening, just a small event that would be forgotten by tomorrow. But how would this feel to Geunseok and his pride? To a person who walked their own path, the opinions of the people around them wouldn’t matter to them. But to a person who fed on compliments, these laughter must be very painful to them.

“What the, Geunseok, you lied?”

“Why’d you go on and do that? You should’ve just joined them again.”

“Seriously. Hey, just join them again. You said you did well, didn’t you?”

The thoughtless words of the class wounded Geunseok deeply, the boy’s face was reddening like hot iron. He must be nursing in quite the shout right now, he was staying patient though. Maru took out his phone, it was time to end this. He checked that the other side picked up the call before handing the phone over to Geunseok, the boy stared at it dumbly.

“Take it.”

“Why would I…”

“It’s Mr. Junmin.”

“What?”

Geunseok hurriedly picked up the phone. After holding it next to his ear for a few seconds, he fell right down on his knees. Maru snatched the phone away from the boy’s hands, Geunseok immediately charged like a rabid dog.

“You bastard!”

Maru didn’t even flinch, Geunseok probably never got into a fight thanks to his cold expression and his large physique. He could tell just by looking at the way the boy moved, the boy’s chin was wide open. Maru sidestepped left and tripped Geunseok, who flopped right down to the ground with a bang.

“Ugh, what an ass. Hey guys, take care of Geunseok for me. He’s not a bad kid, but he has a bit of an inferiority complex. Got it?”

Maru didn’t want to further complicate things, he wanted to keep the class thinking that this was just an amusing event. Geunseok slowly got up and tried to leave the class. The boy came back though, once Maru mentioned “don’t you still need to clean up?” Maru noticed tears streaming down on the boy’s face.

“What the, is he crying?”

“Hey, Geunseok, you crying?”

The other students approached the boy with a smile, Maru gave Daemyung a slight glance. This was good enough, he wasn’t trying to ruin the boy.

“What was that call from earlier? Why’s he like that?”

“Oh, that? Probably just a word or two from Mr. Junmin.”

“What?”

“Probably something like, ‘the contract is over’ or something?”

“Really?”

Maru nodded. They say people are all equal, but that really wasn’t the case. People received preferential treatment based on talent, this was the same when it came to using people. You’re a novice if you end up using people and having their hatred directed towards you. An intermediate if you form a decent relationship afterwards. A pro if they stay desperate towards you even after knowing that you used them. Geunseok knew how to make bad blood between his friends and Maru, but he wasn’t subtle about it. It was odd saying that something like this could be “subtle” at all, but there was definitely a difference depending on the method.

Geunseok was stupid. Rather, he was immature. He played with an adult mindset in a children’s game, he must’ve thought everyone would believe the rumors he spread. That was his mistake. An adult would’ve calculated sticking to who would be better for them, but kids weren’t like that at all. At their age, rumors came and went as easily as the wind. That wasn’t to say Geunseok didn’t have friends anymore. But at least at this moment, his friends would distance themselves from him.

Maru turned around to look back at the class, Geunseok was standing dumbly in the corner while the other students were cleaning. That was exactly what it was, the girls who were so close to Geunseok just a second ago were distancing themselves, out of the fear that they’d be laughed at along with him. If this was at a company, things wouldn’t have ended like this. There were actual lives at stake there, people didn’t just distance themselves from others just because they were afraid of being made fun of.

‘At the height of all this are politicians.’

Politicians don’t stay in politics despite having done crimes because they’re stupid, this was a war for them. To them, what’s good or bad doesn’t matter. All that matters to them is profit.

In the end, this was just a children’s game, Geunseok should’ve used a strategy befitting that.

“I wonder if things will get quiet now.”

“Maybe?”

“Phew, that’s a relief.”

“Relief my ass. We still only have four members. You need to try hard. Our deadline’s Saturday. Past that, we’ll really have to do this with four people.”

“G-got it.”

“Don’t advertise like that dude over there, though.”

“Yup.”

Maru stepped back into his class with a stretch. Dojin demanded an explanation from him, but Maru chose to ignore him.

“Don’t smoke, and if you get caught playing pool… Well, whoever loses in a match with me will have to pay, so just be aware of that.”

Taesik ended the class with a smile, Maru approached the man to give him a short rundown of what happened.

“You should’ve been more gentle.”

“I heard that it’s preferred to cut off seedlings of misshapen growth.”

Taesik shook his head.

“Do you think you’ll find more members?”

“That’s the real issue. Do you have any ideas?”

“Nope, nothing.”

“Don’t you feel a sense of responsibility as an advisor?”

“You’re poking me where it hurts. I’m advertising a bit whenever I can, so hopefully, we get someone by Saturday.”

“We just need up to ten. That’d be better than four at the very least.”

“What if no one comes at all?”

“We’ll seriously have to consider doing two roles at once.”

Though Maru didn’t know if they could even do that. Taesik left the class wishing him good luck.

“Maru, let’s go to the clubroom.”

“Yup.”

There was a disgusting amount of work to do, despite the fact that they had so few members.

Chapter 197

Today was a holiday celebrating the founding of the school, it was also a Saturday. Even though she made plans to go hang out with her friends a week ago, she ended up staying inside today.

“My head hurts.”

She was sick to the point of sweating like a waterfall yesterday. Today was a lot better thankfully, probably because of the medicine and the sleep from yesterday. She wished she could jump out of bed for some fresh air. Alas, her body didn’t want to take a single step out of the bed.

“How’s your temperature?”

Her mom stepped inside and put a hand over her forehead, she said she was fine to put her mom at ease.

“You should stay as warm as possible. Do you have anything in particular that you want to eat?”

“No, I don’t. You should rest, mom. This isn’t anything serious.”

“You should’ve taken care of yourself, to begin with. You took your medicine?”

“I did.”

After her dad passed away, she did her best to never show pain in front of mom. Because once she did, her mom would lose all rationality and start worrying. Looking at that made her feel more pain than anything else, she didn’t want to give her mom reminders of her dad again.

“Want some porridge?”

“Mom.”

“Yeah?”

“Go to work. I thought today was your deadline. Worry more about our budget, not me.”

She pushed her mom away lightly, her mom smiled as she finally walked out. The room was finally quiet again, she got rid of her smile as she lay back down on the bed. She was still feeling incredibly dizzy, she should just lie down all day.

She heard an alarm as she desperately tried to fall asleep, she grabbed her phone nearby and opened it.

[Are you feeling alright?]

It was a message from her friends at Namsan. She typed up a response, feeling sad at the fact she couldn’t be with them. Well, at least they remembered her.

[I want to die. You better not have fun while I’m suffering!]

She grinned as she sent the message. Immediately, she started receiving multiple messages from her friends, all along the lines of ‘just try to curse us, woman’. Though she only received words, it felt like she could hear their voice from the letters. She closed her phone and stared dumbly at the ceiling, the little glow-in-the-dark stickers she put up there as a child with her dad were glowing.

‘I’m lonely.’

She could smile when she was texting with friends, but the immediate feeling of loneliness that came afterwards dampened her mood. She tried smiling, telling herself that this was only a symptom of her sickness, but that didn’t stop her from sighing at all. She felt sicker, actually. She tried to go to sleep as best she could but it only made her feel more awake. She tried counting sheep in her head, but eventually, they started performing acrobatics and even sang together in harmony.

‘Who the hell came up with the idea of counting sheep?’

She put a hand over her hurting head and turned over in her bed, nothing changed. The clock on her desk was pointing to 11:14am, even though it felt 11:14am passed hours ago. She sighed and sat up, unable to sleep. Her headache wasn’t terrible at the moment, she might as well watch some TV. Just as she took a step outside her room, she heard a noise come from her bed. It was a call. Was it her friends? She smiled at her mom working in the living room before stepping back inside.

“Hello?”

- Why do you sound so tired? Did you just wake up?

“Ah, it’s you, Maru.”

She sat back down on her bed. She thought she could walk, but she was dead wrong. Her entire world was spinning from those few steps.

- You’re sick, aren’t you?

“No, I’m not.”

- I can tell from your voice.

“I’m not sick at all. Really.”

- Well, same habits as ever.

“What? What habit?”

- Don’t worry about it. Where are you hurting? Is your mom there at home? Did you take your medicine?

“Why don’t you believe me? I’m not sick.”

She felt annoyed all of the sudden, she remembered how they were supposed to go on a date last weekend and he just cancelled it out of nowhere. She was fine with it last week, so why was she feeling so annoyed about it now? How could a person who likes her just cancel something out of nowhere like that? She felt annoyance creep up all the way to the back of her throat, it felt like she would just spill out all of her frustrations if she opened her mouth now.

“…I’m fine.”

But all she ended up saying were words to calm the other side down. It has become a habit of hers to avoid worrying others, she didn’t like it when other people worried about her. She let out some awkward laughter through the phone.

“I’m going to sleep, so call me later. Got it?”

- Wait.

“Bye.”

Her headache worsened after she hung up, she had no reason to be annoyed at Maru. She just couldn’t help it. Was it because she was still young? Why couldn’t today just be over already? Along with her sickness? She lay down and put her blanket over her head, it smelled good, since they washed it just a few days ago. She called this smell the ‘smell of the sun’, that was what dad called it. Wait, was it mom who called it that? In any case, smelling it made her feel a lot better. All of her annoyance and sadness disappeared from her head, she should’ve done this way earlier.

And just like that, she went to sleep.

* * *

She woke to the sounds of conversation from outside, mom was speaking with a raised voice outside. Was she talking with a publisher again? Or a friend she didn’t really like?

‘I feel a bit better.’

She turned her head to look at the clock. 5pm, so she slept like a baby for around six hours. Her body felt really stiff, but she didn’t have that terrible headache anymore. Moreover, she was hungry. She flapped her musky shirt with her hand. The resulting wind washed away the sweat, making her feel a lot cooler than before. As soon as she stood up, she was reminded of what she was thinking just before she went to sleep.

‘Why did I feel depressed enough to want to cry?’

None of the things she thought of were anything special, so why did she feel so sad about it?

“Hold on a second.”

She thought of the actors that started crying on the bed as soon as the camera got closer to them. Perhaps those scenes were just a culmination of a ton of historical evidence? She felt a lot better thinking about it already, it felt like she uncovered another secret about acting. Pft.

‘I should ask for ice cream.’

She would surely get scolded for asking for ice cream when she was sick, but she couldn’t help her craving for strawberry ice cream. She couldn’t remember it precisely, but back when her throat was incredibly swollen, her dad got her strawberry ice cream. Perhaps that was why she always wanted it when she got sick. Come to think of it, her dad liked strawberries. Strawberry milk, strawberry ice cream. But he never actually got the fruit itself.

“Do you really think so?”

She could hear a voice outside, mom still seemed to be talking. She could also hear a faint, male voice outside as well. They seemed to be in the kitchen. Mom’s guest, perhaps? She looked down at her clothes. Upon confirming that she looked fine, she carefully opened the door and headed out to the living room. She could see mom resting against the kitchen counter. Despite her raised voice, she was smiling. Maybe she raised her voice out of happiness, not anger?

“Mom, did a guest come?”

She called out to her mom quietly, the woman looked towards her and smiled mischievously.

“Yup.”

“I should say hi, right?”

Mom nodded slowly, male guests occasionally came to their house for business. All of them were related to publishing, mom was actually quite famous when it came to stuff like this. She stepped out of her room and closed the door, she noticed that the fridge was open in the kitchen. Right then, a hand popped up to close it.

“Mother, can you check the seasoning for this?”

…Mother?

She felt a chill run down her spine. No way. Wait, this was totally a thing he would do. She quickly walked into the kitchen, she could hear her mom laughing right behind her. It had to be him.

“Oh, awake?”

“Y-y-you!”

Maru was standing casually next to the stove. She looked at mom once, then back at Maru. They were both smiling, she wasn’t even shocked anymore, her emotions were way past that. As a matter of fact, she was starting to get angry.

“How are you here?”

“I took the bus.”

“That’s not what I’m asking.”

“Sorry, was I not specific enough? I bought stuff for you and then got on bus 66. I got on right as I got to the station. Very lucky. I rode the bus for exactly 53 minutes, and voila.”

“………”

She closed her lips tightly and twisted Maru’s ear. She would’ve felt a bit better if he exclaimed in pain, but…

“I guess it’s true that healthy people aren’t even pained by something like this. Mother, I must be very healthy.”

Good god, she could feel her headache start to come back. Before she realized it, her mom stepped forward and took a spoonful of the boiling soup from the stove. It was black and white. She recognized the white stuff as egg white, but she had no idea what the black stuff was.

“It’s good.”

“Thank goodness. I guess it’s a pass if you’re fine with it.”

“My daughter doesn’t have a very finicky tongue, so I guess so?”

The two of them talked casually with each other. Since when were they so close with each other? She butted into their conversation.

“Mom, why is he here?”

“Because he came here.”

“That’s so far out from what I meant.”

“We’re inside, actually.”

That last line was from Maru. Good lord, these two people sounded like they’d been doing this for years. That joke immediately made her lose all of her energy, it felt foolish for her to even get mad. She stepped back to her room and flopped down on the bed. It would be better for her to just go back to sleep… But then.

“Pft.”

Chapter 198

She glanced at her shirt and pants as she lay on the bed, she thought her attire was perfectly decent in front of a guest, but now they looked very awkward on her. She crept carefully to the closet, there was a shirt inside that she recently bought. A white shirt decorated with little droplet shapes, she grabbed the shirt without much thought.

‘Hold on.’

She stopped when the shirt was halfway out of the closet, she felt like she’d be losing at something if she changed now. Maru would definitely smile at her saying she looked good if she changed, sure. That’s fine. But that would mean that she changed just to look good in front of him, that wasn’t fine.

‘Well, whatever. Who cares.’

She put the shirt back into the closet, Maru was the one who came unannounced. She had no reason to be polite or be all dressed up, but just as she was about to step outside, she ended up seeing herself in the mirror.

“…Was this shirt always this stretched? Ugh, these pants look so worn out. It looks like I’ve worn this for years.”

Her eyes widened as she analyzed her clothes, they looked tired as heck. Her hair was a complete mess, she even had eye boogers, and worse, a red streak running right past her left cheek. She looked back at her bed in surprise, there was a very thick string laying on the pillow.

“Crap.”

The line refused to go away even when she puffed her cheeks, it still looked clear after she rubbed the hell out of it.

‘He saw this, right? He totally saw this.’

“Agghh…”

She suddenly didn’t want to go outside. At the same time, she felt a lot more annoyed at Maru. He should’ve told her that he was coming! She could’ve at least washed her face, washed her hair, change her clothes, and maybe even do her nails…

She flopped down on the bed in the hopes that she’d fall back asleep. Alas, after six hours of sleep, she was as awake as ever. A knock came through the door as she sighed on the bed.

“Whatcha doing inside?”

It was Maru, his kind voice sounded incredibly irritating right now. She didn’t respond with a frown on her face.

“Food’s done. Aren’t you hungry?”

Hmph. I’m not going to respond no matter what you do, she thought. What kind of a guy shows up to a girl’s house unannounced? Her mom was worse, actually. How could mom bring him in without a second thought? He clearly didn’t arrive just now either, judging by his movement in the kitchen. Mom clearly had the time to tell her about it, but she didn’t.

“I made some chicken nuggets too. I know you like them.”

Now, how did he know that? She glanced at the doorway, thinking of how Maru would be standing on the other side was a little bit funny. Once the initial surprise of him being here went away, she started feeling thankful that he came here for her. How’d he figure out she was sick?

“I got some strawberry ice cream, too.”

Her ears perked up at that, she just couldn’t resist the words when she heard it. After all, she’s been craving it since she woke up. She felt saliva pooling up in her mouth, the smells of frying oil intensified through the door as well. Nuggets, nuggets. She loved eating a piece of it over a spoonful of rice.

“…Is it a stick ice cream?”

“Nope, tub.”

“Did you get a lot?”

“Two pints, just to be sure.”

“What about the soup?”

“Kim soup.”

“What the heck is kim soup?”

“My secret recipe.”

“Ugh, sure it is.”

“Anyway, come out already. Mother’s getting kind of sick of waiting for you.”

“Excuse you, but she’s my mom, not yours?”

“Are you an elementary schooler or something? So childish!”

“Yeah! So what if I am?!”

She realized how pointless it was to stay in her room like this, she knew that she’d go out to see him eventually. There was no way she could stay annoyed at someone who came all the way to see her. It was just… she was a little regretful that she didn’t have time to prepare. The red line on her face was still there, it’d probably stay for the next couple of hours. In the end, she settled for a change of clothes. She changed into that shirt in the closet. She didn’t want to look so unkempt in front of Maru, so she changed into a cuter pair of pajama pants as well.

She carefully opened the door, Maru wasn’t in front of the door anymore. She stepped towards the kitchen as if nothing had happened, her mom was staring at her a little strangely.

“…Give me food.”

Maru scooped her a bowl of rice on the spot. It felt weird. A boy? Giving her rice? At her home?

“Have some water first.”

“I’ll take care of it.”

She grabbed the cup of water Maru handed her. It was warm, warm enough to make her feel comfortable inside. She glanced up at Maru. He was staring at the cup, clearly waiting for her to drink it.

“Oh, you’re so lucky. You have a boyfriend who cares so much about you.”

She almost spat out the water mid-drink, she put the cup down and glared at her mom. The woman was grinning ear to ear.

“Why couldn’t you wake me up if you knew he was coming?”

“How could I? You were sleeping so well. You try waking up your sick daughter when you become a mother. I bet you wouldn’t be able to do it.”

She wanted to refute, but she just couldn’t. So she changed her target to Maru.

“You’re also at fault. You should’ve called if you were going to come.”

“I did.”

“Not mom, me.”

“Of course I did. Check your phone later.”

“………”

Both of them had perfect alibis. What the hell? Why couldn’t they just lose for once? She stabbed a nugget with her fork and put it in her mouth in annoyance, the crispy, juicy nugget immediately made her feel a bit better.

“Maru,” mom called out.

“Yes, mother?”

“You don’t have to be so nervous. You’re making me worried just looking at you.”

“…Ha, haha.”

Nervous? How was he nervous? He was talking as casually as he ever was with her! Upon second thought, she looked closely at Maru. Now that she looked at him, he looked a bit more stiff than usual. He was speaking a bit faster as well, his smile was a lot more awkward as well. His arms were glued to his thighs and his back was as straight as a rod. He looked pretty comical like this, actually.

“Hmm, so you’re nervous?”

Finally, something she could tease him on. Just watching his nervous self was very fun. To think just a single sentence from mom could shake him like this… What was so scary about her mom anyway?

“Are you blackmailing him, mom?”

“What kind of a person do you think I am? I’ve been pretty kind to him. Maru, have I ever made you feel uncomfortable?”

Maru rotated towards mom with a snap.

“Of course not. Mother’s been very good to me. You allowed me to come over when I called you. I am very thankful for that. You must have been a little surprised when I announced my visit. No, you must have been very surprised.”

Maru clearly wasn’t speaking like normal, he was jabbering about as if he didn’t know what he wanted to say. She laughed a little without even realizing it, mom laughed too.

“You find my mom super difficult to be around, huh?”

“Eh? No, not really.”

“Good lord, I’d never have known you to be afraid of someone. Mom, can you tease him a bit more? This is a seriously rare sight coming from him.”

Mom immediately told her that was a rude thing to do to a guest. Despite saying that, she looked very deeply at Maru. The boy flinched like a student under a teacher’s gaze during a test.

“Alright, kids. Get eating. We can talk after that.”

Maru immediately picked up his spoon and started eating, it was almost as if she was looking at a well-trained dog.

‘What the hell’s up with him?’

For now, she picked up her chopsticks as well.

* * *

‘This is terrible.’

Maru prepared himself a bit before coming, but mother was as scary as ever. He was reminded of when he first met her in his previous life, they talked long enough to make him worry that the marinated beef he brought over as a gift was going to get over-marinated. It felt like an interrogation, no, worse. He was just getting censured, the fact that he was getting cold sweat just thinking about the conversation he couldn’t remember was proof enough of that. He could just imagine the scene in his head. Mother must’ve asked him numerous troubling questions and he must’ve had a wild time trying to come up with a proper answer.

“Relax, be comfortable.”

The voice came as mom started doing the dishes, Maru jumped up from his seat volunteering to do it for her. He sounded like a new recruit in the army, not that she allowed him to help. Maru sat down with a frown, ‘shutting right up’ as one could put it.

“You look like a trained puppy.”

She spoke to him with a big smile on her face. She was cute and pretty, yet he couldn’t help but feel that she was more of an enemy than an ally today. He totally had the lead when he came to the house earlier, too.

“So when was the second time you guys ever kissed?”

A terrifying question shot towards him from the kitchen, even she froze up in the middle of eating ice cream at that question. Maru felt a little amused looking at that, but became instantly terrified upon realizing who the question was directed to.

“No denial? So you guys did do it, huh?”

“M-mom!”

She frantically ran into the kitchen. Good job, wife! But even she was no match for her mother's words. She came back with a face as red as a beet, she looked so sad getting back into her seat. What in the world was said to her?

“We enjoyed the fruit you gave us last time. I’m sorry for the late thanks.”

“It’s nothing, mother.”

There was a plate in mother’s hands as she walked into the living room, three apples and six tangerines. It was a lot of fruit for just three people, but mother started cutting the apples with a smile regardless. Maru swallowed a little as he watched her peel off their skins, she’d probably stop after two pieces. Same with mother. Then the rest…

“Have a lot.”

“…Of course.”

“You like apples?”

“Very much.”

“Oh, good. You can have more, then.”

Maru felt his eyes twitch from under him. Three apples, six tangerines. He knew mother didn’t like leftovers. Maru steeled himself, preparing to wage war against the fruits in front of him.

* * *

“How could you just eat all of that?”

“Sometimes, you have to make sacrifices for your own survival. You wouldn’t know since you’re still young.”

“Gosh.”

She looked dumbly at Maru sitting next to her. He had two bowls of rice. Now, he was eating a ridiculous amount of fruits. He just kept eating and eating since her mom kept handing over more and more to him, she rifled through the contents of the fridge in the kitchen. Mom often got stomach aches, so they always had a supply of digestive medicine in the fridge.

“Here, have this.”

“…Thanks.”

Maru’s mouth reeked of apples. The boy popped open the cap and chugged the medicine in an instant.

“Phew, I feel better.”

“You know these don’t work right away, right?”

She took a hand and stroked Maru’s back gently, she always felt better when mom did it for her when she was sick.

“Feels good,” Maru said with a grin.

She slapped his back as hard as she could.

“It’s already nine.”

“I should head home.”

Maru slowly got up from his seat. Mom had gone to a nearby cafe to finish her work.

“Want me to take you?”

“You’re the sick one, so you better not think about going outside. Just go to sleep.”

“You know you look sicker than me right now, right?”

“Yeah, I know, I know.”

Maru stepped towards the front door with a hand over his stomach, she looked at him silently before remembering a question.

“How did you know I was sick?”

“I know you have a habit of trying to hide it when you’re hurting. Just tell me if it hurts. You have someone who can help you.”

“How’d you know that?”

“I’m your boyfriend. Of course I’d know.”

Maru waved his hand as if he was joking, she felt a bit sorry after noticing the worried tone in his voice.

“Get home safe.”

“Yup. You go to sleep already, too. Be sure to keep warm.”

“I’m not a kid, you know.”

Maru grinned as he turned around. The front door opened and cold air blasted into the house for a second, she crossed her arms as she watched Maru step outside. The door started closing behind him. Just before the door almost closed, she heard a voice from behind it.

“You look good in that shirt.”

And with that, click.

She could feel her lips start to curl up.

Chapter 199

Dowook’s home always smelled of oil, the smell had stayed with them for as long as he could remember. In fact, he’d feel pretty sad if that smell suddenly disappeared one day. Dowook stepped down from the second floor to find his dad reading the newspaper in their study.

“Did you have breakfast, dad?”

“Sure did. It's a toasted sandwich. Want it warmed up?”

“I’ll do it. Will you have some coffee?”

“Sure.”

Dad smiled proudly, Dowook nodded as he headed into the kitchen. There were two sandwiches there made by his mom, she must’ve left for work early in the day. He put some water on boil as he poured two packs of instant coffee into a mug.

“Dad, they say black coffee’s better for you.”

“I-I’ll try it some other time.”

Dowook shook his head, he’s been hearing that from his dad several times already. He put the water in and started mixing. He brought the coffee to his dad before taking out two mugs again. One was white, with a striped handle, and the other had a drawing of a cute cat on it. He poured milk into both. He grabbed the cat mug in one hand and the plate with the sandwich on it in the other. He crossed the living room, passing the library in the hallway as well before coming before a room with a doll decorating the door handle.

Dowook took a deep breath. He thought he was used to it by now, but he still got nervous when he was in front of this door. All sorts of complicated feelings swept over him whenever he was here, Dowook smiled bitterly before tapping on the door with his foot.

“Have some breakfast.”

7am. Today was a day dad rested from working at the gas station. The ‘unfamiliar family member’ behind this door always stayed home as well. Dowook just didn’t know what her job was. After waiting a bit, the door creaked open and out came his sister.

“You brought it over for me? Thanks!”

Dowook just couldn’t get used to her smiling face.

“You have a lot to be thankful for.”

Dowook handed over the drink and the sandwich, which was received with careful hands. He could see a bunch of dolls inside through the gap in the door. His sister decided to move back into the house this past February. By the time her relationship with the rest of the family improved, dad said he wanted her to come back. Dowook told him to do whatever. That served as his agreement and Dowook’s sister moved in the very next day. Not fully, of course. She would be moving back and forth between her old house and this one.

His sister was actually a lot richer than he thought, she could leave the home in the first place thanks to her job. As a matter of fact, that house she used to live in was owned by her as well. An impressive feat for a woman in her early thirties, especially since the house in question was in the middle of Seoul.

Dowook wasn’t at all interested in what his sister did for a living before, but now, he started developing a little bit of interest. They were living together, after all. Did she sell dolls? He couldn’t come up with any better ideas.

“Why do you ask?” his sister asked curiously.

“It’s nothing.”

He’d stopped resenting her a long time ago, that didn’t make conversing with her any easier though. Not because he disliked her or anything, but rather their lack of shared interests. They were able to talk a bit during meals, sure. Things got incredibly awkward incredibly quickly outside of it though. His sister stood hesitantly there for a second before turning around. They were getting closer for sure, but not quickly enough.

“Um, Dowook.”

His sister called out to him just before he returned to the kitchen, she quickly went back into her room to find something. He looked inside out of curiosity. She was digging through pile and piles of dolls. She pushed a giant bear to the corner, threw a rabbit mask somewhere, and dug through a few more dolls before grabbing something with a smile. It was a cat doll roughly the size of her palm, she handed it over to Dowook carefully.

“Here, a gift.”

Dowook looked down at the doll, the belly shone when he pressed down on the tail end.

“It’s dangerous to bike at night.”

“Pretty sure it’d be more dangerous to bike with this in one hand.”

“………”

Dowook turned around with a shrug. He wanted to say thanks, he felt too awkward to do it though. He came back to the kitchen and ate as he looked at the cat, he was a fan of its little frown.

“Dad, I might be coming home late starting tomorrow.”

“Why?”

“Because of club activities.”

“Club? Biking?”

“No, acting.”

“Acting?”

Right then, his sister poked her head out from the hallway and asked him a question.

“You’re going to do acting?”

“Yeah, gonna try it.”

“Really?”

She was looking incredibly happy. Dowook looked down ill at ease as he took another bite out of his sandwich. He was only joining to even his debt to Maru, he never had the chance to pay the boy back before. When he heard that the acting club was lacking in members, he jumped at the chance. He still remembered the face Maru made when he told the boy about joining, the boy looked like he saw a ghost.

It wasn’t like Dowook was interested in acting. He never saw it, nor did he ever try it. The school encouraged it when the club went to the nationals last time, but he never cared for it. He didn’t have much interest in being on stage at all, he just wanted to help since they needed members. He was pretty handy with tools, so he might as well make a few props while he was there.

“Acting’s really fun.”

“Dunno. I’m only really going in there to help make props.”

“You should try it if you get the chance.”

“Maybe.”

His sister approached him slowly, Dowook started chewing faster out of nervousness. His sister was sometimes too energetic for him. He tried to stuff the rest of the sandwich into his mouth to leave, but his sister was a bit faster.

“Tell me if you take it up. S-sis’ll try to help.”

Dowook couldn’t even remember the last time his sister called herself ‘sister’, he looked at her dumbly before nodding. They were still awkward around each other, but slowly and surely they were getting closer.

“If I do it.”

“Yup.”

His sister smiled with relief.

* * *

“I’m Kang Dowook, a second year. I like riding bikes and being alone.”

Dowook sat down with a bored look. Maru scratched his eyebrows as he looked at Bangjoo and Jiyoon on the other side. Bangjoo was laughing happily at the new addition to the club, but Jiyoon was shivering like a wet puppy.

“I’m Jeon Aram, a first-year. I like martial arts and running. Knitting too. I came here after beating up everyone who bullied Jiyoon, over.”

This one was even more troublesome than Dowook. It was nice that they got two new members, but they both had strong personalities.

“Feels like they’d jump into a fight if you leave them alone together,” Daemyung noted quietly.

Dowook improved a lot over the past year, but his temper was still there. Aram was the type that picked a fight the instant she saw something she didn’t like. She was someone who would even throw a slipper at someone bigger than herself, like the time with Geunseok.

“Mm, well, let’s do well together.”

“Senior!”

Aram raised her hand.

“Hm?”

“We aren’t going to have a party?”

Aram twisted around with a big grin, Jiyoon tried to stop the girl with a troubled face. Of course, that didn’t work.

“Of course we are,” Maru said with a smile.

In the end, the acting club managed to reach their quota of six members. They got a container as a pseudo-clubroom as well, which definitely deserved a celebration of its own.

“Let’s drink beer!”

“What, you want to try it?”

“Yes!”

Jiyoon shook her head violently at her, She clearly wanted her friend to stop.

“Well, if everyone wants to, we might as well.”

Sorry Jiyoon, but the other five in the club all want to drink. In the end, the club decided upon a drinking party. Maru didn’t want things getting out of hand, thus no more than one can per person.

“I-I can’t drink.”

“Just drink juice, then.”

“What? I don’t have to…?”

“Nothing of the sort. Just a little bit for the ones that want to try. Anyway, where should we go…”

He couldn’t really think of a place. He wanted to just sit around a convenience store and relax under a parasol, but at his age… He’d have a very interesting one-on-one with a teacher. A place for them to drink and converse easily… It’d be best to go into a friend’s place, but there was no way a high schooler would…

“Why don’t we go to my place, senior?!” Bangjoo said.

“Your place?”

“Yes. I live by myself.”

“What about your parents?”

“They both live at Jeju island. They only occasionally come back up.”

“Wait, do you really live by yourself? What about housework?”

“I take care of it. Well… sometimes my sister comes to help.”

Living by yourself since freshman year in high school… Maru would understand it if the parents were living nearby. But Jeju? How bold were Bangjoo’s parents? Living alone was a difficult task, especially for a student.

‘Maybe his parents had confidence since he’s a good kid.’

Perhaps Bangjoo was an even better person than Maru first made him out to be. It was nice that they had someone like this in the club.

“Alright, we can go to Bangjoo’s place.”

“Senior! What about the beer?”

“I’ll take care of it.”

“Ohhh!”

Aram raised her hands in glee.

* * *

“How is it? Think you’ll have the time?”

Taesik took his phone off his ear for a second, he could hear a person’s screams from the other side.

- Eh? Say that again?

“Can you be their instructor again?”

- Ah.

Miso stayed silent for a while after hearing the question, Taesik rolled a pen in his hand as he waited. She’d probably refuse, he felt sorry for asking despite knowing the answer already.

- Sorry. I really don’t have the time. I could check on them every once in a while though.

“It’s fine. Sorry for asking. I knew you were busy too.”

It was three weeks ago when Miso told him that she’d be going into a play with a fellow named Ganghwan. She told him that the play was set to run for quite some time, meaning that she wouldn’t be able to help out the club at all.

“How’s acting, by the way?”

- So fun. I like teaching, but… This has more life to it, I guess?

“Good to hear. Don’t overwork yourself though.”

- Hey hey, Mr. Taesik. I’m not your student anymore, you know? Don’t worry. I know my body better than anyone else. Speaking of which, you really need to start exercising. Your beer belly is starting to show!

“Just a natural consequence of the job. Can’t help it. Alright, I’ll be hanging up now.”

- Love you.

“Hm, humph. Love you too.”

He hung up with a little sigh. The gym teacher patted Taesik’s shoulder as he passed by. Taesik sighed as he looked at the calendar, it was April. Time for actual practice. They were good kids, but they still needed a good instructor nonetheless. Without Miso, Taesik was a bit troubled on who he should find.

“What do I do?”

Just as he started thinking, a text message window popped up on his phone.

Chapter 200

"I'll leave this to you."

Taesik took the folder the Korean literature teacher gave him before looking back at his phone, there was a text window on it.

[Do you have time for a call? I am Lee Junmin.]

Lee Junmin, Taesik had heard of the name countless times. This was the person who took care of Geunsoo and Miso, a person who had immense power in the acting industry. Why would someone so influential be contacting him out of nowhere?

'Besides that, how'd he know my phone number?'

Right then, he got a phone call.

- Did you get a message from Senior Junmin?

"Literally just now. So you were the one who gave him my number?"

- Yup. Call him if you can. He wanted to consult you about the instructor situation.

"Instructor?"

As confused as he was, he still called Junmin. The instructor situation was definitely an issue, so any help was very welcome.

"Hello? Is this Mr. Lee Junmin?"

- Ah, I didn't expect you to call so fast. Yes. This is Lee Junmin. I heard a lot about you from Miso. I've been meaning to speak with you for quite some time. Didn't expect our first interaction to be over something like this.

"I'm curious about what Miso told you, but I would like to know why you called me first."

- I heard moments ago about how you had some troubles over finding an instructor. I was wondering if I could introduce someone to you.

"An instructor, to me?"

- Yes.

"Thank you for the offer, but…”

Taesik almost smiled gladly before realizing something critical. Would he even be able to afford an instructor with their current budget? The club budget was cut in half this year due to the decline in club members, trying to get more budget by arguing about the awards from last year didn't even do anything either.

"We don't have a very high budget. I think it'd be difficult."

- You needn't worry about something like that. I'll take care of all of the fees. I'll pay for all the other fees involved with the club as well.

"All of it?"

- Yes.

A very welcome offer yet again. It did make Taesik start wondering though. What did this person want from him? No one would throw away their money without good reason, even donations have strings attached. Why was someone so big in the industry particularly interested in this club?

"I'm sorry if I come off as rude, but may I know why? The offer is a welcome one, but I'd like to hear a reason before accepting it."

- Sounds like you might refuse depending on my answer.

"Again, I'm very thankful and gladly welcome the offer. But I can't accept money for no reason. I apologize."

Strictly speaking, Taesik didn't know Junmin. He'd only ever heard of the man from his acquaintances and there was no way he would take money from a stranger. Not that the money was a bad thing, but the intent behind that money was always important. Taesik refused to teach children without knowing where the money came from.

- Can't you turn a blind eye just this once?

"I'm sorry. I can't."

He was truly sad he had to respond like this, especially with what the other side’s offering. Besides that, he didn't even know how to face Miso after this.

After a few more seconds, Junmin finally responded.

- I occasionally wonder when I look at Geunsoo and Miso. Just who managed to tame people as wild as them? I can't judge someone purely off of first impressions, but I think I’ve got a decent understanding of what kind of a person you are.

Taesik could detect some enthusiasm behind that voice. He decided to keep listening for a few more seconds.

- The reason behind the money is very simple. Maru and Daemyung are under me. I don't skimp out on money when it comes to my investments. I'll be there to help them so long as they have the talent.

"Maru and Daemyung?"

- That's right. The person I'm planning on sending as an instructor is one of my own as well. I don't know what to make of her morals, but she's a talented actor at the very least.

Don't know what to make of her morals? It was an odd comment, but Taesik let it pass for now.

- You should be well aware of the passion of the people involved matter far more than the ability of the instructor when it comes to competitions. I heard Blue Sky took first place at the nationals when it was first created even without an instructor. Is that correct?

"Yes. It's an old story though."

- That's a relief. The person who I was planning on introducing never actually taught anyone in the past.

"Wouldn't that be a little troublesome? The nationals are a lot different now compared to the past."

- I'm aware that it's going to be troublesome. But I believe I should only invest in the people who can overcome troubles by themselves. The instructor I'm going to send is going to spark some trouble among the children, but they'll end up becoming great stepping stones for each other.

"You mean to say that they'll motivate each other?"

- Precisely. Flowers left to grow in the same environment all bloom the same. I think change is required for growth.

"Will it hurt the children…?"

- I always act with the worst possible outcome in mind. In this case, there is no such thing. Because there's a student who will never succumb to the pressure no matter what my instructor does. He should be able to take care of it.

"Sounds like you trust Maru quite a bit."

- Haha, I'm surprised you caught on so fast. It seems we’ve reached similar conclusions about him.

Taesik smiled slightly. For sure, Maru could handle the situation regardless of what happens. Maru was even better than him when it came down to dealing with people at times.

- I think I've explained enough at this point.

"Yes."

- So you accept my help now?

"As strange as it sounds, I'll accept the offer. Thank you."

- We should meet when we have the time. It's a hobby of mine to enjoy a meal with someone I like.

Taesik hung up before heading towards the clubroom. He slowly made his way up to the fourth floor before making a surprised face. He looked at the place where the club used to be. It was empty.

'I think they were supposed to meet today.'

Taesik tried calling Maru. It was 5:45pm. There was a high chance Maru was still somewhere on school grounds. After a few bleeps, Maru picked up the phone.

- Yes, teacher?

"Are you at school?"

- No, we just came out. We’re about to grab a bite to eat.

"I see."

- Why did you…

"Mr. Junmin called me just now."

- What?

"He told me he'd introduce a new instructor."

- A new instructor?

"That's right."

- So I take it that instructor Miso is too busy?

"That she is. He did say he was going to send someone with no experience though. Is that fine?"

- If it's him, I'm sure he has a reason. I'm not worried. I don't think it's going to be very easy though given his personality.

"Hahaha."

Taesik definitely didn't need to worry, judging from the relaxed voice.

"Alright, we can talk more about this later then. How are the new kids? Three freshmen and one sophomore?"

- Yes. They all have interesting personalities, so it'll be fun trying to handle them. April's going to be a busy month.

"It better be, if you want to win at the summer nationals. And… You need to get on stage too."

In the last nationals, Maru watched from the audience. He watched with a very calm face, but Taesik knew that wasn’t the case for him inside.

- That's right. We'll go for some expensive beef when we get first place this time.

Right then, Taesik heard the voices of the club members nearby.

- Senior! I like beef too!

- Pork for me!

Loud voices, foreign ones at that. It definitely felt like a new year. A lot of troublesome things happened till now, but this was a new start.

"Have fun."

- Of course.

"Don't drink too much."

- Who do you think we are, teacher? We're going to enjoy a few glasses of milk and juice, that's all.

"That only makes me want to tell you to be more careful."

Taesik smiled lightly as he took the phone off his ear.

* * *

"Alright, let's go back to Seoul now."

"Finally?"

Suyeon asked as she jumped up from her seat. A full month passed since she first came to this villa. She got used to life here, but she also missed the city life quite a bit. Moonjoong talked about going back at the perfect time.

“I think I got the gist of it.”

Moonjoong spoke as if he was still lacking something. Suyeon was flabbergasted, his skill right now seemed more than good enough to her.

“I got the general plot of my next work as well, so I think it’s fine.”

“Thanks for your hard work. You must’ve suffered a bit coming all the way here because of me.”

“Not at all. I learned a lot thanks to you. I’ve had a great time writing here as well.”

Suyeon pouted looking at Moonjoong and Gwak Joon conversing with each other.

“I worked hard too, teacher.”

“Of course, of course. You worked hard, Suyeon.”

“Hehe.”

Gwak Joon clicked his tongue and stepped upstairs, he was cold to Suyeon until the very end. At least she learned that his real name was Gwak Joon, that alone was a bit of an improvement.

“Why couldn’t he just tell me that was his real name? He’s so twisted.”

“I think he’s a polite person.”

“He just has a mask on in front of you. He’s a mean, mean person.”

Moonjoong laughed her words away. A lot of things took place here, but it was good that she came. She managed to regain some of her sanity after that massive disappointment over not gaining popularity in a drama. She learned what it meant to be an actor through Moonjoong and she enjoyed some intellectual conversations with Gwak Joon. The best part was that she managed to get a lot closer to Geunsoo with this.

“Suyeon.”

Junmin came into the house as he called out to her, she stepped towards the man with a curious look.

“Yes?”

“Take care of some kids for me.”

“…What?”

“How’s your schedule looking?”

It was a sudden question, but not one she couldn’t answer.

“Nothing until this movie starts shooting.”

“You didn’t even audition yet and you’re already worrying about it? Have you received any other offers for roles?”

“You should know that better than me.”

“Still nothing? Good. Then do it.”

“Do I look like I’ll take care of a bunch of kids just because you tell me to?”

“Want me to ask someone else?”

“Wait, no, I’ll do it. Jeez, so cold. Can’t you just ask nicely?”

“Ask nicely?”

Junmin slowly turned towards her with a glare, Suyeon immediately retracted her smile.

“Just a joke. A joke.”

She put her arm around Junmin’s as she spoke. Of course, the man immediately pushed himself away.

“Things will get busy for you once you get to Seoul. Since you’ve never done anything like this before.”

“It’s just taking care of kids. How hard can it be?”

“Teaching kids is a lot different from taking care of them.”

“What?”

“Get ready, we’re leaving.”

Chapter 201

6am. Bangjoo opened his eyes and turned off the beeping alarm right next to his head. It was early dawn, well before sunrise. Bangjoo folded his blankets and put on his running clothes to exercise.

“Good morning.”

“Running again?”

“Of course.”

It’s become a routine task for him at this point to greet the neighboring lady that went out to pray every morning. Bangjoo began running after some brief stretches with the sharp, cold air grazing past his cheeks dispelling his sleepiness. He turned at the park right behind his home and did a lap around a nearby hill before coming back home. It took him exactly 40 minutes. Compared to the 80 minutes he used to spend to complete this run, it was a significant improvement. It was a bit annoying how he wasn’t able to get any faster, but he wasn’t about to exhaust even more energy just to tire himself out for the rest of the day.

After taking a shower, he put the soup he made last night on boil. After scooping some rice from the rice cooker, adding some side dishes his sister made, and the soup, he got himself a very nice breakfast. By the time he finished eating, it was 7:30am. He quickly finished washing the dishes and stepped outside. It took him about 40 minutes to get to the school, Bangjoo put earphones in his ear and set it to the local radio to start his commute. It was 8am, and the radio show had just started.

- They say morning people are the symbol of success. That’s why whether you’re a student or a businessman, you are to wake up early each day. Maybe in this day and age, those that are really happy are the night owls? I for one am in support of the night owls. Good morning. I’m…

“What a liar.”

Bangjoo raised his speed as he shook his head.

* * *

“Um… Grandma, let me help.”

Jiyoon shook her head looking at her wristwatch, then approached an old lady next to her. She had to walk to school since she missed the bus. At the same time, she discovered an old lady struggling to carry her luggage across a pedestrian bridge.

“Shouldn’t you be heading to school?”

“I-I’m fine.”

She felt a little agitated looking at the clock, but she didn’t want to leave an old lady by herself. She grabbed the lady’s luggage before heading up the bridge. She was slowly getting further away from the school. Even so, she was happy that she could help someone out.

She made her way down the other side and gave the luggage back to the old lady, the old lady expressed her thanks multiple times before moving forward. The lady looked so perilous walking by herself that Jiyoon decided to help the lady all the way to the bus station. Unexpectedly, the weight of the luggage made it pretty hard for her to walk.

‘What do I do?’

Right then, someone called out to her from the back.

“Lee Jiyoon?”

It was Bangjoo. She wasn’t very close with the boy, but it was only a matter of time due to their shared club. Jiyoon was incredibly glad to see the boy.

“C-can you help me with this?”

“This?”

Bangjoo stepped closer and picked up all of the luggage like it was nothing, the boy was incredibly strong despite his height. Was it because he was a guy? Jiyoon and the old lady followed right behind Bangjoo.

“Grandma! Is this good enough?”

He had a loud voice for sure. The old lady complimented Bangjoo, saying he had the voice of a general.

“Here, have some of this.”

The old lady gave both of them candy big enough to completely fill their mouth, Jiyoon accepted the candy with a bow.

“Thank you very much.”

When she accepted the candy, she immediately noticed the clock at the bus station. 8:10am. She was reminded that she needed to get to school by 8:30am, the scary looking disciplinary teacher flashed by in her head.

“We might be late. What do we do?”

“Just run.”

“I can’t run.”

“Want me to carry you?”

Jiyoon shook her head quickly, if her friends saw her being carried by a boy in the morning… She didn’t even want to think about it, she’d get teased for a month straight.

“We’ll just have to run like hell, then.”

Bangjoo looked oddly excited, Jiyoon sighed before chasing after Bangjoo.

* * *

Aram, who was riding her bike with a yawn, suddenly came to a stop to take out her MP3 player. It had a radio function, so she dialed into her favorite station and checked the time. 8:16am. Sixteen minutes since the show started.

“Ugh, I’m late.”

She put the earphones in and started listening.

- Alright, and now we’re back with our usual affair. We got a lot of messages to work through, so let’s just take a look at a few.

This was a radio show hosted by her favorite actress, so Aram always listened to every episode. She sent out a lot of messages as well, although none of her messages got chosen so far. Aram quickly sent a message through her phone as she stood.

- I’m an office worker working in Seoul. The street’s so clogged on my way to work. Ugh, going to work is a great pain. But having a job in itself is something to be happy about. At least, compared to the unemployed.

Ah, that cynical response. Aram lived for this stuff, she loved how direct this actress was. There were several people online who criticised the actress for being rather rude, but Aram thought that was what made her so charming.

- I’m a student. I have to study earlier in the morning because of math. That’s why I’m at school an hour before everyone else. Ugh. Math. Why do we even learn it? If you don’t like it, you should just give up on it. But if you don’t have the courage to? Then just study. If you don’t see a way to start earning money for yourself right now, then you should just shut it and study. Life isn’t nearly as easy as you might think it is.

“Ugh, so cool…”

Aram got ready to hear the next message as she pedaled on.

- This is from a student as well. You know this isn’t a very good show for students, right? Well, whatever. I’m going to school on a bike right now. I listen to your show every day. Love you, sis! Is what it says. Hm, I’d have preferred to get a message like this from a boy, but oh well. I’m happy that a nice junior in life respects me so much though, so I’ll be giving this listener a gift. I’ll be calling you a little later, miss, so get ready for a call!

Aram shouted in excitement while biking. This was the first time she was chosen! A gift as well, on top of that? Today was going to be a great day. Right then, she saw a familiar girl in the distance walk with tired puffs.

“Eh? Isn’t that Jiyoon?”

Aram turned towards the girl immediately, she noticed Bangjoo was next to Jiyoon as well.

“What are you two doing?”

“Hah… Hah… Aram…”

Jiyoon was sweating bullets and Bangjoo was looking at the girl with troubled eyes.

“Leave… Go… You’ll be late…”

The poor girl looked pitiful. Aram looked at her phone, 8:23am. If she pedalled like hell, they could just barely make it in time.

“Get on!”

“Eh?”

“Get on.”

She tapped the back of her bike with her hand. Jiyoon shook her head with a pale face, she knew the girl would refuse.

“You’ll get hit by that wild dog if you’re late though.”

She called the disciplinary teacher that because of how persistent the man was. She was originally going to call the man a rabid dog, but changed her mind after being told that was a bit too rude from a friend.

“I-I can’t.”

“Trust me.”

“I’d r-rather be late.”

“Hey!”

Aram gave Bangjoo a glance, hoping that the boy would catch on and put the girl on the bike. But the boy just stood there blinking his eyes. Ugh, he just didn’t have any sense, did he?

“Just get on!”

Only then did Jiyoon get on with a scared face, Aram immediately started pedalling when she felt the girl’s arms around her hips.

“You just run!”

It’d be fine if Bangjoo gets punished for being late, but Jiyoon would probably collapse if she got punished. Aram pedalled wildly while thinking that. Right then, she felt something pass right next to her. It was Bangjoo. the boy clearly wasn’t lying about wanting to be a martial arts actor.

“I’m not gonna lose.”

She started feeling competitive. This was something she couldn’t lose at. Even in Judo, she’d lose sleep every time she lost. She always had to get payback if she wanted to sleep well. She could hear Jiyoon scream right behind her, but she couldn’t stop here. Not until she caught up to Bangjoo!

* * *

Dowook, who was pedalling slowly all this time, sped up right when he saw a boy and a bike zoomed past him. He was never one to stand a bike passing him.

“Aram!”

He realized that the girl that was screaming on the bike was a club member, Dowook didn’t care. He sped up looking at the one who was pedaling the bike. She was good, but couldn’t speed up much with that extra luggage. Dowook caught up with ease and passed right by. Right then, he heard someone shout right behind him.

“Jiyoon! You better hold on tight!”

* * *

Maru had to wipe his eyes for a second before taking a look again. What in the world did he just see? He could see Dowook pedaling ferociously, right behind him was Bangjoo running with a grin, and behind that was Aram biking with a massive frown. Poor Jiyoon was pale as a ghost on the back of Aram’s bike. The four of them charged right into school in that order. At the same time, he heard someone roar at them in anger.

“Which bastard decided to charge in with a bike! And you! I told you not to run when you come to school!”

It was the disciplinary teacher, Maru had to organize his thoughts for a bit before walking towards the gate himself. He could see the four students all lined up kneeling in front of a bike. Maru’s eyes met with theirs as he passed by, he grinned at them before promptly ignoring them. He could hear them call out, “hey” and “senior” right as he walked by, but he knew they weren’t talking to him. Of course they weren’t, Maru changed his shoes as he thought about how difficult practice was going to be from now on.

* * *

Suyeon slept very deeply for the first time in a long while. It was 4pm. The stress she accumulated at the villa must’ve vented in the form of sleep.

“My head hurts.”

It felt like a massive hangover, she put a hand over her throbbing head and gulped down some cold water. She thought about spending the rest of the day doing nothing like a jobless person before remembering what Junmin had told her.

- It starts today.

“Hah…”

Suyeon took out workout clothes from the closet and put on sunglasses, she didn’t want anyone noticing her. She thought about checking herself in the mirror before deciding against it, she’d just be going to meet students anyways. She drove straight to school in that outfit, it was a little past five when she arrived at Suwon. She didn’t even have makeup on, but she was pretty confident that she looked stunning without it. It’d be nice if she parked right inside the school, but she didn’t want to make things annoying so she just parked nearby.

On her walk towards the building, she came across a few students. Suyeon sighed, surely they’d ask for her signature.

“Want to bet on who pays for the PC bang?”

“Let’s go.”

A group of boys passed by her saying that. Suyeon took off her sunglasses with a small smile, surely they’d recognize her now.

“Let’s go play pool. I know the owner, so he might order food for us.”

“Oh, hell yeah.”

Another group of boys passed by without even looking at her. Suyeon didn’t lose her smile as she walked straight into the school, not a single student recognized her.

‘This is kind of annoying.’

At the same time, she realized just how far away she was from becoming famous. She really should take up more jobs. She can’t afford to be lax, she should take care of this teaching business as fast as she can before her next audition.

She stepped up to the fifth floor calmly, they were supposed to meet at a classroom on the fifth floor. Just as she turned to the hallway on the fifth floor, she ran into Maru.

“Surprise.”

He probably didn’t know who was coming, a great chance to tease this troublesome kid. Maru stared at her dumbly out of surprise before smiling.

“It really is a bit of a surprise.”

He pointed at her forehead as she spoke, Suyeon put a hand on it out of confusion. Something fell from her head right then, it was a pink hair roller that had turned completely flat.

Chapter 202

Their first meeting was interesting. Everyone was flabbergasted at Suyeon’s appearance, even Taesik.

“Why didn’t you put on makeup from the start if you were going to disappear to put it on anyway?”

Suyeon managed to fix both her skin and hair perfectly in a flash, she did this in only ten minutes after hearing that Taesik would come.

“I barely put on anything. This may as well be my natural face.”

Suyeon smiled like a fox, she introduced herself quickly to everyone in the club before coming out to talk with Maru separately.

“Why did you decide to teach the acting club?”

“Don’t ask. I didn’t ask for it either. Mr. Junmin told me to, so I had no choice.”

Suyeon stretched with a small frown.

“Can you do it?”

“Don’t know. I don’t think it’ll be hard though.”

“Knowing how to do something and knowing how to teach something are two different things.”

“You always have to start somewhere to do anything. No one’s a teacher from the start.”

“True, but our club doesn’t need another new learner in our midst. We need a teacher. If you want to do it, I won’t stop you. But you better try your best.”

“Shouldn’t I be the one to tell you that? You’re the one who’s going to be on stage. I might get sick of your lack of talent first before anything. I do have experience teaching as well.”

Was she talking about Geunseok? Maru still didn’t know why Junmin sent this woman, but there was no point in worrying about it now.

“I’ll be in your care from now on. Please teach me a lot, both as an actress and an instructor.”

Maru bowed slightly as a greeting.

“I’ve been thinking this since a while ago, but you really are frightening.”

“How so?”

“You form relationships based on need. You separate work and personal life with a very clear line. Humans always begin relationships with logic, but end them with emotions. Just like with the many men I’ve met. You don’t seem to be the case though.”

“I think they’ve been very logical until the end.”

“Really?”

“If the rumors are true, then the men all left with what they originally came for. Sure, they might’ve gotten the short end of the stick, but since both sides left with something, I think there was still logic involved.”

Suyeon’s smile widened at the word ‘rumor’.

“What rumors?”

“Exactly those that you’re thinking of right now.”

“I’m not thinking of anything though?”

“Well, they must’ve just been baseless rumors then.”

“You like to play with people, don’t you?”

“Did I play with you, or do you just feel like you got played? Personally, I’ve no intentions of playing with you.”

“Wow, what manners. Boys that confuse girls aren’t popular.”

Her smile was widening, but her eyes were getting colder. Maru became certain that Suyeon wasn’t just a nymphomaniac. She was a businesswoman in high demand and an actress filled with ambitions. She knew what it meant to make progress through her friends and didn’t let morals stop her in getting what she wanted. If the rumors about her he heard from Ganghwan were true, then she was a very dangerous person indeed.

“What’s the reason a woman puts on makeup?”

Suyeon asked as she stepped forward.

“The biggest reason would be to show off more to others around them.”

“Then what does it mean when a woman doesn’t put on makeup?”

“There’s no need for them to look better.”

“Nope.”

Suyeon grinned.

“I look better with no makeup.”

“Hair roller included?”

“How do you keep coming back like that?”

Suyeon slipped back into the classroom as if nothing had happened. Maru tried to get some information out of her to no avail, even the word bubbles beside her were identical to her speech.

“Hey guys! Nice to meet you. Let’s try our best for this year. I might be a little lacking in experience, but I’m sure we can achieve some satisfying results if we work hard together. Ask me anything you want whenever you get stuck. I’ll try my best to answer.”

A bright voice spilled out of the classroom, the woman really was great at making herself look friendly. Even back at the villa, Suyeon approached Gwak Joon multiple times despite multiple warning gestures from the man. Most people would’ve given up after several attempts, but Suyeon continuously approached the man as if she was just playing. She did eventually realize that smiles alone wouldn’t help her get close to the man. So, she started fighting with him like they were old enemies.

She seemed to instinctively understand how to deal with people. In the end, Gwak Joon told Suyeon his real name. Maru found that out when he called the author last time. Back then, Gwak Joon described Suyeon as ‘a jam stuck on your hand’. In any case, Suyeon managed to open the man’s mouth and embed herself deep into his memories.

Most men are foolish enough to start wondering if a woman likes them if they look into each other’s eyes. Suyeon could become friends with most men with just half the effort she put into Gwak Joon, she might even be able to turn these men into slaves if the rumors were true. Perhaps she really was born to be an actress after all. Becoming friends with others meant that you needed to understand what the other side wanted out of you, a very important talent for actors.

“Come inside, Maru.”

Suyeon was calling him over with a soft wave, Maru stepped inside with a slight sigh.

“Don’t be embarrassed, senior!”

“Senior! It’d be troubling if you got embarrassed by our instructor’s beauty!”

Aram and Bangjoo teased with playful expressions, Suyeon must’ve said something while he was outside. You couldn’t win in situations like these; getting mad would just make the situation awkward, accepting it would make you seem annoying, staying silent would only make you get teased more. Maru turned to give Suyeon a slight glance, the woman gave him a playful wink in return.

“Maru must’ve been surprised. I was kidding, guys.”

Everyone laughed at Suyeon’s words, they must all think Suyeon made that joke to lighten up the mood. She must’ve been quite the annoyance for other female students back in her school days, especially with her being the type that always turned the situation around so that she couldn’t be spoken badly about.

“What are you planning on doing for the first day, instructor?”

Maru switched the topic around, since he had no intentions of starting a fight with the woman. He’d rather think about acting than about fighting.

“Well, it’s obvious, isn’t it? It’s gotta be that!”

“That?”

“Orientation!”

* * *

“Orientation.”

Maru looked outside from the veranda, their venue for the orientation was Suyeon’s house near Suwon station.

“Ahaha, big sis, you’re so funny!”

“You know it! I’m quite the comedian!”

Maru could hear the group laughing inside despite just having closed the glass door. Just how loud were they laughing? He took a bite out of the cracker in his hand. He actually welcomed an event where they got together like this, Maru didn’t want to practice so hard from the first day either. He flipped through his past memories as a businessman, looking at the cars parked in front of the station. The night scenery was beautiful, but… It reminded him of a saying: ‘the beautiful night view of Seoul was created by countless tears of businessmen that couldn’t finish their work’.

“…Senior, what are you doing?”

It was Jiyoon, she had opened the door behind him.

“Meditating.”

“What?”

“I’m just breathing in some fresh air. Why did you come out? It’s cold.”

“I-I wanted fresh air as well, I’m feeling a bit hot after laughing so much.”

Jiyoon fumbled around a bit behind her, there was a glass of beer in her hand. Maru frowned as he looked into the living room, so they decided to drink after all. He could see a big bottle of it in the midst of the boys.

“Don’t drink if you don’t want to. You didn’t drink last time either.”

“That’s why I decided to try it today. Here, this one’s yours, senior.”

Jiyoon slowly handed him a glass, he gladly took a sip from it since he was feeling pretty thirsty. Jiyoon stepped closer to him.

“Ugh… So bitter.”

“That’s why people drink it.”

“Really?”

Of course not. Korean beer only existed to fill the bellies of those who liked to eat all the food in company meals, it wasn’t something to drink for flavor.

“Don’t force yourself. It’s not good for you at all.”

“But I was told it’d be good to learn it for when I enter society…”

“Is that what the Instructor said?”

Jiyoon nodded, Maru wanted to sarcastically say that the woman was teaching such nice things. Unfortunately, he could only sigh at the fact that he had to agree. Learning how to drink really was good for multiple things, because society still demanded that you had to drink if your superiors asked you to. If you refuse? The superiors that were tamed by the Korean military culture wouldn’t let you get away with it, gender wouldn’t be a factor. If you refused or even failed to drink at a superior’s command, you’d instantly be branded with a horrid reputation as an employee that refused to listen.

“Just try one glass at first, don’t drink a lot at once, and keep taking small sips. Eat a lot of snacks in between each sip, talk a lot as well. Get a good grip of how you feel before going for another glass. Not quickly, but slowly. You’ll slowly start to feel yourself getting drunk as you do so.”

“After that?”

“Again, measure how you feel before accepting another glass. If you start feeling weird inside, stop right there. A lot of kids throw up on their first time because they don’t have tolerance.”

“T-throw up?”

Jiyoon immediately put her glass down in fright. How cute, she was the type that’d be popular between boys. Innocence was incredibly powerful in that sense.

‘Girls like these suffer a lot after a bad boyfriend.’

“You should never drink with a boy before figuring out your limit.”

“Why not?”

“No girl is more in danger than one that drinks with an innocent face. In a lot of ways.”

Jiyoon looked confused. Hah, this was troublesome. Maru would rather talk to Suyeon, it was hard to talk to kids. In the end, he could only tell the girl to take it slow.

“Uhm, senior.”

“What?”

“Do you think I can do well?”

“In what?”

“The acting club. It’s fun, but I’m pretty worried. Am I too much of a drag?”

“We didn’t even start anything, start worrying later. You won’t be able to get anything done otherwise.”

“How did you get so good at acting?”

“I’m not good at acting.”

“No, you are. I saw you. I saw you act in Anyang last year. That’s what made me register for the club. You were shining back then. You were so cool.”

Jiyoon raised her arms to the sky and spun around. She really didn’t seem like her normal self.

“…Are you drunk?”

“What?”

“You’re talking a lot better than usual. You’re not embarrassed as well.” “Me?”

Jiyoon smiled widely. Yup, she was drunk. Did the cold air get to her?

“You really shouldn’t drink. If you’re drunk after a glass, then you should just stay off of alcohol forever.”

“This is my fifth glass!”

“What?”

Maru widened his eyes as he looked into the living room. Next to Aram, he could see five empty bottles of beer. He couldn’t see Daemyung, Dowook, and Bangjoo either. Where did they go?

“Senior! You’re so cool!”

Goodness, she was definitely the talkative drunk. Maru dragged Jiyoon back inside. Suyeon, who was just laughing with Aram, looked his way.

“Where are the boys?”

“Probably sleeping inside.”

Suyeon raised a bottle of soju as she spoke. When did she sneak that in? She must’ve made them a soju bomb while he wasn’t looking. Just then, Aram fell back onto the floor. At the same time, a sound of someone throwing up came from the bathroom. By the voice, it was probably Daemyung.

“Don’t worry. I didn’t give it to the girls.”

Suyeon spoke with a very straight voice, Maru sighed as he scratched his eyebrow.

“Senior, can I really do well? Can I? Do you think so?”

Jiyoon started sticking closer to him. Goodness, he’d probably have to take care of this one first.

Chapter 203

“Senior, why don’t I have confidence? Senior? Senior?”

Jiyoon muttered on and on with a bright red face. Five glasses of beer… It only made sense that a girl who tried drinking for the first time would get drunk from it.

“You’re plenty confident right now, so please be quiet. Stand up straight as well.”

He patted the girl’s shoulders as he led her into a smaller room to rest, he put her down on the bed before waking Aram up in the living room. The girl woke up from her nap after a few shakes.

“Woah! The ground is shaky!”

“That would be your eyes, not the ground.”

It reminded him of a college party when he threw Aram into the small room as well. He managed to stay sober back then till the end and ended up having to take care of all the corpses afterwards, how strange that nothing has changed even today.

“Hey hey, don’t throw up too much, you’ll clog the toilet.”

Suyeon shouted towards the bathroom, the three men who drank soju bombs were throwing up very energetically together. They must’ve drank everything Suyeon gave them, despite feeling sick. All because of their petty pride as men, Maru was a bit surprised to find Daemyung in their midst though.

He sent the three of them into the bigger room before cleaning up the bathroom a little bit.

“I could’ve taken care of that, you know.”

Suyeon smiled with a glass of beer in her hand. After cleaning the bathroom, Maru made rounds around the small room and the big room to check on the kids. Thankfully, no one seemed to have gone too far over.

“You seem used to this.”

“Of taking care of drunk people? That I am.”

Maru scraped together what remained of the snacks and sat in front of Suyeon, he was hungry after so much work. The clock was nearing 11pm and the TV next to them was playing a Chinese martial arts movie.

“Care for a drink?”

Suyeon gave her glass a little shake. Maru looked around to find an unfinished bottle of soju, he poured himself a third of a shot.

“Do you want to drink more?”

“If you’re offering, sure.”

Suyeon put her glass forward, prompting Maru to pour the rest of the bottle in her glass.

“Did you finish all the beer?”

“There should still be a few bottles in the fridge.”

Maru opened the double door fridge and grabbed a beer. The fridge was surprisingly clean, he noticed. There were a lot of side dishes and vegetables inside.

“Why are you looking so carefully into someone else’s fridge?”

“There’s a lot to be learned about a person from their tables, fridge, and bathroom. Especially when they are all surprisingly clean.”

“Surprisingly? Aren’t you being a bit rude?”

“Do you have a can opener?”

“Isn’t it next to the fridge?”

Unfortunately, Maru couldn’t find anything. He just settled for opening the bottle with a spoon.

“Who in the world are you? You were so natural just now.”

“High schoolers nowadays can all do this.”

“Liar.”

Maru gave the bottle a little shake with his thumb over the top and poured the foaming beer into each of their glasses. Even if most of his memories were gone, his body still remembered how to make perfect soju bombs. Their glasses frothed with white foam in an instant.

“I’m surprised you know how to do that.”

Suyeon took a sip from her glass. She clearly drank a lot with the kids, but her face remained the same as ever. Maru took a sip as well, it tasted sweet.

‘I drank a lot back then because of that damned department head, Mr. Go. Or was it Lee?’

He remembered having to drink almost every day alongside his superior. They were very humiliating and enraging at the time, but felt like sweet memories right now. He even missed it a little bit, he figured it was just like how he could only remember the fun things in the military.

The two of them emptied their glasses without words. They didn’t have anything to talk about, nor did they want to find something to talk about. Just like that, they finished about three glasses of soju bombs in a flash, but Maru didn’t feel any effects of the alcohol. Was it because of the stronger body he got in leaping back to the past?

‘I guess it’s closer to reincarnation.’

Honestly, he could be fine even if he lost everything thanks to this strong body of his. He did want to continue down the path of acting, but no one knew what could happen in the future after all. Perhaps everything might just go wrong tomorrow. If that happens, his body would be the only thing he would be able to rely on. Maru finished his current glass and put the soju and beer bottle aside. There was no reason for him to be drinking right now, so he decided to cease there.

“Are you drunk?”

“Yes, I am.”

“Liar, you don’t look a tad different.”

“There’s no need for me to drink until I’m actually drunk. I’m fine with setting the mood a bit. And… I need to take care of my health.”

“Ugh, thinking about health at your age?”

Suyeon poured herself a new glass with an annoyed mutter.

“You know beer has a lot of calories, right? Will you really drink more?”

Suyeon flinched, she looked at her glass for a bit before pushing it towards Maru.

“Drink.”

“I’d rather not.”

“You made me want to stop drinking, take responsibility.”

She must be a bit buzzed, seeing how her voice was a bit higher-pitched than usual. He had no intentions of fighting with a drunk woman, so he just took the glass.

“You should sleep if you’re drunk. I’ll take care of this.”

“I’m not drunk. I’m not Kim Suyeon if I get drunk with this little amount of alcohol.”

The woman let out a small huff before picking out potatoes from the gamjatang in front of her. Come to think of it, this woman had quite the personality as well. She was relaxed when she needed to be, but also knew how to act cute. She could just as easily become a taunting woman capable of easily charming a person.

“A key that opens all locks before is praised as a master key. A lock that opens before all keys, on the other hand, is cursed upon for being useless. So why is it that the men take on the role of the key and women that of the lock? Women can just as easily become keys too. Is it because we don’t have a dick?”

Suyeon talked incredibly casually as if this was just another topic of conversation for her. Maru picked up a cracker in front of him as he looked into her eye, she wasn’t smiling anymore. She looked completely emotionless, Maru couldn’t help but feel that this was the most honest she’s been with him all this time.

“Well, if we’re going by appearances, aren’t men closer to keys?”

“Ugh, you have such a macho mindset as well.”

“I’m just playing along with your joke.”

“Is that so? Then play along for a bit more.”

Suyeon stood up with a few sways and lay down on the sofa Maru was leaning on. Every time she let out a breath, Maru could smell an intense amount of alcohol. She was clearly drunk.

“You should sleep inside if you’re sleepy.”

“This is my house, I can do whatever I want.”

“Don’t blame me if you catch a cold.”

“No worries. I’ll keep the heaters on at full blast. What do you think I’m earning money for? It’s to use it for stuff like this!”

“Good for you.”

“Good for me is right. I work this hard because I want to earn money!”

“This is the first time I really agree with you.”

“Oh? That’s nice.”

Suyeon lightly slapped Maru’s shoulder, saying ‘this is for us having similar opinions for the first time’. It was 12am now. The movie channel on TV was playing an erotic melodrama, a movie about a woman sacrificing her life for the male lead.

“An innocent woman. A quiet woman. A good wife. Why does this country always force its submissive stereotypes on women?”

“Because they’re scared.”

“Scared?”

Maru grabbed the glass in front of him, he’d need more alcohol to talk about stuff like this.

“Before getting further into this topic, I’d like to clarify that not all men in the world think like this.”

Maru took a shot of soju before continuing.

“Some men obsessively hate to watch women climb on above them in the world. There’s no wonder that there’s even a popular phrase about it. ‘How dare this woman?’ It’s all because they’re scared. They’re scared of being taken over by capable women. That’s why they try to stamp it out from the start, saying bullshit like ‘good women need to be quiet’.”

Maru got a bit flared up as he talked because he was reminded of a story related to ‘her’. Back then, after their marriage, she left the acting industry to be hired at a company as a secretary. She got into trouble with a man in that company and Maru remembered being incredibly mad after hearing the reason why. The man started trouble because she dared to look him in the eye. In fact, Maru could still feel incredible rage despite having lost most of his memory of the situation. What made him even angrier at the time was how she tried to laugh it over like it was nothing.

“That patriarchal worldview ruined many, many people. There are too many idiots running around thinking that they’re superior just because they have a stick between their legs. You see, when I get a daughter in the future, I’m definitely going to teach her self-defense. I’m going to tell her to kick him right in the balls if she meets one of these idiots in the future.”

“Oh, that’s nice.”

Suyeon laughed as if she were a fan of the thought, she laughed for quite some time before letting out a small sigh. She continued the conversation with a much calmer tone.

“People would laugh if I tell them that I got raped by a man I dated, right?”

“Did such a thing happen?”

“It was rape, at least from my perspective. I was a doll and he was a rabid dog. The bastard.”

“Are you really okay with telling me this? I don’t really like you, instructor.”

“I know. I don’t like you either. I wanted you, but gave up since you act way too hard to get.”

“So why are you…”

“Because there’s no one else. There’s no one else I can tell this to. You’re… You’re annoying, but I don’t think you’re a bad person. It’s annoying how you act like an adult at your age. I don’t like the way you talk. It’s unbearable how you draw a line between certain relationships. I hate everything about you, but at least you don’t try to hit on me desperately like those fucks.”

“That’s literally only because I don’t like you.”

“Can’t you be a bit gentler about it? Seriously.”

Suyeon got up from the sofa and embraced Maru from the back.

“How is it? Feeling excited?”

“You reek of alcohol. Can’t you just go to sleep if you’re drunk? I can listen to your stories all day, but I’d rather not have to take care of your physical actions as well.”

“Oh, so cold.”

Suyeon rested her head on Maru’s shoulder.

“You see, I thought emotions lasted forever. I thought love lasted forever. I thought as long as I loved, I would be paid back with an equal amount of love. But that wasn’t the case at all. Emotions are expendable things that run out very quickly. Love was the same, just packaged to look a little better. They wanted me and once I gave them my everything, they threw me away.”

“What did you do?”

“What do you think? I became a merchant. Fine, I’ll give you what you want, but it’s not going to be free. If you’re going to use me, you better pay up. Back then, I was a girl who wanted love. But now, I’ve become a woman who got too used to loveless romance. Rumors? About me being a whore? About how I sell my body? Whatever. It’s just a transaction, just like anything else in the free market.”

Her breath passing by his ear was hot, he might’ve even felt a bit of disgust if he didn’t know anything. He would’ve thought she was impure, dirty. All he felt now was the alcohol in his body and a bitterness similar to it.

“So, are you satisfied?”

“Satisfied? Sure. I’m not hurt anymore. I’m a dry twig devoid of emotions at this point.”

“Well, so long as you’re satisfied. By the way, can an emotionless person even act?”

“I’m living proof of that, aren’t I? Acting’s all a bunch of lies anyway.”

Suyeon raised one of her arms towards the sky.

“Out, out, brief candle! Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player that struts and frets his hour upon the stage and then is heard no more.”

Suyeon looked incredibly desperate and devoid of energy as she spoke. She looked up at the ceiling lights dumbly before smiling again, she buried her face into Maru’s shoulder.

“I’m sick of Macbeth.”

“That was Macbeth?”

“You don’t even know Macbeth? I thought you were an actor!”

“This is my first year, you see.”

“Ugh.”

Suyeon muttered incoherently for a second before continuing.

“In any case, I’m a very good liar. Who knows? Maybe my words right now are lies.”

She laughed silently as if she was very amused at what she just said. Maru shrugged.

“It doesn’t matter if you lied or not.”

“Why not?”

“It doesn’t matter. I don’t care what you do. Just don’t break the law.”

“I don’t touch married men, obviously. I don’t go for the ones with girlfriends either.”

“Then it’s fine, isn’t it? No need for you to talk to me like this about it.”

“Don’t you think it’s dirty?”

“Why? I’ve never heard from anyone that romance is a dirty thing.”

“I can’t tell if you’re a romanticist or a pessimist.”

“I’m a romanticist towards my woman and have no such interest in everyone else. By the way, can you get up now? You’re heavy.”

“You’re saying something very rude to a woman right now. Do you know that?”

“Gravity doesn’t discriminate, unfortunately.”

Suyeon smirked before getting back up. Looking back, he noticed that her eyes still had vibrant energy. She must’ve faked being drunk to talk about this.

“That’s odd. I thought this attack would work for sure. Do you even have a dick?”

“Want me to show you?”

“Oh my, how bold.”

“It’s past midnight. You should go to bed.”

“Don’t want to. I want to keep talking.”

“Well, I’m going to sleep.”

“Why? Stay, I’m bored.”

Suyeon was begging him. It was honestly hard to tell if this woman was drunk or not, she’d probably chase after him even if he walked away to sleep. Maru sighed as he took out a book from his bag.

“You can talk by yourself. I’m going to read.”

“Twilight Struggles? Are you preparing for the audition?”

“Of course. I don’t know if I’ll get in though.”

“You can come running into my arms if you fail. My bosom is wide enough to welcome you in.”

“Yes, yes. I’m sure it is.”

Maru turned off the TV and flipped a page, Suyeon fell silent as well. The fridge hummed in the distance, he could hear the wind whipping itself against the windows. Many little noises came and went within the room. In a flash, the living room became quiet like a library. Maru flipped a page, then another, and then one more. By the time he flipped through about twenty, he heard a noise behind him.

“…To whom do I need to go to get my purity back?”

It was Suyeon. As her voice slowly faded away from the room, Maru turned the TV back on. He flipped through the channels until he reached a loud entertainment show and raised the volume. By the time he made it loud enough for it to impair his concentration, he heard a noise from behind him. A noise of someone forcing her tears down her throat.

Maru kept the TV on as he continued reading.

Chapter 204

After some time spent on reading, Maru eventually realized that the sound of sobs was gone. He lowered the volume before turning off the TV. The moon outside the window looked oddly small today. After closing his book, Maru looked back. Suyeon was sleeping with messy hair. She looked exhausted after a night of talking and thinking.

“I told her she’d catch a cold if she sleeps outside, too.”

It was 2am, but he couldn’t sleep because of the alcohol in his system. Maru cleaned up the snacks and the dishes in front of him, Suyeon trembled from the noise of the dishes clacking together. After cleaning up the living room, Maru looked back into the small room and the big room. The girls in the small room were hugging each other in their sleep, they must’ve been cold. Come to think of it, the heater wasn’t on. He grabbed a blanket from the pile in the corner and covered the two with it. He took another one and stepped outside.

“Can’t you act more your age?”

He put a blanket over the woman. She might’ve looked lovely or baby-like to anyone else in this state, but to Maru, she just looked sad. Everyone had their stories, no one was born innately good or evil. It’s their accumulated experiences that would nudge them towards good or evil. What’s funny was that the standards of what was good or evil were subjective, Maru knew that better than anyone else. A role model you looked up to might secretly be someone who stepped on others to get to where they were, on the other end, a person on death row might be someone who could give you a valuable life lesson. That’s why Maru tried his best to judge people based on how they treated him. In that sense, Suyeon was a good person. Her relationships were purely based on profit. So long as she stuck by that, Maru’s opinion of her would be neutral, but he did want to tell her something.

“Are you sleeping?”

No response. The woman breathed like a little baby.

“If you lived happily so far, then don’t have any regrets. But if your actions come back to you in the form of pain, then it’s time to stop. If they don’t, then live as you always have. Don’t try to be ‘good’, you should know better than I do that’s a nigh impossible thing to do. So stay greedy. Live the life you want to live, as long as it’s within the confines of the law.”

Maru turned the heater on and the lights off, he laid down on the living room carpet and put on a blanket. The living room was quiet now, he started steadying his breath. He could feel sleep slowly approaching from the other side of his consciousness.

* * *

He dreamed of chasing a woman he didn’t know. No, that wasn’t a stranger. He knew that woman for sure.

Maru opened his eyes and looked up at the ceiling dumbly, it was colored gray. Ah, right, this was Suyeon’s home. He put a hand over his dry neck and sat up, the dream just now was already fading away deep into his subconscious. All he remembered was that he was chasing after a woman he felt like he knew. The woman was sometimes young, sometimes old, and at other times someone else entirely.

An odd dream indeed, but it faded away quickly enough that he didn’t think much of it. The living room was colored with sunlight, it was 9am. After taking a deep breath of the fresh Sunday air, Maru got up.

“Oh, you’re awake.”

Suyeon was standing by the kitchen, surprisingly. That tear-stained face of hers from the night before was gone without a trace. Now, she was the actress Kim Suyeon. So this is the end of her storytime from last night, Maru nodded as a small greeting before walking inside himself.

“Want water?”

“Sure.”

He finished the glass of water in two gulps. He could feel the drowsiness inside him being washed away instantly.

“Thanks for the blanket. I’m glad you at least have some manners.”

“I’d rather we have a healthy instructor teach us.”

“Ugh, you aren’t cute at all.”

“Being treated as ‘cute’ in my age is problematic.”

“You sound like an old man.”

“Much better than being an immature adult, wouldn’t you agree? Anyway, should I wake the kids? I think we should go out soon.”

“No, let them sleep. They were a mess last night. We’ll start our first training after letting them sleep till lunchtime.”

“Training?”

“I want to check your vocal cords. I want to see how well Ms. Miso did.”

Suyeon took out a toaster.

“You’re fine with toast for lunch, right?”

“Do you have rice?”

“Can’t you just eat what I give you? You’re not going to be popular if you keep acting this way.”

“I’ve said this before, but I’m kind to my girlfriend. So there’s no need for you to worry.”

“You have a girlfriend?”

“Yes, I do.”

“Whew, that’s unexpected. I thought you hated women. Especially since you never even spared me a glance.”

“Are you really bored enough to bring up yesterday’s conversation?”

“I can’t stand quiet meals, sorry.”

“Get your own boyfriend then.”

“How? The way you told me to last night?”

So she was listening. Maru spread some jam on his toast as he responded.

“Why pretend you were sleeping? Now I feel awkward for no reason.”

“Because it’s fun.”

Suyeon poured both of them a glass of orange juice.

“So how’s your girlfriend? Is she pretty? How’s her personality?”

“She’s better than you in every aspect. Face, body, personality.”

“Boo, there’s no way she has a better body than me.”

Suyeon crossed her long legs. Maru had to make a correction, Suyeon did indeed have a better body for the time being.

“Just give it time.”

“How do you know she’ll look better by then?”

“I have good eyes.”

“Ew, what a pervert.”

“All men are born perverts. We just restrain it.”

“That’s just proof that you’re a massive pervert. Aren’t you embarrassed?”

“Not as much as someone who tells their life story alongside tears. Also, haven’t you run into my girlfriend when you visited me in the hospital?”

“Did I? Sorry, I’m not the type to remember people unrelated to me.”

“Not surprised.”

The toast crunched inside his mouth, the strawberry jam was pretty tasty. Where was it from? He turned the bottle around to look at the label, all that English made it hard to read.

“Tasty, right? I got it as a gift. It was like 150 thou per bottle?”

“So that’s why it’s tasty.”

“Want a bottle?”

“I’d rather not. I don’t like accepting gifts without reason.”

“Consider it a gift for our future relationship. Though it doesn’t look like we’ll be friends.”

“Agreed.”

“Why do you dislike me so much?”

Maru responded as he chewed on the toast.

“I don’t dislike you that much. There’s just no reason for me to be friends with you. Ah, if it looked like I was avoiding you, that’s because I consider you a scary person. I dislike scary women.”

“Me? Scary? Why? Because I screw with men?”

Maru responded as he looked directly into her eyes.

“If you’re that conscious of your behavior, then I’d recommend that it’s best to just stop. I don’t care about what you do. If you’re talking about it to me on purpose, then I’d like to ask why you keep doing this. I said you’re scary because you’re terrifyingly good at controlling your emotions. I like women with weak spots.”

Suyeon let out a little “hmm” as she looked at Maru. Her smile and erotic gaze didn’t change, but Maru noticed that her eyes looked very cold inside.

“You’re too cold, but also gentle. It sounds hypocritical, but it’s true. I get why I told you everything last night. You’re not the type to console me. But you still listen. You don’t try to relate, but you understand. I can’t ask you for forgiveness, but I can at least confess. You even scolded me when I needed it.”

“Do you feel good after getting scolded by a child?”

“Yes, very. I was feeling pretty complicated recently, but that’s all gone now. People need to live their lives in a way that fits them. It’s impossible to return to how I was in the past. No matter what I do, I can’t fix my old scars. So I might as well live like this.”

Suyeon finished her orange juice in one gulp.

“If you keep planning on touching people like that, then please don’t approach minors. Especially the kids in the acting club.” “I have standards, you know? Pretty high ones. You think I do this to anyone?”

“Mm, that sort of sounds like a compliment. Thank you.”

“Hah.”

Suyeon put another piece of bread in the toaster.

“Care for another?”

* * *

Jiyoon couldn’t open the door in front of her. She woke up a while ago, but she couldn’t step outside. Suyeon and Maru were talking outside. She couldn’t hear the conversation, but she knew things would get awkward quick if she stepped out now.

‘What do I do?’

The worst part was how much she remembered everything from last night, she felt her face redden just thinking about what she said to Maru. She won’t drink ever again from now.

“Bathroom.”

“Oh my god, you surprised me.”

Aram was grabbing the doorknob with a sleepy expression. Jiyoon stopped the girl.

“Things are bad outside.”

“Really?” “Yeah, Senior and Instructor…”

“Reaaaally?”

Jiyoon closed her mouth with a shocked face, Aram’s face was grinning with a teasing look. Right. This person was different from her. The girl opened the door, clearly expecting to run into some trouble. Unfortunately, all she ran into was Maru standing in front of her.

“Oh, Senior! I heard something interesting was happening outside.”

“Nope. Go wash your face. You look like a mess.”

“Really?”

Aram walked to the bathroom as if nothing had happened, Jiyoon looked at Maru with an awkward smile.

“You.”

“Y-yes?”

“Never drink more than three glasses of beer.”

“…Okay.”

Right then, loud music started playing in the living room. The noise only got louder every time Suyeon tapped on the remote.

“Wake up, kids! It’s lunchtime!”

* * *

Dowook breathed lightly into his hand, his breath still smelled slightly of soju. He learned how to drink from delinquents early into high school, but yesterday was the first time he had so many soju bombs. He regretted having thought lightly of drinking just because he sipped a little in the past. He immediately lost himself after a few glasses and before he knew it, he was in the bathroom. The next time he came to was an unconscious Daemyung lying down next to him, he felt a chill run down his back whenever the boy gagged with a pale face. Thankfully, Daemyung didn’t throw up during the night.

“That instructor is weird.”

They went to the top of the building after lunch and shouted their lungs out. Suyeon just laughed at him when he said he was trying to be a support member, he ended up having to shout to the sky as a result. He did feel a lot better after doing it though, so it was a plus.

Afterwards, Suyeon asked the club to make sounds with their hands over their stomach. She made them talk normally and even shout, she also taught them how to do abdominal breathing. Daemyung laughed when she said it’d make them run out of their breaths, he was shocked when he actually did.

- We’ll stop here today. We can pick out a play tomorrow and practice more. I’m not very good at teaching, so you guys should prepare as well.

She sounded irresponsible, but that fitted her image well. Suyeon was an odd woman, but she was very serious when she taught. Trustworthy for sure.

“I’m supposed to make props though.”

Dowook clicked his tongue as he got on the bus. He hated annoying things and he had a feeling things were only going to get more annoying from now.

Chapter 205

“This is the first time I’ve seen anything like this. That is, having an actor take part directly in storyboarding of the movie. Not to mention feedback from the author himself… I wouldn’t have even thought about taking on this project if it wasn’t for you, sir.”

Director Yang left after speaking, Moonjoong sat back down after sending the man off. In his hands were the completed script and a storyboard, the dialogue was powerful and the story was very well-fleshed out. This was bound to be a big hit for sure.

“So this is the beginning.”

It’s been a very long time since his last movie, he’d get really busy once they worked up a real schedule. Famous actors would receive the scripts all over and the extras would audition for their roles, the locations for filming were almost finished as well. Things were moving very quickly thanks to Junmin. Moonjoong’s talented junior honestly just made things so much easier. With this, the only thing he needed to focus on, was simply, success.

Before starting, like most people, Moonjoong didn’t feel much passion for the movie. But after receiving the script, Moonjoong felt an enormous wave of enthusiasm surging out of himself. A perfect movie was an ideal that was almost impossible in comparison to anything else, but he still wanted to make one despite knowing that. Moonjoong was a veteran, he was used to fueling his motivation with pure passion. He was good at taking care of his health and he had a good grasp of what his character would be like, the only thing left for him now was to put his soul into it. Junmin told him that things would take a little longer, as the man was focused on recruiting only the best. Sound, camera work, lighting, CG, editing, etc. Moonjoong was sure that the man was recruiting only the best in all these fields.

As a matter of fact, that knowledge became a burden to him. That burden, however, almost instantly transformed into a motivational pressure. This was it, this was the reason he stepped out of retirement. Moonjoong opened the script, internally thanking his friend for providing him with such an opportunity.

* * *

“My head still hurts a lot,” Daemyung said, putting a hand over his forehead.

As a matter of fact, it felt like he had a small bug crawling in his head. He had no idea alcohol could be this dangerous.

“You drank more than two bottles of soju along with beer in just two hours. It only makes sense you’d be hungover. I honestly didn’t know that you of all people would drink like this.”

Maru responded as he flipped a page in a novel. Daemyung smiled, he liked how tipsy he got when he drank beer a while ago. He thought this would be similar, so he just drank whatever Suyeon gave him at the time.

“Well, this is an experience.”

“Hah, yeah. Sure. I guess so. Dowook, you feeling alright?”

“Of course I am. Hungover after so little alcohol? Daemyung’s the weird one here.”

“I don’t think you have the right to say that. After all, you were the one who was in the bathroom for the longest.”

Dowook glared at Maru, making Daemyung smile a little. Dowook got mad very easily, but the boy often stayed quiet around Maru. Daemyung felt like he was looking at a bulldog and its trainer whenever he looked at the two.

“What the hell? Did you three do something without me?”

Dojin jumped into the group, looking at Maru for an explanation. Maru responded ‘we had alcohol with a sexy lady’ with a bored tone.

“What? Why didn’t you call me?!”

Dojin called them all sorts of names in mock anger. Daemyung tried to explain that it was the instructor, but Maru shook his head. Instead, the boy typed something into his phone. Shortly after, Iseul appeared with a smile, urging Dojin to step outside the classroom.

“……You’re evil.”

Maru did a high five with Iseul. Once Dojin was gone, Maru opened his mouth.

“You know practice starts today, right?”

“Am I included?”

Dowook asked with clear annoyance on his face, Maru firmly responded with an “of course”.

“Why?”

“For an off chance when someone gets sick. The end.”

“What?”

Dowook looked incredulous. Then again, the boy joined to be part of the support staff. It seemed like a complete waste to use him as a support member when they had so few club members though.

“Just do something. I think you could do really well, Dowook.”

“Shush. I hate doing annoying stuff. I’m not doing it.”

Dowook glared, prompting Daemyung to look at Maru. He was still finding the boy a little bit difficult.

“Big sis Soojin was a fan, she loved that you were in the club.”

“Why the hell does that woman have such a light mouth?”

“Hey, she’s your sister. You shouldn’t refer to her like that.”

Maru smiled teasingly. Dowook frowned and threw an eraser, which Maru dodged with a slight tilt of his head. Maru was too much, the boy liked teasing other people really subtly all the time. Thankfully, that tease was just enough to make Dowook take back his annoyance a bit.

“…Did she really like it that much?”

“She was so excited that I almost got excited with her. She was in this club in the past, you know. Of course, she’d like it.”

Maru closed the book with a smile, Dowook had a complex look as he stared at Maru. Daemyung realized how close the boy was to being won over with just that. Dowook was a very direct kid, so hesitancy like that was a good answer in itself.

“Just try it. If you don’t like it, you can always quit.”

Daemyung noticed Dowook’s flinch a little bit, Maru was truly a genius at toying at people like this. There was no way Dowook was going to let this go. This was it, the boy was going to act. Right then, Dowook stood up from his seat.

“Where are you going?”

“School store.”

Daemyung waved the boy goodbye.

“Alright, that’s one person.”

Maru smiled proudly.

“Jesus, what if he got mad?”

“I would’ve apologized. Looks like he’s pretty close with his sister now. That’s good.”

“Oh, right. Did you see it?”

“See what?”

Daemyung double-checked that Dowook was gone before opening the boy’s bag, the empty bag had a little cat doll inside it.

“He said his sister gave him this.”

“I’m surprised he’s carrying it around everywhere like that.”

“He is surprisingly kind.”

“How did you know it was from his sister though?”

“I dropped some money on the way back home with him at night. Dowook took this flashlight out for me. The cat didn’t fit him at all, so I asked him about it.”

Dowook’s response was casual at the time, but his voice was more gentle compared to usual.

“Mm, so that’s his weakness.”

Maru looked at the doll with an interested look, Daemyung shook his head and put the doll back inside the bag.

“Don’t talk about this. He might actually get mad.”

“I’ll just remember it for the future.”

“…You sound like a gang leader.”

“Hey, you aren’t going to find a person nicer than me out here. Speaking of which, how’s that thing with big bro Mintae going? Got a good script going yet?”

Daemyung shook his head.

“Nope. It’s hard. I don’t even know where to start.”

“Aren’t you setting your sights too large of a scale? Go easy. Start small.”

“It’s not that easy. Just how do people write? It’s incredible. It’s not like big bro Mintae can help me either.”

Daemyung was full of motivation when he first started, he wanted to create a vibrant scenario that Mintae would decorate the stage with. What he didn’t expect was that taking the first step was incredibly difficult, Daemyung didn’t even know what topic he wanted the play to be about. Love? He didn’t even know it. Political satire? Too difficult. Revenge? Sure, but it didn’t feel like enough.

Looking at other scripts that different writers wrote filled him with confidence, the words used weren’t that difficult and the story wasn’t too complex. Once he grabbed his pen though, he realized he had no idea where to go. Daemyung was the one who came up with the idea to start a play, too. He would take care of the writing, Maru the acting, and Mintae the staging.

To Daemyung, this was his first project. It will also become the first “result” he could show Junmin. He had no intentions of starting poorly, he wanted to create something wonderful. Perhaps that was why he was met with sighs when he looked at the blank sheet of paper before him.

“Writing, huh? I do know two people you could get advice from.”

“Really? I’ll try visiting them.”

Once, Daemyung thought the words “motivated” couldn’t be used to describe him at all, but he realized last year that he wouldn’t be able to change if he didn’t jump into something. Even acting gave him an answer once he turned desperate. Human relationships were the same, he’d be rewarded one way or the other as long as he pushed through.

Maru smiled mysteriously.

“You’re very motivated.”

“Yeah?… Yeah.”

“Here are their phone numbers. One is an author named Gwak Joon. The other’s my girlfriend’s mom, she’s an author as well. I don’t know if she’s done anything related to plays, but… she’s a writer, so I’m sure she can offer some advice.”

Daemyung saved the two phone numbers on his phone.

“I’ll ask them for permission. I’ll tell you their answers tomorrow, so try calling them then. If they refuse…”

“It’s a bit rude, but I’ll try texting them.”

“Good.”

Daemyung balled up his fists tightly. Maru gave him this chance, he would be the one to make full use of it. In every script and autobiographies he’s read, he always found one line they had in common. A line that he had saved on his phone.

- Inspiration is everywhere. We call those who catch it ‘authors’. Authors aren’t anyone special, they just make use of the inspirations around them.

“Good luck.”

“Yeap, thanks.”

Daemyung’s dream was slowly starting to take form.

Chapter 206

“Alright, let’s go.”

5:32pm. The school was empty, save for a few students. Maru crossed the hallway to make his way to the fifth floor, the auditorium had long since turned to the baseball club’s training room. Their new practice room was an empty classroom next to the student kitchen. The classroom was a space for students to study after school, but it was hardly ever used. Mostly because the baseball club on the other side of the hallway was far too loud.

Maru and Daemyung opened the door to enter, Dowook put the chairs and desks aside. The classroom was small, but they’d have to get used to it.

“Running is practically impossible,” Daemyung commented.

Physical training here would be practically impossible.

“There’s no guarantee that she’ll train us like instructor Miso, so let’s not worry about that. If we really need to, we can just go outside.”

“True.”

Dowook looked up with a surprised expression.

“Physical training.”

“Sorry, were the words too complicated?”

Maru asked with a confused look. He was joking, of course. Dowook was surprisingly fun to tease.

“Don’t joke. The acting club, physical training? Why would we even need exercise?”

“Acting isn’t all about speaking, so it’s essential. The instructor would explain it properly when she gets here, but you start to lose the sense of your body when you get on stage. It’s practice for natural movement on stage,” Daemyung explained.

Dowook didn’t pry further, since the explanation made sense. Daemyung didn’t explain a lot of things though since Miso didn’t use physical training for just training. She tortured their unused muscles in order to increase their ability to express themselves, Maru still remembered the hellish stretches they had to go through back then.

‘We don’t need to be exact.’

At least they weren’t lying, Maru smiled thinking of the justification. Well, even if they told Dowook the truth, Maru was sure that the boy would stay out of sheer spite.

“Sorry, I’m late!”

“I’m here!”

“Sorry.”

The first years entered one by one. Before they knew it, Bangjoo and Aram became very good friends; they must’ve formed a connection from their similar personalities and their love of exercising. Jiyoon entered nervously as always, that attitude of hers would probably continue for a while. Maru had no intentions of telling her to fix it, doing that might do more damage than help. He knew better than anyone that problems like that required either themselves or their friends to fix.

“Alright, let’s organize a bit before we do anything else.”

Maru pointed at the chairs and desks that haven’t been moved yet, the three first years frantically got to work.

“This should be good enough for moving around.”

They cleared some space after moving all of the desks, Not bad for practice. Maru checked the phone. It was almost 5:40pm.

“Hello.”

“Right on time.”

Maru spoke quietly before turning to look at Suyeon, the woman came here in jeans and a white shirt. Honestly? Looking at her made him think that she wasn’t an actress for nothing.

“Hey, hey, you know those gazes are only feeding my ego, right?”

Suyeon stepped up to the front of the classroom with a smile, she was holding a paper bag in her hand.

“Alright, take one.”

She took out a few small water bottles from the bag, the bottles were filled with a reddish liquid. They tasted a little sweet and a little sour.

“They are plums and goji berries. If you’re going to be an actor, your body always needs to be at peak condition, especially your throat. From now on, you’ll have to keep drinking water as you practice. This is my first assignment for you.”

The club members all tried a little sip, some clearly seemed to like it and those that didn’t.

“Alright everyone, go grab a chair.”

Maru got Suyeon a chair before grabbing his own, Suyeon grabbed a broken piece of chalk from the board.

“The only thing I’m going to teach you guys is technique. I’ll have to work with you guys about everything else, from choosing the play to figuring out the blocking in the play. Why? Because this is my first time. I’m only an amateur in this field as well.”

Daemyung widened his eyes at Maru upon hearing that, not like he had an answer though. Maru didn’t know why Junmin sent this woman here either. For now, he gave the boy a nod. Daemyung nodded in response before looking away.

“We can start together from theory first, then physically get into it at the end. It has been a while since I’ve done this, so I’m excited. Alright! The second years probably know what’s up, so I’m going to ask you freshmen a question. What’s the main difference between a play and a TV drama?”

Jiyoon slowly raised her hand.

“Lee Jiyoon, correct?”

“Yes.” “Alright, give me an answer.”

“I think it’s that one is filmed while the other is live.”

“Correct.”

Suyeon wrote the word “live” on the chalkboard.

“Plays are always done live. No recordings. Unlike movies or dramas, plays don’t stop until it ends.”

Suyeon coughed lightly before lowering her voice, her voice that reverberated all over the classroom quickly crawled into a whisper.

“How’s my voice? Can you hear it?”

“Yes, somewhat.”

Jiyoon was the one who answered.

“Oftentimes in dramas, actors speak at this volume. Why? Because they have a microphone. It amplifies their voice, so they can act quietly. But what about on stage?”

“I don’t think you can.”

“Don’t think? No, you just can’t. Jiyoon, you’re going to have to fix that way of speaking a little. I hate it when people say they ‘think’ something is possible. Why do you think that’s the case?”

“B-because you probably look unconfident…”

Jiyoon looked down nervously.

“Worse. Using words like ‘probably’ lowers others’ opinions of you. It won’t be obvious, but talking that way affirms to the other side that you’re never serious with your opinions. If that happens, you’ll never be able to change no matter how much you want to. Why?”

Jiyoon shook her head with a frown.

“It’s because the ones that make you aren't yourself, but rather your peers. Your peers are the ones that shape you. Though of course, some people are free from that. Like me.”

Suyeon was throwing a joke in the middle, but she looked more serious than ever.

“I’ll give you some homework, Jiyoon. Be confident from now on. Don’t sound so wishy-washy. Always be curt and confident. Got it?”

Jiyoon nodded as she bit her lips.

“You want to be an actress, correct?”

“Yes.”

“Then the first thing you need to do is to change how people view you. Once that happens, you can change yourself. This comes from experience, so you know it’s true.”

Maru rubbed his chin as he looked at Suyeon, that was surprisingly good advice. It would’ve been good if the advice came from a private setting, but perhaps it was too much for him to expect that much kindness from her. He appreciated that Suyeon made the effort to explain things in a way that made sense to Jiyoon. If she just told Jiyoon to ‘not be wishy-washy’, then Maru would’ve cut the woman off right there.

“Every actor is, in the end, just a human. I’d like to teach all of you how to become a confident person, someone that can actually love themselves. Life is hard enough as is, so you might as well love yourself while you’re at it.”

Suyeon looked over the students before gripping her chalk again.

“Speaking! It’s the end-all, be-all for all actors! Singers aren’t the only ones to make use of their diaphragm. Some actors in big theaters use microphones as well, but most still rely on their voice alone. Machines can’t carry raw emotion, orchestras are a good example. No matter how perfectly the machine plays back the sound, it can never be as good as the real thing.”

Suyeon motioned at them to stand up.

“Alright, starting with the breathing!”

* * *

They stepped out of the noisy classroom for a second, Suyeon was standing in the hallway with him.

“You’re surprisingly good.”

“There are limits to trying to half-ass everything. Do you think that’d work in this industry? There are tons of women as beautiful as me there. Politics and sex aren’t enough to earn living.”

“It was still a surprise, I really did learn a lot. You explained some things better than even instructor Miso.”

“Is that a compliment? Oh my.”

The two of them walked to a window on the hallway. The classroom was probably going wild inside with the students talking to each other.

“So, what’s your plan on teaching from now on?”

“I’ll teach what I can and we can work on the rest together. I’ll have to think about why Mr. Junmin put me here as well, maybe you guys are my homework.”

“Homework. Makes sense. Mr. Junmin never does things without good reason, after all.”

“Exactly. He never tells me what’s going on either. I’m 90% certain that there’s something wrong with his genitals.”

“Did you actually try to seduce him?”

“Wouldn’t you have, if you were in my shoes? He’s such a big figure in the industry!”

“Mm, I would’ve, honestly.”

“Right?”

Maru took out his phone.

“So I can contact you with this number from now?”

“No, that’s for work. Here’s my personal phone number.”

Suyeon quickly typed in her contacts after taking Maru’s phone from his hands.

“Consider this an honor. Not many men have my number.”

“Yes yes, thank you very much.”

“You’re really bad at flattery, you know that?”

“Life would probably be much easier if I was better at it, honestly.”

“Hah, you’re just a high schooler, you know? Anyway, I think you and Daemyung can go straight into practice, but the others are going to need some work.”

“They’ll catch up quickly, I’m sure. They’re all smart. We can just take care of a few things and the rest they’ll pick up on the way.”

“Alright, I’ll let you two take care of that, then. The competition begins in August?”

“The prelims would begin even before that, though.”

“Man, the nationals, huh? It’s really been a while. Oh, right, I saw you act before.”

“Me?”

“Yeah, that was the reason why I started going after you. Ah, you don’t have to worry about that anymore. I gave up after realizing how boring you were.”

“Thank goodness.”

Maru calculated the days in his head before asking his next question.

“When do we choose the play?”

“Tomorrow. I’ll find a few options and we can pick one from it.”

“Please choose something with fewer roles if possible.”

“Gotcha. But I’m sure the second years can double up on some of the smaller roles, right?”

“We can try.”

Suyeon smiled.

“Geunseok was no fun, but you guys might be. Don’t disappoint me.”

Suyeon walked by after patting his shoulder, right before entering the classroom, Suyeon turned around.

“Ah, the auditioning schedule’s out, by the way. It’ll start after the production crew hands over the script to all the big names, so check it out. There might be some tweaks in the middle though.”

“Gotcha.”

Maru started thinking as he looked at the classroom. Acting was important, but he needed to pay attention to the auditions as well for his personal resume.

‘Movies, huh.’

One thing was sure.

It was going to be a lot different compared to plays.

Chapter 207

Ganghwan stood on the stage, lit by the lights above. It’s been a while since he last performed in a small theater, regardless, their play debuted tomorrow. Practice ended a while ago, but their schedule was pushed back a bit because of the theater suddenly getting rented away by someone else. Money always came first, after all.

“Damn, actor Yang. Looking good under the light,” Miso said with a smile.

“I know, I know.”

“Get over here and have some coffee.”

Ganghwan took the paper cup from Miso, it was coffee from a famous brand. He looked at the cup of coffee as he asked a question.

“How much were these again?”

“Five thou.”

“And how much is our theater’s ticket on a discount?”

“Five thou.”

“As I thought.”

“What, does the coffee feel too expensive?”

“No, I just feel like we need to work harder. The fact that this cup of coffee costs the same as a play that’s an hour and a half long is a very telling sign of how unpopular plays are. How sad is that?”

“Why so depressed? That’s very unlike you.”

“I don’t know, I’m just worried about money. I need to marry, I need to get a house, and I need to have a kid. The money I’m earning now is nowhere close to how much I’d need to support a family, I’ll have to start thinking more about saving up.”

“Why don’t you make a girlfriend before any of that? Lose it with the strange stuff you’re doing too. Being insane is great for acting, but it’s not doing any favors for your love life.”

“Hah, is there any woman that’d be willing to take care of me?”

“Are you a child?”

“Hey, don’t you know that no man ever truly grows up?”

“Who cares.”

Miso poked Ganghwan’s head with her index finger. Ganghwan looked at the stage, he didn’t dislike this life. He sacrificed everything to acting from a young age because he liked it. He found that working for a national theater company was far too boring, so he stepped out to join a smaller one. He built his reputation there and entered a famous theater company in Seoul. Problem was, Ganghwan just wasn’t a fan of working in groups. Working there gave him a lot more freedom than before, but he had very little personal time. Worse, he didn’t have a say on the plays he performed in. A pro gets paid on a monthly basis, acting for whatever play that gets assigned to them. Sometimes they needed to work perfectly despite their dislike for it, Ganghwan hated having to do that.

It wasn’t like money wasn’t important, he just wanted to enjoy what he did to earn it. So, he stepped out of the theater company. Many of his friends told him he was crazy; he stepped out of a government-run theater company, and now, a famous theater company in Seoul. They asked what in the world he was planning on doing. Ganghwan responded, “acting”. Afterwards, he met Junmin and started working as a freelancer of sorts. When there was a role he wanted, he did his absolute best to get it. If he found a play he wanted to do, then he invested all his money to produce it.

He had no problems living this way, but he did feel a little bad about it later down the line. After all, even famous actors are easily forgotten if they disappear from the spotlight for too long.

“It’d be hard to live off of doing only the things I want to do, right?”

Ganghwan put a hand over the stage floor. He was 32. He wasn’t that late in starting something new, but not that early either. Nowadays, everyone put their thoughts into action very quickly. He noticed a while back that even singers started acting nowadays. The term ‘actor’ no longer stood for ‘a person good at acting’, but rather ‘a person who acts’.

Though of course, singers still didn’t have much influence over smaller theaters. They were usually put into musicals, massive plays, or dramas. Places where they would really shine. A senior of Ganghwan that never gave up on his dreams recently gave up after losing his role to an idol. The senior didn’t feel too bad about it, he just said that this was how the world worked. He couldn’t fight against the flow, so he just decided to go with it.

The idols that entered the world of musicals got very bad reviews, they got insulted all over the internet. Looking at that, Ganghwan only felt that the industry really was flowing towards the singers. Idols create controversies. Controversies make money and the acting industry desperately needed money. The amount of money that a single idol could bring them was incredible.

Despite their bad acting, musicals with idols in it always sold out. What in the world was going on? If the people were right when they said that musicals should’ve ended as an absolute failure. But looking at it from the big picture, it was a clear success.

The senior who gave up on his dreams smiled bitterly after hearing the story. “Actors grow according to how many times they’ve been on stage. It’s the number of chances that they’ve been given that nurtures them. Keep watching. Those idols will soon be even better at acting than me.” The man was right. In a flash, those idols became good enough to act professionally. The criticism directed at them disappeared, decisive proof that these idols really were the new future.

The industry didn’t let go of this, of course. They started recruiting more pretty idols to be on stage. The actors were very much against it, but who cares? Idols were where the money was. The bigger actors could still choose the people they would work with, but many actors had to act with idols that just slipped their way into the musical.

“Maybe I should sing, too.”

“You think that’s easy?”

“A thirty-year-old idol. What do you think?”

“What the hell? Yang Ganghwan, come back to your senses. You’re making no sense.”

“I thought I was known as an oddball.”

“But you’re not being funny. Saying funny odd things is definitely different from saying depressing odd things.”

Miso sat down on the stage next to him. She was a good friend who instantly agreed to act with him. Despite the uppercut she gave him when he told her that he wouldn’t be able to pay her much, she still participated.

“Alright, stop being dumb and think about the play tomorrow. That’s more like you.”

“Hey, come on. I’m thirty. Can’t I start thinking about reality now? Are you trying to look down on me just because you have a boyfriend and the money?”

“Yup. When you stepped out of the national theater, I worked in a factory. When you worked in that famous theater company in Seoul, I stepped on whatever stage I could find. Wouldn’t I feel bad if I still had less money than you after all that?”

“Fine, Yang Miso. Good for you. I’m jealous, so jealous.”

Ganghwan crushed the paper cup in his hand. He was feeling childish today, probably because he saw his senior just yesterday. The man asked him for a drink after a few years, saying that soldering made decent money. After one, two bottles of soju, the senior lay down on the table with a small mutter.

- Why is life so boring? My life is stable, but there’s nothing special about it. Never come here, Ganghwan. If you’re going to die, just die there. Don’t be like me.

Ganghwan didn’t believe people could truly give up on their dreams, because dreams always floated right in front of you, taunting you to come for it. If people say they gave up, it only meant that they closed their eyes. They’re just ignoring their dreams to the best of their ability, because they knew that if they opened their eyes, they’d go back to chasing for it.

“Did you watch Cats?” Ganghwan asked.

Miso nodded.

“How was it? Was he good?”

“Who? That idol called Getit or whatever?”

“Yeah.”

“Mm, yeah, he was. He was double casted and the audience went wild whenever he came out. I thought I was at a concert, I even found a person waving a glowstick. The staff took it away quickly, but… You know, I was surprised. So many young people watching the play with such passion… It kind of felt disappointing.”

Miso was also an actress. She was mostly an instructor, but she was always ready to be on stage. Of course, she’d feel bitter about the idols. Especially after thinking of all the no-name actors that likely tried to get the role themselves.

Miso took a sip of her coffee.

“Five thou for a cup of coffee. As you said, people likely don’t come to see plays because they think it’s worth less than even this cup of coffee. Though, I do understand the mentality. The industry desperately wants to keep plays afloat and bringing in idols helps sell those tickets. That means they can pay their staff properly and plan out their next play as well. If I were in their shoes… I would’ve chosen idols as well because pride won’t feed you.”

Miso looked straight into Ganghwan’s eyes before punching him straight in the stomach.

“I can’t stand you of people being depressed, though! You look the most like yourself when you do what you want, so just don’t think about it. Just work harder. Hard enough, so that people start coming to see your plays for you, not those idols. Got it, actor Yang?”

Ganghwan smiled, rubbing his stomach in pain. He was glad he had a friend like this.

“Yup, I should just do my best.”

Ganghwan stood up from his seat. He made a promise to himself back in the past, he would fill the national theater with audiences with just his name. It was a dream that wasn’t too grand, but it certainly wasn’t a small one either. A dream he’s forgotten about after all this time.

“Just don’t disappear out of nowhere. It’d be troublesome if the main character disappears,” Miso said with a smile.

“I won’t disappear when we still have a play on schedule.”

“Of course, of course.”

“Ah, I got a call from Senior Junmin. They’re going to start filming soon.”

“I heard about the audition as well. Think they’re making posts about it on the internet right now.”

“There’s going to be so many people from the rumors alone, especially since this is going to be a big one.”

“I think Junmin’s spreading those rumors on purpose. Besides, I heard most of the actors that got the script said they’d do it as well.”

“As expected of Senior Moonjoong, huh.”

“Or Senior Junmin. He’s pretty remarkable with people after all.”

“It’s not the budget that’s on a blockbuster level… it’s the cast.”

“Damn it, I would’ve auditioned if it wasn’t for this,” Miso said, tapping the floor.

“You’re only saying that because I’m here, aren’t you?”

“Of course I am.”

“I’ll pay you more if we sell a lot of tickets, will that do?”

“Eh? That’s it?”

“What do you mean that’s it? I’m almost bankrupt as is.”

“Man, you’re incredible.”

“You literally just told me to live like this!”

“Blah blah, do what you want.”

Miso shrugged.

“Ah, did you hear? I heard the new instructor of that high school you used to teach is Ms. Suyeon.”

“…What?”

Miso’s expression turned feral in an instant, maybe he should’ve kept his mouth shut about this?

“Did you… have a bad relationship?”

“I’d be surprised if anyone had a good relationship with that woman. Give me a second, I’m going to call Junmin right now.”

Miso stepped out with a huff, Ganghwan scratched his head for a second before smiling.

“Whatever. She’ll take care of it.”

* * *

Suyeon looked at her phone with furrowed eyebrows. There was a name she didn’t want to see on her screen. Why was this woman calling her so early in the day? She picked up the call with a frown but still made her voice to sound as bright as possible.

“Oh my, Ms. Miso. Did you need anything?”

- Let me just ask you one thing. Are you instructing Woosung High’s acting club?

“Yes. Why?”

- I understand.

The call hung up. Suyeon closed her phone with a deepened frown, she really didn’t like this Miso woman.

Chapter 208

‘Doesn’t look like it leaks.’

Maru checked the container behind the school from the inside. It rained quite a bit last night, a sign of the coming spring. Normally he would’ve enjoyed the rain with no worries, but the container demanded his attention. There were many wooden props inside, even a bit of humidity inside the container could easily make them rot. Out of worry, Maru arrived early at school to check.

“Eh? Senior! Hello!”

He heard a loud voice from behind him in the middle of his analysis, behind him was Bangjoo.

“You were worried too?”

“Yes. How is it? Is it leaking?”

“Nope, it’s all good. The waterproof paint is doing its job very well, we just need a fan inside to lower the humidity.”

The container didn’t come with its own fan, so they needed to check it on a regular basis, they’d have to keep airing it out whenever it rains. Mm, a schedule may be necessary.

“You’re surprisingly detailed, by the way.”

Bangjoo at first glance looked very disorganized, the type that would meet every problem with pure energy. But Bangjoo managed to catch onto a problem that even Daemyung didn’t notice.

“I started paying attention to stuff like this once I started living alone. Stuff like if I left the boiler on, if I turned off the gas, and such. I thought about this as it rained yesterday.”

Bangjoo smiled.

Living by yourself well, instead of just ordering food every day was a lot more difficult than one might expect.

“You said you started living by yourself this year?”

“Nope, the first year of middle school, to be exact. Grandma’s health started deteriorating around then, so my parents moved down to Jeju with her then. I lived with my sister around that time, but… she practically lived at work.”

“Amazing. So you’ve lived alone for four years. Can you cook?”

“Of course. I wanted to show off my skills when I invited all of you last time. I’m very sad I couldn’t.”

Bangjoo really was something else. He was as polite as he could ever be, but he never ground himself down. He was very confident anywhere, he could make people like him just with his gaze. If that personality of his could shine on stage, the stage would be his.

“Your sister must trust you a lot if she lets you live by yourself at this age. I’d have been worried sick if I were her.”

“…W-who knows. My sister is a complete mystery, so I have no idea what she thinks of me.”

Come to think of it, Bangjoo always became awkward whenever he talked about his sister. He always got quiet whenever her name got mentioned on the table.

“Do you have a bad relationship with her? Ah, if it’s personal, you don’t have to talk about it.”

“That’s not the case. No, we do fight a lot, but she never gets me mad. It’s more like I can’t, she’s very weird. Our parents gave up on her as well. She’s just… well, she’s incredible.”

“I don’t get it, but alright.”

“She just can’t be compared to normal people. She’s a monster.”

Bangjoo frowned like he just bit on a bitter persimmon. It piqued Maru’s curiosity. Just what did she do?

“Eh? You were here.”

Daemyung arrived just before class started, as expected of the boy.

“No problems?”

“Nope, we’ll just have to regularly check on it.”

“Phew, thank goodness. I was worried since last night. Morning, Bangjoo.”

“Good morning, senior!”

Bangjoo shouted as loudly as ever.

* * *

5 o’clock. The acting club all gathered on the fifth floor.

“The instructor will be here in thirty minutes, so let’s stretch a little bit? Here, follow Daemyung.”

Daemyung was good at teaching softly. Teaching was a skill, not many people could unravel their thoughts into words that were easy to understand. Daemyung was good at understanding things and also had an observant eye. He was a stand-in instructor for whenever the actual instructor was gone.

“We’ll do abdominal breathing first. Take a deep breath and once you feel your lungs full, push it downwards. That’s how you put pressure on your diaphragm so that you can take a deeper breath. Relax your shoulders and feel your larynx moving downwards.”

Everyone breathed following Daemyung, the way Miso and Suyeon taught them was no different, aside from the fact that Miso made you breathe until your head was spinning. After the exercise ended, everyone stretched their muscles. Daemyung was still chubby, but he was very flexible. Most of the former members were, as a matter of fact. The result of a year’s worth of harsh training with Miso, even now, they occasionally thought about having to stretch their legs against the wall.

“Alright, after the ankles, then…”

Right then, Suyeon entered the classroom. Today, she had tied her hair into a ponytail. She greeted everyone with her sunglasses lying on her forehead.

“Wow, you were practicing?”

“Mm? Ah, yes.”

Daemyung tried to go back to his original spot before Suyeon stopped him.

“Do it to the end.”

“Me?”

“Who else?”

Daemyung went back to work nervously, the members looked away from Suyeon as well and resumed their focus on Daemyung.

“We’re going to pick up coins from the floor as slowly as possible. We’ll pick up ten hundred won coins.”

Daemyung slowly bowed down as if he was in slow motion as he picked up the coins.

“Don’t just move your hips and arms though, you need to slowly move your center of mass forward like you’re actually picking up a coin. It’s going to be very difficult at first.”

Daemyung slightly altered the exercise Miso had taught them. Moving slowly was easy, but following specific instructions doing it wasn’t. Even walking was the combined effort of many muscles, it required perfect balance and focus to be able to do it slowly. Doing it allowed one to understand their body more thoroughly. The understanding of one’s muscles easily led to natural movements, which in turn brought about natural acting.

Just last year, the acting club members didn’t even know how to act. Maru was the same. They got used to it quickly, but it did take a lot of practice.

“Good job,” Suyeon said with a clap.

Daemyung lost his form a little bit. Hah, he was totally embarrassed. Maru smiled as he looked at Suyeon, the woman was complimenting all of them. Miso was a perfectionist, the contrast was like night and day. She came at you like a storm and barked “again” if she didn’t like it, insults were common and compliments were few and far between. Not that she was bad or anything. The club’s skills improved at an incredibly fast pace thanks to it, receiving compliments felt like receiving an amazing gift as well. Miso’s training was harsh, but she didn’t insult a person directly. She was just rough.

“Alright, let me try as well.”

On the other hand, Suyeon was soft. If Miso was a pine tree, then Suyeon was a reed. Unlike Miso, who was direct in everything, Suyeon gently led a person on until she got what she wanted. It made sense that the two didn’t get along.

“Wow.”

Jiyoon let out an exclamation of surprise, the entire club turned their heads. Suyeon was picking up the invisible coin just like Daemyung, slow enough to make her seem like she was standing still. While Daemyung looked like he had lost his balance a tiny bit, Suyeon really did look like she was picking up a coin, very, very slowly.

Bangjoo and Aram tried the same movement, compelled by their competitive urges, but quickly gave up after losing their balance several times.

‘Not many people can have a body like that.’

She had a smooth curve from head to toe. She wasn’t just skinny, she had muscles underneath all over the place. She was the perfect balance between utility and beauty. Maru thought back to what she said, about how it was difficult to survive in the industry with politics alone. She too must’ve prepared a lot to get to where she was now.

“Daemyung should handle the stretch routines from now on. I’ll help you out, so try it.”

Suyeon tapped Daemyung’s shoulder in a form of encouragement, Daemyung’s face immediately turned red. Oh dear, hope he doesn’t fall for her.

“You’re a student, you know.”

“W-what are you talking about?”

“Just date someone your age. It’s for the best.”

Maru whispered towards Daemyung before looking forward, he had no intentions of revealing to the club what kind of a person Suyeon was. He wasn’t looking to ruin relationships. Suyeon was winking at him, he noticed. What a woman. Did she forget that she told him everything already?

“Alright, we’ve stretched well, so we might as well begin, eh?”

Suyeon pulled out a stack of paper from her bag, it was probably the script.

“Alright, let’s take a look at what we want to do. We’ll talk about how to practice afterwards. We don’t have a lot of members, so I chose something with fewer roles. See which ones you guys like.”

“What would you like us to do, instructor?” Aram asked.

“No comment. You guys are going to be the ones that are going to be performing this on stage. It only makes sense that you’ll be the ones that choose.”

“Can we really choose anything?” Dowook asked, he sounded just a tiny bit rude as per usual.

“Do what you want. I’m only here to support you.”

Suyeon handed them the scripts, there were more than six of them. She must’ve prepared a lot. Maru opened the script, it was lined with a ballpoint pen. Probably from Suyeon. So she didn’t just pick it based on the title or anything, Maru appreciated that.

“Um, Maru.”

Halfway through, Maru noticed that the pile of scripts was still in front of him. The entire club was looking at him.

“What are you doing, not reading?”

“We were wondering if you could read it first before giving us your opinion.”

Everyone nodded in agreement towards Daemyung’s words, Maru sighed.

“Shut it with the nonsense and get to reading. Give me your thoughts after reading all of the scripts here. Don’t think about the number of roles or the props or anything. Just judge it based on how fun it seems.”

Maru handed the club the scripts again. Daemyung nodded, but the others seemed to have a bit of a difficult time reading the script.

“You have it hard as well,” Suyeon said.

Maru shrugged.

Chapter 209

Six scripts. Six vastly different stories with interesting characters in each of them, Suyeon clearly spent a lot of time picking them out. So she was surprisingly good at doing her work, Maru instantly lost his suspicion about her.

“Which one did you like?” Maru asked.

Suyeon had stepped out for a second, saying that she had no intentions of interfering with their selection process.

“This was the one that had the deepest impression on me.”

Aram spoke as she handed over the script numbered ‘4’. Dowook chose that one as well, saying that he couldn’t be bothered to choose a different one.

“So we’re all thinking similarly, huh. I liked that one too.”

Even Daemyung joined in. The fourth script was a romance story about a couple that met by chance. The story was set in a train station after they both end up missing a train that comes every two hours and starts talking to each other. They go on a short trip around the station, and part ways when the train finally arrives. The story never explained if the two got together at the end or not, but when done well, it would leave a euphoric feeling to the audience.

“Love is where it’s at.”

Bangjoo raised his hand.

“Is that so.”

There were five cast members. The stage was a platform, so they wouldn’t need that many props either and costumes weren’t an issue as well. It came with a lot of merits and Maru was honestly a fan of that. Especially since the story was pretty good, too. There was no reason for him to not take it, but…

“What do you think, Jiyoon?”

There was still one person that had yet to speak her mind, Jiyoon slowly looked down at the floor as she fumbled around a bit.

“I… Like that one too.”

She closed her mouth with just that.

Maru looked closely at the girl, some people just didn’t like to stand out and that tendency only worsened in a country like South Korea. Perhaps Jiyoon’s reaction just now was the right one to take in a company, but it really wasn’t the case in the club. They were in school, the one place where people were free and encouraged to express all of their opinions. Maru kept getting annoyed at Jiyoon, because of just how much she resembled Daemyung in his first year. He knew she just couldn’t help it, but it was annoying regardless. He asked her one more time.

“Really? Do you like this?”

If she says yes here, he’d just go forward with it. He’s already told her once that it was ok to be timid. Timidness implied sensitivity and sensitivity meant that one could express their emotions better, but timidness didn’t mean you couldn’t be greedy. Maru had no intentions of continuously supporting someone completely unable to express their greed.

There were two main characters in the fourth script, just the couple. There was one more female character that appeared briefly, but she was no more than a passing bystander. The female lead of the play was someone very active and positive as well, just like Aram. That meant that Jiyoon would naturally have to take the role of the bystander.

- I want to be on stage. I want to be an actor.

Jiyoon did express greed in the past, greed doesn’t show itself to a static human being. Was Jiyoon really satisfied with being a bystander? Maru’s eyes met with Jiyoon’s, the girl quickly looked down in surprise. She clearly had something else in mind, but she wouldn’t open her mouth.

“Alright, we’ll go with this.”

Maru had no intentions of feeding the girl what she wanted, he already gave her a chance which she’d failed to take. Now, they’d just need to figure out the roles. But just before he pushed aside the other scripts away, Daemyung opened his mouth.

“Um, Jiyoon?”

“Yes?”

“This place is still a little foreign to you, isn’t it? We’re hard to deal with.”

“N-no, that’s not it.”

“Really? But it is for me. You’re better than me.”

Daemyung grinned brightly, Maru shut himself up and stepped away. The boy was trying to do something, so he might as well respect it.

“I’m very timid. I’m also a total coward. And I was bullied a lot because of this. I mean, I look like this too, so it was almost inevitable.”

Daemyung rubbed his knees with an awkward laugh, the club members turned to look at him.

“I was also unable to speak my mind in my first year. I hated grabbing attention, that’s still the case now. It’s difficult to speak to you guys.”

Daemyung’s cheeks were reddening with embarrassment.

“But you know, if you shut yourself up and give in to peer pressure… It might be fine for now, but that tendency of yours will only continue. If you keep being silent like this, you really won’t be able to say a single word in the future. No matter how much it hurts.”

Daemyung rolled up his hands into a fist.

“Of course, not much might change if you voice your thoughts now, but you’ll feel much better if you do. I know it’s difficult to open up. Believe me, I’ve been there. That’s why I want to tell you, it’s important to express your thoughts with words.”

Upon realizing that the entire club was looking at him, Daemyung quickly lost his composure.

“So I mean… Uh… Don’t think too much and just say your thoughts out loud. Because I won’t be laughing no matter how weird it is. Ah, uh, of course, that includes all of us. Probably…”

Daemyung sighed exhaustedly. The boy was so natural on stage, but he hated receiving attention offstage. Maru knew how tiring that must’ve been for the boy. After all, he was the type that liked to help from the sides. It must’ve taken a tremendous amount of courage to speak out in front of everyone like that. Perhaps Daemyung saw himself in Jiyoon, enough to give advice in the middle of a meeting.

Silence enveloped the classroom, but it still felt warm. Maru took a look at the club members one by one, they were looking away from Jiyoon as best they could to avoid pressuring her.

Maru turned to look at Daemyung, he himself couldn’t give this sort of advice. He was too old mentally, so he only knew how to speak directly to people. He could prop a person up with all sorts of lies, but he honestly didn’t want to do that to a companion. He didn’t want to use lies to try to improve a relationship.

Unlike him, Daemyung was soft. He was someone who could use gentle words that came from his heart to coax a person. Indeed, Daemyung was a better fit to be the president of the club. No, he had to be the president.

Maru turned to look at Jiyoon, Daemyung had set the stage for her. It must not be very easy for her to talk, but if she stays silent here… she wouldn’t ever be able to change. He could only hope that the girl doesn’t disappoint Daemyung.

“I… Like this one. I’m sorry.”

Jiyoon spoke as she bit her lips. The phrase “I’m sorry” was glued to her tongue, her habit just didn’t seem to go away. Daemyung gave Maru a little glance, he clearly was begging Maru not to scold her. Maru shrugged before opening his mouth.

“Tell me why you liked it. Just an impression is fine.”

Jiyoon nodded, seemingly having made up her mind. Maru saw the girl fight against injustice about two times now. Both times involving Geunseok, actually. In any case, the girl did have the courage inside her. She breathed a bit before speaking.

“I liked the variety of characters in this play. They all have similar amounts of screen time as well. I thought everyone would be happy with the roles they got. The props are good too since it’s in a modern setting. That’s why…”

Jiyoon’s voice crawled back into her.

“Hey hey, we don’t bite, so just keep going,” Aram said, punching Jiyoon lightly on the shoulder.

Jiyoon put the script between her arms as she continued.

“There’s two female characters and four male characters as well, so I thought it’d be easier to manage. It doesn’t have many props either, since it’s set in a prison cell. The others all seemed fun, but they either require too many props or have too many roles.”

“But the first play we talked about doesn’t have a lot of props either,” Maru criticized.

Daemyung gestured at him to stop, but he just ignored it. Jiyoon looked down nervously, but she didn’t close her mouth this time.

“…The first play only had a lot of lines for the main characters. That isn’t a bad thing, but… I’d like for our first play together to be in harmony. I think that’d be fun. No, I know that’d be fun.”

Jiyoon’s voice assumed absolute confidence at the end. Maru smiled, The girl was pretty persuasive. He wouldn’t have changed his mind if her arguments were all over the place, but with her last line…

“I like this script as well. So it’s four on two?”

Maru put his vote on the third script as well. He was also a fan of the play being set in a prison cell, with the characters looking back on their lives with regret. Moreover, there was a character he wanted as well. A character he almost felt like he needed to play.

“Mm, I think I like this one as well,” Aram said.

It seemed like the girl was pushing for her friend, but whatever.

“Choose whatever, I don’t care,” Dowook said, lying back on the floor.

Bangjoo and Daemyung were the only two left at this point.

“Come to think of it, I wouldn’t have any lines on the fourth one, so I’ll go with three!”

Bangjoo raised his hand, Daemyung smiled like a buddha as he said “let’s go with three then”.

“Alright, three it is.”

Maru stood up, it was time to call Suyeon back in. He opened the door and looked left and right, he saw her standing at one end of the hallway. She wasn’t alone though, there was an all too familiar person conversing with her.

‘Why is instructor Miso… ’

Maru walked towards the two with a small frown.

Chapter 210

“I didn’t think you’d come in person. Would you like some tea?”

Miso smiled looking at Suyeon.

“We might as well talk here, since you’re probably very busy. Plus, we’re not close enough for tea now, are we?”

“Is that so? Here I thought I got pretty close with you.”

Suyeon smiled with relaxed confidence. Miso reacted with an even larger smile, probably out of competitiveness.

“I’ll be direct. Why are you in charge of this club? I don’t think this would benefit you.”

“Why would it not benefit me to raise the future generation of our industry? Well, I suppose it makes sense that you’d look down on jobs like this. Since you’re already so successful and all.”

“You have a real talent for misunderstanding people’s words, don’t you? If you’re not completely twisted inside, then I’m pretty sure you have hearing issues. I have a doctor friend I can recommend if you’d like.”

“I’m fine. I've no issues since I’m young. Ah! I suppose you’d have to take care of it though, with you being in your thirties and all.“

Miso prepared a lot of comebacks, but all of those went straight out the window as soon as she heard ‘thirties’. She wanted to grab Suyeon right there and push the woman to the ground, but could only grind her teeth when the woman brushed it off as ‘just a joke’. This person was too talented at making people mad, Miso decided to give up on arguing for now.

“Again, back to the point. Why are you instructing the club? I thought you wouldn’t be interested in something like this.”

“Why would you care about what I decided to do? Before that, how dare you judge me without knowing anything about me? That sounds incredibly unpleasant to hear from someone I barely know.”

A shadow formed over Suyeon’s face, Miso stared for a second before sighing.

“I’m sorry. That was my mistake.”

Miso felt ashamed that she just judged Suyeon out of baseless rumors, her emotions were always an issue. She wouldn’t even be here right now if she allotted a few seconds for rational thought.

‘But I just couldn’t stay still.’

It was Blue Sky! Where she found her dream and honed her skills! It was a place very close to her heart. She would’ve been very mad if the new instructor was only here for the money or some other ulterior motive.

“I’d still like to know. Why did you take this job?”

Suyeon leaned back on the wall with crossed arms, she opened her mouth after a moment of silence.

“It was a request from Mr. Junmin. You know as well as me that he doesn’t give out jobs for no reason, right?”

“Of course, of course. But did you take the job just because of that? That can’t be…”

“That’s right. There was no other reason. I was free at the time as well.”

“Really? That’s it? Just because someone else told you to do it?”

“‘Just because’? This is Mr. Junmin we’re talking about. The normal response when he asks you to do something is to just do it. I’ve never had a loss by following his orders. Even if I did, he always repays me with something more. That’s why I trust his decision. It’s like having a winning lottery ticket every time.”

Suyeon paused as she stopped crossing her arms.

“Of course, I didn’t take this job to just kill time. Don’t worry about that. I’ll deliver the best results so long as I’m here. I don’t know why you came here with that expression, but if you’re here to just mess with me… I suggest you leave.”

Miso flipped her hair back, she didn’t have much of a comeback. Logically, Suyeon was correct. She was the one that gave up on the job due to her other obligations, she was the one who asked Junmin for help too. Looking at the big picture, it was easy to see that all of her problems were solved. But honestly speaking, she just didn’t like seeing Suyeon being her replacement. It wasn’t like she saw the woman messing about men herself, but she’s heard enough rumors to know enough about it. One can even say she hated her since she was acquainted with the people who Suyeon messed with.

A woman who sells her body for profit, Miso got such an offer in the past as well. Just about any woman in the industry got the offer if they looked attractive enough, it was an open secret. People in power ask for anything from a simple meal to sex, Miso always refused such requests. She needed money, but she earned that through a factory. If there was an opportunity, she ran to take it with her own ability. She had many moments of despair, but in the end, she reached her goals on her own terms.

Perhaps that was why she couldn’t understand Suyeon, people like her gave pretty women in the industry a bad name. The woman went against everything Miso stood for and it’s for that reason that she didn’t even want to acknowledge the woman as an equal.

“I really don’t like that look of yours. I don’t think I’ve done anything wrong to you.”

Suyeon asked with a raised eyebrow, Miso felt like something inside her could snap in an instant.

“You didn’t do anything to me directly, no. I’ve heard many detailed things about you from people I know nonetheless, so I don’t have a choice but to respond this way. You know what I’m talking about, don’t you?”

Suyeon’s eyes twitched with a mocking smile.

“Did you come here to lecture me?”

“I just want what’s good for the club.”

“Oh my, and who do you think you are to judge me like that?”

Suyeon stepped forward, seemingly ready to lash out physically at any moment. Miso stepped forward with a glare as well. She’s never lost in a fight and there was no way she was about to step back in this one.

“You’re quite something, Ms. Yang Miso.”

“I can say the same about you, Ms. Kim Suyeon.”

Miso definitely couldn’t leave the club to a woman like this, she thought.

“Not even kids fight like this.”

Miso turned her head in surprise at the new voice, Maru was looking at the two of them calmly. Suyeon stepped back as well.

“If you raised your voice anymore, everyone in the club would’ve heard you. If you care about your pride, I’d suggest that you lower it.”

Ugh, that’s right. Miso forgot that there were kids here.

“Sorry. I’ve acted totally immature, no thanks to someone over here,” Suyeon said with a smile.

Miso felt her insides start boiling over again.

“If you want a fight, we might as well head to the back of the school. I’ll be the judge. Why don’t we make it so that the first to get a nosebleed is the loser? Shall we go now?”

Maru stared at them with irritation written all over his face. Being told something like this from a high schooler would’ve normally made her very mad, but Miso wasn’t mad at all right now. The boy had a strange ability to persuade those around him.

“I get it, so calm down,” Miso sighed.

There was nothing worse than being told off by a child, what made it worse was the fact that she had no excuse.

“It just won’t do to have the old and new instructor fighting each other. We’re lacking people as is and this really isn’t helping. Don’t you know businesses can only run well when management has a good head on their shoulders?”

“Fine, fine. Ugh, you know it all.”

Even Suyeon gave in.

“I think it’d be good to end it with an apologetic hug here. What do you think?”

“Are you crazy?”

“Do you want to die?”

The two responses came out at the same time, Maru shrugged.

“You two clearly have nice chemistry together, maybe you can get along in the future. Ah, instructor, we chose on a script. Could you go talk to them about it?”

Miso watched as Suyeon gave her one last glare before heading back to the classroom, Suyeon looked back about halfway back.

“If you want to talk about me, I’d suggest you actually learn a bit about what I’m like first.”

She was picking a fight until the very end, Miso tried to say something but stopped after seeing Maru shake his head.

“You’re still as passionate as always.”

“I’m going to settle it with that woman at some point, don’t try to stop me.”

“Settle it?”

Miso looked at Maru.

“That’s right. You should know as well, don’t you? You must’ve heard about her from Ganghwan.”

“I think I have an idea.”

“Are you okay with it?”

“With what?”

Miso stared at Maru dumbly, surely the boy didn’t misunderstand her question.

“Don’t you know what I’m talking about? You just said you know about her.”

“That’s right.”

“…Am I the weird one here?”

“Yes, very much so.”

Maru looked back for a second, Suyeon was already gone inside.

“First, Kim Suyeon is our current instructor. Second, Yang Miso gave up on her role as the instructor due to her busy schedule. Third, the acting club needs an instructor. Where in any of these can you put personal feelings into it?”

Maru spoke in a professional tone, Miso felt something come up inside her but stopped herself.

“No one knows what that woman might do. She may sound serious for now, but that might not be the case later on. She might just leave out of nowhere.”

“Why do you think that?”

“Well, that’s because…”

“Work ethic and one’s sex life have nothing in common. I know you get emotional easily, instructor. I know you’re just worried about us as well, but I can’t help but feel a bit annoyed by this right now. If you make instructor Suyeon give up on this job, will you fill in for her?”

Maru asked with a slight frown, Miso was unable to answer.

“I understand that you’re doing this with good intentions, but you should understand that we never asked for your help. If you don’t like instructor Suyeon, I suggest you talk to her about it somewhere private. It’s only been a few days, but she’s done a fantastic job so far. I’d rather not lose her over petty arguments.”

“So you don’t care about what this woman has done?”

“Radically speaking, yes. She didn’t commit a crime, she just has a different way of going about life. I’ve no intention of judging that. Frankly, I don’t care as long as that aspect of her doesn’t damage the club.”

What should she say to those confident eyes of his? Miso pulled her hair for a second before letting out a sigh.

“I came out of worry, but it seems I was completely foolish.”

“Next time if you’re worried, just give me a call. You don’t have to come here without warning, especially with your busy schedule.”

Ugh, she knew this would happen, but she still couldn’t help but be surprised when she got pushed back in an argument with him. In an ethical standpoint, she was correct too… But she too understood that some things came first before ethics, so she could only shake her head.

“Also, please bring some snacks next time. What do you think your juniors would think when their senior comes to see them empty-handed?”

Miso threw a punch with a smile at the boy’s stomach. She would’ve felt a bit better if he took the hit, but he just blocked it.

“Oh?”

“I’m against violence, sorry.”

“I’m not, so why don’t you just take a hit from me real quick?”

Miso only stopped after getting a hit on his head.

“Please don’t look at instructor Suyeon too badly,” Maru said as he scratched his eyebrow.

“What, you fall for her or something?”

“I knew you were childish, but you’ve only gotten worse, haven’t you?”

Maru ran back to the class with just that, Miso thought about following the boy for a second before turning towards the staircase. She remembered what Maru had just told her.

‘Fine, I’ll buy snacks.’

She came to save them from a villainess but nearly ended up as one instead… Miso stepped down to the first floor with a bitter smile.

Chapter 211

It was a cold war. The 3-meter area between the two women felt like a demilitarized zone. The club members seemed to have noticed this as well, seeing as to how they weren’t questioning their relationship. Maru gave Suyeon and Miso a glance before finally standing up.

“Didn’t you say you had work, senior?”

Miso stood up with a bit of a glare.

“Fine, I’ll leave.”

The club members sent her off as Miso opened the door, Maru stepped out to give her a farewell as well.

“Thank you for coming.”

“Oh, that's why you gestured for me to leave?”

“We can’t just sit around playing forever.”

Miso stepped down the stairs with a shake of her head, Maru tried to go back to the classroom but stopped after seeing Miso wave him towards her. He followed the woman downstairs. After leaving the building through the left gates of the building, they reached Miso’s car parked nearby. Miso opened the shotgun seat to take out a small envelope.

“Come see us during the weekend. There are six tickets. It should be a good reference for the freshmen.”

Maru tried taking out the tickets, it was a play titled ‘Dreams of Lottery’, running at ‘Sky Cinema’.

“So this is the thing you prepared with Instructor Ganghwan?”

“That’s right.”

“It’s not ‘Statute of Limitations’, huh?”

“Eh? How did you know about that one?”

“Do you remember how we put a chair in your car last year during the competition?”

“…No.”

“In any case, I saw the script in the seats back then.”

“Nice memory.”

Maru thought for sure that she’d work on ‘Statute of Limitations’ when she told him that she was working with Ganghwan, mostly because Ganghwan always liked to work on plays that depicted humanity’s dark side. The man did say that that was the genre he enjoyed the most, to think the play would be something so bright-sounding instead…

“You seem to be wondering why the title isn’t befitting of Ganghwan’s personality.”

“Was it that obvious?”

“A little. Well, there are adult problems. This play is produced by Ganghwan, but the investments came from somewhere else. Plus, it’s not like the guy hates romantic comedies. He just has a strange enjoyment towards making people frown, it’s honestly a bit troublesome how attached he is to it.”

“So the ‘Statute of Limitations’ is…”

“The play we’re doing after this one, he was the one who wrote the script as well. Geunsoo and I were recruited by force and I think you’re also being considered as well?”

“Me?”

“I thought he told you. Not yet?”

Come to think of it, Ganghwan did mention something about a play. Maru paid him little mind at the time, but this must be it.

“He really likes trying new things, doesn’t he?”

“We suffer because of it, even Mr. Junmin says he’s annoying to deal with.”

Miso got in the car with a smile, Maru tapped on the window lightly.

“Can you get us one more ticket, while you’re at it?”

“That woman has a lot of money, she can buy it for herself. Don’t you dare let her buy it at anything but the full price.”

“You’re surprisingly petty.”

“You ever tried being run over by a car?”

“…Goodbye.”

Maru bowed after taking a few steps backwards. After watching the woman’s car slide through the front gates, he returned back to the classroom.

“We’re pretty much done choosing roles, senior.”

They must’ve finished while he was away, he could see the roles and names written out on the blackboard.

“Park Daemyung, cop. Kang Dowook, delinquent. Jeon Aram, scammer. Ahn Bangjoo, drunk customer. Lee Jiyoon… a hostess?”

Maru had to pause for a second at that last part. They decided to take whatever roles they wanted since the gender for these didn’t matter in this play, Maru got the role he wanted almost immediately because no one wanted it. Indeed, that was why the top of the board had ‘Han Maru - Businessman’ written on it. The rest of the club decided to choose the roles amongst each other, but the role Jiyoon took really took Maru by surprise.

“A hostess? Really?”

“Yes.”

Jiyoon nodded confidently.

“She said she wanted the role almost immediately after you left. I’ve never seen her so confident about her decision,” Aram said.

Jiyoon told the girl off quietly from the side.

“I want to try it.”

She looked very resolved in her decision. Was it thanks to Daemyung? Well, Maru had no reason to stop her.

“Good luck.”

Maru sat back down.

“Feels like the club will do pretty well even without me,” Suyeon said as she walked to the blackboard.

She looked at the board relaxedly as she tapped her lips with her index finger. After scanning all of the roles, she turned around.

“You all got the roles that you wanted?”

“Yes.”

“Alright, we can always switch if things change later on. But if you end up not liking your role, you better tell me soon. I hate wasting time.”

Suyeon handed copies of script 3 to all of the club members, they were even tucked nicely in individual plastic folders. A bit different compared to Miso, who just gave the scripts to them straight as a stack of paper.

“Alright, write your name and role on the script before anything else. It helps to be able to see your role right away.”

They all wrote their names on the script under Suyeon’s instruction, Maru did the same with a pen as well. Script 3. The play was really called ‘This is Super Unfair’, Maru smiled after scanning the script again. The story was simple, it was just a bunch of men complaining in a prison cell all day. It was somewhat philosophical, somewhat humorous, and sprinkled with a bit of social commentary. It was basically a small expression of a society contained in a little cell.

‘Businessman.’

It was the first word that struck out to Maru from the first page of the script. He liked the role, so he took it immediately. Thankfully, none of the other members wanted the role. Maru barely remembered what happened during his time in the office, but the emotions were all still there. It would surely help fuel his character.

‘It should be easy as well.’

It was easy to act out the roles you had experience in, that was the sole reason why he wanted the role. An easy role would allow him more time, the extra time that he could use to practice for the auditions.

“Alright, let’s sit in a circle.”

The club rearranged their positions and Suyeon stood in the middle of the newly-formed circle.

“We’ll do our first reading now. It’s easy. Just read. You’ve read from books in class before, right? This is the same thing. I’ll read the directives in the script, just read your lines when it’s your turn. You can put some feelings if you want or you can just read it if you want. We’re just figuring out what the play is like for now. But! Look into my eyes as you read. I know it’ll be stressful since I’m pretty, but try not to get too embarrassed.”

Suyeon smiled. She looked incredibly foxy, but she surprisingly didn’t feel annoying to look at. Was that skill? Even Dowook was too embarrassed to look directly at her. Probably because unlike most other women, every one of Suyeon’s movements exudes charm. It was almost as if she was constantly secreting pheromones from the curves of her body. Well, it was nice to see, so Maru decided he might as well enjoy it.

“Han Maru, aren’t you being a little too obvious with your gaze?”

“Well, you’re literally asking for it.”

The little banter made the club members widen their eyes. Did Jiyoon’s expression stiffen just now? Surely that was just an illusion, Maru turned to look at Suyeon with a surprised expression. The woman was winking at him playfully, she got him.

“Oh my, how bold.”

“…Let’s get back to the lecture.”

“I was just about to, Mr. pervert.”

She really couldn’t be taken lightly.

* * *

“They look really close together, right?”

Jiyoon nodded with a sad look, Suyeon and Maru looked very close to one another. Here Jiyoon was feeling the pressure just from the fact that Suyeon was a famous actress in dramas and Maru was talking with her as if he’s known the woman for years.

“Senior Maru was totally a surprise today. I thought he wouldn’t get along with women with his serious attitude, but he’s super handsome when he smiles. Though… Senior Dowook’s more handsome. Senior Daemyung’s… cute. I think it’d be fun to tease him.”

Aram giggled happily. Jiyoon wanted to laugh too, but she really just wasn’t in the mood for it.

“What the, why are you looking so tired today? You looked really energetic back in the classroom.”

“No, I…”

“Ohh, I think I might be onto something.”

“O-onto what?”

“Onto love!”

Aram put her hands on Jiyoon’s hips, Jiyoon fell down with a yelp when those hands started tickling her. When she looked up with a little sigh, she saw Aram smiling at her deviously.

“Tell me. You have someone you like, don’t you? In the acting club!”

“No!”

She ended up shouting, Jiyoon closed her mouth and stared at Aram. The girl was grinning. Oh no! Jiyoon started running, but Aram caught up in an instant. The girl approached her with malicious laughter.

“Lee Jiyoon, you better be honest with me.”

Aram approached her with her fingers curved like a claw, all Jiyoon could do was to shake her head with her hands over her mouth.

* * *

Bangjoo smiled when he saw a pair of black sneakers laying at the front door of his home.

“You’re home, sis?”

“Yeah!”

The voice came from the bathroom, on the dining table was a bunch of side dishes she bought. He put the dishes into the empty fridge and stepped into his room to change his clothes. Right then, he noticed something strange on his desk. A computer.

“Sis? Why’s there a computer here?”

“You’re in high school. About time you start needing one.”

Her voice echoed from the bathroom. Was she taking a shower? He did need a computer, so this was a pretty welcome addition to his room.

“So how much is this?”

“Around 2 million in total? Not sure.”

“2 million?”

“What, too cheap?”

“N-no.”

She was a monster indeed, one of the reasons why Bangjoo’s parents could leave him by himself with sound minds was because of his sister’s deep pockets.

“Food?”

“Make it for me!”

“It’s so late and you still haven’t eaten?”

“I starved just to eat your food.”

Bangjoo started preparing with a little sigh. His sister was very odd and scary sometimes, but she was still his precious sister.

“What about the thing you were filming?”

“Almost done. I might be here a few days, so make food for me in the meantime.”

“Just order in!”

“No!”

“………”

Bangjoo didn’t argue with his sister often, because he knew he’d lose. He exercised when he was young solely because that was the one thing he felt like he could beat her in. Though nowadays he exercised to be an action star.

To him, his sister was a comfortable monster. Nice to deal with most of the times, but when she starts doing something odd… there was no stopping her.

“I guess I’ll make food.”

He didn’t want to cause trouble for himself down the line.

Chapter 212

“You should at least eat, you know. What are you even doing with all that money of yours?”

“Stop trying to scold me. Ugh, you used to be so cute when you were little, but now all you do is nag nag nag.”

Bangjoo’s sister sat down and dried her hair with a towel. It was black just a month ago, but now it was dark purple from her forehead to her ears and light purple all the way down.

“So you ended up doing that rainbow hair.”

“I’m done with this, actually. Pretty sick of it.”

“Aren’t you embarrassed?”

“Of what? Purple? Why?”

His sister picked up the spoon with a smile. Even now, she was a complete mystery to him.

“So how long will you be here?”

“No idea. I might be here for a while. I want to rest.”

“You can rest when you want to?”

His sister nodded with an “of course”.

“Where’s the sesame oil and soy sauce?”

“Here.”

“I love the egg rice you make.”

The egg rice, made by pouring sesame oil and soy sauce on top, with a sunny-side-up egg over rice. It was something their grandmother made all the time. Grandma didn’t actually like his sister, so she always gave his sister half of a fried egg. His sister always threw a tantrum for having so little, but grandma always refused to make any more. Bangjoo would sneak his fry onto his sister’s while grandma wasn’t looking, his sister was 28 at the time.

“Big sis.”

“What?”

“Did you visit grandma?”

“Of course I did. Ugh, that old lady’s still as healthy as ever. She scolded me over my hair as soon as she saw my face. Think she’s good for at least another decade.”

“Hey, you shouldn’t call her an old lady like that.”

“Well, am I wrong?”

“…Who was the person who ran to the hospital crying when grandma collapsed again?”

“Who was it indeed?”

His sister grinned. She fought a ton with grandma back in the day. Even now, actually. Grandma always urged his sister to get married, and his sister would always respond by refusing to live a boring life like their grandma’s. But as soon as his sister left home, grandma started always tuning into the dramas where she came out. On the other hand, his sister always asked Bangjoo about how grandma was doing. The two always fought on the surface, but they both cared very deeply about each other on the inside. Bangjoo used to be very confused by their relationship dynamic, but not anymore. They were just shy towards each other.

“You should call grandma instead of asking me.”

“It’s fine. I’m going to get scolded anyway. Also, hey, is it just me or are you starting to lecture me at this point? So you think you’re all grown up now, huh?”

His sister extended her hand towards him. Bangjoo could easily avoid her, but he stayed still. He knew his sister would chase after him to no end if he dodged, thus she shook his head around a little with a grin.

“So how’s high school? Is it fun?”

She let go pretty quickly.

“It’s fun. The classroom has a lot of weirdos, so I’m never bored. Club’s fun too.”

“Club? What do you do?”

“Acting.”

“Mm, acting. Here I thought you’d get into sports. Didn’t you like sports? I thought you were good at it. I thought you’d have a big advantage with your loud voice.”

“What does a loud voice have anything to do with sports? Also, I’m going to become an action star. Like Jacky Chan.”

“You?”

“What, I can’t?”

He put down his spoon and looked at his sister, his sister was smiling as brightly as ever.

“Do it! Be anything you want, but I’m not going to help you. I can feed you, clothe you, and put a roof over your head, but I can’t help you with anything more. No, I won’t.”

“You know I’m the one that makes the food and does the laundry, right?”

“But I’m the one that pays for all of this.”

“Lord, I need to find a job soon.”

“No way. Who’d make my food?”

Bangjoo sighed looking at his smiling sister.

“Aren’t you going to marry, sis? Isn’t it getting pretty dangerous at this point?”

Thirty-three. Bangjoo did see the news about people starting to marry at a later age, but thirty-three wasn’t early for marriage at all. Was it because of that? His family was always noisy on the topic of marriage when mom and sister met up. Mom said, “you did anything and everything you wanted till now, so just listen to me this once.” His sister responded, “but there are no good men out there.”

“You’re going to get screwed over by that rude mouth of yours some time in the future.”

His sister pulled at Bangjoo’s cheeks, Bangjoo smacked her away before continuing.

“Even mom’s asking me if you’re hiding anyone at this point.”

“What the heck? How old does she think I am?”

“I mean, with your job… It only makes sense that she thinks that. I still can’t believe you’re appearing on TV.”

The TV they left turned on in the kitchen was playing a makeup commercial. A woman wearing very tight silk clothing smiled as she showed off her smooth skin. Bangjoo looked at the woman once, then his sister once.

“The camera is a complete cheat.”

“The hell you talking about?”

Of course, people would buy the makeup when they saw his sister through the screen. Thinking about it almost made Bangjoo feel guilty, his sister wasn’t beautiful like the woman on the television. She was the type of woman to laugh like a maniac in the middle of the night crunching on chips.

“Why did that company have to use you as a model?”

“Because I’m pretty.”

“I don’t think that’s it.”

“You’ve just gotten used to my looks because you saw it every day, you need to see what happens when I walk the streets of Myungdong.”

“But nothing happened when we went to the market yesterday.”

“That’s because I didn’t put on makeup.”

“I feel so sorry for the people you tricked. It’s a scam. A total scam.”

“People always look and hear what they want. Satisfying their desires puts money in my wallet. I do what I want with said money. Bangjoo, you should write this down, man. It’s good advice. Life runs on money!”

“Thanks for the wonderful lesson, sis.”

Bangjoo stood up with his empty bowl. His sister was still smiling.

“…No one coming to your house recently?”

“Nope.”

“Mail?”

“Nothing.”

“You’re really fine, right?”

“Who do you think I am? I’ve developed quite the tolerance to insults at this point. Don’t worry about me. Plus, I have fans now! It’s a little boring though. Should I start something on the internet again?”

“Please don’t. Mom’s going to collapse again if you do.”

“You think?”

Bangjoo put the dish in the sink and turned the water on, he started thinking as he washed the dish. When his sister first appeared on the silver screen, the whole family was in high spirits. Everyone was happy when she got her first award and got all the spotlight in the country. Bangjoo remembered even though it was all the way back in elementary school, even his sister was ecstatic about getting closer to her dream.

But later on, his sister came back with a very scary expression on her face. She stepped down her drama role and started doing advertisements, everything from apartments to rice cookers. She started coming home less and less, and the negative comments about her on the internet only increased over time. Mom read all of the comments about his sister and cried, Bangjoo remembered running outside all day when the sounds of his mother crying rang across the house.

“Sis.”

“What?”

“Why did you do that back then?”

His sister seemed to have immediately caught onto what he was talking about. She took some time to chew on the cookie in her hand before responding with a smile.

“I’ll tell you when you first get your paycheck. It’s a bit complicated.”

“Complicated my ass.”

Bangjoo rubbed the dish with steel wool. He wasn’t good with worrying about people. He always needed to ask what was on his mind whenever it came up, but he really couldn’t ask her about what happened back then. Especially because his smiling sister no longer looked so enthusiastic as she did just a moment ago.

“Want to go shopping together? We haven’t done that in a while.”

“You just brought a ton of stuff back home though.”

“We can just buy some more. I have a ton of money anyway.”

“Save some of that money for your wedding.”

“Ugh, don’t worry about it.”

His sister jumped up and pulled Bangjoo by his shirt, Bangjoo quickly washed his hands before looking at his sister. Once she made up her mind, there was no stopping her.

“It is a surprise, though,” his sister said as she tied her shoes.

“What?”

“You acting. I always thought you disliked that sort of stuff.”

“I never disliked it. Just… I was annoyed at the people who said weird stuff.”

“As expected of my brother! You’re always on my side.”

Bangjoo pushed his smiling sister forward.

“Come on, let’s move it. I have to look at my script after this.”

“Oh! A script! Need help?”

“I’m good.”

* * *

Maru massaged his eyes after taking them off of the script for a second, he was tired after focusing on it to memorize the lines. His focus when it came to stuff like this was incredible. It only felt like a few minutes went by, but it’s already been an hour.

Maru turned the computer on after pushing the script to the side, he entered the web page Miso told him about. The top of the page had the title ‘audition’ on it, nothing more, nothing less; it was a website for people in the industry. Most famous actors were casted all on their own, but many of the side characters had to use a site like this to find roles.

[Independent film ‘Friendship’ looking for male lead.]

[Film xxx looking for actors.]

[Film yyy looking for actors.]

Most of the postings were along those lines, some films didn’t even have their names released. Then again, it made sense that blockbusters would have to take care of not releasing any information about the film. Among the articles, Maru found one written by a familiar name. JA Production. Junmin’s company.

“…Well, this is basically a promotion in itself.”

While the other articles only had from 100 to 200 views, this one had over 500. The name by itself must’ve made it worth it to a lot of people. The contents of the article were simple. It had the date and a job description.

“Free acting for five minutes, scripted acting for five minutes.”

Free acting, huh. Maru stared into the screen as he scratched his eyebrows.

Chapter 213

Jiyoon smiled when she looked at herself through the mirror, she looked like quite the actress with a script in her hand. After joining the acting club, she tried watching an episode of an actor-centric TV show. Jiyoon stared dazedly as she observed the daily tasks of an everyday actor. Could she become like them, too? Despite being a novice? Could she also perform beautiful acts under the spotlight? It became her dream to have a handsome male actor appear from the side curtains, walking towards her and earning amazing applauses from the audience.

‘…That probably won’t happen.’

Jiyoon returned to reality after a nice daze. She tried smiling at herself in the mirror and immediately had to turn away from embarrassment. She flopped down on her freshly-washed blankets and read the script over and over again. It’s been four days since they received the script, all they’ve done during that time was something called reading. They’ve just been reading out their lines in order. Apparently, this was important for learning the flow of the play, according to Suyeon.

It was difficult to even read the lines normally, pronouncing everything correctly was quite difficult. Maru and Daemyung seemed to have gotten a different instruction from Suyeon, seeing how some of their lines would come out with a different nuance every once in a while.

“Ah, say their line, not spit.”

Learning industry terms like this really made her sink into the reality that they were preparing for a play. Jiyoon loosened her mouth a little and bit down on her pen with her molars as Suyeon taught her. It looked pretty disturbing, but this was apparently good for fixing pronunciation. The act of biting down helped with loosening one’s tongue. For sure, with the pen in place, Jiyoon couldn’t move her lips as much when she talked. She needed to focus a lot on her breathing and the movements of her tongue for accurate pronunciation in a state like this.

“Is not lik yo becom dirdy becase you drink.”

She tried reading ‘It’s not like you become dirty because you drink’ just now. The pronunciation was abhorrent, but it was still noticeably better than it was a few days ago. Just as she tried to reposition herself and try saying the line again, the door opened. Jiyoon quickly took the pen out of her mouth and looked awkwardly at her mother at the door.

“What are you doing?”

“U-um…”

She hadn’t said anything to her mother about acting just yet, her relationship with her mother was awkward from a young age. She recalled following her mother very well when she was young, but at some point, they grew apart. Even more so than her father, who was working in a foreign country.

“Stop doing weird stuff and get to studying. You should think about changing if you ended up getting to an engineering school. How long are you planning on living life so haphazardly like that? Don’t you ever think we can’t take care of you forever?”

“…Yes.”

Jiyoon didn’t dare raise her head, she didn’t have the courage to meet her mother’s sharp gaze. Her mother slowly closed the door. Just before it completely closed, her mother’s voice slipped through the door’s cracks.

“Aren’t you already ashamed of having to go to an engineering school?”

Jiyoon stared at the now-closed door for a second before taking out a textbook from her bag. Study… she should do it. It wasn’t like she slacked off in middle school. She took notes during classes, she also previewed and reviewed class material in an academy after school. She just couldn’t get good grades during tests. Her notes were very popular among her classmates for being so neat, but her grades were still amongst the lowest in her class. She knew the reason why, since she was always sick around test season. Her stomach always hurt during tests and she would struggle with breathing. She could only focus so well with her terrible body and her grades always hit rock bottom.

It actually started becoming a common pattern at some point. She always used to hear that she was good at studying in elementary school, things changed once she was in middle school. Jiyoon thought she was broken, that’s why she gave up on a humanities school for an engineering school instead. She went to a meeting with her homeroom teacher with her mother, she could still remember that expression her mother made when the teacher suggested an engineering school. Mother apologized later, of course, but Jiyoon would never forget that expression of wrath, disgust, and hatred directed straight at her. That was probably when their relationship started deteriorating.

Jiyoon shook her head, all these negative feelings weren’t doing her any good. Instead, she took her time organizing lecture notes from math class. She beamed at her equations for a second before taking out her sketchbook, the sole hobby she had. There were two reasons why she went to an engineering school. First, her test scores were bad. Second, it had a design class.

Jiyoon would feel her heart calm down whenever she drew something with her pencil, the paper was free from all the competition and shame that she was subject to in the real world. She didn’t have any desire to work in design, but perhaps it wouldn’t be such a bad idea.

Just as she started sketching out her pencil sharpener, she heard the front door open. Was mom going outside?

“Welcome, welcome.”

She could hear her mom happily greet people inside, Jiyoon felt her heart start to race. Should she pretend to be asleep? Or should she run out saying she needed to buy something for school? Right then, her door opened. She could see women around mom’s age sitting in the living room through the crack.

“You should say hello,” mom said, before turning around.

Jiyoon awkwardly stood up and stepped in front of the guests.

“Hello.”

“Oh my, Jiyoon, it’s been such a long time! Do you remember me?”

The woman in the brown sweater asked. Jiyoon couldn’t remember who the woman was, but she responded with a ‘yes’ anyway. It was an awkward situation regardless of what she did, so she just stood in her place dazedly. The guests were talking with each other happily. Jiyoon wondered if she could go back in, but her mom called her to the kitchen.

“Here, carry this.”

She carried the plate of snacks and put it in front of the guests, it was expensive tea and chocolate from Japan.

“Oh my, you’re so cool, president-to-be. These look so expensive!”

“My husband sent it to me from where he’s working right now.”

“He was in Japan, right?”

“Yes.”

Mom laughed with a hand over her mouth, Jiyoon wanted to step back into her room but had to sit back down because one of the guests stopped her.

“You should have some as well. Your daughter is so pretty, by the way. She must take it from you.”

“No way, she resembles her father more.”

Jiyoon looked down from a sense of incredible futility when her mother stroked her thigh gently. Her mother was scolding her just a moment ago for not studying, yet now she was treating her so nicely? The change in attitude stabbed Jiyoon like a needle.

“You must have it so nice. Your husband is talented and your daughter is so pretty.”

“Please don’t bring me up so much. Don’t you have two very handsome sons as well?”

“Sons are nothing special. Daughters are where it’s at nowadays. Hyunsoo recently brought back a girlfriend from his American college, and my, it’s like he cares more about his girlfriend than me now.”

A lady wearing rounded glasses spoke out from next to the brown-sweater lady.

“Come to think of it, Hyunsoo’s in the middle of his Phd. in the US, isn’t he?”

“Yes. Neither I nor my husband is very smart, but Hyunsoo is, thankfully. He’s gotten all sorts of scholarships and grants, so he doesn’t even need any support from us.”

Jiyoon could see the brown-sweater lady’s smile start to widen. On the other hand, her mother started speaking less and less.

“It must be nice to have a son like Hyunsoo.”

“Oh, you’re too much, Mijin’s mom. Oh, I heard the news by the way. Mijin got into a big company recently, right?”

“He didn’t even go into grad school! He said he wanted to start working right away.”

“He’s good enough to get right in without even more studying, so it’s completely fine. Hyunsoo should be jealous of Mijin. Ah, Mijin was in Seoul University, right?”

“Yes. I’m so thankful that he grew up well.”

“Our Hyunsoo also used to study there until he transferred. Ah, what university did Yangsoo go to, by the way?”

The lady on the left side of the brown-sweater lady opened her mouth quietly.

“Yangsoo’s still in high school.”

“Is that so?”

“Yes. He’s in Minsa high, so it’s hard to see him these days.”

“Lord, wasn’t that the school where the students have to wear hanbok?”

“That’s right. He was preparing to apply for foreign colleges before he cut contact. What a cruel boy.”

“I’m sure he’ll be kinder after growing up. He’s smart, after all.”

Now, the ladies turned to look at Jiyoon. Jiyoon was starting to find it harder to breathe, it felt like there were a bunch of snakes hissing at her. She would get bitten the moment she did something wrong. She turned her head to look at her mother, who was quietly sipping her tea.

“Aren’t you in high school, Jiyoon?”

“Yes? Ah, yes.”

“Which school are you going to? The most famous high school around here is Gwangchun, so it has to be that, right?”

“Has to be.”

“Or a science school. She looks very smart. Pretty girls are so good at studying too nowadays.”

Jiyoon twiddled her fingers for a moment before responding quietly.

“I-I go to Woosung High.”

“Woosung High? What’s that?”

“Ah! Could it be the engineering high school from next to this place?”

It was just a fraction of a second, but Jiyoon could clearly hear the mocking laughter coming from a few of the guests.

“…Yes.”

Her voice became even quieter. Quieter and quieter, out of the fear that others might hear her.

“I see.”

That was the end of that. After a few seconds of silence, they started talking again about the beautiful interior of the house. Only then did her mother finally broke her silence and start talking again.

Jiyoon quietly stood up and went back to her room after a curt bow, she was exhausted. Her heart was beating furiously, it felt like she was taking another test. She needed to sleep, she didn’t even have the energy to open her eyes. As her eyes closed, she heard the ladies speaking outside. The one sentence that really stuck out to her was ‘Jiyoon’s mom has it very hard’.

“Hah.”

Jiyoon forced a smile, but she couldn’t stop her heart from trying to calm down. She felt sorry for her mother and disgusted at herself for no reason.

* * *

Sunday morning. When Jiyoon stepped out of her room, she couldn’t stop thinking of what happened yesterday. She gave her mom a glance from the dining table.

“Have some breakfast.”

“…Right.”

Toast, milk, and fruit. Her mother didn’t say a thing during their meal. She finally opened her mouth as Jiyoon put the dishes back in the sink.

“Jiyoon.”

“Yes?”

“Let’s go to an academy again.”

“Academy?”

“This won’t do at all. You just can’t get good grades because you aren’t trying hard enough. You need to relearn the basics down again by going to school. There’s nothing wrong with going to an engineering school. You just need to go to a good college.”

Mom picked up the phone as she spoke. She started getting into it with a ton of unfamiliar terms, then started explaining things in very fluent English. Mom quickly put down her phone after hanging up.

“We’ll start with math first and then English. You were good at math, so we might as well start with that.”

“………”

“Why aren’t you saying anything?”

“Mom, I…”

She wanted to say she couldn’t go because of club activities, but she just couldn’t speak it out loud. It almost felt like she forgot how to talk for a second. She looked at her mother as she bit her lips in frustration, making her mother frown.

“Why are you stuttering so much? You didn’t use to be like this. You used to be so bright in elementary school. What happened? Could it be… You aren’t getting bullied, are you? Are you?”

Her mother stood up and grabbed Jiyoon’s arm, she pulled up Jiyoon’s sleeve to check her arm. Of course, there weren’t any bruises since Jiyoon wasn’t being bullied. After checking her body for a few minutes, her mother finally let go. Her mother put a hand over her forehead with a frustrated look.

“Jiyoon, I just can’t understand. Why did you change like this? You used to be such a good child. You used to smile so much. So why…”

Jiyoon was unable to say anything to her mother. Instead, she ran away. It was difficult to stay at home. She had club practice in the morning anyway, so she might as well go there instead. After arriving at the bus station, she entered a store to recharge her bus card. She asked the store clerk to recharge her card.

“P-p-please c-charge my… card.”

“What? Charge?”

Jiyoon nodded. She avoided the clerk’s odd gaze. It felt like she was stuttering more today for no reason. Calm down, calm down. Jiyoon stepped out with the newly-charged card.

Chapter 214

“I’d never have thought I wouldn’t feel any annoyance about going to school on a Sunday. What a travesty.”

Maru spoke as he changed into a pair of slippers. The weekend was a government mandated day of rest. A kind of day where the law allowed you to watch TV after waking up late in the morning, eat brunch, and spend the afternoon with a cold beer.

“It’s so sad that I’m not part of the working class.”

“What the hell are you talking about?”

Dowook stepped up the staircase first with a glare, Maru licked his lips as he followed behind the boy. It was slowly transitioning to mid-April at this point, a season known for its lethargy. Maru felt especially worse around this time. He had plenty of time to sleep last year during this season since he was just a stage manager, but not anymore.

“Why are you looking so tired today?”

“You try being as old as me. You’ll realize how disgusting it is to have to work over the weekends.”

Maru yawned loudly. Hopefully, he’ll be back in peak condition after this week. After arriving on the fifth floor, Maru and Dowook opened the door to their club’s classroom.

“No one’s here yet.”

“Not even Daemyung?”

Maru looked around as he asked. Daemyung was always on time, he was never late last year either.

“Oh, there’s his bag,” Maru discovered.

“You’re here?”

Daemyung stepped up behind them with a drink and ice cream in hand, he must’ve bought them from the supermarket near the school.

“Dude, you’re gonna get fat again like that.”

Dowook said as he bit down on the ice cream bar Daemyung gave him, Daemyung’s been drinking a lot of soda recently as well. He lost quite a bit of weight back when Miso was training them, but he gained all of it back during the winter break.

“I-I should lose weight. I can do it. Probably…”

Ahh, the thing that countless women like to say all the time. To this date, Maru could count the number of women he’s seen actually succeed in losing weight with just his hands. Maru pat Daemyung’s shoulder as a gesture of encouragement. It’s alright. Men just need their wallets to be thicker than their belly.

“Lord, we’re getting lazy.”

Maru laid back on the class floor with a bar in his mouth, the coolness of the floor in contact with his back was a pretty welcome one. Maybe he could enjoy what little of the weekend he had with this.

“Dowook, you didn’t get to see the props yet, did you?”

“Props?”

“They’re right behind the container behind the school. Want to see?”

“No, it’s annoying.”

“I-It’ll be good to take a look at.”

Daemyung was full of energy ever since he stepped up as club president two days ago. He said he couldn’t do it when Maru first talked about it, but he finally gave in after a bit more persuading. Objectively speaking, the boy was more empathetic than Maru. He would be better at communicating with the kids, he should be able to take care of any issues that arise very easily as well.

‘I can just give them a scary look every once in a while.’

Good cop, bad cop. There was no better position than this. Also, the role of a club president just had too much work that came with it. Maru had no reason to take the role since he had nothing to gain from it either. He would’ve continued with it if Daemyung was dead against it, but thankfully that was not the case.

“You were supposed to be support staff, so of course you need to see it. You should get a grasp of what you need to make in the future.”

Maru gave Dowook a slight nudge as well. In the end, Dowook rose up from his chair with furrowed eyebrows.

“Fine, fine. Ugh, the two of you are just…”

Daemyung took Dowook downstairs. Dowook had a surprising amount of sense in him, it’d be nice if he could fix that attitude of his. The boy wasn’t swearing as much anymore, but the delinquent air about him hadn’t gone away.

“Is he trying to look like a gangster?”

Well, he was popular with the girls. He seemed to be getting along with the all-girls high school next to Woosung High still. It looked like he stopped talking to them for a while after the Changhu incident, but that’s changed since winter. As a matter of fact, the girls from that school would even come to find Dowook at their school on occasion. A lot of students asked Dowook to set dates for them as a result and Dowook was able to use that to melt back into the classroom.

Bada’s face quickly crossed Maru’s head, but he quickly dismissed it. She asked him a while ago to introduce her to Dowook. Maru said no right away, but she was persistent. She was silent since the new semester began, thankfully, but Maru still got chills on his back whenever she came to him with a smile.

Dowook was a good guy, for sure. He would make a great boyfriend. He wouldn’t hesitate to give Dowook’s number if anyone else asked for it, but not his sister.

Honestly, Maru didn’t really care who his sister dated. He hoped that she would meet a good person, but that was just hopes in the end. He trusted that Bada could take care of things well. He’d keep a close eye on her since he already knew she’d divorce in the future, of course, but he had no intentions of doing anything during her school years.

‘Not Dowook, though. Nope, never.’

A friend of his, dating his sister? Good lord. What a terrifying thought. The saying about how friends should never become family was a saying for a reason, he didn’t want to be caught between the two’s relationship at this odd middle ground. His sister would tell him, “You know, Dowook…” and Dowook would go to him, “You know, Bada…” He’d have to constantly mediate their fights.

If a person he didn’t know at all made his sister cry, he could fight any day of the week. But if that was a friend? Maru felt his head go blank just thinking about it. The two of them both had quite the temper as well. It was Maru’s duty as an older brother and a friend to keep the two from ever meeting each other. Plus, he needed to survive.

“I’m sleepy.”

He felt sleepiness wash over him as he thought about stupid things. Mid-april was a tiring month indeed, it was so difficult trying to stay alive when energy was being constantly sapped out of him. He dazedly looked out the classroom door, the walls were beige and the floor was made of marble. Right then, he noticed a round head poke into his vision. It was Jiyoon, walking up towards him from the staircase. Watching her leaning on the wall for support was a dreadful sight.

Maru stared at Jiyoon, she hadn’t noticed him just yet. She was looking forward, but her mind was clearly preoccupied. She’d probably get into an accident walking like that. Indeed, he noticed Jiyoon trying to take another step up after coming to the end of the staircase. She’d lose her balance doing that.

“Hey hey!” Maru shouted.

Jiyoon snapped back to reality and checked her foot. She slowly put it down after a flash of realization. “A-ah, hello.”

An awkward greeting, Jiyoon stood in her place with an odd look. Maru frowned. Was she sick?

“Are you just going to stand there?”

“Ah.”

Jiyoon let out a tiny moan and stepped into the classroom. It was starting to get warmer already, but Jiyoon looked like she just ran through a snowstorm with how pale she was.

“Are you sick?”

“N-no.”

“Really? You should rest if you’re sick. You’re going to get hurt like that.”

“I-I’m really fine. I’ll stay here.”

Jiyoon spoke with her two fists over her knees, she looked very stiff from nervousness. What was wrong with her today?

“Are you really fine?”

“Y-yes.”

Jiyoon wasn’t even looking at him, she wasn’t the type to avoid eye contact in a conversation. What happened to her? He wanted to say something but closed his mouth for now, he wasn’t good at consoling people. “So there were more than that last year?”

“Yeah, we had to throw out more than half.”

“Sounds difficult to deal with, maybe I shouldn’t have come here after all.”

“Hey, don’t say that.”

He could hear Daemyung’s and Doowok’s voices coming from the hallway. Perfect timing.

“Jiyoon.”

“Yes?”

“Do you like hot chocolate?”

* * *

Daemyung looked at Jiyoon sitting next to him, she looked frail. As soon as he came back to the class, Maru asked them to go get some hot chocolate. They left Dowook to sit around in the classroom and went down with Jiyoon. As they waited for their drinks, Maru whispered to Daemyung that Jiyoon didn’t look okay.

- Good luck, pres.

Maru left, excusing himself to get a drink for Dowook. There was an awkward air around the bench next to the store, Jiyoon was just staring dumbly down at her cup.

“Um, Jiyoon.”

“Yes?”

Jiyoon raised her head rapidly, she looked surprised. Daemyung himself was surprised by her sudden response. Why was this girl so nervous?

“I don’t know if I’m just overthinking it, but you didn’t look okay today…”

He trailed off nervously, he wasn’t good at consoling people either. Maru was the one really good at this stuff… Well, he was asked to do this, so he might as well try his best.

“…Is that so.”

Jiyoon drank her hot chocolate with a nervous look, Daemyung sipped on his drink as well. He felt a bit nervous over talking one on one with a girl, but that feeling quickly subsided over the fact he was talking with a junior right now. A junior that needed help at that.

Daemyung fidgeted as an unexpected silence surrounded both of them. Did he say something wrong? Maybe he shouldn’t have asked about this to begin with.

‘Hopefully, that’s the case.’

He’s developed an immunity to misunderstandings and people ignoring him already. It was sad that a junior of his might look at him badly, but at least that would mean she didn’t have that big an issue. Just as Daemyung finished his drink and thought about leaving, the girl opened her mouth.

“Do you feel like you’re suffocating when you talk with your mom, senior?”

Jiyoon bit down on her lips.

* * *

“Agh! So hot!”

Aram flopped down on the floor as soon as she arrived. A bit of her shirt rolled up to reveal her belly, but she didn’t seem to care at all. Maru sighed as he threw Dowook’s jacket over her stomach.

“Ooh, senior, you have great manners!”

Dowook shouted at him, “hey, that’s mine!” from the side, but Maru ignored him.

“It’d be nice if Jiyoon had half the energy you did.”

“Why?”

“Do you really need to ask?”

Aram smiled at that, Dowook walked over to take the jacket back from her.

“Senior Dowook, you’re so cold! You’re not going to be popular with the girls like that.”

“Do you want to die?”

“Ooh, want to spar?”

Aram stood up and assumed a fighting stance. Come to think of it, she practiced Taekwondo, Judo, and Kendo, didn’t she? Maru gave Dowook a slight glance, the boy was stepping back with an annoyed expression. Mm, Aram seemed to be a predator to him.

“Hello! I am here!

Bangjoo stepped into the class with an incredibly loud voice, he was holding expensive looking boxes wrapped in silk on both of his hands.

“What’s that?”

“My big sis got it for us to share.”

Share? Bangjoo started unwrapping the boxes after putting it down. When he opened the cover, they found sashimi inside.

“Sashimi?”

“Yes.”

Sashimi? In a high school club? It looked really expensive. There were beautifully carved fruit and sushi inside as well, definitely not anything you could buy at a local store. To begin with, the container it came in was made from real wood as well.

“What’s wrong?”

“Your sister really gave you this?”

“Yes.”

“…Your family must be rich.”

Maru was treated with a lot of expensive foods in the past, so he had no issues getting an estimate of how much this cost. It’s cheaper than the really expensive sushi for sure, but this definitely wasn’t the type of food you treated kids with.

“This is why I said I didn’t want it, but my sister insisted.”

“…Well, might as well help myself to it.”

Maru was eyeing the eel sushi. He was feeling tired recently, so he might as well use that for some recovery. Sashimi was one of those things you didn’t want to spend too much money on even if you had the cash on hand, so this was an incredibly welcome gift. Just as he was smiling proudly at the food, Suyeon arrived. She widened her eyes looking at the shining sashimi.

“You guys are in a whole different class, aren’t you?”

Well, it was a gift, so they might as well enjoy it… that was the conclusion they reached.

“Where’s Senior Daemyung and Jiyoon, by the way?”

Bangjoo asked.

“They’ll come back soon.”

The two of them entered just as Maru finished speaking, they didn’t look so good though. Jiyoon looked as nervous as ever and even Daemyung was frowning.

‘What the hell happened?’

Maru looked at the two as he scratched his eyebrow.

Chapter 215

They went into practice with gusto after the sashimi. Sadly, a problem arrived when they started their reading. They just needed to read their lines, but Jiyoon wasn’t even able to do that.

“Please do not… No, Please don’t look at me like that. I-I may sell alcohol… woman… but…”

“Stop.”

Suyeon gathered everyone’s attention with a club. Like always, she was in the middle of the circle of club members. Suyeon looked down at Jiyoon, who slowly began to lower her head.

“Lee Jiyoon.”

“…Yes.”

“Do you just not want to do this?”

“No.”

“Is there some problem then?”

“…No.”

“Do I have a problem, then? You were fine just yesterday, and now you’re reading like this. You have the passion and you clearly don’t have a problem, so there must be something wrong with me?”

“I-I don’t think that is it.”

“Lee Jiyoon, raise your head.”

Jiyoon slowly raised her head, she looked incredibly exhausted.

“Do you have something to tell me?”

“……”

“Alright, I can’t do this. I don’t think I’m trusted by you still, it can’t go on like this. We can’t do anything if you don’t even have the basics.”

Suyeon grabbed her bag, her eyebrows were furrowed in incredible annoyance.

“We’ll end here for today.”

Suyeon tapped Jiyoon’s head before stepping out. Jiyoon seemed to have words to speak, but her mouth wouldn’t open. Maru asked Daemyung to take over and followed Suyeon. She was standing next to the third-floor staircase, she must’ve waited for him.

“I’ve tried one on one before, but group work is way more tiring in comparison.”

“Complaining when we’ve just begun?”

Suyeon shrugged.

“There’s an issue with Jiyoon. Unfortunately, I’m no good at taking care of girls her age. They require way too much extra care.”

“Why couldn’t you scold her like last time?”

“There are days when you can do that and there are days when you can’t. She had passion last time, but she just looked dead from the start today. She’d really get hurt if I scolded her. She needs someone to rest on at times like these, but I forgot how to be that someone.”

Suyeon winked.

“You care about her quite a bit. I’m surprised.”

“I told you, this is homework on my end as well. I don’t want Junmin to be disappointed. But at the same time, I don’t want to think about profits and losses with a girl that age. She’s so cute, too.”

“So it’s not that you just don’t want to get involved?”

“Oh? Hey, don’t look at me so badly. I don’t try to hide from a girl that small. Besides that, you should try hard to console her. She’s really out of it today, it’s like she’s a completely different person.”

Suyeon’s eyes started trailing upstairs. Maru had to agree, Jiyoon was stuttering even with the short lines today. She hurried to finish her lines like she was in a poorly scheduled interview and even got them wrong. Afterwards, she just dumbly gazed into her script. She wasn’t like this before.

“Talk to her. I’m no advisor, so I can’t do much on my end.”

“Why don’t you talk to her separately.”

“It’s fine. I don’t think you guys noticed, but I did. She’s incredibly wary of me, I’d appreciate it if you could find out why for me. You saw her today, right? She lost her breath from such a short line. You know it yourself, she wasn’t that bad before.”

Maru nodded.

“I’ll help you as much as I can, obviously. But I’m not going to get involved in stuff I can’t handle. I came here to guide your acting, not console all of your lives.”

“You won’t become a good teacher at all.”

“Don’t want to be. I’m an actress. Anyway, get going.”

Suyeon stepped down the staircase lightly. After watching her disappear from his vision, Maru walked back into the class with a bitter look. The class was silent, as he had expected. Jiyoon’s eyes were glued on the floor like some sort of a sinner, they definitely couldn’t continue with practice like this.

“Lee Jiyoon.”

Maru stared into her eyes as he approached her. He wouldn’t be able to reach her deeper thoughts, but perhaps he could get an idea of what was going on with eye contact. But no matter how deep he looked, he couldn’t get a word bubble out of her. That could only mean one thing, her mind was an incoherent mess. He couldn’t do anything here other than to buy some time.

“Anyone want something to drink?”

* * *

He stepped out to buy drinks with Daemyung. As soon as they got to the staircase, Daemyung spoke with a wary expression.

“I think I gave her the wrong advice.”

Daemyung was clearly very agitated.

“Speak slowly. What did you tell her?”

“…It was family stuff. Also personal stuff.”

“Well, what was it?”

Daemyung paused with a closed mouth, he looked very troubled. He must be wondering if it was okay to talk about this. He was being very considerate and polite, but now really wasn’t the time for either of these things.

“I can only ask her myself if you don’t tell me, but I don’t think that’ll be easy to do. Also, my mouth isn’t very light.”

“Right, of course. Hah… I don’t think I should’ve done this, you would’ve been way better than me.”

Daemyung stopped talking as he organized his thoughts, he only opened his mouth when they passed the front gates of the school.

“She had some trouble with her parents. She didn’t explain all of it, but I think they’re too overbearing on her. Jiyoon also had some personal issues.”

“What is it?”

“She says she gets really nervous at important moments, especially during tests. Or whenever she’s the center of attention. She doesn’t know what to do because her heart starts beating too fast. I told her everyone gets that, but she said it was a little different.”

“Is that all? That doesn’t sound so bad.”

“…I gave her some advice regarding her parents.”

“What did you say?”

“That they were saying these things just because they cared about you. I know it doesn’t help, but I didn’t know what else to say. You think I made it worse by saying that?”

Maru looked far into the distance, everyone says advice like that. Trouble between a child and their parent wasn’t an uncommon issue, not many kids maintained a good relationship with their parents throughout their entire life. If Jiyoon’s fight with her parents was what ruined her condition today, then they definitely didn’t fight over something normal.

“Jiyoon didn’t look like she got hit anywhere, did she?”

Daemyung blinked for a second until the question really registered to him.

“Are you…”

“It’s just a possibility. I didn’t see any bruises on her.”

“Me neither.”

“She must’ve been hit by something big if her behavior changes this drastically overnight.”

“That’s… true.”

Jiyoon was in an absolute mess today, almost as if she left her mind somewhere else. They shouldn’t approach her thinking it wasn’t anything special, they might end up ruining a family if they did so.

“Alright, you should talk to her one more time. If she hides things, then don’t approach further.”

“What? Maru, we should help her.”

“There are limits to how much you can help someone. How much do you know about Jiyoon? I just know her surface personality and her name. Do you think it’s right to dig deep into her matters just because you know that much?”

“I still want to help her.”

Daemyung spoke with his eyes wide open. The boy just couldn’t let her go, could he? This was probably because of how much of himself he sees in her. Maru understood the boy’s feelings perfectly well, but it still wasn’t a good idea to pry so deeply into other people’s matters. Especially if the matter at hand was about family. Jiyoon was just a normal junior, so there was no reason for them to pry deeply into anything. Of course, things would be different if she was actively seeking help, but… if she wasn’t, there was no need to help.

“We’ll help if she asks for it. But if she doesn’t, just observe.”

“She might just not be talking about it because she’s nervous.”

“You want to help her no matter what?”

“…Yes.”

“Will you take responsibility if something goes wrong?”

“What?”

“It could be way more serious than you think. If you end up making the situation worse, all you’d be doing is making things harder for Jiyoon. I won’t stop you if you really want to help, but don’t go about it lightly. Nothing hurts more than misdirected goodwill.”

“…I still want to help.”

“Of course.”

It could just be a simple matter, all it really came down to was to ask the person herself. The two of them bought some sodas and headed back to school. As they passed the front gates, they passed a woman with purple hair. She was looking up at the school curiously, she turned to look at them. Unlike her wild purple hair, she had a very innocent looking face.

“Eh? Eh!?”

Daemyung shouted in surprise. Was this someone he knew?

“What’s up?”

“Don’t you know who she is?”

“Who is it?”

“Don’t you watch dramas?”

“I really don’t.”

“………”

The purple-haired woman walked towards them with a bright smile, as if she found someone she knew. Upon a closer inspection, Maru found that the woman didn’t look as innocent as he first thought. She looked incredibly playful, probably someone difficult to deal with.

“Are you guys in the acting club?”

“Yes, we are.”

Maru answered since Daemyung was busy hiding behind him.

“Don’t you know me?” the woman asked, pointing at herself.

“Do I need to?” Maru answered.

“Wow, I haven’t gotten a reaction like that in a very long time! How fresh!”

The woman wrapped her arm around Maru’s shoulder out of nowhere, Maru pushed her arm away with his hand immediately.

“Do you have business with the club?”

“You speak like an adult, that’s so cute.”

She was looking all over him like he was a strange creature. It was rude, but it didn’t feel odd, probably due to her lack of malice. Looking into it, he found a small word bubble pop up.

[This kid is fun.]

It’s been a while since he saw someone who spoke exactly like how they thought. These people were typically the ones that can be trusted, but…

“Do you really not know me?”

They’re really annoying to deal with, Daemyung pulled Maru back by the shoulder.

“She’s an actress, an actress!”

“An actress?”

“Ahn Joohyun! You really don’t know her?”

“Ahn Joohyun?”

The purple-haired woman grinned.

* * *

There were two reactions when they entered the classroom. Most stared at her with a curious look, while one person shouted in shock.

“B-big sis!”

Maru guided Joohyun in as he heard Bangjoo’s scream, the woman looked around the room like she was doing a house tour.

“Why are you here?”

Joohyun completely ignored her brother as she observed each of the club members.

“So this is where you act. I’ve never done this in high school, so I got curious. Nice atmosphere. But… You look like you’re going through something.”

Joohyun leaned forward towards Jiyoon, Jiyoon looked around in absolute confusion.

“U-um…”

When they both looked at each other at eye level, Joohyun hugged Jiyoon and stroked the girl’s back gently.

“Why do you look so troubled? You’re too young to go through emotions like this.”

It was a warm voice that knocked any sense of nervousness out of a person, Maru pulled Daemyung back from approaching them.

“What?”

“Look at Jiyoon.”

Daemyung relaxed after looking at Jiyoon’s face, the girl was breathing calmly. She still looked confused, but she looked much better than before.

“It’s good to take deep breaths when things become difficult. Like this.”

Joohyun started breathing very slowly, slowly enough to drive out all the negative emotions. Maru could see Jiyoon’s shoulders starting to relax, she looked comfortable for the first time today.

Maru watched the two with his arms crossed, this Ahn Joohyun person was clearly not a normal person.

Chapter 216

Today was gray all throughout. One of those days where she spent in her life that felt completely meaningless. One of those days when her heart desperately searched for someone to blame, despite knowing that she shouldn’t. And her target in the end, after scrolling through countless familiar faces… was herself. Why was she so pathetic? Why couldn’t she even say a single thing? Why did she stay quiet? If she could just wash away that nervousness in her. If only she could be a good daughter to her mother… Every hypothetical situation increased the burden to her conscience and it slowly dragged her down deeper into a pit.

There was a big empty hole in the middle of her head. She stuttered at even the short lines, she couldn’t even breathe without being consciously aware of it all the time. In the midst of it, Daemyung’s words stabbed into her ear, your mom says that because she cares. That’s right, he was right. Her mother does care, care more than anyone else. That was why she needed to meet her mother’s expectations, she needed to get into a first-class university just like the children of all the other guests from that time. She needed to be a good daughter.

But she was lacking in talent. She couldn’t meet her mother’s expectations, she made her mother lose face again. She ruined the club as well, she betrayed her seniors’ expectations of her.

She couldn’t do anything right.

Her heart started beating louder, cold sweat was coming from out from her pores. It was just like during test season, just like when she couldn’t even ask for her bus card to be recharged. She couldn’t even get simple tasks done. Jiyoon felt her mind get dragged deeper into the abyss within her heart, but she couldn’t even ask for help. She could only sit there wondering when everything would end.

Right then, an unfamiliar woman appeared in her vision. No, she recognized this woman from television. This actress from a commercial she’s seen was approaching her with a smile and hugged her. Jiyoon tried to push the actress away in surprise, but she was only hugged tighter. The warmth comforted Jiyoon, her heart was starting to slow to match the beat of the actress’.

“Things won’t be fine, it’ll stay hard. But why don’t you take a breather for a second? You don’t need to stay motivated, you don’t need to try hard. Just lean on me and take a breather.”

Jiyoon’s hands fidgeted a couple of times before relaxing her arms entirely, the energy in her body was spilling out like she just entered a warm bed. Her nervousness melted away as well. She followed the actor’s slow breathing. Slowly, slowly. She breathed in through her nostrils and breathed out through her mouth.

“Right, good.”

Jiyoon recalled her mother’s caress from the actress’ hands on her back, her mother used to be so comforting and kind back then. So comforting.

* * *

Joohyun let Jiyoon go after a very long hug. Jiyoon looked very shocked, but nothing like earlier.

“How are you feeling now?” Joohyun asked.

Jiyoon said she was fine with a very quiet voice.

“That’s good.”

Joohyun stood up with a smile.

“Big sis, why are you…”

Bangjoo stepped towards Joohyun with a surprised look.

‘So that was his monstrous sister?’

She was more strange than monstrous, really. Joohyun winked when his eyes met with hers.

“So this is the script?”

“Big sis!”

“Lower your voice, man. You’re being rude to everyone in this building.”

Joohyun picked up the script and took a seat in a chair. While she read, Maru gestured Bangjoo to come towards him.

“So that’s your sister?”

“……Yes.”

This was the first time Maru saw Bangjoo so quiet, the boy was looking at Joohyun with a terrified look.

“She’s not normal at all just like you said. I heard she’s a famous actress?”

“I didn’t try to hide it purposely, I just didn’t think it was anything special.”

“Well, it would be pretty stupid to advertise that your family member is famous.”

Maru stepped closer to Joohyun, who raised her head to look at him.

“Um…”

“Hold on. After I read this. Ok? Got it?”

Joohyun was reading the script like a child who got her favorite toy, Maru could only smile at her childishness.

“Understood. Please take your time.”

Instead, Maru turned to Jiyoon. The girl looked a lot better than before. The redness in her cheeks indicated that she was filled with energy once again.

“You look a lot better now.”

“Ah, yes.”

“That was surprising, wasn’t it?”

“…Yes.”

Jiyoon was touching her hair out of embarrassment. Well, at least this was over. Now, all there was left to do was to wait for Joohyun to speak. Aram ended up asking Joohyun for a picture midway, Joohyun accepted the request with a grin.

“Sis, I’m totally a fan. I listen to your radio every morning!”

“Thanks. But give me a bit. There’s not much of this left.”

“Of course!”

Aram was smiling happily. Dowook seemed to have recognized Joohyun as well, but he clearly didn’t care. He just read his script from his corner of the room, but seeing how he kept giving the woman the occasional glance, he clearly cared a little bit.

Joohyun closed her script loudly. The scene wasn’t long, so it didn’t take her a long time to read through it.

“Fun. I like stuff like this. I’m jealous. I was always the one to watch plays because my school didn’t have an acting club. But doing it is super different from just watching it, right?”

Joohyun scanned the club with a smile, who nodded back to her. Maru stepped forward to Joohyun again.

“Could I ask what you came here for?”

“Mm, if I had to put it in words, I was just super bored at home. I didn’t want to play by myself either. I also didn’t want to spend my break like this, so I got this amazing idea of visiting my younger brother. So that’s why I’m here. I did a good job, right Bangjoo?”

She gave Bangjoo a slight wink, Bangjoo coughed like he choked on something and looked away. Maru was surprised. A woman in her thirties was so overtly trying to act cute, but it didn’t look weird at all. If only his girlfriend could learn a thing or two from her…

“Your younger brother is Bangjoo?”

“Right. He was born super late, so he’s a very shy boy. Isn’t that right, Bangjoo?”

“Ugh, sis!! Why are you here?!”

Bangjoo had cold sweat running down his face as he spoke, Maru never saw the boy this agitated before. What a sight.

“Are you guys preparing by yourselves?”

“No, we have an instructor, but she left early.”

“Really? Can I join then?”

“Sis, please go home. I’m sorry for whatever I did.”

Bangjoo started begging. Maru gave Daemyung a glance, who nodded and put a hand over Bangjoo’s mouth.

“We’d love it if you joined. You’re an actress? We’ll have a lot to learn then.”

“I am an actress, but you didn’t know me.”

“Now I do. Isn’t that good enough?”

“You have a way with words. Fine, I’ll hang out for a bit. It feels like Bangjoo might cry if I keep staying. Mm, I don’t want to overstep my boundaries, so I guess I’ll just give you a few pointers. Sounds good?”

“That would be good too.”

“Looks like you’re the leader, at least by the atmosphere.”

Leader, huh.

“That would be him behind me.”

“Him? Hm, I don't think so. You’re the one talking to me right now. You’re also the one everyone’s looking at right now.”

“Real leaders never do the actual leading in public, I’m basically a secretary.”

“Naaah, I don’t think so. Well, we can discuss that later. Besides that, Mr. Secretary.”

Joohyun motioned him towards her, so he took a step forward. Joohyun gestured him even closer, so Maru ended up leaning more towards her.

“Why did you leave her be? She looked sick,” Joohyun whispered.

Maru gave Jiyoon a slight glance before responding.

“There were a few reasons?”

“Reasons? What do reasons have anything to do with this?”

Maru looked at Joohyun. She seemed unhappy with his answer. Well, he might as well explain it to her in detail, since she did help.

“I saw a few signs that I shouldn’t get involved so hurriedly.”

“So you just let her be?”

“I was planning on asking her. Or helping if she wanted it.”

“No, you don’t leave hurting kids like her by herself. She didn’t need consolations or answers, she just needed a hug. This is unexpected. I thought you’d catch onto it since you’re such an emotional kid.”

“…You know me?”

“I saw you once last year. You were the kid that was running wild on stage. I got excited just by looking at you flail about wildly. That’s when I realized that you’re just like me. But you weren’t, as it turned out. You turned out to be a cowardly intellectual. I’m not disappointed, but it's a surprise.”

Her droopy lips definitely looked disappointed here.

“Were the actions you showed on stage also calculated?”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about, but I never go on stage without something in mind. So it’s probably calculated.”

“No, that’s not really it. I don’t think you really know yourself. Why is that?”

Joohyun thought for a second before changing the topic with a smile.

“Well, I guess we’ll find out on the set.”

“The set?”

“Yeah. Weren’t you auditioning for the delinquent role? I’m going to be there during the scene, so I’ll find out then. Ah, I am going to assume that you’ll get the role of course. Teacher has his eyes on you, so I’m pretty confident that’d be the case.”

She must be talking about Moonjoong here. So she was also part of ‘Twilight Struggles’ as well?

“Are you the first wife, by any chance?”

“Bingo! Don’t tell anyone. It’s a secret.”

Maru blinked as he stared at Joohyun, so she was the other main character in the movie. She was unlike any other actor he’s met before. Miso was the emotional type as well, but not even she was like… this. Joohyun’s acting almost seemed to be based on pure instinct.

“Since Teacher seems to have great expectations for you, I’ll give you a little gift.”

Joohyun lowered her voice before continuing.

“An actor who thinks too much can’t smile and ends up acting out his smiles instead.”

Joohyun grabbed Maru’s ear and pulled him even closer, Joohyun whispered incredibly quietly.

“Also, if you’re a man, shouldn’t you try to protect a scared lady in front of you?”

Joohyun pushed Maru away with a click of a tongue, Maru looked at the woman in front of him in confusion. It’s been a very long time since he last met someone he couldn’t figure out.

* * *

“Alright, I should go!”

It felt like a storm passed by over them. Instead of giving them all some advice, Joohyun talked about her trip to Bangkok for an hour straight. She finished her story and decided to leave.

“Come again, sis!”

Aram was the only one who gave Joohyun a happy farewell. Everyone else, including Maru, lingered with blank stares.

“Yo, Mr. Secretary, get over here.”

Joohyun motioned him closer to her. He didn’t want to go, but it didn’t look like she would leave without speaking to him.

“She’ll be fine today, but you’ll have to take care of her. Got it?”

“Yes. I’ll take care of it.”

“Good. Also, did you learn acting from one person?”

“No. I had help from a lot of people.”

“Izzat so? How long did you do this for?”

“Less than a year.”

“Huh, I see. Out of curiosity, did you do everything you wanted when you were on stage last year?”

“I think I did what I wanted.”

“Hm, I’m asking what kind of advice you got before you went on stage as well as whether you followed it or not. For instance… you might have been told to rein yourself in a little.”

Maru didn’t answer. What in the world was this woman?

“So I’m right. I got it. Here’s my second gift. An actor who doesn’t get to the bottom of his emotions is bound to run dry. Think hard about what that means.”

With that, Joohyun stepped down the staircase.

Chapter 217

‘Reining it in, huh.’

When was the last time Maru was pushed to the extremes of his emotions? He couldn’t remember the last time he got truly mad or emotional in life. Even though he cut out most of his anger from his life since he knew it does more harm than good, he’s never thought himself logical. This was just an attitude in the 45 years he previously lived, the ability to look at a situation and call it as he sees it.

He had no intentions of denying that he was a calculating person. Some people believed calculating people to be cold, Maru wasn’t one of them. He thought being calculating was just another facet of human nature. So, trying to decide if that aspect of a person made them human or not felt foolish to him.

He recalled how emotional he used to be. He went on a trip without his phone without warning and he made big life decisions without giving it much thought. He started his road manager job without much thought. As a result, he became a bus driver. One that left his poor wife and daughter alone by dying. He didn’t think he lived a bad or unhappy life, he actually thought he was quite blessed. Just… he wished to be able to enjoy that blessing just a little bit more.

“Thank you for the advice, but I don’t think it’d be very useful to me,” he told Joohyun.

Joohyun raised her head to look at him with narrowed eyes, she was clearly waiting for him to say more.

“I definitely don’t know much about acting. I’m studying it, but all I’ve learned is that it’s very difficult. I still look incredibly awkward following actors on the screen, this is why I’m learning right now. I heard a lot of things. Try this, try that. I didn’t know a lot, so I tried all of it.”

Joohyun turned around fully to face him, Maru took it as a sign to continue.

“I got comments to rein myself in as well. I do get very riled up on stage. I don’t have tunnel vision nor do I stutter, thankfully. I actually become better at being aware of the audience than usual. It felt odd to be told to rein myself in in that situation, but I did it anyway. Because I was only a beginner.”

“And then?”

“When I suppressed my emotions, I was able to see my companions next to me with clarity. It felt like my vision was pulled back from the audience to the stage. My excitement from before was gone, but I became able to observe the play with a cool head. After that experience, I realized that the instructor’s advice wasn’t wrong.”’

“But holding your emotions back means that you can’t show off your potential as much. Do you think actors get to be on stage whenever they want? Countless actors disappear without before they can even flourish their talent. They need to show off everything they have if they even want a shot at succeeding. You’re getting ready to jump into an industry like that.”

“That’s true.”

“So that’s why you need to express all of your…”

Maru shook his head, Joohyun looked at him annoyedly.

“I’d rather not challenge myself without the utmost confidence that I’ll come out on top. I’d like to step forward slowly and surely. I’m confident that I’ll eventually get to express all of my emotions with a cool head in the future that way.”

“You’re not wrong, but I told you. That’s not easy, especially not at your age. How many incredibly famous actors do you think are in their teens, let alone their twenties? There are probably a few around the world, but they’re far and few in between. We say people like that are blessed, they’re the real geniuses. But disregarding them… Most famous actors in Korea are in their thirties, forties. They only truly reach the limelight in their fifties. Get what I’m saying?”

“Acting is proportionate to life experiences?”

“That’s right. Acting, in the end, is about expressing yourself. That requires a lot of seeing and thinking. That’s why age is scary. Age is absolute. You can’t make up for that with talent. At least, not in acting. Even famous young actors lose their light in front of side actors who worked for decades, that’s what age brings to acting. You can’t get life experiences from books. That’s why you need to purge your emotions as fast as you can. So that you can have a weapon to face those that already matured.”

Maru stared directly at Joohyun.

“Was that what you did, senior?”

“I was like an intern at a theater company until I was twenty four. I was a student that believed I’d succeed so long as I tried hard, but I never got a chance even after several years of learning. I even kicked away a few chances granted to me because I didn’t know how to handle it. That’s when I got into a short TV drama and that’s when I thought to myself that I can’t improve with just practice. So I just left everything to my emotions instead. People insulted me at first because I stood out too much for a side character. It was supposed to be a short scene, but I acted as if my life depended on it.”

“So, did it work?”

“I got cast for the next short TV drama the director did, he told me to go wild. That’s when I realized, I can always control my emotions and hone my talent after purging everything inside me. Only after I learned how much I can smile and cry could I really begin to learn to improve myself.”

Joohyun pulled out a hair tie and tied her purple hair behind her, she looked completely different with a simple change. All of a sudden, she looked more like a wild horse than a teasing woman. This is probably what she’s normally like.

“I’m not saying you’re wrong. But it’d take too much time for you to shine with that method. Some people are better at gaining experiences than others, but the amount of experience you can gain in a given time frame is limited. If you’re planning on ending acting as a hobby, then… I suppose it doesn’t matter. But if you want to get into the industry, you better show everything you got. Even if you have to ignore someone else’s command.”

She was full of confidence. After all, she had her entire life to back up her words. Words from people like her were always filled with life and power, they were the type of people who could persuade people in a flash.

Maru shook his head. She was right, at least in her case. Maybe her advice applied to him as well, maybe he might get a different result if he purged his emotions. A new path might open up in front of him, one he didn’t think about before.

“Your words definitely make sense. Maybe I’d be able to try something new if I followed it, whether it be good or bad. Isn’t that right?”

“Right. That’s exactly it. You’ll find several instances in life when you have to take the chance given to you. In your case, that would be the movie. This audition. Teacher has a ton of expectations for you, this is a side character that’s as important as the main character. How many chances like this do you think you’ll ever get in your life? He didn’t tell me this directly, but during a meal, he told me he had someone in mind for the delinquent role. Many people know that someone is you. You’ll be able to learn a ton if you come in.”

“And I’d need to adopt a new style of acting to be able to take advantage of that chance?”

“When you’re desperate, you need to take a risk. You can’t get an edge over everyone else by doing the same thing as them. Teacher won’t give you extra points just because he likes you. If you don’t get in his eye during the audition, he might just forget about you forever. This is how important this is.”

Bring a change to his style. Go against the advice that Miso, Geunsoo, and Ganghwan has given him. Let his emotions overtake reason. He understood what Joohyun wanted, it was sensible advice.

But was that something that Maru would do? Maru took a step back with a smile.

“Thank you for your advice.”

That was the end of that, he already got his answer.

“Looks like you’re not interested.”

“Right. I’m satisfied as is. I actually found a reason to keep going down this path thanks to you.”

Joohyun smiled oddly.

“If you understood me right, you should know that this is a critical moment for you.”

“You are right. There are many people that have their eyes on me on this audition. I know that if I get a role here, I can advance very quickly into the industry. That’s why I should be more careful. I need to prepare and hone my skills instead of taking a risk.”

“There are rumors all over the place about this movie already. How many people do you think are going to come to the auditions? Do you think you can beat veterans with decades of experience under their belt? With just a single year of experience?”

“In some ways, yes. I might even be better than them if what you said about life experiences was correct.”

“…Are you sure you heard me right?”

“Loud and clear.”

Joohyun shrugged after a brief moment of confusion.

“That’s odd. I can tell you’re not being confident for no reason. You really think you have something here.”

She tapped her lips for a second before shaking her head.

“Well, I’m sure you’ll do well. But don’t you dare regret your decision later down the line. The chance you missed won’t come back no matter how much you regret.”

“No need to worry. I’m very good at handling regret. I make it so that I wouldn’t have any in the first place, all thanks to the fact that I’m a calculating person. I take what I’m confident of being able to get. It might not be fun, but so what? I was just born like this. I’ve taken many risks so far already, with acting and relationships alike. I’d like solid results at this point in life.”

“I don’t think you’re at an age where you should worry about that yet.”

“You might be surprised, but I’m a lot older than I actually look.”

“Hah, funny joke. Anyway, I’m of the opinion that you should break your shell before you become another cog in the machine. The younger you are when you do it, the better.”

“But if your sense of self is already well-established, there is no need to breakthrough. I’m not brave enough to stake all of my worth in a single bet, I love playing it safe. Even when crossing a stone bridge, I have to smack each brick in front of me at least three times.”

“What if you fall behind everyone else?”

“That’s completely fine, life isn’t a short track race. I’ll catch up eventually, so long as I don’t trip and fall along the way. I might find my own tricks and start moving ahead. More so than that, I’m me and you’re you. We all have our own ways of doing things.”

Maru moved solely based on evidence and proven methods, he never broke this rule even when he took risks. That was the method he came up with after his forty-five years of living. He no longer had the passion and courage of youth left inside him, but he had the maturity at the very least.

More so than that, he’s had an incredible experience that no one else had. The fact that he looked death in the eye and came back alive. That moment, Han Maru as a person became someone ‘more’. He could look at himself objectively. And because of it, he looked a lot colder to people he didn’t really care about. He was fine with that because that was yet another aspect that characterized him as “Han Maru”.

“You… you’re an interesting kid.”

“Not really.”

“Fine. If you’re that confident, prove it to me. Good luck.”

Joohyun stepped back down coolly as if she had finished business here. After a few seconds though, she ran back upstairs to Maru with a grin.

“Take good care of Bangjoo!”

“Ah, yes.”

“I’ll kill you if you bully him.”

“Uh, right.”

“Take care of that Jiyoon kid quickly as well.”

“I understand.”

“See you next time! Buh-bye!”

Joohyun ran down with a whistle. What an odd woman.

‘45 years. That would surely become a great weapon for me.’

If one’s ability in acting directly correlated with their life experiences… Fine. He’s experienced all life had to offer so far. Sweet, sour, salty, spicy, bitter. He’s tasted it all. Meaning, there was no need for him to change his acting style. While others gathered experience, he only needed to hone himself.

‘I suppose there is a need to empty my emotions though. To get myself to the bottom of my emotions, as she put it.’

Maru smiled quietly.

Chapter 218

‘Alright, I’ll handle Jiyoon first.’

Maru called Daemyung out to the hallway with his phone.

“How’s the club right now?”

“They’re all asking Bangjoo a bunch of questions.”

“Jiyoon?”

“A lot better than before. She’s smiling at least.”

“That’s good. She was really hard to approach a while ago.”

“You really should be the one talking instead of me…”

“Nope, this needs to be done by you. She told you her story, so handing the baton to me is going to hurt your credibility. You’re also the president.”

Daemyung paused at the word ‘president’.

“Um, Maru…”

Maru knew exactly what the boy wanted to say, so he cut Daemyung off.

“Just take this to the end, I’ll help you. You should talk with Jiyoon. She’s calm now, so this shouldn’t be as difficult as before.”

“I don’t know what I should say. I feel like I’m going to give her useless advice again.”

“I’m not telling you to go in without a plan. Here, I’ll give you some useful advice. You guys need to talk about her relationship with her parents first. The thing with her heart during tests might actually be a real health issue, so we can worry about that later.”

“What do I tell her?”

“You’re not bad at talking as long as you stay calm so just remember two things. First, find out if Jiyoon has bad feelings against her parents. If she hates them, cheer her on a bit and end the conversation. We definitely can’t touch that.”

“If she doesn’t?”

“If she likes them, but she’s in constant turmoil with them, ask her this.”

“What?”

“Ask her, ‘have you ever told them what you want face to face?’”

* * *

Daemyung looked at Jiyoon nervously.

After coming back to the classroom, Maru dismissed the club. By the time everyone started leaving with their bags, Daemyung asked Jiyoon to come to talk with him privately. This was because Maru believed that Jiyoon might feel pressure from being singled out of the group with everyone present. After that, he moved forward with the conversation according to Maru’s advice. Since Jiyoon was a lot calmer than before, things went pretty smoothly. Daemyung was able to learn some new things and he could carry through with the conversation with the new information.

He was able to get an understanding of how Jiyoon thought of her mother. Surprisingly, Jiyoon cared a lot about her mother. She was beating herself up too much because of her inability to meet her mother’s expectations, this feeling of hers exploded when the guests came over last time.

Daemyung was enraged from hearing what the guests said about her, to think they would look down on someone else’s child just because they were so proud of theirs… Daemyung even called them ‘damned cackle of crones’ out of sheer anger. His face reddened with embarrassment when he saw Jiyoon staring at him in shock, but he was satisfied with what he said after seeing a smile float on her face.

Their conversation continued, Jiyoon started telling him more and more things after a certain point. Daemyung listened quietly. Jiyoon started dialling further and further back into the past into her memories with her mother. At the time, her father was in Korea as well, so they went travelling a lot. But after her father moved to Japan for work in sixth grade, she started getting sick during tests.

Jiyoon looked very bright when she talked about her past. She didn’t stutter either. Daemyung had a feeling that this was an easy problem like Maru told him. The trouble only began because her communication with her parents was severed, so Daemyung asked Jiyoon a question. The one that Maru told him about.

“…I don’t think I have. Mom didn’t look like she wanted to talk to me.”

“How about you try it, then?”

Jiyoon’s mother in her memories was a person who kindly listened to their child’s words. Maybe they were just misunderstanding each other deeply? Even parents and children misunderstand each other from time to time. Actually, it was probably because they were so close that they got so many misunderstandings.

“I’m afraid my mom might get disappointed. She’s already disappointed about having a daughter like me, so if I rebel…”

“I was actually the same…”

Daemyung smiled, thinking back to himself before meeting Maru. Jiyoon apologized. She was a nice kid. She apologized too much, but Daemyung could tell that they were all sincere. Meaning, Jiyoon still had the energy to empathize with others when she was already going through so much pain. Could parents so easily hate a child who was as kind as this? No. No way. There had to be a misunderstanding.

- If you decide to help someone once, you need to take responsibility until the end. That’s what it means to help. At least, to me.

Daemyung felt a lot of things from that line Maru told him. He really wanted to help this girl, not just give her his condolences. He wanted to truly be of help to this person.

“I’m not actually good at many things, but I’m good at listening. If nothing changes after talking with your mother, I’ll listen to your story many times over. You can just complain to me all day if you want. So could you please try this once?”

Daemyung felt his cheeks burn up with embarrassment, at least he was being honest. A silence formed between them. Jiyoon only opened her mouth after two minutes of staring at the floor.

“I’ll try it. I think I’m getting a bit of courage thanks to you. Breathing’s gotten easier for me as well.”

“R-really?”

He got the answer he wanted in the end, Daemyung felt the energy sap out of him. He had no idea consoling someone was this difficult. How did Maru manage to do all of this? Being a wall for someone to lean onto meant that you had to share their pains, Daemyung had no idea how Maru could shoulder so many painful stories from other people.

‘If I take on consoling as a job… ’

He had no idea how much the club members would even rely on him, but at least he could try to be of help. For Maru’s sake.

“…Thank you. This is the first time I talked like this.”

“No, thank you for telling me your story.”

Jiyoon smiled, making Daemyung’s chest flare up with pride.

‘Looks like it’s over for now, thankfully.’

He told her everything, so he just needed to send her back now. Daemyung turned to look at Jiyoon.

“I’ve kept you a while. You should go now.”

“What about you, senior?”

“I need to organize some of the props.”

“I’ll help.”

“Nah, it’s just sweeping the floors, really. You should go. You have something to do, don’t you?”

Daemyung spoke as he opened the classroom door, Jiyoon hesitated for a second before grabbing her bag. She stopped in front of the door to look at Daemyung, her cheeks were a little pale.

“…Are you sick again? Tell me if you’re dizzy.”

“N-no. It’s nothing like that.”

“Really? I thought you ran into another problem. Thank goodness. Take it slow just in case though.”

“…Right.”

Jiyoon turned back with her head drooped down, Daemyung waved her goodbye. Their eyes met for a second when Jiyoon turned her head, but for some reason, she immediately looked down again. She must be embarrassed after telling him her life story.

‘I mean, I would be as well.’

“I won’t tell anyone your story from today, so don’t worry.”

“What? No, that’s not really a problem…”

“Oh, really? I’ll keep it a secret anyway.”

Daemyung waved again, prompting Jiyoon to finally start walking towards the staircase. Only after seeing her walk out of his vision did he finally sigh, this took way too much out of him.

“Phew, at least I acted like a proper senior for the first time.”

The word ‘senior’ sounded a lot different to him for some reason today. It made him… feel a sense of responsibility, he planned to be a good senior from now on.

* * *

Jiyoon was so engrossed in a single thought during her journey back that she didn’t even remember her bus ride, she took a deep breath in front of the door before stepping inside. She took her shoes off and stepped into the living room. her mother was looking into the accounting book.

“Wash your hands and have some fruit. I also found a list of academies so choose one from there. Your Mondays and Wednesdays will be math, and you will spend the other days working on English. I’ll also get a tutor in a bit, so keep that in mind.”

Jiyoon felt her heart start thumping loudly again, her eyes kept drifting back to her shoes at the front door. She could easily escape this if she ran away again. Maybe she should go on a walk? Her fingers started moving towards her shoes. Right then, a voice echoed in her head.

- No, thank you for telling me your story.

How would he look at her if she turned around now? Daemyung was listening to her surprisingly stiffly today, she could tell he was having a hard time listening to her. Despite that, he gently listened to her story with a smile. She didn’t want his efforts to be for naught.

She balled up her fists as she walked up to her mother, she decided not to think about anything else at least for the moment. Her mother looked up with a straight face, it’s been a very long time since they looked at each other face to face.

“…Mom.”

“What?”

“I need to tell you something.”

Her mother frowned as she turned back to the accounting book.

“If you’re going to tell me you don’t want to go to the academy, I’m not going to hear it.”

“…I don’t want to go to the academy.”

She squeezed the words out of her, her mother slapped the accounting book closed with reddened eyes.

“What is wrong with you! Why are you hurting mom so much?! Why… How did you change like that?”

“Mom…”

Jiyoon wanted to run away, she was scared. She was scared and angry at herself for making her mother like this. Right then, she noticed her own fists next to her. A sign of her having made up her mind, she’d talk properly with her mother this time.

She won’t run.

Jiyoon sat next to her mother and looked directly at her, her mother was closing her eyes with a hand over her chest. That wasn’t a sign of anger, but sadness. Jiyoon observed her mother for a bit more, she’s never seen the expression her mother makes after this.

Her mother slowly opened her eyes after a shake of her head. Jiyoon noticed her mother’s eyes shake for a second. Was it because she was in front of her?

“Mom, I need to tell you something.”

Jiyoon told her mother her story. The fear of tests that developed since middle school. Those moments when she couldn’t breathe and started getting cold sweat. She told her everything.

“Jiyoon… You… what…”

Mom stepped forward to look at Jiyoon more closely, her fingers were trembling. Why did she suddenly look so fragile to Jiyoon?

“Why didn’t you tell me? Why?!”

“Because I thought you’d worry. You were really sad after dad left. I… I wanted to help you.” “You still should’ve told me if you were hurting!”

Mom slapped Jiyoon’s wrists in anger. Jiyoon was unable to stop her emotions after that, tears started flowing freely on her face.

“But, but you always had this scary face on when I tried to tell you. And you kept scolding me when I messed up. I was scared. I was really scared.”

“Jiyoon…”

“I wanted to do well too. I wanted to do well! I wanted to be your proud daughter and I wanted to be someone you could brag about. But I can’t! They looked down on me because I went to an engineering school! The other kids always tell me I’m really good at studying. And I helped improve their scores with my notes! But I can’t. I want to, but I can’t do it. I hate it too. I hate that I’m like this. But if I tell you, it’s so obvious that you’re going to hate me more, mom. You’d worry about me too. I didn’t like that. I… I… wahh…”

She wanted to sound logical. After a certain point words just started pouring out of her as they came. She couldn’t even see well with her vision blurred over, she kept talking regardless. And after what felt like ages of her just talking…

Her mom hugged her.

Jiyoon didn’t stop crying. The one thing she noticed in the chaos that was that her mom was crying as well.

“I… mom was…”

She couldn’t hear the rest of it, Jiyoon raised her hands to hug mom tightly as well. What would happen when they both stop crying?

There were a lot of uncertainties to her right now. The only thing that was certain though was that looking at her mother would no longer hurt so much anymore.

“My daughter. My sweet, kind daughter.”

Jiyoon cried her heart out as she felt her mom stroke her hair.

Chapter 219

“So there’s a week left now?”

“Yes.”

“To think that they’ll only hold one round of auditions… they’re quite evil. Even though they know how many people will flock to it.”

“What can we do about it? They’re the ones making the decisions. Rather than that, have you heard? I heard that one person from every nearby acting school is taking a jab at it.”

“It’s not just one. There are many places who have sent profiles of two to three people. Sheesh, how many people are flocking to just a side character role?”

“Since there’s delinquents 1, 2 and 3, they’re picking three right?”

“It’s not for sure. They can adjust the number to their liking after all. Also, there’s no mention of that in the notice. It’s pretty much decided that they’re looking for people for the thug roles, but it’s not like that’s the only side character role available. I can kinda get a grasp on the number from the novel, but it’s hard to get a concrete number since scenes may be taken out or added.”

“Who are you going to send, mister Choi?”

“Me? I told everyone to send their profiles if they want to do it. It’s quantity over quality. The net must be fine, but a fish should get through if I stuff enough of them inside the net.”

“I heard they’re holding the interviews first this time.”

“Jeez, they’re taking unnecessary steps. They might as well be Broadway.”

“You’re going to tell your students to participate anyway, aren’t you?”

“I can’t help it. Rather than that, who did you decide to send, mister Lee? You sent some of your students to create promotion materials, so you don’t have anyone, do you?”

“I had everyone else go.”

“What the heck? You’re not that different from me.”

“Well, isn’t this audition mostly related to luck? Though, the free acting does nag me a little.”

Mister Choi drank some coffee. The acting schools in Gangnam became active after quite a while. This movie was fully created by JA productions, from investment to production. JA company mostly dealt with the production of dramas until now, but this time, they were trying their hand at the movie industry. Rumors about that spread around wide amongst the acting schools, and not long later, visible results started coming out.

“It seems like Lee Junmin, that guy is trying to do something big.”

“I heard that Yoon Moonjoong and An Joohyun were confirmed to be main characters. That’s half a big issue in itself.”

“That’s why everyone is trying to dip their hands in it. A close film director friend of mine was making plans to produce a movie along with a smart producer, and that producer happened to have a close relationship with a talented film director. He’s quite famous for getting good camera angles in this area. He just happened to be free at that time as well. So the two of them quickly put together a team, but when they met him, it turned out that that fella’s team wasn’t doing business at all. The two of them tried to convince him saying that he needed money to live, right? But he said that he is getting paid. The producer was smart and immediately knew what was happening. So he asked who was paying him. It turned out that…”

“JA was holding on to them since last year?”

“Yeah! That’s when the rumors started spreading. Moreover, with the addition of rumors that Yoo Chulmin fella was talking to JA, everyone knew that something was going to happen.”

“Yoo Chulmin? You mean the president of the Acting Association? Didn’t he take his hands off work altogether? As far as I know, his only job nowadays is to mediate between the Ministry of Culture and Tourism and the theater troupes.”

“Who else do you think called the retired Yoon Moonjoong back to the scene? Everyone knows that the two are on close terms.”

“Then Yoo Chulmin, Lee Junmin and Yoon Moonjoong - these three formed a team? I didn’t know that much.”

Mister Choi took a bite off his donut. Mister Lee also leaned back on his chair and took a deep breath.

“Getting a role in that movie will be harder than a camel going through the eye of a needle. The ones backed by Lee Junmin and the ones backed by Yoo Chulmin will get all the major roles.”

“Then this audition might be just to tell everyone that they aren’t keeping everything to themselves?”

“You figured out just now? Most commercials movie auditions are split into several stages, aren’t they? Because that many people audition for it. On top of that, they will at least have to give a chance to the ones backed by popular schools. They don’t have much time. But the fact that they’re only having one stage audition this time means that they pretty much have all the roles sorted out already and the ones remaining are merely dregs.”

“Does anyone you know get a script, mister Choi?”

“There are some who got the script. They even did an unofficial audition. But they all failed to make it. It seems like they’re respecting the original author’s opinion a lot.”

“What does a writer know about movies?”

“Well, that was supposed to be the condition or something. Anyway, I need to get someone in there, even if it’s just a minor character. It will help promote our school.”

“I heard the principal of Star Academy is going to send food trucks using his own money.”

“That dude is quick when it comes to things like that. He’s trying to make a good image of himself.”

“We should send blankets or something.”

Mister Choi nodded. Although the scenario made him feel that not a lot of money was needed to make the movie, the confirmed actors alone were super expensive to cast. Moreover, the ones participating in the production of the movie were all people that were well-known in the movie industry. It would definitely help if his name was known to them.

“But I heard that the actors for the minor roles will have to completely empty their schedule for three months.”

“For three whole months?”

“Yes.”

“They can’t take other roles elsewhere?”

“They can’t.”

“Wow, that’s just crazy. Just how many times are they planning to reshoot each scene? But the fact that people chose to remain means that the pay is good?”

“Probably.”

“Now I want to have a look at that contract. Just how much are they paying?”

“More than enough, probably.”

“More than enough, huh.”

“If I can contact them in the future, I should ask them if they need any staff. It would be profitable if I can get a connection with them.”

“I should do that too.”

These days, many movies stopped in the pre-production phase, but now a movie with super popular actors was about to kick off. The acting schools were all on their edge, and the theater troupes should also be busy as well. Once the concrete details about the audition comes out, it would be a war. Mister Choi thought back to a few of his students with potential as he looked outside the window. At that time, mister Lee brought out an interesting topic.

“Oh yes, I heard that an interesting kid entered Film.”

“Film?”

The acting school, “Film”, was well known for its sturdy infrastructure even amongst the acting schools in Gangnam. It was to the point that their ‘special lectures’ were held by famous actors. They did not hold classes for students aiming for college, and only held classes for people who are aiming to be real actors. As such, it wasn’t easy to get into. Some even said that it was more helpful in an acting career to enter Film than to drama departments of famous universities.

“An interesting kid? What do you mean?” Mr Choi asked.

“It’s a kid Lee Junmin had his eyes on, but there’s a rumor that Film poached him. Apparently, he’s so good at acting that the principal there is willing to support him.”

“Really?”

“I heard he’s participating in the audition this time as well.”

“Dammit, the rich always try to take money from the poor. So they’re planning to bribe the production team to get the kid through?”

“Who knows? They might use skill instead.”

“Jeez, I really hate my job.”

Mister Choi took out a cigarette and put it in his mouth. Mister Lee quickly stopped him from smoking, saying that this was a no smoking area. Of course, Mister Choi didn’t plan to light it up. He just did so out of habit.

“Is there a way I can get a number of the original author? I really want a kid I’m supporting to get in.”

“The security around him is no joke. I already tried the publishers and the producers, but they will never tell me.”

“The security is tight, huh. Tsk, I guess I can only trust luck now.”

“You mean your student’s skills.”

“Yeah right, as if.”

Mister Choi snapped the cigarette in his mouth and put it in an empty glass bottle. He had a feeling that he wouldn’t be able to get anyone he knows into this movie.

* * * *

It was nearing the end of April. Maru was feeling better. The endless assault of sleepiness was disappearing as time neared May. He was very happy that he could keep a clear mind.

“I’m sleepy as heck,” Dojin spoke as he crushed the candy in his mouth. Dowook and Daemyung were already sleeping. It seems that Maru’s drowsiness was transferred over to them.

“Is acting club going well?” Dojin asked as he put his face against the desk.

“It is. Everyone’s smart, so they have no problems memorizing the script. Unlike a certain someone, that is.”

“Now that makes me feel unpleasant. Why do you say that while looking at me? I wasn’t that bad, you know?”

“Sure you were.”

The acting club was going quite smoothly. Jiyoon, who was a source of his worries, seemed to have cleared up her troubles and stuttered less these days. He recently found out that her father, who was working overseas in Japan, had returned recently. She solved the misunderstanding she had with her mother, and her father was there to add to her stability so there shouldn’t be any further problems.

Oh, there was one new problem, though, this ‘problem’ was a rather peculiar one, since the person responsible for the problem was oblivious to it. It was rather fun to watch over him.

Maru smiled while looking at Daemyung, who was sleeping like a small, hibernating bear. A good man will always attract a good woman. It seemed that Jiyoon had taken a liking to Daemyung, who listened to her story even after the consultation, and her eyes when she looked at Daemyung was not like when she looked at anyone else. Unfortunately, Daemyung hadn’t noticed yet, and Jiyoon was also giving hinting glances at him without taking action as she didn’t have the courage. It was fun to watch over teen romance like this. Maru decided to wait for the romance between the two to ripen as he made a dad smile.

Dowook also seemed to have noticed Jiyoon’s feelings, but he wasn’t someone who would interfere with others’ matters, so he would probably stay quiet.

‘Today’s the day the first years get to put emotions into the recital.’

Suyeon seemed to have created a proper curriculum as she took things step by step. She should lead the others well until the national teenage acting competition in the summer.

“Oh yeah. Maru, didn’t you say you were going to an audition?”

“It’s tomorrow. Also, it’s an interview, not an audition.”

He applied for the audition a while ago, and he received a message asking him to attend an interview two days ago. He was worried that his profile might get dropped before the interview, but fortunately, he passed.

“Wow, you’re going to debut now then?”

“I didn’t even take the audition. I don’t know whether I’m going to pass or not either.”

“Why do you sound so unconfident?”

“Because I am actually not confident at all.”

“Really?”

“This isn’t something I’ve done before, so what makes you think I’m confident about it? I’m just going to do what I learned to do.”

He learned about auditions from Geunsoo starting a while ago. As Geunsoo had experience filming an independent movie, Maru thought that he would be able to get a lot of information from him, and as he had expected, he helped out a lot. He also received some tips from Suyeon as well.

“You’ll do fine.”

“Why is endless confidence coming from you, not me?”

Maru smiled as he rested his head on his hand behind his head. JA building in Nonhyeon-dong, Gangnam. It was pretty obvious who the building belonged to from the name. He made a visit when he made the application, but it was a super tall building. There were at least dozens of people making an application on that day alone. Moreover, this audition did not reveal how many people they were planning to cast. Since there was a lack of information, it gave rise to uneasiness. Just as he thought about the audition tomorrow, his phone started ringing.

[Are you free today?] It was her.

[Anytime.]

[Isn’t there a problem if a guy has free time when he’s about to do an interview?]

[Because it’s you.]

There was no reply for a while. Maru could imagine her face which should be a mix of being creeped out and a smile. He soon got a message. However, it wasn’t from her.

[I hope this is the first piece I get to do with you.]

The message was from Junmin. The rather abstract words made him nervous.

Not long after that, another message arrived.

[Don’t feel too much pressure.]

It was Moonjoong.

‘Elder, you’re giving me more pressure instead,’ Maru thought.

[Good luck.]

That was from Gwak Joon. It was as though they conspired together. Perhaps the three were in the same place. Though, Maru did feel thankful that someone was thinking about him. At the same time, he became a little greedy. He wanted to get the role of the delinquent, but even if it weren't for that, he wanted to participate in this movie in some form or the other.

[I’ll wait for you in front of your school after school ends.]

This time, the message came from her. Maru smiled faintly as he texted back.

[Okay.]

Chapter 220

“I’ll be off, then,” Maru told his classmates as he left the classroom.

He put his bag on before climbing down the stairs. Drifting past the crowd of students after school was over, he left the front gates and walked straight towards the pedestrian overpass right in front of the school. His girlfriend told him that she’d be waiting in the fruit juice store on the other side of the overpass. He crossed the overpass and arrived in front of the store. He entered the store as he watched her, who was sitting by the window.

“You’re early,” Maru spoke as he sat down.

He thought she’d be wearing her school uniform, but she was wearing casual clothes.

“Today’s our school’s founding day. Didn’t I tell you that before?”

“Wouldn’t I remember if you told me?”

“You could have forgotten.”

“Unfortunately, I take pride in my memory. If you told me, I would never have forgotten.”

“Fine, fine, you’re awesome, I get it.”

“Did you just realize how great your boyfriend is?”

“I should just…,” She raised her fist as she said those words.

“Want to drink something?” Maru asked as he put his bag on the chair next to hers.

She replied ‘strawberry juice’ in a small voice. Maru soon went to the counter to order the drinks before returning to his seat.

“So your interview is tomorrow?”

“Yeah.”

“You should be nervous.”

“I’m fine with the interview, but I’m pressured by everyone who has expectations of me.”

“Should I not have come today?” She asked, with all of her smile gone. Maru just shrugged.

“The ring I gave you, you put it on.”

Her finger had the rabbit-shaped ring he gifted her last year. She covered her ring with her hand, but he had already seen everything.

“It suits you.”

“……It doesn’t look childish?”

“It looks cute on you.”

“I, is that so?”

She removed the hand that covered her ring. Maru went to the counter to get the drinks. The weather was getting warm. The droplets condensed on the outside of the glass felt good to touch.

“So you’re here to cheer me on?”

“No, not really, “ she spoke as she made a happy expression after drinking a sip. A smile of satisfaction blossomed on her face.

Maru felt his daily fatigue disappear just from looking at her. Feeling Maru’s gaze, she frowned a little.

“Don’t look at me like that.”

“Why?”

“It’s strange.”

“What’s so strange about me looking at my girlfriend?”

“Urgh.”

She flicked her finger to hit Maru’s forehead. Maru felt that he would be nagged at if he teased her anymore, so he decided to stop there. He looked away and drank the strawberry juice in front of him. The combination of carbonation and the strawberry taste was rather nice. He thought that he should frequent this place in the future.

“Let’s leave once you’re done,” Maru heard these words just as he thought that he found a nice place.

She put her handbag on her legs and was getting ready to get up.

“You finished it already?”

“Huh? Yeah.”

The 400ml glass was definitely almost full when it first came out and she drank all of it in just one gulp. This was very unusual of her since she usually spent an hour chatting over a glass of drink.

“I still have this much left,” Maru said as he showed her his glass that was still almost full.

“Then finish it quickly,” she frowned as she spoke.

“Why are you in such a rush today?”

“Don’t talk back to me and finish it already.”

She poured half of his glass into hers and gulped it down again in one go. Maru wanted to ask why she was doing that, but he had no choice but to drink down his own portion once he saw her pressing eyes. As soon as he finished his glass, she stood up.

“Let’s go.”

“Go where?”

“Follow me.”

As soon as Maru grabbed his bag, he felt her hand pulling on his clothes. Maru looked at her confusedly since she seemed like she was being chased by something.

“Did something happen?”

“N, no.”

‘Oh?’ She even started stuttering now. A panicked expression could clearly be seen on her face, yet her footsteps did not stop. They crossed the street and entered high street. This was where high school students from around the area all gathered around. Maru quickly followed her as she drifted through the crowd wearing school uniforms.

“Where are we going?”

“We’ll be there soon.”

Not telling their destination, she kept walking. Maru subconsciously smiled since she was like a girl overjoyed with knowing a secret. Going past the food stalls, she arrived at a street with shops and looked around before walking towards one of the stores gleefully. She went through the automatic door. Maru raised his head to look at the name of the store. This store was one that sold casual-style suits.

‘Suits?’ Maru wondered.

Heading inside, she hesitated a moment before being guided by one of the store attendants to one corner. Maru had a look at the array of suits on display. A strange smile appeared on his face since it reminded him of when he first entered his company in his previous life. The nervousness, fear and excitement from back then appeared in one corner of his heart.

“What are you doing?” She asked as she approached from behind.

“Can I ask you to fit me with a suit if I get employed by a good company in the future?”

“What are you talking about? That’s random.”

She pulled on Maru’s ears. Maru turned around where he saw a display of neckties.

“Come here.”

Standing in front of a full-body mirror, Maru stared at the necktie that she tried on him.

“Does this color suit you?” She asked herself as she put the navy-colored tie against his chest.

She soon put the tie back on display, clearly dissatisfied. She had a look at the other ties while tilting her head. Maru saw that the lady attendant from before was grinning while covering her mouth. He would have grinned as well. He was overjoyed that she was picking out a tie for him and it wasn’t so bad to wait for her decision, but he decided to interrupt her this time.

“You’re giving me a tie as a present?”

“Yeah. I’m always on the receiving end. Since you have an interview tomorrow, I thought a tie should be good. I mean, a suit and a pair of shoes are too expensive.”

“But I’m not wearing a suit for the interview,” His words made her stare back at him in a questioning light. Though even that seemed adorable to him.

“I should be wearing clothes that fit my role. If I’m acting as a company employee, then I would be wearing a suit, but the role I want is that of a delinquent.”

“Really?”

The tie in her hand rolled down towards the floor helplessly. The drooping necktie seemed to represent her current feelings.

“But……”

Maru quickly grabbed one of the ties that she had tried on him before.

“I’ll be needing one some day, so I guess it won’t be so bad to receive one from you now. No, in fact, it’d be better to get one from you now. I’ll treat it as a good luck charm.”

The tie in Maru’s hand was a dark blue one with a striped pattern. It was a common choice for a tie. She had a look at the tie that she chose and the one that Maru chose before nodding her head.

“That suits you. Though, it’s a little bland.”

“Bland neckties are the best kind.”

Maru stood in front of the mirror with the tie in hand. The sensation of silk he hadn’t touched in a long time, as well as the slippery feeling of the tie made him think that this was the reason why everyone studied hard since young.

He was about to put the tie on, when he saw her figure who was staring at him through the mirror.

“Put it on for me,” Said Maru as he turned around.

He leaned forward towards her with a big grin on his face. She flinched back.

“Why should I!”

“Because you’re buying it for me. You should at least do this much.”

“………”

“Please, you know I followed you obediently today.”

If she was capable of rational thought, she would have noticed that something was wrong with that reasoning, but Maru did not give her the chance to. Moreover, from the fact that she wasn’t so rejecting towards him made him feel that she didn’t hate it that much. Perhaps she just felt embarrassed. She slowly turned around to check the position of the store attendant before approaching him.

“How do I do it?”

“As you wish.”

Her thin hands grabbed the two ends of the tie. At first, she was embarrassed, but she soon gained focus. She tried many different knots to tie the tie. Maru waited patiently as he watched the adorable agony on her face.

Perhaps about three minutes passed.

“……That’s not the right way, right?” She said as she put her hands off the tie.

Maru said ‘let’s see’ before looking at the mirror. The tie was definitely on. It was just that the shape was seriously wrong.

“You did well for your first time. You’re good with your hands.”

Maru untied the weird knot. Then he slowly tied it back properly. He got to the point where he just had to pull the smaller part down.

“Here, grab this and pull it down gently.”

She carefully pulled on the tie. The faintly restrictive feeling on Maru’s neck made him realize again that it symbolized one’s resolve towards the world. With the tie on, one had to avoid the bullet hell that was criticism and the bomb that was incompetency to get a salary to feed the family.

“Why are you so good at it?” She asked, pouting.

“You’ll be able to do it once you’re my age.”

“You always talk about your age when I ask things like that.”

Hmph - she snorted and took the tie off him before approaching the sales clerk. Maru scanned the suits in the store before walking towards the counter.

“It’s 50,000 won.”

“50,000 won?”

“Yes.”

“Ah… Okay.”

With an awkward smile, she took out her wallet. It seemed that it was above her estimation. Maru hesitated on whether he should take his wallet out instead, but he decided to endure his impulse today. She was a proud girl. It would be better for him to stay still unless she asked him for help.

Fortunately, it wasn’t that she wasn’t lacking money. However, her wallet was completely empty after spending 50,000 won.

‘She’s pushing herself.’

The clerk put the tie in a paper bag. She received the bag before handing it to Maru.

“Use it well.”

“I’ll use it my entire life, so you don’t worry about that.”

“Then let’s go separate ways since we got our things done. You’re going to Seoul early tomorrow, aren’t you?”

Maru followed her out of the store. As the sun was starting to set, the sky was turning purple. The street lights started switching on one by one, and the store signs started lighting up. Posts indicating last batch discounts for the season could be seen everywhere.

She walked down the street with her hands behind her back. Oftentimes, she stopped when she found something to her liking, but she never lingered for a long time. Just as the two were about to exit the street though, she stopped in front of one of the stores. Her eyes were fixated on a rather crude wooden stand. To be exact, she seemed to be looking at a pair of shoes on the stand. She took a step forward to get a closer look at the pair of shoes. Following her gaze, Maru saw a pair of flat shoes. It was a pair of peach-colored shoes with a droplet-sized bead at the tip. The price was 30,000 won.

She reached out for her wallet inside her bag, but she flinched before turning around. Maru walked past the store as though nothing happened, but he clearly committed those shoes to memory.

“I can get the bus here.”

The bus came and she waved her hand as she got onboard. After confirming that the bus left, leaving a large amount of smoke behind, Maru put his hands inside his pockets and turned around to walk to the store from before.

“Hello?”

Maru picked up the pair of flat shoes that she had her eyes on earlier. The owner rushed out after hearing his voice.

“Yes, young one. What would you like?”

“Please pack this up for me.”

“Oooh? Whose gift is it?”

Hearing that question, Maru took out some money from his wallet before replying in a low voice.

“A girl I am going to see for a lifetime.”

Chapter 221

The first thing he saw when he woke up was the tie that he hung up on the clothes hanger. He had hung it up next to his door. This was his girlfriend’s first present to him with significant meaning. It was clear that it would bring him luck.

‘May today be filled with luck,’ he wished to himself.

When he took a shower, he saw his father, who had gone out hiking, at the table. He was reading the newspaper with a very heavy expression. Maru had a peek and saw that it was the cartoon section.

“To think it would end like this…”

He seemed to be an avid reader of that cartoon, as he seemed very disappointed with the ending. While his father went to the bathroom to wash himself, Maru had a simple breakfast.

“Oppa, you going out?”

“Yeah.”

“Where are you going?”

“Seoul.”

“Seoul?”

Leaving behind his sister, who waved him goodbye with a yawn, he left his house. He was wearing ordinary clothes just as Geunsoo advised him to. A grey t-shirt and a pair of jeans. However, he had prepared a red hat.

- There will be many people attending the audition. The managers can’t remember every single one of them. That’s why most of them try to remember each individual’s traits. ‘The guy that wore green’, ‘the guy wearing a red hat’, ‘the one with a mantis bite on the nose’ - like that. Bring with you something that makes you memorable but not something that makes you stand out. Also, since the audition will take place right after the interview, you should use the same clothes to attend the audition. Only then will the managers remember you.

When he asked back ‘what if the managers changed?’, he got the reply ‘that’s just your luck’. It was a reasonable answer, so he accepted it. On his way to the bus stop, he checked on his attire in a mirror. There weren’t any flaws.

On his bus trip to Seoul, he blankly stared outside the window. Many things happened during the past year and it was now the new year, but even though the year had just begun, he felt as though there were going to be a lot of things this year. If he managed to pass the interview, he would have to do the audition. If he passed even that, then the filming would begin.

‘A film, huh.’

The word felt too distant for him right now. A film was something to be watched, not something he could participate in. Although his appearance would amount to a few seconds at most, just participating in this film would be a huge opportunity for him to study. A hundred words couldn’t be compared to real experience. His horizons would be widened if he was able to experience the world of pros.

The bus stopped after moving along the wiggly roads of the city. Maru got off the bus and looked around him. There were huge skyscrapers on each side of the road. He walked down the road and stopped in front of one of the buildings.

There was a revolving central door and automatic doors on the sides. Above it was a relief carving that read ‘JA’. Although this was his second visit, he still wasn’t used to the pressure the building gave off. There were many people who entered through the revolving door. And the majority of them were young.

Maru walked through the automatic door. On his front was the first floor lobby. On the left side of the huge pillar that seemed to support the entire building was the company entrance guarded by a security guard, while on the right was the coffee shop that took nearly a third of all the space on the first floor. The comfy round sofas in the cafe were occupied by many people. On their necks hung rectangular plastic ID cards.

There was a bank next to the coffee shop, but it was closed since it was a Sunday.

‘It feels somewhat affectionate’, he thought.

He was somewhat relieved since it reminded him of when he was a salaryman. As this building had an entertainment company inside, he thought that everyone here worked in that industry, but the building actually contained many different companies of many different businesses.

Maru got into the elevator and pressed the button for the seventh floor. His destination today, JA Productions, was on the seventh floor. Just as the door shut half-way, he heard a voice shouting “Wait!” from afar. He saw someone shifting through the crowd towards the elevator. As there was still time, Maru pressed the open button.

“Phew, thank you very much,” thanked a boy around his age. He was wearing a blue check-patterned shirt, which suited his distinct facial features.

That boy looked up at the buttons to press the floor he wanted to go to, but did not press anything once he saw that the 7th floor was already lit up. It seemed that he had come for the interview as well. The door slowly closed and the elevator started moving. An awkward silence flowed.

Just then,

“Uhm, you’re here for the interview too?”

Maru wondered who the boy was talking, to but realized that he was the only other person here, so he replied.

“Yeah.”

Since the boy didn’t sound formal, he decided to use informal speech as well.

“Oh really? Nice to meet you, I’m here for the interview as well.”

The boy extended his hand out like it was nothing serious. Maru blankly stared at the hand in front of him. While he was somewhat confused by this gesture, it was hard to ignore him since the boy had a bright smile on his face.

‘Someone that asks for a handshake on the first encounter, huh. Are kids these days all like this? Did I become too conservative?’ He wondered.

“It’s getting a little embarrassing, so can you shake my hand please?”

The boy awkwardly laughed to himself as he raised his hand.

‘Oh?’ Maru didn’t hate his straightforwardness. He shook his hand.

“Let us both pass, yeah? For our dreams and the future.”

“…Work hard.”

This guy was rather strange. Maru thought that he shouldn’t get close to this guy. He had his fair share of eccentric people around him. It was getting to the point he missed people with actual common sense.

“I’m so excited. An interview before the audition. Perhaps this is what it feels like to be a pro?”

Indeed, excitement could be felt from his voice as well. Maru tried his best not to look at the boy. It was obvious that things would get annoying if he met the other guy’s eyes.

Fortunately, the elevator was fast and soon arrived at the 7th floor. As soon as the door opened, Maru left the elevator. He felt a soft sensation from his feet. It came from the carpet on the floor. In front of him was a huge glass window, which allowed him to look inside. Maru walked to the right along the long glass wall. At the end of the corridor was where he turned in his application form.

“I visited this place last time, but man, this place is huge.”

The other guy had already caught up. Even though all they did was have a brief conversation and a handshake, it felt like the two were long time buddies already. It looked like he would put his arms around Maru’s shoulders at any moment.

The scary part was that his sociability didn’t warrant any repulsion. In fact, it was the opposite, Maru felt more sociable towards him. He had no basis to judge this person at all, yet somehow, he thought the boy was a decent person.

Maru stopped walking and let the blue-shirt go ahead of him. The blue-shirt exclaimed while looking at the scenery around him before coming back to him.

“Aren’t you going?”

“Go ahead.”

“Why?”

“It’s not like we’re here together.”

“But we came here together. I got on the elevator thanks to you. Isn’t that what you call fate? Damn, now that’s what I call fate.”

He was even shaking slightly as he said that.

“Sure.”

At that moment, the blue-shirt looked at one corner of the corridor before walking towards the place. Perhaps there was someone he knew?

“You shouldn’t litter.”

The blue-shirt picked up a piece of tissue. He then started walking towards the trash can which was far away. Maru walked to the end of the corridor in the meanwhile. When he turned left at the end of the corridor, he saw many people. They were all sitting in seats lined up in the corridor, and were looking at the door that faced them with heavy expressions.

There were around thirty of them. That was a big number considering that it was still 10 in the morning. As far as Maru knew, the interview would continue until late afternoon. This meant that people would be arriving as time passed. He was surprised to see that so many people remained after the profile review.

“Hey, you went ahead of me.”

The blue-shirt had already caught up and spoke as he put his chin on Maru’s shoulder. It was a really annoying gesture, but it strangely didn’t annoy Maru that much. It perhaps had to do with his blinding smile of his. This guy had a peculiar ability to make those around him feel better.

“Wow, that’s a lot of people. Will I be able to pass?”

Maru looked at the blue-shirt, who clearly seemed capable of having a conversation by himself. Most people would get frustrated and no longer talk to him by this point, but this guy just didn’t seem to care.

“Wow. That girl over there is really pretty. Will I be able to work with her if I pass the audition?” The blue shirt spoke as he looked at every person here.

Maru decided to ignore him since dealing with this guy seemed like a pain. He sat down on an empty seat at the end and waited. The only notification he got was a message that he was going to hold a simple interview. Since the audition would happen later, the interviewers would at most look at his first impressions and voice.

It was just as he was waiting calmly for his turn. He saw a lady with a cart full of cleaning supplies. She seemed to be a janitor here. The lady pushed the cart very carefully so as to not disturb anyone here, but made a grim expression seeing that the corridor was packed with people. The people around seemed to have noticed her presence, but did not take any action at all… Everyone seemed so occupied with themselves that they didn’t have any leisure to care for other people.

Someone stepped in though. It was none other than the blue-shirt.

“Lady, do you need to go to the other side?”

“What? Oh, yes, I do.”

“It’d be nice if you can get there directly, but the people here are waiting for an important moment in their life. What’s the way round?”

“If I want to take another route, I’ll need to take the stairs…”

The business-only elevator seemed to be in maintenance. So it would be really difficult to drag the cart up and down the stairs. The lady’s predicament could be felt.

“I’ll help.”

“W, will you be alright? Aren’t you here for the same reason as them?”

“I can come back right after this anyway.”

The blue-shirt stood in front of the cart with an expression that told the lady not to worry. The lady was still worried that he might screw things up because of her.

“Let’s go.”

The blue-shirt started pushing the cart. Maru watched as the two walked away. He thought that while he was a good guy, his good nature might make others take advantage of him one day.

“Mr. Yoo Jiseok?” Someone came out from the interview room and called a name out. However, no one amongst the interviewees made a move.

“Mr. Yoo Jiseok from Film, are you not here?”

Maru had a look at the corridor. The two had disappeared. He felt a bad premonition. He scratched his eyebrows.

‘Now then, what do I do,’ he wondered.

“Excuse me, can I have a look at his photo? There’s someone that urgently went to the bathroom just now.”

“Oh, okay.”

The application form that the lady showed him indeed had his face on it.

“He’ll be back soon, so why don’t you continue with someone else?”

“But his number…”

“He was here just before, and he left just now. If you had told him beforehand, he wouldn’t have left.”

Hearing that, the lady looked inside the interview room. The people inside looked at her and asked what happened.

“The next interviewee went to the bathroom.”

“The bathroom?”

“Yes.”

“Well, I guess it doesn’t matter. It’s not like we told him his order. Put him at the end and call the next one.”

“Yes.”

The lady put his application form at the bottom. Maru had a look at the corridor in the meanwhile, but there were no signs of him.

“How long does it take to take those stairs over there to go to the other side?”

“The stairs? Since today’s a Sunday, no one’s allowed into the office on the eighth floor, so you’d have to go to the 9th floor, so it would take some time.”

“……And please excuse me, when is my turn? My name is Han Maru.”

The lady spoke after flipping over the application forms.

“You’re last.”

“Then everyone here should be before me, right?”

“Yes.”

“Okay, thank you,” as soon as he heard the answer, Maru started walking down the corridor.

‘Consider yourself lucky.’

Maru wouldn’t have moved if his profile wasn’t at the bottom. However, now that he knew that he had some time, he didn’t want to just ignore it. He didn’t hate the blue-shirt’s straightforward kindness that much. Although the world was one where kind people were taken advantage of, only when there were such people in the world was the world not so frustrating. He thought that he should help out when he could.

“Where are the stairs?” Maru asked people for directions before hurrying.

Chapter 222

Walking up the stairs to the 8th floor, Maru was able to catch up with the blue-shirt, Yoo Jiseok, who was struggling to pull the cart up the stairs.

“Why are you so late?” He asked with a flushed expression.

“Jeez, you’re a strange guy.”

“Speak later and help me pull this up the stairs. I somehow managed to pull it up here from the 7th floor, but I reached my limit.”

It seemed that the loaded cart was rather heavy for Jiseok, who was 170cm tall and quite skinny. He probably only got here with the help of the lady who carried the contents of the cart up the stairs by hand.

“Careful. You’ll get hurt.”

The lady came down and spoke, her expression full of worry.”

“It’s fine. We can pull this up the stairs in one go if we felt like it. Right?”

He didn’t sound that convincing since he was panting heavily. Not only that, since when were they on such close terms? Maru clicked his tongue and stood next to Jiseok.

“I’ll pull from the front. You push from the b…”

“Nah, get out of the way. It’ll be dangerous for a rookie to be at the front.”

“This thing is heavy, though.”

“That’s because you aren’t using your strength the correct way.”

Pushing Jiseok aside, Maru grabbed the bottom of the cart and put the weight against his waist and thighs.

‘It’s within my limits.’

In his new life, his physical body was more developed than his previous one. Exerting strength into his lower stomach, he started pulling the cart. The wheels rattled against the stairs, slowly climbing.

“Whoa, you’re strong!”

“Don’t just cheer for me, push a little from the back.”

“Got it.”

With someone to push from the back, it was much easier to pull for Maru. Maru pulled the cart all the way onto the corridor of the 9th floor in one breath.

“My, my. Thanks for all your help. There’s a supply room on this floor so I’ll be fine by myself.”

The lady bought the two of them some canned coffee from the vending machine. As this matter ended much earlier than Maru expected it to, the two had enough time to drink.

“They shouldn’t have called my name yet, right?”

“Probably.”

It would be a pain to explain, so Maru decided to pretend not to know. The interview continued and it soon became Jiseok’s turn.

“I’m going off first, then.”

As soon as Jiseok went in, people flooded out from where the elevator was. It was over 11 o’clock right now. They seemed to be the next set up interviewees. As Maru had expected, they were all very young. The interview was only 2 to 3 minutes long. Some even came out as soon as they entered. Jiseok also left the interview room after around 5 minutes.

“Wow, you were waiting for me?”

Ignoring Jiseok who came towards him with a big grin, Maru walked into the interview room.

“Han Maru.”

“Oh, yes. Please go in.”

The lady made way for him. Maru went into the interview room, quietly closed the door and stood next to the chair. In front of him were 3 people, of whom, 1 he knew.

The person in the middle was a very large middle-aged man. He asked after looking at Maru’s application.

“Han Maru?”

“Yes.”

“Sit down.”

He sat down on the metal chair and sat upright. He pulled his chin inward and gazed at the middle-aged man who seemed to be asking the questions. The middle-aged man glanced at Maru over his glasses.

“Are you in high school?”

“Yes.”

“And you read the original work?”

“Yes, I have.”

“What role do you want to be?”

“The delinquent.”

“Every. Single. One of you wants that role.”

The middle-aged man tapped on the chair with the pen in his hand. He looked towards his left as though he had no more questions to ask. The man he looked at was likewise middle-aged, but unlike the middle man, he was well-built.

“You might not be able to go to school once we start filming. Is that fine with you?”

“It doesn’t matter.”

“Depending on the location, we might go somewhere far, and in those cases, we might take some time. It might not end in just one or two days, and you might be stuck in the location for a long time without a good reason if we decide to reshoot scenes. If something happens during the shoot, the filming might get delayed and you might stay there without shooting for the entire day. That might have an impact on your studies. Is that fine with you?”

“Yes. It’s not like I study well enough that missing a few days will impact my grades much.”

“Damn kid. You speak well.”

The man in the middle spoke.

“Please, mind your etiquette.”

“Well, he’s younger than me.”

“Obviously. But being older isn’t something to boast about.”

“Oh fine, I get it. I’ll stay quiet, so you do whatever you want. You might as well be the director. Why don’t you write the script, do the filming and do the editing all by yourself?”

The man in the middle became quiet, but he was clearly pouting. The one on the left shook his head and told Maru not to mind him.

“Is it possible for you to do a role other than the delinquent?”

“I’ll try the audition and accept whatever outcome you give me.”

“Haha, that’s asking us to let you pass the interview.”

The man on the left nodded his head and stayed quiet. Maru then looked at the man on the right. Was he supposed to act like he knew the guy or what?

Just as he was contemplating, the man spoke.

“You have quite a peculiar name. Han Maru. What does it mean? Your name Maru shouldn’t be the maru meaning floor, right?”

“It means the sky.”

Hearing that, the man in the middle clicked his fingers and spoke.

“That’s a good name. The sky, huh? Man proposes, heaven disposes! Looks like having him on board will greatly increase our luck. Hey you, come to the audition. That’s it! We’re finished. Let’s eat. I’m dying from hunger.”

“There’s still around 150 people left.”

“What? 150 people? Are you kidding? What about food?”

“Make do with some bread. We don’t have any time.”

“This is why I wanted to do this interview in groups. Jeez, this guy just doesn’t have any leeway.”

“Can I tell that to the producer?”

“…Do you want to never see me again?”

The man in the middle was rather grumbly, while the man on the left was very strict. Maru looked at the two of them before greeting the man on the right with his eyes. The greeted man, Gwak Joon, faintly smiled.

“Thanks for coming. You may leave.”

“Yes.”

Maru stood up and left the interview room. It seemed that this interview wasn’t intended to filter out people with bad personalities. This meant that the interview was intended to see if the candidates matched the character in the story in regards to body shape, expression, and voice and other external factors.

“Fuu.”

Despite that, Maru seemed to have been a little nervous as he sighed in relief after leaving the room. He walked along the long corridor before carrying himself onto the elevator. He pressed the first floor before closing his eyes.

‘Since I’m in Seoul, should I look around a little before I go back?’

Thinking that, he stepped out of the elevator.

“You’re done?”

Someone ran towards him while waving his hand. It was Jiseok. Behind Jiseok were five others around the same age. All of them were looking his way. Perhaps they were Jiseok’s friends who came to cheer him on.

‘Wait, friends?’

Maru squinted and had a closer look at those people. Although they were all sitting on the same sofa, they clearly looked very awkward. Maru walked up towards them and asked.

“Who here knows each other?”

All five of them shook their heads at the same time.

“We can get to know each other from now. We are one, we are friends. Where else would you find people like this? Right? We’re at the same age, and we’re here for the same audition. Now that’s a drama in itself.”

Jiseok was practically blessing this meeting. Maru left him to speak and asked the five other people.

“Who here feels awkward?”

When he asked that, all five of them raised their hands. There was no way that Jiseok’s personality was something that they could get along with easily.

“You can go then. Our ancestors were never wrong when they said not to hang out with crazy people.”

Leaving behind Jiseok, who was clearly very excited and was making exaggerated motions like punching the air, they left the building. The five others followed Maru out and separated after wishing each other luck. Maru was also about to leave before the annoying guy followed him, but that guy wasn’t ordinary.

“What, you’re leaving already?”

He was going down the stairs to get the bus, when the excited voice called out to him from behind. Maru kept walking while making a ‘I don’t know this crazy guy’ face, but Jiseok got close without minding that at all.

“Hey.”

“Yes?”

“Aren’t you going home?”

“We just met, so it would be a pity if we separated, right? We’re all colleagues around here so we should get together and do something big, yeah?”

“What colleagues. If you have so much energy, then why don’t you go run a lap around the park and go home and sleep?”

“You’re so cruel. But, that cruelty makes you charming. You’re the type that’s popular with the ladies.”

“Oh, and you can see that?”

“A little?”

This guy never ran out of things to talk about. Maru knew that this guy didn’t have any malicious intentions. He was a cheerful guy. It was just that his wave of cheerfulness assaulted others around him. As someone relaxing on a lone boat amidst calm waters, this guy was a catastrophe.

“I’ll give you an irresistible offer!”

Saying that he pulled out two tickets. They were rather familiar.

“This is all the rage these days.”

The tickets he pulled out were for ‘The Lottery Dream’.

“As an actor, you can’t miss out an opportunity to watch a field manual[a] play like this, no?”

“Do you even know what a field manual is?”

“I do. My brother is in the military.”

He grinned as he said that. It was the same ticket as the one Miso gave him to watch with the rest of the club. He already made an appointment to watch it next weekend. Although it was worth watching the play twice, Maru wondered if it was really worth watching the play once again with a guy like this.

“You can go watch it by yourself.”

“Why!”

Jiseok blocked Maru’s way with puppy eyes. This guy… he was a strong enemy. Even Maru, who was adept at resolving human relationships, couldn’t easily get this guy off him.

“You don’t have any friends?”

“I don’t.”

“………”

“I moved around a lot. I was in Busan just a while ago. I do have friends, but there’s no one I can meet right now.”

“You’re making me feel sorry.”

“You feel sorry? Then let’s watch it together. Today’s the last day. It’ll be a waste to not use it.”

“Haah.”

Maru took out his phone. It was 12:11. Since the play started at 3, there would be plenty of time even if he ate lunch and went to Hyehwa station afterwards.

“Did you have lunch yet?”

“No.”

“Then let’s go get something to eat first.”

“…I don’t have any money though.”

“Then I’ll treat you so shut up for the next three hours. Not a bad deal, right?”

“Then I’ll skip.”

Maru felt a headache. When he walked while pressing on his head, Jiseok followed suit. In his mind, he was thinking, ‘They wouldn’t do the audition together right? They wouldn’t both be picked for the role, right? It would be a real pain if that happened.’

“Oh yeah,”

Maru glared at Jiseok, who poked at his side.

“What was your name again?”

‘So he’s asking that now?’ Maru shook his head and walked forward.

“Hey! I’m asking what your name is!”

Jiseok’s voice reverberated in his ears.

* * * *

“To think that you’d show up for picking a minor role, the apocalypse must be approaching.”

Choi Joonggeun spoke as he glanced at the director, Park Hoyoung.

“That’s how serious I am about this. Joon, you should receive a glass from me.”

Hoyoung poured a glass for Gwak Joon.

“Thanks everyone for today. It’s over now. The manhunt is going well, and the team is awesome. Now, all that’s left is to get a good picture.”

“We didn’t hold the audition yet though.”

“I don’t want to put that on my mind. The pros will do something about it. How about you, Joon? Did you see anyone you like?”

“I found a few.”

“There you go. Let’s reflect on the original author’s opinions as much as possible.”

Clang! They toasted with the soju glasses.

“Let’s do this. I should leave behind something big during my megaphone life.”

“7 million is not enough for you?”

“It’s definitely not enough. 10 million. That’s my target.”

“Silmi-do already hit that though.”

“Then 20 million!”

“That’s a big dream.”

“I can do it, I know I can!”

Hoyoung put down his soju glass and started drinking from the bottle.

“Stop! I’m not dealing with you drunk again.”

Joonggeun restrained him. Meanwhile, Gwak Joon just flipped over the grilling meat after giving a glance at the two.

[a]In Korea, 'field manual(FM)' is similar to being 'classic', 'textbook'. I was going to use the word textbook, but the lines after it gave me no choice

Chapter 223

“Thanks for the food!” Said Jiseok as he left the restaurant.

“This is the first time I tried Seonji Gukbap (Blood pudding soup & rice), but it was unexpectedly good. It has a unique charm to it that’s different from Seolleongtang (Ox bone soup).”

Although Jiseok didn’t look like it with his skinny body, he actually ate quite a lot. He quickly finished his own bowl of Seolleongtang that he ordered and eyed the Seonji Gukbap that Maru ordered. As he was practically drooling, Maru had no choice but to order another bowl of Seonji Gukbap, and Jiseok started gobbling away as soon as it arrived. Seeing him eat reminded Maru of a farmer hurriedly doing away with his meal to work. If he was given some makgeoli (rice wine) to drink, he might have exclaimed out loud after finishing it in one gulp. Even after finishing his second meal, Jiseok stared at the menu. He was always hungry for more in life, quite literally.

“Let’s be friends from now on. Someone that treats me to a meal will never be a bad person.”

“Who told you that?”

“My dad.”

“Now that’s a very dangerous perspective of life he has there. Remember that the one that treats you food is the most dangerous person.”

They walked towards the subway station while chewing on the mint candy that the store has as dessert. Their destination was Hyehwa station. Since it came to this, he decided that he wanted to just enjoy the play. As soon as the two got on the train, Maru walked away from Jiseok. He didn’t want to pretend like he knew this childish guy who took both of his hands off the handle and acted cool as though he wasn’t affected by the movement of the train.

“Perhaps this is what it feels like to skateboard.”

“Yeah right.”

“No, I’m sure it would feel like this.”

Maru thought that this guy would probably do well even on an uninhabited island. Perhaps he might name a volleyball “Wilson” and play with it joyfully until his death. This guy was definitely more than capable of doing that. After watching him for a while, they soon arrived at Hyehwa station. As today was Sunday, there were a lot of people. There were students who came to watch plays, as well as couples of various age groups that came on dates. The weather today was perfect for a picnic. Though, Maru felt rather depressed since it wasn’t her that was by his side today.

“We have time to look around.”

The time was 2:27. Since the play started at 3, they still had some time left. Since it was Sunday, there were a lot of street performers as well. Many of them were skilled and it was a pity that they were performing for free. When Maru took the chatty Jiseok for a stroll around the Marronnier Park, around 20 minutes had passed. It was about time. The two went towards the theater. There was a long queue outside and they were all people waiting to enter the theater that Ganghwan and Miso were actors at.

“I knew this was a popular play,” said Jiseok excitedly as he made a victory pose. After that, he tip-toed to peek inside the entrance. This guy liked plays too much.

“Do you like plays that much?”

“Rather than the plays, I like the people, I mean, the actors that bring out their all on the stage.”

Maru nodded his head since the reply was unexpectedly normal. The queue soon started moving forward until they reached the person that checked the tickets.

“Oh!”

Someone unexpected was checking the tickets.

“It’s been a long time, noona,” greeted Maru.

“Han Maru, it’s been a while.”

She was the actress Hanna that he met while commuting to the practice room in Suwon. The person that acted as a bridge between Maru and her.

“I heard a rumor that things went well between the two of you after that.”

“Thanks to you, noona, we’re going out.”

“Wow, you didn’t miss the opportunity, huh. Now that’s what I call a man,” She sounded as cheerful as she always did.

“So, what stage have you gone to? The one after the kiss? Tell me, tell me,” and she still liked to make sexual jokes.

“We’re taking it slow.”

“You sly wolf.”

“Rather than that, how is it between you and Suchan-hyung?”

“What can there be between me and that romanticist? Last winter, we went to Jeongdongjin together and even booked a room, but he never touched me. I told him not to cross the line I drew, and he really never did. He’s worse than a beast. I might as well assault him after drinking three bottles of Soju.”

“…Please don’t harass him sexually. He’s too pitiful.”

“Heheh, don’t worry about that. He won’t feel any pain,” said Hanna with a devious smile. As she did, she showed Maru the ring on her ring finger.

“At least he proposed to me.”

“He proposed? Are you two getting married?”

“Not yet. We don’t even have a house yet. It’s more of a proof that we’re each other’s. I was so frustrated so I threatened him to propose to me. I got this a while after that,” Said Hanna as she proudly showed off her left hand. She looked very happy.

After she checked the tickets for the two, she returned them after slightly ripping the ends of them.

“Are you in the play as well?”

“I’m in as a double cast. Only, I’m a little sad because Miso-unni’s popularity is so high,” said Hanna as she pretended to sob.

“Anyway, have a good time. And you too, the one next to Maru.”

“Yes!” Replied Jiseok as he took a step forward.

“Uhm, if it’s not too rude of me, can I give you a hug? I really enjoyed ‘Your Story’ from back then.”

“Huh? That’s R-19 though, so you shouldn’t be able to watch it.”

“I passed because my face looks a little old.”

“You… you just caught my fancy.”

Hanna lightly hugged Jiseok. This was just a scene where a strange woman recognized a strange guy. Maru quickly entered the theater in fear that he might be affected by the weird energy that these two gave off.

“Don’t keep going ahead. You’re making me feel bad.”

Jiseok soon caught up and sat down next to Maru. He hadn’t visited small theaters for quite a while. The facilities here were quite nice and he was able to stretch his legs. Some old small theaters were cramped to the point that his shoulder would be touching the person next to him.

“Are you acquainted with that noona?”

“We practiced together for a while. I was the actor, and she would give me tips from time to time.”

“Wow, you must be quite capable!” Jiseok’s chatter continued until the audience lights dimmed. Only signs that hinted the existence of stairs were still lit, and the theater darkened. Some of the people in the audience that were chatting also quietened down. Although there were more than a hundred people in this small space, not a breath could be heard. Maru liked the silence that he could feel just before a play. He was able to feel the silence even when he was behind the stage, and that silence stimulated the tension around his body. It was the coziness that told him that the play was about to start.

“Phew.”

He heard a short breath next to him. When he looked around to see Jiseok’s expression, Maru groaned slightly. Jiseok’s eyes had changed completely. His usual easygoing smile had turned into something completely foreign. There are times when extreme focus induces fear into the ones observing, and the air around Jiseok was exactly like that right now. With his chin resting on his hands, he was staring at the stage. It was as though he was saying that he would not miss a single thing that was about to occur.

Maru didn’t feel that Jiseok would reply even if he tried to talk to him. Not that he had any intention to. In any case, he thought that he would have some peace when he appreciated this play. Soon, the play began, starting with the narration.

- Next up, the first prize for the lottery has broken its previous record. The first place prize is 8 billion won. And there is only one winner.

After the news commentary, a person hurriedly entered the stage from the wall on the left of the stage. A man wearing baggy clothes. He was none other than Ganghwan. He looked restless as he looked around him as though he had stolen something. Not long later, he took out a piece of paper from his chest pocket.

“I, I won! I actually won!”

He shivered in glee, but soon, he regained his calm expression and continued to look around him. At that moment, another actor rushed out from the other side of the stage, panting. The light shining on Ganghwan dimmed a little before it brightened on the other person. It was Miso, with ruffled hair and wearing training clothes. As this was the first time Maru saw Miso acting on stage, Maru felt rather unfamiliar and weird.

“This isn’t a dream right? I actually won right? The heavens have finally given me an opportunity, right?”

Miso too took out a piece of paper and shone it against the sunlight. She kowtowed towards the piece of paper as though she was some priest giving prayer. Soon, she too became wary of her surroundings.

The lights then focused on both of them before some others started walking past them. Ganghwan and Miso acted as the ‘completely suspicious person’ with all of their bodies. Soon, the two of them bumped into each other in the middle of the stage. Both of them dropped the paper in their hands on the floor, and both of them screamed at the same time.

“NO!”

“MY MONEY!”

The lights faded out. The stage changed in the darkness. When the lights turned on again, there was a pojang macha (street stall-like restaurant). Ganghwan and Miso were inside, sitting around a table. On the table were numerous empty bottles of soju.

“How are you going to compensate for this? Mine was a 1st place prize!”

Ganghwan acted like a drunkard. His slurred speech was so natural that he really sounded drunk.

“That’s what I want to say. How are you going to compensate for my 1st place lottery ticket?”

“Hey, woman. That’s a bold lie you have there.”

“You and your bullshit!”

Both of them glared at each other. However, they didn’t seem to have any energy to fight and just sat back down and started drinking again.

“If I had that money then I’d…,” Ganghwan abruptly stood mid way. The lights changed and his soliloquy began.

“First, I would be able to buy a house. An extremely large one at that. Also, the sofa must be big. Big enough for me to lie down on it and still have some room left over!”

After that, the actors walking around at the back of the stage quickly came out and cleared out the stage before setting it up with a sofa. Looking at that, Maru realized how this play was unfolding. Ganghwan lay down on the sofa and picked up the remote control for the TV. Then, he continued the play, his drunkenness gone.

* * * *

Along with a round of applause, the curtain call began. The play was a romantic comedy with a story of two people, who discussed their dreams after losing the lottery tickets, eventually becoming lovers. The imaginations of the two people in the pojang macha was recreated on stage, and as the story progressed, their imaginations changed from completely unrealistic to somewhat realistic. The ending was a rather stereotypical one where neither of them had actually won the lottery, but the play was so interesting that the ending didn’t matter at all. The nonchalant acting of the two people on stage as well as the side characters restlessly changing the props on the stage induced everyone to laugh.

This was a very enjoyable play, and it was also one that was easy for people that found plays difficult to enjoy regardless. It was worth it for Miso to hand out the tickets herself. There should be no better play to watch for the first years than this. It was both interesting, and the acting of the actors were good. It had no profound depth to it, but it had the magic of making the audience forget the flow of time, so it was overall very splendid.

The actors came to the stage and took a bow together. What came next was something exclusive to small theaters like this - a time where the audience got to interact with the actors. Ganghwan and Miso sat down on a chair and wiped off their sweat. They answered the questions that some members of the audience asked, and took photos with people that told them that they were fans.

“Miso-noona! I’m a fan of yours!”

Jiseok, who was also seriously watching the play went to the stage and stood next to Miso. Maru felt good to watch him be so happy. After returning to the seat, Jiseok boasted to him that he took a photo with her.

“You should take a photo with her too. This is a great opportunity.”

“Nah, I’m good.”

“Why!”

“I’m good.”

“No. I can not allow you to miss this opportunity as your friend.”

After photo time, the audience left the theater one by one and by that time, Jiseok grabbed Maru’s arm and took him to the stage. The staff of the theater respectfully told them that it was time to leave. As Maru didn’t want to disturb people, he was going to abide when a voice from the stage stopped him in his steps.

“Hey! You should at least say hi if you’re here!”

Miso was waving her hand at him with glee. Maru saw that Jiseok was staring at him, his jaws agape. Maru hated those eyes. Those eyes were asking him to explain what this was about. Maru smiled bitterly and went to the stage.

Chapter 224

“I very much enjoyed your performance.”

“Too late for that now. You should at least say that before I called out to you. Why did you try to leave without saying anything? Do we amount to just that?”

Maru replied to that while evading the jab that Miso threw at his chest.

“There’s a saying that people will get bored of one another if they see each other too much. I think there is a need for us to distance ourselves a little.”

“Ugh, you and your retorts again. It would be good if you showed your obedient side a little more.”

“I’ll consider it if you become quiet, Miso-seonbae.”

“I should just…,” as Miso approached Maru with a death glare, Ganghwan also waved at the audience one final time before walking over.

“I thought you’d be visiting with your friends at the club, but surprisingly, you’re here with someone else.”

Hearing that, Maru corrected him immediately.

“He’s no friend. He’s more of a foodie. I saw him for the first time today.”

“Yeah?” Saying that, Ganghwan had a look at Jiseok. Even though he was supposed to feel ashamed, Jiseok asked Ganghwan for a handshake with a bright smile.

“I decided to become friends with Maru starting today. Friends aren’t friends for a reason, right? Maru is avoiding me because he feels embarrassed, but I don’t mind at all. And also, if it’s not too much to ask, can I ask for your autograph right here?” Asked Jiseok as he took off his blue shirt and showed Ganghwan the back of it. Ganghwan seemed a little taken aback. Maru shook his head when Ganghwan gave him a glance.

‘That thing is a rare species. Do as you see fit.’

“An autograph is nothing special. But this is a permanent marker. Is that alright with you?”

“Actually, I’m glad that it is. It wouldn’t get erased from washing the clothes. Also, I want your autograph too, noona. Is that alright with you?”

“Sure.”

Receiving the autographs of the two people, Jiseok put on the shirt with an expression of complete satisfaction.

“That’s one energetic friend you have there.”

“He’s too energetic for his own good. And I’ll say this again, I’m not friends with him,” after saying that, Maru gave a glance to the people moving busily behind Miso, who had a smile on her face. They were the ones who changed the stage layout during the play.

“Are all of them actors?”

“Them? Yeah they are. They’re idiots who keep doing this job even though they know that this industry has zero stability.”

Although her words were harsh, her gaze as she watched them was warmer than ever.

“I’ll help out as well!”

Jiseok spoke as he walked towards the stage. This guy must think that staying still is a sin. Although the others found him awkward at first, they soon started giving him tasks to do. Really, his sociability was top notch.

“But really, who is that guy?”

“I met him at the interview. He’s a little… I mean, very strange.”

“Why is your evaluation of him so low? I think he’s alright from what I saw so far,” Ganghwan spoke. It seemed that he took a liking to Jiseok. Ganghwan was no less peculiar than Jiseok, so those two would probably get along well. No, actually, it was obvious that putting those two together would be the cause of something huge, so they had to be separated no matter what.

“What about the interview?”

“I did well.”

“Well, from your confidence, I guess you really did do well.”

“Actually, all that happened was a simple round of greetings and a few lines of conversation, so I couldn’t have done bad.”

“There are plenty of people who can’t do those ‘few lines of conversation’. In that regard, your nonchalance is a gift from heaven.”

“I guess you’re right in some sense.”

Maru smiled hearing those words. ‘Gift from heaven’ wasn’t entirely wrong. The fact that he was able to restart with his experiences intact was thanks to god’s interference.

‘No, to be exact, I guess it’s thanks to her?’

The grandma that gave her opportunity at reincarnation up to him. Now, he wasn’t able to remember what she was like since all of his memories after his death were blurry, but he could still make out the figure who was smiling warmly towards him. The experiences he had were his, but the fact that he could start over was thanks to her.

“Since you’re confident about the interview, I guess you should prepare for the audition now.”

“Even though I’m trying to, I don’t really get what I should prepare. Free acting and script acting. That’s all the information I have about it.”

“They want to know how you would act in that situation. Also, they get to see the range of your acting. Don’t get nervous just because it’s the audition. There’s nothing more ugly than an actor getting nervous in front of the audience,” Ganghwan patted Maru’s shoulders as he said that.

“Well, you’d probably do fine on your own.”

“You don’t have any tips for me?”

“To tell you something, my picky disciple, don’t standardize the character you’re acting and try to force yourself into being that character. A film director will have an image of what the character should be like in their heads, but more often than not, that image would change during the audition. A friend of mine who auditioned for a murderer role wore a suit to the audition and spoke his lines like a british gentleman. He got that role in the end. ‘isn’t there anything more boring than a psychopathic murderer that screams like mad?’ - that’s what he told me after that interview.”

“He shouldn’t have been picked if acting like a gentleman was all he did, right?”

“Of course. When he took the audition, there were four judges, and he only gave a glance to one of the four. Everyone said that he was no good, but that one person said that he was the one. This is actually quite a famous story in this field. In the end he was picked for the reason that ‘that dude might actually stalk someone in the middle of the night and stab someone’.”

“I’m not sure if that’s a compliment or an insult.”

“It means that he was that good at acting.”

“Did he become famous?”

“Unfortunately, the film was cancelled and he quit being an actor. He’s running a cafe in Hongdae (Hongik university region) now.”

“Why is the ending to such a good story so depressing?”

“If it had a sweet ending, it would be a drama. It’s bitter because it’s life.”

“It’s a little too bitter.”

“Should I sprinkle some sugar?” Just as they were conversing, Jiseok came back, sweating profusely. This guy really had poor stamina. One of the actors that moved around the stage props brought him a cup of water with a pitying expression.

“Th, thank you.”

Jiseok drank the water while panting.

“Are you aiming to become an actor as well?” Miso asked Jiseok.

“Yes. My dream is to become an actor.”

“It’s tough, you know? It’s better to give up right now.”

“If it was something easy, I wouldn’t have tried. It’s because it’s hard that it’s worth challenging. Now that I heard something like that from someone who’s actually working in the industry, I want to do it even more. Haha!”

Miso seemed to like that answer. Maru looked away when Miso looked towards him with the ‘this guy is pretty decent’ gaze.

“Why are you trying to become an actor? There should be some trigger that made you think that way, right?” Miso asked once more.

“I can make my name known to other people. I can be remembered. I was envious of that. When I thought about how many people would remember me, I felt really excited. That’s when I decided. ‘Oh! I will become an actor’.”

“So the conclusion is that you want to become famous?”

“Hm… it’s a little different than that, but It is true that I do want to make my name known, so it shouldn’t matter.”

That was rather unexpected. Jiseok’s smile wasn’t the clueless smile that he showed since morning. There was a thick hint of sorrow in his smile right now. It disappeared immediately, but it left a deep impression inside Maru.

“Uhm, can I ask you to shine the stage lights on me?” He asked Ganghwan after returning to his usual easygoing attitude.

“We still have some time until the next performance, so there’s no reason that we can’t.”

Ganghwan signalled towards a small window on the opposite side of the stage. A silhouette showed up behind the window of the control booth and the audience lights soon turned off.

“Wow. It sure is different. Even the air is different.”

Ganghwan and Miso went to the audience seats. They sat in the front row and watched Jiseok. They seemed to have taken a liking to this rather bold junior.

“Why don’t you do something? This isn’t an opportunity that comes every day, you know?”

Hearing Miso say that, Jiseok walked towards the center of the stage, where the spotlight was. Maru made room for him and watched him from the side. Amidst the spotlight, Jiseok waited for a moment, before sitting down on the ground. No, he even lied down slightly. Then, he started saying his lines while pretending to hold something in his hands.

“Man, the sea looks good. Seas are the best when it comes to summer.”

He stood up abruptly, and continued his act by pretending to pick up the phone. Maru exclaimed out loud after seeing that scene. The scene Jiseok was acting out right now was from the play they just watched. His lines were very fluent as though he had memorized most of the lines already. Of course, his act wasn’t exactly the same as the one in the play. There were clear differences, but it strangely looked similar to how Ganghwan acted. Maybe it was the impression. Jiseok’s impression became faint, and he started giving off the traits of Ganghwan’s impression. Walking circles within the spotlight, he kept acting like Ganghwan until he abruptly stopped. After about 3 seconds of silence, he scratched his head with a clueless smile.

“I forgot what came next!”

“Geez,” Maru ended up smiling. This guy’s usual appearance was drastically different to when he was acting. He became dead serious when it came to watching a play or acting, but the moment he escaped that zone, he turned clueless as though all of it was a lie.

“That’s amazing! Today was the first time you saw the play, right?”

“Yes.”

“To think that you could recreate that much after seeing it just once… you’re lacking compared to me, but you did pretty well,” Saying those words, Ganghwan raised his thumbs up.

“Maru, why don’t you do something?” Said Miso as she looked towards Maru with crossed arms. She had a thick grin on her face. Maru was about to refuse, but he ended up going on stage due to her grin as well as Jiseok’s pleading eyes.

“Hm.”

After thinking for a little, Maru sat down on the spot just like Jiseok. Since it came to this, he decided to play along with them. He had seen two instances of Ganghwan’s act. Maru lied down on the spot and picked up a virtual remote control.

* * * *

“Come around from time to time,” Ganghwan said to the two as he saw them out.

“Yes. I definitely will. I mean it.”

“We’ll take our leave then.”

The two started walking towards the station after their greeting. Jiseok looked back several times while walking, and Maru dragged him by the neck every single time he did so.

“Those two are an unexpected combo,” Miso spoke.

“They say opposites attract.”

“That’s true. The fact that such a graceful woman like me is hanging out with a madman like you is precisely because of that reason.”

“By that logic, the teacher dating you is also a madm… alright, fine. I’ll shut up so please put your hand down,” saying that, Ganghwan grabbed Miso’s raised hand and forced it down. This woman’s boyfriend must be built like a tank. Otherwise, there was no way he was capable of enduring this woman.

“Rather than that, how was it?”

“How was what?”

“Although they were improvisations, they both imitated your acting. Why don’t you give me your impressions?”

“Hmm.”

When Jiseok asked if he could stand on stage, Ganghwan thought that he was just a fearless little brat, but his thoughts changed after seeing him act.

“That Jiseok kid brought out the feel very well. His lines and movements were different, but his atmosphere was definitely similar to mine. On the other hand, Maru’s gestures and lines were surprisingly similar to mine. It was as though he had practiced for a long time.”

“I felt that as well. I keep thinking this, but that guy’s smarts is just nuts.”

“That’s true.”

Miso crossed his arms and asked conspicuously.

“So, who do you prefer?”

“I don’t prefer any of them. They’re both worse than me.”

“Sure, Mr. I-am-the-best.”

“But to decide who’s better among those two, then it would be Maru considering the circumstances. He stuck to the basics. However, if both of them were given enough time to practice, then Jiseok might leave behind a deeper impression.”

“Though, he still can’t be compared to you?”

“Duh. Do I have to repeat myself?”

“You sound so narcissistic, but it feels even worse because it’s true.”

“It would be good if they could talk to each other.”

“Today was their first meeting, wasn’t it? Moreover, Maru didn’t seem to like the kid.”

“Tsk tsk. This is where men are different to women. Women frequently hang out even if they don’t get along. But men don’t. If Maru truly didn’t like that kid, he wouldn’t have brought him here in the first place.”

“Oh? The women you know must all be strange people.”

“You’re the one who’s too cool about everything. Let’s be honest, the second part of your resident registration number starts with a 1[1], doesn’t it?”

“Hey, do you really want to smell incense from inside a portrait today?”

“Oh no, I’ll call your soon-to-be husband. I’ll tell him about the threats of domestic violence.”

“I think you need a beating right now.”

Ganghwan ran with all his might, away from Miso, who was cracking her fingers as she walked towards him. That teacher was so pitiful. How did he end up with a girl like… Ganghwan shook his head due to the sudden wave of sorrow.

* * * *

Time passed, and it became Saturday the week after the interview. Maru received a text message as he was going home after practice at the club.

[You have been confirmed for the audition. Please come to the 7th floor of JA building at 11 tomorrow.]

He crossed the starting line without problems. Not long later, Jiseok texted him as well.

[You passed too, right? I did. If you didn’t, I’ll try my best to make up for your share.]

“This guy doesn’t know what consideration is at all.”

Smiling, Maru texted back the word ‘passed’ with confidence. Despite all that, he felt good that they were doing the audition together. This guy’s personality was really bad like a cocker spaniel, but he ended up smiling subconsciously when exposed to that positive energy of his, so he couldn’t hate him.

“The audition, huh. Won’t they let me pass through some back door or something?”

Personal connections were for times like these, but since those people were all professionals, using personal connections probably wouldn’t work at all. Taking the easy route if it was possible was the best option, but in this scenario, he had no choice but to ‘try his best’, his second best option. Maru closed his phone and put it inside his pocket.

Tomorrow.

Eleven.

Audition.

Thinking of those three words. Maru’s eyes sunk deeper than ever.

[1] In Korea, the resident registration number (something similar to the social security number in the US) consists of two parts. The first part consists of 6 digits that represents your birthday, and the second part consists of 7 digits. The first digit represents the sex, 1 being male and 2 being female. There are other factors that decide the rest of the numbers, but that’s not relevant here, and it can also be changed later on in life. Ganghwan’s question is basically asking ‘you were actually born as a boy, weren’t you?’

Chapter 225

It had been a week since his last visit to the JA building. Since this was his third time, he felt quite used to it. The time was 10 in the morning. Since the audition began at 11, there was still around 1 hour left. He visited the brand-name coffee shop on the right of the first floor and bought a café mocha. The sweetness of the chocolate eased the nervousness of his body. Not too long later, people started entering through the rotating door. There were a lot of age groups. They were all wearing casual clothes. It was very likely that many of them had come for the audition. Sipping the coffee, Maru had a look at their faces. There was a college girl who clearly seemed nervous, a youth lazily looking around as well as a couple of men in their 40s greeting each other as though they were acquainted. Many of them seemed to be high schoolers as well.

‘How many people are they planning to pick?' Maru wondered.

The main roles, the supporting roles as well as the extras. The audition today was known to be for picking extras. As the original work of the movie was already revealed, the ones attending the audition today should all have read ‘Twilight Struggles’. A movie adaptation of the book should definitely have some differences to the original, but it was very likely that the existing roles wouldn’t be changed. Among them, the delinquent, although it was a role that only appeared in a single scene and only spoke a few lines, the importance of that role was no less than that of any of the main roles. That was because that scene would change the atmosphere and flow of the movie as a whole. The original author, Gwak Joon, also said that he rewrote the scene several times. Maru was also very shocked when he read the part where the old man’s rage was expressed through the delinquent. This scene where the protagonist, the old man, encountered the delinquent would be handled very importantly during the filming. Just from the words from the man in the middle during the interview was enough to tell that there were many people aiming for the delinquent role. Everyone knew which extra role had the most impact in the story.

“It’s Lee Hyuk.”

“That’s him.”

People started whispering all of a sudden. The people gathered at the lounge were all looking towards the entrance. Maru also looked towards that place. A man wearing a blue-toned, semi-formal suit was walking inside while slightly bowing towards the people who recognized him. He was a person Maru knew. That man was an actor he saw a few times on the newspaper adverts. Next to him was a lady who seemed to be his coordinator.

“I heard that he was signing a contract with JA productions, it seems that it’s true.”

“Have you heard that most of the prominent actors are joining JA?”

“If JA decides to put their mind to it, the oligopoly of the three companies should collapse in no time.”

Maru was getting free information sitting still. If he was to work in this industry in the future, his social skills would become of importance as well as his acting skills. It was good to get his hands on more information, no matter how trivial they were. He focused on other people’s conversations. The important bit was the power struggles between the entertainment companies. They were talking about how companies were using all sorts of means to sign a contract with actors that reached the end of their contract period. This actor named Lee Hyuk seemed to be a popular target. The appearance of the actor heated up the lounge. Everyone here was aiming to leave behind their name in the movie. Their motivation seemed to have surged after seeing a successful actor. Maru put his empty coffee cup on the counter before looking at the time. It was about time to go up. The people loitering around in the lounge started heading up as well.

‘I see some competitors,’ Maru thought to himself.

It was likely that people of other age groups were aiming for other roles. However, it was extremely likely that people in their late teens to early twenties were aiming for the same role. This was a world where simple logic reigned supreme - one role couldn’t be shared and only the winner would get the role. The atmosphere changed as soon as he got on the elevator. It was quiet, but it wasn’t tranquility, but a fearful silence just before the eruption of a war. Everyone was likely of the same mind. If one didn’t prey, then they would get preyed upon instead.

‘Someone who is in possession of something is bound to kick those beneath him.’

There didn’t exist many win-win scenarios in this world. The majority of systems required competitions. No matter how well the teams were packaged, in the end, there was a winner and there were losers. The winner got the trophy while the losers drank in defeat. Everyone strived to be the winner, but the majority of existing places were reserved for losers. Winning the role meant pushing the others off a cliff. Maru knew this very well. That was why he never used the words ‘competition in good faith’. A competition ‘in good faith’ was an oxymoron in itself. There was only the will to overpower others.

Along with a ‘ding’ sound, the elevator opened. Today, there was no need to walk down the corridor. They entered through the glass door right in front of them. The waiting room allowed the participants to look outside through the gigantic window. In front was the audition room. The lady from the interview was moving around busily, checking attendance.

“Mr. Kim Jinsoo. Is Mr. Kim Jinsoo here?” She called out a name.

If no one replied after calling out twice, the callee’s profile was sent to the back. Maru wondered if that person was moved to last place, but that wasn’t the case. The profiles of the absentees entered the paper shredder in one corner of the waiting room. The papers were shredded with a machine sound. Seeing that, everyone present gulped.

Not long later, the elevator arrived once again before spitting out a man. The man, who was clearly panicking, didn’t even seem to notice that his shoes were untied.

“I’m Kim Jinsoo.”

The man said towards the lady. Since the man’s profile was just shredded to dust, the lady seemed to be stuck in a dilemma.

“I apologize, but people late to the audition cannot attend.”

“What? I was late by only 3 minutes. Only three minutes! It wasn’t that long!”

The man showed his watch to the lady. The lady was taken aback and took a few steps back. The man seemed desperate, and the lady didn’t seem to know how to handle this angry faced man. Maru crossed his arms and observed. Although the audition was getting delayed, it didn’t matter to him. In fact, he was thankful since he now had more time for image training. However, the youth sitting next to him clearly didn’t think the same.

“Excuse me, is it okay that the audition is getting delayed?”

The youth eventually decided to participate in the war between the man and the woman. Maru shook his head. The situation was about to get worse.

“What’s your problem!”

And just as he had expected, the man changed his target. Since he was desperate, nothing seemed to matter to him anymore.

“You’re taking everyone’s time here.”

“It’s just three minutes! It’s not even that long! And what did I do?”

The two men started quarrelling. Maru had a look at the others. Everyone didn’t seem to care about the quarrel and focused on themselves. It was as though they had no time to waste on something like that.

‘He screwed up his own mental state.’

Maru understood that he did it because he was in urgency, but did not consider the consequences of his actions. The lady tried to stop the fight, and the youth soon came back to his seat while panting. From his agitated face, Maru doubted that this guy could restrain his emotions properly. If his free acting was related to anger, then it might help, but if he had prepared a smile-related acting, then it would definitely have a negative impact. Maru cycled through the three to four free acting scenes he had prepared in his head. Around 5 minutes later, the elevator opened once again. Two people stepped out. They were Junmin, wearing a beret, as well as the man sitting on the left during the interview.

“What is it?”

Junmin asked the lady. The lady explained the situation as though she finally found a way out. Meanwhile, the man named Kim Jinsoo expressed that he was wronged with all his body.

“Mr. Kim Jinsoo.”

“Yes.”

“It was me who ordered the staff to put the documents of late applicants into the shredder. I apologize, but you’ll have to leave.”

“Wait. it is definitely my fault that I was late. But I hope you can watch my acting just once. I’ve given up a lot of things for this audition. I’ve also prepared a lot for it. If you see my act, you will definitely not regret it.”

“Mm…,” Junmin groaned in a deep voice. However, it didn’t sound like he was contemplating. Maru saw a deep crease in Junmin’s brows. It was a sign that he was a little angry.

“Mr. Kim Jinsoo. Please look at the people around you,” Junmin pointed at the people waiting in front of the audition room.

“Watch them carefully,” saying that, he raised right hand.

“Please raise your hand if you gave up absolutely nothing in order to participate in this audition.”

No one raised their hand.

“Then, please raise your hand if you prepared a lot for this audition.”

As soon as his words finished, everyone raised their hand, including Maru.

“And finally, please keep your hand raised if you don’t have any confidence in your acting skills.”

Everyone put their hands down.

“Thank you for your cooperation.”

Junmin turned around to look at the man named Kim Jinsoo. He was clenching his fists, with his lips shaking. Even a little child would have understood what was going on.

“I am very well aware that you must have put a lot of effort in and prepared a lot for the audition. However, that’s pretty basic for the people gathered here. How am I supposed to interpret that you want special treatment for doing the basics?”

“But…”

“I’m sorry, but it’s rather difficult for me to look at you as someone worth investing my time. If you were a splendid actor, then I would of course have allocated my time. However, I fail to find a reason to keep listening to you when you have nothing special about you and are even late.”

“Please, I know that I’m acting shameless, but if you please give me an opportunity…”

The man was almost about to kneel. Perhaps this audition was the man’s last opportunity. Maru sympathized with that. Everyone has their last opportunities. That servile attitude of his was an indicator of how important he considered this audition to be.

However,

‘You should at least look at the person in the face when they’re talking.’

Maru clicked his tongue and looked away. Junmin’s expression was that of when he was insulted. As the man was looking down at the floor, he was completely oblivious of that fact. Eventually, Junmin grabbed the man by the shoulder.

“Mr. Kim Jinsoo. Please leave while I speak soft words. If you are a man that knows shame, that is.”

That left no room for further discussion. The man seemed to have felt that and turned around while swaying. After he disappeared, Junmin stood in front of the people. He continued speaking as though nothing had happened.

“I’m Lee Junmin, one of the judges for this audition. This fellow next to me is Park Hoyoung, the film director. Usually, I don’t do introductions like these, but somehow I am doing one today. Then, I’d like to notify you once again before the audition. You have up to five minutes to do free acting, and again, up to five minutes for the script acting. As this is a camera test, you’ll have to look at the camera as you do your acts. When you come in, tell us your name and the company you belong to. Since most of you should have experience doing auditions, I think I don’t need to explain any further.”

The two opened the door to the audition room half way when Junmin spoke again.

“Oh, I’ll say this beforehand. Since many people have applied for the same role, you may be grouped together.”

Maru shrugged his shoulder when Junmin looked towards him when he said those words. Junmin smiled slightly and entered.

“As you just listened, you should do your acts as you were told to once you enter. Don’t forget to look at the camera. Also, please pin your number plates on the left side of your chest.”

The lady handed out number plates with numbers on them. Maru checked his number. His number was 27.

“Then please enter the audition room in the order I call you out.”

Since he was 27, Maru believed that he had some time. He sighed slightly and looked at the cold-looking skies outside the window. The next moment, a crisp voice entered his ears.

“Numbers 4, 11, 18, 27, 34. Please enter.”

‘…Geez.’

Maru stood up.

Chapter 226

Although he felt unlucky when he picked the number four, he never realized that he would be one of the first to be picked. Thinking about how numbers 1, 2, and 3 would be sighing in relief and laughing at him, he felt a headache. Unlike his name, Gwangseok, which was a manifestation of his parents’ wishes for him to grow up brightly like the light (Gwang, 光), and sturdily like a rock (seok, 石), Moon Gwangseok’s expression was very dark.

‘Since it’s like this anyway’, Gwangseok decided to think positively about it and opened the door to the audition room. What he saw were two men sitting behind a long table, as well as a monitor and a camera that stood next to them. He was expecting that much, but the people behind the two men weren't something he expected at all. There were people who were staring at him with their lip sealed.

‘Wasn’t there supposed to be two judges?’

“Number four, step forward and the rest of you may wait behind, “ Hoyoung, who introduced himself as the film director, spoke. He gave off a heavy pressure. Junmin, who spoke softly outside the room, also looked very serious. Gwangseok felt his legs go limp.

“Stand on top of the x mark and get ready.”

He stood on top of the spot marked x with duct tape. He felt like going crazy right now. This was the first time he stood in front of so many people in an audition. Gwangseok’s first audition was more of self-introduction for someone else’s graduation project, and the one after that was for a short film and only the director was present during the audition. However, over five people were staring at him along with Lee Junmin, who was a famous producer.

‘This is a minor role, why are there so many people here?’

He gulped subconsciously. He felt a tingle behind his knees. His lips felt dry. It would be over if he got nervous here. Gwangseok remembered about his parents who were fully supporting him and faced his fears.

“Don’t mind the camera and look wherever you want. You can look at the camera, or you can look at us.”

“Y, yes!”

“Don’t be too nervous. If you get nervous, we will get nervous as well. Just drop all your worries.”

Hoyoung acted quite nicely. Gwangseok cheered up and took deep breaths.

“Once you're ready, you can begin.”

Gwangseok introduced himself with a “I’m number four, Moon Gwangseok from Star Academy,” and started his free acting. The short skit he prepared was ditching after school self-study sessions and persuading his friend to join him.

“Hey, let’s go. Even if we do get caught, it’ll only be a few hits. But if we ditch, we’ll get to play with the girls from the girls high school next to us. What’s youth about? Is it staring into a textbook? Of course not. Youth is when a man and a woman of age share passionate love. You know. The teachers always tell us, don’t they? That there’s something more important than studying. Today’s that impo…,” He spoke up to this point when someone interrupted him.

“Stop,” it was Junmin, who had never spoken a word until now.

“Do you know why I told you to stop?”

“N, no.”

“Come here.”

Gwangseok walked towards the table and had a look at the monitor, which Junmin was pointing at. Right now, the monitor only showed empty space. When Junmin pressed a few keys, the video rewinded. Soon, his own skit started rewinding. Junmin stopped and resumed the footage. When Gwangseok watched his own skit, he couldn’t help but frown and bite his lips.

“We’re not an academy. I don’t even have time to tell you what you did wrong. But you should at least have something to earn from this place, right? You see what you did wrong, don’t you?”

“Yes…”

“Go and wait on the side.”

“Yes.”

He wasn’t able to ask if it was over for him. He did poorly according to what he saw in the footage. His expression was stiff like a rock and lacked vitality, and his gaze was all over the place. When he pondered to himself about why he did so, he realized that he was too conscious of the people behind the judges. Above all, his actions were terrible when viewed through the monitor. He mistook that the camera was taking a bust shot and did not control his hand movements properly. Gwangseok grieved when he saw that he was fidgeting to himself when he was acting.

‘I was too conscious about the camera.’

Hyoung definitely told him not to mind the camera. Gwangseok closed his eyes and went back in line with the rest.

‘It’s over.’

He didn’t even fill the five minute time limit and only spent 20 seconds. As for his script acting…

“Next,” a cold voice sounded out. Gwangseok looked downwards in dejection.

* * * *

Although he expected it, it really wasn’t easy just like what he thought. The two people sitting in front of him weren’t looking for students for a school festival musical but a proper actor. Meaning, they would not forgive any mistakes. If there were a few people applying, then they might have given him another chance, but there were a lot of people waiting outside. It would take an extremely long time to go through their skits one by one, so there was no way they would give another chance to someone who missed their opportunity. They were extremely rational and cruel. Junmin’s eyes as he looked at the rest of the participants contained no hint of affection. He was looking for just skills, just character, and just creativity. The fact that he signed a contract with Junmin was useless here.

‘In fact, it might be a disadvantage.’

Junmin was a clever man. He would give full support if it seemed like something or someone profited him, but immediately cut all connections if he deemed otherwise. If someone became close to him, then he might change his mind, but right now, there was nothing like that between Maru and him. In fact, Maru had the obligation to prove his worth to him.

“Next, number 11.”

“My name is Park Jintae. Please take care of me.”

“That’s what I want to say, and you’re supposed to do well.”

“Yes, sir.”

“Stand on top of the x mark and begin once you’re ready,” Hoyoung spoke as he had a look at the monitor and the person alternately. He looked like a completely different man from the interview. His casual impression was gone and his eyes contained a hint of sharpness. His eyes were fiercely looking at the candidates. If one was pressured, then they wouldn’t be able to bring out even half of their skills. Taking lessons from the first candidate, the second person did better. This boy, named Jintae, acted a delinquent. His swaying motion looked very good. It was just that…

“Wait,” Junmin raised his hand and stopped him. It wasn’t a ‘stop’ but a ‘wait’. The boy immediately stopped his act and stood upright. Then, he looked at the judges.

“If you keep fumbling your words like that, the boom mic won’t pick up anything. Try again.”

“Yes.”

The boy seemed to have understood and started over, but as his rhythm was interrupted once, his actions started becoming awkward. As Maru watched from the back, the swaying motion now seemed to stem from injury rather than from being a delinquent. Jungmin gestured for him to stop. However, before he could say anything another voice sounded out from behind.

“Let’s have him try the lines.”

It was a man wearing a baseball cap. His voice was quite deep. Junmin nodded his head and passed a script onto the boy through another person.

‘Is he an actor?’

Due to the baseball cap and the script in the man’s hands, his face couldn’t be seen. Maru predicted that the man was in his forties from his voice.

“Page 48. You see Gyushik’s son’s lines, right?”

“Yes.”

“Have a close look at the stage directions and begin once you’re ready.”

After having a look at the script for a while, the boy took a short breath before going through the lines.

“Father, I’ll be off then.”

“Yes, be careful. Oh, don’t you need any pocket money?”

“I don’t. You gave me some not too long ago.”

“You can stop there.”

The boy gave back the script. Junmin wrote a few lines on the boy’s profile. The boy expected that he was going to do more, but it was over. He came back. The boy, Jintae, didn’t look too good. His expression contained deep disappointment as though he could show them more than what he did now.

“Next.”

Maru felt like he was in a canned tuna factory. He was a canned tuna who went through processing, and the people in front of him were quality assurance personnel evaluating his quality. If he did average, then he wouldn’t be picked on, but nor would he be elected. He would just become any other ordinary canned tuna. He had to be different from the rest. Whether in a good way or in a bad way, he had to catch the eyes of the people in front of him. It had been ten minutes since the audition began. Despite that, the people in front of him clearly had bored expressions. This was a very dangerous sign. From the fact that the people in front of him had dozens of other people to see, this stale atmosphere had to be changed as soon as possible

However,

“I’m number 18, and my name is K, Kim Joonmyoung. I’m from G, Gangnam actor.”

This candidate was the worst possible candidate to change the atmosphere. He seemed like he was a patient with an anxiety attack. The atmosphere became even worse. Maru found that the people seated behind the table as well as the people standing behind them had disdain in their eyes.

“Go on once you’re ready.”

Despite that, Hoyoung and Junmin looked at the boy in front of him. They had the mindset of professionals to not miss any potential candidate. It would have been good if their passion for work worked positively for the boy, but the boy named Joonmyoung seemed to be heavily pressured by their gazes.

“Uhm… uh… uhm…”

Maru found him pitiful. This boy should have prepared a lot for this. However, the audition was where one needed to show results. After watching for about 10 seconds, Junmin sighed and shook his hand. The boy standing on the x mark didn’t even see his gesture and stood still.

“Well done. You can go back,” only after Hoyoung spoke out did the boy come to himself and step backwards. The boy did not have any expression as he stepped back. He looked dazed.

“Next.”

Maru heaved a deep breath before standing up. Although he had prepared a delinquent act as well, it seemed that it was better for him to change it for something else. It was used too much before him. If he did the same, he would probably get lower scores. He had plenty of lessons from the people prior to his turn. His breathing was normal, and he had just enough tension. The x mark. That was the stage. Thinking of it as a stage, he became a lot more relaxed. He even felt a little excited. He even had something like an uncontrollable urge to spill all of his emotions to the people in front of him. However, Maru suppressed those urges temporarily. The skit he was about to do was not something that required him to express his emotions violently. What he was about to do was to show a thin strand of his emotions flowing out from his suppressed emotions. Perhaps what he was about to do was not acting, but a confession.

“May I use a chair?”

“Sure,” Hoyoung replied as he pointed at the chair next to him. Maru placed the chair on top of the x mark and sat on top of it.

“I’ll start once I get ready.”

After checking Hoyoung nod, he closed his eyes for a moment. What he was about to say now was the cold hard truth. Though, a little technique would be added.

If acting was about imitation, he was going to imitate himself.

He heaved a deep breath.

“I got to know love at an age too young to discuss love. I met someone I wanted to take responsibility for while I was still insufficient. That person was a foolish person who looked after other people more than herself. She was courageous, devoted, and above all… pretty,” Maru smiled as he reminded himself of her smile. There was no need to proactively think about ‘making a smile’. Just thinking about her made him smile subconsciously.

“Naturally, I had a lot of competitors. There aren’t many men who can leave a girl like her alone. I became close to her due to a coincidence, but I couldn’t be relieved. That’s why I stuck to her. So that other men couldn’t approach her. Perhaps due to that, she accepted my proposal. Oh, of course, it didn’t happen so easily. There were a lot of hurdles. In any case, we got married and moved into our own house. Although we had to get a loan, it was a cozy home for us.”

He shrugged his shoulders before continuing.

“Those days didn’t contain that many hardships. Sometimes, we fought because our opinions didn’t match, but those fights didn’t last long. I know well that I can’t win against her. Every day passed without a hitch. Those were ordinary days with laughs and annoyances. And amidst those ordinary days, the two of us became the three of us.”

He combed through his memory. He couldn’t remember much, but the faint smell still lingered in his mind.

“The baby had the smell of happiness. It was very similar to the smell of that person. The baby grew every day and when I came to, she was walking with her two feet. Her first words were ‘papa’. Yes. it was definitely papa.”

His voice was very tranquil. The faces of the judges flashed in front of him, but he did not see their expressions. The audience of this monodrama was himself after all.

“The baby grew, and eventually she reached the age where she rebelled with a straight face. Geez, she made me so dejected. That feeling you get when the little daughter telling you ‘you’re awesome’ changes to ‘you should lose some weight’ is just… Phew, but that was still good. When I opened my eyes in the morning, my beloved was next to me, and when I left my room, there was the child I loved even more. That seemed like an unbreakable, eternal happiness. At least, I thought so.”

Maru heaved a long sigh. Then, he progressed with his thoughts. His relaxed body started getting goosebumps. That moment became vivid in front of him. The large lump of metal stomped on his chest.

“It was an accident. Yes, that was an accident. I laughed. The sweetness of happiness still lingered within me, yet I was dying. I thought about a lot of things. At the same time, I resented enough to kill.”

Creak! He gritted his teeth. His heart whispered to him that it was time to let loose a little of his reason. He abruptly raised his head. Then he glared at the camera.

“That happiness wasn’t something that was supposed to end there. That person and my child weren’t supposed to sink into sadness like that. I resented the heavens. I cursed god. If I could, I wanted to rip them apart and drench myself in their blood! However… even that frustration died down soon. The moment I realized I was dead, my rage became empty. What remained, was just worry.”

He spat out the stale breath stuck at his throat before sitting back down again. He was extremely agitated because he reminded himself of that event, but his eyes were surprisingly looking at the clock. He felt that his tranquil reason was acting in contrast to his emotions. It felt somewhat new. Before, it was one of the two. He either suppressed or released. Right now, it was neither. He felt as though he could get hot again and cold again within moments. However, that feeling soon disappeared. Reason and emotion started their territorial fight again and Maru started calming down

“That’s the end.”

“That’s it?”

“Yes.”

“I think there’s more.”

“A story only attracts interest when it’s cut mid way through the fun part.”

Hearing that answer, Hoyoung burst out laughing. Maru calmly looked at the mood amongst the judges. For now, he wasn’t stopped mid way. This could be considered that he succeeded half way. At that moment, the man wearing the baseball cap voiced out.

“Let’s have some more look at that fellow.”

Chapter 227

The man wearing the baseball cap stood up from his seat and walked forward. Maru got to have a close look at the man’s face. His beard wasn’t shaved, and his hair, from what could be seen below the baseball cap, wasn’t neat at all. The shirt and jeans he was wearing looked like he picked them up from a street stall. Despite that, Maru wasn’t able to take his eyes off him. This man was an actor he knew too well. He was a little confused at first due to the beard and the voice, but now that he saw him up close, he was able to confirm.

This man was Park Taeho. The man who won the leading actor’s role award in the Daejong awards last year. Maru pondered if this man was cast in this movie as well.

“Please give me a script.”

Taeho got a copy of the script from Hoyoung and handed it over to Maru.

“Go to page 78.”

Maru did as he was instructed. Amidst the rows of lines written, there were three characters that caught his eyes: delinquent 1, delinquent 2, and delinquent 3.

“Here, read this part. Don’t put any emotions in.”

The part Taeho pointed to was delinquent 2’s line. It was a line that Maru had read several times in the book. ‘Man, your sorry ass has achieved nothing even after all these years. What kind of shit life have you been living, gramps?’ was there, without a change in wording.

“Man, your sorry ass has achieved nothing even after all these years. What kind of shit life have you been living, gramps?”

“I like that dry tone of yours. Then follow the stage directions and say that line disdainfully.”

Taeho took a step back. Maru focused on the word ‘disdainfully’. He pondered if he should mix in a bit of a disdainful smile. He first changed the tone and said the line.

“Hm, you’re a total beginner. You don’t attend an academy or something like that?”

“I don’t.”

“Really? That’s weird. Hyung-nim. This dude is really strange. The lines he just did gave him away as a newbie, but that soliloquy before was actually totally awesome. He even sounded mature. Is, is this even possible? I just don’t get it.”

“If you’re done, then get out of the way. There’s still one more.”

Hearing Junmin’s words, Taeho nodded his head and sat back down.

‘Did I do well?’ Maru thought as he stepped back. The last candidate went forward and did his free acting skit. Then, he went on to do the script acting without a hitch. Then, it just ended without a hitch as well.

“Thank you all for coming,” Hoyoung spoke as he put all the profiles to the side. The audition was over. Guided by a lady, Maru exited the room and turned in his number plate.

“Thank you for coming, and we’ll notify you whether you’ve passed or not individually. It should arrive by Thursday next week, so please be patient.”

Maru watched as some people entered the audition room with nervous expressions before turning around. He didn’t know whether he did well or not. He had nothing to go by to make any predictions. Like what the lady said, he had no choice but to wait with his fingers crossed.

“Yes, teacher. I made a few mistakes.”

“I’m done for. I’m in big trouble.”

The people who took the audition with him were busy making calls. Their calls continued into the elevator.

“I don’t know. I think I didn’t pass. There were too many people. Moreover I wasn’t the only one doing the audition.”

“Mom, I think I failed. I don’t think I need to wait for the results to know.”

“Where’s my next audition again?”

Maru gave them a glance. Whenever his eyes met with another’s they glared back at him.

‘So, I have a high chance of passing?’

Even the guy that managed to do the script acting without a hitch had a worried expression on his face. It seemed that these guys had something to base their predictions on that Maru didn’t have.

“That was hard,” Maru spoke in a low voice. If everything was about numbers, he would be able to predict the results once the process finished. The first quarter achievements were such and such so the second quarter results should be such and such. Since the currency exchanges are such and such, the raw materials cost should be around such and such. In such a world, there weren’t that many variables. Numbers were always clear cut. However, in acting, no such thing existed. There was no absolute standard for anything, so he wasn’t able to discern whether he did well or not. If it was about self-satisfaction, he wouldn’t need to mind about the evaluations at all, but if he was to do this for a living, he would have to know the basis of evaluation. Junmin, Hoyoung, and Taeho. How were those three people going to evaluate his acting? Listening to Geunsoo’s advice of not conforming himself to the role, he sort of forced his way through the first part, but whether it was a good thing or not, he did not know. Perhaps he should have stuck to his original plan and have played the delinquent.

‘They’re infecting me with their negativity,’ he felt as though his thoughts were going the wrong direction due to all the gloomy voices around him. Maru stepped out of the elevator as soon as the doors opened and got far away from the others.

“I did my bit, the rest is up to heaven.”

He showed all he could. It was better for him to leave the rest up to heaven for him to have some peace.

* * * *

Junmin faintly smiled as he watched the monitor. He was reminded of when that boy asked him for three hundred million won. He thought that the boy was crazy, but decided to play along after listening to the rest of his story. A year had passed since then. It seemed like the boy was going to show him something using his little high school club, but he sunk all by himself due to an injury. Junmin made a visit thinking that the boy must be very disappointed, but he was casually reading a book. Junmin did not know whether the boy was insensitive or bold.

Boys at his age could be compared to a small sailboat. With a little wind, they would sail in the direction of the wind very quickly. Many people say that the growth speed of child actors and actresses is frightening; and that a child actor with a smooth sail would smoothly become a popular actor. However, once the wind blew in the wrong direction, then they would capsize on the spot. The lack of weight caused that problem. The reason many child actors and actresses turn into ordinary students was because they could not endure that hurdle.

Before, the criticisms usually came from people close to them, but with the development of the internet, people stabbed with knives known as words on the internet. There weren’t many viewers who were lenient simply because someone was young. Horrible acting was met with insults. The important part was that people went too far. Even adults were stressed out by them, so naturally, children had it even worse. This was why acting academies and schools did not teach just acting. They also taught humanities subjects so they could achieve mental maturity. Despite all their efforts, though, children were still children. Their emotions were much more fragile than that of an adult’s.

Meanwhile, Maru was like a giant cruise ship. He wasn’t shaken by others to the point that he reminded Junmin of a large ship. A wind strong enough to sway a sailboat would be nothing more than a gentle breeze. He had a stability like none other. That was Maru’s strong point.

However, that strong point was also his weak point. Not being shaken meant not prone to change. While others changed, whether it be progress or regress, it was likely that Maru would stay unchanged. He couldn’t be considered insensitive to external stimulation. If he was poked, he would get angry to some extent, and if someone crossed the line, he would solve all his problems cleanly. The problem was that his way of doing things was too tidy. There were no ups and downs.

Until a while ago, Maru was a ship that would never raise its sail. He would maintain his position no matter how strong the storm was. Junmin was wary about this point. Regress didn’t just refer to going backwards. In the perspective of progress, staying still was also a form of regress. As such, Junmin decided that he would estimate Maru’s potential through today’s audition once again. He wondered what kind of preparations Maru made as well as what kind of potential he would show him once again. If Maru wasn’t up to his standards, he planned to no longer allow him free reign and give instructions. After all, he did spend 300 million won to buy 3 years of his high school period. He even considered having him take acting lessons with a schedule that would affect his school.

However,

“I was worried for nothing, huh.”

Maru’s release of emotions that he saw through the screen was very different from the Maru he knew until now. In terms of technique, he was still lacking. The shaking of his eyes, the direction of his lips, his hand gestures. All of these still gave him away as a newbie.

However, his glare when he looked at the camera as well as the sadness and frustration his voice made all that irrelevant. His acting made the audience empathize with his emotions unconditionally. The overwhelming transfer of emotions made all acting skills irrelevant. That was because the ultimate objective of all techniques was to transfer emotions to the audience.

“Although it was for a brief moment, he released it. I’m sure of it.”

It wasn’t that he gave his emotions total free rein. What he did was different to that. He released his emotions to the limits under the state where he knew what he had to do. He didn’t over exaggerate things. An actor crying didn’t make the audience cry with him. This was a problem that all actors faced. It was a homework that all actors had for the entirety of their career. An actor capable of making people cry without crying himself; one capable of making people laugh without laughing himself; one capable of making people angry without becoming angry himself.

Using one word to describe Maru in the footage would be ‘frightening’. His emotions pierced through the screen and hit solidly in the hearts of the viewers. It was to the point that he thought ‘this is it!’. The reason why Taeho stepped forward despite this being an audition should have been related to that as well.

The sail that had been folded until now finally unfurled. It was getting ready to receive the wind. He shouldn’t have made such a change voluntarily. Someone else’s words should have triggered him to make that change. That could be seen from how he released his own emotions freely without him knowing.

“Han Maru, he’s good.”

Hearing that voice, Junmin turned around. A woman with purple hair and a foul mouth stood there. It was Joohyun. Due to some scheduling issues between the director and the actors, all the main actors had been called. Joohyun was also here for that reason.

“You know him?”

“I do. I met him once. I got a feeling when he retorted to everything I said - that this kid is an interesting kid. That’s why I told him a few things.”

“Like what?”

“I told him to get to the bottom of his emotions. I also told him a few other things, but from what I saw just now, he seemed to have ignored everything he deemed unnecessary. What a cheeky kid. He acted as though he didn’t ever need any advice. He’ll become a good politician once he grows up,” saying that, Joohyun turned around as she sipped on her coffee. Junmin inwardly smiled. Ordinary wind couldn’t shake him, so this meant that the wind that shook him was that strong. Someone like Joohyun would be a hurricane. She had plenty of power to shake a cruise ship.

“So he’ll only open his ears to someone of that level, huh.”

He was a cheeky guy indeed. That made him all the more interesting.

“Perhaps he might become an extra who will overpower any ordinary minor role.”

The scene where the delinquent appeared was very brief, and because it was brief, it was strong. Junmin wrote ‘pass’ on the profile. Two of the three delinquents were finalized. Since these two were the only ones who had lines to say, he could just make compromises on the final one.

“Well, then. Who do I give the trigger to?”

Junmin grabbed two profiles in his hands. One had the name ‘Han Maru’ on it, while the other read ‘Yoo Jiseok’. His eyes were filled with joy as he looked at the two profiles.

* * * *

“You brought nothing?”

Tossing a slice of cake to his sister, he returned to his room. He felt tired despite not having done much. He felt as though he released all of his piled up energy. Maru closed the curtains, turned off the lights and laid down on his bed. He thought about calling her, but felt drowsiness overwhelm him. He thought that he should sleep first.

As his eyes closed shut, he saw the faintly glowing glow-in-the-dark sticker. It was a half-moon. Even though it shouldn’t be capable of giving off its own light, the moon was shining by itself right now.

After he closed his eyes, Maru saw that dream stage that he saw once before. There was a man wearing a mask that was a messy mixture of black and white. Back then, only that man was on the stage, and he was watching from the audience seats.

However, right now, Maru was looking at the man on the same stage as him.

“You got closer,” the man spoke with a smile.

Maru shrugged his shoulders.

“Well, things happened.”

“Yes, things happen to everyone,” the masked man spoke once again.

Chapter 228

“I don’t think I made it.”

Daemyung heard those words in the morning and started sighing endlessly, without knowing what to do. He didn’t expect Maru to pass easily. After all, many capable people should have attended the audition. Maru said that as well. However, seeing Maru declare that, Daemyung felt like there was no hope. He was sure that something happened during the audition. It was very likely that Maru had made a big mistake.

‘So even someone like Maru makes mistakes.’

Maru was usually flawless, but he was the same age as the others after all. Daemyung thought that Maru became nervous at a critical moment which cost him the audition. Well, it wasn’t exactly surprising since he would be competing against many others who take professional lessons. Daemyung wondered how he should console him.

He peeked behind him. Since maths was over, Maru was sleeping at his desk. Today, though, that calm side of him made him look pitiful instead. Perhaps he was pushing himself so that others would not worry about him. It was more than likely for Maru to do so. After all, he wordlessly endured the insults of many people from the acting club a year ago.

‘When else would he need consolation if not now? We’re friends.’

He was always on the receiving side. For today, he wanted to be of Maru’s help. Maru’s body shook for a moment before he sat up while yawning. It seemed that he wasn’t getting sleepy today.

‘I knew it. He must be feeling anxious.’

“Hey, Maru,” Daemyung called out.

“Yeah?”

“Wanna go to the school cafeteria?”

“The cafeteria? What, you hungry?”

“No, well, I was wondering if you wanted to eat anything.”

At that moment, Dojin, who clearly didn’t read the mood, interrupted. It was very rare for Daemyung to glare at someone, but today was that day. Dojin flinched and started fidgeting.

“What, you guys had a fight?”

“No, it’s not that.”

Daemyung stood up from his seat and grabbed Maru’s arm.

“Let’s go first. I’ll buy you some bread. Maybe some ice cream too.”

“What’s up with you today? I thought you were running out of pocket money.”

“It’s fine, so let’s go already. Lesson break will be ending soon.”

Daemyung dragged the supposedly dejected Maru to the school cafeteria. Fortunately, there weren’t many people around. They lined up and reached the front of the queue after a short minute.

“What do you want?”

“I’m not that hungry though.”

“You should eat regardless. Only then…”

He stopped. He thought that bringing that topic out might hurt Maru’s feelings. Maru was a strong man, but he was still just a man. Daemyung thought that he should be considerate.

“W, well. It’s somewhat awkward for me to eat alone.”

“You should’ve come with Dojin then. He looked really hungry.”

“I can buy him something later. Take your pick. A drink is fine too.”

“Did you pick up some money in the middle of the road? Why are you in such a hurry to spend it?”

He urged Maru to order something. He ordered coffee milk. Daemyung received the bread and coffee milk and took a seat close to the cafeteria entrance.

“Here, yours.”

“Well, thanks. Though, I don’t know what you’re up to.”

“Uhm, Maru.”

“Yeah?”

“You should tell me if you’re worried about something. I may not be able to help, but I can always listen.”

“Hey… do you have something to ask of me? If it’s like that, don’t beat around the bush and give it to me straight.”

“I’m not going to ask you for anything! I’m just saying that I’m always here to listen to you as your friend. For example, you might be pretending to be completely fine even though you aren’t… and things like that,” saying that, Daemyung smiled and took a bite on his bread. He thought that he did a fine job not making it obvious. Maru, though, was looking at him with squinted eyes.

“Are you sick?”

“Huh? No, I’m not sick.”

“Then are you worried about something?”

“No, not at all.”

“Then why do I feel so awkward? I couldn’t be any more awkward drinking this milk. You’re being really strange right now.”

“T, there’s no way, right? I’m just… willing to hear you out if you’re willing to say things, yeah, that’s right. Tell me anything if you feel worried or something. Should we go to the noraebang(karaoke) together?”

Maru tilted his head sideways and stared back at him. Daemyung thought that Maru was acting like this out of embarrassment. After all, he had always shown his unshakable side of him to everyone else. Showing his weak side must be very foreign and awkward for him. However, what were friends for? A friend must be ready to accept any side of the person, right?

“Cheer up!”

Daemyung didn’t say much. He thought that Maru should have understood what he was doing.

* * * *

“Hey, Dojin.”

“Yeah?”

“Did something happen to Daemyung?”

“No, not that I know of. Oh, he’s gained a little weight. He’s already overweight, but he gained even more. I think he needs to go on a diet,” Dojin said as he yawned before resting his head against his arms on his desk. Maru deemed that Dojin was clueless. Maru then poked Dowook’s waist who was blankly staring at the chalkboard.

“Ow man!”

“Don’t see no owl man[1] around here. Hey, have you heard anything from Daemyung?”

“What the heck is that about.”

“Like, for example, maybe he ran into some problems recently. Or that you saw him all worried by himself.”

“Nothing like that happened. You poked my waist for something like this?” Saying that, Dowook stood up from his seat, grumbling. Daemyung was not adept at lying. If something happened, then these two must have noticed something. If these two didn’t know, then it meant that Daemyung had no problems.

“Maru.”

Daemyung returned. In his hands was a canned drink. Following yesterday, Daemyung was gleefully handing out snacks. When Dojin asked him for one, he flinched and shook his head. Maru didn’t know what this guy was up to.

“Here, drink this.”

“…Ooo… kay?”

At this point, Maru was weirded out as well. This was the first time Daemyung’s kindness freaked him out. His eyes especially - those eyes that looked at him with pity made Maru look around him in wariness. Perhaps he saw something around him that he himself couldn’t. A ghost with an attachment to this world, for example.

“Maru. You know, right?”

“Know what?”

“That everything will go well in the future. Failure is the mother of success. Isn’t it?” Daemyung had a satisfactory smile on his face as he said those words. Maru became seriously worried now. Maybe, this guy didn’t have a physical problem but a mental one…

At that moment, something popped up in his mind. Daemyung started acting strange yesterday. He was completely fine before the morning homeroom, and Maru believed that Daemyung turned strange after talking with him. No, he was sure of it.

‘What did I tell him again?’

He didn’t think he said anything strange. Maru put his hands on his chin and had a look at Daemyung. He found it a little pity that he wasn’t smart enough to remember trivial conversations. At times like these, it was better to ask the person in question.

“Daemyung.”

“Yeah?”

“Did I say something wrong to you yesterday? You’ve been acting strange the past couple days. Tell me anything that’s keeping you occupied. Let’s set things straight.”

“…Oh, uh, no. It’s not like that.”

Daemyung’s expression completely betrayed what he said though. Maru put his hands on his chin and stared at Daemyung. He noticed that Daemyung’s eyes contained something beyond just pity. In the past, they came across a dog drenched from the rain, whimpering. Daemyung’s eyes when he looked at that puppy were precisely the eyes he was using to look at Maru right now. Maru thought about reading Daemyung’s inner thoughts, but he didn’t want to use such a strange power to someone on close terms with him.

‘Well, it doesn’t seem to be a big problem, it should be fine after a couple days.’

* * * *

“You guys aren’t fit to be friends!”

Dowook looked at Daemyung with an expression that said ‘what kind of BS is this’. Those were the first words that came from Daemyung’s mouth after calling Dojin and him out. He left out any sort of context. Dowook frowned. Daemyung flinched and took a step back.

“Hey, make it so that i can understand.”

“S, so… you guys aren’t even worried about Maru?”

“About Han Maru? What about him?”

“How can you be so ignorant? Dojin, you didn’t notice anything either?”

Hearing that question, Dojin also stood there saying nothing. He was clearly clueless. Daemyung sighed.

“You two do know that Maru did an audition, right?”

“Yeah.”

“It seems that he didn’t make it in that audition. That’s why he didn’t have a good expression this whole week.”

“Are the results out?”

Dowook hadn’t heard that the audition results were out yet.

“No, but from the nuance that Maru’s words gave me, I think he made a big mistake during the audition. That’s why there’s no hope of passing at all.”

“So?”

“What do you mean, ‘so’? That was a really important audition for Maru, you know? He should be depressed right now. He’s not showing it to us, but he must be feeling very sad,” Daemyung sounded desperate. Dowook tapped Dojin’s shoulders.

“You notice anything?”

“Not at all. Maru’s just as usual.”

Dowook nodded his head in agreement. Maru was practically sleeping throughout the day. What disappointment could he possibly have? In the first place, Maru wasn’t the guy who would be feeling agonized because of something like that. From what Dowook knew of this guy named Han Maru, if the class decided to bully him, he would bully the entire class back and get the entire school to bully his class. He was the guy who silently ‘took care’ of all the delinquents in the school. Such a guy was worried? Disappointed? He was surprised that Daemyung could associate Maru with those words at all.

“That’s just crazy. Hey, you’re overreacting. Him, disappointed? Pfft. Yeah, right.”

“Hey, don’t speak like that. Maru should have a delicate side to him. We should console him and help him cheer up.”

Daemyung was quite serious. At first, he was going to laugh it over, but when he thought about it, Maru was just an ordinary high school student. Who knows what he was thinking behind his adult pretense? As Daemyung said, he might really be having a hard time right now.

“Maybe this is real?” Dojin pondered worriedly. With even the ever-nonchalant Han Dojin worried, Dowook became a little worried as well. Thinking about it, Maru really did not say anything about the audition. Maybe he really was feeling agonized due to disappointment. Dowook thought for a moment before speaking.

“…Should we take him to noraebang, or maybe a mixer?”

“A mi, mixer?”

“Maybe he’ll feel better if we hang out with some girls.”

“No. Maru has a girlfriend.”

“So what? They are girl-friends, and you are a boy-friend. Alright?”

“S, sh, should we really do that?”

“Hey. When your head is in a mess, screaming your lungs out in a noraebang is the best med. Wait while I call some people.”

“I, I’ll pass on that,” Daemyung replied, clearly flustered. Dowook didn’t accept that though.

“You’re the one who brought this up, so you aren’t going anywhere.”

“I, I’m not good around girls.”

“You should get used to it. Just wait. Dojin, you’re coming too, aren’t you?”

“…Huh? Me? I don’t think I can make it, Iseul won’t be…”

“Dude, your friend is in trouble.”

“I might actually die if she finds out.”

Dojin tried to back out. Dowook headlocked him so that he wouldn’t run.

“Then you can die for all I care. Anyway, that makes it the four of us.”

Since it was a Friday, no one should have any problems timewise. He made a few calls and the plan was set with four girls. Maru should cheer up after riding roller blades for a time and scream his lungs out in a noraebang.

At that moment, Maru returned to the classroom.

“What. Aren’t you guys going home? There’s no practice today, is there?”

Maru was about to leave again after getting his bag. Dowook quickly called out to Maru.

“Hey, Han Maru.”

“What is it?”

“Let’s go to noraebang with some girls. This bro will show you what it means to play.”

“Nah. You guys can go by yourselves.”

“Why?”

“I need to go to Seoul again tomorrow because of the audition. I don’t have any time.”

“Wh, what? I thought you didn’t make it.”

“Who the hell told you that? I got notified that I passed yesterday. But they told me to visit again due to assigning roles.”

Dowook turned around to look at Daemyung. This wasn’t what he heard.

“M, Maru. You told me that you thought you didn’t make it.”

“Huh? What?”

“I asked you and you told me that you thought you didn’t make it.”

“That’s because I need to think like that to feel less sad if I actually do end up failing. Isn’t that common sense? Anyway, do restrain yourselves when you go out. Don’t drink alcohol and go home early. If you feel like you’ll be late, you should call your parents. Don’t make your parents worried, okay?”

Maru waved his hand at them before leaving. Dowook felt his lips curving up. He suddenly felt really annoyed. As to where he would vent his anger, it was pretty obvious.

“Daemyung.”

“Y, yeah?”

“I think you need a beating.”

* * * *

It was Sunday morning. Maru ignored his sister’s words asking him if he was going to Seoul again. If he continued that conversation, it was obvious that she would ask him to buy her something. Maru got onboard the bus and had a look at the notification message.

‘I did pass, but now it’s assigning roles, huh.’

Perhaps there were some adjustments to the delinquent roles. Well, he would find out once he arrived at JA building.

[1] I know, this is a terrible pun. But trust me, the original text is just as cringey as this

Chapter 229

Coming to work on a weekend - that was how Maru felt as he entered the rotary door. Unlike last week, there weren’t many people in the lounge. That made him feel that it was actually Sunday. The appointment was at 11, and the clock was pointing to 10:50.

‘I came at a suitable time’, thought Maru as he took the elevator to the 7th floor. Getting off, Maru looked left and right. He was wondering where he had to go this time.

“So you’re here,” Maru heard a voice from his left. He saw Junmin and Jiseok standing there.

“Hello,” greeted Maru, as he walked towards the two. There was a mug in Junmin’s hands, and the thick fragrance of red ginseng could be smelled from it.

“I’m taking care of my health these days. I don’t have a wife to look after me, so I can only take care of myself.”

“You aren’t thinking about getting married?”

“Your words have thorns in them even though it’s the morning. What, did I ever let you down or something?”

“Of course not.”

Taking light jabs at each other, they changed locations. They walked past the automatic glass door and went to the place where the audition took place. Maru wondered if they were going to use that room again today, but Junmin led the two to the room opposite of that room. All four walls of that room were made of glass. It was possible to see the corridor from the inside.

“Have a seat and wait a while. You can drink some tea if you want.”

After Junmin left, Jiseok came closer and asked,

“Are you acquainted with him?”

“Somewhat.”

“Are you two close?”

“Why would we be? We’re in a business relationship. Rather than that, why are you here?”

“I don’t know. The text message told me to come because of assigning the roles, but I haven’t heard the specifics yet. Rather than that, I never knew that this entire building was that man’s possession. If I knew, I wouldn’t have signed a contract so early.”

“A contract? You have a company you belong to?”

“Yeah, I do. You don’t have one?”

“There’s no way I…,” Maru said up to that point and stopped. He was in a contract relationship with Junmin, so perhaps he could be considered a member of JA productions. Or, maybe it wasn’t like that since the contract was an individual one. Thinking back, the contract was a huge one involving 300 million won, but the contract paper was nothing more than just a few lines on a napkin.

“What’s that? Do you have one or not?”

“I don’t have one. Probably.”

Maru made some green tea with the tea bag and drank a sip. He sometimes saw people walking in the corridor over the glass wall. However, those people only gave the two of them a glance but didn’t actually enter. He wondered if anyone was coming at all.

Meanwhile, Jiseok was talking non-stop as though he would not allow a moment of silence. Even the merciful buddha would give him the cold shoulder for being a blabbermouth, and Jesus might actually step down from the cross, move the cross elsewhere and go back on it, all while saying ‘dude, you’re noisy’. Since this guy wasn’t someone that would stop talking just because someone told him to, the only option was to ignore him outright. Maru only smiled at Jiseok. It would be for the best if he got tired of talking and quietened down a little, but the chances of that seemed pretty slim. He ended up drinking three cups of green tea with the mindset of going through a trial.

“Looks like I made you wait,” Junmin entered at that moment. Even though this was the weekend, he seemed busy. Even in the short moment between him entering and sitting down, he was messaging someone on his phone.

“It’s always like this before the filming begins. Producers have to clean up after a lot of people. Others bring their troubles to me even when I stay still. It’s a very enjoyable position to be in, I must say,” said Junmin with a loathing smile. He looked very tired. It seemed that drinking red ginseng extract wasn’t just to take care of his body. Perhaps he was taking them to keep up with all the work.

“As you probably know, both of you will be assigned to a role. Although these roles are extras without many lines in the story, do not ever think about doing things half-heartedly. This is a movie you’re appearing in. The filming will be strict as well and we’ll reshoot each scene as many times as it’s necessary. I said that it is okay to waste as much film as they want so we’ll probably be shooting for an extremely long time.”

Although he stated that as though it was a matter of fact, the contents were something to be taken seriously. Junmin was in charge of the production of this film. If the film director was in charge of filming the actual scenes, the producer was in charge of setting up the environment that allows for the filming. He was the one in charge of finances, and he said the words ‘it is okay to waste’ film. This meant that there would be no cutting corners to decrease the production cost of the film, and it also meant that the actors will be squeezed out of every last bit of their energy.

“Isn’t 35mm film quite expensive?”

“It costs around 300 thousand won. Oh, and that’s per roll.”

“How long can we film with that then?”

“It’s around four and a half minutes, but if you consider cuts and rejoins. It’ll be around four minutes.”

“So that means, if we re-shoot…”

“We would be donating 300 thousand won to the ground every 4 minutes. Isn’t that exciting?”

Maru heaved a deep sigh. Concrete numbers made him nervous. The pressure from other people as well as heavy occasions were things he could endure through deep breathing. That pressure did not result in actual, physical harm. However, this was different. Every NG(no good) scene he caused meant 300 thousand won vaporized into nothing.

“Since it’s confirmed that you’re casting us. We’re getting paid too, right?”

“Of course.”

“How much?”

“It’s quite good. You’ll get 100 thousand won each. The scene where you two will be appearing in will end in a single day, after all. Though, you might get paid more once it gets late into the night. You aren’t thinking that you’re not paid much, are you? In other places, you’d at most get 70 thousand won for being an extra and 30 for just appearing. 100 thousand is actually quite a good deal. What, you think it’s not much?”

“Not at all. It’s more than I expected. But… it doesn’t seem like a lot after hearing the price of a film roll.”

100 thousand won. Right now, one would be lucky to get paid 3 thousand won per hour. Maru also received 2600 won per hour when he worked at the petrol station. His wage increased by 300 won midway thanks to his excellent work, but even that didn’t reach 3000 won an hour. In this era, 100 thousand won for a single day was a lot, especially considering his status as a high school student.

‘But one slip-up means 300 thousand, huh.’

Every slip-up from an actor would burn cash to nothingness. Leaving aside the film costs, just the labor costs with all those people at the scene must be extremely high. This wasn’t a movie involving just one or two people. There would be actors, their coordinators, managers as well as people related to the actual production of the movie. Most of them should be salarymen receiving monthly wages, but there should also be freelancers who would get overtime pay if they worked hours past their contract. The phrase ‘time is money’ also applied to movies. It was extremely easy to see that.

“Wow, I guess we can’t slip up,” said Jiseok as he widened his eyes.

“If we get an okay in one go, the mood at the scene will be very good. However, if the filming time increases by 10 or 20 minutes due to some newbies, they’ll start turning very strict.”

Junmin put down a pile of papers - they seemed to be the script - before continuing,

“Oh yeah. Consider insults something ordinary once the shooting begins. The only people that can get humane treatment on the scene are those that do their jobs properly. Newbies are treated worse than pebbles on the sidewalk so hold yourselves together.”

“Will we get a lot of insults?”

“You’ll listen to more insults than what you’ve heard in your life combined.”

“Wow, they say being insulted increases your lifespan. I might be able to achieve what Qin Shi Huang couldn’t.”

Jiseok smiled. Junmin laughed when he heard those words.

“Looks like you’d do well. Rather than that, it’s a pity. If you met me earlier, I would have given you a contract right there and then.”

“You tell me. I also wanted to sign a contract with a good company like this.”

“Can I tell that to president Bang?”

“Nope. I want to maintain my business ethics.”

“Then why don’t you come after your contract is over?”

“I’ll come if the president doesn’t want me to extend the contract. He did look after me, so I can’t just betray him. A man must fulfill his duty, don’t you think?”

“Duty, huh? That’s right,” Junmin looked at Maru as he said those words. Maru coughed awkwardly and looked away. Junmin was basically saying ‘it’s your duty to do your money’s worth, isn’t it?’ with his eyes.

“For now, I want to know why we were called here.”

Maru switched the topic.

“Oh yes, there was that.”

Junmin pushed the pile of papers towards him. The top page had the words ‘Twilight Years[1]’ on it. It was as he had expected, the script.

“We decided that we’ll cast delinquent 1 and delinquent 2. The rest will be supplementary extras.”

“Who’s 1 and who’s 2?”

“That’s what we’re deciding today. It’s an important scene after all.”

At that moment, Junmin raised his head and looked outside the glass wall. Maru followed his gaze. He saw a hooded man.

“I’m here.”

The man, giving off a thick smell of cigarettes, was Taeho. He was wearing slippers and when he sat down next to Junmin, he started grumbling.

“Hyung-nim. I’m feeling so tired these days. I’m not doing much, but I feel powerless.”

“I told you you need to quit gaming. You should be taking care of your body since the filming begins soon.”

“I might not look like it, but I am taking care of my body. I’m gaining all the weight that I painstakingly lost because the author told me that the first son had to give off a chubby impression. I’ve been eating, sleeping and gaming. I’ve gained 15kg in the past two months. Urgh, just thinking about having to lose it again after the movie makes me want to vomit.”

“Stop complaining. I know you’ll lose that weight like nothing once you’re told to.”

“Do you think I’m made of rubber? Jeez, those who get to order people around don’t know the difficulties of the people doing the actual work. So buy me some food. I’m hungry!”

After that, Taeho kept saying ‘I’d like some kkanpunggi(spicy garlic fried chicken)’ without stopping.

This man showed a tidy appearance in a suit during the annual awards at the end of the year, but his actual appearance was that of a chubby man in his 40s. As far as Maru knew, his mother also liked this actor. It would be quite a sight to see if he took a picture of him right now and showed it to her later.

“Aren’t you embarrassed in front of these kids?”

“An actor must throw away all shame, hyung-nim.”

“I get it already, so get up already. How the hell are you becoming more immature as time goes?”

“It’s all because I went through suffering in my early years. Hey! You two! Go play around while you still have the time. If you grow old doing nothing but work, you’ll turn into a horrible guy like me. Though, I’m still more humane than this hyung-nim right here. Do you know how scary this guy is? Let me tell you a story. This guy, before he…”

“I’ll order whatever you want so please shut up already.”

“Thanks, hyung-nim!”

This was the first time Maru saw Junmin give in to someone else’s wishes. Moonjoong was someone who worked in this industry much longer than him and was someone he respected, so he didn’t count, but this time, it was towards a man who looked at least a decade younger than him.

“Hey hey. You two should order something too. Jjajang(black bean sauce noodles) or jjamppong(spicy seafood noodles)[2]?”

“I want jjamppong,” Jiseok replied immediately. Then, the gaze was gathered on Maru. Maru sighed slightly before speaking in a low voice.

“I want japchae-bap(rice topped with stir-fried glass noodles).”

* * * *

“The chinese restaurant at the front really has some good food,” Taeho said as he made some coffee with stick coffee. Junmin left mid way after getting a call and never came back.

“Well then, now that we ate, let’s get things done since you guys must be busy. Since we just ate, let’s do some exercise so open the scripts that you received. That’s the script of the movie on which your name will be on in the ending credits,” Taeho said while tapping on his belly. Maru slowly flipped over the script. The script was definitely different to a script for a play. The stage directions were much more detailed and the scene numbers were marked with ‘#’s. Not only that, each of the lines clearly showed the personality of the scriptwriter, and they were much shorter than those of plays as well.

“So the whole thing is only 80 pages long?” Maru asked after checking the very last page. It was very short. He wondered how this short script would make up a 90 minute long movie.

“Short, isn’t it? But once it’s made into a movie, you’ll feel that it isn’t short at all. It’s short but you’ll feel like it’s an eternity. Once the film director starts nagging, the whole thing just falls into an infinite loop. To make a 80 page-long script into a movie, you’ll need two months at least. It’s excruciating. It’s not something a man should do.”

“Yet you’re an actor.”

“What a bold question. I like you.”

Taeho burped before replying.

“That’s the addicting part about a movie. It feels horrible during the filming. It’d be better if we do scene by scene from the beginning, but circumstances don’t exactly allow for that. No matter how well things are planned out, it will always go wrong. Sometimes there’s a need to scene #34 after scene #1. What’s pisses people off is that sometimes that scene #34 is set in a place like Jeju island. I’ve never seen a movie that’s filmed according to the initial plan. Not even once. But you know? The thing is, once that crappy stuff is all out of the way and you look at the final, edited movie, you forget about all the pains. Then, you go participate in the next movie and repeat the whole process. This is really addictive. Once you get into it, you have no choice but to continue doing it.”

Taeho emptied the coffee in one gulp.

“Well then, since you read the script, let’s get to work then, shall we? Page 30, scene #44. You see? Read through that part. Imagine the scene in your head too. Delinquent 1 and delinquent 2. I’ll decide on the roles after you guys try them out. Delinquent 2 obviously looks like he’ll have more screen time, right? He gets to talk to the main character at the end after all. Both of you probably want that. Since you’re going to appear in a movie, you’d want to appear longer, right?” Taeho said with a thick grin. His appearance right now was completely different from just moments ago where he was picking his tooth with a toothpick, giggling. His eyes were calm and his entire atmosphere was different.

“Let’s try them out once, analyze the characters and decide after that. I’m doing this because senior Moonjoong asked me to, so be sure to concentrate. My pride is also on the line as well. I’m not putting someone half-assed in front of the senior after all. Well, then. Shall we have a go?”

[1] It actually just says ‘twilight’, but everyone knows a movie with that name. So I decided to change it slightly.

[2] Two of the most common menus in a Korean Chinese-style restaurant

Chapter 230

“Scene 44. Outside. Street. Dawn. The sound of drunkards could be intermittently heard from the back alley. Doksoo is lying down on a bench. A delinquent approaches Doksoo, who’s curled up, groaning,” Taeho read the stage directions out loud. Doksoo was the main character of the movie ‘Twilight Years’.

“Well then, since we don’t know the precise location, we’ll go with a stereotypical setting. Imagine. You’re in a street with a lot of bars. The time is early dawn. Since it’s not the weekend, there aren’t many people who are drinking this late. You can intermittently hear sounds of drunk people. Now then, what is the reason for you two, two high schoolers, to be in such a place?”

“We must have had fun with friends,” this was Jiseok’s answer.

“We must be looking around for bars that we can slip through with our faces,[1]” Maru replied while stroking his chin.

“Good. You might be having fun with friends, or maybe trying to slip through to a bar. Anyway, you guys are delinquents so you must be quite pissed all the time, right?”

Taeho then looked at Jiseok,

“Try saying the next line.”

Jiseok had a look at the script before saying his lines with a chuckle,

“Gramps. Oi, gramps. You’ll croak if you sleep ‘ere you know?”

“Good. That was very delinquent-like. Next, you.”

Maru had a look at the script. Before the line was a bit of stage directions that said ‘while grinning towards friends’. He could vaguely picture the scene. The delinquents had come across a drunk old man and was probing his state. He then thought that it would be better to say the lines worriedly. After all, it was important to see if he was awake or not. Maru first lowered his voice and spoke as though he was waking up a sleeping man.

“Grandpa. Hello? Grandpa? You’ll die if you keep sleeping here, you know?”

“Oh? Yours is different. Why did you do it like that?”

“I think this is much more realistic than approaching with a wide grin.”

“Okay, I get it.”

It was at that moment. Taeho slapped the table hard with the script. Maru narrowed his eyes and looked at Taeho.

“I get that you’re smart. I’m not saying that it’s bad to deduce things like that. But I’m angry. Do you know why?”

“Is it because I didn’t follow the script?”

“Correct. You know that this movie is based on a novel, right?”

“Yes.”

“That novel. It was written over a span of a year and a half. After that, it took another half a year to produce this script after discussing non-stop with a script writer. They went through several iterations before they produced this.”

Taeho raised the script up high.

“Every comma and every period contains the intentions of the writer. They don’t just randomly write (with a grin) on the script without thinking. Of course, you might be right and your method might be a better method. But like that, there will be no end. Someone has got to set the standards, and this script is that very standard. This is an agreement. It is something that people involved in this movie must abide to, especially the actors. Don’t ever try to change it by yourself. Understood?”

After saying that, Taeho returned to his usual smile. His expression just before was quite frightening. It wasn’t just a condescending senior jealous of a boastful junior, but a rebuke from an experienced person to a newbie. Maru accepted it immediately. Taeho’s words were very easy for him to understand.

“I’m sorry.”

“Once is a mistake, but twice is intentional. You must first digest the things that you’re given. Give your opinion after you digested the whole thing. That is the proper order of things. Though, I doubt that the director will listen to your opinions. Anyway, next.”

The script contained the intent of the writer. It wasn’t just any intent either, but a deep meaning they spent several months to even several years working on. It was definitely arrogance on Maru’s part when he decided to change it after reading it just once. Maru thought that he should go back to the basics. The priority was to understand the script itself.

“Well, then. Let’s have a look. There aren’t any lines, but you get the picture, don’t you? Doksoo, lying down on the bench, is thinking that the world still has hope - that there are still youngsters looking after the elderly; that people still have affection for each other. However, reality is that these youths are thieves aiming for his money. This is the scene where he loses what little affection he has of this world. Senior Moonjoong must be having a hard time because of this scene as well. There’s not a single line here. And it’s not like we can add narrations like a documentary. The joy of looking at people approaching him, a slight bit of happiness, the following despair from the violence, as well as the frustration. He has to show the audience all of those emotions with his eyes, expression and actions only.”

Taeho put his hands against his chin and leaned forward.

“You two are saying your lines and acting in such a situation. The camera angle should be an over-the-shoulder shot. After capturing your faces for a brief moment, the following scenes will capture the senior’s face from behind you, over your shoulders. Imagine. In front of you is the god of acting. The pressure is no joke. In front of you will be an elder who thanks the world for human kindness then vents his anger against the world. It will freak you out. After all, he’ll then glare at you as though he’s about to kill. You two are going to have to act in tandem with the senior under such circumstances. You know what that means? It means that you’ll be wasting several rolls of film with the slightest of mistakes. You do know the saying that you need two hands to clap, right? No matter how good the senior is at acting, the end result will be nothing if you guys slip up.”

“So we just need to do well!” Jiseok replied to that as though there were no problems at all. His face was filled with a smile.

“Yes. You need to do well. I’m not saying this to frighten you. I just want you to know. You guys might be side characters without many lines, but the weight of your roles are definitely not light. Of course, I get that you two aren’t total beginners. I did feel that you guys are different to those people who boast their career.”

Taeho leaned back on the chair and looked at the script.

“Then let’s do the important line then. What was your name again?”

“Yoo Jiseok, sir.”

“Yes, let’s start with you Jiseok. Doksoo struggles not to get his money stolen. However, he is eventually robbed of all his money by the delinquents. Doksoo rolls off the bench. He glares at the delinquents as they walk away. Well then, cue!”

“Man, your sorry ass has achieved nothing even after all these years. What kind of shit life have you been living, gramps?”

“Good. I like how you’re absolutely shameless. I want to slap you right now. Hey, are you like this at school too?”

“Me? I’m more on the side of the bullied.”

“I doubt that.”

“Hahaha.”

Taeho turned around to look at Maru.

“Should I give you a cue sign?”

“No, I’m okay.”

Maru followed the script to the tee this time. He had done plenty of research on delinquents so he didn’t find anything difficult. They say poison becomes medicine if used correctly, the now-expelled Changhoo’s nasty speech came out of his mouth naturally.

“Man, your sorry ass has achieved nothing even after all these years. What kind of shit life have you been living, gramps?”

“What was your name again?”

“I’m Han Maru.”

“I think you must have made quite a few kids cry as well. Are you two both actually delinquents?”

“I’m quite the trash, yes.”

“Oh?”

Taeho stood up from the seat and started walking around within the glass room. He seemed to be in deep thought.

“Both of you are okay, but that makes it harder for me to decide,” Taeho talked to himself as he looked outside the glass wall. After a while, he made a ‘tsk’ noise before sitting back down.

“From your looks, Maru looks more nasty, but Jiseok is also okay with his immature face too. The film director also said that both of your faces are okay, so it’s up to me to decide, huh,” Taeho kept mumbling to himself as he spun around on his office chair. This man was quite frivolous unlike his serious-looking face. He was like a gentleman when he shaved and tidied up his hair. Maru thought that actors were really eccentric.

“What role do you want?”

“Delinquent 2,” Jiseok replied without hesitation.

“What about you, Maru?”

“I’m the same.”

“Greedy brats. Any thoughts on yielding?”

To that question,

“No.”

“Not at all.”

They replied at the same time. Maru glanced at Jiseok. He was smiling brightly yet his eyes were saying that he would not yield at all. He liked helping others out, but it seemed that he had no intentions on giving up on his desires. Maru liked him that way. He didn’t like people who sacrificed themselves for others.

“Ah, fine. An actor must have some greed. Good, then write what this line feels like on a piece of paper. Write what you think, not what’s written on the script. Show me how you would express the lines if you were that character.”

Taeho gave the two of them a pen and a piece of A4 paper each. Maru stared at the paper for a bit before writing his feelings with the pen.

“I’m really bad with things like this.”

“Just write what you think. Are you giving up?”

“Of course not!”

Jiseok groaned but started writing. Maru put down his pen and pushed the paper towards Taeho. He had done plenty of character analysis while reading the novel. The only role he could possibly fit in the novel was the delinquent - was his mindset as he read it. Although it was a side character with only two lines, that character would have a life of his own once he dug deep. It was just not captured on camera. This meant that he would have to dissolve the character’s entire life into those two lines, life being equivalent to philosophy.

A delinquent’s philosophy.

There was no background information given. After all, it was just a delinquent passing by even in the novel. In the end, it was all up to imagination. There was only one assumption - what if it was me. The life of the character that he had been thinking of many times these past months.

“I’m done.”

Jiseok pushed the paper towards Taeho as well.

“Let’s have a look then.”

Taeho picked up the papers. Thanks to the two papers, Taeho’s face was hidden. After reading the short texts with an expressionless face, Taeho smiled.

“I think I’ll have to give the character to the crueler one. The protagonist, Doksoo, will only be emphasized more the more pathetic he becomes. The more drastic the contrast, the better the scene will look through a camera.”

Maru did not avoid Taeho’s gaze as he looked towards him.

“Han Maru. You’re delinquent 2. You’re going to have to act like a real trash. Alright?”

“…Yes, sir.”

Just like that? Maru felt rather unreal, but he smiled when he understood the situation. He got what he wanted, there was no way he didn’t feel happy.

“Ah, I guess I didn’t get it.”

Jiseok said with pity. However, he smiled and acted as though nothing happened to him.

“Maru, since you won, you should buy us some congratulatory drinks. I want cappuccino. Senior, you should have him treat you too.”

“You’re buying? I’m not the shameless guy who rips off of his juniors, but I’m also a big hearted man who does not deny people’s goodwill. I want americano, then.”

The two of them looked towards Maru with a satisfied grin. They really got along well. Some might mistake them for brothers who are far apart in age.

Though, he was completely fine with treating them on an occasion like this.

“Senior. I’ll be going downstairs for a bit then.”

“Sure. I want iced!” Taeho said with a hearty laughter.

[1] Korean bars do an ID check when entering, but sometimes, if the guard deems that the entrant looks old enough(?), he or she is let through without an ID check. It’s the same when trying to buy a pack of cigarettes.

Chapter 231

“Yes, redirect all PPL calls to the marketing department, and reject anyone who tries to sneak something extra in. Also, call the actors and make a list of all items that they get sponsorship from. Since they’re all veterans, there shouldn’t be any problems, but take measures so that no one brings strange clothes to the scene. Yes, yes. Please work a little harder. Ah, also, what happened with the meeting with the special effects company? Buksanjeong? Order a good course meal and look into if there are any reservations in the tables next to us, and try to cancel those if you can. The distributors may join us midway, so save some room for them too. Don’t forget to call me once you’re all done.”

Junmin exercised his stiff neck and looked down from the rooftop. He was reminded of when he first bought this building. He thought that the matters of the world were really unpredictable. Who would’ve known that an unknown actor like him would eventually possess a building in such an expensive place? Although he wasn’t able to spread his name around as an actor, he was able to support those that would become real actors. Although it was a little pity that he was getting further away from his dreams, he did not have any regrets.

“Haejoo, am I really doing well?”

Although he wasn’t able to become the best actor, he now possessed the environment to raise those that would become the best. Junmin wanted to raise the best with his hands. Of course, he was well aware of how difficult it was since that was what he was doing all this time. Jung Haejoo. She had a god-sent talent for acting. He created countless acting curricula in order to replicate her, but it was impossible to replicate a god-sent gift as a man.

“Just one step. All that remained was just a single step…”

Junmin admired that woman. His feelings towards her were on a completely different level to the respect he had to numerous senior actors. She was a woman that he did not dare to use an expression that would put himself on the same level as her. There was no need to package her to look great, her very existence as an actor would wow any person. When he first saw that woman in a bankrupt theater, who introduced herself as an actor, Junmin caused a fuss, calling everyone he knew saying that he finally found the one. She was a woman who dazzled him with her light from the moment he looked at her. He disdained all the people who threw her away without recognizing her value and grabbed her. She was the woman who understood ten if you told her one. She absorbed all the acting knowledge that Junmin had and sublimated it so that it became her own.

At one point, Junmin even had the impulse to hide her from the world and hog her to himself. However, an actor’s worth and respect could only be gained on stage. When he used all of his powers to get her the best possible debut piece, she… died. It was an ordinary car accident. Dozens of people die to car accidents every day, and hers was something that didn’t even make it to the news. Agony shook Junmin to his core when he thought that he couldn’t even prevent such an ordinary accident. When he regained himself a little after her funeral, Junmin put all of his passion into raising new talents as though he was possessed. He no longer attended to his social circles and looked for new talent that could replace her while spending time with the dogs that she loved. He spent 3 years like that to finally realize that there were things that simply couldn’t be replaced in this world.

Now that time passed and he was in his 50s, he had an unreal amount of real estate in his hands and he was in a position where he could eat and drink with superstars. The days of pain and suffering that he thought would last an eternity eventually passed and now he was the Lee Junmin who could smile and laugh again. Just until a few years ago, he thought that humans were really evil, but now, even that faded out. What was left of her was his admiration towards that woman as well as the desire to meet an actor of her level once again. The days of agony and pain changed to memories. It was a bitter thing for him to accept, but it was the truth. If that didn’t happen subconsciously in the brain, many people would be in their coffins right now. Junmin blankly stared at the skies before turning around and heading towards the 7th floor.

“Why are you wandering around like that?”

The 2nd meeting room was occupied by Taeho alone. It seemed that the matter he asked him to do had been finished.

“Looks like you made your decision since they aren’t here.”

“Yes. I made a clean decision.”

“Who did you give delinquent 2 to then?” Junmin asked as he sat down.

“Han Maru.”

“Why?”

Taeho smiled and gave him two pieces of paper. One had horrible handwriting, and the other had a neat handwriting.

“The one that’s hard to read is Jiseok’s, and the other one is from Maru. I told them to write what meanings the lines of the delinquents had, and that’s what they gave me. I made an immediate decision after reading them. Have a look.”

Junmin had a look at Jiseok’s first.

“Thinks that the drunkard old man is pathetic since he’s sleeping in the streets at that age.”

He read it out aloud. It wasn’t wrong. The lines themselves implied that. Junmin put down the answer that Jiseok wrote and had a look at Maru’s

“Jiseok’s answer isn’t bad. After all, that’s what the script entails. Just looking at the line ‘Man, your sorry ass has achieved nothing even after all these years. What kind of shit life have you been living, gramps’, you can see how the delinquent is looking at the old man. But Maru decided to take a step further and write where those feelings stem from. For me, I want the delinquent to be nasty, underhanded, grumpy with the world, and twisted to the point that he couldn’t be any more twisted. Such a delinquent can’t just be ‘simple’, don’t you think?”

“Even though you say that, it’ll be just a single cut. Can this boy really imbue all of it into the line?”

“You know better than anyone that many cuts make a scene and many scenes create a sequence. You don’t know how things will go. You might tell me that that decision was the best choice I made in my life. And hey, what’s up with you? You don’t like him?”

Hearing that question, Junmin smiled and put down the paper on the table.

“So you’re picking on him even though you like him. Hyung-nim, people should be a little honest with themselves as they get older. Only then can you get married and have children and eventually grandchildren.”

“And so, are you married?”

“…I’m fine since I’m in my prime 40s.”

“You’ll be in your 50s before you know it, and your 60s if you daze out for a little. If you wanna get married, do it now.”

“Is that advice from a senior in life who couldn’t get married?”

“That’s right.”

“Haah. I don’t want to grow old with a dog like you are, but I don’t see any suitable ladies around me. I can only get married once a good woman appears.”

Junmin played along with Taeho’s grumbles before standing up. Taeho was an actor who was always on the top of the scout list in Chungmu-ro. His name was well known amongst the masses, and he had a good personality as well, so sometimes he would get offers to attend a marriage interview, but he had never heard of him going to one.

“Rather than that, hyung-nim.”

“What is it?”

“When are we doing the read-through? I know you’ll hold one after the get-together.”

“I am.”

“So when will it…”

“Within next week. But hey, why are you looking forward to the read-through? I thought you hated that.”

“When did I hate it? Anyway, see you then. I’m going to go back and have some sleep.”

“You’ve been sleeping until now and you’re sleeping even more?”

“I’m going to gain just 3 more kilos. Since my face is so handsome, gaining weight doesn’t really do much to my sharp jaw lines. Just look, my jaw lines are as sharp as ever.”

Taeho left with a grin. Junmin picked up his phone and told each department to reschedule the get-together. He had to go find someone to do some rituals, someone to pray for the piece, and even do some fortune telling. He wasn’t going to find someone to do a gut(shamanist exorcism ritual). In his last piece, he held one, and that didn’t even cross the break-even point. Ever since then, he never went to do one.

“So he got the role he wanted.”

Junmin put the two papers into the bin. The cast was over. The main roles had already gotten their scripts and started practicing. Right now, there were no changes to schedule. Although changes would be made to the schedule again and again once the filming began, the start was good.

Suddenly, his phone started ringing. He heaved a deep breath before answering.

“What? The mob scene’s location was cancelled? Why? Have you called the location manager? Fuu. Get the newbies in the production team and the special effects team to look for a similar location nearby. Don’t just use your phones and do some actual work. Get it done by tomorrow. Take photos of the location and send them to the director and to me. And also, what?”

Junmin scratched his head and picked up his pen. He suddenly regretted that he decided to command the filming scene. The saying ‘the old should just point their fingers from the back’ slowly crept up his mind.

“Double-check and get that confirmed. Get their fingerprints stamped so that they can’t back out later and…”

It seemed that he was going to get overloaded with work again today.

* * * *

“A movie?”

“Yeah. You know Maru’s been busy lately. That’s all because of the movie. He even passed the audition. Isn’t that great?”

“Wow.”

Jiyoon looked at Daemyung and exclaimed in a small voice. The fact that Maru passed the audition was definitely something celebratory, but to her, the fact that she was talking with Daemyung was something happier to her.

“The others aren’t coming. Wait a moment, I’ll go get them. Where’s everyone? Practice will be starting soon,” Daemyung spoke as he stood up. Jiyoon had a look at the time. It was 10 past 5. The practice began at 5:30. There was still 20 minutes left, so there shouldn’t be any real reason for him to be in a hurry.

“Wouldn’t they come when the time comes?”

“D, do you think?”

Daemyung wandered around the empty classroom while looking around all over the place, but eventually, he left the classroom saying that he would go look for them. Jiyoon found herself reaching out to him when he left and then sighed to herself as she put her hand down.

These feelings, it probably came from back then. The senior that listened to her while being very flustered. Jiyoon felt her heart throb when she saw that. It was a completely different feeling to when she saw Maru. It was the difference of admiring someone from afar and watching someone who cared for her. She had good feelings towards Maru, but that all felt unreal to her since he felt too distant. Perhaps due to that, she didn’t feel anything when she found out that he had a girlfriend. In fact, she found it so natural that she smiled to herself.

On the other hand, the first feelings she had when she found out that Daemyung did not have a girlfriend was relief. At that moment, Jiyoon realized. She realized that she held more than just good feelings towards him. It was a secret that she hadn’t told anyone yet. She felt that the secret would lose all worth once she said it out loud.

“Should I be a little more proactive?” She muttered to herself. However, she couldn’t continue thinking because just imagining it made her feel like her head would burst. Jiyoon absent-mindedly looked at the door that Daemyung left through.

* * *

“I think Jiyoon is uncomfortable with me.”

Maru frowned when he heard Daemyung’s groans. What kind of BS was this?

“Ah, no. I must be mistaken. It’s nothing. Ha, haha.”

Daemyung smiled and entered the classroom. Maru had a peek inside. Daemyung and Jiyoon were sitting far apart. That distance didn’t originate from discomfort, but from the immense pink-colored heat that was about to cause the two to burn. It was immensely obvious to him, but the two people in question, no, to be precise, Daemyung, didn’t seem to understand at all.

‘I did have my doubts, but they’re still like this… ’

He was well aware that Jiyoon’s eyes when she looked at Daemyung was unlike anything else. Maru thought that Daemyung would take notice of that and that there would be progress between the two soon enough, but there was neither progress nor regress. There was still the awkward distance between the two. Jiyoon was a timid girl. The problem was that Daemyung was just as timid. It was understandable since both of them were more timid than most others, but still…

“Geez, they’re amazing, in a sense.”

He didn’t want to mention it in front of them and receive their glares. It would be good if the two went well, but if things didn’t go well, it would be a pain for him. Maru sat in the corner of the classroom and had a look at the two. Both of them were looking his way when they talked, but while Jiyoon sometimes took glances at Daemyung, Daemyung didn’t look at Jiyoon even once.

‘If you have good observation skills, please look at her.’

Maru felt dizzy from the smell of love, which made him leave the classroom for a moment. Daemyung was about to follow him out, but Maru kicked him back in. He then went to the window at the end of the corridor.

“Han Maru. What are you doing over there?”

He heard a voice from the direction of the classroom.

“You’re early today.”

It was Suyeon.

“I’m here to hold a party to celebrate your passing of the audition.”

She was holding plastic bags in each hand and waved at him to come.

Chapter 232

The club members gathered around. In the center were the items that Suyeon bought. They were snacks and drinks. They were perfect for this small celebratory occasion, but there was one item that caught Maru’s eyes. Maru wordlessly stood up and grabbed those cans. The voluminous silver cans were things he would have welcomed if he was outside, but right now, he was in school.

“What?”

Suyeon asked with a bright smile. Maru smiled back at her before going to the bathroom and pouring all the beer into the toilet. When he returned with empty cans, he saw Suyeon pouting.

“Alcohol isn’t allowed in school.”

“Those were mine though.”

“Drink them outside.”

“You’re no fun. Beer at school! Isn’t that every man’s dream? Isn’t that right, everyone?” Suyeon looked around at others as she asked. Everyone smiled awkwardly and looked away.

“Not a single one is on my side. How bitter.”

“You can keep sulking. We’ll start practice after eating these.”

It was obvious that she would start something strange again if he played along with her. Maru gathered everyone up and started opening the snacks that Suyeon brought.

“I bought them.”

“Then come and eat.”

“At least say thanks, will you?”

Suyeon took a seat. She turned up around 3 times a week before, but after May started, she came every day. Thanks to that, she became closer to the other students and was now able to talk to them without reserve. This was the mood that Suyeon wanted. The club members should be thinking that she was a good instructor who was humorous and friendly. It wasn’t bad. There shouldn’t be any problems as long as Suyeon kept her inner snakes under control. Although this was a relationship based on false appearances, if it was maintained for long enough, it would eventually become the truth within everyone’s hearts.

‘It’s not like anyone would notice her true nature either.’

Once everyone found out about Suyeon’s history, they would become biased towards her. They might suspect her even if she truly wanted to teach them. Right now, the leader of this group known as the acting club was Suyeon, no matter who tried to deny it. Her kind-looking face was not allowed to shatter.

“Bangjoo, wanna do a love shot[1] with me?”

“Eh, what?”

Bangjoo became flustered with his usual loud voice.

“Don’t tease him too much,” Maru spoke with a smile. Suyeon and he were in a business relationship. They were tuning the relationship between Suyeon and the rest so that the falsities did not get revealed. As long as it was Junmin that asked Suyeon to look after the acting club, she would not try anything funny. It was clear that she would lead the kids as an ideal instructor.

Suyeon approached Bangjoo. She giggled and tapped on Bangjoo who was stiff like a rock. Jiyoon chuckled and Aram slapped Bangjoo’s back saying ‘do it!’. Holding her drink up, Suyeon smiled with her eyes and looked at Bangjoo. Bangjoo raised his paper cup as well. His slightly nervous face contained expectation. After all that’s said and done, Suyeon was an actress. Although she was usually down-to-earth, that didn’t make her beauty disappear. As a man, this was a situation where he would gulp subconsciously. Maru gave Suyeon a glance. Suyeon had a disdainful smile for a brief moment but she soon returned.

“But I like Jiyoon better. Come here, you cute little one.”

The hand approaching Bangjoo switched directions towards Jiyoon. At first, Jiyoon backed away, feeling embarrassed, but she eventually raised her hand when Suyeon kept closing in on her. Jiyoon’s cheeks became red. After crossing each other’s arms together to drink, Suyeon came back to her seat after patting her head. Maru spoke to her in a low voice so that others wouldn’t hear him.

“Don’t glare at me like that. You’re scaring me.”

“Don’t tease her too much.”

Maru was wary of Suyeon becoming too close with the other students, as well as becoming too distant. Right now was the perfect distance where they could joke around with others. Suyeon made her view of life very clear. She would make use of any man if it benefited her. The dangerous part about her was that she did not care what the method was. Maru estimated that something happened between her and Geunseok as well. Geunseok was already walking down the wrong path, and Maru believed that she was the reason Geunseok strayed even more drastically. He didn’t care about Suyeon’s way of life. In fact, he wasn’t qualified to say anything as long as she didn’t do anything illegal. However, he wasn’t kind enough to let her do as she wished to people related to him.

“You want to put me in check, huh?”

“It’s better for both of us to keep the instructor-student relationship. Isn’t it?”

“You’re rather old fashioned.”

“Kids these days are quite naive, you know? I’m worried that they won’t be able to get a hold of themselves when a fiery fox wags her tail at them.”

“Haha, and I’m the fox?”

“Calling you a fox is an understatement. I don’t dare compare foxes to you. You’d roast any number of foxes.”

“You’re unexpectedly protective of them.”

“Because they’re higher on my priority list than you. I like making lists like that.”

“I’m a little disheartened. You even know my shameful side. Weren’t we better than this?”

Suyeon got closer to Maru while others were busy. She was wearing a silk blouse, and her cleavage could be seen below her top button which was undone. Maru smiled and blatantly stared at her breasts. When he did, Suyeon curved her lips and moved back.

“Why don’t you just strip if you plan on showing me? You’d make good eye candy.”

“Aren’t you a little too harsh on a lady? I almost felt ashamed.”

“You wanted me to look, so I looked. I was looking quite seriously since you were so adamant. But it’s a bit of a pity. You aren’t voluminous enough. I wonder if you can make a B cup.”

“…Do you want to die?”

Maru shrugged his shoulders and turned away from Suyeon. A lady aware of her own beauty was bound to be scary. Suyeon was someone who was capable of weaponizing her beauty. She probably shouldn’t flirt with the kids, but there was nothing bad with being cautious.

“But seonbae, are you really going to appear in a movie?” Aram asked, taking a bite from a chocolate cookie. Maru nodded.

“What role are you?”

“A delinquent.”

“Ek? You?”

Aram laughed while saying that but eventually, she narrowed her eyes and spoke.

“Actually, it might suit you.”

“It’s not just ‘might’. He’s the very definition of a delinquent,” Dowook spoke from the side. Maru made a hand knife and lightly hit the back of Dowook’s neck.

“I don’t think it suits him at all…,” Jiyoon spoke while blinking.

“No, Jiyoon. If you have a closer look at Maru-seonbae, he looks like he has a bad personality.”

“Hey, don’t say it straight to my face.”

“You know I can’t hold back things like this, seonbae.”

“You mean you don’t, not that you can’t.”

“I thought I hid that well, but I guess I was found out.”

Aram giggled. Jiyoon was very flustered in the middle. She eventually grabbed Aram’s arm and shook her. Her small voice, saying ‘you should stop’, could be heard.

“We became closer, don’t you think?” Daemyung spoke as he watched that. It wasn’t that surprising since they had spent over a month together. Last year, the first thing that happened was disharmony, but this year, there weren’t any conflicts between the members. As long as practice went well, they would be able to achieve good things in the competition as well.

“Then when is the movie going to be released?”

“We didn’t even start filming yet. I don’t know the exact release date. I’m not in a position where I can find out either.”

“Then for how long are you going to appear? Are you the main character? A delinquent who eventually has a change of heart and turns good?”

“Nope, I’m a minor role. A passing by delinquent. I only have two lines of speech as well.”

“Oh, that’s all you h… ufpppf!”

Jiyoon couldn’t take it anymore and covered Aram’s mouth. She looked at Maru with an apologetic expression.

“I’m sorry, seonbae-nim. She just doesn’t know how to hold back.”

“She’s not wrong though.”

“But even so…”

Maru scratched his eyebrows and turned around. Jiyoon’s pitiful expression was more pressuring than Aram stating facts. It would be quite a sight to see once Daemyung realized Jiyoon’s feelings for him. He could already imagine the two of them sitting far away from each other, very awkwardly.

“Who else is in the movie? Is Yoon Hyuk in it? How about Choi Jihoon? How about Jang Min-oppa?”

Aram stated actors known for their handsome faces.

“All I know is that there will be a middle aged man with a fat stomach.”

“Isn’t there anyone with handsome faces?”

“I don’t know. I really don’t know who is participating.”

“How about actresses?”

Daemyung sneakily asked.

‘Daemyung, don’t you see Jiyoon biting her lips behind you, you douche?' This guy is the type to run away with all of his might if he sees an apple falling above his head.’

“I don’t know anything about that either. Do you think they’ll tell anything to a bottom-of-the-rung actor like me?”

At that moment, Suyeon crossed her arms and spoke.

“But I know.”

“You know who’s appearing, instructor?”

“Yeah. I can tell you that there’s a really sexy, cute, and pretty actress.”

Suyeon paused for a breath before continuing,

“And that’s me.”

Maru felt his eyes twitch. Suyeon was practicing her act of the second daughter when they met at the villa last time. The audition ended last week. Meaning that Suyeon passed the audition as well?

“Then you’re appearing in the same movie as seonbae?”

Aram made a curious expression. Even Jiyoon became surprised and looked his way.

“I guess things turned out that way.”

“Are you filming together then?”

“No. We won’t be meeting each other. After all, we don’t shoot the same scene together.”

“What role are you then, instructor?”

“The granddaughter of the main character who’s in high school. She is tragically killed by the main character. There will be blood too.”

“A high school girl?”

“I guess it’s one of the advantages of having a younger looking face. This unni’s skin is very good. I’ll look like a high school girl once I wear a uniform.”

She grinned as she stretched her own cheeks out. Aram exclaimed and approached Suyeon and poked Suyeon’s cheeks.

“Instructor, tell me your secret later.”

“Sure.”

Aram locked her hands with Suyeon’s and shook it in joy. Suyeon glanced at Maru. She had a slight smile on her face.

“So we aren’t filming together, huh.”

“Yup.”

“That’s very fortunate.”

“Why is that? You’re making me disheartened.”

Aram, who was next to her, said “that’s right, seonbae.” It seemed that Suyeon’s art of seduction didn’t exclusively work on men.

“Oh, I know one other person. It’s someone you know well, too, Maru.”

“Who is it?”

“Geunsoo-oppa. He’s the youngest son.”

“I didn’t know that. But when did you decide to drop the honorifics? I thought you called him with a ‘mister’.”

“That’s my business. Don’t you worry about that. Mister Han Maru.”

He had contacted him regarding the audition two weeks ago, and it seemed that Geunsoo had won the role as well. The youngest son was the first to be killed by the main character. There were some action scenes as well. In the novel, he dies after struggling against his father, the main character, who appears and hits him with a hammer.

“I guess we’ll see once during the read-through.”

“There are read-throughs for movies too?”

“Just once. The production team and the actors all gather around and do a complete read-through together. They get to listen to what the director wants there.”

Suyeon let go of Aram’s hands and stood up.

“Well then. That’s enough chat, so we should get to practice. It’s not good to be so strict, but we shouldn’t play for too long. Let’s read through the script once and move according to the movement lines we decided on last time. No one’s forgotten their lines already, right?”

The acting club had done practically nothing but looking at the script for the past month. Everyone here was confident in reciting the lines.

“Then let’s clean up and start immediately. Oh, Daemyung, lead everyone and do some stretching. We’ll up the difficulty for stretching today. Especially you, Jiyoon. Aram and Bangjoo are okay since they exercise, but you need to do some exercise. Let’s raise your flexibility.”

“Y, yes.”

“Alright, then.”

Suyeon clapped and had everyone stand up. She maintained the cheerful atmosphere and imbued vitality into the practice. She was a difficult woman to face, but her abilities had to be acknowledged. It was unbelievable that she had no experience teaching groups. She displayed excellent teaching abilities against these group of students.

“Let’s get things done today too, then, shall we?”

* * *

Moonjoong took a deep breath. After that, he picked up the script in his hand and violently shook it from top to bottom. Something akin to thirst was rising inside him. He wanted to pour out his thirst right now.

After taking deep breaths, Moonjoong picked up his phone. There was a message from Junmin.

[There’s a get-together the day after tomorrow. I’ll come pick you up.]

[1] In Korea, a ‘love shot’ involves two people drinking their drinks (usually alcohol, but not the case here) over each other’s body. There are ten levels of a ‘love shot’ in urban legend, and the actions described here seems like level 1, the most common one. Anything above level 3 is both an urban legend AND NSFW (level 4 involves mouth to mouth… and there are 6 levels above that…)

Chapter 233

Moonjoong, who was reading through the newspaper in depth, closed the newspaper. He stood up as he patted Dalgu’s head, who was rubbing against his legs. It was time for his meal.

“Yes, yes. I guess you need to eat to live too.”

He poured dog feed on the pet plate before lightly eating his own lunch. After washing the dishes, he poured a pack of red ginseng extract that he received as a gift from his daughter in some hot water. The light brown red ginseng tea gave off a sweet fragrance. Perhaps this was what happiness was. Moonjoong held the mug in his hand and left his house for a bit. The rays of the sun in May were hot. He sat on the wooden chair in his garden and drank his tea. After today, he would have to say goodbye to his leisurely days for a while. He would be returning to the industry again. It was obvious that the schedule would be tight, that his acting wouldn’t go as he wished, and that there would be many trivial hiccups here and there, but he strangely felt happy. It felt like visiting his hometown after a long time.

“Maybe I should have gone with cold water instead.”

He thought that hot tea wasn’t suited in this weather. Just as he blew on his tea to cool it down a little, he heard Dalgu barking from the inside. It seemed that his phone had started ringing since the boy was usually calm. When he entered his house, Dalgu was barking towards his phone just as he had thought.

“Yes, yes. Thanks for telling me.”

After tickling Dalgu’s chin once, he answered the call.

-Sir, I’ll pick you up at seven.

“Oh, the get-together is today?”

-Yes.

“Okay, then. The weather is hot, so don’t push yourself.”

After finishing his call, he had a look at the calendar. He could see the word ‘get-together’ written in small letters.

‘Time sure flies.’

His eyes shifted a little sideways. First shoot. The filming would begin once the get-together was over. From that moment onwards, he would be very busy.

“So what’s left is how well I do my worth.”

Junmin had prepared the best of everything. He had set up a flawless environment. What was left now was for him to do his acting more passionately than anyone. He had been given a glamorous stage, so he couldn’t just show something that was a school festival level. Moonjoong sat down on the sofa and closed his eyes. What was about to happen now was just basic repetition. He would first imagine the overall picture in his head, and act the part in his mind. He would then very objectively evaluate his own acting and throw it away if it wasn’t up to standard. Only after repeating that process numerous times would he stand in front of the camera. If the director gave the okay, then that scene was a pass, and if not, then they would reshoot the whole scene. It was quite simple, so there was no room for excuses. Once the filming began, an actor had to prove their worth, as well as satisfy the producers.

Moonjoong’s gaze headed towards a newspaper. An article he read in the morning caught his eyes. He found that these days, they used some interesting expressions. ‘Pure’ singers and ‘pure’ actors. Moonjoong found them funny whenever he encountered those expressions. It was the epitome of irony. A ‘pure’ actor? Why did such an expression come about? An actor is an actor only when he or she is able to digest acting. A ‘pure’ actor? As an actor himself, he was very embarrassed whenever he heard those words. Just how many people entitled themselves as an ‘actor’ and disappointed the audience for such a word to be created? Moonjoong wanted to show his juniors how an actor should be through this piece. He didn’t consider himself worthy of teaching anyone, but he could give them some advice as their senior. He wanted at least the juniors he was working with to know how embarrassing the expression ‘pure’ actor was.

Perhaps noticing the owner’s heavy mind, Dalgu approached and sat down by his feet. Moonjoong felt the warmth from his feet and smiled faintly.

* * *

“Am I allowed to participate?” This was Maru’s first question when he heard about the get-together.

- The staff is participating as well. It’s not a heavy occasion like you think it is.

“If that’s the case, I’ll go. It’ll be better for me to get to know more people after all.”

- Then come to Seoul station by seven. I’ll send you the exact address through text

“Yes.”

As soon as they finished the call, the text message arrived. The location was Gangnam, Seoul. When he looked it up online, he found out that it was a ball room of about 500 pyeong (150 sqm) in area. Maru opened his closet and took out a shirt and black jeans. He didn’t know what the dress code was, but since it didn’t seem to be a formal occasion, he thought that those would do.

“Are you going somewhere, oppa?”

Bada, who peeked through the door, asked.

“I am, in the evening.”

“Where to?”

“Something like that.”

“You can tell me.”

“It’s not like not knowing will harm you.”

“Ah for god’s sake.”

He avoided his sister and went to the kitchen. It was 3 in the afternoon. There was still some time. His father went to work, and his mother started working again since her wrist became better. She was looking after the counter at a local supermarket and said that it wasn’t that hard. Maru decided not to talk about the 300 million won in his bank account if possible. Money was something that people could do with little, as well as a lot. If his family was in a bad financial situation, he would have immediately told his family to use it, but it didn’t seem that necessary. Also, his 300 million didn’t come for free, so he had to be careful when he used it. It was the price Junmin paid for his three years of high school. This money would become his lifeline in the worst possible case where he wouldn’t be able to make a living out of acting.

“Oppa, do you want to eat tteokbokki?”

“No.”

“Say yes!”

“…Fine. Let’s eat it then.”

He nodded his head since he felt like things would go really awry really quickly. Bada immediately approached him and spoke.

“Go buy it. I’ll eat it for you.”

‘What a bold kid.’

Maru threw a cushion towards Bada who had a grin on her face. It was very likely that she was born to make her brother suffer. Considering that the only conversation the two had before Maru’s reincarnation was ‘dinner’s ready’, they had gotten a lot closer, but just because they got closer didn’t mean that they didn’t fight. Though, she was quite cute.

“Ah, dammit…”

“I’m pretty sure someone’s wallet has a card under my name. Oh, I also think that someone used 200 thousand won last month. A middle school 3rd grade using 200 thousand a month, huh.”

Bada, who was approaching Maru with an angry face, gently gave the cushion to Maru with a smile as though nothing had happened.

“Oppa. I’ll go buy it.”

“I’m not going to eat a lot, so don’t buy too much.”

“Okay.”

“Oh, and throw the food waste out while you’re at it.”

“But that stinks and I don’t…”

“I see you don’t need the card any…”

“Okay!”

“And buy some milk on the way home.”

“…I’ll get you back for this.”

“Sure.”

Maru pointed at the door with his chin and smiled.

* * *

Gangnam station. The place was packed with buses, cars and people.

“Why are you dressed in a suit?”

Jiseok turned around after hearing a voice from behind. He saw Maru standing there wearing a gray shirt and black jeans.

“It’s a party. So of course, a suit is a must.”

“Which country is that rule from?”

Jiseok followed Maru since he looked like he was going up by himself. The location was on the 3rd floor of a building not far away from Gangnam station.

“It must be huge, right?”

“Who knows?”

“Aren’t you excited?”

“I’m here for the food. Why would I be?”

Maru’s replies were very dry. Someone meeting him for the first time might think he was a cold guy, but Jiseok knew that Maru wasn’t just cold. Of course, that didn’t mean that he was a warm guy either.

“Aren’t there any stairs?”

“Why are you looking for one? There’s an elevator.”

“Because stairs are better for health.”

Jiseok asked the security officer on the first floor, but got the reply that the stairs were only for emergencies. He had no choice but to get the elevator.

“I don’t think going up three floors by the stairs will be any exercise to a kid of your age.”

Hearing Maru’s words, Jiseok replied with a ‘it does for me’. Maru quietly stared at him. Jiseok made a thick smile when he saw Maru’s gaze. He didn’t want to talk about something depressing on a good day like this. However, Maru was really quick witted.

“Now that I think about it, you were sweating really hard when you helped out that lady last time. Are you sick?”

“I just lack a little stamina.”

“…Take care of yourself. You’ll find yourself suffering when you’re older.”

“Hahaha.”

While they were laughing, the elevator opened again. In front of them were two female staff wearing suits. Behind them was the entrance, made of glass, and beyond that was the ballroom.

“Do you have a reservation?”

Jiseok and Maru stated their names when the lady asked. The lady soon found the two names and ticked the names off.

“You may enter.”

Jiseok whistled as he opened the door. Inside, they could hear faint music. The lights on the ceiling differed from place to place, and near the entrance, it was bright and beautiful. Right after the entrance, there was a signboard. The main and sub roles as well as important staff members were supposed to go left, and the rest were supposed to go right.

“We should go to the right, right?”

“Obviously.”

Jiseok glanced towards the left. He saw a few people being guided by the staff to the room.

“What do you think they’ll talk about in there?”

“There shouldn’t be anything much, is there? They’re just separating people into levels. If there are extras like us here, then that means that there are all sorts of people in this place, and it would be difficult if they got into trouble with someone high up. That’s why they separated the zones.”

“Should I sneak in there?”

“You really shouldn’t. It’s not just actors but people related to the film production and the investors should be there too. If you ruin their mood, you’ll lose all hope of participating in the movie.”

Maru walked towards the right, saying that they shouldn’t get involved. Jiseok also licked his lips and walked towards the right. This role was something he got through a lot of effort so it would be frustrating if he lost it. On the right, they saw a buffet. Cheerful music flowed out from the speakers on the ceiling. The lights were generally dim. There were a lot of people. Everyone was eating something.

“It’s just a buffet?”

“What did you expect?”

“A party.”

It was a little bland, but it was still exciting since there were a lot of people here. Jiseok danced his shoulders according to the music and made rounds on the buffet. He grabbed all the things he wanted to eat and sat on an empty table. Maru also came to that table and sat.

“Everyone’s just eating.”

“That’s what they’re here for.”

“Then there was no point for me to wear a suit. What about the dance? What about the ball you can see in movies?”

Jiseok asked several questions, but Maru didn’t answer any of them and continued eating. He didn’t show any signs of answering. Jiseok sighed and forked a piece of chilli shrimp. He wondered if eating was all he was going to do today. He was looking around at the others while eating his food. A girl who just entered widened her eyes after looking his way. Jiseok cheerfully waved his hand. When he did, the girl started approaching him.

‘Yes!’

Let there be a fated encounter in this crowded place! A movie-like meeting, and love! However, Jiseok soon realized that the girl wasn’t coming towards him. The girl arrived at the table and her shadow was cast over Maru’s plate. Only then did Maru raise his head and look his way.

“Han Maru. It has been some time.”

Maru looked both glad and bitter.

“Why are you here?”

“What do you mean why? Of course it’s because I was invited.”

The girl then placed her clutch bag on the table.

“Look after this for me while I get some food.”

She made a proud expression and walked towards the buffet. Jiseok asked Maru immediately.

“Who’s she?”

“Why do you want to know?”

“We’d be eating together. So of course we need to know each other.”

“…She’s Lee Yoojin, and we used to do acting together.”

“Really? She’s cute.”

“What cute? She has a high self-esteem and she likes peeking.”

“Peeking?”

At that moment, Yoojin brought her food and sat down. Jiseok looked at her and spoke.

“Are you Lee Yoojin?”

“Wh, what the? How do you know my name?”

“Maru told me. And I heard you liked peeking! What does that mean?”

Jiseok asked with a smile. He saw Maru put down his fork and palm his face with a sigh, but he couldn’t help his curiosity. At that moment, Yoojin glared at Maru.

“Oh, I like peeking? Then you like confessing with a cheesy line, don’t you? What about the rabbit ring?”

“I get it. So let’s just eat.”

“What do you get!”

Yoojin glared at Maru with a scary expression. Maru scratched his eyebrows and avoided Yoojin’s gaze.

“Hm, that’s fun. Now that’s what I call a party.”

Jiseok crossed his arms and looked at the two. This boring place became just a little better.

Chapter 234

Yoojin ate a portion of her tomato caprese. She wished she could eat the nicely sizzling ribs, some fried pork, or some steak that the chef was cooking, but she couldn’t do so when she thought about the aftermath.

‘Calories, calories.’

The logic that girls of her age should eat because it was their growth period only applied to others of her age. As her dream was to become an actress, high-calorie food was like a poisonous goblet. It would bring her bliss once she drank it, but not long later she would regret it.

“Aren’t you eating too many vegetables?”

Next to her, the guy named Yoo Jiseok spoke. Yoojin had never suspected her own sociability until now. She was confident that she would make friends even in a place full of strangers. Even to her though, Jiseok’s sociability was something else. Although people of their age would become friends easily, Jiseok’s attitude of asking the embarrassing questions straight to their faces made her admit defeat. He didn’t seem like a bad guy, but he was a little uncomfortable to deal with since he asked personal questions.

“Oh! You’re on a diet? You don’t look like you need one though.”

Jiseok smiled as he spoke. Yoojin smiled slightly. Although it might have been empty flattery, it was still good to hear nonetheless.

“Were you close with Maru?”

“Were we?”

Yoojin redirected the question to Maru.

“We were close enough to prepare for a drama together.”

“And how close is that?”

“Then I’ll correct myself and say that we’re close enough to not care about a few months of not contacting each other.”

“Your way of speaking really hasn’t changed. You and I might not have been in contact, but I called up your girlfriend several times, you know? We even talked behind your back.”

“……”

“Pfft. Look at you frown. You act so sweet in front of her but you’re always so cold towards others.”

“What, you want me to treat you sweetly too?”

“Forget it! I might puke what I just ate. Your girlfriend can have all of it.”

A suitable distance. Yoojin believed that the reason she could talk to Maru with ease was because of that. They could feel glad to meet each other again, and they could just as easily part ways without feeling disappointed. Their relationship was lighter than that of a friend’s, but a little heavier than that of just acquaintances. It was hard to form such a suitable distance with other males of her age. Most of them either tried to close that distance, and some just distanced themselves after confessing to her.

“You two look like good friends,” Jiseok interrupted and spoke. Yoojin snorted at that remark.

“What good friends? Hey, you shouldn’t get close to that guy either. You just saw, didn’t you? I’ve never seen this guy act nice at all.”

“Isn’t that what’s good about him?”

Jiseok had a playful smile on his face, but Yoojin was able to discover a slight sadness behind his smile. She almost subconsciously asked what he meant by it, but she gained a hold over herself and stayed quiet. They weren’t close enough to ask such questions yet.

“Ah. I wonder if there’s anything exciting. It’s a party after all.”

Jiseok stood up from his seat, disappointed.

“Who the hell is he?” She asked Maru while Jiseok was away. Maru kept on chewing for a while before speaking in a low voice.

“We just saw each other twice during the audition. Oh, I guess we saw a play together.”

“You saw a play together? Isn’t that a little strange? I thought you two weren’t close.”

“Why don’t you try having him next to you? You’ll find yourself thinking that it’s much better to just have him do what he wants rather than refusing him all the time. Hey, why don’t you take him at this opportunity? I’ll yield him to you.”

“Hell no.”

“That’s a pity.”

Yoojin watched Jiseok who was walking around the hall by himself. He was greeting everyone he came across. Some smiled and accepted his greeting, but most people usually just scanned him from top to bottom before just walking away. Despite that, he did not relent and walked around to the table to strike up a conversation. Seeing that, Yoojin was flabbergasted. She didn’t know if that guy just had no shame or that he had a good personality. Even so, he didn’t seem like a bad guy from how he ended the conversations on a good note. He was an overly cheerful guy. Yoojin was satisfied with her evaluation of him and nodded her head.

“Looks like he wants attention.”

“I don’t think that’s the whole story. If he really wanted attention, he would have kept going.”

“Really?”

“Maybe he just likes people a lot, like, really a lot.”

Maru picked up his plate and stood up. Yoojin, not wanting to be left behind alone on the table, also stood up. Maru headed towards the desserts section as though he was about to finish his meal. There were cakes, ricecakes and fruits all nicely displayed. Yoojin gulped. She could hold herself in against the temptation of meat, but the temptation of chocolate and bread was hard to resist. She especially couldn’t take her eyes off the chocolate fondue in a bowl, as well as the cute cookies and marshmallows next to it.

“One dip with that cookie is a hundred calories at least, right?”

Maru spoke heartlessly from the side. All this while, he was dipping cookies into the fondue.

“I’m not eating it.”

“It’ll melt in your mouth. Though, it will also go straight to your weight.”

“You’re picking a fight, aren’t you?”

When she glared at Maru with a frown, Maru suddenly held out the cookie sticks with chocolate sauce all over it.

“Wh, what?”

“One is fine. It says here that they didn’t use flour to make this cookie. And they say chocolate is good for satiety. A little is good for the health, and the skin too.”

“……”

“Appetite is something like a balloon, so it will burst if it’s pent up too much. You should at least give yourself a reward. Also, you’re too skinny.”

“How am I skinny?”

Although that was her answer, her hands were already holding the cookie sticks. Her eyes were fixed on the shiny chocolate. Ever since she had passed her audition, she had started her diet and she was a month into it now. She had endured that long so perhaps just one was fine?

“It, it’s good for the skin?”

“You’re gonna eat it anyway, so let’s not worry about the details.”

“It’ll be your fault if I gain weight.”

Yoojin took a bite out of the cookie. At that moment she subconsciously gasped. It felt as though all of her tension was loosened. It felt as though something sharp pressing against her nerves had just disappeared.

“You shouldn’t be so harsh on yourself. Once others get worried about your health, it will no longer be a diet. Stop losing weight. You’ll be much prettier that way. I liked you better during the rehearsal. If you don’t believe me, you can ask my girlfriend. She’s much more plump than you, but she’s still pretty.”

“But she… doesn’t gain weight even though she eats a lot. And how is she plump? This is why men are no good. If she’s plump, then the majority of people in this world would be obese!”

“Well, my girlfriend does have a good body figure. And it’s not that she doesn’t gain weight. She swells a lot when she eats. It’s just that she exercises like mad. Hm hm, she’s my girlfriend but I gotta say, she’s amazing.”

“You pervert. You’re a huge pervert. And you’re hopeless too.”

“Men are all perverts. It’s just a difference of whether they show it or not. Any man has a fantasy or two in his head.”

“I should just stop talking with you,” saying that, Yoojin had a look at her hand. She had eaten the whole piece while she was talking. Groaning, she hesitated a little before picking up another cookie and dipping it in the chocolate.

‘Forget it, let’s have another one!’

“I think two will definitely make you gain weight though.”

“Shut up!”

Seeing Maru shrug, Yoojin took a bite out of her cookie.

‘I’m so calling her to talk bad about Maru,’ she felt that only then could she relieve her stress.

“…Still, it’s good,” only after realizing what she said did Yoojin shake her head. Maru had already returned to the table first with a plate full of food. He then started eating quietly by himself.

“Just what does she like about him…”

Although she mentioned that she would talk behind his back, it was usually nothing more than a joke. It was more of a grumble than an actual insult. Moreover, the topic changed to fluffy love stories most of the time. Yoojin didn’t particularly like talking about such things, but she always ended up listening to the end when she heard her friend’s lovestruck voice. Last time, it was about the shoes. Even though they stopped for just a brief moment, Maru had secretly remembered it and later bought it for her as a gift. He even said ‘I picked them up on the way here’, along with presenting it to her in beautiful packaging. Yoojin, who heard the story, felt that it was childish, but she also felt that she would be very happy if she was in the same situation. Honestly, she felt like Maru wasn’t ordinary when he gave her a ring as a present. She even thought that he might be a playboy.

She was at first worried that some bad guy was hitting on her, but she found out that she was worried for nothing after seeing how Maru acted. He made the girls feel at ease with some jokes, but he never went beyond that. Meaning, he never did things that might cause misunderstandings. She understood this deeply when they were in the amateur actor’s class. The only person Maru acted seriously towards was that girl. It was so blatantly obvious so the other girls in the class never had other feelings for Maru. He was so good at drawing the line. It was easy to become his friend, but no one felt any feelings for him beyond that.

It was like that now as well. Others might see that they were on close terms from how they acted, but as one of the involved parties, she clearly knew that Maru was keeping his distance. It was only thanks to that that she was able to talk comfortably with him. Yoojin believed that a man and a woman couldn’t be ‘friends’, but she also felt that Maru could make being friends possible. They were in a relationship that was neither serious nor light, yet they were close enough that they wouldn’t feel awkward after not having seen each other for a long time.

‘If I was to date anyone, it should be a guy like him, right?’

All girls dreamed of becoming the main character of their life. Yoojin wasn’t that different. Perhaps adults would say that she was worried about unnecessary things, but 2nd year of high school was plenty grown up, no? Also, Yoojin grew up listening to scary stories from other actresses thanks to her mother. She considered herself pretty mature mentally. Though, she didn’t grow up entirely of her own volition.

‘I’m something, still trying to become an actress after all that.’

She was well aware of how underhanded, dirty and competitive this industry was. However, once she had admired it, she couldn’t take her eyes off it. She wanted to become a top-tier actress even if it meant becoming controversial. Perhaps this movie would provide her a foothold for that.

“What are you thinking about so deeply?”

Suddenly, a voice called out from behind. It was Jiseok.

“Whoa, that startled me.”

“It was that startling?”

“It was. Anyone would be startled if you come out of nowhere like that.”

“I’m sorry if I startled you. It wasn’t my intention, haha.”

Jiseok took a step back with a smile. He was unpredictable. She wondered what kind of thoughts he had in his mind.

“The people here are all so interesting. Places with a lot of people are always fun.”

“You’re something too. Is it that fun just grabbing random people to talk?”

“Yup. It’s immensely fun. It’s always been my dream to talk to as many people as possible.”

“That’s a rather small dream.”

“Right? I think so too.”

It was that sympathetic smile again. Yoojin pouted. She felt as though she wronged him. Jiseok immediately moved elsewhere and started chatting with other people.

“He’s a strange kid.”

Yoojin had a glance at the chocolate fondue before walking over to the table Maru was sitting on. She was approaching the table when she saw that someone had arrived first.

It was a lady who had a body figure that made her exclaim out loud. Her hair was thick purple. The night dress with an open back didn’t look inappropriate on her at all.

‘Who is it?’

Next to her, Maru’s expression wasn’t that bright. It didn’t look like he detested her though. It was his face when someone not particularly close to him approached him. Yoojin saw that everyone’s gazes had gathered towards that table. People started whispering amongst themselves immediately. Yoojin walked towards the two. Just at that moment, the woman sat down opposite of Maru, which was originally her own seat.

“So we meet again here.”

The woman’s voice could be heard. At that moment, Yoojin stopped her steps and widened her eyes. This voice was familiar to her.

‘Don’t tell me it’s… ’

Yoojin quickly walked forward and stood in front of her. Then, she exclaimed out loud subconsciously. An actress she admired was standing in front of her. The lady general that only did pieces she wanted. The proud woman that never bent to the force of the media!

“Do you two want to have a talk? I’ll get out of the way.”

Maru pressed the part between his eyes with his fingers and spoke. Yoojin ignored Maru and stood in front of her.

“Unni, I’m a huge fan of yours.”

That was Yoojin’s first line towards Joohyun, who had a smile on her face.

Chapter 235

“A fan? Of mine?”

“Yes!”

“Really?”

“Yes!”

Maru looked at the two people as he ate the sliced cake with cashew nuts on it. Seeing Joohyun, Yoojin had a passionate smile on her face that was never seen from her before. From how her hands were shaking on top of her knees, it seemed that she was excited by no small amount.

“That was unexpected. There aren’t many in the younger generation that like me.”

“No way! I like you to the point that I’ve collected all the magazines that you did interviews with. I even remember what you said in QC.”

“QC? You mean that?”

“Yes, that!”

“You really have it? Even I don’t have one…”

“During the interview, you…”

“Told the media ‘fuck you’?”

“Yes! I was so refreshed by those words so I never threw it away. You were so cool, unni.”

“You’re embarrassing me.”

Hm, Maru didn’t know what that was about, but he tried to stand up so as to not bother the two. Both of these women weren’t ordinary. It would be a pain for him if he got involved. However, as soon as he tried to lift himself up from the chair, he saw Joohyun staring at him.

“Going somewhere?”

“I’m planning to go somewhere else so you can have a nice talk together.”

“It’s fine, you can stay here. Or perhaps you’re not comfortable with me?”

“Well, I kinda am.”

The other party was a top-tier star. Thanks to that, he could feel an uncomfortable amount of gazes hitting the back of his head. Some were even approaching them. No matter how much he didn’t care about other people’s opinions, he wasn’t capable of eating comfortably in the middle of attention from over a hundred people.

“That’s not good.”

Joohyun covered the part above her chest and stood up. Then, she said to everyone around.

“I apologize, but I’m here on a private matter today, so don’t mind me and do your business as usual. You know what I mean, right?”

A crisp voice resounded out. Everyone returned to their seats as though they were possessed by something. Although some of them were still giving them glances, it was solved with a glare from Joohyun.

Everything quietened down in less than a minute.

“Is that enough?”

“Unni, that was so cool.”

Maru smiled bitterly and sat back down again. A top-tier star sure was different. It seemed that anyone who reached the top of their field, regardless of what their field was, had a unique charisma to them. On top of that, Joohyun was known to express what was on her mind without restraint. No one here would want to get an earful from her just because they pissed her off.

“But hey, you look like someone I know. Who was it again?” Joohyun asked as she looked at Yoojin.

“Oh, you’re probably referring to my mom. Choi Jung’s Hair. Do you know about it?”

“Oh! You’re that unni’s daughter?”

“Yes!”

“No wonder you looked familiar. An aspiring actress huh. Are you cast in this movie as well?”

“Yes. Though, I’m an extra…”

“Really? Congratulations. I was obediently going to school when I was your age. You’re something.”

“You swept the awards by storm on your debut though, unni. Compared to that, I’m nothing.”

“No way. You’re so pretty. If you have acting skills down, then you’ll become bigger than me.”

“Not at all. How can I become bigger than you, unni? Heheh.”

Heheh? Yoojin had become completely defenseless. It seemed that Joohyun wasn’t as simple as an idol-like figure in Yoojin’s mind.

“Uhm, unni. Can we take a picture together?”

“Of course.”

“Wow, thank you. Hey! Han Maru!”

Maru grabbed the phone that was flung at him. She really was careless. Joohyun put her arm around Yoojin’s shoulder, while Yoojin reached out and hugged Joohyun’s waist.

“Here it goes. Say cheese.”

After taking about three photos, Maru gave the phone back to Yoojin. Yoojin received the phone as though she was handling her family’s hereditary treasure.

“Han Maru,” Joohyun called out to him.

“Yes?”

“I’ve seen your audition tape. You were good.”

“…Thank you.”

The flattery was rather unexpected, so he was a beat late in saying thanks. The conversation they had on the school stairs that day was a little emotional so he felt that he would feel uncomfortable with her, but there was nothing like that. In fact, Joohyun looked at him with a smile as though she had found an interesting creature. Maru was very uncomfortable with that gaze. Yoojin seemed to have finished checking on the photos as her ears were perked up, listening to Joohyun’s words. It seemed as though she would listen to any of Joohyun’s words.

“I was a little surprised. I don’t give advice like that often. Just as I detest others interfering with the things I do, I don’t really like interfering with other people’s lives. But when I looked at you, you looked like you just needed a final push. That’s why I said a few things back then. Though… from what I saw in the tape, you only took in the parts you needed and threw away the parts you didn’t.”

“Is that how it seemed to you?”

It wasn’t that Maru proactively tried to change something about himself. He just acted as normal. To a certain extent, he agreed with Joohyun’s words that he should get to the bottom of his emotions, but he did not see the need to put it into action. That was because… he already had a taste of what it was like at the bottom, no, an even deeper abyss than that. Death, that felt like something the word ‘brutal’ or ‘tragic’ couldn’t even begin to describe.

“It wasn’t? I thought my advice to release everything you have worked on you. The act you did in front of the camera had depth to it that is hard to find from people of your age, so I thought that you had a moment of epiphany.”

“That advice was definitely useful, but it wasn’t that practical in my case. I just acted as I normally did.”

“Really? That’s strange. You were different from the time I saw your stage last year.”

Different - Maru closed his mouth and thought about that word for a while. He was reminded of that peculiar moment back at the audition. The frustration about the unfairness of being driven to death welled up inside him and he released it in the form of acting. It was quite an honest self-confession, and he had never expressed his honest emotions like that other than when he had a drink with Moonjoong. Oh, there was one other occasion. It was when he confessed to her. However, the quality and level of emotions he expressed in those two occasions were drastically different to what he showed in the audition. His inner thoughts that he expressed to Moonjoong and her were pure. There was no malicious intent. To compare it to color, it was close to ‘white’.

Meanwhile, the emotions that welled up inside him during the audition was ‘pitch black’. Those dark emotions were things that even he couldn’t describe properly. Releasing those emotions without filter was something like a gamble on Maru’s side as well. An act was supposed to be an act. What people wanted from actors was realism, not the truth. It had to be an act full of malicious intent, not malicious intent itself. That was why he concentrated not to break the boundaries of acting at the same time he released those depressing emotions. When he had the pent up frustration and rage that he felt when he reminded himself of his death under his control, albeit with difficulty, he felt a completely different existence of rationale. It was a peculiar experience. It felt as though there was another cold-minded, rational existence of Han Maru that was watching down on the grievous, screaming Han Maru. Thanks to the existence of that rationale, Maru was able to camouflage his experiences as acting.

“Perhaps it really was different.”

“What do you mean by that?”

“It’s a little hard to explain it in words, though…”

Maru then had a glance at Joohyun’s expression. He was expecting an answer on the lines of ‘that’s fine then’, but Joohyun’s eyes were saying ‘go ahead, say it’. He even saw that he had Yoojin’s full attention. Maru smiled bitterly and expressed what was on his mind.

“Until now, there was no need to face my dark side when I did my acts. There was no reason to give them a glance. Moreover, when I stood on stage, I had a nice sense of tension around my body so I did not have any leisure to think about anything else. I had fun just unfurling the things I have prepared. Though, my instructors thought that I was going overboard and that I should restrain myself. And yes, I agreed with them.”

“I understood that much. I heard about it last time as well.”

“But the audition this time was different to that.”

“Yes. The movie has a script already, but the audition was mostly about free acting.”

“Yes. I was thinking about what I should do, and I was reminded about the dark side of me that I never gave a glance at. I didn’t want to look at it, but I realized that showing that side of me would be better in gaining points. That’s why I tried. It was a bit of an adventure. When I uttered those words, I felt that my heart was becoming more and more urgent. The moment I thought that my emotions would go out of my control, I peculiarly felt another presence of myself that was calmly watching my boiling emotions. After that… everything was smooth. I was emotional, yet calm. It sounds a little weird to put it like that, but anyway, it felt something like that.”

After saying those words, Maru shrugged. It felt complicated now that he expressed the complicated vortex of emotions he felt back then into words. It couldn’t be clearer at that specific moment, but it became more complicated when he put it into words.

“Another presence of self watching over the uncontrollable self. You… say some interesting words.”

Joohyun didn’t seem to have anything more to ask and stood up. After being dazed for a moment, Yoojin followed suit.

“Then I’ll keep watching you in the future. That feeling you have, don’t forget those emotions and try to bring it out.”

Hearing those words, Maru nodded slightly.

“You’re going?” Yoojin asked Joohyun.

“Yeah. They should be busy on the other side too. What, do you find it a pity?”

“Yes.”

“I like honest kids.”

Joohyun pinched Yoojin’s nose.

“See you later. I’ll visit the hair shop some time.”

“Yes!”

“Then Maru, take care.”

“Yes. Please take care.”

Joohyun turned around. Only then did Maru notice that the back of her dress was wide open until the waist. Such a dress at an occasion like this - Maru thought that she was quite bold indeed.

“Urgh, pervert. Don’t look at her like that!”

Yoojin opened her hand and blocked his vision. Maru thought that she was going too far to prevent what his instincts were telling him to do. Maru moved sideways to see Joohyun walk away. At that moment, Jiseok walked up to Joohyun from the other side. It seemed that he was doing something else until now.

“Huh?”

That was from Yoojin who saw Joohyun and Jiseok together. The two seemed to know each other as they had a light hug after waving hands at each other.

“Wh, what?”

“Why are you so surprised? I think it’s more of a greeting.”

Joohyun and Jiseok’s hug wasn’t a deep one like that of a man and a woman but more of an expression of saying hello. Joohyun talked a bit with Jiseok as though she had met a cute little brother before waving her hand and moving on.

As soon as Jiseok came to his seat, Yoojin pried.

“What is this? How are you related to Joohyun-unni?”

“Oh? I belong to the same company.”

“What? You belong to Yellow Star?”

“Yeah.”

“Really? But I heard that only bigshots can go there.”

“Is that so? And I guess that makes me a bigshot too then? Hahaha.”

Jiseok laughed heartily while scratching his head.

“I can’t believe that you belong to that company.”

“Why? Maru belongs to JA productions too.”

“What?”

Yoojin then glared at Maru. Maru shook his head at first, but Yoojin’s gaze did not leave him.

“He’s close with president Lee Junmin. I heard from Maru that he signed a contract with him.”

“Like I said that’s…,” Maru was about to explain but he decided not to. It was half right and half wrong, also he didn’t care what these two thought about it.

“No way. The two of you belong to two of the three big entertainment companies?”

Yoojin frowned as though she was wronged. Maru sighed and drank a sip of the grapefruit drink he had brought.

‘Is this a conversation for high school students, you people? You’ve all been corrupted by capitalism. You should talk about hopes and dreams instead.’

“I don’t have a company I belong to yet!” Yoojin spoke with frustration.

* * *

“…He said the same thing as she did.”

Outside the restaurant, Joohyun turned around to look at the table Maru was sitting on. She felt strange. The two were so similar that she had the misconception of hearing her voice on top of Maru’s. After watching Maru for a while, Joohyun made a slight smile. The smile was a little sympathetic.

“Don’t you die early. It might traumatize me.”

Joohyun spat out a short breath before going to where the director was.

Chapter 236

“Actor Yoon, please do your best.”

“The sole reason I decided to invest in the movie is because I saw the name Yoon Moonjoong in the cast. I’ve always dreamed of success while watching your acts in the tent theater.”

“Yes. Back then, it was like that.”

The immensely drunk individual investors shook hands with Moonjoong’s hand before leaving. The director, investment manager Junmin, and Joonggeun uttered a short breath.

“Sorry that you had to go through all that.”

Moonjoong smiled faintly hearing Junmin’s words.

“What’s there to be sorry about? They’re all thankful people. They invested hundreds of millions of won just because of me. So an occasion like this is definitely necessary.”

“Senior Yoon’s popularity hasn’t cooled down yet. Did you see that the woman sitting opposite to you was looking at you affectionately?”

Joonggeun’s eyes twitched as he said those words.

“Joonggeun, you haven’t changed even after all the years you’ve been working. You’ll suffer a lot because of your indecent mouth.”

“Senior. I don’t throw words like that anywhere. It’s been more than five years already. I know my way round.”

“Sure you do. Rather than that, you should lose some weight. Hoyoung, who hangs out with you is getting fitter and fitter so why are you becoming rounder and rounder?”

“Senior. They say belly fat is a sign of magnanimity from the old times. These days, I’ve been learning the ways of propriety and wisdom so my belly became like this. Only when I am an evil man would I become a person again and lose weight, but I’m pure and kind.”

“Junmin, I think this guy is becoming less and less mature as he gets older.”

“It’s not once or twice that this fella is acting like this. But he has become a lot better recently. Ever since his kids became aware of their surroundings, he seemed to want to maintain his face as a dad. So he doesn’t act like that on formal occasions. Sir, do you still remember what this fella said in front of sir Kim Taewoo? You know what happened then.”

“Ah, that I do. This guy had just entered the industry and all he was doing was hitting the slate, yet he went up to the main actor and straight up asking what horrible acting he was doing.”

“That was a legend, wasn’t it? Now that I think back, I’m surprised that this fella is still working in this industry.”

“It’s because it was senior Kim. If it was someone else, they would have said that they would quit if this guy wasn’t axed.”

Moonjoong thought back to the old times as he spoke. Although he could mention those events with a smile right now, the atmosphere at that time was quite tense.

“Why are you mentioning my youth? Oh, it’s the anniversary of Big Sir’s death. Is everyone going? I’m planning for a quick visit tomorrow.”

“Is it that time of the year already?”

“Let’s go together. I’ll drive. How about it?”

Moonjoong slowly nodded his head.

“Senior Kim liked Andong-soju a lot. I should visit and let him have a drink after all this time.”

Junmin also said that he would be going.

“Rather than that, senior Kim sure died early.”

“He was sixty-two, I believe.”

“Hah, sheesh. To think there would come a day I would become older than senior Kim. If I think of it like that, it makes me feel like my death is near too,” Moonjoong spoke as he looked at the ceiling. He was seventy years old this year. He wasn’t young anymore. Although people said that living until the age of 80 was not difficult these days, he couldn’t deny the fact that he was reaching his destination. He even had the thought that this film may be his last ever one.

“Senior. Why are you making that face again? Here, here. Have some fruit. Say Ah-.”

Joonggeun forked a piece of sliced watermelon and offered it to him. Moonjoong was about to decline, but Joonggeun approached him and said ‘ah’ once again.

“Why are you still like that when you’re all grown up?”

“Senior. This junior wants to give you a piece of delicious fruit. Aren’t you going too far by declining my good will? Is it because I’m a guy? Should I remove my dick?”

“Forget it. This guy is really becoming creepier.”

“Aren’t I cute? I can live this young despite being in my fifties.”

Moonjoong ended up eating the watermelon. It was one tenacious relationship, both Junmin and Joongeun were. These two were thankful juniors, no, little brothers who visited him every year.

“Sir. I don’t think I can go that far, so don’t badmouth me for not serving you,” Junmin said with a smile. After talking with others for a while, Junmin picked up his phone. After a short call, he spoke again.

“Sir. I’d like to schedule an occasion with the actors. Are you alright with that?”

“Yes of course. I’m of course fine with it. That’s the reason I’m here, so I would very much like to see them. Rather than that, there must be a lot of youngsters, so I’m worried that people may be uncomfortable with me.”

“No way, senior. If anyone is uncomfortable with you. I’ll threaten them to smile. So don’t worry about it.”

“That’s what I’m worried about the most.”

Moonjoong clicked his tongue seeing Joonggeun laugh heartily. This was a piece that he started after he had formally retired. As he had retired once already, he had almost no interaction with the younger generation that were leading the industry. He waited half worriedly and half with expectation. Soon the door opened and people started entering. People of both gender and of various age groups started filling the seats. Watching them made Moonjoong laugh for some reason. He was a figure that was forgotten along with the times, and they were popular actors on TV right now.

‘Who am I to make them wait all this time?’

Boasting and showing off his authority were things he liked the least, and now that he looked at himself, he seemed to be in the condescending position.

“Did they wait for long?” He asked Junmin. Noticing something, Junmin shook his head.

“Everyone had fun in other places before gathering here, sir. I don’t have that much power to keep them waiting here for so long.”

Junmin was so quick witted so Moonjoong couldn’t trust him. He then asked someone at the very end.

“Is it true?”

“Ah, yes. There are a lot of fun things here. We’ve been singing until just a moment ago.”

The youngster replied with a smile. Moonjoong nodded slightly. It didn’t look like he was lying.

“Sorry for this, everyone. I had this fellow call everyone here since we’d be making a film together and I thought that we’d be a little awkward to see each other for the first time during the read-through.”

Everyone quietened down and looked his way. Moonjoong wanted a relaxed atmosphere, but it didn’t happen so easily. Even he just stayed quiet and listened to his seniors when he was younger. He didn’t like the fact that a militaristic senior-junior relationship existed here, but that unfairness wasn’t something that could be changed by just one person. If the people above created a relaxed atmosphere, the juniors would have followed suit, but that did not happen. In this era where the juniors would have to lower their heads to the angry shouts of their seniors regardless of whether they were right or wrong, even saying “you can be at ease” might be a form of violence to them.

As such, Moonjoong only spoke for a short time. This occasion was for him to greet everyone. It wasn’t for empty formalities.

“I’m thankful for your visit even though all of you must be busy. The reason I decided to see you is, just as I said before, to get acquainted with each other since we’re doing the same piece together. I hope everyone can take care of me in the coming two to three months.”

“That’s for us to say. Please take care of us.”

“Please take care of us.”

Moonjoong had a look at the man in his 40s sitting on the left.

“What is your name?”

“My name is Park Taeho, sir. I’m your first son.”

“Is that so? Please take care of me.”

Park Taeho nodded his head. He then went to the next person. This person was an actress in her forties as well.

“I’m Jung Yoonhae. I’m your first daughter-in-law. Please treat me like family in the future.”

The actress greeted with a smile. Moonjoong got to know everyone like that. After listening to the name of the young actor at the very right, Moonjoong spoke in a quiet voice.

“Let’s enjoyably and passionately make the movie so that we do not embarrass ourselves. I’m glad I was able to meet you today.”

Moonjoong stood up and bowed to everyone. The other actors also stood up and bowed towards him.

“It’ll be rude of me to keep you here for any longer. Let’s talk about the rest during the filming, and please enjoy yourselves. You should enjoy yourselves without restraint when the organizers have planned this event. They’re doing this so that they can extort you later.”

It would be uncomfortable for everyone if someone like him stayed here for any longer. Even in company dinners, the best superiors were those that left their credit card behind and left the venue so that everyone could enjoy themselves without consideration for money. He was planning to talk with Joonggeun and Junmin who he was familiar with before going home. Getting to know the youngsters could be left for when they actually started filming.

The actors stood up and left the room. Junmin and Joonggeun also left their positions for a brief time. Moonjoong, left in his wide room all by himself, drank a bit of soju in front of him. As he had to take care of his body before the filming began, he decided that this would be his last for a while. Although he liked alcoholic drinks, this movie contained quite a lot of dynamic action scenes, so he had to take care of his body to keep up at those times. With his seventy years old body, it might collapse on him the moment he became careless. It wasn’t that he wasn’t confident about health, it was just that nothing bad would come out of being cautious.

At that moment, he heard a knock on the door.

‘Who is it?’ He wondered.

“Come in.”

The door creaked open and someone peeked inside. When he had a closer look, he realized it was the actor that introduced himself as Taeho. Junmin mentioned before he left that he was a talented actor who received the grand prize for the male character actor in the Daejong Awards this time.

“Sir.”

“What is it?”

“If it’s not too rude of me, may I pour you a drink?”

“To me?”

“Yes. Uhm, may I enter?”

“Please do.”

Taeho entered the room. He had a smile on his face. Perhaps something good had happened to him.

“I’m not bothering you, am I?”

“No, not at all.”

“That’s fortunate. Actually, I really liked you when I was young. You won’t know how many times I’ve played back ‘Unending Night’ that you played the main character in during my high school days.”

Unending Night. It was a title he hadn’t heard for a long time. The genre was film noir. The movie was filmed along with an actress known to be in the top 2 for beauty at that time.

“The movie should have been too lascivious for a high school student.”

“That’s why I watched it in secret. Anyway, I nicked my father’s Burberry coat after that and got beaten up for it.”

“Hahaha.”

After that, Taeho spoke about movies that Moonjoong starred in in a great amount of detail and fun. Even Moonjoong was surprised as he listened. This person remembered details that even he, as the main actor in those movies, did not remember.

“Did I speak too much?”

“No, not at all. I’m having fun listening to you. It was a little surprising that there’s someone that knows my movies more than I do. And I’m also thankful as well. Thank you for remembering and liking all my pieces.”

“…Sir. I’m shaking like mad because I feel so excited today. I’m so glad that you’re back. Do you know what my dream was? It was to film a movie with you, sir.”

“I’m no one significant enough to be someone’s dream…”

These kinds of scenes were commonplace before he had retired. It was an honor; I admire you deeply - he had heard a lot of such words. However, ever since he had left the industry, all of his honor and glory disappeared. Only the thickest of relationships remained, and the ones with sweet words all left him. This was why he didn’t like people who flattered him so much. However, he didn’t feel like that at all when listening to Taeho. Perhaps it was because he heard some truthful words.

After speaking with Taeho for a few minutes, Taeho stood up. He left after saying that he would definitely visit his house in the future. After he left, Junmin came back. He looked a little tired. It seemed that the investors had given him a hard time.

“I think I just saw Taeho leave this room.”

“We talked for a little.”

“Didn’t he bother you? That guy was really stubborn in wanting to meet you. Actually, he’s the first one that rushed to me as soon as the rumor that you’d be participating in this movie spread around. I was worried about the guarantee, but he begged me to let him participate even if it meant not getting any.”

“What a peculiar fellow.”

“It just shows how much admiration and respect he has for you.”

Moonjoong made an honest smile.

“I’ve seen people that said they were a fan of mine, but it’s been a long time since I’ve actually seen anyone who knows any of my pieces so well. I feel both thankful and sorry. And here I thought I forgot about all those feelings.”

“You’ll have to get used to it since that’s how you’ll feel after this movie is released. I’m going to advertise big time that the actor Yoon Moonjoong has returned to the scene.”

“Whoa there. Please don’t go so far. I’d be embarrassed to look straight in public.”

“I’m an investor too, so I want some fun as well.”

“What a frightening thing time is. It turned a full-fledged man into a money grubber.”

“You’ll have to resolve yourself, sir. I’ll schedule everything tightly, even the press release.”

“Looks like I’ll get busy in my old years.”

Although Junmin said all those words, Moonjoong knew well that he wasn’t the type to be swayed by money. If profit was all he wanted, there was no way he would have brought back a retired old man like him back to the scene. It would be much more stable for him to pick youngsters with a concrete fanbase and those who appeared on TV frequently. When he thought about it like that, he did become a little greedy. He had the desire to tell everyone that ‘old soldiers never die, they just fade away’. It would be interesting too if that forgotten old soldier broke all the records.

A smile escaped his mouth. It had begun. He would be returning to that place again. The place he left because of his frustration towards all those meaningless commercial movies.

“I said this last time, but you might not even be able to break even. I’m going to spend the budget as I see fit. I will extract every little bit out of the film director to get the picture I want.”

“Please don’t worry. I have a lot of money,” Junmin spoke with a smile.

“Oh, and I called Maru here.”

“Is that child here as well?”

“Yes.”

“I guess we haven’t seen each other since our time at the villa.”

“He passed the audition.”

“Oh, really? That’s good news.”

At that moment, two knocks could be heard on the door again before it slowly opened. Maru, who became a little more manly, stood outside.

“It’s been a while.”

“Yes, elder.”

“You’re a bad boy who never called me even once.”

“…I’m looking for an excuse, but I don’t find anything suitable.”

“Haha, geez.”

Moonjoong laughed pleasantly and gestured for him to come in.

Chapter 237

“Yes, I heard that you passed the audition. Did you get the role you wanted?”

Maru checked that his glass was full before putting it back down.

“Yes. The person in charge seemed to think well of me and I was able to get the role I wanted.”

“Then you must be the delinquent.”

“Yes.”

“And that means you’ll be swearing at me.”

“I’m a very bad person so I’m confident in saying words that will make you feel bad. If you’re worried about bland insults, then you need not worry.”

“Haha, please go easy on me. Don’t bully this old man. I’m at an age where I can get sick from just getting emotional.”

Moonjoong gestured to him to raise his glass with a smile. Maru turned his face around[1] to drink the glass. Although a high-class vodka would fit this place better, the drink on the table was soju.

“It’s a single scene, but it’ll take quite some time if you consider scene switching, waiting and filming itself. Prepare a warm jacket because we’ll be filming during the night, and don’t forget to take care of yourself. No one looks after bottom-of-the-rung actors on the scene.”

“Understood.”

This time, Maru picked up the soju bottle to pour Moonjoong a glass but Moonjoong shook his head.

“I thought I’d start to restrain myself since I’m at the age that I am.”

“If you say so.”

Maru put down the bottle and picked up the green tea contained in a plastic bottle. Moonjoong slowly reached out with his glass.

“Please stay healthy. Now that you’ve returned, you’ll have other films to do.”

“That’s not as easy as it sounds. It’s natural for me to become weaker as I grow older. But even so… thank you for those words.”

Drinking a sip of green tea, Moonjoong heaved out a breath.

“Maru. You should be aware that there is no such thing as an easy job in this world, actors included. Every year, tens to hundreds of thousands of people step into this industry in hopes to become an actor, but only a select few gets to see the light of day. The rest become forgotten by the people without even getting their names known. That’s why the first feeling I have when I see youngsters wanting to become actors is pity. How long will that child be able to endure? And will he or she see the light of day?”

“That applies to everything.”

Hearing those words, Moonjoong chuckled.

“Yes. It does apply to everything. Everyone dreams of becoming successful, but not everyone can grasp it. Maru, what do you think is the most important to become successful?”

“I think the most important thing is the obsession with success. Usually the word ‘obsession’ is used in a negative connotation, but I don’t think it’s possible to become successful without staking that much on the line. Everyone wants the same success, so there’s no way someone not putting as much effort in can take it.”

“Yes. You’re right. One must be obsessed. Success, dreams, ambitions. One must try being obsessed with such things at least once. Only when they try their hardest to grab the success that’s floating afar can they fully realize what it actually is; whether they can reach it; or whether they have to give up. The ones that can reach it will take it, and if they can’t then they’ll have to turn their heads away. The principles of this world are quite strange and they do not allow one person to be in possession of two things. No matter how successful a person is, if you dig deeper into him, then you’ll find numerous things he or she gave up in order to become so successful. The obsession with success also means a resolve to give up other things.”

“Do you have things you gave up on too, elder?”

“I do. This is something I thought about recently, but giving up was always related to time. Others should be in a similar situation. As a result of investing my time for the public, I was able to become a decent actor, but at the same time, I became an insufficient breadwinner. Above all else, I became an incompetent husband. If I abandoned my desire for materialistic things earlier, I would have retired much earlier, but I would also have discovered my beloved wife’s heart disease much earlier as well.”

Moonjoong reached out with his glass again and Maru quietly filled it.

“Adults will always tell you the same thing - cherish your time with your loved ones. You might have had enough of it, but the fact that they always say those words to you is because it has to be remembered.”

Maru nodded his head a little as he heard those words. There was a reason that people said those words regardless of which era it was. In the end, time was limited and it was up to the people to divide that time. When he thought about her, and the child that looked like her, success didn’t seem to be something so special. After all, any sort of success was intended to protect that warmth.

“However, therein lies a contradiction. What comes first, the success, or the person? I cannot deny the fact that the quality of time I spent with those people went up thanks to my success. People are very greedy and do not know what satisfaction is. The poor Yoon Moonjoong’s love and the successful Yoon Moonjoong’s love, as much as I hate to admit it, were different.”

Moonjoong slowly laid back on his chair as he reminisced about the past before closing his eyes.

“Peculiarly, when I look at you, I only want to say words like these. I don’t think words like ‘do your best’, ‘endure until the end’, ‘effort will not betray you’ and other hopeful words will help you out in any way. You don’t even look like a youth but someone who’s had a fair share of life… Sheesh.”

“Elder. Do I really look that mature?”

“I’m saying that your mind is old, not your looks.”

Maru smiled lightly.

‘You’re right on point, elder’.

After that, Maru listened to a few more warnings about this movie and realized that it was about time for him to go. Moonjoong also told him to go.

“Then I’ll take my leave first.”

“Yes.”

After bowing, Maru walked towards the door. The moment he turned the door knob, a voice sounded out from behind.

“There’s one more thing I need to tell you.”

Maru turned around to look at Moonjoong.

“Since you’ve decided to take that first step, take a big one.”

After that, Moonjoong closed his eyes again as though he was about to sleep. Maru quietly left the room and closed the door.

At that moment,

“I was wondering why you weren’t coming out.”

When he turned around, he saw Suyeon standing next to the door. She was wearing a fancy pearl-colored one-piece dress that made her look younger. Well, that was probably the reason why she was able to get the role of a high school student despite being in her mid 20s.

“What did you talk about inside?”

“I was advised to be wary around women. Especially those wearing pearl-colored one-piece dresses.”

“Really? I wonder who that is.”

Suyeon smiled.

“If you don’t have anything to talk to me about, then I’ll be going.”

“You’re going?”

“Yes.”

“Why are you in a hurry? There are big-name actors gathered over there. Aren’t you going there?”

“There are two kids waiting outside. It’s a real pity. I wanted in too.”

Maru smiled slightly before trying to get out of the way. At that moment Suyeon reached out with her hand and blocked his way.

“If you mean those two, you can see them over there.”

Yoojin and Jiseok were in the place Suyeon was pointing towards. Yoojin was locking arms with a woman with a short haircut and a strong impression, and it looked like she was her mother.

“That unni is not ordinary. She’s introducing her daughter to the people in the industry, and as expected of someone who knows her way around, the way she holds conversations cannot be smoother.”

Yoojin’s mother ran a hair shop in Gangnam. It was one that top stars visited.

- Apparently, Yoojin’s mother is very famous. There was a drama press release at the same time as your school play, and apparently, she was there too.[2]

She talked to Maru about this when they talked about Yoojin before.

“Okay, I get Yoojin, but why him?”

“The one next to her, was it Jiseok? Quite a lot of people recognize him as well. There’s an academy called Film, which many famous actors are affiliated with, and apparently he’s a prominent actor there so a lot of the actors are taking care of him. Though, I guess his affiliation with Yellow Star also has something to do with it.”

When he thought about it, those two had a more concrete foundation in this industry than him. Although they were all of the same age and this was their debut, the quality of gazes they received seemed to be different. Though, to be specific, Yoojin did debut in a drama as a child actor. The fact that Jiseok was contracted to a company was also a proof of his abilities.

- Tens to hundreds of thousands of people step into this industry.

And those two already passed through a hurdle. Maru thought about his own position for a minute.

‘Not bad, I guess.’

When it came down to it, he had a few places he could ask help from. He did not have any thoughts on becoming successful all by himself. That was just inefficient. It was much easier to climb the ladder with sufficient, but not too much, help from his connections. It wasn’t his style to solve everything by himself like how drama protagonists did.

“How about it? Wanna come by?”

Maru glanced at Suyeon who sneakily locked her arms around his. This woman wasn’t someone who would say all those words without any intentions. She should have a motive, and since it would be a loss on Maru’s side to be dragged around without knowing anything, he had to find out what she was thinking. She was obviously trying to use him, so he couldn’t just follow along. At that moment, he saw a familiar face beneath an artificial tree that stood afar. It was Geunsoo, and he was talking with two other men with sturdy builds. Maru had a glance at Suyeon and then looked at Geunsoo once.

“You want a sidekick? A topic of conversation, perhaps?”

“Quick-witted kids are so adorable.”

“Didn’t you get rejected back at the villa? I think it’s about time you gave up.”

“You don’t know when and what will happen between a man and a woman.”

He could imagine what happened. If Suyeon approached Geunsoo by herself, based on Geunsoo’s personality, it was likely that he would smile and immediately go somewhere else. That man was also a man that didn’t mind the gazes of others after all. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have been nicknamed a ‘lunatic’ when he first created Blue Sky.

However, she would be able to hold a conversation if Maru was with her. This was the situation that Suyeon wanted.

“Give and take.”

“Of course. How about a pair of tickets to a movie that’ll be released soon? I heard that you have a girlfriend, right?”

“I can buy movie tickets with my own money though.”

“When did I tell you that it’s an ordinary ticket? It will be for the premiere. There’s also a talk with the cast right after it. I don’t think it’s a bad deal considering that there’s even a meal ticket for the restaurant above the theater.”

“What’s the genre?”

“Horror.”

“I would have passed if it was romance, but I’ll take the deal since it’s horror.”

“You know your stuff.”

To make it clear, she was the type of person to go out her way to find horror movies despite absolutely detesting them. She would probably like it. If he got a pair of meal tickets on top of that for hanging out with her for a brief time, then the calculations worked out.

“I’ll just start the conversation, so follow up by yourself.”

“Alright.”

Suyeon locked her arms around Maru’s. Maru shrugged and started walking towards where Geunsoo was.

* * *

“What’s he up to now?”

Yoojin looked at Maru who was walking with the actress Kim Suyeon by his side. He had told her that he would be meeting an elder, so what was he doing with her?

‘She’s the elder?’

Yoojin tilted her head and looked his way. From what she saw, it didn’t seem that the two were close. No, it was a little strange. Maru had a flat expression while Suyeon had a bright smile.

“What is it?”

“Oh, mom. It’s nothing.”

“It’s not nothing.”

Her mother looked towards where Maru was.

“If it isn’t Ms. Suyeon.”

“Mom, you know Kim Suyeon too?”

“I do. I’ve seen her a few times. And girl, call her Suyeon-unni. You should be close with everyone.”

“How can I possibly be close with everyone?”

“Sheesh, you really don’t know your stuff since you’re so young. Rather than that, who’s the guy next to her?”

“He’s Han Maru, and he’s a friend of mine.”

“Oh, really?”

There was a handsome, yet prankful-looking man in the place Maru and Suyeon arrived at. When the three got together, the sturdy-looking men left the place after saying goodbye.

“Oh, if it isn’t Hong Geunsoo.”

“You know him too, mom?”

“I don’t know him personally. I just heard a few stories about him. But watch over him. There’s a rumor that he’ll become a big-name actor in the future. He’s close with director, I mean, president Yoo Chulmin as well as president Lee Junmin. Rather than that, that friend of yours knows a lot of people.”

“Well, I’m not so sure.”

“Stay close with him. Affairs between people are mysterious. He looks a little stiff, but he looks okay.”

“Mom, he has a girlfriend already.”

“So what? I’m telling you to stay close as a friend.”

“Geez, mom.”

Yoojin shook her head and looked at the three again. All three of them were not the main characters, yet they seemed to be shining brighter than where the main actors were standing. She wondered if it was because they would all become big-name actors, just like what her mom said.

“Yoojin. The film director is coming. You should go greet him.”

“Again?”

“You should always greet people when you get the chance. Believe in mom. Have I ever done something bad for you?”

Yoojin sighed but she still followed her. Just as she said, she had never done anything bad for her.

[1] In Korea, younger people face away (to the side) to drink soju in front of elders. This has to do with being polite.

[2] Can anyone tell me when Maru’s GF told Maru about Yoojin’s mother…? I can’t seem to find it anywhere… It seems to be before chapter 153 since he ‘heard about it’ already and after chapter 138 since that’s when Yoojin tells GF about her mother’s profession… Maybe it happened without being mentioned in the story…

Chapter 238

“You had a lot of acquaintances back there,” Yoojin spoke under the orange-colored sodium street lamps.

“You’re talking about me?” Maru asked back as he walked by her side.

“Who else is here?”

“Him?”

Maru pointed towards Jiseok who was on Yoojin’s right side. Yoojin shook her head as though that wasn’t the case.

“I’m talking about you.”

“I just got to know them by chance.”

“You looked rather close to them to be just that.”

“If you think so, then maybe I am.”

They were on their way back home from the get-together. Maru tried to quietly leave the two alone and go home quietly, but Jiseok followed him like a ghost and Yoojin was with Jiseok as he had dragged her with him. Jiseok’s reasoning was that ‘it’s a pity to separate ways so early’.

“Let’s go to the noraebang! Or maybe the arcade?”

“It’s 8 o’clock. Aren’t you going home?”

“There’s still time. Let’s have a little fun before we go home.”

Jiseok was very excited since the moment the get-together started. No, he was in an excited state from the moment Maru met him. He had never seen Jiseok being quiet before. Jiseok sought new events as though every second mattered to him.

“What are you going to do?” Maru asked Yoojin for her opinion.

“My house is not far from here, so it doesn’t matter.”

“My house is not far either.”

It seemed that both of them lived in Seoul. Maru suddenly felt a little unfair for living in Suwon. Just as the desire to go back home and lie down on his bed slowly crept up his heart, Jiseok spoke cheerfully.

“I see an arcade over there.”

Jiseok dragged Yoojin by the arm as he walked forward. Yoojin sighed as she was dragged along. She seemed to have realized that resistance was futile. I’ll kill you if you run by yourself - Yoojin’s eyes seemed to say those words as she glared at Maru.

‘How young.’

He decided to hang out since there was still some time until the last train. Although it was only for a short time, they were now colleagues who would perform in the same movie. There was no need for him to be so heartless.

Having entered the arcade, Jiseok immediately changed a few bills into coins. Yoojin was dragged by Jiseok like a marionette to do a shooting game.

‘It’s been a long time,’ Maru walked around the noisy arcade for a while before stopping in front of the claw machine. Perhaps because of his age, he liked games that had rewards rather than those that required him to move around a lot. After giving the machines a glance, he put a coin in. He moved the crane around for a while before moving it towards a cat doll.

‘I wonder if I can do it.’

He remembered doing these kind of machines a lot as there was an arcade right in front of the bus station. If his body still remembered the tricks, then it should work right now. He slapped the joystick a few times to give the crane a jolt before lowering the claw towards the cat’s head. The claw swung around like a pendulum as it lowered and precisely grabbed the cat doll by the neck.

“Oho.”

The cat doll slowly lifted into the air. It was quite unstable as though the owner of the arcade had set the grip of the machine quite low, but the doll did not fall back down. It slowly moved towards the exit and the doll fell right into it.

“…This doesn’t feel too bad.”

Maru didn’t even glance at the doll inside the exit and inserted more coins. That sensation of the claw grabbing the doll wasn’t something to be looked down upon. Even in an indoor fishing pool, it would feel good to catch a fish. The claw machine was similar. Maru held the joystick as he stared beyond the acrylic wall.

* * *

“Phew, you’re really good at this.”

“How can you be panting already after a round of Pump[1]? And how are you so bad at it?”

“Hahah, I’m not good with things like those.”

Yoojin had a look at Jiseok who had a smile on his face. She wondered if Jiseok was a super expert at arcade games or something because he was so good at a first person shooter game, but he was incomprehensibly bad at games that required him to move around. Especially Pump. Jiseok’s breathing became ragged a few seconds into the game when she selected a song that was a little fast.

“You should train yourself a little more. An actor requires stamina as well. Especially new actors like us.”

“Right? Phew!”

Jiseok straightened up as he took deep breaths. It seemed that he became alright.

“You’re done playing?”

“Yeah.”

“Then let’s go. I thought you wanted to go to the noraebang.”

“Wow, you’re being considerate?”

“It’s just that I realized that you are not the type to give up even though I saw you for the first time today. I know you’re going to drag me there even if I said I’m not going.”

Yoojin hit Jiseok’s chest with her fist before turning around. Although this guy was unpredictable, he wasn’t a bad guy at heart. If she really didn’t like him, she wouldn’t let him drag her around in the first place. He was someone of her age aspiring to become an actor just like her. She wanted to cheer him on. Moreover, seeing how Jiseok was so happy despite her playing with him for such a short time, she didn’t feel that left out. It was also good to have come to the arcade after a long time.

“But where did Han Maru go? He’s really good at playing by himself.”

Yoojin looked around looking for Maru. Next to her, Jiseok tugged on her clothes.

“What?”

“Over there. Isn’t that Maru?”

People were gathered up where Jiseok was pointing. Maru’s face could be seen among them. It looked as though he was in deep focus.

“What’s he doing?”

Yoojin walked towards that place. It was hard for her to approach since all the people in the arcade seemed to be clustered up here. She had only heard of a ‘human barricade’, but never thought that she would see one for herself.

“Excuse me, coming through!”

She tried forcing her way through, but it wasn’t easy to shift around in such a crowd of people. At that moment, Jiseok stepped forward. He blocked her way with a confident expression before saying ‘I’ll go.’ Seeing that, though, Yoojin did not have the slightest bit of expectation. And just as she had expected, Jiseok used all of his strength but could not get past the first two hunks.

“Why are all these people here?” Yoojin grumbled before bringing a chair from a nearby machine and stood on top of it. Jiseok held her from the side and she was able to see where Maru was safely.

‘Claw machine?’

Maru was focused on the claw machine. Whenever the silver crane moved, people exclaimed. It was a marvel to see so many people following the movement of the crane with their heads. The slowly moving crane then lowered down and picked up a doll. The crane then moved towards the exit. When the doll fell down right into the exit hole, another round of exclamations could be heard. One man even clapped.

Maru took out the doll from the machine and piled it on one side. There were at least ten dolls piled up in that mountain. Yoojin immediately went there and grabbed the doll.

“You won all these?”

“Yeah.”

“Wow. I heard it was difficult to win these.”

“The machine’s settings were good. Oh, if you like anything, you can pick one.”

“Really? Can I?”

Yoojin grabbed the cat wearing a pink apron.

“Not that one.”

Maru shook his head.

“Why?”

“Because it’s for my girlfriend.”

“…Tsk.”

She gave up on the cat and grabbed the dolphin. Maru asked Jiseok if he needed one but he said he didn’t need one.

“You’re going to take all of those?”

It seemed impossible to take all of them and get on the bus. Maru seemed to have known that already and said that he did not plan to take all of them.

“Then what are you going to do?”

“Sell them.”

“Sell them?”

Maru approached a man who seemed to work here and said a few lines. A while later, a middle-aged man came out and gave Maru two ten thousand won bills and Maru returned the dolls other than the two mentioned before.

“That man bought all of them?”

“Do you think they’re free? They should cost a few thousand won each, so two thousand won per doll should be quite cheap. That’s why the owner took them too.”

“You… Do you live in an arcade?”

“When would I have the time to play around like this? I have practice to do every day.”

“Then how are you so good at it? Should I try as well?”

Hearing those words, Maru jokingly replied ‘You should probably try being reborn before you do it.’

“Well then, we should go to the noraebang right?”

Jiseok interfered mid way and dragged both of them by the arm. Yoojin quietly praised his endless thirst for fun and followed him.

“For a kid lacking stamina, he’s good at moving around.”

When she grumbled, Jiseok looked at her and grinned. Yoojin resolved to have real fun since it was already like this as she followed behind Jiseok.

* * *

“The party was boring, but the after party was the best!”

Those words came from Jiseok as they left the noraebang. Maru glanced at Yoojin. Although she was glaring at Jiseok with a snort, it didn’t look like she hated him that much since she hung out with him until the end.

“We should go out to have fun sometime again. No, wait. Let’s invite a few more people as well. Since summer’s coming, why don’t we go to the sea together?”

“What an ambitious dream. If you’re the one calling me, I’m never gonna go.”

“Why? We’re best friends now!”

“Who’s your best friend, huh.”

Jiseok approached Yoojin who was walking towards the bus station with her arms crossed and got her number. Seeing the number written on his phone, Jiseok looked as though he had just achieved world domination.

“Do you like her?”

“I do,” Jiseok replied without hesitation. Maru narrowed his eyes and looked at him.

“And I like you too. You don’t like me?”

“…Why did I even bother.”

Maru put his hands inside his pockets and walked towards the bus station opposite to Yoojin’s. Jiseok sneakily followed him.

“You had fun today, didn’t you?”

“Just the claw machine, yeah.”

Jiseok became depressed but burst out into laughter again.

“I hope we can chat later too. People really should live in the same place for a long time. I like this place. Busan, and the place I lived before that was good too, but there weren’t as many people around as in this place.”

“But you look like you can have fun all by yourself.”

“Hm, I guess that’s true. I am good at having fun by myself. But… it doesn’t last a long time. Before I get bored of it, I feel stifled.”

Jiseok was smiling despite what he was saying. Maru asked as he looked at his face.

“I think you’re sick after all.”

“Mentally, I’m not ill at all.”

“What about physically?”

“Well… I won’t die.”

The reply was a little disturbing. He was about to ask a follow-up question, but Jiseok started moving backwards. Maru raised his head to look at Jiseok. He was waving his hands goodbye, with a face that did not contain the slightest bit of worry.

‘Tsk.’

Perhaps Jiseok’s bright side was a kind of defense mechanism to hide his weak side. From how he ran out of breath quite easily, he seemed to have a respiratory or cardiac issue. Though, from how he was active all the time, it didn’t seem to be a big problem. Or perhaps it was a big issue in the past but not anymore. Crossing the road, Maru turned around for a moment and had a look at Jiseok. Jiseok was still waving his hands.

“He should act like a kid until the end if he wants to be a kid. He’ll be in for a real pain if he decides to be a half-hearted grown-up.”

Maru looked away from Jiseok. They weren’t close enough for him to ask Jiseok the truth. Perhaps the situation would change once the man named Jiseok became significant within Maru’s mind, but right now… they weren’t that close yet.

Getting on the bus, Maru took out his phone from his pocket. He had two text messages. One was from Suyeon, grumbling about how Geunsoo didn’t show interest in her at all, and the other came from Ganghwan.

[You should have reported to me if you passed the audition. Geez, you’re impolite as always. I think you need a scolding so come to the Suwon practice studio after school tomorrow. I’ll forgive you if you bring a fair lady. Otherwise, you should come prepared.]

Maru smiled and texted back ‘Yes’.

A moment later,

[Oh, and congrats on passing.]

A short message arrived. Maru’s smile became thicker.

[1] This seems to refer to the arcade game “Pump It Up”

Chapter 239

Jiyoon opened her eyes before her phone alarm. For some reason, she felt good on days like these. Jiyoon turned off her alarm that rang a beat late and got off her bed. A cold sensation sprang up from her feet. Her drowsiness disappeared.

“You’re up early.”

“Yes.”

She scooped a bowl of rice beside her mother who was preparing breakfast. If it was a few days before, she would have prepared two bowls of rice, but now she had to prepare three.

“Where’s dad?”

“He’s out jogging. You can scoop his as well.”

Her dad, who was working abroad in Japan, had returned recently. She had cleared up her misunderstanding with her mother and the absence of her father was filled in. After the small joy she longed for so much was achieved, Jiyoon was experiencing a new life every day. First up, she stuttered less. She always stuttered when something didn’t go as she expected or when she was talking to a stranger, but she was much better now. She herself could feel that her bad habits were going away. Though, it wasn’t that they had completely disappeared, and she still stuttered from time to time, but she no longer stayed quiet without being able to express her opinions.

“You should eat and go already. You’ll be late.”

“Yes.”

She sat down and quickly finished her breakfast. She took her time since she woke up earlier than usual and now she was running out.

‘I won’t be late, will I?’

She took her bag and quickly left her house. She greeted the apartment security who was sweeping the grounds and quickly walked along the road that crossed the entire apartment complex. She checked the time with her phone from time to time and she thought that she wouldn’t be late. She crossed the pedestrian overpass and walked along the road and turned right on the junction where the big bookstore was.

“You’re just in time.”

Aram was waiting for her there. She tapped on the back of her bicycle. Jiyoon smiled and sat at the back before grabbing Aram by the waist.

“Here I go.”

“Yeah.”

Jiyoon had ridden on the back of Aram’s bicycle ever since she was late to school last time. Although she said that she could just leave home at an earlier time, Aram told her to not talk back to her and do as she said. She said something strange along the lines of ‘it’s for my exercise so you don’t have the right to refuse,’ or something like that. The headwind brushed past her ears. The scenery changed quickly, and they soon arrived at an 8-lane road crossing. Jiyoon looked around. It should be around time.

“Wait for me!”

A loud voice could be heard from afar. It was Bangjoo, who was riding his bicycle at full speed. After discovering that their way to the school was similar, Aram decided on a time to meet up here. The go-to-school club was successfully formed under Aram’s not-so-order that the first years should stick to each other.

“Joohyun-unni is not doing the radio today,” Aram, who had an earphone on one ear, asked Bangjoo.

“She took a day off since she has a schedule elsewhere,” Bangjoo replied. He was wearing an earphone as well.

“Oh, I was worried that she was sick.”

“My sister, sick? Not happening. She’s too healthy for her own good.”

“Geez, to think that there’s such a brother under that delicate sister. I really don’t understand what happened.”

“Delicate? You must mean tough.”

Jiyoon smiled slightly as she looked at the two. The two had identical personalities. Both of them liked to exercise, both of them were cheerful, and both of them had a loud voice as well. Oh, and they both liked their ‘Joohyun-unni’.

Although Bangjoo sounded fed up whenever someone talked about Joohyun, it was obvious that he cared for her a lot from how he listened to the live radio every single morning. He was probably just embarrassed to admit it.

Aram had a little brother as well, and as they were far in part in age, the little brother was going to enter elementary school next year. Aram sometimes talked about him and about how cute he was since she had looked after him since he was a little baby.

‘Perhaps that’s how Joohyun-unni sees Bangjoo?’

Jiyoon chuckled out loud as she found the two quarrelling to be so fun. When she did, Aram glared at her.

“Why are you laughing?”

“Nothing, I just… thought you two suit each other.”

When she said that, the two of them retorted at once.

“What? Me? And her?”

“Lee Jiyoon. There are things you shouldn’t say.”

Jiyoon even thought that the way the two got angry was identical as well, but she did not dare voice it out loud. It was obvious that Aram would tease her for the rest of the day if she did.

“I heard that we’d be making the props today and starting practice according to the movement lines. I wonder how that goes. Jiyoon, do you know anything about it?”

Aram’s voice could be heard over the wind. Jiyoon replied in a slightly loud voice.

“We’ll probably be putting everything we did until now into one piece. I’m pretty sure there’s nothing new!”

Although she wasn’t entirely sure, she thought that she was right. Watching the passing by buildings as well as Aram who was pedalling hard, they soon arrived at school. They got off the bicycle and bypassed the scary-looking head-of-the-year teacher. Although she was a little worried about getting caught since her hair came below her shoulder, she fortunately wasn’t caught.[1]

“Go.”

“I’m going then.”

Jiyoon waved her hand to Bangjoo who walked to the mechanical engineering department at the end of the corridor, saying ‘bye’.

She then followed Aram into their own classroom. Her classmates waved their hands saying hello. Jiyoon hung her bag on the desk at the very back, which was her seat. She sat at the very front up until middle school, but she somehow ended at the back seat due to the friends she made in high school. In the eyes of adults, they would seem like problematic kids, but Jiyoon discovered that the reality was different from what it seemed. They had rough mouths, but that was it. They were different from the so-called ‘bullies’ shown on TV. They were just awesome people who had a strong opinion and could not stand injustice.

“Jiyoon, you should eat this!”

A tall fellow threw something at her from afar. When she caught it, she found that they were cookies packed in a plastic bag. Jiyoon smiled. Her classmates did not have textbooks in their bags. Instead, they had comic books, cosmetics and food. Jiyoon did not have many opportunities to read comic books, but she read them quite a lot recently thanks to her friends. She liked stories about confident and brave heroines rather than those featuring delicate girls. She sometimes resolved to act like one of them, but whenever she closed the book, she returned to normal and rarely ever took action. The book she was reading now was a school romance book. The story was about two ordinary students falling in love secretly. Every time she flipped over a page, she imbued her own emotions into the book. The world made of lines and dots expanded and felt like the real world. She would be the heroine, and Daemyung would be the protagonist.

Whenever she did that, Jiyoon became startled all by herself and closed the book before opening it back again with a smile on her face. They say unrequited love was a painful thing, but Jiyoon was experiencing the exact opposite. Though, it would be a different story if the current situation dragged on for a long time. For now, she felt very happy.

“I’m suspicious.”

Jiyoon became startled and closed the book. The time was right after lunch. She was fantasizing to herself while looking at the comic book with a drowsy body when she heard that voice. Jiyoon smiled back at Aram, who was looking down at her with crossed arms.

“I’m very suspicious.”

“A, about what?”

“You’ve been reading that book for days now. With a bright grin on your face too.”

“I was?”

“I’m suspicious. Veeeery suspicious.”

With a suspicious smile, Aram suddenly turned around and started walking towards the others. At that moment, Jiyoon felt a tingle on her head. With a newfound strength that came from an unknown place, she pulled on Aram very strongly. Aram swayed a lot but she soon gained balance with her superior motor nerves.

“I, I’m sorry.”

“You’re quite strong.”

Aram glanced at her friends. Jiyoon shook her head with all her might. If Aram told them about it… she didn’t even want to think about the consequences. Those friends were the same ones that made her ride Aram’s shoulders around the school for ‘fun’. It was unknown what they would do if they found out that she had someone she liked.

Aram dragged a chair towards her as though she was some kind of investigator. Jiyoon was unable to look at her eyes.

“Now I’m 100% sure. Who is it?”

“Wh, what do you mean?”

“Then I’ll say it to all of them, okay? Once that happens, you’ll be forced to confess…”

Jiyoon reached out and covered Aram’s mouth. The others who were chatting amongst themselves looked towards them. Jiyoon laughed awkwardly and fidgeted. Only after the gazes dissipated did Jiyoon sigh and let go of Aram.

“How did you know?” She gave up and asked first. When she did, Aram grinned and spoke.

“What, so I was right?”

‘I was fooled!’

“……”

Jiyoon pouted and looked at Aram with wronged eyes. However, despite her expression, Aram pressed on.

“So, who is it? Tell me, tell me.”

* * *

To drive out the drowsiness, Maru went to the school cafeteria to get a cup of coffee from the vending machine. Thinking that vending machine coffee was the best, Maru took the empty cup and returned to the third floor, where his class was. The electrical engineering department was right in front of the central staircase. In front of the class which reeked of boys due to the lack of presence from the opposite sex, he saw two girls waiting outside. As everyone was sleeping on their desks, the class was quiet even though two girls were peeking inside.

‘Why are those two… ’

Maru silenced his steps and approached them from the back.

“I don’t see him though.”

“Aram, let’s just go. This is a 2nd year class room.”

“So what if it’s a 2nd year class room? It’s not like we’re committing a crime. Rather than that, where is Daemyung-seonbae?”

Aram seemed to be enjoying herself to the fullest, while Jiyoon seemed to be very uneasy. Although it was a short conversation, it was enough for Maru to deduce what was going on. After all, there was only one reason Aram would bring the uneasy Jiyoon looking for Daemyung.

“What are you doing?” He voiced out from behind. Both of them were startled out of their wits and turned around.

“Ah! That startled me. What’s up with you?” Aram widened her eyes and asked. She looked as though she would hit Maru at any moment.

“It’s my class. Why are you asking that?”

“Aha!”

“Don’t ‘aha!’ me. You’re looking for Daemyung?”

“Yes.”

“No!”

The two answered differently to the same question. Jiyoon looked as though she was about to fall into shock at any moment. She was quite cute when she made that expression. The urge to stand on Aram’s side and tease Jiyoon welled up inside his heart, but he decided not to since Jiyoon was such a good girl.

“He should be in the container. He’s probably cleaning up since he has to create the props starting today.”

“Is that so?”

Aram grabbed Jiyoon’s hand and ran down the stairs. Maru looked at the two and spoke to himself in a small voice.

“Oh, youth.”

* * *

Bangjoo was walking down the corridor when he saw Jiyoon being dragged by Aram by the hand.

“What are you doing?”

He asked in a loud voice, but the only reply he got was ‘mind your own business!’ Jiyoon looked at him as though she was asking for help, but he ignored her since it looked like it would be more interesting to leave Aram be. As there was still 20 minutes until the 5th period, Bangjoo went down to the school field. He looked to see if there was anyone playing basketball, but the only ones he saw were people he didn’t know. They seemed to be seniors. The soccer field was filled with people as well. He could see four balls flying into one goal.

He wanted to do some light exercise, but he didn’t see anything suitable. After contemplating for a while, Bangjoo decided to ride his bike around. Her sister had bought him an MTB when he entered high school. He looked up the cost out of curiosity, and almost fainted from the number of digits. As that was the case, he had to buy a thick chain lock used for motorcycles. He went to the bicycle parking which was to the left of the front gates.

“Oh, seonbae-nim.”

He saw Dowook there. It was very unfamiliar to see him there sitting next to a bike with all sorts of tools. He only saw that seonbae sleeping all the time, and it was hard to talk to him since he gave off a scary impression, but after a while, he was able to talk to him comfortably as he knew that Dowook wasn’t a bad person.

“Oh, Bangjoo.”

“Yes. What are you doing here?”

“I rode my bike to school this morning and the tire got punctured. I’m fixing it right now.”

“You do that by yourself?”

“I do.”

“Oooh! Can I watch?”

“Do whatever you want.”

Bangjoo sat down next to him. Although he saw it last time, Dowook’s bike looked quite expensive as well. Dowook took out a wrench and a rubber pad from the pouch attached to the frame of the bike before proficiently removing the brakes and the front wheel from the bike. When those parts came off so easily, Bangjoo exclaimed out loud.

“Where did you learn to do all these, seonbae?”

“Self-taught.”

“Wow.”

Dowook then pointed at one of the bikes. It was Bangjoo’s bike.

“If you plan to keep riding that, then you should learn about bikes too. It’ll be nonsensical for you to not be able to do anything with a bike that costs several million won on the frame alone.”

Dowook seemed to be knowledgeable about bikes. He was able to tell the price of a bike just by looking at one.

“Can I learn things like that as well, seonbae-nim?”

“It’s not hard.”

“Then you should teach me.”

“No.”

“Why!”

“It’s bothersome. Also, quieten down a little bit. I feel like you’re ripping my ears out.”

Dowook gave him the cold shoulder. Bangjoo did not give up despite that. He stuck by his side and watched every bit of Dowook’s movement. After wordlessly handling the tube for a while, Dowook sighed.

“I’ll teach you later so please stop staring at me.”

“Are you serious?”

“Ah, yeah.”

Bangjoo laughed in joy. He heard Daemyung’s voice from behind.

“Bangjoo, Dowook.”

He saw Daemyung who was holding clothes wrapped in plastic bags. His voice was a little weak, and that seemed to be because he was holding onto some heavy things. Bangjoo immediately stood up and received the clothes from Daemyung.

“Thanks. I was trying to do it by myself but it was a little too scary.”

“You should have called for me. I’m confident in using my strength.”

“It’s break time so I would feel sorry for calling you out.”

He was the club president alright. Bangjoo thought that those who fulfilled their responsibility were cool. Dowook took some of the luggage as well. It seemed that he had fixed his bike in that short moment.

“What are you going to do with all this?”

“I’m planning to take it to the 5th floor for now. Can you help me out a little?”

“You should have told us beforehand about this.”

Dowook walked forward. Bangjoo glanced at Daemyung’s face for a moment and smiled at him before following Dowook.

[1] In Korea, there used to be school regulations for hair (length, color, etc). They don’t exist anymore.

Chapter 240

“What? Where did he go now?”

Aram saw that the container was empty and pouted. Maru had told her that Daemyung would be here.

“He’s not here, right? So let’s just go.”

Jiyoon pulled on her arm. She had this thought before, but Jiyoon was actually quite strong. If she hadn’t done any exercise, she might actually be forced around by Jiyoon instead. Aram said okay before taking a step back.

“But is it okay to leave this open?”

Usually, it would be locked with a padlock, but it was wide open right now.

“Perhaps it’s because he had business here? I don’t think Daemyung-seonbae is the type to forget about these kinds of things.”

“Oh? You flatter him quite a lot. You do like him after all.”

Aram chuckled as she watched Jiyoon blush. ‘Daemyung-seonbae’, was how she called him. On the outside, Daemyung honestly wasn’t that charming. He was a little beyond plump, he was physically dense, and he had a quiet voice as well. However, his personality was flawless. He was the one who took care of the first years the most after all. He was the kind of person who would carefully ask what problem someone had if that someone was frowning.

‘They do suit each other, I guess.’

Daemyung and Jiyoon. Jiyoon was a little too much for Daemyung in Aram’s mind, but the two weren’t a bad combination. If he was some trashy guy, Aram would have persuaded Jiyoon otherwise, but she could accept Daemyung. Well, the way Jiyoon looked at Daemyung wasn’t really ordinary, especially recently.

“Do we need to wait then?” Jiyoon spoke as she looked around. Aram told her that they should just go, but this weak-hearted girl was worried about the what-ifs and told Aram that they should return after he returned.

“Geez, you worry too much.”

“You’re the one who’s too relaxed, Aram.”

“Oh? You’re retorting back at me more and more these days. This won’t do!”

Aram started tickling Jiyoon’s waist. Although Jiyoon could withstand pain very well, she was very ticklish. She soon started giggling and started running away but Aram chased her to the end. They ran laps around the shipping container and started sweating. The news mentioned that the average temperature would be 2 degrees higher than last year, and indeed, it was quite hot. It was only the middle of May, but it was so hot.

“Let’s come back after eating ice cream.”

Aram grabbed Jiyoon’s hands. Since it would only be for a short while, Jiyoon thought that there should be no big problems and followed suit.

* * *

“When are midterms again?”

“In three days.”

“Today’s Monday, so, Tuesday, Wednesday… midterms start on Thursday?”

“Yeah.”

“Holy moly. Then it lasts until Monday?”

“That’s right.”

“That’s annoying. I won’t get to have fun on the weekend.”

“Yeah right. I know you’re going to have fun anyway.”

These guys giggled as they read the comic books they borrowed. Geunseok clicked his tongue and closed his notebook. The teachers started giving away the answers starting last week. They didn’t just tell them the pages the exam questions would be created from, but the specific lines as well. It was like that for every subject. Only their majors teacher told them the vague outline and told them to study everything, but for the rest of the subjects, the teachers made it so that blind memorization would be enough to get full marks in the exams.

If this was cram school, their teachers would not think well of doing such a thing. After all, a short range of revision materials meant that the questions would be really hard.

‘But this shithole school isn’t like that.’

As expected of an engineering school, they just fed you the answers. Thanks to that Geunseok never missed the first place in the exams. He did not remember studying hard for the exams, but he was still first place. In fact, the tests to get into a cram school was harder. On top of that, he had a lot of private lessons these days as well, so he wished that he could decrease school to just one hour.

No matter how hard these teachers tried to teach him using chalk, he had already learned them beforehand through other lessons. Square roots and whatnot - his cram school had already started calculus, while the school was actually following the national curriculum.

What was funny was that these guys were complaining that it was hard. He wondered if these guys had a brain in the first place.

“Uhm, Geunseok.”

He smelled something sweet. Geunseok smiled and looked at the girl that approached. She had a voluminous body, had small earrings on so that the teachers wouldn’t notice, and she also wore a pale layer of lipstick. In the class, there were two types of girls. The girls that were only biologically classified as ‘female’ as well as those that wanted to be an actual girl. This girl belonged to the latter. She was quite cute and she was well developed as well. Above all, he liked that she didn’t reject skin to skin contact.

“What is it?”

“Did you write all of it down? I was going to do all of it but it was getting too sleepy,” saying that, the girl pulled a chair over and sat down.

“Sorry, I didn’t make notes for this class.”

“Really?”

“The teacher was so good at explaining that there was no need for me to write anything down.”

“I didn’t understand anything though.”

“Isn’t that because you dozed off in class?”

“………”

The girl pouted. Geunseok poked on the girl’s cheek and spoke.

“Instead, I’ll explain things for you. Just the parts that the teacher said were important.”

“Wow, thank you so much.”

Their distance was short enough that their shoulders touched, and Geunseok started explaining the class materials to the girl. After being humiliated by Maru, he had stayed quiet for a few days. Any laugh that he heard sounded like disdain for him, and any kind of gazes he received felt like they were looking at him as though he was a liar. He felt disgusted. Every day was an agony. The ones close to him treated him just like before, but Geunseok thought that they would be looking down on him on the inside.

However, after some time passed, Geunseok realized that those guys really didn’t care. In fact, those guys came up to him and consoled him, asking ‘you look worried these days, are you okay?’ And other words like that. It was strange. He was humiliated in front of the entire class, yet no one seemed to change their attitude towards him. Those that outright ignored him were just those that weren’t close to him in the first place.

After that experience, Geunseok realized one thing - that people generally didn’t care about others. Unless it was someone really close, they did not care a single bit unless it affected them as well. After that, Geunseok started smiling again and acted kindly towards everyone again. He treated them food, listened to their worries, as well as proactively doing what had to be done. At one point, he realized that the evaluation of him became much better than before. His classmates offered him to play with them a lot more frequently before, and their members were a lot more varied as well. He even got close enough to the ones that simply ignored him before. No, he made it so.

He remade his kingdom. In this small classroom, there was no one that hated the person known as ‘Hong Geunseok’. Not a single one. It was extremely pleasurable. He was acknowledged by the teachers and the others flattered him as well. The fact that some girls became more flirty with him was also an element that made him feel better.

‘That’s not right.’

The fact that there was no one that hated Hong Geunseok was a mistake. There was just one. And whenever he looked at her, Geunseok felt twisted. He looked at the cute girl smiling at him and naturally glared at the plump girl sitting behind her.

Kim Soyeon. She was someone that he didn’t even give a glance at in the acting club, but right now, she was unpleasant as hell.

“What?”

The girl sitting next to him became curious and turned around. She also found Soyoen.

“…Are you interested in Soyeon, Geunseok?”

“I am, I guess.”

Hearing that, the girl frowned. Of course, she soon returned back to a smile. Geunseok found fun in probing others out like this more than anything. It was a process of confirming her affection towards him. The sense of superiority welled up inside him and made him smile.

“I couldn’t help but be interested in her. She’s all alone. I was wondering if something happened to her. I’m worried about her as her friend.”

“What, it’s like that? I almost misunderstood you.”

“Misunderstood me? About what?”

He asked despite knowing what she meant. Geunseok was aware that these actions made him out to be a witty and positive man.

“No, it’s nothing.”

The girl shook her head before lowering her voice.

“But hey, do you know?”

“Know what?”

“The rumor.”

“The rumor?”

“There’s a bad rumor about Soyeon. She acts like she’s a good kid, but the rumors make the others stay away from her.”

“What’s the rumor about?”

“You know that she had a boyfriend, right?”

“Taejoon? I do. He’s a friend of mine.”

“It feels somewhat off for me to say this, but she doesn’t suit Taejoon, right? Just look at how handsome Taejoon is.”

“He is.”

“Right? But Soyeon is a little… I mean, I really don’t like saying words like these, but you get what I’m saying, right?”

She was someone that didn’t want to say the dirty words out loud. Geunseok sympathized with her. He understood her. People want to look good in front of everybody. Geunseok wasn’t planning on embarrassing her either. He had to act kind. Who knows? Maybe she would pay back with her body one day?

“I do. Actually, I thought that as well.”

“Right? It’s a little strange. Someone on Taejoon’s level must be able to meet someone much better than Soyeon. Of course, I don’t mean that Soyeon is lacking in any way, but…”

“Mm… Oh, then what’s the rumor about?”

The girl lowered her voice even more as though she was going to talk about a secret.

“Do you remember Yurim?”

“Uh… yeah, I do.”

Yurim, that was a name he hadn’t heard in a long time. His ‘ex-’girlfriend that transferred schools. He didn’t mind it that much since he was almost fed up with her, but it felt somewhat new to hear about her again. It was a little fun since she was so proactive during kissing.

“She was friends with Soyeon, do you remember?”

“Yeah. Those two were always together in the beginning of the semester.”

“But from some time onwards, the two cut relationships and Yurim suddenly transferred schools, right? Apparently, that was all because of Soyeon.”

“Really?”

“Yeah. Apparently, she bullied Yurim a lot. But Taejoon doesn’t know the circumstances and thought that it was the other way around, so he was trying to help Soyeon instead. Apparently, he’s going out with Soyeon out of sympathy.”

The girl said up to that point and made an expression as though she just made a mistake.

“…Oh right. You were dating Yurim, right? You won’t like this story then.”

“Me and Yurim? No, not at all.”

“Oh, really? So I misunderstood the two of you?”

“A lot of people mistook our relationship. I hung out with Yurim to console her because she looked to be suffering. She was pitiful. Well, I guess others may think like that.”

“Oh, so that’s how it was.”

“But I don’t think I was of any help. I wanted to help her feel better, but she didn’t find me so reassuring. If I treated her a little better, then perhaps she would still be here in the same school. I sometimes feel like it’s my fault that she transferred schools… If I had been just a little better…”

“No, not at all. How is that your fault? You’re not in the wrong at all, Geunseok. In fact, she’s the problem.”

Geunseok shook his head as he acted as though he was in sadness.

“She must have her reasons. There’s no way that Soyeon is such a bad girl. Don’t you think so?”

“Me? Of course. I just wanted to tell you that such a rumor exists.”

“Okay. If Soyeon really is a good kid, then the rumors should die down soon. Oh, we were studying, right? Where were we again?”

They returned to their main topic. Geunseok laughed on the inside. It was obvious that someone who was annoyed by Taejoon going out with Soyeon spread such a rumor on purpose. Though, it was true that the two didn’t suit each other. Taejoon really had a low eye for girls. Geunseok wondered what made him want to date such a girl.

After replying ‘yes’ to the girl’s question asking him out on a movie, Geunseok stood up. Leaving the class, Geunseok glanced at Soyeon. The two pairs of eyes met and Soyeon glared at him with hostility before just ignoring him. Geunseok gnashed his teeth. He didn’t like this girl. Soyeon was aware of what happened in the acting club. She annoyed him to the point that she felt like a sore throat. It would have been better if she just disappeared like Yurim.

Geunseok went down to the cafeteria to score more points on that girl. He planned to talk with her over a drink. Just before he arrived at the first floor cafeteria, Geunseok saw two girls walk into it.

‘Those bitches… ’

Lee Jiyoon. The shock from when she dared to talk back to him still remained within him. As a result of that, Maru caught his mistake, eventually leading to his expulsion from the acting club.

The tanned bitch next to Jiyoon. That was the girl that threw her slipper at him when he tried to scout some people from the first year design department. He felt as though that the eye that the slipper hit still ached. The two bitches that he wanted to beat up so much were hanging out together.

“Let’s get one quickly. The container is open.”

“I get it already.”

He overheard their conversation as he passed by. The container? At that moment, a brilliant idea surfaced within Geunseok’s mind. The acting club was filled with people he didn’t like, and now there was a way for him to get his revenge. Geunseok smirked and walked towards the back of the school.

Chapter 241

“Are all of these hand made as well?” Dowook asked as he put down the clothes in one corner of the self studies classroom on the 5th floor. There was a police uniform, some strange shirt with thin metal chains on the shoulder and a leather jacket that looked like it would clearly outline any body figure. Some of those clothes could be bought from stores, but the police uniform and the shirt with the chain clearly seemed hand made.

“One of our OBs did clothing design and apparently, that person helped out even after graduation. I think that seonbae made this one as well.”

“I knew it.”

“Can you take the plastic wrap off and see if there’s anything wrong with them? We’d have to stitch them back if there are any rips,” Daemyung said to Bangjoo. Bangjoo replied in a loud voice and sat down on the spot before starting to go through the clothes.

“Well,” Dowook replied grumpily to Daemyung who was smiling at him. Even though he clearly expressed that he was not okay with this, Daemyung kept looking at him. Dowook felt that this guy was getting sneakier by the day.

In the end, though, Dowook sat down.

“Dowook, those are yours, so try them on,” The one Daemyung pointed to was the shirt with the chain.

“This one?”

“Yeah.”

“Hey, my role might be a delinquent, but isn’t this too overboard? It’s not like the delinquent is into heavy metal or something.”

“Ah, do you think?”

Dowook sighed and took off the plastic wrap first. The shirt was black and red. It wasn’t bad to the point of being unusable if the chains were taken off. It wasn’t a bad costume if the delinquent happened to be in a bike gang or something. Dowook looked for any flaws both on the inside and the outside and tried them on once. He put the clothes on and stood in front of the mirror to see if they fit him or not.

“Seonbae-nim. It suits you,” Bangjoo spoke from behind him.

“You’re saying I look like a delinquent?”

“Yes! You totally look like a gangster.”

This guy did not know his manners. Dowook chuckled before taking the clothes off. It didn’t hinder his movement. He thought that he could use this costume once the chains were taken off.

“Why are you staring at me like that?”

Daemyung had been staring at him for a while. When he asked, he replied back with a smile.

“I was just thinking that you’re actually quite thorough.”

“Once I said I will do something, I will do it properly, so don’t you worry about that. Rather than that, I can take off the chains right?”

“I think we can ask the dry cleaners to do it. But I think it looks cooler with it on though…”

“This looks cool?”

“I, isn’t it?”

“Hell no.”

Daemyung looked at the chains with pity. Dowook packed the costume in the plastic bag again.

“We checked all of them, right?”

“Can we leave these here? Others might come in.”

Although the self studies classroom was rarely used, students could still use this space since midterms were approaching. Although they were using it like their clubroom, it was originally intended to be used for studying so they couldn’t just lock the door.

“It’s fine. Teacher Taesik already got permission. He told the others that a study group will book the room…”

“So he lied, even though he’s a teacher.”

“…Perhaps studying acting is also a form of studying?”

“You’re sounding more and more like Maru these days, making excuses like that.”

“Y, you think so?”

Dowook gathered the costumes up into one spot and piled them up. He was used to tidying up. His father worked at the petrol station, his mother worked at a company, and his sister left home. As he grew up in an environment where he had to do the household chores, he did not like seeing things untidy. He suddenly had the thought that perhaps the reason why he researched about bicycles and even bought tools to fix them was because his subconscious told him to do everything by himself.

“I’ll go downstairs for a bit,” Daemyung suddenly said. He then stood up.

“Where?”

“To lock the container. I felt it when I took the clothes out, but it was really hot in there, so I opened it so that it could cool down a little.”

Daemyung brushed off the strands of threads that stuck to his school uniform as he stood up. He was about to leave when he turned around.

“Wanna go with me? I’ll treat you to some ice cream.”

“It’s not that you want to eat it as well?”

Hearing those words, Daemyung silently smiled.

“I thought you were trying to lose weight.”

“Today’s the last day. Bangjoo, you can come too.”

“Yes!”

Dowook shrugged his shoulders and followed him.

* * *

“Huh?”

Daemyung met Jiyoon and Aram in the convenient store. However, the two of them acted strange. Aram had a smirk on her face while Jiyoon did her best to hold her back.

“Seonbae!”

Aram waved her hand and greeted them. There were quite a lot of students since it was lunch time, and Aram’s loud voice instantly gathered their attention. Daemyung was momentarily frightened by the numerous gazes and quickly went up to them.

“What is it so suddenly?”

“Seonbae, you know…,” Aram was about to say something when Jiyoon covered Aram’s mouth with her hands. Even Daemyung was surprised by the usually meek girl’s bold actions.

“Oh, it’s, uh, nothing, seonbae-nim.”

Jiyoon smiled awkwardly and stepped sideways. At that moment, Daemyung saw that Jiyoon was pinching Aram’s waist. Very hard, too. Aram also stepped sideways, teary-eyed.

“What’s going on?”

“Hehe, it’s nothing.”

Aram seemed to have some business with him until just moments ago, but she instantly changed her attitude when Jiyoon looked as though she was about to cry. Daemyung was curious about what was happening, but he felt that he shouldn’t ask.

“S, seonbae-nim. Wh, what are you going to eat? I’ll buy it for you,” Jiyoon carefully asked. Daemyung shook his head and spoke.

“I’ll treat you. What do you two girls want to eat?”

“I want milk,” Aram responded. Jiyoon hesitated for a moment before replying ‘the same one you’re getting, seonbae-nim.’

“Okay, wait just a moment. Dowook, Bangjoo. Are you two okay with ice cream[1]?”

Both of them nodded.

“Oh yes, seonbae-nim. I saw that the container box was open…,” Jiyoon inquired nervously.

“That? I opened it on purpose. The inside was too hot. We have to check on the props in the afternoon but I thought it would get too hot if I just left them like that, so I left it open just a little.”

“Oh, that’s it,” Jiyoon smiled as she said that. Her cheeks dimpled slightly. Daemyung absent-mindedly watched as Jiyoon brushed her hair away from her eyebrows with her hand before flinching. Aram had a suspicious smile on her face.

“M, ma’am!”

Daemyung quickly turned around and ordered the items. His heart was racing. He was worried that Jiyoon might think strange of him and turned around, but fortunately, Aram was talking to Jiyoon like normal. He wondered if he saw wrongly. He sighed and turned around after getting the items from the lady.

“Here you go.”

He handed out the milk and the ice cream. He subconsciously smiled when Jiyoon received her ice cream with her two hands. Of course, he soon came to himself and looked away. After all, Jiyoon might feel uncomfortable if some misunderstandings occurred.

“I, I don’t see Maru anywhere. I thought he was going to the cafeteria.”

“Maru-seonbae was in class though.”

“In class? In my class?”

“Yes.”

Daemyung was curious about why these two went to the 2nd year electric engineering class, but did not ask. He didn’t want to be nosy.

While the others chatted, Daemyung sneaked out. He had to lock up the container.

“Seonbae-nim. Where are you going?”

Jiyoon had caught up already.

“To go to the container. You don’t need to follow me. You should go back to class and get some rest.”

“No, I’ll help you,” saying that, Jiyoon quietly followed him. She was really kind. Daemyung felt proud since he felt that he had a good junior. At the same time, a sense of duty to show her his good side as her senior welled up inside him.

“Oh, seonbae-nim. It’s a little weird to call you… club president, right?”

“Y, you can just call me however you want. It’s not like being the club president is anything special. You can call me whatever you’re comfortable with.”

“R, right? Then, seonbae… nim is a little too weird, right? I’ll call you just seonbae in the future. A, are you okay with that?”

“Y, yeah! Call me whatever you’re comfortable with. I don’t care at all.”

Jiyoon smiled back at him.

“Uhm, seonbae.”

“Yeah?”

“Thank you for last time. I thought I didn’t get to thank you properly. Sorry about that.”

“Not at all. Rather than that, you look okay now. You are much brighter than before.”

“R, really?”

“Yeah,” after replying, Daemyung uttered a short breath. This was the first time he talked to a girl like this outside of practice. He became nervous and quickened his steps. He did this so that they could arrive at the container before they ran out of things to talk about.

However, not long later, he had to slow down. Jiyoon, who was following him, was panting. He walked by her side and the two walked to the back of the school. They did not say a single word as they walked. Daemyung was very uneasy, but Jiyoon had a calm - and perhaps a little joyful - expression. It seemed as though something good had happened to her today.

“Huh? Why is it wide open?”

Arriving at the container, Daemyung wondered why it was wide open. He remembered opening it just a little.

“Is it because of the wind?”

“It wasn’t like that when we came around.”

Jiyoon tilted her head as well. Daemyung took another step forward towards the orange-colored container. At that moment, a strong wind blew on his face.

“…!”

The wind contained a disgusting smell. It was the smell of paint. Not just any paint, but the waterproof paint that Maru bought. Jiyoon seemed to have smelled the stench of burning rubber as well and frowned.

“Can you take a step back?”

“Seonbae!”

Daemyung made Jiyoon step back just in case anything happened. He covered his nose and walked forward. As he walked forward, the sunlight that covered the entrance of the container was lifted, showing what the inside looked like. Daemyung frowned and walked into the container.

“What is all…”

It was green everywhere. No, some places had spray paint on as well. The problem was that some costumes and props were covered in paint as well. Daemyung coughed and first took out the costume within his reach. When it was exposed to the sunlight, its horrible condition could be seen. Even though it was a denim jacket, half of it was colored green. The white mourning clothes had black paint everywhere. From those alone, it was clear that everything was messed up.

“Seonbae…”

Jiyoon’s expression paled in fright and she covered her mouth. She should have been surprised as well. Someone clearly did this with malicious intent. Daemyung first took out his phone. He then pressed his shortcut key. After some signalling sounds, Maru’s voice could be heard over the phone. Daemyung cut Maru mid way through his question and spoke hurriedly.

“Maru! Come down to the container quickly!”

* * *

A burden. This referred to a heavy load carried by a person. When something refreshing happened, it is expressed as ‘a heavy burden was lifted off one’s shoulders’[2]. Geunseok realized what that felt like today. He really felt refreshed. No, he was thrilled. The glee when he found out that there was no one behind school, the feeling of awe when he saw that the container was open, as well as the excitement of finding paint inside. Geunseok opened the paint containers rapidly and poured it out on everything he saw. He was unable to contain his smile while watching the green paint draw a perfect parabola into every object inside the container. As he watched the props getting tainted, those bastards popped into his head, and a feeling of triumph welled up inside him when he thought about how Maru would never catch the culprit.

Fire was dangerous. He was a man with common sense. He had to finish things on a level that wouldn’t get him into big trouble even if he was found out. In that sense, paint was perfect for the job. It made all the objects useless after all. On top of that, there was that stench. Although it would soon go away since it was volatile, they wouldn’t be able to use the container for the time being. He was so happy because he could pressure them like this.

“Did something good happen to you?”

The girl next to him asked. It was a girl with long straight hair. She tied it up when she came to school to avoid the eyes of the head-of-the-year teacher, but she untied them once she was in class. Geunseok inwardly liked this girl since she looked more mature than her peers.

“Do I look like it?”

“Yeah.”

The girl giggled. She clearly had good feelings towards him.

Geunseok smiled.

Today was the best.

[1] In Korea, both ‘soft ice cream’ and ‘popsicles’ are called ‘ice cream’ (Though, some regions call popsicles ‘ha-d’(하드), which is derived from “hard” ice cream or ‘ice ke--ki’(아이스께끼), derived from the Japanese pronunciation of ‘ice cake’(アイスケーキ) ). They’re probably getting popsicles here, but I don’t know for sure. I will translate all ice cream(아이스크림) into ice cream in the future unless specified otherwise.

[2] Original expression literally translates to: “A decade-old indigestion was just flushed down”

Chapter 242

The voice sounded urgent. Maru, who was relaxing on his seat after drinking coffee first looked at the time. 10 minutes remained until the 5th period[1]. He hung up on the phone and left through the back door. He climbed down the central stairs and arrived at the first floor before leaving through the left door of the building. He went past the cafeteria and headed towards the back of the school. He saw three people from the acting club there.

Before he even asked what was up, the distinct smell of oil-based paint tickled his nose. He frowned and approached the container. The first things he saw were the costumes colored in black and green. He also saw the despairing Daemyung, as well as the uneasy Jiyoon and Aram duo.

“I don’t think this was a result of a spill.”

Hearing his words, the three of them nodded. At that moment, Dowook and Bangjoo arrived at the container as well. Both of them were panting.

“Maru, you’re here.”

“Yeah.”

“Ha, shit. Bangjoo and I made rounds just to see if the fucker that did this was still nearby, but we came up with nothing.”

Maru nodded and first left the container. He was in there only for a brief moment but he felt dizzy already.

“For now, put those costumes in the container.”

“…Okay.”

Daemyung sighed as he did as Maru instructed him to. Maru looked at Daemyung before stepping on the latch of the door and climbing to the top of the container. Right now, he had to ventilate the container. He opened all the ventilation latches on the corners of the container. These were usually closed to block off rain.

He then jumped off the roof. He did all he could right now so now he had to know what happened.

“I’m sorry, seonbae-nim. I should have closed it when I saw that it was open.”

“No, seonbae. I had Aram leave this place with me even though she said that we should protect this place. I’m really sorry. Really…”

Jiyoon and Aram looked down and apologized. Daemyung stepped in.

“These girls didn’t do anything wrong. It’s my fault for leaving them open for ventilation. I shouldn’t have left this place…”

Maru stared at the apologizing trio before sighing.

“The one that did this is not you guys so why are you the ones apologizing? And if there’s a responsibility, it lies with all of the acting club, so you don’t have to apologize to me either. Aram, Jiyoon, and Bangjoo, you three should go to your classes now. The next period will start soon.”

The first years hesitated, but when Maru urged them on, they returned to their classes, albeit reluctantly.

“What are you going to do? This is a mess.”

Dowook clicked his tongue and looked inside the container. It was definitely a mess. Since it was done with paint, paint thinner should be able to erase them, but it was unknown if the costumes with distinct color could be saved or not. The props were in a horrible state as well. The traditional paper lamp was clearly beyond salvageable, while things like wine glasses, small dolls and cigar pipes could be cleaned up. However, it was unknown how many of these they could salvage.

“The costumes are the problem.”

Maru scanned the container again with a bitter expression. For a work done in a short period of time, it was actually quite thorough. There weren’t any empty paint cans on the floor.

“How long did you leave this place for?”

“Around 15 minutes?” Daemyung replied with uncertainty.

15 minutes. Since Aram and Jiyoon seemed to have visited this place during that time, it meant that this place was vacant for around 10 minutes.

“I guess it doesn’t take that long to make it like this.”

“…Should we tell a teacher?” Daemyung asked carefully. His expression was filled with guilt.

“We should tell teacher Taesik, but it would do us no good even if we tell someone else. No, we can’t tell them. This country is quite messed up. When something happens, the first to be interrogated is the one that saw losses through that incident, not the one that caused it. Once the teachers find out that the container has become like this, it’s obvious that they’ll scold us for not managing it properly and use it against us. I’m not really into that, so we should take care of this ourselves.”

“Sorry… just because of me.”

“I just said it’s not because of you. The fucker that did this is the problem, not you. If it’s considered fair for it to become like this just because the door was open, then why would thievery be a crime? Don’t mind about that and let’s think about how to solve this problem. For now, let’s close the door since the ventilation holes are open.”

Nothing good would come out of everyone knowing what happened here. Just as Maru was about to close the door, the empty spray paint canister entered his eyes.

“Wait.”

He didn’t have the time to have a close look at things, but now that he saw the spray paint can, he saw a green handprint. It was from the waterproof paint. Maru then glanced at the floor of the container. The culprit had splashed the costumes and the props on the wall and the paint had splashed back onto the ground. Maru lifted his feet up to check his own shoe. He saw waterproof paint on it. It was obvious. Although it was only a little, the paint that splattered on the ground got on his shoe.

“Daemyung. You went inside the container, right?”

“Yeah. I did.”

“Have a look at the sole of your shoes. Do you see any paint?”

“Huh, yeah, there is!”

Maru had a look at the work gloves next to the spray paint can. Green paint was everywhere on it. It seemed that the culprit first put the gloves on, and poured out the contents of the paint bucket inside the container. Then, he or she should have stepped backwards while pouring out the paint, noticing the costumes at the top. It should have been a little dangerous to try and paint those by pouring paint from the bucket. Then, finding the spray paint cans, the culprit should have returned to spray the upper walls with spray paint.

Maru first left and closed the door. Then he had a close look at the asphalt floor that led to the container. As he had expected, traces of green paint could be seen. They should belong to Daemyung, Maru himself, and the culprit.

“Let’s go back as well. The 5th period is starting soon.”

Maru took his two friends inside. There was less than 3 minutes until the next lesson.

“Just who in the world would do that kind of thing?”

“It shouldn’t be a prank. If that person went as far as to spray paint everywhere, then there must be a motive behind it.”

“…,” Daemyung silently stared at Maru. Maru smiled back.

“What, do you have someone in mind?” Dowook asked. Someone in mind? There was one likely culprit. Maru turned around right in front of his class and went to the design department class. As the 5th period was about to begin, everyone was in their classes. After having Dowook wait outside, he took Daemyung inside. He saw Geunseok near the window. Geunseok was calmly looking at them. Maru grabbed Daemyung who kept giving glances to Geunseok and walked towards Soyeon.

“How have you been?”

“What’s up, you two?” Soyeon chuckled. Although she left the acting club, she still hung out with the 2nd years from time to time. Though, with the start of May, it was hard to hang out with everyone since they started practicing.

“We had some business here.”

“Business?” Soyeon tilted her head. Maru smiled at Soyeon and naturally glanced at Geunseok. Geunseok was still looking at him with a relaxed expression.

“Nah. See you later.”

“What is it? What’s going on?”

“I’ll tell you later. Don’t do anything dangerous with Taejoon, alright?”

They left the design class, leaving the grumpy Soyeon behind. At the same time, the bell rang. Returning to their own class, the three sat down.

“It’s not Geunseok? There’s no way he could act so calm after all we did to him,” Daemyung frowned as he spoke. Maru shook his head and replied.

“No, it’s the opposite. He’s practically telling us that he did it.”

“Why is that?”

“He’s good at acting. Even instructor Miso said that he’s the best when it comes to acting natural.”

“That she did.”

“That’s why he’s suspicious. He can’t be leisurely smiling at us like that. He has so much pent up against me, so he can’t smile back at me. Do you remember what happened when I went to the design class last time?”

“Oh, that time… Geunseok ended up crying in front of his classmates.”

“The guy whose arrogance pierces the sky looking at us with a smile after all the things he went through. He probably had his vengeance.”

“Did Geunseok really do it?”

“We’ll need to see for sure.”

“See what?”

“His shoes. He seems confident in not having it on any of his clothes, but let’s see if he took care of his shoes as well.”

“What if there’s nothing?”

“We can’t screw him with just circumstantial evidence.”

“S, screw?”

“It’s just an expression.”

Maru put his chin on his hands and tapped on the desk. Treating students like how students should be treated and treating adults like how adults should be treated. Treating people according to their social status was natural for not just Maru, but for all adults living in this era. A rule for superiors should be applied to superiors, and the rule for subordinates should be applied to subordinates. The amount of responsibility shouldered by people of different social status was of course different. A mistake from a director-level personnel and a mistake from a new employee. Those two were very different. In the same sense, the wrongdoings of a student who was still learning was different from a fully-grown adult with legal responsibilities. It wasn’t about the severity of the crime, but more about sympathy, or perhaps about whether there was room for forgiveness.

After all, it was written in the law.

The suspect is young and has no prior cases of committing a crime, so his sentence is reduced.

Geunseok was a horrible guy. However, treating him horribly just because of his nature was something embarrassing for an adult to do. Though, he had a high school student’s body, so they were both kids in a sense, but Maru’s inner nature was that of a ‘good old man’ who could treat some minor things as just a foolish mistake from youth.

However, for this incident, he crossed the line. In Maru’s mind, Geunseok was on probation. He could have crushed him even harder that day, but the reason he didn’t go all the way was because of his sense of guilt as an adult that could not guide the younger generation properly as well as his expectation that he would change his mind for the better.

Despite that, his expectations were betrayed nicely. It was quite painful. Perhaps others might call him childish. He had no confidence to say anything up front so he sprayed paint behind everyone’s back. Yes, those were childish actions.

Childish actions from a child.

Maru stretched his arms out. Things would only even out if he showed what adults could do when they became childish, no?

“Let’s get the soles of his shoes first. If there’s nothing, we’ll conclude by properly locking the container in the future…”

“And if we find something?”

“Then it’s overtime.”

At that moment, Dowook clenched his fist and spoke.

“I have confidence if it’s about beating him up.”

“We can’t do that. Do you want to transfer schools with him?”

“Ah, right. What are you going to do then?”

“I’ll be very childish. Like, very, very childish.”

“Childish?”

Maru smiled. At that moment, the front door opened and the teacher entered.

“For now, look front. You guys need to attend your classes.”

Dowook and Daemyung nodded and looked at the chalkboard. Maru fidgeted and fell into thought.

* * *

Geunseok giggled after seeing that Maru and co. left without doing anything. He thought that they must have come here looking for trouble, but returned after seeing that he was acting so calm. He was in a hurry when he poured the paint, but he didn’t hastily pour them out so that none of it got on his clothes. He didn’t leave any evidence behind. Nonsensical stuff like fingerprint recognition would not be used. In the first place, they wouldn’t call the police for something like that.

‘And if it’s that bastard, he won’t tell the teachers either.’

There was no way Maru would blow this out of proportion since he was well aware of the circumstances that the acting club was in. As such, this incident would end very quietly. They must feel frustrated, but what could they do? There was no evidence.

Geunseok felt that class was very enjoyable for the rest of the day for some reason.

[1] If you didn’t know already, Korean schools have 4 periods before lunch (50 minute lesson 10 minute break), and up to 3 periods after lunch. So the 5th period is always the period right after lunch break.

Chapter 243

Daemyung was in thought throughout the entire class - Is Geunseok really the culprit? If so, what was the reason behind it? If it wasn’t him, then who else could have done such a thing?

‘But no matter how hard I think about it, I can’t think of anyone else that might do that.’

He felt sorry the moment he suspected Geunseok, but no matter how hard he thought about it, he couldn’t think of anyone other than Geunseok that might do such a thing. There were a lot of teachers that did not view the acting club in a good light, but there was no way those people would do such a thing while risking their jobs. This meant that the culprit had to be a student. If someone went as far as to endure the stench and the risk of putting paint on their clothes, it meant that that someone had animosity towards the acting club, and the only one Daemyung could think of that fit all the criteria was Geunseok.

‘That’s not right.’

In the school violence incident from a while back, not a small number of students were expelled or transferred away. He didn’t know the exact circumstances, but he had the feeling that Maru was involved in it as well. Since he was seen conversing with a group of people that were bullied in their respective classes, he shouldn’t be totally unrelated.

‘Perhaps some of those that got punished back then were… ’

Not all of them transferred schools or were expelled. Some of them received punishment to do work within the school. Some of those people may have heard about the person that got them into trouble. What if those people decided to take revenge on Maru?

Haaa, Daemyung sighed. Suspecting someone and coming up with countermeasures wasn’t his thing. He wondered why such a thing happened.

‘If I just had locked the door!’

A sense of guilt welled up inside him once again. Maru told him that he wasn’t at fault, but when he thought about it, none of this would have happened if he had locked up properly.

‘I should take responsibility, right?’

This happened just as they were about to start proper practice with all the props. He felt sorry for the first years that just got into acting. He ended up getting them involved in this bad incident. He was reminded of Jiyoon and Aram looking guilty and that made him feel even more sorry for them. They had done nothing wrong.

Ding dong, suddenly the bell signalling the end of the lesson rang out. Daemyung was surprised by it and raised his head. He saw that the teacher was leaving the classroom. 50 minutes had already passed.

He hurriedly turned around to look behind him. He saw Maru standing up without saying a word. He looked just as usual. It was as though he was just going to visit the bathroom.

“Maru, are you going?”

“I am. I’ll have to check the color at least. Whether it’s white, pink or green.”

Maru then walked out of the classroom with his hands inside his pockets. Dowook also stood up and followed him out. Daemyung felt like there would be a fight and followed the two out as well. Slowly walking towards the design department class, Maru entered the classroom without hesitation. Daemyung gulped and took a step inside as well. Although no one in the class seemed to care about him, he felt as though his face was being pricked.

Maru walked up towards Geunseok who was chatting with his classmates. Although he was just staring at him, the mood around him was serious. The design class classmates also took steps back and started scanning Maru from top to bottom.

“What is it?” Geunseok spoke first.

“Geunseok. Since lesson break is short, I’ll get straight to the point. The container, did you do it?”

Daemyung, who was looking at Maru from the back, widened his mouth in shock. He did not imagine that Maru would ask that so directly. He had thought that Maru would ask roundabout questions and eventually induce Geunseok to reveal his shoes or his slippers, but Maru ended up asking the question up front.

“What’s this bullshit about?”

“It’s not bullshit. We found our container in a mess, so I’m asking if you are the one that did it.”

“Damned fucker. Why are you asking me that?”

“You didn’t do it?”

“Fuck, are you kidding me?”

“Don’t get too excited, prick. I’m just asking, why are you so frightened? You’re making me suspect you.”

Daemyung saw that Geunseok’s expression was crumpling slightly when Maru said those words. Maru put his hands on Geunseok’s desk and leaned forward. Their heads were now only inches away from each other’s. At that moment, people around started whispering amongst themselves. Daemyung became very uneasy when he saw that some people with strong impressions were approaching the two. He felt that a fight would break out at any moment. He had seen others get into a fight once when he was in his first year, and it was a violent one where chairs were flung across the air and mop handles were broken to be used as rods. He had learned later that some of them had broken teeth while some had broken noses. It was that moment when he realized that he was in an engineering high school[1] and that he had to stay obedient.

But right now, one of his closest friends was about to get into a fight. Daemyung felt his heart race as he looked around. He was planning to get rid of any dangerous objects first if things got out of hand.

Daemyung thought that Geunseok would try to punch Maru first. The atmosphere was that tense. However, Geunseok unexpectedly did not attack at all. No, in fact, he was even looking away from Maru’s eyes. He had a bigger build than Maru, so he shouldn’t lose out when it came to a fight. Daemyung thought that perhaps Geunseok was frightened because he was laughing awkwardly and was fidgeting. Perhaps it was because of last time? Or perhaps he got into a fight with Maru even before that?

The atmosphere became tense. Daemyung felt as though his face was being ripped apart. He felt as though the students from the design department were surrounding them. No, it wasn’t just his feelings. They were indeed gathering around them.

‘Maru.’

Just what was he up to? At that moment, Maru smiled while looking at Geunseok straight in the face.

“You didn’t do it?”

“Fuck, how many times do I have to tell you?”

“Then can I have a look? I’m a very doubtful guy, you know.”

“Damn prick. What do you want to see, huh?”

“A few things.”

“What if you don’t find anything?”

“If I don’t find anything, I will have to apologize, obviously. You did nothing wrong, right? Just consider me trash and bear with me for a while.”

Those words were quite strange. Daemyung realized that Maru had Geunseok playing on top of his palms. Although it felt as though a fight was about to break out at any moment until just moments ago, and it still felt tense, Geunseok now had no choice but to abide to Maru’s words now. If he denied Maru, then everyone would become suspicious of him.

Geunseok did not get flustered at all and took off his top.

“Here, have a look, fucker,” Geunseok said as he threw it towards Maru. Daemyung felt that this was better instead. It would be easier to find something if Geunseok was compliant. Just as he thought of that, he felt something strange.

“Why are you giving me your clothes?”

Maru’s words contained a prankful tone. At that moment, Daemyung realized what was going on and looked at Geunseok with widened eyes. Geunseok also had a face of having just committed a mistake. Though, he soon came back to normal before speaking,

“I thought you wanted it.”

“Ah, yeah. I didn’t know that you and I got along so well with each other. Did my telepathy telling you to give me your top get through to you?”

Daemyung saw that Geunseok’s mouth was twitching. It was a clear sign of dissatisfaction, and on one hand, it seemed to be a sign of unease as well.

“Don’t bullshit me. Just do what you came to do.”

“I will.”

Maru didn’t even give a glance at Geunseok’s top and just folded it neatly before placing it on his desk. Geunseok frowned and looked at Maru.

“But I want to look at this place instead.”

Maru slowly sat down and grabbed Geunseok’s slippers. It was at that moment that the calm-looking Geunseok was shocked out of his wits and moved his feet back. He gulped as though he realized that he had overreacted.

“What is it? It’s not like you can’t show me.”

“What the fuck are you doing?”

“That’s strange. Didn’t we come to an agreement? That you’d show me? Or was it just me that came to that conclusion?”

Maru shrugged his shoulders. Daemyung was flabbergasted by Maru’s actions. Now, he had the opponent playing on top of his palms. As he had been staying calm this whole time, there was no reason for Geunseok to get violent either. No, even before that, Geunseok didn’t look like he wanted to get violent with Maru at all. Was he always so patient? No. Geunseok was the type of person that would easily get excited. The fact that he was just swearing meant that something had happened between him and Maru before.

“If there’s nothing wrong with it, I’ll kneel down and apologize to you as a service. It’s hard to see things like that these days, you know?”

Maru grabbed Geunseok’s slippers with a smile. Geunseok gnashed his teeth and took another step back. The expression he had at that moment was not a sense of loss but suspicion as well as a little bit of worry. Perhaps he had not checked the sole of his slippers. If Geunseok was really the culprit, he would have checked his clothes for paint.

That was the reason why he threw his top with so much confidence.

‘Ah.’

That was practically the proof that Geunseok was indeed the culprit. He showed Maru the ‘evidence’ because he was so confident, even though Maru hadn’t said anything yet. That was why Maru focused more on his shoes. Perhaps…

Daemyung tensed his eyes. He saw. There was a slight green on the rims of Geunseok’s left slipper. Maru should have seen it as well since he was close. That was probably why he went for the shoes first. Maru wasn’t the type to make a move if he wasn’t entirely certain, so he probably caught that way before Daemyung did.

Maru took the slippers off Geunseok’s feet and checked the soles. Indeed, there was green paint on it. Although it was a small amount, it was discernible to the naked eye.

Maru wordlessly showed Geunseok his findings. Geunseok’s expression did not change, but his clenched fist seemed to convey his feelings.

‘He did it.’

All that was left was interrogation.

However, at that moment, Maru nodded his head once before taking his own slippers and giving them to Geunseok.

“You can use these. I’ll take these for a while.”

“Wh, why?”

“Because it’s dirty. I’ll give them back to you after I wash them. Very cleanly, that is.”

“……”

Maru turned around. That was it. Daemyung had a bad taste in his mouth. They drove Geunseok into a corner, but now they were just leaving. At that moment, Geunseok stood up from his seat and spoke.

“That wasn’t my doing. I don’t know what you’re on about but it wasn’t me!”

“I know it wasn’t you. So don’t get excited. Did I say something?”

Maru signalled with his eyes to his two friends to go. Daemyung glanced at the puzzled design department students and followed Maru out.

“Is that it? I think that prick did it,” Dowook said as he frowned. Maru did not say anything and just spun the slipper on his fingers. Daemyung turned around to glance at the design department. Geunseok was glaring at them. He looked as though he was about to charge at them at any moment and take back the slipper. However, he eventually smirked and returned to his class.

“Uhm, Maru. What are you going to do if he pretends that he didn’t do it?”

“It doesn’t matter.”

“Huh?”

“I said it doesn’t matter. I’m just going to make a report.”

“A report… you say? To the teachers?”

“No.”

Maru whistled as he sat down. Daemyung was unable to understand what Maru was thinking.

[1] Due to influence from traditional confucianist culture, those that don’t intend to get into universities usually go to ‘engineering schools’ to get jobs right after high school. So these schools tend to have more people that are ‘delinquents’ (since the fact that they came to this school means they have no intentions of studying)

Chapter 244

It didn’t feel like the calm before the storm. Even after the 6th period, Maru did not show any movements. Daemyung was even a little confused when he saw Maru acting like everything was solved with him putting the slippers in his bag. Perhaps he was planning to forgive Geunseok after giving him a warning?

‘I don’t think that’s what’s happening though.’

With this incident, they were now unable to use the majority of costumes that their seniors had painstakingly created over the years. It was the same story with the props. Geunseok’s actions were extremely serious to just let him off. After being thrown out of their clubroom, they had to throw away a bunch of props and costumes. Although it was a pity to throw any of them away, they had to be done with as their new space was smaller. The remaining props and costumes were naturally really precious as they survived the selection process.

“Uhm, Maru.”

“Yeah?”

“You said something about making a report. Is that all you’re going to do?”

“It is. What about it?”

“No, nothing.”

That was a bit of a pity, but thinking about it, Geunseok was someone who had spent a year with the rest of the acting club. The reason they were able to have good results at the competition was also thanks to him. That was the undeniable truth. Perhaps Maru was about to let him off on a good note since he considered that point. It was just that, something still tugged on Daemyung’s mind. Who was he going to make the report to? If it was not a teacher, then who else…

Daemyung watched as Maru walked out of the classroom with his phone in one hand and lied down on his desk face down. He didn’t know the specifics, but it felt as though things were over. He was worried that a fight may break out when Maru went to the design department class, but it ended up like this.

‘Yes. All’s well that ends well.’

Daemyung closed his eyes. He was relieved that things ended quietly.

* * *

Geunseok shook off his unease the moment the 8th period ended. He almost panicked when he found out that there was paint on his slippers, but now that he thought about it, it couldn’t be considered decisive evidence. He could just say the paint got on there from somewhere else. It wasn’t like there was a CCTV within the school, nor was there anyone that saw him. He could just act ignorant.

Of course, it would be a complicated matter if Maru decided to get the teachers involved, but Maru was well aware that Maru won’t do such a thing so he wasn’t worried about that. The acting club had desperately hidden the fire incident. Moreover, thanks to that incident, they were expelled out of their club room. Maru should be very well aware of how the teachers would view the acting club if he decided to tell them. This was why getting the teachers involved was out of Gunseok’s consideration. If they do? Then he could just drag the fight out so that the teachers would eventually leave. After all, there was no evidence.

“Geunseok. I’m going to the PC bang(PC cafe), let’s go together.”

“Shall I?”

To maintain his connections with his friends, he had to participate in minor outings like these. If he rejected them too much, his reputation might dwindle. He took his bag and left. Although he had somewhat expected Maru to be waiting for him, there was no one on the corridor.

He saw the electric engineering department had just finished their homeroom and were leaving as well. He found Maru and co. among them. For a brief moment his eyes met Maru’s. Geunseok intentionally made a smirk. He did so in order to see Maru’s reaction. Maru just scanned him from top to bottom before wordlessly facing away.

At that moment, Geunseok inwardly rejoiced. He had to admit that Maru was a smart guy. He wasn’t good at his studies, but even Geunseok wanted to learn a thing or two from him about how to handle other people. The fact that such a guy took a step back meant that he knew that the slipper was not a conclusive evidence. The fact that he came to visit Geunseok’s class despite that was probably to tell him that he was aware of who the culprit was. It was just a simple threat, not something more, not something less. That was the only thing Maru could do.

Now that he knew what was going on, his worries melted away like snow. The only thing Maru could do was to perhaps try and get those tainted clothes cleaned.

Geunseok felt refreshed now that he had gotten his revenge. He thought that he made a splendid choice leaving the acting club and not being hung up on it. Acting, he still wanted to do it. However, he wasn’t going to do it through the acting club in his high school. He now had acquired time from his father as long as he maintained his grades. His father told him that he would not interfere with what he wanted to do during that time. It was painful that Junmin had ended up abandoning him, but he thought that he still had the talent. As long as he maintained his good grades and kept on practicing his acting, he should be able to get into a good entertainment company soon enough. If everything went wrong, he could always ask for help from his brother. His brother would probably accept him if he acted nice towards him.

Geunseok clenched his fists. When he reminded himself of Junmin, he gnashed his teeth. That day, he heard the words “I don’t think you’re the one” from him. This signalled the end of his contract. The moment he heard those words, he was so frustrated and angry that he ended up crying. That embarrassment - it still made him frustrated to this day. He liked neither Han Maru nor Lee Junmin. He decided that he would make them regret what they did to him one day.

“Let’s go.”

Just as he went down the stairs after shaking off his worries, he saw a lady with a baseball cap and sunglasses on walking up the stairs. The curvatures of her body shown above her training outfit was tremendous. Even his friends next to him were wondering who she was. It was just as he passed by that person while wondering if she was the so-called daughter of the head director of the school. Geunseok was shocked to the point that he stopped breathing. The smile he saw with a glimpse at the side of her face. That erotic smile that he could never forget made him realize who the lady was. The woman climbed up the stairs without even greeting him. Geunseok told his friends to go ahead before following the lady up.

“Coach.”

Geunseok stopped her on the stairs between the fourth and the fifth floor where no one else could be seen nearby. The woman that he gave up his pride for and contacted numerous times was right in front of him.

“Who?”

The woman with a faint smile on her face was none other than Suyeon. Geunseok almost became angry. She asked ‘who?’

“It’s Geunseok. Hong Geunseok.”

“And so?”

“What?”

“So what?”

“Coach!”

“Tell me. So what? You feel nice to meet me? Or what?”

“…Are you really going to be like this?”

What of all the lessons, and the erotic times?

“You didn’t answer any of my calls or messages.”

“Kid, you’re creeping me out. Were we something?”

“What are you…”

“You don’t have any relationship with Mr. Lee Junmin. The coach work is over with. Do I still have any relationship with you? I don’t think so.”

“You don’t feel anything when you look at me?”

“Of course not. You’re funny. Why do I need to mind you at all? Stop misunderstanding. I get that you want to get close to me. I can do so, if you want. But… I can’t play on the same level as a snotty-nosed brat, can I? Anyway, see you later. If you’ve become a man by then, I might hang out with you once.”

Suyeon smiled and waved her hand. She felt so distant. It was as though seeing her through a screen.

“Uhm!”

He called out as he followed her. There, he found out. Suyeon was greeting the acting club with a smile on her face. She was here as an instructor?

Geunseok glared at Suyeon for a while before turning around.

‘You can’t play on the same level as a snotty-nosed bart, huh? Good. I can just become successful then. Women are all the same. They will end up spreading their legs out to successful men.’

Geunseok also grasped what personality this woman named Suyeon had. To have her, he had to pay the price. Geunseok licked his lips as he went down the stairs. He didn’t like that he had to do so, but it still motivated him.

He left through the left main door and was just changing his shoes. At that moment, his phone suddenly started ringing. He took out his phone from his pocket. The name written on it was very unexpected. Geunseok stared at that name for quite a while as the bell rang a few times. He chuckled. At the same time, he felt somewhat joyful.

“It’s been a while. How’s your heart holding up, weakass?”

He spoke as he received the call.

-Calling someone so hardworking a weakass huh? You’re a bit rude.

“Damn madman. Rather than that. What’s up? You don’t usually call me at this time?”

-I’m in Suwon.

“What?”

-I said I’m in Suwon right now. Let’s meet.

“Weren’t you in Busan?”

-I came back.

“When?”

-It’s been about a year, I guess.

“A year? And you’re calling me now?”

-I was busy. I became successful in my own way too. I’ve got a company I belong to.

“Damn kid. You called me to boast, huh.”

-You have a rough mouth as always.

“Likewise, you are overly cheerful as always.”

-That’s just how I am. Rather than that. Where are you right now? I’m in Suwon station.

“Wait there, I’ll be right there.”

Geunseok then hung up on the call and looked at his phone screen. He saw a name - Yoo Jiseok. It was the guy he considered as his only friend.

* * *

“It’s been a long time. Hasn’t it?”

“Looks like you have a good life going for you looking at your face.”

Jiseok smiled brightly towards Geunseok who he hadn’t met for a long time.

In his middle school, he moved houses from Daejeon to Suwyon. As he frequently moved houses, he didn’t feel anything about it. The only thing that changed was the pharmacy that he went to to get his medicine. At school, he was known as the quiet kid in class. Afraid of the words from his doctor saying that he should avoid intense exercise, he sat still during gym classes as well. He lived like that since he was in elementary school, and whenever he did so, the other kids were considerate of him, but from some time onwards, they became distant. He was aware that they weren’t the bad ones. It was just that he found it a little pity. That was why he often fell into thought. He imagined a story where he became a man loved by all and never had to feel lonely ever again.

He believed that nothing would change when he transferred to the middle school in Suwon. As he had expected, he started his ‘quiet kid’ life again. The ones curious about the new student in class soon distanced away from him and all they did was greet him. It couldn’t be helped. The words that he shouldn’t do any intense exercises became his shackles which made him think that staying still was the best thing he could do, and he believed that there was no one would become friends with him since he didn’t take any action at all.

However, just one person. There was just one person who kept talking to him and smiled with him. That was none other than Geunseok. Geunseok was someone who said that he would follow his brother’s steps to become an actor. He was very popular in class as well. He was good at his studies, and was very athletic to boot. He could do anything. Jiseok was envious of that Geunseok. That was his ideal way of living.

However, not long later, he ended up discovering Geunseok’s secret. His secret was that his kind side was but a pretense, and that Geunseok didn’t view anyone else as his friends. After his secret was found out, Geunseok got angry. He scolded Jiseok that he was now in big trouble thanks to him. However, for some strange reason, Jiseok didn’t hate that part of him. In fact, he was glad. It was at that moment that he realized that all people led difficult lives. That made him realize that he wasn’t the only sick one.

After that Jiseok talked to Geunseok more and more. At first, Geunseok smiled back at him in response in front of everyone else and got angry when no one else was nearby. He liked that Geunseok was humane. That was enough. Like that, they hung out together for around two years.

Geunseok was a self-centered, condescending man who the world would hate if they found out his true nature, but to Jiseok, he was the first guy that he spoke about his problems to. Around that time, he became interested in acting thanks to Geunseok. He learned various things from Geunseok who was teaching himself about acting. Jiseok went his way to look for theater acts and raised his dream.

Geunseok was still the guy that had the mask of pretense in front of everyone else, but he had become a friend of Jiseok who was very down to Earth. The two only had each other as friends and they were close enough that they didn’t need to say what they thought to get their point across.

“How’s acting?”

“Acting? God dammit. It’s fucked up. Thanks to one damned prick, it went all wrong.”

“That’s because you have a screwed up personality. I told you to live a good life.”

“Fucker, where else can you find someone living a better life than me? Look at me. I’m kind to everyone. Although it’s all fake, I keep being the kind man in front of everyone else. Isn’t that a real side of me too then? People think I’m the good guy after all. If that’s not real, then what is?”

“Fine, fine. Your shit philosophy still hasn’t changed, huh.”

“Hey, your mouth has gotten a little rough after spending some time in Busan, huh.”

“I learned it all from you.”

“Damned lunatic.”

And then, there was a moment of silence. Jiseok looked at Geunseok in the face, then smiled. He thought that friends must be beings that they could look and smile at without reason. Geunseok also started laughing while using swear words.

As they were laughing on the stairs on the first floor of Suwon station, people started staring at them. Jiseok started laughing even more because he found the situation fun.

“Weakass, stop laughing.”

“Why? It’s fun.”

“Damn weakass.”

"I ain't no weakass though."

"Nope. Not with that heart."

"It's getting better you know? The doc says I'll be fine with just medication. I won't be needing any surgery or anything."

"Really? That's good. Guess that removes the weak and just leaves you an ass."

“That’s right. I’m not a weakass anymore. I’m just an ass.”

“Damn lunatic. I had my guesses since you took that corner seat in middle school. That that damn fucker has psychopathic tendencies but is holding it in.”

“That’s right. Thanks to you, I became a weird guy who goes around greeting everyone. Thanks, I mean, thanks a lot.”

“If you’re thankful then treat me something.”

“Then let’s get something to eat. Tell me about your story too - why you left the acting club, and what you’re dissatisfied with. You know I’m good at listening.”

“Though, you never give solutions.”

Jiseok smiled and hung his arms around Geunseok.

“Geunseok. Do you still remember what you first said when you greeted me?”

“What did I say?”

“You said ‘Hello? Your name is Jiseok? My name has a ‘seok’ in it too[1]. It’s nice to meet you.’ Do you remember that?” Saying that, Jiseok gave Geunseok a glance. Geunseok’s lips twitched as he replied,

“Wekass, I don’t remember. And I was that childish? We both have a ‘seok’ in our name? Stop kidding me.”

“I’m not kidding though.”

“That’s funny.”

Jiseok laughed his heart out as he walked. This was why friends were good. To Jiseok, Geunseok was like a hammer - the hammer that beat up this world that was boring; that he was afraid of; and that was stifling. Jiseok admired that boldness and that liberty. And now, he was proud because he felt that he had become somewhat similar. If there was one thing he wanted, then it was that he wanted to be of a good influence to him like he was to Jiseok himself. Jiseok thought that it would be good if he was the one to fix Geunseok’s twisted personality.

“Don’t laugh, prick. You’re making me embarrassed,” Geunseok spoke.

* * *

Practice had ended and it was time to clean up. Maru took out his phone and stood up. There was an order to his reports. The effects would only be amplified if he maintained the command line. And since he had to be polite, he was going to get permission as well.

“You’re making a call again?”

Daemyung raised his head and spoke. Maru looked back at him with a smile, saying, “yes”.

[1] Author’s note states that the Hanja characters for Geunseok is “根席”, and Jiseok is “咫席”. Just writing this for the zero of you that’s interested.

Chapter 245

Walking around with a script in one hand, Geunsoo suddenly turned his head towards the dining table. His phone was making a loud noise from the vibration. He picked up the phone from the glass top.

“Hello?”

-Senior, this is Han Maru.

“Oh, yeah. Maru.”

He put the script down and sat down on the sofa. He turned on the TV intending to rest a little. He saw celebrity actors laughing and enjoying themselves in a reality TV show.

“What did you call me for?”

-I have something to tell you.

“Something to tell me?” Hearing that, Geunsoo lowered the volume. Maru’s voice was usually calm, but today he sounded desolate. Geunsoo frowned slightly as he felt as though Maru was about to tell him some bad news.

“Tell me.”

-Someone poured paint on the costumes and props of the Blue Sky acting club. The culprit went out their way to spray everything with black spray paint as well. Thanks to that more than half, no, almost all the costumes are beyond saving.

“That’s not good news. Do you have to throw away the mourning clothing that was knee-length? Miso and I made that one you know.”

-If you’re fine with it being green, then sure.

“What about the lamp? Soojin painstakingly made that one.”

-The paper is all ripped.

“Miso will erupt into anger if she finds out. Ah, we spent quite a lot of time creating those, you know? Although it’s a decade-old memory now, it’s still vivid. Our first act was an old traditional play. Thanks to that, we went all the way to Dongdaemun[1] to get the materials and we went through a lot to make a set of Hanbok. But in the end, we couldn’t make a Hanbok[2] and had to settle with making a set of mourning clothes instead. We ended up borrowing the jeogori[3] and the skirt.”

Although this event happened a long time ago, the event was so vivid in his memory that he still remembered it to this day. Their first challenge, their first ordeal, and their first success. It was from a time where everything felt new.

“I don’t think that’s good news at all.”

-What I told you is not good news at all, but it’s about to get worse.

“What is it?”

-The one that ruined the props is Geunseok.

Geunsoo sighed and laid back on the sofa. He did have his guesses from Maru’s intonation. After all, there was no actual reason for Maru to report to him about problems that occurred in Blue Sky. If there was one reason, then it had to be that it was related to his little brother.

“Senior Junmin told me about him a while back. That he’s a little lacking to keep him by his side. I thought that Geunseok had given up since he became quiet, but it seems that he’s been waiting this whole time. It’s really… haa.”

His little brother, Geunseok, was a polite kid. At least on the outside, it was hard to find any flaws on him. Even in elementary school, he did everything to perfection with a single compliment. He brought back great results, and their parents complimented him for those results. From some time onwards though, that made him look down on others. That was how his personality to look down on others and be obedient to his parents came to be. From the moment his brother smirked at him after receiving a bunch of Christmas presents from their parents, Geunsoo decided to leave his house. He talked a few times with his little brother to try and turn his head the other way, but he seemed to like his way of living. He left his house despite his father saying that he would disown him when he said that he would major in acting. The word his brother said to him that day as he left his house was ‘loser.’

A lot of things happened after that and when he took his mentally unstable little brother to Daehak-ro[4], he believed that his little brother had calmed down somewhat and was going to lead a stable life in the future. However, he was wrong and his brother’s roots hadn’t changed. Well, if everyone changed their minds for the better with just one event, then injustice wouldn’t exist in this world. Despite that, he believed that it was good progress that his little brother now had motivated himself to do things, but it seemed that acting was just the means, not the end. If he really liked acting, then there was no way he would go as far as to ruin all the costumes and props that he and his friends had painstakingly went lengths to create back then.

He had given up on a good brotherly relationship a long time ago, but still wanted to be closer to him than absolute strangers, but from the news he heard today, he ended up realizing that his brother took after his father too much.

It was even frightening how similar the two were.

“And what’s the reason for your call?”

-First is to tell you that I am going to end this here because I think it will get even messier if I let him be; second is to apologize to you because the first reason might put your younger brother in a very uncomfortable situation; and the third and last reason is to get your father’s number, senior.

“…I don’t get what you’re trying to do, but I do get that Geunseok is in for trouble.”

-There will be no such thing as a ‘good ending’. It’s not my wish for him to start repenting after this incident. I just want things to stay quiet. I just don’t want him to get on my bad side.

Geunsoo smiled bitterly after hearing Maru’s words. He felt responsible. He felt responsible for leaving his brother until he ended up in that state. Although none of this was mentioned, Geunsoo realized that when Maru asked him for his own father’s number, he was indirectly telling him to take part of the responsibility.

‘Well. If I really wanted to take action for my brother, I should have done so while I was still under father’s wing. Not just leave by myself.’

Geunsoo started speaking again,

“I’ll send you the number by text.”

-Yes.

“I’m sorry for being an irresponsible brother.”

-That’s what I’m trying to say. However… I’m not trying to blame you. It’s the parents that are the mirrors of their children. Senior, no, hyung-nim, I believe that you’re splendid in that regard. You’ve saved yourself. I’ll hang up now. I guess the next time we meet will be at the shooting location.

“Probably not, we don’t have any overlapping scenes. See you during the read-through. Though, that will be the only time.”

-Yes. Then please rest.

Geunsoo hung up and raised the TV volume. He had run all the way here without looking back, but now that he thought about it he wondered whether he should have looked back sometimes. He closed his eyes with the TV still turned on. The laughter from the TV didn’t seem as enjoyable anymore.

* * *

Geunseok hung up on the call with a fearful gulp. He had gotten a call just after getting on the bus after separating from Jiseok. The call came from Junmin.

Junmin very calmly asked him whether he knew about what vandalism was. At that moment, he felt a shiver running behind his back. Junmin then continued to say that someone had vandalized a container that was under his name. Hearing his rebuking voice, Geunseok unintentionally ended up making excuses and apologized. Junmin was somewhere high above, on the same level as his father. He inwardly vowed to get vengeance, but he was well aware that he should not get on his wrong side right now.

Getting off the bus, Geunseok ended up kicking a trash bin out of anger. It was obvious who told him that. It could be none other than Han Maru. Geunseok left the place before other people stared at him. The putrid smell from his shoes made him become more angry.

When he arrived at his apartment complex, he widened his eyes after finding a black sedan. 2487. It was the number of his father’s car. It was 9 in the evening right now. It was still early for his father to be home as he had heard that his father was going to play golf with his colleagues today.

He felt uneasy for some reason. He felt as though there was an ominous aura emanating from the black sedan. He felt paranoid. He consoled himself by thinking that it must be because of Junmin’s call as he got on the elevator.

Along with a ding sound, the doors opened. His apartment was to the left. Geunseok carefully entered the passcode and opened the door. The first thing he saw was his father’s golf shoes. It was tidied up neatly towards the door. Although it wasn’t that different from usual, it looked quite scary today.

He took off his shoes and entered. His father couldn’t be seen in the living room. He heaved a deep sigh of relief. He might have lost it if his father was calmly sitting down on the sofa. The fact that his father was in his room meant that it was okay.

He carefully walked towards the main bedroom and knocked. However, he didn’t get a reply. He was confused since his father’s golf shoes were still there.

“Excuse me, father,” he called out to no avail. He wondered if his father was asleep. Now that his thoughts arrived there, he was even more relieved. Just as he was about to return to his room, he smelled something.

A faint smell tickled his nose. It was the smell of cigarettes. The moment he realized that, Geunseok felt a tingle running through his head, nay, his whole body. He felt very tense on every part of his body.

His father was a god in self management. As such, he did not smoke. Correction, he did, but that was only for cases when someone higher up than him offered him to. His smoking was for business. He faintly remembered his father saying how smoking and drinking was a form of sociability. At the same time, he heard the words that he would never smoke alone. He always said that smoking alone was just throwing away lifespan. However, there was just one situation where his father would smoke. On those days, Geunseok never left his room. He just locked up his room and kept staring at the wall.

Geunseok grabbed his shaking legs and quietly looked towards the veranda. He saw an orange light flickering. The faint silhouette sucked on the cigarette before spitting some smoke out. Geunseok held his breath. He grabbed the door handle to his own room with shaky hands so as to not tick his father off. It was just as he was about to push the handle down to enter his room when his father called out.

“Hong Geunseok.”

“Y-yes.”

“You know, I had to bow down a lot when I first entered society. I bowed down again and again and I even had to kneel at times. When a partner company’s CEO told me to pour vodka in my shoes and drink from it, I complied. That was because I believed that being servile was a necessary step to become successful. Years later, I had that CEO kneel before me and drink vodka mixed with ash. When I told him that I’d extend the refund period a week for every glass he drank and he did so with joy.”

Geunseok looked down at the floor. He didn’t dare raise his head to look at his father. When he was young, he thought that his father was a gentle man. This was because he complimented him whenever he won prizes at his school. However, after tasting failure just once in middle school, he saw his father’s true face. From that moment onwards, his father became the supreme law that he did not dare disobey. His father became his dogma, in a sense.

“From that moment onwards, I never had to bow down to anyone. Especially not because of something I did. That is because I know how horrible the taste is to bow down to someone else.”

“……”

“But for the first time today, I had to utter the words ‘I’m sorry’ to someone else. It felt new. I don’t remember the last time I said such words. And that made me realize once again how horrible it feels to apologize.”

“F-father…”

“I provided you with a place to sleep, food to eat, and clothes to wear. I did my best for you to receive the best kind of education, and to provide you with the best kind of nutrition. I think I did my part. Don’t you think?”

“Y-yes. You’re entirely correct.”

“Then, my son. You should have acted so that I don’t have to apologize to someone else on your behalf. I thought I was raising a son, not a pig.”

“……”

“At least Geunsoo never tainted my reputation. Oh, he even rejected my help and struggled to live his own life. In that sense, I admit that he deserves some acknowledgement. It is only natural for my - Hong Janghae’s - son. But… Why weren’t you able to control your own emotions and end up doing something like that? And also! If you did so! Then you should have cleaned up after yourself properly! If you did it then you should have done so in a way that you wouldn’t get found out!”

Whomp - the sound of leather being ripped apart could be heard. Geunseok covered his ears and kneeled down. He couldn’t bear to look at his father’s golf club ripping apart the leather sofa.

“It looks like I raised you wrong. You need some education. To think that what came to be from my seed is a ‘thing like this’. I cannot accept it.”

His father slowly approached him. Geunseok flinched away after seeing the black socks approaching him. That reminded him. No, that moment from his middle school surfaced from the depths of his memory. In that scene, his thighs and calves were covered in bruises, and he was saying ‘I’m sorry’ without stopping.

“Please son, at least do as much as I fed you. Do not shame me. ACT BETTER SO THAT I DON’T HAVE TO MIND ABOUT A MERE THING LIKE YOU!”

Geunseok closed his eyes. His lips were subconsciously repeating the words ‘I’m sorry.’

I will never do it again.

I will never do such a silly thing like that again.

I will do nothing but study.

I will… I will…

He felt his head go blank. Nothing mattered to him anymore. Only the huge thought that he could never cause trouble again filled his mind.

“This is all because I love you.”

Geunseok clenched his teeth when he heard the loud whooshing sound coming towards him.

[1] Famous for having a lot of clothing stores.

[2] Traditional Korean clothing. While Chinese Hanfu and the Korean Hanbok do have similar roots, they are not the same.

[3] The upper garment of usual Hanbok

[4] It’s in the glossary, but this place is famous for small-scale theater acts.

Chapter 246

It was last night when the long text message arrived. After receiving the two text messages before he called Geunsoo, Maru called Soyeon and Suyeon first and then called Geunsoo without hesitation.

‘What time is it now.’

The skies were still dark outside. The sun hadn’t risen yet. He tossed and turned to grab his phone to check the time. It was 5:40 a.m. He ended up opening his eyes at a really awkward time. After tossing and turning for a little longer, he stood up.

The air in the kitchen was cold. When he had a closer look, he found out that the door to the veranda was slightly open. He sighed and walked towards the veranda. He saw that many people were busily moving around even at this time. Watching the cars leaving the parking lot, Maru thought that he wouldn’t be able to fall back asleep anymore as he returned to his room.

He tidied his still warm bed and sat down on his chair. He started reading through the drama script and the movie script side by side when his phone entered his eyes. After looking at his phone with a complicated gaze, he opened his phone and opened his message inbox. There was a long message and a short message that followed. The first one was from Yurim’s parents, and the second one was an apology message from Yurim herself.

He had heard that Yurim had gone to Jeju island to receive mental care from Soyeon. Soyeon frequently called Yurim’s parents to ask about Yurim’s status, and after she calmed down a lot, she said that she directly called Yurim, not through her parents. He had heard that she had recovered well enough to laugh together again, and the message came right as he heard about the news.

The message from Yurim’s parents started and ended with apologies. There were mentions about thanking him for not making a big deal out of that fire incident. There was also the mention that the reason they hadn’t contacted until now was because they felt sorry.

The text message also briefly mentioned why Yurim ended up causing that incident. He could understand the parents’ feelings of not writing down the details since it was a sensitive topic about their child. What he got from it was that the cause of Yurim’s actions came from Geunseok.

Yurim’s parents had written that they were ‘sorry for that child as well.’ However, Maru thought to himself when he read those words: Was it really something to be sorry about? No one in the acting club denied that the two were going out. The one that looked after the agonizing Geunseok was Yurim, and the two started going out thanks to that. However, from the message from Yurim’s parents, it seemed that Yurim was very obsessed with Geunseok. It should have been Geunseok that should have been possessive of Yurim when Maru thought about it, so it seemed that something happened between the two that he wasn’t aware of.

At that moment, Soyeon had texted him as well. The text message contained violent emotions even though it was just written in plain words. Maru wondered what was going on and had called Soyeon. Soyeon had told him that she had also heard about what was going on through Yurim’s parents, and then continued on to tell him about what kind of shameless actions Geunseok was taking in class. Geunseok and Yurim were closer than anyone within the acting club. However, recently, Geunseok went around telling his classmates that he had not dated Yurim at all, and that he was just worried about Yurim and was trying to help her. Soyeon told him that she had heard that story from a classmate of hers and that she felt bugs creeping up her body when she heard those words.

-Geunseok spoke as though Yurim was mentally ill from the very start. How can he do that? I just can’t understand him. No, I don’t even want to. Do you know how much Yurim liked Geunseok, and how much she cared for him? Yurim supported Geunseok even when she was in a difficult situation herself. Do you know how much she liked him despite that…?

To Maru, neither Yurim nor Geunseok left a good impression on him. No, to be exact, they were worse than strangers. He didn’t care what kind of misfortunes the two came across. However, if he was asked who pissed him off more, he could say Hong Geunseok with confidence. He felt a little bit of pity towards Yurim, but to Geunseok? He felt nothing at all.

Negative on top of a negative. The more he dug out about him, the blacker he became. The primary reason for that should be his parents that let him be until he became that way, but when he looked at Geunsoo, he couldn’t entirely fault the parents. The two were raised in the same environment, yet they showed extreme differences in personality.

If one hates rolling around in dirt, then it is only right and proper to escape the ditch. Let’s say that it’s impossible to escape the ditch. If that was all it was, Maru could pity that person.

However, if that person was satisfied with rolling in the dirt and wanted to drag others into the ditch, he couldn’t pity that person even if he wanted to.

Maru was reminded of one thing when he had called Soyeon. The period the relationship between Geunseok and Yurim went wrong overlapped with the time when Yurim and Soyeon’s friendship broke apart. Maru was well aware of what happened at that time. After all, that was when he met Junmin and was introduced to Ganghwan. In other words, it was the same period that Geunseok met Suyeon.

He did expect that there was something going on between Geunseok and Suyeon. After all there was no way Suyeon would leave Geunseok alone when she was aiming for the bigger brother, Geunsoo. Maru had called up Suyeon and asked what happened between her and Geunseok. Suyeon giggled so hard when she heard that question and replied to him that she played a prank on him. He had hit the bullseye.

He hung up when Suyeon was about to say “You should listen to a favor of mine since I answered your question.” Suyeon’s words made everything clear. Although it was just a deduction on his part, the story would be complete. Suyeon entered the good relationship that was Geunseok and Yurim, and that should have caused Geunseok to distance himself from Yurim. As Yurim was extremely reliant on Geunseok’s existence, she wouldn’t be able to accept the fact that Geunseok was getting distant from her. He knew how foolish it was to try and estimate what other people were thinking, but it felt like there was no more room for discussion here.

Then he arrived at the conclusion: Geunseok did not need his pity. At first, he was about to take care of just the container event by calling Junmin. However, he had changed his mind and called Geunseok’s father. It seemed that Geunseok’s father had heard about the general situation from Junmin and Maru could feel that his voice contained suppressed anger. Although it was just a single call, Maru realized that Geunseok took after his father a lot. Geunseok’s father used evasive words to put the blame on Geunseok’s innate nature rather than on his way of educating his son.

After finishing the call, the first thing he thought was that the ancestors were never wrong. You reap what you sow. A tiger father does not beget a dog son[1]. He could practically picture the violent nature that lied behind the deep, calm voice. It was obvious what kind of man he was from Geunseok’s reaction whenever he hears someone mentionining his father’s name.

And since he had said that he had received direct damage from Geunseok to such a person, he could picture what happened to Geunseok as well. If he was young, he may have had a guilty conscience about what he did.

Because of me, he was harmed…

Because of me, things got out of hand…

Because of me…

However, now that he was painstakingly aware of the fact that he was nothing more than an ordinary man in this world, he may feel sorry for him, but he did not feel guilty.

It was simple: there is no such thing as a ‘method that can satisfy everyone’ in this world.

The last line of fairy tales always ended with ‘And they lived happily ever after’. Behind that though was the death of the queen who died after dancing with burning shoes on. There was also the princess that became foam without being able to tell her feelings.

There is the pair of siblings that survived by grabbing the rope sent to them from the heavens for good people, and there is the tiger that fell to his death[2]. A happy ending for everyone was just something too idealistic. With that being the case, what mattered was decision. Who is more important?

Putting down his phone, Maru stretched his arms out. Quite a lot of time had passed. It was about time to get washed. He closed the scripts and put them inside his bag before standing up.

* * *

It felt like watching a man that didn’t exist. It was weird when put in words, but that was the only way to put it. Even though he was right there, he felt like he didn’t exist. Daemyung watched as Geunseok powerlessly walked towards his class while looking at the floor before quickly going to his own class.

“Geunseok is acting strange.”

“Really now?”

Maru acted as though he knew something, but he did not explain in detail. All he knew was that Maru’s ‘report’ had influenced Geunseok in some way. Daemyung sneaked out to the design department class before morning homeroom began. He stumbled upon Soyeon who had just arrived and greeted her. Soyeon hung her bag on her desk and then glared at Geunseok. Her eyes were so scary that it made Daemyung gulp. Daemyung stood in her way because he felt that a fight was about to break out. Though, that did not stop her from glaring at Geunseok.

“Uhm… did something happen?”

“Yes.”

“Can I ask what it is?”

Hearing that question, Soyeon hesitated for a moment before shaking her head.

“Sorry, but this is a sensitive topic and I can’t talk about it with you. Oh, I’m not saying that I can’t trust you. I know that you’re a good guy, but… you know what I’m talking about, right?”

“Y-yeah.”

She only acted embarrassed in front of Taejoon, and she usually acted more down to earth. If she said that it was something serious, then it had to be. And Daemyung felt as though Maru knew what was going on as well. Geunseok’s soullessness and Soyeon’s wrath. He was unable to grasp what was going on.

At that moment, someone hung an arm around his neck. Daemyung looked at Maru who stood next to him and widened his eyes.

“Soyeon. I’m pretty sure that it’s needless advice, but let me just say this. Don’t talk about that matter if you can. Nothing good will come from doing it. Both for you and for her.”

“I know. I’m not going to. But I can’t stand just letting that guy be.”

“Oh that. You don’t need to worry about that anymore.”

Maru released his arm and walked towards Geunseok. Daemyung thought that a fight would break out since what happened here last time didn’t end on a good note. Just as he was getting worried, something unbelievable occurred before his eyes. Geunseok did not react to Maru at all and kept staring at his desk. However, what surprised him the most came right after that.

When Maru took another step forward, Geunseok was scared out of wits and moved backwards. Thanks to that, Geunseok fell from his chair and rolled on the ground. When the other students in the class looked at him, he hurried back into his seat. The boldness and leisure from yesterday was all but gone. Only unease like that of a herbivore being chased by a predator filled the air around him.

Maru walked back towards the two, but his expression was very scary. It didn’t seem like he was angry because of Geunseok, though.

“So he’s an actual trash that crossed the line,” saying those words, Maru glanced at Geunseok before leaving the class. Daemyung also followed suit.

“What happened?”

“It’s solved for now. Though, it leaves a bad taste in my mouth.”

“Did something happen to Geunseok?”

“I have something in mind. But I don’t think that’s something I can do anything about. It seems like I’ll have to tell senior Geunsoo about it. I’ll tell him that it’s about time to fulfill his role as a brother.”

“His role as a brother?”

Daemyung tilted his head. Maru’s expression was bitter, Geunseok was scared out of his wits, and Soyeon was enraged. For everything to be ‘solved’, the results were quite strange.

“Is it really solved?” He asked Maru who just sat down on his seat. Maru raised his chin a little before saying,

“It’s a happy ending where no one gets to laugh. In any case, we came to a conclusion.”

* * *

Jiseok finished his call with his company. The company had told him the news that he was cast for a drama. He was the son of a family that opposed the main character, and had very few appearances. Despite that, the drama was aired in a golden time slot. He felt thankful that he got to participate at all.

He first told his family about the news and then to his friends living in other areas. Jiseok also called Geunseok. This fellow told him that he had to give up on the acting club but did not give up on acting. He smiled subconsciously when he thought about how they could talk to each other like before and help each other out in a meaningful way.

The phone signaling noise ended and a voice could be heard over the phone. The moment he heard Geunseok’s “hello”, he subconsciously frowned. It wasn’t the voice filled with confidence that he had heard yesterday.

“Hello? Are you really Hong Geunseok?”

-……

Then the call ended. Jiseok felt uneasy and made the call again. Geunseok did not pick up the call for a long time. Jiseok sent him a text message. It was clear that something had happened to him.

[1] It’s a common expression in Chinese novels, so I don’t need to explain, right?

[2] A Korean folk tale about the sun and the moon. I’m not going to translate an entire folk tale, so you should read from that link.

Chapter 247

Jiseok, who was gazing out through the window within a large convenience store just outside of Suwon station abruptly stood up from his seat. He put down his still unfinished coffee cup and ran outside.

“Hong Geunseok.”

Geunseok got off the bus with very slow steps and slowly turned around towards him. At that moment, Jiseok frowned. He felt that something changed about Geunseok. That strange feeling made Jiseok approach Geunseok faster. His head was filled with the thought to check up on him as soon as possible.

“Hey, why are you so stiff?”

Just like what happened the day before, Jiseok was about to tap Geunseok’s shoulders. The normal reaction would be that Geunseok would swear back at him, but the reaction he showed was outside of Jiseok’s imagination. Geunseok raised both of his hands to cover his face. His eyes were filled with fear.

Jiseok’s hand stopped midair. Geunseok looked at the tip of Jiseok’s hand with shaking eyes before putting down his arms. Those stiff actions made Jiseok speechless. He instinctively realized that just asking what was wrong would be too rude of him.

“…It’s hot, but I guess you need something warm. Wait a minute.”

Jiseok returned to the convenience store and bought a warm bottle of chocolate coffee[1]. When he carefully handed it over to Geunseok, he grabbed the plastic bottle. Even Jiseok felt stifled by Geunseok’s nervous actions. Just what happened during the past day?

“Let’s walk a little.”

Usually, it was Jiseok that listened to Geunseok whenever they talked. That was their normal conversation. However, Geunseok did not speak a word today. He only followed what Jiseok was doing. His shoulders were drooping towards the ground, his eyes were fixed on the floor, and whenever a car passed by while pressing its horn, he was scared like a guy who just witnessed a thunderbolt striking right in front of him. Due to that, the coffee inside the bottle spilled on his hands, but Geunseok kept staring at the car that passed by.

“Geunseok.”

“Uh, oh. That’s hot.”

His reaction was clearly a bit late. Even though his hands had turned red, Geunseok didn’t seem to mind. It was as though he was caught up with something else and that an injury of this level was nothing compared to it.

They went around the red light district near Suwon station and went to the alleyway where they could see many pojang macha[2]. Jiseok looked for the store that he and Geunseok frequented during middle school, but unfortunately, it was no longer there. Instead, they entered an orange-colored one with the banner that said ‘Udon’ on it. Geunseok had yet to say something proper from the moment they departed Suwon station to the moment they sat down inside the pojang macha and started ordering.

“Ma’am, please give us some good food.”

“Yes, yes. I’ll cook you up a good one. I give a lot of freebies to students so you should come by more often.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

He replied with a smile out of habit, but his smile didn’t last long. Jiseok held out a pair of chopsticks towards Geunseok and asked.

“Did something happen?”

“…No. Nothing happened.”

“You were limping. Are you hurt anywhere?”

“A little.”

“Really now?” Jiseok nodded his head with a bitter smile. This silence, this emptiness that stemmed from Geunseok’s lie. The person that he could talk to without restraint had built a wall of lies around him once again. The fact that he said ‘nothing happened’ implied that he didn’t want anyone to know about it. It would have been better if he clearly told Jiseok that it was none of his business.

“Are you sure nothing happened?”

“I said nothing happened.”

The lady put down two bowls of udon in front of them. Jiseok gave the one with a bigger portion towards Geunseok. Geunseok quietly split the wooden disposable chopsticks and started eating it. Jiseok watched as Geunseok started eating when he discovered a hint of blue on Geunseok’s skin. There were clear bruises on Geunseok’s left shoulder which he could see under Geunseok’s clothes. Seeing the serious wound, Jiseok almost unintentionally tried to touch Geunseok’s shoulder.

At that moment, Geunseok fell backwards with a loud crash. His feet were caught up in the legs of the table, shaking the table in the process which ended up tipping the udon bowl over. The hot soup and noodles hit the ground.

“I’m sorry, ma’am. I tripped.”

“Oh, you should’ve been careful. Did you not get hurt?”

“We’re fine. I’ll clean up here. Please give me a mop.”

“Leave it. I’ll do it later.”

Jiseok apologized to the lady who seemed cool about the incident. In that short moment, Geunseok stood up without a change in his expression and left the pojang macha. Jiseok paid the lady before following Geunseok. Geunseok suddenly swayed around as though he was about to fall over. Jiseok tried to get to him and tried to support him up, but Geunseok rejected him.

“Forget it. I’ll do it. I have to be the one to do it.”

It was as though he was saying that he could not accept help.

Geunseok was not telling Jiseok anything. Despite that though, Jiseok smiled and walked by his side. Although their relationship started off on lies, Geunseok was the only one that stuck with him until the end. He did not know what was going on, but he wanted to console him. It was disappointing to him that Geunseok was using lies to avoid this moment, but Jiseok believed that their relationship would soon recover.

Jiseok thought that he should wait until his friend opened up his heart again. Just as they were walking, his phone started ringing. He took out his phone from his pocket and answered the call.

“Hello? Oh, Maru.”

Maru had called him for the read-through on Saturday. It was the day when all the actors, the director, and the author gathered to do a read-through in front of the press. After that event, the shooting would begin the week after. From what he heard, it seemed that they were going to finish the shoot by August and start editing from then.

“Yoojin wanted us three to go there together? I’m good with that. Okay, alright. But Maru, I feel good to have you call me first. You should call me more frequently.”

His new friend was someone with a stiff expression. This guy was an amazing one whose tone didn’t change even when facing famous superstars. However, from his experience, Jiseok was aware that he wasn’t a cold person on the inside.

He just took another step forward while thinking about this new event that would occur next week. He saw that Geunseok, who was walking by his side, had suddenly stopped. Geunseok’s eyes were still fixated on the floor. Jiseok followed his gaze to see if he had dropped anything on the floor, but nothing entered his eyes.

“What is it?”

“You… you know, Han Maru?”

“Oh! You know Maru as well? Well, I guess that isn’t a surprise. Maru told me he’s in the acting club so you might have met each other in a competition or something. Oh yeah, Maru apparently goes to a high school in Suwon as well. Don’t tell me that you actually go to the same school? No wait, it would be awesome if you actually do.”

Jiseok felt happy now that they got a common topic of conversation. Jiseok approached Geunseok with a smile. He was expecting that they could have a good conversation about Maru.

“Son of a bitch.”

He stopped mid-step. Jiseok had no choice but to stop in his steps. Geunseok had raised his head and was glaring at him with very unfamiliar emotions. The gaze made him shiver. The street lamp located above Geunseok’s head suddenly switched on. That streetlight replaced the sunlight of the setting sun and lengthened out Geunseok’s shadow. Jiseok couldn’t feel more uneasy looking at that shadow. It was as though the shadow was about to rise and attack him at any moment. This was the first time Jiseok felt that a person could become so hostile.

“Hong Geunseok.”

“Son of a bitch, get out of my sight.”

“Hey, Hong Geunseok.”

He frowned and called out to Geunseok, but Geunseok just walked right past him. He didn’t know what was going on. With a complicated mind, he followed Geunseok. At that moment, Geunseok suddenly swung his arms violently. Jiseok was unable to dodge that arm.

With a loud punching sound, he felt a dizzying shock from his cheekbones. For a brief moment, his vision darkened. Feeling dizzy, he kneeled down and grabbed the ground.

“…Geunseok,” he called out to no avail. Geunseok was walking away without the slightest bit of hesitation. When the pain had subsided a little, Geunseok had long since disappeared. Jiseok looked up at the darkened skies.

After a long time, he took out his phone, his fingers were heading for the call button.

* * *

“What brings you all the way here?” Maru asked as he took off his hood. Jiseok had called him and asked where he lived all of a sudden. Maru had told him the bus stop near his home and got a reply that Jiseok would soon be here. Although Maru tried to get him to talk over the phone, Jiseok kept saying that they needed to talk in person. Maru felt confused since Jiseok’s voice had changed in such a short period of time and came out to meet him.

“I came to see a friend, and I suddenly had a reason to see you.”

Jiseok’s smile within the darkness felt as though it was about to snap off at any moment. Maru led him to a playground right behind the bus stop. They sat down on the bench as the creak of the empty swing could be heard.

“What is it?”

He thought that maybe some beer was suited to this situation. At that moment, an unexpected name came out of Jiseok’s mouth.

“Do you know Geunseok?”

Maru shut his mouth and stared at Jiseok. He had a complicated expression. This guy came looking for answers. Maru replied that he knew.

“Can I ask what happened?”

“Before that, the friend you were talking about before, is that Hong Geunseok?”

“That’s right.”

“Your friend in Suwon that you told me last time was him?”

“Yeah.”

“Are you two close?”

“Very.”

Maru felt a bitter taste in his mouth. Yes, trash had their own friends. Wasn’t that obvious? Even a cruel criminal might be a warm member of someone’s family.

The fact that he came all the way here at this hour meant that the two were pretty close. Maru organized his thoughts for a minute before speaking. He calmly told Jiseok the whole story without any exaggeration.

After listening to the whole story, Jiseok was unable to say anything. He just tapped on his knees with his fingers and just kept looking ahead of him. The number of people around them dwindled as time went by, and it was about time for the stationery store to close. As the moths made ticking noises and fell down from the street light, Jiseok started speaking again.

“He’s a… a bad guy, if what you say is true. He wasn’t that bad during middle school. In fact, everyone remembers him as the polite and good kid in class. However, I found out. I found out that wasn’t the real him. Geunseok is, yes, someone who lives on his ego. However, it wasn’t to the point where he harmed others for it. He was just… a dishonest kid.”

Jiseok clenched and relaxed his fist several times. The bitterness in his mouth could be felt over his voice. Maru was able to know that Jiseok treated Geunseok as a precious friend.

“In my head, I know that you did the right thing. But… it still hurts a little. Couldn’t you have solved it in another way?”

“I could get him to talk to me, try to persuade him, and do other things like that until he changes his mind. However, that takes a long time. Moreover, I had no reason to be so considerate of him. There is a short and clear cut path, so there’s no need for me to go that far. Though, it does leave a bad aftertaste in my mouth.”

“Looks like I was wrong about you. I thought you wouldn’t be so cold hearted.”

“Isn’t it funny that you’re trying to understand me after just two or three meetings? I don’t know what kind of a person I am inside your mind, but you’re probably wrong about me for most of the things that you think I am. Even I… took an extremely long time to find out who I am.”

“Yes. Now that you tell me, you’re right. You’re really good with your words. I can feel that every time I talk with you. You have a depth that I don’t possess. But precisely because of that… I find it a pity.”

Jiseok smiled pitifully. Maru understood where Jiseok was coming from since Jiseok must have seen that Geunseok was standing on the top of a cliff.

“Han Maru. You’re a good friend.”

“I’m not sure about that.”

“No, you’re a good friend, and you’re a good kid. I felt this from the beginning. I realized that I wasn’t wrong while taking the audition together, and it was at that moment that I thought. I thought that it would be really fun to do acting with this guy; that we could climb to the top together if we did our best. But now, I changed my mind. I’m going to do better than you. I don’t want to climb to the top with you. I’m going to be ahead of you.”

Jiseok stood up from the bench as he continued,

“This is a small revenge on my part. Geunseok, a friend of mine, hates you. That’s why I must do at least this much for him. But you’re a good friend of mine as well. So please understand me.”

“Do whatever you want.”

“I’m going then. Sorry for calling you out so late.”

Jiseok smiled brightly at the last bit. Maru decided to talk about something unnecessary when he saw that smile.

“If it’s about Geunseok, you don’t need to be so worried. I told the most trustworthy person for the job. He’ll probably do just fine.”

“Really? That’s fortunate. I knew it… you aren’t that cold hearted. You’re a little cold, though. I’ll treat you to some hot chocolate some time. Perhaps that will make you become a little warmer.”

“Hey, you’re really something to say those cheeky lines without a second thought.”

“You think so?”

Jiseok walked away while waving his hand. Maru watched as he left and eventually waved back at him.

[1] What the heck is a chocolate coffee…? It’s probably cafe mocha, but I’m not entirely sure… maybe that’s what it was called in 2004.

[2] Street stall restaurant. It’s in the glossary.

Chapter 248

“You’re shooting a movie?”

“Yes, father.”

“Like, a proper movie, not something with your friends from school?”

“Yes.”

“Hah.”

During breakfast, Maru told his family about his cast in the movie. His father, who was slowly scooping up his bowl of rice looked at him with surprise while his mother, who was scooping up the soup, made an expression of confusion.

“We’re going to read through the script this Saturday, and the filming begins next week. Thanks to that, I might come home late, or even stay the night out. It’s just one scene, so you don’t need to worry about it so much. Oh, the location is in Sokcho.”

His father put down his spoon and asked.

“When was this decided?”

“It’s only been a few days. I took the audition recently.”

“…You’ve grown my son. You’re already starting to take care of yourself.”

His father did not ask man things. He just encouraged Maru to do his best since he started it. With that, Maru was over a hurdle. However, there was still a lot to go.

As a happily married couple, his mother kissed his father goodbye as he went to work and turned around. At that moment, Maru had to smile nervously.

The fathers of South Korea really didn’t express their emotions much. They never asked honest questions to their children despite their curiosities. After all, the ‘image’ of a father was the one where they watched everyone’s back. Maru’s father was someone who also maintained that image. That could be seen from just how he didn’t ask many questions. Meanwhile, his mother also maintained the stereotypical ‘mother’ image in South Korea.

“Why did you not tell me about such an important matter until now!”

As he had expected, his father wasn’t even a proper hurdle. To calm down his mother, who had an intense glint in her eyes, Maru first led her to the dining table. It was his strategy to use his mother’s principles to ‘be quiet during a meal’ against her. When he had his mother sit down, he first gave her a cup of cold water.

“Mom. It’s nothing to be so surprised about. I’m just an extra. There are no problems, and there’s nothing dangerous either.”

“Do you think that’s what I’m worried about? You should have told us if you were involved in such an important matter! Maru, I know that you’ve matured. However, you’re still a high school student. You’re still too young to take care of all that by yourself.”

“Okay. I’ll report everything to you starting next time.”

He might as well be disowned if his mother found out that there was 300 million won in his account. They settled with giving a call before going to the filming location and sending a text message every hour, but his mother still looked worried. Well, it wasn’t a surprise. There weren’t that many people who were capable of saying “is that so?” when their child suddenly talked about shooting a proper commercial movie.

Maru also planned to tell his family up front, but decided otherwise because he felt that his family might oppose him. As such, he told them after the fact. He didn’t want to be a disrespectful child to his parents, but he also did not want to give up on the things he wanted to do because of family opposition. Since his mother took a step back as well, there were no more problems now.

Breakfast began again and only the sound of chopsticks hitting the ceramic bowls could be heard. From his usually chatty mother stayed quiet the entire time, it seemed that her worries hadn’t been entirely lifted. Maru wondered what he could do to console her as he picked up a soybean side dish. His mother had finished her meal first and asked after going to the kitchen sink.

“So… how much are they paying you?”

Maru smiled and lifted his head. His mother was hinting with her eyes not to lie. She was very strict when it came to things like this.

“A hundred thousand won.”

“So much? I thought it was just one day.”

“Yeah.”

“Do famous actors appear on it?”

“Yeah.”

“Sheesh… anyway, don’t make your mother worried, okay? You should say no if they ask you to do something strange. I heard on the news that people are scamming others out of money by enticing them to become celebrities. You should be careful as well.”

“Okay. I’ll be careful.”

Maru nodded his head.

* * *

It was nearing the end of May. Thanks to the early heat from the summer, the school permitted air conditioners to be turned on during the day. However, it was only ‘permitted’. The air conditioner didn’t actually run. The only things that were working hard were the electric fans.

One noisy student asked the teacher if they could turn on the air conditioner, but the teacher didn’t even pretend to have heard it. Right behind the notice about the permission to turn on air conditioning as probably an even more important one that said that the electrical bills had to be reduced.

“I want to go home quickly,” Dojin spoke in a dragged out voice in a dragged out state as though he was a dried squid.

“Don’t you have to help out at Iseul’s restaurant?”

“…That is my home.”

“…I guess it isn’t easy being the son-in-law that lives with the wife’s family.”

Maru patted Dojin’s back.

“Iseul’s mother told me not to get a job after graduation and continue the store instead.”

“That’s good. You already have a job in this high unemployment rate era. Congratulations.”

“Is this something to be congratulated about?”

“Don’t get distracted. That kind of life isn’t entirely bad.”

Dojin made a powerless smile.

Their homeroom teacher entered with sleepy eyes. He just ended homeroom with a ‘do a thorough job on cleaning’ before leaving. The students rejoiced and got ready to leave.

“Maru, let’s go,” Daemyung and Dowook spoke as they got their bags. From today onwards, the acting club would get busy. They had to remake the props and the costumes from scratch.

“How do we go about making the scene?”

“It’s a holding cell so don’t we need to put up metal bars?”

“And where do we get that?”

“We can nick a few from a construction site.”

“That’s a bit…”

That was the conversation between Daemyung and Dowook as they walked up front. Thanks to the participation of Dowook who was unexpectedly good with his hands, it seemed that the props could be made quite easily. Well, it wasn’t actually that surprising since his sister was good crafting things as well. This was why genes were scary. Maru thought about getting him to make some theatrical masks later when he then came to the conclusion that it might actually not be the genes.

When they arrived on the fifth floor, the first years greeted them. It seemed that they were doing a read-through as there was a script in each of their hands.

“Let’s do some stretching before the instructor arrives,” Daemyung spoke as he stood in front of everyone. Ever since he took the role of the club president, he became more and more like a leader. As he wasn’t the type to order people around but the type to lead everyone by taking action himself, so none of the first years had a complaint about him. If he was someone that just told his juniors what to do, then they would have followed, but would not have liked him at all. He was the ideal type of leader.

Maru thought that it was good to have yielded him the role. He followed Daemyung’s actions by twisting his waist to stretch his body. Next came the facial muscles. This was where one used all the muscles in the face to create a variety of expressions. This was a crucial step to increase the variety of expressions one could make.

“Don’t look at me.”

Maru chuckled when he heard those words from Dowook who said the words with a scary smile. A perfectly symmetrical smile that showed the upper teeth was difficult to make. Just lifting the corner of the lips didn’t make a smile. It was only a smile after an innumerous number of practices in front of the mirror to relax the tense muscles around the lips. A stewardess’ smile was not something created in just one day.

Maru also stood in front of the mirror and did some facial expression acting. In a play, facial expressions actually weren’t that important. Although it was important in small scale theaters since the audience is right in front of the stage, there was quite a distance between the actors and the audience in large scale theaters so the actors’ facial expressions couldn’t easily be seen by the audience. All actors were aware of this fact. This was the reason they exaggerated their actions on the stage. Expressions were the same. Small movements of the facial features meant nothing to a faraway audience.

This was why seemingly exaggerated emotions didn’t look that out of place on a stage. Maru frowned in front of the mirror before widening both his mouth and his eyes to express glee. As different expressions used different facial muscles, he had to practice as many expressions as possible to develop his facial muscles.

“Seonbae. I can practically hear your mouth ripping,” Aram called out from behind. When he slightly turned his head, he saw Bangjoo, Aram and Jiyoon standing behind the mirror.

“You should do it as well. You should practice early to not make any mistakes on the real deal.”

“Like this?” Aram frowned as she spoke. It wasn’t that easy for a girl to make an expression like she was doing now. Jiyoon hesitated for a moment out of embarrassment, but eventually started doing what Aram was doing. If Aram was a fully-fledged criminal that could rob a bank at any moment, Jiyoon looked like a stereotypical girl trying to act cute in front of her boyfriend. Bangjoo seemed to have taken after his sister and his eyes were different from the rest.

“Bangjoo, you practice with these two. They’re both quite spectacular, in a bad way.”

“Yes!”

When they finished their vocal exercises as well, Suyeon entered through the door. She took off the sunglasses she always wore before sitting down.

“It’s so hot. I’m not getting any motivation to teach you guys.”

Leaving Suyeon, who was grumbling like a child, aside, the club members started thinking about the props. They were used to Suyeon now. They were all aware that Suyeon would soon return to her normal self and start teaching them.

“Having something like a pistol should be good right?”

“There are toy guns for that. I believe there are holsters for them as well.”

“Then let’s use that. What do we need to do about the hostess?”

Daemyung looked at Jiyoon with a complicated expression. Maru was worried about that as well. Being a hostess meant that she had to wear a sexy outfit and wear thick makeup, but he wondered if Jiyoon was capable of digesting all that. A hostess didn’t suit this girl with a squirrel face at all. Someone working in the adult entertainment industry had to have a seductive gaze, but Jiyoon was too naive for that.

While Jiyoon smiled back at everyone, Suyeon, who was far away, walked up behind Jiyoon and hugged her.

“Don’t worry. This big sister will tell you all sorts of things.”

“Wh, what?”

“Just trust me.”

Suyeon winked. It seemed that she had dealt with the heat. She was someone who was serious about her job so Maru thought that he should just leave Jiyoon up to her. After all, it was easier for a woman to tell her about these kinds of things.

“A scammer needs a suit, right?” Aram asked while locking her fingers together. She looked full of expectation.

“I’m going to wear a mini skirt, a white blouse and heels!”

“Do you have a place you can get them from?” Daemyung asked. Aram confidently replied ‘no’. She was clearly implying that the club should prepare the clothing. Daemyung looked at Maru since he was at a loss on what to do.

“Instructor, do you have a suit?” Maru asked Suyeon. Suyeon made a circle with her thumb and her index fingers.

“Aram has a similar body figure to mine, so it should fit if I tighten the waist a little more with a band.”

“Instructor, do you have high heels as well? I’ve always wanted to wear them.”

“I do. Since it’s like this, let’s go to my house. You too, Jiyoon. We should get you a set of clothes that suit you from my dress room.”

Suyeon looked like she was having fun. Perhaps she was thinking of it like dressing up dolls. Well, Maru didn’t mind as long as she did her job properly, but he did think that Jiyoon was a little pitiful when he thought about the things she was about to go through. He thought that he should tell Aram to take care of Jiyoon later.

“We got the scammer and the hostess down. We have a police uniform, as well as a delinquent uniform. So there’s only the drunkard and me left?”

Maru looked at the checklist as he spoke. Thanks to Daemyung bringing the clothes upstairs, they did not worry about having to prepare a new uniform. As for a drunkard, just casual clothes were fine. A white shirt and black suit pants. As for the tie, he could just use the one she gifted him. He smiled when he thought about having to wear a suit again after all this time.

“Now we need to create the scene. It would be strange to use rebars, right?”

“They’re too thin, so the audience won’t even be able to see it. And considering the sheer weight and that we have to move them on the stage… Getting some bamboo or wood and spray painting them should be our best option.”

“That sounds good,” Daemyung nodded and started writing down a list of props. Only when this list was finished could they go buy things without wasting time.

“Bamboo sounds good. Where do we get them?” At Daemyung’s question, Dowook replied that they should get them from the nearby apartment complex since they were used for landscaping. Daemyung shook his head.

“We should look into wood workshops or landscaping specialists. Let’s try asking Mintae-hyung. He’s a stage director so he should know a few places.”

“Oh, yeah, we can do that.”

Things were taking shape. What remained was preparing the small props

‘The acting club is going well without a hitch, and there are no problems on the movie side, so I guess everything’s good?’

It would have been better if all the minor problems were fixed as well. Maru took out his phone. His phone was on silent and it hadn’t gotten any messages. Perhaps nothing had happened yet?

Well, Geunsoo was someone trustworthy, so he could be counted on. Since he told Geunsoo about the matter, it was up to him to decide what to do. After all, there was nothing more tiring than getting involved with the matters of someone else’s family.

“Maru, about this…,” Daemyung spoke as he pointed at the list he made with a pen. Maru stopped thinking about Geunseok and focused on the matter at hand.

Chapter 249

He thought that he would never have to come back here again. After all, he considered that he had finished his job here by telling his father of his success that day. In one sense, it was a proof, one that he was right and that his father was wrong. Geunsoo was able to smile back at his father when his father saw him off with a smile. If it was before he had matured, his father’s smile might have churned his innards. He might have shouted at his father to admit that he was wrong. However, ever since he had experienced what society was like, he realized that becoming angry was supposed to be reserved for something precious, and judged that becoming angry at his father was just a waste of time since the relationship between the two was pretty much meaningless. That was why he gave back to his father the cheapest smile he could make. Seeing his father’s smile become stiff, Geunsoo felt that everything was over.

‘And yet here I am.’

He pressed the passcode into the door lock. The passcode hadn’t changed. His father’s meaningless obstinacy could be felt here as well. He was probably waiting for his son that he believed one day would lower his head to him and come back.

He opened the door. The first things he saw were a pair of trainers tidied up neatly, and the second one he saw was Geunseok who hurriedly exited his room. Geunseok, who clearly seemed nervous, looked at him with a dazed expression for a while. Geunsoo waved at him first.

“Long time no see.”

“…Why are you…”

“I think you know the reason better than I do.”

Geunsoo took off his shoes and entered. He pushed aside Geunseok who attempted to block his entry and opened the main bedroom. He could only see the neatly tidied bed.

“What about father?”

“He’s not here yet. Rather than that, what are you doing here?”

“Isn’t it about time he comes back?”

Seeing Geunseok so restless, Geunsoo smiled bitterly on the inside. This was the first time he saw Geunseok so restless since middle school. At that time, he took Geunseok to Daehak-ro while holding his hands.

“Fuck off from this place.”

That shout didn’t contain any tyranny but just desperation and unease. Geunseok kept looking at the door with shaking eyes. It was though he felt that the world would end once the door opened.

Geunsoo opened the refrigerator to take out some cold water. Meanwhile, Geunseok walked towards the veranda with uneasy steps. He was tiptoeing to look outside. He was probably looking for their father’s car.

“Hey, are you crazy? What are you going to do if father comes home?”

“Don’t get excited and drink some water. You look pale.”

Although Geunsoo offered Geunseok a cup of water, Geunseok did not accept. In fact, he swung his arms and hit it away. The cup left Geunsoo’s hand, hitting the refrigerator before shattering into pieces. Geunseok, who was panting in anger, became shocked when he found the shattered glass pieces and water all over the ground.

“I, I need to clean it before father comes home.”

Geunsoo stopped Geunseok who was about to pick those shards with his bare hands. Just what made him like this? Geunsoo felt as though Geunseok was really standing on the edge of a cliff. He was practically struggling to come back to life.

“Hong Geunseok.”

“What!”

“Are you still going to keep living in this house?”

Hearing those words, Geunseok flinched. He raised his fear-stricken eyes to look at him for a while before shaking his hands off him and started picking the shards up again.

“Get out. Don’t get your hands cut.”

Geunsoo brought a dishcloth and gathered the shards up before dumping them into the trash can.

“If you’re here to bully me then just go. I’m miserable as it is.”

Geunsoo then asked his brother while looking at him in the face.

“Did you get beaten by father?”

When Geunsoo himself told his father that he would continue the acting club, he received a slap on his face. When his face was turned against his will, he felt a sense of defiance welling up inside him, and revealed those feelings to his father without restraint. After that, there was no violence. Rebukes and reprimands became harsher, but there was no physical beating.

“……”

Geunseok started taking steps backwards with a fearful expression. This was a reaction he saw frequently since young. This impolite brother has splendid judgement in situations that were under his control, but the moment anything escaped his plans, all of his thought process stopped. Usually, people at least try to take action in situations that were beyond their control with tenacity and get through the matter, but Geunseok had nothing like that. The moment he encountered a barrier, he would go into a groggy state. It was as though he was a car engine. An engine was perfectly capable of handling what was within its RPM limits, but the moment that limit was breached, it would immediately start failing.

Geunsoo realized that his brother’s reaction was not normal. This wasn’t at a level he would be from just a few rebuking remarks. He was stricken with fear. He scanned Geunseok from top to bottom. He was wearing a long sleeved shirt and full-length pants. As Geunseok was sensitive to heat since young, he would wear short sleeved shirts and shorts starting May. The fact that he was wearing long sleeved clothing meant that…

“Why are you wearing long sleeves?”

“……”

“Is it bad to the point that you can’t tell me?”

“Please, just don’t ask anything and just fuck off!”

Geunseok ran away to a corner and screamed. To Geunsoo’s ears though, it sounded like a desperate plea for life.

Geunsoo’s expression stiffened as he approached Geunseok and grabbed his arm. Both he and his younger brother were around 180cm tall. Although Geunseok’s physical stature was larger, Geunsoo won in terms of pure strength. Taking down his struggling brother, Geunsoo rolled up his younger brother’s sleeves. Although the forearm didn’t have any wounds, he could see blue bruises on his upper arm.

Geunsoo frowned. Even if his father decided to have the kid lie down and stomped on him, this kind of injury wouldn’t be here. Moreover, there were also long bruises as though he was hit by something thin. At that moment, Geunsoo’s eyes caught a golf bag right next to the air conditioner.

“Did you get hit by that?”

“No, I didn’t.”

Geunseok was about to cry. Geunsoo then had a look at Geunseok’s back. He could see bruises underneath his clothes. The moment he saw those blue and black wounds, he felt his mind go cold.

“He actually went all the way.”

This went beyond discipline. Geunsoo considered his father to be capable of restraint despite being authoritarian, but it seemed that he was mistaken. Geunseok swore at him and tidied his clothes. He could practically see the strands of rage emanating from his brother.

“Don’t put your nose in my business and just fuck off!”

His younger brother really wasn’t cute. However, he couldn’t just let him be.

“Hey, you should leave the house.”

“What?”

“Come to my house. You can take care of the food and the laundry.”

“Are you crazy? If father finds out, I’m dead. FUCKING DEAD!”

“You’ll die even if you stay here. I don’t want to see a news broadcast telling me that a kid died from domestic violence. He crossed the line. Beating up a kid with a golf club? He’s out of his mind.”

“Go alone. I have to stay here.”

Geunseok shook his head and did not move from the spot.

“You’re staying here?”

“Don’t pretend that you care about me at this point. He does not like you being with me, so just please, just ignore me like you always did! I’m fucking disgusted by you pretending to be a brother after all this time.”

Geunseok expressed his animosity. Seeing that, Geunsoo was reminded of a violent dog full of injuries. A pitiful fighting dog that wags its tail to its owner despite being pushed into a dog fight arena; the dog that thinks that it’s easier to obey its evil owner rather than biting him and running away. He was pitiful. If it was not for the fact that Geunseok was his brother, he would have called him foolish, rather than sympathize with him.

‘But he is my only brother after all.’

He couldn’t let Geunseok live and die like a dog without being able to express his own opinions. Geunseok had never defied his father before. His father was also human. He stopped once he felt that it was risky. That could be seen from how he himself just ended with a slap. His father never risked himself by pushing someone that might endanger him into a corner. How devious was that? And that devious man must have seen Geunseok’s true nature. He was his own son, it must have been easy to figure what kind of person Geunseok was. An obedient dog that will never escape his hands. Their father should have evaluated Geunseok as such.

“He might beat you up with a golf club again tonight. Tomorrow, and the day after that is no different. I might not end. And you’re telling me you’ll endure all that?”

“……”

“If you can’t resist, then at least you can try to run away. Father will not keep beating you up. That man detests a nick in his reputation more than his death, so he won’t go that far. However, I can assure you this. You will have to continue eating the food that that man gives you and continue living the life that he wants you to. You should be used to that kind of life right now, but you still have the energy to resist. Right now, you can still do it.”

Geunseok clenched his teeth and stared at him.

“If you don’t do it now, you might have to wait for his orders for you to even breathe. Is that how you want your life to be?”

“What do you know about me…”

“I don’t. But I can clearly see how things will go in the future. You’ve already started submitting to that man, so he’ll see you as some kind of doll that he can play around with as he wished. The bruises on your body are proof of that. His control over you will only rise in the future. You’ll eventually find yourself lucky to be just beaten up with a golf club.”

Geunsoo then sighed.

“When I took you to Daehak-ro when you were in middle school, I thought you’d change. I believed that you had developed your own dream. However, you didn’t change at all. You only listened to my words instead of father’s for that brief moment. And now, you’re an obedient kid that follows his father now. Geunseok, the only things that don’t express pain are dolls. The less you express yourself, the more father will treat you like a doll.”

“…Just what do you want me to do then?”

“Leave the house. If you can’t resist, then you have to run away. I’m capable of supporting you. Though, you’ll have to support yourself once you’re twenty.”

“Father won’t let me be.”

“You can do what you’re good at.”

“What I’m good at?”

It was at that moment that the door opened after a few beeping noises. Their father entered as he loosened his tie. Geunsoo greeted him with a smile.

“I’m here to visit a little.”

“…Okay.”

“Father, Geunseok has something to say to you.”

Geunsoo grabbed Geunseok’s shoulders and pushed him front. If he wasn’t able to say anything here, he was planning to take him by force.

“Something to say?”

Taking his shoes off, their father slowly approached Geunseok. Geunsoo felt Geunseok shaking. Although Geunseok was more than 10cm taller than his father, his mentality seemed to be smaller than a three-year-old’s.

“Hong Geunseok. What is it that you have to say to me?”

“I, I, I…”

“Hong Geunseok, what did I teach you? You should always say your words clear and loud.”

Hearing those words, Geunseok’s shakiness disappeared like magic. Geunsoo smiled bitterly. Their father’s shadow cast over his younger brother was too thick.

‘But still, it worked in a good way.’

Ironically, it seemed that their father’s supreme order made Geunseok regain the courage to speak. Though, whether it was indeed ‘courage’ was another story. In any case, it was a good thing that Geunseok was able to speak now.

“I’ll stay at big brother’s place for a while. If you don’t allow it then…”

Geunseok had a really hard time saying those words. It was as though he was confessing a crime. At the same time, he was rolling up his sleeves. Geunsoo glanced at his father. He could predict the answer.

“Go ahead.”

Before Geunseok even finished his words, their father interrupted.

“What?”

“I said go ahead.’

Geunsoo pushed the still surprised Geunseok’s back.

“You’ll see my car once you get down there. You can get on it.”

Geunseok staggered as he left. Geunsoo then closed his eyes and looked at his father.

“You’re quite something. Now that he’s all grown up, you have the thought of beating him up with a golf club?”

“I don’t know what you’re saying at all. Rather than that, why don’t we have a drink after all this time?”

His father took his coat off with a clear smile. Geunsoo felt as though there was a disgusting stench within the house.

“It looks like telling the police won’t do anything good since Geunseok will not admit anything. You know, now that I think about it, you wouldn’t know how glad I am to have defied you back then. If I kept staying here, I would have the same eyes as him.”

“Geunsoo. I really don’t get what you’re trying to say for a while now. I did pat Geunseok a few times because he didn’t obey me. That’s something that occurs in every household, isn’t it?”

“Really now? I did sometimes see the news telling me that the South Korean domestic disciplinary methods were fantastic, and I see now. So that’s what’s happening in every household. Good to know.”

Geunsoo made the thickest smile he could towards his father. When he did, his father’s smile thickened as well.

“I hope we don’t see each other in court. I mean, I was called a lunatic once, so even I don’t know what I might end up doing once I’m into something.”

“You’ve gotten good with your jokes. Why don’t you join me and my friends for a drink one ti…”

Geunsoo held up his middle finger to his father before leaving the house.

The door slammed shut. The next moment, a loud noise could be heard over the door. Geunsoo deemed that it was the ceramic vase on top of the shoe rack that just shattered to smithereens. After all, it looked like the perfect shape to throw.

He took the elevator down. He saw Geunseok obediently sitting inside the car. Getting in the driver’s seat, Geunsoo started the car.

“You can wear that to school tomorrow. And get your clothes while father isn’t home. If you don’t want that, then you can just buy them anew. I leave the house a lot, so clean the house and do the laundry. Also, you’ll have to make your own food.”

“…Why do you care about me?”

“Because I don’t want you appearing in my nightmares. I do feel a bit of responsibility as well, and I’m very slightly worried about my foolish little brother. The biggest reason though, is that I don’t want things to go as that man wishes. Put your seatbelt on.”

The roads were dark. Geunsoo gave glances to his little brother while driving. Thanks to the tension leaving his body, he was sleeping. Geunsoo sighed before speeding up, all this while, thinking about what to do with this new little brother of his.

Chapter 250

-I decided to take him in for the time being. I guess I’ll have to first calm him down before thinking about what’s next. Anyway, thanks. I was able to save my brother thanks to you.

Maru closed his phone. Although nothing was ‘solved’, it seemed that he had prevented things from becoming a huge issue. He could leave the rest in Geunsoo’s capable hands.

‘I really wish he gets it together this time and lives a proper life.’

Although people did not change easily, they were just as prone to change after a dramatic experience. Violence wasn’t a positive experience, but it was plenty sufficient to give him a reason to look back at his life.

“Oppa, oppa!”

“What is it?”

Bada was energetic even though it was the morning. Maru stared at the piece of paper that his sister held out to him. It was a piece of paper a little smaller, but thicker, than an A4.

“I heard from mom that you’re shooting a movie.”

She pushed the paper into Maru’s hands.

“You want autographs?”

“Yeah!”

“From who?”

“Joohyun-unni and Suyeon-unni!”

The information regarding the movie from the original work ‘Twilight Struggles’, titled ‘Who Gave the Elder His Hammer’[1], was released onto the internet yesterday. This seemed to be a method to attract attention from potential audience by leaking some information one month prior to the press release. The general outline of the story and the cast was revealed to the public.

“Senior Joohyun seems really popular with girls.”

“You’ve talked with her, oppa?”

Her eyes were strong. It was likely that she would ask something unimaginable if he revealed that she was the sister of a junior of his at his school club.

“No, of course not.”

“Well, she is a superstar after all. Oppa, you should do better and get closer to her. You should take a photo with her as well!”

“Unfortunately, I won’t get to meet her during shooting.”

“Why!”

“What do you mean, why? There’s no way an extra like me has a scene together with her. I’m just a role that disappears after a single shoot.”

“What… you’re just a filler?”

“Yes. I’m a filler.”

“What about the autograph then?”

She looked pretty dejected. Maru had difficulties saying ‘I can’t be bothered’ to her face.

“I’ll do it on one condition.”

“Condition?”

“When do midterms start?”

“T-today…”

His sister avoided meeting his eyes as she spoke. As far as Maru knew, she was hanging out with her friends at a noraebang until late into the night yesterday. When Maru looked back at her, Bada made an awkward smile.

“Hey, didn’t you write ‘my aim is Seoul U’ on your wall?”

“I can do well starting tomorrow!”

“What about today?”

“The god of guessing will help me.”

“Did you not study for it at all?”

“I did… a little.

Maru sighed after seeing his sister laugh awkwardly. Playing around was important for people her age, yes. After all, it would be a college exam hell once she went to high school. However, she was aiming to get into a good high school and Seoul university. Yet, she still had the audacity to go to a noraebang the day before her test?

“The reason I let you have free rein without saying anything is because I trust that you can take responsibility for your life. You know that, right?”

“…Yeah.”

“So show me then. If you enter the top 5 in the midterms, I’ll get you the autograph of any actor you want.”

“That’s a little…”

“And also, didn’t you like TTO?”

“I do! It’s always been my dream to go to their concert once!”

TTO was a famous idol group that’s been taking first place for the past 3 weeks in a popular music TV program. Maru found out that his sister liked them after seeing his mother and Bada quarrelling over removing posters and whatnot.

He was aware that progress was better than results, but he also knew that sometimes it wasn’t that bad to motivate her using results. Moreover, this was the midterms of her 3rd year of middle school. It would be nonsensical for her to not focus on studying when she was trying to get into a good high school.

“How about some concert tickets for that?”

“Wh, what?”

“You said there was one in the summer holidays. I thought you had a fight with mom for that.”

“Yeah! But she said she’ll never let me because it’s dangerous.”

“I’ll persuade her for you. As long as you get within the top 5.”

“…Are you for real?”

“Can you do it? You’ve been playing around until yesterday.”

“I can do it! No, I will do it. Just watch me. If I do, you’ll really have to get the tickets and mom’s permission, okay? I will not let you go free if you lied to me!”

Bada put her backpack on and left the house with large strides.

“Hooray idols, I guess.”

He experienced for himself the power of the great idols. Midterms on a middle school level weren’t that difficult so she would score well with some last-minute revision. Once she realized that she could do it, then she would be able to take care of herself.

Maru turned off the lights and the gas in the kitchen before leaving the house. The wind was quite warm. It seemed that summer wasn’t that far. On his way to school, Maru came across a CD store that just went out of business. Although people lined up outside this store whenever a new CD album was released during his middle school days, people no longer visited this place, and it seemed that its business was doing bad. Thanks to new technology satisfying the needs of the people much faster, old technology was phasing out and people accepted it as the norm.

In front of a banner advertising discounts on CDs was a lonely life-sized idol cutout. He was reminded of the day he talked about idols with Ganghwan. Ganghwan made a bitter smile, saying that they were an inevitable part of cultural business. The symbiotic relationship was gone and all that was left was competition. There was a limited amount of pie in this small land, yet people struggled to scoop every last bit out. Ganghwan used the analogy of survival when he explained the reason why actors should act like one. In terms of controversy, it was hard to win against idols. Fandoms were stronger on their side as well. As such, the only way to win against them was through acting alone, so he said that it might seem foolish, but it was the only way.

However, at the end of that, Ganghwan also said these words,

That the reason for them to be feared is because they had amazing skills.

Maru sped up on his bike after staring at the cutout figure for a while. Although it didn’t feel that real to him, he thought that he would one day be able to understand what Ganghwan was going through.

* * *

“Manager Yoo!”

Kim Dongwook, an entertainment journalist in an internet news company, approached manager Yoo who appeared in front of the convenience store outside the TV station. Manager Yoo tried to run away, but Dongwook was a step faster.

“Don’t be like this. We don’t amount to this much, do we?”

“Ah, yes. Sir.”

“Wow. I heard the rumors. I heard you’re finally graduating road[2] and becoming a team leader.”

“What? Where did you hear something like…”

“I know my way round, you know? Here, drink this, it’s getting hot after all.”

Dongwook gave him a drink that he bought from the convenience store. Manager Yoo declined, but Dongwook forced it on him. Only when the other party drank this would he sense a feel of debt and talk about what he should and what he shouldn’t.

“Manager Yoo, I mean, team leader Yoo! I know that you had your share of suffering in this industry while I worked as a journalist, right? You know, our relationship isn’t that light at all”

“I-is that so? But sir Kim, I’m not an official team leader yet, so please mind the way you call me…”

“Fine, fine. Looks at you, being all humble.”

Dongwook held the drink up to manager yoo’s face and told him to drink some more. Manager Yoo seemed to have given up as well and just drank while sighing.

“I heard that TTO is doing really good these days. I was surprised. I heard that those girls outside the TV station are all here because of them, right?”

“Yeah, well…,” manager Yoo smiled when his artists were praised.

‘You still have a lot to go.’

This manager Yoo was weak to flattery. These kinds of managers did not last long. Stars were stars, and managers were managers. Despite that, there were cases where road managers mistook the artists’ popularity for theirs. This was the reason behind some news articles mentioning how managers mistreated their artists. However, he was the one wanting something from the other party here, so there was no need to mention that out loud. Dongwook pulled on manager Yoo’s sleeves.

“Come here, the shade is a little cooler.”

“Ah, yes.”

After hesitating a little, Dongwook spoke.

“I wanted to ask. One of your kids is preparing for a movie, right?”

“A movie?” Manager Yoo replied with a puzzled voice. However, Dongwook was able to catch a glimpse of manager Yoo’s lips twitching. TTO was a hot potato. Every form of media was talking about them. Even some local newspapers talked about them. Products advertised by TTO were always sold out, and every place they visited became a tourist hotspot.

News regarding TTO were especially important to the girls camping outside the TV station like what he was seeing now. They were the most hardcore fans who were able to utilize the money of their parents. Thanks to that, writing up news about TTO became the shortcut to getting ad revenue and hence the manuscript pay. However, as the company behind TTO kept an iron security around them, it was hard to get anything about them. Although all of their official schedule was revealed on the website, everything else was under tight security so it was hard to find any traces of them in this small land of South Korea. Some journalists went as far as to say that it was harder to track them than to track the president of the country.

Moreover, thanks to the Korean wave stemming from a Korean drama that aired last year, there was a demand for Korean idols in Japan. It was natural for TTO to be the vanguard. For now, they had a lower popularity than actual drama actors, but most people judged that they would take over sooner or later. Right now, it was still unknown when the Korean wave would end, so everyone was trying to make some money while they still could. The company behind TTO seemed to have realized that and hid every last bit of their artist in order to decrease image consumption. As such, TTO’s value kept rising by the day, and now they could be considered one of the top 4 idol groups.

TTO was a moving bundle of cash. Dongwook also wanted to jump on the bandwagon and reap some profits. There was an interesting market where just knowing TTO’s next schedule had value. He wasn’t able to understand the mindset of those that wanted to know TTO’s every single action, but he still jumped on the bandwagon because it made money.

He was waiting for an opportunity when he heard a great rumor. It was a rumor that a member of TTO was participating in the controversial movie ‘Who Gave the Elder His Hammer’. Although the cast was revealed on the internet, there was no member of TTO among them.

If it was true that a member of TTO was participating, he would be able to release exclusive news. ‘Exclusive’ was a magical word. It was especially powerful to him as a powerless internet news journalist. Although the three major news companies and TV journalists got monthly salaries for their jobs, an internet journalist like him without any power had very low base pay, so he couldn’t make a living off just that. This was why he needed an exclusive article.

Of course, 9 out of 10 times, the major news companies and TV stations took those exclusive news. Their manpower and financial power was something that minor companies could not hope to beat. However, sometimes, lady luck smiled their way, and now was precisely that case.

It was a coincidence that Dongwook had overheard that a member of TTO’s cast in the movie. He was sneaking around in restaurants outside a TV station when one seemingly angry man shouted into his phone and that was related to TTO. Although it might just end up being a ‘rumor’ article, the fate of journalists was to take a jab regardless. Thanks to that, he was trying to eek something out from this foolish road manager.

“Am I wrong? I was pretty sure though.”

“N-no way. It’s not something I know either.”

“Really?”

“Yes, of course.”

“You’re not hiding anything from me?”

“How could I hide anything from you?”

“I guess you aren’t that kind of person.”

Dongwook patted manager Yoo’s back with a smile. Manager Yoo smiled in relief. Dongwook felt that now was the moment as he asked.

“But was Hyuktae always that good at acting?”

“Sorry? It’s not Hyuktae but Sungjae…,” realizing his mistake, manager Yoo shut himself up. Dongwook raised his thumb up.

“I’ll write it then, okay?”

Manager Yoo grabbed him and spoke.

“You can’t. If you do, I’ll be in big trouble. No, you’ll be in big trouble.”

“I do want big trouble though.”

Dongwook smirked and put a hand on manager Yoo’s shoulder.

[1] For those confused. ‘Twilight Struggles’ is the title of the book, ‘Twilight Years’ is the tentative title written on the script, and ‘Who Gave the Elder His Hammer’ seems to be the official title for the movie.

[2] Road manager. The manager that drives artists to events.

Chapter 251

Dongwook waved goodbye to the distant manager Yoo. Manager Yoo was returning to the TV station with his hands holding a plastic bag in each hand and the contents were all bought with Dongwook’s own money.

“Tsk.”

Dongwook’s smile disappeared. He managed to induce manager Yoo to reveal the facts, but he could not see any hope of an exchange. An exchange only happened when each party knew what the other party wanted. However, that inflexible manager Yoo was loyal to his company until the end. Meaning, he did not want to reap profits from the news.

The offer Dongwook proposed to manager Yoo was simple. He asked manager Yoo for the name of the member that was cast in the movie. From the moment a rumor became a fact, it would have value. Dongwook thought about talking to a management-level personnel in the company behind TTO before he wrote the article. Usually, the company would respond in one of two ways.

The first response would be when the company cannot reveal the name of the member due to a non-disclosure agreement. In this case, the company would pay him to keep it in secret. The second response would be when it wouldn’t matter even if it was known to the public. In this case, he could just write the article and post it. He would then receive his manuscript fee and the extra pay for the article being exclusive.

In either case, he would be earning money, so he said that he would give some of the profits to manager Yoo, but he was rejected.

“Should I just post?”

Dongwook took out a cigarette and put it in his mouth. It was easy to post the article. The editor was blinded by money. The article would be given the okay without even a single edit once it was deemed profitable. However, the problem came afterwards. The company behind TTO might take action.

“I can’t do that.”

He spat out a sigh that was mixed with smoke. There was no fool in this world that would start a losing fight. Dongwook wanted to maintain a symbiotic relationship with the company behind TTO. Though, they wouldn’t see it as a symbiotic relationship but a parasitic one.

In the old days, journalists had power beyond imagination. In the days when newspapers were the only sources of the news, journalists were treated as VIPs regardless of whether they specialized in entertainment, political, or economical journalism. There were times when a single article from a journalist finished off the career of a bigshot politician, or ruined a popular celebrity. In those days, the tip of their pens had power.

However, as time passed, the glorious days of journalists met its end. Information became more accessible than before. The reason why journalists had power was because they could add their own opinions on top of the facts. They could use their opinion to cause a dramatic shift in the opinions of the general populace. However, ever since the introduction of the internet, the authority that journalists possessed decreased dramatically. Other than a few journalists that staked their lives to write articles against the government in the past, very few journalists received good treatment in the recent years.

On top of that, the quality and the nature of the articles changed as well. Before, articles received praise for the deep consideration of the words used and the intent behind it, but now, speed was everything. No matter how great an article was, once it was posted on the internet, it would instantly be copied and pasted before being posted somewhere else. In the newspaper era, companies required a whole day to catch up with other companies on some exclusive news, but now, it was done within mere minutes.

With that being the case, what would the journalists themselves feel about their articles being copied and pasted somewhere else and lose that ‘exclusive’ title even after all their painstaking effort to create it?

They thought that the era of depth was over, and that now was the era of speed.

The result of that was the birth of private internet news companies. Even the big 3 news companies were constantly refreshing each other’s websites to scour for news. As soon as something went up, the articles would be copied with the header ‘some other media claims’.

However, speed wasn’t enough to receive the clicks of the viewers. Without clicks, the company would lose ad revenue and eventually go out of business. As such, they now poured more effort into making titles. The journalists did all the hard work, so the next task at hand was to quickly monopolize the clickbait titles and attract attention from the readers.

Dongwook once also aspired to be a ‘true’ journalist. He grew up watching journalists that saved scapegoats that were unjustifiably deemed political criminals and resolved that he would one day too become someone like that. This was why he prepared for the journalist exam and eventually passed it. When he practically lived in police stations as a crime journalist, he realized that it was far from his ideal journalist life, but he endured, thinking that it was because he was just a new recruit. He had faith that he would eventually be able to get closer to the police and work with them to write good articles. His thoughts didn’t change even when his probation ended and was given a proper job to do and was able to make a living off his job. He thought that he was still capable of writing a passionate article. He frequented police stations and fire stations like it was his own house to write articles. Although his articles were small and were very insignificant compared to the rest, he couldn’t feel more proud than seeing his name at the end of his section.

Like that, he slowly climbed the ladder of success and believed that he would one day be like his senior journalist, until one day, due to a coincidence, he looked back at himself. He was absent-mindedly sketching out a story about an incident that his seniors had instructed him to in front of the computer. His pen was no longer writing about the pains of the public that was hidden under huge scandals that everyone focused on. He was not writing articles that changed the views of the public but just an updated version of the article posted the day before.

His first article to feature the ‘exclusive’ title was about a man who intruded on a popular celebrity’s private life. When he was still writing the article, he felt that he had finally done something for the public, but when some time had passed, he saw that what he had written was a huge piece of crap.

‘What do I want to write’ - flashed by in his head, turning over everything he thought was ‘normal’. He seriously thought about it and resolved that he should start again with a renewed mind.

Like that, another two years had passed, and Dongwook discovered that he had become a self-protectionist. His monthly salary as a TV station journalist kept piling in his savings account, and just watching the number rise became his sole happiness. He sighed when he saw his colleagues teaching the juniors about the ‘journalist mindset’. He even talked behind their back, saying that they lived a hard life. After seeing his slogan, ‘True Journalist’, which was at the corner of his desk, stained with coffee, he threw it away. He didn’t even wonder what made him like this. He even rejoiced a little when he was transferred from the general section to the culture section. After all, he was removed from those headachy incidents.

A stable job - that was what journalism meant to Dongwook, nothing more. He didn’t even have a sense of crisis about it anymore. He just accepted it as something natural. Reaching the age of retirement before actually retiring became his dream when he was put in charge of a few people in probation. There was a murder case that shook the entire country but there were no longer any of his seniors in the general section.

Hearing orders from the head manager, he went to meet those little chicklings. When he saw that they were burning with passion while looking around the TV station, he smiled in self-loathing. He instructed them as he thought that they would eventually turn out to be like him.

Not long later, Dongwook quit his job. He was unable to comprehend what was happening even as he was handing in the letter of resignation. He would no longer have a source of income once he left, yet his body was already cleaning up his desk at the station. The trigger that made him decide to leave was nothing special. He just saw a probationary journalist being hospitalized after being reckless. It was nothing special. After all, that rookie was sent to the police station the day after. This kind of matter was commonplace. It would instead be strange to stay healthy while being a crime journalist. Dongwook had decided to resign after seeing such a common scene.

He had no clear vision of the future nor did he have any plans. It wasn’t that he dreamed once again of being a ‘true journalist’ when he was in his 30s. That kind of dream had already disappeared into the deepest abyss of his mind.

Then why did he leave?

Dongwook couldn’t answer that himself. However, the thought that he could not live with the money given to him by his company filled his mind, which drove him to leave.

After he left, he lived with the money he saved up for a while. He had no family to support, so he was actually quite well off. However, after fooling around for half a year, he was starting to become worried.

After wondering what he could do again to make a living, he started journalism again, because that was the only thing he could do. Of course, he did not have any of the ideals that he started the job off with. His only aim was to make a living for himself.

Some of his acquaintances asked him why he left his previous company if he was going to start working in the same field again, but what frustrated Dongwook was that even he didn’t know the answer. He had no dreams, nay, he had thrown away those dreams, yet he did not know what made him resign from his job that paid him well.

And now, Dongwook had become one of many journalists that chased after celebrities.

“Should I probe them out just in case?”

Dongwook flicked his cigarette and took out his phone.

* * *

“Then let’s leave that at that.”

Park Narim, president of NL Company, made a smile of satisfaction. People frequently used the term ‘Big 3’ to refer to the 3 entertainment companies that pretty much monopolized the industry. Yellow Star, Jewel Entertainment, and NL Company. Although JA Productions was showing its edge recently, it was still ways off until they built a full infrastructure.

Narim had raised numerous artists in the past decade and focused all of her know-how into TTO, and set the stage so that TTO would be the topic of conversation when talking about the best idol of the era. She went as far as to bow down to the producers of TV stations and even give presents to the staff members on their birthdays to have her own people go on camera, and the results were starting to show.

The only idol artist group that managed to sell a million copies of their album CD in this era where CDs were on the decline was TTO. Moreover, she had just set the schedule for TTO’s introduction in Japan in one of the best TV shows there. Right now, the media was all over this new ‘Korean Wave’ thing. Japan, who Korea was usually hostile towards, was attracting a lot of interest, and the same thing was happening in Japan as well. As long as this new market could be made use of, she would get her hands on a huge amount of money that she could never dream of making in South Korea. Narim believed that that step would be the first step for NL Company to become the single best company in South Korea.

Narim’s dream was for her company to become the number one entertainment company that every aspiring entertainer living in Korea would want to enter, not a company exclusively catered towards idol artists. Right now, idols were treated as just eye candy in the entertainment industry. Moreover, companies behind idols had less power than the ones that possessed superstar actors. As long as she was able to change that trend, as long as idols filled the places for the star actors, it would be an easy thing for her to change the image of her company. As such, Narim decided to make a bold move.

Idols in movies.

In the movie industry, idols were the icons of failure. Ever since three years ago, idols with hundreds of thousands of fans started shooting movies, but their popularity was always rock bottom. From that time onwards, the rumor that movies with idols as the main character would always fail started floating around. It was ‘proven’ that the barrier of horrible acting couldn’t be filled by fandom alone.

From there, Narim saw an opportunity instead. The breakthrough point always lied in the middle of the problem. She looked for aspiring actors and had them become idols instead. TTO was a general-purpose idol group. Dancing and singing were just the basics, and acting was included in their evaluation criteria as well. She signed a partnership with one of the best acting schools in Gangnam, ‘Film’, to raise ‘actor idols’. Of course, the other companies were doing similar things, but Narim believed that she was the most meticulous and the quickest.

“This debut will be the turning point of our company. You know that, right, head manager Choi?”

“Yes.”

Idols were all about their image. Without their image, there would be nothing left. Narim had no thoughts on repeating the failures that the previous pioneers had made. She wouldn’t let an idol start at the top, but from the bottom, as an extra. She would attract attention from the public through the idol’s acting skills.

The information revealed to the public regarding ‘Who Gave the Elder His Hammer’ did not contain the news about the participation of a member of TTO. She had asked to leave it out on purpose. The fact that Sungjae of TTO was debuting in a movie had to be done by the audience. As such, she was planning to not reveal the information until the day it was released. After all, silence was sometimes the best method of advertising.

“Oh, president. A journalist had called saying that he wants to speak to you.”

“A journalist?”

Narim pouted slightly. Head manager Choi was a capable man. He would not make useless reports. The fact that he made this report meant that it was something that he deemed that the decision wasn’t up to him.

“Give me your phone.”

Chapter 252

It was lunch time. Maru grabbed the mouse attached to the class computer. Although a computer was installed in every classroom to be used during class, the teachers did not use them. The teachers were fine with using chalk and chalkboard, and computers were a hassle for them. The students were given permission to use the computer during lesson breaks, and most of the time, they played games. Although they would get scolded if the teachers found out, no one seemed to mind.

Maru opened an internet browser. When he did, someone else turned on the TV connected to the computer. This class usually visited comedy and humor sites during lesson breaks. Sometimes, they had people stand guard at the door and look for sites with lewd pictures. Other times, it was mostly used for battle games.

“Maru, playing a game?”

“No.”

“Then porn?”

“Keep dreaming.”

People started gathering. Maru clicked on the ticketing page. He was planning to buy the tickets for his sister early on. If she actually entered the top 5 in her class, he would give them to her right away, and if she didn’t, he would eventually give them to her after some hassle. Since she was smart, it would be likely that she would enter the top 5. TTO tickets were on the line, so she would probably try harder as well.

“A concert to TTO?”

“Why are you trying to get them?”

The others were curious about his actions and asked.

“I have a use for them.”

“A use for TTO? Those guys aren’t even that good at singing or dancing.”

“Those same guys that aren’t good at singing and dancing are earning much more than you. Did you know that?”

“Dammit,” this guy then just started sleeping on his desk.

Maru clicked around to buy tickets for TTO’s concert in June. He made an account and then clicked on the reserve button. However, he was given a notification window stating that all the tickets were sold out.

“The concert is in June, and it’s already sold out?”

Maru laughed. There were still about 3 weeks until the concert, and the tickets had already been sold out. Perhaps idol concerts were all like this. He looked for other websites just in case to look for remaining tickets, but the other websites did not sell the tickets at all. This meant that the first website had an exclusive contract.

“You want concert tickets?” Another classmate of his, who was eating ice cream, spoke. Maru nodded.

“Then you should have tried on the day the ticketing began. It’s almost impossible to get them after a week. You’ll have a hard time getting any unless you buy them off resellers or scalpers.”

This guy seemed very knowledgeable. Maru asked if there was a way.

“Wait a minute,” saying that, he took over the keyboard and went to one website.

“If there are any in stock, they should appear on this website.”

“You’re quite knowledgeable.”

“My sister is a hardcore fan. She had me refresh the website so many times the night before the ticketing began. She’s a total maniac who goes to PC bang because the internet is faster there,” saying that, he shook his head several times. It seemed that he didn’t even want to think about it.

“But you’ll have a really hard time getting tickets for TTO, you know? There aren’t just one or two people like my sister so even the resale tickets might be bought out the moment they’re out.”

Maru said ‘hmm’ before clicking the refresh button several times. It took around ten seconds for him to find something pop up on the webpage.

“It’s selling. That wasn’t that hard.”

Maru clicked on the post, thinking that this might go easier than he had expected.

“……”

It hadn’t even been five seconds since it was posted, yet there were five comments saying that they wanted to buy the tickets.

“It’s not that hard? I’ve tried doing that several times, and I can tell you, it is REALLY hard,” the classmate replied with a strange smile. Maru, for some reason, felt geared up instead. He refreshed the page several times. After seeing a new article, he clicked on it as fast as possible, but there were comments on it already. Things that can’t be bought with money are called ‘invaluable’, and it seemed that by that logic, TTO concert tickets could be considered invaluable as well.

“Don’t you care about the cost?”

“The cost?”

Maru looked up the price of the tickets on the ticketing site. The tickets to the concert that was held in the Olympic gymnastics stadium was 80,000 won.

“It’s 80 thousand won. What about it?” Maru didn’t think that it was that expensive. However, the others in his class thought that he was crazy.

“Is your house a gold mine? It’s 80 thousand won!”

“How many hours of PC bang is that?”

“With that much money, you can play a round of billiards, go to PC bang for a few hours and even stay the night out at a sauna. Han Maru, are you rich? No wait, why are you buying tickets to a male idol group in the first place?” His friends were very curious. Indeed, 80,000 won was a lot for a student.

“And TTO’s tickets are expensive because they’re doing well. Other idols only take around 40 to 50,” this classmate was very knowledgeable thanks to his older sister.

“Rather than that,” saying those words, his classmate pulled up the website again. Another article regarding TTO had just popped up. He clicked on that post.

“Look at this. Resell tickets like these are almost twice the original price. It’s twice the price right now but you might see it go for 3 times the original price later.”

150 thousand. It was almost twice the original price, and yet there were comments begging the seller to sell the ticket to them.

‘…Should I quit acting and start this business?’ Maru felt as though he just saw a golden egg-laying goose. He felt empty seeing that marketing logic was being applied here as well.

“Double the original price, huh.”

150 thousand was not a small amount of money for Maru. Moreover, he couldn’t send his sister alone to the concert, so he was originally planning to buy some tickets for Bada’s friends as well. He was planning to buy 7 just in case, and if he bought resell tickets, then it would be over 1 million won.

The ownership rights of having bought the tickets just a few seconds earlier was getting people almost double the investment. Were the companies aware of this? If they did, then they would be able to make some immense profits off this. They could use magic to stamp 80 thousand on the receipt and actually earn 160 thousand in cash. Of course, there was no way they would do that kind of thing to earn that small amount of money. However, it was very profitable on an individual level. After all, just a few clicks was worth a few dozen thousand won.

“I also earned some pocket money with this in the past, but I gave up since it was so hard to get the tickets. The server goes down on the slightest whim, and if I click on the seat to reserve it, it says it’s already reserved. What’s funny is that they never do offline ticketing. I swear there are scalpers that are profiting off this.”

Maru smiled at that remark. They say the sparrow near a school sings the primer. It seemed that this fellow had a deep insight regarding this matter thanks to his sister.

“I don’t want to buy them at this price. If these are individual sellers, the seats must be far apart, right?”

“Right.”

“Isn’t there a way to get five to six continuous seats?”

“There is,” the classmate said with a suspicious smile.

“How?”

“But you’d have to be close to the company’s president.”

“That’s the best method.”

Maru tapped on the classmate’s shoulders and took hold of the mouse again. He had to get the tickets through some method or the other. If Bada started grumbling at him, his everyday life would become a pain.

After looking at the screen with a serious face for a while, Maru suddenly raised his head. When he thought about it, he did have someone he could ask. He could’ve asked earlier as well. Maru put down the mouse and picked up his phone. The best skill in this world was connections. Since it would be rude of him to call so suddenly, he left a message. Actually, it was impolite of him to ask such a thing in the first place, but he had no other places to ask.

“I guess that is that, then?”

Maru sighed in relief after sending the next message.

* * *

Junmin chuckled when he read the text message he received from Maru. He never imagined that Maru would ask him something like this.

‘Idols, out of all things, huh.’

And it was a male idol as well. Was this where Maru’s preferences lay? There were aspiring idols who wanted to admire the actual idols that are doing well, but…

“Maru, idols?”

Junmin felt absurd when he uttered those words out loud. There was no way that was the case. He might suit the stage, but there was no way his smile was the same as an idol’s.

While he was thinking, another message arrived. The message mentioned the reason why Maru wanted those tickets - his sister.

“I guess I’ll let him be the nice big brother.”

Junmin had a look at the contract paper on his desk. It seemed that there was a need for him to call Maru here for both his and Maru’s matters. He texted back that Maru should visit before closing his phone.

* * *

“Yes, yes. Understood.”

Dongwook hung up on the call before spitting on the ground. The other party was a sly old fox. Park Narim, the owner of NL Company that stood behind TTO. This woman was someone who seemed as though she was prepared to give up everything when he first met her as a TV station journalist, yet she treated him harshly as soon as she found out that he was just a no-name journalist now. Well, that was probably why she was able to climb to the top as a woman.

It seemed that he had to give up on the movie matter. If the president went as far as to say that ‘they want to maintain a good relationship in the future’, it meant that it wasn’t something he could do something about. If a journalist didn’t have a concrete source, then that journalist wouldn’t be able to do anything.

And these days, companies behind idol groups were no longer powerless existences like it was before. There was an incident where one journalist was sued for writing a rumor-like article regarding an idol group, and that journalist ended up being called to many places. Although the law stated that an exemption existed for journalism that was written for public interest, it was hard to prove that for an article about celebrities. Moreover, the contents of the article were mostly rumors, not facts.

Before, entertainment companies usually did not go as far as to sue journalists in order to maintain a good relationship with them, but nowadays, they were ruthless. Of course, the majority of the journalists belonged to the KRF(Korea Reporters Federation), so they didn’t drive the journalists to the brink, but these days they did not just sit idly.

Of course, they were still kind people to the three major news companies and TV stations. They only acted coldly to the internet journalists. Dongwook spoke as he looked at the setting sun.

“Dammit. I quit for nothing.”

* * *

“There’s no practice today?”

“But there’s revision.”

“Haa,” Dowook, Dojin and Daemyung all sighed. Tomorrow was the start of midterms. Midterms of the second year of high school. The sad truth of Korean education where everyone aimed to get into a college was applied to engineering schools as well. Most of the students in class aimed for universities even if it had to be outside Seoul[1]. Nay, some even aimed for one of SKY[2] through special selection entrance exams, and were studying really hard.

“Go ahead.”

“Han Maru, where are you going?”

“I have some business.”

After parting ways with his three friends, Maru took a bus. Junmin told him to come up to Seoul. It seemed that there was something important as Jumin would usually have mentioned the business over the phone. His phone suddenly started vibrating. It was a text message notification. He opened it thinking it was Junmin, but it wasn’t.

-I heard you’re on midterms. Are you studying?

It was from her.

-I’ll be starting soon. How did yours go?

-Don’t ask.

-Bad, huh.

-I said don’t ask.

-Not being clever is not a sin.

-Wanna die?

-It looks like you should have some time since your midterms finished. Shall we meet on the weekend?

-Let’s meet once you’re done with your tests. I won’t forgive you if your scores are lower than mine.

Maru shrugged his shoulders and closed his phone. In his first year, his scores were good enough to get him into the top half. Ever since he decided that his future career would be an actor, he gave up on grades, but his scores were unexpectedly not that bad. However, he felt that his grades wouldn’t improve, so he was taking some slack on studying. They say a married couple are alike, and she wasn’t that talented in studying either.

‘Now that I think about it, did my daughter do well in studying?’ He suddenly felt sorry for his still unborn daughter because he couldn’t give her the good genes.

“…I should give her some good prenatal care, I guess.”

Another plan he must not forget was formed in his mind.

[1] The ‘In-Seoul’ universities are usually considered ‘more prestigious’ than those outside. There are exceptions, though.

[2] S-Seoul National University, K-Korea university, Y-Yonsei university. These three are considered like the ‘top 3’ even in Seoul.

Chapter 253

“Manager Choi. Please look after the new recruits. I’m going over to JA for a bit.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

Narim stood up from the sofa. Although the sofa was advertised as being ergonomic, she was still stiff after sitting on it for a whole day. She wondered if she was getting old as she remembered that she was completely fine after sleeping for a short time on a hard floor when she was still young.

Narim was reminded of her old days. She smiled while looking at the schedules of various artists on her desk. She had once dreamed of becoming a singer. When she was asked ‘won’t you try to become a singer’ on the streets, she thought that her dream was coming true. However, it was just a scam and she only lost money in the name of various fees and whatnot. Her family went into an uproar, and when her father told her to just find a good man and get married, she became angry and left the house. She came up to Seoul and lived on the streets despite being a woman and looked for workplaces.

After ups and downs, she managed to get a job in a TV station cafeteria. At first, the old ladies there told her that the job wasn’t for a young woman like her and that she would soon give up. However, she endured in order to earn money. She moved into a shabby house in the suburbs with her first salary. After she found a place to rest, she started studying again in order to become a singer. She went to practical music academies to take vocal lessons as well as to learn instruments. It was hard for her to do that alongside her job at the cafeteria, but she firmly believed that it was a necessary step to achieve her dream and endured through it.

She spent a year like that. By then, she had gotten closer to the ladies at the cafeteria. The ladies there cheered for her dream and sometimes cooked some food that was known to be good for the vocal cords. That affection was what supported Narim throughout her endeavour.

However, she always fell short of passing the auditions she took during that year. She won prizes in regional competitions, but that wasn’t enough.

To prove her skills properly, she had to display her skills in a large-scale competition. To do that, she had to aim to get prizes in the Gangbyeon Pop Festival or the College Pop Festival. However, she wasn’t qualified to participate in either of them. She had to belong to a college in order to participate in those two competitions, and colleges were unfamiliar places for her who went straight into society after high school.

Another half a year had passed and Narim had yet to pass an audition. Even new entertainment companies did not accept her. She had thought about how hard it was to release an album under her name. However, she still prepared for her next audition thinking that effort will not betray her. During another audition though, she came across the truth.

-Miss Narim. Your singing is decent. I can tell that you’re a professional, but have a look at the TV. Look at how pretty, innocent and refined those girls are. Their singing is crisp and clear as well. Have you seen Koreana in the 88 Olympics recently? If your voice had that much charm, we wouldn’t care about your looks but… that’s not the case with you. How about a duet rather than a solo artist? I think you’ll do better if your face is hidden a little.

At that moment, it dawned on Narim that her way of thinking that ‘a singer must be good at singing alone’ was wrong. She had taken it too easy. On her way out, she was given an offer for a trot[1] singer, but Narim shook her head. It wasn’t that she felt prejudiced. Even if she was the CEO, she would prefer someone with both the skills and the looks, not just one of the two. If she wanted to move the hearts of the people, she would have to have some overwhelming singing skills, but she did not even when she evaluated herself.

In the 90s, Narim’s dreams had changed. She no longer wished to become a singer herself but someone who managed those singers. It wasn’t that she was projecting her dreams onto other people. She just decided to go with the flow of the era.

If society wanted multitalented people so much, she would give them singers, nay, entertainers that could do anything. Narim did not consider the comments she heard during her auditions as insults. She found a path the moment she realized that successful people in the cultural business were not specialists but generalists.

Now that she had an objective, she started moving towards it. First, she looked for similar cases in other countries. The two top countries at the forefront of cultural business, especially music, were the US and Japan. When she studied cases from those two countries, she found out that the boundaries between different forms of entertainment were getting blurred. She saw that American sports stars and Japanese singers were rising to prominence in other fields such as movies, dramas and commercials in their respective countries. Thinking that cultural trend was something that just repeated itself, Narim predicted that the same thing would happen in Korea as well.

Around that time, Narim saw something revolutionary on TV. Seo Taiji & Boys, an iconic figure that brought pop music’s main target audience of 20s and 30s down to the teens. Narim witnessed for herself what kind of power the trendsetters possessed. Although it was an unfamiliar genre of music, their performance, the lyrics of their songs moved the younger generation. Their impact surpassed all imagination. Many people related to TV broadcasting looked down on the consumer power of teens, but they had to change their mind after seeing Seo Taiji & Boys.

Teens consumed an enormous amount of money through the medium that was their parents. When the youths became passionate about something, their parents’ generation started focusing on Seo Taiji as well, and as a result, Seo Taiji had become an icon of culture.

Watching all this happen, Narim realized that by only stealing the hearts of the youths in their teens and twenties would she lead pop culture.

Then, she wondered what she should show to the public.

Narim believed that it had to be people around the consumer’s age. It was obvious that people’s skills got better as they aged, but if they were too old, the youths would not be able to project themselves onto the stars.

Icons were supposed to be the manifestation of what people wished to be. It was about watching someone of their own age that sang and danced well on top of being pretty. Only that would stimulate their desires. In other words, it was about making literal idols.

Narim started looking for investors with her idea and the money she had saved up during the past few years. She was well aware that the first mover would be the winner since everyone was likely to be thinking the same thing.

After visiting all sorts of places, Narim was able to meet a producer of a music program thanks to the help of one of the ladies at the cafeteria, and through him, someone who was working in management business. That was head manager Choi.

From that day onwards, head manager Choi and Narim started looking for aspiring singers that were good-looking. They gathered those that just lacked a little talent in singing and taught them. They ate ramyun in a shabby villa and watched star singers on TV to get their resolve together. Narim didn’t even wish for singing skills on the level of being able to digest live singing. After all, live stages could be handled with lip syncing and pre-recording. Instead, she focused on things other than singing, like someone who’s good at English, or at Japanese, or at cooking, or someone who was humorous. She picked characters that could do things other than just singing.

Eventually, she was able to get them to stand on a public TV stage thanks to some help from a music program producer. At first, the reactions were cold. After all, from the perspective of common sense from back then, the group was just ‘a bunch of kids dancing along some weird music that’s neither rock nor ballad’. However, another entertainment company came out with a band of similar youths.

Two similar girl bands of 5 people.

After seeing that there was a strange rivalry between the group of fans of these two bands, Narim thought that this was an opportunity. With that, she went to the rival entertainment group and suggested to them to bring the rivalry to the surface. As the other party seemed to have the same thought process, the plan was set without a hitch. That entertainment company was none other than Yellow Star, one of the other current big 3.

After that, things started snowballing by themselves. The fans showed an overwhelming amount of action for the artists they liked. They agreed upon a color that represented their artists and wore such colors to the concerts, and it somehow became something like a ceremony for the fans. The girl band from Yellow Star was represented by yellow, while NL company’s girl band went with blue.

The group of fans started growing from just a group of teens and eventually, the word ‘idols’ was used to refer to these bands on TV programs and the group of fans became fandoms in the late 90s. They succeeded, no, did even better than the predecessors in the 80s that led ‘oppa brigades’.

Narim immediately prepared for a followup group. Although she wasn’t able to invest much in her first idol group, the second was different. She held official auditions to pick the youths that were good at both singing and dancing and also looked for other traits as well. This time, she also prepared some humanities classes for them as well. To become a literal ‘idol’, they couldn’t be lacking in any area.

Time passed and in the early 2000s, the 3 big entertainment companies solidified their positions, and the fans reached a point where they could directly support their idols. Now, it was no longer the singers that had name value, but the companies themselves.

Then came the final stage. Narim poured everything she had earned and learned in the past decade into TTO. A five person boy band. She selected not only aspiring singers but also aspiring actors and grouped them together. Then she taught them harshly. She had the aspiring actor focus on singing and the aspiring singer practice acting.

An all-capable entertainer. Coincidentally, TV programs were also shifting from 1-man talk shows to comedic action shows, and TTO became a certified cheque for TV programs with their excellent physical capabilities.

And eventually, Narim went beyond TV shows and tried her idols out in dramas as well. The directors of those dramas objected saying that they could not allow mere singers to be casted in their piece, but they were not able to block the idol’s participation. After all, dramas weren’t made for free. The people working in the broadcast industry were aware of how frightening an idol fandom could be. Their blind faith towards their idols meant that they would watch the show and an increase in view rate meant that the ad revenue would go up as well. The TV broadcasters did not miss that.

Narim had meetings with the director of the drama to persuade them and at the same time, instructed the idol to do properly. Everything would go down the drain if they screwed up here.

Fortunately, that boy, who had once aspired to become an actor, did surprisingly well. He was complimented for being better than most new actors. It was to be expected. He was trained and prepared for it. Moreover, he already had experience smiling in front of hundreds of thousands of people and knew from which angle his face would look the best.

When the producer of the drama that derogated the boy as a ‘mere singer’ called her in a warm voice, Narim felt that she was a step closer to her dream.

After that was the world of idols. Although screen actors were still infallible, Narim was sure that it was a matter of time before that changed as well.

* * *

The JA building during the weekday was a lone shining star. Inside the cafe on the first floor lounge were some employees who seemed to have some work left, drinking some coffee over a conversation. There was still around half an hour left until the meeting time.

‘Should I get some dinner before I go?’

Maru thought about getting some Gukbap outside, but decided to have something light at the cafe since there was the possibility that Junmin would treat him to dinner. He ordered a cup of americano and a bun before grabbing a seat. A woman wearing round glasses entered the building. She seemed to be in her late 30s and was wearing a semi-formal suit.

“Two cups of milk tea for takeout.”

She finished her order and turned around. Two office ladies who were conversing with each other bumped into the lady wearing glasses. It seemed that they weren’t paying attention to the front. The paper cup in one of the office ladies’ hands became crumpled and coffee flew everywhere. Neither party frowned as the coffee wasn’t that hot.

“Excuse me, please watch where you’re going.”

It was natural for the party with more people to have the louder voice. Maru stared at the two office ladies that were complaining despite the fact that they were clearly the ones that were wrong. These kinds of people were everywhere where the offender packaged themself as the victim.

“Excuse me, but I was watching where I was going. You’re the ones who bumped into me.”

“Stop lying. It’s because you suddenly stopped and turned around that we bumped into you.”

“Oh, it’s my fault?” The lady with the glasses put her hand above her chest and spoke.

“Isn’t that obvious? Rather than that, how are you going to compensate for my clothes?”

The office lady showed her shirt. The one with the glasses groaned in a low voice. The cafe staff tried to mediate between the two but the two office ladies clearly didn’t seem to have any intentions on relenting.

Right at that time, another staff member spoke out that Maru’s order was ready.

“Uhm, excuse me, coming through,” Maru spoke to the three ladies blocking the counter. The woman wearing the glasses apologized and moved out of his way, but the two office ladies did not.

“Kid. Find another way. Don’t you see what’s happening here?” Hearing those words, Maru smiled bitterly. This woman was so entitled.

“Uhm ahjumeoni[2], I saw what was going on, and it was clearly you two that weren’t watching where you were going. I can understand that you’re trying to get some laundry fees but don’t block other people’s way.”

“Wh, what? Did you just call me ahjumma[3]?”

“No, I didn’t. I clearly called you ahjumeoni.”

“You damned kid!”

Just as one of the two office ladies approached Maru with a hand raised,

“What’s going on here?”

A voice could be heard behind Maru. It was Junmin, wearing his trademark Beret and holding a notepad. The office ladies, who had nothing to do with JA productions, seemed to have recognized the owner of the building and ran away.

Maru shrugged his shoulders while smiling at Junmin.

[1] A music genre that is believed to stem from the English foxtrot. It was popular in the 70s~80s. Though, it's been receiving the spotlight recently as well.

[2] A more polite form of ahjumma which is explained below.

[3] Ahjumma is used to refer to middle-aged women, and younger women find the term offensive. These two terms are in the glossary already so go check it out!

Chapter 254

“You should’ve come upstairs if you were here.”

“I was a little early, so I decided I should go up after this.”

Maru showed him the coffee and the bun.

“Ok, let’s leave things at that. What brings you here?” Junmin then spoke to the lady wearing round glasses who was standing behind Maru. Maru also turned around and looked at the woman. It seemed that the two were acquainted.

“I’m here to invite you out to dinner, president.”

“What were you going to do if I had other plans?”

“But you don’t, do you?”

The woman approached Junmin with a smile. A weird tension seemed to form between the two, but it disappeared with Junmin’s smile.

“Fortunately, I don’t. Let’s go up for the time being. Oh, you should greet her. This is president Park Narim of NL company. This fellow is Han Maru and he’s a new actor under me.”

Narim then pushed down her glasses a little and looked at Maru. The round eyes behind the round glasses changed into a sharper expression.

“It sounds like you two haven’t entered a proper contract yet.”

Narim extended out her hand. The moment Maru shook her hand, he exclaimed slightly. Her hands were quite rough. People’s hands were a representation of the life they went through, and Maru could tell that her life wasn’t that smooth.

“My name is Han Maru.”

“I’m Park Narim. You have a good name. But I’m a little disappointed. It would have been good if you at least pretended to be surprised. I like that kind of stuff.”

“Pretend to be surprised?” Maru asked back after shaking hands. He did not know what she meant.

“Don’t you know NL Company?”

“I’ll have to apologize. I don’t know the structure of the companies around here.”

“Oh my word,” Narim chuckled. She didn’t seem to be in a bad mood.

“Looks like I’ll have to put more effort in the future. I’m a little disappointed that someone that’s about to join JA Productions doesn’t know what NL Company is. President Lee Junmin, don’t tell me he’s doing this to me on purpose?”

“This fellow probably really doesn’t know. In the first place, he didn’t start off as an aspiring entertainer. He was just a student up until a year ago. Though, he still is one right now. But hey, if you want the things you asked me for, you should try to give her a good impression.”

Junmin smiled and looked back at Maru. Maru thought about what that meant. Try to give her a good impression? The things Maru asked of Junmin were some tickets to TTO’s concert. Narim was the president of NL Company. It seemed that the president of the company behind TTO was Narim.

“Let’s go up for now.”

Junmin guided Narim. Taking the elevator, Junmin pressed the 16th floor. Maru was a little confused since he thought that they would be going to the 7th floor.

Soon, the door opened again and Maru was able to see a soft cushion mattress on the floor. Stone pillars that seemed to be taken from the Parthenon decorated one of the walls, and at the front was a counter made of marble.

“Welcome,” a neat-looking man behind the counter greeted. It seemed that he was notified beforehand as he called for an employee as soon as he saw Junmin’s face. A lady wearing a neat uniform led their way with a smile.

The first scene they saw when they entered was the night scenery of Gangnam. The lights from the buildings and the cars made quite a spectacular scene. The tables had guests and the lady offered them to be seated at one of the closest tables to the window.

“You knew I was coming?” Narim asked in surprise.

“I was planning to have some dinner with this fellow here,” Junmin smiled back.

Maru thought that it was the right decision to not get a meal before meeting Junmin. A handsome staff appeared out of nowhere and pulled out Narim’s chair. Although only two sets of cutlery were prepared on the table originally, Narim’s set was prepared in a blink of an eye. From how the staff prepared all that without Junmin’s instructions, the amount of attention Junmin received could be seen. Well, he was the owner of the building, so it wasn’t that surprising.

Maybe power does come from money after all.

“Welcome.”

When the people clad in uniforms disappeared, a man with a well-built body appeared. He was wearing an outfit different to the servers in the hall. He seemed to be the chef here. His name was stitched on his chest.

“I wonder if I was interrupting you on your day off.”

“It’s your request, so I don’t dare ignore it. I would come even if I was resting at home.”

“You’re embarrassing me here,” the two seemed to be on close terms. Thinking back, Junmin was close to the owner of the restaurant in front of the Myungdong theater.

‘Is he interested in the cooking industry?’ Maru wondered.

Meanwhile, Junmin and the chef talked for a bit more. The topic of conversation was about the course menu.

“Well then, if you’d please excuse me,” the chef walked away after a polite remark.

“I’m envious. I’d like to receive such treatment from a restaurant like this too,” Narim smiled as she spoke.

“I think it’s about time you tell me what you came here for,” Junmin made his intentions clear but he stayed polite.

“You’re in a hurry. Can’t we leave that for later?”

Maru saw that Narim was giving glimpses to him. It seemed that it was business-related and she didn’t want an outsider here.

“I don’t have any time after the meal since I have a prior engagement with this fellow here,” Junmin did not relent.

‘A conflict?’ Maru had a look at the two CEOs in depth. JA Productions and NL Company. As he was not aware of the internals of each company, he did not know whether these two were in a symbiotic relationship or whether they were in a competitive relationship, but from Junmin’s attitude, it seemed that they weren’t as close as it seemed on the surface. The fact that he was giving her face despite that was probably because of the place they were in.

“Hm. It’ll be somewhat awkward to come back at a later date…,” Narim fiddled with her fork but eventually nodded after having made a decision.

“Since you called this fellow all the way here, it seems that he’s not the type of person to tell everyone secrets so I’ll say this here. It’s nothing special. It’s related to my kid participating in your movie this time.”

“You mean Ahn Sungjae from TTO?”

“Yes, Sungjae. From what I’ve heard, you haven’t started creating the movie poster yet…”

Narim did not finish her words and smiled. Even Maru, who was not related to this matter, realized what was going on. She probably wanted that idol from NL Company to appear on the poster.

‘Wait. She said ‘your movie’…?’

There was only one movie JA Productions was creating. Only then did Maru realize that there was an idol appearing in the same movie he was cast in.

“I’m not saying he should be at the front. You’re going to create many different versions of the poster for advertising purposes, right? I heard that each character gets their own posters with different fonts.”

“Hm, posters, you say.”

“Of course, the poster displayed in cinemas should be the ones with the main actors. However, I think it’ll be okay to create different ones for advertisement. Of course, the profit doesn’t just go to us. Once the advertisement starts after the movie is released, Sungjae’s fans will flock to the movie as well.”

“So you’re saying that you want a poster for those fans.”

“Yes. We’ll cover the expenses for that as well. It’s mostly for fan service and not for advertisement, so I don’t think the main actors will take offense from it.”

Narim stared at Junmin.

Maru was well aware of the impact such considerations had on the fans. In his distant memories of his company days, there was an event where one of the cooperating companies did not miss one of the complaints that a customer had and fixed their item, and that led the touched customer to write a good article online, leading to the company’s rise.

Offering the customers something that they didn’t even realize that they wanted. Narim seemed to understand how to touch the hearts of the customers. Her abilities in making a profit off that seemed incredible.

“That’s no problem. It’s to be used in the advertisement of the movie, so I see no reason why we can’t do that.”

“It’s good that I can get through to you. Phew, that puts me at ease.”

Narim slowly tasted the wine that the staff poured for her. While the food was being prepared, Narim used her unique conversation skills and did not allow for a moment of silence. She was well-versed in all sorts of areas, not just entertainment.

“Is divorce such a bad thing?”

“If it was someone else’s divorce, I couldn’t care less, but if it was related to one of my family members, then I would of course mind.”

“Then Maru, you’re saying you’ll agree if someone close to you says that they want a divorce?”

“Probably. If that person deemed that it’s impossible to live with the partner even after the consideration period, then that family is already beyond saving, so it’s better to part ways as early as possible. If both parties are young, then they can just look for new love, and if it’s too late for them to get married again, then they can just enjoy their remaining lives with the money they saved up.”

“President Lee, this boy knows his stuff.”

Narim smiled and scooped up the jelly that came out as dessert. They talked a lot during the past hour. Maru respected Narim on the point that she was able to lead the conversation in a relaxing manner. There was a lot to learn from Narim’s conversation skills. She had the power to bring out the other party’s topic of interest and lead the conversation without getting boring. Her conversation skills would make anyone look at her in a good light.

‘A smooth talker, and a politician.’

Maru stored two words associated with Narim in his head.

“Then I’ll take my leave first. You don’t need to see me off. After all, you’re busy. And Maru, see you later. I’ll send you the tickets by email. If you print it out, it should work as a ticket. They’re R-seats so you should thank me.”

Narim was comfortable with Maru’s presence already. After seeing Narim leave the restaurant, Junmin spoke up.

“Scary, isn’t she? She’s shameless yet she does it in a way no one finds her repulsive.”

“That’s true. Well, I’m going to see her in a good light. After all, I got six free tickets thanks to her.”

“That’s all a debt. A debt you must pay back later.”

“You’re completely right.”

Maru drank the grapefruit juice and had a look at the envelope that Junmin had prepared. He called someone when the meal was almost over, and the lady Maru saw during the audition appeared in the restaurant with that envelope. That envelope was currently in front of Junmin.

“I just thought that it’s about time we make things clear.”

“Make things clear?”

“About our relationship,” saying that, Junmin gave the envelope to Maru. Maru put his hand inside and took out the papers inside. It was a contract form that was 3 pages long. The title of it said ‘exclusive contract’.

“I was planning to watch you until you graduated, but I was a little worried. I thought about it after you took the audition last time. I raised him this far, what happens if he decides to go to another company?”

“Aren’t you in too much of a hurry? I haven’t shown you anything.”

“Results, not so much. But the man named Han Maru is worth having nearby. Also, I think it was about time I changed the way I talk with you.”

“From what I saw, it seemed that you were treating me as someone not under the contract.”

“Indeed. I don’t use polite speech to people that are under me. In that sense, I might swear at you a lot once you sign those papers.”

“That doesn’t sound too welcome,” Maru smiled and had a look at the contract. The contract stated a 50:50 split. It didn’t look that bad. The news was talking about slave contracts and stuff, and it was likely that he was receiving preferential treatment if a newbie like him was receiving 50% of the profits when he got all the support from the company. Moreover, the split ratio went up by 10% every contract renewal. The contract period was also a short two years. Above all, the third clause caught his eyes.

-”Actor” can break the contract with “Company” at any moment during the contract period.

“Is this a misprint?”

“Many people ask that.”

“You’ll see immense losses if you let people go without any restrictions like this.”

“Money is all I have, so I don’t mind such a small amount of money.”

“Even when you consider that I’ve done my part on contracts like commercials like it’s stated on clause 2, this is just releasing the captive spot free.”

Maru chuckled to himself after saying those words. Somehow, he was the one worried about the company. Junmin’s confidence could be seen from the third clause of the contract. This could be interpreted in one of two ways. One is that he has the confidence to treat Maru well and maintain the contract, or two, he has the power to punish those that ripped him off.

It was probably both. Maru went through the contract meticulously. It was always important to read the contract through in detail, especially when it was with someone acquainted. After all, there were cases where they exploited that relationship to add poison pill clauses in there.

“Doesn't the entertainment business require a lot of upfront cost? With this, I might be leeching off company money while I don’t make a name for myself, and not give you much money when I do make it big.”

“That means it’s just as not likely for you to leave JA since the contract is good. I’m fine with that. And also, if we were in a situation where we would go bankrupt with just that, we would have gone bankrupt ages ago.”

Maru nodded and turned the contract over. He didn’t need much consideration to decide.

“Once the shooting begins, you might not be able to go to school if things become big. You know that, right?”

“Classes are ultimately intended to give me a good job. It doesn’t matter if I can earn money. Also, it’s not like I’ll be taking weeks off at a time, so there shouldn’t be any problems.”

“So then, all that’s left is permission from your legal guardian.”

“Oh…,” Maru sighed as he was getting ready to stamp his thumbprint. Junmin chuckled.

“Go show it to them. If you get permission, I’ll visit them.”

“You’re coming over?”

“The company I’m intending to form is not a company that purely pursues profit. What I want is a family. Though, yes, it’ll be quite a noisy family with a lot of peculiar people. Anyway, I have to convince your family that the family I’m creating is safe and believable. That’s what virtue is.”

Maru nodded his head and put the two copies of the contract inside the envelope.

“It’s about time you get going, no?”

“Yes.”

“Have a safe trip home.”

“I’ll see you on the weekend.”

Maru bid goodbye to Junmin and left the restaurant. After taking the elevator to the first floor, Maru stopped in the lounge and looked at his envelope. He had the mild thought that he would step into society again eventually, but now that he actually did, he was a little nervous.

“Society once again, huh.”

Maru tightly grabbed on the envelope as he left the building. For some reason, he had a smile on his face.

Chapter 255

“Phew, nice building,” Dongwook spoke as he looked up at the building. It was a skyscraper. He wondered how much it would cost to build a building here.

‘Hundreds of millions? Easy to say, hard to do.’

In dramas, the protagonists were scammed of hundreds of millions of won whenever it happened. However, how was it like in reality? Hundreds of millions was just a number in dreams and just a few million was enough to ruin someone’s life. Dongwook wondered if the building with ‘JA’ engraved on it was real even when he was standing right in front of it. It was too unrealistic. As his life consisted of having to juggle between thousands of won when buying lunch, this building was at the extremes of his fantasy.

Although he walked around in front of the building with the notepad he had been carrying since he first started working, he came across nothing.

The big 3 entertainment companies were causing quite a scene in the industry in the recent days. Especially NL Company and their TTO. Journalists could be seen flocking outside the NL Company building even now. They had their meals in their cars and observed who came to and from the company. If they found a trace of TTO, then they would immediately start following in secret. It was a secret investigation of sorts. Some said that entertainment journalists did more undercover missions than the police.

Dongwook was also aware that camping outside NL Company was the best when it came to writing articles, but he was also aware that he had to take action if he wanted anything big.

‘JA is quite suspicious these days.’

Lee Junmin was someone who everyone knew of in this area, but the same didn’t apply to JA Production. It was mostly seen as a company Lee Junmin created to handle his tax. However, it started investing in movie production from the beginning of the year. Even the financial district had rumors about Lee Junmin beginning to move for real.

The most well-known actor belonging to JA Production was currently Kim Suyeon. According to her profile, she was 26 this year. Although she was a young and relatively new actress, she made her name known through continuous appearances on several short drama series. However, she was only relatively well known compared to other actors of JA Production, and she was lacking compared to other well-known actors and their filmographies. She was never cast as a main role as well. Although the career of actresses was becoming longer and most actresses continued their careers into their late 30s, considering that the mid twenties were their prime time, the lifespan of actresses wasn’t that long.

Moreover, there were all sorts of bad rumors about her. Although there was nothing confirmed, she seemed to have relationship problems, so it seemed difficult for her to become mainstream.

As such, JA Production wasn’t that well-known to the public. Lee Junmin was also just a famous figure within the industry and was never introduced to the public, so both the company and its CEO were not well known.

Although it seemed somewhat lacking compared to the achievements that Lee Junmin had made, Dongwook came across an interesting fact while hunting down Lee Junmin recently.

Lee Junmin was known as the maestro of finding new talented trainees. There were many instances where a child actor or actress became a youth star through his hands. However, what was strange was that none of those stars belonged to JA Production. It would be understandable if it was five years ago since Lee Junmin hadn’t created the company back then, but he easily gave away the stars that he recruited and raised to other companies even after founding JA Production. As a result, the only actors that belonged to JA were Kim Suyeon and some new actors.

What was interesting was that JA Production did not accept Lee Hyuk. Who was Lee Hyuk? He was a rising star that shot numerous commercials and caught the hearts of many ladies. The story that the shampoo Lee Hyuk modelled for doubled in sales was quite well-known in this industry. It was surprising that Lee Hyuk, who many companies were paying attention to, went to JA Production with his own two feet, but what was even more surprising was that JA Production rejected him.

After that story spread out within the industry, people started taking interest in JA Production. The majority thought that Lee Junmin was neither intending to make the company big nor planning to form the company with a small group of elites. They thought that he was focusing on raising new actors.

Companies without any issues meant that the journalists had nothing to write about them. It was a waste of time to hold a camera towards the companies without actors that caused trouble. However, Dongwook was suspicious. This was why he followed Junmin and found out that there were actually many actors that were not well known to the public that Junmin frequently met up with. Dongwook, who knew nothing about the industry, started investigating and found out that the actors in their 20s and 30s that Junmin frequently met with were actually quite well-known in the theatrical world.

Actually, the theatrical world in Korea was very small. He found out during his investigation that even in Daehak-ro, known as the holy land of actors, there were many theaters that were going out of business. Junmin was going around meeting actors from such places?

Dongwook investigated even deeper regarding Hong Geunsoo, Yang Ganghwan and Yang Miso, who Junmin frequently met with. Although all three of them were in their early 30s, their career was different from the rest.

The actor known as Hong Geunsoo was a talent well-known in the independent movies scene, and there were rumors about some companies giving him offers in secret since the talent he showed in the movie that won the Mise en scène Movie Award was incredible.

Yang Ganghwan was amazing as well. He left the Seoul Metropolitan Theater and went to Daehak-ro to do the acting he wanted to. Although his boldness in giving up a stable income and risking his life was surprising, he even participated in the production of many stages as well as acting in them, leading them to success. Although he was quite a minor actor since most of his acts were about social satire, there seemed to be many of his fans who went to watch his acts.

Next was Yang Miso. Although her acting career was quite lacking compared to the other two, her position as a trainer was very high. She used to be an instructor in Film Academy, which was one of the biggest actor education facilities around. Recently, she was discovered to be coaching some theater companies or college-level clubs after having left Film.

Dongwook witnessed Lee Junmin meeting other actors that were not introduced to the mainstream media. Was Junmin going to let go of those people as well? From his investigation, he judged that that wasn’t the case. They seemed to be really close and it seemed like they would continue to be so in the future.

Then why did he not take those actors under JA Production’s wings? Dongwook was very curious but he couldn’t pry open Junmin’s mind.

In such a situation, he finally saw a movement. He saw that Hong Geunsoo was participating in the movie produced by JA Production.

Hong Geunsoo was a minor character in the movie everyone was talking about in the movie world, ‘Who Gave the Elder His Hammer’. Dongwook believed that this wasn’t a coincidence. He couldn’t erase the thought that Junmin was trying to bring the actors under his personal wings onto the surface from his mind. He still remembered what Lee Junmin said in a prior interview.

-My dream is to meet an actor or an actress that I can only look up to.

He used the word ‘meet’, not ‘raise’. From those words, it seemed that the actors he raised and sent to other companies were not those that he could only look up to.

Then what of the three that he maintained a close relationship with? What was the reason Hong Geunsoo and Yang Ganghwan still did not belong to a company yet?

Dongwook believed that the actors that Lee Junmin kept under his personal wings were the ace up Lee Junmin’s sleeves.

Of course, up to this point, nothing seemed to be of value as a journalist. It was more of a ‘there’s a rumor that such and such is happening’. However, the story changes when considering that JA Production is still an unlisted company.

Dongwook had seen several instances of the stocks shooting through the roof due to a name value of a celebrity. The stock price would skyrocket during an M&A just with the fact that there was a famous celebrity among their ranks. This was a flow of money that was already proven.

Lee Junmin was an excellent businessman at the same time he was a capable teacher. He raised several buildings like the one in front of Dongwook in the past two decades. He should be aware of the power of money, and should also be aware of how to make even more.

If Lee Junmin decided to make a move, then the first task at hand would be to prove the skills of the stars he raised that ‘still haven’t received the spotlight’. Dongwook believed that this movie would be the start of it.

‘If this is what I think it is, then this is huge news.’

Dongwook bought a cup of coffee from the vending machine in front of the building when he saw a youth coming out of the building. He was holding an envelope in his hand. Although he seemed quite old from afar, Dongwook found that he looked quite young when he looked up close. He was a little short as well.

‘Why would a kid like that be here?’

Dongwook had a glance at the kid passing next to him while drinking coffee. Due to his attention being focused on the kid, he tilted the coffee cup too far away from him, and thanks to that, he ended up spilling the coffee onto his shirt.

“Ouch, that’s hot!”

He let go of the cup and swung his arms. The child passing next to him quickly got out of the way, but Dongwook’s fingertips hit the envelope. The opening of the envelope was ripped as it fell down on the floor.

“Oops, I’m sorry,” Dongwook shook his hands that became red from the heat as he spoke.

“Not at all. Is your hand alright?”

“It’s a little hot, but I’m fine. How about you? Aren’t you hurt anywhere?”

“I’m fine.”

Dongwook nodded his head and reached out for the envelope since it fell in front of him. He was about to give the envelope to the kid when he saw the words ‘JA Production’ at the top. Dongwook flinched and quickly read what followed after it. It was an exclusive contract.

‘This is… ’

Dongwook looked at the kid in front of him while holding the envelope.

Chapter 256

‘There is always a way out and this seems to be mine!’

He was lucky. He never imagined that he would come into contact with someone belonging to JA Production in such a manner. He checked the papers he saw behind the ripped envelope. It was definitely a contract form.

“You look like you got a burn. Are you really okay?”

The child looked at him worriedly. Dongwook decided to take back his words of being okay.

“It prickles a little, so I might have a serious burn.”

“That’s not good. There’s a pharmacy nearby, let’s go there for now.”

“Sh, shall we?” Dongwook almost couldn’t hold back his laughter. He thought that the effort he put into prying into the internal affairs about JA Production was finally receiving a reward. Now, he had to be careful. From how this child was worried for him despite the fact that his wound was small, it could be said that this child was a kind boy. If he convinced this boy well, he might be able to get some info about JA Production.

“It’s not that serious, so this will do,” Dongwook spoke as he applied the ointment he got from the pharmacy. The child still had a worried expression on his face.

“Are you really okay?”

“It prickles a little, but this won’t hurt me.”

“I’m really sorry. I should have watched where I was going.”

“No, no, not at all. It’s me who spilled my coffee after all.”

Dongwook took out a laptop and a camera from his bag as he put the ointment inside. On top of that, he pretended to rummage through his belongings and dropped a few of his business cards on the floor. After seeing that the child saw the business card falling on the ground, Dongwook pretended to know nothing and kept looking inside his bag.

The child bent down and picked up the business card.

“Uhm, here.”

The child gave him the business card. Dongwook smiled as naturally as possible as he received it.

“Are you a journalist?” The child asked with curious eyes.

He fell for the trap. Rookies were especially vulnerable to journalists. It was because they didn’t know anything. They always had the expectation that the journalist would write a good article about them.

“I once worked in a TV station. You know YBS, don’t you?”

“Of course I do. Wow, you’re actually a journalist.”

Although he quit that job a long time ago, he wasn’t exactly lying. After all, there was a time when he was a journalist at YBS. After seeing the wariness around the boy disappear, Dongwook started speaking about his true intentions.

“Uhm, it was kinda unintentional, but I kinda ended up looking at something that I shouldn't have.”

Dongwook carefully looked at the envelope that the boy was holding. He could not be hasty here. He had to look as though he was at ease. He had to show that he was only slightly interested in the contents. After all, if he showed too much interest, the boy might suspect him.

“Oh, this?”

The child pushed the envelope towards him as he spoke. It seemed that he wanted to boast about it. Dongwook inwardly rejoiced.

“I signed a contract recently.”

“With JA Production?”

“Yes.”

“Is that so? Hm, I’m writing an article about the entertainment industry recently and…”

“Oh really?”

“You can call it a special edition article talking about new actors that still haven’t received the spotlight despite being in famous companies.”

The boy widened his eyes when he heard the words ‘special edition article’. Yes, there was a reaction. He didn’t seem that shy and he seemed to be somewhat ambitious as well. In cases like these, he would start spilling out all sorts of information with a bit of a push.

“It would be really good if my name got on it, right?”

“That’s right. What, are you interested?”

“…Hahaha,” The boy laughed awkwardly. Dongwook pointed at the cafe across the street and spoke.

“Then let’s have a little talk then, shall we? Something that we can both find profit in.”

Dongwook put his arms around the boy’s shoulders.

“My name is Kim Dongwook, what’s yours?”

“Ah, that’s right. My name is Yoo Sooil.”

“Sooil? That’s a good name.”

Dongwook smiled and walked towards the cafe.

* * *

“You look tired.”

Junmin smiled back at the chef who said those words to him as he put down the tea.

“Looks like decreasing my sleep just a little is showing its effects already. Looks like I’m getting old as well.”

A bittersweet smell came up from the tea. It seemed to be ginger tea. The chef left after saying that health was the most important thing. Junmin replied that that was the case as he drank the tea. The sweetness from the dessert was washed away. The tea made him breathe some hot air out subconsciously.

“I’ve confirmed the two leaving.”

Junmin nodded his head when he heard the words that came from behind him.

“Head manager Kang. What of Maru?”

“He just left.”

“How about president Park?”

“She couldn’t be seen anywhere.”

“Looks like I was worried for nothing. I thought she’d probe some more.”

“She’s not foolish enough to do something that displeases the party she came to ask something from.”

“You’re right. Head manager Kang. Have you had dinner yet?”

“Not yet, sir.”

“Then have a seat.”

“Yes, sir.”

When Junmin raised his hand, one of the female staff approached him quickly. He asked head manager Kang what he wanted.

“Ramyun and eggs. Is that possible?”

The staff made a slightly awkward smile at those words.

“Just give him what he wants. Sorry for the weird request,” Junmin followed up. The staff bowed before going away.

“Don’t you ever get tired of ramyun?”

“I probably won’t get tired of it my entire life.”

“Someone might make a mistake and say that you’re paid badly.”

“Don’t worry about that. I have proper meals when I’m outside. I had beef barbecue for lunch as well. Though, I feel a little oily now thanks to that. My taste buds are really craving for some ramyun and eggs.”

Junmin smiled back as he drank his tea. After the ramyun came out, Junmin looked outside the window while head manager Kang ate his meal. According to his report, it was about time he got a call. Indeed, his phone started ringing just at that time. Head manager Kang looked at the phone that was vibrating on the table.

“Keep eating. I’ll take the call.”

Junmin picked up head manager Kang’s phone.

“Hello?”

-Oh, president.

“Is that you, Sooil?”

-Yes, but why are you picking up the phone, president?

“I’m with head manager Kang right now. Rather than that, what happened to the thing I asked you to do?”

-For now, I’m talking with him at a cafe. As you’ve instructed, I was planning to drop the contract form right next to this journalist named Kim Dongwook, but things went better than I expected, so I was able to show him the forms without becoming suspicious.

“How did he react?”

-It’s just as you predicted, president. He’s overjoyed to death. I had a hard time concealing my emotions. I almost ended up laughing with him.

Junmin could picture Sooil’s prankful smile. Yoo Sooil. He was one of the youths that Lee Junmin was raising with all of his support. Junmin had big expectations of him so he already had a verbal agreement with him on their first meeting.

“Are you with him right now?”

-Yes. I pretended that I got a phone call and briefly left him for now. I can see him smiling over the window. I should really smile back at him.

“He doesn’t find you suspicious?”

-He doesn’t. I don’t think he’s as sharp as you make him out to be, president. I don’t find him that reliable since he’s showing off how he’s a ‘great man’.

“That’s because he isn’t at his prime yet. He was a scary man before. He was really capable up until he quit his former job. He’s a capable journalist that wrote five exclusive articles when he was still new.”

-Really? Why does he look so shabby now?

“He must have his reasons. In any case, he’s the only one that’s following us, so we should give him something.”

-Aha.

“What kind of questions did he ask you?”

-He didn’t ask anything yet. He’s just telling me about the recent matters in the entertainment industry. You know, like, there was this news, but it actually turns out it was something else, and the like.

“He didn’t ask anything about our company yet?”

-He didn’t. If you didn’t tell me, I would’ve thought of him as a smooth talker. Oh, he’s looking at me now. Do you think he might get suspicious of me?

“It’s just a phone call. Rather than that, act as I told you. If he mentions the company, you can leak the news to him.”

-But president. Isn’t it a matter of time before it’s released to the public? I think we can just tell him the information now.

“If we do things like that, then he will have a voice as well. We have to make it so that he has to put in the effort to make out proper information from the things we give him by coincidence.”

-Haa, I don’t get it. I’m really stupid after all. I’m more comfortable with doing the things you tell me to rather than thinking about complicated things. Then president, I’ll keep doing what you told me to do.

“Alright. Then, please work hard.”

-Yes, sir!

Junmin finished the call and put the phone back on the table.

“I think of this all the time, but Sooil really needs to learn some manners.”

“What? He’s cheerful and I like it. It’s better to be free than mind about useless manners.”

“That’s on the condition that he has the skills, no?”

“Naturally.”

Head manager Kang spoke after eating a mouthful of ramyun.

“But weren’t you planning to have a meeting with that journalist later? We’re about to start our activities soon so we do need a main journalist to spread the news, don’t we?”

Then he finished off his ramyun.

“That’s true. But since we’re going to work with someone, it’ll be better if that person is competent, don’t you think? For now, I have my eyes on him, but we don’t know whether he can bring out the skills he had in the past,” Junmin spoke as he looked outside the window.

Entertainers and journalists were ultimately in a symbiotic relationship. Although there were times where they competed with each other, most of the time, they worked with each other throughout their careers. Without entertainers to write news about, journalists would not be able to make a living, and the opposite was true as well. Without journalists to write articles, entertainers would never make an impression on the public. It was one of the very few win-win scenarios in society.

The world of entertainment journalists was filled with hyenas. They competed with each other for prey, but they gathered up and prepared to attack together in front of a common enemy. But even then, when a nice prey appears, some will leave the pack in secret to hunt alone.

It was an incredibly hard thing to work together with such people in pursuit of the common interest. There were many CEOs that had scandalous articles written about them by the journalists they trusted. There were also malicious journalists that wrote malicious content after being paid by a rival company.

However, there rarely existed some that were above the rest of the pack. They were journalists that were both capable and faithful. With a connection to such a person from the media, it would become very easy to build up a good image of the company.

Junmin came across the journalist named Kim Dongwook a long time ago, but it was only recently that he thought of using him when he found out that that journalist was chasing after him.

“What are you going to do if that journalist goes and writes random things based on the things Sooil tells him?” Head manager Kang spoke in a worried tone.

“Then he might get attention in the short term, but that’s it. But that journalist, from what I read from his previous articles, does not write things unless he’s entirely sure. Even after entering an internet news company that mostly writes baseless rumors, he still writes proper articles. He’s a hard journalist to come by these days. If he really knows what he’s doing, he’ll probably stay quiet with our information for a few months. Then, he’ll burst out with the article and attract a huge amount of attention right about the time we start making a move.”

“…Sheesh, you test people too much, president. There’s a possibility that he might turn his back on us after finding out that he was fooled.”

“I’m not that worried since I have a huge ace up my sleeve known as money. And if I’m right about who he is, then I don’t think he’ll feel deceived with just that.”

“Money is not omnipotent.”

“But it gets people to work. The reason you’re here with me is thanks to money as well.”

“Oh, that’s how you see me? I’m disappointed. I’m here because of my loyalty.”

“Then how about I shave your salary down a little?”

“I meant loyalty towards money. You knew that, didn’t you?” Head manager Kang chuckled.

Junmin put on his beret again and stood up. It was about time he called in the sheep he let graze freely in the plains. Right now, he still hadn’t found actors that gave him electric shocks like Haejoo, but they had the potential to become like that in the future. What he needed to do now was to provide them a path for them to experience a wider world.

To do that, he needed more connections and money. There were times when relationships didn’t go as people wanted to, but money wasn’t like that. Junmin was preparing in order to make sure that money wasn’t the thing holding him back.

‘And that’s my job.’

Junmin had a look at his watch before turning around.

“Then go rest.”

“Yes, sir. Please have a good night.”

Chapter 257

“Keep your promise, okay?”

Bada became a little proud of herself as she held up her four test papers. She scored above 90 points for all of them.

“There are two days left. I’m really going to be in the top 5,” she made a resolve as she left.

“Did you do something to her?”

“No.”

“Then did she grow up all of a sudden?” Maru’s mother looked at the door puzzledly.

“You’re starting your exams today aren’t you?”

“Yes.”

“You should do the basics at least, okay? That’s if you don’t want to be seen with contempt once you enter society. Movie shooting is good and all, but since you’re a student and all…”

“Yes, yes, Mrs. Lee. Don’t worry about that. Your son isn’t that stupid. Rather than that, mom, you aren’t going anywhere this evening, are you?”

“I don’t have anything after work. What is it?”

“How about father?”

“Your dad should come home after work as well.”

“That’s good.”

“Why do you ask?”

“I have something to talk about with you two.”

“Something to talk about? What is it?”

“I’ll talk about it once I get back from school. If you see entitled customers at the mall, then don’t listen to that person’s request. We’re well-off enough that you don’t have to work, aren’t we?”

“Worry about such things after you grow up. You should get going. You might be late.”

Maru’s mother saw him out until the door closed. Having brought his bike outside, Maru rode it to school. The head-of-the-year teacher, who would usually be standing guard catching any misfits, couldn’t be seen today.

“Wanna go to the PC bang after tests?”

“Sure.”

“But hey, did you study?”

“Do you think I did?”

The atmosphere was definitely not as serious as normal schools. All he heard as he went up to his classroom after locking his bike was which PC bang they were going to go to today.

“Maru, did you study?”

“I did, a lot.”

“Really?”

“You believed that?”

Dojin put his thumbs up, saying that Maru was a true friend. Dojin’s desk was clean, despite the fact that other classmates at least had textbooks open on their desks due to conscience. Dowook and Daemyung were looking at their textbooks, revising.

“The first and second in the class sure are different.”

Dojin tried to interrupt the two by poking on their waists, but the two did not budge.

“Don’t try to drag others into hell with you and just sleep.”

“Dammit, you’re saying that to me as well? Are we still friends?”

“If a friend requires failing life with you, then I’ll politely stop being friends with you starting today.”

Maru smiled and rebuked him. Dojin eventually took out a notebook and started revising as well. Although his handwriting was neat in the top left corner, it became illegible around half way through. That was the result of dozing off halfway through writing notes.

“I can’t read a single thing.”

“Then memorize this. This is for last-minute cramming.”

Maru threw him a notebook. It was his notes that he wrote throughout the night after coming back from Seoul yesterday.

“Traitor. You did study after all.”

“Don’t talk back at me and start memorizing. Culinary arts require brains as well. In this world even chefs require degrees you know?”

“I’m gaining experience by cleaning dishes like the masters on TV, you know? To hell with studying.”

“What if you end up breaking up with Iseul?”

“……”

“Stop bullshitting and get studying. Remember the history teacher’s words when he said he’ll beat you up with a PVC pipe if you don’t get above 60 points.”

“You’re right. I almost screwed up there.”

As PVC pipes were very common in engineering schools like this one, most teachers loved to use them as rods of love. One of the teachers even wrapped a pipe with tape and praised it for its striking feel. Of course, the students preferred getting hit with PVC pipes as well. It was hollow, so it was loud but it didn’t hurt that badly. In contrast, wet hardwood produced almost no sound and hurt like hell.

“I might actually end up dying if the history teacher decides to hit me for real.”

“So memorize those well.”

As they would be able to attend junior colleges even if they don’t do that well, there weren’t that many people focusing on studying. Only the students aiming for full universities within Seoul were revising really hard. After morning homeroom, tests began immediately.

“Don’t roll your eyes. You’ll be consulting me if I hear you rolling your eyeballs around.”[1]

The teacher appeared with a cue stick.

Maru heaved a deep breath out before reading the test papers. The first subject was Korean. These were mostly common sense questions that he didn’t need to revise to answer. He marked the answer sheet and then started resting. He could hear Dojin having trouble with his test.

“Put your pens down. The ones in the back row, collect the tests.”

The first period ended without a hitch. The ones that actually revised properly took out revision materials for the next test, but most of them just went around marking their tests.

“Hey, hey, hey! I got 80 points!” Dojin shouted excitedly.

“Me too.”

“Me three.”

“Eh?”

Most of them scored above 80 points.

‘I knew it.’

The teachers gave out hints for the test starting a week prior. It was easy enough to get points by just memorizing the stuff they taught during that period. Moreover, the Korean test was really easy this time around. Naturally, the average scores would be really high. However, tests were made to differentiate the top from the rest. In this case, even a single point would be the deciding factor in grades.[2]

“What the heck is this…”

This was the result of downward equalization. Like this, the ones that actually revised hard would be at a disadvantage since a minor mistake would cost them dearly.

“Ah shit, I’m doomed.”

“…Dammit.”

Although this was an engineering school, it wasn’t that there weren’t any students that studied. Maru made a bitter expression as he watched some of his classmates dejected. Those people entered this school with a purpose. They were plenty capable of entering normal study-focused high schools, but they entered this school with the mindset that they want to be the head of the snake rather than the tail of the dragon. However, they would become the tail of the snake with a slight mistake, so they were really on the edge.

“What the heck? Everyone got 80 points. What is going on?”

Maru covered Dojin’s mouth and gave him an intense glare. Dojin also became quiet after seeing someone studying hard. The noisy classroom quietened down in an instant.

“Let’s give them some quiet during the exam period.”

“Yeah, we should.”

Everyone was aware of each other’s circumstances. From that moment onwards, the class became quiet in order to not interrupt others from revising. Maru smiled after seeing that.

“These kids might not have the smarts, but they’re all kind people, yeah?” Dojin also smiled as he said those words.

After a break period, the next exam began, which was maths. Although there were some students that solved problems until the very end during the Korean exam, maths was different. Maru, who was sitting at the very back, saw that the majority of the class slumped down and fell asleep within the first 10 minutes. Even the teacher, who came to supervise them, was dozing off at the front. This class wasn’t nervous about the test at all. Everyone was dozing off just like the class right after lunch.

Dojin, who sat next to Maru, was rolling an eraser he cut into the shape of a hexagon. Passion could be felt from the way he did his tests. Dowook and Daemyung seemed to be solving the actual questions. Since both of them were smart, they would be able to get some good results.

Maru also solved the questions he could answer before slumping down. He only found it pathetic that his smarts didn’t work in this area.

* * *

“Why did they have to include the weekend? Shouldn’t they let us off on the weekend at least? I don’t know who made the time table, but that guy must be evil.”

“You’re saying as though you’ll actually study for the tests during the weekend?”

Maru pushed Dojin’s back. The tests for Thursday were over. Now, they had tests on Friday, Saturday and Monday. Although Maru could read the teacher’s intentions of trying to bring up the test scores by putting the weekend in the middle, it was unknown if it would actually work.

“I got three wrong.”

“Me too.”

“Daemyung, let’s go to the library.”

“Okay.”

Dowook and Daemyung went to the library in high spirits. The usually naive-looking Daemyung was gone, and Dowook looked sharper than ever today.

“Don’t they get tired of that?”

Dojin clicked his tongue and went to the computer department where Iseul was. Maru also took his bag and left the classroom. Usually, he would go to the library along with Daemyung and Dowook, but his desire to study fell dramatically after receiving that contract form. Now that he decided that he would be an actor in the future, he just had to study enough that it wouldn’t become a hindrance. He walked down the staircase where he met Jiyoon and Aram on the second floor. The two juniors came to him from their friends when they saw him.

“Hello, seonbae-nim.”

“Seonbae, did you do well on your tests?”

Maru shrugged his shoulders.

“How about you two?”

“Don’t even talk about it. The class is in an uproar thanks to Jiyoon’s notes. You see them over there? We’re all going to Jiyoon’s house to study. Oh, we don’t have any meetings at the acting club during exam period, right?” Aram asked. Maru nodded back at her.

“Good. Jiyoon, let’s go. My mom told me that she’ll buy me clothes if I can get over 80 points average on midterms.”

“Al-alright. Seonbae-nim, please excuse us.”

“Okay, work hard.”

Jiyoon looked quite bright. It seemed that the pressure she felt during every exam period was gone. Since she was a meticulous person, she would be able to get a good score if she did the tests in good condition.

‘I wonder how Bangjoo is doing.’

He went to the central door and changed his shoes when he heard a loud voice from the school field. Some students were playing soccer despite all the exams going on. Bangjoo could be seen among them. He showed incredible skill and passed by many defenders and shot the ball into the net. He looked happier than ever.

“…Looks like he gave up already.”

Maru headed home with a small smile.

* * *

“The read-through will start at 11, and after that, there will be a meal with the journalists. It won’t be that long, though.”

“To think that the journalists will actually take videos of our read-through… Things have changed a lot these days.”

“That’s true. These days, they sell things called DVDs which include not only the movie, but the making film and some commentary from the director or the actors. The read-through is being recorded for the same purpose.”

“Are you talking about CDs when you say DVDs?”

“Yes, that’s right, sir.”

Moonjoong nodded his head in acceptance. Although he was using the laptop that his daughter had bought for him, it was mostly used for checking emails. Although people around him were willing to teach how to use it properly, Moonjoong refused them all. He felt as though he was becoming an idiot when he stared into a small screen for a long period of time.

“I’ve quit smoking, but I habitually pick one up during reading, is that fine?”

“That’s not a problem. The atmosphere isn’t that strict.”

“Sheesh. I’m just worried that I might screw up my lines out of embarrassment.”

“Hahaha.”

The young fella laughed quietly. This was his manager that Junmin had sent him. He stayed by his side for a few days after saying that he would look after Moonjoong to the best of his abilities. Moonjoong first liked his attitude, and liked him more when he found out that he had a deep knowledge about acting. The more he got to like this young manager, the more he realized how great Junmin’s human resources were. Junmin knew too well which person to put where for them to bring out all of their skills.

“Sir. You should leave after a warm breakfast.”

The two left after eating breakfast made by the manager. Inside the car, Moonjoong quietly flipped over his worn out script. From how he could clearly read the text despite the rumble of the car, he felt that today was going to be a good day.

“Mr. Park.”

“Yes, sir.”

“I think I’ll visit the supermarket before I go.”

“The supermarket? If you need anything, I’ll go buy it for you.”

“No, this has to be done by me.”

“Very well, sir.”

The manager stopped by a nearby supermarket. Moonjoong went to the groceries section with the manager. They saw tangerines behind the watermelons. Although it wasn’t the right season for tangerines, they looked quite delicious as though they were grown in a greenhouse.

“This is good,” Moonjoong bought three nets of tangerines before returning to the car. He took out one of the good ones and gave it to the manager.

“Although it’s for a short time, please take care of me.”

“Yes, sir. Thanks for the tangerine.”

Moonjoong nodded his head.

“Since I’ve finished bribing you, let’s get going.”

“Haha, that was a bribe?”

“Yes of course. Since you received one from me, treat me well, okay?”

“Yes, sir.”

Moonjoong smiled while looking outside the window.

* * *

-Let’s go together.

That text arrived while he was still getting changed. Maru replied to Yoojin’s message.

-Are you a kid? Why should we go together?

-Shut up and come to Gangnam station by 10.

Maru frowned and called Yoojin.

“Oh? She’s not picking up.”

He briefly wondered if he should go by himself, but decided to obediently go to Gangnam station after thinking about the consequences. Her threat of occupying her every weekend so that Maru and she wouldn’t be able to go on dates was quite a scary one.

He put his script inside his bag and had a look at the time. It was 8:30 in the morning on a Sunday, and the weather was sunny.

‘Let’s go then, shall I?’

[1] Top 3 (bullshit) lines said by teachers in high school. “I can hear you chatting all the way from the faculty office!” “I can hear your eyes rolling, focus on your tests!” “I haven’t seen a guy as bad as you in my twenty years of being a teacher!”. So yeah, apparently, teachers can ‘hear you roll your eyes’ aka hear you peeking at other people’s tests

[2] I’m not sure what it’s like these days, but relative grading used to be the norm in Korea.

Chapter 258

Hopping on the bus, Maru sat on one of the back seats. He opened the window slightly and took out the script from his bag. Although he only had two lines, he read them again and again. He engraved each word into his tongue, his teeth and his lips so that he would be able to mutter the words subconsciously. When he kept reading those lines, he could finally feel the pressure from saying those few words. He wished that it would be longer so that he had some time to breathe. He had to express the disdain that the delinquent had towards the old man through those short words as well as the relative catharsis of being above the old man.

“What kind of shit… shit… sshiiit…”

There was a motto on one of the walls in the practice room he practiced acting with Ganghwan in - The quality of a line uttered once is different to the quality of a line uttered a hundred times. The word might be a fixed ‘shit’, but the nuance would be different according to the intonation, the accent, and the pronunciation of the word. What ‘shit’ actually fits with the line? He had a clear answer when he practiced alone, but now that he was on his way to the read-through, he felt complicated.

“Uhm, excuse me. Can you quieten down a little?”

Maru flinched when he heard that voice. Someone had sat down next to him without him knowing. When he looked outside the window, he saw that the scenery wasn’t Suwon anymore.

“Sorry about that.”

He put the script back in his bag. The lady sitting next to him smiled and looked towards her knees. She was reading some kind of workbook and it seemed that she was preparing for a license test.

‘Phew.’

Maru didn’t entirely like the fact that he was so absorbed that he didn’t notice someone sitting next to him. He needed to calm down somewhat. He heaved deep breaths and closed his eyes. He forgot about the script for a moment and focused on his breathing. His tense nerves calmed down somewhat thanks to that.

“Excuse me.”

He saw Gangnam station in front of him. He grabbed a handle and pushed himself up before getting off the bus. The overwhelming crowd made him realize once again that it was the weekend.

Maru opened up his phone and called Yoojin.

“I’m at Gangnam station. Where are you?”

-I’ll be there soon.

“And when is soon?”

-I said I’ll be there soon.

Yoojin hung up just like that. A woman’s ‘I’ll be there soon’ was just as vague and unreliable as a man’s ‘when I was in the military’ stories, so he decided to go to a nearby convenience store for now.

The convenience store was crowded as well. After looking at the tired-looking part-time worker here with pity he started going towards the table area. He drank some refreshing sports drink, watching the cars go by when a girl entered his view. When he squinted and focused on her, he saw that she was Yoojin.

Maru closed the lid on his half filled sports drink and left the convenience store. He saw Yoojin raise her hand from the opposite side of the road before putting it down.

‘What do you want me to do?’

Maru stared at Yoojin in front of the pedestrian crossing. When the lights turned green, Yoojin reached out for the sports drink after running towards him. Of course, he had no intention of giving it to her.

“Give me some. I’m thirsty.”

“Buy one yourself.”

“Is this how you wanna do this?”

“I’ve been drinking it.”

“What’s this, Maru? You’re worried about indirect kissing? Is that it? You see me as a gi… ouch!”

Maru hit Yoojin’s head with the plastic bottle since she was uttering nonsense. Yoojin frowned and took out her phone.

“What are you doing?”

“I’m making a report, of course.”

After tapping on her phone with her thumbs at blinding speed, Yoojin smirked. Just as Maru wondered what was going on, he got a text message. Maru frowned before taking out his phone.

-Don’t bully my friend.

It was from her.

Uhm, excuse me? I’m your boyfriend, you know? And also, your future hubby.

“I’m sorry, but she’s on my side.”

“…Haa.”

With a victorious smile, Yoojin entered the convenience store and came out holding a drink.

“Let’s go.”

“Yes ma’am.”

The two then headed towards the JA Building.

“Did you practice a lot?”

“I only have two lines. So I don’t think they’ll tell me off unless I make a huge mistake.”

“Good for you. I have four scenes so I have a lot to memorize.”

She definitely had a teasing tone in her words. Although they were both extra roles, the scenes they appeared in were drastically different. Yoojin was the second daughter of the second son. According to roles, she would be Suyeon’s younger sister. Unlike her though, who dies a miserable death, Yoojin was used as a set piece to show harmonious family relationships in the beginning of the movie, and meet a bitter ending after witnessing the deaths of her father and elder sister. She was in charge of showing the audience that the consequence of violence was an innocent victim.

“Ah, I’m nervous. Joohyun-unni will be here today too.”

“You two have a scene together, don’t you? When the three sons have a meal together.”

“Yeah. I’m really looking forward to that. That means I get to watch Joohyun-unni acting right in front of me, right? I might faint from joy.”

“What’s so good about her?”

“She’s cool! There’s no actress cooler than her in this world.”

“You’re a total fangirl, huh.”

Maru was reminded of the fact that Bada liked Joohyun as well. Weren’t girls supposed to like handsome male actors? When he thought about it, he realized that the fans of girl idol groups were mostly teenaged girls as well. Of course, those groups had a lot of male fans as well, but the ones that actually took action were all girls.

‘Well, I guess that’s why the marketing departments target teenaged girls as their audience,’ Maru nodded to himself as he remembered his old memories with difficulty.

“I hope I can get close to Suyeon-unni as well.”

“Human relationships are best when there’s a suitable distance.”

“What the heck are you talking about? A close relationship is of course better,” Yoojin grinned as she said those words.

“Fine. That’s for you to decide.”

“What, you have something to say to me?”

“No.”

“Is it about the bad rumors about her?”

Maru looked at Yoojin who just shrugged her shoulders. It seemed that she was quite knowledgeable about it.

“You haven’t participated in a drama even once, have you?” Yoojin looked at the distance as she spoke. She had an aloof expression. For a brief moment, she looked like an adult.

“Do you think I have?”

“Then as a senior who has shot dramas multiple times, I shall give you advice. Hm, hm, bear this in mind since it’s an expensive piece of advice.”

“I don’t like expensive things, so I’ll forgo it.”

“Listen to me. Let me act like a senior once.”

The conclusion was that she wanted to act like a senior. Maru sighed before looking at Yoojin. Yoojin raised her index fingers as she spoke.

“This is something that a senior actor has told me during shooting. ‘The camera only records the present’, and the other one is, ‘The one with more guarantee has more power’.”

“I don’t think that’s suitable advice for a young fellow.”

“What’s that? You’re not the type to believe in Santa Claus even now, are you? Little kiddy Han Maru?” Yoojin said in a joking manner.

“Santa does exist. It’s just that he doesn’t appear in front of evil people like a certain someone who uses someone else’s girlfriend as a threat.”

“Oh no, you don’t wanna go there.”

Maru shook his head after seeing that Yoojin was planning to threaten him by taking out her phone.

“Do you have a guy you like?”

“Why do you ask?”

“Because I’m gonna become his friend, and we’ll hold a bachelor party.”

“That’s just being childish. And also, what’s a bachelor party?”

“…Forget what I said. What the heck am I saying to a kid.”

Maru felt nauseous after that as well since Yoojin kept talking non-stop. Although she was a noisy girl usually, she was especially talkative today.

“Hey, are you doing this because you’re nervous?”

“Who’s nervous?”

Although she talked back as though it was nothing, it seemed that Maru had hit the nail on the top of its head from how she looked away from him. Well, she was about to act with actresses that she had admired for so long, so it wasn’t that surprising. Perhaps the reason she called Maru out like this was also for her to shake off her nervousness as much as possible by talking noisily.

“Do well and don’t get nervous.”

“I’m not getting nervous,” Yoojin grinned back at him.

“We’re here.”

They were in front of the JA building. Although Maru had visited this place several times in the past, today felt somewhat new. There were a lot of people in the first floor lounge, and they were split in half right in the middle. On one side, people with phones, cameras and recorders were clearly moving around in a fluster, while the other side was busy with phone calls. It seemed that the former side were journalists and the latter side were the managers.

The two passed by an employee who was explaining the situation and took the elevator upstairs. The read-through was going to take place on the 7th floor. This was the floor that JA Production was using. Like when Maru came here for the interview, he followed the guide and walked down the corridor to his right. He walked down the corridor with glass walls and turned left once. He saw many people underneath the sign that said ‘Conference Room 1’. Just like on the first floor, there were people with cameras and managers. Everyone was waiting with a cup of vending machine coffee in their hands.

At that moment, a man with a short haircut approached Yoojin.

“Look who’s here. It’s been a long time, Lee Yoojin.”

“Ah, hello, journalist.”

The two greeted each other warmly. Maru got off to the side. The two seemed to be quite well-acquainted as they were smiling when they were talking to each other. Whenever the journalist talked about something, Yoojin giggled while covering her mouth. She looked very polite unlike the very down-to-earth appearance she showed Maru.

After their conversation ended, Yoojin walked towards Maru.

“You’re popular. A journalist knows you.”

“We got acquainted when I did a drama a while back. But I don’t really like him since he’s quite trashy, but I didn’t think I’d see him here.”

“Trashy? You two looked quite close back there.”

“I don’t want to get on the journalists’ bad side from the get go. If you want to continue down this line, you should practice your smiles you know? You won’t get any photos taken with a stiff expression like that,” Yoojin spoke as she poked Maru’s cheeks.

“But do we need to wait here as well?”

“I don’t know. Since everyone’s over there, we should be there too, don’t you think?”

Yoojin looked around when the journalists erupted into an uproar. They emptied their paper cups and picked up their equipment.

“Journalists, you should know this by now, but you can’t cross this line! Please abide by the rules!”

An employee appeared out of nowhere and spoke as he pointed at the white line on the floor. Maru stood behind that line as well. Somehow, he ended up standing with the journalists. Not long later, someone appeared at the end of the corridor. She was holding a bottle of water in one hand.

“Ahn Joohyun is here.”

“It’s her first commercial movie in four years. Take a good photo of her. We’ll upload it on the article immediately.”

“Hey, don’t push.”

The journalists started taking photos. Despite the fact that they were indoors, camera flashes were everywhere. Maru saw that Joohyun didn’t bat an eyelid despite the blinding flashes, and thought that she was a true pro.

Joohyun walked towards Conference Room 1 after waving her hands once towards the journalists. Someone that seemed to be her manager opened the door for her. She turned around one last time before she entered.

“What are you two doing over there?” Joohyun pointed at Maru as she spoke. The journalists all suddenly turned around.

“When did you switch jobs?” Joohyun gestured towards the two to come to her. Maru scratched his eyebrows and walked towards the conference room.

“You should’ve waited inside if you arrived.”

Maru looked behind him before speaking.

“This is the first time I saw something like that. Rather than that, you’re quite popular.”

“I’m a pop star after all. But I don’t really like it. I know that there is at least one person among those journalists that wrote a bad article about me. Should I go tell them to erase my picture?”

Joohyun smiled and talked about things that would be controversial without batting an eyelid. An actress that could swear during an interview was really quite daring. Yoojin, who was following Maru, spoke.

“Unni, you were really cool.”

“You can just give them the fuck you later as well. The pronunciation is important. It’s not ‘Fuh Q’. You should clearly accentuate each word. FUCK. YOU.”

“Hahaha.”

The two ladies entered the conference room joyfully. There were many people already seated in the conference room. On the long central table were some name plates with the names of the characters in the movie. There were chairs lined up against the walls as well, and there were people with scripts on those chairs as well.

‘Looks like extras are on the outside.’

It seemed that the central table was reserved for the main and sub roles. Joohyun boldly sat at the table. Of course, in front of her was the name of the character she was acting.

Maru sat down on one of the chairs in front of the right wall. One man who was sitting there, greeted him. Maru greeted back.

‘It’s definitely heavy here.’

The air was different. Although this wasn’t exactly practice, but just a showcase event for the journalists, the atmosphere was different as the people here were professionals. Maru sighed deeply before taking out the script from his bag. He had to adapt to the atmosphere here first.

Chapter 259

“Those with cameras, please come this way.”

Two people with cameras on tripods entered. The cameramen walked around the place to find a good angle. Like that, two cameras were set up. Following that, the journalists that were waiting outside entered. They took their seats without a fuss as though they had been instructed beforehand. Following that, people holding scripts in their hands entered. They seemed to be the producers of this movie.

People started filling the empty seats one by one and eventually, all the seats except for a few chairs reserved for actors were filled.

“Why is Jiseok not coming?” Yoojin asked. Maru also looked around the conference room. Jiseok and his casual smile couldn’t be seen anywhere.

“Maybe he has a prior engagement.”

“Are you not even worried?”

“We’re not close enough for me to be worried.”

“You’re so heartless.”

“If you’re so worried, give him a call.”

“I can’t be bothered, so no.”

Who was heartless now? Maru stretched his arms out to shake off his nervousness.

“It’s Suyeon-unni.”

Suyeon entered the room and greeted the actors that had arrived before her. The senior actors welcomed her. Suyeon sat opposite of Joohyun.

“Unni, please take care of me this time as well.”

“Okay. This is our second time since we did a drama together last time, huh? Please take care of me as well.”

Suyeon and Joohyun warmly greeted each other, but Maru could see sparks between the two.

“Oh, Yoojin. Why are you over there? Your seat is over here,” Suyeon called out to Yoojin.

Yoojin tilted her head and stood up to have a look at the name plates on the table. Maru had a look as well and indeed, there was a nameplate with the name ‘Second daughter/Lee Yoojin’ on it. Yoojin walked towards her reserved seat and sat down. The seat emptied by Yoojin was filled with someone else right after. Maru saw that Yoojin was looking at him apologetically. Maru just shrugged once though, since it was natural for Yoojin, who had many appearing scenes, to sit at the main table. After all, there were different levels of extras as well.

“Oh, you’re all here.”

Following that, Park Taeho entered. As he was someone who had received the best actor award in the Daejong Awards, Maru saw that a lot of journalists were competing to take photos of him. The actors all slightly stood up to greet him as well.

“Don’t stand. You should do that when sir Yoon comes here.”

Taeho laughed heartily before taking his seat. His lively personality hadn’t changed since the audition. Maru’s eyes met with Taeho’s for a brief moment, and Taeho winked at him. Maru also smiled back and took a light bow.

Not long later, Jung Yoonhae, who was Taeho’s wife in the movie, entered. She had casual clothes on, but had thick makeup on. Maru saw that Yoonhae was looking at Joohyun with animosity. It seemed that the two weren’t on good terms.

“Joohyun, your hair is still purple. It will be quite the scene to look at if you keep that hair during shooting, right?”

“Should I? I should ask the director if I can.”

“Pfft, you’re taking a joke so seriously.”

“I was joking too. Did you take that seriously?”

Joohyun and Yoonhae then started laughing and looked at each other warmly. Maru sighed. There was a sharp knife behind those warm smiles. The conversation between women was really scary.

‘They’re openly hostile towards each other. Is the relationship between the two that bad?’

It seemed that the two were on really bad terms with each other considering that they were causing this scene in front of the journalists. Thinking back, Joohyun seemed to have a lot of enemies. After all, she didn’t seem to be on close terms with Suyeon either. To a woman like Suyeon who had a lot of secrets, a woman like Joohyun, who openly revealed all of her thoughts might be an uncomfortable existence.

“Looks like the relationship between our actresses is quite good,” Taeho spoke as he picked up his script. Thanks to his words, the volatile atmosphere calmed down in an instant. Yoonhae chuckled and told Taeho that he got fat. The flow of the conversation shifted towards Taeho and Yoonhae, and Joohyun started reading her script as though nothing had happened.

“Phew.”

Maru saw that the man sitting next to him was sighing. From how he was looking at Joohyun nervously, it seemed that this man was her manager. Maru found him quite pitiful seeing that he was worrying about the actress he was in charge of making mistakes.

“Joohyun-noona, please have some restraint.”

Maru inwardly cheered for the manager. He was aware of the manager’s predicaments. After all, road managers were the ones who got all the insults regardless of what they did. He would have to run errands during the middle of the night at random, and call various places if he somehow drove the actress late to a schedule.

“Looks like everyone’s here. Nice to meet you all, haha.”

Choi Joonggeun entered. He was the director of this movie. Following that, Gwak Joon entered as well, wearing black glasses. He was the author of the original work and had participated in making the script as well, so he was qualified to be here as well.

Maru slightly nodded towards Gwak Joon to greet him. Gwak Joon lifted his hand towards him to greet back.

A little more time passed until the majority of actors including Geunsoo sat down at the table.

“So we’re only missing sir Yoon, now?”

Director Choi Joonggeun sat down and spoke. Gwak Joon sat next to him. There were still five minutes until the read-through time. Junmin entered at that time. A few people were following him, who seemed to be the people from the production company.

Everyone started conversing under the lead of the director. He seemed to know everyone here as he was comfortable when talking with everyone. He made sure that everyone got their turns to speak. He was the prime example of a director that didn’t just shout ‘cut’ and was someone that actually cared about the piece.

Just as everyone was talking and laughing over recent matters, the door opened once again. This time, everyone looked at the door in silence. Maru was the same. He closed his script and watched as Moonjoong entered the conference room. He was holding a black plastic bag in one hand. He was wearing a beige coat and a pair of brown shoes with their noses worn out. He seemed like just an ordinary old man one would find in a neighborhood as he entered the room with a kind smile.

“Sorry for that. I was a little late because I had to visit some place.”

“Not at all, sir. You’re just in time. No, you’re a minute early.”

Joonggeun jabbed at him lightly and led Moonjoong to the seat of honor.

“Wait.”

Before he took his seat, Moonjoong took out something from the plastic bag he was holding. They were tangerines.

Tangerines? Just as Maru was wondering what was going on, Moonjoong gave the actors around the table a tangerine each. The ones that remained were given to the people at the perimeter.

“Please take care of me,” Moonjoong took his seat as he said those words with a warm smile.

“Shouldn’t we all treat these tangerines as a family treasure?”

“No, they must be treated as good luck charms.”

“It’s such a pity to eat them.”

The actors all said something to praise Moonjoong. Meanwhile, Maru just peeled the tangerine and started eating it. The manager sitting next to him looked at him with surprise before eating his own.

“Well then, if you’re done eating, let’s start reading,” Joonggeun spoke as he pushed away the tangerine peels to one side.

The actors all lifted their scripts as well. There didn’t seem to be a heavy atmosphere. It seemed as though this was their everyday life.

Maru thought about the read-throughs that he did before. He did one with Miso, Ganghwan, and Suyeon. He held one under different instructors, but all of them were strict during read-throughs. During those times, he was always told that he had to practice like it was the real deal, yet this place seemed to be more lax than ever, which made him feel awkward instead.

As expected of pros, huh?

Joonggeun stood up. He briefly started the meeting by saying that he hopes that the movie does well. Gwak Joon, the original author, stood up next.

“Please be understanding even if I act a little arrogantly.”

Gwak Joon showed that he was not joking with his expression. The actors all groaned to themselves. Following that, everyone did their greetings starting from Moonjoong to the extras.

Yoojin, who took one of the main seats, did her greeting smoothly as though she was ready for it.

“Looks like that’s the end of our greetings. Let’s start now. I’ll do the lines for the extras. Let’s do a full read-through without rest. Let’s do this joyfully everyone.”

Maru raised his head after hearing Joonggeun’s words. He was doing the lines for the extras? Although he was slightly confused, he wasn’t in a position where he could ask, so he just waited.

A page flipping noise could be heard from the table. Maru was a little shocked when he heard the page flipping noise that occurred all at once in sync. This signalled the start of the read-through. The people sitting at the perimeter also flipped their scripts as well.

#Scene 1. Junk dealer’s. Noon

The movie started with a monologue from Moonjoong.

“Like I said, pay me 10 more won.”

The voice filled the wide conference room. Although the voice wasn’t loud, it was clear as though it was spoken from right next to Maru. Moonjoong spoke his line as he looked at the script. His back was hunched. The voice from his comfortable position was a lot more compressed than Maru when he straightened his back and tensed his stomach.

“I said I can’t, don’t keep asking.”

The director’s follow-up sounded very low-quality. His effort of not trying to make it sound bad could be felt, but it was such a drastic contrast to Moonjoong’s voice, so the listeners felt rather embarrassed as well. Joonggeun knew that he was just filling in for the extras, but felt very weird when the atmosphere became so drastically different in an instant. It was as though the scene suddenly shifted from the junk dealer’s to the conference room known as reality.

Despite that gap, when Moonjoong spoke again, the scenery changed back. The pitiful old man who begged the junk dealer to receive 10 more won appeared once again.

It was quite a peculiar experience.

Maru was flabbergasted by the weight of each word uttered by an actor that had formed an entire world. Maru was very dissatisfied with the fact that he could only look at Moonjoong’s back. Had he taken a seat a little left of his current seat, he would have been able to see Moonjoong’s expression acting as well.

The acting of the man once known as the best screen actor in South Korea was very different. The emotions in those words were not violent at all. It was just a conversation that could be heard in everyday life. Moonjoong was invoking deep sympathy within the readers with his ordinary speech alone.

Maru was reminded of the fact that masters were fundamentally different from novices.

‘Pathetic.’

Even Geunseok, who was evaluated for having the most stable act in the club, seemed trivial in front of this man.

The story progressed and more actors started joining the scene.

Maru followed the script with his eyes as he listened and tried saying the lines in his heart as well. He smiled bitterly when he found out that he was lacking compared to them.

The actors here seemed to be at ease. An actor that was smiling until moments ago became angry as soon as the scene switched, and one started laughing like a madman despite the fact that he was crying until moments ago.

The emotions switched in an instant. They didn’t seem to need any preparation. What was surprising was that they even chatted with other actors when they weren’t required in the scene.

Although the atmosphere was lax enough to the point that they could forgive any mistakes from junior actors, Maru had to consciously control his breathing since the lines said by the actors were so elaborate. He consumed too much stamina just trying to imitate those lines in his heart.

“Can you please remove ‘Rather than that’?”

“That’s too long to take out. Should I replace it with something else?”

“Then please go with ‘Or rather’.”

“Okay, let’s try that out then.”

Gwak Joon interrupted from time to time to fix some of the lines. He was probably fixing the discrepancies that came from words written as text becoming alive through the actor’s mouths.

“Dad, that doesn’t… Dad, that… I’m very sorry.”

Yoojin spoke for the first time amongst the bigshot actors. Although she always acted boldly, she looked stiff right now. She seemed pressured by the atmosphere of the actors sitting next to her.

“I might swear at you if you end up doing that during filming,” Joonggeun said with a smile.

Although the other actors just laughed it over, as the person in question, Yoojin froze up and only said ‘yes’ repeatedly. Maru pitied her to the point that he had the urge to pat her back.

“Hm, shall we have a break?”

Hearing the director’s words, everyone put down their scripts. When Yoojin panicked and looked around, Suyeon patted her shoulders as though to tell her that it was okay.

“Don’t be nervous. You can just do it like usual.”

“Yes. It’s not like someone will eat you.”

The senior actors all encouraged her. Yoojin barely managed to smile back and nodded her head. While they had a break, the cameramen started moving around and took photos of the actors’ scripts. They didn’t do any interviews though, since it might disturb the read-through.

“Well then. Let’s get back to it, shall we?”

Joonggeun spoke as he opened his script.

Chapter 260

She wasn’t supposed to shake this badly, yet the words on the white script seemed wavy as though they were dancing. This was the first time she experienced such a thing. Yoojin was angry not at the fact that she became nervous but at the fact that she didn’t have full control over herself. She spat out a breath and closed her eyes. Her intraocular pressure rose until a white light flashed in front of her eyes. In that state, she slowly opened her eyes. The words on the script had returned to normal.

“You get nervous unexpectedly easily,” Suyeon, who was next to her, spoke. Yoojin just nodded back.

The director had definitely said that they would do a full run-through without breaks yet she was the one who caused one. A junior like her had messed up the schedule of numerous seniors in the same space as her. Yoojin felt very sorry and embarrassed to the point that she couldn’t look at the seniors around the table in the face.

“Well then, let’s do that again.”

The director, Joonggeun, signalled the resume. Yoojin licked her lips. She resolved that she would not make the same mistake.

“Let’s start where we left off.”

After Joonggeun’s finger click, Yoojin reflexively started speaking. She mechanically uttered the words she had practiced many times before taking in a deep breath. She did not make a mistake, but nor did she exert any emotions into her words. The line did not contain the voice of the spoiled little daughter. She knew that herself, so she couldn’t imagine what the other actors had to say about this.

“Don’t be late to cram school, and don’t make your mother worried.”

Kang Sooyeol, who was the elder’s second son and Yoojin’s father in the movie, replied to her with his line. Sooyeol didn’t look at the script, but looked at Yoojin in the face as he spoke, and he had a calm smile on his face. It was the smile of a father looking at his daughter. Seeing that smile, Yoojin felt embarrassed on one hand, and was relieved on the other hand. She could feel that her stiff lips had relaxed somewhat. She gained the confidence that she could do it.

“Dad, stop nagging me.”

She recovered from her stiff face as well. She made a grumpy expression and looked at Sooyeol. Sooyeol nodded his head and followed up after.

“She’s good. Kids these days are really good at acting, aren’t they, sir?”

Hearing the director’s words, Moonjoong said ‘of course’. Yoojin was able to smile since she felt that she was praised. She was no longer nervous. Only now did she feel like she was doing a read-through with her senior actors.

Yoojin flipped over the page carefully as she looked at the expressions of the senior actors. Although this was supposed to be a simple read-through, everyone was exerting emotions into their words.

Taeho smashed the table with his fist as he did his line. This scene was where he got into an argument with the main protagonist, Moonjoong, and it was very lively as though someone not looking at the scene might believe that a fight actually broke out. What was surprising was that the two arguing people weren’t even looking at each other in the face, yet those vicious emotions felt very real.

After a storm of words swept past, Moonjoong started his soliloquy after realizing that he was all alone in this world. Even Taeho, who was shouting as though he was about to eat someone, started looking at Moonjoong and the script alternately with a heavy expression. Yoojin had a glance at the other actors as well. Everyone was focusing on Moonjoong’s act just like Taeho was. Of course, no one looked at him passionately. They only nodded from time to time as though they had learned a thing or two from him.

Another page was flipped over. Now, the scene shifted to where the elder, the main character, was walking around the streets while drunk. He no longer sounded angry like before, and just felt powerless. It was as though a portion of his soul was ripped apart. He didn’t slur his words like a drunkard. In fact, the pronunciation became even clearer than before. However, each of those words felt a lot colder than before.

Yoojin saw that Moonjoong’s face had turned bright red. Although his words didn’t contain any power, his expression looked as desperate as a man pushed to the edge of a cliff. The drastic contrast between his words and his expression was splendid enough to go on camera immediately. Yoojin couldn’t even think about looking at the script as she looked at Moonjoong. Moonjoong blamed himself for the attitude of his three sons, and eventually, he looked as though he was over it.

His breath was very thin. It was the lamentation of an elder who had lost his meaning of living. He felt ashamed of himself and angry at his children. At the same time, he felt empathy. Moonjoong expressed the moment that contained those complex emotions with a self-loathing laugh and a sporadic breathing, and Yoojin gaped her mouth slightly as she watched all of this happen.

Shocked? That wasn’t enough to describe it. Overwhelmed? Still not enough. She couldn’t use words to describe this situation. At the end of her contemplation, she arrived at an answer.

‘I became the elder.’

She saw herself in the sighing elder’s position, felt the same pain as him, and spat out that same pain with the same slow breath. The act did not show her, but made her understand, nay, sympathize with the old man. The acting skills made her look at that man and nothing else for a brief moment and made her forget about herself. She never understood when an actor was known for doing ‘immersive’ acts, and now she could finally understand what that meant. She simply didn’t understand what it meant since she had never seen such an actor until now.

And right now, she understood the meaning behind the word fully.

‘This is the best and the worst opportunity.’

Yoojin turned around to have a look at Maru who was sitting against the wall. The script was slowly heading towards Maru’s lines. He only had two sentences. He had to interact with Moonjoong with just those. It was a great opportunity to act in the same scene as a great senior, but at the same time, there was the possibility that the act would pale in comparison to Moonjoong’s. The director would want the best picture possible, and it was unknown what his standards would be after seeing a great act from Moonjoong.

She imagined for a second. Lights and reflectors, camera rolling. Numerous people in the staff would be looking at him, and a great senior would be acting in front of him as well. Eventually, the camera would focus in on his face and towards his mouth. How immense would the pressure be?

She shivered just thinking about it. Not many people blamed new actors for making mistakes, at least in the dramas that she had participated in. However, it would be a different story if that mistake was repeated several times. Sometimes, the director would go as far as to pause the filming itself then and there.

‘Phew. This is why one has to start from the bottom of the ladder.’

A two shot with a great senior actor. If it was before she saw Moonjoong’s acting, she would have accepted it gladly, but now that she had seen him in action, she did not have the slightest desire to do so.

Moonjoong kept acting like a drunkard as he read his line. He was lying down on a bench in the streets. Yoojin had a look at Maru. It was time for him to appear.

“Hey, I said let’s get going. What are you doing over there?” The director spoke.

This line was supposed to be said by Jiseok. The director took his place since he wasn’t here. The director said the following line as well, and now it was Maru’s turn.

However, he took Maru’s line as well.

“What kind of shit have you been doing all this time for you to end up there?”

The director said that line with a little bit of mischief. The actors chuckled. The atmosphere hadn’t changed.

Maru was looking at his script without saying anything. Yoojin felt agitated. The person in question was sitting still, so she was in no position to say anything either. Moreover, he was just an extra. It was much more important to listen to the acting of the main actors, so it would be somewhat out of his position as an extra to break the flow.

Maru seemed to be aware of that and didn’t seem to mind it that much. After all, how many people here would be aware of the fact that an extra like him had attended this event?

She was about to flip her script over when,

“Director,” Moonjoong straightened his back as he spoke. The director looked at him puzzledly.

“The actor is right there, so why don’t we have a listen to his lines?”

“Oh, he’s here?”

The director looked around. Yoojin saw that Maru was waving his hand that was holding the script.

She thought that no one would recognize his presence, but the main character, of all people, called him out. Yoojin looked at Moonjoong and Maru alternately in surprise.

“Sorry, as far as I was aware, the majority of you were absent. Well then, let’s have a listen, shall we?”

“Then let’s start from the line before.”

When Moonjoong flipped the page back, everyone in the conference room followed suit. Perhaps this was what it felt like to be a disciple of a master. Yoojin gulped before looking at Maru.

After a moment of silence, Moonjoong started his line again after a small cough. The self-loathing laugh of a powerless elder repeated itself and following that, the director said the delinquent’s line with a bit of effort.

Then,

“What kind of shit have you been doing all those years for you to become like that?”

Yoojin felt very unpleasant the moment she heard those loathing words that came out from the twisted mouth that was Maru’s. His head was tilted slightly sideways and was crossing his legs. He couldn’t look more delinquent-like even when he looked like an ordinary student just a moment ago. No, ‘delinquent-like’ didn’t fit him. He felt much more deplorable than that.

He was looking at the floor, and it seemed that he was looking down on ‘something’. Yoojin had the misconception that there was an elder lying down where he was looking. Leaving aside Maru’s attitude, his eyes looked as though they were looking at something real, not something imaginary, so Yoojin momentarily felt that she was the weird one for not being able to find anything.

When Maru’s lips curved after that line, Yoojin frowned subconsciously. She suddenly had a feeling of disgust towards him. She even thought that Maru’s disgusting inner self had manifested itself through the form of acting. Of course, she was well-aware that that wasn’t the case, but the rejection she felt towards him was unbelievably real.

Maru’s voice was immediately buried behind Moonjoong’s following words. Moonjoong followed up too naturally. No one found a flaw, and no one laughed either. The cheerful atmosphere in the room became cold in an instant. It was as though someone had poured freezing water on them.

Yoojin glimpsed at the actors. Although she did not find any change within the director, Moonjoong, and Taeho’s group, she could feel the faint tension from nearby actors. Suyeon especially - she was looking at the script with scary eyes, and she had a slight smile on her face. Yoojin felt a shiver climb down her spine the moment she saw Suyeon’s expression and immediately had to shift her eyes to her own script.

The street scene ended after Moonjoong’s words. The director, who was in charge of leading everyone, stopped there and crossed his arms as he smiled.

“Sir, kids these days are really good at acting. I mean, really.”

He had a satisfied smile on his face. The moment Yoojin saw that smile, Yoojin clenched her teeth. Those were the same words that he said when she made a mistake. If there was a difference, it was that before, he said those words as encouragement, and this time, he seemed to be truly surprised. She felt a scratch on her pride.

‘Yes, that’s right.’

She had almost forgotten. Something similar had happened in the amateur acting class before. Although she had forgotten about those emotions after Maru left due to injuries, those emotions surfaced again today.

I will do better than you.

That was the objective she set for herself during the amateur acting class. Yoojin heaved a deep breath out through her nose and looked at Maru. He was muttering something to himself as though nothing had happened and was flipping to and from pages.

She felt fired up again. Although the atmosphere felt like there would be a break, Yoojin kept staring into the script without letting it go. She did not want to be behind her peers.

“Uhm, let’s have a break,” the director, Joonggeun, spoke as he stood up.

Chapter 261

Maru closed his script and stretched out his neck. He hadn’t been sitting for a long period of time, yet he felt stiff. He put his script on his thighs and locked his fingers. He put his hands behind his head and pushed it forward to stretch his neck. Just then, he saw a shadow drape over his script.

“You were scary back there. Who were you trying to beat?”

He raised his head to look. He saw Suyeon with a smile.

“Someone that’s not good, I guess.”

“Are you serious?”

“Who knows?”

Maru was aware that there was no good in conversing with this woman. He immediately stood up and left the conference room.

“When did you practice so much?” Suyeon followed him and asked.

Maru stared back at her.

“You have something to say to me?”

“No, I don’t have anything like that.”

“Then why are you following me?”

“You’re a funny one. I just happen to be going the same way as you. Looks like you’re full of yourself.”

“Alright, then.”

Maru nodded and immediately headed towards the men’s bathroom. Suyeon, who was following him, stopped in front of the bathroom with a dumbfounded expression.

“It looks like this isn’t where you were going, huh?”

Maru shrugged as he said those words. Inside the bathroom, he saw Gwak Joon washing his hands. The already gloomy-looking guy had dark circles under his eyes. Gwak Joon sighed and discovered Maru reflected on the mirror.

“You look tired.”

“I didn’t get any sleep because of my new work. I’ll fall asleep the moment I lie down.”

“Sleep is the best medicine.”

Gwak Joon laughed back at him as he wiped his hands off with some paper towel.

“You were good back there.”

“Thank you. I was inwardly worried, but I’m relieved to hear that from you. Oh, are extras usually not called to the read-through?”

“I don’t know. But it’s somewhat funny to ask them to come to say a couple lines and have them stay for a few hours. So maybe not calling them is the right thing to do.”

Hearing those words, Maru nodded his head. He only had two lines. Since that was done, all he had to do now was to flip over the script as the other actors do their bit.

“By the way, I saw that you changed the line.”

Maru scratched his eyes when he heard those rather scolding words. It was definitely wrong of him to change the lines without the original author’s approval. He was scolded before for this as well - that the script is an agreement between the actors and is the essence of the writer’s intentions. He had changed such a thing without permission, so he had nothing to say back to him.

If Gwak Joon simply said that to scold him, Maru would have apologized, but it seemed that he wanted an answer. Maru organized his thoughts before speaking.

“I tried saying it out loud a few times, and I didn’t like it that much.”

“The latter part?”

“Yes. Actually, I didn’t find anything wrong when I read the first part. It was natural and it contained the essence of that situation. I’ve never found it disconcerting even after I practiced hundreds of times. But… when I looked at the elder reading his script, those lines started getting on my tongue. I inwardly started repeating those lines again and again in the conference room, and even uttered to myself in a small voice, and it did not sound as good as it did before.”

“It didn’t sound as good as before?”

Maru nodded his head. This happened while he watched Moonjoong’s act. Is this line fine as it is? The moment that question came to his head, he started doubting the original script. Once he felt disappointed about what seemed like a flawless script, he could no longer exert his emotions into it anymore. However, that didn’t mean that he felt that the line was entirely wrong. He felt that he just needed to change the words just a little to make it right.

“The original line was ‘What kind of shit have you been doing all this time for you to end up there?’, right?”

“That’s right.”

Maru saw that Gwak Joon turned around to face him completely.

“And the line I changed it to is ‘What kind of shit have you been doing all those years for you to become like that?’. It’s just a difference in words, and not a difference in meaning. However, I wanted something more generalized and negative. ‘After all those years’ is a common expression, but it should sound incredibly offensive to the pitiful old man.”

“Then what about ‘end up there’ and ‘become like that’?”

Gwak Joon lifted his glasses with his index finger as he asked.

“‘End up there’ is referring to the old man’s current situation. He’s lying on a bench. Meanwhile, I thought that ‘become like that’ is more generally referring to the state of his life and the expression of disdain for it.”

“And so, it’s a more generalized line?”

“I’m just saying my thoughts about it.”

After listening to his words, Gwak Joon said ‘hm’, before leaving the bathroom. Maru felt that he had to follow.

“What are the two of you…”

Suyeon, who was waiting outside, talked to the two as soon as they got out, but Maru did not answer and Gwak Joon did not seem to care at all. Maru silently greeted her with his eyes before following Gwak Joon down the corridor. Gwak Joon spoke after stopping in front of a window.

“First, I take it positively that you didn’t just parrot the script and that you have your own opinion. I’m the type of person that does not like people blindly following my words to the tee and like people that actually think about the meaning behind my words. However, you took a step too far.”

Gwak Joon took out the script he had rolled up and put inside his pocket.

“What you said definitely makes sense. A more generalized description of the situation. It’s not a bad choice. After all, it’s true that a difference in words can make a difference in context. However, your opinion is wrong. Not different but wrong. Do you understand why?”

Maru didn’t have to think about it and replied that he didn’t. That line was the answer he came across after a deep contemplation. He never realized that there was an error in his words, at least not until now.

“Your line is a good line in the perspective of the writer. If the writer writes it like that, then he or she is giving the readers something to contemplate about, and it changes the flavor of the sentence. However, what if you think about it in the perspective of a 17 year-old delinquent who has to say that line? Your line seems like it requires a lot of thinking on the delinquent’s part after looking at the old man. What do you think?”

Maru realized what Gwak Joon meant the moment he said those words.

Maru had the opportunity to have a look at the script several times. He was aware of everything that was going on: the order of events, the changes in the emotions of various characters, and the circumstances leading to the ending. He had an objective, omniscient view about all the characters. He found a flaw in the ‘delinquent’ since he had a perfect understanding of the world around that character. Moreover, he had witnessed Moonjoong’s overwhelming skills. It was no wonder he was dissatisfied with the delinquent’s line.

That was the reason he decided to change the line - he did so in order to add more character.

However, the delinquent was not an omniscient god. He was just an ordinary high school student within that world. Would a mere student, who had been drinking alcohol throughout the night with his friends, think about the circumstances behind an old man lying down on a bench, and speak such profound words?

No. In fact, he would utter even more low-quality words. Perhaps, he might have just kicked the old man’s body without saying anything. However, violence wasn’t enough to awaken the elder’s wrath. There needed to be a line that could provoke the elder’s emotions, but at the same time, show the surface emotions of the high school delinquent.

“There are different stages to characters. The looks, the surface traits and the source traits. Like what you said, if you dig deep enough into the delinquent, he would have his own philosophy, and might say something like that to the elder. However, that does not fit in this movie. The camera must focus on the elder, not the delinquent. I’ve learned a lot while I learned film production. A book does not have a runtime. It has an ending, but the reader gets to choose whether to flip the page over or not. Meanwhile, a movie has to tell the message to the audience as efficiently as possible because it’s like a ship sailing on the ocean of time. With a book, you can just flip the other way if you don’t understand something, but that’s not true for a movie. Well, strictly speaking, you can technically pause and rewind, but that’s not possible in a cinema,” after saying those lines, Gwak Joon made a ‘brrr’ sound to exercise his lips. He said that his lips were hurting after speaking for so long.

“But I like the ‘after all those years’ part. I think I’ll use it.”

“Do I get a copyright fee for that?”

“Just make do with some coffee.”

Gwak Joon bought a cup of coffee from the vending machine. Maru accepted the cup with a smile. Actually, it was him that was supposed to buy this coffee. After all, it was natural to pay tuition for something he had learned.

Just when he was drinking coffee, two people appeared from the other end of the corridor. They were Moonjooong, who was holding a cigarette in his mouth, as well as Joonggeun.

“Huh? You two know each other?”

Joonggeun pointed at Maru and Gwak Joon as he spoke. Gwak Joon said ‘yes’.

“What the heck is this? Sir Yoon knows you, and the author knows you. What the hell are you?” Joonggeun asked with a joking tone.

“I’m an aspiring actor.”

“Do you think I didn’t know that?”

“I’m a high school student.”

“Look at this kid. You’re talking back at every junction… You caught my fancy! Hey, what’s your name?”

“My name is Han Maru.”

“Han Maru? Han Maru, Han Maru… Ah! The boy from back then! I have a dumpster of a memory, but I remember you because of your peculiar name. That’s right, Han Maru. Yes, you’re good at acting.”

Joonggeun bought a cup of coffee from the vending machine and gave it to Moonjoong, while Gwak Joon lighted the cigarette up for Moonjoong.

“Sir, you smoke?”

They had met several times before, but this was the first time Gwak Joon saw him smoke.

“It’s a bad habit of mine. It’s somewhat like a jinx as well.”

Moonjoong sucked on the cigarette. The tip of the cigarette turned red. After spitting out some smoke in a slow breath, he rubbed off the cigarette on the ashtray on the trash can.

“I saw that you practiced a lot.”

Moonjoong looked at Maru with a benevolent expression.

“I don’t plan on being luggage after all. Please teach me a lot in the future as well.”

“I have nothing to teach you. You’re doing fine right now. You’ll become a good actor with a bit of experience.”

“Wow, I think this is the first time I saw you praising someone for their acting skills. Moreover, he’s young as well.”

Joonggeun looked at Maru with interest. Maru smiled back awkwardly as he drank his coffee.

“Of course, just that won’t be enough for this movie. I’m going to be very greedy with this piece.”

Joonggeun turned around after saying ‘work hard’. He seemed like a good man because of his chubby impression, but Maru knew from the rumors that he was a scary man during filming. No, the word evil fit him better than the word scary. He would utter ‘again’ at the slightest opportunity, while swear words were the norm. He had heard this from Junmin. He had passion regarding his work and hated to work with actors that were lacking in skill and those that didn’t work properly, so he would be a film director to avoid in the perspective of the production company who wanted a smooth sail for the movie.

Despite that, he was a super popular film director and was hard to scout because his movies always had great results, nearly 7 million to 8 million views for every single one of them. Junmin said that it would have been extremely difficult to scout him if not for his personal connections and the participation of Moonjoong.

“Now that puts pressure on me.”

“You’ll have to be on the edge at all times. Once that guy picks up the megaphone, he’ll swear at just about anything. Had I remained in the industry for just a little longer, he would have sworn at me as well.”

“No way.”

Moonjoong turned around and left.

Break was almost over. The remaining part was a series of violent emotions. The relaxed atmosphere that they started off with would no longer be there.

‘Let’s go then.’

He finished his lines, but he still had things to learn. He had to gain experience by listening to the lines of his experienced seniors.

Chapter 262

“I never thought I’d see you here, senior.”

Dongwook, who was smoking in the smoking area of the building, turned his head around when he heard the familiar voice. A man dressed in a suit was waving his hand as he approached him. What entered his eyes first was not the man’s face, but the watch on his wrist. As his job required him to interact with celebrities, he was used to seeing brand-name items, and he was able to tell that the approaching man’s watch was a very expensive brand.

“Uh, yeah. Long time no see.”

Dongwook smiled stiffly as he looked at the man.

“How long has it been? Have you been doing well?”

“Well, I’ve been doing okay.”

He wanted to act boldly in front of this man, but he couldn’t because of the brand-name watch on his wrist.

“It’s been what, 10 years? No, it should’ve been more than that. I heard rumors about you. I heard you became a journalist at a TV station after you passed that extremely hard exam. Right?”

His junior scanned him from top to bottom as he said those words. His gaze reached Dongwook’s tattered shoes and the no-brand coat that he bought from the streets, and Dongwook declined replying by turning away slightly.

His junior smiled faintly after licking his lips.

“Senior. Here’s my business card. Call me up some time.”

His junior, who was very quick-witted and considerate, turned around and left. Dongwook sighed as he saw his junior’s business card. 10 years ago, they were close like brothers. He could barely remember that they talked about their bright future over a drink. Dongwook agitatedly sucked on his cigarette because he was frustrated at the fact that he couldn’t even talk with the guy properly due to his embarrassment. TV journalist. If he had that title, he might have acted close to that guy and maybe they would’ve gone out to a meal tonight.

‘It’s all pointless.’

He only lamented for a brief moment. Dongwook thought to himself that money made people look like proper people as he rubbed his cigarette off on the ashtray. He picked up his notepad and returned to the conference room with his camera. Only a few companies were permitted to film the read-through. Internet journalists like him had to wait until the end and take photos of the actors at the very end when they were leaving.

‘Anyway.’

Dongwook’s eyes followed one youth. He seemed to be a high school student. The way he flipped over the pages of the script as he leaned against the wall was quite a picture to look at. His eyes and lips showed an indifferent expression. It wasn’t that he was peerlessly handsome, but he had a good face for an actor.

Of course, that wasn’t the reason he grabbed Dongwook’s attention.

‘I can tell from looking at him.’

Acting was a field where it was hard to objectively evaluate others. It was a form of art, yet it did not have any specific standards of evaluation. Despite that, people still evaluated actors on their acting skills. Dongwook was the same. He could evaluate actors with his ‘I can tell from looking’ standard.

“You did well back there.”

Dongwook sat next to the youth.

“…Thank you,” the youth nodded his head once before looking at his script again.

Dongwook inwardly found him precocious.

“I haven’t seen you before. Which company do you belong to? Or maybe you don’t have one yet?”

The youth did not reply to his question and just stared at Dongwook. He seemed wary of Dongwook. Dongwook immediately took out his business card from his wallet. This was the master key to getting kids to talk - the journalist business card. He secretly covered up the name of his company with his thumb. As this country’s education focused on teaching courtesy, they taught that it wasn’t polite to return a question with a question. Youths would begrudgingly reply first if he showed them his business card like this, ten out of ten times.

The youth looked at his business card.

‘That should be enough.’

Just as he was about to retract his hand back, the youth nicked the business card out of his hands. This was the first time such a thing happened, so Dongwook blankly looked at the youth.

“Mint News? Which company is this?”

That was his first question. Dongwook felt as he just received a smack on the back of his head. He never knew that this kid would be as bold as to steal the business card off his hands. What was more absurd was the youth’s words.

“You were giving me this, right? It’s a business card.”

Dongwook barely smiled with his twitching lips as he nodded his head. That was the entire purpose of a business card, so he couldn’t say no.

“Mint News… is relatively well known around here. Do you not know?”

“Is that so? A news company, huh.”

The youth couldn’t look more natural as he took out his wallet and put the business card inside it after looking at it for a while. His actions were smooth and refined as though he was already used to such a thing. Usually, kids around his age would just stand there doing nothing because they did not know what to do with it, or just rudely stuff it inside their pockets, but this fellow was clearly different.

“So you seem to be a journalist.”

“Well, yes,”

“Are you here to interview sir Yoon Moonjoong?”

“Yeah, well.”

Somehow, he was no longer the one asking questions. Dongwook gave the nodding youth a question. After all, it would be a loss on his side if this was the direction the conversation was going.

“Rather than that, I thought I asked you. Which academy do you go to? Or maybe you belong to a company?”

Dongwook was not interested in already popular stars. It was too easy to write articles about them. After all, cameras followed them everywhere. However, it was incredibly difficult to find any valuable news from them. The entertainment companies protected their contracted stars very meticulously and did not allow bad news about them to be written, and the stars themselves never did deeds that might be controversial. In the end, the only valuable news regarding stars would be news about their marriage, the release of their new work, or their good deeds. In other words, those news would act in their favor. The customs in this industry meant that those kinds of news were given to select news companies or journalists that the entertainment company had a contract with.

A beautiful flower would have attracted many bees to it, and it would be hard to get any honey from it. As such, journalists that did not belong to major companies looked for new actors that had potential, but did not blossom fully, and tried to make connections with them early on. They would write good articles about those young people with good potential, and become close to them through that. Once that youth becomes a star, the journalist that made early connections would use their friendship to get good articles from them.

In Dongwook’s eyes, the youth in front of him had enough attraction. His potential was proven with the act he did during the read-through. Those with potential would immediately grab attention from the public with the right opportunity. He didn’t look that bad, and his indifferent image seemed like he would be popular with the girls. No, Dongwook predicted that this boy would lead a noona brigade. In any case, he judged that this boy would become popular, meaning that it wouldn’t do him bad to get close to him now. He first had to find out if this guy belonged to a company, or just passed the audition without a company backing him. If he did not belong to any company, it would become easier for him to become close to this guy. After all, no one would have told him about how to act in front of journalists.

“So you want to know where I belong to?”

“Huh?”

Dongwook blinked and looked at the youth. Usually, even the most wary people would answer obediently. After all, there was nothing harmful about it. Despite that, this youth did not answer him. In fact, he squinted his eyes as though he was trying to probe Dongwook out.

‘This boy… ’

Dongwook judged that this boy was someone with society experience. At the same time, he was sure that he belonged to a company. He should have been educated not to answer questions asked by journalists.

‘But at the same time, they are told something else as well.’

They had to be vague about any answers, but had to act kind. Performers were not supposed to get in a bad relationship with journalists in any way. Especially if new. The companies always taught not to get on the bad side of journalists.

As such, simple logic told Dongwook that he would soon be able to eke out some information from him, yet,

“I’m just a newbie actor that’s aspiring to make a living out of it.”

“Uh, well, okay.”

He felt like he was talking to a wall. Dongwook never thought that he lacked qualifications as a journalist. He always made the other party talk through a suitable mix of the carrot and the stick. If even that didn’t work, he would persistently annoy the other party until they talked. But what was it with this boy? He drew a clear line from the get go, so he couldn’t ask him anything. This didn’t mean that he was being rude either. He humbled himself with his words and answered properly. There was nothing for Dongwook to nitpick about him.

“Ehem, you were good back there.”

“Thank you, though, I think you told me that just a moment ago.”

“Is that so? My memory is failing me these days. But what do you think about the atmosphere? From the looks of it, it looks like this is your first time participating.”

“It’s good.”

“Ah, okay. Is there a senior actor that you respect among those present?”

“I respect sir Moonjoong.”

“Okay. Sir Yoon Moonjoong is definitely worthy of respect. He’s a legend in this industry, isn’t he?”

“Yes.”

“What made you start respe…”

“Because he’s a legend.”

“Ah…”

Dongwook barely stopped his smile from twitching. This wasn’t really unprecedented. There were some performers that replied with extremely short answers to every question. Those were the worst kind of interviewees that just cut the flow of the interview. The youth in front of him was precisely like that. A conversation required a topic, yet the youth ended all topics as soon as it was brought up. It didn’t seem like he was on guard or something. After all, he was giving answers. Was this his nature? Or was he acting a character? If so, then who created this character for him?

At that moment,

“I’m just not good around strangers. I’m not acting a character or anything like that,” the youth smiled as he spoke. Dongwook flinched because he felt as though this boy read his mind. Shamelessness was a necessary trait of journalists, yet his mask was broken for a brief moment.

‘He’s a strong enemy!’ That was what came to his mind. At the same time, this boy piqued his interest.

Usually, those who were bold in their actions were a huge scoop, or were nothing at all. Dongwook saw such boldness from this young fellow.

‘However, he’s nothing more than a high school student. You will have no choice but to tell me everything. I have tasted all that there is to this world. No matter how good you are at maintaining your poker face, I will dissolve it into pieces and… ’

Just as he was thinking, someone approached the young man. This man belonged to a famous magazine company that was one of the parties allowed to take videos of the read-through.

“Uhm, excuse me, but can I ask you a few questions?”

This journalist seemed to be interested in this fellow as well.

‘Heh, hey, you won’t catch this guy’s heart like that.’

Dongwook waited for the new man to walk away after being flabbergasted by this youth and his short answers.

“Yes, sure.”

‘…What?’

The young man replied with a soft smile. The smile suited his rather cold image that he made for himself. The two exchanged conversations. The youth who answered with short sentences answered properly this time as though everything that happened before was a lie. In fact, he sometimes even gave hints to the journalist so that the two could talk some more.

“If there comes a day you become popular enough to go on the first page, I will put this interview there for you.”

“Why, thank you. I would be really happy if my name goes on QE some day. Though, it won’t happen anytime soon.”

“That sounds like you have the confidence to become successful with enough time.”

“A rookie cannot catch up to the experience of the seniors without a suitable amount of ambition.”

“Haha, you’re good with your words. What was your name again?”

“My name is Han Maru.”

“Okay, Maru. If we ever meet again, I will treat you to a meal.”

The interview ended on a good note. After the magazine journalist left, Han Maru started reading his script again with sharp eyes as though that warm spring smile had never appeared on his face before.

‘What’s up with this kid?’

Dongwook was flabbergasted. This young man wasn’t ordinary.

“Are you looking down on me because I’m from a nameless company?”

“I wonder who it was that wanted to be treated well by a nameless actor. Well, I can understand that journalist since he’ll work in my favor.”

“Geez.”

He couldn’t say that the boy was rude since it was him who used market logic to approach the boy first, and the boy just responded in kind. He started off with lies, so he couldn’t say anything even if he was looked down upon. This youth was not a kid, and it was his fault for not noticing that.

“I’m sorry. I’ll apologize first. Mint News is just an internet news company. I’m a pathetic journalist that works for it. The reason I approached you is because I thought that you had potential. Getting close to those with potential while they’re still new means I’ll see profit in the future.”

Who was he supposed to deceive now? They were both experts so he revealed his card first. If this youth was really an expert, then he would give back some kind of reaction. If this youth was not an expert and was just bluffing, then Dongwook would start coaxing him into speaking again.

And then,

“Am I worth investing?”

“…My eyes say so.”

The youth, Maru, closed his script and looked his way. He had a smile on his face. This meant that he was ready to have a proper conversation.

“I’m Han Maru.”

“And I’m Kim Dongwook.”

Dongwook shook hands with Maru.

He met a real expert this time.

Chapter 263

“I never thought I’d see you here, senior.”

Moonjoong curled up his body as he sighed. When his sigh dissipated, he put down his script on the table before heaving out another beath. That signalled the end of the read-through.

Clap clap clap. The actors and the staff all started applauding. The read-through ended without a hitch. The journalists started taking photos of Moonjoong immediately. Even Taeho, the currently hot actor in Chungmuro, was given the cold shoulder right now.

Maru shook his head before applauding. This was just a read-through without any moving action. There was a limit to how real just voice acting could be, yet Moonjoong enchanted Maru from the beginning to the end. If movement action was added to this, it would look scarily good.

He was about to act in tandem with such a person. The pressure on him suddenly increased. If he was to not make a fool of himself; if he was to not be pressured by Moonjoong’s aura, he would have to do better than he was doing now.

Maru saw Taeho who was having a conversation with Moonjoong. He thought to himself that a pro was a pro after all. Taeho’s voice acting did not lose out to Moonjoong’s at all. If there was no strength behind his lines, his lines would have been gobbled up by Moonjoong’s lines, but the two were on equal footing, and he added more to the tension of the read-through.

‘That’s experience for you.’

It was hard to do a scene where Moonjoong didn’t even talk, yet the actors around the table actually had to converse with Moonjoong. Without enough skills, their character would be trampled upon by Moonjoong’s presence and become faint. The reason why the actors near Moonjoong could be at ease should be because they have the confidence not to be trampled upon. Meanwhile, the minor actors who were sitting far away from the director looked very nervous. Overcoming that pressure, or fading away as an extra. This was a threat and at the same time, an opportunity. The ones that overcome that pressure would receive attention from the media.

“Thank you all everyone. We’re going to do rituals on the roof of this building so don’t go anywhere and come join us.”

The director spoke with a hoarse voice. The people inside the conference room started standing up one by one.

“Well done,” Maru said to Yoojin, who looked exhausted. After she made a mistake in her screaming part where she found the dead bodies of her parents, she looked pale. It seemed that she was afraid after making two mistakes.

“You have it good.”

“What’s this about?”

“Haa, I don’t know. I’m tired, I’m really tired.”

Yoojin walked behind Maru’s back and put her hands on Maru’s shoulders and loosened her legs so that she was practically hanging off Maru’s shoulders. Maru frowned as he put strength into his legs.

“You know you’re heavy, right?”

“Oh, please!” Yoojin grumbled. Maru wanted to shake Yoojin’s hands off his shoulders and go to the rooftop first, but he found her pitiful and decided to act as her servant for now. He took the limping Yoojin and walked towards the elevator. The important people seemed to have gone up already as the ones remaining in the conference room were just some journalists and minor actors.

“Who’s that behind you?”

Geunsoo asked him in front of the elevator. Geunsoo was the third son in the movie, and he was the first one to get killed by the ‘elder’. Unlike his usually witty attitude, he was one of the villains in the movie who dearly wished for the elder’s, his father’s, death.

“M, my name is Lee Yoojin.”

Yoojin immediately stood up straight and looked at Geunsoo. Geunsoo replied,

“Oh, you’re Yoojin.”

“We don’t have any scenes together, but I hope we get along.”

When Geunsoo extended out his hand, Yoojin immediately grabbed it.

Maru saw that Yoojin was smiling after the handshake with Geunsoo as she looked at her right hand. From her expression, it seemed that she knew who Geunsoo was. Otherwise, there was no way she would rejoice that much.

“Aren’t you going to ask me anything?”

Maru thought about the meaning behind those words before speaking,

“From how I don’t hear anything about him, he must be doing well.”

“I guess that’s true.”

“Did he not cause any trouble? He’s the kind of guy who doesn’t appreciate help.”

“Family members are supposed to get angry at that statement, but somehow, it doesn’t feel offensive at all. Maybe it’s because I’m a weird one myself,” Geunsoo chuckled.

Yoojin judged that this was a conversation she wasn’t supposed to hear and distanced herself.

“At first, he didn’t even eat anything and did the exact opposite of what I told him to do, but these days, he’s at least getting his meals. It seems like men are equal before the desire to eat.”

“Well, he that would eat the fruit must climb the tree.”

Maru lowered his voice before following up.

“Did you check on what I told you last time?”

Geunsoo nodded back.

“Are you going to report it?”

“I’m not sure yet. I don’t want to poke around my younger brother’s mind when he just stabilized. To make a report, I’d need his testimony, but I still can’t imagine him going against father for the time being.”

“Okay.”

“For now, I’ve distanced him from the house, so I’ll keep watching over him for the time being. If he’s frustrated, he’ll ask me for help, if he doesn’t, well…,” Geunsoo did not finish his words.

Although he was speaking as though he was a third person in this matter, Geunseok’s father was Geunsoo’s father as well. If his emotions were completely separate from his rationale, then he would immediately report it to the police and get an approach prohibition order, but that wasn’t as easy as it sounded. Moreover, there was the possibility that Geunseok would deny any events of violence and speak badly on Geunsoo’s behalf, so Geunsoo had to be careful about reporting this matter.

“It’s about time he grows up.”

After that, Geunsoo no longer talked about Geunseok. It wasn’t that good of a topic, and telling others about family matters wasn’t something that anyone would be comfortable with.

“Is that your girlfriend?”

“No way. My girlfriend is a hundred times prettier than her.”

“Wow, she’s that pretty?”

Yoojin approached after realizing that the topic had changed.

“What was that just now?” Yoojin whispered to Maru in a low voice.

Maru just replied, “I said you were pretty,” before getting a smack on his waist. Maru dodged sideways to parry her hand.

“She’s a bit violent, don’t mind her.”

“Why? She’s cute.”

Yoojin grinned when she heard Geunsoo’s words. Oh? Maru hopped on the elevator as he thought that this girl was helpless. Just as the elevator doors were about to close with the three inside, they saw Suyeon who was shouting ‘wait’ as she ran towards them. It seemed that she was fixing her makeup until now.

Maru looked at Geunsoo, and Geunsoo smashed the close button on the elevator without hesitation.

“She’s pursuing you, why don’t you two go on a date once?”

“I’m a free spirit. I don’t like scary women.”

A giggle escaped Maru’s mouth. As the doors almost closed all the way and Suyeon’s panicked expression could be seen, Suyeon ran with all her might and put her leg between the closing doors. She really had good reflexes as she exercised frequently.

“That’s strange. I thought I told you to wait.”

Suyeon returned to her precocious self as she shook off the dust on her jeans.

“Yeah, that’s strange. I pressed the open button. Why didn’t it work?”

Geunsoo spoke with an expression without any malice. He was definitely an actor, alright. The shift in his expression was instant. However, the one talking to him did acting for a living.

“No way. You must have been smashing the close button. How about you buy me dinner as compensation?” Suyeon spoke.

This woman really wasn’t ordinary. Maru coughed awkwardly as he turned his head. He didn’t want to get caught up between the two.

“Actually, Maru was the one pressing the close button,” Geunsoo said with a refreshing smile.

“No way. I saw you pressing the button with all your heart. Yoojin, you saw it too, didn’t you?”

“Huh? Uh, yeah.” Yoojin replied obliviously.

Maru ignored Geunsoo’s eyes that looked at him calling for help as he got off the elevator, hoping that the two would become a good married couple.

He took the emergency stairs to the rooftop. On the rooftop, he saw a ritual table with various kinds of food on it with the pig’s head at the center[1]. There was also a folding screen as well behind it.

Geunsoo and Suyeon immediately walked towards where the other older actors were, while Maru and Yoojin stood a little far away.

“Please let our movie do well.”

The director and the other people from the film industry stuffed envelopes of money in the pig’s mouth. After offering soju to the spirits, the director did a kowtow.

“Lord pig, please let our movie shoot through break-even point and occupy half of the views of movies for this year!”

The director then raised the plate with the pig’s head on it and kissed the nose of the pig. The journalists took photos while laughing, while the main actors immediately went up and stole the plate from him, saying that he was cursing it.

After the ritual, someone said that the members of JA Production would have a meal together on the 16th floor restaurant.

“Let’s go, then, shall we?”

Suyeon hooked her arms around Geunsoo’s as she went down. Geunsoo was powerlessly dragged along.

“She really is good,” Yoojin said as she watched the two.

“You mean Kim Suyeon?”

“Yeah, that unni is really amazing.”

“You think there’s something to learn from her?”

“Of course. She shows how a woman can use her weapons. Practice is inevitable to become a seductive character,” Yoojin said with a smile.

“That really doesn’t suit you.”

“What was that?”

“Don’t you go around places trying to show off. Someone really might pick a fight with you.”

“That’s how you wanna play this, huh? I’m going to tell everything to her. Everything!”

“Why does it suddenly change to that?”

Maru had to surrender himself to Yoojin. He couldn’t take any countermeasures. He seriously considered calling her up and telling her to stop being friends with Yoojin.

“But hey, how did you do your practice?” Yoojin asked as the two climbed down the stairs.

Her sweet-sounding voice creeped Maru out.

“……”

“Why are you staring at me like that?”

“I was wondering if you were sick or something. You’ll creep me out if you get embarrassed like that all of a sudden.”

“You are a… no, let’s not.”

Yoojin sighed as she looked upwards. Her bangs lifted into the air for a brief moment before sinking down.

“Then I’ll ask you straight. Do you have a special practice method or something?”

“Why do you ask? That was random.”

“I’m asking because you’re good. I want you to tell me if you have any secrets.”

Yoojin pouted before sighing.

“I made a stupid mistake. Twice to boot. No, let’s forget about the mistakes, they can happen. But I don’t like my acting. The academy didn’t point me out on anything, but my acting skills pale in comparison to everyone else. I can see that myself so how would the others see me? I don’t even want to imagine it. It scratches my pride.”

Yoojin stared at Maru’s eyes straight on. Maru wished that he could applaud her courage for asking such a question despite her embarrassment, and wanted to tell her the method, but he didn’t have any. Right now, the man named Han Maru was a mixture of the blessing that was the experience of a grown man, and the challenging mind that came from his youth.

To sum it up, his advice would be ‘to die once, meet god, and start over’. That wasn't valid advice at all.

“…Talent, I guess.”

“Whoa, you are so full of yourself… What does she find good about such a guy?”

Yoojin went down first as she shook her head. Maru scratched his eyebrows as he followed. As they went half way down the stairs,

“Then the ones with no talent won’t get good no matter how hard they practice, huh?” Yoojin turned around and asked.

“That depends on how much effort they put in… is what I want to say, but I don’t like the word effort. After all, if those with talent put in effort, it would be impossible for those without talent to make up that gap.”

“You’re such a pessimist.”

“Better than being an optimist.”

“I am going to get acknowledgement in this movie just because I don’t wanna see you getting cocky. Talent? Hmph, persistence and effort will win over talent!”

Yoojin left through the emergency exit with a grin.

“…Then why did you ask?”

Maru licked his lips before walking slowly.

[1] Gosa (shamanic ritual)

Chapter 264

[I got them!]

That was the post from a close friend of Bada’s on Cyland. Bada’s friend, who was in the photo, was laughing brightly with two tickets in her hands. Bada looked at the photo with envy before scrolling down to the comments section. Her friends had commented that they were envious as well.

“She has it good.”

She rested her chin on her hands and blankly stared at the monitor. The two tickets in her friend’s hands were much more envious than a good grade card right now. Bada slightly turned her head around to look at the poster of TTO on her wall. There were five oppas in various poses. Bada was especially looking at the young man standing on the left, Ahn Sungjae, as she sighed.

“I wish I could go, too.”

Ever since she started liking TTO, she visited music program live shows without telling her mom, wrote fan letters, and was even active on the fan cafe, but she had never once been to their concert. Up until a year ago, she was fine with just reading reviews of the concerts, but these days, those reviews made her thirst even more.

She faintly brought up this topic half a year ago to her mom and asked if she could go to their concert, but she was refused because of the ticket prices. Well, they were expensive after all. Moreover, it was hard to buy them at their regular price, so most of the time, they had to be bought with more money. To top it all off, she was no longer able to bring up anything remotely related after a news broadcast about failing safety measures in concerts.

“Aah! I wish I could go there too.”

She lied down on her bed. If she went to the concert, she would be able to see her oppas up close. If she was lucky, she would even receive a gift from them as well. Bada rolled around in her bed for a while before calling up the friend that just posted that she got two tickets.

“Hey, how did you get those tickets?”

-My dad told me he would get them for me if I do well on the tests this time, and he really did.

“Really? That’s incredible.”

-Yeah. I feel like I might cry. You know, don’t you? The things I did in order to go to their concert.

“I do, I sure do. Haa. I want to go as well.”

-Didn’t you tell me that you might get them if you do well on your tests this time?

“…I’m doomed. I screwed up English.”

Bada and her friend chatted for 10 minutes non stop before hanging up. Bada couldn’t ask her to bring her along. From the looks of it, she already had a friend she planned to go with, so she didn’t want to make their relationship awkward.

Then, she thought that she could ask them for posters and the wristbands. Bada was about to text her when she remembered that there was still quite a long way to go until the concert.

‘I really did my best this time, too.’

Although she had to see her grade card to be sure, it seemed like getting into the top five of her class seemed out of reach this time. Up until yesterday, the fifth place was a hair’s breadth away, but the English test ruined all that. She put the most amount of effort into this, yet she screwed up badly.

“They helped me out a lot, too.”

There were quite a lot of TTO fans in her class. When she told them about her circumstances, they started helping out as though it was their own matter. They showed her the notes they made during classes, and even had study sessions together after the tests.

We won’t make it, so you should make it at least - was what they said as they looked after her so much during the exam period, yet it was all ruined.

The concert. Yes, strictly speaking, it wasn’t anything much. It wasn’t like the TTO oppas were of any help to her life, and it was also possible to relieve her frustration through watching videos online. However, wouldn’t everything be pointless when you think about it that way?

To Bada, TTO was a refuge. At first, she fantasized about dating one of those oppas, but now, she was at the stage where she was fine with just watching over them. She knew the difference between reality and fantasy.

However, she just wanted to watch them up close for just once. She wanted to sing her lungs out, and wanted to jump around. All of her friends that went to the concert even once all said that it was worth going there at least once. They said that it felt as though their minds were cleared.

Bada blankly stared at the ceiling as she listened to TTO’s new song on her MP3 player. She could hear the front door opening.

‘Is he back?’

Her brother had gone out early in the morning. He said something about reading the script with the other actors, and seeing that, she felt that her brother was rather unfamiliar. She always thought that her brother would always play games at home or play soccer with his friends, but ever since he entered high school, he acted as though he was a different man, and right now, he looked as though he had entered society.

That didn’t mean that she didn’t like him. In fact, she was thankful since he was so considerate of her and looked after her in various ways. There was no way she disliked her brother who secretly gave her a credit card for her to use.

However, as he changed so drastically within just one year, she felt strangely worried. Before, whenever she talked with her mom, she would always say something along the lines of ‘I wonder when your brother will mature’, but these days, none of that happened.

‘In fact, she says that to me.’

It wasn’t that she was displeased because she was compared to her brother, but that she felt rather powerless when she looked at her brother since it made her feel like she had to do something productive. When he said that he would help her go to TTO’s concert, she thought that he had changed a lot.

Was that the difference between a high school student and a middle school student? Would she also mature and forget about TTO and start studying or do productive things?

Probably not. Some of her friends, who had older brothers, always told her that they got into fights all the time and said that they were terrible brothers who shouted at them and made them do errands all the time.

She heard a knock on her door. She stood up and spoke.

“What is it?”

“Have you eaten yet?”

“No, mom said she’d be late.”

“You should’ve eaten regardless.”

“…I wasn’t hungry.”

She was well aware that she had nothing against him, yet her words were slightly sharp. She herself thought that she was childish.

“Then come out and eat some food.”

“Eat?”

She heard rustles from outside the door. She started sniffing. It smelled of something savory. She got off her bed and opened the door to find a white plastic bag in front of her. Her brother was setting up a table in front of the living room TV.

“Father said he’d be sleeping at the factory, right?”

“Yeah. But what’s that?”

“Whole-fried chicken.”

“Really?”

Bada smiled cheerfully and sat in front of the table. She no longer felt depressed at all. Inside the yellow paper bag were two whole fried chickens. Just as she was drooling in front of it, her brother poured the pickled radish into a bowl and poured the coke.

“There’s sauce as well, so you can dip them if you want.”

Bada nodded and grabbed the chicken leg. The chicken was still steaming hot and a little too hot to touch. She was flabbergasted at herself for changing so drastically in front of food, yet she couldn’t stop grinning.

‘Yes. I’ll just do some part time work and earn my own money to buy the tickets.’

When she thought about it like that, she felt much more at ease. She bit into the chicken leg and started chewing. Just then, her brother turned on the TV, and TTO just happened to be on it. They were doing a fundraising event for those in need.

Her brother raised the volume before giving the remote to her.

“You’re going to watch, aren’t you?”

“Huh? Yeah.”

Her brother ripped off a wing and started eating it while he looked at his phone with the other hand. This would be unimaginable if he was still in middle school. He would instead steal the remote from her saying that he had a video game show to watch. On top of that, he would have teased her for liking people like them.

“What did you do today?” She swallowed the meat in her mouth before asking.

“A read-through, a ritual, and ate some food.”

“There are rituals as well?”

“Sure. It’s not pocket change that goes into creating the film, so it should be better to pray to the gods for help, don’t you think?”

“Is that how it is? But wait, do you believe in stuff like that?”

“Yeah.”

That answer was rather unexpected.

Bada kept chewing as she watched TV. Coincidentally, Sungjae was singing on TV. He had strong eyes that did not fit his skinny face, and the long bangs that slightly covered the eyes looked very cool.

Her dear Sungjae-oppa was in charge of Charisma within TTO. He was really cool.

“What happened to your tests?”

She almost choked when she heard those words.

“W-well, I did not too bad.”

“You don’t sound that confident. I heard top 5 was easy for you?”

“When did I say it was easy? I said… that it might be doable.”

“Your scores are not as high as you expected?”

“I dunno!”

Bada started chomping on the chicken with a pouty expression. She had never been as focused as this time during tests. She even went over her answers three times. There weren’t any possibilities of putting her answers in the wrong questions[1], so there was no way the scores she self-scored would change. In other words, it was impossible to get in the top 5.

“And you did your best?”

“My best… I did. I mean it.”

She wanted to talk about the efforts she put in; about how she had study sessions with her friends and the like, but decided not to. It was over anyway, she didn’t want to sound like an obstinate child.

“So the concert is a no-go?”

“Even if I did get in the top 5, I wouldn’t have been able to go anyway. There’s no way mom would allow me, and also, the tickets are really expensive. Your part-time job is nowhere near enough.”

“Well, they were expensive, alright. It was over 100 thousand won.”

“You looked into it?”

“I tried. After all, I did promise to send you to one if you got into the top 5,” Maru spoke as he rolled around the neck bone in his mouth. She found that rather unpleasant.

“I’ll do my own part time work and earn my own money and buy them. I’m going to work this summer.”

“I don’t think middle school students are allowed though.”

“Not allowed? Why?”

“Because people would rather hire high school students instead. Also, consent from a legal guardian is necessary for a middle school student, I wonder if mom will let you do it.”

Crunch, Maru chewed on the crust of the chicken.

Why did he look so full of himself today? Bada made a pouty expression before poking him on the waist. Maru, who was sitting cross-legged, fell over to the side just like that.

“She’ll tell you to study if you have the time for that. I’m 100% sure.”

Her brother still spoke regardless. It felt as though they were back to the old days again. Bada chomped on some pickled radish as she watched TV. There was no point in talking to him any more. If her mom won’t let her do a part time job, then she could just save up on pocket money.

Thanks to the credit card that her brother gave her, she had saved up quite a lot. She had around 40 thousand won. Though, that was nowhere enough to buy a ticket…

“What do you think your average will be like?”

“Why do you ask?”

“Just curious.”

“…Around 92, I guess?”

“That’s good. Your average for your 2nd year finals was 80 wasn’t it? You put in some effort.”

“What good is that? I didn’t get in the top 5. There are a lot of smart kids in my class, you know?”

“Then without them, you’d be in the top 5?”

“Probably.”

“That’s good progress. Congratulations.”

“……”

Bada pouted as she changed the channel. She found herself childish for feeling happy when she was congratulated, and she also found herself pathetic for expecting something.

‘That’s right. I should do it with my own powers.’

Whether saving up pocket money, which her mom gave her, was ‘her own powers’ was up to debate, but she had no choice but to do well if she wanted to get what she wanted.

“Next time, try to motivate yourself, okay?”

Saying that, Maru stood up with the coke in his hand and entered his room. Bada was about to say ‘aren’t you gonna clean up?’ but decided not to. He was the one who bought this, so it would be shameless of her to ask him to clean up as well. She was putting the bones into one pile and was picking up the empty cups when she found an envelope where Maru was originally sitting.

Hm?

Bada reached out and grabbed the envelope. When she had a peek inside, she found a rolled up piece of paper.

“Hey, you left something.”

She called out to her brother out loud, but there was no reply. Out of curiosity, she took out the piece of paper. As the piece of paper slid out, something fell on the floor as well.

“…Oppa!”

The things that fell on the floor were tickets, tickets to TTO’s concert this summer. Moreover, there wasn’t just one, but a whole six of them. Bada then looked at the rolled up paper as well. The inside of the paper was pink, and she found these words on it.

[Thanks for cheering for us.]

Bada kept staring into the names below those words. Sungjae, and then Bada. This was Sungjae-oppa’s autograph!

“Wow! Oppa!’

Bada jumped around and held up the tickets against the lights. She could hear her brother saying ‘be quiet already’ in a small voice.

[1] Questions are multiple choice, and answers are marked on a separate sheet, so it’s possible to mark wrong answers despite getting the answer right

Chapter 265

Bada returned to her room with the autograph and the tickets. It still felt like a dream. She not only had her beloved Sungjae-oppa’s autograph, she had six tickets as well! Not only that, they were r-seats, not ordinary seats. She would have a seat at the very front. If she was lucky, she would be able to shake TTO oppas’ hands.

“I should laminate it!”

She immediately left the house with the autograph. Then, she started running towards the stationery store that was within the apartment complex. Although the sun had set, the stationery store was still open. She gave the owner lady the autograph and asked her to laminate it. She did not forget to add that it was very important.

“TTO, huh. My daughter really likes them too.”

The lady laminated the autograph with a kind smile. Bada left with the still hot laminated autograph.

She was thinking about how good it would look on her wall. She couldn’t stop smiling. She was even wondering if it was okay to be so happy about an autograph.

‘Oh yeah, I should call them up.’

She reminded herself of her friends who helped her out so that she could go to the concert. Since she had six tickets, she could bring them as well. Everyone will sing their hearts out together and watch the concert. Just imagining it made her thrilled. Just as she was fantasizing, no, planning her future, a voice entered her ears.

“Are you hurt anywhere?”

Bada was startled by the sudden voice and turned around. There, she saw Dowook, riding his bike. He was wearing a black bicycle helmet, and it suited him quite well.

“Ah, ah!”

Bada pointed at him.

“How dare you point your finger at me.”

Dowook waved his hands sideways, gesturing for her to get out of his way. As he did so, he flashed the headlights on his bicycle handle. Bada frowned due to the bright light.

“It’s bright! Turn it off.”

“You can just move away.”

“I don’t want to though.”

“……”

Bada became precocious and blocked his path. She still couldn’t forget about the drink incident from last time. She gave it to him out of appreciation, and he dared to reject? Though, it didn’t make her feel bad or anything.

“Like brother, like sister, huh.”

Dowook got off his bike and lifted his bike up. It seemed that he was planning to go around her. Bada snorted and watched as he did so until the headlights caught her eyes.

“A cat?”

It was a cute cat-shaped lantern. The light was actually from a cat shaped lantern on the right handle. Bada had a look at the lantern once before looking at Dowook again. Dowook avoided her gaze and got on the bike. He clearly looked like he was going to run away.

Bada grinned and grabbed Dowook’s clothes. This was an opportunity. She had asked her brother several times to introduce this man to her, but had failed each time. She couldn’t miss this opportunity. It wasn’t her style to act calmly.

“What’s this? A cat, huh. You have a cute side.”

“Let me go.”

“What are you going to do for me if I let you go?”

“What?”

“Oppa, do you know that this is our third time meeting already? And all of those times, it was a coincidence like this too. At this point, aren’t we fate?”

“Wh, what the heck?”

Dowook was a little flustered. It was probably because of the cat-shaped lantern. Bada found Dowook, who covered up the cat-shaped lantern with his hands, really cute. Though, it was somewhat weird to call a vicious-looking man cute.

“Is that a gift from your girlfriend?”

“Mind your own business.”

“You actually get embarrassed quite easily, don’t you?”

“What the heck are you saying?”

“Then why are you trying to run away?”

“I’m not running away, I just… forget it. What the hell am I doing with a kid.”

“We’re only two years apart, you know?”

Bada liked Dowook. When she first came across him in Myeongdong, she couldn’t look at him in the eyes because he looked like a delinquent, but he ended up saving her when she came across real delinquents. Her friends told her that he was a little scary, but Bada thought differently. Helping others was a really hard thing to do.

She found out that there were some circumstances behind that, but the fact that she was helped didn’t change. To overstate it a little, he was like a prince on a white horse. After all, he appeared just when she was in danger.

On top of that, this guy looked quite handsome. Although he gave off a cold impression, he never ignored other people and replied to their questions. If he was a really bad guy, he would just simply ignore her and go past her, yet he was using words.

“Wait a minute! If you run this time… you know what will happen, don’t you?”

Bada went to the convenience store across the street and bought banana milk.

‘I’ve never seen people hate this!’

She left the convenience store with the banana milk in hand. However, the bicycle couldn’t be seen anywhere. Did he really leave just like that? She looked around in search of him when she saw a bicycle distancing itself with its lights turned on. Bada started running towards the bike with all her might. She was always the last runner in relays. She was plenty capable of catching up to a bike that wasn’t pedalling at full speed.

“I said don’t run!”

When she shouted, the bicycle stopped. Bada panted and caught up to the bike. Dowook looked flabbergasted.

“H-here,” still panting, Bada held out the banana milk.

“You’re really obstinate.”

“I’m quite persistent, yes. Pant, pant.”

“So I just need to drink this?”

“Yes.”

“Geez, both of you siblings are weird.”

Dowook took the lid off the banana milk and emptied it on the spot. Bada looked at him happily.

“Alright, happy?”

Dowook gave the empty plastic bottle back. Bada asked as she received it.

“Do you have a girlfriend?”

“No.”

Did he really not? When Bada tilted her head and looked at Dowook, Dowook looked as though he was about to depart again. Bada wanted to talk to him a little more, so she tried to grab him, but she ended up missing. The bicycle went forward, and Bada’s hand grabbed empty air. As she had expected that she would be able to grab him, her center of gravity, and therefore, her body, leaned forward. As she had good reflexes, she didn’t fall over, but the laminated autograph in her other hand flew into the air. The autograph then slid down across the floor before hitting right on the side of the sewer. The area around the drain still had a puddle of rainwater around it, as well as bits and pieces of trash.

Bada became dejected and crouched down in front of the sewer. The tip of the lamination was cracked open and water slipped inside.

“……”

Her joyous mood fell rock bottom in an instant. This wasn’t anything much, but for some reason, she felt like crying.

* * *

Dowook stopped and looked behind. Maru’s younger sister was crouching and picking up a laminated piece of paper. When the cheerful girl became dejected in an instant, Dowook became worried as well.

‘…What the heck am I doing, I wonder… ’

He was about to ignore her and go his way when her depressed expression entered his eyes. She was an obstinate kid. He was annoyed by her, but didn’t really hate her. She was the younger sister of a thankful friend of his, so there was no way he would dislike her for no reason at all. It was just that he found her annoying because she held him up for no reason. No, to be honest, he realized to some extent that that girl had feelings towards him. She was so obvious about it, how could he not notice?

As he wasn’t really ‘the good kid’ in his middle school years, he used to have a few friends in his age group that were girls. He would sometimes smoke together with them and go to noraebang together. None of them asked someone else out, but the people around them all treated them as couples. The girls back then, were, well, for bragging rights. That was how delinquents acted. They would get proud of themselves if others praised them for playing with girls that hung out with them.

Ever since he entered high school though, his relationship with them was cut off. After going separate ways with Changhu, he didn’t even exchange messages with those kinds of people. Relationships built on top of sand crumpled just like that, and the only friends he had now were the people from the electrical engineering class. He was able to get close to them quite easily as they were all good people. Oh, there was the acting club now as well.

It was just that there were no girls his age in both of those groups. There were two juniors in the acting club, but one seemed to be interested in Daemyung, and the other was practically a boy, so he didn’t even treat her like a girl.

In such circumstances, the approach of a close friend’s younger sister was pressuring him. This girl didn’t look like the type to smoke, nor did she look like she would spit everywhere and use swear words. Dowook honestly didn’t know how to, or what to, speak with such a girl.

As such, he didn’t know what to say to the depressed-looking Maru’s sister and just kept on watching. He was afraid that saying anything here would make her lash back at him, and felt that he might look irresponsible if he stayed still. Just as he was stuck in a dilemma, Maru’s sister stood up.

“I’ll get going then.”

She sounded very dejected. Dowook, who watched as she walked away with the wet laminated paper in hand, followed her.

“Give it here.”

“Huh?”

“I don’t know what it is, but I’ll wipe it off for you.”

He took the laminated paper from Maru’s sister, who stood there stiffly. The dirtied piece of paper had someone’s signature and her name on it. It seemed quite important, so Dowook felt sorry for some reason, even though, strictly speaking, it was her fault. However, he couldn’t say that to her.

Dowook took out some tissue from the bag attached to the bicycle frame. Although some water had seeped inside, it didn’t look that dirty after wiping it off.

“Here.”

She received the paper before bowing to him.

“Sorry about that. If it’s something important, tell it to Maru later. If it’s something I can do, I’ll do something about it.”

He had a debt to Maru, so he decided not to be rough with her. After saying that, Dowook turned around to leave. However, that familiar hand grabbed his clothes again. When he turned around, he saw Maru’s sister with a big grin on her face.

“Then give me your phone number, and also, treat me to a meal sometime.”

Dowook frowned as he looked at that face. Maru’s smile could be seen in his sister’s smile as well.

He felt somewhat frustrated as though he got caught up with something very annoying.

* * *

Maru, who was reading his notes to do some revision, suddenly saw that his phone was vibrating. When he opened it to see who it was, he was surprised to see the name.

“What is it?”

-Your sister is just… urgh, nothing. It’s all my fault.”

“What the heck is this about so suddenly?”

-Forget it.

Then, Dowook just hung up.

What was this about? Just as he stared at his phone trying to figure out what this about, he heard the passcode beeps from the front door. Maru left his room to see that Bada had come back home. She stiffened as soon as the two met eyes. The way she hid the autograph and her phone behind her back looked very suspicious.

“I just got a call from Dowook.”

“D-Dowook? Who’s that?”

“Oho? You’re practically acting like the culprit here. So, what happened?”

“Nothing!”

Then, she darted off to her room. Maru was very suspicious but he couldn’t pry. If he was to pry someone, he had to pry Dowook, not Bada. He called Dowook. However, all he got was that the other party was currently on the phone. At the same time, he heard Bada whispering inside her room. Well, that was blatantly obvious.

‘I don’t know anymore.’

As he was someone who thought that romance was a good thing when young, he did not plan to oppose his sister’s romance. Though, it ticked him off that the partner was a friend of his… He had no excuse to stop her from doing so when she looked so adamant about it. He only wished that she wouldn’t come crying to him later saying “why is your friend this and this…” after breaking up.

Maru glanced at the door to his sister’s room before turning around.

Chapter 266

“Did something happen yesterday?” Maru asked Dowook whose seat was diagonally in front-left of him.

Dowook would usually reply ‘what do you mean’ to such a question, but this time, he answered ‘no’ after contemplating. Maru twitched his brows since Dowook was obviously acting suspicious.

“Then why did you call me?”

“Just cuz. I can call anyone I want.”

“Okay, then. That’s how you want this to go.”

Maru crossed his arms and stared at Dowook. After holding it in for a long while, Dowook exploded out.

“Your sister asked me my number. Satisfied?”

“And you gave it to her?”

“She was about to cry if I didn’t give it to her, what am I supposed to do? Tsk.”

“Hey, you should’ve realized that they were crocodile tears. You look like a rational kid, but you’re weak at heart.”

“…Let’s not get into this,” saying that, Dowook turned around. Maru scratched his eyebrows and asked.

“Are you going to date her?”

“Wh-what kind of freakin’ nonsense is that?”

His desk and chair, made of metal, created a huge rattling noise as he turned back around. Such a violent reaction? It seemed that dating wasn’t entirely out of his mind.

“If you’re gonna date her, then treat her well. She’s a little cocky, but she’s not a bad kid. No wait, she might be a bad one after all. From where she’s going right now, it looks like she’ll roast any man in the future.”

“Hey, you damned shit. When the hell did I…”

“I’m saying this just in case you do. I can say a word or two as her brother, can’t I? If you do date her, then play with her well and don’t let her cry if you can. Also, don’t come to me complaining about her. Okay?”

“It’s not gonna happen so you don’t need to be worried.”

“I wouldn’t be so sure. They say the affairs between a man and a woman is unpredictable. Though, you’re the son of the petrol station owner, I’m okay with that. Hey, my little brother-in-law. Treat me well in the future, yeah? You can buy the house when you two get married.”

Saying those words, Maru stood up from his seat immediately. That was because he saw Dowook standing up while holding his mechanical pencil upside down. He burst out into laughter as he ran outside the classroom. Although Dowook was chasing him, the distance only widened.

“Hey, I won’t forget about this!”

Maru caught the mechanical pencil that Dowook threw. Dowook panted and returned to the classroom. Maru fidgeted with the mechanical pencil in his hand.

‘It should be a good experience for Bada to meet with different people.’

It was obvious that a person who had seen a thousand flowers was more knowledgeable about flowers than someone who had only seen one. The person that saw a thousand flowers knows what suits him or herself, and is able to decide wisely when purchasing flowers.

It wasn’t that humane to compare human relationships to purchasing items, but what about real life? There were still people in the current era that judge other people on their values as though they were items. No, in fact, it was impossible for everyone to be completely unbiased.

The relationship between two people wasn’t that simple. Of course, it could be made simple under the word ‘love’, but romanticism was only called romanticism because those blessed with ‘love’ in their relationships were very rare and few in between.

‘She needs that judgement skill.’

The love of covering up or even supporting people with delinquent practices might be something that everyone had to respect, but for some, it might be foolishness itself.

There was a saying that went ‘Marrying your first love is the same as pushing your ideals into hell’. Maru thought that meeting various kinds of people was for the best, whether it came to men or women. The best scenario would be to live happily ever after with the first love, but everyone in the world knew how hard that was. That was why it was called the ‘best scenario’.

“Have a good romance, you two.”

Maru fidgeted with the mechanical pencil as he returned to the classroom.

* * *

“It’s over!” Jiyoon shouted hurrah.

She was able to take the tests with comfort until the very end. Ever since the nervousness and the pressure disappeared, tests ironically gave her joy. The sense of achievement coming from the fact that she did it, and the sense of relief coming from the fact that she was no longer bound, overwhelmed her mind.

“Aah, Jiyoon, you have it good. You’re smart.”

Aram, who swayed across the classroom to her desk, fell on top of her desk. Their last test, history, was the one that Aram hated the most, and from the looks of it, it seemed that she had spent all of her energy solving those questions.

“Did you do well?”

“I don’t know. I don’t want to think about it. But then, some of the things I studied during break time appeared on the test and I answered them. I don’t know if I got them right or wrong though. Ah, why do we have to memorize the years like that? Don’t we just need to know that those events happened?”

Aram grumbled endlessly until she screamed and ripped the test papers in half. Others in the class did the same. Jiyoon smiled awkwardly as she looked at them. That was because she found history easy.

“The tests are over. What should we do today? When else would we be able to play like this?” Aram spoke as her eyes sparkled.

Her face looked like her head was full with the word ‘playing’, and it seemed that she had already forgotten about the tests.

“…Uhm, I have something to do today.”

Jiyoon thought that she said those words as naturally as possible, but Aram looked at her with suspicion. Jiyoon thought hard. She always thought that lies were bad things and she should never lie, but right now, she was in desperate need of one. That was because if she told the truth, there was a high probability that Aram would, no, not just her, but the friends gathered around, would follow her.

“Hmm? I wonder what it is that you have to do.”

Aram lowered her voice as she asked. She tried directing the topic away, but it didn’t work on her.

“Suspicious. It’s very suspicious.”

“I-it’s not.”

“What’s not?”

Jiyoon was stuck in a dilemma when the homeroom teacher came in. Thanks to that, Aram returned to her seat, and Jiyoon was able to sigh in relief.

“Don’t relax just because your tests are over. Those aiming for university should try drawing as well. Got it?”

“Yes.”

“At least you guys answer properly. Once the results are out, you know what will happen, don’t you? Those below average, prepare yourselves.”

As soon as the homeroom teacher left, everyone started booing. Jiyoon also participated in it. Although he said all that, the teacher was actually very likable, and they were only able to boo him because they were close.

Jiyoon looked at Aram and her friends. They had gathered around and were discussing where they should go. Right now was the perfect time. This was the perfect opportunity to leave the class as no one paid attention to her. She left after saying ‘I’ll be going then’. Fortunately, the others waved at her goodbye. She sighed in relief and headed towards the 5th floor. Just as she arrived at the 4th floor, her phone notified her that a message had arrived.

-Have fun on your date.

That message was from Aram. Jiyoon felt faint the moment she saw those words. She even stopped walking because her face felt hot.

She calmed down and wrote ‘it’s not’ on the message box, but couldn’t press send. Strictly speaking, it wasn’t a date. After all, she was just going somewhere with Daemyung to buy props for the play.

‘…A date, huh.’

Jiyoon smiled for a brief moment when she read that word, but soon shook her head. It’s not a date. Yes, that’s right. It’s not a date at all. Jiyoon closed her phone. It was obvious that Aram would tease her no matter what she did.

As the tests were over, the independent studies classroom on the 5th floor was empty. It had become the acting club’s clubroom again. She sat by the window and looked down on the school field. Many people were playing with balls as though to celebrate that the tests were over.

“You’re here.”

Jiyoon was slightly startled to hear those words and turned her head around. She saw Daemyung at the back door of the classroom. When she overheard that Daemyung was going to buy props, Jiyoon squeezed out all the courage in her life and asked if she could go as well. Daemyung accepted it without hesitation. Jiyoon’s heart fluttered when he did. That was because she thought that her seonbae was glad to go with her.

However, that hope soon shattered.

“You’re going as well?”

Bangjoo was here as well. This fellow had a bright smile on his face as he kicked the soccer ball in his hands inside the classroom. The usually cheerful and passionate fella couldn’t be more hateful today.

“Thanks, both of you, when you should want to play around for today.”

“What are you saying? Of course we should help. Should I call Aram as well?”

“No, don’t do that. It was originally something I had to do alone.”

Daemyung smiled as he spoke. Jiyoon stiffly approached the two. She found it embarrassing that she was fantasizing just until a moment ago. At the same time, she found Daemyung a little hateful. Even though she was well aware that he did nothing wrong, she found him hateful because he was smiling without a care in the world.

“We’re going to buy some accessories, some materials for the props and some pins. We’ll first visit the local supermarket and go to a specialized store. For things like these, we’ll have to move around busily to buy them cheap.”

“Leave it to me! I’m confident in my walking,” Bangjoo spoke as he tapped his chest. Jiyoon nodded her head as well. She felt powerless for some reason.

“Are you ill?”

“Eh? N-no.”

Daemyung immediately realized the change in her. This seonbae was really kind after all. Jiyoon thought that it couldn’t be helped.

At that moment,

“Are you going now?”

Maru had arrived as well.

“Yes.”

“Sorry for not being able to go with you. I have a prior engagement.”

“It’s fine. This isn’t anything much.”

“You’re going with the two behind you?”

“Yeah. I’m going to look around and see if some places sell them for cheap.”

Maru groaned in a low voice before putting his hand on Bangjoo’s shoulder.

“I’ll borrow him then.”

“Bangjoo?”

“Yeah. It’s not like you’re buying anything heavy, so you can do it with just the two of you, right?”

“It doesn’t matter, but…”

Daemyung didn’t finish his words and looked at Jiyoon. Jiyoon stood there blankly for a second but shouted when she realized that this was an opportunity.

“It’s fine!”

Only after she shouted did she realize how loud her voice was. She bit her lips and looked down. She felt very embarrassed.

“Then off you go. Bangjoo, come down to the container with me.”

“Yes!”

Jiyoon inwardly thanked Maru. Of course, he wouldn’t have done that because he knew how she felt. It must have been a coincidence.

“Uhm… should I just go by myself then?”

“Eh? Why do you say that?”

That was rather unexpected of Daemyung, so Jiyoon took a step forward. Daemyung flinched and took a step back.

“Uhm, the thing is, it might be tiring for you since we’ll have to walk around a lot.”

“I’m fine with it.”

“R-really?”

“Yes.”

Jiyoon was surprised that she was speaking so clearly. Perhaps that was how badly she wanted to go with him?

“Then let’s visit the closer places first.”

Daemyung smiled faintly as they walked down the stairs. Jiyoon followed suit. Although they soon became silent because neither of them were good at talking, Jiyoon was fine with that. She was fine with just watching Daemyung smile.

“Uhm, seonbae.”

On their way to the bus stop, Jiyoon spoke.

“Yeah?”

“D-do-do you have a girlfriend?”

Hearing that question, Daemyung stopped in his tracks. Jiyoon was puzzled and looked next to her, and found that Daemyung’s eyes were wandering all over the place.

‘His face is really red.’

Jiyoon smiled in relief. His facial expression was enough of an answer. Daemyung replied after being at a loss for a few moments.

“H-how about you?”

Hearing that question, Jiyoon had to look away as well. At the same time, she thought that he might be the same as her.

“L-let’s get going.”

“Y-yeah.”

Jiyoon thought that both of their faces should be red as they started walking again.

* * *

“Is that it?”

“Yup, that’s it.”

Maru waved goodbye to Bangjoo who seemed like he was at a loss. Bangjoo scratched his head, said goodbye and left.

“It’s hard being the wingman.”

They should have left the school premises by now. Maru stretched his arms out and picked up his bag that he put next to the container.

Now that the exams were over, the school became bustling again with students. Especially the school sports field. The students showed what burning youth was like. After watching soccer for a bit, he left the school. As he walked towards the bus stop, he took out his phone. His favorite ringtone could be heard.

“Hello?”

-I finished.

“Really? Then I’ll go over.”

-You’re coming?

“Yeah. I can’t tell someone with a heavy ass to come to me.”

-Do you really want a beating?

“Uhm, is it me or are you getting really violent these days?

-Urgh, just come and wait for your punishment.

“Yes, yes, I’m going. Think about what you want to eat. I’ll buy it for you.”

-I have my own money too!

Maru hung up as he chuckled.

It had been some time, so he was going to see her.

Chapter 267

Exams were over. She had revised a lot, but as for the result? She didn’t know. She didn’t grade her tests. That was because she felt that she would be too happy and ruin the next exams if the scores were good, and because she felt that her concentration would waver if the scores were bad. The last exam was Korean and she had some time left, so she drew a picture on the blank portions of the test paper. She drew a rabbit, and the end result was quite cute. She felt good about it.

As soon as she folded the test papers and put it inside her bag, the homeroom teacher came in. The homeroom ended with the teacher saying ‘well done’ and ‘have a good rest’. The students then started rushing out while cheering.

She called Maru. As both of them finished their exams today, they decided to hang out. The two decided on a place to meet, and Maru decided to come here.

“Hm.”

She wondered where they should go. Although both of them lived in Suwon, they lived on opposite ends, so it would take some time for Maru to come. As such, waiting for him outside was not really an option. As she was tapping on her desk with her fingers, something popped up in her mind and she put her hands inside the desk drawers. She found a small book at the very rear. It was palm-sized and very thin. This was a book she bought in a second-hand store at the subway station. She liked the size, which made her pick it up, and she decided to buy it after reading the title.

A Christmas Carol.

This was a famous book loved by many and it was written by Charles Dickens. This was her favorite story among the stories her father used to tell her while she sat on his lap. When she was young, she thought that Scrooge was just a foolish and a bad guy. If you have the money, you should share with others - that was what she thought at the time. However, after growing up a little, she thought differently. She was able to understand where Scrooge was coming from. He might be depicted as a miser and as someone without love, but he wasn’t someone that should be criticized.

“What are you doing?”

Someone asked as she was reading. Three of her close friends were getting ready to go home.

“Aren’t you going home?”

“I have an engagement, so I’m going to wait in the classroom for a bit. There’s air conditioning here, too.”

“An engagement?” Her friend tilted her head and asked.

She smiled faintly and said that it was a secret. When she did, the three friends whispered amongst themselves for a bit before asking ‘is it your boyfriend?’ She was a little embarrassed but she nodded her head.

“Is he the one that gave you your ring?”

One of them asked again. Wearing accessories was forbidden within school premises, so she didn’t put it on her finger inside school grounds, but she sometimes wore them when she met her friends outside. Although she told Maru that she found it embarrassing, she wanted to boast about it since it suited her tastes perfectly.

“Yeah.”

“Is he coming here?”

“Yes.”

“Does he go to a school nearby? Central? Anji?”

“No, it’s much further than that. He goes to a place called Woosung Engineering.”

“Really?”

Then, her three friends brought chairs and surrounded her before sitting down. She panicked slightly as she looked at her friends.

“We were too ignorant about you until now, weren’t we? Okay then, let’s start investigating.”

“Wh-what do you mean?”

“Tell us everything; when you two met; what you like about him; if he’s handsome or not; his height and the like. We, your unnis, will evaluate him for you.”

The three of them grinned. She had told her friends that she had a boyfriend, but she never went into detail. She hesitated to look at her three friends in the eyes.

“Tests are over too, we have a lo~~t of time.”

“That’s right.”

“So be obedient and spit it out.”

She ended up raising the white flag due to her friends’ persistence.

“…I first met him in Daehak-ro.”

“Oho, you’re in the acting club alright. Does he act as well?”

“Yeah.”

“That makes sense. Did you two meet while preparing for a play?”

“No, that’s not what happened.”

She started stating things about Maru who she chanced upon. At first, she found it embarrassing talking about her boyfriend, but when she got into it, she found it actually quite enjoyable. When she came to, she found herself deeply enjoying talking about Maru.

“That guy’s quite something. He’s quite the man?”

“He’s all bulky, isn’t he?”

“Well, from how he didn’t utter a word despite getting burns, he does know his stuff.”

Her friends gave their own evaluations of Maru from what they heard about him from her. They were mostly positive. She felt good as well when she heard Maru being praised. When she continued talking about Maru in high spirits, her friends teased her saying that she was lovestruck.

“So, how about progress?”

“………”

Even she, who had been talking gleefully until now, had to stay silent at that question. She knew that silence would mean admitting everything, but the word ‘progress’ made her unable to open her mouth. She gave a glimpse at her friends, and saw that they all had lewd smirks on their faces. Although these three liked talking about lewd things, they somewhat overdid it this time. If she told them that they kissed… she didn’t even want to imagine it. After hesitating for a long time, she ended up telling them that they only held hands. Fortunately, they seemed to believe her, albeit with disappointment.

“But that’s interesting. So the first person to comment on your blog posts ended up being your boyfriend?”

“Yeah… I guess.”

She smiled as she spoke. She came across blogs in her first year of high school. There were no customizable spaces and avatars like Cyland, but she found blogs, where she could calmly narrate her stories, better. Blogs were like an evolved version of books to her. People well-versed in many different fields had summed up their experiences in their unique words. Each post, and each page would pile up and eventually become a long series of stories.

In that space, she mostly talked about things related to acting. She summarized not only the plays happening within South Korea, but by other famous acting troupes overseas. At the same time, she created a category where she could exchange opinions with people of her age who were also in the acting club of their respective high schools.

She met Maru there. Maru was also running a blog related to acting. Thinking about it now, it was a tremendous coincidence. After all, back then, the two didn’t even know each other.

“I asked you several times to make a Cyland account, and you rejected me. And now, you’re telling me the reason is actually because of your boyfriend?”

Her friend poked her cheeks. She smiled awkwardly.

“Oh yeah, if I remember correctly, your ID was Black Swan, wasn’t it?”

“Yeah,” she nodded her head.

“What are swans again?”

“You idiot, they’re birds. Though, they’re mostly white.”

“So Black swans are black white birds?”

“I guess that’s it,” the three talked amongst themselves. The girl that first brought up the ID asked again.

“Isn’t ‘Swan’ prettier? Black Swan sounds weird to me. It’s a black bird after all. Isn’t it ominous like a crow?”

While she understood where that girl was coming from, she shook her head and explained.

“Everyone once thought that all swans were white. After all, they’ve only ever seen white swans. Then, they discovered black swans. Everyone was shocked. Since then, people began to use the phrase ‘black swan’ to refer to something precious.”

“Oh, precious? That’s what you consider yourself as, huh?” One of her friends joked.

She smiled faintly before speaking,

“No. Black swan has a different meaning as well. The impossible becoming the possible; the unexisting become the existing.”

“So, a miracle?”

Her friend, who always ranked first in the school in terms of scores, replied immediately. She nodded her head.

“It’s not specifically used to refer to miracles, but I created my ID based on that meaning. It felt nice. The impossible becoming the possible.”

“Now that you say it, a surprising black swan sounds better than a noble white swan.” They all started giggling.

“In that sense, isn’t Pwincess Yoonjoo too childish?”

“Your ID is Squishy Apple. You’re no better.”

“At least I have my name on it. Don’t put me together with you.”

Her three friends started mentioning each other’s Cyland IDs and argued with them. They were trivial conversations, but perhaps that was the proof that they were close friends.

“Oh yeah, what were you reading?”

“Oh, this? A Christmas Carol. It’s the one with Scrooge.”

“Ah, the one where he turns a new leaf thanks to ghosts?”

“Yeah.”

“I really hate that story.”

“Why?”

“It’s like forcing you to be a good kid. I have my own path, you know? Moreover, a ghost appears and shows him the past, the present, and the future, to induce him to change his decisions? Doesn’t a ghost have something better to do?”

Hearing the cynical answer from the top student of the year, the other two friends told her that she lacked dreams and hopes.

“It’s not about dreams and hopes. Look at Scrooge. He worked so hard to earn that much money. The story doesn’t say that he stole that money, does it? In my opinion, forcing people to donate the money they gained through rightful business is a form of violence.”

“I guess that’s true.”

“And also, ghosts. That’s so oldschool. They’re completely unrelated to Scrooge. Of course, it’s an old book, so using Deus Ex Machina was the norm back then, but if you’re gonna use ghosts, at least use scary ones! The ghosts in that book are all depicted to be some kind of gentlemen.”

“Geez.”

The girl shook her head. At the same time, her friends started tickling the complaining girl’s waist. The girl surrendered immediately and admitted that ‘Scrooge is the bad guy!’ unwillingly.

“Oh wait.”

She picked up her phone that was vibrating. The caller was Maru. He told her that he’d be here in 20 minutes.

“Your boyfriend?”

“Yeah, he’ll be here soon.”

“Haa, you’ll get mad at us if we follow you, right?”

“Probably?”

“It’ll be quite disappointing if we decided to butt in when you two are meeting after tests, huh.”

The three friends left the class after saying that they should hang out later. She smiled and looked at the class clock. Thanks to her friends, she wasn’t bored as she waited for Maru.

She closed the book ‘A Christmas Carol’, that she had read several times and put it back inside her drawers.

‘The ghosts, huh.’

She rested her chin on her hands and looked outside the window. She had a different opinion. She thought that perhaps the three ghosts were actually Scrooge himself; that the Scrooges from the past, the present, and the future were trying to save him. Of course, this shouldn’t be the case, but she thought that it might have been better if it was actually written that way.

“And also, Scrooge really isn’t that bad of a guy.”

She smiled faintly as she thought about the friend that stood on Scrooge’s side. The reason Scrooge was able to meet the three ghosts was because of his dead friend Marley, who had warned Scrooge that he shouldn’t turn out like he did.

‘Perhaps Scrooge’s life wasn’t that bad after all if you think about how he had a friend who came to help him even after his death.’

The book mentioned that Scrooge was a kind man in the past.

She hummed to herself as she fell into contemplation. Then, she stood up after realizing that it was time.

Chapter 268

Green leaves started sprouting on the thin trees that the faculty planted last year for landscaping the school premises. She stood next to the tree that was next to the school gates. The rays of the sun hit the leaves swaying in the wind, and the bits and pieces of the rays hit her face. Although the weather was hot, she hummed according to the rhythm of the rustle of the leaves. Why was it that she had fun while doing nothing? Was it because of Han Maru?

When she checked the time on her watch, she found that it was nearly one o’clock. As she didn’t have a lot for breakfast, she was very hungry. She decided that they should first go out to eat. She started walking towards the bus stop under the shade of the school walls.

‘He should be here soon, right?’

He had called a few moments ago that he was almost here. She tiptoed near the bus stop before going to the convenience store right behind it. After smiling at the lady that greeted her, she bought a can of milk tea. Did Maru like this though? After hesitating for a moment, she bought two. She decided to drink them both if he didn’t like them.

Just as she wiped off the droplets of water on the surface of the can, she saw the 82 bus approaching from afar. It slowed down as it approached the bus stop before spitting out some people. Maru was among them.

She waved her hand while holding the can in her hand. Maru crossed the road and came towards her.

“It’s hot. Why are you outside?”

“It’s not that hot,” saying that, she offered one of the cans to Maru.

Maru thanked her before drinking it.

“Do you like milk tea?”

“No,” he replied without hesitation.

She frowned.

“Then why are you drinking it?”

“Because you gave it to me.”

She made a hollow smile when she heard Maru replying so nonchalantly.

“Have you had lunch?”

“Not yet. What do you want to eat?”

“Let’s see…”

Was there anything more important than deciding on a menu for lunch? She thought deeply as though she was solving the last question of the English exam. Maybe some light bunsik[1]? Or should they look around some more on high street? Did the others say that the newly opened store was good?

After thinking for a while, she asked Maru, who was just watching her without saying anything.

“Where do you think we should go?”

“I’m fine with anything. Don’t you have a place you want to go? I thought you wanted to eat pizza last time.”

“Ah!”

She clapped and nodded her head. She was reminded of the newly open pizza store on high street. According to her friends that had already visited that place, their pizza dough was thin and crusty. Since they said that the salad was good as well, there was no reason to hesitate.

She grabbed Maru’s hand and walked forward. Since they decided, they had to be quick. She led Maru through the streets and over a pedestrian crossing. The streets were no longer filled with houses and they changed into shopping blocks. Although it was only one in the afternoon, students wearing uniforms filled the streets. They were all students going to schools around this area that had finished their exams.

‘There might not be any seats if we’re late.’

Her friends that visited that place after school told her that they were only able to go in after 30 minutes of waiting. She grabbed onto Maru’s hands as she walked. Although she felt nervous holding his hand just until a few months ago, it was natural to her now.

“Why are you in such a hurry?”

“It’s a popular place, so we might have to wait outside if we don’t go in time.”

She struggled through the students that packed the streets and entered rodeo street. Clothes stores filled this street. She entered a small alley between the clothes stores. The alley was filled with dirt, trash and air conditioner outdoor units. Although this was a shortcut she would never use, she had no choice for today.

“This is where you wanna go?”

Hearing Maru’s question, she nodded vigorously. She dragged the hesitant Maru and ran across the alley.

“Is it worth all this effort to eat it?”

“My friend told me it was good.”

Maru smiled as he followed.

After exiting the alleyway, the first thing she saw was the pizza store sign that was colorful compared to the stores on either side. In front of the store was a menu board. The menu board seemed to be hand written by the owner with pastel-tone chalk. She inwardly approved of the exterior of the shop in her mind as she walked towards it.

“Welcome.”

As she entered the shop, the door made a jingle sound due to the bell and a lady wearing an apron greeted the two. The counter was right next to the entrance. In front of her, she could see people at their tables eating their meal as well as the kitchen that was open for all to see. The cook that was cooking something in front of the burning oven could be seen.

“Is there an empty table?” Maru asked.

The lady tiptoed to see inside the table area before going through the memo papers on the counter.

“There’s one empty table. This way.”

The table area was quite wide with 20 or so tables and only three were empty. As two of the empty tables had the ‘reserved’ plate on it, there was only one empty table. She stroked her chest in relief after seeing some students that entered right after her. Had she not taken that shortcut, they would have had to wait.

“See that? We were almost too late.”

She felt a little proud. Taking his seat, Maru replied to her with ‘you’re the best’. She opened the menu which was on one side of the table and decided on a pizza to eat. As for spaghetti, she decided on a basic tomato spaghetti. For her drink, she chose a cup of strawberry smoothie.

She smiled when she smelled food. She could hear faint chatting noises as well as cutlery noises.

“Nice smell.”

“Right?”

She smiled as she drank the smoothie that came out first. It had just the right sweetness. She spoke as she fiddled with the straw.

“How did you do on the read-through?”

“So-so. I was a little nervous, but I think I did fine.”

“You sound confident. Oh, have you seen sir Park Taeho?”

“I did.”

“Did you get to talk to him.”

“We exchanged a few words during the audition.”

“How was he up close? Was he cool like he is in the movies?”

“He’s just a chubby middle-aged man.”

“No way.”

“He’s like that for now. He gained weight for the role.”

“…I wonder if he looks cute or not.”

“I don’t know what you’re imagining, but he should not look as good as you think he is. If you’re so curious, go watch the movie once it’s out.”

She pictured a chubby Taeho in her mind. Taeho played a lone prosecutor that fought against crime in a movie that was released last year. The lone wolf-like figure couldn’t look cooler. Although he was past 40, his handsome looks didn’t deteriorate but matured even further and he looked incredible. Such a person had gained weight, huh.

‘He’s a cool actor, so he must look cute.’

“Please be careful, it’s hot.”

The pizza they ordered came out. Just as she had heard, the dough was really thin.

“Give me your plate.”

Maru cut a slice of pizza and put it on her plate. Although he was quite mean at times, he was really caring when it came to things like these. There was a slice of pizza on her plate. Although there was a fork and a knife, she grabbed the end of the dough with her hands. Pizza was best when it was eaten with hands.

The crusty dough and the soft cheese on top. She made a happy expression as she bit into it.

‘It’s good.’

She understood why her friends had praised it so much. Although the cheese was a little salty, the button mushroom neutralized that and the taste was deepend even more. Although it seemed like a bland pizza on the surface as it didn’t have that much topping, the combination of the sauce, the cheese and the mushroom were really good and she felt that any other topping would have broken that ensemble.

“This is decent.”

Maru seemed satisfied as well. If the picky Maru acknowledged this, then it must be a really good pizza. While at it, she ate a portion of the spaghetti as well. The semi-crushed cherry tomatoes added just the right bit of sourness and she didn’t get bored of it.

‘I’m happy.’

Food was the best form of happiness. Just as she drew some more of the spaghetti to her plate, a hand appeared in front of her eyes. The hand, holding a tissue, slowly approached her face before wiping off her mouth.

She raised her head a little. She saw Maru putting down the tissue he was holding. Usually, Maru would tell her that she was acting like a child, but today, he just looked at her without saying anything. She looked at Maru who acted as though nothing happened.

“What is it?”

“Nothing.”

She smiled and shook her head. So he could be caring at times, huh?

After eating all the food, they stood up from their seats. As it was a satisfactory meal, they thought that they should visit again.

In front of the counter, she took out her wallet. As she had been saving up all this time, she was fine with paying.

“I’ll pay.”

However, before she could even take out any money, Maru held out the card first. She took out some bills saying that ‘please take this not that,’ but Maru stopped her.

The employee took the card and did the transaction. As she couldn’t pay she decided to give the money to Maru instead.

“Here.”

“It’s fine.”

“I’m not fine with it though.”

After signalling the employee that she was sorry, she took Maru outside. Even outside, Maru put his hands behind his back so that she couldn’t give the money to him.

“Are you really going to do this?”

She looked at Maru with dissatisfaction.

“I feel sorry now.”

“What do you feel sorry about?”

“You’re the one spending money all the time. And this is how you act all the time as well. How many times do I have to tell you that I don’t like being treated?”

They were both students without much money. She wanted to split the dating costs half-half. Some of her classmates said that the boy obviously has to pay all of it, but she didn’t agree with that. She thought that if both parties liked each other, they should split the cost and the burden as well. How was it love if only one side took losses?

After scratching his brows for a while, Maru took a step towards her.

“It doesn’t matter to me.”

“I feel sorry though.”

“What do you feel sorry about?”

“That you’re the one taking care of all the costs.”

“If it’s like that, you don’t need to be sorry.”

Hearing his words, she frowned. Just as she was about to say something to him for making her repeat herself, Maru closed in on her before hugging her. At that moment, her head turned blank. She forgot what she was going to say and became absent-minded. Then, she realized that they were in the middle of the street and that there were others who were looking at them. She screamed in her mind and was about to push Maru away when a low voice entered her ears.

“It’s fine since I’ll have the money be our shared asset once we get married.”

She couldn’t exert any strength into her hands anymore. His words were just absurd. M-married? Shared assets? Those words filled her mind, and at the same time, her face felt hot as though it was about to burst.

She saw that Maru was smiling at her right in front of her. Then, that guy continued.

“Oh my, how bold.”

At the same time, Maru took a step back and hugged himself as though he was some embarrassed girl. She felt her last strand of reason popping and swung her arms.

Go die!

* * *

“Seriously?”

Maru held out the contract form he received to her as she clearly looked like she didn’t believe it. She started reading the contract with a sour face. It seemed that she was still angry because of the hug from before.

“So it was real.”

She blinked several times as she gave the contract back. Maru shrugged.

“So you’ll be working for JA Production in the future?”

“If there aren’t any hiccups, then yes. I heard that I’ll have things to do once the movie is over.”

“That’s kinda neat. A company, huh.”

She looked at the contract form with complex feelings. As Maru was well aware of the fact that becoming successful as an actress was her dream, he could guess how she felt.

“I’ll pave the way for you so do your best to follow me.”

“I’m not going to walk on a path that somebody else set for me.”

She smiled again. Maru put the contract back inside his bag.

“Then I guess you’ll be busy once work starts coming your way?”

“I’m not so sure about that. I guess it depends on how well I do.”

“So we won’t get to meet once you become a popular star, huh?” She pouted.

“I’ll just date you publicly.”

“Easy for you to say.”

“Actually, it might be better to just broadcast our engagement ceremony to the public. If I become famous enough, the journalists will come flocking, right? I guess I won’t need to prepare anything.”

“Keep dreaming.”

“Just get ready for it.”

“For what?”

“The engagement ceremony.”

“You must be out of your mind.”

After chuckling to herself, she looked away and asked in a tiny voice.

“…Are you serious?”

“When was I ever not serious?”

“Hey, we’re only in our 2nd year of high school. Engagement and marriage and things like that are just…”

“It might be unexpectedly soon, you know? If it was the old days, we would have gotten married already and have two kids…”

“S-stop! Don’t go any further than that.”

She had turned beet red. Maru felt like teasing her more and did his best to hold them in. If he went any further, he might actually get a slap on the face.

“So for the time being, I’ll take care of the expenses. It’s natural for the one earning money to pay. If I become penniless later, you can just take care of me at that time. Simple, isn’t it?”

“When did I ever say that I’ll be taking care of you?”

“Then I guess I’ll have to be careful not to run out. I have to keep taking care of you in the future.”

Maru tilted his head to avoid the napkin that was flung at him. These napkins were getting faster and faster every time, and she might as well join the girl’s baseball club.

“Geez.”

Maru stared at her who was avoiding his gaze, drinking coffee.

If there was a face that he would never get tired of seeing, it would be hers.

[1] Tteokbokki, kimbap, ramyun, and the like. Here’s a wikipedia article for more details.

Chapter 269

“We need to wait 30 minutes.”

She spoke as she checked the screen time on the movie tickets. They were going to watch a family movie that was released ten days ago. The story was about a man who passed away protecting his family even after his death. Although it sounded like a heavy topic, it was said that the director pulled it off in a comedic way. Although the scores of that movie weren't that good online, she always took her time to watch movies that were related to familial love. Although she preferred crime thrillers over comedies and plays over movies, she always fell apart in front of ‘familiar love’. She thought that it must be because of her longing for her father.

“Let’s go down and look at some clothes.”

“…Can’t I wait here?”

“Probably not?”

She dragged Maru by the arm. Maru, who was sitting on the sofa in front of the ticketing counter, had to stand up against his will.

“We have to wait 30 minutes anyway. It’s better to look around rather than staying here.”

Dragging Maru who was even groaning to protest that he didn’t want to go, she went downstairs on the escalator. The fourth floor was filled with clothing stores. There were many bright-colored clothes for the coming summer. Just as she looked around amidst the clothes that gave off a new smell, she turned around her head. She saw Maru intently watching something a few steps away from her. She wondered what he was looking at and walked to where he was. She then saw that Maru was looking at a mannequin, to be exact, the swimsuit that the mannequin was wearing which made her frown.

“I think this will look good on you.”

“You pervert.”

She pinched Maru’s arm and immediately left that place. She didn’t realize he would just stare at a woman’s swimsuit. She remembered seeing that the employee was giving him strange glances so her face became hot.

“I think a bikini is good.”

“What the heck are you saying?”

“We should go to the beach this summer. We couldn’t go last year because we were too busy, but we should be able to go this year. Two days and one night. How about it?”

“I’m not going.”

“Why?”

“What do you mean ‘why’?”

As they walked around on the 4th floor, Maru stopped whenever he saw a mannequin wearing a swimsuit and started evaluating it, while she had to work hard stopping him from doing so. After a few rounds, it dawned on her. Maybe he was doing this on purpose?

“You’re protesting because I dragged you here, aren’t you?”

“You just realized?” Maru smirked.

She shook her head.

“But when I said it will look good on you, I meant it.”

She had to admit that she couldn’t win against him with words. He always attacked her soft spot, and when she tried to fight back, she would find herself talking about embarrassing things. There was only one way to win - to not say anything.

She locked her hand with Maru’s right hand. Then she dragged him so that he couldn’t stray away from her. She thought that he shouldn’t be able to say strange words if she was right next to him.

However, Maru was much more evil than she had expected. For one, he blatantly asked the store employees ‘doesn’t this look like it will look good on my girlfriend?’ and the like, and he even stared at clothes in the underwear store.

She had lost. There was no way she could win against this huge pervert. She rotated her arm to see her watch. It was about time the movie began.

“Fine, let’s go.”

She dragged Maru and went upstairs. She showed the tickets to the employee in charge of checking tickets before being guided by him. They followed the dimly-lit corridor until they reached screen 5.

“There aren’t that many people.”

“A blockbuster movie was just released so people should be flocking to that,” Maru spoke as he sat down.

A movie that aired at the same time was a huge action movie with dozens of billions of won of investment, so it wasn’t that surprising.

“I wonder why American movies require so much budget.”

“I think the casting of the actors accounts for more than half of it.”

“Really?”

She hadn’t heard about this before as she knew nothing regarding the movie industry. When she looked at him, Maru continued explaining.

“Shooting for special effects, blocking roads, and casting extras might require some money, but if you don’t account for the Hollywood star actors, you’ll be left with less than half the budget.”

“Then casting them cost billions?”

“No, you need to add one more zero.”

“You’re talking about all the actors combined, right?”

“No, casting a single named actor costs more than ten billion. The movie airing on the screen next to us is a sequel. I believe casting the main actor for it cost 20 billion won.”

“No way.”

A small-scale play could be created under 10 million won if it didn’t cost that much. Of course, that did not account for renting the theaters.

In any case, ten million won seemed like a lot of money, yet Hollywood actors received several times, no, several hundred times that much, so she couldn’t believe it.

“If it costs that much, is there really a reason to cast those actors? If it was me, I would have invested more in something else. I would have cast other actors and have created a better stage.”

She was slightly angry even. As she prepared for plays and studied them, she knew how hard the lives of those in the industry were. However, although this was another country, casting an actor could cost dozens of billions?

Maru faintly smiled at her words. His smile wasn’t that of sympathy.

“What you said definitely makes sense. If casting the actors didn’t cost that much, they would be able to support other areas better, and would be able to create better-quality movies. However, a movie is not just art, it is business. In business, you invest a lot of money to use something or someone that has proved their worth. That is because they’re sure to return the investment in the form of profit. Above all, there’s the fact that you can’t really put a price tag on people. For us, 10 million dollars sounds like a lot, but the producers of the movie might think that it’s actually quite cheap. The movie airing on the screen next to us is like that as well. The prequel was a huge hit in the world, wasn’t it? Of course, the producers would want to use that popularity to create a sequel. To do that, you would need to cast the main character from the prequel, and the actor, who knows that the producers want him or her, can ask for a high price. How much do you think they spent to cast the main character in the prequel?”

Hearing Maru’s question, she thought about it for a while. Since it was 20 billion in the sequel, the prequel must be similar, right?

“Perhaps around 17 billion, considering that it rose a little in the sequel?”

“No, it was only 2 billion.”

“Then it became ten times larger in the sequel?”

“Indeed.”

“But they still cast that person? Even when they had to pay ten times as much?”

“It’s because they can’t do without that actor for that specific movie. There is also the fact that other actors do not want to take the role of a character with a fixed identity. I would be the same, you know? If the director told me ‘you play that role because we failed to negotiate with the previous actor’, I would refuse on the spot. The risk is just too big. Moreover, that movie is also a Hollywood movie which is aired across the entire globe.”

“…So that’s how it is.”

“The role is unique to that specific actor now. I guess that’s what people mean when they say someone is irreplaceable.”

She was shocked by the astronomical sum for a brief moment before turning her head around to Maru.

“You’re quite knowledgeable on this stuff.”

“I have to. That’s the industry I’m striving for in the future.”

She gave a glance at Maru who was leaning back on his chair.

Although he was very sneaky and played pranks a lot at times, he was very mature when it came to matters related to her. It wasn’t that he was trying to look good in front of her. His words had conviction, so she fell for his words when she listened to them.

So Maru was seriously considering his future career. She, too, had the dream that she wanted to be in the acting industry in the future. She was making her own efforts into striving for it as well. However, she felt uneasy because she felt like she was too behind when compared to Maru.

As the eras changed, the debut age in the entertainment industry kept decreasing. For idols, they say that becoming trainees at middle school age was too late. Actors were not that much different. It was an era where people started acting from childhood, became better during their youth, and become acknowledged when they mature.

She thought about the actors she liked as well as their age when they debuted. Although there were people that became successful after debuting late, most of them started their career at a young age.

She suddenly had the thought that perhaps it was too late for her. Maru, who was sitting next to her, had already entered a contract with a company already. Not just any company, but JA Production, which was led by a master in the acting industry, Lee Junmin.

She didn’t feel that much of a gap when they were preparing for a play together in Myeongdong, but right now, Maru felt like he was far ahead of her, which made her feel strange. He was so close, yet he felt so distant.

At that moment, Maru softly grabbed her hand. It was as though he had read her mind; as though there was no need for her to be that worried.

“Just because you’re slow doesn’t mean you’re late. And you’re not slow right now either. There’s no need to be in a hurry. I was just a little luckier than you.”

His caring words comforted her. She smiled and leaned on Maru’s shoulder. She wanted to stay like this for the time being.

Just in time, the commercials ended and the cinema darkened. The curtains fell a little with a machine noise. Feeling comfortable, she decided to lean on Maru’s shoulder for a little more. Her hand, held by Maru, felt warm.

‘Maybe I’m relying on him?’

Although she asked herself that question, she was already aware of the answer. Maru was definitely different compared to the others of his age. To compare him to something, he was analogous to a streetlamp that stood there throughout the ages. People would walk under that streetlamp all the time without noticing it, yet when it became dark, the streetlamp couldn’t be any more reassuring. She smiled when she thought that he was a man that would scatter light on her no matter how stormy the weather was.

After the movie started, she focused on the movie. There was a warm family. They couldn’t look happier. However, as the music heightened, the uneasy face of the husband foreshadowed that an unfortunate event was about to happen, and soon, the husband died due to an accident. The depressing monotone funeral passed by in a flash. As this was supposed to be a romantic comedy movie, the sad part wasn’t that long.

Despite that though, she felt a tingle on her nose and felt like crying. She suddenly wanted to have a look at Maru’s expression. Would he be making a sad face right now? From what she knew of him, she thought that he would be analyzing the movie.

She turned around slightly and looked at Maru.

The light reflecting off the screen was flickering faintly within Maru’s pupils. There was a reason why it was ‘faintly’ flickering. It was because Maru was crying. He was crying a lot. He just didn’t make any noise, but his cry looked like he was screaming his heart out, which made her look at him absent-mindedly.

The ever-sturdy boyfriend looked too feeble right now, and felt like he would shatter like glass with a single touch.

Subconsciously, she grabbed Maru’s hand with both of her hands. Then, she grabbed it tightly to the point that it might hurt a little. Maru flinched and looked back at her. He started wiping off his tears in a rush as though he didn’t even realize that he was crying.

Why did he cry?

She wanted to ask, but decided not to. Instead, she held his hand tighter, so that he could rely on her more when he felt weak and feeble. Whether he found her reliable, she didn’t know, but… she didn’t want to stay still.

“I’m not going anywhere.”

It was strange. She did not know why she said such words. However, there was one thing she was sure of. It was that those words didn’t come from her head, nor her heart, but somewhere much more distant than that, yet it was herself. She smiled and wiped Maru’s face.

Only then did Maru make a faint smile.

“I know.”

That was his answer.

Chapter 270

After the movie ended and the ending credits started rolling, Maru kept watching the screen without saying a word. The story was very ordinary. It was an overdone ‘communication between the dead and the living’ plot. The acting of the actors were decent and the series of clichés made it so that the movie wasn’t worth praising, but it was not a waste of time either. Simply put, it was just a ‘decent’ movie. It was a family comedy movie that aired every Christmas - everyone could have a laugh watching it. It was one of those movies that everyone would forget about after the movie finished and just grab something to eat afterwards.

“Should we stay a little more?”

She spoke. Maru nodded faintly.

Despite the common plot, the reason Maru couldn’t escape the swamp of emotions should be because the situation didn’t feel unfamiliar to him. He was well aware that a movie was just a movie and that fiction had nothing to do with reality, but his heart didn’t act the way he wanted it to. His mind stayed silent, yet his heart was crying all by itself.

He focused on the movie and didn’t even realize he was crying. The figure of the husband that passed away overlapped with his own figure at the last moments of his life, which made him gnash his teeth. After that, he felt a tragic sadness when he saw that the spirit of the husband tried to help his remaining family without making his presence known. Throughout the entire movie, he saw within the actors the figures of his wife in her forties as well as his daughter who might have been in middle school or high school. That suffocated him.

The woman that introduced herself as the angel or the grim reaper showed him that his wife and daughter were living safely in another world, but when he watched the movie, he started getting worried about the forces of society that might bring trouble upon them once more. What if something happened to them? Wouldn’t they be in trouble like the characters in the movie? Perhaps they are resenting me? - He had many questions in his mind.

He thought that he was over that by now. He was confident that he could stay smiling and just go past it without getting sad. However, he was clearly wrong. Well, it would be a little surprising if he could erase 20 years of life with just two. He had the faint premonition that the fog of emotions in his heart would continue being there for eternity. Was he fated to forever keep the two of them in his mind? If it was true, then it would definitely feel like running amidst the darkness in search of the shadow of hope that could never come true. Was he supposed to live as the clown wearing a smile mask while crying underneath, singing requiem to a reality reflected on a mirror? Forever?

Just as he kept questioning himself, he heard her voice. The moment he heard the words ‘I’m not going anywhere,’ he fell into shock. He felt as though her eyes were looking at the depths of his heart. It was as though she would accept and understand everything about him. The thick fog in his heart cleared up in an instant and a ray of sunshine dawned on him. The perfect words came at just the perfect time, so Maru thought that he was hearing things for a brief moment.

He felt naked. Not in the sense that he was embarrassed, but that he had nothing in his hands just like the moment he was introduced to the world. All of his senses were pointed at her in front of him. Just like a newborn baby would cry in order to live, Maru couldn’t help but keep looking at her to consolidate his soul that was almost collapsing. She was still a young girl who was just maturing, but for that moment, she felt too mature to him and he had the misconception that she, who was supposed to be together with their daughter in another world, had appeared in front of him.

He could smell the fragrance of skin from her hand that wiped his tears. It was the same warm smell that came from her neck and shoulders from when she was sleeping throughout the night. The two had the same smell. Maru could only start smiling then. Here, in this place, was the person he loved.

The guilt and the longing for the family living outside of his reach was something akin to a shadow - he thought. He couldn’t remove those feelings even if he wanted to. That was because the proof of Han Maru’s living was that shadow. It was unknown when and where he would remind himself of his wife and daughter again. However, Maru intuitively realized that he wouldn’t be crying at that time; that he would be able to smile back at those memories.

After the ending credits finished, the faint lights in the theater brightened again. Maru slowly stood up after seeing staff come in and start cleaning the place. She should be confused right now, but she just held Maru’s hand as they headed for the exit. As soon as they left, stuffy air attacked their faces. Maru felt as though he came back from dreamland.

He wiped his face. As he was a man, he felt somewhat embarrassed for showing tears. He shook off his emotions before looking at her.

“…Why are you like that?”

She had teary eyes and looked as though she was about to cry. Only then did he realize that the hand grabbing his hand was rather stiff.

“You cried first,” she spoke.

She sniffed and wiped her eyes with her sleeves. She couldn’t look more adorable. Aah, I cannot escape this woman - the words ‘happy confinement’ came to his mind.

“I’m sorry.”

Maru patted her shoulders. She looked mature for a brief moment, but she was actually just a young girl. How confused must she be after receiving the grief of a 45-year old man? He felt very sorry.

He threw a few jokes thinking that he should make her smile again. Thankfully, she started smiling again.

“I feel tired all of a sudden,” she said as they entered the lobby.

Maru understood where she was coming from. She suddenly had to deal with a crying man next to her. Receiving other’s emotions was much harder than releasing one’s own. Maru had her sit down on the sofa and went to a nearby cafe to buy a warm drink for her. When Maru came back with some drinks in his hands, he saw that she was dozing off. Maru sat down next to her and lent her his shoulder. Her round head fell on his shoulder.

* * *

“You should’ve woken me up.”

“You were sleeping too soundly, so I didn’t dare to.”

They were standing at the bus stop. Maru spoke as he looked at the coming bus,

“There it is.”

The bus slowed down and stopped at the bus stop. She got onboard. Maru looked at her through the window. After sitting down on an empty seat, she smiled at him and waved her hand.

“Bye.”

As soon as he waved back, the bus started speeding up again. After sending her off, Maru checked on the time. It was 6 in the evening. He wished he could stay with her longer, but let her go after hearing that she had to have dinner with her mother. He remembered that his mother-in-law put importance on having dinner together.

‘Should I walk a bit then?’

The sun was setting so the air was getting chilly as well. The streets were more crowded than it was in the afternoon.

Maru looked at a standing bar among the large franchise bars. It was a small bar which no one gave a glance at, but somehow, he was drawn to it. It must be because of the memories of this 45 year-old self that came back to him at the cinema. It was obvious that those memories would fade out again by tomorrow, but for now, he could not leave this place due to the memories of his company days when he conversed with others about various things.

It was a shabby shelter he ran away to from the bomb known as superiors. It was his hideout where he could celebrate that he had survived yet another day through various insults and verbal violence. He visited these kinds of places with his colleagues, but as his company life dragged out, he eventually started going alone or with just one, very close, person.

‘The owner there made really good golbaengi-muchim[1].’

The owner made the golbaengi-muchim right in front of the customers. It was just a mixture of cheap store-bought canned golbaengi, as well as another cheap store-bought chogochujang[2], and some boiled noodles, yet it tasted so good. Maru was reminded of the store that he visited once every two days until he left the company and turned around to get a bus that headed to Seoul.

When he arrived in Seoul, it was 8 in the evening. Maru kept grabbing onto that thin strand of memory as he walked around. Thankfully, the building hadn’t changed, and the streets hadn’t changed that much, so he didn’t have any difficulty finding the place. He bypassed the wide roads and skyscrapers and eventually entered a small road where shabby houses were built. If he walked up some more, he would enter a poor hillside village. There, Maru found a tattered signboard.

“It’s here.”

He smiled subconsciously.

He felt as though he found some cash in a pocket of a winter jacket that he hadn’t worn for a year. The sliding wooden door was half rotten. It seemed that it had not undergone remodelling again. The menu was written with a permanent marker on a cardboard, and there was a white plastic bag filled with water under the eaves. The owner always said that it was there to chase out the flies.

He grabbed the rusted iron hook on the door and pulled it left. He could smell food inside. Wobbly metal tables were here and there. There were no customers.

When he entered, he found a familiar figure. There was a man sitting on a chair, with crossed legs, watching a small TV hanging on the ceiling. He looked like he was nearing his 40s. The owner from his memories was in front of him, just a bit younger.

‘Yes. Owner, that’s what I called him.’

The store owner had the surname Jang. Most customers called him manager, but the frequent visitors called him owner.

“What the heck? I’m not selling alcohol to a student.”

The owner looked at him and spoke disgruntledly. Maru felt that he hadn’t changed at all.

“How about udon?”

“Udon?”

The owner stood up and scanned Maru from top to bottom before going to the kitchen. Although there was a menu on the wall, the prices weren’t on it. The price was up to the owner. The kitchen was open for Maru to see. As he had expected, the owner was just making ordinary store-bought udon. It was made in an instant. The owner then sat down again, crossed his legs and started watching TV.

“Kimchi and pickled radish are…”

“In the fridge, and I have to get them, right?”

“…Yeah. Have you been here before?”

“Probably.”

“Probably? That’s a vague answer.”

The owner then started watching TV after losing interest. Maru smiled and took out some kimchi. There was a baseball match on TV, and it seemed that the team the owner was cheering for was losing as he sighed whenever there was a hit.

That familiar sigh made Maru smile. He felt as though he was grabbing a fragment of his memory in his hands.

* * *

After watching TV for a while, when he came to, Maru found himself surrounded by men in suits. His phone indicated that it was nearing 10 p.m. The owner was busy cooking food while the customers were eating as though they were familiar with the place. He could hear the clanging of glass from some places. This was a quiet bar without much laughter. As the popular menu item here, jeyuk-bokkeum[3], started filling the tables and a savory smell started filling this place.

A bowl of jeyuk-bokkeum and a bottle of soju was enough to console him back then. He inhaled a mouthful of jeyuk-bokkeum fried in briquette fire before standing up. It was about time he went back. At that moment, the owner brought a bowl of rice topped with jeyuk-bokkeum and put it on his table.

“Eat this and go back home. Leaving the house at your age is just suffering. This old man has done it like one or two times when I was your age, but it really isn’t something that humans should do. You’ll end up ringing doorbells selling cheap gum or something. Even the worst of parents are better than society. If the place you live in is really that unbearable, then just report to the police, not run away like you did. Get it? You will never find a place to call home one you run away from one at a young age.”

He somehow became a runaway boy. He was about to explain but he decided not to and just sat back down. He scooped a big spoonful of the rice and put it inside his mouth. At times like these, he understood why Koreans always had rice. After emptying the bowl, he stood up. He took out a ten thousand won bill and put it on his table.

“Thanks for the food.”

The owner did not reply. Maru smiled as he left.

‘Memories aren’t so bad.’

He engraved the shabby exterior as he turned around. If there weren’t any accidents, this store would keep its place here in the future as well. It would get remodeled, and the owner would start hiring young employees, but the owner’s unique personality and the smell of briquettes would not change. Maru decided that this would be his first favorite restaurant. He thought that he should bring his friends on the day they became adults. He would tell only his close friends this secret place.

“Oh no, I might be late.”

It was almost time for the last train. Maru hurried down the hill.

[1] Spicy salad with moon snails. See this for more info

[2] A mixture of gochujang (red chilli paste) and vinegar.

[3] Stir-fried spicy pork.

Chapter 271

Exams ended, and it became a new month. It was June now. The grade card, which some had been anticipating, and most had been dreading, came out. Maru was 10th in his class. He was satisfied. After all, he was above average.

“Don’t forget to get your parents’ signatures.”

The homeroom teacher ended homeroom after that. As soon as he left, everyone started sighing.

“Haa, I’m doomed,” Dojin sighed as he put down his grade card.

He skimmed through it and saw that he was 27th in his class.

“Like I told you last time, you won’t get into culinary arts college without good grades.”

“Apparently, I can go to one with the interview and a practical skill test for junior colleges.”

It seemed that he had done a bit of research.

“Or, I’ll just forget university and just start from the bottom in a random restaurant.”

“You mean Iseul’s store?”

“No, that’s the place I have to take care of in the future.”

“Oh? I’m kinda confused because you sound so serious.”

“Really now?”

Dojin was commuting to his girlfriend’s, Iseul’s, family store to do a part time job. Although he started off with helping out with menial chores, it seemed as though he was learning how to cook from Iseul’s mother. Maru jokingly said that he’ll marry into her family, and the joke was no longer becoming a joke.

“Cooking was fun. It’s hard peeling onions and mashing garlic, but the satisfaction I feel when I finish a dish and put it out is considerable. If the customers say that it was delicious then that’s the cherry on top,” Dojin grinned.

It seemed that he had found his calling.

The general outline of the education system in South Korea went like this: elementary school focused on building humanism within the children; middle school focused on educating career paths, intended to induce them to think about what they want to do in the future; while high school focused on the specialized education according to their career path. Though, this logic didn’t apply in the current era.

There was one and only one objective upon entering elementary school. That was college. The question ‘what is your dream?’ had long been lost, and students wrestled with their pens and papers all the time in order to get into a better university. Middle school and high school were no different. None of those places taught about what life was.

Even teachers always said that ‘you can do that in college’. Everything had to be delayed until after entering college. They did not teach the students anything about the world. Like that, the students would spend 12 years of studying to get into college and suddenly become adults. By then, they would be 20 years old. Even though 20 wasn’t that young, the only thing students knew by that time was the ranking of universities within the country due to the 9 years of compulsory education and 3 years of semi-compulsory education.

They were supposed to think about what they want to do for a living, and find what they were good at, but due to the lack of care from the older generation, as well as the incompetence of education, students would have just become a machine that solves questions, with ‘dream’ something being out of sight.

In that sense, Dojin could be considered a lucky guy. He already found what he found enjoyable. He also had a place he could show his talents, so it was all the more better.

“Good luck with that.”

“Thanks.”

“But have you told your parents about it?”

“I tried bringing up that topic indirectly, but they don’t seem to hate it that much. My dad liked it. He said cooking was also a skill set, and that there won’t be any problem with living in this country with a good skill set.”

“Your father is 100% right on that. If you don’t find any hope in studying, you’d better start focusing on cooking instead. Look into cooking classes and the like. You should learn the basics at least.”

“I’ll think about it.”

His friend, who had once been wondering about what to do with his life, had decided on a direction and was going forward. Maru felt proud for some reason. At the same time, he felt a sense of warning that he could not stay lazy. Today was the 3rd of June. It had been three days since the shooting of the movie began. He did not know how much of the story they filmed already, or whether or not there were any problems, or what it was like during the shooting, but he believed that no news was good news.

The shooting of the movie was scheduled to take two months. According to what he heard, the finalized movie was going to be released at the end of this year or at the beginning of next year after all the editing was finished. When he first heard about the schedule, he wondered if 6 months was all it took to produce a movie. That was because most movies had the tag ‘5 years of production’ or even ‘10 years of production’ when they were being talked about.

Geunsoo filled his curiosity on that matter.

-That’s because the planning stage is included in the production time.

Aptly named ‘pre-production’, the stage that decides the general direction of the movie took the longest period of time. The movies with long ‘production times’ were apparently those that had a lot of effort put in in the pre-production phase or experienced trouble during that phase.

The production of the direction, the script as well as the research into the world-building of the movie had to decide everything about the movie, so it had to be done to perfection. Naturally, that took a long time.

After that was the crank-in, which was the actual filming phase, also called the production phase, followed by the post-production phase, where all the editing would happen.

-The filming period itself is not that long unless it’s a blockbuster-level movie where each scene has to be created from scratch. In Korea, it’s mostly around two to four months. With a good rhythm, it can take as short as a month. After taking all the video footage comes the editing part. I mean, the film rolls cannot be called a movie themselves. The quality of the footage before editing is not that good.

As this work involved the best staff and the best actors within the country, perhaps two months was a generous amount of time.

‘18th of June,’ Maru reminded himself of the date he would be shooting his scene.

Fortunately, it took place on a weekend, so he didn’t have to miss out on school. Although it was a night shoot, he had to be there at the scene beforehand, so things would have gotten a lot more complex if it took place on a weekday.

‘Is it about time I make a decision?’

Junmin had told him that he would become busy once he started working. What he meant is that his school attendance record might be affected. He would have to repeat a year if he missed out a third of the total academic year, so he had to take care of that as well. Of course, an actor who has not made a name for himself like him would never become that busy, but it was always good to prepare beforehand.

“Oh, yeah. Maru. I heard that the instructor isn’t coming today.”

“Yeah, I heard as well.”

Daemyung spoke to him. The reason she couldn’t come was probably because of the movie shoot. She had mentioned that she might be doing a new drama soon. She would do her instructor work on a level that does not hinder her career, and Junmin should have allowed that as well.

“We might have to do this by ourselves.”

“Really? Then I guess I should put more consideration into it.”

Daemyung accepted that fact without much hassle. Maru thought that Daemyung would complain, but he unexpectedly looked calm. There were people who became lazy when they came into power, while there were also people who became more capable when they became in charge of power. Daemyung seemed to be the latter. He had once said that he did not have any intentions on becoming a respectable senior in front of his juniors. He said that he just wanted to create a stage where everyone could enjoy acting.

He was a fellow that liked acting. He was plenty capable of filling in Suyeon’s absence. Above all, the juniors trusted and followed him, so there wouldn’t be any trouble at all.

“Maru, didn’t you say that you have a shoot as well?”

“Mine’s on the 18th. It’s just one day, so it won’t hinder us that much.”

“That’s a relief. Oh, starting today, we’ll take an hour off every day to create props and practice acting after that until 9. Are you alright with that?”

“No problem.”

“Dowook, how about you?”

Dowook, who was sleeping, slowly raised his hand and made a circle with his hands. Daemyung nodded.

“Since exams are over, I guess we can practice with a peaceful mind,” Daemyung stretched his arms out as he said that.

‘Matters outside school are important, but I can’t be negligent about this either.’

As the acting club was quite small, each member had to put a lot of effort in in order to create a play. It wasn’t that Maru was entirely carefree, but after seeing Daemyung, he felt that there wouldn’t be any big problems. Daemyung was just that capable in leading the club.

Just then, the speaker announced the start of the next class. Maru took out a notebook and the textbook from his bag. The exams were over, and it was back to a rather boring everyday life.

* * *

“Phew, thanks for all the work.”

“You too. Thanks for helping.”

“I’m doing this for money, you don’t need to thank me.”

Miso threw a can of beer to Ganghwan. Today was the last day the play ‘The Lottery Dream’ was performed. Throughout the morning, they took out all the props on the stage with their juniors and returned the small theater to the state before they rented it. Although it was only for a short time, standing on stage again was very fun. I wish I had more talent in acting - Miso thought as she drank the foam on top of the beer.

“What happened to the drama you told me?” Ganghwan asked.

He really was dumb-witted at times like these. Miso emptied half of the beer in one gulp before shaking her head. She managed to get her hands on a drama script through Junmin, but she didn’t get the okay from the director. Miso smiled bitterly when she was evaluated as ‘having good acting skills but her looks didn’t fit the character’. When she was twenty, she challenged auditions without taking much damage. She took to heart the old saying ‘failure is the mother of success’ as she took those challenges. However, once she became thirty and she started spending more time teaching other people how to act rather than acting herself, she turned her eyes to reality. She started professionally teaching aspiring actors.

“Aah, I guess there goes my dream of becoming a superstar.”

“You’re talking as though you’ve given up completely.”

“Hello? Mr. Yang Ganghwan? I might have a young-looking face, but I’m thirty-one years old this year. Don’t look down a lady after thirty. It makes me feel like the world is turning stiff.”

“Young-looking, she says, pfft.”

Miso crumpled the empty beer can with her bare hands and threw it towards Ganghwan. The can fell on the floor with a crisp sound after hitting Ganghwan’s forehead.

“I pity the teacher that’s going to marry you. I really do.”

“Do you want me to beat you up for real?”

“No, I’m still too young to part ways with this world, so I’ll politely decline.”

Ganghwan gave her a chicken skewer that was sold on the streets of Daehak-ro. They always used to come out and eat some chicken skewers with beer like this after finishing off a play.

“Have you met senior Junmin?”

“I did.”

“What about the contract?”

“I signed one.”

“So now, you and I, as well as Geunsoo, are eating off of one pot. Goodbye poverty!”

Ganghwan rejoiced. He was the type of person who would spend any money he earned, so he was always short on money despite earning a decent amount. He also spent most of the profits from the play this time paying his juniors, so he had enough to barely get by in his bank account.

“Isn’t it time you make a savings account or something?”

“Nah, there’s no woman to marry me, so I don’t need one. Life is about spending what you earn, you know?”

“Damned lunatic. Why do both you and Geunsoo live life the easy way?”

“Miss Yang Miso, why do you leave out your name from that list?”

“Unlike certain men, I worked hard to become a made-self woman you know? I have a house under my name as well.”

“Now that, I envy you.”

Ganghwan grinned.

“Do you really not have a girl you’re dating?”

“Nope.”

“Well, I guess no one would date a person like you who suddenly loses all contact. I was flabbergasted when you actually cut off all contact to experience homelessness first hand.”

“You’re bringing up old stories again. Don’t worry about me and worry about yourself. That teacher of yours is a saint so don’t let him go, okay?”

Miso punched Ganghwan’s waist since he got on her nerves. Ganghwan grabbed his waist in pain.

“Geunsoo started shooting apparently.”

“I heard.”

“Wanna go look?”

“Don’t get in his way and just stay here. If you’re so free, then try getting a girl in Daehak-ro. You’re not gonna live alone forever, right?”

“Please, just let me take care of my own romance, alright? You’re not my mom, nagging me like that.”

Ganghwan grumbled for a moment before standing up abruptly.

“Since I’m free, I should go see my first disciple.”

“Your first disciple?”

“The old-fashioned dude.”

“Oh, you mean Maru.”

“Wanna go?”

“Should I?”

Miso looked at Ganghwan and smiled. Maru had told him not to interfere with them too much, but just going to see them was not interfering, so it probably wouldn’t matter.

“Oh, wait. Kim Suyeon is there as their instructor, right? I suddenly don’t want to go.”

Just as Ganghwan was about to sit back down, Miso pulled him up again.

“You’re a man. Why do you change your decisions on a whim like that? Let’s go for now. I want to see my cute juniors.”

She hadn’t even greeted the new first years properly. She thought that she should buy them something nice and cheer for them.

Miso started the car after putting the unwilling Ganghwan in her car.

Chapter 272

After school was over, all members of the acting club gathered on the fifth floor. This was their first gathering after the exam period. No one mentioned a thing about exams and they went straight into practice. They did some exercise under Daemyung’s lead and was just about to start the read-through when Aram asked when they would wear the outfit that Suyeon lent them.

“We need to get them checked anyway, don’t we?”

She wasn’t wrong so they decided to do so. Aram giggled and took Jiyoon to the bathroom while the boys changed in the class. As this was a play set in urban settings, there weren’t any difficulties acquiring the outfits. For the police uniform, there was one their graduates left behind and for the rest, it was fine with casual clothes. The most difficult to prepare was the hostess, but Suyeon took care of that.

Maru also took out a full suit from his bag. It was something that he found while visiting shops that sold carryover products. The owner there sold the suit to him for cheap saying that it was damaged while the previous owner worked in a logistics warehouse.

“That’s decent.”

It was well-repaired. The old lady that told him to tell her his size and told him that he should leave it to her had some great skills.

“I-it does fit, I guess,” Daemyung, who put on the police uniform with difficulty, spoke in front of the mirror.

A jumper with the police mark and black pants. He was also wearing a yellow vest with a walkie-talkie on it. He would perfectly be a policeman with a law enforcement baton.

“Thanks for all the work in drunk driving control,” Maru spoke with a smile.

Behind Daemyung was Dowook wearing a leather jacket. He was the perfect stereotype neighborhood delinquent. He looked like the type of guy that people would offer money to out of fear if they walked by and saw him smoking in a crouching position.

“Be kind to others, Dowook.”

“Don’t bullshit me.”

“Your foul mouth definitely makes you look like a delinquent.”

“Ugh, I should just…”

He would be evaluated well for his delinquent acting as long as he did not get stage frights. Bangjoo tried swaying with his tie still on, but took it off after thinking that it didn’t feel right. Instead, he undid the top two buttons and picked up the empty soju bottle.

“Do I look drunk now?”

Bangjoo’s role was that of a drunkard.

“You can’t be a drunkard with just the outfit alone. You’ll have to do well with your acting.”

“Right? But isn’t this soju bottle good?”

“It’s not like you can bring a soju bottle to a holding cell, but I guess it’s fine since it’s a play.”

Bangjoo nodded back and tightly clenched the soju bottle.

“It would be perfect if I had a sip of soju before I went on stage, right?”

“I don’t think so. If you don’t think that you can do it, you should ask your sister. There’s a splendid acting teacher close to you.”

“I’d rather self-study acting than learn acting from my sister. My sister never lets things go undone. If I ask her to teach me then… urgh, just thinking about it is horrible.”

Bangjoo shook as though he didn’t want to imagine the scenario.

As Maru didn’t have a complete understanding of Joohyun, he just nodded.

“But seonbae, the suit really suits you,” Bangjoo told Maru.

Maru smiled and redid his tie. He wore suits an uncountable number of times in his previous life. If he looked awkward then that would be a problem in itself. He even remembered sleeping in a suit after coming back home from working into the night. He wore it that much so his body remembered how to look good in it.

They saw each other’s outfits and checked whether there were any problems or not. Aram opened the classroom door and entered. She was wearing a vertical striped suit and a white t-shirt. As it was a casual-style suit, she didn’t feel like a company employee. As her role was that of a scammer, she had to look neat and tidy, and the outfit that Suyeon chose for her fit that description perfectly.

“It suits me, doesn’t it?”

“It’s good for sure,” Maru smiled as he spoke.

Aram took out some round glasses from her chest pocket and put it on.

“Don’t I look more intellectual now? Like a proper scammer?”

“Where did you get those?”

“I got them from the instructor’s house. I’ve never seen someone with a dress room before. I didn’t know what to look for the last time I went there, so this time, I had a look at many things. But seriously, clothes filled a room half the size of this classroom.”

Aram raised her thumbs up. At that moment, Jiyoon peeked out from behind Aram. Her body was still hidden behind the door, so her outfit couldn’t be seen.

“And voilà!”

Aram dragged Jiyoon out and put her in front of herself. Maru made an awkward laugh. Jiyoon was wearing a jacket on top of a one-piece dress that was knee-length.

“He-hey!”

Jiyoon immediately hid behind Aram’s back. Maru had a glance at the boys behind him. Dowook and Bangjoo were giggling as though they just discovered something fun while Daemyung didn’t know where to look and his eyes were wandering everywhere.

“It suits her, doesn’t it?”

Aram moved sideways and spoke. Jiyoon was now revealed for everyone to see. Her baby face was blushing and she was pulling down the edge of her skirt with all of her might. Meanwhile, Aram pulled up the skirt that Jiyoon pulled down.

“There’s no sexy beauty if you pull it down.”

“B-but it’s too short.”

“It’s fine. That’s normal these days. Just look at the people on TV.”

Jiyoon gave up after arguing with Aram for a while. She looked down and walked a step forward.

“It’s the outfit that the instructor chose. How is it, it suits her, doesn’t it?”

Aram was more excited than Jiyoon for Jiyoon’s clothing. Maru thought that Aram’s purpose in coming to school was to tease Jiyoon. Maru scanned Jiyoon from top to bottom. For now, she fit the stereotypical ‘hostess’ image. Although she didn’t give off a sexy beauty due to her baby face and her embarrassed actions, her clothes definitely fit the bill.

“D-doesn’t it look strange?”

“You’re acting strange. What do you think, Daemyung?”

Maru passed the question over to Daemyung. Daemyung, who was at the back, was startled.

“Wh-what do I think about what?”

“I mean Jiyoon’s outfit. I’m asking your opinion on it.”

“…It does suit her, but.”

“But?”

“Uhm…”

“Say it. You’ll have to do the fine-tuning yourself.”

“I’m thinking that it’s a little too lewd.”

Daemyung looked away in embarrassment after saying those words. Jiyoon also flinched and stuck right next to Aram.

“Lewd, you say. I guess that works then. I think she’s got the general theme right,” Maru smiled as she spoke.

Her outfit might need some adjusting so that she doesn’t feel uncomfortable in it, but there didn’t seem to be any visible problems for the time being. Though, she looked cute no matter what she was wearing.

“Jiyoon.”

“Yes.”

“It’s the role you wanted to do. I can understand that you’re embarrassed but we can’t have you flinching on stage. Also, do you know how a hostess acts?”

“N-no.”

Maru groaned. How was he supposed to explain such a thing to a girl who was raised in a good environment? She should be aware of the general things that hostesses did, but completely understanding such a person was impossible without seeing the person in question.

There were many cases where businesses were done in private rooms and occasionally, call girls would be called to such rooms. Everyone knew that it was a bad culture, but within the ecosystem known as society, ethics didn’t always take priority. In Maru’s faint memories, he remembered sucking up to a company executive that distributed the work. He induced them not to call women by having them drink a lot, but he ended up bringing girls to the people who didn’t even glance at the contract form.

Just because a woman worked in a bar didn’t mean that they were all seductive. In fact, most of the time, they looked neat and tidy and it would be impossible to recognize where they worked if they were brought outside. However, as their job required them to steal the hearts of men they see for the first time, those ladies had a seductive aura about them. They didn’t blatantly try to invite men to themselves, but they made it so that the man would want them.

“Do I have to know?” Jiyoon asked.

Maru thought about it for a moment before shaking his head. This play was done by high school students. There didn’t seem to be a need to go that far to be realistic. Although professional actors did all sorts of things to adjust themselves into the role, amateurs, much less people that just got into acting, didn’t seem to require such a thing. It should suffice with just imagination.

‘I should keep the two separate.’

It would be foolish of him to ask his juniors to act on the level of Moonjoong’s. He had somehow set Moonjoong as the standard after being deeply inspired by Moonjoong creating his character. His standards had become too high.

“The instructor will tell you that much. You’ll have to listen to her advice.”

“Ah, alright.”

Maru scanned the club members that got into their outfit. Although they looked awkward right now as this was their first time, they would soon get used to it. Acting was like clothes, and doing it for a long time would make them used to it just like how clothes fit the wearer after a long time. What was left now was to act so that they fit the image that they were showing.

“Wow, are those stage outfits?”

Hearing the sudden voice, Maru turned around to look at the door. He saw Miso there who was peeking through.

“Senior.”

“I’m here, too.”

Ganghwan was there behind Miso as well. Dowook and the first years clearly didn’t know them. Maru approached the two.

“What brings you two here?”

“I didn’t even get to greet them properly before because you chased me out. So I’m here to see the juniors today.”

Maru received the paper bag from Miso’s hands. He smelled dumplings from it.

“You guys haven’t had dinner, have you?”

“Not yet.”

“Then let’s eat first. We haven’t eaten either. Also, long time no see, Daemyung.”

“Haha, it sure has been some time, hasn’t it?” Daemyung scratched his head as he spoke.

Maru secretly asked Ganghwan who entered the classroom.

“You don’t have anything for us?”

“Hey, I bought those dumplings.”

“Aha.”

“But why are you guys practicing here? I saw a wide place on my way here.”

“Some things happened. That place is now the baseball club’s gym.”

“Really?”

While Maru talked with Ganghwan, Miso had everyone sit down and was in the middle of introducing herself. She was such a devil when she was here as an instructor, but now that she came here as their senior, she couldn’t be more kind. Perhaps that was Miso’s real self.

“But hey, you look like a total delinquent.”

Miso suddenly pointed that out to Dowook. Even the almighty Dowook slightly panicked when she said that all of a sudden and just smiled back awkwardly.

Maru thought that Miso was as direct with her words as ever. He sat down next to her. He set the dumplings that she brought and they started eating. Daemyung explained that Miso was a graduate of the school. Maru did not miss that Jiyoon’s eyes glistened when she heard that Miso was one of the founders of the club.

“Daemyung is really good at introductions. Oh, by the way, he is Yang Ganghwan, who is also in the acting scene. If you guys continue to make an effort into this field and develop your dreams as an actor, there’s a high chance that you’ll get to meet him. He’s quite a well-known actor after all.”

“What’s up with you all of a sudden? Flattering others like that.”

Ganghwan looked at Miso with a sour face. The rather stiff atmosphere died down a lot thanks to Miso and Ganghwan’s banter. The club members relaxed as well.

The one that had the most questions was none other than Aram. Of course, she wasn’t interested in the acting part, but about Miso’s private life. After hearing Ganghwan say that she might end up getting married to a teacher of this school, everyone widened their eyes and looked at Miso.

“Who is it?”

“Th-then you’re marrying someone who taught you in high school?”

“Who is it?”

Unable to win against the onslaught of students, Miso mentioned Taesik’s name. After finding out that the teacher in charge of the club was the protagonist of the story, Jiyoon and Aram exclaimed and started asking Miso to tell them more about the story.

Maru saw that there was a smile on Miso’s face. It seemed that she was feeling good. They listened to Miso and Taesik’s love story for a while. From time to time, Ganghwan interrupted, saying that Taesik was pitiful, and each time, Miso stuffed a dumpling in Ganghwan’s mouth.

“It sounds like a drama.”

“Right.”

The two girls seemed deeply interested in the romance that surpassed the generation. They really were emotional when it came to things like these.

“But can you make a living off acting? Not just acting but related fields as well.”

Dowook asked his first question. Miso started her reply by saying ‘that’s a sharp question’, before continuing to explain about the overall situation in the acting field. It was definitely not an industry that was easy to make a living off of, and she also mentioned that resolve wasn’t enough to become successful.

“But it’s definitely fun. If you have the intention, then it’s not a bad idea to challenge it. Of course, if anyone close to me told me that they wanted to do acting, or that they wanted to become an actor, I would try to stop them from doing so, very strongly too. If they still want to do it despite that, then I’ll help them to the best of my abilities. Oh yeah, why do you ask? Are you interested?”

“No. I’m going to succeed my dad’s petrol station.”

“You’re quite cocky.”

“……”

Dowook looked away.

“Although I only spoke about the bad parts, there’s someone successful right in front of you. I am making a living off acting. This fella next to me is the same. I can’t say words like ‘you’ll definitely be successful if you put in the effort’, but if you do get through that huge hurdle, then you’ll have no problems in making a living off of it. Oh, this dude lives like a poor dude, but that’s because he doesn’t plan his life properly.”

Ganghwan blocked his own ears with his hands. He didn’t want to listen to it again.

“If you are serious then try challenging it. You’ll be a made-self woman like me. Don’t be afraid of failure. If you try, then you’ll be able to do it.”

The club members nodded their heads and exclaimed when Miso seemed full of confidence. She became successful both romantically and financially. Although Maru felt bad for saying this, he had to make the correction.

“It’s not a made-self woman, but a self-made woman.”

Maru had to avoid Miso’s sharp gaze after that.

Chapter 273

“I told you to be quiet. You guys aren’t here because you did anything good. If you have any shame then just stay quiet. Silence - don’t you see that word on the wall?”

The policeman stomped on the ground. The people in the holding cell competed to see who had the most desperate life but had to shut up when the policeman shouted. However, that only lasted a moment and they started talking again.

“You know… I… I mean, I lived quite a pitiful life.”

The girl that stuttered revealed that she worked at a bar. Her stuttering made her look awkward. Someone interrupted her words midway through.

“Just shut up already! I can’t sleep because of all the noise,” one of the youths, who was sleeping against the wall, suddenly shouted. His scary eyes scanned his surroundings. The other people in the cell whispered amongst each other so that the youth could not hear them.

“You’re in a place like this at your age. Don’t you pity your kids at home?”

When the youth shouted, the policeman, who was doing his work near the holding cell, frowned and stood up. He tapped on the bars of the cell with his file.

“Hey you, why don’t you stay quiet? Huh? You’re a frigging regular here. Why don’t you turn over a new leaf for your father and mother? Aren’t you tired of coming here every time? You’ll be going to the detention center at this rate, you know?”

“…I didn’t do anything that bad.”

“That’s even more of a problem then!”

The youth was a lion inside the holding cell, but was no more than a rabbit in front of the policeman. When the policeman left, the delinquent bared his fangs again, but the people inside only snorted at him. They realized the delinquent’s true nature.

“You lil’ bahstaaard!” Suddenly, someone spoke with a slurred tongue.

A man giving off the stench of soju was swaying as he approached the delinquent. The delinquent seemed afraid of the man whose eyes were out of focus and flinched back.

“When I was your age, huh! You know? Uh… huh!”

Perhaps he was too drunk to speak, or maybe he had other circumstances, but the drunk man kept repeating his ‘huh’s. After that continued for a while, the drunkard just collapsed onto the floor. His voice was loud, but his actions were no different from an actual drunkard.

The collapsed drunkard moved his hand around the floor before grabbing onto a thin ankle. The girl whose ankle was grabbed was a woman wearing a suit. She had darkened skin and was clearly annoyed as she tried to shake the hand off her ankle.

“I really shouldn’t be here. Hello, prosecutor? I’m a woman related to Daeyang Corp. If you keep me tied here, you will regret it. You know about Daeyang Corp. don’t you? It’s the indisputable top company in the country! Aren’t you scared of the consequences of keeping me here?”

The woman put emphasis on the words ‘Daeyang Corp’. The policeman approached the woman who made an arrogant face as she pushed up her glasses.

“Someone who tried to run after getting the commission fee is actually related to Daeyang Corp? Let me hear it then. Who from which department are you related to? The chairman? The president? One of the directors? Who is it?”

“Wh-who says I tried to run after getting the commission fee? I just had some business at the bank so I was getting it for them and I was caught just as I withdrew the money. It’s a misunderstanding!”

“Like hell it’s a misunderstanding.”

“But it is!”

“Geez, if you’re so unjustified, then you’ll see the victims tomorrow so talk to them.”

“I told you to let me out, not call those people!”

“Do you think what you’re saying makes any sense? If you keep being annoying, you’ll be moved to one of the inner cells. Don’t you see those people working over there? They’re working hard to take care of the complaints. Geez.”

The scammer puffed her cheeks at the policeman that just went away after clicking his tongue. The scammer called for the policeman several times after that, but the police didn’t even listen and focused on his work. The scammer became tired of her actions and just sat down.

“You should’ve aimed it big if you were trying to scam someone. What’s a meager commission fee gonna do?”

The man sitting opposite her spoke. The man wearing a neat suit looked at the scammer with a tired expression. The scammer then started blabbing again.

“Who the hell is a scammer? You’re a funny one. Hey, watch your words, alright? I don’t know who you are and where you work, but it won’t be fun if you treat me like this here. I really am not a person that should be here. Why doesn’t anyone understand?”

“Such a well-off woman is wearing such cheap clothes?”

“Cheap clothes? These are brand name ones! Well, not like a person like you would know anything about brands.”

“Brand name? You mean something like this?” Saying that, the man showed her the watch on his wrist.

The scammer widened her eyes and had a close look at the watch.

“That’s obviously fake, isn’t it?”

“You have bad eyes. Rather than that, tell me this Daeyang group guy you know.”

“Why? It won’t do you any good sucking up to me at this point, you know?”

The man shrugged and just stayed quiet. The scammer crossed her arms in victory. Just as she felt victorious, the policeman passed by next to her and approached the man.

“You’ll get to leave tomorrow at 9 when business hours start. People calling themselves your subordinates are here, do you want to meet them?”

“I’m good, thanks. Oh, rather than that, how was the guy with the swollen face?”

“We had a hard time turning him away since he was kneeling down and apologizing. And this is some food that he bought for you. Usually, it would be given out during meal time, but I’m giving it to you early because you’ll be leaving early tomorrow.”

The police pushed half a block of tofu between the gaps of the cell. Seeing that, the hostess spoke,

“He just came in, what’s up with the tofu[1]?”

Her voice was much clearer than before. The policeman ignored the hostess and turned around. The salaryman smiled in disdain.

“It’s quite funny, you know? I’m the one who hit him, and he’s the one giving me presents and apologizing. Do you know the saying, money turns crime into innocence and the lack of money turns innocence into crime[2]?” The salaryman spoke as he looked around with the bowl of tofu in hand.

The people in the cell looked at the salaryman with dejected eyes. It wasn’t a surprise since they just heard from the policeman that a subordinate of his was kneeling in front of the police station. It was likely that he was in a high position, and nothing good would come out of getting on his bad side. Although they were people who were put in cells because of violating the law, they were capable of common sense.

“It’s quite funny when you think about it. That subordinate said the right thing. Meaning, he used forthright words. Isn’t there a saying that you should keep a man that speaks bitter words nearby? That he is the most loyal subordinate? But you know? There’s a limit to being bitter. Can’t it be a little sweeter? Who the hell is he to tell me what to do? You don’t live in society with your mouth. This world is all about power, authority, and lastly, politics. You should know how to suck up to people, and mix lies within your words so that you can survive in this jungle like company. The young ones are only full of spirit. They only know about justice! Does justice give you food?”

The salaryman ate the tofu after laughing.

“Looks like he knows his stuff now. How good is that? He gets to enjoy life by giving up just a little. I do feel relieved since he kneeled down in front of the police station… but I can’t forgive him that easily since he’s the one who put me here.”

The salaryman’s face clearly had ‘obstinate’ written all over it as he ate the tofu. While everyone stayed quiet, the hostess approached the salaryman.

“You look like you’re someone good, oppa.”

The salaryman glanced at the hostess that had a smile on her face and spoke.

“I do work at Daeyang Corp. Though, I’m not in any position high. I’m just in the right position for my age.”

“Oh my god, you’re so cool, oppa! I work near here. Come around some time. I’ll give you some free service.”

The hostess licked her lips as she said that. At the same time, people around them started laughing. Why were they laughing? She didn’t know. It was quite a peculiar scene, but everyone returned to their bitter faces again.

“Hey, ahjumma.”

“Who the hell is an ahjumma?”

“Then what, should I call you a scammer?”

“Who the hell is a scammer? Aren’t you the one lying? Of course, I’m not saying I had a bone to pick with that, but just saying. You get what I’m saying, don’t you? Let’s just leave it on a good note, alright?”

The arrogant scammer avoided the salaryman’s gaze. The salaryman also shut up as he didn’t want to get involved anymore. The hostess kept trying to seduce the salaryman but returned to her corner of the cell after seeing that there was no reaction.

“Dammit. It’s because of old people like you that there are pitiful youths like me. You know that?” The delinquent, who had been staying quiet this whole time, suddenly spoke.

He looked as though he had nothing to fear other than governmental authority.

“If you had made a fairer world, then… yeah? It’s because people like you don’t do their jobs properly that there’s no point in putting the effort in!”

Hearing those words, the drunk man, who was lying down in a weird position, abruptly stood up and raised his right hand into the air.

“That’s right! You have your way with words. That’s what I wanted to say. What did I do wrong, huh? I haven’t done anything wrong. I just commuted to my company and retired at the right age. I was just trying to open a small store and was going to live an ordinary life. But! I can’t get any sales! It’s fucking damned. I’m not drunk because I want to be. I didn’t drink because I wanted to drink! The world made me drink!”

The drunk man started his sermon.

“What the heck? You have no right to say that, old man. If you came here after drinking under the bright sun, then just go sleep. You have no right to complain about the world when your life is in a dumpster.”

“You little bastard! How dare you talk back to your elders?”

“What the heck? You’re fucking senile.”

The two of them grabbed each other by the collar and roared at each other. The policeman, who was sitting at his desk, stood up and came to the cell.

“ALL OF YOU SHUT UP!”

Hearing the police shout at them, the two people let go of each other.

“You’re so badly worried about the world, and you come here because of stealing cigarettes? Why don’t you take care of yourself before worrying about the world?”

“…I’m sorry.”

“And also, mister. What the hell do you mean, ‘you don’t get any sales’? You screwed up a perfectly good store because of your stock trading and you came here because of your debt. I know everything about you and you keep saying lies.”

“…I screwed my stocks because the world is…”

“Stop complaining about the world. I’m busy as it is.”

The police gave him a warning before turning back. The scammer then spoke.

“Actually, I didn’t become like this because I wanted to. I was an orphan when I was young. I don’t even know the faces of my parents. I was raised up while getting beaten up. I… really had it hard.”

The scammer spoke in a pitiful voice. She even wiped away her tears. However, for some reason, she didn’t look that sad.

“If I was raised in a loving environment, I would’ve never done something like that. That’s right, I am a good person, but the environment I was raised in made me who I am. I wanted to lead a good life, you know? If I was just given the chance…,” saying that, she glanced at the salaryman.

The salaryman clearly seemed disinterested, though.

“Aah, I wonder what my father and my mother, who I don’t even know the faces of, are doing. I wonder if they even remember the pitiful child that they abandoned…”

At that moment, the police walked toward the cell before speaking.

“Oh, by the way, your father is coming to see you tomorrow so keep that in mind.”

After the police walked away, the scammer lied down on the spot after clicking her tongue.

“She’s a strange woman, isn’t she, oppa?”

The hostess grabbed the opportunity to say that. At the same time, the delinquent said, ‘see? Adults are the problem,’ and blamed everything on others.

“It’s the world’s fault, dammit!” The drunk man shouted.

“Just shut up if you’re poor! Poor people always had loud voices, urgh,” the salaryman shouted as well.

The holding cell became noisy again. Everyone was pointing at each other. Just then, the police became angry.

“I told you to shut up already! You guys are no better than each other. Don’t you think that you were in the wrong? Everyone’s blaming each other. That’s a good life you have there. Nothing’s your fault. Why don’t you have a look at yourselves? I mean that you should reflect on yourselves a little. Aren’t you embarrassed in front of all the people that live forthright lives?”

The police shook his head as he sighed. The holding cell became quiet again. Everyone mumbled and just looked at the policeman. At that moment, the police pickled up his phone.

“Yes, senior. What? The report?” The policeman seemed flustered. He immediately started rummaging through his desk before picking out a piece of paper. The paper said ‘report’ on it.

“I-I don’t have it with me. I told our new one to send it to you. Eh? No way. Aha, it looks like that new recruit forgot about it. Sheesh, he’s no good, is he? He makes so many mistakes? Eh? You’re asking me if I’m blaming our new blood again? Senior. Who do you take me for? I never blame others for my mistakes. Of course. You know better than I do that there’s nothing on me if you take my justice and faith away from me. Yes, yes. I’ll educate the new recruit and have him give you the report immediately. Yes, thank you for all your work, senior.”

The police fumbled after hanging up.

“Dammit, I made a mistake because of you all. Geez, those that blame other people are the worst.”

The people inside the holding cell glared at the police.

* * *

Miso glanced at Ganghwan. Ganghwan nodded his head as though he had read what was on her mind.

“They’re quite good, aren’t they?”

“This… is well, their teamwork is really good.”

“The insufficient parts just make them look cuter. If the one in the lead is that good, then I guess even the insufficient parts look charming.”

“If everyone was making mistakes, the mistakes in speech or bursting out laughing might seem like a flaw, but it didn’t feel like a flaw since it continued so smoothly.”

“I was honestly surprised. Since when did they become so good?”

“There are some parts I want to give advice on, but that’s it. Just advice. Whether they listen to it or not is up to them. Wow, looks like he learned quite a few things from sir Moonjoong.”

Miso crossed her arms and looked at Daemyung. Daemyung’s personality shifted dramatically once he went up on stage. His shy personality seemed like an act and he got into his character very deeply. Right now, his intonation and action have levelled up and had become even more natural that it surprised Miso. Last year, there were more people, and as such, there was more variety, but compared to this year, last year’s people lacked unity. The former club president, Yoonjung, was the mood maker of the club, but she lacked the skills to lead everyone. On the other hand, Daemyung had a full grasp on the job.

‘But then… ’

Miso had a look at Maru. The play had a depth to it thanks to that child supporting everyone from the middle. The awkward hostess, the delinquent who only knew how to shout, the drunkard that didn’t even pronounce his words properly, the scammer that didn’t look intellectual at all. All the other characters had something off about them, but Maru’s character seemed to make everyone look realistic. Maru’s concentration was affecting others around them. The characters that conversed with Maru came to life, and as a result, the play didn’t become a mess, though it wasn’t perfect either.

If he was better than them by just a little bit, everyone else would negatively affect his performance, but thanks to his overwhelming skills, he positively affected everyone else’s performance. Daemyung’s leadership and Maru’s charisma. The two were the perfect combo.

“Gather round,” Daemyung spoke.

The club members gathered around. Miso kept watching. They say silence was golden. It seemed that her advice wasn’t needed here.

[1] When people get released from prison/jail, they are given a block of tofu to start ‘fresh’, because tofu is white… So Jiyoon is asking why he’s gonna be released already.

[2] 有錢無罪 無錢有罪. Fun fact, this saying was actually coined by a minor-criminal-turned-terrorist in the 80s… Basically it means that with enough money, you can bribe everyone (lawyer, judge, etc) so that your crime is erased. But if you’re poor, the most minute of crimes will have you serve for multiple years.

Chapter 274

“How were we?”

They had a break after a round of practice. Maru asked that question to Miso and Ganghwan who were sitting in front of the window, watching them practice. They didn’t have perfect control over their lines, some people burst out laughing, and it was far from perfect, but this was their first run that they showed to others. He wanted to hear their honest opinions.

“You guys need a lot of practice. It’s far from perfect. Especially the first years. Confidence is good and all, but skill is something different to confidence. Are you sure that you’re putting all your effort?”

“Honestly speaking, it’s not as hot as it was last year.”

“You were never hot though.”

“That’s true,” Maru replied with a smile.

Last year, they had an objective that was to win the nation-wide competition. In the first place, Miso had the students practice with the competition in mind, so the atmosphere was very competitive and practice was arduous.

However, this year was different. The first problem was the lack of practice space. As their practice space had become smaller, there was a limit to their training. The instructor in charge, Suyeon, was also different from Miso in regards to the way they handled things. Suyeon did not care about the achievements. To her, being an instructor was just a job that Junmin gave her. She never had the ambition to recreate the past glory like how Miso did. Lastly, the members of the club also had their own circumstances, leading to lack of practice.

“It’ll be good if we win, but I’m planning to listen to their opinions first. Also, Daemyung’s opinion is very important too.”

“I do want to see Woosung High School winning the nation-wide competition, but well, I’m not in charge anymore. They look like they’re enjoying it and it’s not bad.”

“They’re all good kids after all,” Maru looked back as he spoke.

Daemyung was giving the others an explanation regarding the script. The members were concentrating on him as well. They definitely had a higher sense of unity than last year.

“If you guys are satisfied with the fact that you guys are preparing for a play and don’t mind about the results, then I guess this is enough. You’re doing well. With a bit more practice, you might be able to aim for 2nd prize.”

“What if we aim for the grand prize?”

“Then, like I said, you guys are far from perfect.”

At that moment, Ganghwan, who was listening this whole time, spoke,

“It’s good to enjoy it. Maru, you are well aware of how Miso can be tiring if she decides to put her mind to it.”

“That I do.”

“This woman’s standards are too high. She wants perfection from those starting off. Working with her will make her teammates tired. However, I can say this: she will make them proud of what they did. After all, the sadness and the joy are multiplied according to the effort and time invested. If you do as you’re doing now, then you’ll neither be extremely joyful nor extremely depressed after the competition. After all, that’s what doing things ‘moderately’ entails.”

“That sounds very charming for me.”

“Really? Just moderately doing things?” Ganghwan asked in surprise.

Maru made a bitter smile.

“Honestly speaking, I want to invest as much time as I can in this on the condition that it doesn’t get in the way of my work. No, I want to focus more on it even if I have to push myself a little. You know? I actually felt very frustrated that I wasn’t able to go on stage last winter. I’m only saying this now, but I would sometimes stare at the clock while stroking my broken leg, thinking that the others should be on stage by now.”

“That’s because of the effort you put in. That much investment leads to that much loss.”

“You’re definitely right. If I did things moderately back then, I wouldn’t have been frustrated either.”

“It didn’t feel that good, did it?”

“It was horrible.”

“Doesn’t that make you desire to win even more?”

Hearing that question, Maru shrugged his shoulders. Victory. How many people in this world liked to lose? Any human would want to wear the crown if they could. He was unable to go on stage due to his burns. After moving around vigorously until he smelled sour; reciting his lines until he could hum the words, it felt even more frustrating after it all ended in vain.

He did become ambitious. This year, everyone’s talents were better than last year and they were better unified as well. They definitely had what it takes to challenge the competition.

However.

“Maru, can I see you for a sec?” Daemyung called out. Maru looked at his two seniors as he spoke.

“The club president is calling for me, so if you would excuse me.”

Miso smiled back at him.

“We should get going too, right?”

Miso pulled Ganghwan up. The members of the club realized what was going on and stood in front of them.

“Work hard. And enjoy yourselves. Don’t leave behind any regrets.”

“I’m not a graduate from this school, but I’ll be cheering for you as someone working in the industry. Good luck.”

The two left after saying their goodbyes. Everyone was going to see them out, but the two refused them.

After sending the two off in the corridor, the club members returned to the classroom.

“Miso-unni was so cool,” Aram said as she raised her two thumbs.

Jiyoon also nodded.

“If you spend time with her, you’ll find out that she’s not as cool as you think she is.”

“That’s true.”

Maru and Daemyung smiled at the same time. It was ‘memories’ in retrospect, but at that time, they had an extremely hard time.

“Can I have your attention again?” Daemyung sat down and spoke.

“It’s definitely worth complimenting that you aren’t making as many mistakes as before. First years, well done. However, you still have a lot to go. Lines are something that’s hard to memorize by themselves. You need to engrave them into your body according to the flow of the story. It’s just like how song lyrics are hard to memorize without the melody, and it’s easy to learn it if you try singing it. Acting is the same. Don’t just memorize your lines but try to learn the lines before and after your lines. Going further, try to remember the flow of the story.”

The members nodded.

“Aram, your pronunciation and vocal power are perfect. You sound full of confidence as well. However, I want you to bring out the traits of a scammer some more. I’m saying that you should be dynamic with your words. Normally, you should lower your voice and erupt out loudly at the most important moment. That gives you more impact. You’ll see what I mean if you try watching videos of people giving speeches. Scammers are people whose voices are very important so bear that in mind.”

“Yes, seonbae.”

Aram wrote the things that Daemyung pointed out on her script.

“Bangjoo, I like that you aren’t shy when you’re acting. However, you’re mashing your pronunciation too much because you’re too absorbed into the situation. Right now, there’s only us here and we all know what you’re going to say, so we can understand what you’re saying, but it’s likely that it’s not the same for the audience. You’ll have to show that you’re drunk with your actions, and make your speech a little clearer.”

“Yes!”

“As for Jiyoon… I think it’ll be better if you let yourself go a little more. The script says this, but the hostess is a charming woman to the point that the people in the cell are giving her glances. But what’s important here is that ‘charming’ doesn’t just mean pretty. But right now, you’re trying too hard to look pretty. Hm, was that too difficult for you to understand?”

“No. I think I get what you’re saying. I’ll try to fix it.”

Jiyoon nodded as well. Daemyung smiled and continued onto the next person.

“Dowook, you are doing really well. I don’t really have anything to point out. If there’s just one thing, I wish you could react to your conversation partner’s words a little more. You have the tendency to interrupt others mid way because you’re too focused on your words, but while that fits the character of a delinquent, it might make your conversation partner panic a little.”

“So you want me to restrain myself a little?”

“Simply put, yes.”

“Got it.”

Dowook accepted it as well.

Daemyung definitely had a wide field of vision. It wasn’t easy giving every single person feedback, but he put in the effort every time to give advice. His advice wasn’t something vague either, but was incredibly detailed. He was doing something that many people couldn’t.

“How was I?”

After his part, Daemyung always asked what he himself could improve upon. There would be an awkward silence if Daemyung was the tyrannical type of club president, but as his personality was so good, the club members could point things out with ease. Daemyung even wrote down even the most minute of things to fix his acting.

‘He’s one amazing guy.’

He’s the type to do well no matter what he did. Daemyung encouraged everyone before they started practicing again. They spent another hour practicing. This time it was much better.

“It’s past 8 already,” Maru spoke as he looked at the clock. Daemyung gathered everyone around, looking somewhat unsatisfied.

“Well done everyone. Have a safe trip back home.”

“Thanks for your work.”

Maru waved his hand to Dowook, Bangjoo, Jiyoon and Aram who left the club. Jiyoon and Aram had to go home by 9, so they couldn’t stay any longer to practice. Bangjoo lived alone, so they couldn’t keep him late, while Dowook was here to fill in the members, so it was hard to ask him to do anything difficult.

Maru spoke to Daemyung, who didn’t leave yet.

“If you think about it, last year was amazing.”

“You’re right. Instructor Miso had us practicing until the last bus.”

“We practically lived in school.”

“Even if I look back on it, I can’t help but wonder. I mean, the girls didn’t have a curfew either.”

“If they had, then I’m sure senior Miso would have called their parents to lift the curfew and tell them that she would take responsibility.”

“You’re definitely right.”

Maru looked at the clock before speaking.

“You’re doing a triple role today as well?”

“It’s a pity to leave it here.”

Maru picked up the scripts on the floor. It would be good if everyone could practice together, but it was hard to do so. In the end, the only thing the remaining, passionate people could do was to do double or triple roles.

“When should we go back today?”

“I dunno.”

Daemyung scratched his head and smiled. He was quite tenacious in the most peculiar things, so it was likely that he would stay here until the last bus if no one said anything to him. And that was just what Maru wanted.

In acting, there was no clear scoring standard. There was no way to know how far one had come or how well they did. However, there came a point when even the actor realizes that he or she had improved.

To experience such a thing, Maru had to spend his time very wisely. He intuitively knew that these practice hours will come back to him in the form of stable acting skills.

“Then let’s start.”

“No interrupting mid way, okay?”

“You don’t need to tell me that.”

After taking in a deep breath, Maru started off the first line.

It was getting late into the night, yet the lights at the school did not turn off.

* * *

Joonggeun always found his filmography to be a pity.

At first, he had no grand dream of becoming a movie director. At first, he started off as a new recruit at an outsourcing camera shooting company. His job was to take videos while wearing camera equipment that weighed several dozen kilograms. He started that job because he found it interesting that he could film the picture he wanted in that square frame.

Then, he chanced upon a movie director that had retired, developing his new dream.

-What good is filming a picture? You need to film a story.

That director, who he now treated as his teacher, moved Joonggeun’s heart. After that, he started studying film production. First, he bought a book titled Filming 101 from overseas and started reading it. After that, he read books related to scenario making. As for using the camera, he had his experiences and learned from his seniors on the field, so he was confident in that.

With his self-study and his unique connections, he spent two years studying what a movie was. At that time, he came to a conclusion.

“Dammit, if you film, then it’s a movie.”

He ignored all of his seniors who used all sorts of English words and aesthetic language to describe how great and how abstract movies were and started shooting movies with an 8mm camera and a single light panel. He grabbed actors he got close to while he worked as a cameraman as well as a junior of his who knew basic audio mixing, and finished a movie in just one month. Then, he submitted the movie in an independent movie award and received a prize.

After that, he worked as a new recruit in the production team under a famous film director for a brief moment and quit because he wanted to be in charge of the megaphone. After that, he went round knocking on the doors with various production companies with the scenarios he had saved up for some time and he received his opportunity.

That was how his first movie came to be. The results were quite good. For a movie that didn’t cast famous actors, the achievements were quite good. However, he badly screwed up his next work and was unable to hold the megaphone for the next 5 years. He started working in film production from the bottom in order to make a living, and shot another movie thanks to an opportunity, but he screwed up that one as well. He was tagged the ‘failing director’ and he continued writing scenarios for five years after that. By then, he was forty.

He had a place to work, so he didn’t have any difficulties in everyday life, but he despaired seeing that all of his work after his first work had failed. However, he did not know how to give up. He was forty-five when his next opportunity came to him. The total budget was 6 billion won, and he decided to take the job with the mindset that he would never grab the megaphone again if he failed this one. The result? It had 7 million views. It was a great success[1]. After that, every film he directed had more than 5 million views. He gained the nickname the ‘golden hand’. However, at the same time, he was tagged the director ‘whose work had no cinematic quality.’

Cinematic quality. Joonggeun remembered back to his first ever work. No one talked about the lack of cinematic quality for that movie. Even though it was shot in a crappy 8mm camera, had less-than-perfect visuals, and the actors in it were not the best, it was evaluated good for having a ‘strong message’.

Ambition. Joonggeun became ambitious. Just as he thought that he was at a level he could show the world, Junmin, a close friend of his, gave him an offer.

-Do you want to try using sir Moonjoong as the main character?

The day after he heard those words, he put the scenario he was writing inside his drawer.

And right now.

“How was I?”

Seeing Moonjoong with an intense glint in his eyes through the monitor, Joonggeun spoke.

“Let’s try that again.”

He was ruthless.

[1] The South Korean population in 2004 was roughly 48 million, so that means around 15% of the entire Korean population watched it. Which is quite a lot.

Chapter 275

The newest member of the lighting team was drinking his coffee while crouching down when a drop of water hitting his head made him look up.

“I think it’s gonna pour.”

During the morning, when they were shooting the street scene, the weather was perfect, but rain clouds started appearing after five o’clock, and now that it was past eight, it looked as though it was about to pour at any moment. Even the people who were watching outside the restricted zone started leaving one by one. There were people holding umbrellas as well.

“What do we do with the lights when it rains?”

The newest member asked his senior, who was smoking and drinking coffee next to him.

“Obviously, we’ll have to finish before it rains.”

“But I don’t think they plan to finish yet.”

“Then we have no choice but to get ready.”

The senior stood up after sucking on the cigarette for one last time. The newest member also followed suit. The lighting director was coming back after talking with the director.

“Hey, get the rainproofing equipment from the car.”

“God dammit, is it overtime?”

“The director is not satisfied so do you think he’ll end it here? That old sir is amazing too. He’s planning to stick with us until the end. Oh yeah, you over there. You know that we’d be doomed if the lights go out, right?”

“Yes, I do.”

“If the lamps break, we’ll get roasted as well. Look after the generator and the power supply. Let’s cover up the main light first. Also, get ready to pull out since he said we’d be pulling out if the rain starts getting unbearable.”

“Aren’t they making us do too much work?” The senior grumbled.

“Hey, they give us the money at least. Don’t complain and start working. Oh yes, you, once you’re done, then come to my side. You were interested in movie production, right?”

The youngest member brightened as he asked back,

“Can I really?”

“Just make sure you do your job properly.”

The lighting director returned to where the main camera was. The youngest member inwardly rejoiced, clenching his hands.

“Don’t you think you joined a good team? There aren’t many lighting teams that take care of their new blood. I’ve visited a few places but every single time, their new recruit just ran errands. But he’s different. He takes care of people under him.”

“I’m a lucky child, then?”

“That’s right. You’re lucky that you entered this team. Well then, let’s put on the rain covers and clean up the cables. Don’t forget to dig drain passages so that water doesn’t pool. You did this in the military, haven’t you?”

“Of course.”

He then took out the rainproofing equipment from the car and installed them. The shooting scene became busy. The other teams were also preparing their equipment just in case it rained.

‘This is how movies are made?’

As the temperatures dropped, people started installing electric heaters for the actors. People that seemed to be managers brought towels and gave them to actors who were getting ready to act. The filming team was busy installing rainproofing equipment while the place where the director was watching the monitor had a canopy set up.

“How many times are we doing this again?”

“That was the fourteenth time.”

“That’s insane.”

The script supervisor’s voice entered the youngest member’s ears. As the script supervisor was in charge of recording the progress and the order of events that occurred during filming, there was nothing more annoying than repeating each scene several times over. Even more so, because of the change in weather and the following change of equipment. The new recruit looked at the script supervisor who exchanged a few words with the director before quickly walking away. Just as he returned to the car and was cleaning the devices that got wet from the drizzle, the lighting director appeared.

“We’re changing the backlight. Get the one at the very back.”

“Yes!”

The youngest member took out the light stand and followed the lighting director. From how the actors were standing up and starting to exercise, it seemed that the filming would resume soon.

“Over there, hold the boom mic properly!”

The person that seemed to be the sound director suddenly shouted. The person holding the boom mic flinched and adjusted the directions of the boom mic.

“Director Kim, what did you do with engineer Park, and why is a newbie holding the boom?”

“Engineer Park got a ruptured appendix. He told me he’d be joining us after the surgery and sent me that guy, but he’s not up to par.”

“Just make it so that I don’t capture some fur on my camera. It was drooping down before too. Why don’t you hold it?”

“I’m not lowering myself to hold that.”

“Quit your yapping. Director Choi Joonggeun is in a bad mood, so let’s be careful.”

“That dude gets in a bad mood on a whim though. It’s nothing new. Oi, director Choi! Stop being so angry!”

The youngest member supported the lighting director as he listened to the conversation. When he first came to the filming scene, he didn’t know what to do. People were calling each other from places, but he couldn’t understand them properly and wandered around without knowing anything to do. Sometimes, he helped out a team that wasn’t his own and was scolded because he didn’t do his own job. Though, he got used to the job now and there weren’t any more problems.

“Everyone on stand by!”

The youngest member of the production team shouted. Seeing that person checking up on the state of every actor, the lighting team member cheered for him inwardly. Let’s do our best as the youngest members of each team.

“Hey hey! It’s starting to rain.”

“Don’t let the outfits get wet!”

“Watch out for accidents!”

It started raining, but not enough to put up umbrellas. However, that only applied to people, as even that amount of rain was fatal for the equipment. As such, the filming location became more bustling. Despite that, there weren’t any big accidents thanks to all the preparations they had done before.

The youngest member of the lighting team approached the main monitor in secret with his senior. They saw that the director, the script writer, and the camera director were frowning. They were clearly giving off the unapproachable aura. They were retaking each scene many times. Seeing wrinkles on director Joonggeun’s forehead, he gulped.

Moonjoong was sitting on a bench in the streets, and on the other side were extras that would just pass by. This was the main character’s soliloquy scene. When Joonggeun signalled with his eyes, the assistant director gave the signal to the youngest member of the production team.

“Get the clapper ready.”

With the assistant director’s signal, the youngest member of the production team stood in between the camera and Moonjoong, holding a slate. He waited with the slate open. After the recorder gave him the signal, a small electrical noise sounded throughout the scene. Then, the vice-director gave him the signal.

“Three dash two dash fifteen![1]” He shouted with the slate.

At the same time, the camera gave off some vibration sound before turning on. He clapped the slate. He then quietly got off the scene and there was a very short period of silence. Eventually, Joonggeun, who looked at the front with a serious face, spoke.

“Action!”

The youngest member of the lighting team watched the filming scene without even being able to gulp in fear of making a noise. Along with the director’s shout, the extras that were standing far away started walking at a steady pace. The boom mic closed in on Moonjoong. Although there were dozens of people in the location, it was quiet to the point that the sound of rain was the loudest.

“Looks like it’s gonna pour.”

Moonjoong started his line. This was a short part of a scene, but they were doing this for the fifteenth time. Although this was the last cut of the scene, it was flabbergasting seeing how many times each scene was retaken. The obstinacy of the director could be felt strongly. The youngest member concentrated on the main monitor. As he was looking at it from an angle, there was a slight distortion, but he did manage to see the whole picture. The figure of Moonjoong in the frame closed up from a full shot to a bust shot. The youngest member concentrated on the movement of the camera. Camera movement was the basics of film direction, nay, the essence of it. It was what evaluated the director. As he was studying framing, this kind of opportunity where he could see such a thing in person was golden.

Moonjoong, who was sitting down, stood up as he picked up the waste cardboard and looked up into the sky. At that moment, the rain started thickening. His head, which was urgently dried after the previous scene, became wet in an instant and rain started covering his face. The low-brightness light faintly shone upon Moonjoong’s figure, and the camera framed Moonjoong’s face in depth. The extras just passed by and Moonjoong shook off the rain from the waste paper with a bitter smile. The rain from the sky and the droplets that Moonjoong shook off intermixed.

“It’s quite a vicious downpour.”

The youngest member of the lighting team clenched his fist. That line just now was different from the original. The script supervisor seemed to have noticed that and started checking. The assistant director was also looking at the script. Then the director?

Joonggeun was looking at the monitor without a word. It looked as though he wanted to pierce the monitor with his gaze. Moonjoong slowly walked towards the direction the extras came from. The cardboard dragged on the ground, leaving behind a long trail.

He couldn’t look more pitiful. This wasn’t a scene that was in the script. Perhaps this was agreed upon beforehand? Or was it an ad-lib on Moonjooong’s part just like his line? Then, Joonggeun gave instructions to zoom out from Moonjoong steadily, producing an effect where Moonjoong and his trail wandered off into the distance.

“Cut!” Joonggeun spoke.

His voice was different from the 14th take. It sounded like it was filled with more vitality, or perhaps, joy. As soon as he said those words, the youngest member of the production team stood in front of the camera with the slate.

He immediately clapped the slate and shouted ‘three dash two dash fifteen’. The cameras all stopped and the audio recorders became quiet as well.

The rain started thickening.

Everyone looked towards Joonggeun.

“Alright! Thanks for your work! Pull out!”

The director gave the okay. The shoot had ended.

“Hey newbie! Let’s put things away!”

The youngest member of the lighting team ran towards the lighting director. As he was running though, his focus was on the director and Moonjoong.

“Senior, why did you give me such a hard time when you could do that much better? We ended up doing fifteen takes!”

“But at least we did it. How was it?”

“It’s awesome. Not just amazing, but awesome! I’m going to use that last take for this part.”

“I liked it as well. My mind cleared up a little when I got wet.”

“I guess we can only shoot in the rain in the future. You see this part here? There’s a trail left behind by dragging the cardboard. That left a deep impression.”

“Such a thing happened? I didn’t know that.”

Moonjoong laughed heartily. The youngest member of the lighting team believed that that trail wasn’t entirely a coincidence. It was the result of trial and error. It was a treasure that they would not encounter if they ended it with a single shot.

“Hey, get working.”

“Ah, yes!”

The youngest member of the lighting team came to himself and lifted the tripod.

* * *

Moonjoong drank some warm drinks in the car. The warmth flowed into his body, melting both his body and mind.

“Thank you for all your hard work.”

“It wasn’t that hard.”

“Should we go?”

“Wait until I finish drinking.”

“Okay. I’ll visit the convenience store for a bit.”

The temporary manager left the car. Moonjoong closed his eyes as he listened to the droplets of rain hitting the car. The shoot ended without a hitch. Although there was a small hurdle, they at least didn’t have to leave that scene to shoot later. They were finishing off the cuts that were scheduled for that day. Although it took some time for him to get adjusted into the role since it had been such a long time he last did such a thing, he was slowly getting a grasp on things.

‘There were quite a few familiar faces too.’

Some old friends of his had grown up and were directing the scene. The one that surprised him the most was the assistant director under Joonggeun. The high school student he met when he was about to retire from the movie industry and go back to the theater was now the assistant director. The reason he remembered him despite the fact that it had been such a long time was because that boy had declared to him that he would one day meet Moonjoon on the scene. Other than that, there were many other familiar faces around, so he had fun during filming.

Camera and audio equipment were upgraded compared to before, and some parts that were usually managed by people before were now being taken care of by machines, but movies were still filmed by people. There was no difference in the fact that there was a lot of discussion, dispute, and arguments. That part was what relieved Moonjoong. It felt like finding something nostalgic so he was very thankful.

Just as he was thinking, someone lightly tapped on the window of the car. The lady, who had a leisurely smile on her face, looked to be in her late thirties, and the youth standing next to him seemed to be just over twenty.

Moonjoong scrolled down the window. As the people outside had umbrellas, rain didn’t get into the car.

“Hello, sir. I’m here to say hi. Can I have a moment of your time?”

“I don’t know who you are, but you’re welcome to.”

“Thank you. My name is Park Narim, and I’m the president of NL Company. Next to me is one of my actors, Park Sungjae, who is also appearing in this movie. Sungjae, this is sir Moonjoong.”

“Hello, sir. I’m Park Sungjae, and I’m a new actor,” the youth greeted with a clear voice.

He was a handsome youth with a good-looking face and wide shoulders.

“Hello there, nice to meet you.”

Moonjoong opened the door and left the car before offering a handshake to Sungjae. Sungjae grabbed his hand with both of his hands.

“I hope to learn a lot from you in the future.”

“Don’t forget what you just said now and do your best. I’ll be cheering for you.”

Moonjoong lightly shook hands with him with a smile.

[1] I’m guessing this means ‘Scene two, cut three, take fifteen’…? I’m not sure

Chapter 276

Sungjae stood in front of the mirror that took an entire wall of the practice room. Sometimes, he felt rather unfamiliar when he looked at himself through the mirror. Who is this man in the mirror?

“Let’s rest for a bit, it’s so damn exhausting!”

Hearing the words from the oldest member, Lee Hyuktae, Sungjae moved his eyes off the mirror. The members all lied down on the floor after dance practice.

Aah, that’s right. I am TTO.

Sungjae looked at the blond-haired man in the mirror again. A man who lost all of his puerility from the time of his debut was staring back at him. It had been six years already. For some, it was a short period of time, but for others, it felt like an eternity. In the case of Sungjae, it first felt like an eternity, but these days, time passed by in a flash.

He remembered back to the moment when he entered TTO following Narim, who told him that she was the CEO of NL Company. Narim told him that she’d give him an opportunity when he was blindly practicing acting. She didn’t tell him to blindly follow her. She had her own vision. Although he was young back then, Sungjae believed that Narim’s words weren’t all empty talk.

-You want to hop over the high hurdle of actors? You’ll be able to if you’re lucky. But you should be aware that just being good at acting is no longer enough to attract public interest. Of course, the well-known actors that have made a name for themselves in the movie industry did so through acting alone, but that’s just a minority. They are people loved by the god of acting. Of course, luck is also a factor. You know? I don’t like gambling. Actions with big risks aren’t my thing. What I want is an inevitable, perfect success. You want to do acting, right? Then you will first have to learn dancing and singing. You should first make yourself known to the public. Only then can you start acting. It’s a foolish thing to walk down a difficult path from the beginning. People should learn to take detours. At first, the public will look down on you, saying that a singer wants a portion of the actor’s pie. However, once you become popular, money says it needs you. You just need to prove yourself at that time. You need to show your acting skills to the people that looked down on you. You can do that, right?

Sungjae thought about it for a day before deciding to follow Narim. He packed up his stuff that day and entered his dorm. There, he met the members of TTO. Hyuktae, Jangsoo, Sooho, Kangjoon. They were all people that Narim picked herself. The only person that aspired to become an idol was the eldest member, Hyuktae. The rest were all people that used to do dancing, acting, or band activities. On their first day of sleeping together, Narim explained her plan. Their team name was TTO. Their objective was to become an omnipotent idol. Narim’s ambition was to create a group that can be used in all areas of the television media. She said that they might be starting off as idols, but they will be provided with support to do whatever it is that they wanted to once they gained popularity as idols.

After that, arduous training began. The most elite instructors, that raised previous idol groups belonging to NL Company, all worked with them. They started practicing at 8 in the morning, and continued to do so until sunset. When even that wasn’t enough, they sometimes continued late into the night and well into the next day. It was a continuation of pain. They practically lived in the practice room and practiced over and over. They had no sense of achievement either because they couldn’t show themselves to anyone else. There were many times when the members talked about running away during the night. They were practically living in prison, and the end was nowhere in sight. They also had to listen to insults everyday. Their very meaning behind going through all that pain started becoming faint.

It was about the time when ‘running away’ became a common topic. The moment they thought that they should really run away with the five of them, Narim came to the practice room. She left the practice room door wide open and spoke with cold eyes.

-How long do you think you’ll live? It’s been a year. Only, a year. If you can’t endure even that and want to run away, then get out right now, and live the rest of your life as a loser. I can guarantee that there’s no one other than me that can make your talents blossom. I am the one who found all of you, and I am the one that’s raising all of you. You will all become stars. Stars that everyone would be envious of! However, right now, you’re just pathetic little trainees. If you want to end your trainee life, then you may leave. It’ll be painful for me to lose you as well, but I can start over. After all, I have the money, and I have the resources. You guys are definitely ores that will become jewels, but you guys aren’t the only jewels out there. With enough time, I can find new ones. It’s just that taking the time to look for them is a waste.

That night, Sungjae thought that president Park Narim was a scary woman. She was someone that was incredibly well aware of what others were thinking. She left after setting up an inescapable trap and Sungjae erased the word ‘escape’ from his head that day. The other four did the same. After that ‘running away’ and ‘escape’ became a taboo in the practice room.

Another year passed like that. TTO managed to have their debut after 2 years. The music program was full of their seniors. They visited many waiting rooms and bowed their heads. They did so as well to the idols that debuted years before. Then, they went on their first recorded stage. There were no mistakes, there was no nervousness. They just came back down with rather dazed expressions. They spent two years in order to reach that point, but actually going up on stage didn’t feel like anything much. Every member felt the same. They didn’t wish for a sense of achievement on the level of hugging each other and crying hot tears. They just wanted at least some sense of achievement.

Narim was waiting for them when they came down from the stage with confused minds. She spoke with a smile.

-That wasn’t anything much, was it?

It was just as she had said. It was nothing much. They had spent 2 years aiming for something like that? They returned to their dull dorm from the TV station. Then, practice began again. They even forgot that they had their debut and started arduous practice again. On the weekend, the members gathered in front of the TV. For that day, they got special permission to eat fried chicken with sweet and spicy sauce, pizza, snacks and all sorts of junk food. The music program started and TTO was revealed in the ‘NEW & HOT’ corner. Sungjae was resting his chin on his hands when they watched themselves singing on TV. Even back then, he had no sense of achievement. In fact, he was annoyed because he could see trivial mistakes through the screen. Objectively speaking, TTO was very awkward when viewed through a screen, even after all the practice they did.

After the program ended, the members started practicing without a word. They didn’t do anything like exchanging opinions on their performance. Their dorm life was without any internet or any forms of communication with the outside world. They did not know how TTO was in the view of the public, and the next time they appeared on TV was a month later, in a program called Music Net. It wasn’t a live show just like before. When they arrived at the TV station, Sungjae managed to see three girls holding pamphlets. They were their fans. There were 3 fans, even less than the five that made up TTO. Sungjae felt both thankful for them and suspectful that they might not be able to live up to their expectations.

However, exactly two months later, Sungjae was able to see a view filled with green balloons. The moment he saw an overwhelming amount of green balloons that signified TTO, he felt that he had done it. Sungjae cried due to the joy of ‘having done it’. The four others cried with him. It had been half a year since their debut. TTO rose rapidly in the ranks of artists, and now possessed a fandom larger than any other idol’s. Another three years passed on top of that. Albums with their name on it sold more than one million copies. Even their fourth album, which was released after consumer MP3 players were widespread, sold a million copies. TTO had survived the fall of sales that other idols experienced.

-You have proven yourselves. Now, it’s time for you to do the things you want.

Just as she had promised, Narim stopped their activities as an idol group. The members started doing the things that they each wanted. Some sang folk songs rather than the usual fast-paced ones, and some held guitar solo concerts. They appeared in sitcoms and attracted even more popularity, and eventually went to China to become commercial advertisement stars.

Sungjae studied acting for a traditional drama. Not long later, he appeared in an oriental drama that was going to be broadcast on public TV. His first challenge in acting was a traditional drama. When he first went to the gathering for the drama production, he received cold gazes. Everyone was greeting him with a smile, but they were clearly looking down on him. It was something he had expected, so he didn’t mind it that much. The six years of hardship made him unshakable.

-An idol, huh.

-He wouldn’t even be here if he wasn’t an idol.

-I’m sure he’s crap at acting. He’s the type of person who would blow himself up due to his lack of skills.

He could hear such words from around him. Sungjae smiled. The more he was looked down upon, the better he felt. That was because the revenge would be that much sweeter. Narim was right. They looked down on him because he was an idol. However, he was going to show them that he was different.

After the filming began, Sungjae acted with a desperate resolve. He prepared everything, from the tone of his voice to the language and environment of the time the drama was set in. Before the filming began, everyone was worried about his acting, but none of that happened once the filming began. In fact, an actor around Sungjae’s age was scolded for awkward traditional language.

He finally arrived at a time where he could smile.

As he was doing his job, he met a friend of his on the set who he used to go to an acting academy together with. That friend’s role was ‘military officer 1’. When they were young, that fellow’s acting was known to be the best in the academy. Everyone had to watch him with their breaths abated when he did his monologue. But now, he had a role that required him to wait several hours for him to act in front of the camera, and it was unknown if his appearance would even go on TV. The moment he saw him, Sungjae was reminded of Narim’s words - it is very hard to open the door to stardom with acting alone.

Sungjae spoke to him. After being startled for a moment, that friend started to look at him with disdain. He said that Sungjae was leading a pathetic life who got the role not through his acting skills, but through his popularity.

Sungjae admitted that with a smile. Seeing Sungjae admit that without getting angry, that fellow started scolding him talking about useless idealistic stuff. Are you really happy achieving success with your methods? That’s not how an actor should be. You have lost your pride as an actor, et cetera.

Just as that fellow finished his words, the director came to them. Sungjae smiled at the director who put his arms around his shoulder, saying that he was great that day. He then looked at his friend. That friend, who had been talking about foundations and whatnot, was looking at him and the director with shaking eyes. Then, the director proceeded to speak - who’s he?

That friend immediately bowed and started to explain what his role was, but the director shook his head and said that he wasn’t interested. The director then proceeded to tell Sungjae to come to the get-together before leaving. After the filming was over, the actors all greeted him before leaving. Sungjae greeted back warmly and during all that time, that friend of his was unable to speak a word.

As the staff was getting ready to pull out, Sungjae asked his silent friend just one question.

“So, you’re satisfied with your life?”

Talent moves the world. However, people with that kind of talent were very few and far in between. This meant that what was left was just a fight of ordinary people. With that being the case, what was it that ranked people after ‘talent’?

It came down to ‘environment’. Sungjae believed that his decision to grab Narim’s hand back then was the moment that widened the gap between him and his friend. If that friend had the talent that could surpass the environmental factors, then the meeting that day would have turned out differently, but in the end, the result was a meeting of a main character who was evaluated well with a side character who only appears once.

All that speech was nonsense in front of results. Sungjae projected himself onto his friend. What would he have become if he did not grab Narim’s hand and continued to focus on acting? He would have become just like his friend, barely getting by with daily expenses. Perhaps, he might have given up mid way and have gone to a college or have gone to the military.

After that meeting, that friend of his could no longer be seen at the filming location. He left after a short “arrest him!” line. His name also wasn’t inserted into the credits at the end of the episode. His life just disappeared after a single shout.

‘In the end, popularity is above acting skills.’

Those were some bitter words, but Sungjae no longer denied them.

Acting was just a side skill.

In the end, the public wanted to see stars, and they liked whatever the stars did. They would get complimented unless they had completely horrible acting that broke the whole flow. How simple was that?

“Let’s drink some water and get back to practice. Sungjae! I know that you look handsome so stop looking at the mirror and come back!”

Sungjae came back from his memories after hearing Hyuktae’s voice. When he had a look at the blond man in the mirror again, Sungjae smiled.

I am TTO.

I am the popular idol Sungjae.

That’s right, that’s who I am.

He gave a fistbump towards himself in the mirror before turning around. He thought that actors that can shake the world with acting alone were a rare species in the current age.

Chapter 277

He introduced himself as Yoo Jiseok. Sungjae received the greeting of the high school boy in front of him.

“He’s one of our talents. He’s the one the president is trying to push. Oh, he’ll be appearing in the same movie as you, Sunjgae. Though, I guess you two won’t get to meet each other. Just saying.”

The head manager from Yellow Star left after saying all those words. The two came across each other by coincidence when Sungjae came to Film Academy in Gangnam to learn acting.

“Well then, let’s begin.”

The instructor came in. Film Academy had raised many talented actors. As its primary objective was to teach actors that will actually work in the industry, it was a peculiar academy where money wasn’t enough to get into.

Sungjae glanced at the boy named Jiseok. If he was receiving lessons in this class at his age, it meant that he was no ordinary person. Well, Yellow Star should be aware of that as well when they recruited him. If NL Company and Jewel Entertainment, two of the three major entertainment companies, became large thanks to their idol groups, Yellow Star was the group that became successful with their actors. The fact that this boy belonged to that place at such an age, as an actor to boot, meant that he had an incredible talent as an actor.

He became jealous for a brief moment, but he just smiled it over. Right now, they were in the same position. He was well aware that the public did not want people with good acting, but people with the popularity. As long as he did the basics, he would not be looked down upon by the public. In fact, there were some advantages coming from the fact that he was an idol. He could get the ‘he’s good at acting even though he’s an idol’ judgement. It wasn’t that good of an evaluation for sure, but Sungjae believed that it didn’t matter that much. He had long since abandoned useless reasoning. In the end, only the popular survived. That was what success was.

After practice began. The instructor told the students to release all of their inner desires. Sungjae acted as though he had become some savage, swearing and rampaging around. Although it was a short time, Sungjae thought that Jiseok was definitely different from the rest. They say that the sparrow near a school sings the primer. Sungjae may not have the skills, but he had the eyes that could evaluate others due to all of his experience. According to his eyes, Jiseok was young, but definitely had the talent.

His personality was overly cheerful. It didn’t even take 3 minutes to drop the honorifics with him from the first greeting. Thankfully, Sungjae did not dislike his proactive attitude, so the two could have a fun conversation.

During rest, Jiseok kept muttering something while staring at a script. When Sungjae had a look, he saw that it was the script of the movie he was shooting. From his body movement and the lines, it seemed that he was one of the delinquents. It was one of the most minor roles.

“I think what you’re doing is enough,” Sungjae said to him.

The line was short and there were only three cuts as well. There was a limit to how profound an act could look in such a short time. He believed that Jiseok was doing plenty. However, Jiseok shook his head as he replied,

“I’m still lacking.”

“Really?”

“Yes. I already lost once. The role I originally wanted was delinquent 2. I competed with a friend of mine after going to the very last audition, but I lost to him. I was quite confident too. But I don’t feel that unjustified though, since I lost cleanly. I had to admit. He did more research than me regarding the delinquent character at least. He should be trying his best to make his scene better even now, so I can’t be resting. He’s not someone who I can try to match if I do things moderately.”

“He’s better than you at acting?”

“That’s probably how he got the role I wanted, don’t you think? I already lost to him once. I don’t want to lose to him twice, so I’m putting in all this effort.”

“Really?”

Hearing those words, Sungjae inwardly laughed at him. They were competing over a minor role. There was nothing amazing about it. It was likely that this boy lost to that friend of his on his looks, not skills. After all, that was what minor roles were about.

“Let’s resume,” the instructor came back.

Sungjae exercised his neck before standing up.

* * *

“I told you it’s true. Isn’t it funny?” After saying those words, Yoojin sighed and lowered her head.

Was she doing well? If it was before, she would be satisfied with just that and go to the next bit.

“Funny, funny, hmm, funny!”

She repeated the same word several times before throwing the script on the ground before sitting on the chair in front of the mirror. She was cast in a youth drama and the filming would start soon. Her role wasn’t anything major. She was just one of the complaining kids in the main character’s class. This was her third drama shoot. It didn’t seem like she was walking in the wrong direction considering how she gained more lines each time she shot a drama, but recently, her heart became chaotic whenever she looked at the script, making her unable to focus.

The reason was simple - she saw someone with a qualitative difference.

“Haa.”

When she watched her senior actors doing their acts, she only felt respect for them. How could they unfold the characters’ emotions like that? How did they manage to bestow a meaning to each movement of their fingers? Their pronunciation, their attitude, their expression - everything about them said ‘uniqueness’. Just watching them motivated her to do better.

However, after seeing someone of her own age doing something similar, it wasn’t respect she felt, but a sense of inferiority and unease. It was something she had never felt before. Yes, there were people better than her in the academy she went to. However, never did she lose her confidence while watching them. In fact, she became passionate and competitive. She resolved to become better than them and put more effort into practice.

Colleagues that were slightly better than her became her motivation. The overwhelming skills of her seniors became her guidepost.

However, an overwhelming colleague only triggered her to look back at her weak acting. Of course, it didn’t mean he was bad or was in the wrong. In fact, seeing him made her fall into despair and made her feel pathetic. She encouraged herself, saying that she would be able to catch up if she put in as much effort as before, but the only thing on her face was a self-loathing smile.

“Ah, this isn’t right!”

She stomped on the ground as she stood up. She thought that she wasn’t acting like herself. She took out her phone and called the guy that was the source of her problems. It was 8 p.m. It wasn’t that late, so it should be fine.

-What is it?

She was annoyed when Maru said that as the first line, but she was the one who called so she decided to endure it.

“How did you do your practice? Tell me now.”

-Didn’t I tell you last week?

“Yeah, but tell me properly!”

-I told you, you have to be reborn.

“Is this how you wanna do this?”

-How else do I explain it to you? I studied the script?

“You really are cocky.”

-This isn’t the first time you saw me as a cocky guy so don’t mind it so much. Rather than that, what’s up with your attitude? Someone might say that I did you wrong.

“You did do me wrong! Alright, here’s how we’re gonna do things. You’re gonna practice with me. I have to see what you’re doing.”

-I don’t have any time to hang out with you.

“Really? That’s good. I have a lot. I’ll give you half of mine.”

-… But seriously, there’s nothing special about me. Just do what you always did.

“See? You’re hiding something from me.”

-Why can’t you trust someone for just one second? Also, I wasn’t joking when I said I don’t have the time. I thought you were doing a drama as well. If you account for your school club on top of that, you should be busier than me.

“I’m not in the acting club anymore. Rather than that, you’re in the acting club this year as well?”

-Yeah, I am.

“But you got a company though. It’ll be difficult for you to keep up with your club once you start working, and you still decided to stay there?

-Who’s gonna use a newbie like me? I also have a lot to learn about acting as well.

“Hm, newbie, huh?”

-Anyway, it’s not like I have some special method or anything, so let’s just each do our best in our respective places. Good luck on the drama.

“Wait!”

Before she even shouted, Maru hung up. Her voice echoed in vain before disappearing. Yoojin smirked and uttered his name as though she was deciding on an enemy.

“That’s how you wanna do this, huh.”

* * *

To indicate that the summer was approaching, the red line on the thermometer was indicating 27℃, even though it was mid June. The heat seemed to fade a little from the rain, but it started rising again as though it had never rained. The natural shade that was the clouds could not be seen anywhere so it became a season where walking just a little would make anyone sweaty.

The students who had to study under such an environment were already experiencing a mental breakdown, and the competition to get under the air conditioner was more heated than the crusade. The class president said that they should do a ballot to be fair, but with a ‘screw fairness’ attitude, they decided on seats with a match of soccer.

Maru complained thinking that those guys only had brawns and passion in their heads, but desperately shot the balls into the opponent’s net. The weather was enough to make him desperate.

“Han Maru. You’re the best.”

“We’re saved thanks to you.”

As the winner, their team got the best seats. Embracing the cool winds from the top, Maru spent the day comfortably and was able to go to the club with a fresh body and mind.

The acting club had gathered on the fifth floor just as usual. They did a run through after some light exercise.

Just then, his phone rang. Maru had a look at the name on his screen before answering the call.

“Aren’t you calling too frequently these days?”

The caller, Yoojin, suddenly asked.

-You practicing?

“Yeah, why do you ask?”

-Which floor are you on?

Those words made Maru feel uneasy. Maru opened the window in the self-studies room and poked his head outside. Among the students that were going home late was a girl wearing a school uniform. As Woosung High didn’t have a school uniform, the school uniform that the girl was wearing was quite eye-catching. She was blatantly watching the school buildings while she was on the phone, so she was at the center of attention for those leaving school as well. Above all, Bosung Girls High was famous for having a fancy uniform.

“Are you insane?”

-What? I heard you went to her house late at night just like I’m doing now. On top of that, you confessed there, didn’t you?

“You two are close enough to talk about that as well…?”

-Because we’re friends!

Her smiling face somehow lingered in front of his eyes. Maru sighed and said that he was on the fifth floor. She was the type of girl who would visit every single classroom starting from the first floor even if he ignored her. According to what he knew of her from the amateur actors class, she was obstinate enough to do that.

“What’s up?” Daemyung approached and asked. Maru pondered a little bit on how to explain before speaking.

“An alien invasion.”

“What?”

A while later, the door opened before Yoojin came in. Seeing Yoojin in her uniform, the members of the club made a confused expression.

“Hi everyone! I’m Lee Yoojin from Bosung Girls High. We are both schools that lost to Myunghwa High last year so maybe you remember?”

Hearing those words, Daemyung realized and made an ‘aha’ sound. But that only lasted for a brief moment.

“But why’s she here?” He asked Maru in a small voice.

Maru wanted to know as well, so he couldn’t give him an answer. Just why was she here?

“So, why are you here?” So he asked.

He wasn’t someone who liked being roundabout, so he asked directly.

“Field experience. I’m not doing it for free.”

Yoojin took out some cosmetics from her bag. Maru tilted his head since he didn’t know why she took them out, but Jiyoon and Aram widened their eyes. They recognized what those were.

“Wow. Those are some very expensive cosmetic brands.”

“I think they’re the same ones that my mom got as a gift.”

The two juniors usually didn’t put on that much makeup, but they seemed interested in cosmetics regardless.

“Allow me to watch you guys act. I’ll take care of the makeup in exchange. You know that my mom takes care of only the top stars, right? I learned a thing or two from her, so I’m quite good as well,” Yoojin boldly claimed.

Maru made a ‘ha’ sound. She was really quick to act, and she also knew how to make deals. They were lacking someone to do their makeup since Yoonjung and Danmi had left the club.

“Daemyung, what do you think?”

“So she’s giving us makeup in exchange to watch us practice?”

“Yeah.”

“Why?”

“I don’t know. Anyway, what do you think? I don’t think it’s a bad deal. We’ll also be a little nervous if we have an audience. Above all, we do need someone to do our makeup, right?”

“That’s true.”

“She’s quite random, but she’s not a bad girl. So I hope you can give her the okay.”

“There’s no reason for me to refuse her. I’m just slightly confused that she came to us all of a sudden.”

They came to a decision. Yoojin seemed to have heard their conversation as she spoke,

“Then please take care of me. I won’t get in your way so just do like you normally do. Just like usual.”

Yoojin looked as though she was going to analyze every last detail. Maru shrugged his shoulders before saying,

“Let’s resume practice then.”

* * *

Yoojin crossed her arms and stared at Maru. She alternated between reading the script and seeing the stage to see what was different and what made such a change.

However, that only lasted a brief moment. She became dazed when she saw that the stage was flowing so smoothly. Maru seemed different from the time he just read his lines on the spot. Seeing him, Yoojin realized that Maru’s gaze, acts, intonation, breathing and everything else was on a different level than her.

‘It’s only been half a year since last winter. Only half a year!’

She tensed her eyes while gripping the script in hand. The boy in front of her had changed completely during the past half a year. He was a freak, so to speak. That was the only word she could think of to describe him. She judged that it was a good thing to have come to watch. Yoojin started thinking about what she should do in order to bridge the gap between him and herself.

Chapter 278

“Thanks for all your work everyone.”

After the run through, Daemyung gathered everyone around.

“Well then, can you tell me what you found lacking in that run? Let’s start with Bangjoo.”

Practice was important. It was the first step towards maturity. However, retrospect was just as important as practice. If practice was akin to walking down a path, retrospect was the process to check if the path they walked was the right one. Bangjoo spoke without hesitation. He mentioned that his pronunciation was lacking and that Jiyoon was too shy with her actions.

After Bangjoo came Aram’s turn. Aram also mentioned the things she found lacking. There was no hesitation as she mentioned the mistakes. Whether the mistake came from herself or from others, she mentioned them out loud regardless.

After a round, Daemyung summarized the things he had just heard in his head. They now had the problems, so it was time to look for the solution. That process did not involve any emotion on his part. He summarized the problems in a simple manner.

After telling the club members the problems that they had found, he started to give them advice just like he always did. Although he was giving out advice, they weren’t clear answers. There were numerous cases where the problems contained the solutions, and Daemyung only made it simpler for everyone to understand.

Giving them directions. It wasn’t like there was a clear answer like it was some mathematics question, so he just proposed some actions that they could take - what if we try doing this? As everyone was smart, they immediately understood what he was trying to say and solved their problems themselves, so Daemyung continued to use this method.

Of course, not everyone saw benefit through this method. There was always someone that was excluded from the discussion. It was none other than Maru. In this method where the members pointed and fixed each other’s mistakes, Maru was not mentioned even once. Strictly speaking, it wasn’t a bad thing. It just meant that Maru was digesting his role that well.

However, Daemyung found it a pity that he wasn’t of help to Maru at all.

“Should we stop here for today? It’s getting late.”

It was just part 8 o’clock. Daemyung asked Dowook to take care of the girls. After the first years and Dowook left, he sat down, breathing deeply when,

“You guys end really early.”

Daemyung flinched when he heard those words from behind him. He looked behind him and saw that Yoojin, who he had completely forgotten about, was standing here. Yoojin introduced herself as a friend of Maru. Today was her fourth day here already. At first, he thought that she would stop coming after the first couple days, but now, she came to this room earlier than even the club members.

“Aren’t you going?” Maru asked as he looked at the script.

“I’m going to wait until you guys leave.”

Yoojin sat down.

“You are going to practice with the two of you again, aren’t you? Then put me in this time.”

Daemyung gave Yoojin, who was extending her hand out with a smile, a copy of the script. At first, she just silently kept watching practice, but starting yesterday, she participated in it as well. As she was very skilled, Daemyung was happy to have her on board.

Maru took the salaryman and drunkard roles, Yoojin took the scammer and the hostess roles, and Daemyung took the policeman and the delinquent roles. As they lacked members, they didn’t do any actions.

The practice that began a little after 8 ended at 9. Daemyung folded the script in half and looked at the two others. They really had solid acting. Although the acting club kept practicing, Dowook and the first years made a few mistakes here and there. Above all, they were people who had zero interest in acting beforehand so they weren’t used to acting either. Considering that it hadn’t even been a month since they properly started practicing, they were doing incredibly well, but at the same time, they were lacking compared to the two in front of him.

Yoojin was especially proficient in the hostess and the scammer roles to the point that Daemyung wanted Aram and Jiyoon to study from her. It had only been four days since she started watching them practice, but after those four days, she was better than his two juniors who had spent a month practicing.

Indeed, a fully-fledged child actor was different, alright. She was a professional who even appeared on dramas.

What was interesting was the way Yoojin looked at Maru.

Desire. That was the emotion her eyes had when she looked at Maru, even though she was doing very well.

In Daemyung’s eyes, Yoojin seemed like a splendid actor who was equal to Maru. Despite that, it felt as though she had some kind of inferiority complex against him. He might be mistaken, but from what he saw from her during the past four days, it was definitely the case.

Just why was she looking at Maru with such eyes? After pondering, Daemyung came to a conclusion.

‘Perhaps I’m not seeing all of Maru’s skills.’

In Daemyung’s mind, both Maru and Yoojin were splendid actors. However, if they were similar in level, there would neither be reason for Yoojin to come to their school to observe Maru, nor any reason behind her eyes that looked at Maru with inferiority. He came to the conclusion that he himself wasn’t capable of looking at Maru’s full skills.

Daemyung looked at Maru.

Within the acting club, Maru took the role of the leader who guided everyone else. To compare it to a family, Maru was analogous to the father while Daemyung was the mother. The mother’s role was to look after the children in a more caring, up close manner. Consoling crying children, praising them for good actions. The father was a little different. The father does not get involved in the detailed things, but leads the family as a whole. They say a child grows in the bosom of the mother and lives looking at the father’s back. Although he might be mistaken, Daemyung thought that was how the current acting club looked like.

Everyone was developing their skills through seeing Maru’s acts. Daemyung did not doubt that this acting club should soon enter its stable period and that the members would bring out their fullest skills, becoming capable of showing a high-level play for others to see.

However, he realized that he was wrong.

Yes, their overall skill set would improve. Perhaps they might be able to aim for the grand prize that they weren’t able to get last year.

However, the gap between them and Maru would never be bridged. If he was at a level where Daemyung couldn’t even see, it would be almost impossible for the others that just started off to stand on his level, no matter how much effort they put in.

Was that a good thing? For the acting club as a whole, it wasn’t a bad thing. After all, from the outside, it looked as though the whole club was improving in pursuit of a dominantly good person. If it was a competitive situation, there might be some trouble thanks to Maru’s skills, but in acting, unity was the only way forward, meaning that the probability of such problems occurring was very low. Moreover, Maru wasn’t the type of person who liked to boast about himself. He only brought out his skills at the necessary times, but did not actually show off or want compensation for it. In other words, the acting club would be stable in the future as well.

However, what if the perspective was changed to that of Maru’s?

‘If he’s in a situation where he could show better acting but cannot do so due to the limitations of those around him… ’

It would be excruciating to not be able to bring out his fullest skills. No, leaving aside the frustration and the pain, it was just inefficient. After all, it meant that he wasn’t getting any progress because of the ones around him.

“Should we rest a little?”

Hearing those words, Daemyung came to himself. It was his turn to say his line. Daemyung shook his head with a bitter smile. The only thing he could do right now was to go along with him. If he couldn’t even do that, he would feel too apologetic.

“Let’s take a break after finishing this round. It was my turn, wasn’t it?”

“Yeah.”

Daemyung nodded his head and continued with the script.

* * *

“It’s past ten already.”

Daemyung spoke as he looked at the darkened sky. It was about time they went home. It would be a pain to walk home after missing the last bus as it would take almost an hour by foot.

Maru left for a brief moment, saying that he had to go to the bathroom. Daemyung, who was left alone with Yoojin, felt embarrassed and went to a corner of the classroom and started staring into the script.

“Just what do you think Han Maru is?” Yoojin approached him as she asked.

Daemyung blinked several times as he looked back at her.

“I get that the atmosphere of the acting club is good. The way you guys practice is also good. You guys are serious too. I can’t find any flaws, but that’s not enough to explain it,” Yoojin said flatly.

“What do you think?”

“A-about what?”

“About Han Maru. Just what did he do to improve so much? Aah, this is driving me crazy. I thought I’d find a clue here, but it’s getting even more complicated,” Yoojin said as she scratched her hair into a mess.

Daemyung stared back at her. As he had expected, Yoojin was saying that she was lacking compared to Maru. It seemed that Maru was good beyond his recognition after all.

“What, why are you looking at me like that?”

Daemyung shook his hand saying that it was nothing when Yoojin closed in on his face, but Yoojin kept asking questions with suspicious eyes. Eventually, Daemyung had no choice but to reveal what he was thinking; that he felt a little pity because he couldn’t help her despite the fact that he thought that Yoojin was feeling somewhat inferior when she compared herself to Maru, as well as the fact that the club members might be holding Maru back from doing better.

“Your eyes are good.”

“What?”

“I’m saying that you have good eyes. Moreover, you know how to analyze stuff. I felt this while watching you all for the past few days, but I think direction or production suits you better than being an actor.”

“Y-you think?”

He suppressed his urge to say that that was actually the case and that he was preparing something else. That was because he believed that he wasn’t close enough to her to reveal such things yet. It would be quite embarrassing if things got awkward because he said some unnecessary things after all.

“You’re right. I do have an inferiority complex towards Maru. I mean, wouldn’t anyone? He seemed like he was on a similar level to me just until a while ago, but now he’s far ahead of me. You can’t blame me for him hurting my pride.”

For a person saying pessimistic words, Yoojin looked quite calm. No, her eyes were filled with a challenging mindset and it looked as though her eyes were glowing even though it was the night.

“If I’m lacking, then I must learn. If the gap widened, I must bridge it. I don’t know how Maru acquired such a good expressiveness, but don’t you think I can get a hint if I keep watching him? Of course, I felt annoyed as well. I mean, it does feel like the heavens only gave him the talent and not me. However, I don’t want to become a fool that blames others. I’m going to do everything within my powers first. Don’t you think so?”

Yoojin grinned. A faint image of Miso could be felt from her. Although it was for a brief moment, Daemyung felt that he would be able to be good friends with this girl. Someone who uses her inferiority complex as motivation. She was someone worth admiring.

“I guess I should do better too then,” Daemyung lowered his head a little as she spoke.

“Hey, since it’s like this, do you wanna go as well?” Yoojin widened her eyes and asked.

Go? Where to?

“The 18th. That’s the day Maru is filmed. Let’s go and see how he does. Maru’s acting here and Maru’s acting on location is quite different. How is it? Don’t you wanna go?”

“I do, but… wouldn’t that inconvenience him?”

“It’s fine. We won’t be distracting him or anything. Let’s just say we’re Maru’s manager for the day.”

“I-is that really okay?”

“It’s worth a try.”

Yoojin raised her thumbs up. She was just like Miso in her recklessness.

“What are you two doing?” Maru came back from the bathroom.

Daemyung shook his head saying that nothing had happened.

“Daemyung.”

“Yeah?”

“Is it okay if you stay the night out?”

“Stay the night out? I can tell mom and she’ll probably be fine.”

“Really? Then let’s go eat something.”

“You need to stay the night out when you’re eating something?”

“It’s in Seoul. Oh, you should get going already. You live in Seoul, don’t you? It’ll be quite a pain once you miss the last bus,” Maru said to Yoojin.

Daemyung made an awkward smile. Usually, it was customary to invite everyone on the scene, or just tell that person when they were alone, but Maru was really direct with his words.

“I’m tagging alone.”

“A brat like you doesn’t belong here. Go back home obediently. Your parents will be worried about you.”

“I’m the same age as you, you know? Daemyung, can I tag along as well? I can, right? It’s probably fine, right?”

Daemyung didn’t say anything as Maru had an awry expression on his face and Yoojin seemed so eager to go. It was obvious that he couldn’t satisfy both parties.

“…If you do wanna tag along, then pay for your own meal.”

“Alright!”

Yoojin stood between Maru and Daemyung and linked arms with both of them. Daemyung was startled and tried to pull out, but he couldn’t do so because she had a strong grip.

“Let’s go! For our friendship!”

“Who the hell is friends with you?”

Daemyung sighed seeing that the two had a staring contest like they were a cat and a dog.

Chapter 279

“Yeah. I’ll be going back late after hanging out with some of my friends. I might go back tomorrow. No, mom. Your daughter isn’t that bad. What? Okay. Alright, don’t forget to lock the door.”

Yoojin hung up.

“Your parents must be worried sick about you.”

“What the heck are you saying? They have such a capable daughter.”

Maru clicked his tongue and looked away.

They were inside a bus. Although the decision to go to Seoul was rather sudden, there weren’t any problems. Yoojin checked the time on her phone. It was nine minutes to eleven. The day was almost over.

The bus was filled with people dozing off. Yoojin liked this kind of scene. That was because she felt like it was a moment of break for the people who had spent their days to the fullest. It was quiet and cozy. She liked silence better than bustling activity.

She turned her head a little and looked at Daemyung and Maru. She was able to get a seat because the two of them, being boys, gave up the seat for her. The two were talking seriously about acting. She then turned around to look outside the window, pretending not to focus on their conversation, but her ears were perked up. She felt like they wouldn’t talk anymore if she looked at them.

“Then you decided on the setting and the characters?”

“Yeah. But it’s not 100% decided yet. Gwak Joon-hyung told me that the structure of a story can change at any time. He said that it was important for me to be as free as possible when writing since this is my first work.”

“So I guess it’ll take some time if you want to transcribe it into script form then.”

“I never planned to finish it quickly anyway. I should take my time, learning about various things.”

“Still, I guess things turned out well. I was worried since Joon-hyung has a stiff side about him and thought that he might not help you.”

“I was really nervous when I first sent him the message. I was even more nervous when he told me that he wanted to see me. But when I met him, he wasn’t actually that scary. Though, he does look like the type of person you wouldn’t want to talk to. Haha.”

Yoojin couldn’t help when she heard the name ‘Gwak Joon’ and interrupted.

“Is the Gwak Joon you’re talking about the Gwak Joon I know? Is that how it is?”

“Who’s this Gwak Joon and who’s that Gwak Joon?”

“Don’t pretend to be ignorant in front of me. Are they really the same? Are you really talking about the original author of our movie?”

“Yes.”

“And Daemyung is studying under such a person? Is he what, a disciple or something?”

Hearing that question, Daemyung waved his hand in a fluster.

“What disciple? It’s nothing so grand.”

“If he’s teaching you, and you’re studying under him, that makes you his disciple. Wow, you guys are quite good.”

Yoojin pondered as she tapped on her lower lip with her index finger. From what she saw of Gwak Joon, he was the type of person that was hard to approach. He was wearing black glasses, a black t-shirt, and black pants. Even though the weather was hot, he was wearing all-black, and his eyes were very desolate. The only people that talked to Gwak Joon during the read-through were Moonjoong, the director, and some of the journalists who had to get an interview from him. Yoojin briefly watched him doing an interview with a journalist, and never did she see such an insincere interviewee.

To the question, ‘how do you come up with the storyline’, he answered, ‘to the best of my abilities’; to the question, ‘how do you come up with characters’, he answered, ‘with all of my effort’. According to the proverb ‘good answers come from good questions’, those questions weren’t good questions at all. After all, they were bland and ordinary. However, what was up with those answers?

Yoojin overheard the journalist muttering ‘does he think he’s Hemmingway or something?’ after the interview.

It would be bad to evaluate a person just based on that, but Gwak Joon definitely wasn’t the type of person who would talk about literature with just anyone. And here, Daemyung turned out to be such a person.

‘Maru is one thing, but perhaps he too… ’

She overheard their conversation and found out that Daemyung was writing a story, and was even preparing a script. Maybe it was a movie? Or a drama? No, it was highly probable that it was a play. He was writing such a thing at such an early age.

Perhaps the reason Maru’s acting skills improved so much was because he had a friend like this close to him. Now that she thought about it, there were always amazing people around Maru. He seemed to be acquainted with Joohyun, Suyeon, Geunsoo and even Moonjoong. That was despite the fact that he was a high school student who had never participated in filming a movie or a drama. How did he come across such people despite having no relation to the field at all? Perhaps it was thanks to his company’s influence?

‘Should I find a company soon as well?’

Her mom’s advice was that she should gain more experience and further her career before entering a company since the first contract was very important. She said that there were numerous performers who never saw the light of day after signing a contract when they were still nameless.

However, seeing Maru, entering a company didn’t seem like such a bad idea. Good companies had good actors, and she would naturally gain the opportunity to meet those people. Those encounters would widen her vision, and her widened vision would enable her to act better.

“Should I go to JA?”

“What’s that all of a sudden?”

“I think that’s your secret.”

“I don’t get what you’re saying, but do whatever you want.”

Seeing Maru ignore her, Yoojin pouted.

Maru looked outside the window before pressing the stop bell. It seemed that they had arrived. She followed Maru as he got off the bus. Maru left the big roads with the big buildings on it and walked towards the place with small houses. He went even deeper and eventually arrived at a road where even streetlights were rare and old commercial buildings were standing right next to each other.

Maru’s walking pace was quite fast and he was always quite far ahead. Yoojin thought that this was an opportunity and talked to Daemyung.

“Hey.”

“Uh, yeah?”

“Why are you so startled?”

Daemyung smiled awkwardly. Yoojin thought that this guy was really honest.

“Have you ever seen Maru practice by himself?”

“Practice?”

“His skills suddenly got better, you know? I’m wondering if he was receiving lessons outside of school or something.”

“Well, I haven’t heard him mention such a thing before.”

“Really? Then what the heck is it? Anyway, I’ll tell you my assumption.”

Yoojin told Daemyung the reason that she thought Maru’s skills improved so dramatically - that he had good friends around him, and that he had people he could learn from. Daemyung nodded after hearing her words. He seemed to agree with her words. However, he spoke differently.

“It’s true that there are a lot of amazing people around Maru. But if you ask me if they helped Maru improve, then I would say no. The order of events are different.”

“The order of events are different?”

“Maru originally didn’t have any interest in acting at all. When he first came to the acting club, he said that he wanted to be a stage staff. Indeed, he had never done any proper practice until the end of summer vacation in his first year.”

“Really?”

“Yeah.”

“Then what made him do acting? I thought he didn’t have any interest.”

“I don’t know what exactly changed his mind. However, it is true that the instructor tried to persuade Maru to do acting. She must have seen through Maru’s talents. After that, he met president Lee Junmin. So strictly speaking, it’s true that he became more proficient thanks to those people, but you could say that he already had a talent large enough for them to take interest.”

“Then what? A guy that had no interest entered the amateur acting class after just half a year of practice?”

Yoojin sighed, feeling powerless, and looked at Maru’s back. In the amateur acting class held in Myeongdong, he won the role of the main character. He was so good that everyone else admitted their loss. But now, Daemyung was telling her that that was the result of half a year’s worth of practice? But just then, the words Maru said to her popped up in her head.

-The method to improve? You have to be born again.

Maybe he said that to express his innate talents.

“He’s so cocky! That makes him a genius!” She said it out loud because she felt a little frustrated.

Maru, walking at the front, frowned as he turned around.

“What is it now?”

“I’m saying that you have it good!”

“I hear that all the time,” saying that, Maru turned left.

“Some spend five years to reach this point, but someone else just catches up within one year. Isn’t that too unfair?” She asked Daemyung.

“W-well. I never felt that it was unfair.”

“Why?”

“Because Maru puts in more effort than me. He practices more diligently than me. Of course his skills are good. Yes, there may be some talent involved. However, no matter how talented a person is, there is no result without practice. Maru did everything in his powers to study and practice. If you get the opportunity, try reading Maru’s script once. You’ll see the traces of all of his thoughts crossed out, then rewritten, crossed out and rewritten again. I can’t imagine the amount of time he invested into studying the script.”

“…I can’t deny that.”

Yoojin thought back to Maru’s script that she had chanced upon while preparing for a play with Maru in the Myungdong Theater. He analyzed every single character in depth, and just the sheer quantity made her dizzy. Nothing in the script was written without going through his thoughts. Just thinking about how much analysis he had to do in order to create something like that made her dizzy.

She was grumbling that Maru had all the talent, but she didn’t actually mean it. No matter how much talent one had, not polishing those talents would make the talent stale. This was easily proven when looking at the lives of those so-called geniuses known to the world. Only the ones that polished their talents rose to the ranks of geniuses.

“But still, he’s so dislikable. He’s too good.”

“That’s true.”

Maru stopped in front of a restaurant. It was a very shabby-looking restaurant. When they went inside through the wooden sliding door, a spicy air assaulted their faces. Yoojin coughed before looking inside. There were people who looked like salarymen. There were green bottles on many tables as well.

“I’m here,” Maru greeted as he entered.

The middle-aged man, who seemed to be the owner of the store glanced at him before pointing at an empty table with his chin. Maru smiled and sat down at the table.

“What is this place?” Yoojin asked.

The owner was not nice, and this place looked like a mess as well. The TV hanging on the wall was broadcasting the news, and people shouted various things while looking at it. This place seemed like chaos.

“He cooks some amazing Jeyuk-bokkeum here. Excuse me, three portions of Jeyuk-bokkeum for the three of us.”

The store owner stood up slowly and walked towards the kitchen. Along with a sizzle, white smoke started coming up. The spicy air inside the restaurant seemed to be from the Jeyuk-bokkeum.

“Why did you bring us to a place like this?”

Yoojin frowned because her eyes felt prickly. The smoke was intense. The customers sitting near the entrance opened the sliding door and shouted ‘Hey, owner! There’s too much smoke!’ It didn’t feel like he was upset or something. After all, he had a smile on his face.

“Go take a breather outside,” that was the owner’s reply.

“It’s good here.”

“What? This place is good?”

Seeing Maru smile, Yoojin then looked at Daemyung. She expected that Daemyung would say something about this strange restaurant.

However, Daemyung seemed to be on Maru’s wavelength.

“It smells good.”

“I don’t mention this place to anyone. Actually, a bottle of soju is perfect with the Jeyuk-bokkeum, but the owner here is a law-abiding man.”

“How dare you call me owner when you’re just a spring chicken?”

The owner of the store smacked Maru on the head before putting the Jeyuk-bokkeum on a grill on the table.

“You should really stop coming. Young people like you don’t belong here.”

“I’m here to raise your sales.”

“I don’t need your money.”

Snorting, the store owner then sat down on an empty chair. Yoojin couldn’t get used to the mood of this store. The air was mixed with the smell of food, alcohol and sweat, making her feel dizzy, and it was very noisy as well. She had a hard time getting her voice through to Maru and Daemyung.

‘And he’s not acting nicely!’

The first thing that Maru did after the meat arrived was to scoop some rice from the rice cooker, and get some Kimchi and pickled radish from the fridge.

“It’s all self-service?”

“Yeah.”

“No way.”

This was a cultural shock for Yoojin. This was something unimaginable in stores that she visited with her mother. Even the stores near her school that she went to with her friends weren’t as bad as this.

“Don’t tell me we have to do the dishes as well?”

“We do, if the owner tells us to. Hey, hey. It’s cooling down. Daemyung, eat a lot. Yoojin, you shouldn’t eat that much. Oh wait, you’re the one buying right? I guess you should eat a lot too then.”

“Haa…”

Yoojin looked at Maru and Daemyung with flabbergasted eyes. They could eat at a place like this?

“Hey, Park Daemyung. You okay with this?”

“With what?”

“This restaurant.”

“Yeah. I think this place is good. It’s filled with vitality.”

“Oh my word.”

Yoojin had a look around again. There was not a single woman. Obviously, very few women liked this kind of environment. Yoojin flinched and put her nose against her sleeves. It was reeking of meat already.

“I told you it’d be better for you to go home.”

“You’re doing this on purpose, aren’t you? Is it because I’m annoying you? Is it?”

“Do you take me for a petty person? Or do you think I care that much about you? Just shut up and start eating. Tell me what you think afterwards.”

Maru was holding out a sesame leaf ssam[1]. She was about to refuse out of spite, but she felt that she would lose just by saying those words since Maru had an evil smile on his face. Yoojin narrowed her eyes and put the ssam in her mouth after picking it up with her chopsticks.

She thought of one thing when she ate it - she would never say that it’s delicious. She had the confidence to say that her taste buds, trained from visiting numerous famous restaurants, would not lose to something like this.

“………”

Yoojin became silent. Then, she looked at Maru. Maru made a satisfied smile before speaking,

“One of the reasons I don’t hate you that much is because there are no falsities in your expressions. Daemyung, look at her face. She’s quite something to look at since she’s fighting her inner demons. I’m not expecting you to say that it’s delicious so just keep eating. You must be hungry because you haven’t had dinner yet.”

Yoojin turned her head around and sighed. Then, she picked up the chopsticks before speaking.

“Excuse me, manager. Please give us one, no, two more portions of Jeyuk-bokkeum.”

This was the first time she resented her taste buds for being so honest.

Seeing Maru with a victorious smile, Yoojin picked up some meat. Well, she had to fill her stomach first.

“…It’s not good at all.”

Realizing that those words were useless defense for her pride, Yoojin decided to give up.

Let’s just eat. Food is innocent, after all, right?

“But I heard that meat has high calories,” Maru sneaked that line in there.

He was really hateful until the very end.

[1] Wrap, but with lettuce or other vegetables…

Chapter 280

The makeup artist’s hands were busy. She used dark-toned foundation to make the skin under the eyes darker and covered the chin up with a tone lighter than the skin to create a feeble-looking figure.

Joohyun turned her head around a little to look at the mirror.

“Here, I think you need to emphasize the wrinkles a little more.”

“You mean the nasolabial folds, right?”

“Yeah.”

“Unni, aren’t you going too far with the makeup? You’ll look old in the camera.”

“I’m doing an old role, so I should look like one.”

“I guess so, but isn’t it funny? She’s not even ten years younger than you, but you and she are mother and daughter. They should’ve just cast a younger actress.”

Joohyun ignored the makeup artist’s grumble and continued to check up on the makeup. It didn’t matter how old Suyeon, who was Joohyun’s daughter in the movie, was. The director chose Suyeon. That was enough. Also, the range of action that Suyeon could show in the movie wasn’t that narrow. She had the role of a high school girl who was unafraid of the world that falls into despair after witnessing the deaths of her parents, crying desperately, before being killed by the elder.

Compared to Suyeon, Yoojin, the second daughter, was much easier to do. After all, she just had to act like a nice girl. There was a moment when she fell into a state of loss after discovering the deaths of her mother and sister, but the scene was set to fade out while filming her back, so there was no need for delicate emotional acting.

Regardless of how Joohyun thought about Suyeon, her acting was satisfactory. She had a young-looking face as well, so there wouldn’t be any problems as long as she did not distract her from her own acting.

“It’s done, unni.”

Joohyun thanked the makeup artist before standing up. Looking at the feeble-looking lady in the mirror, Joohyun made a cold smile. She liked that expression of hers. The makeup was good as well. She had dyed her purple hair back to black, and straightened out her curly hair. She looked neat, but she looked cold and rational thanks to the makeup making her eyes look sharper. She got the impression she wanted.

The second son’s wife, which was Joohyun’s role, was a self-centered figure. She was the one that told her husband, who wanted to look after his elderly father, to abandon him instead. She tried protecting the group that was family, but that was only because she treated it as a place she could find shelter. She was the type of person who would abandon everything at the last moment if it could get her to safety. Although the second son dies together with his wife in the novel, it was edited during the making of the script and only the wife died first. The director said that it was done so in order to show the audience the miniscule amount of fatherly love in the elder, as well as to emphasize the lunacy when he kills the first son.

“I hope I can die well.”

She couldn’t die ‘cleanly’. She had to be as desperate, as dirty as possible so that the audience would feel awry about her death throughout the entire movie. The wife of the second son wasn’t the character that accepts her death without regrets. It would be for the best if she could show the audience the extreme depths of human nature so that they could empathize with the elder a little more.

When she left the makeup room, she met actor Kang Sooyeol, who she would act together with, in this movie.

“Whew, aren’t you looking too scary?”

“That’s good, that was my intention.”

She was at ease with Sooyeol, who was in his early 40s, since they had experience working together before.

“Then let’s go, my wife.”

“Sure.”

Sooyeol extended out his hand as though to escort her. Joohyun shrugged her shoulders and just passed by. The set was in a place near Seoul and was modelled after a stereotypical apartment. Joohyun took a walk around the set. Although there were on-location shoots, there were on-set shoots like this as well since they couldn’t scream in public. The rather calm scenes were shot on location and the dynamic scenes were shot on sets like this one. Complaints would delay the whole shooting, so the staff had already prepared everything.

She saw that the art director was checking up on things. It looked as though he was very busy minding about the placement and even the angle of each item.

“Hey! I told you this isn’t the right wallpaper!”

“Sorry.”

“Apply it again quickly. Where the hell do you see an apartment where each wall has a different wallpaper? And those dishes! I told you we can’t have cheap-looking dishes, didn’t I? Also, that tablecloth! It doesn’t suit the environment at all!”

The art director was on the edge. It was probably because he got into an argument with the assistant director a few times. Shooting this movie required many members in the staff. Of course there wasn’t a single day where it was quiet.

“I’m Lee Yoojin, a new actress. Please take care of me! Oh! I’m Lee Yoojin, a new actress. Please take care of me!”

She saw Yoojin, who was greeting everyone as she entered the set. It was something that every new actor or actress experienced. It was the time when one had to utter their own names out the most.

“Joohyun-unni! Hello.”

She had told Yoojin that there was no need to call her senior. She greeted back at the smiling Yoojin before sitting down. Yoojin sat next to her.

“Did you practice?”

“Yes!”

“You sound confident.”

“I’m never going to make a mistake.”

“Now that reassures me. But don’t get too nervous though. You’ll screw up if you become too stiff.”

“Yes!”

Yoojin had told her that this was her first movie shoot. She told her that she had a slightly hard time getting adjusted to the atmosphere since it was different from a drama shoot, but also said that she was okay now. With dramas, the script changed constantly according to the feedback from the audience, and time was key since there was a set broadcasting time. It was important to do each cut quickly.

In contrast, movies had a lot more time. Though, it was the same that time was key since spending longer meant that the human resources cost would rise as well.

“My daughter, you’re here.”

“Hello, sir.”

“Let’s have a good day today, alright?”

“Yes.”

Sooyeol sat down as he smiled. It seemed that the set had almost finished.

“Sorry we caused a delay due to our mistake. We’re extremely sorry.”

The youngest member of the arts team started making rounds apologizing to everyone. Sooyeol told him that it was okay and that he should go back to his post. As Sooyeol was well-known for his kindness in the movie industry, each of his words sounded really kind. This was why even Joohyun, who stopped at nothing, was quite careful when she was around him.

Yoojin, who was sitting down, abruptly stood up and went to the director, who was far away.

Seeing that, Joohyun was reminded of her old days.

It was when she gained the title ‘youth star’ in her early twenties through a short movie. She was excited, thinking that she would not have to experience suffering anymore. Back then, Joohyun was a polite and nice girl who helped others a lot, just like the ideal woman that South Korea thought.

One day, when she was looking at a script, she was told that she was scheduled for a meeting with a very important person and left her house in delight. There was a black sedan outside her house, and the car took her to a high-class bar in the city.

She was naive back then - Joohyun smiled in self-loathing. That day, Joohyun was forced to entertain that ‘important person’. That important person kept stroking her thighs constantly. She couldn’t even think about running away. Her head had turned white due to fear. Her fear-stricken expression must have seemed like coquetry to that man since that man acted even more boldly than before, and Joohyun moved away due to fear.

With a big laugh, the words ‘you’re acting coquettishly’ entered her ears. Although a decade had passed since that event, Joohyun could still remember the smell, the temperature of the air, the noise, the food and wine on the table, and even the texture of the floor.

When she came to herself, the thought that she had to leave filled her head. However, she couldn’t put it into action. The one that created that meeting had approached her and said thus,

You need to look good in front of him. Otherwise, you’ll have a hard life in the future. You must shoot that movie, right? There’s also the drama. You need to give up here, my dear actress Ahn. Isn’t that right? Do you really want to go back to the old days when you couldn’t even make a name for yourself? Back to the days when your face would be forgotten after mere moments?

Joohyun collapsed when she heard those words. She still had a strand of reason left and desperately refused the hand that tried to comb her body.

After the hellish dinner was over, Joohyun returned home after hearing from a movie director that she was going to walk the path of success. If that man asked for her body, Joohyun wouldn’t have been able to rebel against him. It was that kind of place, and it was that kind of mood. Unless she was prepared to bite her tongue off and die, that was a horrible net that an ordinary woman couldn’t escape from.

When she returned home her eyes met her brother Bangjoo’s, and Joohyun desperately looked away as she rushed into her own room. Bangjoo, outside the door, asked what was up with a worried tone, and eventually even started crying, but Joohyun couldn’t open the door. She felt that she would collapse on the spot if she did.

Joohyun smacked her head against the wall and fell into contemplation. What was she to do in the future? On her phone, there was a message saying that she got a commercial. It was surprising. Although she was seen in good light after her first movie, a new actress like her wouldn’t usually get an opportunity as big as shooting a commercial. But now, she got one through ‘lending’ her thigh once.

At that moment, Joohyun felt that something within her shattered to smithereens. When she lifted her head off the wall, she saw that the sun had risen already. The awry feeling from before was gone and she felt more refreshed than ever.

A few days later, Joohyun shot the commercial. She did her best as well. After that, she did not refuse a single commercial that came her way. She even took the ramyun ad commercial, and a snack commercial that was publicly viewed as ‘breaking a woman’s good image’, and even shot ones that didn’t even air in Seoul. She was lucky enough to shoot a commercial for an apartment and a cosmetic product, but those only happened once. By that point, she was receiving insults from all around. The ones giving her insults were those that paid expensive internet fees to write on forums like Naunuri, Hi-tel, and Cheollian[1]. Joohyun realized how the traits of the public worked.

She even dropped out of dramas that she passed the audition for and focused on shooting commercials. She once heard a director saying that she was an evil woman who only liked money, but that didn’t matter to her. The man that scheduled the bar event approached her once again and tried to coerce her into doing that thing again, but Joohyun swore at him and kicked that man’s thigh. That man shouted back at her with ‘do you want to leave this industry this instant?’ and Joohyun replied with ‘Go fuck your mom’. She was surprised that she could speak such foul words, but she soon became used to it. Defying authority gave her an indescribable sense of pleasure.

There was only one reason Joohyun was so desperately earning money. It was due to the fear of running out of money, and the consequent hardships of life, which was why she was called to such a place in the first place. There was only one way to solve that problem - she had to have money.

Joohyun successfully gathered money, and with enough money in her hands, she had nothing to fear. She swore at the producers of commercial screenplays in all of her magazine interviews, and started taking the roles she wanted to do. When she came across some old men who wanted to ‘look after’ her, she was able to give them the middle finger.

After that, Joohyun was putting effort into making sure that young actresses didn’t experience the same thing she did, but it wasn’t easy to change the industry where ‘service’ was a form of etiquette and ‘entertainment’ was a form of business. This was why she always became worried when she looked at young fellows like Yoojin.

She hoped that she would grow up uncompromising with others.

Spending time in this industry makes one realize that not everything about being an actress was beautiful. Though, since Yoojin’s mother ran a famous hair shop, she shouldn’t fall into such a dirty temptation, but to actresses who had a hard life, such temptations were hard to overcome.

She couldn’t tell those actresses to do what she did either. Although she felt nothing about it now, the disdainful gazes of the public and the people she worked with were like an invitation to a nightmare. Their eyes were horrific and dirty.

‘But the fact that I’m still here must mean that I was born to be an actress.’

Joohyun flipped a page over. At that moment, a shadow was cast over her script. When she looked up, she saw Suyeon, who was her first daughter in the movie.

She was someone who survived this industry in a way different to hers. She had no intentions of looking down on her methods and describing them as ‘dirty’, but she also did not feel the need to get closer to her. Joohyun’s motto was to starve if she was going to be fed by a pig.

“Hello, senior Joohyun.”

“Welcome, Suyeon.”

“Thank you.”

Suyeon smiled.

Chapter 281

The shoot was delayed by 20 minutes. As such delays were quite common, no one was in a fluster or anything.

“It’s good that there’s no one picky this time.”

Sooyeol spoke with a comfortable expression as he sipped some coffee. Joohyun nodded her head. The moodmakers of the set were not the staff that made up the majority of the people present, but the director and the actors, who were the minority. The air would become very volatile if one of the actors, especially if he or she was popular with the public, started becoming annoyed. If there was an actor that could even suppress the director, then the atmosphere on the set would change according to that actor’s mood at every moment.

“Senior Joojin was quite something when he was still around. He always got into fights with the director and whimsically said that he’d quit or whatnot. The assistant director from back then always drank some bile juice[1], and he told me that it was in order to live.”

“I’ve heard of the rumors. I’ve never done something together with him, so I’ve never seen him do it in person.”

Joohyun closed her script. Someone made an okay sign from the set.

“The director told me to say that you should prepare for the rehearsal,” a person from the production team ran up to her and said.

As she was aware, she just nodded and walked into the set. Two rooms were created for the two daughters next to the living room and the kitchen set. Suyeon’s room was flamboyant, and Yoojin’s room looked like a typical girl’s room.

“Well then, let’s get going.”

Director Joonggeun stood at the entrance of the set house with the storyboard in hand. Joohyun took off the blanket on her shoulders and put it on her chair before standing next to the director.

“Okay then. The camera is on that side. Sooyeol, your movement goes like this. You’ll start from the entrance and end in the kitchen, that’s one cut. Then, we’ll move the camera to this side and have a two shot with the two of you. It’s supposed to be a happy family, but make it look like the wife is in power.”

“What do you think of my makeup?” Joohyun asked as she moved her head right and left.

“Try standing in front of the reflector.”

She stood in front of the reflector that the lightings team brought. The director groaned for a moment before making an okay with his hand.

“It’s good. Let’s just leave it at that since it’s one of the early scenes. Make it darker as we do later shots. Oh, and, hey! Bring the ring!”

The props team brought over a ring. It was a small ring with a diamond in the middle. It was nothing fancy, but it felt elegant.

“Wear this for the ring.”

“Paid promotion, is it?”

“Yeah. Suyeon, Yoojin, come here as well. Suyeon, you wear this watch, and Yoojin, tie your hair up with this hairband.”

“I don’t get anything?” Sooyeol smiled as he spoke.

All he got back was a ‘you got a suit’ from the director.

The number of paid sponsorships changed according to the background of the movie. For movies with famous actors and famous directors, there would be all sorts of sponsorships, big and small. This was business after all. Joohyun looked down at the ring on her finger.

“Is it cubic zirconia?”

“No, it’s the real deal. It’s worth 8 million won so be careful. We have to give it back.”

“Phew.”

Joohyun shrugged her shoulders. There were snacks and drinks within the house. Although some of them were necessary for the story, most of them were there because of sponsorships. The labels of those snacks were exposed to the camera in a way that didn’t disturb the scene. If it was too obvious, it would make the audience feel animosity towards the product instead, so it had to be captured in a natural light as much as possible. Although new actors did not know the meaning behind the positioning of the products, people like Joohyun took notice of those first.

“Suyeon shouldn’t be a problem. Yoojin.”

“Yes!”

“Just do the basics. I’m expecting a fresh high school student from you, so don’t be too nervous. Try calling Joohyun ‘mom’ from time to time. It should stick to your mouth.”

“I’ll bear that in mind.”

“Good. Let’s go over the cut one more time and start the rehearsal right after.”

A light was put up to simulate daylight and the camera was put on rails. The camera director checked the angle several times before signalling standby.

Sooyeol first entered the door and said his line. Joohyun, who was in the kitchen, started chopping carrots. A rehearsal was no different from the real deal. A mistake in the rehearsal was very likely to continue into the real shoot after all. She controlled her emotions. The situation here was that she was preparing dinner for her husband who came back from work, but inwardly, she was very annoyed because of her father-in-law. Joohyun reminded herself - why do I need to take care of my father-in-law? What is my husband thinking? Does he think it’s easy to look after the elderly? No, in the first place, that old dude isn’t dead yet?

As she immersed herself into the role, her hands became filled with annoyance. The carrots that she cut were out of shape. Meanwhile, she still became more and more absorbed in her role and became more emotional.

Eventually, she saw her husband who approached her as he took off his tie. Joohyun felt angry inside, but did not get annoyed at him immediately and just welcomed him.

“Welcome home.”

Then,

“Good. Let’s keep that going. We can record the chopping board sound afterwards so you don’t have to try to make the noises!”

Hearing the feedback from the director, Joohyun heaved out a deep breath. She put down the knife and looked at her two daughters. They were giggling on the sofa. Suyeon looked natural. Thanks to her young-looking face, she didn’t look out of place despite wearing a school uniform. Yoojin was doing good as well. Her arm looked a little stiff, but it wasn’t that noticeable.

She felt that this was why she could be at ease around people that have experience acting. There were a lot of new actors who came straight to dramas and movies, but watching them made her feel sick. Their pronunciation was all over the place, and most of the time, they weren’t looking at the right places either. She didn’t know what kind of backing they had so that they came straight to dramas, but working with them tired her out endlessly.

Meanwhile, those that had theater experience had the basics down. It wasn’t that surprising since theaters did not allow for use of mics and they had to do everything with raw voice, so pronunciation was not a problem for those people. They were generally aware of how to use their bodies so most of the time, they wouldn’t get stiff in front of the camera.

After Joonggeun’s cut sign, Joohyun went behind Yoojin’s back and started massaging her shoulders lightly. Yoojin was startled and quickly looked back.

“You’re a little too stiff. It’s better if you loosen up a little.”

“Ah, okay.”

Yoojin took a deep breath before breathing back out. Her stiff left shoulder relaxed slightly. Joohyun nodded and told her that she was doing good.

“There there! Let’s roll the film. The audio and the lights are good. Let’s get this done in a single shot.”

Joonggeun clapped as he spoke.

It was time for the real deal.

* * *

“Thank you for your work.”

Yoojin took a deep bow. As a new actor, greeting everyone was key. It was like that regardless of the industry. No one disliked people who greeted them, but the opposite was true. Sometimes, problems would arise due to not greeting people.

“Well done today.”

Yoojin couldn’t hide her smile when she heard Joohyun compliment her. She was happy that she was able to shoot with an actress she respected, but now, she was complimented as well.

“Your pronunciation was good. I was surprised.”

“That’s the one thing I’m confident in.”

“That’s a good weapon you have there. I actually had a hard time because of my pronunciation.”

“You did?”

Yoojin blinked several times in wonder. Joohyun had become a superstar through a one-act play and she seemed flawless back then. Even when she came back after pausing her career for a while, she showed flawless acting skills and swept various prizes. Such a person actually had a hard time because of pronunciation?

“What?”

“I thought you were a perfect superwoman.”

“If I was perfect like you said, then I wouldn’t be in all the controversy. Even when I look at myself, I can find many flaws. Above all, I have a foul mouth.”

“Ha, haha.”

“Don’t live like me. It feels refreshing when you say it, but the aftermath is a hell to deal with. These days, it’s so easy to see bad comments on the internet as well.”

“But I want to live with dignity like you.”

“I don’t recommend it, but I guess I feel thankful when you put it like that.”

Yoojin was happy since she felt that she had gotten closer to Joohyun. She thought that it would be even better if they could act like sisters privately as well.

At that moment, Joohyun put her chin on Yoojin’s head, saying that she was exhausted. Yoojin felt that Joohyun was really tall. Sooyeol was 180cm tall, but she didn’t seem that much smaller when she stood next to him. Although wearing heels should have something to do with it, she should be somewhere around 170cm even without wearing heels.

“Does that bother you?”

“Not at all!”

“Really? You’re cheerful. I like it.”

Her head felt a little painful, but she decided to endure it since Joohyun was acting nice towards her. Just as she was about to leave the set in search for her manager, she saw Suyeon walking together with a man. She sneakily held his arm and the man immediately pulled out, startled.

“Looks like she doesn’t get tired of that. Yoojin.”

“Yes?”

“A woman’s body is a master key that works on all men in this world. It’ll be really easy if you decide to use it to your advantage.”

“……”

“Once you grow up and start working in this world for real, you’ll realize how hard and cruel the land of Korea is to women. You’ll have a hard time, and if you keep going, you’ll find yourself in a situation where using your body will make your life much easier.”

“I will never do such a thing,” Yoojin spoke determinedly.

“I like that attitude. But sometimes, your refusal isn’t enough to overcome that hurdle. They’ll say that you’re just trying to act coquettish. If you do end up in such a situation…”

Joohyun moved out a little before doing a knee kick towards empty air. Yoojin slacked her jaws when she heard the sharp sound.

“You should give them a kick like this. Then, I’ll take care of the rest.”

While they talked to each other, the man and Suyeon disappeared from sight. Yoojin thought that Suyeon was really the woman true to her rumors.

“I don’t want to live an easy life,” Yoojin spoke as she followed Suyeon with her eyes.

At that moment, Joohyun put her hand on Yoojin’s head and made a faint smile.

“It’s not always like that. There’s no such thing as an easy life. There’s a life that looks easy, but if you look close enough, you’ll find that it isn’t.”

Patting on Yoojin’s head, Joohyun continued speaking,

“Do you want to go grab something to eat with this unni?”

“May I?”

“If you aren’t busy.”

“I’m not busy!”

“Then let’s go. I don’t have any schedule either. It should be fine to talk with the juniors like this from time to time.”

Yoojin followed Joohyun who walked up front. As she did so, she told her manager that she could have an early leave.

Joohyun sat on the driver’s seat. Yoojin carefully opened the door and sat on the passenger seat. She wondered about the presence of Joohyun’s manager.

“I go around without my manager for nearby places, because I like driving.”

Yoojin faintly smiled because she felt like Joohyun had read her mind.

Looking around the neat car, Yoojin saw a small framed photo on the top of the dashboard. Inside the photo was a younger-looking Joohyun and a woman she didn’t know. Although it was an ordinary photo, Yoojin couldn’t take her eyes off it for some reason. It wasn’t because of Joohyun, but due to the woman with a faint smile next to her.

“She’s the reason I became an actor,” Joohyun spoke just then.

“The reason you became an actor?”

“Yeah. I developed my dream while looking up to this person. She’s the only one that I respect and at the same time, she’s the only one that gave me despair. I told you that no one is perfect, right? Actually, there is one. There is a perfect person when it comes to acting. She was too perfect that she earned the jealousy of the heavens…”

Joohyun’s eyes looked too bitter as she talked about the woman in the photo, which made Yoojin unable to speak. Although Joohyun didn’t say it, Yoojin intuitively realized that the woman was no longer in this world.

“The fact that I could meet her was a blessing of my lifetime, but at the same time, it was a net that bound me. That was because I could never be satisfied with my own acting after looking at hers. Anyone would feel like that. This unni was just… the best.”

Joohyun turned her head around and smiled. Yoojin had a look at the woman in the photo again. An actress admired by the actress that she admired. She had never met this person nor knew her name, but for some reason, she felt admiration towards her. What kind of acting did she do? What was the world of emotions that she showed others?

“Jung Haejoo. That’s her name. She’s the best nameless actress.”

Joohyun rolled down the window. The strong winds blew away the name Jung Haejoo from the car. Yoojin became silent for a moment. She had a moment of mourning.

Chapter 282

People looked like ants. Suyeon looked down at the streets while putting her hand against the window. She was just staring at a yellow bin that a street cleaner was dragging around when,

“What are you doing?”

A cold hand touched her lower stomach. The palm was filled with calluses. After stroking her stomach for a while, the hand slowly climbed up towards her chest. Suyeon grabbed the hand and took it off her body.

“It’s about time we leave.”

“Already? Let’s stay for a little bit more.”

“I have work to do.”

Suyeon put on the bra that she hung on the chair as though she was hanging laundry.

“I wonder when we can meet again.”

“I don’t know either.”

“I think it’ll be quite good if we can meet more often.”

“I thought you had a person that you’re seriously going out with. Looks like I heard wrong?”

Suyeon put on her blouse and reached into the back of her blouse to take out her hair. The man on the bed gave her the skirt which was on the floor.

“She’s a good woman.”

“There you go then. As for us, we’re just a business relationship, aren’t we?”

“A woman that clearly draws the line isn’t that charming, but you’re different.”

“Maybe that’s because the women you’ve met until now didn’t know how to draw a clear line.”

The man put his arm around Suyeon’s neck and tried to kiss her. Suyeon put her fingers between the two pairs of lips.

“Don’t bring bed labor outside the bed.”

“You consider that labor?”

Suyeon smiled instead of answering. The man made an empty laugh before stretching his arms out.

“Who else do you meet other than me?”

“Oh, my. You’re asking a lady that? You’re an impolite one.”

Suyeon took out some cosmetics from her bag and put them on the dressing table. She drew her eyebrows and put on some lipstick. Just then, she heard a flint sound from a lighter from where the man was.

“You aren’t meeting me once I get married, I guess, right?”

“I don’t want to pull out another woman’s hair on the streets like in dramas. I’m a law-abiding woman, you know.”

“Geez.”

“You should get married soon and find a place to call home, producer. How long are you planning to be a migratory bird?”

“I guess. The woman this time is kind and above all, likes me.”

“She fell for you?”

“I think so.”

“That’s good then.”

Suyeon stood up with the bag in hand.

“I’ll be leaving first then. Please take care of the checkout.”

She put on her shoes and pulled down on the door handle slightly when the man hugged her shoulders from behind.

“I think it’ll be good to live with you, too.”

“You’re a bad guy.”

“She’s a kind woman, but she’s no fun. I feel like she’ll raise the kids well, but at the same time, I feel like she’ll make my life dull.”

Suyeon sighed and turned around. The man was standing there with a grin on his face and she grabbed him by his stuff. The man groaned and flinched back.

“I’ve never considered myself as a clean woman. I’m dirty and underhanded. If people knew about me, they'd insult me. But still, I don’t cross the line. We had fun, didn’t we? You put in your energy for me, and I shook my ass for you in bed. I told you the first time we met, didn’t we? That we shouldn’t put any emotions on the line.”

Suyeon loosened her grip. The man stepped back with a stiff expression.

“If you know someone good, then go to her. Don’t bring emotions into business. Well, then, producer. I had fun until now. I hope you can greet me nicely when you see me on set. If you invite me to your wedding, then I’ll attend. If you don’t, then well, that’s that.”

Suyeon waved her hand before leaving the room. As she walked towards the elevator, she took out her phone from her bag. The first thing she did was to erase the messages she exchanged with that producer. Her bodily relationship with him was over, but she might meet him again with business matters, so she left behind his number.

“Now then, what do I do?”

Although she said that she had work to do, she was free for the next two days. She would get busy once she started shooting a drama starting next week, but she wasn’t that busy until then. She thought about going to Busan for the next two days by herself, but she soon changed her mind.

She hummed as she called Geunsoo.

-Yes. This is Hong Geunsoo speaking.

“My name should pop up on your screen. There’s no need to answer so stiffly, don’t you think?”

-Yes. This is Hong Geunsoo speaking.

“Sheesh, you really are cruel. So then, Mr. Geunsoo.”

-What is it?

“Wanna go on a date?”

-Hm, I do, but I have something to do.

“It must be my mistake for thinking that that something to do just came up seconds ago, right?”

-Fortunately, it's scheduled work. I can be at ease since I don’t have to come up with excuses on the spot.

“What work is this?”

-Being a driver.

“What?”

-There’s a shoot away from Seoul, as you know. I have the important mission of taking a treasured actor to the shooting location.

“A treasured actor? Do you mean Sir Moonjoong?”

-No.

“Then who is it? Senior Taeho?”

-No

“Then who is it? You can tell me that much, right?”

-Maru.

“…You’re driving him there?”

-Yes, I owe something to him and I want to check something with him as well.

“Are you taking him to Mt. Juwang again?”

-Well, no, but it is located in the same province. Oh, I’ll hang up now, we have to get going soon.

“Wait a sec.”

Suyeon put her phone in her other hand and hurriedly continued speaking.

“I guess there’s an empty seat at the back right?”

-What?

“I said there should be an empty seat at the back.”

-Well, no, we have to take air with us as well.

“I’ll tag along then.”

-Hanging up. See you later.

“I’ve already decided that I’m following. I’ll be obedient if you take me, and if you make me take my car there and meet at the set, I’m going to cling to you for the whole day. What’s your choice?”

A groan of hesitation could be heard over the phone. At that moment, there was a small voice that said ‘let me take it’ before a bunch of noises could be heard. After that, a new voice talked to her.

-There’s nothing beneficial for you there. Why are you trying to follow us?

“It’s been a long time, Maru. How are club activities going? I’ll be going starting next week so look forward to that.”

-Don’t change the subject on me. It’s a little far to be considered a walk in the park, so why are you trying to come with us?

“Why, you ask? Because I have nothing to do. And Mr. Geunsoo is going there too, isn’t he? I’m telling you this beforehand, but I have a car, okay? We’ll be meeting on set anyhow. If you leave me here, then I’ll annoy you for a lifetime. It’ll be fun if I make some jokes in front of the others, right?”

-Why don’t you try becoming an adult instead? I heard that becoming mature is the trend these days.

“I am an adult. I became one a long time ago.”

After a moment of silence, she was notified to come to Suwon station. Suyeon smiled as she took the elevator to the first floor lobby.

* * *

“To think that you’d have to drive five hours for a single scene. That’s the sadness of rookies for you.”

Maru looked back at Suyeon, who was in the back seat. She took off her sandals and was half-lying down across both of the seats.

“Who told you to join that pain?”

“It’s fun to do so. Isn’t it, Mr. Geunsoo?”

“No, not really,” Geunsoo replied as he tilted the wheel slightly. It had been two hours since they got on the highway. There were two hours to go until they arrived at their destination.

“Since it’s getting boring, should we do a word chain game?”

As soon as Suyeon said something, Geunsoo opened the windows. The wind was very loud since the car was going at 120km/h. The loud noises made Suyeon, who was chatting non stop from the back seat, become quiet with a dumbfounded expression.

Maru raised his thumb up at an angle that Suyeon wouldn’t be able to see. No matter how loud the wind was, it wouldn’t be as loud as a woman’s chatter. After driving across the wind for a while, Geunsoo pulled out to a service area.

“I skipped breakfast so I’m getting hungry. Let’s have our lunch here.”

Geunsoo left the car. Maru followed him out. They entered the service area building while talking about the set. As this was the weekend, there were quite a number of people.

“I’m going with Sanchae-bibimbap[1].”

“I’ll take that as well.”

“Should we order a bowl of ramyun as well?”

“Sounds good to me.”

They put an order in and got back a meal ticket. They grabbed a table and waited for a while before a number signifying their ticket flashed on the noticeboard. Maru stood up from his seat and got the meal in place of Geunsoo who went to the bathroom.

Just as he grabbed his spoon to start eating, he felt a hand grabbing his shoulder. When he turned around, he saw Suyeon, wearing a baseball cap and a pair of sunglasses.

“…Are you a celebrity?”

“Yes, despite what you think I am. But you really didn’t wait for me, huh. Where’s mine?”

“One should take care of their own meals.”

“What’s that then?”

“It’s senior Geunsoo’s.”

“Really? One should take care of their own meals, huh.”

Suyeon smirked before pulling the tray over to her side. She picked up the spoon with a happy expression and mixed the contents of the bowl before scooping a big spoonful and eating it. Geunsoo, who just came back from the bathroom, saw what was happening and went to the ticketing booth to get another one as though nothing had happened. Seeing Geunsoo come back with another tray of Sanchae-bibimbap in hand, Suyeon thanked him by saying ‘thanks for the meal’.

They continued on with their meal as they talked. Most of the time, it was Suyeon chatting, and Maru just asked Geunsoo some things he was curious about from time to time. Just as they finished off their meals, Maru caught something strange. He found some men who were looking at them with some hesitation.

“I think they noticed who you are.”

“Me?”

“Yes.”

Suyeon turned around a little. The men brightened in an instant and approached her quickly.

“Uhm, excuse me. Aren’t you Miss Kim Suyeon?”

One of the four men, who seemed to be in his mid twenties, carefully asked. Maru saw that Suyeon had a kind smile on her face and inwardly thought that she was an actress after all. She could switch to her actress mode in an instant.

“Ah, yes. I am. You know who I am?”

“Wow! I was right. Ah, I’m a fan of yours, Miss Suyeon. I’ve never missed an episode of ‘Blue Spark’.”

“Really?”

Suyeon became shy and put her hand above her chest and twisted her body. That shy gesture made the men smile subconsciously.

Maru looked at Geunsoo and shrugged his shoulders. Geunsoo smiled back at him. Thanks to the four men causing a fuss, other people in the building started gathering around Suyeon.

Returning his tray, Maru spoke,

“She’s a celebrity alright. Many people recognize her.”

“She’s an actress that’s making a name for herself after all. Her mini series did well too. And there’s that new drama that she’s doing with Joohyun-noona. It’s a work that’s receiving a lot of attention, so it’s not that surprising that people recognize her.”

“Oh, you mean the one that was supposed to be done last winter but delayed because of an accident?”

“You know about it?”

“I remember hearing it from a friend of mine.”

Maru had heard that from Yoojin. She said something about how she was dejected because a drama she was looking forward to got delayed.

“She looks busy, so let’s just go by ourselves.”

“I want to do that, but I’m scared of the consequences. You know, she’s a scary woman.”

“That’s true. Oh, senior. I’m asking this just in case, but you aren’t actually interested in her, are you?”

“I don’t have that much luxury. I’m really busy these days, you know? I’m told to prepare for the next movie, leave some time for an interview, and that’s not the end of it.”

“It looks like the president is really making the most out of you.”

“Don’t even start. I’m working away like a slave since the moment I joined JA Production. You’ll be in my shoes in a little while. You should get ready for it. Senior Junmin really does make you earn back the money he paid you.”

“That, I can agree on. Rather than that, I wonder how long she’s gonna stay there. Oh, we’re eating out of the same pot now[2], aren’t we?”

Suyeon was struggling to escape the people who were asking for autographs. She was signalling for help from time to time, but neither Maru nor Geunsoo wanted to run into that crowd.

“Let’s get some rest in the car. She should be here soon enough. She’s a famous actress after all.”

“Sure.”

Maru bought three canned drinks from the convenience store before going back to the car. Geunsoo and he spent around 20 minutes talking about Geunseok when they saw Suyeon limping towards the car from afar. She greeted her fans that followed her for one last time before getting in the car. Getting in the car, Suyeon undid her top button on her blouse before lying down.

“I can’t keep this up anymore. I should have just gone with the unapproachable image,” she grumbled as she fanned herself with her hand.

Maru tossed her a drink.

Geunsoo started driving again. There were still two hours to go until they arrived at their destination. The sun would start setting once they arrived, and that would be when the shooting began.

Maru stretched out his arms with his hands locked. He felt nervous already. The tingle behind his neck made him smile subconsciously.

“You should get some sleep.”

Hearing Geunsoo’s words, Maru closed his eyes. Geunsoo told him that it would be better to preserve some energy since the shoot may continue late into the night.

Closing his eyes, Maru pictured that scene once again in his mind.

[1] Bibimbap with wild vegetables(“sanchae”)

[2] They’re paid by the same company.

Chapter 283

Thump! A violent shake woke Maru up. He stared at the golden-colored skies for a while before turning his head to the right. He saw children holding their mothers’ hands as they were going home. They were also holding a balloon each as though today was a special day. It seemed that they had exited the highway.

“You woke up?”

“Yes. Where are we? Have we arrived?”

“We’re in Yeongdeok. We’re almost there.”

Maru had a look at the clock. It was 5:12 p.m. He stretched his neck out.

“You’re hungry, aren’t you?”

“Yeah. I just woke up after all.”

“You’ll be able to eat something once we arrive. The contracted food company this time makes some good food.”

Geunsoo smiled as he opened the window.

“You said Yeongdeok, right? Are we near the sea then?”

“Cross that mountain then you’ll see the sea.”

“Then I guess the scene at the sea will be taken here too, right?”

“We can’t keep switching filming locations so they’ll probably shoot that scene here. Guess the elder will kill me in two days time with a hammer.”

“Hahaha.”

Geunsoo grabbed the wheel with one hand and started massaging his own shoulder with the other. He had been driving for more than five hours. It was natural for him to get tired.

“Should I drive?”

“Do you want to?” Geunsoo asked as he took his hands off the wheel.

Maru grabbed the wheel with his left hand. It had been a long time since he felt the touch of leather from the driving wheel. As they were not in an area where people lived, they didn’t have to worry about sudden appearances of people. The only thing in front of them was the endless expanse of fields as well as street lights. It was a straight road ahead, so Maru just had to adjust the wheel straight.

Just then,

“Are you crazy! What the hell are you two doing?” Suyeon woke up from sleep and screamed with a tired face.

“Well, driving, of course.”

“I was getting a little tired, so Maru’s been driving in my stead.”

Suyeon sighed in defeat because the two men sounded so calm about it.

The car slowed down. The road was narrowing due to the fields getting closer. It was barely enough for a single car to go through. Maru had a look at Geunsoo. Until now, the road was straight, and he pretty much didn’t have to do anything to the wheel, but narrow roads like this required him to put in more effort. He thought that Geunsoo would naturally take over the wheel, but Geunsoo instead just locked his fingers, put his hands behind his head and started whistling.

“What are you going to do if we fall off?”

“If we fall off, then we fall off. That’s nothing bad. In fact, I’m kinda looking forward to it because I feel like something fun is about to happen.”

Hearing those words, Suyeon started screaming at Geunsoo, saying that he should take over the wheel immediately. Meanwhile, the car had not stopped and they entered the narrow road. Geunsoo smiled and just controlled the pedals.

“Can I really do it?”

“Sure.”

Hearing such a calm answer, Maru just chuckled and made minute adjustments with his left hand. He had literally driven until he died in his previous life. He watched the roads as he controlled the wheel. Meanwhile, his foot was pedalling on virtual accelerator and brake pedals. In about five minutes, the road widened again.

“Unfortunately, we don’t have to call the tow truck,” Geunsoo grabbed the wheel as he spoke.

Suyeon, who looked worried all this time while looking outside the window, had become pale and was silent. Maru remembered Miso calling Geunsoo a lunatic before. She said something about how he did incomprehensible stuff from time to time, and he had to agree after seeing this. They say geniuses have a screw loose inside their heads, and it seems that Geunsoo, who is supposed to take over the movie industry by storm, wasn’t a normal person either.

“Looks like they’re gathered over there.”

They were now in a countryside village where they could see a row of old houses. Most of them seemed ghosted, but one of them had lights on. Underneath the light were a lot of people gathered round, and most of them were eating. They didn’t seem to care about a car approaching them and just busily moved their spoons without giving the car a single glance.

Geunsoo parked the car a little away from the vehicle holding the props. Maru opened the door and left the car. Although he couldn’t see the sea, he felt like he could smell the sea in the air. He looked to the opposite side of the setting sun and walked towards the film set.

“You’re here.”

The staff welcomed Geunsoo. Some of them seemed close enough to stand up and give him a high five. Meanwhile, Suyeon smiled at them and just brushed past. The staff also just greeted Suyeon with nods.

“Aren’t you supposed to be here in two days?”

“I should come early. I’m bad at acting, so I’ll be hated if I’m late as well.”

“Who says our dear actor Hong has bad acting?”

“The director does. Are you speaking to him on my behalf now?”

“Uhm, I need to keep earning money, so…”

As they laughed, Geunsoo waved at Maru. Maru walked and stood next to Geunsoo.

“He’s a new member at my company. He’s a smart kid, so please look after him. It’s his first day here today, so do forgive him for any mistakes. Maru, these are people from the lighting team. They’re from a company called Illumination and they’re quite well known in this area.”

“Hello, everyone. My name is Han Maru.”

Maru greeted the three men. Among them, the oldest-looking man offered a handshake.

“Nice to meet you. From how Geunsoo is taking care of you, it seems like you’re a promising rookie. I hope to see you more on sets. I’m Kim Jinhwan.”

“Hwang Junggoo here.”

“And I’m Oh Jihoon.”

Maru remembered the three people from the lighting team. Every relationship started with remembering the other party’s name. Not remembering their names the next time he met any of them would give him a bad image so he had to be cautious about that.

“How about dinner?”

“We haven’t had any since we were planning to eat here. The food truck this time is from Flourish Food Truck, isn’t it?”

“Yeah it is.”

There were people gathered where the middle-aged man was pointing at.

“Let’s go, Maru.”

Maru followed Geunsoo to the food truck. Suyeon, who had been following them all this time, had disappeared from sight. As she wasn’t someone that he missed, Maru did not look for her.

A man wearing a chef hat for hygiene purposes greeted them with a smile. In front of him were various delicious-looking foods. Maru picked up a round plate and started putting stuff onto it. They definitely looked and smelled good.

As there wasn’t an empty table, Maru sat down on the floor like many others. He leaned against a big tree and waited for Geunsoo to come.

“Nice spot,” Geunsoo sat down on the floor as he spoke.

“Have a nice meal.”

“You too.”

Maru took a bite off the sausage buchim[1] before looking around. It seemed that the actors were eating somewhere else as he couldn’t find any of them around. There was a blue tent on his left, and he predicted that the actors were in there.

“Are the three people from last time all there is in the lighting team?” He asked as he continued to eat.

There were many heavy-looking lighting devices gathered around. The three of them wheeled all of those lighting devices?

“No way. Those three from just now were the A team, and the B team is over there. You see that car over there? That’s the generator car, and the one next to it is the crane truck that holds the lights up in the air. The car next to that holds the equipment. All of that combined is called the lighting department.”

“So that’s how it works.”

“But while they’re called ‘teams’, they’re just hired part-time workers most of the time. The three that you saw last time will hire people for shooting a movie and they’ll scatter once the movie is over. It’s a hard job, so many people quit midway. It’s rare to see someone you see on one set appear again on another set.”

After speaking, Geunsoo started eating his meal with a happy expression.

“So many people for just one movie.”

At a glance, more than a hundred people seemed to be having dinner right now. There were people who were laughing and talking, and there were also those that just ate quietly. They had all gathered here to finish a movie that would be around an hour and 20 minutes long, or at most 2 hours long.

“Well, with screens, more people work in the background than in the foreground.” Geunsoo put down his spoon as he spoke.

“The first thing that people do before every movie is to have a meal together with the staff like this. Only then do they realize that there may be 30 to 40 people appearing on camera, but there are at least 10 times as many people working in the background.”

Geunsoo had a serious expression. It was even disconcerting how he was so different from the prankster Geunsoo that let Maru have the wheel on the road.

“Looks like screwing the movie up will have consequences.”

“Hmm, no. Normally, the staff isn’t in a bad position even if the movie fails. They get their pay regardless of the success or failure of the movie. But sometimes, like what you just said, there are producers that screw up so hard. They’re trash who shoot movies without any budget. Because of those kinds of bastards, there are many people who get into debts unwillingly,” after saying those words, Geunsoo made a bitter smile.

“That’s why we have to do our best to make this movie successful. To do that, we need to put our best effort in… no, we need to do the best act possible so that the stage these people created for us doesn’t go down the drain. That’s the duty of those that live on guarantees.”

Duty.

Maru nodded his head. If he did a half-assed job just because he had a minor role, it would be the equivalent of being impolite to all these people. Rather than the best he could, he had to do the absolute best. This wasn’t a high-school acting club, but a proper movie where actual money was involved. People valued results more than the process, and fruits more than effort.

Just as he was about to finish his meal off with some cherry tomatoes, he saw people leaving the tent. The staff checked the time on their phones before starting to clean up.

“It looks like the filming is about to resume. It’ll be your scene once this scene’s over.”

“I should have one more look at the script then.”

“Rather than the script, you should look at the storyboard. Those have the camera angles, so it’ll be easier for you to draw the picture. Although the director will explain it to you during the shooting, not knowing and knowing is worlds apart even when you do listen to the explanation.”

“Okay.”

Maru started flipping through the storyboard that Geunsoo handed to him. The shooting location started becoming noisy.

“Hey! We need to readjust the level!”

“The jimmy jib is shaking though.”

“Get the wireless mic.”

“Check up on everyone’s clothing!”

Although noises could be heard from everywhere, it didn’t look that messy. After a short while, the noises died down. Then, the lights started coming on one by one. The surroundings became brighter a bit.

“You should make your greetings before it starts.”

Geunsoo dusted his pants as he stood up. It was obvious who he had to greet so he didn’t ask. He walked towards the tent along with Geunsoo. He avoided the people moving busily and poked his head inside the tent.

Moonjoong was sitting next to a gas heater with a pot on top of it. There were many actors around him.

“I’m here, sir.”

“Oh, you’re here.”

Moonjoong closed his script and welcomed him. Maru bowed to greet him back.

“I’m also here, elder.”

“Yes, yes. So I finally get to see you on the scene. Wasn’t it tiring getting here?”

“Sir, I’m really sad. I’m the one who drove him here,” Geunsoo shook his head as he spoke.

“Haha, that’s right. You must be tired, Geunsoo. Did both of you have dinner?”

“Yes.”

Maru greeted the actors sitting behind Moonjoong as well. There were actors he hadn’t seen before as well. He presumed that they either had minor roles or were just extras like he was.

“Please get ready for the rehearsal.”

Someone entered the tent and spoke in a small voice. The actors all stood up.

“Well then, Maru. See you later.”

“Yes, elder.”

“Geunsoo, if I remember correctly, you appear the day after tomorrow, right?”

“Yup. In two days, I’ll be beaten to death by you. Please go easy on me.”

“Oh no, I can’t do that. I’ll have to put all my strength into it. Please die realistically, haha.”

“You’re so cruel. I’m your son, you know?”

Moonjoong left the tent with laughter. Maru carefully followed him. He greeted some of the staff that he met on his way and soon, the shooting began.

Seeing Moonjoong under the light, Maru became silent. He heard the cue sign from the director amidst the faint sounds of machinery.

“Pathetic, how pathetic.”

A depressed voice filled the surroundings.

Maru started focusing on Moonjoong’s acting as he embraced the air of the location.

[1] Another way of saying ‘jeon’, which is a Korean-style pancake… or sorts.

Chapter 284

A moth flying under the light slowly fell down. Like a dried-out leaf, it rose into the air with a gust of wind before falling down again on the hair of a staff member holding the camera. Even though the cameraman must have felt something landing on his head, he kept looking into the camera. The moth that had fallen on his hair, started flapping its wings again and flew upwards. Maru looked away from the moth and looked in front of him. Moonjoong finished his conversation with the director and started walking towards the cardboard scraps again. The camera, which was on rails, kept a constant distance from Moonjoong. Moonjoong, who was standing amongst scrap pieces of paper gestured that he needed more time. Maru saw the director nodding.

Will it get the okay sign this time? From what Maru saw, the director seemed satisfied with what he got. The problem was that Moonjoong wasn’t.

“Looks like it’ll take a long time today as well.”

“Well, this is not the first or second time that happened.”

“Give me a chocolate bar. I’m starting to run out of sugar.”

“It hasn’t even been that long since dinner. Why are you running out of sugar already?”

The staff started taking out their snacks and sweets. It was past 10 o’clock at night. Since the shoot started in the morning, they had been working for more than 12 hours now.

Maru grabbed the chocolate bar offered to him. It was given to him by Geunsoo.

“This should be the last time.”

“The last time of what?”

“The shooting. They’ll probably go to the next scene after this one.”

Geunsoo sounded no different from saying ‘the sun will rise in the morning’. He had that much conviction when he said those words. Just what did he base his thoughts on? Maru had a look at Moonjoong, who was around 10 meters away from him. Moonjoong was looking up at the sky with his hands behind his back, Maru couldn’t read anything from him. It wasn’t that much different to the previous four times he shot this scene.

“You’ll see,” Geunsoo said.

‘You’ll see’ - Maru nodded his head. Maybe masters had signs that only masters could recognize. As a mere mortal, he would never understand what it is no matter what he tried, so Maru decided that it would be better to keep watching. He watched Moonjoong as he rolled around the thick caramel of the chocolate bar inside his mouth.

Just then, Moonjoong raised his left hand. The director gave the staff a sign and following that, the slate made a clapping sound. The camera started rolling and Moonjoong started his act. Although Maru was quite far from the scene, he couldn’t hear Moonjoong’s voice, but the pitiful expression on his face as well as the way he walked was enough for him to understand the emotions behind his actions.

“It’s quite long.”

“This is a long take scene. It’s two whole minutes long. It makes me feel nervous just imagining that the camera will follow the back of my head for a whole two minutes,” Geunsoo looked at Maru as he said that.

“Do you even know what it feels like to act by yourself for a whole two minutes without a single cut?”

“Honestly, no. Considering the runtime of this movie, 2 minutes is definitely significant, but I don’t really understand the difficulty of filling those two minutes.”

2 minutes. In everyday life, two minutes wasn’t long at all. It was an amount of time that would pass by just gazing at the sky. However, two minutes out of 80 in a movie was a different story indeed.

“You’ll see how absurd two minutes are once you get used to shooting movies. The most scary thing is getting an NG at a minute and 58 seconds. That’s the fun part of a long take. You’ll have to start over those two minutes from the beginning. Phew, that sounds horrific.”

Geunsoo shook his head as though he was the one in front of the camera.

Maru followed Moonjoong’s back with his eyes.

Moonjoong, who was staggering, ended up leaning on a wall before collapsing down on the spot. Having fallen down, Moonjoong covered both of his eyes and started crying. The faint weeping sounds could be heard over the wind. He had curled up like someone in pain and made a disturbing vomiting sound. The neatly piled scrap papers fell over with Moonjoong’s struggles. Amidst that, Moonjoong started wiggling around. He painted a picture where the old man was crying so loud that it couldn’t be voiced through the human vocal cords, and plowed his way through in solitude. He fell, stood up, then fell again. Moonjoong acted as a man that was thoroughly collapsing from the inside out. Under the dusk, he made a path of sadness and despair until he eventually looked around. Under the faint light, Moonjoong’s expression looked complex and indescribable. His face was covered with tears, yet it looked sharp; was scary yet sad like a cracked piece of glass. He expressed the instability of his emotions while shifting between strong-minded and feeble until he suddenly picked up a small hammer amidst the pile of scrap paper. After staring at it for a while, Moonjoong raised it above his head. Pf, pf, pf. The unpaved road was dented with a deep sound. After smashing down with his hammer for a while, Moonjoong started crying again. It was a wail deep enough to put anyone listening to shivers, just like that of a wild beast.

The whispers between the staff had died down to naught. Everyone was focusing on Moonjoong. Maru could see that everyone’s eyes were following the violent smashes of the hammer. It was freakishly silent.

Amidst the silence, Moonjoong continued to act. He was sweating as though his face was sprayed with water. The hammer fell out of his shaking hands. Everything stopped as though time stopped flowing. The freaky silence continued for another three seconds before Moonjoong stood up with a long sigh. Then he stared into the main camera with emotionless eyes.

Maru, who was in Moonjoong’s line of sight, felt as though Moonjoong’s eyes were looking at him. The frightening gaze, captured on the camera, will make the audience gulp, he thought.

“Okay!”

That voice sounded more cheerful than ever. Moonjoong’s cold expression only loosened at that moment as he spat out a deep breath. One person, that seemed to be Moonjoong’s manager, quickly ran up to him and looked over his body. Everyone at the scene started applauding.

Maru did the same. The emotions he harbored deep inside him sublimed into his applause. It was a form of etiquette towards an actor that showed brilliant acting, and also an applause of self-loathing because that was the only way to evaluate such an act.

“Haha, he’s breaking the spirits of his juniors too much,” Geunsoo spoke as he applauded.

Maru could see passion in his eyes. His respect towards Moonjoong, as well as his challenging spirit had to be boiling inside him. Maru also realized that something similiar was happening inside himself as well. He started yearning for something supreme that existed beyond the horizon.

“Now that I think about it, this scene is the one right after my scene,” Maru, drenched in appreciation, suddenly came to himself and spoke.

The scene Moonjoong acted just now was the scene immediately after the elder hears harsh words from the delinquent.

“That’s because we have to shoot in an alleyway, and it would be difficult to do so if there are people passing by. That’s why most scenes are filmed during the night. It would be great if the scenes could be filmed according to the progress of the story, but reality isn’t that easy. The staff do their best to line up the order of events, but most of the time, reality doesn’t allow it. This is why there are many times where the ending is shot first then the beginning. It’s an annoying matter, but what can we do about it? That’s what being a pro is.”

“…Being an actor doesn’t sound easy.”

Moonjoong had to forget his boiling emotions and go back to being a feeble old man. It wouldn’t be easy to do so. Moonjoong returned to the camera and started monitoring the scene. It was just as Geunsoo had said. It seemed that that was the last take.

“Hey! Han Maru, you’re here!”

Hearing a voice behind him, Maru turned around. Jiseok, with a thick smile, was waving at him.

“I came here ages ago.”

“Really? Why didn’t I get to see you then?”

“Because I was with the staff.”

“Oh that’s where you were. Oh, senior Geunsoo. Hello there.”

Jiseok looked as cheerful as ever. After returning Jiseok’s greeting, Geunsoo spoke again,

“You two should rehearse together. You’ll be in the next scene after all. I’ll go ask the director something.”

Maru told Jiseok that they should switch places. They couldn’t start practicing amidst the staff members. They went back to the tree where Maru ate dinner.

“Wow, so this is what it feels like.”

Jiseok looked at the shooting location, where lights were scattering, with an excited face.

“How did you get here?”

“Me? Mom drove me here.”

“Is she still here?”

“Yeah.”

“Looks like I should greet her. Where is she?”

“She said she was tired and went to get some sleep. I told her that I can take the bus back but she was worried about me. Geez, no one can stop her,” Jiseok smiled as he said that.

“Rather than that, you didn’t call me even once, huh.”

“What am I supposed to say to someone who declared that he’d do better than me? And also, no news is good news,” Maru shrugged as he said those words.

“You have your way with words as always. Rather than that, did you see senior Moonjoong acting?”

“I did. But I probably shouldn’t have. My confidence is hitting rock bottom right now.”

“Me too. You definitely feel that he’s on another level, don’t you?”

“He is on a different level. Now I feel how pressuring it must be to be on the same scene as him.”

Maru opened the script in his hand. He only had two lines. The direction of the movie was simple. He would approach Moonjoong, who was lying down on a bench, drunk, and steal his wallet. While he did so, Moonjoong would wake up and he would just say his two lines. That was it. Once he left the frame, the delinquent would no longer appear again in the movie.

“That’s why we must do well,” Jiseok said as he pointed at the script.

“When I had a look at it, I discovered that we were chatting to each other, what do you think we should talk about?”

“Let’s talk about how we stole a motorcycle.”

“Do you have experience stealing a motorcycle?” Jiseok widened his eyes as he asked.

Maru hit the back of Jiseok’s neck.

“If the director doesn’t have anything in mind for us, then I’ll just say that I stole a motorcycle because I was pissed while doing a delivery job. You can take care of the rest.”

“Let’s make it so that we’re going to Haeundae[1] to pick up some girls.”

“That’s good. It sounds like what an immature kid would say.”

“And it also sounds like what a delinquent would do.”

“Before we go on set, let’s make the lines. It’ll be impossible for us to make one up on the spot.”

Maru started writing the lines with the pen he stuck inside the script. The original novel mentioned nothing about the delinquent’s age, so Maru decided that they were around high school age since both he and Jiseok were in high school. The general character buildup was that of a moderately violent, restriction-hating, debauchery student.

“The delinquent probes around the elder’s body looking for a wallet. Getting the wallet in his hands, he raises it in the air and starts smirking. The smirk has a hint of childishness in it. At that moment, the elder wakes up. He looks at the delinquents around him and mistakes them for people that came to help him. He starts smiling. He feels that the world was still warm.”

Jiseok read the text out loud.

Maru had read over that bit several times in the past, yet the words felt incredibly unfamiliar to him today. An ominous thought that he might end up making a mistake flashed through his mind.

“Wow, I’m getting nervous.”

Jiseok started hopping on the spot. He looked different from usual. It seemed like even he could get nervous.

“It’s even more unnerving because it’s short. This is crazy.”

“Stop saying nervous. You’re ticking me off.”

“How else am I supposed to put it? Maru, do you have any calming pills with you? I heard that those work pretty well.”

“You’re young so you don’t need any of that. Rather than that, let’s try going through it. We should rehearse it even if it’s by ourselves.”

“Yeah, let’s do that.”

The scene was very short, but conversely, everything had to be compacted into that short moment. It was only a single scene in the movie, but it was the moment that changed the flow of the movie, so he didn’t want to hear that he did a bad job.

He might not receive any applause, but he didn’t want to drag everyone down either.

Not the best he could do, but the best possible.

“I wish we could get an okay sign on the first run,” Jiseok spoke just then.

“They say you shouldn’t dream of the impossible. Let’s think about this realistically, yeah?”

“Then how many times?”

“Let’s end it within five tries.”

“That’s pretty unrealistic as well.”

Just as they were drawing the picture inside their heads according to the script, the film set started becoming busy again. Some of the equipment was being reset. Geunsoo, who was talking to the director, came back to them and said,

“You ready, little ducklings?”

[1] Famous beach in Busan

Chapter 285

“We’ll move over to the next shooting location!”

Along with the assistant director’s shout, everyone started moving. The next shooting location was a street filled with shops and was located ten minutes away from where they were by foot. As the street was small, vehicles couldn’t get in and all equipment had to be carried by hand. Hand carts started appearing from nowhere, before they were filled with all sorts of equipment. Even shopping carts were used to carry things.

“It feels like a military march all over again,” Maru spoke at the back of the trail. It was past 11 at night. When he looked up into the sky, he could see stars everywhere unlike in Seoul. He suddenly remembered seeing the Milky Way while doing a night march during his military service.

“Camera director, over here!”

Equipment started finding their spots according to the chubby director’s instructions. The lights that had been turned off started lighting up again one by one, and brightened up the street that was absorbed in darkness. People from the PR team started going around talking to the local residents that came to have a look.

“Is someone shooting a movie here or somethin’?”

“Dunno.”

Due to all the commotion, the locals started flocking towards the filming scene. Some of the staff members started approaching them and told them not to approach the shooting set.

“We can’t take pictures, right?”

“You can’t.”

One girl, who seemed to be in middle school, put her phone inside her pocket with pity. While the staff asked the locals for their understanding, more people started appearing and started peeking into the set. The staff had more work to do now. Although the night wind was chilly, the staff members’ necks were filled with droplets of sweat.

Maru passed a bottle of water he was holding to a staff member. The staff member thanked him before going around restricting access to this place again.

“Security is one thing, but we can’t have any accidents happen,” Geunsoo spoke.

Maru nodded his head. As most of the equipment here ran on electricity, there were all sorts of cables on the ground. It was highly likely that some equipment might fall over if someone got their feet caught up, consequently collapsing on a person standing nearby. As such, there were even some staff members specifically tasked to look over the cables.

“Are the lights ready?”

“Yes they are.”

“Recorder?”

“He went to the bathroom.”

“Dammit, does this guy have a hole on his ass? Who’s the youngest member there? Go get him.”

Maru looked at the assistant director that was giving instructions. While the director was organizing his thoughts while looking at the scene, the assistant director was giving out instructions.

“Looks like the assistant director is the busiest one here.”

“Well, that’s how it is most of the time, the person right under the megaphone has it the busiest. If the director is the artist, then the assistant director is something like the person that readies the paint, brush, canvas and the like. There are times where the director handles everything, but that’s just not efficient.”

The assistant director, who was calling someone over the phone, suddenly started frowning and walked up to a man wearing a red baseball cap. He seemed very agitated.

“Doesn’t it look like they’re about to fight?”

“Maybe. Producing a movie requires the cooperation of many people, right? As there are many people, there are just as many opinions and conflicts as well. As everyone here is an expert in their own area, there are many times where they get into conflict. For example, the audio engineer and the generator engineer. The generator is quite noisy, while the audio engineer is sensitive to sound. For the audio engineer, it is excruciating to pick up the generator sound all the time.”

“That sounds like how departments within the same company aren’t necessarily on good terms.”

“That’s a good analogy. Yes, a movie is like a company. It’s one that uses a huge amount of money. The people gathered here will all do their best to earn a salary from that money. Everyone wants the company to do well, but there will always be conflicts between different departments. That’s why the director and the assistant director have important jobs. They’re the people that have to lead the whole company.”

“Conflicts between departments, huh.”

After talking with the red-capped man, the assistant director raised up his thumb. His agitated face had disappeared.

“Rehearsal is starting!” The assistant director shouted.

Geunsoo pushed Maru’s back, telling him to do well.

Maru walked towards the assistant director along with Jiseok.

‘It’s hot.’

The heat from the lighting right next to him was immense. Next to the assistant director were many people. They were people that had tired looks on their faces. They were the extras.

“Okay then, listen. We’re now going to do the shoot. As notified before, you just need to walk the streets as naturally as possible. Also, please, I beg you to not look at the camera directly and don’t be stiff. I know everyone’s tired, so I hope you can cooperate so that we can end this quickly. The five of you can start walking from that side of the street, and the couple should stand in front of the standing signboard. Let’s get moving for now.”

The assistant director started placing the extras according to the director’s instructions. The camera director had a look at the video feed and signalled an okay sign. Following that, Moonjoong appeared. It seemed that he had been taking a rest until now.

A trash can was put next to the bench in the alleyway and some trash was littered around. When a messy-looking alleyway was complete, Moonjoong laid down on the bench.

“It looks good. Senior, should we proceed?”

The director crouched in front of Moonjoong and started explaining the scene to him. Maru and Jiseok followed the assistant director until they reached half way through the alley.

“You see the director over there?”

“Yes.”

“You walk up to that spot and do your lines. Don’t mind the camera and just focus on actor Yoon as you act. The three of you without lines can just follow these two here. As long as your eyes don’t look somewhere weird, it won’t look that bad so watch out for that, okay?”

The assistant director patted the two’s shoulders before going over to the next set of extras. Maru greeted the three people he hadn’t seen before today. They talked a little as they waited, and they turned out to be students from around the area. They weren’t professional actors, but were just here because some of their elders introduced them to jobs here.

“Do you two have lines?”

“I have a couple.”

“Okay.”

The three nodded with an expression that said ‘that’s not much’. The director, who was talking to Moonjoong at the bench, slowly walked up to them.

“Listen, we’re gonna go with two cuts. You guys will walk to that side while talking about something non-productive, and start probing around the elder lying down on the bench while watching out for other people. Here, follow me and try acting.”

The director started walking backwards and signalled the two to walk towards him. Maru glanced at Jiseok. Jiseok smiled and looked back at him.

‘Well, it’s the rehearsal now.’

They started walking as they said the lines that they decided to do before. The three behind him just had to walk with their hands in their pockets without saying anything, so they didn’t really need a rehearsal. When Maru said his line, Jiseok replied with his. Jiseok’s overly arrogant attitude was put on full display.

It wasn’t a conversation that would be picked up on camera, so they were at ease when they said those lines. It was like talking to a friend. They even used some indecent words as they walked up to the bench.

There, Jiseok walked up front. He gave Maru a glance before pointing at Moonjoong. Maru signalled the three to keep watch and started to rummage through Moonjoong’s pockets.

“Good. That was good just now. Did you two make that up?”

“Yes.”

“Do the exact same thing during the actual shoot. Also, once you find the wallet, the camera will point at the elder once before pointing at you. That’s when you do your lines. Who’s delinquent 2 again?”

“I am,” Maru spoke.

“Ah, that’s right! You! Your name was… Maru! That’s right, you’re Han Maru, aren’t you? The director has high hopes for you so keep up your act from last time. Well then, get ready! Let’s finish this quickly and get some sleep!”

The assistant director was told to go back to his position.

“Phew, it starts now,” Jiseok spoke as he smiled excitedly.

Maru also shook off his hands as he smiled. With the camera in front of him, all of his nervousness suddenly disappeared. He didn’t shake at all compared to how he imagined he would do in front of the camera.

“Don’t screw up.”

“Don’t worry about me,” Jiseok said confidently.

Eventually, they heard the word ‘ready?’ from afar. ‘Roll’ followed up before ‘action’. Moonjoong, who had been wailing merely thirty minutes ago, was now a feeble man without any energy inside him. After staggering his way to the bench, drunk, he fell on top of the bench. A self-loathing laugh could be heard time to time. The camera, which was shooting Moonjoong’s whole figure, closed up on Moonjoong’s torso. It was probably closing in on his face.

“Cut! That was good.”

An okay sign fell on the first shot. The camera started approaching them. The camera director, the assistant cameraman, as well as the assistant director and some staff members stood side by side. The director was looking into the main monitor from afar.

-You guys ready?

The director’s voice could be heard from the walkie-talkie that the assistant director was holding. Maru nodded his head while Jiseok cheerfully replied with a ‘yes’.

-You can do the cue sign.

That was the end of the director’s message. The assistant director hung the walkie talkie on the strap on his shoulders. At the same time, the man with the slate stood in front of the camera.

“Ready,” the assistant director signalled.

“35-dash-2-dash-1,” the staff member spoke as he opened the slate.

Following that, the camera director spoke,

“Roll.”

With that, the cameras started rolling.

Maru felt his shoulders tensing. The black camera that did not reflect any light felt as though it was about to suck him whole. The lights on either side of the camera also got on his nerves. Even the cables on the ground made him feel stuffy.

Just when was the ‘action’ coming? He kept staring into the assistant director’s mouth.

“Action.”

The sign finally fell. At that moment, Maru felt as though all the restrictions on him were lifted. His vision suddenly became brighter, and he could see everyone’s expressions. The sound of the camera pleased his ears, and the lights from the reflector felt nice. Jiseok’s breathing sounded affectionate. The cables lining up on the ground seemed adorable.

He felt excited. His heart, no, his entire body started vibrating as though there were little dwarves hopping around inside his heart. It was a shaking that was completely different to something that stemmed from nervousness. That resonance had a beat and it was like a bell that woke up every single cell in his body.

For a brief moment, he couldn’t hear anything. In compensation for the lost sound, every scenery around him seemed much clearer to him. The colors became more vibrant and everything became much sharper, The moment the echoing ‘action’ couldn’t be heard anymore, Maru turned his eyes to Jiseok.

Jiseok started speaking with a confident expression,

“I told you I had dibs on that motorbike.”

He said his line at the perfect time. Maru wouldn’t be human if he couldn’t react to that.

“That’s my line. I found that bike for you.”

They were walking naturally. The assistant director and the camera director were pulling out, but Maru couldn’t see them. He had no recognition of the camera either. His gaze was directed at a place beyond the staff. What he was seeing now was the bench and Moonjoong that he was picturing in his mind.

They started acting with the lines they previously agreed on. Maru shoulder-bumped Jiseok and spoke foul words. He smiled subconsciously and felt excited. So this was what it felt like to act with someone that matched your rhythm.

No, they were doing too good to the point that Maru no longer thought that this was an act. The rehearsal was short, and they didn’t expect great results, yet somehow, they were like cogwheels that were completely in sync like people that had been practicing together for a long period of time.

Jiseok’s face filled his vision. His smiling eyes, his twitching nose, his lips. He was acting like a nonchalant high school boy.

He couldn’t get left behind by his partner. Maru excited himself as he walked. For a brief moment, he had nothing in his mind but Jiseok who he was talking to. Whenever he said something, Maru would naturally reply back to him. While they said the lines that they made beforehand, they arrived at the bench.

The moment he checked that the camera director had finished setting up on his left, Jiseok gave him a glance as though he was waiting for that moment.

“I think he’s wasted.”

They had gone through this part several times. With an evil smirk, Maru gestured at the three people behind him. The three started keeping watch.

Jiseok started probing around Moonjoong’s clothing.

“Hey gramps, you’ll croak if you sleep in a place like this.”

Jiseok grinned as he stood back up. He said that line with a wallet in his hands. Maru also made an expression as though he had found something good. He was really happy. He even thought about what to do with the money inside.

“Cut! Okay!”

He flinched when he heard the cut signal. Ah, it was over for now. The assistant director waved at him to walk away. Maru and Jiseok walked away from the bench.

“We’ll continue just like this.”

Chapter 286

Moonjoong’s act began soon after. The camera shot Moonjoong from above. It seemed that the camera was shooting in the perspective of the delinquent. Maru watched Moonjoong’s act from up close. Up close, Moonjoong’s act was something that he could not describe with words.

The encouraging words they exchanged just now seemed insignificant in front of this scene. Maru turned around to look at Jiseok. He had a bitter smile on his face as though he was thinking the same thing. Although they weren’t saying anything in fear of being picked up by the microphone, Maru wanted to sigh if he could make a sound. He thought that he could do better. However, the okay sign fell, so he, who was just a minor role, could not ask to reshoot that scene.

“Do well. I’ll nag you if you don’t. You took the role I wanted to do, so you have to do well.”

Jiseok smiled and patted Maru’s shoulders. He didn’t have to say it for Maru to know that. He had prepared everything for this scene. He participated in the movie precisely to do these two lines. If he could not show the best, he might go crazy from the frustration.

At that moment, Moonjoong, who was lying on the bench, stood up and came to him. He had deep eyes as he spoke,

“I’ll receive anything you throw at me so go ahead and show me all you got. Make me make a mistake because of you; hurl all your emotions at me. Doing things moderately is something I hate. Do you understand, Maru?”

“Yes, elder.”

Moonjoong sat back down on the bench with a soft smile. Maru received encouragement. He was also told not to hold back. All that was left now was for him to throw everything he got.

He had to ram his underhanded, evil, yet pure emotions that feel that his life is still okay compared to the old man’s into a single line.

Maru closed his eyes to adjust his breathing. He breathed out very slowly in order to slow down his heart rate. He felt relaxed somewhat. Now that he had become calm, it had become much easier to make a cold smile.

What was left now was for him to forget himself. He had to immerse himself in his role. He had to become a rotten delinquent. He had to say his line with a lot of malicious intent so it won’t just make the people here frown, but the audience in front of the screen frown as well.

‘Do I say the words slowly? No, I think I should do it a little fast.’

Maru edited the line he had been practicing for all this time on the spot. He put himself down. His ultimate objective was to make the character have a personality to himself, but right now, he had to focus on representing the character perfectly. He could be greedy, but too much greed was no good. Maru was aware of what he could and what he could not do. He had to reach that line just slightly. He couldn’t cross the line and overdo it, nor could he be so lacking that it would make him look weak.

He had to stand on that border. As for the character’s personality, that came later.

The assistant director signalled for him to get ready.

Maru stroked his face before standing upright. Jiseok stood next to him while the three others had their back to him. He looked at Moonjoong lying down on the bench. The elder had gotten into his acting mode again and his eyes were shaking. Sympathy welled up inside him subconsciously as he looked at an old man at the end of his rope, but Maru killed that emotion immediately. What he needed right now was not sympathy but self-satisfaction from trampling on such a feeble man.

After Moonjoong’s cut ended, the camera was set again. This time, the camera took a lower angle. This time, the camera was looking up at the delinquent from the elder’s view. This was the last cut of this scene. Once he turned around after saying his line, his contribution in this movie would end there.

Retarded old man. What was he doing here at his age? He’s drunk and wasted at a time like this? What a waste of a life. What a meaningless life. If you’re gonna die anyway, then donate your wallet to us at least. Wouldn’t it be better to give your money to a promising youth? You moldy old man.

He inwardly said those words in his mind. His lips twitched subconsciously. Although the camera wasn’t rolling yet, it didn’t matter.

What a complacent old man. What a tragic old man. What a disgusting old man.

Heh, a loathing laugh escaped his mouth. He could feel the director looking at him, but he didn’t mind it that much. He knew that all the emotions he built up would collapse the moment something else got on his nerves. Right now, it was the moment to immerse himself.

“…Good, let’s just go like this. Don’t make a loud noise with the slate. Don’t interrupt him. Just like that, yes. That’s it. That expression, that twisted mouth, just like that.”

He could hear the director’s words in his ears, but he did not listen to any of them. It just went in one ear, and out the other. He forgot about everything except the word he was waiting for.

He felt a series of words ready to roll out of his mouth. Not yet, he couldn’t say it now. He had to say it after that word.

“Action.”

That word was small.

Maru abruptly raised his head and looked at the camera with an arrogant gaze. No, to be exact, he looked at Moonjoong, who was behind the camera with his arms crossed. That was the place. That was the place he had to round up every last bit of his emotions and spit it out to. Moonjoong nodded his head slightly. To Maru, that seemed like the director’s cue sign. Just like an arrow leaving the bowstring, Maru uttered the line he had repeated in his head hundreds of times on top of his loathing smile.

The thick lump of words passed through his throat. The words were then sharpened by his insinuating tongue, passed through his teeth, brushed past his dull lips as it was uttered out loud.

The words of a delinquent that was immature, violent, and one that seeked an unreachable ideal.

The quality of words uttered once is different to the quality of words uttered a hundred times - this line came up in his subconscious. If so, then was he satisfied with the words he just uttered now?

The words he uttered came back to his ears. He inwardly savored the words that entered through his eardrums. He wasn’t satisfied easily, but the lines he just uttered were at an acceptable level. He would be able to look at the video footage and not be embarrassed about it.

He looked at the camera lens and closed his mouth. He did his line. He did not make any mistakes. At that moment, he became absent-minded as though the factory that was his brain had stopped functioning. He was vaguely aware that he had to turn around and leave, but he had forgotten about it because he was focused on the words too much. The words he uttered just now were the best he could do. Anymore was impossible, and if this scene ended up being no good, it would be extremely difficult to put himself back into the state he was in before. Just as he thought that it was about to fail,

“It won’t be funny if you tell the cops on us, understand?”

Jiseok waved the wallet and pulled on Maru’s arm. Thanks to him, Maru was able to turn around naturally. When he took his feet off the ground, he saw what he had to do. Turning around, Maru slowly walked away from the camera.

At the same time, he heard the director shouting ‘cut!’

“That was a nice help from me, wasn’t it?” Jiseok said with a smile.

“…Yeah, thanks,” Maru said with a sigh.

If Jiseok didn’t grab his arm, he would have stood there like some dumb idiot. He was feeling thankful to Jiseok who had noticed that and acted in accordance.

Strength left his body. He collapsed on the spot and turned around. He saw Moonjoong nod at him with a thick smile.

“Well done. I couldn’t have done it as well as you.”

Jiseok gripped Maru’s shoulders. Maru smiled and stood back up again.

That ended his first, and his last scene in this movie.

* * *

Joonggeun rewinded the camera. The camera was supposed to be doing a knee shot, but it was doing a shoulder shot instead. The camera director, who took the shot, sucked his cigarette.

“I thought this would look better.”

Hearing those words, Joonggeun stroked his chin.

He had told the camera director to fix the camera on the knee. That was because it was more suitable for Moonjoong to be looking at the overall scene, not just at one single delinquent. However, the camera director had ignored his instructions and zoomed in on Maru’s torso.

Usually, this would mean a retake. It was natural for his motivation to not use that cut in the actual film since it wasn’t in his plans, but… the new picture was so good that he couldn’t just throw it away.

“He’s a good one. Just look at his eyes. He’s looking beyond the camera. He has depth in his eyes. Are you sure he’s a rookie?”

Joonggeun nodded his head when he heard the camera director’s words. It was a good shot. He didn’t have the confidence to take a better shot than this. Even if he asked the young actor to do this again, he wouldn’t be able to make those same eyes again. It was the perfect moment. Despite the camera director having disobeyed orders, the impression left behind by that young actor was very deep.

“It would’ve been better if it was a tilt shot instead.”

“You know that it’s nearly impossible to retake the shot. This fella, he’ll never be able to make the same expression again even if we told him to.”

“That’s why I find it a pity. Give me a drag.”

Joonggeun stole the cigarette that the camera director was smoking and sucked in a deep one.

“Should I have a look as well?” Moonjoong suddenly approached and spoke.

Joonggeun told him to go ahead as he pointed at the monitor. Moonjoong watched the video feed with serious eyes.

“I think we should go with this.”

“We’re thinking the same thing. Rather than that, you taught that kid, didn’t you, senior?”

“Nah, I did nothing. I just brought him around with me a couple times.”

“That’s considered teaching. That fella, he’ll definitely become big if he meets the right work.”

“So, you want him?”

“As a minor role, yes. He’s still too young. He does feel like an adult, but due to his childish looks, there’s a limited range of roles he can take. He has no choice but to wait for the right opportunity if he wants to shine in the movie industry.”

“High school kids are plenty grown up though.”

“Well, I guess that’s true since kids grow up really fast these days.”

Joonggeun tossed the cigarette he was smoking on the ground and put it out with his shoes. The camera director told him that that was his last one, but Joonggeun simply ignored him.

“Well then! Thanks everyone for working late into the night! Let’s pack up and get some sleep!”

Joonggeun said in a loud voice. It was past midnight already.

“Clean up so that there isn't any trash left behind. After that we’ll go to the lodging!”

The assistant director’s words echoed around.

Joonggeun stretched his arms out, feeling refreshed. Nothing felt better than getting cuts that were beyond what he expected. He thought that he should have some soju when he got back.

“Director, you can’t drink tonight.”

The assistant director approached him and spoke with scary eyes. Joonggeun clicked his tongue and pouted.

“Yeah yeah, I get it.”

* * *

He didn’t do anything much, but he felt exhausted. The nearby elementary school was their lodging for the night. The elementary school had closed down and it was used as a gallery. As the only place they could wash was the toilet, it was impossible to take a shower.

“Here, take some wet wipes.”

Maru and Jiseok received wet wipes from Geunsoo. Maru wiped around his neck thinking that it felt similar to the military[1].

“Well done, both of you. The director was all smiles.”

“That’s good. I was worried about it.”

Maru spoke as he laid out the blankets. He could hear bug noises outside.

“You must be tired, go get some sleep. Thanks for all your work today.”

“You did the work, senior.”

“You should get some sleep as well, hyung-nim.”

Maru lay down next to Jiseok. He could smell wax from the wooden floor. It felt nostalgic to him. The lights turned off and the classroom, which was devoid of any light, turned dark in an instant. Just as they were gazing at the stars outside,

“You sleeping?” Jiseok asked.

“I am.”

“Then answer me while you sleep.”

“I said I’m sleeping.”

Maru scratched his head and sat up. He felt tired, but for some reason, he didn’t feel sleepy. Even though he felt like he had exhausted both his body and his mind, he just couldn’t fall asleep for some reason.

“How was today’s shoot? Were you satisfied?” Saying that, Jiseok also sat up.

“For now, I don’t have any regrets. It might not have been perfect, but I think I did a decent job.”

“What the, I wanted to console you, but I guess my consolation skills won’t come in handy.”

“You told me I did good, what were you going to console me about?”

“Then console me. I feel frustrated.”

Maru looked at the side of Jiseok’s face. He was smiling, but he looked bitter for some reason.

“You did good. You made me feel fortunate for not getting your role.”

Jiseok swung his pillow. Being hit on the head, Maru just shrugged.

“If you’re so frustrated, then you should’ve done better.”

“Urgh, you’re so cocky.”

Maru grabbed Jiseok’s shoulders and forced him to lie down. Then, he lied down as well. Jiseok, who was smiling, closed his mouth. Soon, Maru heard a regular, calm breathing. Maru faintly smiled as he looked at Jiseok who fell asleep easily. This guy was really unpredictable.

“Thanks.”

Maru closed his eyes.

The cries of the insects could still be heard. Jiseok’s laugh could be heard amidst the noise as well, but Maru smiled and pretended not to have heard it.

[1] During field training exercises in militaries, there isn’t a facility that allows you to get washed at the end of the day, so soldiers wipe their bodies with wet wipes they pack beforehand. I know this because I have first hand experience…

Chapter 287

The cold winds blew. Maru opened his eyes when the cold winds brushed past his face. He could see the dawn sky just before sunrise out the window.

‘It looks like I’m not going back to sleep.’

His cold body refused to go to sleep. He stood up and crossed his arms. As this village was near a mountain, the air was really cold. Perhaps the cold also had something to do with the nearby sea.

He looked next to him and saw that Jiseok was snoring as he slept. He had kicked away his blanket, and it was beneath his feet. Maru covered Jiseok back up with the blanket before getting up.

He quietly opened the classroom door and came out to the corridor before taking out his phone. He didn’t have the time to check his phone last night.

“Whew.”

His mother, whose philosophy in raising children was to let them be, had messaged him three times. It seemed that she was worried about her son, who was going far away for the shoot. Maru had a look at the clock on his phone. It was 5:54 in the morning. It was still too early to make a call, so he sent a text message instead. Before, he was a cute son that used emojis in his texts, but after he got older he could never get himself to do that.

[Don’t worry about me. I’m doing well.]

Before he sent the message, Maru sighed before adding a smiling emoji. He could use endless amounts of sweet words when sending messages to his girlfriend, but it was hard to do so with his parents. He really thought that he was a bad son.

He had also received a text from Daemyung as well. He thanked him before going out to the school field. The air around him was still chilly, but it wasn’t an unpleasant chill. He breathed in a batch of fresh air. Any sleepiness remaining inside him disappeared and his mind cleared up a little.

“You’re up early.”

He heard a hoarse voice from behind. When he turned around, he saw a man wearing a red baseball cap, tying his shoes. He was the man that got into a quarrel with the assistant director yesterday.

“The cold woke me up.”

“This place is a little chilly.”

After the man tied his trainers, he stood up. He was around 160cm tall. In front of the man wearing a baggy t-shirt and a messenger bag was a large microphone. From how the microphone cable was leading into his messenger bag, it seemed that the electronics were inside.

“They say the morning is early since this is a countryside village. Do you know why?”

“Because they’re hardworking people… that’s not the reason is it?”

“It might be, but normally, it isn’t. In this village, the market opens at seven in the morning, and people start shopping at that time. The reason is simple. It’s because all the residents of this village are old. There aren’t many young people around. They all escaped to the cities. In this village, where only the elderly are left behind, the clock starts early.”

The man sniffed before raising his head. Maru saw the man raising the mic up in the air.

“Shh,” said the man as he put his index finger against his mouth. Maru became quiet and watched the man. The man narrowed his eyes and looked around before putting the mic down and starting to walk towards a tree in one part of the school grounds.

Maru followed the man.

“Do you hear it?”

The man asked as he looked at the tree. Maru faintly nodded his head. There was a high-pitched chirp that seemed to be from a small-sized bird. The man raised the mic up. He smiled and swayed his head as though he was listening to music.

“Yeah, that’s the sound I’m talking about,” the man spoke as he put down the mic. Then, he put on the thick pair of headphones hanging on his messenger bag. After not talking for a while, the man took off his headphones and spoke.

“Do you want to have a listen as well?”

Maru received the headset. The moment the soft cushion sponge covered his ears, a faint white noise could be heard. Just as he wondered what it was and concentrated on that sound, he heard some insect noises. The faint cries of the insects with the touch of morning dew could be heard. If he was asked how he knew about the morning dew, then he would only be able to say that the sound sounded damp.

Maru looked at the man in front of him. He smiled back at him as though to gesture to him that he should continue. Then, he proceeded to control the device inside his bag. He then heard the bird sound that was recorded just now. There was also the faint sound of the wind as well as the sound of small grains of sand and stone being crushed. It was the sound of the school. It was the sound that made Maru imagine this school without even looking at it.

Maru took off the headphones. The remnants of the sound still tickled his ears.

“You were good at acting yesterday. What academy?”

Maru replied that he wasn’t attending one as he passed back the headset.

“Really? That’s strange. How long has it been since you started?”

“It’s been about half a year since I really started.”

“Half a year? Whew, there’s a reason why director Choi took a single cut. How is it? Is acting fun?”

“Yes, it is.”

“That’s good. There’s nothing more horrific than doing something you don’t like.”

The man lifted his baseball cap a little before putting it back on again with a smile.

“Are you the audio engineer?”

“Me? I’m the recording engineer for now. I’m the one that does the mixing once the post-production starts.”

“Then what are you doing so early in the morning?”

“Because this village starts its morning early. I have to wake up early to get the ambience.”

The man, who seemed a little over forty, took out a chocolate bar from his pocket and started eating it.

“Want some?”

“I’ll gladly take it if you give me one.”

“You don’t know restraint.”

A chocolate bar was flung at him.

“But what is ambience?”

“What is ambience, you ask?”

Hearing that question, the man told Maru to close his eyes. Maru closed his eyes as he said. Then he stood there doing nothing for one minute.

“What do you hear?”

“The wind, a faint car horn, and some bird chirping.”

“That’s the sound you can only hear at this place, right?”

“Yes.”

“That’s ambience. It’s the sound of nature, and sometimes, it’s noise from various places. It’s the base of the movie as well.”

“Then are you going to the alley we shot last night?”

“Yeah. We don’t just have a night scene, and there’s a morning scene as well. I have to get the sounds now so it would make my life easier during post-production. It will also make working on the foley a lot easier as well.”

“What’s…”

“It’s the sound effects. Artificial sounds, you can understand it that way. But hey, are you interested in this kind of stuff? Most of the time, kids just reply yes before walking away.”

“One of my friends wishes to work in production. So I’m wondering if it might be of help to him,” said Maru as he thought of Daemyung.

“A friend huh. Hey, I’m taking a liking to you. Do you want to follow me and watch how I work?”

“Can I?”

“Sure, why not. But take some of my luggage, deal?”

The man pointed at a black box at the entrance of the school. For a moment, Maru thought that the man talked to him just for this moment. Maru smiled and carried the black box. Nothing was free in this world.

Just as he stood next to the man with the box in hand, the man put a business card on top of the box.

“If that friend of yours ever becomes successful, give this to him and tell him that there’s an amazing sound designer that’s expensive. I’m not cheap, but I do a good job. That’s what I’m known for around here.”

The name on the business card read ‘Moon Gyungtaek’, and above that was ‘Studio M’.

“My name is Han Maru. Sadly, I don’t have a business card.”

“Is that so? Then gimme one once you make a cool looking business card.”

Gyungtaek left the school gates with a thick grin. Just as they were heading to the village, Gyungtaek told Maru to open the box and take out the stand. When Maru opened the box, he found a microphone stand that looked just like a camera tripod. After Gyungtaek installed it and the mic as well, he signalled Maru to wait. Soon, a tractor started coming on the road that wasn’t paved yet.

“You know? Tractors don’t make this kind of sound on top of asphalt. I need to get sound sources like this early on or otherwise, it would cause me a world of trouble.”

After the tractor passed by, Maru put away the equipment again.

“You’re quite quick to action.”

“I’m the one learning here, so that’s natural.”

“Whew, you really are a likable guy. If we finish getting the sounds, I’ll treat you to breakfast.”

They hurried towards the market of the village. It was the place they filmed last night. The market at night was very different to the market of the day.

“There’s quite a lot of people.”

“Today’s the day of the market that comes every five days.”

So this was why they hurried. The busy sounds of the morning could be heard everywhere. Although this was a small village, it was filled with vitality, perhaps thanks to the presence of the market that was held once every five days. Gyungtaek raised the mic above his head and walked into the crowd. Then he started recording. Seeing Gyungtaek focusing with his headset on, Maru thought that he was a real pro. Maru also perked up his ears and focused on the sound. He heard a sound that was different to the markets he had heard, where people would be bustling around. He heard a sound that was unique to this market alone. When a trailer full of scrap cardboard passed by, Gyungtaek crouched and recorded the sound that it made as it rolled across the asphalt floor. He followed the elderly that was dragging the trailer quietly so that it wouldn’t disturb him. After walking for around a minute, he returned with a satisfied smile on his face.

“That’s a good start. If I can’t get a decent sound during the film, I can just use this to overwrite the sound. Good, good. Everything’s going well.”

He had a joyous smile on his face. It was a smile that wouldn’t be there unless he really liked doing his job. Maru also followed him with a smile.

“This time, we’re going to that gukbap restaurant. Did you know that every cauldron makes a different sound when their contents boil?”

Gyungtaek seemed very excited. Maru ran after him since he moved so fast.

* * *

“Where have you been?” Jiseok came up to him and asked with a puppy face. Perhaps some dog chew will shut him up? Maru just replied that he took a walk before taking a seat. He walked around the village with Gyungtaek for two hours.

“Are you going to go home now?” Geunsoo asked.

It seemed that he took a wash as there was a towel around his neck.

“Yes. I’m going to get the first bus home.”

“How long does it take by bus?”

“The bus departs at 9:40 and it’ll arrive in Suwon by 5, so it’ll take around 7 hours[1].”

“That sounds freaky.”

Geunsoo told him to be careful on his way home as he left the classroom.

“Are you going home now?”

“Yeah I am. Even if I start going now, I’ll arrive in the evening. How about you?”

“Mom’s coming to pick me up in the evening.”

“It must be tiring for her since she’ll be driving for a long time.”

“Yeah, you tell her. I told her I can go home by myself, but phew.”

“That’s because she’s worried about you. Then see you later. I’ll be off first.”

“Be careful on your way home. And call me from time to time.”

Maru replied that he would never do such a thing as he waved his hand. Having left the classroom, he climbed up the stairs to the 2nd floor. The elder was staying in a classroom on the 2nd floor. He carefully opened the door and peeked inside. He saw the director, who was sleeping with his t-shirt all rolled up. There were bottles of soju all around, and it seemed that they had been drinking late into the night. Even the assistant director, who told the director not to drink, was sleeping next to him.

“Uhm, elder.”

He approached Moonjoong, who was reading his script as he leaned against the wall.

“Oh, yes. Maru.”

“I’ll be taking my leave.”

“You’re going already?”

“My work here is done, so I should get going.”

“I guess that’s true.”

Moonjoong faintly laughed.

“How was your first shoot?”

“It was exciting, worrying, and I gained a little confidence as well. I feel fortunate that I didn’t leave behind any regrets.”

“Yes, that’s enough then. You’re doing plenty well right now, so you can just take slow steps without hurrying. Watch out not to take a step in the wrong direction.”

“Yes, I’ll bear that in mind.”

“How about breakfast?”

“I had mine already. Have you?”

“It’s about time I eat. Tsk, I was planning to eat with you, but I guess that’s not happening.”

“I’ll go see you once the shoot is over.”

“Then let’s do that. Let’s have a gathering with a few people like last time and have some barbecue.”

“Yes.”

Moonjoong patted Maru’s shoulders saying that he did a good job. Maru bid farewell for one last time before leaving the classroom. Since he said goodbyes to everyone he needed, he just had to leave now.

He put his backpack on and left the school building. Looking at the empty school field, he felt like the shoot last night was a lie. Maru smiled faintly as he started walking. He had taken the first step.

Just as he left the school gates, he saw a black van climbing up the hill. As the roads were narrow, the van wasn’t able to come up all the way, and people left the van after it stopped. The man who left the van seemed like a model. Perhaps he was an actor as well from how he was walking towards the shooting location.

Maru stared at the man that walked past him. The man also looked at Maru. For a moment, Maru felt that the man was familiar, but he couldn’t quite pinpoint him exactly.

“Sungjae, I’ll be right there after I park the van.”

Someone peeked out from the driver’s seat and shouted. Sungjae. It turned out this man was the idol that Bada liked. The idol, who met eyes with him, made a refreshing smile at him and greeted him. Maru greeted back as well.

“Is this the shooting location?”

“Yes. Everyone’s gathered around the back.”

“Looks like I’m in the right place. The GPS navigation wasn’t working properly. Do you live around here?”

“No, I have a minor role in the movie, but I’m going home now since my part is over.”

“Really? That’s nice. I’m participating in the movie as well.”

The idol started climbing the hill after saying ‘be careful on your way home’. Maru stared at his back before speaking to him.

“Uhm, excuse me, but if it’s not too much to ask, can I ask for an autograph?”

“An autograph? Ahaha, yeah, sure.”

Maru took out a notebook and a pen from his bag. The idol received the notebook with a smile.

“What’s your name?”

“Bada.”

“Bada? That’s a pretty name.”

“It’s my sister’s.”

“Aha, your younger sister?”

“Yes.”

“Wait a moment.”

Sungjae signed the autograph and even drew a little character next to it. Maru felt good since the autograph looked like it was made with a lot of effort. It could be seen from the autograph as well.

“Thank you.”

“Tell your sister I said thanks for liking TTO.”

“Okay, then I wish you luck in the movie.”

“Thanks.”

The idol then turned around and started climbing the hill again.

Maru thought that he was a decent person. He didn’t have the arrogance of people that became stars at an early age. Maru thought that he might be biased about such people. They had to be hard-working to be so successful at that age, after all.

“That was a nice bonus.”

Maru put the autograph inside his bag while imagining his sister jumping around in joy. Since she was depressed that the signature was stained, she might become happy again with this.

‘Phew, rather than that, seven hours, huh.’

Maru sighed as he thought about the hours to come.

[1] It doesn’t take that long nowadays, since more highways have been built since the early 2000s.

Chapter 288

The school was painted beige. Sungjae looked around the school before going inside the building. He planned to wait for the manager, but he couldn’t just awkwardly keep standing in the school field. He entered the door and saw that people were walking in the corridors.

“Oh? Mr. Sungjae?”

A woman with short hair approached him. Sungjae knew her and quickly greeted her with a smile.

“Hello there.”

“You’re shooting in the afternoon. You’re quite early.”

“I didn’t have any schedule for the day, so I came early. I wanted to have a look at the set too.”

“Really?”

Wait a moment - she added before looking around. She was the woman Sungjae met when he met the casting director. She was one of the people that cooperated with the managers of the actors to manage their schedules.

“Would you like to come this way?”

He followed the lady into an empty classroom. He took a seat and waited for a while until the manager and the woman came back.

“You should’ve waited for me.”

“Sorry about that. I was in the school field, but people were staring at me, so I couldn’t just stand there.”

He smiled back at manager Dongwoon before looking at the woman.

“Please take this for now. It must have been tiring coming all the way here.”

The woman offered Sungjae and Dongwoon a canned drink each. They talked over the drink. They were looking forward to Sungjae’s acting performance, many people here are fans, you look much more handsome in person, and stuff like that. Just then, someone entered the classroom. He was a middle-aged man with a chubby belly, and Sungjae knew that that man was the director.

“Hello, director.”

“Aah, that’s right. Mr. Ahn Sungjae?”

“Yes. I’m Ahn Sungjae, a new actor.”

“Alright, alright. Your shoot was today?”

“Yes, it is, sir.”

“Then see you in the afternoon. I’ll be looking forward to it. But hey, you really do look good. You must be popular with the ladies.”

The director left after a handshake. Sungjae smiled at him, but was bitter inside. In contrast to the fact that the director came all the way here to see him and told him that he was looking forward to his actions, the director’s eyes looked uninterested. Sungjae knew that the president of his company invested a lot of money into this movie. Would he be able to greet the director like this without his title as TTO? Probably not. Normally, minor roles weren’t even remembered by name by directors, much less greeted.

“We’ll start shooting at 7. Until then, you’re free to move around. The actors are on the 2nd floor. If you find anything uncomfortable, then please call me. Well then, please excuse me.”

The woman stood up. Sungjae thanked her for guiding them before sitting back down again.

“Wow, it looks like they have high hopes for you, Sungjae. The director came here to see you in person.”

“No, I don’t think that’s right, hyung.”

“Really?”

He didn’t come here because he had high hopes for me, but to thank me for the investment - he inwardly swallowed those words. The manager, Dongwoon, was a good man, but he was bad at noticing other people’s emotions. The other members of TTO agreed with Sungjae that he was a little frustrating to talk to.

“You must be tired, hyung. There’s a blanket here so get some sleep.”

“I’m fine. I’ll be back to normal once I drink some coffee.”

Despite saying that, though, he looked extremely tired. Sungjae laid out the blanket on the floor and forced Dongwoon down.

“No one would need sleep if coffee was all you needed after driving throughout the night. Get some sleep for now. I’ll wake you up if I need you.”

Dongwoon, who was saying that he was alright, fell asleep in less than a minute. Sungjae watched over him for a while before leaving the classroom. Although he had finally arrived at a movie film set, he wasn’t feeling as happy as he thought he would be.

‘I knew this was gonna happen, didn’t I?’

There were three types of reactions from people that looked at him. One, those that didn’t recognize him at all and just walked past; two, those who greeted him nicely after recognizing him; and three, those that gave him a strange glare even after recognizing who he was. The overwhelming majority belonged to the third group of people. The glares from the people were sharp enough for him to feel pricked. They smiled at him up front, but there were people who clicked their tongues as soon as they turned away. Hearing people say tsk, Sungjae had the urge to go pick a fight with them, but the only thing he could do was smile back at them.

He couldn’t just start shouting at them that they shouldn’t be so differentiating against him, and to not look at him with such eyes. He had no qualifications to. Although idols were becoming widespread in the drama industry, the evaluation was not good at all. With that being the case, Sungjae thought that telling them to respect him was being complacent and underhanded without proving himself first.

He wanted to be acknowledged by the people here for his skills, not as a popular idol. He wanted to break the bias that idols had horrible acting skills, and wanted to tell them that there are aspiring actors who became idols out of necessity.

‘Right now, the only thing they value about me is my face, but I’ll show them that that’s not the limit of my skills.’

After taking a deep breath, Sungjae clenched his fist once. This was like a ritual for him. He shook off his nervousness and made a comfortable smile. He couldn’t keep waiting forever. The first movers were the ones to create their image by themselves.

He immediately went up to the 2nd floor. He greeted everyone that he passed by. One of the iron rules he had in the television media was to greet anyone and everyone that he passed by. There was no need to be embarrassed about greeting his juniors as well. In fact, it would be a funny episode in itself, and he could give a good impression towards his juniors as well. That’s why too much greeting was never a bad thing.

He greeted back and accepted all requests for autographs as he climbed up to the 2nd floor. Unlike the busy 1st floor, the 2nd floor was definitely quiet. He could hear a voice from one of the classrooms. There was an agitated voice and a calm voice. Sungjae realized that the actors were doing a read-through in an instant.

He carefully opened the door to the classroom in which the read-through was happening. Inside were the actors that he saw during the get-together.

“Oh, you are…”

An elderly actor with a lot of white hair frowned as he spoke. Sungjae greeted the actors politely.

“I’m Ahn Sungjae, a new actor. I’m here to greet everyone.”

When he greeted, the classroom fell quiet. Sungjae made a smile, albeit barely. The air here was heavy.

Someone made a discontent coughing noise. Sungjae tensed his lips as he tried to control his facial expression. They were much more direct compared to the staff members. He thought that he wouldn’t become nervous since he had experienced such things already, but he was clearly wrong. He was shaking as though he was at the audition. He was afraid that the actors would look at him with hostility and looked down at the floor.

Sungjae shot three drama series. He started off as a nameless extra and eventually ended up taking the role of a side character with quite a lot of appearances. In dramas, numerous idols were being cast and their evaluation wasn't that bad either. To be exact, it wasn’t good, but no one expressed it so openly. A symbiotic relationship had clearly formed. Ever since the viewing rates of dramas with idols in it rose by around 5%, the producers cast idols like it was the norm. In morning dramas loved by many housewives, they created meaningless roles for idols just so that they could cast idols.

‘It’s different here.’

Dramas and movies. They were the same in regards to the fact that a piece of work was being created through the acting of actors, but there was something akin to an invisible wall between the two. Top class actors did not do dramas - that was one of the popular sayings in this industry. It represented the pride of movie actors.

This felt different from the disdain he received in dramas. He was too complacent. The movie industry was like a sanctuary untainted by idols. An idol had appeared in such a place, so what would the actors think?

Moreover, this movie was receiving a lot of attention and support, but it was closer to an independent movie that did not belong to the mainstream media. It was funny how this movie, with its immense investment, was comparable to an independent movie, but it was indeed somewhat hard to package this movie as a commercial movie since it portrayed only the dark sides of society.

Yet, there was an idol here wanting a piece of the pie, so it was not surprising that they didn’t like it. Sungjae felt his face become hot. He had long since forgotten about his fantasies about the public after being disappointed in them, but he did not lose his respect for the actors in the industry.

The people sitting here were those that pursued acting alone without taking the easy route out. He had resolved himself that he would accept whatever criticisms they had of him.

“Are you coming here from Seoul?”

Although the voice sounded old and hoarse, it had power. Moonjoong, who he had greeted alongside with the president of his company, had a kind smile on his face.

“Y-yes.”

“You must be tired. Hm, should we rest a bit as well?”

Moonjoong slowly stood and spoke. The other actors all nodded.

“You were Sungjae, yes?”

“Yes. I’m Ahn Sungjae.”

“How are you? Let’s take a walk outside.”

Moonjoong crossed his hands behind his back and left the classroom with slow steps. Sungjae bowed towards the remaining actors in the classroom before following Moonjoong out. When the two came down to the first floor, many of the staff members greeted Moonjoong. What was surprising was that Moonjoong called each of them by name.

Wasn’t it cold last night? Have you had your meal? What happened to your son’s fever?

He remembered each detail of those people and Sungjae felt touched. The ideal actor was right in front of him.

Sungjae followed Moonjoong out to the field with a cup of coffee that the staff gave him.

“This was originally an elementary school for the residents, but it’s closed now since there aren’t any children anymore.”

Sungjae nodded as he followed Moonjoong. The scenery of the field, the mountain behind the school, as well as the quiet village. Moonjoong talked about those things with a quiet voice. Sungjae did not know why he was saying such a thing, but he soon started listening without caring about the reason.

After following him for a while, Sungjae raised his head. In front of him was a large tree. Moonjoong sat down under the shade.

“Take a seat.”

“Yes.”

He sat next to Moonjoong feeling nervous. The wind blew. The empty field gave him a feeling of loneliness, but Sungjae didn’t have the luxury to feel that way. There was a superstar right next to him, so he did not dare turn his eyes away.

“Don’t you feel tired smiling like that all the time?”

“Wh-what?”

“I mean this,” Moonjoong pointed at his own lips as he spoke. Sungjae only then thought of the shallow smile on his face. A smile was engraved into his face just like how his hands became riddled with calluses. The smile that he subconsciously put on his face was practically a mask now. He didn’t have to consciously smile for there to be a smile on his face. That was what being an idol was about.

“You know, actors don’t smile falsely. If they smile, they are really happy, and if they cry, they are really sad. So don’t smile anymore if you don’t feel happy. It’s pitiful to look at it.”

Those words hit Sungjae hard. His lips twitched. It was awkward and difficult to remove the smile from his face forcefully. He made an awkward ‘expressionless’ face. He didn’t even remember the last time he made such an expression.

“Now you look more like a person. I was really uncomfortable with your expression from the first time we met. You’re supposed to act realistically, yet lies are written all over your face.”

“…I’m sorry.”

“Is it hard?”

“Being an idol, or whatever it was. Is it hard being one?”

“No, it’s not hard at all.”

“Be honest with me. You know? I find it really hard being an actor. Sometimes I want to run away because it’s so hard. I felt that yesterday as well. I had to break a sweat. I’m not some crazy person, but I had to cry, then smile, then become angry. I can’t say that I don’t find that hard.”

Moonjoong’s eyes were calm. Sungjae could not lie when he saw those eyes.

“I… became used to it. The hard things, the painful things, all of it. It is hard, but I’m okay since I’m loved just as much.”

“There you go again.”

“Eh?”

He looked back at Moonjoong absent-mindedly.

“I mean this. It’s appearing out of habit again,” Moonjoong once again pointed at his lips. Sungjae subconsciously put his hand against his lips. There was indeed a smile on his face. He felt like he had sinned. Even though he thought that he was honest, it had already passed through a filter without him knowing it. Perhaps watching his words became a force of habit. Sungjae lowered his head. He felt apologetic.

At that moment, a rough hand touched the back of his neck.

“Why don’t you take a hike with me?”

Chapter 289

The mountain was actually much tougher than Sungjae expected. Sungjae’s estimations on its difficulty based on its looks, was off by a large amount. The roads were rough without any signs of human passage. If he was wearing shoes instead of trainers, he would have gotten tired easily.

“This is what’s good about going to a mountain.”

Seeing Moonjoong climb the mountain without a hitch, Sungjae was flabbergasted. An elderly man nearing his seventies was much more energetic than him. Just like a professional mountain climber that had conquered numerous mountains, Moonjoong walked up the mountain in steady steps. Sungjae clenched his teeth as he tried to follow. He didn’t want to get left behind. Although he was panting heavily, he forced himself forward. This was a different kind of tiring than when running on a treadmill machine. He felt like he was lifting himself up the mountain with each step.

“I fell in love with this place when I came here to check out the place last time.”

“I-is that so?”

“Is it hard?”

“N-no.”

Sungjae wiped off his forehead with the back of his hand.

“Endure just a little more, we’re almost there.”

This place is quite slippery - added Moonjoong as he pointed at a tree root. Sungjae took off the cheque-patterned shirt. When his sweat was exposed to the wind, he felt a little better.

At some point, he stopped questioning why he had to climb this mountain. He just climbed without thinking. He was watching Moonjoong’s back as he did so. That continued for ten minutes when, surprisingly, his breath calmed down and he started looking around at the scenery. Purple-colored flowers filled his vision. Sungjae wondered when he arrived at such a place. He looked back. The mountain flowers had blossomed at the bottom as well. Even though there were flowers all the way since the start, he kept climbing without even noticing them.

“We’re here.”

Hearing that voice, Sungjae turned back around. Moonjoong was waving at him for him to come from the top. He heaved out a deep breath before climbing up to the top.

Soon, he was standing next to Moonjoong.

Unlike their way up to the top, the peak of the mountain didn’t have any trees that blocked out the skies. Thanks to that, he could see much further. After looking at the clear sky for a moment, he threw his gaze at the village afar. He thought that it would be a countryside village with houses built very randomly, but now that he was looking at it from afar, he saw that it was actually very well spaced and well planned. When he had a look closer to the mountain, he saw the school, where they started off. The empty school field was now filled with more people.

“Please excuse us,” said Moonjoong suddenly from behind him.

Sungjae turned around wondering what it was. He saw a pair of graves. Only then did Sungjae understand why there were no trees around. It was a grave. Sungjae also clasped his hands and paid his respects.

“Do you know why people like mountains?”

“From what I heard, it’s because they can clear their minds…”

Moonjoong smiled and nodded.

“People filled with worries climb mountains like this. It’s an escape in a sense. It doesn’t solve the problem they’re facing, but they can stop worrying. Where do you get the luxury to worry when you are busy? Don’t you think?”

Moonjoong sat down and tapped the place next to him. Sungjae immediately sat down.

“Becoming an entertainer at an early age is a good thing, but is also extremely exhausting. I don’t know much about idols since I’m at the age I am, but I do know that people like you receive a lot of love.”

“Love, you say…,” Sungjae said.

He was aware that he was receiving a lot of attention from the public. After all, wherever he went, there would either be a camera or a hand that wanted a handshake from him. However, was that love?

“I don’t really know if I’m receiving love or not.”

“Why do you think that?”

“At first, I thought that it was love. But recently, I’m a little scared. When there were a few fans, they always said good things to us. Do your best, we’re cheering for you, congratulations, and the like. But after we became popular, we started receiving more bad words than good. I know, there isn’t an entertainer that is loved by everyone. I was prepared to face it, but since it’s getting stronger by the day, I flinch back. A while ago, our oldest member almost ended up drinking poison. After that, the public, which should be a target of appreciation, became more scary to me.”

After that incident, Sungjae started looking at the public not as a target of appreciation, but a tool he could use. How was he supposed to love a fan that gave him poison just because he didn’t reply to a fan letter? If such a thing was called love, then misery might as well be charity.

“You sound like you have more to say, so go ahead. I’m the only one listening,” Moonjoong spoke as he looked into the distance.

Sungjae bit his lips before speaking what was in his mind: that the public had no interest in acting prowess but just wanted popular people.

“There’s a person I used to do acting with when I was young. He was someone that was really good at acting, and no one around him doubted that he would become successful. However, when I met him on a coincidence one day, he was barely getting by as an extra that couldn’t even leave his name on the ending credits. It was then I felt that people don’t want to see actors that are good at acting, but that they want to see the people they like do acting.”

Sungjae smiled bitterly as he remembered that moment.

“Honestly speaking, I was happy when I met him. I became successful. I, as an idol, had the role of a minor character with a lot of appearance. I felt superior just based on the fact that I got to a place he couldn’t. But at the same time, I felt very empty. After all, no matter how much reputation I gain as an actor, it is all thanks to the fact that I am Ahn Sungjae the idol.”

Sungjae then looked down at the ground.

“That’s why I tried the audition for this movie. It was in order to escape that bias. When I received the notification that I passed, I had faith. But a while ago, I found out that my cast in the movie was already decided beforehand due to a deal between companies. In a few days, there will be news everywhere about how I, Ahn Sungjae, was cast in a movie through my own skills. When I found out, I couldn’t even lift my head due to embarrassment, but a few days later, I felt better. At that time, I became scared again; not of the public, but of myself. So this is how I become more and more dull; this is how I make a tool of myself. I even ended up thinking that my skills doesn’t matter and it will work as long as I appear on camera…,” after saying those words, Sungjae became quiet.

He had spoken too much because he was caught up in the mood.

“An actor cannot be free from money. No, it’s not just actors. Who in this world can be free from money? We can just be thankful that people like us and that they are looking for us.”

“…Aren’t you angry about that, sir?”

“Angry?”

“Yes.”

“Why would I?”

“Because a kid like me participated in this movie, even though there must be better people than me out there.”

Hearing those words, Moonjoong started chuckling.

“Do not underevaluate yourself too much.”

“Eh?”

“Do you know the producer of this movie?”

“If I am correct, it is president Lee Junmin.”

“Yes, he’s in charge of most things. Casting the actors is up to him as well. And he’s not a pathetic person that puts a lacking actor in his work just because of money. If you were chosen, then it’s because you have the skills that fit your role. Money is secondary. He’s not lenient enough to pick people without the proper skills.”

“……”

“Also, it looks like you became timid because the actors didn’t greet you properly, but that’s not because you’re an idol.”

“Then why…”

“It’s because they’re tired.”

“B-because they’re tired?”

“They drank late into the night. You came in just at the moment they were going over the lines to exercise their necks a bit. It’s not that they had any malice towards you. It’s actually because they didn’t have the energy to greet you properly.

“Then the cough…”

“That guy must’ve had a sore throat.”

Moonjoong patted Sungjae’s shoulders as he stood up.

“The people gathered over there are all foolish people. Most of them came to the acting industry despite the instability of their jobs just because they liked acting. Because they’re such people, they will not look down on people that are doing acting with them without reason. In fact, they will cheer for those people. Just like me.”

Moonjoong started climbing down the mountain in the same leisurely manner that he climbed up. Sungjae stood up, feeling complicated. At that moment, a rather chilly voice entered his ears.

“But conversely, if you do not show your skills during the real deal, then you’ll receive the cold shoulder immediately. That’s why I ask of you to please, do well. These people are the best of the best. If your resolve is something that shakes just because of a few glares, you’ll have a hard time here. Even people younger than you grind their blades here. If you lack the skills, then you will lose your role. I’ll be the one who will say that I can’t work with you.”

Moonjoong, who seemed like a kind man until now, spoke such sharp words. Sungjae felt a chill behind his back.

“Childish whines will only be accepted on the first day. This isn’t a place for amateurs after all. We’re here to show results.”

Sungjae gulped. He was reminded of the words that his president said to him before he came here. That he could not make a mistake this time. Although she said such words all the time, from how serious she sounded this time, it was likely that she didn’t have the final say around here. He would lose his role if he wasn’t good enough. It wasn’t a warning, but a declaration.

“If you have the luxury to think about how people look at you and worry about your position here, then you might want to think about the fundamentals of acting again. First up, you should try fixing that mask on your face and be honest with your emotions. If you are truly an actor, it won’t take long for you to realize how and fix yourself. If not, then the only words you’ll hear at the set today will be ‘again’ or ‘edit him out’.”

The person in front of him was not an elderly that listened to a child’s worries, but someone who was responsible for his work. Sungjae realized just how pathetic and meager his worries were. The public? Popularity? That was secondary. Right now, he had to put everything into his acting. Moonjoong was teaching him that the filming wasn’t lax enough for him to mind about other things.

“I don’t want this movie to do badly.”

Sungjae nodded heavily.

“Then let’s go down.”

Moonjoong returned to his kind self again.

* * *

“Senior, did you scold that fellow?” Joonggeun asked as he pointed at Sungjae from afar.

“Why do you ask?”

“Well, it’s because that kid looked like his mind was boggled with unnecessary thoughts, but his eyes look clear now.”

Hearing Joonggeun’s words, Moonjoong chuckled.

“I just said a few things to him so that he could bring out his skills.”

“I knew it. How did you notice what I was thinking and do the thing that I wanted to do? I love and respect you, senior.”

Joonggeun then stuck close to him.

“Why don’t you mature a bit if you’re at the age you are? You’re no kid.”

“Again with that! Ah, rather than that, that kid, uhm so… Maru, Han Maru, that’s it. Did he go home?”

“He did.”

“Rude brat. I was planning to compliment him since he did good, but he ran without even greeting me?”

“How was he supposed to greet someone who’s drunk and sleeping? He came in the morning, but I told him to go.”

“Aha.”

“But why do you need Maru?”

“Oh, a producer the camera director is acquainted with is starting a drama. They’re looking for high school students, and I was planning to recommend him.”

“You? Recommend someone? What’s up with you? You hated doing that because the producers don’t like such things.”

“I should have him be indebted to me when I have the chance to, so that I can use him later when I want. Consider it an investment in a promising youth. And also, I don’t think anyone would dislike a guy like him.”

“Geez.”

“He’s under Junmin-hyung, right?”

“Yes.”

“Looks like I should give him a call later. Rather than that, he’s supposed to be the producer of the movie, but he’s not shown himself even once. Isn’t a producer supposed to do what I was just doing?”

“You won’t get anything from saying that to me.”

“I’m saying that we should talk bad about him together. I know you know what I mean.”

Moonjoong told the chuckling Joonggeun Maru’s phone number. An opportunity like this would ease Maru’s growth into a big actor.

‘Experiencing many things will widen your horizon.’

Moonjoong made a joyous smile as he thought about Maru and his calm expression.

Chapter 290

-How could you not give me a call even once?

“Well, I’m doing that right now. Did you have your meal yet?”

-That’s the only thing you’re interested in, isn’t it?

“Well, it means that you’re healthy,” Maru spoke as he watched the guardrails that flashed by.

“Are you practicing even now?”

-Obviously. I have juniors now. I have to teach my juniors so that we can take the grand prize again this year. I also want a personal prize as well.

“Aren’t you being too greedy? If Myunghwa high school wins this time around, it’s the 3rd year in a row, isn’t it?”

-No, it’s the fourth.

“Then it’s about time you hand it over to us. Let’s have a symbiotic relationship.”

-Hell no.

“How cruel.”

-If you want it so much, win it from us.

A fufu laugh could be heard over the phone. Maru smiled as he imagined her with a satisfied smirk.

“Then you don’t have any time during weekdays?”

-I don’t. Sorry.

“There’s nothing to be sorry about. How about the weekend?”

-I can do Saturday.

“Then let’s meet then. Aren’t we seeing each other too little even though we’re students?”

-Well, we would’ve been able to meet yesterday but a certain someone had to go somewhere else for shooting a movie.

“…Fine, it’s my fault.”

-How was it? Did you do well?

“I think I did a decent job?”

-You don’t sound so confident. Are you sure you won’t be edited out?

“I guess I have to pray for that to not happen.”

The express bus slowed down and entered a service area. The driver got off the bus as he told everyone to visit the bathroom.

-Are you on the bus?

“Yeah. I’m going up to Suwon right now.”

-When are you arriving?

“I think there’s still 3 hours to go. I think I’ll make it home before six.”

-Isn’t it tiring?

“I’m doing nothing but sitting still. Rather than that, don’t you need to get going? I think I hear something.”

-Yeah, we just resumed practice, I need to go.

“Be careful. Watch out for your stamina. Don’t forget to stay hydrated.”

-Yeah, yeah, sure. Don’t worry about me and worry about yourself instead. Also… congratulations on your debut. Let’s go look at it together once it’s out.

“Okay.”

-Let’s hang up then.

“After you.”

Silence continued for a moment before the call ended abruptly. Maru stretched his arms out as he stood up. He got off the bus and entered the convenience store in the service area. He bought some bread and milk as lunch before returning to the bus.

“We’re departing. Please check if your companions are here.”

The bus left the service area and entered the highway again. The scenery was unchanging and it was quite a boring ride. He was looking at the cars passing by outside the window as he was folding up the bread packaging. At that moment, his phone started ringing. He took out his phone from his pocket and checked the name. The name said Kim Dongwook. It was quite an unfamiliar name, so it didn’t come to his mind immediately. He was pondering as he put his thumb against the call button when he remembered the entertainment journalist he saw during the read-through.

“Hello?”

-Is this Mr. Han Maru’s phone?

“Yes, it is, journalist.”

-Aah, yes, that’s right. Your voice sounded so mature, so I was wondering if I got the wrong number. Where are you right now?

“In a bus to Suwon.”

-Damn! I guess we missed each other.

“Miss each other?”

-I’m driving to Yeongdeok right now. Because of work.

“Oh, work. It’s about the movie then?”

-Yes. Oh, and also, why didn’t you tell me back then?

“Tell you what back then?”

-Stop pretending to be ignorant. I’m going to Yeongdeok to collect news. I already talked with your president.

“Oh, I see.”

-Oh, I see? I did feel this back then, but you really are quite something. You belong to JA and you didn’t tell me anything about it. I’m kinda sad, you know?

“Well, that was because I didn’t see the need to. But what do you mean when you said that you already talked to the president?”

-We’re helping each other out now, is what I mean. Your president, though, he’s quite a scary man. He first investigates me in secret, and then he tests me out in secret as well. Though, I do like him for it.

Dongwook started speaking about that event as he laughed.

* * *

“Geez, looks like I took a hit this time. I thought it was a good fish I can chew on, but it turns out it was bait to fish out a man,” Dongwook spoke as he looked at Lee Junmin, who was in front of him.

“It’s natural for an employer to look into the abilities of a potential employee, no?” Junmin replied as though it was only natural.

Dongwook smiled bitterly as he remembered about the youth named Yoo Sooil from a while ago.

The information that youth indirectly told him was actually just bait. The evidence that JA is planning to make a big move was a huge news topic in the entertainment industry, so it was very valuable to those that worked in news outlets.

Dongwook pondered what to do with that information. If JA was preparing to list its stocks, there would be a prior notice about it to gather potential buyers, so that wasn’t much of a big news at all. However, Dongwook believed that JA wasn’t going to list itself so hastily. No, on the surface, JA didn’t pass the requirements to be listed, so he believed that they would keep being unlisted. This meant that this info was only valuable to the shareholders of unlisted stocks. Being unlisted didn’t mean that it wasn’t free from market logic, if JA decided that it wanted to grow in size, the price of JA’s over-the-counter stocks would rise.

Currently, JA’s over-the-counter stocks were currently being traded at around 2000 won, though it differed from place to place. It was worth around 1800 won before the movie production news hit the internet. In such a situation, what if the news that they recruited several actors with potential became known? The power of the name ‘Lee Junmin’ wasn’t small in the entertainment industry, so the stock prices would definitely rise.[1]

The important thing here was when to release this information. Dongwook pondered deeply. This was a precious piece of information that might fill his fragile wallet again, so he had no plans to release it hastily. He was thinking about what to do when he received the call -

From none other than Junmin, that is.

It was rather unexpected, but at the same time, the timing was rather awkward, so Dongwook had to get prepared before he went to meet him. After exchanging greetings, Junmin didn’t go over the formalities and straight out asked why he stayed quiet. He tried to feign ignorance once, but he revealed all of his thoughts when Junmin looked like he knew everything and when he mentioned Yoo Sooil. That was when he found out that his encounter with that kid was planned from the start, by none other than the man in front of him.

“I was planning to ignore you without hesitation if you decided to sell your investigations to others for immediate profit. We can just hold off the listing until later and the stock price bubble will burst sooner or later.”

“My wallet is not in a good situation right now, so I was holding on to it thinking about how to sell it at an expensive price.”

“That’s why I feel good about you. As a journalist, finding out the truth is important, yes, but knowing the right time to release the info is important as well.”

Junmin spoke as he drank a sip of his red tea. Dongwook also drank his coffee. He grasped the overall situation, but he did not understand what Junmin was saying completely. He put down his empty coffee mug and spoke,

“But you mentioned something strange just now.”

“About what?”

“You said something about looking into the abilities of a potential business partner. What do you mean by that?”

“I mean just that. Just like the information you painstakingly put in the effort to get, my company is about to start doing public activities. This means that we’ll have to look for people to write articles about us, as well as respond to public opinions.”

“You’re saying…”

“Your current company, Mint News, was it? What’s the pay like over there?”

Dongwook was flabbergasted rather than angry when Junmin asked for his salary numbers. It was like a pleasant provocation.

“What do you think?”

“Less than what you used to receive when you worked for a public media outlet, based on the fact that your current residence costs 300,000 per month and 10,000,000 won as a deposit. It’s sufficient for a single person, but isn’t it hard commuting to work every day? It’s a bit far from the subway station.”

“Geez, when did you look into that?”

“You were investigating us, so we couldn’t sit still.”

Dongwook made a bitter smile.

“How about twice?”

“What?”

“The type of work shouldn’t be that different to the work you’re doing now. You just need to exclusively do interviews with actors belonging to our company. That’s what we’re going to do about our news. If you want news about JA, then go through Kim Dongwook - or something like that.”

“That’s it, and I receive twice my current annual salary?”

“Yes. Oh, and I’ll be providing you with a residence near the company, as well as a car for work. Petrol fee is company-provided as well. You can eat all three meals at the company as well. The food here is good, so you won’t be dissatisfied.”

Junmin took out a contract form from his bag. Dongwook was flabbergasted and just watched him as he did so.

“I only work with people that can become the best of the best. As for you, journalist Kim, you have already proven your skills. Oh, and I don’t mean what happened recently. I’m referring to your experiences during the time you worked for public TV. I was planning to look for others if your senses had dulled, but they didn’t become dull at all.”

Junmin spun the contract form 180 degrees on the desk so that Dongwook could read it. His elegant movements seemed to be evident of the fact that he hadn’t done this just once or twice.

“It’s about time you receive proper treatment for your work. Don’t you think so, journalist Kim?”

“Proper treatment, you say. That’s something I haven’t heard in a long time.”

Seeing Junmin with a faint smile on his face, Dongwook shook his head. At the same time, he took out his phone. He called the president of his now-former company that always told him to just copy and paste articles from other news outlets.

“President, no, I mean, Deokbae. I have a letter of resignation inside the top drawer of my desk. No, don’t get angry and listen to me. You paid me dirt-cheap, so you can do that much, don’t you think? Anyway, please handle that for me. Put the severance pay in my account. As for the take-over, you can just use the kid that sits next to me. I hope I never see you again.”

He hung up before grabbing the pen in front of him and signing the paper.

* * *

-Understand? We’re one family now.

“Sheesh, way to go, president, I guess.”

-My words exactly.

“Anyway, congratulations. Your pay suddenly doubled.”

-I feel awesome. It felt like everything was going well after I met you, so I was planning to treat you to a meal, but you just had to be going home at this time.

“Treat me in Seoul once.”

-Alright, alright.

“Then I guess in the future, all the news about the movie is going through you, sir?”

-Yeah. And also, one more thing. Our dear president Lee is preparing a lot of things. He told me that he’ll be releasing a magazine.

“A magazine?”

-A magazine talking about news in the entertainment industry. The base will be a women’s magazine, and the sprinkling on top is fashion. I’m the editor-in-chief for that as well.

“That’s more work for you, then.”

-It’s still in the early stages, so I’ll have to look into more things. That leads to the question, I heard that you were close with Gwak Joon, the writer?”

“How did you find that out?”

-Through the president.

“Geez.”

-Anyway, I need you to be the middleman between him and I. A magazine needs its columns, right? And Gwak Joon is hot and popular these days.

“Well, I’m not sure if that hyung is into that stuff.”

-You never know. He might unexpectedly like that kind of thing.

“Alright. I’ll try asking him. But don’t expect anything. He’s the type of guy who lacks time writing his own stuff.”

-Let’s not be so pessimistic before we even try. We need to try it out first before expecting results. Oh, that’s right. Were there any journalists in the filming scene?

“No. When I arrived, I didn’t see any cameras other than the ones used for the film.”

-Really? Then I guess people will start flocking starting today. Hey, I’m hanging up for now, okay? Be careful on your way home, and see you later.

“Okay. Please be careful while driving.”

That call was quite a rollercoaster. Maru heaved out a deep sigh. It seemed that Junmin was getting ready to do a lot of things in places he didn’t know about. This was probably how the foundations for Geunsoo’s rise to dominance in the movie industry and Ganghwan’s rise to power in the theater scene was being created.

‘I guess I shouldn’t have a problem living if I join them now.’

Maru looked outside the window with a satisfied smile.

[1] The translator is not knowledgeable regarding stock trading, so forgive me if any of the stock exchange stuff doesn’t make sense…

Chapter 291

“I hope summer vacation comes early.”

“There’s not even a month left now. It’ll come soon.”

“Did you already get the permission to go to the concert?”

“I don’t think mom will ever allow me if I told her honestly. Like I said, we should just say that we’re just going to hang out. The concert starts at five on Saturday and since it’s 3 hours long, it should be eight when it ends, right? I don’t think she’ll say anything if I just tell her that we’re just going to hang out together.”

“Right? Then what do we tell her?”

“The obvious choice is the theme park.”

“That’s a good one. A theme park, huh. We went there last year, so I don’t think mom will be suspicious.”

Bada giggled with her friends. They were talking about TTO’s concert for the past few days. When she first talked about the ticket, her friends did not believe her. However, when she showed them the six tickets that her brother gave her, she was treated like a hero. Ever since then, they spent weeks devising the ‘perfect plan to go to the concert’ every time they met up.

“But hey, where did your brother get those six tickets? It shouldn’t be easy getting any tickets, much less six in a row.”

“Oh, I didn’t ask, so I don’t know.”

“Really? Well, what’s important is that we’re going to the concert. Still, your brother’s amazing.”

While Bada’s friends talked about what clothes they should wear to the concert, Bada pondered about that question. Just how did her brother get his hands on the autograph and the tickets?

“How much does an R seat cost?”

“I heard from my cousin that she spent 160 thousand on an R seat ticket when she went last time.”

“160 thousand?”

“It’s actually 100 thousand, but she couldn’t get the tickets in time, so she had to buy it second hand. I heard that R seat tickets are really hard to get unless you buy them second hand.”

Bada thought of the six tickets that she left at home. 6 tickets that cost 160 thousand won each, after calculating in her head, she blinked several times due to the absurd number. She didn’t think about it that much when she received them since she was so happy, but now that she thought about it, she thought that she shouldn’t have accepted those tickets so easily. She was aware that her brother saved up some money during vacation doing a part time job, but would that be enough to get his hands on something that cost nearly a million won?

‘Now that I think about it, there’s the credit card as well.’

She was spending around 100 thousand won every month with the card that he gave her. It had been around 10 months since she started using the card, so that would add up to another million won. In total, it would be around 2 million won. Also, Maru only worked for one month at the petrol station during the summer, and he was hospitalized throughout winter.

“Can you earn 2 million won by working at the petrol station for one month?” She asked her friends. One of her friends who worked at a fast food restaurant said that it was impossible.

“My hourly wage is 2,300 won, so if I want to save up 2 million with that… Nope, not happening. I can work all month and it wouldn’t be anywhere close to that figure.”

“Is it hard?”

“Yeah. If I could earn 2 million won per month doing a part time job, I would love to do it. But why do you ask?”

“Nothing, just curious.”

When the bell rang, the group split up and went back to their seats. Bada took out a pink wallet from her pocket and had a look at the card inside. Just where did her brother get so much money? He wasn’t doing anything shady, right? - she wondered.

Perhaps it was related to him leaving during the weekend saying that he had a read-through or something. Now that she thought about it, he even stayed the night out around half a month ago. He said that it wasn’t due to club activities, but that he was going to a shoot, and he seemed so laid back about it so Bada didn’t think much about it.

‘Wait, a shoot?’

Maru once said that he was going to read the script with some actors. At that time, she thought that it was a joke. Bada groaned in a low voice before putting the wallet back inside her pocket. What if her brother was not joking back then? What if he was really shooting a drama or something?

“No way. That can’t be right.”

Bada chuckled. She went too wild with her fantasies. Maru did change from his middle school days, but him, an actor? He didn’t have a bad face objectively speaking, but nor did his face suffice to become a celebrity. She was aware that he liked acting to the point that he injured himself but still…

Just as her thoughts reached there, she remembered the faces of the people that she met when she went to visit him at the hospital. She met Suyeon-unni there, an actress that only appeared on TVs. Her brother didn’t seem to like her that much, but considering that she came to visit him in the hospital, the two were probably on close terms.

‘It’s curious that he managed to get an autograph from Sungjae-oppa as well.’

Perhaps he was actually doing a shoot with known celebrities?

“Open your textbooks.”

That was the first thing the teacher said when he entered the class.

For now, Bada stopped thinking about it. She could just ask her brother during break. What if her brother really did work in the entertainment industry?

No way, that can’t be… right?

* * *

“Didn’t mom tell you that I signed a contract?”

-It’s real?

“Yeah.”

-Then why didn’t you tell me anything about it?

“Did you ask?”

-… That’s absurd. Then when you said that you were going to a shoot a while ago, did you really go to a shoot? As in, like, standing in front of the camera, and having photos or videos taken of you?

“That did happen.”

-What is it? A drama?

“It’s a movie.”

-A movie? It’s not a drama but a movie? Which movie is it? Who’s on it?

Maru frowned and took his phone off his ears. He felt annoyed because his sister was shouting at him non stop. He did feel uneasy when her name appeared on his phone screen as well. Maru looked at the phone with a sour face.

“What are you doing?”

At that moment, he saw Dowook come back from the school cafeteria. Maru grinned and handed the phone over to him.

“Here, take it.”

“Who is it?”

“Just take it.”

He handed the phone over to Dowook and calmly watched him. Dowook, who received the phone with a suspicious gaze frowned after listening to the voice over the phone. Maru thought that he would throw the phone immediately, but Dowook unexpectedly continued the call. After replying with short answers, Dowook hung up after saying ‘okay’.

“Both of you siblings are just… urgh, forget it.”

He threw the phone at Maru.

“What did you talk about?”

“Shut up. I have a headache because she was too loud. Why does she have such a loud voice?”

“I don’t know. But rather than that, you seemed rather obedient. I knew it, there must be something going on between you…,” Maru did not finish his sentence because he saw that Dowook was glaring at him while holding his mechanical pencil like he was about to stab him.

“There you go again. What is it now?”

Daemyung, who appeared with a piece of bread in his hands, took the mechanical pencil away from Dowook’s hands.

“Had I not received that guy’s help, I would have beaten him up already,” saying that, Dowook then put his face against the desk.

Maru shrugged before accepting the bread from Daemyung.

“You should really stop teasing Dowook. Now that I think about it, you’re only doing it to him as well.”

“Consider it the feelings of a brother caring for his sister.”

He saw Dowook flinching. Maru smiled and switched the topic.

“The date for the acting competition is out, isn’t it?”

“Yeah, it’s at the end of July. If it goes like how it went last year, then ours will be in early August.”

“So the acting competition is here, huh.”

“Yeah.”

Maru glanced at Daemyung. He was looking at the clock with a serious expression.

“How is it? Can you see it?”

“See what?”

“The prize. We got the gold prize last year, so we must win the grand prize this year, don’t we?”

“Th- that’s not that easy.”

“But you know you want it.”

“Yeah, sure. After all, it’s the biggest competition you can participate in as a high school student.”

Maru nodded his head. Daemyung definitely had the desire to win. That could be seen from just how he asked the first years if they could stay for thirty more minutes in practice, when he was someone who hated inconveniencing others.

“We’re busy since there aren’t as many members as we had last year, but honestly speaking, I think the skill level this year is better. The first years are following us well and Dowook is doing well, too.”

“That’s true.”

As the control tower did not waver like last year, there was no disharmony. Compared to last year, where there was distrust between members as well as that event, this year’s acting club was really unified.

“When we started 2nd year, we weren’t in a position where we could want something. After all, we were talking about shutting the club down back then. But now, everyone’s doing so well, and I now want to present them with the prize. The grand prize might be impossible, but just a gold or a silver prize is fine. The feeling of receiving a prize on stage is just…,” Daemyung did not finish his sentence.

He seemed to have remembered what happened last year. During the award ceremony, Maru was watching from the audience seats.

“Let’s get one together this year,” Daemyung smiled as he spoke.

“Then it looks like we should be getting into the final spurt then. Instructor Suyeon is coming this week, right?”

“Yeah. She said she’s coming tomorrow.”

“Then I guess we have to get as much as we can out of her.”

Maru wanted to give this friend of his the grand prize. He didn’t have any schedule until the acting competition, so they might actually be able to aim for the grand prize if they practice enough during this time.

“Should we do that?”

“Do what?”

“The thing Miso-seonbae taught us.”

“She didn’t teach us just one or two things.”

“I mean the café. Do you remember? She drove us there.”

“…Oh, you mean that place? Of course I remember. How could I forget?”

Last year, Miso drove them all to a café and had them all do a monodrama. It was great at improving instantaneous responses to unfamiliar environments, watching out for pronunciation according to different spaces, as well as understanding what a stage was.

“I think it’ll be good if we do it, but…”

“Then let’s make a call.”

“To Miso-seonbae?”

“Yes.”

“Should we? I would feel sorry if she’s working right now.”

“Don’t worry about that. She doesn’t have a job for the foreseeable while. It’s very likely that she’s sleeping now as well. Or, she would be bashing her head against the wall thanks to a hangover.”

“How do you know that?”

“Well, I belong to the same company as her.”

Hearing those words, Daemyung pondered for a moment before coming to a realization. Maru took out his phone immediately. If they could borrow that café area to do that training again, it would definitely help the first years out a lot, especially for Jiyoon, who was shy around strangers. It was also a great opportunity for Dowook, Aram and Bangjoo to experience what it feels like to act in front of strangers.

Maru immediately called Miso. It was nearing one in the afternoon. Normal people would receive the call, but there was a chance that Miso, who had her night and day swapped around thanks to recent work, might not receive the call. When he called her last time to say hello, Miso was sleeping at 2 p.m.

Just as he was thinking that it was no good, someone picked up the phone.

-… What.

Her voice sounded hoarse and monotone. It seemed that she just woke up. Just as he was about to tell her that it was time to wake up, a man’s voice could be heard over the phone.

-Who is it?

The voice belonged to no one other than Park Taesik, the teacher in charge of the acting club. Maru scratched his head and fell silent. Miso made an awkward laughing sound as she started speaking gibberish. Maru did not bat an eyelid as he listened.

-Uh, eh, hm, uh, Maru? Hello? Hey, I said hey! It’s not what you think it is. It’s not! I’m telling you, it’s not! Hey! Say something!

“Yeah, yeah. I understand perfectly. I get it so please spare some time for us.”

-Time? What time?

Miso replied immediately since she didn’t want to talk about that topic anymore.

“I’m really sorry for asking this all of a sudden, but do you remember the café you took us last time? Can we go there again?”

-… Aha~ahn. That place, huh?

She seemed to have caught on already.

“Yes.”

-It’s my cute junior’s request, so there’s no reason I can’t.

“Thank you.”

-I’ll give you a call once it’s ready. You guys get ready as well.

“Alright.”

Maru didn’t forget to add before he hung up.

“I prefer Galbi-tang[1] over noodles. My congratulatory gift will be 50 thousand won. Congratulations, you two.[2]”

He heard a shout saying ‘hey’, but Maru quietly closed his phone.

“Wh- what is it?”

“Adult business.”

“What?”

“Kids don’t need to know.”

Maru made a suspicious smile.

[1] Boiled soup with beef ribs.

[2] So, this is related to wedding customs in Korea. The organizers of the wedding prepare a banquet for the guests to celebrate the happy occasion. In the early days, people used to eat noodles, to signify that they should have a ‘long lasting relationship’. Then, it changed to Galbi-tang, because it’s seen as a luxury food back when that custom began. These days, it’s replaced with a buffet most of the time.

Also, there’s the custom of ‘gifting congratulatory money’ to the newlyweds. Though, these days, more and more people consider it as the ‘price for the meal ticket for the buffet’.

Chapter 292

He was told that he actually cried a lot when he was young. He cried while eating the candy that their grandma gave him, suddenly cried while playing with friends, and even woke up in the middle of the night crying, which made his mom worry about him a lot. But curiously, he did not cry when he was with his sister. His eyes turned red and looked as though he was about to cry, but he never showed his tears.

Bangjoo was vaguely aware of the reason. His grandma and mom were people who he wanted to spoil him, while his sister was a target of admiration.

During elementary school, his grandma’s health worsened dramatically. The house was always covered in a gloomy atmosphere and his grandma’s thick coughing sound was mixed in with that gloomy atmosphere. Bangjoo cried whenever he heard the violent coughs. Whenever he did, his grandma would forcefully tell him that she was okay with a cheerful voice. Bangjoo cried even more since those words were obviously a lie, and whenever that happened, his sister would come and scold him.

Bangjoo held in his tears between his grandma who told his sister to stop and his sister who told him that he should understand grandma a little more. He had no choice but to hold them in. Bangjoo knew. He knew that his sister always cried without a sound. His sister, who liked grandma more than anyone, wasn’t crying, so he couldn’t cry in front of her.

Not long after, his grandma went to Jeju island saying that she’s going to a place with cleaner air, and his parents went down with her to look after her. It was around that time that his sister started going on stages. Bangjoo grabbed his sister’s hands and visited many theaters. His sister, who acted under the spotlight in a small theater looked so cool to him that he couldn’t help but stare at her, and that made Bangjoo dream of becoming an actor as well.

He watched the popular movies at that time that featured Jackie Chan, and told his sister every day that he wanted to become an actor like him. While his sister smiled back at him saying that it would be hard, she explained to him what acting was about whenever she had the chance to. Although he somewhat impulsively decided that he wanted to become an actor, Bangjoo thought that it wasn’t that bad.

Since then, good days with good news about his sister continued. His sister’s acting was seen in a positive light, allowing her to move to a bigger stage, while his grandma’s health took a turn for the better to the point that she was able to take walks outside without anyone’s help. Bangjoo was also showing his talent in his elementary school soccer club, and he was asked if he wanted to do it seriously. He was briefly tempted because he liked sports, but he ended up refusing, saying that his dream was to become an action star.

One day, his sister came home cheerfully saying that she was cast in a drama. She cried endlessly on the phone that day. Bangjoo was young, but he knew that she wasn’t crying because she was sad. After that, his sister sometimes came home with a tired face, but she never stopped smiling. A few months later, his sister appeared on TV. It was a short one-act drama that was broadcasted late at night. His sister always told him that he had to sleep early and usually did not allow him to watch TV late into the night, but she gave him special permission for that day. She kept looking for her own appearances on TV while wiping away her tears. When he asked why she was crying, she replied that it was because she felt happy.

After that, his sister became even busier. Their mother, who came back from Jeju island, was worried about her because she was working so hard. His sister became so busy that she had to leave the acting troupe that she belonged to and started staying nights out. Eventually, she showed up at home at most once every ten days. His sister teasingly asked him if he missed her, but Bangjoo replied to her with a snort saying that she should mind her business. He did feel a little lonely, but he didn’t want to say it out loud. He was a boy after all.

While everything seemed to be going well, bad news came from the South. His grandma had collapsed again. His mother, who came back home, went back down to Jeju island. He asked if he could go with her, but his mother sternly said no. Seeing her being so strict, Bangjoo intuitively realized that his grandma was in a bad condition. A gloomy atmosphere started filling the house again. The house was without his mom or his sister. Just as he was receiving help from his uncle, something bad happened to his sister.

Bangjoo clearly remembered that moment. His sister came back drenched in the rain, and she powerlessly walked into the house while looking into the empty void. Her wet feet created disturbing sounds. Bangjoo carefully spoke to her as she walked to her room. His sister, who would usually reply that nothing had happened, just walked into her room without saying anything.

That silence was frightening. Bangjoo felt fear from his sister’s taut lips. The house was filled with the heavy air of frustration. Bangjoo wanted to help his sister out. He wanted to help her, who had looked after him when he was young. He knocked on her door asking if she was okay several times, but he never got a reply back.

Even when the sky was turning bright again, Bangjoo could not move from the front of his sister’s door. The occasional faint crying sound made him unable to budge from the spot. He thought about what he could do with his small head, but there was only one answer. He couldn’t do anything. Being young and powerless couldn’t feel more frustrating that day.

Bangjoo returned to his room and spoke. What could he do? The moment he brought up that question, the first thing that came to mind was the drama that his sister shot for the first time. The short one-act drama that he stayed up until midnight to watch. In that drama, she cheered for her boyfriend who was having a hard time with a loud voice. She shouted regardless of what other people were doing, and that scene was deeply engraved in Bangjoo’s mind.

When the sun rose, Bangjoo shouted ‘wake up’ with the loudest voice he could muster. He forced his voice out. His sister, who had locked her door, slowly opened the door. It was as though she had left her emotions elsewhere, and she looked like a completely different person from the day before, but Bangjoo cheerfully talked to her without minding it. When he did, his sister very carefully smiled and told him that she was okay now.

After that day, his sister wasn’t as kind and smiling as before, but she became sturdier, and a few years later, she became well-known as the actress with a foul mouth. The actress with a kind image had disappeared, but she did not feel disappointed. In fact, she enjoyed her changed self. And one day, she said this to him in passing - thanks for cheering for me that day.

* * *

“I think he should look into becoming a religious leader rather than into acting.”

“I think so too.”

Maru watched Bangjoo who was speaking out loudly on the terrace of the café. They were doing the same thing they did last year and each member of the club was doing a monodrama on the terrace that was filled with many customers.

Maru started off and Daemyung followed suit to give them an example. They no longer felt that awkward since they had experienced doing it in the same place last year, and above all, the nervousness lessened since they had experience standing on actual stages. After Daemyung was the only 2nd year other than the two. He asked Daemyung if he could skip, but there was no way Daemyung would permit it since he was strict when it came to acting. In the end, Dowook acted out a delinquent and returned to the shop while receiving an applause of encouragement from the people there. Dowook sat down and never lifted his head since he had become beet red.

After that was Aram, who said that she wanted to go first. Unlike her dignified entrance, she became stiff like a statue as soon as she stood at the center of the terrace. Her expression was stiff and she was very awkward as though she was frozen. She went up feeling confident, but she came back like someone who had seen the worst nightmare of her lifetime. It even felt pitiful when she muttered if she could still act.

The second one that went up among the first years was unexpectedly Jiyoon. It seemed that her classmate Aram’s courage provoked her as well. Jiyoon walked up to the center of the terrace in a shy manner, and started off stuttering, but she soon calmed down and showed a decent act. She was the type of person that did not get stage fright. She was the complete opposite of Aram, who was a tomboy who stiffened in front of a crowd, and was someone that became soft in front of a crowd. Jiyoon's actions seemed to indicate that she was only shaking due to her trauma. Jiyoon returned to the table with a happy face. Miso also told her that she got a pass. Dowook and Aram, who went up there before her, kept sighing endlessly.

Next was Bangjoo. Maru thought that he would never get nervous, and he was right. He took a bow like an English gentleman before he went onto the stage and even induced the crowd to applaud before he even started. Then, he started his act, and although there were a few awkward parts, everything was negated with his confidence. Since coming up with an act on the spot was difficult, they were instructed to act out the role they had. However, Bangjoo seemed to have forgotten his lines midway and started talking about what he wanted. His story seemed to be about some drama, and he continued the story until the end with a joyous yet slightly nostalgic-feeling expression.

“It’s his own story.”

“You think so too?”

“Such a plentiful expression doesn’t come without firsthand experience. One can only make those faces when talking about what’s in their heart. However, it’s hard to give him a high score as an actor.”

Miso spoke in disappointment. Maru nodded since he understood where she was coming from. When she said that he should look into becoming a religious leader instead, that was her evaluation of him. Bangjoo’s pronunciation was very crisp and clear. It was the type of voice that could be heard loud and clear no matter how far a person was.

However, that was all. Others at least put on an act despite being shy and embarrassed. Acting was something that had to be done not through just the body and facial expressions, but through the voice as well. Imbuing emotion into speech. It was something hard to do without proper training, but he had learned the basics, so he had to be able to do it. The other three, albeit awkward, managed to imbue their feelings into their voice. They were conscious of the emotions as they spoke their lines.

On the other hand, Bangjoo just had a ‘good voice’. He put on many different facial expressions, yes, but his voice was cheerful from the beginning to the end. He was speaking with a longing expression, but if his voice did not contain longing, the crowd would be confused due to the disparity. Moreover, they would then proceed to think that it might be black comedy.

“It feels like what’s done on purpose is not being done on purpose. Does he always have a loud voice like that?”

“Yes. His voice is always energetic even when he feels down.”

“Hm, if you let him know about it, there won’t be any problems in this play, but it’ll be hard for him to become a proper actor if he does not fix that. Hey, he’s just in the acting club and is not considering it as a career path, is he?”

“Well, he’s an aspiring action star.”

“Really? Then that’s no good. What the heck is Kim Suyeon doing? Does she not care about the details?”

“Instructor Suyeon focuses on raising everyone’s skill level as a whole rather than on developing one’s talents.”

“…Sigh, who am I to say anything. I’m not even related to any of it now. I’m a powerless senior that has to obey every beck and call.”

“Are you holding a grudge because of what I said last time?”

“What makes you think I wouldn’t? I am holding a grudge.”

“……”

“Just joking. I don’t think her method is a bad one. But still, she needs to fix a problem if she sees it.”

“I’ll try asking her later.”

“Okay, that should be better. It’s somewhat awkward for me to ask too.”

Maru watched Bangjoo as he was being applauded. Humans were affected by the law of cause and effect. There had to be a reason behind Bangjoo’s constantly energetic voice. His money was on the fact that Bangjoo had been living alone since young, as well as what might have happened to his sister. Like what Miso said, there was no need to correct him, if his acting career ended with club activities. His character would be a merit rather than a demerit in society. However, if he was aspiring to become an actor, then it was definitely something he had to fix. If his voice was simply loud, then it could be suppressed, but the strange sense of energy had to be adjusted. The act would become horrible if he was putting on an angry act, but with a cheerful voice.

“I did well, didn’t I?”

Bangjoo waved his hand as he returned to the shop. Maru exchanged glances with Daemyung before telling him that he did well.

“Then is it over now?”

Aram asked with a powerless expression.

“That’s it for today. Let’s do the rest as we get something to eat.”

Daemyung stood up as he said that they should switch places. At that time, Miso received a phone call and flinched before speaking into the phone in a low voice. Maru immediately realized who was on the other side of the phone.

“Seonbae-nim, you should go back. We can do the rest.”

“Sh, shall we, then?”

Maru waved his hand at Miso with a smile when she was looking at him with unease. Miso glared at him and wordlessly said that ‘I’ll pay you back for this’ with her mouth.

“See you all later, kiddos.”

After sending Miso off, they started walking towards a nearby restaurant to get dinner. Bangjoo, who was talking with the others, suddenly got a phone call. When he accepted it, he froze on the spot. He made a difficult expression and asked as he put his phone away from his face.

“Uhm, seonbae-nim?”

“Yeah? What is it?”

“My sister says she wants to come. Should I not tell her where we are? It’s better if I don’t, isn’t it?”

Bangjoo rapidly spoke his words in panic. Maru pondered for a moment before taking the phone from Bangjoo’s hands.

“Hello, senior. It’s Han Maru. We haven’t had dinner yet, so why don’t you treat us to something nice? Okay, I’ll tell you where we are right now.”

Maru briefly explained where they were before hanging up. He threw the phone back at Bangjoo who looked dazed.

“We should learn while we still have the chance to, don’t you think?”

Bangjoo became dejected.

There was no reason to stop a super popular actress from coming, especially with the competition approaching. Her words would definitely help out the club members a lot. Moreover, it would be great if she could solve the problem with Bangjoo as well.

“Oh yes!”

Aram and Jiyoon were overjoyed. Maru took the club members to the place Joohyun and he agreed on to meet.

Chapter 293

“Uhm, Joohyun, please. Let’s do a shampoo commercial. It’s not just any shampoo, but Ella. You know Ella, don’t you? They pay in the hundreds of millions. They want you. Aren’t you the idol of all women in their 20s and 30s? Do you know how many people gasped when your hair waved in the air in the last drama you di… hey, hey hey!”

Team leader Han blocked the exit of the rest area to stop Joohyun from leaving.

“Oppa, no, team leader Han. Do you want your nuts cracked?”

When Joohyun said that with a smile, team leader Han immediately put his knees together and covered his lower region with his hand. Joohyun was the type of person who would do what she said. Nothing bad would come from being careful.

“No, but, Joohyun. This is Ella we’re talking about. Your hair, more elegant than ever, it’s that Ella! They rarely decide who they want for their commercial, and they chose you this time! Hey, other women from the company can’t even do this even if they want to, but you just had to kick the chance away without even looking at it. You should at least try to see what this opportunity is.”

“I don’t care about that. And so? Who got this commercial for me?”

“Uh, what? Why do you ask that?”

“Team leader Han.”

“…Yeah.”

“I really like you, team leader Han. I know that you’re a decent person. I’m also aware that you’re trying your best day and night in order to keep the company running, and I’m also aware that you’re looking after our new recruits. However, you know who I am. You know what kind of mindset I came to the entertainment industry with.”

Her eyes were resolute without any shaking. Team leader Han, named Han Gwangjoon, bit his lower lip and scratched his head.

“Joohyun. Did you know? I feel scared whenever you talk to me like that.”

“And yet you still bring me such offers every time?”

“Haah. You really owe me a debt this time.”

Team leader Han took out his phone feeling very sad. Then, he called the CEO. He felt like he was having a stomach cramp, but he had no choice.

“Yes, president. I mean, about the thing you asked me to ask our super actress about… No, I haven’t talked to her about it yet. Yes, that. So, Miss Ahn isn’t exactly, you know, I think she’ll make losses if she takes the commercial. She has a villainous role in the movie, right? Such a woman saying lines like ‘for your hair’ on TV sounds somewhat strange, doesn’t it? Sorry? It’s fine because she has a bright character role in the drama? Oh, of course, you’re right. But uh… president. I think Miss Ahn damaged her hair a little. You know that she had to apply oil to her hair for three hours the last time she did one, right?”

Team leader Han took the phone off his ears for a brief moment. He was feeling dizzy due to the president’s shouts. He looked at Joohyun for help, but she just shook her head with her arms crossed. He was like the innocent bystander in this battle between Joohyun and the president. The president’s annoyed voice eventually died down. Team leader Han thought that he should visit a medical clinic after this as he put his phone against his ear again.

“Yes, president. I’m sorry about that. You know what kind of position Miss Ahn has amongst actresses, right? Her value would start decreasing if she keeps taking model jobs for ads. Let’s have her do something bigger later. She’s doing well in dramas and movies, isn’t she? Yes. I know that you don’t feel good since the movie doesn’t make any money, but she’s still one of the top actresses of Yellow Star, isn’t she? Please look after her a little more. Yes, president. Please take a good rest.”

Team leader Han sighed after hanging up. His head felt dizzy.

“Joohyun, you’re killing me here. I’ll be forty soon, but my hair is already falling out at a crazy rate. At this rate, I’ll start losing weight, hair, and even things that I shouldn’t and become a walking corpse.”

“Team leader Han. People don’t die that easily. Look at me, I’m still alive.”

“Yeah, I have to admit. If I received as many insults as you did, I would have left this industry already. Rather than that, where are you going? You don’t have any schedule now. Weren’t you going home to get some rest?”

“I’m going to meet my brother.”

“Your brother? Oh, Bangjoo, was it? Is he in middle school now?”

“He’s in his first year of high school.”

“Oh really?”

Team leader Han reminded himself of the kid he saw once before. He was short, but had a very energetic voice.

“Then be careful on your way there. Don’t drive fast.”

“Don’t worry about me.”

Team leader Han was about to leave the rest area. The door suddenly opened and a middle-aged man with a bored expression suddenly came into the room. Behind him was the CEO of the company who was forcing himself to smile.

Team leader Han inwardly thought that things were not going well. This man with a lot of wrinkles was from Ella. He also probably had a high position.

“My dear PR team leader was not doing his work properly, so I came. Well then. Hello there, you must be the actress Ahn Joohyun, right?”

The man entered the rest area as though it was his own house. Team leader Han looked at Joohyun’s face. She had a smile on her face. Any normal person would think that she was a kind woman, but team leader Han felt the opposite. He knew that it was her way of expressing her final warning.

“Hello, my name is Han Gwangjoon. I saw you from afar once.”

“Ah, really? Han Gwangjoon, Han Gwangjoon, huh. Oh, you’re the one in charge.”

“Yes.”

“Tsk. Just what kind of a terrible job did you do that she kept refusing? Things weren’t going well so I decided to have a look myself. You know, since I’m here to have lunch with him and all.”

The middle-aged man stood in front of Joohyun with a satisfied smile. Team leader Han wanted to scream when he saw that he looked at Joohyun’s face once before proceeding to stare at her chest so blatantly. This person was too unaware of who Ahn Joohyun was.

“P, president. What were you thinking when you brought him here?”

“Don’t ask. He told me that we should have dinner together because of the commercial, but he barged in just as I was about to leave.”

“But you shouldn’t have brought him here.”

“Do you think I wanted to? He’s the president of the branch. Yeah, that’s right. The CEO.”

“He’s the CEO?”

“Then who did you think he was?”

“Someone who has the position of a head of a department?”

“Do you think anyone is crazy enough to barge into another company with that kind of position?”

“Then why is such a person here?”

“Why do you think?”

“No way, please don’t tell me it’s not what I’m thinking.”

Just as he was whispering with the president. The man from Ella took a step towards Joohyun. He was disturbingly close considering that this was their first meeting. Team leader Han felt a chill running behind his back. He was getting extremely close to dangerous territory. And just as he had thought, he saw Joohyun’s lips twisting.

Team leader Han felt that his stomach stopped cramping and it felt like it was being poked with needles. He felt like visiting the medical clinic wasn’t going to be enough. He then looked at Joohyun and, at the same time, he desperately shook his head. Please hold it in. However, Joohyun kept smiling. Her legs were very thin and bought the envy of many models. However, her thin legs were also thoroughly trained. She did kickboxing. Not to lose weight, but seriously to the point that she was at a level where she could participate in proper competitions. If that leg decided to strike that man’s shin… the results were unimaginable.

Joohyun was actually a pretty calm woman. She normally did not use any foul language either. The reason she was known as a violent woman was because she did a few interviews where people almost did unspeakable things to her. Indeed, Joohyun wasn’t someone that swore at someone right off the bat. She had common sense, knew how to endure, and was quite understanding of others. However, she was unforgiving when it came to one thing. It was none other than when men approached her sexually.

Team leader Han still remembered the event where Joohyun twisted the wrist of the president of a drama outsourcing company during a meal. That time, that person just laughed it over and didn’t mind it that much, but this man in front of him clearly didn’t look like the type of person that wouldn't ‘mind it that much’. Obstinacy could be seen from his face. He was the type of man to think that women existed for men. It was obvious from his disturbing stare.

Even he was able to notice that, so there was no way Joohyun, who had been receiving that stare, wouldn’t notice it. What would happen if Joohyun screamed at him? Definitely not something good for Yellow Star, that was for sure.

Looks like I should apply for a leave - team leader Han stepped in between the two with resignation.

“President.”

“Wh- what is it?”

“I’ll bring you to a good place.”

“What?”

“I hear that it’s not polite to keep someone so high up standing like this. Please give me an opportunity to make it up to you,” he bowed his head as he spoke.

What he saw was the shiny shoes that the president was wearing. They had to be those brand-name expensive ones that he would never be able to afford with his salary. Bowing his head to others and flattering them didn’t feel like anything since he was so used to it now. He only wanted to avoid an accident at all costs.

“This fella, you know your stuff.”

The president patted his shoulders before laughing heartily.

“Looks like you have a glib tongue.”

“I don’t act like this to anyone. President, why don’t you have a drink with our president in a good place? They say drinking during the day is the best experience.”

“Is that so? Is actress Ahn joining us?”

“I’m not.”

“Ehem, don’t say that.”

The president reached out and tried to grab Joohyun’s hand.

Team leader Han inwardly sighed inside.

It looks like I’m getting a ton of insults this time.

Team leader Han pretended that he tripped on his feet and fell over towards the president, just enough so that he didn’t fall over. As he did so, he pushed him slightly so that he had to step away.

“S-sorry about that. I’m feeling anemic lately.”

“…Hm. You’re quite feeble despite your age.”

“It’s you who’s very sturdy. You felt like an immovable rock when I fell over. Just what kind of exercise do you do to stay so healthy?”

“I’m like a rock? Haha, this fella. That’s obvious. I did some boxing when I was in my prime.”

“I knew it. I thought that the way you tensed your shoulder and your legs was not the actions of a novice. President, can you show me your punches?”

Team leader Han raised his hands to receive his punches. After laughing, the president got into a boxing posture and punched out. Tcsh, Tsch, he made sounds with his mouth and punched out with his fist but it looked very awkward. Any typical delinquent was better than him. Though, he couldn’t say that out loud.

“Oh no, president. I don’t think there will be anything left of my hands if you keep going like that. Looks like you should have become a professional boxer instead of running a business.”

“You think?”

“Of course. Isn’t that right, president?”

His president caught what he was doing and raised his thumbs up. There was a reason why people advised to be wary of flattery. It was because it was very effective. The president felt better and walked outside.

“I’ll be right behind you after I get some things ready.”

He bowed to the president that just left and raised his head. He had burned about half of his soul doing that. He could practically see the doctor saying that he had a stress-induced gastritis.

“You should get going at this chance. I’ll tell him that you have family matters that just came up.”

“Team leader Han, no, oppa.”

“Stop. I know what you want to say so just get going.”

“You’ll regret it if you keep living like that.”

“I know that. I might regret it. However, not everyone in this world can be as resolute as you in life. If I was able to keep living after kicking away the money in front of me, do you think I would still be doing this?”

“Then I’ll just settle the deal with him.”

“No! I’ll do it this time.”

“He won't stop his bullshit like that next time though.”

“Joohyun, please use nicer words. I can have him go back if I blab on for a bit. The commercial might be taken by someone else, but your image will not take a hit. You know that you’re the top star of our company, right? I cannot stand your reputation taking a hit.”

“I don’t have any reputation to take a hit.”

Joohyun sighed. Although she was known as the woman who said everything that was on her mind without caring about the others, she would have snapped at that man already if she was actually such a person.

“Miss Ahn. Please hold it in for a little more. You just need to go up a little more. You know that, don’t you? Once you reach the top, you won’t have to face people like that. At that time, you get to pick what commercial you want to do. I’ll pave the path for you, so you just have to walk the road I made for you without straying.”

In South Korea, celebrities were never superior to their business counterparts. They might look like they’re the superior ones with all the spotlight being directed to them, but the actors that could really act as they wished could be counted on one’s hand. Most of the time, entertainers had a hard time in their companies. Right now, Joohyun was in the transition phase. She gained popularity as a youth star, but she left the industry due to unfortunate events, and she had made her comeback a few years ago and was in the process of gaining reputation.

In team leader Han’s eyes, Joohyun had plenty of potential to grow up into a first-rate actor that no entertainment company could touch. The fact that she rapidly gained popularity as an actress despite the gap in her career was proof of that.

What she lacked was her skills in managing personal relationships. Team leader Han did not wish for her to smile at the advertisers and pour wine for them while revealing her breasts. Joohyun was too good for that.

An untouchable actress. Team leader Han wanted to raise Joohyun up to that level.

“If that guy does some bullshit stuff again, I’ll kick his balls even if I have to pay him for it.”

“My lord, Joohyun. Don’t say the word ‘balls’ with such a pretty mouth. I’ll take care of this so you just go to your little brother and have a nice dinner. Okay?”

After forcefully sending Joohyun off, team leader Han sat down on his seat for a while.

“…I should look into medicine that’s good for health.”

Team leader Han stood up as he thought about the president that would be waiting for him.

Chapter 294

The sun was still up outside. Students were probably studying with dreams of getting into a good university, while salarymen were probably wrestling with work while waiting for their salary day. It was 4 p.m. Many people should be wrestling with the world, but here, it was the opposite.

“It does feel good to play like this from time to time! It reminds me of my younger days, good!”

Team leader Han clapped with the tambourines to the president who was shaking his ass in a disturbing way. He felt pathetic for having to smile and laugh for someone over fifty doing such immature actions, but that only lasted a moment. He put the tie that the president took off and put it around his head like a headband before swinging his head round and round.

“Now that’s some good spin!”

“I used to learn samul nori when I was young, so I’m good at spinning the tail of the sangmo.”

He flattered the president endlessly. The president laughed heartily with the mic in hand and sang a trot song that was way past its date, and team leader Han clapped according to the beat.

“Here, receive one from me.”

“Yes, sir.”

“You too, girls,” he spoke to the girls who were sitting on the sofa.

The ladies with revealing clothing accepted a glass immediately with joy. That bottle of vodka cost 1.2 million won per bottle. The president just drank it from the bottle as though it didn’t matter to him.

“President, let’s do a love shot.”

“A love shot?”

“Yes.”

A girl who looked to be in her early twenties grabbed his arm in an attempt to grab attention. When she did, the other girls all threw away the vodka into the bin under the table. Team leader Han saw that scene, but did not say anything. Just like how he bowed his head to the president in order for him to live, they were throwing away the vodka for the same reason. There was a sort of sympathy between the vodka that was being thrown away and the gaze that looked over it. After waving his hand at the girl that winked at him, team leader Han approached the president.

“President. Are you okay?”

“I might have drank too much. I’m feeling a little tipsy.”

“Please take this.”

He offered him a drink to ease the hangover. The president gladly received it and started drinking it.

“It feels good to play with the young ones once in a while. I should do this more often.”

“Oh my, you’re no more than a youth at your age. You should try out more things.”

“You think?”

The president giggled and reached his hand into the cleavage of the college girl. The college girl acted coquettish and stuck her body to him. It seems that the president seemed to have taken a liking to that girl. Team leader Han left the room and called the madam here.

“Are the girls inside allowed to do 2nd rounds?”

“Who wants them?”

“The president of one of YM’s subsidiaries.”

“Looks like I can’t say no. I’ll book a hotel right next to this place so take them there. The uncle there will sort things out.”

“Thanks.”

Team leader Han nodded before returning to the room. In the short time he wasn’t here, the president had already stripped the college girl of her one piece dress and was burying his face into her chest. The girls sitting next to them all looked at him. Team leader Han quietly whispered to them that they could leave.

“President, I booked a room for you. Please let me guide the way.”

“A room?”

“Yes.”

“Hey, hey. Team leader Han. I’m not someone that rolls around anywhere. What happens if some flies decide to come my way while I play with this bumpkin?”

The college girl in his bosom flinched when she heard the word bumpkin, but she soon smiled and just acted cute, saying, ‘oppa, that’s going a little too far’. Team leader Han clasped his hands and just stood there silently since the president just sat there while fondling the girl’s breasts, seemingly not having any intention to stand up.

“Team leader Han.”

“Yes, sir.”

“Give me a rubber. I’ll just do it here.”

Team leader Han smiled bitterly. He left the room after telling the president that he would be right back. The madam gave permission after hearing the circumstances.

“You know we don’t do this kind of service, right?”

“I apologize.”

“I’ll have you pay double for the room, just so you know.”

“Well, the old dude inside is the one paying.”

Team leader Han went into the room with the condom that the madam gave him. The college girl wearing only underwear and the president with his lower half revealed were entangled with each other. Seeing that the president was trying so obstinately to pull down her underwear, team leader Han passed the condom directly to his hands.

“Then I’ll take my leave.”

“Oh my, team leader Han. You do a clean job.”

“Haha. Thank you.”

Team leader Han looked at the college girl before he left. She had a slightly annoyed face, but just left her body to the president as she knew that the middle aged man wasn’t ordinary.

Team leader Han quietly closed the door before leaving. As the room had perfect sound isolation, nothing could be heard from the outside. After looking at the dark corridor for a while, team leader Han just sighed and walked out towards the entrance.

“Team leader Han.”

The president of his company was there.

“Sir, did you really have to run away by yourself?”

“There’s no need for both of us to die, is there?”

The two were able to get an empty room per the madam’s kindness. After drinking some cold water, team leader Han felt better.

“What happened to him?”

“He must be shaking his ass right about now.”

“They say the rich are even worse than the poor, urgh. What about the ad?”

“He’s drunk, so I can’t be entirely sure, but I did get the answer that ‘he’ll consider it’.”

“That’s good then.”

Team leader Han chewed on some nuts in front of him. He felt better when he considered the crushed bits as the president from the advertiser company.

“Sir, is there really a need for us to do this? He might be the president of a YM subsidiary, but still. Let’s leave aside Joohyun, since we don’t know what she’ll do to him if he tries to do that to her, but do we really need to suck up to him that much? We’re Yellow Star, too.”

There were three colossal corporations in South Korea. DK, SC and YM. The president of one of their subsidiaries had shown up, so it was understandable that they were giving him good treatment. However, Yellow Star was also one of the top 3 entertainment companies in Korea.

“Team leader Han. I know that you have pride in your work, but we’re still small. They’re on KOSPI, while we’re on KOSDAQ[1]. Do you know how many times their aggregate market price is compared to us?”

“…Can I not even complain?”

“I can see that you’re riled up due to all that alcohol in your blood, but watch your words. And also, we’re not sucking up to him because he’s the president of one of YM’s subsidiaries.”

“Then why?”

“That man is the son-in-law of The Daily Sunghwa.”

“…Goddammit.”

A piece of peanut he was chewing on got stuck in between his teeth. The Daily Sunghwa. It was one of the top 3 news outlets in South Korea along with Hangook and Jungil.

“Joohyun is very popular. That’s because there are women who admire her don’t-look-back actions. However, she’s not a top star in terms of her acting career. 30% drama viewing rate? However, the drama that became a hot topic peaked at 54%. As for movies, she only takes the ones she wants, so it’s far from profitable. She has popularity but we don’t know if that popularity will last or not. An actress without a good work to do will eventually be forgotten.”

The president lit up his cigarette before sucking in a deep one.

“There’s a wave of change among actors due to the Korean Wave and whatnot, but right now, the influence of news media within the country is still supreme. Let’s say Joohyun, who needs to leap to the top, gets her reputation tarnished right now. If it was any other actor, they’ll just clench their teeth and endure it, but is Joohyun the type of woman to do that? She’s the type of person to outright give up if she doesn’t like something. She’ll say what is on her mind even when she is talking to a super rich person. So, then. What about the contract we have with her? What about the advertisements? What about the contract we have with her for maintaining her dignity? You know? Actresses in Korea really don’t have any power. They can’t even date the people they like, and they can’t get married either. Joohyun entered the ranks of such people. She’s someone who would become big through acting. That’s why we need to look after her so that she doesn’t do anything bad.”

“Is money important to you, president?”

“Everything comes down to money in the end. The reason we’re here right now is also because of money.”

The president flicked the cigarette on the ashtray.

“Above all, Joohyun is 33 years old this year. She’s not that old when you consider the era we’re in, but she’s definitely not young either. Other top actresses of her age have a long filmography. There will always be a movie that is called a masterpiece among them. That’s why they’re called top stars. However, Joohyun doesn’t have one. The one she’s doing right now, she’s only a side character. Her acting will definitely be seen under a good light, but what about popularity? A star is, in the end, all about popularity. A flower on top of an unreachable cliff definitely looks pretty, yes. However, people will always end up going to the local florist’s and buy a cheap rose.”

“Goddammit. Han Mijoo has horrible acting, but she’s still doing well, isn’t she?”

“She’s disturbingly pretty, that’s why. But do you see dramas or movies casting her? The only place she shows up in are ads. And she’s the rose I talked about before. She can be seen practically everywhere.”

“Joohyun is pretty as well.”

“Yes, but she’s uniquely pretty. When she dyed her hair purple last time, I… urgh, let’s not talk about it.”

Team leader Han laid back into the chair. He inwardly imagined the college girl and the president of the advertiser company who would be rolling around naked. He was the one who created such a place. If he told this to someone ordinary, they would point at him saying that they were disgusted. It was obvious that he, who triggered such an event, would also eat a share of the insult.

However, what could he do? Entertainment companies did not live on actors doing work. Top actors weren’t actually cash cows that earned money, but the opposite. They were black holes that sucked in endless amounts of money. The source of money was not the actors themselves but the advertisers and the investors. The true owners of entertainment companies were the people that invested their money because of those top actors.

‘That’s why we have no choice but to suck up to them, huh.’

Team leader Han sighed bitterly.

A popular celebrity? Those people fell to the depths of the abyss with a single scandal. It wasn’t that the money they earned disappeared so they would have no problem with living, but their career in the entertainment industry would be finished.

The Daily Sunghwa had deep connections with not only the entertainment industry, but the political field as well. It would be hard to keep doing business in this industry if he pissed off someone that had connections to such a place.

Team leader Han never considered himself as a clean man. At his position, he would be lobbied in all sorts of ways. I heard that the actress in that drama is pretty; I like the young one from that movie; she looks good; this girl’s cute; that girl looks sexy. After such a line came just one sentence.

Let me meet her.

When they say ‘all the popular actors can be seen at a party held by the grandson of some CEO’, it wasn’t a lie. Why do such actors, who didn’t lack anything, go to such places? Did they lack something after all? No. They just go there to humor the main characters. Why? Because they have to keep on living. To be exact, they have to keep others close to them living.

They say celebrities live on the love of the public. Was it true? Then where do such celebrities appear? In TV programs, of course, as well as adverts. TV programs, ads, dramas, movies. They were all places with heavy investment, and that heavy investment naturally came from big companies that boasted immense financial power.

Taking a look at movies, no matter how good a movie is, it would be all for naught if a super powerful distributor was displeased with whatever that was related to it. After all, no matter how good it was, there would be no one to watch it if not many cinemas aired the movie. With little profit came less opportunity. Regret would do nothing at that point.

Money made actors.

That was one of the truths he came across while working in this industry.

“It would have been good if Joohyun had more interest in the entertainment industry,” the president said as he looked up at the ceiling.

“You want her to pour wine and vodka to people?”

“That’s just the basics. Like the ones these days.”

“I don’t think I’ll be okay with that even if you kill me.”

“Hey.”

“Yes?”

“Do you fancy her?”

“Haha, me? There’s just no way. How many people do you think did well after being involved with an actor? I just want to raise a full-fledged actor during my lifetime. I mean, she has the potential after all.”

The president stood up with a smile.

“Then let’s get our old man. We have to send him home while we still can.”

“Yeah, yeah, sure.”

“What?”

“Why do you care about Joohyun so much? If it doesn’t work, then just throw it away. That’s how you do things, isn’t it?”

The president made a rather sympathetic smile as he spoke,

“A chrysanthemum flower offered to the best nameless actress.”

“What?”

“There’s something like that.”

The president then left after patting him on the back. Team leader Han tilted his head in confusion as he left.

* * *

Maru stood up after getting a call. Joohyun had called him to come out since she was almost there. He left the streets with the stalls to the main street where he saw a white car slowly scanning the surroundings.

“Over here.”

He waved his hand as he walked towards it. Joohyun nodded her head before parking her car on the side of the road.

“That place is a no parking zone.”

“Then what about the cars in front and behind mine?”

Joohyun got out of the car. Maru shrugged his shoulders. As this neighborhood severely lacked parking spaces, they didn’t tow the cars that were parked on the side of the road. There were no parking tickets issued either. It was illegal, but it was an unspoken agreement.

“I was surprised because you called me. I thought you’d call your brother.”

“The one who called me here should be the one to come out.”

“Ah, sure.”

Maru had a look at Joohyun’s face. She seemed angry for some reason.

“Did something happen to you?”

“Me? Oh, I just met someone annoying.”

“Don’t tell me you swore at the person.”

“Do you think I’m that reckless?”

“Your interview left quite a deep impression on me. I thought you’d shed the first blood.”

Joohyun giggled when he said that.

“Hey, we feel quite close.”

“You think so?”

“I like your attitude.”

Maru coughed awkwardly as he took the lead.

[1] More stock stuff again. KOSPI and KOSDAQ are Korean stock exchange platforms, like NASDAQ and NYSE are in the US. Apparently, the requirements to be listed on KOSPI is higher than the requirements to be listed on KOSDAQ (by around 5~10 times per criteria).

Chapter 295

Maru walked forward as he talked about a TV show he watched during the weekend. Joohyun stopped walking and spoke,

“Hey, do you have something to ask of me?”

“Was it obvious?”

There was a faint smile on Maru’s face.

“It’s strange because you’re suddenly acting like we’re on close terms. You gave me silent nods as a greeting during the read-through. Anyone would realize something’s up.”

“Not everyone thinks that way. There are plenty of people who just avoid others because they don’t want to change how they act towards certain people.”

Maru started walking again.

They left the main street and entered a narrow street with a lot of commercial buildings on it. The street was filled with students. As she had tied her hair and was wearing a baseball cap, no one recognized who she was. Actually, people didn’t normally recognize celebrities. Just slightly changing the image created by the angle of the camera, the lighting, and the makeup would make them into completely different people, so just wearing normal clothes and putting on a hat was enough to fool most people.

Joohyun boldly walked next to Maru.

“So, what was up with that just now?”

From what Joohyun saw of Maru, he was a kid who was rational and had a clear view of the world. Such a kid had changed his attitude and approached her warmly. Even considering that he had a favor to ask of her, why would he act like that?

“Because I don’t know you that well, senior.”

“You don’t know me that well?”

“Yes. Judging from the conversation we had on the school stairs that day, you are a person with a clear philosophy. At the same time, you’re kind enough to give out advice to young people who you haven’t met before. However, the you portrayed by the media is very different. Even now, the first related search term when looking up your name is ‘blunt speech’. Also, people like Ahn Joohyun for her cool image. From what I gathered on the internet alone, you’re someone that speaks what’s on your mind even at public events. To put it in a good way, you stop at nothing, however, when putting it in a bad way, you’re complacent because of it. But when I saw you at the get-together, you were kind enough to tell a friend of mine your phone number and even joke with her. The disparity was so great so I felt a need to probe you out.”

Maru turned left. The street changed from being filled with bars to a street filled with shops that sold grilled meat. The setting sun and the smell of grilled meat. This was a very common food alley.

Joohyun nodded her head when she heard Maru’s words.

“And so?”

“We haven’t met each other that many times, but the difference in impression is different every time I met you. That’s why I tried changing this time. I was trying you out to see which approach you prefer.”

“Which approach I prefer?”

Joohyun stopped walking. The word ‘prefer’ was definitely something that could be used between people. Preference was an important indicator when expanding human relationships into business. I prefer working with him, I like the way she works - these were the basics of human business. What was strange though, was that the words came from a high schooler.

“I don’t know anything about you after all. The thirsty shall dig the well. We might come across each other more in the future, so I should get to know you, don’t you think?”

“Well. Who likes a kid who approaches it like that?”

“You think so too? I tried my best but it looks like I failed.”

Maru spoke as though nothing much had happened.

“And so, you’re going back to the way you were before?”

“If that’s what you’re comfortable with.”

“Hey, you’re quite good at humoring people. I thought you were a more stuck-up person.”

“Me? No way. I’m ready to bow my head down at any moment. My knees are cheap as well.”

“That’s different from my first impression of you.”

“Did I look that stuck-up?”

“Even your appearance tells me that you’re stuck-up. But if you have such a mindset so early on, you’ll have a tiring life, you know? Isn’t it better to live a simple life when you’re young? I mean, things like probing people out and humoring them according to their preferences can be left for later.”

“That varies from person to person. There are plenty of people who can’t do that even after they grow up.”

“Are you saying that to me?”

Hearing those words, Maru turned his head around before scratching his eyebrows. He started walking slowly. Joohyun also stayed quiet and just followed him. As this place had the cheaper restaurants, more students could be seen as they went further.

Just as she was following Maru, Joohyun felt a sense of déjà vu. She thought that they had passed this place before. When she thought more about it, it wasn’t just her imagination. They had actually walked past this place before.

Joohyun looked at Maru. Did he forget where he was going?

At that moment, though, she saw that Maru was looking straight into her eyes. Due to the sudden gaze, Joohyun tilted her head.

“I asked you if something happened when we met, didn’t I?”

“Yeah.”

“And I acted kindly, to which you said that it didn’t suit me.”

“I did.”

“Why do you think I did that?”

Maru pointed sideways. He was pointing at a cosmetics shop, and that shop had brought out a table and was selling their products on the streets. What Maru was pointing at was the mirror on that table. Joohyun walked past the students that were trying out some lipsticks on the back of their hands as she looked into the mirror.

“Uhm don’t pus… ah, it’s nothing.”

“S-sorry.”

The girls spoke with annoyance since Joohyun bumped into them, but apologized when they looked at her face.

Joohyun raised her head to look at the employee in charge of the table. When the two met eyes, the employee flinched back.

Joohyun had a look in the mirror again. A woman with a scary gaze was looking back at her from the inside. The shade from her baseball cap and her narrowed eyes from the rage she felt couldn’t make her look angrier. She wasn’t conscious of it. As an actress, she didn’t even know what kind of a face she was putting on. She felt embarrassment at first, and felt shame when she realized the reason she was making such an expression.

Joohyun smiled in vain as she turned around. She thought that she was over it, but it seemed that her deep emotions didn’t think the same. Until the very moment she arrived at this place in her car, she was thinking about the president that looked at her with indecent eyes. That president’s face reminded her of the man in her past, and that man in the past made an indecent grin as he stroked her legs. The days of shame became vivid to her again, and Joohyun had arrived here in her car full of annoyance.

She thought that she was perfectly over it. She believed that she hadn’t run away, but that she completely disdained them. No, she thought that she had won. She wouldn’t have to be involved with that disgusting man again, and she also had the confidence to make such a person never think about such a thing again in his life if she came across one. The past was just the past. She thought that it was alright since she was no longer as weak as she was before. However, the woman inside the mirror had cruel eyes.

The truly strong laugh and smile. That was because they knew that whatever harm that came their way was unable to harm them. However, the weak barked. They barked while praying that the danger wouldn’t come their way. The woman inside the mirror was on her guard in order to hide her weakness. It was the worst kind of gaze.

Joohyun pushed down on her cap.

“Should we walk another round?”

“……”

“Looks like we should.”

So this was the reason he kept taking detours. Joohyun sighed. If she met her little brother in her current state, she would have given him an unpleasant experience again. Showing him her weak side once was enough.

Maru bought a sports drink from a nearby vending machine.

“I was making such a disgusting face. No wonder people didn’t recognize me.”

Joohyun smiled in self-loathing as she drank the sports drink. Maru, who had been staying quiet while standing next to the vending machine, spoke,

“Bangjoo, he’s a good kid. He depicts his sister as some kind of a freakish monster, but people would never even talk about someone else if they truly hated them. He’s a good little brother that likes his big sister. I thought that he was a good junior without any problems but I came across something strange about him today. He’s too cheerful regardless of the moment. It’s quite strange. It’s like he thinks that he can’t be dejected. Putting it that way, the fact that he can’t reduce his voice is probably also related to this.”

Maru drank his drink in one gulp and crushed the aluminum can with his hands.

“But when I had a look at your face today, I think I know why. Actually, the reason I called you here was because of two things. One was that I wanted you to teach us some tips and tricks for acting as a senior to a junior, and the other was that - I know it might be rude of me to do this but - I wanted to talk to you regarding Bangjoo.”

Joohyun leaned against the wall and looked down at the canned drink. She could see the drink making waves inside the can. When she stared at the drink long enough, she saw the man with the disgusting smile inside that hole. She immediately threw the can on the floor and stomped on it with her shoes. She heaved out a deep breath, which made her feel better.

“If he looks that way, then it’s probably because of me.”

“Hm, I had my thoughts, but it looks like you know something after all.”

“Of course I do. Haa, perhaps it was negligence on my part. At that time, I was busy taking care of myself. Also, Bangjoo, that kid is quite reassuring. He has done everything since he was young, and he didn’t cry when he was in front of me. He was able to cook and do the laundry ever since he entered elementary school, and he never came to me for homework. After entering middle school, he had become the perfect single man. Perhaps I might have become relieved in one corner of my heart since he was like that. Ah, he’s okay. He’ll do fine on his own.”

The day that nameless president stroked her body, and she shook off his hands with the resolve to die, her brother had seen her in the state where half of her soul had escaped her body. That boy silently cried in front of her locked door. He kept standing there throughout the night. During that time, she bashed her head into a wall and spent time severed from the rest of the world in order to forget about that horrific experience, as well as to find a new path forward.

She stood back up again while resolving to herself that she would never be hurt again in the future. Right now, she realized that it was just her way of escaping reality, but it didn’t matter. What was important here was her brother. Was he really okay during that horrible time?

When it became morning, her little brother started the morning for her with a brighter expression and a more energetic voice. Seeing him act that way, she was relieved and just went about her day as usual while not thinking much about it. However, he was just an elementary school kid back then. Would he really have spent the night up without any side effects at all?

Was Bangjoo really okay that day?

Really?

“So that’s why you’re caring so much about us? How kind of you.”

“Uhm, honestly speaking, Bangjoo needs to do well in acting. A friend of mine wants the grand prize this time. So we’ll have to fix Bangjoo. Each person we lack is a step further from reaching that goal.”

“So you’re worried about your grades rather than about someone else’s family?”

“I’d appreciate it if you say that I’m worried about both.”

“Hey, you’re quite a cold kid.”

“The only people that can be at ease because they’re pursuing profit is a coward. Rather than that, can we get going? We’ve been walking around several times already. If you’re okay, we should really get going.”

“Phew. How’s my face? Does it still look scary?”

“No, it’s pretty.”

“Why don’t you come up with a better lie?”

“Usually, I’m good at lying, but it’s not working for some reason today.”

Joohyun heaved out a deep breath before straightening her back. It seemed that it was about time she had to face the really important problem that she had been subconsciously avoiding this whole time. Now that she thought about it, she rarely had a proper talk with her brother. Perhaps it was her that had been avoiding it this entire time. She must have been running away because the events of that day might pop up if they kept conversing.

“Let’s have a talk after today’s stuff is over.”

“Sure.”

Maru smiled as he spoke. Joohyun smiled as well. Just what was this kid? Well, there was no way someone ordinary would have said the same thing as Haejoo.

“Hey, do you know who Jung Haejoo is?”

“Who’s that?”

“It’s fine if you don’t know.”

Joohyun pushed Maru’s back and told him to lead the way.

Chapter 296

Lettuce and tomatoes could be seen between the two sandwich breads. Thinking that there was quite a lot, Maru took a bite. The crunchy feeling definitely felt good, but it was too ‘clean’ tasting and it didn’t taste like much. Eating the sandwich in his hand, he looked at Joohyun.

“So in the end, both observation skills and expression skills are important.”

The students who were focusing on Joohyun's words all nodded. It had been around an hour since she started talking, but both Joohyun, the one speaking, and the club members were showing an incredible amount of concentration and were not going off track. Joohyun explained to them what being an actor was, as well as what acting is based on her own experiences.

Another thirty minutes passed while they listened to the vivid experiences. Joohyun ended her speech with ‘you’ll receive as much as you practiced’. The moment she laid back on her chair after heaving out a deep breath, one of the people in the café quietly approached her.

“I was waiting because it looked like you were doing something important. Uhm, excuse me, but can I take a picture with you?”

It was one of Joohyun’s fans who had recognized her. People inside the café started gathering around one by one due to the commotion. Joohyun did not get flustered and just smiled back at them as she took pictures with them and gave them autographs.

Meanwhile, Maru went to the counter and ordered some drinks for takeout.

“Is she Ahn Joohyun?”

“Yes.”

“Oh, my.”

Even the store owner left the counter to get an autograph. After a round of commotion, the group left the café while being seen out by the owner.

“Ahn Bangjoo. Have a talk with me,” Joohyun said to Bangjoo.

“Right now?”

Maru pushed Bangjoo’s back since he seemed rather hesitant.

“Go ahead. Practice is over now.”

Bangjoo politely greeted everyone that he’d be leaving first and disappeared along with Joohyun.

“Let’s finish up here for today. You guys should go back home.”

“Thanks for your work.”

“We’re off!”

Jiyoon and Aram crossed arms as they walked together, and Dowook soon disappeared on his bike.

“Be careful.”

“You too, Maru.”

Daemyung and Maru separated as well after talking about practice for just a little longer.

As quite some time had passed since they met Joohyun, the skies were pretty dark. The streets were filled with the light of street signs and all sorts of smells of food. Maru became somewhat relaxed due to the familiar night air.

Just as he was walking past a shoe store with a lot of students, his phone started ringing. The caller was Junmin.

“Yes, president.”

-Where are you right now?

“In Suwon.”

-Are you far away from Suwon station?

“No, I can get there in a few minutes if I get a bus.”

-Then come to Suwon station. There should be someone waiting.

“Someone, you say?”

-He’ll tell you the specifics. Also, you’ll be receiving a phone call so don’t forget to take it.

Junmin then immediately hung up. Some thumping sounds from music could be heard in the background, and Maru was not able to guess where he was. An adult establishment? A night club? He didn’t even get to ask what it was about since it sounded like he should hurry. Maru got on the bus even while being a little confused. He got an empty seat at the back and was looking at his phone. Just then, his phone started ringing, just as Junmin said.

“Hello?”

-Is this Mr. Han Maru’s phone?

“Yes. I’m Han Maru.”

-Oh, alright. You got a call from your president, didn’t you?

“I did, but I didn’t get to hear what it was about. What’s it about?”

Just in time, Suwon station could be seen ahead. After a buzzer sound, everyone stood up. As this was a full bus, Maru wasn’t in a situation where he could stand up while he was still on his phone. He told the other party that he’d call right back before standing up. When the bus arrived at Suwon station and opened the back door, there was a small turmoil.

“Hey! Get on after we get off!”

“You guys are really impatient.”

As it was rush hour, the bus spat out people from both the front and the back, and people got on from both the front and the back. Maru barely managed to get off the bus among the crowd of people that were rushing to get on. It was understandable that they wanted to go home early and rest, but who would be blamed if someone got hurt because of their actions?

Watching the bus take off with full passengers again, Maru redialled the phone number that he received before.

-Are you at Suwon station?

“Yes. I’m right in front of it.”

-I’m sorry, but can you wave your hand for me?

Maru waved his hand above his head beneath the pedestrian crossing in front of Suwon station. When he did, one of the cars parked on the side made a horn sound before approaching. It was a black middle-sized car.

“Mr. Han Maru?” The man asked with a smile as he got out of his car. The man, who seemed to be in his mid twenties, was wearing jeans and a hoodie.

“Yes. I’m Han Maru.”

“Looks like I was right. Should we go to a nearby café first?” The man spoke as he looked around.

“But you can’t leave your car here.”

“What?”

“The crackdown here is no joke. 30 minutes after your park, you’ll get a parking ticket, and if you’re unlucky, they’ll tow your car.”

Maru pointed at the car as he spoke. The traffic situation in front of Suwon station was very complex thanks to some traffic construction, especially since the construction was blocking three of the eight lanes. Thanks to that, cars parked here illegally were generally towed away immediately.

“Then what do I do?”

Maru wondered why he was asking him. He replied to the man who was slightly panicking.

“There will be some room if we go just a little further, so let’s go there.”

“Shall we?”

The man smiled and got in the car again. Maru also got in the passenger seat. It seemed like it was a new car as the smell from the air conditioner was quite intense.

“Please allow me to open the windows.”

The man turned off the air conditioner and opened the window. After going past the station, the car turned right. As that place was quite far away from the commercial district, the traffic situation was much better.

“That looks like a good place,” the man pointed at a café to the right and spoke.

While he looked for a place to park, Maru was looking at the piece of bread next to the gearbox. The surface of it was dried out as though it was left out after just one bite. Next to that was a pack of soybean milk that he hadn’t even started drinking.

“Have you had dinner yet?”

“Eh? Ah, not yet.”

The man smiled awkwardly.

“How about we go to that Gukbap place rather than a café? I think that looks like a better place to talk.”

“Shall we?”

The man visibly brightened up. Maru looked at the man with pity, thinking that he should at least eat while he was working. After getting out of the car, the two went through the entrance which had a big boiling pot right next to it. As this place had a shabby sign and was located pretty far away from Suwon, Maru thought that there wouldn’t be that many people here, but unexpectedly, there were quite a lot of customers.

“We have an empty table on the second floor.”

They were guided by an employee to the 2nd floor. When they sat near the window, one lady immediately brought them wet towels and a bottle of water.

“We only have seolleongtang[1] on our menu. Do you want two portions?”

“Yes, please.”

Maru replied in the man’s stead since he looked like he was refraining from speaking as much as possible. The man poured some water before giving it to Maru. Maru felt rather unpleasant since the older person here was acting like the inferior person. Maru took the kettle away from the man and poured the man a cup.

“Thanks.”

The man quickly drank the water. After drinking, he heaved out a deep breath.

“Ah, that’s right, this isn’t the time for this.”

“Uhm, you can take your time and talk about it after the meal. If you aren’t busy, that is.”

“I have plenty of time. I was just worried that you…”

“I’m fine. Rather than that, I didn’t get to know your name yet.”

“Ah, that’s right!”

The man rummaged through his chest pocket, but seemed to have realized something as he reached out to his bag. He was quite fussy.

“Here.”

He held out a business card with both of his hands. A business card? Maru also received the business card with both of his hands. The first thing that caught his eyes were the words ‘JA Production’. So he belonged to the same company? His name was Lee Byungchan, and there was his phone number as well.

“My name is Lee Byungchan, and I’ll be your manager starting today. I’ll be handling your complaints and your schedule or things like that and I’ll try to solve them as quickly as possible.”

Just then, the seolleongtang they ordered came out. Byungchan’s eyes were dazing out as he looked at the food.

“Uhm, you should eat.”

“Okay then!”

He took a deep scoop out with his spoon. He even held his breath as though this was his first meal of the day. He was practically drinking everything in front of him. Maru poured some of the sauce from the kkakdugi[2] before he mixed it in with the rest of the bowl. The thick and warm soup was perfect for his tastes. Perhaps it was because he had a sandwich for dinner, but he felt hungry as well and ate his meal while not minding about Byungchan.

“Phew, that was good.”

Byungchan made a satisfied smile. Maru also put down the spoon.

“I was feeling dizzy because I hadn’t had proper food in a long time. This makes me feel better.”

“Looks like you were busy.”

“Yes. Today’s the first day I started this job, so everything feels so new to me. I was originally an aspiring actor, but things didn’t go that well, perhaps due to my lack of skills. I was feeling pathetic while my parents were worried about me, and I coincidentally became a manager. Oh, sorry for talking about boring stuff all of a sudden.”

Haha - Byungchan scratched his head as he laughed awkwardly. Maru knew that people at his age had it hard, so he liked how this man could smile about it.

“Oh, that’s right. The reason I came here today is to greet you and get to know you, but there’s also something we must do.”

“Something we must do?”

“Yes. I didn’t know if you’ve heard about it from the president or not, but there’s a drama that…”

“Yes. I’ve heard about it. I thought it was up in the air because I didn’t get anything back for a while.”

“The thing is, there’s a schedule for it tomorrow.”

Byungchan carefully took something out from his bag. It was a stack of A4 papers. On the top, it said ‘Youth Generation’.

“You know it, don’t you? It’s a youth drama that just started airing yesterday.”

“No, I don’t really watch TV that much.”

Hearing Maru’s answer, Byungchan blinked several times. After staring absentmindedly for a while, he started laughing awkwardly as he tried to switch the topic. Was ‘not watching TV’ something to be so surprised about?

“Th- that’s right. There’s really not much to see on TV these days. A- anyway, it’s a drama airing on KBS, and season 3 just started. The actors in season 1 did so well that it became a drama that somewhat became an entryway to becoming a star.”

“Ah, okay.”

Maru remembered something. It was one of the dramas that his sister recommended him to watch.

“And you’ll be appearing in it as an extra tomorrow.”

“Huh? Me?”

This time, it was Maru’s turn to be surprised. If it’s a drama that’s already airing, the entire cast should have been decided already. But he suddenly had a role in it?

“Uhm, the thing is…”

Byungchan became hesitant as he avoided direct eye contact with Maru. He was the type of person who didn’t like talking about the bad things. People like them couldn’t easily make lies either. Maru thought about a few potential reasons and then talked about the most common reason for such an event.

“I’m a filler, huh?”

“Ah, yeah, well… it’s like that. I had a brief look at it, but your role is to stop others from fighting and get hit once. You have a few lines as well.”

Byungchan spoke as he flipped through the script. The directions read ‘glaringly after getting hit’. Maru nodded his head. This kind of thing was commonplace when he was a road manager in his previous life. There were lots of free actors in Daehak-ro, and producers used them as cheap replacement actors.

‘If there’s something different, it’s that Junmin put me in there, huh.’

There was no way a drama producer suddenly went ‘I need to put this kid named Han Maru in’. It was probably Junmin who had grabbed the opportunity to try and send Maru into the empty spot. It was plenty doable if he was acquainted with the producer. There wouldn’t be any big problems since it wasn’t any of the main roles either.

Just as he was thinking about that, Maru ended up seeing Byungchan’s eyes as he read the script. They were filled with longing as though looking at an old love. He was someone who had given up his dream of becoming an actor to become a manager, so it was quite understandable.

“…Oh, are you finished?”

“Yes.”

“Th- that’s what’s happening. But the shoot is in the morning, so you’ll have to be absent from school… are you alright with that?”

“Half a day is fine. I won’t have any problems even if I miss out a little.”

“Ah, okay.”

“But let me ask you a favor.”

“Yeah, sure! Go ahead.”

“Please don’t be so polite to me. We’ll be seeing each other a lot in the future.”

“Eh? Sh- should I?”

“Yeah. I’ll call you hyung as well.”

“That’s better for me. Ha, haha.”

Just as he was scratching his head, Byungchan flinched before putting his hand inside his pocket. It seemed that he got a call.

“Wait a moment, please. I mean, not please. Yes, yes, Mr. Sooil. Ah, yes. I’ll look into the schedule and call you back right afterwards. Yes, yes. Please rest at ease.”

After the call, Byungchan sighed.

“You look busy.”

“Yes, I mean, yeah. I’m not a manager for just one person.”

“You’re in charge of multiple people?”

“Yeah. I was put in charge of students who have less work than proper actors. But JA actually has quite a lot of student actors in it. There are many people like you who are acting while still going to school.”

“Really? I didn’t know how many people there are in the company that are near my age. So the one named Sooil is similar to me in age?”

“Yeah, he’s a high school student as well. But he’s a little picky, or should I say he differentiates his public and private lives too much? It’s a little scary to be at ease around him.”

Byungchan smiled faintly. Maru knew how he felt. Road managers were absolutely weak compared to the people they were in charge of. If the person they are in charge of is young and popular, they would even feel a sense of shame. That kid is earning in the hundreds of millions at his age, yet here I am driving away at the wheel - that was the basic outline. It couldn’t be helped that the brighter the light, the darker the shadow became.

“You can be at ease around me. Both of us have it hard.”

“Thanks. Phew, actually I almost ended up crying when you told me that we should come here instead of the café. Thanks a lot.”

This fellow had a good smile. Maru felt that it would be okay to be close with this guy if this guy was his manager.

“Should we get up? I need to get going.”

“Okay then.”

Byungchan stood up after emptying the water in his cup.

‘But wait, do managers carry around business cards?’

Maru thought about the business card in his wallet.

Well, it wasn’t a big problem. Maybe the president made one for him.

Leaving the building, Maru was driven to Suwon station by Byungchan. He looked like he was about to drive him home, but Maru wanted to send him off because he looked very tired.

“Then you should get going, hyung. Also, get some sleep. You can’t be driving while you feel sleepy.”

“Alright. You should be careful as well.”

Byungchan, who closed the window and was about to depart, rolled down the window again.

“Please take care of me in the future!”

“Okay.”

Byungchan waved his hand with a smile.

[1] Ox bone soup

[2] Cubed radish kimchi

Chapter 297

“Sorry about that so late in the evening.”

-That’s okay. Rather than that, if you are planning to be absent more frequently in the future, don’t tell me the day before, but just send me the necessary documents for the absence in one go. That’ll be easier for me. Then have a good rest.

After hanging up, Maru laid down on the bed and looked at the script. His line was simple. ‘Hey, hey, stop’ and then he would get hit. You know, just like the ones that get caught up in fights and get beaten up by both parties. The ‘student 1’ that he had to act tomorrow was that kind of role.

As it was a fight between students, there would be no fancy action. It would probably end once he’s hit by a blind punch. He read through the script around five times including the scene right before of his scene as well as the one right after. He found no meaning in looking into the flow of the story, nor the reason to do some practice. Extras should stay extras. It would be an even bigger problem if an extra like him wanted attention. He just had to get hit once and roll around on the floor before leaving. That was it. As dramas had a different personality to movies, he did not find the need to put his energy into it.

Maru left the script on his desk and left his room.

Bada, who was hogging the TV to herself, flinched and hid the remote somewhere. On TV was TTO.

“I’m not taking it away from you.”

“And you’re going to watch the news? Do you take me for an idiot?”

“Looks like you don’t have that much trust in me. You should trust people more. Rather than that, give me the remote for a sec.”

“Hell no.”

Giggling, she put the remote under the sofa and sat on top of it. Maru had the urge to remind her that there were channel controls on the TV itself, but decided not to.

“Where’s mom?”

“She’s the last shift today. She’ll be here by 11.”

“How about father?”

“Overtime work. I don’t know exactly, but it seems like some machine was broken. He won’t be home tonight.”

“Geez, that factory really doesn’t have a share of its good fortune.”

While watching TV for a while, Maru asked his sister.

“Is there something to eat?”

His stomach, which was full from eating seolleongtang had emptied again.

“There’s instant ramyun in the cabinet. It’s mine but I’ll give it to you. But just one bite.”

Shaking his head when his sister added that she couldn't be bothered to make it herself, Maru walked to the kitchen. Unlike what she said, there were two instant ramyun packages in the cabinet. It was jjamppong ramyun, but those tasted nothing like jjamppong.

He took out a nickel silver pot and put some water in it before boiling it. While waiting for the water to boil, he watched TV in the living room. He saw the man named Sungjae he saw on the set on TV. He was wearing make-up and on the stage, he looked like a completely different person.

‘A singer and an actor at the same time, huh.’

He remembered the words that Ganghwan said. If you lose out in popularity, you can be consoled, but if you were driven out because of your skills, you had nothing to complain about.

Idols were beings that dipped their feet in both the acting and singing parts of the entertainment industry. Before, they got their places in dramas through sheer popularity alone, but these days, they were said to win their positions fair and square through auditions. They were becoming specialized as well. Idols were becoming more and more fit to be called ‘do-it-all’ entertainers.

How was Sungjae’s acting then? Maru became curious about his acting skills since he left a good impression on Maru. He wondered if he received compliments or criticisms from the actors around him.

“Hey, isn’t the pot boiling?”

“I’m going.”

He put in the ramyun noodles and the soup in the boiling water before giving it a stir with chopsticks. He raised the noodles up and down many times since he preferred firm noodles and cracked an egg in the middle as well. He brought his nose up to the steam that contained a savory smell. Ramyun eaten at night was better than any food in the world.

“Don’t pop the egg!” His sister shouted from the living room.

Feeling that he was being used to the fullest, Maru grinned as he popped the egg yolk. He looked at the murky soup with satisfaction and put the pot on a tray. He glanced at Bada once, who was looking at him with shiny eyes on the sofa, and immediately went into his room before locking the door.

“Hey!”

Being able to lock the door was a truly joyous matter. Ignoring his sister who was bashing her hand against the door, he turned on the power for the computer.

He opened up an internet browser before going to his blog. As his blog was a minor one without any professional writing, not many people made visits. He usually posted about stages that he had first hand experience on or about actors. He just wrote things that he could tell others and as long as it was within the limits of his knowledge. Perhaps it could be compared to a diary.

He started typing slowly about managers. When he was writing, he remembered his past and the post became rather long. The pathetic truth that one’s own value is frozen while the one they’re in charge of becomes popular with the public and has their value shoot through the roof; how the days when the kids that warmly called them ‘oppa’ or ‘hyung’ only last a brief moment and they start shouting at them for their work; being scolded by their superiors, being disdained by their stars, and having their collars grabbed by the fans.

“I hope you won’t be like that, and I hope I won’t be like that…”

Maru read the last part he wrote out loud.

Isn’t it better to be in a symbiotic relationship? Isn’t it better to treat the person that will be your ears and eyes well rather than bad? Maru reminded himself of Byungchan, who had a great smile. He wanted to look after him more since he remembered about the first time he started working.

He turned off his PC and left his room with the empty pot. Bada was eating a pot of ramen that she cooked herself.

“You’re so bad.”

“Why don’t you say that after you cook one for me?”

“Forget it. I can cook one too.”

“Good then.”

He started washing the pot while talking about trivial things. These trivial conversations felt very precious to him. If this was his previous life, he wouldn’t have even said anything. The wall of silence between them changed into a wall of disinterest when they grew up.

“Do you want some snacks?”

“You have some?”

His sister smiled as though she was never mad in the first place. Their mother probably told his sister several times to not follow strangers who gave her candy when she was young.

Maru tossed her a pack of chips before going back to his room. He could hear the sound of the pack being opened through his door. Listening to the munching sounds, Maru opened the novel that he had been reading.

* * *

The scheduled time was 10 a.m. When he was sleeping in, his mother came to him and told him to wake up, and Maru told her that he had a shoot.

“How about school?”

“I’ll have to be absent.”

“Can you just take school off like that?”

“It’s fine. I’ll graduate as long as I fill the necessary days. So don’t worry about your son and go to work, Mrs. Lee.”

After walking around in his room for a while, his mom left with the words ‘don’t make your mom worry too much’. She had the last shift the day before, and the first shift the next day. From what he heard, the labor union at the mall she was working at started going on strikes due to matters related to the temporary employment matters, and thanks to that, people for the counter were drastically reduced, consequently making his mother busy. Regardless of era, irregular employment was always a problem.

It was Maru that took care of Bada’s breakfast in his mother’s stead since she was busy. He warmed up the soup that she made during the night and woke his sister up. She walked out with a drowsy face and started eating.

“How about your textbooks?”

“Got’em.”

“Homework?”

“I said I have it all.”

“Check to see if you forgot anything. Are there any printouts or anything?”

“No.”

“Don’t come home late, don’t go anywhere strange, and make a call if you’re going to be late. Okay?”

“Geez, you’re even worse than mom.”

Only after telling her to watch out for cars as she left through the door could he sigh in relief. He told similar things to his daughter in the past and perhaps the reason people became naggy as they became older and older was because they knew about the harsh part of the world. If his nagging allowed her to live an easier life in this world, he was willing to become naggy at any time.

He ate his breakfast with the cooled down soup and some rice. When he looked at the clock, he saw that the hour hand was pointing at eight.

“So there’s an hour left?”

He made some instant coffee and turned on the TV. The world was moving around busily as always. Watching the traffic being practically still on TV, he couldn’t be more relieved that he was a student. There was nothing more annoying than a traffic jam during the commute after all. He was switching channels to watch the news when one RBS news was talking about sexual services related to aspiring entertainers. The main story was that people were coercing aspiring entertainers into sexual services by enticing them with their debut. That news wasn’t that long. Either everything was very clear, or there was practically zero evidence.

When he was still immature, he was enraged when he watched news like these. He considered men to be trash. However, after he realized that there was no distinction between men and women when it came to being trash, he tried not to come to early conclusions. He primarily believed in the things he saw and experienced, and secondarily believed the things that were proven.

Perhaps there would be another news in a few days. And perhaps at that time, the offender and the victim might have switched.

‘It’s about time I get going, huh.’

Maru took his bag and left the house. He was appointed to meet at Suwon station. He took the bus to Suwon station and saw the familiar black car. He approached it and knocked on the door.

“Oh, Maru. Come on in.”

He got in the car. Byungchan was eating a sandwich he seemed to have bought from the convenience store.

“You should really eat proper breakfast.”

“I want to do that too, but I’m not in a situation where I can cook for myself at home. Want a bite?”

“I had breakfast.”

“Really? Then let’s get going for now.”

“You can finish that first. There’s still plenty of time, isn’t there?”

“That’s true.”

Byungchan nodded and stuffed the rest of the sandwich in his mouth. Perhaps Maru should have added that he could take his time finishing it. He opened the window with a faint smile. The weather was quite hot. If the sun was this glaring in early July, he didn’t even want to imagine what it would be like in August. He was just following a lady who was shaking the front of her blouse to cool down a little, when,

“Fuah! I finished.”

“You could’ve taken more time.”

“We have a schedule to upkeep so I can’t really do that. Put on your seatbelt.”

Byungchan turned on the car and started driving.

“Where are we going?”

“Sangam High School in Apgujeong-dong in Seoul. It’s supposed to be a high school but it’s fricking huge like a college campus. I heard that it’s a school for kids from wealthy families.”

“Well, if they live in Seoul, I guess they’re better off than most.”

“That’s true. Ah, I wish I could live in Seoul.”

“Where do you live right now?”

“Me? I do live in Seoul. Though, it’s a goshiwon[1].”

“Then in Noryangjin[2]?”

“No, not there.”

“How’s life there?”

“Don’t even start. If I lie down, there’s not even space for a cockroach to lie down next to me. You can experience what filling the entire room is like.”

Byungchan drove as he giggled.

“You should earn a lot of money and raise buildings.”

“Yeah, I wish.”

“It’s everyone’s dream in Korea to go traveling while being paid monthly rent, isn’t it?”

“Haha, isn’t that too small of a dream?”

“How many people do you think aim for that small dream? I think there’s around 40 million people.”

“Well, yeah, I guess I’m one of them. But hey, you should dream about even bigger things at your age.”

“Like what, becoming the president?”

“That’s a good one.”

“But this world is where a land owner in Gangnam has a better life than the president.”

“Why are you so pessimistic?”

“What, you don’t want to become a land owner in Gangnam?”

“No, I’d love to.”

Both Maru and Byungchan made satisfied smiles.

When very young, most boys wished to become either the president or a great scientist, and after just a little more, they wished to be firemen or policemen. After growing up a little more, their dream usually changes into entering a good university, and during college, it would become a good employment. Dream and age were inversely proportional to each other.

Like that, an ordinary civilian’s dream changes into becoming a land owner in Gangnam. It was a worldly desire, and not romantic at all, but Maru honestly thought that receiving rent from other people on a monthly basis looked more beautiful than anything. A rich land owner, how good was that?

“But I think a rich land owner in Gangnam is too big of a dream. After all, it’s even more difficult than becoming a lawyer or a judge.”

“Now that I think about it, you’re right.”

“Perhaps it’s even harder than becoming the president.”

“Yeah, that’s for sure.”

They were half joking and half serious at the same time, but soon they arrived at the destination. They were at Sangam High, where people wearing gym uniforms filled the school sports field.

[1] A (usually) very small, cheap residence in Korea targeted towards employment-seekers and examinees. All you get in a room is a bed and a small desk. Everything else, like the bathroom, laundry machine, and kitchen, is shared with other residents. Wikipedia link for more details.

[2] Famous for having lots of goshiwon, as well as its fish market.

Chapter 298

The school gates were grand and they looked as though the pillars were removed from the Parthenon. Byungchan said something about the school being comparable to a college campus, and indeed, just the school gates alone were different to other schools. When Byungchan was about to drive through the gate, someone walked out from the janitor’s office. A man wearing a blue security guard uniform walked towards the driver’s seat.

“Where did you come from?” The man asked politely.

Byungchan told him that they were here for the drama.

“Please park your car behind the school. There might be problems if you park it elsewhere, so try to park it as deep inside as possible. I hope you can park next to the people from the TV station. Did you get that?”

“Yes, I’ll do that.”

The man then saw them off by touching his security uniform hat once.

“Phew, it’s somewhat nerve-wrecking.”

“Do most schools have a janitor’s office at the school gates?”

“Well, the school I went to certainly didn’t have one.”

“Mine doesn’t have one either.”

Byungchan slowly drove along the edge of the school field to the back of the school.

“Wow, this place is huge.”

Even Maru was slightly shocked when he saw the parking lot and another school field that was hidden behind the school building. Two school fields for one school? The field near the entrance had grass and soccer goals, but the field at the back had tracks for the track and field activities. There was also a tennis court, a basketball court, and a futsal field around the outside.

“This place must be operated by some large foundation or something.”

“This place is incredible.”

Byungchan spoke nervously. Maru wondered what it was about and looked where Byungchan was looking. There were cars on either side of the parking lot, and every single one of them was a high-class sedan. On the left were cars produced within the country, and on the right were imported cars. It looked as though a slight nick would cost an average man’s salary. Even the wheels looked premium and just looking at them made Maru laugh in vain.

“Why are there so many cars that people would never be able to afford with a teacher’s salary?”

“How would I know? Hey, look at that one. Isn’t that a sports car where you can open the roof?”

“Wow, that probably costs as much as a house right there.”

They finally understood the reason why the janitor warned them to park their car ‘deep inside’. There was no way teachers drove such cars, so they must belong to the parents of the students here. Maybe there was some kind of parent meeting? In any case, Maru was flabbergasted at the completely different scale of fortune displayed here.

“It’s over there.”

Sighing in relief, Byungchan escaped the row of expensive cars and parked his car next to a vehicle with the RBS logo on it. People were moving around busily as they were rushing to prepare. People with boxes on their shoulders were heading somewhere inside the school. Next to them were some women following them with school uniforms in their hands. Those women were probably the coordinators.

“When does the shoot begin?”

“Uhm, it’s 12 according to the schedule, but it probably won’t start exactly at that time. I have a lot of experience taking part time jobs like this one, and there was always some wait.”

Just then, Byungchan got a call. While he was on the phone, Maru looked around. He saw someone giving orders with a walkie-talkie in hand. He was probably the producer or the assistant producer.

“Supplementary characters, please gather round!”

A woman who had tied up her short hair above her head used a cone as an amplifier to shout. Maru tapped on Byungchan’s shoulders to get his attention and pointed at the people gathering around. Byungchan covered the microphone on his phone and told him to go.

Maru walked past the school building sandwiched between two school fields and walked along a clearly landscaped path until he reached a smaller building compared to the main building. It was a building that couldn’t be seen from the school gates. It was a gym building with the entire front wall covered with windows. So schools like this do exist, huh.

“Please find a gym uniform that matches your size and change into it.”

The woman with the red cone pointed at the gym uniforms as she spoke. There were around ten people that came with her. They all started rummaging through the pile of clothes before going to the toilet inside the gym to change. Maru also changed into a gym uniform of suitable size. There was no smell since they seemed to have washed them properly.

“They’re currently shooting in the main building right now, and after that, we’ll shoot a basketball scene in the gym. There are students in class right now so don’t disturb them and try to move around on this side as much as possible. It’s also absolutely forbidden to smoke here so don’t smoke. I won’t be responsible if you get caught smoking, okay? You’ll have to wait just a little until the shoot starts.”

“Okay.”

The supplementary characters replied in a calm voice. They looked young, but they all seemed to be in their 20s. After the woman left, people gathered under a shade. Although they all looked different to each other, they took similar courses of action - dazing out. Some people started to read books, but not long later, the books became pillows instead. Maru also took out an MP3 player. He decided that he should enjoy this moment.

People started lying down on the cement floor one by one. They were still getting paid for this, right? This was a very good part time job.

“Stand up, all of you.”

Maru opened his eyes when he heard the sudden voice. There was a man standing in front of the sun. He was wearing a black sleeveless shirt and had a handkerchief tied around his head. He looked at the supplementary actors with sharp eyes.

“This is supposed to be a road for people to walk on. Who told you that you can lie down? Huh? Sit down if you’re going to wait.”

Hearing his words, some supplementary actors sat up like new soldiers that just entered the military, while the rest just slowly sat up while trying not to piss him off any further.

“Geez, this is why we can’t pick just anyone.”

After grumbling, the man left.

“Who the hell is he?”

“He’s the leader. Is this your first time doing this job?”

“Yes.”

“You can just ignore him if you don’t plan on doing this for long, but if you do want to do this for a long time, you should really not piss him off. He’s the one that decides which actors to pick for the supplementary roles.”

“Ah, okay.”

Maru found out the identity of that man after overhearing the conversation. Leader, huh. Any kind of workplace had a management-level personnel in one form or the other, so it wasn’t that strange for there to be one for supplementary actors.

“He’s quite a picky man. I heard that he was promoted to leader after working 8 years as a supplementary actor. He’s someone that knows the hardships of this job well, but he never cares about us.”

“That’s not good.”

“But what can we do about it? He has a lot of connections around here so we have to get on his good side. There are about three places that get their work through him. He does swear at me a lot, but I’m still thankful for him since he provides work for me.”

“You must have it hard. Have you done this job for a long time?”

“Me? I think I’m in my third year now. I was originally an aspiring actor, but I didn’t pass any auditions. I don’t belong to a company either.”

As the man had a good way with words, people started gathering around him. Maru also took off his earphones and sat with the group.

“Today’s my first time doing this job, is it hard?” A man with a neat haircut asked. The man at the center of attention groaned slightly.

“It’s different for each person, but scenes like this where we’re just people in the background, aka, ‘crowd scene’, is easy. Most of the time, it just ends while you daze out. The leader doesn’t say anything most of the time either.”

“So we can just stand still today as well?”

“Probably. I don’t have a script, so I don’t know that much.”

“We don’t get a script?”

“We don’t. Supplementary actors don’t get things like scripts. Sometimes, there are scenes where we have lines, but for those, the leader will tell us beforehand.”

“Aha, so that’s it.”

The man explained in kind. Maru had a look at his bag for a moment. He had a script inside, but he stayed quiet since there was no need to take it out.

“Have you tried acting with actors?” A man wearing glasses suddenly asked.

“Yes, I have. A few times. This might be a part-time job, but your experience does count. You know, in scenes where a security guard says stuff like ‘you’re not allowed to do this here’ if the main character goes to some super huge company and complains about his poverty. I had a few roles like that. It’s not much, but it does help out in your acting career. For scenes like that, you’ll have to mind about the camera, as well as the rhythm with other actors.”

Maru looked at the man explaining. He clearly seemed like he had pride in his job. These kinds of people were bound to succeed no matter what they did.

“It’s just a part-time job in the end.”

Just then, a man sitting further away from the group spoke. He didn’t give off a deep impression, and when he received attention, he immediately started fidgeting. Other people started whispering about him.

“You’re right. It is just a part-time job. I’m sorry if you found it disturbing. It’s just been a while since I received so much attention, haha.”

The man smiled and stopped speaking. People scattered since the mood was all ruined. It was as though all that talk just now was a lie. A bored atmosphere started appearing again. Maru looked at the man making a bitter smile. He said that he was preparing to become an actor. Taking part-time jobs like this was probably in order to get some experience. His efforts were downright ignored so it wouldn’t be surprising even if he became angry.

They say that carelessly throwing a stone might kill a frog. The one that ruined the mood just now probably didn’t say his words with that kind of intention. He probably said it just because of the piled up stress due to the hot weather, and the waiting time getting longer. As evidence, he was looking down with an apologetic face.

It would’ve been better if he apologized, and he probably knew that as well, but knowing something was much easier than putting it into action.

“Isn’t something like a traditional drama much harder?”

Maru approached the man who was looking into the distance and asked. He felt that the youth felt hurt because of those careless words when he was putting all of his effort into his work, so he decided to help him out.

“Wh- what was that?”

“You know, in traditional dramas, even the clothes look heavy. Unlike modern day-themed dramas where you can use pretty much any clothing.”

“That’s true.”

The man showed a kind smile to a high schooler that suddenly approached him. The man was neither particularly handsome nor did he have clearly outlined facial features, but he had a good feeling about him. Perhaps it was thanks to the natural smile on his face.

“A soldier outfit is actually quite hot. Waiting a couple hours under the sun while wearing that is just hell.”

“But the pay is the same, isn’t it?”

“They sometimes pay more for those. But even so, most people tend to avoid traditional dramas. Sometimes, it’s the opposite and you have to wait for hours wearing a single piece of clothing during the winter. And just when we get a portable heater, they say they’re starting. It drives people mad sometimes. The main characters get to stay next to the large heater, but for us… well… we have to fend for ourselves. But it’s much easier if you find a team that cares about their supplementary actors. Those people feed you well too. But wait, I am talking to you without any honorifics, but you are actually younger than me, aren’t you?”

“I’m in my 2nd year of high school.”

“Really? You did look young, but I never realized you were that young. But wait, you’re in high school?”

Just as the man looked at him with confusion, Maru pointed at the staff. The man followed his finger.

“The leader’s coming.”

“Ah, it looks like it’s starting.”

The leader of the supplementary actors shouted at the people.

“Get up. We’re starting. There are students in the gym, so follow instructions and don’t cause any accidents. We’re going to shoot the scene where you cheer from the side of the basketball court. There’s nothing difficult so just follow the instructions, okay?”

“Yes.”

At that moment, there was some commotion on the main building’s side. Girls’ screeches could be heard all the way from there. A group of handsome boys and girls appeared amidst the cheers.

“Move the equipment! Be careful not to cause any accidents with the students. It’ll be a big matter if they get injured or something so watch out for the heavy equipment and the cables.”

One man, who seemed to be the producer, walked into the gym along with the actors. A procession of the managers, coordinators, and makeup artists all followed in like vassals following their king.

“Now that’s some treatment…”

When Maru spoke in a small voice.

“Of course they get special treatment. They’re paid several times the amount we do.”

“Several times? You mean several hundred times.”

The man’s eyes were filled with a mixture of envy and regret. Ganghwan was probably worried about people like him. They were running out of jobs. It was now an era where effort did not equal to result.

“Supplementary actors! Follow me!”

Hearing the leader’s words, Maru picked up his bag and started moving.

‘We’re like labor workers being driven into a construction scene.’

Well, leader or foreman, they were pretty much the same thing.

Chapter 299

The air was refreshing. It seemed that the air conditioner was doing its job in a place unknown to them. To the left and right of the entrance were stairs to the 2nd and 3rd floors, and in front was a glass door with ‘Passion’ written on it in big letters. Through the glass door, Maru saw some people who were busily preparing for the shoot. Some students could be seen playing with a volleyball as well. It didn’t seem like they were in class though. They seemed to be here to help the drama out.

“Students, please wait.”

The producer that was shouting at the staff spoke to the students with a smile. He was a kind(?) man to people that weren’t his subordinates.

The students, while they followed the instructions, still shouted at the main actors of the drama who were practicing to look over to their side. When some of the actors waved at them, cheers loud enough to fill the entire gym erupted out.

“Sorry about that! Please wait a little more.”

“Woomin-oppa! I love you!”

“Oppa, you’re so adorable!”

Maru had a look at the girls that were screeching on the 2nd floor balcony. Isn’t that dangerous? The teachers had to move in order to stop a girl from falling over the rails. The girls gave glimpses to the actors in the court even as they were being scolded by the teachers. It seemed that they really liked the actors.

While the actors did a rehearsal in the basketball court on the right of the first floor, the supplementary actors started waiting again. During that wait, some of the students approached them. It seemed that they were curious about the identity of the people sitting here.

“What are you doing?”

“We’re waiting.”

“Are you going to appear in the drama?”

“For a very brief moment, I guess.”

“Aha.”

The girls did not stay for long. They seemed to have lost interest and went back to their group.

“It’s been more than an hour since we’ve arrived, but we haven’t even started.”

“True.”

People looked at the main set that was still undergoing preparation with boredom. Maru left the group for a moment because he got a call.

-How’s it going?

“I’m waiting just like you said.”

-I knew it. Oh, I have to visit the company because of work, so call me if you need me.

“Don’t worry about me and do what you need to do. I can just take the bus home.”

-I can’t do that, I’m your manager after all.

“That will be more comfortable for both of us. Get some proper food if you have time left over after your business. I’ll take the bus, no, I’ll take the taxi home. I’ll probably be paid a transit fee if I submit the receipt.”

-Hey, you’re quite knowledgeable about that. You’re not the type to lose out even if you end up working in a company.

“Yes, I hate having to make unnecessary losses. Anyway, you can do your business as usual. I think I’ll have to wait a little longer.”

-Alright, do your best. Oh yeah. Apparently, the producer there is acquainted with director Choi Joonggeun. And the reason you got in it was also thanks to director Choi’s suggestion.

“Really?”

That was rather unexpected. He naturally thought that it was Junmin who had put him in here. He remembered Joonggeun’s face, who he had seen a month ago at the movie set. Did he see Maru in a positive light? Or perhaps there was some other reason? After thinking about it a little, Maru made a faint smile. He was just a supplementary actor. Why would there be a reason at all? He probably just uttered his name at random when he was asked for a suggestion. Hanging up, Maru smiled at the leader who was glaring at him before returning to the group.

“Okay then. We’re starting the shoot. Let’s do everything in a single shot!”

The students that were watching were placed around the perimeter of the basketball court. Some cheered out loud, while some just chatted with each other. What the producer wanted was for it to be as natural as possible.

The camera started rolling and the actors started their bit. A tall actor dribbled the ball as he charged towards the opponent’s area before doing a lay-up shoot. The ball left his hands and hit the backboard once before going right for the ring, but it was unfortunately deflected away.

“Good, good. One more time. Let’s just do that one more time.”

The producer gave out instructions again and people started cheering. The students seemed to like the fact that they were doing something other than studying in class, so they cheered loudly despite the fact that they were doing the same scene again. This time, the shot went in. From the posture of the one that threw the ball, it seemed that that actor played basketball on a frequent basis.

“Good. Next, Lee Jin and Yu-ri. Badminton scene.”

From how there weren’t any lines for consecutive scenes, it didn’t seem like an important part. It was probably just shooting ‘ordinary’ scenes that went in between the important bits. This time, the boys started cheering out loud.

“They’re quite small. They looked tall on TV too.”

“Most idols are small. But they look tall on screen because of their proportions.”

The only joy for the supplementary actors was chatting since they had nothing to do but wait. There were quite a few others who had experience doing this part time job other than the aspiring actor, so they spent their time listening to those people.

“It would have been better if we saw them somewhere else…,” one person sighed as he spoke.

Although there was a celebrity right in front of them, they were people that lived in a completely different world than them. Just like how watching the lions at the zoo several times would make one indifferent to lions, watching celebrities like this for a long time made them feel indifferent. Moreover, they were here not to watch, but to earn money. Their waiting time was getting delayed indefinitely while the leader was looking down on them. They couldn’t be like the students and be happy that they were watching celebrities.

“Cut! Next scene.”

The shoot progressed quite quickly. The pace was definitely different to that of a movie shoot. Perhaps it was because there were no lines for now, but it seemed like they weren’t taking second shots for the scenes that made the cut. People started moving the equipment. After even the heavy sounding equipment was moved, the leader gave them a signal.

“Look here. The students will split into two sides and start fighting in this scene. There’s no fancy action or something like that, so don’t get nervous. Here, from you to you, you are team A, and the rest will be team B.”

At that moment, the woman with the red cone appeared.

“Who is Han Maru?”

Maru raised his right hand. The woman gestured for him to come.

“Why are you here? We were looking for you.”

“Because I was supposed to be a supplementary actor.”

“You’re right, but not right. You know what your role is, right?”

“Yes. The one getting hit.”

The woman nodded before telling the leader that she’ll be borrowing him for a moment. He followed the woman to the corner of the gym.

“Consider it breaktime and just sit down at ease. You just need to start looking at the actors worriedly once they start fighting.”

“Do we have to say things like ‘what do we do?’?”

“Saying things like ‘what do we do’ and ‘shouldn’t we call the teachers’ are good if you can say them.”

The producer briefed the students and the actors were going over the scene next to him. It seemed like the scene was about punching and dodging.

“I told you that’s not it. Look closely. The camera will shoot from your right side. What does that mean, then? It means that your right side will be on the frame, right? If you grab the opponent’s collar and swing your fist like this, the camera will catch that you’re not doing it for real.”

A man with a sharp chin explained to the two actors. He was frowning as he didn’t seem to like the acting of the two actors.

“Let me show you again. Exaggerate your movements. You don’t have to grab tightly, but if you swing your arm awkwardly, it will look terrible. Also, don’t just use your arm. Use your waist as well. Only then do the viewers realize that there’s power behind that punch. Here, look at me.”

A straight jab brushed past one of the actor’s nose. Maru, who was watching from the back, felt as though the punch went straight into the face. It was completely different from the idol boy’s punch from before.

The man didn’t look satisfied, but he didn’t frown at the actors for long. After a deep sigh, he encouraged them that they should try again.

“Director Kim. He’s the one getting hit.”

The woman introduced Maru. Maru slightly nodded in greeting.

“For now, you two can go over that scene by yourselves. Both of you are talented, so you should be able to understand what I mean with a bit of practice. Since you’re doing this, you must appear cool on TV, don’t you think?”

Director Kim turned around after speaking. He walked two steps towards Maru before scanning him from top to bottom.

“Phew. Your work today is for you to get hit by the punch from that guy over there. The producer will tell you the details during the rehearsal.”

“What exactly do I need to do?”

Maru asked director Kim who had a similar stature to him. Since he wasn’t here to fool around, he had to work properly. To do his work properly, he had to know what he was doing. Director Kim’s explanation wasn’t enough for him, so he had to ask again.

“You have to pretend to get hit.”

“Where do I get hit?”

“On the face. You’ll get hit by a backhand while you try to pull him back from fighting.”

“A backspin blow, huh?”

“Haha, you can call it that, too, I guess.”

Director Kim’s eyes were following the two actors that were practicing. Although they were better than before, they were still too careful. Director Kim didn’t seem to like their punches at all.

“It’s not like an action scene can be created in ten minutes,” director Kim muttered to himself.

Maru could read an expression of disappointment from him.

He was aware of how stuntmen were treated in the movie industry. They put on the masks of actors and do the action in their stead, but people did not call them ‘actors’. They were classified as ‘staff’. And the words that director Kim said just now was enough for Maru to tell how much the producer disdained such action scenes.

“The rehearsal is going to start in ten minutes. Please rest until then.”

The woman with the red cone shouted. Actors rested with other actors, while the staff rested with other staff members.

“I’m sorry, but I’m going to have to do the explanation now because we’re running out of time.”

“Okay.”

Director Kim nodded once before telling Maru to try grabbing his arm. Maru grabbed his arm with both of his hands just like he said.

“It will be the same in the rehearsal. If that kid does what he learned, then he’ll move like this.”

Director Kim pulled on his arm forward violently. Maru wasn’t putting strength into his arms, so his body was pulled forward. When he regained balance and started resisting, director Kim shook off his arm again. As he wasn’t told what he was supposed to do, Maru lowered his center of gravity and pulled his arm downwards as he pushed himself against director Kim. It was a clinching move from boxing.

‘When am I supposed to get hit?’

He looked at the director with that question in his mind.

“Hey, do you do sports?”

“Yes. I did some boxing thanks to my father.”

“Really?”

Director Kim looked visibly brighter than before. It seemed that the fact that Maru had experience boxing was quite good for him. He even put his arm around Maru’s like he found a comrade.

“You have a good posture. Your father must like sports, huh?”

“Yes. He was a boxer when he was young. Though, he never debuted as a pro.”

“Boxing, huh. Boxing’s good. Although there aren’t many matches these days because it’s declining in popularity, boxing used to be the thing in my days.”

Director Kim started weaving on the spot. He was like a child who found a treasure.

“Hey, are you afraid of punches?”

“I’m more afraid of money than punches.”

“Now, you know something. This will be easy. I tried to shake you off twice, right?”

“Yes.”

“Endure the first one, and get hit on the second. I’ll tell you which way you should turn your face when we do the rehearsal so don’t worry about that.”

Just as Maru nodded and said that he understood, a fist flew at his face. Although it was a sudden punch, Maru was able to react. He raised both of his arms to put his guard on and twisted his body sideways to block the punch with his shoulder. The punch stopped just before it hit.

“Looks like you did learn boxing.”

Director Kim smiled and opened his fist before patting his shoulder. Maru also loosened his posture and smiled back.

“Alright. Rehearsal is starting.”

After a moment’s rest, rehearsal began immediately. Director Kim stood in front of the two actors that were going over their fight scene. The supplementary actors participated this time. This was the crowd scene where they try to hold back the two main characters from fighting. Students were placed on the outer perimeter, and actors were located on the inside where the actual fight was going to happen.

“Look here. You two are friends that don’t like each other that much. A quarrel during class escalated and a fight is triggered when you see this guy trying to make a move on the girl you like. Alright? A tense atmosphere forms and you two start fighting. Well then. Our actresses should watch the fight anxiously, and the two of you grab each other’s collars and glare at each other. Alright?”

After he told the main actors what they needed to do, he started explaining to the supplementary actors. After finishing his explanation, the producer called the two main characters as well as Maru.

“Hey, grab his arm here. And Woomin, try to shake his arm off fiercely.”

The two then did what director Kim told them to do. Maru was supposed to hold the arm back once and get hit on the second shake. He tried rehearsing the action with the actor, Woomin. He was rather awkward at hitting as he seemed to be afraid of hitting someone else’s face.

“Uhm, it’s fine if I get hit, so do it with all your might. I’ll just dodge if I think it’s dangerous,” Maru told Woomin.

“Will it really be alright?”

“Yes. It’s fine.”

“Okay, then I’ll try.”

The producer raised his hand and told everyone that the shoot was going to begin.

Maru stretched his neck out sideways before standing in position.

Chapter 300

“The boom mic is in the frame!”

The man holding the boom mic hurriedly raised the microphone up when he heard the fussy words.

“You raised it too much. I’m not picking up any audio.”

“Okay.”

The boom mic tried to find its place that was neither too high nor too low. The person that seemed to be the audio director was whispering into the ear of the youth holding the boom mic, and they seemed to be words of encouragement.

“Be careful not to hurt any of the students. Well, then. Get yourselves ready.”

Maru pulled his chin inward and looked at Woomin next to him. The scenario here was simple. Woomin would try to rush into the actor on the other side, and he just had to pull him back from doing so. They already went through the action once, so there was nothing difficult for him.

“Get ready, stand by, cue!”

Along with the cue sign, Woomin rushed forward. Maru quickly followed suit. He glanced at the light scattered by the reflector and placed himself to the right of Woomin. His face wouldn’t be captured at this angle. Well, he was supposed to be an extra that was supposed to fall down after being hit once, so it didn’t matter to him.

“Try saying that one more time.”

“What, you didn’t hear me?”

“I didn’t. So try saying that one more time!”

He matched his steps with Woomin’s, who took a large step forward along with a shout. He had to be right next to him if he wanted to grab his arm as naturally as possible. The opposing actor closed in on Woomin. They were within arm’s reach of each other. The camera shot the scene so that the two people fighting were on either side of the frame, and the supplementary actors started to stop them without getting in the way of the camera. The mood kept escalating, and Woomin raised his hand.

Now, huh - Maru grabbed his hand. If he pulled too hard, he would surprise Woomin so he didn’t put that much strength into his grab.

“Hey, let me go.”

“You really shouldn’t do this.”

He said his only line today and pulled Woomin’s arm. Woomin tried to shake his arm out just as they practiced. Maru pulled the arm towards his chest just like what they did during practice. The back of Woomin’s hand came considerably closer to his face. Now, he just had to get hit once he tried to shake him off once more.

“Goddammit, I told you to let go!”

Woomin swung his arm. This was what they agreed upon. The problem was that Woomin tried to shake Maru off so awkwardly. Maru was supposed to get hit on the face, but Woomin was swinging his arm downwards. Maru wondered what they did all that practice for. He thought about what he should do in that short moment and decided to fall backwards just like the story. Maru fell on his butt and covered his face as he tried to curl his body up. Would this be enough for a cut sign? He thought that it might not be.

“Cut,” it happened, contrary to his expectations.

“Are you okay?”

Woomin approached him with a worried face. Maru nodded and grabbed the hand offered to him. It didn’t hurt that much but the problem was if the producer would accept this scene or not. Woomin did not look good either. And just as he had worried, negative words came from the director.

“Let’s do that once again.”

I knew it - Maru returned to his position quietly. Director Kim, who had been watching this whole time, approached Woomin and started talking to him. Have more confidence; swing your arm more violently - he was probably saying something along those lines.

“Over here.”

He was pressing his sore butt when the producer gestured for him to come.

“So you’re the one that Joonggeun-hyung talked about. You’re good. Did you learn action scenes like that separately?”

“No.”

“Really? I guess you are a tough kid then. Didn’t it hurt? It looked painful.”

“I can endure it.”

“What a tough guy. We’re gonna do that once again, and do what you just did.”

The producer clicked his fingers and shouted ‘stand by’. The actors got into position again and the students also started exclaiming like it said on the sketchbook. Maru stood behind Woomin again. Woomin’s expression was a little stiff. Maru wondered if that was because he heard some bad words from the director.

“It was good last time, so let’s do better this time. Stand by, cue!”

The exact same situation unfolded out again just as though they reversed time. The two main actors approached each other and said the exact same lines. Maru grabbed Woomin’s arm at the precise time again. The first attempt to shake Maru off went perfectly. Now, he had to actually shake Maru off.

Maru and Woomin met eyes just as Woomin tried to swing his arm outward. The hand that was supposed to come at Maru’s face brushed past his hair this time. Maru got ready to fall down, but the producer’s cut sign fell faster.

“Woomin. I get that you’re worried, but think about the camera. Also, what’s up with that face? The character named Chajin that you’re acting is a kid who doesn’t think about the consequences. Such a kid is swinging his arm out of anger, so it would be strange if you look like you’re struck with fear like that. I’m not trying to scold you. I’m saying that you can do better. You get me?”

“Y-yes.”

The producer frowned seeing Woomin who flinched back but just turned around. Woomin covered his face with both of his hands and sighed. The curtain of silence between the one who had a lot to say but couldn’t, and the person who couldn’t put his thoughts into action, seemed quite thick.

“Well then. Again.”

The producer stood in front of the camera without any emotion on his face. The atmosphere at the shooting scene fell to rock bottom. Even the students, who seemed like they were enjoying themselves, started whispering among themselves.

Other actors approached Woomin and tried to console him, but he didn’t look consoled at all.

“There he goes again. This isn’t the first time he’s delaying everyone, isn’t it?”

“You’re right. He’s driving all of us crazy. Does he not think about how he’s causing a disturbance for everyone? If we add up the times he caused delays, then we might have a whole episode worth of shots.”

“He does well at times, but he’s like this every time he makes a mistake, so the director must have it hard too. We’re almost running out of the production budget because we’re not getting any ad offers. And here we are, giving him money because he’s the main character.”

The chat between the staff members could be heard. Woomin’s image among the staff didn’t seem that good. The reflectors were put back up again, and the lights came on.

“Uhm wait a moment.”

Woomin raised his hand. His face was filled with sweat. The make-up artist quickly came and wiped his sweat out before fixing his make-up.

It seemed that he was sweating because of nervousness since the gym was cool enough for any sweat to cool down easily. Woomin apologized before getting into his position. The producer crossed his arms. It was as though he was saying that this would be the last time.

“Uhm, hey.”

Maru talked to Woomin before the cue sign fell. Woomin turned his head around slightly.

“Just hit me.”

“What?”

“It won’t end if you’re like this. I won’t get hurt if I’m prepared, so swing your arm with the intent to hit me. If you restrain yourself because of worry, then we won’t be getting anywhere.”

“……”

“Worry about ending the scene here rather than about me. At most, I’ll get a nosebleed, and I’m fine with that. I don’t think the director will like it if we keep dragging things out like this. How about it?”

“Alright, I’ll try.”

Woomin nodded his head heavily. At the same time, the producer shouted ‘cue’. This was the third shoot. It felt as though the tempo was faster than the previous two shots. It wasn’t that disturbing though. From how the producer was staying quiet, it didn’t seem like a big matter.

The two actors started getting into a fight again. Maru listened to the conversation as he measured the precise time he should start acting. As it wasn’t like he would be paid more just because he stayed here longer, he wanted to wrap this up as early as possible.

Just as Woomin’s arm flinched, Maru grabbed his arm with both of his hands. The previous takes were good up to this point as well. Woomin tried to shake him off hard. This time, he looked like he had made up his mind. Then came the moment where he had to hit Maru on the head. Woomin glanced back at Maru before shaking off his arm. He was definitely putting more strength into his arm than before. However, the direction was the problem this time as well. It was supposed to head towards Maru’s face, but it was heading towards empty air.

As he had expected this somewhat, Maru pulled in his left arm, which was still holding onto Woomin’s arm, towards himself. He could see Woomin being visibly flustered. Nice expression - he thought as he put his forehead against the hand flying at him. The boxing instructor told him that an ordinary forehead was stronger than an untrained fist. He probably wouldn’t have any problems with just this.

Along with a loud pow sound, Maru fell down on the floor. The sound was louder than expected. Thanks to that, Maru saw that the students standing around looked truly worried for him. It was as though they were thinking what if he was really hurt. Maru was relieved. This would probably get an okay sign.

“Good!”

The director shouted ‘cut’ and smiled with satisfaction. Maru said that he was okay towards Woomin who came to him.

“Sorry. I didn’t plan to hit you that hard.”

“I was the one who pulled, so don’t worry about it too much.”

Maru dusted his butt and stood up. In any case, the shoot was over. He had no more appearances, so he wondered if it was okay for him to leave. He thought that he should have a hot shower once he got back home. He didn’t do much, but he felt tired for some reason. Hot water was the best for fatigue.

“Wow, that was good.”

Director Kim walked up to him from the back and put his hand on his shoulder as he spoke.

“The sound was good as well. But it must hurt. You should’ve secretly angled yourself so that it wouldn’t hurt.”

“It would be strange if that was caught on camera, so I didn’t do it. Uhm, so, the supplementary actors can go home after their scene?”

“That’s for the leader of the supplementary actors to decide. He’s the one that decides whether to send people back or to take them late into the night.”

“Ah, alright. But we don’t get any additional pay or something, right?”

“You do. A lot, too. If you go home before 4, then it’s just 40 thousand won including lunch fee, but it’s 100 thousand if you stay late into the night. That’s why there are people who get on the leader’s good side and stay late into the night despite not having any appearances.”

“A hundred thousand? That’s a lot.”

“Because that much work is involved. Waiting without doing anything is quite tough too, unexpectedly.”

Maru looked at the set where they were shooting the next scene. The supplementary actors he was talking to during the waiting time were doing their scenes now. Though, the only ‘act’ they did was to act like a flustered student. The aspiring actor looked the most natural, perhaps thanks to his experience.

“The producer must be pissed too. There are people who are better than the main actors everywhere, but they have to take people like that kid.”

“Well, they are the ones that get the views, so it can’t be helped.”

Director Kim scanned Maru from top to bottom, probably thinking ‘what is this kid?’. Maru smiled at him before leaving the group. The shoot continued for a while.

“Thanks everyone for your work.”

The scene at the gym ended with the producer patting the backs of the main actors. The students, who had been enjoying themselves, seemed quite tired as well. It wasn’t that surprising though, since they had to go through the same scene several times.

“Your acting is becoming better by the day. You might just end up ignoring me in the future.”

“No way. You know how much respect we have for you.”

“He’s right.”

The producer grinned as he was surrounded by idols. It was as though the strict face he had on during the shoot was all a lie. His efforts into making the mood better for the next shoot was tear-jerking.

Wasn’t the producer supposed to be superior to everyone? It felt quite strange. Slight disdain could be seen in the smiles of both the producer and the idols. Power within the television media was quite incomprehensible at times.

“Director Lee.”

“Haha, director Choi. You’re here.”

The producer greeted the man that just entered the gym. There was an identity card hung around his neck signifying that he belonged to a TV station. Now that Maru thought about it, the people in the staff could also be separated into those that had an identity card and those that didn’t.

“Is the shoot going well?”

“It is. What brings you here?”

“I’m here for support. The drama production department is nagging me to support you from the side.”

“Haha… is that so?”

After talking up to that point, the two of them looked around before walking towards a corner. No, to be exact, from what Maru saw, the person not at ease between the two was the producer, also known as ‘director Lee’. This new ‘director Choi’ looked like he was at home.

An axe was thrown into the shoot schedule just as they thought that they were going to switch places. The supplementary actors were put in waiting again. When he approached the supplementary actors, they greeted him with smiles.

“You got hit quite hard back there.”

“I saw you talking to the producer. Do you know him?”

Hearing the sudden question, Maru replied to him that he was here because of someone he knew. The man who said that he was an aspiring actor opened his mouth.

“Didn’t you get hurt? It looked like you fell on your tailbone.”

“I’m fine because I twisted my body slightly.”

“That’s good. It won’t do you any good if you get injured. You should be more careful.”

“You’re right. But do you know who that man is?” Maru asked as he pointed at director Choi. The man nodded his head.

“He’s probably the producer from the TV station. He’s probably here to interfere.”

“Interfere, you say?”

“This drama is an outsourced drama. Although it’s called an ‘outsourced’ drama, the TV station is lending its staff as well as its equipment, so he can’t entirely ignore people from the TV station. That’s why it’s common for people from the TV stations to interfere. I’m not entirely sure, though. I just heard bits and pieces from around.”

“Aha.”

So they were like the super colossal company that outsourced its work and the primary subcontractor company?

Maru understood immediately why director Lee, who had the title ‘director’ just like director Choi, was acting submissive to him.

Chapter 301

“Lunch is ready.”

The staff started disappearing one by one when they heard the voice. Other than a few people to look after the equipment, they all left the gym.

“Go and have lunch. You’ll have to be back by 2.”

The leader left those words before leaving. The time right now was 1:20 p.m. They had to finish their meals in 40 minutes and come back. The staff were heading to the school cafeteria as though this was planned beforehand. Maru wondered if he could join them.

“We have to eat separately.”

The man spoke as he took off the training clothes. Maru found out his name during the wait. Park Woojoo. Although he said that he had a stressful childhood thanks to his name[1], he said that he liked it right now.

“We don’t get any food?”

“For us, we receive separate lunch money. 3000 won. So we have to eat outside.”

Maru nodded. He wondered if there was any place to eat outside the school. He remembered seeing a Bunsik restaurant when he was driven here. It wasn’t that far from the school entrance according to his memory. The dozen or so supplementary actors scattered. Some just ate some bread and milk that they brought beforehand. Maru walked towards the school gates through the back of the school. The luxurious imported cars had increased in number. Most of them were Mercedes-Benz. BMW and Audi could be seen here and there as well.

“This one’s huge,” Woojoo spoke.

“It has to be. It’s priced that way too.”

“It’s priced that way? I haven’t seen this emblem before.”

“That one’s a Mercedes-Benz as well.”

“This is a Mercedes-Benz? That’s not how I remember it looking.”

“It’s called the Maybach. If I were you, I wouldn’t be standing in front of that car. Scratch that and you might have to sign a slave contract.”

Maru brushed past Woojoo who was standing in front of the sedan. There was a Rolls-Royce next to the Maybach as well. He was wondering why the parking space right at the entrance was empty, but now that he saw the brand of the car, he understood why. It was probably something like the VIP parking space.

“So does it cost around 50 million won? I’m not knowledgeable when it comes to foreign cars.”

“50 million? That’s cute. It’s probably more like 700 million.”

“700 million? I guess I’m not getting one my entire life then.”

“Only the rich can afford stuff like that.”

“But hey, you’re quite knowledgeable about cars, knowing things like that.”

“Yeah, well.”

It was some trivia that he gained through work. When he was a road manager, he frequented places like Cheongdam-dong, Apgujeong-dong, and Myeong-dong, driving his actors to work. The first thing to watch out for when driving was safety, but in reality, he had to be more careful of the real-estate-on-wheels. He remembered the words he heard from a senior manager, who told him that his life would rapidly make a sharp fall if he ran into one of those.

He passed by the parking lot and arrived at the school entrance. The security guard nodded his head after giving them a glance. Following the road that led downwards, Maru found the Bunsik restaurant to his left. Woojoo and two other supplementary actors entered that place, while the rest headed towards the convenience store that was a little further away.

The restaurant was quite empty. It seemed to be because it was targeted towards students. On the wall, there were post-its full of writing from students. Celebrity autographs could be seen here and there as well. Maru wondered if this place was well-known.

They ordered the things they wanted to eat. Maru ordered a bowl of ramyun and a roll of kimbap. He wanted to eat some Doenjang-jjigae as well, but he didn’t order one since he knew that these kinds of places didn’t have good Doenjang-jjigae since it was targeted towards students.

“That kid back there was horrible. He has a good face, but he couldn’t look more awkward when he says his line.”

“It’s not just him, is it? Though, he did mess up four times in a row. If the producer had a bad personality, he would’ve been told to go home already.”

Since most of the others had experience doing this job already, they talked about how it was on other drama sets. Woojoo also talked about his experiences. Maru, who had nothing to say, just listened to the story as he drank the warm ramyun broth.

A lot of words were exchanged, but they were generally talking about the same thing - that it was extremely rare to find places where supplementary actors were treated well, as well as that it was extremely common to not get paid.

“Do they pay you on a daily basis like on construction sites?” Maru asked the others.

They all shook their heads at the same time.

“It’s all paid two months later. Am I right, everyone?”

When Woojoo said so, the others nodded their heads.

“It’s not like shooting the episode immediately makes money. Everything’s calculated after it’s aired. That’s why we receive payment in two months.”

“In my case, I have to actually go to the production company and get my pay, so it’s quite a hassle.”

“For us, they do directly deposit the money into our bank accounts, but more often than not, they delay their payment. So it’s hellish when paying for bills. It’s because they’re supposed to pay on the day I pay bills.”

One of them shook their head. Paid in two months? A part-time job was done because of the need for quick cash, so this was quite a weird way of payment.

“If you know what you’re doing or go through the leader, it’s okay, but if you get the work through some weird branch company, you’ll be in for a hard time.”

“I was like that when I started out. I went to them after looking at the ad in the newspaper and worked for two days, but the company that was supposed to pay me just disintegrated into thin air. I had to pay an application fee too.”

“Those kinds of occurrences are everywhere. It will be better if the TV stations have full control over them, but they don't. That’s why it’s harder for us. A friend of mine worked for about two months, and about 3.5 million won’s worth of money, but he never got paid. They said the company went bankrupt, and that they couldn’t take responsibility. It’s a hell of a world.”

They were a ‘passer by 1’ in the drama, and they were treated as one in reality as well. These companies were not the primary subcontractors of the TV stations, but were more like secondary, tertiary, or even quaternary subcontractors. TV stations - drama subcontractor - supplementary actors company - and then their branch company. As Maru knew what kind of things happened with one more chain in the distribution process, he could only smile in vain. There were always people that took advantage of the loopholes in a system.

“Isn’t there something like a labor union?”

When he talked about a labor union, the three others widened their eyes. They all smiled in vain.

“A labor union, huh. As far as I know, there is one. The KPU[2]. Am I right?”

The other two nodded at Woojoo’s words.

“But we don’t apply. We’re treated like temporary workers rather than official employees.”

Hearing those words, Woojoo added.

“I once got into a fight with a company once. After all, my pay was getting delayed indefinitely. Thanks to that, I couldn’t do any work for a long time because I was blacklisted by them. I looked into the KPU, but they told me that they can’t do anything. Fortunately, I met the current leader and was able to get more work now, but I feel the chills when I just think about what happened back then. If you want to fight, not only do you need the courage, you need to be prepared to face the consequences as well.”

“You must regret your actions then.”

“Hm, no, not really. If I endured it, I would’ve just felt more pathetic. I can handle physical hardships, but mental hardships are bad.”

He smiled bitterly. Maru did not talk about that anymore. Since when did this country’s laborers receive any kind of good treatment? Even in the faint memories of his 45-year-old self, he could remember news about labor unions going on strikes, so it would be even worse right now, where laborer’s rights were practically in the ditch.

At the same time, Maru realized that Woojoo wasn’t just a naïve young man. Unlike his silly smiles, he was a man who could fight against injustice. Being able to bear the consequences and press forward with fighting against injustice was an incredibly difficult, as well as courageous, thing to do. Maru himself wouldn’t be able to do it. If he could gain profit by hopping on the bandwagon of injustice, he would hop on it without a second thought. Compromise was the path to stability.

That was why he considered people like Woojoo as cool.

“But it’s not all bad. If you get to work with the true actors, it’s really enjoyable.”

“You’re right. I once worked together with the actress Gong Yeonsoo, and she actually paid for the meals for all of the supplementary actors. She kept coming up to us and asking if we were okay too. That’s when I became a fan of hers.”

“I met her as well. It was during a traditional drama, and she was really kind. She’s pretty, both on the outside and on the inside. The man that gets to take her as a wife must have saved the country in his previous life.”

Gong Yeonsoo. She was known as the Drama Queen. She became famous during her late-teens, and the rumor that a drama would always be successful with her in it started floating around during her mid twenties. That was something he heard from the host of a TV program that his sister was watching.

A drama that aired at the end of last year, titled ‘Wing of Love’, became so successful that even Maru knew about it. 54% peak viewing rate. It was a view rate that put all other dramas aired at the same time to shame. Gong Yeonsoo was the main heroine of that drama.

The three people started praising Gong Yeonsoo. A woman in her early thirties, whose beauty had matured, whose personality was more beautiful than a flower. There wasn’t a single bad word about her. The evaluation of her was just that good.

“Oh, we should get going now,” Woojoo said as he looked at the clock. Since they were chatting, they were nearly at the end of their allocated lunch time. They quickly paid for their meals and walked towards the school. There weren’t any people in the convenience store. It seemed that they went ahead.

When they walked past the school gates, they saw students at the school field. They were doing a group skipping rope. As they were told not to disturb the students as much as possible, they walked to the back of the school.

“Just what happened here I wonder.”

It was just then when a leisurely voice could be heard. Maru looked at the group of middle-aged people in front of the Maybach. One man was looking at the bonnet with a groan.

It was obvious that there was a problem. At times like these, the best thing to do was to just walk past pretending to not know anything. The others seemed to think the same thing as they walked past. Just then,

“Huh? It’s him. I saw him standing in front of your car, director,” the middle-aged woman pointed at Woojoo as she spoke.

“What?”

Woojoo turned around in a fluster. A middle-aged woman was still pointing at Woojoo with her finger. Middle-aged people with heavy atmospheres started looking at Woojoo.

“You were standing in front of this car, right? I saw you from the other side.”

“Yes. I was. I was just looking at the car. I mean, it was the first time I saw such a car.”

“He’s suspicious. I don’t think he’s a student here. What are you doing here?”

“I’m here for the drama they’re shooting over there.”

“A drama?”

The middle-aged woman looked at the others of her group. Some of them nodded since they knew about it.

“Then why were you standing in front of another person’s car?”

“I told you that I was just looking,” Woojoo raised his voice slightly.

He was suddenly being interrogated, so it wasn’t that surprising that he was getting angry.

“Hah! What a funny kid. Hey, young man. Why are you angry at me? You did something wrong, didn’t you? From what I see, you don’t look like a person that knows the rules around here.”

“The rules? Hello, ma’am. Did I do something wrong?”

“See? I told you he’s suspicious.”

“Excuse me!”

Woojoo’s voice became another level higher. He looked like he couldn’t stand being wronged.

Maru looked at the two alternately. What would happen to Woojoo if a commotion erupted out here? The cooperation of those middle-aged people was definitely necessary to shoot the drama here at this school. Woojoo did nothing wrong, so he wouldn’t be wronged or anything, but they might go to the producers of the drama later. The name of the crime? Offending their feelings. No, it was likely that the producers might act first. It might seem petty, but there were quite a lot of people who took those petty actions. Maru knew what kind of actions a person in a superior position did to a person in a socially lower position.

Maru grabbed Woojoo’s arm from the back. Woojoo flinched and looked back at him. Maru shook his head. ‘Why’ could be read from Woojoo’s eyes.

“Should I call the security guard?” Maru stepped up and asked.

He tried to be as polite as possible. He was expressing that he had no intentions on getting on their bad side.

“Security? Ah, Security. There’s a CCTV here, isn’t there? I guess I didn’t think about that.”

“Hey, go call him.”

Maru received the middle-aged group’s permission. Maru winked towards Woojoo and went to the security guard’s office to call the security guard. Only after the security guard came did they understand what was going on. The car’s emblem was out of place.

“There’s a CCTV in the parking lot, so I’ll go check right away.”

The security officer ran into the school building before coming back out with someone that looked to be one of the teachers here. The middle-aged woman that scolded Woojoo was still glaring at him. Whenever Woojoo looked like he was about to say something, Maru pulled on his arm to prevent him from speaking.

“I checked the footage, and it seems like some of the students played a prank during lunch time. I deeply apologize.”

The teacher took a deep bow. Only then did the middle-aged group start smiling.

“A student of the school? Haha, it’s natural to play around when growing up. It’s not like there was big damage done to the car, so don’t scold them too much,” the middle-aged owner of the car laughed heartily as he spoke.

The others also laughed saying that it was something that young people do. The scary atmosphere from before was all but gone.

“Hey. Don’t act suspiciously in the future. You’re lucky because you ran into good people like us. Others would have called the cops on you. Understand?” The middle-aged woman spoke.

She was still putting the blame on others until the end. Maru blocked Woojoo from taking big strides towards the woman. He also gave glances to the other two and had them help him hold Woojoo back from the group of middle-aged people.

“Geez.”

Woojoo sighed deeply. Hearty laughter could still be heard from the parking lot. The teacher and the middle-aged people were exchanging good words.

“There’s nothing good in getting angry at shit. Let’s just go.”

“Aren’t you angry?”

“Angry? If you become angry at every irrationality, then you’ll have a hard time living in South Korea.”

“……”

“I get what you’re thinking, but let’s get going for now. We get nothing back from getting angry, so there’s no point. Also, it’s almost time.”

Maru pushed Woojoo, who had a complex expression. At the same time, he remembered the faces of the group of middle-aged people, especially the middle-aged woman.

Avoid fights you can’t win, but remember their faces - that was what was on Maru’s mind.

Woojoo, who walked with heavy steps, sighed and told him ‘thanks for holding me back’ in a small voice. It seemed that his anger had calmed down a little.

Hot blooded youths are cool - Maru thought as he shrugged with a smile on his face.

[1] Woojoo means space.

[2] ‘Korea Television, Cinema, Theater Media Performer’s Labor Union’. Shortened to ‘KPU’ for ‘Korea Performer’s Union’.

Chapter 302

Unlike the morning, the atmosphere at the set was looking bad. Some of the staff members expressed their discomfort very openly. The guy named director Choi from the TV station was just talking to director Lee regardless of what everyone else was thinking.

“We’ll take a short break,” the woman with the red cone glanced at the director before speaking. Her eyes looked scary.

“How desolate.”

Everyone seemed to be at the mercy of director Choi. Regardless of whether they had an employee card hanging around their neck or not, everyone seemed to be wary of this director Choi. The difference was that the people with the employee cards were expressing their annoyance at their boss, while the ones without were clearly hostile.

A weak-hearted person would’ve gone crazy due to all the attention, but this director Choi didn’t seem affected at all. He was like a lion being surrounded by rabbits. Even if the others bare their teeth, they were, in the end, just rabbits. They weren’t capable of hurting a lion.

“Oh my, my dear actors. Have you all had a good meal?”

Director Choi delightfully greeted the idols that came back from lunch. Even though he had slight disdain in his words when he talked to the staff, he was very servile towards the idols. Is it uncomfortable in any way? Is acting going well? I’ll treat you to something later - kind words such as those were spoken. It looked like the atmosphere was becoming warmer at a first glance, but it was warmer only around that area. The other places were still as cold as ice.

Maru saw that Woomin had an awkward smile on his face as he talked to director Choi. From how he was giving glances to other people, it seemed that he realized that the mood wasn’t good here.

“I can’t keep you tied with me any longer. Let’s get to the shoot.”

Director Choi was especially mindful about the girl idol with short hair. Perhaps he was asked to take care of her specifically by someone else, or perhaps he had other intentions towards her, what he had in his mind was unknown. The girl with the short hair greeted director Choi with a smile.

“I’ll take my leave now. Director Lee, have a drink with me after the shoot. I’ll treat you.”

“Uhm, director Choi.”

Director Lee stopped director Choi from leaving. He dragged director Choi by the arm to a corner, and he looked very desperate. The gazes of the staff followed him. Director Lee started explaining something desperately with gestures involved, and director Choi firmly shook his head to express his rejection.

Director Lee clearly seemed to be in the weaker position, and that quarrel ended in a brief time. Director Choi pulled on his suit jacket and twitched his nose to replace his greeting.

Maru tapped on his chin with his finger as he watched the two people. What made director Lee so desperate? Why is the staff looking at the two directors? The tense atmosphere on the set started loosening. It wasn’t the problem-solved kind of loosening, but the I-have-no-energy-anymore kind of loosening.

“It feels heavy.”

The air was filled with frustration. No one had the motivation to create something. Director Lee put a cigarette in his mouth before he snapped the cigarette in half. It was forbidden to smoke at school.

“It looks like the shoot will get longer.”

“No, it probably won’t,” Woojoo replied to him.

How were they supposed to continue shooting in this atmosphere? The results were clear. Director Lee gestured with his hands. The staff started moving all the equipment outside the gym. He said that they’ll be moving over to the cafeteria for the next scene.

“Because they need to pay more if the shoot gets longer,” Woojoo said as he stood up.

Maru understood it instantly. Just like with movies, time was money when it came to shooting dramas as well. Just the human resources fee was considerable if they were mobilizing this many people. Also, there was the equipment as well.

“This drama is outsourced, isn’t it?”

“It is.”

“But I see that the people holding cameras or lights all have employee IDs on their necks. Their logo is from the TV station as well.”

“It is indeed the subcontractor that produces the drama, but the expensive equipment is all rented from the TV station. I mean, they cost quite a lot. Also, it’s not easy finding people that can actually use them. The TV stations supply the subcontractor with the production budget and the equipment.”

“That makes it easier to understand.”

The TV station provided the budget, the equipment, as well as the human resources. No wonder the subcontractor was in a servile position.

“You’re quite knowledgeable.”

“This is my third year working in this field now. Three years is enough to find out about most things.”

The supplementary actors also headed towards the school cafeteria upon the leader’s instructions. The cafeteria was not that far away from the gym, which was to the west of the main school building.

They stepped into the building while stepping on the shiny marble floor. Wooden tables greeted them just like a high-class restaurant. The cafeteria consisted of two floors, and it was large enough to host the entire school. The back mountain could be seen outside the glass window. Maru’s mind was not filled with the scenery of the school, but questions about how much the tuition was here. It was an independent school, so it was probably at least a million won per quarter.

“This is one nice school.”

“So this is what money gets you. How nice.”

The supplementary actors all commented as they looked around.

They understood why they picked this school as the set for the drama. The view was very good no matter where you went. It wasn’t the ‘square and boring’ school like ordinary schools after all. They could see students doing sports through the glass window. They were running freely around the sports field covered with natural grass. A camera was capturing that scene. This was supposed to be a youth drama featuring ‘ordinary high school students’, but the very environment screamed ‘fantasy’.

“You sit here. You two walk around with food trays in your hand at the back there. Sit down and talk about whatever. If you really don’t have anything to say, sing the national anthem or something.”

They sat down according to the leader’s instructions. The camera director adjusted the positions after glancing around. He seemed to be pushing the supplementary actors to the outside more so that the faces of the main actors could be emphasized more.

They spent around 10 minutes sitting. The shoot was just about to begin when director Lee walked towards the supplementary actors. The leader immediately approached the director.

“Yes, director.”

“Uhm, leader. Is there someone with experience? I need someone that can make a servile face. This scene wasn’t originally in the script, but we got an extra script just now.”

“If that’s the case… Woojoo. You can do that, can’t you?”

“M-me?”

“Yes, you. You can do it. Producer, this kid is quite good.”

Director Lee looked at Woojoo’s face before nodding. Maru raised his thumbs up and told him ‘good luck’. Around twenty minutes after he was called away, one of the staff entered the cafeteria. In his hand was a cardboard box. What came out of the box was a pair of trainers. The short-haired idol wore those shoes. Director Lee mentioned something about an extra script, but it seemed that they fixed the script so they could put the trainers as product placement.

In the end, it all came down to money.

The rehearsal began. When the short-haired girl put her foot forward, Woojoo bowed and apologized. He had a line, and his face was on camera as well. He had much more weight compared to extras.

“Good.”

Director Lee seemed to have taken a liking to Woojoo. The cameras were placed and the staff started preparing for the shoot as well. Maru started talking with the actor in front of him as he picked up his spoon. He didn’t talk about anything serious though.

“That restaurant we went to for lunch was quite good, wasn’t it?”

“Yeah, it was decent. There were celebrity autographs as well. It looks like it’s quite famous.”

Just as they were talking about things not related to drama, the cue sign fell. Woojoo started walking from Maru’s opposite side and collided with the actress. The actress, who was having a good time showing off her new shoes got angry at him and Woojoo took steps back, flinching away. Minor actors started attacking Woojoo with words after gathering around. Then cut.

“Hey! You were doing well last time. What happened to you?” Director Lee shouted. It seemed that Woojoo was the problem. Woojoo apologized to the staff and the other actors.

“Let’s do that one more time. Do it properly this time.”

That was followed up with a small ‘cue’ sound. The moment Woojoo started acting though, the director shouted cut again. The actress, who was wearing the trainers sat down in annoyance. Director Lee approached Woojoo.

“What are you doing. Do you think we’re playing around?”

“I’m sorry.”

Woojoo lowered his head like a sinner.

He seemed nervous. Maru sighed. Just like how it still rained, despite rarely, in the desert, opportunity found its way to everyone. Skill referred to being able to take that opportunity or not. Perhaps it could be called luck. One might sigh and complain about the opportunity not coming at the right time. However, a missed opportunity would never come back. There was only one thing that people could do, and that was to grab the opportunity if it came their way.

The entertainment industry was something where that brief appearance on TV might make or break a person. This was a world where a nameless actor became famous through just one appearance on TV. Woojoo probably knew himself that this was an opportunity of his lifetime.

The third shoot began, and Woojoo made a mistake this time as well. He screwed up his steps. Seeing Woojoo misstep and look like he was about to fall over, the director just laughed in vain. The leader took Woojoo away. Having returned, Woojoo just sighed and sat back down.

“This isn’t going well.”

Bitterness could be heard from his voice. However, that only lasted a brief moment. He soon returned to his smile. The nearby supplementary actors consoled him saying that it was okay. Woojoo smiled and nodded his head. Meanwhile, the director declared a break time. The staff put down the heavy equipment and stretched out their bodies. The supplementary actors stood up as well. Woojoo was within that group.

“Isn’t this an opportunity for you?” Maru asked Woojoo.

Woojoo blinked several times as he looked back at him.

“Did you tell the producer that you’d like another chance?”

“What?”

“Opportunity came your way. So you should grab it.”

Maru felt rather annoyed since Woojoo, who looked like he could fight against injustice, was looking so powerless here. Why not bring up that courage here?

“It’s nothing great.”

“Yet, you’re making such a disappointed face. Are you sure you don’t want to try again?”

“…I do.”

“Go tell him then. Tell him that you want to try again. If you can’t do it even after that, only then do you give up.”

“I already messed up three times. I’ll be inconveniencing others.”

“If delaying everything by five minutes is an inconvenience, I guess those people who screw up four to five times as much as you must be serial killers. Hyung, you were very brave against that woman before, right? That’s bravery that will make you face losses. Yet you stood up to her. Right now, it’s the opposite. It’s an opportunity you can profit from. It’s fine if you put a thick face on. I heard you got into a fight against a company because of payment delays. Why don’t you talk to him with that kind of resolve?”

“That’s a different situation though.”

“If you keep minding the situation, you’ll eventually be driven out by people that don’t mind the situation. Even a hero of justice needs food to eat. I thought your dream was to become an actor. Yet you want to miss this opportunity where you can have your face go on TV? What about after that? Do you think that picky leader will ever pick you again? Are you going to keep doing part time jobs forever?”

“Hey, watch your words,” Woojoo frowned.

“Good. You won’t be nervous if you get angry. Don’t just face losses and profit where you can. If I look at people like you, it makes me angry, honestly. Why don’t you care about yourself rather than others?”

Woojoo was a naïve and kind man. That could be seen from his attitude, expression, and actions. Maru could sit back and laugh when he was watching trashy people fall into shitholes, but he would become angry if people like Woojoo were not desperate because they were ‘considerate of others’.

At that moment, the director gestured towards the two. He was calling out to ‘the one that fell over’. Woojoo’s eyes shook.

“If the director tells me to take that role, I’m taking it.”

“……”

“To be clear, I don’t kick away opportunities that come my way. Right now, it’s right in front of me and once it’s within my reach, I’m definitely grabbing it. So why don’t you try and do something before it comes to me?”

Maru pointed at director Lee with his chin. Woojoo clenched his teeth before walking towards director Lee. The two started conversing. Director Lee scanned Woojoo from top to bottom before putting up his index finger. He probably meant something like ‘just once’.

Director Lee turned around. Maru met eyes with Woojoo. Woojoo nodded slightly. It seemed that the director gave him permission.

The shoot resumed. Woojoo walked in between the main actors. There were no mistakes made this time. He played a person who was pitiful and unjustified. The director gave it an okay this time. He seemed satisfied.

Having returned, Woojoo scratched his head.

“Aren’t you gonna thank me? I went out of my way to help you.”

Seeing Woojoo make a flustered expression, Maru smiled.

“If you feel thankful. Try to get me a place if you get something good next time. Sorry about acting so rudely before. It’s only effective if it sounds rude.”

Hearing those words, Woojoo smiled. At that moment, a commotion erupted on the staff side.

“You said that this month wasn’t a problem. Also, you said today that it will be done by two, didn’t you? Hah! I can’t do this shit anymore. I’m done with it.”

A man, who was standing in front of director Lee violently turned away. At the same time, the majority of the staff followed the man out of the cafeteria. The shooting location became a mess in an instant. The main actors, the idols, were at a loss while looking around, while director Lee and the staff around him sighed as they chased the staff members that left the cafeteria. People that seemed to be the managers came in and started making calls. Only the people with TV station employee cards were calm.

“Looks like something happened.”

The supplementary actors also made a move to find out what this was about.

Maru also left the building for now.

Chapter 303

What Maru saw first after leaving the building were the staff that were standing on the opposite side of director Lee. There was no commotion though, since both sides seem to understand that nothing good would come out of causing a commotion within school grounds.

“I said we should shoot for now. Only if the episode goes on air do we get more budget to work with.”

“I heard those words two months ago. You said the exact same thing word for word back then, too. Producer Lee, isn’t this going too far? Is everything okay as long as you receive your pay? You’ve changed too much.”

“Hey, I didn’t change at all. I’m also on your side. I’m eating out of the same pot as you.”

“You say we’re eating out of the same pot, so why do we get to starve to death while you get to have your fill? Look at our kids.”

The man who was standing opposite to director Lee grabbed a pair of two young men behind him.

“These two are our youngest members. They’re really hard-working, good kids. They come early in the morning to move equipment around, go on errands that your people give them, and clean up until the very end even after the shoot ends. But you know? This guy has a part-time job right afterward at a convenience store, while this one has another job at a bar. You know why, don’t you?”

“…Bro Kim. Let’s talk inside.”

“Who the hell is your bro! Producer Lee, no YOU. You promised us two months ago, didn’t you? That you’d pay us properly for the full amount that we didn’t get paid; that you’d talk to the CEO of the company and have the pay transferred to our bank accounts. Hello? Producer Lee? Am I, no, are we asking for money that doesn’t exist? We’re asking for the amount we worked for. A few of us can still cope with daily life since we have other work elsewhere, but these youngsters are putting their entire lives into this, yet you have the heart to not pay them? I know that TV broadcast runs on money, but aren’t humans supposed to be more important? No, even if humans are less important, you should at least allow them to have a proper life at least!”

“I know, I really do. That’s why I said we should talk inside. Things will get complicated if we cause a scene here. You should remember that we barely got permission to do the shoot here.”

“And who got that permission? It was one of ours that was stuck to the phone all the time, getting the permission, and coming here with boxes of drinks to hand out to the people here, wasn’t it? Don’t say it like you did the work.”

Director Lee raised both of his hands in an attempt to calm the other party down. It seemed that this was a payment problem. It seemed that they didn’t get paid for two months, or even more. It had to be quite serious considering that they were rioting during the shoot.

You should at least allow them to have a proper life at least - while the middle-aged man’s words provoked both the emotional and legal issues, it wasn’t enough to change the situation. Maru had never seen a financial problem that was solved verbally. Money-related problems were always solved through visible power, whether it was violence or an effective law.

“Doesn’t this mean that we have a problem as well?”

“Probably.”

Word got out amongst the supplementary actors as well. Where did the supplementary actor’s pay come from? The production company, of course. Even official staff that signed a contract with the production company had their salary delayed, so would the supplementary actors, who were considered like temporary employees, get paid in time? Probably not.

After realizing that this had something to do with them, people quickly walked over to the middle-aged man’s side. They started glaring at director Lee from behind the staff.

Director Lee became visibly more nervous. It seemed that he felt very agitated because the shoot was halted. The middle-aged staff member, surnamed Kim, kept asking him to call the president and get a clear answer. Director Lee had no choice but to make the call.

“Yes, yes. I’ll hand you to him. Here, take it.”

The middle-aged staff raised his voice as soon as he received the phone.

“Hello? Yes, we met once, didn’t we? I’m Kim Jangsoo. You do know why I called you, right? What? I should continue shooting for now? Are you fucking kidding me? You’ll pay me after shooting the next episode? Do you take me for a fool? Your sugar-coating won’t get you anywhere this time. Do you even know what we’re going through right now? There’s a kid that’s staying at a friend’s house because he can’t pay rent, and there’s a person who can’t even pay for food for his baby, you cunt!”

Mr. Kim widened his eyes before taking the phone off of his ears. He laughed once before handing the phone back to director Lee.

“So you’re hanging up on me, huh. Let’s pull out. We’re not getting paid for our work anyway. We aren’t playing around here.”

The staff members behind him all nodded. It seemed that they were prepared for this. At that moment, people not standing on either director Lee nor Mr. Kim’s side started speaking. They were the staff members that were standing with the people with the TV station employee cards.

“Let’s shoot for now. He did say he’ll pay you after shooting the next episode, didn’t he? Also, if you quit like that, the TV station might claim damage. So let’s talk about it after we finish shooting the episode. They should have their own circumstances, shouldn’t they?” One person, who had an employee card on his neck, spoke.

Maru scratched his eyebrows as he looked at the three groups. Director Lee and the production company’s side, Mr. Kim and his staff members, and lastly, the staff members employed by the TV station. The sides that had stable salaries were saying that they should shoot for now, and the other side was saying that they will not budge unless they got paid first. Common sense dictated that whatever company that was paying them should pay them to get them going, but from the looks of it, it seemed that this company had no intentions of paying them right now.

“Hey, you can’t do this to us. You can say that because you get monthly salaries. How desperate do you think we are to the point that we are taking our hands off everything? You know what it’s like, so you can’t do this to us. Also, damage claims? Stop kidding. You want to discuss who did bad things first?”

“That doesn’t mean you can just dump your work like that. You should be responsible for your work. Don’t you have any love for the work you’re doing?”

“Love? LOOOVE!? Try living in a run-down single room and eat ramyun for three meals a day. Any love you have will be gone. If you want to shoot it so much, then you can shoot by yourselves for all I care. Or else, you can pay us with your own money, considering it as sharing your so-called love.”

“Are you shitting me?”

“You know better if I’m shitting you or not.”

Maru nodded his head and inwardly applauded. The one called Mr. Kim had awesome verbal skills. Even the TV station staff started glaring at the man that talked to him. They were indirectly telling him to read the mood a little.

The staff members on Mr. Kim’s side started turning around with cold eyes. It seemed that they were set on leaving.

“Bro Kim! You can’t leave like that!”

Director Lee grabbed Mr. Kim.

“Bro Kim, yes. I already got the money. I did. I also know how hard your lives are. But if you leave like this, you’ll have an even worse time. Do you think the production company will try to prevent you from leaving at all costs? You know they won’t. They’ll just hire new people.”

Hearing those words, the people that were leaving all stopped in their tracks as though they hit an invisible wall.

This was the worst ace-in-the-sleeve - Maru thought. Mr. Kim’s ‘right words’ could not win against director Lee’s ‘realistic words’. Director Lee’s words were a snare trap. No matter how hard Mr. Kim wanted to ignore it and shake it off, it was already around his neck. The moment he started walking, it would end up strangling his neck. Everyone here knew that. The hostile atmosphere died down in an instant.

Director Lee’s words contained rotten hope. Although they were working without pay, just the fact that they were working gave them a sense of stability. Director Lee touched on that. If they left now, even that ‘work’ would disappear.

Most of the staff members were in their early to mid twenties. Those young people turned around slightly and looked at director Lee. While they needed money, an opportunity to gain career experience was also important to them. This might be no different from a part-time job in terms of environment, but it was also a job that got better treatment the more experience you had. Working part-time at a petrol station or a PC bang was never a ‘career experience’, but experiencing the TV broadcasting scene raised them to ‘immediate usable manpower’ status.

Mr. Kim and a few others were still showing their frustration, but the majority was alternating between director Lee and Mr. Kim with unease.

It was over now. The goddess of victory took director Lee’s side. Overdue wages versus unemployment. Faced with a choice, even Maru would choose overdue wages over being unemployed, even if it meant that his payment was getting delayed indefinitely. Without the confidence to get another form of employment immediately, it would be extremely difficult to let go of one job.

‘While that’s true, it still feels… ’

Bitter. It was no longer a world where the offender had uneasy and sleepless nights and the victim could rest at ease. It was a world where the victim became tragic and sleepless, and the offender proudly walked out in the open.

Maru did want to help them. However, he couldn’t because he had no realistic solution in his mind. Telling them to cheer up in consolement was no different from making fools out of them.

The meaningless dispute was nearing its end. Mr. Kim had a look at the expression of his team members before sighing.

“Can’t we get one month’s worth of payment at least? Let us pay our bills at least.”

“I’ll ask the president again. If they had the money, they would’ve paid you already. But the fact that they don’t means that they have their own circumstances. We are colleagues in this business, there’s no way they’re doing this on purpose, right? Also… the students are watching us, so let’s not make a big deal out of this any further.”

Students had come to watch from some time onward. It wasn’t just the students. People that seemed to be their parents were also here. Perhaps today was parent’s day after all? Seeing that they had attracted a lot of attention, Mr. Kim frowned.

Just as he was about to give the final decision, one person stepped out from behind the students.

“Excuse me, what is going on here?”

“It’s nothing much.”

“It doesn’t look like ‘nothing much’. That man’s voice is so loud that I’m worried that it might disturb the students in class.”

A middle-aged woman dressed in a suit frowned as she spoke. Director Lee quickly apologized.

“Don’t ruin the student’s study environment and work quietly. From the gist of it, this seems to be a problem stemming from a small amount of money. You shouldn’t do that as grown men. What would the students think about you?”

“Yes, yes. You’re entirely right. We’ve managed to come to a conclusion for now, so you need not worry.”

“You look like you reached a conclusion all by yourself though. That man still looks like he’s about to shout. Am I wrong?”

The woman in the suit stood in front of Mr. Kim. She then stared at Mr. Kim with disdain. Just as Mr. Kim twitched his lips and was about to shout at her, a man who seemed to be similar in age to him quickly held him back. Mr. Kim sighed as he spoke.

“Fine, I’ll be quiet. But also, you can’t just say that because it’s not related to you.”

Mr. Kim spat on the ground before turning around. When he did, the woman growled in a low voice.

“What is up with you? Who told you you can act like that here? You should listen if people are speaking to you nicely. Where do you think this is? Do you think you can act as you wish here? Are you some thug? Or the mafia?”

“And why the heck are you sticking your nose in other people’s businesses, huh?”

“My, dear. Excuse me. Hello? This is a school. This is the place where they teach youngsters not to become people like you. Hah, geez, how absurd you are.”

“People like me? Hey, woman. Let’s get that straight. You mean people like you.”

“What was that? Are you sure this man isn’t the mafia? Hello? Who told you that you could be here? On whose permission?”

The woman spoke to director Lee. Director Lee calmly replied to her that they were shooting a drama.

“Aah, drama, huh. Hey, you. Where do you work? Name your company. Do you think I will stay still when dealing with people like you? Thugs like you need some reprimanding.”

“And why do I need to tell you who I work for, ahjumma?”

“Hah, ahjumma? Hey, what TV station does he belong to? I have people I know over at UBS.”

“He has no relationship with a TV station though,” director Lee spoke stiffly.

The woman snorted when she heard those words.

“Then what, is he a part-time worker then?”

“He does belong to a company but… ma’am. I’ll take care of things here. So, haha, please let us go here.”

Director Lee lowered his head. The middle-aged woman frowned.

“Are you the producer?”

“Eh? Oh, yes, I am.”

“You must be having a hard time thanks to strange people like them. I’m the chairwoman of the Parents Association at this school. Tell me if any problem arises due to people like him. I’ll go talk to the director of the school immediately.”

“Oh, no. Not at all. You must be busy, so you don’t need to use your precious time for us. I’ll take care of it myself.”

“Geez. There are so many uneducated people these days. How dare they shout in front of my babies like that. What does he think this school is? Hey, apologize to me right now.”

The middle-aged woman glared at Mr. Kim.

This was probably what it meant by ‘there are always people above you’. Maru looked at Mr. Kim, whose face was turning red due to anger and frustration. If he really fought that parent here, he would cross the line of no return. Maru looked at Woojoo who was standing behind Mr. Kim and signaled him to hold Mr. Kim back. However, he ignored Maru’s gesture due to being angry himself.

Mr. Kim’s lips twitched. Maru scratched his eyebrows. It seemed that he was about to fight big time here.

He decided to interrupt and act as the ‘good boy’. Maru immediately stood in front of Mr. Kim. When Mr. Kim glared at him as well, he smiled back at him.

“What is it?”

Just as Maru was about to put an end to the situation by bringing up the students,

“What is going on here?”

A man walked up to them from afar and spoke to them. He was a man in his early 50s. He was also someone that Maru knew very well.

“Oh, I didn’t think I’d see you here.”

“You’re right. It’s been a long time. I hear news about you from Junmin from time to time.”

The man approached and offered him a handshake. Maru smiled back as he shook that hand.

Chapter 304

“I did hear that you entered JA.”

“As a matter of fact, I did.”

Maru looked at the middle-aged man in front of him, Lawyer Park. He had lost weight compared to when they met last time due to the school matter.

“Is there a problem?”

Lawyer Park asked the middle-aged woman. The woman alternated between Maru and lawyer Park before making an elegant smile.

“It’s nothing for you to worry about, lawyer. Looks like there was a commotion due to a misunderstanding. Sorry about making you worried.”

“How the hell is this a misunderstanding?” Mr. Kim, who had been listening, spoke as he glared at the woman. The woman didn’t become angry when facing Mr. Kim, and as such, spoke calmly unlike before.

“Excuse me. Let us stop now. Bear in mind that there’s a limit to my patience as well.”

The woman glanced at Mr. Kim before going towards where the students and the parents were standing. Mr. Kim, who had been condemned one-sidedly, was about to shout back at her in anger, but the people around him held him back. Mr. Kim didn’t seem to have any intentions of having a big fight so he just turned away his head in anger and just ignored her.

“Sorry for your inconvenience. Well then. Let’s go back inside, everyone,” director Lee grabbed this opportunity to speak.

The TV station staff went back inside the cafeteria first. Director Lee dragged Mr. Kim by the arm and was practically begging him to go back in. When he did so, the others started walking as well.

“Lawyer Park. We’re about to go.”

The woman smiled and pointed at the path leading behind the cafeteria. There was a path to the hill. The students were returning to the main building. It seemed that there was some business that had to be attended by the parents alone.

“Go ahead. I’ll be right behind you.”

“Eh? What do you…”

The woman panicked slightly and looked at his expression. The other parents standing behind her made awkward expressions as well.

“Are you sure you don’t need to go?”

“Help me out a little here. They’ve been dragging me with them since morning, and I’m about to have a headache.”

“They’re glaring at me though.”

When lawyer Park seemed like he had no intentions of moving on, the woman entered the cafeteria after telling him that they’d be waiting inside. The parents were staring at Maru and the lawyer from behind the glass door.

“Uhm, do you owe them money or something? They look quite uneasy.”

“It’s not about money, but ties.”

“Ties, you say?”

“I’m somewhat acquainted with the head director of the school. They’re talking about raising a new building in the empty lot in front of the hill, and they want me to help them out on that.”

“The Parents Association does stuff like that too?”

“Well, they are all people who have one authority or another. Thanks to that, it’s a pain in the butt. I came here to see how my daughter’s school was doing during vacation, and I feel like I shouldn’t have come.”

Lawyer Park looked at the cafeteria before sighing.

“That sounds tiring.”

“I’ll just take care of it and go back and rest. Rather than that, what was that just now? It looked quite serious.”

“There was a dispute thanks to wage issues.”

“Ah, everything in the world is about money problems.”

Maru stared at lawyer Park for a brief moment. This man, who was loosening his tie as he looked at the main building, was the man to go to for help. What was a better way than going to a lawyer for consultation for a legal matter?

“I think you have something to say to me,” lawyer Park asked.

Maru thought about it for a moment before shaking his head.

“It’s nothing.”

Although they were having a conversation right now, strictly speaking, Maru wasn’t sufficiently close to him that he could ask him for help. He would’ve never gotten to know this man if not for Junmin. Asking someone to do something for him was just being shameless. Moreover, being a lawyer was this man’s job. He got paid for doing his work. Maru thought that borrowing his expertise without proper compensation was no different from extortion, so he decided not to say it.

“This came across my mind the last time we met, but you look like you have a lot of thoughts.”

“My talents are lacking, so I have to make up for it in other parts.”

“There’s no way Junmin would employ someone that lacks talent. Rather than that, if you’re being considerate of me, I’d like to tell you that you don’t have to for today. I’m on holiday right now, after all. If I consult you as a lawyer, annoying stuff like non-disclosure agreements and whatnot will have to follow, but I can consult you as just an ordinary civilian and as an acquaintance of a friend of mine. Instead, I have a favor to ask of you as well.”

“You want me to help you run away from those people?” Maru looked at the back before speaking.

“Run away doesn’t sound cool, so let’s name it tactical retreat. That woman over there is so wild, so I can’t bear staying with her.”

Lawyer Park made a refreshing smile. Maru felt this the last time they met due to the matter at his school, but this guy was quite easygoing. He gave off a heavy pressure when consulting him about legal issues, but outside that area, he laughed and joked like a completely different person. It seemed like the strict atmosphere was a form of work as well for him.

Lawyer Park told him to wait before walking towards the cafeteria. Not long later, he came back out. The other parents followed behind him and walked up the hill behind the cafeteria while expressing their disappointment.

“What did you tell them?”

“I told them that you were a child that needs desperate legal advice thanks to a serious issue, and that I can’t ignore you. I also told them that that was it for me today. This is one thing that’s good about being a lawyer. You get to sound serious no matter what you say. I can cut off any annoying matters by saying it’s a legal issue.”

Lawyer Park took off his suit jacket and spoke.

“Well then. Let’s hear it already.”

The two bought some coffee from the vending machine next to the cafeteria and talked about what happened between the staff. Lawyer Park, who had been listening without saying a word, smiled faintly.

“That’s common.”

“It’s common?”

“A colleague of mine was once in charge of a civil case related to this, and I helped him out from time to time. That’s when I found out about this. Do you know how the TV station’s content production is structured?”

“I heard a little. The TV station would outsource it to a subcontractor, and the subcontractor produces the drama.”

“Yes, that’s precisely it. Before that was a thing though, the TV stations used to produce their own content. However, the government ordered them to mandatorily outsource some of its content production to other companies starting in 1991. What do you think the reason is?”

Maru scratched his brows. Three public TV stations, self-production of content. Massive amounts of capital. Just from those three elements, it was pretty easy to figure out.

“The biggest reason must be the prevention of monopoly. There’s no way the TV media would grow in market size if the three public TVs are monopolizing everything. If they use subcontractors, the cost of production would go down and the quality would go up thanks to market logic. Ah, there’s the additional benefit of creating workplaces for people. After all, there would be more workplaces than if the three public TVs are monopolizing everything.”

“…Do you want to help me sort documents? I think you’re better than most of the new recruits at my company. Anyway, it’s just as you say. Since the government instructed them to outsource their production, the TV stations got on board and delightfully started outsourcing their content production. Actually, it’s easier for the TV stations as well. They are relieved of their responsibility, yet they still hold on to the authority after all.”

“They are relieved of their responsibility?”

“Well then. Let’s say that a drama season is being produced. Numerous content production companies would bring them storyboards in hopes of competing for that spot. The TV stations then would browse through those storyboards. However, what’s more important than that is the production budget. Then, it goes like this: company A requires 30 million per episode and possesses two star actors, while B also requires 30 million won per episode but only has one star actor. What happens then? It’s given to A of course. Do you get why the value of actors is rising dramatically?”

“Because they need those stars in order to compete with other subcontractors, meaning they would be competing for the actors as well, leading to an increase in actors’ values.”

“Yes. That means the subcontractors need to cast as many stars as possible in their dramas. That’s a problem in itself, but there’s an even bigger problem. I told you how the TV stations are relieved of their responsibility, right? I mean it. The TV stations are just giving the budget to the subcontractors and are not dealing with any of the problems that occur after that. Why? Because the subcontractor already has the production budget. The problem occurring between the subcontractors and the people they decide to hire is fundamentally the TV station’s problem, but they’re avoiding all responsibility with the excuse that ‘they already supplied the production budget’. In the end, the strong is just watching from the top while the two weaker ones are fighting each other at the bottom. This country’s problem is always not due to hierarchical violence, but violence within the same level.”

Lawyer Park made a loathing smile as he continued.

“Also, one more thing. The subcontractors are fighting each other trying to hire star actors, but look, the budget hasn’t changed. From the 30 million they received, they have none after paying the star. What do you think is the easiest payment you can reduce?”

“Human resources fee.”

“Correct. They just shave down that money. No, they just delay it entirely. ‘Delaying’ is not a crime. Like that, they will air the episode first and fill in the losses gained through ads and stuff. Only then can they get paid.”

“What if it’s not profiting?”

“What do you think they’ll do then?”

What can they do? There’s no money to pay. No, it was likely that they wouldn’t want to pay either. There’s money in the pocket, so how to avoid legal responsibilities in this case?

“What if they go under and set up a new company…”

“I see a splendid potential scammer in front of me right now. If a legal person is judged as having gone bankrupt, the government pays any debts for it in their stead up to a certain amount, so they handle it with that for the time being. After that, they will set up a new company, not under their name this time, but they will still hold practical power. The matter I helped out back then was similar to that as well. Laws are not there to help the just, but for the knowledgeable to use as they wish, so many people just get conned even if they are watching out.”

“Is that even okay?”

“Legally, there are no problems at all.”

“That’s good, the law, I mean.”

“It is.”

“Then what can I do? It doesn’t seem like they want to pay us, and if we just go on a strike, I think the producer will just hire others like he said.”

“I told you that the law is there for the knowledgeable to use as they wish. There shouldn’t be a lot of overdue wages for the staff. If it’s under 20 million won, you can sue them, though it will be a civil case with a small-claims filing. What’s important here is that you don’t need to go to court. A family member can take the suing party’s place instead. It’s a system created by the people that actually had some consideration for the ordinary civilians. Also, don’t do it alone, and do it in groups. It will take a long time for the payment order.[1]”

Lawyer Park drank the coffee. He crumpled the empty paper cup and threw it into the trash can next to him.

“That’s the consultation I can give you as an adult. I’ll take the coffee as payment.”

“Thank you. I’ll go talk to those people about it.”

“Tell them to do it fast. It can take up to two months until they are actually paid. They should have some of the budget left if they’re still in the beginning stages. Considering the financial things, they should be able to pay for the employment considering the flow of money. The company wouldn’t be able to just feign ignorance and not pay. I mean, they’re still shooting after all. They wouldn’t want problems occurring between them and the TV station so they will get things done and pay the staff.”

Lawyer Park put on his jacket.

“I wish my daughter was as smart as you. She’s nagging me about wanting to become a celebrity these days.”

“The family circumstances allow it, so why don’t you let her?”

“It’s me that has the money, not her. I’ll just get her a house once she reaches twenty and be done with her. Only when she realizes how hard it is to earn money would she stop wasting money.”

“Haha.”

“If I get her a house, she’ll think that it’s only natural for me to do so. I mean, kids these days are scary.”

“She has a father that’s doing well, so it’s not surprising that she wants to act like a child.”

Lawyer Park looked at his watch.

“Do you have anything to do after the shoot?”

“No.”

“Really? Then why don’t you have dinner with me?”

“Weren’t you going to eat with your child?”

“She already rejected me saying that she already has an appointment with her friends. When you get married in the future, get a son, not a daughter. At least you get to drink together when he grows up. I have time left over, and I don’t want to eat by myself, so I think I’ll borrow you. You have my number, don’t you? Call me once it’s over.”

It was a rather sudden invitation, but there was no reason to refuse. He was a person that would benefit Maru greatly if he could get close to him, so it was Maru who wanted to ask him out instead.

“Then I’ll call you once the shoot is over.”

“Alright, alright. But hey, are you good with drinking?”

“I’m okay.”

“Good, as expected of a guy Lee Junmin has under his wing.”

Lawyer Park turned around while showing a refreshing smile. Maru bowed to him before returning to the cafeteria.

[1] I have no idea what this legal stuff is about, and the South Korean law obviously has differences to laws in other countries/states, so this may sound iffy for some.

Chapter 305

“So we have to go with this small-claims filing?”

“Before that, you should make a call one last time.”

“There’s no way that man will pay us just because we call him. He practically wants us to do it.”

“We can negotiate now, so it’s better if you try anyway. He’ll probably change his mind if you bring up the word court. Also, the fact that someone got paid means that they still have some budget left over, so if you act strongly, he’ll probably pay the overdue wages. He might act like that again, but you’ll be able to make up some money for immediate bills, so you’ll have to go on a strike or something like that if he does that again.”

Maru finished speaking and had a look at the staff. They all looked hesitant. Mr. Kim also fell into thought as he put his hand against his chin.

“That lawyer back there told you that?”

“Yes.”

“Do you think you can ask him to help us if something goes wrong?”

“That probably won’t be possible. He just gave me advice for this, not a proper consultation. If you want him to help us, you’ll have to pay him, so I don’t think that will work out.”

“Why? He sounds like a good man from how he’s helping us out. I think you can ask him.”

“Being a good man and free service are two different things. Also, I’m not that close to him, so I’m not comfortable with asking him for something like that.”

“Then I guess we’ll hire him officially once things go bad. He’ll help us more if he’s doing it for someone he knows.”

“That… probably won’t work out either.”

“Why’s that?”

“As far as I know, you might have to pay him what you get paid for the case.”

“…Looks like he’s someone famous.”

“Yeah, well. He does belong to Lee & Kang Law Firm.”

“Lee & Kang Law Firm? I’m not knowledgeable about things like that. Is that like some super corporation or something?”

Someone told him that it was the number one law firm in the country.

“Then I guess it’s not happening. But it’s good that we now know a way. People like us don’t know how to stare into books and only know how to work to get paid. Since he said it’s not hard, let’s make the call. If he still feigns ignorance, then I guess we can only do this the hard way. Is everyone okay with that?”

The staff nodded at Mr. Kim’s words. It seemed that everyone gained the courage when they found out that they didn’t need to go to court. The scary thing about going to court was that being called there and doing that required time. An ordinary person’s life would crumble with one lawsuit. Being required to show up to court, calls telling them to negotiate, and the energy and money required if the lawsuit drags out long enough. This was why most ordinary people could not win against companies. If the companies decide to hire lawyers and drag things out indefinitely, the plaintiff would be exhausted and end up negotiating even if it’s the company that’s clearly in the wrong. This was common.

Mr. Kim called the president of the subcontractor company with his phone. Perhaps thanks to having found a way out, he did not get agitated and started with the greeting. As the conversation continued, he exercised more effort into his words and mentioned the lawsuit: that they were prepared to do it as a group, and that they had already talked to a lawyer about it. There was a little lie mixed in, but it probably did not matter. After all, the subcontractor was the one holding their money.

“Today’s shoot finished without a hitch, but I don’t think I can say the same thing for tomorrow as well. I have made our intentions clear. If you do not send us the overdue wages before tomorrow’s shoot… we’ll go to the KPU and go on a strike. I plan to drag this out until the end, so think about it carefully. Also, the lawyer that’s helping us says he belongs to Lee & Kang Law Firm. So think about that carefully as well.”

Mr. Kim hung up with a smile on his face.

“Do you think that will do?”

“I guess we’ll have to wait to find out.”

At that moment, director Lee, who was watching from afar, picked up his phone.

“Yes, president.”

Director Lee approached them slowly. He took the phone off of his ears and switched on the speaker mode to make the other party’s voice clearer.

-I got a call just now, and he told me something about talking to a lawyer. Is this true?

“Ah, yes. I was next to him.”

-Wait, so you just watched him do so without taking any action?

“What power do I have to stop him? He says he’s a famous lawyer.”

-Why is there a lawyer at the shooting location? Is it really true? Are you sure he didn’t make something up?

“This is an independent school you know? It’s the school where all the rich kids go to. Maybe that lawyer’s child goes to this school.”

At the beginning, Mr. Kim watched the two make a call with a sour face, but his expression loosened the more he listened to it. Director Lee started leading the conversation so that he was inducing the president to pay the staff, and the president eventually had to accept before ending the call.

“Producer Lee. Why are you changing your attitude now?”

“Director Kim. I have a family to feed just like you. I have kids at home nagging me to pay their school tuition, and my wife tells me that she has to pay interest for the loan. I can’t not receive the money that the president is giving me. And also, it’s not like I treated you badly, did I? You watched me as I asked the president to solve the wage issue several times.”

Director Lee apologized in a small voice. Mr. Kim sighed and turned around.

“I understand your situation. But know that I only understand it.”

Director Lee no longer said anything and turned back around with a bitter expression.

“Are you going to continue shooting now that your wage issue is solved?” Maru asked.

“I will. They’re the kind of people that will nag at us to do work since they paid. Well, it’s not like we’re doing this because we don’t like the drama. As long as they pay us properly, we should do our work properly as well.”

Mr. Kim thanked Maru as he stood up. The other staff members expressed their appreciation as well. Director Lee told everyone to pull out since it looked like they wouldn’t be getting any more work done today. The main actors weren’t waiting at the set either. They were probably waiting inside their cars or something.

The managers, who had been keeping the actor’s places, bid farewell to the staff and quickly left. The people from the TV station also started packing up the equipment. Some of them even told the other staff members to cheer up. They just worked for different entities and in actuality, were just laborers who earned daily wages just like them.

“Go back home. I’ll send you all a message after I look at the time schedule, so send a reply if you want in. Also, you should tell me beforehand if you woke up late. I’ll have to find replacements.”

The leader scattered everyone after thanking them. Maru took off the gym uniform and gave it back. The staff bid him farewell as he gave it back. Although it was for just one day, it seemed like they’d taken a liking to him. Maru smiled back. He hoped that everything went well.

“Hey, over there!”

Mr. Kim approached him. He was inviting Maru to an afterparty for giving the subcontractor a blow. Although Maru was thankful, he had a prior engagement.

“Sorry about that. I have someone I have to meet.”

“Is it that lawyer from before?”

“Yes.”

“I guess it can’t be helped then. But hey, you are a student, right?”

“I’m in my 2nd year of high school.”

“It won’t be easy living in this industry. Though, from the way you act, I guess you’ll cope with it better than me. Are you going to come again? If you are, I’ll talk to the leader and have you come next time.”

“I’ll definitely contact you if I need to.”

“Alright, alright. Be careful on your way. Anyway, thanks for today, for helping us out even though we’re complete strangers.”

“My wage depends on it as well. I hope we can meet each other on set more often.”

“Alright. Oh, I’m Kim Jangsoo.”

“My name is Han Maru, sir.”

Jangsoo patted his shoulders and told him that he did well. Maru then bid farewell to the other supplementary actors he had been spending his time with for the day.

“Well done. Also… thanks for provoking me back there,” Woojoo spoke awkwardly.

Maru shook his head.

“I’m sorry. I think I did take it a step too far.”

“No. It wasn’t that surprising that you did. I should have been more calm about it, but it looks like I took it too easy. It’s a bit embarrassing but, I feel like I realized something thanks to you.”

“Well, I’ll be thankful if you think about it that way.”

“Are you going to come for the next shoot?”

“I’m not sure.”

“Come if you can make it.”

“Okay, I will.”

Maru left amidst the people that were carrying equipment. The sun was going down already. He took out his phone and called lawyer Park. When he told him that the shoot was over, he replied that he should wait there for a moment.

Just as he was watching the people that were pulling out, he saw students rushing out of the main building of the school. Many of them were wearing backpacks. This was a rare scene in an academic-focused school on a weekday. Maru wondered if they didn’t have any self-study sessions after school[1]. He walked a little so that he was in front of the main building. He saw cram school vans[2] lined up outside the school gates. Students got on those vans. The vans then disappeared off into the distance. That scene was repeated several times. It was like they were carrying off all the students in the school.

“Incredible, isn’t it? They say cram schools are all the rage these days, rather than schools.”

Lawyer Park had appeared behind him. His eyes were very complicated as he looked at the students.

“Your daughter must be going to one as well, is she?”

“She’ll probably go after dinner. Don’t you go to one?”

“I seem to have no fate with studying.”

“Why? You seem smart.”

“I am smart, but not in an academic kind of way.”

“Is that so?”

Suddenly, lawyer Park raised his right hand nervously. One girl, who was walking out of the school door with her arms locked around other girls, looked at lawyer Park before pouting at him. The girl changed her shoes before walking towards the school gates. The girls that were locking arms with the pouting girl looked back at him.

“So she’s your daughter.”

“She’s one impetuous girl. She’ll never listen to my words.”

“Perhaps she’s mad at you because you won’t let her become a celebrity?”

“Do you think just anyone can be a celebrity? You need talent to be one. Rather than that, that girl won’t even greet her father, huh.”

“Well, that’s what father-daughter relationships are mostly like. She’ll cling to you like you’re the only one in her world when she’s young, but once she starts wearing school uniforms, she won’t even look at you in the face.”

“…Hey, why do you know all this?”

“Ah, well, my father sighs all the time.”

Maru just laughed it over. Lawyer Park said that fathers must be similar across the board and nodded.

“Let’s just get something to eat. My girl says she likes her friends more than her dad, so I guess I can’t help it.”

“She’ll open up to you once she matures.”

“She does open up to me from time to time. Though, that’s when she wants me to buy her something. At times like those, she’s like a deceiving fox just like her mother, geez.”

Although lawyer Park was complaining about his daughter, he had a smile on his face the entire time. Maru understood how he felt. Parents felt satisfied with their kids just growing up safely.

Maru updated him on the overdue wages matter as they walked to the parking lot. Lawyer Park stopped walking in front of a rather old car. It looked like quite an old model. It was a middle-class sedan that was produced in the country.

“It looks a little dirty, doesn’t it? I haven’t cleaned it in quite a while.”

“No, that’s not it.”

“Then is it because it looks less expensive than the car next to it?”

“Honestly speaking, it was a little unexpected.”

Maru looked at the other cars parked in the same row as he spoke. The rather old South Korean car looked very out of place like a wrong piece of a puzzle amongst the lineup of cars costing in tens of millions to hundreds of millions of won. It was also unexpected because someone of his financial status could drive a much better car than that.

“I changed my car once and I got into an accident in just two days. It was a big accident as well. I almost died back then. The same thing happened to the next car I bought. I thought I was jinxed so I came back to this one. I got somewhat attached to it as well.”

He got in the car with a smile. Maru nodded his head. Jinx was a rather scary thing. If he got into an accident twice, then he would probably not want to buy another car.

Maru got in the passenger seat as well. The first thing he saw was the prayer beads and a cross hanging off the rear-view mirror. On the right of the dashboard was a family photo. He had to be quite a family man if he had a family photo on a place like that.

“I realized that the one that helps you is the best, whether it be God or Buddha,” said lawyer Park.

He started the car and undid the parking brake. Just as he was about to start driving, a Mercedes-Benz parked right in front of them flashed its rear light before starting to leave its parking space. Although the parking lot’s passage allowed two cars to drive side by side, the Mercedes-Benz was leaving the parking space horizontally, so lawyer Park had to stop.

“Do you think that person’s a beginner?”

“I think so.”

The Mercedes-Benz started repeatedly going forward and backward. Maru kept watching that car as it moved forwards and backwards. Just then,

“Do you want some chewing gum?” Lawyer Park asked.

When Maru replied yes, Lawyer Park told him that there should be some in the glovebox. Maru reached out and opened the glovebox. There were all sorts of things inside.

“Ah, I guess I haven’t cleaned it in a long time.”

Lawyer Park smiled and reached out to the glovebox as well. Maru also looked inside to look for it. Just then, the car shook with a loud bumping sound. Both of them raised their heads to see what was going on and saw that the rear of the Mercedes-Benz was right in front of their vision.

“Geez, I was just worrying about that too…”

Lawyer Park sighed. He waited for the other party to come and apologize. However, there was no response from the other car.

“What the heck?”

Lawyer Park scratched his head and left the car. Maru left the car as well.

[1] I think I mentioned this before, but schools hold self-study lessons after school hours for high school so that they can study. The vast majority of students choose to stay behind for those self-study hours unless they have a separate schedule, like some event or hagwon(cram schools). Some schools also give the option to students to have dinner at school as well.

[2] Yes. Cram schools/academies run their own vans to take the students to and from their site, if they have the financial leeway. They have their own logos plastered on the vans and everything.

Chapter 306

Lawyer Park approached the Mercedes-Benz’s driver seat and knocked on the window. Only then did the window open. Maru was able to see a middle-aged woman with her hands tightly grabbing the driving wheel. It seemed that she was panicking.

“Uhm, ma’am. Take your foot off the brake pedal for now. As well as the accelerator pedal.”

“Wh-why?”

“Because it’s dangerous. You must be nervous, but this is not a big accident, so first, calm down and take your hands off the driving wheel. You might end up causing additional accidents if you keep grabbing the wheel tightly like that.”

Lawyer Park was very calm as he spoke. The middle-aged woman also obediently followed his words.

“Are you hurt anywhere?”

“N-no.”

“Fortunately, I’m not hurt either,” said Lawyer Park with a smile.

Gracefulness could be felt from how he talked to others. Although it wouldn’t be surprising if he got angry at the other party for her wrongs, he did not do so.

“Would you like to get out of the car and have a look at the collision?”

“Do I have to get out?” The middle aged woman asked back as she flinched back.

“Haha. There’s been an accident, so it’s better to have a look. It’s just a small collision, so there’s nothing big, so you don’t have to be worried about that. Do you have insurance?”

“Insurance? Probably…”

From the way she answered, it seemed that she drove a car that was under her husband’s name. The middle-aged woman told lawyer Park to wait a moment before making a call somewhere. After hanging up, the middle-aged woman just uneasily looked at lawyer Park and sat there obediently.

“Did you call the insurance company?”

“No, I called my sister. She’s here at school[1].”

“Ah, alright. That’s good.”

Lawyer Park treated her nicely this whole time. A few minutes later, a woman appeared at the parking lot. She had a slightly upset face though. Maru clicked his tongue when he saw the familiar face. She was in the group that scolded Woojoo for something that wasn’t his fault during the day. She had a big ring on her finger, and just walked right past lawyer Park, ignoring him and talked to the middle-aged woman for a brief moment. After nodding a few times, she looked at lawyer Park.

“What is going on here?” The woman with the ring asked, clearly on edge.

Lawyer Park replied with a smile.

“There was a collision accident. The driver was driving in reverse when this happened. It’s not a big accident, so if you don’t want to call insurance, I think I’ll end the case here by sending you the invoice for the repair fee.”

“Are you sure it was my sister that drove in reverse and hit your car? Are you sure you didn’t hit her instead?”

“Of course, you might think of it that way, but you can ask the driver and get a grasp on the situation.”

“My sister was panicking though. You didn’t shout at her or something?”

“I wouldn’t dare. I’m a shy man and I don’t even know how to raise my voice.”

Seeing lawyer Park reply to her so proficiently, the woman curled up her lips. Maru wondered if she was just being picky. He shrugged his shoulders while she wasn’t looking. Lawyer Park faintly smiled.

“Even though an accident happened, a woman will get scared if a man is staring at her from outside the car, don’t you think?”

“Hm. I guess that’s a possibility.”

“And also, it doesn’t look like your car costs anything much. You can’t threaten a person just because of some pocket change.”

Pocket change. For some reason, Maru was hearing that word several times today. This woman seemed like she wouldn’t be able to endure not putting her nose into other people’s business. Also, she sounded incredibly offensive with her words. It seemed like she had packed up her manners in a piece of paper and threw it in the trash. Maru wondered where her confidence was coming from. Was she not aware of the fact that it was the middle-aged woman that caused the accident?

“I guess I am a little big. I didn’t think about that,” Lawyer Park apologized with a kind smile.

Maru inwardly applauded. That flexibility was worth learning. The woman with the ring had to be feeling anxious right now. After all, the other party wasn’t being as submissive as she planned.

“Then should we proceed with what I just said?”

“Wait a moment, if you saw my sister driving in reverse, you should have gotten out of her way. Why did you not dodge in time?”

“I was waiting.”

“I don’t care if you were waiting or not. If you saw it, then you should’ve moved out of the way.”

“I thought that she’d take a long time pulling the car out of the parking space, so I stopped and was looking for an item in the glovebox, so I didn’t see her car approaching.”

“Then you admit that you have a share of the blame as well?”

“If this was an ordinary road, then it is most definitely entirely her fault. But I guess this is a school, and it’s near the parking lot. Considering that my car wasn’t in a proper slot, then we can say that I have about 10% of the blame. Then should I proceed with this?”

“Are you sure about that? I mean, you could’ve just gotten out of the way.”

“Hahaha,” lawyer Park laughed out loud. Maru intuitively realized that that laugh was his limit.

“Why don’t we just call insurance and take the easy way out?”

When lawyer Park took out his phone, the woman with the ring approached the lady in the car. After a short conversation, the woman with the ring spoke,

“Insurance is no good.”

She made her intentions clear. It seemed that the woman in the car did not want to call insurance. Perhaps she didn’t want her husband to find out that she caused an accident.

“Fuu, then give me a phone number I can call. I’ll contact you once I get a proper estimate on the repair fee.”

“There’s no need to do that. We’ll just deal with it here. How the hell do I know if it’s safe to give you my number?”

The woman with the ring had a look at the part where the accident happened before suddenly taking out five 10,000 won bills from her wallet.

“This will do, won’t it? It seems second-hand too.”

“I have to replace the front bumper and repaint this part here, so that’s not enough.”

“How much are you planning to spend for a car like this?”

“Even cheap Korean cars need more than 100,000 won if you factor in the labor costs. And that’s not considering the paint job.”

“You’re going too far here. Do you see this car? It’s a Mercedes-Benz. How much do you think the repair is going to cost? I was going to do this the nice way, but I guess I’m at my limit. Be honest here. You thought that you got lucky because the car you saw was a super expensive one, didn’t you? Also, you wanted to rip money off my sister because she looked scared. It’s obvious without even looking. This is why people are no good.”

“What’s no good?”

“Do I have to say it? Anyway, either you take the 50,000 won I’m offering you right now, or else, we’re going to send you the invoice for our repair fee as well.”

The woman was really obstinate and did not listen to words. She even had a smug smile on her face as though she felt that she had won this battle.

Maru had a look at lawyer Park. Lawyer Park sighed and redid his tie. He even redid the top button of his shirt and even put on a necktie pin, cleaning himself up.

To Maru’s eyes though, he seemed like a knight from the middle ages putting on his armor. He was preparing for battle. The woman with the ring frowned before taking out another bill from her pocket as though she was being extremely benevolent.

“Here. Let’s come to an agreement with this.”

Lawyer Park smiled back at her and refused her money. Just then, a group of middle-aged people came to the parking lot. It seemed that the parents were going back as well since the students were leaving school. People gathered around. They all asked the woman with the ring what happened as they seemed acquainted with each other.

“There was a bit of a problem. This dude here treats me like an idiot.”

“This dude?”

The man who was looking at the woman with the ring then had a look at lawyer Park. Lawyer Park, who had tidied himself up with his back towards them, turned around. Then, the man visibly brightened up before greeting him.

“Lawyer Park. You couldn’t be seen anywhere. So you were in a place like this.”

When the man cheerfully greeted lawyer Park, the woman with the ring immediately became uneasy.

“Ah, it’s been a long time. We met during a group dinner, didn’t we?”

“Yes. So you remember me.”

“Of course I do. So your child goes to this school as well?”

“Yes. Yours too?”

“That’s a coincidence. My daughter goes to this school.”

“I see. Why don’t we have dinner together as a family one time? I hope my daughter can befriend your daughter.”

“Haha, alright. Let’s meet at the restaurant from back then one time.”

“My, it’s an honor.”

The man shook hands with lawyer Park with both of his hands[2]. Maru saw that the woman with the ring was slowly walking backwards.

“But it looks like there was a misunderstanding here. You’re not someone that would treat anyone badly, lawyer.”

The man tried to resolve the situation in lawyer Park’s favor. He knew the woman with the ring, so he didn’t want to make a big deal out of this either. Had he come earlier, lawyer Park would have smiled back and have done as the man said, but how about now?

“Oh, no, of course not. It was just an accident.”

“Ah, I see…”

“Looks like I should call insurance then.”

Lawyer Park gave a nod to the woman with the ring before approaching the woman in the car. The woman in the car had left her car. It seemed that she had realized that lawyer Park was not someone to be looked down upon from the attitude of everyone here.

“Uhm, I’m sorry. This is the first time I got into an accident, and this is my husband’s car so I wasn’t used to it. I should’ve apologized immediately. Sorry about that.”

“Not at all. You don’t need to apologize. Insurance will handle everything.”

“S-sir. I’ll pay you all the repair fees, okay? It will be really bad if my husband finds out about this.”

“I see.”

Lawyer Park looked at the woman with the ring as he said that. The driver immediately grabbed the hand of the woman with the ring and made an apologetic expression.

“She didn’t have any bad intentions either. I mean, the world we live in is not safe. That’s why she overreacted a little, so I hope you don’t get mad at her for that.”

The driver jabbed the woman with the ring. The woman with the ring apologized unwillingly.

“I’m sorry, but…”

Before she could continue, the driver cut her off. Lawyer Park also didn’t seem to have any intentions of dragging this out any further, so he relaxed his expression and settled the deal by sending them the repair invoice.

“Sorry for the commotion.”

“Not at all, sir. A skirmish here and a quarrel there is what makes living fun. Don’t worry about this and please take your leave.”

“Then, I shall take my leave first then.”

“Yes, yes. Go ahead.”

Seeing lawyer Park’s signal, Maru got in the car. He saw the group of middle-aged people through the rearview mirror and saw that they were all smiling.

“You must be someone great, lawyer.”

“You should become one too if you feel envious.”

“I told you I’m not good at studying.”

Lawyer Park started driving with a smile.

* * *

Lim Bitna clicked her tongue as she saw the car leave. She didn’t like the fact that the man was talking back to her at every turn, but things went in the wrong direction.

“Is that lawyer someone that great?”

Bitna spoke to the man that resolved the situation. She was on close terms with him since they lived in the same apartment building, so she did not like what he did just now.

“Watch your words, lady. If he’s just any lawyer, then I wouldn’t be like this. He’s different.”

“Why?”

“Because he’s a former prosecutor superintendent. He got that position when he was in his mid forties, so do you get how amazing he is now?”

“Is that something to be so amazed about?” Bitna asked because she didn’t know.

The man frowned in frustration.

“Anyway, you don’t want to get on his bad side, so smile at him the next time you come across him. You don’t know what will happen in life.”

“But he’s still a mere lawyer. Someone we use our money to hire.”

“Oh gosh, don’t go saying that to anyone. You might get in big trouble.” The reason why lawyers and doctors were respected was because they earned a lot of money. Only peasants without money call them respectfully, and people with money just considered them as someone they could hire. Bitna snorted. She had consulted a lawyer due to some problems with deposit. At that time, the lawyer treated her like a queen. What was so amazing about a job that people could use money to hire?

She ignored the words of the man who told her to be careful and left the place after saying that she’d go over to her sister. She had an appointment.

“Yes, head manager Park.”

She got a call when she stopped in front of the traffic lights. It was from head manager Park who was in charge of managing the ‘rooms’. One of the girls who worked there wasn’t coming to work because she was sick.

“Go check up on her. They don’t even have their periods, they can’t be sick. If she really seems bad, then take her to the hospital. But dammit, the rotation rate on the tables is not that high if she’s not around. Do we have any others that are on par with her? We do? Then contact her and have her fill the other girl’s place. Give all the TC[3] to her as well. But you have to bring a girl that’s actually decent, okay? You know that our store is known for being one of the best places that have great girls. Okay, thanks.”

Bitna lit up her cigar. When a prominent girl gets sick, they would make a call. Bitna got very angry whenever girls like them got sick leaves when they made dozens of millions of won each month.

“Goddammit. I’m annoyed as it is because of that dude.”

Just then, she saw a man staring at her from another car. Bitna opened the window and shouted.

“What? Is it your first time seeing a woman smoking?”

The young man turned his face around. The traffic light changed and Bitna tossed the cigarette outside the window and drove off. She calmed down and checked her face in the mirror. The guest she had to meet today was someone she couldn’t show her ugly side to.

After arriving at the store in Cheongdam-dong, Bitna got out of her car and went into the store. It was about time the guest was arriving. She changed her clothes and sprayed some perfume. Her figure in the mirror was still decent to look at despite the fact that she was in her forties.

“Unni, is darling coming today?”

“Girlie. Don’t mind me and just manage the table. Also, did you gain weight?”

“I didn’t.”

The girl left with a smile. Bitna wore the shirt that the guest bought for her. That man liked shirts for some reason. She was waiting quietly in an empty room until the door opened without a knock. Bitna smiled after looking at the guest, and waved at the head manager to go.

“What brings you here today?”

“I wanted a drink.”

Bitna stood up and received the jacket that the man took off. Then, she undid his tie for him. She brought the man, who seemed tired, to the sofa. The man yawned.

Bitna stroked the man’s stubbly beard as she asked,

“Why does my dear Mr. Hong Janghae look so tired today?”

[1] While this says ‘dongsaeng’ (younger sibling). It does not necessarily mean that the two are blood related. It's quite confusing even in the Korean text. So I'll use sister here.

[2] This may sound awkward, but there’s this weird ‘custom/habit’ of Koreans where when two people shake hands, the one who’s trying to suck up to the other party grabs the hand with both hands. So in this case, ‘the man’ is being ‘submissive’ to ‘lawyer Park’.

[3] I had to look this up… TC stands for ‘table charge’ and it refers to the tip that a customer has to pay the ‘table girl’. So yeah, you know where this is going.

Chapter 307

Bitna accepted a glass of vodka from Janghae. The emerald-colored vodka glistened in the transparent glass. She swung it sideways and smelled the deep fragrance of alcohol before putting it against her lips.

“You should drink some too, oppa.”

Bitna filled Janghae’s glass.

“Weren’t you going to play golf today?”

They were in a relationship where they had to reserve each other’s time to meet, as a form of respect that is. Also, both of them were busy. They couldn’t meet whenever they wanted to. But today, Janghae told her one-sidedly that he wanted to meet her. Bitna accepted since she was free at that time, but she was curious. Why did this meticulous man suddenly want to meet her?

“It got canceled.”

“Now that makes me disappointed. So you called me just because your appointment got canceled?”

“Then should I leave?”

“Whatever,” saying those words, Bitna fell over on his lap.

Although she had said those words, she was very happy that he came to meet her while she was free. Janghae stroked her hair.

“We should’ve met somewhere else. I mean, you seem hungry.”

“We can’t be like this in other places.”

“Is that so?”

Bitna ate the grapes that Janghae fed her. Janghae was the type of person who would immediately voice his opinion out loud if his mind was set on it. The fact that he was keeping quiet meant that he was organizing his thoughts. She didn’t need to urge him to speak.

“It’s very interesting when I think of it as a challenge. It hasn’t been a long time since that last happened,” Janghae spoke after a long while.

“A challenge?”

“Yeah.”

“Didn’t you achieve everything you wanted though? Being a senior managing director is a position everyone would be envious of, isn’t it?”

“Still, that’s all I amount to - a senior managing director. I’m also fifty-five this year. I don’t see a way up so it’s about time I switch lanes.”

“You’re fifty-five already, oppa? You’re really old.”

“I have a young-looking face, so it’s okay.”

“That’s true.”

Bitna stroked Janghae’s face and giggled. When she first met this man, she was very scared of him. He looked like he would shoot lasers from his eyes. Though now, she was able to speak to him warmly.

“Does the company want you to leave?”

“I guess it’s something similar.”

Janghae faintly smiled.

“Hm?”

“It’s kinda what I’ve been doing until now, but I’ve been put in charge of something rather vague. There’s a child company that a subsidiary of our corporation made, and I’m planning to work there.”

“Vague? What do you mean vague?”

“It’s distribution work, but I’ll be mostly dealing with people and music. Perhaps celebrities too.”

“What? Music? Celebrities? Haha, that’s so funny. It doesn’t suit you.”

This stiff man and music? Those two didn’t go together at all. Janghae seemed to have found it funny as well. He rarely laughed and he was laughing now.

“So what, you sell albums or the like?”

“I’ll be dealing with web contents and setting up a platform, but I won’t be dealing with any physical media.”

“What the heck is that? That sounds so difficult.”

Bitna shut Janghae up by stuffing a piece of watermelon in his mouth. Janghae quietly ate the watermelon and just stared at her. Just then, the door suddenly swung open and two men entered. There were an uneasy-looking waiter and one little madam[1] behind the two.

“What the heck is this place? Why do you want us to go in here?”

One of the two men entered the room with a disdainful smile on his face. The waiter and the little madam looked at Janghae before bowing their heads.

“Hm, who’s this woman here? Haven’t seen her around here.”

“Uhm, sir…”

The man hit the waiter’s hand away.

“Just wait. I’m a good man here. I don’t do bad things. It’s just that I saw a madam I haven’t seen around here, so I’m just curious.”

“She’s not a madam but…”

“Hm?”

Bitna sighed and stood up to speak in the waiter’s stead.

“Hello? If you entered the wrong room, then just leave quietly.”

“Gee, woman. Look at her mouth. She’s charming.”

The two men giggled. Bitna laughed and walked up to them. She looked at them directly in the eyes and stood there for a while. The two men with bad attitudes suddenly froze stiff.

“What the heck are you doing to your customer?”

“Customer? I don’t need customers like you.”

“Are you fucking crazy, woman? Get the owner here.”

“She’s right in front of you. Go ahead and speak.”

“Wh-what?”

“I said speak. You’re talking to the owner right now.”

Bitna noticed that the little madam standing behind the two men was very uneasy while looking at Janghae. Were these two brought here by Janghae then? When she didn’t say anything, the two men looked at each other before frowning.

“You’re the owner? What about madam Park?”

“That big unni[2] is the big madam of the store, while I own this building.”

Who the heck are you calling madam - Bitna frowned. At that moment, the senior managing director, the head manager and the big madam appeared. The two men looked at both sides before starting to cough awkwardly.

“Big sis. Who are these two? You know them?” She asked the big madam.

Before the big madam even spoke, someone else replied.

“Manager Lee, Manager Cha.”

The two men became shocked out of their wits when they heard Janghae’s voice.

“S-senior director Hong?”

“So the managers of team 1 and team 3 were out because of work to do, but you two were actually here? You put the little duckling on phone duty, while the assistant manager is at a sauna. That’s a good company right there. Don’t you think?”

“S-senior director…”

“Fellas, I told you, didn’t I? That you should stay quiet until I leave? Why do you give menial work to someone who's about to leave on a good note? The newbie in team 3 of store business doesn’t know my face either. Also, when I asked him where the rest of the team went, that newbie asked me ‘who are you’. Also, he blatantly said that some went to the sauna during work. Haa, that was a week ago. Did you know that?”

“W-we didn’t.”

“ARE YOU FUCKING PROUD OF THAT NOW?”

Janghae picked up some watermelon peels and threw them at the two men. A peel hit one man’s head before falling down on the ground.

“Fucking pricks.”

“S-sorry, sir!”

The two men lowered their heads.

Janghae heaved a deep sigh before speaking.

“You don’t have to be sorry. Oh, and I want to say this. I was going to play golf with the president and general manager Kim, but I told them that I canceled it because of two certain people. How’s that, interesting, isn’t it? Why don’t you go to work tomorrow and have a look at general manager Kim’s face? It’ll be quite fun.”

The two managers left the room in a fluster when Hong Janghae told them to fuck off. The little madam told the waiter to call the parking boy.

“Big unni, are those two regulars?”

“No, they’re just casuals. You don’t need to worry about them.”

“Okay then.”

“Rather than that, president, can I talk to you about the band payment and the prepaid salary for the girls?”

“Talk to the senior director for that. I just manage a couple of our aces for fun, so I don’t know that stuff in detail.”

“Okay, sorry for disturbing you. Please rest.”

“Alright.”

The waiter quickly mopped the floor before leaving.

Bitna approached Janghae who was resting his face on his hand with a tired face.

“I was wondering why you wanted to meet me here, so this was the reason. I knew you aren’t the kind of man who’d look for me for no reason. Also, don’t be so angry. It’s not good for your body.”

“Fuu, those idiots cause me a headache.”

“This won’t do. Get up. You look gloomy, and I think you need to eat.”

Bitna pulled Janghae up. Janghae followed her lead and stood up unwillingly.

“How was my restaurant that we went to last time? Wasn’t the steak decent?”

“You don’t own one or two stores though.”

“I only have one steak restaurant though.”

Bitna hooked arms with Janghae and left the room. The parking boy, who managed the cars that came to the store, immediately brought Janghae’s car.

“I’ll drive.”

Bitna put Janghae into the passenger seat before she sat on the driver’s seat. Janghae leaned back in the chair and closed his eyes.

“How’s it going with your wife these days? You still living separately?”

“We’re always living apart.”

“Then why don’t you just get divorced instead?”

“I need her for class reunions and the like. Women like her shine on those kinds of occasions. We just call each other when we need to. Well, it’s not a bad relationship. I think of her as a good business partner.”

“A good business partner, huh. I guess you and I are like that as well?”

“Want to be in a more emotional relationship?”

“No, I like it this way too. You get fed up if you get too close to people.”

“I wholly agree with you on that matter.”

Bitna smiled when Janghae said those words. It wasn’t that she didn’t fantasize marrying Janghae. However, problems would obviously occur if she married him, so it was better to maintain the current relationship. Marriage was something that only women who needed rescue from work life needed, and there was no need to be so focused on marriage if one had the financial leeway. This was why people with multiple choices had it good. Above all, marrying a man with two kids under him was just a no-go in her mind as well.

After arriving at the restaurant she owned, Bitna left the car to a store employee before entering the building. She went to the table on the second floor that was always reserved for her and ordered a course menu.

“How long are you gonna keep up the people trade business?”

“Until it no longer makes money, I guess? I mean tenpro[3] is doing quite well these days, aren’t they? If I bring some other store’s big madam, they have their bands and boys and everything, so I don’t need to put in any effort either. Also, being in charge of some of them is quite fun too. But for restaurants like this one, there’s no room for me to interfere. I mean, they pay me for rent, and that’s about it. But for those stores, should I say that it feels alive? I mean, it’s good as a hobby if I don’t cross the dirty line. I also get to feel what problems come with management.”

“Geez, you’re a peculiar woman.”

“Jewelry shop, hair stylist shop, restaurant, bars, officetels[4]… I’ll try my hand at everything until I find the thing I like.”

“You have so much money and you want more?”

“What good is standing around doing nothing? Do you know why people become ahjummas? It’s because all they do is look after their kids at home, doing nothing. People need to move around.”

Janghae ate a piece of steak that Bitna cut for him. Playing around with younger people in their twenties was fun, but not thrilling. However, spending time with Janghae, who was in front of her, was thrilling. The profound eyes and the rational gaze was something that young people could never have. Then there are the occasions where he showed his weak side. He was a man she wanted to keep watching for a long time.

“Are your boys doing well? I think you told me that your older one got back at you.”

“He’s grown up already, bearing his fangs at his own father.”

Janghae spoke with a sharp gaze. Bitna felt warmth rushing into the part between her thighs when she saw the scary eyes of his. She grinned and took her foot out of her heels and pushed down on the part between Janghae’s thighs. Janghae continued eating as though nothing had happened.

“How about your second son?”

“I thought he was becoming an obedient dog, but the first son just took him. Well, it doesn’t matter. I’m not interested in broken things.”

“How heartless. But aren’t you happy that your first son became successful?”

“Happy? No way. His success has got nothing to do with my success, so why would I be?”

“What a petty man.”

Bitna sipped on some red wine.

“Oh, reminds me. I have something to ask you, oppa.”

“What is it?”

“Is a former superintendent prosecutor amazing for a lawyer? What the heck is a superintendent prosecutor? Is it someone great?”

“Those people answer directly to the one and only Prosecutor General, so it’s very high. If he happens to be from Seoul’s high prosecutor’s office, then large-scale law firms will pay huge money to hire him.”

“Hmm, so that’s how it works.”

“You really are clueless when it comes to this stuff.”

“I don’t need to know, do I? I mean, I’m a person who’s fine without the law. But hm, he actually turned out to be someone amazing.”

“What happened?”

“Nah, I got into a quarrel. But wait, why is someone like that driving a shit car? It’s confusing.”

“Maybe he’s a clean lawyer.”

“Are you serious?”

Janghae shrugged his shoulders.

“So it’s not just attorneys, judges and prosecutors. What the heck? People dealing with the law have hierarchies too?”

“They exist everywhere.”

“I don’t have one though.”

Bitna smiled as she spoke. Just then, a waitress slipped and hit her glass. The round wine glass tilted before returning to its original position. Bitna looked down at her shirt. There was a smudge of red on a shirt that she received as a gift.

“I’m very sorry, customer.”

The waitress panicked and took out a napkin. Bitna shook her head and grabbed the waitress’ hand that was approaching her.

“Move your hand away from me.”

“Wh-what?”

“I think you need to leave this place right now.”

“What?”

“You didn’t hear me? I said leave. You just need to get changed and leave. I’ll have your salary sent to your bank account. Of course, that’s after taking some off for cleaning my clothes. If it were some other clothes, I would’ve just bought a new one, but I have to get this washed.”

“Uhm, what do you…”

“Do you not know who I am? Oh, so that’s it. That’s all the more reason for you to leave.”

Bitna clicked her fingers and called an employee that knew her face. Seeing the new waiter’s face turn deathly pale, she felt better. She told the waitress, who kept apologizing, to leave. She didn’t need girls like her in her store.

“Now I understand how you feel. How can they not know my face?” Bitna smiled as she spoke.

Janghae just sipped some wine.

“Oppa, this place is no good. Let’s leave.”

“How whimsical.”

“That’s what’s charming about me. Also, let’s get you a suit. I found a good place. They have decent ones for 8 million won. Let’s go.”

Bitna stood up with Janghae. When they went to the counter on the first floor, she saw the waitress with a dazed expression.

“You haven’t left yet? What, you want to eat here?”

“I’m sorry. It was all my fault. I will not make such a mistake again, so please forgive me this once,” the waitress took a deep bow as she spoke.

Bitna just snorted back at her.

“Excuse me, you’re no longer an employee, so I’ll be polite here. Do you know why I pay two million won a month to the employees here? It’s because this place is supposed to be a premium restaurant. People that come here have to feel like they’ve become nobles. To do that, I can’t have mistakes on my premises, okay? I’m not paying you two million won a month just to carry around food. I’m paying people two million to sell service, and you obviously don’t fit the criteria. I thought you were educated on this.”

“I’m very sorry.”

“If apologies could solve everything, why would there be problems in the first place? Just take your leave now. Manager, get a new waiter.”

Bitna scanned the woman before leaving the store. She got in the car as she spoke.

“I despise people who try to take shortcuts the most. They want other people’s money but don’t put in any effort for it.”

“Who’s the one that said getting angry is not good for the body?”

“Tch, fine. I won’t get angry.”

Bitna smiled as she stepped on the accelerator pedal.

* * *

Maru blinked several times as he looked at the pitch-black building in front of him. It screamed expensive with just the name of the restaurant, ‘H House’, written in calligraphy. He was also surprised when he found out that the entire building was just dedicated to the restaurant. Even the carpet at the entrance had an unbelievably smooth texture to it.

“Let me guide you.”

They were led to the 2nd floor as though there was a reservation. After sitting down on the seat, he asked lawyer Park.

“You had an appointment with someone else? I mean, from how it was reserved…”

“I told you that I was planning to come with my daughter. But I can’t help it when she prefers her friends over me. It’s hard to get a reservation at this restaurant so it’s a pity to let it go to waste. That’s why I brought you.”

“You should’ve brought your wife then.”

“She’s in Japan right now. She went traveling with her old classmates. My eldest daughter went to Europe. I’m a lonely dad.”

“Ah, okay.”

Maru nodded his head as he thought that rich people’s households had some amazing circumstances.

[1] Read translator’s thoughts for details.

[2] Used to refer to the oldest female member or the female member with the highest position in the group.

[3] Surprisingly, it can be found when you look it up in English as well. Tenpro(a.k.a ‘ten percent’), is a place where rich people go to spend their money to buy service from ladies. Fun fact, it’s called ‘ten percent’ because the managers of such ‘ladies’ only get ten percent of the cut. The 90% goes to the ladies themselves.

[4] A Korean-made English word. Combines the words ‘office’ and ‘hotel’ together. It’s basically an office and residence in one. Wikipedia for more details.

Chapter 308

“So, did the matter at your school end well?”

“Yes, thanks to you, it all ended well.”

“That’s good. Are the bullied kids still going to school like normal?”

“Probably.”

“Probably?”

“I haven’t talked to them after that. From how I see them from time to time at school, I think they’re doing fine.”

“That’s a little unexpected. Usually, they’d come up and say thanks.”

“It’s not something I wanted them to thank me for. Neither they nor I have a reason to get close to each other, so it was only a matter of time before we became like strangers.”

“To me, that sounds like you didn’t do all that out of pity.”

“Yeah, well.”

“Did the bullies get on your bad side then? Or did they bully you as well? No wait, you definitely aren’t the type of guy to be bullied.”

“There’s a guy that crossed the line. Honestly speaking, if he didn’t cause any problems for me, I would’ve just let them be.”

“I don’t say this to young people that much, but that’s actually better. You need to draw the line between where you want to interfere and where you don’t. I don’t recommend being kind to everyone to people.”

Maru nodded as he sliced the t-bone steak. His life philosophy was similar to that of lawyer Park’s. Well, many people probably had similar philosophies with minor differences.

“Oh, lawyer Park.”

Just as he was biting into a piece of bread after applying butter on it, a lady who seemed to be in her early forties greeted lawyer Park. Next to her was a pretty child. She seemed to be in elementary school.

“Hello. I didn’t know I’d see you here.”

“The owner of the store is a friend of mine. I came here to visit, but then I saw a familiar face. Yeji, you have to say hello, don’t you?”

The little girl politely greeted lawyer Park. The way she put both of her hands on her belly button and bowed was adorable and cute. She then turned towards Maru and greeted him as well. The girl’s mother looked at her daughter with satisfaction.

The woman faintly smiled and had a look at Maru. When she did, lawyer Park introduced Maru to her.

“He’s someone under a company that a friend of mine runs.”

Since lawyer Park introduced him, Maru couldn’t stay still either. He stood up and greeted the woman.

“Oh, it looks like I interrupted your meal.”

“Not at all. We were feeling desolate since it’s just two men here. Rather than that, Yeji has grown a lot since the last time I saw her. Is she in her 2nd year of elementary school now?”

“Yes.”

“She’s pretty like her mother.”

“Sheesh, there you go again, lawyer.”

The little girl was blinking and staring at the table. She was looking at the piece of bread. She gave a glance to her mother and the lawyer before reaching out to the small piece of bread.

“Yeji.”

Seeing that, the girl’s mother calmly scolded her. The girl made a dejected expression before taking away her hand. The mother crouched down and met her eyes on the same level before stroking her cheeks.

“I told you that you shouldn’t put your hand on other people’s things without permission, didn’t I?”

The girl nodded. Seeing that, lawyer Park smiled and grabbed the bread with a napkin before handing it over to the girl.

“What do you have to say to lawyer Park now?”

“Thank you.”

The girl bowed after receiving the bread. The mother told her ‘good girl’ before patting her head.

“Lawyer, may I treat you to a meal next time? My husband wants to meet you.”

“Sure. Call me any time. I’m quite free.”

“Okay then, I’ll see you at a later date. Enjoy your meal.”

The little girl then bowed again before leaving.

“That’s when girls are the cutest. You have less to care about and they are so adorable. They’re obedient too.”

“That’s true. After a couple more years… gee, I don’t want to even think about it.”

Maru showed an awkward smile to lawyer Park, who was staring at him. He blurted that out loud since he was reminded of his own daughter. After their meal, they went to the counter to pay, and the employee told lawyer Park that their meal was already paid for.

“Oh, is that so?”

Lawyer Park put his credit card back inside his wallet. It seemed that that lady from back then had paid for their meal.

“Looks like I have to go to their next invitation no matter what,” lawyer Park spoke as he walked out of the restaurant.

Maru got in the car when he told him that he’d give him a ride home.

“That was a decent meal, wasn’t it?”

“I really had a nice time. I’m even thinking about bringing my parents here next time.”

“That’s good. The dressing isn’t that strong, so adults like it as well. The steak seasoning is also tailored to fit our taste buds.”

“But how much does it cost to get a course meal like the one we just had?”

“Around 300 thousand.”

“Then that’s 150 thousand per person, huh. How expensive.”

“No, I meant 300 thousand per person.”

“……”

Maru felt as though the food inside his stomach was suddenly expanding in size. He ate 300 thousand won’s worth of food in one sitting? It wasn’t like he drank any alcohol either. All he had were some vegetables, bread, soup, seafood, a steak and some dessert. So even the bread cost five digits?

At the same time, he was reminded of the lady that paid 600 thousand won. Perhaps she asked her friend that she said was the owner of the restaurant?

“Are you thinking about what kind of person she is to pay such a huge sum?”

“Was it that obvious?”

“You’re quite sensitive when it comes to money. You will go bald if you like money too much when you’re still young. Hm, her husband is a managing director at DK, and she herself is the granddaughter of the chairman of the Korea Daily. In one word, chaebols[1].”

“That’s easy enough to understand. Chaebols, huh.”

Maru remembered the mother and daughter that he saw at the restaurant as he put his seatbelt on. Chaebols. It was a word that appeared very frequently in the news and popular magazine journals. It was also a word that brought the public outrage of the ordinary people. Maru himself did not have any good feelings towards the word chaebol either. It wasn’t a surprise, since all the news about them were about embezzlement, business malpractices to gain illegal profits, secret funds and mostly any crime related to money.

However, a real chaebol he saw for himself was just like anyone else, no in fact, was more polite than most people. Maru wondered if it was because she was talking to a lawyer.

Lawyer Park drove in reverse as he started speaking. Maru just looked forward without showing any expression. He couldn’t say bad things about people who were positively acquainted with lawyer Park.

“Not many people see chaebol families in a good light.”

Maru glanced at him.

“The irony is that everyone wants to become one, yet they despise them. It’s the chaebols themselves that created this contradiction, so they shouldn’t be that surprised. I mean, the chairman of Sungjoo Corp. appeared on TV in a wheelchair. His effort to not get arrested was tear jerking.”

“I’ve seen the news as well. It was about the stocks, wasn’t it?”

“They got caught shooting a movie which they did in order to avoid taxes. It’s interesting. The families that are known as chaebols can dictate a corporation with stocks that often amount to a single digit percentage. I don’t know who came up with the idea of circular shareholding[2], but I’m sure that person is a genius,” lawyer Park chuckled.

“In any case, chaebols have a lot of problems, but they mostly try to stay quiet. When problems surface like that, it’s mostly because they didn’t do the groundwork properly.”

“Groundwork?”

“Whether it's shady deals or market manipulation, they have to cover their tracks, but details that shouldn't get leaked come out anyway, and then the CEOs suddenly come out in wheelchairs. Oh, I’m not saying this as a lawyer, but as an ordinary person.”

“Alright.”

“Problems do get found because when you’re the leader of a super large corporation, you will get exposed to the media one way or the other, but their families usually do their best not to be exposed. Do you know what people in power fear the most?”

“Well, losing their power, probably.”

“Yes, it’s simple. That’s why the people with power watch out for themselves in order to not let go of the power in their hands. The era is changing. The people that supported companies in order to revitalize the country by buying in-house products have started to look for ways to survive on their own. It’s especially becoming like that ever since the IMF crisis. Thanks to that, the companies watch out for themselves in order to appease the public and not get on their bad side. They might be able to wield power in places with guaranteed secrecy, but they will have to act very politely in places without it.”

Lawyer Park made a very peculiar expression. Maru found out why through the next words he spoke.

“I earn money by going around doing work so that they don’t lose any money. I don’t like chaebols, but they make up the majority of my clients at our law firm, so I can’t exactly hate them. My wife and eldest daughter’s travel expenses, as well as my younger daughter’s tuition comes from their pocket after all. That’s why I really can’t scold other people. I’m not in a position where I can speak, so how am I supposed to talk bad about anyone?”

“Everyone has to deal with something like that one way or the other.”

Insulting people in better positions, yet dreaming to become one; complaining about society yet doing their best to be a member of one. This couldn’t be helped since the world was one where they would starve to death if they were excluded by others. Chaebol was the ultimate objective of people going to good universities and getting good jobs. Of course, some had other objectives as well. These people usually pursued their own unique goals. However, the underlying system of this nation was geared towards producing laborers that were less defiant and more mechanical, and a laborer’s dream would be to become the head of laborers.

Maru reminded himself of the celebrity prostitution issue that he saw on RBS. An actress claimed that she was called to a successful CEO to have sexual intercourse. It seemed that businesses and the entertainment industry were actually joined together whether it was the good things or the bad things.

“In dramas, 2nd gen members of chaebols are portrayed as super condescending people, right? Trying to solve everything with money, blackmail, beating people up… There are people like that as well. I can’t say that there aren’t any people like that. But the people I’ve met were all nice people. No, going beyond nice, they’re naïve.”

After stopping in front of a red light, lawyer Park put a cigarette in his mouth. He didn’t light it up though. He just held it with his lips like a lollipop.

“I used to be in a prosecutor’s office before I entered a law firm. I had to deal with criminal cases like mad. I’ve seen how malevolent humans can be, numerous times. I can’t remember the number of times I shook in rage as I wrote indictment bills. Someone that killed their parents, someone that killed their child, someone that ran over a person in a car, rapists, assailants, etc. From what I saw, people raised in harsher environments tend to commit more extreme crimes. There are exceptions, but they just stop caring since their very reality is hell. Also, in cases of homicides, most non-accidental murders were related to money problems.”

Lawyer Park moved his lower jaw to fidget with the cigarette in his mouth before throwing it on the ashtray. Maru saw that the ashtray was filled with cigarettes that hadn’t been burned at all.

“I think I get what you’re saying.”

“You do?”

“Yes. Why are the 2nd generation members of rich families pure and naïve? They might change once they start learning about business in order to participate in it, but they must be really pure and naïve before that. I mean, they get to be raised in the best of environments without lacking anything, right? They would never have to deal with the problems that would be common for people born and raised in ordinary households.”

“Yes, that’s what it is. They are people that grew up with the best of everything, including education, so they’re fundamentally polite and kind. It’s harsh trials that create the flaws in personality, but they don’t experience things like that. Though, like I said before, there are those that just act whimsically, but they’re immediately put to rest with pressure from their older family members.”

A big wobble could be felt. It seemed that they drove over a speed bump.

“Do you know about the celebrity prostitution story that’s in the news these days?”

“Yes. I’ve seen the news.”

“It’s not something I should say to a kid, but I’ll say this to you since you’re a part of it… don’t get involved with people from companies as much as possible. In the entertainment industry, the ones with power are the advertisers, and advertisers belong to businesses. Meeting them for business is okay, but don’t get close to them personally.”

“I’ll first become famous and then think about it.”

“Haha, I guess that’s also true.”

Just then, a phone rang. Lawyer Park answered the call with the hands free mode.

“This fella, you just called at the perfect moment. I’m with Maru right now. Why are we together? Things happened. Why did you call me? You want to drink together? You should really watch out for your health. Why don’t you drink ginseng tea like you always do? Alright, forget booze. Why don’t we go indoor fishing after all this while? You know, like when we were young. Alright, see you then.”

Lawyer Park ended the call. Maru looked outside the window. He saw that he was just passing by a subway station.

“It sounds like you got an appointment, so I’ll get off here. It will be quite a hassle for you to drive to Suwon and then back to Seoul.”

“I wish I could drive you home, but I guess it will be quite hard on me once it starts getting congested.”

Lawyer Park stopped the car at the edge. Maru got out of the car and said goodbye. He was thankful to him since he had a nice meal and got some help from him as well.

“Good luck with acting.”

“Thank you. Be careful on your way.”

Maru turned around after watching the car drive off for a while. He got on the subway and leaned against a pole. He was slicing steak in Cheongdam-dong less than an hour ago, but right now, he was in a crowd of people who were going home from work. He experienced for himself that people could be so physically separated in this small land of South Korea.

‘What chaebols. I’m fine as long as I can feed my wife and my child.’

He thought that he would have no relations with them. They lived in a different world after all. Maru thought about the future as he looked outside the subway. The acting competition was about to begin, so he had to concentrate on that. The play was looking much more complete than before, so they would be able to get a prize as long as they did well on the big day.

The subway shook according to a certain rhythm.

[1] Most K-drama fans will know that chaebols refer to extremely rich families that run super large companies as ‘family business’. Wikipedia for more info.

[2] Apparently, this is what it’s called in Korea specifically, and I don’t see any foreign uses of this word outside of Korea. Basically, as the name implies, ‘circular shareholding’ is basically companies having shares in each other in a ‘chain’ format. For example, let’s say there are companies A, B and C. In this case, ‘circular shareholding’ will mean A has B stocks, B has C stocks, and C has A stocks. Meaning, these ‘chaebols’ are monopolizing all the money. “Cross ownership” came up when I looked up the word, but it seems to be slightly different in its purpose.

Chapter 309

Maru heard the news that the shoot had finished. After putting down his phone, he smiled and looked up at the ceiling. It was all over now. Though, there was still the post-production left which was more important than the shoot itself, meaning that there was still quite a lot of time until the release, but it still meant that the rough sketch was done. He was quite proud of the fact that his first work was finished being shot without a hitch. He looked forward to how he would appear in the movie in that short scene he had put all his effort into.

“Did something good happen?” Daemyung asked from the side.

“The shoot is over, apparently.”

“Really?”

“Yeah.”

“Congratulations.”

“I’m not the one that’s supposed to be congratulated.”

“But still, you participated in the movie. I think you’re worth congratulating,” Daemyung made a V with his fingers.

“Then you’ve done a movie, and now it’s a drama?”

“Both as extras though.”

“Hey, you still get to appear in them. It’s proof that you’re working your way up. Oh yeah, when’s the drama episode you shot before going on air?”

“They said that it’s done in a two-week interval, so probably today.”

“Looks like I should watch it then.”

“You don’t have to go out of your way to watch it. It’ll only be a brief appearance anyway.”

“You said you get hit, right?”

“Yup.”

Dojin, who was listening to the conversation from the side, spoke,

“First it’s a delinquent, and now you’re getting hit. When are you going to be the cool character?”

“I don’t know.”

While they were chatting, the class president entered the classroom and told everyone that there was no homeroom at the end of the day. As tomorrow was a full club activities day, there was no acting club practice today either. It was the perfect day to go home early and daze out while lying on his bed. Just as they left the classroom, a girl wearing a school uniform was waiting for them. It was none other than Yoojin. The boys in the class started whispering among themselves.

Maru approached Yoojin.

“There’s no practice today.”

“I know.”

“Then why are you here? Looking like that too.”

“Help us out a little.”

“With what?”

“The acting club at my school is practicing, and I want you to help. I’ve left the acting club, but I’m still their senior.”

“Now you’re confusing me even more. We don’t have anything to teach you guys. I mean, you guys are better than us.”

“No, for this specific instance, you guys are the perfect people for the job.”

What was this about? Maru tilted his head and stared at Yoojin.

“The play my school is preparing is ‘I’ve been really wronged’.”

* * *

Maru had a look at the time. It was five o’clock. Usually at this time, he would’ve arrived at home, had a shower, and would be eating dinner with the side dishes in the fridge. After that, he would be lying on his bed, reading a book or something. Yet right now, he was standing inside the train.

“I told you. Isn’t that funny?”

A high-pitched tone entered his ears. Maru glanced at Yoojin, who was holding hands with Aram and Jiyoon with a bright smile on her face. This girl’s friendliness was fatal.

She had gotten close to the members of the acting club during the times she came to his school to watch them practice. The kind Jiyoon was the first one to be poached by her. Following that, Aram, who was on close terms with Jiyoon, went over to her side as well. Naturally, the only remaining first year, Bangjoo, started hanging out with her as well, and eventually, she was at the point where she was practically a member of their acting club.

Yoojin pinched Aram’s thighs while giggling. In front of them were Daemyung and Dowook. The entire acting club was going over to Bosung Girl’s High School right now. No, this was kidnapping. Maru thought that everyone here was having signs of Stockholm syndrome.

Maru shook his head when Yoojin grinned at him. An hour ago, when Yoojin asked him to come with her, he told her that he couldn’t be bothered. Indeed, he couldn’t be bothered. Actually, a bigger reason that he didn’t want to go was because of the fact that they were preparing the same play.

If two schools decided to do the same play in the acting competition, the judges would definitely drop one of them. The acting competition first held regional preliminaries and then finals in Seoul. If there were two of the same pieces, they would definitely drop one of them during the preliminaries. Was there a reason to help a competitor? Of course not. He was about to refuse Yoojin’s request but she turned to Daemyung for help instead.

Maru sighed as he looked outside the subway. He had taken Daemyung and ran for his life at that moment. Daemyung, who was grabbed by Yoojin, ended up accepting after hearing her story. A competition in good faith, he said; beautiful rivals, he said. Maru clutched his head and shook his head when Daemyung came to him with those words. He then looked towards Dowook, who hated doing things that he didn’t want to do, but he showed interest in the fact that Yoojin’s high school was Bosung ‘Girls’ High. Maru thought that he had to take a picture of him at that moment and send it to his sister, telling her that this was the true face of the boy she liked.

The first years accepted without any complaints at all. Maru clicked his tongue when the first years replied with the words ‘of course!’ in a cheerful voice when Yoojin asked them for help. It felt like the guest had become the master.

He told Daemyung that helping them might bring losses to their own acting club, but he replied that helping them out will be an opportunity to study as well, and that there wouldn’t be any problems. Following that, he confidently said that he had the confidence to win if they were doing the same play. Maru liked his ambitiousness, but he didn’t like variables, so he thought that Daemyung was a little complacent.

Despite that, he also smiled in one corner of his heart. This was what youth was about. How could he not smile when they helped out their friends just because they’re friends rather than considering the benefits?

That was why he raised the white flag and tagged along. He would be the one to slap them back into shape if they lost to Bosung Girls High during the competition itself.

* * *

“But are us boys allowed into a girls high school?” This question came up on Maru’s mind as he got off the subway. He looked at Yoojin.

“We’ll have to go in in secret.”

“What?”

“So, the fences next to the school gates are slightly lower than the fences in other places. We’ll go through there, so that we don’t get caught.”

“Hey hey. Pack up, everyone. Let’s go back.”

“I was joking! I already got permission.”

“How did you know if we’d be coming or not?”

“You’re here so that’s not a meaningful question!”

Yoojin smiled suspiciously. Maru decided to call her the mini-Miso from today onwards.

They got on the bus near the subway station.

“Over here.”

Bosung Girls High stood tall right next to the apartment complex. Unlike Woosung High, which was an engineering high school, lights were still on in class thanks to the presence of students studying after school. Girls were leaving through the front gates. It seemed that they were going to the nearby restaurants to have dinner. They walked past some girls that were walking arm-in-arm, arriving at the entrance. Aram and Jiyoon were able to walk past the school gates without any feeling of rejection, but the rest couldn’t.

Were they supposed to rejoice at the fact that they could enter a no-boys zone? Maru crossed the entrance after seeing Yoojin waving at him to come. The girls glanced at him once before just going their ways. Perhaps it was the fact that he wasn’t wearing a school uniform that made them disinterested.

However, the situation changed after entering the school building. The girls all stared at the boys in the corridor. Their gazes were quite sharp. Yoojin had to explain several times to the teachers they met along the way. Most of the time, the teachers cheered her on, saying that she could go. The reaction was completely opposite to how it would be in Woosung High. If it was Woosung High, the teachers would’ve told them not to cause any trouble after hearing that it was for the acting club.

They walked upstairs to the fourth floor and walked to the end of the corridor when they were greeted with a passageway to another building.

“The entrance to the annex building is under construction, so we need to go through here.”

They followed Yoojin through the passage. The walls of the annex had paint that was still shiny. It seemed that it hadn’t been that long since it was built.

“Are the schools in Seoul all this good financially?”

He was pondering to himself, but Yoojin replied to him,

“It’s the power of independent schools.”

They climbed down to the 3rd floor in the annex building, where they could see girls busily moving around. They were also holding a huge banner.

“It’s the school festival soon.”

It also smelled like some tteokbokki. Now that Maru thought about it, Woosung High also had its own festival before the summer holidays. It was named the Woosung Festival, and it was only held biennially, so there wasn’t one last year.

Yoojin heavily pushed on the door on the left wall of the 3rd floor. The girls who were practicing inside blinked their eyes and looked towards the door.

“I’m here!”

Yoojin entered like a general. Maru walked in first to lead the way. Since it was a girls high school, the club members were naturally all girls. Their club room, or perhaps practice room, was half the size of Woosung High’s 5th floor hall. It was large enough for all the members to freely run around in, so it looked like a good place to practice. There was a soft mat on the floor, so they had to take their shoes off at the entrance. It was a drastic contrast to their own environment at Woosung High where they were occupying an unused classroom.

“Wow.”

The other club members all entered while exclaiming. The members of Bosung High’s acting club started cleaning up immediately. It seemed that they were notified of this beforehand.

“These are my juniors.”

“Hello.”

Over twenty girls greeted at the same time. Maru wondered if they were all first years and had a look at Daemyung. He didn’t have a good expression as though he didn’t like standing in front of so many girls. Maru pushed his back. He was supposed to be their representative here.

“And he’s Park Daemyung, the club president of the acting club at Woosung High. He’s a 2nd year, and… you told me you didn’t have a girlfriend, right? The girls here are all kind and pretty so take your pick.”

Yoojin smirked. Although she was saying that, she was looking at Jiyoon. This girl clearly knew what was going on and yet was doing this on purpose.

“Hello.”

For some reason, the girls looked very strict. Maru thought that the atmosphere would be more lax and elegant, but they looked like soldiers that just finished boot camp. Their eyes looked like they were about to shout their rank and names.

“Are they usually like this, or are they scared of you?”

“Think of them as being polite,” Yoojin spoke.

And so, they had a brief time for introduction with the ‘polite’ members of Bosung High. 20 girls' names flashed by, and it was honestly impossible to remember them all. After the introduction period, they went into practice immediately. The girls quickly cleaned up the place and started preparing for the play.

“Where are the 2nd years?”

“They probably went home because there’s no practice today.”

“How about them? There are twenty people here even though there’s no practice?”

“The 2nd years and first years that are getting ready for the competition aren’t here, and the girls here today are practicing for the play at the school festival.”

“The school festival?”

“What, you thought I was asking you for help on the play for the competition?”

“You weren’t?”

“We have our pride you know? And do you think I’m that insensitive to ask you to do such a thing? A lot of first years entered this year, leading to the discussion that we should try doing a play for both the competition and the school festival. I originally wanted to go to Myunghwa High, but they’re elites. Meaning, your girlfriend is actually very busy.”

“And that’s why you came to us?”

“Yes.”

Maru smiled bitterly. He was worried for nothing. He felt much better now. Daemyung was smiling as well. Although he had said all those fancy words, he must have felt very worried inside after all.

“But you care about them quite a lot considering that you left the club.”

“Of course. I might have left because I’m busy, but I used to be a member here. For now, watch them do theirs first and show them your version. I think that will give them the general gist of it.”

Practice began under Yoojin’s guidance. 6 out of the 20 people came out and started acting. The rest just separated into two groups and sat on each side.

“How about the others?”

“We’re gonna pick people to do the play tomorrow. There’s team one and team two.”

“You really are on a completely different scale to us.”

“We’re nothing compared to Myunghwa High though. They have actual celebrities in their acting club.”

“Really?”

“How else do you think they’re sweeping the prizes all over the country? They have several idols there as well, as well as child actors. They even have a separate class that houses all of them. Rather than that, it’s starting now. You look at that girl over there. She’s the company employee.”

Maru nodded before looking at the girl with short hair.

* * *

“Let’s stop there for now! We’ll take a break.”

She nodded her head hearing the club president’s words. When she looked outside, she saw the moon. So much time had passed already. She drank some water before heaving out a deep breath. Everyone was nervous since the nation-wide competition was just half a month away. They got the grand prize last year, the year before that, and the year before that as well. There were a flag and several trophies in one corner of the clubroom. The trophy was given to them, but the flag was supposed to be kept by the school that won the competition for just that year, meaning that they would have to return the flag if they didn’t win the competition again this summer. The flag had been with them for several years now, so it would be a pity if it disappeared.

This was why the seniors were very strict during practice as well - in order to maintain the tradition of winning the grand prize.

“First years, go buy some kimbap and some snacks.”

The club president spoke as she handed out some money. It seemed that she was planning to have a late night meal at the school as well.

She started stretching on the spot. She was the type to cool down if she dazed off. Just as she leaned against the wall and stretched her legs out, the club president came by and pressed down on her back.

“You got your line wrong once back there.”

“Urgh, sorry about that.”

“The competition is right in front of us, we can’t have the main character making mistakes on us.”

The club president let go after chuckling. She smiled as she looked up at the president.

Chapter 310

Last year’s acting club president was a cool girl. She could still remember. The ex-president was rather tall with short hair. Her colleagues always teased her saying that she looked like a man from afar, but she always smiled back at them. As she had graduated, the position of the president was handed over to the current president. The graduates were all surprised that the acting club had female presidents for two consecutive years.

The current president had a tomboy-style look as well. The difference from last year’s president was that she looked a little cuter since she was short. Though, no one said this in front of her. She hated being called cute.

“I heard that Hyeha-seonbae is participating in the Geochang Theater Festival.”

“The Geochang Theater Festival?”

She, who was stretching her waist by putting her chest against the floor, abruptly raised her head. Hye-na seonbae, she was the former club president that graduated. She had heard occasional news about her, but this was the first time she heard that she was participating in a theater festival.

“You mean the international festival?”

“No, the college festival that comes after that. The international festival only allows full theater troupes so college clubs probably aren’t allowed.”

“Aha.”

She nodded. She found out that there were many different theater festivals while researching stuff for her blog. They ranged from college-level theater festivals, city-wide, nation-wide to international festivals. Many such festivals were held within the country every year. Among them, the Geochang International Festival of Theater was a rather famous one. From what she knew, there were only around 60,000 residents in Geochang, but the number of visitors that visited Geochang for the festival was twice that number.

“I would like to go if I have the time.”

“It’s held in November, so you might be able to go if the schedule allows it?” The president spoke with a smile.

Ex-president Hye-na and the current president were on close terms. They were like real sisters. They were also similar in the fact that they were passionate about acting. There was one difference: the current president did not decide to take acting as her career. She decided to stop after high school. She already declared that she would focus on managing the club once the summer acting competition was over.

“We’re back with some food!”

The juniors who had gone out to get food had returned. They sat around the food in a circle. She liked meal time. Being able to share food with people that she got along with was a joyous matter.

‘I wonder if Maru had his meal,’ she thought as she put a piece of kimbap in her mouth.

Maru had become really busy this year. He had told her that he had been to a drama shoot just a short while ago. He was handling both the matters given to him by his agency as well as the club, so he should have it quite hard. Although it had been almost two weeks since they had seen each other, the reason she didn’t go further than just calling him was because of that. She wanted Maru to rest a little.

Maru was very talkative, but he never talked about his own worries. She thought in one corner of her heart that Maru was a very sturdy person, and that he’d tackle any obstacles in his way with a smile. However, ever since she saw Maru crying silently at the cinema, she felt shock as well as pity for him. She never got to know why Maru cried that day. All she got back was that Maru cried because the movie was sad when she tried to ask.

After that day, she thought that she should be more considerate of Maru. She understood - that Maru had his weak side. He never talked about his worries, so she had to be considerate of him more.

“Eat to your hearts’ content. We’ll be staying here until 11 tonight as well.”

“…Yes.”

The juniors started eating food hurriedly. Her colleagues did the same. She also started drinking the soup for the fishcake. It was likely that they would keep up this schedule until the festival itself. They would get exhausted if they didn’t get their fill properly.

After the meal, they did some light exercise before resuming practice. They had set up the stage and were wearing stage costumes as well. This was done in order to let the first years experience what it’s like on the stage. After a single run, they gathered around the club president.

“That was good. Let’s take a short rest before we start again. I know that it’s tiring, but endure it for now. The only way for you to not make any mistakes during the real deal is when you practice enough to the point that you can mutter your lines subconsciously just after waking up. The 2nd years know what I mean, right?”

She nodded at the club president’s question. There were occasions where people’s heads would go blank on stage. No matter how hard people resolved themselves to not make a mistake, there would be trivial mistakes made on stage. Voices would go hoarse for no reason, and bodies would go stiff without any cause either. The only way to escape that situation was acting that was engraved on the body. Practice was like insurance. It was the best when there was no need for it, yet the ‘what-if’ situation always comes by all of a sudden, and that’s when it shined.

Just as they were enjoying their rest, the door to the practice room opened.

“You guys are still practicing.”

A girl entered with coffee in one hand. The man that seemed to be in his mid twenties also entered with coffee in his hands. The coffee was from the store outside the school.

“I was thinking maybe you guys were still practicing, and I guess I was right.”

The first and the 2nd years stood up. She did the same. Lee Chaerim. She was one of the many celebrities that commuted to this school. Although she wasn’t a member of the acting club, she brought presents from time to time and gave them encouragement, so everyone liked her. She had a thin figure with a short haircut and was a member of a top-tier idol band that was super popular with the boys. She was also appearing in dramas recently and was becoming more popular by the day.

“Seonbae, didn’t you say you had a shoot?” She asked Chaerim as she accepted a cup of coffee from her.

She had heard that Chaerim had a photoshoot.

“Of course I finished all of it. Everyone sit down, why are you guys all standing up?”

Chaerim sat next to the club president. The man that brought coffee told Chaerim that he would be waiting in the car and left. It seemed like he was her manager.

“Thanks. We just needed some dessert too,” the club president spoke as she bit down on the straw.

It was her favorite type of coffee - café mocha.

“How’s practice?”

“It’s going well. They’re good. How about you? Since you’re here, why don’t you tell us about the drama? I mean, you’re in front of your fans, technically.”

The boys all shouted ‘I’m a fan’ joyously. Chaerim faintly smiled and spoke.

“It’s hard. It wouldn’t be surprising if I got used to it now, but it always feels new every time I go there, and the actors there are so good that I feel like I look good because of them as well. I want to get complimented with my own skills, but it’s difficult. Have you… seen the drama? I look awkward, right?”

“No. I saw you on TV and you didn’t look awkward at all.”

“You were so good.”

“He’s right.”

The juniors all complimented her. Chaerim blushed in joy. She, who was watching her while sipping on her coffee, made the same posture in her mind. Would Maru like it if she acted like that as well? Her face became hot immediately and she shook her head. Acting cute in front of him was not going to happen.

Every one of Chaerim’s actions looked cute because of her figure. She felt like she knew why she was loved by both men and women. It seemed that not just anyone could become idols after all.

“Oh yeah. Isn’t the drama about to begin? Today’s Friday, isn’t it?”

“Yeah, it is.”

“Should we watch together?”

“Don’t. It’s embarrassing.”

Chaerim twisted her body as she said that. The club president turned on the power for the large TV in one corner of the practice room. The TV, which was rarely used outside of watching materials for learning, turned on. She switched the channel using the remote control next to the TV.

“It’s on RBS, right?”

“Yeah.”

The channel was switched to RBS. It was still on ads. On the top right corner was the logo for ‘Youth Generation’.

“Looks like it should begin soon.”

“Geez, this is gonna be embarrassing.”

“You shouldn’t be embarrassed of your own acting.”

The club president raised the volume. On TV was a shampoo ad. A long-haired actress was showing off her glistening hair.

“It’s Kim Suyeon.”

“She’s on TV a lot these days.”

The juniors’ words could be heard.

She actually knew that actress. She had seen her in person. She came to visit Maru when he was hospitalized. Every time she saw her on TV, it felt like the meeting back then was a lie.

‘But she didn’t look like she was close with Maru. Her first impression… wasn’t that good either.’

She knew how foolish it was to judge a person based on first impressions, but the feeling she had when she first saw Suyeon was so vicious that she still didn’t have a good impression of her. It even felt somewhat wrong to look at her cheerfully smiling on TV.

No, perhaps she was jealous. It wasn’t that surprising since she was pretty. She sighed slightly. Thinking back, all the people that came to visit Maru back then had some impressive atmosphere about them. They were all unique and beautiful.

“What are you thinking about?”

Suddenly seeing a face up close, she flinched and let go of her straw. It was Chaerim. Her eyes then looked at the straws with a lot of creases. It felt like it was representative of her mind.

“Just this and that.”

She wondered if all this was because they hadn’t met in a long time. She felt pathetic. She decided not to compare herself to other people. There would be no good in doing so. Also, Maru had said that he would make her only look at him and make her be unable to live without him. That probably implied that he wouldn’t look at anyone else either. Her thoughts started shifting towards Maru again. Her eyes had a glint in them and she chewed on the straw with all her strength.

‘Hm.’

It felt like she had lost for some reason. If Maru knew about this, it was obvious that he would have a big grin on his face and tease her all day for it.

“A lover’s quarrel?”

Hearing Chaerim’s question, she coughed awkwardly. The two gathered the attention of the juniors. She continued coughing to avoid her question.

“It’s starting.”

Hearing the president’s words, everyone looked at the TV. The screen darkened for a moment before it showed the whole school in one shot. This was a youth drama with four idols as the main characters. When it first started airing, there were a lot of bad words about it. However, in the third week, people started cheering and encouraging the actors more rather than criticizing them. This could easily be confirmed by looking it up on the internet.

“Oh, there she is.”

“It’s embarrassing, don’t keep saying it,” Chaerim said as she bit her lower lip.

In the drama, Chaerim was portrayed as the bad girl that was the daughter of a chaebol. She blatantly disdained people she didn’t like, and used money to get everyone on her side. She was the stereotypical ‘villainess’ character in Korean dramas.

“Isn’t it awkward?” Chaerim carefully asked.

She shook her head vigorously.

“You don’t look awkward at all.”

“Really? That’s good. The director wanted me to act more evil, but I didn’t really get it. I tried my best, but it looks really strange when I look at it myself.”

“It’s not like that at all. You totally look like an evil girl. You’re really good at acting, seonbae.”

“Hm, really? It doesn’t look that bad after all, right? I-I mean, I’m kind at heart so… huh?” Chaerim asked back with a vague smile.

She tilted her head. When she did, Chaerim said ‘no it’s nothing’ before turning around to the TV again. Did she make a mistake?

She put her knees together and started watching the drama. The full shot of the super large school was on full display.

“I wondered about this the last I saw it, but where the heck is that place? It’s a college, isn’t it?”

“No. It’s a high school in Seoul, named Sangam High.”

“That’s a high school? Looks super fancy.”

“Our school is not that bad either.”

“It’s a drop in the bucket compared to that place.”

The club president and Chaerim exchanged words. Like what the president said, the school in the drama had facilities that were too good to be true for a high school. It actually looked like a school for super rich kids that only appeared in fiction.

The scene changed and a gym appeared. After a short scene of boys doing sports, the main characters appeared. They were playing basketball. The tall actors played basketball and it looked very cool. Their body figure was very good on camera, so just that looked pleasing to the eyes.

Eventually, two of the main characters started fighting. They were fighting over the same girl who was like Cinderella. Chaerim appeared and attempted to stop the fight to no avail. Then, the two main characters got closer to each other. They glared at each other as though they were about to start punching each other at any moment. At that moment, the scene switched and the fist that was being raised into the air was shot close up.

At that moment, she was startled as though a block of ice suddenly touched the back of her neck. The boy that fell over from the protagonist’s fist was too familiar to her. She thought that she was mistaken for a second, but his face was captured in the next scene, albeit for a brief moment. He was clearly Maru.

“So this is that drama.”

She uttered that out loud subconsciously, but it seemed that she was quite loud. The president, Chaerim, as well as the members of the club all looked at her.

“What do you mean, this is that drama?”

“Eh? Oh, a friend of mine told me that he would be appearing in this drama as an extra.”

“A friend of yours? Who?”

“The one that fell over just now.”

“Ah, really?”

The president looked at the screen and spoke.

“Huh? Isn’t that the guy from Woosung High? He is! During the acting festival, Hye-na unni pointed him out, saying that he’s the most eye-catching.”

The club president spoke as she watched Maru being helped by another to go to the infirmary. Hearing that, the 2nd years also input their own opinions.

“Isn’t he the guy that grabbed you and shouted at you? It was back in Ansan, right? His name was… Han Maru, wasn’t it? That’s right, it was Han Maru.”

“Ah, I remember. There was a band performance nearby. That’s right, there was that strange kid. The one that said to ‘remember him’.”

Her friends started giggling as they talked about the story from a year ago. The club president looked at her with a suspicious smile. She lowered her head in order to avoid all the gazes. She was reminded of Maru from back then, when he suddenly came up to her and told her to remember him.

The president and her friends approached her and poked at her and asked if he was her boyfriend. She ended up nodding due to the barrage of attacks. With this, her friends at the club found out as well on top of her classmates.

“Now I know the origin of the ring that you were wearing from time to time.”

The club president pried deeper into the matter. She bit her lips and did not reply at all, but the president’s stubbornness had no end to it.

Just as she was avoiding the eyes of the president and the rest of the members, she felt a strong gaze hitting the left of her face. That frosty gaze made her turn her head that way. There, she saw Chaerim, who was looking at her with gloomy eyes. However, that gaze soon disappeared. Only the smiling Chaerim was left.

“Aah, I’m on the drama too.”

She was mindful about Chaerim, so she could hear those words. However, it seemed that no one else had heard it. She became absent-minded for a moment. The giggles from the president and her friends felt like they had disappeared.

“Uhm, I’ll get going now. I shouldn’t disturb you for too long.”

Chaerim stood up.

“You’re going?”

“Yeah. Good luck with practice. I’ll visit again next time.”

“Alright. We’ll have fun watching the drama too.”

“Ah, well. Alright, have fun.”

Chaerim left as she waved her hand.

She raised her hand and stroked her left cheeks. It felt numb as though she was slapped.

Chapter 311

“Are you sure you didn’t get hit for real?” Yoojin asked as she took her eyes off the TV.

“Of course I didn’t. It was planned beforehand.”

“Really? It looks realistic, though.”

Maru felt like he had become a monkey at a zoo. He turned around to the left. The students of Bosung Girls High quickly turned away. Even though he had met eyes with them, they turned around and pretended they were never interested from the beginning. Maru sighed.

Just as Woosung High was about to do their part after Bosung High’s practice, Daemyung talked about the drama in passing. Maru was about to gloss over it, but Yoojin ended up overhearing it. In the end, they turned the TV on and watched the drama together. It was quite embarrassing to watch his own acting with many people at once. This was why monitoring had to be done alone. His face became hot.

“Aren’t we here to practice?” Maru asked Yoojin, since she held the remote.

“You don’t appear anymore?”

“I’m just an extra, so that’s the end of me.”

Yoojin nodded and turned off the TV.

“So? How was it? Your first drama debut.”

“Is this the time for that? Let’s get to practice before it gets too late.”

Maru glanced at Daemyung. Yoojin thought that what Maru said was plausible and told her juniors to clean up.

“But I don’t think there’s anything they can gain from watching us. I mean, they didn’t do bad.”

The play acted out by Bosung Girls High didn’t have any major flaws. It was a play for the festival. There wouldn’t be any problems as long as it was enjoyable to the audience. Maru spotted some trivial mistakes here and there, but those flaws would instead grab the audience’s attention and make them focus more. They weren’t doing a play for a competition but for a festival, so it might look like a good event instead.

“Not bad means not good either, doesn’t it? Since we’re doing it, we should do it perfectly. Don’t you think so?”

Hearing Yoojin’s words, the girls all replied ‘yes’. Although it was past 8 o’clock in the evening, the girls’ concentration did not waver at all. It seemed that they had no intentions of doing things moderately just because it was a festival they were doing the play for. Maru changed his mind seeing their eyes. Since they were giving it their all, his side couldn’t do things moderately either.

“I don’t know if it’s going to be of any reference, but we’ll show you anyway.”

Maru looked at Daemyung. Daemyung looked at all the rest of the members and had them get ready. This was the first time they did ‘I’ve been really wronged’ in a place other than their clubroom.

The first years’ faces were a little flushed. The most stable-looking was Jiyoon. Her personality was changing ever since her family matters were solved. Meanwhile, Aram, who was ever so confident in the clubroom looked very nervous. Normally, she would be joking around and playing pranks, but she hadn’t spoken a word ever since they arrived at this school. Bangjoo was taking calm breaths. Although he had shrunken back slightly, he wasn’t stiff.

Dowook was gulping endlessly. He was the type of person that would become nervous in unexpected situations. He needed to get used to being seen by others.

“This might not be the competition itself, but I wish you can think of it as the real deal.”

Daemyung consoled everyone and told them to take deep breaths. Don’t mind them and just do the usual - were his words.

* * *

“Watch well,” Yoojin spoke to the junior sitting next to her.

This junior played the role of the company employee, the same as Maru. She told her to focus on Maru as an individual rather than the play as a whole. The junior nodded her head carefully.

Although Maru shouldn’t be aware of this, director Choi Joonggeun sometimes mentioned his name after his shoot. The fact that a director of a movie was putting an extra like him in his mind was something out of the ordinary. Additionally, who was director Choi Joonggeun? He was a star movie director that produced several hit works one after the other. He was remembered by such a man, so he must have been great back there. He should also have improved from when he did the read-through.

Yoojin leaned against a wall and watched Woosung High’s play. Unlike practice, there were a few hiccups here and there. The mistakes mostly came from the first years. It was an unnoticeable mistake for those that didn’t know the play, but even Dowook made a mistake.

Meanwhile, Daemyung showed very stable acting skills. Although he was usually shy, he switched into a completely different person once he started acting. The way he crossed his legs and yawned was without a doubt a lazy policeman.

Compared to Maru, however, Daemyung’s presence was definitely more faint. She turned her gaze to Maru, who was suppressing his voice slightly at the center of the stage. If other people were asked ‘what do you think that actor’s age is’ after Maru dressed up in a suit and covered his face, anyone would reply that he was in his late forties. It felt so disconcerting that a high school student had an expression befitting of someone that age. It would in fact sound more realistic if he was a middle-aged man wearing special makeup to look young.

He was that natural. It didn’t feel like he was acting at all. No matter how stable Daemyung looked during acting, it was noticeable that he was a high school student acting. The others didn’t even need mentioning. They were obvious.

It was just Maru that was different from others. He became one with his role - this expression couldn’t fit better than in a situation like this. The only flaw, if there was any, was that he looked too young. How could he be so good?

‘Also, he’s even better now that it’s not practice.’

Ordinarily, it’s easier to bring out one’s fullest skills in a comfortable environment. The audience’s gaze was that scary. The pressure given off by those watching would make most people flinch back.

However, Maru seemed to take that pressure as his motivation instead. Perhaps he was someone that became better under pressure.

She had originally invited Woosung High to help out her juniors, but now she thought that she was instead doing the opposite. Her original intention was for her juniors to watch Woosung High’s completed play and find their own flaws, and improve on themselves, just like how singers would listen to guide songs and eventually make the song theirs. She thought that her juniors were smart and were plenty capable of doing that, and it seemed that it was true to a certain extent as well. However, she felt that it wouldn’t be helping the junior that had the same role as Maru.

She would be able to gain some confidence and strive to do better if the target was someone within reach, but it was likely that her confidence would waver instead if she was seeing someone that was way out of her league. Yoojin had a glance at the junior sitting next to her. She was one ambitious junior. She had taken one of the major roles for the winter acting competition. She had enough skills to match her ambition, but she had a very serious look on her face right now. It didn’t look like she was understanding anything. She looked like she was looking at something foreign.

“Let’s just watch. He’s a strange one. So just think of him as an anomaly.”

In the end, she had to change her words. She felt that the knowledge her junior had complied until now regarding acting would collapse if she told her to try imitating him.

The words Yoojin heard the most when getting acting lessons from her instructor was to not follow things that she couldn’t catch up to. A sparrow wasn’t capable of catching up to an eagle. Looking at the peak at the bottom of the mountain and then climbing would tire one out very easily. People needed to focus on closer objectives like reaching the next tree. Only then would one arrive at the top of a mountain.

Yoojin’s junior couldn’t accept it for a moment, but she had to. It was after she had seen Maru’s monologue.

Maru, who was supposed to be doing things ‘moderately’ was looking as though he was about to swallow everyone whole. Yoojin wondered how that was ‘moderate’ at all. She was thankful that he was putting in his full effort, but thanks to that, she killed her junior’s motivation. Now she wanted to ask him to do things moderately. He was even better than during practice, which made her laugh awkwardly.

“Hm, was that of any help?” Daemyung asked after they finished.

Yoojin saw that her juniors’ expressions weren’t that good. It was natural - they were lacking compared to Woosung High.

“Of course. Thanks to you, I think we can improve ourselves for the festival.”

“Really? That’s good. Though, we shouldn’t be that much different since we made mistakes as well.”

Daemyung scratched his head as he laughed.

“Are we done here?” Maru asked.

Yoojin crossed her arms. It was just past 9. There was still some time until the last train.

“Can I ask you for one more thing?”

Maru looked like he clearly couldn’t be bothered. His will to go home now that his work was done was clear for everyone to see. Yoojin quickly looked at Daemyung.

“Sure.”

When Daemyung gave the permission, Maru sighed as though he had given up.

“I want you to tell us our good points and bad points. Even trivial things are okay. These girls have never received feedback from people other than their colleagues. It won’t take long. I want everyone to say just a few words.”

There weren’t that many acting competitions targeted towards high school students. Although there was quite a number nationwide, due to regional restrictions there was a limited number of competitions students could participate in each year. The most well-known one was the National Youth Acting Competition that was held once in the summer and once in the winter. Only a portion of the 40 people in the club could stand on such a stage. The rest would all be staff members.

Thanks to that, there weren’t that many opportunities to show their skill in front of others. Among the first years gathered here, there might be some of them that might not get to stand on stage even until they graduate. After all, Bosung Girls High was strict when it came to who could go up on stage.

Thanks to that, an opportunity where they could get feedback was quite important, especially if the ones giving them criticism were people like Maru and Daemyung, who had great analytical skills. She could give her opinions as well, but it wouldn’t give as much stimulus as other people saying it.

“Everyone did so well though…”

Daemyung spoke as he looked at her juniors. It seemed like he was put in a tight spot. Yoojin asked again. Only then did Daemyung accept saying that it might be something trivial.

“Thanks.”

Yoojin smiled.

* * *

Chaerim got in the car driven by her manager.

“Shall we go?”

“Yes, oppa.”

The other members had already returned to the residence. It had been two years since they debuted. Their first song, which had a ‘cheerful girlfriend’ theme to it received much more love from the public than the initial expectations. The president of her agency said that they would be able to stand and sing on a big stage after two years of hard work, but they took first place in a public TV station's music programs just three months after they debuted; in all three channels as well. Thanks to that people often said that the top male idol group was TTO while the top female idol group was BLUE.

After the unexpected sudden success, they went around the country singing in various places. It was then that Chaerim found out that there were so many colleges in the country. The president of her agency said that they would receive backlash if they acted like superstars just because they became famous instantly, and scheduled all sorts of events, and thanks to that, they very rarely even met their parents for a whole year after their debut. In fact, their parents came to their residence and consoled them from time to time.

Thanks to the one year of a busy schedule, she rarely had time to go to school. Just as she had almost forgotten the faces of her classmates, she transferred to Myunghwa High School upon the recommendation of the president. It was a school commuted by many students that were also celebrities, and it was one of the few schools that acknowledged attendance for leaves that was due to a celebrity’s schedule. Of course, not going at all was no good, but there was definitely more liberty than her previous school.

Even in Myunghwa High School, she was a superstar. At first, she was pressured and was scared by such gazes, but she became used to it after a year.

While most people of her age trembled because of the approaching college exams, she trembled because of her packed schedule.

The gazes of people that made her flinch now made her smile instead. She couldn’t feel happier that she was at the center of attention. The president of her agency told her that it was the qualities of a celebrity. In the drama she started recently, she was given a lot of insults at first due to her lack of skill, but now, more and more people were cheering for her instead. The presents given to her by the fans started increasing as well. This meant that the public’s interest in her was growing. Before, it was just the people of her age that recognized her, but ever since she started shooting the drama as one of the main characters, the adults recognized her as well. She felt happy every day since she felt that she was expanding her domain.

“Hm.”

Chaerim rested her chin against her palm and looked outside the window. In the drama episode that aired today, she had a lot of appearances. It was an episode that briefly showed the romantic interests of the two main characters. She visited the school because she slightly wanted to boast about the fact that she was acting together with two boys from quite popular idol bands. She had gone out of her way to visit. She wanted the acting club to praise her and wanted them to be envious of her for meeting male actors.

However, it didn’t go as she had intended, and she didn’t like that. On TV was her figure, yet the others were looking at someone else. It pissed her off that things didn’t go according to her plan.

“Oppa, can you turn on the radio?”

“Radio? Alright.”

Chaerim thought about the girl that looked like she was in a tough spot but eventually shook her head. They weren’t comparable at all. That girl was just a student in an acting club in a high school while she was an idol loved by many. Yes, they weren’t comparable at all.

Chapter 312

Not everything could be completely satisfactory. There were some downsides that had to be taken with every choice. For example, there was this chocolate. It would be sweet the moment it entered the mouth. There was even caramel cream on the inside so it would be even sweeter. However, she would regret it by the time she was about to sleep.

This body wasn’t just her own. Chaerim kept reminding herself that and pushed aside the chocolate given to her by a fan of hers as a present. What she picked up instead was a cucumber that her trainer put inside her bag. When she was young, she detested them due to the yucky smell, but she got used to them after eating them for a long time. Just what was the difference between watermelon peels and cucumber? At least watermelon peels had some taste to it when there was a red part. Cucumbers were tasteless no matter how you ate them.

She bit a chunk off the cucumber to stave off her hunger. Ah, there it was. The only good point about cucumber was its crunchy sound. She then ate a handful of almonds and a slice of roasted kabocha squash. Although these were given to her to eat little by little across a number of meals, she couldn’t do that since they were no different from emergency rations. She wondered if there was any pill that would make her feel satiated without gaining any weight. She wanted to say goodbye to dieting forever.

-Good evening, Moon’s Reflection on the Window listeners. I’m your host Ahn Joohyun. I was supposed to meet you in the morning, but today is a special occasion and I get to see you during the evening. The DJ, Miss Gong Yeonsoo is absent for the evening for personal reasons, so I am doing this in her stead today. I’m sorry you have to listen to my voice instead of Yeonsoo's relaxing voice. If this was my program, I would’ve said anything I wanted to, but this is a more formal program, so I’ll try to restrain myself. Well then, why don’t we look at the moon’s reflection on the window as we go into our first corner.

Chaerim looked at the radio. She thought that it was a familiar voice, and it turned out to be Joohyun-unni.

“Oppa, raise the volume a little.”

“Alright.”

The volume became louder. Joohyun was currently reading a user-submitted story.

“Have you ever spoken to Joohyun-unni, oppa?”

“Me? No, other than when we talked in passing during a get-together. As you know, our company separates the actors and the singers.”

Chaerim nodded her head. Although they both belonged to Yellow Star Entertainment, she had never spoken to Joohyun either. She did greet her though.

- The docile me sounds too foreign? I think so too. Well then, let’s listen to a song before we continue…

A song that was like the spring drizzle then flowed out. Chaerim looked outside the window. There was a big full moon outside. Just like how the thin crescent gradually became a full moon, she became an idol from her tragic trainee days. Whenever she went to school, others recognized her and came up to her, and people waved at her whenever she went to do an event. She felt touched every time she was at the center of attention.

Recently, she thought that being an idol was insufficient to maintain that level of attention. The number of entertainment companies releasing idol bands was increasing from just the three major agencies: Yellow Star, NL Company and Jewel Entertainment. She felt this every time she went to a television music show. At least three teams came to greet her and make themselves known every time she went there. Sometimes, there were more than five.

As the idol world had a strict sense of hierarchy, she also went around greeting people. Whenever she went to greet her senior idols that did not become popular, she felt very nervous. Although they both encouraged each other, the atmosphere was very hostile. Unpopular idols, new idols, and popular idols. The idol industry was full as it is, yet there were more idols every day.

Chaerim was oftentimes surprised when she looked at some of the people that came to greet her as trainees. The kids in elementary school that were preparing to become idols didn’t just have the nationality of Korean. There were several of them who actually had citizenships in other countries. Also, they all looked cute and pretty like dolls.

Since she lived in a world where she herself was a product, she had become very sensitive. She was completely different from the days she just blindly put in effort without knowing anything. She often thought that her popularity would end very soon. After all, she had seen too many people that became rocks from being stars due to a single mistake.

She once read from a magazine article that idols were, put in a bad way, consumables. When she read that article, she thought that that journalist was clueless, but now that time had passed, she deeply sympathized. This was the 2nd year of her debut. The group was still popular right now, however there were signs indicating their downfall. An example was that their third album did not have good sales after it was released. Above all, they couldn’t take first place in all of the three major TV stations' music programs. They were first in two of them, but they were overtaken by a new idol group in the third one. The members that thought that first place would be theirs ever since TTO started individual activities were shocked as well.

Of course, it was still okay. The exclusive concert that was held at the beginning of the summer holidays was sold out as soon as the ticketing went live. It was an indication that they were still popular, but the tinge of discomfort in her heart was still there.

That was the reason she turned her eyes to acting. Chaerim could no longer imagine a world where she didn’t receive attention. She wanted to be the loved and cute girl forever. There was a limit to that while she was still an idol. There were many instances where senior idol groups split up due to disharmony among the members. She had to be prepared for such circumstances. She had to receive the love of the public even if she became independent.

In that sense, acting was something that went well with her. She nagged the company president and received acting lessons. The trigger for that was when she watched TTO. TTO was an idol band that was originally intended to be a multi-purpose group. The president of her agency said that he was also surprised when he saw the preparations that NL Company made.

Even a top idol band like TTO was preparing for the next stage. She thought that she had to be like that as well and immediately put her plan into action.

A spot for a protagonist in a drama came to her immediately. Although she was nervous and shaking, she was successful. She knew that she didn’t receive good gazes from the people around her, but she thought that she could endure them. After all, they would disappear soon. She took the first step. Once she became popular enough in dramas, movie producers would start calling for her as well. Idols were starting to appear in movies, when it was considered an impenetrable area before, so she wasn’t mistaken about that.

“The actress Chaerim.”

Right now, though, she was more popular as the idol Chaerim rather than the actress Chaerim. She wanted to change her title as soon as possible. She wouldn’t have to care about popularity once she became someone at Joohyun’s level. Of course, she had no plan on becoming like Joohyun. That woman was too reckless. She was not afraid of the masses. Chaerim thought that she would disappear sooner or later.

‘But wouldn’t it become an issue if I was in the same frame as her?’

Joohyun was quite well-known for looking after her juniors. Wouldn’t she help if she went up to her and asked for help? Then, she would ask the company president to let her be in the same work as Joohyun next time. Journalists would flock to write articles, and she would be able to make herself known.

If that happened, she would receive more love.

Chaerim reached into her bag. Her phone was ringing.

“Oppa, sorry, but turn down the volume a little.”

“Okay.”

She answered the call after looking at the caller’s name.

“Yes, Sungjae-oppa.”

It was Sungjae of TTO. The two became acquainted after coming across each other frequently in music programs, and became close after they did a TV show together. Recently though, she had heard that he was busy shooting movies and dramas.

-I had a look at the drama.

“Really? Now that makes me embarrassed.”

-You were good, though. Oh, the reason I called is because of the party you told me about last time.

“Oh, okay, what about it?”

-I’m sorry but I don’t think I’ll be able to make it. I have an appointment.

“What is it about?”

-I plan to get some acting lessons. Sorry about that.

“That can’t be helped then. Instead, you should hang out with me later.”

-Alright.

After ending the call, Chaerim pouted. She boasted to the other members of her group that she had invited Sungjae, but things didn’t go as she had expected. Just until a year ago, she didn’t have any free time at all, but now, she had enough free time to book party rooms and play around with people close to her. She was capable of paying an enormous sum that was unthinkable for a student. The best decision she made in her life was that she told her parents that she would manage her own bank account. She regularly sent them living expenses, so they didn’t have any complaints either.

“Rather than that, to think that someone like him would take acting lessons…”

Sungjae always talked about how effort was useless compared to popularity, and always prioritized playing around.

‘Well, I guess he must have his reasons.’

When she dozed off for a little, she had arrived at the residence. She took the elevator to the 7th floor and opened the door. There were two pairs of shoes at the entrance.

“You’re back?”

She was greeted by the unnis that had face packs on.

“Where’s Dayoon-unni and Minji-unni?”

“They’re apparently guests at a radio program. They left all of a sudden.”

“Okay.”

Chaerim first took a shower. She washed off the sweat and she returned to her immaculate skin. She cleaned up her skin with the cosmetics in the bathroom before coming out to the living room. The two unnis were doing yoga while watching TV. She took out a face pack from the fridge. She had sensitive skin so she would have skin trouble no matter how much she looked after it.

She put the mask on and laid down on the sofa. During trainee days, they all slept together in a small room, but now that two years had passed after their debut, they were living in an apartment with four rooms. The restrictions placed on their actions were eased a lot and they were able to go out as they wished. Of course, they had to get permission if they wanted to sleep over. After all, their idol life might be over if a bad photo of them was taken.

“Chaerim, you were quite awkward.”

The big unni suddenly spoke. Chaerim pretended not to have heard it and did not react to her. However, she kept going with her sarcasm. Chaerim inwardly wondered if she was sane to speak like that as the oldest member.

She had to be jealous. That big unni liked the Woomin guy that she was doing a drama with. Chaerim sighed. During their trainee days, none of this was a problem. Everyone became the support of everyone else. They relied on each other. However, as they started doing individual activities, the crack within the team started growing. This was one of the reasons why Chaerim was doing her best in acting. She thought that this team might disappear into thin air.

‘Does she want to act so immature after spending 21 years in life?’

Of course, she didn’t say it out loud. She smiled back and said that it was difficult and that she was still bad. Although her innards were boiling, she couldn’t help it. There were rumors about disharmony already, so it would be hard to control her emotions in front of the camera if they actually started fighting here.

The eldest member seemed to know that and focused on her exercise again.

That’s right, they met each other out of necessity. It wasn’t like they were going to be idols forever.

“Thanks unnis. It’s like a dream now as well. I was able to become like this thanks to you all.”

“You’re welcome.”

It always ended like this. In fact, it was good that everyone was being hypocritical. Chaerim thought that she had to become successful as an actress as soon as possible. She couldn’t stay for a long time on a ship that was starting to be flooded with water.

The next day, Chaerim came across a boy one year younger than her before she went to the drama shooting location. He said that he would be appearing as an extra. It was one of the guys in the actor section of her agency, and his name was Yoo Jiseok. This was the first time she had seen him even though they both belonged to Yellow Star.

“Please take good care of me, noona.”

He acted very familiar even though it was their first meeting. Taken aback by his personality, she replied ‘okay’. Jiseok was a talkative boy. It was hard being his conversation partner.

“Why did you start acting?”

“Me? Uh, well, because I like acting.”

“I see. For me, I just liked coming up with imaginations. Then, I wanted them to become real. I don’t have any talent in writing, so I thought acting might be the thing for me. That’s why…”

He talked relentlessly without getting tired. Chaerim listened to him with a smile, but she was already fed up on the inside. She was sad at the fact that she couldn’t say anything to him because she didn’t want to leave behind a bad impression.

“Oh, yeah. I have a friend whose name is Han Maru, and I’ve never seen someone as good as him at acting until now. But he has this cold side to him.”

Now he started talking about his friends. Chaerim felt her lips aching. There was a limit to how long she could smile.

“I think you should’ve seen him too. I mean, you two appeared in the drama together.”

“Oh, really?”

She didn’t think much about it but replied anyway. Perhaps that guy was just a random ‘student 1’ or something. Just at that moment, they arrived at the set. It was Sangam High School, which no longer seemed big to her.

Chapter 313

“The atmosphere is not looking good.”

It was just as he said. The atmosphere at the drama set was rock-bottom. Although the shoot was continuing, it was unknown when a battle would erupt out.

The dispute between the camera director and the producer started from the first shoot. Two weeks ago, they were at the point where it made people worry that the drama might end just like that. Although they avoided the worst case scenario thanks to someone’s advice, they were still glaring at each other whenever the opportunity occurred.

When she thought about it, TV media was a happy world covered with lies. The people in the camera frame were all happy with each other, but the moment the camera turned off, they just shut themselves up and glared at each other. Chaerim thought that such was TV media after looking at two people, that were portrayed as being on good terms on a TV show she watched before, shouting at each other off camera. It was a world where stubborn experts were everywhere. Of course, she was also one of them.

“But are you alright, noona?”

“I’m fine. But can you stay quiet? I’m feeling a little dizzy right now.”

“Okay.”

After shutting Jiseok up, Chaerim closed her eyes. She was in a horrible condition today. Sharp gazes were hitting her from all around. Although annoyance was surging within her, she couldn’t express that out loud. After all, she was causing all the NG scenes here.

It was clear that today was just a bad day for her. First, there was the chatterbox, and then she started committing mistakes everywhere during the shoot. The producer from the TV station encouraged her saying that she shouldn’t be nervous, while the staff’s gaze towards her was incredibly hostile. The short break was about to end soon. She would have to stand in front of the camera again. She had no time to worry about things like committing another mistake. She had to get an okay sign this time.

“Let’s resume shooting.”

Chaerim tapped on her cheeks as she stood up. The minor role characters were all smiling at her saying that it was okay, but she thought that they would be insulting her on the inside. They were probably thinking something along the lines of ‘to think that someone like her is the main character’ or something like that. She couldn’t accept such a judgement. She had to not make a mistake this time.

Actually, the gazes of the staff and the minor characters didn’t matter at all. The problem was with the students that were watching from afar. Chaerim decided not to go on the internet tonight. Although the students were restricted from taking photos, there was no way to stop them from taking pictures from afar. After all, the shooting location was something they were borrowing. She thought about the girls that would laugh at her while looking at her making so many mistakes. It was obvious that they would write things like ‘I saw Chaerim today and she’s god awful at acting’ or things like that. Although she had seen numerous malicious comments on the internet during the past two years, reading them still made her heart thump from nervousness. Her stomach started aching and she started sweating coldly. She used to be extremely sensitive about such things to the point that she took medicine.

She didn’t want her acting skill controversy that she put out with all of her effort to surface again.

“Good. Don’t get nervous. Stand by, and cue.”

The director spoke while clenching his fist.

* * *

“Right now?”

It was a series of confusion for Maru from the moment he received a call from a number he didn’t know. The one that called was someone with the title ‘liaising writer’. He felt that the voice was familiar, and then remembered the woman with the red cone during the drama. Before he even asked what happened, she asked if he could come to Sangam High School immediately. No, she was saying as though he had to be here. He asked what happened once again, and only then did the liaising writer reply to him that they needed a replacement actor because a problem had occurred.

-Please come immediately.

The current time was 3:21. He was in the middle of practicing the play with his club since today was extracurricular activities day. They were about to put an end to practice since Jiyoon had an appointment with her family, so there was no problem with going there.

“Did an accident happen? It’s not like someone would suddenly be unable to act.”

-Something like that. We originally intended to call someone else because we were in a hurry, but some of the staff here including the camera director recommended you. This is an opportunity for you. You’d be a minor character rather than an extra like before.

“Then do I get a guarantee as well?”

Since this was an important question, he asked immediately. The writer became silent. Following that, a flabbergasted voice came out from the other side.

-Is money important right now? I’m telling you this is an opportunity.

“I’m saying it because it’s not up to me. If there’s monetary gain, I have to talk about it with my agency, don’t I? That’s how it works.”

-You have an agency?

“Yes.”

-Which one?

“JA Production. I get that it’s an opportunity, but things might become problematic if I accept without consulting them first. What are you going to do?”

-JA? You really belong to that place? Phew, wait a moment. Also, give me your manager’s phone number.

She hung up. Maru wondered what happened on the set. From how they were looking for actors, it didn’t seem like the drama stopped entirely. Since they sounded urgent, he sent the woman a message first. It sounded like he had some lines from what she said. Meaning, that this role required prior preparation to do. They were looking for a person that could urgently play such a role. Maru wondered if an accident happened.

“What is it?”

Daemyung asked as he got ready to leave the classroom. Maru explained to him briefly.

“That sounds like a good thing, but it does sound a little disturbing,” Daemyung spoke with a worried expression.

“I think so too.”

“What are you going to do then? We’re planning to go to a meat buffet without Jiyoon.”

“You can go by yourselves for now. I’ll message you if I think I can’t go.”

“Alright.”

After separating from the rest of the members, Maru first went to the bus stop. He sat down on the chair and looked at his phone. He spent about five minutes doing that when he got a call.

-I finished talking with your manager. Please come to Sangam High School as quickly as possible.

“But if I’m playing a minor role, don’t I have lines to do? I haven’t gotten anything though.”

-We’ll get everything sorted once you’re here so come quickly!

It felt as though she would kill someone if he went there late. A loud shout could be heard behind the urgent-sounding woman’s voice. Maru could imagine what was going on there. Since she said that she finished talking with his manager, there was no time to delay. He grabbed a taxi that was just driving past the bus stop.

“Sangam High School in Seoul, please.”

The driver’s eyes shone when he heard the word ‘Seoul’. He pressed a button on his dashboard and started driving. Maru had a look at the horse on the taximeter[1] that was galloping gallantly. Every time the horse kicked off the ground, another 100 won was added to the fare. He messaged Daemyung in the taxi. After a moment, the entire club messaged him ‘good luck’. They were thankful people.

The taxi driver drove proficiently through roads that didn’t get jammed with traffic and thanks to that, Maru was able to arrive at the school before 5 o’clock.

He got off after getting a hand-written receipt. After meeting eyes with the security guard he saw before, he entered the school. There were students gathered around one spot on the school field. It was obvious where the drama shoot was happening.

Maru brushed past the gaps between the students. When he entered a certain range, one of the security agents told him to step back.

“I’m here for the drama shoot.”

Hearing that, the security agent called someone. The one that ran here was the liaison writer with the red cone.

“Quickly.”

Although her speech was short, Maru decided not to mind it since it looked like the situation was urgent. He quickly followed behind the writer who was running. The shoot was happening in a corner of the school field. The guy named Woomin from last time was currently supporting a girl idol wearing a ragged gym uniform. The girl had straight, long hair, as though to represent that she was an innocent young girl. Perhaps she was the Cinderella of the story. Since he only watched the episode with him in it, he didn’t know the story that well.

Woomin grabbed the heroine’s hand and spoke - ‘don’t bully her any longer’. It seems that he had the role of the prince that put the glass heels on the girl’s feet. Another male idol just laughed in disdain and turned around. That was the end of the scene.

“Producer! He’s here.”

Producer Lee nodded and approached Maru. He received a copy of the script from the staff nearby before giving it to Maru.

“There’s no time, so let’s go over the story first.”

Maru listened to the overall explanation while flipping through the script on the spot with the producer. His role was the class president that was bad at talking. This kid was forced into the position by others due to a prank. He was a quiet and shy kid but had a small sense of justice. It was a minor role yet there was quite a lot of detail.

In the scene he had to act in, he was the one that interfered when one of the main girls looked down on another student and was scolded instead. There was also a scene where he got pushed. He had to fall down again. It seemed that he was somewhat entangled with this whole falling character.

“We’re going to go to the classroom and shoot right now, so get ready for that.”

He had a look at the script again. His lines were quite long. He had to reply to the main girl’s every line. There were some lines where he had to say multiple sentences.

“Can you do it? We’ve already delayed it once, so it will be quite troublesome if you can't do it.”

“Time is money after all. I’ll do it.”

“Very good.”

Producer Lee patted his shoulder heavily before leaving. Following that, camera director Kim Jangsoo approached him. He looked much brighter than last time. Perhaps his salary problem was solved.

“Thanks to you, we all got paid. We had to beg to get two months' worth of payment, but that’s still good.”

“That’s good. You should settle with them to get paid the rest of the amount.”

“We should. Rather than that, you know that I put you here before it went over to someone else, right? That pays the debt back somewhat, okay? So do it well. I’ll frame you well.”

The staff also cheered him on. This was what was good about getting close to the staff members. Business was like that as well. Every single problem came down to manpower. Having a good set of relationships with other people would lead to success, otherwise, it would be very difficult to do anything. When Maru was young, he disdained that notion thinking that it was just dirty corruption, and didn’t like it that much even after growing up. However, he had to acknowledge that everything came down to people in the end.

‘If you can’t go against the flow of the system, you can only ride it.’

Although he had stolen a spot that was probably meant for someone else, he didn’t have a guilty conscience about it. He only felt a little sorry for the person whose opportunity was taken away. He was no saint. He was just one of the ordinary folks that would grab any opportunity that came by. He couldn’t be a boat that went against the waves and capsized. If he wanted to, he had to become a massive cruise ship first.

Maru squinted and looked at the script. His concentration and memorization ability when it came to learning lines was incredible even when he thought about it, so he learned those lines soon. What was necessary now was to grab ahold of the character’s emotions. He projected the image of the class president that producer Lee talked about in his mind. It was a stereotypical character, and precisely because of that, it was more difficult to act out. What he had to watch out for was that the character was shy, and the fact that he went against the main girl despite that. He could picture the scene in his mind somewhat. It was something like the temporary deviation from life from the perspective of an ordinary civilian.

“Hey.”

He raised his head up when he felt a hand smashing his back. There was an unexpected face here. It was Jiseok. Looking at his ever-smiling face, he felt energy draining away from him. This was the first time they met after shooting the movie. Maru hadn’t called him since then, and that was because Jiseok called him all the time. If phone calls counted as ‘meeting’, he ‘met’ Jiseok just three days ago.

“Why are you here?”

“That’s what I want to ask you.”

“Me? A replacement.”

“I’m here as an extra. It looks like the tie-in sale worked well.”

“Tie-in sale, you say?”

Hearing that question, Jiseok pointed at the short-haired girl idol that was walking in the distance. Maru had seen her last time. She was the girl that became slightly annoyed when Woojoo made a mistake.

“We belong to the same company. Thanks to that, I got a role here.”

“Gotcha.”

Maru had heard about this before. Tie-in sales. There was no better mechanism than this to get new actors’ faces known. There was no advertisement better than having him stand next to a star belonging to the same company.

“But why is a spot suddenly empty? Do you know anything about it?”

“Oh, that?” Jiseok bitterly smiled.

He lowered his voice and started explaining what happened.

“You see, Chaerim-noona…”

“Who’s that?”

“You don’t know who Chaerim-noona is? The youngest member of BLUE and the main vocalist of the group.”

“I don’t know her.”

“…The noona from the same company I talked about earlier.”

Maru looked at the girl with the short haircut again. So her name was Chaerim.

“And?”

“Something happened.”

“I want to know what that ‘something’ is. I’m lacking understanding here.”

“Haa, the thing is, Chaerim-noona kept making mistakes during the morning to the point that there wasn’t a single good take. Everyone seemed extremely annoyed, but they couldn’t say anything to her thanks to the producer that came from the TV station, the director included. After a while, the anger exploded on the guy that was Chaerim-noona’s counterpart in acting. He did look pitiful though. He seemed older than us, but he walked out crying. Even I would have been like that due to frustration. The producer here didn’t say much, but the producer from the TV station caused a huge fuss about it.”

“So he ran mid way?”

“Yep.”

“A minor character did? A pro who signed a contract?”

“It was no joke.”

“I would’ve been even more scared about the consequences of leaving and would’ve never left. What if the production company decided to sue him for damages?”

“Not all people think like you, Maru. Anyway, if you’re here to replace him, I guess you’re the class president?”

“Yeah, I am.”

“Will you be fine? There seems to be quite a lot of lines.”

“For now, I’ve memorized the lines.”

“What?”

“I’ve memorized the lines.”

“…Even though you just read the script for a brief moment as you walked here?”

“I’m a bit smart, you see.”

“Wow. Did you really memorize it all?”

Maru asked Jiseok to help him out with practicing the lines. He wanted to look at the general flow as he walked to the classroom. He did his lines and Jiseok said the rest.

“So you weren’t joking when you said you memorized them.”

“You don’t have anything to do, right now, do you?”

“I don’t.”

“Then why don’t you help me out before the shoot starts?”

“Alright. But treat me to a meal later.”

“Okay.”

“…But can I ask you just one thing?”

Jiseok looked down. He looked very awkward since he always looked like an excited puppy running across the snow. Maru could guess what he was about to ask. After taking in a deep breath, he spoke,

“If you want to know about Geunseok, he’s doing well. Some things happened, but from what I’ve heard, he’s stable now. You should try calling him if you have the time. He should probably pick up.”

“Really?”

He brightened up visibly. The world worked in strange ways considering how someone like him had a friend. Maru looked at the script as he walked. There wasn’t much time.

[1] Taximeters in Korean taxis used to have a little horse icon that ran when the taxi was driving.

Chapter 314

He could hear some native English speakers. He flinched and turned his head around only to see a blond foreigner speaking to students in English. Today was a Saturday, and it was currently 5 in the evening. Despite that, the heat of studying did not seem to die down in this prestigious independent school.

Apparently, that was an extracurricular activity. Here, even hobbies were studying-related. Maru clicked his tongue as he walked along the corridor. The shooting set was inside the furthest room on the 3rd floor. Outside the window, the sports field with green grass as well as the entire scenery of Seoul could be seen. As this was a school built mid way up the mountain, the scenery was really good.

The class motto and the national flag was hung up in front of the school. Succeeding Through Studying Is The Easiest Path. He agreed with that motto to a certain extent. The desks were lined up neatly. There was only enough space left for one camera to go in.

A staff member holding up a reflector got into position before the main characters went in. The minor roles took their places as well. Some of the students that were here to help had arrived as well. The liaising writer politely told them good luck. Since the location was their school, the staff looked extremely careful about confronting them.

The students moved according to the assistant director’s words. They switched seats around a couple of times. The assistant director moved back after deeming that the main actors were emphasized the most. During that time, one of the tall students left the set. It seemed that they weren’t planning to shoot someone who was taller than the main actors.

“Okay then. Let’s do a rehearsal first.”

Maru stood in front of Chaerim according to the instructions. Unlike when he saw her at the sports field, she had become quite pale. It was clear to him that she had become nervous.

“Let’s go slowly but surely. The writer will give hints about your lines behind the camera, so if you can’t remember, don’t panic and look there.”

“Okay.”

“Good. Everyone makes mistakes when growing up.”

“Okay.”

Director Lee sighed a little as he turned away from Chaerim. Maru was able to see that. Right now, the director was more tired out than the actor. He couldn’t begin to imagine how many NG scenes happened during the morning.

“We’re doing the same scene we did in the morning, so let’s get this done quickly and go home.”

The rehearsal proceeded a little too slowly. Director Lee slowly explained the scene to Chaerim as though teaching the alphabet to a toddler. Maru had a look at the faces of the staff members while listening to the explanation. They clearly looked tired and some people even sighed. It seemed that they were drained of their energy, since they were doing the same thing they did in the morning.

“Then let’s try.”

Director Lee sat down and was about to get ready for the cue sign when he stood back up again. It seemed that he was very wary. The camera started rolling, and the extras walked past Chaerim as they talked to each other. An ordinary break time scene was produced. Meanwhile, Maru waited while wearing the non-prescription glasses that the staff handed to him.

Chaerim chatted with another student before suddenly using her finger to push the back of the head of another girl who was just reading a book. It was the main heroine that Woomin protected in the sports field. Chaerim kept pushing on the heroine’s head before grabbing her long hair.

Along with a faint groan, the main heroine flinched. The students that were chatting until now all became silent. The writer told them the precise time to become silent with the sketchbook. The extra that were within the frame slowly walked away from Chaerim. Their gazes were all directed at the floor, and they looked submissive. Just from this alone, it was clear that Chaerim was the boss of this class.

Maru stood up from his seat. He did not mind the camera that was to the right of his face and quietly walked up to Chaerim. The character he was acting was not a provocative character. He was a shy and quiet boy that was pushed on the role of the class president by others. He gathered his hands in front of his stomach to portray himself as an awkward, shy boy. Since he was told that the camera would shoot his entire body, he had to be wary of his actions as well. He reduced the distance between each step to a minimum and stood upright.

He expressed with his smile and body that although he stood up to get justice for the heroine that was being bullied by Chaerim, he had no intentions of going against her in any way. Since they were minute movements, he didn’t know how much of it would be captured on camera, but he did his best.

“What is it?” Chaerim asked.

The correct line in the script was ‘who’re you?’. It was obvious that she tied the first knot wrong. Maru fixed his gaze on the tip of Chaerim’s indoor shoes.

“Uhm… I’m wondering if you’re going too far with your bullying,” while talking, he moved his eyes left and right.

“Did you just say that to me?”

“No, no, not at all. It’s not that, but… looks like I was mistaken. I didn’t say that to you.”

“Then what are you talking about? Are you kidding me?”

Chaerim abruptly stood up. Maru immediately raised his hands to cover his face. The following line was ‘hey, someone might think that I’m trying to hit you’. He was waiting for those words, but he couldn’t hear anything. He raised his head a little in order to find out what was happening. He saw Chaerim whose mouth was half-open. Maru could imagine the writer holding up the sketchbook with all her might behind him.

“Cut,” director Lee’s bland voice resounded out.

Chaerim sat back down on the chair as though collapsing into it. She kept staring at the floor as though she was in a panic. The students of the school that were brought in for this started whispering among themselves. The staff just shook their heads or just looked away from the scene.

“Ah god da…”

The insult that almost escaped director Lee’s mouth stopped. Director Lee shut his eyes and took off the cap he was wearing before clenching it tightly. The crumpled baseball cap seemed to speak for his mind.

“Can’t you do just a little better? Please? You were doing well until now, weren’t you? Just like a main actor,” director Lee forcefully smiled as he spoke.

At that moment, one man, who was quietly staying on the side approached Chaerim. It was director Choi. Director Lee clutched his head and took a step back.

“Chaerim. Don’t think about it too hard, yeah? You can do it. And you did good until now too.”

“Y-yes.”

Director Choi consoled Chaerim who looked pale. All of the staff took a break again. Maru sat down on his chair and opened the script. This scene didn’t have any difficult lines. It wasn’t that hard to imagine the emotions of the character either. Chaerim just had to be forceful and condescending the whole time. Perhaps she had gotten trauma thanks to the mistakes she committed in the morning. It seemed that any further shooting was not going to happen.

“So we meet again,” it was Woojoo.

Maru smiled seeing the familiar face.

“Didn’t know you were still here.”

“Things turned out this way. Rather than that, you had the character who fell over, and here you are, with a similar role.”

“I can’t argue with that. But was she like that since morning?” Maru asked as he pointed at Chaerim.

Woojoo made a mixed expression as he nodded.

“There were a lot of words about her until now too. I mean, she did cause quite a lot of NG scenes. But she was never this bad. Perhaps she is feeling complicated because of the guy that just ran out.”

Woojoo told Maru that the atmosphere on the set was extremely fragile since morning. When one of the minor roles left the scene after getting insulted by director Lee, it was bad to the point that most people had the notion to give up the shoot there. Woojoo also told him that they continued to shoot because there would be problems in airing the episode since it would be a long time until the main characters could gather on set again.

“And yet, here we are.”

“That sounds chaotic.”

“Well, for us, we just get more pay if things get delayed, but the staff members aren’t like that. It must be hard for them.”

The staff members that had to hold heavy equipment were staring holes into Chaerim. They were practically begging her at this point.

“Rather than that, you were good back there. What happened? Didn’t you just arrive?”

“I memorized the lines after I got here. Well, I do have a ‘wronged’ face, so I’m good with acting roles like that.”

“Like hell you have a ‘wronged’ face. But wait, you memorized all that in such a short time? You’re quite smart.”

Maru shrugged once. At that moment, director Choi finished consoling Chaerim. She looked a little calmer now.

Director Lee gave the cue sign with a mixed expression. The exact same occurrence unfolded out on the set covered in heavy silence. Maru also repeated the same thing he did before. He said his line in front of Chaerim. He just had to wait for Chaerim’s line, but she froze up again this time.

Director Lee did not get angry. It seemed that he had no energy to become angry at this point. Maru heard the staff member holding the reflector swear in a small voice. It wasn’t that surprising. The lights turned off again. It seemed that they were planning to take a longer break this time.

“Uhm, director. We have a schedule to attend.”

“Us too.”

The managers spoke apologetically to director Lee. Director Lee frowned. The man that seemed to be Chaerim’s manager was standing in front of director Lee with his face looking down.

“Sorry about that. I’ll finish as soon as possible, so please endure for now. Please, I’m saying this because there will be problems if we don’t finish this shoot today.”

“Yes, I know that. Please tell us if you need anything. I’ll try to help out.”

The managers stepped away and director Lee started speaking with the camera director. The producers gathered around as well. Perhaps they were getting ready to change the scene, or remove the scene entirely.

“Writer Park isn’t here today, right?”

“Yes. Should I make a call?”

“Yes, ask if we can change this scene. If writer Park gives permission, well, the rest of the writers will come up with something.”

Maru was able to hear their conversation since he was standing close to them. So the scene was going to be changed after all? After a call, the writer’s expression as she held the phone slowly darkened.

“Uhm, director. I don’t think we can do that. Writer Park said it can’t be fixed.”

“Urgh, a no means a no from that person.”

Seeing director Lee in a tough spot, Maru thought that the writer must be a stubborn person. Both the staff and the actors fell into a panic. Maru had a look at Chaerim, who was sitting at the back of the class. Even other idols did not approach her. They probably didn’t want to be hated along with her. Chaerim looked like a lonely island within the class. Even director Choi seemed to have given up as he couldn’t be seen anywhere.

At that moment, his eyes met Chaerim’s when she just raised her head up. Her eyes were wandering everywhere. It was clear to Maru that she would make a mistake if they started shooting again. He didn’t want to waste his time here. Maru walked up to Chaerim, who was isolated from the others. The murky eyes looked up at him.

“Hey.”

Maru looked into Chaerim’s eyes. For a while, nothing happened, then a speech bubble popped up above Chaerim’s head.

-Is this boy interested in me?

It wasn’t an ability that could read other people’s minds, so it wasn’t omnipotent, but he could deduce her psychological state with what he saw. He usually didn’t use it since it wasn’t that useful normally, but it was quite useful when talking to a complete stranger. Though, most of the time the speech bubble would say ‘who the heck is he’.

After looking at the speech bubble, Maru spoke in a small voice.

“If you want others to be interested in you, then do your job properly.”

“…What?”

“Choose one. Either you do this properly and receive everyone’s love, or you can become tragic. You see the people around you right? They’re not looking at you with good will at all.”

Chaerim looked around.

“Not a single person here likes you. You’re inconveniencing them after all. So, are you going to end it like this? Unable to do anything?”

Chaerim bit her lower lip. Maru extended his hand out.

“Give me your hand.”

“…What are you doing?”

“I’ll tell you a good trick, so just give me your hand.”

Chaerim unwillingly held out her hand. Maru pressed on the soft part between the thumb and the index finger very strongly. Chaerim frowned and pulled her hand away.

“What are you doing!”

“It hurts, doesn’t it?”

“Are you out of your mind?”

“You can’t think of anything, right? It hurts like hell, so you’re not thinking about anything else, right?”

“……”

“Also, you are annoyed because of me as well, aren’t you? Pile that up and release it. If you still can’t do that, then just go back to being a singer, and don’t inconvenience others in a place you don’t belong.”

“Are you finished?”

“No, I’m not. I have lines to do here. If you’re so frustrated, then pay back with acting. You know, there’s a scene where you push me over, right? Why don’t you push me like you mean it?”

Maru curled up his lips before leaving. He returned to his waiting seat before giving a glance to Chaerim. For now, she wasn’t dazing out like she was last time, and looked like she was back to her usual self. She was glaring at him though, probably out of frustration. He hoped that she would continue that all the way until the end of the shoot.

“Let’s do this one last time,” director Lee spoke.

Chapter 315

If she was asked what made her start to dream about being a celebrity, she would reply ‘due to a coincidence’.

Her house was always noisy. It wasn’t that she wasn’t well off. However, just because she was well off didn’t mean that her household was harmonious. During elementary school, Chaerim always headed to her friend’s house after school. She only went back home at night after spending time there. Her parents did not say anything about that. In fact, they even looked a little thankful that their daughter was quick-witted and did not stay at the house. It was a mistake to think that children did not know. Even young children knew what they were supposed to know.

It wasn’t that she hated her parents, it was just that she hated quietly putting herself into the corner of her room away from her parents' fighting. One day, Chaerim did a dance in front of her parents thanks to a school event. That day, the house had some quiet. Instead of shouts, there were laughs. Thanks to that, they were able to watch TV together with the three of them in the living room. Coincidentally, there was a girl who was singing with a beautiful smile on TV. It was a high teen star.

Thanks to her dad’s urging, she danced along with the song sung by the girl inside the TV. Her parents praised her saying that she did well, and Chaerim vaguely came to a realization that her house became calm when she sang.

However, that peace lasted only momentarily. It was the age of cold war in her house. Chaerim needed the attention and love of her parents, but she couldn’t expect any out of them. That was why she chose to receive other people’s attention and love. She felt refreshed whenever other people had high hopes of her. She felt more energetic the more people looked at her. Around that time, she started writing ‘singer’ as her future career path. She thought that it was the best job that would allow her to receive the love of her parents and the attention of others.

When she entered her 6th year of elementary school, Chaerim entered Yellow Star as a trainee. What was once an abstract dream was now getting fleshed out. Although there was the opposition of her parents, they ended up allowing her after hearing from the agency that she had potential. Although practice was hard and exhausting, it was much better than spending time alone at home. After all, there were unnis who strived for the same goal as her and could sympathize with her at the residence.

After debuting and entering the ranks of top idols, Chaerim had never seen her parents fighting. Their relationship had recovered. She did not know if it was because of money or time, but in any case, Chaerim was satisfied. Every day was a continuation of joy for her. She received attention wherever she went, and she was at the center of everyone’s conversations. Although it was hard to endure malicious comments, she soon adapted thanks to the fact that malicious comments were the minority compared to the comments that cheered her on. Everyone loved BLUE, and everyone loved Chaerim. That seemed like an unshakable fact.

However, there were signs of change recently, in a bad way, that is. They weren’t able to grab a hold of first place, their team split apart, and there were a few other incidents as well.

Despite that, she thought that it was okay. She believed that people around her still loved her. However, that belief had shattered.

She was in a horrible condition since morning, so she felt apologetic that she made mistakes. She wasn’t that nervous since the directors said that it was okay. She resolved that she would make a cool comeback, but things didn’t go the way she expected. It was then that she had become conscious of the eyes of the staff that looked at her. They were filled with animosity and hostility. The moment she became conscious of that, her mind started playing its own game separate from her body. She felt like she was left alone in the middle of a jungle where low growls could be heard from all around.

She resolved to endure through that. This wasn’t the first time it happened. There were people that were jealous of other people’s success everywhere. From experience, she knew that there were many people that booed her after her singing performance. Just as she was about to console herself and get back on her feet, something unexpected happened. The director swore. It wasn’t directed at her. He swore at the minor role actor that made a single mistake.

Chaerim saw that actor falling backwards in despair. She felt a little sorry. After all, it was obvious that the director was venting his frustration at him. At that moment, her eyes met that man’s. His eyes were bloodshot and he was crying. To Chaerim’s eyes, it looked like he was crying blood. Those eyes were filled with a viciousness that frightened her. She had never seen such eyes in her 19 years of life. That actor disappeared after leaving the words ‘it’s all your fault’. The people at the scene erupted out in an uproar. The shoot was suddenly stopped.

Those words from that actor reverberated in her ears. She consciously blinked fast because she felt that those eyes would stare at her if she closed her eyes for too long. Although there were many times where she received gazes filled with hostility, they were never so concrete. No one pinpointed her mistakes and looked at her like they would kill her. However, that man’s eyes were truly frightening. At the same time, it dawned on her that someone was harmed because of her. The eyes of the staff became even more prickly. She intuitively felt that she wouldn’t be able to endure anymore. She realized that she would collapse just like that actor the longer she dragged this on.

However, she couldn’t avoid it. After all, she was one of the main characters. She madly regretted that she had acted arrogantly until now. If she said that she couldn’t do it, and that they should try again tomorrow, not to mention the whole drama, her company would be flipped upside down as well. She knew that very well. Everyone here had their own schedule so it was impossible for them to allocate their time just for her. It dawned on her that she wasn’t in a position where she could ask them to do something. For a moment, the unnis at the residence came up in her mind. If it was back in the trainee days, she would receive heartfelt consolation from them, but that wasn’t going to happen now. All she got back would be a ‘so what’ along with disdainful laughter.

Who else was there then? She thought about calling her manager-oppa, but that oppa also separated work from private life. She liked that about him, but it couldn’t be more out of place right now. Friends? There was no way she had any since she rarely went to school in the first place. Her friends at her new school, Myunghwa High, were also mostly celebrities, so she didn’t even see them that much. She didn’t even think about the people she had seen during TV programs. Those people were those that cut off all contact once the camera stopped rolling. In the end, the only people that came to her mind were her parents. At that moment, her heart tightened. After going through all those people, she realized that this was a fight she had to fight alone.

She clenched her teeth and endured. She tried to forget that actor’s face and kept reciting her lines over and over again. However, the more she did so, the clearer that man’s face became in her head. She was in the worst possible state right now.

The lines she had memorized dismantled themselves and started flying around in her mind. She didn’t know what she had to say, and she didn’t know what kind of expression she had to make. The actors around her age approached her and told her that it was okay, but even they felt hypocritical to her.

She was aware that they were indeed hypocritical. Otherwise, she wouldn’t have been able to endure it. Even she herself forced herself a lot of the time.

What made her even more nervous was the directors that kept treating her kindly. While she felt thankful for their kindness, she felt dizzy since their attitude towards her was a drastic contrast from the rest of the people at the scene. The more the director consoled her, the more ferociously the staff looked at her.

She had to do it - that was all she had now. There were ordinary students on set as well. Among them, there should be some anti-fans of hers. Just imagining what kind of things they would write on the internet tonight made her feel like she had to take more antacids.

She had gone through a tremendous amount of effort to take this place, this love, and this attention, so she didn’t want to let it go. Nothing would be left of her if she was distanced from her fans. Only an empty shell would remain behind. Going further, her relationship with her parents might fall apart again. When that chain reaction occurred in her mind, she couldn’t keep a straight sense of self.

Hearing the director finally erupt out, Chaerim thought that what had to come had finally come, but the director changed his expression and patted her. She felt chills behind her back. The director was consoling her with a twisted face.

No one approached her. The shooting scene was filled with chatter, but she felt like she was all alone. The words that entered her ears made her feel dizzy. She wondered if just fainting on the spot would solve things. She really wanted to just faint. If fainting would allow her to avoid this moment, she would gladly do so.

She carefully raised her head and had a look around her. Not a single person was looking at her. There was no jealousy nor was there any encouragement. She was treated like she was no’thing’, not no’one’, but no’thing’. For a moment, her vision darkened. Being ignored was even worse than criticism. She received absolutely no attention at all. The fact that no one looked at her made her feel stifled. Her lines, her movement, her expression - nothing came up in her mind. Chaerim just looked in front of her in the perfect state of blankness. The break would soon finish, meaning that catastrophe was silently approaching.

“Hey.”

Someone broke the silence. She didn’t know when he had approached her, but the boy that replaced the man that left was looking at her. His eyes were cold. She was okay with that. After all, he was the only one that showed interest in her. Right now, she was in desperate need of consolation. It is okay, everything will go well. If he told her these words, she felt like she would be able to take a breather.

That wouldn’t solve the problem from its roots, but it would allow her to escape the feeling of having sunken into the deep sea. Please, let me breathe.

However, the words that came out of the mouth of the boy in front of her felt like the frosty winter. She was expecting the warm breeze of spring, yet the words couldn’t be any chillier. Her expectation, which contradictorily wanted him to treat her kindly yet not, broke apart and she felt animosity towards him.

Who are you to say that? What do you know about me that makes you say that!

At that moment, the boy that trampled on another’s emotions and stabbed into other people’s wounds suddenly told her to hold out her hand. She couldn’t reject him for some reason. The reason was simple - what he said was the truth. It was the truth without any hypocrisy.

She felt a sharp pain from her hand. She was startled and pulled her hand away. The boy made a strange smile and said that pain drives away any trivial thoughts.

What the? She thought that he was here to console her, but she felt angry when he told her to just give up if she didn’t have the confidence to do it. For a moment, she didn’t sense any gazes from around her and only saw the back of the boy that just left her. If she could just strike back at him who looked like he lived in a world of his own…

Chaerim’s jaws slacked slightly. The horrible feeling that tightly grabbed her body had disappeared. She could still feel the gazes from around her, but she didn’t feel stifled like she did before. When she focused on the pain that stemmed from her hand, she could somehow calm herself down.

Now that she thought about it, she heard from her dad when she was young that pressing that part would make her feel better when she felt carsick. It was painful, but curiously, she indeed became less carsick when she did so.

Just as she was conscious of the residual pain, the director proclaimed that they would start shooting again. She felt like her heart was dropping to the ground, but for some strange reason, she had the confidence that she would be able to do it now. The pain that stemmed from her hand was pushing her back. Her breathing became more natural.

Moreover, when she looked at the boy that seemed to tell her ‘come at me if you can’ with his face, she felt obstinate. Yes, he did tell her to push him properly, didn’t he?

Chaerim made the same smile back at him.

Let’s do this then.

* * *

“Good! Very good. Yes, that’s it!”

Chaerim was able to smile again when the director said those words. The staff that could finally go home loosened their expressions as well. She was able to digest all the scenes they needed to shoot without a single NG scene. They were able to finish in 30 minutes what they couldn’t do for the entire duration of the morning. Some people in fact rejoiced that they could go home early. Only then could Chaerim sigh in relief. Everything turned out well.

“But you pushed too hard. Though, it did look good since it was realistic.”

Hearing the director’s words, Chaerim smiled awkwardly. Although she did put a little bit of strength into her hands, she didn’t push that hard. In fact, it was the boy that overreacted to her push. It looked like she had pushed hard because he was ‘flung away’. In any case, it was good that the shoot ended without a hitch.

The staff started packing up their equipment and she said her goodbyes to the other actors as well. Although they always had dinner together after their shoots, it seemed that everyone was going their separate ways due to schedules and whatnot. Chaerim sat down on a chair for a moment. Her manager had gone ahead to the car saying that he would start the car. Chaerim sighed after seeing that the classroom was cleaned up. It felt like all those horrible times were a lie.

“Sorry about that last time.”

Hearing the apology, Chaerim turned around. It was that boy from before. He wasn’t wearing glasses though. It seemed that the glasses were just props. Chaerim stared at the boy. She expected him to say more, but he just said his goodbyes before turning around. It looked like he was done with his work here.

“That’s it?”

“Yes.”

The boy just turned his head and spoke to her. He was looking at the clock, and he was clearly asking if he could go if there wasn’t anything else. Chaerim felt flabbergasted since he acted like she was holding him up here. After all those words, all that came back was an apology?

“Well, then, if you would excuse me.”

The boy left. Chaerim felt flabbergasted and just watched him as he did so. Her mouth unintentionally uttered ‘son of a… ’ before she stopped. The reason she couldn’t finish was because she saw Jiseok approaching her. The boy came across Jiseok just as he was about to leave through the back door. Jiseok raised his hand as though asking for a high five, but the boy just walked past him.

“Thanks, Han Maru.”

Only after hearing his words, did the boy raise his hand above his shoulders and start waving. Han Maru, it felt like she had heard that name somewhere before.

“You know him?” Chaerim asked Jiseok.

Jiseok nodded back.

“I told you about a friend of mine in the car, didn’t I? The one that’s insanely good at acting.”

“Oh, him.”

She felt like she had heard that name somewhere before that event, but she couldn’t remember. She thought that it was perhaps just her mistake.

“Did you thank him?”

“What?”

“Did you thank Maru?”

“Me? Thank him? Why?”

“Why not, I mean…”

Jiseok was about to explain something but he tilted his head once before stopping as though he understood something.

“Let’s just go, noona.”

“What? What’s this about?”

“It’s nothing at all. Rather than that, you looked cool in that last scene.”

Saying that, Jiseok told her that they should go back to the car. Seeing him act that way, Chaerim had a suspicion in her mind. No, what she was thinking was probably correct. Only then did it make sense that he came back to apologize to her afterwards.

“You mean he did that on purpose?”

Hearing that question, Jiseok just shrugged. Chaerim frowned. It angered her, but it was indeed thanks to him that she was able to finish the shoot in time. If it wasn’t for him, that is, Maru, they would probably be stuck in the same loop right now. He should have at least told her if he was trying to help out.

Just as she was frowning because she didn’t like the situation,

“It’s his own way of caring about others. Well, I guess it’s more probable that he just helped because he didn’t want the shoot to get delayed so much. I mean, he’s quite a cold kid.”

Chaerim stared at Jiseok who spoke with a smile. It felt like she was indebted. She didn’t like that feeling.

“Let’s go for now.”

Chaerim stood up from her seat. Her manager had messaged her that it was time for them to go.

Chapter 316

“You didn’t want to see me?”

Maru looked at her, who was hesitating. He grinned when he saw that she licked her lips wondering about what to say. Actually, he was aware that it was her being considerate of him that they didn’t meet recently.

“Looks like I was the only one who wanted to meet.”

“No, that’s not it.”

“Then you wanted to see me?”

“Do I really have to say it?”

“That’s right.”

“Fine, I wanted to see you. Satisfied?”

Seeing her pout, Maru nodded his head. The place they were in was filled with the smell of pizza. It was the pizza restaurant they visited before. Right now, she was slicing a piece of pizza with cherry tomatoes and basil on top, and was putting it on a plate.

“Here.”

Maru received the pizza that she cut for him. The glistening surface made it look delicious. He took a bite before looking in front of him. She was eating her pizza with a happy face. She looked like a rabbit when she was chewing. Thinking back, a lot of her actions reminded Maru of rabbits. That was also why he gifted her a ring that was shaped like a rabbit.

“Wasn’t there a rabbit in one of your nicknames?”

“Didn’t you know that already?” She spoke as she showed off the ring she was wearing.

“Rather than that, how could you call all of a sudden and tell me to meet you? What were you going to do if I had acting club practice?”

“Who was the one that said there was no practice this Saturday when I called on Thursday?”

“…Did I tell you that?”

“I thought that was your way of indirectly threatening me that we should meet. It wasn’t?”

She turned her head away slightly and made a strange smile.

“It’s dark already.”

“It’s past seven.”

Maru looked outside as well. Lights were starting to appear from parts of buildings that were darkening due to the dusk. Various colored signs drove the darkness back, and people were walking in the brightened streets. Most of them were students. There were also some young couples. The next block over should have some salarymen wearing suits. After all, that block was filled with bars and restaurants that sold alcohol.

At that moment, she, who was looking outside, flinched for a moment before turning her head around to the table. Maru wondered what was going on and looked at the place where she was looking. There were girls wearing the same uniform as her outside the restaurant. They were staring his way and they started whispering among themselves before entering the restaurant.

“I knew it!”

The girls shouted as soon as they came in. She raised her head and laughed awkwardly. It seemed that they were her friends.

“What. You told me you had something to do, and it was a date?”

“Uhm… yeah.”

She smiled in embarrassment. Maru waved at the girls that looked at him.

“I’m right. It’s the boy from back then.”

“Wow.”

Did these girls know him? Maru tilted his head. Her friends started giggling and started talking about the event that happened at the Center of Culture and Art in Ansan. He did remember shouting at her that he would go to her. Now that he thought about it, it embarrassed him to no end.

“Hey hey. Let’s get going. We can’t disturb them. Bunbun[1], see you tomorrow. See you later too, Mr. Boyfriend.”

Her friends then disappeared in an instant. Maru covered his mouth and chuckled. She also smiled.

“Your nickname is Bunbun?”

“Yeah.”

“That’s cute. I should call you that too.”

“Please don’t.”

Although she was saying that, her eyes were smiling. She didn’t seem to hate it that much. Thanks to her witty friends, their time together did not get reduced. It was a thankful thing.

“Oh right. I heard you went to a shoot suddenly today. What happened to that?”

“I did well.”

“An extra this time as well?”

“No, a minor role this time. I don’t know the specifics, but I might go there a few times more.”

“Really? Congratulations.”

She put down her fork and leaned forward. She rejoiced like it was her own matter. Maru thought that this was why he couldn’t help but fall for her.

“You have lines too?”

“A few.”

“That’s good. Ah, I want to try shooting a drama too. It sounds fun.”

She looked upwards and smiled. It seemed that she was imagining what it would be like at the scene. Maru watched her for a while before speaking.

“If you want to go to a drama set, do you want to try a part-time job for a supplementary role?”

“Can I?”

“I’m not entirely sure, but I can ask a guy that works there.”

“Then, yes. I want to try.”

“But are you okay with that? You have acting club activities.”

“I can miss a day or two. It’s not that strict.”

“Then I’ll try asking. It’s not a surefire method, so don’t expect too much.”

“No, I’m going to expect a lot.”

“I guess I shouldn’t have said that. Wait a sec then.”

“You’re going to ask right now?”

“Since we’re at it, why not?”

Maru called Woojoo. Thankfully, Woojoo was on break and didn’t have any problems with having a call right now.

“A friend of mine wants to try the supplementary role part time job. If it’s not too much, can I ask how to apply for one?”

-If it’s like that, then sure, I can do that. I received some help from you as well.

Since he was willingly helping him out, Maru didn’t see a reason to refuse. He asked whether there were any roles for a girl that was held within the capital and the surrounding regions.

-I can ask the leader and he’ll probably reply immediately, so I’ll get back to you soon. But a friend of yours, huh. Does she do acting as well?

“Yes. She’s good.”

-Then I’ll tell the leader just that. I’ll get back to you.

“Sorry for bothering you.”

-I’m paying my debt, so you don’t have to be.

He hung up and looked at her. Her eyes were filled with expectation. Maru felt that he would have to look into other methods of getting her the part time job if this wasn’t possible. He didn’t want to see her disappointed.

After finishing their meal, they went to the café next door. There was a buy-one-get-one-free event for Americano coffee for students only. They entered the crowd of students and ordered two cups of coffee. For some reason, she ordered an Americano as well.

“I thought you didn’t like bitter stuff.”

“But this one’s free.”

She took out some money from her wallet with a smile. Maru put back the credit card he was fiddling in his hand into his wallet.

“Maru, you should really save up on money. It looks like you’re splurging whenever I meet you.”

“Well, I guess I should. If I think about the marriage expenses, furniture, and even the honeymoon, I guess I indeed should save up. Is a monthly lease better than a jeonse[2]? What do you think?”

“Isn’t a jeonse better?”

“……”

She nonchalantly replied and sucked on the straw. Maru was planning to tease her, but since her reaction was so smooth, it made him flustered instead. She looked at him in the eyes before giggling.

“What? You look disappointed.”

After saying that, she frowned. She opened the lid and poured a lot of syrup inside. She really couldn’t eat bitter things.

“It’s not tasty.”

“I told you you should’ve gone with your usual menu.”

They took the coffee and left the café. The evening winds were quite chilly, and the warmth emanating from where they were holding hands felt quite good. Maru held her hand and walked along the streets.

“I have something to buy.”

She walked ahead of him. The place she arrived at was a local dollar store. They had a variety of products ranging from cosmetics to kitchenware. This place was filled with students as well. On the entrance were the words ‘Fee of 100 times the price if anyone gets caught stealing’.

“What are you going to buy?”

She didn’t say anything and walked up to the place where cosmetics were lined up. In this place where Maru didn’t even know any of the brands, she picked a few facemasks that were displayed on one side. Maru didn’t know what it was, but he could understand the words ‘skin calming’.

She picked up five of them before walking towards the counter. While she paid for those things, Maru had a glimpse of her wallet. It was completely empty.

“Give me your bag.”

Maru watched as she stuffed the facemasks into his bag.

“You’re giving them to me?”

“Good skin is crucial for both actors and actresses.”

“I don’t need these things.”

“You should start managing your skin when you’re still young.”

Why was it that she reminded him of his grandma that stuffed his hand with a 5,000 won bill when he visited her with his family, saying that he should keep it a secret from his mom? After putting them inside the bag, she smiled with a sense of achievement. Was this something to rejoice about? At that moment, Woojoo gave him a call.

-The leader says we need one for Youth Generation, how about it? As for clothes, just casual clothes are fine. For now, she only needs to do crowd scenes, but she might get more if her acting skills are up to par. I think it’s quite okay since it’s the same drama. The date is next Sunday, and the meeting time is 6 in the morning.

“Please wait a moment.”

Maru looked at her. Although she would say that she was fully grown up, in Maru’s eyes, she was still a child. He would be much at ease if he could be with her rather than having her by herself.

“There’s a spot in Youth Generation, do you wanna try? It’s next Sunday and the meeting time is 6 in the morning.”

“I do, I do,” she spoke as she closed her face against his.

She was close. It also seemed like she smelled of baby powder. Maru pushed on her forehead with his index finger as he spoke,

“Yes, hyung. She says she’ll do it.”

-Really? Then I’ll tell the leader about it, so that friend of yours needs to message the number I’m about to send you now. She has to send whether she’s participating or not on the day itself, so don’t forget.

“Alright. Thanks.”

-You’re welcome. Also, see you on set. I think I’m going to be going there for the foreseeable while.

“Okay, see you then.”

He hung up and told her that the schedule was set. She rejoiced like a little child. Maru told her the number that Woojoo sent him. She quickly inputted the number into her phone before sending a text message right away.

“So, we’re shooting together then?”

Hearing those words, Maru flinched. He was not one of the main characters, so there was no way he was required to show up to every shoot.

“You might have to go by yourself.”

“Ah, okay.”

She looked slightly disappointed. Maru pondered for a brief moment. Next Sunday. Today was the 24th of July, and the preliminaries for the acting competition was the 8th of August. He would probably have to practice on Sunday. Maru thought about that for a moment before speaking.

“Let’s go together on Sunday.”

“But you said you might not have a shoot that day.”

“I’ll just be your manager for the day.”

“Can you do that?”

“Is there a reason I can’t do that?”

“How about practice?”

“I can take a day off too.”

“Really?”

She looked slightly down. It seemed that she was worried. Maru reached out and grabbed her cheek and twisted it slightly before letting go. She pouted before stroking her cheek against his hand.

“Let’s go. It’s getting late.”

Although the acting club and its members were important, they weren’t as important compared to her. Also, he wasn’t in a bad condition where taking a day off would have him worried. If he didn’t have such confidence, he wouldn’t even be thinking about getting the grand prize in the first place.

She didn’t say anything for a while, but after that, she said that she looked forward to it with her unique relaxing smile. Maru also nodded.

They waited at the bus stop briefly until the bus headed for her house came.

“Get on then.”

“Yeah, I’m off.”

She tagged her transportation card. The bus slowly started driving. She waved her hand through one of the back windows of the bus. Maru also waved at her.

“Rather than that, she likes jeonse better, huh.”

And it would be better if they lived in Seoul as well. A jeonse in Seoul… Maru heaved a deep sigh. Although the 300 million won in his bank account was a large sum of money. It was pitiful compared to the real estate prices of Seoul. Also, since he wanted to present his daughter with the best possible things, it seemed that he had to start saving up money very strictly.

“Am I going too far?”

Maru looked at the bus that had her in it. What would he do if there came a day when she came up to him and said that she liked someone else better? Maru pondered about that for a moment before grinning. He had thought about that problem numerous times in the past, but there was only one conclusion: he had to become a man she could never give up on. It was that simple.

A bus arrived. It was the bus to his house. Maru took out his MP3 player from his bag before getting on the bus. He put his earphones on and started enjoying some music.

Just then,

“…Wait.”

Maru stared outside the window. He could see a boy and a girl walking together on the streets. Both of them were people he knew. The problem was that he knew them too well.

Maru stroked his chin before taking out his phone. Then he made a call. Of the walking duo, the girl stopped and answered her phone. That was proof enough.

-What?

Bada replied in a picky voice. My dear sister, I’m watching you right now.

“Where are you?”

-Why do you ask?

“I just wanted you to buy some snacks when you come home.”

-Gosh, please stop asking me for that stuff.

“Credit card.”

-… What shall I bring you, my dear brother?

“Something with chocolate on it. It would be better if it tasted like love.”

-What the heck are you saying.

“Hey, hand the phone over to Dowook who’s standing there like a complete idiot. Also, if you came all the way here because you didn’t want to be caught, I’d like to tell you that that’s not necessary.”

At that moment, Bada hung up. Maru saw her frantically scanning her surroundings. The bus that stopped because of a red light, started driving again and Maru could no longer see the two. He then messaged Dowook.

-Hang out healthily, okay? Healthily.

He got a reply immediately.

-I was kidnapped.

Oh, really now?

Bada had a rather reckless side of her just like her mother. If she took after her father a little more, she would’ve become a more cautious and earnest girl…

Maru smiled and closed his phone. Since this matter concerned the two of them, it was up to those two to decide what they did. It was up to them to go out after all. As for marriage, though… that required a detailed examination with a microscope.

At that moment, he got another message.

-You’re so dead. DEAD!

It was from Bada.

She was one scary sister alright. She paid back his graces with revenge. Maru thought that the first thing he had to do after going home was to lock his door.

[1] Rabbit -> Bunny -> Bun -> Bunbun… Original is 토순이. I’m open to suggestions

[2] Wikipedia for more info. Basically, another method of getting a residence that is somewhat unique to Korea.

Chapter 317

A music streaming service. A service that you have to pay to listen to music from the computer. He wondered if it would work in a world where MP3 files were illegally being distributed online through peer-to-peer programs, but it seemed that his superiors actually thought that it was a decent business idea. While working on that, the parent company presented the illegal peer-to-peer website with a suspension and quickly released a music distribution platform. Although the reactions were lukewarm since it was still in its beta stages, it didn’t seem like a far-fetched idea from looking at the precedents in Japan and America.

Hong Janghae nodded after watching the presentation from the team leaders. It had been around a month since he switched from being a senior managing director of a company under YM Logistics to the CEO of an entertainment company named ‘Soul’. In other people’s eyes, it might look like a demotion for him, but Janghae didn’t think of it that way. First up, the parent company invested a huge amount. Although the agency was built from profits from other subsidiaries, the ones that invested were two of the largest subsidiaries of the YM Corporation: YM Logistics and YM Living.

On top of that, the connections he created while working at YM Logistics were maintained, and he was able to utilize those connections for his new company. It wasn’t that his path to promotion was blocked off. It was instead the opposite, it was a proof of trust. During a group meal, the chairman of the YM Corporation named him directly and wished him luck. This meant that this business had grabbed the attention of the chairman. To Janghae, who couldn’t be satisfied with being a senior managing director, this was an opportunity. He also received his share when he was appointed the CEO of the agency. 24% of the stocks. There was also a plan to go public in the KOSDAQ market.

Management was just secondary. The main purpose of Soul was to grab ahold of the music distribution industry. They had to be the leading industry platform and eventually take over the market to the point that it would be impossible to distribute any music records without going through the platform provided by them. It was an idea that only YM Corporation could think of, and put into practice since they had a large proportion of the telecommunication market. Although other colossal companies were eyeing the music distribution market, YM was ahead of them by one, no, at least ten steps.

They were even talking to the Korea Music Copyright Association (KOMCA) about this. Now that the ship that was the music album market was sinking, they had to move on to the internet. The other music distribution companies were well aware of this. Soul worked in secret with those distribution companies to negotiate on copyrights. As most of the singers, lyricists and composers had left the management of their copyrights to KOMCA, things would go extremely smoothly once they completed developing the platform and released it into the market.

“You should all go have lunch. I’ll have lunch on my own.”

After sending off the team leaders, he closed his eyes for a minute. Since the scale had decreased in size, the management system had decreased as well. Janghae thought that it was actually quite okay like this. He was working with a select few elites, so it reminded him of the time when he did his team project before. After resting for a while, Janghae picked up the celebrity list on the meeting table. Although music distribution was their primary business, he couldn’t just let the agency business handle itself. After all, there was no better publicity than celebrities joining their ranks.

Janghae got a coffee from a vending machine before looking through the papers. Whether it was items or people, the way to handle them was similar. In fact, handling people was easier in some cases.

Emotions did nothing to items, but they did affect people. The item wouldn’t change no matter how much love you give it. It wasn’t like a stone would turn into gold with enough love. However, in the case of people, they did sometimes turn into gold. Even when it came to useless and incompetent people, sweet words of flattery might cause miracles.

What an efficient way of doing business was that? It was possible to turn worthless things into something that had value by using the psychology of expectation, which was free. Of course, such a thing still wouldn’t be useful when it came to work that required a high level of understanding, but the majority of work in this world was simple labor. People that were enchanted by sweet words could be useful in places like that.

One of the team leaders was like that. There was one team leader that did all the menial work for the other, smart team leaders. Janghae gave that team leader some hope. All he had to do was to tell him that he could look forward to next year’s performance assessment. He didn’t lie about anything. It was based on facts. It was just a matter of possibility. He could be promoted, and he might not be promoted. It was just that. A hope within reach was the best whip and carrot at the same time.

“President. Please take this.”

One of the team leaders knocked on his office door and gave him a bottle of vegetable juice.

“Thank you.”

“Not at all. Please have a nice meal.”

Janghae nodded with a smile. It was him. The pitiful guy that worked hard staking his life for a hope that was vague and abstract while not having any skills himself. Actually, he wasn’t even pitiful. People that didn’t even know what kind of position they were in were not qualified to be considered pitiful. While other team leaders worked their bodies off in order to heighten their work capabilities, that team leader gave him gifts like this in order to make connections.

It wasn’t that Janghae considered bribes as bad. A suitable amount of bribes was like oil. An oiled cogwheel definitely turns better than a not-oiled cogwheel. However, applying grease when one wasn’t a cogwheel in the right place couldn’t be anymore frustrating to him. That cogwheel would just spin on the spot in vain. If he was planning to use his bribes to survive the corporate life, he would have to be willing to give up his organs for it, but everything about that man was ambiguous. Ambiguous people always stayed on the spot. In this society, maintaining the status quo was the same as regressing. Staying still while others forged ahead? It would be better if he started writing a letter of resignation instead.

“Also, I hate carrots.”

Janghae shook his head after reading the label on the juice. He threw the whole thing into the trash can by his foot. A heavy thud could be heard. That team leader’s life would also fall to the bottom with that kind of sound sooner or later.

Janghae had a look at the actors that belonged to the three major agencies: NL Company, Jewel Entertainment and Yellow Star. They all had actors that were considered top stars by the masses. Idols that shook the hearts of students also belonged to those three. Janghae rested his chin against his hand. Before he was designated this position, he already studied the history of the entertainment business in South Korea. In the case of actors, their lineage was quite clear. Actors from theater troupes and their acquaintances were still kings in the industry. There weren’t many signs of change just yet.

Meanwhile, music was a different story. They were in a period of change. The ballad-centric industry was shifting towards idol music that was focused on dance music. No, it had already changed. He honestly laughed when brats that reeked of their mother’s milk were singing on TV, but he changed his mind after switching his job. The more he knew, the more he saw. Idol music was currently the center of pop music. In the case of teens, there were many fans that were willing to give up on going to school in order to watch an idol that they loved. Just because they were younger in age didn’t mean that they had less purchasing power. Most of the album sales were due to teens and people in their twenties, with teens being overwhelmingly higher. Although album sales had plummeted thanks to the introduction of MP3 players, women in their teens and twenties still bought most of the albums.

“Idols, huh.”

The first choice when it came to scouting people for an advert for YM Living was a beautiful actress, a young one if possible. The very foundation of advertising lay in giving the watcher a misconception that it was possible for them to become like the actor or actress in the ad with the product shown in the ad.

However, recently, that flow was shifting towards idols. Like the literal ‘idols’, idol bands had a lot of influence. Just like how a hat worn by an actor would sell like hotcakes, there was already a precedent with idols where a scarf that an idol was wearing was sold out. It was already proven that using a variety of idols was much more effective in creating ads rather than scouting a super expensive actress.

A business pursued profit. It wouldn’t be a business if they left a profitable business idea alone. YM Living also switched its telecommunication adverts from actresses to idols. There were visible results very soon. Sales had increased this year compared to last year. They conducted a survey with new registrants, and the percentage of people that registered after seeing the advert on TV was significant.

Of course, the top stars still monopolized the peak of advertisements like cosmetics, apartments and refrigerators, but it was unknown what would happen in a few years' time. There was a possibility that idols would enter that scene. Though, they would first have to undergo a process to make them look high class.

Moreover, there was the Korean wave. Although actors started off the trend, the idols followed suit. Although all they did right now was to appear in late-night shows as guests, the current industry outlook was that it would soon be their era. Of course, it was unknown how long that flow would last. However, no one denied the fact that there would be profits in the short term. As for the flow, no one would know when such things would end.

Janghae slowly flipped over the pages. In regards to actors, they were contacting some people under the rug. Although Yellow Star, which started off as an agency for actors, possessed several ‘A-tier’ actors, the ones that were considered ‘S-tier’ were currently scattered throughout multiple companies. Park Taeho, who got the best actor award in the Daejong Festival last year and had clearly become one of the top-tier icons of popularity, also belonged to a place named Jewel Entertainment and not the three major agencies. Gong Yeonsoo, actress of the main heroine of a drama that hit 50% viewership on TBS last year also belonged to a run-of-the-mill agency with not many actors in it. Other S-tier actors were in similar positions.

Actually, it didn’t matter what agency an actor belonged to as long as they had ticketing power. Thanks to that, the majority of them stuck with the agency they started off with since they had been through thick and thin together. Although the big agencies were putting in their effort to house S-tier actors in their ranks, the reason they failed each time was because they couldn’t cut off connections that were tied through ‘emotion’.

Stars. Lofty beings in the skies. Everyone’s idol. It was a place that one could only climb up to with skill, personality and even luck. Many people defined stars as such.

However, Janghae thought differently.

‘It’s all a matter of exposure in the end.’

As long as he gathered actors with potential and exposed them to the media frequently, they would become stars with a high probability. They said people always wanted new things, but in reality, that wasn’t the case. People preferred what they were used to. When developing new products, ideas that were too new were always rejected. The reason was simple. The risks were too high. Businesses preferred profit models with stable profits. A business’ preference was equivalent to the mass’ preference.

The current idol market was like that as well. Although the internet talked about how it was copy and paste everywhere and that the music market is dead, the industry was seeing never-seen-before highs. Although the internet proclaimed the death of pop music in South Korea, idols were in first, second, and third places in music programs. Business targeted people that actually had purchasing power rather than those that typed away on the keyboard. It was natural for their focus to be on that as well. This was why idols had great achievements. It was extremely logical.

Groups that proclaimed they would breathe new life into music culture in the form of band music, ballads and hip hop had all died out without any achievements. They disappeared.

The public wanted something new? Those were just the immature words of the pioneers. If they really wanted new and fresh things, the structure of the industry would have changed already. Just like how the old music market was taken over by idols.

“So the priority is to get actors that are actually popular, huh.”

The internet made everything so much simpler in this era. It was easy to find out who and what the younger generation was passionate about. Janghae gave orders to standardize the faces of actresses that were popular amongst women in their teens to thirties. After that process was done, he would have the team leaders start casting people. In this agency, the structure was such that each team would compete against each other. If the value of the actor they scouted rose, they would receive appropriate compensation.

“A star is not born, but created.”

Janghae stretched out his neck and stood up from his seat. After matters about contracting actors were somewhat done, the next would be idols. As they were the latecomers in this industry, they had to put much more effort into it. However, Janghae had the confidence. In the end, everything came down to fighting with money. As long as the parent company did not stop its support, this competition was something that he could not lose. He opened the door to the meeting room and left. He decided to have a sandwich for lunch. He had to start using his brain again after eating a light meal.

Janghae smiled at the team leader that came back while tapping on his belly saying that he was full. To Janghae, that team leader was out of his mind. The only ending that awaited a fat pig was to be butchered.

Chapter 318

Aram stretched out her arms and laid back. They had just finished their third run. By now, she was used to seeing the sunset at school. Though, it did feel quite good since it felt like she was having a proper school life.

“Aram.”

Jiyoon was startled and pulled down her shirt. It seemed that it rolled up as she lied down. This girl was really feminine. Aram thought that she should learn from her. In her lying position, Aram bowed her waist and flicked her body up. When she stood up with a rebound, someone clapped.

“You’re good.”

It was Maru-seonbae.

“You should try as well. I think you should be able to do it.”

“I don’t like wasting my energy,” Maru said as he lied down.

It was break time, and everyone seemed tired. It wasn’t that surprising since they had been practicing ever since school finished. Although they weren’t using their bodies physically intensively, the consumption of stamina was considerable since they had to be conscious about all of their moves. Aram felt a similar level of fatigue as when she was training at the dojo.

“Suyeon-unni isn’t coming these days.”

“Well, she has her drama shoots. We should be thankful that she comes here from time to time. After all, she’s doing this for free,” Maru spoke.

Aram nodded in agreement.

“There’s not long until the competition.”

“That’s true.”

“There must some pressure to go on stage, right?”

“A lot, probably.”

“Haa, it’s fine during practice, but it’s strangely more tiring when I stand in front of people. Even though I perform in front of people for the advancing in dan[1].”

“It’s because you’re not used to it.”

“Do you get nervous as well, seonbae?”

“No.”

“Wow!”

Aram raised her thumbs up. She looked for another conversation partner since Maru had closed his eyes. Then, she saw Daemyung-seonbae who was leaning against a wall, writing something down on his note. Aram glanced at Daemyung once before looking at Jiyoon.

‘I wonder when these two will make progress.’

If she could, she would just put them in a classroom with no one else and lock the doors up, but it was obvious that Jiyoon would fall into panic if she did so, so she hadn’t put it into practice. However, she was thinking of putting it into practice if they maintained their status quo. It was frustrating to watch from the sides.

“Tell him that you want to watch a movie together on the weekend.”

“Wh-why so suddenly?”

“Because I’m bored.”

“Stop teasing me,” Jiyoon said with a pout.

This girl was no good, so she had to change her target. Just as Aram started crawling towards Daemyung, someone grabbed her by the ankle.

“If you’re going to tease him, do it later. He’s busy.”

It was Maru.

“You weren’t sleeping?”

“Let’s take a rest, okay? I get that you’re full of energy, but you should rest when you can.”

Aram twitched her nose before returning to her original place. She felt bored. Yoojin wasn’t here today either. She said that she couldn’t be here because they had to prepare for their festival.

“Bosung Girls High’s festival sounded like it would be a lot of fun. I wish I could go there.”

“It happens on a weekday so we can’t.”

“Really? Oh wait, we have a school festival of our own, don’t we? Seonbae, when’s our festival?”

“Before summer holidays probably.”

“I know that much.”

At that moment, Daemyung told her that it was held before the preliminaries for the acting competition. Now that she thought about it, she did see some of her classmates making a roulette for the festival. They apparently belonged to the board game club.

“Don’t we need to do something as well?”

“Can’t we just skip?” Maru, who was lying down, spoke.

Aram stood up and shook her head vigorously.

“Students should fulfill their roles as students. This is a festival we’re talking about, you know? A festival!”

“Oh! A festival!”

Bangjoo, who was doing pushups on the side, also joined the fray. Aram looked at Maru. Maru avoided her eyes. Then, she looked at Daemyung. Daemyung also smiled awkwardly and looked away. These seniors were no good.

“Let’s do something as well.”

“Youth shines the brightest when it stays still.”

“Maru-seonbae. This is a festival that only happens once!”

“For us, it’s once, but for you three, it’s twice. There’s another one in your third year.”

“But there’s only one festival as first years! Third years’ festival is a different festival.”

“Haa.”

Maru lied sideways and covered his ears. Aram changed targets this time. Now that it came down to this, she could only persuade Daemyung.

“Daemyung-seonbae! Jiyoon wants to do something for the festival!”

At that moment, Aram saw that Daemyung’s eyes were shaking. She faintly smiled. Jiyoon became flustered and told her to stop, but she just ignored her. It was a festival that only happened once. She wanted to participate and enjoy it.

“Sh-should we do something? Practice is going smoothly, and we should have some fun too. I think it’s a good opportunity.”

Daemyung looked towards Dowook. Dowook just told him ‘do whatever you want’. There was only one person left. Aram walked on her knees towards Maru. She also dragged Jiyoon with her. She glanced at Maru, who was covering his ears with his hands.

“…What are you going to do?”

“We’re gonna decide that now.”

“Ah, my head. Daemyung, I give up. Do whatever you want. I’ll do whatever you tell me to.”

“Yes!”

Aram raised her fist in victory.

* * *

Bangjoo became fired up at the word festival. He thought that it would be fun to prepare for the festival with his friends. Since he was in the acting club, he wondered if they were going to do a play.

Just then,

“Ahn Bangjoo.”

Maru-seonbae, who had rolled all the way towards him, sat up and spoke to him.

“Let’s have a smo… I mean, some drinks outside. Daemyung, I’ll go buy something to eat with Bangjoo.”

“Okay. Oh, what about money?”

“It’s fine.”

Bangjoo followed Maru out of the classroom. They walked down the central staircase to the 1st floor. The corridor was empty. He was familiar with this scene now.

“Do you like festivals as well?”

“I do. It’s a festival after all.”

“I see.”

“You don’t like it, seonbae?”

“Well, I neither like it nor dislike it.”

He bought a canned drink from the vending machine in front of the school cafeteria. It was a chocolate drink. He drank a sip before running across the corridor to leave the school building when Maru asked,

“Have you talked with your sister?”

Bangjoo stopped running and looked back at Maru. He could somewhat understand what he was talking about.

“Yes, I have.”

“I was worried because I might have interfered between you two unnecessarily. After all, I did interfere with another’s household matters unintentionally.”

“Not at all. I don’t think of it like that. Isn’t the fact that you are paying attention to us and worrying for us a sign that you’re treating us as important people? It was good because I could have a proper talk with my sister. We got to know that we haven’t exactly told each other a lot about ourselves.”

“Really? That puts me at ease then.”

Bangjoo faintly smiled and watched as Maru walked ahead of him. He truly felt thankful. To both his sister and to himself, the events that occurred that day was a memory that both of them did not want to look back at. When his sister talked about the events that happened on that day, Bangjoo, though he didn’t even know why, sighed in relief. For the first time, his sister told him what happened that day. Bangjoo got to listen to what kind of vulgarities she had to endure as a woman. It was frustrating and heart wrenching to listen to, but her sister just talked about it calmly. Whether it was before or now, she was a strong woman.

His sister was worried that the events that happened that day might have traumatized him and consequently turned him into someone that unintentionally raised his voice. She was also worried that he might be forcing himself to smile. Bangjoo didn’t think that was the case, but when he looked back in retrospect, he thought that that might indeed have happened. Although he looked like he was showing his frank emotions, he might have been covering everything up below that smile of his. When they did the one-man act at the café before, Miso had told him that his emotions were dull.

Regarding that, Bangjoo decided to think about it as well. Although he wasn’t dissatisfied with his current personality, he did want to fix it if his true self was suppressed by the bad memories that happened that day. He didn’t like leaving things alone that he knew were wrong.

“Do you have anything you want to eat?” Maru, who was walking ahead, asked after turning around.

Bangjoo replied with a smile.

“Dumplings.”

* * *

“But she really did get into a fight about something trivial.”

Hearing Aram’s words, Jiyoon tilted her head and looked at her. Fight? What was this about?

“Oh, you weren’t there because you were running an errand. Two of the girls got into a fight during lunchtime. People started watching them since they were bored, but what a spectacle that was. They were fighting over something like ‘this oppa and that oppa aren’t on good terms’ or something.”

“What do you mean?”

Daemyung, who had been quietly listening all this time, asked.

“Seonbae, do you know a group called The Five?”

“Is that a singer band?”

“Well, an idol group to be specific. I overheard some of the girls in class talking about them, but apparently they went separate ways because something happened in their group. They started fighting over who’s right and who’s wrong. One of them is actually the quiet kid in class, but seriously, it was no joke. Though, they did shut up after seeing that they grabbed everyone else’s attention.”

“Ah, I think I saw that on TV as well. I heard that the lawsuit was over or something. Though, I don’t know the specifics.”

Jiyoon was also aware of the group ‘The Five’. They were a popular idol band made up of 5 people, and they broke up recently. It was big news in the entertainment media, so she also knew the general gist of the situation.

“As far as I know, they broke up because they had some trouble with the agency,” Jiyoon spoke.

“With the agency?”

Daemyung looked at her. Perhaps he had gotten interested. Jiyoon remembered the magazine article that she once read.

“I briefly read it from a magazine, but apparently they are breaking up because of unfair contracts or something.”

“They got into a fight with the agency? Those girls were fighting over which oppa was in the wrong or something like that. That’s strange,” Aram spoke as she narrowed her eyebrows.

“Well, I think that’s because some of them decided to stick with the agency and some of them decided to leave. I think it was ‘Soul’ that some of the members were going to. I think that’s what you’re talking about. The team did split up.”

“I see now.”

Aram nodded her head.

“You’re quite… knowledgeable. Do you like idols?” Daemyung asked in a careful voice.

Jiyoon quickly shook her head.

“No! I don’t! I just came across the article by chance. I mean it.”

“Hey, if you don’t like idols, you don’t like idols. Why go so far to make excuses? It’s as if you’re conscious about someone. Pfft.”

Aram covered her mouth and laughed. Jiyoon became teary-faced when she saw that Aram had a playful smile. Although she was a good friend, she felt flustered whenever she acted like that. Last time, she had even pushed her back saying that she should confess. Although she had told her to stop, Aram looked like she was still looking for opportunities to strike. She was thankful that Aram was supporting her, but she still didn’t have the courage to confess just yet.

Jiyoon glanced at Daemyung. She wondered if he was disappointed in her. Fortunately, Daemyung just smiled like his usual self and replied ‘I see’. Seeing that, Jiyoon forgot about the people around her and stared at Daemyung for a while.

“Ehem!”

Aram coughed. Jiyoon was startled and turned around to see Aram. Dowook, who was sitting next to Daemyung, squinted and looked at her. The always cold-looking mouth curved upward slightly. It was an ominous smile. The reason it felt all the more ominous was because Aram and Dowook looked at each other and nodded their heads at the same time.

“Aram.”

“Yes, seonbae.”

“Should we get a drink as well?”

“Sounds good!”

Then, the two abruptly stood up. Jiyoon quickly shook her head while grabbing onto Aram’s pants. She was clearly telling them not to go, but Aram just flicked her hand off and turned around.

“A romantic time between the two of you.”

Those words hit Jiyoon’s ears. Even Dowook, who didn’t like playing along with pranks usually gave a thumbs up as he left. Daemyung was just reading the notes he was always looking at during break time, so he didn’t catch them leaving.

“Huh? What about the others?”

Daemyung raised his head and asked.

“B-b-both of them left.”

“Wh-what?”

“……”

“……”

Jiyoon didn’t know where to look. Was she supposed to look at Daemyung? Or the ceiling? Or the floor? Then, her eyes met Daemyung’s. Daemyung’s ears had turned bright red. That made Jiyoon’s heart flutter.

“U-uhm, seonbae.”

“Y-yeah?”

Jiyoon was reminded of Aram’s advice. Watching a movie together. She gulped and clenched her fist tightly. She thought that she should be able to say it since they were alone together.

“Would you like to-!”

At that moment, the back door suddenly opened. The one that showed up was Maru. He was holding a plastic bag in each hand. Jiyoon was well aware that she shouldn’t resent him, and that Maru did nothing wrong, but she still ended up looking at him with resentment. Bangjoo, who was following in, also flinched and stopped on the spot.

Jiyoon felt as though time had stopped. She moved her eyes and looked at Daemyung. This clueless seonbae of hers was just looking at the food in Maru’s hands with a happy face. Seeing that, Jiyoon was a little angry. Right now, she felt like she could tell him ‘idiot’ straight to his face.

“Why are you just standing there? Oh, and what’s that?”

Daemyung asked. His voice was slightly excited.

“This? Uh, dumplings.”

“Dumplings? Kimchi dumplings or meat dumplings?”

“Both. Uh, but, hm…”

“What is it?”

“I feel like I’ve sinned. Wait a sec.”

Maru slowly closed the door. Jiyoon’s jaws were agape. She was sighing.

[1] She’s talking about her martial arts, which according to c214, she did Taekwondo, Judo and Kendo.

Chapter 319

Receiving the glare of others didn’t feel that good. Especially if that other person was a junior. Normally, Maru would look straight back and ask what was the problem, but he could only avoid her gaze for now. The entire cause was him.

‘I became a mindless old fool who decided to interrupt the business between two youths.’

Maru glanced at Jiyoon as he took a bite out of a piece of dumpling. She was pouting and was biting little pieces off the pickled radish. They met eyes just now and she had something akin to resentment in her eyes. Maru felt like he was sitting on a chair made of needles. When he opened the door, Jiyoon was about to say something to Daemyung with a flushed face. He just had to interrupt at that moment, so saying anything would be just an excuse.

“The dumpling is good. Where did you get them?”

Maru glared at Daemyung who obliviously just talked about dumplings. Seeing him stuff his cheeks with dumplings and drown himself in happiness, he felt even more sorry towards Jiyoon. It seemed that this guy didn’t even know what kind of situation he was in just now.

Someone sighed. Maru was sure that it was Jiyoon without even looking.

“Daemyung, are they good?”

“Yeah.”

“I see. You should eat some more then.”

He wanted to say something, but he couldn’t because he saw Jiyoon’s prickly glare. Maru made a bitter expression and spoke to Aram who was enjoying dumplings as well.

“You should have guarded outside.”

“We didn’t know you’d be back so early. We just went to get some drinks. No wait, if you saw that something was happening when you opened the door, you should have closed it immediately.”

“Our eyes already met, so it would be even stranger if I just closed the door without saying anything.”

“Anyway, it’s all your fault.”

Aram pouted as well. She looked like the sandcastle she painstakingly built had just been washed away by a wave. Of course, the wave was Maru. Maru scratched his eyebrows.

“Since it’s like this, let’s redeem it through the festival.”

“The festival?”

Aram made a suspicious smile.

“Daemyung-seonbae. Have you decided on what to do for the festival?”

“No, not yet. I was planning to talk about it with you right now. If you have anything you want to do, please go ahead and speak.”

“We’re the acting club, so of course we have to do a play. Why don’t we give it a twist and do a play with a lot of ad-libbing?”

“A lot of ad-libbing?”

“Yes. Doesn’t that sound fun?”

“Well. If there’s no storyline, doing a drama at all will be hard. If we’re going to do a play, we should decide on the main storyline at least.”

“Nah, it’s a festival we’re talking about. It’s not a proper play but something we can all have a laugh over. How about it? Doesn’t it sound fun?”

Aram poked with her elbow. She was signalling Maru to help her out. Having no choice, Maru decided to speak.

“We should just decide on an ending and see how things go. How about it?”

“Really? Are you okay with that? Just because we’re the acting club doesn’t mean we have to do an act at all. If you have anything you want to do, then you should talk about it.”

It seemed that Aram had already signalled everyone as everyone said that an act would be good. Jiyoon also nodded.

“If everyone’s okay with it, then let’s go with a play. We don’t have that much preparation time, so we shouldn’t do anything too difficult.”

“We should do a romance!”

“A ro… mance?”

“Yes. It’s a festival, so there’s no need for tragedies. How about Romeo and Juliet?”

“That’s a tragedy though…”

“It’s fine because it’s an ad-lib. Please, please?”

Maru said ‘that sounds decent’. He could see what Aram was thinking. This was a scheme that was known to everyone but Jiyoon and Daemyung. Aram continued her story with an excited face. It was already turning into a ‘how to tease them perfectly’ rather than ‘how to tie them properly’, but it was the results that were important after all. As long as it went as she said, the two would definitely become closer.

“Let’s decide on roles now. Also, you should make a general plot. And then we should do the act! Sounds good, doesn’t it?”

“Al-alright. Everyone seems okay with it.”

“Then Jiyoon is Romeo and Daemyung-seonbae is Juliet.”

“What?”

“Isn’t it the opposite? No wait, why am I Romeo in the first place?”

Only Daemyung and Jiyoon objected to that. Of course, the rest stayed silent since it was what they had agreed upon. It seemed that USS Aram had departed the port and couldn’t be returned. Aram was at the helm, so he decided to let it be for now.

“You did things like crossdressing competitions in middle school, didn’t you? Our school did. Did you not?”

“I guess that happened.”

“See? Just an ordinary boring play is no fun. Since it’s a festival, let’s twist things up.”

“But me as Juliet is a little…”

Daemyung smiled awkwardly as he spoke. At the same time, he was sending a desperate plea for help to Maru. His eyes were saying something along the lines of ‘help me’ or ‘save me’. Maru slowly turned away his head.

This is all for your own good.

Daemyung flinched and looked at Dowook next, but there was no way Dowook would help. Jiyoon was just looking into nowhere with a face that looked like she had given up. At that moment, Aram whispered into her ears, and Jiyoon’s expression slowly brightened up. Although the confusion was still there, it seemed that she had accepted it somewhat.

“I’m… fine with it.”

One of the main characters ended up accepting the role. Maru looked at Daemyung. The flow was unstoppable and Daemyung ended up accepting.

“Yes!”

Though, the one that was the happiest was Aram.

* * *

“Have a safe trip back home!”

“See you tomorrow.”

They scattered in front of the school gates. After watching some of the members walk towards the bus stop, Maru got on his bike. He had to do some grocery shopping before going home. Today, pork neck was on sale. Making some kimchi-jjigae out of it would last two days at least.

“What is it?” He braked as he answered a call. It was from Bada.

-Oppa.

That ‘oppa’ was spoken in a nasal voice. It was clear that she had a request.

“Snacks?”

-Yeah. Potato ones.

“I’ll buy them, so clean up the house for me.”

-Alright.

Just as he was about to start biking again after the call, his phone started ringing again. He thought that it might be Bada and put his ears against the phone. However, the voice belonged to a man.

-Can you take a call right now?

“Ah, yes. Byungchan-hyung.”

It was his manager Byungchan.

-Are you at home right now?

“No. I’m going back from school right now. We had practice.”

-I see. Which school did you go to again?

“Woosung Engineering High.”

-Then can you wait there for a moment? I’ll go pick you up.

“What’s this about?”

-Writing a standard contract. I hear that it’s not usually written, but the drama production company said that you should write a contract perhaps because of the president of our company. You just need to read the contract and sign it. It’s nothing complex, so it won’t take that long.

“How about you sign it in my…”

-That’s not good! Contracts are very important. It involves money, so you’ll be in big trouble if you have someone else do it. You should read them through carefully or else you’ll receive damages when you grow up. I’m giving you advice as someone who’s been in society longer than you.

“Okay then. I’ll be waiting in front of the school.”

-Okay.

Maru smiled as he hung up. He just probed him out to see how much he should share with this man. Although this might seem petty of him, Maru liked the fact that Byungchan tried to maintain basic principles. He was a reliable man as a partner that overlooked his business. As for his personality, Maru had seen enough in the Gukbap restaurant before, so he thought that he could ease his guard somewhat around him.

He turned around on his bicycle and returned to the school. Beneath the darkening skies, the school was a lot quieter than during the day. It would be noisy once again once tomorrow arrived. After he waited around 10 minutes while saying goodbyes to some of the teachers that left at this hour, a sedan with its headlights on stopped on the side of the road. It was Byungchan’s car.

“I’m late, aren’t I?”

“No. I didn’t wait for that long.”

Byungchan was wearing a hoodie and jeans and looked as tired as always. Maru got in the passenger seat.

“I had to drive around all day because of someone’s photoshoot, so I’m kinda tired.”

“You should’ve come tomorrow if it wasn’t anything urgent.”

“Nah. It’ll be easier for me to sleep at night if I get things done today. Here, read this for now.”

Maru took out the contract form within the envelope. It was only a single page, and it mentioned the involved parties, his payment per episode, his payment date, as well as a couple of lines of things he had to keep in mind. Since he was like a minor role that was more like an extra, the contract was simple as well. He could understand what Byungchan meant when he said it’s not usually written. He signed the two copies of the contract with his name in block letters at the bottom.

“Have you read over it carefully?”

“Yes.”

“Then give it to me. I’ll send it over to them tomorrow. This one’s for you.”

Maru received the contract and put it inside his bag.

“Anyway, congratulations. I guess it’s your first contract[1].”

“That’s true.”

“You can’t ignore small contracts like this, because in the drama industry, actors are given a grade. If you join through open recruitment, then you’ll receive a grade immediately, but if you don’t, then these contracts are the basis of your grading. Right now, you have no tier, so you’ll only receive 50 thousand won per episode, but once you get a grade 6, your payment will multiply. If your grade rises and you get more experience, more and more people will look for you to hire as minor roles.[2]”

Byungchan, who excitedly talked about it for a while, made a bitter smile. He, an aspiring actor himself, was explaining to him about actor-related work while working as his manager, so he must be feeling very complicated inside. Maru didn’t say anything until Byungchan had enough time to calm himself down.

“Oh yeah, have you had dinner?”

“Have you?”

“Not yet.”

“Then let’s eat something then.”

“Shall we?”

“You should take out the company card at times like these, right?”

Byungchan made a satisfied smile. Maru messaged Bada that he might be a little late. Protecting a hard-working youth’s wallet was much more important than delivering some snacks for his sister. Byungchan hummed as he started the car.

* * *

“Snacks!”

“Here.”

He threw a pack of chips at his sister who rushed to the door as soon as he entered the house. Fortunately, she wasn’t annoyed or anything. She hugged the pack of chips like a bear would hug a honey pot and started eating it in front of the TV. After saying ‘you’ll gain weight’ in a small voice, Maru went inside his room. As he couldn’t just watch Byungchan eat without eating anything himself, he also ate a bowl of Soondae-Gukbap. He lied down on his bed feeling full and dazed out for a while before standing up again. His sister’s voice had gotten disturbingly loud.

He opened the door and looked at the living room. In front of the TV, his sister was calling someone. He perked his ears because he wondered if she was calling Dowook.

“No way.”

His sister looked quite agitated. Maru had a look at what was on the TV. It was talking about some news in the entertainment industry. After the host’s comment was over, the screen switched. There were a lot of journalists on screen as it seemed to be some press meeting.

He read the text on the top right. ‘The Five’s slave contract rumors - what’s the truth?’ was written on it. Idols? Now that he thought about it, Aram did mention something about The Five or whatnot. It seemed to be one of the topics that the four of them talked about after he and Bangjoo left to buy some dumplings.

“Who’s the bad one? Do the oppas have a problem?”

Are all the idols in the world oppa to you?

Maru quietly sat on the sofa behind Bada. At the table at the front were three men, and behind them was a banner that said ‘Soul Ent’. The journalists flashed their cameras at the three people that looked solemn. The speaker told the audience that the scene was from a press meeting that was held during the day.

“What’s happening?”

“Huh?”

Bada turned around. She seemed surprised that her brother was interested in this at all.

“Do you know those uhppas, oppa?”

She pronounced ‘those oppas’ with a weird pronunciation that was neither ‘o’ nor ‘uh’. Was this her way of acting cute?

“No. I’m just curious.”

Bada looked like it was Maru’s fault for not knowing who they were. Though he could ask Bada the same thing about knowing who the leader of the ruling political party was and he’d probably give her the same look.

“They’re called The Five. They’re the only idols that can compare with TTO oppas. Aah, they were cool.”

“But what, did a problem occur?”

His sister hung up after telling the other party that they should talk later. She seemed somewhat serious. Was she the president of their fan club or something?

“There is a problem. A big problem.”

“A bigger problem than your grades?”

“Do you want to die?”

“Sorry. So what’s it about?” Maru asked his sister for some explanation.

[1] Drama appearance contract. Not the first contract in his life. As for the movie, his company was the one handling that.

[2] Read the translator's thoughts for more details. But basically, 6 is the lowest grade you can get as an adult (1~5 for child actors, 6~18 for adult actors).

Chapter 320

“A slave contract,” Bada spoke as she raised her eyebrows. She seemed very upset.

“What is it about exactly?” Maru raised the TV volume as he asked.

The reason he was interested in political stories was because it was closely tied to everyday life. What kinds of new laws were passed, what kinds of bills were proposed, as well as what happened - as a citizen of the country he could not help but be interested. The same could be said about the entertainment industry as well. If it was before, he would have just looked at it and thought nothing of it. After all, it was a world he wasn’t involved with. However, right now, he was more closely related to the entertainment industry than politics. If a provocative word such as ‘slave’ was used for a story, then it would be better if he knew about it.

“Oppa. How much do you think a popular idol earns?”

“A lot, probably.”

“I thought so too, but it turns out, that’s not true.”

At that moment, a handsome-faced singer in front of the mic started speaking.

-First, we apologize to all the fans for worrying you.

The three of them stood up and took a deep bow as an apology. A round of flashes burst out again. The man seated in the middle spoke in a heavy voice.

-We, The Five, have endured until now thanks to the love of our fans. Many things have happened, but we have endured while thinking about the fans that looked after us and cheered for us. However, we couldn’t do that anymore. First, we will clear up the situation at hand. The reason we, The Five, split up, is not because of disharmony between the members. It is because of the unfair contract we signed with the agency.

The screen switched to the news studio again. Next to the host was a man in a suit, who seemed to be a legal advisor.

-Yes, that was from the press meeting that occurred this morning. Sir, what is the precise cause of this incident?

-According to the revealed contract, there are a few clauses that are problematic. The first is the clause that states that the singer has to tell the company his position at all times and must be able to be reached by phone. The second is the clause that states that the singer must participate in events the company wants without compensation. There are more, but these two clauses seem to be what triggered this incident.

-Ah, so there’s a clause that states that they have to participate in events for free.

-Yes, while it does state that the event has to be company-related events and events that are aimed at advertising the singer, the interpretation is vague. After all, you can say that every event is related to the company.

-So that means that while they may hold activities as public singers, they will not get paid for their activities.

-In an extreme case, yes.

After listening to the two speaking, Bada looked at him as though she was saying ‘isn’t it serious?’ Maru nodded his head. He did hear from the news that an idol boom was about to begin. It seemed congested even now, but more and more people from the younger generation were joining anyway. It must have become a red ocean in an instant, consequently leading to free human resources, naturally leading to the fact that people lowered their own value to sign a contract. Going beyond that, there might be instances where they would even have to sign an unfair contract.

“The reason we go to their concerts and cheer for them is for them to do well, not for the company behind them to fill their stomach. But now, I found out that only a tiny sliver of the money went to the oppas in the first place. A friend of mine is a fan of The Five, and she told me that she’ll go to a riot in front of the company building. It looks very serious.”

Bada went to his room before calling out to him that he should come.

“Look at this.”

On the monitor was The Five’s official fan café. On the main page was a very ominous-looking line considering the circumstances. ‘We Have To Protect Them’. Below that line was a map and it seemed to be the location of The Five’s agency. Gathering at 7 p.m. There were already over 100 comments that said that they would participate.

“Are you going as well?”

“No. I would have if it was TTO that was like this.”

She was quite cold-minded when it came to things like this. They returned to the living room. There was one more person on the news. The new man seemed to be a journalist. The three of them discussed in depth about this incident.

-So there’s a possibility that unfair contracts between agencies and entertainers might come to the surface.

-I can’t say that for sure.

It was a sensitive topic, so the news host did not ask anymore. Maru sympathized deeply when the journalist said that he couldn’t be sure. It was unexpectedly difficult to scrape out the dead flesh. That was because the dead flesh was always in contact with living flesh. Just deciding on how much to scrape out would take ages. Above all, the pressure on the singers that would leave their agencies was too heavy. While they were still under a contract, they at least got some form of compensation. They might think that little was better than nothing, and while they kept thinking that way, no one would be brave enough to go against their agencies.

“Is Soul Entertainment the agency behind The Five?”

“No, that place seems to be the new company that those three oppas signed a contract with. They get much better treatment there, apparently. There’s no slave contract either.”

“Really? Then the two others are remaining behind in their old company?”

“Probably.”

“But why?”

“I don’t know that much. That’s causing an issue in itself. The Five is supposed to be made up of five people, but now they split up into three-two.”

“They said that it wasn’t due to the disharmony between members, but maybe they actually had a big fight?”

“Those oppas have a really good relationship though.”

“Have you seen them?”

“…No.”

“Then you don’t know for sure.”

“Forget it! You don’t even know them.”

Maru shut his mouth because his sister looked at him coldly. She was scary. He felt like a remote would be hurled at his face if he said any more. Maru narrowed his eyes and looked at the TV. The problem came down to exclusivity contracts in the end. Entertainers could only work through the medium that was their agencies. To put it a bit bluntly, they were the companies’ puppets.

“Are you okay though?”

Bada quietly asked. Her eyes were glued to the TV though. Maru wondered if she was worried about him.

“I’m fine. There weren’t any clauses like that in the contract I signed.”

“If you say so. That’s fortunate.”

“You mean your credit card is?”

“Hey! And here I was worried about you!”

“I’m saying it because it doesn’t suit you. It gives me goosebumps.”

Maru threw a cushion at his sister before standing up. Although he said those words, he was thankful for her. After all, he had thought of her as an immature kid until now.

“Wait, have you done your homework?”

“Ah, that’s right!”

Bada turned off the TV and ran into her room. It seemed that no matter how much she liked those idol oppas, they seemed to be insignificant compared to her homework. Having entered his room, Maru searched ‘The Five’ on the internet. As expected of an idol in their peak of popularity, they took the first through third most searched terms right now. Websites, cafés, and blogs were all talking about stories about The Five.

Browsing through websites, Maru stopped on one. It was an anonymous community, and the writer was supporting the agency. The writer went into detail about the costs associated with creating a 5-man idol band.

-The agency has to take care of the costs of idol consulting fees that may reach hundreds of millions of won. If the idol does not succeed, that becomes the company’s debt. While it is true that the agency ‘Alt’ has signed a malicious contract, honestly speaking, it makes me enraged looking at The Five’s actions when they betrayed the efforts and affection that the company gave them to raise them until now. Advertising costs, education costs, living costs, as well as everything else was probably handled by the company, but they didn’t say anything while they received all those benefits, but now they want equal treatment because they grew up a little? If they really wanted equal treatment, they should have shared the costs starting from their trainee days. But those kinds of trainees don’t exist.

It was a complex matter indeed. There was a need to think about the effects that this incident might bring to his contracts.

Maru took out the contracts he put inside his drawer. He read them over from the beginning once again. Fortunately, all of the clauses included the statement that the involved parties may negotiate again on the contract, so there wasn’t anything that seemed to be a problem.

It could be seen just how much Lee Junmin cared about his own people from this contract. In fact, there were some statements that seemed disadvantageous to the company. The contract period was two years, and it could be dissolved at any moment during that time. Compared to the ten-year slave contract that was mentioned on the news, this was a golden contract.

‘Providing the best treatment to his own people, huh.’

As expected of a man who chucked 300 million won to a mere high school student. To Junmin, money was just a convenient means of achieving what he wanted, nothing more, nothing less. Although he was doing business in order to earn money, it felt like he was giving it all back to the people under him rather than piling it up.

The movie, Twilight Struggles, was also something that was hard to expect any profit out of, yet JA Production, the investor and producer of the movie hired superstar-level actors. Some of the articles he read after his shoot said that the movie will never break even. Although the level of investment into the movie was commercial movie-level, the contents were definitely not suited for commercial use after all.

‘Now that I think about it, I really should make a visit.’

He was reminded of the kind smile of the elder. Since it had been quite some time since the shoot ended, it should be fine to make a visit. He put the contracts back into his drawer and lied down on his bed. He closed his eyes and waited until he became sleepy. Just then, his phone that was on the desk vibrated once. He had received a message.

He really couldn’t be bothered, but he still yawned and sat up. He would be really dissatisfied if it was some advert. He checked the message. It was from Jiseok.

-Maru. Chaerim-noona wants to know your number! Should I tell her?

Chaerim? He wondered who that was for a moment before he remembered that it was the girl idol he saw during the drama shoot. But why so suddenly? Maru called Jiseok. Jiseok picked up immediately.

-So you’re a boy after all.

“Stop with your nonsense. What’s this about phone numbers.”

-Noona wants to say thanks.

“At this hour?”

-I just met her. She’s next to me right now. She’s thankful for what you did back then.

“Oh that. Tell her to forget about it. I never did anything that would warrant thanks from her. In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if she said bad things about me.”

-Eh? Are you not going to tell her your number? She’s an idol you know? From the popular idol group BLUE.

“And what good is that to me? Since you said you’re next to her, tell her that she doesn’t need to feel thankful. Ah, just tell her to not resent me too much during shoots. She’s one of the main characters after all.”

-What, that’s it?

“What else do you want?”

-Really, that’s it?

“We exchanged greetings, that’s enough. I’m hanging up then.”

-Hey! I said Chaerim-noona is right next to me!

“Good for you, there’s an idol noona next to you.”

He still had a loud voice as always. Maru yawned and switched his phone to silent.

* * *

“He hung up,” Jiseok said with a bright smile.

If it was anyone else, he would have told her the number without even asking, but from what he knew of Maru’s personality, it was obvious that he would not be okay with that so he asked first. However, he didn’t know that he would hang up without even listening to Chaerim’s voice even once. Although he did feel a little sorry for Chaerim-noona who stood next to him, he found this situation interesting. Being involved with Maru was always fun.

“He hung up?”

“Yes. And he told me to tell you that you don’t need to feel thankful and that you shouldn’t resent him too much during shoots.”

“That’s it?”

“You’re not upset, are you?”

“Why would I be?”

“Or disappointed?”

“Not really. I just tried to call him because it leaves a bad aftertaste. If he doesn’t need it, then that’s that.”

Chaerim yawned slightly and leaned backwards.

Jiseok licked his lips seeing that her reaction was very dry. He wanted to see something much more dramatic, but reality said no. Jiseok got out of the car. They were doing a night shoot right now, but it was halted due to a sudden interruption from some drunk people. The safety guard was trying to push the two away, but the two drunkards did not leave and just kept shouting. The production staff seemed to have gotten pissed as they even called for the police.

“Fuaam.”

He yawned before stretching his arms out. The drama shoot wasn’t as fun as he had expected. He was a comedic character that hung around the main characters, so the acting itself was quite fun, but the waiting time was too long. Jiseok had a hard time enduring this time where he had nothing to do but stare into the sky. It would be great if there was someone he could play with, but Chaerim was sleeping inside the car like someone who was tired of everything.

“Sir, please get up.”

He saw some policemen that appeared in patrol cars trying to console the drunkards. They had a hard job. He inwardly cheered for them. After the drunkards went away, the shoot began again. This was a scene where the poor heroine was taken shopping. Chaerim, who was sleeping inside the car, had a scene right after this one where she came across the other main characters inside the store. That scene would be quite something to look at because there was a kiss scene. It was unknown if they could enter the store to shoot, but if they could, they would achieve their objective for today.

Jiseok looked at the jimmy jib camera filled with expectation when the door opened and Chaerim got out.

“Noona, there’s still time until your shoot.”

“I had a sore waist.”

“Aha.”

Chaerim crossed her arms and looked at the street where the shoot was currently happening. She seemed bored.

“But hey.”

Chaerim, who looked like she wouldn’t speak, opened her mouth.

“Yes?”

“Is he going to be the class president in the future?”

“You mean Maru?”

“I don’t know his name, but yeah, that kid. Is he going to be the class president?”

“Yes, I think so.”

“I see.”

Chaerim nodded slightly before getting in the car again. Jiseok narrowed his eyes and looked at Chaerim who started sleeping again.

Chapter 321

“The Montagues and the Capulets, two rival households in the city of Verona. A fated couple is born between them. That’s right, it’s the Romeo and Juliet that you all know. Romeo Montague, Juliet Capulet, and their tragic love that came from a misunderstanding. However, we don’t like tragedies that much, so we decided to change it into something a bit different. And with that, let us call Romeo and Juliet to this very stage right now. We hope the next thirty minutes will be a fun time for everyone.”

He slid his left leg backwards and took a bow. His right arm was on top of his bellybutton. He stayed in that position for about three seconds before raising his head again.

“I’ll do that as an introduction. It will be boring if I do it for too long.”

“Wow, you look really different, seonbae.”

Aram applauded. Maru shrugged before sitting down. They had started practicing Romeo and Juliet, the adlib version thanks to Aram’s suggestion. As they couldn’t ad-lib everything from beginning to end, they decided to practice just the crucial parts of the play.

“I’ll go out from time to time as the narrator. It’s an ad-lib after all.”

“Okay.”

The director of this play naturally became Aram. Daemyung had stepped back as well. There was no strict practice since this was a play where they should enjoy themselves. They just prepared the play when they had time left over after practicing for the competition.

“We got permission. 1 hour in the hall. There’s the applied music club’s performance right after so we have to pull out quickly after we’re done.”

Taesik entered through the front door and handed out drinks as he spoke.

“What time?”

“From 12 to 1.”

“That’s lunchtime though.”

“Other than that, there’s no time available. If we do it in the school field, we might have more freedom, but that sounds a little difficult, doesn’t it?”

“We can do the play wherever we like other than the hall, right?”

“No. The entrances of the buildings are for showcasing the prizes our school won over the years. I think the good places and good time slots are already taken by other clubs through a lottery.”

Hearing that, Aram abruptly stood up.

“I didn’t hear anything like that! What do you mean, a lottery?”

“The student council should have put up a notice before. On the noticeboard for the 2nd years.”

Aram rushed out the back door. Her loud footsteps could be heard from the classroom. After a while, she came back with a depressed expression.

“I think it’s already set in stone.”

“Probably. Well then, what do we do? We did get permission to use the hall, but if you don’t like the time slot, I guess we can’t help it. I did have a hard time getting it, but lunchtime is no good after all, right?”

Taesik made a bitter smile. Since the acting club, which was an eyesore among teachers, wanted to use the hall, he must have received quite a few glares during the teachers' meeting. He left after saying that they should tell him once they came to a decision.

“If we do it at lunch, no one will come to see us.”

“That’s true.”

After contemplating for a while, Aram spoke again.

“How about we do it on the school field?”

“The school field?”

Aram walked towards the window.

“The platform to the right of the school field. I think that’s a good place. It’s close to both the gym and the lab building. Also, we get school lunch on the day of the festival itself, right?”

“Probably.”

“Then everyone has to walk past that place at least once, so that looks like the best location. You did something similar at the beginning of the semester when everyone was going to get their lunch.”

Something similar. That referred to the event where Maru did a performance along with Daemyung and Bangjoo in order to attract new club members. Aram’s words sounded plausible. Considering how the students would move about, that location was definitely one of the important spots. The problem was that other clubs would be aware of this as well.

“They said that the main building and the lab building will be taken by the clubs that have applied for permission, so what does that mean for the school field? Do you think it’s first come first served on the day itself?”

Daemyung asked as he looked down on the school field. Maru was curious about this as well. Since it was a festival held by students, the student council should be the ones managing most of the things. Perhaps the school field was already planned out since there were plans for other places as well.

“I’ll go ask.”

Aram stood up this time as well. Today was Saturday, the 31st of July. As today was a half-day[1], there should still be some students at school. It was very likely that the student council was still here since it was only 3 in the afternoon.

“She’s hard-working. I guess we should help her out a lot.”

Daemyung made a smile of satisfaction. It seemed that he liked the fact that his juniors were enthusiastic about the club. Maru thought that Daemyung wouldn’t be able to cheer for her that much if he knew what her true objective was. After all, the more effort Aram puts into this, the bigger the level of panic that Daemyung and Jiyoon would have to go through.

“Moderately. Everything is good when it’s done moderately.”

Maru tapped on Daemyung’s shoulders. Daemyung looked confused. He would find out on the day of the festival itself.

“Seonbae!”

Aram came back and rushed in through the door. After panting for a while, she raised a fist in the air.

“We just have to win rock paper scissors!”

“Rock paper scissors?”

“Yes!”

After taking a deep breath, Aram explained the situation in detail.

“I went to the student council and asked, and they said that they’re dividing up the school field into different regions and are receiving applications for each area. I told them that we want the platform on the right, but there seems to be 7 other teams that want that spot. That’s why they decided they would hold a rock paper scissors match to decide who wins that spot,” Aram spoke in a proud voice.

“So, who’s going to do it?” Maru asked.

“For now, let’s hold one amongst ourselves.”

The club members gathered around. Then they held the first round of rock paper scissors. After a few repetitions, the winner was Jiyoon.

“I-I’m not good at this.”

“But you won though. Today is your lucky day.”

Aram grabbed Jiyoon’s arm. Jiyoon shook her head and pulled her arm out.

“I just won because of coincidence. Let’s try that again. Please?”

They had no choice but to do that again. This time, Daemyung won the overall match with rock.

“Uhm… I’m not really confident,” Daemyung spoke bitterly as well.

As they were actors in need of a stage, this was a sensitive topic. It was giving pressure to everyone because this rock paper scissors was going to decide that.

“Does it have to be that spot?”

“Yes!”

Aram spoke without hesitation. Maru sighed.

“Then do a match with me.”

“With you, seonbae?”

Maru looked into Aram’s eyes as he prepared to do a match of rock paper scissors. No speech bubble appeared above Aram’s head until the match finished.

“I won.”

“Then this time…”

Maru looked at Aram once more as he spoke.

“I’m going to go with rock.”

“Eh? Rock?”

“Yes.”

They raised their hands above their heads like last time. Aram smiled as though she found something interesting before hiding her hand behind her waist. At that moment, a speech bubble appeared above her head.

-He said he’s going with rock, but that means he’s going with scissors, right? Then I’m going with rock!

Maru lowered his hand in the still-clenched position. What appeared from Aram’s back was scissors. Aram twitched her eyebrows.

“Again.”

“I’m going to go with rock this time as well.”

“You’re not fooling me this time.”

Although she was saying that, her inner thoughts were clearly revealed in her head. Maru glanced at those speech bubbles and went with paper accordingly. Aram’s jaw slacked since she went with rock.

“Next, Dowook.”

“Why me?”

“I’m going to compare between different types of people.”

He used the same method on Dowook. Although a speech bubble appeared the first time, it did not appear the second time. It was useless unless the opponent was specifically thinking something related to ‘Han Maru’.

“Think about what you’re doing before doing it.”

“Alright.”

He easily won the next two matches. Dowook looked at him suspiciously.

“I saw on TV that what the opponent is going with can be predicted from the movement of their hands.”

“You can see that?”

“Somewhat.”

He couldn’t just rely on the speech bubbles so he prepared two methods. He was going to utilize his enhanced physical abilities as well. He would have to read the short moment before the opponent’s hand reached out and change his hand accordingly. Of course, this was just in case the speech bubble didn’t work. That was more of a gamble, so it shouldn’t work all the time.

He had matches with all the other kids as well. His win rate was around 70%. Although the number of samples was low, it was quite a decent win rate. He had finished learning their patterns as well. If it was just a single match, he couldn’t ensure that he would win the match. There were times when people just did the match without thinking which didn’t allow him to play mind games with them. However, his win rate would increase if it was a best of three. The more opportunities he had to talk with the opponent, the more likely his chances of winning.

“So, when are they doing it?”

“At four. Oh, it’s almost time.”

Maru followed Aram to the student council room on the 2nd floor. The council room was half the size of an ordinary classroom and had quite a lot of people. On the chalkboard was written ‘For a successful Woosung Festival’.

“The acting club?”

A male student suddenly asked.

“Yes.”

“Then I guess you’re all here. I’ll explain things then. We’re going to decide on your spots with rock paper scissors and there are eight options: the two side platforms on the school field, the main platform at the center of the school field, the spot between the main building and the school gates, right in front of the main building, in front of the lab building, and the back of the main building. There’s nothing wrong with that, right?”

It seemed that he was the student council president. Maru nodded his head. The others did the same.

“We’ll allocate the spots, but the festival begins at 9 in the morning and ends at 5 in the afternoon, so I hope you can give your place up to others that want the spot after your event is over. Not that you have to. Well then, it’s time for rock paper scissors.”

“It’s best of three matches, right?” Maru sneakily asked.

“Well, it’s up to you.”

The other students didn’t seem to have anything wrong with that either.

Maru looked at the girl in front of him. She was his opponent. He did feel a bit sorry though, since he was about to con her.

“Shall… we?”

She asked in a polite voice as she seemed to be a first year student. Maru nodded his head. The girl clasped her hands together and stared at it before leaning forward. It seemed she was ready.

“Uhm, you know?”

“Yes?”

“I’m going to go with scissors.”

“…Okay.”

Maru smiled.

* * *

“Anyone?”

She looked at the homeroom teacher who sighed as he looked for applicants. The school festival was next week. Just like last year, the class talent show was the problem. They had to create at least two teams per class. This ‘compulsory’ competition very much went against the ‘free’ festival.

“Anyone wanna sing up there? Let’s just get things done quickly and go home already.”

There was a reason why the afternoon homeroom wasn’t ending. No one wanted to go to the talent show. Last year, her classroom had a problem because there were too many participants, but this year, all the students in class were calm and composed and disliked doing such things. She was the same.

She looked outside the window. A truck full of audio devices ran across the school field towards the hall. It seemed that the school was planning to decorate the stage like last year.

“If there’s no one, we’ll go with a lottery.”

It came down to this. She sighed slightly. As the regional preliminaries were coming up, the acting club was practicing every day late into the night. She had no time to prepare anything else. She had to beg her president for the drama background role as well.

The class president, who sat at the very front, ripped off a piece of paper from a notebook and made enough pieces for each of the students. After that, the homeroom teacher said that they’ll pick 8 people and create two teams. He also said that it was up to the teams to decide what they wanted to do, whether it was singing, a performance, or a dance.

“Numbers 4, 7, 32, 23, 8, 16, 11, and 30. That’s that then.”

She held her number and sighed. Number 23 was her number. After telling the students to clean up the class well, the homeroom ended. At the same time, the 8 people whose numbers were called out were called once again. Everyone looked gloomy.

“I really don’t want to do this.”

“Me too.”

“This is horrible. We’re going to have to do this on the main stage in the hall like last year right? Wow, that drives me crazy.”

“I hate that homeroom teacher.”

Although they were complaining, they had no choice but to do it. The teacher was telling them to do it, so they didn’t have any choice.

“What should we do?” She asked.

None of the other classmates answered. It was almost time for her to go to practice. She couldn’t stay still forever.

“Anyone here can sing?”

No one raised their hand.

“How about dancing?”

It was still quiet.

She put her head against the desk. This kind of festival was the worst.

At that moment,

“Why does it feel like a funeral here?”

A voice tickled her ears. It was the voice of someone who she knew well. She raised her head. Chaerim was outside the classroom, waving her hand.

“Chaerim-seonbae.”

“So you were in this class. Aren’t you going to practice?”

“Eh? Ah, the thing is…”

She couldn’t say anything because she didn’t know how to explain. Meanwhile, the others around her exclaimed after seeing her.

“Noona, I’m a fan of yours.”

“Unni, me too!”

Although Chaerim went to the same school as them, opportunities to meet her were very rare. She could understand why her classmates were so ecstatic.

“Thanks. But what’s going on here? You guys don’t look good,” Chaerim asked with a smile.

She sighed in relief. The master of singing and dancing was right in front of her. Asking for her opinion was a good idea.

“Uhm, seonbae.”

“Yeah?”

“Have you ever gone to talent shows or something?”

“Talent shows?”

Chaerim approached them with an interested face.

[1] Students went to school on Saturdays as well around this time, and every two weeks, they would have a half-day for Saturday classes. This no longer exists now.

Chapter 322

They applauded and cheered. Watching her performance up close was definitely different than watching her through a screen. Chaerim, who showed off her latest song, shined like an actor who had just finished their stage. The perfectly in-pitch voice as well as her little shoulder movements that moved perfectly according to the cute rhythm made them realize why Chaerim was loved by everyone. Professionals who had experienced many stages were indeed different.

It felt like they watched a mini concert. They applauded Chaerim again as she took a deep breath.

“That’s the general feeling. You don’t have to create a perfect choreography or anything. It’s a festival, right? Don’t try to do too well, and just do what you can. It’s just for making memories, isn’t it?”

“But watching your performance makes me feel even worse. Why are you so good?”

“I’ve practiced for years, so of course I have to do well. But I don’t do things for a talent show. I think giving your friends a laugh on stage has its own value.”

She nodded her head. Perhaps she was under the impression that they had to do well. The school festival talent show wasn’t a place where the participants were judged. There was no need to get so pressured into doing well. Although it was a simple matter, none of them thought about it until Chaerim reminded them. Everyone just thought about what they had to do. Changing perspectives was very important.

“It’s nothing that counts towards your grades, so take it easy. Also, you four were doing a dance, right? I’ll give you a CD of mine that has recordings of my choreography. That should help.”

“Really? We’ll be really thankful if you do.”

One of the boys sighed in relief. Five of them, who thought that dancing was better than singing, decided to practice the dance, while she and two others decided to sing.

“Then have fun. I’ll give you the CD tomorrow.”

Chaerim waved her hand and left.

“She’s completely different from how I imagined her.”

“That’s true. She’s really kind. Everyone on the internet was talking about how she was only like that on the surface.”

“They all say that because they’re jealous. I know that that noona has a pretty heart just like her pretty face. Hmhm, yes of course.”

“That was the first time you talked to her though.”

They started giggling.

“But Bunbun, you know Chaerim-seonbae?”

“Yeah. She comes to the acting club sometimes to hang out.”

“Ah, that’s right. She’s on a drama, isn’t she? She’s good at acting too. I thought it might be cringey, but it’s not like that at all. She’s really good. Do you practice with her at the club or something?”

“No, she just comes around to give us some encouragement. She’s a thankful seonbae.”

“Wow, that’s really kind of her. Actually, I used to write bad comments about her, but I guess I’m going to delete them all tonight and spam that she’s an angel.”

She pinched her prankster friend’s cheeks before standing up.

“I’ll be taking my leave first. I have practice.”

“Okay, okay. Bunbun is busy, so she needs to go. Let’s practice singing on Monday. As for the dance, you five can take care of it by yourselves. Now we’re going our separate paths. Since it came to this, let’s do it, whether it becomes a comedy or a serious one.”

“We’re going to be the TTO of Myunghwa High, so you girls should be prepared for it.”

The five boys who decided to dance made a suspicious smile. It seemed that they had gained confidence thanks to Chaerim. She told everyone ‘see you on Monday’ before running towards the clubroom.

“Sorry for being late.”

“If you know you’re late then do some stretching immediately,” the club president spoke as she pointed at the floor.

The other club members had already arrived. She changed into her gym clothes in the changing room behind the clubroom.

“Cleaning after school?”

“No. The homeroom teacher told me I had to go on the talent show.”

“You applied for it?”

“I got picked through a lottery.”

“Tsk, I guess you’re going to be absent during practice then?”

“I’ll try to come here as soon as possible.”

“Forget it. It’s not like you’re bad enough that a day without practice would impact your skills. No wait, it’s two days, isn’t it?”

The club president narrowed her eyes and smiled. She laughed awkwardly and looked away.

“Learn a lot of things during your shoot. You’ve decided your future career on that path, haven’t you?”

“Yes.”

“But are you going alone?”

“Uhm… no,” she spoke as she remembered Maru’s face.

“That was a late answer. Tell me honestly. It’s a date, isn’t it?”

The club president approached her and whispered into her ears. She was startled and backed away. Thanks to the commotion, the other club members all looked at them.

“Go about your own business. Also, first years. Do you have time for this? Should we do some leg stretching?”

The first years started stretching since the club president was scary.

“What, I was planning to tease you, but it looks like I was right based on your reaction. Is it really a date? If so, you don’t have to hide it. You’ve done plenty of practice until now, so you can take a day off.”

“It’s not a date, seonbae. We’re really going to the drama shoot.”

“Re~ally? But why do I see that your ears have turned bright red?”

Hearing those words she quickly covered her ears.

“Well, I believe you since you’re not the type of person to lie, but it’s still suspicious. No, wait. Aha, you said it was a drama set, didn’t you? What drama is it?”

“Youth Generation.”

“The Youth Generation that your boyfriend appeared in?”

The club president nodded her head as though she understood everything and did not speak anymore. She explained to her that it was just a background appearance part time job since the club president looked like she had a big misunderstanding, but it didn’t work.

“This unni only has other girls to talk to at night, but our cute rabbit will be whispering love into her boyfriend’s ears, huh. If it goes well, don’t forget to introduce me to a good man later.”

The club president pretended to wipe away her non-existent tears as she spoke. This was what was bad about joking around with the acting club members. It all became a play. Her colleagues, who had approached the two, started teasing her along with the president. A plot for a drama was instantly created on the spot. She dazed out for a little and she had become a bad woman who was bullying the tragic heroine.

“I never wanted a daughter-in-law like you!”

“Madam! Please calm down!”

Seeing the prank go too far, she gave up and told them the truth. They were really unreasonable. But she didn’t feel offended or anything since they were just teasing her. They would apologize if she told them to stop seriously.

“Let’s get some snacks and eat it while watching the episode with her in it. It’s in two weeks.”

“That’s fine by me.”

She sighed and told them that she would buy those snacks.

“Then are you going to meet Chaerim as well?”

“I’m not sure. I only heard that I have to go there by 7 in the morning. It was originally 6, but it was delayed by an hour.”

“It’s that early?”

“Yes. I was surprised as well.”

“Well, I guess the hours of sunlight aren't that long.”

The club president clapped to get everyone’s attention.

“Well then. Let’s begin practice. Let’s do a run after I check the homework I gave to the first years. We’re going to do it until 10 in the evening, so bear that in mind. We should put our mind into this. Get yourselves ready.”

“Yes!”

She stretched her legs one final time before standing up. The club president no longer joked once they started practice. She would become a scary woman who would not accept a single mistake.

Phew - she took a deep breath before looking ahead.

* * *

It was 5 in the morning on a Sunday. The weight of his eyelids was considerable as it tried to close itself again. He looked at the blurred clock for a while until it became 5:01. Only when the number indicating the minute became three did Maru slowly sat up.

“Fuu.”

After slowly pushing away the blanket that covered his body, he got off his bed. The air wasn’t that cold even though it was early morning. There were signs of the weather getting warmer even though it just changed from July to August. Maru opened the door to his room and walked out. The living room was colored purple. He went to the kitchen and opened the refrigerator, and the compressor in the refrigerator started making noises.

He poured some cold water into a cup and drank it. The cold water went down his throat and cleared his mind. A bit of chilliness came along with a sigh, signifying that he was waking up.

“How tough.”

The road to being a wife-loving husband was long and rough. He did have a shoot today, at 10 am in Sangam High School. Although he didn’t have to wake up so early, he had to for today. It was all for her. She said that she would be fine by herself, but he did not want to send someone who had never even tried a part time job to a place with the scary leader and lots of other men by herself. Since she was in the 2nd year of high school, it could be said that she was grown up and capable of taking care of herself, but to Maru’s eyes, she was no different from a child. He couldn’t just let a child running towards the river be.

The kimchi-jjigae he put on the stove started boiling. Working early in the morning required a lot of energy. He also messaged her to have breakfast.

“You’re going out already?”

“Yeah. The kimchi-jjigae is still hot, so you can eat that. Oh, there’s the pickled green plums in the fridge that you like so much. Also, I think you should probably eat the squid in the fridge by today.”

“You’re like a housewife. Don’t worry about me and get going. Watch out for cars. You’re not coming back late, right?”

“I think it’s going to end early today.”

“Give me a call if you think you’re going to be late.”

“Yes yes, Mrs. Lee.”

As the supermarket had no holidays, it required his mother to work today as well. He told her indirectly that she could rest at home, but she firmly said that she wasn’t at the age yet. His mother wanted to work at least until Bada got married.

“I’ll get going then.”

He gave her a call as soon as he left his house. After around two rings, she answered.

“You up?”

-Of course.

“Aren’t you sleepy?”

-I am, fuam.

“Where are you now?”

-On the bus to Suwon station. What about you?

“I just left the house.”

-What the heck? Come quickly.

“Alright. Don’t doze off and miss the station.”

-Do you think I’m a kid?

You're still a kid in my eyes - he swallowed those words and hurried towards the bus station. The first bus of the day was coming through the morning fog. He got on the bus filled with people that started the morning to Suwon station. When he got off, the sun was rising. He walked inside the station as he looked at the sun that was crawling up behind the station.

“I’m here.”

“Quickly.”

She waved her hand from beyond the ticker barrier. He bought a ticket before going in.

“We still have plenty of time,” he spoke since she looked flustered.

Perhaps she was a little excited because it was her first part time job.

“Do we?”

“Yes. Have you eaten yet?”

“No,” she boldly spoke.

“I told you that you should have breakfast.”

“I thought I’d be late. Also, I’ll feel sorry if I wake mom up so early in the morning. She slept late last night because of editing her book.”

Maru sighed when she spoke like she had no choice.

“Follow me.”

He grabbed her hand and walked towards the convenience store in the station. He took out a bottle of warm soy milk from the warm drink storage right next to the counter. She liked sweet things, so he got a sweet flavor.

“Drink this.”

“I’m fine though.”

“It’s not fine at all.”

She nodded once before grabbing the bottle with both hands. A smile creeped up on her face after feeling the warmth from the bottle.

“Have you had breakfast?” She asked as she sipped the soy milk.

“I have. Food is energy after all.”

The train arrived just as she almost finished the drink. It wasn’t the rush hour yet so there were no problems getting on. Maru watched the scenery flashing outside for a while before turning around to see her. He saw the reason that made it worthwhile for him to wake up so early in the morning. She was dozing off as she tightly grabbed his hand. She was nodding off. An old lady who was sitting in front of her asked if she wanted a seat.

“It’s fine. We’re still young, and we shouldn’t take away your seat. Thanks for your consideration.”

Maru grabbed her by the arm and pulled her close. She flinched and opened her eyes.

“It hurts a lot if you fall over while dozing off.”

“……”

She silently looked up at him for a while before looking in front of her again. She hadn’t pulled her arm away from him. After yawning, she started dozing off again. She really needed a lot of sleep. It was almost a miracle that she woke up early. The train entered a tunnel. As there was a noise, she flinched and woke up again.

“We’re almost there.”

“Oh, okay.”

“You should wipe your drool.”

“Drool?”

She quickly wiped off her mouth with the back of her hand. After feeling a dry mouth, she looked at him with angry eyes. Maru shrugged.

They passed another two stations. It was time to get off now. There was a huge crowd outside the train. Indeed, line number two[1] during morning was hellish. The doors opened and before people even had time to get off, salarymen started rushing in. While Maru understood their feelings since they might not get the chance to get in… Maru saw that his girlfriend was being pushed back. She seemed flustered since this was the first time she experienced such a thing.

“Stay behind me.”

Maru barely got off the train with her at his back. One man, who was struggling to get in until the very moment the doors closed swore before turning around. She clicked her tongue as she looked at that.

“You’ll see that more once you get a job, so bear that in mind.”

“Really? I need to experience that every morning?”

“Sure you do.”

“Looks like I should get a car.”

“Don’t think that it’s easy if you have a car. Seoul in the morning is real hell.”

“Hmph, you sound knowledgeable. Have you experienced it yourself?”

“I have. A lot.”

She told him not to lie, but he just walked up the stairs with her. It was 6:30 in the morning. There was still plenty of time.

[1] Seoul’s line number two is indeed quite hellish during rush hours. It’s a circular line that passes most of the important points in Seoul. But I believe Suwon station is not on line number 2… Dunno what's happening there.

Chapter 323

She didn’t know when she started to not feeling awkward about holding hands. She looked at Maru’s back who was walking ahead. Although they sometimes walked side by side, there were many times when Maru walked ahead of her like this. She remembered the days where she went to Daehak-ro holding her father’s hands when she was young. She had to look upwards to see her dad’s back, and the sun shined on her face. The sensation of the hand that firmly gripped her hand felt vivid again.

At first, she felt embarrassed doing that and immediately walked up and walked next to him, but these days, she walked behind him comfortably. Maru walked without hesitation as he walked ahead while holding her hand, and while she relied on those steps, she was relieved of any worries she had. The worries that haunted her disappeared completely for that moment.

“Why are there so many people even though today’s a Sunday?”

“Because there are many people that go to work on a Sunday as well.”

“Really?”

“Mrs. Lee went to work as well. The subway was actually in a good condition. If it was Monday morning, we wouldn’t have been able to get off that easily.”

“Mrs. Lee?”

“My mom.”

They walked out of the station and walked along the streets. They saw the school far ahead of them on a hill. They had to walk up a gentle slope in order to get there. The four-lane road that headed up to the school was empty. Only a few blue trucks drove down from time to time. The scene was a drastic contrast from the subway station.

They walked past a single-floor building and walked up the hill. On the walls leading to the school, there were various paintings. There was a chubby caterpillar that had something in his mouth. After walking a few more steps, there was a dwarf holding a lot of hats. After that, there was a cute pig and a somewhat arrogant-looking lady.

“Alice, huh.”

The thing in the caterpillar’s mouth was a hookah if that was the case. She spoke as she looked at the queen of hearts, the soldiers, as well as Alice, who had a proud expression. Maru was also looking at the painting on the wall.

“So this was Alice, huh.”

“You just realized that?”

“I never paid attention to it. I also came here by car, so I didn’t have time to look.”

They climbed up the hill as they appreciated the paintings. The painting at the end was a picture of a rabbit wearing a tuxedo holding a pocket watch as well as the figure of Alice who was looking at it.

“It’s the rabbit you like so much,” Maru pointed at the rabbit as he spoke.

She looked at the rabbit holding a pocket watch as she walked. The other paintings were all depicted in a cute way but only the rabbit was depicted realistically. Its eyes were sharp as well. It was as though it was drawn by a different person.

“If you think about it, not many people hate rabbits, right?” Maru asked.

“Probably.”

“Is it because they have a cute image? Have you tried raising them before?”

“No, I wanted to, but mom said no. Though, to be exact, I gave up on it.”

“She probably told you to raise one when you can take responsibility for it, right?”

“How did you know that? Did you meet my mom in secret again?”

“No.”

Maru faintly smiled. She took her eyes off the rabbit and spoke,

“My mom allowed me to do most of the things I wanted to. The only exception was raising a pet. I can still remember. In my third year of middle school, I told her I wanted to raise a rabbit, I mean, it’s cute, right? But mom told me with a serious expression to sit down and asked me if I can take responsibility for it. When I was asked that question, I reflexively replied ‘yes’, but mom told me to think about it carefully again. Now that I think about it, she was a little scary back then.”

She looked at the tip of her trainers as she continued to speak.

“I think that was the first time mom told me to think about something instead of saying yes. It’s not that she said no. Think about it - that was her reply. I somehow thought that I shouldn’t be at ease back then and thought about it after I sat on my knees. Was there a problem with raising a small pet? But after I thought about it, I came to the conclusion that it’s not a simple thing where I can reply yes or no. It was pretty easy to find out that I have to put a lot of time into it.”

Her mom always spoke with a smile, but for that one moment, she had a serious expression on her face. She could still remember that her mom told her to not get confused between pets and a pleasing picture.

“So, you gave up?”

“Yeah. I’m planning to raise one once I have the luxury to.”

“A rabbit?”

“Probably.”

“You like rabbits that much, huh.”

“That’s true. I have liked them since I was young. Mom always tells me about how I used to nag her to buy me something whenever there was a rabbit drawn on it. Even though I don’t remember any of that.”

She looked at the ring on her left hand. It was the ring with a rabbit on it. Maru put his hand next to hers. He showed her his ring that was the same shape and smiled faintly.

They talked about acting club practice for a while until they arrived at the school gates. The sun had risen up completely and it was shining down on the entirety of the school. The fresh air and the green grass made the school look surreal, and looking at that, she exclaimed.

“So schools in dramas actually do exist.”

“This place does cost 2 million per semester.”

“Two million? Even though it’s a high school?”

She subconsciously exclaimed. Maru asked as they passed through the school gates.

“Where’s the meeting place?”

“In front of the main door.”

“It’s that place then.”

There were people gathered around where Maru was pointing at. There were a lot of students that seemed around their age. A middle-aged man wearing a sleeveless shirt was lining them up while shouting. Maru told her that he was the leader.

“Get going. I’ll be watching from the side.”

“Okay.”

They went separate ways before they reached the main door. She took a deep breath before going to where the people were gathered. This was the first part time job she did in her life. She was looking forward to what kind of events were waiting for her.

“If you’re here then stand in line.”

Hearing the leader’s instructions, she nodded her head and stood in line. The leader counted the people here before going into the school building. He also told them to wait.

“Are you a friend of Maru’s?”

“What?”

She raised her guard when someone talked to her.

“Oh, sorry about that. I unintentionally called out because I saw you coming with Maru. I’m called Park Woojoo and I…”

“Ah! I heard. Thank you for letting me come.”

She took a bow. This was the person Maru called to get her here. It was thanks to him that she could get the opportunity to work here.

“It’s nothing to be thankful about. I just forwarded you to someone else. Oh, tell me if you encounter any problems. Maru called me yesterday and told me to take care of you.”

“Geez, that guy. Sorry about that. You don’t have to do so much.”

She saw Maru who was yawning in one corner of the school. He was treating her too much like a child.

“Okay. There’s nothing difficult so I hope it goes well today.”

“Yes.”

The leader came out of the school just then. He told everyone to follow him. She clenched her fist slightly as she started walking. They walked up to the third floor following the leader. She had a peek on the 2nd floor and she saw students quietly studying. It was like today wasn’t a Sunday. They were told to stay quiet until they arrived at a classroom. There were a lot of adults in the corridor. There were some people holding cameras.

“Here, sit over there, there, and there.”

They sat down according to the leader’s instructions. She scanned the classroom from where she sat. Unlike the luxurious-looking exterior, the classroom wasn’t that different from her school’s classroom.

‘Wow, so that’s a reflector?’

She had seen a video camera a couple of times, but this was the first time she saw a foil that was bigger than an average person. Some lights that glowed faintly entered the classroom as well. She thought that they wouldn’t need any lights because the sunlight was strong, but it seemed that she was wrong. She also saw a furry microphone. There were cables messily strewn around where the camera wasn’t shooting.

She wondered what it would look like if she looked at the classroom through the camera right now. She saw a man who had a serious face behind the big camera. He seemed to be the director.

She waited for around 10 minutes when she heard greetings outside the classroom. Following that, actors entered the classroom. A pair of man and woman, who were idols as well as the lead roles in Youth Generation, entered the classroom. Chaerim couldn’t be seen. Perhaps she didn’t have a shoot today.

The shoot began. All she had to do was to just look at the math textbook in front of her. She pretended to solve the questions with a pencil in hand. After a few NG cuts, she stopped pretending and started to solve them for real. She was that bored.

“It’s not that fun to be here, huh,” she stretched out her arms as she spoke.

They took a break. Her math textbook was filled with math formulas. She wrestled with the subject for about an hour. She didn’t know if she was here to do acting or to study. She also got used to the equipment that she found new at first.

The shoot resumed. Hearing that everyone needed to change into gym uniforms, she returned after changing her clothes. Even though it was class romance until just now, it switched to a completely different story. It seemed that they didn’t shoot the scenes in order and just combined each scene in editing to make an episode later.

“Okay, that’s good.”

The morning shoot only ended after 10. During this whole time, she wasn’t able to speak a word.

“Phew.”

She stretched her arms out before changing back into the school uniform. She heard that the background roles were to wait. While the staff moved out the equipment, the background roles were just left in class. Everyone started listening to an MP3 player or played games on their phone. Some just slept. She looked around to see if she could talk to anyone, but they were already in groups so it was hard to join their conversation.

‘This isn’t so easy huh.’

She now understood why Maru told her to bring a book or an MP3 player. She found herself regretting not listening to his words thinking that there would be no time to get bored during a shoot.

“So, what’s your impression?”

Just as she was blankly staring at the chalkboard, she heard Maru’s voice behind her. The voice couldn’t be more welcome.

“It’s boring.”

“Not as fun as you thought it would be, right?”

“Yeah. It’s completely different from how I expected. I thought it would be more active and passionate over here. But the only ones that are active and passionate are the actors. My job was to stay still.”

“That’s how it works. Here.”

Maru handed her a piece of chocolate. She was just feeling empty so she received it and put it in her mouth.

“Maru, you’re here.”

“You’re here, Maru.”

At that moment, the staff, who were cleaning up the cables, approached Maru and greeted him. Just as she was wondering whether to greet them or not, other members of the staff approached Maru. It wasn’t just the staff this time. Some of the background actors acted like they knew Maru.

Maru greeted the staff naturally. He seemed used to it. The staff welcomed Maru with a smile. They looked very friendly towards him. They looked completely mild compared to how they coldly treated the other actors.

“She’s a friend of mine who came with me today. Please take care of her.”

“Oh really? You were a friend of Maru’s? You should’ve told me.”

She was startled when she saw that the man who was behind the main camera this whole time offered to shake hands with her. She stood up immediately and shook hands with him.

“I’ll take a good shot of you in the next scene.”

The man who was called the camera director left the classroom after telling her that he’ll see her later. The other staff also left with the equipment.

“He said he’ll take a good shot of you,” Maru spoke with a smile.

“Do you know all of them?”

“For now.”

“Do you usually become close like that? I haven’t seen the staff greeting any of the actors even in the three hours I was shooting.”

“There was a small incident,” Maru spoke as he scratched his eyebrows.

“Are we shooting outside now?”

“Yeah. I think so.”

“Perhaps we might get to appear in the same scene. They told me to prepare as well.”

“Really?”

Maru pointed at his pants. She noticed that he was wearing a school uniform.

“I’ll go down first. See you later.”

“Yeah.”

Maru told her to hold on.

She sighed slightly. Even though they were both high school students, Maru seemed like he was in a completely different position. It didn’t feel that realistic when she heard that Maru entered an agency. However, she found that Maru was indeed different now that she saw him on set. He had the look of a professional.

‘I should do my best as well.’

Maru was several steps ahead of her as an actor. She would have to put in a lot of effort if she wanted to catch up. Recently, she had a new dream. It wasn’t something vague like ‘I should become this’. It was something more specific. She wanted to act on the same stage as Maru. It didn’t matter if it was on a professional stage or an amateur stage. She would be extremely happy if she got to act with Maru in the same space. Though, she would have achieved this dream if Maru didn’t get injured last winter.

“I will catch up soon.”

She resolved to herself. She dusted the wrinkly school skirt and stood up from her seat. Her butt started hurting after sitting for so long. She approached the window and watched the lights being set up in front of the school.

Just then,

“Huh, why are you here?”

Hearing that voice, she turned her head around. Chaerim was standing there, wearing the same school uniform.

“Seonbae,” she greeted with a smile.

Chapter 324

She said she was here for a part time job. Chaerim replied yes before scanning her from top to bottom. She had seen her exercising in the practice room of the acting club from time to time. Her body was very flexible and elastic, probably stemming from regular exercise. She was comparable to her in that regard even though she herself spent half a day practicing. Up until a little while ago, she thought that she just had a pretty body, but after that incident before, she saw her with a bit of annoyance. She had a small worry that this child might overtake her presence here. Though, the chances of that were slim.

“That uniform is a little too big for you.”

“I looked for one that fit me, but everything was too big. I had to go with the second best option.”

“You would’ve looked prettier if the uniform fit you. What a pity.”

“Not at all. I’m just an extra after all.”

“Extras appear on screen as well. Who knows? You’re quite cute so some people might recognize you after the episode goes live.”

“Geez, seonbae, stop teasing me.”

She laughed with a bright smile. Chaerim faintly smiled as well. It hurt her pride that she saw this girl as someone she should be wary against even for a little while.

“Uhm, they told you to get prepared.”

One of the staff carefully approached her and spoke. Chaerim nodded.

“Do you still have a shoot?”

“I’m waiting for now. I don’t know what’s going to happen.”

“I hope we get to appear in the same scene. I’ll see you later if we can. Do your best.”

“Yes, seonbae. Good luck!”

Chaerim left after her junior told her good luck. Today, the shoot was at the school. Although there was a scene outside the school, it shouldn’t take that long since they were just shooting scenery.

“Oppa, my script.”

“Oh, here.”

She headed to the school gates while reading the script given to her by her manager. The actors were getting ready as well since the equipment was almost finished being set up.

“You’re here?”

“Yeah.”

Woomin greeted her. Next to him was Yu-ri who could be said to be the main heroine of this drama. She was combing her long straight hair again today. Just as the three of them were talking about trivial things, Gangha, who would become her boyfriend in the drama, waved his hand as he approached.

“Chaerim. I saw your photo book.”

“You saw?”

“Yeah, through an article. Wow, you’re doing well these days.”

As the four of them had debut around the same time, they decided to become close. Of course, in terms of popularity, Blue, the group she belonged to, was the most popular. The groups that these three belonged to had never been first place in any rankings.

“But doesn’t she look a little cheap? I mean, it was practically underwear. Though, she was still pretty,” Yu-ri spoke.

She was combing her hair with her finger.

“Well. The people around me were fussy about how sexy I was. Oh, you don’t know since you haven’t tried such a thing, have you? You’ll see once you do a photoshoot. You’re getting quite popular now, aren’t you? Were you in 8th place?” Chaerim replied with a snort.

She wasn’t on good terms with Yu-ri ever since their debut. They didn’t meet that many times, and there was no reason for them to get on bad terms, but for some strange reason, they started finding flaws in each other and made sarcastic remarks whenever they met. It was normal for them, so neither minded that.

“There you go again. Let’s be friends with each other, yeah? You two are too hostile that I can’t even talk to you.”

Gangha interrupted. Chaerim just turned her head away. It would be annoying to explain anything.

“Main actors! Let’s do a rehearsal.”

Hearing the director’s call, the four of them stood in front of the camera. This was a scene where Chaerim blocked the path of the pair of lovers going home from school and sneakily telling a bad rumor to the boyfriend. This scene was where the love rectangle[1] would properly surface. There were various comments on the internet predicting each person’s crush starting last week. The script had been changed to satisfy the majority of the audience.

Chaerim took a deep breath and stood behind the school gates. Now, she just needed to block Woomin and Yu-ri, who were coming from the school and say her line. As they did the rehearsal, the background actors were placed around as well. They were acting as other students going home from school. Her junior was mixed with them.

She thought of the line in her head and said it to herself in a small voice. A boy entered her eyes. It was Maru, who was receiving a pair of glasses from the staff. He had the role of a boy who gave in to her threats and feigned ignorance even though he knew the innocence of the heroine. Maru was having a conversation with a staff member. They looked quite friendly. From what she heard, he helped out the staff last time when there was a quarrel between staff members, but she didn’t know the specifics. At that time, the lead actors were all waiting inside their cars.

Chaerim glanced at Maru. She was aware that not everyone liked her, and in fact, she knew that more people hated her than liked her. However, there were extremely few people that expressed that to her face. If she thanked, they thanked her back, and if she smiled, they smiled back. Even her anti-fans were like obedient sheep once they stood in front of her.

When she tried to say thanks through Jiseok, she thought that she would naturally get a call. After all, she revealed her presence. Of course, she did not plan to tell him her number either. It was just an excuse after all. She was going to thank him and forget about him. But he ended up hanging up first.

She was angry because she felt like she was ignored. However, after thinking about it carefully, she came to the conclusion that the other party might be too embarrassed to do so. After all that was said and done, he helped her out during the shoot. The sharp pain and words left a deep impression in her even now. Chaerim thought that she had to be more honest when she saw his face. Saying thanks to him was just an excuse. She just wanted to talk to him.

Liking him? She didn’t know yet. However, she definitely didn’t hate him. It was more like curiosity. The curiosity towards a boy that looked at her coldly.

They met eyes. Chaerim smiled faintly. Maru nodded once before continuing to talk with the staff member. She felt flabbergasted. Her prediction that he would approach her and greet her was very much off the mark. Maru just nodded as though that was enough as a greeting.

She almost ended up leaking a laugh. What curiosity? Chaerim looked ahead of her and got ready to act.

After the camera started rolling, the two main characters started walking from the other side. The camera which was on a rail slowly moved along and maintained the distance between it and the main characters. Chaerim waited until the two approached the school gate and stepped out just in time.

“You look good.”

Her acting was smooth perhaps thanks to her annoyance. She said her line in a very sarcastic manner. She moved according to the plan and walked up to the main heroine. Then cut.

“Good. Chaerim, you’re in a good condition today.”

She got praised starting from the first scene. Chaerim smiled and thanked the director. The nervousness she felt last time wasn’t there. She only had endless confidence. The camera director stood behind the main heroine with the camera on his shoulders. Chaerim looked right slightly so that the camera could capture the left side of her face more. Her left side was prettier after all.

The shoot began again. She said her line without making a mistake. Since she truly wasn’t on close terms with Yu-ri she could say her words sarcastically with intention. Seeing Yu-ri’s mouth, which wasn’t captured on camera, twitching, she inwardly smirked at her on the inside. You’re still far from reaching me. Whether it’s popularity or acting skills.

“Chaerim, you’re good.”

“It’s all thanks to you, director.”

As they said good words, the atmosphere on set seemed brighter as well. Chaerim now had the luxury to look after others and she looked after the staff. When nervousness got the better of her and she had a narrow vision, she got annoyed at them whenever something happened, but that didn’t happen right now. She had the luxury to improve her image. Her manager handed out the snacks and drinks that they prepared beforehand. Even the staff that didn’t look at her in a good light thanked her since they received something. These small actions would change the evaluation of her in the long run.

After a small break, the shoot resumed. This was a scene where Maru, who appeared from outside the school, ignored what was happening even after seeing the main heroine quarreling with someone.

The cue sign fell. Chaerim made an arrogant expression and looked at the main heroine, Yu-ri. The camera, which shot her as well as behind her, should have caught Maru already. The steps got closer. Eventually, Woomin, who was on the other side, stopped Maru.

“Class prez, is this all true?”

Yu-ri claimed innocence while Maru knew the truth. Maru looked at the two interchangeably with shaking eyes before not saying anything. Chaerim, who was watching all of that happen from the side, unintentionally exclaimed in a small voice. Maru’s cheeks were trembling. He was flinching back like someone who was really nervous. Even though Maru had a decent build, he looked very feeble right now.

“I’m asking you a question here.”

“Uhm… I…”

Maru looked at her. Chaerim almost uttered something else instead of her line after seeing Maru’s eyes that desired sympathy from her. She calmed down and thought about the script before saying her line.

“If you have anything to say, say it.”

Maru shook his head before powerlessly saying ‘I don’t know anything’. Even though it sounded as though all of his energy was being drained, it was very clear. It was curious. Was it a difference in vocalization?

“Good!”

The director shouted cut in a brighter voice than ever. Maru, who looked like a herbivore about to be eaten, took a deep breath before putting on an expressionless face. He returned to Maru from being the class prez.

“Let’s keep this pace and shoot the parking lot scene. We should end it while we still have a good flow.”

The staff started moving the equipment again. The actors moved to the parking lot as well. The shoot resumed in the recycling area in the corner of the parking lot. Chaerim gave the script she was holding to her manager. This was a scene where she threatened the class president to scheme against the main heroine. She greeted the other supporting actresses that she hung out with in the drama before getting into position.

Maru was being instructed something by the action director. In this scene, the class president would fall over into the pile of trash with a kick.

“Let’s try that.”

Maru, the action director, and the supporting actress that had to do the kicking stood in front of the pile of trash. First, the action director and Maru showed a demonstration. The action director put his foot against Maru’s stomach and pushed him forward, and due to the force, Maru was pushed back and fell into the pile of trash. He fell over with a big frown as though he was kicked really hard, but his expression was as calm as ever when he stood up.

“Try.”

The supporting actress nodded before kicking Maru just as the action director told her to. Although it looked like she put in a lot of effort, it looked too awkward. In the first place, how many girls would have experience doing such a kick? It was natural for her to look awkward.

“You can push a little harder. The receiving fellow will take care of everything.”

The action director seemed to trust Maru quite a lot. The supporting actress kicked once more. This time, it looked like she put in more strength. She swayed after finishing her kick.

Maru was lifted into the air for a moment before getting himself dumped into the pile of trash. Along with a popping sound, some of the trash bags made of paper burst.

“Isn’t he injured?” Chaerim spoke in surprise.

That kick just now went too far. The supporting actress also became pale and rushed up towards Maru.

“That just now was good. Do the exact same thing during the real deal.”

Despite that, Maru was just standing up while dusting off the paper on his clothes. After dusting off his stomach, he put on his school uniform again. Perhaps he had learned to do stunts?

“Are you okay?” Chaerim asked first.

She was there, so it would be somewhat wrong to just ignore him.

“Yeah, well.”

Maru replied as shortly as ever. Chaerim felt obstinacy welling up inside her. Although she had decided to ignore him, Maru seemed a little too disinterested in her.

“Thanks for last time.”

“I heard from Jiseok.”

“But why did you not call me?”

“I got my message across, so there’s no need to call. Also, you must be busy, so you don’t need to mind me.”

“Aha, really? Then okay.”

Chaerim snorted and turned around. Now that she looked at him, he looked like someone who didn’t know courtesy at all. She just decided again that she shouldn’t care about him when someone else approached him.

“Maru, something’s on your head.”

Chaerim turned around. What entered her eyes was the figure of her junior that was dusting off Maru’s head. Then, Maru, who was looking at her junior with a completely different expression than when he looked at her, entered her eyes. At that moment, she remembered when the people at the acting club said that her boyfriend had appeared in the drama they were watching. The name she heard back then was also Maru. She thought that she had heard the name somewhere, but it turns out it was from back then.

After watching the conversation between the two for a while, Chaerim hurriedly turned away. She did that because her junior tried to look at her.

“It looks like the shoot is going to begin. See you later.”

Her junior went back to where the background actors were. Chaerim sighed in relief only then. At that moment, annoyance welled up inside her. Why did she turn away like she did something wrong? She was the senior here, she was the main character here.

She was about to kick a pebble by her foot to shake off her weird feelings. Just as she was about to kick the pebble with her right foot, she saw a staff member walking past with heavy equipment in hand. She was startled and changed the direction in a hurry. Thankfully, she didn’t kick the pebble, but her body was tilted. She swayed like a drunkard for a moment before getting balanced again. She felt the supporting actresses around her look at her like a strange girl. She felt embarrassed. She raised her head and looked around her. The supporting actresses that met her eyes coughed awkwardly before looking away. It was clear that they saw her. Some of the staff giggled as well before changing expressions in a hurry. They had seen her as well. More annoyance welled up inside her and she felt like she wanted to shout.

Just then, she met eyes with Maru, who stood behind her. Just as she was about to feel more embarrassed, Maru faintly smiled. He didn’t hide his expression like the others. He just blatantly laughed at her.

“If you want to kick, then kick it that way. You’ll get others injured.”

Maru kindly pointed out the pebble she was about to kick as he said so.

Chaerim felt embarrassment die down in an instant in her mind. She laughed in vain once before calming down completely.

“You saw?”

“It was within my vision.”

“It’s funny?”

“If you tell me not to laugh, I’ll stop,” saying that, Maru stiffened his mouth.

Seeing that, Chaerim chuckled instead.

“You are the person that’s about to hit me, so it would be strange if we were awkward with each other.”

“Don’t worry.”

“Please end the shoot as early as possible. Work hours are best kept short.”

As soon as Maru’s words ended, the director approached them. The rehearsal began. As there was no big difference in movement lines, they started shooting immediately. Chaerim was flabbergasted when she saw Maru who looked very submissive. It was as though he was a man with different masks. Everything about him was different from moment to moment. After the much-practiced kicking, Maru fell over in a grand manner before the cut sign fell. They got an okay sign in one go this time as well.

Chaerim approached Maru, who had fallen over. Maru was about to stand up, but he fell back over again. Seeing Maru in the pile of trash, Chaerim smiled brightly.

“Aren’t you getting up?”

“I am.”

“Do you need help?”

“No, I’m fine.”

Chaerim extended her hand. Maru glanced at her before putting his hand on his knees to push himself up. Even though she looked rather awkward, she didn’t feel that bad.

“Han Maru, was it?”

“Yes.”

At that moment, Chaerim felt her junior looking at her from behind. When she sensed that gaze, she, for some reason, took a step closer to Maru. Then, she dusted off the pieces of paper on Maru’s head.

Maru blinked once before dusting off his own head.

“You were good at falling over.”

“That’s because someone kicked me well.”

Saying that, he just walked past her. Chaerim looked down at her palm. There was a strange sensation from the part where Maru pinched last time. Chaerim did not turn around to look at her junior. That was because she felt that she shouldn’t for some reason.

[1] Love quadrangle? Love square? Love quadrilateral? I don’t even know…

Chapter 325

The equipment was moved to the annex building. The next shoot happened in the movie club, a secret hideout for the main characters.

“You look like you’re doing good today,” Gangha spoke as he raised his thumb.

“That’s true. I didn’t get a single NG today. Looks like I’m on a roll.”

Chaerim lightly clenched her fist before loosening it. She was definitely more at ease with this shoot. She had just enough tension in her body. She had the confidence to finish today’s shoot without making a mistake.

“Uhm, Chaerim. Can I get Dayoon-noona’s number?”

She was wondering why he kept talking to her since morning, but it turned out to be this. Chaerim frowned.

“I do want to tell you, but she hates things like that. You know what happened right? A fan of hers came to her house and caused a fuss. After that incident, Dayoon-unni is not good around men.”

Of course, that was a lie. There indeed was a stalker incident, but the reason she said that Dayoon was not good around men was to end this conversation.

“I guess that can’t be helped after she experienced such a thing.”

“I’ll tell her for now. But do you like her?”

“I just wanted to meet her and have a talk or something. She’s my type.”

“What are you going to do if your president found out?”

“You know how this works. I will act in a way so that I don’t get found out. The other groups date each other like that, you know? I mean, it’s not like we can go out with an ordinary person. You know what happened to the senior that dated an ordinary person, right?”

“I do.”

It was quite a famous event, so she naturally knew about it. The man involved belonged to a 4-person boy band that was quite popular, but the group was dissolved thanks to him dating. There was a problem with idols dating in itself, but the bigger problem was that the girl’s identity was exposed and she was attacked by extreme fans. It became a controversial issue immediately and consequently led to the dissolution of the group. The group tried to make a comeback with the three remaining people, but they failed and disappeared without a sound.

“In other words, we can only date other idols. We can protect each other’s privacy and secrets that way.”

Gangha approached her close and lowered his voice.

“You don’t have anyone you’re dating?”

“Me? I don’t.”

“Don’t lie to me. Really?”

“I said I don’t. What about you?”

“Me? I dated once but we went back to being good colleagues.”

“That’s amazing. Aren’t you scared? Your contract should state that you’re forbidden from dating.”

“You just have to be careful not to get found out. If you don’t have a boyfriend, what about me? I’m quite popular, you know?”

“Alright, you can stop fantasizing.”

“Why? We’ve known each other for quite a while, haven’t we? Counting pre-debut days, it’s been around four years, right? Hey, if a man and a woman have known each other for that long, you gotta date at least once. Don’t you think so?”

“We’ve only known each other’s faces for four years. This drama is the first time that we actually talked to each other, isn’t it? We just greeted each other politely before.”

“What happened before is not important, what’s important is now.”

Gangha reached out and grabbed her hand. Chaerim frowned and pulled her hand away.

“What a cold reaction.”

“If you want someone to date, look for someone else. How about Yu-ri? She seems to like you.”

“Oh? Didn’t you know? I’m going out with her right now.”

“What?”

“So you didn’t know that. I thought Yu-ri told you already. Weren’t you two close even though you act cold towards each other?”

“Close? We’re more like enemies.”

“Really? Then you two should be friends.”

“Not happening.”

“Geez, I don’t get how women’s friendship works. But hey, you don’t have experience dating, right?”

“What are you on about so suddenly?”

“My intuition.”

“You think I’ve never dated even once?”

Gangha pondered for a while before shaking his head.

“No. There’s no way someone like you would have never dated anyone. So date me. Please? I’ll let you have fun.”

“I thought you were dating Yu-ri.”

“Hey, do you date to get married? I date to enjoy myself. A girl for marriage has to be good and kind, and a girl for dating has to be hot and sexy. I know you know that.”

“Forget it. Look for someone else.”

“Alright, alright. Tell me if you change your mind later. I’m always ready to switch,” Gangha spoke with a smile.

Chaerim thought of her unnis as Gangha walked away. They talked about this topic a lot when they were still trainees. I will date a male idol or date an actor once I become famous. The talk between girls full of dreams was fun, but now, they no longer even talked to each other that much. They always got into a fight whenever they talked about something, so they just didn’t talk at all.

‘We’ll end up like The Five.’

‘We’re the eternal, The Five.’ That was their greeting comment. Yet, such an idol group became strangers in just one day. Chaerim thought that the unfair contract wasn’t the full story. If all of the members were dissatisfied with the contract, they would’ve all left the company, not split up into two-three like that. It was obvious that the disharmony between members was the reason and the unfair contract was just the trigger.

The contract Chaerim signed with Yellow Star couldn’t be considered entirely fair either. In the news as well as various magazines, they talked about how Blue profited hundreds of millions to billions of won, but the money that appeared in her bank account was less than 10 million won. And that only happened recently. The expenses required to create albums were also on the members. She thought that that was natural, but from the recent news, it seemed that that wasn’t the case. The unnis recently started calling a lot of people, and from what she heard, they talked about contract deposits and whatnot. Perhaps Blue will follow a similar path to The Five in the very near future.

“I should do well.”

This drama was a foundation for her of sorts. This drama would enable her to live as the actor Chaerim and not as the idol Chaerim. Since there were talks about movies as well, she would be able to receive the interest of the public as long as this drama went well even if Blue was dissolved.

‘Me, no longer an idol huh.’

She never imagined two years ago that she would be thinking about such things now, but she now had to think about it since it might become a reality. She couldn’t stay as a child forever. What would happen if she stopped being an idol and became an ordinary actress? After she thought about that, she was reminded of the dating matter that Gangha talked about.

Dating, huh. She went to practice starting in elementary school, and she did the same in middle school as well. She never missed school or anything, but since she never hung out with her friends after school, she never got close to anyone either. The same went for dating as well. Now that she thought about it, she was very obsessed with training. She had thought about dating someone and walking around hand in hand. When people paid too much attention to her to the point that she had stressed-induced gastritis, she imagined what ordinary life would be like whenever she slept. However, she soon realized that she liked her current self better than her ordinary self.

Despite that, she wanted to try dating. The idols she met during work were very cool, but for some reason, she never felt affection towards them. It was fun to play with them, but she never wanted to be alone with them. There were a couple of idols who indirectly expressed that they wanted to date her, but she refused back then because of the notion that she had to have meticulous self-control.

What did it mean by being lovers? It was a rather pointless question, but once she thought about it, she became conscious of it. She sighed just like the time where she saw her friends leaving school together from the classroom. The feeling she had back then was definitely vanity.

Chaerim shook her head. She thought that the reason she kept thinking in this direction was because of Gangha. No, to be more honest, it was because of him. In front of the annex building, Chaerim pretended to read the script and looked at Maru who was standing on the other side. He was reading his script with a serious expression. Even though he was a supporting actor without many lines, he looked into the script for a very long time. He concentrated on the script more than she did.

Then, there was her junior who stood a little away from him. Chaerim couldn’t look at her junior. Back in the parking lot, she ended up dusting some trash off Maru’s head without thinking about it.

‘No, perhaps I intended to.’

It was a childish thing. Even though she was aware that her junior’s boyfriend was Maru, she took those actions. No, perhaps she did so precisely because she knew. She didn’t know what she was doing. She knew that doing such a thing just because she didn’t like her junior a little was bad.

‘…A prank, is it?’

Chaerim sighed. She didn’t want to waste her energy on such a trivial matter, but she was conscious of it. Was it not just curiosity and did she like him after all? This wasn’t good. She was still an idol. Dating was a taboo for idols. Some agencies went as far as to say that committing a crime was better than dating. It was just that much of a sin for girl idols.

She looked at her script, looked at Maru, and looked at her script again. She was angry at herself for being so flustered, but she did not have a way to solve this issue, so she had no choice.

In the following shoots, Chaerim made a few mistakes. Thankfully, the director still looked like he was okay. This was thanks to the fact that she did well in the morning. It also meant that the director wasn’t at the limit of his patience yet.

“What’s up with you?”

“I don’t know.”

“Who else would know if you don’t know about it?”

“Are you picking a fight?”

“Is me being worried about you picking a fight? I’m telling you to do better. You’re wasting all of our time. I need to go to the TV station quickly, but it looks like I’ll be late thanks to you.”

Yu-ri angered her before leaving. Chaerim leaned against the wall and closed her eyes. She had to focus. She slapped her own cheeks hard before standing up. She couldn’t have any trivial thoughts, and she had to focus on the shoot.

At that moment, she met eyes with Maru who was standing on the other side. After pretending to not see her, Maru shrugged once before raising his left hand above his head. Then, he pressed the part between his thumb and index finger with his right hand. Chaerim did the same thing like a child imitating their mother. For some weird reason, the annoyance and nervousness within her died down.

‘Oh yeah, there was this.’

After pressing it a few more times, she felt that her mind had cleared up. She looked back at Maru, but he was just looking at his script again. It was really hard to say thanks to that fellow.

After the standby sign, Chaerim went about the shoot with more ease of mind. She did her lines smoothly, and looked at her counterpart actress, Yu-ri, with a confident expression. Then cut. The director made a satisfied smile and signalled the end of the morning shoot.

They had two more cuts to shoot at the school after lunchtime, and after that, they would leave the school. Since the drama shoot was all she had for today, she would be able to go home and rest after the shoot ended. She thought about going to the shared residence but decided not to. She was fed up with getting into a fight with the unnis.

“Thanks for all your work, seonbae.”

Just as she was sitting on the platform in the school because she wanted to rest by herself, her junior had approached her and was offering a drink. She didn’t want to see her, but she received the drink with an awkward smile anyway. It was a cool green plum drink.

“Where are you going by yoursel…”

There was one more guest. It was Maru, who didn’t finish his sentence. In his hand was a lunchbox. She had heard that Woomin had brought lunchboxes for the staff, and that seemed to be it.

“Aren’t you going to eat?” Her junior asked, sitting down next to her.

“I will. You two can eat here, I‘ll eat with my friends.”

“The other lead actors?”

“Uh, yeah. We promised we’d eat together.”

Chaerim wanted to leave this place immediately. She never arranged a lunch appointment or the like, but she needed a lie in order to leave this place naturally. Just at that time, she saw Yu-ri walking past the main entrance. Gangha was next to her. They met eyes as well. She waved her hand at them. Now, she just had to leave this place and join them. However, she couldn’t leave. That was because Yu-ri had glared at her once before looking away. Gangha, who was next to her, also waved back in an apologetic manner before following her. It was obvious. She wasn’t that close with them. She was aware that the two always ate together. The problem was that there were juniors next to her. She didn’t want to show such a scene to these two either.

“Hey, look at this. There’s a batter-fried shrimp. It’s quite big.”

That voice was a little loud. Chaerim slowly turned around. Maru was speaking as he showed her junior the lunchbox. Thanks to that, her junior did not seem to have noticed that the other lead actors had brushed her off.

“Wow, it’s big.”

Her junior smiled like a little child. Chaerim then looked at Maru.

“Why don’t you eat with us, seonbae-nim. It’s always been a wish of mine to eat with a celebrity.”

Maru called her seonbae. It seemed that he had heard that she was the senior of his girlfriend at school.

“Hey. She says she has an appointment.”

“A junior from school wants to eat with her, so she wouldn’t be a senior if she just left like that, don’t you think so, seonbae-nim?”

Maru offered her a lunchbox that still hadn’t been opened yet. Chaerim blankly stared at it for a while before nodding faintly and accepting it.

“Then I’ll go get another lunchbox.”

“Sorry about that.”

“You don’t have to be. Also, you can eat first.”

Maru left. Her junior, who sat next to her, opened the lunchbox with a bright smile.

“Please forgive him for his rudeness. He lives on his own ego.”

“R-really?”

“Yes. You wouldn’t know how much he boasts about himself. Well, he does have the qualifications, so I can’t say anything. But seonbae, are you okay? You had an appointment.”

“It’s just lunch. I’ll just text them.”

Chaerim took out her phone and sent a text message. She just entered a random number as the receiver.

She received a pair of chopsticks from her junior and put the lunchbox on her knees. She ate lunchboxes quite frequently. Since she was often busy with shoots, there were a lot of occasions where the place she sat became a table. Of course, she didn’t eat fried food like this normally.

Chaerim took a bite off the batter-fried shrimp. She heard a crunch next to her as well. Her junior was eating with a happy face. Seeing that, she felt more pathetic. At the same time, she even pitied herself for feeling rivalry against her.

She forgot about calories for a moment to forget about this sad feeling and left her body to gluttony. Just as she ate a piece of fried shrimp and the Jeyuk-bokkeum,

“Seonbae.”

“Yeah?”

“I know this is a rude, and maybe a weird question.”

“…Yes?”

“Do you perhaps like Maru?”

Chapter 326

Her junior asked her with round eyes that were like a rabbit. Chaerim felt like the shrimp she just ate came back to life and was jumping inside her throat. She coughed once before looking at her.

“What… do you mean?”

“Just saying. Perhaps it’s intuition? The way you avoided looking at me in the parking lot, and the way you looked at me in the practice room before made me think that. Of course, I might be mistaken. If I’m wrong, then just say no.”

Chaerim couldn’t say anything. She wasn’t in a situation where she could reply yes or no. It might have been better if she became angry, but she didn’t do that either. The continuation of strange silence made her suffocate.

“Fuah.”

The one who broke the silence was her junior. She was smiling. It wasn’t a satisfied smile. Her lips were trembling slightly.

“I thought you hated me, seonbae. That’s why I was worried as well. But it looks like I was wrong. That’s fortunate.”

Her junior picked up her chopsticks and started eating again. Chaerim kept watching her as she did so. The president of the acting club, who was her friend, talked about this junior from time to time. That she was a feeble girl despite how bold she looked. She was the type of person who would cry endlessly once she started to the point that it was worrying. However, the junior in front of her eyes right now was slightly different from how her friend portrayed her to be. Although her smile looked a little unstable, she didn’t look feeble. In the first place, there was no way ‘feeble’ suited her when she could ask such bold questions to other people’s faces.

“…You two are dating, right?”

She had decided to switch the topic, but what came out of her mouth was the complete opposite. Chaerim gulped.

“Hm, yes.”

“Then why are you saying that it’s fortunate? How do you know what I’m thinking?”

“Oh, you’re right. Perhaps it’s not that fortunate after all.”

Her junior started mixing the jeyuk-bokkeum with her chopsticks. The tips of her lips softened a little.

“Then do you really like Maru, seonbae?”

“I don’t know yet, but I definitely don’t hate him,” she replied honestly.

She didn’t want to lie for some reason. Although she had lied numerous times today, she wanted to avoid doing so for this very moment. For some strange reason, she welled up with confidence. It was strange. She was like this even though she knew that what she was saying was wrong.

“I see.”

“You wanted to tell me not to approach him?”

When she said that, her junior raised both of her hands and waved them in denial.

“No, it’s not like that.”

“Then I can become close with Maru?”

“Uhm… that’s not it either. Haha.”

Chaerim did not say anything until the laughter dissipated. Her junior was still mixing the jeyuk-bokkeum with her chopsticks.

Chaerim ate some rice. She wondered what she was doing. Despite that, she didn’t want to end this conversation here. She was feeling embarrassed to the point that she wanted to leave this instant, but the desire to continue with this conversation made her stay.

They kept eating their meal quietly like that until her junior spoke first.

“Maru told me once before that liking something can’t be helped. There’s nothing right or wrong with that.”

“I never said I liked him.”

“Oh that’s right, I forgot.”

Her junior smiled faintly and sipped her drink. Chaerim also drank a sip from the green plum drink. This conversation made her feel very thirsty.

“I like Maru,” her junior spoke as she put down the chopsticks on the lunchbox.

Chaerim felt her grip on the chopsticks tightening.

“At first, I thought he was a strange kid. We came across each other on the streets and he acted as though he knew me. He was really strange. Back then, I never realized that I would become so close to him,” her junior chuckled as she spoke.

“Seonbae, I’ll be honest. I was actually jealous. When you dusted off Maru’s head, and when you avoided my gaze, I was even a little angry as well. Is she doing that knowing everything? If so, then why? When I thought about it, the answer was simple. You were interested in him. Haa, I honestly don’t get it. On one hand, I want to get angry at you and tell you that he’s my boyfriend and then tell you to stop, but on the other hand, I wondered if that was really necessary. Liking someone is not a sin after all.”

“I’ll say this again, but don’t conclude that I like him.”

“But you do have good feelings towards him, right? You said so yourself.”

“That’s…”

Chaerim looked at her junior. Unlike her clear speech, she had a shy face on. She looked like she was about to cry if she told her any harsh words.

At that moment, a shadow enveloped the two. It was Maru, who came back from getting another lunchbox.

“It’s rather hot today.”

Maru fanned himself as he sat next down to her junior. Chaerim started rummaging through the side dishes in the box with her chopsticks like her junior was doing just now. She didn’t know where to look. She couldn’t look at the empty school field, nor look at the skies that were clear. She also couldn’t imagine looking at her right where Maru and her junior were. In the end, her only option was to fix her eyes on the lunchbox and eat.

She tried to think about something else as she counted the number of rice grains, but the more she did so, the more vivid the conversation she had with her junior became. Why did she bring that conversation up? Was it her way of warning her after all? Was she expressing that they shouldn’t make the situation more complex than it is now?

“Please excuse me for a little.”

Her junior stood up after half-finishing her lunchbox. She looked very complex on the surface.

She didn’t know what she was doing. They could’ve just started eating without saying anything. She could’ve just firmly said no. There was no reason to admit to anything, she could’ve just lied like she did usually, but everything went wrong because she mentioned the truth. She thought that she should’ve just lied like usual and be done with it.

Maru, who was sitting next to her, was just eating the lunchbox without any expression. He was eating lunch like it was a task he had to fulfill.

“Aren’t you going to eat?”

Chaerim was startled and shook her head. Maru found out that she was staring at him.

“I will.”

She ate a piece of kimchi. She was hungry, yet she didn’t have any appetite. She chewed a piece of sour kimchi for a long time.

Meanwhile, Maru emptied a whole lunchbox. He stood up with a satisfied expression and started drinking. The long shadow cast by Maru’s figure covered Chaerim’s face.

“Good luck then.”

“Uh, okay. You leaving?”

“Yes. Also, when she comes back, tell her to finish her meal. She didn’t even have breakfast, so it would be bad for someone her age to skip lunch as well.”

“You’re quite considerate of her.”

“Of course I am. She might look healthy, but she gets ill a lot.”

Maru’s expression as he talked about her junior was very warm. It was a dramatic contrast to his expressionless face during shoots. That twisted Chaerim’s emotions in a weird way.

“Are you two dating?”

“Yes,” he replied without a single shred of hesitation.

There was no ‘haha’ or ‘why do you ask’ or something like that. He said it very firmly as though he was stating a fact. At that moment, Chaerim was at a loss for words. She almost loathed herself for asking such a stupid question. She decided to change the topic.

“Thanks for last time.”

“What do you mean?”

He was putting on a face as though he didn’t know what she was talking about. Chaerim said ‘nothing’ and shook her head. Perhaps it was a coincidence that he distracted her junior away from her. Of course, it was just as possible that that wasn’t the case. What was important was that Maru didn’t think anything of it. It was him being considerate. Chaerim made a faint smile and sighed. She wasn’t this conscious of this matter until this morning. However, her feelings towards Maru expanded the moment she became conscious of her junior’s gaze. Perhaps it was her that became jealous.

‘I’m like a little kid.’

Maru’s actions definitely instilled goodwill in her. She was definitely attracted to him due to how he was frank about his emotions. However, strictly speaking, was the emotion she was feeling now love? Or was it just appreciation towards someone who she felt thankful towards? It was complex. She couldn’t decide if it was one or the other. Chaerim didn’t like that hesitation.

She never felt this way before. She was always clear about whether she liked or disliked someone. However, right now, she wasn’t. It felt like she wouldn’t be able to sleep at night because of frustration if she kept feeling like this.

Chaerim raised her head. She wanted to stop being shy like an idiot. She was able to smile and act cute in front of tens of thousands of people. She could solve this small trouble like nothing.

“I think I’m interested in you.”

She remembered Gangha’s advice. It wasn’t like they were dating with the intention of marriage, so she could be light-hearted about it. She wanted to relieve this frustration in her heart. She felt a lot better once she uttered those words. She felt like her face was heating up, but it didn’t matter. It was much better to be embarrassed than to have a lump in her heart.

“…Okay, well. Thanks.”

“That’s it?”

Chaerim stood up and faced Maru in the eyes. Now that she started it off, she had no more hesitation.

“Yes. When else would I receive so much interest from an idol? I’m thankful.”

“What do you think about me?”

“Can I be honest about it?”

“Yes.”

“Nothing.”

Those words were even scarier than just ‘I hate you.’ Chaerim felt her neck stiffening up. I am interested in you, and this is how you react? Obstinacy surged within her.

“Looks like I put it the wrong way. I’m not interested in you. I like you. Now then, how about now?”

Hearing that question, Maru scratched his eyebrows.

“What kind of answer do you want?”

“What?”

“You asked that with a certain intent. What do you want as an answer?”

“……”

“Haa, shall we sit for a moment?”

Maru sat down on the spot. Chaerim also bit her lips and sat down.

“I really don’t do romantic consultations like this. I mean, there’s no ‘winning’ when I get involved with another person’s love. But you seem to be mistaken so I’ll tell you a few things. First, dating is done between two people. Second, you should differentiate between goodwill and affection. Third, the one in front of you is a cocky dude, so let’s not think about him.”

“What do you mean?”

“There was an error in your emotions. When you’re at the emotional age, there are times where brushing past someone else feels like fate. If my actions caused a misunderstanding in you, then I will never take such actions again.”

“I’m mistaken?”

“Yes.”

“How would you know? Who are you to say that you know how I feel?”

She ended up raising her voice a little. She was disappointed that he didn’t give her any chance at all.

“It’s fine even if you’re not mistaken. I told you, didn’t I? That dating is something done between two people. I will tell you this upfront. You are the senior of my girlfriend, and that’s all you amount to in my heart. You know what happens if you like someone like me, right?”

He refused yet again. At this point, it upset her. Chaerim had the confidence. She had the confidence that she would do well with Maru. That was why she felt sorry towards her junior. She may end up hurting her after all. However, the more she talked with Maru, the more she felt that there was no gap between the two of them that she could exploit.

“Do you like her?”

“Yes, I like her a lot.”

Maru also replied without hesitation. The two were very alike in that regard.

Chaerim clenched her fist.

At that moment, Maru looked around for a moment and walked up to her before grabbing her shoulders. Then, he closed up on her face with a cold expression. Chaerim saw that his lips were infinitely nearing hers. She felt like her heart froze up, and at the same time, she felt a chill behind her back. She screamed and tried to push Maru away. At that moment, Maru let go of her and took a step back.

“Wh-what are you doing! Are you crazy?”

Chaerim faltered backward. Her heart was beating in a disturbing rhythm. She felt like she was sweating cold sweat.

“It feels unpleasant, doesn’t it? That’s what one-directional love gets you. Of course, this can also be a method of dating. However, that only works if the other party doesn’t have a lover. You’re free to like anyone you want, but if you touch someone that already has a partner, that’s a sin.”

Maru spoke with a firm expression.

“We can be good friends, but any more than that is not happening.”

For some reason, Maru looked upset. Chaerim couldn’t say anything.

“Let’s stop here before we truly embarrass ourselves.”

She had nothing to retort. She was aware that what she was doing was wrong. Despite that, she was upset that Maru so clearly drew the line. It frustrated her. Another part of her was already persuading her that the reason she was startled just now was because it was so sudden.

“But you wouldn’t know for sure, right? You might end up liking me.”

“No, that will definitely not happen.”

“Why?”

“Seonbae. Do you think people can live while holding their breath?”

“…No.”

Maru made a faint smile as he replied.

“To me, she is that very breath.”

Chapter 327

She started watching the moment her senior told Maru that she was interested in him. She didn’t do so on purpose. She went to the bathroom because of the strange atmosphere, but in that short moment, the two were already talking. She had to step out at that moment. She should have shown up right at that moment with a clueless smile on her face.

However, she wasn’t able to do so. Her senior’s words stopped her. It was like a confession. She flinched and collapsed on top of the platform. She saw the two people through the flower garden behind the platform.

Her senior changed her words. She didn’t just express her interest, but outright expressed that she liked him. At that moment, she felt dizzy. She didn’t know that her senior would reveal her feelings so quickly. Although she calmly conversed with her before, she was feeling very complex on the inside. Her senior was a very famous idol. On top of that, she was pretty. Everyone she met evaluated her in a good way. Such a person was saying that she liked Maru, so there was no way she was comfortable with that.

Honestly, she didn’t have the confidence. Maru told her that he liked her, but she didn’t think that that would last forever. They were both just high school students. There was no way love gained at that time would last forever. They would have to separate one day, and she thought that she would just treat it as one of the good memories of her student days. She thought that it was only a matter of fact that he would move on to a better girl if one appeared. She consoled herself that way.

They would have to become strangers or friends one day. She thought that she would be just a little disappointed if they broke up now, and that she would be able to deal with it soon.

However, that wasn’t the case.

Her chest ached. It ached so much that she couldn’t breathe. It felt like there was a huge stone pressing down on her lungs. That stone even blocked out her cries. She could neither breathe nor cry. The only thing she could do was to watch the two people continue their conversation.

She couldn’t hear any of Maru’s words. She only heard her senior boldly confessing her feelings towards him. Every time her words passed through her ears, serious dizziness overwhelmed her.

Why? How? Was this something to be so shocked about? It was strange. Maru wasn’t an object one could own. He was free to love anyone. He might like her, but he might as well not like her as well. Everything was up to him after all. She was supposed to be able to accept that even if he told her that they should break up, and she was supposed to be able to just accept the fact after getting angry once, but her heart just raced like it was broken, and now it was powerlessly slowing down.

Her brain was whispering to her that it wasn’t anything much and that she should just laugh it over once those two decided to date, but her feelings were the opposite. She tried consoling herself by telling herself that the pain wouldn’t last a long time, but it was no good.

Maru looked around. She flinched back and hid behind a large plant. Now, she couldn’t leave either.

Right now, she had some scary thoughts. Even if the two affirmed their feelings towards each other and started dating, wouldn’t she be able to continue her relationship with Maru if she pretended she didn’t know anything? Wouldn’t it be okay even if Maru went to meet her senior in secret as long as he acted the same way in front of her?

She was startled out of her wits and shook her head. That was no good. That wasn’t good at all. She was already preparing herself for tragedy. She was already preparing for the worst. She was already drawing a picture where she sustained herself with the little bit of affection that Maru would give her without seriously having any feelings for her.

‘Like a pet.’

She clasped her hands. She tensed her toes as well. Then, she perked her ears. Now, she could hear Maru’s voice. The voice she consciously tried to block out could be heard again. She resolved to herself. If the two became lovers right now, then she would immediately rush out to them, slap both of them in the face, and smirk at her senior. Then, she would go home and start crying. Everything would be okay after crying a little.

That was how normal people would react. She didn’t want to become a tragic heroine. If it was going to be a tragedy anyway, she wanted to have her revenge. She didn’t want to be the Juliet that drank poison and followed Romeo to death.

Despite how she felt though, her arms and legs were trembling endlessly. She was feeling just how big Maru’s presence was in her heart. It was just one year. He had recklessly come to her house and confessed recklessly. He was a selfish man who only knew himself. Yet, right now, his presence filled her heart.

At that moment, Maru approached her senior and grabbed her senior’s shoulders. Their two faces slowly closed in on each other. She wanted to turn her head away. She wanted to pretend that she hadn’t seen anything. It would be much better for her heart if she just stayed ignorant. The two pairs of lips were about to touch each other. She felt as though the floor had disappeared. It felt like both her body and soul were falling into the abyss. She tried to stand up with a groan, but she couldn’t put any power into her body.

Actually, she had faith that Maru would keep looking her way; that he would firmly refuse her senior’s confession. However, his actions right now seem to indicate that he was about to kiss her senior, and her senior wanted to reject that. Was Maru that kind of boy? Was that all he amounted to?

She felt complex in her head. She was angry at herself for still having faith in such a person. Even though she witnessed decisive evidence, her heart was open to Maru. She felt stupid. She felt pathetic. A person with free will, a person that wasn’t a toy would not find any excuses while looking at such a scene.

She decided to rush out and ask him what he was up to. Then, she thought that she would apologize to her senior. She pushed against her knees and stood up halfway when Maru spoke. She put down her foot that she was about to lift. Instead, she just looked at Maru absent-mindedly.

Maru cleared up his relationship with her senior with a firm expression. Her senior became obstinate and spoke a few more lines, but Maru shook his head and drew the line and said that he would never become lovers with her. In fact, he even got angry and said that he was not comfortable with her actions.

Seeing that, she felt indescribably complex. First, she was happy. She was incredibly happy that Maru only thought about her. At the same time, she felt pathetic for reacting to every word of his. There was no need for her to hide, there was no need for her to feel anxious, but she fantasized about a non-existent future and pained herself.

Her chest felt much better as though nothing had happened to it. The sweet air filled her body. At the same time, she started crying. Even though it was nothing to cry about, she still cried. If she didn’t hold herself back, she might have started bawling her eyes out. She covered her mouth and blocked any sound that came from her mouth. It would be embarrassing if she got found out right now. If she did get found out, she wouldn’t leave her room for a long while. Like, really.

At that moment, she heard Maru’s voice.

“To me, she is that very breath.”

She was just regaining her vitality from almost becoming ash, and she heard those words. She didn’t know what to think, it just felt like Maru’s usual cheesy words. He said those words like it was nothing. She gained enough immunity to such words from hanging out with him a lot, but she felt very embarrassed right now. If it was just the two of them, she would have just giggled, but he was saying that seriously to her senior.

Despite that, those embarrassing words were adorable. The serious feelings in those words came to her. How could she help but not love Maru who said to anyone anywhere at any moment that he loved her? Of course, that didn’t mean that she wasn’t feeling embarrassed. Now, she felt like she would never be able to go up to those two. She felt that her face would redden up and burst the moment she stepped out.

At that moment, Maru looked straight into her eyes. She was startled. Maru looked like he knew she was here.

She realized why Maru said all those things to her senior. He might have had some intentions to tease her, but it looked more like he was scolding her. Why are you hiding? Why can’t you be more bold about it? I’m bold when it comes to you.

Maru seemed to be saying those words.

“Anyway, once she comes back, tell her to finish the lunchbox. You have to.”

He looked at her again after saying ‘you have to’. She lowered her head. Maru walked up the platform. She hugged her knees and looked down at the ground.

Having walked up the platform, Maru stopped next to her for a moment.

“If you did nothing wrong, then don’t hide. No, even if you have done something wrong, don’t hide. If you have any worries, tell me at any moment. That’s why I exist. Don’t get pained all by yourself, and don’t fantasize about foolish things. Also, if you want to hide, then hide properly. What are you doing in the open? Covering your head with your hands won’t do any good.”

“…Sorry.”

“So, what are you going to do? It’ll be awkward if you go down right now.”

“But I will go down anyway.”

“Really? Then do what you want. Oh, don’t forget to finish your lunch.”

“Yeah.”

She looked upwards. Maru patted her head twice before going towards the staff. She took a deep breath before looking towards her senior once. Her senior made a vain smile before kicking a can on the ground with an angry face. The empty can made a twang as it was flung across the sports field. Her senior looked at the can for a while before sighing and went to pick it up.

She quietly walked down from the platform. Her senior looked at her once before looking down. She didn’t know what to say. It felt like consoling her was overstepping the line and smiling would make her look crazy. She had no choice but to sit down without a word and pick up her lunch. Maru’s words that told her to finish her lunch spread in her mind.

“I just told Maru that I liked him.”

Her hands holding the chopsticks trembled. She didn’t think that her senior would mention it right away. She didn’t know what kind of expression to make. She couldn’t get angry nor could she look at her with pity.

“R-really?”

“Wow. This is the first time I've felt like this. Call me cocky, but the only time when things didn’t go the way I wanted was when I was young. Ever since I became a trainee, everything went the way I wanted it to. I was able to control myself and my environment as I wished. Lots of people swore at me for that, but just as many, no, even more people than that liked me.”

Her senior sighed and put her chin on her hands.

“But recently, nothing goes the way I want to. Whether it’s acting, or the atmosphere within the group. Do you know? The group is in shambles right now. It might dissolve. We are at the peak of our popularity on the surface, but it’s like walking on thin ice once we go back to the residence. Honestly, it’s tiring.”

Hearing the sudden story, she held her breath and started listening. Her senior talked about everything as though she was confessing.

“You know? I take a lot of meds. Do you know what stomach cramps are? They hurt like hell. I feel like dying. But even if I go to the emergency, there’s no cure. The only thing I can do is take some sedatives and lie down for a moment. The doctor told me that you can only endure stomach cramps. He says stress is the problem. But man, a high school student is suffering from stomach cramps?”

“You must have had it hard.”

“It was hard. But it was still fine. There were still things that went as I wanted them to. But after they started disappearing one by one, I just couldn’t hold it anymore. What was left at the end was just the attention from the public, just that. Many people say things about how I’m putting on an act, right?”

“No! It’s not like that. My friends really like you.”

“Thanks for telling me that. Anyway, in such a situation, Maru helped me out. I was surrounded on all sides, but his criticisms made me clear my mind. I was angry, but I was more thankful than angry. That’s probably why I came to like him. I didn’t believe in Cinderella, but I think I know what it feels like to believe in it. I can see why the prince fell for the princess instantly.”

Her senior bit her lower lip before making a faint smile.

“Your boyfriend was amazing. Wow, I don’t know how he can say such an embarrassing thing in front of me. Do you wanna know what he said to me?”

“N-no, it’s fine.”

“No, you have to listen. He said that you were his breath. He said that he can’t live without you. Is this a drama or a movie? Geez, that was just absurd. But… at that moment, I became envious of you who could listen to him saying that. Also, I realized that I couldn’t like him. It would only end up with me being in pain if I liked him.”

Her senior turned around her head and looked at her. Her eyes looked resolute and didn’t contain any hesitation. She was going to avoid her eyes, but resolved herself and looked back at her resolutely.

“Do you want to slap me?”

“Wh-what?”

She flinched back. Her eyes loosened as well.

“I said all that because I felt sorry. If you felt angry after listening to me, then you can hit me. Ah, I guess the face is bad. We still have some scenes to shoot. Do you want to rip my hair out or something?”

“No.”

“I won’t ask twice. Are you really not going to hit me?”

“No. I’m not going to.”

“Well, then, okay. There’s an idiom that says there’s no tree that’s unfellable, but looking at him, I feel like I know what an unfellable tree is. Did you two perhaps… sleep with each other?”

“S-seonbae!”

“I guess you didn’t. Sorry. I’m not sane right now. Haa.”

Her senior stood up.

“You can ignore me from now on. You can leave bad comments as well. You can talk bad about me if you want. I won’t say anything to you. I will not talk to him either. So don’t worry about me. In the first place, he was only looking at you.”

“……”

She looked up towards her senior. Her senior looked relieved yet depressed. She saw her hands trembling on her legs. It looked like she was about to cry.

“I just feel really frustrated. It’s because of him, so you don’t need to worry about me. I just feel a little stuffy, so…”

She looked at her senior who started talking all by herself before standing up and hugging her. She felt like she had to do that. Her senior was cornered. Maru appeared as someone who she could lean on in such a situation, so perhaps she became reliant on him. Yet, Maru decided to turn away from her. How would she feel? The group she debuted in was unstable, and her acting had hit a block. Although she was older than her, she was still a feeble high school student. She might be just as much of a crybaby as her.

She patted her senior on the back. Her senior started crying.

* * *

“That world is really unpredictable.”

Maru sighed as he watched her and Chaerim walk hand in hand around the school. He didn’t know what happened between the two, but it looked like they made up. Just now, the two walked up to him and said some incomprehensible stuff before giggling and walking away. He felt confused.

“Hyung.”

“What?”

“Girls are really unpredictable creatures, aren’t they?”

“Uh, yeah. I’ve been single my whole life, but I heard that.”

Woojoo looked away as he spoke.

Maru fell silent.

“Well… I’ll probably get married some day,” Woojoo spoke bitterly.

Chapter 328

The moon was blue. Even though the sun hadn’t set when the shoot began, the moon was high up already. They were in the streets a little away from Hongdae. The dark hillside road was the location of the next shoot. The two boys were going to quarrel over Yu-ri under the moonlight. A cliché of clichés.

“Today’s the last day, right?”

“Yes.”

Director Kim, the action director, spoke as he put a cigarette in his mouth. After taking a deep puff, he threw it on the ground and put it out with his foot, even though the cigarette hadn’t burned that much.

“Quitting this thing is quite tough. Do you smoke?”

“I’m a student.”

“When I was your age, we all smoked.”

“I want to live a long life, so I don’t plan to.”

“Alright. I’m not sure about drinking, but don’t smoke. It’s frustrating.”

This director Kim, named Kim Choongho, was someone Maru conversed with quite often during breaks. He seemed to have taken a liking to Maru ever since his falling action during Maru’s first shoot here, and came to talk to him. He also told Maru to come under his wing if he had any thoughts, that is:

“Do you really have no intention to work under me? Although stunt actors are given the cold shoulder right now, I’m very sure that their treatment will change in a while. This area will gain its own expertise. I’m going to make my kind, who are suffering from pain and hunger right now, full and satisfied. Though, it is a stunt we’re talking about, so you can’t help the pain.”

“I’m an aspiring actor, so I’ll have to refuse.”

“You can be an action actor. You know how to use your body well. If you learn just a little, you’ll be able to get hit or hit someone else in a grand fashion. Don’t you think that a man’s dream is to let his back do the talking? An action actor does not need words. He speaks with his fist and back.”

Choongho clenched his fist.

“Well, if you don’t have any intentions, then I guess that’s that.”

“Thanks for the offer.”

“You really are good at sneaking your way out. I attracted quite a few people with my words, too.”

While they talked, the shoot went on. The two main characters played out an action scene that they practiced beforehand. Since it was a difficult action scene, they didn’t take a long-take shot but split the scene up into different cuts. One punch was one cut. They would switch the camera angle and then shoot again. Choongho told Maru that it would look quite decent once those cuts were joined together in editing.

“Maru.”

“Yes?”

“Do you have anything after this? Like a drama or a movie.”

“No, not yet.”

“Then do you want to exercise your body with me after this? There’s a noir film that’s starting soon, and there are quite a few scenes that use the main character’s younger days.”

“A film noir?”

“It’s a movie with a mixture of crime, police, and thug-themes that’s popular in the country, and I’m in charge of combat in that movie. I need someone young that’s good at using his body, but this is quite hard. The director doesn’t want an adult that looks young, but an actual high school student-like high school student. He talked about immature and unfiltered pure violence and whatnot, but the point is that he needs someone that’s young yet capable of enduring rough actions.”

“I’m thankful for your words, but are you really okay with me? I’m not that good at acting.”

“Hey! You’re more than enough. So how about it? Do you wanna do it?”

“Of course I do. It’s an opportunity for me.”

“Then we’re doing it, okay? The shoot begins late August.”

“That’s quite early.”

“Everything’s planned out already.”

“What kind of role am I?”

“You’ll either be the one that gets hit by the main character, or someone at his side.”

“I don’t get to hit anyone?”

“Maybe once.”

Maru chuckled. At that moment, he remembered Bangjoo.

“Uhm, there’s a junior of mine that dreams to become an action actor, and he’s quite well-built. He’s a little short, but he’s definitely sturdy. He exercises regularly and I heard that he’s been doing Judo for five years. If you’re looking for a lot of extras, can I take him with me?”

“Well, that’s not bad on my part. I was planning to go to a gym I know and get some people there if I lacked people. However, there’s no guarantee that I’ll use him just because you bring him. I don’t believe in stuff like ‘someone’s recommendation’. I only believe what I see. You know what I mean, right?”

“Yes.”

He’s the actress Ahn Joohyun’s little brother - he almost said those words but decided not to. There were people that took into account connections, and there were those that did not, and Choongho was clearly the latter.

“But hey, is the girl you came with in the morning a friend of yours?”

“Ah, yes. She’s my girlfriend.”

“Good. Good times.”

“Have you married?”

“I have. When I go home, there’s a middle school student that wants to go to a cram school, and there’s an elementary school student that wants the new game console. I have it tough feeding all of them. Don’t you get married early. You’re still a kid, but listen to me. I mean it.”

“But don’t you feel happy when you see your kids?”

“I do. That’s precisely why I’m working. Rather than that, I think the writer is looking for you.”

Maru saw the writer waving from afar. He nodded and stood up. Today was his last day of Youth Generation. The drama would continue being aired, but there was no more ‘class president’ role. That was because the years changed. They told him that he might be called later as a passerby, but the probability of that seemed slim.

The class president appeared as an underhanded and submissive character until the end. He just exited the drama after hearing from the main protagonist to not live a cowardly life after he found out that the main heroine was plotted against. He shot this final scene, which would appear after the scene they were shooting now plot-wise, at the school already. The class president would then get along with the rest of the class thanks to the warm-hearted main heroine. He was the typical antagonist character that had a change of heart. The mid-boss of the beginning of the drama would exit the scene there.

“Please take care of me.”

He greeted Woomin and Yu-ri, the two main characters of the drama. Since he had no opportunities to talk or even see them, he wasn’t close to them. However, Woomin kept approaching him to see if he was okay ever since he pushed Maru down during the first shoot. Meanwhile, he had never even exchanged greetings with Yu-ri properly.

“Please take care of me too.”

Woomin replied and Yu-ri focused on the script as though she had no interest. As this was a common thing for him, Maru just nodded before standing in front of the director. After the rehearsal, they started shooting immediately. Yu-ri made a mistake once because there was a moth flying in front of the lights, and Woomin made a mistake once in speech. The shoot ended after three takes.

“Thanks for all your work.”

He greeted the director and the nearby staff before walking out. The drama which he started as a substitute, and ended as a minor role, ended like this. There was no ‘audience taking notice of him and gaining popularity’ that Daemyung had talked about before. Of course, he didn’t even expect such a thing. Bada had searched him up online a few times as a joke, and there wasn’t a single article about him. That was how minor roles worked.

“You did well. I’ll treat you to a meal later.”

After exchanging greetings with the camera director Kim Jangsoo, he left the scene.

There was no pressure that he had to portray the character well, nor fierce atmosphere at the scene, so he felt neither satisfied nor disappointed. He was just thankful that another day was over without any accidents.

His shadow stretched out since there was a light behind him. He wondered if his acting skills became as large as his stretched-out shadow. The work he did with elder Moonjoong was suffocating and heavy, but he definitely felt that he had walked up a level once that was over.

A child that did not know anything learned from his or her parents. A newbie was the same. If they didn’t know something, they gained experience and knowledge from the masters by watching them. A drama shoot was more like everyday life, but he enjoyed something that he could feel proud of better. Because he was at the age where it was okay for him to fall down while learning things, he wanted to taste a variety of things and more passionate moments.

After all, he would have to choose stability over challenge once he grew up more.

“See you next Wednesday. Bring that friend of yours as well,” Choongho spoke.

Since practice was short because of the festival, there didn’t seem to be any problem. There was a meeting on the fourth, and the preliminaries of the competition on the 8th. It was quite a full week.

“I’ll take my leave then.”

“Alright, thanks for your work.”

Maru quietly bid farewell before leaving the shooting scene. He messaged his manager on his way. The reply came back soon. Byungchan told him to send a message once it was set in stone.

* * *

The next day, when Maru went to school, it felt much more real to him that the festival was the day after tomorrow. There was a large banner on top of the school gates that said Woosung Festival. The white had turned yellow due to time, but the students cheered as soon as they saw that.

“Sit down. Over there, wake up. You played games the whole night, didn’t you? Look at your eyes. Do things moderately and sleep early. You’ll suffer when you grow up.”

“We’re still young though.”

“Youth is short. I’m telling you this as a senior who experienced youth already. Oh, there’s something I need to mention regarding the festival.”

Taesik said they couldn’t bring eggs or flour or it would bring a mess with it. It seemed that someone did so at the last festival.

It wasn’t like there was anything grand just because it was a ‘festival’, but the students in class were all excited because they had no classes the whole day. It was said that the academic high school next to theirs invited a famous singer, but Woosung High did everything within the school without calling any outside people. Maru thought that it was a natural result since calling such individuals would cost money.

“Do you have anything you want to do?”

At Taesik’s question, everyone put on bored faces. Taesik didn’t ask twice. At the Woosung Festival, clubs were the main hosters of activities. There were a few classes that were preparing something, but they were few and far in between. Even those select few were mostly stalls that sold food.

“There aren’t any girls in our class, how are we supposed to make food?”

“Teacher, let’s not do anything for the festival.”

The electrical engineering class. There were zero girls across the two classes. Everyone solidly expressed their refusal since they didn’t want to spend the festival with sweaty boys. At that moment, the laughter of the girls could be heard across the corridor. Departments where there were a lot of girls, like chemical engineering, design, and computer-related departments looked like they were in a festive mood. The kids in class all became depressed when they heard that laughter.

“I should’ve gone to design.”

“Chemical engineering for me.”

“I don’t like this class.”

The class all sighed.

“Then I guess you’re all on your own during the festival. Ah, there’s a talent show event in the gym. There’s a prize, so go there if you want. There’s also a cross-dressing competition. Photos will be taken and will be on the graduation album, so it might be good to leave behind some memories. Don’t doze off during classes today and have fun. That’s it from me.”

Taesik left with the class roster.

“Maru,” Daemyung spoke as he turned around.

“What?”

“We decided that we’ll hold practice sessions during lunch for the play we’re doing for the festival. Aram said that we might end up ruining things if we don’t prepare anything.”

“Alright, got it.”

Daemyung turned back around and took out his textbook for the first class. Maru wondered what kind of expression Daemyung and Jiyoon would make during the festival. He wondered if he was driving the two too far into a corner, but Aram’s driving force couldn’t be stopped now. It would be for the best if things went well and the two started dating, but it would get very complex if the two just became awkward with each other.

‘Well, things will go one way or the other.’

Maru sighed as he opened his bag.

* * *

“A movie?”

“Yes. It’s not confirmed, but you do need to take something like an audition. It looks like they’re looking for young people for the action scenes. How about it, wanna do it?”

“I’ll do it. I definitely want to do it,” Bangjoo widened his eyes as he replied.

Maru nodded. He thought that Bangjoo would hesitate at least, but it didn’t look like that at all.

“Are there things like wire action?”

“No, it’s nothing that grand. I’ve heard that it involves police and mafia, so it should be just fistfights, I think.”

“Aha. The basics of action.”

“Just in case, ask your parents for permission. You’ll need their explicit permission if official shooting begins.”

“They’ll probably allow me. They never objected to anything unless it was serious since I started living by myself.”

“I guess that’s reasonable.”

Since Bangjoo was independent since young, they should have that much faith in him at least.

“Do I need to prepare anything?”

“I’m not sure yet. He said he’ll call me, so he’ll probably tell me then. But I’ll say this for now, if you plan to do it, you can’t do it half-assedly. Also, you’ll have to do this in parallel with preparing for the national competition. If you quit midway because it’s hard for you, you might as well not start at all.”

“I can do it. I’m confident in my stamina.”

Bangjoo looked like he would beg Maru instead if he didn’t take him. Maru smiled and said yes. He didn’t know if Choongho would like him or not, but for now, he was very enthusiastic about it.

“But seonbae-nim.”

“Yeah?”

“The play we’re doing for the festival. Are we really going with that?”

“…Well, I think so.”

“Then the two will really end up kissing…”

“I don’t know. It depends on what happens that day. We can’t have anyone crying in the middle of the school field.”

“I’ll just do as I’m told.”

“I’m also just doing what Aram tells me to.”

Maru saw Aram who was giving a sermon to Jiyoon and Daemyung. Who could stop her now? He could only send his sympathies to the two sacrificial lambs.

“Seonbae! Practice, practice! Come here quick.”

“Alright, alright.”

Maru sighed as he stood up.

Chapter 329

“There’s a week left now. The day after the festival is the last day of school, and then there’s Friday and Saturday will be the preliminaries. Let’s keep up the pace until the last day. We’ll do two practice runs a day until Saturday. Other than that, we’ll make up for our respective weak parts.”

“Isn’t two runs too little?” Aram raised her hand and asked.

“We’ve got the movements and lines down, so I think two runs will suffice. What’s important is that we don’t lose our pace. I think it’s better to finish things off in a way that we don’t forget what we’ve practiced rather than stretching our limits and practicing too much. I’ll also make sure that practice doesn’t go over 4 hours. Instead, we’re going to wear the stage costumes the whole time, so you have to get them ready, okay?”

“Yes!”

“Are there any questions?”

“What happened to visiting the theater?” Jiyoon asked in a calm voice.

“We’re going to go today. Like last year, it’ll take place in Anyang City Center. If we go there now, there will probably be badminton courts set up. We’ll go and see for ourselves how wide the stage is, and what it feels like to stand on stage.”

“It’s not the finals even if we pass the preliminaries right?” Bangjoo asked.

“Yeah. The Gyeonggi province will hold two rounds of preliminaries. First is the southern Gyeonggi province, then the Gyeonggi province as a whole, and after that is the nationals in the minor theater in the Seoul Arts Center.”

“The Seoul Arts Center? It’s held in Seoul?” Aram spoke in surprise.

“Yeah. It’s the minor theater, but it’s still the Seoul Arts Center.”

“Have you been there before?”

Hearing that question, Daemyung made a bitter smile. Last year, they didn’t even pass the preliminaries in the Summer. They never got close to going to the Seoul Arts Center.

“No, I went there to sightsee before, but I’ve never been on stage since, in the winter, we got the gold prize.”

“Gold prize is first prize, right?”

“No, first prize is the grand prize. It was taken by Myunghwa High.”

Daemyung looked at Maru as he spoke. The day everyone put in best their effort to get the gold prize, Maru was looking up towards them from the audience seats. He always felt sorry towards Maru whenever he thought back to that incident. The one that saved their props and stage sets and enabled them to do the play was Maru after all.

“What is it?’

“No, it’s nothing.”

Maru yawned and stretched his arms out. Daemyung had a look at the clock in the classroom. It was 8 p.m.

“Thanks everyone. We’ll call it quits for today.”

He clapped twice to signal the end of practice. He was at a loss on what to do when the majority of the acting club members were in his 2nd year, but now, they were forging ahead with the help of the first years. Of course, Dowook was doing well as well. Although he complained a lot, he did not loiter about. He also had some competitive spirit in him and sometimes talked about getting the grand prize.

There was no need to talk about Maru. He was the pivot that gathered everyone together. If he just went ahead by himself, the play, which was a combined effort, would have been ruined, but Maru leveled himself with the first years that were still lacking and helped them out in parts where they were stuck, keeping the ship, that is, the play, from sinking.

This was something he knew since he watched Maru from the side. The first years were at ease when they practiced with Maru. Maru was helping them get immersed in acting.

After the movie and the drama shoot, Maru’s acting became more leisurely. The Maru that Miso mentioned, who would easily get excited once he’s on stage, would probably not appear again anymore.

On one hand, he became curious. He wondered what Maru would be like if he released his full potential and didn’t just level himself with the first years. He would be able to see Maru on stage again with the preliminaries this time.

Daemyung still remembered the ‘youth’ played by Maru last year. Back then, Maru popped out on the stage. There was no other suitable description than ‘popped out’ to describe that situation. It had been more than half a year since then. Ever since the winter preliminaries, they had never stood on stage together again. Daemyung really looked forward to what kind of appearance Maru would show him on stage.

“Ah! Seonbae!”

Just as he was about to pack up and go home, Aram grabbed Jiyoon’s hand and stood in front of him. Daemyung blinked several times as he looked at Aram.

“Yeah?”

“Please take Jiyoon home for me. I have something to do today, so I’ll have to go in a different direction. It won’t even take 20 minutes of your time.”

“M-me?”

“Yes. You’re the club president, aren’t you? You should take care of your members.”

“Doesn’t Bangjoo go the same way as her?”

Daemyung turned around to find Bangjoo. At that moment, he saw Bangjoo who was being dragged by Dowook outside the classroom. He flinched and looked for Maru this time. He couldn’t be seen either.

“Anyway, it’s dangerous at night, so please take care of her for me.”

“Aram, if I take the bus…”

Before Jiyoon even finished speaking, Aram rushed out of the classroom. She didn’t forget to leave behind the words ‘you two are the main characters during the festivals so get close’.

Daemyung gulped. He didn’t know what to do in a situation like this. Jiyoon might misunderstand if he told her that he’d take her home, but it was too dangerous to let her go home by herself at this hour. He was agonized about what to do.

“Um… seonbae.”

“Y-yeah?”

“I want to repay you for consulting me last time… if it’s okay with you, w-won’t you go watch a m-movie with me?”

Daemyung looked at Jiyoon dazedly. Having finished speaking, Jiyoon was fidgeting. Her eyes were at a loss on where to look.

“A m-movie?”

“I-if you don’t want to, then that’s okay too!”

“No, I, I mean…”

A movie? As Daemyung had no experience watching a movie together with a girl, this offer was too big. He didn’t even know how to answer. What kind of answer should he give her? Say yes? No, she probably offered out of courtesy, so wouldn’t Jiyoon be at a loss instead if he just accepted without knowing how she felt? He should refuse here now, right? That was the right thing to do, right?

He really wanted to go… but that wasn’t probably what she was intending. He thought that refusing was the right thing to do.

At that moment, he remembered back to March of last year. Back then, he had the victim mentality and couldn’t trust anyone even if they came to him with goodwill. He interpreted goodwill as malicious intent all by himself and isolated himself, and he blamed others for his isolation. That kind of bad cycle continued.

-But if not, why don’t you start talking with them for once?

Those words from Maru cut off that vicious cycle.

Daemyung clenched his hands and looked Jiyoon straight in the face. He always looked at the floor, he always looked elsewhere. Now that he thought about it, he was being rude to the other party by doing that.

Jiyoon had closed her mouth. She had shrunk back and her cheeks were blushing. Daemyung felt like he finally saw Jiyoon properly today. She might have asked out of courtesy, she might be expecting a refusal. However, for just today, Daemyung wanted to tell her what he was thinking. He did not twist the intentions of others and he himself showed his intentions honestly.

“…Today is a bit late, are you okay with that? If you’re okay with it I-I want to go.”

Why was it so hard to say those words? He felt even more nervous than when he first stood on stage. He could hear his heartbeat.

Thump, thump, thump.

It was loud enough that he thought that it might burst.

Jiyoon slowly looked back at him. Now, he would find out the answer. Jiyoon’s mouth curved into a soft smile. He saw that she was relaxing her shoulders. The small and feeble girl sighed in relief before replying.

“I’m okay with that as well. Oh, just wait. I’ll text mom for a bit.”

Jiyoon, who was usually slow in her actions, took out her phone on the spot and started texting. Daemyung had never seen Jiyoon act so quickly before. After typing a text message with her two thumbs, she sent the message before raising her head. Then, she suddenly grabbed Daemyung’s wrist.

Daemyung looked down at his hand. The delicate hand was grabbing his wrist.

“N-no! It’s not what you think!”

Jiyoon was startled and let go immediately. Daemyung also flinched as well. Right now, his heartbeat was coming out of his ear canals.

“Sh-shall we go?”

“Y-yes.”

Daemyung couldn’t look at Jiyoon in the face. Why did she do that just now? He thought about it, but he didn’t arrive at an answer. He felt good, but at the same time, he felt nervous. He felt like his head was about to burst already. What movie shall we see? What about the popcorn? Should I buy the coke? How about the time?

He climbed down the stairs in a dreamy state. He could hear the sound of footsteps following him from behind. When he went down to the third floor, Daemyung turned his head slightly. He saw Jiyoon, who was looking down at the floor with her hands locked. When the faint moonlight reflected against her hair, his head turned blank.

Daemyung reached out with his hand even knowing that he might regret his actions later. Even though he thought that he might roll around in bed in agony later, he still took action.

I must be crazy - he kept saying that in his mind and grabbed Jiyoon’s hand. His Adam's apple waved. He felt like he was sweating cold sweat due to the nervousness. He was worried that Jiyoon might retract her hand in surprise and then proceed to look at him with disgust.

Just as he came to himself and was about to say sorry, Jiyoon grabbed his hand as well.

They didn’t say anything for a while. Daemyung walked down the stairs with shaking hands. What he found out as he went down the stairs was that Jiyoon’s hands were trembling as well.

* * *

“…No way.”

“What the heck is this?”

“This is different from how I imagined it would go.”

Maru had a look at the three who stood there dazed, and then looked at the two people on stage, Daemyung and Jiyoon.

On the day of the festival, the acting club prepared a play on the right platform of the school field just as they had planned. They held the play at 1 p.m. since it was just after lunch, and people would be around the cafeteria. It was the golden hour.

Only the two main characters got stage costumes, and the others just went with casual outfits. Since the play’s story was that Romeo and Juliet had revived in modern times, they didn’t even need to care about the outfit. Other than that, it didn’t matter how this play turned out to be. After all, even Aram, the ‘director’ of the play, said that she was satisfied as long as the two were given an opportunity even if the play failed.

Yes. The play didn’t matter. As long as it created an opportunity for Daemyung and Jiyoon, it wouldn’t matter even if they screwed up their lines or their movements. It was even okay if their diction was bad. Of course, it was ‘called’ an opportunity, but it was more like teasing them.

“Hey, I’m envious!”

“What are you doing! Are you going to do it for real?”

“Since you’re doing it, let’s go with a kiss!”

Maru smiled when he heard the cheers and boos from the audience.

Ever since the play started, he ad-libbed his way to the end. They were just enjoying this, and there would be no problems even if they made a mistake, so everyone just laughed and enjoyed the show. Then, during the final moment, the club members all left the stage with the exception of the Daemyung-Jiyoon duo and shouted ‘kiss!’. Aram said that they should put an end to the play if it looked like things were getting too unbearable. Maru thought that she was reasonable and had a look at Daemyung’s expression as they shouted ‘kiss!’, but something completely unexpected happened at that moment.

Jiyoon, who was looking up at Daemyung’s face, tiptoed and gave Daemyung’s cheeks a smooch. Aram, who was expecting a laugh instead, reddened and fell into a panic, while Bangjoo and Dowook made somewhat relieved-yet-bitter expressions.

“Whew.”

Maru clapped and shouted ‘why don’t you just kiss instead?’ like the people in the audience. The two smiled shyly before holding a curtain call all by themselves. After signalling the end of the play, the two held hands and went into the school.

Seeing that, Aram made an unrecognizable ‘huoh’ noise and collapsed on the spot.

“Aram.”

“…Yes?”

“How are you going to handle Jiyoon now?”

“I-I don’t know.”

“Sheesh. You should find a boyfriend soon as well. Youth is short.”

Maru patted Aram on the shoulder before shouting at the audience.

“The play is over!”

Chapter 330

Just speaking of the results, Aram’s ‘help’ was successful. After all, the two started dating. Though, the perpetrator Aram had an expression of disbelief on her face.

After the play, the club members all separated. Maru watched some of the events that were held in the main building before going to the screen room on the fourth floor. The sound of a movie could be heard from the small computer speakers installed next to the beam projector.

It was a war movie. He could see the figures of American soldiers that ran along the beach within a rain of bullets. It seemed to be set in the Normandy Landings.

The beam projector seemed to be nearing the end of its lifespan as it turned grey from time to time. The scene where the man, who seemed to be the main character, got hit by a bullet greyed out as well, but no one was disappointed. That was because all the students in the screen room were sleeping. It was just as he had heard. He heard people say that the screen room was more like a sleeping room, and indeed, everyone here was sleeping. There were around six people here.

Maru put three chairs together by the window to make a makeshift bed. Sunlight shone through the gap between the curtain and the window. There was no better environment than this for a midday nap. He crossed his arms and closed his eyes. He could hear the laughter of students outside the window. They were burning their youth right now, so they must be having fun.

The sound of the movie and the occasional snoring, as well as the summer rays of the sun that tickled his eyes when the wind blew the curtains - all of these made him smile. He liked the festival, but he liked this leisure better.

* * *

When he opened his eyes again, the first thing he saw was a couple kissing each other. The movie had changed to something else. What time was it? He took out his phone and checked the time. It was 4 p.m. There was an hour until the end of the Woosung Festival. The outside was still noisy. Only the screen room was quiet like it was isolated from the rest of the world.

He turned around slightly to have a look at the screen room. There wasn’t a single student remaining in the room. It seemed that they had all left. He stretched his arms out and stood up. His waist ached a little.

“It’s the holidays!”

Someone’s shout could be heard. Tomorrow was the last day of school. The reason Woosung Festival was even more fun than usual was because it occurred just before the holidays. He yawned and looked at the movie that was rolling all by itself without an audience. Sometimes he needed solitude like this. Loud and noisy was good, but a time where he could organize his thoughts and calm down was also necessary.

He opened his phone which he put on the desk. He opened the message box and checked the message from Choongho. He wanted to see Maru at 4 p.m. tomorrow. A gym in Seoul was the location.

“If we practice after the closing ceremony… well, I guess there’s plenty of time.”

After that audition, he would practice for two days, and it would be the preliminaries. If the preliminaries and the audition went well, he would have to spend the month of August very busily.

Just as he was putting back the chairs in place, the door to the screen room opened and someone came in. That person walked to the beam projector and turned it off before starting to put it away. At that time, the speaker in the class told everyone to gather in the gym. It seemed like they were planning to end the festival.

* * *

“Where were you?”

“In the screen room.”

“Why did you go there?”

“To get some sleep,” Maru yawned and looked at Daemyung.

“Rather than that, who confessed first?”

Hearing that question, Daemyung made an awkward smile and avoided Maru’s gaze. From the looks of it, it seemed that Jiyoon confessed first.

“You happy?”

“…Yeah.”

“Should I transfer schools? Man, it feels lonely.”

The principal’s speech on top of the platform was nearing its end. When he walked down after saying that he’ll see them tomorrow, the students started whispering to each other, saying ‘we have to listen to this whole thing again tomorrow?’ or something like that.

“With this, I hereby claim the end of the Woosung Festival.”

The Woosung Festival ended along with the student council president’s proclamation. The teachers of each class took over from there. Although the festival was over, there was still cleaning up to do.

“Do we meet at the practice room after this?”

“Yeah. I messaged the others already.”

Each student took the chair they were sitting on and returned to their class. Everyone looked tired. They moved around busily under the sun the whole day, so it wasn’t that surprising.

“Don’t be late for the closing ceremony tomorrow. You’ll have to empty your desks and lockers, so make sure you take a portion of that today. The school might undergo maintenance during the holiday, so the school is not responsible for anything you might lose. Well done today and see you tomorrow.”

After a short homeroom, Maru picked up his bag and stood up.

“I’ll visit the container before I go. I’ll bring the props and shoes.”

“Do you want me to go with you?”

“I can take Dowook with me.”

“I’ll go as well.”

“No, you should go to the clubroom first.”

Daemyung was flustered about it for some reason. Dowook was also complaining about why he had to go. Daemyung dragged Dowook and climbed down the stairs.

Maru watched Daemyung and Dowook walk down the stairs before walking up to the fifth floor. The first years hadn’t arrived yet. They were probably still cleaning. It would take quite some time to put away the various equipment and things that were displayed on the 2nd floor.

“What, the festival is over?”

The one that came in like it was her room was Yoojin. She sat down with a disappointed face. She was wearing a white t-shirt and blue overalls.

“Are you on holiday?”

“Yeah. Rather than that, don’t you guys have practice? Why’s no one here?”

“They went to get some things. Rather than that, you should’ve gone to play with your friends or something. Why are you here?”

“I came here after playing a lot with your girlfriend so don’t worry about that.”

“Really? Where did you go?”

“We went shopping, I had her hair done at my mom’s shop, and we watched a movie together. How about it? Feeling envious yet?”

“Yeah, I feel very envious.”

At that moment, his phone started ringing.

“Yeah, what is it?”

-I’m planning to buy some things to eat while I’m here. Are the others there?

“Not yet. Oh, there’s one more person, so buy more than usual.”

-Yoojin’s here?

“Yeah. She brought a lot of things too.”

Maru spoke as he looked at the box that Yoojin brought. It seemed like a container for makeup. Daemyung said ok before hanging up.

“How leisurely. The girls at my club have been practicing since morning.”

“There’s not much time left, so what good is being so nervous about it? Rather than that, why did you bring that here?”

“The competition is just a few days away. So I’m planning to practice before the competition.”

“When are the preliminaries for the Seoul region?”

Maru opened the makeup box as he asked.

“Ours is this Saturday. Isn’t yours Saturday or Sunday as well?”

“Yeah.”

“When is it?”

“Saturday. Is this the foundation?”

Maru picked up a round container as he spoke.

“Yeah. I’ll need to touch up your face with that first and apply makeup according to the contour of your face. While we’re at it, let’s do you first.”

“Now?”

“Stay still and close your eyes.”

He couldn’t say no to Yoojin so he just closed his eyes obediently. He could hear some rustling noises. The smell of powder flashed past his nose.

“Don’t open your eyes. This thing will hurt your eyes badly.”

“I get it so be careful.”

He waited with his eye closed, but Yoojin didn’t start for a long time. Just as he was sighing, a cotton wool-like sponge touched his cheeks.

“Stay still.”

“Yeah, yeah. I’ll stay completely still, so make me pretty.”

The touch on his cheeks disappeared before something more moist touched his face. When he flinched due to the cold sensation, Yoojin told him not to move.

“You do know how to do this, right?”

“Well, I do.”

The answer was a little strange. He became anxious. He was worried that he might have become a clown when he opened his eyes.

“Pucker your lips.”

He puckered his lips as instructed. A lipstick touched his lips. The sensation of lipsticks put on him by someone else wasn’t that good. It was ticklish and somewhat embarrassing.

“I can put lipsticks on by myself.”

“Just stay still. Trust in this master and stay still.”

“What color is it?”

“Passionate red.”

“…Please don’t joke with me.”

“Don’t talk. It’s ruining things. I’m going to go over your nose now.”

When doing makeup for a stage play, the makeup on the contours like the cheeks was quite thick. This was done on purpose in order to emphasize the outline of the face of the actors when they stood under a strong set of lighting. Ordinary makeup would make the impression of the actor faint when they went up on stage. Thinking about it like that, the makeup of the actors was like a mask. It was like how the actor put on the mask of the character; putting makeup on their face was a way of putting a different personality on the face.

“What did you do during the festival?”

“Nothing. I just slept.”

“Sleep? Even though it’s a festival?”

“Only youngsters with stamina should play around.”

“You sound like a 70-year old grandpa.”

A finger touched his forehead. Something was being spread around on his forehead. At that moment, he heard the sound of footsteps. Maru wondered if the first years were here.

“Oh?”

Perhaps they found Yoojin’s presence here surprising. The one that Maru assumed to be Jiyoon, voiced out in surprise.

“You guys should watch.”

Yoojin spoke. There was a prankful tone in her voice. At this point, Maru was sure that she was playing a prank on his face.

“Can I open my eyes now?”

“If you open them now, it might hurt more than toothpaste entering your eyes.”

He had no choice but to endure. Following that, he heard the voices of Aram and Bangjoo. They all voiced out in surprise before laughing in a small voice. Had he become a clown already? Since it was like this anyway, he hoped he had a cool-looking teardrop mark on his face.

The hand that stroked his forehead and nose slipped. Maru frowned.

“Hey, aren’t you putting too little effort into this?”

“Stop talking and just wait. Working hard here.”

‘Sure you are.’

He sighed inwardly as he waited patiently. The makeup seemed to be done as he heard a small sigh.

“Is it done?”

“Yeah.”

“Can I open my eyes?”

“Go ahead.”

Maru slowly opened his eyes. In front of him was Yoojin holding a hand mirror. Behind her were the first years, and they all had strange expressions. It looked like they were all holding their laugh. He was sure that his face was messed up.

He received the hand mirror and had a look at his face. Unexpectedly, the makeup was decent, if he didn’t count the lipsticks that had smeared past his lips, that there was a black dot under his eyes, and that his cheeks were too red.

“Are you really able to take care of all of us like this? It’s a little disappointing.”

“What are you dissatisfied with?”

“This place and this place. It’s not symmetric either.”

“So you don’t like it?”

“I don’t. If you were going to do it, you should’ve done it properly. Have you really learned how to do this?”

Hearing those words, Yoojin made a faint smile and crossed her arms. She looked triumphant for some reason.

“There you have it.”

Yoojin looked behind him as she spoke. Behind? Maru turned around. There, he saw her who was smiling bitterly. There were a bunch of cosmetics in her left hand.

“It’s bad, right?”

“……”

Maru didn’t say anything and looked at Yoojin again. He did find a few points strange: the fact that she came here by herself despite saying that they played together, the fact that the preparation time took strangely long, and the fact that she said ‘Well, I do.’ He laughed. Now he understood why the first years were surprised.

“She’s my helper. We’re going to go together on Sunday.[1]”

Helper? Maru turned around and looked at her.

“How about Myunghwa High’s preliminaries?”

“It’s on Saturday.”

“Are you sure it’s okay for you to come? We’re both south Gyeonggi, you know?”

“I don’t think our school will fail just because I helped with makeup.”

She looked confident. Maru smiled faintly.

“So you’re the one who called Daemyung and sent him away?” He asked Yoojin.

She nodded as though it was natural. At that moment, Daemyung and Dowook entered with some food. Dowook looked at Yoojin and her alternately before making a confused expression.

“Well then! Gather round. Let’s do your makeup. Let’s see what suits you. Oh, she’s Maru’s girlfriend and she’ll help me with your makeup for your play,” Yoojin spoke heartily.

* * *

“Stay still.”

“Go slowly. You keep poking my eyes.”

“Geez, you talk too much. I should just draw on your face.”

“Hey, I’ll see you after this.”

“How scary.”

Dowook and Yoojin growled at each other.

“They’re on good terms, right?”

Maru looked at her, who was next to him. She was smiling as she looked at the two.

“They’re like enemies. Rather than that, don’t you have practice to do? Can you come here like this?”

“We already finished ours in the morning. We decrease the amount of practice starting a week prior to the competition.”

After saying that, she hesitated and touched her hair. She had long straight hair when they met on Sunday, but today, it was a little shorter. Also, it had a wave to it. He wondered if he should act like he noticed. Looking at her sullen face was fun, but today, he decided to tell her that she was pretty.

“Your hair’s pretty.”

“Doesn’t it look awkward on me?”

“Not at all.”

“Really? I feel awkward though.”

“Why don’t you try short hair once? It will look good on you.”

“I think short hair will look strange on me though.”

“No, it will look good on you.”

Because I know all too well. I saw you with short hair a lot after all. Maru smiled and brushed up a bit of her that flowed down.

“Ah, that’s right. I actually have something I want to boast about.”

“Something to boast about?”

“I passed the first audition for a sitcom.”

“Sitcom? A TV program then?”

“Yeah.”

“When did you prepare that?”

“It hasn’t been that long. A graduate of our school works in an agency and asked me if I wanted to do one. I didn’t think I’d pass. Though, it’s still just the first step.”

“That’s good. Will I see you on TV then if you pass?”

“Yeah. I’m appearing as a friend, so even if I do pass, I won’t get to appear that much.”

“You never know. You might end up becoming the main character.”

“Nah, no way.”

Maru congratulated her. Good things would happen as long as she kept piling her career. If there was one thing that worried him, it was that she only stood in theaters until her mid twenties in his previous life.

‘So it will be a series of split paths from here on, huh.’

Maru grabbed her hand tightly. He didn’t know how life would turn out in the future, but he would be there for her.

“Over there! Dating is forbidden within school grounds!” Yoojin shouted.

Maru smiled and pointed at Daemyung who sat in front of him. Daemyung was flinching as soon as he heard the word ‘dating’.

“You should tell that to him.”

“What do you mean by that?”

“Ask him yourself?”

Maru chuckled and looked at her. She made a confused expression before making a smile.

‘This is a decent end to the festival.’

A festival with her by his side. Nothing would be better than this.

[1] I dunno what happened. I thought Woosung High’s round was on Saturday as well…?

Chapter 331

She picked up the album jacket with the name ‘Kwon Dayoon’. Looking at herself with a bright smile on her face, it felt bad. Dayoon threw the album onto the sofa. The album bounced off the sofa and fell on the floor. The plastic casing opened due to the shock and the CD popped out, rolling around on the floor before lying on the ground. The album jacket lay next to it, and she saw the faces of the members who were making a pose in a friendly manner. Dayoon picked up a cushion from the sofa and threw it towards the CD. She didn’t even want to see it.

She hugged her knees and watched the TV dazedly. On TV, it was talking about The Five which had split up. Their agency, who had originally said that they would try to talk things through until the end, had just announced the cancellation of the contract. The cameras captured the middle and high school girls who were wearing black masks and going on a riot in front of the agency building.

“Bullshit. You’re going to forget about them once some time passes.”

Dayoon changed the channel. This time, it was a comedy program. Was that supposed to be funny? She pressed buttons on the remote again. None of the channels satisfied her. In the end, she ended up on a channel that spoke a foreign language. It was much better to not understand anything at all.

She stood up and opened the fridge. The empty fridge contained some pizza slices that she had ordered yesterday. She couldn’t eat pizzas no matter how much she wanted to during her trainee days, but now that she was free to eat them, it did not satisfy her at all. It wasn’t that she was worried about gaining weight. If she wanted to lose weight, she could just skip meals. It was just that she was fed up. Cheap food like that no longer satisfied her.

Despite that though, she microwaved a piece of pizza. She picked up the flabby piece of pizza and returned to the sofa. The sensation of soggy pizza spread around in her mouth. She chewed a few times before spitting it back out on the plate. She didn’t want to eat this shit. She went to the kitchen, opened the trash can, and threw the pizza in. The smell of tomato paste residue from her mouth was disgusting. She washed her mouth with running water a few times before drinking a cup of milk.

She didn’t have any schedule today, nor did she have any place to go to. She had cut all ties with her parents ever since she became a legal adult. She didn’t want to give any of her hard earned money for their comfort. She wanted to break her phone whenever they called her and asked her if she could send them money for traveling. They stopped at nothing. Even though she had told them multiple times not to call again, they always ended up calling again and asked her for money. They were like cockroaches. No matter how many times she killed them, those horrible creatures still crept out of nowhere. She wished for them to disappear. Dayoon bit her nails. She knew very well why she had no appetite and was constantly annoyed. Time was ticking. Tick tock tick tock, the sound of ticking could be heard from the clock.

“Let’s… think about it positively.”

Dayoon took off her pajamas. She stood in front of the dressing table in her underwear. She saw her face which was devoid of vitality. This was no good. She smiled faintly. Her facial muscles instantly created the perfect smile for her face. At this point, she was like a machine.

She touched up her skin and did a light touch on her cheeks. The one she was planning to meet today did not like heavy makeup. That person liked the natural kind of beauty with thin makeup. She only faintly drew the eyeline and went with a faint lipstick. After combing her messy hair, she straightened it out with a straightener. Her hair reached down to her chest.

She took out some underwear from her closet. They were white without any patterns. She changed into those and stood in front of the full body mirror. She felt a little better after seeing her body that didn’t have any excess fat. She put on a light blue one piece dress and wore a silver necklace with a cross on it. To finish things off, she put on a floppy hat. If she lowered her head, only her chin would be seen by the others.

She sat quietly on the sofa in the living room with her phone in hand. Now that she had dressed up, the annoyance and resentment that she had before seemed to have disappeared. She was even grinning a little.

“I must be crazy,” she chuckled.

Just then, she felt a strong vibration from her hand. She felt shivers go up her spine. She sighed in a small voice and answered the call. It was ‘that person’.

“Yes, okay. I got it.”

She took a deep breath and left the residence. She was going down on the elevator but someone entered on another floor. Dayoon looked downwards and fidgeted with her phone. She could see the man that just got on giving her glimpses.

The elevator arrived on the first floor. Dayoon got off first and rushed out of the apartment complex. She looked around her as she walked. Thankfully, no one seemed to recognize her.

On the street a little away from the apartment complex, Dayoon straightened her shoulders and walked boldly. People didn’t recognize her anyway. That was because the idol impression became faint when she didn’t have the stage costumes and makeup on.

Despite that, the gazes of the men around her were still hot. Having a pretty face was a heaven-sent blessing. Dayoon looked at the reflection of her face on a glass pane on a building. That face was what allowed her to reach all the way here. She put on a smile that revealed four of her upper teeth. Even she herself thought that her face was charming. It would be better if her nose was a little higher, but she had no plans on getting surgery. She saw an idol being buried into the depths of the abyss when the fact about her plastic surgery was revealed. If she wanted plastic surgery, she had to have had it done before her debut. After that, she would have to claim that it was natural.

It was funny when she thought about it. Surgery was also a form of effort that required risks, but the public considered losing weight as the only ‘effort’ to become prettier. Anything other than that was a sin. In that sense, Dayoon was thankful that she was born with a pretty face. It would have been horrible if she took after her parents.

“That’s right, I’m pretty.”

She felt a little better. Using her appearance to earn money. How good was that? She walked a little more and entered the high street. Just as she was watching the cars driving by, a black sedan stopped in front of her. The door to the passenger seat opened. Dayoon bent slightly and checked who was in it. That person was looking at her as well.

“Get in,” the man inside the car spoke.

Dayoon nodded. She looked around to see if there was anyone looking at her before getting in the car. She closed the window and took off her hat. The man was lighting up his cigarette.

“I’ll be smoking a bit.”

“Yes.”

Dayoon could only reply and wait. She didn’t have that many opportunities to express her own opinion. The man puffed his cigarette and heaved a slow breath out. He was fifty years old. He was an executive at a well-known construction company. At the same time, he was close with the president of her agency.

She got to know this man 2 years ago. Before Blue was formed, Dayoon was despairing as a failed idol. The six members of her former group had resolved together to become successful, but they scattered into thin air after the president of that agency went missing. She was twenty-two that year. She was at a dangerous age for an idol. The money they worked hard to gather was taken by the president of the company as well. Even the head manager of that company went to another company. The members that promised to be together forever had all scattered as well. Among them, three had debuted in another idol group, and two had disappeared altogether.

Dayoon felt stuck. She wondered if she should start taking part time jobs again or prepare herself to get a job. The shock she felt when the path of idols, she had been treading on the whole time, collapsed was too big. She never felt as close to the word ‘suicide’ as she had been then. She had always wondered why people threw themselves into the cold waters of Hangang, but she herself was looking for a bridge when her group disbanded. She was afraid of the very land that she was standing on. It wasn’t even funny. She couldn’t even count the number of times she peeked over the fence.

It was around that time that she came across this man. She was invited to drink by a member of her former group. She didn’t feel that good about it, but she had to do something, so she accepted that invitation. When someone around her father’s age sat down at the same table, Dayoon was both frightened and relieved. She felt like a savior had descended.

She had heard of the rumors as well: that there were people that approached female celebrities. This didn’t happen to the most popular of actors, but to entertainers at the edge of a cliff like her, it happened quite frequently.

The first drinking night was just that - drinking. They drank together and just conversed. There was no indecent gaze or dirty hand movements. Dayoon, who had been nervous, felt like she was just hanging out with an oppa who was just a bit older than most. When that man stood up saying that he had to go home, he handed her some money. When she checked, it was 500 thousand won. It was five hundred thousand just for drinking together and listening to his stories.

When she received that money, Dayoon intuitively realized that that was the decisive moment. She could just end everything there. She could just forget about it and consider it as some pocket money. At first, she tried to do that. It wasn’t like she was harassed or anything, so she didn’t feel bad either.

However, when she came back home and faced the reality that she had an interview tomorrow for a part time job, she immediately sent a text message to the number saved on her phone.

After that, Dayoon experienced things she had never had before. She was able to buy all the clothes she liked at the shopping mall, ate food that melted in her mouth, and watched a movie by herself in the cinema. The world she lived in was different. That man was someone that lived in a completely different world that ordinary salarymen could never imagine.

Their meetings became more frequent, and when they met at the bar again, that man asked her if she was willing to leave things up to him. Dayoon heard those words as ‘sex’. Despite the overwhelming guilt, Dayoon replied ‘yes’. That night, Dayoon slept with that man at a hotel. Her partner was nearing fifty in age, but his body was well built thanks to regular exercise and a balanced diet.

After the intercourse, Dayoon thought that this kind of life was perhaps okay too. Both of them had to keep it secret anyway. After all, the man had a wife as well. Moreover, Dayoon started liking the man, emotionally, that is. It was not a sin to get support from someone she loved, was it?

After that, she got contacted to become a trainee at a huge entertainment agency, Yellow Star. Dayoon thought that the man had done what he said he would, and when she met him again later, she shook her ass to the best of her abilities. She licked his sexual organ with her tongue and massaged it with her entire body. Then, she told him that she loved him.

After that, she spent her days as a trainee of Blue and made her debut. At first, the tag ‘second hand idol’ always followed her, but that disappeared soon. A fan cafe was formed, and inside that, she was dubbed the ‘big unni’. Thanks to the series of hugely successful albums, she was on a path to success. The number of people that recognized her increased by the day and in just one year, they were able to hold their own concert. Although they didn’t earn that much money due to the contract, that was something that was going to be solved soon, so she did not worry about it. She felt happy. She had returned from her gloomy life to a world filled with golden light.

From that moment, Dayoon became wary of that man. It would be the end of an idol once they got involved with a scandal. She avoided all calls from that man and ran away from him with the excuse that she had schedules. She scolded herself and told herself that the love was just an illusion and focused on her activities as an idol.

She thought that she would continue being an idol without many problems. She thought that happiness would last forever. However, after around a year, the relationship between members worsened dramatically. She didn’t know what caused it. When she realized, they were at a point where they became annoyed by just talking to each other. It became even worse thanks to the TV shows they attended. They hugged each other with smiles on TV, and they returned to being cold when they returned to their residence.

The moment their relationship cracked, their rankings on various charts fell as well. They had never missed first place on the rankings before, but they couldn’t even take first place on the week their album was released. It was a sign of falling. They were in second place, but that wasn’t enough. The new idols that appeared were younger, prettier and cuter than them. They took first place for five weeks straight with a song written by a popular songwriter. They were in 2nd place for a while until they disappeared completely.

It was around that time that the president called Blue and told them that they should do their best in areas that they were most confident in. It wasn’t a disbanding of the group. They were starting individual activities just like TTO.

The one that became popular first was Chaerim. She was viewed in a good light in a drama she entered with her popularity as an idol, and following that, she was cast as one of the lead roles in Youth Generation, which was known to be the gateway to becoming a star.

“Fuu…”

Dayoon exited her reminiscence. The man was putting out his cigarette. An acrid smell poked her nose. She hated that smell, but she was okay with it right now. No, it even smelled fragrant. The man closed his mouth and started driving. Dayoon looked in front of her before giving the man a glimpse. The man was on a phone call. He was talking about some construction site. Dayoon looked at the photo on the dashboard. There was a fair lady and the man was standing next to her. In front of the two were a boy and a girl with a bright smile on their faces. At that moment, the man reached out and put the photo face down. Dayoon thought that she shouldn’t have looked before looking downwards.

Chapter 332

The man turned on the radio. Coincidentally, the music that flowed out belonged to Blue. It was the title song of their first album. She had practiced it a lot to the point that she would subconsciously dance according to the rhythm just by listening to the melody. After the first verse, Chaerim’s solo started.

‘It was good back then too.’

Dayoon looked outside the window.

Now that their team activities decreased, Chaerim gathering attention from the media made the atmosphere within the team even worse. From some time onwards, the four of them started excluding Chaerim and hung out by themselves. As Chaerim was the youngest member, it was easy to ignore her. That didn’t mean that the relationship between the four of them was good. They just used each other for their own convenience to leave when they didn’t want to be with Chaerim.

Dayoon became uneasy. There were too many examples of what happened to idol bands with only one member gaining all the attention. She had to look for a way. She showed up on some entertainment programs a few times, but the results weren’t that good. Another team member, named Minji, did well on those shows and kept getting calls, while she didn’t get any calls at all. The gap between the members of the team kept widening. The two girls other than Minji and Chaerim also started activities in the form of releasing a solo album and doing a musical.

She was the only one left behind. She would become the ugly duckling at this rate. She didn’t want to go back to the days where she had to worry about getting new part time jobs. At that moment, she was reminded of that man again. It had been five months since she cut off contact with him. She tried sending him a message. Curiously, the moment she sent the text message, she remembered her past self that fell in love with the man. She thought to herself that those were the good days and waited for a reply. There was a reply. The man wanted to meet her.

Dayoon was happy that she got the reaction she wanted. He was the man that got her into Yellow Star. She was sure that he would prepare something for her this time as well. She met the man at the appointed place and carefully hugged him. Just like the old days.

However, she wasn’t the only one that had changed. The man had changed as well. There was no conversation to get into the mood, no shopping, no nothing. They went to a nearby hotel immediately and had sex. It was rough sex. He swore all the time. The man kept saying ‘someone like you dares to ignore me?’ and handled her body roughly. Dayoon was afraid and was crying, but she hugged the man even tighter. While doing that, she kept making excuses. She said that she was busy, that she only found the time to call him back now, that the fact that she reached out to him first was proof of that, that she really loved him.

However, the man didn’t let her off easily like before. He gave her money like before, but his eyes looked at her like he was looking at some hostess at a bar. Dayoon did not use that money and saved it up. She had already experienced firsthand the unpredictability of life. She had to save up that money for later.

Their relationship resumed for another half a year. During that time, Dayoon never appeared on TV. She showed up a couple of times as a group, but the number of individual activities was zero. She fell into guilt. The president of her agency consoled her, but she couldn’t rest at ease. The president was a scary man. He was a good man, but being good and being scary were two separate matters.

Dayoon had seen the president try to connect Ahn Joohyun to the president of a famous company. Although Joohyun was precious and the president gave way, what would have happened if it was her in that spot instead? He might have accepted and she would have had to drink with that president.

Since the president was the one that created such places in the first place, it was unknown when he would ‘sell her’ away. Dayoon felt that her desire and love towards the man increased the lower her self-confidence became. She was disgusted at herself, but the fear of failure was even bigger. Dayoon thought that the chances of failure were small as long as she kept hugging the man.

And today, she met the man again.

The buildings that whizzed past her vision gradually slowed down. The traffic light had turned red. She saw a hotel beyond the traffic light.

The hotel again, huh. I wonder how much he’s going to give me today. I wish he would give me around 3 million just like before.

Just as she was thinking that,

“Shoot a movie.”

“What?”

A movie? At that moment, she thought of 3rd-rate erotic videos. So she was selling her body for real now. It would become quite an issue. Popular Idol Strips Her Clothes - something like that would make the headlines. However, what came out of the man’s mouth was something she was not expecting.

“An acquaintance of mine is shooting a movie, and I asked him if I can get you in.”

The man touched the tip of his nose as he turned left with the car. They weren’t headed to the hotel. The car slowly headed to a famous restaurant. She had been here with the man before. The third floor only took reservations, and could only be accessed by the elevator. Privacy was taken seriously here.

Dayoon felt complex. After getting out of the car, she stood behind the man like a secretary. She did not do something like speaking first. She knew her position now. She tried analyzing what the man meant with the time she gained through her silence. Did he seriously get her into a movie? Or was he deceiving her with sweet words?

They were politely guided to a private room near the window. There was a deep brown wooden table in the middle and on the left was a painting of a famous artist. She had heard last time that each of those pieces cost dozens of millions of won. It was a world she couldn’t understand.

She sat down on a chair that the waiter pulled out and handed her hat to him. She thought that she would go to the hotel like usual and have violent sex before parting again, but she was at a restaurant like the first time they met.

She was greeted with a glass of water that cost 10 thousand won per cup. 10 thousand won per cup just for water. This was that kind of place. The man sipped a bit of water before speaking.

“Have you tried acting?”

“No, not yet.”

“Why? I think the others had at least tried.”

“I went to entertainment shows before, and that didn’t turn out well. After that, I never got a call from anywhere…”

“So your popularity fell and none of the places called for you, huh.”

Dayoon barely stopped her mouth from twitching and replied ‘yes’ in a small voice. She felt thirsty. She hurriedly emptied the cup of water. Ten thousand won was shoved down her throat. Even though it was water, the texture was rough.

“Then you should try at this opportunity. I heard you’ll be a leading support role.”

“Is that… for real?”

“Yes.”

Dayoon wanted to ask. She didn’t want to know what kind of role she had but wanted to know the genre of the movie. If it was really an adult movie, it would really disgust her. Stripping in front of this man and stripping in front of the camera was on a completely different level. Her fear of poverty was big, but nor did she want to be the controversy that everyone talked about. Just thinking about being an adult movie actress churned her insides.

“It’s not a strange movie.”

The man seemed to have read her expression as he spoke as though to relieve her. Dayoon’s heart sank when she realized that he found out what she was thinking. At the same time, she sighed in relief at the fact that it wasn’t some weird movie.

“Then what…”

“Film noir, I think it was.”

The man explained. The movie was crime-themed. The movie was about two close friends that got involved with the mafia when young, but went separate ways as adults after quarreling. The man said that she had the role of a secret mistress of one of the main characters.

“He’s a fella with decent popularity. His first piece worked out so well, so most people thought that he would walk the path of success, but his following movie wasn’t that good. He was invited to some film festival overseas, but it was worthless since it wouldn’t give him any money.”

The man put a cigarette in his mouth. This was a restaurant that allowed smoking. There was an ashtray that seemed to be made of gold as well. The man puffed once before putting down the cigarette against the ashtray. He always had a habit of doing that. It was like he was burning incense.

“Try it. Acting is something anyone can do with enough willpower. It’s just wordplay anyway. It’s child’s play compared to business.”

“Was I really cast in a movie?”

“You don’t believe me?”

The man’s eyes twitched. Dayoon shut up immediately and put on her obedient eyes. She couldn’t go against him. He was still angry at her right now.

Considering how he was giving her this opportunity despite that, perhaps his anger had died down somewhat. The fact that he had brought her here meant that he had a change of heart. Dayoon brought out her courage and looked back at the man. He looked like he was dissatisfied with something. It was then that she thought of the events that happened in the car. The man looked annoyed when he covered the family photo that she was looking at. The man didn’t do that before. Even after having sex with her, he called his wife in a loving voice. This man was someone that completely differentiated his home and sex partners. But today, it felt a little different.

She took another sip of water before thinking about it. There was a need to improve their relationship. Now that Blue had started walking down the path to disbandment, she crucially needed this man’s help. As long as she could improve their relationship to that of before…

‘It’s disgusting and dirty. But it’s not like I have a choice.’

She was innocent. It was the dark truth of reality that was pushing her back. The word self-justification appeared in her mind but she tried her best to ignore that word. Right now, she had to focus on capturing this man’s heart again.

“Uhm…,” she spoke carefully.

She was planning to stop if the man looked back at her with a vicious glare.

“What?”

“Is something wrong?”

The man made a surprised face before smiling in vain. A lot of different emotions flashed past his face. Fortunately, it didn’t feel that negative.

“If I go to Gangnam, I can meet younger and prettier girls than you. I can be safer, and they are more obedient. There are even some girls that would lick my feet if I tell them to.”

The man loosened his tie a little as he continued speaking.

“Do you know why I’m meeting you despite that? Why I take the risk to meet you?”

“…Is it because you like me?”

The man neither confirmed nor denied her opinion. In that silence, Dayoon saw hope. Affection, whether good or bad, was still affection. This man still had regrets about her.

“Is something perhaps not going well with your wife?”

“I don’t like quick-witted women that much.”

“S-sorry. I overstepped my bounds. I will be careful in the future.”

She lowered her head as she spoke. She was excited for a moment, but there was something she had to be clear about. It was that that man was the superior here. There is no longer a hierarchical society? Everyone was equal? That was bullshit. This era had one of the most hierarchical societies in the history of mankind.

“You don’t need to be that scared.”

The man reached out to her with his palm facing up. Dayoon subconsciously reached out and put her hand on top of his. She was like an obedient puppy. Looking at that action, the man put on a genuine smile. He seemed really happy.

“Yes. That’s right. You just need to do what you’re doing right now. We were in a good relationship back then, weren’t we? So let’s be like that in the future as well, yeah?”

“Yes. I will do that.”

“Good.”

At that moment, there was a knock on the door before a voice said if they could come in. When the man permissed, the waiter opened the door carefully and entered the room.

“You have a guest. Shall I lead him here?”

“Go ahead.”

The waiter left. Dayoon looked at the man. A guest?

“The director of the movie. You have to meet him.”

“He’s here?”

The man nodded. A while later, a man in his forties entered the room. He was wearing a casual-style suit and had a tidy beard. He was rather handsome-looking and different than the chubby and messy hair image that Dayoon had of directors.

“Long time no see, hyung-nim.”

“Like hell it has. Sit down.”

“Alright.”

The director in a suit took a seat. After that, he talked to Dayoon.

“Miss Dayoon, right? I enjoyed your songs.”

“Ah, yes. Thank you.”

“Do you know who I am?”

Hearing that question, Dayoon’s hands, which were under the table, clenched hard. She didn’t know who he was. It would be very rude of her to say that she didn’t know.

“I’m Park Joongjin. Perhaps you might be more familiar with ‘Spring Calendar’?”

The director revealed his name first. Dayoon widened her eyes and nodded. Spring Calendar - that was the title of a movie at the peak of popularity 10 years ago, that is, when she was in her third year of middle school. Dayoon remembered playing the videotape over and over again. At that time, girls weren’t capable of holding a conversation without mentioning that movie.

“Let’s shoot a good piece together.”

Joongjin reached out.

To Dayoon, that hand looked like Midas’s Hand. The magical hand that would turn her into gold. Dayoon grabbed that hand with both of her hands.

* * *

“Wow, so big.”

“Yeah.”

Maru had a look at the large building in front of his eyes. He had read from the internet that this place was a modified factory, but he didn’t realize that it would be this big. When the two entered, he saw various structures. Some of them looked like fences and walls. There were mats and parallel bars as well.

“Oh, you’re here.”

Choongho, who stood in front of what seemed like a recreation of a collapsed building, waved his hand as he approached the two. Maru told Bangjoo that he was the action director.

“Good morning! I am Ahn Bangjoo!”

His unique loud voice rang throughout the whole building. The people who were practicing stunts in front of various obstacles gave them a glance before going back to practice.

“Haha, your voice is promising.”

Choongho smiled and told the two to follow him.

Chapter 333

Choongho told them to wait before leaving. Maru and Bangjoo looked around while drinking the energy drink they were given. They were inside a container within the building that was set up to look like an office. On top of the door was the character 武 (Martial Arts) that was framed. There was a half-open cabinet in the corner, and there were various pieces of protective equipment inside.

“The ones that will take the test will arrive soon. You should look around until then.”

It seemed that the scheduled time had been delayed. They were led outside by Choongho. Right at that moment, a man rushed across the top of the mattress right in front of them. He drew a sharp arc in the air and curled himself up before landing on the ground with his right arm and shoulder and then rolled on the ground. Maru looked at the spot that the man jumped off from. It looked like he fell four meters at least.

Behind that, he saw a man standing on top of parallel bars. He was doing a handstand with his hands grabbing the bars, and he slowly rotated downwards as though climbing stairs. Whether he was a gymnastics athlete or a stuntman, he was amazing either way.

“So, I heard you did some sports,” Choongho asked Bangjoo.

Bangjoo replied that he did Taekwondo when he was young and that he was learning Judo right now.

“Then care to show me some falling techniques?”

When Choongho pointed at an empty mattress, Bangjoo stood on top of it.

“Show me the ones you’ve learned. Sideways, front, back, front-spin, and whatever else you have.”

“Yes!”

While Bangjoo fired himself up and continued to fall onto the mattress, Maru walked away and approached the people that were in a group fight. They were acting out a group fight with rods that were made out of styrofoam. They signalled each other before violently rushing at each other and started to kick, punch and swing their rods at one another. When the one that looked like the main character punched, the opponent collapsed at just the right time. The gap between the fist and the skin of the opponent was so narrow that it looked like they were hitting each other for real. People started falling over one by one, and when the last one was thrown over the shoulder, all of the people on the ground stood up and dusted off their clothes.

Even though the motions looked very dynamic and violent, their breathing hadn’t wavered at all. They gathered around in a circle to exchange opinions before doing the same thing again. This time, the actions looked much sharper.

The action was like a fine mesh without any gaps. They swore at each other like they were fighting for real. Just then, one man covered his mouth and raised his hand. When Maru looked closely, he was bleeding. It looked like he cut his lips when he was ‘hit’ by the spinning crescent kick[1]. After touching his lips for a while to see how it was, the man said he was okay before getting into position. Then, they resumed punching each other as though they had forgotten about the fear of injury.

“They’re good, aren’t they?”

Choongho had approached him. Maru could only nod his head. At this level, it was sufficient to be called art.

“The reason I set this place up is for people like them. You need to be taught to learn techniques. But there aren’t that many schools that teach such a subject so I had no choice but to make one myself.”

“You set up this place yourself?”

“I had a few colleagues. But now, they all became chubby men and quit, leaving only me left. Hey! Over there! Watch out for your hand.”

Choongho shouted at the man in front. The man replied ‘yes’ before moving again.

“They all look like they did some form of sports.”

“Some did sports, and some were just back alley thugs. Whatever the case may be, they are more adept at using their body than their brains. Of course, some of them came because they wanted to learn action acting for real. This is the only place in the country that teaches action rather than martial arts.”

Choongho’s eyes were filled with pride as he watched the people practice with his arms crossed.

“Is that a wire over there?”

“Yeah. Wanna try?”

At that moment, a man wearing wires floated into the air and spun twice before coming down.

“I don’t think I can do that.”

Choongho no longer said anything as though he was joking. Listening to the shouts from all around, Maru’s body heated up slightly. He liked sports, so he wanted to run around to his heart’s content whenever he came to places like this. After all, there was nothing more refreshing than moving around violently and getting some sweat out.

“I like how he doesn’t get scared.”

Choongho spoke as he looked at Bangjoo standing in front of the sandbag. Maru turned his gaze that way. Bangjoo kept looking at the sandbag. Then, he tapped the sandbag with his left hand twice before punching out with his right. After a low thud, Bangjoo turned around while shaking his right hand. From his expression, it looked like it was quite painful.

“It’s not foam inside.”

“This is not a diet gym after all. Hey, is your wrist okay? Oh, and also, you’ll rip your skin if you don’t punch with gloves on. Be careful.”

Bangjoo, who was standing afar, replied yes. He put on the gloves placed next to him and started hitting the sandbag again. His posture as he punched the sandbag that swayed around was a little awkward.

“Hey, you said you did boxing, right?”

“I just followed my father to the gym from time to time.”

“So you know what it’s like at least. Why don’t you try hitting it? There’s nothing to do until everyone else arrives, right?”

Choongho pushed his back. As he said, there was nothing to do until then so it wasn’t a bad idea to spend some time hitting the sandbag.

“Seonbae-nim. This is really hard. It looked really easy in the movies too.”

Bangjoo hit the sandbag once again. He stood with his feet parallel like when doing a straight punch and punched out with his right hand. The red sandbag made a low thudding noise again as it was pushed back. Maru caught the sandbag that returned from the rebound.

“You’re going to try?”

“It’s been quite a long time, so I don’t know if I can do it.”

He glanced back at Choongho, who was watching him, before getting the gloves from Bangjoo. As the gloves were made for practice purposes, it wasn’t that good. It had minimum protection against the skin. It was no different from taping.

He clenched his fist slightly. The sensation of leather being stretched out was quite good. Before his father became busy with work at the factory, he used to go with him to the boxing gym and practice together. Thinking about it now, his father’s punches were so smooth because he once aimed to be a pro boxer.

Maru did some boxing steps and did a full turn around the sandbag. The rhythm that he had forgotten about until now became vivid again. He thought that he should visit the boxing gym again when he had some time.

Although he hadn’t warmed up properly, he still did a light jab. Ever since his boxing teacher told him not to punch sandbags without warming up, he always warmed up before punching sandbags.

Thud, a quiet sensation spread out through his knuckles. It felt quite good. Then, the left hand. The left hand moved forward slowly until it reached the sandbag. He moved just a little further back. He did light jabs with his left hand and made a full turn around the sandbag once again. As he hadn’t hit sandbags in a long time, he wasn’t familiar with the distance.

When he got into a suitable distance, Maru started hopping in front of the sandbag. As he hopped, he calmed his breathing and punched out with his left hand again when his feet touched the ground.

Thud - he was still a little too close. His hand reached its target before his shoulders could drive enough power into his hands. He punched with his left hand again at the sandbag that was pushed back with a low sound. Tang. There was a decent sound this time. Maru thought of his figure in front of the sandbag before punching out again.

‘One, two, slip.’

Left, right, then a light duck. He followed the swaying sandbag with his eyes and sprung back from having ducked to the left with his waist and followed it up with a left hook and a right cross. Bang bang, this time, the sound was much more pleasing. He chased the sandbag that swayed backwards and ducked again. This time, he did a left jab and a right hook.

The rhythm slowly came back to him. His boxing teacher always told him that rhythm was important in boxing. He chased the sandbag with a right step. Then, he did a combo again. He hit the sandbag so that it wouldn’t start going in circles as he punched out. He started exerting more power into his hands. Maru smiled whenever he heard the leather popping sounds.

His breathing started quickening, and just as his knuckles were starting to ache, Maru stopped the sandbag before heaving a deep breath out.

“It’s quite fun to hit it after such a long time,” saying that, he turned around.

The first thing he saw was Choongho, who was smiling and nodding. He was saying ‘I knew it’ with a small voice. Bangjoo, who stood next to him, approached him and spoke,

“Seonbae-nim, you learned boxing? You were really good just now.”

“I’m just a beginner.”

Maru took off the gloves. The slight ache that remained in his hand and wrist made him smile. This sensation was what made him like boxing. This was what made him follow his dad to the gym.

“You didn’t just quit after a month or two,” Choongho spoke.

“You learned properly. I’m not a boxing expert so I can’t judge you properly, but your punches were really clean. Do you really not have any intentions to work under my wing? I think you’ll get used to stunts quite easily.”

“It’s just hitting a sandbag. I don’t have any talent.”

Just as he put down the gloves, some men entered the building. They all seemed to be students.

“Well then, let’s narrow people down then, shall I?”

Choongho signalled everyone to gather round. The students that just entered stood in front of Choongho. Maru and Bangjoo joined them.

“I don’t like dragging things out so I’ll get straight to the point. I’m going to pick a few of you here and meet the director. The director wants someone young who can do proper action so do your best. I’m going to have a look at your basic posture. There’s not much time so look carefully for now.”

Choongho called a man wearing black training clothes.

“I’m going to show you the basic choreography. Here, punch like this, and grab his collar. It won’t sound fun without any lines, so let’s go with ‘you bastard’ as the line.”

Choongho did a demonstration. He punched out at the right shoulder of the man in front of him. The man deflected Choongho’s punch with his left arm. At the same time, Choongho grabbed his collar and shouted ‘you bastard’. It was a short scene.

“The hit point is the right shoulder. You have to grab his collar violently. If you hesitate, then that’s the end. You have one round of practice and one real deal. Everyone got that?”

Choongho then proceeded to pick the student standing on the far right. The one that got picked came out without hesitation and greeted the man wearing training clothes.

“Then here I go.”

The student then tried doing the choreography that Choongho showed them. He approached the man, punched, and grabbed the man by the collar once his punch was deflected. After that round of practice, the student said he’d begin with a resolved face.

The student started running. Then, he punched out. His hand was pushed away. He took another step and grabbed the opponent’s collar. The acting was quite clean.

“Sangjin, good. Well then. Next.”

It seemed that Choongho was acquainted with everyone here. As soon as Choongho said next, another student stepped forward.

* * *

“Let’s go with that for now.”

Maru had a look at the students that looked disappointed as they were turned away. Five people didn’t pass Choongho’s test. Although everyone looked decent, it seemed that they weren’t up to Choongho’s standards.

“This time, it’s blocking then hitting.”

Choongho did a demonstration this time as well. The difficulty rose by quite a lot. The sequence went as such: punch, then block a rod from the side with both arms and then punch the person to the left.

The rightmost student stepped forward immediately. He didn’t make a mistake in the practice round, but he was late in blocking the rod in the real deal. There was a sound signal before the rod was swung, but he couldn’t block it due to having messed his steps up. The student made a disappointed expression after getting hit by the styrofoam and stepped back.

“Don’t feel down. I’m just looking at how you do.”

Next was Maru’s turn. His developed body and nervous systems handled the action without much difficulty. He punched and blocked just like the choreography.

“Good.”

Bangjoo passed without a hitch as well. He was someone who wasn’t scared of anything so he looked good with stunts. Like that, they did a few rounds of tests before around 10 people remained.

“Today, I focused on how bold you were in your actions and how much trust you had in your opponent. I can’t use people that can’t look at the opponent in the eyes when doing action scenes.”

Choongho took out his phone before calling someone up.

“Yes, then let’s do that. We’ll be eating dinner then, so come by whenever you want. Yes, director. Then see you later.”

Having finished his call, Choongho spoke.

“Why don’t we get some meat?”

Chapter 334

She was uneasy throughout the whole meal. She had never imagined that the director would show up. The man surely knew that the relationship between her and him was a secret. They were in an indecent relationship that would hurt both of them if anyone found out. Just hiding their relationship wasn’t enough, yet he went and invited the director to this place.

Dayoon didn’t have the leisure to evaluate what the food tasted like. The butter-roasted scallops tasted like hard rubber.

“You look much prettier in person,” director Park Joongjin spoke.

Dayoon smiled as she put down the roasted garlic that she was about to eat. She felt her heart sink whenever Joongjin spoke. How was she supposed to answer if he jokingly asked what the relationship between the two was? She started sweating cold sweat. She was more nervous than when she made a mistake on a live show.

“Thank you.”

“This hyung-nim over here doesn’t really recommend people, but he told me that you were a reliable person, Miss Dayoon. If it was anyone else, I would have rejected it in a heartbeat, but this person’s eye for other people is really amazing. Hyung-nim, do you still remember the person you guaranteed for without a word?”

“I do.”

Joongjin spoke to the man. Dayoon sighed in a small voice. She had to consciously breathe while that director looked at her.

“Didn’t I tell you that you’ll ruin yourself if you stand up for him?”

“That you did.”

“But then that guy set up a factory, gained several talents, and successfully became a mid-sized company, and he’s now supporting your construction company, isn’t he?

That’s when I realized that he has a good eye for people.”

“Nah, it’s nothing that great. That man already had his own vision. He just lacked a little money.”

“No way, if it was up to me, I would never have taken that risk no matter what kind of vision he had. In that sense…”

Joongjin raised his wine glass. Dayoon smiled and grabbed her glass as well.

“Why don’t we toast? Since you recommended her, this movie will do great as well.”

“That will be great for me too.”

After toasting, she drank a sip. Her mouth still felt dry. A movie cast. This was an opportunity of a lifetime for her. She should thankfully accept it, but it was also very scary because the opportunity was given to her too easily. Just what did this director see in her that he decided to cast her as a leading support role? Why wasn’t he asking anything? Was he intentionally avoiding mentioning that subject because they were in a private place?

Questions after questions appeared in her mind. Ever since her self-confidence hit rock bottom after failing numerous entertainment shows, she was being driven into defeatism. She was aware of that, yet she couldn’t escape it. She always suspected when someone approached her with goodwill.

‘Get yourself together.’

Dayoon heaved a deep breath while drinking the water placed in front of her. She thought that she shouldn’t think about it deeply; that she should just accept this opportunity since it came out of their newfound love.

“Oh, yes. Hyung-nim. I heard that your daughter passed the Foreign Service Exams, right? Wow, looks like your daughter’s smarts really take after your wife.”

“Well, I guess that’s true.”

“But I’m surprised that you gave her permission. It must be hard for a woman to live away from home.”

“That’s up to her to take care of. It’s not like she listens to my words anyway. She told me that her dream is to become the first female ambassador to the US or something. Well, she’d have to experience the harshness of reality to realize that home is the best place. It hasn’t even been that long since she came back from the US, but she’s thinking about leaving again.”

“Yet there’s a bright grin on your face?”

The two men seemed extremely close. Dayoon clicked her tongue as she looked at the man. He showed one of his close acquaintances his affair girl? He was daring as heck. Things would get out of hand if he made a mistake and revealed the fact that he was having an affair.

Perhaps because she was in an uncomfortable spot, it felt like time was passing very slowly. All she was thinking about was that she wanted to escape this place as she sliced the lamb dish that the waiter brought.

“Then it looks like I must get going.”

Dayoon raised her head. The man wiped his mouth with a napkin and stood up. Just as she absent-mindedly looked at him wondering what to do, the man signalled her to stay seated.

“You’re leaving?”

“I have to. I have work to attend to. You two can have a talk with each other. About the movie, that is.”

Joongjin stood up from his seat. Dayoon followed suit as well.

“Then be careful on your way back, hyung-nim. Ah, tell your wife I said hi. Also, don’t forget to tell her to introduce me to a fair lady if there’s anyone she knows.”

The two shook hands before the man left. Joongjin was all smiles until the door shut and he sighed and sat down as soon as the door closed.

“Hyung-nim’s tastes haven’t changed at all.”

Dayoon felt her lips trembling. Her smile stiffened. She came to herself quickly and sat back down as though she had heard nothing.

“How long has it been since you knew him?”

“Uh…”

She didn’t know what to reply. They met each other four years ago. Was it better to be honest here or was it better to deceive him?

“A little less than a year.”

“A year, huh.”

Joongjin smiled before grabbing the lamb steak in front of him with his bare hands. He picked it up by the bone and smelled it before taking a big bite out of it.

“You don’t need to lie to me. I already heard from him already. I’m not the stuck-up guy you think I am. Well, the term ‘office wife’ doesn’t exist for nothing. How can a person eat the same food every day? They should change things up and eat noodles, sushi, or steak from time to time.”

Those words sounded very suspicious. Dayoon immediately put both of her hands below the table. She didn’t want to show him that her hands were shaking.

“You look like the ideal girl that hyung-nim always talked about. Oh, let me give you some advice. Don’t get any surgery on your face. If you need him, then you should maintain your current face.”

“…I don’t get what you mean.”

“Miss Dayoon. We aren’t kids. Should I open up the textbook and read what’s on it? That sex is a pure and beautiful thing? Both of us know that it’s nothing like that. How is sex pure? It’s the epitome of desire itself.”

Joongjin licked the sauce that was on his hands. Dayoon became more scared of this man named Joongjin rather than this occasion as a whole. She finally understood why the man left the two of them here. They were close enough to share a secret that was supposed to be never revealed. This man knew everything.

She locked her hands on top of her thighs. When she glanced down, she saw blue veins pop up on the back of her hands.

“Hyung-nim probably loves you. He might look like a cold person, but he’s quite the romanticist. Moreover, he’s kind. I think he’s a little upset because he got into a fight with his wife, but he’s the type of man that would bring a present for her tonight as he goes home and whispers love into her ears. He’s very devoted to the people he loves. At the same time, he’s free. He loves other women just as much as he loves his wife. Of course, people might point fingers at him and tell him that he’s having an affair, but it’s fine as long as he doesn’t get found out, right?”

Joongjin then started eating the shrimp rosé pasta with his hand again. The way he ate food with his hands and not with cutlery surprisingly suited him.

“Uhm…”

What was she supposed to say here? It was too late for excuses. But telling the truth here would be kinda funny as well. She was very distant from the word ‘ethics’ but she was hesitating inside due to ‘ethics’ as well. No, it wasn’t just because of ethics. She was scared as well. She was afraid of the man in front of her.

“Oops, it looks like I made you even more nervous even though I did that to get you to calm down.”

Joongjin stuck out his tongue and rubbed his fingers on top of it before washing his fingers with the water in the cup. Dayoon just watched as Joongjin slowly stood up. He walked towards her, step by step. He stopped right next to her, and he looked extremely big. Even though he looked to be less than 170cm tall, he looked like an insurmountable mountain right now.

She couldn’t endure his gaze that looked at her. Just as she was about to turn her head away, Joongjin grabbed her by the chin. She twitched as though she fell into shock. Didn’t she have to flick away that hand? Yet, her body flinched back as though she was tied up with some rope.

“Hm, you would look pretty with some makeup.”

“Y-yes.”

“Your neck looks good as well. No wonder hyung-nim loves you.”

His other hand descended upon her. It stroked her neck once before moving downwards. Dayoon was reminded of a snail. It felt like a disgusting snail dripping with mucus was crawling all over her body. She wanted to scream, but her reason suppressed her voice. Everything would be over if she screamed here.

The hand stopped just as it was about to approach her cleavage. The hand did not proceed. It just touched the necklace with a cross on it.

“Do you go to Church?”

“Y-yes.”

“Jesus, he’s a good man. I heard that praying was enough for you to get salvation. He must be a generous man. In that sense, Buddha is also a thankful person. Don’t you think so?”

“I-I do.”

Joongjin put down the necklace and straightened out her one-piece dress that creased a little.

“You’re in good shape. Did you get treatment or something?”

“No.”

“It must have been hard. I mean, it’s not easy for a girl to shape up, right? It involves exercise and balancing diets.”

Joongjin formed a rectangle with the thumb and index fingers from each hand and scanned her from three steps away as though he was taking a photo of her.

“You have a good body figure as well. Can you try smiling for me?”

She smiled like an obedient dog. From a faint smile to a bright happy smile. She did everything she was told to do.

“Have you ever watched a movie of mine?”

“Yes, in middle school.”

“When was that?”

“I think it was 10 years ago.”

“How was it?”

“I was touched.”

“Touched, huh. You flatter me.”

Joongjin sat down as he stretched his hands out. Dayoon pressed down on her knees with shaking hands. The more they talked, the deeper her fear became. This man she didn’t know the identity of pressured her too much.

“Miss Dayoon.”

“Yes?”

“I’m going to shoot a commercial movie. I kept shooting independent, artistic-purpose movies, but that lowered people’s awareness of me too much. I’m planning to rake in some money with a commercial movie.”

“I-I see.”

“Actually, movies are quite strange. They’re like stocks in a sense. There are cases where even after casting all the super popular actors, you fail miserably, and there are cases where only less well-known B-grade actors are used, yet still become six million-view hits. It’s very hard to predict the success of a movie just like the stock market. That’s why I don’t trust filmography. I trust my intuition.”

“Intuition?”

“Yes, intuition. When hyung-nim said he wanted to introduce me to someone, I had that feeling. That hyung-nim has a good intuition as well. And when I saw you, I was sure that you were worth it to put inside my screen as the goddess of luck.”

Joongjin picked up his fork and knife. He no longer ate his food like a savage and started using cutlery like a gentleman.

“Have you ever tried acting?”

“No, I haven’t.”

“Then I guess you will need to practice from now. If I chop the scenes where you have to act in accordance with another actor as much as possible, that will decrease the burden on you, so you don’t need to worry about that. Also, I’ve already finished casting the actors that are reliable, so I’m going to focus on them more. After all, for you, Miss Dayoon, it’s more important to get career experience as an actor, am I wrong?”

“……”

“Let’s be honest. Don’t tell me that your dream is to become an actress. You just need a point of breakthrough, don’t you?”

“A point of breakthrough…”

“This movie will do well. I am planning to use the elements that would make it popular. What you need to do, Miss Dayoon, is to stand on screen without looking awkward. That’s it. A mesmerizing act? I don’t even expect that from you. You just need to not break the flow. If you become the flower that’s pleasing to look at, the rest of us will take care of everything for you.”

“Are you really going to use me?”

“Yes. My intuition tells me to, so I am going to. Oh, and starting today, practice looking at your own expression as you talk in front of the mirror. I’ll give you a few movie CDs. Try copying the actresses that appear in those. We just need a short-term solution after all.”

“Will that be enough?”

Hearing that question, Joongjin smiled and put down his fork.

“Miss Dayoon.”

“…Yes.”

“Listen to me carefully. You don’t need the word ‘enough’. Didn’t I tell you that you should become the flower? I don’t mean a living flower. You can be an artificial flower. It will suffice as long as people think that it’s an act. Don’t try to do something. Miss Dayoon, you aren’t anyone great. Just do what you’re told. Do that and I’ll give you the title of the idol that successfully debuted into the movie industry.”

He seemed to have great confidence in himself. His words were smooth without any stops. Although it sounded absurd and nonsensical, it was somewhat acceptable as well. She had the feeling that things would turn out the way he said they would.

“Uhm, Miss Dayoon.”

Joongjin continued speaking as he looked at the steak.

“Can you sleep with me as well? I’m curious about your night skills.”

Dayoon flinched and looked at Joongjin. When she did, Joongjin immediately made a rectangle with his fingers and looked at her through the frame.

“That expression, that’s the one. Remember that feeling. The role you’re about to act has such a role.”

Dayoon couldn’t do anything other than just stare at the man. Only the sound of cutlery filled the room.

“Phew, thanks for the meal.”

Joongjin wiped his mouth and stood up after his meal.

“I’ll take my leave here since I have to see other people for some roles. I have to go and see some energetic high school students. Ah, it would be great if my intuition tells me something this time as well.”

Joongjin turned around with a smile.

“Miss Dayoon, good luck.”

Dayoon stared at his back for a while until the door closed. When the door closed, she curled up and frowned. A scream escaped her clenched teeth.

* * *

The man who introduced himself as director Park Joongjin took off the fedora he was wearing as he sat down. He seemed close with Choongho and the two had an energetic handshake when they met.

“Nice to meet you, everyone. You should have heard the general story from Choongho hyung-nim here. I need some young actors filled with spirit for the movie I’m shooting this time.”

Joongjin spoke with a smile.

Chapter 335

Joongjin stood up as he rubbed his hands and left the office.

The building was quiet since all the actors that were practicing had left. Joongjin, who was scanning the building, stood in front of a mattress wall. He punched the thick mattress a few times before smiling in satisfaction.

“Hyung-nim, may I see them here?”

“Sure, go ahead.”

“Well then. Can you all stand in a line here?”

Eleven students stood in front of the mattress. Joongjin walked in front of them and scanned them from top to bottom. He made noises like ‘hm’ and pondered.

Maru looked at Joongjin who stood in front of him. He didn’t like how Joongjin looked like he was evaluating him. He felt like a mackerel put on display. Just then, he met eyes with Joongjin. Maru could see that there was a faint smile on Joongjin’s mouth.

Joongjin then left for the next student without saying anything.

“Yes, thank you all. First, I think I need to filter some of you that don’t fit my criteria.”

Joongjin picked out seven people.

“If you give me your number, I’ll give you a call when I need a crowd scene. You are a little lacking to be captured by the camera.”

He did not even mention what those criteria were, nor did he mention what he didn’t like about them. The seven of them left with bitter expressions. Choongho didn’t say much either. It seemed that he had left the appointment of actors entirely to Joongjin.

“The four of you, what are your names?”

Maru, who stood on the far left, started first.

“Han Maru, Kang Sooyoung, Ahn Bangjoo, Choi Joongi. Yes. I’ve committed them to memory now. I’ve picked you four because your eyes are alive. Of course, I did take into account your body figure as well. Your statures are similar to the lead actors who will act along with you. As for the action scenes, since hyung-nim can vouch for you, I guess I don’t need to worry about that. Oh, I almost forgot.”

Joongjin brought a camera from the office and started taking photos. All four of them were photographed.

“Does anyone here have experience acting? Not as a hobby, but like, for real. Raise your hand if you have experience participating in a drama or a movie.”

Maru raised his hand. The other three did not.

“Hm… Mr. Han Maru, was it? I committed you to memory. Let’s see, your face is good, but I like your eyes the most. They do look a little too cold, but can you try smiling?”

Joongjin spoke as he moved up close with the camera. Maru made a faint smile. His employer told him to smile, what else could he do?

“Good. I’m getting inspiration. I think I’ll have you take that role. The role that dies. Yes, that’s good.”

Joongjin seemed like he was happy to death just imagining.

“The role that dies?”

“Oh! I guess I didn’t explain enough. It’s just a typical cliché. The death of a friend. It’s a rather old trick in the textbook, but it still works. You’ve just been cast in my movie. We’ll start shooting the movie starting at the end of this month. This applies to the three of you as well.”

Joongjin laughed heartily and shook hands with the four students. He was a peculiar man. It was unknown if he was decisive or complacent. He didn’t see anything, yet he said that all four of them were cast, which made Maru suspicious instead. He even wondered if this man was trying to rip money off them with that excuse.

“That’s the end of the audition?” Maru asked.

“Yes.”

“I heard you were looking for an action actor.”

Hearing those words, Joongjin smiled.

“Good question. Let’s think about that, then, shall we? How many students in the country, do you think, have learned to do action acting? I mean, action is not just about punching and kicking.”

Joongjin smilingly looked at Choongho and asked for forgiveness for trying to look like an expert in front of a real expert.

“It has been five years since Kim Choongho Action School opened, and it has been two years since this large practice space was opened. Hyung-nim, what happened to the congratulatory wreath[1] I sent you back then?”

“I threw it away.”

“No way, that was expensive you know? Anyway, what I want to say is that it hasn’t been that long since action actors have become specialized in this country. Did anyone here know that there was an action-specific acting school in this place?”

The four of them all shook their heads.

“See? Even people that are interested in acting, and have actual experience participating in a movie do not know that this place exists. Now, then. You asked why I don’t have you demonstrate your actions, right? I’m saying that I don’t need to. I have a general gist of your levels. Also, the fact that action director Kim Choongho over there picked you all means that you are capable to some extent, and I used that as my basis of judgment. As for the real action, we’re going to polish that starting now. With that hyung-nim’s skills, you four will become some of the most capable action actors in the country among those your age. Am I right, hyung-nim?”

“Probably,” Choongho replied with a confident expression.

“You know? I trust my intuition a lot when I work. And that intuition gave me the feeling that this movie will become a huge hit.”

This man had endless confidence in himself, and he said that the basis of his confidence was his intuition. Was he a hopeless optimist? Or was he a genius that sees something that the ordinary does not?

“Do you have any other questions?”

“When can we expect to receive a script?” Maru asked this time as well.

“You’ll be able to see one soon. For now, we’re going to start practicing part by part. Efficiency is the priority here after all. We’re planning to shoot at the end of August, so there are around 3 weeks left until then. During that time, you’ll learn basic acting from the action director. The centerpiece of a movie is its story, but the force that drives that story will come from the action, so you will have to do extremely well. Hm, I think it’s almost about time.”

Joongjin looked at his watch. Time for what? Maru looked at the entrance. Just then, he saw a white van stop in front of the building.

“There they are.”

Two men entered through the door. Although they weren’t that tall, their heads were small, consequently making them look like they had great proportions. As for their age, they looked to be in their late teens or the early twenties. It seemed that they were the lead actors for the movie.

“Those two are the actors that you will act with. They’re going to practice with you until the shoot begins.”

When Joongjin called out to the two at the entrance, they took a bow before approaching them. Behind them, a man with a heavy build followed with a phone in hand. He seemed to be their manager.

Maru watched the two as they approached them. He was familiar with their faces. From how someone next to him exclaimed, they might be rather famous actors. He wondered if he should start watching TV more. He didn’t know any actors other than the most famous ones.

“You know who they are right? I mean, they’ve appeared on TV a lot as child actors. This is Park Gwangsoo, and this is Cha Taehoon. You can get to know each other. You’ll have to see each other a lot for the next month or so.”

Gwangsoo and Taehoon greeted first. Maru greeted back.

“Ah, hyung-nim. I want our big actors to start their action education this week. Is that okay with you?”

“I don’t mind.”

“There are a few ladies, so I hope you can get a female coach for them. Oh, some will have to learn wire action, is there a problem with that?”

“I’ll teach them well as long as you bring them here, so don’t worry about it.”

“Alright. I’ll see what their timetable is like and schedule their time here.”

Joongjin started humming and started calling various people. Was he involved in casting and scheduling the actors as well? Normally, a ‘director’ would be in charge of everything during the shoot itself. Other than that, most of the things were handled by the production company. The production company provided everything else so that the director could wholeheartedly focus on making the movie itself.

In that sense, Joongjin was very eccentric. Although Maru couldn’t be entirely sure about it, it seemed like he was in charge of everything regarding the production of the movie. He was like the director and producer in one.

After giving many places calls, Joongjin closed his flip phone audibly.

“Well then, can you all stand next to each other? You should get into poses as well.”

Like a movie poster, they split up into threes and glared at the other team. Joongjin appreciated that scene from many angles before clapping in satisfaction.

“I think I should really go with these members here. Your proportions are good. Well then, Mr. Gwangsoo and Mr. Taehoon, you two will receive instructions from action director Kim Choongho here. It might be a little hard, but consider it as medicine and I hope you can make his skills yours. Hyung-nim, please take care of them for me.”

Choongho nodded as though to say that he should leave everything up to him.

“And as for the four of you, I’ll contact you within three days. You might have lines, but you might not as well. However, I can assure you that you will be on screen, so you can look forward to that.”

Joongjin gathered everyone’s attention with a clap and bid farewell after rallying the group. Seeing Joongjin hop his way out, Maru was reminded of a storm. Joongjin was like a storm that came suddenly and made everything chaotic before leaving suddenly as well.

Choongho led Gwangsoo and Taehoon to the office before telling the rest that it was over for today.

“Everyone’s on holiday so you’re okay timewise right? I’ll give you all a call once the schedule is set, so you can come here. I’m planning about three or four hours a day of practice. It might take longer if something doesn’t go well. Once you go back home today, I hope you can at least start running regularly. It will be hard to catch up to the rest of the class if you don’t have enough basic stamina.”

The rather peculiar audition ended like that. In any case, it was something to be happy about since he got another job. Maru sent his manager a text message. After a while, he got a reply that he should contact him again once it became official and he had to write a contract.

He had heard last time that it was very rare for minor roles, background roles and staff to write formal contracts. Most of the time, it was a verbal contract instead. He was told that it was customary not to write any contracts since the people working together knew each other.

That was one convenient custom. Wherever it was, the system was structured so that the bottom of the rung could be swept away easily. Telling them to write a contract was not an option either. The moment they mentioned ‘rules’, they would be excluded from the casting list without a word.

“Are we really shooting a movie? It doesn’t feel that real,” Bangjoo asked on their way to the bus stop.

“He was rather peculiar as a director.”

“Are auditions usually like this?”

“Hm… that’s hard to answer. Although his method was rather peculiar, the fundamentals are the same. After all, all that’s left after taking into account all the factors is intuition.”

“Well, I guess he did say that our action abilities must be on a similar level,” Bangjoo seemed to have accepted.

“Seonbae-nim, do you want to eat hamburgers? I’ll treat you. I got to learn action thanks to you, so I can’t just sit still.”

“Didn’t you eat a lot of meat?”

“It’s all digested already,” Bangjoo spoke as he tapped on his stomach.

Despite his small stature, his digestive capabilities were top-notch perhaps thanks to his sturdy build.

“How could I accept something from you? Let’s go, I’ll treat you.”

He took Bangjoo, who refused him to no avail, to a nearby fast food restaurant. Bangjoo ordered two burgers, a pack of nuggets, and a pack of fries as well as a drink. That was a lot for someone that just ate meat for dinner just an hour ago.

“You can eat all that?”

“Yes.”

“Incredible. If you find it lacking, then you can order more.”

“I’ll feel sluggish if I eat too much. This is just enough.”

Now that he looked at it, the amount of food Bangjoo ate was comparable to Daemyung’s.

Maru chuckled as he saw Bangjoo eat. He was at the age where he could chomp on stones, so this must be an easy feat.

Maru sipped on his milkshake as he thought back to Joongjin who he just met. Was he a new director? Or was he someone with a career? Although he did meet him, he didn’t find out much about him. All he found out was that he was quite eccentric.

After having a look at the time, he called Geunsoo.

-Yes, Maru.

“Hyung-nim, are you okay taking the phone right now?”

-Yeah… wait a sec.

There was no word for a while. It seemed that he was switching places.

-Go ahead.

“It looks like you’re busy. Sorry about that.”

-Nah. Rather than that, what’s up?

“I just had something to ask. You’re the only one I could ask.”

-Okay, what is it?

“Do you know a person named Park Joongjin? He’s a director.”

-Park Joongjin? Yeah, I do. I don’t know him personally, but I’ve heard the rumors.

“Ah, it seems like he’s quite famous.”

-He’s very famous in the movie field. You should know the movie ‘Spring Calendar’ right? It’s a movie from ten years ago, and Joohyun-noona became a rising star thanks to that. She earned the title ‘the supporting role that gobbled up the lead role’.

[1] People send large ‘wreaths’ (I didn’t find any other suitable translation, look up ‘hwahwan’ in google images) in both ‘celebratory’ and ‘mourning’ occasions with ‘well wishes’ written on them. In this case, Joongjin sent Choongho one to congratulate him and wish him luck on his ‘business’ (action school)

Chapter 336

“I’ll get going then.”

“Okay. Careful on your way back. See you at practice tomorrow.”

“Yes, seonbae-nim.”

Maru started walking after sending Bangjoo off in a bus. The area around Suwon station was filled with the stuffy air of the night. He could smell something savory from the toast sandwich shop right next to it. Salarymen eating late night dinners were standing in front of the store. One of them suddenly picked up his phone and put down the unfinished toast sandwich. He hurriedly paid the shopkeeper before walking towards the station.

Although it was the time of the day to finish the day off, there were still busy people here. Maru’s mind was also busy thinking about what he learned at the fast food restaurant.

‘Spring Calendar, huh.’

That was a movie from a decade ago. He remembered watching it a couple of times when it aired on TV. However, it was a romance so he didn’t remember watching it till the end. He could remember the beginning parts. The two main characters drenched in rain were talking to each other at the bus stop.

Maru thought about Geunsoo’s words as he avoided the drunk person that came his way.

“It’s a piece that Joohyun-noona appeared in?”

-Yeah. She caught the eye of the director and became a youth star thanks to that movie. She was very popular back then.

“And the director of that movie is director Park Joongjin?”

-That’s right. When that movie became hugely successful and the actors that participated in the movie gained popularity, the director was also interviewed a lot, and that’s when people got to know the name Park Joongjin.

“So he’s not just known for his work.”

-That’s right. He was an eccentric man. Of course, I haven’t seen him in person, so I can’t say for sure, but based on the rumors and the interview, he’s a really strange person. No, I guess I should call him eccentric.

Strange person. Eccentric. Indeed, Joongjin was very different from usual. He was a director that believed in intuition. Although Maru had only seen him for a short time, he left a deep impression on him.

“What made people start calling him eccentric?”

-First up, his first piece of work is Spring Calendar, and the production time of that movie is absurd. Usually, when producing a movie, most of the time is taken up before the pre-production phase, that is, the writing of the scenario. After all, the scenario is the backbone of the movie. You probably know from experience, but for urban-themed movies and movies that don’t require changing places that much to shoot, it takes around two months to finish the whole shoot. However, when it comes to writing the scenario, it takes much longer than that because the director will hold on to it until they feel like it’s perfect, so it takes several months to years to finish it.

Geunsoo chuckled in a small voice as though reminiscing about the past. It was a rather vain laugh.

-But that man said in the interview that it only took him three days to finish the scenario and the editing. He also said that it only took that long because it took time for him to write out the words in his head. With just that, he would be called a genius, but what I found out after that was even more amazing.

“What did you find out?”

-Director Park Joongjin was thirty-four years old when he wrote ‘Spring Calendar’. The reason I remember that is because the interview article was really hard to believe. ‘Director’ Park Joongjin was just the owner of a decent restaurant when he was thirty-four.

“A restaurant owner?”

-Yeah. Such a guy quit his business, which was doing well enough to almost become a franchise, and shot a movie with the money he saved up and some investment solely because he was ‘bored’.

“Did he have any knowledge of production?”

-He said he wanted to learn through books, but quit because it wasn’t his style. Then he went straight into shooting. The result? A huge success. Although people say there were a lot of ups and downs, the movie successfully launched in cinemas and became hugely successful.

A man who quit a successful business and dived straight into the movie industry. He was definitely eccentric.

At the same time, a question popped up in Maru’s head.

A famous movie director would be just as well known as famous actors. He had heard of the name Choi Joonggeun before he started shooting Twilight Struggles. The director of ‘Spring Calendar’, which was known as the greatest romance movie of its time, should have received a lot of attention, and the media should have been noisy about him, yet he had never heard of that name. In this case, it would be one of two things.

He either stopped creating movies, or his following works had failed continuously.

“I don’t seem to remember anything about director Park Joongjin at all. It must be because I’m not paying attention properly, right?”

-That shouldn’t be all of it. From what I know, he did not shoot any commercial movies after that. He instead tried his hand at challenging videos like 5-minute ones, 10-minute ones, and silent movies. However, such a movie doesn’t work in South Korea, so it never became an issue. He was invited to the Berlin International Film Festival as a non-competitive work, but there hasn’t been any news of him for seven years after that, so it’s not that surprising that you don’t know him.

“Seven years?”

-Long, right? That’s why I almost couldn’t remember who he was when you mentioned him. He’s a forgotten name after all. But why do you ask?

“The movie I’m participating in as a minor role this time is directed by him.”

-Really? Is it another person with the same name?

“I don’t think that’s the case. I met him for the first time today, and he was unlike most people. Since he has the same name and the same personality, I don’t think it’s a coincidence.”

-Director Park Joongjin is shooting a movie again, huh. Looks like news will spread around in a short while. Wait, you’re participating in it as a minor role? I haven’t heard anything about the audition. There weren’t any notices either.

“I’m not surprised. He finished casting the people he needed on the spot. I think he’s doing things quietly through his acquaintances.”

-He cast people on the spot?

“Yes. He said he’s picking people based on intuition.”

-Haha. He’s really eccentric as people say he is.

“Indeed.”

-If your role is confirmed, I guess I should say congratulations.

“Thank you.”

-In any case, he was once called a genius. You might learn a lot of things working with him. Do your best.

“Yes.”

-Ah, and… hm, nothing. See you next time, with Ganghwan too.

Geunsoo sounded like he was going to say something, but he just hung up.

* * *

“Hey, you fucker. Are you that great?”

Maru saw a drunk man shouting at a streetlamp before going his way. He now knew a little bit about what kind of man Joongjin was. What made him return to movie production after all this time?

‘Because he’s short on money?’

No, that shouldn’t be the case. He was someone who already had some success in his restaurant business. If he needed money, he might as well start another business.

“A simple change of heart?”

He was someone that quit his business and started a movie production solely because of boredom. It would be a waste of time and energy trying to figure out what he was thinking. What was important was that he once became famous in the past and that such a person decided to use him. It was a great opportunity to experience the movie scene again.

He went inside the convenience store in front of him and bought some milk tea. As he sipped on his drink as he walked, he eventually arrived at the bus stop. Since he had organized his thoughts, it was time to get on the bus.

When he arrived at home, it was past 9. Bada wasn’t at home. When he opened the door to the main bedroom, he heard a faint breathing noise. It was his mother. He quietly closed the door and went to his own room. Bada seemed to be staying the night over at her friend’s house. Since Maru’s parents and Bada’s friend’s parents were close, his mother turned a blind eye to her staying over at her friend’s house.

He picked up the script for ‘I've been really wronged’ on his desk, and lied down on his bed. The day after tomorrow was the preliminaries. Right now, he had to focus on the competition rather than the movie.

“When I just joined the company…”

Maru said his lines in a small voice so that he didn’t wake his mother up, but still did so with emotion. That practice lasted late into the night.

* * *

Suwon Center of Culture. He was back here after nearly a year. Honestly speaking, he really didn’t feel anything. Last year, Woosung High failed to pass the preliminaries. Although the source of the problem was Geunseok, it couldn’t just be blamed on him. In the end, they all stood on the same stage. They all froze because of that mistake, and they could not make up for the mistake. The moment they blamed one person for the failure, was the moment they admitted that that was all they amounted to.

Maru watched Geunseok’s mistake from the audience seats. He also saw that the rest of the members’ expressions froze up as well. They must have panicked. After all, the one they had the most confidence in ended up making a mistake. There was no guarantee that the same thing wouldn’t happen today either. No, it will happen. Mistakes will happen, whether big or small.

“There will be mistakes on today’s stage. Don’t guarantee that you won’t make a mistake. Go about it with the mindset that you will make one. If someone next to you makes a mistake, calm down and react accordingly. If you hurry because you panic, the one that made a mistake will stiffen up as well,” Maru spoke as he unloaded their luggage from the truck.

The ones that were organizing the luggage heavily nodded. This was a stage acted out by people that just started acting. It would instead be abnormal for there to be no mistakes at all. What was important was to smoothly gloss over that mistake. For that to happen, they had to think beforehand about what they would do in case someone next to them made a mistake.

“We’re here!”

Yoojin appeared with a makeup box in one hand. Next to Yoojin was her. She had a box of energy drinks in her hand.

“How did your preliminaries go?”

“Are you asking me or her?”

Yoojin made a mischievous smile and alternately pointed at herself and her. Maru of coursed looked towards her.

“Geez, I knew it.”

Yoojin walked past him towards the others. She had practically become a member of Woosung High’s acting club. The club members also welcomed Yoojin.

“That’s the stage costume?” She asked.

Maru nodded. A suit and a necktie. Of course, the necktie was the one gifted to him by her.

“Does it suit me?”

“Who do you think bought it? Of course, it suits you,” she grinned.

“Ah, we finished our preliminaries without a hitch.”

“Do you think you’re going to pass?”

“Myunghwa High never failed to pass the preliminaries you know?”

“You sound confident.”

“Yeah, I am confident. Rather than that, how do you think it’ll go?”

Maru looked behind him. The club members had dressed up, gotten around in a circle, and were talking to each other. Although they looked nervous, they didn’t stiffen up.

“Good.”

“That’s fortunate.”

“Aren’t you too generous? We’re a rival school.”

“Myunghwa High will take the grand prize anyway. And the individual prize is mine,” She spoke confidently as though she had no intentions of going easy at all.

“Don’t make a mistake. I mean your results weren’t that good last year.”

“That’s because they didn’t have the talent named Han Maru last year.”

“Don’t you feel embarrassed when you say that with your own mouth?”

“I just followed the example of someone who just said that the individual prize is hers. Was I too lacking?”

“Sheesh, why don’t you be a little more nervous?”

“I was too nervous before, so I don’t have any nerves left.”

Maru took the box of energy drinks from her hands.

“Thanks for the drinks.”

“Warn the first years before you give it to them. It has caffeine in it so it might get them agitated instead.”

Maru nodded his head. At that moment, staff from the Center of Culture called for the instructors of each school. Miso and Taesik, who were conversing on one side, walked towards the building. It seemed that they were being briefed on using the waiting rooms.

“Maru, here you are.”

Just then, Maru heard a familiar voice. When he turned around, he saw Suyeon, who was wearing a baseball cap.

“You’re here. I didn’t think you would make it.”

“It’s the competition so I should make some time for it. Rather than that, this is nostalgic. The acting of naïve little students huh.”

Suyeon smiled brightly as she looked around. Maru looked at his girlfriend who was standing left of him. She seemed a little wary.

“Oh, you’re the girl I saw in the ward last time. Hi.”

“Ah, yes. Hello.”

“You’re Maru’s girlfriend?”

“Eh? Ah, yes…”

Seeing her admit to it so easily, Maru made a thick smile. She saw that smile and blushed a little.

“The others are over there.”

“Ah, you’re right.”

Suyeon walked towards the others. The club members cheered after seeing her. It seemed that it was nice to see her since she didn’t show up much recently because she was busy shooting a drama.

“So you don’t like her.”

“Wh-what? Me? I-is it that obvious?” She was startled as she replied.

“You don’t need to be jealous though.”

“Who’s jealous!”

“If you aren’t, you aren’t. Rather than that, help me with makeup. Our turn is early, so we must hurry.”

Maru grabbed her wrist and walked towards the others.

Chapter 337

“I think that should do,” Yoojin spoke as she took her hands off.

She handed Yoojin some cotton. Yoojin cleaned up the area around the eyes of the girl sitting in front of her in a delicate manner. The brown eyeshadow was spread around and the eyes were emphasized.

She exclaimed in a small voice. Yoojin was like a professional makeup artist. Yoojin’s makeup skills were excellent and were not worse off even when compared to the lady that always helped Myunghwa High whenever they went on stage.

“Wow.”

“I think that’s enough. What do you think?”

“I feel like it’s not me.”

“It is you. Jiyoon, your head is innately round, so I emphasized the outline of your chin. You’ll look sharper under some light. I thought that you look better that way rather than just looking innocent.”

“It turned out much better than I was thinking. Thank you, unni.”

“That’s good then. But I think you should shorten your shoulder straps a little. Others might see underneath your clothes.”

Yoojin fixed up Jiyoon’s attire. She helped out from the side as well. They pulled the shoulder straps and fixed it in place with a clip. Now, her clothes wouldn’t hang downwards even if she crouched forward.

Jiyoon thanked the two before leaving the dressing room. With that, all the makeup was done.

“It’s over!” Yoojin stretched her arms out as she spoke.

She gave her an energy drink while thanking her for the job. She had bought a whole box, but it was empty already.

“Uhm, we need to use the dressing room now.”

A girl wearing white mourning clothes opened the door and spoke. She immediately picked up the trash lying on the floor and stood up. Yoojin packed up the cosmetics. When they left the dressing room, they saw students waiting outside in the corridor. They walked past the students wearing various costumes and left the corridor.

They looked for places to sit on the first floor lobby, but there was a person sitting on every seat. There were a lot of parents and students who came to cheer their team on.

“I’m sure there must be some of them that were forced to come here,” Yoojin said.

She nodded as well. Since it was a play done by youths, the audience was always small. Although the finals, which were held in Seoul Art Center, always had full seats because of advertising, the regionals were mostly empty unless the participating schools selected students to come and watch. That was why schools recommended students to go and watch. It was a ‘recommendation’ on the surface, but some schools even checked attendance.

“Should we go outside?” She pointed at a bench outside.

“At least there’s shade.”

If there wasn’t a tree behind the bench, they would have roasted themselves in the heat of August. The empty lot in front of the Center of Culture was bustling with students practicing. They were all reading their scripts under the shade. Although the building was much cooler, the organizers required them to be quiet inside the building, so they could only go outside in order to practice.

“There’s Woosung High,” Yoojin pointed towards the right of the building. They were sitting in a circle next to a fountain that wasn’t in operation, practicing. Maru was leaning against the marble wall and was looking at the expressions of each member very closely.

“He’s in the team, so they should be able to advance into the finals without a hitch.”

“He?”

“Your boyfriend.”

“……”

“You haven’t seen him acting up close, have you?”

“No, I have. We shot a drama together last time.”

“You mean Youth Generation?”

“Yeah. I went there for one day as a part time job.”

“Then I guess you must have seen his frightening acting skills then.”

“Frightening acting skills?”

She tilted her head. From what she saw, Maru’s acting during the drama shoot was far from ‘frightening’. His acting wasn’t out of place. He looked neither splendid nor lacking. It was just ordinary.

In fact, Maru’s acting during his first year seemed better. On the stage, Maru gave off a different vibe from the rest. She was even a little jealous of his uniqueness back then.

“You don’t look convinced.”

“I don’t know if you should call it frightening. He’s just… ordinarily good.”

“No way. I watched him during the read-through of the movie. Even the lead actors were slightly surprised. The director even complimented him. And you call him ordinarily good?”

Yoojin had an expression of disbelief. She fell into thought. Was she wrong? No. During the drama shoot, Maru didn’t show anything that made her heart flutter.

“It must be because the role is different, right? Different roles give off different vibes.”

“No, that shouldn’t be. If he does it, even the ordinary wouldn’t look ordinary anymore. Of course, a professional actor should be better than him overall. But just for that day, just for that moment, he was beyond the pros. I got the chills just watching him. He did have a scary line, but that can’t explain all of it.”

Yoojin pouted and looked at Maru.

“Of course, like what you said, it might have been because that role was special, but still…”

That shouldn’t be the case - continued Yoojin in a small voice. She also had a look at Maru who was standing afar. He was talking to his club members with a serious expression. A frightening act? Maru’s acting definitely had a charm that captured the attention of the audience. She knew that from experience. She wasn’t focusing on him because she liked him. When she sat in the audience seats, she became quite cold-minded. Despite that, Maru’s acting that she saw before had some kind of energy that made her unable to take her eyes off him.

However, she couldn’t judge that as ‘frightening acting skills’. She would definitely shiver in excitement if she felt so. Unfortunately, Maru’s acting wasn’t at that level yet. Although he was unique enough to stand out from the rest of the people on stage, he didn’t overwhelm everyone else.

“I guess I’ll see today,” she spoke.

Woosung High’s turn would start in just a short while. She didn’t need to think about it, she just needed to see it. She grabbed Yoojin’s hand, who looked a little down for some reason and stood up.

“What?”

“Let’s get seats early on. I want to watch from the front.”

“Ah, you’re right. There are a lot of people, aren’t there?”

“Yeah, so we should go in early.”

She grabbed Yoojin’s hand and walked into the building.

* * *

“Hello.”

“Ah, hello.”

“Looks like we’re having a hard time for two days in a row.”

Ahn Pilhyun greeted the two people in front of him as he entered the building.

Pilhyun was a playwright. He wrote a few play scenarios and had experience helping out with writing a movie scenario. A while ago, he was requested to be one of the judges for the regional preliminaries, and he accepted that job. Actually, he accepted because he wasn’t making progress on the scenario he was writing. He accepted that job in order to give himself the excuse that ‘he was too busy because of the job’.

He felt pathetic, but he wanted to get some room to breathe even if he had to do that.

The two people next to him also worked in the art field. One was the leader of a theater troupe, while the other was a university professor.

“Everyone’s pretty good, right?”

“Yes. They have their own thematic consciousness and their acting is pretty good as well.”

“Some of them will proceed to major in theater and film, right? Haa, that department has it hard these days. There are a lot of kids wanting to be actors, but there just aren’t enough spots for all of them.”

The professor, who was a woman, sighed.

Pilhyun ignored the professor’s words. This woman sighed all the time. He played along with her yesterday, but from how she hadn’t changed at all today, it would be very tiring for him to play along again. The other man, the leader of the theater troupe, crossed his arms and dozed off as soon as he sat down, just as he did yesterday. It seemed like he was going to watch just a little bit and make his judgment off that. Again, just like yesterday.

Pilhyun wasn’t in a position to talk either. Although he said that their acting was pretty good, he was saying that based on the fact that they were just high school students. What he really meant was that they were just ‘not horrible to watch’ and not ‘worth watching deeply’.

He sighed as he fidgeted with the pen in his hand. He thought of something good to write yesterday, so he sat down in front of his desk, but he got stuck after just two lines. He felt like he was going to lose all of his hair just writing the synopsis of a movie. It was a sad reality that he was worrying about balding at the age of forty-three. In truth, he had lost quite a lot of hair as well. It must all be because of stress.

He thought about sleeping just like the man next to him. It didn’t sound like a bad idea to look for stories in his dream. Since the plays that were going to be acted out today were probably of similar styles to yesterday’s, it probably wouldn’t make a difference even if he didn’t watch it properly.

* * *

“Woosung High, please get ready.”

They were expecting to hear that ever since they heard the audience applaud from inside the waiting room behind the stage. They were signalled by the staff to go on the stage. There was a 20-minute break. They had to finish setting up the stage within that time.

“Daemyung! Start with the cabinet!”

“Got it!”

The four boys moved the metal cabinet with the plate that read ‘Department of Investigation’ on it. Following that, they moved the bars of the holding cell, which were just PVC pipes painted in silver.

“Should I put the desk over here?”

“Yeah, that looks good.”

“What about this desk and this chair?”

“Let’s distance them a little further apart. Move them closer to the cabinet.”

“What about the hanger for the police hats and jackets?”

“Right of that desk!”

Maru ran to the bottom of the stage.

“Daemyung! Move the desk next to you to the left! Also, Bangjoo! Push the hanger forward a little and hang the police hat a little higher up!”

Even if the set looked perfect from the stage, it was wrong if it didn’t look right to the audience. Maru adjusted the distance between each item so that it wouldn’t look too empty from the audience.

“Do you need any help?”

Maru turned his head when he heard her voice. She was standing with Yoojin.

“It’s fine. We’re almost finished.”

She nodded once before sitting in the front seat. It seemed that the two had entered the hall early to watch from the front.

“How does it look to you? Do you see anything awkward?”

“No, it looks good to me.”

“What about you, Yoojin?”

“Wouldn’t it look better if there was something like a computer on the desk?”

“We’re going to bring it soon.”

At that moment, Dowook appeared carrying a monitor. He placed it on the police desk that Daemyung was sitting at and adjusted the angle. Since Daemyung couldn’t be hidden behind the monitor, he placed the monitor to the edge of the desk.

“I’ll get going now then.”

“Alright. Don’t make a mistake.”

“Don’t worry.”

Having returned to the stage again, Maru picked up the glow-in-the-dark tape and started checking the movement lines. They wouldn’t be able to see anything in the dark. The people behind the holding cell bars didn’t move much, but Daemyung, who would be outside, had to move around a lot. There was a scene where he had to leave the scene and come back in again, and he was marking those spots.

“Everyone, gather round.”

Daemyung called everyone. There were three minutes left now.

“Like Maru said in the morning, anyone can make a mistake. Those mistakes are an element of the play. Without them, there would be no nervousness either. So even if you do make a mistake, don’t feel guilty about it. It’s natural. Instead, if you forget your line or were late to do something, don’t panic and take deep breaths. Act as though taking deep breaths is a part of the scene.”

Daemyung said a part of his lines and stopped midway. Then, he grabbed his forehead and sighed. He acted as though that sigh was a part of the play.

“If you can buy some time like that, the others can help you. You don’t need to do it hastily. This is our stage. No one will blame us even if we make a mistake.”

Daemyung put his right hand out.

“Blue Sky.”

Then the hands pushed downward.

“Fighting![1]”

At the same time, there was an announcement in the building.

- Part three of the youth acting festival, Woosung High’s play, will begin shortly. Please…

Maru took a deep breath and looked at Daemyung. Daemyung on stage wasn’t the usual sluggish Daemyung. He had sharper and more astute eyes than anyone else here. He was a reliable club president in this place.

They hid behind the side curtains. They could hear people talking as they entered the hall. This was the most exciting time last year as well.

Maru looked at the first years standing behind him. Jiyoon, Aram, and Bangjoo all looked nervous.

“There are quite a lot of people outside. Wanna look?” Maru asked the three.

They all shook their heads and replied ‘no’.

“How about you, Dowook?”

“Don’t talk to me. I might forget my lines. Damn, it’s nerve-wracking.”

“Do you want a calming pill?”

“Shut up. I’m really nervous so stay still.”

Even the usually bossy guy was nervous because of his first stage. The pressure must be completely different from the almost joking of a play that they did during the festival. The heat from the stage lights, the breath of the audience, the texture of the floor would all affect his heart rate.

“Think of it as playing around.”

That was the only advice Maru could give. There was no nervousness that would disappear just by telling them to ‘stop being nervous’. It was the capability of the individual to change that nervousness into energy. That wasn’t something that someone else could help with.

‘The only option is to get nervous and clash with the audience head on.’

The lights shining on the audience slowly dimmed. It would go completely dark in just a moment. They had to go on the stage and get into position at that time. When the lights turned on again, they would no longer be in the Suwon Center of Culture, but a police station within the country somewhere.

“Take a deep breath.”

Daemyung’s voice could be heard. The juniors all took a deep breath just like he said.

Then, darkness finally pervaded the stage.

“Let’s go.”

[1] A shout to rally everyone in Korea.

Chapter 338

The first thing he saw when his eyes adapted to the darkness was the glow-in-the-dark tape. The first piece of tape was on the hanger, the second was on the desk, and the rest were on the floor. He blinked a few times. He could faintly make out the outline of the stage. After seeing Daemyung’s figure on the other side of the side curtain, he started walking.

He stepped on the waxed floor and walked into the holding cell. Dowook, Jiyoon, and Bangjoo all checked their respective positions before sitting down. With that, they were ready to start. Maru signalled Bangjoo who was staring at him.

“I get it so be quiet already!”

The lights turned on along with a loud shout. Daemyung clicked his tongue as though he was tired of the fuss and hung his black jacket on the hanger.

“Don’t stand over there and come here already.”

He shouted to the side curtain. Aram could be seen taking a deep breath.

‘Don’t get nervous and take your time.’

Maru tapped Jiyoon who was looking at Daemyung absent-mindedly. The play had started already. It wasn’t just the ones talking on stage that were acting. In fact, the ones that didn’t have lines had to be more careful when acting.

Jiyoon fixed her expression immediately and looked towards the audience. The others also acted as they practiced beforehand and formed the right atmosphere within the holding cell.

“Do you know who I am?”

“I don’t, so go in for now. I’ll listen to the full story once the related people are here tomorrow morning.”

“Are you really allowed to put innocent people into cells like this?”

“Excuse me? We are allowed to lock you up because you’ve committed a crime. Also, if you really didn’t commit anything, then you’ll be able to leave in 48 hours so don’t worry about that.”

“But…”

Aram entered the cell with a crying face. She must have been nervous because her act was what started off the whole play, but she finished it without making any mistakes. Maru nodded slightly towards Aram, who sat opposite to him. Aram faintly smiled back before returning to her normal expression. Maru saw that Aram’s left arm, which was on the floor, was shaking. So she was acting in that kind of state. She was a cool junior.

* * *

“They look a little tense, right?”

“Yeah. But it’s still okay right now. There weren’t any big mistakes either. However, it does look a little unstable. The first years are doing well, but I can’t shake off the feeling that they’re barely making it. Although it looks okay right now, if that persists, the audience will feel uncomfortable as well. That will probably affect the scores.”

Yoojin was analyzing the stage. She agreed with her. It was true that they were doing well. They were five minutes into the play. Their lines were smooth, and their movement didn’t look messy. However, just like what Yoojin said, she couldn’t erase the feeling that they were on a tightrope.

Why was that so?

“Hey, over there! Be quiet! Are you going to cause a fuss even in the cell?”

“Who’s causing a fuss?”

Daemyung and Aram exchanged lines. When she saw that, she finally realized why this stage looked like they were on thin ice.

“The gap is too big,” she spoke in a small voice.

Daemyung had completely dissolved into the role of the police. He had become a stubbly policeman in his forties. His speech and even his habit of pushing his belly outward indicated that he had done a lot of research and practice.

The first years were definitely doing well. However, they looked immature compared to Daemyung. Viewed separately, there was not that much of a discrepancy, but put together, the gap was obvious, making the audience tilt their heads in confusion.

The astute people among the audience were probably thinking that something was off. What was fortunate was that the first years did not notice that. The moment they pushed themselves to imitate Daemyung, the balance would break.

If she, a non-expert, could feel it, the judges would have noticed already and it would consequently affect their scoring.

“Since they’re taking turns, I guess it should be Maru’s turn soon.”

Yoojin leaned forward and focused on the stage. She also became quiet and looked in front of her.

* * *

Pilhyun was startled by the twitching and woke up from sleep. When he looked next to him, he saw the theater troupe leader scratching his head with an awkward smile. It looked like he had a bad dream.

Since he felt embarrassed as well, he picked up his pen and looked at the scoring sheet. How is the stage layout? Is there a clear thematic consciousness? Was the expressivity good? They could give points out of five for each category. That score would decide whether or not a team would advance into the finals. Of course, after the competition, the three would discuss together which teams to send to the finals. However, most of the time, the teams were at similar levels so the scores would decide everything.

When he looked next to him, he saw that the professor had a bored expression as well. There were eight teams yesterday, and there were eight teams today. They had run out of energy yesterday.

‘This is the third team, so there are five teams left today.’

They were tied down to this place for around six hours. It was actually quite energy-consuming. He wriggled around to relieve some fatigue around some parts. Since his job was to write text while sitting, his waist wasn’t in a good condition. He wriggled around in his seat in order to straighten his waist.

Just then, a crisp voice entered his ears. This was a voice he had heard during the beginning of the play. He dozed off as soon as the play started, so he didn’t know what the story was, but the voice was definitely good. When he had a look at the stage, he saw that the play was set in a police station. A rather chubby boy was talking non-stop in front of everyone. Was he the police? His diction was good, and his pronunciation was on point.

He was definitely better than most of the students he saw until now, but that didn’t mean that he decided to start watching properly again.

Thanks to a little sleep, he became clear-minded. He didn’t want to make his clear mind rot by watching little children showing off their little skills.

He put a piece of paper on top of his scoring sheet and wrote down ideas that popped up in his head. He was drawing a mind map. He organized his thoughts in order to break down the writer’s block that stopped him from writing his scenario.

“Kids these days just don’t know what suffering is. It wasn’t like that when I was young.”

That was the voice he heard after the shout from the previous boy died down. Pilhyun stopped writing with his pen at that moment. The voice was rather calm. It was neither powerful nor powerless.

If it was just that, Pilhyun wouldn’t have raised his head. The weight contained in the voice was different. The boy that played the policeman wasn’t that bad. He watched for a brief moment, but he felt nothing off. His acting capabilities were decent for a high school student. However, that was it. That boy lacked the uniqueness that an actor had to possess. It was natural. There was no way he would have something unique about him when it was just a high school club play done with friends. Just being ‘different’ from the others wasn’t enough to be called ‘unique’. It was only ‘unique’ when someone showed a special talent or wisdom that was clearly a level above others.

That voice just now.

Pilhyun looked at the small stage. It was just one line, but the quality was different. It felt like someone started playing the violin amongst kindergarteners playing the castanets.

The owner of the voice was behind bars. He was wearing a grey-toned suit. Even though it was a high school student wearing a suit, it didn’t look awkward at all on him. It was even a grey-toned suit that the older generation would wear and not the navy-toned ones that the younger people wore. Moreover, since suits brought as stage costumes were borrowed from adults most of the time, they usually didn’t suit the body figure of the wearer, but that boy looked like the suit was tailor-made for him. It didn’t look out of place at all as though he had been wearing it for a long time.

That boy, leaning against the bars of the cell, started talking with the girl opposite of him. For the first time, Pilhyun focused on the play. The girl seemed to have been caught scamming someone, while the boy in a suit looked to be some executive at a large company.

“You have bad eyes. Rather than that, tell me this Daeyang group guy you know.”

He put his head on his hands and spoke to the girl. Pilhyun subconsciously leaked a laugh when he saw the boy being so natural. He exuded arrogance. That boy had the disdainful eyes unique to the ones that stepped above all others. Where could he have seen such eyes? On TV? Or from his father?

In the end, acting skill could only be directly proportional to experience. High school students. They were at an age where they were just getting to know the place that was society. They should have heard about how hard, dirty, and underhanded society is.

However, the idiom ‘viewing is better than a hundred questions’ didn’t exist for nothing. Would an ordinary high school student have experienced the cruel realities of society? They would feel down if their grades went down and perhaps might be scolded by their parents, but they wouldn’t be left alone. After all that was said, they were being protected. The problems arising in that situation, no matter how difficult it may be, was a drop in the bucket compared to the problems encountered in society.

This was one of the reasons why student actors looked very awkward when they played a role that talked about the problems of society. How hard would it be since they were acting without any experience?

Yet, that boy over there was speaking as though he had experience. His lines didn’t just sound like lines, they sounded vivid.

“It’s quite funny, you know? I’m the one who hit him, and he’s the one giving me presents and apologizing. Do you know the saying, money turns crime into innocence and the lack of money turns innocence into crime?”

The boy smirked as he stood up and scanned the audience. He didn’t look unnatural at all. In regards to acting, ‘feel’ wasn’t enough to bring an act to life. Behind the acting that looked ‘instinctive’ were dozens to hundreds of rounds of repetitive practice and calculations.

How many times did that boy practice in order to possess such a smirk?

Pilhyun put down his pen. His brain told him that this was a play worth watching.

The ones sitting either side to him seemed to be thinking the same thing. The troupe leader who was dozing off until now placed his head on top of his locked hands and watched the stage with incredibly sharp eyes. To be exact, he should be looking at the boy.

The professor was the same. She had uncrossed her legs and sat upright as she watched the stage. The scoring sheet that she always left aside was in her hands. He could feel her intention to judge things properly from where she was sitting.

At that moment, the boy’s mouth opened once again.

* * *

He could have walked ahead. He could have exaggerated more than he was doing now. If he did, then the play would have been much more interesting to watch, but the balance would have been broken.

Maru looked around him even as he said his line. Everyone was still going strong. They had all adapted to the stage. He had to maintain this pace.

“It’s quite funny when you think about it. That subordinate said the right thing. Meaning, he used forthright words. Isn’t there a saying that you should keep a man that speaks bitter words nearby? That he is the most loyal subordinate? But you know? There’s a limit to being bitter. Can’t it be a little sweeter? Who the hell is he to tell me what to do? You don’t live in society with your mouth. This world is all about power, authority, and lastly, politics. You should know how to suck up to people, and how to mix lies within your words so that you can survive in this jungle like company. The young ones are only full of spirit. They only know about justice! Does justice give you food?”

He divided up his breath into precise parts when he said his line. He had checked his breathing several times when he practiced. Long lines like that one couldn’t be said without thinking. Where to take a break, where to look, and everything else had to be decided beforehand.

Emotions were the same. If he got all emotional just by himself, it would break everything. He wished he could show more emotion, but that was likely to break the rhythm. That would mean doom.

He had to set his rhythm to match his juniors. As long as he continued his acting so that he didn’t break that rhythm, they would be able to finish this play safely.

He looked into Jiyoon’s eyes as he said his line. She wasn’t able to show the sexy smile that she had practiced until now, but she didn’t make a mistake in saying her lines. Being able to show everything that she practiced would make her a professional. For today, this was enough.

At that moment, Aram, who was next, stumbled just as she stood up. It wasn’t her fault. She wasn’t able to find balance because one of her heels had slipped. It wasn’t a fatal mistake, but Aram dazed out since she missed the right timing.

This was dangerous. Missing one line would probably make her forget all the following lines as well. It was a chain reaction. It was just like how one wouldn’t be able to remember the following melody if they forgot about the beginning part.

Daemyung was too far away. Moreover, he was looking at the front, so he wasn’t aware of the situation here. Dowook, who was sitting next to him, also looked dazed. Maru and Daemyung had told the others multiple times that there would be mistakes, but it would actually be incredibly difficult to stay calm in the face of an actual mistake.

Jiyoon? She wasn’t skilled enough to cover up someone’s mistake. Bangjoo had the next line, so he was no good either.

Maru had finished organizing the situation in an instant and stepped out. This wasn’t in the script. He approached Aram and grabbed her shoulder.

“Scammer lady, why don’t you get yourself together?”

Get yourself together- this was originally Aram’s line. His role was an arrogant company executive. This action wasn’t that out of line with the play.

Receiving the hint, Aram’s expression brightened up in an instant. She was a smart girl at heart, so she regained the rhythm and continued with the line immediately. Maru turned around to the audience and showed Aram a thumbs-up so that the audience wouldn’t see it. Aram smiled faintly before sitting down.

Chapter 339

His acting from back then was based on memories.

Last year, when he learned acting from Ganghwan, there was a short period of time where he stood on stage. He did a short monodrama for five to ten minutes before the real show. The role he played back then was a bus driver. There was no need to call it a ‘role’ since he actually had experience being one. There was no need to put on the mask of an actor. He just conversed with the people in the audience while looking back at his life. It must have looked natural. After all, he just spoke of his experiences.

The reason he couldn’t be happy when he was complimented behind the stage was because he was aware that it was not an act. An actor starts off by imitating, but the ultimate goal of all actors was to create something out of nothing. Acting from experience was a stable method, but there would be no progress either.

It was then that Maru thought - he couldn’t forget about his past self, nor could he abandon it.

The Han Maru before his reincarnation; the Han Maru aged forty-five was a part of him that he could not break away from. The youthful Maru’s challenging mindset and the middle-aged Maru’s conservatism were walking towards a common ground, but there were still cases where one overtook the other in regards to certain matters.

While his personality went through such a process, his memory was piling up. The memories from the forty-five year-old Maru were being buried by new memories. The clear picture he had of his daughter was blurring out, and her adult face was becoming fainter by the day. One day, his forty-five year-old self’s memories would all sink into his subconscious, or perhaps even deeper than that. Only God would know when that would happen.

The reason he felt uneasy relying on his experience to do acting was because he thought of those things. It would one day be impossible to grab onto the roots of his memories and utter them out through his mouth like a parrot.

That was why he passionately did research. They were definitely things he was already aware of. When he focused, he could remember what kind of gaze company executives had when looking at others, what kind of expression they had during speeches, as well as their blatant arrogance and the attitude of ‘seeking gifts’ whenever it became performance evaluation season.

However, he did not bring those memories into his acting.

It was definitely very difficult. There were immediate funds he could make use of, yet he had to ignore it on purpose. He did not rely on his memories and started investigating. He put aside the things he knew and started compiling knowledge from the current era. The method he chose to complete the image of a company executive was to listen to his father. Although that would affect the objectivity of the image, it didn’t matter. He based his image of the company executive on what he heard from his father and formed his character.

It wasn’t easy. There were definitely differences between the image of company executives in his mind and the image his father had. There were some things he just couldn’t accept as well. It took him quite a long time to accept the things he couldn’t accept before.

He continued that process of breaking the old and accepting the new. During such a process, Maru felt his vision widening. He compared, accepted, and threw away. The process of turning the obvious not so obvious gave him a lot of things to think about.

The moment he formed a general outline of the executive character, Maru realized that what he was doing was precisely the process of applying a character to his role. The form of the character borrowed from the words of someone else clashed with his own image of the character, broke down, and merged into one. During such a process, the character came to possess more depth.

The stabilization process. Just like how his personalities and preferences were being neutralized, his memories needed a similar process. That process was necessary so that his mind wouldn’t fall into chaos after all of his forty-five year-old memories disappeared.

“Just shut up if you’re poor! Poor people always have loud voices, urgh.”

Maru shouted towards the audience. After that, he acted all arrogant and scanned the other actors on stage. Although there were a few mistakes, they reached all the way to this point without breaking the flow. The play was running towards the curtain call. There weren’t that many lines left either.

Daemyung smoothly continued the conversation. He definitely had some stability. Looking at Daemyung walking around the stage while speaking, Maru sat down. After Daemyung’s line, they would each have their last lines, get into a big fight and finish everything off. The first years, who were shaking, seemed to have gotten used to the play as well and no longer shook. Confidence could be seen from their eyes, and they were ready to say their lines whenever their turn arrived.

This play should end without a hitch.

* * *

“He is doing well, he really is, but…”

Yoojin frowned. The reason she helped Woosung High and their practice to the point that she volunteered to do makeup for them was to observe Maru. She was curious about the secret that allowed Maru to possess that indescribable air about him in just one year. She wondered if he had some special practicing methods or was learning from a good instructor. If that wasn’t the case, perhaps he had excellent friends that synergized with him.

However, from what she saw, none of those cases applied to Maru. Before, Maru jokingly said that she could only be reborn if she wanted to know the secrets of his acting skills. Back then, she treated it like a joke, but it didn’t take long for her to realize that it was not a joke. While it was true that there were some incredible people around Maru, he did not interact with them that much. He always went to the small practice room and practiced acting with his juniors that had slightly disappointing skills.

Yet, in such an environment, his acting skills rose by the day.

The only plausible explanation was that his innate talent was huge.

Those frightening acting skills. The absorption power that even made professional actors look at him subconsciously, as well as his expressivity that did not match his age. She thought that he was above her in all of those aspects, became jealous, and did everything she could do to follow him.

“But why…”

Woosung High’s play was smooth. No, it became smooth. The tension that existed at the beginning of the play had died down, and after that, the play progressed like running water. Maru and Daemyung solidly acted out their part, while the others, albeit not as good as those two, did their best to contribute to the completion of the play. The play was going well without any huge flaws, but Yoojin became more frustrated by the moment.

The reason was simple. Maru’s acting was no fun. She wanted to watch him show her the same thing he did during the read-through. She wanted to check with her own eyes how his acting skills, which, albeit unpolished and stood out from the rest last year, had changed this year. She thought that he should have changed and that he would show her something different. She continued watching the play while thinking about those things, but even now that the play was reaching its end, Maru did not show her any special acting skills.

Did his acting skills regress instead?

That was definitely possible. While he managed to stand out even amongst many professional actors, maybe his skills were downgraded after having spent so much time with the ordinary kids.

No, it wasn’t really a downgrade. After all, the play itself was going smoothly without any major flaws. It wasn’t that his skills were lacking. It just felt bland. The heart-clenching excitement was gone. She did not want to spend an entire Sunday just to watch something like this.

She became bored. She felt like she shouldn’t have come to watch. Since her high expectations snapped in just a short moment, she felt like she was being drained of energy.

Maru was someone she was inwardly jealous of. She was envious of his skill. At the same time, he made her look forward to the moment they would stand together in front of a camera. A rival, of sorts. She became fired up the more amazing Maru was, but it felt like someone poured cold water on top of the bonfire.

People that could act on that level could be seen everywhere in various acting schools. Did she lose a competitive rival and gain a good friend? It disappointed her a lot.

‘Well, this girl said the same thing. That he’s good but there was nothing amazing about him.’

Yoojin looked at her who was sitting next to her. She could finally understand why she said that Maru didn’t show her anything special during the drama shoot, and she finally understood why. Was what she saw from him back then a coincidence? A misunderstanding on her part?

“…So he can do things like that,” just then, she spoke.

Yoojin asked what was up.

“Maru. He’s too good.”

“He’s good? Ah, I guess he’s good. But honestly speaking, he disappoints me.”

“Why? How?”

She widened her eyes and asked with disbelief in them. Yoojin explained what was on her mind; that it was just plain-old acting without anything special.

When she said that, she firmly shook her head.

“No, Maru’s acting is really incredible. No, perhaps this isn’t about acting. I can’t think of the right word right now.”

She looked forward with excitement. Yoojin couldn’t understand. Just what part of Maru’s current acting was ‘incredible’? Being ‘good’ and being ‘incredible’ definitely had different tones.

“Look at that. Look at his expression when he exchanges lines with the others. It’s very different. At those moments, the other people’s expressions become more colorful. It feels much more vivid. Over there, he looked so unstable during his monologue, but he turns stable the moment he does something together with Maru. No, it’s not just about the stability. He becomes better. His expressions become more confident. Maru is inducing him to do that,” she spoke with conviction.

Induce?

Yoojin was just looking at Maru until now. Although she had a grasp over the overall situation, she was solely focused on Maru, so she did not notice the changes in the surrounding people.

But after listening to her words, she caught that clear difference. The difference between the parts including Maru and the ones without Maru was huge. However, it didn’t make the play become more awkward. The parts Maru were in just became more filled with life and easier to watch.

“Yes, that’s right,” she spoke as though she finally remembered the word she forgot.

“Right now, Maru is…”

* * *

“He’s incredibly… skilled.”

“You could even call him wonderful.”

Pilhyun looked next to him. Skilled. The leader of the theater troupe was leaning forward as he watched the stage. The professor was the same. Although she was sitting back in her chair, her gaze as she looked in front of her had more depth than before.

Just until yesterday, they were drowning in boredom and yawns. That applied to him as well. It was very hard to give a lot of points in the ‘fun’ category when it came to highschool plays. Although they watched the stages out of duty, they dozed off most of the time.

And for the first time today, they focused on the play with their full concentrations. It was just because of one boy.

“Woosung High, huh.”

“What’s that fellow’s name?”

“Please wait a moment.”

Pilhyun put aside the scoring sheet and picked up the list of participating schools and students. He found Woosung High as he read down the list. He saw the name of the teacher in charge, the title of the play, as well as the students participating in the play.

“Salaryman, Han Maru.”

“Han Maru?”

“Is it a name you know?”

“No, I just thought it sounds rather unique.”

Pilhyun looked at the troupe leader. He also said that he hadn’t heard of the name before.

“I’ve been judging youth acting festivals for quite a long time now. I’ve seen many people come and go. Among them, there were many students that showed acting skills that were unbelievable of their age.”

He then crossed his arms.

“And that fellow over there doesn’t seem to be lacking compared to those special students. It’s very easy for an individual to do well. They would pop out more that way. However, tuning everyone else and bringing out the best of everybody is another talent in itself. Just look at them. The air of the stage changes whenever he enters and leaves the conversation. I wouldn’t be this surprised if it was them just becoming more relaxed because they were used to being around him, but that fella is adjusting the tension with his tone of voice and the rhythm.”

“It looks like he clearly knows what group art is. Usually, people his age would want to pop out from the rest and catch the eyes of the people. There’s the individual prize as well. But he… looks like he’s adjusting himself to match the rest. He could do more if he wished to, but it looks like he’s refraining himself. That doesn’t make him half-assed either. The balance is good.”

The leader of the theater troupe and the female professor gave him extremely high praises.

Pilhyun agreed with them. That boy knew what it meant to lead everyone. It seemed like he knew how to share his own energy with the others.

Actors say there are other actors that they felt comfortable with shooting together. That was what was meant by a synergizing actor. Actors that raise the acting skills of one’s own even if he or she didn’t get along with that actor on a personal level. There were a lot of such actors among supporting actors.

In Chungmuro, people always did the legwork in order to get such supporting actors into their movies. The result was that four of the five currently-airing movies would feature the same supporting actor. It sounded funny, but there were precedents.

‘Someone that brings out the best of others, huh.’

Pilhyun sucked in a deep breath and appreciated the play that was nearing its end. He could feel the two next to him watching with their breaths abated as well. Their interest in this new item they found within the boring stage became deeper.

Chapter 340

He said his last line before looking at the audience. He wondered how they felt about it. Maru looked at the first year juniors as well as Dowook and smiled at them. The reason they could finish this hour-long performance without many mistakes was because they did unexpectedly well. They looked very nervous when they just began, but they looked like they were enjoying it starting about halfway through.

Maru tapped on the floor with his feet once. The repulsive force between the rubber soles of his shoes and the wooden floor was pleasing. The stage was a wonderful space. It was a target of fear when treading on it for the first time, but once absorbed, the stage itself emitted heat that made the actors heated up. Getting drunk on that heat while acting would make the actor forget about fellow actors and the audience as well.

The only thing that existed would be the actor themself under the light. There might be a moment of solitude, but even that solitude sublimed into joy, making them excited.

The music track they prepared beforehand started flowing out. This signalled the curtain call. The faint lights drove away the darkness, and the red audience seats entered his vision like the rising sun.

Then he heard people applauding. There were some that even shouted that he was good. Just those words to cheer him up made him feel that the months of practice were not done in vain.

Daemyung, who played the role of the policeman, put on his police hat and jacket in a cool fashion and stood in the middle of the stage. Although he looked very natural right now, he had to practice those actions several times in order to get to that point. Flicking the police hat off his head with his fingers was actually quite hard.

Following that, Aram and Jiyoon held hands and walked up to the center of the stage before taking a deep bow. The applause became louder. They stood on either side of Daemyung.

Bangjoo and Dowook followed. Dowook seemed to have lost his tension at the last moment as he just replaced the action he practiced with just a formal bow.

Maru, who was standing behind the right curtain, also stepped onto the stage. He stood to the right of Bangjoo and bowed towards the audience. They all then raised their hands, which were grabbing the hand of the person next to them, and took a big bow at the same time. The music slowly faded out and the lights in the audience seats brightened.

-That is the end of Woosung High School’s acting club, Blue Sky’s performance. Damseon High School’s play will be held next after a short break.

The audience started exiting. There seemed to be some students from Woosung High as well. Perhaps they were friends of his juniors.

Daemyung clapped to gather attention. The club members gathered in a circle in the center of the stage.

“Well done everyone.”

“Wow, I was nervous to death.”

“Me too.”

“I’m still sweating. Look at my palms.”

Dowook showed his palms. They were bright red. There were even some fingernail marks on it. That just showed how tightly he gripped his fists in nervousness.

Maru patted Dowook’s back.

“Well done.”

Dowook glared back and was about to snap back, but he just chuckled and nodded.

“We’re not done yet. We need to clean up the stage we used. Guys, let’s move the heavy stuff out first. Jiyoon, you remove the tape we stuck on the ground, and Aram, please carry the props out.”

“Yes!”

They moved around busily. Just as Maru returned after carrying the desk to the corridor outside the resting area, he saw two girls struggling to climb onto the stage. They were Yoojin and her.

“Carry those out for me since you’re here,” Maru told the two before picking up a chair.

“You didn’t have to tell us, we were going to help out anyway, you know?” Yoojin grumbled for a while before picking up a jacket from the floor while giggling. She picked up the telephone which was on the floor.

“I could see that you practiced a lot,” she approached him and spoke.

“I’m glad that you could see it. Everyone did well. There weren’t any big mistakes. Considering that it’s their first time, it’s very satisfactory.”

Maru walked out to the corridor with her. The next team was hurriedly carrying their items to the stage. He pushed his club’s stuff to one side so that it didn’t hinder them.

“How was it? As the winner of last year, do you think our school is going to pass the preliminaries?”

“Well, I don’t know.”

“That’s a rather low score.”

“I’m just joking. If I was the judge, I would definitely give you a pass. You guys did really well. I mean it.”

She smiled. Maru looked at her before turning his head away. Why was she so pretty? For a moment, he looked at her absent-mindedly.

“What is it?”

“I was just startled.”

“Why are you startled?”

“Because you’re so pretty.”

“…Geez, there you go again.”

She pinched his waist. Maru screamed and surrendered.

“Maru, we need to load that on the truck.”

“I’m going.”

Maru carried the chair outside. The heat of August, which he couldn’t feel inside, suddenly assaulted him. It was like someone was blowing hot air.

“Well done everyone. I’ll go ahead and clean things up, so take your time. You guys did really well.”

Taesik and Miso complimented them before leaving the Center of Culture on the truck.

“For now, you should have some drinks.”

Suyeon gave them drinks. The shadow cast by the baseball cap was covering up her face. Some men, who were passing by, gave her a glance, but it didn’t seem like they recognized her. It seemed like they just subconsciously gave a hot woman a glance.

She was wearing a blue jersey and had big sunglasses on. Unless someone looked at her closely, it would be very difficult to recognize her as the actress Kim Suyeon. Maru looked for her while he drank, and found her talking to Yoojin. It didn’t look like she wanted to come to him. The reason was probably Suyeon.

“I felt sorry because I wasn’t able to look after you that much, but it looks like you guys don’t need me at all.”

Suyeon was quite talkative.

“I guess you didn’t come over that much, Suyeon-unni. No matter how busy you are with the drama, how could you not visit our cute Jiyoon even once?” Aram pulled Jiyoon’s cheek out as she spoke.

Suyeon smiled before pulling Jiyoon’s other cheek.

“That’s true. I should’ve come to see Jiyoon at least. But I was so busy, you know? Normally, dramas are shot, edited, and aired the next day, but the production company this time seemed to have a lot of money and they decided to go with producing everything beforehand. That messed up my schedule and I didn’t have enough time to come and look after you guys. Sorry.”

Suyeon made an apologetic expression. The club members quickly said that they were just joking.

Maru, who was sipping on his drink, saw that Suyeon looked his way and faintly smiled in a way that the other members couldn’t see. This woman really knew how to handle people.

“Since you feel sorry, why don’t you treat us to something?” Maru said.

“Why do you think I’m here? Of course, I’m here to treat you guys to a meal.”

Suyeon showed everyone her credit card. The club members applauded.

“Let’s go back to the school and clean things up before we go. There’s too much stuff for Mr. Taesik to carry by himself.”

“Daemyung, you really are earnest.”

Suyeon pointed at her car and told the boys to get on.

“The two of you can take the bus. By the time you arrive at school, we should be done with the organization.”

Daemyung, Dowook, and Bangjoo got in the car that Suyeon brought. Maru told them to wait a moment before walking towards her.

“We’re going back to our school, what about you?”

“We’ll just go back. You should hold the afterparty with just the club members. I don’t think it’s right for us to be in it,” she spoke. Maru wanted to take them, but he nodded after seeing that she was so adamant.

“Yoojin, you worked hard as well. Also, while you’re at it, help us out next time as well.”

“Hey, that’s not an attitude of asking someone for a favor!”

“Should I kneel then?”

Maru immediately put one knee on the ground. Yoojin was shocked and shouted at him to stand up again. Maru shrugged before getting up.

“This guy’s weird in the head.”

After sighing, Yoojin said that she was going to help out anyway. She also said that she would come if time allowed it.

“I’ll get going then.”

“Okay.”

Maru was about to turn around and go when she stopped him.

“Maru, do you have practice today as well?”

“No, I think we’re going to end things after the afterparty.”

“Really?”

Maru took over from there.

“I have some free time. Do you want to go watch a movie together?”

“Should we?”

“Then I’ll call you. Yoojin, hang out with her until then.”

“Don’t go deciding that by yourselves. I’m going to hang out with my boyfriend as well, you know?”

Yoojin snorted. However, when Maru stared at her, the proud expression broke down into a sigh.

“Urgh, I am sooo getting a boyfriend myself.”

Yoojin hooked her arms before dragging her away. He waved his hand at her, who was being dragged.

“How hot,” Suyeon said as soon as he got in the car. Maru put his arm against the window and rested his chin on his hand. He could see her walking afar. Actually, he wanted to ask her for her impression. It would be very new to hear her feelings when she watched the play.

“You guys were good. You were definitely better than the other schools. You should pass the preliminaries just with the fact that there were no awkward silences in your play. I’m sure of it,” Suyeon assured them.

When they arrived at the school, they saw that the truck was already unloaded by about half. They got out of the car and started helping Taesik unload the truck. Only after double-checking that everything was in the container did they close the door.

“This place feels small now.”

“We should probably clean it up as soon as possible.”

“Would we get our clubroom back again?”

“That’s probably not going to happen. There are a lot of teachers that don’t see us in a good light, and it’s not like we can force other people out of their clubrooms. Once we do a play, we should only keep the ones we can and throw away the rest.”

If they had more room, then they would have just kept everything they made, but the small container was almost full just with the things they used for this play. Although they had a hard time making them, they had no choice but to throw them away if they wanted to do another play next time.

“Let’s eat for now. We should worry later.”

Maru locked the container. Although it was too early to celebrate, it should be okay to hold an after party.

“We should pass the preliminaries right?” Daemyung asked as he stroked the container.

“We did our best, so all we can do now is to hope for the best. Let’s go. Our money lord for the day should be waiting.”

He hung his arm around Daemyung’s shoulders and walked towards the school gates. Aram and Jiyoon had arrived as well.

Taesik and Miso tried to leave after saying that they should talk at a later time.

“Why? You should eat together with us.”

“Everything’s good except for one person.”

Miso smiled brightly and said something suspicious. Maru sighed. It seemed that these two would stay enemies forever. Fortunately, the others did not hear her words.

“See you later everyone!”

Taesik and Miso left. Maru wondered when they would get married. Although Miso was very proactive, perhaps she was cautious when it came to marriage after all? No, he didn’t know that for sure. Perhaps she would suddenly call him tomorrow and say something like ‘I’m getting married’. Miso was more than capable of doing that.

“Shall we go then?”

Suyeon waved her wallet in the air.

* * *

“Whaaat? You two are dating? Are you serious?”

Suyeon sat between Daemyung and Jiyoon while giggling.

Watching them, Maru wrapped a piece of duck meat in boiled bok choy and ate it. He thought that Suyeon would take them to eat some pork belly, but she actually brought them to a Chinese-style restaurant and ordered a course menu.

When he ate the assorted chilled vegetables and shrimp, that came out as the first menu, he exclaimed. It was that delicious. When the waiter entered to serve them food, they heard voices outside, and most of the time it was either Chinese or Japanese. It seemed that this restaurant was quite a popular hotspot for tourists.

Maru stood up from the table and left the room for a bit. Then, he called her. Although the signal sounded for a long time, she didn’t pick up. Was she busy having fun?

“Your girlfriend?”

When he turned around, he saw Suyeon. Maru folded his phone and put it in his pocket.

“You should reply to me at least.”

“You know who it is already, so what’s the point?”

“Aren’t you too heartless towards me?”

“Aren’t you embarrassed to say that to a kid as a fully grown adult?”

He walked past her and entered the room. Just then, Suyeon spoke in a small voice.

“I heard you’re working with director Joongjin.”

Hearing those words, Maru stopped and turned around to look at her. There was a thick smile on her face.

Chapter 341

A lady wearing a red qipao smiled and moved to the side. Maru smiled back before walking past.

“I see you know that director,” he spoke in a low voice.

He heard the answer from behind him.

“I do,” Suyeon replied as she walked.

They seemed to be frying some chili oil as there was a spicy smell in the air. They walked past the oily smell unique to Chinese-style restaurants and went to the hall. There were families who came to eat.

Maru nodded towards the employee in charge of the door before leaving. There was a queue outside the restaurant. He saw a man sigh and turn around since the queue wasn’t decreasing that much.

“Rooftops are the best to have a talk,” Suyeon spoke.

She then turned to the left of the building and climbed up some stairs. There was an electronic door lock on the rooftop, but Suyeon proficiently typed in the passcode and entered. Maru then remembered that the store owner had greeted her warmly when they came here.

There was artificial grass laid out on the rooftop. They seemed to be planted on polyurethane boards. Other than that, there were foldable camping chairs, camping tables as well as a barbecue grill. It seemed that this place was used to hold small parties between acquaintances.

“I heard you’re appearing in it as a minor role.”

“Yeah, well,” Maru replied as he looked at Suyeon.

How did this woman know Joongjin? Why was she aware of his recent activities?

“No need to stare at me. We’re going to have to act together again.”

“Don’t tell me you were cast in the movie too?”

“That’s probably how I know about you being in it, don’t you think? I heard from the director a few days ago. He was writing down the participating actors and I saw your name, so I asked.”

“I see.”

“You and I seem deeply connected. This is already our second piece together.”

“But we never met during shoots. We’re too far apart to be ‘deeply connected’.”

“Is that so?”

Suyeon sat down and offered him to sit as well. Maru shook his head. He wasn’t planning to stay here for long, so he didn’t plan to sit.

“You don’t like me, do you?”

“As I said before, I neither like nor hate you.”

“It’d be nice if you were a little kinder.”

“If you don’t have anything else to say to me, I’ll get going. The gyoza I didn’t eat is appearing in front of my eyes.”

Suyeon shrugged.

“I can’t help that you don’t like to communicate. Alright, alright. I’ll get straight to the point.”

Suyeon stared at him as she crossed her legs.

“Help me out a little.”

* * *

Pilhyun nibbled on his ballpoint pen. The pure white manuscript paper made him frustrated. Even though he was staring holes into the squares[1], nothing came up in his head. The squares were like a fine mesh, and he was like a fish struggling to survive in that net.

He looked at the tip of the ballpoint pen he was nibbling on. The plastic tip had been deformed by his teeth marks and it was shiny with his saliva. Pilhyun put down the pen and stood up from his seat. There was no paradise in the place he ran away to. He returned to the keyboard and stared at the monitor.

He didn’t know how much time had passed when he suddenly thought of the smell of doenjang-guk. He raised his head to look at the clock. It was 5:32 p.m. It was about time for dinner.

He just turned off his monitor before standing up. The reason he didn’t turn off his PC entirely was because of his meager conviction to start writing again after eating. Of course, Pilhyun was well aware of what was going to happen. He would drown in his incompetence and solitude and turn off the noisy PC and decide to leave it for tomorrow.

He turned on the TV and ate ramyun in front of it. The savory taste of doenjang-guk from his imagination was forgotten behind the stimulative taste of the ramyun. He had been eating ramyun for all of his meals for the past few days. He was more than capable of eating proper food, whether he ordered it or went out to eat, but he did not do so. He locked himself up. He wondered what the difference was between prison food and ramyun, but he stopped thinking about it after seeing that the noodles had gotten all soggy.

On TV, a group named ‘The Five’ was talking about their love for the fans with a serious expression. After watching their figures for a while, Pilhyun switched the channel.

His fingers stopped pressing on his remote on a movie channel. The movie ‘Chinatown’, a masterpiece by Roman Polanski, was airing right now. What made it a masterpiece was the scenario created by Robert Towne. That scenario was evaluated as one of the greatest scenarios of all time. The movie was also one that Pilhyun had played back dozens of times to study. Well, someone who studies screenplays wouldn’t have watched that movie just once.

After watching the movie for a while, Pilhyun made a bitter smile and turned off the TV. Guilt overwhelmed him. The movie Chinatown slowly left his body without a sound after slapping every last bit of his self-confidence, the last line of his defense. The taste of ramyun in his mouth was bothersome now.

He rinsed his mouth with some water and washed the dishes. He was forty-five this year. Ever since his mother, who screamed at him to get married, passed away last year, he was living a lonely life. He had become used to doing the dishes, laundry, cleaning, as well as everything else. It hadn’t been that long since he last had eczema from all the housework. He remembered being somewhat proud seeing his ruined hands. That was because he felt that he was capable of living by himself.

However, recently, he started becoming frustrated about this space where he opened his eyes. It wasn’t that he longed for human presence. If he wanted that, then he could just phone his friends and tell them to come over. There was a whole list of people who were living or used to live off of writing on his phone. As all of them knew the pain of writing, he could call them anytime and have fun with them.

He wasn’t frustrated because of the lack of human presence. He was frustrated because of his work. He had hit a block, and his income was decreasing. Although he was earning his living expenses by writing newspaper columns and some things on the internet, it was unknown how long that would last. His sufficient bank balance had thinned to the point that it was hard to pay for his savings every month.

“Vitamins, vitamins.”

He opened the bottle of vitamins on the table. All he saw inside was the desiccant. He scraped the white powder with his finger and licked it. It tasted sour.

He sighed and looked at the door. He wondered if he should go outside and have some beer or something. He opened his wallet and checked inside. He took out the receipt he shoved in a slot for his credit card before checking if he had any bills. There were a few ten thousand won bills. It was 7 p.m. now. He wondered if his head would clear a little if he ate some fried chicken and a 500cc glass of beer.

After hesitating for a long time, Pilhyun clicked his tongue and threw his wallet on the sofa. If Muse came just because he felt full, the pigs inside everyone would’ve become Shakespeares already.

He had to face the white-colored devil again. His weapons were his keyboard, a cup of coffee, and some energy drinks. He sat down on the chair he didn’t want to sit on. Why were chairs designed for people to sit? He spent the next ten minutes wondering about something useless, but he didn’t feel like it was a pity. It wasn’t like he could write something anyway.

Just as he erased his writing because he felt like he had seen it somewhere before, he heard his phone ringing from the living room. He remembered throwing his phone on the sofa. Thanking that he had an excuse to run away from the white devil again, he stood up from his chair.

“Oh. It’s you, Joon.”

Pilhyun spoke as he saw the name on his phone screen. Gwak Joon. Although he was at the young age of 32, his writing was incredible. He was someone that wrote novels, and recently, the publication rights to his first novel were sold and received a movie adaptation. The novel depicted the problems of the aging society, lonely deaths, and the society that was gradually losing emotions. When he first received the book as a gift, he predicted that it would become a bestseller in a short time since the writing was incredibly good for a piece written by a thirty-two-year-old, but the market reaction was rather quiet. This could be said to be one of the pieces that received the spotlight later in its life. Like its title, it became successful in its ‘twilight struggles’.

-I’m in front of your house.

“…You should really get rid of that habit.”

Actually, Gwak Joon wasn’t seen in good light amongst writers. Even the journalists that worked in the publication field did not like him. The reason was simple: he gave off a vicious impression and he didn’t speak a lot. He was like a hermit master who broke his china every day in the mountains just because he didn’t like it. He was a cold man who couldn’t stand eating together with people he didn’t like, so it was hard to get close to him.

Pilhyun opened his door. Gwak Joon, wearing black glasses, a black hoodie, and black shoes, was standing in front of him. In one hand, he was holding a bottle of beer while in the other hand, he was holding a paper bag. The smell from that bag was quite savory. It seemed to be fried chicken.

“Have you had dinner yet?”

“I just finished eating. But there’s still enough space for some booze. Come in.”

Gwak Joon entered as he nodded. Although he was a picky man, he was a great fellow to drink together with. Pilhyun took out some Chinese-made kkakdugi[2] from his fridge, which he bought from the market.

Meanwhile, Gwak Joon had brought a table from the veranda, laid it out in the living room, and laid out the food as well. Pilhyun grinned and put down two beer glasses on the table.

“What brought you all the way here?”

“I made a visit since I was visiting Seoul.”

“Seoul? Is it a publication contract?”

Pilhyun wasn’t a man that would be jealous of another’s success. Also, Gwak Joon was someone he cared about. He felt good when he did well.

“No, I visited someone in the hospital.”

“Oh. Sorry to hear that. Is it a member of your family?”

“He’s someone I got to know during work. I was thankful towards him because he always told me good things, but I heard that he collapsed a while back, so I made a visit.”

“Tsk, it looks like he must be quite old.”

“Yes. He looked lively, but he seemed to have pushed himself recently. Fortunately, there weren’t any big problems.”

“That’s good. Perhaps I’m getting old, but it doesn’t feel like it’s someone else’s problem when I hear stories like that,” saying that, Pilhyun grabbed a chicken leg.

“But I can’t quit this and alcohol.”

“You should exercise.”

“I’m doing it every day, you know. Ever heard of mental exercise? Hey did you know that the brain spends the most calories?”

“You should move around your body. You’ll have it harder later on in your life.”

“Hey, quit nagging and start eating. You’re making me lose my appetite in front of this sacred food.”

The taste of the fried batter that broke down with a crunch in his mouth was blissful. It was worlds different from the cheap oily taste of ramyun. Gwak Joon started eating as well.

“How is your writing going?”

“Don’t even talk about it. I can’t think of anything.”

“It’s because of all the oil.”

“Are you trying to kill me here?”

Pilhyun poured beer into Joon’s glass to make him stop nagging. Gwak Joon emptied the glass in one go before continuing.

“Hyung-nim.”

“Yeah?”

“I’ll be staying at your place for a while.”

“Well, go ahead.”

“I’ll go down and get my luggage then.”

Gwak Joon then stood up and left through the door. After a brief moment, he came back through the door again, carrying a travel case.

“What about your house?”

“I couldn’t write anything so I decided to switch places. I thought it’d be good to talk to you as well.”

“Do you think my house is some temple in the mountains?”

“Going by quietness, it’s better than most temples.”

“Fine. I’m a single man just about to die of loneliness.”

Pilhyun giggled as he drank. He had two empty rooms. He would gladly give his juniors those rooms if they were stuck when in writing.

“But you should give me some inspiration as well. Let me get some talented man’s energy through my stiff head.”

He ripped off the other chicken leg and gave it to Gwak Joon. He needed to change things up as well. Perhaps he would make progress on his writing if he talked to this guy who had a great mind for writing. Both of them would profit off of this.

“Can I call someone I know over tomorrow?”

“Sure. A writer?”

“No, an aspiring director. But that person is talented at writing so I’m kinda learning myself as I’m teaching.”

“If it’s like that, then you can call anyone you want. It’d be great if it was a woman, but it’s not, is it?”

“It’s a guy.”

“What did I expect. Is he around the same age as you?”

“He’s a high school student.”

“Oh?”

Pilhyun wondered what kind of high school student managed to get close to a desolate guy like this as he drank the last sip of his beer.

‘He’s probably someone similar to him right?’

Scary eyes, skinny body, and words like knives. He could paint the picture in his mind. He would probably bring a doppelgänger over.

[1] Korean manuscript papers have squares instead of lines. Because each character can fit into a square.

[2] Kimchi made with cubed radish

Chapter 342

“What should we watch?”

She hesitated while looking at the pamphlets in each hand. The one in her right hand was about a former CIA agent’s revenge, and the one in her left was about an ex-agent’s romance. It seemed like the trend was secret agents this year.

“Which do you think is better?”

She held up the pamphlets in his face as she asked. Honestly speaking, Maru didn’t want to watch either one. He actually wanted to watch a suspense movie that was released just a few days ago. That one was about a man who was stuck in a closed space, and while the scenario wasn’t that new, many people judged that the actor’s expression of the character was so good that there was no time to be bored.

“How about that one?”

Maru pointed at the pamphlet with the despairing man’s face on it.

“…You want to watch that?” She hesitantly asked.

She put back the pamphlets into the holder and walked towards the ticketing office with a dejected face.

“Should we watch a romance then?”

“Can we?”

Her face brightened as though a ray of sunlight shone through the dark clouds. She really didn’t like scary things. She was someone that was bolder than anyone when it came to problems in reality, yet she despised ghosts and murderers in fiction. What was interesting was that despite hating it that much, she occasionally became adamant about watching them. She was very cute with her twitching all the time while watching such a movie, and quite funny at the same time. Perhaps it was similar to fighting fire with fire.

Maru picked up the pamphlet of the movie he wanted to watch. If the actor didn’t have such a scared expression in the picture, he would’ve been able to gloss it over and persuade her to watch it. He decided to watch it next time by himself and put it inside his bag.

“Here.”

She had returned with two tickets. It seemed that she hurriedly got the tickets in fear that Maru might decide to watch something else. She was even panting.

“What popcorn do you want to eat?”

“Caramel for me.”

“Drink?”

“Sprite!”

“Anything else?”

“No, I’m good.”

She added ‘I’ll gain weight if I eat too much’ in a small voice.

* * *

“The acting was decent, right?”

“You mean the female lead?”

“Yeah. I especially liked the last scene where she looked at the picture warmly.”

“I liked it when she lied down on the bed wearing just a white shirt.”

“Urgh, pervert. That’s the only thing you see, isn’t it?”

“My eyes were made to see that kind of thing.”

While they were talking, the omelette they ordered came out. They were in a restaurant in front of the cinema, and she brought him here saying that this place was well-known. Maru scooped a spoonful and put it in his mouth. The thick demi-glaze sauce stimulated his tongue.

“It’s good.”

“Right? Do you want to try mine as well?” She pushed her plate forward a little as she spoke.

Maru put his spoon sideways on top of the soft egg and pushed it down. He smoothly rotated his spoon to scoop a mouthful out. He brought it to his mouth and ate it.

What kind of taste was this? He focused on the taste that tickled his tongue under that softness of the egg. Just then, the spiciness became strong and a fire burned in his mouth. He could see that she had an evil smile on. Her cheeks were bright red.

“It’s spicy.”

She grinned cheerfully before starting to eat her omelette.

“Oh yeah, what happened to the 2nd audition for the sitcom you talked about last time?”

“It’s next Monday. It’s an interview-slash-audition.”

“If it’s an interview, aren’t you practically in it? I wonder if you’ll pass and somehow rise into a star. You know, a rising star.”

“No way.”

She shook her head, saying that such a thing wouldn’t happen. Maru held his spoon up like a microphone and put it in front of her.

“You won the popularity award thanks to the drama. How do you feel right now?”

“Hm, first, I want to say thanks to the unni at the barbershop.”

“Isn’t that what a Miss Korea says?”

“Who cares?”

She giggled.

It would be good if she passed the audition. Maru wanted to see her figure on TV. It would feel quite new to see her as a member of the main cast rather than as a replacement.

“Aren’t you going to eat?”

“I am.”

Maru picked up his spoon again and scooped his omelette.

* * *

She stared into the crane machine. At the end of her gaze was a phone strap with a plastic rabbit at the end.

“Should I get it for you?”

“No, it’s fine.”

She said that it was fine with a smile and took out her phone. It seemed that she got a phone call. She told him to wait before picking it up.

While she took her call, Maru inserted some coins into the machine. He moved the crane to the top of the phone strap with the joystick and pressed the button. The phone strap was hung on the tip of the mechanical claw.

“I told you it was fine.”

It seemed that she finished the call. Even though she was saying that there was a bright smile on her face as she looked at the machine. When the phone strap fell into the exit, she cheered.

“Good things happened in a row,” she put the phone strap on her phone as she spoke.

“In a row?”

“Yeah. I just got a call. Our school passed the preliminaries.”

“Oh, it’s 8 o’clock now. I guess the results should be out. What about Woosung High?”

“I don’t know, but I think you probably passed.”

At the same time, a message arrived on his phone. It was from Taesik. The contents were simple. Woosung High was advancing into the second round.

“We passed as well.”

“That’s good.”

She sighed in relief as though it was related to her.

“So I guess all that’s left now is for Woosung High to get the grand prize, and Myunghwa High to get the Gold prize and go to nationals?”

“What are you saying? Myunghwa High will get the grand prize, and Woosung High will get gold.”

She immediately changed her attitude. Her confidence in winning was in her eyes. She really didn’t take things easy. Maru walked the streets while holding her hand. They left the complex market street and entered a rather empty park. The heat from the day was still remaining, and the night air was still warm and stuffy.

He chuckled as he watched her run towards a large Siberian Husky which was coming their way. She asked the owner for permission to touch it and the owner gladly gave her permission. She smiled in joy as she put her fingers between the soft fur. Her expression was just like the dog that was wagging its tail.

While she played with the dog, Maru thought about what happened during the day.

“Help me out a little.”

Suyeon said those words. She didn’t seem to be in a hurry though.

“With what?”

“Can’t you accept it first?”

Hearing those words, Maru nodded once before turning around. He didn’t want to play with words with her. It was much more worth it to go down and eat more food.

“Okay, okay, I’ll say it. You really have a cold temper.”

Standing up, Suyeon dusted off her butt.

“But you’ll have no choice but to help me anyway. You don’t have a choice. I’ll have you help me in the drama shoot that’s happening next Tuesday.”

“A drama shoot?”

“Yeah, my drama that will start airing this week. There’s a retrospect scene and we need a young boy to act as a student. It’s nothing difficult. You just need to play a good-for-nothing student.”

“When you say I don’t have a choice, it means that it will still come to me through the president even if I refuse, right?”

“So you know. So you actually remembered that we belong to the same company?”

Suyeon grinned.

There was no reason to refuse since it was just a short shoot, so he accepted it on the spot. When he looked into it, his manager knew about it already.

“But why are you asking me to do it? There should be many others.”

“Is it strange for me to be considerate of my own family?”

“It is very strange.”

“Don’t be so wary. Actually, the one that recommended you is someone else. Do you know camera director Kim Jangsoo?”

He was the camera director for Youth Generation as well. When he affirmed it, Suyeon nodded once.

“We need a child actor since a retrospective scene was added, and most of the time, it’s usually handled by the writers or the directors. But I heard the camera director mentioning your name. The name Han Maru isn’t that common, so I soon found out that it was you. That’s why I recommended you to the director as well.”

“That was unexpected of you.”

“What’s so unexpected?”

“That you recommended me.”

“Consider it me paying you back for consulting me while I was drunk.”

“That doesn’t add up.”

“Emotional favors are supposed to be paid back in a vague fashion.”

* * *

The moment Maru’s consciousness returned to the park was when she waved goodbye to the dog she was playing with.

“I wish I could raise a dog like that once I live in a big house.”

“You’ll probably forget about that once you see them shedding their fur.”

“Why?”

“Because they will shed fur the size of their body. You’ll have to brush them often as well.”

“You’re quite knowledgeable.”

“Well, that’s because…”

You used to raise one before. Maru smiled instead of saying what he could not say. She looked back at him with a pouty expression.

“Let’s get going.”

“Yeah. It’s already 9.”

“I’ll bring you home.”

Maru grabbed her hand and started walking. Just then, he felt a vibration from his pocket. When he took out his phone, he saw that there was an incoming call from Gwak Joon.

“Yes, hyung-nim.”

-Are you together with Daemyung right now?

“No, he’s not here.”

-Why is he not picking up his phone?

“Did something happen?”

-I wanted to see him tomorrow, and there’s something I need to talk to him about as well.

“Wait a moment, I’ll try calling him.”

He hung up and called Daemyung. The signal dragged out before eventually reaching voice mail. It was too early to sleep now since it was still 9. At that moment, a bad premonition flashed in his head. During lunch, he left first because he had an appointment, but the rest of the members went to a noraebang with Suyeon. He did not hear what happened after that.

He called Suyeon. After about three signal sounds, Suyeon picked up.

-What is it?

“I’m just asking this in case, but is everyone there?”

-Fufu, wait a moment.

There was a noise from the phone for a moment before he heard laughs. It was from the members.

-Yes, Maru!

Daemyung picked up the call. His pronunciation was smudged, and he was giggling nonstop. Maru sighed.

“Did you drink alcohol?”

-Yeah!

He was overly cheerful.

“Hey, get yourself together and check your phone. You should’ve gotten missed calls from Gwak Joon-hyungnim.”

-Who?

“Gwak Joon?”

-Whooo?

Maru pressed the end call button right there. There was nothing more time-wasting than talking to a drunkard. He called Gwak Joon again. When he explained the circumstances, he heard a short sigh.

-I really don’t like that woman after all. I should tell her something when I see her next time.

“I left a message, so he’ll probably give you a call if he gets himself together tomorrow morning.”

-Yeah, okay then.

“Yes.”

Gwak Joon, who sounded like he was about to hang up, spoke again.

-But hey, have you been to the hospital?

“The hospital?”

-Yes.

“What hospital?”

-Haven’t you heard? Sir Yoon collapsed.

“Sir Yoon? You mean elder Moonjoong?”

-Yes.

“Did he get injured? Or did he get into an accident? Nothing big happened, right?”

He hurriedly asked, hearing that Moonjoong had collapsed.

-He told me that it was simple overexhaustion, but he never told me the details. He’s much better now, and he’s allowed visitors. I’ve been there today myself as well.

“Can you text me the address?”

-Okay. If you’re going to visit him, go around lunchtime tomorrow.

“Understood.”

Maru remembered the call with Geunsoo he had a few days ago. That was the day he met Joongjin for the first time. He called Geunsoo to ask about Joongjin, and Geunsoo sounded like he was about to say something, but did not do so. Perhaps that was about the elder?

“What happened?”

She looked at him worriedly. Maru was about to say nothing but decided to tell her the truth.

“Is he ill?”

“I heard that he’s much better now.”

“That’s good. You should make a visit then.”

“I will. He’s practically a savior of mine.”

“I hope he’s healthy.”

Seeing her so worried, Maru told her that everything would be okay.

The elder had collapsed - if the reason was due to overexhaustion like what Gwak Joon had said, it was probably due to the movie shoot. He researched and studied from early dawn to late night in order to perfect his character. Perhaps the fatigue had piled up since then and burst out in one go after the shoot finished.

He hoped that it was nothing bad. Maru reminded himself of the elder’s kind smile and sighed worriedly.

Chapter 343

A large truck sounded its horn and quickly drove past the bus. She, who was leaning against the window, flinched and had a look at the truck that was distancing itself. The truck was carrying a lot of construction materials. The lump of metal that was tied to the body seemed very dangerous.

She could hear the bus driver swear in a small voice. Why was the driver driving so dangerously? She frowned slightly. She felt displeased.

The bus arrived at the bus stop in front of her apartment. She glanced at the apartment in the distance before going into the nearby supermarket. One of the staff was shouting ‘closing sale’ on the mic. She picked up a basket and walked towards the meat corner.

“Give me six hundred grams of pork back leg.”

“What are you going to use it for?”

“Jjigae.”

While the meat was being cut, she took out the memo that her mom wrote in the morning. Pork back leg, two pieces of soft tofu, grapeseed oil, and milk. After receiving the meat which was wrapped in a plastic bag, she made rounds throughout the supermarket. After putting the items mentioned in the memo in the basket, she went to the bread corner. After contemplating for a while, she picked up a box of strawberry roll cake.

After purchasing the items, she left the supermarket. The wind blew against her face, and it was quite warm. She remembered seeing the news last night that the tropical nights were starting. She didn’t like being hot. She walked towards the apartment complex. Thanks to the weather, there were a lot of ladies and children in the playground. She saw someone she knew and approached and greeted them. At that moment, one of the kids looked into her plastic bag and started nagging her after seeing the strawberry roll cake.

Sorry, but I can’t give that to you.

After thanking the lady for stopping her child, she immediately walked away and went to her apartment.

“I’m home,” she said to her mom who was sitting in the living room.

Her mom was wrestling with the laptop on a low-rise desk.

“Have you had dinner?”

Her mom looked away from the monitor and asked. She replied that she ate.

“How about you, mom?”

“I did as well. With some cheonggukjang.”

Now that she thought about it, there was a slight smell of cheonggukjang in the air. She went into her room and changed her clothes before coming out.

“What are you looking at?”

On her mom’s laptop was a photo of a scenery rather than the usual word processor. The photo was of a street with autumn leaves, and there was a little child wearing a yellow hat and overalls.

She sat next to her mom and asked,

“Is this me?”

“Yeah. It’s from when you were four. You were really cute back then.”

“Sorry for not being cute right now.”

She brought some chocolate snacks from the kitchen. When she gave a packet to her mom, her mom thanked her as she received it. The photo changed. This time, the photo was of her riding the swing. She looked at her mom’s expression. There was a longing smile on her face.

“It was quite chaotic back then. Do you still remember that you went around beating up all the boys in the neighborhood?”

“Me? No way.”

“You were the queen of the neighborhood. Why is a four-year-old so strong? Your mom’s daily work was to follow you around the whole day.”

“Looks like I was healthy.”

Crunch - the chocolate snack that entered her mouth broke down into pieces. Her mom also munched on the snack as she pressed the right arrow key to go to the next photo. The scenery changed along with the photo, but there was one thing that didn’t.

“There are no photos of you or dad?”

“There are almost none. Your dad really hated taking photos. He would cover his face with a jacket and run away the moment he heard photos being taken.”

“It was that bad?”

“Don’t even talk about it. Should I show you our wedding photo?”

“Yeah, I want to see.”

Her mom smiled and opened up another folder.

“But when did you have the time to transfer all the photos from the album?”

“It was when we just moved. I opened the album and saw that all the photos were discoloring. I thought that I should preserve them before it was too late, so I scanned them all.”

“Oh, so you did use the scanner.”

“We received it, so it’s a waste to throw it away.”

After opening up a folder titled ‘me’, her mom scrolled the mouse wheel a few times before opening a photo. It was taken from the right, and in the center was her mom wearing a white wedding dress, and on the left of her was her father with his face bright red. Just from the photo, it was obvious how flustered he was.

“This man, he was like that on the day of the wedding as well. Seriously, right? What’s so hard about getting a picture taken? Isn’t it supposed to be the other way round?”

“Dad is really red. He looks drunk.”

“My mom said something about him as well.”

“Grandma did?”

Her mom nodded and spoke.

“That Mr. Han is like a tomato. Your father became even redder after hearing that.”

Her mom chuckled.

Grandma. In her memories, her grandma was a kind person. She went down to her grandma’s house in Gwangju every summer during the school holidays when she was in elementary school. When she dozed off in the car, she would start smelling the smell of cow dung, and when the car door opened, her grandma always hugged her tightly. Her grandma always smelled of pleasant grass. The barley rice that she gave her every morning was good, and the watermelon she fed her after dipping it in some salt was also good. Every evening, she would eat some roasted sweet potatoes and play around with the dog that her grandma raised. That place was the greatest playground during the summer for her. Whenever the insects cried, her grandma always lit up some insect-repellent incense that looked like a snail, and even that smelled good. She liked everything about her grandma.

Once, she had the opportunity to live with her for a while. It was when she was in her first year of middle school, just after her father passed away. It was the day his remains were carried out of the house. Her grandma came to her house with her luggage. She sold the cows she was raising and put out her house for sale before coming to her house by herself. She talked with her mother for quite a while. She, vaguely feeling the weight of that conversation, ran away and spent time in the playground. When the sun started setting and the shadows dragged out, she could see one shadow. It was her grandma who came to the playground.

She could still vividly remember that moment. Her grandma hugged her and patted her back and told her in a crying - no, in a way that sounded like she suppressed her crying - voice that it was time for dinner.

After that, she lived half a year with her grandma. She felt very emotionally stabilized just by the fact that there was someone to greet her when she came back from school. At night, they enjoyed dinner with the three of them. She still longed for her father, but she was no longer hurt because of that longing. It was thanks to her grandma.

Her grandma always had a blue candy container nearby. That candy container, on which it was written ‘guest gift’, always had caramel instead of candy. She liked eating those caramels while watching TV with her. Her grandma always told her to stop eating and that it would rot her teeth, but she always left the container open.

“Oh yeah.”

She stood up. Her mom looked at her questioningly, but she just smiled back before entering the small room. That room was being used as storage right now. Standing in front of the closet, she opened the drawer beneath it. Inside was the blue candy container.

She returned to the living room with that candy container. Her mom also seemed happy to see the container.

“I suddenly thought of this. Grandma always had this next to her.”

“That was her treasure box. It’s been a long time since I saw it.”

“You’re right.”

She opened the container and looked at what was inside with her mom. Of course, there weren’t any caramels. Inside, there was a pair of sewing nippers, a thimble, and a lump of string. Below them were a bunch of yellow memo pads. She carefully took those memos out.

“…She was practicing how to write.”

She could see words written in an awkward fashion. It started off with the words ‘father’ and ‘mother’ to common everyday items. Her mom, who was reading those memos, suddenly touched the tip of her nose. Her eyes had reddened.

She remembered the letter that her grandma gave her before she left the house. The letter ended with the words wishing her to stay healthy. The handwriting on that letter was the same as the one on the memos. Her grandma left half a year after living together, and not long after that, the news of her passing away entered her ears. Her grandma was in the last stage of cancer. Even back then, as a middle school student, she knew what it meant for her grandma to invest her last half a year for her. During the funeral, she cried a lot.

“I told you it’s grandma and not gramma… geez, mom,” her mom said as she picked out a memo.

She laid out the numerous memo papers on the floor. Each one of them had grandma’s breath.

After looking at them for a while, her mom chuckled as she spoke.

“Mom at least wrote her name prettily.”

Her mom picked up the memo that said ‘Yoo Bokja’ while she picked up the memo that said ‘Tagsi’. Her grandma always called taxi ‘tagsi’.

“I want to see grandma. Do you have a photo of her?”

“I do.”

A photo of her soon appeared on the screen. In the photo, her grandma was wearing a hanbok and was smiling as though she was embarrassed.

“She’s so pretty.”

“She is. Other people would call her ‘mistress’ if not for the fact that my dad made her suffer.”

“That’s true.”

There weren’t that many photos of her grandma. She felt that it was such a pity. Just as she looked at herself sitting on her grandma’s lap in the photo, she thought of Maru.

“Oh yeah, a person Maru knows is in the hospital right now.”

“Oh no. Is it a big disease?”

“No. Maru said that he’s okay now, but he didn’t have a good expression. He must be someone precious.”

She remembered that Maru’s expression stiffened as he took the call. That was the first time she saw Maru with a dark expression, so she felt worried.

“Maru has it good. He has a girl that worries about him so much,” her mom spoke as she stroked her hair.

She glared at her mom a little before cleaning up the memos on the floor.

“Mom.”

“Yes.”

“I want to eat roasted sweet potatoes.”

“Me too.”

She picked up the candy container and went to the small room again. Then, she crouched in front of the closet and looked into the drawer. The t-shirt and pants that her grandma always wore were inside. Next to it was a worn-out Bible. There was also a Buddhist rosary and a talisman. When her dad was in the hospital, her grandma prayed to the gods of all religions. It tingled her heart to look at the traces that her grandma left behind.

After putting back the candy container where it was, she closed the drawer. She would probably open the drawer once again once she wanted to reminisce about her grandma again.

When she went back out to the living room, her mom had put on a pair of glasses and was focusing on the monitor. It seemed that her rest was over. She quietly went to the kitchen and brewed some green tea before leaving it next to her laptop. Her mom, who was typing away at the keyboard, smiled at her before starting to focus again.

She went to her room and closed the door. Then, she took out a small album from her bookshelf. When she opened it in the middle, there were a lot of sticker photos that she had taken with her friends. She smiled and flipped to the very front. There, she saw a few photos that she took with her father. Her father was smiling brightly towards the camera while he carried her on his shoulders. Now that she looked carefully, his face did seem a little red. He must have been extremely embarrassed to have his photos taken.

After looking at the photos for a while, she heaved out a deep breath before closing the album.

Chapter 344

“Give me the book.”

He looked at his daughter’s hand. She flicked her hand once in an urging gesture. Just when did her smooth hands become so wrinkly? He discovered the flow of time not through the mirror but through his daughter’s hands.

“It’s not like something will happen to me just by reading.”

“I’m saying it because something happened to you already. Give it to me.”

His daughter raised her voice like she was about to fight. His second daughter was a girl who got easily frightened when she was young. She cried when she saw a shadow, cried when she saw a ball rolling towards her, and even cried when her uncles peek-a-booed her. Not a single day went by without her crying, so he once wondered how such a feeble girl would live in this world. Yet right now, the same daughter was forcing him to hand over the book.

“Geez, I said I’m fine.”

“Dad.”

His daughter frowned. The gaze of his daughter, who was past forty now, was quite scary and Moonjoong had no choice but to hand over the book.

“Please lie down. And stop watching the TV as well. Listen to the doctor when he says you need some rest.”

“I know my body the best.”

“And yet you still collapsed?”

His daughter pulled the blanket up to his chest. The hospital blankets had a cold smell. He had intentionally not pulled it up because the smell made him feel like he’d become ill instead. He pulled down the blanket secretly so that his daughter wouldn’t notice, but she noticed it immediately and pulled it up again. Her stubbornness was just like that of his wife’s.

“Should I peel some pears for you?”

“No, I’m fine.”

“You’re leaving behind most of your meals as well. Is there anything you want to eat?”

“It’s not that I don’t have the appetite, I just don’t eat a lot in general. Don’t worry about me and get going. You should look after your children. Also, healthy people shouldn’t come to the hospital. A sick ghost will possess you.”

“Don’t worry about me and worry about yourself instead. The kids aren’t at home, they’ve gone to cram schools. Also, what era do you think it is? Even ghosts can be cured with medicine now.”

He refused, but his daughter ended up stuffing a slice of pear into his mouth. Curiously, he didn’t want to eat anything at all before he ate it, but after the cool, sweet juice spread out in his mouth, his stomach started accepting food. It seemed that listening to his daughter was the best choice.

“Is Mr. Park’s business going well?”

“He earns enough to not let the kids starve. I’m also doing some work on the side as well. We’re not as bad off as we were before, so you don’t have to worry about us. Here, eat this as well.”

Moonjoong gave his daughter power over his mouth. Since his refusal was no good, it would be better for him to just give up. Munching on the crunchy pear, he turned on the TV. Fortunately, she didn’t turn off the TV this time. Maybe it was because he obediently ate the pear. He was reminded of when he told her that he’d buy her snacks if she ate the eggplants. His second daughter was very picky with food when she was young.

-The actor, Lee Hyuk, known for the movies ‘Comet’, ‘Man of Six O’Clock’, and the ‘South of North’ has found a new home, namely ‘Soul’. Many of you should be aware of this name. It’s the company that accepted three of the members of the boy band ‘The Five’ after they split up. We have news that actor Lee Hyuk has signed an exclusive contract with that agency.

A woman who seemed to be the reporter was speaking as though she was very interested. Moonjoong watched the entertainment industry news for a while before changing channels.

“Dad, do you have anything to watch?”

“No.”

Moonjoong gave his second daughter the remote. She switched the channel to a cable channel.

“This drama is quite interesting.”

That drama started off with the daughter-in-law slapping the cheeks of the mother-in-law. His daughter was cheering for the daughter-in-law. It was quite a chaotic drama, but it was definitely fun in its own way. This girl is the bad girl, that girl is the good girl. His daughter was earnestly explaining from the side. Actually, the drama didn’t need a lot of explanation at all. The one with the thick makeup and looked evil was the bad girl, and the one that looked innocent was the good girl.

Just as the drama was at a point where someone said ‘she’s not your real daughter’, the door to the ward opened. The one that entered was Geunsoo.

“Sir, I’m here.”

“I told you that you don’t have to come.”

It had been ten days since he was hospitalized. Geunsoo had come to visit him four times during that while. He was young and had work to do, so Moonjoong felt both thankful and sorry that he came to visit despite the fact that he must be busy.

“Welcome.”

His second daughter had gotten close and welcomed him as well. She left after saying that she wanted some fresh air.

“How are you doing?”

“Didn’t I tell you three days ago that I’m fine? Everyone’s making a big deal out of it. It’s not like I’m going to die.”

“Everyone’s worried because you suddenly collapsed at your own house. If senior Junmin wasn’t there… It’s horrific just thinking about it.”

“I was just a bit anemic. I’m fine right now.”

“If you’re really fine, then the doctor will have you leave the hospital. You should get some rest until then.”

Geunsoo took out a book from his bag.

“This is the book you told me to bring last time.”

Moonjoong received the book and immediately hid it under the blanket. His second daughter would take it away the moment she sees it.

“I heard that you were shooting a movie.”

“It was cancelled.”

“Cancelled?”

“Yes. The president of the CEO company went missing. Everything is stopped now. There’s a possibility that the project will be cancelled entirely. I heard that they’re looking for new investors, but I don’t know how that will go.”

“Junmin should do it then.”

“The thing is, he has a clear philosophy for investments. He also told me not to have any regrets and look for something else.”

“Looks like that movie was destined to fail from the start.”

“Maybe. Actually, I disagreed with him before it started. We had a look at the script together and he recommended that I don’t do it. I should’ve listened to him back then. It seems that not anyone can be the president of a company. You need good foresight to be one.”

“If you liked the work, you should’ve done it with all your body. You can’t help if it fails, that’s what the agencies are there to do. You should use Junmin to your heart’s content.”

“I’ll tell him exactly what you said later. I’m going to use it when I defend myself.”

“Sure. Oh, you should eat some pear. There’s too much for me to eat by myself.”

Geunsoo then talked about the post-production part of the movie.

“I think we need to post-record the market scene. The sound is too smudged and they said they’ll have to record the voice of the actors again.”

“It’s usually like that.”

“Oh, the poster for the movie that we shot last time is almost finished. Do you want to have a look?”

Geunsoo took out a laptop before putting a photo up on the screen. The photos they shot for the poster after they shot the movie scenes had been edited and changed to look very cool.

“I liked this monochrome one the best. I like how it emphasizes the hammer you’re holding. It probably won’t be used, though, right?”

“It probably won’t get past the regulations. I once shot a poster holding a knife, but it was changed to a fruit just before it was printed. I don’t know what kind of relation those two have though.”

“South Korea is strict when it comes to things like that. This one, the one where you’re smoking. This is good as well, but this probably won’t get through either. Either they’ll erase the cigarette, or they’ll use the poster that looks like a family photo.”

It was a bitter reality that the ones they liked were the ones that probably won’t get through the regulations. Too much skin wasn’t good, no cigarettes were allowed, no weapons were allowed. The poster also couldn’t exclude the actor’s face, and no short skirts were allowed either. It was strange. Practically half-naked youngsters appeared on TV all the time, but posters were no good. It was ironic that a media that was much more accessible was more liberal. Even calling it a ‘strict rule for art’, did not change the fact that it was funny.

Geunsoo suddenly picked up his phone before looking at the clock.

“If you’re busy, then you should get going. Also, stop coming here,” Moonjoong spoke with a smile.

Geunsoo stood up saying that he will visit again. The ward finally became a little quiet. Moonjoong turned off the TV and opened the book. He was planning to read the book that Geunsoo brought when his daughter went home.

At that moment, the door opened again. He wondered if it was his daughter that returned, but someone unexpected was standing there instead.

“I’m here, elder.”

It was Maru, holding a book in hand.

“Who did you hear it from? I told Geunsoo not to tell you about it.”

Maru just smiled and said that he got to know of it by chance.

“I’m disappointed. Did you dislike me that much?”

“It just felt didn’t feel right making people come all the way here for something so trivial. I’m going to be leaving soon, so why would I want everyone I know to come?”

Moonjoong pointed at the seat that Geunsoo was sitting on. Although he said those words, he was happy to see him here. He kept it a secret because he might induce a young boy to worry about him too much, but he found out and came anyway.

“How’s your body?”

“As you can see, I’m healthy. Give me the knife and apple over there. I’ll peel it for you.”

“I’ll do it. Oh, and I brought this because you must be feeling bored. Though, I don’t know if you’ll like it or not.”

Moonjoong received the book that Maru handed him. It was Moby Dick.

“Looks like I’ll have to settle it with the big whale.”

He laughed before hiding the book under the blanket. Maru was confused when he saw that, but he could not tell him that he hid it because of his daughter.

Maru proficiently started peeling the apple with the fruit knife.

“Looks like you’re quite skilled.”

“I’m very good at things like this. Here, eat some.”

Moonjoong ate the apple that Maru cut for him. If his daughter saw this, she would nag him for not eating obediently when she gave some to him.

“How are you doing these days? Is everything going well?”

“Yes. I’m learning a lot. Luckily, I have a lot of opportunities to learn.”

“Experiences in youth will become a fortune when you grow old. It’s good to do them well, but think about what remains.”

“I will.”

Moonjoong always felt joy when he looked at Maru. The moments he had when he drank alcohol with this young fellow were quite strange. Even children with the deepest hearts had some kind of childishness when pried deep enough, but Maru had nothing like that. That allowed him to talk to the young boy without holding back. He could tell what he couldn’t to others of his age.

“Is acting fun?”

“Honestly speaking, the acting I’m doing recently is not that fun. Should I call it just doing business? There are a lot of times when I feel like I’m just doing homework.”

Maru put down the apple and the fruit knife.

“Back when I had to shoot with you, elder, my head turned white from all the pressure, but it was definitely fun. But the acting I've been doing recently, while I’m doing my best, has no fierce spirit, and it drains my energy. Even if I tell myself that I shouldn’t be like this, when I finish the shoot, I become absent-minded, not due to the satisfaction, but because it was too bland. I’m just holding on because it’s fun to create a stage with my peers,” Maru calmly told his story.

Moonjoong liked this side of him. He wasn’t filled with falseness. He didn’t use any roundabout expressions either. Since he was honest, he himself could reply honestly as well.

“That’s proof that you’re adapting well. People can’t be working filled with expectations the whole time. The fact that you’ve become bored means that you’ve become used to it, so it’s not entirely bad. But listening to your words, I think you do need a trigger. Did Junmin not tell you anything?”

“He didn’t tell me anything specific.”

“Then keep working for a while, even if it looks boring to you. Junmin is quite a meticulous guy, so he’ll tell you when the time comes.”

“How did you enjoy yourself at times like these?”

“Me? I drank.”

“I can’t do that.”

“Haha.”

Moonjoong patted Maru on the shoulders. Shooting something as the bottom of the rung was no fun, just like what Maru had said. They’d have to wait several hours to shoot a couple of minutes, and that was it. It would be very strange to find any fun in such a simple scene without any ups and downs of emotions. An actor only realizes the joy of acting after encountering a good role. What Maru was doing now was paving a path to meet that good role, so there was no choice for him but to endure. While it might sound foolish, that was the right way to go.

“Elder, you should get better quickly and drink with some pork like last time.”

“Yeah, I should.”

Moonjoong nodded and smiled faintly.

Chapter 345

Was there any news more joyous than the news that one’s former company went out of business? He pushed the cigarette filter with his tongue to the edge of his mouth before puffing once. He saw the cigarette turning red in the corner of his vision.

“I knew he’d run one day.”

The internet news company, Mint News went out of business. He got this news through a junior that he used to work with. He tried visiting their website just in case, but only a ‘404 Not Found’ error greeted him. That was yesterday. His junior insulted his now-ex-president for not paying him for his manuscript over some booze. That was his junior’s way of asking Dongwook to pay for the booze. Although Dongwook was never close to this junior, he sympathized with him since he was suddenly thrown out onto the streets, so he paid for the alcohol and paid for the taxi as well. He was worried if that junior went home safely, yet his ego also wished for that junior to never contact him again.

Dongwook put out the cigarette that he had only puffed by about a half before standing up.

“Auntie, bill please.”

“I’m busy, so leave it over there! Also, you aren’t allowed to smoke anymore in the shop, so keep that in mind.”

“I can’t even have one after my meal?”

“I’m not the one making decisions. What am I supposed to do?”

Dongwook took a piece of crispy rice candy which was placed under the counter, before leaving the restaurant. In front of the restaurant, which looked like it would disappear into nothingness after a typhoon, was a tall building covered in glass. This place was where the slums and the city met.

“Looks like single-story buildings will disappear in a few years in Seoul.”

By that time, this restaurant, as well as the stores nearby will probably disappear. It was good to eat meals in sparkly and shiny restaurants without a single bug in sight, but Dongwook was more comfortable with eating in a restaurant like this one where it was filled with the auntie’s shouts and the smell of oil. It was more of an emotional thing rather than a hygiene thing. He bought a 200-won milk coffee from the shabby vending machine with its acrylic window broken. Whenever he bought coffee from machines like this, he wondered what the difference was between ‘high-class coffee’ and ‘normal coffee’ which was on different levels, even though they both cost 200 won. He tried both of them before, but there was no difference in taste. Perhaps it was a matter of feeling?

The ‘hot’ sign did not go off yet, but Dongwook opened the cover and put his hand inside. This was like a ritual every Korean had to do. He pulled out the cup immediately after the last droplet dropped into the cup.

“Uh, hot.”

Just as he licked a drop that fell on his fingers, his phone, which was in his left pocket, started ringing loudly. He put the coffee in his hand on a table in front of the restaurant before picking up the call.

“Yes, president. Have you had lunch yet?”

-I just did. Rather than that, about the advertising news article for the movie.

“I’ll have that done by today. I’ll upload it after getting some information. Some of my former juniors said they’d write the article as well, so it’d go into the search term rankings the moment I upload it.”

-Then I’ll go through it once you’re done. Didn’t you say you were going to visit Soul today?

“Yes. The appointment is at two, so I should get going. Rather than that, have you seen the news yesterday? That Lee Hyuk fella seems to have joined Soul as well.”

-I did. It seems like they’re on the offense. They’re reaching out to many people under the rug.

“I found out through a junior of mine that someone huge from the entertainer section will move to Soul as well. They just started off, but their power is not ordinary.”

Dongwook held his phone between his head and his shoulder and took out a notepad from his back pocket.

“Also, the CEO of Soul has quite an interesting background. I did some investigation beforehand, but he actually turned out to be an executive of a big company, not someone who used to work in this industry. I heard he was quite capable in YM Logistics.”

-And yet he’s suddenly charged into the entertainment business?

“I’ll have to probe him out through the interview today, but Hong Janghae, this man is not ordinary. The fact that YM, Soul’s parent company, is marketing the company heavily should mean that he has gained a lot of trust. I’ll try to find some things out through some friends of mine that work in the financial section. Well, this isn’t the first time that the financial world had connections with the entertainment world, so I might get something interesting if I look into it.”

-Hong Janghae?

“Yes. Someone you know?”

-I do know someone with the same name, but they’re probably two different people with the same name. He despises the entertainment industry. Anyway, try to look into it moderately. Don’t go in too deep. Also, can you investigate the cancellation of Geunsoo’s movie?

Junmin asked in a small voice. Dongwook groaned.

“I’ll see what I can do.”

After finishing the call, he wrote down ‘Geunsoo movie investigation’ on his notepad.

“Let’s get going, then, shall I?”

Dongwook finished the cooled coffee in one go before moving.

* * *

“Whew.”

He scanned Soul’s company building located in Mapo-gu. The building was right in the middle of the golden land. He became curious and looked into the land prices from nearby estate agents, and just the land price was 40 million won per pyeong[1]. If he lied down, the amount of land beneath his body was worth 40 million won. It was mind-boggling.

“Oh, senior.”

He turned his head when he heard a woman’s voice. There, he saw a female journalist that he got to know while he was still a journalist at a TV station. Her name should be Choi Miyeon. They were close enough to greet each other without being awkward when they came across each other on the streets.

“It’s been a long time. The news company I was supposed to do the interview with was yours?”

“Yes. Oh, but I don’t work for a news company anymore. I quit.”

“Why did you quit such a good place?”

“Then why did you quit the TV station, senior?”

“Because I was crazy.”

“I’m a similar case. I felt stuffy. Now, I work for a women's magazine.”

She rummaged through her wallet before giving him a business card. The name ‘Sharon’ was written on it. It was a place Dongwook knew of. That magazine company had released quite a few volumes of magazines.

“Where do you work right now, senior?”

“Me? I’m a freelancer.”

“Wow, a freelancer. You must be skilled.”

He shrugged and walked towards Soul’s company building. On the outer wall of the building, the photos of the three that exited ‘The Five’ were hung up. There was also a truck with a lift on the back, and it seemed that Lee Hyuk’s photo was going to be hung up as well.

Like a newly-constructed building, the insides were very clean. There were lights embedded on the walls, and they emitted light faintly. There were also red stones embedded on the ground like a red carpet. Just as he looked around at the eye-stimulating things,

“Journalists Kim Dongwook and Choi Miyeon, am I right?”

“Ah, yes.”

A lady with a bob cut turned around with a faint smile on her face. She seemed to be just an ordinary employee staff, yet she was very pretty. Even her back figure was pretty. He would believe it if she said she was an aspiring celebrity. The two followed her up to the fourth floor. The buildings in Mapo-gu could be seen beyond the huge glass windows. The lady turned left and continued to guide them. The people they saw on the way were all wrestling with their computers.

“Please wait a moment.”

The lady entered after knocking on the door. After a while, she opened the door again and told them to come in. Dongwook felt a strange sense of pressure. He buttoned his shirt up fully as he entered.

“Welcome.”

The one that greeted him was a healthy-looking middle-aged man. From what Dongwook knew, he had to be in his mid-fifties, but now that he saw him in person, he would believe it even if he told him that he was in his early forties. The neatly combed hair, and the purple shirt that was tailored to his body. He was in good shape as well. Dongwook was thinking of a chubby middle-aged man writing away at a document since he heard that the other party used to be an executive at a company, but his predictions were completely off. Even the stylish shoes attracted his eyes. His watch was also a brand-name expensive one, yet it gave off a youthful tyranny rather than a pressure stemming from age. He was someone who knew how to look good.

“I’ve never done things like interviews before, so I don’t know if I can do this well. Please tell me if you find anything lacking,” Hong Janghae spoke as he sat down.

He faintly smiled and pointed at the sofa, and just his actions exuded pressure. He gave off a heavy pressure despite being kind. He really was someone who was very high up.

When the two sat down, Janghae told them that they should start off with some tea. The lady that led them here gave them some tea. It was a green tea latte. It was a drink that he enjoyed a lot frequently. He looked next to him to look at Miyeon’s expression. Her expression also told him that the drink in front of him was a drink she liked.

‘Looks like I might not be able to get any info if I don’t stay on guard.’

There was no way this was a coincidence, meaning that he looked into their preferences beforehand. It was nothing much, but he felt like he was investigated so he didn’t feel that good.

“Is it to your tastes?”

“Yes. I like green tea latte.”

“I like kiwi as well, haha.”

“That’s good.”

Janghae locked his fingers and crossed his legs. Dongwook smirked a little. So the opponent may not have had any interview experience, but he knew how to handle people very well.

“Please drink at your leisure. Let’s continue the interview after you finish them,” Janghae lifted his coffee mug as he spoke.

* * *

Senior, we should drink together since we met after such a long time - the drinking occasion triggered by those words continued into the second round. The moment he tipped the soju glass over his mouth, he remembered how well this woman drank, but he couldn’t turn back now. He tried to escape after they finished drinking at the barbecue restaurant, but he was dragged by his junior to a nearby pojang-macha. They then had some mussel stew and more soju. They finished their work, so they could drink without restraints, but he found his junior a little scary after she finished two bottles of soju by herself without any changes to her face.

“Haah, if I give this to my editor, she’ll probably slap my head for the pointless interview,” Miyeon sighed as she spoke.

Dongwook agreed with her.

There were generally two types of interviews.

One to announce, and one to pry.

The public that watches the stars on media become curious about their everyday life: what they do when they rest; what food they eat; what kind of pets they raise at home. They even become curious about trivial things. This was why journalists asked questions that would indirectly induce the star to bring out something special other than the information that’s already available to the public when they did an interview. In contrast, interviews of the people that are close to the entertainment industry, but are outside of people’s interests, for example, the CEO of agencies, producers, and scriptwriters, were considered successful if it just talked about the stuff they wanted to talk about.

In the case of Janghae, he was a person who belonged to the latter, but the case this time was rather special. He was the CEO of ‘Soul’ that was at the center of controversy. He brought the slave contract of ‘The Five’ to the surface and brought a huge storm to the entertainment industry. Due to news about sexual services, slave contracts, and huge superstars switching companies, the public’s interest in the CEO of Soul was rather low right now, but they would soon become very curious. Just what kind of person is he? - they would ask.

That was why he asked to do an interview ahead of most people and tried to probe into the reason why they decided to reveal the contracts, which was considered taboo in the industry, and proactively tried to recruit celebrities, but Hong Janghae, with his leisurely smiles and jokes, avoided all those questions.

He left no leeway at all. Even when he asked about the recently controversial ‘The Five’ matter, he just replied ‘why is there a need to question to fairly receive compensation for labor?’, leaving no further room for more questions. It was very hard to counter ‘right’ answers after all.

In the end, there was only a bland interview. He would first have to document it and get Janghae’s approval, but he probably wouldn’t have any requests for edits. It was just that clean of an interview. He seemed to be the model case for how to react when problems occurred in public relations. From his wits and attitude, it was clear that YM Corp didn’t just send him to that place to spend his time in leisure until retirement.

“You know that Soul has released a music program, right?”

“I do.”

“The public reaction is quite good.”

“Really? Don’t you have to pay to listen to music? Would people really pay to listen to music? It’s not like they’re getting CDs either.”

“The sites they’ve been downloading free music from all went out of business after all. On top of that, they’re using cinema ad times to air public service ads about their ‘Good Downloader’. And that’s led by Soul as well. Many idols and actors are all saying ‘Please protect the rights and profit of the producer and the consumer’ on screen, and it seems to be poking at people’s conscience. I also paid some money and listened to some music with streaming? Or whatever it was, and it wasn’t that bad. You can listen to most things as long as you pay a little money.”

“Then they settled the problem with copyrights?”

“It seems like they already finished talks with KOMCA[2]. Physical logistics has changed to digital logistics. You can take it that way.”

“So it’s logistics after all. Did YM predict this? But it won’t work if people won’t pay for the music, right?”

“But YM has a firm grasp on telecommunication. I saw that they’re giving away a free month of service, and I think they’re using that as marketing. The internet is in the same position.”

She talked very smoothly. Dongwook looked at Miyeon. Was she drunk?

“Are there any useful stories these days?”

“Useful stories? Hehe.”

Miyeon chuckled. She took the bait. It seemed like she would talk about everything she knew when she was drunk. He felt sorry, but he had to make a living as well.

Dongwook perked up his ears. Magazines were sensitive to trends. Substantial rumors circulated around the magazine field almost just as quickly as the financial district.

“Senior.”

“Yeah?”

“Let’s go for a third round!”

“A-a third round?”

“Yes.”

“Before that, talk about that interesting…”

“Nah, let’s change places. How about some fried chicken? You know? I really had it hard recently because there was no one to drink with me.”

Miyeon shouted ‘bill please!’ before leaving the pojang-macha. Dongwook blinked several times before handing the owner some cash.

‘I feel like I was schemed against instead.’

“Senior! Let’s go! I’ll give you a big one over some beer.”

Her pronunciation was slurry, but she was walking straight. Dongwook was reminded of a movie he watched before. He had a look at his slightly thinned wallet before chasing Miyeon. She’d probably spit something out if he talked to her.

[1] ~1k USD per square feet.

[2] Korea Music Copyright Association

Chapter 346

She was a crazy woman who soothed her drunkenness and washed her mouth with beer. It didn’t seem to be a joke when she said she needed vodka if she wanted to get drunk.

“Drink some more.”

“I’d collapse if I want to drink as much as you do.”

“You’re so weak with alcohol despite being a man.”

It’s not that I’m weak, but you’re hella strong. - thought Dongwook to himself.

Something sour came up to his throat. Dongwook tried to soothe his stomach with some cold water. Just then, Miyeon abruptly raised her hand. It looked like she was about to order another bottle of soju. Dongwook quickly talked to her.

“Why don’t we start now? I need to make a living too.”

“Start what?”

“That’s how you wanna do this? I’m leaving now.”

Miyeon then put her arm on the table and rested her chin against the back of her hand.

“My company decided to look into what actresses who are not active nowadays are doing and create a special edition. You know, it’s one of those ideas when you’re running out of content. It was supposed to be an easy piece of work where I had to just chat and ask about recent matters with the actresses that replied to us, but…”

She paused for a moment before making a bitter smile.

“While I was talking to one, something uninteresting came up. I just lightly asked what she was up to nowadays, but that had to come up.”

“What are you talking about?”

“Senior. Have you seen the news on RBS a while ago about sexual service? That they’re bringing new actresses to hotels using debut as a lure?”

“I did. It became quite controversial back then.”

“It was noisy only back then. Nobody’s talking about it now.”

Dongwook crossed his arms. The reaction was definitely small compared to the seriousness of the situation. The press department that sounded like they would get to the roots of the sexual service problem had become silent as well. Some of the small to mid-sized media outlets seemed to be touching on that topic as well for a while, but that didn’t last long either. Although some articles were popping up in the news regarding sexual slavery, there was only a brief section. Nothing went into detail.

“So?”

“I talked to her over lunch and she talked about sexual service. She seemed incredibly troubled.”

“You mean she received an offer as well?”

“Rather than being offered one, she was probably forced to. She told me that she still remembers that day even though it happened quite a long time ago. She told me a few things saying that she could only say them because she left that world, but those stories made me a little angry.”

“What happened?”

Miyeon raised her hand and ordered more soju. Dongwook didn’t stop her.

“I thought sexual service was a very special, rare case, right? But I was wrong. It’s quite frequent. They just aren’t visible on the surface. From what she said, the number of times she got ‘gentle offers’ is simply beyond imagination. She got tired of hearing ‘let’s just have a light drink together’ from up there all the time.”

“By up there, do you mean CEOs and people like that?”

“Well, yes, those kinds of people. The ones with the authority to decide the fates of rookies. Directors, scriptwriters, producers, CEOs, et cetera.”

“The reason it never became public is because she was afraid of the consequences, right?”

Miyeon nodded. The store owner gave them some soju and some ppeongtwigi[1]. Dongwook shook the soju bottle once to create a swirl before pouring a glass for Miyeon.

“That’s unfortunate, but it isn’t of interest to me.”

Dongwook spoke as he drank a sip. Miyeon glared at him before chuckling and leaning back against her chair.

“Right. This is just an uninteresting fact, and not good enough to write articles about. But aren’t they going too far? If they have any sense of journalism, they should get angry at things like this and make it public.”

“I traded that for my rent. Talk more if you want, or let’s end things here. I don’t want to get burned by talking about something sensitive.”

She quit her job at the TV station. There was no way the TV station was not aware of something that even a mere magazine journalist could find out with a brief interview. It was an issue that would attract huge attention if it was brought to the public. However, no one touched the topic. From this, it was clear that no one was willing to touch the goblet with poison in it.

The journalists that picked up their pens for the sake of justice and morals died lonely deaths on top of yellowed-out newspapers.

“I want to talk more about it though,” Miyeon spoke as she offered him to drink.

Dongwook tapped on the table for a while before receiving the glass.

“I’m listening and I’m only listening.”

“Yes. I’m also thinking that I’m shouting ‘the king has donkey ears!’ into the empty bamboo forest, so you don’t need to listen to me in such detail.”

Miyeon was smiling, but it looked somewhat in vain. When living as a journalist, there were multiple occasions where one’s own justice, the justice of society, and the justice of the company clashed with each other. There was only one realization after such a process: The pen is actually not mightier than the sword.

Dongwook understood why Miyeon asked him out for a drink, and why she wanted to talk about something on her mind to someone she wasn’t even that close to. There were secrets that could be revealed precisely because they weren’t close.

“So, what comes after that? I don’t think you’re here to just rant about the fact that there are a lot of women in sexual service.”

“When I heard up to that point, I just felt a little angry. But what can I do about it? There was nothing I could do for that actress. It’s not like my editor would like it even if I write about it. Yes, I know. If a willing spirit could solve all problems, why would we need to worry about anything? We all have to make compromises in life one way or the other. I also planned to just ignore it. But…”

“But?”

“You should know about it as well, senior. That there are times when you simply can’t ignore it; that you become absorbed in it knowing full well that it’s a stupid thing to do.”

She poured soju into a beer glass before putting it against her mouth. Dongwook reached out and grabbed her wrist.

“You should really drink moderately.”

“Let me drink this one.”

“Are you going to pass out after drinking, or are you going to pass out after telling your story?”

Miyeon bit her lower lip before putting down the glass. She turned around to the side and took out something from her bag. It was a piece of newspaper that was folded neatly. Dongwook received that newspaper and opened it. It was about a suicide case. The contents were simple. A woman in her forties committed suicide together with her 10 year-old daughter because of everyday struggles. It started off with ‘former actress A’.

“This woman is that actress?”

“Yes. I came across that news about a month after the interview. She wasn’t anyone famous, and we’re in a country where several people commit suicide because of the hardships of life, so that news never garnered a lot of attention. But when I read it, my heart…”

Her fists were clenched tight. Miyeon was looking down at her fists.

“I tried to ignore it, but I just couldn’t. It felt so stifling. What would have happened to her if I was just a little more willing to listen to her story? Wouldn’t something have changed if I consulted her afterwards?”

Miyeon made a self-loathing smile.

“I get that you feel a sense of responsibility, but don’t get yourself mixed up. Like it says in the article, she committed suicide because of her hardships in life. It was not a problem you could’ve done something about.”

“I know. I know that, but that’s just how people’s hearts work. They don’t follow reason. I felt sorry. I wanted to do something for her. That’s why I brought up my old habits again and hung around here and there.”

“That’s not the course of action I’d recommend.”

“That’s true.”

“So, did you find out that the king’s ears were donkey ears?”

He shouldn’t have asked that question. He should’ve ended the conversation by telling her that it was okay; that she should forget about it; that it was fine as long as she wished her well in the afterlife. The story that was about to follow was bound to be heavy, and his junior was clearly trying to share the burden by telling him the story. Call him cold-hearted, but he didn’t have any leisure to spend his passion on something tiring and non-profitable. He had to write more necessary and profitable articles if he had any time.

Yet, he ended up urging her to talk about it. It was just as she said. Journalists were innately adamant about digging into something pointless despite knowing full well that it was a stupid thing to do. Only such people could become journalists. If they could restrain those foolish actions, they’d get promoted, and if they could not, they would either be given the journalism award or give up being a journalist altogether.

Dongwook once thought that he was the former; that it was just a hasty mistake that he quit his job at the TV station. He resolved that he would not make the same mistake ever again. He swore to bury his sense of justice into his memories and write articles as a salaryman that needed to survive this industry.

However, they say old habits die hard. His sense of journalism that he supposedly threw away into the trash slowly poked its head up. He was making an excuse to himself thinking that he should just create the issue by saying just the generic things and pull out immediately, but he was well aware that he would hang onto it until the very end the moment he listened to her story.

“It was such an old story, so it was hard to get anything about it. In fact, I didn’t know how to go about it. Then, I saw the news about sexual service and decided to start from there.”

“Did you go and listen to her story?”

“Yes. That woman was tired. When I told her that I came to interview her, she said she didn’t need one. She seemed fed up with the media. Even I would be fed up if I was in her position. They all spoke like they would help her solve the problem, but they never did.”

“Her face became known, and her life in the industry was over. She should have been in a tough spot.”

“I barely got her to talk. But nothing too deep. She said that she was no longer in a position where she could talk about the incident.”

“So she negotiated.”

“Probably. But I was able to hear more than what was revealed to the media.”

Miyeon made a suspicious expression.

“Senior. Do you know the agency she belonged to?”

“No.”

“It’s MH. That rings a bell, doesn’t it?”

“It’s The Five’s former agency.”

“Yes. It’s the company that’s under hot fire due to unfair contracts.”

“So? How are those two related?”

“Senior. Do you know that The Five’s incident was being spread around on the internet the moment the sexual service news went live?”

“So, you mean that they brought The Five’s incident to the surface in order to put wraps around the sexual service incident? I don’t think that’s right. The unfair contract news is not big enough to put out the fire.”

“But what happened in reality? People switched interests immediately.”

“That’s true, but I think you’re still overthinking things. Also, the sexual service incident is one that’s bound to die down even without The Five’s incident. It never made it to mainstream news either. Don’t you think it’s just a coincidence?”

“I thought that too. But when I looked into it, I found out a few more things.”

Miyeon lowered her voice.

“What I’m about to say now is me talking about random stuff because I’m drunk, alright?”

“Random stuff because you’re drunk, huh.”

“Yes. So forget about it after you listen to it.”

“If I can, I will.”

Miyeon raised her head to scan the restaurant once before speaking in a careful manner.

“They can’t do anything about what’s already happened. They had the confidence to cover it up, but people will remember the things that already leaked. In the end, it means that they have to take care of it before it leaks out.”

“Take care of it?”

“I told you that there are numerous sexual service incidents, right?”

“Yes.”

Miyeon tightly grabbed the empty glass before speaking.

“What’s interesting is that when people hear ‘sexual service’, they always think about women giving service to men.”

* * *

He was on his way to the apartment that Gwak Joon had told him. Looking outside the bus window, Daemyung thought about what happened yesterday and sighed. They heard that they passed the preliminaries and went to instructor Suyeon’s house. They were originally planning to go home after visiting the noraebang, but Suyeon said that it was such a pity to go separate ways like that and said that they should continue the afterparty, and so everyone followed her willingly.

As soon as they arrived, booze poured out of the refrigerator. There were beer and soju. They ordered some gamja-tang and drank alcohol like they did once before. The alcohol was as bitter as ever, but when he drank a few cups in joy from passing the preliminaries, he felt that the drinks were a little sweet. That was when the games began. Everyone joyfully laughed and drank alcohol.

That was good and all. They were moderately refraining themselves from drinking too much. The problem began when Jiyoon lost all the games. He couldn’t bear to look at Jiyoon’s bright red face any longer and volunteered himself to drink instead and ended up drinking a few cups of mixed drinks.

Suyeon told him that he could stop drinking, but when he thought that Jiyoon was watching him from the side, he felt a strange sense of confidence. Like that, after around 40 minutes, Daemyung collapsed and spitted out everything that went in. On top of that, he was on the carpet.

What was fortunate was that everyone had passed out because they were drunk. It was mind-numbing to think about what would have happened if Jiyoon saw him. Like that, he woke up at noon the next day, which was today. They were going to begin practicing again starting Wednesday, so it didn’t matter even if he was in a horrible condition.

He woke up with a hangover wanting something to drink, but his phone started ringing, and only did he realize that he had missed calls. They were from Gwak Joon and Maru.

‘I’m soooo not drinking next time.’

Daemyung called Gwak Joon as he got off the bus. When he picked up, Gwak Joon told him to wait where he was. Just as he was waiting while looking around, he saw Gwak Joon waving at him from the other side of the road.

[1] Popped grains, usually made from rice or corn.

Chapter 347

Gwak Joon replaced his greeting with just a nod. He started walking without even telling Daemyung to follow him. Daemyung followed him without a word. They turned left after the hardware store. There was an apartment complex at the end of the residential area. Gwak Joon seemed to be heading there.

They didn’t talk at all in the ten-or-so minutes they were walking. Daemyung just followed Gwak Joon. Fortunately, he was used to him being so quiet. At first, he was worried that he disliked him. After finding out that it was just Gwak Joon’s personality, he no longer found it an inconvenience. It wasn’t like he didn’t talk at all. He was someone who talked more than anyone when it was necessary.

“Were your parents okay?”

He seemed to be asking about the fact that he was sleeping over.

“Yes.”

“Then that’s good.”

Before they entered the apartment complex, they visited a fried chicken store. There, Daemyung saw a big pot with boiling oil. A kind-looking old man shook the oil off the fried chicken and droplets of oil fell into the pot. Daemyung gulped when he saw that. He suddenly remembered that he was hungry.

They bought three fried chickens before going. They entered an apartment that said ‘201’. They met a grandma holding a baby on the elevator. Daemyung smiled at the baby and the baby smiled back at him.

The elevator stopped on the third floor. Daemyung waved at the baby before following Gwak Joon out.

“Is this your house?” He asked Gwak Joon who proficiently opened the cover of the electronic door lock. Gwak Joon replied as he typed in the passcode.

“No.”

The door opened. Daemyung blinked several times as he entered. If this wasn’t his house, then whose was it? He could see a pair of worn-out slippers, a pair of shoes with a bent nose, and a pair of yellowed trainers in the shoe rack.

“Come in.”

Daemyung took his shoes off and tidied them before going in. In the living room, there was a three-person sofa, a wall-mounted TV, and a row of bookshelves. In front of the shelf full of books was a tower of new books. While Gwak Joon went to the kitchen, Daemyung had a look at those books. Novels, poetry books, essays, travel journals, philosophy books, and even memoirs - books from a variety of fields boasted their thickness and weight like the walls of a castle.

The row of bookshelves continued into the veranda that was connected to the living room. Daemyung poked his head into the veranda to follow the books. Again, there was a tower made of books in front of those shelves.

“It looks like he’s out right now.”

“Who is?”

“The owner of the house. Do you want a drink?”

“I’m fine with water.”

“You can sit over there.”

Daemyung sat in front of the piles of books.

“Can I have a look at these?”

“Yeah. But watch out. They’ll fall over if you take the lower ones.”

Daemyung briefly imagined what would happen if the piles of books, which was taller than his sitting height, fell on him. Then, he grabbed the book on the top of the pile. It wasn’t that he had a hobby of reading, but he did become interested after seeing books piled up like jenga. He wondered if the owner of the books finished them already. He carefully opened the book so that he didn’t put any creases on the spine. The first page was very stiff. It looked as though it was never opened. Perhaps the owner was someone that sold books?

“Here.”

A cup of water was suddenly pushed in front of his face. Daemyung put down the book and received the cup. The water was teeth-freezing cold. He felt that the heat from summer had subsided a little after drinking it.

“Do you drink beer?”

“A-a little.”

“Let’s just drink one glass.”

He flinched because he drank a lot yesterday, but also thought that just one glass of beer wouldn’t do him harm. They drank beer with the chicken they brought. On TV, there was a drama airing. Daemyung looked at the electronic clock on one side of the living room. It was 10 p.m.

“Oh.”

Suyeon appeared on the screen. Now that he thought about it, today was the day the first episode of the drama Suyeon was a part of, went live.

“Do you know her as well?”

“Yes. She’s the instructor for our acting club.”

“Is she well-behaved over there?”

“W-well behaved, you say?”

Gwak Joon shook his hand as though he didn’t need the answer before drinking beer. Daemyung saw that he frowned a little. Perhaps he had a bad relationship with Suyeon?

Just as the Suyeon on TV was watching the car leaving with a yearning expression, Daemyung heard the door lock opening. When he had a look at the door, he saw a man with a stubble come in. He looked exhausted as though he had stayed up the whole night.

“Hyung-nim. Eat some chicken.”

“Chicken, huh. The magical food that you can never get tired of. Rather than that, the one next to you is the one you talked about?”

“Yes. Daemyung, introduce yourself. This is the hyung-nim I subserve.”

“Why don’t you say that after you actually do something for me?”

The man took off his shoes, came into the house, and scanned Daemyung from top to bottom. Daemyung looked back at him in nervousness. The man looked ill with a thin figure and a pale face, but his eyes looked like they were filled with more life than any ordinary person.

“Hello. M-my name is Park Daemyung.”

The man’s gaze pricked him. When he smiled awkwardly and waited, the man grinned.

“This was unexpected. I thought that a doppelgänger would be visiting, but you’re the complete opposite. Ah, Daemyung, was it? Nice to meet you. I’m Ahn Pilhyun, and I’m the author of the books on the floor over there.”

Daemyung looked at the book that he picked up before. He saw that the author’s name was indeed Ahn Pilhyun.

“Urgh, why is it so hot still? Are you sure the sun has set?”

“I told you to stay at home.”

“Allow me to get some fresh air, will you? People need to go through photosynthesis to survive.”

“You aren’t going through any photosynthesis at night.”

“I can do it with moonlight. Inkslingers need moonlight rather than sunlight.”

Pilhyun sat down with a kind smile. Daemyung saw Gwak Joon relaxing his lips for the first time.

“You must be having a hard time, catching the eyes of someone like him. He’s quite a stifling fella, isn’t he?” Pilhyun asked as he gave him a chicken leg.

How was he supposed to answer? He couldn’t just reply yes, so was he supposed to laugh here?

“Why are you hesitating with something like that? You look very bold too.”

This was the first time someone called him ‘bold’. Daemyung smiled faintly before eating the chicken leg. It seemed that he needed more time to get adjusted.

“But why are you here?”

Hearing Pilhyun’s question, Daemyung blinked several times before looking at Gwak Joon. Gwak Joon was just watching TV with his usual slightly angry-looking face.

“I came because Joon-hyung told me to.”

“So you don’t know why you’re here?”

“I don’t.”

“Wow, how gullible. People will sell your organs you know? You just don’t know how scary he is, huh? Just look at him. He looks like the type of person to stab someone else with a smile on his face.”

“W-well, not…”

“From your tone of words, you agree with me to an extent?”

“Eh? N-no!”

“Then does he look kind to you? He doesn’t, does he?”

“……”

He didn’t say anything for a while and just sipped on some beer. He understood that the two were close. It was because they were close that they could make jokes like that. He glanced at Pilhyun. He was talking with Gwak Joon while drinking as though he never asked Daemyung the question.

They talked about the plot of the drama for a while before switching topics to discussing the difference between whole-fried chickens and batter-fried chickens. They switched topics so fast that he couldn’t keep up with them. It made him confused just listening to them.

“Daemyung.”

“Yes?”

“Why do chickens have two legs?”

“W-who knows?”

“Wouldn’t the world be more peaceful if they had three legs? Likewise, if people had three hands, their work efficiency should rise dramatically. But why did everything evolve into having bilateral symmetry and the number two?”

After thinking about it for a while, Daemyung answered,

“Perhaps it’s because two makes everything balanced?”

“You know about tripods right? The thing people use to put their cameras on.”

“…Yes.”

“Three makes things even more balanced. But why are there only two?”

Pilhyun seriously pondered about the rather random topic. Gwak Joon had crossed his arms and looked to be in thought as well. Daemyung couldn’t get a grasp on things. The conversation between those two was a mixture of jokes and serious conversion so he didn’t know which one to follow. He didn’t say anything and just quietly waited for the two to switch topics again. However, the two discussed the reason why people had two arms and two legs for more than ten minutes.

“Daemyung. Have you thought about it?”

That question came to him suddenly. Fortunately, he wasn’t sitting there absent-minded the whole time so he gave an answer.

“If people had three limbs…”

“If people had three limbs?”

“It’d be very inconvenient to sleep at night, so that’s perhaps why they disappeared? I think it would be very annoying every time you roll around.”

He felt embarrassed after saying a weak answer, but the two listeners nodded.

“That’s plausible. If there’s a man who had insomnia due to having three legs, where would he go to get treated? A mental counsellor? Or would he have to amputate one leg?”

Then, the reply came from Gwak Joon.

“Sleep is an important problem after all. I think amputation is a better option if the medicine doesn’t work.”

“But if having three legs is the norm, you’d become a cripple the moment you’re left with two legs.”

“Then you’d have to cut it off and get a prosthetic leg for outside activities.”

“What if there’s phantom pain?”

“Then you’d need to go to the mental counsellor.”

“So having three legs and being insomniac at the same time is such a pitiful thing.”

“It’s a disability to not have something that you should have, but it’s also a disability to have something that you aren’t supposed to have. How about this? There’s a man with two mouths. One does the eating, and one has to do the speaking, but one day, the eating mouth wants to do the speaking as well.”

“Hm, I do need to write a one-shot sci-fi story, and that sounds decent.”

“Why don’t you treat me to a meal once you get paid then?”

“Hey, whose house do you think you’re freeloading in?”

Gwak Joon shrugged his shoulders and watched the TV. Silence took over the heated discussion from before. Pilhyun was writing something down on his notepad seriously. Daemyung stayed as quiet as he could and watched him.

Eventually, Pilhyun put down the notepad as though he finished writing things down.

“The three-legged man and his insomnia is quite interesting, isn’t it?”

“Eh? Ah, yes.”

“I heard from Joon that your dream is to become a director.”

“Yes.”

“I don’t know what kind of directing you’re dreaming about, but if you really want to go that route, then you need to practice bringing out what’s in your head properly. It will help out a lot.”

“Bringing out, you say?”

“Yes. Whether it’s a movie, music, or writing, people that want to create something need that ability. Even if you can think of hundreds of ideas, if you can’t document them, then that’s just useless fantasy. It’s only when those ideas are put in a specific format that they gain value. It’s all the more important for a director, who needs to give out orders. If the captain does not know what to do, the wheel would turn all by itself, and the ship would be sinking in no time. If you don’t want to be third-rate like me, you should practice that starting now.”

Pilhyun stood up as he lamented to himself that he was a sad third-rate writer. He went straight into the main bedroom and closed the door. Gwak Joon, who was drinking beer, spoke to him.

“Quite chaotic, isn’t it?”

“Yes, a little.”

“You’ll get used to him once you talk to him a couple more times, so hold out until then. Also, he’s not like that all the time, so you don’t have to worry about that.”

“Uhm… hyung.”

“Yeah?”

“Can I ask why you invited me here today?”

“I wanted to talk.”

“Talk? What kind of talk?”

“Anything, everything. When I see you fixing your scripts, I see talent in you. I don’t know about directing, but you definitely have a talent for writing. That’s why I called you here.”

Gwak Joon wiped off his fingers with some tissue before continuing to speak.

“Learn writing from that hyung-nim and I during the summer holidays. I want to recommend that you just bring some luggage here and live here, but you’re still a student, so let’s think about that later.”

“M-me? Writing?”

“I’m not telling you to become a novelist or something. I’m saying that you need to learn to write for the profession you want to become, so I’m telling you that you should learn it even if it’s for a short time. To be exact, we’re all learning together. I’m not that sociable, so I wrote everything by myself, but that’s not a good way of going about it. Become close to people that write. That hyung-nim has connections both in the movie area and the novel area, so he should help a lot for your future.”

Gwak Joon cleaned up the waste as he stood up. Daemyung quickly cleaned up as well.

“Edit your scripts like you always do and write a novel at the same time.”

“I can’t write things like novels.”

“You already completed your scenario, didn’t you? Write one based on that.”

Daemyung was rather taken aback.

“I don’t even read that much though.”

“There’s a lot over there. Read a lot regardless of the genre during the holidays. Reading is a force of habit as well. Once you get into the habit of reading, you’ll have no problems with reading anything. It’d be even better if you become addicted.”

While Gwak Joon washed the dishes, Daemyung cleaned the table. His mind was in a mess. The only thing he was sure of in this storm was that this was an opportunity that many never come again.

Chapter 348

He had a dream, a very long dream. He didn’t remember what it was about, but he could remember that it was a very long one. He looked at his phone clock. It was 5:59. His alarm started ringing after 1 minute.

Listening to the beep of the alarm, he closed his eyes for a moment. What dream was it? The lingering imagery did not leave him. His body felt heavy. He felt like he could feel the weight of time pressing on him.

He barely turned around and managed to lift his torso upwards. His neck was full of sweat. He wondered if he wasn’t feeling good. The wind entered through the window he left open throughout the night. It brushed past his neck and disappeared into the gap between the door and the wall. It was rather chilly, something very unusual for August.

He closed the door and sat up. His head was still driving out the residue of his dream. Even as he washed his face and hair, his eyes were looking not at the mirror but somewhere extremely far. Just what could it be? He felt a little more clear-minded when he washed away the sweat he sweated throughout the night, but the traces of the dream turned blurry.

“You’re going out today as well?”

Bada came out of her room with a long yawn. Maru nodded.

“Why are you up so early?”

“Because I heard the water running. I’m going to go back to sleep.”

Bada drank a cup of water and told him to have a safe trip before going back to her room. The kitchen became quiet once again. He made toast and fried eggs and put them on a plate before going to the living room. He turned on the TV with the remote on the sofa before taking a bite out of his toast. The crunchy sound stimulated his ears. Maru thought about his dream even as he ate. Was it a nightmare? Or was he mistaken and didn’t dream at all? His dream became blurrier the more he thought about it.

After finishing his breakfast, he went to the kitchen to wash the dishes. Just as he looked at the dishes that were submerged in bubbles, he realized that he no longer remembered whether the child he had with her was a boy or a girl.

He turned on the tap and washed the bubbles away. The bubbles were sucked into the drain with a swirl. Amidst the disappearing bubbles, Maru saw his own memories. The plates were his present memories while the bubbles were his past memories. The clearer the present became, the quicker the past faded away. It was just like those bubbles.

“Was it a daughter or a son?”

His fingers skidded on top of the dishes as he washed them. Maru shook off the water before putting the dishes on display. The shiny surface faintly reflected his face. His eyes were stiff.

He sighed slightly and went to the bathroom. He picked up his toothbrush and had a look in the mirror. He could somewhat realize the point of the long dream. After brushing his teeth, he changed clothes. He saw a pair of pants that became too small to wear any longer. Looking at those pants, he thought of the question again. Was it a boy or a girl?

He felt like he had swallowed sand. He sat in front of his desk and picked up a marker. He opened up a notebook he saw and pressed the red marker against the white paper. Now, there was a dot on the paper. Maru looked into that dot. He knew too well what he had to write here. He had the confidence to fill this entire notebook.

The red dot became larger. The paper wrinkled after absorbing too much ink. His hands were shaking. Maru put the lid back on the marker along with a thick sigh.

If he wrote it down, would they become memories? Just because he wrote down his memories in words, could they still be called memories if he read them in the future? Rather than memories, it would be closer to knowledge by then. Understanding his unknown self through his memo. That was quite ironic.

At that moment, he felt a presence behind his back. When he turned around, he saw that woman. The angel, the grim reaper, the devil, or perhaps the envoy of God. The woman that didn’t care what he called her. Oh, last time, she did tell him to call her an angel.

“I came just to check. Fortunately, there’s nothing wrong.”

“So even moments like these were foreseen.”

“Yes, something like that.”

Maru nodded his head. She had told him about this beforehand so he wasn’t that surprised, and nor was he going to complain about why such a thing happened. A dead man came back to life. He gained a golden opportunity. He felt thankful just for that, and he wasn’t someone so disrespectful that would ask for more on top of that.

Just that, he found some things curious.

“You told me before, right? That my memories aren’t disappearing, but that they’re sinking below my subconscious.”

“Yes. Memories are fragments engraved in the soul. No one can erase that. They just cover it up so that there won’t be any further problems. Though, there are cases where even that engraving can disappear if you cover it over and over again.”

Covering, she put it. Maru looked at her and asked.

“Then is there a chance that such memories can become vivid again? Not fragmented memories, but all of the things I’ve experienced.”

The woman shook her head. Her actions were slow, but her expressions were firm.

“That will not happen. Sadly, such miracles don’t occur.”

Sadly - she put it. Perhaps this woman had emotions as well? Or was she just saying that so he could understand it better? Perhaps she was mixing in suitable words just like when adults tried to console a crying child.

“I have a few things I want to ask, can you give me some time if you aren’t that busy?”

“Sure. We’ll be rarely meeting again in the future.”

The woman sat down on the bed. Curiously, the bedsheets creased and indicated that she sat there. Didn’t souls have no mass or something?

“Well, then. Ask away. I’ll answer the things I can tell you.”

“Then I’ll ask you a few things. Are there other people like me, who came back to life?”

“Maybe, maybe not.”

“What a vague answer.”

“Because I’m not a god. I don’t know everything.”

“I see. Then I wish to know where the grandma I used to call ‘mother’ is.”

“I can’t tell you that.”

“But that’s nothing serious, is it? I just want to see her. I want to talk to her like before. I’ve received a gift I can’t payback.”

“However, at this point in time, she hasn’t given you any kind of help.”

“You know well that it’s not a matter of order. I just want to go see her.”

“I cannot tell you.”

Her lips were sealed tight. Maru stroked his own hair upwards. He was at a stage where his memories were not just becoming blurry, but disappearing outright. He wanted to visit the person that gave him his second chance at life before he stopped remembering altogether. He also had the intention to help her if she lived a hard life. That was like his duty.

After not saying anything for a while, the woman spoke.

“She’s living a good life right now so you don’t have to worry about that.”

“I just wanted to say hello. That’s no good?”

“You really are stubborn. Wait a minute.”

The woman extended out her hand. Maru stared at her hand. What was she up to?

“Don’t you know what a handshake is?”

“Oh.”

He didn’t imagine that it was a handshake. Maru grabbed the woman’s hand. Warmth spread around in his hand. He thought that her hands would be cold, so this was rather unexpected. Maru stared at the woman. She was really beautiful. Perhaps she could be called the essence of beauty? Even her shaking eyes provoked his curiosity. Looking at her like this, she looked just like any ordinary person. At that moment, he could see a trace of her from the woman’s face. Do they look similar? When he analyzed in depth, the two didn’t really look that similar. He couldn’t help but laugh. It looked like he was too deeply in love with her.

“Why are you laughing?”

The woman noticed it immediately. Perhaps she was able to see it with her eyes closed? Maru told her that she looked like someone he knew. The woman opened her eyes. The black pupils that looked out of this world stared at him. At that moment, a different scenery unfolded in front of his eyes.

It was the rooftop of a building. A lady who was piggy-backing a baby was hanging the laundry out to dry. He could realize just by looking at her back figure. It was that person. At that moment, he realized that he couldn’t remember her name.

“Where is this place?”

“Just keep watching. I’m just confirming for you that she’s leading a good life. Don’t try to interfere too much. I told you that you should stop being altruistic and try to enjoy your life, didn’t I?”

The lady turned around. She looked like a kind person. The moment he saw her face, he felt relieved. He wanted to approach her and talk to her, but he could not move his body. Well, there was no way he could talk to her. He moved his gaze. The baby dozing off in the baby blanket on her back was a girl.

Maru stared at that girl for a long while. For some reason, it was hard to take his eyes off her. Was it because he thought about his own child that he could no longer remember? Was his own child a girl like that? Or perhaps a healthy boy? The baby girl with puffed cheeks frowned a little before starting to cry. At that moment, the scenery changed once again. He had returned to his room.

“Can you do anything?”

“No, I can just see things,” the woman told him calmly.

Maru thought about the lady. She didn’t look like she was well-off. He wanted to help her out if he could find her. Just as he was thinking about that, his eye took note of the hand he was still holding on to. The woman hadn’t let go of his hand. Maru didn’t feel awkward with this situation either. In fact, it felt too natural that he almost forgot the fact that he was grabbing her hand.

It was funny. Was she so pretty that he wanted her? He thought that his hands were true to his desires. He thought that he should let go. He tried to straighten his fingers to signal her. It was a little embarrassing to say it. He saw that the woman was slowly letting go as well. For some reason, she was rather slow at taking her hands off. Did she push herself by using that magic-like thing just now? He felt rather sorry.

He sighed as he pulled his hand back. He wasn’t able to repay anything to the one that saved his life. Even if he wanted to find her, it would be very hard to find her without knowing her name. No, even if he did know her name, it wouldn’t change the situation. He had moved houses several times after his marriage, but he couldn’t remember the precise locations. The old lady used to live right next to him. He couldn’t resent his vague memories more than today.

‘It seemed to be in a residential area without any apartments.’

He thought back to what he saw just now. Just then, he noticed that the woman was tapping on her white suit with her index finger. She was tapping according to a certain rhythm? What could that possibly mean? - he wondered.

Maru looked at the woman’s face. She had a faint smile right now. The lady’s kind smile overlapped on top of hers. For a moment, the two smiles looked very similar.

“I guess it’s finished.”

“What is?”

“The time.”

“The time?”

Maru tilted his head. Now that he looked at her, she wasn’t tapping anymore. Was she measuring time?

“You told me you wanted to ask me some things, right?”

“Yes.”

“Go ahead.”

“What?”

“I’ll answer them so go ahead and ask.”

She was a strange woman. She was not okay for one moment and okay in the other. Maru decided to ask the things he wanted to before she changed her mind again.

“You told me before that… uh…”

Maru frowned. He couldn’t remember. He wanted to ask something important, but he couldn’t remember what it was. It was definitely related to what triggered him to reincarnate, but the important bits had disappeared. He died, met this woman, some things happened, and he came back to life.

“You have nothing to ask anymore?”

“…I don’t feel that pleasant. You waited for the moment my memories disappeared?”

“Please consider my circumstances. It’s very hard to answer the hard questions that you keep asking all the time.”

“Phew, alright. You can go. It doesn’t seem like I can find out anything. I don’t need to see you off, do I?”

“Of course not.”

The woman smiled as she stood up. Maru looked at her for a while before sighing as well.

“I wasn’t trying to vent my frustration on you. Please understand. I’m a mere mortal. You guys don’t have emotions like this, right?”

“Who knows? I feel like I had them, or maybe I didn’t have them.”

Or I forgot about them. Her last words were very small.

“Mr. Han Maru. Live your present life. Live a life where you can be the happiest. Not for someone else, but for yourself.”

As soon as she said those words, she disappeared from his sight. She didn’t scatter light and ascend into the skies, nor disappear into a portal like in the movies. She vaporized into nothingness as though she was never there in the first place.

Maru spat out a breath as he picked up his phone. He felt like he had a long conversation, but the clock said that it was 6:28. The last time he checked, it was 6:27.

He looked at his hand. The warmth still remained there. It was the sole proof that that time wasn’t a lie. Maru bitterly smiled and packed his bag. Today was the day he had a drama shoot as a minor role in the drama that Suyeon was shooting. He still had some time until the appointment, but he didn’t want to stay in his room.

“I guess I’ll take my time.”

He hung his bag on one shoulder before leaving the house.

The air was rather stuffy.

Chapter 349

The roads were surrounded by mountains. The bus was heavily climbing the hills of the mountain filled with greenery. Maru opened the window slightly. The wind that contained the freshness of the forest rushed in through the gap. The refreshing wind made him smile subconsciously.

‘I didn’t expect it to be in the middle of the mountains like this.’

When Suyeon told him to come to the shooting location in Namyangju, he thought of flat land that was unlike the city. He imagined that there would be a moderate amount of people passing by, and a container in the middle of nowhere, but what he encountered was something completely different.

When he got off the train at Ungilsan station, the first thing he saw was the North Han River located to his right. The rays of the sun reflected on the surface of the river and scattered into bits and pieces. It looked like golden powder was floating on top of the water. In front of that were fields, greenhouses, and a factory that was spewing out white smoke. There were only some buildings around the train station, and the only thing that he could see when he turned his eyes elsewhere were the mountains. Maru predicted that the shooting location would be nearby, but when he asked a passerby, he heard that he was still far away.

He got on the shuttle bus to the shooting location in Namyangju that the passerby told him about. The bus only started going after around 5 couples got on board. The bus took the road on the left of the North Han River and passed several tunnels before turning towards the mountains. Concrete buildings disappeared from sight, and the only thing that could be seen were trees.

Maru stopped contemplating and turned his head forward. He could see some buildings. The bus started slowing down before eventually stopping. Maru felt it was a pity because the wind didn’t blow anymore and closed the window. The driver told him that they were at the ticket office. He got off the bus and walked a little when he saw the shooting location. Namyangju General Shooting Location. A large slate sculpture created a long shadow. There were some kids crouched in a circle in the shadow. He wondered if they were here for a tour or something.

Maru followed the couples that he took the bus with to the ticket office. There were still around two hours to go, so he was planning to take his time looking around.

“How many persons?”

“Just one highschool student.”

“That will be 1,500 won.”

He paid for the ticket.

“Is there something like a guidebook?”

“There’s one on the left.”

There were guidebooks below the guidepost on the left of the ticket office. He picked a booklet before starting to walk. This seemed to be quite a hotspot for tourists as there were a lot of people. Maru watched a child walking hand-in-hand with his parents. The bright smile of the child stole his eyes. Only after that family disappeared from his sight could he start walking again. The first thing he saw after he switched places was a theater. The booklet said that it was a place that showed the visitors movies free of charge.

When he moved some more along the hill, he saw a row of four buildings. This was the shooting location. The booklet introduced those places as buildings for shooting various movies, dramas, and other TV programs. Of course, it wasn’t open to the public. After all, someone must be shooting something inside.

He walked around the four studios. Just then, he could see a person hurriedly running inside the first building. That person was carrying a roll of cables on one shoulder. He wondered what work was being shot inside. Since the first studio was the biggest one, he predicted that it must be a movie.

“Two, huh.”

The appointment was originally at 1, but Suyeon messaged him that he should be here by two. It seemed that the shoot was delayed for some reason. He wasn’t that surprised since he experienced it a lot when he was a background actor.

He bought a cup of coffee from the lounge building before leaving. He moved to the Panmunjom set while drinking the bitter coffee. Many people were recreating scenes from a popular movie[1]. Maru also got in the line and shot a photo of the set. Although that movie stopped airing a long time ago, the emotions left behind by that movie had remained in this place and was touching the hearts of the visitors. Such was the greatness of art.

The next place he went to was the Film Support Building. That was a place that displayed various equipment and props necessary to create movies, as well as various shooting sets, costumes and art rooms.

There, Maru met a familiar face. He found Moonjoong’s face among the row of monochrome posters displayed in the Korean Movie History Hall. He could see just how much the elder contributed to the movie industry of this country just from the posters.

“He’s handsome.”

He crossed his arms and scanned all the movie posters displayed according to a timeline. Even as the years changed, Moonjoong’s face could be found in the posters. There was a brief introduction of movies at the end of the history hall, and Moonjoong’s face could be seen there as well, along with the introduction that he was one of the greatest actors of his era. There was also the story that many popular actresses wanted to shoot movies with him. At the end, it said that he had retired as an actor and was doing his best to popularize acting. Maru felt just how great of an actor the elder was. He got to be in the same shooting set with such an actor, albeit for a brief moment. Wasn’t that something to be proud of?

After making rounds, he visited the historical film set. When he did, the hour hand was nearing two. It was about time he went to the studio. He fanned himself with the booklet as he headed to the second studio. He saw a ‘staff only’ sign as he went in. He went past the glass doors and stood in the lounge with clean marble floors. There was an open door on the right, and people were busily moving items inside.

Some people gave him a glance as though they were bothered by the presence of a high school student, but no one talked to him.

He wondered where he had to go, so he called Suyeon.

-Oh, you’re here?

“Yes. I’m here, but where do I go? I’m in the lounge right now.”

-You see the door to the right?

“Yes.”

-You can come in through that door. You’ll see a staff room as soon as you turn at the corner.

He hung up and started moving. He entered the room with doors that seemed like thick soundproofing doors. The first thing he saw were cables hanging from the ceiling. When he had a closer look, he noticed that they were all lights. Beneath that was a wall made of wood. It looked very poorly made from the outside, but perhaps the inside looked like a luxurious apartment.

“Put down the cables and reinforce the set floors!”

The shooting set that was about 300 pyeong[2] was busy with people and equipment. Maru did not go towards the set and walked along the corridor until he met a corner just like what Suyeon said. There were a lot of rooms on the right of the corridor, and there were various signs on top of the door. Staff room, makeup room, support role makeup room. The one at the very end of the corridor was the support role makeup room. Maru knocked on the staff room before entering.

“You’re here.”

Suyeon was inside. She was talking to people with a coffee in hand. There was another familiar face. It was camera director Kim Jangsoo.

“Hello.”

“Oh, you’re here.”

He saw Jangsoo stand up and say ‘he’s the one I talked about’. He wondered what he told them. From how the others didn’t have a bad expression, there didn’t seem to be any problems.

“I didn’t know you two belonged to the same company.”

“He’s a cute junior I dote on. He’s hard-working, polite, and good at acting too,” Suyeon put her arm on his shoulders as she spoke.

Maru raised his right hand to get her hand off him. Suyeon chuckled and continued talking to the staff.

“But he’s quite shy. Just look at this. You wouldn’t know how much effort I put in in order to get close to him, you know?”

Her arm wrapped around his neck again. The staff smiled when they saw Suyeon’s easy going actions. He wanted to pull away again but he decided not to. He decided to play along with the devious nine-tailed fox’s schemes for now.

“I heard from Choongho that you’re doing a movie with him,” Jangsoo said as he threw a drink to him.

Maru caught the bottle and replied.

“Yes, I was lucky enough to work with him.”

“Action, was it? From what I saw last time, you should be good with using your body. Do your best. Choongho is the type of person to give his whole-hearted support.”

“I’ll do my best.”

“You really are a smart kid. See? I told you that he has the potential. Oh, you can introduce yourself to these guys here. From the left, it’s director Cha, director Lee, and director Choi. They’re quite big figures in the industry, so you’ll benefit a lot if you manage to impress them.”

The directors were in their late forties to mid fifties. He originally had the impression that they were veterans, and it turned out that they all worked at the scene. They exchanged brief greetings. They were the type of people he might meet quite frequently if he decided to continue his career. Like what Jangsoo said, he might benefit a lot if he managed to leave an impression on them.

“Then let’s get going, shall we?”

The three directors said that they were in charge of the movie that was being shot at the building over, the first studio. They came here to hang out as it was lunchtime. When the directors left, Suyeon followed them as well. She looked quite natural as she talked to them. She even looked quite close.

“Have you been here before?”

“No, this is my first time.”

“Any first thoughts after looking at the set?”

“I was surprised because it’s much bigger than I expected. I was thinking of a bland shipping container, but it was also quite curious that it was made to look like a theme park.”

“That’s just business. It’s a waste of money to tear everything down after shooting just once. They’d at least get ticket money if they leave it as an attraction. Oh, this is your role for the day.”

Jangsoo gave him a script.

“Are you good at using a knife?”

“Knife?”

“You haven’t watched the drama?”

“I haven’t.”

“Hah, geez. That saddens me slightly. And here I was getting praised for my shots too.”

“Sorry about that.”

“Nah, it’s nothing to be sorry about. But you don’t monitor the works of other members of your company?”

“She’ll do well by herself.”

“I like how you don’t pull your punches. Anyway, this drama is a cooking drama. Well, considering the trend of dramas in the country, it’s obvious that it’ll end up as a romance, but the beginning parts are focused on a cooking competition. It’s easy to think of it as a story happening in a top-class restaurant.”

“So that’s what you mean by using a knife…”

“We’re not expecting you to be as proficient as a first-rate chef or anything. We just need you to not look awkward when captured by the camera. How about it, can you do it?”

“Yes. I make the side dishes at home, so I should be fine with using a knife. Though, I’m not that good.”

“That’s enough. Look at your script. A company is gathering young people and putting on a competition in order to hire talents. You’ll see once you go to the set, but there will be cooking tables in rows. Your role is to chop up zucchinis and say a couple of lines. You see Dropout 1 in there?”

Maru found his role in the script and nodded. He was one of the aspiring young chefs in the arena. He was just one of the side characters that were there to make the main character’s talent look good.

“We’ll start the rehearsal once the producer comes back from lunch. You can greet him then. At the end of the corridor is the waiting room for background roles. Don’t even look at the other rooms. People will swear at you if you hang around the makeup rooms for the lead and support roles. There are a lot of actors who are headstrong, so fix your gaze forward, okay?”

“I will do that.”

“Do you have anything after the shoot today?”

“I don’t.”

“Then let’s eat together. I’m not a petty man that doesn’t treat someone after I say that I’ll treat them.”

Maru remembered what Jangsoo said at his last drama shoot. He told him that he’d treat him to a meal. It seemed that he remembered. Maru smiled and nodded. It was an opportunity for him to get close to someone, so there was no way he would miss the opportunity.

“I’ll get going then.”

“Alright, see you later.”

He said goodbye before leaving. He looked at the entrance to the set once before walking towards the end of the corridor. There were makeup rooms spaced out evenly to his right, and on the door was a sign that said ‘Leading actor waiting room’. There was a headstrong actor inside? He looked at the name, but he didn’t recognize it.

Maru stood in front of the ‘actor waiting room’ at the end of the corridor. He entered through the door since it was slightly open. Inside, there were a lot of men and women that seemed to be in their early twenties. He attracted attention, but it soon disappeared. Everyone was reading the script or were reciting their lines in a small voice. Not many people had any interest in the others.

As there were more than ten people in a small space, some were leaning against the wall. Maru also took a place next to a cabinet. He opened the script and read everything from the beginning. From what he read, it seemed that he might meet Suyeon on the set as well. Though, he wouldn’t have any lines then. They’ll just appear in the same scene a couple of times.

As it didn’t seem like there was any deep acting required, he closed the script quite early. The other people seemed to be bored of the waiting time becoming too long as they started talking to each other. The faint tension in the air disappeared at that moment. Relaxing smiles and each person’s stories replaced it.

At that moment, Maru looked at the man that approached him. The man made a rather perplexed expression and changed it to an awkward smile.

“Uhm, didn’t we meet at an audition before?”

“An audition?”

“Yeah. For Twilight Struggles…”

“Ah.”

Maru remembered as well.

“Number four?”

“I am! You’re number 27 aren’t you?”

“Yes. I am number 27,” Maru nodded as he spoke.

[1] Referring to Joint Security Area, the film

[2] 1000 square meters

Chapter 350

He was the man that he saw back then during the camera test for Twilight Struggles. He was number four. He didn’t know the man’s name though. He tested first and was notified of his failure first as well. The reason he remembered him was because this man sighed his way until the end of the test. He sighed so much that it almost disturbed him. He couldn’t just tell him not to sigh since he was so depressed and tried to ignore him as much as possible, but that didn’t mean that the man left a good impression on him.

“Did you pass the audition back then?”

“Yes.”

“I knew it. I knew you’d pass. The judges all seemed bored when the other applicants acted, but they were busy talking to each other and looking at the monitor when you were the one acting.”

“I was lucky.”

“Luck, huh. Luck is definitely a big factor. It would’ve been good if I was a little lucky back then too.”

He spoke in a self-loathing tone before becoming quiet with an awkward smile. Although the conversation ended, Maru did not see the need to continue the conversation so he stayed still. The man’s greeting was neither welcome nor distasteful. He just replied because the other party acted like he knew him.

He scratched his head.

“Sorry, I acted too familiar, didn’t I?”

“No, it’s fine.”

“Really? That’s good. Haa, I feel frustrated just thinking about what happened back then. I can’t understand why I wasn’t able to show everything I got. I mean, I showed them less than half of what I had.”

“People just have their bad days. On bad days, you won’t be able to do anything no matter what you want to do.”

“Right? Oh yeah, did you shoot after that?”

“Yes.”

“Then did you watch senior Park Taeho’s acting?”

“I haven’t seen him acting. I was only a minor role, so I only shot for one day.”

“I see, that’s such a pity. I wanted to see him in action too. I got into acting after seeing him in a movie while I was in middle school.”

“It’s set to be released at the end of the year, so you’ll be able to watch it soon.”

“Watching it at a cinema and seeing him in real life is different, you know? I want to watch how he gets into acting. Oh, how was the shoot? I’ve never been to a movie shooting set before. I’ve always been a background role in dramas.”

“It’s not that different from drama sets. There are just more lights and cameras compared to dramas.”

“But there’s the atmosphere. Or should I call it pressure? I feel like there are things like that.”

After talking for a while, the man made an expression as though he made a mistake.

“I acted too familiar because it was too nice to see you. I’m twenty-one. I’m older, right?”

“Yes, you are.”

“Can I drop the honorifics?”

“Go ahead.”

“Then I will. Actually, I had a hard time after I dropped out of the audition. My acting skills are quite good, so my academy and my parents support me a lot, but I felt too embarrassed when I failed that audition even though I assured them that I’d pass. That’s why I started taking background role part time jobs. But curiously, I didn’t become nervous at all when I stood in front of the camera. The producer complimented me for my acting as well. Fortunately, there was someone who saw me in a good light, and I was able to get a minor role quite frequently in dramas. Last time, I took a role as a reenactment actor. You know about ‘Surprises in the World’ that airs on HBC, right?”

“Yes, I do.”

“Did you see the episode last week?”

“I don’t watch TV that much.”

“That’s a pity. Try watching it next time. It feels somewhat wrong for me to say this, but I think I did better than the young actor that came out before me.”

The man grinned. Maru just said some words to fit the situation.

“That’s good, you caught someone’s eyes. Now all that’s left is to climb your way up.”

“Haha, you flatter me. This is just my prediction, but I might get a support role in the near future. A producer I know said that he’ll contact me if he remembers to.”

Maru wordlessly smiled at the excited man. Contact him if the producer remembers, huh. That just sounds like ‘let’s hang out one time’. Nothing good would come out of popping his big dream, so he just congratulated the man. Also, Maru thought that if he was the producer, he’d never contact him. It was better to distance people that blabbed about things that they shouldn’t talk about.

“Ah, I might have passed if I was in good condition back then. I was really confident, you know? What role were you applying for?”

“The delinquent.”

“Me too. It’s such a pity. The academy had high hopes for me but I just had to go and make a mistake. Haa, like what you said, I wasn’t lucky. I would’ve passed if I was lucky too. Of course, I don’t mean that you would’ve failed instead. Since you did well too. I’m just saying that it’s just a little bit of a pity.”

The man seemed to want to defend his mistakes that day. He kept saying that he would be able to do well if he was given another opportunity. There were many people in the world like this: ones that still give meaning to what happened in the past and could not get over past events. While he understood their feelings, there was no benefit from doing so. The only thing that remained was tragic self-consolation and meaningless fantasy.

When the conversation halted, Maru looked at the script again. He was pretty much signalling the other party that they should just mind their own businesses, but this man didn’t seem to be any good at reading the mood. He started talking again. Maru just stared at that man. The man seemed to have felt that Maru’s gaze wasn’t normal and stopped speaking.

“You’ll do well. If you do become famous, don’t forget about me. Now then, if you would please excuse me, I have to look at the script. I don’t have a good brain so I have to keep reading the script.”

It had been quite a long time since he felt tired just by listening to someone else. He remembered that one of his superiors in his previous life was like that. That superior always complained about his life whenever he ate with someone. When that superior wanted to eat dinner together, at least one of the members always killed off a distant relative and excused himself so that he could go to an imaginary funeral. It was quite funny, but it wasn’t something to laugh about.

He completely memorized the script after reading it about two times. He could even remember the directions. He took out a pen and wrote down his own interpretations on the side. Based on those interpretations, he created a general outline for his acting. This kind of work was necessary in order to provide the kind of acting requested by the producer immediately.

It would be good if he could mesmerize the producer with his own acting, but in the case of minor roles, most of the time, they had to act as requested by the producer. If he just acted as he wished to, the producer would just shake his head and say one thing: ‘get him out’.

Maru closed the script. He had no intentions of investing more energy than necessary. The man that talked to him non-stop had gone to someone else and started talking to them. A group had formed in this short time. Three men and two women. They formed a harmonious atmosphere. The others also started approaching the group. Since a pivot had formed in the group of scattered people, it was natural that people were gathering. Moreover, their waiting time was getting dragged out, so they needed someone to talk to in order to relieve their boredom.

“I’ll talk to him for you. It’ll probably work you know? Oh, you too, noona? Yes, of course. Trust me.”

The man gave out blank cheques and people gathered around him. It was just like he was the Pied Piper of Hameln. That was much better than just awkward silence. While the man boasted of his glib tongue to everyone else, Maru looked for an empty seat. Just then, he saw that a seat next to the window was vacant. He was about to go and sit down when a girl that stood in front of the seat caught his eyes. When he stared at her, the girl pointed at the door. When Maru followed her finger and looked at the door, the girl sat down. Then she grinned. It was the smile of the victor.

He chuckled in vain. Just then, the man sitting next to her stood up and entered the group. The girl kindly pointed at the empty seat.

“There’s a seat.”

He could see that. He sat down for now. The girl took out an MP3 player and put earphones on. Maru also took out his MP3 player and started listening to some music. He was listening to TTO’s music per his sister’s recommendation. Just then, someone tapped on his shoulder. When he opened his eyes. The girl gestured to him to take out his earbuds.

“Uhm, excuse me, do you have any spare batteries?”

“I don’t.”

He ignored her and was about to put the earbuds back in.

“Then can we listen together?”

“No, we can’t.”

“Don’t be like that.”

The girl seemed to be around his age, or perhaps in her early twenties. She asked in a pleading tone. If he was listening to music with speakers, he would’ve just said ‘go ahead’, but earphones were another matter altogether. He said ‘sorry’ before he closed his eyes again, but before he did that, he saw that the girl’s hands were shaking. Noticing that, the girl tried to stop her shaking with the other hand, but even the other hand was shaking.

It was quite a contrast with her leisurely expression.

“No, it’s fine. You can listen to it by yourself. I’m fine, I’m fine.”

The girl opened the script with a smile.

Maru watched her for a moment before putting his earbuds back in and closing his eyes. Just as another song was nearing its end, he heard a tapping sound. When he opened his eyes, he saw that the girl was tapping on the floor with her heels. She clearly looked flustered as she was biting on her fingernails as well. When he met eyes with her, the girl smiled, stopped tapping on the floor, and took her hand out of her mouth as well. She was looking at the script as though nothing was happening, but her eyes were shaking nonstop. She was clearly not able to focus.

He sighed slightly. She wasn’t in a state he could ignore. She looked like she was about to start tap dancing so he pulled out his earbud from one ear and offered it to her.

“Listen to this and calm down.”

“I’m fine.”

“Then stop shaking your legs.”

“It doesn’t act like how I want it to.”

“Then listen. Don’t you calm down when you listen to music?”

“Yes, but…”

After hesitating, the girl received the earbud with a bold expression. After seeing that the girl put the earbud in, he closed his eyes again. The song changed and it was another song by TTO. He wondered just how many TTO songs his sister put in here.

“You like TTO?” The girl asked.

Maru opened his eyes and shook his head. However, the follow-up ‘why?’ didn’t come. She nodded as though she accepted it.

Now that she had some music, the girl neither shook nor tapped on the floor. She just read the script and said a few of her lines. To describe the fierceness of the competition, each minor role had a line or two. They were mostly ‘sorry’, ‘give me another chance’ or ‘I’ll do it again’.

“Please give me another chance. I’m really confident in this dish.”

The girl spoke her line in a desperate tone. Although she was shaking before, she was actually quite good at acting. After repeating the same line a few times with pleading eyes, the girl sighed in exhaustion.

“It’s strange, isn’t it?”

“No, you’re good.”

“Really? Phew.”

The girl closed her script and closed her eyes. Maru also crossed his arms and closed his eyes. He found a small silence amidst the group of chatting people. He hummed to himself the melody of the song as he spent his time.

“It’s real. Hey, didn’t I fail Twilight Struggle’s audition by just a small margin?”

Mr. Number Four smiled and asked him a question. Maru raised his head and looked at the group of people. They were all waiting for an answer. It seemed that Mr. Number Four had gotten a good position in the group. Maru scratched his brows and spoke.

“Yes, you did fail by just a small margin. You were just unlucky.”

“See? If I was just a little bit luckier back then, I would be on the shooting set right now. Though I did get acknowledged in dramas, so there isn’t a big problem. So don’t be down everyone and cheer up. I also didn’t get a lot of trust at first, but when I continued doing it, people started to take care of me.”

The man had him affirm that it was due to luck that he didn’t pass, not skill. Maru could say that as many times as necessary if he could get consolation from it. After all, it wasn’t like it would do him any bad. He just wanted the man to stop bothering him. If he asked the same question next time, Maru just might end up replying cynically. He didn’t have a big heart after all.

“Luck is also a skill.”

When the man led everyone away, the girl, who had been staying still the whole time, spoke.

“Don’t you think so?”

“Probably.”

“Why didn’t you tell him then? That he failed because of his skills.”

“Why would I do that?”

“Why? Doesn’t it make you feel better?”

“I don’t know. We’re not that close for me to be so kind to him. I’ll just gloss over it.”

“Kind?”

Maru smiled and spoke in a small voice as he looked at Mr. Number Four.

“If I tell him right now, he might realize his mistake. If I stay still at times like this, he’ll make the same mistake in other places as well. And that might end up costing him something important.”

“…You, you are a bad one.”

“Can I have my earbud back then?”

“No, I was wrong. Sorry.”

Then she closed her eyes.

Maru sighed and took out his phone. His waiting time was nearing an hour at this point.

Chapter 351

“We’re starting. Everyone, please come out,” a staff member peeked inside and spoke. Maru had waited an hour and twenty minutes by that point.

“Thanks. I calmed down a lot thanks to you,” the girl said as she handed him the earbud.

She definitely looked a lot more stable than before. Maru put the earbuds into his bag before standing up. When he left the room, he saw the staff handing out toques and cooking uniforms. They weren’t tailored, so they just had to find suitable sizes and adjust the shape using safety clips.

“Please check your clothes. The rehearsal is going to start immediately, so please get ready. Right now, the producers and the actors are not in a good mood so don’t make a mistake. No one wants to get into a fight, right? Well then, good luck.”

They followed the staff member onto the set.

“Please get out of the way!”

Someone shouted from a forklift. The staff that lead them told them to watch out for the cables beneath their feet and told them to move back. There was a wall on the forklift. It was literally a wall. The backside, which wouldn’t be caught on camera, was made of lumber and fiberboard, while the front side had white tiles laid out. They followed the forklift to the right side of the set.

“Set up the ceiling lights and get a ceiling block over here. We need to cover this part.”

The set, which seemed to be the cooking competition area, was there. Cooking facilities that could be seen in dramas were laid out in rows. On one of the walls were rows of double door refrigerators, and in front of them were piles of seasonal fruits. Maru found actors standing on one side of the set. Suyeon could be seen among them as well. She was wearing a black cooking uniform. She had thick makeup around her eyes, which made her look fierce. Even her lips were purple. It was stereotypical ‘bad girl’ makeup.

“Get the minor roles into position!”

A loud voice could be heard from afar. A man wearing a hoodie was shouting with a paper cup in hand. It seemed that he was the producer.

“Come here.”

The one that ran to them was a youth that stood next to the presumed producer. He seemed to be in his late twenties.

“I’m the assistant director that will be working with you today. I don’t know if you’ve heard, but the atmosphere is really not good so don’t make an NG if possible. I don’t like getting angry, but I might shout at you today, so keep that in mind. Everyone saw the script, right?”

“Yes.”

“Those with lines, come to this side.”

Maru moved to the right as instructed. When he looked next to him, five others stood in line with him. The earphone girl and Mr. Number Four included.

“Wait for now. Those that don’t have lines, come here and stand in a line. I’m going to have to see how tall you are.”

The assistant director scanned the people once before assigning them a table.

“Over there, number three and number four switch places. And you at the back! Yes, the one that’s turning his head! Yes. You switch places with the one on your left. Let’s see. I think that should do.”

The assistant director quickly ran to the hooded man. The hooded man walked to them with slow steps.

“I think this should do.”

The assistant director, who could speak boldly in front of minor actors and background actors, very patiently waited for the hooded man’s words.

“Hey.”

“Yes?”

“Do you think this looks good? Huh? Didn’t I tell you that your eyes weren’t a decoration? Do you think you can even graduate from me like this? Do you think you’ll be able to have your own program one day? You’re frustrating. Do it again!”

The hooded man became angry. His loud voice filled the set. The assistant director kept saying ‘sorry’ and bowed his head.

“Do I really have to tell you all this? Even a dog would do better than you if it studied under me for as long as you did…”

Just at that moment, a woman called out to the hooded man. The middle-aged woman, who just came to the set, was wearing a black cooking uniform just like Suyeon’s.

Lee Miyoon. She was an actress that Maru knew of. She was a veteran actress that could be seen quite frequently in weekend dramas. Her roles were mostly the ‘kind mother of the main character’ or the ‘affectionate president’s wife’, so ‘kind’ roles than ‘vile’ roles. Her kind-looking eyes and wrinkles around the nose gave off a ‘good’ impression.

“Producer Kim.”

“Y-yes.”

“When’s the standby?”

“We’ll be starting soon.”

“Producer Kim.”

“Yes.”

“Are you kidding me? I am here.”

It was a baton touch. The producer who was getting angry at the assistant director was now subservient in front of the actress. Noticing that there were many eyes around, the actress called the producer away. Being dragged away, the producer frowned as he glared at the assistant director.

“Ah, this is just fucked up.”

The director angrily uttered before proceeding to shout at the background actors standing behind the tables.

“Ah, dammit! Didn’t I tell you to switch, huh? So you’re fine as long as you get your pay for the day, huh? Are you kidding me? Is this a joke to you?”

The assistant producer reassigned the people while shouting. Seeing him so angry the background actors just moved according to his words without saying anything.

“We did just as he told us to. What the heck is his problem?”

The earphone girl asked. Maru replied to her since she seemed to be expecting an answer from him.

“The problem is that he was scolded.”

“He’s so cocky, don’t you think?”

“Maybe, but I think we should stay quiet for now.”

“Why?”

Maru pointed at the assistant director with his chin. He was glaring at the two for a while now. The earphone girl closed her mouth as though she swallowed something bitter. She clearly looked dissatisfied.

“You two, are you here to loiter around?”

And so, the assistant director found a target. Maru just inwardly sighed.

“Hey, don’t you hear me? I’m asking you if you’re here to loiter around. Does it look like a playground to you? Why do kids nowadays have no respect?”

The assistant director glared and spewed out all of his piled up anger. Maru looked down and started singing in his head. Talking back to him right now would be akin to pouring oil into a fire. He would calm down after making a fuss if he just left the guy alone.

However, the girl next to him clearly didn’t seem to have any intentions of staying silent. Her clenched hands indicated that she was about to erupt. Maru turned his head slightly and looked at the girl’s face. Her twitching lips made him feel uneasy. She looked like she was about to pick a fight.

Fortunately, she just seemed so and didn’t actually get into a fight. Reacting to every single thing like this was very tiring. Unless one was going to advertise him or herself as a hero of justice, it was better to just make compromises. It wasn’t about right and wrong. It was a problem of efficiency. There was no need to get angry because of something petty. Getting angry had to be reserved for something necessary.

The girl suppressed her anger. Just as things were about to get quiet again, the assistant director looked at the girl with a disdainful smile and continued the fight.

“What, you got something to say to me? Huh? Are you someone really great? You’re an aspiring celebrity, aren’t you? Do you think you’ll make it with your face? I mean, if your face is lacking, you should be able to smile at least. Do you think you can have a social life with that? This is the society, you know?”

The assistant director stroked his own hair upwards before sighing.

“The world has gotten pretty good, huh? When I was your age, I wasn’t even able to put my teeth out. The discipline at TV stations has hit rock bottom. Are you going to quit after this? If you are, then you can do whatever you want. If you plan to never see me again, then you can cut all the corners. But if you plan to stay, then look at the ground. I don’t treat men and women differently. I’m very equal when it comes to things like that. I’m going to treat you like hell if you don’t do well. If you can’t endure it, then just quietly raise your hand and leave, alright? Don’t cry.”

The man’s index finger pressed on the earphone girl’s forehead. The girl took steps back. The assistant director chuckled before making a refreshed expression. It seemed that he had vented his frustration somewhat.

“Well then, get into positions again. Let’s do things well this time. If you just follow my instructions, there won’t be any problems,” he spoke as he walked up to a cooking table.

Only chilly air remained when he left. Maru sighed as he stretched his neck from side to side. It was good that he didn’t speak for a long time. The atmosphere was getting better. It should be fine as long as the shoot went well.

“Phew.”

He heard a breath next to him. The girl was glaring at the assistant director’s back while biting her lips. If gazes could do harm, it would take eight weeks at the hospital for that man to recover.

The assistant director approached them again. It seemed that the camera would shoot where he was. He stood in the same spot as before and looked at the background actors before tilting his head.

“Is it done?”

After speaking to himself, the assistant director turned his head around. Maru was puzzled when he looked at him.

“Hey.”

“Yes?”

“How does it look to you? Does it look good now?”

“What do you mean?”

“The assignment of people. How is it, does it look good to you?”

“Well, I don’t know anything. If it’s to your liking, assistant director, then it must look good.”

“Can’t you even think for yourself?”

“I know nothing about scene composition or things like that.”

“Forget it. What am I expecting from a kid? Hey, how about you? Does it look good to you?” This time, the assistant director asked Mr. Number Four.

Mr. Number Four quickly nodded and replied that it looked perfect.

“Perfect? Good. You said it, okay? I think differently, but I’m going with this just because you said so, okay? If I get scolded again, you know what happens, don’t you?”

Mr. Number Four’s gulping sound could be heard from all the way where Maru was. That man really couldn’t read the mood. The assistant director was clearly the stereotypical ‘blame everything on his subordinates’ type. To work with such a man, neither agreeing nor disagreeing would do any good. Only by replying ‘I don’t know’ like a parrot would leave behind no bad results.

When the assistant director walked towards the refrigerators, the girl, who had been staying quiet this whole time, spoke.

“Aren’t you pissed?” She suddenly asked.

“Why would I be?”

“Aren’t you angry? You had to listen to such a thing from that son of a… phew, that person. Don’t you have any pride?”

Her eyes were red as though she was about to cry. Of course, she wouldn’t start crying. Her eyes were probably red due to anger.

“My pride isn’t that cheap.”

“What?”

“Uhm, just ignore a moderate amount of injustice. If you talk back to every single little thing, even an iron-willed man wouldn’t last, not to mention you.”

“You sound really pathetic, you know that?”

“Me?”

“Yeah. Problems persist precisely because people like you stay silent at times like this. How could you stay silent? You’re just…”

The girl looked at him as though she couldn’t understand. It was a really tiring day today. First, there was a man who had to have others confirm to him that he was someone good, and then, there was a girl full of half-assed justice.

“Then say it to him.”

“Huh?”

“Should I call him here? If you can’t stand him, then I’ll call him here.”

Maru didn’t wait for the girl to answer and took the first step. At the same time, the girl grabbed his shoulder while spitting out a short breath.

“What are you doing?”

“I thought you couldn’t stand him.”

“That’s…”

Maru lowered his voice and replied.

“Hey, if justice is something you take out just when it’s necessary, then don’t force it upon others. How does that make you any different from that man? You can’t say anything to people higher than you, so you start complaining to people around you. Does that make your life easier? Does that justify your actions? Is that what your conscience is about? Why don’t you just blatantly talk bad about him? I can do that with you. I’ll ask again. Do you have the confidence to say to that man to stop acting like that?”

When he asked, the girl became powerless. Her clenched fists became loose as well.

“Sorry, I wasn’t supposed to get angry at you.”

Since she accepted, he had nothing more to say. Maru also apologized.

“Yes, I should endure. That’s right.”

The girl spoke in a powerless voice. She didn’t get what he meant at all. It wasn’t about enduring. Enduring leaves residue inside people. The residue of emotions would eventually pile up and harm the mind. It wasn’t about enduring. It was about ignoring it outright.

“Uhm, noona.”

“What?”

“People don’t understand dogspeak[1]. How are you supposed to endure anything when you don’t understand anything in the first place? If a ferocious dog is barking at you, do you go ‘I should endure’ right next to it? No. You either ignore it or take a detour.”

Hearing that, the girl stared at him for a while before chuckling.

“Aha, dogspeak.”

“You should talk to people that actually speak human words. If a human wants to face a dog, then that human would have to speak dogspeak as well, but that harms a person’s dignity. Just ignore him. There’s no harm in getting sworn at by a dog.”

The girl nodded. Then, she seemed to have thought of something as she widened her eyes and asked,

“But what if the dog tries to bite?”

“If the dog is too big for you to face, then you should just get bitten obediently. What can you do about it? It wants to bite you, and you are helpless.”

“Then people like us will have to get bitten all the time?”

“Yes. Get bitten all you want. Then, keep that wound and go to the dog owner. When there’s a dog that you can’t beat up, you should find the owner of that dog, who you can talk humanspeak to.”

“Haha. Then what if it’s a dog I can hit?”

“What’s there to hesitate? You should kick it hard and tell it who’s boss.”

“Then in your opinion, what about that guy? Is he a big dog or a small dog?”

“How does he look to you?”

“A very big dog.”

“Then a big dog he is.”

“Then what about you?”

“I don’t know. I won’t get bitten anyway, so it doesn’t matter if he’s big or small.”

“But what if that dog tries to bite you?”

“At that time…”

Maru looked at the producer and the actress standing at the entrance of the set.

“I’ll have to use the owner of the dog, a kennel man, or whatever it is I have to use.”

[1]“Bullshit” is a popular term to translate this into. But for the sake of conversation, the original will be kept here.

Chapter 352

Swearing makes others shrink back. The tension multiplies if the swearer is in a superior position to the one that was sworn at. If that superiority stemmed from authority, then talking back was just a dream.

One man standing behind one of the cooking tables paled. He looked at the assistant director with a stiff posture just like a puppet. The assistant director glared at that man.

“Is everything a joke to you?”

“I’m sorry.”

“This is the third time you said that. Hey, is this line so hard? You have a single line, and that’s too hard for you? What are you? A famous actor? Are you an actor that we have to understand even if you cause multiple NGs?”

“I’m sorry.”

“You should be. You’re making numerous people wait. You haven’t been to the military, have you?”

“I haven’t.”

“This is why people need to do their military service.”

The assistant director that was swearing at that man ran to the camera when the producer called him. The scolded man looked down. Maru clicked his tongue inwardly. He couldn’t tell the difference between this place and a nursery.

At the beginning of the shoot, the atmosphere wasn’t that bad. The assistant director didn’t use any emotion-provoking words after the camera started rolling. Cues and cuts continued to be spoken, and something erupted when the shoot made some progress.

It was the scene where Lee Miyoon went around the competition area and evaluated the contestant’s food. Just when she was about to say her line, she choked on the food and started coughing. Rice grains scattered from her mouth and went all over a minor actor’s face. The staff quickly came and handed him some tissues, and the minor actor just calmly wiped them off his face. It was a simple accident, and nothing was strange about it until Miyoon had something to say.

“What’s up with your expression? So anything that comes out of my mouth is dirty, huh?”

An actress over fifty years old suddenly started picking on a man who looked like he seemed to have entered society. The producer, assistant director, and the other staff members didn’t even think about stopping her. They didn’t dare. It was obvious from their face.

In Maru’s perspective, the man reacted really well. He did not become angry, and he did not frown either. He just calmly wiped the food off his face. It wasn’t like he could say ‘that must have been refreshing for you!’ or something like that. The silence was his way of being considerate, and as the elder, she could’ve just apologized and be done with it, yet she decided to pick on him and made everything worse.

Five minutes - that was the amount of time that the man had to listen to all sorts of curses from the actress because of his ‘crime’ of having ‘rice grains scattered on his face’. In Maru’s opinion, the man was just unlucky. It was too unfair to ask for any responsibility from the man. It’s just that bird poop fell from the sky, a very runny one too. It would be much easier for the man to treat the event that way. If he thought that he was just unlucky, he could smile at least.

However, what happened after that couldn’t be just described as ‘having no luck’. Miyoon frowned whenever she went in front of the man’s table. She raised her hand and stopped the shoot and requested for a retake, saying that she didn’t like the man’s expression. Being pointed out, the man showed his emotion for the first time in front of Miyoon. He made a panicked face. That became the trigger. Miyoon snorted before returning to her place. She didn’t say anything. However, it was clear to everyone, especially the person in question, that it was a threat.

I boiled some eggplants and mixed it up with some doenjang. - that was the man’s only line. The shoot began again. The man couldn’t say that line until the end. Miyoon raised her hand and told him that he was awful.

“Is that all you can do? Have you not learned acting? What the hell is up with your pronunciation? Even a child in a nursery would do better than you. Do I really have to spell this out for you? Huh? Is that it?”

She was clearly picking on him. Maru saw her making a vile expression seeing that the man endured until the end. She seemed to be enjoying the situation. Let’s see how long you last - her expression seemed to be saying those words.

That repeated until the assistant director stepped in. The assistant director chased Miyoon with his eyes even as he scolded the man. It was like he was telling her to recognize his loyalty to her. When Miyoon made a faint smile, the assistant director picked on the man even harder. Just like in the old military. If there was a canteen lid, then the assistant director would probably have told him to smack his head against the lid[1].

Maru praised the man for his calmness. Pointing out non-existent mistakes to delay the shoot wouldn’t be able to last forever. No matter how famous the actress was, there was no way she could delay the time of numerous actors and staff members here. She should probably have to make compromises at some point. He thought so.

“You really don’t change at all. Do it again!”

A chopstick bounced off the table before falling on the ground. Miyoon scanned the man before turning around. The man was just looking at the chopstick on the ground. Just before, he picked up the chopstick, but now he was just looking at it like a statue.

It seemed that Maru was wrong. Maru frowned. Having returned to her standby position, Miyoon laughed with her manager. Her hands were pointing at the man.

Was that what a pro was? Miyoon seemed pretty satisfied with trampling on a junior and treating him like a plaything, as she waited for the cue. This was probably the last time. Just then, the man took off his toque as he left his position.

“Hey, you fucker! What are you doing! Go back to your position!” The assistant director took this opportunity to shout.

“I’m sorry, I can’t do it anymore.”

The man spoke as he lowered his head. His face looked like he was in the centrifuge. It was crumpled slightly. His unvent frustration exuded out of his entire body.

“Oh, my word. Is this what the younger generations are like these days? How scary. Are you going against me just because I admonished you just a tiny little bit? What is up with the entertainment industry these days? It’s really desolate.”

Miyoon spoke as she fanned herself as though she was the wronged instead. There was a faint disdainful smile as she defended herself and her ‘teachings’. It was unsightly. She grew up twisted. Even if she could not help the younger generation on their path, she should at least not block them. Seeing people like her made Maru reflect on himself. He resolved not to become a twisted person like her.

The assistant director said some words out of formality. It was obvious from his tone. He spoke as though he had no intentions of banishing him. He just made excuses. Just a couple of lines saying ‘I did this and this for you’ just to put on a show.

The man left the set. The staff members that held their breath started breathing again and whispered among themselves. The producer declared a break. Miyoon went to a seat in one corner of the set and sat. They were reserved seats for the main actors. Suyeon was standing behind her. She was smiling kindly and was massaging Miyoon’s shoulders. Miyoon’s faint smile spread around the set.

“She ended up sending one away.”

“This isn’t the first time this happened. She’s famous for it, that ahjumma.”

“Phew, what a pity for that kid. He just had to catch that woman’s eye.”

“But I think we’ll end with just one person today.”

“That’s good then. But the more I look at her, the more I despise her.”

“What can you do about it? I thought the writer for the drama said that she’s the only candidate. It’s quite strange, you know? Why do people keep using that woman?”

“Because she’s good at acting. She’s quite well-known as well. My grandma really likes her, you know? She says that she’s so gentle and how women should all be like her.”

“She might faint if she found out the truth.”

“Do you think there will be any rumors about her? That kid must feel unjustified, but what can he do about it? If he wants to keep working in this industry, he has no choice but to endure. But man, she really picks out people that look like they can’t go against her.”

That was the conversation between two staff members who were cleaning up the cables. It seemed that this wasn’t the first time Miyoon bullied minor actors. Perhaps she found it fun. Playing around with an opponent that couldn’t strike back had to be a form of pleasure for her. She must think of herself as above everyone here. Maru had a look at Miyoon. That woman ruled over this castle that was the set. She was someone that even the producer was helpless against. She reigned supreme here.

“Let’s do this, everyone. You can do it, right?”

Acting was a scary profession. Miyoon, who had just banished a young fellow out of existence with her vile methods, was consoling the staff and the actors with a refreshing expression. If someone not in the know looked at her, they would think of her as a good senior.

The shoot resumed. There was no bullying this time. Everything went smoothly. One of the minor actors made a mistake, but this time, Miyoon covered up for her. Maru saw that the girl who received her grace was paling. She was probably thinking if the next target would be her.

Fortunately, no problems occurred. Cut, then okay. Those two words came out of the producer’s mouth repeatedly. It was as though he was aware that things would go bad the moment he stopped doing so.

Next was Maru’s turn. He watched as the camera moved in front of him and started chopping as soon as he received the producer’s signal. He chopped up some zucchini and mushrooms and put them on a plate. He turned on the fire and put a pot on top. He saw the camera turning slightly. It was probably shooting Miyoon and Suyeon walking together. Eventually, Miyoon arrived.

“Doenjang-guk, huh. It must be hard to bring out its unique taste, but the contestants this year have a challenging mindset. It’s a good thing.”

“Thank you.”

“But what’s this?”

“It’s ground shrimp. I’m planning to use it when I make a broth with anchovy.”

“Hmm, ground shrimp, huh. Now that I think about it, that boy is also doing a doenjang-guk, isn’t he?”

Miyoon and Suyeon spoke as they looked at the man standing behind the table next to him. He was the protagonist of this drama. Maru just looked at his chopping board and chopped his ingredients. It would be fine as long as the cut sign fell.

He waited for the producer’s voice. Just then, Miyoon, who was talking to the protagonist, made a mistake, causing an NG cut.

Maru put down the knife he was holding and straightened his back. He took out a new set of zucchini and mushrooms below the cooking table for the new shoot. Miyoon had a very dissatisfied face.

Miyoon was approaching him. Maru turned around to look at her.

“Hey. Isn’t your chopping sound a little too loud? I can’t act because of it. I saw you look at me with a bad expression. Did you do that on purpose in order to distract me? Is that what it is?”

But I think we’ll end with just one person today. - those words from a staff member came up in his mind. It seemed that it wouldn’t end with one person. He felt a bad taste in his mouth. It seemed that he was this woman’s next target.

“I made a mistake. I should’ve done it more softly.”

“You get that you made a big noise?”

“Yes. Rather than that, I’m really sorry. It looks like I disturbed your great acting.”

“So you know that at least.”

“Actually, I wasn’t able to control my grip because I was watching your acting.”

“Watching my acting?”

He saw Miyoon’s lips curve upwards.

“Yes. I got distracted because I wanted to learn the way you act so naturally. I should’ve focused on my own work.”

“Well, trying to learn is not a crime.”

“Thank you for putting it that way. Oh, I’ll reduce the chopping noise as much as possible.”

“Hm, no, you don’t have to. I’m used to it now. An actress like me does not make the same mistake twice, so you can just do it as you did before. I should help out that much as a senior in acting.”

“Thank you for being so considerate. I’ll do my best not to make a mistake.”

“Okay. You’re quite polite unlike most kids these days. Geez, young ones these days live on their ego, and a feeble woman like me has a really hard time facing them.”

Maru didn’t say anything and nodded slowly.

“What’s your name?”

“My name is Han Maru.”

“Yes, Maru. What a good name. I’ll remember it so do your best. You look promising.”

Miyoon patted his shoulders with a pleasant smile. Maru maintained his calm expression until Miyoon and the staff members scattered. Then, he smiled disdainfully when attention was drawn away from him and the camera no longer shot him.

‘Yes, of course, I’ll do my best. I’m going to remember your name as well, woman.’

Maru sighed in relief as he picked up the knife. It seemed that he had dealt with the crisis. The attitude of a breadwinner that had to bow to contractors was quite useful. He could sell as many false smiles as he wanted to. His pride was quite cheap right now, after all.

“Stand by!”

The producer shouted.

[1] This position (just refer to the photos). I don’t know what to call it…

Chapter 353

The shoot went smoothly. It was thanks to Miyoon who seemed to have regained her mood by trampling on a youth.

“That’s right. That’s how you’re supposed to do it. If you are too focused on your lines, you will forget about your breathing. If your breathing is a mess, no matter how good your pronunciation is, the audience won’t understand it. It’s fine even if your pronunciation is a little incorrect. The listener takes into account the context and the nuance of the situation rather than precise pronunciation. All of you, listen carefully. If you want to continue being an actor for a long time, you’ll have to keep this in mind. You won’t find a teacher like me anywhere, you know?”

The woman that slashed a person with her sharp and vile tongue had disappeared and she started teaching all the minor actors as though she had a great personality. Listening to her words, the minor actors nodded their heads quickly and accurately as though they were a nodding machine. They were well aware of what would happen to them if she, for some reason, found them annoying.

“Director. Why don’t we rest a little bit?”

“Okay, we can do that. If we finish the reminiscence scene, we won’t need to use this set anymore.”

“How many people are here right now?”

“There should be around 80 people.”

“Sweetie.”

When Miyoon twitched her finger, her manager ran towards her.

“Some snacks will be perfect for a break. I’ll treat everyone.”

“Oh, thank you very much.”

“Can I take a couple of people with me? I think my manager won’t be enough to bring 80 people’s worth.”

“Oh, the thing is, we need to hurry up the cleaning of the set. We can’t go overtime renting this place.”

“I guess I can’t help it then. Uhm, boy. I think you’ll have to help us out here.”

Maru, who was nearby, was appointed for the job. Maru left the set with the manager who received the credit card from her.

“Sorry. I know you aren’t here to do menial chores like this,” the manager spoke at the entrance.

“What can I do about it? I have no choice but to do it if I am told to.”

“Haha, I guess that’s true.”

When they left the studio, the sun greeted them. Maru followed the manager into the convenience store next to the studio.

“Should I pick tube popsicles for everyone?”

“Yeah. Just pick out some of them. Do add some variety. I need to buy some for the higher ups,” the manager muttered as he scanned the items with his eyes.

Maru bought a mix of popsicles and ice cream and put them on the counter. While the staff here was scanning them and putting them in plastic bags, the manager approached the counter.

“Uhm, excuse me, don’t you have milk tea from JC?”

“Probably not.”

“Can you have a look, like in the storage or something?”

“It’s probably not here.”

“I’m sorry but can you have a look anyway?”

The part time worker made an annoyed face but told the manager to wait. After going to the freezer in the storage room to have a look, the part time worker came back out while shaking his head.

“We don’t have any. Those don’t sell that well, so I don’t think the owner sent in any request for it.”

“Haa. alright.”

The manager looked flustered as though he was running out of time. It seemed that the milk tea was for Miyoon. They first bought the ice creams before leaving.

“Can you wait a minute?”

The manager started running towards the other convenience store which was located on the other side of the studio. Just from that, it could be seen just how badly that woman treated her manager. After around five minutes, he came back empty handed. He seemed extremely troubled.

“And here I thought everything would go without a hitch today.”

His eyes looked like that of a cow’s that was just about to be slaughtered. He was hesitating as he walked towards the studio.

“So you’ll have a bad time if you don’t buy that milk tea for her?”

“From her personality, probably. I was slapped the last time I told her that they don’t sell any around here.”

“Then why don’t we do this? You parked your car in the parking lot, right?”

“Yeah, so?”

“Let’s say that the employee at the car park told you that there was an accident and you need to move your car, and you gave me the credit card because of it.”

Maru checked the time on his phone before continuing,

“Come back in around 10 minutes. That’s enough, right?”

“Can you do that? I think that will be enough.”

“I’ll tell that to her, so make an excuse when you come back.”

The manager ran towards the parking lot while thanking him. Maru did not want to see that woman cause a mess again. He went back into the studio with the ice cream in hand. He first approached Miyoon, who was sitting with the rest of the actors.

“Here they are.”

“Oh, okay. Where’s my manager?”

“He went to the parking lot after getting a call. Apparently, there was an accident at the parking lot and he needs to pull his car out.”

“Really?”

Maru gave her the plastic bag. Miyoon had a look inside. Annoyance could clearly be seen on her face, but she picked a vanilla-flavored ice cream as though she had no choice. It was there instead of the milk tea.

“Come and take one everyone. You’re all having a hard time so you should quench your thirst at least.”

People came and took an item each. Miyoon made a satisfied smile after seeing people thanking her. It seemed that her annoyance from the lack of milk tea was gone.

“Sorry I’m late. There was an accident at the parking lot,” the manager returned and spoke in a stiff manner.

His back was drenched with sweat. It looked like it was because of the heat, but it was probably because of nervousness.

“I heard. Geez, look at all that sweat. Take one.”

“Yes.”

Maru nodded as he looked at the manager. The manager approached him and spoke in a small voice.

“Thanks. I’m able to have a breather thanks to you.”

“Well, we should help each other out.”

“Then I’ll help you once if something happens. I have a lot of writers I know.”

“I’ll be thankful if you do.”

This was how relationships were supposed to be built. A manager for a superstar wouldn’t be just anyone. Moreover, if it was the manager of a woman with a bad personality like Miyoon, it meant that the manager had to be very capable. There was no way Miyoon would be okay with an incompetent manager. It would be for the best if Maru could get close to someone who had been a manager for a long time since he would be able to get his hands on a lot of information.

Maru scanned the people as he put the popsicle in his mouth. Just then, Suyeon approached him.

“You endured that well. I was actually looking forward to you talking back to her.”

“Unless I’m crazy, I am not going to fight her. I won’t get anything from it, so there’s no reason to.”

“Then try posting what you saw on the internet. I want to see that woman upset.”

“The entertainment industry is a place where such posts are created by the truckloads every single day, isn’t it? No one takes them seriously either. Even if it does become an issue, I would have to stand in front of her in order to prove it, and from there, it’s obvious where things will lead to. It’s not like she’s the first rude celebrity out there. I’ll become an issue for a brief time before being covered up by something else. However, I would be stamped as the ‘rude high school kid’ and will forever be unable to step into the industry again. I don’t want to end my entertainment industry life when I just started.”

Proving included taking risks. Take risks against that woman? That wasn’t even funny. If it was just an ordinary person, they would be able to post such a thing, but it was impossible for a person in the industry.

He couldn’t just consider that woman right now. He had to think about what kinds of things she experienced in order to reach such a spot. She lived out her career for over 3 decades. More than 30 years in a society where 10 was enough to think about retirement. It was clear just from this. Old giant trees weren’t meant to be chopped down. It was likely that the axe would be ruined before the tree fell.

“Then I’ll give you a deep kiss so can you go slap her for me? She’s too cocky.”

“While I agree she’s cocky, it’s too hard for me to slap her. If you want to slap her so much, why don’t you do it yourself?” He spoke as he squeezed the bottom of the popsicle tube. He felt very refreshed when the soda-flavored popsicle entered his mouth.

“I would if there weren’t any eyes around, but there are too many here.”

“Why don’t you just slap her and cause an issue that way? That sounds good. Why did the girl slap her senior? I think journalist Dongwook would write you a good one.”

“I might if I win the lottery.”

“I saw you massaging her shoulders before. Since you decided to put on a thick face, you should get closer to her. Who knows? She might get you a good role.”

“I can get my own good roles. Why don’t you try spending some time with that woman? You’ll have the urge to kill her after just an hour, you know?”

“I’m surprised you haven’t killed her yet.”

“In my mind, I have killed her several times over.”

Suyeon bit on her ice cream with her molars. Then, she smiled as she had met eyes with Miyoon.

“You have it hard, managing your image and sucking up to people like her.”

“I feel like I’m melting.”

“Wouldn’t it be better to just retire and grab a wealthy man and live an easy life?”

“No. It’s Mr. Geunsoo all the way for me.”

“But the other party doesn’t look at you at all though.”

“If things don’t work out, then I’ll just get him drunk and give it to him. Though, he’s quite strong with alcohol. Even though I’m not that weak either.”

“What a splendid plan.”

“I’m surprised you’re replying to me so calmly. You don’t think anything about that?”

“What does your life have to do with me? As long as you don’t bring me harm, I’m not interested whether you sleep with a hundred men or something.”

“I think a hundred is stretching it a little,” Suyeon giggled.

Maru saw the minor actors all look his way, especially number four and the earphone girl.

“If you don’t have anything to say to me, you can go.”

“Hell no. If I go now, I’ll have to face that woman again.”

“Then I’m going.”

“Why? Just stay with me. I don’t like anyone else here, so I’m bored.”

“Why don’t you try seducing the producer or something?”

“Hey, there are levels to prey, you know? Even if you give him to me, I won’t have him. Also, I’m trying to refrain these days. It will be dangerous for me if things get out of hand, you know?”

“Oh, I’ve been wanting to ask. Wouldn’t people usually be afraid of sex if they receive a trauma because of something like that?”

“And how does that help? I’m sick and tired of running away. For an experience like being thrown away after being eaten, just twice is enough.”

“Sure, if you say so. But can you talk about such a topic with a high school kid like me? You’d get detained for sexual harassment, you know?”

“What sexual harassment. It’s you who’s unlike a high school kid. How could you say the word sex directly to a girl’s face?”

“Sex is called sex, how else would you call it? Does the scientific term make it any better? Sexual intercourse? Copulation?”

He drank the popsicle since it melted. Suyeon was holding the wooden stick with her mouth as well.

“I wonder if your girlfriend knows that Han Maru is such an indecent kid.”

“This is nothing. Rather than that, are you really not going? I think she’s about to become bored.”

Miyoon, who was talking to the other actors, crossed her arms and looked at the ceiling in boredom. It seemed that her good mood was starting to climb down. Suyeon sighed as she stood up. Just then, she turned around and looked at him.

“Should I tell you something interesting?”

“What is it?”

“A rumor about that woman.”

“A rumor?”

“It’s quite famous around here. That she’s a madam.”

“A madam?”

“There’s a rumor that she likes young kids. The ones that look pretty. They say that she has touched on idols.”

“She’s not married?”

“She’s single. I think she’s had two divorces or something. Rumor has it that she divorced in order to sleep with young kids.”

“Why are rumors in this industry so disgusting?”

“That’s what makes a rumor. Who likes good deeds as rumors?”

She winked before walking towards Miyoon and sucked up to her.

“Do you know Suyeon unni?”

“What did you talk about with her?”

As soon as Suyeon left, the minor actors and background actors approached him. Maru saw that number four, who was at the center of attention in the waiting room, was looking at him with an awkward smile.

“Over there! Get ready!”

It was the producer who saved him from the bombardment of questions. The people around him quickly went to their positions. The main actors all went to their respective starting positions as well.

“Let’s do this in one go, yeah? This is the last one here so don’t get nervous.”

Then, the cue sign fell.

* * *

“Thank you for your work everyone.”

The shoot at the set finished. The staff members started moving around busily. The competition area started being split up into pieces before being loaded onto forklifts. At the same time, a different set was being created on the other side.

“Hey, Maru.”

The one that talked to him was the camera director, Kim Jangsoo.

“Yes, director.”

“Are you going to Choongho’s action school tomorrow?”

“Yes. I need to attend practice.”

“Then let’s cancel our appointment today and eat with Choongho tomorrow. Do you drink?”

“I drink moderately.”

“That’s good. You need to start drinking in high school so that you won’t have any trouble in university. Anyway, see you tomorrow. We’ll have some pork belly and soju.”

Jangsoo walked to the camera after sending him off. This week was busy. After the action school practice, there was acting club practice on the day after that. If they ranked within the top two in the regionals, they would then go to Seoul Arts Hall.

He packed his bag as he organized the events in his mind when,

“Uhm, hey.”

Number four, who came to the waiting room, stopped him.

“Do you have anything after this?”

“No, I don’t.”

“Then do you want to have dinner together? The people we met today are all going together, so if you don’t have anything urgent, I think you should participate. I mean, it’s good to become close with each other, you know?”

There were four minor actors standing behind number four, the earphone girl included. It seemed that they were all aspiring actors. He had nothing special, and it was nearing dinner time, so he nodded for now. Nothing bad would come out of becoming close with people working for the same objective.

“Good! Let’s get our fill first,” number four spoke as though he was the captain.

Chapter 354

He saw his phone ringing and left for a moment. The smell of burnt charcoal, which he couldn’t smell inside the restaurant, became vivid again. He took the call next to the vending machine right outside the restaurant.

-Seonbae-nim.

“Oh, it’s you, Bangjoo.”

-Yes. I have something to ask. We need to be in Seoul by 9 tomorrow, right?

“Yes, by 9.”

-You’re taking the train, right?

“Probably.”

-My sister says she’ll take me there by car. Do you want to come with me as well?

“Senior Joohyun said that?”

-Yeah. She’s taking a break tomorrow, that’s why.

“That’s good for me.”

-Then why don’t we meet at 7 at Suwon station?

“I’m okay with that. Then see you at 7 tomorrow.”

-Yes.

Bangjoo replied vigorously. After hanging up, Maru sighed. It was a tiring day. He turned around his head to have a look inside the restaurant. The minor actors were laughing and talking to each other. When they just arrived at the restaurant, they all asked him what his relationship was with Suyeon, but they soon lost interest when he said that he just met her once before during a shoot. The one that led the conversation after that was number four, Moon Gwangseok.

His phone was indicating that it was 6 o’clock. It had been a whole hour already since they arrived at the restaurant. They had talked enough as well and it was about time they separated. He went back to the restaurant and sat back down. They finished up all the meat, and they were eating fried rice and doenjang-guk.

“This is just between us, but the actors we saw at the set today, don’t you think they are bad at acting?” Gwangseok spoke as he looked around the table.

“Bluntly put, even we can do that much, right? But they look down on us too much, especially that Lee Miyoon. I don’t know what the heck is wrong with her. I almost stepped in and shouted at her to stop.”

“She did take it too far.”

“Yeah.”

The others agreed with him.

“Apparently, she’s well known for bullying minor actors. I also heard this from someone else, but there should be a lot of people who gave up being an actor because of her,” a woman wearing horn-rimmed glasses spoke.

“Oh really?”

“Yes. If she doesn’t like someone, she just blatantly picks on them like she did today and makes them leave by themself. Also, this is just a rumor, but apparently, she sleeps with men that are a lot younger than her.”

“How evil.”

“But there’s actually quite a lot of people like that. Human trash, I mean,” the woman with the glasses sighed faintly. Everyone paid attention to her.

“I went to a commercial high school and didn’t go to university. I was an accountant for a small company before I decided that I want to become an actress. I guess I’ve been working there for a year. During that year, I experienced a lot of things. I’ve met people that couldn’t be described with the word ‘trash’, and had a really hard time until I was eventually driven out by them. At that time, I thought that it was just this place that had some really weird people. But I found out that I was wrong. In the entertainment industry, there are even worse people and more of them.”

“There are always evil people that leech off others.”

Gwangseok consoled the woman. He patted her shoulders and even grabbed her hand. He was hitting on her even at a time like this.

Maru didn’t say anything and just scraped the fried rice off the pan with his spoon. He did not want to hear rants from people that just entered society, nor did he plan to tell them about it. In the end, they had to experience it for themselves. The dirtiness and vileness of society could only be understood after seeing it for oneself.

What was supposed to be a place to get close became a place for ranting. Of course, their target was Miyoon. No, it wasn’t just Miyoon, but everyone at that place. Someone’s bad at acting, someone’s picking on them too much, and someone is too talkative.

From how they were getting more heated up due to the conversation, it seemed that they were going to continue this topic for quite a while. He ate the slightly burnt rice. For a brief moment, people looked at him, but when he smiled back, they just nodded and went back to their conversation. They were probably thinking that he was too young for all of this.

“Aren’t you going to eat more?”

“So you were hungry. You can eat a lot. You still have it good. Once you graduate high school, it will be hell,” Gwangseok spoke.

“Yeah. You should play around while you’re still in school. You don’t get why we’re so angry right now, do you? You’ll understand a little once you graduate and enter college, that adults are scary.”

The woman with the pink lipstick, who sat next to the woman with the glasses, spoke. She scattered some crushed laver.

“Should I order some more meat?”

“No, this is fine for me.”

“Hey, you should eat a lot while this hyung buys it for you. Once you grow up, you won’t get any of this treatment.”

Those words came from a man sitting opposite Gwangseok.

The flow of the conversation naturally went towards talking about their middle and high school days. Maru inwardly smiled as he watched them. Those were the good days - such words were said even when he was forty-five. He would reminisce about when he was still thirty, and treat his thirties as the golden years. However, when he was thirty, he reminisced about when he just finished mandatory military service and thought about how good it was back then. During the military, about university, and in university, about high school days.

In the end, if people could not be satisfied with the reality they’re living in right now, they would not be able to look at the future. Even though time came from the past and was going towards the future, people’s minds always thought about the past and longed for the past. He knew this because he experienced it himself.

It wasn’t that retrospects were bad. Sometimes, it could be a form of motivation for living. Thinking about how reckless one was in the past, and how stable they are currently. However, talking about such things while drinking like this was meaningless. Even more meaningless than the fried rice in front of his eyes. Fried rice had some nutritional value, but reminiscing about the past had none of that at all.

It only pained the mouth.

That was why he just moved his spoon.

“But we came all the way here. Many people quit before they even become a minor actor. But we are getting screen time even though we’re young. It means that we’re doing well. As long as we don’t encounter people like that woman who finds joy in blocking other people’s ways, we’ll be able to become good actors. Here, raise your glasses. Maru, you can toast with coke.”

Gwangseok poured soju for everyone. Maru raised his cup with coke in it and toasted. Clang, his cup clanged with the soju glasses. Everyone started drinking soju, but one person stopped halfway. It was the earphone girl, named Choi Gyunglim. She participated in the conversation once in a while, but she stayed silent most of the time. She smiled when she checked her texts on her phone, but she stayed expressionless when she talked with the other minor actors. People seemed to have noticed her attitude and did not talk to her at all. They only asked her ‘don’t you agree?’ from time to time when they needed to lead the conversation in a specific direction.

With more alcohol in their bodies, they started talking bad about Miyoon and the other actors even more fiercely. The conversation looped again and again. This meant that it was about time they stood up. Since some of them looked drunk, now was the perfect time to finish things up.

“Actually, I was planning to say something to that woman!” Gwangseok pointed at the empty air as he spoke.

“She has no skill, who’s she to bully someone else? I was really going to talk to her about it, but she stopped as soon as she saw me look at her, right? You know, I do look a bit fierce.”

“Right, right,” the woman in glasses spoke.

The two seemed to get along well. If they finished things up right now, they might hold hands and walk straight into a motel. As Gwangseok looked brave and had decent looks, he looked quite likeable. That is, he looked likeable. Anyone who paid attention to the way he spoke would have their affection graph towards him fall rapidly like the stock market graph during an economic crisis. The woman in glasses seemed drunk and didn’t seem to have enough reason to notice that.

The others also told Gwangseok that he did well to hold it in.

It was funny at this moment. Maru had the urge to shoot everything that was going on right now with a camera and show it to them the next day. At this point, it was a black comedy.

“Not like you would be able to say anything to her when you’re actually in front of her.”

A small voice could be heard. Fortunately, thanks to Gwangseok’s noisy chatter, the others didn’t seem to have heard it. Maru looked at Gyunglim who sat opposite him. Her face was bright red. It seemed that she was really weak with alcohol.

“Such a showoff,” she spoke again.

Maru scraped his spoon on the pan in hopes that her voice would be covered by the noise. Please, let’s part ways nicely. His wish seemed to come true, only to be destroyed by Gwangseok turning his head around.

“What was that?”

Gwangseok’s face became rigid as he looked at Gyunglim. Being glared at, Gyunglim didn’t say anything. She looked very flustered. She spoke all that because of the alcohol getting the better of her, and it seemed that she was panicking slightly now that he actually heard her.

“Hey, you’re funny. I’m a showoff? I’m just saying the truth.”

“Hey, Gyunglim. You have really bad manners. You don’t like us, do you?” The woman in glasses fixed her glasses as she spoke.

Everyone’s attention was now on Gyunglim. Gyunglim said that that wasn’t what she meant, albeit just barely. At that moment, she looked at Maru.

Maru simply ignored her and focused on putting the rest of the fried rice onto his plate. The minor actors all spoke out to her.

“Hey, why are you so uncooperative when we have to stick together? You really aren’t likeable.”

“You aren’t planning to tell that woman what we said, are you?”

“No way, that’s just harsh. We just talked bad about her together, she’s not human if she tells that woman on us.”

Gyunglim kept defending herself by saying that she misspoke. However, it seemed that the others didn’t plan to see her in a good light since she hadn’t been participating in the conversation since the beginning.

“Let’s go for a 2nd round. Gyunglim, you’re going home, right? From looking at your face, you need to stop drinking.”

“Yeah, you should go home and get some rest.”

“What about you Maru?”

“I can’t drink, so there’s no reason for me to tag along. I should go home as well. I live in Suwon so I’ll be home late even if I go now.”

“Then you should get going quickly.”

While Gwangseok paid the bill with his card, the others went to the bathroom. It seemed that factions had formed already as the woman with the glasses and the woman with the pink lipstick were hooking arms, giving a glance at Gyunglim before they stood up. The only ones left at the table were Maru and Gyunglim.

“You could’ve helped me out a little,” Gyunglim spoke as though she was wronged.

It seemed that she didn’t like how he ignored her when she looked at him for help.

“Why would I?”

When he asked back, she bit her lips, having nothing to retort.

Like what happened during the day, she really lived without thinking. Her personality was decent and bright enough to make jokes, but she was too light-mouthed. She was the type of person that would run into big trouble because of blurting out something unnecessary.

“Didn’t I tell you that you shouldn’t say things you can’t take responsibility for? If you said all that because of alcohol, then you should really stop drinking in the future. A grown-up should be responsible.”

“But he’s acting all cocky and it’s unsightly.”

“How ironic. You told Gwangseok-hyung about how he wouldn’t be able to say anything in front of that woman, but I see you’re doing the exact same thing.”

“That’s…”

Gyunglim stuttered. Maru clicked his tongue as he stood up. Gwangseok was a tiresome person, but this woman was even worse.

“I’m going then. We’ll meet again if chance allows it. The people we met today, you might meet them again if you continue doing actor work, so be close with them.”

“…Okay.”

Gyunglim spoke as she looked somewhere else. He tried to meet her eyes, but she kept looking somewhere else awkwardly. She was someone that brought out her pride during unnecessary occasions, but couldn’t say anything when it was truly important. She was neither smart nor capable. If she was kind, then at least that would be a good part about her, but she wasn’t that either.

Gyunglim suddenly put on her earphones. Then, she stood up, picked up her bag, and left. The other minor actors, who were talking outside, just laughed in vain when they saw Gyunglim walk by.

Maru shook his head and left the restaurant.

“Then I’ll take my leave.”

“Alright, be careful on your way home, and see you next time.”

“Yes.”

Separating from the rest of the minor actors, Maru started walking towards the train station.

Chapter 355

Until a while ago, the first thing she thought when she woke up in the morning was this: how should I endure through the day? She didn’t know this before she achieved her dream, but when her dream became true and her dream became everyday life, dreams were no longer emotionally touching but had become somewhat of a task she had to do every day. Her smile was a decoration, and her tears were just a skill. There was only one motivation that made her move, and that was the envy of the people that looked at her. Attention - she kept telling herself that she wouldn’t be able to endure if she didn’t have any to feed on.

But it was a little different now.

“Unni, can you really walk around like this?”

“I told you already. I won’t get caught like this. Just look. If I don’t have eyeliner on and no blush makeup on my cheeks, I look really different.”

“You still look similar though.”

“It’s only you who think that way.”

Chaerim took her cute junior to a clothes store. It wasn’t a brand-name store, but a small store on the street. The name of the store was Cinderella. When they went in, they were greeted by a lady playing with a kitten.

“Can we take a look around?”

“Sure, go ahead.”

Chaerim grabbed her hesitant junior’s hand and had her stand in front of the clothes hanger.

“The clothes here are pretty.”

Her junior also hesitated for a moment before starting to look through the clothes. Despite it being a small store, the clothes had decent style. That could be seen just from the clothes displayed. It was different from other clothes stores where they just put everything on display without considering the style.

“Can I try this blouse on?”

The lady nodded. Chaerim walked to the changing room at the corner of the store and tried on the blouse. The shoulder lines looked very good on her. She felt as though she found a treasure. When she walked out, she saw her junior fiddling with a shirt. It was a shirt with a checkered pattern, and the loose fit-style shirt looked like it would look good on her junior.

“Try it on.”

“It’s fine.”

“Just try it on.”

She pushed her junior’s back into the changing room. A while later, she came back out with a faint smile, wearing the shirt. It also matched well with the jeans she was wearing.

“Excuse me, we’ll buy these two.”

She firmly refused her junior who said she would buy hers and gave the lady her credit card. While the lady took her card and did the transaction, she stroked the quiet kitten’s chin. The way it purred was quite cute. Her junior also reached out and stroked its head.

“Come back next time.”

“Okay.”

She came back out with a paper bag in one hand. This was a really satisfying shopping trip which she hadn’t had in a long time. She couldn’t even remember the last time she carefreely walked around the streets like this, visiting clothes shops and eating street food.

She grabbed her junior’s hand and walked towards a pojang-macha. She pointed at the menu and ordered assorted fries, tteokbokki, and soondae. Today was eat-everything-she-wanted day.

She dipped one of the fries into the tteokbokki sauce and ate it. The crunchy texture made her smile subconsciously.

“You should eat.”

Her junior was just looking at the food and not eating it.

“Uhm, unni.”

“Yeah?”

“Did something happen?”

Hearing those words, Chaerim put down the soondae she picked up. A helpless chuckle escaped her mouth.

“Was it obvious?”

“Just a little.”

“I thought I was fine, but it looks like I’m not. Hm, let’s eat for now. It will taste like crap once it becomes lukewarm.”

Chaerim pushed the plate with the fries in it to her junior’s side. Her junior started moving her chopsticks. They didn’t talk for a while.

She thought she was okay, but it seemed that her face gave it away. They were just about to stand up after finishing things up when her junior quickly gave the owner the money.

“I could have paid for it.”

“I don’t like being treated all the time.”

As she understood how her junior felt, Chaerim put back the 10,000 won bill inside her wallet. They left the pojang-macha and walked on the commercial street. As it was the school holidays, there were a lot of people around their age walking around.

“They’re probably going to see the movie that was just released today,” her junior spoke.

When she asked what the movie was, she replied that it was a romantic movie with a super popular actor. It was an actor Chaerim knew. That actor was known for being incredibly handsome. The two talked about that actor for a while. However, that conversation didn’t last long. It was not a boring topic and they liked talking about such things, but Chaerim cut it off mid-way.

“Can I talk to you about some troubles of mine?”

She didn’t want to say those words. She just wanted to meet her junior and play around to her heart’s content. It wasn’t a problem she could solve by telling her junior, so she thought that she should just enjoy this time to the fullest so that she could forget about the problem, but it was hard to hide it after seeing her junior’s worried eyes.

“I’m good at listening.”

Her junior smiled back with a flawless smile. She felt thankful just for those words alone. It had become customary for her to hide everything inside her because she had no one to talk to, but now she finally had someone she could talk to. After looking around, her junior hooked arms with her after pointing at a café on the 2nd floor of a building.

“Let’s go there.”

The café had some jazz music playing. Unlike the tattered sign, the interior was very clean, and thanks to that, the customers were mostly young.

“Latte please.”

“Strawberry smoothie for me.”

They put in an order before grabbing a table. They were by the window. When she looked down at the streets, she saw a clown on stilts handing out balloons. There were a lot of children around.

“What is it?”

She became dazed as she looked outside, but her junior’s words made her turn her head.

“Hm.”

How was she supposed to put this? She felt that talking about it from the beginning was like being whiny, but it wouldn’t relieve her to talk about just the main points. Her junior thankfully waited for her to speak without urging her on. She was a really good girl. For some reason, she felt that this girl was too good for Maru.

The things they ordered came out. Her junior stood up and brought the coffee and the smoothie.

“Thanks.”

When she grabbed the cup filled with warmth, she felt like her thoughts were getting cleared up.

“Don’t tell this to anyone.”

“Of course. My lips are sealed.”

Her junior zipped her lips.

“I think we’re going to disband.”

“What?”

“Blue. I think it’s over for us.”

“Why?”

“There are a lot of reasons, but the biggest one is that we aren’t as close as we were before. Of course, that’s not the only reason. There are more complex things than that. Everyone wants to go separate ways, and there’s an unni that already started doing that. There’s also the contract.”

“Is it… serious?”

“I’m not sure. Until just a while ago, I felt really uneasy. I even started taking stomach medicine again. Is Blue going to disappear forever? Can I continue living in the entertainment industry? What will happen to me? I felt like my head would burst from all the worries. But I’m not as uneasy as I was before. Though, I’m still worried.”

“Is everyone going separate ways then?”

“I think so. The president said that he’ll gather our opinions, but I think there’s practically zero probability that all five of us will want to remain in Blue. I talked to the unnis yesterday after a long time of not talking to them, but they don’t seem to have any attachments to the group. Perhaps I got infected with their attitude.”

Chaerim sighed. Actually, she wasn’t okay at all. She almost told her that she was worried to death. She didn’t want to cause her to worry. Despite that, it was too hard for her to handle this alone so she put it that way. She couldn’t say these words to anyone, not even to her parents. If she told them, they’d probably just tell her to try convincing the unnis.

She looked down at the coffee mug without doing anything. Just then, her junior’s hand’s approached hers. She grabbed her hand.

“Don’t worry, unni. Everything will go well.”

Chaerim nodded.

“Let’s stop the depressing talk here. Sorry, I told you something so unnecessary.”

“Not at all. Call me anytime if you feel worried. I have a lot of free time.”

“Can I call you even while you’re on a date with Maru?”

“…Yeah, well.”

“You really can’t hide your emotions, huh.”

“R-really?”

She smiled and was about to sip her coffee when a girl’s voice from the next table over caught her ears. As they suddenly shouted after speaking in a small voice, she could hear them clearly.

“I told you it’s real.”

“Really? Did your friend really see her?”

“Yeah, she did. She acted so meekly on TV, but she’s actually a slut?”

“My friend also didn’t think that it was her at first, but she looked too alike.”

“Hey, but still. A motel with a man in his fifties? Didn’t she see wrong?”

“I said it’s real. Just look at that Kwon Dayoon’s face. She looks totally devious. The man must be a rich company president or something.”

“No, I’m sure it’s her sponsor. Didn’t you see the news? It said that there are actresses and idols that receive money in compensation for their body.”

“Do you think that’s what’s happening?”

“I’m sure of it. I mean, there are rumors about Blue’s crisis these days. I knew this would happen someday. I was suspicious when there was news about them dating my oppas[1].”

Who? For a moment, she thought that she heard wrong. However, there was only one Kwon Dayoon that belonged to Blue in this world. She couldn’t believe it. Her relationship with Dayoon-unni had deteriorated as well and she didn’t talk to her in depth anymore, but she wasn’t the type of person to do that sort of thing. They had to be mistaken.

Although they were proceeding towards their disbandment, and they fought whenever they saw each other, they had still been together for several years. She couldn’t forgive them for slandering that very effort.

She almost stood up. She wanted to go to those girls and shout at them that they shouldn’t judge a person based on rumors. Just what did they know about her?

At that moment, she saw her junior standing up. She looked very upset. Her junior told her to stay still and walked to the students sitting at the table next to them. Her smiling eyes looked very upset right now. Her expression was very cold as well. It was surprising that a girl like her could make such an expression.

The chatting girls stopped talking and looked at her junior. They didn’t say anything because of the pressure.

Her junior had gotten angry in her stead. When she looked at that, she felt thankful, while on the other hand, she felt funny. She wanted to scream at them just now out of anger, but now, after calming down, she only thought that she should stop her junior.

“Excuse me!”

Her junior went out strong. Chaerim quickly stood up and grabbed her junior’s arm. She shook her head when her junior looked at her straight in the eyes.

“…Please be quiet.”

Her junior changed her next words. The girls that were around their age just nodded. Everyone in the café was looking at them.

“Let’s go.”

She took her junior and left the café. As soon as they left, her junior sighed before shaking. It seemed that she was scared.

“Are you okay?”

“Ah, yes.”

She faintly smiled.

“Are you good at fighting?”

“No.”

“Then why did you do that?”

“Because they clearly went too far. No matter how much of a pushover they think celebrities are, talking like that is just…,” her junior looked at the 2nd floor as she spoke.

“It’s not like this happened just one or two days.”

“You heard things like that as well?”

“It’s everywhere on the internet. Who slept with who, who was a delinquent in school, who’s scheming against who, and things like that.”

“I guess not anyone can become celebrities.”

“You get used to it after a while. Though… getting used to it doesn’t mean it doesn’t hurt. But what can I do about it? I chose this path.”

Chaerim dragged her depressed-looking junior out to the street. She hadn’t enjoyed shopping like this in a long time, so she didn’t want to waste time talking about things like this. Although bad thoughts about Dayoon kept creeping up in her mind, she suppressed them as much as possible. Actually, they sometimes talked about such things when she fought with the unnis. Whether they got into the group because they poured booze for someone else. They usually quickly apologized thinking that they went too far, but Dayoon didn’t say anything every time they talked about that topic. Dayoon-unni’s style was to go through each and every point and retort, but only at that time, she maintained her silence.

“It shouldn’t be.”

“What?”

“Nothing, just talking to myself.”

They gained their positions and success through effort and practice. There was no room for deceit there. The rumors about Dayoon were just that - rumors. No, it was just nonsense. They had to be wrong. It had to be that way.

* * *

Although he had been running the action school for a long time, this was the first time he saw someone so good.

“Try twisting your waist a little more from there. Try to make the bottom of your shirt flutter.”

After nodding, Maru got into position. The ones that acted in tandem also took their positions as well. They were going around acting out the protagonist's role each and only Maru looked any decent. Since the movie had a high ratio of action scenes, they had to be able to use their bodies. In that sense, he could give Maru a pass.

They seemed to have finished their preparations as they exchanged glances. Everyone looked serious. The more serious the students were, the more motivated Choongho became to teach them.

“You bastard!”

Just like how he told him, Maru first ducked to avoid the first attacker’s right punch and did a forward roll. The others quickly charged towards him. One of them was too quick and the lineup became messy, but in that short moment, Maru adjusted his timing so that they didn’t screw up the action. The arms and legs all brushed past him. If the camera shot him from behind, he would look like he got a solid hit.

The short exchange ended. As they were still in the beginning stages, Choongho had no plans on teaching them to act together and just showed them an example since they looked a little bored. However, they were digesting it well. He thought about raising the intensity of the classes.

“That’s it for today. Do you think you can grasp what acting with others is like?”

“Yes.”

“Once you’re more comfortable with using your bodies, we’ll change courses and practice acting together. However, before that, you need to build your foundation. Even at the smallest heights, you’ll get injured if you fall the wrong way. Since we’re at it let’s go back to practicing falling techniques again,” Choongho pointed at the mat as he spoke.

Just then, someone entered the building. It was the man who always had a mysterious smile on his face, Joongjin.

[1] As in another boy idol, not her actual brother. And yes, somehow it’s multiple…

Chapter 356

“Is everything going well?” Joongjin asked as he walked in.

He was wearing a short-sleeve t-shirt, shorts with a droplet pattern, and cheap slippers which made him look like he was some neighborhood unemployed person.

“Why do you go around looking like that? Where has the dignity of movie directors gone?”

“It’s tiring to consider every little thing like that. I’ve been wearing a suit all the time recently, so it’s been really hard on me,” Joongjin spoke as he rubbed his stubble.

He was really unpredictable. If he wore a suit, he would look like a corporate executive, and if he wore clothes that were in style, then he would look like a stylish young movie director, but he always wore casual clothes other than when it was really important.

“It must hurt to fall on their back like that.”

Joongjin frowned as he looked at the students that fell backwards.

“I thought you wanted a dynamic action scene. If you want dynamic, then they need to know how to protect their bodies at least.”

Choongho instructed the students to fall on their sides after that. Bangjoo, who learned Judo, did a demonstration for the students. It was really easy for Choongho since someone knew how to do it.

“Should I give you some tea?”

“Sounds good to me.”

“You guys can take a break after that.”

They went to the office and Choongho turned on the electric kettle.

“Do you still drink thick coffee these days?”

“Three at minimum.”

“Watch your blood sugar. You aren’t young anymore.”

“Forty-four is still young. Also, right back at you. You’ll become fifty soon so aren’t you at the age where you have to wrestle with pens and papers? If you break an arm or a leg doing what you did when you were young, it won’t heal as fast you know?”

“Should I experiment how long it takes to heal after I break it?”

When Choongho looked like he was about to give him a kick, Joongjin quickly shook his hands in the air and said that he was joking. Choongho then gave Joongjin, who was sitting cross-legged on the sofa, the coffee cup. It was some thick coffee with three sticks worth of coffee sticks.

While drinking, Choongho observed Joongjin. This peculiar fella was a rare creature that provokes one’s curiosity just by looking at him. Joongjin raised his pinky before dipping it in the coffee. He quickly stirred the coffee before pulling his finger out and putting it in his mouth.

“Isn’t it hot?”

“It is.”

“You really didn’t throw away any of your old habits. You just have to touch every food with your fingers, don’t you?”

“Isn’t that obvious? People these days are too focused on the visual aspect. When they look at pretty food, they just take a photo before starting to eat. Isn’t that such a pity? They should try touching it, smelling it, and if it’s something sizzling or boiling, they should try listening to it as well. Stimulus is everywhere in this world. Not being able to experience all of it is such a pitiful thing.”

Only after sucking on his pinky did he start drinking his coffee. He hadn’t changed from five years ago. The peculiar actions of this man flashed through Choongho’s head, but he did not put them to words. There were many events that would make him tired just by remembering them. Even three days and nights wouldn’t be enough to change those events into words.

“I was too busy last time to hear anything from you. What have you been doing for the last five years? I don’t think you were even in the country.”

Joongjin drank the coffee in one gulp before slamming down the empty paper cup on the table.

“How sweet. Oh, you asked what I was doing? I got bored of shooting movies, so I went travelling.”

“Travelling?”

“Yes. I’ve been to Europe, China, and even the pilgrimage. Man, the weather was insane over there. An old lady started off in the morning like it was a morning walk, so I followed her, but I almost fainted because of the heat. Some foreigner explained something in French the night before at the pilgrim’s house, and it turned out he was telling us to take extra underwear. My boxers were wet because of all the sweat. I swear I could get a bucket of water if I squeezed it.”

“You didn’t even look into it before going?”

“That’s not travelling. Travelling is about going and learning. If I research a lot of things before I go, I will be bound by that knowledge. Like that, there’s no point in travelling. I’d rather look at photos on the internet at home.”

“I’m surprised you haven’t been to the hospital for anything serious at your age.”

“Well, my body is sturdy. Oh, I took a photo in front of the Santiago De Compostela, do you wanna have a look? It’s the cathedral at the end of the pilgrimage, and I ended up hugging the American that went with me and cried together.”

“I’m okay.”

Choongho crushed the empty paper cup he drank coffee from and threw it in the trash. It bounced off the wall and went straight into the trash can. Seeing that, Joongjin tried to do the same thing, but it didn’t go in. Joongjin repeated his actions several times until the paper cup went in. When it eventually went in, he said ‘now we’re even’.

Looking at Joongjin reminded Choongho of Peter Pan. He was aging on the outside, but he was still a challenging youth that did not lose his adventurous spirit on the inside. Of course, that didn’t mean that he was naïve.

“Do you smoke?”

“I quit.”

“What happened?”

“It was boring.”

“Why are you looking for fun in smoking? People don’t smoke for a reason.”

The flintstones on the lighter made some sounds as it rotated.

“So you’ve been wandering all over the world before coming back to Korea?”

“I guess that sums it up. I’ve been away for too long, and I started becoming homesick.”

“What homesick. You’re probably bored of travelling.”

Hearing those words, Joongjin just grinned.

“But I’m surprised you managed to get investors.”

“I did some legwork and asked some people with money.”

“Who does the distribution?”

“Lucky.”

“That’s a small company though. They shouldn’t be able to distribute it to many cinemas.”

“It’ll be fine once rumors about the movie spread. The thirsty ones will probably dig the well for me.”

“You sound confident.”

“If that doesn’t happen, well, I guess that’s that.”

“I’m sure your investors will love to hear that.”

Choongho put out his half-burnt cigarette on the ashtray. Although he said those words, Choongho thought that this movie would definitely succeed. His reasoning? Because the director was Joongjin. This guy was different from the ordinary folk. He would probably cause a sensation like he did ten years ago.

“It’s about time.”

Joongjin looked at the clock as he spoke.

“Is someone coming?”

“Yes. Oh, you should know her as well.”

Choongho told the questioning Joongjin to wait. Now that he became curious, Joongjin walked around nervously in the office. He really couldn’t endure not knowing something.

After around five minutes, some noise could be heard outside. Choongho opened the door to the office.

“Oho.”

Joongjin smiled and looked at Joohyun standing outside. Joohyun, who was handing out some snacks to the students that were resting, also discovered Joongjin and made a surprised face.

“Director.”

“Wow, it’s been a long time, Miss Joohyun.”

“What brings you here?”

“I have my circumstances.”

Choongho first told Joohyun to come inside. After entering the office, Joohyun took off the cap she was wearing.

“Want some coffee?” Choongho asked.

“No, I’m fine, thanks. Rather than that, director, when did you come back to Korea?”

“I think it’s been three months.”

“And you never contacted me?”

“Sorry about that. I was very busy.”

“That’s just an excuse. You actually didn’t even think about contacting me, did you?”

“Not at all. How could I forget the almighty Ahn Joohyun? You’re the supporting role that made my movie shine.”

Joohyun brought a chair and sat next to the sofa. Joongjin and Joohyun. The one that brought Joohyun to the ranks of superstars ten years ago was Joongjin. Choongho thought about what happened back then. Joongjin looked the same as he was now, but back then, Joohyun was quite a meek lady. She was the type of person that would blush if a man talked to her, but she had changed now. He knew what kinds of things happened to her through the rumors. Choongho thought of her highly due to the fact that she did not leave the industry and forged her way through even after experiencing those things.

“I heard that you went overseas. I never thought I’d see you here.”

“Me neither. So this was the reason Choongho hyung-nim brought me here. Anyway, nice to meet you again, Miss Joohyun.”

Joohyun shook hands with Joongjin.

“Wow, your hands have become rough. Ten years ago, your hands were soft like a baby’s. You’re thirty now, aren’t you?”

“I’m thirty-three. It’s about time they become rough. I learned what the world is like. Rather than that, you haven’t changed at all, director. From your clothes to the way you speak. Even your face hasn’t gotten any older. Dang, looks like only Choongho-oppa and I aged. Just look at him. He’s starting to get strands of white hair, he’s getting wrinkly, and he’s getting chubbier as well.”

“That’s because he went through too much physical ordeal. We’re both in our forties, but this is where self-management shines.”

Choongho smiled bitterly.

“So it’s been ten years since we last got together like this, huh?”

“No. We did meet once around six years ago. During the film festival.”

“Ah, that’s right.”

Now that he heard about it, he remembered. They met at Busan’s international film festival and drank some alcohol with just the three of them at a pojang-macha.

“Miss Joohyun, how are you doing?”

“Well, I’m doing good.”

Joohyun glanced outside the door that was slightly open before speaking.

“The movie Choongho-oppa talked about, it’s yours, director?”

“Yes, it is.”

“What made you come back? I thought you didn’t find commercial movies any fun.”

“I want to earn some money to prepare for my old age, and I learned a couple of things when I wandered around the world. Miss Joohyun, are you still taking work after that?”

“Yes.”

“What are you shooting nowadays?”

“I’m taking a break right now. I just finished a drama, so I only have a radio program.”

“Aha, radio, huh. I’ll listen to it later.”

They talked about their recent matters for quite a long time. Choongho left midway to tell the instructor to finish things off.

“Well then. Let’s clean things up after we do some stretching.”

After watching the instructor and the students do some stretching, he came back to the office.

“Is Bangjoo doing well?”

“You’re concerned about your brother?”

“Well, of course.”

“He’s doing well. I’m not sure about acting, but he really has good reflexes.”

Joongjin, who was listening, interjected.

“Miss Joohyun, your brother’s among them?”

“Yes.”

“Ah, Ahn Bangjoo, huh. I remember him. So I guess I should look after him?”

“Please don’t. If you don’t like him, then just use him like you would with anyone else. If you do like him, then you should teach him some things. He’s not the type of person who likes other people giving him special treatment.”

“Alright. Actually, I’m not kind enough to take interest in an uninteresting child.”

“I know that very well.”

Just then, Joongjin took out his mobile phone. Then, he started texting.

“Uhm, if the two of you don’t have any appointments tonight, should we have a light drink? I don’t want to miss this opportunity since I’ve been hanging out with boring people recently.”

It seemed that he was adjusting his schedule. He was putting something into action before other people agreed. Choongho thought that it was very like him.

“I’m good with that. I don’t have the radio tomorrow. What about you, Choongho-oppa?”

“Actually, I planned on eating dinner together with one more person.”

Joongjin raised his head and asked.

“Who?”

“Jangsoo hyung-nim.”

“Oh! I haven’t heard that name in a long time. Is he doing well?”

“He is. He’ll probably be glad to see you again.”

“Wow. The members from ten years ago are getting together again. Oh, are you keeping in touch with Gyungtaek as well?”

“Moon Gyungtaek? I see him from time to time when I’m working. Should I call him as well?”

“Hm, he’s fun, but he’s too crazed about sound. He never comes out when he’s working.”

“I don’t think you’re one who can say that.”

Choongho smiled and reminisced about what happened ten years ago. Thinking about how the main creators of ‘Spring Calendar’ were about to get together again, he smiled subconsciously.

“Hm, I want to see Haejoo as well.”

Joongjin’s eyes turned murky for a brief moment. Choongho also could not smile when he heard that name. Joohyun was probably the same.

“Let’s all make some time and go visit her.”

“Alright.”

“We should do that.”

The three fell silent for a moment when they mentioned the name that brought up a lot of memories for them. At that moment, the door to the office opened and the instructor peeked inside.

“Master. I’ll send them home now.”

“Oh, alright. Tell them that they did well and that they shouldn’t be late to the next practice.”

“Yes. Oh, and there seems to be a guest.”

“Looks like Jangsoo-hyungnim is here. I’ll go take a look.”

He opened the door and looked at the entrance of the training room. He saw Jangsoo waving his hand. One of the students who were leaving the training room stood next to Jangsoo. It was Maru.

“I’m going to have him tag along today. Is that okay?”

“Maru as well?”

“What? It’ll be too lonely with just the two of us.”

Choongho shrugged and pointed at the office. Jangsoo was surprised to see Joohyun and Joongjin inside.

“Hey hey, Park Joongjin!”

“Haha, Jangsoo hyung-nim. It’s been a while.”

“You damn little prick. You didn’t get in touch at all so I thought you were dead. When did you come back to Korea?”

Jangsoo ran and hugged Joongjin tightly.

“I don’t think I should tag along,” Maru spoke with a calm expression.

Choongho thought for a moment before telling him that he should tag along. If it was anyone else, he’d have told that person to go home, but he felt that it would be fine for Maru to come along.

“Let’s go! Since Joohyun is here as well, let’s get something good to eat.”

Jangsoo laughed as he took the lead. Choongho grabbed Maru by the shoulder and dragged him when Maru looked at him and asked if it was really okay for him to join.

Chapter 357

He received a call to come. There was no explanation. It wasn’t that they made an appointment, nor was he told anything about this. If they were old friends, they might call each other all of a sudden like this, but considering the personality of the caller, that probably wasn’t what was happening. Of course, it didn’t mean that he wasn’t close with the caller.

The place he arrived at in his car was a chicken feet restaurant near Daehak-ro. Although the restaurant was located on a rather old street, it was full almost all the time. He greeted the lady as he went inside. He went past the noisy first floor and climbed up to the 2nd floor. People were roasting chicken feet on charcoal underneath the low ceiling. Among the people, Ganghwan managed to find the person that called him here.

“What led you to drink over some chicken feet? Didn’t you quit drinking because of your health?”

“It’s fine to drink once in a while.”

Ganghwan smiled and asked the waiter to bring them another soju glass and a bottle of soju.

“I thought something happened because you called me out all of a sudden.”

He picked up the tongs and took out some chicken feet marinated in spicy sauce and put them on the grill. Along with a sizzling sound, smoke started rising up. He put down the soju glass that the waiter brought and shook the bottle of soju.

“Please, receive one from me.”

Ganghwan poured soju into the other party’s glass. The owner of the glass, Junmin, just looked as the glass became filled.

“Did something happen?”

“No, there are a few things that tick me off, but there aren’t any problems.”

“Then why do you look like that? If you’re feeling bad, then I’ll drink instead.”

“It’s nothing like that, so don’t worry about it.”

Junmin emptied the glass in one go. Ganghwan put his finger at the tip of the glass. Junmin poured one for him.

“Ganghwan.”

“Yes.”

“Did you come in your car?”

“I did.”

“Then don’t drink.”

Junmin took away his glass before emptying it in one go.

“Hyung-nim, you should really eat some side dishes. You’ll ruin your stomach.”

He put a piece of chicken feet on some pickled radish slices and put it on Junmin’s plate. Junmin was just dazing out as he looked at the glass. He was in a strange state today. Was he drunk? Ganghwan had known Junmin for over ten years but never had he seen him drunk even once. Even when he used to enjoy alcohol, he always stopped drinking when the alcohol started to get the better of him.

Junmin held his chopstick in his fist and stabbed it into the chicken feet. It was clear that he was drunk. Perhaps he didn’t know he was drunk because he had never been drunk before.

Ganghwan called for a waiter. There was no bill on the table, so he decided to ask.

“Uhm, excuse me. Do you know how many bottles this table ordered?”

“Please wait a moment.”

The waiter went downstairs and came back to tell him that they ordered four bottles of soju. Ganghwan sighed. He wondered why there were chicken feet left even though the side dishes were empty, and it turned out that Junmin emptied three bottles of soju with just some garlic, chili pepper, and kimchi. He reached out and touched the ceramic pot. There were some steamed eggs inside and they had gotten cold.

“I’d like to order one more steamed egg. Don’t put too much salt in it.”

The waiter replied yes before going downstairs. In that short while, Junmin was pouring soju again into his glass. Ganghwan frowned and took the glass away from him.

“You drank three bottles. That’s more than enough.”

“I drank three bottles?”

“Yes. What’s happening? You’re scaring me especially since you don’t act like this usually.”

“I said it’s nothing.”

Junmin waved at him to give him the glass. This was the first time Ganghwan had seen Junmin like this. Junmin was like a pillar. He was the CEO of a huge company and a senior that received full trust from his juniors since he supported everyone without shaking. He always managed himself meticulously because he always said that if he wavered, then many people’s lives would become tough.

Just then, the steamed egg Ganghwan ordered came out. He took some steaming hot egg and put it on Junmin’s plate.

“You should eat something else. Spicy things might ruin your stomach even further.”

“I said I’m fine.”

“You’re the opposite of fine from what I see. Stop being stubborn and eat that first.”

Junmin then picked up his spoon. He spooned a bit of the steamed egg and put it in his mouth before shaking his head and putting the spoon back down.

“I should lie down a little.”

Ganghwan supported Junmin and left the restaurant. He had Junmin sit in the passenger seat before pushing the backrest down. Junmin closed his eyes and heaved a deep breath.

“Please rest for a while.”

He went to the convenience store in front of the chicken feet restaurant and bought a drink that would ease hangovers.

“Hyung-nim, please drink th… oh he’s sleeping.”

Ganghwan scratched his head. He closed the door to the passenger seat and got in the driver’s seat. He started the car and drove off. While he drove, Junmin didn’t wake up even once.

“Hyung-nim, please wake up.”

After arriving at Junmin’s house, he tried shaking Junmin so that he would wake up, but Junmin’s eyelids did not even move. Having no choice, he opened the door to the passenger seat and supported him out. Junmin seemed to have come to himself and muttered something, but Ganghwan understood nothing since his pronunciation was all mumbled.

Ganghwan entered the door lock code before entering. The dogs that Junmin raised all barked and ran to the door.

“Your daddy’s super drunk.”

He laid Junmin on the sofa before going to the kitchen. The weather was hot as it was, and he had to exert his strength, so he was sweating like mad. He drank some cold water and went to the bathroom to wash his face. This place didn’t feel that unfamiliar to him since he freeloaded here for around a year before. There were probably quite a few people that could ‘make themselves home’ here. Geunsoo was one of them.

Ganghwan picked up the chihuahua that was circling around his feet.

“Have you been doing well?”

When he tickled the dog’s chin, the dog stuck out its tongue and wagged its tail. He played around with the dogs for a while. Just then, Junmin, who was lying on the sofa, fell on the floor with a thud. Looking at that, he just laughed in vain. Was the Earth going to end tomorrow? This was the first time Junmin looked so ruined.

Ganghwan took out his phone and started shooting a video. It would be quite a sight to see once he showed others Junmin acting like this.

“…Haejoo…,” Junmin spoke as he clenched the carpet on the floor.

His voice was very sorrowful. Ganghwan stopped the video. Haejoo. He was probably referring to Jung Haejoo. Ganghwan had never seen her. After all, when he found out her name, she was already deceased. However, he did know that that name was definitely not light in Junmin’s heart.

Ganghwan brought out some blankets from the bedroom and covered Junmin. Then, he lied down next to him as well. He was free since he wasn’t doing any plays, so he decided to freeload at this place for a while like he did before.

Ganghwan closed his eyes as he hugged one of the dogs that kept panting.

* * *

“I’ve been near a volcano as well, and the smell was horrid. I wanted to go inside some more and see lava, but they prevented me from doing so saying that it was a danger zone. It was such a pity.”

“Do you have two lives, director?”

“I only have one.”

Maru watched Joongjin who giggled as he unfolded his story. His story bag had burst since before they arrived at the restaurant and he was telling new stories one after the other. The genres were diverse and never did they overlap. He was unlike a drunkard who talked about the same things over and over again.

“Mongolia was good as well.”

This time it was Mongolia. Joongjin expressed the vast expansive plains with his entire body, and the others laughed. He found out while listening to their conversation that the four of them met during a movie shoot. That movie was none other than ‘Spring Calendar’. Joohyun was the actress of a minor role, Choongho was the action advisor, Jangsoo was in charge of the camera for part B, and Joongjin was in charge of directing and scripting.

“Well then, let’s drink!” Jangsoo raised his glass as he spoke.

Maru raised his cup which contained sprite. They were at a restaurant where the kitchen was right in front of them. A steak was being grilled on top of a steel pan. Joohyun had booked this place and it looked quite expensive.

“It looks like I talked about myself too much. Jangsoo hyung-nim, please talk about yourself as well. Tell us how you’ve been doing lately.”

“Well, I’m the same. The only thing that’s changed from ten years ago is that I have to send my kids to college, so I’m even more financially tight. In the old times, people used to sell their cows to send their kids to college, but cows aren’t nearly enough anymore.”

After emptying his glass, Jangsoo looked at Maru.

“Maru.”

“Yes.”

“Earn a lot of money and don’t make your parents suffer. Kids these days think that money sprouts from the ground. My kids couldn’t be purer when they were young, but ever since they entered college, they started splurging on some weird things. They tell me that everyone else does that as well.”

“They’ll probably mature soon.”

“I don’t expect that far. I just want them to know what money is. That kid has no intentions of taking on a part time job, nor studying seriously.”

“Then just stop giving them pocket money. If it’s a boy, then have him become independent. Get him a cheap one-room and support him for just half a year and cut off all financial support. He’ll get by one way or the other.”

“But the thing is, she’s a girl. The world is a scary place, so I can’t exactly have her leave home.”

“Then just think of it as your karma and listen to her wishes,” Maru faintly smiled as he spoke.

Jangsoo shook his head as though he had a headache.

Jangsoo’s whining continued for a while. He preached that it was better to get married as late as possible and that it was better not to get married. While he was talking, he suddenly got a call and picked it up, and suddenly, his face became anxious and whispered to everyone to be quiet.

“Yes, honey. I’m talking with business partners because of equipment loans. Drinking? Of course, I’m not drinking. Yes, of course. But I’m going to be a little late tonight, so go to sleep without me. What? You won’t open the door if I come back after drinking? But honey. Isn’t it fine to drink over some business? I mean just a little. Alright, alright. What about the kids? They still haven’t come home? Are you sure they aren’t drinking somewhere? What? Just think about myself?”

Jangsoo made a bitter smile as he hung up. Joohyun, who was listening to the conversation, laughed, and Choongho did the same. Jangsoo kept drinking while complaining to them about how they did not know the sorrows of being a father.

Maru also smiled and enjoyed the atmosphere. Just then, a finger tapped on his shoulder. When he turned his head, he saw Joongjin smiling at him.

“Should we change seats and have a talk?”

“Oh, please, sit here.”

“No, I don’t mean that I want to sit there, but that I want to talk to you, Mr. Maru.”

Joongjin put his arms below Jangsoo’s armpits since Jangsoo sat next to Maru and raised him up. Jangsoo mumbled some things as he walked to where Joongjin sat.

“Phew, it must be boring for you amidst these boring adults, right?”

“No. It’s very fun, actually. I actually sympathize with a lot of it too.”

“You sympathize?”

“Yes.”

“But you’re still young.”

“Just because I’m young doesn’t mean I can’t sympathize with adults.”

“Hm, I guess that’s true. Do you drink?”

“For now, I’m still a minor.”

“Minors can drink.”

Joongjin answered his own question. Maru received a glass from him. Choongho poured the soju into his glass.

“Rather than that, you work for Mr. Lee Junmin, huh. Looks like you’ll become big.”

“I’m still a trainee of sorts, so I don’t know if I can become big or not.”

“No, he’s the type of person to plan everything from beginning to end, so the fact that you’re under his wing means that your potential is very good. It’s a done deal if you signed an official contract with him.”

“Is that so?”

Seeing Joongjin gesture to him to drink, Maru bent back his head and drank the soju in one go.

“I’ve met a lot of people, and never had I seen anyone as scary as him. He knows how to handle people too well. On top of that, he can get extremely merciless if he has to be. Watch out. You won’t know what would happen to you.”

Joongjin spoke with a cold gaze that didn’t look like he was joking. Maru looked at his eyes for a while before speaking.

“If it’s that, I’m aware. In fact, that’s what reassures me.”

“It reassures you?”

“Yes. Rather than people that are swayed by ties and emotions, the ones that are calculative are in fact, safer. It just goes to show that as long as I prove my worth, I will not get stabbed in the back.”

“Oho, so you can think about it that way.”

“You don’t seem to like my president so much, director.”

Joongjin shook his head and made a strange smile. His inner thoughts couldn’t be made out from his expression. Even when Maru wanted to look into his heart, no speech bubble popped up. He was the type of person to solely think about himself.

“The relationship between me and president Lee Junmin couldn’t just be defined with either good or bad. However, I can tell you this for sure. I’m a very childish man and I don’t forget about bad memories.”

“I see.”

Joongjin put out his empty glass. Maru poured a glass for him.

“Why do you want to become an actor, Mr. Maru?”

“Well, I think I had a lot of reasons, but right now? I’m not so sure. For now, I just want to become one. Speaking of that, why did you become a director?”

“Me? Because I was bored. One day, the work I was doing just became boring. Like, everything about it. That’s when I thought about it. What should I do to have fun? At that moment, there was a movie on TV. That’s when I decided that that’s the one for me.”

“It’s incredible to think that you can become a director that way. From what I heard, you were the owner of a rather popular restaurant brand.”

“You’re quite knowledgeable about me.”

“I heard a few things here and there. Oh, weren’t you afraid at all when you put down your role as the president and switched to becoming a director? You had a lot of achievements yourself, and you shouldn't have found anything lacking even when you continued living like that. I can’t understand why you became a director solely because you were bored.”

Hearing that question, Joongjin grinned and raised his glass. Then he spoke,

“The ship is the most stable at the port. However, that’s not why ships exist. Rather than a cruiser tied at the port looking at the horizon, I like being the Pequod more, being splashed around by the waves.”

The man full of adventurous spirit left those words before standing up. Then he held his spoon downside up and started singing trot that was rather old. The other three, as well as the chef that cooked the meat in front of them, started smiling.

Maru rested his chin on his hands and watched Joongjin. He felt like he got to know him a little better.

Chapter 358

“I think I still prefer being a cruiser rather than the Pequod.”

“Why is that?”

“Because Moby Dick is too big for me to handle. I prefer being a cruiser that waits at the port with shallow waves.”

“Well, the white whale is definitely big,” Joongjin said.

The chef put a bright red piece of meat on the steel pan. The web-like lines of fat were quite eye-catching. The chef said that it was perfectly aged wagyu.

“Have you met the Moby Dick of your life, Mr. Maru?”

“Well, I’m still young, so they can’t be compared to the hardships that you must have met throughout your life.”

“Please tell me anyway. I like talking about myself, but I also like listening to others.”

Joongjin’s eyes urged Maru to speak. Although he was over forty years old, his spirit was not one that sought stability, but freedom.

“If I have to come up with one, maybe my midterm results?”

“Is that it?”

“I told you that there’s nothing much, didn’t I? The degree of hardships that could be met by a high school student in this country just amounts to that.”

“Hm, since you’re bringing up that, I guess I don’t have anything to say. This country is definitely a little boring.”

Joongjin asked the chef for some toothpicks. Maru wondered what he was trying to do and watched him. He opened the lid of the toothpick container and poured all the toothpicks onto the table.

“This is actually quite fun.”

Joongjin started creating a tower with toothpicks.

“Do you want to have a go?”

“I’m fine thanks.”

Although he refused, Joongjin still forcefully tried to hand him a toothpick. He looked like he would stay frozen that way so Maru had no choice but to receive the toothpick.

“Here, put it here.”

He put the toothpick in the position that Joongjin was pointing at. He tried to put an end to things there, but Joongjin gave him another toothpick.

“This time, try putting it wherever you want.”

After thinking about it, he put the toothpick at a weird angle. He put it diagonally to the rest of the toothpicks which were arranged as a square tower.

“Looks like you want to end it early, but I can’t let you do that.”

Joongjin picked up two toothpicks and put them so that they were parallel to where Maru put his. With that, the tower regained its stability. This was like playing chess. One wanted to forfeit and quit, but the other side found it so much fun that they wanted to keep going.

“You can put two at once?”

“Who said you could only put one at a time?”

Maru couldn’t retort to that. Although his tone was light, there were no gaps in his words. Maru felt that he was very smart.

Just then, a sharp metal sliding sound could be heard from where the steel pan was. It was the sound of two metal pieces sliding against each other. The chef was slicing up the meat into even pieces with two knives. Joongjin took his eyes off the toothpicks for the first time to see the dual knives performance. Meanwhile, Maru pushed the tower with his finger. The 10 or so floors of toothpicks fell down.

After looking at the fallen tower for a while, Joongjin smacked on the table with his palm before laughing out loud. Hearing that, the other three looked at him, but didn’t seem to care. It seemed that they were used to his action patterns.

“I definitely didn’t say that not toppling it was in the rules. But still, aren’t you going too far? You just had to topple the tower I put so much effort into with a single finger.”

Joongjin gathered the toothpicks and put them back in the container.

“Life is like this tower. No matter how stable one builds their foundation, it is bound to topple from strong external forces. Isn’t that so unfair?”

“What can I do about it? I can only live with it.”

“What do you think you will do when your tower is toppled like that? Are you going to gather the scraps and start over? Or are you going to give up?”

Joongjin gave him the toothpick container this time. Maru looked at the toothpicks before speaking.

“It’s too much of a waste to give up, and too hard to start over, so I should probably sell these for cheap,” Maru said as he pulled out one toothpick.

“If I get the raw materials cost back, wouldn’t I be able to make a living at least?”

“So you’re focused on making a living, Mr. Maru.”

“Isn’t everyone like that?”

“That’s true, but still, you’re rather peculiar. Normally, people of your age look forward to an objective they have to fulfill, not things they have to be responsible for.”

“The world is a harsh place. These days, students worry about making a living starting at my age.”

“That’s very unfortunate to hear.”

The chef put a piece of meat on a ceramic plate and gave each person a dish. He also put some salts on the dish for them to season, and there were several different colored salts. Maru seasoned his meat with the blue-colored one. Leaving aside the meat, the salt was just salty. Perhaps a gourmet might be able to figure out the taste.

Just as he was about to grab the napkin on his left, he saw Joongjin pressing down on the meat with his fingers. He looked at the meat with eyes full of curiosity as though he was the first man to receive fire from Prometheus.

“What are you doing?”

Seeing his peculiar actions, Maru couldn’t help but ask.

“I am sensing the meat.”

“What?”

“I treat all of my senses preciously. Look at this meat. Just looking at it is not enough to tell the texture. You can predict, but not actually tell if your predictions are true or not. That’s why I have to touch it.”

“You should be able to tell if you put it in your mouth though.”

“Do you think the sensitivity of your fingertips and your mouth is the same? Moreover, your mouth always contains saliva so it negates minute textures. To be entirely sure, it’s better to touch it with my fingertips like this.”

Ouch, hot - Joongjin, who was touching the meat, quickly grabbed his earlobes. Despite being burned, his fingers still reached out to the meat once again. Only after touching the rectangular meat over and over again did Joongjin picked up the meat with his bare hands and put it in his mouth. He looked like the happiest man on Earth. He exclaimed several times as he chewed on the meat. Maru momentarily felt guilty for chewing and swallowing the meat in one go.

“You should try as well.”

“Try what?”

“Sensing it.”

Maru looked at the meat. By common sense, grilled meat wasn’t something that was touched. Housewives would’ve scolded such people for playing around with food. If it was anyone else, Maru would have refused and just eaten it with a fork and knife like usual.

However, the one next to him right now was Joongjin. His eccentricity didn’t give him a feeling of rejection for some reason. It was probably because of his joyous expression. It felt like he would lose out if he didn’t try it out.

“I think it is necessary for people to expand their senses. Just following what other people have already done is, yes, it is very easy. There’s no risk in that. That is because numerous pioneers have experienced all the existing dangers and told their followers. Look, this is no longer dangerous - one would have said.”

While speaking, Joongjin tried rubbing some of the salts in his hand and tried smelling them before tasting them.

“The followers can be satisfied with that. After all, it was proven to be safe. However, I guarantee that such people will not be able to escape the conventions. Moreover, the ones that have faith in conventions start condemning people that try to escape such conventions. They criticise such people for doing unnecessary things. Why do people do that even though it does them no harm?”

Joongjin seemed to be expecting an answer from him. Maru looked at the meat that was being cooked as he spoke.

“Perhaps they were uneasy.”

“Why were they uneasy?”

“To be different from me, no, to be different from us is something foreign to them. Foreign things are prone to being ostracized. Like you said, conventions are agreements that have been proven over the course of time. Perhaps it’s natural for people to ostracize others that left that agreement.”

“Very good answer. However, the core of the problem that I’m thinking of goes a step further.”

“A step further?”

“Why do they feel uneasy? Why do they ostracize others? I came to one conclusion. I don’t want you, who’s different from me, to get ahead of me. People are all smart. They always strive towards the better. That’s why they can’t stand people that escape the conventions. They know that while people that walk a dangerous path might destroy themselves, they have the possibility to reach heights no one has reached ever before.”

Joongjin took out a toothpick before skewering the meat. The toothpick stood upright and pointed at the ceiling.

“People instinctively dislike other people being above them. However, the world will always divide people into those that are above and those that are below. That’s why people create idols. Someone that looks similar to me is above me. However, if you admit that, then you start to feel tragic about your own circumstances. Ah, that person was just born different from me - like that.”

Joongjin looked at him. Maru just shrugged.

“Have you heard of the word genius?”

“Yes, I have.”

“What do you feel when you hear that word? What kinds of feelings does it give you?”

“Amazing, incredible. Well, things like that.”

Joongjin nodded. He stared at the toothpick-skewered meat for a long time before pulling the toothpick back out and eating the meat with a fork and a knife like normal.

“The typical description of idols are ‘geniuses’. Geniuses always break convention. They walk a path that other people have not taken. No, to be exact, they walk a path that other people don’t think of going. It’s a word that people use with their admiration, but whenever I hear that word, I think of the pettiness of mankind. The word genius always leaves out the word effort.”

Maru looked at Joongjin’s fingers. Unexpectedly, they looked very worn out and it was pointing at the meat being grilled.

“The texture should feel very different. Try touching it.”

He grinned.

Maru tapped on the table with his finger for a while before placing his hand on top of the meat. He slowly lowered his fingertips and touched the meat. A sensation that was completely different from raw meat creeped up his fingers. A feeling of softness and elasticity could be felt at the same time. The slightly burnt part was rather rough, while the parts that didn’t get directly sizzled were soft.

He was reminded of playing with clay when he was young.

“It’s like a ceremony. You received that eccentric man’s approval,” Jangsoo spoke. Maru picked up the meat and looked at Joongjin. He was smiling so brightly that his teeth were showing.

“Try eating it now. Trust me, it will taste different.”

Maru sighed before putting the meat in his mouth.

* * *

“Let’s go to the next restaurant!”

Joongjin raised his right hand and shouted. Choongho and Jangsoo chimed in. Perhaps it was because they hung out with Joongjin, but they looked like they returned to their youth.

“He’s a strange man, isn’t he?” Joohyun asked.

“Yes. He’s indeed strange.”

“When I look at him, I wonder how people like him can exist.”

She smiled softly.

“How was he during the shooting?”

“He’s the same. No, perhaps I should call it worse? That kind of atmosphere at the shoot could only be created by him. What should I call it… Even though we’re doing the same thing, it feels like we’re doing a completely new thing? It’s hard to describe with words.”

“I think I get what you mean.”

“Really?”

Maru nodded.

“But still, it’s good that the director seems to like you.”

“Really?”

Once he starts working, he will start dividing people up. Those that can judge for themselves, and those that have to follow his instructions to the tee. Anyone that does not sympathize with him is just a chess piece - he actually said those words during the shoot.

“Sounds like he must have gotten quite an eyeful from the actors.”

“At first, yeah. But as the shoot progressed, no one complained about him. He was too perfect.”

Too perfect. It was a rather strange combination of words.

“The two of you! Come quick!” Joongjin waved his hand as he shouted.

Maru looked at Joohyun once before smiling and walking forward.

Chapter 359

He hadn’t had a nightmare in a long time. The doctor was shaking, his family fainted, and he was powerless to do anything. Such a scene kept repeating. The smell of cresol, as well as the white lights from the ceiling, the noises from the hospital going in and out of his ears, and a scream, topped it all off.

Junmin stroked his hair upwards. His hands were full of sweat. He did not remember how he came back home yesterday. He remembered up to the point when he called Ganghwan, but anything after that was pitch black.

“You worried about me?”

He picked up the pomeranian that walked up to his feet. When he looked at the black eyes between the bushy fur, he started to feel a little better. Perhaps this was why people raised dogs. No words were necessary for consolation.

He put down the dog before standing up. It had been fifteen years since he had become drunk like this. Fifteen years ago, when he returned Haejoo to ashes, he drowned himself in alcohol.

Just as he opened the refrigerator to quench his thirst a little, he saw a plastic bottle on the table. The lid was still open. As he always cleaned up after himself, he couldn’t have been the one to leave the bottle out like this. He wondered if he did that because he was drunk. He drank the lukewarm water in the bottle before walking to the living room. He just opened the door when he heard a loud noise. It was someone snoring.

“…Ah.”

Ganghwan was lying on the bed in just his underwear. He was even smiling as though he was having a nice dream. It seemed that he was the one that carried him all the way home and ended up falling asleep on the bed. Junmin felt that it was just like 10 years ago. He was reminded of when Ganghwan lived here.

He went back to the kitchen and opened the refrigerator. He took out some bean sprouts and green onions he put inside a container. He washed the bean sprouts and sliced up the green onions before putting them in a pot.

“Oh, you’re up.”

Ganghwan came out of the room scratching his butt.

“You haven’t changed since ten years ago, snoring like that.”

“I can say the same thing about you. Who in the world puts nameplates on containers like this these days? Bean sprouts, green onions, oh, and what’s this, garlic? You should really get married quickly and learn the joys of living a messy life. Fifty-one is a lot, but it’s not impossible to get married at your age. Oh wait, were you fifty-three?”

“If you have the time to say nonsense, then clean up the house.”

“Aren’t you going too far? I’m the one that carried you all the way here last night when you blacked out. My shoulders are still sore.”

Junmin just watched as Ganghwan stretched his shoulders. Ganghwan pouted and said ‘alright’. The dogs reacted to the sound of the vacuum cleaner and started barking in the living room. It was a very noisy morning. He put the bean sprout soup, some side dishes, and two bowls of rice on the table before calling Ganghwan. By then, Ganghwan was playing around with the dogs in the garden and returned while laughing.

“Where’s that black one?”

“She died.”

“Really?”

“She was 10 years old, 10 years ago. She died at seventeen so she lived a long life.”

“How about its child? I think it had a pup.”

“There it is, right at your feet.”

“But this one’s yellow though.”

“Just because a dog is black doesn’t mean it will give birth to another black one.”

Ganghwan nodded and put the puppy that was running around below the table onto his lap. He tickled the puppy’s head before looking at Junmin. Junmin did not miss that.

“Looks like you have something to ask.”

“I’m wondering if it’s okay to ask like this. I am curious, but I don’t think I should ask.”

“So? Did you ever not ask after thinking that?”

“No.”

Ganghwan put the puppy down before speaking.

“What made you drink so much even though you’re someone who thinks getting drunk is a sin?”

“I think there’s more to it than just that.”

“…Is it because of the person named Jung Haejoo?”

“Look like I said that name yesterday.”

“Yeah, in your sleep.”

“I see, huh.”

Junmin put down his spoon. He started fidgeting. He got rid of his habit of fidgeting since he started his business since it looked messy, but it came back again now that he felt chaotic.

“Yesterday, I met Park Joongjin.”

“Park Joongjin? Who’s that?”

“I guess you’re not that interested in the movie side of things. He’s a director that was active ten years ago. Perhaps Spring Calendar should ring a bell.”

“I know that one. It was even on the news back then. Didn’t it break the record for the fastest to a million views? If I remember it, then it must have been amazing.”

“It was amazing. It was the work of someone who was absolutely clueless about it, holding the megaphone for the first time. It was praised immensely for expressing restrained sorrow rather than the soap opera-style unique to Korean films.”

“Someone absolutely clueless?”

“Someone that ran a BBQ restaurant created it.”

“Wow, that’s amazing. He must be a genius.”

“Genius. Yes. Many people called him that.”

A genius director. The media packaged him as a heaven-sent talent. It wasn’t that surprising to see why. An owner of a barbecue restaurant threw away his apron and shot a hugely successful movie in a flash.

“But what does he have to do with Miss Jung Haejoo?” Ganghwan asked as he put a spoonful of rice in his mouth.

Junmin fell silent for a second. Although it was an event that happened far in the past, it was still clear as day to him. He remembered it like it happened yesterday. The ones that were with him at that moment would all feel like that.

“Fifteen years ago, no, a little longer before than that, there was a small theater troupe in Daehak-ro. There weren’t that many members. It wasn’t like they were popular either, so it wouldn’t be strange even if they broke up. Haejoo, Jung Haejoo, was one of them. Director Park Joongjin was there as well.”

“Did that director used to act in plays then?”

“No, according to what I know, he was a stock trader.”

“First a stock trader, and then a barbeque restaurant huh. What a peculiar career he has. Why was there such a person in a theater troupe?”

“He was the one that supported that troupe financially so that they didn’t go out of business. And…”

Junmin put on a faint smile.

“Like me, he was someone enraptured by her.”

* * *

“I think this is fine.”

Maru nodded when Daemyung looked towards him. They had come back to the acting club’s practice room after four days for practice, and the practice went well without any mistakes.

“I was worried that we’ll make mistakes since we haven’t practiced for a few days, but I feel like it’s become easier.”

“It means that you’re just that used to it. Also, it’s not like you didn’t practice at all, right? Everyone should have read through the script several times at home.”

Hearing Daemyung’s words, the members nodded. They were all fired up when they heard that they would go to Seoul to hold their play if they managed to win the grand prize or the gold prize. Just because they didn’t have practice, didn’t mean that they would have just forgotten about it entirely.

“Should we finish things up after getting something to eat?”

“Yes!”

Maru threw his credit card to the first years. The first years immediately left.

“I’m going to lie down for a little while then.”

Dowook laid out a blanket before lying down. He said he was tired since morning since the part timer at the petrol station was absent without a word last night. It seemed that he had gotten closer to his father.

Maru pointed at Dowook, who fell asleep instantly, with his chin before leaving the classroom with Daemyung.

“How’s practice going with Bangjoo?” Daemyung asked as he rested his chin on the window sill in the corridor.

A cold wind blew through the open window. It was quite cool despite it being summer.

“He’s good. I can tell he’s done sports. He’s clearly good at using his body. The instructors even use him as an assistant.”

“That’s good. That means he might get a good role if he does well.”

“I’m not sure because I’m not entirely sure about what the director is intending for us to do, but I think that he’s putting weight on action scenes, so Bangjoo will have an important role. He did say that the main character’s youth days will occur quite frequently.”

“Have you seen the lead actors?”

“Yeah, two for now. Park Gwangsoo and Cha Taehoon, I think their names were. They are the same age as us.”

“Park Gwangsoo? Cha Taehoon? Hm, I don’t seem to know them.”

“You’ll recognize them if you look at their faces. They appeared quite often in dramas as child roles.”

“Really?”

Daemyung nodded.

“How about you? You’ve been to Seoul for the past few days.”

“Well… for now, I am kinda learning things.”

“Things?”

“The problem is I don’t know what those things are.”

Daemyung scratched his head while laughing. Maru wondered what it was about and asked him to elaborate.

“You do know that Gwak Joon-hyung called me back then, right?”

“He called me first after all.”

“After that, I followed him to an apartment in Seoul. At first, I thought it was his house, but it wasn’t.”

“Then whose was it?”

“Uncle’s?”

“Uncle?”

“Oh, I don’t mean my real uncle. Do you know a writer called Ahn Pilhyun?”

“Well, the name doesn’t ring any bells.”

“He writes movies, scenarios, books, and plays and that sort of thing, and I’m learning various things at his house. Uhm, but I can’t exactly pinpoint what I’m learning. Usually, we’re talking all the time, yeah? About the world, politics, society, and things like that. Sometimes we’d be talking about movies and then somehow stray off and start talking about drinking. What’s fixed is reading, reading regardless of genre. Right now, I’m reading a science book.”

“Really? Gwak Joon-hyung is there as well?”

“Yeah. He actually lives in uncle’s house. He’s writing his next work.”

“Two writers huh. Isn’t that quite, no, an incredibly good environment? The foundation of direction is writing, isn’t it?”

“Yeah. Uncle said that as well. He said that people who want to produce something need to be able to write.”

“Learn well. I think he’s trying to teach you starting with the basics. If you don’t understand something, don’t hesitate to ask. You know how Gwak Joon-hyung never says anything first.”

“Yeah.”

Maru rested his hand on the window sill as well. The cherry trees outside were swaying along with the strong wind.

“So I guess you’re pausing on working on the play you’re writing?”

“He did tell me to halt for now. He told me that I can only tell whether a writing is good or not after it matures inside the drawer. He said that truly good writing looks good even when read later.”

“Sounds about right. But don’t trust those people too much. In the end, a method that suits you might exist elsewhere.”

“I know,” replied Daemyung with a chuckle.

“Ah, right. I got a text from Miso-seonbae-nim. She told us to come to Daehakro once the regionals are done.”

“Daehak-ro? To Blue Sky?”

“Yeah. The first years haven’t been there yet.”

“That’s true. We should make a visit.”

“Last year, the seniors were with us, but it looks like there’s no one above us this year. I wonder if everyone’s busy.”

“They’re all exam students. We should be thankful that they brought us snacks from time to time and helped us out with creating the set.”

“I guess that’s true. There’s not that much time until the CSATs[1].”

“We’ll be taking one next year as well.”

“Now that you put it that way, it sounds really close.”

Daemyung crossed his arms and made a disturbed face.

“Maru, what are you going to do about college?”

“Me? I don’t know. Looking at things now, I don’t think there’s a need for me to go. I did promise to major in theater, but the conditions of the contract have been changed after all. If I can keep on working as an actor, then I guess I wouldn’t need a degree.”

“From what I saw, celebrities just get special entry to college.”

“That only applies to people who are famous. How about you? Did the president say anything?”

“Nothing changed from the fact that all of my tuition will be paid for if I decide to major in theater. But I want to go into directing rather than the acting side. Do you think I should still major in theater?”

“Do you have a department in mind?”

“Me? I guess I do.”

“What is it?”

“Philosophy.”

“…Oh, philosophy.”

Maru scratched his eyebrows. Philosophy, huh. If he didn’t know anything, he would have cheered Daemyung on, but the social bias towards that department made him unable to cheer Daemyung on.

“If you have a concrete objective, then I guess you should go.”

“I’m planning to talk to him later.”

“Alright. He’s the type of person who would invest without hesitation if he sees potential, so try to persuade him well. Hm, but have you told your parents about this?”

“No, why?”

“Well, bring up the topic very carefully when your parents look like they’re in a good mood.”

“What’s up with you all of a sudden?”

“Just trust me on this one. If things don’t look good, then don’t even mention it. Also, if it’s possible, tell them after you talk about tuition with the president. If you tell them that the tuition is free if you go to the philosophy department… you’ll probably be fine. Probably.”

Maru patted the confused Daemyung’s shoulder.

Just then, they heard some noise from the central staircase. It seemed that the first years had returned from buying food.

“Let’s eat for now.”

Mentioning the word made Daemyungs’ expression brighten up. May this innocent fellow not hit any blocks.

“Dowook! Get up! Let’s eat!”

Maru tapped Dowook, who was sleeping, with his foot and shouted.

[1] College Scholastic Ability Test. Usually held in the 2nd week of November.

Chapter 360

“Don’t get nervous.”

“Yeah.”

“Remember to answer any questions well. Have confidence in yourself. No one wants to see you flustered.”

“Okay.”

“Also…”

Just as Yoojin was about to say more things, a voice resounded out calling for the next interviewee.

“Good luck!”

Yoojin sighed as she watched her walking into the interview room. For some reason, she was nervous. Even though the one taking the audition was ‘Bunbun’.

“She said this is the 2nd so there should be no problems.”

Usually, any interviews after the first audition were just occasions to talk to the director and/or the writer. Most of the time, whether someone passed or not was decided after the first audition. In other words, the fact that she came here to have an interview meant that it was highly likely that she had passed already. Unless she decided to pick a fight with the director inside, she would pass safely.

Yoojin took out a bottle of water from her bag and took a sip. Ten minutes had passed since she went in. She wondered what they were talking about inside. She became thirsty. There was no way she would come back out crying, right?

She spent some time walking around the corridor. When the door to the interview room eventually opened, she saw her bowing towards the interviewers.

Yoojin looked at her who just walked up to her with her mouth shut. For some reason, her expression didn’t look that good. Her hands were politely folded on top of her stomach, while her eyes were looking at the ground. Did she fail?

“What happened? Did it not go well?”

“Haa…”

She sighed. Yoojin did not know what to say. She thought that she would have naturally passed. She could even remember her jumping around in joy when she passed the first audition. She must be feeling very dejected right now.

“Let’s go. You can’t be depressed at a time like this. Let’s get some shaved ice for now. After we eat something cold, we should… yes. Let’s go to a noraebang and shout our lungs out. How about it?” Yoojin said as she grabbed her by the hand.

She wanted to do something for her disappointed friend. At that moment, she noticed that her shoulders shook slightly. She even chuckled once.

“Don’t tell me you…”

“Yoojin! I passed! They said they’ll contact me once the dates are set!”

She started hopping around like a rabbit while grabbing both of her hands. Yoojin smiled back and was about to congratulate her, but frowned and let go of her hands.

“And here I was worried sick about you. You dare to tease me?”

“Yoojin, sorry. I’ll treat you to shaved ice!”

“Shaved ice? I don’t think that’s enough.”

“Then I’ll pay for the noraebang as well!”

She started running while screeching. Yoojin watched as she ran before smiling. She felt the others in the corridor staring at them because they caused a commotion, so she quickly apologized and followed suit. She found her jumping around in joy in front of the elevator.

“What did they say?”

“They told me that I have to act a character that’s ditzy, and I told them that it’s my specialty. Then they told me to show them.”

“And?”

“I was surprised at first, but I thought I could make use of that and I just blankly stared at the people in front of me. When I did, the writer smiled. The producer laughed as well. The writer said that I seem to suit the character I was originally intended for.”

“Really? That’s great.”

The elevator arrived on the fifth floor and opened. She hopped inside with lighter steps than ever before. Yoojin thought that she would float into the sky if she gave her some helium balloons.

She pressed the button for the first floor before continuing the conversation,

“Were there actors inside as well?”

“No, I saw the producer, the writer, and a couple of people from the TV station.”

“Really? What about your senior? The one that told you about the audition.”

“She wasn’t there. Ah, I should call her now.”

“You said she was a graduate from your school right?”

“Yeah. She works in an entertainment agency. Wait a moment.”

She started the call with ‘seonbae-nim’ and told her senior that she passed. It was just as expected of Myunghwa High. There wasn’t a school that had better infrastructure for proceeding to the entertainment industry as Myunghwa High in the Gyeonggi province. The acting club was one thing, but there were quite a lot of celebrities commuting to Myunghwa High as well.

“Yes, seonbae-nim. I’ll make a visit next time.”

She hung up with a smile.

“Phew, it feels like a dream.”

“It’s not a dream. Wow, even I’ve never a shot sitcom before.”

“But you have experience shooting both a drama and a movie. For me, this is my first as a support role.”

“How do you feel?”

“I feel like I can fly! Oh, yeah.”

She started calling someone again. From her flushed cheeks, it was obvious who she was calling. Even when the elevator arrived on the first floor and they walked out to the lobby, she did not take her phone off her ears.

“Maru’s not picking up?” Yoojin asked.

She flinched before looking at her and shook her head.

“He is busy as well.”

“That’s true.”

“But still, I can’t forgive him. How dare he not accept a call from my lovely Bunbun.”

“I can’t do anything about him being busy.”

Yoojin pinched her waist when she saw her giggle.

“Ouch, that hurts.”

“Good, that was my intention.”

She stroked her waist as she texted. Yoojin pushed her back to lead her out of the TV station since she seemed to be absorbed in texting. They walked towards the rotating door. Since she passed the audition, all that was left to do was to play around to their heart’s content.

“Let’s leave through here.”

She pointed at the rotating door as she spoke. Yoojin nodded. They walked into the rotating door and out of the building. Just then,

“Huh?”

A familiar face appeared on the other side of the door. It was Jiseok.

“Oh, Lee Yoojin.”

Jiseok waved his hand cheerfully above his head. He was constantly excited just as always.

“Yoo Jiseok, what brings you here? Do you have business?”

“Yeah. I’m here for an interview.”

“An interview?”

“Yeah. Rather than that, who’s the cute girl next to you?”

Yoojin quickly hid her behind herself. She didn’t want to reveal Bunbun to this overly-friendly fella. However, Jiseok had approached her anyway.

“Hi.”

“…Hi?”

She accepted Jiseok’s greeting, albeit a little flustered. Yoojin grabbed Jiseok by the back of his neck and pulled him back with all of her might.

“Ow, you’re breaking my neck.”

“It won’t break from just that, you know?”

“Did I do something wrong? I just greeted her because I want to become close. Right?”

Jiseok spoke as he looked at her. Yoojin sighed. Jiseok’s eyes were clearly saying that he wouldn’t leave unless she told him who she was.

“This guy is called Yoo Jiseok, and he’s a very tiresome guy.”

“Hi. I’m Yoo Jiseok. Nice to meet you.”

He extended his hand out asking for a handshake. She stared at his hand for a while before shaking it.

“Hello.”

Yoojin just watched as the two exchanged greetings. When Jiseok heard her name, he widened his eyes and asked,

“You’re Maru’s girlfriend?”

“Huh? Yeah, I am.”

“So it’s you! Wow, I’m really glad to see you. I’m Maru’s best friend number three, so I hope I see you more in the future.”

“You’re friends with Maru?”

“I said we’re best friends. Probably.”

“Probably?”

Yoojin whispered into her ears.

“He’s a hectic guy so don’t take him seriously.”

“Hey, I can hear you.”

Jiseok gave her his phone and spoke.

“Give me your number.”

“My number?”

“Yeah.”

She typed her number into Jiseok’s phone without much hesitation. When Jiseok called her, her phone started ringing.

“That’s my number. Maru always avoids my calls. He always runs away when I ask him to hang out with me, saying that he can’t be bothered. So please help me out in the future. I know that he’s awfully considerate of his girlfriend.”

Hearing his words, her face became red. It was really easy to read her. Yoojin interrupted the two.

“Well then. We’re going on a date, so why don’t you go about your business as well?”

“Can’t you take me on that date as well?”

“I thought you had business here. Just get going already!”

She glared at him. Jiseok made a dejected expression.

“Fine, I’m going. But why are you two here? As an audience for a program? Or something else?”

“Because of this girl’s interview.”

Thinking back, Jiseok said that he was here for an interview as well. The same TV station and an interview on the same day. Was his interview for the sitcom as well?

“Are you also here because of the sitcom interview?”

Yoojin asked just to check. Jiseok smiled and nodded his head.

“Wait. So you two are going to appear in the same sitcom?”

Yoojin looked at her. She was looking at Jiseok with surprise.

“Please take care of me in the future. Oh, I should text that person as well.”

Jiseok laughed like a child that found an interesting toy as he walked to the elevator.

“My Bunbun, what do we do about you? You’ll be having a hard time for the entire shoot.”

“Why? He doesn’t seem like a bad kid to me.”

“That’s because you haven’t met him for long. That guy is really strange. He doesn’t have the slightest bit of embarrassment in him. If he approaches you later, act like you don’t know him. Otherwise, you’ll have to listen to him talking to you for the entire shoot.”

Yoojin shook her head and dragged her out of the station. Just then, her phone started ringing.

“Wait a sec. Yes, Maru. What?”

It seemed that she got a call from Maru. Yoojin watched her from the side. She talked with a smile on her face at first, but that smile turned into a prankful expression when she finished the call.

“What is it?”

“Maru said the same thing you did. He told me not to hang out with Jiseok, saying that he’s a very annoying guy.”

“Don’t ignore his advice. Your boyfriend is right for once.”

“Really? He looked normal to me.”

“That looked normal?”

It was no good. Yoojin had no choice but to tell her how much of a chatterbox Jiseok was and how he loved to stick his nose into other people’s business. She grabbed her by the arm and dragged her out of the TV station for now.

* * *

“Why don’t you get up already?”

Miso slapped Taesik’s back, who was lying on the bed. Taesik groaned before hiding inside a blanket.

“I’m commuting to an academy again starting today.”

“An academy?” Taesik sat up and asked. Miso smiled as she looked at Taesik’s chubby belly.

“Yes. Ganghwan’s play is over, so I was instructed to start working again by my great president.”

“Ah, that Mr. Lee Junmin?”

“Yes, that Mr. Lee Junmin.”

Miso took off her pajamas and hung them on a chair. At that moment, she saw Taesik looking away. He was so cute.

“What is it? It’s not like you haven’t seen me.”

“No, well. I’m not entirely used to it.”

“You were staring at me when we went to sleep yesterday though.”

“Ehem.”

Miso faintly smiled and put on a shirt and pants.

“Oppa.”

“Yeah?”

“Why don’t we go greet my parents this week?”

“This week?”

After thinking about it for a while, Taesik said okay. Miso, who had her back facing him, sighed slightly. She was worried that he would say no.

“But what if father-in-law hates me because we’re too far apart in age?”

“10 years is not that far apart.”

“To be exact, it’s not ten years but…”

“Same thing. Oppa, have confidence in yourself. You’re marrying me, not my parents,” Miso sat on the bed as she spoke.

As a teacher, he was so cool as someone who had faith in his job and was kind to students, but he was very awkward at times like these. Well, that was one of Taesik’s charms, so she couldn’t help it.

“But before we go, let’s get you a suit.”

“A suit? I already have one at…”

“Oppa, didn’t I tell you that you look ten years younger if you wear the proper clothes?”

“B-but I can’t exactly throw away the clothes that still fit me…”

Hearing that, she remembered what she told him last time. The checkered-patterned shirt that Taesik wore while she was still his student - she found that in his closet last time which surprised the heck out of her. She asked if he still wore that shirt to work, and Taesik replied yes as though it was natural. That shirt was over ten years old, and yet he was still wearing it frequently. She did tell him that they should clean up his old clothes, but they didn’t do it immediately since Taesik said that they should decide on a date to do it properly.

“Don’t tell me you still haven’t thrown away that tattered checkered-patterned shirt of yours?”

“I-I did throw it away.”

From how his eyes were looking elsewhere, he was obviously lying. And that was after she had told him multiple times to throw it away.

“Look at me in the eyes and speak. Did you really throw it away?”

“I did.”

“Oppa, you’re a teacher, aren’t you? Can a teacher lie to his students?”

“…Alright, I’ll throw it away. I promise.”

Taesik’s eyes looked very innocent when he said that. Miso couldn’t bear to say harsh words to his face. She lost to him once again today.

“Then I’ll be off to work, so throw it away before I come back. Also, even though it’s the holidays, don’t just stay at home and do some exercise. You’re gaining weight.”

“I’m not just playing around. I’m preparing for…”

“But you just rolled around in bed for the past few days, didn’t you?”

“…I’ll exercise.”

“Very good.”

Miso kissed Taesik on the forehead before putting her shoes on.

“I’m off then.”

She took the elevator down and loaded herself in her car. She was going to Film, the academy, after a long time today. She would be teaching actors and aspiring actors, not students.

‘Is he preparing to snag them one by one?’

Miso thought of Junmin’s face as she grabbed the driving wheel.

Chapter 361

After the curtain call, the lights turned on for the audience. The regionals had ended. Maru looked at his juniors who looked happy. They finished the play without mistakes. It wasn’t that surprising that they were happy.

“Maru-seonbae.”

“Yeah?”

“Is something up?”

“No, why do you ask?”

“Because your expression looks rigid.”

Hearing Aram’s words, Maru faintly smiled.

“It’s because the lights are too strong.”

“Aha.”

“Let’s clean up quickly for now. The next team is coming up.”

“Yes!” Aram shouted with joy.

Maru carried some chairs down the stage. He was relieved that their play did not have any mistakes, and he was also proud as a senior to see that his juniors had gotten better.

“It was a little lacking for you, wasn’t it?”

Maru turned his head around when he heard that voice. Daemyung had spoken to him with his hands full of luggage. He was really sharp. When they finished the play and greeted the audience, Maru only felt a small sense of achievement like having finished his homework. This was not a small stage. It was a very big stage where hundreds of people were watching the play. However, if he was asked whether he found it challenging, Maru couldn’t answer clearly. For his juniors, this stage might still be a breath-taking space. For them, it had to be a stage where they were walking on a tightrope, not allowed to make any mistakes. As a senior of the first years, he couldn’t say that the play wasn’t challenging.

However, personally speaking, it felt different. There was no pressure on him at all. It might be a good thing. After all, it meant that he was just that used to it. As a senior, he was able to lead his juniors without difficulty.

It was nothing to complain about, but Maru still found it to be a pity. The majority of the audience that came to watch today did not look forward to the plays. After all, they just came because they had an acquaintance in one of the plays, or their school told them to, or perhaps because it was free, so they just randomly decided to.

Looking at the gazes of the audience from the audience seats allowed him to feel the general atmosphere. He could not feel it before, but he could clearly feel it now. Most of the audience did not have any interest in the plays themselves.

“Hey, when’s our school’s turn?”

“I don’t know.”

“Should we just run for it?”

“I heard they’ll be checking attendance afterwards.”

“Ah, that’s annoying! Geez, what’s up with all this even though it’s the holidays?”

“This is homework. What can we do about it? Rather than that, wanna go to the PC-bang after this?”

“Of course yes. Let’s make teams with the people here and have a match. Losing team has to pay for the PC-bang.”

The majority of the conversations from the audience were like that. It was a high school acting festival. The only ones that were interested were the participating schools. No, it couldn’t even be considered interest. Like what they were saying, it was just homework.

The stage, the actors, and the audience. These were the three elements of theater. If there was no one to watch, a play cannot exist. Watching. Before, Miso had said that the synergy between the actors and the audience was important. The stage was something that the actors created, but the ones that decided whether the stage is successful or not is the audience. The more focused and reactive the audience was, the more vitality the stage would have. The actors would then be able to show acting that was beyond their full capabilities. That was the power of the audience.

“It’s not like we can help it,” Daemyung said as he looked at the audience seats.

He was right, it couldn’t be helped. It was just a little bit of a pity. Just like how they did not take the plays seriously, the stage would become light as well. Although they were acting, it did not feel any fun. A stage without any excitement was just boring.

“As expected of a semi-professional.”

Daemyung smiled as he walked out. Maru just sighed before starting to move the props.

* * *

The lecture room was dark. That was because the beam projector just turned off. Miso turned on the lights. In front of her were three people. They were all those that wished to make a living as an actor. The academy in Gangnam, Film. Here, students aiming for universities couldn’t be found. This academy was solely created for the people that wanted to work in the field.

“There are many reasons that make a masterpiece a masterpiece. Direction, music, script, adaptation, outfits, makeup, editing. Among them, the actors aren’t actually entitled to do many things. Despite that, people look for good actors. That’s because the actors can fill in the parts that can’t be made up for with technology.”

Miso looked at the man sitting on the right. Ahn Sungjae. Every South Korean in their teens to thirties would know his name. After all, he was a member of TTO. Miso was also surprised at first to find out that he was in this class. Idols-turned-actors usually learned acting for a short period. That was because they needed to make the most out of their popularity while they were still popular before quitting. Yet, an idol like him was in this class where they started off from the basics. That was why she did some research. According to the other instructors in the academy, there was no one more passionate about acting than Sungjae among the ones that applied to this academy.

“Why are you trying to go into acting, Mr. Sungjae?”

“I’ve always liked acting without any reason since I was young. I was prepared to do anything if it was for that.”

“Without any reason, huh.”

Miso nodded.

“Next, Mr. Moon Gwangseok. Why are you going into acting?”

“Me? Uhm, because I have talent. I think so.”

“Aha, because you have talent. Alright.”

Miso then walked to the girl sitting next to Gwangseok.

“How about you, Miss Choi Gyunglim? Why do you act?”

“I started acting in order to change myself.”

“What do you mean by changing yourself?”

“It’s just as it sounds. I started acting because I want to become a different person.”

“I see.”

Miso stood between the three of them.

“What rumors have you heard about this academy, Film?”

“A place that only people that can concentrate on acting can come.”

That answer came from Sungjae.

“The place with the most expensive tuition fee in Gangnam.”

That was from Gwangseok.

“The place with the most actor connections.”

The final answer came from Gyunglim.

“You’re all correct. Film is among the top three acting schools among the numerous acting schools located in Gangnam. It is also known for its expensive lesson fees like what you said, Mr. Gwangseok. One of the big reasons people compete to come to this place even with that expensive lesson fee and competition is, as Miss Gyunglim said, because of the actors' infrastructure.”

Miso crossed her arms as she continued.

“In order to become a good actor, you need a lot of experience. If you have a look at some of your seniors that are doing well in the industry, they all had experienced some hardships in their life. That’s not a coincidence. Nothing makes you experience a variety of things like hardships in life. You describe people that had an easy life as ‘sheltered’, right? Such people cannot become actors.”

She brought a chair and sat down. The eyes of the three people in front of her were intense. They were all filled with the motivation to learn.

“I told you that there are many reasons why masterpieces are called such, right? Actors are the same. In order to have value, you need many elements. In this class, I’m going to force on you many different experiences. Some of them might be very random, and you might not understand why you’re doing them. I’ll say this beforehand. Do it anyway. Ask me why after you do it. I will not tolerate you complaining beforehand.”

Miso stood up from her seat. That was enough for a greeting and a warning.

“I am going to use polite speech as much as possible during class. However, I can’t guarantee it. I might curse at you. If you are the type to start spasming if you hear someone swear at you, I recommend you switch classes immediately.”

She looked at the three sitting in front of her.

“I’m not switching.”

“I applied for this class precisely because I heard you were back, instructor Miso. There is no way I’m quitting.”

“I’m not quitting either.”

The three were very motivated. At least their answers were good.

“Good. I’m also a little excited because I haven’t come to the academy in a long time. Have you gotten to know each other yet?”

Hearing that, the three of them looked at each other awkwardly. Gwangseok and Gyunglim were clearly distancing themselves from Sungjae. Well, it was understandable since he was an idol. Meanwhile, Gwangseok and Gyunglim just looked at each other awkwardly before ignoring each other.

“You two know each other?”

“We met as minor actors at a shoot once,” Gwangseok spoke.

Gyunglim nodded in agreement.

“I don’t think you get along.”

“Us? Not at all. Gyunglim is just shy, we’re actually on good terms. We even went out and drank together after the shoot. Isn’t that right, Gyunglim?”

“We drank together, but it’s not like we’re on good terms.”

There was a moment of cold silence. Gwangseok smiled awkwardly.

“Miss Gyunglim. You’re quite proud of yourself. You’re also the type to speak what’s on your mind.”

“Yeah, well.”

“Then why do you seem to lack confidence? You need to look at the other person when you’re talking to them.”

Hearing that, Gyunglim looked at Gwangseok. However, she couldn’t look at him for long.

“I won’t tell you to get along. You’re all adults and you know what’s good for you. Well then, let’s finish the introductions here and take a break before we start.”

* * *

Gyunglim looked at Miso, who was sitting with a coffee cup in hand. Miso was a woman filled with dignity from top to bottom. She might not have shined as an actor, but she was one of the best teachers around. Although the lesson fee was expensive, many people said that she was worth every penny, so Gyunglim applied to it despite having to push her finances.

‘Rather than that, TTO, huh.’

On the first day of class, she was surprised to see Sungjae sitting in the class when she opened the door to the lecture room. She wasn’t a fan of TTO, so she wasn’t overly agitated, but she did feel a little strange when she thought about how one of the greatest idols in the country was taking the same class as her.

Just when she was dazing out on her seat, Gwangseok came in. The idiot that lived on his ego. That was her impression of Gwangseok. She didn’t even want to greet him, but she couldn’t entirely ignore him so she just greeted him with her eyes. Gwangseok also didn’t seem to feel good to see her.

“I hope we can get along,” Sungjae spoke then.

She thought that he would be rather arrogant since he was an idol, but he didn’t have any of that attitude.

“Of course. Oh, how old are you? I’m twenty-one this year,” Gwangseok asked.

“Me? I’m twenty-six.”

“Then I guess you’re Sungjae-hyung. I listen to your music all the time. All of the girls I know are your fans. Oh, can I just call you hyung?”

“Go ahead.”

“Then you can talk to me without being polite as well. I’ve always wanted to be brothers with an idol. Since we’re in this class together, let’s get close. How about it?”

“Haha, alright. Then let’s do that. Oh, Miss Gyunglim, was it?”

Gyunglim looked at Sungjae and nodded. She felt like she had to state her age here. Just as she was about to speak, Gwangseok interrupted.

“She’s Choi Gyunglim and she’s twenty years old. She’s like a sister to me. I guess that clears up the hierarchy.[1]”

Gyunglim glared at Gwangseok a little. Gwangseok turned his head and smiled at her after feeling her gaze. He hadn’t changed his habit of interpreting everything however he wanted to. He was really dislikeable.

“But Sungjae-hyung. You appear in Twilight Struggles, right?”

“Oh, you know that?”

“I actually took the audition for that and failed by just a tiny bit. It was such a pity. I wasn’t in a good condition back then, so I couldn’t bring out my full capabilities. If I passed back then, I would’ve met you on set.”

“Really? That’s a pity.”

“Hey, you and I are quite connected. Hahaha.”

Gyunglim was flabbergasted when she saw Gwangseok laughing like that.

“Like hell, you’re connected,” she spoke.

The two immediately looked at her. She realized her mistake, but it couldn’t be helped. She couldn’t unsay something. Moreover, Miso also said that there was no need to stay close.

“She’s quite a picky girl as you see. Please be understanding.”

“Looks like you two are on good terms, playing jokes on each other like that.”

“Of course! My sociability is top-notch, so I haven’t seen anyone that hates me until now. I also got close with a picky girl like Gyunglim in a short time. Rather than that, Sungjae-hyung, have you seen a lot of actresses in your career as an idol?”

Gyunglim looked at Gwangseok for a while before falling silent. She didn’t even want to face him. She decided that she should talk to Sungjae when that chatterbox wasn’t here. Actually, Gyunglim had been feeling Sungjae’s gaze for a while now. The way he looked at her was out of the ordinary. Did he perhaps have feelings for her? She smiled faintly. Boys always gave signals like that, and she always noticed such signals quickly.

‘I must be quite charming.’

She stroked her side hair behind her ears and smiled faintly. Would this excite him a little? Thinking about how Sungjae would be looking at her right now, she tried to act calm.

[1] Due to the influence of Confucianist culture, and the characteristics of the Korean language in general, people have the habit of clearing up the age hierarchy when they meet for the first time.

Chapter 362

Sungjae looked at Gyunglim and smiled. For some reason, they kept meeting eyes for a while now, so he wondered if she was looking at him or not. Did she have something to ask?

“Sungjae-hyung. Tell me who the prettiest actress was among the ones you saw.”

Gwangseok, who sat next to him, grabbed his arm and spoke. It was good that he was acting close, but he acted a little too close that it made him uncomfortable.

“They’re all pretty.”

“Don’t say that and say what’s on your mind. I’m into Suyeon-noona these days. Do you know her?”

“No, I haven’t met her in real life.”

“I see. If you do meet her, then can you please get me her autograph in my name?”

“If I have the opportunity.”

“Ah, right. I also dreamed of becoming an idol once. I’m quite good at singing you know? And at dancing. I would’ve done pretty well if I became an idol.”

“I see.”

“Let’s go to noraebang together. I’ll show you my skills. And if possible, with a girl idol too.”

“I think that’s going to be difficult.”

“Ah, why? I think you can do it since you’re TTO.”

“I’m no one great.”

“Mm, fine. But don’t forget to call me if there’s an opportunity. Promise me, okay?”

“Alright.”

Even though it was just a conversation, it tired him out. He kept asking for something, and it didn’t look like he was joking. No, even as a joke, he was going too far. Was he saying all that because it was the first time they met? Some time would be necessary to find out what kind of person Gwangseok was, as well as Gyunglim.

Sungjae turned his head and looked at Miso. Miso was watching them while drinking coffee. He had heard a lot of rumors about her. She was a famous instructor known for her teaching skills even in this academy.

After his shoot for Twilight Struggles ended, Sungjae decided that he should learn acting from the basics. The reason he applied to this academy and registered for this class specifically was because of that.

Learning acting while having activities as an idol, and using the popularity gained as an idol, break through the wall that separated the movie world. That was the path that president Narim showed him, and the road was well-paved and it seemed that he would be able to arrive at the destination as long as he followed the right path.

However, after talking with elder Moonjoong, Sungjae started to feel uneasy about the path he was walking. It wasn’t an unease due to his popularity. As long as he was Sungjae of TTO, he would be loved no matter what he did. This wasn’t him being arrogant, but being confident. He checked that fact multiple times over the past 6 years.

What he was uneasy about was what kind of actor he would become. If he was aiming for an actor that was successful financially, then he could be considered one. There were many scripts that president Narim brought. Some of those offers just asked him to come to the set without any audition. They just needed his presence. He had decent acting skills, and he was hugely popular. As long as he shot a movie, his hardcore fans that visited his fan café to check his schedule every day would watch the movie for him.

What an easy success was that? However, that didn’t mean he was earning money as an actor, but as Sungjae the idol. Before he talked to elder Moonjoong, he thought that he would be satisfied with just being a ‘successful’ actor.

Just what led him that way? Now that he thought about it, he felt his past self was pathetic. He must have been tired of everything. He was fed up with money directing his every movement and the sheer number of TV programs he had to attend to. When he saw his former colleague that he studied with, living a hard life as a minor actor, and when he suppressed that colleague with his popularity and disdained him, he thought that acting was, in the end, just a side skill. In the end, TV programs aimed for money, and since his popularity gained that program money, he thought that popularity was the metric that decided everything.

However, that wasn’t it. Elder Moonjoong was walking on a completely different path. An atmosphere that he had never encountered when shooting dramas was present on that set. He felt what a ‘professional’ that elder Moonjoong talked about, was on that set.

Just what were the dramas he shot until now? When he looked back in retrospect, his acting skills never became a hot topic. All the time, it was about Sungjae of TTO appearing in some drama in the news articles. His acting in the role that he gained through popularity was just a tool to fill in the scenes.

On the movie set, Sungjae watched Moonjoong’s acting without taking his eyes off him. He engraved the acting of other actors into his eyes. It was a fierce zone. Sharp words that sounded like they could slay someone were floating around in the air like it was normal. Although the atmosphere was good, it would freeze up in an instant the moment a scene was not to someone’s liking. Amidst all that, Sungjae felt his emotions become agitated.

He started putting effort into synchronizing himself with the rest of the pros that were there as he spoke his lines, not mechanically saying his lines like a dumb machine. He didn’t want to be separate from the rest of the actors. He was tempted by the strong thought that he wanted to stand with them.

It was then he realized. He realized that that was the kind of acting he wanted to do when he was a student. He wanted to become a part that created a story. He didn’t need any other reason.

He realized that he got his priorities wrong at the set. Since when was he acting in order to gain popularity? Didn’t he need his popularity to get into acting? When he realized that his tool had become the objective, that fierce movie set became a playground more enjoyable than anything.

He was scolded a lot. He heard countless times not to make mistakes. Your pronunciation is not correct, your actions are awkward. You’re not putting enough emotion - the words that pointed him out made him feel glee. If he was just a throwaway card, if he was someone that they didn’t care about, then they wouldn’t even care. The fact that they pointed him out meant that they wanted him to do better. Sungjae really liked that place since they treated him as an actor, not an idol.

He felt like he was the new kid in class all over again. He carried the luggage with the staff members and made coffee for the actors. He sent his manager, who tried to stop him, to Seoul first and stayed next to the actors. When he started immersing himself, he started to look at not just the lead actors, but the supporting actors and the minor actors. He started taking interest in the people he never cared about when he participated in dramas as the idol Sungjae. He approached them as carefully as possible and asked many things. When he did, he was surprised.

The careers of the actors in that place were amazing. Even though he had never seen some of those actors before, there was one that had over 15 years of experience. They were all people that made a living out of their acting skills. He could finally see why the acting of the minor actors was so smooth.

If the president did not call him herself, Sungjae would have kept following Moonjoong as a staff member. The shooting set was just that charming for him.

After that, Sungjae told the president to get him minimal events and wholeheartedly started focusing on studying acting. He rejected all the works that he originally decided to participate in. He did not want to do them when he thought that they were for the idol Sungjae. The desire he had when he was still a student came back to him. He wanted them to look for him for his skills.

Of course, this didn’t mean that he now thought that popularity was absolutely unnecessary. He had seen too many things to go back to his innocent days.

“Looks like you had enough talk, so shall we resume class?” Miso spoke as she put down her coffee cup.

“I am going to teach you everything from the beginning like I’m teaching a child that’s just learned to walk. All of you have studied acting one way or the other, so I believe there should be no problems in following the class. Well then, first up,” Miso pointed at the floor and spoke,

“Consider there’s the person you like standing here and confess.”

* * *

(Warning: The rest of the chapter includes content that might be disturbing. Read at your own discretion.)

Dayoon sat up as she covered her upper body with the blanket. Next to her lay that man. She carefully got off the bed and went to the bathroom. They had come to the motel after a long time. The man caressed her body with his hands and shared his love passionately. They had returned to their relationship of the past.

Her figure looked a little tired when she looked at the mirror. Dayoon smiled.

“Yes. I’m doing well. I am in love with that person. My objective is not money. Yes, this is love. We are in love with each other.”

She said that to herself multiple times before leaving. The night skies of Seoul could be seen through the window next to the bed. Dayoon put on a bathrobe and sat down on the chair. She didn’t feel like falling asleep any time soon.

She turned on her phone. She had received a few text messages. She first read the message from her president. It was just the usual ‘everyone, let’s do our best’ text. She wanted to ask ‘at what?’ to the president.

Beneath that were messages from the members. She couldn’t remember the last time she received a text like this. When they just had their debut, they always called each other and said that they wanted to see each other even when they were apart for a brief time, but now, they didn’t even ask each other how they were doing.

She checked the contents of the message. One member was going to change her phone number. When she saw that text, it finally came to her that Blue had not much life left.

She leaned back into the chair. The number of idol groups that are born and disappear each year couldn’t be counted with one’s hands. A star only had value when it shined. A star that forgot how to shine was no longer a target of interest. It was just a rock, and a rock would just be kicked around.

The members were each looking for their own ways to survive. Minji had become a fixed member of an entertainment show. She was gaining quite a bit of popularity as well. It was an entertainment show where they had to do physical things, and she was acting as a couple with another member. The internet was all over about whether she was an actual couple with that actor or not. She had caused people to look at her.

Chaerim was solidifying her position as an idol-turned-actor. There were no longer talks about her acting skills either. From what she heard, Chaerim became a supporting role in a daily drama, but she didn’t affirm with her so she didn’t know the truth.

“The other two are doing well as well.”

Dayoon raised the glass with whisky and threw it on the floor. Along with a sharp glass shattering sound, the fragments spread out across the floor.

Here, she was extending her life by selling her body to a man, yet the others were shamelessly doing well. She felt uneasy to death. Once Blue disappeared, the only title she would have left was a ‘rather pretty girl in her mid twenties’. She didn’t even want to imagine such a future.

“What happened?” The man woke up and asked.

Dayoon sighed nervously before turning around to look at the man. Of course, she had a smile on her face.

“Sorry about that, my hand slipped.”

“Really? You didn’t get hurt, did you?”

“I’m fine. Sorry about that. I woke you up, didn’t I?”

“It’s fine. Rather than that, there’s glass on the floor so stay still.”

The man brought a towel before laying it out on the floor. Dayoon stepped on that towel before going into the man’s arms. There was a faint smell of cigarettes. Dayoon felt that that smell was adorable. No, she had to feel that way.

“You’re not going to throw me away from now on, are you?”

“What’s up with you all of a sudden?”

“I feel uneasy.”

“I won’t. Also, what’s there to be uneasy about? All that’s left for you is to do good. Didn’t I tell you that everything will go well as long as you trust Joongjin and do as he says? He’ll turn you into a star.”

“Will it really be like that?”

“Of course.”

Dayoon looked up at the man’s face. There were wrinkles on his forehead. He had a stubborn-looking face. That face was adorable.

‘This man is the answer.’

She hugged the man’s arms and kissed him. She put in her tongue and tickled him. She took off the bathrobe and stuck her body against the man’s. She grabbed the man’s stiff genital and caressed it.

“Tell me you love me.”

“I love you.”

“Really?”

“Of course.”

“I love you too, so don’t throw me away.”

This man was the only thing she could rely on. Dayoon accepted the man’s genitals deep inside her body and smiled.

Chapter 363

“Swinging your fist without thinking wouldn’t make an action scene. You need to know how to set up a composition. If you digest only the things I tell you, you will just stop there, but if you study more by watching your seniors, you will experience growth. Bear in mind that what I’m teaching you here is, in the end, the basics.”

Choongho said those words as he finished the class. They started relocating the mats back into their original positions and put away the tools. They also did some cleaning.

“Thank you for your work!”

They left the building after thanking him loudly.

“I’m dying.”

Kang Sooyoung and Choi Joon-gi, who took classes together, massaged their shoulders as they spoke. Maru also stretched his arms out. The intensity of the classes was rising. The time they spent on learning theory was reduced by the day, and they started moving around more physically.

“How many times did we fall over today?”

“I don’t know. But it’s over 100 for sure.”

“Maru, are you okay? There was a big sound when you fell last time.”

Maru twisted his body to stretch as he spoke.

“It was loud, but it didn’t hurt that much.”

“I almost thought you broke a bone or something. I mean, the sound was quite loud, and deep too.”

There was a fight scene where Maru was shoulder-thrown, and due to a mistake, he ended up falling on his shoulder. If he fell properly, the area of contact would be wide, the sound would be a popping sound rather than a thud, which would distribute the shock over a wide area, but at that time, he fell on his shoulder which made a deep sound. Thankfully, the mattress was thick and he did not get injured.

“So even instructors can make a mistake.”

“That’s why the director called him, right? He probably got shouted at. Did you see how he looked at Maru awkwardly after that? He always boasted about himself and that felt like sweet karma.”

“Yeah, it did.”

Sooyoung and Joon-gi walked away after saying their goodbyes. Maru nodded his head and waited for Bangjoo outside the building.

“Did you find your phone?” He asked Bangjoo who came out.

Bangjoo showed him his phone and smiled.

“It was next to the wire practice area. Looks like I forgot about it after I took a picture.”

“Don’t leave things everywhere. It’s all money you know?”

“Okay.”

Bangjoo walked next to him with his bag in hand. But he was a little too close. Maru looked at Bangjoo since he looked like he had something to say.

“I heard something while I was finding my phone.”

“What did you hear?”

“I overheard the names of the actors appearing in the movie we’re doing.”

“Really? Who?”

“I started listening from halfway so I don’t know about anyone else, but I heard one name loud and clear. Kwon Dayoon from Blue.”

Bangjoo clenched his hands and shouted hooray.

“I heard that clearly. The idol Kwon Dayoon. I’m a fan of hers.”

“You like idols?”

“Just her. She’s really good at sports. I saw her on TV before and she’s really good at learning. I became her fan back then.”

“You became her fan because she’s good at sports?”

“She’s pretty too. I saw her photo without makeup and she looked really pretty. You know her as well, right?”

“No, I don’t.”

“Hm, I guess it’s reasonable that you don’t know since you don’t watch TV that much.”

Bangjoo smiled pleasantly.

Blue, huh. Maru was reminded of Chaerim for a brief moment. Now that he thought about it, she said that she hung out with her last time. It looked like they had gotten close.

‘A movie with an idol in it huh. Director Joongjin should have picked her as well right.’

Joongjin even picked the minor actors. There was no way he would’ve not met an actor that was lead~support-level actors. Since he, who was called a genius, picked her, there must be a reason for it. Perhaps she was a hidden pearl or something.

“When do you think we’ll start shooting the movie?”

“They said it was at the end of August, so we don’t have to wait that long.”

“I hope we can start shooting soon.”

“Why? To see that Dayoon girl?”

“There’s that too, but I’m curious about what shooting a movie is like. As for plays, I’m doing one right now, so I don’t feel lacking in that part.”

“If it’s anything like what I’ve experienced before, then it will be very hard. No, it will be awfully hard.”

“Awfully hard?”

“Think about it. There are at least a dozen people watching your lips. On top of that, there are people much more popular, much better at acting than you waiting. Every mistake you make is another glare in your direction, and you’ll be sworn at with a high chance. Do that multiple times, and you might see a script flying in your face. It’s a harsh place for sure.”

Hearing his words, Bangjoo looked even more expectant. Maru smiled faintly. He liked how Bangjoo did not lose his spirit.

“Seonbae-nim, why don’t we get some toasted sandwiches on the way home? I’ll treat you.”

“Hey, I think you’re looking for ways to get me to treat you all the time.”

“I’m really buying this time. I got some pocket money from my sister.”

“Then I guess I’ll eat something from you this time?”

“Of course. You can add extra fillings as well. My sister gave me a lot of pocket money.”

Bangjoo said ‘let’s go’ in a loud voice. Maru smiled as he followed.

* * *

“I’m seeing you quite frequently.”

“That is true.”

“I wanted to have a drink with you when I saw you a few days ago, but I couldn’t since I had a lot of appointments.”

“It’s fine. We’re not close enough to drink together.”

“I guess that’s true.”

Junmin looked at Joongjin who sat in front of him. There was a mysterious smile on his face. Junmin also replied with a smile since he was given a series of slightly different smiles.

“Looks like the conversation we had last time wasn’t enough since you’re here again.”

“Back then, we only talked about the past, not about business.”

“Business, huh. Oh, should I give you some tea?”

“No, I’m good. As I said before, I’m a busy man.”

“Alright. Then let’s get to the point. It will be rude of me to keep holding a busy person here.”

Junmin leaned forward a little. Why was this man, Park Joongjin, here?

“I’ll get straight to the point then. I wish to borrow Miss Yang Miso for a little.”

“Miso, you say?”

“Yes. I'm shooting a movie soon, but I haven’t seen a suitable person to supervise acting at the scene. The people I’m acquainted with all had schedules. So I looked into other people, and she came onto my radar. My acquaintances recommended her as well.”

“I see.”

“On top of that, I found out that you were taking care of her, so I saw no reason to hesitate. That’s why I came here immediately.”

“It looks like the rumors have already spread that I’m taking care of her.”

“It’s not to the point of being a rumor, but I just heard some stories. Ever since I came back to Korea, I’ve been hearing a lot of things. I can’t be sure about anyone else, but I trust your eyes at least.”

“Yes. I do have a good eye for people. But unfortunately, Miso is currently occupied with something else.”

“What is she occupied with?”

Junmin stopped leaning forward and rested his back against the backrest. He now understood the reason behind Joongjin’s visit. He was in a better position here.

“She’s an instructor at an academy.”

“An academy instructor, huh.”

He saw Joongjin stroking his chin.

“President.”

“Yes, please speak.”

“May I go and meet this person called Yang Miso?”

“Well, you don’t need my permission for that. She’s in Film right now.”

“Film? You mean the one in Gangnam?”

“Yes.”

“An instructor there huh. It looks like you have multiple talents below your wings. The one called Geunsoo last time was very good as well.”

“He’s one of my valuable assets. He’s an important guy.”

“Oh, my. Everything I wanted since before seems to go into your hands. Haha, that’s right. It was like that back then too, with Haejoo.”

The smile on Joongjin’s lips started turning faint. Junmin also put away his business smile.

“I hear that name from you a lot, director Park. I don’t really feel that pleasant about it.”

“Me too. I don’t want to keep mentioning her either, but looking at you keeps reminding me of her. Oh, I had a drink with the people that shot ‘Spring Calendar’ a few days ago. Miss Joohyun was there too. She’s matured a lot since the last time I saw her.”

“Is that so?”

“Yes. Ah! Mr. Han Maru was there as well. What a coincidence. Mr. Maru is also under you, right?”

“You’re probably right.”

“Again, just why are the people I like always related to you? It’s quite ironic. Just how good is your character that all the good people go under your wing?”

“I only give some support to those with talent. Somehow, people gathered under my wing like that. It’s not that I have a good character.”

“How humble of you.”

Joongjin put on his fedora, which he put on his lap, and stood up.

“Anyway, I’ll go meet Miss Miso. Who knows? She might have enough free time to help me out.”

“If Miso says okay, then you can use her as you like. She’s skilled in that regard.”

“Thank you.”

Joongjin turned around. Junmin no longer looked at him and looked at his desk. He saw a pile of documents he had to look over.

“President.”

Junmin raised his head. He saw Joongjin standing in front of the door.

“Fifteen years ago, I made a lot of regrets. It was back then that I realized that humility and refusal might be poisonous. What if I had grabbed Haejoo before that? What if I interfered between you and her? I keep thinking about it even now.”

“If you want to swear at me, then go ahead. If you want to hit me, you can do that as well. However, you will not get me to say sorry. Even if I go back to back then, I will grab Haejoo. I will help her become the greatest actor in South Korea.”

“What if Haejoo dies again as a result of that?”

Joongjin turned around. He had scary eyes. It wasn’t the eyes of someone that was smiling. They were the eyes of pain that could only be expressed by people that possessed a wound that had started to rot.

Junmin returned the gaze. When Joongjin writhed in pain back then, he was right next to him. Pain wasn’t something unique to Joongjin.

After looking at each other for a while, Joongjin took off his fedora and smiled again.

“Please excuse me. I apologize.”

“It’s fine.”

“I’ll bring a bottle of whisky next time. Let’s talk again at that time.”

“Alright.”

Joongjin nodded slightly before leaving. Junmin sighed deeply before leaning back into the chair. He felt very tired.

* * *

“Emotions aren’t something that you bring out. It is something that is brought out because of your opponent. Of course, you can bring it out as well, but emotions brought out like that are less sympathizable. Even a monologue is bringing out the emotion by looking at one’s inner self.”

When Miso finished her words, she looked at the man sitting in the corner of the room. She was going to pause the class after seeing the man come into the class mid-way, but the man told her to keep going without minding him. When she asked him who he was, he only replied that he came here upon Mr. Lee Junmin’s recommendation. She wasn’t the type that would become nervous just because someone was watching, so she ignored him and continued the class.

“Let’s take a break,” she told the three applicants before walking towards the man.

“Are you Miss Yang Miso?”

“Yes. I am Yang Miso.”

“Nice to meet you. Please excuse me for coming here all of a sudden. My name is Park Joongjin, and right now, I’m shooting a movie,” Joongjin said as he put out his hand.

Miso grabbed his hand back for now. She thought that he would shake gently, but Joongjin vigorously shook his hand up and down as though he was playing a prank. Miso did not get flustered and shook her hand even more vigorously. Joongjin declared defeat and pulled out his hand first.

“You really are out of the ordinary. I like you.”

“Just what are you?”

“A director. I think I just told you that.”

“Are you really a director? I really don’t like scams. I don’t usually get scammed either.”

“I also dislike scams.”

Joongjin took out his phone and called someone before having a short conversation. A moment later, Miso saw a text on her phone.

-He’s director Park Joongjin who shot Spring Calendar. If you have time, talk to him.

It was from Junmin.

Chapter 364

“Many of our seniors and instructors say this: make it look natural. The reason they always say those words is because it’s the most important ability. You should already know how ugly acting can be. The moment it’s obvious that your acting is acting, people come to themselves. Oh, they’re just acting - like that. That’s why we need to keep thinking. Just what is ‘natural acting’?”

Miso watched the three people sitting in front of her before looking at the back of the classroom. Director Park Joongjin, he said he had something to talk about with her, but said that they should talk about it after class. Then, he asked if he could watch the class since it was boring to wait outside. Miso permitted him to. When she heard that his name was Park Joongjin, she became interested as well.

“Miss Gyunglim, can you do an act where you get angry?”

“An act where I get angry?”

“Yes. Should I give you some context then?”

“Yes, I think that will be easier for me.”

“Then let’s go with this. The two of you should think about it as well. I’m going to give you the same situation.”

Miso looked at Gyunglim and spoke.

“I’ll give you a situation. You were fired from work two days ago. Moreover, you just heard that you need to vacate your room this morning, while your parents are asking you for living expenses. You can’t be in a worse situation. Just then, a friend, no, just someone you know appears in front of you and picks a fight with you, asking why you live your life the way you do. Well then, how are you going to get angry?”

Miso pointed in front of her. Gyunglim, who was sitting down, stood up and walked there.

“How would you feel in that situation?”

“I would want to break everything around me.”

“Then express that emotion. Consider me that acquaintance.”

Miso waited for Gyunglim to bring out her emotions. Not long later, Gyunglim nodded her head. It seemed that she was ready. Miso just told her ‘why do you live your life like that’.

“Why I live like that? What the hell are you? Who the hell are you to just show up in front of me and say such things to me? What do you know about me? Why are you sticking your nose into my business? Huh? Why do YOU live your life like that? Huh?”

Gyunglim screamed her lungs out. Miso pointed towards Gyunglim’s side. Gyunglim looked at her before walking to the side.

“Next. Mr. Gwangseok.”

“Yes!”

“You’re in the same situation. Begin when you’re ready.”

Gwangseok took some time to bring out his emotions as well before starting his act. Although the repertoire had changed, he also screamed his lungs out.

“Mr. Sungjae?”

“Yes. I’ll begin right away.”

“Good.”

Sungjae expressed his anger in a different way. If the previous two burst out with their emotion, Sungjae suppressed his anger. He finished off with raising his voice for a short time at the very end.

“Well then, what did you think of each others’ acting?”

“I don’t know,” Sungjae replied.

Gwangseok replied ‘everyone did well’, while Gyunglim asked back instead, saying ‘you asked because it wasn’t good, right?’

Miso had everyone sit down.

“Everyone did their act according to the way you learned, right?”

The three nodded.

“Well, alright. There is no correct answer like mathematical formulas give when it comes to expressing emotions. However, just coating your skin with emotion is not enough when it comes to expressing emotions. You need the essence. An expression without essence is just superficial.”

Miso looked at the three people’s faces in detail. She could learn a lot from looking at their faces, that is, how much the three were listening to her. For Sungjae, he seemed to understand something from her words and was focusing on her more. People like him were enjoyable to teach.

Meanwhile, Gwangseok and Gyunglim looked like they understood, but they did not seem to be looking back at their own acts. From how they didn’t look back at their acts in retrospect, they seemed to have a long way to go as actors.

“All three of you got angry. But that’s it. If I wanted to see you shout, then I’d just tell you to shout, not get angry. Also, I gave you the contextual situation, right? Getting your emotions together is not getting ready to frown, but about thinking. Anger without reason is meaningless. Anger only has meaning if you give it meaning, that is, you give it essence. We are actors, not crazy people, right? Only crazy people get angry without a reason. Actors need to be able to show their reasons for getting angry through their expression of anger. Do you understand? A three-year-old can act angry if they were told to. Think about what this means and do it again.”

Miso pulled over a chair and sat down. Only the ones that think about what she just said will learn anything from the class.

“You’re fierce when it comes to teaching,” Joongjin, who was sitting at the back, approached her and spoke.

“Class is not over yet, are you okay with that?”

“It’s fine. I do not think of investing time into people that I think are necessary as a waste of time.”

“Since we have some time right now, let’s continue where we left off before. You said you needed me, correct?”

“Yes. I do.”

“Do you mean as an actress, or as an instructor?”

“I need an on-the-scene acting advisor. And, I came to a decision after I looked at your class. I really hope you can come to my set.”

Miso crossed her arms. Doing something with director Park Joongjin, huh. It sounded attractive to her. The movie ‘Spring Calendar’ was a movie she liked to the point that she watched it several times at the cinema ten years ago. The director stayed away from a soap opera and made the fullest out of actors that were practically new to the industry.

“Who’s the lead actor?”

“For now, Mr. Lee Hyuk is confirmed.”

“Lee Hyuk? Is he the same Lee Hyuk I know?”

“Yes, probably. Also, there’s an idol-turned-actor as well. Named Kwon Dayoon.”

“An idol?”

That was not good news. Although the general level of idols has gone up recently, that was only when compared to the past. They ruined the overall picture when they were placed amidst veteran actors.

“You seem worried, but you need not be. I will be managing her. I do not plan to have her act as she wishes to.”

“She’s a lead and you’re not having her act?”

“Yes. She will move just as I instruct her to. She will not become a hindrance to the other actors.”

“Does that change anything?”

“It does. It did ten years ago after all. I only assign work to those that are capable. Those that aren’t, I instruct them personally. So, you don’t need to worry about the atmosphere at the set,” Joongjin spoke with a smile.

For some reason, the way he spoke reminded her of someone. She thought about it for a moment before arriving at an answer.

“The way you talk is really similar to the way senior Junmin, I mean, the president speaks.”

“Him and I?” Joongjin replied with a faint smile.

Miso just replied that they just felt similar. For a very brief moment, she saw Joongjin’s expression turn cold. It seemed that he was not on good terms with Junmin. No, that reaction probably indicated that he did not like him.

“For now, I should resume class.”

“Then I shall go back to watching then.”

“If you’re busy, you can just go. I will think about it and contact you.”

“No, no. I’m staying because this looks interesting. Oh, am I a nuisance?”

“No, it’s not like that.”

“Then I’ll keep watching. Let’s have a talk after the class, over a meal or something.”

“Alright, then.”

Miso gave glances at the three people that were looking their way.

“To think that you have the time to think about others, that’s amazing. Looks like you already realized the meaning behind what I said, right? Very well. Start acting again one by one in front of me. Just how good are you to be distracted when you don’t even have enough time to think about yourself? Let’s see, shall we? Ah, for your reference, you will be spending more time moving your body rather than sitting down. You can all do leg splits as the basics, right?”

Miso crossed her legs in front of the three.

“Go ahead, then. If I don’t see any changes in you from last time, I’ll have no choice but to give you an earful.”

* * *

“I’ll finish up things here for today.”

Sungjae fell backwards as soon as he heard those words. He felt like he was getting leg cramps. He turned his head to look at the other two who were leaning against the wall. They were looking at him as though he was some amazing person.

“Mr. Sungjae. You seem like you did some exercise.”

“Yes. I’m an idol after all. *pant, pant*.”

“I like your stamina. You’re quite flexible as well. You seem to know how to use your body, so I’ll decrease training that just focuses on stamina for you. However, the two of you should get ready to run just like today. Why are your bodies in horrible states even though you are actors? Bear this in mind. Unless you are an actor that can speak with just your eyes alone, you need to practice so that you can move every part of your body, from your fingertips to your toes, to your will. Anyway, thanks for today.”

Sungjae lied on the floor and watched as Miso left the class. He felt like he went back to his trainee days. It had been a really long time since he received training as intense as this.

“Wow, hyung. I can’t believe you managed to go through all that.”

“Are you okay?”

He said that he was okay to Gwangseok and Gyunglim who approached him and stood up. After resting for a while, his legs felt better. He remembered practicing like this when he went to acting schools when he was still a student. His heart was satisfied even though his body was tired since he felt like he was learning properly.

Just as he wiped his sweat off with his sleeves, the man that entered mid-way through class approached them.

“All three of you look passionate.”

Sungjae looked at the man. The man was wearing a casual-style suit and a fedora. Although he looked to be over forty years old, his prankful smile made him look younger.

“Are you all dreaming about becoming actors?”

“Of course. But who are you, sir?” Gwangseok asked.

“Ah, I haven’t introduced myself yet, I guess. My name is Park Joongjin, and I’m just a nameless movie director.”

Park Joongjin? Sungjae had never heard of that name. He calmed down his breathing and asked.

“Do you have any business with us?”

“That I do. I am trying to shoot a movie right now, so if it’s okay with you, would you like to participate?”

“In a movie?”

It was a rather sudden proposal. The first feeling Sungjae had was rejection. He thought about stories where scammers approached people and ripped money off them by coaxing them that they will make them idols. Scams like that were everywhere in the entertainment industry. When he looked back at the man warily, Joongjin laughed.

“I’m just giving you an offer right now. Actually, my main business here was with instructor Yang Miso. Let’s talk about the details later, and so? What do you think about appearing in my movie? Of course, I don’t mean that you will be the main characters.”

Just as Joongjin was about to continue, Miso came back in.

“Director, let’s go.”

“Ah, alright. Anyway, the three of you, please think about it. Well, then.”

Joongjin left the lecture room with a smile on his face. Miso watched him leave before approaching the three of them slowly.

“What did he tell you?”

“He asked us whether we wanted to appear in his movie or not.”

“His movie?”

Sungjae nodded and affirmed her.

“But is he really a movie director?”

“Yes, he is a director. He’s quite famous too.”

“I see.”

“He’s a very peculiar person, so I don’t know what intentions he had when he said that. Don’t mind him too much for now.”

“Okay.”

“Then see you tomorrow. Don’t forget to relax your muscles.”

Sungjae said goodbyes to Miso who left.

“Hyung, he probably said that as a joke, right?”

“I don’t know.”

Gyunglim, who was listening as she packed her bag, spoke.

“He must be joking. Where do you see a director that asks a person to feature in the movie on their first meeting?”

“That’s true.”

Sungjae packed his bag as well.

“Hyung, why don’t we eat dinner together?”

“Dinner? Shall we?”

“Yes. Also, you should tell me about the entertainment industry. There’s a pork BBQ restaurant nearby so let’s go there. Oh, wait. People might flock if they recognize you.”

“If I wear a cap, not many people recognize me.”

“Really? That’s good then. Let’s go!”

“Just the two of us?”

“Yes. Oh, there’s Gyunglim as well.”

Gwangseok shrugged before calling Gyunglim. In the end, they decided to eat with the three of them. He walked along the corridor while stretching his sore neck when Gwangseok went ahead saying that he had to go to the bathroom.

“Uhm, Sungjae-oppa.”

“Yeah?”

“Can you eat dinner with just two?”

“Why? You have an appointment?”

Sungjae wondered if she was busy or something.

“N-no. I meant the two of us.”

Gyunglim looked flustered after saying those words. It seemed that she was indeed not on good terms with Gwangseok. First, it was Gwangseok who tried to leave her out, and now Gyunglim was saying this.

Just then, Gwangseok came back. Gyunglim stayed quiet and started walking again. Sungjae smiled bitterly between the two who only talked to him and not to each other.

* * *

He just got a message from Miso. She said that she accepted the offer since the time looked right. Instead of saying well done, Junmin told her to rip a lot of money off him. Miso also replied that she intended to.

“Refusal and yielding is a foolish thing, huh.”

He didn’t know whether Joongjin did it intentionally or it was just a coincidence, but he was somehow acquainting himself with the people around him. If he was someone that was obsessed with the past, he might be planning a petty revenge.

“Perhaps his intention is to steal things away from me since I stole from him.”

Junmin drank the red tea that was steaming as he looked at his monitor. Park Joongjin. After all that’s said, he was a genius. They should be able to learn a lot from him. Since they found the opportunity to grow, he decided to leave them alone. If he stole them, then he had to think about it at that time. He had confidence though since the man named Lee Junmin reached all the way where he was purely through managing other people.

Junmin clicked away on his keyboard. He had a mountain of work to do. The market was changing rapidly, and the ones that could not adapt would be swept away by the waves.

“A true actor.”

He said those words out of habit before pressing enter.

Chapter 365

It was noisy even though it was early morning. Bada, who usually sleepily walked out of her room around 10 o’clock, was preparing herself early in the morning.

“Does it feel that good?”

“Of course!”

Maru shook his head and sat down at the table. He scooped a spoonful of rice out of the rice bowl that Bada had gotten for him. He never realized that there would come a day where his sister would prepare breakfast for him.

“Don’t forget to message mom when you get there. And don’t forget to message her again once it’s over.”

“Don’t worry about that. I’m going to send ten, no, a hundred messages.”

She took out her phone and called someone in front of the door. It was probably a friend of hers. Today was the day of TTO’s concert that she had been looking forward to so much. Maru remembered how she was so excited like a puppy seeing snow for the first time last night.

“I’m off!”

“Watch out on the train. Remember to scream first if someone strange approaches you.”

“I get it already!”

“Don’t inconvenience the elder sister of that friend of yours. You need to be polite the closer you are to your friend.”

“I know that.”

“Don’t jump around too much because you’re excited. I’ve seen on the news that people collapse due to dehydration. Don’t forget to bring water with you and drink regularly.”

“I can take care of myself.”

“And don’t come too la…”

Slam - Bada closed the door and left. Well, she really couldn’t help herself at times like these. Just when he clicked his tongue, his mother came out of the main bedroom with a yawn.

“You should’ve slept some more. It’s only nine right now.”

“It’s too noisy to sleep. What about Bada?”

“She just left.”

“Geez, she’s quite something. The concert starts at six, and she has to leave now.”

“She says she’s going to hang out with her friends.”

His mother suddenly glared at him. Maru slowly turned his gaze to the soup.

“This kimchi-jjigae is good.”

“I get that you want to help your sister, but don’t splurge the money you earn, okay?”

“I said I got them for free.”

“Like hell those were presents. Mom looked into it already. What? A million won?”

“Mrs. Lee, please calm down. It’s a special occasion.”

“So you spent such a large sum of money without consulting me?”

“I’ll have to say this again, but I really got them as a gift. Why would I have so much money? If you can’t believe me, should I call the president right now and hand it over to you?”

“…You just won’t lose out in words, huh.”

“That’s because I take after you. Stop talking about a done matter and you should eat some breakfast. You’re on break today, so you should get some rest when you can.”

Maru prepared a set of rice and soup for his mother so that she couldn’t nag at him anymore. Since she was someone who hated to talk about bad things while eating, it should be enough to make her calm down. As he had expected, his mother sighed and started eating.

“Are things going well these days?”

“What things?”

“You know, you’re going to practice something. Was it action?”

“It’s going well. Whose son do you think I am?”

“What about your body? Are you sure you didn’t get injured?”

“I’m fine. You know me. I have a sturdy body.”

“That you do, to the point that you never got badly ill when you were growing up. But watch out anyway. I heard that some people get crippled because something goes wrong with it.”

“You’re worrying too much. I wonder how you gave birth to a son and a daughter with that worried mind of yours.”

“It’s because I wanted to.”

His mother smiled faintly.

“What about you? How’s work going?”

“I can handle it. Things are complicated with labor unions and whatnot, but it’s not something for us cashiers to think about.”

“If they approach you and want you to join, then join them. Don’t make yourself suffer.”

“Don’t worry about me and worry about yourself. Your mom is capable of handling it.”

“Yes, yes. Who can go against our Mrs. Lee.”

Maru finished his breakfast before standing up.

“You’re going to drink coffee, aren’t you?”

He asked as he poured some water into the kettle.

“Did you drink coffee?”

“Things happened and I started drinking.”

“Don’t drink too much. It’s bad for your body.”

“I’ll stop if you stop drinking as well.”

“Mom’s fine because I’m old.”

“What kind of logic is that?”

Maru went to the living room with a cup of coffee in hand. He turned on the TV and sat on the sofa. The TV was talking about food that was good for the bones. Carrot and Kale. He wondered if he should buy a juicer. Since it was obvious that his mother was going to object, he thought about buying it in secret.

Just as he was about to switch to the news, he heard his phone sound. He put the coffee on the table before going into his room. He picked up his phone which was on his bed.

“Hello?”

-It’s me.

“Ah, yes. President.”

-I need you to come to the company.

“The company? What time do I have to be there?”

-Right now.

“…Okay. I’ll get washed and go immediately.”

After the call, Maru went to the bathroom immediately. He washed his face and hair before coming out.

“Where are you going?”

“Uh, Seoul.”

He dried his hair before changing clothes. He wore a grey t-shirt with the words ‘happy’ sewn onto the left chest, and a pair of jeans. He put a book to read on the bus in his bag and came out of his room, only to see his mother handing him a 10,000 won note.

“I have money too.”

“Take it. You won’t know what will happen.”

He wondered what expression she would make if she found out that there was 300 million won in his account. Maru received the note before leaving his house. When he went to the bus stop, he saw a bus coming just in time. These kinds of trivial events made him happy. After he got on the bus, he thought about some things. Why would Junmin tell him to come to the company all of a sudden?

‘Not that I’m in a position to ask.’

The bottom-of-the-rung had to do what they were told to. It did seem quite urgent seeing how he called early in the morning.

He got off the bus and took the train. When he read the book he brought, time flashed by and he was in Gangnam station. It was 10:23. He got off the train and exited through the 12th exit. Just then, he got a message from Taesik. They got the silver prize in the regionals.

“So we failed huh.”

He wasn’t that worried since their school passed the preliminaries with flying colors, but they didn’t seem to make the regional finals. He didn’t feel like it was a pity though. Honestly, he thought that it was a relief.

He had lost interest in the stage. He only focused on his play with the objective that he wanted to bring Daemyung to the nationals. Moreover, unlike last year, where the acting competition was the only thing he had, he had more important things to do this year. Considering the opportunity costs, it was actually good that he failed here.

He felt sorry for Daemyung and the others who would be disappointed about this news, but in the end, this was just a competition on a high school level.

‘Last year, I even cried in secret because I was too frustrated.’

He had definitely changed a lot during the past year.

Just as he was wondering what to send Daemyung, Taesik sent another message. It was the names of the schools that got grand and gold prizes.

“It’s not Myunghwa High.”

He thought that Myunghwa High would naturally take the grand prize, but a school he hadn’t heard of before got the grand prize. Myunghwa High got the gold prize. He didn’t think much about it since there were bound to be new and better things. But Hwasoo High, huh. It seemed to be a school in the northern region of Gyeonggi-do.

Just as he was texting Daemyung, Daemyung called him.

“Did you get the message?”

-Yeah. I guess we didn’t make it.

“Are you disappointed?”

-Well. I’m not that disappointed since we did everything we could, but it does tick me off.”

“Ticked off? You are?”

-Hey. I can get angry too. Rather than that, what do we tell the others? I think they were looking forward to going to Seoul Art Hall.

“I guess we should tell them to do their best and try their luck next year. Hey, but can I be honest with you?”

-About what?

“For me, I actually don’t feel that disappointed at all that we didn’t make it. I’m not angry either. In fact, I think it’s fortunate for me since I have more time. I have things to do after all.”

His words may have been unnecessary, but he didn’t want to lie to Daemyung. After a while, Daemyung’s voice could be heard.

-I thought you’d feel that way.

“Really?”

-I thought about it when I saw your expression after the regionals.

“I’m a little cocky, aren’t I?”

-Today isn’t the first time.

“Wow, Park Daemyung. That’s how you wanna play this, huh?”

-I’m joking. Honestly, I don’t feel that disappointed either. Of course, I am frustrated that we didn’t make it. After all, a completely new school pushed us out. But like what you said, now that I have things to do, other things don’t really enter my eyes.

“You mean your romantic business with Jiyoon?”

-No.

“I’m just joking. Don’t be so serious.”

-… Urgh, I shouldn’t have started this. Anyway, what are you up to now? I’m thinking about meeting up and doing something with the others since it’s over.

“I’m in Seoul right now. The president called me.”

-Really? I guess today’s no good.

“I’ll call you when I have the time. Oh, what happened to the thing you were going to ask last time? About philosophy.”

-For now, the president gave me permission. He said he’ll support me with tuition even if I choose that department.

“That’s good. Uhm, what about your parents?”

-… Well, I guess I have to try again to persuade them.

“Tell me if you need support. I’ll go kneel together with you or something.”

-Alright. Text me once your business is over.

“Okay.”

After the call, Maru looked up. In front of his eyes was JA building. He got past the automatic doors and walked towards the elevator. He pressed the button for the staff-only elevator on the right and waited.

“Uhm, you need to take that one instead of this one. This one doesn’t go to the commercial floors.”

A lady kindly advised. There was an ID card on her neck.

“I have business on the 7th floor.”

“Oh, 7th floor. Okay.”

She nodded her head in understanding.

After getting off on the 7th floor, Maru greeted the lady sitting behind the front desk. He had gotten to know her face as he visited her a few times after the contract.

“I’m here because the president called me to come. Where is he now?”

“The president? He should be in the restaurant.”

“The one on the 16th floor?”

“Yes.”

“Thank you.”

The restaurant? Was he eating by himself? He grabbed the elevator again and went to the 16th floor this time. The last time he came here, he received a contract for the first time. In front of the entrance was a sign that indicated that the restaurant was still in preparation. The doors were closed as well. Now then, what to do here.

Just then, he saw someone wave from inside. It was Junmin. Next to him was the elder. He was waving at him with his kind smile.

He opened the glass door and went inside. Relaxing music was playing in the background. He stood right past the entrance and looked at the two who were sitting at a table. They were hogging this huge restaurant to themselves since morning.

‘Ah right. The president owns this place.’

He could feel the financial prowess of Junmin again. More money was indeed better.

“You’re here.”

The elder reached out with his hand. Maru grabbed that hand with both of his hands.

“You left the hospital?”

“I did. It was nothing big, so I had a hard time staying there doing nothing.”

“I was planning to visit you again tomorrow.”

“That’s exactly why I left. I keep telling everyone I’m okay, but everyone’s making a big deal out of it.”

Maru let go of Moonjoong’s hand before greeting Junmin. Junmin nodded before telling him to sit.

“Have you had breakfast?” Junmin asked.

“I had a very satisfying one.”

“Even if you did, you’re going to have to eat more. Sir Yoon will make you eat,” Junmin smiled as he spoke.

Maru looked at Moonjoong. The elder was nodding his head as though it was natural.

“Let’s talk after we eat. Sir, is that okay with you?”

“Yes, let’s do that.”

Food came to their table soon. Most of the dishes were nearly raw vegetables without any sauce. Junmin probably ordered these in consideration of the elder.

“Isn’t this too much grass?”

“You need to eat like this.”

“Tsk, Maru. People become worried sick about you once you’re old. Maru, you still remember what you promised this old man, right?”

“You mean pork belly and soju?”

“Yes, that.”

“I’ll bring you to a nice place once you feel a little better.”

“Oh, my. You and Junmin are the same,” Moonjoong smiled in satisfaction as he spoke.

‘There seems to be no problems from his complexion. That’s fortunate.’

He was someone that helped him a lot when he was confused about his values. Maru also relied on the elder mentally so he was very worried when he heard that the elder collapsed. He felt better now that he looked healthy again.

When they were about to finish their meal, they were given red tea. The three stopped talking and drank the tea.

Maru looked at Junmin as he put down his teacup. He was starting to become curious about why he called him here. There was no way he called him here to have a meal. He wondered if it was the elder that called him here.

Just as he was thinking about that, Junmin spoke.

Chapter 366

“Have you watched historical dramas?”

Maru replied as he looked at Junmin who was taking in the smell of the tea.

“Yes.”

“How many?”

“I’m watching all the recent ones that are airing.”

The only TV programs he watched were the news and long-running historical dramas.

“The one on YBS?”

“Yes.”

“That’s rather fortunate. Isn’t that right, sir?”

Moonjoong nodded. Maru wondered why Junmin was talking about this. Maru looked at Moonjoong who had a satisfied smile on his face. It seemed that he held the answer to this.

“A director I’ve known for a long time is starting a historical drama soon. It will be airing on RBS.”

“An RBS historical drama?”

YBS historical dramas were called the ‘traditional’ historical dramas. It was mainly targeted towards the older generation and recruited heavyweight actors to do it. Meanwhile, historical dramas on RBS were mainly targeted towards the younger generation. Rather than talking about the sharp conflict between political people, they mainly dealt with romance or heroism.

“Yes, a historical drama on RBS. I was planning to rest a little, but this fellow asked me to do it. When I received the script, I became interested since it was a character I’ve never done before. And that’s where you come in. Maru, do you want to try doing a child character in a historical drama?” Moonjoong asked as he leaned back in his chair.

“A historical drama?”

“Yes.”

“Well, for me, I’d love to if I have the chance, but wouldn’t I have to go through an audition?”

“You won’t have to do an audition. I already said that I guarantee your acting skills. Also, it’s not that big of a role.”

“Can I ask what kind of role I’ll be doing?”

Moonjoong smiled before replying,

“A beggar.”

* * *

“You can go back now.”

“I’ll drive you home.”

Junmin said that, but Moonjoong waved his hand in refusal.

“It’s fine. I’m not so weak that I have to have the support of others. Then Junmin, see you next time. And Maru, see you in a while.”

Moonjoong left after saying that he’d go home after looking around for a bit. After watching Moonjoong walk away from the building for a while, Junmin spoke.

“I have some more to talk about. Let’s go in.”

“Yes.”

He followed Junmin to the coffee shop on the first floor. He could see company employees eagerly waiting next to the counter. It seemed that they were new recruits at their respective companies.

They sat at a table in the corner. Junmin took off his flat cap and spoke.

“I heard that Suyeon asked you a favor.”

“She told me to play a minor role so I went.”

“And it was doable?”

“It was just a couple of lines while chopping with a knife, so it wasn’t that hard.”

“I see. You’re becoming more used to it now.”

“I kept doing it and I guess I’m learning my way around.”

“How is it compared to shooting movies?”

“I can’t say for sure since I only shot one movie, but from what I felt, shooting a movie was a lot harder.”

“It must have been harder since it was your first time. Then how about in the perspective of interest?” Junmin asked as he took out a notepad from his pocket.

Maru thought about it a little before replying.

“It was hard, but I felt more fun and there was a bigger sense of achievement when I shot the movie.”

“Why is there such a difference even though you were a minor actor in both?”

“I think it’s a matter of concentration.”

“So you focus less on dramas?”

“It’s not about focusing less. I just didn’t need to focus as much because not many expectations were placed on me. During the movie shoot, I felt that each and every frame was mine. There was a lot of pressure as well. However, the drama shoots weren’t like that. I could’ve done better, yet the producers that shot the drama just shout cut and go to the next scene, so it’s actually not fun at all. It’s not like I can ask the producers to shoot again when I’m just a minor actor.”

What he found out through playing minor roles in dramas was that shooting dramas was a war against time. There were almost no dramas in South Korea where they started shooting with a finished script and shot everything before the first episode. First, the main and secondary writers will write their scripts after every episode, then the shooting team will have to get ready in a busy fashion, and the actors will have to prepare, no, do their acts in a short time, as though it was fast food. No producers would want detailed acting from a minor role. They had it busy enough already. Minor roles were fine as long as they were decent in the background.

“Like that, my part goes by in a flash so I got used to that flow. I focused on not making mistakes as much as possible, so it does feel a little mind-numbing. When I went through that a couple of times, I realized that what I’m doing now is just work.”

“That’s a good realization you have there. Many actors expect too much from what they’re doing, not realizing that it was just work. Those actors will fall and not be able to climb up again.”

“Is it a good thing?”

“It is a good thing. You’re not going to live as an actor for plays.”

“I do want to do plays, but as I expected…”

“You want something that can earn you money?”

“That’s how it is.”

“Then you’ll have to get used to the TV media that much more. When you’re a minor actor, you at least have the time to think that your work is boring, but once you climb up to the ranks of supporting actors and lead actors, you won’t even have time to think about that. There will be scripts upon scripts upon scripts. At worst, you’ll receive the script just as you’re starting to shoot, so there’s no time to be bored. Mini-series and planned dramas are a bit better, but in the case of morning dramas and daily dramas, there are plenty of occasions where the scenes change due to advertising issues. That’s why actors that don’t adapt to the speed of daily dramas become thinner every day.”

“My mother used to talk about that as well. About how some actors looked very tired.”

“It is a tiresome matter. Everything is like that. There’s a line. Once you cross that line, you’re treated differently. When planning a shooting schedule, unless they’re borrowing a location for a specific period of time, everything is adjusted to fit the main actors. The actors that can’t climb up sometimes have several shoots away from the city. If they rest just a little because they’re tired, then cheaper, and better actors climb their way up. There’s no worse red ocean than this.”

“Aren’t you a little cruel towards a youth that’s just about to step into that industry?”

“I’m saying it because you’re serious about this. There’s no need to show fantasies to someone who’s serious.”

“Well, I guess that’s true as well.”

Just when they were in the middle of their conversation, a lady that seemed to work here approached them carefully.

“Excuse me, customers. I’m really sorry to tell you this, but you can’t be sitting in our store if you do not order any drinks due to the changes in the store regulations.”

The lady seemed very worried as she said that. It seemed that she was worried that a fight would break out. Maru smiled back awkwardly at her.

“I’m sorry about that. I didn’t know. I’ll order green tea then. Maru, what would you like to drink?”

“I’ll have a latte, please.”

The lady apologized again before confirming their order.

“Uhm, may I bring you a cup of green tea latte instead? There’s no green tea on our menu.”

“I’m okay with that.”

“Yes.”

The lady turned around with a smile.

“You don’t say stuff like ‘I own this building!’ like in the dramas.”

“Do you think a person with a proper mindset can say something embarrassing like that?”

Junmin smiled and called someone. Even when their drinks came out, Junmin’s call continued. Maru drank his latte and waited for Junmin to finish his call.

“Sorry about that.”

“No worries. But was that all you were going to tell me when you said that you needed to talk to me?”

“No, I just asked those as someone that will give you work in the future.”

Junmin sipped his green tea latte before continuing to speak.

“Now, I’m going to ask some personal things.”

“I’m not sure if I’m understanding.”

“So you’re practicing action for the movie you’re about to shoot?”

“Yes.”

“Have you met the director?”

“We had dinner together a while ago.”

“With director Park Joongjin?”

“Yes, him.”

“I see, what kind of a person is he?”

Junmin crossed his arms. He looked quite serious.

“He was peculiar.”

“Peculiar?”

“Yes. Just the casting process was strange. He picked people on our first meeting. He never had us try some lines, and just picked people based on their body shapes. Ah, there was also one more criterion. His intuition.”

“Intuition?”

“Yes. He told me that he trusts his intuition the most. He says that intuition is everything. He is definitely eccentric.”

“Eccentric, you say. I guess that’s the most suitable word that describes him.”

“You know of director Park Joongjin?”

“I do. I’ve been acquainted with him for a long time as well. No, I guess I shouldn’t really call it ‘acquainted’. We aren’t on good terms.”

Junmin turned his head to look outside the window. Maru waited since Junmin looked like he was in deep thought.

“Did you hear what word people use to call director Park Joongjin?”

“Yes. They call him a genius.”

“Yes, a genius. I’ve met many people when I dived into this business, but there were only five people that I call geniuses according to my standards. Director Park Joongjin is one of them. He, like you said, is eccentric. He looks at the world in a different way from others.”

Maru nodded. The conversation he had with Joongjin, as well as his actions, were still clear in his mind. There shouldn’t be that many people that press all the sides of a steak with their fingers just to get a precise feel of what the sensation is like.

“I met him a while ago. He said he’s taken a liking to you.”

“Am I supposed to be happy?” Maru asked with a smile.

“You can be. After all, a genius likes you. Steal as many things as you can from him. It won’t be that easy. He has a completely different thinking circuit than us. But think about the same things he is thinking about, and think about the instructions he gives to the actors. You’ll definitely gain a lot of things.”

“I’m not a man of many talents, but I am a little good at learning things from others.”

“Yes. That’s the attitude. A director’s mindset is very different from that of an actor’s. It’s much more inclusive. If you learn that mindset from him, it will help you out a lot throughout your actor career.”

“Understood.”

“Also, one last question.”

“Yes.”

“…Have you heard him mentioning the name Jung Haejoo?”

“Jung Haejoo? No, this is the first time I’ve heard of that name.”

“I see, I see. Alright.”

“Is she someone you know?”

Junmin slowly nodded.

“She was one of the geniuses I knew of.”

For a brief moment, Junmin looked very fragile when he said that. Maru thought that he must have been mistaken and shook his head before looking at him again. As he had expected, he could only see the perfectionist Junmin in front of him. Just then, Maru thought that the name Jung Haejoo didn’t sound that unfamiliar to him. He thought that he had heard that name somewhere. However, he couldn’t remember. He could have been mistaken so he decided to stay quiet about it.

“Ah, also, there’s someone I want to introduce to you today. He’s one of the reasons I called you here.”

Junmin looked at his watch and said that it was about time. At the same time, the automatic entrance to the building opened and a boy walked in. After looking around, the boy looked at the coffee shop before walking towards it with quick steps.

“I’ve arrived, president.”

The boy bowed. He seemed a little shorter than 170cm. His stature was rather thin. He looked mature, but his face looked quite young. Maru greeted the boy that seemed to be around the same age as him with a slight nod.

“Go ahead and introduce yourselves. This is Yoo Sooil, and this is Han Maru.”

“Hello. My name is Yoo Sooil.”

“Nice to meet you. My name is Han Maru.”

They stood up and shook hands.

“Wow, you have thick hands.”

“Yeah, well.”

“How old are you?”

“I’m eighteen this year.”

“Oh, I’m eighteen as well. It looks like we are the same age.”

Sooil joyfully shook hands.

“Stop shaking hands and sit down.”

Sooil brought a chair from the next table over and sat down. Maru wondered who this boy could be. It was likely that he was one of the artists in JA. Perhaps he was an actor who was doing activities. He was a little dumbstruck that Maru didn’t recognize him.

“Is the three hundred million won you talked about last time this fellow here, president?”

“Yes, he is.”

“Wow. I always wanted to know who it was after I heard that. Oh, and when you told me to deceive journalist Dongwook, was that also related to him?”

Junmin nodded his head. Maru couldn’t follow the conversation. It seemed that they were talking about something that only the two of them knew about.

“It’s really nice to meet you. You might not know me, but I’ve heard stories about you. Oh, you should also know that you have a small debt towards me.”

“A debt?”

“Yes.”

Sooil was smiling.

“You’ll meet a lot in the future. You are the two people I plan to push,” Junmin spoke as he raised his cup.

Chapter 367

“What do you mean by I have a debt towards you?”

“Oh that, do you know journalist Dongwook?”

“I do.”

“A while back, the president suddenly called me saying he wanted me to do some acting. Me, being an actor, of course told him yes. I then asked him if I was for a play. But the president told me it wasn’t. He told me it was also not for a movie or a drama. I asked him what I had to do then, and he said I had to deceive someone. Honestly, I was a little scared back then. The president is unpredictable after all. Anyway, that’s how I got to meet the journalist.”

“With journalist Dongwook, you mean?”

“Yeah. It seems like he was digging into our company. I don’t know about the details, but, from what I felt, it was related to stocks. You know, the stock market price changes dramatically in the entertainment industry according to what kind of entertainers they have.”

“So, what did you deceive him about?”

“Now that I think about it, I think I pretended to be you.”

“Pretended to be me?”

“I think I’m right considering the circumstances. When you got your contract, president Park Narim from NL Company was with you, wasn’t she?”

“Yeah.”

“Then I must be right. That’s the day I met journalist Dongwook. I leaked to him a few stories that the president told me to. In my opinion, it was a test of sorts. From how he is the exclusive journalist for our company, he probably passed that test.”

“Why would the president have you do something like that?”

“I don’t know the details either. Our president is the type to plan everything himself and give out orders,” Sooil said as he sliced the cupcake in front of him with a fork.

After Junmin left, Maru and Sooil got closer. They were at the same age and Junmin said that they would see each other a lot in the future as well. They didn’t talk about anything in depth, so Maru couldn’t be entirely sure, but Sooil seemed reasonable. He also seemed to have a lot of social experience as his word choice wasn’t like a child’s. It suddenly came to him that other people would look at him and think the same.

“Sweet things are the best.”

Sooil finished off a cupcake in a flash.

“Take this as well.”

Maru pushed the cake with cream on it towards Sooil. Honestly, the cake didn’t suit his taste buds. It was too sweet and cloying. He preferred more plain snacks.

“Really?”

“Take it.”

“Why are you not eating it?”

“I don’t like it that much.”

“No way. You don’t like cake? I can’t believe you.”

“If you don’t want it, then just say so.”

Just as he was about to pull the plate back to his side, Sooil stabbed the cake with his fork.

“You’re a little hasty. Anyway, thanks.”

Sooil cut and ate the cake with a happy expression. Maru felt pleasant seeing him eat. It was said that luck comes from eating since the old times.

“So, what’s your major?” Sooil asked as he finished half of the cake in a flash.

It seemed that he was planning to save up the rest.

“Major?”

“Play, drama, movie. Which one of the three?”

“I’m a newbie, so I don’t really have something I can call a major.”

“Then what have you tried?”

“A little bit of everything.”

“Really? I haven’t tried plays yet. Performing live is quite nerving, isn’t it? In dramas, you can just reshoot if you make a mistake, but the same can’t be said for plays.”

“It’s not that different. You have to practice anyway. Oh, there’s one thing that’s different.”

“What is it?”

“A play is not fun if the audience does not react.”

Sooil nodded as he bit on the empty fork.

“I think I get what it’s like. Then you must’ve seen senior Ganghwan as well, right?”

“I learned a lot from him.”

“Isn’t he a little strange? I tried to find him for something a while back, but he disappeared into thin air. He wouldn’t pick up his calls, and I got a message later and I just laughed because I was too taken aback for words.”

“You mean how he actually lived homeless for three months?”

“You know that too? Isn’t he amazing? Who goes out and actually tries living homelessly just to play a homeless role? No, I guess there’s something to be gained from doing it. But isn’t three months too much?”

“Well, people have different values. To borrow his words, that’s his way of immersion.”

“I won’t be able to do that even if I die. I mean, if you live homelessly, you won’t even get to eat regularly, right? I’d rather do some other role.”

Sooil shook his head as though just thinking about it made him feel horrible.

“What’s your major then?” Maru asked this time.

“Me? For now, movies. Movies are the ultimate objective of actors, right? No, I guess it’s commercials now?”

“Are you shooting one right now?”

“No, there was a problem so I’m resting for now.”

“A problem?”

Maru asked as he grabbed his coffee cup.

“The movie fell flat on its face.”

“What do you mean?”

“I’m not entirely sure, but apparently, there was a problem with the investment. There’s a rumor that even the contract deposit that was supposed to be paid before the shoot hasn’t been paid yet. It’s rather normal here. After all, a movie is just a money-eating monster while it’s being shot. There are many cases where people pay up the rest once it goes to cinemas, but since it’s like that, there are a lot of problems.”

“What happens to everything they shot until now if they don’t get any more money?”

“It will be held indefinitely. If another investor appears, then they start shooting again. They can’t exactly shoot a movie while sucking on their thumb. It’s their jobs after all.”

Even though he was eating cake, his words were quite cynical.

“But I’m not in such a bad position. My character doesn’t have a lot of scenes. The ones in trouble are the lead actors. The actors who have a lot of money have it better off, but there are many movie actors who don’t. It would be good if they had other schedules, but if they don’t, the problem worsens.”

“I guess they’ll have to take up something else if they want to keep making a living.”

Hearing that, Sooil smiled.

“You’re right, but some people don’t take up other jobs because of their pride as actors. Oh, don’t get me wrong. Perhaps they can’t take up other jobs. I heard before that an actor that frequently played supporting roles had no work for a while so he decided to take up another job, but the people around him really didn’t like that. That person ended up having to rest until his next work because of that.”

“People are too ‘worried’ for others. They just need to take care of themselves.”

“Haha, you’re right about that.”

Sooil scraped the empty plate with his fork. It seemed that two pieces of cake weren’t enough.

“Would you like one more?”

“You’re treating me?”

“I thought you said I’m indebted to you. I should pay back my debts as soon as possible.”

“Wow, Han Maru. I like that about you.”

Sooil raised his thumb up before running towards the counter. Maru, who was also feeling a little hungry, stood up. It would be great if there were plain cookies or something. Just as he was walking towards the counter while taking out his wallet,

“Hey! I ordered a bagel, why did I get a sandwich?”

A lady was shouting in front of the counter. The part time worker behind the counter paled and shrunk back.

“What?”

“Whaaat, you said? You’re funny. Do you think your customer’s words are nothing? I’m asking you why you gave me a sandwich when I ordered a bagel.”

“Y-you ordered a sandwich and a cinnamon mocha for a takeaway just now.”

“I did?”

“Yes. You said that while you were on the phone.”

“When I was on the phone?”

The lady frowned. Maru, who was watching from the side, clicked his tongue. She obviously realized that she made a mistake but did not want to admit to it. Most of the time, people like her would raise her voice even more.

“I should have told you to change it after I said that though.”

“N-no, you didn’t say anything…”

“Hey!”

The lady shouted so loud that the whole store could hear it. At that moment, her phone started ringing. The lady quickly answered.

“Y-yes, team leader. The thing is, the part time worker here made a stupid mistake. Yes. No, I mean it. Yes. I think I’m going to be a little late because of that… I’m sorry. Yes, yes. A pair of stockings? Do you need anything el… okay, I’ll do this properly. Yes, I’m sorry. I’ll buy one immediately and go up.”

The lady was very subservient to her phone and after she finished her call, she sighed as she put her phone in her pocket. Maru raised his hand and covered his ears. The events about to unfold in front of his eyes were quite obvious.

“Hey! Who the hell are you? Bring me the one in charge of this place. Bring me your manager!”

The part time worker apologized several times, but the lady did not know how to stop. She was a pathetic woman who did not know her priorities. She would be scolded even more if she was late, and yet she was doing this here. The part time worker was quite pitiful.

Just as Maru was about to tell the part time worker to go call the manager,

“Excuse me, but you can stop there.”

Sooil stood in front of the lady. There would be nothing good from confronting this woman since she wasn’t capable of rational thought, so Maru was about to stop him, but he was a little too late. The lady glared back at him.

“And who the hell are you?”

“Then who are you to do this, ahjumma?”

“Ah-ahjumma?”

“Are you so daring because there aren’t any people here?”

“How dare you talk to me like that when you aren’t even that big.”

“I know that I’m not that tall, so I don’t have to have you tell me that. Rather than that, are you really okay?”

“With what?”

“Haa, this is absurd. Looks like you don’t get any education at the company these days, huh? My dad shouldn’t be that lax when it comes to things like this.”

“…What?”

“Looks like it won’t do. From the looks of it, you don’t even seem to be an official employee. Are you really okay working like this? Do you take me for an idiot? Should I call my dad?”

Sooil took out his phone and started pressing some buttons. It was clear that he was intending to get back at her for this.

“You know the name of Hansung IT’s CEO, right?”

Sooil spoke as he put his phone against his ears. The shouting lady clasped her hands together in unease as she replied.

“It’s president Kim Jaechul…”

“Yes, president Kim Jaechul. Good. Then what’s my name, huh? Think about it carefully with that smart brain of yours. Geez, how can you do something like this with an ID card around your neck? What are you going to do about the company’s image? No, wait. In the first place, I’m eventually going to take over the company, so who the hell are you to ruin it? Geez, I only came here to visit dad for a little and I just had to run into this.”

“Uh-uh-uhm, please wait.”

“What is it?”

“Please, please let me go this time. It was all my fault.”

It seemed that she was quite desperate. She became very polite. Sooil scanned the lady from top to bottom before quitting his call.

“Please look after yourself from now on. Get that sandwich and buy those stockings and please get going.”

“Yes, yes. I’ll do that.”

“Did you pay?”

“I will do it.”

“While you’re at it, apologize to her as well. For the company’s image.”

The lady apologized to the part time worker behind the counter and rushed out of the café in a hurry after taking the sandwich. Maru scratched his head and approached Sooil.

“I thought your surname was Yoo.”

“It is.”

“Who’s Mr. Kim then?”

“I don’t know. Rather than that, what do I do now?”

“What do you mean?”

“I think I caused trouble.”

“You just realized that?”

“What was I supposed to do? That noona over there was being sworn at and it ticked me off.”

Sooil looked at the counter before walking towards it. The part time worker thanked him. Maru shook his head. He was an actor alright. His instantaneous improvisation was amazing. Someone not in the know would have thought that he was the son of a rich family. Looking at his arrogance and daringness, it was understandable that the entitled lady was totally fooled. If they were in a normal situation, she would’ve asked back in suspicion, but she wasn’t right in her mind at that time either.

“Maru, come quick.”

“Why?”

“Buy me this one.”

In that short time, Sooil bought a cupcake for takeaway. As soon as the packaged cupcake was out, Sooil ran away from the café. Maru had to run with him.

Only after they left the building did they stop.

“I probably won’t come across her again, right?” Sooil spoke worriedly.

“Think what you want.”

“Of course, there’s no way I’ll come across her again. It’ll be fine as long as I’m careful on the elevator. No, I won’t come here anymore. Then I won’t have to meet her anymore. Yes, that’s right.”

Maru chuckled as he heard him talking.

“Why? Keep acting like a rich young master.”

“I don’t want to.”

“You were really good at it though.”

“Really? That’s because I’m actually the son of a rich family.”

“Sure you are.”

“That didn’t work…”

Sooil sighed as he looked back at the building. For some reason, there didn’t seem to be any ordinary people around Junmin.

“Wait, where do I eat this now?”

He seemed to have decided that it was better to forget about things he couldn’t solve right now. Maru shrugged and told him to take it home.

Chapter 368

Jiyoon was depressed from the start and ended up crying. Maru poked Daemyung’s waist. Her boyfriend was supposed to help her out at times like this, right? He dragged Daemyung who wouldn’t budge and had him sit next to Jiyoon. Aram winked before pushing Jiyoon to his side. The two were now right against each other. Even Jiyoon, who was sniffing, realized the situation she was in and looked at the floor. Maru watched the two for a moment before leaving with the excuse that he had to get some fresh air.

“I don’t see anywhere we can go to either.”

Although they gathered to celebrate their silver prize, the essence was to console their failure to advance. He called Daemyung after separating from Sooil and heard that they were already gathered, which made him go to Suwon immediately. They were in a noraebang when he made the call, but they had switched places to an all-you-can-eat BBQ restaurant. It wasn’t bad since it was dinner time, but it was always the noraebang or a meat buffet. There were a lot of new buildings, yet the number of places that they could go as students kept decreasing.

“What are you doing?”

He turned around to see Aram.

“I’m getting some fresh air. What are you doing out here?”

“I left to give them a good atmosphere.”

“Are those two doing well?”

“I don’t know. Jiyoon was just looking at the floor until I left. Well, they should be doing well about now. After all, we got out of their way. But why the hell are those two not coming?!”

Aram turned around and had a look at the stairs. At that moment, Maru heard a laugh and saw Dowook and Bangjoo coming down. They looked like they were having tons of fun. Now, everyone except Daemyung and Jiyoon had left.

Maru looked at Aram and asked.

“Did she cry a lot before I came?”

“You mean Jiyoon?”

“Yeah.”

“No. She kept being depressed and just started crying right now. I thought that she’d cry a lot since she’s a crybaby, but you know what? When I saw her crying, I wanted to cry with her as well. I mean, if I was just a little bit late, I might have pushed Daemyung-seonbae away, hugged her, and started crying.”

Aram giggled.

“Watching those two was funnier than any comedy I’ve watched,” Dowook said with a giggle.

Bangjoo also nodded his head in agreement.

“Hey, let’s go there.”

Dowook hooked his arm around Bangjoo’s neck and headed to the arcade nearby.

“I think we did pretty well, but we still failed. If we were supposed to fall, I’d rather have us be last. I wonder why they placed us third to make us feel horrible instead,” Aram said.

“At least we got silver. That’s another line on our school report. You’ll be able to say a few more lines at your university interview so it’s not entirely a loss.”

“If you put it like that, then maybe, but still, it’s disappointing. If we got gold, we’d be performing in Seoul. I was going to tell mom to bring a camcorder if we went to Seoul.”

Aram clicked her tongue in disappointment.

“Try hard next year.”

“You should try hard next year as well, seonbae.”

“Me?”

“Yes.”

“I’ll be in my third year next year. Even if I put my name in the club, I don’t think I’ll be able to participate. Just like the current third years.”

“What the heck is up with that? You and Daemyung-seonbae should stay until the end. You should still come even if you’re third years. Is uni more important or the acting club?”

“Is that even supposed to be a question?”

“What’s more important? For me, it’s the acting club.”

Aram said that with pride. She clearly said it as a joke. Maru felt rather good that she wasn’t acting dejected.

“Fine, you can bury your bones in the acting club. I’ll be going to uni.”

“Geez, aren’t you too much? Maybe I shouldn’t have come to the acting club and should’ve gone to an athletic club instead.”

“Oh?”

Aram had stretched her arm out and pointed at the punching machine in front of the arcade. Dowook was inserting money into it while Bangjoo was getting ready to hit.

“Let’s just watch that.”

Maru also nodded and walked towards them. Bangjoo exercised his wrist before punching out with all of his power. A leather-popping sound could be heard before the score started going up.

“Wow, Ahn Bangjoo, you’re quite strong,” Dowook said as he checked the score.

“This is nothing. Maru-seonbae, you should do it as well. You too, Dowook-seonbae.”

“Nah for me. You energetic boys can do it.”

At that moment, Dowook, who was jumping on the spot, jumped up and kicked the sandbag upwards. It seemed that the notice ‘don’t kick’ didn’t enter his eyes.

“Hey, don’t break it.”

Maru gave an awkward smile to the elderly that slowly walked out from the arcade and bowed in apology. He played with the whack-a-mole machine which was outside the arcade as well for a while before looking at his watch. It had been around ten minutes, so it would be fine even if they went back in.

“I’ll go back first then.”

Aram walked into the building. Dowook and Bangjoo were absorbed in a fighting game. The two really got along.

‘Looks like everyone is okay.’

As the acting club started off the year with a lot of trouble, it seemed that the shock from not being able to advance was quite small. Although they practiced very hard, it was nothing compared to last year. After all, they stayed behind at school until 10 or 11 at night to practice last year.

“Bangjoo, I’ll kill you if you press the button.”

“Seonbae-nim. You can’t do that in a game.”

Just as Maru chuckled while looking at the two fighting, Aram came back down. When he asked why with his eyes, Aram smiled awkwardly.

“I went up at the wrong time.”

“Why?”

“I went up and the atmosphere was so pink, that I didn’t dare interrupt them.”

“Aha, that’s how it is, huh.”

“Seonbae?”

Maru grinned before walking up the stairs. There were three kinds of joys in life. One was eating delicious food, another was watching a fire by the river, and the last one was to interrupt a lovey-dovey atmosphere.

“They should do it moderately. We haven’t even started grilling the meat yet.”

He gestured to Aram to follow. Aram raised her thumb before following him. They went to the buffet on the 2nd floor. Somehow, Dowook and Bangjoo had finished their game and were right behind them as well.

As he went into the restaurant, he saw the two people stuck right against each other at the table next to the window. They were talking about something as they looked into each other’s eyes. Like Aram said, the atmosphere was pink.

“Take out your phones, let’s go,” Maru smiled as he spoke.

* * *

“Go home carefully. Well done everyone, and see you after the holidays.”

“Yes!”

After waving his hand at the four people who walked in the opposite direction, he looked at Daemyung next to him.

“You’re still pissed?”

“Did you erase the picture?”

“I told you several times I deleted it.”

“I hate you.”

“Are you two in taboo love or something? What’s there to be so surprised about? Seeing you surprised made me want to record it just that much more. Your expression was just that good.”

“Haa,” Daemyung sighed and shook his head.

Such a young man was sighing, so Maru slapped his back. Daemyung gasped before twisting his body.

“But still. It’s good to see everyone in good spirits. I was worried that they would look like they were about to die like we did last year,” Maru spoke as he reminisced about last year.

They couldn’t even talk to each other properly, and could only awkwardly smile at each other. Just thinking about it made him smile bitterly. Meanwhile, the atmosphere this year was much better since everyone talked about what was on their minds.

“That’s true,” Daemyung spoke with a smile as well.

He seemed to have thought about last year’s events as well.

“What are you going to do about winter?” Maru asked.

Daemyung didn’t reply immediately. He had no intention of urging him to answer, so he just walked quietly. It was 8 p.m. Their shadows stretched out under the yellow street lights. Maru pushed Daemyung into a pojang-macha they came across.

“Let’s get something to eat here. Excuse me, ma’am, please give me a portion of tteokbokki and soondae.”

He scooped some eomuk[1] soup into a cup and gave it to Daemyung. Daemyung received it with a smile.

“You were good at bowling back there.”

They thought about where to go after the buffet and Aram recommended bowling, so they went to a bowling club. As everyone was a newbie, they didn’t worry about the average and just rolled some balls in teams of three. Aram and Daemyung were pretty good. The best picture of the day went to Daemyung scoring a strike and doing a high five with Jiyoon.

“I was lucky,” Daemyung said as he ate some soondae.

They talked about Jiyoon for a while. Even though he never talked about her until a while ago due to feeling ‘sorry’, he was implicitly boasting about her now. They were a nice couple, so watching them was pleasant as well.

Just as Maru ate a piece of eomuk, Daemyung put down the toothpick[2] and spoke,

“Maru. You’re planning to not participate in the acting club after the holidays right?”

After hearing those words, Maru opened his mouth wide and bit a large chunk of eomuk. Daemyung was really quick-witted. When he kept eating without saying a word, Daemyung started eating as well.

Maru said nothing as Daemyung ate five pieces of eomuk. Daemyung, let out a deep breath through his nose and looked at him.

“Are you really not coming?”

“I will be going to the club. But I think it will be hard to participate as an actor.”

He felt this while preparing for the regional preliminaries, but he definitely didn’t have a lot of time. Junmin said something to him before he left today - that he needed proper, professional training. He didn’t have enough time as it was already with other practices and appearing in commercial works as minor roles and extras, and Junmin was saying that he needed to put an extra lesson on top of that.

“During the holidays, I will be able to digest that entire schedule, but I think it will be difficult once school starts again.”

Even during the holidays, where it would be normal for him to do nothing for the whole day, he had to plan his entire schedule. He was just that busy. Once school started again, he would have to be at school until at least five in the afternoon, so his available time would decrease even further. At the end of August, school would start again, and at the same time, director Joongjin’s movie would start cranking in. That schedule wasn’t set in stone, but he had to plan everything with that in mind. Moreover, there was that matter with the historical drama as well. Although they said that they would go over the more concrete details next week, he would probably end up doing it.

More work was piling, yet his available time was decreasing. In the end, he had to cut off some work and set his priorities straight, and right now, the acting club was at the bottom of his priority list.

“Well, I guess you don’t really have anything to learn from the acting club anymore.”

Daemyung nodded his head.

“Thanks for understanding. But it does feel better now that I’ve got permission from the club president.”

“No, I didn’t give you permission.”

Maru blinked several times as he looked back at Daemyung.

“You should continue coming to the club, but you can minimize your acting practice. It’s not that hard to come on Saturdays to practice, right?” Daemyung spoke with conviction.

His round eyes were very tense.

“You want me to do that?”

“Yes.”

“I don’t think that will be any good.”

“Of course, I’m not giving you a role with a lot of lines. Instead, you’ll have to do a role that has less importance.”

“But for me to do that among the others that are putting their best effort in is just…”

“Hey, Han Maru.”

Daemyung glared at him. Maru flinched. It wasn’t that he never saw Daemyung being angry before, but this was his first time seeing him so serious.

“You should finish off what you started. They all came to the club because of you. If you suddenly quit and become a backstage staff, you’re being rude to the juniors. You know that, don’t you?”

Daemyung offered him a piece of eomuk.

“Also, I’m telling you to do it because you’re able to. You can do it. Honestly, you just came to practice because of everyone else’s practice, right? For the general picture. So come. You can do it. I guarantee it.”

Daemyung shut his lips and looked at him. Maru sighed a little before accepting the eomuk.

“And here I was just planning to take it easy, and you say no to that. What an evil president.”

“Well, I learned that from a certain someone.”

“The world must be nearing its end. Where did the generous Park Daemyung go and why is there a thug in front of me? Fine, I’ll do it. But I can’t guarantee the number of times I can come to practice. There’s a lot of things going for me right now.”

“I don’t care. You’ll still do well either way.”

“Where does your endless confidence come from?”

Daemyung shrugged.

Maru smiled faintly. The equation of efficiency had been solved by the formula of passion. What people learned as they grew older was to quit as fast as possible. Like how people quickly cut ties with stocks once they start making a loss - people learn to give up after receiving a lot of damage. There were too many things on their shoulders to keep doing something vague.

He was going to prune the less important things out of habit, but Daemyung ended up sticking it back on with glue. Like this, he had no choice but to do it. He had to split up what little time he had.

“Damn, I liked you better when you were still naïve.”

Maru spoke as he dipped the eomuk in some soy sauce.

[1] Fish cake, often included in tteokbokki.

[2] Sometimes, toothpicks are used instead of forks in places like pojang-macha to eat tteokbokki and soondae.

Chapter 369

He was going to throw his half-burnt cigarette into the ashtray, but he couldn’t. The tower of cigarettes that had some sticking out and looked like a Christmas tree was about to fall apart. He finally remembered that it had been a long time since he emptied his ashtray.

“Is it about time I leave?”

Dongwook stood up with the ashtray in hand. He emptied the ashtray into the trash can before opening the window in the living room wide open. The sunlight blinded him. He basked in the sun in the veranda for a while. He remembered some doctor on TV saying how people needed to photosynthesize as well.

He sprayed some deodorant around the house before going to the bathroom. He stood in front of the mirror and looked at his face. He had a stubble due to not shaving for quite a while. He foamed it up with some soap before picking up his razor. It pricked him a bit, perhaps due to the blade being old. He washed his face and hair before leaving the bathroom. He dried out his hair and shaped it with some wax and spray.

“I still look pretty decent.”

He took out some clothes from the closet. He wore a light blue shirt and a pair of denim pants. He picked up his bag, which contained his camera and his notepad. With that, he was ready to go to war.

He drove out of his apartment’s parking lot to the streets.

“First it’s ‘Number 8’, huh.”

He drove to a building in the outskirts of Seoul. Number 8. That was the name of a movie production company. It was known as a production company that steadily released many movies and didn’t seem to have any management issues, but the company suddenly collapsed while shooting their current work. The management-level people just vaporized into thin air.

He parked the car in the parking lot of the building before grabbing the elevator. There were nameplates of the companies and stores that were in the building. Number 8 was on the fourth floor, and someone seemed to have written a large X on top of it with a permanent marker.

The elevator opened.

‘I knew it.’

Dongwook could see a line of people in front of the elevator. They were blocking the entrance to the office of ‘Number 8’, which was located to the left of the elevator. They seemed to have caused a ruckus already as he could see some people lying on the ground.

Dongwook showed the people that looked at him his camera. Whatever little hope they had on their face disappeared immediately. It seemed that they were individual investors. There were quite a lot of old ladies. He bypassed the people that lied on the ground without any energy and opened the door to Number 8’s office. Fortunately, it wasn’t locked.

There were people inside as well. They all had vicious eyes. He took out his camera when he received suspicious glares, but it didn’t work this time.

“Who the hell are you?”

“A journalist.”

“A journalist? Why would a journalist be here?”

“Why would I be here? Because there’s a case here.”

“A case? Are you kidding me? Do you not see these people here? You journalist seem to take laughing at other people’s misfortunes as your jobs, huh?”

A calm-looking man in his fifties shouted at him. He looked like he wasn’t the type to get angry usually, but now he looked like he would send a man to the afterlife if he was given a knife.

“Sir, please calm down.”

The other people restrained him. It seemed that those people still had some reason in them.

Dongwook approached the middle-aged man who tried to shake off the hands of the people around him.

“I’m not here because I want to take joy in your misfortune. It’s not about money either. Our company took a bit of a hit because of the movie, so I’m here to investigate. Understand?”

Dongwook had been a journalist for 12 years. He had to smile back at vicious-looking policemen when he still worked for a TV station. He wasn’t that weak to be pushed back at a rage-consumed man.

The middle-aged man shut up and took a step back. Dongwook walked past him and went inside. There were various office supplies left inside. Though, the expensive items like computers and other machines seemed to have been taken by the investors already.

Dongwook picked up a piece of A4 paper which was on the ground. On it was a list of investor’s bank accounts.

“Man, they gobbled up a lot.”

Number 8 was producing a blockbuster movie with a scenario created by director Han Jungho. The production budget was 15 billion won. It was an unprecedented budget in the history of South Korea.

Number 8 was a pretty well-going company in the industry, and director Han Jungho was someone who sold two million tickets for his first movie which was a comedy. The actors were well-known as well, but the estimated production budget of 15 billion was too big. That was why they started taking individual investments. The minimum investment was 10 million won, and they promised to return shares in profits as well as secondary products. The people that were walking around in and outside the office were the individual investors. They were people that spent at least 10 million won, and some in the hundreds of millions, so the news that the production company went out of business had to be shocking for them.

“What do they think that money was… it was my daughter’s house deposit…”

A lady’s wail could be heard from the outside. Dongwook clicked his tongue. People like her always appeared in places like this. They would be fooled by the sweet words that they would get profits without losing any money and end up using money they shouldn’t, then ending bankrupt. What kind of investment in this world was without risks?

Dongwook looked around the office. He had heard that a police investigation would start today. He looked around to see if he could get anything before that, but it was too clean, as he had predicted. With that, it was clear to him that this was a scam that was planned.

Just then, he received a call.

“Yes, Mr. Geunsoo.”

-Journalist. Are you at Number 8 right now?

“Yes, I am. But I’m not getting anything.”

-I thought so. Oh, the staff that never received their pay is at our company right now. I thought you wanted to interview them.

“About that, can you please do it in my stead? If it’s too much for you, I’ll call the president. I have a lot of places to go to today.”

-Then, for now, I’ll record the things I get. Is there a specific question you’d like to ask?”

“I just want you to ask how hard their lives are right now in general. I’m going to use that emotional part when writing an article. But why are you doing that, Mr. Geunsoo? You’re an actor.”

-Since the movie stopped, I should do something at least. I emptied my entire schedule because of this, so I don’t have anything else to do.

“Haha, then I’ll leave that to you then. Do leave behind a phone number if anyone knows where the former president frequents.”

Dongwook hung up before leaving the office. JA Production was also involved in the movie that Number 8 was shooting. Geunsoo and Sooil were participating as lead and support roles respectively, and from what he knew, JA production also invested quite a bit of money into it under its name.

-Even if they do get caught, it’s not likely we will get our investment back like most other scams. But we can’t just stay around doing nothing because of that. We can’t just end things with a loss, so we need to do something.

Dongwook remembered back to the conversation he had with Junmin. Junmin didn’t seem to mind that he had lost some money. No, honestly, it felt like he even welcomed this situation. He was reminded of the words he heard from a senior journalist in the past. Businessmen like chaos more than peace.

After leaving the building, Dongwook had a look at the time. He had scheduled an appointment in a nearby coffee shop. He drove his car to the coffee shop which was around 10 minutes away. When he grabbed a table and emptied about half of his coffee, a lady opened the door to the coffee shop and entered. Seeing her looking around in unease, Dongwook realized that she was the one he was waiting for.

“Over here.”

Dongwook waved his hand. The lady bowed slightly before coming over and sitting in front of him.

“Are you journalist Kim Dongwook?”

“Yes. You’re someone who used to work for Number 8, correct?”

“Yes. But my name is really not going to go on it right? You’re not going to reveal things like where I live and things like that, right?”

“Of course. It’s one of our rules to hide the identity of the informant in this profession. So don’t worry about anything and just tell me. Rather than that, you look very tired. Let’s grab something to drink before talking.”

Dongwook ordered a warm drink on purpose. The animals known as humans were quite simple and oftentimes made their decisions based on their feelings. A cup of warm tea would relax a person’s guard and would soften their lips as well.

After emptying about half of the tea, the lady sighed.

“I came to work and was just working like usual, but the president didn’t come. As a production company, it wasn’t that uncommon to have business meetings outside, so I didn’t think much about it, but he didn’t turn up for two days. It was around that time we received calls for payment, so all the employees looked for the president, but no one could reach him.”

“That happened a week ago, am I right?”

“Yes.”

“When did those people come to the company then?”

“Three days after the president vanished. By that time, we employees were feeling uneasy as well and some people stopped coming. I was uncertain about what to do and it was then that they came.”

“You must have had a hard time.”

“Don’t even start. Some weird lady started pulling out my hair saying ‘give me my money back’, and I was scared to death back then.”

“People become violent when it comes to money, after all.”

“Yeah, you tell me.”

“What happened after that?”

“I didn’t leave the office and kept calling the president. But the only thing I got back was that his phone was off.”

“How was the state of payment?”

“Actually, I haven’t received my salary for four months as well. It should amount to around 7 million won. It’s not much compared to the people that were scammed, but right now, I’m about to be driven out into the streets because of that money.”

The lady sighed while shaking and eventually burst out crying. Dongwook pulled out some tissue and handed it over. After a while, she calmed down again before continuing her story.

“Three days ago, we started looking for where the president might be in secret, but we couldn’t even catch a glimpse of him. We even asked the owner of a restaurant that the president was a regular at, and the owner swore at us instead. Most of us employees haven’t received our salary so we are pretty desperate.”

“The president told you that you’ll receive a bonus once the movie shoot was over, right?”

“Yes. It’s a movie with more than 10 billion won invested into it. We thought that we’d receive our salary soon. Then, this happened.”

Dongwook consoled the woman before finishing up his interview.

“Here’s the list of stores that the president frequented.”

“Thank you.”

“Uhm…”

Dongwook handed her the interview fee. Although it was only 50 thousand won, the woman looked like she was about to kneel in gratitude.

“Then I’ll call you again later.”

After sending the woman off, Dongwook drove his car to the next employee. It was a woman this time as well. She was a university student who had taken a semester off, and she said that it was her first ever job. Her circumstances were similar to the lady before. The president suddenly stopped coming, and people just barged in a few days later. He didn’t expect that much from her in the first place, so he ended the interview quickly before leaving. When she asked him if she could get her delayed salary, Dongwook smiled bitterly and shook his head.

“Once the police get involved, it might become an issue.”

There was no bigger incident than this in the movie industry. After all, 15 billion won disappeared into thin air. It shouldn’t amount to that much considering the payment that was already paid, but from estimation, the president probably ran with at least 6 billion won or more. For now, he had to talk to the huge businesses, actors, and the staff.

“I wonder what my president is planning to do with this.”

Once a journalist starts digging deep into a case, their job would become similar to that of a detective. They would start digging into someone else’s personal history. Dongwook wondered what Junmin was going to do with this information.

He took out a cigarette before looking up at the sky.

“What nice weather.”

Just as he was about to get back in his car after smoking, he received a call. The caller ID was Choi Miyeon. It was his junior journalist who was currently working for a women’s magazine named Sharon, and she was also the one that was digging into a stinky, dangerous case.

“Yeah, what is it?”

-Senior, have you learned anything about the things I told you last time?

“No. I told you I’m not going to touch on it. I only lent you an ear back then.”

-I thought you’d say that. Then free up some of your time tomorrow. I have some things to tell you.

“Hey, don’t tell me you’re still digging into that? You should really stop it. If a magazine company keeps digging into the dark side of the entertainment industry, you won’t get any more ads.”

-I told you, didn’t I? That I’m resolved to quit. Anyway, we’re partners in crime, so free up some time. I found out some things about the woman titled ‘madam’ in the entertainment industry.

“We aren’t partners in crime. But wait, madam, you said?”

His junior hung up before he finished his question. Her personality still hadn’t changed. Dongwook clicked his tongue before getting in the car. He hated himself for becoming interested even though he knew that there was nothing good from sticking his nose into it.

He drove off. He still had a lot of places to go to.

Chapter 370

“Yes, yes. Then let’s delay our meeting by an hour. Alright, understood.”

Dongwook hung up and sighed. One of the most frequent occurrences when doing interviews was delaying the interview just before the appointed time. In cases like this, it was always money that was the problem. The interviewee was probably undergoing an interview with another journalist at a different coffee shop right now.

“I guess it’s no good.”

Since it was clear that it was a scam, the social journalists would rush to get a piece of the pie as well, not just entertainment journalists.

“Hello? It’s been a long time. You haven’t changed your number, huh. I was just going to ask something. Did you guys put some people on Number 8? So you are moving after all. How about the other TV stations? They look like they’re busy as well? Alright, that’s how it is huh. Hey, do you have any useful news? Don’t be so cold. Hey, Hey.”

He had called a junior of his who still worked at a TV station but he got nothing. The guy that always followed him, calling him ‘senior’ had disappeared.

“Did you really have to cut off the lifeline of a freelancer like me?”

He scratched his head and got in his car. He messaged the person he was going to interview to cancel their interview. When he did, he immediately got a reply back saying that the person was available right now, but he simply ignored that text.

“You shouldn’t try to double-time me.”

He drove his car to Daechi-dong in Gangnam-gu. The president of Number 8 and his family lived there. When he turned into the street with villas lined up on the side, he realized that he was too late. There were many people that seemed to be journalists. Dongwook got out of his car and joined them.

“Is there any news?”

“News? Do you think we’d be here if we got any?”

He handed over a vitamin drink that he always carried with him in secret. The journalist thanked him. The fact that he received it meant that he had some intentions of telling him what happened here.

“Are there any people inside?”

“I don’t think so. There are teams that have been staying here since yesterday, but they never even saw a shadow.”

The journalist opened the drink and drank it in one gulp.

“They’re quite daring, thinking about hoggin more than 10 billion won to themselves.”

“You tell me. Thanks to this incident, I think there will be some chaos in Chungmuro. The entertainer’s labor union will probably rise as well. Geez, the actors have it better at least. At least some of them received some money beforehand. There are probably those that received absolutely nothing among the staff. It’s always the people that clean up after others that die out.”

The journalist gave Dongwook the empty bottle and disappeared after thanking him. Dongwook placed the bottle on the fence of the villa and got in his car. It seemed that any further investigation was going to be difficult. He probably had to look into something else until he got another source of news.

He took out his phone and pressed the number he didn’t want to press.

-Yes, senior.

“Let’s meet today.”

-What?

“Let’s meet today. It’s today or nothing. Do you have the time?”

-What’s up with you all of a sudden?

“Nah, it’s fine. Let’s not meet. I’m sure I’ll get into something troublesome if I get involved with you.”

-No. I’m going to meet you. Where are you now?

“Aren’t you busy? Don’t you have work to do?”

-You’re the one who called me, senior, why are you taking back your words now? Oh wait, you have a car, don’t you? Then come to my company, I’ll be waiting for you outside.

He hung up and threw his phone on the passenger seat.

“Alright, let’s act like a journalist once in a while.”

He smiled bitterly as he started the car.

He thought that he’d probably regret his decision.

* * *

After separating from Daemyung, he got a call from Suyeon. He asked what it was about so late at night, and she told him to free up some time tomorrow.

“Time?”

-Yeah. You remember the drama you shot with me last time, right?

“Yeah.”

-I think you need to appear once more.

“Me?”

-Yeah. The madam appointed you.

“The madam?”

The three characters Lee Miyoon appeared in his head.

“Why would she want me?”

-Looks like she’s taken a fancy for you. She wants you as the youngest member of the restaurant. Apparently, she would like ‘the affable kid from last time’. She told me directly as well. It’s not like you have something to do, right? You guys didn’t advance into the nationals.

“Your words are quite direct despite being our instructor.”

-It’s not like packaging it well right now would do anything. Anyway, you’re coming, right?

“I am. It’s not like I have something better to do.

-Okay, then come to Yeoksam station tomorrow. We’ll be shooting at the Korean restaurant there. As for clothes, we’ll be giving you a uniform, so don’t mind that. Then see you tomorrow.

* * *

Just as he was thinking about what Suyeon said last night, the buzzer rang. The door opened and some people got off. Maru had a look at the outside scenery. Since she told him that it was exactly 10 stops away from the train station by bus, he had to get off at the next bus stop.

The bus drove for a while before stopping at the next bus stop. Maru put on his backpack and went out the back door. There were tall buildings as far as his eyes could see. There wasn’t a single low-story building in the vicinity. Even the one that was being built seemed to be at least 20 stories tall.

He started walking. Suyeon had told him that he should go to the left from the bus stop and turn around at the convenience store, and he’d see it immediately.

“I guess I did see it immediately.”

It was a mansion with a tiled roof. It was only 4 stories tall. It was a traditional Korean restaurant that overwhelmed the glass buildings around it. He’d probably be able to fool a foreigner if he told him that it was a historic monument.

In front of the restaurant were some cars from TV stations. He walked towards the sign that said ‘Soo-ryeo-jae’ in hanja[1]. The automatic doors opened and as soon as he walked inside, a lady approached him. She was wearing a neat hanbok that was not too colorful.

“Welcome.”

“Ah, yes.”

“Did you make a reservation?”

“No, I came here because I heard there was a shoot here today.”

“Oh, if that’s the case, the drama is being shot on the 2nd floor. The third and fourth floors still have normal customers eating, so please be considerate.”

“Understood.”

It seemed that the management had prepared the staff to say that line beforehand. Maru walked up the stairs to the 2nd floor. People were walking around installing cameras and lights. It seemed that the shoot hadn’t begun yet.

“What brings you here?”

He turned around when someone tapped him and he saw the camera director Kim Jangsoo. Maru smiled and greeted him.

“I’m here as a minor actor again today.”

“Is that so? That’s good. You should make a good impression since you’re here.”

“Yes.”

“Then see you later.”

Jangsoo walked towards the rest of the staff. Maru greeted everyone he came across. There were some that greeted him with a bit of confusion, and there were some that just nodded back at him.

“You’ve become a yes-man.”

Suyeon waved her hand while smiling like a devious fox. Next to her was a lady that seemed to be her stylist.

“Unni, we need you to wear this since we got it as a sponsored product.”

“Alright. But I wonder if it looks good on me. Isn’t it a little too dark for summer?”

“Then why don’t we fold it and put it around your waist instead? After all, we’re just doing it out of courtesy.”

“That sounds better. It’s not like they’re a big company either. We can just bring out the style.”

“I’ll get that ready then.”

A lady wearing a baggy t-shirt swiftly walked down the stairs. So she was an actor who had sponsors as well.

“This place is massive, isn’t it?”

“It is definitely large. I thought it’d take up one floor of a building at most since I heard it was a traditional Korean restaurant, but I never knew it’d be like this.”

“Apparently, the Secretary-General of the Blue House frequents this place. The President has come here several times as well. On the first and second floors, you can eat without making a reservation, but I heard that you can’t even go to the third and fourth floors if you don’t make a booking.”

“You’re quite knowledgeable.”

“It’s our dining place. After the shoot, we’ll eat here as well.”

At that moment, a woman in her 60s wearing a pearl ring entered the 2nd floor. Behind her were 6 of the employees here including the lady in a hanbok that Maru met when he first got here.

“Ah, mistress.”

Producer Kim, the producer of the drama, quickly ran towards her. The assistant director that picked on the minor actor before was there as well.

“Hoho, producer. Is everything going well today?”

“Yes, it’s all thanks to you.”

“I wonder if our actor Nam is here yet.”

“He’s going to come here late today. I’ll tell him to go say hello if he comes, so don’t worry about that.”

“Oh no, I should come here instead. I watch this drama because of our actor Nam. Oh, you’re eating dinner here tonight, right?”

“Yes, of course.”

“Then I’ll be paying for all of it tonight, so don’t worry about the cost and have a good time.”

“Oh my, thanks every time.”

The woman scanned the set once with a satisfied smile before going down. It seemed that she was the owner of this huge place. Rather than that, to think that the producer was acting so subservient… Maru thought that this producer Kim thought nothing of everyone except the old lioness Lee Miyoon, but it seemed that it wasn’t true.

“He’s probably getting something from her behind the curtains,” Suyeon spoke in a small voice.

When he looked at her, she smiled with a wink. Getting something huh. It was quite a common occurrence, so he didn’t think much about it.

Just as he was asking Suyeon about some of the company events, he felt a gaze and turned his head around. The assistant director, who bullied a minor actor last time, was staring at him. Since they met eyes, Maru faintly smiled at him. Suyeon also waved at him from the side.

The assistant director was startled and turned around before starting to pretend to work.

“I did well, didn’t I?”

“With that, I guess I won’t get involved with annoying things. Thanks.”

“If you feel thankful, then date me one time, with Mr. Geunsoo included.”

“You really are devoted.”

“Didn’t you know that already?”

Suyeon poked his cheek before walking to the middle of the set. Maru brushed off his cheek that Suyeon poked and had a look at the script that the staff handed him. It was a scene where he poured a lot of salt on the dish that the protagonist made and brought it to the customer. Maru wondered why all of the roles he got were like this. He thought that he got a decent role since last time, he was chopping up some ingredients like normal, but it seemed that he was wrong. Beneath his part, he could see ‘colleague 1’ and ‘colleague 2’. It seemed that the protagonist made a team or something.

From the scene where Suyeon gave him salt, to the scene where he served the dish to the customer and the scene where it was found out that he was the culprit - this was the longest role he had in his short history as a minor actor. It was something to be happy about.

“Huh? Han Maru.”

Just then, he heard a familiar voice. When he turned around, Gwangseok, aka number four, was waving his hand at him with a smile. Next to him was Gyunglim with a sour face.

‘Well, they were a set last time as well.’

The audience at home was really sensitive. If a minor character’s face was changed mid-way, they would start making reports. Thinking that the production staff was quite mindful about the details, he walked towards the two and greeted them.

“Hello there.”

“We meet again. How have you been?”

“I’ve been doing well.”

Gyunglim stood in front of him. She was staring at him with the question ‘why did you act like that back then’. Maru just shrugged once. This girl looked like a very tiresome person. Both Gwangseok and Gyunglim were people who he did not want to get close to.

‘Let’s just stay in a business relationship.’

Maru made a business smile.

* * *

(Warning: Following content might be disturbing. Reader discretion is advised.)

Hong Janghae looked at the three men sitting in front of him. It was 1 p.m. It was too early to drink, but they needed some drinks right now.

“There, there. Raise your glasses,” Janghae spoke.

The three men hurriedly raised their glasses. He shook the brown-colored vodka above his head before emptying it into his mouth. The three men followed suit. Not long after, the sound of coughing could be heard.

“Was that a bit too strong?”

“N-not at all.”

“You’re too stiff. Relax. It’s been quite a while since we became one family right? It’s about time you make yourselves comfortable.”

He said that as a joke. He would immediately throw the vodka bottle the moment one of them became even slightly lax. He had to put down those that wanted to climb up to the same rank as him as early as possible. To do that, words were no good. Animals used strength to communicate their intentions to others before language was a thing. The fear engraved into the genes was stimulated not by words, but strength. Janghae knew that too well.

“How is it with going to the psychologist these days?”

Hearing that, the man on the left flinched. But he soon spoke,

“It’s much better now.”

“Really?”

“Yes.”

“Stand up.”

The man stood up. Janghae pointed at him to come. The man slowly approached him. Janghae looked at the man who was looking down at the floor. At the same time, he clutched the man’s testicles with his left hand. The man flinched and groaned.

“Are you embarrassed?”

“N-no.”

“It’s the same wherever you go. Without power, you become a plaything. You three were that woman’s plaything. And you chose to be her plaything. You got enough benefits from that, right? Then you shouldn’t consider yourselves victims.”

Janghae let go.

“Don’t feel humiliated with this. There are only two occasions when a man should feel humiliated. One is when there’s nothing in his hands, and two is when his woman is robbed from him. Don’t feel down just because some old hag played around with you. You climbed to that place precisely with that. Smile. Smile and endure. Later, you’ll be able to smile and slap your dicks on that bitch’s face. Oh, I guess you won’t have any reason to do that. Why the heck would you boys who are in good shape like an old hag like her? Right?”

“Y-yes.”

“Here, here. Have some more. You can get drunk today. Your activities start next week. You won’t be able to use the name ‘The Five’, but the public will call you such anyway. That’s what we need.”

Janghae raised his glass with a smile.

Chapter 371

“Take this as well.”

He received the clothes that were thrown at him. It was a set that made up a white cooking uniform. Although the sleeves looked a little long for him, it didn’t matter. He was now used to adjusting clothes. He folded the end of his sleeves and fixed it in place with safety clips. When he had a look in the mirror, it didn’t look that out of place.

“We must be fated. Don’t you think so, Maru?” Gwangseok, who was touching up his hair, spoke.

Maru smiled and nodded. He might have to deal with this guy several times in the future, so there was no reason to cause trouble.

“Do I look good in this?”

“It suits you.”

“I’m good at cooking too. I would’ve been successful even if I decided to cook as my career.”

Gwangseok strongly snapped his wrist as though he was flipping ingredients inside a Chinese wok. Maru inwardly applauded the immature kid’s hopeless dream. He wished him good luck. Who knows? He might actually become successful as a cook. Life was fun precisely because it was unpredictable.

He tidied his clothes before leaving the bathroom. The shoot would begin as soon as the main actors arrived. The actor that still hadn’t arrived yet was Lee Miyoon. From what he overheard, it seemed that she was going to be around 10 minutes late because of a traffic jam. A senior said that she was going to be late, what could anyone do? Although many complaints could be heard throughout the set, those complaints would turn into flattery the moment Miyoon arrived.

“I haven’t seen that woman arrive on time.”

“She might act all cocky if she does, so isn’t it better that she’s late.”

“That’s true. Geez, if you’re old at least act like it.”

Producer Kim and the assistant director went to the bathroom. Today, they looked like they were on good terms. Since the captain and the vice-captain of the ship were in good shape, the ship should sail smoothly today, as long as they didn’t hit rocky waves.

Gwangseok entered the ranks of the staff using his unique social skills. The staff received him with smiles as though they didn’t know who he was yet. It would be great if that lasted for quite a long time.

“Hey.”

He turned around when a voice called out to him. Gyunglim was scanning him from top to bottom.

“What is it?”

“Don’t you have anything to say to me?”

“I don’t.”

“Really? That’s strange. I thought you had a lot of things to say.”

He avoided the producer that was coming out of the bathroom. Gyunglim moved with him. He was just watching the producer and the assistant director who were talking about going to have a drink together after the shoot when Gyunglim talked to him again.

“Why did you act like that back then?”

“Act like what back when?”

“Back at the restaurant. Why did you ignore me?”

It seemed that she was upset. Her eyes indicated so. Maru wondered what he should say before scratching his eyebrows and spoke,

“I’m not sure if I’m getting what you’re saying, so can you please elaborate?”

“You’re doing this on purpose, aren’t you?”

“What?”

“You shouldn’t do that, pretending to ignore me when you’re actually interested in me. But you went too far. My heart will only move if you show your kind side, you know?”

“Uhm, excuse me? I think we’re on different tracks here. Or am I the only one thinking that?”

Gyunglim showed glimpses of a smile.

“I said I know everything.”

“Like I’m saying, what is this ‘everything’?”

“You lent me an earphone because I looked a little unstable back then, right?”

“That, I did.”

“And you’re still going to deny it? I’m saying you went too far. I found out everything already. You don’t have to keep up your pretenses anymore.”

Gyunglim put her hands behind her back and leaned forward slightly.

She didn’t look like she was playing around either, so Maru stepped back and spoke,

“I’m asking this just in case, but you aren’t misunderstanding that I like you, right?”

Hearing those words, Gyunglim burst out laughing.

“Misunderstanding? How childish. It was so obvious, and you still pretend that it wasn’t. You’re cute. But you won’t score any points like that if you treat me like how you did at the restaurant. You successfully attracted my attention, but you didn’t finish it off well.”

Maru tried his best not to laugh at her. After all, it would give her a bad impression. However, it seemed that he might not be able to. He couldn’t stop his mouth from leaking out a laugh. So she acted like that back then because she thought of this? He remembered back when he was glared at by her because he didn’t talk to her. He couldn’t even begin to estimate the depths of her misunderstanding.

“What are you two doing without me?”

Gwangseok came and hooked his arm around Maru’s shoulders. Gyunglim, who was acting coy until now, immediately acted like she was doing something else. She pretended like Gwangseok wasn’t even there. It seemed that she really disliked Gwangseok.

Gwangseok talked about the things he talked about with the staff. Most of them were rumors about various actors.

“He told me that if you work with that actor…”

He stopped midway through his story. The reason was simple. Lee Miyoon had arrived.

“You’re here.”

“Sorry, I’m a bit late.”

“You’re not late at all. We just finished our preparations.”

“Really? Then I guess it’s good that I was late then.”

“Haha, yes, well.”

The assistant director welcomed her. His expression and actions were very polite. Maru had a look at producer Kim who was standing on one side of the set. He seemed to have noticed that Miyoon was here, but he didn’t move first. Only after the assistant director brought Miyoon to the back of the lights did he approach them as though he just noticed. Perhaps this was a form of a power struggle as well.

While Miyoon and the actors greeted each other, the assistant director called for the minor actors. It was for a rehearsal.

“Come here, too, Youngjin.”

A man amidst the actors walked towards them. He seemed to be around the same age as Maru. He wasn’t here the last time that Maru shot this drama.

“Watch carefully. You are going to walk past this counter. Who here is team member 1?”

“I am.”

Maru raised his hand. The assistant director gestured to him to come.

“Watch this. Once he goes past this place, Youngjin, you grab his shoulder. He’s carrying a tray in his hands, so don’t grab him too hard. And then, start firing your questions at him, asking whether it was him that sprayed salt all over it. Okay?”

“Yes.”

After hearing Youngjin’s answer, the assistant director went over to the next person. It seemed that he didn’t need an answer from the minor actors. They went to the storage room on the 2nd floor following the assistant director.

“Team member 1.”

“Yes.”

“The camera will shoot from above here. You know what the situation is in the drama, right?”

“I would receive compensation if I successfully ruined the main character’s dish.”

“Yes. You get what it’s like, right? It’s not like we’re going to shoot for a long time here, so don’t overdo it.”

“Yes.”

He exchanged lines and moved according to instructions with the main character. The producer came later and instructed them in detail. Of course, he focused on the main character.

“Well then, get into positions.”

Many people were seated around the tables on the 2nd floor. They were all extras. The lead and supporting roles moved around busily amidst the tables of extras that acted like harmonious families. This scene was where they handed out dishes and surveyed which dish was the best.

“Cut. Over there, look like you’re enjoying the meal a little more. I’m going to shoot a background scene.”

The camera started shooting just the extras that were eating food. The camera captured a scene where they happily fed their children some food. When they shot a few scenes like that, the assistant director waved at Maru.

“Team member 1.”

Maru put on the toque and received a plate from a staff. Next to him was the producer.

“Spray the salt, and come out through there. Don’t make a mistake.”

“Yes.”

The antagonistic character, who was a child actor, stood next to him. He had seen him during the last shoot. When they stood in front of the camera, he made a vicious expression. It was as though he was saying ‘I’m the villain of the story’ with his face.

“Ready, cue!”

Maru looked at the lights before quickly turning his face to the actor in front of him.

“You heard what I said, right?”

“Uh, yeah.”

“If you do this well, I’ll pull you up in the next round. Trust me.”

The youth tapped on his shoulder before looking at the salt container. Maru slowly turned his head to the side. It was about time he unleashed his emotions.

It was a god-sent chance. He knew that it was a risky decision, but his success would be guaranteed as long as he grabbed it. It was the smell of success. The tips of his body started trembling when he thought that he would be able to smell success with the entirety of his body. His ethics and conscience intertwined inside him. However, he had no choice. He wished to climb higher than anyone.

The pressure made him flinch, but it also made him smile. He shook just thinking about the sweet rewards he would get from walking on the tightrope. The salt container looked like gold to him. Yes, this was an opportunity.

‘This feels pretty good.’

There was another copy of ‘himself’ that was calmly observing his ‘self’ that was letting greed overwhelm him. Maru thought that this scene would receive a ‘cut’ without much difficulty. When he took the audition before, he was very confused when he encountered a situation like this, but he had gotten used to it recently.

An observing me that is objectively watching the acting me. He thought that he should continue acting like this.

Just as he was reaching out and grabbing the salt,

“Cut.”

Producer Kim’s voice could be heard. Maru’s observing self intercrossed with his acting self as though he was waking up from a dream. The ‘team member 1’ who was thirsty for success stepped aside.

“Again.”

The producer’s eyes were on the support actor. It seemed that he made a mistake. Maru calmed down his breathing and prepared to act. The same situation unfolded again and then cut at the exact same moment.

Maru looked at the producer once again. He was still looking at the support actor. Just what was the problem? Did he get sworn at by Miyoon or something? The producer looked very displeased.

He put down the salt and looked at the support actor in front of him. The guy that smiled at him before the shoot was now glaring at him. What was with him now? Maru smiled bitterly when he saw the eyes that were clearly dissatisfied with him.

It seemed that he didn’t have much luck with acting today.

“Again, Hochul, do it properly this time.”

It seemed that the support actor’s name was Hochul. After straightening the ends of the navy blue cooking uniform, Hochul stood in front of Maru. The producer’s cue sign could be heard.

“You heard what I said, right?”

“Uh, yeah.”

“If you do this well, I’ll… sorry.”

Hochul turned around to see the camera mid-way through his line and bowed in apology. Mistakes could happen. Things would turn bad if it was repeated several times, but this mistake was a first. Maru thought that the producer would be okay with it. Since he was a child actor, there was a need to be considerate of him after all.

However.

“Hochul.”

“Yes.”

“We don’t have time to fool around. You know that there are seniors waiting for you, right?”

“Yes.”

“Then do it properly, and I mean properly.”

He sounded calm, but the tone of his voice was very harsh. It looked as though he would swear if this Hochul made any more mistakes. Maru looked at Hochul in front of him. He was biting his lower lip. He was clearly uneasy. Just what made him so uneasy?

“Well then, get into positions. Ready, cue!”

Along with the director’s cue sign, the shoot resumed. Maru decided to match Hochul’s every move so that he could focus more. He would accept the emotions that the other party gave him and he would return it with his emotions on top of it.

Maru saw Hochul’s neck muscles tense up. He was too tense. The character Hochul was acting was an antagonist full of confidence. That was why he was giving such dangerous instructions to the team member of his opponent. Such a character lost his composure and looks like he’s being chased by something? That was nonsense.

He got the premonition that the director would shout cut. If he was going to use it, then he might just look over it, but there was no way the director would miss that when he caught it several times before. Moreover, behind the producers were Miyoon and the lead actors.

The storage vault scene was supposed to be a short one so they must have come here because it was being dragged out for too long.

“Hey!”

There was no ‘cut’ sign this time. Maru saw the camera director, Jangsoo, turn off the camera in a hurry. Hochul, who was in front of him, flinched and took a step back.

Maru sighed and took a step back. He might be sworn at together with him if he stayed next to this guy.

“Aren’t you going to do this properly? This is the fourth time already!”

“I’m sorry.”

“You goddamn…”

“I’ll do it again.”

Maru looked at Hochul who was bowing in apology and turned his head around when he felt a gaze land on him. The producer was staring holes in him.

“Hey, you.”

“Yes?”

“You… nothing. Just do that once again. Okay?”

“Ah, yes.”

“Hochul, didn’t I keep telling you that you shouldn’t lose out to a minor actor? Do it properly, okay?”

Maru blinked once. So it was because of himself? He met eyes with Hochul. He could see Hochul’s lips move.

‘Know your place?’

If he didn’t see wrong, then it was something like that. Before the shoot resumed, Maru approached Hochul. He might say something if he went up close.

“Hey, don’t show me such a cheap act. You’re getting me involved,” Hochul said.

Cheap act, huh. Maru smiled and nodded. If it was the producer that said this to him, then he would lower himself and follow instructions even if he didn’t accept that. Why? Because the producer had the authority to fire a minor actor on the spot.

Then what about this kid in front of him?

Did this kid have a way to bring him harm?

Maru soon came to a conclusion.

“Just don’t be caught up with me.”

Maru calmly told him. Hochul widened his eyes and looked back at him. He was about to say something, but Maru quickly moved back.

He did not plan to become a hero that was weak against the weak and strong against the strong. If someone with power looked down on him, he would yield and wait for the right opportunity. But what if someone without power bared their fangs at him without knowing their place?

“Let’s do this together.”

Maru grinned back at him.

Chapter 372

Maru returned to his place and calmed his breathing. Although Hochul was glaring at him, glaring didn’t do damage.

“Don’t make a mistake. We’re going to start the shoot now, so get yourself together. Get your breathing together and… cue.”

Hochul softened his lips and got his emotions together before coming over to him and grabbing his shoulder. His fingers were tense. He even pinched slightly as though to ‘put Maru in his place’. There was a slight pain from Maru’s shoulder.

“You heard what I said, right?”

“Uh, yeah.”

“Just do as I say. If you do this well, I’ll pull you up in the next round. Trust me.”

That was a mistake on Hochul’s part. There was no such line as ‘just do as I say’. However, since the director didn’t cut them off, there was no need for Maru to mind about that. The judgement was the director’s worth. As long as he wasn’t given the signal to stop, he would continue acting.

He pulled his chin inwards and looked at Hochul. At this very moment, Hochul was a ray of light to him. It might be false hope, but he couldn’t help but be charmed by it. He was the one that might be able to turn team member 1’s desires into reality.

Actions required motivation, and motivation required emotion. It was important to pick out the emotion that was precisely between the boiling emotions and the uneasiness stemming from the fear that everything would fall apart if he was found out.

If it was any other time, he would volunteer to be expendable. He would not dig deep into the emotions of the character and would avoid the emotions of the other party as well. After all, this was something trivial. It was not important.

However, it was different now. It was an opportunity.

Opportunities were like invisible arrows. They just shot past even if one stood still. Those that create the arrows of opportunity by themselves were the so-called ‘prodigies’, and those that grabbed the arrows out of luck would be called ‘talented’. Normally, people would miss all of them. Despite so many opportunities whizzing past, most people don’t even realize that they did. That was normal. However, there were rare occasions where people discovered an opportunity that was coming straight at their faces. A razor-sharp opportunity would rage towards them. Most of the time, opportunities were scary. They did not occur in everyday life. They started from change, and change was something new, and new was something to be afraid of because it was the unknown. This was why people ignored those opportunities or consoled themselves by saying that the opportunity wasn’t for them and just let it go.

Maru was neither a genius nor a talented person. However, he had one weapon that no others of his age could have. It was experience. He had learned to adapt to change and developed his eyes to spot opportunities. This wasn’t given to him for nothing. It was compensation for the experience piled up from the long time he had lived.

At this moment, Maru’s vision widened. He saw the actors lined up behind the producer who was looking at him with an angry face. A small commotion brought them here and attracted their attention. The staff was paying attention to them as well. They were desperately hoping that he and Hochul would calm down the burning personality of the producer.

All of their attention was on the two. Maru barely held himself back from grinning.

A stage was set. A stage that would engrave his image into everyone’s minds.

He followed Hochul’s gaze. He saw the salt. Now, he had to grab it with all of his wishes. However, he couldn’t look excited as he did so. This was an extremely dangerous task, a crime. There was no way a criminal would only be excited thinking about the good results. He had to do it carefully, and with a bit of hesitation as well.

“Sorry, I made a mistake in my line.”

Maru stopped his hand in midair. He slowly turned around to look at Hochul. He had a very ugly expression on. Was his choice really right?

Maru looked at the producer. He wasn’t saying anything. He only raised his hand to stop the camera. Hochul bowed his head and apologized to everyone.

Usually, everyone would just laugh if an NG scene occurred. It was something that humans did. Everyone knew that it would be strange instead if there were no mistakes at all. The producers all knew that the shoot would drag out if they shouted at the actors and the actors became intimidated.

However, there were times where they couldn’t accept NG scenes. Maru noticed. The air was expanding. The situation was about to become really ugly here. Living a corporate life would make a person learn to read the mood. The mood of the office, that is.

Also, the mood of any workplace was decided by the most superior person there. In this place, it was the producer and Lee Miyoon.

There was only one reason that the producer stayed still. That was because there was someone who he couldn’t act as he wished to in front of. Of course, the producer would win if they went to the bitter end with the power struggle. After all, he held the authority to change actors. However, holding power struggles with actors all the time would not allow him to keep shooting. So, he would let go most of the time unless the situation was serious.

“Hey.”

Miyoon pointed at Hochul. Hochul froze up.

“Aren’t you coming?”

“Ah, yes. I’m sorry.”

Hochul immediately stood in front of Miyoon.

“Sorry producer Kim. I couldn’t stay still. That’s why I decided to interfere. Is that alright with you?”

“Yes, okay. Please explain it to him so that he can understand.”

“Alright. Why don’t we take a little break?” Miyoon spoke with a smile.

The producer declared a 10 minute break time. The staff members all walked away as though they were waiting for that moment. Only a minimum number of people remained behind to look after the equipment. The actors walked away as well. Maru was about to join them and leave this place, but a voice stopped him from doing so.

“Hey, you. Come here.”

Maru sighed slightly and stood next to Hochul. Miyoon told the staff that was looking after the equipment to leave the place for a while. The staff members went away. There was no human presence around the storage vault.

“Hochul, was it?”

“Ye-Yes!”

“My dear, an actor must be bold once they start acting. You can’t cower in front of others. It doesn’t matter how old you are. Even if you treat an elderly in the 80s politely most of the time, you must act with the mindset to win against him once you start acting. That is what being an actor is.”

“Understood.”

“You understood? And yet you acted like that? Are you an extra? Or a staff member that’s just filling in because of an accident? If you’re a support actor that came here through the audition, you should overpower any minor actor with ease!”

Miyoon suddenly raised her voice. Her voice was loud enough to ring throughout the entire 2nd floor. Hochul flinched and shrunk his head.

“And who told you that you can stop? Hey, are you that confident in your acting skills? Do you have the confidence to do it flawlessly if you do it again?”

“N-no.”

“Then who the hell are you to stop midway when the director hasn’t said anything? If you aren’t good at acting, at least learn to read the mood. I’ve never seen anyone as stupid as you.”

Miyoon poked Hochul’s shoulder.

“You know? I am flabbergasted when I see idiots like you. People like you, who think anyone can be actors and show up on TV make me wake up at night. Are you one of those idols or something?”

“No.”

“Have you learned acting formally?”

“Yes.”

“Then what is wrong? How old are you?”

“E-eighteen.”

“And you’re old enough too. When I was your age, everyone treated me like an adult. But kids these days are kids even at that age. You still reek of milk. You learned acting? And you can still yap on with that mouth of yours? If it was me, I wouldn’t be able to speak because of embarrassment.”

“I’m sorry.”

Hearing those words, Miyoon stiffened up and clicked her tongue.

“Do you know what I hate the most? It’s people like you who are quick to apologize and want to escape the moment. It’s horrific. Very horrific. Incompetent fools who only know how to apologize. Hey, whose family are you?”

“F-family?”

“I mean your company!”

“G-good People.”

“Good People? I thought of them as a decent agency, but it looks like they made the wrong choice about you.”

Miyoon slapped Hochul’s cheeks with the back of her hand. Hochul swayed.

“Hah, you don’t even have any strength in the legs and waist. Are you still a man?”

Miyoon walked in front of Hochul and tightly grabbed his thighs. Hochul closed his eyes shut and flinched back. Miyoon observed his expression for a while before letting go.

Maru clicked his tongue. This woman was something. Leaving aside good or bad, the pressure she gave off was incredible. She wasn’t called the godmother in the drama industry for nothing.

She turned around from Hochul and faced Maru this time.

“I saw you last time.”

“Yes. We met in Namyangju last time.”

“Yes, I remember you. You’re that smart kid. Now that I look at you today, you have the basics down. Whose family are you?”

“I’m currently in JA.”

“JA, you say… Oh, it’s Junmin’s huh. No wonder your eyes are filled with vitality unlike the other kids these days. So you’re in the same family as Suyeon?”

“Yes.”

“Hm, Junmin does have a good eye for people.”

Miyoon nodded with a satisfied smile.

“How old are you?”

“I’m also eighteen.”

“Really? There’s so much difference between you two even though you are the same age. It’s because people like him are taking the good roles that people like you can’t climb up.”

A wrinkly hand stroked his chin. Maru smiled faintly and stood still. After observing his face for a while, Miyoon stepped back.

“I hope I see you more frequently.”

“Yes.”

Miyoon told Hochul to get himself together before leaving the storage vault. Hochul, who barely breathed, waited for Miyoon to leave. After that, he turned around.

“You damned bastard!”

Maru just watched Hochul come up to him and shout at him. He was someone true to his emotions. He must have grown up in an environment where he didn’t have to read the mood around him. He was a little arrogant, but he had a bit of skill to back it up. He probably never got ignored by others of his age.

Maru understood how he felt. He probably felt wronged. He was probably thinking that it wasn’t his fault.

“Because of you, I…”

“Stop nagging.”

Maru grabbed Hochul’s shoulder. Then he clenched it. Hochul writhed in pain and tried to pull away, but he did not let go. Maru would probably have to see this guy again in the future, perhaps in the shoot of another drama. That was why he needed to set things straight here. If he couldn’t be close to him, then he had to go higher than him. That would make things much easier for him.

“Just do your bit. I will do my bit. It’s that simple. Understand?”

He looked straight into Hochul’s eyes and spoke. This kind of guy only knew how to pretend to be angry, not actually get angry. In some sense, he was a kind and soft guy. Hochul looked away and shut his mouth. Perhaps his last line of pride was that he didn’t nod.

Maru loosened his hand and let go. Hochul left as he looked down at the floor.

‘Phew, this is hard.’

He leaned against the wall and stretched his arms out. He had to make the most of what little break time he had left.

* * *

“I’m sorry, please forgive me.”

“Those who play around with food for the customers don't have the right to cook. Get out of here this instant!”

Maru slowly kneeled as he was scolded by Miyoon. Then, he shouted at her to give him another chance. The camera followed Miyoon. Now, he wouldn’t be on the camera anymore. However, his voice would. He smashed his head against the ground and kept shouting. Just like the script said.

“Okay!”

The producer’s voice could be heard. Maru breathed out one last time at the floor in front of him before raising his head. His throat was getting sore after all that shouting.

“Nice acting.”

The producer smiled and tapped his head with the script. It seemed that he had scored some points with him. Although Hochoul was glaring at him from the corner, Maru didn’t even mind.

“Wow, you’re quite good.”

Gwangseok approached him and spoke. Gyunglim was behind him as well. Maru took off the toque and the cooking uniform and returned them. That was it for minor actors today. Only scenes for the lead and support actors were left. Maru said goodbye to the other actors and the staff before leaving the restaurant.

“I heard some loud scolding back there. What was it about?”

Gwangseok asked what happened in the storage vault. Maru said that it was nothing much.

“Really? Well, that woman did shout at every mistake she saw during the last shoot. No, I guess she’s not a woman but a hag?”

Gwangseok shook his head as though he was fed up with her.

“Hey, it looks like we need to delay our appointment for later. Something came up suddenly.”

“Alright.”

That was good. Maru had something to do at home. It was to watch historical dramas on RBS. Although the elder told him not to worry about the audition, he didn’t know what was coming for him. Just as he turned around after sending Gwangseok off, though,

“Hey.”

Gyunglim approached him.

Chapter 373

“Let’s grab something to eat,” Gyunglim spoke as she hooked her arm around Maru’s.

Maru looked at her face before pulling out his arm.

“I’m planning to eat at home.”

“I’m not going to tell you to treat me, so let’s go.”

Maru stared at Gyunglim who pulled on his arm.

“I like to make things clear. Especially when it comes to relationships.”

Gyunglim let go of his arm and tilted her head.

“So?”

“We can eat together, that’s fine. After all, in a broader sense, we are colleagues that are working together. But after hearing what you said to me before, I think your intention is clearly not the ‘colleague’ sense of eating together. Am I wrong?”

Gyunglim brushed side hair behind her ears and smiled.

“So, you’re really not interested in me?”

“Yes. Really.”

“Then why did you act like that to me before? Why were you kind to me?”

“Anyone can act like that out of kindness. Isn’t it courtesy to worry about someone even in words if they look uneasy next to you?”

“So it was an act out of kindness?”

Maru nodded. What was this called again, princess syndrome? It was good that she was confident about herself, but the way she conveyed that to the others around her was a big problem.

“R-really?”

Gyunglim’s expression became uneasy as she bit her lips slightly. She was really easy to read. She was like this during the last shoot as well. She was the type to blurt out what was on her mind and instantly regret it. Put in a good way, she was brave and put in a bad way, she didn’t think much. It seemed that her ego was big enough to think that everyone around her liked her, but Maru didn’t know how to put it in order to make her understand.

“You should fix that habit of yours to blurt out what’s in your head. If you don’t, you’ll be misunderstood by a lot of people. Also, stop fantasizing after you shut up because you look like you’re in a bad position. Likewise, the misunderstanding becomes bigger as well. Lastly, I’m a married man.”

“M-m-married man?”

Gyunglim scanned him before slowly taking steps backwards.

Maru shrugged. A moment later, Gyunglim made an angry expression after realizing that it was a joke, but she immediately loosened it.

“…Then let’s just eat together. I don’t want to eat by myself.”

“Don’t you have any friends?”

“I don’t. I, I mean, it’s not that I don’t but…”

Gyunglim started biting her lips after blurting that out. Looking at her now, it was quite interesting to watch her. She wasn’t a bad girl at heart. She was just awkward at expressing herself and fantasized a lot, which made her unlikable.

“Are you treating me?”

“Me?”

“I lent you an ear and even gave you a diagnosis, I think that’s worth a meal.”

“…Yeah, it’s a waste, but okay.”

“There you go again.”

“What?”

“You didn’t have to say the latter part.”

“It’s not good to deceive people, right? It’s better to be honest.”

Maru smiled when he heard the textbook answer. Well, she was right, in a sense. The plant known as the art of living did not exactly sprout from the soil known as ethics.

“You’re going to eat something cheap, right?”

“I’m not that shameless.”

Maru pointed at the kimbap restaurant right in front.

* * *

“It’s not.”

“It is.”

“I’m serious. This is real.”

“Put your hand on your heart and say that again. Really?”

“Uhm, yeah!”

“Think about what your hesitation means.”

“You damned…”

“Don’t swear at me.”

“I’m not doing this!”

Gyunglim snorted and started eating the ramen. Maru thought that she’d order a roll of vegetable kimbap due to considerations of her weight, but she ordered pork cutlets, a roll of cheese kimbap, a bowl of ramyun with cheese, and even a bowl of jeyuk-bokkeum to go with it, all for herself.

“Noona. I’m not joking around. Did Ahn Sungjae’s eyes really look serious when he looked at you?”

“I told you so. We take the same class, and we met eyes several times!”

Bits and pieces of ramyun spewed out from her mouth. Maru quickly avoided them. Gyunglim looked at the food fragments on the table before quickly wiping them away with some tissue. Then, she wiped her mouth with the same tissue as though nothing had happened.

“Ahn Sungjae from TTO fancies you?”

“How many times do I have to tell you?”

Gyunglim stuffed more kimbap in her mouth out of frustration.

The start of the story was like this: Right after they ordered some food, Gyunglim started talking about Sungjae. They were taking classes together, and it seemed that he took fancy in her.

Hearing those words, Maru burst out laughing, and things led to one another up to this point.

“They say multiple coincidences is fate.”

“Yes, I heard that before. And it’s also been discovered that it’s completely useless.”

“Would we have met eyes if he didn’t look at me?”

“I thought there were only three in the class. Gwangseok-hyung, Ahn Sungjae, and you, noona. You don’t like Gwangseok-hyung, right?”

“Yeah. I totally hate that guy.”

She didn’t hesitate at all. Maru nodded and asked again.

“And you said that the instructor is quite scary, right?”

“Yeah! When she stays still, she looks very lofty and looks like she won’t talk at all, but once she does open her mouth, it’s an endless wave of storms. Moreover, you don’t know how harsh her training sessions are. I’m not sure if I’m going to learn acting or gymnastics.”

“Meeting eyes with someone like that makes you feel unpleasant, right?”

“Of course.”

“There, we have a conclusion. Where else can you look? The only one left is Ahn Sungjae. In the end, the only reason you met eyes with him is not because Ahn Sungjae is looking at you, noona, but because you are ogling Ahn Sungjae all the time. Okay?”

“……”

“Looks like you think what I’m saying is true since you’re staying quiet.”

Maru looked into Gyunglim’s eyes as he ate some pickled radish. When he looked into her eyes, a speech bubble popped up above her head.

-Fine, you’re smart. You’re right. Yeah, that’s right! Let’s say you’re right!

“Fine, you’re smart. You’re right. Yeah, that’s right! Let’s say you’re right!”

She blurted out what was exactly on her mind. Maru started laughing again. At this point, she was a human treasure; one that did not know how to hold back.

“You can say all that, so why did you stay still back then? People dislike you because you stay silent for everything else but blurt out things that poke their conscience.”

“…That’s because I’m not used to speaking in front of others. No, I hate doing so.”

“And yet you’re trying to be an actor?”

“Acting is different. It’s work. But talking to a crowd of people is too hard.”

“I get it. You actually ran into a lot of trouble because you talked too much, right? And that’s why you stay silent.”

“You know well.”

Gyunglim put the spoon inside her mouth and just moved it up and down.

“You should really learn to tell lies and suck up to people. You’re an adult, you should be able to do that. I think twenty-one is plenty old enough.”

“Hey, I know that too, you know?”

“If you know, then you should put it into practice. Also, don’t think that all men like you. When I look at you, I feel like you’d get your entire life’s savings scammed by someone.”

“Me?”

“Yes. Tell me honestly. Have you ever dated someone?”

“N-no. How did you know that?”

“It’s obvious from looking at you. Who would like a girl who acts proud because she thinks everyone likes her? Even if they did like you, they’d probably feel horrible from seeing how you act and walk away.”

“Why?”

“Why? Unless it’s unconditional love, love goes both ways. You should look for one-sided devotion in fiction. Think about it. There’s a man who has an interest in you. He approached you in hopes of developing his feelings into love, but you suddenly say ‘I know everything already. You like me, don’t you?’ to him. How would he feel then?”

“…Good, probably?”

“Oh my word…”

“Th-that’s not it? Why? Whether he likes me or hates me, he should just say it. He has an interest in me because he likes me, right?”

“There are things called stages. Also, being honest isn’t always the answer. Especially when it comes to relationships.”

“I don’t understand.”

“It’s me who doesn’t understand. Are you even Korean?”

“I am.”

Gyunglim fiddled with her smartphone as she pouted.

“What are you doing?”

“Talking to my friends.”

“I thought you didn’t have any.”

“I do.”

Now that he thought about it, Gyunglim stared at her phone a lot during the last shoot as well. She was also on her phone the entire time throughout dinner at the BBQ restaurant last time.

“Should I show you my friends?”

She looked like someone who liked to boast about her friends. Maru nodded. He did wonder what kind of people they were. Gyunglim proudly showed him her phone screen. There were several messages. However, the names of the senders were quite strange.

“Are they foreigners?”

“No, they’re Korean.”

“Then why are their names in English?”

“Oh, that? It’s their IDs.”

“IDs?”

“Yeah.”

“What IDs?”

“Blog IDs.”

“…Oh.”

“What?”

“Have you ever met the people you’re texting in person?”

“N-no.”

“…I guess internet friends do count as friends.”

Gyunglim connected to the internet on her phone. She showed him the blog she was using on her tiny phone screen. Curiously, it was a blog related to calligraphy. Maru was worried about her phone bill. It would probably cost a lot to keep scrolling through the page like that.

“Your phone bill will go up if you use it that much.”

“It’s fine.”

She didn’t seem to worry about it that much. After showing him around the blog for a while, Gyunglim continued speaking.

“Look, they’re all good people. They never get angry. Everyone’s honest.”

“Sure.”

“Why are you looking at me like that?”

Maru smiled and looked away. He didn’t know whether she was a good girl or not, but she was definitely a kind person. People like her were extremely rare in the current era. She maintained her honesty in an era where teachers taught the kids to be honest but being honest never had its good sides.

“Uhm, hey.”

“Yes?”

“Actually, there’s one more reason I asked you to eat with me.”

Gyunglim hesitated for the first time since coming to the restaurant. Maru ate the last piece of pork cutlet and spoke.

“What is it?”

“Can you teach me acting?”

“Eh? Me?”

“Yes. I saw it. How should I put it… Yes, it gave me the chills. I also want to act like that.”

“I thought you were already learning from an instructor.”

“I am, but I want to learn it in an easier way. You’re good at talking, aren’t you? Teach me, okay?”

“Forget it. I have my hands full as it is. I’m not teaching anyone.”

“If it’s money, I’ll pay. How much do you need?”

“Fine. It’s 5 million won. Not anything less than that.”

“Alright. That sounds fine.”

“Eh?”

Maru stared at Gyunglim for a while before chuckling. So she knew how to joke around after all.

“Forget it. Go learn from that instructor. Rather than that, let’s get going since we finished.”

“Hey!”

Maru picked up a toothpick before quickly leaving. Gyunglim quickly followed him and panted.

“Thanks for the meal.”

“Why did you run away?”

“I thought you were the one buying.”

“Yeah, but still.”

“Then I don’t see a problem.”

“Dammit. Leaving that aside, say yes. Say you’ll teach me.”

“I told you to learn from that instructor.”

“I hate that instructor. She’s scary. You just don’t know what she’s like. I made one mistake and she gave me an earful. Do you have experience running to death in this weather? Well, I do. That instructor, I mean, that woman stops at nothing.”

“Wow, she must be good.”

“I get that she’s skilled. Yes, that woman’s good. But she doesn’t suit me.”

“Then quit.”

“No, I can’t do that. Since I started it, I must do it until the end.”

“Then I guess your only choice is to endure.”

Maru felt a little tired since he just ate. He yawned as he walked towards the bus stop. Gyunglim snorted and followed him.

“Aren’t you going your way?”

“I’m also going this way! I have a lesson in an hour.”

“With that scary instructor?”

“Yeah.”

“Good for you.”

Just as he said that, his phone rang.

“Hello?”

-Han Maru. It’s me.

“Senior Miso. What’s up?”

-You heard from senior Junmin, right? That you need to attend lessons.

“Yes. Oh, are you the one teaching me?”

-Correct.

“Phew, is there physical training this time as well?”

-Acting requires stamina as well. Rather than that, what are you doing now? If you don’t have anything, come on over.

“To where?”

-Film, the academy in Gangnam.

“Oh? I’m in Yeoksam-dong[1] right now. I’m nearby, so I should be able to go soon.”

-Really? That’s good. This place is near Gangnam station.

“I’ll give you a call once I arrive at the station then.”

He hung up before looking behind him.

“I got an appointment, so I need to get going.”

“Fine, go. You damn prick.”

“See you next time.”

He waved at her before walking towards Gangnam station. He walked for quite a while before turning around, and he saw that Gyunglim was still following him.

“Are you still following me?”

“I said I’m going this way as well.”

Gyunglim angrily walked ahead of him. Maru shrugged as he walked.

[1] Gangnam station and Yeoksam station are only 1 (train) station apart

Chapter 374

Maru thought that something was strange when he crossed the pedestrian overpass with her.

“Is the place you’re going to Film?”

“Yes, and?”

Maru laughed in vain as he walked into the building's elevator and saw it close. Soon, they were on the 5th floor.

“Wait, you too?”

“Yes.”

“Do you commute here as well?”

Gyunglim asked in the corridor of the 5th floor.

“No, I came here to visit because someone I know is here.”

“Someone you know?”

“Yes. She works as an instructor.”

“That’s a strange coincidence. Hey, I told you that I wasn’t following you, okay?”

Gyunglim snorted before opening the door to the academy.

“Then Ahn Sungjae must be here as well?”

“It’s not just him. There are tons of famous people here. Just the actors that are here as instructors are super popular people.”

Gyunglim went to the 3rd lecture room. Maru stood in the corridor and called Miso.

“I’ve arrived at Film. I’m at the entrance right now.”

-Then wait there a minute. I’m going in right now as well.

It seemed that she went outside for lunch. He sat down on a seat in front of the information desk. The floor and ceilings were tiled in red. Next to the entrance which gave a strong impression were the signs and photos of various stars. It didn’t look like the academy was trying to boast, but rather was just calmly telling the visitors that they had such people.

“Are you here to consult about taking lessons?”

A lady holding a cup of coffee approached him and asked.

“No, I have an appointment with one of the instructors here so I’m waiting a little.”

“An instructor? Who?”

“Instructor Yang Miso.”

“Instructor Yang Miso?”

The lady seemed a little surprised. Just then, the door opened and Miso entered. She was holding a paper bag with a sandwich franchise logo in both of her hands.

“You’re here.”

“Yes, I’m here.”

“Then take this for a sec. It’s rather heavy.”

“I know you’re strong.”

He received the paper bag that Miso gave him. In one bag were six cups of coffee, and in the other were various sandwiches.

Miso looked at the coffee in the staff’s hands and spoke,

“Oh, you had lunch already?”

“Yes. We had a light meal.”

“What a pity, I should’ve been quicker. Then take this as dessert. You can take the coffee as well.”

Miso handed her a coffee and a sandwich despite the lady refusing.

“Thank you.”

They switched places after the lady thanked Miso. The place Miso headed towards was the 3rd lecture room.

“This is the place?”

“Yeah.”

Miso opened the door. Maru saw Gyunglim abruptly stand up from her seat. So the scary instructor was Miso? Maru barely held himself back from laughing and followed her in.

Gyunglim greeted Miso and discovered Maru, which made her confused.

“I’ll be in the faculty office for a bit. You two should get to know each other. You’re going to receive lessons together from tomorrow onwards. Oh, you can eat those as well.”

Miso took some coffees and sandwiches before leaving the lecture room.

“So the instructor you knew was instructor Miso?”

“Yes. What a coincidence.”

“Urgh, really?”

“Why are you so scared? Are you afraid that I’ll tell senior Miso what you said about her? That she’s scary, easily pissed, evil, and is total human trash?”

“I never said she was human trash!”

“Really? Then let me leave that out.”

Maru placed the two coffee cups in front of him and spoke.

“It looks like one’s black coffee and one’s a latte. Which one do you want?”

“I want the latte.”

He handed her the latte and sipped on the black coffee. When he was young, he wondered why people bothered drinking this bitter stuff. The coffee-lovers apparently looked for the hidden acidic and sweet taste, but Maru drank it for the bitter and ‘cheap’ taste. Oh, and for health reasons. After hearing that sugar was the source of all diseases, he always drank black. Though, he wouldn’t do that now.

“But why do you call the instructor senior?”

“Because she’s a graduate of my school.”

“No way.”

“This is why people call our country small.”

Gyunglim pouted as she drank the coffee.

“It’s really hot today, isn’t it?”

The door abruptly opened and Miso entered. In her hand was a fan. From how there was a photo of an apartment complex on it, it seemed that she received it from a nearby estate agent.

“Have you introduced yourselves?”

“We know each other, so we skipped that part.”

“Really? Miss Gyunglim, you know this guy?”

Gyunglim nodded shyly. She said she was scared of her, and it seemed like she didn’t know what to do.

“That’s good. You are going to take the same lessons in the future. Maru, how’s your time? I thought you were going to practice because you’re preparing for a movie.”

“I’m going there twice a week. On Thursdays and Fridays.”

“That’s good. Lessons are on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Wednesdays.”

“It’s held three times a week?”

“Well, yeah. They’re paying expensive fees for it after all.”

“Expensive fees?”

Maru subconsciously looked at Gyunglim. Gyunglim, who was biting a sandwich, looked at him with a questioning expression.

Maru looked at Miso and asked in a small voice.

“How much is it?”

“Three times a week, two hours per session. How much do you think it is per month, then?”

“Hm, if it’s that much… 300 thousand? No. It’s Gangnam here, so 500 thousand maybe?”

“Wow, 500 thousand?”

“It’s not?”

“It’s five million.”

After hearing that, Maru almost dropped his coffee.

“You’re kidding.”

“Kidding? No, it’s my class, so I should get that much at least.”

“How many are there in the class?”

“Four including you.”

“…That’s not a lot.”

“I’m teaching only so many members in Film, so there’s no way a couple hundred thousand is enough.”

“Gangnam sure is scary.”

“This isn’t that much. My lessons are cheap. The children of the so-called ‘prestigious’ families don’t come to acting schools like this. The super rich people are all at the college entrance preparation academies. I got to know a maths teacher through work, and apparently, that person received a watch after CSAT last year. One that cost 15 million won. Compared to that, this place is chump change.”

“Should I quit being an actor and start digging into maths?”

“I thought your grades weren’t good.”

“I’m solidly in the middle. Looks like I should focus on acting.”

“You really know your stuff, concerned about money at your age. But you’re good at acting as well. Man, the world is so unfair.”

Miso smacked Maru’s forehead. At that moment, a coughing sound could be heard. Gyunglim had a very surprised expression on her face.

“Anyway, you should come here by 10 in the future. As for what you need to bring, it’s a healthy body, undying mentality, as well as…”

“Willpower and tenacity, probably.”

“There you go. You’ve been keeping in shape, right?”

“Unintentionally, yes. Action acting was harder than I expected.”

“What’s not hard these days? If it’s an action school in Seoul, then it must be director Kim Choongho, huh. You should learn a lot from him. There’s no one better than him in our country.”

“Well, I’m trying my best to do exactly that.”

Miso grinned.

“Oh yeah. The movie. It’s the one by director Park Joongjin, isn’t it?”

“Yes.”

“Then I guess I’ll see you there too.”

“There too?”

“At the set.”

“Wait, you were cast as well?”

“No, he asked me to advise on acting on the set.”

“Acting advice? On the set? I thought that’s what directors did.”

“Right? I was going to refuse because it was so sudden, but it’s director Park Joongjin, isn’t it? The legendary Park Joongjin of ‘Spring Calendar’. That’s why I gave it a shot. Perhaps I’ll get to learn something from him. Even that picky senior Junmin gave me permission as well.”

“So you’re doing it?”

“As experience, yes.”

“He’s not your everyday eccentric… I think putting the two of you together might cause problems.”

“I’m a calm and obedient person, so it’s fine.”

“Haha, that’s the funniest joke I’ve heard this year.”

Maru quickly continued when he saw Miso’s hand up in the air.

“So, when do I get to eat the celebratory noodles[1]?”

“…W-wait a little more.”

“So that means there was some progress?”

“I did greet his parents.”

Miso raised her thumb and spoke.

“But why do I need to report to you about it?”

“Because I was the wingman. Am I wrong?”

“I guess you’re right.”

“They say owing someone will make you regret it.”

“Can’t you just come and eat food without paying congratulatory gift money?”

Miso stood up after messing up Maru’s hair.

“Miss Gyunglim.”

“Yes!”

“Do you have any message from Mr. Sungjae?”

“No.”

“He’s usually here 10 minutes before class…”

As soon as Miso said that, the door to the lecture room opened. Sungjae appeared wearing a trench coat. A trench coat in the summer, huh. He even had makeup on.

“Sorry for being late.”

“Not at all. We haven’t started yet. Rather than that, were you at a photoshoot or something?”

“Yes.”

“Really?”

“Yes.”

Sungjae came in with an awkward smile and discovered Maru.

“Oh, it’s you.”

“We’ve met before, haven’t we? Hello.”

“You’re the one I saw when I was going to the set, right?”

“Yes, that’s me.”

“Nice to meet you. I’ve always wanted to meet you.”

“Me?”

“I’ve heard some stories about you from sir Moonjoong.”

Sungjae reached out and offered a handshake. Maru wiped his hand on his pants and grabbed Sungjae’s hand.

“What’s your name?”

“I’m Han Maru. Oh, my sister is a huge fan of yours. I gave her your autograph back then.”

“Really? That’s good.”

Sungjae smiled as he let go. Maru exclaimed slightly. He looked very handsome and did not lose out to any actors. It seemed that not anyone could become the best in the country.

“Ah.”

Maru grinned and looked at Gyunglim. Gyunglim shook her head vigorously.

“What is it?”

“Nothing. Rather than that, please take care of me in the future. I’m going to receive lessons here as well.”

“Really? That’s good for me.”

He was even cooler when he smiled. Maru felt that he might become a fan at this rate. It shouldn’t be bad to go to his concert one time.

“Well then. If you finished introducing yourselves, let’s begin, shall we?”

Miso clapped to gather attention.

“Maru, you should just watch for today. Also, once you officially join, I’m going to call you Mr. Maru, so bear that in mind.”

“Really? That gives me the chills for some reason.”

“Shut up and listen.”

“Okay. Oh, what about the lesson fees?”

“Senior Junmin already paid for it.”

“My backer is quite reassuring.”

“Stop grinning and go sit over there. Well then, let’s begin.”

Maru nodded and sat down on the chair.

* * *

“Even characters without much weight have their own backstory. However, the script will not mention what that character did until now, what kinds of problems he or she has, or what kinds of desires he or she has. That’s because they’re just characters that just flash by. But there are people that grab onto those characters, dig into them, and try to make the character their own. Those are the actors that you need to learn from.”

Sungjae nodded his head. What Miso said was entirely correct.

“Among the top actors and actresses today, there is no one that was suddenly cast as a lead role. Everyone started from nameless minor roles. We get surprised when seeing such actors. How can they act like that? The answer lies in the characters they created. They have one body, but they have several souls. They really become a beggar if they play a beggar role, and when they play a rich role, then they become rich to their bones. They do not stop at imitating that role, but they continue on to understand and dig deeper into the mindset of such people and become the character itself. The thing we call method acting is actually the acting skill that’s focused on the foundation.”

“Is it enough to just get immersed into the role?” Sungjae asked a question.

“No. Oh, bear in mind, what I’m saying might not be the truth. What I’m about to say is just one methodology. You asked a very nice question. Becoming immersed, that’s not easy either. However, if you can do that, no one will tell you that you’re bad at acting. However, the actors that play around with the audience on their palms do not stop there. They add character to that. Let’s take an example. Everyone here knows Park Taeho, right?”

“Of course. Who doesn’t?”

Gyunglim spoke.

“Actor Park Taeho, winner of the Daejong Awards. In the movie ‘The Road Home’ he shot two years ago, he played a man in his 40s who was forced to voluntarily resign from his company. In order to understand such people, he approached actual people who were forced to resign from their company and talked with them. Some actors have people under them to gather materials and do interviews for them, but like that, they’ll never be fully fledged. First-hand interviews and seeing it on paper are worlds different after all. Like that, he understood their problems, experienced their pains, and perhaps even received insults from such people for doing such a thing. That’s how the main character of that movie came about.”

Sungjae imagined himself going to various people and asking questions. It wasn’t anything good either. Asking people who were forced to resign from their companies about their resignation? He’d probably have to be prepared to get slapped at least.

“Also, Park Taeho donated his guarantee from that movie to a foundation that works for the re-employment of middle-aged people. He also did a campaign with the people that helped him out on the interview. Of course, I’m not telling you all to do this. That’s something that happened because the man named Park Taeho is too great. Normal people can’t do that, whether it’s due to emotional limitations or due to physical limitations.”

Miso looked at the clock before breathing out.

“Let’s stop there for today. I talked too much.”

[1] I.e. when are Miso & Taesik getting married

Chapter 375

The method was very different from how she taught at school. At school, Miso just gave instructions. The only thing that awaited those that were not able to follow instructions was cruel leg stretching. She put importance on unified acting rather than independent thought and tried to put all the students into a standardized mold like the military. It was Miso’s way of building the foundation.

However, the people gathered here were either pros or aspiring pros. There was no reason to follow a forced and unified education style. Miso’s way of doing lessons was to first talk about the theoretical stuff, and then bring up examples to explain. After building the founding knowledge, she immediately had her students practice.

Most of the acting was free acting. There were times where she would give context, but most of the time, she induced the actors to create a situation for themself. After the act, the actor would then explain the theoretical stuff themself: what the surface and inner emotions were; whether they matched or not and if they matched, why they matched or if they did not, why they did not.

Miso asked questions until the answerer couldn’t say anything anymore. Although Maru was just watching, he felt his strength draining. When Gyunglim said that she was scary, he thought of an instructor that shouted at the students, but this was on a completely different level. Shouting, they could just ignore. They might feel bad while they were being scolded, but they would be able to forget about it after some time. Moreover, it was easier on the mind as well since it didn’t require any action on the student’s part.

However, these kinds of lessons where they had to devise their own acts required the students to think about their actions endlessly. Miso did not scold people, but she persistently asked questions about their acting until they could not answer anymore. It would end only when they were at a loss for words.

“Haa, it’s so hard.”

Gyunglim became utterly exhausted as she collapsed on the ground. She looked like she didn’t have the strength to sit on her seat. She fell sideways and started sighing. Sungjae approached Maru.

“What do you think?”

“It’s terrible. Shouldn’t you report her to the police for human rights violation?”

When he said that, Miso, who was drinking water in front of the beam projector screen said that she could hear everything.

“It’s hard, but it’s worth it. I feel like I’ve returned to my younger days.”

“Your younger days?”

Sungjae nodded.

“Before I entered TTO, I was going to an acting school. That was during high school so whew, that’s nearly 10 years ago.”

“Your dream was to become an actor when you were young, huh.”

“It still is. Becoming an idol is well, a strategy of sorts. When I think about it now, I must have not been confident in myself. That’s why I followed the president’s words. If I really had the confidence that I would do well, I would have probably stuck with that path and not become an idol.”

“Do you regret it?”

Hearing that question, Sungjae smiled and didn’t say anything. Maru sipped some water before speaking.

“I think it was a splendid decision.”

“What, mine?”

“Yes. If you become successful after walking down a path filled with hardships, you might look cool, but there is no difference in success, is there? As long as you’re doing good, then that’s good enough. If someone gave me the same offer, I would take it without hesitation. No, wait. Being an idol isn’t easy, right? If you think about it, those that will become successful will become successful no matter what. They just take detours.”

Did Sungjae win the title of the ‘best idol in Korea’ through gambling? Did he pick it up from the side of the road? With the rise in popularity of idols, there was a rise in the number of idol-related TV programs as well, and Maru got to watch a documentary of trainees that wished to become idols. They staked everything into their agencies in order to become idols. Junmin once said that the actor market was a red ocean. In Maru’s opinion, the idol market was a blood ocean. Sungjae said that he was not confident, but with that tenacity and passion of his that put him in his spot right now, he would probably have done well no matter what it was.

“If you put it like that, I feel thankful and a little embarrassed.”

“If you appreciate it, then give me another autograph. My sister is starting to become defiant so I need a carrot for her.”

“Haha, sure. But looks like you’re on good terms with your sister, huh? One of our members would just shudder at the mention of his little sister.”

“Well, she’s a piece of luggage. I heard that Gwangseok-hyung was in this class as well.”

“He says he’s taking the day off because he has an appointment today. You know him as well?”

“The three of us, including Gyunglim-noona, met during a shoot before. All three of us as minor actors.”

“I see. A movie shoot?”

“No, it was for a drama.”

“You haven’t shot a movie since Twilight Struggles?”

“I haven’t shot one yet, but I am training in order to shoot one.”

“That’s good. Sir Moonjoong told me that it would be bad to have a long rest period. Looks like you don’t need to worry about that.”

“I have it rather lucky.”

Practice was important, but not losing a sense of the real deal was just as important. It was a very good fortune that Maru was able to keep acting without a long break.

“Looks like the elder has told you a lot of good things.”

“The elder? Oh, sir Moonjoong, huh. Hm, actually, I was scolded a lot instead. The day I met you was my first day on the set, and I was scolded big time from the get go.”

“By the elder?”

“Yes. Looks like I had something like an inferiority complex. That’s why I became nervous by myself when I first arrived at the set. I believed that the actors would not see me in a good light. After all, I hear quite frequently that idols are trying to steal the places of actors.”

Sungjae smiled in embarrassment.

“But I realized the next day that I was horribly misunderstanding. Stealing their places? That was just a delusion. I could never win against them through acting.”

“However, when it comes to popularity, you won’t know what would happen.”

Maru provoked him slightly. How would he try to avoid sensitive topics? There was a need to see what his personality was since they would be taking lessons together in the future. He looked likeable on the surface, but he needed to talk to him in depth to find out for sure.

“You’re right. That’s right as well. In entertainment programs, that works. The same goes for dramas. After all, it’s easy to access. You can see idols as long as you have electrical power and a TV, so in the perspective of TV stations, featuring idols to raise viewing rates must be a convenient method for them. I admit that going on TV programs using popularity is easy. Also, I thought that the same formula would work on movies as well. Until just a while ago, that is.”

Sungjae took out a movie poster that was folded in half from the sports bag that his manager brought him. It was a thriller that was released during the summer holidays. Two men were glaring at each other, and one of them looked to be in the forties, while the other looked to be in the early 20s.

“You know who this is, right?”

Sungjae pointed at the younger guy. Maru shook his head.

“I don’t know idols that well.”

“Really? Well, I guess you wouldn’t be that knowledgeable if it’s not girl idols.”

In truth, Maru didn’t know a lot about girl idols either. Maru smiled awkwardly and waited for him to continue.

“He belongs to a group called Change, and he’s a rather popular guy. They placed 1st in the rankings not too long ago as well. There was a bit of acting skill controversy when he appeared as a minor character in a drama, but it soon disappeared. In my eyes too, he wasn’t that awkward at acting. Like that, this movie was released. I heard that the agency stretched its investment in this. It was all the rage on the internet prior to its release. There were many fans that said that they were going to watch it five times.”

“Didn’t this disappear after around a week or so? I heard that the acting was shit.”

Gyunglim, who had been watching from the side, suddenly spoke. She immediately became startled and looked at Sungjae’s face. It seemed that she was never going to get rid of her habit for a lifetime.

“I-I didn’t mean that, but.”

“You’re right. It did horribly. I went to watch it last week. I mean, it’s a movie with an idol as the main character. I wanted to see how it was as well as the atmosphere at the cinema. Also, on how well it would do. The movie itself was not that bad. The story was interesting, and the acting skills of the prosecutor character, actor Choi Jaechul, were good as well. But this guy, this guy made it look bad.”

Sungjae folded the poster again. He had a relaxing smile on, but it looked like he was seeing far into the future.

“There were definitely many girls. The internet was still hot about it as well. But that was it. There was nothing other than that. At the start of the year, the movie Silmido[1] was released, right? And it received over 10 million views. In that movie, there were no actors that had lacking acting skills. Even the actors that I don’t know the name of, contributed to the movie with heavy acting skills. Back then, I thought that it would be fine to replace one of them with an idol. I believed that even if one of the minor actors was lacking, the power of popularity would make up for it. But I found out that I was too narrow-sighted through the movie shoot this time. On TV, popularity does work. But it doesn’t work for movies. I forgot about the obvious fact that you need to go and pay for tickets to watch a movie. I was mistaken just because I was a little drunk on momentary popularity. I forgot that the public was frighteningly sensitive to ‘fun’. The ‘fun’ that can be satisfied by idols and the ‘fun’ that can be satisfied by movies is different.”

He nodded his head before putting the poster back in his bag.

“Sorry for stepping over the line.”

Maru apologized to Sungjae. He felt sorry that he tried to probe him out. What he found out through this conversation was that the person named Ahn Sungjae was not light at all. Only those that think deeply can introspect themselves. Sungjae was a person that had already finished looking back on himself and was making progress. Meeting people like him as a junior at a company would make the senior both happy and afraid. That was because they knew that that junior would soon rise in ranks.

“No, I feel good since you were just as I expected.”

“Just as you expected?”

“When I shot Twilight Struggles, I kinda became insistent on staying there. I delayed my entire schedule and begged the president so I could stay there. My part of the movie was finished already, so in order to find an excuse to stay there, I did some menial work for the staff and drank together with them at night. The fact that I can drink a lot helped quite a lot back then.”

“Drinking? Did you perhaps drink with the elder as well?”

“Yeah, as well as the other actors. Back then, sir Moonjoong talked about you a lot. He said that you’re quite bold and unexpected and that I will never be bored when I’m with you. Now that I met you in person, I think I know what he was trying to say.”

“I’m not that bold. I’m a quiet guy.”

“This guy says whatever he wants and is so cocky.”

Gyunglim suddenly interfered and said a line.

Sungjae laughed. Maru just watched as Sungjae laughed heartily.

‘He’s a decent guy.’

He might really be a good guy. Maru always had a bad image of idols, he thought that Sungjae might change his mindset.

“Looks like the lesson was too easy for you from how you’re laughing and chatting. Well, then. Let’s resume, shall we? Let’s start with light acrobatics to remove those smiles on your faces.”

Miso clapped as she walked forward. Maru wished them luck before walking backwards. Today, he was just watching after all.

“Mr. Han Maru.”

“Yes?”

“Where are you going?”

“Going back to my seat and watching?”

“You don’t need to. Come here and stand against the wall. If you’ve been keeping in shape, you should be able to stretch your legs out like last year.”

“I thought I was just watching for today…”

“Do you want to do it moderately today? Or do you want to do twice as much, tomorrow?”

Maru walked to the wall as he watched Miso’s twitching smile, thinking that there were enemies he could not win against in this world.

* * *

“Then see you tomorrow, everyone.”

Miso left the lecture room with a refreshed expression. Maru clenched his teeth as he fell to the floor. This class was even harder than his action classes.

“You still alive?”

Sungjae spoke from the side. Maru replied yes in a small voice.

“Looks like Gyunglim-noona died.”

“It seems so.”

“Should we hold a funeral for her?”

“I’m too exhausted to do that.”

“I guess we can’t help it then. Let’s just go by ourselves.”

“Alright. Oh, Maru. Do you want to eat together? There’s a good bossam restaurant nearby.”

“Are you buying?”

“I wouldn’t have someone younger than me buy.”

“I’ll treat you like a big brother for a lifetime. Are you going too, Gyunglim-noona?”

Gyunglim stood up like a zombie and slowly nodded.

“Ah, right. Sungjae-hyung.”

“What is it?”

“You know what?”

“What?”

“Apparently, you like someone.”

“What the heck does that mean?”

Sungjae tilted his head, and Gyunglim screamed as she stood up.

Seeing her, Maru giggled for a while. He really liked this class.

[1] An actual movie released in 2003. Wikipedia link for more details

Chapter 376

“I come here quite frequently, and the food is really good.”

The place he followed Sungjae to was a Japanese-style restaurant. He pushed aside the blue noren and walked inside. Next to the entrance, which was decorated with black pebbles and gravel, was a desk that checked for reservation. When Sungjae approached that desk, the employee smiled back at him. It seemed that Sungjae was really a regular here from how he greeted back without being flustered.

‘I’m eating a lot of good food these days.’

He was eating a lot of good food these days unintentionally. It was good to have acquaintances that were successful. Normally, he’d avoid such food due to the price.

“This place, huh. It’s quite good.”

Gyunglim spoke from the side.

“You’ve been here before?”

“Here? Yeah.”

Gyunglim nodded as though it was natural.

“Let’s go in.”

They followed Sungjae to the 2nd floor. An employee opened the door for them.

“Please wait a moment.”

The employee smiled and closed the door.

“I’m worried these days because I regained my appetite thanks to the instructor,” Sungjae sat down as he spoke.

“But you’re in good shape though.”

“I gain weight really easily and… I don’t really like exercise. I'm used to it, but just because I’m used to it doesn’t change the fact that I don’t like it.”

Maru nodded as he poured some water for everyone. The cup was a ceramic cup with a koi fish on it. There were some seaweed-like things drawn on the inside. He put a cup in front of Sungjae and Gyunglim and looked around for the container for the spoons and chopsticks, but he couldn’t see one.

“They give you one when they serve you. You didn’t even know that?”

Gyunglim remarked in a spicy manner.

“That’s because I’m ordinary.”

“What ordinary.”

Gyunglim took out her phone and started typing. She was probably chatting with the people from the blog that she showed him during the day.

“If phones get better in the future, we’ll talk less and less with other people, right?” Sungjae spoke as he drank some water. Gyunglim raised her head.

“Am I strange?”

“No, it’s not like that. It’s just a thought I have recently. Texting is definitely more comfortable than speaking, isn’t it?”

“You’re right. Texting is much more comfortable. If I try to talk in front of other people, especially if there’s a lot, it feels somewhat…”

Gyunglim turned her head away before saying ‘uncomfortable’ in a small voice.

“I was like that too.”

Sungjae smiled as he spoke. Gyunglim put her phone beneath the table and looked at Sungjae.

“Right now, I’m used to talking in front of many people, but when I just had my debut, that was the hardest thing for me. Practicing dancing and singing was hard, yes, but talking in front of other people without preparing was the hardest for me. I still remember my first fan meeting. I was in front of my fans, and the host suddenly asked me a question. What type of girls do you like? That was the question, and that turned my head blank and I didn’t know what I had to say.”

“So? What did you do?” Maru asked.

“I cried.”

“What?”

“Even I don’t know why I did that. Thankfully, it was nearly at the beginning of my career, and there weren’t any cameras around, so it ended without a hitch, but it definitely became a huge issue back then. The host quickly tried to switch the topic, but I foolishly said that I’d reply, making things even more awkward. The other members panicked as well and only after a long time did they start laughing. Now that I think about it, I had an even harder time back then than when I made a mistake on a live show.”

Sungjae shook his head in resignation as though it still made him feel embarrassed. Maru smiled and grabbed his cup. Cried, huh. He could imagine what kind of emotions Sungjae had back then. Anyone would start sweating cold sweat if they suddenly receive an unexpected question while they were at the center of attention.

“I was like that too.”

Gyunglim, who blurted that out with a dazed expression, quickly became startled and shut her mouth. However, it was too late. Everyone had heard her already.

“Since it’s like this, why don’t we all say something? I’m the only one embarrassed here.”

Sungjae quickly followed up. It seemed that he was being considerate for Gyunglim. What a good youth he was. Gyunglim had much to learn from him.

“Maru, you don’t have anything like that?”

“Me?”

Sungjae gave Gyunglim a glance before speaking. Maru felt that the mood would turn awkward if he said that he didn’t have any.

“Of course I have one. Though, I didn’t cry. It was during a presentation I did. The teacher kept asking me weird questions. Questions that weren’t related to the topic. Actually, I had a slight conflict with that teacher before the presentation. He must have been annoyed by that and kept asking such questions. When I think about what happened back then, it makes my head churn. Others that are competing with me for grades are all staring at me, but I can’t say anything. It was frustrating and made me angry.”

“That teacher is totally trash,” Gyunglim spoke.

Of course, he had just adapted an event he experienced in the company into his school. The memory of his presentation, where he had to bow down to the general manager who had indisputable authority over the approval of his project, was still clear in his mind even now when most of his memories had faded away. A colleague he was close to looked at him with pity and the colleague that had a competing item looked at him with glee, while the deputy general manager quickly gestured for him to sit down. If he lost his rationale just a little, he might have cried without being able to endure his frustration.

“Well, we finished things up by promising to apologize next time, but I still don’t want to remember that moment.”

“Why would you apologize when the teacher was in the wrong?”

“Well, reasons.”

“You don’t have any guts.”

Gyunglim shook her head.

Maru barely held himself back from twitching his lips. Whose fault was it that made him talk about all this?

“You don’t have an experience like this, Gyunglim?”

Sungjae asked lightly. If you don’t, then forget it - he seemed to be implying. Gyunglim looked around before speaking in a small voice.

“I was teased in front of my friends for not speaking properly. I was just stuttering because I was a little nervous, too. Ever since that, I don’t like speaking in front of others. I’m fine when there are only a few people, but it does feel a little awkward if there are more than four or five. Of course, it’s fine once I get close to those people. So don’t look at me in a strange way. I just…”

“Then the fact that you acted cold to me even when I talked to you after class was not because you disliked me?” Sungjae asked with a smile.

Gyunglim slowly nodded.

“That’s good then. You can’t be the same as everyone else. Sorry for talking to you all the time without knowing how you felt. It was my way of trying to resolve the issue, but it must have pressured you instead.”

“That’s true.”

Gyunglim clenched her eyes shut after saying those words. She quickly followed up saying ‘no, that’s not what I meant’, but she was clearly a little too late.

“No wonder you misunderstood,” Maru said as he stared at Gyunglim.

Gyunglim abruptly raised her head and shook it.

“What did she misunderstand?” Sungjae asked.

Maru looked at Gyunglim, who was shaking her head vigorously, and Sungjae who was looking at him in a questioning light before grinning.

“I’ll tell you once I have the opportunity.”

He shrugged to Gyunglim who said ‘don’t’ without producing a sound.

* * *

“That family is strange.”

She read the title of the sitcom script several times over in a loud voice. It was the script she received from the TV station. Unlike when she went to have the audition, she was able to enter the building without feeling nervous. When she received the script sealed inside a paper envelope from the information desk, she ended up hopping on the spot without thinking about it. She still felt embarrassed when she thought about how people who were going in and out of the building were smiling while looking at her.

Just as she was looking at the script with satisfaction, her phone rang.

-Hey! Did you get your script?

The owner of the excited voice was Yoojin.

“Yeah, I got it.”

-Wow, so our Bunbun is finally going to appear on public TV now? How is it, have you looked at the script?

“I was just about to. I didn’t feel this when I received it since I was too happy, but it makes me nervous now that I’m actually going to open it. It feels like receiving my grade card.”

-I know that feeling. Open it now. See how many lines you have.

“I’m the neighbor that lives next door to the main characters’ house, so there probably aren’t that many lines.”

Now that she said those words, she felt once again that her role was rather vague. The next door neighbor of the main characters. It would be great if she appeared at least once per day.

-Do you have any appointments today?

“No.”

-Then let’s hang out. Bring the script as well. I’ll practice with you.

“Really?”

-How is it? Aren’t I the only one that thinks about you?

She lied down on her bed and chuckled in a small voice.

“Yeah, you’re my only friend.”

-What the? You’re giving me goosebumps. What about Maru? Did he not call you?

“Well, we do call each other a lot.”

-But?

“…It’s been a while since we saw each other.”

-What? When was the last time you saw each other?

“I think it’s been more than a week at least. Maybe two weeks?”

-Oh my word.

“It looks like he’s busy. Not long before, I had to hang up first because he said he was just about to start a shoot.”

-Hey.

“Yeah?”

-I don’t think this is the right time for you to see me. Call Maru and have him come to you this instant.

“Should I?”

-It’s not ‘should I?’ Just do it now.

She smiled and touched her hair before slowly speaking.

“Nah, it’s fine.”

-What’s fine?

“It’s late, and he should have his rest as well.”

-Hey, it’s only 5 right now. It’s not late at all. You were about to come out to meet me, weren’t you?

“Yeah, but still.”

She did want to see Maru. Although some of her friends told her that it would scratch her pride as a girl to ask the boy out first, she didn’t think so. They were dating because they liked each other, no? She didn’t understand how pride had anything to do with liking. It wasn’t like women were animals that were made to wait.

“I want to allow him to rest as much as possible. He sounded tired the last time I called him. It looks like action acting is quite hard. Also, he’s going around a lot taking minor actor roles. In fact, I feel like it’s rather fortunate that he didn’t pass the regional finals for the acting competition.”

-Are you Maru’s manager or something?

Hearing those words, she chuckled. It did feel like that a little.

“If I tell him I want to meet him right now, he’ll come straight to my house. Even in Suwon, we live on opposite ends. Also, he might be working in Seoul right now. I don’t want to tire him out even further.”

-What a faithful girl. What era do you think you’re in? You’re so considerate towards your husband.

“What’s up with you today?”

-I’m like this because it’s frustrating. At our age, we aren’t supposed to care about things like that and just meet whenever we want to. You can leave those miserable thoughts for when you’re a granny. Hey, come outside for now. I can’t take this. You need to get an earful from me.

“Fine, I’ll listen to you. Where shall we go?”

-I’m going to Suwon station right now, so meet me there.

“Suwon station? What brings you all the way here from Seoul?”

-It’s to meet you!

“Really?”

-I was just about to hold a congratulatory party for you, but I can’t take it anymore because it annoys me. Come out for now. Be prepared to receive my frustration, okay?

“Alright. Then see you in a bit.”

She smiled and hung up.

* * *

Maru stared at the whole course for a while. Grilled scallops, pickled seaweed, as well as sweetfish. It was served in some sort of wooden tray, and the decoration made him flabbergasted.

“The tuna tataki here is really good.”

“I think this also looks plenty good though.”

Maru picked up his chopsticks. This was his first time eating formal Japanese food in this life. Moreover, it was free. There would be no other blissful dinner than this. Just as he was about to poke into the pickled seaweed, he got a call. The screen had the caller’s name: Yoojin.

“Yeah, what is it?”

-Hey.

“I’m listening.”

-Come to Suwon station this instant.

“I’m sorry, but I have a very important appointment right now.”

-What is it?

“I need to eat this beautiful piece of sweetfish.”

-So you’re eating dinner, huh?

“That’s right.”

-Since you sound leisurely, it doesn’t sound like you’re eating with people that you’re awkward with. Then come to Suwon station right now, Mr. Han Maru.

“I apologize, but I have to refuse.”

-Oh really, now? You’d better come though. I heard that you haven’t met her in two weeks, right? I called her just now, and while she said she’s okay, she sounded hella depressed.

“…Really?”

-It pricks you, doesn’t it? It must. So come here right now. Do you know that she received her first sitcom script?

“That was today?”

-I knew this would happen. Geez, this is why men are… They don’t have the slightest bit of delicacy. I’m hanging up, okay? Come here quickly.

Maru looked in front of him and put down his chopsticks, then, he grabbed the sweetfish in the middle of the vegetable flower with his fingers and put it in his mouth.

“Uhm, sorry everyone. Something important came up, so I think I’ll need to leave,” He abruptly stood up as he spoke.

Sungjae and Gyunglim were looking at him dumbfoundedly. Maru apologized to the two again before leaving the restaurant while munching on the sweetfish.

Chapter 377

She put on a mint-colored roundneck t-shirt and an ivory-colored skirt before standing in front of the mirror. She left her room after checking if there were any creases on her clothes.

“You’re still at it?”

“Yeah, I’m still at it.”

There were bottles of coffee and vitamins on the table. She sighed before standing next to her mother.

“You should really stop drinking.”

“Why don’t you tell me to stop breathing instead?”

“If you can’t quit, why not just drink black coffee? I heard that it’s healthier for the body.”

“Coffee without milk and sugar is not coffee, girl. But are you going out?”

“Yeah. I’m going to hang out with Yoojin.”

“Do you need any money?”

“No, I still have money left over from last time.”

She peeked at the laptop screen. There were two different texts on the divided screen. One was an essay for a magazine, and the other was a novel.

“Don’t you get confused when writing two at once?”

She found it curious whenever she looked at it. Her mother always worked on multiple things at once. She switched between texts and wrote two different types of writing. She would switch to the other once she was stuck on one, and switch back if she was stuck on that. When she was young, she always watched her mother do so while dazing out. Her mother used to say that she was so adorable when she just dazed out like that as she sucked on her thumb.

“What kind of writing is it?”

“The sadness of doing groceries.”

“What about the novel? The same one you were doing last time?”

“No, it’s a different one.”

“What about the last one?”

“I saved it. I’m planning to read it later.”

“You might end up deleting it again if you do that. You should just send it to the publisher.”

“Your mom’s pride won’t allow it. Can you show your acting to others when it’s not perfected yet?”

“No, I can’t do that.”

“It’s the same for me.”

Her mother alternated between stretching her fingers out and clenching. She did the same thing. Her mother always did that exercise since she spent most of the time sitting.

Just as she was fiddling with her fingers, a messenger program popped up on the screen. On the left, there was the name ‘Ahn Pilhyun’. That person was asking if things were going well.

Her mom replied ‘somewhat’.

“A friend of yours?”

“A comrade of mine I got to know through work.”

“Comrade?”

“A comrade that fought with me against the evil that is the publisher.”

“You call the source of your money evil, huh…”

“Why don’t you reach my age? You’ll realize that the person that pays you is the enemy of your life. Rather than that, is it okay for you to still be here?”

“I can stay for around 10 minutes. She’s coming right now.”

“Don’t be late and be there early. It’s not polite to make your friend wait. Also, come back home early. You watched the news, right?”

“Your daughter is strong, you know? I’ll probably win against a man in a fight.”

“Girlie.”

Her mother stood up and walked to the kitchen.

“Dinner?”

“Since my daughter seems like she’s going to eat out, your mom will have to eat by herself. This is why people say raising kids is useless.”

“Should I just watch from the side?”

“Forget it. You should get going. I’m going to order something good while you’re out.”

“Sure, sure. Eat a lot of delicious things then, okay?”

She went to the door and put on her shoes. She picked up the bag with the script in it and opened the door.

“I’m off.”

She took the elevator as she heard her mother tell her to come home early. She received a call when she got on the bus to Suwon station.

-Where are you? I’m three stations away.

“I’m almost there.”

-Then wait for me in front of the kimbap restaurant in front of the station.

“Okay.”

She got off the bus and stood in front of the kimbap restaurant. She saw a lot of people eating through the glass window. Most of them were eating by themselves.

“Hey.”

Hearing a familiar voice, she turned her head around to see Yoojin. Yoojin was wearing a black leather jacket, a white blouse, and a pair of high heels as well. She didn’t look like a high school student.

Yoojin stood next to her before hooking her arms.

“You haven’t had dinner yet, right?”

“I haven’t.”

“Me either.”

“Then shall we eat dinner first?”

“Hm, why don’t we get some appetizers instead?”

When she tilted her head, Yoojin pulled her arm. The place they were heading to was inside Suwon station. Yoojin turned right and led her to the department store connected to the station.

“I saw a macaron store when I was coming out. I think they just opened. There’s an event as well.”

“Really?”

“Let’s talk while we get something to eat there.”

The station was filled with vitality from the people going home from work. Looking at them, she felt filled with energy for some reason. As she followed Yoojin, she browsed the cosmetics and clothes that were put on display. She ended up buying two bracelets because she liked them. Yoojin put on one of the bracelets before giggling.

“It’s over there.”

There was a macaron store with a sign that said that there was an event going on. Inside, there was a place for people to enjoy food and drink. They walked past the people that lined up to buy some for takeaway and ordered some from the counter. Vanilla, chocolate, and strawberry. They decided to share the vanilla. As for drinks, they ordered green tea lattes. They went with that since Yoojin said that sweetness had to be complemented with bitterness.

“It’s not as good as I expected.”

Yoojin looked rather disappointed.

“It’s delicious though.”

“That’s good then. Oh, have you seen the other actors?”

“No, not yet.”

“There should be an occasion to get together and eat dinner or something before the first shoot.”

“Ah, I heard that the day after tomorrow is the first read-through session. I think that’s what you’re talking about. I heard there will be cameras too.”

“It’s probably to shoot some videos for a making film. You have it good. There are a lot of actors I like in that piece. Sir Choi Taeyeol, Mrs. Kang Miae, sir Han Woojin, and senior Joo Inha. They’re people you can only see in traditional dramas, and this is their first sitcom, you know? Thanks to that, everyone’s talking about it.”

“Really?”

She spat out a deep breath. There were many actors that could be considered ‘great seniors’ in the lineup. She felt nervous when she thought about how she would get to act together with actors that were popular before she was even born. Moreover, one of the main character’s family members was played by a member of ‘Change’, a popular boy idol band. When she said that she was going to shoot this sitcom, many of her friends asked for autographs from him.

“Why do you look depressed?”

“I’m just a little nervous.”

“Phew. I know how you feel, but you can’t do anything about it. That kind of nervousness won’t go away unless you confront the situation.”

“Really? Oh, right. Is the read-through just like one for a play?”

“Without any special instructions, yeah. Are you appearing on the 1st episode?”

“Yeah.”

“Then you just need to sit there obediently in one corner of the set and say your line when it’s your turn. The lead and supporting characters will probably sit at the center table and the minor actors will probably sit in the chairs that are against the walls.”

“It’ll be strange to make a mistake during the read-through, right?”

“It’s fine. Everyone will just laugh it over.”

“Yoojin. Have you made mistakes during a drama shoot?”

“I have.”

Yoojin rested her chin against her hand and spoke.

“It was during my 1st year of high school. It was a really minor line. But I kept messing up and had to redo it four times. I really wanted to run away back then.”

“What did you do then?”

“What could I do? I just did it. Thankfully, the actors that I shot with back then all consoled me by saying that I will do better next time. It’s mostly a case-by-case scenario, but as far as I know, there aren’t any actors that scold other actors that are at their first shoot.”

Just as Yoojin was telling her not to worry, she stopped and made an expression as though she made a mistake. She worriedly asked.

“What is it?”

“Miss Lee Miyoon is on that sitcom, right?”

“Yeah.”

“Then you should be careful. She’s infamous for being vicious. She’s known for scolding supporting actors and minor actors alike if they’re bad at acting. I heard that she sucks the soul out of them and some of them end up running away halfway through.”

“R-really?”

“Yeah. So don’t make a mistake in front of her.”

She looked at the cover of the script. The names of the main actors were right next to the names of the producer and the writers, and the second line had the name ‘Lee Miyoon’. How strict of a person was she?

“Give me the script. Rather than worrying about it, it’s better to just try. Let’s try practicing. Where’s your line?”

“On page 15.”

“Is your character Lee Danjoo?”

“Yeah.”

“Your line’s quite long.”

Yoojin started reading the script until she suddenly took out her phone. She stood up and left the store as though the call required some quiet.

She looked at her script and sighed slightly. She was worried enough as it was already, and she felt gloomy after hearing that there was a strict senior. This was not a play she was doing with people around her age, but a shoot for a TV program with seniors. She was worried about whether she could adapt properly since it was a completely different environment. If it was anything like a play, she had the confidence to do well.

After finishing her call, Yoojin returned to the store.

“He’s here.”

“Who’s here?”

She wondered who Yoojin was talking about. She asked Yoojin about it, but she didn’t reply and only made a strange smile. At that moment, she saw a boy who was looking around outside the store. Was he looking for someone?

“Wait.”

She spoke out in surprise. The boy approached them. He opened the door to the store and sat down next to them.

“How did you come here?”

“How? I took the train. Am I late?”

Yoojin said ‘no’. She looked at Yoojin. She finally understood the meaning behind her smile.

“Well then. I should get going, then, huh.”

Yoojin took her bag and stood up. She immediately grabbed Yoojin’s hand and spoke.

“Where are you going?”

“Where? To my next appointment, of course.”

“You had an appointment?”

“I’m a busy person, you know?”

Yoojin shook her hand off and whispered into her ears.

“Both you and he are busy, so you might not actually get the chance to meet frequently in the future. You should have a blast today. You should get him to dote on you.”

“Yoojin.”

“I’m leaving then. But next time, be sure to hang out with me a lot.”

After smacking Maru’s forehead, Yoojin turned around and waved her hand. The amber bracelet they bought together sparkled.

“You’re going?” Maru said to Yoojin.

“Yeah, I am. Have fun, the two of you. I’m expecting lovey-dovey.”

“I’ll ask you to stay out of courtesy.”

“Forget it. Both of you owe me this time, okay?”

“Yeah, we owe you.”

Before she left, Yoojin bought a box of macarons for takeaway. She waved her hand to Yoojin who waved back through the window. It should’ve taken more than an hour to reach here from Seoul, so she felt both thankful and sorry.

“If we have some time, let’s go to Seoul together,” Maru said.

“Yeah, we should.”

Yoojin once again waved towards them.

* * *

“What are you going to do about this? I just got the uniform yesterday! Here, do you see the ketchup? It’s not going to come off.”

“I’ll wash it for you and give it back to you.”

“What? Wash? Do you think washing it will do anything? Looks like you really don’t know anything, huh? Even if you have a professional launderer wash it, it will leave behind a stain. Look at this red thing on the white shirt. What do I tell my mom?”

“Th-then what do I have to do?”

“Well, it’s not like there’s no method at all.”

“What is it?”

“Money.”

After saying that, she tilted her head. Maru, who was playing along, also breathed out.

“Why don’t you rest a beat before you say the word ‘money’? I think it’s better to exaggerate it a little since sitcoms are about character building,”

“Really? I think it will be a bit bland if I just follow the script.”

“Think about it for now. Look at how things go during the shoot and try it out if you can.”

“Ah, I wonder if I can do it.”

She sat on the swing as she spoke. Maru sat on the swing next to her.

“Are you worried?”

“Of course. This is my first time on a TV show. Honestly, I was prepared to fail when the senior of mine offered me the audition and just tried it out as an experience. Now that I actually passed, it feels unreal and somewhat worrying as well.”

She started swinging on the swing. Maru stood up and walked behind her to push her. She embraced the wind that hit her face and took a deep breath. It felt like the nervousness spread around in her body was easing a little.

She waited for the creaking swing to completely stop. It had been a long time since she rode the swing. She didn’t have any experience of sitting down on a swing like this after she graduated elementary school.

“Maru.”

“Yeah?”

“Can I do this?”

“Do you want to do well?”

“Of course.”

“Then don’t be so tied up over it. It’ll be strange for someone to do well the first time. It’s actually easier if you prepare yourself to get scolded big time at least three times.”

“Three times?”

“Yes, three times. After that, you’ll be able to do well.”

“It’ll be rather fortunate if three times was the end.”

She jumped off the swing.

“Can you practice with me one more time?”

“Sure.”

She smiled and opened the script. She felt comfortable just because someone she was at ease with was listening to her like this. If she was able to save up this energy inside her body, she felt like she wouldn’t be nervous on the day of the shoot as well.

“Then I’ll give you the sign.”

“Yes, director Han.”

She smiled.

Chapter 378

“His Majesty has once said that men have their duties. However, I am no man. I am but a beast. You may discuss the duties of men in front of me, but I will not understand a thing. As such, do not try to shake me with words stained with ink. I have more faith in the barks of the dog over there than your three-inch tongue.”

The character inside the screen laughed heartily in his tattered rags. The low tone and speech of the character were low and echo-y which was unique to historical dramas.

“His Majesty has once said.”

He lowered his voice and tried imitating the voice, but it didn’t sound cool at all. There was a gap between him and the man in the story, who had transcended mortal desires after residing from power. It wasn’t simply a difference in speech. It was the difference in harboring emotions, the difference in technique, and the difference in the sheer level of acting.

Maru resumed the drama and continued watching. The reason crow-tits try to chase the stork despite knowing that its legs would break is because that is its path and an objective it has to challenge at least once. If they were afraid of breaking their legs, they would never be more than a crow-tit.

He rested his chin against his hand and focused on the character on the screen. This was the Wednesday-Thursday drama made by RBS. It was a historical drama with hints of fantasy elements such as sorcery. Unlike the long-running historical dramas on YBS, many young actors appeared in it and it was targeted towards the younger generation. The opinion on the internet was rather decent, and the viewing rates were also decent with around 20% viewership. RBS had been imitating YBS by airing historical dramas until a few years ago when they changed lanes to target the younger generation, and now, they were on completely different tracks.

After watching an RBS historical drama series that aired 2 years ago from beginning to end, Maru sighed slightly and turned off his monitor.

“Tomorrow, huh.”

He got a call from Moonjoong yesterday and found out that there will be an audition in RBS. Although his role was nothing major, due to the characteristics of historical dramas in general, if an actor is out of place, the entire scene would look awkward, so he was told that the producers and writers of the drama were quite thorough with all the actors that had any lines. Meaning, that it was likely that the writer or the producer would probably be present at the audition.

“Aah, aah.”

Since his role was that of a beggar, he didn’t need such a cool tone of speech, but a tone of speech that fitted the era which was probably a requirement. Maru recorded his voice at higher and lower pitches than his usual voice. Listening to his own voice directly echoing inside his head and a machine-recorded voice would sound completely different. Even people that had pride in their voices would feel rather perplexed when they heard a recording of their own voice. This was why he had to listen to recordings of his own voice until he was perfectly able to understand his voice from the perspective of others. After repeating that process, he would reach a point where he would no longer feel unfamiliar with listening to his recorded voice. Only then could he say that he had ‘found’ his voice.

Even Maru, who had repeated this training for a long time, felt rather perplexed and awkward when he heard his recorded voice with emotions in it. He was definitely better than when he first started off, but there was a unique crack in his voice whenever his voice got agitated, so he was thinking about how to rein in such an effect.

‘I guess I’m rather fortunate that my voice has changed already.’

Maru touched his neck and put down the recorder. After stretching his neck out a little, he went to the kitchen and turned on the kettle. He poured the boiling hot water into a cup about halfway and mixed it with cold water to make it warm. He drank that water to loosen the tension in his throat a little. Ever since he heard that it was just as important for actors to manage their throats as singers, he started drinking warm water instead of cold water.

When warmth spread around his body, his muscles relaxed subconsciously. Thinking that he was in the perfect condition to practice vocally, he slowly started voicing out. He had the urge to shout out in one go, but he couldn’t do so since he was in an apartment. The heat he brought up from his stomach mixed with his breath and exited his mouth. The point was to prolong the sound as much as possible without making it sound too light. A voice that played above his head was not good, and it would be better if the voice moved around his knee-level. These were Miso’s words.

He walked after producing a ‘hur’ sound. He walked around the house while imagining himself pushing down the minute vibrations in his mouth into his stomach. Before his voice became like a mosquito’s due to lack of breath, he inhaled again and continued voicing out. Narrowing the vocal cords to create sound would damage his throat. An actor did not need frequent uses of vocal techniques but only a stable voice. They had to remember the state when their throat was the most relaxed, and voice out in a way that didn’t ruin that form.

He heard the door lock opening. Bada had returned from going shopping. Bada looked at Maru and frowned.

“What are you doing, oppa?”

“Practicing.”

Ignoring Bada’s gaze, he continued his practice in pursuit of an even voice. He heard Bada say ‘oh my god, crazy’ in her room, but he tried to be understanding. If she barked at him again, he could just use his ace, which was none other than the photo he took with Sungjae. If he showed her that, she would probably come up to him and say ‘brother~’ in a cute voice.

He felt a little dizzy. He stopped voicing out and evened his breathing. The basics were always boring and looked meaningless. However, Maru was aware of the power of basics that had piled up over a long time.

“Han Bada. Let’s eat,” he spoke as he turned on the stove.

* * *

Producer Han Changsung stared at the cups piled up on the side. He couldn’t remember how many cups of coffee he had today. He felt as though coffee and sugar flowed inside his body rather than blood.

“Get me some coffee.”

Changsung asked for one more cup from the newest producer. Although he thought all those things, he couldn’t work without coffee.

“Producer, you’re drinking coffee again?”

“What? Can I not drink?”

“Just look at the cups by your side, and try telling me that again.”

“Just get me one if I ask for it. Why are you so picky? Are you my wife?”

“What kind of horrible delusions are you having?”

The newest producer, Kim Jinhyuk, still brought him coffee anyway.

“Thank you~.”

He tried to be as posh as possible when he thanked him for the coffee. He couldn’t imagine a life without it. He felt a little better after drinking a bit of the sweet instant coffee.

“Oh yeah, have you heard?”

“What?”

“I heard that producer Yoon Mijeong of the 3rd drama team resigned.”

“That’s not surprising. She was doing really well, wasn’t she?”

“She’s probably going to an outsourcing company, right?”

“She’s probably bold enough to do that because she was given an offer.”

He tilted the coffee cup into his mouth but he couldn’t taste any coffee. When he wondered what happened and flipped the coffee cup upside down, the last drop that hung there pitifully fell down. Changsung quickly reached out with his tongue and caught that droplet. It was even sweeter than usual.

“Outsourcing huh. I heard that the treatment is good there.”

“Why? You wanna go there too?”

“I haven’t even had my debut piece, where would I go? I might be a producer outside, but I’m merely an assistant director here. I’ll first have my debut piece and then shoot a bigshot drama that hits 40% viewership and leave the company in a grand fashion. I’ll throw my letter of resignation at the president’s face.”

Jinhyuk giggled for a while before sighing.

“Aren’t you too quick to return to reality from dreams? Why don’t you try fantasizing a little more?”

“Because of the reality that came to me when I saw myself wrestling with receipts. Geez, it’s hurting my eyes.”

“You’re in your first year, and you already feel that way. Why don’t you think about how I feel?”

Changsung put the paper cup he just drank from on the tower of other paper cups. Perhaps it would be as high as the 63 building[1] one day.

“Don’t you want to go to one as well, senior?”

“To an outsourcing company? Hm, not really.”

“Why? I heard that it’s really good. You get a lot of free time and the pay is good.”

“If you have the skill, you’ll get a lot of free time and pay no matter where you go.”

“You’re at that level, aren’t you? You made the historical drama 2 years ago a huge hit.”

“Is 20% a huge hit? It must be at least 40% to be called a huge hit. Also, I was lucky back then. All the other dramas that aired at the same time were shit. It was instead strange to not go over 20% back then.”

“Why do you sound so humble today?”

“Why don’t you find out for yourself when you reach my age? The only thing that increases is your humility. Also, not all outsourcing companies are good. The producer that’s right above us, he left the company and created his own outsourcing company and ended up being in a lot of debt.”

“That’s why you need to join someone else’s. Creating your own is just risky.”

“Wow, what a splendid laborer you are.”

“I do a fair share of labor, huh.”

He stretched his arms out and sat up straight. Tomorrow was the day of the audition for the minor roles. He felt a headache coming just thinking about how he would have to watch little kids acting for the entire day.

“Rather than that, a self-produced drama, huh. I wonder what happened.”

Jinhyuk offered him a piece of melon bread and spoke. Changsung stuffed his mouth with the bread and spoke.

“How would I know? Either they have the desire to make a proper one, or they have money left over.”

“Isn’t it good anyway? Since we’re outsourcing everything these days, there’s a lot of talk about us not getting any work.”

“It’s bound to be outsourced anyway, except for KBS, which is operated by the country itself. They don’t need to care about the viewership. Also, they should have a lot higher budget than us.”

“If we outsource everything, what becomes of us?”

“You’re worried about your job?”

“I am. If we give everything away to outsourcing companies, I’ll no longer have any work to do.”

“Why would you no longer have any work to do? You will probably work with an outsourcing company for your debut piece. Although the production is done by the outsourced company, we’ll have to send a member of our own to act as the control tower.”

“I don’t want there to be two producers though. That’s just not cool.”

“Why would there be two? The production company will literally just provide the production environment, and your name will be on the producer line.”

“Oh, really?”

Changsung sighed and stood up. Jinhyuk followed him. They left the first meeting room and walked around the office. Although it was past 8 in the evening, the drama department was still as busy as though it was 10 in the morning. As the results of the Wednesday-Thursday drama weren’t that good, the producer and the chief producer of team 1 were wrestling with work at their desks.

“Watch them closely. We’ll be exactly like that once they leave and we go in.”

It was one year. For the past year, he made plans, went to the president with it only to get kicked, persuaded one of the chief producers, and talked to the president once again only to get kicked again. Like that, they barely made a plan that received a pass and created a team. They then got together and had a drink to resolve themselves to create a good drama, but the script that came out after that wasn’t to their liking and they had to wait for a long time once again. As they were employed, they would receive their salaries even if they spent time doing nothing at their desk, but since this industry was one where they would get thrown out if they didn’t gain career experience, they would sometimes help other teams. Sometimes, he would get called to the editing room of a cultural education department which drove him crazy.

After a long time of waiting, the beginning part of a script was barely created. In terms of episodes, it was only around 5 episodes worth. They finally had the foundation to shoot a seasonal historical drama of 20 episodes.

They then spent several weeks with the completed script and the polished plans and wrestled with the president. Finally, they received the okay to start. Moreover, it was a self-produced one. The prefix was ‘special content’. On top of that, it was a 50-episode one and not a 20-episode one. They had to fix most of the plans and script that they planned at the beginning. Thankfully, it wasn’t that difficult. It was hard to remove content, but adding it was easy. The writer also became enthusiastic as well.

This was why there were now more portions for child actors. Since they now wanted to spotlight the main character’s younger days, the weight of the story that featured his childhood to his youth became heavier. They would first show the grown-up versions of the characters in the first episode and do a flashback to the past. He already had a picture in mind to have the audience fix their channels since there was a great lineup of actors that were coming in the later episodes.

“The children will have to do well for that.”

“What? What’s that all of a sudden?”

“I mean tomorrow. We’re picking the child actors that will be leading the beginning parts, right? I hope we get some decent kids.”

“When I think about it, I think it’s better to skip it as much as possible. I’ve never seen the views rise with the addition of kids.”

Changsung smacked the complaining Jinyuk on the forehead.

“You’re the assistant producer and you’re praying that it will fail?”

“That’s not what I mean.”

“Shut up. If the kids here tomorrow are awkward, I’ll blame it all on you.”

“You know what I mean, senior~.”

Changsung ignored Jinhyuk who tried to suck up to him and walked towards the bathroom.

[1] A popular landmark in Seoul that has 63 floors (60 above ground, and 3 underground). Apparently, it used to be the highest building in the world for around a year after it was built.

Chapter 379

“This is RBS’s Seoul HQ.”

“It’s rather big.”

“It is. The office building in the center is 12 stories tall, and the broadcasting station next to it is 7 stories tall, so just going by area, it’s probably 1.5 times bigger than that of YBS, you know?”

Byungchan parked the car in RBS’s parking lot. It was prohibited to park in front of the front door.

“I have to get going.”

“Okay, be careful.”

“Call me once you’re done. I’ll give you a ride.”

“It’s fine. I can just take the bus and train when I go back. It’ll be fine just to get a ride if you’re going the same way.”

After sending Byungchan away, who told him to give him a call no matter what, Maru turned his head to look at the RBS building. The blue-tinted glass was reflecting the sunlight. Thinking about how numerous TV programs including dramas, entertainment programs, and news programs were being created inside, he felt rather curious.

He went around the parking lot and walked to the front door of the building. There were young children lined up outside. They seemed to have come to tour around since they just started their holidays. Next to the automatic door which was fixed in an open state, there was a rotary door which had the sign ‘no entry’ on it. It seemed that they blocked off that entrance for the safety of the children.

When he passed the air curtain, he was greeted by the lobby. The ceiling wasn’t there until the third floor, and the glass walls installed on both sides made the lobby look even bigger. On the right were numerous round sofas and people were drinking coffee. There were also quite a lot of people who were reading books they took out from the five-level shelves lined up outside the coffee shop.

Above the information desk, the corridors on the 2nd and 3rd floors could be seen, and people wearing jumpers were carrying around a lot of things. Some of them were even on their phones as they did so.

‘So this is a workplace as well.’

Maru smiled faintly and walked towards the information desk.

“I’m here for the audition.”

“Which audition is it?”

“It’s for a drama, a historical drama. But I heard that the title wasn’t decided yet.”

“What ‘s your name?”

“Han Maru.”

The lady typed on her keyboard for a while before giving him a pen and paper.

“Please write this down, and write down the purpose of your visit at the bottom. Also your phone number. You’ll have to return the temporary entrance card when you leave, and please be aware that you may receive restrictions if you do not return it. Please wear the card on you at all times, so that you don’t lose it.”

The lady gave him a card with a blue cord on it.

“You can enter through the entrance on the left of the lobby, and you’ll be able to enter if you put the card against the sensor. Think of it as the metro.”

“Oh, okay. Thank you.”

Leaving behind the lady who smiled at him, he walked towards the left of the lobby. The electric card readers were lined up, and next to it was a man that looked like a security guard holding a walkie-talkie. He put his card against the card reader. A blue LED flashed before the waist-height barrier opened up.

Maru hung the card around his neck and walked inside. In front of him were life-size cutouts of the two announcers of RBS. Above their heads was a sign that read ‘Honest South Korea’. Next to them was a noticeboard, and there was a big notice saying ‘RBS Special Historical Drama Audition’. The location was studio A on the 2nd floor. Maru turned left and tried to walk to the 2nd floor through the stairs, but the door to the staircase was locked. Did he have to go to the other side?

Just then, a girl and presumably her mother walked into the lobby.

“I heard it was studio A.”

“Then it’s this way.”

He followed the mother and daughter who walked boldly as though they were used to it. When they turned right, facing the corridor, there were elevators. Quite a lot of people were waiting for an elevator. Maru also joined the group and got on an elevator.

After getting off on the 2nd floor, Maru followed the mother and daughter duo again. It was always best to follow someone else who knew the way when not knowing the path. They crossed the corridor from which they could see the lobby from above. On the beige-colored walls were many education-related programs created by RBS.

Arriving at the end of the corridor, the mother and daughter walked through an open door. Maru raised his head a little. Studio A. It seemed that he had arrived at the right place. He slowly walked through the door that was soundproofed. He could see light fixtures on a dark ceiling. On one side were studio-grade cameras.

“If you’re here for the audition, please come this way,” a man wearing a baseball cap backwards said as he waved around a rolled up paper. Maru watched out for the cables running across the ground as he walked.

“What’s your name?”

“Han Maru.”

“Han Maru, Han Maru. Ah, there it is. The waiting room is to the left. You need to wait there.”

After nodding towards the man, Maru walked to the back of the studio. There was an entrance hidden behind some fiberboard and when he walked through that, he saw a room with a paper saying ‘audition waiting room’ plastered on the door. He could hear some voices inside.

“Didn’t know I’d see you here, Yejin’s mom[1].”

“Me neither, Sorae’s mom. How have you been?”

“I’ve been doing fine. How about you?”

“I’ve been doing well too. Other than that I gained a little weight.”

“You still look skinny though.”

There were four moms and their children. Some of the children talked to each other while some looked very awkward.

When Maru went in, their gazes were gathered on him for a moment, but they soon returned to their conversations. There were quite a lot of young kids here. Though, the production team were looking for child actors.

From elementary to high school - there were people of various ages. While some of them were shaking their legs in nervousness, there were some who were leaning against the wall yawning despite being so young.

“We’re going to start, so please be ready.”

“Yes.”

The moms all cheerfully replied.

‘Would it be free acting? No, I guess it will be script acting.’

The elder gave him a hint along with the opportunity for the audition. It was the fact that Maru was going to be a beggar. Although the lead and supporting actors were notified of the roles beforehand so that they could prepare, minor actors were mostly decided on the spot according to the act they did during the audition. The casting director, the producer, or the writer would quickly pick out people suitable for various roles.

Of course, the minor actors that were picked this way were those that didn’t have a lot of significance. The difference between minor actors and background actors was that minor actors appeared a lot more than background actors since there were certain scenes that required them. If the main character was a lead role, the main character’s friend would be a supporting role, the ‘talkative kid in the group’ would be a minor actor with significance, and the rest of that group would be minor actors with less significance. After that came the background actors who didn’t belong to any group, like ‘passerby A’.

“We’ll begin with the child actresses. Han Solmi, Lee Jin-ah, Kang Soojin, An Seol, Cho Yoogyung, Kim Haejin, Kim Bitna. The seven of you please come to the studio. Also, take off any accessories you are wearing, like hairpins for example.”

When the production team called out, the moms all stood up. They grabbed the hands of their children and left the waiting room. The waiting room had become a bit quieter. Maru found an empty chair to sit on and closed his eyes after leaning his head against the wall.

* * *

“Me too?”

“Yes, you too.”

“Senior. Do you see these bags under my eyes? I’m about to be exhausted to death.”

“Junior. Staying one night in the editing room is compulsory, and two nights is basic. Do you know what three nights is? I’ll give it to you if I feel pissed. Follow me obediently before I drag your ass.”

“I was just joking, senior.”

“Hey, do you think you’re qualified to joke with me? Was I too soft on you?”

When Changsung rolled his eyes, Jinhyuk flinched and looked down on the floor with his hands clasped. Changsung watched him for a while before chuckling and tapped on his shoulder.

“Hey, you scared of me?”

When he said that, Jinhyuk raised his head with a grin.

“There’s no way I’d be scared with just that, right?”

“I knew it.”

“But would I be any useful over there? I honestly can’t differentiate between those who are good and bad at acting.”

Jinhyuk locked his hands and put them behind his head. Changsung agreed with him.

“Me too. But what can we do about it? We need to pick the useful ones we find among them.”

“Then what should we focus on?”

“First, those that don’t cry.”

“Those that don’t cry?”

“Yes. These days, the kids’ moms are with them at the set, and they’re a pain to deal with. Aren’t elementary school kids all grown up? But they’re all so adamant on coming. Two years ago, when I was shooting a historical drama, one of the kids fell over on a haystack, and the kid’s mom created a huge ruckus.”

“Because she wasn’t happy with the way her kid was treated?”

“No, she beat up the crying kid, telling the kid not to cry. ‘Isn’t your dream to become an actor? Your mom’s doing her best to help you out and you can’t even do that?’ The mom said such a thing and started beating up her kid, and man, I had to step in to stop her, because the kid was too pitiful.”

“Moms are scary.”

“I get that they’re having a hard time taking care of their kids, but if they are going to do that they might as well not have their kids do acting. It felt like they were venting their stress on their kids. Anyway, I get that a parent might accompany a young child, but they should do it moderately. Anyway, if the kid is stiff or if the parent is interrupting too much, they’ll fail that instant. Also, it’s no good if the kid looks like they’ll cry during the shoot. As for acting skills, we can make that up by shooting five or six fucking times.”

“Senior, don’t swear.”

“Oh, fuck it. Fuck, fuck, FUCK!”

“There you go again. Please calm down, you’ll just stress yourself out even more.”

Changsung sighed. The schedule for the first shoot was already set in stone. His second historical drama had started. When he thought about what happened two years ago, he had a headache. He couldn’t go home, he shot outside as often as he ate a meal, and for some reason, he had shots scheduled away from the city. This damned Seoul leveled all the mountains and forests, so they had to go to the countryside unless they wanted to rent a studio to do it. If a problem occurred while they were renting a historical site, all of their schedules would be delayed, causing an endless streak of headaches. If there was an accident during crowd scenes, especially with horses he would get an earful from the president. The moment those ‘honorable lord horses’ sprain their ankle or something, he would get scolded more than when a person was hurt since horses cost more than his yearly salary. The rental fee for horses was 10 times more than the cost to hire people after all.

“Damn, I wonder why I didn’t go to the culture department. Morning programs, how good does that sound? They laugh all the time, make some food, and get to shoot kind neighborhood elders.”

“Don’t escape from reality and just get going. The schedule is already set. Hell is upon us.”

“Jinhyuk. Don’t start a drama and go to the entertainment section. The future is entertainment. Go there and raise your worth.”

“Senior, let’s do this!”

Jinhyuk pushed his back. Changsung sighed as he watched studio A closing in on him.

“It looks like they’re waiting already.”

When he went into the studio, the child actresses were lined up already. When he left the drama department office, he had told the staff here to get things ready in five minutes, but it seemed that five minutes had passed already. Looking at the moms standing on one side, he walked to the center of the studio.

“Hello!”

The children greeted him as though they were waiting for him. It was quite fascinating. He hadn’t told anyone that he was the producer, yet they recognized him anyway. Of course, their moms were the ones that gave them signals. This was why housewives were scary.

“Yes, hello. I am producer Han Changsung who will be going over your acting today, little friends. Next to me is producer Kim Jinhyuk. What we’re going to do today is simple. You just need to show me an act that I’m asking for. It’s easy, isn’t it?”

“Yes!”

The children replied vigorously. This was looking good. There wasn’t anyone that was crying right off the bat. He sighed in relief before sitting down. The screen in front of him showed the footage from the camera that was set up beforehand. Since he was looking for minor actors without much significance, he just needed to pick those that had patience and didn’t stand out too much.

“Okay, let’s begin right away. Han Solmi.”

“Yes!”

A girl wearing a t-shirt with a character on it raised her hand above her head and stepped out.

“You aren’t crossing the road, so you don’t need to raise your hand.”

“Yes!”

“And please lower your voice a little.”

“Yes.”

“You aren’t here to play around, right?”

“Yes. I am here to do acting.”

“Good. Then try doing what I say, okay? Okay, smile.”

He rested his chin on his hand as he spoke. The child panicked and looked around before looking at her mother. The mother quickly urged her to start acting, and the child just looked ahead of her and hesitated. Changsung smiled and inwardly sighed. The boring audition had just begun.

[1] In Korea, parents have a habit of calling fellow parents “yyy’s mom”, “zzz’s dad”.

Chapter 380

“Well done.”

The child took a bow before going back. Her name was Kim Bitna. She was the best among the girls he saw today. First, she didn’t cry and smiled a lot. Above all, her mom just watched her from beginning to end without doing anything. Whether it was trust or giving her free rein, he wanted to give her the pass just for the fact that she just watched obediently.

“I think the girl named Bitna is the most decent.”

“Me too.”

“Really? Looks like I have an eye for discerning acting.”

Jinhyuk smiled in satisfaction as he drank coffee.

“You’re just picking the child actors and outsource everything else right?”

“Yeah. They’ll use their connections, whether it’s blood relations, school relations, or whatever relations they have and bring people, so there’s no need for me to interfere, right? I have enough headaches as it is creating non-existent roles since people come in sets.”

“Sets? Oh, that set. Which one? Yellow? NL? Or Jewel?”

“All three of them.”

“I had a hunch something like this would happen when you went around scouting various people, and it did happen, huh. Are you sure the writer didn’t receive anything behind the back?”

“So what if he did? Would you refuse free money?”

“I’ll refuse at least once.”

“What if they come to you again?”

“Of course I’ll receive it. We don’t call ourselves courteous people for nothing. Refusing twice is just rude. So who are the ones that latched onto the superstars and managed to step into our drama?”

“Choi Jaehoon, Kim Jinsook, and Go Youngji, I think. I’ve placed them in the corners so I don’t see them.”

“I haven’t heard of any of them.”

“They’re probably receiving full support from their agencies. The popular actors have their pains as well. Even if they don’t want to be lumped with someone, everyone else is doing it so it’s not like they could just refuse.”

“They’re probably continuing that tradition because it works. Well, isn’t it good for us anyway? If the agencies are supporting them, then they should have decent manners at least, and they should have received some sort of training as well. They should know a lot of things as well, so they should be able to read the mood.”

“That’s true.”

Changsung put down the list of names he was holding on the floor. Now that he had some rest, he had to start working. He signalled the new member of the production team.

“By the way, have you heard any news from the writer? I heard that he rejoiced for a bit after this became a 50-episode one and was having a bad time recently.”

“The important outline is finished, so we have some leeway, but it’d be better if he could hurry. Receiving the script at the last minute when we’re shooting a historical drama is just crazy.”

“Have you visited him?”

“I was planning to even if you didn’t tell me. Since we’re at it, you can drive for me.”

“If I can leave the editing room, I’ll be a driver for you any time.”

“But Jinhyuk, you need to know this, okay? Just because you leave the editing room doesn’t mean that the piles of work in the editing room will decrease. All of it is assigned so you have to read them all. Oh, have you read the preview?”

“What do you think this is in my left hand?”

Changsung peeked and looked at the lump of papers that Jinhyuk was holding. He thought it was a list of names at first, but it wasn’t. They were the previews of the items that came up during the meeting. It was the culture department’s.

“Read it over and over until you reach a level where you can think of a scene when you read the texts.”

“You can imagine a scene when you read this, senior?”

“No.”

“Eh? Then why…”

“They say the student will surpass the master. You should be able to do better than me at least.”

Just as he was about to smack the dumbfounded Jinhyuk on the forehead, the child actors that he called for had come into the studio. They were boys in middle school and high school. It felt much better now that the glares of moms weren’t present.

Changsung crossed his legs and leaned back against his chair.

“You’re all good-looking. I like it. Well then, neither you nor I want to drag things out so let’s get going. Those of you that want to stand next to the main character, raise your hands.”

The nine people that entered the studio all raised their hands.

“Good. Then put some distance between you. Around a meter.”

The boys looked at each other and spread out.

“I’m going to be looking at you all at once. Anyone that tries to pop out from the rest will not be picked. If you stand there awkwardly, you won’t get picked. If you can’t hear me, you won’t get picked. Understood?”

“Yes.”

“Good. You are aware that the audition you applied for is one for a historical drama, right? I believe that you should’ve done some studying at least. Well, I won’t ask you to act like a lofty official or use difficult speech, so don’t worry about that. You just need to start acting when I give you some instructions.”

Changsung looked at the faces of all the kids through the camera before continuing.

“Okay, you are the children of wealthy families. The current situation is that you’re in the bustling streets with a servant. Try walking.”

After saying that, Changsung looked at the boy standing on the far left. When the two met eyes, the boy coughed awkwardly before starting to walk. The eight others also started walking. One of the boys locked his hands behind his back and raised his chin. At that moment the others all followed suit. Changsung checked the first boy that did that in detail before looking at the others. Since they were all about the same level, he gave the highest points to the one that did it first.

Just as he was about to stop them since he didn’t have any expectations, he saw a boy that was walking very calmly on the right. The boy walked slowly but suddenly stepped sideways. It felt as though something invisible passed by in front of him. After that, the boy looked back with just his head and said something before starting to walk again.

“Senior.”

“Yeah, I’m looking at him right now.”

Jinhyuk seemed to have found him as well. The quick-witted ones followed the producer’s eyes and looked at the boy, and started context-acting just like him. However, they were lacking in detail. It was natural. The one that did it first, did it after thinking about the situation, and the ones that followed up shouldn’t have anything in mind.

This was his eighth year in the drama department. Originally, he wanted to apply for the broadcasting department. It wasn’t that he had a big dream to bring evil to justice or to pursue a fair society, but because he felt that creating news was the easiest. However, he became attached to the drama department after spending his time here as an assistant director, and he ended up applying for the drama department.

Although he always said that he ‘couldn’t deal with this anymore’, he worked on dramas for 8 years. If he spent another two, it would be a whole decade. Since he didn’t spend all this time loitering around, he had developed a good eye for people. He was past the stage where he had to try something out to discern whether it was useful or not.

Changsung gave the boy on the right a check in his mind. He didn’t know the boy’s name. He just looked at his looks: the clothes he was wearing. Since he was wearing a brown shirt, he just decided to call him ‘Brownie’ in his mind.

“Good, you can stop. Everyone, well done. You’re so good that I don’t have anything to find. If you can continue that, you’ll be able to become good actors.”

It was the same regardless of occupation, but flattery didn’t cost money. Flattery could be overused without preparing for the consequences. Scolding the kids would have a negative effect on their acting. Changsung always said compliments to the ones that were trash at acting. If they actually believed his words and continued acting like that, they would become real trash, and if they were smart enough to think that something was up, they would eventually fix their mistakes.

The kids smiled after listening to his compliments. They were happy. The acting just now had no points to compliment on, nor any points to point out. Well, they would only be able to judge themselves if they knew something. He just said those words out of lip service so that they wouldn’t stay nervous.

‘Oh, look at that kid.’

The boy on the right, ‘Brownie’, caught his eyes. He was just looking ahead of him without any emotions on his face in this good atmosphere. It didn’t look like he was stiff from nervousness. Was he one of the arrogant ones that thought himself to be above others? Or was he someone that was unshakable with just this?

“Let’s continue on then. Since you tried playing a wealthy kid, let’s go with a beggar this time. Let’s say I’m the Minister of War for the country.”

Changsung stood up and reached out with his hands.

“I’m going to give you dumplings. Try acting like beggars who received dumplings after a long time.”

He pretended to throw the dumplings. When he did, the boys all reached out into the air in an attempt to receive the dumplings. One kid prostrated on the ground as though a dumpling fell. Like that, the boys started eating the dumplings in a hurry. Their expressions were all different as well. Some had smiles and some were crying. Some acted like they were moved to tears while eating non-existent dumplings.

‘They’re exaggerating too much.’

If they appeared like that on screen, they would get cut immediately. It was bad for minor actors to receive too much attention on the screen. If they caught the eye of the audience purely through their acting skills, that was something that the producer would welcome, but such exaggerated acting would make the producer go ‘what the heck is that’ instead.

The scary acting skills of the actors that have decades of experience came from their ‘everyday’ movement. Their acting was natural, yet on point. If the audience could feel various emotions from an actor just by looking from afar while sitting on a bench, that actor could be considered to have entered the ranks of experts.

The kid that first put his hands behind his back and raised his chin was eating obediently. That was much better than the rest. He wouldn’t stand out even if he was put in a crowd. He was someone who knew what broadcasting media was. Check. He passed.

Changsung looked for the other kid that he checked before.

‘Where’s he now?’

The boy in the brown shirt that stood on the right couldn’t be seen anywhere. When he looked away from the rest, he saw the kid curled up behind the rest of the kids. He was sitting down, putting his face against his hands and was eating very cautiously. He sometimes raised his head and looked around him before quickly munching away. He didn’t exaggerate that it was tasty, but it looked like he was swallowing everything in a hurry as though he was chased by something.

Changsung groaned. It seemed that a really smart kid just entered the audition.

“Okay. Looks like everyone’s eating as though you’ve been starving. Good, very good. If we had enough spots, I’d be picking all of you,” he said as he sat down.

“Thanks for participating, and before we finish things off, can you sum up what kind of acting you were doing and tell me? I’ll give you thirty seconds. We’re going to start from the left.”

The kid standing on the left fidgeted and started mumbling. It seemed that he was summarizing what was on his mind.

“3, 2, 1. Don’t think too hard about it and just say what you were trying to express. Starting from the left.”

“Uhm, I thought about a beggar that had starved for a long time. That’s why I started eating it deliciously as soon as I received it. I hit my chest several times in the middle because some pieces got into my throat.”

“Good. Nice analysis. That’s what I wanted. You did well even though you were the first one.”

The first kid smiled brightly. Changsung then looked at the next kid. Everyone gave similar answers. It was smooth up to the third kid, but the fourth one started stuttering. He had nothing to say since his acting was the same as the three before him. That continued until the eighth one. Changsung wasn’t even surprised since he was expecting this kind of result. If they were lead or supporting roles, he would’ve reconsidered casting them, but he didn’t want to think that deeply about picking out minor actors that didn’t have much weight in the story.

Finally, the ninth one, ‘Brownie’, opened his mouth.

“If a high official gave out dumplings, then the scene would attract attention, so I was afraid that other beggars would come and steal mine. That’s why I hid and ate by myself.”

He blurted that out in an instant and took a bow as well in that short moment.

Changsung subconsciously clicked his fingers.

This guy was good.

Chapter 381

“What do you think of that guy?”

“The one in brown?”

“Yeah, him.”

Breaktime. Changsung was having a conversation with Jinhyuk while drinking some coffee.

“I don’t know about anything else, but I really like the way he speaks. I hate dragging things out, you know? He knows how to act in front of others, and it looks like he listens to others. I think that he’ll be able to take care of himself on set so I think he’s okay.”

“I was just going to pick anyone I wanted, but it feels good to see someone like him,” Changsung spoke as he crumpled the empty paper cup.

“You finished it already?”

“You should finish yours as well. We need to do the rest.”

Jinhyuk blew on the coffee before drinking.

Changsung returned to the studio and had a look at the rest of the child actors. Although no one caught his eye, they all looked a bit decent. The child actors with a lot of lines had been cast already a long time ago. These days, there were professional child actors as well. From how there were a lot of parents who taught acting to their kids from the moment they started learning the language, raising an actor was somewhat like an investment in this country. It seemed as though the child’s will did not matter at all in the perspective of the parent. It was good for Changsung since he was able to get a lot of kids who were good at acting, but as someone who watched them from the side, he found them pitiful.

“Tell everyone that they did well and bring these people here.”

The six that passed returned to the studio. They ranged from a little girl to high school boys. They somewhat looked like a family when they stood next to each other in a line.

“First, congratulations on joining us on the shoot. The six of you will appear in the drama as a group of beggars. You have a few lines and you’ll be appearing in about 4 episodes so you’ll get paid well too. If you do well, we might use you later when we need child actors so don’t be so disappointed that it’s only four episodes.”

The young actors all nodded. They seemed to know the workings of this industry. It was really satisfying for Changsung since he didn’t have to console them.

“That person over there is going to give you a contract form each so write one. Do any of you have an actor grade?”

All six of them replied that they didn’t have one.

“You’re all below 19 years old, so your payment will be grade one. I’ll tell you the details later when writing the contract so don’t worry about that. Anyway, well done, and see you on set.”

Changsung looked at the one in brown standing on the left. He learned the boy’s name when the youngest member of the production team called out names. His name was Han Maru.

“Uhm, producer.”

Just as he was about to leave the studio, a middle school student standing in the middle raised his hand.

“What is it?”

“Is there a bus that goes to the set? Our family doesn’t have a car.”

“There’s a rental coach so don’t worry about it. We’ll give you a ride both ways. But hey, you’re worried about that as well? What a good boy.”

The middle school boy only smiled in relief then. Before, people started off as actors that were completely broke, but recently, people that became actors were from well-off households. This was especially the case for child actors, so people like him who were worried about transportation were rare.

“Good luck!”

After saying that, he left the studio. Jinhyuk followed him and asked him where he was going.

“I’m going to visit the author of course.”

“We’re going now?”

“Yes, we’re going now. Are we people with a lot of free time? The Wednesday-Thursday drama that’s airing now will be reaching the midpoint soon. We need to shoot the first and second episodes, edit it, and advertise it to get sponsors.”

“It’s not like ads and sponsors will raise our salaries.”

“Instead, we get scolded less. Even if the viewing rates are low, we’ll be better off as long as we get sponsors and ads. Getting your salary while everyone else glares at you doesn’t feel like getting a salary at all.”

“I guess that’s true. But why am I, someone who’s been here for less than a year, working on a historical drama? I heard that new recruits have to stay as assistant directors for more than three years.”

“You still didn’t know the reason?”

“Huh? You know the reason, senior?”

Jinhyuk blinked and asked.

“I asked them to give you to me.”

“What?”

“Your cocky attitude and your tendency to suck up made me think that you’ll be worth using. Let’s go, assistant director.”

“No way, senior!”

Changsung laughed heartily as he walked on the corridor.

* * *

“Fifty thousand per episode. 20% on reruns. Since there aren’t any photos since this is a historical drama, I guess you’ll only receive 10 thousand during flashbacks. No, I guess there won’t be flashbacks at all.”

Considering that the minimum wage was less than 3,000 won per hour right now, it definitely wasn’t a bad amount. If it was a scene where he just had to show his face, say a couple of lines, and disappear, three hours was enough on the assumption that he didn’t have to wait. 50 thousand won for saying a couple of lines after loitering around for three hours. Of course, if things didn’t go well, he might have to wait two to four more hours without being able to do anything, so it wasn’t that good of a deal.

“Please take care of my child.”

Her name was Kim Bitna. Maru grabbed Bitna’s hand and nodded towards the lady that bowed towards him. Bitna also waved at him. She was a cute kid.

He didn’t talk much to the other people that passed. They all left the TV station after bidding each other goodbye. Maru exited to the lobby and returned his entrance card and entered the coffee shop.

He ordered a latte and waited for a while when someone ran inside from outside the TV station. Behind him were numerous people holding small cameras. The man that ran into the lobby panted for a while before cheering out loudly. When he had a closer look, he realized that the man was a comedian.

‘Is there a shoot for an entertainment show right now?’

Following that, broadcasting cameras and microphones as well as a flood of people rushed into the lobby. A woman holding a sketchbook at the front wrote some things down before showing it to the man who was still panting. The man improvised some lines on the spot.

Maru watched them for a while as he drank his coffee before leaving. He was walking towards the bus stop while watching the statues placed in front of the TV station when a white sedan passed by on the road. The emblem wasn’t a Korean brand.

He saw Bitna who politely greeted him through the window. Her mom, who sat next to her, was driving with sunglasses on.

“Whew.”

He sucked the last bit of coffee through the straw as he watched the sedan enter the streets. Although they were all minor actors, someone was looking for a bus that could take him to the set, while someone disappeared on a high-end sedan. They say the desperate succeed, but in Maru’s opinion, the sedan had a higher chance of succeeding than the bus. There was this famous saying: money isn't the answer to everything. However, when it couldn’t be solved with money, people resort to God.

After throwing away the empty plastic cup into a trash can next to the bus stop, he waited for the bus. Since he was going to and from Suwon to Seoul all the time, he was starting to think about grabbing a residence in Seoul. Though, his parents wouldn’t allow him.

Just as Maru squinted to check the number on the bus that was coming from afar, a small car stopped in front of the bus stop and opened the window.

“Han Maru.”

Maru lowered his head and looked inside. Journalist Dongwook was waving at him.

“What are you doing?”

“I was here for an audition. Rather than that, sir.”

“Yeah?’

“You’ll get a parking ticket if you stop in front of a bus stop. It’s 30,000 won.”

Maru smiled and pointed at the front. Dongwook shrugged before driving forward a little.

“Are you on your way to the company?”

He approached the car and asked.

“No, rather than that, get on.”

Dongwook gestured for him to get in the car. He opened the door to the passenger seat and got in. The stench of cigarettes momentarily made him stop breathing.

“Aren’t you smoking too much?”

“I have a reason for that. Rather than that, have you had lunch?”

“Not yet.”

“Then eat with me. I’ll be lonely by myself.”

The place Dongwook drove to was a rather old gukbap restaurant. As they entered the street with the gukbap restaurant, they saw old single-story buildings on the right, and tall buildings that were at least 20 stories tall lined up on the left.

“Looks like this place will be redeveloped soon.”

Hearing those words, Dongwook pointed at the banner hung on the building. ‘We object to the development’ - it said.

He followed Dongwook to the gukbap restaurant. A fly greeted him. As soon as he sat down, a pork gukbap was served to him. It seemed that he didn’t need to order here.

“It’s not like you can’t eat that or something, right?”

“I can’t have enough of it. Thank you for the meal.”

He first scooped the white broth. The restaurants that had good food could be discerned from just the broth.

“It’s good.”

“Right? I’m a regular here.”

He put some chili paste in the soup and then the radish kimchi sauce before putting the bowl of rice in. The two continued their meal without a single word. Only after they saw the bottom of the gukbap bowl, did they say ‘thanks for the meal’.

Maru ate the scorched rice-flavored candy that the lady threw at him before leaving. Although this place was very unfriendly towards the customers, he definitely wanted to come here again.

“Wanna smoke?”

“I decided that I want to live a long life.”

“Alright. Don’t smoke then.”

After puffing, Dongwook sighed out a deep breath.

“Did something happen?”

“I’m investigating a few things, but it’s really going strangely.”

“Looks like it’s something serious.”

“It’s not that serious yet, but… Geez, a junior of mine has a strong journalist mindset so I think it’s going to turn serious.”

“If it’s something that’s giving you a headache. It’s better to get your hands off it early. You won’t be able to leave if you’re too late.”

“Kid, you’re right, but I think it’s too late for me already.”

Dongwook grinned. After getting in the car, Maru told Dongwook that he would get off at the nearest train station.

“Sorry about that. I want to give you a ride to Suwon, but I’m too busy for that.”

“You don’t have to. Please be careful.”

“Thanks.”

Dongwook waved his hand and closed the window. He had thinned out a lot compared to the last time Maru saw him. Perhaps he received a lot of stress.

“Watch out for your health. You’ll regret it later,” Maru spoke in a small voice as he watched the car drive off into the distance.

* * *

“Mr. Bae, are you in?”

Changsung pressed the bell before waiting quietly a while. For some reason, the writer that picked up his phone before he arrived wasn’t picking up right now.

“Perhaps he collapsed?”

“Hey, don’t talk about such unfortunate things. Perhaps he just left for a while due to an appointment.”

“Why isn’t he picking up then?”

“How would I know? Try pressing the bell again.”

Just as Jinhyuk pressed the bell and called out to writer Bae, the elevator started moving from the 1st floor. Changsung stared at the elevator indicator. Eventually, the elevator stopped on the 7th floor, the floor they were on.

“Mr. Bae.”

“Oh, producer Han.”

“Where have you been all this time? You weren’t picking up my calls either.”

“Oh, sorry about that. I was just meeting this fellow.”

It was only then that Changsung found a man standing next to writer Bae Chulho. That man had a thin stature and sharp eyes. He thought that the new person would have a picky personality, but the man instead smiled and greeted him.

“So you were a producer. My name is Ahn Pilhyun. I’m also a writer, though, I’m not as well-off as him.”

“Ah, yes. Hello there. My name is Han Changsung. I’m a producer at RBS.”

“And I’m Kim Jinhyuk.”

While they exchanged greetings, writer Bae Chulho opened the door.

“Come inside for now. It won’t be polite of me to keep guests waiting outside. You should come in as well.”

“I was going to even if you didn’t tell me.”

Pilhyun waved the bags he was holding. The smell of fried chicken wafted out from it. Changsung gulped subconsciously.

“Well, then. Please excuse me,” Changsung said as he took off his shoes.

Although he had visited this place before, he felt that writer Bae really liked plants. There were all sorts of orchids in the veranda, and in front of them were colorful cactuses. There were flowers next to the TV as well. It must be very tiring to look after them all.

“Have you had lunch?” Writer Bae asked.

“No, not yet.”

Changsung thought that he might be being rude, but he couldn’t say that he did after smelling the fried chicken. Jinhyuk was all smiles.

“Tsk, what a pity. We only bought enough for the two of us,” writer Ahn Pilhyun, who was next to writer Bae, said as he ripped open the paper bags.

He really looked like he had no intentions of sharing.

“Hey, stop teasing people you haven’t seen before.”

“Why? It looks like he likes it.”

“Geez, sorry about that, producer. This fella is really ill-mannered.”

Writer Bae brought the fried chicken and some beer on a tray.

“Let’s talk after we eat. I have something to talk to you about as well.”

Chapter 382

There were three taboo topics to talk about while drinking: politics, religion, and favorite baseball teams. The moment any one of them became the topic of the conversation, food would start flying everywhere, and drinks would start rising into the sky.

“This is why the ruling party is shit. Just look at what happened today! Just look at those bastards! Is the National Assembly a wrestling ring? Why do I have to see a shoulder throw in the National Assembly?”

“Is the opposing party any better? The Lee Joongho you liked so much did a flying kick.”

“Hey, we’re talking about defeating enemies. A flying kick? I’m disappointed they didn’t go further.”

“For someone who was just talking about wrestling rings, you sure are infinitely forgiving when it comes to your party.”

Writer Bae Chulho and writer Ahn Pilhyun looked like they were about to grab each other’s collars.

Changsung, who was stuck in the middle, shook his head as he drank the rice wine. Those two were going at this for two hours now. Around an hour ago, they were fighting about which baseball players were good or bad. It seemed that they supported different baseball teams. They started pointing at each other with displeased faces, so Changsung was worried that a fight would break out.

However, they started laughing and drinking together in a friendly fashion as though they didn’t fight at all, but they soon started fighting again after 10 minutes, this time, about religion. They talked about such sensitive topics without rest for the past couple of hours. Even Changsung, who had been cautious at first, became used to it. They would probably start laughing again soon.

“These two are very… dynamic, in a way,” Jinhyuk spoke in a small voice.

Since two men that were nearing fifty were fighting like they were teens, ‘dynamic’ seemed to be fitting.

“But was writer Bae always like that?”

“No. He was a calm person. He looks like a professor no matter how you look at him, right?”

“That’s true. Then that must be because he’s at ease with writer Ahn next to him, right?”

“They’re probably friends. It’s the first time I saw writer Bae laugh like that as well. I’ve known him for two years, but I feel like I finally got to know the real him.”

Writer Ahn waved the bottle of rice wine, gesturing for Changsung to drink. Changsung immediately brought his cup.

“We were too loud, weren’t we? We did that because drinking quietly is no good. I learned that drinking quietly is only for sending away unwelcome guests.”

When his cup was filled, writer Ahn poured some for Jinhyuk as well. Changsung drank it in one gulp. This was his ninth year as a producer. The only things he managed to gain were chronic fatigue, as well as a bloated liver due to all the alcohol. He never lost in drinking when drinking with celebrities that were known to drink well.

“This fella’s good at drinking. Oi, Bae. You met a good man.”

“The producer is decent.”

Decent just because he could drink huh. Changsung laughed in a small voice before putting the cup down.

“Since we drank enough, we should get to work.”

Writer Bae and writer Ahn stood up and started cleaning up. Changsung and Jinhyuk also helped out. The living room was cleaned up not long later.

“Oh, it’s somewhat funny to say this at this point, but this friend of mine decided to help me out. You’ll see him frequently in the future,” writer Bae spoke.

Changsung looked at writer Ahn and made a formal greeting again.

“I’m just helping out personally, so you don’t need to worry about payment. I’m just paying him back for the things I owe him,” writer Ahn spoke.

“Yes, okay. Then I’ll start talking about the script now. We don’t have that much time until we start shooting.”

“Yes, of course. We should talk about that.”

Changsung gave a glance to Jinhyuk. Jinhyuk took out the script for the first and second episodes that writer Bae sent them, as well as the outline of the plot that they discussed with writer Bae.

“Since this became a fifty-episode drama, I think there’s a need to look at the plot again. Of course, it’s good as it is, but I want to listen to your valued opinion.”

“My valued opinion, huh.”

“First, I’ll tell you about the first episode since it’s right upon us.”

“Okay, go ahead.”

This was his second time working together with writer Bae. Writer Bae wrote the script for the fantasy-esque historical drama two years ago. Their meetings together had continued until now.

Changsung respected writer Bae. At first, he thought that the writer was a stuck-up person from how he refused to drop the honorifics even in meetings outside of work, but the moment he realized that it was for mutual respect, he treated the writer as the teacher of his life. He always listened carefully to every word when talking about work-related things, and did not ignore anything just because someone younger than him said it. This was why Changsung was able to get straight to the topic without any formalities.

“In the first scene, the main character goes to the Ming Dynasty and receives an award for his loyalty, right?”

“Yes.”

“I think we should change it.”

“How?”

“I want to make it so that the main character wants to resign, but his resignation is refused by the King. The character we’re trying to express is ultimately a rational and cold-headed politician, but since it’s a drama that we’re doing, the audience needs to be able to put themselves in the main character’s shoes. In that perspective, it should be an honor for him to receive praises from the Emperor of Ming[1], but it might cause a sense of repulsion from the audience since it’s the first episode. It looks okay on text, but it will feel different once it becomes a video. Of course, we’re willing to follow your will. This work is entirely yours after all.”

“Hm. The first sentence is the most important regardless of which work it is. Including indentation, the first words will decide the world of the writing. I thought that bowing his head to the Emperor of Ming would portray the figure of a politician that’s hypocritical yet successful. I wanted the audience to decide whether the character is splendid or underhanded.”

Writer Bae stroked his chin and stopped speaking. That was a habit of his when he fell in thought. Changsung cautiously waited with his breath abated. The producer and the writer. The relationship between the two was very peculiar. They had the same objective of creating a work, but there were many times where they differed in the direction.

A long time ago, when he was put in charge of production as the assistant director in the B team, he saw a famous writer quarrel with his senior in the meeting room. He understood from that why they just exchanged scripts with emails.

Producers had their own ideals, and writers had their own ideals. If the producer was able to take responsibility for the script as well, there wouldn’t be any noise, but that was realistically impossible. It would be possible if the entire script until the final episode was written before shooting, but the drama production system in Korea was not that easy. Even if they spent several years writing the script, it was unknown if the script would get the final stamp. On top of that, they had to reflect on the real-time feedback as well as reflect on the social issues of the time.

If a murder method in a detective drama was used in real-life before the episode aired, then whatever video they had had to be deleted. If they aired it just like that, it wouldn’t just end with visiting the KCC (Korea Communications Commission).

On top of that, since it was something made by people, they would have to change the script if one of the actors encountered an accident or something, so it was nearly impossible for the producer to do that alone. This was why scriptwriters were needed.

There was a moment of silence. Changsung thought that he should say it - ‘I will do as you say for the first episode’.

The first scene could be considered the face of the drama. Also, the audience was very harsh. Unless there was an actor or actress they liked, many people would change channels after just looking at the general atmosphere. If it was a drama set in modern times, he would need to worry less, since it wouldn’t look out of place. However, in the case of historical dramas, especially in the case of RBS historical dramas, the target audience was the younger generation so it had to be softer. The reason he went with beautiful-looking sorcery and a beautiful lady in the intro of the drama he did two years ago was due to those reasons.

In such a situation, which would look better? The main character bowing down to the Chinese Emperor, or the monarch of one country asking the main character to stay by his side?

Now that hanja education was no longer compulsory, and history education was decreasing, there was no way the audience knew about the background of the characters in detail. Since this was a business that used billions of won in funds, as well as hundreds, if not thousands, of people working on it, he had to take those elements into account. Too much money was at stake to just go with intuition.

He wanted to create a first scene that was friendly towards all.

That was what Changsung wanted.

Despite that, Changsung decided not to change the intro if writer Bae didn’t want to. Although he was creating the drama, the foundation of the drama was the writing that writer Bae wrote. Changsung wanted to create this work together with the writer.

“I think the producer is right on that.”

The one that broke the silence was not writer Bae. Changsung looked at Ahn Pilhyun. Writer Bae’s gaze was also directed at writer Ahn.

“Hey, you have the answer already. If you’re thinking this long about it, you must be shaken, so there’s no need to ponder about it so deeply.”

“Geez.”

“The producer’s sounds better. It’s cool, isn’t it? If people do not know what the main character is like, this is much better than bowing his head to a Chinese guy. It’s good to express your philosophy, but dramas aren’t made alone. Isn’t that right, producer Han?”

Writer Ahn winked. Receiving unexpected support, Changsung’s expression visibly brightened and nodded. Actually, there was one more reason he wanted to change the scene to the main character meeting the King alone. It was reducing production costs. Making the introductory scene look fancy would require a huge sum of money. He couldn’t even begin to calculate the money needed to make the set for meeting the emperor in the capital city of the Ming Dynasty.

However, if it was just a personal meeting with the King, they could just use the set in RBS. Since they had a limited budget, they should save where they could.

“Good. Let’s go with what producer Han says. However, I do not plan to remove the capital scene.”

“Of course. I’ll definitely use it when expressing the main character’s later life.”

“That’s good then.”

Changsung sighed in relief. However, it wasn’t over yet. This was just the beginning. Writer Bae wasn’t that picky when it came to direction, but he was stubborn on some parts, especially related to the background. He had to talk about cliffs, lakes, and waterfalls in the script and about what the atmosphere is supposed to be like and start looking for suitable places.

Just as he was about to go to the next topic, the bell rang. It was from the door.

“Looks like they’re here.”

The one that stood up was writer Ahn. He slowly walked towards the entrance. After an unlocking sound, the door opened.

“We’re here, senior.”

“H-hello.”

The ones that came were two men. One looked to be in his late twenties with sharp eyes hidden behind black glasses, and the other seemed to be a high school boy that had a chubby body and a rather shy-looking pair of eyes.

“This is the first time I have had so many guests. Come inside for now.”

Writer Bae waved at them. The two youths made their greetings as they entered.

“I needed some help doing research. These two are thankful people who decided to help me out. You should greet them as well. These two are producers from RBS.”

Changsung nodded to the two people who awkwardly greeted him.

“It looks like you were in the middle of a conversation, so we’ll go inside the room for now.”

“Okay.”

When the man in glasses waved, the chubby boy followed him.

“Then should we continue our talk?” Writer Bae spoke as he pointed at the script.

* * *

“It’s made of sponge, so it won’t hurt even if you get hit.”

Instructor Yoo swung the rod against his own arm. The rod made a loud noise, but the instructor didn’t bat an eyelid.

“Maru, want to get hit?”

“It looks painful though,” Maru smiled as he stood up.

Instructor Yoo swung the rod towards his shoulder. It didn’t hurt immediately, but he felt like it would become painful if he continued to get hit.

“People flinch back if this flies at their faces even if they know that it’s not dangerous.”

After saying that, instructor Yoo suddenly swung the rod. Since he was on watch, Maru dodged it without much difficulty. Instructor Yoo bitterly smiled.

“Hey, you’re supposed to get hit here.”

“It felt like it would hurt if I continued to get hit.”

“Geez, your reflexes are top-notch. Okay, this guy is the weird one. People usually cower subconsciously.”

The rod was suddenly thrown at Bangjoo, who was watching. Bangjoo flinched and raised his hand upwards.

“Like that.”

The students laughed in a small voice.

“You need to get used to this now. If you want to not put yourselves in danger during the real deal, you should not dodge it haphazardly, but clearly look at what’s coming at you and dodge it according to the plan. Only then would the action look cooler.”

Instructor Yoo clicked his fingers and told them to stand up.

[1] I’m not entirely sure but, the ‘King’ ≠ ‘Emperor’.

Chapter 383

“That’s right. Do it like you are not hitting but pushing strongly.”

Instructor Yoo then shouted ‘focus’. Maru exchanged glances with Bangjoo, who was in front of him before getting into position again. It had been two weeks since they started practicing. Although quick movements were still awkward and dangerous at times, they were able to bring the moves they practiced together to a considerable level.

He pushed away Bangjoo’s right arm to his left before sending a knee kick his way. Switching to defense, Bangjoo pushed his knee and bashed his head. Maru flicked his head back as though he got hit and swayed his arm around.

“Oh, seonbae-nim. Wasn’t that quite good just now?”

“Yeah, we were in perfect sync.”

“So practice does make perfect. It was really hard at first too.”

“How many times have we bashed each other on the head?”

“Probably more than ten times at least,” Bangjoo giggled.

“Let’s do that once more.”

“Yes!”

“This time, we’ll start from part A and go all the way to part C.”

Their hands and feet reached out and were taken back according to a previous agreement. Although their movements were very dynamic, Maru’s head was calmly thinking about the next move. Due to repeated practice, his body was subconsciously preparing for the next move by itself, but just relying on that would cause accidents. Keep tense - action director Kim Choongho always said those words.

He shut his mouth and just thought about his next move. If he was supposed to add emotions into the acting, their movements had to be even more flawless. If the actors that were fighting together did not have trust in each other, they would become worried about accidents, and it would be impossible for the acting to look natural. He punched out towards Bangjoo’s chin in a straight line. A few days ago, they made a mistake on this part and the punch hit Bangjoo’s face. He was slightly worried when he remembered that, but he trusted Bangjoo and punched out without restraint. A ‘restrained’ action scene was worse than nothing.

“Whoo!”

Bangjoo crossed his arms and blocked his face. Maru kept extending his fist out with the feeling that he was going to push the center of Bangjoo’s guard. Bangjoo’s body was pushed back and he fell down.

Right as Maru was about to think that he perhaps went a little too far, Bangjoo did a backflip and stood up again. Maru raised his thumb at Bangjoo who was grinning.

“Geez, you guys are doing unnecessary things. Both of you, come here.”

Instructor Yoo looked at the two and gestured at the two to come.

* * *

“Let’s organize these by date.”

“Yes.”

Daemyung received the Joseon Wangjo Sillok (Annals of the Joseon Dynasty)[1]. It was quite a thick book this time. The name of the author was different once again. Daemyung had a look at the books piled up neatly on the side. They were all Joseon Wangjo Sillok. The publisher and the author were different for all of them[2]. Above all of them, were revised versions as well. In front of that pile were books that talked about art galleries, clothes stores, etiquettes, and large events of that era.

“It’s hard, isn’t it?” Gwak Joon sat down next to him as he spoke.

Daemyung shook his head.

“No, it’s actually quite fun.”

“Really?”

“Yes.”

He opened a notebook and pressed down on the spine and started writing on the right side of the notebook. The things he was about to do were simple. Once writer Bae Chulho gave them a topic, he would have to investigate that topic by looking through books and the internet and then write the information down in the notebook. There was no need to summarize or make it easier to read and since he could write it down as it was, it wasn’t that hard.

If he gave the organized notes to Gwak Joon, he would add and remove the necessary parts and then give them to writer Bae. After a while, writer Bae would give them another topic and the same process would repeat.

“It’s not easy to write a drama script.”

He spoke as he pressed down on the pen so that he could write neatly. He thought that writing was done sitting down. He considered writing as something that he could complete by sitting down and focusing on writing each and every letter, but the actual writing of a drama script wasn’t something that could be accomplished by just sitting down.

“It’s not easy, especially in the case of historical dramas. If it was just ordinary fiction, you could just write it within the realm of common sense, but in the case of historical dramas, research is very important. Even if it has fantasy elements mixed into it, it would cause the ire of the audience if it’s completely different from what it was really like in that era.”

Daemyung nodded his head. They were adapting real events into a drama. They weren’t creating a completely new world, so it would be difficult to ignore history entirely.

‘He probably bought all these books for that.’

It had been around a week since he started helping out here. The work he had a hard time with at first gradually became better and he could do it quite quickly now. When he first heard about this work, he wondered if a student like him who knew nothing about professional writing should participate, but he was fortunate enough to just do the research without doing anything important. He had no desire to participate in the script meeting or do something with the writers. That was because he would feel pressure if he did. He didn’t like the saying ‘a caterpillar should be satisfied with eating leaves’, but he could sympathize with that saying right now.

He stretched his arms out and went to the next book. Just one volume of the historical relic had several books written about it. The authors of those books had different interpretations of the relic, so Daemyung wrote them all down in the notebook.

“But the people we saw before, they were producers right?”

“Yeah. They’re the producers in charge of this drama.”

“Wow, this is the first time I saw a real producer from a TV station. But they’re different from what I imagined.”

“What you imagined?”

“I thought that directors would look chubby, sturdily built, and have a beard, looking like someone who does art for a living. Though, I might be rude for thinking like that.”

“There are many such people among movie directors, but the people working for TV media are generally thin. I heard that they can’t gain weight because of all the activities they do. I heard that some people get reflux esophagitis because of all the stress they receive.”

“…Direction must be a hard job.”

He was now slightly worried if he could be a director.

“You’re having a hard time.”

The door opened and writer Bae entered. He was holding a tray, and on top of that were some delicious-looking watermelon slices. Daemyung stood up and received the tray from him.

“Let’s eat before continuing. Only if we get something to eat will our brains work.”

Daemyung picked up a large piece of watermelon and took a bite. The cool and sweet sensation made him refreshed.

“Are you more used to it now? I mean, organizing research materials,” writer Bae asked.

Daemyung put down the watermelon and was about to sit upright, but writer Bae said that he could stay at ease and pushed his shoulders down.

“Yes. I’m more or less used to it now. But I was surprised that you need to know so much. I didn’t do all this when I wrote my script. I’m a little worried that my way of doing it might have been wrong.”

“Hmm, it’s not like that. There is no ‘correct’ or ‘wrong’ way of writing. When you’re young, you can just write the things you want. Doing all this investigation and research is when ‘this’ is on the line,” writer Bae made a circle with his thumb and index fingers with a calm smile.

Daemyung chuckled in a low voice.

“You said your dream was to become a director, right?”

“Yes.”

“Do your best. Kids like you, who wholeheartedly focus on your dreams since young are bound to succeed. Do you know why?”

“No.”

“In truth, many people just leave dreams as dreams. I was like that as well. I worked at a company until my mid-thirties with the excuse that I’m busy. I should get to writing if I get some free time, I should get to writing after this matter is finished - like that. But I was wrong. It was all just an excuse. I should do this at this specific time - the ‘specific time’ they mention never comes to people who think like that. Only people who get to it immediately, so, people like you, become successful.”

Good luck - he added as he patted Daemyung’s shoulders. Daemyung felt courage welling up deep inside him. It was a great fortune that he was able to come to this place during the summer holidays following Gwak Joon.

“Ah, right. I almost forgot.”

Writer Bae, who was smiling in satisfaction, suddenly stood up before leaving. He wondered what it was about, and peeked outside. Writer Bae went into a small room, which was his writing room, and came back out with something in his hand. It was a black bag.

“Take this. It’s payment.”

“What?”

He tried opening the bag that was closed with velcro and peeked inside. What he saw inside was a laptop. It even looked brand new as the plastic peeling wasn’t taken off yet. The manual was there as well.

“You’re giving this to me?”

“Yes. The publishing company gave it to me for me to use, but I already have one. I did try using it, but it didn’t fit right with me. Rather than having it pile up dust in a corner, it’s better to be used by someone else. Try taking it out.”

Daemyung blinked several times and took out the laptop. It was a Japanese-made one. He did look into buying laptops since typing was much easier than writing with a pencil, but he couldn’t even dream about it since they were so expensive.

After brushing the sleek surface, Daemyung quickly came to himself and put the laptop inside the bag again. Then, he gave the bag back to writer Bae.

“I’m doing this to learn, so I don’t need to receive something like this. It’s really okay, I don’t need payment.”

He was only helping out for a short time during the summer holidays. No, he wasn’t only helping out, he was receiving guidance as well. Actually, just all this research could be considered studying as well, so there was no way he could accept something like an expensive laptop while doing this.

At that moment, writer Bae, who always put on a warm smile made a scary expression for the first time.

“You’re trying to make me into a shameless man.”

“Eh, what? No, I didn’t have that kind of intention at…”

“Take it.”

Gwak Joon picked up the laptop on the floor and put it on Daemyung’s legs. Daemyung was unable to do anything and just kept looking at writer Bae.

“People should receive proper compensation for their work. That is something natural. If you refuse compensation despite working, that’s just devaluing yourself. Work is different from charity activities. If you work, then you must receive compensation for it. Especially in this industry.”

Writer Bae looked scary as he said those words. Daemyung felt as though he was being punished.

“Of course, I’m not saying that you’re bad for thinking about it. You’re both humble and kind. I really like you.”

Writer Bae then stayed silent for a while before leaving the room with the tray. Daemyung sighed out in relief. Writer Bae looked really scary right then.

“Startled, are you?”

Gwak Joon spoke in a calm manner.

“Yes. Was I in the wrong?”

“No, you didn’t do anything wrong. It’s just that seniors are adamant when it comes to things like that. Once, a junior writer wrote a full-length novel. It really took a long time for that person to edit. To the point that he became ill for it. That junior was thinking that it was still good since it was published, but the royalties kept getting delayed. That junior writer and the CEO of the publishing company were quite close friends, so the president kept telling the writer to wait when he brought up the royalties topic.”

“What happened after that?”

Gwak Joon fell silent for a while. He looked at the ceiling with his eyes cloudy before speaking.

“He committed suicide. That was four years ago. It seemed that his family wasn’t in a good financial situation.”

“…No way.”

“Most of the time, death comes due to the most trivial reason. However, it’s a gloomy problem for the person in question. After that, senior became really angry when people didn’t receive what they should. He also looked at people that gave away their talents for free to the ones with money. That publisher actually did a lot of that. I’ll give you an opportunity to get your work published, so try writing. Of course, I can’t give you money, but think of it as an opportunity - just like that. Other times, he held a competition and gave out a small amount of prize money and held the work hostage until it was the right time.”

Gwak Joon was saying all those things calmly, but Daemyung thought that he was even more upset than writer Bae about it. He could imagine the burning rage in his eyes.

“If you’re also going to sell your talents for a living, whether it’s directing or writing, don’t ever do anything that brings you damage. Not only will you bring yourself harm, but it will also end up destroying you. Bear that in mind.”

“Yes…”

The laptop on his lap felt very heavy.

[1] Written across 25 generations (472 years) of the Joseon dynasty kings so there isn’t just one book. Wikipedia for more details.

[2] It’s written in hanja, so modern publishers should have published translations of the book.

Chapter 384

“Let’s stop here for today. Thanks for all your hard work.”

Daemyung bid goodbye to writers Ahn and Bae, as well as Gwak Joon as he hugged the laptop bag tightly. The three of them told him that they still had things to do before they wrapped up. On the elevator down, Daemyung kept staring at the laptop bag. The pressure of having received an expensive product, the joy of getting something he wanted, and lastly, the weight of the words he heard as he received the laptop swirled inside his head and heart.

Along with a ringing sound, the elevator opened. When he went past the short corridor and down the stairs, he saw a little bird standing in front of the parking lot. The bird cocked its head a few times as though it was eating before flying into the sky. Looking at the bird that eventually became a dot and disappeared, a line popped up inside Daemyung’s head - I will create good writings with this laptop.

He put the laptop bag inside his backpack carefully and closed the bag. His chest heated up for some reason. He wanted to sit down immediately and start writing. Nothing came to mind though, he just wanted to write.

“Yes, Maru.”

-Where are you now? I’m just departing from Seoul.

“I’m still in Seoul.”

-That’s good, then let’s have dinner together. You haven’t eaten yet, right?

“I haven’t. Wait, is Bangjoo next to you? I think I heard his voice.”

After some noise, Bangjoo’s voice could be heard over the phone. It was as loud and cheerful as ever.

-Seonbae-nim!

“So it was Bangjoo. Let’s go have dinner together.”

-Of course! Seonbae, we’ll be waiting so come quickly.

“Okay, okay. I’ll go as soon as I can.”

-Yes! I’ll hand it back to Maru-seonbae now.

Maru picked up the phone.

-Do you remember the place we went to last time? The place we had jeyuk-bokkeum.

“I do. It was delicious.”

-Let’s go there then. Do you still remember the way?

“I vaguely remember. I’ll call you if I can’t find my way there. I do know where to get off.”

After hanging up, Daemyung spat out a deep breath before walking. He had just heard some heavy, no, scary words so it was true that he was feeling a little stuffy, but at the same time, he had the desire to focus on this path much more.

This would have been unimaginable for his past self. If it was the Park Daemyung of elementary or middle school, he would have a hard time meeting up with others outside of school. School was his only joy, and holidays were his paradise. If he continued living like that in high school as well…

‘I should be in my room right now, doing nothing.’

He was branded as the awkward guy and was being bullied because of his looks and figure. That gradually intensified until he was eventually ignored and was ripped off money. When he just entered high school, he believed that he could no longer change. He believed himself to be beyond saving. He believed that anyone who talked to him had ulterior motives. He was at the epitome of self-disgust and self-disbelief.

He dug himself a hole and hid in it without looking back, cutting off all of his connections. He insulted himself for being alone, yet he was relieved that he was alone as well. When that kind of life was about to continue for three more years, Maru talked to him. It was his salvation. That was the moment he bid farewell to his elementary and middle school days.

‘This story.’

Daemyung suddenly stopped walking. Then, he hurriedly took out a notebook from his bag and opened it. He was about to write against the wall of the building, before deciding to sit down on the spot and write. He saw the passersby watching him, and he was embarrassed to the point that his face was going to burst, but he didn’t want to miss this inspiration for a story right now. He felt that it would turn blurry and disappear if he turned around, so he quickly started writing. He found himself pathetic for his lack of vocabulary as he wrote things down, but right now, he focused on getting the story written.

“What is he doing?”

“I don’t know.”

Girls around his age stared at him as they walked by. After Daemyung wrote the last letter, he quickly stood up from the spot. He met eyes with people who were staring at him, and Daemyung covered his face with his notebook and ran away with all of his might. He went past the bus stop right in front of him and went to the next one over to take the bus. He sat down in the middle of the street and started writing. That was really unimaginable.

‘But even so.’

Daemyung tightly grabbed onto the notebook inside the shaking bus. The play script he was working on right now felt rather lacking the more he wrote. The story he started off after talking with Mintae-hyung, had been polished thanks to Gwak Joon-hyung’s advice. However, he felt that it was becoming more lacking the closer it reached the finishing line.

He finally realized what he was lacking just now.

‘My story.’

It might be pathetic and uninteresting, but it was his own story that he knew best and could sympathize with. It wasn’t a story he could introduce to others, but he felt that turning this story into a script would be more interesting than any other writing.

“I think I’ll listen to them as well.”

He promised Maru and Mintae-hyung that the three of them would one day put on a play. Han Maru would be the main character, it would be directed by Park Daemyung, and the stage would be set by Yoon Mintae. If he could complete this story and make it into a play, he would be happier than ever.

He got off the bus with an excited heart. He came to this place before with Maru. He just had to walk down the street until he came across the alleyway and if he just turned there…

“Huh?”

Daemyung took his eyes off the notebook and looked up. There was a boy who had dyed his hair yellow and wore baggy clothes. The moment he had a closer look at his face wondering if he knew that guy, Daemyung remembered the boy’s name.

“What is it? Why’d you suddenly stop?”

“What’s happening?”

At that moment, others gathered around him. Two girls and two boys. He didn’t know the girls, but he knew the three boys too well.

“It’s Park Daemyung. Wow, it’s piggy, isn’t it?”

“Dang, you lost some weight. Though, you’re still fat.”

“Wow, it’s nice seeing you here.”

Daemyung stepped backwards. They were boys from his class in his third year of middle school.

Just as the nightmares of that year became vivid again, he felt the texture of the notebook he was holding, as well as the weight of the laptop on his shoulders.

“Hey, it’s been a while.”

The boy approached him and hooked his arm around Daemyung’s shoulders. The nervousness engraved in his cells went back in time and became active again. These boys always approached him like this, bullied him, then eventually ripped money off him. Daemyung felt that his heart was racing all by itself. It wouldn’t be strange even if it stopped at any moment.

“Who is it? A friend of yours?”

“Yeah. A friend of mine from middle school.”

The girls approached and stared at him. Daemyung looked at the boys before walking forward. The arm around his shoulder naturally fell down.

“I-I’ll get going.”

In this blood-wrecking tension, Daemyung barely spoke out. If it was before, he wouldn’t have been able to utter a word. Though, his legs were still shaking.

“Hey, where are you going? We haven’t met in so long. Aren’t you glad to see me?”

The boys stopped him again. He saw the girls making a suspicious smile. They looked like they found a nice toy. They were the eyes that Daemyung had seen many times before.

“Daemyung.”

“Uh, yeah?”

“We haven’t seen each other in so long, so why don’t you treat us to something? Aren’t we friends?”

A fishy smile poked his eyes. Daemyung clenched his eyes shut. Money, he had. He still had leftover pocket money after all. Should he just give them what they wanted like middle school? Well, that was definitely the easy way out. If he just lowered his pride a little and gave them some money with a smile, the boys would probably end things with a pat on the shoulder. Just as he was about to take out the ten thousand won bill in his pocket,

-Don’t ever do anything that brings you damage.

He remembered Gwak Joon’s words. It felt as though his words were holding him.

“Uhm, I’m sorry about this, but I can’t.”

“What? You don’t have any money?”

“N-no… I do have money, but.”

“But?”

“Sorry. I can’t.”

He pushed away the guy that hung his arm around his shoulder. The boy then started laughing.

“What are you doing?”

“Uh, what?”

“Park Daemyung, I asked what you were doing.”

He looked devious. Daemyung looked at him in the face for the first time. So his facial features looked like that. He suddenly chuckled when he thought that he finally saw the face of the boy that bullied him viciously for a whole year.

When he did, the boy’s face crumpled. The others around him did the same.

“You’re fucking crazy.”

The boy grabbed Daemyung by the collar before dragging him to the alleyway. For some reason, Daemyung was still smiling.

* * *

“…It hurts.”

His cheek hurt since he got hit.

When he was slapped after being dragged into the alleyway, he became scared for a moment, but he soon calmed down. His legs were no longer shaking either. When he looked at them, he even thought that such ‘characters’ talked like that.

At that moment, a low ‘what are you doing over there!’ could be heard. The people around him became startled and ran away, and Daemyung was able to escape the alleyway without much trouble.

He put his hand on his cheek and turned left after walking two blocks. When he climbed the gentle slope, he saw the store on the right.

“You’re here?”

Maru was standing in front.

“Why are you outside?”

“I just came. But hey, did your teeth rot or something?”

“I-it’s nothing. Rather than that, let’s go inside. I’m hungry.”

“Okay. Let’s eat first.”

Maru hung his arm around his shoulders as he said that. Daemyung blinked and looked at Maru.

“Let’s eat.”

“Uh, okay.”

Maru smiled and opened the door. Inside was the owner, who was clearly expressing that he was bothered.

“Why the hell are you here again? I thought you lived in Suwon. Why do you come all the way here to eat?”

“Because your food tastes good. Rather than that, we’d like three servings of jeyuk-bokkeum.”

The owner clicked his tongue before walking to the kitchen. He was an interesting man. He grumbled but he did everything anyway. The sound of meat being fried could be heard from the kitchen. While the food was getting prepared, Daemyung cautiously showed the things he wrote in the middle of the street to Maru.

“I tried writing it, and I’m wondering if it’s okay to change the story to this.”

Maru received his notebook before reading it with his chin resting on his hand. The writing was short, so it shouldn’t take that long for him to read it.

“Hey, Daemyung.”

“Yeah?”

“Were you in a hurry or something? Your writing is through the roof.”

“I-I guess I was. But how is it? Is it a little boring?”

“No, it’s good. This, is this your story?”

“Yeah.”

He was embarrassed to admit, but his answer was firm.

“Then there’s no problem. You’re the one writing the script anyway.”

Maru gave him back the notebook. Daemyung felt relieved. He felt better to hear that from the friend he trusted the most.

“It’s all thanks to you,” he said that subconsciously.

“What do you mean?”

“The thing is… if it wasn’t for you, I would not have joined the acting club, and would still be the weird guy in class. That’s why I’m thankful and… you know.”

“Geez, hey. Those that don’t have the will to change will not change no matter what you do to them. The reason you’re in the acting club and are writing is because you wanted to change yourself, not because of me.”

Maru shivered as though he was cringed out. Daemyung laughed.

“What about Bangjoo though?”

“He left for a brief moment for something urgent.”

“Something urgent?”

“Don’t worry about it.”

Just then, the rice and the jeyuk-bokkeum were served.

“Let’s eat for now.”

“I thought he left for a brief moment. Let’s eat together once he comes back.”

“It’s fine, you can eat. Bangjoo, that guy is sturdy, so he doesn’t need to eat something like this.”

Maru urged him to eat and even stuffed a spoon in his hand, so Daemyung ate a spoonful. It was definitely good. The reason this place was filled with people at night was probably because of the taste. Just as he was about to talk to Maru about food, Daemyung saw Maru hold his bowl with one hand and eat in a hurry.

“Man, that was good.”

“Y-you finished already?”

“Yeah, Daemyung, you can continue eating. The owner will keep you company.”

“Where are you going?” He asked Maru, but Maru just left after telling him to stay.

“I don’t plan to talk to you guys,” the store owner spoke as he kept watching the TV.

Just as he didn’t know what to do due to the awkward atmosphere. The store owner suddenly stood up before sitting down where Maru sat.

“Eat.”

“Eh, what?”

“I said eat.”

“Yes!”

He started stuffing himself due to the scary eyes. Just as he ate a few spoonfuls, the store owner spoke again.

“Is it good?”

“Y-yes. It’s good.”

“Really?”

The store owner abruptly stood up and went to the kitchen. Then, the sound of meat being fried could be heard again. Daemyung scratched his head and looked at the kitchen and the entrance alternately. He didn’t know what was going on.

Chapter 385

-Yes. You just need to keep going straight when you see the convenience store.

He ran as he listened to Bangjoo’s explanation. When he walked down the street, he saw Bangjoo who was waving his hand above his head.

“They went into the noraebang here.”

“Noraebang?”

“Yeah, but seonbae-nim. I think I saw Daemyung-seonbae, am I wrong?”

“Daemyung? He’s at the restaurant right now. Looks like we crossed paths.”

“Really? Looks like I was wrong then. Oh, this is the drink you asked for.”

Bangjoo gave him a plastic bottle.

“Thanks. I felt thirsty all of a sudden.”

“I was wondering what it was since you told me to run and buy it all of a sudden. But why did you tell me to follow those guys? Did something happen?”

“They’re friends of mine.”

“Your friends?”

“Yeah. It’s too long to explain right now. Here’s the money for the drink and the food. Once you enter the restaurant, Daemyung should be there. You should start eating. Also, if Daemyung asks what happened, just tell him that I’m out to meet some friends. Don’t explain anything in detail.”

“Okay, I’ll do that.”

Bangjoo received the money and took a step before turning around again.

“But seonbae-nim.”

“Yeah?”

“I’m asking just in case, but are you going to fight or something?”

“Fight? Me?”

“I just had a hunch. You wouldn’t normally tell others to tail your friends. Also, I feel like you are a little upset.”

“I just have some things to talk about with them. Anyway, tell Daemyung that I’m just meeting some friends to not make him worry. I’ll be back in a bit, so take your time eating, okay?”

“…Uhm, seonbae-nim. I don’t have experience fighting, but I do have the confidence not to get hit.”

“I said I’m not fighting. It’s nothing serious, so go and eat. I told you I’ll be back real soon, didn’t I?”

Maru pushed Bangjoo’s back. Bangjoo looked at him worriedly before nodding and walking. The annoyance seemed to have gotten the better of him, causing him to not manage his expression properly. It seemed that Bangjoo had noticed that.

Before he arrived at the store, Maru saw Daemyung who was across the road. He was with a few other people so he wondered if they were Daemyung’s friends, but he realized that they weren’t friends when he remembered Daemyung’s middle school stories that he had told him before. He prevented Bangjoo from looking across the road and checked on Daemyung’s status. Daemyung was flinching back as he was surrounded by those guys. He wondered if he should walk over, but he decided not to, believing that Daemyung would be able to handle it by himself and crossed the pedestrian overpass.

He was talking to Bangjoo while he watched Daemyung, and just then, he saw the other guys pressure Daemyung and push him into an alley.

It was obvious from where he was standing that Daemyung was clearly being forced. Daemyung, that naïve guy didn’t act back and just stood still like a turtle, even when he eventually got pushed. Maru pointed at the convenience store on the other side of the alley and told Bangjoo to buy a drink. After sending the confused Bangjoo into the convenience store, he ran towards the alley where Daemyung was dragged to.

He just entered the alley thinking that he should pay back double what they did to Daemyung, and then he saw Daemyung being slapped. A swear word rose up to his throat. Just as he was thinking about crashing into the boy at the back, he saw Daemyung looking back at the boys with a confident expression. He didn’t look like he was scared. He looked calm, and some kind of fighting spirit could be seen.

The moment Maru saw that expression, he stopped and hid behind the corner and growled. The students that were playing delinquent became startled and all rushed out the other side.

Maru went around the building and watched them before telling Bangjoo, who had returned with a drink in hand, to tail them. Bangjoo was confused but he still listened to Maru’s words.

“Damn those bastards.”

Delinquents were usually calm when they were alone. At most, they would swear. But, for some curious reason, once they grew in number, their daringness and courage shot up rapidly. It was quite absurd.

Such traits would continue even when they entered society. The reason bullying in companies was even worse than bullying in schools was because those same people became a little smarter and did things even more sneakily. When Maru first became a whistle-blower, he realized that there were actually quite a lot of delinquents who hid their fangs. The moment they found any person that went below their baseline that they came up with all by themselves, they would sneakily approach that person and prey on them. Once that person became weaker and resigned from the company, or perhaps even chose the path of no return, the one that preyed on the flesh known as gossip all this time would put on the sheep masks again and start worrying once again. Watching them made Maru think that maggots were better than them. Maggots at least stuck to corpses for survival.

Maru went into the noraebang. After telling the lady at the counter that he was here to find some friends, he looked inside the booths. As it was just past 6, most of the rooms were empty, and finding them was too easy.

He saw the boys through the glass door smoking and singing with some girls. There were places like this in every neighborhood. Also known as the ‘weak spot’. The owners of such places would not care what happened inside. They just wouldn’t sell drinks.

Maru went to the bathroom and opened his bag. Inside was a roll of tape he used to wrap around his hands to hit the sandbag after martial arts practice. Director Choongho had given him a roll, telling him to wrap it around his hands before wearing gloves. It would take some time to tape himself properly, but there was no need to do that right now. He just wrapped his hands so that he wouldn’t injure his knuckles.

As he taped himself lightly, he looked at the mirror. A young boy was glaring from the other side. Maru looked at that figure for quite a while before chuckling.

“How young.”

He knew well that what he was doing was reckless. Nothing would change even if he went in and beat them up. There was no way they would reflect on themselves, not to mention repent. They would just leave because they were annoyed that they were beaten up. However, Maru felt that he would feel satisfied as long as they felt the pain.

After pressing on the tape, he took the bag and left the bathroom. He walked past the lady that was just dazedly watching TV and stood in front of the door to the booth where those people were inside.

“Han Maru. You became really childish.”

He clenched his teeth slightly as he opened the door. The guy that was looking at his phone while singing with his arms around the girls looked at him. Just as he squinted while trying to think about who Maru was, Maru threw his bag at the guy. At the same time, he grabbed the guy that held a microphone on his right by the neck and slapped him on the cheek. The guy that was slapped looked at him in disbelief. The singing stopped. The guy that was dancing with the girls at the front looked at him as well.

Amidst the strange silence where only the accompaniment was flowing out, Maru slapped the cheek of the one he was grabbing again. He decreased the surface area of his palm as much as possible and slapped him on the lower cheek. If he opened his hand too much and hit him wrong and ended up giving a shock to the ears, it would be quite a pain. The loud slap would be heard over the accompaniment from the noraebang machine.

The guy that was hit twice covered his face and closed his eyes. It looked as though he had no intentions of fighting back. He looked at the other two just in case. The girls looked like they were about to scream, and the two boys just looked at him scared.

‘Do I look that vicious?’

He even planned his escape after causing a ruckus, but now that they were looking at him obediently, he felt rather confused instead.

“S-sorry.”

The one he was grabbing spoke in an awkward voice. When he had a closer look, he saw tears forming in the corner of his eyes. Maru pressed on that boy’s neck with his arm and scanned him from top to bottom.

‘…They all look like they’ll snap with a hit from Daemyung.’

Daemyung had endured Miso’s harsh training. At first, he couldn’t run a single lap around the school field, but now he was able to run five laps while chatting. He knew how to use his body well to the point that he could teach the first years.

‘He should’ve tried shaking them off.’

He felt angry when he thought that Daemyung got hit by such feeble-looking people. Maru thought that he should bring Daemyung to the boxing gym. The master should probably give that naïve boy some fighting spirit.

Maru sighed after watching the guy that looked at him with tears.

* * *

“Where have you been?”

On their way home, Daemyung asked in a quiet voice after smiling at Bangjoo, who was overly cheerful again.

“I met up with some friends.”

“Friends?”

“Yeah. Rather than that, the owner seems to have taken a liking to you. That was the first time I saw him give out free food.”

“R-really?”

“He looks a little tough but he’s not a scary person.”

“That’s true.”

They got on the bus to Suwon. Bangjoo, who sat down, fell asleep immediately as though he was tired. He was snoring as he leaned on the window, and the noise was a little loud.

“Looks like the lessons are hard,” Daemyung spoke worriedly.

“It’s because he’s hyperactive. He doesn’t take a break.”

“Well, I guess Bangjoo does have really good reflexes and is in good shape. He did Judo, right?”

“Yeah. Perhaps thanks to that, he’s really quick to learn. The instructor praises him a lot as well.”

“I wish I had a body like him as well,” Daemyung said as he looked down at his stomach.

“Hey, grab my hand.”

Maru turned around and reached out with his right hand. Daemyung was confused but grabbed his hand anyway. The hand was rather thick, but it wasn’t just flesh. Perhaps it was because his body was rather round, but he really had a big build. He just looked weak because of his personality. If he could make a scary expression, the bully in class would probably be him.

“Try pulling, with all your power.”

“With all my power?”

“Yeah.”

“I’m not that strong.”

“Try anyway.”

Daemyung nodded faintly before pulling Maru’s hand. Maru abruptly opened his eyes and did his best not to get pulled, but his body was too easily pulled by Daemyung.

“Hey.”

“Yeah?”

Maru hit Daemyung’s neck with a knifehand strike. Daemyung, who had a clueless smile, coughed slightly and looked at him with confusion.

“Ah for god’s sake.”

“What?”

“You have such a body and yet…”

Why did you get bullied? - Maru almost uttered those words out loud. This guy probably never thought that he could hit others. He probably developed a mindset that he should avoid everything like a herbivore and just follow the flow if he was caught. The world was too harsh for people like him.

“Next Monday at 11. Do you have plans?”

“N-no.”

“Then meet me at 11.”

“Why?”

“I’ll introduce you to someone good.”

“Someone good? Who?”

“Someone like that,” he spoke as he put on a thick smile.

* * *

“Please take care of him.”

“Alright.”

He saw Daemyung make a dazed expression through the gaps of the door. Hearing the sandbag popping sounds, Maru waved at him. He received text messages from Daemyung, but he didn’t read them. Instead, he just texted back ‘good luck’.

After dropping Daemyung off at a boxing gym, Maru immediately headed to Seoul. He had Miso’s lesson today. He got off at Gangnam station and walked to Film Academy. When he opened the door to the fourth lecture room, he saw Sungjae doing some warmups.

“I’m here.”

He greeted him before doing some warmups next to him. He could only follow Miso’s training if he warmed up properly. Just as he was stretching his waist on the ground, the door opened once again. Gyunglim entered, wearing skin-tight jeans.

“Aah, it starts once again.”

“Don’t complain and get stretching already. The instructor will probably get started as soon as she comes.”

Gyunglim headed to the bathroom with a crying face. When she returned, she was wearing baggy training clothes.

“Good day!”

Gwangseok had arrived as well. Although he started off with a cheerful greeting, he looked like he chewed on something bitter the moment he started doing some stretches. On Mondays, there was a physical training session, though, it was still called ‘acting lessons’. On Tuesdays and Wednesdays, the lessons were only two hours long, but on Mondays, the lessons were 3 hours long. The extra hour was for physical training.

“Good morning.”

Miso entered with a cup of coffee in one hand.

“Wow, looks like you’re all energetic, doing exercise. Then let’s kick it up a notch today, shall we?”

Maru heard someone say ‘demon’ from the side, and he deeply sympathized.

Chapter 386

“A historical drama, huh,” Miso spoke as she sipped some coffee.

Maru saw a shadow loom over her face.

“What is it?”

“I once played the daughter-in-law for a noble family in a historical drama set in the pre-Yeongjo era. Goddamned pre-Yeongjo era.”

Miso pointed at her head. Maru smiled and nodded. She was probably referring to the gache[1] worn in that era.

“Looks like the gache was heavy.”

“Try living with a 5kg weight on your head for an entire day. Your neck, shoulders, waist - not a single part of your body will stay intact. The only saving grace for me back then was that my character didn’t have much significance in the story so I could lean against the wall and rest if I wasn’t shooting. The women that played noble characters couldn’t even do that and had to sit up for the entire shoot. After that, I always check whether the drama is set in the pre-Yeongjo era or post-Yeongjo era when I have to audition for a historical drama.”

Miso stretched her shoulders out, saying that she still felt stiff when she thought about it.

“Looks like women have it hard. I’m a beggar, so I have no need to wear fancy clothing. I guess I’m safe on that part.”

“That’s good. You’re shooting in the summer as well. There’s nothing more difficult than playing beggar in winter. You’re in for a good time if you play a beggar role for a summer scene in the winter.”

Miso patted his shoulder before standing up.

“Well then, everyone had a good rest, right? Let’s resume class.”

Maru sighed shortly before looking behind him. The three people that were panting while looking at the ceiling were slowly getting themselves on their feet. Sungjae, who was trained several times harder than the others due to his superior stamina, looked dark in the face; Gwangseok, who never exercised much in the first place, was clenching his head as though he had a headache; and Gyunglim looked like her soul had escaped her body.

“But Mr. Han Maru.”

Maru raised his head and looked at Miso. She had a suspicious smile on her face.

“Looks like you’re too okay. It’s as though you didn’t train as hard as the others.”

The moment he heard that, he thought that there was no way out for him. Whatever he said, his training was about to get harsher. He regretted not noticing this sooner when Miso approached him.

“Starting next week, you and Mr. Sungjae will…”

Just as Miso spoke up to that point, the door opened.

“Instructor Miso.”

“Yes, instructor Choi.”

“I got an urgent call for actors. Can I take people from your class?”

“I don’t really care, but I’m not so sure about them.”

A man called instructor Choi entered.

“Uhm, can I take two hours of your time? I got an urgent call looking for actors for a shoot. It won’t take that long, and you’ll of course get paid as well.”

It seemed that trouble occurred with some background actors.

“I’m fine with that,” Maru spoke first.

Gyunglim and Gwangseok also said that they would go.

“Ah, it must not bode well for you, right?” Instructor Choi asked Sungjae.

There was no reason for a top-tier idol to play as a background actor, so he thought that Sungjae would refuse. However, Sungjae’s head was nodding instead.

“If I can be blurred out, I can do that.”

“Yes, it’s just that much. You just need to sit down in a café. Uhm, I’m running out of time, so can we get going quickly? I keep getting calls,” Instructor Choi spoke as he pointed at his phone.

The four people stood up. Instructor Choi immediately called someone. They followed instructor Choi out of the class. In front of the academy building was a van.

“Get on quickly!”

Instructor Choi grabbed the steering wheel and spoke. As soon as they closed the door, the car drove off. The urgency could be felt from the sheer speed of the van.

After crossing the complex roads of Seoul for a while, the van started to slow down. Maru found a shooting set while he was looking outside. He saw lights, reflectors and cameras around a café terrace. Around ten meters away from the terrace, someone that looked to be a staff member was explaining something to the passersby. It seems that he was asking for their understanding.

As soon as they got out of the van, instructor Choi exchanged greetings with one of the staff. They weren’t speaking in polite speech and it seemed that they were close. The staff thanked him before waving at the four.

“We need to start the shoot immediately. We’re behind on schedule right now. Follow me for now.”

They entered the café. Right now, no one had recognized Sungjae yet. This would probably be better off for shooting.

“Sit over here and here. The two of you need to face each other. In a bit, you’ll hear a shout from the terrace, and you just need to turn around and look at them. Simple, right? You guys are from Film, so this must be easy for you, isn’t it?”

Then I’ll leave it to you - the staff member left a coffee cup and a muffin along with those words and left. Following that, another staff member came and gave them thick coats. Apparently, the drama was set in winter. Wearing a coat made them feel hot even though they were in an air-conditioned café.

It seemed that the staff were signalled that everything was ready as the two men standing in the terrace quickly moved to the car parked on the side of the road. A brief moment later, two women with great figures appeared and sat on the table in the terrace. They were both wearing thick clothes and a scarf to boot. Wearing winter clothing under this weather? Just looking at them made Maru sweat. The actress sitting on the left turned her head slightly. Maru smiled after seeing her face. She was someone he knew. It was Ahn Joohyun.

“Miss Joohyun, Miss Taeyeon. Sorry for making you wait.”

“Not at all.”

“It’s nothing.”

The man who seemed to be the producer started explaining the situation to Joohyun and the actress named Taeyeon. Joohyun nodded and grabbed the cup in front of her. Was this the scene where she sprayed drink on the other girl?

“Oh my god, it’s Ahn Joohyun,” Gyunglim spoke with an excited expression.

It seemed that Joohyun was popular among the girls.

“But Sungjae-hyung. Are you okay with being in the shot?”

“This much should be fine. It’s not like I’m appearing in the drama officially.”

Maru didn’t know if it was okay because he was hiding his face under a cap, or because he could handle surprise cameo appearances like this. Perhaps freedom rose along with popularity?

Maru didn’t act like he knew Joohyun since it seemed rather unbefitting of the situation.

The producer headed towards the monitor during the rehearsal. The two actresses got composed and looked at each other. Maru fixed his gaze on Gyunglim, who was sitting opposite of him.

“Let’s talk about something.”

“Just sing the national anthem instead.”

Just as Maru finished singing the first verse with his lips and was about to start the second, he heard the ‘cut’ sound. The camera moved behind Joohyun.

“That was good just now, keep that up.”

They shot the same scene again, just at a different angle. Like that, they shot a total of four times before finishing one scene. The producer approached and talked to the two actresses, before this time, walking with a male actor on the road to explain to him the path he was going to move during the shoot. In that short time, the makeup artists fixed the hair and the makeup of the two actresses.

Dozens of people acting towards one goal without any accidents was a drama in itself.

“We’re going over to the next scene. Please wait.”

The camera turned towards the road this time. This was the scene where the male actor hurriedly walked towards the café and stood in front of the two actresses. They shot first the scene where he walked with quick steps, but after several iterations, he started running because it didn’t look right with walking. They repeated that around three times, and every time he ran, the makeup artists came and wiped the actor’s sweat.

After that, the shoot progressed without a hitch. They shot everything in one go without causing a single NG scene. It seemed that that was the last scene for the day as the background actors were all smiling.

The producer, who was looking at the monitor, raised his head. That signalled the end. A man, who was watching in satisfaction with his arms crossed from one corner of the café, brought some pen and paper. It seemed that he was the owner of this café. After taking pictures with Joohyun, Taeyeon and the male actor and taking their autographs, the owner smiled and walked to one of the walls of the café. It seemed that he was planning to hang them up.

“Director, what do we do about the extra shoots?”

“Yeah. We called around, but I think we’ll have to delay it for tomorrow. We can get adults easily, but if we want people that are good-looking, we’d have to look into academies. Damn, there just had to be an accident today.”

After conversing, the producer called one of the staff members. The one he called was the guy that guided Maru and the others when they just arrived. After conversing with the producer, the producer came towards them.

“Oh, Mr. Ahn Sungjae. Hello. I didn’t recognize you because you were wearing a cap.”

Sungjae took off his cap and greeted the producer. At that moment, the people inside the café recognized who Sungjae was and started whispering. Some girls in the streets looked at the cameras with curiosity before finding Sungjae and screeching.

Actors and idols. Although both had their popularity, it seemed that when it came to fan fervor, idols saw far more of it. When the commotion became bigger, Sungjae smiled and slowly walked towards the door. Instructor Choi had started his car as well, getting ready to leave. The producer asked for a handshake and asked him to feature in his next work.

In that short time, Sungjae shook hands with the producer, and shot photos with the fans, and lastly signed an autograph for the owner before getting in the car. From what Maru saw, Sungjae was fleeing for dear life. Some girls approached the car and kept screeching ‘I love you, oppa’. The rather empty street was filled with girls in no time. It seemed that the girls texted their friends of Sungjae’s appearance.

“I guess we’d have to go back on foot.”

It seemed that it was nearly impossible to get in the van right now. None of them had the courage to go through that crowd. Instructor Choi seemed to have thought the same as he peeked outside the window and said that he’d be going first. The girls kept screeching as they followed the van. It looked as though they were going to follow forever if the van moved slowly. Everyone around was flabbergasted by the sheer energy the girls gave off. Perhaps this was why idols were all the rage.

Just as Maru returned his coat and was about to leave, Maru saw Joohyun, who stood a bit far away from the set. They just happened to meet eyes, and Maru bowed to her. Since he paid his respects, he just had to return now. He would return to the lecture room to get his bag and go home.

At that moment, he heard some loud footsteps behind him. When he turned around, he saw Joohyun, who looked very happy for some reason. However, that expression made Maru feel rather iffy since that ‘happiness’ looked like it stemmed from a debt collector that just found the debtor.

“Maru, do you have some time?”

“Eh? What time?”

“No, you have to.”

Joohyun inadvertently started dragging him by the hand. For some reason, he was reminded of Bangjoo’s words, who said that he started sports in order to not get beaten up by his sister. He considered that to be a joke on Bangjoo’s part, but when he felt the grip around his wrist, he thought that it might have been real. He was brought in front of the producer, leaving behind Gwangseok and Gyunglim, who looked at him with surprise.

“Producer, what about this guy?”

“Who is he?”

“He has decent acting skills, I can guarantee that. He’s the guy director Choi Joonggeun has set his eyes on. Sir Yoon Moonjoong brought him along with him on a few occasions as well.”

Maru looked at Joohyun. He had never met Joohyun once when he shot his part of Twilight Struggles. Joohyun did her shoot on the set in Seoul, and Maru had only a single scene in the countryside.

‘But she’s quite knowledgeable about me.’

Perhaps she heard from others during her shoot? It shouldn’t have been Suyeon. After all, the two weren’t on good terms. If so, then it was likely that it was Geunsoo that told her about him. After all, he had quite a lot of connections.

“Really?”

The producer scanned Maru from top to bottom.

“He has a decent face. But this requires you to do some stunts. Hey, young fellow. I have a short scene that requires some action, right? It’s a scene where you have to stab Miss Joohyun here with a knife. Do you have experience shooting action scenes?”

“No, but I am practicing for one.”

“Hm.”

The producer took out his phone from his pocket and handed it over to Maru.

“Consider this as the knife and try stabbing.”

He approached Joohyun who had her back towards him. He grabbed the phone as he would a knife and acted like he stabbed her.

“Hm, I think this might turn out okay. Let’s move to the terrace for a bit.”

After putting the table away, the producer told him to do the same thing again. He also told him that this time, Joohyun would counterattack. Just as he was about to stab the phone into Joohyun’s waist, Joohyun turned around and grabbed his wrist. Maru loosened his wrist and left his body to be led by Joohyun’s push. His torso was going down. Just like how he learned, he twisted his body and fell on the ground with a loud thud, so that it would look good on camera.

Joohyun, who was pushing down on him from above, made a startled expression before smiling.

“What do you think?”

“What the, did you two practice that action already? Why is it so smooth?”

“That should be fine, right?”

“Of course. I was going to split the scene into multiple angles, but if it’s like this, we would probably be okay with a single take. But hey, doesn’t your shoulder hurt? I heard a loud noise.”

Maru stood up while saying that he was okay. Although it did ache a little, it wasn’t anything he couldn’t hold back.

“Rather than re-shooting, let’s just take this guy.”

“That’s easier for us as well. It won’t impact your schedule either, Miss Joohyun.”

Somehow, the conversation was progressing without him. Maru dusted off his clothes before looking at the two.

“Well, is there something I can help you with?”

Hearing his question, both Joohyun and the producer nodded their heads simultaneously.

[1] A ornamental wig worn by women. Wikipedia for more details

Chapter 387

He was pushed into the car almost as though he was being abducted. The black van was clean inside. The very back seats were folded in to make some storage space, and some clothes were hanging from the top. In the net behind the driver’s seat were numerous rolls of paper that seemed like scripts. This felt very different when compared to Miso’s own car, which looked like a warzone.

“Can you go in a little further?”

He was dazed and forgot that Joohyun was behind him. He sat right behind the driver’s seat and watched as Joohyun sat next to him.

“Unni! Take a photo with me!”

“I’m a huge fan of yours, unni!”

Fans had flocked to the car and were screeching.

“Girls.”

“Yes!”

“You’re on the road. You’ll end up in the hospital if a car hits you so get off quickly.”

“Haha, unni, you’re cool!”

“You call me cool no matter what I do. Take the photos right now and get out of the way.”

Joohyun turned her head slightly and posed. The girls all started screeching when she posed like a magazine model. Joohyun changed her pose around three times, and whenever she did, many artificial shutter noises could be heard.

“All done? Please step back. Also, stop chasing celebrities. You, you, and you over there. I think you three are high school students. You should really start studying. Chasing me will only cloud your future even more. Study well, and go to a good university. Then, I’ll give you a big hug.”

“Unni! I love you!”

After sending a kiss to the girls that made hearts with their arms above their heads, Joohyun closed the door. The girls were like obedient puppies as they moved to the pavement, all the while screeching.

“You’re good at handling people.”

“I have to deal with that pretty much all the time. Though, it’s getting easier for me nowadays since there aren’t any people that suddenly rush at me asking for a handshake. In the past, some people would even just hug me out of nowhere.”

When Joohyun sat back, the manager started the car.

“Where are we going?”

“To an underpass.”

“An underpass?”

The truck with lights loaded in the back started following them. They turned around at Gangnam station and entered the Southern Circular Highway.

“Are we heading towards Woomyun mountain?”

“You’re quite knowledgeable. Yeah, we are.”

The van went under the elevated highway and entered a flat terrain in the mountains. The van started rattling due to the uneven road as sand and dust flew everywhere to the side. As this place was still under development, construction vehicles could still be seen throughout.

“We’re here.”

The manager stretched out his neck and spoke.

“Sungho, you should get some sleep here. It must have been tiring for you driving all the way here from Busan.”

“If you say so, noo-nim.”

“I know you’re gonna sleep anyway.”

“Since you’re so considerate, do you think you can cause some NG scenes and let me sleep for three hours?”

“I don’t think so.”

Joohyun patted the manager on the shoulders before getting out of the van. Maru got out as well. The rough texture of the earth could be felt through the soles of his trainers.

It was 3 in the afternoon. Although the sun was right above their heads as it was mid summer, this place was rather dark for some reason. Ugly chopped trees, an excavator, as well as construction materials were suppressing the greenery and giving off a dull grey light.

“The generator car should be turned on here.”

From how the generator car stopped here, it seemed that the set was still a bit ways off.

“I don’t think this shoot suddenly got scheduled. What happened?” Maru spoke as he looked at the staff members that busily moved around.

Manpower was money. There was no way all these people gathered here without a concrete plan. Yet, the actor that had a shoot here was casted not properly but from some other place. Something didn’t feel right.

“Originally, one of the agencies we know said they’ll send a person, but there was a sudden accident.”

“An accident?”

“It seems like there was a traffic accident during travel. It wasn’t that he was severely hurt, but any shoot for the day seemed impossible so the producer was worried. That’s when I found you. Thanks to that, you saved me as well. If we didn’t get the shoot done today, we would’ve had to set another date for the shoot.”

“Miss Ahn Joohyun, over here.”

One of the staff members shouted.

“Let’s go.”

Maru walked next to Joohyun. People carrying props for the shoot were moving towards the mountain. There was an underpass through the side of the mountain where some of the trees had been roughly chopped.

“Producer, is this the place?”

“Yes, it is. It feels rather decent right? Apparently, this place was originally going to be tunneled all the way to the other side, but it’s halted right now due to some business problem. Thanks to that, we can use this gloomy-feeling place.”

The unfinished tunnel, as well as the containers that laid around. The gloomy atmosphere given off by the rusty metal made Maru feel like there might be corpses if he dug around. This looked like the perfect place for some shady, dangerous business.

“Oh, young fellow.”

He saw the producer wave at him. Maru walked towards him.

“First of all, thank you for coming, and I’ll give you the money here once we’re done, so don’t worry about that.”

“Okay.”

“Then shall we start the rehearsal immediately? They say time is gold.”

The producer walked inside the tunnel. It seemed that there were no problems safety-wise. The tunnel, which still had iron beams everywhere, gave off a very chilly atmosphere. No, it wasn’t just the atmosphere. It was actually quite chilly.

“It’s the same as what you did before. When Miss Joohyun shows her back, you… uh, what was your name again?”

“Han Maru, sir.”

“Yes, Maru, you’ll stab her just like before. We originally had an actor that practiced this scene already, but he got into an accident. So that’s why I’m asking you.”

After that, the producer started explaining the action scene that they were going to shoot with delicate gestures and speech that was mixed with some dialect. Maru could feel the resolve that the producer had to finish this shoot within the day.

“You got that?”

“Yes.”

“Good, then let’s try.”

Joohyun stood with her back open. On the other side stood the male actor from the café. The two started conversing with serious expressions. The producer, who was checking the script from the side, gave him the signal to enter. The moment the producer raised his finger, Maru grabbed an imaginary knife and rushed towards Joohyun’s back.

The man standing on the other side made a fishy smile. It seemed that he played a role that betrayed Joohyun’s character. Just as he was about to stab with the imaginary knife, Joohyun quickly spun around and snatched his wrist. It was just as they practiced at the café. Like at the café, Maru fell lightly without being pushed too far. The stones on the ground dug into his shoulders. It hurt quite a bit even though he fell moderately.

Joohyun twisted his arm after subduing him and pressed on his neck with one knee. Maru coughed slightly. Her knee was supposed to press on the part between his neck and shoulders, but it ended up pressing down on his Adam's apple instead.

“Sorry, I’m pressing the wrong part, right?”

“It’s fine, rather than that, continue with the rest.”

Joohyun nodded and pretended to take out a pistol. The man standing on the other side raised both of his hands and kneeled. At the same time, the police roles entered from the entrance of the tunnel.

“Okay, that’s perfect.”

The producer pulled Maru up.

“You’re good. But it hurts, doesn’t it?”

“Yes it does. Do you have anything I can pad myself with? I am going to fall over properly during the shoot, but I might get injured if it’s like this.”

“We do. We’ll give you your clothes immediately.”

The clothing team gave him a leather jacket and some protective padding. Maru put on the protective pad before putting on the jacket. Thankfully, the size fit him.

The equipment side of things seemed to have finished preparing again as the lights were on. The low-angle light as well as the light for each of the characters emitted different lights from each other.

“Let’s go on standby right away!”

The producer cheerfully spoke while clapping. It seemed that he was happy that the shoot was going well.

“Excuse me.”

A woman wearing overalls approached Maru before telling him to close his eyes. In her hands was a makeup box. He closed his eyes while standing up. His eyes felt ticklish for a while before he heard that he could open his eyes.

“Please wait.”

The woman moved elsewhere after applying something on his lips and cheeks. Maru headed to the mirror standing next to the vehicle for the clothing team. He looked blue in the face right now. Even his lips looked like he hadn’t eaten for days. Even though the woman had only touched him up for a brief moment, his impression had completely changed.

“Looks good on you,” Joohyun approached him and spoke.

She was wearing clothes that were fit for outdoor activities and she was wearing a strap for a pistol.

“Are you a detective or something?”

“Yeah, for the violent crimes section.”

“And I’m a murderer?”

“You’re a scary dude that was raised on an island. I don’t know the details myself. The writer never tells us stuff like that. But hey, have you seen my drama?”

“I haven’t.”

“At least hesitate a little, will you? You’re making me feel awkward. Oh, and thanks for taking care of Bangjoo. He boasted that Maru-seonbae treated him very well.”

Joohyun walked into the tunnel with a smile. The other actors all started to enter one by one as well after their makeup. Maru also moved according to the producer’s call.

“Let’s end this quickly and go to a restaurant together afterwards.”

The actors all fired themselves up. The lights turned on and the cameras started rolling. The producer checked the monitor installed at the entrance of the tunnel and talked into the walkie-talkie. Maru also moved according to instructions. He sat and waited behind the iron door at the end of the tunnel. The shoot soon began and the camera started taking video of the two. They shot the scene four times, one with the camera shooting from above Joohyun’s shoulders, one from the front, one from the side, and one because Joohyun wanted a re-shoot.

The camera that shot Joohyun and the actor came towards Maru. It seemed that they were going to shoot where he was to show the audience that there was an assassin hiding here. Maru hid the knife he received from the staff and just peeked out to check on the two. He didn’t know what kind of character he was playing and didn’t know what kind of expression to make, so he just stayed expressionless.

“Cut! Next.”

The producer seemed happy though. Once again, the two actors faced each other and talked about businesses and betrayals and what not. Then, the staff standing behind Maru tapped on his shoulder. It was his signal to go in.

He leaned forward to set his center of gravity forward and started running at full speed. The camera followed him from behind. It was a shaky hand-cam. Maru stabbed out with the knife from behind Joohyun.

“Cut!”

The staff that followed him with the hand-cam showed the producer the footage.

“Let’s do that again.”

Maru nodded and hid himself again.

“Cue!”

He once again ran with the cameraman with the hand-cam. Then, the word cut could be heard again.

“Okay.”

It seemed that the footage was better this time. A camera with a big lens approached him. Maru waited behind Joohyun ready to stab. The things he was about to do now required some delicate work. The producer said that he wouldn’t divide it up into cuts and would take a single shoot, so he couldn’t make a mistake here.

“Cue!”

He moved his hands at the director’s signal. Although today was the first time he did action with Joohyun, they worked pretty well together. Joohyun’s unrestrained movements were a little dangerous, but it was much better than awkward actions. It would definitely look good on camera.

He let go of his knife from the moment his wrist was snapped. There was no metal clanging sound like the movies. They would probably edit this in afterwards. He kicked his left foot off the ground on purpose to make his body stay afloat for a little more. He didn’t want to do this a second time. He then fell on the floor with his shoulder, where he padded himself the most.

A loud thud could be heard throughout the tunnel. Maru saw that the camera director had become startled. It must have been because of the sound.

“Lee Ganghyuk!”

Joohyun loudly called out before pulling out her pistol. When he looked from below, he saw that Joohyun was glaring at the man like a vicious wolf. There weren’t any traces of the sister that was worried about her brother until just now.

‘But she’s pressing too… ’

Maru clenched his teeth and endured. He felt that Joohyun’s emotions were getting violent through his body. The hand that grabbed his wrist and the knee pressuring his neck became stronger. Maru breathed as lightly as possible so that his sound wouldn’t be caught. Right now, the pain from his neck was stronger than the pain from the fall that he received from his shoulder.

“Good!”

The producer’s words saved him. Maru tapped Joohyun’s back with his left hand. Joohyun, who had a cold gaze, became startled and quickly stood up.

“Are you okay?”

“Ah, yes. It does hurt, but it won’t kill me.”

Maru stroked his neck and spoke.

“Had you pressed a little harder, I would’ve gotten to taste what the river Styx would have tasted like.”

“Then perhaps I should have?”

Joohyun smiled and reached her hand out.

Chapter 388

The lights didn’t turn off, but Maru’s part was done. He finished off his scene by crawling on the ground, and being arrested by the police.

“Thanks for the work,” Joohyun spoke as she offered him a bottle of water.

He opened it and drank a sip. When he did, the pain he had almost forgotten became vivid again. He took off the leather jacket and the padding. He pressed on his arm with his fingers, and thankful, it didn’t seem like he was heavily injured. It seemed that his muscles were just startled, so he thought that he would be okay after around a day or so.

“Does it hurt a lot?”

“No, it doesn’t hurt that much. But you still have scenes left to do, right?”

“I do. I’ll call a taxi, so you can go first.”

Joohyun put her hand inside her pocket before pulling it out again.

“Oh, looks like I left my wallet with my manager. Let’s go.”

Maru stopped Joohyun from going to the van.

“Can I stay at the shoot? I want to see what it’s like.”

“It shouldn’t matter, I think? I’ll ask the producer. He’ll probably say yes though.”

Joohyun approached the producer. Meanwhile, Maru returned the padding and the jacket to the staff in charge of clothing. The staff that received the clothes sighed slightly. It was probably because the leather was damaged due to scraping against the ground.

“Sorry about that. I tried my best not to damage it, but it happened anyway.”

“Oh, no. We can just mend it later. Thanks for the work.”

It seemed that the staff never had the intention to get angry at him and just smiled back. Maru bowed and turned around. Just then, he heard a shout saying something about the management of clothes. When he turned around again, he saw that the staff that just received the leather jacket was receiving an earful from a woman in her forties. He met eyes with that staff for a brief moment, and that staff twitched his clasped hands, gesturing for him to go. Maru bowed again because he felt sorry. The woman’s voice kept rising endlessly after that.

“Position is everything.”

He looked around the set while drinking some barley tea. He saw the leader[1] shouting at the background actors. He even pointed his fingers at people that looked older than him and kept shouting words like ‘hey’, and ‘you’. He instructed the background actors that had flocked to him like chicks around a mother hen and told them that they had 30 minutes to finish lunch before meeting up again. Maru looked around. They were within the ranges of Woomyun mountain. On his right were heavy vehicles, and to his left was the silence of the big mountain. There was no way there were any restaurants in this deserted area. The closest place he could think of was the Seoul Arts Hall to their north, but they would have to cross the mountain to go there. Moreover, the rental coach was clearly not going to move.

The staff received lunchboxes and started eating, but the background actors all just looked at the staff anxiously. The leader was just eating a lunchbox comfortably.

Just as he was suppressing his bitter smile with some barley tea, he was given a lunchbox. The producer was standing in front of him.

“You should eat.”

“Ah, yes. Thank you.”

“You said you wanted to watch the shoot, right? You can. If you’ve never watched a monitor before, you can come and watch as well. I can do that much since it’s thanks to you that we can take a breather. If we went overtime with this many people, we would’ve been over budget. So, you were…”

The producer made an awkward smile and looked at Maru’s face. Maru knew the meaning behind his smile, so he spoke first.

“Han Maru, sir.”

“Yes! Han Maru. Sorry I can’t remember your name. Anyway, you can watch at ease. Oh, and this is your payment. This is just for you without anything for the academy, so don’t tell them that you were paid. You know that you’d originally get paid three months after, right? I’m being considerate.”

The producer winked at him before going away. One of the things people realized while working at a day labor market was that the middlemen that did the calls became rich the fastest. The academy stood in between the student and the field. Not only did they take lesson fees, they were taking broker fees as well, so their pure profits had to be through the roof. Perhaps instructor Choi, who introduced them to the job, might have monopolized the commission in the middle. The only one that took losses were always the worker ants.

He opened the lunchbox and sat down on some construction board. He put some kimchi in his mouth and was chewing when he met eyes with one of the background actors that was wandering around. The kimchi he was chewing suddenly tasted like sand.

Maru never considered himself to be ‘good’. He rarely donated money to beggars in the streets, and he didn’t have any memory of sacrificing himself for others.

However, he wasn’t so insensitive to the point that he could ignore the eyes of the people who were given the cold shoulder in the field, when he used to be one himself. He closed the lid and stood up from the spot. There were around 11 background actors. Most of them were sturdily built since they had to play policemen, but there were a few that looked thin and looked like they weren’t here to play the police roles.

He did not plan to tell the producer to take care of their meals. If those people had the will to take care of that, they would’ve done so already. Telling people who had no will would be telling them that they were wrong. Maru didn’t want to receive a glare from the producer.

He would do whatever was within his reach. Maru gave his lunchbox to the middle-aged man who was smoking.

“Here.”

The man stared at him for a while before whisking away the lunchbox. The man glanced at Maru before starting to eat on top of an iron beam.

Maru shrugged and turned around. Not all good deeds were rewarded. However, the moment one decided to do good deeds, they should not expect a reward. The moment they expect even a smile, they would resent the person that did not thank them back.

“Huh, it’s Maru, right?”

Someone called out to him. Maru turned around to look at the person that called out to him. The man waving his hand at him was Park Woojoo, who he met during the shoot of Youth Generation. The man filled with a sense of justice still remained in Maru’s mind.

“Hello, hyung. Are you here as a background actor?”

“Yeah. So the one that was being arrested was you. No wonder you felt familiar. Were you always part of this drama?”

“No, I’m just a replacement for the day.”

“I see.”

“You haven’t eaten yet, right?”

“They told me to eat, but I don’t have a place to go. I’ll try telling the leader.”

Maru looked at the background actors with unsatisfied expressions standing behind Woojoo. It seemed that Woojoo was going to represent them in getting justice. It seemed that his personality hadn’t changed at all.

“You probably won’t be able to do anything about it.”

“Perhaps.”

Woojoo smiled bitterly.

“Thanks for the lunchbox. That person might look cold, but he’s not a bad person. He just has some circumstances.”

“Who here doesn’t have some? I don’t mind so don’t worry about it.”

At that moment a van entered the premises. It was Joohyun’s van. The manager, who was supposed to be sleeping, came out as he yawned. He opened the back of the van and took out a cardboard box.

“Please take these. It might not be enough, but it should be enough to stave off hunger.”

Inside the box were hamburgers and drinks. The background actors all took a drink and picked up a hamburger. Even the man that took Maru’s lunchbox took a set for himself.

“Maru, was it? You should take one as well.”

“Thank you.”

The burger had a thick patty. The manager also crouched down with the hamburger in his mouth.

“Did Joohyun-noo-nim buy it?”

“Yeah. I got a call. She told me to go buy something for them since they looked like they weren’t going to have lunch. Thanks to that, though, my nap time is gone. Geez, even after she told me to sleep, I have to work.”

Although he was saying that, the manager was looking at the people eating hamburgers with satisfaction. It wouldn’t have been surprising even if he said that the actress Ahn Joohyun is the one treating them, but he didn’t and just told them to have a good meal.

While eating, Maru looked at the tunnel. He saw Joohyun, who was focusing on her script. When he stared at her for a while, Joohyun waved back at him.

“You know Ahn Joohyun?” Woojoo asked him.

The manager had returned with the box.

“Yes.”

“Really? Wow, so you’re an actor after all.”

“You are one too, though.”

Hearing that, Woojoo stayed silent for a while as though he was embarrassed before continuing with a cough.

“Actually, I was cast in a drama this time. There was an audition at the academy I went to, and the president told me to try so I applied for it. I didn’t expect much, but I ended up passing.”

“Congratulations. I guess the only thing left for you now is to become a superstar.”

“Yeah right.”

Although Woojoo was shaking his head, he had a smile on his face. Maru truly wished for him to become successful through this opportunity.

“But what drama is it?”

“It’s a historical drama. The next one on RBS.”

“Really? I’m part of that too.”

“Really?”

“Yeah. I’m a beggar.”

“Really? We might see each other then, huh.”

“I hope we do. Please take care of me.”

“Hey, I’m in no position to take care of anyone.”

The two faintly smiled while looking at each other. Just as the background actors almost finished eating, the staff came and told them to get ready. It seemed that they were going to do the next part.

“I’m off then. See you during the shoot if we can.”

“Yes, hyung. I’ll give you a call at that time.”

“Okay.”

Woojoo put on a jumper and ran to the tunnel. Maru picked up the hamburger wrappers that the background actors littered everywhere and put them in a separate bag. From afar, he saw the leader pointing his fingers at the background actors. The staff didn’t say anything as they walked by.

“The moment you become the only good guy, you’ll get sworn at instead.”

Joohyun’s manager had come.

“Let’s go. Noo-nim wants me to give you a ride. Is the train station okay?”

Maru replied yes before standing up. Although he wanted to watch the actors a little more, it wouldn’t be bad to leave right now.

“I wonder when they’ll start treating them like people. I know well since I have experience doing that, but there are too many shit leaders and staff. Of course, there are good people as well, but there are more that think that the people they’re working with are people they’ll never see again and treat them however they want. Even though they have superiors that do the same to them, they do the same to the extras.”

“That’s how people get by everyday. Though, I think there are some decent people,” saying that, Maru looked at the staff he returned his leather jacket to.

“That person’s decent,” the manager agreed.

The ‘good’ people were always noticeable.

Maru got in the van and had a look at the set. Below the sparkly lights were stars and around them were numerous people that did not shine. They would only be able to put their names in the ending credits. For some, this was a set that shined, while for others, it was a gloomy workplace. Maru sighed as he looked.

Thank you all for today’s work - those words lingered in his mouth.

* * *

“His eyes look good.”

“It’s really good.”

“It’s somewhat of a pity to let him go after just that.”

Joohyun heard the conversation between the producer and the assistant director as she fanned herself. She approached the two who were focusing on the monitor. The monitor that would usually give a live feed of what the camera was shooting was currently playing back the scene they shot before. It was the scene where Maru was being subdued. After the camera swiped past her face, it captured Maru’s wrist, and even his face. Maru was looking at her with twisted lips from the ground. She felt this during the read-through for Twilight Struggles, but he was really good when it came to expressing raw rage. In this scene as well, he managed to create a good picture with a single keyword despite the fact that he didn’t know what the character was like at all.

“What happens to him after this?” Joohyun asked.

“Well, I’ll have to consult the writer about it, but he actually has a decent impact. It’s too much of a waste to throw him away after using him once.”

“Then why don’t we add an interrogation scene or something?” She hinted at him.

“That sounds good. We haven’t discovered the backer of the organization yet. We should give this footage to the writer and listen to her opinion as well. Hey, text the writer for me and ask if she has some time.”

The assistant director quickly took out his phone. Seeing that, Joohyun smiled and took a step back. She had received help from Maru. As a person, she had to pay back what she received. It might be an opportunity that might slip past him, but she tried her best anyway. She hoped that this would help Maru.

“Ah, Miss Joohyun.”

“Yes?”

“We’re going to eat dinner together after this. You’re coming with us, right?”

“You might get an earful from me, are you fine with that?”

“Don’t worry about that. I won’t ask you to drink.”

“Then I’m in.”

The producer raised his thumb and smiled.

[1] The same position as the ‘leader’ from the super rich academy/Youth Generation shoot. But a different person.

Chapter 389

“There’s a saying. An actor does not cry. However, they make others cry. An act where the actor does not feel sad but the watching audience feels sad. What do you think, Mr. Sungjae? Do you think such an act is possible?”

Sungjae replied that it was impossible to Miso’s question.

“Why do you think so?”

“Because it’s a matter of sympathy.”

“Sympathy, you say.”

“To compare it to a concert, there are definitely differences in a concert when I do it with all my heart in joy and one where I just do it since I don’t have a choice. Especially when it comes to the reactions of the audience.”

“When you were truly happy, did the audience react to you more?”

“I believe so. When we started having fun on stage, the audience started jumping around as well. Even if we don’t tell them beforehand when they should jump, everyone jumps in unison at the climax as though it was all planned beforehand. I believe that’s the power of sympathy, and that acting has a similar aspect. I don’t believe that many people would feel sad when the actor does not feel sad.”

“Very well. Then that’s one vote for impossible.”

Maru saw Miso raise her left index. Then, she asked the same question to Gwangseok, who sat next to Sungjae.

“I don’t think it’s possible either. Instructor, you mentioned method acting from time to time. To become a character means sharing their emotions, right? The character’s sadness is my sadness. Dang, I think that’s such a cool line. Don’t you think?”

Gwangseok smiled in satisfaction. Miso shook her head.

“So, are you saying that you can’t do it?”

“Yes. Maybe it is possible, but they wouldn’t be able to win against people that actually cry. The depth of their emotions should be different.”

“Alright. Then that’s two votes for not possible.”

Gyunglim spoke next as though to show that she was used to these kinds of lessons. Just until last week, she looked like she didn’t want to speak in front of four others, but she looked quite relaxed now. It seemed that she felt much closer to the others.

“I think the same. Just like how the ones that think they’re good will hide their tails in front of the ones that are actually good, the ones that are pretending to cry might look lacking compared to people that are actually crying. In the first place, it’s imitation. Imitating crying is crying acting.”

“So in order to make the audience cry, the actor themself has to cry?”

“Yes. I think it’ll be much easier.”

“Then I guess that’s three votes.”

Maru purposely avoided Miso’s gaze that moved onto him. She didn’t like being one-sided. That was why she always wanted an opinion from the other side when things were leaning too much one way. This was why he didn’t want to sit at the end.

“I also think that…”

Before he could even begin, Miso shook her head. She was quick and clear about her actions. Maru could feel the invisible pressure that told him to say otherwise. He turned around to send help, but the three that already replied clearly told him with their expressions that they weren’t interested in sharing his burden.

He couldn’t exactly blame them for it because he himself had the same expression as them last week. That time, the one cornered was Gyunglim, and she had to stutter her way out while being stared at by Miso.

There were no cases where Miso’s question didn’t end with an answer. It would only end if the answerer said something, even if it was not satisfactory. After thinking for a while, he started speaking,

“People put themselves in the character’s shoes even if they know that it is fiction, and treat that fiction as though it was real. There’s no need to search far for this case since even books are mostly just stories that one author has written with his or her imagination, but the readers participate as members of that world despite knowing that the world is false. It’s the same with dramas. The people that are moving and talking on screen are all fakes that a writer creates, but we find ourselves becoming enraged, crying and smiling together when the characters encounter various events. In some way, there is already a screen. The ones watching already know that the world unfolding in front of them is false. In such a situation, I don’t think there’s any meaning in differentiating actual sad crying and pretending to c…”

When he said it out loud, he felt that he was going a little too far, so he decided to fix his words, but Miso replied as though she was waiting to.

“So what you’re saying, Mr. Maru, is that the frame of acting is already false, so there is no meaning to the emotions that an actor has, and the only important thing is the viewer, right?”

“It’s not entirely meaningless. I just think that its importance is a little lower since the viewers already accept what they’re seeing as fiction.”

“Then the mechanisms of acting must be similar to a machine then, correct? As long as the actor can show precise movements and agreed-upon emotional gestures, then the absence of emotions can be an exception?”

“In an extreme case, if two people with the same face, with the same voice, and with the same speech tone created the same expression, it is highly likely that the viewer would not spot a difference between the two. If there were no visual and aural differences between two actors where one puts in their emotions while the other does not, wouldn’t the viewers accept it as the same acting and the same emotions?”

Miso clicked her fingers. Maru sighed in relief. That signalled the change in the direction of Miso’s arrow. This time, Miso’s arrow was aimed at Sungjae. Maru could see Sungjae’s cheeks twitching.

“What do you think about that?”

“I think he’s righ…”

“No, speak under the assumption that he’s wrong.”

Sungjae groaned and fell silent. He would feel very upset since he received the hot potato. Also, Gwangseok, who sat next to him waited with an ugly expression. Sometimes, the one next to the one being punished was more anxious after all.

“I think what Maru said makes sense. However, what’s important is that people are not machines. In this world, you cannot have two people act the exact same.”

Miso nodded. However, it seemed that Sungjae’s answer wasn’t enough to go to the next question.

“Then, where does the difference between an act with emotions and an act without emotion come from in the perspective of the audience, who already knows that what they’re watching is false? No, does it even exist? Perhaps it’s just as Maru said, and it’s just a matter of technique and emotions are just superficial?”

Maru thought about that question as well. What were emotions? What did ‘emotions’ mean to an actor?

Silence continued for around 10 minutes. Maru glanced sideways. All three of them were in deep thought. They looked like they were at a loss.

There was no sharp answer for this. Although various thoughts were flashing in his head, there was nothing that looked ‘right’. Every one of them looked right, and at the same time, they all looked wrong. In this vagueness, Maru ended up raising the white flag. When he sighed, the three others all sighed as well. It seemed that they weren’t able to come up with a good answer.

“Looks like you’ve all given it some deep thought, so let’s stop here for today.”

Miso clapped and signalled the end of the lesson.

“Since class is over, I’ll stop the polite speech. You’ll continue to come across this dilemma if you continue your careers as actors. Acting, if you dig deep enough, is also emotional labor. You’re bound to get exhausted. Just expressing emotions is hard enough, but there are actors that even fit their body shapes to that of the character’s. They’re all working hard in order to show a good act.”

Miso picked up her script which was on the ground.

“If you continue doing that, you’ll end up finding yourself minimizing your emotional consumption as much as possible one day. After all, after working for a long time, you’ll gain some tricks here and there. Acting is the same. That is when the path splits. One type will continue to believe that their own sadness is the same as the viewer’s sadness and will continue to imbue their emotions. The other type will generalize their actions and increase efficiency. I can’t say which is right or which is wrong. That’s because there is no answer. It’s a matter of personality, and perhaps just innate constitution.”

What’s bound to happen will happen. Thanks, everyone - she finished off before telling everyone to leave.

“Haa, it’s over.”

Gyunglim spoke as she stroked down her chest. Gwangseok also sighed.

“Running is better than this. Squeezing my brain like that doesn’t sit well with me,” Gwangseok grumbled.

“I’m off first. Sungjae-hyung, see you tomorrow.”

“See you.”

Gwangseok took his bag and left the class first.

“I’ll get going as well. See you tomorrow, both of you.”

Gyunglim also left while staggering.

“Shall we go as well?”

“We should.”

Maru turned off the lights and left. In the class opposite to theirs, it seemed that there were some vocal lessons going on as he could hear a baritone voice.

“Want a drink?”

“If you’re treating me, sure.”

They went to the convenience store in the next building and grabbed some drinks. Maru waited for Sungjae at the counter with a drink, and he saw Sungjae come with a triangular rice ball and some ramyun.

“You’re drinking that?”

“I’ll eat it like I’m drinking it. Aren’t you hungry?”

Maru grinned and grabbed a ramyun and a rice ball for himself. He poured some hot water into the ramyun and sat on a chair outside the convenience store.

“You’re a successful idol and you’re eating that?”

“I’m resting these days, so my income isn’t that good.”

“The recent concert was the last one, right? I mean, your activity as an idol.”

“There won’t be any more until the end of the year.”

“Wow, your president is amazing, having a super popular idol rest for half a year to practice acting.”

“Instead, she scheduled concerts in Japan and China from the beginning of next year, so I don’t feel that good about it.”

“That sounds good, Japan and China.”

“I’m going there to work.”

After emptying the ramyun in a single breath, Sungjae made a soft smile. He looked happy.

“What do you think of the fans? Do you still like them?”

“I do. They’re people that like me, so there’s no way that I’d hate them. My entire income is thanks to them. Though, sometimes, I feel scared as well. Everything I’m going to achieve in the future will receive the ‘it’s because you’re the idol Sungjae’ treatment. No matter what I do, that tag will not leave me.”

“You want to become independent?”

Sungjae took a bite of his rice ball and shook his head.

“No, I’m just grumbling. I’m so popular and everything I’m doing is doing well. Why would I give up on this?”

“Aren’t idols supposed to be pure like fairies?”

“The trend is honest idols these days. Rather than that, what do you think about that before? Are you the emotion faction or the mechanical faction?”

“Me?”

Maru rolled around the words in his mouth. Which side was he on, huh?

“Hyung.”

“Yeah?”

“Do you ever have that feeling when you act? That there’s an acting you in front of you, and there’s another you calmly observing from behind.”

“I don’t know. I’m the type that forgets about everything when I focus. Is that what you see?”

“Yeah, well. These days, I think it’s becoming even clearer. There is a self of me that’s closely observing the other me that’s getting angry.”

“Haha, then do the two selves give feedback then?”

“Sometimes.”

Sungjae laughed. He clearly thought of it as a joke. Maru also loosened his expression and smiled. This wasn’t worth any serious talk.

“If what you’re saying is true, then you are both on the emotional side and the mechanical side?”

“Right.”

Sungjae giggled and stood up.

“Let’s go. I’ll drive you to Suwon.”

“It’s fine. It doesn’t take long by train.”

“Just do as I say. I’m just going on a drive.”

“A drive, with a man like me?”

When Maru cringed and looked at him, Sungjae just shrugged.

“Hyung.”

“What is it?”

“Do you have experience dating a celebrity?”

“What if I say yes?”

“Then that’s just that. I’m just asking out of etiquette. I heard that asking these questions is proof that you’re a popular star.”

“You have a glib tongue. Why don’t you try going on a discussion competition or something? I think you’ll do good.”

“I thought about that too.”

Maru picked up the empty ramyun container and stood up.

“Ah, right. Hyung.”

“Yeah?”

“Can we take a photo together on the way?”

“Why?”

“I need some cards for negotiation. These days, my sister keeps annoying me.”

“Ah, that sister. Well, you can take photos if you like. I can do that much.”

“Thanks. God bless you.”

Maru smiled as he thought about how Bada would jump up and down asking him where he got the photo from.

“Hey, seeing you grinning like that makes you look like a scammer.”

Sungjae spoke as he walked. Maru just shrugged and followed him.

Chapter 390

After pushing up the glasses that slid down, he turned over the page. There was no greater joy than reading a book on a soft sofa under the fan that spun with a low hum. These days, reading could be done on the PC or the phone, but he never got used to reading a book on a screen. It would hurt his eyes if he kept reading like that.

Above all, he couldn’t feel the sensation of turning each page over. The vertical presses of a key didn’t feel right when moving to the next page. Only when feeling the sensation of paper rubbing against each other as he turned the page did he feel like he was properly reading. To borrow the younger generation’s words, he was ‘behind the times’.

“Hey, I gave you food just a moment ago.”

Yoon Moonjoong watched Dalgu as he wagged his tail by his feet and eventually closed his book with a smile. He hadn’t been taking him out on walks recently.

He put on a leash and opened the door. It was August 21st. The sun was scattering rays of heat as though to boast that it was nearing the end of summer. As soon as he took a step outside, he missed his spot in front of the fan, but he couldn’t win against Dalgu, who was urging him to go with his tongue sticking out.

“Let’s go slowly.”

Dalgu was becoming stronger by the day. Moonjoong wondered if he found some ginseng or something in the mountains without him knowing. When he climbed the slow slope, he saw his neighbor who had come out to buy some groceries. She was a fine lady that moved in not too long ago with her husband and handed out some rice cakes[1].

“Hello.”

“Ah, hello.”

“Looks like you’re going on a walk.”

“This fella was probably feeling itchy. He was urging me too much to go.”

Dalgu would be happy to meet strangers, even if it was a thief that got into the house, so he wagged his tail.

“Uhm, sir.”

“Yes, please speak.”

“If it’s not too much of a bother, can I take a photo with you? My mom’s a huge fan of yours, and she says she wants to come to my house when I told her that the actor Yoon Moonjoong lived next to me. And she lives in Daegu as well.”

“Haha, do take a photo and send it to her. Don’t make her come all the way here.”

She took a photo of him with Dalgu in it. The newlywed lady politely greeted him before leaving. The reason Moonjoong never left the house he moved in with his wife for more than ten years was because of the warmth of this place. Even people that just moved in would become a single family with the rest of the village.

He took Dalgu and strolled around the village. As Dalgu was even more popular than him around here, anyone they passed by gave him food. Perhaps this was what Dalgu was aiming for.

“Since we’re here, let’s go see your mother.”

They started climbing the paved mountain path. When they first moved in here, the path was made by the people, but after some time, the road was properly paved with cement and a mountain trail was formed. The sturdy and stable footing was good as well, but he sometimes missed the smell of soil that he walked on with his wife.

After climbing a bit, he left the official trail. He greeted the climbers that were going to the mineral spring and then took a path that led slightly downwards. There was a bulging grave amidst the flat grassy terrain. It was his wife’s. Dalgu, who always wagged his tail, would obediently roll his tail up in front of that grave. Looking at him, who would sit obediently in front of the grave, Moonjoong realized why people considered dogs better than humans.

After sitting down on the dry ground, Moonjoong stroked Dalgu’s head. Next to the grave of his wife, who gave Dalgu his name, was a smaller grave, and that was Dalgu’s mother’s grave.

“Hey, is it cool in there?”

Moonjoong sat in front of the grave and looked down at the neighborhood for a long time before standing up. He took Dalgu and climbed down the mountain. Dalgu obediently followed him. It seemed that he also wanted a rest.

Arriving at his house, Moonjoong looked at the clock. It was 11 a.m. Almost time for his schedule. He went to the bathroom to wash his hands before changing clothes. Since that person was very accurate when it came to time, the bell would soon ring.

“Sir, it’s Park Changjin. I’m here to pick you up.”

It was just as he had expected. He told Dalgu to wait quietly and opened the door. Park Changjin, the manager Junmin assigned to him, was waiting for him.

“Are you ready?”

“I am. Mr. Park, have you had breakfast?”

“Yes. I had a fulfilling one. Have you had breakfast, sir?”

“I also had a fulfilling one.”

Led by Mr. Park, he sat in the back seat.

“Then I’ll start driving.”

Just as Moonjoong nodded, the window opened slightly.

“I’ll turn off the air conditioner.”

It seemed that he remembered that Moonjoong disliked the wind from the air conditioner. The car departed softly. Moonjoong took out his glasses from the glasses case.

“The script is in front of you.”

“Oh, I left empty-handed, thanks.”

He took out the script from the pocket behind the passenger seat. The title was on the cover.

‘Apgu.’

Moonjoong turned the page and started reading the script. Today was the day of the first read-through. He would return to his acting career again. He was cast in a historical drama, though he didn’t have an important role. A writer he was acquainted with, had requested for his appearance and he accepted after seeing the scenario and the role he had. His screen time on camera didn’t matter. The question was whether he wanted to do it or not, and Moonjoong really liked his role that appeared for a brief moment at the beginning of the piece.

“We’ve arrived.”

He only flipped a few pages, but he had already arrived at the TV station. He got out of the car and went to the 4th floor of RBS. He saw journalists waiting outside. There were quite a lot of people as well.

“Hello, sir.”

“Hello.”

He lightly nodded towards the journalists that greeted him. He also saw some familiar faces. Mr. Park opened the door to the room that said ‘Idea meeting room II’. He saw the other actors waiting inside a long room.

“Am I late?”

“Not at all, sir. There’s still time left.”

He shook hands with producer Han Changsung, who approached him and greeted him with a bright smile. The young challenging mindset of the producer who was nearing 40 in age, could be felt from his hand. Next to him, another good-looking producer greeted him. He introduced himself as Kim Jinhyuk.

“He’s the assistant director. He’s in charge of directing the B team so you should be able to see him quite often.”

“Hello, I’m Yoon Moonjoong.”

After shaking hands with Jinhyuk, he went inside. A man in his fifties, who sat at the head seat, smiled and approached him. Writer Bae Chulho. He was the writer for the drama. He knew the writer personally, and he was also the one who asked him to appear in this drama.

“You’re here, Hyung-nim.”

“So you’re here as well.”

“I should be. This is the first read-through after all. I’ll only be able to change the script if I know what it feels like if it’s actually said. Well then, please come this way.”

Moonjoong sat next to the producer. The young actors also introduced themselves to him. They all had clear eyes and were good-looking. He felt rather proud when he thought that these kinds of juniors would lead the industry in the future.

After talking for around ten minutes, all the empty seats were filled. When the people carrying cameras entered the room as well, the door closed.

“Hello. My name is Han Changsung, and I will be directing this drama. Although there were many ups and down, we’re finally at the starting point. I don’t think the elders will like it if I talk too much so I’ll just get to the point.”

Moonjoong smiled and listened to Changsung’s words.

“I only have one thing to ask you of. I hope you stay healthy until the end of the shoot. Well then, let’s begin the read-through. As for the procedure, we’ll take a break after reading each scene. Writer, please say a word or two.”

Changsung passed the baton to Chulho.

“My name is Bae Chulho. I will not tell you to follow the script to the tee. I hope we can respect each other and create a good piece of work.”

The actors all applauded.

“Then lastly, a word from our elder.”

Changsung pointed at Moonjoong politely with both of his hands. Moonjoong waved his hand saying that it was unnecessary, but the other actors in the room started applauding. In the end, Moonjoong had to stand up from his seat.

“I haven’t shot dramas in a long time. I don’t have as much stamina as I did before, but I will do my best so that I will not leave behind any regrets. I hope everyone here can do their best until the very last cut and create a piece of art. Though I only appear for a brief moment at the beginning, so I can’t be with you till the end.”

“But you definitely need to come to the party after the last shoot,” someone spoke.

The other actors who were older than the rest here also spoke out. Moonjoong said that he’ll go before sitting down.

“Let’s keep up this atmosphere and start right away. The drama, Apgu. Let’s do our best,” Changsung said as he opened the script.

* * *

“3rd of September?”

-Yeah. That’s the date of your shoot, so come to the 5th exit of Yoido station. It’s at 7 so don’t be late either. If you’re late, you’ll have to get there on your own, so you definitely must get there on time.

“Are you driving me there if I’m late?”

-Hey, you’ll kill me.

“I’m just joking. You must be busy, so hang up. I’ll save the time on my phone so I won’t be late.”

-Alright.

After finishing his call with his manager Byungchan, Maru saved ‘September 3rd, 7 a.m.’ on his phone. The movie that was supposed to be shot at the end of August was delayed to early September. It was probably because of the schedules of various actors.

“Looks like I’ll become busy.”

The drama was going to start soon as well. Although the company was managing his schedule, he had to take care of transportation by himself. If the shoot was in Seoul, he could get Byungchan to give him a ride provided that he had the time, but in the case of shoots in the countryside, he would have to take the coach rides provided by the TV station.

‘They’ll only give me the full treatment once I become full-fledged.’

Although he officially signed a contract with JA, full-time management would only start after he graduated high school. Although he would receive a personal car and a manager if he managed to score himself a good piece, Junmin was not kind enough to assign so many resources to a highschool student, who wasn’t even profitable.

There was barely any interference from Junmin’s part which was just as much as the part he had to take care of by himself, so it wasn’t that bad. Once he started his actor activities, he would have to digest all the events that the company required him to do, so he wouldn’t be as leisurely as he is now at that time.

Maru pushed his phone to the side and opened the script that Byungchan gave him yesterday. The script was bound properly with a smooth cover to boot. Although he had come across many drama scripts, this was the first time he entered one through an audition so this felt rather new to him. After staring holes into the characters ‘Apgu’ on the cover, he flipped the page. The act he was supposed to do should be there.

[1] Handing out rice cakes to neighbors after moving in was a tradition in Korea. It is mostly discontinued in the present day.

Chapter 391

“A meritorious vassal that calmed the national crisis, huh.”

The first thing that came to his mind when he read the title ‘Apgu’ was Apgujeong, and when he looked inside the script, he realized the meaning of Apgu was the same as what he thought it was[1].

“Oppa, dinner’s ready,” Bada burst open the door and spoke.

“I made some ramyun so come quickly.”

“What made you cook some ramyun all of a sudden?”

When he went to the dining table, he saw a pot of ramyun with eggs in it as well. There was also some kimchi and some leftover rice. It was the perfect combo. He looked at Bada with suspicion. There was always a reason behind her actions when she did things that she usually didn’t do.

“What are you doing? Eat already.”

“Did you do something wrong?”

“What the heck are you saying? Shut up and just eat.”

Bada was all smiles as she served a bowl for Maru. Although it was very suspicious, Maru decided to eat it anyway since he was hungry.

“How is it going with Dowook these days?”

“Why are you asking that all of a sudden?”

“No real reason.”

Bada glanced at him before sighing.

“I wanted to hang out with him but things happened.”

“Really? That’s a pity.”

“But why do I have to report to you about all this?”

“I need to know at least this much as the person that’s giving you all your dating expenses.”

“Geez.”

“If you don’t want to, I won’t ask anymore. Sorry if I made you feel bad.”

“…No, it’s not like that.”

After tapping the bowl with her spoon, Bada grinned before starting to talk about events that happened with Dowook. From how they started dating to how cute Dowook was. Bada endlessly talked about Dowook just like the Arabian Nights.

“TTO Sungjae versus Dowook. Who do you like more?”

“Of course, it’s Dowook-oppa.”

“Oh my word. It’s Dowook over Sungjae?”

“Well, it’s not like I’d ever get to date Sungjae-oppa.”

“You’re quite realistic when it comes to that.”

Bada giggled. She put down her spoon and swung sideways.

“But I never knew I’d talk about this with you, oppa. I became annoyed when I looked at you up until last year.”

“Really? That’s a bit too much.”

“What’s too much? You didn’t say a single word to me, had me run the errands, kicked me and… But these days, you’ve changed a bit. Are you sure you’re not sick anywhere?”

“When you become a 2nd year in high school, you’ll mature.”

“Yeah, sure. Like I’d believe that.”

“Why don’t you grow up first?”

“We’re only two years apart. But hey, aren’t you meeting unni?”

“Well, your brother is very busy.”

“Phew, she’s so pitiful. The guy calling himself her boyfriend is like this.”

“I’m treating her extremely well so don’t you worry.”

After eating all the noodles, Maru poured some leftover rice into the broth. When he ate every last bit of food in the bowl and was about to stand up, Bada stopped him.

“I’ll clean it.”

“What?”

Household chores were always split between the two. If one did the cooking, the other would do the dishes, and if one did the laundry, the folding was done by the other. This was an unspoken rule they’d developed since both of their parents were working, but Bada broke that rule and did the dishes as well. After watching his sister wash the dishes while humming a TTO song, Maru quietly entered his room and changed his clothes. He had a hunch. Bada treated him well without a single reason?

“Yeah, right.”

He finished preparing to leave and carefully opened the door.

“Where are you going?”

Bada stood there with a suspicious smile on her face. In one hand was a book, and it seemed that it was her school textbook.

“What is it?”

“If you ate food, you must work for it.”

“It wasn’t free?”

“Nothing’s free in this world. Oppa, do you think the world is that easy?”

Aah, he could see signs that his sister would be successful in society. It was something to be happy about, but still. Maru glanced at the door, but Bada stepped in.

“If you keep doing this, I’m going to take away the credit card from you.”

“That won’t work on me anymore, you know? I know you aren’t going to take it.”

Bada had a bold expression. So this method didn’t work anymore. Maru became dejected and spoke,

“Alright, what do you need me to do?”

“Homework.”

“What homework?”

“Holiday homework. The day after tomorrow is the first day of school, but I haven’t done anything yet. It’s nothing hard. You just need to copy.”

“What are you going to do?”

“English homework.”

“There are two days left of your holiday. What have you been doing this whole time?”

“Don’t nag me and help me out already. If I don’t do this homework, the teacher will hit me.”

Bada pushed the textbook and the notebook to his hands.

“Instead, I’ll do cleaning and make dinner all of next week.”

Now that was a rather attractive proposal. How hard would a middle school-level homework assignment be? And how much could she have? If he could be free from preparing dinner and cleaning with a couple of hours of investment, it would be worth it.

“You can’t go back on your words, okay?”

“What do you take me for? Well then, you’re doing it?”

“I get it so give it to me.”

Just as he thought that he should finish it up quickly and research more about the era that the drama was set in, Bada rushed into her room and came back out with a pile of books. It almost definitely didn’t seem like it could be done in a day.

“All of that?”

“Yeah.”

Bada put down the books on the floor with an innocent smile. Did middle schools give so much homework for the holidays?

“You can’t go back on your words, okay?”

Why did he suddenly think of the saying ‘a tiger father does not beget a dog son’. Maru, who just received the same words he said to Bada, scratched his eyebrows and thought about ways he could escape this situation. Persuasion, flattery, or getting angry. He didn’t think that any of them would work. Bada wasn’t someone who would be persuaded with words, nor would she be tempted because of some flattery. If he got angry, she would shout back at him, so he didn’t have a choice.

He was going to spend the last weekend of his summer holiday while relaxing and reading his script, but it seemed that it was out of reach. Just as he was about to start his wrist labor, he thought of a solution from Bada’s face, who was grinning.

“Fine, I’ll do it.”

“Really? You’re doing all of that, okay?”

“Okay. Well, it’s just copying and simple problem solving, right?”

“Yeah. There’s nothing hard.”

“Alright, that should be easy.”

Bada clenched her fist before shouting ‘yes’.

“If you can’t do it by tonight, you can finish it off tomorrow.”

“Since I’m doing it, I should finish it today.”

“That’s good for me.”

Bada sat down in the living room and started writing something in her notebook. Seeing that, Maru quickly took out his phone. He scrolled through his contacts and called the person that would save him.

-What is it?

“What are you doing right now?”

-I’m cycling.

“Come over to my house.”

-What the heck are you talking about?

“You should come right now. Bada wants to see you.”

-What?

“Are you coming or not? Our parents aren’t at home right now. So come and play with her a little. It’s the holidays and she’s staying at home all the time.”

-Why would I…

“I thought you two were dating?”

-Huh, what the heck is that about?

“You’re not? I saw you walking together last time, heck, you were even locking arms.”

Dowook fell silent, even though the first thing he would usually do in such situations was to swear.

“Hey, don’t chicken out and come. You know where we live, right? I’ll give you the address. 30 minutes, then?”

-Do I really have to go?

“Yes, you really have to go.”

-I’m really going, okay?

“You should really come, okay?”

He hung up and looked at Bada. She seemed to have heard that he was calling someone as she was looking his way.

“Who is it?”

“Is this the first time you saw me calling someone?”

“Who did you call?”

“Let’s respect each other’s privacy, okay, young lady?”

“…Alright, so please get started. I’ll get into trouble if I don’t finish it.”

It seemed that the teacher that gave her the homework was a strict one. Bada started focusing on the homework. Had she studied like that usually, she would have gotten great grades. She didn’t have a bad head, but she just didn’t try.

‘Wait, I think I heard that somewhere before.’[2]

Maru smiled and spoke,

“Han Bada.”

“What is it?”

“Why don’t you go wash yourself? Oh, and change your pants too.”

“Ah, why should I? I’m staying at home the whole day. Also, these pants are comfy.”

“I think it’ll be better if you do. Also, you should tidy your hair a little.”

“What are you on about all of a sudden?”

“Dowook is coming over.”

“…What?”

“I said Dowook is coming over.”

“Who?”

“Kang Dowook.”

“WHY!”

When Bada abruptly stood up, Maru pointed at the bathroom for her. After glaring at him and panting for a while, Bada went to the bathroom. Some loud noises could be heard.

“He’ll be here in around 30 minutes.”

Maru called Dowook. Dowook was panting when he picked up.

“Are you rushing?”

-Why do you ask?

“So you are rushing. When will you be here?”

-Soon!

“Wow, that was quick. Hey.”

-Argh, why!

“What do you like about Bada? She’s not pretty at all.”

-Shut up, and also, I’m in front of your apartment.

“You’re here already?”

He went to the veranda and looked down. He saw Dowook who was looking up at the building while sitting on a bicycle. It seemed that he was cycling in a nearby park.

“Bada, Dowook is here.”

“Hey! Han Maru! Tell him that he can’t come in right now!”

“You’re calling your brother by name?”

“Ah, oppa!”

“I’ll tell him to take his time, so you can take your time as well. Also, have Dowook help out with your homework. This brother of yours needs to go out for a bit.”

The bathroom suddenly opened. Bada, who had shampoo on her hair, was glaring at him as though she was looking at a madman.

“Why would Dowook-oppa do that?”

“Because he and I are friends.”

“Goddammit! How can I possibly have him do such a thing?”

“Are you discriminating?”

“You’re so dead. I’m not letting this go.”

“Sure, sure. I get it, so you can continue washing. Mom and dad will be late so there won’t be any problems, right? You two can finish your homework and play around together. Whew, where can you find a better brother than me? I’m even considerate about your love life.”

Bada slammed the door shut. The sound of the shower could be heard for a while before Bada left with her hair wrapped in a towel.

“Is Dowook-oppa here?”

“He’s down there.”

Bada’s face paled. She carefully walked to the veranda and looked down before quickly hiding behind the fence.

“Oh my god! He’s actually here!”

Maru handed her a hair dryer since she was dusting the water off her hair with the towel.

“Take your time.”

“You really are…”

“Dowook came immediately when I talked about you, you know? I mean, I think he had other plans too.”

“R-really?”

“Yeah. I just called him and he was panting. It looks like he came here without rest. Man, someone has it good, with a passionate boyfriend and everything.”

Maru probed Bada out. Bada, who was glaring at him and was about to snap at any moment, shut her mouth and started tidying her hair. So she was a girl despite being so young, huh. Maru took his phone and wallet and left the house. He was able to dodge an annoying matter this time. He took the elevator to the first floor. He saw Dowook locking his bicycle.

“That was quick.”

“I thought you wanted me to come quickly.”

“Looks like the sun will rise from the west tomorrow, I mean, with Kang Dowook listening to another person and all. Hey, wait here for around 10 minutes before going to apartment number 502. No, actually, come with me to the supermarket for a bit.”

He took Dowook to the supermarket. He bought a lot of snacks, drinks, and ice cream for Bada and handed it to Dowook.

“When you go up, tell her that you’re here to help with her homework.”

“Homework?”

“Yeah. Man, Bada has it good, having a boyfriend like you.”

He pushed Dowook’s back when he looked at him with a questioning look. Nothing good would come out of explaining too much. He said ‘don’t cause any accidents’[3] into the elevator before turning around.

‘Well, people have their own lives.’

Although his sister ended up getting divorced in his previous life, he had to respect her choices.

Life would never flow the same way. Bada would choose what was best for herself. That was why he should just leave it to her to make her decisions. He thought that he should just help out when she thought that she was in the wrong and was in agony. He now knew that life was something that did not go the way he expected.

After standing under the sun for a while, Maru opened his phone.

“Daemyung.”

-Yeah, Maru.

“What are you doing?”

-Watching TV.

“Wanna go boxing?”

-… N-no. The master is too scary.

“Just joking. Let’s go to the jjimjilbang[4] together.”

-Jjimjilbang?

“You have plans?”

-No, it’s not like that.

“Then come. Wash my back for a bit.”

-Haha, alright.

Maru thought that friends were beings that he could go to the public baths with. He decided to have a long talk with him in a warm spring. Also while at it, he thought that he should ask about the drama that Daemyung was helping to create the script.

Maru looked at his house before walking.

[1] According to the [Korea Creative Content Agency, KOCCA], The Apgujeong(lit. Gull-friendly gazebo) was built in the area that eventually became the Apgujeong-dong in present day Seoul (The gazebo no longer exists). It was built by a person named ‘Han Myung-hoe’, who became a powerful official after helping Sejo take over the throne. Apparently, he also ‘gifted’ his daughters to Kings Yejong and Seongjong to get appointed as a powerful official four times in his lifetime. Apgujeong was his pen name. Also, despite its name, gulls never visited this area, and some scholars used a different hanja for ‘Ap’, which changed the meaning to ‘gull-suppressing gazebo’. The drama is probably set in this era. Han Myung-hoe was also titled the ‘meritorious vassal that calmed the national crisis’, which appears at the beginning of the chapter.

[2] Not sure about other countries, but (some) Korean moms always say this about their children.

[3] This, along with ‘don’t overspeed’, refers to ‘getting her pregnant’, or in this case, NOT getting her pregnant(…), when said in Korea.

[4] Korean dry sauna. Usually attached to public baths. Wikipedia for more details.

Chapter 392

“Haa…”

When he dipped himself in the hot water, he felt much more relaxed and he sighed in relief.

It had been a long time since he last came to the jjimjilbang. Although he went to the public baths a lot when he was young, he didn’t remember going to one ever since he entered elementary school.

“Phew, that’s good.”

Maru sat next to him while sounding like an old man. Daemyung quietly smiled.

“People definitely need warmth.”

“That’s true.”

“How was boxing? The master told me to bring you next time as well.”

Daemyung shook his head as he remembered the master who told him to keep his eyes open all the time.

“Later. Let’s go later.”

“Don’t say that and try going there frequently. You’ll get stronger and bolder as well. Moreover, it’s free.”

“That’s true, but still.”

Delinquents didn’t pick fights with people that looked like they’d strike back. What you need to fix is not the way you fight, but your naïve-looking eyes. - that was what he heard when he went to the boxing gym with Maru. The master was definitely a good person who taught with passion, and he thought that he would be able to change himself if he kept going there, but right now, he didn’t have the courage to go there by himself. Actually, he thought that the master was part of the mafia at first. He looked that scary.

“If you change your mind, go make a visit,” Maru said as though he had no intentions of forcing him to go.

After the two sat in the warm spring for a while, the two entered the sauna which was right next to it. Maru, who brought with him a wet towel, flipped the hourglass on the wooden chair.

“Do you want to bet who stays longer? The loser treats the winner to a drink.”

“I’m not sure about anything else, but I am good at enduring.”

Daemyung sat with a confident smile. Sand started flowing down the hourglass like it was rain.

“I heard you were helping with creating the script,” Maru asked.

“It’s not really the script. I’m just helping with the research.”

“Wow, our dear Daemyung has become successful already. You’re a drama writer at your age.”

Daemyung just shrugged his shoulders since he knew that Maru was joking.

“So, how is it?”

“It’s not hard. Like I said, it’s just research. I just look into various books and take out the necessary content and just give it to the writer. But when I helped him out, I realized just how difficult it is to write a script.”

“Is the script you’re helping to write a historical drama?”

“Yeah. It’s going to be airing on RBS. It’s about Han Myung-hoe[1].”

Hearing that, Maru laughed. The sudden laugh made Daemyung confused.

“The drama I auditioned for is that very one. I received the script yesterday.”

“Really?”

“Yeah. I’m a beggar.”

After being dazed for a while, Daemyung laughed as well. This was a strange coincidence.

“You wrote the script and I’m the actor. I guess we achieved our objective somewhat.”

“Even though I’m just helping with research and you’re a minor role?”

“We can’t be full on the first spoon, can we? It’ll gradually get better as time goes. Although you’re just helping with research and I’m a minor actor, who knows what will happen in ten years? Maybe you’ll be the main writer and I’ll be the main actor.”

“I hope that happens.”

Daemyung wiped the sweat off his face. Maru would definitely become a good actor. He had already signed a contract with a big company, and he kept working as an actor. Once his face became known, he would start getting more important roles, and he might actually become an actor loved by everyone in ten years' time.

‘But what about me?’

Although he found the thing he wanted to do, he still didn’t know if he could continue down that path. The adults always said that there were barely any people who did the thing they liked for a living. Honestly, he didn’t have the confidence to say for sure that he would become a director or a writer and work in the same field as Maru.

“Hey, you can do it,” Maru spoke as though he read his mind.

Although they were simply words of encouragement, Daemyung felt really good.

“Are you going to appear in my work even if you become a famous actor in the future?”

“As long as the work is good and the pay is worth it.”

“No friendship bonus?”

“Maybe once. But you’re going to be someone well-known in ten years too. If you’re still studying under someone else in ten years, you’ll be doing good in twenty years. You’ll be able to afford my pay at least. Also, money problems need to be especially strict when it comes to friends. You know that, right?”

“I know. I just wanted to say that once. I also learned that people need to receive proper compensation for their work.”

“Now that’s something good you’ve learned there. So become a pro and pay me a lot, okay?”

Maru picked up the towel he had around his neck and stood up.

“Daemyung.”

“Yeah?”

“I’ll buy the drink so let’s get out. You’re good.”

“I told you I’m good at enduring.”

Maru shook his head and opened the door. Cool air entered through the gap. Daemyung slowly breathed out the hot air circulating inside him and left.

When he washed his body and went to the waiting room, Maru gave him some sikhye[2], and in his other hand were some boiled eggs.

“Sikhye and boiled eggs are critical to visiting jjimjilbang.”

“I know right?”

They sat around a table and ate the boiled eggs. This was the first time he came to a jjimjilbang with a friend, but he had fun for no specific reason. Even the man that slept while snoring didn’t annoy him and made him smile.

On the TV was some news about pro golf. Some Korean won some whatever cup for the first time, and the prize was in the hundreds of millions of won. The snoring man suddenly woke up and said ‘that’s enough to pay back my loans’.

“Pros are cool.”

He felt as though the face of the player that took the interview with the prize in his arms shined. Money was one thing, but he was more envious of the fact that he boldly proclaimed his victory. A bold champion always looked cool.

“They look cool because they are as good as they get paid,” Maru said as he scraped the rice grains inside the sikhye cup.

“Is money what separates amateurs from pros?”

“Amateurs receive money to prove their worth, while pros prove their worth according to how much they get paid. But hey, are you not eating that egg? If you aren’t, give it to me.”

Daemyung hurriedly peeled the boiled egg and stuffed it in his mouth.

“Hey, hey. Take it easy.”

Maru giggled and bought some more sikhye.

Daemyung watched the TV as he drank the sikhye with ice in it. Would there come a day where his worth would be proved just like that person?

‘I should prepare myself.’

Proving himself wasn’t something others did for him after all. Chewing the egg in his mouth, Daemyung imagined the far future.

A future where he could have confidence in himself.

* * *

“There are no problems with the actors, right?”

“Yes. Some of the actors have arrived in Mungyeong already. They’re quite earnest, aren’t they?”

“I hope they won’t be late at the very least. Waiting for people on the first day is a sign of bad luck.”

“Should we depart as well?”

“Yeah. But why do you want to bring a car when we can just take the coach?”

“I have places to go when I’m there. Senior, please put your seatbelt on.”

Changsung grabbed the seatbelt and locked it. The vehicle carrying the props was departing as well. Their destination was Mungyeong. The first location for the shoot.

“The war has begun.”

“Indeed.”

Jinhyuk started driving. Changsung looked at the tall RBS building and sighed. From now on, he would have to say goodbye to his home for a while. After he shot all the scenes at the location, he would return to the in-house set and resume shooting. After that, he would have to reserve and shoot in external locations according to the script which he hadn’t received out yet. He would have to alternate between visiting the countryside and coming back to Seoul. Once an accident happened and messed up everyone’s schedule, it would be real hell. All of the staff members might have to adjust their schedule to match an important actor’s. After a couple of incidences of that, he would eventually reach a stage where sleeping comfortably at night would be a godsend.

“I’m going to get some sleep. I need to save up on stamina while I still can.”

“Alright. Once you wake up, you’ll have to keep shooting.”

“Shut up. If things go wrong, I’ll just hand everything to the B team and go missing.”

“Senior, the drama will do horribly if you do that.”

“You’re in charge of the B team and you don’t even have that much confidence?”

“Please stop running away from reality and get some sleep.”

“Alright.”

Changsung put the script booklet that he got from the bindery on the dashboard before closing his eyes. It had been two years since he was last in charge of creating a long-running drama. Although he wasn’t nervous, he had mountains of worries. He was still in his mid thirties, which was considered young in this field. Unlike what his seniors told him where producers required at least ten years of experience before directing their first historical drama, he did his first in his sixth year. The fantasy historical drama he produced while being pressured by the expectations of those around him, produced decent results, but as Changsung inwardly wanted it to do better, he was very disappointed.

Then came his second opportunity. This time, he wanted it to take first place among the programs airing at the same time. Recently, the Wednesday-Thursday dramas produced by RBS kept doing worse than programs from other TV stations. The fact that the president gave them the opportunity to create an in-house drama and even a special season meant the president should have a lot of expectations from them as well. In this era where TV stations outsourced the production of half of its dramas, the proportion of outsourced works would continue to increase if the producer of their own programs did worse.

It wasn’t like he would get fired if he did bad, but the problem was that he would be deprived of any opportunities to produce anything in the future and his work responsibilities might change to just simple accounting. These days, the production was mostly handled by producers in outsourcing companies and the resources were provided by the TV stations. From the TV station’s perspective, it was satisfactory since they practically got to blow their nose without using their hands, but for the producers that have the ambition to create their own work, they were, unfortunately, losing their reason for entering the company.

“Jinhyuk.”

“Yes.”

“Let’s take first place.”

“Of course.”

Changsung opened the window slightly and looked outside. Next to the car he was in was the coach with the RBS logo on it.

It had begun. The boring shoot where no one would be at ease, that is.

* * *

Maru looked at the sedan that speeded ahead of the coach. He saw the producer getting in that car before they departed. Was he driving there by himself? If so, then he had to have great stamina.

“Child, you should get some sleep. You’ll have a hard time once you go there.”

The elderly sitting next to him put on a blindfold before speaking. The people seated in other seats also closed their eyes to get some sleep. Although the coach currently held more than 30 people, it was deadly quiet. If someone made noise, they would receive the glares of others.

Maru quietly took out his script. His role was ‘beggar 4’. He was one of the beggars that Han Myung-hoe hung out with when he was young.

“Premature birth[3].”

It was told that Han Myung-hoe was born feeble since young and was destined to be abandoned. In that era, those that were born prematurely were signs of bad luck, while Han Sang-jil, the grandfather of Han Myung-hoe, belonged to a noble household as one of the contributors to the founding of the nation. So, he would probably not be happy that such a person had been born in their household. As such, he was abandoned. However, an old maid would look after him and he would barely survive his infanthood. That was the beginning of the drama.

He looked some things up and Han Myung-hoe’s early life was indeed very unfortunate. Not only was he an orphan, his younger brother was not accepted by his household either, so he was raised under his great uncle, not his grandfather[4].

In this work, the beggars were Han Myung-hoe’s first friends.

Maru checked the few lines he had. He played the prankster beggar role next to the boss of the beggars, ‘Gaeguk’. Han Myunghoe and Gaeguk were the main characters, while he was just part of the background that would make them shine.

“Gee, brother. That dude just came out of a big mansion. He’s not someone who’d play with us.”

He said his line in a small voice. When he did, the elder said ‘child, let’s sleep’. Maru apologized to him before closing the script. It seemed that practicing while saying his lines out loud was going to be impossible.

He took out his earphones and put them in before closing his eyes.

He decided to do some image training that wouldn’t require producing any sound. Listening to the calming music, Maru started picturing his own version of the beggar.

* * *

“We’re here everyone. Please visit the bathroom and wait inside the coach.”

A staff member wearing a red cap backwards shouted. The people all got off. Maru was among them.

“The air is good.”

“You’ll get fed up with the air soon enough.”

He listened to the staff’s conversation before looking around. The staff members flocked to the cars that parked on the muddy ground. Behind them, a tiled-roof house and a thatched house could be seen. He could also see the ends of a big gate. He wondered if it was a set specifically created for shoots, but from how there were a lot of tourists around, it seemed that it wasn’t created by the TV station.

“Let’s get things done quickly!”

The staff’s shouts could be heard.

Maru watched as dozens of people carried out video equipment before getting into the coach again. It was waiting time, which he was all too familiar with.

[1] Refer to footnote 1 in the last chapter

[2] Sweet rice drink. Wikipedia for more details.

[3] To be exact, born on the 7th month of pregnancy.

[4] Families in the Chosun era were helmed by the grandfather.

Chapter 393

He returned inside the coach when his phone indicated that it was 9:17.

“Everyone please come out. We’ll start doing your makeup.”

The people inside the coach all got out. The other people that came out started stretching their arms and looked around. Maru also stretched his shoulders. His shoulders felt a little stiff after sleeping inside the coach.

Next to the coach was a mid-sized van with a Taekwondo academy mark on it. The ones that came out of that van were little kids that looked like they were in elementary school.

“You need to listen to the instructor today, okay?”

“Yes!”

Maru wondered if they were here for the shoot as well since they also walked towards where the makeup vehicle and another coach were waiting. People that seemed to be their parents all followed with camcorders in their hands.

“Please film only in specified areas. There might be problems if the contents of the drama are leaked beforehand, so I ask for your understanding. As for photo time with the actors, we’ll try to prepare a suitable place and time on our side if we get some free time, so please just cheer for the actors if you see them on set. To them, this is their workplace so they might be sensitive. I hope you can cooperate with us.”

When a kind-looking youth politely said that, the parents all smiled and replied yes. While the space with children looked happy and good, the background actors received the leader’s instructions.

“Over there, don’t loiter around and come here.”

A man in his early forties spoke in a low voice. The actors that got off the coach gathered in front of him and moved to the back of the makeup vehicle. The minor actors could be seen among them as well.

“From here to here. You are villagers. From here to here, you guys are travelling merchants. Be careful not to damage the props. I warned you. Also, over there, you two college students. Do you think you’re here to play around? Don’t chat and focus.”

The leader looked at the paper in his hand and gave everyone roles.

“Remember your positions and get back into line once you’re done with your makeup. The shoot will only go smoothly if you move quickly so keep yourselves together at all times.”

Twisted pride could be seen from the way the leader handled himself. Once he left, people got off the makeup vehicle. Women wearing short-sleeved t-shirts opened the cargo area. There were plastic baskets inside, which had name tags on each of them.

“Please come here.”

They took out clothes from the baskets and handed them out for people to wear. When they just scattered those clothes without restraint, the actors hurried as well. After Maru received his clothes, he leaned against the wall of the makeup vehicle and changed. The ladies entered the coach to change their clothes. Although they were in an exposed environment, no one seemed to mind. Everyone just proficiently changed their clothes. Even the female staff were busy checking the costumes. The ones that were embarrassed over exposing their skin were only the youths that didn’t have much experience in the job.

“It’s good that it’s summer.”

“You’re right.”

Two middle-aged men seemed to know each other and exchanged conversations.

The sun was scorching down on them. It was very fortunate that they weren’t shooting a winter scene. If anyone wore thick clothing in this weather where people would sweat doing nothing, they would probably faint from dehydration.

Maru put his nose against the clothes he changed into and sniffed. It seemed to have been washed as there wasn’t any smell. It seemed that the stains and traces of dirt were artificially created. The basket that originally contained the costumes had the word ‘jikryung’[1] on it. The sleeves were straight and it looked quite good when worn properly, at least for clothing meant for commoners.

After changing clothes, the people gathered in front of the coach again.

“Please line up in twos right here.”

The people lined up into two lines just like the staff instructed them. They checked on each person and redid some people’s jeogori[2].

“Hm, is this a little small?”

A staff member who tilted her head in front of Maru told Maru to pull up his pants.

“Like this?”

“That looks better.”

After a round of checks, the staff took out straw shoes from another bucket. They seemed to have been made to various sizes. They also seemed to have been used for other dramas as well as some of them had their soles worn out. Though, there was nothing unusable.

“Please be careful not to lose your shoes. There are strings you can pull to tighten the shoes, so don’t let them slip off during shoots, okay?”

Maru tightened his shoes as instructed. The width of the shoes narrowed and it became much more comfortable to wear.

“Beggar roles please come this way.”

He saw a staff member wave in front of the coach. Maru approached that person. He saw the people he saw during the audition.

“We’re now going to do your makeup, so please wait.”

While they got their makeup done one by one, another staff member brought some ruffled hair wigs. It seemed that they were wearing these instead of a topknot wig[3] or a headband to show that they were beggars.

Maru also received a wig. When he put it on, a staff member approached him and adjusted it.

“Don’t touch it.”

“Okay.”

The staff member used some hair gel to make his hair look messy before going over to the next person. Maru took out his phone and took a photo of himself. A man with messy and ruffled hair was looking back at him. He wondered how he would look if he colored himself with some soot, but he decided not to. The makeup artists would probably put some on him if they deemed it necessary.

“Take that off and put this on instead.”

Maru received the clothes that the staff gave him. It looked more like rags than clothes. The jeogori was ash-colored and the pants looked like it was scraped on the ground several times. The staff told him that the jikryung was for the merchants.

He quickly changed his clothes inside the coach before looking down at his body. He looked too much like a beggar. The other beggars all looked at each other and chuckled.

“Alright, that seems good enough.”

The leader of the makeup team snapped her fingers in satisfaction. The staff members all sighed in relief and started their next business.

-Are the beggars ready?

A walkie-talkie sound could be heard. The woman that clicked her fingers said ‘yes, we’re on standby’. A while later, a man holding a walkie-talkie ran to the coach.

“Follow me.”

They followed the man who spoke in a dry tone inside the set. They didn’t move that far from modern paved roads before entering a chosun-era land with earthen ground. Around them was traditional housing with hanja written everywhere. The lights and cameras installed in various places looked out of place.

“You will walk from there to here. Don’t look at the camera.”

The background actors with travelling luggage were going through their movements. The people in this alley alone looked to be more than 50 people. It seemed that there were other coaches that came here. There were travelling merchants wearing straw hats, as well as people wearing bamboo hats on top of a white dopo[4]. There were also people wearing colorful clothing and elderly people wearing gat[5]. A historical street Maru could only see on TV unfolded in front of him.

The other minor actors also subconsciously stopped to look around as well.

“Let’s get moving.”

The man leading the minor actors spoke. Maru stopped looking at the others and started walking. They entered an opening right next to the alley with a lot of people.

“We’re here.”

“Oh, okay.”

The two producers he saw during the audition were there. Their names were Changsung and Jinhyuk, if he remembered correctly. Next to the producer were a boy wearing a white jeogori and a boy wearing tattered clothing as though he was a beggar.

“Uljin, when you talk to Giwoo, use a teasing tone. You know, you want to tease someone if someone’s better off than you, right? But it can’t be too childish. Gaeguk is a beggar but is someone with charisma. That’s how he can lead all the beggars in the area and command them. You must be prankful, but your words should be weighty. Do you get what I mean?”

The boy named Uljin nodded.

‘So he’s Gaeguk, then?’

The boss of the beggars, as well as the friend of Han Myung-hoe in his childhood. Gaeguk would be portrayed as Han Myung-hoe’s closest friend until he meets the Gilchanggun[6] Kwon Ram. Maru could deduce that much from the script of the first and second episode.

‘That means, that one over there is Han Myung-hoe.’

The boy that had his hair neatly combed, Giwoo, nodded as he listened to the producer’s words. As expected of a child actor, his eyes were big and his facial features were very pronounced. Maru thought that he would captivate the hearts of many women in a few years.

Maru leaked a laugh.

‘Why are we so different even though we are both beggars?’

That boy was a pretty beggar, while he was a real beggar. He thought that he had a decent-looking face, but it turned out he really couldn’t beat those that kept receiving massages since young.

“My dear beggars. Come over here.”

Producer Changsung smiled and called out to them. The minor actors all walked towards the producer. Maru was at the very back.

“Well then. You’ll need to stay together during shoots in the future. This is Lee Uljin. He’s the boss of the beggars, so treat him well.”

Lee Uljin politely clasped his hands and greeted. The minor actors did the same.

“This is our Han Myung-hoe, named Kang Giwoo.”

“Hello.”

Kang Giwoo greeted them first with a clear voice.

What a nice voice - Maru thought as he nodded.

“Let’s see. First, you need to have your face re-done. Also, your wig is tilted. Do it again.”

The man that led the actors here called the makeup team through the walkie-talkie.

“Let’s try standing.”

Uljin stood at the center, and the minor actors made a semi-circle behind him.

“Good, no one pops out. Can you all try smiling?”

“That’s fine. Also… that brownie. Hey, Jinhyuk. What was his name again?”

“Han Maru.”

“Ah, right. The one named Han Maru, raise your hand.”

Maru was a bit confused when his name was called out but still raised his hand.

“It’s you? Wow, I didn’t recognize you because of all that makeup. You look good.”

Producer Changsung gave him a script that he got from Jinhyuk.

“I’ll give you some time. Look at it and memorize it.”

Maru didn’t say anything and opened the script. This script was different from the one he received a few days ago. Some of the lines for the beggars, that were always expressed by ‘Gaeguk’ and ‘beggars’ had changed to include a few lines for ‘2nd beggar’.

“How is it? You think you can do it?”

Hearing Changsung’s question, Maru replied without question.

“Yes, I can.”

“Good. You’ll be the boss when we shoot just the beggars. As for Gaeguk, he’ll appear in two-shots more often with Han Myung-hoe.”

Changsung patted his shoulders before turning around. Maru sat down on the spot and opened the script and started reading. It wasn’t just the names that were changed. Some of the lines had changed as well.

Amidst the busily-moving staff, Maru was absorbed in the script.

“That’s not how you beg… don’t hide it and give it to me… that’s not right… yes, that’s right…”

He tried saying the lines before closing his eyes. He imagined a beggar that looked like him in his head and had him speak those lines. Watching the virtual acting in his mind, he changed the parts that looked awkward before playing the scene again. After deeming that it was good enough, Maru opened his eyes again and read the script.

“Here, these two will hold a conversation, and you guys will come in from there. The second beggar will be at the front.”

Maru raised his head while reading the script. Jinhyuk was explaining to the minor actors their movement lines. There wasn’t any consideration for him around here. If he wanted to listen to something, he had to do it while he still could. Maru stood up with the script and listened to Jinhyuk’s explanation. After that, he sat back down again and started reading the script.

“Well then. Let’s get ready. Get the props organized. Director Kwon. Can we start the shoot?”

“I was ready 10 years ago.”

“As expected of director Kwon. There’s no one that can win against your humor among the camera directors. I hope you can shoot our actors well with the new camera.”

Producer Changsung walked towards the monitor. Maru heaved a deep sigh before putting the script where the staff was standing. His mind contained the lines already. He couldn’t say that he was perfect with 100% confidence, but he wouldn’t make any absurd mistakes at least.

He could hear some noise from the monitor.

“Scene 14. The beggar den in the shopping area.”

That signalled the start of the shoot. The minor actors all moved off to the side and waited for their time. For now, only Giwoo and Uljin were on the camera. Silence pervaded the noisy area. After around 3 seconds, the two child actors for the main characters started speaking.

[1] A type of traditional clothing in Korea. Any explanation I found contained really difficult hanja that I didn’t know, so just consider it as ‘shabby clothing worn in history’.

[2] The top of traditional garments. Wikipedia for more details.

[3] People tied their hair into a topknot and never cut them in this era because they thought hair was something ‘sacred’ that their parents gave them.

[4] Clothing. Wikipedia for more details.

[5] A hat. Wikipedia for more details.

[6] A title. I can’t find anything else about this title…

Chapter 394

“You’re looking down on me too, aren’t you?”

“Young master. There’s no way a beggar like me will dare look down on you, is there? How could I look down on young master when I get by everyday by begging? Don’t you think so?”

“You still dare to.”

“If you want to hit me, then go ahead. Instead, stick a grain of rice on your hand so that I can get some food.”

Uljin played the role of Gaeguk, who liked to poke fun at people. Giwoo, who played the role of the young Han Myung-hoe, grabbed Uljin’s collar and snorted.

“Cut! Let’s do that again.”

Producer Changsung stood up from where the monitor was and stood in front of the two child actors. The veteran producer consoled the two child actors and clearly told them what they had to do.

“Both of you are doing okay, but we’re currently doing a close-up shot. I want your expressions to be more vivid. Do you get what I mean? Both of you are too focused on your voices, so the scene looks too bland.”

“Okay.”

After producer Changsung walked away, and they reset the camera, they started shooting again. They were shooting the same scene for the fifth time now. Although the actors did the same act several times over, the camera shot at different angles each time. One would shoot Giwoo’s face, one would shoot Uljin’s, and then they would take another shot at an angle so that both of their faces could be seen, and so on.

The person in charge of the camera focus seemed to have finished adjusting the lens as the camera director gave a signal. The shoot resumed. It seemed to go well this time, but a person jumped up from behind the fence on the other side of the camera and took a photo. He was a boy that looked to be in high school.

“Hey, over there!”

One of the staff shouted and ran towards the fence. The two child actors that were absorbed in their roles scratched their heads before returning to their original positions.

“Geez, why can’t they just cooperate with us,” the staff standing right next to Maru spoke.

This person was in charge of the props. When the good flow was broken due to a prank, people started sighing here and there. The staff that chased the student came back while shaking his head. It seemed that he missed the boy.

“Let’s not mind too much about it and start shooting ag…”

Just as producer Changsung was about to console the child actors, the sound of an aeroplane could be heard this time. The acoustics staff holding a boom mic in the air shrugged his shoulders and lowered it for a moment.

“Looks like there are already signs that our drama will be hugely successful. Getting a lot of distractions on the first shoot is a sign that the work will be successful.”

Hearing the producer’s words, the actors and the staff all laughed. Changsung soothed the atmosphere like the conductor of an orchestra. Changsung just showed how much of a difference the producer makes.

“Let’s try that again.”

The disturbance was gone and the aeroplane had gone away. A faint light shone upon the quiet beggar den once again. The cameras started rolling and the acoustics engineer adjusted various equipment. After checking on all of them the producer gave a cue sign again, and the child actors started acting again.

Maru watched the act for a while before taking a step back and opening the script. It seemed that there was still quite some time until the rest of the beggars would appear in the story. Although producer Changsung’s speech was soft, his requests were very on-point.

He was going back and forth between pages when he felt a gaze on him. When he looked next to him, he saw a girl looking at the script in his hands with round eyes. He remembered the girl’s name. It was Kim Bitna.

“Wanna see it?”

Seeing her nod, he passed the script over to her. Despite the fact that she was only at the age where she would have just entered elementary school, she read the script very composedly. Perhaps she had what it took to become a star one day.

Maru looked around him. He saw a woman wearing sunglasses outside the set. She was Bitna’s mother who drove off in a cool manner last time. He met eyes with her once, and she greeted him first with a nod. She was probably telling him to take care of her daughter. Maru nodded back.

“Well, let’s flip it now.”

Hearing the producer’s words, the lights and equipment located behind Giwoo moved to behind Uljin.

“Wow, they’re shooting again?”

A small voice could be heard. It seemed that this was the first time witnessing a shoot for one of the staff members. Maru also laughed during his first time out of absurdity. On TV, it was at most a minute-long scene, but it took several hours to shoot such a short scene. When he didn’t know, he thought that the scene was taken at multiple angles at once with multiple cameras, but in reality, there were only a few cameras and the same scene was shot several times. The same lines were said over and over again, and once the background changed or it felt somewhat off from the previous shoot, the shoot would pause, the background would be reset and then they would start shooting again. It was the pinnacle of repetition.

“We’re going to take a close-up shot of your hands when you grab his collar. You don’t need to make it look shaky. Your hands will shake by themselves if you clench hard enough.”

After the shoot ended, producer Changsung called for the minor actors. The eight beggars, including Maru, stood in front of Changsung.

“It’s almost lunch time, so let’s get this done quickly. Beggars 1 and 2 will stand next to the 2nd beggar[1] and talk to each other as they come in. Then, you quickly rush to the two main characters when you see them grabbing each other by the collar. Exaggerate yourselves. Think of it as if your house is on fire.”

After engraving producer Changsung’s orders into their minds, the group was moved to the outside of the opening. While the rail cameras were being set up, producer Jinhyuk approached Maru.

“The focus is on you.”

“Okay.”

Producer Jinhyuk nodded to the camera director before speaking to the minor actors.

“You will start walking from there and come all the way here, and find that Gaeguk is grabbed by the collar. The cut only ends when you run all the way here so bear that in mind.”

Maru looked at the line that Jinhyuk drew with his foot and replied ‘yes’.

“Let’s go over our lines once.”

He went over the lines with the people that played beggars 1 and 2. The context was that they received a lot of leftover party food due to luck. They walked forward while exchanging a conversation. After they made sense of what they had to do, they returned to their starting positions.

“Let’s do this.”

Maru spoke to the other minor actors. They were all around his age or were younger than him. Since they were minor actors, the shoot should end easily as long as they didn’t make a huge mistake.

After all the equipment was set up, producer Changsung signalled them to get ready. After looking at the camera once, Maru calmed down his breathing. There was a boom mic above his head. The shoot was about to begin now.

‘Lines are uttered out, not spoken out.’

Since he was a beggar, there was no need to put weight into his words. Drawing the picture of a beggar that producer Changsung asked from Uljin, he stretched his chin lightly. He saw producer Changsung grab the walkie talkie with his hand as he sat in front of the monitor. Producer Changsung looked at them with a relaxing smile before raising his hand to his eye level and shouting ‘things are looking good, cue when you’re ready!’.

He grinned and started walking, starting with his right foot. He was holding a rice ball that the props team gave him and walked towards the opening. His footsteps were light, and his shoulders were moving up and down as though he was about to start humming. The curved lips, and the matching eyes. He put thought into every bit of his action as he moved. Unless he reached a stage where he could do all that reflexively, he would have to put a lot of effort into controlling his emotions so that unnecessary expression and emotion didn’t leak out from him. If he could not restrain his emotions, it would either look exaggerated or just plain awkward. To express his emotions so that it didn’t look out of place, he had to know how to rule over each strand of his emotions. If that was impossible, then restraint was the basics of acting.

‘Instructor Miso’s words are worth listening to.’

He just had to show a beggar that looked cheerful. Any more than that was a waste, and the producer wouldn’t want that either.

“I wish every day was like today.”

“Yeah. I also wish there were parties every day.”

“Look at this! I also got pumpkin candy!”

Beggar 2 showed off his pumpkin candy and spoke. That was an exaggerated action that wasn’t there during the rehearsal.

Maru perked up his ears. Fortunately, he didn’t hear the producer’s voice. Maru reacted to that act in a way that wouldn’t look too out of place.

“Good for you~[2].”

He took the pumpkin candy from beggar 2 with a teasing voice. It seemed that it was okay until this point. The line that Jinhyuk drew entered his eyes. As Maru placed his foot on top of the line, he turned his face to look at the opening. He saw their captain being grabbed by the collar. He was a thankful younger brother who solved the meals for the beggars around here with his smarts and talent in speech. When he thought of it like that, anger started rushing into his head.

“Hey, you!”

He shouted and started running. The other minor actors also shouted ‘hey!’ before following him. As they took around five to six steps, producer Changsung shouted cut.

“Good, you did well. But can you come here for a moment?”

Maru and the two minor actors stood in front of producer Changsung.

“That was good, but since you rushed out forward, I couldn’t get any shots of the two of you since your heads got in the way of each other. Like that, the viewers wouldn’t know who is talking. It means that it would look awkward.”

The guy playing beggar 2 apologized.

“Don’t feel so down. You did good. You did good, but I’m telling you to do at least what we agreed on. Oh, and 2nd beggar.”

“Yes.”

“Can you…”

Producer Changsung narrowed his eyes and pointed at the rice ball in Maru’s hands before speaking.

“Can you do the same thing while eating that?”

Maru looked at the rice ball in his hand.

“If it’s edible, I will.”

“Are your hands clean?”

“Yes.”

“Hey, make a rice ball!”

One of the people that followed Jinhyuk around all the time ran towards the props team. A while later, he returned with a rice ball on a tray. The rice ball was made with white rice, powdered laver, and some vegetables. Maru liked how it looked decently dirty.

“That looks good. 2nd beggar, here you go.”

He grabbed the warm rice ball.

“Try saying your line while eating it.”

Maru nodded his head and took a big bite. He was supposed to be a beggar. There was no need for him to cover his mouth and laugh like a noble lady or something. He just munched on some rice before saying his line when producer Changsung signalled him to.

“I wish every day was like today.”

Although grains of rice got stuck below his tongue and in his gum, his pronunciation was on point. As the tone of speech wasn’t that strong, there weren’t any difficulties speaking while eating.

“Walk around and try saying your next line.”

His next line was the stretched out line. He would drag out the words ‘good for you’ and emphasize the ‘you’ at the end. Unlike the first line, it was likely that he might end up spitting out some of the rice grains in his mouth. Maru walked and said his line upon the director’s signal after taking another bite.

“Good for you~.”

The moment he said that some rice popped out of his mouth[3]. Maru quickly received the grains with his left hand and made a sucking sound to put them back in his mouth. Then, he started walking again as though nothing had happened.

“That. Do exactly that.”

Producer Changsung smiled and went back to his position. Maru grabbed the new rice ball that the staff gave him and stood at his starting position. After exchanging glances with the other minor actors, he waited for the producer’s signal.

“Well, then. Cue!”

Producer Changsung’s voice could be heard.

* * *

Changsung crossed his arms and looked at the monitor. The group of beggars were walking forward. Seeing the beggar at the front smile in a joyous manner, Changsung smiled as well.

“He’s good.”

“He sure is.”

Jinhyuk agreed with him from the side. Yes, the lead and supporting actors were the most important in a drama. It was especially the case since actors with frightening skills could resuscitate a crappy script and a doomed direction. What was next then? Changsung believed that it was the background.

Even among the background elements, he thought that the background created by people was the most important. The minor actors, without knowing the importance of those people, who didn’t even have that many lines, one could not call himself a director. It was the sum of the images of such minor characters that created the atmosphere of the era. The minor roles were in charge of transferring what the people were like in the era that the drama was set in to the viewers.

They could be considered to have done their full jobs just by appearing on screen, and they were even good at saying their lines? He couldn’t help but praise them.

“Good for you~.”

That shamelessness of just sucking back in the rice that popped out of his mouth without overreacting was just great. If he hurriedly sucked in the rice as though it was such a waste, Changsung would have told him to tone down his act, but that boy restrained himself as though he knew that already. Even while restraining himself, he showed the necessary parts as he walked forward.

It seemed that he had thought about how he would be portrayed on the camera.

There was a common saying among the actors in this field. The camera shows what is not seen. The screen, for some curious reason, showed the effort, passion, and amount of practice that the actors had. It turned those values into numbers and allowed the viewers to evaluate the actors.

After the camera shot up to the point where they were about to rush ahead, Changsung shouted cut.

“I guess we don’t need to do that again.”

They got a satisfactory cut on the second shoot.

[1] So it seems that beggar 2 and 2nd beggar (Maru) are two different roles… First beggar is probably Gaeguk, but he’ll probably be written as ‘Gaeguk’ in the script.

[2] This line is supposed to be stretched out, but I obviously can’t do that with English. So you’ll have to bear with ‘~’.

[3] The original sounds like ‘Jou~ketta!’. Some strong consonants in there will make some of the food he was eating pop out. It’s not the case in English though. I will try to come up with a better alternative and change it in the future.

Chapter 395

“You’re about to push him away, but you are shocked when you see the shoes Han Myung-hoe is wearing. You walk backwards in surprise and fall down. Han Myung-hoe will stare at the 2nd beggar who fell down and then follow Gaeguk. Keep that in mind and keep the flow.”

After explaining things to the people standing in front of him, he walked back to the monitor.

“I thought it would take a long time, but it looks like things will end unexpectedly early,” Jinhyuk spoke as he looked at his watch.

“We might be able to eat lunch before 1 at this rate. Who’s coming today?”

“Foodmom.”

“That place is decent. One of the ones I had before was horrible. Heck, I would do better than them.”

“I recently heard that that place went out of business. One of my friends work for YBS, and apparently, they had long since dropped all deals with them due to bad rumors.”

“That it tastes horrible?”

“That’s one of them, but…,” saying that, Jinhyuk lowered his voice.

“The one running the food company is the little brother of someone who ran with the funds for a movie production.”

“I think I saw that on the news before. A twelve billion-won movie being stopped.”

“It’s probably that same one. I heard that there were a lot of individual investors. Man, they all got screwed.”

Jinhyuk clicked his tongue.

“That just makes me think that saving up money in your bank is the way to earn money. If you end up investing in things like stocks, you won’t even get your money back,” Changsung spoke as he remembered his salary bank account.

He once turned away a good friend of his, who tried to persuade him to invest in something with him, but not long after that, he heard that that friend went out of contact. He just ran after the place he invested into went out of business. Ever since then, he despised any form of investment.

“Ooh, senior. It looks like you saved up some money, huh?”

“Why do you ask?”

“To have you treat me to a meal. I heard that there’s a beef BBQ restaurant nearby.”

“Hell no.”

Changsung stopped the conversation and looked at the monitor. Despite being young, the actors all looked very serious. They looked like soldiers prior to a battle.

“Relax, you’re doing good.”

Hearing Changsung’s voice, the child actors all eased their expressions. It seemed that the conversation he had with Jihyuk was giving them misunderstandings.

“I think that one is talented. I never saw him nervous. It shouldn’t be that he’s used to it, right?”

Jinhyuk pointed at one of the kids on the monitor. The 2nd beggar. Changsung nodded.

Unlike the others, he showed leisure. Even the child actors for the lead roles were showing signs of nervousness, yet that boy was easing up others by talking to them.

“Thanks to him, I think we can finish early.”

The viewers did not forgive awkward acting just because the actor was young. The moment someone entered the camera frame, they had to show a complete act regardless of age.

However, no matter how good a child actor was, they were bound to lack compared to the adult actors who had widened their scope with years of experience. It wasn’t an easy feat for the young actors to fill that gap.

This was why suitable direction was needed in order to lessen that disparity. Child actors would usually shoot with other child actors, and the scenes they had to shoot with adult actors were shortened in length as much as possible.

Despite all that effort, the shooting time would stretch out endlessly when working with a child actor who had a shallow understanding of acting. Fortunately, the child actors this time were all doing well, which made Changsung relieved. It was especially good that there were no mistakes while shooting the minor actors since it meant that he could solely focus on the lead actors.

Changsung gave a cue signal. The 2nd beggar who ran to the opening from the street blocked Giwoo. He was following the instructions Changsung gave him during the rehearsal very accurately.

“Who are you to cause a ruckus?”

His tone was very memorable. He was quite calm and composed during their conversation, so it seemed that he had done a lot of research. The 2nd beggar and the other beggars who were about to corner Giwoo, flinched when they looked at the shoes he was wearing. They scanned him from top to bottom in a suspicious manner before realizing what they did. The second beggar walked a few steps back before falling on his butt.

At that moment, Changsung subconsciously spoke ‘whoa’ in a small voice. That was because it looked as though he actually fell over and not intentionally. Only after the 2nd beggar paled and hid behind Uljin did he realize that it was part of an act. He thought that the boy would just sit down after taking a few steps back, but it even looked painful to those watching. He clearly looked flustered for having touched the son of a noble, and Changsung was able to shout cut in a joyous manner.

“Hey, 2nd beggar! Is your ass okay?”

“Yes. It’s fine.”

He returned to a composed boy from a rather lacking beggar that followed Gaeguk. He was dusting off his butt, and the minor actors around him seemed worried about him. Giwoo, who stood opposite to him, seemed quite surprised as his eyes were widened. If the camera shot Giwoo, they would’ve gotten an NG.

Changsung stood up and walked towards the child actors.

“Are you really okay?”

“Yes. I fell over moderately, so I’m not hurt.”

“That’s good, then. But still, don’t try too hard. It’ll be on us if an accident occurs on set. Safety is always first. Understand?”

“Yes. I will bear that in mind.”

“But rather than that. Do you do some sports or something?”

“I’m learning action acting.”

“Oh, really now?”

Changsung stroked his chin. This guy was becoming more and more decent the more he looked into him.

“Hey, you came here through the audition right? The general audition.”

“Yes.”

“I think you are fit for this job, so try aiming to be an actor. If you show your face here and there, you’ll attract some attention. Well, it’s hard to enter an agency these days, but those that will, will do so sooner or later.”

The 2nd beggar replied after some time. There was an awkward smile on his face. Was he embarrassed because he was complimented? It seemed that he was still a kid after all.

“We still need to get a few more cuts, so let’s keep going.”

After returning to his spot, Changsung signalled the sound engineer and the camera director.

* * *

“Wow.”

Someone exclaimed from the side.

“It looks good,” Maru spoke as he picked up a plate.

When he heard that it was time for lunch, he thought that he would receive a lunch box, but there was a buffet waiting for him instead. There were skewers, which were a hassle to make, to meat dishes, sandwiches, and even bibimbap.

“Have a good meal.”

A man wearing a white bandana handed out some drinks. He had heard before, that historical dramas had a lot of production budget, and it turned out that even the food was different. He stuffed his plate full of food before sitting on a mat laid out on the ground.

“I’m definitely going for seconds after this.”

“I’m definitely getting more than I’m getting paid from this.”

The minor actors, who had stayed together for half a day, had become close. Bitna, the youngest, went to meet her mom during break times before joining them. She was at an age where she would be more at ease with her mother rather than strangers, so he felt somewhat proud and worried that she decided to join them.

“Eat a lot, Bitna.”

“Yes.”

She replied very courteously as well. Bitna had become a small star that was doted on by the minor actors and the staff. No one could hate her since she politely greeted everyone she came across. Even producer Changsung, who walked by, told Bitna to have a good meal.

“Hyung. Did you learn acting?”

A boy that was a year younger than him asked. Apparently, his dream was to become an actor.

“A little bit.”

“At an academy?”

“That too, and I learn at school as well. You know, club activities.”

“My school doesn’t have an acting club.”

“That’s too bad. It’s good to try it out. There might be local cultural centers running public acting teams, so try looking into that. Standing on stage always helps.”

“Ooh. Okay, I’ll try looking into that.”

“You really should.”

The three people next to him said that they decided to participate after finding an audition notice at their respective academies. It seemed that everyone here was preparing themselves to achieve the goal that was to become an actor.

Seeing them, Maru thought that there were quite a lot of students that aspired to become actors. On one hand, he was envious of their challenging youthful mindset, and on the other hand, he pitied them since most of them would fail to become one and regret it later on in their lives. Of these people, how many of them would he continue to see in TV stations, or at shoots?

‘…I’m just a moth as well. Who am I worrying about?’

Moths were bound to be attracted to lights shining down on the streets late in the night. They fly to the lights to admire the light, but most of them would circle around it for a while, then fall down and die. The ones that dance with the light and return to their habitats were few and far in between.

Even if they endure in order to survive, they would die once they were swept away by strong winds or the rain. The thing called environment sometimes makes effort look tragic.

However, there were definitely those that rose despite the interference from their environment. The ones that flapped their wings harder than others. There were those that did not get swept by the wind or the rain and strove towards the light.

“Let’s practice a lot so that we don’t get left behind. It’s such a pity to fail due to the wrong reasons.”

The other child actors, who were all younger than him, nodded their heads and raised their spoons. That was right. Food was stamina.

Scooping a big mouthful, Maru looked at the parasol that stood afar. The main actors and the main staff members were there. Although people said that the era had changed and there was no more hierarchy, those who lived long enough all knew - that the height where their spoons lay was different.

A stable income or a big one-time income. Those that picked up their spoons at that height would be able to achieve one of the two.

Minor and lead actors.

Although the difference was only one word, the gap between them was vast.

After emptying his plate, he went for seconds and came back with his plate full again. The others looked at him in a weird light.

“You should eat now. You’ll be hungry if you keep waiting.”

Hearing the word ‘waiting’, the others stood up as well and went to get more. It seemed that they were aware of what ‘waiting’ entailed.

After eating their fill, the minor actors had to wait for a while since the main actors started shooting. They ran out of topics to talk about so all of them just watched the set without saying a word.

After they waited until it was around 1 hour away from sunset, a staff member approached them, who were desperate to hear the words ‘let’s get to work’.

“Change your clothes and join them.”

At the place the staff member pointed to were people wearing merchant outfits. It seemed that they were going to shoot a crowd scene now.

Maru took off the beggar clothing and wore a clean dopo. His role was to eat some candy in front of the candy store.

‘Man, they’re juicing us.’

Apparently, his next role was that of a corpse. He had heard about borrowing money to pay another debt, but in this case, he was hired for several different roles. Maru just shrugged and started eating the square-shaped pumpkin candy.

It was very sweet.

He chewed on the candy while looking at the sun that was slowly starting to set.

* * *

“You’re here.”

Changsung greeted Yoon Moonjoong, who got out of the car with a kind smile.

“It’s been a long time since I came here. Oh, take this.”

“Oh, thank you for all this.”

He shared the drinks that Moonjoong gave him with the staff. Moonjoong always had the habit of handing out food during his shoots. It was to the point that some actors said that they would gain weight when working with him.

“Is the shoot going well?”

“Yes. Everything’s going extremely well.”

“That’s good to hear. I was a little worried since it’s the first shoot.”

“The actors were very cooperative. Oh, please come here. All the actors are together right now.”

While he walked across the set with Moonjoong, the staff members that recognized Moonjoong quickly got up and greeted him. The great senior of the industry replied to each one of them as he walked. Before he arrived at the parasol where the actors were waiting, Moonjoong stopped for a bit. His gaze was headed to the minor actors and the background actors, who were in a group of their own.

“Is there a problem?”

“No, I was just wondering if he was doing well.”

“He?”

“There’s a kid I know.”

“Who?”

“Over there, him.”

Moonjoong moved his chin to indicate someone, but there were too many people in the group for Changsung to figure out who Moonjoong was referring to.

“Let’s go.”

“Ah, yes.”

He followed Moonjoong and looked at the group of people again, but he still couldn’t figure out who Moonjoong was indicating. He wondered for a while before shaking his head and forgetting about it. If he was supposed to pay attention to that person, Moonjoong would have told him to do so already. From how he just walked past without making a big deal about it, perhaps that person wasn’t that important to Moonjoong either.

‘If something happens, he’ll tell me.’

Changsung led Moonjoong to the other actors.

Chapter 396

“It’s hot.”

“It sure is.”

Just sitting in the shade was not cool enough. Although the beginning of autumn was behind them[1], there was no autumn to be seen. Feeling fooled by the small words printed on the calendar, Maru wiped the sweat off his forehead.

“I wonder when this will end.”

A minor actor younger than him asked in a tired voice. After they shot the crowd scene after lunch, they’ve been waiting ever since. Even the ones that were excited about seeing actors in real life calmed down and just watched the shoot in a daze after around an hour or so.

“Hyung, do we always have long waiting times like this?”

A boy with a big nose asked. Maru nodded.

“If you’re unlucky, you might not do anything for three hours and just go home.”

“I was overjoyed that I was supposed to be a minor actor, but like this, we’re no different from background actors.”

“That’s because we’re minor roles without much significance. But we still do get to appear on camera a lot, right? Unless they cut it out during editing, you’ll appear on TV. Take consolation from that.”

“There’s all this stuff on my face. Would anyone even recognize me?”

He sighed as he slightly smudged the black makeup on his face.

“At least it’s better than the passersby who go by unnoticed.”

“That’s true, but still. Ah, the wait is too long. We are actors too.”

The boy that grumbled took some others to the bathroom. The shade became quiet. Maru fanned himself with the fan that the staff left with him. The soft wind brushed past his sweat. For a brief moment, he felt better.

“Aren’t you hot?” Maru asked Bitna, who sat next to him.

She could have waited in her mom’s car with air conditioning, but she did not leave the rest of the group during breaks. Her mom couldn’t be seen around. It seemed that she only watched when Bitna was on camera.

“I’m okay,” Bitna replied.

Despite being so young, she was very calm and composed. She looked cute and looked like she would act like a child, but she waited very calmly without making a single complaint. Maru faintly smiled and started fanning her. When he fanned her, Bitna thanked him with a bow.

“Isn’t it hard?”

“I’ll do it even if it’s hard.”

“Haha, I’m not telling you to not do it.”

Bitna stared at him.

“What is it?”

“Is it hard for you, ahjussi?”

“Yes, it is.”

“Then do your best.”

“Okay, I’ll do my best.”

He was trying to cheer her up, but he was encouraged instead. Bitna looked around the set with a serious expression. Maru wondered what her upbringing was like.

“Grab tight from both sides! Don’t loosen your hand! If you feel like you can’t endure, just shout!”

Six large men surrounded a palanquin. When the six lifted it up at the same time, they all said that they were okay.

“I’ll try going on it.”

Even after a staff member got in it, the palanquin was stable. After checking various things, the staff seemed to be convinced of its safety as he brought one person.

“Step on this to go in.”

The one that got on the palanquin was an elderly man who had a big build. He was probably the actor playing Han Sang-jil, the grandfather of Han Myung-hoe.

‘Park Moosung. He’s quite popular on historical dramas.’

From what Maru heard, he was appearing as a cameo. It was likely that the producer or the writer asked him to feature in the shoot. He would be portrayed as the cruel man who tells his family to abandon Han Myung-hoe after finding out that he was born prematurely.

The palanquin was raised according to the staff’s signal. Although it slightly tilted towards the right at first, it soon gained balance. Park Moosung laughed heartily and apologized to everyone for being so heavy.

“We’ll do this quickly!” Changsung shouted.

The people lifting the palanquin up slowly moved forward. Moosung, who was inside, quickly became composed. He laid back on the backrest and watched the people outside doing business with a bored expression. His posture indicated his status.

When the palanquin passed in front of a hanok[2] surrounded by a stone fence, Moosung said ‘stop’. The low voice reached even where Maru was resting. He definitely sounded different to when he was speaking to the staff members just now. It was heavy yet spread far. The sound was vivid until the very end.

They got a satisfying cut in one go. Moosung got off the palanquin and took off his gat. A woman that seemed to be his stylist quickly approached him and received the jacket and the hat from him.

Producer Changsung disappeared from the set along with Moosung. Producer Jinhyuk was in control of the set now.

“Everyone please gather round!”

The background actors, as well as the minor actors for the beggars, all gathered round. Producer Jinhyuk scanned their faces and body figures before picking a few people and telling them to stand to the side.

“The ones standing to my right, please get ready for the street scene, and as for the rest of you, I’ll have you become corpses.”

Maru was one of the corpses. Ten men of various heights left the streets and moved to the road where there were straw-roofed houses around. This was where the convenience store was, so there were a lot of tourists.

“I think they’re shooting a drama here.”

“Where?”

People flocked after seeing cameras and lights and asked the staff which actors were appearing. The staff replied to them that they were just extras in a tired manner.

Those words worked wonders. The flock of people scattered like it couldn't be a lie. The word ‘extras’ was magical. Maru laughed in a low voice before walking.

“Please lie down and cover yourselves with this.”

They lied down under the roof hanging off the side of the straw-roofed house in a line. The cold sensation from the ground made his body scream in joy. He felt that he might be able to fall asleep here. The others looked the same. Some of them almost fell asleep.

When they waited like that, Uljin and Giwoo arrived. This was the scene where Giwoo was scared out of his wits when he saw Uljin rummaging through the dead bodies.

Uljin approached and stepped on the hand of someone here. He was the man right next to Maru. Uljin flinched in surprise, but the man didn’t even groan. If Uljin continued acting, he would be portrayed as the one who boldly started rummaging through dead bodies, but still had his childish side. Unfortunately, though, Uljin could not continue his act.

“Cut. Are you okay?”

Producer Jinhyuk asked. As the alleyway was narrow, he couldn’t come in and he just stood in front of the camera.

“Yes. I’m fine. You can continue.”

The man who seemed to be over forty just laughed and told them not to worry about it before lying back down.

At that moment, Maru saw that the man frowned as he grabbed the hand that was stepped on.

There was no way it didn’t hurt. Uljin might be quite skinny for a teen, but a boy in his late teens stepped on the man’s hand with all of his body weight. It wouldn’t be strange even if the man’s bones broke.

Feeling Maru’s gaze, the man put his index finger against his mouth and shook his head. He was telling Maru not to say it. Seeing the hurried movement, Maru made a bitter expression and could only nod back.

“Are you okay?” Uljin asked.

The man said that there were no problems with a cheerful voice. Though, his words trembled at the end. Uljin apologized before returning to his starting point.

“It hurts, doesn’t it?”

“Nah, I’m fine.”

“You look like you’re in pain though.”

“I’m fine, I’m fine.”

“But still, you should visit the information center after the shoot. They should have some first-aid kits.”

“I was planning to do that. Thanks for worrying about me, kid.”

The sweat on the man’s forehead was probably not entirely due to the heat of the weather.

When Uljin started rummaging through the corpses, Giwoo entered and tried to stop him. Maru couldn’t open his eyes, so he didn’t know what kind of an act they were putting on, but they sounded a little awkward to him, since he had just heard a powerful deep voice from Moosung.

“Cut. Thanks for your work.”

The shoot finished in three shoots. Standing up with the tattered rag, Maru looked at the face of the man who lied down next to him. He was sweating cold sweat.

“I’ll return it for you.”

“Thanks…”

The man covered up his right finger, which was stepped on, with his left hand and stood up. Maru narrowed his eyes and approached the staff with the two rags.

“Uhm, I think I sprained my fingers a little when I lied down. Can I get some pain relief patches?”

“Patches? Are you hurt?”

“No. It just stings a little.”

The staff scratched his head before telling him to wait and turned around with the rags. Maru returned to the alley and sat next to the man.

“Did you go?”

“Huh? Oh, yeah. But they didn’t have any.”

The man frowned.

“I asked a staff member to get some patches.”

“What? You shouldn’t have.”

“I said that I was the one injured. I also said that it was just a slight sprain, so it won’t enter the ears of anyone important.”

“…Really?”

“Let me have a look at your hand.”

The man slowly extended his hand. Thankfully, it was just a bit swollen. With enough rest after applying the patches, it looked like he would be okay in two days.

He received spray-type pain relief from the staff and gave it to the man. Tssssh. The spray gave off a refreshing smell. The man, who was spraying it on himself, fanned his hands to get rid of the smell. At the same time, he peeked outside. He looked very uneasy.

“There’s no one outside.”

“Really?”

“Yeah. I checked before coming. So you can be at ease.”

“Thanks for being so considerate.”

Although he smiled and said that he was okay, he was very careful with applying the pain relief.

Maru sighed a little and blocked him so that no one could see him. Even if a staff member came by, they wouldn’t notice the man.

Seeing him look after his wound in the corner, Maru felt bitter. It was likely that this was his job. A job that didn’t require specific skills meant that it was just as easy to replace someone like him. The moment the leader found out about his injury, he would tell the man to ‘get some rest’, and as someone whose everyday expenses depended on the job, those words would be cruel and merciless.

When he saw the man who had to swallow the pain and protect himself with his words, Maru was reminded of his father, who was forced to rest due to an accident at the factory he was working at in his later years. He had barely any memory of what happened ‘back’ then, but the frustration and the sorry feelings he had when watching his father’s dejected shoulders as the eldest son in the house still remained in a corner of his heart.

“Boy. I’m really okay.”

The man smiled for a while before cringing again. Maru nodded before standing up.

“Please be careful.”

“Y-yeah.”

Maru took the pain relief spray and left the alley. He looked for the man who gave him the spray to return it, but he couldn’t be seen anywhere. He couldn’t shoot with the spray in hand, and the props vehicle wasn’t that far, so he decided to go there and return it.

When he walked on the streets, people around him looked at him with curiosity. It wasn’t a surprise since he was dressed up like a beggar. On his way back from returning the spray, he met the man again. However, the leader was standing right next to him. The leader waved at the man to go, who bowed with an apologetic expression.

Maru watched as the leader turned around and the man stood still. Then, he met eyes with the man. The man stretched his fingers out and smiled as though to show that he was fine. Maru felt that there was a thousand tons of weight on the man’s shoulders as the man turned around.

Was he found out? Or did he report himself since he thought that it was serious? In any case, the leader would henceforth remember the man’s name. In the field, the one that caused the accident would be remembered in a bad way. What was funny was that the one that was caught in the accident would also be remembered in a bad way.

After watching the man for a while, he started walking again. Although there was a bitter taste in his mouth, he had to do what he had to. He visited the bathroom before he went back to the set. After washing his hands, he looked in the mirror. His face, which was drenched in heat and sweat, looked like a real beggar.

Just as he was about to leave after shaking the water off his hands, he heard a voice outside.

“I told you. But man, he really couldn’t say a word like you said. I really stepped on it like I meant it, but he smiled back and said he was fine. Hey, I even pitied him a little. Would he really want to live like that at his age? If I was him, I would’ve quit a long time ago. Anyway, it was interesting just like you said.”

That voice was familiar to him. It also described a very familiar situation.

[1] The way east Asians count the seasons is slightly different from the west. In the west, ‘autumn’ apparently begins at the same time as the autumn equinox. However, the eastern countries consider it as the ‘middle’ of autumn, meaning, the ‘beginning’ of autumn is half-way between the summer solstice and the autumn equinox. Wikipedia for more details. (the term in the story corresponds to the 135° solar term)

[2] Traditional Korean housing. In this case, for people of high social status. Wikipedia for details.

Chapter 397

-Everything can be forgiven as long as you aren’t found out. No, there’s no need for ‘forgiveness’. They can’t blame someone for something they don’t know.

The moment Uljin heard those words, his stuffy feelings became refreshed in an instant. It would be fine as long as he was not caught. Conscience was something that was only active when a person was seen by another.

When he first did such a thing, it was just mischief. He gave lukewarm water to someone who asked him to bring cold water. He quickly apologized when the person that drank the water felt something was off. When he did, that person smiled back saying it was okay.

That gave a strange sense of pleasure. He had definitely done something wrong. Although it was something childish, he disguised his intentional actions as a mistake. Seeing that someone who was supposed to get angry smiled back at him instead, Uljin felt his tongue go dry. It was a strange sense of nervousness, and it was the feeling of satisfaction that stemmed from superiority.

-Don’t do it to people who can cause damage to you. As for friends and family… well, that’s up to you to decide. The main targets are those who can’t fight back against you. There are people like them everywhere. Schools, libraries, streets, shops, parks. If you pay the slightest amount of attention, you’ll find people who can’t fight back against you.

Uljin found his targets according to those words. First, he excluded his friends and family. He had no leisure to be mischievous towards them. They were thankful people who he had to treat preciously and look after.

After a bit of contemplation, he thought of a very good target. With these people, it was highly likely that he would never see them again, and they were always the weakest. These people could be seen whenever he heard someone scolding someone else.

Extras. He excluded staff members from his target since he would see them often in the future, but the background actors were people he would never see again after seeing them once, so they were suitable targets of his mischief.

Calling background actors to a completely random place saying that the leader told him to do it gave him a small amount of pleasure. When he apologized to the leader, who scolded those people, in their stead, the background actors would thank him even though he was the one that got them into trouble.

Looking at them, who could only thank him despite the fact that they knew who got them into trouble, made him want to burst out laughing. Why was it that he only found out about such a fun thing now?

However, that pleasure only lasted a brief moment. After some time, doing such mischiefs didn’t make him enjoy it anymore. At first, when he gave that person lukewarm water, he felt like his heart was thumping so hard despite the fact that he had barely done anything. He wanted to taste that thrill again. Uljin then decided to up the scale of his mischiefs.

He looked for people who looked downwards when being scolded by the leader. At that time, he found a suitable target. He stepped on that man’s fingers, who played dead while the camera wasn’t rolling. For a moment, he had the thought that things might go wrong and quickly took his foot away, but when he saw the man’s awkward smile, his worries flew away.

He quickly approached him and asked if he was okay, and like always, the reply was that the man was okay. Uljin barely held himself back from laughing out loud before walking away. After that, he peeked at the man inside the alley. He looked to be in pain without any place to express it. He really looked pitiful and pathetic.

Such a man’s dirty life and his own life were completely different. A person that looked like he had children couldn’t say a word about his pain and had to sell a false smile to a person much younger than him.

Ah, what a happy life did he live compared to that man? Uljin felt thankful for his parents and his family. He also got some motivation to never let his life become like that. He reflected on his past self who didn’t want to practice, and he could also whip himself to do better in the future.

He was able to thank every single thing around him just by trampling on someone who he didn’t have any relationship with, for just a brief moment. Moreover, that someone was a person who could be found anywhere. What a cool thing was that?

The man that had his fingers stepped on was destined to be trampled upon by someone else somewhere else. If so, wasn’t it better for that person to become his foothold instead?

Uljin hung up as he promised to meet the friend that allowed him to experience such things. He was just about to enter the bathroom with his phone in his hand, but he felt a presence inside.

No one heard him right? He was a little excited, so his voice was a little loud. Despite that, though, he could say that he was talking about a game if that person just listened to the conversation. It was also likely that the person inside was just a tourist, so he could just enter without being worried.

When he entered the bathroom, he saw a familiar person standing in front of the mirror. He was the beggar that he shot with today. This fellow was quite good at acting as well. It felt rather nice to meet him after thinking about the man who lived a worthless life. Yes, life was supposed to be worth living.

“The weather is hot, isn’t it?”

The boy playing the 2nd beggar spoke to him. Although the two seemed to be similar in age, polite speech was the norm in the field. From how that boy could speak with polite speech without sounding awkward, he looked like someone with good senses. Uljin liked him more.

“Yes, it is. But where were you all this time? I couldn’t see you.”

“Oh, I was just playing a dead man for a while.”

The tap opened and water started gushing out. Uljin looked at the stream of water that came out through the silver-colored pipe. Was this guy next to the man who got his hand stepped on? He was a little nervous, but he soon realized that there was no need to mind about that and spoke,

“I was there too. It must have been hard. I mean, the ground was uneven, wasn’t it?”

“But it was cool, so it wasn’t that bad.”

“That’s good.”

“You were good at acting from what I saw. Do you study at an academy?”

“Yes. I do most of my studying at an academy.”

“I also want to do well, but I really can’t do it.”

“No way, you were good though.”

“Me? It’s the first time I heard that. Haha.”

“Have more confidence in yourself. We’re just starting off, aren’t we? You can do it.”

“That’s not true. I’m just a minor actor. I’m ways off compared to you, Mr. Uljin. You’re incredible for playing a lead role at your age. You must have practiced a lot, right?”

“I did. There’s nothing that can be done without practice, though, is there?”

“There can be. There are geniuses. Aren’t you a genius who puts in effort as well?”

“Hahaha. That’s not true at all.”

Uljin smiled as he rubbed his nose. A genius who also puts in effort. Those were some nice words to hear.

“Uhm, how old are you?” The 2nd beggar asked.

Uljin replied that he was eighteen.

“So we’re the same age. I should also get some practice and try to escape my current status. I don’t know if it would work though.”

“It will. I also became successful despite not having much talent. You can do it as long as you put in the effort.”

The 2nd beggar seemed to be looking up to him. Uljin made the leisurely smile of the one walking ahead of one of his peers.

“But…”

The 2nd beggar looked in the mirror. He spoke after shaking the water off his hands and redoing his wig.

“That man back there.”

Uljin felt a prickle in his stomach, but he asked back without showing anything.

“Who do you mean?”

“The man who got his fingers stepped on.”

“Ah, right. I did make a bit of a mistake. I really feel sorry for him. Though, it didn’t look like he was hurt a lot.”

“I thought so as well, but he disappeared mid-way. From what I heard, he seemed to have gone home early.”

“…Go home early?”

“Yes.”

The 2nd beggar spoke as though it was nothing much. He wiped his mouth with his fingers and looked at Uljin.

“It’s a bit…, right?”

“Eh? Well, I don’t feel that good. I should go apologize to him.”

Was he being condemned? Uljin felt himself shrinking back. Did his mischief go too far after all? Should he have stopped? But at the same time, he felt a sense of resistance against this boy. Why was he saying such a thing? Was he telling him to apologize? To feel guilty?

At that moment, Uljin heard an air escaping sound[1]. He wondered what it was. When he raised his head, he saw the 2nd beggar making a faint smile.

“Why apologize? He chose that life?”

“What?”

“Ah, did I go a little too far? Actually, I think that there are classes in life. Why should such a cool guy like you apologize to such a low-class person? Going home early just because his fingers were stepped on? That’s just not being a pro. Don’t you think?”

His thumping heart calmed down as though it never raced in the first place. He made a small sigh of relief, and at the same time, the feeling of pleasure dwelled in him. It felt as though he met an old friend at an unfamiliar place. The existence of a person who had the same mindset as him made Uljin excited.

However, he couldn’t just blatantly express that.

“But I am still in the wrong.”

“Wow, Mr. Uljin. You’re really kind. You’re a pro, and yet you’re so kind-hearted as well. Honestly, if it was me, I would have forgotten about it after apologizing on the spot. I mean, he went home just because he was stepped on? Tsk. You don’t need to be considerate of such people. Just look at the other actors. They stay at the shoot whether it’s raining or snowing. Are you going to take a break from shooting just because you sprained a few fingers?”

“No, I can’t do that.”

“Right? There are dozens, no, hundreds of people working for the drama at the shoot, yet he dares to cause trouble for their schedule? I can’t understand such a life. Well, it’s precisely because he’s such a person that he comes and does this job at his age, right?”

Uljin inwardly exclaimed. This boy’s words were without restraint, and his ideals were the same as him. His eyes were vivid and his face contained confidence. This boy, it was just like looking at that friend. Uljin barely held himself back from grinning and spoke.

“But that’s his way of living his life and…”

“You finally said something proper. You’re right. That pathetic life of his is just his way of life. Someone much younger than him, yes, I mean you, Mr. Uljin, is striving his best to become an actor, yet… nah, I don’t want to talk about it. Such a man isn’t worth talking about.”

The 2nd beggar washed his mouth as though he ate something bitter.

Uljin’s palms felt ticklish. He wanted to say it. He wanted to say that he thought the same. On top of that, he wanted to introduce that friend of his. Having a conversation between the three of them would be much more constructive than two.

“Don’t say too much. He must have his reasons,” he spoke as he barely held back from speaking otherwise.

When he did, the 2nd beggar covered his mouth and laughed.

“Mr. Uljin. You’re more naïve than you look. You know, I honestly think that such people should become our footholds. Bluntly speaking, even if there’s a truckload of such people, would they match up to you? People have their classes as well, from A to F. If people like you are A-class, such a man is F-class. It’s just like his job. He’s an ‘extra’ in life. Well, I’m also F-class right now, but I’m different from that man. At least I’m not pathetic enough to leave just because my fingers got stepped on. Don’t you think so too?”

A wet tissue flew towards the trash can. Uljin spoke after seeing the trash fall into the trash can.

“…Well, he definitely is less-than-ordinary.”

“Right?”

“Yes. I mean, he just went home after being slightly injured. Does that even make any sense? He just doesn’t want to work. He just came hearing that the part time job is easy, and just went home after getting an excuse.”

Uljin snorted and spoke.

“Did you know? Even if he leaves in the middle of the shoot like that, he will still get his pay for the parts he worked on. That’s absurd, don’t you think? He probably left knowing full well. He’s probably resting inside the coach right now. Then, he’ll slowly crawl back out and join the shoot again, and get some more money while at it.”

“Really?” The 2nd beggar replied as he didn’t know.

Uljin started speaking in excitement.

“It’s true. There’s a reason such people don’t have a decent workplace at his age. If it was me, I wouldn’t do such a job because of embarrassment.”

“Extras… it’s an embarrassing job, isn’t it?”

The 2nd beggar asked as he walked to one of the urinals. Uljin spoke boldly at his back.

“Of course. I don’t even know what to say about him looking like that at his age. Oh, I’m not talking about you, by the way. We’re still young. And you’re good at acting too. You have the skill, unlike that man.”

“Yeah, yeah. Sure. Not having any skill at his age. No wonder he’s looked down upon.”

“You’re right. You should’ve seen his face when he just grinned, saying that he wasn’t hurt. It was really pathetic.”

“Really? Haha.”

The 2nd beggar left the bathroom after saying that. Uljin quickly walked up to him and walked next to him. He found someone who he could talk to. He thought that he could become friends with him.

“Uhm, what’s your name?”

“Me? Why do you want to know my name?”

“We’re the same beggar family now, aren’t we? We should get along.”

“Ah, family? Haha, family, that’s right. We’re family.”

The 2nd beggar turned his head.

“I’m Han Maru. But don’t remember my name.”

“Why? I think we can become friends.”

“No way. How can a mere minor actor like me be friends with a lead actor? Just pretend like you know me when you come across me in the future.”

“No, but still…”

“I’m going off first.”

Han Maru waved his hand over his shoulders. Uljin looked at him with a rather dumbfounded expression. He thought that he could become friends with him since he could talk to that guy.

At that moment, Maru slightly turned around.

“Oh, right.”

Putting on a smile, he continued,

“Actually, it really hurts when someone else steps on your fingers. I mean, it really hurts, to the point that you can’t speak. But it’s quite incredible that he can think about his children and smile instead, right? That’s right, I think it’s incredible. It’s an unspeakably amazing thing to do.”

Uljin stared at Maru as he thought about the incomprehensible words he just said.

Chapter 398

“Let’s eat dinner before we continue.”

Changsung said as he saw the sunset. The time on the set was managed by the skies. Even if a digital clock indicated that it was 8 p.m., it would still be ‘noon’ if the sun was still up. Although cutting-edge technology was being used on the set, time was still ruled by analog means.

“The start is good. There were no accidents, and we’ve shot all the day scenes that we planned,” Jinhyuk spoke as he raised the walkie-talkie volume. He told the staff members that were scattered throughout that it was dinner time.

“It might be just beginner’s luck, so don’t let your guard down. Oh, where’s the leader right now?”

“He’s over there. Should I call him?”

“No, I’ll go there.”

Changsung told Jinhyuk to eat first before walking to where the leader was. He could see the leader who was gathering the background actors.

“Thanks for your work.”

“Ah, yes.”

The leader smiled back at him.

“I think I’ll be fine with twenty people for the evening shoot. Let’s send off one of the coaches and shoot with just the rest.”

“What kind of people should I leave behind?”

“Five women in their forties to fifties, and the rest should be men of equal ratio across different ages.”

“Okay, I’ll do that.”

“Have you had dinner yet?”

“No, I’m about to though. How about you, producer?”

“I was about to eat as well.”

After telling him to have a nice meal, he then greeted the background actors.

Just as he yawned and was about to go to where the staff was eating, he saw Moonjoong passing by.

“Sir, are you going to have dinner?”

“No, I was going to do some greetings.”

“Do some greetings?”

“Don’t mind me and eat first.”

Moonjoong smiled and walked by. Changsung turned around and followed where Moonjoong was going with his eyes. Who was he going to greet? He became slightly curious and followed with a bit of distance between them. When Moonjoong stopped, he was standing in front of the background actors who were getting ready to go home.

“Have you had dinner?”

Hearing that, most of the background actors shook their heads. Food was only provided to those that had shoots in the evening, so most of those people would have to get on the coach without being able to eat.

“You should have dinner before you go. Uhm, leader. Can I take these people to that restaurant over there?”

“Ah, sure. Please do.”

The leader, who always had his eyes wide open and had meticulous control over people, smiled back at Moonjoong as he replied. Moonjoong thanked the leader.

“Thank you for all your work. You should eat your dinners over there.”

Moonjoong took the fifty-or-so background actors to the home-style food restaurant right in front of the tourist district.

Changsung took out his walkie-talkie as he saw the restaurant’s door close.

“Planning team.”

-Yes, please speak.

“The coach departs in 30 minutes.”

-Roger that.

Changsung smiled and put away his walkie-talkie. It had been almost 10 years since he started his job. He had come across numerous veteran actors. They were veterans of war who had survived this fiercely competitive entertainment industry. Most of them did not care about what was around them. They just came on time and left once their job was done without any flaws.

Among them, there were some that only looked after themself, scolded the staff for not giving them high-class outfits, and even treated the staff like servants. However, most of the time, they explained in words what they needed and checked on the results themselves.

Such people had formed a nearly perfect action mechanism as an individual so they did not require nor want help from others. Even when an accident happened on the set, they would either solve it quickly or quickly step back. Watching them gave Changsung the feeling that they were like machines in a way.

When he was still a newbie producer, he always got angry when seeing leaders who treated background actors without any respect. The leaders did not speak with polite speech even to those older than them, pointed fingers, and raised their voices whenever they felt like it. He didn’t say anything since his senior producer did not say a word about it, but inside, he was burning up with passion that he should right this wrong.

In one such moment, there was a veteran actor who watched the scene with him, and that actor called him to some place quiet to have a talk.

“If it’s not related to you, don’t mind it. This place is a complicated place.”

Changsung became very angry when he heard those words. One of the leaders of the entertainment industry had said such a thing. He avoided those incidents with excuses, much less step up and prevent such matters.

The figure of that actor, as well as the mechanical image of veteran actors in Changsung’s mind, overlapped and he started seeing all the veteran actors as hypocrites who acted like they didn’t see anything when they saw injustice as long as they weren’t involved.

He inwardly thought that that was why people said that the entertainment industry was corrupt, and thought about what he could do to fix it. Just then, he saw the leader in front of his eyes.

Changsung scolded the leader with his position as the producer and told him to respect the background actors and not shout at them. He expected the leader to make a sorry expression and apologize, but the leader just said okay before saying to him just this:

“The responsibility is on you then, okay?”

After that, break time was over and the shoot resumed. They had to put the background actors on wait and call for the lead actors, but he couldn’t see the background actors that were supposed to be prepared. They were in a rush as well. The skies had turned dark, and there were signs of a coming rain so they had to be quick with the shoot.

Changsung quickly looked for the leader. That was because the leader was in charge of managing the personnel. When he asked the leader where the actors wearing the palace outfits were, the leader shrugged and said that he told them to wait in this place.

Back when the only form of communication was pagers, the props team had collected the pagers from the background actors, saying that it was a hindrance to the shoot. Having no choice, he and the leader ran around the area looking for people, and he was able to find people wearing palace outfits taking photos with other people.

Changsung was flabbergasted. He asked why they were here and not waiting. When he said that, one of the background actors smiled and replied to his question with another question: ‘Isn’t it fine even if we just go back now?’

Anger rushed up to his head when he heard such complacent words, but just then, it started raining. He could hear through the walkie-talkie that the shoot was over. Changsung shouted at the background actors on the spot - What are you doing? Why can’t you do this properly? Are you here to play around?

After a round of commotion, the background actors just returned while saying that he was making it into a big deal. He had to watch in vain as they walked away. The leader then approached him and spoke in a small voice,

“That’s what you get for stepping into something you can’t even take responsibility for. You asked why I shout at them, right? That’s because they break their promises on a whim, run to somewhere else on another whim, and won’t listen to any word I say if I tell them in a nice way. To us, this is work, it’s our job. We’re people who would die if we can’t do the job. However, among those idiots, there are people who just come to get some pocket money for the day. I also want to be seen in a good light. But can I control them if I ask them nicely? Of course, there are nice people as well. There are many people who listen to every word I say even if I tell them nicely. But there are more people that don’t. This is a workplace, not a place to evaluate their personalities. You should put work first. Anyway, let’s just do our jobs in the future, okay? Don’t butt in.”

He was embarrassed. As a newbie producer, everything in the world seemed unjust, but the people living inside had their own order.

Just as he got an earful from his senior producer, a veteran actor quietly said a word to him.

“I still don’t understand how amazing I would have to be if I am to take care of others in this world where I have a hard time taking care of myself. That’s why I gave up after trying a few times. I get that you’re young and ambitious, but you should do it when you can. If you get yourself fired up for something you can’t even do, people around you will get tired, not you.”

In a world where stars rose and fell, those that witnessed the shine and disappearance of numerous stars had their own means of survival. They weren’t dismissive of the weak from the beginning. It was just that they put in their best efforts to survive.

It was precisely because the world was like this that Moonjoong was amazing. He greeted the staff of his own accord, and looked after the background actors. Many times, he sat with them and listened to their stories, so some of the staff that had never seen him before would sometimes be confused that he was just an elderly man who came to play a background role.

Moonjoong looked after others in unseen places just that much. On top of that, he did it at every single shoot.

It was a harsh world. Overnight shoots couldn’t be counted, and they had to wait indefinitely if the environment didn’t match what they needed. In such a place, looking after others when it was hard to look after oneself was incredibly difficult.

If asked whether he wanted to become a person like Moonjoong, Changsung would reply no. The little duckling that scolded the leader at that time was long gone. What remained was the sense of duty to create good works, as well as the small ambition of being successful.

Changsung took off. He had to finish his meal before it was too late. Just as he was walking on the streets of the Joseon era, he saw the minor actors for the beggars walking towards him from the other side.

“Have you had dinner?”

“Yes. We ate already.”

The one that replied was the 2nd beggar. His name was… yes, Han Maru. It seemed that he really became the leader of the group after spending their time together the whole day as the rest of the children seemed to be following him.

“Alright. See you later. You’ll get to go home after the evening scene, so do your best.”

“Okay.”

Changsung walked past him and walked along the fences of the hanok. Just then, he felt a presence behind him and turned around. There, he saw Maru.

“What is it? You have something to tell me?”

“Can I ask you a question?”

“Well, sure.”

“I’m asking this just in case, but are there instances where the actors for the roles are switched from the original decision?”

“Instances where actors change, huh.”

Changsung crossed his arms. Although Maru had a calm expression on his face, perhaps due to the shade over his face, he gave off a sharp impression. He also seemed a little angry.

Actor change. Changsung made a faint smile. There were a few instances where minor actors asked him this question. He couldn’t say for sure that he knew what they were thinking, but they should all be thinking similar things. They probably came across a lead actor or a supporting actor that seemed inferior to them and were asking if they could replace that actor.

Do your best, if you put in the effort, it’s possible, win against them with your skill. Many words flashed by in his mind, and Changsung finally spoke,

“Absolutely not. Dramas are a meticulously-planned market.”

“Okay then.”

He didn’t even look disappointed. He just took a bow as though he asked that question to get confirmation and turned around.

“But why do you ask?” Changsung asked this time.

Maru turned around again and spoke,

“I don’t have a specific reason. I was just curious.”

“Is that so?”

“Yes.”

“Well, I guess that doesn’t matter then.”

Maru turned around once again.

After watching him for a while, Changsung said one more thing.

“The roles can’t change, but their importance might.”

As soon as he finished his words, Maru replied.

“I thought so as well.”

There was a nonchalant smile on his face.

Chapter 399

Maru entered the home-style food restaurant. He could hear the elder’s voice among the noisy conversations. When he went deeper inside, he found Moonjoong talking with the background actors.

“Please continue eating.”

Moonjoong stood up and went outside. Maru followed him out.

“Now I get some air to breathe.”

“It was very hot during the day. But I thought you were eating?”

“I finished and was talking about worldly matters with the others. So, have you eaten?”

“Yes, I have.”

Moonjoong walked to the vending machine in front of the store. He asked as he inserted some coins he got from his pocket.

“Coffee? Or tea?”

“I’ll take coffee, please.”

The vending machine made some machine noises before making a coffee. Maru received the paper cup that Moonjoong gave him. As the sun had set, it felt rather good to have some warmth in his hands.

He followed Moonjoong to a tree standing next to the restaurant. They sat down on an old wooden bench and started drinking. There were a lot of people at the entrance of the tourist area. It seemed that it was open late into the night. Colorful lights brightened the dull gates and soldiers wearing military uniforms showed a brief performance in front of it.

“How was the shoot?”

“I think I did enough to the point that I won’t have any regrets. Have you done your shoot yet, elder?”

“Just a short one. And I’ll also have another one in a moment. I think you’re in the shoot with me.”

“Yes. You’re probably right about that.”

“Please take care of me then. These days, I’m lacking energy and I find much comfort in just going along with other people.”

“Do I even have the ability to?”

“What are you saying? You can do it.”

Moonjoong laughed heartily. Maru took the empty paper cup from Moonjoong’s hands and threw them away into the trash. Just then, the restaurant opened and the background actors came out. After looking around, they found Moonjoong and headed for the bench.

“Thank you. All of us had a good meal.”

“No need to thank me. We’re all doing this to make a living so it’s bad to starve. Thanks for your work today, and those of you going home, please be safe, and as for the ones that will remain, please take care of me until the end.”

The background actors took photos with Moonjoong before walking away.

“When I was still in my prime, there were a lot of people I called brothers, but now that I came back from a long break, I don’t know anyone here. It looks like all of them quit.”

“It is a hard job after all.”

The job required people to stand under the scorching sun and wait, or perhaps wait in the freezing cold. Although some of the better environments were cool in summer and warm in winter, just waiting for hours without doing anything was hard in itself.

A man who claimed that he had ten years of acting as a background actor once told Maru to not continue this job for long. Apparently, he had served his youth into this job since it allowed him to continue working whenever he wanted without much skill, but he found out that it wasn’t a good choice at all.

The time of his youth that he spent waiting could not be returned, and he lamented that he could only continue this job because that was the only thing he could do.

There were sometimes opportunities for background actors as well. Doing it for a long time, one would come across a role with lines, and they might be able to get a better role in the future if they catch a producer’s eye or something. However, these kinds of opportunities only shine when someone who came across it was prepared. To people that only considered it as labor, the opportunity would just pass by.

There were many people that worked as background actors with the dream of becoming an actor one day, but most of the time, background actors were here to watch other actors working, or to get a fresh experience. Opportunity had no eyes. It came across people purely due to coincidence and did not care whether the person was desperate or not. What would be a golden opportunity for someone disappeared like that, and the people that came here as background actors also left the stage like that as well.

That was why it was not easy to run into people who kept doing this job for long.

“If you have the leisure to treat those people to a meal, I hope you don’t ignore them and treat them kindly.”

“I shall.”

After smiling in satisfaction, Moonjoong looked at Maru before asking.

“But did something happen?”

“There wasn’t anything much.”

“In my eyes, you seem a little upset. I’m glad if you say it’s nothing much. If you have anything to say though, you should say it.”

“Was my expression that bad?”

“Your expression is the same as always, and your actions are as polite as always too. But your voice is different from normal. It has an edge to it.”

“I can’t even lie in front of you, elder.”

“Brat, you were trying to lie to me?”

“Of course not. I don’t dare.”

After thinking about it for a while, Maru spoke,

“I came across someone I don’t like.”

“Did that person bully you?”

“No, it’s not like that.”

“Well, I guess you aren’t someone that would stand being bullied.”

“I’m not that aggressive.”

“Scammers don’t introduce themselves as scammers either.”

“Have I done you wrong, elder? You are very spicy today.”

“There was a young man who said he’d drink with me before, but that man didn’t show up at all. Boy is he mean. I wonder why I bought some pork belly and put it in my fridge. I really regret it.”

Moonjoong narrowed his eyes. Maru smiled awkwardly. He definitely made such an appointment with Moonjoong before. It wasn’t that he forgot, but as he kept getting more events and practices in his schedule, he didn’t have any time and ended up delaying that promise to a much later date. He thought that it would be fine to visit him after all these events since it wasn’t like they had set on a date, but it seemed that the elder was looking forward to his visit.

“Elder. I’m in the wrong. I’m sorry.”

“You did nothing wrong. It’s just this old man who misunderstood everything.”

“How about this weekend? I’ll come over and cook for you.”

“This weekend, huh. It might do, it might not.”

“Then I’ll visit you then.”

Moonjoong laughed in a low voice before tapping on Maru’s knees. Maru also smiled as he was influenced by the elder’s relaxing hands.

“Yes, that’s the smile. Retract the blade from your words. It’s very dangerous to harbor a knife in your throat when you’re young. It’s more likely that you’ll end up injuring yourself before harming others. Of course, I think you’ll be fine since you’re a tough one, but affection is still better than a blade, don’t you think?”

Maru nodded as he looked at Moonjoong’s calm eyes. He felt that the rage that burned silently in a corner of his heart was subsiding a little. He came here upon Moonjoong’s text message thinking that he wanted a conversation partner, but he was consoled instead.

“May I ask you an obvious question?”

“Sure.”

“What do you do when you come across someone you don’t like?”

“What do you do normally?”

“If that person harms me, I act immediately. It’s the same when that person tries to harm those around me. Other than that, I honestly just look away if nothing bad happens even if I ignore them.”

“I can’t say that you’re in the right, but it definitely is a wise way of dealing with it. So the reason you’re angry is because someone near you was harmed, right? Since you said you were fine.”

“No, that’s not it either. Normally, I would do nothing and just walk by, but for some reason, I got emotional. While I think that it’s a waste of effort, I also want to up one on him. I know, it’s childish. What do you do at a time like this, elder? I know that it’s likely that he will one day embarrass himself precisely because of his actions, but I also think that he might get lucky and become successful.”

The words that pushed someone else onto the edge of a cliff were not direct words, but sweet words. The reason that Maru did not scold Uljin and went along with his words was because he found preaching to him to be a waste. If Uljin did that because he was immature and didn’t know how scary the world was, he might have said a word or two to him, but from the way he excitedly talked about himself, he seemed to be well aware of what he was doing. His eyes were colored in bliss when he admitted that he stepped on the man’s fingers of his own will.

“There’s a Chinese proverb that says: If someone tries to harm you, do not try to get revenge and just wait by the river. Not long later, you will see his corpse float by[1],” Moonjoong said those words as he looked at Maru.

So did he mean that it was better to just keep watching? Just as Maru was about to nod, though,

“However, it doesn’t really fit the current times. In this era, the ones that secretly do evil deeds are more well-off. That’s why I want to tell you this. If the corpse does not float by even after you wait long enough, it might be a good idea to give him a little push on the back.”

Seeing Moonjoong’s mischievous expression, Maru couldn’t help but laugh.

“Then what if he actually falls in the river? I don’t want to be a murderer.”

“Well, that’s his fate then.”

“You’re too scary, elder.”

“Now you found out?”

Maru rubbed his smile off and stood up. It was about time.

“Then I’ll take my leave first. My dinner time is over.”

“Okay then. I hope you do well.”

“Yes. Then I’ll get myself prepared to push his back just a little.”

“Boy.”

“Yes?”

“You must find a suitable time to do it, okay?”

“Haha. Okay.”

“Also, I will pretend not to know you as much as possible during the shoot. No, well, I guess I can do it if you want me to.”

“I don’t want to receive so much attention. I’ll call out to you first when I am able to stand alongside you, elder.”

“I thought you’d say that so I didn’t tell the producer about it.”

“…I think it’s okay to leak the secret out just a little.”

“What do you want me to do?”

Moonjoong quickly waved him to go. Maru bowed before turning around. If just watching the guy didn’t satisfy him, he had no choice but to give him that final push. Uljin was a lead actor-level child actor. There was no way he could steal that role from him. However, as the producer said, it was possible to shift the importance of the characters. After all, dramas weren’t created with a finished script.

“Hyung, where were you?”

“I just went to get some fresh air.”

As soon as he got back to the other minor actors, the staff told them to get ready. It seemed that one scene just finished. He followed the staff while wearing beggar attire.

They went back to the opening in which they shot during the day. The equipment had already been set up. It was ready to shoot once the actors were here.

“What the, we aren’t starting immediately?”

One of the minor actors younger than Maru grumbled. The staff, who acted like they would begin as soon as they were ready, received a transmission on a walkie-talkie before sitting down on the spot. Like that they had to wait 20 minutes until Park Moosung, the actor they saw during the day, appeared wearing a black gat. Next to him were the two child actors, Giwoo, Uljin, as well as the two producers.

“Get ready.”

The lights installed around the area started emitting light. Moosung stroked his beard before standing in front of the camera. He spoke as he looked a little far away.

“My friend, I welcome you.”

Moonjoong walked to him wearing a white dopo from where Moosung was looking. Maru greeted him with his eyes. Moonjoong smiled and walked in front of Moosung.

“Did you wait long?”

“I did. I told you we should eat together.”

“You know my habits and you still say such words?”

“I do know. How dare I not know the great elder Yoon Moonjoong who has a righteous character?”

“Haha, this fella.”

The two adults joked around in historical speech and the atmosphere soon became soft. Even the staff members that were annoyed by mosquitoes smiled pleasantly.

“Producer. We might as well proceed with the shoot. This many people are staring at your mouth.”

When Moonjoong said that, producer Changsung walked forward.

“Well then, let’s finish things off before the seniors run out of stamina. We’re starting the rehearsal,” producer Changsung spoke as he gestured at the minor actors.

[1] The Korean people know it as a ‘Chinese proverb’, but apparently it’s not…? See the translator’s thoughts section for details.

Chapter 400

Right vs Good. If asked to choose one, Maru would choose good without the slightest hesitation. What seemed ‘right’ seemed ‘good’, but the moment someone entered that, they would be thrown into a world of segregation that was different from others.

What was ‘right’, usually went against real life order. To the people that were used to order, ‘right’ only looked like self-satisfaction. Are you the only one that’s righteous? - those words would be the first words that would be heard when someone chose right instead of good.

Even if something wasn’t right, if it was deemed good, the members of a community would disguise it as right and justify it.

‘Right’ called for dispute, while ‘good’ called for harmony.

Maru knew the scariness of ‘right’. The moment one stood on the side of the ‘right’, they could become a historical figure, that is, someone sacrificed for everyone to see. It was always lonely when doing something right. It was a boring and lonely battle. The Mr. Lees and Mr. Parks he was close to would no longer talk to him, while the Mr. Kims and Mr. Chois who usually never talked to him would approach him and ask him to reconsider.

What he learned as he dug into the corruption of the president’s son that entered the company through the back door was that the right thing must never be done.

However, Maru was also aware that he was the type of person who had to carry something out to the end once he started it. He was definitely not an advocate of righteousness, he didn’t even want to be one. In fact, his dream was to get by while following the ‘good’ ‘evil’, but he always foolishly hesitated in front of that path and went back to where he came from.

Maru smiled as he saw Uljin standing in front of him. Uljin hesitated for a while before making an awkward smile. If he was to choose the good and comfortable path, he should talk about what they talked about in the bathroom and become close to him. TV media was also created by people. He might be able to get Uljin to help him if he got close to him.

A background actor retired early because of a finger injury. It was a painful matter, but strictly speaking, it wasn’t relevant to him at all. A nameless background actor he probably would never meet again versus Uljin, who was highly likely to become a popular actor. It was obvious which side to stand on.

In front of such an obvious path, he decided to walk in the opposite direction.

He saw his father’s figure from that man when he clutched his fingers in pain. This could also be considered very trivial.

How was he supposed to endure social life if he was concerned about every little thing like that? Objectively speaking, it wasn’t his father that was injured, but the voices of Mr. Lees and Mr. Parks filled his mind. It was a battle no one would credit him for, and nor was it a necessary battle. As he aspired to become one of the so-called kkondae[1], he should just make a smile and forget about it, but it seemed that it was hard to make that single smile.

He smelled some pain-relief medicine. It was from his memory. It was from to the man with the sprained fingers, as well as from his father’s room when he took a break from factory work.

Maru curved his lips upwards.

Of course, he wasn’t planning on a big revenge. He didn’t have a reason to do so either.

Just that, he was going to do his best; his best to distract a certain someone.

“I took you in as you were drying out to death, and you hang around with beggars? Hur hur, I wonder how such a rude child was born in the family.”

The scene where Moosung clicked his tongue when he saw Giwoo hang around some beggars was over. Giwoo, who watched as Moosung got back in the palanquin with his fists clenched, turned around. The producer captured the two people as they distanced apart and shouted cut.

“Senior, thank you for your work.”

“Then I’ll take my leave first. Keep up the good work. Moonjoong, you should answer my calls. Let’s drink once the shoot is done.”

“Say that after you actually call me.”

Moosung left the set. It seemed that his scenes were done for today.

“Let’s continue immediately.”

Giwoo’s monologue started with the dark streets as the background. The lights that were installed on both sides of the camera separated Giwoo from the dark streets.

“I will also become successful one day. I will one day also gain fame and prestige and stand proud in front of grandfather. Rude? Just you wait. I will pass the national exams and enter the ranks of officials. As you say, grandfather, this little one is far from being virtuous. However, it’s not like becoming successful requires virtue.”

Giwoo said those words in a low voice as he stared at the camera. When he heard the cut sound, he sighed out and loosened his body. Producer Changsung said that it was good, but also said that they should get another cut. It seemed that he was putting a lot of effort into this scene because this was the scene that showed the young Han Myung-hoe’s resolve.

Maru took out his phone to check the time. It was 9 p.m. It had been two hours since the shoot resumed after dinner. The younger members sitting next to him all yawned. They all smiled when he patted them on the shoulders, saying that they should endure just a little more.

“Okay!”

Finally, an energetic voice sounded out. After saying the same lines over and over again, Giwoo took a bow. It seemed that he felt sorry for taking so much time by himself.

“Well then, let’s continue right away.”

Producer Changsung quickly proceeded to the next step and waved at Giwoo. Maru watched the two from afar. Although he couldn’t hear their voices, he could tell that producer Changsung was trying to encourage Giwoo. Although the emotional control was the actor’s job, perhaps the producer’s job was to control the actors themselves.

After a short break, the equipment was set up again. The next shooting location was outside a tavern where there were four flat platforms. A woman who dressed up like a tavern lady received coaching on one side while travelling merchants with large baggage were placed throughout the scene.

Following that, Moonjoong appeared at the tavern. He was with a warrior with a sword, and he checked the movement lines with the producer. This scene was where he walked past the tavern and spotted Giwoo who was with Uljin.

Maru and the minor actors were also called to wait behind Uljin. The scene started with Giwoo buying some food from the tavern.

This was the scene where Giwoo left the tavern with a bag full of rice balls, and his steps were quite stiff, perhaps thanks to making a few mistakes in the scene before. Only after producer Changsung instructed him to walk normally did they finish off the scene without causing an NG.

“You have to peek over the fence to see whether Myung-hoe is coming or not. I think you two should do the job.”

Maru, who was appointed, sat right against the fence. Another member sat next to him. When they heard the cue sound, they peeked over the fence. On the other side, Giwoo walked towards them. When he became sufficiently close, Maru made an expression that made him look filled with expectation before tapping on the back of the little brother next to him and pulling out from the alley.

“Cut! That was good.”

They got an okay sign from the producer.

“Thanks, hyung. I didn’t know the right time to pull out.”

“Next time I’ll give you the signal before I retract.”

“Okay, thanks.”

After finishing that cut, the next scene was where the beggars ate the rice balls that Giwoo brought. Along with the producer’s cue sign, Giwoo took out rice balls from the bag and gave one to each person.

“Eat it.”

This was the scene where Uljin slapped Maru’s hand, telling him to not eat it just as he was about to eat. As agreed upon, Uljin slapped Maru’s hand the moment Maru took a bite out of the rice ball.

Maru looked at the rice ball on the floor with pity before turning around and grabbing Uljin’s collars.

Originally, he was going to do things moderately at this part. It wasn’t a scene that the viewers would pay attention to, and it wasn’t one that the director would put a lot of effort into either. As the minor actor’s role was to make the lead actors shine, Maru always kept pace with the other party and controlled his emotions accordingly when he did his shoots. During the day, he did exactly that when he acted with Uljin and Giwoo. If nothing happened, he was going to get angry at Uljin with just his superficial emotions, but he had no intentions of doing that right now.

Maru dug into his memories as he looked at Uljin’s face. He brought out the faces of those that enraged him among his current and ‘past’ memories. If he could dig into the character he was acting, he would be able to produce emotions from the perspective of that character, but he didn’t do any research into this ‘2nd beggar’ he was acting right now. It was hard to pull out emotions from the character itself. That was why he decided to bring out Han Maru’s emotions. The petty people that disappointed him endlessly, as well as the hateful people that threatened him with his livelihood, came to his mind.

When the disgusting faces were drawn in front of his eyes, he felt his lips trembling.

This scene did not require this much emotion. In the drama, Gaeguk, albeit being young, was the big brother to all the beggars around. There was no reason to get so angry over a mere rice ball towards Gaeguk, but Maru unleashed all forms of rage he could express.

It was hard for Maru to imagine what kind of expression he was making right now. However, he could at least tell that his face looked vicious when he saw Uljin’s expression.

“Cut! Hey, Uljin. It’s your line next. Did you forget?”

Producer Changsung cut the shoot and spoke.

Maru let go of Uljin’s collars. The camera did not shoot his expression. It only captured Uljin’s face.

When he let go, Uljin started taking steps backwards. He gulped once before covering up his mouth with his hands and starting to breathe heavily. Maru smiled before turning around.

“Uljin. Why are you suddenly so nervous? Your expression is horrible. Didn’t I tell you throughout the morning that Gaeguk is a smart and proud guy? That he’s someone who can smile with a knife against his neck? You can’t make a face like that.”

“Ah, yes. I’m sorry.”

“Get yourself together and let’s do that again.”

Maru dusted his clothes before standing in front of Uljin again. The minor actors and Giwoo were just watching them while leaning against the wall, yawning. The reflectors were adjusted before the microphone was placed above their heads. The shoot became quiet once again, and the producer’s cue sound spread across.

He had already called out the emotion once. It was easy to replicate it. Once again, he grabbed Uljin’s collars and glared at him. He felt as though he could smash Uljin’s head right now. He directed all of his wrath towards Uljin in front of him.

“Uh…”

Uljin missed a beat and stuttered.

Emotions were curious things. Even while being aware that it was an act, the body enters a state of extreme tension when receiving violent emotions. The brain would keep shouting that the situation is all a pretense, but the body reacted differently.

The producer’s cut sound sharpy hit his ears. Maru calmed his breathing and let go before smiling. Uljin looked at Maru with an expression of not being able to understand before being called by Changsung.

“What is going on? Why is he suddenly acting like that?”

“Hyung, what’s happening? Why is he so spaced out when he did so good before?”

Maru just shrugged his shoulders when they asked.

“Maybe he’s tired.”

“Is that right?”

Veteran actors used the emotions of opposing actors as motivation to materialize and accentuate their own before returning it back to them. This was why actors that were in sync were scary. They could continue their emotional acts like a raging train. They fueled each other until they reached their limits.

However, this ideal situation was only possible when the two actors were similar in skill. If one side could not process the emotions given off by the other, it would be impossible to continue acting.

In such a scenario, the actor that could not process the other’s emotions had one of two choices: Either ask the other to tone down their emotion, or just ignore the other’s emotion entirely and do their own acting.

The problem occurred when that actor did not even realize that the other party was expressing too much emotion. Maru saw Uljin who’s head was down as he stood in front of the producer. That guy didn’t even seem to know what he was up against. He was probably dazed because he was confused by the situation.

“Don’t get nervous. You did well during the day, didn’t you?”

Producer Changsung’s words were still kind, but Maru could notice a hint of annoyance in his words. Uljin’s face stiffened as well. Maru waited for the cue sign in front of them.

“Let’s do this properly this time, okay?”

“Huh? Uh, yeah…”

Maru patted Uljin on the shoulders to encourage him. Yes, do your best. Do your best to try to solve it. Only that will make matters much worse.

After the cue sign, Maru repeated the same action as before. He gave Uljin a deathly glare, and Uljin barely spoke a line, and there was no way the producer would be satisfied with that.

“Haa.”

A deep sigh could be heard. Changsung shouted cut and said that they should take a break. It had been less than ten minutes since the last break ended.

[1] An outdated person who thinks he/she is always right and the younger generation are always wrong, and will try to preach. Wikipedia for more details.

Chapter 401

He violently opened the water bottle and poured water into his mouth. He felt his thirst calming down a little before his mouth felt dry once again. Due to this unknown unease, he opened another water bottle. He felt that he should calm down after this.

“Uljin.”

Uljin, who was drinking water, quickly put down the water bottle and looked in front of him. Producer Changsung was there.

“Y-yes.”

“What’s up with you all of a sudden? Are you tired because you shot for too long?” Producer Changsung asked with a smile.

He grabbed Uljin’s shoulder as though he didn’t need to mind it that much.

“No, it’s not like that.”

“Then did you eat something bad during dinner?”

“My stomach is fine.”

“Then are you hurt anywhere?”

“I’m really fine.”

“Then there are no problems, right?”

“Yes…,” Uljin barely replied.

“Then let’s resume the shoot after five more minutes. You can do that, can’t you?”

“Yes, I can do it.”

“Good. Get yourself together. You did well during the day, so you should do just that. There’s no need for you to do as well as the beginning. You just need to show what you can do. After that, the direction and editing will do the rest. Okay?”

Producer Changsung patted Uljin lightly on the back before turning around. Uljin gulped. The bitterness in his mouth did not disappear. He had a bad premonition that he would repeat the same mistake if he started the shoot as he was now. He was going to drink the remaining water thinking that he was worried for nothing, but the water bottle was already empty. He had emptied two bottles, yet his mouth still felt bitter.

“Hey, what’s going on?” Giwoo asked with a worried expression.

“I just dazed out for a second there.”

“You’re okay, right?”

“Yeah, I’m fine. Uhm, I need to go to the toilet, so if the producer looks for me, please tell him for me.”

“Okay.”

Uljin went to the public bathroom which was a little distant from the set. He turned on the tap and stared at the water gushing down. He had the urge to get some water and splash it on his face.

He put some water on his palms and put it against his eyes. He felt a little clearer now that he came into contact with cold water.

Uljin had a look in the mirror. He could see himself making a vacant expression. It would be the worst if he had the same expression in front of the camera. No wonder the producer approached him and asked him if he was sick. He slapped his face. He had won this role with difficulty. His parents, as well as his academy, had a lot of expectations of him. He couldn’t make a mistake in such an easy scene.

“You seem nervous.”

He flinched when he heard a voice behind him and turned around. Maru was coming inside.

“I had to pee. No, this little one had to pee.”

Maru stood in front of a urinal as he whistled. Uljin stared at Maru.

“Is this the first time you saw someone else pee? Your gaze is too hot.”

“It’s not that…”

“What, you have something to say to me?”

While Maru washed his hands next to him, Uljin tried his best to analyze the mysterious emotions bubbling inside him. This unease and anxiousness. He had none of those before the shoot began. If he was asked when he started having such emotions, he would say that it was after he started acting with Maru.

Those eyes that stared into his soul as he was grabbed by the collar. He had received many of such gazes since he had shot fighting scenes before. No matter how much killing intent they had while looking at him, it was acting in the end. It was possible for him to return the act without being shaken. Then, just what was the problem?

Even as he thought that he kept reminding himself of Maru’s eyes for some reason. Whenever he blinked, the image of Maru’s two eyes staring at him appeared in front of him like a residual image. Uljin looked down at the ground, avoiding the eyes of the residual image. It somehow felt rather unpleasant to meet it head on.

“Washing your hands?”

Maru asked from next to him. Uljin replied awkwardly before opening the tap and starting to wash his hands again. He put some soap on and rubbed his hands to the point that they started making skidding sounds. He wished that these emotions would be washed away with the water.

“Can I just continue like last time?”

Maru asked as he wiped away the water with a paper towel. Uljin carefully shook the water off his hands and asked back.

“Like last time? What do you mean?”

“What do I mean? Acting of course.”

“Oh, acting.”

“I think we got along pretty well.”

“Uh, yeah. I think so too.”

“Then what happened to you all of a sudden? Did a bug enter your mouth or something?”

“No, it’s not like that.”

He felt thirsty. Uljin wiped his mouth with the back of his hands. His lips felt rather rough from what he felt from his hands. He tried to stick his tongue out and wet his lips, but even his tongue felt rather rough as though all the moisture had dried out. Did he suddenly get dehydrated or something?

He breathed out slowly and wet his hands before bringing them to his lips again. This time, though, his lips felt very moist as though it wasn’t dry at all in the first place. Now that he checked himself, he didn’t feel thirsty either. However, he still felt stuffy. He swallowed his saliva which had accumulated beneath his tongue. Just what was wrong with him?

“Are you okay?”

He saw Maru slowly reaching out to him. Uljin subconsciously swung his arm violently to slap Maru’s hand away. He felt a sharp pain from where his hand hit Maru’s. Only after he hit Maru’s hand did he realize what he had done.

“S-sorry.”

“Whoa, that startled me.”

He saw Maru faintly smile as he covered his hand.

“Are you okay?”

“I am. But aren’t you too much? I wouldn’t like another man’s hand to touch me either, but there was no need for you to hit me, was there?”

“Y-yeah. I wonder why I did that. I must be out of my mind.”

“Aren’t you tired?”

“…Maybe.”

Was smiling such a humiliating thing to do? Uljin forced his lips to curve upwards to smile. When he slapped away Maru’s hands just now, he could see a glimpse of what his inward emotions were like. Right now, he was afraid of Maru’s hand.

Uljin felt as though that hand would approach him, grab him by the collar, and start strangling his neck. He felt scared. For that moment, he seemed really dangerous. Only after he slapped Maru’s hand with all of his strength did Maru’s surprised expression enter his eyes. He had done something absurd.

“Let’s go. The shoot must be resuming soon.”

“Uh, yeah. We should.”

He saw Maru wait outside the bathroom. Uljin stood next to Maru. He had to be tired since it was his first time being a main actor in a historical drama. Believing that he should return to normal after he took in the fresh air of the night at the set, Uljin started walking.

“I can just do my acting like last time, right?” Maru asked.

“Like last time?”

This was the first time ‘like last time’ sounded so threatening. Uljin hesitated. Honestly speaking, he couldn’t remember what Maru’s acting was like before. The only thing that remained in his mind was the scary eyes.

“…Yeah. Just like last time.”

“Please take care of me. I’m entrusting my hope in you, lead actor.”

Maru’s laugh reverberated inside his ears. Uljin clenched his fist and stood in his standby position. The staff that had left momentarily to take a break could be seen returning to their stations. Producers Changsung and Jinhyuk also came to the monitor.

Uljin looked at the camera placed in front of him. How much had he admired that black silhouette? He prayed that he could be captured by it and practiced a lot, eventually reaching this place. He couldn’t be shaken. The world of child actors was just as cruel as the realm of adult actors.

“Uljin,” producer Changsung called out.

“Yes.”

“Play to your heart’s content, okay?”

“Yes!”

That was right. This was the mood. Uljin calmed down his breathing. He must have been confused slightly because of the pressure. His acting should soon come back, and as long as he focused, his mentality should soon return.

He stretched out his mouth before straightening his shoulders. I can do it - he shouted inwardly.

“Let’s do this,” Maru said from the side.

Uljin nodded and looked at the two eyes in front of him. Although they looked a little sharp, it wasn’t to the point that he was scared. There was no reason to be afraid of them.

Uljin smiled back. Maru smiled back as well. Only then did he feel that the stuffy air had cleared up a little. His confidence came back to him. He thought that he would be able to show a clean act and make everyone forget his embarrassing moments once the cue sign fell.

“That’s the expression. Minor actors, get ready to go in. As for the 2nd beggar, it’s up to you to induce Uljin to get his emotions together. Don’t just fool around because you aren’t on camera.”

Producer Changsung clapped. The atmosphere became a lot better as well. The slight sense of tension that spread out across his body disappeared. He felt excited. Just as he felt that he could do anything, he saw Maru’s eyes.

They were different. Something had changed. Even though his expression was loose until 5 seconds ago, they were taut right now. Although it was a small change, just that was enough to make his mouth go dry.

He felt as though he was thrown into the wavy waters without a single rope attached. He fidgeted his fingers in nervousness. He put his toes together and tensed them.

Just then, he heard the word ‘cue’. Maru approached him. Maru’s two hands approached his neck. The moment those hands touched his body, Uljin ended up clenching his eyes shut. His lips were tucked back, and his body shrunk back. He instinctively crossed his arm and guarded in front of him. He felt that he might be strangled to death if he didn’t do so.

His brain knew that they were just in a set and that they were acting. However, Maru’s eyes clearly weren't acting. He clearly looked like he intended to kill him.

Was he jealous? All sorts of thoughts filled his mind. There was a lot of news talking about people dying due to an accident on set. There was no reason why the same thing couldn’t happen to him. Han Maru. He was a stranger. Perhaps he had a history of possessing a mental illness or something. Perhaps he really did suddenly become crazy.

His eyes. They were honest. They were the eyes of someone that was about to strangle someone else. Even his hands were strange. Was there a reason to grab so strongly?

Danger - he didn’t know why, but Maru was really about to strangle him. Uljin pushed back with the arms he had crossed. At that moment, he heard a sharp ‘cut!’ and a ‘hey, what are you doing!’, but he couldn’t retract his actions now.

‘I have to explain. As long as I explain how much danger I was in… ’

Uljin saw as Maru’s hands were pushed back too easily. Maru, being pushed back, made a confused expression as he fell backwards. There was even a loud thump as he fell backwards. Uljin sighed after he saw Maru struggle to get up.

“Hey!”

Producer Changsung’s shout could be heard from afar.

Uljin was shocked. What had he done? He felt his neck go stiff. He felt as though he would start creaking. He could hear the producers walking towards him from outside his field of vision, but he couldn’t turn his head that way.

“What are you doing?”

Producer Changsung grabbed his shoulders. He saw producer Jinhyuk approach Maru and pull him up.

“No, the thing is…”

“Are you crazy? Don’t you see that there are stones behind Maru? Are you going to take responsibility if he fell head first? No, in the first case, what the hell did you push the kid for? Huh?”

“It’s not that… I just thought it was dangerous.”

“Dangerous? What’s dangerous is you pushing him so suddenly. What the hell are you doing? Are you here to cause an accident on my watch, huh?”

At that moment, Maru dusted his pants and approached producer Changsung.

“Producer. I’m okay.”

“Are you really okay? There was a really loud thump.”

“Yes. I have a sturdy body.”

“Hey, you don’t know for sure. You fell on top of rocks. No one would be okay.”

“I’m really fine since I exercise a lot. Look.”

“Are you really okay?”

“Yes.”

Uljin couldn’t say a word. He couldn’t even understand his own actions. It was an act, it was just a drama shoot, yet he couldn’t differentiate that and ended up going too far. Just as Uljin was about to apologize to Maru who asked him if he was okay, Moonjoong, who was wearing a gat and a white dopo approached Maru and scanned him before sighing in a low voice.

“Young fella, don’t startle this old man so much. I thought you were injured badly.”

“Elder, my body is very sturdy.”

“Since your blabbermouth is okay, I guess you really are okay.”

“Of course.”

Uljin couldn’t say anything as he watched the two who seemed to be on close terms with each other.

“Why don’t we stop the shoot for now and look at this boy’s state?”

“Of course.”

Uljin watched as Maru walked towards the rest of the staff along with Changsung and Moonjoong. When he met eyes with Maru for a brief moment, he had a feeling that Maru was smiling at him for some reason.

Chapter 402

Maru, who finished receiving medical attention with just a patch on his elbow, returned to his spot. Changsung had planned to go to the hospital if necessary, but fortunately, Maru was okay.

“I was worried since there was a loud sound, but it seems that his reflexes are quite good.”

“He should have learned a lot of things after all,” Moonjoong, who was watching Maru from the side, spoke.

He was the first one to rush up to Maru, even before the staff, when Maru fell down.

“Uhm, sir. I mean, senior.”

“Hm?”

“You said there was someone you know. Is it him?”

“It is.”

“I see. Then is he a member of your family?”

“No, he’s just a drinking friend.”

“What? A drinking friend?”

Moonjoong put on his gat as he smiled in satisfaction.

“A drinking friend, you say? Isn’t he only a high school student?”

“When drinking with an adult, age doesn’t matter,” Moonjoong spoke with a serious expression.

He didn’t look like he was joking.

A drinking friend? Changsung didn’t know whether he was supposed to laugh or get confused here.

“He’s young, but he has a deep heart. It’s to the point that I can’t believe he’s at the age he is. Perhaps that’s why I don’t get bored when I talk to him. If you have the time, you should come to my house and drink over some pork belly, producer Han.”

“If you call me, I’ll be there anytime.”

Replying, Changsung followed Maru with the corner of his eyes.

“He caught my eye during the audition, and it seemed that there was really something to him.”

“Since we’re talking about him, I’ll tell you this: Watch him well. He’ll be very useful. If you deem he’s okay, then you can use him, and if not, then that’s that.”

Moonjoong seemed to be soliciting him, yet not soliciting him. He didn’t sound like he was using his name to pressure him to use the boy. It sounded like he should use him since there was a lot to get out of him.

Moonjoong, one of the big elders in the movie industry, was well-known for not recommending people easily. Even though he spoke as though it was nothing much, from how it contained a hint of recommendation, it could be seen just how much he cared about Maru.

“I saw him for the first time on the drama side, but sounds like he’s a promising youth on the movie side, I mean, you’re looking after him.”

“Promising? Nah. He’s just a youngling that only shows his face as a minor actor. It hadn’t even been that long since he started acting. He wasn’t coached from the days he started learning to walk like the others these days but rather, he learned to act after he had a grasp of what’s going on around him. I think it’s been a little more than a year now.”

“Really? I thought he must have studied since young. Then, how did you meet him? Was it a movie? Or…”

“I got to know him through a junior of mine. The junior being Lee Junmin.”

“You mean president Lee Junmin of JA production?”

“Yeah, the puppet president of that place.”

“Haha, a puppet president? You must be the only one who can call him that.”

“Just saying. Rather than that, I thought you knew already. Maru, he belongs to JA as well.”

“Really?”

“You didn’t know that?”

“I didn’t. He got through the public audition after all. We already held an audition for the agencies, so I thought he naturally didn’t have an agency.”

In the case of public auditions, although they received the resumés of the applicants, they were overlooked, most of the time. That was because talks with various agencies would finish before the audition stage.

The big agencies introduced their minor actors when looking for the lead actors, as though they were a set. Like that, most of the roles that had any weight to them were taken by actors or agencies who had name value. After that were actors that came through connections, then would be the auditions of various acting academies, and only after that were minor roles picked through public auditions.

Due to this method of selection, most of the people that came to the public auditions didn’t have an agency to speak of. They were either just members of a theater troupe or people just starting out acting. There was no need to go through their resumés so they were differentiated according to their facial features and attire during the audition, and were picked after looking at their acts.

Changsung asked for Moonjoong’s understanding before calling the TV station. He ordered one of his juniors to look for contracts with the name Han Maru.

-Ah, here it is. He belongs to JA Production. What about it?

“It’s nothing much. I’m hanging up then.”

-Yes. Please take care.

Changsung looked at Moonjoong as he put down the phone.

“Han Maru, is this kid abandoned by the company or something? They shouldn’t neglect him so much if they’re planning to raise him.”

“That’s just how Junmin works. He doesn’t handle low-quality goods. He’s a picky guy who only deals with mid-rate, no, high-quality goods.”

“Well… JA Production is a long-standing company, but I guess it’s been only half a year since they started adding actors in their ranks. The people they possess are all actors that other agencies are greedy for. I heard a rumor that you’ll only get used when you’re big, and from what you’re telling me, it’s true.”

“I wouldn’t know. I don’t need to mention how good Junmin’s business skills are. He might be visiting the various TV stations in a while, who knows.”

Moonjoong stood up from his seat.

“I think people are waiting. We should get started.”

“Yes.”

Changsung also put back on his hat and stood up. It had been around ten minutes so things should have calmed down a little. He walked towards the camera director with the script in one hand. He tapped on the shoulder of the camera director who was instructing his assistant on the position of the tripod.

“Director Jang.”

“Yeah, what is it?”

“Did you see what the situation was like when you were shooting last time? I was looking through the monitor, so I don’t know exactly what happened.”

The camera director shrugged.

“I’m also very confused. That guy suddenly pushed the boy in front of him. I thought you ordered him to do it.”

“So it wasn’t an accident? Like he misstepped or something.”

“He pushed intentionally. You might not have seen it since it happened off-camera, but it was definitely not a mistake.”

“Is that so?”

“I’m also curious, so why don’t you go and ask?”

Changsung replied yes before going to Uljin. He called out to Uljin, who was walking around on the spot nervously.

“Yes, producer.”

“What happened to you? I’m sorry I shouted at you, but I just couldn’t understand. Why did you suddenly push someone like that.”

“I’m sorry.”

“I’m not here to hear you apologize, but I’m curious as to why you did such things.”

He almost injured a completely fine man. There were no signs of it either. It shouldn’t have been that the two were on bad terms. They did the shoot together during the day as well without any accidents.

Uljin was a very polite boy. There was no way he did such actions without any reason.

“…I’m sorry.”

“Are there some circumstances?”

“No, it’s not like that.”

“Then why can’t you tell me?”

“The thing is…”

Uljin’s eyes moved. His gaze was directed at where Maru was sitting.

“Did you two get into a fight?”

“No. It was just my misunderstanding.”

“Misunderstanding?”

After hesitating, Uljin made a teary face as he spoke.

“I thought he was really trying to beat me up. I must have been crazy for a moment. I’m really sorry.”

Changsung laughed in vain. That was because Uljin’s response sounded serious. It didn’t sound like he was making an excuse. He looked as though Maru’s actions were really threatening and so he took action to defend himself.

“Geez. Get yourself together. This is not a playground.”

“I will.”

After watching Uljin dejected for a while, he told him to cheer up. People made absurd mistakes when they were nervous. Uljin must have been like that as well. Nothing good would come out of shouting at him, so he had to encourage him, though that sounded a bit absurd as well.

Changsung turned around and approached Maru this time.

“There really isn’t a problem, right?”

“Yes. I’m really okay.”

“Then let’s start the shoot. Tell me if there’s a problem. Also…”

Changsung gestured for Maru to come closer.

“I want you to loosen up a little.”

“Loosen up?”

“Yes. I think Uljin’s very nervous right now. He said he pushed you because you looked like you were really picking a fight.”

“Really?”

“It must be rather absurd, but I’ll have you look after Uljin for a moment. When you see him, just grab his collars softly. Just so that he doesn’t get surprised. Okay?”

“I’ll loosen up as much as possible, then.”

“Alright, I’ll leave that to you. Geez, you are having a hard time.”

Even though it wasn’t a complex scene, they wasted too much time. At the start, it looked like they were able to finish the night scenes without going too late into the night, but it seemed that they had to stay up the night after all. This was the first day of shooting too. Changsung put on a bitter smile.

“Everyone on standby! Since it’s getting late, let’s do this quickly.”

* * *

It was past 10 o’clock. However, the lights at the set did not turn off. Maru let go of Uljin’s collars when he heard the cut sound. Uljin spoke with confused eyes.

“Sorry about last time.”

“You shouldn’t be. People make mistakes. Rather than that, are you okay?”

“Uh, yeah.”

Maru patted Uljin before pointing at the lights with his chin.

“Let’s go. It’s time to shoot the next scene.”

Moonjoong and Giwoo walked in front of the camera. Uljin, who had a dumb expression on, quickly followed Maru.

“Looks like you’re really tired. I mean, you didn’t make a single mistake during the day.”

Uljin didn’t reply.

His mind had to be quite messy right now. After all, he wouldn’t be able to understand why he took such actions. Maru was inwardly surprised as well. His original objective was to mess up his acting. If he beat the guy up just because he didn’t like him, he would take damage instead. The only legal way to pressure him was through acting, so he put all of his efforts into acting, and then that happened.

When Uljin pushed out, he could have dodged as long as he wanted to. If he was at a level where he would get pushed back from someone who reflexively swung out, his practices of weaving at the boxing gym would be in vain. He thought that getting hit would be much more profitable for him than dodging, so he let his body go with the flow. Even when he fell down, he kicked off the ground with his heel, so that it would make a loud noise. He wasn’t injured since he was fully prepared to fall down, but it must have looked quite dangerous in other people’s eyes.

“Yeah, maybe.”

Uljin sighed as he massaged his eyes.

“The producer said to me that you thought I was really going to attack you.”

“No… it was just my mistake.”

He couldn’t say that he overreacted due to fear when he was a fully grown-up man. It would be much more comforting for him to say that it was his fault.

Uljin looked at the producer with a nervous expression. He was probably worried. He acted so strangely in front of everyone else after all. A rumor about a crazy guy in the drama ‘Apgu’ might start floating around.

“It’s done. Senior, can we go over to the next part?”

“Okay then.”

Since the shoot was delayed, producer Changsung sped up just as much.

“The two of you!”

Producer Changsung waved at the two. Uljin flinched as though he had done something wrong before shouting yes. Maru laughed in a low voice as he saw Uljin run towards producer Changsung.

They started the rehearsal without taking a break. This scene was where Moonjoong, who played the role of Han Sang-jil[1], rejoiced[2] when he saw the friendship between Han Myung-hoe and Gaeguk. It was a simple scene where all the beggars had to do was to just exclaim ‘wow’ in the background.

With a ‘cut[3]’ sound, Giwoo blocked Moonjoong who told him not to hang out with filthy people and said his line. He nervously told him that Gaeguk was his friend and that neither age nor status mattered when it came to friendship. He was in a situation where his respect for his great uncle and the friendship between him and his friend clashed, so he could neither shout nor shrink back. Giwoo was controlling the balance between those two emotions well, but producer Changsung didn’t seem to like that.

The shoot continued. Since this was the most important scene for the day, the producer did not give a refreshing okay that easily. Even while apologizing to Moonjoong, who he called ‘senior’ every time, producer Changsung requested adjustments over and over again. As Giwoo became better with feedback, producer Changsung’s voice became brighter, but he still did not give an okay sign for quite a while.

At that moment, Moonjoong raised his hand to halt the shoot.

“Producer Han. Let’s talk a little.”

Producer Changsung and Moonjoong started having a conversation. Maru stretched his arms out and looked up at the sky. He felt his fatigue disappear as he looked at the night sky that didn’t have a speck of cloud in it. Just as he was going to tell the other beggars to look up at the sky,

“Maru.”

He heard Moonjoong call out to him.

[1] I think the author made a mistake here. Han Myung-hoe’s great uncle is named Han Sang-duk (according to research). Han Sang-jil is his grandfather.

[2] Rejoiced is the word used here, but you can see that this word feels rather out of place when you read on.

[3] Another mistake by the author. Probably meant to say ‘cue’

Chapter 403

Maru wondered why he was called. For now, he went to where producer Changsung was. Moonjoong and Giwoo stared at him from the side.

“Did you call for me?”

“Yeah. Uhm, can I ask you for a favor?”

Producer Changsung looked at Giwoo for some reason as he asked Maru. Giwoo smiled in embarrassment.

“I want you to do some acting.”

“I’m not in this scene though.”

“Not as the 2nd beggar, but as Han Myung-hoe.”

“As Han Myung-hoe?”

Maru realized why producer Changsung was giving glimpses at Giwoo. Maru looked at Giwoo as well.

“Please. I just can’t get a grasp on it,” Giwoo spoke in a small voice.

“Producer. I don’t think anything will change just because I’m the one doing it.”

It wasn’t that Maru was feeling pressured. It was just that Giwoo, who played the role of Han Myung-hoe, was right in front of him. He felt like he was eating out of another’s plate.

“Why don’t you just try it once?”

“Elder.”

Maru looked at the elder who said to him that it was okay. From looking at how things were going, it seemed that Moonjoong mentioned him first. While Maru felt thankful that Moonjoong was saying good things about him, he would only receive jealous stares if things kept going on like this. The producer was one thing, but he was worried about his relationship with Giwoo.

“If you can’t, I guess producer Han needs to do some hard coaching.”

Moonjoong spoke with pity.

“Uhm, Mr. Maru.”

“Yes.”

“I asked the producer to ask you since sir Moonjoong told me that it would help a lot to watch your acting. The producer told me the general direction of the scene, but I can’t get a grasp on it. Rather than doing fixed acting, I want to try to solve it, and the producer wants that as well. Please help me out just this once.”

Giwoo scratched his head as he smiled. It didn’t look like a childish smile.

“I know that it’s too much to ask of you, but I want to see it anyway. Although sir Moonjoong taught me, it’ll be better for me if there’s someone around my age that I can refer to.”

“Are you really okay with that?”

Acting was an actor’s pride. It was really not easy to make such requests on set like this, but Giwoo seemed to be worried more about the fact that he wasn’t able to show a satisfactory act than his own embarrassment.

“Please. I want to see it.”

The person in question gave permission. Maru made a bitter smile before looking at producer Changsung.

“What do I need to do?”

“The cut where Han Myung-hoe exchanges a conversation with senior. The lines are…”

“I remember them from watching.”

“That’s good. Let’s try it out for now, and if I still don’t get a satisfactory picture, I will go into the details. Giwoo, you’re okay with that too, aren’t you?”

“Yes. Sorry for asking you to do such a thing. Everyone’s being delayed because of me.”

“It’s because of my desire to get a good picture, so you don’t need to feel sorry. Well, then senior. Please.”

In this dark place where there were no lights, he had to show a short skit without a camera rolling. Maru stood in front of Moonjoong.

“This is the first time we are acting together after the movie, huh.”

“Yes.”

“Then, I’ll have to ask you to take care of me.”

“Please don’t say such a thing. You’re giving me pressure.”

Maru looked at Giwoo who stood next to him. Giwoo nodded his head. Maru also replied as he pulled in his chin.

“Then I’ll start.”

“Yes.”

Maru straightened his chest and his waist. When he was playing the beggar role, he had shrunk his body back even while he wasn’t on camera. It was to create a contrast to Gaeguk, who was bold despite having a status that wasn’t welcomed by anyone.

However, the role he had to play right now was not the 2nd beggar, but Han Myung-hoe. He was a greedy child who dreamed of becoming successful from young so that he would never get abandoned again. It wouldn’t make sense to show a shy attitude.

Maru looked at Moonjoong and calmed his breathing. Various emotions were surfacing on Moonjoong’s face. The gentleness of one who took in someone who his brother had abandoned flashed by before anger overtook it when seeing that very boy hang out with a group of beggars.

“The reason I permitted you to stay when you came to ask me for shelter was because I saw the light in you. I believed that your extraordinary talents would make our family rise again. Yet, you’re here hanging out with a beggar. Aren’t you embarrassed?”

There was a hint of worry in that scolding tone. The tone of words didn’t one-sidedly lash at the other and instead, induced the listener to think. It was possible to figure out that hint from Moonjoong’s expression and tone of words. The form of the emotion was clear enough to be transferred to the viewers who would be watching through a screen. Maru inwardly exclaimed and prepared his next line.

If the producer had a specific request, he would follow, but right now, it was up to him. He had to dig deep into the character with just the text and express the character as much as possible.

Han Myung-hoe. He was someone who walked on the line between a heroic vassal and a disloyal subordinate. However, that evaluation was given to him by the later generations. In his time, he was very powerful and well-known. Whether it was a disloyal subordinate or a heroic vassal, the ones that climbed up to the top were not ordinary. He became a gatekeeper only in his 30s after failing the national exams many times, but he became a meritorious vassal after displaying his stunning intellect in the coup of 1453.

What he was acting now was the younger days of such a person. He shouldn’t be such an obedient guy.

Maru looked back at Moonjoong in the eyes. He predicted that the young Han Myung-hoe was bold enough to go against the adult of his family that took him in. However, he also thought that Han Myung-hoe should have some nervousness because of the fear that he might be thrown out to the streets again along with his little brother if he went against the will of the man in front of him.

He wondered how he should express the two clashing emotions. Under the condition that the camera was shooting his entire body, he had two options.

His face and his body.

Expressions were direct. It would give the other party raw emotions. On the other hand, the body was subtle. If a smiling man was shaking his legs, then he was trying to cover up his nervousness by showing a leisurely front.

How was he supposed to express the mental disparity of standing up for his friend Gaeguk and the wish to look good in front of Han Sang-jil[1]? Maru decided to follow the textbook. He loosened his fist and clasped his hands to show that he was compromising, he showed his attitude by not avoiding Moonjoong’s gaze, and he showed his fear with his slightly shaky voice.

“I am aware of what you’re worried about. However, I do not want to become a cruel person that throws away his friends. When you took me in, great uncle, I was also an abandoned baby. I do not think there’s a difference in me being thrown out by my family, and this fellow being thrown out into the streets.”

“So you’re saying you will stand up for him and hang out with him until the very end?”

“I just do not want to become a shameless man who loses a good friend.”

When he said his lines, he ended up changing a few words because he was swayed by his emotions, but he didn’t think much about it. It was just practice anyway. It would be fine as long as he showed Giwoo that this was the general gist of it. Though, he didn’t know how helpful this would be.

“I think that’s about it,” he said as he looked at Giwoo.

“Mr. Maru… You’re good.”

Giwoo clapped in applause. Maru awkwardly smiled and turned around to look at producer Changsung.

“Is that enough?”

“I think it’s enough. I feel sorry for Giwoo, but if I got that on camera right now, I would have given an okay immediately. Senior, this one’s good.”

Producer Changsung approached Maru and patted Maru’s back strongly. Maru quickly ran away when he felt the sharp pain from his back.

“Well done.”

Only after he heard Moonjoong’s compliment did he feel relieved.

“But you weren’t as good as you were in the movie. It’s just lacking.”

“If I want to do that, I would have to hang onto this line for days. Please let me go this time.”

“There you are sounding weak again. You should always be ready to show it when people order you to.”

“I’ll prepare more next time so that you can order me with a press of a button like a vending machine.”

After exchanging jokes, Maru walked away. He walked towards the rest of the minor actors when Giwoo came to him and started walking next to him.

“Thanks for the help. I got a grasp thanks to you.”

“That’s good. But I was really awkward so it shouldn’t be very helpful.”

“Not at all.”

Maru clicked his tongue as he saw Giwoo turn around. He was young, yet he had the air of a pro around him. It was surprising how he admitted what he lacked and tried to improve himself. People around his age would usually have a hard time doing such a thing, but he looked very trustable due to his kind-looking face.

As soon as he returned to his place, the shoot resumed. When the younger actors asked him what he was doing there, he just said that he stood still.

Maru sat down on the ground and rested his chin on his hands before watching Giwoo and Moonjoong. The camera captured the two. The scene that made several NGs started again. He wondered how it would be now.

“…When you took me in, great uncle, I was also an abandoned baby. I do not think there’s a…”

Giwoo’s line could be heard.

Maru frowned a little. Giwoo’s tone, posture, and expression were surprisingly similar to the act he just did. His lips were softened, his eyes were raised, his neck was tense, and his hands were clasped. Maru stroked his chin with his left hand. It was quite curious. It was as though Giwoo had done dozens of practices.

Maru thought that Giwoo would interpret Maru’s own act in his own way, but he was creating a completely identical scene. It was to the point that it didn’t feel awkward at all. Maru clicked his tongue as he watched Giwoo. He felt like he was the one standing there instead.

“Cut! That was very good!”

Producer Changsung’s satisfactory shout could be heard. The shoot was finally over now. The staff thanked each other for their efforts and started putting away the equipment. Maru also got changed and got ready to go to the residence that the TV station had booked for the actors.

“Thanks.”

Giwoo, who had changed into casual clothes, approached Maru and said. Maru smiled and replied.

“You were really good back there.”

“Not at all. Rather than that, how was I?”

“What?”

“Did I look like I imitated you too much?”

“No. It didn’t feel like that at all. It was perfectly original.”

“Really?”

Giwoo smiled and extended his hand.

“Please take care of me in the future too.”

Maru grabbed that hand lightly.

“Likewise.”

“I’ll have to ask you for a favor from time to time then. I’m not very good, so I have a lot to learn. Then see you tomorrow.”

Giwoo went on first while leaving behind a hearty laugh. Maru also let go of his hand and went to return his clothes.

“Giwoo!”

Just then, he saw Uljin hurry and catch up to Giwoo. The two looked like they had something to talk about. Maru just looked at the two without thinking much, but at that time, he met eyes with Giwoo. Giwoo nodded with a courteous smile before turning around again. Uljin followed him once again. He looked like he was explaining things to him.

Maru shrugged his shoulders before starting to walk. It was probably nothing much. Uljin was probably making excuses about his actions on set or asking him not to tell others.

“Hyung, let’s go!”

“Alright.”

Maru headed to the residence with the younger actors who were waiting for him.

[1] Again, Han Sang-jil is Han Myung-hoe’s grandfather. It’s probably meant to be Han Sang-duk.

Chapter 404

“I’m not sure about anything else, but let’s wash our feet at least before we sleep.”

“I don’t want to suffocate overnight.”

The staff and the background actors giggled as they started to take off their socks. They were in a rental house near the shooting location. The people gathered here were either background actors or part-timers. Maru and the younger minor actors had to stay the night here as well. As for Bitna, she went off in her mother’s car after the shoot.

“It’s like we’re here on a field trip.”

“Hey, let’s go wash ourselves.”

“Aren’t you coming with us, hyung?”

Maru shook his head. Even if they went now, it was obvious that they would have to wait in front of the bathroom. He waved at the younger kids that left the room and unloaded his luggage in a corner. He took out a book, a change of clothes, and a chocolate bar.

“Where’s the lighting team that just came today?”

“Here!”

“Come out. Let’s drink.”

A man who sat quietly in one corner took his jacket and left. Following that, the main and camera teams visited in succession and took their part-timers.

“They have it good.”

“Isn’t there anything for us?”

“Nope. I saw that the lighting team had a good atmosphere. I should have joined them as well.”

“Don’t say that, and let’s drink together with just us. I saw a supermarket nearby.”

Six men left together to drink.

Although they were people who met for the first time today, they soon became close perhaps due to the fact that they went through a hot ordeal together. The group that tried to call some food delivery ended up sighing and giving up, and the people that laid out their blanket early thinking that sleep was the best medicine, were wrestling with the heat.

30 grown men with beards would crawl into this place throughout the night and end up sleeping in empty spots. It was just like the military barracks[1].

“You have to wake up at 6 tomorrow and finish breakfast by 6:30. The shoot begins at 7 so bear that in mind. Don’t be late, and tell the others who aren’t here right now.”

“Yes, I understand.”

A woman left with a smile along with words of encouragement. She seemed to be part of the main team, but Maru didn’t recognize her. Since there were so many staff members for this drama, he didn’t know the faces of most of the staff members, much less their names.

“She’s pretty.”

“You saw her face in that short time?”

The usual male banter started, but it soon died down. It was 11 p.m. Around five people left the room saying that they couldn’t get any sleep due to the heat. It seemed that they needed some alcohol to compensate for their hard work.

“Hyung, there aren’t any people now.”

Hearing the younger actors’ words, Maru took his towel and change of clothes and went to the bathroom. When he entered the public shower, a stuffy heat assaulted him. He smiled subconsciously.

After having a light shower, he returned to the room. The lights opposite the entrance were off, and below them were people who were sleeping without any blankets. Mosquitoes entered through the ripped portions of the mosquito net, but the windows were all wide open. The outdated air conditioner clearly wasn’t enough to cool down all the people here in this weather.

Smelling a faint fragrance of mosquito-repellent incense, Maru opened his book.

“What are you reading? A comic book?”

The younger actors approached him and showed interest, but they soon lost interest and went away.

“You should read some books.”

“I don’t want to.”

The five younger actors sat around in a circle before starting to play some games. They giggled as they hit each other’s hands, but they soon seemed to have gotten tired and lied down on the spot.

Maru smiled and threw the chocolate bars he brought at them. Even though they were yawning until moments ago, they rushed to grab the chocolate bars immediately. They were at an age where they were constantly hungry.

“Guys, quiet down a little.”

A man who seemed to be over fifty, who was getting ready to sleep, spoke. Maru apologized in everyone’s stead. The man yawned and lied down. The younger actors also stopped chatting.

The TV on the TV stand was talking by itself. It was an entertainment program, but he couldn’t understand a single thing it was saying. The man who was rolling around under the TV probed around in the dark and turned it off. Only the sound of breathing could be heard in the room.

“It’s hot.”

One of the younger actors spoke. It definitely was summer. The people that Maru thought were sleeping all sighed and stood up. It would be incredibly stifling once people who left came back. Maru seriously considered sleeping outside.

“Looks like everyone’s sleeping.”

Just then, the door opened and a voice could be heard. Giwoo was standing under the lights in front of the door. He seemed to have found Maru who was sitting in the corner and gave him glimpses.

“If it’s okay with you, would you like to eat some watermelons? It’s cold.”

People reacted to the word ‘cold’.

“Watermelon sounds good.”

“There’s sikhye as well. Can some of you come with me? I won’t be able to carry it by myself.”

Maru closed the book he was reading and slapped the backs of the younger actors who were next to him.

“If you think you should be the one to go, then you should go.”

He told the adults that he would do it as they were about to stand up and walk outside. There was a truck outside the house, which still had its engine on.

He unloaded some watermelons and sikhye from the back. They were cold as though they were just taken out of the refrigerator. He took the watermelons and the sikhye back to the room. Everyone had woken up and pushed the blankets to one side of the room.

“Wow, they’re big.”

A man, who tried tapping one of the watermelons with his palm then sliced down with the knife he was holding. The insides of the split watermelon were a ripe red.

“Hey, you kids should eat first.”

The adults let the kids eat first. Maru also picked up a slice. It was cool enough to blow away the heat of the summer in an instant, and it was also sweet.

“Who’s buying it? Did we get the budget for it?”

One of the men, who was drinking sikhye, asked Giwoo.

“It’s… me. I mean, the shoot was delayed because of me. Sorry about that. It was hard, wasn’t it? The weather is hot as well,” Giwoo spoke in a careful voice.

The people in the room started laughing as though it was nothing to worry about.

“Anything can happen while shooting.”

“He’s right.”

“But it definitely feels good. Thanks to you, we get to eat watermelons.”

Giwoo said ‘that’s good’ in a small voice before sighing slightly. Maru put down the watermelon peel and looked at Giwoo. He was such a good kid. There were two types of apologies: One where it was pleasant to listen to, and one where it made people frown, and Giwoo’s was the former. If he just dumped some food on them as though he would treat someone lower than him, he would have sworn at the guy, but there was no one who would blame him for anything when his attitude was like this.

“Keep that up in the future. Social life is nothing special. If you act like that in the future, you’ll be doted on by the adults.”

“Yes, please dote on me in the future as well.”

Giwoo poured some sikhye for the people with a smile.

“You too, Mr. Maru.”

“Thanks.”

“No, thank you for last time.”

“Nah, don’t keep bringing it up. You’re embarrassing me.”

“I received a big help, so I can’t really just forget about it after just saying thanks. Please take care of me in the remaining shoots as well.”

Maru nodded and drank his sikhye. Giwoo poured sikhye for one last person before sitting down next to him.

“Mr. Maru.”

“Yes?”

“How long has it been since you started acting?”

“I’m not sure. I guess I’m in my second year now.”

“Really? I thought you would’ve started much sooner. You’re amazing.”

“I’m not that great.”

“You showed a perfect act you didn’t prepare for in a perfect manner in front of so many people. Normally, people call that amazing.”

“It’s something that everyone’s doing. I’m happy that you’re looking at me in a good light, but I don’t think it’s worth complimenting.”

“Aren’t you too humble? You’re skilled too.”

Maru smiled and stared at Giwoo. His bad habit of becoming suspicious of too much flattery was flaring up again. He knew that it wasn’t a good habit, but it was a habit he developed just like how herbivore animals would perk up their ears to scan for danger. Giwoo could have said those words out of goodwill, but Maru always raised his guard up subconsciously when someone he didn’t verify talked good about him.

He looked into Giwoo’s eyes. A speech bubble started forming behind Giwoo’s head. He couldn’t read deep into his heart, but he could see what he was thinking about Han Maru.

-Am I disturbing him when he’s tired?

“You must be tired right? I guess I talked too much.”

Giwoo smiled as he stood up. Maru slapped his left cheek. He was too suspicious of everyone. Of course, he couldn’t evaluate what kind of person Giwoo was with just that, but he found out that he wasn’t someone that would think about something else when talking to him. If he talked to Maru with the intention of looking down on him, the speech bubble would have contained something else.

“Uhm. Mr. Giwoo.”

“Yes?”

“Let’s do our best tomorrow.”

Giwoo nodded before leaving the room.

“Ooh, hyung. Aren’t you going to become a lead actor at this rate?”

“Don’t betray us when you do.”

“Don’t talk nonsense and go brush your teeth. Your teeth will rot if you sleep now. Don’t lose millions in cash later in life and manage them well while you still can.”

He tapped the younger actors with his feet before getting his own toothbrush and going to the bathroom. Just then, his phone started vibrating. After telling everyone else to go ahead, he sat down on a bench outside the house and took the call.

“It’s late, why are you calling me now and not sleeping?”

-No reason. I just called you because I was worried. Is the shoot over?

“Yes. It is.”

-It’s hot, isn’t it?

“Just a while ago, it was unbearable, but now I can take a breather. Rather than that, you should get some sleep. Your first shoot is tomorrow, isn’t it?”

Maru leaned against the backrest and looked up at the sky as he spoke. Tomorrow was the first day of shooting for the sitcom that she was shooting. Apparently, the shoot happened on a set in Paju.

-I want to sleep, but I’m not sleepy.

“You nervous?”

-Of course I am. I feel like my heart will jump out of my throat.

“What’s up with you? You’re so good on stage.”

-This is different from a play. Moreover, there are adults as well. There will be seniors everywhere around me. Just thinking about it makes me dizzy.

“Appeal your cuteness by smiling. At least you will hear fewer swear words that way.”

-Sounds sooo helpful.

“Then what, should I sing a lullaby for you or something?”

-Go ahead.

“What’s up with you?”

-Don’t switch the subject and start singing. I’ll listen to it with my eyes closed.

“Really? You really want me to sing for you?”

-Yeah. I think I’ll only calm down if I listen to something.

Maru scratched his brows. She really wasn’t like usual. It seemed that she was really nervous.

-Aren’t you going to sing?

“There’s a lot of people here.”

-So you’re going to retract your words?

“I know you hate things like this.”

-I want to listen for today.

“Geez.”

-Are you singing or not?

“Do you really want to listen? You know I can’t sing.”

-… Yeah. I want to listen.

Her voice didn’t have any power. He could imagine her lying on her side with a depressed expression. They say people couldn’t take the opportunity when they see it, and it seemed that Maru was the same. For some reason, his tongue felt dry and he was overly sensitive when he was told to sing a lullaby. At that time, her quiet voice entered his ears.

-I was just joking. You must be tired so get some rest.

The moment he heard those words, Maru started singing a lullaby in a low voice. ‘The Baby in the House in the Isle’[2], that started off with ‘When the mother goes to pick oysters’. He heard her giggle once and then the sound of blankets rustling could be heard over the phone.

He felt that his body temperature rose by at least 2 degrees centigrade after singing.

-Hey.

“What?”

-Why is the song so depressing?

“It’s that kind of song. Also, get some sleep. Otherwise, you’ll have a hard time tomorrow.”

Just as he stood up after putting the toothbrush back into his mouth, she spoke in a small voice.

-You too, good night.

Good night. It had a different ring to it than goodbye. Maru put on a faint smile as he hung up.

* * *

“You’re going to finish the shoot here during the morning and go back to the set in Seoul in the afternoon, right?”

“Yeah. Rather than that, the art director was amazing. It feels like he’s going to grind his soul into this.”

“Thanks to him, the ones working with him are having a hard time. Just look at all that money. Have you seen the budget he’s asking for? It’s seriously no joke. Even though it’s a historical drama, I’m surprised that such a plan got approved. From the rumors, I heard that he is actually acquainted with the president.”

“Why don’t you get some work done if you have time to listen to rumors? And talk to some actors while at it.”

“It’s really hard for me to talk to the elders. There’s too much pressure.”

“If you keep acting like that, when will you ever become the main producer? Time flies you know? Before you know it, 1 year becomes 2 years, then 3 years, then once you look around, you’ll be doing your first piece and ruin it.”

“Fine. Oh, here, take this. It’s breakfast.”

Changsung put the sandwich that Jinhyuk gave him in his mouth. Since it was a self-produced historical drama, and he didn’t have pressure from advertisers, he was able to get 10 episodes prior to airing. Although it would change according to the flow of the shoot, Changsung’s objective was to finish 8 episodes at least before it started airing.

“Have you seen Uljin this morning?”

“Yeah. Well, he looked okay.”

“I hope nothing bad happens today.”

“Me too. Kids these days are so hard to handle.”

Changsung stuffed the sandwich in his mouth as he stood up.

It was time for work.

[1] In Korea, due to military service being compulsory, living conditions were known to be quite bad. (It has improved over the years)

[2] An actual song. Here’s a video with English subtitles.

Chapter 405

“Don’t leave behind any food.”

A lady, who was mixing the hot soup said as he scooped a bowl of rice.

“It was a buffet yesterday.”

“And today, it’s like school food.”

Maru glanced at the younger actors who grumbled about the food before grabbing some mumallaengi[1] with the tongs. It seemed that yesterday’s dinner was just special. Perhaps they were called as a special service to commemorate the shoot. He ate the sticky rice. This was fine. It wasn’t like he was here to eat food after all.

After finishing breakfast, it was 7. Even though the schedule stated that the shoot would begin at 7, no one seemed to be in a hurry. The schedule was just a schedule after all.

“I don’t think I apologized to you properly yesterday.”

He heard a voice when he was inserting some coins into the coffee vending machine. He grabbed the cup and turned around. Uljin was standing there with an awkward expression.

“Would you like some coffee?”

“Uh, yeah.”

He gave him the coffee before buying another one. He gave some bills to the younger actors before moving locations with Uljin.

“I must have not been right in my mind yesterday. I thought about apologizing to you properly after the shoot, but…”

“It’s fine. It’s not like I’m injured. Don’t mind it.”

“Sorry.”

“I said you don’t need to apologize.”

Uljin seemed to have something more to say, but Maru just left after saying words of encouragement. There was neither a reason for him to stay close to him nor one to stay far away from him. Not liking someone was different from working with that person. Uljin was a business associate that he may have to meet several times in the future. Just because he didn’t like the guy didn’t mean that he should oppose the guy on every single thing. It was better to maintain a relationship of just ‘acquaintances’. Of course, he still wished for Uljin to stumble on a rock and fall down one day in his mind.

“Uhm, I said I’m really sorry.”

Uljin grabbed Maru’s shoulder. Maru looked down at his hand. Thanks to Uljin shaking his body, he spilled the coffee. The coffee was on the back of his hand and it was quite hot.

“Are you okay?”

Maru shook off his hand. Fortunately, he didn’t seem to get a burn. Uljin’s attitude ticked him off more than the spilled coffee. He could feel desperation from his apology. It was as though something big would happen if he did not get forgiveness from Maru. Uljin pushed the apology onto him. His eyes looked desperate. Just what was pushing this young fellow’s back so much?

Just as he was about to ask something to probe his heart, someone interfered.

“Uljin.”

“Yes, Giwoo.”

“What are you doing?”

“No, the thing is-.”

“From afar, it seemed like you were forcefully holding him back. Do you have an ill will against him or something?”

“No! This time it was just a mistake. Maru, isn’t that right?”

Maru nodded for now.

“It’s your second mistake already. Mr. Maru almost got hurt again. Are you okay, Mr. Maru? I saw you spill some coffee on your hands.”

“It’s nothing major, so don’t worry about it.”

Maru drank the cooled coffee in one gulp.

“Uhm, Maru.”

“I’m really okay, and you don’t have to apologize for yesterday’s matters so don’t worry about it. Is everything good now?”

“Okay…” Uljin replied awkwardly.

“I’m going then. Do your best too, Mr. Giwoo.”

He crumpled the paper cup and threw it in the trash before turning around. Just now, Uljin was glimpsing at Giwoo as he talked just now. Maru could see the gloominess of a subordinate standing in front of his superior. Perhaps the two weren’t friends?

“Hyung. They told us to get makeup.”

“Coming,” Maru replied to the younger actor before turning around.

Giwoo was smiling back at him.

* * *

She took a deep breath and breathed back out. In front of her was a giant set. The entrance to the set, that was square like a storage vault, opened and the cars started driving in. She could hear the words ‘slow down’, which were shouted.

“Why do you look like you’re out of yourself?”

“That startled me.”

She was startled by Yoo Jiseok who just popped up in front of her face and walked backwards.

“Damn, that’s a reaction that’s worth teasing.”

“Please, greet people ordinarily.”

“I said hello from behind you and you didn’t hear me. I crawled on the ground in front of you and you still didn’t recognize me.”

Jiseok dusted his clothes as he smiled. She was flabbergasted. He crawled on asphalt just to prank her? He really wasn’t normal.

“It’s my first sitcom! I’m insanely excited.”

She made a powerless smile as she saw Jiseok hopping around everywhere. Jiseok also said that this was the first time he was doing a sitcom. He played the main character’s friend who constantly visited his house. He was a minor role that had a lot of lines and appearances, almost to the point that he was practically a supporting role. If she was the one playing that role, she would have been staring at the script with nervousness right now, but Jiseok looked around the set like he was here on a tour and talked to the staff. There wasn’t any nervousness around him.

“Aren’t you nervous?”

“I am nervous.”

He replied as though it was only natural. She chuckled.

“You’re amazing.”

“What is?”

“Your mindlessness. You don’t even know nervousness.”

“I said I am nervous.”

Just where was nervousness in his smiling face? Looking at the excited Jiseok, she felt that she could calm down a little.

“I really should learn from you a little.”

“I guess there’s indeed a lot to learn from me.”

“Geez, you just won’t stop at anything huh. Are you always this talkative when you’re with Maru as well?”

“I’m a consistent guy. I’m always ready to talk whenever and wherever. People say I’m the type of guy whose mouth would float when I drown, and that was good. What a compliment is that?”

“That’s not a compliment. That’s an insult.”

“Tsk, tsk. You live a tight life. Even if I drown, if my mouth floats, I will get to live at least. It’s a good ability, isn’t it?”

“I’m even more surprised that you’re actually feeling that way. You’ve been like that since you were young, haven’t you?”

“No.”

“Lies.”

“It’s true. I used to practically live in a hospital so I was really quiet. I didn’t have any friends at school either, so it made me even quieter.”

The words he was saying with a smile were definitely words that shouldn’t be said with a smile. She stared at Jiseok. She couldn’t see a hint of joking from his face.

“Were you sick…?”

“I was really sick. I had a hard time breathing! But who do you think I am? I soon got rid of my illness and got up.”

“And you’re all okay now?”

“…Well, I’m definitely a lot better than before.”

Jiseok spun around on the spot and shouted ‘tada!’. People’s hearts couldn’t be read from the surface, and it seemed that Jiseok was hiding pain under his smiles.

“What is up with those bitter eyes? Are you pitying me? Then I guess I should say this again. If you want to pity me, give me money instead.”

Saying that, Jiseok put out his hand. She chuckled before taking out a 100 won coin from her pocket and putting it in his hand.

“I guess it’s good that such a wordless guy became so talkative then.”

“It is a good thing. It’s because there was a time I stayed in bed that I can do this now.”

“How optimistic. It looks good on you.”

“Of course. Since we’re saying this, why don’t you introduce me to a pretty girlfriend who’s also optimistic?”

“Should I really introduce one?”

“Oh, who is it?”

“Yoojin.”

“You’re my enemy starting now. Don’t talk to me.”

“I thought you wanted me to introduce you to a pretty girl.”

“I said don’t talk to me.”

Jiseok then stomped his way into the set. Seeing that, she burst out laughing.

* * *

“Man, a loyal man.”

-What the heck is that?

“Your nickname from now on. Your girlfriend is doing very well. She looked a little nervous at first, but she looks okay now.”

-That’s good, thanks for caring about her.

“I don’t dare disobey you, milord. How’s it on your side?”

-Over here? It’s been an hour since I started waiting under the sun.

“Watch out not to get sunburns. Remember to apply sunscreen.”

-I can’t because I’m a beggar.

“Then I guess you have no choice but to endure. Oh, and meet me next week. I heard you are starting a movie. This bro will help you out.”

-Alright, I’ll see what I can do. Good luck with the shoot.

“Thanks.”

Jiseok hung up before looking next to him. He could see her who was watching the set being torn apart. Maru, who looked like he had no worries at all, asked him for a favor. It seemed that he really treated her as someone precious.

“Hello.”

A greeting could be heard from the entrance. When he looked, he saw a woman coming in wearing a black dress.

‘There she is.’

Lee Miyoon. The veteran actress who was known to be quite scary, appeared. She walked as she received the greetings of the people around. Jiseok also bowed and greeted her when she passed by. She was the last person to play pranks on.

“Over there, you.”

Miyoon pointed a finger. Jiseok followed her finger and clenched his teeth when he saw her at that place.

“Aren’t you an actor?”

“Ah, yes. I am.”

“You are? Then why aren’t you greeting me?”

“Sorry, I was just looking around the set.”

“Aha, really? Looks like the juniors treat the set as more important than the seniors, huh? Forget it, get going.”

Miyoon waved and walked away as she smiled with her wrinkly face. Jiseok approached her and whispered in a small voice.

“You okay?”

“No, I don’t think I am. I’ve just been targeted, right?”

“No way.”

“I’m not?”

“She told you to go, so it should be fine?”

Jiseok spoke as he watched Miyoon walk to the waiting room. He was a little worried since she was known to have a dirty personality.

“Ah, I don’t know anymore. If she says something, I guess I will have to apologize again,” she spoke as she shook her head.

“Sorry. I should have told you about it.”

“You shouldn’t be. I was the one who didn’t see her coming. Oh, and also.”

She took two steps away from him.

“Let’s not stay together.”

“Why?”

“Because you might get caught up in this. People say she’s a scary woman so let’s not stay together for the day.”

“Hey, what do you consider me as?”

“I get it, so don’t talk to me for a while, okay?”

“Hey.”

Jiseok smiled bitterly as he saw her walk to the other side. She was just sighing in nervousness until moments ago, and now she was worried about him.

“Please gather round! We need to check the clothing.”

The clothing team called for everyone. Jiseok walked up to her. She hinted to him to walk away, but Jiseok just smiled. Even if he received insults, how many insults would he receive? Ignoring a friend just because he was scared was something unacceptable for him. Moreover, Maru asked a favor as well. He had to be insulted together even if it was just out of a sense of duty.

“Let’s go,” Jiseok spoke as he pushed her, who had a powerless smile on her face.

* * *

“The world sure has become better now, hasn’t it?”

“Sorry?”

Miyoon glared at the manager. This new manager, who had worked with her for a week now was in a worse state than the last manager. He always asked back whenever she said something, and always talked about something else when she was hinting him to suck up. The reason she still kept him around was because…

“Come over here.”

Miyoon saw her manager frown for an instant before he made a smile. Disgust flashed by on his face, but Miyoon did not mind. In fact, she felt better. Being able to do whatever she wanted to people who hated her gave her inexplicable pleasure. She couldn’t be happier when she found people that did not submit to power. It meant that she could see the moment of such a person’s collapse into depravity.

Miyoon looked up at the manager who stood in front of her. He was tall and burly. Above all, though, he had a girly face. She raised her hand and tapped on his chest.

“Manager Park, you did some chest exercise huh.”

“Ah, yes.”

“Who are you trying to please with all that muscle? You have a girlfriend?”

“Haha…”

“How cute.”

The way he acted was frustrating, but his looks were just to her liking. Just as she was about to extend her hand to his ass,

“Uhm, ma’am.”

“No, no. Don’t call me ma’am, call me noona. Why don’t you listen to my words?”

“…Yes, noona. There’s a call for you.”

The manager handed her her phone. Miyoon thought that even his flustered expression was cute before checking the name on the screen.

“Leave the room for now. And don’t let anyone in.”

“Yes.”

After the manager left, Miyoon received the call.

“Oh, it’s rare for president Hong to give me a call like this. What’s up? Ah, yes. Really? Hoho, that’s good for me too. You really know me too well, president Hong. Alright, okay. Phew, I was feeling bad just now, and your words made me feel better. Oh, it’s nothing. An ugly bitch didn’t even greet me, that’s all. Yes. That’s how kids are these days. They are so cocky. Yes, yes. Then see you after the shoot.”

Miyoon burst out in laughter as she hung up.

[1] Seasoned spicy dried radish strips.

Chapter 406

The world below her was miserable. The only time the moldy single-room underground apartment could be romanticized was only in retrospect after achieving success. Or, when having gone to a level even lower than that.

Miyoon, who stared at the mirror in the waiting room, picked up the pack of cigarettes on top of her makeup table. The moment she took out a thin cigarette from the red package and put it in her mouth, she was reminded of the cheap domestic cigarettes that she used to smoke a long time ago. The bitter taste was engraved on her soul.

She put the cigarette between her lips before puffing a deep one.

“President Hong.”

The reflection of her face in the mirror looked cold. She had reached this place after entering the entertainment industry in her 20s without knowing anything and encountered many things. There were people that helped her out, and there were people that made her wake up at night and insult them. President Hong belonged to the former. Thanks to him glossing over an issue that might have gone viral, she was able to continue her career.

“But he keeps trying to climb up to my level.”

She could only smile back for now since the other party had her weakness that was ‘The Five’, but she did not plan to keep being dragged around by him. An executive of a super company or the president of an entertainment agency - those titles weren’t that great in front of Miyoon. After all, there were names of many politicians in her phone’s contact list.

“How dare he try to rip one off me. People should do a trade.”

She rubbed the cigarette on the ashtray to put it out. There were rules to bad guys as well. She was thankful that he gave her one thing, but he was asking for two from her, so she could only get angry.

She pushed the ashtray away and was just about to get some sleep, but just then, there was a knock on her door.

“It’s the clothing team.”

“Come in,” she spoke as she yawned.

The door opened and two people came in. There was a girl who she hadn’t seen before, as well as a member of the clothing staff that she had seen a few times before.

“Who are you, darling?”

“H, hello. My name is Lee Haeyoung, and I’m a new member.”

“A new member?”

“Please take care of me.”

“Alright, I’ll see how you do.”

Miyoon looked at the clothes that the two women brought. They were the clothes she was going to wear for the sitcom. She was a popular novelist in the drama. She was full of vanity, but her consumer patterns were akin to that of a housewife.

“Would you please excuse me.”

The senior staff asked for her understanding. Miyoon sighed once before standing up.

“We’ve brought five sets of clothes this time, and you just have to choose whatever you like.”

The new member raised the clothes on the clothes hanger to her eye level. Miyoon looked at the clothes in detail.

“Let’s see.”

The colors, quality and form. Those were all secondary. The most important thing were the tags on the clothes. She turned the clothes inside out to look at the tag that had the brand and price on it.

“Hahaha.”

Miyoon laughed and picked up the first clothes hanger. At that moment, the new member asked.

“If you like that, shall I get it prepared for you?”

Miyoon looked at the senior staff quietly. She should be aware of what she meant. The senior staff bit her lower lip in unease and tapped on the shoulders of the new member.

“Darling, go outside for a moment. I’ll talk to this girl for a while.”

“U-uhm…”

“Did you not hear me, darling? I said get out.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

The senior staff did a 90-degree bow before leaving the room. Miyoon saw that the new member’s face became stiff and threw the clothes she was holding on the ground.

“Mommy…”

A quiet voice could be heard from her mouth.

“Why are you looking for your mother?”

“U-uhm…”

“Forget it, and give me the next one.”

Miyoon checked the tag on the second set of clothes.

“ULand logistics. ULand, huh. Do you know where you find clothes like this?”

“P-probably at the department store?”

“The department store? No. Clothes like this.”

Miyoon threw the clothes at the staff member’s face. Being hit, the staff member walked a few steps back. The clothes she was holding fell on the ground. The vinyl wraps that were there to prevent them from getting dirty made a loud rustling noise.

“These kinds of clothes can only be seen in charity shops. Or, you can see these in donations for kids in Africa. Do you get it?”

“I-I’m sorry.”

“I asked you if you get it. I didn’t tell you to apologize.”

“Yes, I do.”

“Hey, how much do you get paid? I mean, your monthly salary.”

“E-eight hundred thousand won.”

“Do you think you’re doing eight hundred thousand won’s worth of work? And also, aren’t you going to pick those clothes up? Those are all sponsored items, aren’t they? What are you going to do if there’s a problem? Are you going to report that I’m the one that dirtied them?”

The new staff shook her head and picked the clothes up. She was sniffing and looked like she was about to cry at any moment.

“Hey.”

“Y-yes!”

“Are you going to cry?”

“No.”

“Don’t cry. You shouldn’t cry with just that. If you cry just because of that, you’re not going to last.”

Miyoon picked up the third set of clothing. She could see her flinching. There was a small smile on her face.

“Hey.”

“Yes…?”

“You’re angry, aren’t you?”

“No. I’m not.”

“Why not? It’s not you who prepared these, right?”

“That’s true, but…”

“You’re getting scolded for something you didn’t even do. You were just holding the clothes that your superiors got, and you’re being disdained by me, getting hit on the face with clothes. You’re a precious daughter in your family, aren’t you? If you get angry, it’s not surprising that you get angry.”

“I-I’m okay.”

“You’re okay?”

Miyoon smiled and put her hand on the girl’s cheek. She could feel the girl’s cheek shaking. She raised her hand a bit before slapping her. The girl’s head was turned around.

“It must be annoying. You must be wondering what’s going on. And you must be angry since you’re getting this treatment when you don’t know anything yet.”

Tears started dropping from the girl's eyes.

“Are you crying right now?”

“N-no.”

Miyoon looked at the fourth set of clothing and nodded.

“This looks decent.”

She hung the clothes on her chair before walking to the door and pulling on the handle. She twitched her finger at the senior staff that was standing at the opposite end of the corridor. The senior staff came in and clasped her hands together politely.

“This one’s quite good.”

“Ah, yes.”

“Did you pick this one?” Miyoon asked as she pointed at the set of clothes on her chair.

“Yes. I tried picking one according to your tastes.”

“You’re quite sensible. You were awkward at first, and now you look like you’re doing your job. Hm, but let me ask… who chose the other four? They’re quite ugly. I think the new member over here chose them. Am I right?” Miyoon sat down as she asked.

The senior staff looked around before saying ‘I had her do it to give her some experience in picking clothes’ in a small voice.

“So our newbie chose it after all.”

“…Yes.”

“Alright. You can leave now.”

When Miyoon smiled, the senior staff left through the door with a much relieved expression. The door closed, and Miyoon stood in front of the new staff member that had a complex expression on her face.

“Hey. You didn’t pick these right? She was the one that picked them, isn’t she?”

“…Yes.”

“But strangely, she’s saying that you’re the one who picked them. People are quite devious, right? If she’s going to say something, she should be up front with it like me. She’s supposed to be covering up for you, yet she’s leaving you like this.”

Miyoon took all the clothes that the staff member was holding and put them on the makeup table. Then, she grabbed her hand that was as cold as ice.

“From now on, listen to me, okay? I don’t like that woman, but you look decent. You don’t feel bad because I hit you, right?”

“N-no.”

“Alright. I hope we can work well in the future. I’ll give you my support.”

Miyoon called for the senior staff standing outside.

“Darling, you’re a bit too much, huh? You’re pushing your responsibilities to a young girl who doesn’t know anything yet.”

“Uh-uhm, that’s not it, but…”

“Forget it and you can get going. Oh, I don’t want to see you on set, you know what I mean, right?”

“No, ma’am, I…”

“Ah, for god’s sake. Do I look that old to you? Ma’am this, ma’am that. You’re damn cocky. Shut up and get going. I told you to not catch my eyes, okay? The moment I see you, I stop shooting. And I will say that I can’t work because of you. Understand?”

After chasing the senior staff out, Miyoon looked at the new staff.

“Bring good clothes in the future. Brand-name ones, or famous designer-made ones. If you do that well, I’ll give you full support. You know, I’m not a bad woman who abandons people that catch my eye. I don’t have a good personality, but you should follow me. I’ll let you meet all the famous people in the industry. What do you think?”

“Y-yes.”

“Anything else you want to say to me?”

Miyoon crossed her arms and stared at the new staff. Receiving her gaze, the girl did a 90-degree bow and thanked her. Miyoon softly stroked the back of her head.

“That’s right. Just do that in the future.”

The girl took the clothes and left. Miyoon yawned and sat back down. It wasn’t that she didn’t like the previous staff member. She sucked up a lot, smiled a lot, and her senses when it came to clothes weren’t that bad either.

“But it’s time.”

People that had become numb to change had to be switched out. People that didn’t fear her were inefficient as parts after all.

The new staff would probably go around looking for sponsorships for her. She would endure all sorts of insults in order to receive clothes from famous designers. Why? Because she was afraid of the woman named Lee Miyoon.

Miyoon smiled pleasantly and started picking her nails.

* * *

“Huff, huff, phew.”

Hong Janghae put down the baseball bat he was holding. He was just about to wipe his sweat with his handkerchief and leave in a pleasant mood, but the sack in front of him made some noise - whimpering noises, to be specific.

Janghae picked up the bat again. Then he swung it with all of his power towards the sack. Along with a loud pow noise, the whimper of the dog stopped as well. Thick blood dripped beneath the sack.

“Phew, son of a bitch. What a tenacious life.”

He felt much better. The sensation couldn’t be compared to hitting a sandbag. Beating up something living gave him a completely different sensation from hitting a pile of sand.

He pulled up the tie he had loosened and left with his suit jacket in his hand. The owner of the bosintang[1] restaurant nodded his head and went inside.

Janghae did his top button and got in his car. Just as he was about to drive off, he got a call. It was from his company employee.

-President.

“What is it?”

-Uhm… regarding the actor I told you last time, the negotiations fell through. He said he’s going to NL Company.

“Hm, team leader Park.”

-Yes, president.

“Didn’t you say that you were certain?”

-I’m sorry, sir.

“Sorry, huh. Well, I guess you can’t do anything about it. Business doesn’t always go according to plan. Thanks for your work, you must have put in a lot of effort.”

-Not at all, president.

“Alright, look for the next actor. Anyway, well done, and see you when I’m there.”

-Yes, sir.

Janghae hung up and got out of his car. When he went around to the back of the restaurant, he saw the owner taking out a dog with all of its flesh mangled. The dog which had its eyes popped out of their sockets was dragged along the ground.

“Should I give you another one?”

Janghae didn’t say anything and nodded his head. The dog keeper brought a golden dog from somewhere. As it was quite strong, he took some time to put it in a sack. The sack was then hung from the ceiling. Janghae rolled his sleeves up and picked up the bat.

The sack shook a lot due to the dog barking and struggling. Janghae stood in front of it. The dog keeper quietly closed the door and left.

“Team leader Park, you damned fucker.”

Whoosh, the bat made a sharp noise.

* * *

“Yes, team leader Park. This fellow looks good. Try getting him.”

“I will definitely succeed this time.”

“Of course you will.”

Janghae smiled as he saw team leader Park leave his office. In his head, the name ‘team leader Park’ was already erased. He would be advised to resign in one month. Reason being: receiving illegal entertainment.

Shouting at people did not fit the image of the ‘gentle’ Hong Janghae. He had to act smart, and do everything cleanly so that there wouldn’t be any noise. Today, he felt much better, perhaps due to relieving all of his pent-up stress. Although it was quite a hassle, it was definitely worth driving all the way to Cheonan for it.

“It was better when Geunseok was still at home.”

Back then, there was no need to drive all the way to Cheonan. There was an obedient dog at home after all. Janghae stretched his neck left and right before picking up some documents.

* * *

“Uh-uhm, Giwoo.”

Uljin carefully called out to Giwoo who walked up front. Giwoo made a cold smile as he turned around.

“What is it?”

“Uhm, about yesterday.”

He wanted to explain properly. That it was definitely not his intention and that it was just a mistake.

“It’s really just a mistake. I was not going to do the game you told me…”

“Game? What game?”

“G-giwoo…”

“Uljin. I don’t get what you’re talking about at all. I mean it. A game? Are you talking about a video game?”

“…Giwoo.”

“Why do you look so depressed?”

Giwoo approached him and hung his arm around Uljin’s shoulders. Uljin was creeped out by his actions.

“What are you mistaken about? What game did I tell you about? Tell me properly. Hm?”

“N-no, it’s nothing.”

“Right? It’s nothing, right? You were just mistaken, right?”

“Yeah…”

“Then that’s good. Oh, you did well in today’s shoot. See you next time, my friend.”

Uljin gulped as he watched Giwoo’s back.

* * *

“I’m back.”

3 p.m. Maru arrived at home. He greeted his mother who welcomed him home and went straight to bed. He wasn’t that tired physically, but his brain wasn’t working right now.

“And school starts tomorrow too.”

It seemed that he would have to prepare a lot of absence notes. He might not be able to go to school for the entirety of September. He was a little worried about attendance, but it seemed that he wasn’t at a stage where he should be worried. Things were going well too. His days were smooth without any worries.

Maru yawned loudly before closing his eyes.

Time to get some sleep.

[1] Dog-meat soup. Wikipedia for more info.

Chapter 407

“Shouldn’t they let us turn the air conditioning on at least?”

“Wash your face with cold water or something.”

“Why do you say the same thing as my mom?”

Dojin, who was weak to heat, ran towards the window while taking his top off. The ones that were cooling their bodies off by the window pushed Dojin away with fright. For today, staying together was death, and scattering was the way to live.

“It’s been long past the beginning of Autumn, but it’s still damn hot. Maru, should I fan you as well?”

“I’m fine. It’s bearable if I stay still.”

Daemyung fought the heat by fanning himself with a notebook. The fan installed above their heads had stopped working two days ago. Well, it was working non-stop under this heat so it wasn’t that surprising. Their homeroom teacher told them that it was going to be fixed soon, but ‘soon’ was too abstract of a word.

“My brother-in-law Kang.”

Maru poked the waist of Dowook who sat in front of him. Dowook got annoyed and pushed him away.

“My brother-in-law Kang, why don’t you buy us some ice cream to stave off the heat?”

“You wanna die?”

“My, how disappointing.”

Daemyung chuckled from the side. Maru grabbed his t-shirt and shook it around. This goddamn heat didn’t have a break.

“I heard that you’re starting the movie shoot this week,” Daemyung asked.

“Yeah, apparently, the set is near Pangyo.”

“You’re not coming to school then?”

“I won’t be able to if I don’t have the time.”

“Bangjoo’s going with you, right?”

“Yeah. He’s the problem, not me. The teachers won’t see him in a good light if he starts missing classes in the first year.”

“That’s true. But Bangjoo’s quite serious about it, isn’t he? He’s putting a lot of effort into becoming an action actor too. Wouldn’t the teachers recognize his efforts?”

“A good teacher would, but from what I heard last time, apparently, he got hit on the head with the class register book. Apparently, he was told to focus on studying rather than doing meaningless stuff.”

“That teacher clearly went too far there.”

“Studying is one of the easiest ways to succeed, so you can’t exactly blame the teacher for it.”

Daemyung nodded.

“I guess you’ll have to manage your attendance well from now on. You won’t be able to advance into third year if you miss too much.”

“I’ll be fine as long as I attend two-thirds of the school year, so I can advance even if I miss about 60 days or so.”

“Then I guess there’s no problem then.”

“Like this, I don’t have a lot to worry about. If it comes down to it, I’ll have to reject all the incoming work and go to school.”

“But what if you suddenly get many offers because you do well? You know, that’s a possibility.”

“If it’s like that, I’ll gladly drop out of school and take the qualification exams[1]. But would such a thing happen to me of all people? There are many actors in the country, you know?”

“You don’t know what will happen. You’re good at acting after all.”

“Hey, at this age, the face matters a lot more than acting skills. Did I tell you this? I met a lead actor around my age while shooting the historical drama, and damn, he’s good-looking.”

“You’re good-looking too.”

Maru coughed and turned around. Sometimes, Daemyung said embarrassing things without batting an eyelid, and made him feel awkward. Maru didn’t know if he was pure or was just teasing him.

“You guys are bullshitting,” Dowook said, from his desk.

“Dowook is really good-looking, too,” Daemyung spoke as if he was waiting.

Dowook raised his head a bit and glanced at Daemyung before saying ‘you have good eyes’ before going back to sleep again. Maru raised his feet and kicked Dowook’s chair. Even though he’d usually get up and get angry at him, he was only laughing right now.

“Hey, Han Maru.”

Just then, a guy from the 2nd column shouted at him.

“What is it?”

“You’re shooting a drama right? Did you appear in ‘The Witness’ too?”

“What’s it about?”

“Huh? It’s not you? I was watching the drama yesterday and someone that really looked like you appeared in it.”

“Someone that looked like me?”

The guy seemed tired of shouting and approached Maru. Now, Maru had the attention of everyone in the class. Maru leaned back in his chair and looked at that classmate.

“Yeah. I was watching the drama yesterday and someone that looked exactly like you appeared in it.”

“Really?”

“Is it really not you? They looked so like you though.”

“I don’t remember shooting a drama titled ‘The Witness’.”

“Then was it someone that just looked like you? Damn, if it was you, I was going to ask you to get an autograph. Ahn Joohyun is in it, you know? She’s really pretty.”

“Ahn Joohyun?”

At that moment, he was reminded of the drama he was suddenly called for last time.

“Hey, does the guy that looks like me play something like an assassin’s role?”

“Yeah, that’s right.”

“Then that’s me.”

“What? I thought you didn’t know what ‘The Witness’ is.”

“I don’t.”

“How do you appear in a drama that you don’t even know about?”

“Many things can happen.”

At that moment, all the people in the classroom that laid on their desks like dead people all stood up at once.

“Hey, Han Maru, you know Ahn Joohyun?”

“You know our honey Joohyun-ssi? Did you shoot with her?”

“Hey, hey. Out of my way!”

The back seat of the 4th column where Maru sat, suddenly became a warzone. They all pushed the desks away and shouted ‘Ahn Joohyun’. Dowook, who was sleeping, stood up while swearing, but the people that came to Maru like starved dogs didn’t even seem to notice him.

“Have you seen Ahn Joohyun up close?”

“Uh, yeah. That I guess I did…”

Maru replied as carefully as possible. He felt that something big would happen if he told them that he knew her. Peace for the rest of the day depended on this moment.

“Is she really pretty? It isn’t like a camera effect?”

“Well, she’s so-so.”

“How about her chest? Are they really big? Like you see on TV?”

“Hey, fucker. Is that the important part?”

“Of course it is!”

“You’re fucking crazy. Take your chests to porn. What good is celebrity chests?”

The one that shouted chests was dragged to the back. Any conversation that happened after that was about getting autographs from her.

“Was Ahn Joohyun always so popular?”

He knew that she was popular with girls, but he didn’t know that she was also extremely popular amongst high school boys. He thought that she’d only have girl fans since she had a down-to-Earth and boyish image to her.

Hearing his question, the ones around him answered in unison.

“Her figure is killer.”

It seemed that these guys didn’t even care about acting skills or whatnot, and just cared about the face and the body. He knew that they were at the age where they would be absorbed in sexual things, but at this point, they were practically horny dogs. This was why engineering high school classes with 100% boys were dangerous. The concentration of their urges was completely different to classes like design where girls made up more than half the class.

“I can’t get autographs.”

Maru spoke firmly. He wasn’t scouted officially, and he just happened to be there by chance. At this point, he wondered what would happen if they found out that Ahn Joohyun’s little brother went to this school. Perhaps Bangjoo would be stalked by these boys here. What a horrible thing that would be.

“Why!”

“I just went there once. And that was the last time.”

“…Really?”

What an interesting change of expressions. Maru wanted to capture this moment in a photo. ‘At the tip of Despair’ sounded like a good title for the photo.

“Maru, didn’t you appear in Youth Generation as well?”

A crisp, high-pitched voice sounded out amidst the low-pitched noises. Maru turned his head around. Iseul, wearing a pink t-shirt, was standing at the back of the class.

The boys in class became quiet in an instant before taking steps back. Even those that looked like they would grow up to be part of the mafia in the future made shy smiles. Maru saw that clearly. Rather than a smile, he pitied them instead. What a pitiful group of people.

“I guess I did.”

Youth Generation was the first piece of work where he got a proper character. He started off as a background actor, and ended up as a minor role. Since he had to wear glasses and talk in a really awkward way, he had some fun while doing it.

“Han Maru, you were in Youth Generation as well?”

The boys in class asked in surprise.

“I did.”

“Who were you? An extra?”

“You know, the one that gets bullied all the time. The class prez.”

“The four-eyed loser?”

“Yeah.”

“That’s you?”

The 37 people gathered around him stared at him in disbelief. Maru clicked his tongue and borrowed a pair of glasses from someone. He put on the glasses, pushed his chin forward, and made his lips look like he was getting bullied.

“Whoa! It’s really him.”

“Wow, Han Maru. You’re quite good.”

“I never missed an episode of Youth Generation, and I never knew that that guy was you.”

His classmates praised his acting for a while before smiling again in embarrassment due to Iseul’s presence. If Iseul told them that she’d date them if they jumped out the window, about 10 of them would jump out immediately without second thoughts.

Even in this mess, Maru kicked the sleeping Dojin to wake him up. Dojin shook and raised his head.

“What?”

“Your girlfriend is here.”

Iseul pressed on Dojin’s head. Dojin called for help, but Iseul lightly ignored him.

“Aren’t you here to see him?” Maru asked Iseul as he pointed at Dojin.

“Yeah. We promised to see each other after lunch, but I didn’t get any news from him. But well, he’s sleeping like this.”

“I was too tired from working at the restaurant all day yesterday…,” Dojin spoke in a tired manner.

“Geez.”

Iseul took her hand off. Dojin sat up with a foolish smile.

“I told you to go home early, didn’t I? I heard you stuck around until the end of cleaning the big pot.”

“How am I supposed to go home when your mom’s working by herself?” Dojin spoke as he scratched his head.

Iseul looked at him for a while before pulling him up by the hand.

“Drink this.”

Iseul gave him a bottle of bacchus[2]. Dojin smiled like a fool as he received the drink. The two smiled at each other like baby birds and eventually left through the back door.

Maru thought that the two suited each other as he saw them walk through the corridor. It seemed that Iseul’s parents also saw Dojin in a good way since he was studying to get cooking certificates. Though, who wouldn’t like their daughter’s boyfriend if he helped them out in their business?

He thought that they were in the peak of youth and turned his head around. But when he did, he had to cough awkwardly. The boys that looked like they couldn’t harm an ant were now sitting on the ground uttering whatever swear word that was in their mouths.

“Dojin, that bastard. We should solder his mouth shut.”

“No, we should solder his precious part, so he can’t use it.”

“We’re shooting a military movie here, and he’s all by himself shooting a youth sitcom. The world needs to be fair, so we should castrate Dojin first.”

They were filled with killing intent. Hell was unfurling in front of him.

Maru saw Daemyung amongst them, laughing in an uncomfortable manner. He was putting on a good act. His effort to survive by disguising himself as single was quite good.

However, the moment Maru saw Lee Jiyoon and Jeon Aram who were walking down the central stairs, he realized that Daemyung’s act was about to be over. Aram was coming towards their class while leading Jiyoon, who was shaking her head, by the hand. It was obvious what she was up to. It had been quiet since the start of the semester. What should come had come.

Maru stood up from his seat. He had to escape this place before these boys started rampaging. He was very serious. He couldn’t even begin to imagine what they would do when these boys, who were in desperate need(?) of feminine pheromones, found out that Daemyung had a girlfriend as well.

Just in time, he got a phone call as well. The moment he saw the name on the phone, though, he quickly looked away and at the boys around him. Some of the quick-witted in class flashed their eyes and looked at him. Maru immediately pressed the reject button. The three characters ‘Ahn Joohyun’ disappeared from the screen.

“Man, the weather is hot.”

Maru stretched his arms out and sneakily left the classroom. Jiyoon and Aram waved at him from afar. Maru replied to them in a vague fashion before walking quickly. Moments later, he could hear some strange screams from behind him, but he pretended not to have heard them and kept walking.

He went down to the first floor and stood in the entrance from where he could see the school field. He took out his phone again to call Ahn Joohyun back. After some rings, he could hear Joohyun’s voice.

[1] Basically, it’s an exam to prove that you’ve taken the required high school courses if you did not graduate high school the normal way. It is also required for CSATs (college exams) if you didn’t graduate high school normally.

[2] An energy drink in Korea.

Chapter 408

“Yes, senior.”

-Are you free to talk to me now? I think I couldn’t reach you just a moment ago.

“I had no choice since your popularity was through the roof.”

-What do you mean?

“Haha, it’s nothing important. But what made you call me?”

-Hm, to get straight to the point, I’d like your help again.

“My help?”

-I want you to appear again in the drama we shot last time.

“Wasn’t that a one-off thing?”

-They added an interrogation scene. It seemed that the director talked to the writer about it. Your pay is 80 thousand, and it should end within 3 hours.

“I’m of course okay with that. It’s an opportunity for me to show my face anyway.”

-Then come to YBS’s main HQ by eight.

“You mean tonight?”

-Yes.

“What were you going to do if I had a schedule and wasn’t able to go?”

-If that happened, we’d just get someone from the academies. We can’t provide you with comfort on top of the opportunity, can we?

He looked at the school field as he heard those words. He could see several students aiming for one ball. There were many people that wanted it, but there was only one ball. A minor actor who would be discarded after being used once had no choice.

-So you can’t come?

“I’ll be there even if I break my leg.”

-I thought you’d say that. Oh, I heard that the movie shoot starts this week.

“Yes. Have you heard that from Bangjoo?”

-Just yesterday. Please watch out for him so that he doesn’t cause any accidents on set. My brother has the tendency to go wild if he gets excited.

“I’ll tie him up and put him right next to me.”

-Bangjoo looked like he was looking forward to it since it’s his first shoot and all, but you know how hard it is. You’ll have to repeat the same scene over and over again until you get a good cut, and you’ll have to wait indefinitely if you aren’t playing an important role. It’s quite pressuring, isn’t it? Even though I know that he isn’t the type of boy who’d get pressured by anyone, I’m still worried. After all, he’s doing this as a job, not to play around.

“Those words, don’t say them to me and tell them to Bangjoo instead. It’ll help him out a lot.”

-He’s matured since a long time ago, so it’s not hard to joke with him, but it feels somewhat embarrassing to have a serious talk. It’s also funny since I feel like I’m overly worried for a grown-up kid. Actually, he doesn’t want to receive help from me. He said he wanted to take care of his own matters by himself. I felt this when I talked to him honestly before, but I think he’s grown up too early.

“He’s been living alone since middle school after all. There are many men who eat alone even when they’re old, and Bangjoo’s been way past that point for a long time now. It’d be strange if he didn’t grow up.”

-That’s true.

“He has a deep understanding of himself, so you shouldn’t need to get worried. Bangjoo should be well aware that this work isn’t easy since he grew up watching you. He’s challenging it despite knowing that so don’t worry too much about it.”

Joohyun’s laugh could be heard over the phone.

-Alright. Please take care of my brother then.

“Yes. Good luck with your work.”

After hanging up, he visited the school cafeteria to get some cold drinks. He returned to his class and peeked inside. Everyone had fallen asleep at their desks. It seemed that the storm had gone past. He sat down and gave his two friends a drink. As for Dojin, he put one inside his desk.

“You’re still alive.”

Maru looked at Daemyung who had half of his soul escape his body.

“I barely managed to cling to life.”

“That’s karma for you having a girlfriend.”

“But you have one too…”

“I don’t go to the same school as her. Alright, what did Jiyoon say?”

“She just greeted me. The problem was Aram. Thanks to her, I’m like this.”

Daemyung spoke as he pulled on his tattered shirt.

“Good. Since it’s like this, you should hold hands when you walk together. Since you’re public and all.”

“…Should I?”

“Whew, that was fast.”

He drank the drink he bought from the cafeteria before patting Daemyung on the shoulder. Daemyung smiled in embarrassment before scratching his head.

“Is that your phone ringing?”

His phone, which he placed on the table, was vibrating. Maru picked up the phone and held it against his ears.

“Hello?”

-Oh, Maru. It’s me, Byungchan.

“Yes, hyung.”

-I called you since you got some work. But I can’t give you a ride since I have to drive away from the city with Sooil. Oh, you know who Sooil is right?

“Yes, I met him before. Also, don’t worry about me. I can just take the bus or the train or whatever.”

-Thanks for saying that.

“So? When is it? I guess it’s not tomorrow since there’s the historical drama.”

-It’s today. You don’t have anything to do right? The TV station was looking for you, oh, I mean YBS, by the way. I don’t know the reason for that, but it’s a public TV drama. It’s just one scene, but apparently, there’s a part where you’d be on screen by yourself. For now, I hung up after telling them that I’d look into it. How about it, you can do it, can’t you?

“I don’t think I can do today.”

-Why? You don’t have any schedule today. Is there something else you’re doing? This is too big of an opportunity to give up.

“I got a request.”

-A request? What request?

“For a drama. A senior I know wanted me to appear in it.”

-Really? What drama is it?

“I think it should be The Witness.”

-Huh? The Witness? That’s the place that called me too. Wait, I just got a call. I’ll call you right back.

Byungchan hurriedly hung up. Maru narrowed his eyes and put down his phone.

“What was that about?”

“I got a call due to some work, but I think something’s gone wrong.”

“Is it serious?”

“No, it’s not like that.”

When he rested his chin on his hand and stared at the phone, he got a phone call again.

“Yes, hyung.”

-Maru. I just got a call saying that they got a confirmation already. Did you contact them?

“You mean the TV station?”

Just then, he remembered the conversation he had with Joohyun. It seemed that Joohyun gave them a call immediately after her call with him.

“Hyung, I don’t think you should be worried about it. There aren’t any problems.”

-Really? Then you’re shooting today, right?

“Yes.”

-That’s good. The Witness on YBS has a 28% viewing rate right now. It’ll be past 30% by next week. You are lucky that you can show your face in such a drama. Good luck.

“Alright. You should drive safely too, okay?”

-Okay. See you around.

After finishing the phone call, Maru thought for a moment. The liaison team called for him. Meaning, there were already talks about him. There was no need for Joohyun to call him and ask for his confirmation.

“Geez, she’s a sister who dotes on her brother,” Maru smiled as he spoke.

It seemed that the liaising matter was just secondary, and she wanted to talk regarding Bangjoo instead.

“Boys, get up,” Taesik spoke as he came in.

The zombies started raising their heads. Maru also put away his phone and took out his books. He had to focus on classes for now.

* * *

He could see the Omokgyo bridge outside the train window. The time was when the sun slowly hid behind the horizon. Maru folded the newspaper he was reading and put it in the luggage area of the car before getting off.

He got on the bus in front of the train station that would take him to the YBS building. Since it was rush hour, the people on the bus seemed very tired. A girl that seemed to be in college was dozing off in the seat in front of him before bashing her head against the window. There was a loud thud, but the girl continued to sleep. She must have been in deep sleep or was too embarrassed to lift her head.

When he got off the bus, he saw a huge building in front of him. Across the street was a TV station for religious channels. Unlike RBS, which was very wide, YBS’s building was very tall. It seemed that they stuffed all the facilities into one building unlike RBS, which had separate buildings.

He entered the building and called the number he got from Byungchan. A moment later, someone appeared calling out to him. However, she wasn’t calling from within the building, but from outside.

“Are you Mr. Han Maru?”

“Yes.”

“You’re here for the shoot for The Witness, right?”

“Yes, that’s right.”

“This way, please.”

The woman that seemed to be part of the main staff didn't go to the main building but circled around the park in front of it to go somewhere else. They walked for around 5 minutes before another building with the YBS logo appeared.

“This is the set for the drama.”

“Ah, okay.”

He followed the woman inside. People, who were running around with rolls of tape, whizzed past him. They seemed to be in a hurry. He could also see people that looked uneasy as they held clothes in both of their hands.

He followed the woman throughout the corridor. On his left were posters of popular dramas produced by YBS.

“Please wait here.”

The woman smiled kindly and pointed at the waiting room. Maru felt rather awkward because of her attitude and smiled back. He was already used to the ‘hey, you’ treatment.

When he went inside, he saw adults who were all very old. They all gave off strong impressions. They were absorbed in their own thing as though they didn’t know each other.

Among them were some people that he saw in the tunnel set last time. That man played the role of the police.

Maru greeted the people who he met eyes with before sitting down. There were some food and drinks prepared on the table in front of him.

‘What good treatment.’

Many places didn’t have this treatment. Maru picked up a pack of cookies before opening it. He looked around the room as he munched on the cookies. It seemed that the building was finished being constructed not too long ago as he saw that the walls were still clean.

“Please get ready. We’re moving.”

The woman that guided him here opened the door as she spoke. The people sitting in the room all stood up in unison. Maru grabbed another packet of cookies before putting them inside his pocket. When he did, everyone else followed. It seemed that they were used to feeding themselves in such situations.

They followed the woman to the set. The set had been created already. There were acrylic panels on all four sides, and there were a bunch of photos on them. On one side was a map, and there were lines that seemed to be someone’s movement line messily drawn on top of it. Perhaps this was the investigation HQ?

In the middle of the set was Joohyun wearing a suit. She was exchanging lines with the opposing actor with sharp eyes. Joohyun, who played the role of a female detective, suddenly loosened her face and burst out laughing. Due to her laugh, the atmosphere changed in an instant. The actors around her also started joking around with each other. The atmosphere looked good.

“The shoot isn’t that long, so please focus.”

The staff that got mad at the background actors last time spoke in a kind manner. Maru wondered if everyone had repented or something. Maru looked at the expressions of the adults around him. They were just like him, looking at the staff member with uneasy expressions. The sudden bout of kindness wasn’t exactly welcome.

At that moment, he heard a clap from one side. When he turned his head around, he saw people that seemed to be civilians entering the set.

“This is the set for The Witness. The investigation headquarters you see on TV is this place.”

Maru understood the situation the moment he heard those words. The reason for the sudden change in the work environment must be because of tourists. They were setting things up so that those people wouldn’t see or hear anything bad. It was just like how trash and laundry would disappear from sight when a star[1] appeared in a military base. Anything dirty was pushed out of sight first.

“There are the actors. Should we go meet them?”

“Yes!”

The tourists followed the staff like pre-school children on a field trip.

“Well then, please sit down while you wait.”

The staff offered them to sit with a smile. The adults around him made a weird expression as they sat down. Maru looked at the people that looked around the set. He could slightly understand what monkeys at the zoo felt like.

[1] A general-level personnel

Chapter 409

The king of dramas was its ads - Maru heard these words before. A drama with a sturdy scenario, godly acting, and incredible direction did not look for viewers, but advertisers. The individuals that created the drama are said to participate in its production with the ideal to create something worth watching, but the objective of the sum of those ideals was ultimately the ads.

The food he was eating in a drama, the clothes she was wearing in the drama, the location they went to, the life they enjoyed. All of that became products and subsidized into ads.

“I hope you can concentrate on the acting of the actors while the shoot is running. Watching them in real life gives you a different enjoyment than watching through a screen.”

The tourists that were guided to one side of the set nodded as they listened to the staff’s explanation.

There was no way the production team wanted to let tourists in when the drama production stage had many sensitive actors. This was also a facet of advertising. The things they hear and see here would be spread to many other people in the form of stories and rumors. If the viewership went past 30%, the costs of ads would increase as well after all.

Maru had a look at the expression of the actors. They didn’t seem flustered since they seemed to have been notified beforehand, but they clearly did not seem pleased with it. The lead actors, who were right in front of the viewers, were getting ready for the shoot with a smile, but the supporting actors were just clicking their tongues as they looked at the audience.

“I thought we’d be starting the shoot soon, but it looks like we’re going to have to wait a long time,” said a man with a stubble.

He looked like a stereotypical undercover detective.

“Yeah. I think I heard that Entertainment Show Weekly is coming as well.”

“What? The Entertainment Show Weekly? You mean the one on YBS?”

“Yes. They should be making a report about it. I mean, those people are doing well nowadays, aren’t they?”

A skinny man pointed at Joohyun with his chin. The stubbly man nodded in agreement.

It seemed that there was another event other than tourism. Maru took out his earphones from his pocket. It did look like it was going to end within three hours, but it seemed that he would have to stand there like a prop for two out of those three hours.

He was killing some time while nodding according to the beat when some people walked on the set with quick steps and told the producer a few words. After that, a camera entered through the entrance.

“We’ll start from the entry part.”

Along with that shout, a man holding a wireless microphone entered the set with careful steps. The man said ‘shh’ with a humorous face as he put his finger on his lips. Entering the studio, he pointed at Ahn Joohyun standing on the set.

“Hello, everyone. I’m Nam Joongyeon, reporting to you from the field. Today, we’re here at the studio where they’re shooting the popular drama on YBS, The Witness. It’s just nearing 30% viewership, so the atmosphere here is very different from others. Our reporter team came to visit the location without any prior notice.”

Then, the cut sign sounded. The producer sent the reporter back out in dissatisfaction. It seemed that the two were on close terms as the reporter blatantly expressed his displeasure. Only when the producer said ‘one more time’ with a smile, did the reporter nod.

“Geez, you’re too strict on me, Park-hyung.”

“Please give me less work. Go out already. I need to finish this quickly since I have a shoot for Hometown Six after this.”

“Hyung, you’re running double jobs?”

“It’s not two jobs. I’m just working my ass off while I still can.”

“You’ll ruin yourself. You told me that you didn’t get any sleep too.”

“I’m more scared of not being able to earn money than ruining my body. Go back out already. We need to pull out quickly. They’re giving us glimpses as well.”

The conversation between the reporter and the producer could be heard. Nobody seemed to mind him since they knew that he was just here as a background actor. The reporter came back in again with a smile. His comment was no different than before.

“They’re showing us blatantly that they’re being watched. And who came here without prior notice?”

The stubbly man spoke.

Maru laughed a little when he heard those words. Even though everyone on the set was looking at the reporter right now, the reporter was saying that he was here in secret. He wasn’t fooling anybody. Anything without prior notice was on the schedule and anything unexpected was not.

The camera shot as the reporter went on the set with a small camera. The actors, who acted like they knew the reporter until just moments ago started doing their act as though they didn’t notice him. They were pretending to act so it was somewhat awkward to look at.

Meanwhile, Joohyun looked straight at the camera that was closing in on her. The other actors acted as though they were surprised by the coming camera, but she made a shameless smile as she faced the reporter. The reporter seemed to have judged that it was impossible to control Joohyun as he went straight to the interview.

“Renewing records every day! Here, I have the actors of The Witness who have contributed to the drama.”

The interview proceeded on the set. The reason they didn’t change places seemed to be to show the vitality of the field. The tourists were looking at them with excitement outside the camera view.

Just as they shot the greeting, the staff that guided the tourists spoke.

“Well then, please let me guide you to the meeting room where the writer is waiting.”

“Can’t we see the actors’ acting?”

“Of course you can. But right now, they’re shooting something else. Once you come back from your talk with the writer, you’ll be able to see them again, so you can watch them at that time and take photos as well.”

The staff spoke in a loud voice as though he was a tourist guide. He seemed to be telling everyone else that these people were going to leave. When the guide left with the tourists, the interview began.

“Please look at the questions. I’m telling you the questions beforehand, and if you think any of them is unsuitable, then please tell me. I’ll skip that question.”

Reporter Nam Joongyeon showed the actors the question sheet he had in his hand and went over the questions. After a few words of goodwill, Joohyun spoke.

“I’m going to reply as it is no matter what you ask, so ask away.”

“O-of course. Your honesty is quite well-known. But please take it easy. We couldn’t use most of the interview we took from you last time.”

“I don’t care. My image can’t get worse than this. But I don’t hate you, reporter. At least you didn’t attack me when I shot ads like mad.”

“Haha.”

The reporter was clearly sweating. A male actor next to her tapped on her shoulder to let him go, but Joohyun didn’t bat an eyelid.

“Her face is definitely decent, but her personality is shit.”

The stubbly man next to Maru spoke. Maru carefully asked him a question.

“Sounds like she doesn’t take interviews that often, huh?”

“Ahn Joohyun? She doesn’t. Last time, a journalist from KBS or RBS came and tried to get an interview from her, but she snorted and rejected, even though everyone else accepted. She didn’t budge no matter how hard the producer tried to persuade her. Well, she did get attacked by many people before that, so it’d be strange for her to maintain a good relationship with journalists and reporters.”

“I don’t think there’s any good in getting on a journalist’s bad side, is there?”

“That’s because you don’t know this area that well. To actors that are above a certain class, journalists are no different from mosquitos trying to suck their blood. Journalists are only thankful when you haven’t made a name for yourself. People like Joohyun don’t need their presence to spread her name around. In simple terms, the one in the inferior position is not her, but the journalists. Though, even though I say this, that woman is still incredible. Normally, people don’t go that far. They would usually not take such drastic action, but she clearly isn’t someone like that.”

The stubbly man crossed his arms in satisfaction.

“You sound knowledgeable.”

“I’m a fan of her after all.”

Maru was dazed for a second when a man in his mid forties replied so boldly.

“What, an old man like me can’t be a fan of someone?”

“No, I was just envious of her. It’s always reassuring to have fans that look at you in a good light.”

“I look at her in a good light because I’m a fan. Actually, I hear a lot of bad things in the field. I hear that even some actors avoid her because of her personality.”

Maru nodded. The stubbly man wanted to talk more about Joohyun, but the interview started at that time.

“Mr. Lee Junghoon, the handsome actor that’s in a passionate love in the drama. Please say a word or two for the audience.”

“Hello, viewers of Entertainment Show Weekly. I am Lee Junghoon, who plays the role of Hansoo in The Witness.”

“Miss Ahn Joohyun, please say a word too.”

“I’m Ahn Joohyun.”

She replied in the worst manner possible, but reporter Nam Joongyeon smoothly brought the conversation to Lee Junghoon. He only asked Joohyun for her reactions from time to time and didn’t ask her any questions.

While the interview proceeded, Maru went into makeup. The minor actors next to him also changed into dark-toned clothes. The makeup artist touched up his face a couple of times and then there was a big bruise around his cheekbone and lips. The makeup artist also applied something sticky at the tip of his lips, and when he had a look in the mirror, his lips looked like they were scabbed. He tried to touch it out of curiosity, but the makeup artist glared at him with a sharp inhaling sound, so didn’t.

When his makeup was about done, the producer waved his hand. It seemed that he was signalling for reporter Nam Joongyeon to finish things up. After that, the tourists that had left a while ago had returned to the set.

“Can I take an interview with these people as well? A simple ‘good luck’ is enough.”

The reporter for Entertainment Show Weekly who looked like he was about to leave came to where the minor actors were and said those words. It seemed that they were taking some footage since the interview was short.

“Both of the actors are kind to us.”

“They’re so good at acting.”

“They look after people like us. I’m always grateful for them.”

When they stood in front of the camera and the microphone, they all said the answer that the producer asked them to say. The reporter also came over to Maru.

“Are you in high school?”

“Yes.”

“Is your dream to become an actor?”

“Yes.”

“Well, please reply quickly this time. What’s your reason for trying to become an actor? Three, two, one!”

Maru replied without hesitation.

“To earn money.”

“Hahaha.”

The reporter laughed loudly before looking at the producer. The producer nodded once. The camera was turned off and the reporter thanked them for their conversation.

“It’d be much better for you to focus on studying if you want to earn money.”

The stubbly man came over and talked to him.

“That’s not entirely true.”

“Well, I thought just like you when I was your age. You can only dream while you’re still young. Good luck.”

Maru replied with a smile to the man who acted like he knew everything.

“We’re starting the shoot. Please get moving.”

The staff still put on a kind smile that Maru couldn’t get used to. They went to the set where acrylic panels were put up. The stubbly man Maru was talking to sat down at a desk, while the others were located throughout the office.

“You’re here.”

The producer acted like he knew him. He seemed to have something to say but did not, and it was probably because he couldn’t remember Maru’s name.

“It’s Han Maru, sir.”

Maru said his name first. The producer said ‘yes, that’s right, Han Maru!’ before shaking hands with him.

“You’re here.”

“Yes.”

Joohyun also came to him and greeted him. It seemed that the very act of Joohyun greeting someone else first of her own accord seemed curious to everyone around as the other actors came and had a look at his face. Maru smiled awkwardly and greeted all the actors present.

“This is him?”

“Wow, he looks scary. I heard that we got a new record in viewership the moment you appeared on the scene. You’re the lucky mascot for this team.”

Some actors smiled as they spoke. Maru wondered if it was real and looked at the producer for answers. The producer just held his thumb up.

“Just do what you did last time. It might be hard since you don’t have any lines and you have to do everything with your eyes, but since Miss Joohyun said that I can believe you, I will believe you.”

The producer shouted at everyone to get ready before turning around.

Right next to the investigation HQ set was the interrogation room set. When Maru walked towards the interrogation room, he passed in front of the stubbly man. That man stared at Maru in a daze.

Maru nodded his head before walking past him.

Chapter 410

It could be expressed as a classic interrogation room. There was a metal table that didn’t budge as well as metal chairs which likewise did not move. It was impossible to stand up directly from a sitting position due to the fixed position of the chairs. Trying to do so would make the person hit their knees on the table. It would hurt quite a bit if someone tried standing up abruptly. It was positioned such that you could only slide out sideways to stand up properly. Maru wondered if it was like this in a real interrogation room.

“You’re a murderer who knows nothing. A pure murderer. You were raised on an island and you don’t have any rejection towards killing. You were raised that way and you lived your life that way. Oh, and you can’t talk. The only thing you can say is stuff like uh, ah, oh, and stuff like that. Do you get what kind of character it is?”

“Yes.”

Maru spoke as he put his hands on the cold surface of the table. The staff put him in handcuffs. He thought that it was just a plastic prop, but it was actually metallic. A sharp metallic ring could be heard as it brushed against itself between his palms.

“I want you to express violent emotions. Just like a wild dog or something.”

“Yes, sir.”

While the producer went and talked to Joohyun, Maru took off his handcuffs and picked up his script. He glanced at the script to see what kind of emotions his character was supposed to express before practicing a bit with his lips. Since he had no lines, he had to find ways of expressing himself using something other than words. His actions had to be exaggerated, and his voice sharp. He tried moving around sideways a little and analyzed what kind of emotions he was going to express according to the script.

“Let’s get ready.”

The producer spoke as he walked in front of the monitor. The lights on the ceiling turned off. The light stand fixed on the metallic table turned on and there were reflectors installed on both sides of the set.

“Even if it’s a bit uncomfortable, endure it for a while.”

“It doesn’t feel that uncomfortable. Actually, it’s quite comfortable.”

Maru lifted his cuffed hands as he spoke. Joohyun, who sat opposite him, smiled back.

“Then let’s do this.”

Joohyun tapped on the table twice before leaving the interrogation room. Maru looked at the grey wall in front of him as he took in a deep breath. The back of his head prickled a little.

“Well then, Miss Joohyun, enter.”

The studio became quiet with a single ‘cue’ sound. Maru slowed down his breathing and lowered his head as he waited. Eventually, a creaking sound could be heard before the iron door opened. Joohyun, wearing an expressionless face, sighed in a low voice as she came in. She sat down on the chair and lifted the file she carried in with her. The sound of rustling paper created a strange sense of tension.

“You can’t talk, huh. Is it that you can’t, or is it that you won’t?”

Joohyun put the file upside down on the table quietly.

“Actually, I don’t mind. Whether you can talk or not has nothing to do with me. Maybe it's because I’m trashy, but I can read other trashy people’s minds. So I don’t need words to speak with you.”

Joohyun pushed the file away from her lightly. The file slid across the table and stopped in front of Maru. Maru looked at the yellow file cover before grabbing the file and twisting it apart. The handcuffs hurt him a little, but he didn’t mind. He then thrashed the messy file against the ground. Joohyun looked at the file once before speaking.

“Han Sunggoo, Choi Jaechul, Kin Jintaek. You might not be able to speak, but you can understand, right? These names. They aren’t that unfamiliar to you, are they? They shouldn’t be. That’s because you killed them all. For Han Sunggoo, you stabbed him with a kitchen knife six times. Cleanly in the chest too. As for Choi Jaechul, he died by strangulation. You used his necktie, didn’t you? Lastly, it’s Kim Jintaek. For him, you used a hammer. It’s quite curious. Usually, murderers have a weapon they stick to or a method of killing for that matter. But you just kill. With no form, no aesthetics, no nothing. You just kill.”

Maru slowly raised his head. The camera that shot his face entered his vision. The camera shot him from above. He had to be aware of the camera, but not notice it. He tensed the inner part of his cheekbones, where the nasolabial folds were. His upper lips rolled upwards and trembled.

Since he created the form of the expression, what was left for him now was to pour his emotions into it. He was a child who had nothing with him. He was a child that had no sense of guilt since killing people was akin to breathing to him. A kid who could only vent his frustration by running around wildly like a wild dog was tied up and imprisoned in a place full of metal.

He wasn’t afraid of punishment. He did not know such a thing. He was only annoyed at the reality that he could not do as he wished to. He was anxious. His hands were twitching. He wanted to leave this uncomfortable place this instant and run around wildly.

Clang clang clang. The handcuffs and the metallic table bashed and created a loud noise. He was a child that could not speak. His only form of expression was action. He hit the table according to a certain rhythm. He didn’t do it strongly though, since this was just a warning.

Joohyun stood back up again. She was Bangjoo’s big sister as well as an actress that was high above him. He knew that fact, but the rage he brought up did not dissipate.

He bared his teeth at Joohyun who approached him. He did not restrain his shaking body and gave it free rein. Joohyun faintly smiled back at him as well. She was also a fierce wild dog.

“You must have killed them. Yes, you did. But why? Because you like killing? No. Those three people have nothing in common. They even live in different places, and their ages are drastically far apart. It’s not from resentment, and it’s not like you have sadistic tendencies. Then what could it be? Just why did you kill those three people? You know, I don’t think of you as a crazy murderer. I can smell the scent of a pro from you. You killed those three too cleanly as though it was your job. What is it? Just who the hell are you? No, who the hell’s behind you?”

She approached a step closer. A shadow was cast over her face since she was facing her back against the light stand. Maru had a look at that shadow. In that darkness, Joohyun’s eyes glistened with lunacy. He got goosebumps on his skin. If he met such eyes in a normal situation, he would’ve turned his head away subconsciously. Those eyes were supposed to be avoided. The wave of emotions that assaulted him from in front of him shook Maru’s body.

At this rate, he would be pushed back. If it was impossible to return one hundred percent of Joohyun’s acting, then he had to not break the flow of the scene at least. Maru stopped thinking and brought out more primitive emotions.

Until now, he had never brought out emotions without restraint when shooting for a drama. Even when he was expressing something violent, another ‘self’ was always watching his acting self. That self was the controller of his emotions, and the director that directed everything going on in his heart. Even when his acting self was angry, annoyed, or crying, that self always gave orders so that the acting self could maintain a certain level of sanity. Maru adjusted the level of his emotions that way. Maintaining the depth of emotions he could control. That was an acting philosophy that Maru treated as more important than anything else.

And right now, Maru’s other self turned a blind eye. This was just pushing work onto his acting self. The observing self could not counter Joohyun’s acting. Matching her was something only possible if he was on the same level. Matching Joohyun’s acting and her emotions was still too hard, at least for now.

That was why he gave up on one part. Since his polished emotions were worse than Joohyun’s acting, he had to push onto her his raw, unpolished emotions.

There was only one time that Maru acted recklessly like this.

-I’ll receive anything you throw at me so go ahead and show me all you got.

Elder Moonjoong. He was someone that beautifully matched him even if he pushed onto him his raw emotions. Joohyun also seemed capable of filling what he lacked.

With this being the case, he didn’t need to be focused on his lacking acting skills and could change his direction so that his opposing actor could be highlighted even more.

The script flashed past his mind. Despite his rationale’s negligence, his mind thankfully still remembered the script. What was left now was to explode with his emotions.

Maru could no longer see how his facial muscles were moving. He only hoped that the boiling rage showed up on his face. All he felt was that his facial skin was being twisted.

Just then, Joohyun, who was right in front of his face, smiled as though she was happy. She wasn’t someone that tossed emotions back and forth with him according to an agreement just now. She received the emotions protruding from Maru and heightened the flow of the scene.

The more violent Maru became, the more proficient of a hunter Joohyun became as well. Her eyes seemed to say thus: Go wild even more.

“Aaaaaaargh!”

He reached out with his cuffed hands and grabbed Joohyun by the neck. Every finger joint was tense. Joohyun’s mouth opened wide as she was being strangled. She also bared her teeth and smiled.

Joohyun axed the bend in Maru’s arm with her elbow. Along with a loud thud, Maru’s arm fell on the table. With no time to feel the pain, Maru twisted his body immediately. His knees crashed against the fixed metal table numerous times and created a loud noise. He grabbed Joohyun’s collars and shook them wildly, while Joohyun grabbed Maru by the hair. Maru pulled hard, and Joohyun did the same.

The two faces closed in on each other to the point that a fist could not fit between the two. Maru looked at her with a shaky breath, while she also shut her mouth tightly and looked down at Maru.

Maru kept pulling on her collars. A ripping sound could be heard somewhere, but it didn’t matter to him. For a brief moment, the thought that he should stop flashed past in his mind, but the strength in his hands became stronger. A wave of uncontrollable anger was directed at Joohyun. The thought that he couldn’t end things like this filled his head.

Just as a low gurgling sound could be heard behind his twisted lips, Joohyun pushed his head onto the table.

The desk closed in on him. Just before his forehead met the table, he felt Joohyun softening her strength. It seemed that she was perfectly controlling herself even during this violent act.

However, Maru did not stop. There was a loud thud. A sharp pain rang in his head, and at the same time, his immersion broke.

“Cut!”

Maru loosened his entire body when he heard the cut signal. He put his face against the table and did not move. No, he couldn’t move. He felt that he had to stay like this for a bit.

His mind felt complex, and his heart did not calm down. He felt that he might get angry at Joohyun if he looked at her now. He needed some time to calm down his rampant emotions.

Just as he was calming his breathing as he looked down at the set, a hand was placed on his head.

“That was some good drive.”

Joohyun patted Maru’s head. Maru made a powerless smile and raised his head up. He saw Joohyun smiling in front of him. She didn’t look messy at all. It seemed that the emotions she showed just now had been taken back in already. The disappearance of the female detective that was pressuring her assassin was quite swift.

“I think that’s the bottom of my emotions.”

Maru thought back to the acting methodology that Joohyun talked about before as he spoke.

“You’re still far from it.”

Joohyun tapped Maru’s cheeks with the back of her hands as she spoke.

“Hey, hey! Han-whoever-it-was! Is your head okay?”

The producer ran up to him and asked. Thinking that this producer was really bad at remembering names, Maru replied,

“I’m fine.”

Chapter 411

“You’re okay? Then shall we do that again?”

Hearing the producer’s words, Maru heavily turned his head around. He was supposed to show that he was okay, but unlike his wish, his face made a stiff smile instead. If he did this one more time, his knees, his head, and his arms wouldn’t be as intact anymore.

“I was just joking. You did great. You did great too, Miss Joohyun.”

“Then should we move on to the next part?”

“We should move on to the next scene.”

The producer told Maru that he did well and patted him on the shoulders. Only after hearing that they were moving on to the next scene could he loosen his body. Two hours of waiting, five minutes of shooting. The only thing left for him now was to go home.

“Hey, wait.”

The producer, who was about to turn around, stared at Maru’s forehead before brushing away his hair which came down to his eyebrows. Maru cringed for a brief moment there. That was because he could feel a dull pain when the producer’s hand touched him.

“This guy’s bleeding.”

The producer called one of the staff members. Maru was guided by that staff to the waiting room. He said that he was okay and that he would be fine as long as he wiped it off with a tissue, but the producer was quite stubborn. He told Maru to get proper treatment and go to the hospital if anything arose.

“I don’t think there’s a big problem since it’s only a slight cut, but go to the hospital like the director said. We can provide the hospital fee if you give the receipt to us.”

The staff left the waiting room while telling Maru to be careful as he went home. Whether it was a rough shoot, a shoot with a good atmosphere, or just a quiet shoot, they were all sensitive to accidents. Since there were more accidents during shooting than people expected, everyone was sensitive to people getting injured. Maru tried touching his forehead. The rough sensation of the gauze could be felt. He tried tapping on it, but the pain wasn’t as bad as last time.

‘Looks like I don’t need to go to the hospital.’

He picked up his bag and left the waiting room. He heard some laughs from the set which was at the end of the corridor. It seemed that an NG had occurred.

He left the studio building as he started eating the chocolate cookies he took from the waiting room. The sun had completely set and it was dark. Thanks to the fact that the heat from the summer hadn’t gone away, there were many people in the park in front of the building. He could hear a saxophone sound from afar. It seemed that someone was putting on a performance.

People were gathered around a café in the middle of the park. A cable that protruded out from a black sedan was connected to an amplifier, and next to that amp was a chair with long legs that an old gentleman, who seemed to be over 60 years old, was sitting on. He bowed his head at the people in front of him after turning over the page. The audience quietly applauded.

Maru walked up to the front and sat on the ground. Although the concrete was cold, he did not mind. The people gathered around also started sitting down one by one.

The old gentleman took a deep breath before starting to play the saxophone. The saxophone rode on the low-pitched music box-like sound that came out of the amplifier. The old man closed his eyes and played in a relaxing manner.

Listening to the music that made his heart calm, his emotions, which had ragged edges, started becoming blunt. He didn’t know what the music was, but for some reason, he could follow along with a hum. The people around him also hummed as well.

‘I need more experience.’

Although his ears were listening to music, his head was in deep thought. Even a little child could one-sidedly pour out emotions. He had to go beyond that stage and be able to communicate with those emotions.

After the performance ended, Maru applauded the old gentleman who bowed again.

“It’s pretty hot out here, isn’t it?”

The old gentleman spoke after grabbing the microphone on his stand. An amp, a microphone, and even the leisure to emcee. It didn’t look like he had little experience doing street performances. Maru stopped thinking about his matters for a while and looked at the old gentleman.

“When I first performed with this saxophone, I was really embarrassed. I mean, even the name of the instrument is ‘sax’ophone[1]. Just saying my instrument out loud was embarrassing.”

The audience giggled.

“When I first came across this saxophone in the Nakwon mall[2], the first thing I thought was me playing this instrument in a cool fashion and grandmas looking at me in astonishment. Men want to receive attention from women even at this age, you know? I was completely won over when the employee told me that I’d look really cool since I could play the saxophone at my age, and bought it. Do you know how I felt when I got home and tried blowing in it? I went - Ah! I was completely fooled!”

The old gentleman puffed up his cheeks before blowing the saxophone. It sounded like a children’s squishy toy.

“No matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t get it to sound cool. It was frustrating. I thought I would be able to make a cool sound if I just blew in it like the recorder my grandson played for me. But it didn’t work like that. I bought this saxophone for one-and-a-half million won. Then, it became a one-and-a-half million won paperweight in three days. It hurt my lips to blow in it, and god, how hard the finger techniques were!”

The old gentleman paused with a satisfactory smile before showing off his saxophone a bit.

“But curiously, even though I thought my skills would never improve, they did when I kept trying. When the squeaky sound became more manageable to listen to, I became greedier and kept practicing and practicing. I’ve never been as passionate about anything ever since I retired from the workforce, but ever since I did this, I tried going to local study sessions, and tried studying to look things up on this internet thing… I lived every day as enjoyable as I did in my youth.”

The old gentleman put down the microphone and spoke. His raw voice and the voice from the amplifier intertwined with each other to create a strange ring.

“It doesn’t matter what the trigger is. It doesn’t matter what you’re doing. If the thing you’re doing makes you move, if the thing you’re doing makes you uncontrollable then that… must be the most meaningful thing to your life. There’s no need to be hasty just because you’re bad at something. If you keep doing it, you’ll do well someday. What is important is to keep holding onto it.”

A low saxophone sound followed up. Maru felt drowsy as though he just woke up from sleep. His brain, which was researching the correlation between expression, emotion, and action had stopped working for a little.

There’s no need to be hasty. What’s important is to keep holding onto it.

If he heard those words in an ordinary situation, he would’ve forgotten about it immediately thinking that those were the words of the irresponsible, but right now, those words resonated with his heart. His lacking acting skills would improve as long as he kept doing it. Perhaps he might hit a wall of talent one day, but until that time, he would be able to progress, even if it was at a slow rate.

Maru checked the time on his phone. It was a little past 8 right now. He stood up from where he was sitting and went into the café. The people inside the café were also watching the elderly man with the saxophone outside. After getting the coffee he ordered, he sat in front of the old man again. He decided to enjoy this time to the end.

* * *

“Play that back again.”

Joohyun looked at the producer who smiled as he snapped his fingers. He played back the footage from the secondary camera several times over while nodding.

“Miss Joohyun, this guy’s expression is really not ordinary.”

On the monitor was Maru, who was growling while baring his teeth. Even though it was a still image, the viciousness could still be felt.

“Thanks to him, I had some fun. I thought it might be a little over the top since it’s an obvious scene, but Maru really brought the life out of that scene.”

“I was only looking at your expression from behind you through the main camera, so I didn’t realize what kind of acting he was doing. Now I can see why you were so excited as you were acting. I mean, just look at his face. His eyes are goddamn scary. I might need to consider cross-editing this.”

“I think you should cut out a bit of my part and insert his. What do you think?”

Joohyun usually did not make such opinions in front of the producer. That was because she thought that the direction of editing was the director’s authority alone. It was proper etiquette to not mention anything unless they asked, but she tried inputting her opinion since the picture looked so good.

“If you say that, I’d gladly do so. Your angle is really good, but this fella’s expression is just too good to pass by. Uhm, what was his name again?”

“Han Maru. Why don’t you commit it to memory now?”

“Sorry. But at least I remembered your name immediately. So that you wouldn’t swear at me.”

The producer grinned sneakily.

“Man, it’s such a pity. Since we used him up like this, we can’t use him again either. Miss Joohyun, you should’ve told me if you knew people like this.”

“You should call him for your next work then.”

“I won’t have any work to do for a while after this series, so how could I? I should keep him in mind and try poking him into some of my junior’s works. He doesn’t belong to an agency, right?”

“He should be in a contract with JA Production.”

“With JA? I heard that they only handle the best of the best. Oho, JA, huh.”

“He shouldn’t be doing activities under his name yet though.”

The producer nodded a couple of times before typing something on his phone.

Joohyun stretched her neck a few times as she returned to the set. She looked at the script while wiping the sweat she got from the strong lights. She was reminded of Maru’s eyes. It was quite scary. It wasn’t that she wasn’t looking forward to it or anything, but she didn’t realize that he could do so much. She thought that Maru was really good at putting his emotions into speech during the read-through for Twilight Struggles, but now that she saw his acting in person, his emotional acting was at a considerable level as well. There were parts where he was expressing too much emotion, but it was much better than holding back too much. Thanks to that, she had fun acting. As Maru came at her for real, she could also bring out her abilities without holding back.

Joohyun raised her hands and touched her neck. The part Maru strangled her was still aching a little. That boy really put his mind to it. She didn’t say anything at the time since she might make him worry, but in reality, she had a little hard time breathing at the last part. This meant that Maru was just as immersed, and also that he was not fully in control.

“We’re starting the next scene.”

Joohyun put down her script and checked the parts around her neck in the mirror. Thankfully, there were no visible injuries. Her skin was a little red, but it should calm down soon.

“Miss Ahn Joohyun.”

“Yes, I’m coming.”

Well then, it was time to finish things off. This was the last scene for the day. Joohyun shook her hands lightly as she walked.

* * *

“Hyung.”

“Yeah?”

“Why don’t we stop for a bit?”

“What? Why? Do you need to go to the bathroom?”

“No.”

“Then why?”

“Just now, you dozed off for around 3 seconds. I am really scared right now, so why don’t you park the car already?”

Byunchan looked at Yoo Sooil, who was smiling at him from the side, before nodding and parking the car on the side of the road.

“You should get some sleep.”

“No, I don’t feel that sleepy.”

“Then why don’t we get that to eat? I’m a bit hungry.”

Sooil pointed at the car in front of them. It was a small truck that sold grain pops and beondegi[3].

“I’ll buy it for you,” Byungchan spoke.

“Oh no. We should use company money to do this. We’re poor as heck. We’ll get our money back as long as we have the receipt, right?”

“I don’t think vendors like that give you receipts though.”

“That’s why I prepared this.”

Sooil took out blank receipts from his bag. Byungchan burst out laughing.

“Why don’t we get some fresh air?”

Byungchan said yes as he opened the car.

[1] The ‘sax’ part of ‘saxophone’ sounds similar to ‘sex’ when said in Korean.

[2] Biggest musical instrument shop district in Seoul.

[3] Boiled silkworm pupae. Wikipedia for details.

Chapter 412

“Please write your name right here.”

“Geez, this is the first time someone wanted a receipt for something worth 8 thousand won.”

“Every little bit of savings helps. Oh, write your name here and over here.”

Sooil ended up getting a receipt from him. Byungchan was flabbergasted by his actions. If it was possible to get a receipt from a vending machine after buying coffee, Sooil would probably get a receipt from that as well.

Sooil returned with the beondegi and the grain pops in hand.

“They smell good, don’t they?”

“You really like these things.”

“I love snacks. But where are we right now?”

“We just went past Maesong IC so we should be in Ansan soon.”

Byungchan skewered a pupa with a toothpick before putting it in his mouth. It tasted as great as he had remembered.

“It looks like they’re fishing over there.”

“The Songra fishing zone, huh. You can get a diverse variety of fish there.”

“You’ve been here before?”

“A lot, actually.”

Byungchan came to this place when he failed auditions and was in a bad mood. Talking to new people while fishing made him forget about the sense of loss that pressured his heart. Though, he had never been to this place ever since he started working as a road manager.

“Shall we try going there?”

“Aren’t you tired?”

“I’m fine if you’re fine with it. I’m just sitting still doing nothing so there’s nothing for me to get tired from.”

“Then should we go down there for a sec? It should help with shaking off the drowsiness too.”

“Sounds good to me.”

He emptied the cup of beondegi before crumpling the paper cup and throwing it away. When he did, Sooil picked it back up and put it in a plastic bag. Byungchan had been driving Sooil to his schedule many times, but never had he seen him litter. In fact, he would be the one picking up the trash on the ground.

“It’s just a habit of mine.”

Feeling Byungchan’s gaze, Sooil smiled back and spoke. He had been shooting for half the day, and was being driven for the rest, so he should be tired as well, but he always smiled like that. He was a really good guy.

They drove down to the reservoir. Although there was a parking lot near the fishing area, they did not drive all the way there. That was because they saw some people doing night fishing.

When they got out of the car, the smell of water tickled their nose. Byungchan didn’t have any good memories of this place since this was his refuge, but it did feel rather new to have come here after a long time. Although he hadn’t become a famous actor yet, he wasn’t doing nothing so he considered himself as better than before. Byungchan made a smile mixed with a sigh.

Perhaps due to the warm weather, there were a lot of people enjoying night fishing. His fingers twitched. He had never caught anything big, so he couldn’t be considered a veteran, but he could still remember the sensation of some small fish flapping around.

“Do you want one?”

He saw Sooil playing around with some kids with the grain pops. The children’s parents were smiling as they watched the kids. Sooil had a kind-looking face, so even people he had never met before weren’t wary against him. That was definitely an advantage, whether as an actor, or as just a human.

“Hyung. I got a fishing rod.”

Perhaps he got that in exchange for a grain pop? The father of the child gave Sooil his seat. Byungchan approached him and thanked him.

“People come here to talk to new people, right?”

The man spoke as he had his two prankster daughters sit next to him. Byungchan thanked him again before sitting next to him.

The lights on the other side of the fishing area faintly shone down on the reservoir. There was a moon in the sky, and the sunset was reflected on the surface of the water. Just as he was watching the glistening of the water, he saw Sooil raise the fishing rod a little.

“Did it move?”

“No, I was just checking. But there really was no bite.”

“You should pull when you feel something. Before that, it doesn’t matter how hard you pull.”

“Really?”

“You haven’t fished before?”

“Never.”

“You see that glowing float over there, right? If you see it suddenly get sucked down, then you should pull on it.”

“Would I get a fish then?”

“No, if you can catch it just because you see it, everyone in the world would be master fishermen.”

Sooil nodded and started staring at the float.

Byungchan breathed slowly as he looked at the sky. His floaty consciousness had returned a little. He felt that he would be fine if he rested just a little more.

“Do you want some ramyun?” The man that lent them the fishing rod asked.

“No, we’re fi…”

“I’ll cook it for you!”

Byungchan was about to refuse, since he felt that they were receiving too much, but Sooil had stood up and set up the portable stove already. The man that was opening the packaging for the ramyun smiled in satisfaction before returning to his seat.

“Your little brother?”

“Well, I guess you can call him that.”

“He has a good big brother, bringing him to a fishing area.”

“We just came here on a coincidence. Oh, have you caught anything?”

“Nope, not even one. I was going to show my kids some fish, but looks like today’s not the day.”

The man turned around and told his daughters not to annoy the oppa too much. The two girls next to Sooil nodded their heads. When the man turned on the radio and started waiting, Sooil brought them the ramyun. The spicy smell of the ramyun was a perfect complement to the quiet fishing area.

Emptying his portion in an instant, Byungchan checked the time. It was 9. They would arrive in Seoul after 10. Although he was still a little tired, he couldn’t delay longer. Sooil had a schedule tomorrow. Unlike himself, who could just sleep the whole day, Sooil had work to do tomorrow. He might ruin his condition if he missed his opportunity to rest, so he had to be careful about that.

“Let’s get going.”

“Let’s go after seeing the float sinking at least once,” Sooil spoke with a pleading expression.

“You have a shoot for an ad tomorrow.”

“I just have to sit down quietly in a classroom. It’s nothing difficult, so let’s stay here a little bit longer.”

Sooil was the type of person who would follow others obediently, but became stubborn once he was obsessed with something. Byungchan had no choice but to sit back down again.

“Thirty minutes. You need to get some rest as well. You know that pros have to be meticulous with self-management, right?”

“I do. You should get some rest too. You must be tired.”

Byungchan crossed his arms and sighed. He leaned back against the plastic chair and stared at the float that was floating around in the water. It seemed that Sooil had taken an interest in fishing as he was holding with the fishing rod without any movement.

‘Should I sleep for around thirty minutes?’

Perhaps thanks to the warm ramyun stock, sleep suddenly overwhelmed him. He felt that he should be fine if he got a short nap. Splash - he heard water noise somewhere as he closed his eyes.

* * *

Byungchan was startled and drowsy as he woke up. He immediately checked the time. The hour hand was moving past the number eleven.

When he turned around, he couldn’t see the man or Sooil. Just as he stood up in a rush of panic, he heard some voices.

“Wow, that looks good.”

People were grilling meat on a grill on top of a drum barrel. It seemed that all the fishermen from around had gathered. Behind them, he could see a tent. The kids were sleeping inside.

After watching that scenery, that seemed so distant from real life, in a daze, Byungchan sighed and walked up to Sooil.

“Oh, hyung. You’re awake.”

“Why didn’t you wake me up? It’s 11 o’clock already.”

“Who cares? For now, come here and try this. This ahjussi is treating us all.”

A man in his fifties, wearing a hat, waved his hand and smiled at him. On his hat were the words ‘Mansunho[1]’.

“You have a shoot tomorrow. If you go home now, it will be past midnight, and you have to get up early tomorrow as well. You’ll only get some sleep if you go now.”

“Hyung, I have good stamina. Rather than that, say ah.”

Sooil gave him a big lettuce ssam[2]. Byungchan momentarily became angry when he saw Sooil being so complacent.

Sooil was an actor who was acknowledged for his talents. He was the only underage actor that was introduced on the JA Production homepage. It meant that he had gained the president’s approval. Although Byungchan was managing the child actors, Sooil was always at the top of his priority list. When child actors needed to be driven somewhere, he always prioritized Sooil if his schedule clashed with someone else. He also heard from the president that he should focus on Sooil.

Once Sooil grew up a little more and he could take a role from a more diverse variety, he would become the face of JA that represents them. He had the acting skills, personality, and even the looks that went with it, so he would become successful no matter what.

Yet, why did he not look after himself when he had all those qualities and conditions?

Byungchan had tried to become an actor since young, but he had failed every time. He admired actors on screens, but he had never reached them. Although he was still giving his all right now, he didn’t know how long he could keep that up. Actually, he started thinking that it might be better to focus on his job as a manager starting a while ago. He had the thought that it would be wiser for him to tell himself that he had done well and that he should start facing reality.

Since he had such worries, he became angry when he saw Sooil act complacent. In recent days, there were scary new actors rising day after day. Those kids, who had undergone a systemized academy system showed acting skills that even he had to marvel at.

Sooil’s competition was those people. He had to get some sleep if he had time to loiter around in this place, and he was at the age where he should focus on researching into his own acting to make it better.

Laughing and talking could be done after achieving success.

Byungchan put the lettuce ssam on the grill. He tensed his eyes and glared at Sooil.

“Let’s go. You need to rest.”

“…Alright. But you should eat that. You’ll get punished if you throw food away.”

Sooil smiled until the very end. Byungchan stuffed the lettuce ssam into his mouth. Sooil put down his chopsticks and said goodbye to everyone around.

Seeing Sooil walk towards the car, Byungchan sighed. He wondered when Sooil would become serious about his work. He even wanted to tell him about his own life and how regretting after failing was absolutely worthless.

“Uhm, you shouldn’t be so stuck-up.”

Just as he was about to follow Sooil, the man that lent them the fishing rod said to him.

“Me?”

“Who else is here? That boy did try to wake you up. But you kept on sleeping without a care in the world. You wouldn’t know how much he hesitated as he saw his big brother sleep. I told him that I can wake you up in his stead, but he stopped me, saying that there was nothing urgent and he could afford to take it slow.”

Byungchan closed his eyes and lowered his head. At that moment, he saw a piece of paper on the ground. He bent down and picked it up. There was a line from the drama that Sooil was going to shoot on that piece of paper. It was written by hand. There were questions and answers about those lines right next to them as well.

“From what I saw, that boy was mumbling to himself as he stared at that. I don’t know what it is, but he seemed very obsessed with it. Isn’t it important?”

“Ah, yes. It’s very important.”

Sooil wasn’t playing around. Byungchan felt embarrassed. He was trying to give him a word of advice as a ‘senior’ in life, when this was what was going on.

Byungchan said goodbye to the people around before walking towards the car. He opened the driver’s seat and got in. He looked at Sooil next to him while resolving that he should apologize. Sooil was eating some food out of a plastic bag.

“You need to save up whenever you can. I received them since they told me that they won’t be able to finish it. There’s quite a lot, isn’t there?”

“Uhm, Sooil…”

“Do you want one as well? It’s good.”

Before he could even say sorry. Sooil gave him a chocolate cookie. Byungchan bitterly smiled and accepted the cookie.

“Fishing is fun. We should come here again next time.”

“…Alright. Let’s come here again.”

“I feel sleepy now that I’m full. Hyung, I’m getting some sleep. Wake me up if you feel lonely on the way.”

Then, Sooil soon fell asleep. Byungchan shook his head as he started driving. Just as he entered the highway, he suddenly had a thought: he wanted to become this boy’s manager if he actually decided to continue working as a manager.

Byungchan smiled faintly as he stepped on the gas pedal.

[1] This probably means ‘full fish ship’. It’s also being used as a brand according to research.

[2] Wrap, usually with vegetables. Wikipedia for more info.

Chapter 413

“Club activities start today?”

“Yeah, it’s been a while since school started, so we should slowly start getting things together.”

“Have you decided on a play?”

“Not yet. I’m planning to decide on one once the instructor comes.”

“Sorry I can’t help you out.”

“Once we get the schedule straight and we start practicing, I’m going to call you all the time, so don’t worry about that.”

The acting club started practicing for the winter nationals. During the summer preliminaries, they were defeated by a high school they didn’t even know the name of. Hwasoo High. That was a high school that they didn’t even hear about in last year’s preliminaries. Yet, such a school had gone to the nationals as second place after Myunghwa High. He didn’t have enough time to go watch their play, but he could hear some opinions from her.

-One incredibly good guy is leading the rest.

Although the national competition held in Seoul Arts Hall in August was won by Myunghwa High as he had expected, it was not a complete victory. They had to give up the Best Actor Award to Hwasoo High. The myth of Myunghwa High’s undefeated record of perfect victories had been finally broken.

“Hwasoo High, were they always so good?” Maru asked Daemyung.

“I was also curious about that and asked teacher Taesik. But even he said that it was a school he didn’t know. Apparently, they never participated in the Gyeonggi regionals until now.”

“Are they a new school then?”

“No, it’s not that either. Apparently, it’s a school in Seoul, and it seems quite famous in terms of academic results. It has a high advancement rate into good universities.”

“And they suddenly participated in the regionals this year and got second place?”

“Yeah. He told me that he heard some very skilled first years created the club, but I don’t really know many details. Oh, we have to go now. Good luck with your work.”

Daemyung and Dowook left the classroom together.

“I’m going.”

“Bye.”

Iseul grabbed Dojin and disappeared. Dojin was practically marrying into Iseul’s family, not the other way round. Apparently, it had been more than half a year since he started going to her family’s restaurant and working there. He apparently chopped onions all the way through summer, so Iseul’s parents should have taken a liking to his earnest actions.

“Han Maru, let’s go play basketball.”

“I have work to do.”

“Why do you always have work?”

“I wonder about that too.”

“Can’t you just play a single game? It’s because we’re lacking people. Also, we’re playing with the class next door, so we can’t exactly bring anyone.”

“Which class? Electrical? Mechanical?”

“Mechanical.”

Maru looked at the time. It was 5 p.m. While academic-focused high schools practically forced their students with mandatory after-school self study sessions, this school was taking ‘self’ study sessions a little too broadly in its meaning. This was why practically no one remained after school.

“Aren’t you going to self study sessions?”

“I can do that starting 3rd year. Rather than that, you’re coming, right? If you really can’t do a full match, then just help us out until 40 points. It’s an 80-point bet.”

“80 points in this weather? You guys are amazing.”

Maru pointed at the school field with his chin. The kids holding basketballs were cheering.

“But hey, what are you doing? A drama?”

“No, today, it’s for an ad.”

“You shoot ads too?”

“I’m just an extra. I’m just in the background.”

“Who else is in it?”

His friends listed the actresses in the country with a big grin on their faces.

“How would I know? I’m just going because the company told me I had work.”

“They didn’t tell you anything?”

“They would if I needed to know something. But why would I need to know anything when I’m at the bottom of the rung? I just do whatever they tell me to.”

Maru left the school building with a basketball in hand. He saw the guys from the mechanical engineering class waiting at the court.

“I’m leaving after 40 points.”

“Alright, everyone starts that way. 40 becomes 50, and 50 becomes a full match.”

The boys patted his back as they ran forward. Maru sighed as he followed them. A sports match between classes, whether it was basketball or football, was a match where they put their pride on the line, so it would cause a huge fuss if they lost. This was especially the case with the four people in his class. Those four played basketball whenever they had the time to. If he pulled out mid way without showing them anything, they’d probably text him and call him endlessly. It would be quite annoying.

“It’s hot, so let’s get this over with quickly.”

Maru threw the ball to the court as he spoke. There were three hours until the shoot.

* * *

He wasn’t running - that was the thought he had as he wiped the sweat off his forehead. The heat that he washed away along with his sweat at the washing area had come back to him again.

“Sorry. The air conditioning is broken. Don’t close the windows!”

The wave of heat he felt as he scanned his bus pass was just the preview. It was 6 in the evening, and the bus was full. He could tell what expressions the people on the bus, nay, the portable sauna, were making.

‘Man, I wanna get a car.’

When it came to driving, he had driven more than he ever needed to, but right at this moment, he wanted to grab the wheel. Even a small car was fine, as long as he could go somewhere in comfort.

Despite the silent screams from the bus, the bus driver kept loading more passengers into the bus. Maru, who was pushed to the window side, made an awkward smile to the person sitting and looked outside the window. He would arrive at the train station in just 4 more stops. Air conditioning was coming.

* * *

Murphy’s law. He had to read the expressions of the people in the car when the train arrived. The train driver’s announcement floated above his head: the air conditioning is currently under maintenance. We apologize for your inconvenience.

The door opened along with the announcement that they arrived at Yeouinaru station. Maru shook his head as he left the train. It was quite a tiresome day. This was definitely not his lucky day today.

After passing the ticket barrier, he immediately entered a convenience store. He was finally greeted with some cool air. He bought a tube popsicle and the chilliest canned drink he could find. He wanted to buy some beer, but he wasn’t old enough yet.

He chewed on the tube popsicle as he headed towards the meetup place. His original schedule today was a shoot for the historical drama, but he got a message that it was cancelled the night before. He wasn’t notified of the reason though.

He thought that he could get some rest since a schedule was up in the air, but it seemed that his company did not plan on having him rest. He immediately got a call from Byungchan. There was a shoot for an ad, and he was needed to fill the headcount.

He left through the 3rd exit. The Hangang park was filled with people running away from the heat. After throwing away the empty popsicle tube, he looked around. He saw a group of people in a place a bit away from the 3rd exit. They looked completely awkward with each other, so they didn’t seem to be companions. That left one possible answer. Maru also walked towards that group. He saw a person checking names.

“Is this the meetup place for the ad shoot?”

“Ah, yes. Where are you from? Taeyang? Daejoon? KA?”

“I just got a call from my company.”

“Really? What’s your name then?”

“Han Maru.”

“Han Maru, Han Maru. Oh, here it is. JA, huh? Do you know how to write the log?”

“Yes.”

The man handed him a palm-sized piece of paper.

“Write ‘commercial advertisement’ on the program, and ‘casual’ for the clothes. Once you’re done give it back to me.”

He gave the man the log after writing his name, and some of his personal information. This was usually for companies that managed background actors for their payroll. There was no reason for him to write one since he didn’t come here through one of them, but he wrote one anyway since he was told to.

There were around twenty people gathered here. Since it was a shoot for a telecommunication company, there were only young people around.

“We’re moving now. Please get in the coach.”

They got in a coach and were driven for around 10 minutes. Maru saw a school outside the window. Jangho Highschool. The bus went past the school gates and parked in the middle of the school field.

“We’re getting off.”

There were many cars parked in the school field other than the coach they came in. Students peeked outside the classroom in curiosity since they seemed to be in self-study sessions. It seemed that there weren’t any celebrities here yet. Maru could tell that from the lack of noise.

“Please change into gym uniforms. Oh, and don’t forget to take off any accessories you’re wearing. Over there! The one with strong hair. Please tone it down.”

A man who styled his hair with wax brushed his hair with his hand in dejection. Maru changed into the gym uniform in the bathroom and moved to the right side of the main school building. He saw a few students who escaped the watch of the teachers and came here to watch, but they soon left after finding out that there weren’t any celebrities here.

“Please quiet down. We’re going to the 4th floor.”

The man led the people to an empty classroom on the 4th floor.

‘Balls?’

There were table tennis balls in many colors inside boxes. Just the number of boxes lined up in the corridor numbered a dozen at least. Maru wondered what they were going to do with all those balls.

“Once the shoot begins, you just need to throw the balls around and look like you’re enjoying it as much as possible.”

“You mean those?”

“Yes.”

The uses for them were revealed. He thought that there was going to be a warm couple since he was told that it was an ad for a telecommunication company, but it seemed that he was wrong. He went inside the classroom and waited for the main characters. He wondered which celebrities were coming.

He yawned and had a look at the time. It was past 8 now. The equipment for the shoot seemed to be almost set up as well. There were eight cameras in the corridor shooting the class through the window, and six cameras at the back of the class. He had never seen so many cameras before. He thought that the funds for shooting a 15-second long aesthetics would match the budget of an ordinary drama episode.

“Please get ready. The director is coming.”

It was finally time. Maru stretched his neck out and looked at the back door of the classroom. He saw a woman with dark bags under her eyes. She looked very tired. She was young too, so Maru wondered if she was sick or something.

“I hope we can do this enjoyably, Haha. I am Park Jiseon, and I’ll be working with you today. And yes, I am the director. Though, I don’t think any of you wanted to know that.”

She yawned as she staggered her way across and sat down. Behind her, a good-looking man and a woman pair came in. They were actors he saw on TV. Also, one of them was someone he knew.

“Oh? Han Maru.”

He waved his hand at him. It was the guy who always had a grin on his face, Sooil.

Chapter 414

“Yes, yes. Over there. Throw it towards the blackboard. As for those of you gathered over there, scatter it towards the ceiling. Like this.”

The director put her hands into the box with the logo of the telecommunication company and scattered the balls into the air. The multi-colored table tennis balls flew into the air before falling back down again. The staff and the background actors picked them back up.

“Make it look like you’re enjoying it as much as possible. You can go a little overboard if you want. We’ll blur your faces, so you don’t need to worry about that. Just exaggerate your actions as much as possible.”

After saying those words, the director took off the baseball cap she was wearing to scratch her head. While the fatigue-struck female director explained to the actors the theme for this ad, Maru put down the box that the staff gave him at his feet. It was full of red table tennis balls. The one sitting next to him had blue, and the one next to that person had green. He still had no idea what the ad was trying to do.

There were some students in school uniform in front of the director who yawned as she explained. They were two girls that he probably saw somewhere before on TV as well as Sooil. The girl that had the mascot doll for the telecommunication company at her waist smiled brightly and nodded.

“We’re starting the shoot. Let’s get this done quickly,” the director spoke again as she pressed down the cap on her head.

* * *

“Let’s do that again.”

The director spoke as she rested her chin on her left hand. Maru poured the balls back into the box. The balls fell from the dustpan into the box. He couldn’t remember how many times he had done this. Maybe eleven?

“This time, make it feel like you’re filling the air in the classroom with balls. You know that air molecules are round, right? Or was it particles? Anyway, it’s there in science books, the round balls scattered in empty space. Make the classroom look like that.”

Her voice was fatigued, her eyes were loose, and she yawned whenever she felt like it. Unlike what she said at the beginning, she kept changing her demands and continued shooting over and over again.

“Yoonji, for you, it’s like you’re not looking at the camera but beyond the camera. Don’t just look at the lens, and make it look like you’re actually talking to the person on the other side. Sooil, you just keep doing that. Haeyeon, you too.”

It wasn’t just the background. She kept changing her demands from the actors as well. The girl that had her actions pointed out, replied with vitality, but she clearly wasn’t as energetic as she was at the beginning of the shoot.

As soon as Maru sat down after putting all the balls into the box, the director raised her hand. She was eagle-eyed despite being so tired. She signalled the camera director. The actors smiled, and the rest of the people hugged a bunch of table tennis balls.

Along with a cue sign, the actors sitting at the front ran towards the camera. Maru threw the balls in his arms towards the ceiling. Atoms, or particles or whatever, he didn’t know and didn’t care. He just wished for the director to be satisfied with the picture this time. The people sitting behind the actors scattered the balls just as passionately as the actors.

Maru looked at the director and threw the balls sideways as well. This required more strength in his wrist and shoulders than throwing a basketball. He would probably sweat like he played a full quarter of basketball if he did this a couple more times.

“Let’s turn off the air conditioner. I was wondering what it was, and it was that, huh.”

Hearing those words, Maru said ‘Murphy needs to be killed’ in a small voice. He felt as though the heat from the installed lights and humans were being reflected and diffused back into the classroom. This was a splendid oversized microwave.

He wiped away his sweat with some tissue and looked at the director. The director, who was twitching her fingers as she stared at the monitor, clicked her tongue and raised her index finger.

“Let’s try that one more time.”

* * *

The female director never raised her voice even once. She never glared at someone either. She only changed her demands with a voice that made the listener feel powerless. After looking around the scene with eyes that were devoid of any fighting spirit, the director stretched her arms around and spoke.

“Let’s do that again after tilting cameras 3 and 6 a little.”

Maru heard a small swear next to him. Maru sighed shortly and straightened his back. He could deeply sympathize with that guy. This was probably the twentieth run. Or was it the twenty-third? He started losing track.

‘My luck with work is definitely not good.’

If it was acting, it might have been better. After all, when it came to acting, he could change his expressions, actions, or at least his breathing pattern to change things up. However, this shoot was 100% repetitive labor. Was ad shooting so hard? Or was she a peculiar director? He would’ve endured if the shoot was boring or exhausting, but this shoot was both boring and exhausting. He was reminded of doing manual labor during his military service.

“The one that swore just now. You’ll live a long life.”

The director spoke slowly as she leaned against her palm. Even her jokes were devoid of ups or downs. It was as though she was sleep-talking.

“Just twice more. It’ll end after just two more shoots. Please cheer up a little. Why are you so lacking energy? Haam[1].”

Maru could only laugh in vain when the person with the least energy here said such words.

The director’s yawn infected everyone on the set. Everyone started yawning. People found that funny as some people started chuckling.

“That’s good. It’s just two more runs, so let’s keep this up.”

The director urged everyone with a faint smile. It was the first smile she showed on the set, and it was also the signal that the end was near.

Maru wondered if it was really going to end with just two more shoots, but he decided to trust her for now. The cue sign fell, and he threw the balls into the air once again. The actors ran forward, and the balls were thrown upwards. The balls that were thrown in the air like fireworks made up the background, while the actors said their lines. The director then shouted cut.

“Just one more.”

The director spoke as though she was saying the ending of a finished book. Maru wondered what her confidence was based on. Did it mean that she already took all the pictures she wanted to? Or was she simply running out of time?

‘Or perhaps she might really be predicting that we would produce the perfect picture this time.’

After a final tuning, the director stood up from her seat. She raised her cap a little and crossed her arms. Although her eyes were still filled with fatigue, her pupils were filled with unknown confidence. She pulled her chin inwards.

“Last run. Let’s do this, everyone.”

Maru threw the balls into the air with as much power as possible.

At that moment, the sound of popping popcorn could be heard. The table tennis balls that hit the ceiling all fell down slowly. It looked as though hundreds of baby mobiles were floating in the air, and the feeling of fullness that couldn’t be experienced until now could be felt. It literally looked as if the table tennis balls were air particles.

The others seemed to have gotten similar feelings as they watched the falling table tennis balls in a daze. While the plentiful laughter from the actors filled the class, the director shouted cut.

“Well done everyone. Let’s clean up.”

Even as she put a period at the very end of the sentence, her voice was devoid of any ups or downs. The tone was practically the same as ‘I have a book’. The actors approached the director, who was looking over the footage with the camera director, and the rest were being directed by the staff.

“We’ll pull out after cleaning things up. Thank you for your work everyone. Please return your clothes after this.”

After putting away the balls, Maru went to the bathroom to change his clothes. When he came back, he saw the director talking to a person who seemed to be from the school. He could hear her thanking the man for lending them the classroom.

“It’s over!”

Maru looked at Sooil, who hung his arm around his shoulders and drooped down. Since Maru had no intention of supporting a boy, he quickly shook off that hand. Sooil, who was shaken off, smiled and approached him again.

“You worked hard.”

“It was indeed hard.”

“Hey, you should say the same thing to me. Tell me that I worked hard.”

“You get a lot of money for it though. You are supposed to work hard.”

Maru moved his shoulders a little. He could hear some cracking noises. They were the traces left behind from playing basketballs and throwing the table tennis balls.

“But what’s that?” Maru asked as he looked at the black plastic bag in Sooil’s hands.

“Some bread.”

“Bread?”

“It’s leftovers from the staff, and I asked if I could take it, and they told me yes. It’s free food.”

There was soboro-bread[2] inside. Sooil’s eyes as he talked about ‘free’ stuff were filled with inexplicable satisfaction. He looked like a rich young master from a wealthy family just based on his looks though.

“You shouldn’t like free stuff too much. You’ll go bald.”

Sooil just shrugged.

The staff that led the background actors here told them that it was okay to go home. Everyone left the classroom exhausted regardless of gender. Maru was also in that group as he walked into the corridor. The time was nearing 11 o’clock. There was still time until the last train. He should be able to go home if he took the bus to Yeouinaru station.

“Uhm, can we take a photo with you?”

He subconsciously turned his head around when he heard a girl’s voice. Of course, he knew that the voice wasn’t meant for him. Two ladies, who looked to be in their early twenties and had thrown balls into the air along with Maru were talking to Sooil.

“Of course!”

Sooil walked between them and made a ‘v’ with his fingers. The girls took a photo with a phone and asked if they could hook arms.

“Sorry, I’m a bit of a shy guy. Instead, I’ll take one more photo with you.”

Sooil was quite adamant on that even though he looked like he’d gladly accept such a request. He refused them indirectly and politely, but the clear refusal could be felt from his words. The girls also gave up and settled for taking another photo.

After that, many people asked if they could take photos with Sooil as well as the young actresses from before. Maru looked at them for a while before turning around. Although they belonged to the same company and even exchanged greetings, they clearly weren’t on the same level.

He didn’t know because he didn’t have any interest in dramas or movies, but Sooil was actually quite a famous actor. His acting skills were given recognition on the indie movies side, and he had shot several movies along with Geunsoo, whose schedule was full until next year. As for dramas, he showed his face here and there as a set with Suyeon.

Maru only recently found out that Sooil was gaining fame with his kind-looking eyes, neat looks, and friendly speech tone. Looking up his name, he found his name and filmography on the main page, and there was even a fan café dedicated to him. He also tried looking up his own name, but nothing came up.

In other words, he was a star that was given full support by JA Production.

Maru was just stretching his neck out after leaving through the school gates. Just then, a car passed by him and tooted its horn.

“Han Maru?”

Hearing his name, Maru turned his head around. The one he saw was director Park Joongjin, who was peeking outside the car window.

“You’re Mr. Han Maru, aren’t you?”

“Yes. Hello there, director.”

“I was wondering and I was right huh. But what brings you here? Don’t you live in Suwon?”

Maru wondered if he told him that he lived in Suwon, but he answered his question for now.

“I had a shoot for an ad. As an extra.”

“Is the ad shot by director Park Jiseon?”

He thought about who Park Jiseon was for a while. Soon, he remembered that it was the powerless director that he was working with until just a few minutes ago.

“Yes, that’s right.”

“I see. Is the shoot finished?”

“It just ended a few minutes ago.”

“Hm, alright. You worked hard. Oh, now that I think about it, it’s only a few days huh. See you on set. I’ll be looking forward to seeing you.”

The sedan’s window closed and departed again. Maru looked at the orange sodium lights before looking at the classroom which still had lights on. A strange ad director and an acclaimed genius movie director. They strangely fit each other.

“Not that I have time to think about other people.”

He was currently in a state where he could fall asleep in 10 seconds if there was a bed in front of him. He staggered his way forward. He felt what it was like to be drained of all life today.

‘Let’s remember her name. That way, I can avoid her next time.’

He shook his head in resignation. Just then,

“Maru! Wait for me!”

When he turned around, he saw Sooil, running towards him with a black plastic bag in each hand. Maru smiled and waved back at him before running forward with all of his might. He really wanted to get some rest. He ran for a long time and crossed the road. However, just then, he saw the bus he was supposed to take going right past his eyes. He felt energy being drained from his legs.

“Maru!”

Behind him, there was an overly cheerful guy running towards him.

He was stuck without a place to go.

Maru looked up at the sky. A dogshit afternoon.

That sounded like a splendid movie title for some reason.

[1] She’s yawning.

[2] A bit like melon bread, but the top is crispy. Wikipedia for details.

Chapter 415

“It’s hot. Want one?”

Maru stared at Sooil, who asked as he offered him a soboro bread. It felt like there were a lot of words omitted between ‘it’s hot’ and ‘want one’, but he didn’t have the energy to retort. Since he was hungry, he decided to accept it.

He was just about to eat the bread when Sooil approached him and took off all the sweet crust. He looked at the now-bald bread and Sooil, who was munching on the tasty part of the bread, alternately.

“I don’t like the bread part.”

Oho. Maru put the bread back inside its packaging and took out another one. There was a bit of resistance on Sooil’s side, but he could subdue him with ease.

“You told me you don’t like sweet stuff last time.”

“I don’t hate it either.”

He took a bite and was just about to swallow it when he felt that the bread was beyond dry - it was rough. He could understand why the staff didn’t eat them all.

“It’s quite suffocating, isn’t it?”

A carton of chocolate milk suddenly appeared before his eyes. Maru scanned Sooil from top to bottom. He wondered where he pulled that out from. He looked at Sooil as though he was looking at a portable refrigerator.

“It really is hot. Global warming must be really scary,” Sooil said.

The news talked about how it was the hottest in the past 50 years, and the weather really showed that. Even though it was past 11 in the night, the heat did not subside.

When he finished the chocolate milk and looked for a place to throw it away, Sooil told him to give it to him. He then started folding the carton flat and put it in another plastic bag he took out from his pocket. Sooil then twirled around the plastic bag before asking.

“Didn’t you just miss the last train?”

“There’s one at 11:40. Rather than that, aren’t you going home?”

“My house is nearby.”

“Where?”

Sooil pointed at an apartment complex near the Han river.

“You live in a good place.”

“It’s not that good.”

“There’s the bridge. Aren’t you supposed to cross it?”

“Since I started walking, I’ll walk with you until the station.”

“I don’t need you to so go and get some sleep. I heard you were busy.”

“I’m not that busy. One of the movies I was shooting fell flat on its face so I have plenty of time.”

“You mean the multi-billion won scam movie?”

“Yeah. Thanks to that, Geunsoo-hyung and I daze out a lot together. We had a hard time rolling around everywhere in the mountains since it was a war movie, but it was suddenly cancelled.”

Sooil took out another piece of bread and put it in his mouth. It was the bread that only had the bread left without the crust.

“It’s a waste to throw it away.”

Sooil finished the whole thing.

Maru smiled as he looked at that.

“But are you okay with walking around like this?”

“Why do you ask?”

“Why, you say…”

Maru pointed at the three women heading towards them with his chin. The three were looking their way, no, to be exact, at Sooil. They looked like they recognized him, but they didn’t seem so sure.

Sooil laughed like an idiot as he waved the black plastic bag above his head. The women that were giving glances at them tilted their heads before walking past.

“When I do this, most people just walk by.”

Sooil looked at Maru with a proud expression.

“…I’m surprised the president is okay with that. An actor has his image too.”

“Of course, I immediately compose myself if there’s a fan who comes at me while shouting my name. It’s my work after all. On the other hand, I feign ignorance if they are probing me out. Taking photos together and giving autographs and things like that. Those are actually quite hard. But people see me in a good way. They think I’m interesting.”

“The dilemma of a popular actor, huh.”

“This is nothing compared to Geunsoo-hyung. Ah, Geunsoo-hyung’s fan café came to the movie shoot for support last time, and god, that was amazing. That day, we had a full-course meal from breakfast to dinner. I resolved that I will get popular the moment I saw that.”

After that, he followed on to praise the food he ate that day. He took out some bread from the plastic bag and ate them as he spoke, and the amount he ate was more than seven at least. After probing inside the bag for one last time, Sooil made a disappointed expression. It seemed that he had run out.

“You eat more than I expected.”

“I need good stamina if I want to work on many things. Also, I don’t gain weight easily.”

“You should manage yourself while you still don’t gain weight. Otherwise, you might find yourself in unwanted conditions in a blink of an eye.”

“If I get fat, then I’ll just play the old man next door or something.”

Sooil folded the empty plastic bag and put it in his pocket.

“There’s a trash can over there.”

“But that’s for cigarettes. Also, milk cartons are recyclable.”

“What a good man.”

“I’m used to it since I’ve been doing it since I was young. Don’t litter, if you see any, pick it up. Don’t let anyone find fault with you. Well, things like that, I guess?”

Sooil bent down and picked up an empty drink can and put it in his plastic bag.

“I shouldn’t let anyone find fault with me.”

The smile he made as he said those words looked a little bitter. Sooil immediately erased that expression and returned to his usual atmosphere.

Maru did not pry any further. Everyone had their own circumstances, and above all, he wasn't close enough to Sooil to hold such conversations. For now, they were just co-workers. Nothing more, nothing less.

“What made you become an actor?” Sooil asked.

“Because I can earn money.”

“Ah, money,” Sooil uttered in a small voice as though he was talking to himself before looking at Maru.

He clearly wanted Maru to ask him the same question.

Maru lightly ignored his gaze and turned his face forward. He was the type of guy to blab on about it even without Maru telling him to. And just as he had expected, Sooil spoke without being able to wait three seconds.

“I find acting fun.”

“Good for you. You get to earn money while doing something fun.”

“Good for me, indeed. People give me support from here and there. Being sold as a set with someone famous really is effective. I knew I should’ve met a good agency.”

“You don’t like it because you were sold as a set?”

“No, I like it. If I was by myself, I wouldn’t have been able to become so popular so quickly. I think I do well in acting. But acting and business are different areas after all. What creates my popularity is not my acting skill, but the power of the agency.”

“I thought this was the part where you’re supposed to laugh in self-loathing, but I guess you aren’t, huh. That’s good to see. You should keep that up,” Maru said with his honest opinion.

The mindset to win against others using skill alone was definitely worth respect. This was a cruel world, who was supposed to insult a swordsman who lived by his sword alone? It was just that, there were too many swordsmen in this society with broken swords, so it wasn’t entirely comfortable to cheer for such people.

Being sold as a set. He was aware that it was a form of business that could raise the value of lesser-known newbies. However, it wasn’t always a profitable method. If there was a form of business that always resulted in profit, the world would’ve been doomed several times already. Being sold as a set was praised for ‘excavation of new people’ when it worked well, but when the ‘plus alpha’ was below expectations, then the new person would be exiled from the media while receiving all sorts of insults.

That man, the man named Lee Junmin, was a scary businessman. He wasn’t the type of person who would spread his arms to a market where he would take losses in. Sooil was a talent worth his investment in his eyes, and he was sold as a set with someone else accordingly.

Of course, Sooil would probably hear all sorts of bad things from around him. He came here through connections; a nameless guy is acting all cocky; he came here through sheer luck, and things like that. Those words were very cruel and he would probably want to make excuses, but what could he do? It was the truth. It was incredibly difficult to gain both popularity and good evaluations at the same time.

“From what I heard from the president saying last time, he seems to care about you a lot, but he still hasn’t talked to you, huh. I heard you were close to Geunsoo-hyung as well, am I wrong? He could’ve supported you when you got into the drama last time, but he’s strangely quiet.”

“Perhaps he still doesn’t find me worth his investment. Also, I received a lot of money when I first signed the contract.”

“Ah, it was 300 million up front, right? My word, that’s completely absurd. It’s a better benefit than blatantly giving his support.”

“Since I received that much, I should prove myself to be worthy of that. Unless I want to be deprived of all my qualifications.”

“The president is the type of guy to get his investment back before he deprives you of everything though.”

In that, they thought the same. President Lee Junmin was the type of guy who would collect his 300 million won investment regardless of the method.

“Suyeon-noona talked about you from time to time, and now that I got to talk to you, I get why that picky noona talked about you so much.”

“What did that ahjumma say?”

“Ahjumma? Do you say that in front of her too?”

“No, until a while ago, I called her Miss Suyeon. But we’re in the same company now. I call her senior or just noona.”

“Miss Suyeon sounds even worse than ahjumma. Anyway, when that noona talked about you, she used this expression to describe you: you won’t make losses if you have a leg over him[1].”

“Well, I can’t exactly say anything about that.”

For some reason, Maru was reminded of Suyeon’s sneaky smile. Was she still trying to get Geunsoo to fall head over heels for her these days? Geunsoo definitely wasn’t ordinary either for keeping his balance on the palm of that sneaky fox who probably swallowed hundreds of snakes.

“So I’m putting my leg over you too.”

“Uhm, excuse me, Mr. Yoo Sooil, I don’t accept men[2].”

“How harsh.”

At that moment, a car that was driving slowly pulled over. Maru looked at the car. The car was moving as slowly as they walked. It was an ivory-colored Nissan Cube. The blocky car slowed down even more before the windows rolled down.

“I was right.”

The woman in the driver’s seat, Choi Gyunglim, spoke as she took out her earbuds. Just as Maru was about to greet her, he heard a cheerful voice next to him.

“Oh, noona. What a pretty car you have. Did you switch?”

Sooil waved his hand and approached the car.

“Wh-what the? Why are you here?” Gyunglim spoke out in surprise.

“Weren’t you saying hello to me? I was really glad too. Wait, if it’s not me, then…”

Sooil looked at Maru. Maru nodded his head to greet Gyunglim.

“You two know each other?” Sooil spoke in a high pitch as though he was very surprised.

“Oho. Someone that Gyunglim-noona greets first, huh. Are you two perhaps…”

“N-no, we’re not.”

“You’re not? What a pity.”

Maru stared at the two people. Sooil acted like a puppy that hadn’t met its owner in a long time as he went right up against the car to talk to her, while Gyunglim looked at Sooil with a very nervous expression. Maru couldn’t figure out if they were on good terms or not.

“I’m going then.”

Since it was nothing important, he was about to go his way when Sooil blocked his way. Sooil, who had practically teleported, asked in a low voice.

“Do you do stuff like internet cafés and the like? You know, the one she’s in. Was it a calligraphy one?”

“No.”

“Then how do you know her? That noona… hm, anyway, you shouldn’t have any connections to her though.”

“We take lessons together. Also, if you want to know, you should ask her. She’d probably answer in kind.”

“I can’t do that. She finds me difficult.”

“Difficult?”

“Something like that. But that’s quite interesting. She’s incredibly shy so she has almost no friends.”

Sooil savagely roasted someone with a completely relaxed expression. If Gyunglim heard his words, she would probably say a string of insults without filtering them through her brain first.

Gyunglim got out of her car and approached them.

“You two k-know each other?”

“Yes. We’re in the same agency. Isn’t that right, Maru?”

Before Sooil hung his arms around Maru’s shoulders, Maru flicked him away.

“Uhm, as much as I want to talk to you, I have a train to catch. I’ll get going first.”

He had zero intention to get stuck in between this rather awkward-looking duo. Gyunglim also didn’t seem to have anything to say either as she said goodbye and quickly returned to her car.

“Noona! Give me a ride!”

Sooil pulled on the handle for the passenger seat, but Gyunglim seemed to have locked it from the inside as the door did not open.

“Noona, we live in the same mansion[3], do you really have to do this?”

When Sooil did not let go, Gyunglim had to give up. Maru looked at Sooil, who was all smiles, as well as Gyunglim who looked like she stepped on something dirty. They were quite a peculiar duo.

“I’m going! See you later!”

Sooil waved his hand as the car drove past.

Maru shook his head and walked down the stairs to the train station. He went past the ticket barrier and waited for the train when he was reminded of the car that Gyunglim was riding.

‘Looks like she’s well off. Well, she is someone that takes 5 million-won-per-month lessons.’

He had briefly forgotten about it since he was receiving free lessons, but Miso’s lessons were 5 million won per month. Sungjae was understandable since he was one of the top idols in the country, so he wondered where Gwangseok and Gyunglim got all that money from. Were their parents well-off enough to spend 5 million won per month on a single academy?

Also, Sooil mentioned the word ‘mansion’ as well. At that moment, he heard the announcement for the train. Maru stopped thinking about it and looked at the incoming train. He was too tired to think about the world of rich people. He yawned before getting into the train.

[1] Meaning, if you get acquainted with him. I kept this expression here for the words that follow

[2] In Korea, having each of your legs over someone means you’re two-timing. So Maru is taking Sooil’s words as Sooil has a ‘love interest’ in him. Obviously, he’s joking here.

[3]In Korea, a ‘mansion’ refers to a high-class/luxurious/hotel-like apartment. Keeping this expression here because Maru mentions it later.

Chapter 416

He locked his fingers and stretched his arms downwards to crack his wrists. Minute spasms starting from his wrist went up to his elbow.

“Phew.”

That director, he knew how to make the most out of people. Director Park Joongjin, who was wearing a flowery shirt, stared into the monitor for a long time before raising his head. From his appearance, he looked like a man from the neighborhood who came here to look around, but that man’s requests were truly scary.

“Let’s do one more take on master 8. A long-take this time. Actors, please get into your positions. Background actors, please come over here.”

Groans could be heard. Maru stood up and dusted his knees. Bangjoo, who was lying next to him, also groaned as he stood up.

“You okay?”

“For now. How about you, seonbae-nim?”

“I’m on the verge of collapsing. Please do my worth as well once I actually do.”

“Don’t say such a scary thing. That director looks like he’ll really make me do it.”

The actors who were lying on top of the mattresses started standing up one by one. They were action actors led by the action director Kim Choongho, aka the ‘Kim Choongho brigade’. Maru had lost count of how many times they fell down on the ground today.

Maru extended his hand to Sooyoung and Joon-gi, who were lying down next to Bangjoo. These two had a really hard time today. They did stunts after stunts after stunts. When the director picked these two out for their good stature, the two rejoiced, but their current states spoke for themselves. The two people who were filled with vitality in the morning looked like they were about to give high-fives to the grim reaper.

“Maru.”

“What?”

“I’ll eat my hat if I shoot anything else with that director.”

Those were Joon-gi’s words.

“You’re going to eat your hat? I’m going to quit being an actor.”

And those were from Sooyoung.

The two gnashed their teeth as they stood up. The four of them slowly walked towards Joongjin. The actors gathered with their backs towards the sea. Regardless of whether they were lead, support, or minor actors, they were all sweating like mad. They were unsure whether the salty smell was from the sea or was from their bodies.

“Let’s change the movement lines a little. From here to here, it’s two steps. I saw you running three steps last time, so remember that it’s only two steps. Oh, and Miss Miso. Please teach these two how to look natural when looking at something. As for the two of you over here, fall on your left shoulders. Also, look at the camera. As for the jumping height, I think your chest height should be good. Also…”

Joongjin spoke as he stroked his beard. His detailed requests for their acting started once again. The shoot usually vastly differed according to the director’s style, but Maru didn’t know that it could be like this. Absolute control. A genius’ method of doing things was to control ordinary people with absolute perfection.

‘But I didn’t know it was this bad.’

Seeing Joongjin, who explained things as he pointed at the ground, Maru remembered back to ten hours ago, when he just arrived at Yeouido station.

* * *

“Seonbae-nim!”

Bangjoo greeted energetically in front of the station. The people around were startled since it was early in the morning as they looked at Bangjoo, but he didn’t seem to care. Why was Maru in charge of being embarrassed? Maru immediately approached Bangjoo and hooked his arm around his neck.

“Tone it down a little.”

“Y-yes.”

“Have you slept well? You were energetic last time.”

“This is the first time since elementary school that I couldn’t get any sleep because of nervousness. It was just like my first ever school picnic. Do you see these under my eyes?”

Bangjoo seemed to have spotted some freckles on his face, but in Maru’s eyes, Bangjoo was the epitome of healthiness.

“Have you had breakfast?”

“My sister emptied everything when she came back from work last night. Maybe she got stressed out by something.”

“So you have an empty stomach right now?”

Maru took the smiling Bangjoo to the convenience store and bought a rice ball, some bread, and some milk. Bangjoo ate his light breakfast while they waited for the train.

“You should really eat breakfast. Unless the meetup is early morning, no one will give you breakfast.”

“Yes.”

It was 5:10 a.m. They got on the first train and went to Yeouido station. When they left through the 3rd exit, the coach for the movie was waiting for them. They checked attendance with the staff before getting inside the coach.

“You’re here?”

Inside were Kang Sooyoung and Choi Joon-gi, who, like Maru and Bangjoo, played friends of the main protagonist. Childhood friends A through D had all gathered. As the time neared the departure time, more people started getting in the coach. Most of them seemed to be students. Perhaps some of them were older than 20, but they all looked to be high school students.

Maru closed his eyes as soon as he sat by the window. He got a message from the director two days ago. He was notified to get plenty of rest since the shoot was going to be hard. Bangjoo liked that message since he thought that the director was kind, but the first thing Maru did when he saw that message was to sigh. After all, it meant that the shoot was hard enough to the point that they had to notify even the minor actors. He couldn’t be entirely sure since he didn’t know director Joongjin’s progression style, but with precursors like this, he could somewhat imagine what it was going to be like.

“There are a lot of people.”

“Indeed.”

“Do you think they’re all aspiring actors?”

“Most of them are probably here for a part time job, or are considering it as a field trip.”

“Aha, then…”

Maru slightly grabbed Bangjoo’s lips with his right hand.

“Bangjoo. I get that you’re excited, but you should really get some sleep. It’s a tip I’m giving you as someone experienced. Once you get off this coach, you’ll be spending lots and lots of stamina, so you should save up now.”

“Yes!”

“And tone down your voice.”

Maru awkwardly nodded to the students who looked their way and closed his eyes. Bangjoo seemed to be unable to hold back his excitement as he kept moving around even after the coach departed, but he became calm the moment they left the Gyeonggi province. Maru slightly pinched the snoring Bangjoo’s neck before looking outside the window.

‘This is the second time.’

This was his second movie shoot after Twilight Struggles. He wasn’t delinquent 1, who only had a single appearance. He now played a role with a bit of significance. He was ‘Floppy friend B’. Actually, he didn’t have many lines. What was important was the action. The director chose action to express the younger days of the characters that would be played by adult actors. From the synopsis, it sounded like a stereotypical mafia movie, but since the director was dubbed a genius by people, he kind of looked forward to what kind of twists it would have.

The shooting location was Gunsan in North Jeolla province, near Gunsan port. There was no better background environment to show manliness than the saltiness of the sea. Maru pictured all of the action moves he had learned until now in his head.

“Seonbae-nim.”

Hearing Bangjoo’s voice, Maru opened his eyes. The coach was stopping. When he looked outside the window, he saw an old school building. From how there was a signpost that said ‘Dreaming Gallery’, it seemed to be a closed school.

Maru stretched his arms out as he stepped on the ground. His bones were creaking since he had been sitting still from Seoul to Gunsan. And he was young too.

Bangjoo took in a deep breath as though he was a mountain climber that just arrived at the summit. His face was practically shining. Maru was going to calm him down since he looked like he was going to explode with expectation for the shoot, but he decided not to. No amount of talking seemed to suffice. He just let Bangjoo be. After all, once the shoot started, any excitement was going to end and it would be an endless stream of boringness.

“Seonbae-nim. I’m so excited for it.”

“Don’t be. Shooting a film isn’t such a fun thing.”

“I’m looking forward to the shoot, but more than that…”

Bangjoo, who was short, tip-toed, and looked afar. Maru also looked where he was looking. There was a black van. In front of the van was a girl wearing a deep brown hunting hat, a checkered miniskirt, and ugg boots. Ugg boots? In this weather?

“She’s Kwon Dayoon. I’m a fan of hers even amongst the girls of Blue.”

“Looks like you like her quite a lot.”

“Of course. Dayoon-noona is the dope in my class.”

“Ah, dope.”

He knew what it meant, but he really couldn’t get used to saying it. Was it because he was old? He really had a hard time following young people’s trends.

“I should get an autograph.”

“Hey hey, get yourself together. Why are we here?”

“For the film shoot.”

“Is the film shoot work? Or play?”

“…It’s work.”

“Ask her for one once the shoot ends and everyone starts clapping. No, before that, you should figure out the director’s personality. If you act like that in front of strict directors, they’ll swear at you immediately.”

“Really?”

“If you’re really curious, you can always try it out for yourself.”

“I’ll give up on it then. I’m not here to play around after all.”

“Good.”

He patted Bangjoo’s shoulders.

“But they won’t say anything to me if I just look at her like this, right?”

Bangjoo looked at Dayoon who stood afar in disappointment. Just then, they were told to gather in front of the school entrance. The students that got off the coach walked towards the front door. The word ‘Believe’ was written on top of the yellowed-out white paint. School mottos were always similar wherever it was.

“Get changed into these school uniforms and drill uniforms, and change with the people next to you if it doesn’t fit you. If it’s too baggy, we’ll give you paper clips to size them down.”

The staff didn’t speak to them in polite speech. There was a small commotion among the students, but they soon quietened down.

“Listen and do as I say. Don’t delay the shoot by doing unnecessary things. Understood?”

“Yes.”

The staff scanned the group once before leaving.

“Who the hell is he?”

“I don’t know.”

“Who’s he to order us around?”

The students all started complaining, but when that staff came back, they all shut up.

“Let’s get changed,” Maru said to Bangjoo.

Sooyoung and Joon-gi also got a pair of clothes and stood up. It was much better to get some rest after getting changed rather than complaining. Nothing would change even if they grumbled about it anyway.

“I wonder what the director is like.”

“Me too.”

“Maru, didn’t you get to talk to the director a few times?” Sooyoung asked.

“I did.”

“How is he? Is he strict? I got that he’s a strange guy from when we first met, but I don’t really understand in detail.”

“Well, I don’t know either. He’s a strange fella to describe. You should experience it for yourself.”

The figure of Joongjin he saw in the high-class restaurant last time flashed through his head. Just what could describe his ‘style’ when he pressed down on cooked meat with his fingers? He couldn’t tell at all. It was only possible to find out by experiencing the shoot itself.

They stopped talking and changed their clothes. Changing their clothes in public practically became normal for them now. Although female staff passed by, they didn’t mind each other.

“Should we do move number six as a warm up?”

Sooyoung spoke as he tried clenching both of his fists.

“That sounds okay.”

The three others surrounded Sooyoung. The one that spoke was always the main character. In move number six, the main character would get beaten up. They simply did the actions they repeated numerous times in the action school. At first, they were shy in their actions in fear of hurting another, but right now, they looked quite good since they were able to ‘attack’ without restraints.

They could hear other students exclaim as they watched. Sooyoung seemed to be excited as he was exaggerating his actions. After a while, his fist tangled with Bangjoo and they both fell down together.

“Hey! Don’t get the clothes dirty!”

Hearing the staff’s shout, Sooyoung made an awkward smile.

It seemed that all the equipment entered the building as the props vehicle seemed rather empty. The busily moving staff members couldn’t be seen either. It seemed that they were working inside.

Just then, a van entered the school field. The white-colored van stopped before a tall man got out. It was Lee Hyuk, who had cut his hair short and was wearing sunglasses. He was one of the main characters in this movie.

“Wow, he’s good-looking.”

“It’s Lee Hyuk!”

Joon-gi was the one that spoke without any change in his voice, and the one that jumped around was Bangjoo. Bangjoo, this boy, seemed to like all celebrities.

“He’s one of my favorite actors. I was really impressed after seeing his action in ‘Violent Crimes Third Department’.”

“Was he good?”

“Yes. He was really good.”

Just as he nodded, other vehicles entered the school field in series.

The main actors were finally here.

Chapter 417

“Their treatment is completely different from ours,” Sooyoung spoke as he saw Park Gwangsoo and Cha Taehoon go into the school building.

While the minor actors and the background actors had to find shade to get away from the scorching heat, the main actors waited in a classroom with air conditioning.

“I got a glimpse through the window, and they looked harmonious. Kwon Dayoon is there too,” Joon-gi spoke as he did some stretches.

“This is why people need to become successful,” Maru said with a smile.

“I think they’re all here now.”

“Yoo Joongang isn’t here yet though.”

Lee Hyuk, Yoo Joongang, Kwon Dayoon. These were the three main characters for this movie. Lee Hyuk and Kwon Dayoon had arrived, so the shoot would probably start once Yoo Joongang arrived.

“Man, I’m being roasted.”

The weather was hot even though they were in the shade. Sooyoung tried reaching his hand out of the shade before being startled and pulling it back. Maru shouted towards Bangjoo who was standing under the sun.

“Bangjoo, don’t stand there and come here. You might collapse.”

“I can endure.”

“Right now, you can. Don’t waste any energy and just sit down next to me.”

It seemed that even the heat was unable to melt Bangjoo’s excited heart. Bangjoo hopped towards him before sitting down.

“Don’t you feel hot?”

“I’m not really sure.”

“I’m sure there’s something wrong with you. Calm down already.”

Maru pressed down on Bangjoo’s shoulders since he kept shaking in excitement.

“Who’s car is that?” Joongi asked as he looked somewhere else.

A black sedan could be seen entering the school field. From how there was only one person in the driver’s seat, it didn’t seem to be the director. The door soon opened and a man wearing a flower-patterned shirt got out.

“It’s the director.”

“Whew, what a fashionista.”

Director Park Joongjin waved his hand at the staff who came to greet him. Then he disappeared into the school building as well.

“How many hours have we been here for?”

“An hour and a half.”

“What time is it now?”

“Half past ten.”

“It looks like they might have everyone eat lunch in a while.”

Joon-gi and Sooyoung powerlessly laid on the ground. Maru also brushed aside some pebbles and lied down. No one looked after them in this place. They had to follow silent cues and preserve their stamina as much as possible. Doing their best in a place not being seen by others would give them nothing. They had to show their passion and effort in front of other people, especially the director.

“You should lie down as well.”

“Is it okay to do that?”

“If someone shouts at us, then we can get up at that time. Though, I doubt anyone would do so.”

The staff members had taken refuge inside the building as well. Only the minor actors and background actors were abandoned outside since no one looked after them. If the leader was someone that cared about people, he would probably prepare a place to rest, but the leader this time seemed to be endlessly lacking in mercy. It would be fortunate if he did not swear at them.

As he was looking at the clear sky, a low-pitched exhaust sound could be heard. So the last one was finally here? When he lifted his head a little, he saw a van slowly entering the premises. With that, all the main actors had gathered.

The man who had the proportions of a model, Yoo Joongang, greeted the staff politely as he went inside.

“He looks like a good person,” Bangjoo said.

There was no better self-PR than greeting politely.

“I guess they’ll be starting soon.”

“They should probably call us once their read-through is done.”

They stared at the classroom where the actors would be resting for ten minutes. After that, they were told to gather round. The ordinary students that weren’t used to waiting walked towards the main entrance while squirming like a worm after a day of rain as though they were tired already.

“We’re going to start the shoot soon. Once you go in, follow the director’s words. As long as you do what you were told to do, it will end quickly. After that, you can just sit down and watch actors do their thing, and get your money. You guys are earning money very easily, okay?”

The leader spoke as though he was the one that was paying them. Maru yawned before walking.

They walked up to the 2nd floor and into one of the classrooms where a camera was installed. Like how they were wearing drill uniforms, the classroom seemed to be from the 80s as well. The desks were tattered while the chairs were rusted. The large national flag at the front of the class, the bulging speakers right next to them, the world map, and even a chart stand.

When Maru tried rubbing his rubber indoor shoes against the wooden floor, he heard an unpleasant screeching sound.

“Hey, hey, hey. Don’t look around and sit down. Don’t touch anything and don’t play with your phones. If I hear a phone sound during the shoot, I’m going to sue you for damages, okay?”

The leader went out strong against the students. Then, a woman, who looked to be rather picky, came inside the class and slightly adjusted the placement of the props.

“Hey, lil’ magpie. I’m going to have this placed at the front so get some water in it. Also, dent the sides a little more.”

“Understood.”

It seemed that she was the art director. A youth who was wearing a baseball cap backwards hammered the brass kettle. A loud noise reverberated in the classroom.

“Uh, over there. Stop.”

At that moment, director Joongjin, wearing his flowery shirt, came inside the classroom. He went up to the youth holding the kettle and took it away from him.

“Who told you to do this?”

“Our director told me to…”

The woman, who was outside the classroom for a moment, came back inside and spoke.

“I told him to do it. What about it?”

“Ah, if it’s you, director Choi, I don’t have any complaints.”

“I wonder why I decided to work with you again, director Park. I had my fair share of pain a decade ago.”

“Wasn’t it fun back then too, in its own right?”

“Not at all, really. The props in here are mine, so if you wanna touch them, then get my permission. That’s the way I work. Understood, director Park Joongjin?”

“Of course. I’ll do that. Of course, I will.”

Joongjin put down the kettle with a smile. Director Choi, who untied her hair which was in a knot, started walking around and adjusted things again. Wherever she walked past, the scenery changed slightly.

“I knew it’s fun to work with people you can rely on.”

Maru overheard Joongjin talking to himself and looked at director Choi. Director Choi was moving around busily and shook her hands off once before standing next to Joongjin.

“Where’s the camera director?”

“He’ll be here soon.”

A while later, a man holding coffee in one hand stood in front of the classroom. Maru knew this man. It was camera director Kim Jangsoo, who had a rather crude-looking face with some flicks of white hair.

Maru met eyes with Jangsoo who was looking around the class while drinking coffee. Jangsoo made a surprised expression before approaching him with a smile.

“You were talking to Joongjin in the restaurant back then and I see you here huh. Supporting actor?”

“No, a minor actor doing physical labor.”

“Urgh, looks like you’re going to be in for a world of pain. You don’t know how he works, do you? Just consider yourself dead today.”

Jangsoo patted his shoulders before leaving. At that moment, he felt a prickling gaze on him, and it was from director Choi, who stood next to Joongjin. Director Choi asked some things from Jangsoo before looking at Maru again. Since he met eyes with her so often, Maru smiled back awkwardly and nodded his head.

“What the, who’s he?” Next to him, Sooyoung asked.

“He’s probably the camera director.”

“Really? Then how do you know him?”

“I saw him a couple of times during a drama shoot.”

“Really? Then you should ask him to help us.”

“Help us with what?”

“To get us in a good shot?”

“Don’t talk nonsense.”

Sooyoung just shrugged.

Following that the actors appeared. They were Park Gwangsoo and Cha Taehoon, who had changed into drill uniforms. The adult actors were just watching outside the class.

“Well then, shall we begin?”

Joongjin stood at the front of the class like a teacher and clapped his hand once to gather everyone’s attention.

“Some of you might not have adapted to the environment here since it’s your first time. Also, there might be people who are used to these kinds of environments and must be feeling bored. Before we begin, I’d like to tell you that you must follow my words from now on regardless of the reason. The one sitting at the front. What is your name?”

“I-I’m Kim Jaehoon.”

“Okay, Mr. Jaehoon. Just like that, you should just answer me when I ask you something. Also, Mr. Jaehoon, can you turn your head to the right about 45 degrees?”

The student named Jaehoon turned his head.

“Stop.”

The student’s head stopped.

“Now, turn your head forward slowly. That’s right. Good. How was it? Was it hard?”

“No.”

“From now on, most of the shoot will go like this. I am going to ask you to do things that you can do. Most of them will be simple things, and I will explain them to you in detail so that it’ll be easier for you to understand. If you don’t understand anything, you can always ask a question. Understood?”

“Yes.”

It seemed that his calm voice and polite speech earned the goodwill of the students. Maru could overhear ‘sounds fun’ from the students sitting behind him.

“Then from now on, we’re going to start what is known as a rehearsal. Please listen to me carefully from now. You’ll have to remember and do just as I instructed.”

Joongjin walked to the student on the very left and adjusted the direction of the student’s shoulders, neck, and hands placed on the table. The student, who followed with a smile at first, eventually frowned.

“I should move like this?”

“Yes. Just as I told you.”

Like that, Joongjin went over the simple movements for forty-plus people. Maru’s role was to sleep on the desk.

“Then shall we try it out?” Joongjin said from the front.

Along with his finger snap, the students moved.

And a brief moment later, the students stopped moving. Joongjin, who was watching that from the front of the class, stroked his chin and spoke.

“Mr. Hongsik and Mr. Jaeyoung. Please do as I say.”

It seemed that he had memorized the names of all the students in the class. While Maru exclaimed slightly, the student that Joongjin was looking at, spoke.

“But this way, it looks more natu…”

“Mr. Hongsik.”

“Yes.”

“Can you do as I say?”

“……”

“If you can’t, then stand up. Everyone, you’re here as background actors. Some of you might be aspiring actors as well. Perhaps it’s your first movie shoot, and you want to show your own acting for fun or for your own ambitions.”

Joongjin walked sideways. Then, he grabbed the desk in front of him and leaned forward. Everyone’s gaze was on him.

“I’ll be clear. Don’t act. Don’t even try to act. Just do as I say. If I see someone trying to ruin the picture I’m drawing, I will have that person leave. Don’t worry about the money, I’ll pay you. Understood?”

There was a round of silence.

“Don’t act. Don’t try to move according to your thoughts. You will have to follow my instructions and only my instructions. That is the rule here.”

After saying his words, Joongjin made a warm smile and straightened his back again.

“Then let’s do that rehearsal one more time. After that, we’ll have the actors come in and do the rehearsal again.”

Hearing the clap, the students did the same action over again. Playing with the person next to them, looking at the ceiling in a daze, picking something up from the ground, swinging back and forth on the chair. Maru, who leaned forward on his desk slightly raised his head and looked at them. Each of the actions that Joongjin demanded went hand in hand like gears and created the atmosphere of an ordinary classroom. It was the kind of picture that couldn’t be created if the students were left to their own devices. There was no such thing as awkwardness. It looked smooth enough to be on camera.

A sense of naturalness gained from forced actions. Maru could get a vague grasp on the meaning behind what Jangsoo said.

“Very good,” Joongjin said with a nod.

Chapter 418

Maru looked at director Joongjin while buttoning up his drill uniform. The atmosphere on the set was mainly decided by the director. Choi Joonggeun, the director of Twilight Struggles, was someone that didn’t talk a lot during shoots. The only words he spoke were: ‘again’ and ‘good’. Whether it was his senior or his junior; a lead actor, or a supporting actor, he did not speak to them in long sentences. He only sat in front of the monitor with an expressionless face and spoke from time to time. Once he got a good cut and the camera stopped, he would become ‘close brothers’ with the rest of the people.

Joonggeun’s method was to let the actors decide for themselves. It was a method that also pressured the actors considerably. There was no feedback during the shoot. He told the things he wrote down and thought of during the shoot to the actors only during break times. Once the camera started rolling again, he would not say anything.

During the shoot for Twilight Struggles, he saw Moonjoong in deep thought. He was probably contemplating how to solve the requests that the director had given him.

Just how many rolls of film had they gone through? Maru was there for only one day, but he was flabbergasted by the director when he took dozens of takes for one scene.

Joonggeun’s method was to help the actors reach an answer themselves. His method was only possible if he had the confidence to give no directions to the actors. However, fundamental trust towards those actors had to lie as the basis. If he was working with veteran actors, he would be able to create high-quality scenes in a short time, but if that wasn’t the case, he would have to throw out a lot of rolls of film. Despite the risks, Joonggeun provided the same opportunities to all the actors during the shoot. He waited and waited again.

“Smack down on the desk when you say ‘be quiet’. Like, in a strong tone. Think of it as though you’re trying to cover up everyone else’s voices on the microphone. Then you turn around, to the left.”

Joongjin limited the range of acting. He controlled every little action the actor had to do with his words and wanted them to act within his control. At first, Maru thought that he was going to give instructions to just the minor actors and the background actors, but he gave detailed instructions to all the actors that came inside the classroom.

“Wouldn’t it be better to turn right?”

Cha Taehoon, the lead actor for a child role, gave his opinion, but Joongjin refused in a soft, yet firm way that didn’t leave room for any negotiation.

No one talked back to him after realizing his intentions of meticulous control behind his soft-spoken words. While the explanations continued, though, another person came into the classroom. It was Miso.

“Then let’s get ready.”

Joongjin positioned each actor. The direction they were looking in, the angle of their arms, the shape of their mouth, etc. He told them every little detail as though he was teaching a child that did not know anything.

Maru saw the expressions of the child actors slowly starting to stiffen.

“We’re going to start the shoot like this. We’ll do a master shot once and then do a coverage of each part. Everyone, do the actions I told you to do. Even if you make a mistake, don’t stop. I’m the one making that decision.”

Joongjin left the class. A camera, which was installed on a dolly, which was then installed on rails, moved around the entrance of the classroom. Maru saw the camera director nodding towards Joongjin.

“Scene three-dash-one-dash-one.”

The staff with a slate clapped it in front of the camera. Following that, the director’s voice could be heard.

“Ready, action.”

The camera slid into the classroom. It seemed to be getting an overall feel of the scene. Maru looked at the situation while in a sleeping position just as Joongjin had instructed him to. Everyone was doing the actions that the director told them to do. The camera on a dolly stopped in front of Park Gwangsoo, who sat in the front row.

Park Gwangsoo said the line he prepared in a strong manner. His character was the first of the class. Everyone in the class suddenly turned quiet. The expressions and actions as they became quiet were also instructed in detail by the director. There was no ‘improvisation’ where the camera was shooting. Everything was a scenery created by Park Joongjin. There was no individuality at all.

Despite that, Maru found this place limitlessly natural.

Directing was something artificial. Since a person was creating an imaginary story and giving directions according to that, it could only be artificial. However, in between two directions, there were the emotions of individuals as well as their acting. It was the mixture of contrivance and individuality that lessened the artificial nature and increased sympathy. No, Maru believed that to be true until he experienced this moment.

Joongjin’s direction of the classroom was fairly artificial. He limited all individual action so that there was nothing in between his directions. He created the space as though he was mass-producing things. Maru thought that the contradiction of this methodology would soon show up once they started shooting. Perfect order could only look mechanical. He predicted that the ‘human nature’ that people working in the industry looked for, would be absent and would create a stifling picture.

However, what actually happened was a picture of a classroom that had its traits despite being ordinary and above all - had no flaws. What if the kid chatting next to him looked just a little lower, and what if the guy whistling by the window whistled for just a little longer, and what if the drill uniform of the smiling guy sitting at the back was a little neater? Would it feel the same then?

He subconsciously sighed.

Eventually, they continued to the point where Gwangsoo hooked his arm around Bangjoo and laughed together. It was a long take. During this 3-minute shot, there was no NG signal. Taehoon smacked down on the desk. Then, a second round of silence pervaded the area. Everyone looked at Taehoon in the same instant. Every movement, down to their hands, was just as Joongjin had instructed them to do. Once the gaze was gathered on him, Taehoon kicked off his seat and walked towards the camera.

“Cut,” Joongjin spoke in a bright voice.

After entering the classroom, Joongjin walked amidst everyone and told every one of them what they did wrong. The ones that were pointed out widened their eyes in surprise. They seemed surprised that Joongjin noticed their minute mistakes at all.

“We’re doing that again. You just need to do as I told you to.”

While Joongjin took the lead actors and Miso outside the class, Maru straightened his back and sat up.

“Seonbae-nim.”

Bangjoo, who sat at the front, walked up to him.

“What is it?”

“Is shooting a movie supposed to be like this?”

“Is anything strange?”

“It is. It’s completely different from how I expected it to be.”

“What did you expect?”

“Acting out this and that, and then the director would tell people who’s wrong, who was good, and what they could do better. When they hit a block, we’d talk with other actors, and… anyway, I was expecting more of a hustle and bustle.”

“But it’s strange because it’s too quiet and calm?”

“Exactly. In Jackie Chan movies, they always show you the bloopers during the ending credits right? The staff and the director laugh together and sometimes they would glare at each other…”

Bangjoo made a complex expression.

“This is not acting, but……”

Bangjoo frowned with one eye and licked his lips as though he couldn’t think of the right word. At that moment, Joongjin, Miso, and the lead actors came back. Bangjoo sighed to himself and went back to his seat.

“You just need to do what you did last time. The camera movement might change, but you don’t need to worry about it. Just do what you are supposed to do.”

Maru looked up at Joongjin who walked right next to him. Meeting eyes, Joongjin showed him the smile that he showed back in the restaurant.

Seeing him turning his back, Maru was reminded of a game of chess. That was probably what Bangjoo was looking for. This was a chessboard, the director was the player. Then what did that make the people here?

‘Chess pieces that can’t move by themselves.’

Was this a shooting location? Or was this a studio for one individual?

One thing Maru could be sure of was that Joongjin probably had a complete picture of the film in his head. The way of a genius. He now understood why Joongjin cast people based on body figures alone. The very shape of a human - just this couldn’t be changed at will, so Joongjin picked the right ones. Instead, he put everything else under his calculations. All the people gathered here became his tools, and tools could not speak. There was no need for tools to express their opinions. They just did whatever they are meant to do.

‘However, there are tools that can speak.’

Maru looked at the back door of the classroom. There was a woman who looked over the class with her sharp eyes while leaning against the door. Director Choi.

-Ah, if it’s you, director Choi, I don’t have any complaints.

The only person outside Joongjin’s frame. Joongjin, who treated everything that stepped into his space as a tool accepted her opinions.

She voiced her opinion as a person.

Maru wanted to be in such a position. Would Joongjin listen to someone if he knew that person for a long time? No. He didn’t seem like someone who would do that. In the end, the only method seemed to be getting his approval.

Then how?

“Do just as I tell you. Then, let’s begin the shoot.”

Joongjin snapped his fingers as he left.

There was nothing he could do now. He could only fall flat on the desk and just observe everything around him. There was no way to go forward. In order to express himself differently, it required movement, but right now, the only thing he could do was to twitch his fingers, maybe. Perhaps Joongjin might catch even that and warn him: that there’s no need for acting.

While they took a coverage shot for each actor, there were no NGs. It was surprising. It had only been an hour since the shoot began, yet the classroom scene ended. What would eventually become a clip that was at least 2 minutes long, finished under an hour.

“Thank you for your work, and let’s continue after lunch. We’ll mostly be doing action scenes in the afternoon so you should eat a lot and save up some energy. Good luck everyone.”

Joongjin tried to cheer everyone up. However, the students inside the classroom had barely any energy. Everyone was aware that they were being treated the same as props.

The background actors were better off. Those people did not have any duty to do acting. They weren’t called here to do acting after all. Maru looked at Taehoon who was making a bitter expression as he bit his thumb. The ones that couldn’t stand it were the actors. Until now, that kid wasn’t able to ‘do’ anything. On the surface, he did acting, but it couldn’t be considered his own. An actor was told not to help other people improve their acting, but to imitate precise movements. It was an embarrassing thing.

Taehoon and Gwangsoo stared at director Joongjin as he left and immediately followed afterwards. Were they going to say something to him? Maru shook his head. This wasn’t the time to be worried about others.

“Let’s get some food for now.”

Maru tapped on Bangjoo’s shoulders since he was lying flat on the desk. He now knew his enemy. Know thy enemy and know thyself - now he had to realize what he had to do.

/ / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / /

Author's Note: Here’s a special segment to fulfill the reader’s expectations.

Maru in 5 years.

The Nonsan Army Recruit Camp[1] could be seen from afar. Maru, who had cut his hair short, waved his hand as he walked forward. His shoulders were limp and his legs were slow. He wasn’t crying, and he looked more like he was tired than crying. Why? Just why would that be?

Walking ahead, Maru turned around and spoke.

“Enlisting twice. Twice in the military. The unknown is to be feared, and the known is to be horrified. Aah, here I go again.”

Maru looked very bitter as he walked forward while uttering incomprehensible things.

-The end-

[1] This is where 30% of the army forces are sent to train to become soldiers.

Chapter 419

“It is definitely easy, but…,” Joon-gi spoke as he ate a spoonful of rice.

“It leaves a bad aftertaste, right?” Sooyoung added.

They ate an early lunch in front of a rusty bronze statue of King Sejong. They were given some cookies, some fruit salad, and a sandwich packaged nicely with stickers on top of it. Blue-Blue. From what Bangjoo said, it was supposedly the name of Blue’s fan café.

“You find it strange too, don’t you? Is movie acting supposed to be like this?”

Bangjoo spoke with a bored face. His fantasies towards shoots seemed to have been broken as his excitement and cheerful smile were all but gone.

“I wouldn’t know. This is my first time shooting a movie too.”

“Same here.”

Joon-gi and Sooyoung replied respectively.

Maru, who was just eating a cherry tomato, turned his head around when he felt the hot gaze. The three others were staring holes in him. He munched on the cherry tomato. The tomato, which was practically roasted under the heat, squeezed out some sticky juice.

“Director Park Joongjin’s method couldn’t be considered ordinary. But it’s definitely easy on your mind, so there are no problems, are there?”

The shoot was easy. There was no pressure. They were briefed on everything down to their breathing, so why would they worry about anything? The cramming method of teaching was happening here in a shoot as well. There was no ‘understanding’ or ‘application’ and they just had to interpret the director’s words with their bodies. It was quite an easy shoot.

“Seonbae-nim. Do you really think that?”

Hearing Bangjoo’s question, Maru pointed at the lunchbox.

“Let’s talk after we eat, please? These are practically getting roasted under this weather.”

It was possible to see haze rising from the asphalt on the road. Unless someone liked their fruits roasted, it wasn’t wise to let the lunchboxes be in this weather.

They all ate busily and emptied the lunch boxes. The drinks that were given to them were still cool, so they were quite relaxing to drink.

“For now, follow the director’s words.”

“Keep doing what he says? Like a doll?”

Bangjoo looked at the classroom where the other actors were with eyes filled with complaints.

“We need to match the director’s wishes. After all, he’s the one in charge here.”

“I know that, but it’s too boring. In fact, acting in the acting club seems like it would be more fun. At least we get to exchange opinions and change our acts.”

“Bangjoo.”

“Yes.”

“How would you feel if you cleaned your house and your sister suddenly came in and switched the placement of various things?”

“My sister doesn’t really clean. Also, she’s quite meticulous in nature, so she puts things back where she got them from.”

“I’m just using an example.”

“Well, the first thing I’ll do is sigh. After all, I’ll have to clean up again.”

“Right now, the director probably has a well-organized movie in his head. It’s probably something that’s so incredibly refined and elaborate that we can’t even imagine it. That’s why, if someone comes in and wants to change it, the first thing he’ll feel is a sense of rejection. Right now, the only thing he wants from us is to follow the order of things that he said to us. Just that.”

Joon-gi, who was listening this whole time, spoke.

“Then we have to just obediently follow the director’s words in the future too?”

“For now, yes.”

“I don’t really mind since there’s a lot of action scenes, but it’s still such a pity. It’s my first movie shoot, but the only thing I can do is sing nursery rhymes like a preschooler.”

Sooyoung, who was listening, also spoke as he opened the can.

“At least it doesn’t hurt our pride. The problem is them.”

Sooyoung narrowed his eyes and looked at the west entrance of the school. Maru looked there as well. They saw Gwangsoo and Taehoon who walked out as they held a conversation.

“For us, we have action scenes we practiced for, so the director’s method isn’t that bad, but they should have prepared their own acts as well, no? They can’t display any of that and have to listen to the director’s words alone, so how annoyed would they be?”

“Exactly. If it was me, I would’ve jumped in frustration.”

Bangjoo agreed.

“Would he do the same thing to Lee Hyuk as well?”

“No way. Lee Hyuk isn’t like a pebble on the roadside. He’s known as an actor that’s quite skillful in the drama industry, so that can’t be, right?”

“You can’t be sure. Didn’t you see the director’s eyes? He was smiling, but his eyes were hella scary. He really looked like he'd exile someone from the shoot if that person didn’t follow his instructions. If what Maru says is true, he’ll probably tell literally everyone what to do. Don’t you think so?”

“But it’s Lee Hyuk, though. That can’t be right. If it’s like that, why would he need such an expensive actor?”

“I’m probably right, you know? You see how he cast Yoo Joongang and Kwon Dayoon, right? Lee Hyuk may have proved his acting skills through dramas, but what about the other two? From what I know, Yoo Joongang used to be a model, and Kwon Dayoon is an idol. Also, don’t you know that Kwon Dayoon left a drama for her horrible acting skills around a year ago?”

“Ah, I remember that as well. But I heard that it wasn’t because of her acting skills, but because of her busy schedule. Also, she did quite decently back then.”

When Bangjoo stood up for Dayoon, Sooyoung snorted.

“Hey, Bangjoo. Put your hand on your heart and say that again. You might have seen her in a good way since you’re her fan. I saw that drama several times, and I always switched the channel whenever Kwon Dayoon appeared. Kwon Dayoon, she’s pretty alright. But acting? I don’t think so. I felt embarrassed just looking at her.”

Bangjoo opened his mouth as though to say something to retort, but he couldn’t say anything. In the end, he sighed and admitted that her acting was not good.

“Here, listen,” Sooyoung said as he raised his nose a little.

“You remember how the director picked us based on body figure alone and didn’t see things like acting skills?”

“I do. That was a weird audition after all.”

“I remember that as well.”

Maru just nodded.

“Then are we the only ones picked that way?”

Hearing those words filled with suspicion, Joon-gi waved his hand.

“Hey! He might have done that with us, but do you think he did that with the main actors as well? Do you think he wants to ruin the entire movie? Be sensible.”

“You can’t be sure.”

Just then, director Joongjin walked out of the school building. Sooyoung pointed at the director with his fingers.

“That director, I looked him up on the internet, and do you guys know what his nickname is?”

“Genius,” Maru said in a small voice.

Sooyoung said ‘right’ before snapping his fingers.

“A genius director, they said. If he’s really a genius, if he really does know everything about acting from A to Z and can teach them everything, don’t you think it’s plausible that he can pick people based on looks alone? After all, he’ll be able to cover everything else with his own skills.”

“Does that even work?”

Bangjoo spoke with suspicion.

“I wouldn’t know. But from what we saw, it was like that.”

“But if I was Lee Hyuk, I don’t think I would accept such a condition. An actor has their pride too, don’t they? Would they want to shoot a movie where they can’t show off their own acting at all?”

“And I know something about that as well. This is also from the internet.”

Maru rested his chin on his palms and looked at Sooyoung. The self-proclaimed internet detective was speaking.

“Do you know that Lee Hyuk switched agencies?”

“How would I know that?”

“I’m not interested in men.”

While Bangjoo and Joon-gi shook their heads, Maru said ‘Soul’ in a small voice. He found out about this while watching the news about the unfair contract terms with ‘The Five’.

“Maru, you’re quite knowledgeable. Yes. Lee Hyuk’s new agency is Soul. Apparently, he approached JA Production first, but he was rejected and Soul became his next choice.”

Maru did see him back then. Maru thought about Lee Hyuk who he saw in the lobby of the JA Building when he first went there.

“There’s a portion of the idol group named ‘The Five’ in Soul as well, right? The other celebrities that belong to them are mostly people that were involved with not-so-good incidents. That’s why we call Soul a charity among ourselves and…”

“Wait, who’s we?” Bangjoo asked.

“Nothing important. It’s just a calligraphy café where we talk about various things.”

“Why do you talk about celebrities when it’s about calligraphy?”

“Is studying all you do in school? You play ball sports there too, don’t you? Anyway, there’s someone in our ranks that possesses some very credible information sources, and apparently, Lee Hyuk has a lot of debt.”

“What? Isn’t he a popular actor?”

“Who here has seen him on a TV commercial?”

Sooyoung spoke as though to do some fact-checking. Maru shook his head. He didn’t watch TV that much, so he didn’t know.

“Huh? Now that you mention it, I don’t remember one.”

“Who here has seen him in a drama or a movie?”

“I don’t think I saw any since three years ago. Wait, now that you say it, he’s had quite a long rest period.”

“Precisely. Also, he apparently screwed up while trying to open a restaurant, so his bank account is currently negative.”

“Why would he do that instead of doing activities?” Joon-gi asked while crossing his arms.

“This is not verified info, but apparently, his personality is shit so the directors and fellow actors don’t really like him. If he’s godly at acting then there might be directors who might be willing to take the risk, but Lee Hyuk isn’t on that level, right?”

“Rather than his acting, he’s more well-known for his looks.”

“I do remember that he placed first in the ‘men who women want to date the most’ ranking.”

Hearing the two people’s words, Sooyoung clapped his hands.

“There you have it.”

“So he’s shooting whatever comes his way because of his debt?”

“Correct.”

“That does sound plausible.”

It wasn’t entirely believable since it was a combination of rumors gathered on the internet, but there were no contradictions in his words. At that moment, they saw Lee Hyuk walk out the west entrance and kick a trash bucket. When people looked there after hearing the sound of the plastic bucket falling, Lee Hyuk’s manager quickly ran over and started cleaning up. Meanwhile, Lee Hyuk just left.

“See? I told you his personality wasn’t good.”

Sooyoung clicked his tongue.

“If what you’re saying is true, then this is huge news. It means that the director will do everything by himself, right?”

“Right.”

“That’s crazy. Wouldn’t his head explode? I mean, if it was me, my head would have exploded already.”

Joon-gi shook his head in resignation.

“Geniuses aren’t called geniuses for nothing.”

Sooyoung ended the conversation while putting the empty lunchbox in a trash bag. Bangjoo stared at Joongjin, who stood afar before sighing.

“Looks like I have no choice but to be obedient for this movie.”

Maru took out his phone after finishing his drink. Then, he sent a text.

“What are you doing?”

Bangjoo poked his head in and asked.

“Sending a text to your sister.”

“Eh? To my sister?”

A moment later, he got a call. He texted her if it was okay to call her right now, and from how she called back immediately, it seemed that she wasn’t busy.

-This is weird. You sending me a text.

“Is it okay for you to be on the phone right now?”

-Yeah. I’m resting right now.

Joohyun urged him to speak while yawning. Maru looked at Joongjin, who was talking to the actors and spoke.

“Senior, you became famous through Spring Calendar, right?”

-Right. Ah, that’s ten years ago, huh.

“I want to ask you just one thing. How was the atmosphere during the shoot back then?”

Joohyun had experience shooting with Joongjin ten years ago. Was there an actor that knew Joongjin better than her? When he first met director Park Joongjin, he called Geunsoo and Geunsoo replied thus: Joohyun-noona became a star through that work. As a minor actor that gobbled up a lead actor.

If Joongjin’s style was to put everything under his control, then it meant that Joongjin intended for Joohyun, a new actress, to overtake a lead actor from back then.

After he waited for a little, Joohyun laughed in a small voice as she spoke.

-I get it. It’s about director Joongjin, isn’t it?

“Yes. I didn’t know he would direct our every action.”

-That’s how he works after all. At first, I was very confused as well. I was told not to act. The only person that did not hear that must be that unni. Anyway, since the director told us to do it, we had to do it.

“Then did you follow the director’s word as well?”

-At first, yes.

“At first?”

-For now, listen to the director’s words. It might make you feel angry. Why? Because doing things the way he tells you does make a good picture. It also makes you feel frustrated since you don’t think you’ll get a better picture than that no matter what you do.

“What about after that?”

-Naturally, you need to find a better picture than what the director has in mind and offer it to him. If you do that, the director will fall for you.

“How do I do that?”

-How? Well, you’ll have to see for yourself.

“What?”

-I’m hanging up now, okay? I’m still tired since I just woke up.

Joohyun hung up without giving Maru any time to talk back. Maru stared at his phone. He was suddenly reminded of this woman’s career. She debuted in a one-act play, and immediately joined the ranks of stars through Spring Calendar. She spent many years shooting commercials due to an unfortunate event, but she returned and continued participating in works with over 30% viewing rates.

“So she’s the genius type as well…?”

He had no intentions of looking down on her efforts, but he could understand the situation. A good player doesn’t necessarily have to be a good coach.

“We’re moving now.”

The staff shouted from afar. Maru put his phone back in his pocket.

“What did she say?”

“She told me to make the director fall for you.”

“How?”

“That’s up to us.”

“Eh?”

Maru grinned as he stood up.

Chapter 420

He had to put a dot on what was already a complete picture. Where did he have to put the dot? In a corner where there was blank space? Or on top of another colored spot?

The bus stopped at an opening in front of a mountain. When Maru got off the bus, he could see the sea. This place was near Gunsan port.

“I wonder if we’ll shoot near the port as well.”

“Since we’re here, I wish we could go in the sea as well. Summer equals sea and sea equals summer, no?”

“But this is supposed to be a port. Doesn’t that mean we can’t go into the sea?”

The kids that got off the bus all sighed as they spoke.

Maru saw the staff, who were holding shovels, gathered in front of the car holding the props. Joongjin and director Choi were explaining things to them. Seeing how the background was the mountains, the fight scene was probably going to occur here. It was a fist fight between some cocky kids, and one of the students would die here.

“Die realistically okay? Realistically.”

“If it’s too hard for you, I’ll help you.”

Joon-gi and Sooyoung spoke while giggling. Maru pictured how his death scene would look in his head and contemplated what he had to do from here on. His part for the movie would be done if he shot today and tomorrow. The three others were the same. Two fight scenes and a funeral scene. The remainder of the shoot would probably occur under Joongjin’s immaculate instructions.

“What are you thinking about?”

“I’m thinking about whether I should stand out or just blend in with the rest.”

Hearing his words, Joon-gi and Sooyoung, not to mention Bangjoo, all closed in on him.

“Hey, it’s hot.”

“Is being hot the problem here? You’re talking about the shoot, aren’t you?”

Hearing Sooyoung’s question, Maru nodded his head.

“Do you have a way? Didn’t the director say that he’ll chase us out if we don’t do as he instructed?”

Joon-gi turned his head around to look at director Joongjin who was walking towards the mountain. The staff members that followed him held a shovel in their hands.

“That’s why I’m thinking about it. Today’s our last shoot.”

“It is also our first,” Sooyoung interrupted.

“There won’t be any problems even if we just do what we did in the morning and follow his instructions to the tee. The other actors are doing the same after all. However, it would be such a pity if we wasted this opportunity like that.”

How many movies would a nameless minor actor participate in over the span of one year? Moreover, this movie was making the news amongst movie critics as the ‘return of the genius director’. If what they said floated around the internet, the public’s interest would rise accordingly.

Since Joongjin was given acknowledgment for commercial movies after Spring Calendar, he should probably be able to achieve decent results with this one as well. Perhaps it might become a movie that millions of people would end up watching. Of course, there was also the possibility that Spring Calendar was just a one-hit wonder, but from looking at Joongjin, Maru didn’t feel like this movie would have bad results.

The fact that he cast Lee Hyuk, who hadn’t appeared on the screen for quite a while, shouldn’t entirely be because of his looks. As Sooyoung said, he might also have been in need of an obedient actor, but he might have needed the title of the ‘comeback work’ of a ‘pretty decent male actor’. From the beginning of the shoot to now, Joongjin proceeded as though he had already broken down a complete puzzle and was just reconstructing it from scratch. Perhaps his ears might be numb already due to the applause of the audience.

“So, what are you going to do?” Bangjoo asked.

What, huh. If he was asked about the method, then he had no answer for that. If he knew such a thing, he wouldn’t be thinking about it in the first place.

“It’s not like I’m completely out of cards, but before that, there’s something I want to ask you guys.”

“What is it?”

Maru looked at Sooyoung who asked back.

“The four of us are a set, right?”

“I don’t really like that word, but for now, yes, we’re a set. You and I, Bangjoo and Joon-gi are the main character’s ‘friends’ after all.”

Maru raised his hand and put Sooyoung’s hand, which was covering his nose, down.

“I’m asking just in case since the four of us will have to be together for today’s shoot, but are you going to follow the director? Or are you going to try various things?”

Friends A through D. They had practiced a lot for today’s fight scene. If any one of them was missing from the picture, the whole thing would look awkward. The reason Maru asked this question before talking about how to act against the director’s methods was because of that. This movie was entirely teamwork-based. If any of the three told him that they should just do as the director says, then there was no need to worry about any of this at all.

“I’m going to go with what you’re going to do, seonbae-nim,” Bangjoo replied without hesitation.

Maru shook his head at him.

“Think about it before answering me. You saw the director for yourselves. He’s the type of guy who would ask a person to leave the moment they do something that he didn’t ask for.”

“I’m fine with that. I’m here to do action acting, not move as I was instructed to. Also, you made a confident expression after calling my sister a while ago. I got the feeling that I can expect good things from you.”

He looked as though there was no need for second thoughts. Maru looked at Joon-gi and Sooyoung.

“We’re just minor actors, so we should try regardless. Also, would he really throw us out? He would have to throw out the entire action scene if he does that. Well, if he does tell us to leave, I guess we can only beg him to let us stay,” Sooyoung spoke with a laugh.

“I’m fine with all that, but what is this about Bangjoo’s sister?”

Joon-gi narrowed his eyes. Maru looked at Bangjoo and quietly asked if it was okay to tell them who his sister was.

“I don’t mind.”

Since he got permission, there was no need to hide it anymore. Maru told the others the conversation he had with Joohyun just now.

“Wait, this guy’s sister is Ahn Joohyun?”

“You mean that Ahn Joohyun?”

The two of them grabbed Bangjoo by the collars asking why they weren’t aware of this until now but soon treated him in a nice way while calling him ‘brother-in-law’.

“I did find it strange that Joohyun-noonim was walking right behind you when she came to the action school last time, but I never realized that you were her brother.”

“To think that you kept such an important thing a secret until now. What a disappointment.”

The two people kept poking Bangjoo by the waist.

“There’s nothing good if it gets known. Both for me and for my sister. Also, my sister said she has no intentions of getting married.”

“What? Really?”

“Yes.”

“Why? She’s so pretty. There must be a truckload of men wanting to marry her.”

Hearing that question, Bangjoo’s expression darkened. Maru slapped Joon-gi and Sooyoung’s mouths with the back of his hand. When the two people glared back at him, Maru told them to stop here.

“Are you here to do an interrogation? Stop falling into your delusions and finish what we started.”

“Alright, alright. Damn, kid. Your hand is spicy.”

Sooyoung wiped his mouth with his palm as he continued speaking,

“Anyway, you’re saying that the director isn’t 100% stubborn in his ways?”

According to director Joongjin’s style, there was no way a minor actor could shine more than a lead actor. After all, in the world inside his mind, everyone should have their respective roles.

However, Joohyun achieved that. She made the director fall for her and managed to do her own act instead of the one suggested by the director. As a result of that, she became a star.

“If you get acknowledged, who knows? He might give you his full support.”

“We’re just minor actors, would he really do that?”

“It would probably be impossible to rise to the ranks of main characters since the story is already set, but it should be possible for him to allocate more screen time for us during the beginning parts.”

“It would be great if that happened. I would die satisfied if my face appeared on screen for just 30 seconds.”

“1 minute for me.”

“15 seconds for me!”

The three of them grinned in satisfaction.

“So all three of you agree?”

The three of them slowly nodded.

“But we can’t just outright go against his words, can we? I think it’ll be reckless to just tell him that we are going to do our own acts.”

“Of course, we’ll have to plan things out.”

“Plan things out?”

Maru crossed his arms. Joongjin didn’t look like someone who would talk nonsense. If they told him that they wanted him to look at their acts without any preparation, they might actually be thrown out of the set. However, was that the only way?

“For now, we’ll follow the director’s words. Honestly speaking, I couldn’t think of a better picture than what the director suggested during that classroom scene. What about you guys? Do you think you can direct people better or make it look better than that?”

The three of them thought about it for a while before shaking their heads. Joongjin’s skills were definitely exceptional. The owner of those exceptional skills was putting his heart and mind into creating a movie. If they were to have Joongjin paint a completely different color on top of what is a ‘completed movie’ in his mind, no small feat was going to do it.

“Since we’re here in the mountains, I’m probably going to die here. This is the scene where we have the most lines.”

“That’s true. Once we go to the port, the only thing we can do is to jump around cheerfully.”

“For now, do as the director says once the shoot begins. Once you think of a better act than the one that the director is telling you to do, you can bring it up then. Of course, only after discussing it between ourselves.”

“But what if he says no? The guy that tried to change the direction of turning got rejected on the spot. Wouldn’t he tell us to fuck off if we tell him that we want to change the acting when we’re just minor actors?”

“Once we four judge that it’s better than what the director is telling us to do, I’m going to push on with it.”

“Push on with it?”

“Yeah.”

“Isn’t it too dangerous? I don’t want to be thrown out of the movie altogether while trying to do something different,” Joon-gi spoke in a careful manner.

“That probably won’t happen.”

“How do you know that? It seems too much like a gamble to me.”

“I don’t like gambling. Challenging something is too dangerous after all.”

“I think what we’re trying to do is plenty dangerous though.”

“No. If the director is someone that can take responsibility for his words, then it’s not that much of a gamble.”

He didn’t say words like ‘he had a good feeling about this’. Maru talked to the others about this because he saw definite potential in this.

- Just following what other people have already done is, yes, it is very easy. There’s no risk in that. That is because numerous pioneers have experienced all the existing dangers and told their followers. Look, this is no longer dangerous - one would have said.

Joongjin said those words himself. He also said this - the ones that have faith in conventions start condemning people that try to escape such conventions.

Joongjin was a meticulous perfectionist. Precisely because of that, he wouldn’t want to contradict himself. He talked as though he was bored when they talked in the restaurant. He always looked for new, exciting, and fun things.

His declaration when he said that he would throw people out if they went against his frame, was perhaps, not such a strict declaration.

Chapter 421

It seemed over. Kwon Dayoon took the phone off her ears and leaned back in the chair. The leather seat cover she bought with her own money wasn’t as comfortable as yesterday.

‘Blue’ started disbanding. ‘This is our last time’ - the words they said as a joke during the last performance ended up taking root. It was an inevitable matter, and it was also one she was prepared for.

“Dammit…”

She pressed on her eyelids.

She gained that opportunity after failing once, so she was very obstinate on maintaining Blue. Their trainee period was harsh. She believed that the sense of friendship she gained with the other members as they ate cold rice together would never change, but it ended up happening.

She had to say goodbye to living together with the others, to being the only unpopular member, and to the title of an idol nearing 30, but why was it that she felt so frustrated? There was a time she wished for this to happen faster, and they were finally disbanding, but rather than a smile, she only groaned.

Was it because of the affection between the members that she thought was lost? Dayoon shook her head. There was no room in her heart to be shaken by such luxurious emotions. There was only one reason she was frustrated and sad: she had become truly alone. Economic independence. The shield known as ‘Blue’ no longer existed. Now, it was up to her to accept the waves of time and the gazes of the world. That was what scared Dayoon.

“…Haa.”

The other members had found their own paths already. They were young. They just hit twenty, and the youngest one, Chaerim, was just nineteen. In this market, age was something more than just a number, especially to girl idols. Every time their age went up by a number, the rope that strangled their necks became tighter. They would become useless unless consumed quickly, just like milk that was just before the expiration date.

There was no idol that was doing better than her that was older than her. Not even one.

“This is my last opportunity.”

She grabbed the script in a rush. She was pushed to the edge of a cliff, but it wasn’t like there was no salvation for her. That man had come back for her. That man, who she really was about to fall in love with, and this movie were the saving grace that was given to her at the edge of the cliff. If she missed it, she would fall down from the cliff. Meaning, she would hit rock bottom again. It was impossible for her to start over again in that moist, small space again. Back then, she was young, was able to take challenges, and above all, did not know the cruelties of the world.

“Didn’t know I’d come back here again. Phew, didn’t know I’d come back here again.”

She said the same line over and over again in a nervous manner. When she first met director Joongjin under that man’s lead, Joongjin said to her that there was no need for her to act; that there was no need for her to know what acting was.

When his snake-like eyes scanned her body, Dayoon realized that he was serious. She was one of the lead roles, and she didn’t have to do any acting? She had her suspicions, but she could only say that she would do it.

Finally, today, she got a glimpse of the way Joongjin did things. Throw away everything other than the act that I tell you - Joongjin kept his word as he continued the shoot.

“The shoot is starting.”

The manager spoke while tapping on the window. Dayoon got out of the car with the script. She felt dizzy for a moment due to the heat.

“Are you okay?”

“Yes, oppa. I’m okay.”

She let go of the manager’s hand, who was trying to help her up, and walked towards where the reflector was. This was the scene where she went to the crime scene again with Yoo Joongang instead of Lee Hyuk, who went to prison[1]. She could see many members of the staff rush down the mountain with shovels in their hands.

“Miss Dayoon, over here.”

Joongjin smiled as he gestured. Next to him stood Lee Hyuk and Joongang. They were, like her, lead roles in this movie, but she was still unfamiliar with them. This was their first meeting after the read-through. Although there was a get-together, Lee Hyuk and Joongang did not show up due to personal circumstances, and Dayoon wasn’t able to go either due to meeting that man. From what she heard, even director Joongjin didn’t show up. She heard that the main members of the staff and some of the supporting roles ate high quality beef with the credit card they were given. In other words, these people, including herself, had no intentions of getting close with the others. She heard some people say that they should eat together after the shoot today, but wondered how many people would actually show up.

When Dayoon stood in front of Joongjin, the rehearsal began immediately. Joongjin instructed everyone on what the actors had to do just like what he did during the morning with the child actors. How many parts they had to divide their breathing into; where they had to look; what hand gestures to make while they speak, and things like that. The blanks in the script were being filled with the director’s words. She was taking notes on a movie set even though she had never done so even in school.

She looked at the script, which had practically turned into a user manual, and did her practice. When she did everything the director told her to do in front of him, she would immediately get coached.

“Miss Miso, would you please.”

The woman that joined mid-way through the morning, Yang Miso, approached her. She seemed acquainted with director Joongjin. The director explained that she was here for coaching.

“I didn’t know it would be like this, but since things have progressed already, I’ll try my best,” Miso said as she shrugged her shoulders. Dayoon forced herself to smile. In a movie shoot, someone that was supposed to be the lead actor was getting coached on acting. Joongjin would explain the form of the acting, and Miso would get into the details. Dayoon added things into her script while listening to Miso’s words.

“Relax your shoulders, yes, just like that. You need to show what’s inside. In other words, you can only act once you embarrass yourself to the point that you can’t embarrass yourself anymore.”

Just as Dayoon nodded her head at Miso’s words,

“Miss Miso. Just tell her the methods. There’s no need to go into comprehension. Just the tricks, that’s enough.”

“Is that really enough?”

“It is. If it’s lacking, we can always add more. We should get this done quickly and get some rest.”

Miso sighed slightly before continuing to explain.

“I don’t know what kind of contract there is between you two, but let’s take the intensive course. Try saying your lines.”

Dayoon said the lines at the beginning of the scene. She did not forget to make the expressions that director Joongjin told her to make.

“You have a good memory at least. Then, for now, think of it as trying to put strain into the part between your nose and your eyes while you say this line. That’s it. Say your lines just like that. Also, let me ask. You didn’t do any research into the character’s emotions, right?”

“No. I don’t know anything.”

“…Phew. Okay, let’s try it for now.”

Miso explained how to do acting while giving easy-to-understand examples. Dayoon felt her confidence skyrocket. She felt as though she made out some of the path on this dark path of acting. When they went over the script just once, Joongjin told everyone to gather round.

“Let’s do the rehearsal.”

Dayoon properly recreated the parts she practiced. The two male actors also continued their act as Joongjin instructed them without saying a word.

“Good, do just that.”

She gave her script to the manager and stood in front of the camera. Was this really sufficient? She felt very uneasy. If she was not able to take a leap with this movie, her life in the entertainment industry would suffer. She had to find a way forward before Blue’s disbandment became official, and this movie was the greatest and most suitable opportunity for her.

I need to do better - her hasty attitude pushed her back. The camera started rolling and she started acting, nay, she started imitating. At first, she did just as director Joongjin told her to. They reached a cut without any mistakes. Following that, they proceeded to get the second take. Dayoon then thought: would she really be able to gain popularity like this?

Wouldn’t it be better to say her lines more dynamically? - such desires made her lips feel dry. She was also a professional. One that smiled and danced on a stage in front of thousands of people. She knew how to be liked by the people. Wouldn’t her acting become a lot smoother if she used that skill here?

Hearing the director’s cue sign, Dayoon started moving. She started off the same as last time, but she made a more cheerful smile in the scene where she walked while hanging her arms around the two male actor’s shoulders. She was told to smile, so this should be fine, right?

At that moment, director Joongjin stopped the shoot.

“Miss Dayoon, let’s have a talk for a sec.”

Dayoon looked at Joongjin nervously. When she did something different from what she was told to do, he found out immediately. How eagle-eyed was that?

“Why did you do that?”

“Because this looks better.”

“Hm, so you’re saying that you know acting better than me, Miss Dayoon? That you know the character better than me?”

“Eh? No, that’s not true.”

“Then why did you act however you want? I should have told you that you are to follow my instructions. Miss Dayoon, do you want to shoot a movie, or do you want to do acting? Please just choose one. If you want to shoot a movie, then do what I say, and if you want to do acting, then leave.”

“L-leave?”

“Yes. Didn’t I say it the first time we met? That you don’t need to do acting?”

“…I’m sorry. I will not do anything strange anymore.”

“Good. What we’re doing is business. You can do your art later.”

Dayoon lowered her head towards Joongjin who lightly patted her shoulder. That’s right, this was work, and she was supposed to do what she was told to do.

Dayoon returned to her place.

* * *

“Right there, that’s right.”

Receiving action guidance from Choongho who joined them later, Maru and the minor actors rolled on the ground. They threw themselves on the ground while avoiding tree roots. When they fell on the mat that was outside the frame of the camera, the director shouted cut.

“Well then, let’s go to the next scene.”

Maru looked at Sooyoung and Joon-gi who were next to him.

“Let’s decide after doing the next rehearsal.”

Until now, they did not feel any rejection towards the acting that Joongjin told them to do. Since it was an action scene, there was no room for individual influence, and since it was a fast-paced scene, the director’s efficient way of instructions was actually quite beneficial.

However, the next scene required them to talk to each other on the slope of the mountain. This was an important part where anger that started from a misunderstanding would eventually lead to the death of a friend.

“Please gather round.”

The child actors gathered around Joongjin. Maru and Bangjoo stood on the opposite side of the main characters. After making them face each other, Joongjin started the rehearsal. Under director Choongho’s guidance, they created a brawl scene.

“That’s the general gist of the fight scene, and Mr. Taehoon, come here.”

After finishing explaining to the lead actors, Joongjin walked towards the monitor saying that they should try the shoot this time. This was a long take that lasted about 50 seconds. Jangsoo, who held up a steady cam while wearing a vest, put out his cigarette and approached them.

“This thing is super heavy. I can last about three takes, but any more than that is impossible for me since there’s my age and all, so please spare me.”

Hearing those words, the actors laughed in a small voice. Jangsoo captured Taehoon and Gwangsoo in the frame.

This was the start.

Along with Joongjin’s cue sign, the silence broke. Taehoon swore just like during the rehearsal. Maru did the same from the opposite side. Gwangsoo spat on the ground, and that became the signal for thirty people, divided into above and below, to run towards each other.

Bangjoo, Joon-gi, and Sooyoung also went at each other while uttering their lines.

The brawl scene that they had practiced for more than an hour unfolded. Maru pulled back the moment Jangsoo, who held the camera, went by him. Like Moses splitting apart the red sea, the actors all pulled back wherever he moved. The only ones left at the end were Taehoon, who was punching out in a cool fashion, as well as Gwangsoo, who was giving a roundhouse kick to a burly guy.

“Okay. Jangsoo-hyungnim. Let’s do that one more time.”

“Don’t shoot too much. Well, not that you’d do that.”

Joongjin said that they’ll start shooting again after some maintenance. They dusted off their bodies and pressed back down their hair. The stylists came and redid what looked sloppy.

Maru waved at Sooyoung. Sooyoung brought Joon-gi and Bangjoo.

“How was it? Did you guys find anything you want to change?”

“I did.”

“Me too.”

“I got a feeling after I did it. This is a bit bland. It’s too meek when this is supposed to be kids fighting.”

All three of them said that there was a part they didn’t like. They meant that the action was fine, but the part where they expressed their emotions before the fight was a bit meek. Maru nodded once. That definitely required some changes to make it look good.

“Let’s do it. Just changing the tone of voice would change a lot of things.”

“For me, I’m going to change some of my lines as well.”

“Don’t stray off too much.”

“Okay.”

They went back to their standby position. After checking the footage, Joongjin raised his hand. He had the habit of snapping his fingers when he gave his cue signal.

“Ready, action!”

The flow was the same as last time. Taehoon and Gwangsoo said their lines like saying the model answer from a textbook. Following that was Maru’s turn. Maru changed his tone and actions from the ones that Joongjin told him to do. He let his emotions decide so that it would suit the character better.

Following that, the three others also did their acts slightly differently from what Joongjin told them to do.

It now looked more emotional and a lot rougher.

After punching each other in the following battle scene and pulling back behind the camera, Maru and Sooyoung exchanged gazes of satisfaction.

The changed version was definitely better.

At that moment, Joongjin shouted cut the moment the big kid moved out of the frame after being kicked and pointed at Maru and the three others exactly.

“Shall we have a talk?”

[1] The raws are vague here in who went to the prison. It might be Lee Hyuk or it might be Yoo Joongang.

Chapter 422

His eyes were scary. The set had over 30 people mixed in it, yet he was able to catch the slight differences in the actions of the four of them. Maru gave the others next to him some glances before standing in front of Joongjin.

“I guess I don’t need to explain why I called you here, right?”

Maru nodded his head.

“From what I saw, it didn’t look like you were moving individually. It seemed that someone came up with the idea of changing the tone. Am I correct?”

“Yes.”

“I see. Then I’ll get straight to the point since we’re busy. Why did you not act the way I told you to?”

Joongjin waved at Jangsoo to wait. Maru looked back for a sec. Over a hundred pupils were looking at him.

“Because this is better.”

“You’re saying that the act you four did is better than the one I instructed you to do, huh?”

“Yes.”

“So you, Mr. Maru, are saying that you know acting better than me, yes? And that you’re more knowledgeable about the character than me.”

Joongjin pointed at the script as he spoke. Maru spoke to Joongjin who had a faint smile on his face.

“I can’t tell you that we know acting better than you. It’s also rather difficult to say that we know the characters better than their creator. However, I believe that we are better at expressing. I’m not saying that the characters that you gave us are bad. I believe that we’ll still get a good picture even if we acted as you told us to do.”

“Then why do you say that you’re ‘better’ at expressing?”

“Because we have our individualities. The acting that you instructed us to do is too well-fitting. It’s just like putting up a statue. It’s good to look at, but it’s also rather bland.”

After saying that, Maru had to cringe one eye. That was because Sooyoung, who stood behind him, hit his back with a fist. Tone it down a little - he seemed to express. However, Maru believed that he had to be even firmer in his decision at this point.

Joongjin was listening to his opinion. If he deemed that there was no need to face him, then he would’ve told the four of them to go back already. Throughout the entire morning, he made it clear that he would do what was necessary and would not do what wasn’t. And here, he kept asking questions. It was as if he wanted Maru to keep going.

Above all.

Maru looked at Joongjin’s eyes. A blue speech bubble popped up behind him. This was the first time he saw such a deep blue color. He wondered what the meaning was behind that color, but right now, he had to focus on the contents of the speech bubble instead.

-Go on.

Joongjin’s lips were curved slightly. It meant that he welcomed this situation like a child full of curiosity. Maru closed his eyes shut before opening them again. The speech bubble was gone. Although the functionality was imperfect as it couldn’t look deep into a person’s heart, it was plenty enough to see through his intentions for now.

“Bland, huh. Have you researched into the characters that you are acting?”

Hearing Joongjin’s question, the four of them nodded their heads without hesitation. Although they were ‘Friends A through D’ in the script, they still had their names in the story. There were times when Taehoon and Gwangsoo would call out to them, and in the brawl scene, they would swear at each other as well. An actor would research into even a ‘passerby A’ if they got that character. And right now, they were given a character with lines and even a name. How many actors would not do the research?

Ever since they arrived here, the four of them gave feedback on each other’s acting. They tried changing the tone of the words, and sometimes even changed the words as they repeated the short scene. They supplemented each other’s acting while thinking about different combinations even back in the action school, in the coach, and even during the spare time after lunch.

“I think that a strand of grass knows a strand of grass’s thoughts the best!” Bangjoo said.

His voice was very loud as though he had been holding back this entire time. Maru could feel Sooyoung and Joon-gi flinching. Maru also coughed awkwardly inside. It was good that he was bold, but he went a little bit too far.

“So that means that I was a bit lacking in expressing your characters, huh? I’m good at looking at the forest, but not at looking at the tree, is this what you’re trying to say?”

“That’s not entirely the case.”

The reason they stood in front of the director was not to go against him. It was to express their opinions and get back a good result. If the director was firm, they would have no choice but to leave the negotiation table and go back.

“I think that’s what Mr. Bangjoo meant. Am I wrong?”

Maru looked at Bangjoo. He was worried about how Bangjoo would answer.

“Yes, that’s what I mean.”

“I see.”

Maru lowered his head and sighed. ‘He’s the type of guy who would become reckless once he gets excited’ - Joohyun’s voice flashed through his head. Well, he did like the fact that he was bold enough to answer that way. After all, he wanted to say that as well.

It was impossible for Maru, who instinctively sucked up to his superiors, to act that way, but that bold high school student did it so easily. Being influenced by his courage, Joon-gi and Sooyoung also said that their acting was slightly better.

“Camera director.”

Hearing Joongjin’s call, Jangsoo came.

“Let’s have a look at the footage.”

“With these kids?”

“Yes.”

The video they shot just now played back on the external monitor. Looking at the screen, Bangjoo exclaimed.

“This feels rather new to look at it this way. Oh, there’s me.”

The acting was slightly different, but it didn’t look bad on screen either.

“Let’s have a look at the one we took before that.”

Following that, the footage where they acted as they were instructed to by Joongjin started playing back. It definitely wasn’t a bad act. This had its own charm. However, if they were asked which was filled with more vitality when comparing the two, Maru had the confidence to say that it was the second take. The others seemed to think the same as they all had expressions of confidence.

“What do you think? Can you say that the one you four did is better than the one I requested even when comparing side by side?”

“Yes. In fact, I have even more confidence now that I see it in person.”

“I think the same.”

“Me too.”

Hearing answers from the three people, Joongjin looked at Maru. Maru replied that it was better. After stroking his chin, Joongjin spoke,

“Do you remember that I told you to be prepared to leave if you don’t follow my words?”

Maru carefully nodded. He had to be careful here. He might suddenly change his attitude into a strict one from an accepting one. If he was the type of man who could only speak gallantly, there was no way he would look at the four of them in a good way since they were challenging his authority.

“But the fact that you acted differently in a group like this without listening to me is that… you have the confidence, and to me, I feel very happy about that.”

“Eh?”

“Let’s shoot one more time the way you four did it and talk again.”

Joongjin smiled and clapped twice. That was the signal for everyone to go back to their positions. Maru looked at his friends behind him. Everyone had vague expressions. It looked like it went well, but not entirely.

“I’m not sure what’s happening, but I don’t think we’re being chased out.”

“Let’s try it out once. We’ll see then. Also Bangjoo, I was startled because I thought you were getting angry. Geez, man.”

Sooyoung headlocked Bangjoo in his arms and shook him vigorously. Bangjoo apologized and groaned at the same time.

“Let’s do it like we did last time. The director would probably tell us something once we do.”

The three of them nodded after hearing Maru’s words.

Since this was the first time that there was a delay in the shoot, all of the actors and the staff looked at the four of them with confusion. Maru ignored their gazes and prepared his own acting. If he got the permission to do whatever he wanted to in this scene, he should be able to get more freedom to express his emotions in the next scene, where he died.

‘Now that I think about it, this is the first third take of the day, huh.’

During the classroom scene in the morning, they got an okay after the first take, and it took two shots with the adult actors. It was done practically in an instant, and Joongjin did not take any more shots. Yet right now, Joongjin went into the third shot after hearing their words.

“Please prepare yourselves. Ready, action.”

Maru acted with more focus than ever. It wouldn’t be funny if he made a mistake when he expressed his opinion. He grabbed Joon-gi’s collar and let go before falling down after getting a hit. After checking Jangsoo walking past him with the camera, he grabbed Joon-gi’s hand and stood up.

“I hope that went well.”

“We’ll have to wait to find out.”

Jangsoo went around filming everyone until the last shot, and Joongjin shouted cut after that.

“The four of you.”

Since they were prepared for this, they walked up to him the moment Joongjin called them. They watched the footage that Jangsoo took just like last time.

“Good. I get what you are trying to say.”

Phew, Maru inwardly sighed in relief. It seemed that their opinions were accepted.

“But why don’t we change it like this? Oh, this is just a proposal, so just listen to me. First is you, Mr. Maru.”

Maru checked the footage as he listened to Joongjin’s words.

“Try to raise your anger even more here.”

“Right here?”

“Yes. It’s good to shout while pushing your body forward, but your expression is lacking a little in detail. We’re going to do a close-up shot on your face, so put your effort into it. For example, like this.”

Joongjin made an expression himself. It looked quite funny, but Maru could understand his intentions. After that, they slightly edited the lines as well. It was a minute change, just a change in postpositions[1]. The moment Maru heard the contents of the change, he could only nod. It was a very clean direction without room for retort.

“Does that make you satisfied?”

“Ah, yes.”

“Good, then next. Mr. Bangjoo.”

Like before, the two started changing the scene a little. Now, there was a cut that didn’t exist before in the script. What was supposed to be a single long-take scene was split into two. While changing the lines, Joongjin even asked the art director to change up the landscape. The scriptwriter next to him busily wrote things down with a pen. The staff holding shovels carved the mountain so that there was room for Bangjoo to run around.

Text and image were being altered at the same time. Hearing Joongjin’s explanation, Bangjoo dazedly nodded his head and walked back. Sooyoung and Joon-gi were the same in that regard.

The skit that the four of them prepared while supplementing each other’s part was altered once again, in a better, more detailed fashion.

“We should insert a cover shot halfway through, and that… hm, I think it will look pretty decent.”

Joongjin smiled and started writing things down on the script.

Seeing that, Maru was flabbergasted. They took just one shoot. After seeing that one shoot, he changed literally everything about that scene on the spot. However, it didn’t feel spontaneous nor chaotic. It looked as though everything was intended to be this way from the start. Maru was amazed, yet felt a little disheartened. If the four of them were given more time to think about it and exchange opinions, they would probably have arrived at the same conclusion that Joongjin gave right now. However, Joongjin skipped that entire process and pulled out the best picture from his mind alone. Wasn’t that too smart for a brain? He wanted that brain for himself.

“But why did you listen to our words?” Bangjoo asked.

Joongjin, who was writing things down on the script, raised his head and replied.

“Because you told me to do it.”

“What?”

“I’m a very lacking person. I’m far from perfect. Embarrassingly, I hear the word genius a lot, but I’m not actually that smart. That’s why I try my best to experience and accept various things.”

“But you said you’ll chase us out if we don’t listen to your words…”

“That’s because I need to select the right people. I’m not generous enough to commit my time to useless stories. I only listen to words that have value. Mr. Bangjoo, who would you want to listen to? One that says that his thing is the best? Or one that hesitates and says that his thing is worthless?”

“Of course, the one who’s confident.”

“I’m the same. Actors that have pride in their acting are bound to speak no matter what kind of warning I give. That’s because actors are creatures that can’t accept acting that’s below their level. As for me, I’m always ready to listen to words from actors. It doesn’t matter whether their opinions are better or worse than my directions. Having a conversation with actors is always a form of study for me. It’s valuable. In that sense, your sister was also a very splendid actress. She was an amazing actress.”

After closing the script, Joongjin notified everyone that they’d start shooting in 10 minutes.

Maru looked at Joongjin who looked where the ground was turned over. He was a scary man. He was endlessly open and endlessly accepted other opinions. By now, that man’s dictionary of direction should have recorded the ‘standard model of high school student acting’ in it. He couldn’t be happier that his last shoot was tomorrow. He couldn’t begin to imagine what kind of acting he would have to do in order to continue satisfying him.

While resting, Maru took out his phone that he had put on silent. There was a text message from Joohyun, who told him that she was going back to sleep. He opened that text.

[Push forward with your opinion until the director is satisfied; until the word ‘good’ escapes his mouth.]

It was a rather late reply. Maru shook his head and put his phone back in.

[1] Korean grammar has what is known as ‘postpositions’, just like nouns, verbs, adjectives, prepositions.

Chapter 423

She turned off the tap and raised her head.

“I’m completely burnt.”

She wiped the moisture off with a paper towel and applied some sunscreen again. It wasn’t that she had given up on becoming an actress so she had to take care of her skin at all times. Just as she turned around after wiping off the excess sunscreen on her hands, Kwon Dayoon entered the bathroom.

How thin. She thought that the girl might snap with a touch. When she saw her on TV before, she gave off the impression that she was just skinny, but now that they met in real life, she looked worrifully thin. It wouldn’t be strange even if she fell over right now due to anemia.

Dayoon lowered her head and stood next to her. Since morning, the two hadn’t talked about anything in private. Ever since she heard those words from director Joongjin, she always parroted ‘I understand’.

“It’s hard, isn’t it?”

Miso spoke out to her first. It wasn’t her style to pretend that she didn’t see it.

“Eh? Ah, yes.”

Her face looked like she didn’t know what Miso was talking about. Miso smiled bitterly. As an instructor, Dayoon was the type of person that would annoy her the most. Someone that called herself an actress was shooting a movie without even knowing the basics. If she wasn’t paid for this, she would have shouted at her to do things properly.

However, as an individual who was also a member of society, she pitied Dayoon. This woman looked like she had a lot of circumstances. She always looked uneasy as though she was being chased by something, and sometimes, she even looked desperate as though she didn’t know what to do. Though, how many celebrities actually led easy lives was up to debate, but was she desperate enough to be dictated around by the director?

“Uhm.”

Dayoon, who was just fidgeting with her fingers under the flowing water, spoke.

“Please speak.”

“Is it fine for me to keep doing what I’m doing?”

Dayoon heavily raised her head as though there was a weight attached below her chin. Miso replied as she looked back into her empty eyes.

“That’s what I want to ask. What do you want to do? Are you going to keep listening to the director’s and my words? Or are you going to try something?”

“I don’t know…”

“If you don’t know, then just do it. Don’t think about it. That will be easier for you.”

Dayoon made a loathing smile. She kept washing her hands even though they were clean.

“Can I continue to live on as an actress?”

“I wouldn’t know. But like this, you won’t last long. After all, acting isn’t such an easy job. Though, no job is easy.”

Miso threw away the wet paper towel before leaving. The sun was setting. If the heat of the day was something sharp that pricked the skin, the heat of the evening was the stuffy one that made one tired.

While fanning herself with her hand, Miso walked towards the car that handed out lunch boxes. During the day, Kwon Dayoon’s fans supported them with the lunch boxes and for dinner, they were given lunch boxes by fans of Yoo Joongang. There was a ‘good luck’ sticker on the cover of the plastic container. Popular models sure had it good.

She was going to eat alone since she didn’t know anyone here, but just then she saw Maru who was also receiving a lunch box. The two met eyes, but Maru just nodded before turning around.

“Hey!”

When she called out to him, he turned back around and sighed. She flicked her fingers. Maru approached her slowly. But he dared to sigh?

“Are you eating alone?”

“Yes, I’m eating alone, you satisfied?”

“You should eat with the director.”

“Gosh, don’t even mention him. He kept talking as he ate during lunch, and I wasn’t able to eat anything because of that. I couldn’t entirely ignore him since he was acting like an excited child. Look over there.”

Miso pointed at Joongjin, who kept following camera director Kim Jangsoo around, while she held the lunch box in her hands. The two seemed to be on close terms as Jangsoo shouted at director Joongjin to shut his trap. However, it wouldn’t be director Joongjin if he listened to those words, so his mouth would probably not stop.

“He is a little talkative.”

Maru waved his hand at three people who were walking away from him. They seemed to be his friends. When she looked closer, she saw Bangjoo as well.

“The four of you, you seemed to talk with the director a lot during the day. What did you talk about?”

The four minor actors changed the entire atmosphere for the afternoon shoot. Director Joongjin, who always one-shotted almost everything, had started to take more cuts after the brawl scene. That was the first time she saw a ‘three’ on the take number on the slate.

“We told him that we want to change the acting.”

“Oh, that’s why he started shooting more. That’s strange. He might look soft, but he has a stubborn side so I didn’t think he would accept opinions from other people.”

“He’s rather peculiar. He’s also quite different from how he looks.”

Miso looked at Joongjin who was laughing amongst staff members.

“I admit that he’s a peculiar person.”

“But what brings you here, instructor?”

“To do some acting coaching.”

“Coaching?”

“Yeah. This is the first time I experienced something like this.”

Miso looked at Dayoon who walked past her. The lifeless face she showed in the bathroom was gone. There was only a strong-willed lady that cheered others up around her and endured the hard filming with a smile. Seeing her greet each and every staff member she came across in a polite manner, Miso got the impression that Dayoon was indeed a pro. Saying that something hard is not hard had to be the biggest burden pros had to bear in front of the public.

“It must be hard.”

“What?”

“Nah, just talking to myself. Rather than that, I looked at the script. It seems that the four of you won’t have any more shoots after tomorrow, right?”

“Yes. We’ll be done after just two days.”

“Good for you. Maybe I shouldn’t have taken up his offer. This is no fun. Should I ask if I can do a cameo?”

“I don’t think the director will allow that.”

“I know. I just tried saying it.”

Miso ate the shrimp tempura inside the lunchbox. It was supposed to be crispy, but it was soggy as heck.

“Is it doable?”

“Is what doable?”

“Acting. No, I mean being an actor.”

“Yes, it’s somewhat doable. It’s not hard physical labor, and I’m used to waiting now.”

“That’s good. There are plenty of people who can’t adapt.”

“I will have to endure. No matter what happens.”

“You sound pretty determined.”

Miso turned to look at Maru. He looked pretty tragic, scraping off every last rice grain into his mouth. It was as though he was like a physical laborer going off to construction sites every morning. Maru was putting strength into chewing. Miso shrugged when Maru looked like he knew full well the meaning behind every meal. She even felt like there was another face under his facial skin.

“What happened to your movie audition?” Maru asked as he put down the spoon.

“I failed. Pretty cleanly too.”

Miso was eating slices of kiwi when she said that and suddenly flicked Maru on the forehead.

“I had almost forgotten about it too. Why did you have to bring it up?”

“I just asked out of courtesy. Rather than that, when are you going to marry Mr. Taesik? I mean, you two aren’t exactly young right now.”

Miso glared at Maru. Maru flinched and started moving backwards.

“Just get ready to come and eat some food.”

“Looks like you’ve greeted each other’s parents already.”

“Yes, we have.”

“Congratulations. I was wondering when I’d get to eat noodles, but it looks like I might be able to eat some within the year.”

“It’s next year though. Since I’m getting married, I might as well get to be the bride of May.”

“Ah, the bride of May. It must be expensive though since that’s the season for it.”

“You know all sorts of things huh.”

Maru brushed the rest of the food into his mouth before standing up.

“I’ll get going then. I still have stuff to consult with the others.”

“Fine, you can go.”

Miso also closed the lid and stretched her arms out.

The sun had set already.

* * *

“Good.”

Changsung clapped to thank everyone. The countryside shoot schedule of three days was finally over. The coup scene with more than a hundred people was also finished without a hitch. Although there was a long time until that scene aired, they shot it early because of the weather.

“Thank you for all your work.”

“My dear little main characters. Well done.”

Changsung massaged the shoulders of Lee Uljin and Kang Giwoo who came to say thanks. Although there was a lot of controversy during the beginning of the shoot, their acting was clean now as though they had adapted to the situation. It was especially the case with Giwoo. His childish side was gone. Even other middle-aged actors praised him for his weighty acting.

“Let’s work hard for just a few more days. There’s not long left.”

Changsung encouraged the kids before looking for Jinhyuk.

“How is it? Did those guys say that they were okay with the schedule?”

Jinhyuk nodded.

“Just barely. They might join us late on the set, but I don’t think there will be any delays in the shooting. But what do we do about tomorrow? The forecast said it would rain and that’d be a big problem for us since we’re shooting outside.”

“If it rains, then it rains. Just get prepared so that the old folks don’t catch a cold.”

“I’m going to get a heater and some heat packs. Oh yeah, Giwoo’s acting has gotten a lot better.”

Jinhyuk pointed at Giwoo, who was leaving the set while greeting the staff, as he spoke.

“He’s definitely become a lot better.”

“But senior. Don’t you think it’s similar?”

“What is?”

“You know, that kid. What was his name again? The second beggar.”

“The second beggar? Ah, it’s Maru. Han Maru.”

“Yeah, him. There was a bit of a commotion during our first shoot in Moongyeong. Uljin pushed Maru and almost caused an accident.”

“I remember that. I still don’t understand why he did that.”

Changsung shook his head when he thought back to that incident.

“But what about it?”

“You know, Maru showed a guide once. Han Myung-hoe’s acting. Do you remember that?”

Ah, that’s right.

Changsung nodded his head. He understood what Jinhyuk was saying. The Han Myung-hoe that Maru showed back then as well as the Han Myung-hoe that Giwoo was acting definitely had their similarities. The tone of voice, and the expression. When he compared his memory to the footage he took just now, it definitely was similar. No, rather than similar, they looked identical.

“Giwoo’s pretty good at grasping the characteristics of others.”

Jinhyuk spoke as though he was proud.

“That’s also a form of talent, I guess.”

However, Changsung was a little weirded out when he thought about how the two people’s acting was strangely identical. Although they say art starts from imitation…

“Senior. Let’s drink some coffee.”

“Ah, okay.”

Changsung shook off his thoughts when Jinhyuk pointed backwards. He was clearly overthinking. He should be cheering for someone who was doing their best, not try to put down his work.

“You the one buying?”

“Senior, I’ve already run out of money this month.”

“Yeah. I guess I was expecting too much. Let’s go. I’ll buy you the 300 won vending machine coffee.”

“I’ll take the 400 won one, thanks.”

“Fine, 400 won.”

Changsung smiled and gave Jinhyuk a bill.

Chapter 424

“Mr. Maru. Are you ready?”

Maru nodded when the direction team asked. The blood capsule that he put in his mouth had almost been completely dissolved. The powder and his spit should have mixed enough by now to look like blood.

“Standby!”

Director Joongjin shouted heartily. The whispers all died down. Following that, sound. He could hear the word ‘speed’ from afar.

“Camera!”

Roll - the camera director’s first assistant shouted as Maru gathered even more saliva in his mouth. This was the second take. After the first take, he was given instruction from the director. During the first run, he ‘leaked’ the blood, so he asked for Maru to spit it out during the second run.

‘Maybe I should’ve just done what he said.’

Ever since the incident yesterday, director Joongjin always asked for his opinions. Just thinking about what the other actors would think of the director going to four minor actors for opinions made his stomach ache. Maru looked at Lee Hyuk, who was standing behind the monitor. He wasn’t hiding his intentions from his eyes that looked at him annoyingly. It seemed that Sooyoung’s words were true. This man didn’t look like he had a good personality.

The slate man’s voice could be heard before the clapper sound entered his ears. The only thing left now was the director’s shout.

“Ready, action!”

Maru let his head fall on the place he decided on and spat out everything in his mouth. The red saliva covered the dark skies. Wasn’t this a B-grade movie? He decided to believe in the power of editing as he rolled around. Since it was a slope, his body started rolling by itself once he pushed himself forward.

Dry leaves scratched his head and little stones, which appeared no matter how hard the staff tried to brush them, away scratched his arms. He was supposed to be dead, so he couldn’t exactly flinch either. He rolled around five meters before landing on a mattress. The staff that was waiting for him immediately came to him and checked up on him.

“Uhm, was my rolling okay?”

“Don’t even mention it. You were practically a bowling ball. Rather than that, you okay?”

“Yes. It just prickles a little. My clothes aren’t ripped, right?”

“They aren’t. Oh wait, there’s a scratch on your cheek. Tsk, that looks painful.”

A female staff member from the direction team gave him a tissue. Maru thanked her before pressing down on his cheeks with the tissue. He was bleeding fake blood from his mouth, and real blood from his cheeks. It was a bloody party.

He dusted off the dry leaves and returned to where he was supposed to be.

“Seonbae-nim. Are you okay?”

“I’m okay.”

He smiled at Bangjoo who asked worriedly before looking at the director. He wondered how it would be this time. If he did not give the okay, he would have to roll down the same path once more.

“Maru, you should curl up your shoulders when you roll. You’ll get injured if you roll like that.”

The action director, Choongho, gave him some advice. For safety, it was best to curl up the arms and put them against the chest, but it would be really awkward if someone that lost consciousness rolled down the hill like that, so the arms were just freely flung around.

“I’ll be careful if I have to roll again.”

“That’s right. What’s important is to not get injured. You know that, don’t you?”

“Yes.”

Maru asked Sooyoung and Joon-gi how he did.

“You died dynamically. But is your head okay? It looked really realistic.”

Maru tried touching the back of his head. He smashed his head against a protrusion made of soil, but his hand had some blood from his head as though he had scraped his head against some stones.

“Rinse your mouth with this. You look like a total zombie right now.”

“Thanks.”

He put some water that Joon-gi gave him in his mouth before gargling.

“But seonbae-nim. What does it taste like?” Bangjoo asked, seemingly curious about what artificial blood tasted like.

“It doesn’t taste like anything.”

“They should make it sweet.”

That was not a bad idea. Maru thought that it would be better if it tasted like strawberries. Maru drenched his hand with some water and wiped his face.

“Okay! Thank you for your work everyone. Today’s shoot ends here.”

Everyone cheered while clapping.

“Thanks for your work.”

“Thank you too.”

With that, the four minor actors’ roles were finished here as well. The funeral scene in the morning and the death scene in the afternoon. Thanks to director Joongjin editing the original script several times, he got a lot of appearances. Occasionally, they would get one-shots just by themselves so smiles never ceased to appear on their faces throughout the shoot.

“I hope the movie goes well. I’ll bring my mom to watch it,” Sooyoung said as he organized the drill uniform.

Everyone started getting ready to pull out. The lights turned off, and the generator car also quietened down.

“Let’s return the scene to its original state before going down.”

Director Choi from the art team raised a shovel above her head as she spoke. They started putting the ground that they turned over for the brawl scene back to its original state.

“Well then, let’s do this together. We’ll need everyone to attend the afterparty after all,” director Joongjin raised a shovel as he spoke.

Other than the lights team and the camera team who had to move around heavy equipment, the rest of the staff joined in. Even the people that came here to act in the action scene gladly helped out.

“Afterparty. What a magical word.”

“We should help out as well.”

Since he mentioned a party, it seemed that the parts they needed to shoot here were finished. The beginning sequences for the movie were completely finished in just two days. It was quite a tight schedule, but it didn’t feel like they were being chased by time. It was probably thanks to director Joongjin’s method of shooting.

“This feels like an exercise before a meal.”

Maru also joined with a shovel in hand.

* * *

“I’m gonna sleep.”

“I’m already sleeping.”

That was the exchange between Sooyoung and Joon-gi who sat behind him. Maru pulled the curtains to cover the window. On the coach back to Seoul, everyone had fallen asleep due to fatigue. Even Bangjoo, who seemed excited to go back, was leaning against the backrest of the front seat, dozing off. It seemed that he had finally expended all of his internal batteries.

“You should get some rest.”

Maru also yawned before closing his eyes. He would probably be back in Seoul by the time he woke up. He let his body rest against the chair that was vibrating slightly, waiting for sleep to overwhelm him when his phone in his pocket notified him that there was a message. It was 9 p.m. on a Sunday. There was only one person who would send him a message at this hour.

-You finished?

Maru pressed some buttons on her number, which he saved as ‘Bunbun’, to reply to her.

-I’m on the way back. How about you?

-I’m done as well.

-Must be tired then.

-Yeah, I’m tired.

-I’ll call you then. It’s less tiring to speak than to text after all.

He wasn’t used to pressing buttons on a phone, so Maru decided to call her. He pressed the call button and waited for her to pick up when the signal cut off mid way. He wondered if he mis-pressed so he was about to call again when he got a text message.

-No. I’m tired today. I’m going to go to sleep now.

Maru looked at his phone screen for a long time. People had their own patterns. In her case, it was to make a phone call after exchanging text messages. Good night - she always called him to speak just those two words.

Even on days when he grumbled over text about being exhausted, she gave him a call without fail to say those words. Maru folded his phone before thinking. Perhaps she was really tired. Perhaps she might have crawled into her bed thinking that she couldn’t be bothered to do anything. Like how it required a long time to recharge a completely depleted battery, even she sometimes expended herself of any energy.

Was this that time?

Maru opened his phone. It wasn’t just women that had intuitions. Men had their own intuitions as well. Maru wanted to know what was so iffy about this dry text message.

He was wondering whether to call her or not before leaving a message. He wanted to help her out if she encountered something difficult and perhaps talk bad together if she was pissed about something. He wanted her to rely on him regardless of what it was.

-Did something happen?

He typed that and almost sent the message, but Maru quickly pressed the cancel button. He started a new message and started typing again.

-If you aren’t sleeping, hang out with me a little.

He sent the message before opening the curtain. When he was looking at the cars that were rushing by, the phone in his hands started vibrating.

-Sorry.

That was her reply.

* * *

She put her phone down before biting her lower lip. Originally, she wanted to call him. No, before she even sent a text, she wanted to call him and listen to his voice. No, it wasn’t that either. She didn’t want to listen, but rather she wanted to say everything.

When she curled up her body, the script entered her eyes. ‘That family is strange’. When she first received the script, and when she first read the title out loud, how happy was she then?

It was her debut as an actress that she had dreamed of for a long time. She was a nextdoor friend of the main character. The character was rather vague so she didn’t have many lines, but she would be satisfied just by getting into a single frame with other actors.

“Geez, why am I like this?”

She laughed in vain when she saw a tear droplet fall down. This was no good. She kept rubbing her eyes with the back of her hands. She rubbed to the point that she was worried that they would go red, but for some reason, she couldn’t stop.

The moments she experienced during the day came back to her. A startling rebuke as well as a gaze that looked down on her; the voices that whispered in the background. She curled up her body even more. The woman that slapped down the script on her head, Lee Miyoon. She could still hear her laughing voice.

“Looks like I made a bad impression.”

When Yoojin first mentioned to her about Lee Miyoon, she decided that she would act carefully in front of that person, but things went wrong on the first day. After the first greeting that she thought she was forgiven for, that woman sneakily bullied her. It was as though she wanted her to keep enduring; to keep struggling and not leave the place.

She kept reminding herself inwardly that it was okay, but her fears became larger the farther the shoot progressed. What kind of words would she hear today? What kinds of things would she nitpick about today?

Let’s run away - those words subconsciously came to her mind.

She sat up. She then stood up and stood in front of the mirror.

“Who told you to make such a pathetic face?”

She pulled her cheeks to the sides.

She was scared of Lee Miyoon. It was to the point that she couldn’t look at her straight in the eye. However, the scarier she felt, the more rebellious she felt as well. I will never give up, I will make her say that I’m good from her mouth - she thought.

“But… can I really do it?”

She protruded her lips out.

“Aaargh, I don’t know! I don’t get it!”

She flung herself on the bed and started violently waving her hands around. She wanted to grab someone and swear at that woman. She wanted to talk about what a bad woman she was and how difficult she had it.

However, she didn’t want that person to be Maru. That person never said anything when he was hurt, but always brought medicine when someone else was hurt. If she told him her worries, he would probably listen to her stories in a warm, kind manner, but looking at it another way, that was just her pushing her worries onto Maru.

Maru had been busy enough already these days. He had to be tired. Despite that though, he never complained. He always smiled and always played jokes on her. She didn’t want to rant in front of such a person.

She didn’t want to become a burden to him.

“My girl, is something happening?” Her mom came in and asked.

She hurriedly turned her head away and stuffed herself into the blanket. She couldn’t let her mom find out that she was crying.

“I-I was just practicing acting.”

“Geez, aren’t you putting in too much effort? Mom was surprised, you know?”

“Uh, okay. I’ll be quiet.”

“My girl.”

“Yeah?”

“Want to drink some coffee with mom? I have some spare time since I just finished my manuscript.”

I’m fine - she was just about to reply but her mom was already in front of her. She could see the laptop with the screen still on through the gaps of the door.

“You should study acting more if you want to fool your mom. Come out. Your mom’s itching to talk as well.”

Her mom patted her on the butt before leaving with a smile. She sniffed once before going to the living room.

Chapter 425

“Is it strange?”

“Well, it looks okay and not okay.”

“Don’t be vague and reply properly. Is it okay or is it strange?”

“With my standards, it’s not that good. But it’s fine since you’re cute, noona.”

“God, don’t talk about something unnecessary.”

Yoo Jiseok grabbed the script that was closing in on his eyes.

“Blade catching! I watched a Hong Geunho movie last night and he catches a blade like this.”

“Why don’t you join a circus already?”

Chaerim, who approached him, quickly snatched the script away from him.

“Your acting is pretty decent.”

“But you just said it’s not that good.”

“That’s a matter of personal preference.”

Chaerim’s nose twitched before she went to a corner of the practice room before coming back with a laptop. That laptop was there to be used to listen to music. After connecting the internet cable, Chaerim searched for something on the internet before showing him the screen. It was an internet café hosted on a web portal.

“Look at this.”

Jiseok made an awkward smile as he looked at the screen. There was a big banner that said ‘Anti-Blue’ in big red letters.

“A fan café, huh. I don’t have anything like this.”

“It’s an anti-fan café.”

“Well, anti-fans are still fans.”

“Shut up, and go to my category and read some of the articles.”

“Wow, there’s a category dedicated to you, noona?”

He moved the cursor and clicked the ‘bitch Lee Chaerim’ category. He moved his eyes to read a few of the post titles and coughed awkwardly before closing the lid. The feed was filled with unspeakable insults everywhere. The most eye-catching words, though, were ‘crap acting’. They were used in tandem with the f-word, b-word, and stuff like that to insult Chaerim. Their expressive powers were so strong that they might as well win the Lee Sang Literature Awards. Oh, wait, that might be a little offensive to that person.

“You’re quite popular,” he spoke with a smile.

The script was flung at him. Jiseok looked down at the script that hit his face and fell to the ground.

“You’re going too far, throwing something like that at a person who has a bad heart.”

“Ah… I’m sorry,” Chaerim was startled and immediately apologized.

“Oh! That worked. Looks like I should use it a lot in the future.”

Jiseok picked up the script and handed it back to Chaerim.

“Do you really want me to hit you?”

“You already did. But noona, it’s not like this is the first time it happened. People that want to insult you will insult you even if you do good deeds so just forget about them and smile.”

“I know that. If their insults were groundless, then I would just ignore them. Like you said, this is not the first time it happened after all. But there are things I can’t simply ignore.”

“You mean the one about crap acting?”

“Did you really have to say that out loud?”

“I really can’t be indirect with stuff like this.”

Jiseok opened the laptop lid again and searched Youth Generation on the web portal. Chaerim participated in the afterparty for the drama yesterday. Now, all she had to do was to watch the last episode on TV. She should have an ease of mind, but she didn’t seem to.

‘Well, the reason is obvious.’

The view rates for Youth Generation could be seen right underneath the search bar.

7%. Although the drama started off with a double-digit viewing rate, it kept going down as time went on, and now that the last episode was a few days away from airing, it finally went down to one digit. Even though the drama was an ambitious one with popular idols and youth stars, the results were below expectations.

The previous season of Youth Generation hit a huge jackpot and reached a 20% viewing rate even with actors that were practically nameless. The 7% of season 3 paled in comparison.

With bad results, the viewers started trying to find the reason, and their arrows were naturally pointed at the actors. After all, the highschool romance plot hadn’t changed, so they came to the conclusion that it was the lack of skill on the actors’ part. As a result, the official website for Youth Generation was filled with all sorts of insults and swear words, while the fan cafés of the actors were also filled with posts that expressed their sneers and disappointments towards them.

The one that had the highest ratio of insults was Lee Chaerim from Blue.

“It wasn’t that bad, you know?”

“So it wasn’t that good either?”

“Uhm, for some reason, I think we’re going back in a loop, but in any case, you weren’t really my style.”

“Like I said, what’s the problem?”

Chaerim collapsed on the floor. Jiseok giggled as he saw that.

“You changed a lot recently, noona.”

“Changed? Me?”

“Yes.”

“What changed about me?”

“Don’t you remember how you treated me the first time we met? You simply outright ignored me. I talked to you and you acted like you didn’t hear it. You sat down like this with an expression that looked like you were bearing the burden of the entire world on your shoulders.”

Jiseok made a ‘The Thinker’ pose.

“What are you saying?”

Chaerim pouted before turning her head away.

“I’m saying it’s good to see it. You grumbling, smiling, and even getting angry - people need to express their emotions. Otherwise, they’ll get ill. But seriously, your expression softened up a lot. Are you perhaps dating? Perhaps the man is from the popular group Change?”

After saying that, Jiseok immediately got up and prepared to run away. Chaerim was holding a plastic water bottle with both of her hands. If he got hit with that, he’d have a broken bone at least.

He was slowly taking steps backwards when his phone that he left on the floor started vibrating. Chaerim snorted and grabbed the phone.

“Uh, noona. Privacy, please!”

“Privacy, yeah right.”

Jiseok shrugged. Actually, there were no calls or messages that would be bad if someone saw them. He sat down again and looked at the clock in the practice room.

“Speak.”

Chaerim picked up the call. Jiseok blinked his eyes. Who was it on the other end that she was so natural about it?

He approached her while walking on his knees.

“It is Jiseok’s phone. Why am I the one picking it up? Because I wanted to.”

“Noona, who is it?”

“Han Maru.”

“Ah.”

Jiseok scratched his head. Did they get close during the shoot before? When Chaerim said that she wanted to call Maru before, Jiseok thought that Chaerim had a romantic interest in Maru, but from the way she picked up the call right now, he seemed to be mistaken. Well, not that liking someone who already had someone would do her any good.

“You want me to switch to Jiseok?”

Chaerim narrowed her eyes and glared at him. Jiseok kneeled and politely extended both of his hands.

“A-ing~ noona, pwease give it to me.”

“Ew, that’s so disgusting. Don’t you ever try to act cute again in front of someone. They might slap you in the face.”

Chaerim slapped the phone on his palms.

“Your violent and direct attitude really is your charming point.”

“Don’t speak nonsense and just pick up the phone already. He sounded quite serious.”

“Eh? Serious?”

Han Maru and serious? At that moment, Jiseok predicted what Maru was going to say.

“Phew, hello?”

-Jiseok?

“Yeah.”

-I have something to ask.

“What is it?”

-Did nothing happen at the shoot?

It was just as he had expected. Jiseok tapped on the floor with his fingers, wondering what to say to him. He thought deeply, but not for a long time.

“Well, a lot of things happened. A shoot is pretty hard after all. We were called around everywhere, had to wait, and… oh yeah, your girlfriend had a pretty hard time as well. She seemed pretty nervous and made quite a lot of mistakes. Though, there weren’t any big problems since she’s a pretty brave girl.”

-That’s it?

“What else could there be? If you want to know more about me, I can talk to you about it for an hour, but if you want to know about your girlfriend, then you should just call her yourself. Stop bullying a single man.”

He made a dry laugh. Chaerim, who was sitting next to him, looked at him with a strange expression. Jiseok turned his body around to look at the mirror in the practice room. Right now, he didn’t want to meet eyes with her.

-So nothing happened?

“Hey. I get that you’re worried about your girlfriend and all, but do you take her for a kid? Well, I guess 2nd year of high school is still a kid. But at least she’s not a little brat that bursts out crying when she falls over. Just how much do you love her? Why don’t you just bring her with you in your pocket at all times, Mr. Han Maru?”

-Alright, if nothing happened, then that’s that.

“Then do you want to know about me?”

-No, I’m going to sleep.

“Are you at home right now? What happened to going to Gunsan?”

-I’m inside the coach going to Seoul.

“Really? You should be tired then. Get some sleep.”

Just as he was about to hang up with a laugh, he heard a voice over the phone.

-Please take care of her.

“…Don’t worry about it. This Yoo Jiseok will support your girlfriend with all of his heart.”

He hung up before heaving a sigh. From the look of things, it seemed that Maru had an inkling of what was going on.

‘It’s not like she’s the type of person who’d tell everything to Maru either.’

When he first met her, he thought that she was just a feeble girl just from her looks, but after watching her from the side for a while, he noticed that she was clearly the tenacious type. She was an ordinary girl when talking with others around her normally, but she never backed down when facing off against that old woman. She was like a tree branch that did not break easily.

‘But she’s still a tree branch. It’ll be very troublesome if she does snap.’

Lee Miyoon. That old woman was a scary one. Her eloquent speech was one thing and combined various rumors that floated around about her, she was a woman who could give others not just mental problems, but actual physical problems. There was a reason why producers were submissive to her.

She was a woman who most people would bend down to. She was a person to avoid fighting even if that required apologizing and begging. Yet that girl never became submissive in front of that woman. She admitted her wrongdoings and apologized for them, but she boldly told Lee Miyoon that something was not right when she asked for more than that.

Jiseok shook his head in resignation when he watched her. Just where was all that courage coming from in such a small body?

The problem was that she found the situation very exhausting. She was like a general when duking it out with Lee Miyoon, but after that, she would relax her fists and start shaking all by herself. Just like a rabbit that was abandoned alone in the winter.

He tried telling her to bow her head and compliment that woman even if she didn’t mean it since that woman liked flattery, but it was of no use.

‘In that sense, she’s just like her boyfriend.’

She was young. She had nothing to lose even if she bent down. In fact, it would make her life much easier. Yet she didn’t do that. She continued to fight the difficult battle.

He couldn’t exactly cheer for her either. He knew how hard of a time she was having, so there was no way he could cheer for her. It also didn’t look like she would tell Maru about her hardships either.

“It’s me who’s stuck in the middle who’s having a hard time.”

“What’s that?”

“Ah, that startled me.”

Jiseok looked at Chaerim who suddenly appeared in front of his face.

“I know you were looking at me. But what’s this about?”

“Nothing much.”

“It’s nothing much yet you’re putting on a face like that?”

Jiseok turned his head around to look at the mirror that replaced one wall. He was putting on an ugly smile.

“Maru’s girlfriend, huh, you mean Bunbun?”

“Bunbun? That’s her nickname? I guess it does suit her.”

“Don’t change the topic. If it’s about her, you should tell me as well. She’s a friend of mine.”

“You two know each other?”

The two were a rather unexpected duo so Jiseok asked back in surprise. Chaerim nodded very seriously. It didn’t look like she wanted to know just for fun. She seemed truly worried.

“It doesn’t matter even if you don’t want to say it. I can just call her.”

“Hm, if you say so.”

Jiseok decided to tell her what happened during the shoot. Chaerim told him that she was her friend with her own mouth. This was the first time he heard such a thing from her. This went to show that she treated that girl just that importantly.

Jiseok nodded once as he looked at Chaerim, who looked concerned as though this concerned her.

“So it’s not a boyfriend, but a good friend that you got.”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean the reason your expression became pretty. Alright, I’ll tell you. However, you have to keep it a secret from Maru, and help me out since you heard it.”

“Alright.”

Chaerim looked resolute. Jiseok thought that this was really unexpected as he started to speak.

Chapter 426

‘Something’s happening.’

He was sure after calling Jiseok. Something had happened to her. Maru, who nervously tapped his feet, eventually sighed and leaned back. He didn’t want to force her to tell him what happened when she didn’t want to. Like Jiseok said, she was not a little kid. Although she made others worry by acting like a three-year-old sometimes, she wasn’t someone that couldn’t take care of herself. If she really had a hard time, she would probably come to him herself. His role would probably be to listen to her and encourage her when the time comes.

The coach slowed down until it eventually stopped. They had arrived at Yeouido station. He woke Bangjoo up. After waking up, Bangjoo yawned. Joon-gi and Sooyoung, who sat behind him, groaned as they woke up.

“My waist hurts.”

“It’s not surprising considering that you’ve been asleep for four hours. Let’s get off. We’re here.”

He dragged Bangjoo, who was still half asleep and staggering, off the coach. Just as the background actors and minor actors were saying their goodbyes, there was a simple roll call.

“Thank you everyone and you may go home now.”

“Thank you for your work.”

It was midnight. The last train shouldn’t have gone past yet, but the city buses should have stopped for the night.

“Bangjoo, when we arrive at Suwon, take the taxi home. I’ll give you the fares. You two live in Seoul, don’t you?”

Joon-gi and Sooyoung nodded. They told Maru that taking the taxi would only cost the minimum fare.

“Get going then. You worked hard.”

“Be careful on your way home too. See you next time.”

They poured over a month of action scene practice into just two days of shoots. There were three band-aids on Maru’s arm, and the four of them probably used up two bottles of spray pain relief. Whether they showed as much as they learned couldn’t be seen until the movie was released.

“Hey, want to eat something before you go?”

Joon-gi took out a 10 thousand won bill and pointed at the 24-hour kimbap restaurant. When he looked at Bangjoo, he was nodding vigorously. There were still forty minutes until the last train, so it should be fine to get some food.

“I won’t reject your offer since you’re treating us.”

Maru stood in front of the pedestrian crosswalk in order to cross the road. Just then, a van stopped right before the crossing. It wasn’t waiting for the signal. At that time, the lights turned green.

“Let’s get going.”

Just as they started walking forward, the van’s headlights turned on its full beam. A blinding amount of light appeared right in front of their eyes.

“What kind of thoughtless person turns on the high beam right in front of people?” Sooyoung grumbled.

Maru frowned and looked at the van. Just then, one of the windows opened before an arm reached out. The fingers flicked. It clearly looked like it was gesturing for them to come.

“What the?”

“Isn’t that Lee Hyuk’s van?”

Listening to Joon-gi and Sooyoung’s conversation, Maru pointed at the van with his chin. He wanted them to come, so they did. He moved towards the van with the others. Just like what Joon-gi said, Lee Hyuk was inside.

“Going home?”

The main actor that they never got to even talk to during the shoot was now reaching out to them, huh. Maru replied for now.

“Yes.”

“That’s good to see. I also had a lot of friends when I was as small as you. Practicing together, too. Good times. But are you going to go eat there?”

Lee Hyuk pointed at the kimbap restaurant across the street.

“Yes. We’re going to eat a light meal before we go home.”

“Really? Then I guess I can’t sit back and watch as a senior.”

Lee Hyuk rummaged through the bag on the next seat and took out five notes of ten thousand won bills. Was he too cautious for nothing? He heard that Lee Hyuk’s personality was crappy so he was worried that he was picking a fight, but from his actions, it seemed that he was generous towards his juniors.

“Here, you should eat a lot since you’re still growing up.”

The hand that held the five notes poked out through the window. Lee Hyuk waved the notes like he would a fan.

“Let’s eat pork cutlets,” Bangjoo spoke with an excited voice.

Sooyoung, meanwhile, politely thanked him. Maru also lowered his head in gratitude before reaching out to receive the money. Just then, the money started falling to the ground. After looking at the notes that landed on the ground, he looked back at Lee Hyuk.

“But you know, these days, juniors don’t act like they’re supposed to.”

It seemed that he didn’t do that on accident. Everyone seemed to have gotten a gist of the situation as they looked at Lee Hyuk with displeased gazes. Maru stood in front of Bangjoo for now. He didn’t know what he would do after all.

“I’m not sure what you mean.”

Maru spoke as the representative of the other three who fell silent.

“Brats. Are you entitled to talk to the director like that? Huh? You boys don’t seem to know your place. You simply lose sight of your seniors because the director treats you well, huh?”

So he does have a crappy personality. Maru sighed inwardly.

He had to do just as the director told him to, but little kids much younger than him ‘dared to’ have feedback sessions with the director - or so he seemed to be thinking? It shouldn’t be. That was too one-dimensional and funny. There should be a limit to how childish a person could be.

“Do you not see why your seniors are staying silent? What do you know when you just started acting? Do you think you are someone special because the director treats you well?”

Maru barely held himself back from laughing. He was such an easy man to read. The way he expressed his dissatisfaction was no different from a kindergartener. No wonder there were bad rumors about him. Being a villain wasn’t possible with a bad head. The most fundamental requirement to become a villain was to be smart. Maru didn’t know whether he showed up in order to rebuke them or to scare them. Perhaps this man thought nothing and had the van pull over without any reason at all.

Complaining in front of kids because of a momentary spike in emotion, huh. Maru wanted to cheer for him out of pity.

Maru glanced behind him. The three were standing in a diagonal line, looking at Lee Hyuk. Maru locked his hands behind his back and waved his palms sideways. He was gesturing to them to not get agitated.

“I’m sorry. We’ll mind that more from now on.”

“Look around you. If you keep doing that, you will not be able to last long around here, you know? I’m saying all this for your own benefit. When I was like you, minor actors weren’t able to say anything in front of seniors. The world really has become better.”

“We’ll watch out from now on.”

“There’s no one that tells you stuff like this. You know that, right?”

“Yes, of course.”

“Pick up the money already.”

Maru bent down. He got fifty thousand won for free for just talking with him a little. If this was a part time job, he wanted to do it for a lifetime. It seemed that they could get desserts as well with this money. Just as he tried to pick the notes up. Three shadows covered the money. Many hands reached out and snatched the notes from him before the three of them threw it back into the van.

Maru was startled and looked at the three in surprise.

“We don’t need it.”

“We have money as well.”

“I’d like to decline.”

Maru sighed before looking at the skies. These guys were quite aggressive. Leaving aside Bangjoo and Sooyoung, even the usually calm Joon-gi joined them as well. Did he gain a tough personality after shooting the brawl scene?

Lee Hyuk looked at the notes on his lap before laughing.

“All four of you must be fucking nuts.”

Lee Hyuk was about to get out of the van. Maru saw the three of them flinching.

“Senior, you must be busy, so why don’t you stay inside? I’ll explain to my friends,” Maru spoke as he held the door from opening. Lee Hyuk glared at him from the other side.

“Hey.”

“Yes.”

Just as he replied, a hand reached out to his face. Maru reflexively pulled back, but he soon stopped and pushed his head forward instead. Lee Hyuk’s hand touched the side of his head. Thud. He was prepared for the hit, so while the sound was loud, it didn't hurt that much.

He lightly reacted to the force and fell over sideways. He got a glimpse of Lee Hyuk looking at him with surprise as he fell down.

“Seonbae-nim!”

Bangjoo was startled and ran up to him. Maru used this opportunity to put a blood capsule in his mouth and pop it open. He had some spares left over from the shoot in his pocket. He had originally got them in order to pull a prank on his girlfriend.

“Wh-what the.”

Lee Hyuk peeked outside the window. Maru licked the capsule with his tongue and tried to get as much saliva in his mouth. When he tried spitting out just a little, he saw that it had changed red. Although the capsule hadn’t dissolved yet, it was enough. He put a little bit of it on his hand as he stood up.

He looked at Lee Hyuk in a daze. The important point here was to look like he was frightened. While the three of them panicked and were unable to say anything, Maru touched the side of his head with the hand with the fake blood on it. He showed Lee Hyuk the ‘blood’ he got from ‘the side of his head’ and this time trembled his lips. He couldn’t get angry.

Using offensive words wasn’t the way to bestow the opponent maximum nervousness. It was the fear-stricken eyes that did not know why he got into this situation.

After looking around for a while, Lee Hyuk took out some cheques from his wallet.

“Hey, you damn brat. You should be careful! Take this and go to the hospital right now. I gave you the money okay? And I told you to go to the hospital. If something happens it’s not my fault. You know that, right?”

Maru slowly reached out and grabbed the money. As a service, he did it with shaky hands. Lee Hyuk told his manager to start driving. Maru could see the manager look at him worriedly and apologetically through the side mirror. From the looks of it, it seemed that he could get testimony from him if a problem did occur. Maru looked at the manager with a deep gaze. The manager made a face of pity before driving off.

Maru saw off the van with a sad gaze. Only after seeing the van disappear from his sight did he stretch his shoulders out a little.

“That damn bastard!”

Joon-gi swore at him.

“Let’s report him to the police, seonbae-nim. No, I should call my sister. She should be able to help out.”

Bangjoo was agitated.

“Hey, hey. We should call my dad, we can get all the cops here.”

Sooyoung guaranteed.

Maru turned around to his three friends and smiled. The three blinked several times in confusion. He could hear Sooyoung saying ‘did you hit your head too hard’ in a small voice.

“Don’t overreact and take this. This is some pocket money from your big brother here.”

Maru gave the three of them a 100 thousand won cheque, which he received from Lee Hyuk, each.

“A-are you okay?”

“Seonbae-nim. You do realize that you’re bleeding right now, right?”

“It hurts a lot, doesn’t it?”

Maru opened his mouth wide to the others. The three of them freaked out when they saw the red saliva in his mouth, but Sooyoung eventually found something strange as he approached him.

“Don’t tell me this is…”

“Didn’t you take one as well?”

“The capsule?”

“Yeah.”

“…Damn lunatic. When did you have the chance to do that?”

“Just after I fell down.”

“Ha, haha, haha. You’re a madman!”

Sooyoung laughed and raised his hand. Maru high fived him pleasantly. Joon-gi and Bangjoo seemed to have realized what was going on as they also came up to him while laughing.

“If someone hits you, just get hit. You get free money.”

“I didn’t even imagine.”

Everyone giggled.

“Hey, we might miss the last train, so let’s hold off eating together for later. We’re going, bye.”

Maru patted Joon-gi and Sooyoung on their backs before starting to walk. He was wiping the blood around his mouth with the back of his hand when Bangjoo approached him with sparkly eyes.

“Seonbae-nim.”

“What is it?”

“You look like a total scammer.”

He hit Bangjoo who grinned at him.

* * *

Lee Hyuk threw his wallet at the manager who glanced at him through the rearview mirror.

“What are you looking at, fucker!”

“N-nothing.”

“Son of a bitch. Am I nothing to you, huh? Is that what it is now?”

“O-of course not.”

As he fumed, Lee Hyuk was reminded of the brat that bled just now. He made an awkward smile as he leaned forward.

“My little brother. I was a bit too agitated back there.”

“E-eh?”

“You know I hold you dear, right? It’s already been a year since we started working together. Did you know that the president tried to fire you and I shielded you?”

“N-no.”

“Dang, bro. The reason you can still drive right now is thanks to this big brother here. So treat me well.”

“…Yes.”

“And also, you know that it’s not my fault for what happened back there, right? He just slipped all on his own. You know that, right?”

“Of course I do.”

“Yes. If someone says something later, you tell them exactly that. Okay? We’re brothers, aren’t we?”

Lee Hyuk smiled and patted the manager on the shoulder loudly before leaning back in the chair.

Those boys were so cocky. He couldn’t understand what the director was thinking to listen to kids like them. People called him a genius, but perhaps he was just a lunatic?

“Who’s calling at this time?”

Lee Hyuk picked up his personal phone. A call at such a late hour? The moment he checked the name on the screen though, he immediately sat up. He took a deep breath in before picking up the call politely.

“Hello?”

Chapter 427

The car was empty. After a man in his fifties, who was lying on the elderly seats at the end, got off, only Maru and Bangjoo were left in the car.

“It’s like we have the whole train to ourselves.”

“You’re right.”

Bangjoo looked around before lying down on the floor and took a photo of himself. Maru chuckled when he saw that.

“When else would I get to do something like this? The train is so quiet.”

“Give it to me. I’ll take a good photo of you.”

Maru took a photo of Bangjoo, who got into a proper pose, from the other end of the car. At his age, events like this would become memorable moments. Bangjoo smiled in satisfaction after looking at the photo.

“Are you going to upload it to your cy[1]?”

“I don’t do that.”

“That’s unexpected. I thought kids these days all did it.”

“I don’t really want to tell others what I’m doing. It’s fine as long as the ones that need to know, know about it.”

Maru nodded once. For a brief moment, Bangjoo had a mature smile on his face. Perhaps it was natural to think about the world differently from those of his age since his sister was a top star.

“But seonbae-nim.”

“Yeah?”

“Didn’t you feel angry back there? If it was up to me, I don’t think I could’ve done that. I mean, you were hit. Quite strongly at that.”

“You get upset about all sorts of things.”

“Eh? You’re not upset about it?”

“If it’s a matter of being angry or not, then yes, I do feel angry. I’m not a pervert, so there’s no way I’d feel pleased when I get hit. But there’s also nothing to gain by becoming angry.”

“Nothing to gain?”

“Bangjoo.”

“Yes.”

“No matter how crappy someone’s personality is, you should really hold back if that someone’s higher than you. Going against him like what you did back there is not that good.”

“I… don’t think I can do that.”

“Well, I guess it’s definitely hard for you if you have the same traits as your sister. Your sister is a ‘right’ person after all.”

“My sister?”

“That’s not all. She’s also amazing. Normally, people can’t do that. If I was in that situation, at least, I wouldn’t be able to do it. People’s gazes, right? Those things definitely don’t have any physical power. No matter how many death glares I give you, you won’t die after all. But for some weird reason, when those powerless gazes combine, they suddenly possess the power to bury a person out of existence without breaking a sweat. Your sister, she fought against the media, didn’t she? Moreover, she also fought against the people that insulted her. She still might be at odds with people who ask bad things of her, you know? Not anyone can just do that.”

“…I’m not sure about her being right, but I agree that she’s amazing.”

“People like you and your sister will end up fighting. You don’t care about the opponent’s weight class. You will enter the ring based on absolute values such as whether something is right or wrong. Those people don’t worry about getting hit. They’re solely focused on solving the injustice in front of their eyes. They are great people worth admiring, and they’re people that should be cheered for. But if I was asked if I want to be like that, I would shake my head.”

Maru looked at Bangjoo with a smile. Bangjoo scratched his head with an awkward smile. He seemed to have understood a little of what he said.

“You know. You’re like… an adult.”

“An adult? I’m just a man with a lot of fears. In fact, it’s you who’s more like an adult since you’ve been living alone since middle school. Wasn’t it hard?”

“It wasn’t that hard when I thought of it as just doing some more bothersome things. Oh, it was a little hard when I had to lie down in bed due to sickness during the winter.”

“There’s nothing harder than being by yourself when you’re sick. But it should be better now that your sister comes home frequently, right?”

“She’s coming home too frequently. I don’t think she has any plans on getting married. She never brought home a boyfr…”

Bangjoo stopped talking and made a bitter smile. Maru didn’t say anything and just looked out the window on the other side. The train was just exiting a tunnel.

“Do you think it’s better to just hold it in when something like that happens?”

“If you can, it’ll be better. In the perspective of good or bad rather than right or wrong, I mean. However, there are times when you must get angry.”

“And when is that?”

“That’s when someone’s trying to take something away from you. That’s when you get angry. You have to flip the table and cause a huge ruckus. Even if you usually submit to one person, you need to get angry when that person wants to take something away from you. In that context, the scariest people in the world are those that always seem to suck up to others.”

“Why?”

“Because no one can be sure of the size of that person’s anger if he or she does erupt. Scammers don’t look like scammers, right? Scary people don’t look scary. They are polite and usually very generous. They look like they’re making losses from what they do. But the more a person acts like that, the better you should act towards them. You never know what such a person is thinking. Of course, there are also people like Daemyung who are gentle down to their bones.”

“Daemyung-seonbae-nim is really kind.”

“He’s worryingly so.”

“Hm, then I guess you’re a dangerous person in a sense.”

“Me?”

“Yes. You held back last time.”

“I just told you, didn't I? I’m just a man with a lot of fears.”

“Is that how it is?”

“That’s how it is, Mr. Ahn Bangjoo.”

Maru straightened his back as he tapped Bangjoo on the cheek with the back of his hand.

* * *

“You should go back first.”

“What about you, hyung-nim?”

“Damn kid, just go when I tell you to. You’re terribly disobedient.”

Lee Hyuk slapped the manager on the back of his head before getting off. Only after seeing the van disappear into the distance did he calm down and start walking. He walked past the hotel lobby and grabbed an elevator. He got off the elevator while muttering the room number and checked the number on each door as he walked.

“Is this the place?”

After gulping several times in order to ease his throat, he took out his phone and called someone. After checking that the signal repeated itself three times, he quickly hung up. He had to be as careful as possible.

Soon, the door opened. The one that opened the door was a cute girl with a bob cut. She seemed to be just past 20. Lee Hyuk put on an awkward smile at the girl who flinched after seeing his face.

“U-uhm.”

“There are people inside, right?”

“Yes.”

“Is this your first time here?”

“I can tell that you’re a trainee, but let’s not pretend we know each other. You should know that this is a masquerade without the masks. I’ll also pretend that I never saw you when I come across you outside, so don’t worry about that.”

The girl nodded. She was wearing a black silk one piece dress, which revealed her cleavage every time she moved. It didn’t look like she was wearing any underwear either.

Normally, he would have pleased his eyes to the utmost, but right now, he didn’t have the leisure to do that. The calm music that flowed out made him tenser. This was a party room that required millions if not tens of millions of won to rent per day. He didn’t have the leisure to appreciate any of the pop art on either side of the corridor as he walked in. While he was walking, he heard a woman’s moan from his left, but he ignored it. He didn’t have the courage to open the door and look inside.

The first thing he saw when he went in was the large glass window which allowed him to see the entirety of Seoul, and the second thing he saw was the people who were appreciating some drinks lightly. The man that was giggling with the ladies on a white sofa looked at him. Lee Hyuk tried his best to ignore that gaze and walked around in order to find the person that called him here.

“Oh, my. If it isn’t Lee Hyuk.”

One of the girls he met eyes with approached him with a smile. Lee Hyuk did not know who this girl was. However, just from the fact that she acted so boldly here, he knew that he had to be polite with her. If it was before he screwed up his business, that is, four years ago, he would’ve held his head up in pride, but right now, he had to be an obedient dog.

He lowered his head at the girl who touched him like a toy before walking further inside like he was running away. Just as he was looking around like a foreigner in a new place,

“Over here.”

A voice could be heard inside a room with a bed in it. Lee Hyuk put on a smile and walked towards that place. The woman sitting on the bed puffed on a cigarette before putting the cigarette on an ashtray.

“One of the CEOs of my business partners enjoys appreciating the smell of cigarettes like this, and well, it is quite decent. It’s horrible when you do it with domestic cigarettes, but the imported ones have a good smell. Oh, please sit. I guess I was talking too much by myself when there’s a guest around.”

Lee Hyuk obediently sat on a chair when he heard the woman’s words. His mouth felt very dry. The woman was in her late twenties. She was younger than him, but around ‘here’, age was merely a number that did not have any significance.

“Come here, have a drink.”

“Ah, yes.”

“Oppa. You’re a lot older than me so don’t use polite speech towards me. Let’s drop the honorifics, alright? I think it’s been four years since we met.”

“This is more comfortable for me.”

“Haha, there you go again, oppa.”

Lee Hyuk pretended not to have heard her say ‘you’re pretty good’ right after that. He put down the glass after drinking it.

“How was the shoot?”

“Good, thanks to you.”

“How is it thanks to me? It’s all because of your efforts. Come and sit over here.”

The woman spoke as she shifted her chest length long hair to one side with her hand. Lee Hyuk sat obediently in front of her.

“Oppa, you really become more my style every day. This is really a problem. I’ve never been engrossed with a man for such a long time before.”

Lee Hyuk clenched his teeth when he felt the hand that stroked his neck.

“Looks like you’re still working out?”

“Ah, yes.”

“Oh my. Look at that sturdy chest. Men are really attractive when they’re past thirty. Oppa, I really like you because I don’t get fed up with you. You’re so good at managing yourself.”

“Because I’m an actor after all.”

“Aha~n. Actor, you were an actor, that’s right. I almost mistook you for a dog I raised. Haha, then I’m a woman who gets horny for a dog, huh? How lewd.”

Lee Hyuk flinched when a hand reached inside his pants, but he relaxed after seeing the woman’s gaze becoming sharp.

“I am really tired these days. I mean, work keeps screwing up. So, I want to relieve some stress this time. Oh, before that, though. There’s something I need to do. Let’s give the kind oppa a present for now.”

The girl handed him a box. When he opened the box, there was a watch inside.

“It’s a limited edition, apparently. It costs around 80 mil. Put it on.”

He smiled even though he felt insulted as well. He put the watch on and showed it to the girl. The girl smiled back at him.

“It suits you. You should wear it from now on.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

“It’s almost time too.”

At that moment, a boy opened the door and entered.

“Hey, what are you going to do if this noona was doing something strange?”

“At that time, I’ll just quietly close the door and leave.”

“Geez, how bold of you.”

Lee Hyuk nodded towards that boy.

“We meet again, Lee Hyuk-seonbae-nim.”

“Ah, yes.”

Lee Hyuk licked his lips as he spoke.

“Mr. Kang Giwoo.”

[1] Referring to Cyworld, a popular social network service that is no longer in service today.

Chapter 428

“Did I tell you this last time? I was really touched after seeing your first movie. Your first movie is what made me want to become an actor.”

“Ah, yes. Thank you.”

Lee Hyuk took a bite from the crêpe when Giwoo told him to eat. Although the crêpe contained lots of cream and fruit, he couldn’t taste anything. He only mechanically moved his jaws to break it down and swallow it.

“Is the food to your tastes?”

“Yes. It’s good.”

“A patissier I really like created it for me. It’s really hard to get ahold of this since he usually stays in France, but he came to Korea a while ago.”

Giwoo ate the crêpe with a happy face. Lee Hyuk drank the water in his cup in one gulp before heaving a deep breath out. He had emptied four glasses of water already.

“Looks like you’re thirsty.”

“No, I just really like water.”

“I see. Oh, I heard you went to a shoot. How was it?”

“It was the same as usual. Shoot, rest, shoot, rest.”

“I heard that the director was quite eccentric.”

“Ah, the director. He is a little eccentric.”

“What was he like?”

“He instructs us on what acting to do.”

“Isn’t that the same for the other directors?”

“His participation is on a whole different level. He doesn’t let any actors do what they want. We just had to do precisely what the director told us to do.”

“That’s rather peculiar. Then there are no improvisations or ad-libbing?”

“No, not a single one.”

“I see. What an interesting director. I’d like to see him once.”

Oh, please excuse me - he added before picking up his phone. He didn’t use any polite speech as though he was talking to a friend. Lee Hyuk checked the time with the watch he received. It was nearly 1 a.m. He didn’t know how long he would be staying here. Although it was frustrating, there was nothing he could do. He could only wait obediently until he was told that it was okay to go.

“That’s not it. You must leave some room behind. Our ancestors were never wrong. A cornered rat will bite. So don’t push too hard and leave some breathing room. Only then will there be no accidents. Yeah, yeah. Right. You can enjoy yourself more, but keep this in mind: you cannot let that person challenge you. You must leave just enough room for that person to run away. If that person turns around and tries to bite you, then you should completely suppress that person. No, actually, you can’t get to that stage. It means that you’re lacking. You can’t be played with by someone you’re trying to toy with. Isn’t that right?”

Giwoo spoke as though he was explaining a math formula to a neighboring student. Lee Hyuk felt his nerves tightening and he started eating the crêpe in a rush. Giwoo’s voice was buried beneath his chewing noise. He didn’t want to know what that kid was talking about nor who he was talking to. No, he should never know either. Just as he was looking for the sweet flavor with his numb tongue, Giwoo put down his phone and spoke.

“Sorry about the call just now.”

“Not at all.”

“Rather than that, it seems like you really like that crêpe. Should I order some more?”

“I-I’m fine. I’m full now that I ate one in a rush.”

Giwoo smiled and nodded. Lee Hyuk felt as though the yucky cream smell was climbing back out of his throat. He really wanted to eat something spicy right now.

“Eunjoo-noona is quite mischievous, isn’t she?”

“No, not at all. She’s a good person.”

“Haha, you don’t have to be so nervous. Her mischief is quite famous among us. That watch, it looks like you got it from her, right?”

“Ah, yes. Just now.”

Lee Hyuk slowly lowered his arm so that the watch face couldn’t be seen. The conversation had halted for a while. Giwoo chewed on the crêpe he said he liked with a relaxing smile. Seeing Giwoo’s chin slowly move, Lee Hyuk felt his tongue go dry. The sound of a clock ticking could be heard from somewhere. There was no clock in the room. He didn’t know where the sound was coming from, but Lee Hyuk felt stifled by the sound.

“You helped me out a lot, senior.”

“Help? Oh, no, not at all.”

“Yes, you did. From the moment you met me along with Eunjoo-noona three years ago, you helped me out quite a lot. Thanks to that, I was able to have a successful debut, and I managed to digest the historical drama that I’m shooting now without a problem. Oh, you know that one, right? The one with Han Myung-hoe as the main character.”

“Yes, I do. I really do.”

“Ah… but it seems like my acting was a bit old. The producer said that it was good at first, but the more we progressed, the less he seemed satisfied.”

Lee Hyuk subconsciously put strength into the hands he placed on his knees. He had met this kid three years ago. Back then, he had screwed up his business so badly that he had lost his house to the debt and was thinking about committing suicide. Just then, he was introduced to Kim Eunjoo by one person. She was someone that was given the title of senior managing director for her 30th birthday. She lived in a completely different world. She earned enough money to pay taxes for her luxuries, which amounted to what an ordinary breadwinner would earn in a year. Her concept of ‘consumer’ was completely different from the others.

Lee Hyuk, while he was still at rock bottom, was able to make a comeback thanks to her. He started getting advertising contracts again which were cut off before. Numerous contracts flooded him during the past three years. Although he didn’t belong to any agency, he had no problems doing his activities. Eunjoo also solved his tax problems by assigning him a very capable tax accountant. His stamp was never dry of ink. He had gained a new life in exchange for doing cute tricks in front of her.

However, now that three years had passed, Lee Hyuk had found a new rope that bound his body. Contract. Her methods were smart and were just as scary.

In that process, Lee Hyuk was introduced to Kang Giwoo, who Eunjoo called a ‘close little brother’. He was a rather kind-looking boy. He smiled at every word and was kind. Just as he thought that there could be a kid like this in this world, he got to see the true nature of the boy.

Lee Hyuk shook his head lightly and snapped out of it.

“Old, you said?”

“Yes. My acting was definitely good, but it seems that it doesn’t fit the latest trends.”

“Th-then what do I do?”

“Nothing specific. I learned a lot from you until now after all. I just set up this occasion in order to thank you. Oh, and also, take this.”

Giwoo gave him a box wrapped with a silver strap. When he opened it, he saw a necktie pin.

“Apparently, it’s made of platinum. It should suit you.”

“Th-thanks…”

Lee Hyuk closed the box again and looked at Giwoo.

“Does that mean I don’t need to coach you anymore?”

“Yes, we’re done. I don’t have anything I can learn from you anymore after all. Thanks for everything until now.”

“U-uhm.”

He hurriedly called out to Giwoo, who was standing up from his seat.

“Then what happens to me from now…”

“Don’t worry about it. I think Eunjoo-noona still likes you, senior.”

“Ah, okay.”

“But who knows, she might change her mind if I say a couple of words to her. She’s very whimsical after all. She’s a scary one capable of ditching someone she had been with for 4 years without batting an eyelid.”

Lee Hyuk raised his head to look at Giwoo. Giwoo was putting on a nonchalant smile.

His knees started shaking. His body leaned forward subconsciously. His knees touched the floor. Lee Hyuk lowered his head and spoke.

“C-can’t you put in a good word for me?”

A pair of white brand-name shoes entered his eyes. He felt as though he was about to groan from all the humiliation and embarrassment he felt, but he didn’t have the courage to strike back. Nothing other than begging desperately was probably allowed to him right now.

“Senior, why are you doing this? You’re making me look bad.”

The white shoes moved backwards, and Giwoo, who kneeled just like him, looked into his eyes. Lee Hyuk looked at Giwoo. Giwoo nodded twice before extending a hand. Lee Hyuk grabbed his hand and the two slowly stood up together.

“Senior.”

“Yes.”

“My mother likes movies where you appear.”

“Ah, yes, okay.”

“So please do well in the future too, okay?”

“Of course, of course.”

Was this what it felt like to receive salvation? He felt truly thankful. Humiliation? Embarrassment? Such trivial emotions were buried by the wave of emotions. Right now, the boy in front of him was God.

Giwoo closed the door and left. Lee Hyuk staggered his way to the bed and sat down. He didn’t know how long he sat there for. Just then, he was reminded of the necktie pin that Giwoo gave him. He smiled in vain, opened the box, and tried grabbing the necktie pin in his hands. The moment he felt the cold sensation, Lee Hyuk clenched his teeth so hard that his teeth were going to break. He wanted to cry. He wanted to scream. He wanted to strangle the hell out of that little prick and throw him out the window.

He stood up from his seat and raised his hands above his head. Then, he threw the necktie pin on the floor with all of his power. Along with a clinking sound, the pin bounced off the floor, then off the wall before disappearing somewhere.

Lee Hyuk sat back down while panting. After calming down his breathing, he raised his head and looked at the mirror embedded in the ceiling. He could see his pathetic face. He didn’t know what led him here. He brushed his hair, which was stuck against his forehead due to the cold sweat, upwards and stood up.

“…I should find it.”

He made a loathing laugh before crouching on the ground. Why did he throw it if it was going to be like this in the end? He picked up the necktie pin that faintly reflected off the light underneath the bed. He dusted it off. It looked very high-class and also looked like it would fit a navy-colored tie. When he was in this place, he would often hop between self-loathing and pleasure. He would probably go crazy if he stayed here for a long time.

Just as he was about to open the door with a sigh, the door opened without him opening it. The person that opened the door was the cute girl that opened the door for him when he arrived at this place. She had the smell of alcohol as though she had drunk quite a bit.

“Why are you here?”

Just as he asked in a questioning tone, he felt a gaze looking at him with his arms crossed. He moved his eyes. He saw Giwoo, who had an indecent grin.

The girl took a step closer to him before jumping into his arms. The girl spoke in a small voice.

“Would you like to play with me?”

Her voice was shaking endlessly. Her shaking was transferred to Lee Hyuk since their bodies were pressed together. Lee Hyuk looked at the girl in his arms before he looked at Giwoo again. Giwoo had a smile like a service worker and nodded once.

That face. Lee Hyuk knew what that face was.

Eunjoo was someone who clearly expressed her malicious intent. She expressed her emotions well just like a normal person. She would give him a reward if he followed her words well, and would rebuke him if he didn’t. While Lee Hyuk found her difficult and scary, he could still look at her in the eyes. She was someone understandable after all. A fear that he could understand was something he could handle.

However, he had no idea what to do with that kid. Villain? Malicious? He wasn’t related to any of that. That boy was pure. No malicious intent could be felt from him. Yes. He made other people tragic with words that didn’t contain any malice. That was what made Lee Hyuk feel scared. A fear he couldn’t even comprehend was something he couldn’t resist.

Lee Hyuk hugged the girl in his arms and took her straight to bed. He kissed her chest since she had given up on resisting before stripping her. He rubbed all over her body like a horny dog. Just then, he saw Giwoo, who had approached him without making a sound. Lee Hyuk stared at Giwoo, who patted his back before leaving, for a long time. The door slowly closed and it became quiet.

Lee Hyuk looked at the girl beneath him. The girl, clearly stricken with fear, started smiling awkwardly.

“…Yeah. I should take a breather as well,” Lee Hyuk said as he forcefully pulled apart the girl’s legs.

* * *

“You look tired.”

“Maybe I didn’t get enough sleep in the coach. My shoulders felt stiff ever since I went home last night. Urgh, my back.”

“Someone might think you’re an old geezer.”

“Since we’re talking about it, why don’t you give me a massage?”

Dojin said ‘fine’ before pressing on Maru’s shoulders with his elbow. Maru didn’t expect much, but the massage was actually pretty decent.

“Where did you learn to do that?”

“I learned in order to help Iseul’s mother out. She’s dealing with food ingredients all day after all.”

“This is why raising boys is no good. They only look after their girlfriend’s parents. Ouch, that hurts.”

“I’m doing the same for my mom so don’t talk bullshit. But hey, your shoulders are really stiff. They’re totally like a rock.”

Maru had Dojin massage his shoulders throughout the entirety of the break time.

“You have a good friend, don’t you?”

Dojin said as he lifted his hands off Maru’s shoulders. Maru made a satisfied smile.

“Yes, I really do.”

“If you’re like this, Bangjoo must be dazed right now.”

“He has more stamina than me, so he’s probably fine.”

Just as he rotated his shoulders around once, the teacher entered through the front door.

“Hey, give me your textbook. The two of you can share.”

He immediately stole the textbook from a kid sitting in the front row.

“Boys, wake up. It will be lunchtime after this so don’t doze off and listen carefully. I’ll add a minute to the lesson every time I see someone doze off.”

The teacher slapped on the lecture desk as he spoke.

Chapter 429

“Maru-seonbae, aren’t you ditching too much these days?”

Maru, who was eating some tofu, looked at Aram, who was sitting on the other side.

“But I went last week.”

“To be precise, that was last Monday. We should really do some practice together.”

“I want to do that too.”

It was lunch time. Maru met the juniors of the acting club on his way to the cafeteria. They decided to eat lunch together, and the whole acting club sat at the same table.

“Maru is very busy,” Daemyung stood up for him.

“I know that, but he’s still our senior. He should really come and help us practice. Daemyung-seonbae is having a hard time by himself. You told us to show up when we were promoting ourselves. How can you be the one to not show up?”

“I can’t apologize enough.”

Maru gave half of his pork cutlet to Aram as an apology. Fortunately, she seemed to like his gift and stopped glaring at him.

“I don’t really have any complaints because Daemyung-seonbae always does his best, but Dowook-seonbae is always sleeping. You should show an example for us juniors.”

Dowook, who was just quietly eating his lunch, looked at Aram with a glare, but Aram wasn’t someone who would be taken aback because of something like that. In the end, Dowook just shook his head in resignation.

“Here, take this and stay away from me.”

“I’ll accept it since you’re giving it to me, but you guys are really going too far. It looks like you’re pushing all the responsibility to Daemyung-seonbae. Jiyoon, you say something too. Express your annoyance at being unable to go on dates on the weekend.”

Ah, so that was what she was leading up to. Maru looked at Aram, who looked like she was clearly enjoying the situation, and Jiyoon, who was telling Aram not to say it, alternately. After seeing the two quarrel, he spoke.

“I’ll go there on Thursday. I don’t have to go to the action school anymore.”

“Ah, you were shooting a movie right? With Bangjoo as well,” Jiyoon, who was sitting next to Daemyung, quietly asked.

“We came back, well, today just after midnight.”

“Ah, so that’s why Bangjoo wasn’t conscious throughout class. We were going to get lunch together, but we came by ourselves since he was sleeping. We tried waking him up, but he didn’t budge at all.”

“That, you did well. He had it very hard, so he needs some sleep.”

Bangjoo moved around in excitement until the very moment he left the scene. He should probably need the whole day to recover.

“Seonbae. Have you seen Lee Hyuk? Bangjoo told us that one of the main actors was Lee Hyuk.”

Aram asked with a face full of curiosity.

“He did come.”

“How is he? Does he have a bad personality just like the rumors?”

“Why do you think rumors stay as rumors? It’s because they never get verified. He’s just ordinary.”

“Really? I guess the internet really isn’t to be trusted, huh.”

“I heard Kwon Dayoon was there as well, is that true?”

Daemyung asked as he put his spoon down. His food tray was completely clean even though it was full at the beginning. His appetite was really great.

“Yeah, she did come. What about it?”

Just as he was about to say something, Daemyung flinched and looked next to him. Maru followed his gaze. Jiyoon was swirling her spoon in the doenjang-guk.

“No, it’s not what you think.”

Daemyung quickly explained. This boy had it hard as well. Maru was really curious about how the romance between these two would progress in the future. Jiyoon would still be the dominant side, right?

“If you finished eating, let’s get up.”

Dowook stood up with his food tray.

They left as they ate the stick yogurt that was handed out as dessert.

“What was the fifth period again?”

“Math.”

“Shit.”

Math after lunch. Maru felt sleep overwhelm him just by thinking about it.

Having returned to his class, Maru put his textbook on the desk and went straight to sleep. He had to get some sleep now if he didn’t want to doze off during 5th period. The always noisy classroom was quiet for some reason. It was thanks to the drowsiness coming from a full stomach as well as the rather cool wind.

Just as he yawned and was about to get some sleep though, his phone, which he put inside his desk drawer, started vibrating. The urge to ignore it was really big right now.

“Hey, Han Maru. Pick up your call. It’s noisy.”

Dojin, who was sleeping next to him, kicked his chair as he spoke. Maru brushed his face with his hand and took out his phone. The golden time to sleep was lost now.

“Hello?”

He picked up the call while still half-asleep.

-Why is there no energy in your voice? Have you not had lunch?

“I did have lunch, and it’s making me even more sleepy.”

-You’re young, you shouldn’t sound so weak already.

“People in their growth period need more sleep. But hey, what’s up?”

The one that called was Yang Ganghwan. According to Maru’s knowledge, he should be in his break period right now after the play in which he played the main character, was finished.

-You’re coming to Seoul today, aren’t you?

“Yes, I have lessons.”

-What time do you leave Film?

“I think it ends around half past eight.”

-Alright, thanks.

“What?”

Pop - the call was cut off. Maru moved the phone away from his ears and looked down at it. What was that about? He scratched his eyebrows for a while, but he couldn’t be bothered to think about it. He was in desperate need of some sleep right now. When he had a look at the clock, he saw that there were 30 minutes until the start of the 5th period. 30 minutes was plenty of time for some sweet sleep.

Just as he lay against the desk in order to sleep again, someone tapped on his shoulder.

“Maru, you asleep?”

Maru raised his head when a girl’s voice carefully called out to him.

“Oh, Yoonjung-seonbae-nim.”

Lee Yoonjung, who had rolled her long hair into a bun, was standing at the back door. Even Dojin and Daemyung woke up due to her voice and were sitting up.

“Oh, president,” Daemyung said as he looked at Yoonjung.

“You’re the president now. Daemyung, you look like you gained some weight over the summer.”

“I-I lost weight.”

“Really?”

Yoonjung shrugged with a smile.

“What brings you here?”

Maru asked with a yawn. The 3rd year seniors were busy preparing for college exams. Although they frequented the clubroom during March, it was very hard to see their faces after June.

“I have a favor to ask from the acting club.”

When Yoonjung stepped aside, they saw another girl standing behind her. That girl, who was wearing round glasses, had a smile on her face.

“Hi!”

She said her greetings very cheerfully. Maru nodded since she looked like a friend of Yoonjung.

“Talk with us for a little. Just ten minutes is fine.”

Yoonjung winked as she spoke. Maru looked at the girl with glasses standing right next to Yoonjung.

“I’m in the broadcasting club, and we’re going to resume the radio soon.”

“The radio?”

Maru subconsciously looked at the ceiling. The speaker, attached right in the middle of the ducts, which was next to the hard-working electric fans, entered his eyes.

“The school radio. I wonder if you remember us talking about many things with the students.”

“Oh, that.”

Last year, there was a period of around a month with a school radio program. The basic format was to play a song and read someone’s personal stories. There was probably negative, if any, feedback as it soon disappeared. The presence of that very program was very faint in his memories.

“Was there something like that?”

“I don’t remember.”

Daemyung and Dojin didn’t seem to know about it.

“But why do you need the acting club?”

“This time, we’re going to do an audio drama.”

“An audio drama?”

Yoonjung, who was sitting next to her, pushed the girl with the glasses, who clearly seemed overly excited, and added some detail.

“There’s a limit to reading stories from the listeners. I mean how dramatic can a Korean high school student be? They’re mostly the same. That’s why we came up with the idea to just create an audio drama. Oh, it wasn’t us, but.”

“I asked Yoonjung since she used to be in the acting club, and she told me that I should talk to you guys. How about it?”

So this was what it was about. Maru decided to find a suitable reason to reject them. There was no merit for them. Moreover, acting with just a voice was a different realm altogether from normal acting. Moreover, he did not want to add a school event to his now-decent schedule. They didn’t seem desperate either, so there shouldn’t be a problem even if they declined.

Just as he was about to express his rejection, he saw Daemyung standing next to him.

They had a request for the acting club, and the club president was Daemyung. Maru hinted at Daemyung to reject them.

“An audio drama?” Daemyung asked back.

“Yeah. Our broadcasting club, no, there’s actually a coalition of high school broadcasting clubs and that came up. We decided to try it out in a few schools in Seoul and the Gyeonggi region. The YBS radio is apparently going to host a youth audio drama in their 9 p.m. slot for around 30 minutes, so this is a pre-production event of sorts. Dramas for the tired exam students - you know, things like that.”

“Ah, I see.”

“Are you the club president?”

“Eh? Ah, yes, I am.”

The girl wearing glasses came into the classroom. Maru stared holes into the girl that kept approaching Daemyung, but she didn’t seem to mind.

“Uhm, Daemyung?”

Things weren’t looking good. That naïve boy was weak against people who were very pushy. On top of that, she was a girl and a senior to boot. Maru definitely had to help him out here. He had to say that they had their hands full and that they were busy enough already.

At that moment, a hand reached out from behind him and covered his mouth. Maru turned around, startled. Yoonjung was smiling at him.

“If we can be of help, we’ll do it.”

“Really?”

The girl wearing glasses grabbed Daemyung’s hands. Daemyung was startled and tried to pull his hands away, but the girl’s strength seemed to be great as Daemyung was unable to shake her off.

“Then you promised, okay?”

“U-u-uhm, if it takes too much time, w-we might not be able to help…”

“Don’t worry about that. There’s no pressure. You don’t need to feel the tiniest pressure. This is just done for fun. It’s for enjoyment!”

The girl shook Daemyung’s hands up and down. Maru shook Yoonjung off.

“Seonbae-nim?”

“It’s not a bad proposal for the acting club. Like what Yeondu said, we won’t be taking a lot of your time, and I only recommended you guys to her after hearing the whole story from her.”

Hearing that, Maru nodded. Yoonjung was someone that cherished the acting club the most. There was no reason for her to have the acting club do something that might bring harm.

“That’s right. If this goes well, you might be on the public radio. It’s a drama after all, you know? You get practice as well. There are no drawbacks.”

The girl with glasses patted Maru’s shoulders with her small hands. Even though her hands were small, they were quite spicy. He felt like he now knew why Daemyung was unable to move.

“Then I’ll be back after school. Oh, I’m Park Yeondu. See you later.”

Yeondu left after hopping onto Yoonjung’s back. It felt as though a storm had swept past. Maru shook his head.

“Daemyung.”

“Y-yeah?”

“Don’t you ever make a stamp.”

“Why?”

“You might bring your entire family to ruin by guaranteeing someone else’s loan.”

“………”

“Now then.”

Maru had a look at the clock while sighing. Unfortunately, the hour hand was almost touching the figure 1.

“There goes my sleep, I guess.”

Chapter 430

He yawned and got ready to get some sleep, even if it was for a little, but raised his head when Daemyung, who sat next to him, woke up.

“What is it?”

“Wait a minute.”

Daemyung rushed out the back door. He asked Dojin what was up with him, but he did not seem to know the reason either.

He hadn’t returned even when the class started. The teacher, who carried in with him a billiard cue to show his ‘love’ to people that didn’t listen to class, stood behind the lecture desk and spoke.

“What’s up with that empty seat over there?”

“He just went to the toilet.”

“Geez, he should have gone beforehand.”

Just as the teacher clicked his tongue, Daemyung came back to the class.

“Big one, or small one?”

“B-big one.”

“Big one huh. Visit the toilet before class next time, okay?”

“Yes.”

He had become quite quick witted. Maru smiled as he pushed Daemyung with his elbow. Daemyung sighed as he sat down.

“Where did you go? Did you really go to the toilet?”

“No, I visited that seonbae from before.”

“That seonbae? You mean the one from the broadcasting club?”

“Yes.”

“Why?”

“I asked if I could give a proper reply after talking about it with the members. I gave her an answer because I was flustered, but when I thought about it, I don’t know if the first years are fine with it or not. You’re busy as well. It’d be rather bad if I accepted her and told her later that we can’t do it.”

“Boys, let’s start class. Do I really have to wait for you to quieten down?”

The math teacher spoke. Daemyung flinched as he turned his face forward. Maru faintly smiled as he saw Daemyung hurriedly open the textbook.

‘He’s changed.’

While he fidgeted with the mechanical pencil, the class began.

* * *

“I’m okay with that.”

“Me too.”

“I think we should do it!”

As soon as Daemyung’s words finished, the three first years spoke out.

“She said we might get to be on the radio if it goes well. Let’s try.”

Aram seemed enamored by the word ‘radio.’

“How about you, Maru?”

“I can do it if it’s just every once in a while. If it takes a long time, I’ll have to think about it. For now, I can’t do Mondays to Wednesdays because I have to go to Seoul right after school, but I’m fine on Thursdays to Saturdays, I don’t have anything planned as of now.”

Maru looked at the clock before standing up with his bag.

“I’m sorry, but I have to go.”

“Oh, okay then. I’ll talk to the seniors about the details and will tell you about it next time. Let’s decide on it then.”

“Thanks. Have fun doing practice, everyone.”

He left behind the members of the acting club who waved at him. He went to the front door and changed his shoes before heading to the bus stop.

‘I should look for a small studio to live in when I graduate.’

After he watched the passing buildings on the bus for a while, he soon arrived at Suwon station. He pushed in between the people coming out to get on the train.

‘But why did senior Ganghwan call me in the first place?’

From how he asked the time and place, it was highly likely that he was coming to meet him. It wasn’t surprising though, since that was just how he usually was.

He got off at Gangnam station and walked towards Film.

A lot of people around his age were walking into the academy. It was highly likely to encounter a celebrity when standing near the front door for a while. There were at least middle-aged veteran actors among the faculty here. It wasn’t called a super company of the acting education industry for nothing.

“You’re here.”

“Yes, hyung.”

When he entered the 4th lecture room, Sungjae welcomed him. He was holding a sandwich.

“Is that your dinner?”

With the beginning of the new semester, the lessons were pushed later into the evening as well.

“Yeah. Do you want some?”

“I’ll gladly accept it if you give it to me.”

The sandwich contained mashed eggs and potatoes. Just as he took a bite, the door to the lecture room opened once again. This time, it was Gyunglim, who was wearing a hat.

“Do you want some as well, Gyunglim?”

“Yes.”

They were all eating a sandwich, sitting down in a row, before looking at each other and chuckling.

“Did you prepare your skits?” Sungjae asked.

“No. From what I know of instructor Miso’s personality, she’ll never give us the same context as the ones she gave as examples, so I just didn’t prepare at all.”

“That’s the same as what I had in mind. How about you, Gyunglim?”

“Just a few that she told us…”

“Really? Then should we try doing one? I’m getting a little bored now since I’ve been sitting here for so long.”

Gyunglim nodded and stood up. She even seemed to have made a script for her short skit as she was holding a piece of A4 paper.

“Tell me if I look awkward.”

“Okay.”

After replying to Gyunglim, Sungjae fixed his position and got ready to respond.

This was the usual now. Remembering the topic that Miso threw at them at the end of the class and researching it before the next class. At first, they were quite awkward, but now, they were able to start acting without many problems.

“You took my five thousand won bill.”

“Me? When?”

“You acting ignorant?”

After rolling her feet on the ground in frustration, Gyunglim stopped.

“How was that?”

“Your pronunciation was too mashed when you breathed heavily, so it was hard to hear. Also, people usually lose their speaking habits when they raise their voice, so it doesn’t sound natural.”

“Is it like that after all?”

Gyunglim put her finger inside her hat and scratched her head.

“Why don’t you two try? I need some practice.”

Gyunglim sat down and Maru stood up this time.

“Do you have anything in mind?”

“How about a historical drama? Watching ‘The King’ these days made me want to practice that.”

“That’s good. I’ll just take things slow. Gyunglim-noona, give us some feedback.”

Gyunglim nodded. Sungjae snapped his fingers and spun around several times on the spot before raising his head. It seemed that he had got things ready.

“I’ll try imitating one of the cuts I watched yesterday.”

Sungjae frowned and knelt on the ground with one knee. He said his line very tragically. His line was the last shouts of a losing general.

He was good. Seeing him upfront, Maru was surprised by the wave of emotions he received. His forcefulness was one thing, but the transfer of his emotions was very good as well. A shouting scene sometimes blurred the meaning of the lines with reckless shouting, but Sungjae distributed his efforts between the two evenly.

“You tried historical dramas before?”

“I was even a supporting role once.”

“I knew it.”

That made more sense. Maru looked at Gyunglim.

“I think it’s okay overall. But Sungjae-oppa, I feel like you were putting too much effort into frowning. I think it’ll be better if you loosen up a little.”

“Really?”

Sungjae’s eyebrows twitched as he tried changing the expression. When he did it a couple of times, he managed to create a face that still expressed vivid despair without exaggerating too much. After repeating that face a couple of times in front of the mirror, Sungjae made a smile of satisfaction.

“Everyone’s early.”

Just then, Gwangseok entered the lecture room. He swung his bag and threw it into the corner. When the bag hit the wall with a thud, the door opened once again. This time, it was Miso, holding a cup of coffee.

“Looks like no one’s late today. Well then, we’ll start in 5 minutes. Do some stretches on your neck, face, arms, legs, and even your hair for today.”

Miso crossed her legs as she sat down.

* * *

“Can’t you bring out some more? You’re supposed to be enjoying yourself. More, more, more, more!”

Miso was teaching first hand that it really wasn’t easy to laugh one’s lungs out. Maru looked at Gyunglim while massaging the area around his lips. She was laughing and clapping to the point that her lips were going to rip. She was even using her feet as well.

Hahahaha - that was the laugh that could be heard for the past hour or so. Sungjae and Gwangseok were also massaging their lips.

“Exaggerate more, make it look more artificial. More, more, more. Think of it as you might end up spitting something out from your mouth while laughing!”

Gyunglim, who laughed like a, well, a crazy bitch, was only freed from Miso’s grasp after three more minutes. This really went to show that it was possible to tire yourself out through laughing.

“Expressions are made by your facial muscles. No matter how dramatic of an emotion you have, it’s no use if your facial muscles are underdeveloped. There’s a reason why veteran actors exercise their facial muscles before acting. Even those veteran actors keep practicing in order to utilize the 80-something muscles in the face as though they would their limbs. But people just starting out acting forget that the basics are important and end up doing crappy emotion acting. You have to realize just how hard it is to just breathe while laughing. Understood?”

“Yes.”

“Well, then. We’re going to add this to our daily practice routines. Since we laughed together, let’s try crying tomorrow.”

Miso’s speech was very warm, but as the listener, Maru felt drained of energy. Laughing was hard enough already, and now they had to cry? His eyes and neck felt strained already just by imagining that he was going to cry exaggeratedly.

“Let’s clean things up and-.”

Just as Miso was about to wrap up the lesson, someone knocked on the door.

“Come in.”

“Wow, Instructor Yang Miso, you look blinding.”

Ganghwan entered while telling a joke. There were paper bags in each of his hands.

“Huh? What brings you here?”

“I’m here to cheer you on. And also to see him.”

Maru greeted Ganghwan who pointed at him with his chin.

“Huh? Yang Ganghwan!”

Gyunglim, who was massaging her face while sitting down on the ground, became startled and shouted. She seemed to have noticed that she was being rude after she shouted and apologized immediately.

“Sorry, I just didn’t expect to see you here.”

“Haha, I guess I wouldn’t usually be here.”

Ganghwan laughed before standing next to Miso.

“You haven’t had dinner yet, have you? I bought some to eat with the people here.”

Ganghwan took out some plastic containers from the paper bags.

“I wonder if everyone here’s okay with sushi?”

Ganghwan grinned.

“Yes!”

Gwangseok cheered in joy before laying out the containers on the floor.

They sat down in a circle and started eating.

“Can I ask you for an autograph?”

“Me too.”

Gwangseok and Gyunglim seemed to know Ganghwan. People interested in plays would have heard of his name at least once, so it wasn’t that surprising.

“Of course. But there’s a much more famous person than me here.”

Ganghwan sneakily pushed a pen and paper towards Sungjae. Sungjae smiled in embarrassment before giving him an autograph.

“With this autograph, I guess you’ll get a hundred, no, a thousand of my autographs.”

Ganghwan smiled as he stashed away the autograph he just got.

“But why are you really here?” Miso asked.

“On business.”

“Business?”

“It’s got nothing to do with you, Miss Yang Miso, so stay out of it and enjoy your sushi.”

Ganghwan picked up a piece of sushi with his chopsticks before putting it towards Miso’s mouth.

He’d probably get smacked for that - just as he thought, Miso smacked Ganghwan on the back of his head. Gwangseok and Gyunglim seemed to find their banter rather curious as they looked at the two in surprise.

“Uhm, are you two perhaps lovers?” Gwangseok asked without holding back.

“Me, with this woman? Geez, did you have to swear at me like that on our first meeting? Man, that was hard to take.”

Ganghwan replied sarcastically while Miso just outright ignored him as though there was no meaning in replying.

“This woman has a man she’s going to marry soon. Ah, these people don’t know about it, do they? Looks like I’ll have to tell the tales of Miso’s dramatic love stor… fine, fine. I’ll stay quiet, so put down those chopsticks, alright? Jesus, that was scary, putting chopsticks against someone’s eyes like that. Other people will just do it as a joke, but it’s scary since you look like you’d really stab.”

“Why don’t we just get on with our meal already? Just why did I help this guy’s play out, I wonder.”

Miso shook her head in resignation. When they finished about half of the sushi that Ganghwan brought, someone knocked on the door again. Maru put down his chopsticks and looked at the door. There were a lot of guests today for some reason.

“Looks like he’s here. Come in!” Ganghwan spoke. Was it someone he called?

“Hello.”

The one that came in with a bright greeting was Sooil. Everyone exclaimed in surprise as though they recognized him.

“Yoo Sooil, right?”

“Yes, that’s me.”

“Wow, is today a special day?”

Gwangseok whistled. Sooil greeted Sungjae first. It seemed that they had experience shooting together before.

“Is there some for me? I haven’t had dinner yet.”

“There’s a lot, come sit.”

Ganghwan pushed one of the containers towards Sooil.

“But what’s that in your hand?”

“Oh, this? Just some desserts. Thankfully, I was right on the number of people. Here.”

The paper bags that Sooil brought had plastic containers in them as well. Opening the plastic container, there was neatly lined-up food.

“What’s this?”

“It’s a crêpe. It has fruits and cream inside, and it’s pretty good.”

“Oh, really?”

Ganghwan reached out first, and Maru also picked one up.

“Thanks.”

He took a bite out of the crêpe as Sooil told everyone to enjoy it.

Chapter 431

“I’ll definitely go to your next performance.”

“Me too!”

Gyunglim and Gwangseok left the lecture room after saying their goodbyes. As for Sungjae, he exchanged a few words with Sooil before quietly leaving through the door.

“Thank you for the meal,” Maru said as he put the last piece of sushi in his mouth.

“You can take this one as well.”

Sooil pointed at the remaining crêpe as he spoke.

“What happened to you? Yielding food to someone else like that.”

“I ate quite a lot of it during the past few days, so I’m a bit fed up with it.”

“Wait, you had these for days?”

“Yeah. It’s hard to get your hands on if you don’t get them now.”

“Do you think crêpes are some seasonal fruits or something?”

“The one that makes them is quite busy. It’s hard to get your hands on them.”

“Really?”

“He’s a famous patissier. He came to the country for just a while, so you can’t get them otherwise. If you want them, you’d have to travel all the way to France.”

“You’re quite capable, having connections like that.”

“Well, I do know a lot of people.”

Sooil spoke in a joking tone as he cleaned up the trash. He gathered the plastics on one side, divided paper with food on it and paper without food, and put them in separate bags.

“Your future wife will love you if you do that.”

“That’s precisely why I’m doing this.”

“Do you act like this at home as well?”

“That depends on the case.”

Seeing the neatly cleaned trash made Maru want to clap. He might as well receive the recycling award of the year.

“Since I’m full, I’ll feel awesome if I just went straight to bed like this.”

Miso kicked Ganghwan, who was about to lie down on the floor.

“Why is a soon-to-be-newlywed so violent.”

“Shut up, and we need to empty this place, so be quick if you want to say anything. I’m going to visit the principal before going home. Maru, don’t forget to turn the lights off. The principal is sensitive to things like that even though he earns a lot of money. See you next time, Sooil.”

Miso waved her hand and left. As soon as Miso left, Ganghwan laid down on the floor. His ability to lie down regardless of the time, place, or occasion had to be acquired from when he was living as a homeless man. Maru asked Ganghwan who just blankly stared at the ceiling.

“You shouldn’t be here just to bring the sushi. What is it?”

“I’m just here to see my disciple’s face though.”

“Then I’m leaving.”

Just as he was about to get his bag and leave, Ganghwan quickly changed his words.

“I heard that your movie was over.”

“Yes.”

“Do you have any fixed schedule other than Miso’s classes?”

“Not immediately, no.”

“That’s good. I’m going to ask senior Junmin to pull you out.”

“Eh?”

Ganghwan pointed at Maru’s face and spoke.

“I think I’ll have you do some plays.”

* * *

“Then see you in Anyang. How about you, Sooil?”

“I’ll go home after hanging out with him for a while.”

Maru shook off Sooil’s hand that was placed on his shoulder.

“What do you mean hang out? It’s nearly ten.”

“Just hang out with me for a while. I don’t have a place I can spend time in. Senior, be careful on your way home!”

Ganghwan waved from inside the car before driving off. After watching the car turn on the left blinkers and disappear to the other side of the road, he looked at Sooil.

“Go home now. It’s way past sunset.”

“Hang out with me for a while here. Just until 11.”

“Did you cause an accident?”

“What makes you say that all of a sudden?”

“It’s because you don’t want to go home.”

“The atmosphere at home right now is a little… you know. If I go back now, I’ll have to put myself in a corner of my room and act like I don’t exist, but I don’t really want to do that.”

Sooil answered with a depressed face. Maru sighed.

“Do you want to go to a PC-bang or something?”

“Sounds good. But don’t we have to leave after 10?”

“Ah, right.”

There was no suitable place they could go to as high school students. This was why some high school students gathered in the neighborhood playgrounds with some soju they bought in secret. Maru clicked his tongue as he looked around. There wasn’t a suitable place they could go to.

“Maru, you good at billiards?”

On the 2nd floor of the building Sooil was pointing at, there was a billiard hall. Billiards, huh. It was one of the places he practically lived in when ‘Maru’ was young, along with the PC-bang.

“Do you know how to play?”

“Me? Of course I do.”

“Then let’s go. It should be better than standing outside like this.”

They entered the billiard hall. Near the counter, girls who seemed to be students like them were playing pocket ball. Maru expected this place to be filled with smoke from cigarettes, but it was actually quite clean. The part timer even brought them drinks.

“This place is different from my area.”

“Looks like this is the trend these days. I see a lot of them pop up.”

“Seoul has it pretty good alright. What’s your score?”

“Fifty.”

“Dammit. Four-ball?”

“I can do three.”

The confidence of a kid who could only play 50. Maru released three balls onto the table.

“Let’s not do anything strange. The table is expensive.”

“I don’t do stuff like that.”

Maru was about to use the scoreboard but decided not to, thinking that they would only stay here for a short while. Sooil wandered around the table while holding the cue. He clearly looked like he hadn’t played many times. Maru felt the smooth texture of the cue he hadn’t held for a long time before speaking.

“What’s your relationship with Gyunglim-noona?”

“Gyunglim-noona?”

Sooil smiled.

Gyunglim, who rejoiced so much when she saw Ganghwan, froze up after seeing Sooil. It was the same as the last time. As Gyunglim drove off with Sooil, she made a crying face as though she was a cow being dragged to a butchery. It didn’t look like she didn’t like it. She just looked to be at a loss on what to do.

“She’s just a cute noona.”

“Cute?”

“Yea? Gyunglim-noona’s pretty cute. The way she says everything without filtering first is cute, and the way she instantly regrets it afterward is also cute.”

“You got to know her through this work?”

“No, we’ve known each other since we were young. But why do you ask about her? Are you perhaps interested?”

“It’s because she’s interesting. That’s why.”

Sooil pushed the ball with the cue.

“She’s a kind noona. She’s the type of person who’d make a lot of losses because of her kindness. When I look at her, I want to do more for her.”

“That sounds kinda suspicious.”

“I’m talking about in a humanitarian way, so don’t misunderstand. Rather than that, how many scores are you going to play?”

“Let’s just play and chat about something.”

Playing seriously was only done when there was a ten thousand won bill on the table, or when the number of the Chinese food delivery service was preset in the phone. He drank a little before speaking again.

“But I thought you don’t have experience doing plays.”

Sooil, who was estimating the distance with the cue, raised his head.

“Yeah, not on an official stage. You said you do, right?”

“Just a couple of times to help out. But are you okay with that? I mean, you have a busy schedule.”

Maru looked at the counter as he spoke. The female part timer as well as the high school girls that showed no interest at the beginning thinking that they were just customers, were now stealing glances at them. They probably recognized who Sooil was.

“I wanted to learn what plays are like. They do say there’s no better place than a stage to hone your acting skills. Dramas are good as well, but right now, I want to try out a lot of things.”

“So a famous star is famous for a reason.”

“Who’s famous. Rather than that… I think there’s a bigger reason than skill.”

Sooil made a strange smile as he spoke.

“But what’s senior Ganghwan’s style like? I never acted with him before.”

Hearing Sooil’s question, he thought back to the days when he went to the practice room in Anyang. The atmosphere there could be summed up with the slogan on their wall. The quality of a line uttered a hundred times is different from the quality of a line uttered once. He told Sooil that line.

“Just hearing that makes me feel tired already.”

“He’s just an average neighborhood Joe usually, but he completely changes when it comes to things related to plays. It was hard practicing for a short skit before the preparations for the stage, and if you want to stand on the stage properly, I can’t even imagine how far you’d have to go to do that.”

“Ah, maybe I should’ve said no?”

“From his expression, it looked like he had already settled the deal with the president. At the bottom of the ladder, I do what I’m told. Ah, I guess you’re higher up in the ranks?”

“I don’t know either. Rather than that, I’ll be playing first then.”

“Alright. Go ahead.”

“Oh, wait.”

Sooil collected the trash gathered next to the billiard table as well as the empty cups before bringing them to the counter. There was a small commotion there. It seemed that they confirmed that he was the person they were thinking of.

After being held by the ladies for a few minutes, Sooil returned with some snacks in his hands. It seemed that the high school girls gave it to him.

“Is that your way of managing your image?”

“It is a habit of sorts, but you’re not wrong. I can’t let people find faults with me.”

“It’s hard being a celebrity.”

“It’s not entirely because I’m a celebrity, you know?”

Sooil chuckled before standing next to the billiard table with the cue.

“Maru.”

“Yeah?”

“It’s a bit boring to play just like this. So let’s make a bet.”

“Just play. You’ll be crying later.”

“Even a simple one is fine.”

Maru sighed with a smile.

“Fine, do whatever you want. What do you wanna bet? We have drinks already.”

“The winner can ask the loser to do one thing.”

“What? That’s such a grandiose condition.”

“Nothing hard though. Something that you can do.”

Maru stared at Sooil, who had a smile on his face, for a while before nodding.

“Fine, let’s do it. But since we’re betting, I’m playing this properly as well.”

“Please go easy on me.”

Sooil smiled and got into position.

* * *

“Damn him.”

When he looked at the symbol for the billiard hall outside the window, he thought back to what happened an hour ago. He had to notice it when he saw that guy push his butt right out and measure the angle. He didn’t realize that he’d be watching for the entirety of 30 minutes.

‘If that’s fifty, I’m just one, goddammit. Seoul players go too hard.’

Even on Jeju island, and in Incheon, where it was known to be hard to get scores, Sooil’s self-proclaimed ‘fifty points’ would be way understated.

-You’ll have to listen to a request from me in the future then.

He flicked away the words that echoed in his mind with a laugh. He was the first one to look down on him, so he couldn’t make any excuses either. Even if he did play first, he wouldn’t have been able to finish the game in one go, making it Sooil’s turn, and that would mean game over for him. It was impossible to win against him anyway.

Beep, the buzzer rang. Maru got off the bus and opened his phone. Ganghwan sent him the date and place of the appointment through text.

“Plays are good.”

He would have to see for himself what he was going to do and with what kind of people, but the fact that he was going to stand on stage made him feel excited already. Plays and dramas. The two were similar in the aspect that they both required acting, but they were two totally different things when you dug deep enough.

Acting was supposed to be done live. Just because they made a mistake, it wasn’t possible to shout cut and start over. Mistakes just happened and they would have to continue the play regardless. The actor would grow amidst those big and small accidents. This was why he agreed with the words that actors had to try out plays in order to gain a variety of acting experiences.

‘Sounds fun.’

His palms heated up. The nervousness he couldn’t feel from dramas could be felt even now. Maru smiled as he started walking. The date was this Friday. He didn’t have to wait long.

Chapter 432

It excited her every time. Although she was used to the set now, her heart jumped in excitement every time she came here. Looking at the vehicle with the logo of the TV station made her dazed at times. She would often think to herself that she was actually shooting a sitcom.

“Bunbun.”

“Oh, you’re here?”

She waved at Jiseok, who approached her. Bunbun. She got this nickname at school, but from some time onwards, everyone started calling her that. She was at a point now where hearing her own name felt more awkward.

“Looks like you won’t be here after today for a while.”

“I don’t have a scene in the script. I wonder if I’m leaving entirely like this.”

“Once the episodes get broadcasted, the viewers will all start asking who that cute girl is, so don’t worry about that.”

“No way.”

“Hm, I think I find that absurd as well. I take it back.”

They entered the set while laughing. To the left of the entrance was the living room of the main character and her family. The sofas placed in right angles and the sitting table in the middle were the start of the entire sitcom.

She sometimes watched the acting of the main characters from afar after her portion was finished. The far seat on the sofa was for sir Choi Taesik, the one next to that was for sir Ahn Jungho. Mrs Lee Haesook always sat down on the floor and poked other people with a back scratcher. Furthermore, an actor that was only three or four years older than her was acting amidst these people as well. The set was filled with laughter and really had funny events like a real sitcom, so she could keep watching them for hours on end. Whenever she did, she always prayed that she would one day act with those people. The admiration towards this field was a curious emotion that did not get absolved even while there.

Of course, there was a mountain she needed to overcome in order to sit with people like them.

“Geez, Taesik-oppa. Please stop making me laugh. You’re making me cause an NG just because you caused one.”

“Girl, I told you to not look at my face. Hahaha.”

Looking at Miyoon who was exchanging words with Taesik, she made a resolution. She kept getting sworn at by her even now. There were times when it would end with just a few rebukes, and sometimes, she would hear harsh words. It was frustrating, and she sometimes wanted to cry, but she wasn’t able to go against Miyoon. She would have talked back if Miyoon was just bullying her and nitpicking her for something unreasonable.

‘But she never says anything wrong.’

While Miyoon’s words were rough, she did not make up facts to swear at her. She only mercilessly sneered when she made a mistake or showed immaturity in some parts. She was frustrated at herself for giving that woman the opportunity to rebuke her, rather than being insulted in front of these people.

“I hope things go well today.”

“It’ll be fine as long as I do well. It’s not like she nitpicks me for something strange.”

“Well, we’ll have to see about that.”

“Why?”

“Rumors exist for a reason. In that sense, if it ever feels hard, then tell me. I am confident in receiving insults. I mean, they say that sharing insults makes you feel better.”

“There is no such saying.”

“Then we can make one.”

Jiseok smiled brightly to the point that his upper teeth were showing. He was a frivolous guy who acted like he’d become ill if he stood still, but at times like this, he seemed to be a deep guy at heart.

For a moment, she felt relaxed that someone was there to worry about her. However, she couldn’t get him involved.

“I’m fine. I might look like this, but I’m actually quite strong. Watch me. I’ll have Miss Lee Miyoon look at me again.”

“In my eyes, you don’t look that strong though.”

Jiseok looked like he had something to say, but did not say it.

“Anyway, tell me if you find anything difficult. What are friends for? Also, you should really tell Maru about it. I think he’s noticed something already.”

“I’ll tell him if I am having a hard time.”

She watched as Jiseok walked to the other side of the set before putting strength into her stomach and walking towards her own set. It was a small room. This room, which had a bed, a closet, and a desk, was her main stage.

“You’re here.”

“Yes, unni.”

She greeted Park Yoonhee, who greeted her from behind. Her character was a friend of Yoonhee in the drama, and she would always stick to Yoonhee to get something from her. She was a poor person that staked her life for even a 100 won coin.

“Looks like madam Lee Miyoon is quiet today.”

Yoonhee approached her and spoke in a small voice.

“I did my best hiding from her.”

“You have it hard. Poor Bunbun.”

Yoonhee grabbed her cheeks and twisted them slightly. When she first met Yoonhee, she thought that Yoonhee would be a year older than her. However, they found out each other’s ages during their first greeting, and she was surprised to find out that Yoonhee was 7 years older than her. She had a really young-looking face. If she wore a school uniform, everyone would take her as a high school student.

As they got along well together, they became close rapidly. This unni, who told her that she did plays for 6 years, really digested the acting of a high school student well. She was also the person she’d go for consultation if she was stuck on something because of her acting.

“Should we try out the lines for a bit?”

“Yes.”

“Ah, I almost forgot. You know when you kicked the bed in the last shoot, that looked really good. Finding things like that and expressing them is really helpful. Do as much as you can in the context given by the director.”

She committed Yoonhee’s words to memory before opening the script. Acting in a play was really different from acting in front of a camera. Bringing the acting skills she used in plays in dramas would make her acting look exaggerated. She also had to focus on her body movements. Although every one of her actions would be revealed to the audience in a play, it wasn’t like that when acting in front of a camera.

When she focused on her facial expression that was captured on camera, her hands and feet would sometimes become awkward, and her acting would sometimes become easy because her hands and feet had nowhere to go. Even though she could naturally just put her hands and feet where they should be on top of a stage, it strangely looked unnatural when she stood in front of a camera.

“Don’t be too conscious of the camera. You have to be conscious of it, but it’s hard to do that at first. I was like that as well. The eye of the camera is too stiff, making you feel bad. It’s to the point that acting in front of an audience is better.”

Since the advice came from a senior who experienced the transition from acting in a play to acting in a drama, it felt very useful. While she went through the lines with the help of her senior, they heard a laugh from the other set. From how there was the sound of clapping as well, it seemed that they had finished shooting over there.

“We’re going over to the B set now.”

She could see the camera moving. The lights on the ceiling were turned on. The art team entered the set and started adjusting various things. The shoot was nigh.

“The weather is quite hot, isn’t it? Let’s finish the shoot quickly and get some rest.”

With the producer’s light greeting, they started the rehearsal immediately. She focused on the producer’s words and actions. A rehearsal was like a milestone. It was a guide that showed which direction the acting should go. The actor’s job was to decide whether they wanted to walk, run, or fly in that direction.

“Understood?”

She nodded. She got what the director wanted to say. Now, the problem was how it was going to be expressed. Of course, the one going on the camera was Yoonhee-unni. She was just spice. She had a simple role that was inserted into the scene for just one comedy line. It was highly probable that her role might disappear during editing, but she had to do her best. An actor’s job was to digest a role regardless of its significance in the work after all.

She saw Miyoon standing behind the camera, as well as the other main actors. They were watching the shoot. Although she was nervous, she also felt motivated.

“Let’s focus and do this in one go,” the producer said while clapping.

* * *

“You really don’t know any shame, do you?”

Next to the set where the lights were faint. She lowered her head as she listened to Miyoon’s words. The people that walked by this place didn’t even give them a glance. They just simply ignored it as though it was natural for them to be there. At first, she was disappointed when she saw that, but now she knew that it was their way of being considerate.

“Sorry.”

“You really are good with words. But why is your acting like that? Who did you learn from? Hm?”

“I’m sorry.”

Maybe she got used to it. She hated herself for apologizing mechanically.

“How long are you going to keep this up?”

“Sorry?”

“I mean how long are you going to act in front of me? No, I can’t even call that acting.”

Miyoon spoke as she pushed on her shoulders. Her legs were shaking. She was in a fight where no one could help, and shouldn’t help either. Right now, she was too weak and was in a position where she never dared to go against her opponent. What if she ran after saying that something came up? What if she went to the producer crying and begging? Wouldn’t she become more comfortable than she is now?

She raised her head. Miyoon’s eyes were right in front of her eyes.

“I’m going to continue. I’m going to do it now and forever.”

She knew the easy way out but didn’t want to take that path. She didn’t want to bend. Breaking was much better.

“You know who you are glaring at, right?”

Hearing her words, her body flinched. Her resolution was separate from her body’s reactions.

“You, I like your eyes.”

She was prepared for a rebuke, but she heard a kind voice instead. She blinked several times as she looked at Miyoon. There was a kind smile on her face.

“This field is quite harsh, you know? And there are a lot of accidents. That’s why I become strict when I see young people like you. However, I’m not doing it because of some malicious intent. It’s just, I’m awkward at expressing myself.”

She looked at Miyoon who grabbed her hand. Although her hands were rough, the way she caressed her was soft. It was to the point that she was reminded of her dead grandmother.

“I treated you too harshly, didn’t I?”

“Eh? N-no, not at all.”

“I’ll treat you well in the future. You only found out what I really meant today. If you have any difficulties, please come to me at any time for consultation.”

The scary person looked like she had changed into an angel. Yes, she didn’t really hate me, when you think about it, I was the one who made the mistake in the first place. Since someone like me was walking around as though nothing had happened in front of her, how annoyed must she have felt? - she felt very complex but sighed in relief since it looked like things had been resolved now.

However, she wasn’t entirely comfortable with the outcome. It felt like things were resolved, but she felt stifled. She felt unpleasant and even disgusting. Was this how it was going to end?

“This is what acting is,” at that time, Miyoon spoke.

She stared at Miyoon in a daze. Miyoon violently shook off her hands before sneering at her.

“That is what you call acting. Okay? Not your awkward mess of a gesture. Okay?”

Ah, it was a lie. The moment she thought that she ended up smiling to herself for some reason. It wasn’t a smile that came from being flustered. She actually liked this situation.

“What’s so funny?”

“Sorry? Oh, nothing.”

“You are completely crazy.”

“I’m not that crazy.”

For some reason, she kept smiling as she said her words.

She couldn’t hold them back.

Miyoon frowned and then scanned her from top to bottom before turning around.

“Hey, hey, hey. You okay?”

Jiseok had approached her and asked. The moment she saw him, she sat down on the floor. Even though she was chuckling, she didn’t have any strength in her legs.

“What happened?”

“Nothing, I just found it funny.”

“What’s so funny?”

“She apologized, right?”

“What? Lee Miyoon was the first to apologize?”

“Yeah, but it was all an act.”

“I knew it. But what about it? She was clearly toying with you.”

“The thing is, I felt really strange the moment I heard her apology. I was really annoyed and wanted to cry. Now I think I know the reason. I received so many insults, and I think I got angry when I thought that she was going to make this as if it never happened at all with just an apology. But it’s an act, she says! She says she does indeed hate me.”

“S-so, you are happy that you confirmed her hate for you?”

“Yeah!”

“…Hey, you are being really weird right now. Your face is laughing, but your arms and legs are shaking. Are you aware of that?”

“I know. I do, but I really think that this turned out well. I don’t want this to end with an awkward apology. This is much better. She might have started things, but I will be the one to put an end to it.”

She looked at Miyoon who walked with her manager. That back was her objective. She would not be shaken and would walk straight ahead until that person praised her for her acting.

“…Oh my word, they have both gone crazy.”

She grabbed Jiseok, who was grumbling, and stood up. Although her legs were shaking, she felt very refreshed for some reason.

“Let’s go! I have to go home now.”

“Fine, let’s go.”

She grabbed Jiseok’s hand, who grinned.

Chapter 433

“I might be coming home late starting this Thursday.”

Hearing her brother speak at the dining table, Bada turned around to look at her mother. Her mother asked if he’ll come home really late with a worried face.

“I’m not sure. I’ll have to go there to see how long we’re going to practice.”

“Where are you doing it?”

“Anyang. It’s not far, so you don’t have to be worried.”

Her brother put his empty bowls in the sink and went to his room before coming back out again with his wallet.

“I’m going to the convenience store. Do you need anything, mom?”

“Nothing.”

“How about you, Bada?”

“I want ice cream! I want a cone.”

“You should really stop eating things like that. You’ll gain weight.”

Bada snorted and shouted at him to buy her a chocolate-flavored one.

“But why is oppa so busy recently? He’s not even on TV.”

She asked her mom, who was putting away the dishes.

“He’s just starting out, so he must be learning things here and there. It’s not like you can become a celebrity just because you want to.”

“I’m worried he might start suffering later in life because of that. There are a lot of people who regret it when they are older.”

“Geez, that’s not something you can say to your older brother.”

Bada ran away from her mom’s spicy hands and stood up quickly.

“I’m just worried for him. Like you said, it’s not like you can become a celebrity just because you want to. When I watch TV, I see a lot of people who just leave after just practicing as trainees.”

“Han Bada.”

“What! I’m just worried, I mean it.”

Bada pouted and looked at her brother’s room. She was aware that her brother was doing his best. He kept leaving the house even during the holidays saying he had to practice, and whenever he came back, he slept like a log.

She could see that he was really putting his efforts into it, but actually, she didn’t know what he was really doing.

She asked her mom, who was doing the dishes, but the reply she got was that her mom didn’t know either.

“Do you think your brother will tell Mom something like that?”

“Why? He used to tell you a lot of things before.”

“When are you talking about? Your brother doesn’t tell me anything these days.”

“Really?”

It was understandable since her brother really did change quite a lot.

“Bada, put the side dishes into the fridge.”

Bada put the side dishes into the refrigerator before going to her room. She turned on her PC and visited her mini homepage[1] before being reminded of her homework after seeing a post from a friend of hers. The teacher for that class was a scary one that hit students on the back of their hands with a ruler if they didn’t do their homework.

‘Should I do it while watching TV?’

She brought her English homework to the living room. Her mom, who had finished the dishes, was sitting on the sofa, watching TV. She put her notebook on the table and rested her chin on her hands. She had to write down four pages worth of idioms. She didn’t know why she was doing this, but she could only do it since she was told to.

When she filled half of a page, her brother came back. He threw her a chocolate-flavored ice cream cone with an expressionless face.

“Thanks.”

She put her notebook aside and started eating.

On TV, a daily drama was currently airing, and honestly, because the content was similar across the various TV stations she couldn’t differentiate between them. It felt as though the story would be joined smoothly even if she switched from YBS to RBS, and then to KBS.

“That ahjumma is the bad one, isn’t she?”

She pointed at the person who had thick makeup on her face and was wearing a fur coat. Her mom nodded. It was just as she expected. It was way too obvious. The innocent-looking girl wearing thin makeup had to be the main character. Oh, she just got slapped. Now, the male protagonist would run up to them, shouting ‘mother’.

-What are you doing, mother?

Bada grinned as she looked at her mom. Her mom looked at her strangely before looking at the TV again.

“Mom, this is way too obvious. This is the first time I watched it, and I think I know the story already. That woman is the evil mother-in-law, isn’t she? And is hinting the girl to get a divorce with her son. Right?”

“That’s why I watch it.”

“But it’s so obvious and no fun.”

“Why don’t you reach my age first? You’ll really like these kinds of things.”

“No way. I don’t think I’ll be like that.”

“Yes, yes, my daughter. You can keep liking that Top Four, or Tee Tee Four or something.”

“Mom, it’s TTO!”

“TTO or Tee Tee Four, sounds the same to me.”

“It’s not the same at all!”

She made a sour expression as she pulled her notebook over again. When she moved her mechanical pencil, the TV volume started decreasing.

“You can raise the volume again.”

“I can hear it.”

She shrugged once before she continued writing.

One page, two pages, three pages, four pages. After writing everything, she raised her head. It was 9:53 p.m. Since she was simply copying, time went by in a flash.

“I’m done.”

She closed her notebook and sat next to her mom with a cushion.

“Mom, switch to channel 10.”

“What’s on it?”

“The Witness. Lee Junghoon is in it. He looks so cool.”

“Lee Junghoon?”

“Yeah. Ahn Joohyun is in it as well.”

“Mom finds her a bit scary. She looks too strong willed for a girl.”

“That’s what’s cool about her. Get on with the times. These days, women have their voices.”

“Fine, okay.”

Her mom switched to channel 10 with the remote. Just in time, the ad was finishing off and the drama started.

“What’s it about?”

Her mom pointed at the snacks beneath the table and asked. Bada reached out and grabbed the snacks and gave it to her mom.

“It’s about an investigator. The story begins with a man turning himself in after committing a murder by contract, and it’s really fun and thrilling. If you get absorbed, it’s really really interesting.”

“I never liked those things though.”

“You should watch it. I mean, you should really change your tastes.”

At that moment, the door to her brother’s room opened. He yawned as he walked towards the fridge while scratching his belly. Bada met eyes with her brother, who returned to his room with a strawberry milk in his hand.

“Can you even study in front of a TV?”

Tsk tsk - her brother clicked his tongue before going into his room.

Bada glared at the door that was closing. Change? How did he change at all? She felt that his girlfriend was wasted on a guy like him.

Bada turned her head to the TV again. In the last episode, it ended with the special investigation forces starting a counterattack after getting a clue to the identity of the assassination company. They had finally found the shadow of the organization that raised the young killers. The relationship between the investigators had gotten better again and now the story was about to kick things up a notch as it began unveiling the identity of the organization. There was also the love story between Lee Junghoon and Ahn Joohyun as well.

Even her mother, who seemed bored at first, started focusing after a car chase action scene in the middle of the city. Bada made a satisfied smile and spoke,

“Lee Junghoon is so cool, isn’t he, mom?”

Lee Junghoon, who drove the car in a cool fashion to arrive at HQ was looking at the map with a serious face. He looked really charming. The nose lines and the chin lines were what made a man look cool. These days, a lot of her classmates really liked Lee Junghoon.

By 11, the drama slowly started entering a crisis again. The member of the organization that they were transporting had disappeared again. The investigation forces started suspecting each other again after coming to the conclusion that there was a spy among their ranks. At that moment, Ahn Joohyun entered an interrogation room with the investigators without saying a word. There, the boy that they handed over to another team who was related to the organization, was sitting.

Bada inwardly shouted yes. Now, if they interrogated that guy and got the answer, the secret would be revealed.

A faint figure could be seen in the dark interrogation room. Ahn Joohyun’s footsteps could be heard through the speakers, and eventually, she sat in front of the boy. Tick - the lights turned on in the dark interrogation room.

The boy had his head lowered. When Ahn Joohyun asked a couple of questions, his body shook up and down before making a frightening noise.

“Is that acting? Urgh, it’s so scary.”

“He’s good.”

Although she said those words, she frowned when the boy bashed his head against the table. It was very realistic to the point that she was worried that he might actually get injured.

In the next scene, the boy put his face against Ahn Joohyun who had approached him. The perspective changed rapidly to create a tense atmosphere. The periodic thudding seemed to make her heart beat faster.

“Oh my word, oof.”

Her mom said those words when Ahn Joohyun grabbed the boy’s hair like she would rip it off and bashed his head against the table. Bada also groaned slightly. The rampaging boy went limp. However, he still produced that monstrous sound. Grrr - he was like a dog with heavy injuries that wanted to live.

The camera that shot Ahn Joohyun slowly moved to show the appearance of the boy. The boy’s full face appeared on camera for the first time.

“……”

The moment she saw the identity of the boy who was glaring with bloodshot eyes, her brother’s room opened again. She glanced at the boy on the screen and her brother who was washing the strawberry milk carton in the sink alternately. It shouldn’t be, right? No way.

“…Maru.”

“Yeah?”

“Is that you?”

Her mom asked with a sunken voice. Her brother went up to the TV and had a look at the screen before going back to his room with a short ‘yeah’. After the sound of the door closing, the boy’s mad roars started reverberating through the TV. Bada watched the freaky scene in a daze before standing up and slamming open the door to her brother’s room.

“O-oppa. Is that really you?”

Her brother, who was reading a book while sitting on the floor, frowned.

“Why do you ask?”

“No, but, is that really you?”

“It is me.”

“Why didn’t you tell me?”

“Tell you what?”

“Why didn’t you tell me that you’re in it?”

“It’s nothing amazing, so why would I cause a commotion? Also, be quiet. The house downstairs might come up.”

Finish your homework already - he finished off with those words while shaking his head. ‘This’…was the same as… ‘that’? Bada alternated between looking at her brother on screen and her real brother before returning to the sofa.

“Mom, it really is him.”

“Y-yeah.”

“Oppa is on TV.”

“Yes, he is.”

“Holy shit.”

The drama then ended. While reading the ending credits, she saw a name at the very end.

-Special appearance: Han Maru.

“Mom, did you see that?”

“Yes, I did.”

“Mom.”

“W-what?”

“That, I mean, oppa really appeared on TV, right?”

“Didn’t we go through this already?”

Bada looked at her mom. Then, she grabbed her mom’s hands, which looked like they had nowhere to go, before shaking them up and down.

“Wait, mom.”

Bada stood up and went to her room. She opened the internet browser on the computer, which was already on, before going to her mini homepage. Her mini homepage was empty since she had nothing to write. She clicked the ‘write something’ box and wrote just one line.

-The first idiot of our household is on TV!

[1] Again, referring to Cyworld, a SNS service that also had personal blog functionalities.

Chapter 434

Coincidence arose from suddenness. What followed were emotions like happiness or sadness. This situation was precisely like that. In this case, the emotions that followed were unpleasantness and unfamiliarity.

“May I help you?”

Maru spoke to the boys sitting in a circle around him. The atmosphere of the class was not ordinary since the moment he came to school. A lot of them gave him glances and whispered to each other. It was like they were bachelors who just heard a rumor that one of them had met a beautiful girl.

“You met Ahn Joohyun twice now, huh.”

“And you dare say you don’t know anything?”

“I heard that each scene takes around 3 to 4 hours to shoot.”

“When I watched yesterday, he was practically rubbing all over her.”

His eyes were twitching. He was fed up with making a sympathetic face. Maru just waved his hand.

“I told you it’s just a coincidence.”

“How is two times in a row a coincidence?”

“Right!”

Even though these boys didn’t usually have any brains, they tried to pry into him like they were Sherlock Holmes. Maru needed a Watson to clear up the situation here.

Maru thought about Bangjoo for a second, but he couldn’t sell out his junior. The moment he told everyone here that Ahn Joohyun had a little brother in the 1st year of this school, Bangjoo’s school life would get tiring.

“What do you want?”

In the end, he had to raise the white flag. It was impossible to calm down hot-blooded high school students with too much yang using words. He had to negotiate in order to calm them down.

“Uhm… nothing specifically.”

“Me neither. It’s not like I want an autograph.”

“We’re too old for that.”

The reactions from his friends were lukewarm. Even though they caused all that fuss last time. Maru asked his friends once again.

“Then why the hell are you doing this to me?”

They then replied quickly as though they were waiting for him to ask that question.

“Your stomach hurts when your cousin buys real estate.[1]”

“We can’t let you have all the fun.”

“Of course, of course.”

“Ah, wait. I think it’ll be good if I can get the autograph, now that I think about it.”

“Me too.”

“Get one for us.”

Maru shook his head. Since when did being whimsical become popular? The boys, who were all talking about Ahn Joohyun, switched topics and started asking things about the shoot.

Maru answered what he could. The question he received the most was about the contents of the next episode, but he couldn’t answer since he did not know anything either.

“But you really did look good on camera. Last time, you were wearing a baseball cap, so it was hard to recognize you, but your whole face came out yesterday.”

“Right. But did you wear something on your eyes yesterday? They looked like they were going to burst.”

“They were so bloodshot.”

Maru scratched his eyebrows and replied to them that it was because he got hit. The boys stared at him before nodding their heads in comprehension.

“Are you going to appear again then?”

“That’s it. No more.”

“Really?”

“Yeah, I only went there due to a coincidence. There’s also the fact that the director just saw me in a good way. I wasn’t an official cast member, so that’s the last episode I’m in.”

“Well, it did say special appearance in the credits. But wow, Han Maru keeps coming out on TV. Maybe he’ll actually do well at this rate?”

The kids gave him light smacks on the back before going back to their seats. He probably heard ‘don’t forget about me once you become popular’ around ten times. They looked like they were going to keep holding him for the entire day, but it was extremely rare for boys at this age to be so talkative over someone else’s matters for a long time. They then scattered and returned to their normal lives. Games, soccer and then back to games. Rather than celebrities, who they weren’t related to, game items that they could obtain were much more interesting topics.

“That must have been hard for you.”

Dowook seemed to have visited the cafeteria as he was holding a drink in his hand.

“But what are you going to do now? It doesn’t seem to have ended yet.”

Dowook pointed at the back door with an interested face. When Maru turned around, he saw Aram and the other members of the acting club. The problem was that it wasn’t just the members of the acting club. Students from some other departments of the 2nd year had come as well. There was a group of people from class 2 of electrical, which was the class next to theirs.

“Hey, hey. I saw you on TV!”

“Han Maru! I heard you were on TV.”

“Seonbae, I saw you yesterday. You were awesome.”

Maru sighed and brushed down his face.

“Good luck with that, Maru.”

The fact that he could feel a teasing tone from Daemyung’s consolation was probably not because he was sensitive. Maru put on some earphones and laid down on his desk. The curiosity wasn’t even going to last a day. He just had to endure through the morning.

“The pop star Han Maru is sleeping.”

He decided to remember those words, which came from Dowook.

Maru turned the volume of his MP3 to twice as loud as usual.

* * *

“Was that really your brother?”

“I told you he was.”

“Really? That’s awesome.”

Bada smiled and shrugged. Her friends had gained interest after seeing her post on her mini homepage yesterday. It was a little embarrassing to talk about her brother, but she felt proud when she heard her friends praising her brother.

“Is he going to come out again? From what I saw, he was really good at acting.”

“W-well. I’m not sure.”

“Why?”

“Because that guy doesn’t say things like that.”

At that moment, the girl sitting on Bada’s right spoke.

“You have it good. I heard that your brother got you the tickets to TTO’s concert as well. I wanted to go too.”

“Ah, right. He did get you those as well.”

Bada coughed and said that it was nothing much.

“Nothing much? Looks like your brother is really doing well. Maybe he’s going to be a main character in a drama some day?”

“Who knows. That dude seems to have matured after entering high school. He also seems to be doing a lot of work.”

“Anyway, it must be good for you. My brother always nags at me to get off the computer because he wants to use it.”

Bada shrugged. This was the first time she received the attention of her classmates all at once. Her lips twitched in joy when she felt the gazes of envy.

“Actually, he was the one who got me Sungjae-oppa’s autograph.”

“What? Really?”

“Yeah. Oh, you haven’t seen it yet, have you?”

Although she already boasted about it to her close friends, she hadn’t talked about this with the ones she was talking to now. That was because they hung out in different groups. Although they said hi to each other, that was only at school. Once school finished, the girls only hung out in their respective groups, so there was no opportunity to talk about serious things with them.

Above all, what made her excited the most was that the girl that usually looked down on her was looking at her suspiciously. ‘Kang Sora, look at this. It’s the real deal.’

She took out the autograph she painstakingly laminated and showed it to everyone else. The girls that bought photos of TTO in batch at the stationery store exclaimed and started at the autograph. The other girls also came to her wanting to see it up close.

Bada responded with a calm smile to all the interest and looks given to her. Actually, she wanted to boast, but she held back since Sora, who was glaring at her from the side, might nitpick.

“Are you sure that’s a real autograph? It looks similar to the one sold at our local stationery store.”

Sora ended up saying something. Bada immediately replied.

“What are you saying? That dude, I mean, my brother really got this for me.”

“And how do we believe that?”

“Huh?”

“How do we believe it? Look, it’s the same as the one sold in the stationery store. No, are you sure it’s not copied from the internet? I saw some people do that these days.”

Sora lifted the laminated autograph before putting it against the lights.

“Think about it. Her brother getting her an autograph of Sungjae-oppa on an autograph paper like this? Does that even make any sense? Also, he seemed to have appeared in a drama last night, right? Someone I know works for a TV station, and he told me that anyone can appear for short moments like that.”

“Is that true?”

Everyone looked at Sora.

“Yes. You know acting schools right? They just randomly pick people from there. The ones that have time.”

“Oh really? Then Bada’s brother wasn’t picked because he was good?”

“I wouldn’t know for sure. But he only appeared for a brief moment. That means he’s a one-off actor, so it’s probably safe to say that he didn’t do anything amazing. Oh, I’m not looking down on your brother. I’m just stating facts. You know what I mean, right?”

Sora smiled and put down the autograph. Bada looked up at that girl with a sour expression. The girls around just glanced at the autograph before going back to their seats. Although they weren’t saying anything, they seemed to think that it was fake.

“Ah, right. I found out the location of Change-oppas’ next schedule. Are you going to come? My mom gave me money, so I can pay for the transport fares and food.”

Sora turned around as she spoke. While TTO entered a break period, the one that replaced them as the number 1 on the rankings was Change.

The girls flocked around Sora this time. Everyone replied while smiling since Sora was the most popular in the class.

“Hey hey. It’s not like this is the first time she’s like that so don’t mind it too much.”

“That’s right, Bada. She’s just jealous.”

Although her friends consoled her with a smile, Bada was frustrated. Her sneering speech was something she always did, so she didn’t really care, but she really didn’t like the fact that she badmouthed that dude, her brother.

‘I’m the only one who can look down on him. Not you!’

Those words circled in her mouth, but Bada was unable to say it until the end. Fighting with Sora would ruin her relationship with everyone else in the class as well. She didn’t want that to happen.

Bada took out her phone and looked things up on the internet in order to relieve her depression. She also sent a text message.

-What is it now?

Dowook’s short reply made her eyes light on fire. His girlfriend was depressed and what? ‘What is it now?’ Bada moved her fingers busily while looking at Sora sitting on her desk, laughing and chatting.

* * *

“Do something about your sister, dude.”

“Why?”

“I don’t know. She’s upset for some reason.”

“How would I know something that you don’t? Don’t make her cry and treat her well. She’s kinda hopeless once she starts complaining. If she’s upset when I go home today, I’ll think that it’s because of you and call you about it, so bear that in mind.”

Maru held a middle finger up at Dowook who panted in anger before waving at Daemyung.

“See you tomorrow.”

“See you tomorrow, Maru. Have fun with your class.”

“Thanks.”

He took the bus and the train to Seoul like always. He now entered Film, which he had gotten used to now, and opened the door to lecture room 4.

“Over there, you’re not allowed to come in.”

The floor and the ceiling were ripped apart. It was under construction.

The other lecture rooms had their classes as usual. He wondered what this was about and took out his phone.

“Ah.”

His phone had been turned off. He had turned it off because some of his classmates texted and called him as a prank in the morning, and forgot to turn it back on again. When he turned it on, he found a text message from three hours ago. There was also a missed call from Film. The text notified him that there was no class today due to construction.

“What are you doing outside?”

He heard a voice behind him. Maru made a bitter smile seeing Sungjae who stood behind him. Here was one more person that didn’t see the text. When he explained to him the situation, Sungjae just accepted it without much surprise.

“My phone number was leaked, so I let my personal phone go and was using a business one. Looks like the text went to that one.”

“Let’s leave for now. It’s not like we can do anything here.”

“Alright, let’s do that.”

Sungjae flicked the guitar he was wearing on his back.

* * *

“A mocha bun and a latte, please.”

“Ah, yes. And thanks for last time.”

“For what?”

Yoo Sooil asked the part timer girl in front of him.

“You drove out the woman who caused a ruckus here…”

“Oh! You are from back then. Nah, we should help each other out.”

He remembered back to when he first met Maru in the coffee shop in the lounge of the JA building. He did have a dispute with a female employee who was screeching her heart out. Sooil smiled and received the bun and the coffee as he sat down. His business here was done, and his day would be over once he went home after enjoying the bread and coffee.

‘This place has some really good coffee.’

Just as he was enjoying himself while sipping coffee, he saw a woman approaching him from the other side of the glass wall with a fierce glare on her face. There was an ID card around her neck. It was the woman he had a dispute with last time.

“Oh my lord.”

Sooil wanted to run away after finishing the coffee, but the coffee was too hot, and there was more than half of it left. He couldn’t exactly leave behind food. In the end, he had to watch as the woman came into the coffee shop.

“Hey! You are the kid from back then, aren’t you?”

“Eh? I’m not sure what you mean.”

“You are! The dude that lied about being president Kim Jaechul’s son.”

“No, when did I do that? I never did such a thing.”

He laughed and stuffed the bun in his mouth. He was just about to get up and leave when that woman grabbed him by the arm.

“Who told you you can leave? Do you know what kind of things I had to face because of you last time?”

“Strictly speaking, it was you who was being unreasonable to the part timer…”

“You are no good. You picked the wrong opponent. I’m not someone that goes easy on people just because they’re young. Okay?”

The employee took out her phone as she spoke.

[1] A Korean idiom about jealousy. It refers to jealousy when it’s someone close to you that gets something good.

Chapter 435

“Huh, isn’t that Yoo Sooil?”

“Who’s that?”

“You don’t know? He was in a couple of movies and some dramas too.”

“Is he famous?”

“I guess you can call him that.”

“Not because you work in that area?”

Sooil smiled when he heard those voices around him. Since this was the JA building, a lot of people working in the industry could be seen frequently in this place. The woman that was glaring at him while holding his arm started looking around her.

“Uhm, it’ll be inconvenient for both of us if this gets out of hand, don’t you think so?”

Hearing Sooil’s words, the woman let go of his arm.

“Who are you, some celebrity?”

“I’m just a new actor that appeared here and there.”

“Then why did you lie to me like that?”

“Back then, I did it because you looked very angry. Also, the part timer is pitiful. It’s just a simple mistake.”

“That’s her problem.”

Her voice was raised a little, but she didn’t shout due to the gazes around them.

“Sorry. I was wrong. As an apology, I’ll buy you a cup of coffee. Please let me go this time, please?”

Sooil grabbed the woman’s hand and smiled. It seemed to be true that people couldn’t spit on a smiling face as the woman clicked her tongue and nodded.

“How generous of you. What would you like to drink?”

“I don’t care.”

Sooil nodded before walking to the counter. There was one more part timer this time. She wasn’t here before.

“Uhm, you’re Yoo Sooil, aren’t you?”

“Eh? Ah, yes. I am.”

“Wow, that’s amazing. I enjoyed the movie you were in last time.”

“Wow, thanks.”

Just as he turned around after receiving the coffee. He could hear someone questioning if he was really an actor. Sooil turned around with a bright smile.

“Yes, I am an actor. I thought I was quite popular, but I guess I don’t have as much recognition as I thought. I’ll put in more effort in the future.”

When he made a victory pose, the two part timers cheered for him with awkward smiles. Sooil went back to the table where the female employee was sitting.

“Here. Sorry about last time.”

The woman snatched the coffee away from him.

“Be careful in the future. The world isn’t as easy as you think it is. I’m only letting you go this time because you look like a kind boy, alright?”

“Of course, of course.”

“Also, if you’re going to be an actor, you should really manage your image.”

“Yes, I’ll bear that in mind.”

“I’m really holding a lot back this time.”

The employee glared at the counter once before standing up, but soon she lowered herself again. Sooil wondered what was going on and turned around to see where she was looking. There were a lot of men in their fifties entering the building.

“Dammit, it’s the president.”

There was nothing more uncomfortable than meeting a superior during a break. Moreover, the president? He could understand how she felt.

However, the female employee’s refuge couldn’t last long. The president and his company turned around to walk towards the coffee shop. The female employee walked to the entrance of the coffee shop. He had a glance at her, and she didn’t look like she was annoyed at all as there was a smile on her face. That instantaneous change in expression was something that company employees all had.

The door opened and the president came in.

“Hello, sir.”

The female employee greeted him first.

“Ah, yes. But who are you?”

“I am Park Miseon who just joined the human resources team.”

“Oh, right. I see. Sorry for not recognizing you. I wasn’t able to attend the welcome party. Anyway, nice to meet you. You just joined the family, so let’s get along.”

The president smiled and walked past her. Sooil thought that she should’ve done the same thing to the part timer as he got ready to leave.

“Hm? Hey.”

At that moment, the president approached Sooil. Sooil quickly started thinking. Had he met this man somewhere before? He thought about it for a while, but he couldn’t think of anything. The fact that someone from a business company had recognized him meant that this wasn’t entirely welcome in his perspective.

“Aren’t you Lee Jaeho?”

The moment he heard those words, Sooil sighed inwardly.

“Yes, I am.”

“Haha, I was right. You might not know me, but I know you.”

Sooil smiled and stared at the president’s mouth. After the president looked around him, he asked in a small voice.

“Yes, is the chairman doing well?”

* * *

“It was insane when we went to a girl’s high for a concert.”

“A concert at a girl's high?”

“Yeah. It was last year. Just around the time we started talking about doing individual activities. Oh, thank you.”

The boiling Sundubu-jjigae[1] was placed in front of them. Maru clicked his tongue when the grandma put a rice bowl, with rice towering high over the edge of the bowl, in front of him and said that she’ll bring more if they found it lacking. Grandma, it’s too much.

“Enjoy your food, my pups.”

“Yes. Thank you for the meal,” Sungjae replied while raising his spoon.

He had taken off his hat and was sitting down comfortably without having to look around in case someone recognized him. This restaurant, which was in an alley a bit far away from Gangnam station, looked like a refuge for Sungjae.

“But they really don’t recognize you here,” Maru said as he mixed the boiling soup.

Although the 8 or so tables were all occupied, no one recognized Sungjae.

“Is it because their general ages are quite high?”

Including a middle-aged man who was eating scorched rice water as a dessert, the minimum age of the customers here seemed to be at least 50.

“Even people barely older than thirty usually don’t recognize us. They might know that we might be on TV, but they wouldn’t know our names. Our main target audience is teenagers and people in their twenties after all. So there’s no better place than this one where I can eat in peace. I guess you could call it a shelter of mine.”

As they walked to this place, Sungjae was unable to lift his head even once. He pressed down his baseball cap until the tip reached his nose. Even then, people seemed to have recognized him and approached him so he had to get away quickly.

“It’s hard being popular, huh.”

“I should cherish it while I still have it, but when you actually live like this, you find it annoying that you can’t move around freely.”

“If you suit up and walk in front of a girl’s high school, you might cause chaos. Oh, what happened at the concert in a girl’s high you were talking about just now?”

“It was more chaotic than any other concert. The stress of third year exam students was unleashed at its fullest. I mean, we were taken aback by them.”

“Haha, I can imagine. But don’t you usually go to colleges for concerts like that? No wait, at your level, I don’t think school events are economic at all,” he asked while munching on some kkakdugi[2].

TTO wasn’t some new boy band. They were one of the top idol groups in the country, so he found it curious that they attended an event at a high school.

“It was the request of an acquaintance of the president.”

“Oh.”

“Apparently, the daughter of someone important attended that school. Our president doesn’t usually schedule small events like that, but the fact that she accepted it probably means that the request was from someone she couldn’t decline so easily.”

“Do such things happen often?”

“Does it happen often? More than often, really. We didn’t have it as bad once we started making a name for ourselves, but we were called to all sorts of places when we were still new. Doesn’t JA have stuff like that? Or is it different because they’re more towards the acting side?”

“They haven’t started managing me yet. I’m below their required level, so I just look for auditions and work myself.”

“You? But the actors back then really talked good about you. Including sir Yoon Moonjoong. I don’t think you’re below the required level.”

“Well, while I’m thankful that you say such words…”

Maru scooped a big spoonful of rice before continuing to speak,

“Being good at something and being popular are two separate things. I guess the president hasn’t found me profitable yet. I did hear him say that official management will start after graduation, but he’s the kind of person who’d approach me first even before graduation if he sees fit. Sooil should be like that as well.”

“Sooil?”

“Ah, you don’t know him? Yoo Sooil. He’s a high school student actor.”

“Well, I’m not sure I know him.”

“He seemed quite popular among girls my age.”

“People like that are poured out in batches in this industry. Who knows, we might be forgotten in just a few years if we don’t do any activities.”

“I don’t think TTO would be like that.”

“I thought the same when I looked at senior idol groups before we made our debut. But you know? It only takes a brief moment to be forgotten. People with skills keep showing up after all, so it’s only a matter of time. We might appear on the same TV, but the consumption rate of idols is too different from that of an actor. That’s why idols try out various things.”

“You said that you were originally an aspiring actor, didn’t you?”

Sungjae nodded.

“Like I said last time, I kinda started this thinking that being an idol must be easier, but nothing was easy in this world after all.”

“Right, nothing is easy.”

“But it’s not like I regret not pushing forward with my dream to become an actor. I just find it a little pitiful. I’m curious what I would look like if I continued to pursue acting back then.”

“You would’ve done well even if you pursued acting.”

“Your flattery is a bit too obvious now, you know?”

“I’m lobbying so that I can get something from you. But hey, the soup here is great.”

“If the atmosphere was the only thing I cared about, I wouldn’t come here so frequently. The food is good as well,” Sungjae said with a smile.

This was a time when Maru could talk one-to-one with someone that had reached the peak of their field. Maru found it pitiful that the rice was decreasing. After all, it wasn’t easy to get an opportunity to talk with someone who reached their area's summit. They were able to talk about what they weren’t able to in the lecture room. If it was up to him, he wished that he could bring a bottle of soju and listen to some more honest stories.

“Maru, how do you practice your acting?”

“Me?”

“Yes.”

“There’s nothing special, really. When I receive a script, I analyze the character, try projecting myself into the character, and after that, it’s just trial and error.”

“Hm, I guess it’s similar for all people?”

“Probably. If you want to become good at soccer, you have to be always near a soccer ball, and if you want to ride a bicycle well, you always have to be near a bicycle. It’s the same when it comes to things you do with your body. If you want to become good at acting, you’ll have to be next to your character at all times.”

“You’re right.”

“It’s not like anyone tells you that you’re bad, right? I haven’t seen instructor Miso saying things about you either during class.”

“Well, for me it’s like, hm, textbook acting? It doesn’t look awkward, but it lacks that final stroke. That’s how I see it.”

“Geez, are you boasting to me now?”

“Is that how it is?”

Sungjae smiled awkwardly.

“Have you gotten any works your way recently?”

Sungjae shook his head when he heard that question.

“There are a few offers, but I don’t plan to accept any for the time being.”

“Why?”

“Because I want to do an act when I am satisfied with my own acting. Also, I should learn while I still can. The president will only let us roam free until mid next year.”

“After that, you’ll be recording your albums again?”

“Probably. If I don’t encounter a big turn in my acting career, that is.”

After saying that, Sungjae stared at his cup of water. In Maru’s eyes, he looked hesitant. It looked like he had something to say, but he couldn’t say it.

“If you have anything you want to say to me, you should say it.”

“Was it obvious?”

“A little.”

After hesitating, Sungjae spoke,

“The event that changed my perspective of actors is my encounter with Sir Yoon Moonjoong. Thanks to him, I was able to concentrate during the movie shoot as well. I wanted to contact him myself after the shoot, but it wasn’t that easy. With that being the case, aren’t you close to him, Maru?”

There was a reason he was hesitating. Maru put down his spoon.

“If it’s just greeting him, there’s a way for you to do that, isn’t there?”

“Greeting, yes. But I want to talk to him. A great lesson… would be great to hear, but I don’t even expect that much. I just wanted to listen to the rest of the story he told me in the mountain back then.”

It was an honest request. That was rather unexpected. For now, Maru liked him for the fact that he wasn’t being roundabout with his requests. However, he couldn’t decide this here since this was about the elder.

Of course, he didn’t plan to outright refuse either.

This was a great opportunity to have a top idol indebted to him.

“I can’t exactly ask the elder to meet you. It would be rude of me to do that as well.”

“I thought so. Forget I said anything. Don’t feel pressured.”

“But participating as a friend over some soju and pork belly is another matter.”

“…What?”

Maru smiled and asked back at Sungjae, who was clearly confused.

“Hyung, how many bottles of soju can you drink?”

“About two.”

“Alright. I’ll ask him for now. If the elder remembers you, and if he sees you in a good light, then he’ll probably accept.”

“R-really?”

“Please wait a moment.”

Maru took out his phone.

It was time to hold that pork belly party in Yeonhui-dong.

[1] Spicy soft tofu soup. Wikipedia for details.

[2] Diced radish kimchi. Wikipedia for details.

Chapter 436

“Thanks. I was a bit embarrassed after asking, but I feel really good now that I actually got a schedule with him. Well then, see you at that time.”

Sungjae drove off while smiling.

“That went well.”

He called the elder at the restaurant, and was given the reply that he could visit whenever he wanted. He even was told that it would be fine to visit tomorrow. He was a little worried that he might be inconveniencing him, but he was told that he was actually rather welcome since elder Yoon was taking a break from work. Things led to one another and president Lee Junmin and Ganghwan got involved in this as well. When he told Sungjae about it, he seemed rather happy. It seemed that he was a fan of a lot of people.

Maru threw the hat in his hand in the air once before catching it again. He got an autograph on the hat Sungjae was wearing.

“I guess this should calm her down for a while.”

This was a magical item that would turn his coquettish little sister into an obedient one. He even had Sungjae write ‘Bada, do well in your studies’ on the inside of the hat. It would be great if she was touched after seeing it and actually end up going to a good high school.

He thought about going home before walking to the convenience store right across the street. He wanted some coffee. He saw the part timer flinch before standing up. He felt sorry for some reason.

He brought two cans of coffee to the counter. The POS device created beeping sounds.

“That will be 1000 won.”

He took out a bill and handed it over before grabbing the coffee, but just then, he felt the part timer staring at him. He was just going to ask what it was, when the portable media player entered his eyes. There was a video playing back, and it seemed to be a drama. When he focused, he saw Joohyun in it.

“You’re the one, right?” The part timer asked.

“Ah, yes.”

Maru smiled awkwardly before grabbing the coffee. The part timer told him that she’d put them in a bag for him before rummaging below the counter.

“I don’t need one.”

“Really?”

“Yes.”

He took the coffee and left the store. He turned around just in case, but he saw the part timer staring at him. When they met eyes, they both smiled awkwardly and nodded.

‘So there are people that recognize me.’

That was the scariness of the media. No, perhaps it was the power of a popular drama? It felt rather strange to have a total stranger recognize him first and talk to him.

He took a sip of coffee as he got on the elevator. He suddenly realized that he didn’t check the episode himself. He wondered whether he should do some monitoring, but decided not to in the end. It wasn’t like he had a fixed role there anyway.

He grabbed the door handle and twisted it. The lights in the living room had been turned off. His mother was working at the supermarket so she would come home late, and as for Bada… was she hanging out with her friends?

Just as he took a step into the living room after taking off his shoes, Bada’s door suddenly opened. She was fuming as she approached him.

“What is it?”

He was rather confused, so he asked first.

“It’s not fake, is it?”

“What’s not fake?”

“The autograph!”

He had no context to work with here. Bada went back to her room in frustration before coming back out again with a laminated autograph.

“I mean this.”

She said with a rather depressed voice this time. Her heart was on a roller coaster. Even though she just looked like she was going to snap at him, she was sighing right now.

“There are fake autographs?”

Maru took out the hat he brought and gave it to her. He was originally going to have her write a contract saying that she would be obedient for the next three months, but he subconsciously handed it to her when he saw her so depressed.

“What’s this?”

“Try flipping it around.”

Bada’s expression brightened instantly. She grabbed the hat with both of her hands and hopped into her room. Was it that good? He then remembered the news about a middle school girl fainting and being carried away by the ambulance during an idol concert. She wasn’t going to faint, right?

He went to his room and changed his clothes. His sister’s room was slightly open, but it was strangely quiet. He sat down on the sofa with a yawn when Bada came out dejected again.

“Hey.”

“What?”

“Where’d you get this?”

“What do you mean where? The name’s right there.”

“Don’t lie to me. When you think about it, it doesn’t make sense. Let’s leave aside the tickets from last time. But this hat just doesn’t make sense! I mean, this is indeed the hat that Sungjae-oppa wears after concerts end. It is, but that’s even more strange.”

You are more strange for knowing when he wears such hats - he held back his words since Bada looked depressed.

“Something happened?”

As she was a rather hyperactive girl, she often came home after a fight. Even boys wouldn’t fight as often as her. When she was young, she had to make the other party bleed before coming home satisfied, but she became more girly ever since entering middle school.

However, it wasn’t like her personality would go anywhere. Once she started a fight, she would not back down at all. Even if she did something wrong, her expression would be daring. Yet such a girl was talking with a worried expression, not to mention her depressed demeanor.

“The girls… are teasing me saying that it’s fake.”

After pouting, Bada calmed down. Her lips trembled before she sniffed.

Maru gulped. If he was allowed to choose the most nervous moment of the year, he would choose this moment. His sister was about to cry!

“Hey, hey, hey. What is going on?”

He thought that he might react more calmly if he was told that the world was going to end tomorrow. Maru was uneasy as he watched Bada crying. If she was angry instead, he would’ve tried to persuade her with words, but this time, she started crying so he was at a loss for words.

Was this the sensibility of girls? Perhaps emotions welled up inside her without her being able to express them? He first gave her some tissue.

“Were you sad because someone said it was fake?”

“No, but she really… I was… ugh…”

It seemed that something happened at school. She usually didn’t act like this when she fought boys, so it seemed that some trouble had occurred with other girls.

Bada wiped her tears with the tissue. From how she wasn’t sniffing anymore, she seemed to have calmed down. All sorts of things arose in Maru’s mind as he looked at his sister’s sealed lips. Was she being bullied? Were there delinquent girls bullying her?

Although he quarrelled with her a lot, she was still his sister.

“If you can’t tell mom about it, then try telling me first.”

He was truly worried for her when he said those words.

When he did, Bada raised her head up before looking at him in a strange way.

“What the heck do you mean? It’s nothing like that.”

Bada sniffed in her snot before speaking. Her expression clearly spoke ‘who are you to worry?’. Maru clenched his fists slightly. If he didn’t have a sister, but a brother instead, he would’ve smacked him first.

“Then why are you crying? You surprised the heck out of me.”

“Because I’m frustrated!”

“I didn’t make you feel frustrated though.”

“You did!”

He was really annoyed now. He regretted worrying about her at all. Ah, that’s right. The fact that he cut off all communication with her was probably to protect his own feeble heart. Maru sighed.

“Well then, sum it up for me. What do you want me to do?”

“Prove to me that this is real.”

“…Give it back to me. All of them. Right now.”

“They’re fake after all, aren’t they? You just signed on whatever item you saw fit and brought them to me, didn’t you? This hat too.”

Bada waved the hat he brought in front of his eyes. He was reminded of Sungjae’s smile as he gave him that hat. He felt sorry, again and again.

“What are you going to do if it’s fake?”

“I’m going to kill you, for real.”

He crossed out the option to say that it was fake. She was someone that really went through with her plans if she said so. He could still remember her throwing a remote control at him because he ate some snacks in front of her. It was fortunate that the item nearby was a remote control. If it was a fruit knife or something, he would probably be smelling incense behind a portrait right now.

“Wait a minute.”

So this was how he was going to use up the favor he just got? Maru called Sungjae. His business was simple. Sungjae just had to let his sister hear his voice. Of course, this was only possible with Sungjae’s permission. Also, the other precondition was that his sister’s lips had to be sealed tight. If it was found out that a singer, who was supposed to be managing his image, had a phone call with a fan, he didn’t even want to imagine the consequences.

-Sure.

“Is it fine to accept it so easily?”

-It doesn’t matter. We’re on a break anyway. It’s just that, you gotta remember that your sister can’t talk about it to someone else. It’s not about me. Your sister might get into huge trouble.

Perhaps one might ask ‘what’s so bad about having a phone call with a singer?’. Maru would’ve thought Sungjae was overreacting if he didn’t see the news a few days ago.

A girl was beaten up because she hugged a popular idol and was taken by ambulance to the ER. Back then, he realized that obsession went beyond common sense.

Maru took his phone off his ear and looked at his sister.

“Promise me one thing.”

“What?”

“Don’t boast about it to your friends. Can you do that?”

Bada made a confused expression, but she still nodded.

“If someone asks you about the items, tell them that I got them because I know an insider, okay? Well, here you go.”

“Who is it?”

“Try talking.”

Maru handed over the phone before going back to his room. A while later, he could hear hopping noises on top of cheerful screams.

* * *

Anyang 1st street. Maru was really glad to see the practice room building after such a long time. But just as he was about to enter the building,

“Maru.”

He turned his head around when he heard someone calling out to him. Sooil was waving his hand at him as he was walking.

“What’s that?”

“Oh this? Some snacks.”

Sooil shook the plastic bags in each of his hands with a joyful smile.

“It’s mysterious how you don’t gain weight when you eat like that.”

“It’s fine because I move just as much. Rather than that, which floor is it?”

Maru pushed on the glass door as he spoke.

“It’s on the first basement floor, room 205.”

The moist air unique to old buildings was circulating throughout the staircase, but it would change once he arrived at the practice room. When he went half way down the stairs, he heard some sounds already. A band accompaniment, and the singing of the singer, as well as the shouts that could be heard throughout. Although the practice rooms had been soundproofed, the rooms were so closely attached that sound could still be heard anyway.

“That’s a nice atmosphere.”

Sooil waved around the plastic bags before following him. Maru slightly pulled on the door that said 205.

“You’re here!”

Inside was Ganghwan, who was doing a handstand.

Chapter 437

“What are you doing?”

“What do you mean? I’m obviously doing a handstand.”

Ganghwan’s face was red as though he was drunk.

“Your face looks like it’s about to burst at any moment.”

“This is good for blood flow, you know?”

Maru smiled as he entered. The practice room looked the same as the last time he came here. The faint smell of sweat, the texture of the wooden floor, as well as the slogan that pricked his conscience.

“The weather’s pretty cool now, isn’t it?”

“It’s nearly the end of September after all.”

He sat down next to Ganghwan as he spoke. Meanwhile, Sooil had laid out the snacks he brought. He had brought quite a diverse variety.

“He’s eating whenever I see him, but he doesn’t gain any weight for some reason.”

“My words exactly. But how long are you going to stay like that?”

“I’m done!”

Ganghwan lightly kicked off the wall and lied down just like that.

“I’m dizzy.”

“I’m not surprised. Also, there’s no one here.”

“What do you mean? We’re all here.”

Maru looked around the practice room. Unless there were invisible men in this room, only the three of them were in the practice room right now.

“There’s only four, including one other person.”

“That’s not a lot. Where’s the last person right now?”

“She’ll be here soon. Rather than that, can you bring me some water, Maru? I’m too dizzy to stand up.”

Ganghwan smiled and pointed at the mini fridge in the corner. Maru walked on his knees and opened the fridge. The waist-height fridge was filled with soju, beer, water, and some side dishes. Even a single man would have a better fridge than this.

“There’s practically a whole bar in here.”

He gave Ganghwan a water bottle. Ganghwan, still lying down, poked out his head and drank water like a turtle. He soon started coughing violently.

“It got caught in my throat.”

“Of course it’ll get caught in your throat if you drink it like that. You should really sit up if you can.”

“I’m tired so I’m gonna stay like this for a while. Sooil!”

Sooil blinked his eyes and looked at him.

“Massage!”

“Yes.”

His hand movements looked like he was very proficient with doing something like this. It didn’t look like this was the first or second time he had done this.

“This is why I like Sooil. Maru, that kid is so uncute.”

“Sooil. Don’t forget to get paid after doing that. Otherwise, it’s extortion of labor.”

While Ganghwan received a massage, Maru picked up some snacks to eat. He could feel Sooil’s glare whenever he touched the snacks, but he decided to ignore him since he was hungry.

“You two haven’t had dinner yet?”

“I came here right after school, so, no.”

Sooil also chimed in with a ‘me too’.

“Then I guess I should tell Hanna to buy something then.”

“The last one is Hanna-noona?”

“Yeah.”

“I saw her when I went to see a play with a friend last time. Oh, how is she doing with Soochan-hyung? I did hear that Soochan-hyung proposed to her and gave her a ring.”

Park Hanna. She was a senior that taught him a lot about acting. She was also the person that created the opportunity to meet her when he didn’t know her yet.

“Don’t even start. You wouldn’t be able to imagine the lengths she would go in order to sleep with Soochan once. Soochan’s so pitiful now.”

It seemed that her habit of throwing around lewd jokes hadn’t changed at all. While Ganghwan was on a phone call with Hanna, Maru jogged around inside the practice room. They shouldn’t start practicing for the play today, but he had a habit of warming himself up whenever he came here. He rotated his ankles and wrists and was just about to exercise his vocal cords with a vocal exercise when Sooil approached him.

“Do you wanna see who can voice a low tone longer? Loser buys drinks,” Sooil said as he placed one hand on his stomach.

“I don’t do bets with scammers.”

“Why am I a scammer?”

“Do I have to bring up what happened at the billiard table?”

Sooil avoided his gaze and smiled.

“Then let’s just try. I’m confident in controlling my breath.”

“If you wish.”

“You can start first. I’ll start right after.”

Sooil sounded confident. Maru got into position while looking at the mirror in front of him. As dramas were real-time shoots, he had to focus on his pronunciation rather than voicing. That was because the microphone would pick it up as long as he was louder than a certain volume. However, the same couldn’t be said for a play. In a play, the actors had to move the hearts of the audience with just one output device - their vocal cords.

This was why play actors always did vocal exercises. They had to produce a deeper sound by using their entire bodies as a vocal chamber, just like how a singer would do it.

Voicing out a low tone was one such exercise. It was done by voicing out a lower-than-usual tone for a long time.

He breathed in with his stomach and started producing a sound. Following that, Sooil joined him.

Just as they were focusing on their breath,

“Your voices are echoing in your mouths, kiddos! Are you doing a mumbling competition?”

Ganghwan, who was rolling around behind them, suddenly shouted. His loud voice reverberated in the practice room.

He hadn’t heard it for a while, but Ganghwan’s voice was quite incredible. It sounded as though there was a huge bell in the middle of the practice room. The other minor sounds were trivial and were eaten up by the sound of that bell. Only after Ganghwan’s voice dissipated could Maru and Sooil hear their own voices.

“Focus. Voicing is the alpha and omega of play acting.”

Maru focused on the vibration of the sound inside his stomach as he voiced out. Sooil, who sounded confident, seemed to be as proficient as his confidence made him out to be. Unlike his usual crisp voice, it sounded very heavy right now. It was a voice that was worth boasting about.

“If your acting voice can’t travel further than your normal voice, it’ll sound like a mosquito to the audience. Relax your neck and lower your vocal cords! The sound should be focused in front of your body and spread out from there! Don’t swallow it and spit it out. It’ll be easier for both you and the listeners if you spit it out. Don’t squeeze it out.”

Ganghwan made scary eyes before putting his hands on Maru’s stomach.

“Looks like you haven’t done your vocal exercises at all. You took a break because you were shooting dramas, didn’t you? You were too loose because the microphone did the work for you, huh?”

Maru frowned and tensed his stomach. He thought his voicing wasn’t bad, but it seemed that Ganghwan found it unsatisfactory.

“What good is tensing your stomach like that? What’s the part that supports your diaphragm when it expands and you make a deep sound? It’s your back muscles. This part is all loose so it’s not going to make a good sound at all. You too, Sooil. Relax your shoulders and neck. Why are you tensing unnecessary muscles? That’s what’s killing the sound. There’s a clear difference between suppressing your voice and speaking with power, and your voice being suppressed due to lack of strength.”

Ganghwan pressed the tip above the back of Maru’s waist, at the end of where his latissimus dorsi muscle was. Maru pictured a balloon in his head and focused on the sound.

“That’s it. That’s much better. Why didn’t you do that until now? Both of you, cut your breaths!”

Maru cut his breath short. He felt a little dizzy. Sooil was also swallowing his breath with difficulty.

“Breathe in and say ga ge gi go gu like you’re spitting it out.”

Maru shot words like a bullet towards the mirror in front of him. He used one breath for one word. The first time was easy, but the more he did so, the more that he felt his words were coming from the back of his head. At such times, he had to start over. It was simple, but hard to continue doing the same thing.

“What, you started already?”

Hanna’s figure could be seen through the mirror. Although he had to greet her, he couldn’t stop now. Ganghwan’s instruction was one thing, but he couldn’t stop first when he looked at Sooil, who hadn’t stopped either. Although they started lightly, they turned it into a fight of pride that he didn’t want to lose.

“It’s been a long time since I last saw Maru, and I guess you must be Yoo Sooil, right?”

Hanna approached Sooil from the back, who was still voicing out a low tone. After staring at his neck, which was tense, Hanna suddenly grabbed Sooil’s waist with both of her hands.

Sooil collapsed on the floor with an ‘uhuh’ sound. Literally ‘uhuh’.

“Your waist is weak. You look like you’re worth my time tickling.”

Maru looked at Sooil while finishing his breath.

“That’s my win, right?”

“Let’s do it again. I can’t acknowledge that.”

His competitive spirit seemed to have been fired up again as he got into position again, but Maru didn’t face him. If he did that one more time, he might fall due to anemia.

“It’s been a long time, noona.”

He greeted her as he sat down. Hanna smiled as she waved her hand.

“I heard you guys haven’t eaten yet, so here are some lunchboxes.”

“Hanna, what about me?” Ganghwan asked as he raised his hand.

“I have yours as well, so don’t look at me like a little child would. In a couple of years, you’ll be in the latter half of your thirties.”

“My heart will always be a Peter Pan.”

“Bullshit.”

Hanna smiled as she handed the food out.

* * *

“But is it a play that people like us can butt into?” Maru asked as he put down the empty lunch box.

The four of them would suffice if it was a small-scale play, but the problem was that two out of the four were high school students.

Stages didn’t come for free. Unless it was a theater owned by the theater troupe, rental fees would occur. Taking into account the money required to practice, a play had to produce a profit. Of course, they could attract an audience with just the name ‘Yang Ganghwan’, but that didn’t explain why they decided to bring 2 high school students in.

There was a clear difference in the target audience between movies and plays. Almost no one would specifically find and watch a play because of one unknown high school student actor and a slightly-known high school student actor.

“Of course, it won’t work for a normal play.”

“Then?”

“We’re going to turn it into a play where the audience participates. The target audience is middle to high school students like you.”

“A play where the audience participates?”

Ganghwan nodded once.

“Maru, remember what you did with me last winter?”

Last winter? Oh, was he referring to that?

“The amateur acting class?”

“Yes, that. It’s in collaboration with that and we’re holding a free play as a project to tell more of the public about plays. But the funds really aren’t looking good.”

Maru understood the gist of it when he heard that the funding wasn’t good.

“That doesn’t mean that we can just use anyone, so we switched strategies like that. That allows us to decrease the number of actors and increase the participation of the audience, making them interested, if possible. These days, young kids use mini homepages or something like that, don’t they? Rather than targeting adults, we thought that targeting kids who are proficient with the internet might help promote us in the long term.”

“That sounds nice. There’s less pressure for the audience since the actors are not that much older than them, if at all. So we’re being used to catch their attention?”

“That’s one of your roles. First, we’ll complete the play, and try acting it out a couple of times in Marronnier Park. Once we have decided on a set format, we’ll move over to the stage as well.”

“Oh, sounds fun.”

Sooil smiled as he spoke.

“What about the script?” Maru asked Ganghwan again.

“Tomorrow. Today, I just gathered you here to get to know each other. Maru may know Hanna, but Sooil doesn’t. We’ll have to get closer to each other if we’re going to stand on stage. Speaking of that…”

Ganghwan crawled to the fridge before taking out four cans of beer.

“Let’s have a drink.”

Chapter 438

“Why’s he on the floor?”

“Because you made him drink, obviously.”

“But he only drank a bit of beer and soju.”

“Maybe he’s weak to alcohol.”

Ganghwan looked at Sooil, who was on the floor, with an apologetic expression. Maru tried poking Sooil’s waist. He twitched but didn’t wake up. Even after shaking him a couple of times, he did not respond. It hadn’t even been an hour since they popped open the first can of beer, yet one of them was wasted already.

“I thought he was good at it since he kept drinking.”

“Me too. I think he drank a bit less than one bottle.”

“He did keep drinking whenever we toasted. Looks like this is his first time drinking. He’s completely out of it.”

“Hey, hey, Yoo Sooil.”

Maru shook him a bit more violently this time. Sooil opened his eyes just barely and sat up. Maybe he came to himself?

“Look at him.”

Hanna burst out laughing. Sooil’s body was swaying from side to side like he was a pendulum. The rhythm was so perfect that it reminded Maru of a metronome.

“I think I need to take this guy home. Are we meeting up here at the same time tomorrow?”

Maru grabbed Sooil’s arm and stood up.

“Now that I think about it, Maru, this kid, is really strong, huh. Don’t you think so, oppa?”

“He really is quite strong. He always carries the heavy stuff when we’re moving props. Maru, you should really come over when I move houses to help out.”

After saying his goodbyes to Ganghwan and Hanna, who were talking about random crap, he left the practice room. The chilly night air of autumn greeted him.

“Hey, get yourself together.”

Lost consciousness after half a bottle of soju? It seemed that his ability to not gain weight after eating so much was compensated by the lack of the ability to break down alcohol. Sooil didn’t wake up no matter how hard he shook him.

“I really don’t like carrying men around on my back, so wake up quickly.”

He entered the convenience store he saw in front of him and bought some drinks that eased hangover. He had Sooil drink them, as he was half-asleep before waiting around 10 minutes.

“Phew, what was I doing until now?”

“You up?”

“I dunno whether I’m up or not to be honest.”

“If you don’t then you aren’t. Hey, where’s your house?”

“Uh… near Yeouido park.”

“Can you get there by yourself?”

“That I can.”

Sooil stood up and took a few steps before collapsing on the ground again. If Maru sent him home like this, he would probably end up sleeping on the streets somewhere. Moreover, some girls were approaching the two while seemingly aware of who Sooil was.

“Remember this. I wiped your ass.”

He couldn’t let someone with a bright future get caught up in controversy at such an early age. Maru carried Sooil and walked to the road. He grabbed an empty taxi and got on with him.

“Please take us to Yeouido Station.”

He stared at the taxi fare that was rising as the horse icon excitedly galloped before looking next to him. He saw Sooil sleeping as he bashed his head against the window.

Just as he was looking outside as he listened to the radio, he heard a dangerous sound next to him. Sooil suddenly bent forward with a ‘urgh’ sound.

“Hey hey! That’s definitely not good! Not here!”

The driver seemed to have heard the sound as well as he quickly handed Maru a black plastic bag. Maru received it and gave it to Sooil. After making a couple of vomiting sounds, Sooil swallowed something before becoming calm again. As for what he swallowed, Maru decided not to think about it.

“Sorry about that.”

“No, no. It’s understandable for young fellows to do that.”

Whether the taxi driver was a kind person in general or was acting that way because it was a long taxi ride, he smiled as he spoke.

“Here.”

Maru received the change and dragged Sooil out of the taxi. Sooil who waved his arms around before half-lying on the ground started causing a fuss about the weather being hot. He was weak to alcohol, and his actions when drunk weren’t that good either. Maru put him at the top of his list of ‘people he shouldn’t drink with’.

“Where’s your house?”

“Over, there.”

An apartment complex could be seen where Sooil was pointing towards.

“Looks like you’re pretty well-off huh.”

The apartment complex was near Yeouido Station and the park. Maru couldn’t even begin to imagine the real estate prices here. He supported Sooil, who was staggering, and walked.

“But are you sure you can show your parents what you’re like right now? I don’t care about you getting scolded, but they might swear at me as well.”

“It’s fine, it’s fine. No one’s home.”

“Do they both work?”

“……”

Sooil didn’t reply. Looking at how his eyes lacked focus, he didn’t seem to be in the right mind to answer. They crossed the street together and entered the apartment complex. Only after Maru had Sooil repeat the building number and the apartment number several times could he find the right place, since Sooil was mumbling so much.

“Hey, type your passcode.”

He put Sooil down in front of the door before sighing. This guy was pretty tall so he was quite heavy. After a few beeps, the door opened. He dragged Sooil, who was about to become one with the floor and entered the apartment.

There were no shoes at all on the shoe racks. After glancing at the desolate shoe racks once, Maru dragged Sooil to the living room. He put Sooil down and straightened his waist.

“What a desolate scene.”

There was a large TV, a beige-colored sofa, and a black metal display that had various plaques on it. The veranda could be seen since the blinds were open, and some vases could be seen there. There weren’t any flowers or plants though. They were all just empty vases. There was no other furniture in the household. Not even a box of tissues which was typically seen in the living room. Even a household that just moved in would have more items than this.

“Get me some water.”

Sooil spoke in a dying tone. Maru walked to the kitchen, which was connected to the living room, and stood in front of the refrigerator. Even the refrigerator looked like an expensive, door-on-each-side one. He remembered seeing these in commercials. He opened it to see what was inside.

“Wow, your mother must be quite organized.”

The refrigerator was filled from top to bottom. He took out a container at the top. There was a memo that noted the day of the week as well as the food inside. The other containers were the same. He went down the stack thinking that Sooil’s mother was really organized, but the more he saw, the stranger he felt.

‘It’s all just for one.’

Even the side dishes were organized into small containers for just one person. This would make it incredibly easy to eat since all Sooil had to do was take out those containers every day, but…

As Maru didn’t have a habit of poking through others’ refrigerators, he did not look anymore and just took out a bottle of water. He grabbed a cup that was above the kitchen sink.

‘Why is there only one of each?’

One spoon, one pair of chopsticks, one set of plates, and one cup. This didn’t look like a family of three at all. After looking around the extremely clean kitchen, he poured the water in the cup before bringing it over to Sooil.

“Do you perhaps, by chance, live alone?”

After drinking half of the water, Sooil made a loose grin before nodding. He lived alone in this wide apartment that looked to be around 40-pyeong[1]. He looked around the desolate living room when he heard the electronic beeping sound from the door lock. The door opened and a lady holding plastic bags entered the apartment.

“Oh, didn’t know there was a guest here.”

“Hello.”

“Hello.”

The lady who walked with quiet steps and a kind smile put down the bags on the table before starting to walk around busily. She gathered what looked like clothes for laundry into a basket and went inside each room before coming back to the kitchen.

“Please don’t mind me,” the lady spoke with a smile.

For now, he understood that she wasn’t Sooil’s mother. From the way she acted, she looked like a housekeeper. She naturally prepared food and threw some out from the refrigerator as though she had done this for a long time. The lady, who moved busily, finished cleaning the kitchen and left the house with the basket of laundry clothes. When she left, she was walking backwards and closed the door very quietly. She was acting like a maid at a royal palace that was leaving the royal chambers.

Maru looked at Sooil. He had woken up a while ago. He was watching TV on the sofa, but the TV was on mute. The program on TV was a comedy program where the actors never failed to laugh. Even though the people inside the screen were laughing, their laughs did not escape the screen at all.

“You okay?”

“Yeah.”

Sooil was a bit more chatty than boys of his age, though, not as much as Jiseok, yet he only gave a short answer. He was showing that he wasn’t in a state where he wanted to talk; whether through his expression or his posture.

“I’m going then. Drink plenty of water, and don’t turn the temperature on too high when you take a shower. I don’t want to see an article talking about the early death of an actor.”

“Okay, I’ll do that.”

Sooil faintly smiled and waved his hand.

Maru put on his shoes before leaving. Through the gaps of the door as it closed, the desolate scene of the living room entered his eyes once again.

‘I guess not everything is how it seems, huh.’

The house was a space that showed one side of a person without filtering. That house, which went beyond minimalistic and looked even desolate, was a stark contrast to Sooil’s cheerful attitude. Not to mention hiring a housekeeper for one, an apartment in Yeouido itself was too much for a high school actor, who had made a not-so-bad name for himself, to afford by himself.

The reason he didn’t ask anything about such a strange combination of elements was, one, because they weren’t that close enough to talk about such things, and two, because Sooil’s expression clearly told Maru to not ask anything.

As he went down, he got a text from Sooil. It was a text filled with emojis. There was a faint suggestion that he would be smiling like usual if they met tomorrow. There was also the request that told Maru to just treat him normally - not in words, but subtly in context.

Maru glanced at the apartment before turning around.

“Well, he’s well-off, so I guess that’s that.”

It was better than seeing him dirt-poor with ‘seize’ stickers plastered all over the furniture, so perhaps this could be considered fortunate? Maru texted Sooil back with the words’ 50 thousand won’. That was the taxi fare. There was no reason to care about someone well off, so he had to get what he had to. He did think about putting 70 thousand won instead to include labor fees, but he decided to be generous. He decided to put it on Sooil’s tab for when he became successful later.

“Ah, my wallet.”

When he sent the text message about the taxi fee, he realized that he left his wallet on the sofa. He returned to the apartment and pressed the button to call the elevator.

“Wait.”

Just as the elevator was about to close, a woman stopped him from the entrance. Maru pressed the open button. The woman slowly walked before getting on the elevator. Maru could smell the faint scent of cigarettes.

He pressed on the 7th floor. The woman glanced at him. It seemed that she was going to the same floor. The door opened, and Maru got off first before standing in front of Sooil’s apartment. Just before his thumb was about to press the bell button, the woman interfered before sliding up the door lock lid and typing in the passcode.

“Are you a friend of Sooil’s?” The woman asked.

“Yes, perhaps.”

“What a strange answer.”

The woman opened the door before telling him to go in first. Was she Sooil’s sister? He thought that Sooil was a single child, but it seemed that he was wrong. Sooil wasn’t in the living room. It seemed that he was taking a shower. He grabbed his wallet from the sofa before leaving again.

“Hey.”

The woman, who was standing in front of the door, called out to him. The woman opened her clutch bag before taking out a cheque. It was a 100 thousand won cheque.

“Please get along with Sooil in the future. Here, take it. It’s pocket money.”

Maru stared at the cheque before lowered his head.

“He’s the type of guy who can have fun by himself so I don’t think there’s any need for me to do that.”

“Well, I guess that’s true. But hey, aren’t you going to take this?”

“No, I’m okay.”

“Why? Is it not enough for you?”

She took out another cheque as she said so.

“No.”

“Then why aren’t you taking it? I told you it’s pocket money.”

“Someone I know told me that it’s not right to take money without reason. Then I’ll take my leave now.”

He got in the elevator he came up on. The woman snorted while throwing the cheques on the ground. Maru lowered his head to greet her one last time before pressing the close button. The moment the two cheques landed on the floor, the door closed as well.

[1] 130 square meters or 1400 square feet

Chapter 439

This was what ‘interest’ was, in the end. Maru yawned as he looked at the others in his class. Even though they bothered him every break time until a few days ago by talking about Ahn Joohyun, now they were talking about soccer just like always. Today’s topic was Park Jisung, who played for PSV which was based in Eindhoven.

“Take one each.”

Daemyung seemed to have visited the cafeteria as there was a bunch of snacks in his hand.

“How’s practice going?”

Not too long ago, the acting club decided on the play they were going to do. They chose a play from a list given by Suyeon this time as well.

“For now, there aren’t any problems. The instructor is coming on time as well, but she says she might have a hard time coming in the future because of her drama schedule.”

“You can’t do anything about that.”

An actress who actually worked in the industry was coming to teach them. They had to be willing to take the consequences.

“Why don’t you visit today?”

“I was planning to. The meeting in Anyang is a bit late.”

“You’re starting practice there as well?”

“Yeah. I just received the script yesterday.”

When he thought about yesterday, he was naturally reminded of Sooil’s smile. Sooil greeted him with a kind smile just like he always did, so Maru did not say anything and went along like normal.

“You’re doing it with sir Yang Ganghwan, aren’t you?”

“Yeah, but you can just call him senior. It’s really weird to call him sir. He’s not even 40 yet.”

“I-is that so? Anyway, sounds fun. When will it be put on show?”

“We’re aiming for one month.”

“That’s tight.”

“People working in that field apparently finish their practice in a month or two with tight practice hours if it’s a short play, apparently.”

“Pros, huh.”

“Right, pros.”

Maru looked outside as he dusted his hands of the snack dust. The sky looked really blue without a speck of cloud in sight. Today, he was in very good condition.

“It’s been a while since I last went to the club.”

“You really should visit often.”

“Fine.”

Just then, the front door opened. That was the end of their conversation. Maru turned his head to the textbook in front of him.

* * *

Aram liked Judo. To be specific, she liked martial arts. When she talked about K-1 or Pride FC[1], she would often hear people ask why girls like her watched things like those, and she always retorted by saying that a girl’s job wasn’t to sit quietly and do stitching or something. Sweat and passion. Things that are done with the body were honest and you gained just as much as you invested. Winning was only secondary, and what mattered was the sense of achievement.

“But acting doesn’t go the way I expect it to.”

“What do you mean?”

Jiyoon, who was hugging her knees next to her, asked.

“Acting, you know? In my head, I can draw a clear picture, right? I can imagine it clearly just like the excitement I get when I do a clean shoulder throw.”

“Uh, okay.”

Jiyoon clearly looked like she didn’t understand, but Aram didn’t mind. She was really talking to herself after all.

“You know I do a lot of sports, right?”

“Yeah. Judo, basketball, table tennis, volleyball and lots of others. You really do a lot.”

Jiyoon started counting with her fingers.

“When I do sports like those, I can always follow the image I have in my head to a certain extent. At first, it’s hard, because you don’t get as much as you invest, but if you keep doing it, you can feel the change. You can gradually feel that you’re getting better, right?”

“Yeah, and?”

“That’s not the case with acting. I mean, honestly speaking, I’m quite bad, am I not?”

Jiyoon shook her hand in denial.

“No, you’re really good. I mean it.”

“There you go again. When will you fix your habit of incessant flattery? The world is not such an easy place!”

Aram grabbed Jiyoon’s shoulders and shook them violently from front to back. Jiyoon groaned and closed her eyes. Aram had even more fun shaking her because she found her cute.

“Aram, stop,” Daemyung spoke worriedly.

Aram raised her eyebrows and looked at Daemyung.

“Seonbae, I’d be disappointed if you’re taking her side because you’re her boyfriend.”

“N-no. It’s not like that.”

“What’s not like that? You know? These days, I think you’re looking after her too much. This won’t do. Since Jiyoon is my friend, I forbid you from meeting her from now on!” She spoke as she hugged Jiyoon’s neck tightly.

“Stop teasing them.”

Aram felt a sharp pain on her head before raising it. She saw Maru come in while yawning. His fist must have been what hit her head.

“Oh? Maru-seonbae, what brings you here? Didn’t you only come here on Saturdays?”

“I got some time today. Where’s Bangjoo?”

“He’s on cleaning duty. He’ll come up after that.”

Aram let go of Jiyoon. Jiyoon sighed in exhaustion.

“Dowook went home since something came up, so I guess we’ll be able to start once Bangjoo’s here.”

“You’re practicing as well?”

“I thought you wanted me to. I should do my worth if I don’t want to get scolded by my juniors.”

Maru looked at the wall and started doing some stretches.

“Sorry for being late!”

Just then, Bangjoo opened the door and entered. He was also surprised by the presence of Maru.

“Am I a mythical creature to you?”

“You are,” Aram grinned as she spoke.

All the members would have gathered if Dowook was here, so that was a bit of a pity. She took out the script from her bag and put it on the floor.

“But Maru-seonbae. Have you practiced? We’re almost done going over our lines.”

“I read through it whenever I had spare time, so I won’t screw up my lines. Though, they might sound awkward,” Maru said as he also took out his script.

“Uhm, seonbae, can you give me that for a sec?”

Aram opened her palms towards Maru. She got his script and opened it. Jiyoon, who was watching her by the side, exclaimed in a small voice.

‘This is ‘spare time’ quality?’

She asked him to give it to her because she found the tattered cover a bit strange, but as she had expected, there were a lot of notes inside. Since he said that it was hard for him to focus on club activities, he was in charge of a minor role and a passerby, yet he was able to do so much research with roles like those. He also created some traits and habits so that the roles wouldn’t clash. He even had ideas for clothing on the side.

Aram glanced at her own script. It was a bit worn out since she read through it so many times, but it wasn’t tattered like Maru’s was. She tried looking at Jiyoon’s, but Jiyoon hid it away from her sight already. As for Bangjoo’s script…

“What?”

Bangjoo was holding a clean copy. Yes, that was the norm. But, why did it look like a completely new copy? Did he not read through it at all?

“You should really read the script. Why is it so clean?”

“Oh this? I made another copy because I didn’t want it to get dirty. This is for notes, and this one’s for practice.”

Bangjoo took out another script, which had its cover missing. He had as many notes as Maru did.

“You are… forget it. Traitors should go away.”

After spending time with Maru, even this kid had become quite hard-working. No wait, was he always hard-working? Aram smiled bitterly and gave back the script to Maru.

“The script doesn’t signify the amount of practice!”

“Did anyone say something? Daemyung, we’re going to start right after warm-ups, right? I’m going to have to go in two hours, so I hope we can start as soon as possible.”

Daemyung nodded his head as he stood up.

“Let’s do a vocal exercise and then read through the script, and then practice with movement. We can start the club after lunch tomorrow, so let’s keep things simple for today before finishing things up, sounds good?”

“Yes!”

“But instead, anyone that makes a mistake will have a separate time to practice tomorrow before practice, so don’t make any mistakes. But Maru, can we really start right away?”

Maru nodded without a word.

“The extra practice also applies to Maru-seonbae, right?” Aram asked in excitement.

Daemyung looked at Maru with a sorry expression.

“It doesn’t matter.”

Maru replied blandly.

* * *

“Hm.”

Daemyung coughed before looking at the club members. Maru didn’t participate in practice since the start of the semester. This was true even after he received a script. All he did was visit the clubroom and watch them practice for a few minutes before going to Seoul.

“Haah.”

He saw Aram sighing in front of him.

“How can you be so natural even though you haven’t practiced with us even once? Someone might think that you’ve been with us the whole time.”

The reason Aram was depressed was simple. It was because she made the most mistakes. Even with parts where she would usually have no problem with, she made a mistake today.

“This was a great chance to one-up him.”

The reason she screwed up her words and moves was probably because of her competitive spirit. The problem was that her opponent was Maru.

“Daemyung-seonbae.”

“Uh, yeah?”

“Can we practice just one more time?”

“We’re lacking members since Maru just left.”

“We can just take turns doing the roles that aren’t here. How about you, Jiyoon? Bangjoo, you can just say yes.”

Jiyoon and Bangjoo smiled and said that they were good with it.

Daemyung was planning to end things early, but he looked at the clock once before taking out the script again.

“Let’s just do it one more time. We can look back at the parts we screwed up last time, before doing a run from start to finish. Does that sound okay to you?”

“Yes.”

The practice room was filled with vitality. Daemyung thought that Maru’s participation was not so bad from time to time. It was a good stimulus for the rest of the members.

He should’ve been busy preparing for other things, yet Maru prepared a near-perfect role. If he knew things were going to be like this, he should have just had him be one of the main characters instead.

“Seonbae! Let’s start.”

“Alright.”

Daemyung smiled as he stood up.

* * *

-I’m practicing with the others. Looks like they felt something when they saw you.

Maru closed his phone after checking the text. As he had to travel to Seoul and Anyang, he couldn’t practice with them every day, but that didn’t mean that he had treated the club activities lightly. He didn’t want to drag everyone down when he was a senior, so he started practicing by himself on the day he received the script. His time on the bus and train was a splendid time to practice for him.

Since he was the one that persuaded the others to enter the acting club in the first place, he couldn’t take things lightly. In order to act like a splendid ‘kkondae’, he had to be responsible for his words.

‘Well, they were doing well without me.’

Although there were some trivial mistakes, the play itself was pretty well done. The three first years were following well. They were showing off their traits within the frame set by Daemyung, and just watching them made Maru satisfied.

The experience at the movie shoot seemed to be of help as Bangjoo’s acting also became more stable. Having him be the main character was a splendid choice.

“Yes, senior. I think I’m going to be around 10 minutes late. Sorry. I was practicing with the others at the club, so I lost track of the flow of time. Yes, yes. I’ll buy some drinks before I go.”

Maru hung up the phone call with Ganghwan and stretched his arms out. If he had some leisure with practice at the club, the practice in Anyang was probably going to drain the life out of him.

“I wonder if my stamina is going to hold out.”

Miso’s lectures and Ganghwan’s practice.

His week was quite dynamic, to say the least.

* * *

“Is he coming?”

“Yeah. I told him to buy drinks since he’s late.”

“Why are you having a kid buy something? It’s not like you’re poor.”

“Hey, Maru probably earns more than me.”

“Urgh, what a mean guy.”

Ganghwan twitched his nose before doing some exercises.

“Sooil, you should exercise your voice as well. Maru’s coming soon.”

“Yes.”

Sooil, who was doing a leg split, stood up and started some vocal exercises. Hanna also did some vocal exercises while singing her favorite song.

“Pull out your voice, people,” Ganghwan clapped as he spoke

[1] Martial arts organizations in Japan.

Chapter 440

Let’s tear down the fourth wall - Ganghwan said before they began practice. The stage and the audience seats - although these two were physically correlated in space, there was an unspoken wall between the two. The wall that was put up in order to create a reality within reality; to turn a play into another truth - that was the fourth wall.

The actors were able to see the audience. The audience was also able to see the actors. However, there was an invisible wall put up between them. One that allowed both parties to see each other, yet not see each other.

That wall acted like a TV screen. The audience in the audience seats used that wall to separate themselves emotionally since they couldn’t separate themselves physically. They forget about their own reality while watching through that wall, and the actors created their own reality on the other side of that impermeable wall.

“Originally, I thought about doing comedy, but I wanted to hear a more diverse range of stories. A story about all of us, I mean. That’s why I decided to focus on the individuals.”

A black line was drawn on top of the whiteboard. Ganghwan drew a pretty realistic-looking stage. His drawing skills were pretty decent.

“I threw away the topic. This stage will become the audience’s in its entirety.”

Ganghwan put a pointy crown on top of the word ‘audience’.

“The topic of that day will be decided by the member of the audience that comes up on stage. It might be a celebratory story, and it might be a sad story. We just need to follow along and do a short skit and then call someone from the audience to the stage.”

“What if no one volunteers because of embarrassment?” Sooil asked.

“We should prepare safety measures for every play. We’ll scout one person beforehand to come up if no one in the audience is willing to come. That person will be a spy of sorts.”

“It’s all a scheme then!”

“Let’s call it an inevitable part of the play, shall we? A scheme sounds too evil.”

Ganghwan wrote ‘audience first’ on the board.

“You have read the scripts, right? That’s the basic outline. However, this has more elements of improvisation so you’ll need to improve your reflexes. It won’t be good for any of us if we can’t follow along even after a member of the audience comes up.”

After hearing that, Maru asked,

“How are we going to practice then?”

“We’re going to practice the main flow together and then split into different situational contexts. For now, we’ll split it into two big parts, one happy and one sad. The happy part isn’t that difficult, but the problem is the sad part.”

Ganghwan told them to open the script. The three people sitting in front of the whiteboard opened the scripts on their laps.

“I think what’s important in this play is to find out just how far we and the audience can share a pathos together. A play always appeals its strong pathos to the audience. Although people say that the actors communicate with the audience, objectively speaking, the transfer of emotions in a play is one-directional: From the actors to the audience. It is possible for the actors to be influenced by the reactions of the audience, but that does not change the roots of the play. However, it’s a completely different matter for a communicating play like the one we’re doing. It’s bi-directional. We receive the feelings of the audience, and we transfer the emotions back in the form of a play.”

Ganghwan wrote ‘sadness’ in big letters.

“But when it comes to ‘sadness’, there is too much variation. When it comes to happiness, we can just tie everything together and express it. Even if you tie the happiness of winning the lottery and the happiness of having a fulfilling meal, it doesn’t really matter. That’s because, from the perspective of the audience, who are the ones receiving our emotions, they don’t feel much rejection. However, sadness is very picky.”

While Maru nodded, Ganghwan was writing something on the whiteboard. When the marker stopped moving, a new set of words were written on the board.

The death of a lover.

Then he put some space below and wrote: a child that lost 100 won.

After writing the two sentences, Ganghwan turned around.

“Both of these can be classified as ‘sadness’, right? The sadness of losing a lover, and likewise, the sadness of losing money.”

“Yes, I guess we can,” Sooil replied. Ganghwan pointed at Sooil.

“That’s it. That’s the answer. That’s the nuance. ‘I guess we can’. Sooil, what did you mean by that?”

“The intensity of sadness is different between losing a loved one and losing 100 won.”

“Right. That’s what’s picky about sadness. Changing examples, finding someone you love, and picking up a 100 won coin. Both of these can be classified as ‘happiness’, right?”

“Yes.”

“When expressing both of them, would it be strange if I said ‘laughing loudly’?”

“No, it’s not that strange.”

“But that’s not the case with sadness, isn’t it?”

“Yes.”

Hanna, who was sitting next to the whiteboard, stood up and walked towards the fridge.

“We should get something to drink. Oppa, catch.”

After receiving a drink thrown by Hanna, Maru looked at the board and Ganghwan again. Ganghwan took a sip before speaking,

“Sadness is both inclusive and individualistic. You feel like there’s a clear boundary, but it’s not actually like that. The death of a person and the loss of materials. Putting it like that, the two seem like different kinds of sadness since they’re on the opposite ends of the spectrum. Well, then, from here.”

Ganghwan erased the ‘death of a lover’ and wrote ‘death of a family member’, and then ‘death of a company colleague’ below that.

“Which’s more sad between these two? Ordinarily speaking.”

“It has to be the death of a family member.”

“It’s natural to be more sad about the death of someone comparatively closer to you, right?”

“Yes,” Sooil replied as he put his empty can beside him.

“Then what about this? The death of a company colleague versus the death of a nearby supermarket owner. What if you compare these two?”

“Then I guess the death of a company colleague will feel more sad.”

“Because you’re closer to that person?”

“Yes.”

“Then what about the death of a supermarket owner and the death of a fruit market owner? Under the assumption that you are close to them equally.”

“I don’t know. Shouldn’t it be difficult to say which one’s more sad?”

Ganghwan nodded.

“The farther away the person is from your own fences, the less intense the sadness gets. To use an extreme case, think about the death of a man in some country you don’t know the name of. You wouldn’t even feel anything. It’s always like that. Even if you turn on the TV right now, you’ll see death tolls rising due to something. Some traffic accident killed someone, some fire caused N deaths, someone committed suicide, et cetera. Although they are all ‘deaths’ in context, the sadness we receive is…”

Maru, who received Ganghwan’s gaze, spoke,

“Not that sad at all, actually. You don’t even care.”

“Right. The death of a complete stranger might impact you even less than losing a 100 won coin.”

Ganghwan wrote one word on top of the words he wrote.

“Sympathy. The objective of the play we’re planning to do now is to have the audience sympathize with each other’s sadness. Of course, if the audience decides to tell a story about something good that happened to them, we’ll follow along. We’ll make it sound more cheerful. However, what I’ve always been thinking about when preparing this play is the sadness of each individual.”

“This time, you’re shooting towards the extreme minority again. Well, I guess all you’re interested in is the honest side of mankind and their taboos,” Hanna spoke while sighing.

Maru understood why Hanna sighed. When he didn’t have any money in hand, Ganghwan did all sorts of plays. The story of a man who won the lottery, the story of a dad who suddenly got a child. The story of a jobless man who fell in love.

After filling his wallet with the romantic comedies that work really well in Daehak-ro, he would leave and do really depressing plays as though they were the ones that he really wanted to do. Maru still felt the chills from when he watched a video of Ganghwan’s ‘Human Repayment’. The contents of the play were one thing, but the last scene left an incredibly bad taste in his mouth. It showed the end of a laborer who threw himself off a bridge without any signs of making a comeback, without going through any filters.

The reason that play left a bad taste was not because the main character died, but because it wasn’t even sad, or worth being remembered by someone. That emptiness that didn’t even become a tragedy made him think about a lot of things.

“So that’s why the background is a doctor’s office,” Maru said as he closed the script.

Ganghwan smiled and started erasing the board.

“If it goes well, I think it will become quite controversial for sure, but will it go well?” Sooil asked.

He wasn’t asking whether the play would be good or bad, but whether it would be successful or not. Maru wanted to know that as well. Whatever the play was going to be, this project was started in order to tell the mass public about acting just like the amateur acting class. Although he said that they were going to do happy plays as well, he was practically setting everything up so that the participating audience would tell a sad story, so he wondered if the audience would participate at all. Standing in front of complete strangers and talking about their own honest stories on stage? It might be easier if it was something that everyone could laugh about, but if it was a sad-enough story that that person would have to bite their lips just to talk about it, it wouldn’t be so easy.

Also, acting in tandem with such an audience wouldn’t be so easy either.

“Don’t worry about the results. What matters is doing it.”

At that moment, Hanna muttered from the side.

“Hey, we don’t have a large budget to work with. The people from the association don’t have a huge interest either. The reason we scouted you two was because oppa belongs to JA. Otherwise, he would have handed out pamphlets and be done with it. That’s the reason this play contains all of his desires. He can think with his dick because no one fucking cares.”

Sooil chuckled when Hanna said those words.

Normally he would be shocked when a woman said a word related to a man’s genitals, but Hanna was an exception. He was so used to it that it didn’t feel weird at all.

“Hanna, watch your words. Also, this will work. People these days don’t have a place to talk about their worries. But we’re setting up the stage for them. We’re urging them to talk. People will talk about what they think on the inside. In any case, let’s finish talking about the overall format and talk about the details now.”

* * *

Junmin read some news regarding the entertainment industry on a web portal while drinking some red tea. The top news was about the disbanding of the girl idol group Blue. So it was finally happening.

“Looks like Yellow Star must be having a hard time. It would be good if their agency creaks and they spit out Ahn Joohyun.”

One of the actresses he wanted to recruit for a long time was Ahn Joohyun. He regretted it so much when Yellow Star took her while he was distracted.

Next to that was an article about the president of a production company who disappeared with more than 10 billion won. He sighed when he read about this news. This had brought tremendous losses to him. Leaving aside Geunsoo, Jiseok[1], who was supposed to climb the ranks, had suffered a setback thanks to that. He had picked that movie after rejecting everything else, yet that went up in flames. No one could find the location of the president that committed the scam, so everyone thought that he wasn’t in the country.

Junmin clicked his tongue as he scrolled down. At that moment, an article at the bottom of the screen caught his eyes. It was a short article by a nameless internet journalist. When he clicked on it, there was a familiar face, and a short article was written about it.

-Drama’s renewal of viewing rates. Brought by a young actor?

Han Maru’s face was among the other child actors of other series. The journalist wrote that the moment of Maru’s interrogation was the moment that set the record.

“So he’s doing his worth by himself, huh.”

Junmin faintly smiled as he drank his tea.

[1] Author probably meant to write ‘Sooil’ instead. Jiseok belongs to Yellow Star.

Chapter 441

It was the season when the skies were high, and the horses were fat[1]. It was mid-October. The winds were cool, and the rays of the sun looked perfect for a nap. It was the season of naps given by the heavens.

“But why is autumn the season of reading?”

Dojin asked as he read a book. When Maru had a glance at it, he saw that the book was about getting a cooking license in Korea.

“Since the weather is good, perhaps it’s called that because many people read during this season?”

Daemyung looked back as he spoke. In his hands was a book: Macbeth. Oh, Macbeth. Daemyung had been carrying that around since early October. He read through King Lear pretty fast, but it seemed that Macbeth wasn’t to his tastes.

“I think I heard somewhere that it’s a way of marketing to raise sales because October has the least book sales in the year,” Maru said.

He wasn’t sure where he heard this from since he heard about it in his previous life, but he could vaguely remember it. Statistically too, book sales were the highest during the beginning of the semesters, Spring[2] and Winter, when it was also the season to wrap up the year, and then Summer. So it wasn’t entirely false. Though, it was nothing compared to the marketing of chocolate sticks.[3]

“No way.”

“I don’t think that’s true.”

Dojin and Daemyung retorted at the same time.

Maru just shrugged since he honestly didn’t care.

Just like how everyone called it the season of reading, there was a wave of reading craze in the class. Of course, most of them were either reading comics, fantasy novels, or martial arts novels[4]. The paper that had the ‘list of 100 books that teenagers should read’, that the teacher put up, had already turned dull.

“Today’s Friday, right?” Dowook asked.

“Yeah. What about it?”

“We’re going to the broadcasting room today, aren’t we?”

Hearing that question, Daemyung nodded with a smile. Dowook sighed and laid back down on the table again.

“Dowook, it’s fine. Anyone can make mistakes,” Daemyung said as he patted Dowook on the back.

Dowook replied with a ‘shut up’.

“The kids really like the radio broadcast.”

Dojin pointed at the ceiling. He was probably referring to the speakers. Maru crossed his arms and leaned back in his chair.

“Did you say you were going to do that until the end of October?”

“That’s what we talked about, but I’m not sure. I’ll tell Yeondu-seonbae about it today.”

“That seonbae probably won’t tell you clearly. Her specialty is to reply vaguely when it comes to things that are disadvantageous for her.”

“That’s not entirely true. She’s really straightforward when it comes down to it,” Daemyung said as he closed the book.

“You are such a good guy. Should I go talk to her about it?”

“It’s fine. She’ll tell me on her own. Anyway, that broadcasting club alliance, or something? She might be talking to them and that’s why she can’t give me a clear answer. Also… it’s not like it’s harming us.”

Dowook, who they thought was sleeping, said that it is a big harm to him since he lost his lunch time.

“That’s true, but this is also an opportunity. If things go well, we might be able to go on a YBS radio program. And it’s also more memories for us. As Dojin said, the others seem to like it. I don’t think it’ll be bad even if we continue doing this for a while.”

“If you say so, I don’t have any complaints either.”

Dowook said that he was full of complaints, but neither Daemyung nor Maru replied to him. Dowook eventually became quiet after grumbling for a while.

“How about the first years? Don’t they find it tiring to use up lunch times on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays?”

Lunch times were pretty important to high school students. They might not consider spending their precious lunch time, which was required for saving up energy for the afternoon classes, on club activities.

“I was worried about that too, so I asked them a couple of days ago, but I instead heard from them that I shouldn’t worry about it. It seems like Aram, Jiyoon, and Bangjoo all like doing the audio drama.”

“That’s good. Well, I guess they were the most excited about it.”

“Jiyoon was a little unexpected though.”

It had been two weeks since they started broadcasting. Jiyoon, who at first, took a step back saying that she was embarrassed, now acted with more passion than anyone else in front of the microphone. Thinking back, she was the one that showed the most stable acting at the café before. Although her process of getting into acting was a bit rough, she concentrated harder than anyone else once she did get started.

“Thinking about how they aren’t making any mistakes even though it’s done live, I think practicing plays has helped them somewhat.”

“Also, their pronunciations have gotten a lot better since they started preparing for the audio drama. It’s to the point that I could tell during practices for the play.”

“That’s an unexpected benefit.”

“Apparently, Aram’s practicing all day with a pencil in her lips.”

“Did Jiyoon tell you that?”

“Huh? Yeah.”

Daemyung smiled as he said those words. Good times. Why did a corner of his heart feel so cold when he looked at a high school couple?

He knew the reason. That was because he wasn’t able to meet up with her that often because their schedules kept criss-crossing. During weekdays, he was busy, and during weekends, she was busy. Due to a problem with shooting the sitcom, she told him that the shoots were on Sundays for a while, so he wouldn’t be able to meet her for at least another half a month. He told her that he’d visit her house, but she clearly told him that she didn’t want to meet him for now. When he asked why, she replied that she wanted to focus on what she was doing right now.

As soon as he heard that answer, he realized that there was another reason for it, but he didn’t want to pry any further. Instead, he decided to wait; wait until she solves the problem herself and brings about a conclusion that satisfied herself. After that moment, they would be able to meet with comfort.

“Do you hang out with Jiyoon a lot during the weekend?”

“Huh? No.”

“You became a couple so you should really take her out on dates.”

“It’s fine. We meet every day at school.”

“…What did you do during the Summer holidays?”

“Me? Why do you ask? I practiced for the club.”

“No, not that. I meant with Jiyoon.”

“Like I said, I practiced, along with Jiyoon.”

Daemyung smiled brightly as he mentioned the name ‘Jiyoon’. While wondering if her name was that good, Maru also sighed to himself. Next to them, Dojin, who was listening, put down his book. Then he said something to Daemyung.

“You damn idiot.”

“What? Why?”

“Tsk, that first year looked cute. I wonder what made her like this dense bear guy.”

Dojin clicked his tongue and stood up. Maru just nodded. Daemyung made a clueless expression as he stared at Dojin who went to the bathroom. Then, he looked at Maru while tilting his head, asking a question,

“What did you do with your girlfriend during the summer?”

“We went to the sea on a short trip.”

“J-just the two of you? When did you have the time?”

“We went on a one-day trip when both of us had free time.”

“Like I said, just the two of you?”

“Would we go with our parents? Duh, we went by ourselves.”

“No way, how can you go by yourselves?”

“In my perspective, you don’t make any sense. How can we go by ourselves? We just go by ourselves. You know how to buy train tickets, right?”

“Am I a kid? Of course I do.”

“And you know that our country is surrounded by the sea on three sides?”

“Of course.”

“Then what’s the problem? You just decide on a date, buy the tickets, and go to the sea.”

“T-that’s a little.”

Just what was this guy thinking? Daemyung had turned red up to his ears. Maybe he was shooting an erotic movie all by himself in his head, even though he acted so pure on the surface?

“Your parents must be worried, you shouldn’t do that.”

…What erotic movie. He was too pure-minded that Maru wanted to dye it a little red.

“Hey, you should really think about how Jiyoon feels. She’s at the age where she wants to play around.”

“Y-you really think so?”

Maru smiled and shook his head. What was he supposed to do about this natural treasure of a couple?

“Maru.”

“Yeah?”

“T-the cinema should be a pretty moderate course for a date, right?”

“That’s textbook dating. It’s a bit old-fashioned, but it’s not bad as the first course on a date. If the movie is to her tastes, then there’s no better choice either.”

“Really? Then what about after that? No, wait, where did you go with your girlfriend recently?”

Maru, who was looking for the textbook for the 4th period, raised his head slightly. He smiled bitterly towards Daemyung, whose eyes were shining.

“I haven’t met her in a while.”

“Really? Why?”

“What do you mean why? Because we’re both busy.”

“You can’t meet if you’re busy?”

What an obvious question. Maru laughed before taking out the textbook and putting it on his desk. They weren’t kids, if they knew about each other’s circumstances, they should just be considerate of each other.

“But she might want to meet you?”

“I told her that I wanted to meet her, but she said no. Looks like she has her own circumstances to deal with.”

“So?”

“What do you mean ‘so’?”

Daemyung stared at Maru. Maru looked back into his eyes.

“Hey, hey. Korean teacher is coming.”

Dojin, who had been in the bathroom, came in as he shouted. The kids that were reading comic books all hid them inside their desks and bags. Daemyung also turned around to look at the front. Dowook, who had been lying down, sat up as well.

The chaotic classroom became neat and quiet in an instant, and following that, the teacher came in. The teacher, who carried with him a rod made of bamboo, stood in front of the lecture desk and started the class after telling them to endure for just an hour.

Maru watched Daemyung’s back for a while before turning his gaze to the textbook. What did Daemyung want to say just now?

He was curious, but that curiosity soon dissipated.

“It’s important to find out the intentions of the novelist. So memorize from here to here for now. Okay?”

The Korean teacher’s loud voice echoed in the classroom.

* * *

12:45 p.m. The students all stuck one foot out of their desks. The Korean teacher, who always finished the class after erasing the board, erased the final period from the board.

“Kids. You’ll only be harming yourselves if you fall over while running. You should take it slow. It’s not like you’re possessed by hungry ghosts or something.”

“Teach, can you finish the class early since we went through all the materials?”

“It’s the wish of a lifetime!”

The students spoke as they looked at the clock. Today’s lunch had fried chicken on the menu. If they were late, they would only be given fried crumbs, so they were trying to hurry. As Maru also thought that meals should always be delicious, he also put one foot out of his desk. Rather than going there calmly and eating dregs, he might as well run there like mad and eat chicken legs.

“Good. I’ll give you a question, so the column that gets it right will get to go first. It’s easy so you’ll have to raise your hands fast. What are the four tragedies of Shakesp…”

“Hamlet, Othello, King Lear, and Macbeth!”

Maru had never seen Daemyung move so quickly until now. Daemyung pushed the desk and raised his hand full of battle spirit and immediately uttered the titles of four books. The Korean teacher, who looked at Daemyung in a daze, laughed loudly once before telling their column to go.

“Oh yeah!”

“Nice, Daemyung!”

Daemyung smiled and waved his hand above his head. Maru could see a glimpse of a boxer that gained the title of champion. When they heard the teacher saying that they could go, they held their breaths and opened the back door. The corridor was filled with silence. They went to the next class over and peeked through the window. Everyone looked at them with envious gazes.

“You should always go to Park Daemyung when it comes to food.”

“Of course. Let’s go fellas. Let’s get them fried chicken!”

They rushed across the corridor with lights in their eyes. Daemyung was treated as the captain and he got to go first. Maru smiled and followed them.

[1] An Korean way of calling autumn. While Korean people know it as a saying originating from China, the original Chinese saying has a different first character (out of four).

[2] An academic year starts (and therefore, ends) in March, which is Spring.

[3] Referring to Pocky (Pepero in Korea). They made 11/11 “pepero day” so it became common to send others pepero on that day. Somehow this marketing was hugely popular, and some people (especially kids) know 11/11 as ‘pepero day’ still to this day.

[4] Word used here is the same as ‘wuxia’.

Chapter 442

“There are no problems with the microphones, right?”

“Yes, they’re fine.”

“You told me that mic number 2 kept producing unwanted noises though.”

“We changed that out.”

This was the broadcasting room, where one corner of it was filled with broadcasting equipment. Maru sat down around a table placed in the center of the room. On his opposite side were the first years, who were waiting for him as they talked.

“Please take care of me for the next twenty minutes today too,” Yeondu, the third year of the broadcasting club, winked as she spoke.

She pushed up her glasses and checked the music CD with a junior of the broadcasting club.

“Let’s do one more read-through before we start,” Daemyung said as he picked up the script in front of him.

The broadcast was around 17 minutes. What Yeondu wanted was to gather the stories from the students of this school and modify them into fun stories, but apparently, she gave up due to the lack of participation. The other schools weren’t in good shoes either, so apparently, all of the schools would share any stories they got from their school and all of the schools would essentially talk about the same thing during lunch. The script in front of them was made like that.

“The microphone is in broadcasting mode right now so don’t power it on, okay?”

“Yes.”

Maru pushed aside the microphone in front of him. There were two microphones on the table. The first years shared one while the second years shared the other. If they had a good microphone that was actually used in the field, one would suffice, but there was no way high school broadcasting clubs had such high-tech equipment. From what he overheard, the broadcasting club had to beg the school to get them these two microphones as well.

“It was Bangjoo and Dowook two days ago, right?”

“Yes.”

“Then is it Maru and Aram’s turn today?”

Aram raised her hand and shouted ‘yes’.

“We’ll be starting in five minutes, so get your lines ready. Don’t make mistakes like last time. It was good since it was funny, but you should still do things properly.”

“I won’t make a mistake. Also, it’s fine since I made fewer mistakes than Dowook-seonbae. No one remembers because of that, hahaha!”

When Aram laughed, Dowook, sitting on the other side, sighed. Last time, Dowook screwed up while doing his opening line. The words ‘tiring afternoon’ became ‘tiring apfthernoon’.

Pfft, Maru laughed when he thought back to that time. He turned away from Dowook’s fierce glare. After that, Dowook’s nickname became ‘apfthernoon’ for the next two days. Even he, with his personality, didn’t fight anyone because of that nickname. He must have been so embarrassed that he couldn’t even get angry.

“Apfthernoon is no good, I’m serious,” Yeondu said with a wink.

“The song request is about to end. You guys should get ready to start.”

Hearing that, Daemyung quickly started reading the script. The script always arrived in the morning. They would read the script that Yeondu would pass onto them in the morning, and then immediately do the broadcast during lunch. Although the schedule was unbelievably tight, everything was forgivable since the objective was just a school broadcast program anyway. This was what Yeondu meant when she said that there was no pressure.

No one had any expectations of them, and they weren’t doing this for some kind of fame either. Although the YBS radio program was on the line, just one out of the numerous schools in the Gyeonggi region was going to be picked. Yeondu said that they should just treat it as a memory of their youth. Turns out, there were quite a lot of romanticists like Daemyung in the school. Also, it seemed that the word ‘memories’ worked well on other students as well as even Dowook showed concentration before the broadcast.

‘It’s a pity that my sleep time is reduced, but this isn’t bad either.’

If photos were all that was left from traveling, the only thing that was left behind from the high school period would be the memories made with friends.

“I hope you can sound awkward, yet not awkward. As for Maru, well… you’re just good, so you can keep doing what you’re doing.”

Yeondu put up three fingers in the air. Her other hand was on broadcasting equipment. Three, two, one. The moment the last finger went down, the other broadcasting club member powered on the microphones. Then cue.

“Uh, uh, have you had lunch everyone? Today was chicken, right? The competition must’ve been fierce.”

Aram stuttered because she missed the right timing, but she soon calmed down and continued. Maru gestured at Aram to calm down and followed up.

“We’re half-way through October already. The skies are high, and the winds are cool. It’s such good weather that it’s a waste to sit in class and study. That’s why, today, we at ‘Our Radio’ have prepared some stories about students passionately studying. That’s right, regardless of how cool the winds are, students have to study. Otherwise, we’d get scolded. Isn’t that right, teachers?”

He saw Yeondu’s hand gesture and pulled away from the microphone a little. He could see the first years sitting in front of him giving him a thumbs up.

“Follow up.”

Yeondu quietly whispered.

Daemyung, who was reading the script, leaned forward. The intro music started fading out. After seeing Yeondu’s hand gesture that signalled the start, Daemyung spoke.

“I want to date someone. I’m not joking, I’m serious. But I can’t fulfill that dream. The reason? It’s because my school is an all-boys school.”

The audio drama began with some humor.

* * *

“The girls in my class say that your voice sounds good, seonbae.”

Maru turned his head around when Aram said those words.

“My voice?”

“Yes. That’s why I kindly told them that you’re actually a really cold person and that your voice is just acting.”

“Good.”

“No way, why is your reaction so bland?”

“I’m a taken man, so it would be quite a pain for me to be popular among girls.”

“Jiyoon, Jiyoon, don’t you think Maru-seonbae has a slight superiority complex?”

Maru glanced at Jiyoon. He saw her nodding slightly. Then, the two met eyes and she said ‘you’re cool’ as though making an excuse. He could treat Aram’s words as a joke, but Jiyoon’s actions hurt him a little.

“But I wasn’t lying when I said that the girls like your voice.”

“She’s right. A lot of them say that your voice is really relaxing.”

It was a compliment, so it wasn’t bad to hear. Maru smiled as he nodded.

“Are you going to Anyang immediately?” Aram asked.

“Yeah, I should be.”

“I thought you were practicing with us since you came up all the way here, but I guess not. You’re going to start ignoring us all once you actually become a famous actor, aren’t you?”

“Naturally. You didn’t have to ask that, to know that, did you?”

“I knew you’d say that.”

“Stop, and start practicing already. Once Daemyung and Dowook come, I’m gonna leave immediately. How can a student be awkward when playing the role of a student?”

“We’ll see about that. I’m going to become used to it soon. Jiyoon, let’s try this out once. You too, Bangjoo.”

When the 2nd year students were absent, the leader was Aram. She looked like someone who would fool around without a care when left alone due to her personality, but she was actually quite meticulous in nature and did things that she wasn’t asked to do. She was someone who knew when to play around and when to be serious. Though, the downside to that was that she played around too hard and she ran out of energy quite quickly.

Maru stood in one corner of the classroom and watched the first year students practice. Although they started off laughing, they looked very serious when they began practice.

“We’re here.”

Just then, Daemyung and Dowook came, bringing some kimbap from the restaurant in front of the school.

“Then I’m leaving. Good luck with practice.”

“Have some of this before you go.”

Dowook pointed at the kimbap. Maru took out one roll of kimbap wrapped in aluminum foil.

“I’ll eat it as I go.”

“Goddammit. You should really sit down when you eat. You should really take some slack.”

Saying that, Dowook threw him a drink can. Maru said goodbye to everyone as he ate a piece of kimbap. The first year students waved at him. Even here, Bangjoo’s voice was loud enough to echo across the corridor.

‘Looks like I’ll be just in time if I go now.’

He walked down the stairs while checking the time.

“Maru.”

When he raised his head, he saw Daemyung grabbing onto the handrails.

“What? Got something to say to me?”

“Uhm… I might be overstepping my bounds here, and it might not be necessary to tell you this at all, but it was on my mind for some time.”

“What is it?”

Maru turned around to face Daemyung and smiled.

“You know, during lunch.”

“Lunch?”

“When we talked about girlfriends.”

“Oh that? What about it? You want me to recommend you a place to go?”

“I’ll be thankful if you do, but before that…”

Daemyung hesitated once again. Maru didn’t urge him and quietly waited. There should be a reason that such a cautious fellow was having a hard time talking about it.

After scratching his head for a while, Daemyung made a very faint smile and spoke,

“We are still kids. I’m not saying that you’re a kid. You’re a little different. But whether it’s me, or Jiyoon… or your girlfriend, I think we’re still kids.”

After saying that, Daemyung became flustered for a while before sighing.

“You might be late. Get going. I didn’t mean anything much when I said that, so just ignore me. It was a little awkward, right? Sorry about that. I guess I held you back for nothing. Even I don’t know what I’m trying to say here, haha, hahaha.”

After saying goodbye, Daemyung climbed up the stairs and disappeared again. Maru listened to the fading footsteps before turning around.

“What did he want to say?”

The kimbap in his hands looked limp and swayed up and down.

* * *

Maru leaned on the wall as he drank some water. This was a short break time after practice.

“Give me some as well.”

Sooil walked heavily towards him and sat next to him. Maru pointed at the fridge.

“It’s too hard to go there.”

“How do you even breathe then?”

He passed the water bottle he was drinking from to Sooil. Sooil took a sip before becoming limp like a sponge that soaked up water and lied down.

“You’re making such a big fuss even though you're still young.”

Although Ganghwan said those words, he also approached them and lied down on the floor. When Maru glanced at him, he licked his lips before saying,

“It’s fine since I’m old.”

“And I remember you telling me that you’re still young.”

“It’s fine because I’m a creature that’s somewhere between young and old.”

Watching them, Hanna said ‘bullshit’. All three men laughed.

“But don’t you feel like you’re putting more effort into the prior play than the main play?”

They created a few skits in order to gather people before the main play. Due to the characteristics of street performances, it would be hard to gather an audience if they didn’t have anything to pique their interest. Therefore, it was understandable that they were preparing some skits, but the problem was how much they practiced it.

“For the main play, we’re pretty much just setting up the stage for someone else to talk, so it doesn’t really require a lot of effort. Since the play is mainly led by the audience, we can only pray that they will lead us well.”

“At this rate, wouldn’t the audience just leave after the skits?” Sooil asked worriedly.

“Then we have to use our secret move.”

“A secret move?”

Maru was curious as well so he stared at Ganghwan’s lips.

“Geunsoo.”

“…Let’s just practice.”

“If we bring Geunsoo, people will probably gather. If that doesn’t work, we’ll call Suyeon as well.”

“That’s such an incredible plan, in so many ways, that I can’t even say anything about it. Oh, right, did you decide to drop the honorifics with Suyeon-noona? You always had a hard time dealing with her,” Maru asked.

“We’re in the same company now, and I have to see her face frequently, so I should get close. She must be a good woman if you get close to her.”

“Senior, I mean, hyung-nim. You’re uncomfortable with her, aren’t you?”

“Yeah. Actually, I still call her Miss Suyeon. She’s five years younger than me, but it’s still Miss Suyeon. That woman is so scary to get close to. I feel like she’ll drain my energy. In that sense, Hanna is so perfect. She’s practically a dude!”

A bottle full of water was flung at Ganghwan. Ganghwan quickly dodged. Had he been a little slower, he might have seen some blood.

“Maru, you seem like… you’ve become quite close to Miss Suyeon.”

Ganghwan approached him and said in a small voice.

“It’s a business relationship, not a private one.”

“But you call her noona though.”

“Lip service shines more with business relationships than with private ones. Rather than that, what were you planning to do during company meetups?”

“What do you mean? I just have to try my best if I don’t want to get branded by her as someone bad. Sooil, you’re quite close to Suyeon, aren’t you?”

Sooil smiled and nodded.

“I should really join an agency as well, urgh. Boys, why don’t you stop chatting and practice already?” Hanna said as she put her hands on her waist.

The three men said yes before standing up.

Chapter 443

“Unni[1]! Give us some fried rice here! Two, no, three portions!” Hanna shouted as she waved her spoon above her head.

It seemed that 6 portions of pork belly and a bowl of cold noodles weren’t enough for her.

“Hey, he’s grabbing the glass again,” Ganghwan said as he pointed at Sooil.

Maru picked up his chopsticks and slapped Sooil’s hand. Sooil looked at him for a while before grabbing the glass again.

“Who do you think you’re trying to annoy again?”

Maru took the glass away from him. Sooil had drunk 2 glasses already. From his red face, he seemed to have reached his limits already, but he kept looking for more alcohol.

“I’m not drunk.”

“That’s what they all say. Shut up and drink some water.”

Maru poured some water into the beer glass and handed it back.

It was Friday night. It had been an hour since they came to the pork belly restaurant after practice. Unlike their original intentions of having a quick meal and going home, they were now somehow ordering more and more portions of pork belly and alcoholic drinks.

“Looks like my daily expenses are getting buried here today.”

Ganghwan looked at Hanna with tears as Hanna made another ssam[2] to eat. Hanna’s appetite was not ordinary, and Sooil also kept picking up pieces of meat without end, so the total amount they ate kept increasing. Since Hanna just ordered fried rice, it might be the end, but from how she still kept staring at the menu on the wall of the restaurant, perhaps she wasn’t satisfied just yet.

“Did Hanna-noona always eat that much?” Maru quietly asked Ganghwan.

“She’s the type of person to eat when she feels stressed. She’s always like that when she’s starting off a play. Rather than that, you don’t get drunk easily. Didn’t you just empty two bottles?”

“You’re right. Looks like I’m quite good with alcohol. Since we’re at it, here, I’ll pour a glass of rice wine for you.”

Maru poured a glass full of rice wine. After toasting, he drank the rice wine with some kimchi. The taste of rice wine that hit the back of his throat made him smile.

“Maru.”

“Yes?”

“Are you greedy about acting these days?”

“About acting?”

For a brief moment, the noise around him didn’t enter his ears.

Greed, huh. He twirled the glass once before drinking some rice wine again. Ganghwan, who asked the question, also turned away from him and ate a piece of meat.

The shout of a man saying that he’ll treat the group because he just got his salary, the sound of sizzling meat, and the crisp clanging of the chopsticks that fell on the floor became vivid again.

“I do feel greedy.”

During a conversation he had with Ganghwan a long time ago, he was asked a similar question. Back then, Maru replied that he wasn’t greedy. The reason he chose the path of acting was strictly for money. He only chose acting as the method to get a huge profit, so there was no reason for him to be greedy about it. The process was just the process. The only thing he looked forward to was the quality of the result, not the perfection of the process.

However, a lot of things had changed now. Although he still put importance on results, he now became greedy about the process as well. Not only did he start finding interest in acting itself, but he also took a step further and started wanting to become a good actor. Rather than an actor liked by the viewers or the audience, he wanted to climb to the level where the actors that acted in tandem with him would say that he was a decent actor.

The feeling he got when the other party received every last bit of emotion that he gave off, and responded with his or her own feeling filled with emotion was an indescribable feeling of joy. It was like that with the single cut - that single exchange in conversation - that he shot with the elder during the movie, and more recently, it was like that with his act with Joohyun. He felt that he was lacking, but at the same time, he smiled because he was joyful.

He wanted to continue experiencing such acting.

That sentence took place in a corner of his heart.

“You started on the path of pain, what a pitiful guy.”

Ganghwan poured some rice wine into his glass. Maru received the rice wine with a smile.

“Geunsoo probably said this before, that it’s an incredibly difficult thing for an actor to make a living out of acting. When I saw you before, I didn’t have any worries at all. You didn’t look like you were someone who’d make the wrong decisions. You looked like you’d immediately step out once you felt that it was no good. I’m not saying that you lacked effort or tenacity. I’m just saying that you’re quick at making and cutting connections when necessary.”

“Even now, I’m still going to find something else to do if things go wrong. I need to earn money. After all, a lot of money makes me happy.”

At that moment, Sooil, who had his head lowered, spoke,

“A lot of money doesn’t necessarily equal being happy, I mean it.”

After saying those words, his head swayed around as though he was dizzy before he smacked his head on the table. The shock made the things on the table shudder.

“Looks like that guy is completely done for. Anyway, right now, you don’t look like that, Maru. When you practiced with me a year ago, I could tell that you just memorized the theories and applied them to your acting, but you aren’t like that now. You’re enjoying it.”

“You can tell things like that?”

“I can. How many people do you think I’ve seen until now?”

They toasted again. Meanwhile, Hanna was conquering the fried rice all by herself. It looked as though she was going to finish it soon since Sooil joined her, albeit drunk.

“Enjoy yourself. To the point that even if you turn away after all the frustration, you won’t have any regrets.”

“You’re talking about regrets to a junior with a bright future?”

“Regrets are better the earlier you get them. Rather than regretting past the point of no return, it’s better to regret while you still have options.”

“But you’re going to keep doing this, aren’t you, senior?”

“Me? As for me, I’m good at it. I have the confidence that there’s no one better than me at acting on stage. I’m someone who will do well. I can say that with confidence.”

If a nameless drunkard said those words, Maru would’ve just laughed, but as Maru knew the future of this man, it sounded like the ambitions of a great man. You will really become like that, senior Ganghwan - he thought to himself.

“Unni! Give us two portions of gochujang-samgyeopsal[3] and some more miyeok-guk[4].”

Hearing the crisp voice, Maru turned around. Hanna was shouting as she raised her hand above her.

Ganghwan, who was looking at the empty grill with sad eyes, sighed after hearing those words. Maru poured him a glass of rice wine in consolation.

“Ah, right. Sir Yoon told me that he wants to see me next week. I heard that you were the one who talked about it.”

“Yes. I told the elder that I’ll bring some meat.”

“And that idol-whoever is coming as well?”

“Yes. The elder permitted.”

“Then I guess I don’t need to worry about it. Looks like I’ll be eating until my nose is red huh. Sir Yoon is someone that ends what he started. Is the fella coming with you good at drinking?”

“We did drink together before, and he didn’t act weird.”

“That’s good. But hey, you sound like you’re drinking here and there.”

“It’s one of my few hobbies.”

“Hey, hey, don’t regret it when you’re older and drink moderately. You’ll get a fat liver.”

“I could say the same thing to you.”

While they were chatting, the new portions of pork belly came.

“Well, let’s eat for now. Before Hanna-noona finishes them by herself.”

“Yeah, we should.”

The two picked up their chopsticks.

* * *

“I’ll bring this kid home. I have business in Seoul.”

Hanna piggy-backed Sooil, who was practically limp, and started walking.

“Hanna sure is strong.”

“Really.”

“It’s cold. Let’s go home as well.”

The high street of Anyang on Friday night was bright as though it was day. It wasn’t just because of the lights from street signs, but also because of the red glow from the faces of those in the streets. They left the high street.

“You didn’t bring your car, did you?”

“Of course. I’m going to sleep in the jjimjilbang[5] nearby.”

“You live in Seoul, right?”

“Yeah. You live in Suwon so I guess it won’t take long by bus. You should go home quickly. You might make your parents worried. Ah, won’t they say something if you smell like alcohol when you go home?”

“They think that freedom is the best way to raise children. They won’t say anything as long as I don’t cause trouble.”

“Splendid parents you have there.”

“Indeed. You don’t have anyone you’re in a relationship with?”

“If I did, I’d be telling everyone around me already. Maybe because I'm busy, but I don’t see a good woman.”

“Why don’t you try going on TV? People around you will set up meetings for you.”

“Acting in front of a camera just isn’t for me.”

“You’re not interested in movies either?”

“Well, if I become poor, I will do anything it takes to get me back on my feet, but for now, I want to focus on plays. Acting has its times, you know? A stage you can digest while you’re thirty-three is different from the stage you can digest when you’re thirty-four. The stage is where one year makes a big difference.”

“But you should really accept it when people scout you.”

“I’ll do it if our dear president Lee Junmin tells me to, but there’s no way he’d have me do something recklessly. Wait, why are we talking about money when we were supposed to be talking about love? Since we’re at it, why don’t you introduce me to a good person?”

“Senior.”

“What?”

“It’s a crime.”

“Age is nothing in front of love.”

“Maybe, but there’s something called shame as well.”

“Dammit, forget about it. You young kids can play with other young kids all day long for all I care. This old man is going to die a lonely death.”

Ganghwan exaggerated his actions as though he was acting in a play. Thanks to that, he attracted attention from people around them. Maru tried to step away from him, but Ganghwan’s arm hooked around his neck.

“Treat her well. Love at your age makes you think and feel about a lot of things.”

“Don’t worry about that. I’m doing plenty well.”

“Yeah, yeah. Sure. Because it’s you. But what do kids do these days?”

“It hasn’t changed. Watching movies, eating out, and talking.”

“Dammit, kid. At your age, you're supposed to be more passionate, and immature in your love. What is that old-fashioned setting?”

“Liking someone is old fashioned in itself.”

“Urgh. I wonder what she saw in a guy like this. This guy should be as interesting as a grey wall to girls her age. It’s such a curious thing.”

Maru shrugged as he spoke,

“My girlfriend isn’t that girly.”

“Is she like you and her mental age is actually really old?”

“I’m saying that she is not childish.”

“What does that entail?”

“We don’t have to talk to each other to know and understand each other. You know, things like that.”

At that moment, the lights changed. Ganghwan let go of his neck. At the same time, he said this,

“Hey.”

“Yes?”

“It’s normally not like that. The girl that was my student last winter, at least, wasn’t like that. Well, she is your girlfriend, so you must know better, but when I looked at her, she didn’t seem so strong-minded.”

Ganghwan tapped Maru’s forehead.

“Engrave the words this love-expert is telling you. The way you see her might be different from the way she actually is.”

“…You’re drunk, aren’t you?”

“I was found out? Pftt. Hahahaha.”

Ganghwan crossed the street as he waved his hand. Maru looked at his back for a while before turning around.

[1] Calling the waitress.

[2] Vegetable wrap

[3] Pork belly(samgyeopsal) fried with gochujang(chilly paste)

[4] Seaweed soup. Wikipedia for more info.

[5] Public bath + sauna. Wikipedia for more details.

Chapter 444

“I guess autumn is autumn.”

“True,” she said as she zipped up her jacket.

She was now used to going home while looking up at the moonlit skies. It was to the point that going home before sunset made her feel awkward.

The club president waved her hand at each of the juniors that left after saying their goodbyes. The short hair of the club president swayed.

“Isn’t it hard these days?” The club president said on their way to the convenience store.

She waited for a while before replying that she could hold on.

“Looks like it’s hard, if you’re saying you can still hold on.”

“I’m not at the point where I can’t go to practice.”

“Who told you this is about practice? I’m saying it because you look exhausted these days. It really isn’t easy to do acting and receive someone else’s money huh?” The club president asked as she pulled her bag upwards.

“It sure isn’t.”

“When did you say the broadcast was?”

“Next week is the first episode. Are you going to watch it?”

“I will. Only then can I tease you about it, right?”

“Geez.”

They entered the convenience store. The warmth that enveloped her made her sigh in a small voice. The club president, who was heading to the counter after picking some items, spoke,

“You should drink something.”

“I’m okay.”

“Then drink this.”

The drink in the club president’s hand was something that had a ginseng printed on it and looked bitter from a glance. Since she was someone who would buy it if she didn’t buy any drinks, she ended up grabbing a strawberry milk.

“You really like strawberry milk huh. I see you drinking it every time.”

“I like this the most.”

“Then I’ll take one of those as well.”

They bought the items before leaving. The dried leaves on the ground made rustling noises as they slid across the ground due to the wind.

“There are only two months left for me now. I was wondering when I was going to graduate, but now it’s right in front of me.”

They sat in chairs in front of the convenience store. The club president rummaged inside the plastic bag before taking out an apple pie. She received a piece of the pie and thanked her for it.

“What department did you choose?”

“Me? I’m thinking of business management.”

“You’ll be able to go anywhere since your grades are good.”

Three times a week - that was how many times the club president came to practice. If an exam student participated in club activities until 11 in the night, he or she would’ve heard an earful from the teacher or their parents, but the club president was not just an ordinary student. No one said anything to her since she received top grades in every subject. She was an amazing person in many ways.

“You won’t be coming starting October, will you?”

“I am going to go. I just won’t be able to stay for long. My homeroom teacher told me that I should focus a month before the CSAT, and I think so too.”

“Seonbae.”

“Yeah?”

“You should really continue acting even in college. You’re really good at it.”

She always said that she was just doing it as a hobby, but her skills were just too good to let them go to waste. She wanted her to continue acting, even if she didn’t aim to become an actress. She wanted this as an actress herself, and as a fan who liked her acting.

“Well, I’m not sure about that. Right now, I find investing my time in creating plays fun, but I’m not sure if I’d feel the same in college. I like acting with you, but I didn’t like acting itself that much.”

The club president curled up her lips and blew softly. Her white breath dissipated in the air.

“You’re going to continue acting, aren’t you? You told me your dream is to become an actress.”

“Yes, I’m going to continue.”

“Call me when you’re famous.”

“What if I don’t ever become famous?”

“Then call me anyway.”

The club president drank her milk while laughing. She suddenly had the thought that the club was going to be a lot quieter than it is now once the club president graduated.

“You’re aiming for the department of theater, aren’t you?”

“If nothing goes wrong, then yes.”

“What a vague answer.”

“I’m thinking about it. When I have a look at the actors I admire, most of them didn’t go to university. It would be great if I can go, but I also wonder if it’s really necessary. I felt something when I went to the shoots recently.”

“What was it?”

“That perhaps one year of experience in the field might be more valuable than four years of university. Of course, both have their advantages and disadvantages.”

“I can’t say anything about that then. Whether it’s about university or the field. Ah, this wasn’t how it was supposed to go.”

The club president touched her hair before laughing. She tilted her head and looked at the club president. What did she mean?

“Being the president, I wanted to console my cute junior a little, but it’s not that easy.”

“Console me?”

“I told you before, didn’t I? You look tired. That’s why I was going to listen to your story, and sympathize with you, and relieve your stress if possible… but that wasn’t so easy. And here I was trying to act like a senior.”

She looked at the club president making a sour face for a while before chuckling. So that was the reason why she always talked to her during the day. She finally understood why the club president seemed a little unusual.

“I’m not sure about anything else, but I’m really good at reading the mood. I always feel bad when I look at someone who’s in a bad situation. I can see it - that person is acting differently from usual.”

“Was it that obvious?”

“To me, yes.”

“Seonbae.”

“Yeah?”

“Why don’t you become an investigator instead of a businesswoman? A beauty investigator sees through the psychology of the criminal! Like that.”

She said that in an acting tone. The club president made a pistol out of her hands and acted like an investigator. It was precisely because of this that the juniors liked her. She kicked the leaf that rolled onto her shoes. The dried leaf rolled towards the drain.

“Seonbae.”

“Yeah?”

“What would you do if someone blatantly expresses their hate for you?” She asked as she thought of Lee Miyoon’s face.

Receiving the question, the club president stared at her.

“What is it?”

“No, I’m just surprised that someone can blatantly express their hate for you. So there are all sorts of people in this world.”

The club president drank another gulp of strawberry milk before speaking.

“Is the person that hates you a person around your age?”

“No, an adult much older than me.”

“Ah, really? Then I guess you won’t be able to pick a fight. I was going to tell you to drop-kick that person if that person was around your age.”

It sounded like a joke, but she decided to accept it since the club president was really someone that would try to do that. The club president fell into thought.

“Don’t think about it too deeply. I just asked without much thinking.”

“No, this is a great opportunity to act like a senior for once, so I can’t just let go of it. Wait a minute. I don’t have a bad head so I should be able to come up with a good answer soon. Wait a minute.”

She tapped her neck rhythmically with her fingers before turning around her head to speak.

“Is that person someone hard for you to get angry at?”

“Yes.”

“Then I guess you won’t be able to snap back at her?”

“Probably not.”

“So the answer is a drop-kick after all, huh.”

“Seonbae!”

“I’m just joking. But consultations are really hard. I get why the teachers say the same thing all the time. It’s not that easy giving advice to others.”

“Then what would you do in that situation?”

“As for me, I would…”

“And don’t say drop-kick.”

“Hey, just what do you take me for?”

The club president sat up before opening her eyes in a coy manner. She looked feminine, but it didn’t suit her at all. She soon started giggling.

“I know it doesn’t suit me, so don’t look at me like that.”

“You would look really pretty if you grew out your hair and put on some make up.”

“I know, but it’d be troublesome if I get any prettier and my popularity explodes.”

“…Yeah.”

“Hey, what was that pause? Lil’ bunny is all grown up now.”

The club president sniffed once.

“If it was me, I would clash with her until the end. Whether that person breaks, or I break, it won’t end until one of us does. If that person glares at me, I will glare back, and if that person swears at me, I'll return twofold.”

The club president spoke in a calm voice. She nodded once. The club president was someone who would do that. She would never back down. She was strong-willed so no hardships would be able to topple her.

“But it’s not a method I would recommend to others. I also think about it sometimes. What if I relented a little? What if I took one step back? Wouldn’t that have made things much easier?”

After hearing the club president’s words, she spoke.

“I want to act like you. But I get scared whenever I stand in front of that person. I want to run away, and I want to beg and say that I was in the wrong. But I can’t do it. It’s strange. I feel chaotic to the point that even I don’t know what I want to do. A large part of me wants to fight back, yet another large part of me wants to submit.”

“So, what did you tell that person?”

“Uhm… nothing good at least. I only indirectly told her that I’d fight until the end. And then… I really regretted it. Thanks to that, I’m not getting enough sleep recently.”

“Oh dear, Bunbun.”

The club president clicked her tongue before hooking her arm around her shoulders. She felt a little better after that but soon realized that nothing had changed. Her heart pricked whenever she thought of Lee Miyoon’s face. She felt stifled as though she choked on her food, and sometimes, she would sweat cold sweat as though she was having nightmares.

She couldn’t expect help from anyone else there, and she couldn’t tell anything about it to her mother since she would probably tell her to stop.

Would it feel better if she complained about it to the club president? Would she feel better if she cried her eyes out saying that she was wronged? The moment she had those thoughts, she saw the club president looking at her worriedly. She… smiled.

“It’s fine. Well, things will get better. Oh, I’ll go home now. It’s about time for the last bus.”

“It’s that time already, huh.”

“Seonbae, thank you for listening to my words. I feel better now thanks to you. I’m not even worried anymore.”

Hearing those words, the club president made a despondent smile. It was just as she said - she was quick at reading the mood. She probably understood what was on her mind already.

“Sorry for not being able to help you. Looks like I only ended up wasting your time.”

“No, it really isn’t like that.”

She shook her head vigorously. The club president shrugged before standing up.

“Alright. Get going. Watch out since it’s dark.”

“You should be careful too, seonbae.”

“Well, I can just beat up any perverts coming my way, so I’m not worried.”

She said goodbye to the club president who waved her hand and walked towards the bus stop.

‘I shouldn’t have mentioned it.’

It would’ve been better if she hadn’t said anything about it. She knew that it was a problem that other people couldn’t help her with. It was her fault for trying to rely on someone else. She felt sorry when she thought back to the expression the club president made just before they parted. It wasn’t the club president’s fault at all.

‘Yes, it’s better not to talk about it.’

She tried to calm down. There was no need to share her worries with someone else. It was better for her to worry by herself.

She thought back to Maru’s figure in the cinema before. Such a strong boy, who never showed his weak side, was crying silently while watching the movie. How many things had he experienced? How many pains did he endure by himself?

Everyone had it hard. There was no need to show her pains to someone else. It was painful and scary, but she thought that she had to endure it by herself.

After getting on the bus, she subconsciously started biting on her nails. Then, she heard a snapping noise, and when she had a look at her hand, she saw that the nail she was biting on had cracked. She shook her head once. She felt her tongue drying out when she thought about the shoot tomorrow. She tried to think about something else, but it was to no avail.

When the bus arrived near her house, she got a call from Maru.

-I just called because I wanted to hear your voice. You home?

“No, I’m going home.”

-It’s quite late. Practice?

“Yeah. Are you home?”

-I’m almost there.

“Alright, be careful on your way home.”

She swallowed the words echoing in her mouth. She didn’t want to grumble like a little child. However, she thought that she would burst out crying and tell him everything if she continued calling him. So she decided to end the call.

“I need to get off now. I’m hanging up.”

-Are you… okay?

“Of course I am. Don’t worry about it. I mean it. Really.”

Just as she said those words, she realized that she wasn’t hearing anything from her phone. There was a slight buzzing noise before the call ended. She pulled her chin inwards, bit her lips, and put her phone inside her pocket. She pressed the buzzer and stood in front of the back door. The bus stopped and the door opened. She sniffed once before walking down the stairs[1].

A chilly wave of wind stroked past her face and she just stepped on the ground while curling up a little, when she saw someone sitting on the chair underneath the bus stop.

That boy, wearing a chestnut-colored cardigan waved his hand as though nothing had happened, and said this,

“Your mom said that you weren’t home yet. I didn’t come at a bad time, right?”

[1] Some buses have stairs in Korea. The low-level buses for wheelchairs are specifically marked as such.

Chapter 445

“Youth sure is good alright.”

Choi Haesoo breathed in a wave of coffee fragrance that came from her mug. A colleague of hers gave the coffee to her as a present saying that the coffee had a strong sour taste, but for now, the smell was enough to satisfy her. She grabbed the mug and sat in front of her work table. It was a sitting table in the living room. This old table that had been with her for more than ten years was the one that Haesoo cherished the most, and it was her number one item to make a living. The cream-colored laptop on top of it was number two.

She put the mug next to the laptop and looked at her draft that she had printed out. The manuscript she had written two years ago was only polished into a draft quite recently. The story was about the love of a young couple. She never had any plans to complete it, but when she had a look at her daughter recently, she really had the urge to write it. She thanked her daughter for reminding her of this old manuscript.

She turned on the music at a low volume so that she could not hear the lyrics and opened the word processor program. To arrive at this moment, Haesoo did some cleaning and laundry, created some side dishes, and not only that, she even carefully cleaned the clay dolls that she put up as decoration next to the TV. After that, only when she admitted that there was nothing else for her to do other than write, did she make a cup of coffee and sit in front of the laptop.

However, just because she opened the word processor didn’t mean that she was going to write immediately. As for how long it would take her to write the first sentence, no, even the indentation for the first sentence, Haesoo herself didn’t know that either.

“What a bold kid.”

He carefully asked if her daughter had returned only after all sorts of formalities and blessings for her family. She was impressed by the amount of effort he put into knowing the absence of her daughter so she answered him pretty easily.

-Then she should be back soon, I guess. Understood, thank you, ma’am.

Saying those words, Maru then said all sorts of other formalities like how he’ll visit next time, apologized for calling so late, and things like that. Haesoo herself ended up asking him to take care of her daughter and hung up.

“Wait, did he aim for that?”

What a devious kid. The way he used his smarts wasn’t that hateful, so he didn’t lose points there, though. The text from her daughter saying that she got on the bus was twenty minutes ago, so perhaps the two had met up at the bus stop right now.

Haesoo drank a sip of coffee. She was told that it had a strong acidic taste, but perhaps thanks to her dull taste buds, it was no different from any other coffee. In fact, it was good that it tasted ordinary. If it was too peculiar, she wouldn’t be able to drink it properly.

“Maru should be the one leading huh,” she muttered as she put her hands on her laptop.

She wondered if she should ask him sometime. It was obvious that asking her daughter would make her jump around in embarrassment and gloss over it, so it would be better to ask Maru instead.

“Should I just call him here instead?”

It was another kind of fun to watch her daughter being uneasy. Ever since her husband passed away, her daughter seemed to be under the impression that she should grow up strong, leading to the loss of her cute side that she showed when she was young. Although she was thankful that her daughter was growing up healthily, there were definitely some parts she wasn’t entirely satisfied with. Her daughter was a kind girl, but she always found it hard to rely on someone else. It wasn’t that she hated it, but that she found it hard to do so.

As a parent, she couldn’t help but feel sorry whenever she saw her daughter like that. Her daughter was a girl of a lot of tears but was not weak, and she was always worried about her mother.

Her daughter had become, no, tried to become an adult early.

Haesoo always hoped for her daughter to rely on her more. Acting childish, stubborn, and even crying at times. She wanted to see her being immature just like any others of her age, but her daughter always wrapped her immature soul in the shell that she should be an adult and smiled.

As a mother, Haesoo did not want to ruin her efforts, and as such, just accepted it silently.

‘At least she looks she has changed now.’

Haesoo didn’t know whether it was because she started acting, or because she met Maru, but ever since she entered high school, she had changed quite a lot. There was a lot less hesitation when talking about what she holed up inside.

Recently, she looked like she was holding something back just like before, but Haesoo did not pry. If she asked worriedly, that child would instead curl up even more and say to her that she was okay with a smile.

“Would it have been different if he was still alive?”

Haesoo looked up at the ceiling while holding the mug which still had some warmth, before shaking her head. That was enough reminiscence. It was time to work now.

Just as she was thinking that she got a message through the messenger program that she opened. The message was from Ahn Pilhyun. She had sent him the completed draft a while ago to get his opinion, and the message seemed to be about that.

-Isn’t it too old woman-like?

Haesoo clenched her teeth and sighed in a low voice. This man was a cheap guy that would sell his soul for a glass of beer and some fried chicken, but he was brutal when it came to evaluating others. He never went easy on his colleagues.

Haesoo made a smirk as she pressed the spacebar.

Thanks to him, she was now motivated to work.

* * *

The swing made some creaking noises. She kicked the dirt beneath her foot once again. The swing once again made some loud noises.

“The weather’s gotten cold,” said Maru, who was sitting on the next swing over.

She said ‘true’, in a small voice.

“What brings you here?”

It had been ten minutes since they met. She greeted him dazedly back at the bus stop, and she followed without thinking when he said that they should go to the playground. She was only able to ask that question after spending ten minutes in a daze on the creaky swing.

“I’m here to see you,” Maru said, as though he was stating the obvious like ‘the sun will rise again tomorrow’.

She became speechless once again when she heard such a direct answer. Normally, she would tell him that he shouldn’t have come in a panicked, prankful, then joyful manner.

That was what ‘being herself’ was, but for some reason, it was hard for her to say that today.

“Really?”

For some reason, she replied in a dry tone. She thought to herself that that wasn’t right, but she soon reached the conclusion that this was for the better. It would be better to show him her tired side. Then, Maru would worry about her condition, and if she led the conversation that way, they wouldn’t have to talk about what she was holding within her.

It was a shallow method, but she did not have the leisure to think too deeply. I didn’t come at a bad time, right? - Maru said back at the bus stop. She inwardly thought that he came at the perfect time.

The moment she saw Maru at the bus stop, she almost blurted out the story of that person that bullied her for the past several weeks. She wanted him to know and understand just how hard and painful she had it, and she wanted him to console her. The only reason she managed to hold back her urge was because she was reminded of her resolve to not become luggage for him.

“What a bland reaction.”

“Sorry, I’m just tired. I’ve been yawning for a while now.”

She forced her mouth open to act like she was yawning.

“You know what?” Maru said after staring at her.

“What?”

“When you yawn, you usually end up showing your canine teeth. If you yawned that intensely, then it means that you are really tired.”

Maru smiled as he showed his own canine teeth.

She made an awkward smile and avoided his gaze. How he knew such a thing didn’t matter right now. What mattered was the fact that Maru was looking at her worriedly.

“I’m just tired. I have practice during the week and shoots during the weekend. I don’t have any free time at all. Moreover, mom keeps sending me on errands at home. You know that my mom doesn’t do any housework when she starts writing, right? I had to do the dishes, the laundry, the cleaning, and… let’s not even get there. I’m practically a housekeeper. Even if we do get married later, I’m not worried about doing household chores.”

She spoke without any directionality. She didn’t even know what she was talking about as she was talking. She felt her hurried words sink like wet cotton. Maru was quietly looking at her.

What was she supposed to say here?

She then talked about the things that happened during the day without taking a breath: like how she felt bad because the noodles that came out for lunch were all bloated; like how she was surprised because she was picked out to present in front of the class; like how funny one of her club juniors was…

She felt her mouth drying out. She made an awkward smile before standing up from the swing.

“Hey, we might go past midnight at this rate.”

“True.”

She hesitantly looked at Maru. At that moment, Maru stood up from the swing.

“The practice I do in Anyang is really hard.”

Something completely unexpected came out of Maru’s mouth. She was dazed and just stared at Maru’s mouth.

“Senior Ganghwan really isn’t easy to deal with. He never takes a break unless everything from one to ten is perfect. I want to just fall down and get some rest, but he doesn’t allow that. Not only that, senior Miso is no better than senior Ganghwan, in fact, she’s worse. But the problem is, even as I do so much practice, I feel uneasy in a corner of my heart. I put in so much effort, but what if all this effort becomes useless?”

Maru looked really exhausted and afraid as he said those words. She had known him for two years, but this was the first time he showed her such a weak side. This was completely different from when he cried subconsciously at the cinema.

“Even now, I think to myself every now and then - Do I need to stop now and focus on something else? But I become hesitant once again because I find acting fun. It’s frustrating, really.”

He looked like he was going to fall down at any moment.

Her heart raced. What happened? Why was he acting like this? Maybe something serious happened to him? But above all,

“…Don’t worry. Everything will go well. I mean it,” she said from the bottom of her heart.

She couldn’t think of anything else other than calming down the uneasy Maru. She wanted to say something cooler and more helpful, but that was all she ended up saying in the end. She felt that anything else was unnecessary.

Maru, who was making a depressed expression, took in a deep breath before making a relaxed smile.

“That makes me feel much more relaxed.”

Maru approached her, and slowly spoke,

“If you have anything to tell me, you really should.”

“……”

“If you don’t, then that’s fine too. It’s getting cold. Be careful on your way home. Thanks for listening to me.”

Maru tightly grabbed her hand once before turning around. At that moment, she started talking without even knowing it.

“There’s someone I really don’t like. She’s an actress called Lee Miyoon, and I really hate her. When I look at her, I just want to run away. I want to cry, and I want to give up on everything. But I don’t want to do that. I’m going to keep doing it, I will endure it, and I. Will. Overcome her. I will make her acknowledge me.”

She said those words as though she was shouting. She panted to calm her rough breathing as she looked at Maru. Maru, who had his back to her, turned around slowly and made a soft smile as he spoke,

“Don’t worry. Everything will go well. I mean it.”

And then,

“If it doesn’t work, then I’ll give her a good rebuke. That bad woman, that is.”

Maru waved his hand at her.

She dazedly looked at Maru who was getting further and further away before clenching her fists and running towards him. Then, she grabbed his shoulders and turned him around forcefully before placing her lips against his.

Maru was surprised and took a step back.

She turned her head upwards and breathed out before looking at Maru again.

“Don’t just come over as you wish, that’s a warning.”

“…Okay.”

“And also, thanks. I’m going now!”

“A-alright. S-see you next time.”

She waved her hand at the stuttering Maru before turning around. The frustration in her heart had disappeared without a trace.

Chapter 446

The sensation that brushed his lips still remained. When he looked at her face that approached his like it was in slow motion, he ended up closing his eyes. He ‘received’ the kiss nervously as though he was a little kid being teased by a girl older than him. When their lips parted, Maru almost let out a breath of nervousness. He barely held himself back from doing so.

Until the very moment he arrived back home and laid on his bed, Maru was dazed. And then, when he covered himself with a blanket and looked at the moon-shaped glow-in-the-dark stickers on the ceiling, he burst out laughing from the bottom of his heart.

“Looks like she got me this time.”

She one-upped him so pleasantly that he would welcome it at any time. Strictly speaking, this was the first kiss. The first kiss that she did for him.

‘How aggressive.’

He chuckled and grabbed his phone. He was about to call her but saw that it was late and texted her instead. Since she was someone who would sleep like a log, she would probably check the text tomorrow morning.

-Wasn’t that too hot?

After sending the text, Maru closed his eyes. He felt as though he was going to smile throughout his sleep.

* * *

“I’m going to have a look at your individual acting in an audition-like format next week, so be prepared for that. Prepare your clothing as well. Consider it as a real audition. Okay?”

Miso stood up with her coffee mug.

It was 8 in the evening. Wednesday's schedule was now over. Maru stretched his neck left and right. He was on edge after acting as an angry person the whole day. The emotion known as anger required not just the voice, but all the bodily muscles, so it was really hard to do. Even now that he had relaxed his body, his emotions were still on edge, and didn’t easily calm down.

“Gosh, that’s killing me.”

Gwangseok got his bag and stood up.

“Hyung, I’m leaving first. I’m going to play with the girl at the mixer today. Look forward to my review. The two of you, see you next time.”

Gwangseok boasted that he had a mixer with a college girl who majored in dance ever since he came to class.

“Does he really have to be like that?”

As soon as Gwangseok left, Gyunglim clicked her tongue. Sungjae just smiled without saying much.

“Girls who like those kinds of guys need some mental consultation.”

“Noona.”

“What?”

“Why don’t you shoot a fighting scene with Gwangseok-hyung? Kick his ass in the name of practice.”

“Should I?”

Gyunglim seriously thought about it. Maru shrugged before turning around to Sungjae.

“Hyung, you know today’s the day, right?”

“Of course I do. Let’s visit the supermarket before we go. We need to buy high-quality ones.”

“We just need to buy some pork belly and some soju.”

Gyunglim, who was listening, interrupted.

“Where are you two going?”

“I have an appointment with Sungjae-hyung.”

Gyunglim hesitated for a while before speaking,

“I can’t join you?”

Maru scratched his eyebrows. Normally, he would take her, but he wasn’t making the decisions for this one.

“Sorry, Gyunglim. We’re meeting some adults, so Maru will be in a tough spot if he brings someone that wasn’t planned to attend.”

Just as Maru was about to explain, Sungjae spoke first.

“If that’s the case, it’s fine. I just asked. I was wondering if you two were leaving me out or something.”

Gyunglim immediately shut her mouth in an awkward fashion after saying those words. It seemed that her habit of blurting out what was on her mind was not going to be fixed anytime soon.

“Then let’s eat together next time. We’re going to have a drink today. Noona, how about it?”

“Don’t mind me. I’m completely fine…… But when specifically?”

Maru and Sungjae laughed at the same time. Sungjae asked if this Saturday was good. Gyunglim said that it was okay with a bright face.

“Maru, how about you?”

“How busy can a high school student be? It’ll be two when my club activities finish, so why don’t we meet up at five? But you can’t just go to any restaurant, can you, Sungjae-hyung?”

“We’ll just drink over at my house then. As fellow actors in the making.”

“Don’t call Gwangseok over.”

Gyunglim firmly spoke.

“Alright, fine. Gwangseok already said that his weekend was full. Let’s meet on the weekend then.”

Gyunglim replied yes before standing up first.

“See you then!”

Gyunglim waved her hand in excitement as she left the classroom.

“Geez, that noona.”

“That was unexpected. I thought Gyunglim didn’t like hanging out with people.”

“She probably does. She must just… have her own circumstances.”

Sungjae nodded.

“Let’s go as well. We’ll be just in time once we visit the nearby supermarket. Wow, I’m really nervous though.”

“We’re just going over to have a drink. You don’t have to be so nervous.”

“It’s not as easy as you make it to be. I think I’m even more nervous than at my concerts.”

Sungjae seemed like he really looked forward to meeting the elder. Maru faintly smiled as he watched Sungjae’s slightly childish side.

After leaving the classroom, the two headed to the parking lot underneath the building. They left the parking lot in Sungjae’s car and went to a nearby supermarket. Sungjae had to wear a hat and press down the shade deeply to hide his face. After watching him put some items in the cart, Maru spoke,

“Hyung.”

“Yeah?”

“You don’t need to buy so much.”

“I’m going to meet Sir Yoon, so it would be rude to go with nothing in my hands.”

Saying those words, Sungjae put a box of red ginseng gifts in the cart. Red ginseng, dried persimmons, traditional sweets, and even high-class soju. Maru had to drag Sungjae to the meat corner from the well-being corner. If he left Sungjae alone, he might have piled a tower of well-being foods.

“Is pork belly really okay? Isn’t beef better[1]?”

“Pork belly is fine.”

He had to stop Sungjae from ordering 10 geun[2] and asked the staff to package three geun. Ganghwan and his appetite should be able to finish two, and the other one should suffice as a side dish for drinking.

“Is this really fine?”

Sungjae looked very worried in front of the counter.

‘Dude, this is nearly 500k worth of items.’ Maru clicked his tongue as he looked at the number keep ticking up. The red ginseng set was 270 thousand won. The Andong soju-in-a-gourd set was 80 thousand. The Sangju dried persimmons and the Naju pears also took a significant portion of the final tally.[3]

“You bought too much.”

“I should at least do this much.”

“Are you marrying in or something? Geez.”

They went back to the car with their hands full of items. Maru had a hard time preventing Sungjae from picking up some oriental medicine items on the way out.

They barely got the car going and drove towards Yeonhui-dong.

“I wonder if Sir Yoon still remembers me.”

“He does. He permitted you to come because he remembers you. So please calm down already. Sometimes I wonder how you are still a singer.”

“It’s not anyone ordinary but Sir Yoon. It’s someone I really wanted to meet after all.”

He looked like a child on the night before a field trip. Maru shook his head and opened the window slightly. The car was being driven at a slightly fast speed that reflected Sungjae’s excitement. Thanks to that, they arrived earlier than they expected.

Sungjae parked the car in front of the house and they took out the items from the back seats. They had bought so much that just carrying them could be considered labor.

“The lights are off. Perhaps he’s sleeping?”

Like Sungjae said, the house behind the fence didn’t have any lights on. No human presence could be felt. Just then, Maru heard a dog barking from the hill. When he turned around, he saw a yellow dog wagging his tail as he ran towards him. Oh, was it a Shiba-inu?

Anyway, Maru knew the name of the dog.

“It’s Dalgu.”

Dalgu seemed to have remembered his scent and came right up to Maru and wagged his tail. Maru reached out and tickled Dalgu under his chin. Dalgu raised his head while barking.

“The fact that you’re here means that…”

Maru turned around to look at the hill again. He saw a person walking towards him calmly under the faint moonlight. Dalgu barked before running back to that person.

“Elder!”

Maru greeted after putting the items on the ground. Sungjae did the same. The elder, who walked to his house along with Dalgu, greeted them back in kind.

“Oh my, why did you bring so many things?”

“Sungjae-hyung over here went a little overboard because this is his first time visiting you.”

Maru took a step back. Sungjae looked at the elder with a nervous expression.

“H-hello, sir.”

Sungjae greeted with a shaking voice. The elder pushed up his rectangular gold-rimmed glasses and smiled gently.

“So we meet again. Nice to see you, Mr. Ahn.”

The elder reached out his hand. Sungjae smiled brightly and grabbed the hand with both hands[4].

“Well then, we shouldn’t stay here instead of going inside. Maru, you should come in as well.”

“Yes, elder.”

They grabbed the items and went into the house. The elder’s house hadn’t changed at all since the last time Maru came here. The worn-out sofa, the old table, as well as the cutting-edge laptop that looked out of place among all the other old items. The smell of doenjang circulated inside the whole house.

On one corner of the sofa was a pile of books, and next to those were some scripts. Sungjae looked around the room once as though looking at treasure, and then at the scripts.

“You might burn a hole with your eyes.”

“Ah, yes. Sorry about that.”

The elder laughed before walking towards the kitchen. Maru followed behind.

“The portable stove should be around here.”

“I put it over there the last time I came here.”

Maru opened one of the cabinets and took out the portable stove.

“For some reason, you know your way around here better than me, even though I’m the one who lives here.”

“True. Just sit down. I’ll get things ready.”

“Alright. Let me receive the king treatment after all this time. Oh, when is Ganghwan coming?”

“He should be here soon. He’s never late to an appointment for a meal.”

“Indeed. That boy might as well jump into a pit of fire if there’s food in there.”

The elder laughed and headed to the living room where Sungjae was. Maru stuck his head out and looked at Sungjae. Sungjae was stiff like a statue as he faced the elder.

‘Does he find it that good?’

For today, it seemed that he was no longer the idol, but the fan meeting the idol. Conversation could be heard from the living room. The elder seemed to have spoken first. Hearing Sungjae reply in an excited tone, Maru smiled as he got things ready. He laid out some newspaper on the ground of the living room before coming back to the kitchen to chop up some spring onions. He made some sesame oil-and-salt sauce, and some ssamjang before washing some vegetables. He also prepared a handful of crispy peppers that the elder liked.

“I’m here!”

Just then, Ganghwan’s voice could be heard along with the sound of the door opening.

“Oh! A popular idol!”

Those were his first words. It was just like Ganghwan. As they had met before, Sungjae didn’t get flustered and replied with a greeting. Maru heard this as they came here, but apparently, Sungjae liked Ganghwan to the point that he watched many of Ganghwan’s plays. Though, last time at Film was the first time they met.

Ganghwan peeked inside the kitchen.

“Here you are.”

“You’re here?”

“Yeah. Need help?”

“Please carry these out for me.”

“Roger that.”

Sungjae said that he would help out as well, but the elder stopped him. You’re here as a guest, so stay still - those were the elder’s words.

“Ooh, Andong soju, huh. Sir, can you give me one of these?”

“I got them as a gift. How come you’ve never bought me any gifts even though you’ve visited me several times?”

“Sir, I’ve learned that I should stay further away from materialistic gifts the closer I am to someone. I always do what I learned.”

“You and your tongue again. Fine.”

The living room was filled with laughter. Maru brought the side dishes and meat to the living room.

[1] Beef is more expensive in Korea than Pork, and hence considered as more ‘luxury’ food.

[2] Meat is measured in ‘geun’ in Korea, with one ‘geun’ being 600g. Curiously, the character is the same as the Chinese character for ‘jin’, but one ‘jin’ is 500g while one ‘geun’ is 600g. So here, 10 geun is 6 kilos, while 3 geun is 1.8 kilos.

[3] The italicized words are all location names in Korea, and are known for producing high-quality items that follow the italicized words.

[4] In Korea, when an elder offers you a handshake, it’s considered etiquette for the younger person to grab with both hands, especially when the two are far apart in age.

Chapter 447

A soju glass was placed on top of Dalgu’s head as he slept with his front paws overlapping. Despite that, Dalgu did not budge. Following that, a long slice of cucumber was placed on top of the glass. Dalgu didn’t move even with that.

“He might not wake up even if we build a tower on top of him.”

“Don’t. By age, he’s the second oldest here after me.”

“Dalgu’s that old already?”

“He is.”

Ganghwan smiled and stroked Dalgu’s head.

“I think they’re all done.”

Maru cut the pork belly strips into pieces on top of the grill. He sliced them into bite sized pieces and moved them in front of the elder.

“I guess I’m going to eat something good thanks to Sungjae.”

Ganghwan smiled as he spoke. While the meat was being cooked, they had already exchanged some alcohol, and Ganghwan had dropped the formalities with Sungjae. It seemed that alcohol set the hierarchy straight regardless of era.

“The meat is grilled well.”

“I’m good at that. You should eat some as well, elder. It’s good.”

“Alright, alright.”

Everyone made ssam[1] and put them in their mouths.

“Here, you should all receive one from me.”

The elder picked up the bottle of pot soju. It was the Andong soju that Sungjae had bought. When Sungjae was about to kneel to receive a glass from him, the elder shook his head.

“You should be at ease.”

“Okay.”

The empty glass was filled with soju. Sungjae poured one for the elder.

“May I say something again here?” Ganghwan said as he raised the glass.

The elder smiled and nodded.

“Sir, please look after your health. I still feel shocked when I think about what happened last time when you collapsed.”

“I can take care of my own health, boy.”

After a round of laughter, Ganghwan shouted ‘to his health!’ to toast. Maru raised his glass in the air a little before turning his head around to drink[2]. The drink was so heavy that he had a hard time swallowing. He held it in his mouth for a while before drinking it slowly as though he was slowly melting down a ball of ice cream. As the alcohol content was 30%, he would not be able to recognize even his parents if he drank it like ordinary soju[3].

However, the elder, who was also known to be a good drinker, was putting down his glass with a refreshed expression already. If no one was here to stop him, he would probably empty the entire bottle by himself.

“Gosh, that was strong,” Ganghwan said as he chewed on some cucumber sticks.

Sungjae also coughed. He said that he was confident at drinking, but he probably wouldn’t be able to last long considering the alcohol capacity of the people here.

‘I’m happy that my constitution allows me to drink a lot.’

Being able to drink a lot was a considerable advantage in South Korea. From small meetings to places with hundreds of millions of won lobbying, the negotiation table in this country usually considered soju as more important than documents. As the country like the word ‘we’ and ‘us’ so much, it placed importance in a sense of belonging, and the single most effective item to create that sense of belonging was alcohol. Assistant manager Kim might fail to get promoted even though he’s good at work, but assistant manager Park might get promoted because he’s good at drinking.

They exchanged drinks quietly for a while. Sungjae left half of the glass starting from the fourth glass.

“If you can’t drink anymore, then you shouldn’t. Don’t push yourself. That’s the most unsightly thing of all.”

“Yes, elder.”

“Maru, there's cold honey-water on the door side of the refrigerator. Bring a cup of that for Sungjae.”

Maru replied yes before bringing the honey water. Receiving it, Sungjae looked very happy, and that was probably because the elder dropped the honorifics with him. ‘Mr. Ahn’ and ‘Sungjae’ sounded very different after all.

Since it had been a while, the meat they brought started running out.

“Should I cut up some fruits?”

“Yes.”

Maru grabbed the fruit knife after putting the fruits that Sungjae bought next to him. He peeled them before cutting them to suitable pieces and putting them on a plate.

“Here they are.”

He forked a piece of pear and handed it over to the elder. Ganghwan grabbed the part where the seeds were and started biting into it. Sungjae refused. From his reddened face, he looked like he might throw up if anything entered his body right now.

“You should get some water to drink.”

“Uhm, okay.”

Realizing that Sungjae had reached his limit, the elder did not offer any more alcohol to Sungjae after that. Instead, Maru and Ganghwan’s glasses became busy.

“Shouldn’t you find a partner for Dalgu? He’s been by himself for a long time,” Ganghwan said after eating some dried persimmons.

“I told Junmin about it already,” the elder said as he looked at Dalgu.

“Ah, that senior has a lot of dogs at his house, didn’t he? Dalgu, you have it good. There’s a person that looks for your partner even if all you do is eat and sleep. Dogs live good lives.”

Ganghwan woke the dog up and played with it. Thankfully, Dalgu had a calm nature. If he had a bad character, he would probably have started growling.

“I’m going to get some fresh air. With this guy, too. Let’s go, Dalgu,” Ganghwan dragged Dalgu outside.

“I guess it should be quiet now that the noisy kid left,” the elder raised the soju bottle with a gentle smile.

“Ah, Maru.”

“Yes?”

“Don’t you need to go to school?”

“I do. I need to grab the last train,” saying that, Maru glanced at the clock.

It was 3 to 11. He would probably have to go after a while.

“Then stop drinking. I know that you are a good drinker, but you shouldn’t let it affect your studies.”

The elder turned the bottle around and tried to pour one for himself.

“I’ll pour one for you.”

Maru received the bottle and poured a glass for him. The elder put his nose on the tip of the glass and inhaled deeply before raising his chin a little to drink.

“It really is good.”

“I’ll come more frequently in the future,” Maru said, as he pressed on the part between his eyes.

“I’ll clean up now.”

Sungjae tried to help out, but it seemed that his body wasn’t listening to him. After saying that it was okay to Sungjae, Maru cleaned the table. He only left a plate of fruits and took away everything else. He opened the window to let the air circulate a little, when he saw Ganghwan sleeping on the rocking chair in front of the house. Dalgu was on his lap.

As the weather wasn’t that cold, he decided to leave him like that for now.

After doing the dishes, he shook the water off his hands before returning to the living room. Sungjae was leaning on the sofa, his eyes half loose, and the elder couldn’t be seen. It seemed that he went to the bathroom. After a while, the elder came out of his room and in his hands were some blankets and a pillow.

“Are you planning to sleep here?”

“Since I have guests around, I thought I’d sleep in the living room. Sungjae, you should sleep over as well, if you don’t have any work.”

“I’m okay sir.”

“I saw you bringing a car. Or is it that you have work tomorrow?”

“No, it’s not like that, but I was thinking I was going to be a bother to you.”

“You’re not a bother at all. In fact, I quite like it with all the presences here. Maru, help me out a little.”

Maru received the blankets and laid them out on the floor. Just then, the front door opened and Ganghwan and Dalgu came back. Ganghwan dived into the blanket as soon as he saw them. The elder smiled with satisfaction as though he was used to seeing this before putting a thin blanket over him.

“I wonder who’s going to take this immature kid.”

“If he ever does get married, I’d feel sorry for the wife.”

Maru lifted Ganghwan’s head and put a pillow underneath. Ganghwan soon fell asleep and started snoring. The elder’s face was full of smiles as though he liked the fact that Ganghwan made himself at home.

“It would’ve been great if you slept here as well.”

“I do need to go to school. I’ll excuse myself during the holidays.”

Maru laid out the blanket for the elder and then for Sungjae right next to it. After hesitating, Sungjae lowered his head at the elder’s gesture before lying down next to him.

“Urgh, I should lie down as well.”

Maru looked at the three people lying comfortable on the ground - well, one of them looked uncomfortable. It seemed that Sungjae had recovered from the alcohol, as he was looking at the ceiling with unease.

Maru stroked Dalgu who came over and stroked his head while on his knees. He probably had ten minutes to spare.

“At first, you know,” the elder, who Maru thought was sleeping, spoke in a low voice.

“I thought acting was something that I was supposed to hide. I found it natural to hide myself and cover myself up with the role I’m playing. But after doing this for a long time, I realized that it’s not that. Acting is, you know, showing all of me. My embarrassments; my rage; my sadness. The profession known as acting is one that showed all of that without falsities. Both of you, become honest with yourselves. Do not put on a lie when you act. It’s extremely difficult to show yourself, but you must understand the difficulty. Do not take the easy route. The easy route, more often than not, ends up being shallow.”

After saying those words, the elder calmed down his breathing and fell asleep. Maru looked at Sungjae who lay next to him. He was looking at the ceiling with clear eyes. Nay, he seemed to be looking at something beyond that.

Maru got up from his knees and bowed towards the elder before putting his shoes on very quietly. When he slowly turned the doorknob, he heard Sungjae’s voice.

“Thank you so much.”

Maru turned around with a smile.

“Have a good night.”

Before he closed the door after leaving, he looked back inside one more time. Was there a better place to learn than this place for someone that does acting? This place was practically the holy land. He received precious teachings after doing some chores. He had benefitted a lot today.

“It’s quite chilly.”

Maru crossed his arms as he started walking.

There were stars in the deep indigo-colored sky.

[1] Wrap, usually with vegetables.

[2] It is considered courtesy for the younger to look away as they drink when they drink with elders.

[3] Soju usually has 25% alcohol content at this time. It started decreasing starting 2006 to counteract the ‘drinking culture’ of Korea, until it reached 17% in 2018.

Chapter 448

“Thank you, goodbye.”

He left with a small box of bagels. He wished he could bring that person out of his workplace and treat him to a good meal, but since that person wouldn't budge once he started working, he had to buy bagels to bring him instead. It was rather fortunate that that person liked all types of bread.

Sinsa-dong, Seoul. This place had changed a lot since the last time he visited here. The old-style coffee shop where LP music could be heard had been replaced by a franchise café, and the bar that used to be the top dog of this place was now surrounded by metal beams. It seemed that it was going to be torn down, and a new building was going to be built.

Junmin drove along the stream and stopped in front of a small café. After he parked the car, he climbed to the second floor using the staircase next to the building.

‘Studio M’. He looked at the gold-colored plate on the door before opening it. Black soundproofing materials covered every wall inside. Junmin stopped in front of the door that said ‘Mixing Room’. When he peeked inside through the small window on the door, he saw a man working in front of the mixer.

Junmin pressed down on the rather stiff door handle. Despite the door opening sound, the man sitting on the white chair was staring at the monitor without budging. He probably didn’t hear the door being opened at all. Looking at the black headphones that the man was wearing, he went inside.

‘His vision still becomes narrow when he concentrates.’

He tapped on the man’s shoulder. The man turned around to see him before nodding with a smile.

Junmin quietly pulled a chair over and sat behind him. On the wide white table was various equipment for mixing purposes. On one side, there was a microphone, and it was probably to be used for recording in the recording booth next door.

The large, human-sized speakers on each end of the room kept their silence. The man, who was spinning some dials to do his work, eventually took off his headphones.

“Our dear sound supervisor.”

“What are you planning to have me do now?”

“There you go again, thinking weirdly.”

The man laughed.

“But what brings you here?”

“I’m here to cheer you on,” Junmin said as he waved the box of bagels in the air.

The man, Moon Gyungtaek, raised his hand and gestured for Jumin to wait for a moment. After he pressed a few buttons, the speakers that had been silent until now started producing sound.

The sound made Jumin feel like he was standing in the middle of a downpour without an umbrella. A handcart passed by him. Trod, trod. The sound of powerless footsteps could be heard as well.

“I really like the ambiance I got this time. Thanks to that, I have a plentiful library.”

“So this is the sound of rain after coming back from dumping the corpse?”

“Yes, that’s it. You’re quite good.”

“Of course. I put a lot of money and effort into this.”

He opened the box of bagels and handed it over.

“Your work on this part is almost finished, right?”

“I just have to go to Namyangju and do the final mixing. Please give us some money once we finish so that I can take my team out to a meal. Our team worked really hard this time, you know?”

“Of course I know. That’s why I’m here.”

“Oh, no. You must be here to see if we’re working or not.”

“Geez, there you go again. Here, I should shut your mouth with this.”

As Gyungtaek had finished his first bagel in a flash, he handed him a cheese-topped one this time.

“For this movie, we only took three hours for the ADR[1]. Everyone’s a veteran so the process is so easy.”

“It’s the elder’s comeback piece after all. We should only be using veterans.”

“But even if we break even with this movie, I don’t think we’ll profit much off this.”

“You never know what will happen. Who could’ve guessed that ‘The Way Home’ would receive more than 4 million views? People are bound to be attracted to good movies.”

“How can you compare a human drama that warms your heart with a movie where an elder goes around killing his own kids with a hammer? I heard that you had to edit the poster three times because it didn’t pass the restrictions.”

“Although it’s become a lot more liberal, this country is still not that accepting of sex and violence.”

Gyungtaek chewed on the bagel while nodding his head.

“Ah, right, hyung-nim.”

“Hm?”

“I went to the Namyangju poly studio, and the new guy seemed really talented. You should watch over him for a while and give him some money under the table so you can hire him for your next work. He seems to be learning under engineer Nam, but from how I see it, he’ll surpass engineer Nam.”

“There you go again, what’s with ‘under the table’?”

Even while saying those words, Junmin committed Gyungtaek’s words to memory. Getting to know good engineers were just as important as getting to know good actors. This was especially the case with sound engineers and designers since individual talent mattered a lot in those fields. Putting in a request through someone else and putting in a request directly definitely had differences.

“The scenes looked good. I think the mise en scène that Joonggeun-hyung is so obsessed over can be seen as well.”

“I had a look at the edited video as well, and I could see that.”

Junmin smiled. The depressing ash-colored streets and the vain insanity of Sir Yoon Moonjoong blended well in the scenes.

“When’s the preview?” Gyungtaek asked.

“In two days.”

“Whoa, it’s that time already?”

“It is.”

“So if the final mixing goes as planned, it should be released around November?”

“Yeah.”

“I suddenly lost the will to work now.”

Junmin stuffed Gyungtaek’s mouth with one more bagel. After chewing on it for a while, Gyungtake turned around and started typing on the keyboard.

“There was a kid that followed me when I got the ambiance, yeah?”

“A kid?”

“His name was Han Maru, and I can still remember that kid since his acting was so savage. I even gave him my business card.”

“Haha, really?”

“You know him?”

“I do, I know him well.”

“Have you heard his audio?”

“No, I haven’t watched the whole video yet. I also skimmed through the soundtrack too. I’m quite busy, you know?”

“You’re supposed to be supervising the overall production, though. Aren’t you being too negligent here?”

“I gathered the best of the best precisely to care less about everything. I didn’t gather the best of the best just so I could be more than just the person that gives them money. I hired them so that everything will go well even without me.”

“Fine then. Since you’re here, though. You should try listening to it. It’s quite short, but it has a lot of impact. To think that an actor that can transfer so much emotion just through audio is that young - He’ll definitely become big.”

Gyungtaek smiled as he clicked on the mouse a few times. A brief moment later, the voices of the actors could be heard through the speakers. It wasn’t the sound that would be used in the final movie, but the raw voices of the actors that were captured using the microphone during the actual shoot.

The boy’s voice that could be heard along with some noises made Junmin smile. The moment he heard the boy’s words, he felt displeased. He felt humiliated and angry. That was what made him smile.

“How is it? Pretty good, eh?”

“It’s decent.”

“If you hear that while watching the video, you might end up swearing subconsciously. Such an ungrateful bastard, or something like that,” Gyungtaek said as he leaned back in his chair.

* * *

“Doctor, the patient disappeared.”

“What? The patient disappeared?”

Ganghwan panicked exaggeratedly and stood up from his chair and waved his shaky hands left and right. Next to him was Hanna, who was holding a diagnosis chart.

“Ah, there he is.”

Hanna approached Sooil, who was sitting down. Sooil shook his hand in the air in awkwardness, but due to Hanna’s passionate gestures, he was forced to sit in the chair next to Ganghwan.

“Mr. Patient.”

“Eh, yes?”

“You can’t run away like that. If you run, who would pay the hospital fees? Our hospital is not in a good situation financially. Your wallet is the only way to save our hosp-”

“Doctor!”

Hanna flinched and approached Ganghwan before hitting him on the head with the chart. It seemed pretty painful. Maru was reminded of Hanna's evil laugh before they started practice as she put a stack of paper in the plastic file. Maru remembered that evil smile and sighed in a small voice.

“That hurts!” Ganghwan shouted as he rubbed his head.

That was an ad-lib that wasn’t in the script. No, perhaps he was really crying out in pain instead of ad-libbing. But who was Hanna? She pressed Ganghwan down in the chair as though nothing happened and continued the skit.

“Well then, Mr. Patient. Please tell us what happened today.”

“Eh?”

“You know, things like what you had for lunch, why you’re here, as well as how much money you have in your wallet.”

“Doctor, can you please stop talking about money?”

Hanna poked Ganghwan’s shoulders with her elbow. The two really got along well. They might be a great comedy duo.

Sooil started talking about what was planned. He came to Daehak-ro with his girlfriend and planned to go to the famous pork cutlet restaurant.

Like that, they conversed for a while until Ganhgwan suddenly grabbed his chest and fell to the ground. Hanna flurried about before talking to Sooil, who was sitting down.

“He needs CPR!”

“Eh?”

“Quickly! Hurry!”

Sooil made a rather difficult expression as he looked forward. Maru, who was supposed to be the audience, clapped and cheered for Sooil. Eventually, Sooil got into the position to do CPR.

“I think this skit looks good like this.”

Ganghwan, who was lying down, sat up. Sooil also stopped acting awkwardly and sat down on the ground.

“I think dragging the audience like this to the stage is pretty good. There’s no pressure, and we are telling them what they need to do.”

Hearing Sooil’s words, Maru nodded in agreement.

“The problem is talking about serious stuff, but that’s up to the heavens so it’s not like our efforts will do anything much. I want to listen to the honest stories that people harbor in their hearts, but if that doesn’t work, continuing things in a comedic format like what we just did now doesn’t seem to be too bad.”

Ganghwan took a sip before sighing.

“But what are you going to do if someone talks about something really heavy?” Maru asked as he received the water bottle from Ganghwan.

Ganghwan said that what he wanted was for the people participating in the play to share their sadness. He planned to use the stage as a place for the audience to release their sadness. Maru didn’t know how much participation there would be, but if there were a lot of participants, and one person talked about something brutal that they couldn’t do anything but try to console them, would they still be able to continue the act?

“At that time, I will also use the power of the audience. You know? I don’t care if this project doesn’t influence how people think of plays at all. I would be satisfied as long as the individuals that participate in the play release their unspoken worries and sadness in the form of a play even if it’s just a little. The main point of this play is that sadness is halved when you share it with others.”

“It’s the higher-ups’ fault for letting this guy be in charge of the project. They should’ve looked more into him.”

“That’s right. It’s always a problem with the higher-ups.”

Hanna mercilessly poked the smiling Ganghwan’s waist. Ignoring him, who writhed on the floor, Hanna spoke,

“We’re going to do a guerilla performance tomorrow. It’s going to get cold soon, so we need to pull forward the schedule a little. If we get some decent reactions tomorrow, we’re going to start immediately.”

“Why do you get to tell them that? That was supposed to be my part.”

When Hanna raised her hand in the air, Ganghwan shut his mouth.

Maru and Sooil both laughed when they saw that.

“Looks like I should pray that there will be a lot of people tomorrow if I don’t want to sit in a daze in Marronnier Park with no one in it,” Maru said as he looked at the calendar.

Sunday, October 17th.

“7 is a lucky number so, it will go well,” said Ganghwan with a confident expression.

[1] Presumably ‘Automated dialogue replacement’. Wikipedia for more details.

Chapter 449

‘I’m going to close the store tomorrow, so take my daughter somewhere. Don’t go anywhere shady.’

Dojin thought back to what happened yesterday as he looked at the five ten thousand won bills in his hands. Saturday night. As he took a breather after a lot of customers left, Iseul’s mother quietly approached him and handed him the money. Dojin was originally going to refuse, but Iseul’s mother was adamant and stuffed it into his hands. Her hands were rather strong, yet gentle.

“Yeah, Iseul. I’m just leaving. Wait, you’re there already?”

Dojin looked at the clock. It was 10 in the morning. They promised to meet at Suwon station by 11.

“Why did you leave so early?”

-Because I was too bored while waiting at home. Take your time.

“Hey, how am I supposed to take my time when you’re there already? Wait a moment, I’ll be there soon.”

-Then get here in 10 minutes.

Iseul’s cheerful laughter could be heard over the phone. She really acted as she wished. Of course, it wasn’t that he felt displeased or anything. It wasn’t like this was the first time, and that was also one of her charming points.

“Mom, I’m leaving!”

He put on his shoes and hurriedly walked to the bus stop. Luckily, the bus heading towards Suwon station was just arriving. He stamped his travel card on the scanner and stood in front of the back door. He looked at his faint reflection on the window and combed his hair until the bus arrived at Suwon station.

“You’re here?”

The first thing he saw was the one-piece dress that Iseul was wearing. She always wore pants at school and at the restaurant because she found skirts uncomfortable. Dojin was unable to speak for a while as he looked at the pink one-piece dress that matched her reddish face.

“What, am I that pretty?”

“Uh, yeah? No, what?”

“You’re supposed to say that I’m pretty. But it feels rather uncomfortable after not wearing it for so long.”

Iseul grabbed the hem of her skirt and waved it sideways. Glimpses of her white thighs could be seen intermittently. Dojin abruptly opened his eyes and took off his jacket to cover her legs.

“Hey, they can see you!”

Hearing those words, Iseul smiled before pinching Dojin’s nose. Dojin made a nasal sound.

“I get it, so don’t overreact.”

Dojin sighed and put his jacket over his arm. Although it had been nearly a year since they started dating, she was still hard to handle.

“So? Where are you going to take me today?” Iseul asked as she reached her hand out.

Dojin grabbed her hand tightly just like he always did.

“I said we’ll go to Hyehwa station to see a play.”

“Before that, we should get lunch. You must have done your research, right?”

“Of course, I saw on the internet that there is a restaurant with a good curry. I’m learning how to make Japanese-style curry at the cooking academy, and apparently, I’ll get to taste what it’s like when we go there.”

“So are you going there to study or are we on a date?”

“Can’t I do both?”

Iseul chuckled and replied ‘you can’. They passed the ticket barrier and went inside. As it was Sunday, Suwon station was packed with people. After watching the crowd of people for a while, Dojin pulled his arm so that Iseul was right next to him.

“Oh, being considerate of me, are you?”

“Of course.”

“How reliable.”

When they smiled at each other, the train arrived.

“How’s the academy these days? Can you still handle it?”

“Yeah. I thought there would be a lot of girls, but surprisingly, there were a lot of men. Most of them are older than me so they look after me a lot.”

“The famous chefs and cooks are all male if you watch TV. That’s probably why.”

“I guess that’s true.”

“If you’re too busy to go to the academy, then you don’t have to come to help out anymore. My dad has gotten a lot better and he can start working now.”

“I’m doing it because I want to. I’m earning wages too.”

They got off at Geumjeong station and switched to line number 4. There were a lot of people wearing backpacks and they seemed to be going hiking. Dojin had Iseul stand next to the door and blocked in front of her.

“Where did you learn manners like these?”

Iseul smiled as she brushed Dojin’s hair. As they waited, they talked about the TV program that they watched on Saturday, then about dramas, and then their conversation led to talking about Maru.

“That was freaky.”

“Yeah. I thought it wasn’t Maru at first even when I had a look at his face.”

“He’s a friend of mine, but he really is incredible.”

“He’s also a friend of mine, you know?”

As they watched the scenery outside, they were told that the next station was Hyehwa. The train stopped, and they took a step outside the door.

Dojin was looking around as he climbed up the stairs, and from what he saw, 7 out of 10 people seemed to be on a date.

“The weather’s good,” Iseul said, as she looked up at the sky.

The yellowish sunlight was emitting just enough heat to be comfortable. The strong winds had died down as well so it was the perfect day for a picnic. Dojin grabbed Iseul’s hand.

“It’s still a little early for lunch, so should we look around?”

“Sounds good. I hope I can see the guitar guy that we saw last time. He was good.”

“I want to see the guy that played the janggu[1].”

“It’s a djembe, not a janggu.”

“Same thing.”

The two walked around the ticket office in front of the exit for a while before walking towards Marronnier Park. As expected of Daehak-ro on a Sunday, it was filled with vitality. They bought a corn dog each before walking towards the park.

“Looks like there’s a photo exhibit here.”

There were large photos lined up along the trees. Kids holding cotton candy were flocked in front of them, and Iseul was very fidgety as she looked at them. Iseul always liked children. When she looked at kids that came to the restaurant grabbing their moms’ hands, she would often go up to them and ask if she could hug them. Whenever that happened Dojin thought of Iseul being a preschool teacher. That would definitely suit her.

“This looks cool.”

Clouds on top of a cliff, and a tree covered in snow. That photo had a charm that attracted people’s eyes. When they looked below the photo, the name of the photographer was written on it, and the name under each photo was different. To the left of that was a noticeboard that explained the details of this exhibit.

“Apparently these are taken by the elderly.”

“Really?”

“Yeah. They aren’t taken by professionals, but by old people as a group activity of sorts.”

They looked around the photo exhibit. This was what was good about Daehak-ro. They didn’t have to prepare anything and there would always be things to look around and spend their time on in a joyful manner.

“We went there last year and did a small performance as the acting club, didn’t we?”

Iseul pointed at the bathroom. She was probably pointing at the place beyond the bathroom where the public performing grounds were - the place where there were round marble chairs around.

“Should we go there?”

Dojin moved. They went past the bathroom and as they approached the performing grounds, they heard murmuring sounds. Was there a performance? The last time they came here, a cool college band was playing music.

“Oh?”

They saw a group of four people where everyone was looking; three men and one woman.

“It’s Maru.”

“Senior Ganghwan is there too.”

“Oh!”

Iseul widened her eyes before grabbing Dojin’s hands and walking forward. Dojin was practically dragged by her.

“It’s Yoo Sooil.”

There was a good-looking boy where she was pointing. Dojin felt like he had seen that guy somewhere. He thought that it was perhaps on a telecommunication commercial. Dojin looked at Iseul displeased.

“Aren’t you liking it too much?”

“Whew, Han Dojin. Jealous, are you? Maybe I should do this from time to time.”

Iseul chuckled as she poked Dojin’s waist. How could she be so cute? - Dojin subconsciously grinned. He was going to get himself together and look at her seriously again, but he would always become soft when he looked at Iseul smiling at him. He was in a seriously bad condition.

“Maru said he was practicing for something recently and I guess this is it.”

Dojin said as he looked forward. Actually, while it was called the public performing grounds, there wasn't any equipment set up or anything like that. It was just that the chairs placed around were pointed at a wide opening. The four performers were standing on top of a pedestrian road as well.

They pushed forward and stood at the front. Dojin met eyes with Maru, and he nodded at him. There were around 30 people here. Some of them left after watching for a brief moment, while some took a seat.

“Ah, ah! My heart!”

Ganghwan clenched his chest before lying on the ground. Even though the ground must have been cold, he pulled out his tongue in a comedic manner and shouted ‘help me’. He rolled on the ground for a while before making a cool expression in front of a pretty girl and asked her ‘Is this ahjussi cool?’ making everyone around laugh.

“Someone help!” The woman that was also in the performance shouted urgently.

Dojin thought that there was a performer reserved for that role, but the woman kept shouting at the audience.

“There’s so many of you here and not even one of you is willing to help? Please help us. You should save this man.”

At that moment, Dojin felt his hand rise into the air. Iseul had raised her hand that was grabbing his.

“I’ll do it!”

“Thank you, lady.”

Iseul walked forward and put her hands on top of Ganghwan’s chest before pressing down. The people around all cheered.

“I think we need to do mouth-to-mouth.”

“What?”

“Mouth-to-mouth.”

The woman raised her hands in the air and started clapping. Mouth-to-mouth! Mouth-to-mouth! - when she started saying that in a certain rhythm, the audience followed suit.

Dojin looked at Iseul who was kneeling down with her knees together. Absolutely not - he vigorously shook his head, but Iseul made a strange smile and brushed her hair behind her ears.

“I’m really doing it!”

When Iseul said that, Ganghwan raised his hand in the air and shouted ‘okay!’. The audience started laughing again.

Iseul’s head started lowering down. The moment Iseul’s hair touched Ganghwan’s cheeks, Dojin tensed his eyes and walked forward!

“I’ll do it!”

Then he pushed Iseul away before taking a deep breath in. Since it came down to this, he decided he should have a blast doing it.

“H-hey! Not you!”

“It’s okay, senior! I’m good at kissing.”

“H-hey!”

He grabbed the resisting Ganghwan’s face and was about to ‘press down with his lips’ before turning his head around at the last second. It was impossible to do it for real.

“Doctor, have you come to yourself?”

“Yeah! That really brought me back to life. But for a brief moment, I had a really scary dream, you know?”

“What kind of dream was it?”

“In it, I was wearing a wedding dress.”

Ganghwan twisted his body up in embarrassment before coughing awkwardly and sitting down on a chair.

“The two patients over there, please sit down.”

Iseul, who looked like she was having an extremely fun time, grabbed Dojin’s hand and sat down. Dojin felt like he was sweating cold sweat due to all the gazes and boos that he was getting from around him. He was extremely nervous just like when he was standing on the stage.

“Are you two lovers?”

“Eh? Yes!”

“Then prove it to me.”

“Eh?”

Just as Dojin was dazedly looking at Ganghwan, he heard a smooch sound from next to him. When he looked next to him in surprise, he saw Iseul taking her face off his as though nothing happened at all. ‘Hey! Don’t you have any shame, woman?’

“My, my. You have a serious condition! Everyone, please give a round of applause to cure this man of his disease!”

Ganghwan stood up and induced the audience to start applauding. His prankster eyes and movements reminded Dojin of a clown. The audience reacted to each of his movements and followed him. Dojin became part of the audience for a moment and watched Ganghwan.

“Well then, go down. This place is only for the sick to come up. A lovey-dovey couple doesn’t belong here!”

Dojin went back to the front row under the applause of the audience. He was dazed by the sudden turn of events, but soon, there was a grin on his face.

“Everyone. I’m going to fall down due to heart disease in about 4 seconds, and let me remind you of something. First, only ladies are allowed. Second, the kiss should be a deep one. And third, I hope it’s someone who’s seriously willing to date me.”

When he said those words, the college girls lined up on the right side of the audience seats started screeching. It seemed that they were fans of Ganghwan’s. Dojin laughed and watched as Ganghwan fell down once again.

[1] A Korean traditional drum-like instrument with ‘drum faces’ on both sides.

Chapter 450

The play went according to plan. The people accepted the comedic theme without any sense of rejection, and they were able to call people to the stage without difficulties. No one found any difficulties when participating in the play as they treated it as a small event or wanted to make memories with a lover. They came up easily and got along with the actors, and they soon laughed and enjoyed themselves. There were no difficulties regarding the progression of the play. Although there was a set script, it was plenty possible to add some ad-libbing in the middle. It was a time to play together; they weren’t doing a stiff stage but rather a light-hearted game of sorts. They confirmed that the play could progress without a hitch as long as the audience reacted well.

“Thank you, thank you. Please come again next time.”

“Thank you.”

Maru politely thanked the people who stayed in their seats until the end. Although they started off with around five people, now that they were at the curtain call, about forty people were with them. A lot of people joined at once mid-way, and that was because those in the audience who recognized Ganghwan and Sooil had called their friends here. This was why fame was useful.

Ganghwan and Sooil were taking photos with some people. As this was Daehak-ro, there were quite a lot of people who recognized Ganghwan.

“He’s popular, isn’t he?”

“He is. People recognize him more than Sooil.”

“It’s because they’re people who frequently watch plays. Although he has his downsides, Ganghwan-oppa is really good when it comes to plays alone.”

Maru could feel a sense of pride from Hanna’s words. He nodded. There shouldn’t be a lot of people in this country who could disdain Ganghwan when he stood on stage.

“But what brings you two here?”

Maru looked at Dojin and Iseul who stood in front of him. From how they were dressed up and everything, they seemed to be on a date.

“We’re of course here to play around,” Iseul replied.

“Are you going to grab a proper stage and do this?”

Iseul’s gaze was directed at Hanna. As the two women were both sociable, the two got along quickly.

“No, we’re going to keep doing this here. That oppa’s intention is to talk to as many people as possible.”

Hanna looked at Ganghwan.

“But it’s gotten a lot colder, hasn’t it?” Hanna said as she crossed her arms.

Even though the wind wasn’t blowing at all, it felt rather cold after staying outside for a long time. It seemed that autumn was autumn after all.

“Looks like we should prepare if we want to do it until late into the night. While we might be okay, we don’t want the audience to leave because they’re cold.”

“I guess we should provide a heater. Oh, and some blankets if we can.”

“We should get a hot water tank and some hot tea as well to attract some audience.”

“That’s a nice idea. It’s not like that costs a lot of money.”

Maru thought that all art had its purpose in being shown. Even the most perfect sculpture was just a stone if there was no one to appreciate it. The sculpture could only be called ‘art’ because the sculptor was the first viewer to appreciate it.

This play was set up with the purpose of communication. He wanted to attract as many people as possible. A heater, some tea, and some blankets. Although these were trivial things, they should help out a lot when it comes to attracting people here and making them stay.

“Let’s do some advertising as well. We don’t want too many people here, so we should hand out balloons around the park on the day of the performance. No, that might be too much work, so let’s go with something more practical.”

“I think handing out food is the easiest way. How about warm cans of coffee?”

“I guess we can write the characteristics of this play on those then. If people with the intention to share their worries come to the play, we’ll be able to more easily induce them to participate, and once we form an atmosphere where people are talking about themselves, it should be easier for them to talk.”

“Hm, Maru.”

“Yes?”

“Do you want to sell some tickets in front of our theater next time? I think you’ll do really well.”

“I’ll think about it if you give me hourly wages and incentives.”

Maru made a circle with his fingers. Hanna tapped on his shoulders to tell him that it was just a joke.

“What should we write then?”

“Free talk platform?”

“That’s too general.”

Hanna shook her head. Words that could attract a certain group of people. It’s good to have an audience with a variety of characters, but if they wanted things to go as Ganghwan intended then they needed an audience that could talk honestly about themselves.

The purpose of this play and the reason for its birth was to handle more sadness than happiness. What did they have to write in order to induce them into talking about their pains, or perhaps their embarrassments?

“What are you talking about?” Dojin, who was listening from the side, asked.

Maru was so focused on exchanging opinions with Hanna that he forgot about the two. He explained the basic outline to Dojin and Iseul.

“A play where you share your sadness huh. It sounds good, but would there be anyone who wants to do it?” Iseul asked in confusion.

“We’ll have to gather as many as we can. There are always people who want to complain about things. Or, they might want people to cry with them.”

“Why don’t you keep things simple and write ‘we’ll cry with you’, or something?” Dojin said.

While it got the meaning across really well, it was so blatant that it might actually arouse the antipathy of the audience instead. They were in Daehak-ro, the street of the young. Just how were they supposed to transfer an emotion that was the polar opposite of the vitality that this area had in order to make it sound less rejective?

“We’re going to perform here regularly from now on, so please come. Also, there are a lot of great things in Daehak-ro so please look around as well.”

“Like our play.”

Ganghwan and Sooil used their popularity to advertise the play. Although it looked like they would always have an audience thanks to those two, they required an audience with pent-up emotions if they wanted the pathos that Ganghwan wanted.

“Let’s eat some food for now,” Hanna said as she eased the wrinkles on her forehead.

“Sounds good. You two are…”

Maru looked at Iseul and Dojin.

“We’ll leave now. We’re on a date today, so we should make the most out of it,” Iseul said as she pulled Dojin’s arm.

“Alright, go on then.”

“Good luck with practice. Unni, I’ll definitely come and watch some time.”

Maru waved his hand at the couple that left the park.

“What should we do about lunch then?”

“Let’s just go to any place once those two come,” Hanna said as she looked at the two that were being held back by fans. Meanwhile, Maru folded up the chairs they used as props during their performance. Even if they officially started performing, there shouldn’t be a lot of props. Maybe a doctor’s gown and some medical charts?

“What about the other two?” Ganghwan asked after coming back from taking photos with his fans.

“They went to get lunch. We should get going as well.”

“Really? I was going to treat them though.”

“They came here on a date so we should let them be. Rather than that, where should we go?”

“Let’s go to the pork cutlet restaurant nearby. We should eat lightly and try it again in the evening.”

While they walked towards the restaurant, Hanna talked about the few ideas that came up during her conversation with Maru.

“That sounds good.”

Sooil suggested that they should hand out small presents to those that came up on stage. It was a great way to increase participation.

“I think we should go with souvenirs or discount tickets.”

“How about my autograph? No, we should get a hundred autographs of Geunsoo. That should work, it’ll be cheap too.”

“That’s a little…”

They walked into the restaurant while smiling. They each ordered a pork cutlet dish and while the food was being prepared, they started adding flesh to the ideas they talked about.

“Hey, that notepad is the same as the one the president carries with him,” Sooil said as he saw the notepad that Ganghwan was holding.

“Oh, this? He gave it to me. I usually don’t like writing stuff down, but he told me that even geniuses write notes. But I’m not a genius either. So that’s when I started carrying this around, writing various things. At this point, I feel rather awkward when I don’t have it with me.”

The worn-out leather cover seemed to signify Ganghwan’s efforts.

Maru clenched his fist before loosening it again. A notepad huh.

“What, Maru? You want one too?”

“I’m thinking about it. But I have a phone to write in instead, so I wonder if it’s really necessary.”

“I don’t think I’ll be able to throw this away no matter how good those machines become. It’s a part of my body now.”

Ganghwan faintly smiled and wrote down the ideas that came up until now. He was writing quite quickly but his handwriting was pretty good. Looking at him writing neatly with even spacing, he was reminded of one person.

Maru took out his phone. Hanna looked at him wondering what he was going to do.

“I’m going to get some advice.”

“Some advice? What kind of advice?”

“About the promotion line.”

“From who?”

“I have a friend who is good at writing. Please wait a sec.”

Maru scrolled through his contacts and called Daemyung’s number. While the signal sounds could be heard, the pork cutlets came out. Daemyung picked up at the moment the plates were put on the table.

-Hello?

“Oh, Daemyung. It’s me, Maru.”

-Yeah, Maru.

“You busy?”

-No, the writer told me that we should go out for lunch.

“Are you at writer Bae Chulho’s house?”

-Yeah, I’m here with Joon-hyung. But what made you call me?

“I need your help with something. I need a line for something and you know I’m bad with stuff like this.”

Maru told the three people looking at him to start eating first before explaining the situation to Daemyung.

-Hm, I’m not confident with things like that either.

“I just need your opinion. There are four people here bringing up ideas, but we didn’t come up with anything good yet. Also, there’s no pressure. I’m not saying that we are going to use yours. If you think of anything, just send it via text.”

-Alright, alright. Have a nice meal.

“You too.”

He hung up before putting the phone on the table.

“Does he have any good ideas?” Hanna asked.

“He’ll give me a text once we wait a little while. He’s talented in writing, so he’ll come up with something better than me.”

“Alright, you should eat. It’s going to cool down soon,” Ganghwan said with his mouth full.

Hanna screeched when she saw the grains of rice flying everywhere and smashed Ganghwan’s back with her palm. The loud slap was loud enough to be heard across the whole store.

“Oh please!”

Ganghwan turned around and groaned.

“You’re a girl, why is your hand so spicy?”

“Let’s keep our manners, don’t spill food everywhere!”

“Soochan is the real buddha here.”

“I wonder if you’ll shut up if I smack you once more.”

When Hanna raised her hand, Ganghwan shut up. Maru felt like he was watching a scene from ‘Tom & Jerry’. It was just that Jerry’s power was so strong that Tom was practically unable to do anything.

They couldn’t think of anything good even after they finished eating. Ganghwan was able to deal with the blankets and the heater, so there was no problem with that, but they were stuck on something unexpected.

“Should we just go with ‘come and watch’?” Sooil said.

“That might be better, but it might be more promotion if we just write down the location.”

“Let’s just try it out anyway. We should hand out around 30 warm cans of coffee and see how many people come. Though, since the performance is done at night, people might have their own schedule so they’re not as likely to come,” Hanna said as she tapped on the chair.

At that moment, Maru received a text on his phone. Maru quickly checked the text.

-I want to listen to your story.

Maru tried reading it out loud. Although it didn’t sound cool or anything, it was definitely eye-catching. He told the other three the line he got.

“I want to listen to your story? That sounds good. The ‘I’ part really brings it to life. It’s just a story between us two - that’s what it sounds like. There’s a secretive feeling to it, and it also sounds cozy.”

Ganghwan wrote down the line on the notepad as he spoke. Hanna also closed her eyes and said it to herself several times before snapping her fingers and saying that it was good.

“I think it’s better than all sorts of flowery words.”

Sooil said as he pointed at the notepad in the middle of the table. That note had a lot of lines that they thought of while they ate. That one line touched the heart more than anything before it.

“I guess we should just write where we are performing below that. Wow, Maru, who told you this?”

“Yeah, who was it? I thought it was a friend of yours?”

Just as he was about to reply that it was Park Daemyung, he got another text.

-Joon-hyung came up with that line. He wants you to treat him to a meal later.

Ah, right. After checking that text, Maru said to the people sitting around him.

“The author of a best-seller came up with the line.”

Chapter 451

“Now, the crudeness is what makes it look good.”

Hanna cut the A4 paper with scissors. Little pieces of paper with the line that Daemyung texted as well as the location and starting time of the performance started piling up.

“I brought back the canned coffee. They’re quite hot.”

Sooil came back from the convenience store.

The first thing they did after eating lunch was to go to a nearby convenience store and buy the coffee in the drink warmers. They stored sixty cans of coffee for later across a total of four convenience stores, each with 15.

“Bring them here. We have to stick these on.”

Sooil took out the cans of coffee from the plastic basket.

Maru covered the pieces of paper that Hanna had cut with tape and plastered them on the cans. He firmly pressed the cans with both of his hands so that the tape didn’t look out of place. He stuck them well enough that it wouldn’t come off in the rain.

“Sixty is quite a lot,” Sooil said from the side.

Since this was a trial run, they originally thought about doing twenty, but Ganghwan said that they should do a hundred since they were doing it anyway. However, Hanna said that that was absolutely nonsensical and said that they should go with fifty, but in the end, it became sixty. Right now, Ganghwan had left to get a heater after negotiating for ten more cans.

“Once you’re done, you just need to lock the door and leave. I’ll appreciate it if you do some cleaning as well,” a rather elderly man opened the door and spoke.

That man had lent them this practice space. Hanna told him not to worry and the man nodded before closing the door.

“It looks like there are a lot of practice sessions going on in Daehak-ro, huh?” Sooil asked.

“There are places run by companies, and there are places like this which are lent to small-scale teams and theater troupes,” Hanna replied.

After they stuck the small pieces of promotion paper on the sixty cans, they started preparing the gifts for the members of the audience that participated in the play. They put some discount tickets for plays in envelopes.

“Now that I look at it, senior Ganghwan must have used quite a lot of money for all this.”

Blankets, coffee, discount tickets, and even food expenses. Everything was paid by Ganghwan. At the restaurant counter, he said that it was fine since it was on company expenses, but there was no way that was true.

“It’s your company’s money though.”

“Eh?”

“He said company expenses, didn’t he?”

“He meant that company?”

“That oppa uses that card literally everywhere. While the acting association doesn’t give us a lot of expenses, the money given to him by your president should be quite a lot, you know? Though, he’ll have to pay for them through work later. I heard that president Lee Junmin is a scary man, isn’t he?”

“Yes, he is scary. He’s not someone who would make losses on anything he does, so he might be writing down what senior Ganghwan spent the money on even now.”

“Well, that’s up to him to deal with. Maru, do you have good handwriting? I want to write a word of appreciation on the envelopes.”

“I have horrible handwriting,” Maru said.

He then looked at Sooil but Sooil also shook his head.

“Senior Ganghwan has neat handwriting from what I saw at the restaurant. We should let him do it.”

“Alright then. Blankets, check; coffee, check; gifts, check. I guess we’re done for now.”

“We just need the heater.”

Just then, Hanna’s phone started ringing. Hanna, who received the call, gestured at the other two to stand up. When they left the practice room, they saw Ganghwan in a truck parked by the roadside, waving his hand. Apparently, he managed to get a truck from god knows where.

“That should suffice, right?”

On the truck were eight oil heaters and a large barrel.

“Let’s hand out the coffee for now. The play begins at 8 anyway.”

Maru looked at his watch as he spoke. It was just past six. After returning to the practice room, the four of them split up jobs between them. Hanna and Sooil were going to be handing out the cans of coffee, while Ganghwan and Maru were going to carry the heaters.

“Hyung-nim, we have to do this first.”

Maru handed Ganghwan the envelopes. Ganghwan started writing ‘thank you’ on the envelopes on the spot.

“Done?”

“Yeah.”

“Anything else?”

“Nothing. We just need to carry the heaters and then the blankets.”

Maru returned to the truck with Ganghwan. Ganghwan passed down the heaters from the truck while Maru received them from the bottom. He carried the rather heavy heaters and went to the public performing grounds. Due to the cold weather though, there were significantly fewer people in the park.

“There aren’t any people since it’s Sunday night,” Ganghwan put down the heater as he spoke.

The photo exhibit had been put away as well. Maru turned around while looking at the rather empty pathways. There were still six heaters to move.

After putting down the last heater, Maru rotated his wrists round and round. His fingers were aching quite considerably. He definitely had to have some work gloves.

“What time is it?”

“Almost seven.”

Sooil and Hanna returned. They had finished handing out the cans of coffee.

“Looks like our advertisement was quite effective.”

Maru saw a couple holding cans of coffee looking their way.

“Let’s get prepared as well. Hanna put this on, and you two put this around your neck.”

Maru put the name tag that Ganghwan gave him around his neck. On it was written ‘Serious Sighing Patient’. For reference, the one around Sooil’s neck said ‘Terminal Stage Narcissism’.

When Ganghwan and Hanna put their doctor gowns on, people started gathering. Some of them had cans of coffee in their hands.

“It’s cold, isn’t it, everyone?” Hanna spoke to everyone here.

The audience replied ‘yes’. As they were here to enjoy the play, their reactions were quite good.

“Please wait a moment. You see these heaters right? We’ll turn them on at full power so that you won’t feel cold while watching. Also, tell us if any one of you feels cold. We have some blankets.”

As soon as she said those words, some women wearing skirts raised their hands and asked for blankets. The people that received blankets found some seats nearby to sit and waited for the play to start.

“Looking at the number of people here, I think we should prepare at least two of those twenty-liter hot water dispensers. I don’t think we’ll have enough tea to go around with just one.”

“You’re right.”

The reaction was much better than they expected. There weren’t any empty seats around, and the number of standing people quickly started increasing. It was definitely different from how they started off with just five people during the day.

Maybe it was because of all the advertising they did, but the heaters definitely had some effect. Many people came to get some warmth and ended up staying.

“I think we should start now.”

It was 7:52. Ganghwan nodded once before walking in front of the audience.

“Hello everyone.”

“Hello.”

The audience reacted to his greeting. Ganghwan shortly explained what the play they were going to do now was about. Unlike usual, where the audience came to the play while knowing what it was about, street performances like this required some explanation as the audience didn’t have any prior information. Moreover, since this play required participation from the audience, they had to be briefed on how the play was going to unfold.

“Yes.”

Ganghwan induced the audience to reply using some humor. Meanwhile, Maru went around carrying blankets and handing them out to people who came with children.

“Well, then. Since I explained to you that your participation is very important, I think I should start the play now. Those of you that participate will be given a small gift as well, so if you have anything to talk about, you should come up and speak your heart out. We are just here to play along with you.”

After seeing Hanna’s gesture, Maru patted the head of the child that thanked him for the blanket before walking to the stage. The audience members, who were either sitting or standing in a semicircle, seemed to number around 90 people. Since the passersby were also giving them a glance because of all the people that were watching, they should probably reach 100 quite soon.

He heard a guitar sound from afar. The street of youth, the land of artists. The night that descended upon such a place contained a mood that couldn’t be found anywhere else.

Maru took a deep breath in before breathing out slowly. This was a very liberal stage. There was no distinction of acts nor lines that he had to say. What was important was to listen to the member of the audience that came up and to react.

“Next.”

Ganghwan started acting and sat down on the chair as he spoke. Maru sighed in front of the little child in the front row and sighed once again as he walked in front of the lady that sat next to the child before sitting in front of Ganghwan.

“I wonder what worries our patient has this time to be sighing again.”

“The thing is, doctor. I’m so lonely that I keep sighing.”

“Lonely?”

“Yes. I feel like I’m all alone in this world. *sighs*.”

“Mr. Patient. It’s not like that at all. There are so many of us here in front of you.”

Ganghwan stood up and opened his arms wide in glee. In that state, he spun around elegantly like he was doing ballet as he walked amidst the audience.

“Doctor.”

“Yes?”

“Are you crazy?” Maru said with a sour expression.

The people in the audience giggled. Ganghwan confusedly walked back to the stage.

“Don’t you see all these people in front of you?”

Maru stood up and walked to a man in the front row. He stopped around 30cm away and spoke.

“Is anyone here?”

“Yes. There’s a person right in front of you.”

“It’s a wall though.”

Maru reached out and felt around the man’s shoulders. The man moved around to dodge his hand.

“Why is the wall moving?”

Maru moved a little sideways this time and slowly touched the cheek of a girl that seemed to be around his age. The girl screeched in a small voice before pulling back.

“Tsk! Walls aren’t supposed to move,” Maru said to the girl.

“Mr. Patient. I thought you didn’t see any people?”

“Ah, right. It was like that, wasn’t it?”

“Then what was that just now?”

“What do you mean?”

“I think you reached out to the lady in front of you with indecent eyes.”

“Me? I don’t see anyone here though.”

Maru feigned ignorance.

“Over there, lady. Did you hear what this guy just said?”

Ganghwan approached the girl and asked. The girl replied ‘yes’ with a smile. She seemed to be here with some of her friends as three girls around her started laughing at the same time.

“Who are you calling a pervert!”

Maru snapped and grabbed the hand of a man he had seen beforehand. Then, he saw the man’s face before screaming out and letting go. The man, who gave him a good impression, smiled deeply at him and winked instead.

Ganghwan didn’t miss that moment.

“This fella looks rather dangerous. Why don’t you come up for a moment?”

Ganghwan quickly called that man up to the stage. The man waved his hand saying that he was okay, but when his girlfriend, who sat next to him, pushed him slightly, he made an awkward smile and walked out.

While Ganghwan had a talk with that man, Maru approached the girl he was talking to just now and asked if she didn’t feel displeased or anything.

“It was fun. I think you can be a little bolder.”

“Is that so? Thank you for your opinion.”

He bowed in appreciation before walking towards Sooil. Meanwhile, Ganghwan had that man spit out his romantic history.

“The reactions are quite good,” Sooil said.

People kept gathering around. Ganghwan’s glib tongue shone more and more as the audience increased in number.

“I think we should do it like this for the official performance too.”

“You’re right.”

The results were pretty good considering that this was just a trial run.

As they started off with comedy, it was hard to get anyone to talk about something serious, but today’s performance could be considered a success just by finding out how much participation they could get from the audience.

“It’s your turn now.”

Maru tapped Sooil’s back. When Sooil walked out with a refreshing smile on his face, people in the audience who recognized who he was cheered out loud. Maru watched the stage for a moment before walking around the audience, checking the heaters. Since they wouldn’t be able to perform anymore if an accident occurred, safety was of utmost concern.

Maru walked amidst the audience while listening to the laughs that came from the stage.

Chapter 452

“Then I’ll sing a song. I wrote this myself, and the title is Salary Day.”

The audience smiled after hearing the title. Maru also became a part of the audience for this moment instead of being an actor on stage and watched the man playing the guitar. The reason the man started playing guitar was simple. Ganghwan had found him playing the guitar on the staircase opposite to their performance and brought him to the stage. The man was confused at first, but when the audience started applauding, he started playing the guitar, and when the audience asked for more after his first piece, he got into position again.

Salary day. The way the music started off with a cheerful rhythm but became stiff and slow in the later parts was probably meant to represent people’s hearts when looking at the drying out account balance. The lyrics of the song mostly talked about ordinary desires to buy what the character wanted. It was a good song that people could listen to with ease and sigh about.

“I’ve never heard a better song than this during my 30 years as a doctor. Just why did you come to this hospital?”

After the song ended, Ganghwan naturally had the musician participate in the play. The man, who hugged his guitar like he would a child, blinked his eyes several times before carefully speaking.

“I lack confidence.”

The man who was filled with vitality as he sang in front of the audience turned into a man full of embarrassments the moment the song ended. He couldn’t turn his head towards the audience and kept looking at Ganghwan.

“Confidence, you say? Wait a minute. This is not something I can diagnose by myself, so I’ll ask for some help. Hello, what do the other doctors think? Mister Street Poet here lacks confidence.”

“I don’t think that’s true at all.”

A woman who had a blanket over her legs spoke in a big voice. People in the audience exclaimed.

“Well, well. If it isn’t Doctor Lee, the emotional therapist?”

“My surname is Kim though.”

“Ah, yes, doctor Kim. I have a bad memory. Since you’re here, why don’t you diagnose our Mr. I-don’t-have-any-confidence-poet here?”

“Confidence? It’s nothing much. Just do what you did just now. You looked like you were full of confidence when you were playing the guitar just now,” the woman said in a firm tone.

“There you have it. How was it? Did that help you?” Ganghwan asked the man.

“Ah, yeah, well…,” the man smiled as he replied.

“You can’t do that.”

The woman put away the blanket as though she was frustrated with this man and stood up before walking to the stage. Ganghwan didn’t stop her and instead induced everyone to applaud. The audience started applauding.

“I really don’t have any confidence either. It’s to the point that I wonder if people are badmouthing me behind my back as soon as I leave a conversation. No matter what I did, I never became proactive. Actually, ‘showing off’ is such a popular term in our country, right? Even if you try to do something, you have no choice but to shut up if the people around you tell you ‘why are you showing off so much?’, right?”

“Oh, my. Doctor Kim. There are other doctors around so please watch your words. Consider the young doctor sitting over there.”

Ganghwan pointed at a child who came with their parents. The woman sighed.

“Anyway. It’s because you care about things like that, that you start losing confidence in yourself. I thought that I couldn’t help it. I mean, you don’t live in this world by yourself. You need to think about the people next to you and act in a way that doesn't make them uncomfortable. But when I thought about it, I became really angry. I mean, it’s not like I’m committing a crime or anything, so why do I need anyone to tell me what I need to do?”

The woman became emotional and stomped on the ground. The people that seemed to be her colleagues shouted ‘that’s right’ from the audience.

“From that moment, I decided to be bold. But you know how things are - just making up your mind doesn’t change anything. That’s why I started taking action. If I didn’t like something, I voiced it out, and if I thought that someone was badmouthing me, I would go up and ask. I would raise my voice louder than usual and reject it if someone asks me to do something I didn’t like. At first, I felt really sorry. I felt like a lot of people were giving me weird gazes. But once you continuing that for a while, you feel your environment change. That woman isn’t a showoff, but someone who has confidence in herself. That’s when I realized that repetition was what was important. Also that taking action is the most important thing. Shouting at people to have more confidence in themselves is really not helpful at all.”

The woman calmed down her breathing after her speech. She looked like a sprinter who had finished a short sprint. Maru clicked his tongue. She managed to speak clearly in front of nearly 130 people without shaking at all. Her fights, whether they be big or small, with her environment should have made her who she is.

However, not everyone agreed with her.

“What’s up with her? Why does she sound like she’s above everyone else?”

“Right? She’s such a showoff.”

There were some people that didn’t look at her in a good way. Of course, the sarcastic remarks were so quiet that only Maru, who sat right next to them, could hear them. Their voice would not reach the woman speaking her heart out on the stage.

Amidst the audience, Maru looked around and groaned slightly. He could tell that people were visibly decreasing. Whether they didn’t like the woman’s strong speech, or they lost interest, or they were going home due to the late hours, he didn’t know, but it was true that more people were walking away than when they were still doing a comedic skit.

Even Ganghwan, who at first welcomed the woman’s participation, became visibly awkward when she talked for too long. The man with the guitar looked tired. What was fortunate was that the woman seemed to have noticed the atmosphere as well as she started wrapping things up.

It was good that she participated, but it would be bad if this turned into a speech of sorts when it was supposed to be a play. They had to keep this in mind during the official runs. The objective of this play was to break the barrier between the stage and the audience and talk about various things with various people. It was ultimately designed to be a refuge for people who couldn’t get consolation from anywhere. This was what Ganghwan said during lunch.

Ganghwan asked the audience to applaud the musician and the woman. Maru also clapped amidst the audience.

“Shall we get going?”

“Yeah, it’s getting cold.”

Maru looked at the time as he watched some of the audience leave. It was 8 past 10. It had been more than two hours since they started the play and listened to people’s stories. As this was a trial run, there was the case with that woman just now who broke the flow, but the overall mood seemed pretty decent. Though, they didn’t manage to get people to share their sadness since the comedic theme played a large role.

They also confirmed that the people didn’t have any rejection towards the doctor-patient theme, so all that was left now was to decide on what they would do during unexpected situations.

“Doctor! You’re ditching work again!”

Hanna’s voice could be heard. It seemed that she was wrapping things up. They had also shown most of what they had, so it would be fine to finish off things here.

Maru walked around and asked the members of the audience what they thought of the play today, and if there was anything they could improve on. Sooil was probably doing the same thing on the other side of the stage.

“It’s good that we got to talk together, but it was a little boring when there was nothing going on.”

“You mean when no one volunteered to come up to the stage, right?”

“Yeah.”

Maru nodded his head. The man also said that the blankets and the heaters were well prepared. He also added that he wouldn’t be here in this weather if it weren’t for those two items.

“We’re also planning to prepare tea next time, so please come around. Also, you should share your worries with us. Thank you for your opinion.”

He asked for the consideration of the people leaving and kept gathering opinions. Although the majority of people had positive comments, some said that it was too all over the place. Since this was a play with audience participation, the progression wasn’t that smooth, and it seemed like that was what annoyed them.

“But it was really great that we got to talk to the actors. No matter how many disadvantages there are, I think that alone is enough to cover up the rest. Of course, it would have to be interesting just like today.”

“Would you be willing to participate if we talked about more honest stories here?”

“Honest stories?”

“Yes, think of it as a consultation.”

“If it’s like that, I would have to reconsider. It’s difficult to talk about myself in front of all these people after all.”

“Ah, alright. Thank you for your opinion.”

Most people seemed to find that difficult.

This was a problem. At this rate, it was likely that Ganghwan’s wishes wouldn't come true. If it was just for advertising purposes, this was fine, but it was far from what Ganghwan wanted.

They had to find a way to get it started. Maru wondered if they should plant a spy like Ganghwan first talked about.

Just then, he saw a man in his late 30s or perhaps early 40s standing with a can of coffee in his hands. The man who had a wide forehead was wearing a worn-out vest, and some old-looking jeans. That man was staring at the stage in a daze, and for some reason, he looked desolate.

Maru carefully approached that person.

“Uhm, excuse me. May I have a word with you?”

“Hm? Ah, sure.”

“Did you watch the play?”

“Yes, I did. You were good. It was a lot of fun.”

“Thank you. Was there perhaps anything you liked or were disappointed about?”

“Hm, I’m not sure. I didn’t have any time to think about things like that. It’s such a good stage, and the actors look like they’re enjoying themselves as well.”

The man awkwardly smiled and scratched his forehead.

“You know, I’m also an actor.”

“Oh, you were an actor. Then I guess that makes me your junior.”

“Oh, no, it’s not like that. I’m not an amazing actor that you would have to treat me as a senior. I’m just…”

Just then, an applause could be heard. Ganghwan and Hanna, who walked amidst the people, clapped each other’s hands and laughed. The audience around them started clapping, and the man with the guitar started playing. The stage for a play instantly became a stage for a ball. More and more people gathered when they looked at the group. The watchers became participants and started dancing lightly.

Seeing that, the man Maru was talking to, looked at the group of people with a face that looked like a smile, no a face that looked like he was crying.

Maru was unable to say anything when he saw that.

“An actor that is loved is really good.”

The man lowered his head and turned around. Maru watched the man’s back as he left before walking towards him.

“If it’s okay, would you like to share your story?”

“Story? What story?”

“Your story. Anything is fine. I just, want to listen to you.”

“I don’t have any stories to tell in a fun situation like this.”

“It doesn’t matter. No, I’m not telling you that you have to tell me your story. You’re an actor, aren’t you? There’s a stage right there. It might be small, but it’s pretty decent.”

The stage was filled with lights from mobile phones and the sound of music guitar, while the audience seats had no lights due to the broken street lamps and very faint music sound at best. Maru spoke to the man who stood on the border.

This man seemed to have a lot of stories with him. Maru didn’t grab the man just because he simply wanted to listen to his stories. Honestly speaking, he wanted to use this man’s stories to his advantage. He felt like this man had touching stories that would work on the people. He felt like someone was calling him a cruel mastermind, but what could he do about it? People didn’t care about others that didn’t say anything, they only cared about people that screeched for attention.

Since they were doing this play, he wanted it to be a big issue. Although this was a trial run, if the people gathered here talked about this play to other people, the official run would become even bigger.

“Don’t you need a stage?” He reached out to the man as he asked.

Chapter 453

There’s something called premonition. It is possible to predict the outcome of a business contract by looking at the face of the president of the business partner. Putting aside whether the business looked good or not, it was possible to see the success or failure of the contract purely based on intuition.

And right now, Maru saw the signs of success from the man in front of him. If he was working on some risky business, he would have to reconsider saying what was on his mind several times, but there weren’t any risks at all right now. What was needed here was the man’s courage and time. No one lost in this trade, and if things went well, it was likely to end on a good note.

The man faintly smiled and looked at the people dancing.

“I don’t think that place needs me right now.”

“You don’t know for sure. Don’t you have something you want to say?”

“Something I want to say?”

“Anything is fine. Every story is welcome here. This is not a stage that only welcomes funny and good stories. You saw what was written on the coffee cans, right?”

The man looked at the coffee can he was holding before nodding his head slowly.

“If it’s about things to say, I have a lot.”

“Then do it.”

“But it looks like it’s about to end.”

“There is no start or finish to a street performance. Is there?”

Maru pointed at where Ganghwan, Hanna, and the audience were. The man fidgeted with the can in his hands for a while before starting to walk. The direction? The stage.

Maru put the name tag that he put in his pocket around his neck again. Then he stood in front of the man. A rather old pop song was being brought to life by the strings of the guitar, while people were singing along and enjoying themselves. Maru pushed through that crowd like a servant serving his master. The man followed him at first but soon stopped in front of the wall of people.

He tapped on Ganghwan’s shoulders as he was letting his body go along with the music and pointed at the man. As Ganghwan was quick-witted, he seemed to have realized that Maru meant that it was the appearance of a new actor, and put his doctor’s gown on again.

Maru quickly unfolded the chair that was pushed to the side. At that moment, the audience seemed to have realized the change as they watched the stage with curiosity.

“Doctor! Doctor!”

Maru called out to the doctor with the loudest voice he could muster. As Ganghwan was prepared, he naturally returned the act.

“My, this fella. You haven’t gone home yet?”

“Doctor, doctor.”

“I’m not going anywhere so calm down.”

Maru panted heavily as though he was out of breath. He managed to attract everyone’s attention with his exaggerated breathing. When he breathed heavily a few times, the stage became quiet. The musician at the center of the stage made way after a guitar stroke.

“Doctor. I was going home right after the medical exam, right?”

“And?”

“I saw someone walking back and forth in front of the hospital.”

“Oh, really?”

“But that person’s expression looked really heavy. That’s when I felt that he’s the person who needs your help the most.”

He snapped his fingers and waved his hand exaggeratedly. From the moment he went on stage, he had switched his internal variables to fit the play.

“And?” Ganghwan also exaggerated his actions.

He looked around with eyes full of curiosity. He looked like a child looking for a four-leaf clover.

“And who am I? Am I not the person that sighs all the time because of my worries? When I looked at that man, I was so worried that I couldn’t go home. I stopped on the spot and wondered what I should do for ten minutes, and then I decided.”

“Decided on what?”

“To bring him here.”

Maru turned around and walked up to the man who was in the crowd. The man, who was still holding the canned coffee in his hands, had none of his resolute expression anymore and looked like he was hesitating. He was also taking steps back, as though to run away.

At that moment, what was reflected in Maru's eyes was not a bearded man in his 40s, but a little child. Not any little child, but one that was struck with fear. The man who introduced himself as an actor seemed as though he was a child who was afraid due to doing a presentation for the first time in front of his class. There was no excitement. There was only the feeling of wanting to run away from this situation. Maru could vaguely understand why he said that the stage wasn’t for him and why he stopped several times while walking forward.

“I don’t think I can do it,” said the man in a small voice.

The can of coffee in his hands crumpled pitifully. Maru looked at the man, who looked like he was ready to run away, for a while before grabbing his hand tightly.

“Just one step. One step is all it takes. Once you’re on stage, leave everything up to luck. Who knows? You might end up telling a cool story. I’m not telling you to do well. I just… want to listen to your story.”

Despite that, the man hesitated. Just like an old tree with deep roots, he looked like he was not going to budge. There was no meaning in dragging such a person to the stage. There was no use in pushing someone unwilling to talk in a space where vivid emotions were required.

The gazes of the people looking their way became fainter and fainter. Interest dwindled. Maru could feel the concentration they built up until now being reduced. Ganghwan in his doctor’s gown was doing his best to preserve the atmosphere by telling some of his episodes, but that could only last a few minutes at best. The audience would start going home after thinking that the performance was over.

“But you have a lot to talk about, don’t you?”

“Still, it’s a little…”

“You don’t want to because the stage is too crude?”

“It’s not like that.”

“Then is it because the level of the people here is too low?”

“That’s nonsense.”

“Then because you’re scared of the stage?”

“…”

“Sir, where can you find an actor who’s not scared of the stage? Everyone is scared. If you’re scared, you just go up to the stage while scared. This is a stage where it’s fine for you to make mistakes. Above all, these people didn’t pay money to watch us.”

“I don’t think an actor should go up to the stage with that kind of mindset.”

“How can you call someone an actor when that person doesn’t go up on stage? You must go up first to be called an actor, whether you’re evaluated well or not. We don’t call a person in the audience who’s good at acting, an actor, do we? Even if they’re just like a tree, that’s standing still, we call someone who’s up on the stage an actor. You called yourself an actor, didn’t you? Then you must come up to the stage at least. You must come up first and then see whether you’re a good one or not.”

Maru uttered his words to the man amidst the crowd that was laughing at Ganghwan’s play. Even he couldn’t understand why his emotions were stirred while he was speaking. At first, he was planning to use this man to his advantage to make the play successful, but now he was focused on putting this man on stage regardless of the success or failure.

He breathed out a heavy breath. The man was looking at Maru in a daze.

“Phew, I talked too much, didn’t I?”

“N-no.”

“If you really don’t want to, then you can leave now. It’s your decision, so I guess I can’t force you to do something. Next time, if you have the opportunity, please come up. Sorry for taking up so much of your time,” Maru apologized.

It was really strange. This wasn’t something he should be emotional about. He should have chosen to persuade him with words or to provoke him and have this man stand on the stage one way or the other. But instead, he ended up being swayed by his own emotions and said neither of the two.

Why was that?

No matter how hard he thought about it, he couldn’t determine the reason. Maru turned around to look at Ganghwan. He was going to shake his head to indicate that the plan was a no-go.

“Phew, alright. Whatever I make out of it, I should start at least. Even a young fellow like you knows it, geez. But don’t expect too much from me. While I did introduce myself as an actor, I’m actually nothing much,” said the man as he walked towards the stage.

When he stood in front of the audience, he breathed out every now and then and spent the first ten-plus seconds just standing still without being able to say anything.

No one seemed to mind him. Ganghwan also just watched without any signs of urging him to talk. Maru felt himself becoming more and more hurried as time went by. This was the first time he put so much emotion into someone else - Go on, talk!

He looked at the man desperately. The man made his presence known with a nervous breath before speaking out,

“U-u-uhm, can I have a w-word with you?”

He wasn’t ‘acting’ like he was shaking. He was truly shaking. If that was acting, then he would be god-level. The nervous voice was soon drowned out by the noise in the surroundings, but Ganghwan seemed to have caught his words.

“Looks like our final patient for the day is finally here. Well then, make yourself at home and come here. This place is a quiet one with just you and me.”

Hearing Ganghwan’s words, the murmurs in the audience died down magically. The man was incredibly flustered due to the sudden arrival of silence, but he did not run away. He slowly walked and sat down on the chair that Ganghwan provided.

“What was that about?”

Hearing a voice behind him, Maru turned around. Sooil was looking at the man on the stage.

“You looked like you were angry when you talked to him.”

“What, me?”

“Who else? What happened between you and that man? I was nervous because I thought you got into a fight.”

“Was that what it looked like to you?”

“Was it not? I thought you were shouting because you were angry.”

Sooil shrugged before leaving at Hanna’s call. Maru looked at the man on the stage chair in a daze. Why did he act like that? He still couldn’t make anything out of that question.

The man coughed a few times before carefully speaking.

“Uhm, I hope you can understand even if I s-stutter a bit. I tried to fix it many times but I couldn’t.”

The man started telling his story by starting off with his immaturity. Maru crossed his arms and decided to watch for now. He would probably find out what made him so emotional if he watched on.

Chapter 454

The man tightened and loosened his fists several times to show that he was nervous. The audience stopped chatting after seeing a new actor on stage.

“It might be a bit old-fashioned to say this, but our night is very long. Take your time.”

When Ganghwan’s calm voice reverberated outwards, the people who were gathered around the stage took a step back. A strange sense of tension spread around, making the audience breathe out carefully as they watched the man.

Maru crouched in a spot where he could see the man’s face from upfront. Some of the people next to him crouched down as well. Whether it was thanks to the heaters doing their job, or because people were flocking together, they weren’t shivering in the cold even though the night wind was pretty chilly.

“I…”

After saying his first word with much difficulty, the man breathed out in nervousness before raising his head.

“I am a person who once wanted to become an actor.”

How much hesitation and worry he had leading up to the point when he said those words could be felt from his low voice and his twitching eyelids.

“When you say that, it sounds like you aren’t an actor now,” Ganghwan said in a calm voice.

The man looked at Ganghwan’s face once, then at the sky above the crowd before speaking.

“I’d call myself a half-actor. No, at this point I’m confused whether there was a time I was even an actor at all. Oh, before I tell you this, it’s an honor to meet you. I enjoyed your plays.”

After seeing the man’s extended hand, Ganghwan shook his head before replying.

“I am a doctor. I might be a quack doctor, but I’m a doctor that can listen to other people, and can only listen to other people.”

“Ah, right. I see. Sorry about that.”

A faint smile appeared on the man’s face. He tried to relax his expression and look at the audience directly, but it didn’t seem to be that easy for him as his gaze was directed at the ground. The shoes of the audience. It seemed that that was the limit of how much he could look at the audience without becoming nervous.

“How old do I look?”

The man slowly raised his hand as he asked.

“There’s only a wall in front of us, but peculiarly, the wall is speaking.”

Hearing Ganghwan’s words, the people smiled and voiced their opinions.

“Thirty-seven?”

“Forty-two?”

“Maybe unexpectedly thirty-three?”

The man quietly answered that he was forty-one after listening to a few replies. Ganghwan clapped after pointing towards the member of the audience who got it right.

“I was really nervous when I just came up on stage, but I feel okay now. Maybe it’s because there aren’t any cameras here,” said the man as though he was talking to himself.

“In your eyes, what does forty-one years old mean to you?”

After a moment of silence, a member of the audience spoke. He looked to be of similar age as the man on the stage.

“I think that it’s the age where you must look after your family,” that member of the audience spoke while looking at a small child in his arms.

There was a girl in his arms, dozing off.

“An age where you must act like you look!” Said a youth who seemed to be a college student.

“An age where you must see results from your work, whether it’s big or small,” said a middle-aged woman wearing a tiger-striped scarf.

The watch on her wrist seemed to be of considerable value.

The majority of the audience seemed to agree with that as they nodded. Maru thought similarly. Forty - it had a different feeling to thirty.

The man sitting in front of the audience nodded a couple of times.

“Yes, you’re all right. It’s an age where you must act like you look, look after your family, and be responsible for your work. Forty - I’ll call this age the age of responsibilities. Responsibility, it’s a very difficult, unfamiliar, and perhaps scary, word to me.”

The man locked his hands and put them on his knees. He gulped before continuing to speak with difficulty.

“I don’t have a family that I must protect. Ah, both of my parents are alive. The family I’m talking about here is a family headed by me. I got married when I was 27. Back then, I was doing all sorts of work: the petrol station, restaurants, and construction sites on the weekends if conditions allowed it. I paid my semi-basement apartment rent and my living expenses with that money and spent the rest to apply to an acting school. My wife really went through a lot back then. I mean, obviously. A young man who was supposed to be looking for a stable source of income was going around learning acting, of all things.”

The man stroked down his face before saying that he was rather embarrassed. His beet-red face, as well as his pale lips, indicated his current mindset.

“My wife was a wise woman. I was so pathetic and greedy that I ended up telling her that I wanted a child, but my smart wife told me that it wasn’t the right time yet. Now that I think back, perhaps my wife saw through my true nature after marrying me.”

Even the slightest murmurs died down.

It was 10:32 in the night. Despite the late hours, people did not leave. In fact, more and more people were gathering. A silent crowd of people was a really effective way of advertising.

“My wife worked for a pretty decent company. Now that I think about it, I wonder why someone like her married someone like me. Perhaps because we were both young, she might have found my challenging mindset attractive. A year passed after our marriage. I still had no job, and gathered money through part time jobs, and lived the same life while going to acting school. When I came home, I ate the food that my wife made me, and we would talk about insignificant things and watch dramas together before going to sleep. Then, another year passed. My wife quietly brought up the topic of divorce.”

The man scratched his head before making a twisted expression and clenching his fists. A scream that did not escape his throat was banging on his vocal cords right now.

“At that time, I took out my stamp from my pocket. That’s right, from my pocket. I didn’t put it anywhere else. I always carried it with me. I stamped the divorce papers without any difficulty, and we spent the divorce mediation period without any trouble. Then, we became strangers. There was no sadness, and there was no pity. I wasn’t even qualified to feel something like that. When I looked at my empty home, I finally realized why I always carried my stamp with me at all times. I always had myself ready to run away - from my wife, who always consoled me with warm words and food; from my wife who always told me that it’s okay and cheered for me. My guilty conscience, my apologetic feelings towards her made me stifled.”

The man breathed out nervously.

Maru frowned as he heard his story. It wasn’t because that man was someone bad, or he pitied him.

It was a sense of déjà vu. He felt as though he had seen this scene somewhere before. If he was remembering a scene from his previous life, he wouldn’t have minded at all. The problem was that this tenacious déjà vu, or rather, déjà vus, were overlapping with each other.

The figure of the man talking while wearing a red jumper, the figure of the man wearing a suit happily talking about his life, as well as the figure of the man grabbing the hand of a gentle-looking woman.

Maru clenched his teeth and pressed down on the side of his head. He felt dizzy as though he was experiencing vertigo. He pushed himself up against the ground with his hand and lowered his head. The man in various expressions, clothes, and even situations had formed an angry wave and assaulted the ship that was his memory relentlessly.

Maru subconsciously scratched the asphalt to the point that his nails were breaking. When he groaned in pain, someone sitting next to him asked if he was okay.

“Ah, yes I’m okay.”

After barely uttering those words while suppressing his pain, he stood up and staggered out of the crowd. He left the crowd of people and took a deep breath. When the cold air filled his lungs, the pain disappeared like it never happened.

The trace of the intense memories still remained in him, confusing Maru immensely over this situation. He tried putting his hand under his clothes and reached towards his back. In that short while, his t-shirt had been soaked with cold sweat.

‘Is this a type of memory confusion? A side effect of coming back to life, huh? I can’t even talk to someone else about this.’

The déjà vu that stirred his mind seemed to be a mistake caused by his memories. But just in case, Maru decided to go to the hospital attached to Seoul National University next week. After all, perhaps there really was a problem with his head and not just a weird side effect of supernatural powers. He might have injured his head unknowing.

He tried running on the spot. It seemed that there were no problems with his sense of balance. Maru chuckled before returning to the crowd.

The man was holding a handkerchief. It was a pretty one that looked like it didn’t belong to him. He wiped his eyes with the handkerchief and apologized to the lady in front. The handkerchief seemed to belong to her.

“Even after I separated from my wife, my life never changed. I still wanted to become an actor. After some time passed, I actually felt a load off my shoulders. I escaped that responsibility I talked about at the beginning after all. Then I became thirty. I appeared in numerous works as extras and I even had some lines in a few dramas. I was happy. The dream of becoming an actor that I had since I was twenty, seemed to be coming true, and the ten years of nameless acting was over. But, that was as how far as I got. Minor role, minor role, and then a minor role. There were numerous actors who were at my level, and there were even more who had a character.”

He laughed in self-loathing.

Maru felt a stinging sense of déjà vu again when he heard that laugh. If he had seen this scene somewhere before, he wouldn’t even mind it, but the image popping up in his head was very detailed and was telling a different story about the man in front of him.

Was this how déjà vu worked? Maru closed his eyes before opening them again. On top of the man, who was wearing worn-out clothes, was the same man, wearing a suit, faintly overlapped. It was a scene straight out of a movie or something. He closed his eyes once again. When he opened them again, he could, fortunately, see the man living in reality this time.

At the same time, the sense of thick déjà vu disappeared. Only one, true reality was in front of his eyes, being accepted by his eyes and brain.

‘Geez, this is just… ’

Maru wanted to explain this situation to that woman and get some answers.

The woman that seemed to possess a beauty that seemed to be out of this world.

The woman that introduced herself as an angel, or perhaps the grim reaper, no, the one that didn’t care what Maru called her.

Chapter 455

“I spent a long time as a minor actor. But since it wasn’t like the work was continuous, I ended up needing money for everyday expenses. However, since I was over thirty, it wasn’t like I could reach out to my parents for help, so I went back to the construction site again. After thirty, I couldn’t work part time jobs anymore. When I say that I’m here for a part time job interview, people would scan me from top to bottom and say that they can’t hire me because I’m too old.”

The man’s emotions calmed down as the story progressed. He was telling his story calmly as though he was telling someone else’s story. However, the audience watching him felt the opposite - they expressed pity for the man, became angry at him for living his life like that, and sometimes would feel sad as though it was about themselves.

The more relaxed the man became, the more vigorous the emotions on the audience’s face became. Maru captured that change with his eyes as he listened to the man’s story.

“Since young, adults around me told me that I should have a dream. Everyone here must have heard that at some point.”

The audience nodded at once.

“That’s why I had a dream. It was to become an actor, and I never doubted myself living as an actor. Although it’s hard right now, I will definitely become successful. Light will shine upon those that put in the effort. Eventually but definitely…”

The man raised his gripped fist up in the air before letting it fall down again with a loathing laugh.

“I turned thirty-five, and I still lived in the semi-basement apartment. The frequent offers for background acting were reduced considerably once the leader I was working with decided to quit. Then, the opportunities to be a minor actor in a drama disappeared entirely. Back then, I was acting in a theater troupe near this place. I had my own popularity as well. I got to know some good and reliable friends. I was far from appearing on TV, and I was poor, but back then, I thought like this: are there any superstar actors on TV right now who didn’t spend a long time being a nameless actor? I mean, you know that famous saying don’t you? ‘This too shall pass’. I believed in those words and put my all into acting. However, I knew in my heart. That line was my last line of refuge.”

After saying those words, the man took out his phone before speaking in a careful voice.

“It’s gotten very late. As you can probably tell from how I look, there won’t be any good stories after this. I feel sorry for taking your precious time, so I think I’ll wrap things up here.”

The man then stood up from his seat.

“It’s been a long time since I last talked in front of so many people. I feel a little lightened, and I also feel like nothing happened at all. Yet, I felt so nervous at first. So weird, isn’t it?”

He then went on to say his goodbyes when,

“I want to hear more from you.”

The man holding his daughter spoke. The girl in his arms was also looking at him with wide eyes. She wasn’t even grumbling.

Maru, who was absorbed in the man’s words, stood up slightly and looked around. There were numerous people around. The people that originally sat in a semi-circle around the man had now circled the man altogether. What was surprising was that despite the increase in the number of people, it was still completely silent.

Now that the man stopped speaking, people started breathing again and began cheering for the man.

“We can’t leave at this point after having heard all that.”

“It’d be somewhat strange to call it fun, but your story’s really good. I want to keep listening to it.”

“These people didn’t stay here and listen to your words just because they had time left over.”

Many people wanted to hear more from him.

“There, there. Please calm down. You must give the patient time to think. How about it? I think we still want to listen to your story.”

“…Would that really be fine with you? It’s not a story that will make you feel pleased or anything.”

“A hospital is not for the intact. This place is the same. All of the people here have one area where they are in pain. It’s because they have pain that they can sympathize with you. I also want to listen to your story, Mr. Pati- no, Mr. Actor.”

Hearing Ganghwan’s words, the man stood up from his seat and looked at the people in the audience. He sat back down after a laugh.

“The world sure is strange. What I couldn’t gain at all when I most desperately wanted it was people’s attention, and yet I get to receive it here. Uhm, sorry, but can I get some water? I have a sore throat after blabbing on for so long in front of so many people.”

“We have plenty of water.”

Hanna gave him a bottle of warm water as though she was prepared beforehand. The man took a sip before breathing out, creating a white breath.

“That happened all of a sudden. A senior actor of mine that I stayed close with put me in a drama minor role. It was a morning drama for a public TV channel. I would play the role of a secretary for a company president and I had quite a few appearances so I wouldn’t have to work part time jobs for a while if I worked on that for a while. I was running out of money too so I gladly accepted that job. You wouldn’t know how many times I resolved myself as I walked towards the shooting set. I have to greet people, I have to catch their eyes, I will appeal with my acting. I will become successful. But then…”

The man shut his eyes before gulping down a lot of the water.

“I became afraid of the camera. No, back then, I didn’t know why I was like that. It was just a simple line: President, let me guide you. - How easy is that? Even someone completely clueless about acting should be able to say that line after practicing a couple of times. But I was unable to say that line until the end. President, le… sorry. P-president. President. President…”

After coughing once, the man faintly smiled.

“I, who never had a proper job even once, called all the presidents I would probably call in my lifetime on that spot. Thirty minutes. That’s the time I’d been shouting president for on the shooting set, and it was also the time that signalled the end of my career as an actor. The senior that introduced me to the job didn’t say anything as he looked at me. He probably couldn’t. He would only be able to say something if he understood what happened, right? I couldn’t even say that I was in a bad condition. After all, the problem wasn’t something on that level.”

Maru looked at the man who was unable to speak anymore, before looking up at the sky. For some reason, he thought that his story wasn’t just his. Everyone has their dreams and may strive towards their dreams. Does the life of everyone that strived towards their dreams have a happy ending?

The answer was right in front of him.

For one happy ending, an endless amount of bad endings were kicked around.

For some, it gave them a sense of warning, for some, interest, and for others, perhaps joy. Maru looked at the expressions of the audience. A sad story didn’t always invoke sympathy within others. Opposite to that man, the woman who was sighing in relief was perhaps looking down on that man, saying that it was fortunate that she didn’t live a foolish life like he did.

Ganghwan dreamed of a place to share sadness, but it turned out to be a space to heal oneself using twisted consolations. Almost invisible loathing laughter was directed at the man. Was this a zoo? Or was this some public execution ground? Why was it that the chair the man was sitting on looked like a guillotine instead?

Perhaps he shouldn’t have done what he did?

Maru vaguely, no, clearly realized that things would turn out like this. That was why he originally thought of ‘using’ that man to his advantage.

After talking with him, he had the guy go up on stage with a mind that cheered for him, but perhaps he should have stopped when he said he didn’t want to do it.

He never saw anyone lasting long while doing business with other people’s pains. Maru sighed. Why couldn’t he be more rational that time? Why did he not tell the man that things would turn out like this? What did all of this have with the déjà vu he kept having?

‘I don’t get it. I don’t get anything.’

The only feeling he had right now was the sense of apology towards that man. He didn’t put the guy up on that stage to have him become a target of mockery.

“It’s fine.”

At that time, he heard a voice behind him. Someone had said a word of encouragement for that man. Maru turned around. A man in his thirties, who looked like he was about to cry at any moment, had spoken out after putting his glasses back on.

Maru closed his eyes shut and opened them again before looking around. Only then did he see the people that seemed to have a pain similar to the man on the stage entered his eyes. That number was overwhelmingly more than the people that disdained him. Maru thought that the emotions they didn’t express until now because they were looking at the man, had erupted a beat later.

The encouragement was for the man, but Maru felt like he was healed as well.

At that moment - it was quite absurd, but - he had a thought like this: Did he have the man go up on stage because he wanted to have him listen to those warm words of encouragement?

It felt rather strange since that kind of thought process was neither logical nor his style, but a corner of his brain was shouting that that was the right answer.

The man continued speaking. He kept mentioning a series of events that seemed to be nightmares without any hope in sight at all.

From some moment onwards, Maru could feel some water droplets falling onto his hands. Was it raining? When he looked up, the skies looked dark, but not cloudy. The droplets had come from his eyes.

Why? - Before he even had that question, Maru bit his lips because of the aching sensation in his chest. Whose sadness was this?

At that moment, Maru saw someone else standing next to that man in his eyes.

The man who had a warm smile on his face. - Maru knew that it was an illusion. It was an image that his brain was showing him and only him. The man who appeared along with a strong headache was patting the shoulders of the man on the stage as he talked about his dark and depressing life.

His vision shook again before the figure of the illusory man put his arms over the shoulders of the man on the stage. Maru put his hands on his head and narrowed his eyes. The face of the illusory man, which looked like it had been blurred out, became clearer and clearer.

The illusory man was smiling while putting his arms over the man on the stage, who wasn’t wearing worn-out clothes anymore, but a stylish suit. The moment Maru saw that man’s face, Maru made a twisted groan.

The illusory man smiling next to the man on the stage… was none other than himself.

Chapter 456

“I thought I was going to die at that rate and ended up writing something called a resume. It was for a small factory, and in the ‘experiences’ slot, I could only write the word ‘actor’ and nothing else. You wouldn’t know how long I stared at that piece of paper while holding my pen. I went to a factory with my resume, and even now I am working at that factory, from morning till night, and at times, from night till dawn. When I’m working, I don’t know who I am nor how much time has passed. It’s just like the military. Around five to six people would sleep side by side and someone would come in once morning came, and then a phone alarm would start ringing. People start going in and out, and I would wake up once again when I hear someone cooking something. When my phone rings, I would wake up in a daze. The scene I see then is - well, how should I say it - very hard to describe. Maybe this is why I never became a good actor.”

The man was speaking with ease.

As Maru heard the story reaching its end, Maru thought back to the illusion that he saw ten minutes ago. Could that even be called déjà vu? Maru himself was standing alongside the man wearing a luxury suit. His ever-so-smiling face indicated that he was in a close relationship with this man.

If there was only one case of déjà vu, it would be understandable for him, but the number of illusions wasn’t one. There were cases where Maru himself was next to the man, and there were cases where he wasn’t. He saw the man standing with someone that looked like his wife, and sometimes, there were scenes where he was holding the hands of what seemed to be his children. There were cases where he looked worn out like he was now, and there were cases where he wore a fully-tailored suit.

Maru felt as though numerous photos were flashing past his eyes. The completely different states of the man, as well as the figure of himself, every now and then confused him greatly. Déjà vu was supposed to be the brain making a mistake, but could the brain make so many distinct mistakes continuously in such a short period of time?

If this phenomenon was a result of the friction between the memories of his current life and the memories of his previous life, there should be just one illusory man. If this wasn’t a case of déjà vu, nor the memories of his previous life, then where did all those memories come from?

‘No, in the first place, are those my memories at all?’

If he knew this man in his previous life, he would have some point of contact with him, but from the story he told on the stage until now, there weren’t any places that sounded like Maru could have come into contact with him. Above all, what point of contact would a high school student have with a man in his forties?

Maru gulped before concentrating. Although the memories of his previous life had become faint, he could still remember the general traces of the life he lived. He graduated high school then went to university. After his military service, he worked as a road manager before entering a small company. He seemed to be progressing without any hitches but was then stopped by someone who came to the company on the company president’s personal connections. During that process, he discovered that that employee had messed with the company expenses while doing business with some other company. After he revealed that fact to the public, he left the company to become a bus driver.

‘Life can become different, so I might have met that man in my previous life due to a coincidence, but even after considering that, were there any opportunities that led me to hang out with that man while hanging my arms over his shoulders and walking the streets of Daehak-ro?’

Maru shook his head. Although his memories weren’t perfect, he knew the general outline. There weren’t any opportunities at all in his previous life that would lead him to become close to a man who was more than 20 years older than him.

Even if his memories had errors, that didn’t explain everything.

‘Regardless, how would I know so many different versions of that man?’

He knew that in this world, there were things that couldn’t be explained with logic.

He was living proof of that after all.

However, the order of progression had to be consistent at least, right? There was no way the images that popped up in his head just appeared out of nowhere. He should have seen them somewhere or heard about them at least. There couldn’t be an output without an input. Well, was this him being too complacent as well?

Maru looked at the man who had stopped talking to take a deep breath. The figure of the man wearing a suit was overlapped over him, and then by the same man wearing a thick, padded jacket. One, two, three, four… when he gave up counting, someone tightly grabbed his shoulders.

He breathed out nervously and turned around.

“Are you okay?”

Hanna was looking at him worriedly. Maru slowly nodded.

“I’m okay.”

“I don’t think you are though. Why are you sweating so much?”

“It’s a bit hot.”

“This weather, hot? I think you must be sick right now.”

“Don’t worry about me. I’m really fine.”

“Alright, then… did you think I’d say that? Hey, come with me. You’re sweating a lot so there’s no way you’re okay.”

Hanna grabbed him by the neck before pulling him. Maru started walking along after seeing the numerous overlapping figures of the man melt into his current state.

“When did this start?”

“I’m really not sick at all. It’s just because I was thinking about something else for a moment.”

“So kids these days sweat profusely when they think about something else? Man, they must be full of yang energy. How much porn do you have to watch to be like that?”

Hanna put her hand on Maru’s forehead before clicking her tongue.

“Look at all this cold sweat. This won’t do. We’ll take care of the cleanup so go back home.”

“I’m really okay.”

“Go home while I’m telling you nicely, or otherwise, I’ll strip you down and chase you out. Go home, wash your feet, eat some antipyretics and get some sleep. No, if you’re dizzy, should I tell Ganghwan-oppa to drive you home?”

“He should wrap the play up here. And like I said, I’m really…”

Maru shut up after seeing Hanna glare at him. She didn’t look like she’d listen no matter what he said. Well, it wasn’t surprising since a completely normal boy was sweating profusely with his eyes half-loose.

“Then I’ll go home for now. Tell Sooil and Ganghwan hyung-nim that I said sorry.”

“You shouldn’t be. Everyone knows that you worked hard. Don’t worry about it and go home. Also, take this.”

Hanna took out five ten thousand-won bills from her wallet.

“Take the taxi home. Wait, is this not enough?”

He stopped Hanna from going to the nearby ATM before walking towards the train station.

“Hey! I told you to take a taxi!”

“It’s fine since I’m not going to collapse on the spot. I’m really fine. Also, noona, you should go back. From all the clapping sounds, I think they’re about to wrap things up.”

Hanna turned around and looked at where the play was happening.

“I’ll get going, noona. See you next week.”

“Alright, be careful on your way home, and call me if something happens, okay? You should call me.”

After patting Maru’s back, Hanna waved her hand before leaving.

Phew - Maru sighed subconsciously.

“I should visit the hospital, and if they tell me I’m really okay…”

It would be problematic if he was diagnosed as normal, but it would also be problematic if he was told that there was a problem with his brain. He could neither talk to anyone about this nor find a solution.

He was born through a superpower that transcended the laws of physics, so no one in this world should be able to give him an answer to this phenomenon.

At that moment, he saw a street stall on the way to the station. It was a tent that did not allow people to see inside, and he saw a man and a woman walk out of it.

Fortune telling. That was what was written on the tent.

“Han Maru, Han Maru. Just because it’s supernatural doesn’t mean you should do that.”

Fortune telling, rituals, exorcisms. If this was his previous life, he would have snorted. Ghosts? It wasn’t even funny. He would confidently say that his head manager was the ghost that haunted him for work, and that president Park would be the celestial emperor. However, right now, he had experienced death and even came back to life.

The realm of the unknown could only be countered with the powers of the unknown.

Even though he was doubtful, he went inside the tent just in case. A woman who seemed to be in her early thirties was sitting there next to an electric heater. He thought that an old man reading some weird fortune telling books would be here instead, so it was rather unexpected.

“Uhm…”

“Tarot?”

“Ah, tarot, huh.”

It did look a little non-eastern, too. The glass orb on one side had some lights sparkling inside as though she bought it from an interior items store or something. This was a cozy and cute store.

“Uhm, how much does it cost?”

He didn’t want to be ripped off, so he asked the price right off the bat.

“It’s free. If you like your fortune, then you can always donate some money to the charity box for ‘food for the lone elderly’ right here. You don’t have to, though.”

“Ah, free.”

The woman smiled back at him.

“What? Is it too suspicious because I said it’s free?”

“No, I was just wondering how you got by,” he laughed and replied with a joke.

“But is this tarot thing really accurate?”

“Well, I’m not sure, since I learned it half as a joke rather than seriously. I don’t believe stuff like this either so I don’t know if it’s accurate or not.”

“Can you say something like that even though you’re a fortune teller?”

“Who cares? It’s not like I’m receiving money for it. Well then, what did you want to know about when you came here?”

“…Anything.”

“Anything? Then what about solving your worries?”

“Haha, that sounds great. Solving my worries.”

The woman started mixing the tarot cards. She looked very proficient as though she played games of go-stop[1] quite frequently, but sometimes, the cards popped out and spilled onto the table.

“These cards are way too big.”

“Aren’t you being too sloppy?”

“I’m starting to become tired. I was going to go home after that couple, but you came in. So don’t nag me and stay still.”

She took out three cards from the mixed deck of cards and placed them on the table.

“Also, tarots don’t tell whether something’s right or wrong. It just provides a direction. So don’t act according to the tarot and you should always value your own opinion when you take action.”

“That’s some deep fortune telling.”

“Think about the worry you’re having now as you pick one of these three cards.”

Just where was this going? Maru sighed. It seemed that he was tired after all. He was thought he was possessed when he came in here.

He placed his hand on top of a card thinking that he should try it out anyway since he was here.

“Excuse me, you can’t install something like this on the side of the road.”

Just then, a man wearing an orange glow-in-the-dark vest spoke as he came into the tent. The woman apologized before putting the cards away. In that commotion, the card that Maru chose fell on the ground.

Maru picked up the card and returned it to the woman. He only saw the back of the card so all he saw was some strange pattern.

“Since you picked one, wait a minute.”

The woman took out an envelope before putting the card inside. More men wearing orange vests shouted at the tent to put things away.

“Open this when you go home.”

“I wouldn’t know even if I look at it. I don’t know stuff like tarot at all.”

“Is the internet there for show?”

The woman started dismantling the tent while apologizing to the men outside. Maru looked at her for a while before turning around.

Today was a rather tiring day.

He got on the train in a daze. The train rattled. As he sat down and stared out the window opposite to him, he soon arrived at Geumjeong station. He changed trains there. In his head, he was still thinking about the man.

“I’m home, huh.”

He was out of himself to the point that he didn’t know how he got there. Maru shook his head. His mother would be worried about him if he went home with a serious expression. He decided to stop thinking for now.

He went inside and greeted his mother before going into his room. He took off his jacket in order to change clothes when an envelope fell on the ground with a small sound. It was the envelope he received from that woman.

‘I completely forgot about this.’

His mind was preoccupied with the thoughts of that man that he had forgotten about the fact that he received a card. He thought about opening it immediately but then decided to wash first. After a shower, he came back to his room with a better mind. Then he picked up the envelope he placed on his desk.

He unfolded the folded envelope before putting the card on his palm.

The first thing he saw were the words ‘The Fool’. The clown, huh. The illustration was simple as well. A man wearing skinny pants was standing on top of what seemed like a stage made out of wood.

“I wonder what this means.”

He thought about how the woman told him to look it up online and was about to sit in front of his computer. Just then, he looked at the card again. On the hand of the clown that had a mysterious expression that looked like he was neither crying or smiling, was a mask. The mask was a mix of black and white.

Maru had seen that mask before.

[1] Korean card game.

Chapter 457

Mr. Kang put his hand inside the vending machine. He watched as coffee filled the cup before pulling it out of the exit. The weather was quite cold so the warmth from the 200-won coffee was very appreciated.

“We’ll be done after we clean up that side so let’s go quickly.”

“Fine fine, I’m going.”

He followed Mr. Lee, who urged him to get going. Mr. Kang’s job was quite simple. It was the so-called administrative service. His job was to warn illegal street stands. The forced takedown was for the thugs that would come afterwards. His job, along with Mr. Lee’s, was to just give them a warning.

“There is one again,” Mr. Lee said as he pointed at a tent on the street. The tent, which took a whole half of the street, had the words 'fortune telling’ written on it.

“Looks like this is a good spot. These illegal stalls pop up every single day.”

“Yeah.”

Mr. Kang buttoned up his orange vest and went inside the tent. Inside, a boy around high school age and a rather decent-looking woman were sitting face-to-face.

“Excuse me, you can’t install something like this on the side of the road,” said Mr. Kang.

If there were some old men sitting here, he would’ve shouted right off the bat, but since it was a young woman, he just told her in a calm voice. The reaction came back quickly. The woman apologized immediately and started cleaning up. In the midst of that, the woman still managed to put a card into an envelope and hand it over to the boy.

After watching the boy leave, the woman turned around and apologized to him once again.

“No need to apologize to us.”

A pretty lady who had nice manners to boot. From how the fortune telling was free and there was even a box for charity, it seemed that she opened the stall for good purposes. There shouldn’t be a need to be picky against people like this.

“Mr. Kang. I’m going to make rounds over there, so please take care of the other side.”

“Alright, please do.”

Mr. Kang sniffed and took a sip from the coffee in his hands. Meanwhile, the woman stood in front of the tent, blankly staring at the road to the train station.

Was she not planning to take down the tent?

“Uhm, lady. If you don’t take this down, you’ll be in big trouble. Some thugs will come and make a mess of everything. Take it down before you see a horrible sight.”

“Yes, I should do that.”

She replied properly, but her gaze was still directed towards the train station.

“Looks like he managed to go. He should’ve been very dizzy.”

“You aren’t saying that to me, are you?” Mr. Kang asked.

The woman smiled and stared at him before nodding.

“Would you like to know your fortune as well?”

“My fortune?”

“I’m going to leave soon. The strict man doesn’t allow me a lot of time here after all.”

The woman hummed before mixing the palm-sized tarot cards in her hands in an awkward fashion. Mr. Kang crumpled the paper cup in his hands as he watched her. For some reason, he became energetic when he looked at her.

“Well then, try pulling out a card.”

The woman offered him three choices. Mr. Kang didn’t believe in stuff like fortune telling, but he decided to have a go for fun since it was free. He pulled out a card that had straight patterns on it before flipping it around. The card had the illustration of a lion and a woman.

“Reverse Power, huh.”

“Is it bad?”

“No, it’s not like that at all. Just that, you might run into monetary problems today, and since it’s quite trivial, I’ll tell you something for free.”

Mr. Kang perked up his ears when he heard that it was monetary problems. Although he didn’t believe it, it wouldn’t do him bad to just listening to it.

“30 thousand won in the pocket,” said the woman before starting to take down the tent.

“What do you mean by that?”

“You’ll find out soon.”

Mr. Kang looked at the woman in a sour manner. What the heck did that mean? 30 thousand won in the pocket? When he saw the woman struggling to take down the tent, a white truck appeared. The truck was extremely white for some reason, but the headlights were strangely red.

‘Looks like this person washes the truck quite often.’

Mr. Kang got going after watching the woman take down the tent for a while. This was Daehak-ro on a weekend. There were so many illegal stalls on the streets.

“Authorities are going to come around in a while, so take care of yourself. It’s late too, so it should be better for you to wrap things up and go home.”

Mr. Kang warned a lady who was selling fruits right outside the entrance to the train station before walking towards the building where he promised to meet up with Mr. Lee. Maybe because it wasn’t long until midnight, but he started shivering. So October was nearing its end as well.

“Yo, you done?”

Mr. Lee, who had arrived first, said as he flicked the cigarette he was holding. Mr. Kang nodded shortly.

“It sure is cold. Mr. Kang. Let’s eat some warm gukbap before going home. What do you think?”

“Sounds good.”

“Ah!”

Mr. Lee put his hand inside his shirt pocket before making a panicked expression.

“What do I do? It seems like I left my wallet at the office.”

Seeing Mr. Lee scratching his head, Mr. Kang sighed. Mr. Lee was a good guy. He started this job thanks to him, and he would always come to Mr. Kang’s celebratory family events. People around liked him as well. It was just that, he always acted cheap when it came to eating. How could he not have his wallet with him every single time? If he usually acted like a cheapskate, Mr. Kang would’ve gotten fed up with him already, but Mr. Lee would spend a lot when it came down to it, so he didn’t want to nitpick this time.

However, he couldn’t entirely control what his brain was doing, so Mr. Kang made a sour expression when Mr. Lee asked him to treat him this time.

At that moment, Mr. Kang remembered back to what the woman said back at the tarot tent. Thirty thousand won in the pocket. Wasn’t this the perfect situation for that?

Maybe…

“Isn’t there 30 thousand won in your pocket?”

When he said that, Mr. Lee widened his eyes before bursting out laughing.

“What? Mr. Kang, how did you know that?”

“What the, you really had money?”

“I do. I guess I do. But I’m really curious now. How did you guess the correct amount?”

Mr. Lee’s oblivious smile made Mr. Kang unable to become angry. This Mr. Lee was as nonchalant as always. He had the urge to nitpick, but Mr. Lee’s smile blew away any intentions he had.

“You’re buying the gukbap then.”

“Gosh, you really aren’t easy to deal with, Mr. Kang. Fine, I’ll treat you. But really, how did you know? Did you look inside my pocket or something?”

“Do you take me for a thief? I don’t go through other people’s pockets.”

“Then how?”

Mr. Kang smiled and explained to Mr. Lee what happened.

Mr. Lee exclaimed when he heard the story.

“So that woman told you about it? Whoa, she’s godly.”

“She must have been lucky. Thirty thousand won is just the suitable amount to be carrying with you. It must be beginner’s luck or something.”

“But she still got it right. And then there’s the thing about monetary problems. Are you sure she’s not possessed?”

“No way.”

“Looks like I should make a visit as well.”

“She’s not there anymore. She took down the tent and left.”

“Who knows? She might have pretended to leave and stuck around after you left. Moreover, from what I heard from you, she doesn’t sound ordinary. You know? I had a good piece of land I was eyeing recently. I should ask her about it. Maybe she will tell me something good.”

Mr. Lee’s words made sense. The precise amount of 30 thousand won, as well as the ‘trivial monetary problem’. It was rather accurate for a lucky guess.

“It’s right next to the gukbap restaurant, so let’s make a visit.”

“Well, alright.”

There weren’t any big problems since it was on their way.

Mr. Kang started walking towards where the tent was before. The two walked along the street lights before turning around at the end of the road.

“She isn’t here.”

Only empty space greeted them.

“What a pity. She must have been possessed by some divine spirit. Mr. Kang, you were lucky.”

“You’re right about that. Thanks to her, I get to be treated to gukbap.”

They walked by the spot where the tent was when Mr. Kang caught sight of a wall painting. The wall painting was covered by the tent before, so he couldn’t see it last time.

“What is this rabbit? It’s wearing a tuxedo and is holding a pocket watch?”

“Geez, Mr. Kang. Even a stupid country bumpkin like me knows what that is.”

“I’m not that knowledgeable when it comes to pictures.”

“That’s not any ordinary picture. It’s a children’s tale.”

“A children’s tale?”

“You don’t know? It’s Alice in Wonderland.”

Mr. Lee pointed at the wall painting. There were pictures along the wall, and after hearing that it was a children’s tale, he seemed to have found the relevance.

“Ah, I did hear about it. So this rabbit is from that story?”

“It is. When my daughter was young, she really liked that story. She would crawl into closets after reading it and look for holes in the ground.”

“That sounds cute.”

“Let’s not go there.”

“But why would a rabbit carry a pocket watch?”

“How would I know? All I remember is that that rabbit is what triggers the story. The little girl follows that rabbit into a strange fantasy land.”

Mr. Kang nodded his head. He knew that it was a famous story, but he didn’t know what it was about. It wasn’t like it would change his life even if he knew about it, so there was no need for him to find out either.

“It’s cold. Let’s get going. I want free food.”

“But it’s not free for me though?”

Mr. Kang grabbed Mr. Lee and dragged him to the gukbap restaurant.

Chapter 458

“Don’t give up on maths. You guys are going to major in engineering, aren’t you? Maths is the fundamental subject no matter which department you end up going to.”

“I’m going to go to the game development department though.”

“And? Do they not use maths over there?”

“Sure they don’t.”

“Like hell that’s true. When you game, you have your avatar, don’t you? Every single movement that character makes is done based on maths.”

The maths teacher tapped on the blackboard and told everyone to focus. It was 4th period - just before lunch. The mind of the students already belonged to the cafeteria so they didn’t bother listening to the teacher.

“What have you been looking at since morning?”

Maru looked at Dojin, who talked to him after poking his waist.

“What do you mean?”

“What do I mean? I mean the thing you put in your desk. Is it a lewd photo? If it’s something good, share it with me.”

Hearing Dojin’s words, Maru sighed and took out the card that he put inside his desk drawer.

“What’s this?”

“A tarot card.”

“What’s it about?”

“How would I know?”

While Dojin was making a sour expression, Maru saw the maths teacher raising his hand above his head. As he knew what that action meant, Maru immediately ducked down. As he ducked, he saw a flash of pink chalk making a straight line.

Along with a sharp smacking sound, the chalk hit Dojin’s forehead before splitting apart into two.

“Nice one!”

“Teach, your skills haven’t rusted.”

While Dojin scratched his forehead with a frown, the bell signifying the end of 4th period started ringing.

“Have a nice lunch. Don’t doze off during 5th period. Also, don’t run.”

As soon as his words ended, the students left in a flash.

“I’m going off first! Hey, wait for me!”

Dojin tapped on Maru’s shoulders before leaving through the back door. The only ones left in the desolate classroom were Dowook, Daemyung and Maru.

“The radio is so bothersome.”

“Even though you say that, you put a lot of effort in once you do start.”

Daemyung patted on the back of Dowook, who fell flat on the desk.

They didn’t know what kind of strings Yeondu, who was in her third year, pulled but the acting club was able to eat in the broadcasting room. It was quite exhausting to run to the cafeteria to get lunch and immediately go to the broadcasting room without rest, but thanks to this, they had a much easier time eating lunch.

“Dojin was saying something to you before. What’s that about?” Daemyung asked with a curious face.

Maru took out the tarot card he showed Dojin. It was the card with the clown holding a black and white mask.

“Tarot?”

“You know it?”

“A little. I read about it on the internet. But why do you have one?”

Daemyung received the card before looking over it. Dowook also sat up and looked at it as well.

“There’s this fortune teller tent I came across after finishing the performance in Daehak-ro, right?”

“A fortune teller tent?”

“Yeah. I went inside since I was having some trouble, but I didn't hear anything and only got that from it.”

“This is the only thing you got? That’s strange.”

Dowook picked up the card before asking if it was expensive. Maru shook his head.

“There’s no way she’d give it to me if it was expensive.”

“Then throw it away. You’re not a girl.”

Dowook threw the card. The card made a parabola in the air before hitting Maru’s chest and falling down on the desk.

“If it was just an ordinary card, I was going to throw it away as well, but something about it tugged my mind.”

“What do you mean by that?” Asked Daemyung again with curiosity.

“I went home and looked this tarot card up online, but I never found a card with a picture like this. I get that there are a lot of tarot cards out there, but I didn’t find a single similar image, so I found it strange.”

Of course, that wasn’t the only strange thing about it.

Maru had seen a clown wearing the mask with the black and white mix of colors.

It was in his dream. In a number of dreams he didn’t know if it was a nightmare or not, Maru experienced a situation where a man wearing a mask similar to that one was talking to him from a stage. As it was a dream, Maru couldn’t say for sure whether the mask worn by that man in his dream had the exact same pattern as the one in the picture, but he felt that it was considerably similar.

The place that the clown on the card was standing on was also a stage, which was the same as the man in his dreams. This strange equivalence tugged Maru’s mind.

After looking at the card for a while, Daemyung spoke,

“There isn't just one set of tarot cards.”

“Yeah, I found out about it already. I did look up tarot cards on the internet yesterday, and there were a lot.”

“There are cases where the illustration differs by region. There are differences in their nature, and even in their interpretation.”

“You sound knowledgeable.”

“I just know the general outline.”

“So? Have you seen a clown card like this before?”

Maru pressed on the clown’s face with his thumb as he asked.

“Well, no. It’s my first time seeing this too. Usually, the clown, that is, The Fool card, is depicted as a person standing with an animal on the top of a cliff. Though, don’t take my words for granted. I just looked into this stuff during middle school because I had interest in it.”

“That sounds plenty reliable. So you’re saying this kind of image is not that common?”

“Yeah. Also, these clothes. Don’t they look modern to you? It also looks a bit like a suit.”

“You’re right.”

The hems were just a bit tight, but the general look didn’t look that different to suits worn by salarymen these days.

“Also this. It looks like the man’s wearing a tie.”

When Maru had a closer look at where Daemyung was pointing, he saw a blue line around the neck. At first, he thought it was just a blue line, but when Daemyung mentioned that it looked like a tie, he thought that it was a tie as well.

“I don’t think this is the usual set of cards, but a custom-made one.”

“Really?”

Hearing that it was custom-made, Maru stared at the card for a while.

“Seonbaes! Food! Food! Food!”

Aram, who busted the door open as though it was her own room, came in while shouting food while dancing in an indescribable manner. Bangjoo followed suit with the same dance, while Jiyoon, who came in last, just jerked her shoulders in embarrassment. After flailing her arms up and down, Aram made a V with her arms and shouted ‘Food!’ at the end. Bangjoo imitated her well, but Jiyoon ended up looking down in embarrassment.

“Let’s get some food for now. We should get ready for the broadcast.”

Maru folded the card in half before putting it in his wallet. It wasn’t a problem that he could solve by thinking still on the spot, so it would be better to put it aside for now.

They went to the broadcasting room on the 2nd floor. When they went in, the spicy smell of kimchi-guk greeted them.

“Welcome, welcome.”

Yeondu, who started eating before them, waved her hand and greeted them. Daemyung and Aram quickly took seats and picked up their spoons and chopsticks.

“Thanks for the food.”

Maru also sat down. He scooped a portion of rice which was in a big bowl. As for the side dishes, they were piled up like a mountain on one of the food trays, so there was no need to worry about running out.

“Let’s start immediately after eating. Today, we have a story from someone, so it’ll take some time if we want to read that before the drama,” said Yeondu with food in her mouth.

“I get it, so please don’t talk while you eat. You’re spewing food everywhere,” Maru said as he looked at the grain of rice which flew all the way to in front of his food tray. Yeondu quickly picked up that grain of rice and ate it.

“Continue eating. I’m going to get things ready.”

Yeondu stood up first. It seemed that she was going to be busy preparing for the broadcast. Now that Maru thought about it, that junior of the broadcasting club couldn’t be seen anywhere.

“I got an earful from his homeroom teacher because I’m apparently taking too much of his time. I found out that he’s really good at studying.”

“Why would he be here if he’s smart?” Aram asked with a spoon in her mouth.

“He came here on the condition that he receives a full scholarship. I was ordered to not take him out so much since he’s precious to the school. Apparently, he’ll let them hang up the banner for Seoul University[1] or something when he graduates. Aram, can you help me out if you’re done eating? Pull out that microphone cord for me.”

“Okay!”

Maru also ate his last spoonful before standing up. Only Daemyung remained at the desk now. After making an awkward smile, Daemyung stuffed his mouth with five cherry tomatoes before cleaning up.

“But who’s cleaning up all this?”

“I am,” Yeondu said as she was checking on some broadcasting equipment.

She was moving around so busily that her short hair was fluttering. She did everything from planning the radio broadcast to menial chores. She was an incredible girl.

“Oh, and today’s story is about romance.”

“Romance?”

After reading a story they got through the in-school mailbox, Maru reached out and received the script that Yeondu gave him. It seemed that this school benchmarked how drama scripts were written in the country as the scripts for the high school audio drama also came out just before the shoot. Rather than perfection, though, the objective laid in the revival of the student radio, so there was no problem with that.

“Wasn't it Jiyoon and me today?”

“Yes.”

Maru skimmed through the script. The script looked like a stereotypical youth drama, and it depicted a girl hesitating between two boys: one she liked, and one that confessed to her.

“Huh…”

Jiyoon read the script once before making a difficult expression.

“Should we do some practice?”

“Yes.”

Maru looked at Jiyoon and said the line in the script. It seemed that whoever wrote this script seemed to like romantic comedies as each one of the lines sounded like it was dripping with sweetness. No, it went beyond sweet. At this point, it was chemical additives.

“Uhm, I… pfft,” Jiyoon laughed while saying the line before making a teary expression.

“Sorry, seonbae.”

“I don’t think this will do.”

She got the same line wrong three times in a row. From how she was making mistakes despite the fact that she was reading off a script, it seemed that it was a stretch for her to do this.

“Daemyung, you try. You should be better than me at least.”

Maru thought that she would feel better talking to her real boyfriend so he let Daemyung take his place.

Seeing the two, he gestured at them to start, but neither of them said anything for a while.

“What are you doing? We’re going to start in 10 minutes.”

“U-uhm.”

Daemyung took a glance at Jiyon. Jiyoon also looked at Daemyung.

When the two met eyes, they flinched in surprise before staring at their scripts.

Only after repeating that action two more times did the two start saying their lines while stuttering.

“So I really l-lik…”

“S-seonbae. Y-you shouldn’t stutter…”

“Sorry. I was too nervous. Sorry, but can you do it first?”

“Eh? M-me? Uh… uhm…”

It took half a minute for their beige-colored skin to turn beet red. Maru brushed down his face before closing the script. The real-life romantic comedy was right in front of him.

“What are you doing!”

Yeondu interrupted before taking their scripts.

“If you can’t do it, I’ll do it instead. Is that alright with you? You guys should look through the stories. We have to choose an interesting one,” Yeondu pushed over the mailbox as she spoke.

“You’re doing it?”

“What, you dissatisfied with that?”

“No.”

Maru shrugged. There was a limit to how good an on-demand acting would be. It would be fine as long as they could continue saying the lines without bursting out into laughter. The priority was to let the students enjoy themselves while listening to it, so it should be fine even if they screwed up some words here and there. Though, Yeondu probably wouldn’t allow that since she strived for perfection.

All members of the acting club took out stories from the mailbox one by one and started reading them. The mailbox was usually empty, but for some reason, there were over eighty letters in the box today.

“I went around telling people to write if they had any stressful incidents during after-school self studies, and that’s what I got in just one day. Oh, I also told them to write something that was memorable. After all, graduation isn’t that far away,” Yeondu said.

Ah, stress. The stress of an examinee student was really scary after all. On top of that, there was graduation.

When they had a look at the memos, there were all sorts of stories ranging from problems with school facilities, friendships, and even domestic politics. They picked out suitable topics for the broadcast among them. A moderate amount of criticism, praise, as well as heart-warming or heroic deeds.

“I think this should do,” Daemyung said as he put away the non-chosen mail.

“Well, then. Let’s get ready.”

Yeondu set up the microphones and got ready to start the broadcast. It was about time the students started coming back to class after lunch. They started off the program with an idol song.

“The weather has become really cold. But why aren’t they turning on the heater? We want heaters!”

Yeondu shouted into the microphone as though she was singing rock. Hearing her comment, laughs could be heard outside the broadcasting room.

“Today, we got a bunch of stories for our Woosung High’s broadcasting club. If we had enough time, we’d love to read them all to you, but there’s no way the principal would allow that. Principal, I hate you!”

Was she trying to make today the last broadcasting session? Maru faintly smiled as he looked at Yeondu, who spoke with excitement.

[1] Considered as the best university in Korea at this time.

Chapter 459

“It’s hard to go to the cafeteria when it’s raining. Everyone puts their umbrellas up and it’s complete chaos. I wish there was a roof.”

“I sympathize with this a lot. Lunchtimes during rainy days are practically warzones.”

“If any of the teachers are listening to this broadcast, I hope you can bring it up during the teacher’s meeting.”

Yeondu signalled Bangjoo. Bangjoo nodded and spoke into the microphone.

“Well, that’s the last suggestion from the students. Next up is the audio drama from the acting club Blue Sky. Today’s topic is about love.”

Yeondu raised the volume of the background music while Bangjoo’s commentary was going on. The sound that would be outputted by the school speakers could be heard through her headphones, and the music went really well with Bangjoo’s voice as it sounded really pleasant.

“Seonbae.”

Hearing Maru’s call, Yeondu nodded and switched seats with Jiyoon. Since the only Jiyoon needed to do to broadcast her voice was to control the volume knob for the background music and the microphone button, she shouldn’t make a mistake.

“I won’t make a mistake with pronunciation. I’m actually quite skilled, you know.”

Yeondu made idle remarks as she opened the script. Ever since she started the school radio program, she researched radio programs done by famous radio DJs. The progression, the tone of voice, and even the pronunciation. She did not have any experience in acting, but she was more confident than the kids from the acting club when it came to speaking in a clear, consistent voice.

“But you have to be more proactive when acting, Maru. That’ll make it easier for me.”

“Understood.”

Yeondu read down the script as she perked up her ears. She listened to the music from her headphones and looked for the right time to cut off the music before gesturing towards Jiyoon. Jiyoon’s hands moved and the music died down while the microphone went up. Yeondu gave Jiyoon a thumbs up before focusing on the script.

Today’s story seemed to be based on the recently popular high-teen romance. There were quite a lot of students in her class who also read these types of novels. A girl hesitating between the boy she likes, and the cool boy that confessed to her. Then the struggle of love that ensues.

Thinking that it would be an envious scenario, Yeondu looked at the kids sitting around her. She had gotten quite close to the acting club since they had started working together for the audio drama broadcast. The first thing she thought of when she had the thought that she wanted to create audio dramas was Yoonjung, who was in the same class as her. Even now, she thought that it was a good thing that she asked Yoonjung for help since she used to lead the acting club. Thanks to that, she was able to proceed with her ideas without any problems.

“Isn’t Chaeho quite decent?”

Yeondu said into the microphone. She exchanged a couple of lines with Dowook, who had sharp eyes. Although the contents were pretty cheesy, she didn’t feel anything when she actually read them out loud. When she thought that she wasn’t playing around here, she was able to say the cheesy words without any difficulties.

Yeondu glanced at the clock. Their time limit was 5 minutes before the next period. She had to wrap things up before then.

After gesturing to Daemyung to hurry, since he was a slow-talker, she followed suit. Daemyung was proficient at adjusting the speed, so he took care of himself after telling him what to do once.

Yeondu flipped over the script. It was the last page. As the drama didn’t contain any narration and was instead made purely of lines from characters, the content wasn’t that long. Maru, who had been silent until now, half-turned around and readied himself to speak.

Yeondu also looked at Maru without thinking much.

“Uhm, Min-ah.”

At that moment, Yeondu flinched backwards subconsciously. Maru’s eyes contained deep affection. She didn’t feel anything when she exchanged lines with Dowook or Daemyung, but for some reason, she felt weird when Maru looked at her.

“Yeah? What is it?”

She checked the script before speaking.

“What are you doing after school today?”

She felt as though Maru’s face was closing in on her, but when she had a second look, Maru hadn’t changed his posture at all. Yeondu licked her lips. For some reason, she felt nervous.

“Go home, of course.”

“Then… would you like to watch a movie with me?”

At that moment, Yeondu widened her eyes and looked at her hand. On her hand, which she placed on the table, Maru had placed his hand on top of it. Yeondu tensed her toes. What was this kid doing?

“Seonbae-nim, your line, your line.”

Just then, Jiyoon whispered to her from behind. Yeondu hurriedly put her microphone against her mouth and said the next line. Her voice was shaking against her will. Thinking that she was saying her line infinitely close to the affection-filled voice that the script required, she shouted ‘yes’ inside her mind. However, after realizing that Maru’s hand was still placed on top of hers, she gulped in nervousness.

Now that she looked at it, there was a line on the script. Open parenthesis, ‘while grabbing her hand’, close parenthesis. Yeondu fidgeted and tried to wriggle her hand out, but Maru forcefully grabbed onto her.

Yeondu looked at Maru in a panic. Maru had the expression of a boy full of love, nay, an expression much deeper than that.

In the end, Yeondu wrapped the play up while being so nervous that she didn’t know how it ended. She felt her heart racing.

“Is there a love story like that around us too? I hope there is. Unfortunately, though, it never happened to me.”

Aram did the finishing commentary. Only then did Maru let go of her hand. Yeondu quickly pulled back her hand as though she had touched something hot, before laughing and putting the hand back on the desk slowly.

That was because Maru’s expression as he tidied up the script was extremely calm. No, he looked a little sleepy.

‘He’s even yawning.’

Seeing Maru yawning with his mouth wide open, she felt funny that her heart was racing until just now. At the same time, she wondered if that was what acting was about.

So even lies induce reactions.

She felt good now since she thought that she learned a new thing. As Yeondu aspired to become a producer for a TV program in the future, this kind of experience was very precious to her.

‘One of the methods to seduce the audience is a charming lie. Oh, that’s a good line, I must say.’

Thinking that, Yeondu looked at Maru and Dowook alternately. Actually, based on face alone, Dowook looked a little more handsome than Maru. But curiously, her heart did not flutter when she exchanged lines with Dowook. So it was the difference of acting skill after all? It was understandable since Maru even appeared on TV.

She stood up and placed her hands on the control panel that Jiyoon was in front of. She played relaxing music that would play until the end of the lunch period before turning around and clapping.

“Thanks for today. We didn’t encounter any accidents today either.”

“Thank you for your work.”

Just as she sighed, Aram burst out laughing and spoke,

“Yeondu-seonbae. Why were you panicking so much? I thought you liked him for real.”

Bangjoo, who was next to her, also chimed in.

“She’s right. You were beet red just now.”

Yeondu crossed her arms and snorted.

“That’s right, I was a little nervous. Satisfied?”

As she didn’t have a personality where she would snap out at trivial things, Yeondu reacted nonchalantly. Her heart did race so she didn’t have any excuses either. It wasn’t a sin to feel embarrassed and excited like she was being confessed to for real, was it? In fact, it was instead Maru’s fault for being too serious about acting.

“As expected of you. You admitted it quite easily.”

“Maru was good at acting. I thought I was being confessed to for real. You guys saw that, right? The way he grabbed my hand and looked at me with a deep gaze. His acting is so on point.”

“I did see it. Hehe, it looked good though.”

Aram made a rectangular frame with her fingers and placed it in front of her eyes. Jiyoon slapped Aram on the shoulder and told her to stop.

“Sorry about that, seonbae-nim,” Jiyoon apologized.

Yeondu immediately shook her head.

“You don’t need to apologize. I’m not such a picky person. I can take a joke or two. Don’t you think so, Aram?”

“Of course. Our cutie here is too courteous for her own good.”

Yeondu winked at Jiyoon. Jiyoon smiled back at her. She thought that having a little sister like her would be great. After all, there would be a lot of fun in teasing someone like that.

“Rather than that, Han Maru. You were pretty good back there, huh?” Yeondu said as she slapped the back of Maru’s neck.

She found out just today, but an assertive boy didn’t seem too bad. If someone confessed to her the way Maru did, she might end up accepting on the spot.

“What do you mean?”

“Your acting was pretty good. I knew it was a lie, but even then I was nervous, you know? I was wondering what you were up to all of a sudden. Tell me honestly. You actually have feelings for me, don’t you?”

Yeondu didn’t hold back since everyone was throwing around jokes everywhere. The people from the acting club all burst out laughing. Yeondu also just shrugged and enjoyed the situation.

“Seonbae. Maru-seonbae has a girlfriend already.”

“Really? Then is he a two-timer?”

She grinned and had a look at the clock. It was about time they went back. It was fine for Yeondu to be late to 5th period since she had her work in the broadcasting club, but the rest of the people here would get an earful if they were late to the next class.

Just as she was about to tell them to go to their classrooms, Maru, who was cleaning up the papers on the ground, spoke,

“It was an act, but it wasn’t a lie.”

“Huh?”

Yeondu tilted her head in confusion. It was an act but not a lie? It took her three seconds to understand what he meant, and her head became complicated immediately. Even the others, who were listening from the side, stopped laughing and looked at Maru with surprise.

“An actor I respect once told me that I shouldn’t put on a lie when I act. Although it was an act, and it was just for a short time, I really tried to like you for real, seonbae. Grabbing your hand was just a byproduct of that,” said Maru as he placed the neatly piled script on the center of the table.

“So I felt really good when you admitted that you were nervous because of me. I thought my acting was praised.”

Only then could Yeondu smile back.

“Oh, and here I was thinking about something completely different.”

The others also chimed in.

“That startled me. Maru-seonbae, I almost swore at you because I thought you were two-timing.”

“I was also surprised as well.”

Maru pushed his chair in and said ‘I thought we were all joking here?’. The people from the acting club giggled as they cleaned up.

“Seonbae-nim. We’ll take our leave.”

“Alright, thanks for today. Also, there probably won’t be a drama tomorrow.”

“Then we don’t have to come?” Aram asked as she opened the door.

“You don’t have to, but you can if you want to. It’d be great if you can help me out.”

“Then I’m coming.”

“Instead, you’ll have to eat at the cafeteria. There won’t be any food here tomorrow.”

“Okay!”

Yeondu waved at the kids leaving the room before quietly closing the door. Then, she leaned on the door and spoke in a small voice,

“Maru, huh. He’s pretty decent. I might have confessed if he didn’t have a girlfriend already.”

So that was what it felt like for someone to like her seriously. Yeondu fantasized for a while before shaking her head. She had a mountain of work to do. She had to stop her delusions and take care of the problem in front of her.

“Ah, I think that song will be good tomorrow.”

She always had a problem picking the right song every day, but today, she thought of a suitable one to play tomorrow. It was a song about love that would perfectly portray what she was thinking right now. It was quite childish when she first listened to it, but right now, she thought it was pretty good. It was a pretty old song. Yeondu started humming that song as she cleaned up the cables. Just then, the bell for the next class started ringing. Since it would be okay for her to be ten minutes late to class, she thought that she should rest a little before going.

At that moment, the door to the broadcasting room suddenly opened before a junior came in. He was panting as though he came here in a hurry.

“What the, why are you here?”

“T-to help you out, seonbae.”

“Your homeroom teacher told you not to miss any classes though.”

“It’s fine. I came here after saying that I needed to go to the bathroom. Seonbae, what should I help you with?”

“Help, you say…”

At that moment, Yeondu caught sight of her junior’s eyes as he looked straight at her. Those eyes, they were the same eyes that Maru looked at her with just before. She felt her calm heart start racing again. She calmly stared at her junior who smiled brightly, telling her to give him work, before giggling and speaking,

“Hey.”

“Yes?”

“Do you like me?” Yeondu asked as she raised her glasses a little.

Her junior froze up on the spot. Yeondu sat on the table and waved her feet around like she was playing by the stream before laughing out loud. She could hear the sound of the wind, as well as the deep voice of a teacher from the corridor seeping through the door.

“What are you doing after school today?”

“E-eh? Ah! I go home. No, I actually don’t.”

Yeondu threw a pen from the desk at her junior and spoke,

“Then come watch a movie with me.”

Chapter 460

“Well done today as well. It’s quite cold today, so don’t just take off your tops when you play ball. Also, these days, many students get caught smoking in the park, and I’m not sure about drinking, but don’t ever smoke. Ordinary-looking folks like us don’t look cool even if we smoke, so you really shouldn’t. You’ll really regret it later.”

“Are you smoking because of the taste, then?”

Someone sitting in the 2nd column asked in a joking manner. Taesik, who was the homeroom teacher, chuckled as he ended the school day.

“Maru, see me for a sec.”

Taesik called out to Maru as he left through the front door of the classroom. Maru put his bag on his desk and approached Taesik.

“I saw you on TV. I did watch your acting quite often, but looking at you through a TV does feel quite different.”

“I looked really awkward, didn’t I?”

“Of course not. Even a clueless person like me thought that you were good.”

Taesik walked out to the corridor. Maru walked next to him.

“So from what I see, you decided on your career path - an actor, right?”

“Yes, I’m going to try. I’m going to go at it head on without any room for regrets.”

Of course, it wasn’t that Maru didn’t have a place to run away. Maru’s iron rule was that he should always have some room for retreat. He couldn’t let a spider put a web over his mouth[1]. The three hundred million won in his bank account was his room for retreat.

“I see. So you’re going to be busy in the future as well?”

“I’m not sure about that. This field is the same as the others in the sense that I have to run around looking for work until I become famous. I think I’m still far from work coming my way without me doing anything.”

“You’ll do well. No matter how harsh this world is, someone who is skilled in one area is bound to be used in that field,” said Taesik as he nodded his head.

They went to the cafeteria and Taesik bought a cup of hot chocolate for Maru. Maru thanked him as he received it.

“You talked to your parents about it?”

“They know that I joined an agency. They didn’t ask anything specific, but they are the kind of people who would let me do something if I set my mind to it, so you don’t need to worry about that.”

“I see, if you are confident in that, then I guess it’s fine.”

Taesik patted Maru on the shoulder and told him to drink. So that was the end of the consultation? Maru sipped the steaming hot chocolate and asked,

“But teacher.”

“Yeah?”

“Have you decided on a date for the marriage?”

Taesik smiled and looked at the paper cup in his hands. After swirling the cup around for a while, he spoke,

“You’ll be hearing good news in a while.”

“Really?”

“Look forward to it. I’m also graduating from being a bachelor.”

“Don’t forget that you need to fit me with a suit once you decide on a date. You know that I was your cupid, right?”

“Cupid? Haha, what a way of putting it. Fine. I don’t think I can do a suit, but I can give you a nice little souvenir from our honeymoon. I’m having a hard time these days.”

“Did instructor Miso already take over the financial power?”

“That woman’s pretty vicious.”

That last line was a joke, but there was a sense of bitterness that couldn’t just be taken as a joke. As Maru knew how he felt, he silently nodded and drank the rest of the hot chocolate.

“Cheonho’s in class right?”

“Yes, he should be on cleaning duty.”

“Then can you call him here?”

“Understood.”

Maru said goodbye before leaving the cafeteria. Meeting a homeroom teacher like Taesik for even just one year out of the three years of high school would change school life, and beyond that, life in general. A good teacher was just that incredible. Also, precisely because they were incredible, they were dangerous.

“Damn kid, follow me!”

He saw a student being dragged to the faculty office with his hair grabbed by the teacher. Maru watched that scene for a while before returning to his class. Now that he thought about it, a lot of factors in this world were decided based on luck. Environments, parents, fellow classmates, and appearances couldn’t be decided by choice. Perhaps it was precisely because of that that people struggled in order to survive.

“Cheonho, you should go to the cafeteria.”

“Why?”

“A first year girl wanted me to call you out.”

The boys that were mostly cleaning under the desks all stood up and glared at Cheonho. Cheonho asked back if it was true in disbelief before pushing away the others and running towards the cafeteria.

Seeing him rush towards the main staircase at full speed made Maru feel bad for him. He thought that he should treat the guy to something later. He told the truth to the boys that flocked to him and asked if the girl was pretty.

“What a pitiful guy.”

“He was definitely serious.”

“Maru, you should watch out. He has a knife in his drawer.”

Maru chuckled and replied that he would.

“What did the homeroom teacher say?” Daemyung asked as he returned to the class with a mop in his hands.

Maru replied that it was simply a career consultation.

“Is he going through us all?”

“Probably. He called Cheonho out just now.”

“Cheonho? He seemed so excited though.”

Daemyung wondered if it was such a good thing to have a consultation with the teacher.

“Did Dowook go up first?”

Maru picked up his bag. Today was Monday. He had to go to Seoul.

“He went to the bunsik restaurant in front of the school to buy some kimbap for the others.”

“He really looks after the juniors quite a lot.”

“He’s a good kid after all.”

While putting away the mop, Daemyung asked as though he just remembered something,

“Ah, the tarot you showed me during the day. Do you know what it means?”

“No. I was looking for similar pictures before I turned it off so I don’t know about it. Looking it up on the internet didn’t do any good.”

“I see.”

“Why?”

“You looked quite serious even though you got that card purely through coincidence. That’s why I asked, if you were so bothered over it, I wanted to tell you about it a little.”

Maru took out his wallet from his pocket. Daemyung really had great observation skills.

“So, what does this card mean?”

“I’m not entirely sure, but I shouldn’t be that far off either. It’s the card with the number zero, so I came across it a lot, and I liked it as well. Hmm, the interpretation depends on which direction you come across it, but generally, the meaning of The Fool is just like the image of a clown that you typically think of. In tarot, it means adventurous spirit, curiosity, commencement, free spirit when it’s in the upright position…”

After saying that, Daemyung groaned for a while before saying ‘that’s all I remember’ before finishing it off.

“I get what kind of image it is.”

“Right?”

“So if there’s an upright position, there’s a reverse position as well?”

“Yeah. It’ll be easier if you think about opposites. Impulsiveness, recklessness, carelessness.”

“That’s not good.”

“It can change depending on how you interpret it. I don’t know the details either though.”

Daemyung picked up his bag. Since cleaning was over, it seemed that he was about to go to the clubroom. Maru took a glance at the clock. It was about time he left.

“But what kind of consultation did you have when you received that card?”

“I said that I was worried about something… No, wait, that’s not right. That woman told me that she wants to solve my worries.”

“Solving worries? That’s a very broad meaning. So, when you first received it, was it in the upright position or the reverse position?”

Maru took out the card from his wallet and tried flipping it around. Yesterday, he didn’t get to see the front face of the card at the tent. He only checked the card when he got home. Even that woman didn’t tell him whether it was the upright position or not.

“Why?” Daemyung asked after approaching him.

“I didn’t hear about it - whether it was in the upright position or not. But I think I can deduce that.”

Maru looked at the pattern on the back of the card and thought back to yesterday. It was a repeating pattern on the back, but the colors at the end of the cards were different. One side was slightly red and the other side had a bluish tint. Before that man interrupted, the card lay still on the table. Back then, it was definitely…

Maru unfolded the card that he folded to put in his wallet and put it on the desk face down. Then, he turned it so that the red side faced him.

“It was in this state.”

“Try flipping it.”

Maru flipped the card. The picture was not flipped. The clown on the stage was facing him.

“Usually, a fortune teller interprets based on the seeker, so…”

“What’s a seeker?”

“The one being told about the fortune. In this state, the card is in its upright position.”

“So it’s interpreted in a good way?”

“Normally, yes.”

“That’s good. Well, not that I really like adventurous spirit and curiosity and stuff like that.”

“Still better than recklessness.”

“True.”

Maru picked up his bag and left the class. Daemyung climbed up the staircase while he went down. After exchanging goodbyes, Maru went down the stairs.

“Adventurous, huh.”

It was such a vague word. As it had a broad meaning, the interpretation would differ according to how the one doing the fortune telling interprets it. Fortune telling really wasn’t reliable after all.

Before he left through the left entrance, he saw the trash cans that the classes had put out. Maru fiddled with the tarot card in his hand. He wondered if he should throw it away or not.

The clown holding the mask within the card did bother him a little, but it was probably a coincidence anyway. Even The Phantom of the Opera had a similar mask with black and white. Meaning, it wasn’t anything special.

After seeing the clown wearing a necktie on the stage, Maru muttered ‘adventurous huh’ to himself once again and put the card back in his wallet. It wasn’t that he believed it, but just being in possession of it shouldn’t do him harm.

‘Let’s think of it as a souvenir or something.’

Maru put his wallet in his pocket and put anything regarding the card in one corner of his mind. Right now, he shouldn’t be worried about that meaningless card, but rather, about the many different overlapping illusions of that man from before.

He got on the bus and put his transit card against the reader.

‘I wonder what the heck that was about.’

Since he didn’t have a single clue, he couldn’t start deducing things. For a brief moment, he thought that there was something wrong with his brain, but no matter how hard he thought about it, he didn’t feel like there was something wrong with his body. He didn’t encounter anything that might have shocked his brain, and if some pathological problem occurred within his body, he should be encountering abnormal body conditions, but there were no signs of that either.

In the end, he reached the conclusion that it was related to his reincarnation.

Hearing the warning that the train was coming, Maru took a step back. The train arrived with a loud sound.

‘Will things like that happen again in the future?’

If that was the case, he had to get ready for it. An uncontrollable wave of emotions and a splitting headache would be a huge problem if it happened while he was shooting or performing.

He wondered if he should learn meditation or something. He had to find a way to calm himself down in any situation.

After arriving at the academy, Maru greeted Gwangseok and Gyunglim, who arrived earlier than him. Gwangseok was talking to someone over the phone. He was probably talking to a girl. Gyunglim was fiddling with her phone. So she’s active in that calligraphy café?

“Maru.”

Sungjae appeared behind him and greeted him while hooking his arm around his neck. The two had gotten close ever since they drank together at the elder’s house. Although they were at ease before when talking, there was still a sense of distance when they talked to each other, but now they felt close like old buddies.

“Is everyone here?”

Following that, Miso came in and pointed at Sungjae while saying ‘attendance’. Sungjae raised his hand and shouted ‘one’ in a loud voice, and following that, Gwangseok, Maru, then Gyunglim said their numbers.

“Good. All four of you are here. Then, let’s begin our class once again.”

Miso clapped and told them to stand up.

Maru stopped thinking about the déjà vu and stood up.

Right now, it was time to focus on class.

[1] Aka, ‘letting it go unused for so long that a spider decides to make a nest over his mouth’.

Chapter 461

“Hello, senior!”

She greeted with a 90 degrees bow. The senior actor, who was greeted, waved back at her with a short reply. When she arrived at the set, the first thing she did was to greet all the actors and the staff members. Since she was initially nitpicked on because of her greeting, she always approached a senior actor whenever she saw one and greeted that person.

As there was no one that didn’t like a greeting from a junior actress, she was able to go around greeting everyone energetically.

“Hello, senior.”

She greeted the woman with a smile. Lee Miyoon. That woman had a faint smell of cigarettes and she just nodded before going away.

“She doesn’t touch you these days, huh,” Jiseok approached her and spoke.

“I can see that she hates me, but it’s not like she’s going to do something to me based on something I didn’t do. I took the initiative today as well.”

“What a tiring relationship.”

“I’m used to it now. Rather than that, tomorrow is the first episode right?”

“Yeah, it’s finally here.”

“I guess I have to wait until the week after next if I want to see myself on TV.”

“Why don’t you do some monitoring for me while you wait?”

“I’ll do it if I have time.”

She stuck out her tongue slightly and smiled at him. Jiseok told her that she was being unfair while drinking a sip of water from the cup in his hands before snapping his fingers as though he had remembered something.

“Oh yeah, have you seen that?”

“Seen what?”

“The touching street performance of Daehak-ro.”

“The touching street performance of Daehak-ro?”

“So you don’t know about it. It’s quite popular these days, you know?”

“What is it about?”

“You really don’t know anything about it? Doesn’t your boyfriend talk to you about it?”

“Maru? Ah! I did hear from him that he was preparing for a street performance.”

“So he didn’t tell you because it’s not official yet. After the shoot, try going on ‘Acting Street’. It’s a blog that talks about issues in Daehak-ro and…”

“I know ‘Acting Street’. Though, I haven’t been able to go on it a lot recently because I’m busy.”

“Really? Anyway, try going on it and look at the popular posts from recent days. There are a few posts that have low-quality videos, but the reactions are great. I also had a look at it, and it’s worth seeing, especially if you’re aspiring to become an actor.”

Jiseok wished her luck with the shoot before going over to his own set. She wrote down Acting Street in a memo in her mind before turning around.

* * *

“Acting street, recent posts… here it is.”

After the shoot, she didn’t go home immediately and went to the nearby PC-bang because she couldn’t wait. She grabbed a seat, opened a browser, and went to a web portal. She logged in with her account and went to ‘Acting Street’, which she designated as a neighbor[1].

Acting Street was a blog that had many events and issues that occurred in Daehak-ro, and there was a lot of content, such as information about various plays, events, and even interviews of some actors neatly organized into various sub-categories. It was a blog that was visited by tens of thousands of people every day. Although it started off as a personal blog, it recently switched its format to a multiple-reporter administration, and thanks to that, the number of posts went up. Right now, it was a must-visit website for someone that was going to Daehak-ro for the first time. The first place she added as a neighbor when she started her own blog was Acting Street as well.

“Skilled actor Yang Ganghwan of Daehak-ro creates a unique sensational stage.”

She read the title in a small voice.

The photo right below the title contained a scene where many people were holding their phone cameras up in the air in the dark night. It looked like a small theater. The people that were colored in lights from phone flashlights, as well as a man wearing a guitar. Then, there were the actors. Just watching them made her smile. It felt as though the livelihood of the scene was transferred right into her.

“A stage where the audience becomes the actors. We are all the main characters of the play that is our life.”

She scrolled down and read the post. Late at night, heaters placed throughout, the sound of a guitar, the chatting of the people, and finally, there was the story.

The photo was switched to a much more serious one than the joy-filled one from before in the next paragraph. The photo contained people looking very sad, and perhaps serious. In the middle of what seemed like a stage, there was a man in his forties, and next to that man was instructor Yang Ganghwan looking at the man while wearing a white gown.

“But the stage called life sometimes cruelly pushes the person that’s supposed to be the main character out of the spotlight.”

After reading a rather ominous sentence, she watched the video right below it. It was the video that Jiseok talked about before. She could hear the man’s voice through the speaker. Although the quality of the video wasn’t that good, the voice could be heard clearly.

She collapsed her hands and stared at the monitor in silence. The man’s words flew into her ears. Twenty minutes could be considered long, and it could be considered short. She watched the video without budging for twenty minutes, and when she realized that the video had ended, she sniffed.

It was a fearful story. It was a very frequent occurrence for people that aspired to become actors, so it was all the more fearful for her. She felt complex since she could neither cheer for the man nor sympathize with him. She just stared at the blacked-out screen for a long time.

She calmed herself down after taking a deep breath before scrolling down a bit further. There was a short evaluation from the blog reporter, who watched everything from beginning to end.

‘This was a play, yet not a play. I felt uncomfortable, yet I could only keep watching; I felt hurt, yet I could not cry. A lot of people cried, but I did not. The one that uttered out the pain wasn’t crying, so I couldn’t cry either. Rather than tears, I sent a passionate round of applause. That applause contained my jealousy of the man who focused on acting his whole life, as well as a compliment towards myself who didn’t live such a life. I did not have the confidence to live like that, yet he did. In a popular sense of the word, he wasn’t the ‘main character’, but in that place, he clearly was. I cheered for such a foolish man.’

Beneath that comment was another video. It was a 3-minute one. It contained what happened after the man’s story ended.

The man thanked everyone for listening to his story and tried to leave, but Ganghwan held him back.

-You’re going to continue acting, aren’t you?

-I think it’s too late for me now. I’m past forty after all.

-Is there a suitable age for acting in the first place?

After that, the man didn’t say anything, and the video ended with the man sitting back down again.

After reading the whole post, she checked the comments section. The post was from two weeks ago, and right now, the number of comments reached over four thousand. Every comment she saw cheered on for the man. Sometimes, there were comments that made cynical remarks about his foolishness, but those numbered extremely little.

It was a surprising thing. Although Acting Street was a popular blog amongst people who liked Daehak-ro, it lacked views compared to hugely popular blogs. Yet here, just one post had more than four thousand comments.

Just in case, she did an internet search about it as well.

Emotional stage of Daehak-ro.

There were numerous news articles about it.

* * *

“You really never know what will happen,” said Maru as he looked at the people in front of him.

After their first run, they did one more performance last Thursday in the afternoon. There weren’t as many people though since it was during a weekday. Despite that, they were able to wrap up the play well thanks to the fifty-or-so people that stuck around to the end. The participation rate of the audience was similar to their first run, but there was no one that talked about himself or herself in detail.

Then, last weekend, they held another performance.

The number of people increased. While they were handing out coffee cans by the entrance of the train station, they came across some people who asked them if they were the street performance guys. Thanks to a man who gave them two boxes of hot packs[2] as a gift, the performance that night was a lot warmer than before. Furthermore, thanks to the people that gathered that day, he found out that their first run was posted on a blog named Acting Street. He thought that it might have little effect in advertising their agenda but…

“This was outside of my expectations.”

Maru laughed as he looked at Sooil next to him. Sooil was the same. One more week had passed, and it was now 6 p.m. on a Saturday. They had finished their rehearsal and printed leaflets to hand out along with coffee, but the moment he arrived at the train station, Maru was overwhelmed by people. He felt overwhelmed because everyone was telling him that they were here to see the play.

When he returned to Marronnier Park like the Pied Piper of Hamelin and his group of rats, he came across Sooil and Hanna who were in a similar situation. People were lined up behind them like little ducklings.

There were at least four hundred people at a glance. They were at a point where some people wouldn’t be able to watch the performance because of the sheer number of people.

The problem was that that wasn’t the end of it.

It was early November. The sun set quickly, and the winds were cold. However, a wall of people surrounded the performance venue to the point that such cold winds could not pass through between the people.

In a situation where he was receiving the gazes of hundreds of people, Maru couldn’t do anything but smile awkwardly.

“Excuse me! Coming through!”

One part of the human wall suddenly split in two before Ganghwan and Hanna pushed through. The two went out to get their props and stage costumes and looked like they had just been through a war.

“There are clearly too many people here,” said Maru as he looked around.

They needed to come up with something. If an accident happened, it would be detrimental for them.

The audience stared at the four who got into a circle to have a discussion. Maru looked at Ganghwan.

“I’m insanely excited, but it’s gonna be chaos if we just went on like this, right?”

“More people are gathering around. But what’s happening? There’s no way so many people saw Acting Street.”

The answer came from Sooil.

“We’re on the media.”

“The media?”

“I saw on the internet. We’re now a hot topic in all sorts of communities thanks to that man in the first run,” Sooil said with a grin.

“Now that’s what I call advertisement.”

At that time, some people in the audience asked them when they were going to start. The sheer crowd of people was attracting even more people. Ganghwan took a deep breath before climbing on top of a chair he brought to use as a prop.

“Everyone!”

The loud voice that came out from the bottom of his stomach made everyone around go silent.

“Thank you all for coming! But I didn’t know so many of you would be coming today. We have only four people, so we can’t control all of you. That’s why I propose that we switch places!”

“To where?”

Ganghwan raised his finger and spoke.

“In front of the Arts Theater!”

The people all looked at one of the landmarks in Daehak-ro, the red building. Everyone started moving after Ganghwan asked them to move over slowly. It was Saturday evening. There were many people that just came out on a date or for a family picnic without knowing anything about the play. They were mixed in with the hundreds of people moving in unison. Maru could predict what kind of results such a phenomenon would bring.

“What an advertisement,” said Ganghwan.

The Arts Theater had a huge clearing in front of it after the street was finished being reconstructed. It was capable of holding hundreds of people. It was a splendid choice for a stage.

Maru, who walked at the front, tried looking behind him. There seemed to be around four hundred, no, five hundred people here. The number four hundred did not sound like a lot, but actually standing in front of such a crowd felt completely different. People of all sorts of ages and heights rushed across Daehak-ro. The sheer movement of such a crowd was an eye-catching performance in itself, and it caused the effect of attracting even more people.

After arriving at the Arts Theater, Maru climbed up the temporary stage installed in front of it. From where he was, all he could see was a wave of people. He could see people holding large cameras scattered throughout. Someone came out of the ticketing office for the Arts Theater in confusion.

Maru smiled. The numerous gazes of the crowd felt nice to him. Ganghwan, Hanna, and Sooil were making similar expressions. They now had a bigger stage. Which actor would hate such a thing?

“Thank you all for coming!” Ganghwan suddenly shouted.

After a moment of silence, a loud cheer erupted from the audience.

Maru felt his palms sweating.

‘This is just great.’

It was an incredible way to start.

[1] A feature in Korean blogging. You can designate other accounts as ‘neighbors’ and visit their blog. It’s similar to ‘follow’ in recent social media.

[2] A small bag that contains chemicals which react to produce heat when it’s exposed to the air. It’s an essential item for winter training sessions in the military.

Chapter 462

“The children may get cold, so please come this way.”

“There are blankets here. Please use them and return them after the performance.”

Maru turned his head around when he heard the voice. He saw Sooil handing a blanket to a girl wearing a skirt. The two looked at each other and smiled before moving again. It was five minutes before the performance. Maru walked around amongst the people.

After guiding the elderly and the children to the heaters, he went up the temporary stage. Sooil also came back to the stage after handing out all of the blankets.

“Then we’ll begin the performance now. As I said before, those of you that want to participate should come up to the stage without hesitation. This is that kind of stage after all.”

Ganghwan’s voice spread throughout the audience through an amplifier. As soon as he saw that there were over four hundred people gathered here, Ganghwan made a call to someone, and not long later, a truck came, carrying various equipment. The man, that installed the amps and the microphones, wished them good luck with the performance and was watching from a corner. It seemed that he worked in a field related to stage equipment.

“However, it’ll be bad if you get injured while rushing up to the stage, so please take your time. This stage is not going anywhere.”

Ganghwan put the microphone in the holder and took a step back.

“Well then! We shall now begin the performance ‘I want to listen to your story’ right now.”

An even clearer and crisper voice than when he used the microphone spread out to the surroundings. The audience greeted the commence of the play with a round of applause.

Ganghwan and Hanna were wearing doctor gowns, while Maru and Sooil were wearing patient clothes. The flow of the play did not change from their first run. The start was a light skit. After that, Maru and Sooil would talk about their own ‘worries’ and Hanna and Ganghwan would give them consultation in a funny manner. After doing some skits that required the participation of the audience to induce them, they would eventually hand over all control to the audience after a while.

The stories of the audience decided the characteristics of the play, so the performance they held last Thursday started and ended with laughter. A woman in her thirties, who introduced herself as an accountant for a company, came up on stage, and after gaining total control over the stage like a proficient actress, she used her words to entertain everyone as though she was a standup comedian. The only thing that Ganghwan and Hanna did that day was laugh their hearts out from the side.

Maru wondered what was going to happen today. Seeing some people in the audience making serious expressions, he felt that today’s stage was going to be a little heavy. Many people here came after reading the blog post. It seemed that the story of the man that they met in the first run touched many people’s hearts. That probably led to these people coming here for similar reasons as that man from before.

“Let’s enjoy ourselves today too.”

Ganghwan put his hand out with his palm facing the ground. Maru put his hand on top, and Hanna and Sooil followed suit.

“One, two, three.”

“Eoi![1]”

After a short shout, Maru stood at the center of the stage and embraced the hundreds of gazes being thrown at him with a bright smile.

“There are loads of people today.”

He said his first line.

This was the start of the play.

* * *

She left the theater with a short sigh. It had been a long time since she came to Daehak-ro. The play she just watched was a suspense-mystery play about a murder crime that happened in the neighborhood. She was so tense from beginning to end that she was fidgeting her fingers. Moreover, since the stage was right in front of her, she was startled whenever she heard the bang of the gun. She was so embarrassed that she couldn’t raise her head when one of the actors pointed at her after the play and said that he was also startled because of her.

‘But it was still good.’

She really liked plays after all. She learned that there was a different kind of fun acting in front of the camera thanks to shooting the sitcom, but she still liked plays better since she was able to check the reactions of the audience on the spot. The breathing of the actors, and the murmurs of the audience; such vivid sounds provoked her emotions.

She trembled as she remembered the expressions of the actors at the last part of the play. Today, she decided to take only the big roads when she went home.

“Ah, right.”

After checking the time on her phone, she started walking hastily. She was so absorbed in the play she watched at the theater that she had forgotten her original purpose in coming here. She grabbed tightly onto her messenger bag and started running.

“Haa, haa… huh?”

She blinked her eyes several times when she saw the empty performance venue. This place was definitely the right place according to what she saw on the blog. The round stone chairs, the single-story building, and then there was the stage which was slightly elevated above the ground.

“How strange.”

She had heard that there was a performance on Sunday evening. Was she wrong? She looked around before taking out her phone.

She wondered if she should make a call. Actually, she had come here today without telling Maru about it. She couldn’t find the time to come until now since the schedule for her sitcom shoot kept getting delayed to Sunday, but it seemed that the problem was solved as it was moved back to Saturday. She was originally going to tell Maru so they could meet up on Sunday, but she became a little prankful and kept it a secret from him that she was coming here.

“Well, I guess there’s no choice.”

She felt like she was going to get angry if Maru told her that there was no performance today. She pressed the number two on her phone for a long time. Maru’s number, which she had saved on the number two, appeared on the screen and the signal beeps could be heard.

-The person you’re trying to reach is either unavailable or…

The stiff announcement came back instead. She turned around with a short sigh when she saw a bunch of couples all heading towards one place.

“Apparently it’s over there.”

She immediately understood what they meant. The Arts Theater right next to the ticketing office - the clearing in front of that building was filled with a lot of people. Despite the fact that the sun had set and the weather was quite cold, that place seemed warm from all the people there. She approached the Arts Theater in excitement but was unable to get through the crowd of people.

“Being a housewife is hard, you know? Isn’t that right?”

“Right!”

She could hear the voice of a middle-aged woman through a speaker which was installed on a platform that seemed to be the stage. She tip-toed. She walked around a lot until she found a place where she could see the whole stage.

“Wow.”

She could see Maru standing on the stage from afar. He was wearing a patient outfit and was nodding as he listened to the woman’s words. She wanted to watch from a little closer. She frowned and started to make her way through the crowd but was pushed back after being hit by a sturdy man’s shoulder on her forehead.

“Are you okay?”

“Ah, yes. I’m fine. Hahaha.”

She rubbed her forehead and smiled. The man looked at her with pity and with a strange smile. She was embarrassed and felt awkward so she left immediately.

The voice from the woman on stage, the woman herself, and the laughter of the audience made her want to watch the stage even more.

She tiptoed and started walking around again.

* * *

‘That’s… ’

The figure that Maru caught when he squinted his eyes was the figure of a girl whose head poked out at the back of the audience from time to time like whack-a-mole. Sometimes, the figure jumped like a rabbit. She could be seen on the left at times, and a while later, she peeked over the audience from the right before disappearing again.

Maru chuckled.

“Sooil, I’ll be right back.”

“Where are you going?”

“I found a strange guest.”

“A strange guest?”

“Anyway, I’m off.”

“Alright.”

Thanks to the housewife ranting about her hardships on stage, it wasn’t necessary for him to stand on the stage. Ganghwan was fanning the woman to talk more about herself from the side. The man who presumably came with the woman, in other words, her husband, was lowering his head right underneath the stage. He could hear him say ‘Minsoo’s mom, please stop already.’

Maru smiled at the little child who waved at him before walking around to the back of the audience. He could see the figure of a girl busily moving around amongst the crowd which kept increasing in number. Actually, as she had done dancing since young, she had a good figure and her stature wasn’t that small either, but thanks to her cute face and the thick coat she was wearing, she looked quite small.

Maru watched her, who was tiptoeing and hopping on the ground, for a while before taking out his phone. He made a call before waiting. She stopped her steps and picked up her phone.

“You called?”

“Huh? Yeah.”

For some reason, she crouched on the ground. Was she trying to hide?

“Why?”

“No reason. I just wanted to call you.”

“Really?”

“Yeah. But what are you doing right now?”

“Right now? I’m doing the play. The one I told you about before.”

“Oh, that.”

She moved her phone away from her mouth before smiling a little. After taking a deep breath, she spoke,

“Is it going well?”

“It is. What are you doing?”

“Me? Resting at home. I’m tired.”

“Oh, you’re resting at home? What about the shoot?”

“Right, I didn’t tell you about it, huh? It changed to Saturday. Yesterday was the shoot and today I’m resting.”

“That’s good.”

“What’s good?”

“Resting on a Sunday. You hate waking up early on red days more than anything, don’t you?”

“It’s not that bad you know?”

“I wouldn’t be so sure.”

Maru slowly walked up to her. The murmurs of the crowd hid Maru’s presence.

“How’s the performance, is it fun?”

“It is. Though, the audience likes it more than we do.”

“That’s a good performance. What a pity, I wanted to watch as well. It’s far away so it would be too late to go now. I should just rest at home.”

“You aren’t coming to see me?”

When he asked that question, she covered her mouth and smiled.

“Me? See you? Forget about it. I’m going to rest easy at home. I’m going to watch a movie on the sofa in the warmth of my home.”

“Wearing what?”

“Clothes? What kind of perverted things are you going to say now? I’m going to be fully covered, so don’t think about anything strange.”

Hearing that, Maru killed his footsteps and went right behind her. Then he lowered his phone and stood still.

“Hey, hey. Han Maru. Hey.”

She called out into her phone a couple of times before standing up abruptly. She watched the stage while tip-toeing before closing her phone with a sigh.

“You definitely are fully covered.”

Maru spoke into her ears in a small voice. She was startled and turned around. Maru could see her reddened cheeks and nose due to the cold. He sighed a little before covering her cheeks with his hands.

“Aren’t you cold?”

“Huh? Yeah. No, wait, how are you here?”

“You’re an idiot aren’t you? Think about the height of the stage. Then tell me whether I’ll be bothered about someone hopping at the back of the crowd or not.”

She said ‘aha’ in a small voice before making a sour expression.

“So you called me on purpose, huh?”

“I could clearly see that you were lying, so there’s no way I wouldn’t start teasing you for it.”

“You are such a…”

Her curled hands immediately jabbed into his waist. It was a rather accurate recreation of a right hook. She smiled in joy for some reason after hitting him.

“Wow, didn’t that look good just now?”

Maru immediately covered his aching waist and nodded his head. This was why he had originally held his wife back from trying to learn boxing after they married. He didn’t want to be cornered in a marital fight after all. Since she was a woman with good reflexes, her fists would be quite fierce if she learned.

“Hey.”

Maru grabbed her hand.

“What?”

“I’ll bring you to a VIP seat, so be obedient.”

She smiled with a bright smile.

[1] A shout to get themselves fired up.

Chapter 463

“Thanks,” she said, as she grabbed the canned coffee.

The VIP seat that Maru talked about was at the side of the stage. It was where the boxes with plastic chairs and blankets were. In a place restricted to the audience, she put a blanket over her legs and watched the stage.

‘So Hanna-unni’s doing it as well.’

Hanna showed up to the practice room from time to time during the beginning of the semester, but she didn’t show up even once ever since summer began. As Myunghwa High’s acting club seniors sometimes showed up even after graduation, it was always noisy even during summer holidays, and at the center was Hanna. She wondered what was going on since Hanna didn’t show up for more than half a year.

She sniffed once before drinking the coffee. Now that she thought about it, she was able to meet Maru properly thanks to Hanna.

She looked at Maru who stood next to Hanna. When that cheeky guy showed up to her appointment with Hanna, she was startled out of her wits. Even now, she just laughed whenever she thought about it.

Who would’ve thought they would end up dating?

“No, that’s not it. Let’s become more honest. You know? I get angry when I can’t do what I want to do. I get annoyed when there’s a menu I want but someone recommends something else. When that happens, I tell them: I like cheonggukjang[1] better. Do you really think that your girlfriend, who’s sitting right over there, really gladly yields to you whenever she does?”

“Uhm, that’s…”

“You don’t have to hold back. The only people here are you, the one you love, and a quack doctor who loves to chat. There seems to be something like eyes floating around, but you don’t need to mind those. It’s not like you’re going to see them again after this. The only one you need to care about is the man in front of you.”

She breathed out a warm breath as her eyes chased Ganghwan’s hands. Ganghwan was pointing at the man who came up to the stage, as well as the lady sitting in the front row.

The man who originally came up to boast that his girlfriend was kind and that she was a good person who always listened to his words was now looking at his girlfriend with eyes full of worry.

It was a nervous silence. Everyone, including her, was staring holes into the lady’s mouth. She thought that this was a play filled with light jokes and dynamic skits, but it seemed that it wasn’t that light-hearted. Well, the post on Acting Street said that the essence of this play was ‘the uncomfortable truth and an even more uncomfortable fact’.

“Actually, yielding itself isn’t that fun.”

As it was a small voice, it probably wasn’t heard by the rest of the audience. Ganghwan stood at the edge of the stage and kneeled down on one knee.

“Would you like to talk on the stage? I’m not forcing you or anything. However, you need to keep this in mind: what we want to hear from you on the stage are not lies.”

Maru gave the microphone to the lady. The lady hesitated for a little before coming up on the stage with a nod. People’s applause followed.

“This man is such an immature man. However, he’s a really good man at the same time. Sometimes, he would ask me if he should stop working and pursue what he wants to do. Oh, we are planning to get married next April.”

“Congratulations,” Ganghwan said.

When the actors on stage applauded, the audience also cheered and followed suit.

“Thank you. We’ll strive our best to live just as much as you cheered for us. Oh, that’s not it. Anyway, whenever he tells me that, I always tell him to try. Of course, I’m not saying that light-heartedly. I’m always scared whenever I say it. Marriage is a reality after all. Both of us will be thirty in a while, we’ll have a baby, and when that happens money will become extremely important. Even more than now.”

The woman put her hand on her chest in nervousness and heaved out a shaky breath. The breath spread around through the microphone. She was unable to continue speaking for a while. The man sitting on the chair approached her and grabbed her hand right at that time.

The two took the center stage, and the four actors that filled the stage until just now took a step aside. The sun had completely set and the skies had darkened. The faint lights installed on the walls of the Arts Theater lit the stage up.

“But there’s only one life, isn’t there? Our life together may be important, but so is my husband’s life. I do not want him to sacrifice himself for me, and the child. It will be hard, yes. Giving up on a stable job and starting anew will definitely be hard. We might lack money and perhaps one of us, no, both of us might have to break our savings account. We might regret it. Why were we so reckless back then? But I don’t want to force my husband to bend himself for the reason that it’s for ‘us’.”

Her breath was abated as she looked at the lady. The lady’s voice sounded like she was crying.

“I keep digressing. The original question was about yielding, right? I’m also quite greedy. I want to wear pretty clothes, buy pretty shoes if I see them, and I’m also interested a lot in interior design, so I always imagine the house we’ll live in and decorate it in my mind. However, there’s one thing that makes me happy above all else. It’s this man’s smile. When this man’s smiling like an idiot when I’m unhappy, I feel really good for some reason. All of the pressure from my problems are alleviated thanks to his smile. The opposite is true as well, when I see him sad, I don’t feel happy no matter how pretty the clothes I’m wearing are, and no matter what kind of delicious food I eat. Yielding? I’m not doing that because I’m kind. It’s all for myself. It’s because I feel hurt when he’s crying, and I have it several times harder when he is having a hard time. That’s why I try to let him do whatever he wants.”

But I am a little afraid - she was about to continue when she put the microphone down and started wiping her eyes. While the man was at a loss on what to do, she could see Maru pushing the man’s back. The man, who took a step without knowing, took another step of his own will and hugged the lady that was crying.

A slow applause started.

She, who was watching the whole scene, was a little envious of the two people’s love and took a glance at Maru. At that moment, she had the feeling that the smile on his face looked a little mature.

“Huh?”

She could feel tears dropping from her eyes. It wasn’t that her eyes had dried out due to the wind. It wasn’t because of the beautiful couple who would become married soon either. The tears just fell without any reason at all.

Why was she like this? The droplets kept falling. She hurriedly took out a tissue from her bag. It was peculiar. She was crying all of a sudden.

She knew that she was a girl with a lot of tears, but she also knew that she wasn’t so feeble that she would start crying for no reason.

She crouched down in panic and raised her blanket. She tried touching the pile of plastic chairs and also tried ripping out the fluff on the blanket as well.

She thought that she had calmed down, but for some reason, she started crying again. She really didn’t feel sad at all. In fact, she felt jealous of the couple in front of her. But why were there tears?

Mysterious tears flowed out of her eyes for around a minute. She kept fidgeting as she wiped her tears off in fear that Maru on the stage might take notice.

“Why am I like this?” She muttered to herself after her seemingly endless tears stopped.

It was strange. She closed her eyes. Neither her heartbeat nor her breathing rate was in disarray. She still felt good. The tears that fell without any signs, like rain without clouds, just disappeared without leaving any meaning.

She looked at the wet tissue in a daze before taking out a hand mirror from her bag. Her eyes reflected in the mirror were bloodshot.

‘It’s good that I didn’t put on thick makeup.’

The faint traces of tears were at a level where she could just wipe them off by rubbing with her hands. She put the mirror and the tissue in her bag before taking a deep breath. A soft wind brushed past her eyes, but perhaps due to the moisture from the tears, it felt very cold.

Meanwhile, the couple on stage thanked each other and were getting ready to leave the stage. The slight unease on the lady’s face was gone now. She didn’t know what promise the man made to her, but she felt that it was good that things turned out well.

She looked at the couple that went down after receiving presents. She cried when she looked at the two people and Maru together. Did she subconsciously feel sad about that scene?

“That’s not it though.”

She felt extremely fresh right now to the point that she could smile. There was no room for any tears to butt in. She pressed down on her eyes with her palms. Was she tired because of shooting the sitcom? She raised her head after the light massage to find out that Maru was looking at her with confusion.

She made an awkward smile and just shrugged as though to indicate that nothing had happened. There was no way Maru would be able to find tears which were blown away by the wind.

After watching her for a while, Maru chuckled before looking at the audience again. It was fortunate for her. He would’ve definitely been worried if he found out that she had cried for no reason.

‘I should get some good sleep when I get home. I must be lacking sleep.’

Just as she thought that she caught a glimpse of a lady standing opposite to her. That woman, who was wearing a white suit, was holding a pocket watch in her hands, and she was looking at her with eyes that seemed to be lacking something.

The figure looked familiar. No, it was a complete stranger. She didn’t get it. That woman looked pretty, yet not pretty, and she felt that she had seen her somewhere before, yet it also felt like she had never met her before.

‘Who’s that?’

Since she was staring at her, she looked around to see if there was anyone around, but they were the only people there.

She wondered if the woman was looking at her, but when she turned to look at the woman again, the woman had disappeared. She tilted her head and looked at the other side of the stage, but the woman in a white suit couldn’t be seen anymore.

No, wait. A white suit and a pocket watch?

That kind of outfit was way too eye-catching. She wondered if she made a mistake.

At that moment, she had the feeling that she had forgotten about something important. What was this feeling? She felt as though she had forgotten something perhaps more important than her own life, and had just remembered it.

“What’s wrong?”

Hearing the voice, she raised her head. Maru was looking at her worriedly. The moment she looked at his face, the feeling that she had lost something completely disappeared as though it never happened in the first place.

“With what?”

“You were in a daze.”

“It was fun. It was touching as well.”

“You’re not hurt anywhere?”

“I’m completely fine, thanks.”

She looked directly into Maru’s eyes that were staring at her. When she did, Maru nodded.

“If you feel cold, just take out another blanket. The wind is cold.”

“Oh, okay.”

“We’re going to finish soon so wait just a little more.”

“Alright,” she said with a smile.

The thoughts about the woman in a white suit, the tears, and that strange sensation had all disappeared.

Chapter 464

“I started designing an open stage-play like this one year ago when I lived homeless for a while,” Ganghwan, who sat at the edge of the stage, spoke into a microphone.

The performance was over, but the audience stayed in their places.

“I came across all sorts of people in front of the station. Those that were born and raised in Seoul, those from Incheon, Busan, et cetera. Not only were our hometowns different, but our stories were also different as well. Writing a debt guarantee for someone else, failing business, familial trouble, and someone even told me that he was just fed up with the world. I could write dozens of books just by writing down the stories I heard there.”

The reason why people, despite the cold and the time, still stayed was probably thanks to Ganghwan’s voice. The strong sense of faith embedded in his nonchalant voice was what attracted people.

“Everyone was different, but there were a few things that were the same. It was that they all wanted to tell their story. They always said that they wouldn’t be in that situation if someone listened to their story. At that time, I felt the need for a window of communication. However, I didn’t want to do something amazing. That’s why I thought about something that I could do in a small scale play. That’s how this came about. I created a stage where anyone can talk about themselves. But today, I was a little overwhelmed, overjoyed, and even a little worried when I saw so many people here.”

Maru started cleaning things up as he listened to Ganghwan’s story.

First, he had to collect the heaters. As they weren’t topped full of lamp oil in case of an accident, they should all have been turned off by now. If they knew that so many people would’ve gathered, they would have prepared more oil.

“Anything I can help you with?” She, who was watching from the side, asked.

“Sit down. You’re a guest, you don’t need to do anything.”

“I don’t want to just stay still. Should I collect the blankets?”

She wasn’t someone who would stop just because he told her to, so he asked her to do it. She hummed as she walked amidst the people.

“Your girlfriend’s pretty,” Sooil approached him and said in a small voice.

“She sure is. Not only that, she is cute and kind to boot.”

“Good for you. You’re dating and all.”

“You should do it as well.”

“I want to do it, but I can’t.”

“Is it because of your contract?”

“Our president isn’t that petty. It’s just… I become hesitant due to various reasons.”

“Sure, you do, even though you’re so young.”

Sooil raised his head and said that ‘he was an expensive man’. Maru suddenly remembered the lady in front of Sooil’s apartment last time. He came across that woman as he was going home after taking the drunk Sooil home. The way she offered him a 100 thousand-won cheque like it was nothing and then throwing it on the ground after he refused left a deep impression on him.

“Are you the youngest of your house? Did your parents dote on you when you grew up?” He asked in a roundabout way.

“I do have an older brother, but that doesn’t mean I was doted on when I grew up. I was raised quite strictly actually.”

“Really?”

An older brother huh. Then was that woman he saw back then a relative of his? Or perhaps his brother’s girlfriend? As it was never fun to pry into someone else’s family circumstances, he decided to put his curiosity to rest there.

“Please collect the heaters on that side.”

Sooil nodded and walked to the other side. Maru gathered the heaters on one spot before stretching his waist. He could see her walking amidst the audience collecting blankets. He would probably get hit if he described her as a weasel, so he decided to describe her as a squirrel instead. She was able to shuffle around in the crowd so easily yet she was had such a hard time joining the audience before.

“Here!”

She returned with her arms full of blankets. She looked dispirited when she was sitting down, but right now, she was full of vitality.

“She probably has itchy feet or something.”

“What was that?”

“Nothing. Rather than that, aren’t you cold? The weather’s gotten really cold. You should’ve worn pants instead.”

“So, you don’t like it?”

“It’s pleasing to my eyes for sure, but I was worried that you would feel cold.”

“Urgh, you’re such a creep when you talk.”

“Aren’t you used to it by now?”

“I hate myself for being used to it. Wait, now that I think about it, are you sure you didn’t get that habit from Hanna-unni?” She asked as she looked at Hanna on stage.

Maru shook his head lightly once.

“I’m still far off from reaching her level. The sheer concentration of jokes is different when it comes to her.”

“Well, I guess that’s true. If she decides to go at it for real…”

She became silent as though she had remembered something. The fact that her cheeks turned red shouldn’t just be because of the cold. Maru wanted to ask her what she heard, but he didn’t say anything when she clenched her fists and got into a boxing position. Just where the hell did she learn boxing?

“Do you know when it’s going to finish?” She asked carefully.

Maru was startled and looked at his watch. It was just past 9 p.m.

“Wait a minute.”

“Uhm, I can just wait. I asked just in case. I mean it.”

Maru looked at her, who grabbed his arm and shook her head.

“Have you had dinner?”

“N-no.”

“When did you come to Daehak-ro?”

“Around four, I think? I walked around by myself for a while and then watched a play before coming straight here.”

“Hey, you should get your meals on time at least.”

Maru clicked his tongue as he looked at the back of her hands, which had turned pale. He told her to stay before going to the stage. On the stage was a man with a camera as well as a woman with long hair. Since their performance was over, Ganghwan and Hanna shouldn’t have invited someone on the stage, so he was confused. Just then, he saw Sooil, who was standing by the heaters.

“Who are they?”

“Journalists apparently. They’re doing an interview.”

“For TV?”

“No, I don’t think so. I think it’s the local newspaper.”

“Really?”

“Anyway, that’s some proper advertising. Low investment, high returns. My father would love to hear that.”

Sooil smiled bitterly as he turned around.

Ganghwan’s voice echoed in his ears. Maru remembered him saying that he could write dozens of books if he compiled the stories he heard from other people. It seemed that this boy over here also had a story long enough to write a whole book. Maru patted Sooil’s shoulders. Sooil blinked his eyes.

“What are you doing?”

“What am I doing? I’m encouraging you. It’s free, so you can take as much as you want.”

Sooil chuckled before moving away, saying that he was okay.

“Anyways, is she going to keep waiting there?”

Sooil pointed at her, who was looking at the stage from afar.

“I was just about to tell Ganghwan-hyung that I was going to leave first. But now seems like a bad time.”

Maru looked at Ganghwan and Hanna who were doing an interview. They were holding a conversation amidst the applause of the crowd, and it was somewhat unfitting to interrupt at this point. He watched for a while before sneaking up the stage when they were taking photos.

“Uhm, hyung.”

“Oh, Maru. I was just looking for you. Let’s take a photo together. Where’s Sooil?”

“Over there.”

Ganghwan shouted at Sooil, who was below the stage, to come up.

“Hyung, I think I need to leave first.”

“Right, she must be waiting. Sorry about that. I should’ve thought about it. Then go after taking a photo. I don’t want you to be disappointed by not being in the photo after preparing all this time. Uhm, sir, I’m going to put these two in the photo as well. Half of this play can be attributed to these two after all.”

The four of them stood in a line and hung their arms around each other. After a few shutter sounds, the man with the camera said that it was done.

“Then I’ll take my leave first.”

He was just about to leave after saying goodbye when the female journalist held him back.

“Is your name perhaps Han Maru?”

“That would be me, yes.”

“Aha, then you must know who Mr. Kim Seokjoon is, right?”

Kim Seokjoon? Maru shook his head. He had never heard that name before.

“But he seemed to know your name though… he’s the man who became a hot topic recently. He said that he was able to restart acting thanks to you.”

“Oh, do you mean the man who said he was afraid of the camera…?”

Maru thought about the man who decorated the final piece of the puzzle during their first trial run. The man who had spoken about his life. Actually, what left an impression on him was not the man’s life itself, but the strange phenomena that happened to him back then.

“That’s him. He wanted to thank you since it was because of you that he was able to talk about everything that day.”

“Ah, right.”

“Don’t you have anything you want to say to him? I want to put it as a question when I interview him again.”

“Just tell him that he shouldn’t miss the opportunity he got again. Also, I didn’t do anything. It was his courage that allowed him to grab the opportunity.”

Maru bowed to her before getting off the stage. A shutter sound could be heard once again.

“That person seemed to be asking you about something, what was it?” She, who was waiting below the stage, suddenly asked.

“There’s an actor who participated in our performance two weeks ago. She asked me whether I had anything I wanted to say to him.”

“Oh, that person.”

“You know him?”

“It’s thanks to him that the Acting Street blog became so hugely popular. Even I read that post over and over again. But why would she ask something about that man?”

“I’m not entirely sure, but it seems that he picked acting back up again.”

“Really? I’m so happy for him.”

She breathed out in relief as though it was directly related to her.

They say the slightest opportunity triggered a man to change, and it seemed that that man was at the center of a hot issue. The foolish man in love with acting. Was there an item more suitable for advertising than him? Perhaps some theater troupe or some production company might have approached him already. It was a great opportunity to raise a positive image, so what kind of businessman would forgo that?

Like what Sooil said, it was a low-investment, high-return means of investment.

Maru turned around to see the stage. It seemed that things weren’t entirely going as Ganghwan initially wanted. So many people had gathered today. If that man’s story spread to others, there might be some people seeking to use that stage as an opportunity to make themselves known. Perhaps there were some in today’s performance as well.

People with bad intentions always flocked to a large piece of pie. Perhaps today was the last opportunity to watch the play without frowning.

“What is it?”

“Nothing. I just thought that not everything done with good intentions leads to good outcomes.”

“What do you mean by that?”

“Kids don’t need to know. Rather than that, it’s cold out here.”

Maru grabbed her hand.

“You must be hungry, right? Let’s get something to eat. I’m hungry as well.”

“Where are you going to go?”

“Meat or noodles. Take your pick.”

“Noodles! With soup!”

“A ramyun restaurant recently opened nearby. Should we make a visit?”

She pulled Maru by the arm as though no further discussions were necessary. Maru followed her footsteps, as his arms were shaken back and forth by her.

Chapter 465

The sensation it caused was much bigger than Maru expected.

Maru scrolled down with his mouse as he sipped the still-hot green tea. The titles of the news articles on the screen started scrolling down. Touching real life story, true actor, an actor who has gained a new life. All of them pointed to one person, Kim Seokjoon.

After scrolling down a little, Maru clicked on one of the articles. The man, who talked about the failures of his life during their first trial run, was now wearing a neat suit, doing an interview. There were ten such interview articles. It just went to show how many places had an interest in this man.

The story of a man who pursued his dream his whole life would definitely become a hot topic, especially in this time when there were articles about how employment was hard, how self-employed businesses were going out of business, and about a student who committed suicide after taking the CSAT[1].

Surprisingly, that man managed to shoot two commercials for large companies during the past three weeks, managed to participate in a play that was played in Myeong-dong, and seemingly received a few scripts from a few drama production companies. There was even a fan café about him, as well as an anti-fan café. He was now more well-known than most actors.

“So things can turn out this way too?”

The interview even mentioned that he called his ex-wife. At this point, it felt like the goddess of fortune was focusing her blessings on this man. All of his problems were being solved in such a short time. Even his fear of cameras seemed to have been fixed after the play, so the goddess of fortune must have been present during his participation. No, perhaps there were several goddesses of fortune back then.

At the same time, the interest in the street performance rose rapidly as well. Maru was surprised to see around five hundred people last Sunday, but on the Thursday performance after that, there were so many people that they weren’t able to hold the performance in the same place. They blocked the entire road, and even the police came, making things worse. In the end, Ganghwan had no choice but to cancel the performance. The performances they scheduled to do on Thursdays and Sundays were entirely cancelled, and they had not decided on further action. The worries they had after seeing the crowd on Sunday had turned into reality.

From the way things were going now, it seemed difficult to resume the street performance. Ganghwan also said that the essence of the performance had been changed after the performances were cancelled, and from his expression and words, it seemed likely that there would be no further performances. A famous party would attract more people interested in the party rather than those coming to congratulate after all.

“Well, he’ll probably take care of things himself.”

Maru looked at the brightly smiling Kim Seokjoon’s face before turning off the computer. He could have become jealous in this kind of situation, but for some reason, he felt better instead to see this man do well. That day, among the numerous overlapping illusions, he and this Kim Seokjoon were very close to each other. He knew nothing about him - what kind of relationship they had, whether it was even true that they knew each other in the previous life. There was nothing that he could find out, but if they were really close, wouldn’t it be fine to congratulate him and be happy for his success?

“Just what in the world was that though?”

He thought about it again as he looked up at the ceiling on his bed, but he could not get a clear answer.

Forty-five. That was the age he died while he was driving a bus. Just one life. Then what was the meaning behind the several overlapping illusions he saw back then?

“Are you listening to me right now?”

Maru tried talking into the void. There was only one person on Earth that knew the answer to this problem. That woman. The one wearing the pure white suit, and possessed a beauty that seemed to be out of this world. That woman was probably able to tell him whether this was a result of simply chaotic memories, or had a different meaning altogether.

“Can’t you come and talk to me just one more time?”

The words left his mouth and spread through the air. There was no reply. Just as he was blankly staring at the ceiling, his door suddenly opened.

“Are you on the phone right now?”

It was Bada.

“No.”

“Then were you talking by yourself?”

“Yeah.”

“Oppa, if you’re gonna go crazy, then please don’t get me involved. Also, the food’s ready.”

Bada shook her head as she closed the door. Maru sighed as he stood up. This wasn’t a problem that he could solve with effort, so he should just give up, but that wasn’t so easy. Those strong images, he didn’t think they were all just imaginary. There was too much missing information in this problem. He could probably come to his own answer if he knew all the preconditions at least.

He pressed down on the side of his head as he left his room. He could see Bada in the living room, holding her bowl in front of the table on the sofa.

“You should really eat at the dining table.”

“I know, but Yooyeol-oppa is coming out.”

“Who the hell is that oppa?”

“You don’t know? He’s from Change!”

Bada waved her arms around in the air, seemingly describing something. She probably intended to imitate an idol dance, but she looked like a baby octopus instead.

“What happened to TTO who you liked so much?”

“The oppas of TTO are the stars of my heart.”

“And what about this Change-whoever?”

“The second stars?”

“Aren’t there things like the sun, the moon, or the planets?”

“Shut up and go eat already. I put your rice in the soup, so do whatever you want.”

When he went to the dining table in the kitchen, there was only a single bowl containing soup. All of the side dishes were in front of Bada. She was such a cocky girl.

He moved to sit on the sofa with the bowl and a spoon. He was watching TV while taking a spoonful of rice out, and just in time, the TV commercial was ending and the program was starting.

“Oh, the sitcom.”

The sitcom in which she appeared was now airing. Last week was the first episode, and today marked the 10th episode. As the viewing rates were quite low since the first episode aired during the week of CSAT, they rose a little with the start of each week.

“Unni’s here,” Bada said as she pointed at the TV.

She, who played the role of a poor high school girl, was going into the main character’s house in secret today and was opening the refrigerator. The number of appearances as well as the duration of the appearance was very small, but she successfully made him laugh, so it could be considered a successful debut.

Maru had a look at Bada’s expression. The scene was when she got caught stealing food, and it was a laugh-inducing scene, but Bada was just chewing on food. There were no reactions on her face at all.

‘Am I the only one that finds her funny?’

He thought that he had to think more critically, but he chuckled whenever she came out.

“Hey, Han Bada.”

“What?”

“Is she funny?”

“She is a good person…”

Bada did not say that she was funny. Maru stared at the back of Bada’s head for a while before giving her a solid smack.

“Ah, why?”

“Why don’t you learn to lie a little?”

“I’m really sensitive when it comes to comedy, you know? I can’t say something that’s outside of my comedic philosophy funny.”

“What kind of philosophy is that?”

She was so funny. He was chuckling as he looked at her on screen when he felt a sharp gaze hit his face. Bada was staring at him with a spoon in her mouth.

“You’re so dumb.”

After hearing those words, Maru quietly stood up and walked towards Bada’s room. Bada shouted ‘what are you doing?’ and followed him.

“The card.”

“What card?”

“I’m taking it back.”

“…Ah, oppa.”

“It’s only oppa when you want something from me, huh.”

“Unni is really funny. I laughed my butt off.”

Bada started laughing. Though, it clearly said ‘fake’ on her cheeks.

“Huh? It’s Yooyeol-oppa’s voice!”

Bada ran towards the TV. She was clearly seriously addicted to idols. Maru returned to the sofa as well. On the TV, there was a good-looking boy reading a book.

“He’s Yooyeol?”

“Yeah, doesn’t he look cool?”

Bada grinned from ear to ear. Perhaps a photo and a poster of that idol might appear on Bada’s wall soon. Now that he thought about it, she did tell him that she was shooting with an idol. Also, he felt like he had seen that face somewhere. The name ‘Change’ didn’t seem that unfamiliar either. Now, then, where had he heard about it before?

“Unni has it good. She gets to see Yooyeol-oppa up close.”

“Like hell,” Maru said as he stopped thinking about it.

He felt like it was a waste of calories to remember the face and name of an idol. He wolfed down some rice before standing up.

“Ah, right. Oppa, I saw a commercial yesterday.”

Maru, who was pouring some water, looked at Bada.

“What commercial?”

“You know, that historical drama. The one that you said you went to the countryside to shoot. What was the title again? I think it was four letters…”

“You mean Apgu?”

“Right! Apgu.”

“When does it start?”

“Third of December, if I remember correctly. Oppa, are you the main character?”

“I’m the second beggar.”

“What the, that’s it? I thought you were playing some amazing role since you went all the way there to shoot.”

“Sorry I’m not playing a significant role. But you do care huh. Even I didn’t think about it until now.”

“I remembered it to boast about it to my friends, but I guess that’s not happening.”

“My little sister, in dramas, minor roles like me have to create the foundation so that the main characters can…”

“But the viewers only remember the main character, don’t they?”

Bada was dumb at times, but she was very sharp at times like this. Maru bitterly smiled before shrugging. She wasn’t wrong after all.

“You mad?”

“Yeah, I’m mad.”

“Then why don’t you pour me some water while you’re at it?”

Maru didn’t know what kind of man would take this girl in the future, but he inwardly apologized to said man. Sorry for not educating her properly.

“How is it going with Dowook?” He asked as he handed her a cup of water.

“Right, since we’re talking about that,” Bada grunted before emptying the cup of water in one go.

“That oppa is not meeting me saying that he’s busy. Something’s clearly happening right?”

“What’s happening?”

“Dowook-oppa is good-looking, isn’t he? Unlike you, that is.”

“Hey, I’m not so…”

“Not so?”

“I do hear that I look gentle wherever I go.”

He couldn’t say that he was good-looking with his own mouth.

“Like hell that’s true. You know that you look really scary if you stay still, right? Not only are you not good looking, you even give off a bad expression. You should always smile.”

“Are you saying that while being aware that you aren’t that much different from me?”

“What do you mean? Mom said that she made you half-assedly, and made me with all of her efforts.”

“That’s incredible. I never knew we lived in an era where it was possible to do plastic surgery within the womb.”

“Why don’t you go look in the mirror before saying that? Anyway, that’s not the important thing here.”

Faces did matter a lot to actors, yet she just treated it as ‘not the important thing’ here. He felt a little sad, but he didn’t say anything since it wasn’t like Bada was going to listen to him anyway. He thought that he should halve her next month’s allowances.

Maru took a glance in the small mirror next to the TV. He did look a little on-the-edge because his eyes were a little narrow, but he didn’t look scary. Just as he was thinking about that, he felt a sharp pain from his knee. Bada had kicked him.

“He even replies to my messages late these days.”

“Let’s just conclude that his love for you has dwindled.”

Actually, the acting club went into a state of emergency because of the winter youth acting competition. The reason was simple - the prize money was revealed. The youth acting competition held in the winter, which was hosted by a business, had a total prize pool of 25 million won. It was several times that of last year’s, and the grand prize was a whopping 10 million won. Taesik declared that he would split the money evenly across the members, and the kids who originally aimed for the ‘title’ with the prize, now aimed for the prize ‘money’, doing their best in practice.

“Perhaps he’s two-timing me?”

“You clearly watched way too many dramas. He’s just busy with practice.”

“No, I feel like something’s off.”

Bada made a serious expression. Just then, her phone started ringing in her room.

“You got a call.”

Bada nodded her head and went into her room. A while later, giggles started escaping her room. It seemed that Dowook had called.

“What a turn of events.”

He clicked his tongue and returned to his room, and his phone vibrated as though it was waiting for him. He received a text. He picked up his phone and checked the message.

The contents were simple.

-Twilight Struggles in cinemas tomorrow.

After seeing that message, Maru sighed.

“Does it even make sense that you can’t watch the movie you shot?”

An R18 movie.

He acted in it, but he ironically couldn’t watch it.

[1] College Scholastic Ability Test.

Chapter 466

He always thought that he should quit smoking. Dongwook put a cigarette between his lips and his nose and hesitated for a few seconds before putting it in his mouth. He crumpled the empty pack of cigarettes and stood up. It was sad that he lived in an era where he couldn’t smoke in buildings.

Just as he left the building, lit his cigarette, and was about to take a puff, his phone in his pocket started vibrating. He stared at the bright red tip of the cigarette before throwing it away while wondering if this was heaven's decree for him to quit smoking.

“Hello?”

-Senior, it’s me. Miyeon.

“Oh my. Journalist Choi. What happened that such a busy person like you would call me? Oh! Sorry, I just got something important so I think I need to hang up right n…”

-Senior, I tried digging into Lee Miyoon, and I found something interesting.

Dongwook groaned. This reckless junior of his clearly intended to speak without listening to him. Rather than that, something ‘interesting’ she said. He made a bitter smile. If that ‘interesting’ thing was what he thought it was, this junior had a huge misunderstanding.

“You were still doing that?”

-Am I the only one? I’m pretty sure you were on that case as well.

“I shouldn’t have listened to you back then. What kind of journalist am I? I’m just an internet journalist.”

Dongwook stomped on the cigarette on the floor with his heels.

“So? Where are you right now?”

* * *

“Senior.”

Dongwook walked up to Choi Miyeon, who was waving her hand at him.

“Buy me food.”

“That’s the first thing you say to me?”

“Of course, what else would I say to you?”

“This is a café though.”

“Then I’ll have some bread.”

“Do you really have to open your junior’s wallet like that? Aren’t you supposed to be treating me since you receive a monthly salary from JA?”

“But you get your monthly salary from Sharon, don’t you? I heard that magazine journalists have a pretty decent income these days.”

“That only applies to those that get good interviews. I’m already outside of their circle.”

“Who told you to go around prying into other people’s embarrassing things? You should’ve stuck to writing rumors. You know, things like who likes who, who and who wore matching shirts. If you dig into idols, you could’ve created a huge issue. Why don’t you stop being the journalist of justice after today?”

“I’m not going to. Also, stuff like that doesn't interest me. What are you going to drink?”

“Something sweet.”

Miyeon put in an order before coming back. She took out a few notebooks from her bag that she always carried around as soon as she sat down and put them on the table.

“What’s all this?”

“Things related to the ‘madam’.”

The madam huh. Dongwook opened the notebooks on the table. There were various news article snippets from various newspapers. Ads, press releases, casting stories. All of them were related to the entertainment industry.

“What about this?”

“I tried tracing the changes in the actors after the madam - that is, Lee Miyoon - used her connections to help them out.”

“Connections? You mean this?”

Dongwook made a circle with his left hand and repeatedly moved his right index finger in and out. Miyeon shook her head in denial before slapping his left hand.

“It’s the same thing. Anyway, do you think you’ll be able to find the relationship? All of this will only make sense if you have the evidence that these men sexually serviced her before they scored themselves a contract or an ad.”

“There is a testimony from the actress I talked about before.”

“But she committed suicide. Did you get a recording?”

“No, I didn’t.”

“Well, let’s consider what you say is true. But just that alone can only prove one event out of many. What evidence are you basing your statements on to say that these people have sexually serviced her?”

“I got into contact with someone who used to work for her. He goes by the name ‘head manager Lee’, and he’s a broker who connects celebrities to the VIPs.”

Dongwook faintly smiled as Miyeon spoke,

“Through that actress’s connections. That man also said that he’s having a hard time, that he wants to quit, and that he wants to live a carefree life after putting everything down.”

“What a convenient coincidence.”

Dongwook closed the notebooks.

“Look here. You said that the actress that caused you to jump into this whole investigation committed suicide, right?”

“Yes.”

“A joint suicide with her son. However, the news article said that she was unable to endure the hardships of everyday life. It mentions that in her last will as well. For now, it will be extremely difficult to prove that she was involved in sexual bribery.”

“That’s why I went around asking questions myself.”

“That’s the problem. That’s all the information a mere female journalist without any investigation warrants has found out. Furthermore, a lot of time has passed as well.”

Just then, they were notified that their drinks were out. Miyeon sighed and brought the drinks. Dongwook took a sip before saying that it was bitter.

“Well then. Let’s leave aside the deceased actress and talk about the current situation. An actress belonging to MH Entertainer has caused an uproar regarding sexual bribery. Immediately after that, The Five, belonging to the same agency, revealed the unfair contract incident. Regardless of their relationship, the incident where that actress sued for sexual bribery has been forgotten to the point that no one knows about it anymore. After that, The Five went separate ways, and three of them joined the new agency named Soul. That’s the current situation, right?”

“Yes, that’s right.”

“And one of your claims is that one or more boy idols belonging to The Five was involved in sexual bribery and that Lee Miyoon is involved in it as well, right?”

“I told you that before, yes.”

“To use as evidence for that, you have the testimony of the actress who left MH, but she has already reached an agreement, and that actress does not wish for this to become any bigger. That’s also correct, isn’t it?”

“Senior, what do you want to say?”

Dongwook raised his index finger as he spoke.

“What I want to say is that all the facts that you are speculating are based on the testimony of just one person. All the evidence you have about the previous incidents comes from this head manager Lee that you met through the connections of that actress.”

“No. Of course, I wouldn’t be able to touch The Five-and-Lee Miyoon incident because I don’t have any concrete evidence, but if I spread the evidence I received through the broker, I should be able to one-up them.”

Miyeon spoke in a strong tone. Dongwook squeezed a lot of syrup into his coffee as he listened to her.

“This stuff is bitter even with sugar. Anyway, you’re thinking this, aren’t you? That there’s a connection between the broker and Lee Miyoon, and that you should be able to tie the current incident with the past one once the investigation begins.”

“Right.”

“Miyeon.”

“What?”

“You’re being way too hasty.”

“Hasty?”

“Did your skills rust after you quit the newspaper company? Or did you become blind because you want to beat up all the bad guys with your hands?”

Dongwook subconsciously reached into his jacket pocket and frowned after realizing that the only thing in there was a lighter.

“There are people related to the media in the list that the MH actress showed you, right? What do you think they did right after that incident became public?”

“Clean up after themselves?”

“They should have taken measures so that not only they wouldn’t get in trouble, but Lee Miyoon wouldn’t get into trouble either. If all your assumptions are true, Lee Miyoon and Soul must be tied to each other. I’m not sure if their CEO Hong Janghae is involved with her, or she’s involved with someone else in the company, but it’s true that they now harbor the idols that became problematic to other agencies. But you know? There’s no one that would hug a bomb that’s about to explode. Only after being assured that it wouldn’t explode would they then take it.”

Only after seeing Miyeon nod did Dongwook take out a notepad from his pocket.

“You told me back then in the pojang-macha, didn’t you? That nothing changes even if you know that the king’s ears are donkey ears.”

He opened his notepad and showed her a phone number. After seeing that number, Miyeon widened her eyes in shock.

“How do you know head manager Lee’s number?”

“I haven’t been fooling around after all. While I was digging into the 15 billion won scam, I looked into this as well. It was thanks to a certain junior of mine who went around rampantly like a damn horse.”

Dongwook closed his notepad and told her to call head manager Lee. Miyeon hurriedly took out her phone and inputted the number. She waited with a serious face as she put her phone against her ears, and after a while, she made a dazed expression.

“What happened? Why is this person arrested?”

“That just goes to show that you aren’t the only journalist in the world full of justice. A media journalist who investigated this incident just like you did, persuaded that broker and turned him in. That broker did not deny any claims and received his sentence cleanly.”

“I didn’t know. Just two weeks ago, he told me that I was the only one he told.”

“Like hell that was true.”

“Then this incident is solved right?”

Hearing Miyeon’s words, Dongwook smiled.

“It’s been packaged really well. It’s a typical case of cutting off the tail.”

“What?”

“The list that that broker left behind did not contain the names of anyone important, nor were there any names of celebrities. Lee Miyoon, the woman you hate so much, isn’t in it either. He apparently just connected the prostitution business to ordinary people.”

“No way. He told me that they were related…”

“Consider yourself fortunate that you weren’t the one who called the police. That other journalist that believed in the broker’s words and was preparing to broadcast it through the media has quit as of yesterday.”

“What?”

“In a few days, there will be a small article about it. That some journalist sued some unrelated people for prostitution. It will be a short issue, but the people coming across it will probably think that the prostitution issue is nothing amazing after all. That it was over after the investigation back then. Well, not that many people would have any interest in the first place.”

“I’ll try going to that journalist you mentioned.”

“Unfortunately, that sounds incredibly difficult too.”

“Why?”

“That guy went to Hawaii.”

“What?”

“Hawaii. You don’t know Hawaii?”

“But you told me that person wrote the report.”

“I did.”

“But why Hawaii?”

“People can’t stay just forever. They say a cornered rat will bite, so what do you think a human would do? First, they should have threatened that guy saying that they are going to sue back for false accusation and defamation. Being cornered, that journalist would try to reveal everything to the public, and right at that time, they would approach that journalist with the hand of reconciliation. Along with a hefty sum of money too. They’ll tell that person: ‘That was a good fight. You were splendid. But what good is that? Who would acknowledge you for your efforts? Take this money and have a nice rest.’ Well, they could also promise that person his return to the job. Lastly, they might console the guy by saying that they did their best.”

“Then what about the past incidents?”

“Thanks to a few journalists, they now have a clean ending. It’s to the point that you won’t be able to bring them up anymore. There is that case of sexual bribery of that actress from MH, but there shouldn’t be any room for you to dig into with regards to that.”

“What if I meet that actress again and tell her that we should fight together…”

“I heard she drew the line saying that she will no longer be involved, didn’t she? You want to pry into people who already reached an agreement and received the money because of your exhausting justice? You’ll probably come across a lawyer before that. That lawyer will tell you to stop digging into something that was resolved already.”

Dongwook pushed his coffee cup to one side.

“That’s why I told you that you shouldn’t do this. I tried doing some investigations myself and burned up my sense of journalism, but this is how it ends.”

Miyeon bit her lower lips and put the notebooks inside her bag.

“I don’t plan to end things like this.”

“I thought you’d say that.”

“There must be a way. There are always whistle-blowers, aren’t there? Perhaps someone is waiting for us to come to them.”

“Maybe.”

“Senior.”

“What?”

“You said you don’t want to get involved, but you looked into this quite a lot.”

“That’s because it’s an opportunity to put my name on a huge scandal if things go well.”

“Don’t lie to me.”

“What do you know about me? I’m the type of guy who was happy to see the monthly salary piling up even when I was a journalist at the TV station. I exchanged my pride as a journalist for candy a long time ago.”

“I know that you’re only saying those words and don’t actually mean it. Let’s go, senior.”

“Go where?”

“You know this better than me. Tell me where I should start digging.”

“I’d love to, but I have stuff to do too. I’m under a contract after all.”

“Stuff to do?”

“I have to write about a movie. I need to do an interview as well. The movie produced by the proud JA is finally out, so I should get working.”

“So, where are you going?”

“The cinema. I didn’t go to the preview because it was way too troublesome. I’m going to watch it by myself quietly and write about it.”

“Then let me go with you?”

“Why?”

“Because I’m a magazine journalist. I’ll write about that movie as well in our magazine.”

“It’s not a movie suitable to be talked about in a women’s fashion magazine.”

“What movie is it?”

Dongwook put his notepad inside his pocket and said,

“A movie about a crazy old man cracking open the heads of his own children with a frigging hammer.”

Chapter 467

“And why do I need to watch this with you again?”

“Because I bought the coffee. And also as compensation for not telling me anything even though you knew everything, which made me do useless things.”

“You must know that the world isn’t so easy to…”

Dongwook clicked his tongue as he looked at Miyeon turning around with the tickets. Journalism was a job that would be much easier with a thick face. As such, those that lived a long life as a journalist usually didn’t care about what others thought. Just looking at the junior who was waving at him to come was enough to see how true that statement was.

They passed the cinema employee who directed them to the 3rd theater. It was 1 p.m. on a Tuesday. Perhaps due to the fact that the CSATs had ended, there were quite a lot of students wearing uniforms.

“Over here.”

As the movie was age-restricted, and it was a weekday, they were able to get the center seats even though they were buying the tickets just before the movie. There were people seated throughout the theater. Most of them were men. It was to be expected since it wasn’t the kind of movie that a couple would watch.

“What a heavy story.”

Miyeon was looking at a pamphlet she got at the entrance of the theater. As Dongwook had brought one as well, he wordlessly looked at it as well. The pamphlet had a dark overall color. The first phrase that entered his eyes was ‘the last shout of an abandoned elder’. This movie had the characteristics of prosecuting society.

“It’s far from mainstream.”

Along with a beep sound, the lights turned off. After a few ads and the emergency exit guide, a sudden sound of rain could be heard. A hammer from which red liquid was dripping in the heavy rain was getting a closeup. The frame then zoomed out to show the back figure of an elder holding that hammer, and the face of the man by his foot could be glimpsed at for a while. The sound of the rain was eventually overtaken by the rough breathing sounds, and eventually, the sound of the rain disappeared completely while the sound of rough breathing filled the theater.

The screen turned dark for a moment before the words ‘Twilight Struggles’ appeared on the screen in calligraphy. The rough breathing sounds continued until the title disappeared, and then the scene changed to show a man who was pushing a bicycle. The clear sky without a single drop of rain and the sound of turning bicycle chains was very relaxing.

Dongwook crossed his arms and focused on the screen. The intro seemed pretty decent. His own breathing was a little ragged as he synchronized with the sound of the movie a little.

“This is a horror movie, isn’t it?” Miyeon asked in a small voice next to him.

A horror movie. From one perspective, it could definitely be considered so. The abandoned elder, the killed children, and then there was no one. It was plenty horror-inducing.

‘But I’m a little sleepy.’

He was watching the movie since it was a part of his job, but honestly speaking, watching movies wasn’t something he liked. Ever since he turned thirty, he never watched a movie at the cinemas. It was rather fortunate that this was a thriller movie though. If it was some sweet love story, he might have left the work to Miyeon and just slept. As for the article, he could always whip up something on the spot. He lived his life like that until now, so he could do that with his eyes closed.

As he had that thought, he saw a pair made up of a man and a woman who hastily walked in after opening the door. Did they get the time wrong? Or was this the only movie they could watch at this time? If it was the latter, he would send his condolences. Perhaps he might be able to see the duo leaving in the middle of the movie.

The owner of a store who was piling cardboard boxes outside his business appeared in the vision of the elder who was dragging his bicycle slowly while carrying cardboard on its back. The elder’s smile filled the screen. His smile looked as though he found a heap of treasure. He pushed his bicycle and stopped in front of the boxes and asked if he could take them. The store owner told him that he could with a sour expression before disappearing. The elder sluggishly opened each one of the boxes and was shaping them so that he could pile them neatly on his bicycle when a truck suddenly appeared out of nowhere. A scary-looking man got off the truck and stole the cardboard boxes that the elder was piling and took them to his truck.

The elder watched that scene in a daze before asking him what he was doing angrily, but the only thing that he got back was some insults from the man.

We set the rules on our turf so fuck off while I’m still in a good mood - those were his words.

“Things like that happen a lot recently.”

Dongwook could hear Miyeon speaking. When he looked next to him, he saw her watching the movie with an expression filled with pity. She really was a good woman, when he considered that she was also investigating Lee Miyoon. That was why he always had this thought - why did she become a journalist? Someone who sympathizes with the pains of others should not become a journalist. Such people would bring themselves to ruin nine out of ten times because of their sense of justice.

“What?” Miyeon looked at him and said.

Dongwook shook his head wordlessly. He strayed off with his thoughts for a while when he realized that the scene changed. When he thought that he had lost the flow of the movie, his focus decreased dramatically. He started yawning and his eyelids became heavy.

He leaned back in his chair while looking at the screen with his tired eyes, thinking that he shouldn’t fall asleep.

However, his eyelids still fell regardless of what he thought.

* * *

“Winter sure came soon.”

Dojin sat down while shaking.

“I wish they turned the heater on,” Daemyung looked at the heater on the ceiling.

“They turned it on for a brief period last year just before winter holidays, so that’s probably what’s going to happen this year as well.” Dojin sounded like he had given up already.

“What was next class again? Maths?”

“Yeah, it is maths.”

Maru took out his textbook as he listened to Daemyung’s reply. He laughed bitterly when he saw that the textbook cover looked as good as new. Why was his good memory limited to Korean only? He sighed because the skill that the petty god bestowed on him was pathetic.

“You said the movie was released, right?”

“Yeah, it was just released yesterday.”

“Did you watch it?”

“Even if I want to, I can’t because I’m underage.”

Daemyung nodded.

“You’re allowed to shoot, but not watch?”

Hearing Dowook say that, Maru just shrugged.

“Should we go watch it at night?” Dojin asked.

“How? They check your ID.”

Dojin kindly explained to Daemyung, who seemed curious.

“You just need to wait until the last air for that movie and go in once the employees leave.”

“Without paying?”

“How would we pay? It’s age-restricted.”

“Wouldn’t we get into trouble if we get caught?”

“At most, we’ll get an earful. If you’re so afraid, Daemyung, you can stay out. Maru, you come with me. A friend of mine appeared in a movie, so I must go and watch.”

“I’m going as well.”

Dowook said in a yawning voice. Even Daemyung said ‘me too’ after a while. Maru laughed bitterly after seeing his three friends look at him.

“Hey, there’s nothing lewd.”

“Really? That makes me rather disappointed, but it’s still your first movie, so I should watch it with you,” Dojin said as he raised his thumb up.

“Well, I don’t really want to go so far to watch it.”

Maru pushed on the floor with his feet a little. The front of the chair was lifted up and the center of gravity was pushed back. He maintained the balance of the chair that swayed on two feet.

“Why?” Daemyung asked.

“Because I feel like I’d regret it if I watch it.”

“Regret it?”

“I’m never satisfied with myself when I looked back at something I did. Only the parts I lack enter my eyes. It’s the same for this time as well. I thought that I couldn’t do any better when I actually shot that scene, but when I think about it now, I think I could’ve done better. Of course, there’s a limit to how much I can show since it’s just a few seconds but… nah, that’s just an excuse. It’s just embarrassing. That’s right, I don’t want to go because it’d be embarrassing for me.”

Maru leaned forward. The swaying chair leaned forward and made a loud thud as the front legs landed on the ground.

“Embarrassing? That’s all the more reason to go.”

Dojin and Dowook exchanged glances. They looked like they clearly wanted to go.

“But hey, what’s it about?”

Maru smiled and looked at Dojin.

“You wanted to go without even knowing what it’s about?”

“You told me it was age-restricted, so I thought it was something lewd, but you said it wasn’t. If it’s not something lewd, is it something cruel?”

“It is.”

“Do people die in it? Maybe something about the mafia?”

“No. The main characters are an elder and his children. To explain the synopsis, it’s like the modern version of the parent being buried alive, but that parent taking their children with them to the afterlife because they don’t want to go by themself.”

“That actually sounds quite interesting. Don’t you think so? Dowook? Daemyung?”

Dowook nodded his head, but Daemyung just smiled. As Daemyung read the novel, he knew exactly what this movie was about. That was why he could only smile at Dojin who thought that it was interesting.

“Anyway, we’re going tonight, okay?”

“I’m sorry to throw a wrench in your plans, but it probably won’t be airing in any of the nearby cinemas.”

“It’s not airing?”

“It’s an indie movie after all. They shouldn’t have procured a lot of cinemas to air it in.”

After telling him to wait, Dojin walked to the front of the class. He turned on the PC connected to the TV in the classroom and opened a browser. The kids in class all told him that they should watch porn, but Dojin just raised his middle finger. The website for the cinema appeared on the screen. Maru also narrowed his eyes and looked at the screen as well.

“I really can’t find any. Hey, Maru! There’s an airing in the 5th theater in the cinema in front of Suwon station. It’s also the last air for the day,” Dojin shouted in a loud voice.

The kids in class all started asking what this was about. Dojin started explaining, seemingly quite excited.

“You shot a movie?”

“Hey, put me in as well.”

“Wouldn’t we get caught if too many of us go?”

“That’s why we should split up. A few of us should wait in the arcade and a few of us in the bathroom. Then we should all go in once the part-timers go.”

“The starting time is 12:40. We should get something to eat from the convenience store.”

“Hey, let’s go.”

“I don’t have anything else to do, so should I? I can leave the levelling for tomorrow.”

Maru frowned and looked at his classmates. Things were starting to go in a weird direction. There were more and more kids wanting to go.

“You really shouldn’t be doing this.”

Maru warned them, but it didn’t work at all. The driving force of high school boys who found something that interested them was quite scary indeed.

“God, these damned lunatics.”

Maru shook his head and just closed his eyes.

* * *

“Senior, you’re really going to watch it once again?”

Miyeon asked Dongwook who went to the ticketing office.

“Yeah,” after a short reply, Dongwook went to the ticketing office and reserved a seat.

“But you were watching from the halfway point.”

“I want to watch the first half again. I don’t remember a thing since I dozed off most of the time.”

“But still.”

Miyeon crossed her arms and trembled slightly. That was because the air in the hall was a little cold and the fact that she was momentarily reminded of the strong image at the last part of the movie. That actor really seemed like he had gone crazy. Feeling as though a dripping scarlet hammer appeared in front of her, Miyeon trembled once again. She once again realized the effect acting experience truly had.

“You should get going. You are busy, aren’t you?”

“I am going to, even if you didn’t tell me.”

“Put some distance if you want to dig into Lee Miyoon. If you get caught by her, you will run into trouble.”

“Don’t worry about that. I think I opened my eyes after hearing your words. Rather than that, is this movie that fun? To the point that you want to watch it again just because you missed the beginning part?”

“Fun, you say?”

Dongwook raised an eyebrow before nodding his head.

“I guess you could call it that. It is within that scope after all. But ‘fun’ doesn’t just mean funny, right?”

“I don’t think I can watch that two times in a row. No, to be honest, I don’t want to watch it ever again.”

“It makes you uncomfortable after all.”

“Yes, it makes me uncomfortable.”

The only thought he had as he watched the movie was the question: what would his relationship with his father be like in twenty years? The movie added the spice known as movie elements into an extremely realistic problem. That elder could be everyone’s elder, and the bleeding children could be everyone’s children. There was barely any gap between the movie and reality that Miyeon had to moisten her mouth with coke all the way through the movie. Struggles - that title was really fitting.

“Yo, journalist Choi.”

Dongwook turned around as he went into the cinema. Miyeon looked at him in confusion.

“Please write a good article for me, so that I get a bonus.”

“I’ll think about it.”

Miyeon looked at Dongwook, who turned around before pulling on his bag strap and walking forward.

Chapter 468

Lights turned on within the theater where the only source of light was the reflections off the screen until now. The lights on the ceiling scattered a faint light and the exit opened. The employees politely saw out the customers who left.

Dongwook stayed seated in the chair as he watched the ending credits roll up. This was the first time in his life that he watched a movie twice in one day. Half of it was because he wanted to write a proper article, and the other half was because he wanted to watch the movie again. That was his mindset as he watched the movie.

He reached into his jacket pocket. He really wanted to smoke right now. Unfortunately, he could only lick his lips after feeling only a lighter in his pocket.

By the time the names of the sound engineers started rolling up, the lights became brighter. The employees started walking around in the theater, picking up any leftover popcorn and coke that the customers left behind.

Dongwook stood up after feeling the gaze of an employee. He left through the exit and immediately got on the elevator. He visited the supermarket on the first floor and got six cans of beer and some dried squid before going to the counter.

“These and a pack of This Plus[1].”

He took the plastic bag and headed to his car which he parked in the parking lot. He put his stuff on the passenger seat and opened the pack of cigarettes. He put one in his mouth before lighting it up.

“They made a fucked up movie, those people.”

He puffed in a deep one. This was the first time he felt disgusted after seeing a video media ever since he watched a documentary about kidnappers when he was still pondering over what justice was all about. It really was a damned movie. He could still hear the sound of the hammer ripping apart flesh reverberating in his ears.

He flicked the cigarette away before getting in his car. His fingers were itchy already. He wanted to start typing on the laptop keyboard which was practically his twin. If he expressed his current feelings in words, the article should probably turn out pretty well.

Arriving at home, Dongwook brought a can of beer and the dried squid and sat in his living room. He turned on his laptop and opened a word processor. On the top of the first page, he wrote down the key topics: the joys and sorrows of an elder living by himself, the meaning of family, the fatality of insurances, the meaning of ‘support’ in the perspective of the era.

The movie threw a hard-to-handle question to its audience from the get-go. Who is going to look after the sick elderly? That kind of topic was too common, and probably wasn’t an item that was worthwhile, so the movie did not use it. Now that he thought about it, he heard that the movie was based on a novel, making him wonder if he should read it. However, he soon put that notion away since he felt awful just watching the movie, so there was no need to feel even worse by going that far. The other critics should have done their job regarding the published work. His job was supposed to praise and criticize the movie that JA invested in.

Dongwook drank some beer as he pressed on his keys. His fingers, being boosted by the power of alcohol, hopped around the keyboard without getting tired.

After a chaotic round of typing, Dongwook grabbed the beer can again. The can was light, though, he didn’t remember when he finished it. Just five meters away from him, there was cool beer inside the refrigerator, but it was nearly impossible to go there and get it right now. Once he lost his momentum, he would no longer be able to proceed.

He rotated his aching wrists before starting to write again. Only after writing five pages of text did he groan and do some stretching. His neck and shoulders screamed by making cracking sounds.

Standing up, Dongwook went over and opened the refrigerator, taking out a cooled canned beer. To replace the dried squid, he cooked a pot of ramyun. He brought the boiling ramyun and the cool beer with him as he sat in front of the laptop again. Now was the time for some relaxation. He turned the TV on and raised the volume up before looking at his laptop screen. What he had to do now was start reading from the beginning and remove things he didn’t want.

Actually, the length of the article wasn’t really a problem. Ever since he joined JA, all of his articles were being used by various media as a written-by-a-guest format. That was thanks to the power of Lee Junmin, the CEO. Popular celebrity magazines, internet magazines, and even movie magazines would use his articles. Of course, there were a lot of cases where it didn’t pass the editorial department of such media and was returned back to him with requests for edits, or was simply ignored outright, but Dongwook did not care about that. After all, the number on his salary did not change depending on the number of media his article was used in. If this situation continued for a long time, and he started desiring reputation, he might have a change of mind, but as of now, he didn’t have any complaints at all.

Despite that, the reason he edited his writing over and over, was because of his habit. He wanted to satisfy himself. Only when he removed parts of his writing and decreased its overall length did he feel that he was working. It was his way of acknowledging that he had a proper job.

He ate a mouthful of ramyun before going over to the next button.

As he wrestled with the backspace button and the undo button, the number of empty beer cans increased to four on the table.

“I guess that’s done then?”

He put the final period before looking at the TV. The daily drama that aired every Sunday at 8 in the evening was just about to start. It had been a long time since he forgot about the time as he was immersed in work.

After reading the finished writing one last time, he changed the filename. Now, all he needed to do was to send it to Junmin. Junmin would then take care of the rest. Just as he attached the file to the email and was about to press send, he stopped.

He opened the document again and added one more line at the end. The content was quite simple.

-The future of the high school actor that acted as the delinquent in the middle of the movie looks quite promising.

“This is what’s good about it, okay?”

Dongwook smiled nonchalantly and sent the mail as he thought about Maru who would be nodding his head if he learned of this.

* * *

“Aren’t you guys going home?”

“What are you talking about at this point?”

“Then let me go home at least.”

“Hey, who do you think we’re here for? You can’t leave.”

“Who told you to be here in the first place?”

Maru clicked his tongue as he looked at his giggling friends. It was 9:50 in the evening. Miso’s lectures ended last week, and the play he was preparing with Ganghwan also came to a stop, so he wasn’t that busy. Today was the day he could go home and relax, but he was dragged by his classmates to Suwon station.

“Let’s get going. It’s almost 10.”

The kids that were playing games while shouting loudly all grabbed their bags and stood up. They left the male high school student’s den that was the PC-bang and looked around before one of them pointed towards the convenience store.

“Let’s go there and get something to eat.”

“I’m getting samgak-kimbap.[2]”

“I’m getting ramyun.”

“Hey, can you guys treat me, I don’t have any money right now.”

There were twelve of his friends in that group. Dowook and Dojin were the leaders.

“Sheesh, it’s nothing special.”

“One of their classmates appeared in a movie. It’s not surprising everyone wants to watch it,” Daemyung said.

Maru shook his head.

“It’s not that they want to watch it, but that they just needed to do something to kill time. It should be much better to go home and sleep though.”

There were still around three hours until 1 a.m. Maru wondered just how they were going to spend all that time.

“Hey! Come here!”

“Don’t think about running away!”

His classmates all shouted in front of the convenience store. The passersby all looked at them. Maru walked towards the convenience store while acting like he was completely unrelated.

“Are you guys preschoolers? Stop screeching all the time.”

“We were worried you’d run. Dowook says everything’s on him. Let’s pick.”

As expected of the son of the oil-rich[3]. Dowook bought most of the snacks for acting club practice as well. They picked a few items to eat before leaving. As they were excited before they committed the deed, they didn’t seem to be affected by the cold, from how they were giggling and chatting in front of the convenience store. Maru asked the others as he drank the hot ramyun soup.

“What are you guys going to do until 1 a.m.? Why don’t you just go home?”

“Go home now? I already told my parents that I’ll be studying with the others.”

“Me too.”

These guys lied like it was nothing.

Maru pressed between his eyes. What was he supposed to do with these kids?

“Hey hey, there’s the red light district next to the station. Do you want to sneak there?”

“What’s a red light district?”

“A fucktown, duh.”

“There’s something like that?”

Maru threw his chopsticks at the guys that had a lewd smile on their face.

“That place disappeared a long time ago. Also, you guys should do something more decent. If you use your middle leg in the wrong place, you might ruin your lives.”

They didn’t seem to have any actual intentions to go as they just shrugged and moved on to the next topic.

Around thirty minutes passed after they started eating the food they bought from the convenience store.

“Hey, it’s getting cold.”

“We have to wait two more hours, huh. Dammit, I’m going to go.”

“Me too.”

That was the privilege of those at their age who did things on impulse. Maru hit the Adam's apple of those that just waved their hands as they were about to go home. They left after saying their goodbyes.

“You guys should just go as well. It’s nothing fun to watch,” Maru said to Dowook, Dojin, and Daemyung who still remained.

“You’re sure that there’s nothing lewd in it, right?” Dojin asked.

Maru nodded.

“Then I guess I’m going to go as well. I don’t have any energy after seeing those guys leave. Dowook, let’s go,” Dojin hooked his arms around Dowook’s shoulders as he said that.

Dowook flicked his arm away angrily, but Dojin just smiled and hooked his arm again.

“Shoot something more famous next time, so that we can watch it during the day. What the hell are we doing, I wonder,” Dowook complained.

“I never told you guys to do this, you know? Stop talking nonsense and just go home.”

Dojin and Dowook waved their hands before leaving. The only one left now was Daemyung.

“You aren’t going?”

“Aren’t you going home?”

“Huh? I want to watch it though. It’s Joon-hyung’s work that’s been adapted to a movie, right? I want to watch it. I want to watch it and compare it to the original work and see how video is different from writing.”

Daemyung spoke with clear eyes. Maru did not dare tell him to do something unnecessary when he saw Daemyung’s eyes.

“Alright. I guess it’s a form of study for you. Then good luck with that. It’s cold, so you should go to the nearby fast food restaurant or something before you go there.”

He turned around after saying that. Just then, a burly hand was placed on his shoulders. Maru did not turn around and just twisted his body to get out of his grip, but he wouldn't budge.

“What now?”

“How am I supposed to do it alone?”

“Do what?”

“The movie… I’m a bit scared to go by myself.”

“Daemyung. There won’t be anyone there once it goes past one o’clock. You just need to look around before sneaking in.”

He explained in kind, but Daemyung did not loosen his grip. Maru’s shoulder started aching. This guy’s gripping strength seriously wasn’t normal.

Maru turned around to look at Daemyung. Daemyung made an awkward smile and asked him to watch it together.

“Just my luck.”

“I’ll buy you the hamburger as compensation.”

In the end, he was dragged by Daemyung to the nearby fast food restaurant. Two men eating a hamburger together late at night was something indescribably depressing. Moreover, Maru became even more depressed when he thought that he would have to watch his own unskilled acting.

“Let’s walk around for a while before going in.”

They walked around Suwon station for a while before going into the theater at exactly 1 o’clock. The hall was completely empty as they had expected. The lights were even off in the snack bar as though they had finished cleaning there.

“Can we really go in though?”

“Let’s not look for our conscience at this point in time.”

“Uhm, okay.”

Maru looked at the ticketing office before walking inside. He went past the entrance blocked by a red line and wondered if he should really do this, but somewhere in his heart, he wanted to watch the movie when he heard the movie sounds all around him. He dragged the uneasy Daemyung and opened the door to the 3rd theater. The light reflecting off the screen was faintly lighting up the audience seats, and there were less than ten people from a glance.

It was an independent movie, age-restricted, and the last show for the day. It was amazing that the staff turned on the movie at all.

“Gosh, this is unnerving,” Daemyung said as he sat down.

His eyes were uneasily tracking the entrance and the exit.

“Don’t you ever get involved in something like a scam. And don’t commit any crimes either.”

“Huh? Why’s that?”

“I bet my entire fortune that you will be caught within the day.”

He was such a naïve guy. Maru leaned back in the chair and looked at the screen. The ads were just ending.

The lights in the theater started dimming. The screen motor sounds could be heard. This signalled the start of the movie. The nervous Daemyung seemed to have calmed down now as he looked at the screen with his eyes wide open.

“Alright, let’s have a look.”

Maru crossed his arms.

The hour of embarrassment was nigh.

[1] A tobacco brand.

[2] Lit. ‘triangular kimbap’. It’s ‘kimbap’ but rolled into the shape of a triangle. Wikipedia for more info. Look at the #variants section.

[3] Petrol stations used to earn high incomes until the mid 90s due to a law that restricted new petrol stations from being built within a certain range of the other. That law was removed in 1994, leading to a dramatic increase in that number, increasing competition.

Chapter 469

The old man crouched down and started piling up paper and cardboard. The thick paper was at the bottom for support, on top of that was paper, then thin paper boxes, then milk cartons, then books with their covers ripped off were stacked on top, before wrapping everything up with a thick string. As the tower of paper became higher, the shadows on the old man’s cheeks - whether it was a dimple or a scar, Maru didn’t know for sure - became deeper.

There wasn’t any background music. The only sounds that came out through the speakers were the old man’s breath that scratched its way through his throat, the thin and sharp sound of thin paper rustling, as well as the occasional sound of cars. Maru watched the static scene with his breath abated. It was the scene of an ordinary life, but there was a sense of tension that made him thin out his breathing.

This movie was about to collapse - this could be felt even without knowing any prior information about the movie. The tower of paper and cardboard started leaning, the soundlessly squeaking bicycle chains stopped, and the noise from the surroundings was completely removed, making it feel as though the old man was the only one in the world. That absolute solitude made the viewers feel uneasy.

“Fuu.”

Maru could hear a breath next to him. The breath that was kept at bay with difficulty, had escaped the mouth subconsciously. He slightly turned around to see Daemyung. Daemyung was absorbed in the movie with his eyes fixed to the screen. His half-open mouth was indicative of how immersed he was in the movie.

The scene changed. Yoojin, wearing a school uniform, appeared. She was eating some fruits while sitting on a sofa, and a while later, Suyeon appeared after opening the door. The two looked close enough to be real sisters. The awkward relationship they had during the read-through couldn’t be seen anywhere. After the scene of close sisters on screen, the wife of the second son, Joohyun, appeared. Even though Joohyun and Suyeon were polar opposites of each other, they chatted while calling each other mother and daughter. It was nothing new, but Maru felt that money was really scary after all.

Suyeol, who played the role of the second son, talked about their family plans for the weekend. They looked to be a very harmonious family. The daughters, albeit being a little coquettish, respected their parents, and their parents treated them with love. They looked like the ideal family. Although it was a short scene, it was long enough to make the audience understand how much they endeared each other.

The cozy scene that looked like it had a faint orange light to it suddenly switched to a gloomy grey-colored scene. The old man, who was lying down on a thin piece of blanket, violently coughed before sitting up. The faint background melody had disappeared completely. What filled the theater now was the sound of the old man’s coughing, and after that coughing, the white noise produced by the speakers themselves.

The back of the old man, who lifted up his aging body, was captured by the camera. The camera wordlessly captured the old man who walked around in the semi-basement kitchen where there was no light from the outside. After a few rattling sounds, the old man sat down on the floor. What appeared on the hexagonal sitting table with its paint scrubbing off, were some radish saengchae[1] with only the sauce left over, some siraegi[2]-guk with just the soup, a packet of seasoned laver, and some hard-looking rice. The camera shot the rice and side dishes on the table in a full shot.

The old man picked up his spoon. The contrast between the harmonious family dinner and the depressing old man’s dinner was truly tragic. Behind the old man, who was eating while coughing, there was a shelf on which was a tattered frame of a discolored photo that he took with his children.

Maru felt his displeasure increase as the old man chewed and swallowed the rice with difficulty. The clanging of the ceramic bowl and the metal spoon rang a few times before the screen turned dark.

The scene changed and the crouching old man stood up. It was raining heavily outside. The old man put on a raincoat and took his rusty bicycle to the streets. He stacked the cardboard and paper he found, which should have been several times heavier than normal due to the rain, onto his bicycle before staggering towards a small shop. He took out two one thousand-won bills after much hesitation and bought the castella bread and milk that he had been eyeing. He sat under the roof in the rain and opened the milk carton fully and dipped the castella before putting it in his mouth. There was a smile of joy on his face as he looked at the rainy skies.

Maru laughed in vain when he saw that scene. Such a depressing scene felt rather romantic thanks to the elder’s smile. That was the emotional skill of the actor who transcended the depressing atmosphere of the scene itself. The elder, who was eating the milk-dipped castella bread, should have been truly happy at that moment.

“Let’s buy some bread and milk when we go back,” Daemyung said.

The solitary life story of an old man in his later years continued after that. The old man met some of his friends from time to time and boasted to them about his own children: that his first son had a good job, the second son was a good businessman, and the third son was about to become a teacher.

Some words entered the old man’s ears as he laughed.

-But do your kids ever ask about your well-being?

After that, the same life of the old man unfolded, but unlike before, the old man’s expression was lifeless. The old man, who looked for happiness in the milk-dipped castella, now ate it like he was chewing on sand. The old man stepped on the empty milk carton as he stood up and then went home to change his clothes before heading somewhere. When he got off the rather shaky village bus, he struggled through some trains before entering a rather clean-looking residential area.

The movie gained a lot of speed from that moment onwards. After a quarrel with his first son, the old man fell into despair after hearing the malicious intent hidden in his son’s words, but he went to visit his other two sons with hope. However, the only thing he got in return was the second son telling him that it was a little tough for him to look after him, and the third son who asked him about the death benefit. His daughters-in-law, who used to treat him nicely, now looked at him as though they would a bug, and the elder was slashed by those gazes as he was thrown out to the streets. He couldn’t think about going back home and wandered around in the streets for a while before collapsing on a high street.

Maru knew that street too well. He felt pressured as though he had written a proposal and was about to get approval from his superior. Just as the old man curled in on a bench while groaning, some boys walking from the other side appeared on the screen. The group of kids, who were blurred at first as though they were just extras, had the camera focus on them once they stood in front of the old man.

On the screen was his face, and when he saw that, Maru was enveloped by a strange sensation. On the overwhelmingly large screen, incomparable to household TVs, was a full close up of his face, and his voice could be heard from either side of the screen. Jiseok’s face could be seen on the side as well.

The line he had been holding onto for a long time flashed past. The him on the screen had already turned his back towards the old man and was walking away. Although it was just for a moment, he got to appear on the same scene as the elder. He felt happy, yet the disappointment of not having done better shook his body. He even felt sorry because he felt as though the stifling tension that the elder built up now had been shaken out of place because of him. Back then, he felt that he had done his utmost best and that he couldn’t do any better, but now that he watched it from the audience seats, he felt that it was just ‘his best’ and not ‘the best’. He felt as though the flow of emotions that connected each cut suddenly disappeared out of nowhere. He felt as though it would’ve been better if the whole thing had been edited out.

“You did really well. It was so natural that I felt unpleasant,” Daemyung remarked.

That was good? He couldn’t accept that. Maru felt a little angry and felt as though Daemyung was mocking him. However, he soon realized that Daemyung wasn’t someone who would do that and that he was being too sensitive.

“That was okay?” He asked in a small voice.

Daemyung replied that he did really well, not just okay. Maru didn’t know whether to rejoice or cry. He looked at the screen with complex emotions.

He wondered if he could focus on the movie with his current feelings, but that thought only lasted a moment. When the old man returned home and took out a hammer, Maru put aside all the disappointments he had about his acting, as well as his apologetic feelings to everyone else involved in the movie.

The old man’s expression hadn’t changed. He neither became agitated nor enraged at the fact that he was abandoned. After eating some rice and cold water, the old man just continued with his everyday life. He picked up waste cardboard and brought them to the junkyard. After finishing his work, the old man left his bicycle at home before taking a bus.

His eyes as he looked outside the shaky bus didn’t look chaotic at all. In fact, they were very clear.

-It is not wrong of me to discipline the dogs that grew up with my life as their food.

He said those words as he looked outside. The camera closed up on the hammer that the old man was holding. After that, the scene changed. The third son, played by Geunsoo, appeared on screen. He, who was changing his clothes at home, opened the door when he heard the bell ring. The one that came was the old man who had a smile on his face.

-Father, so you thought about changing the registrant for the insurance?

As soon as Geunsoo’s first words ended, the old man swung the hammer he was hiding behind his back. Along with a loud smack, Geunsoo flinched back. He was hit by the hammer, but it wasn’t a fatal wound.

The old man rushed up to him while shouting with a cracked voice, and the third son, who fell on the floor, screamed at his father who assaulted him and kicked him back. The fight between the two wasn’t the dynamic kind found in action movies. The camera angle did not change either. It was a fixed point of view, and a long take at that. The fight between the healthy son and the aging father was rather funny yet gruesome. Falling down, swinging awkwardly, rolling on the floor, etc. There was no ‘clean murder’. The only thing shown on the screen was the struggle for life between two desperate humans.

The hammer that the old man swung hit the son on the top of the foot. Looking down at the back of his son’s head as he curled up, the old man swung his hammer once again. Blood scattered. However, there wasn’t a lot. The old man panted heavily while looking at his collapsed son before running towards the bathroom. The only thing that could be heard after that was the sound of vomiting which sounded as though the old man was vomiting his entire soul.

Maru frowned subconsciously at that scene. There was no corpse, nor a lot of blood, but precisely because there were only a few visual cues, it felt crueler.

The old man brought a sack. The sack which was supposed to house plastic now housed a corpse. The old man struggled as he dragged the corpse outside. People walked past him, but everyone looked disinterested. The old man and the corpse moved across the busy streets.

* * *

When the movie ended and the ending credits started rolling up, Maru tapped on Daemyung’s shoulders. It was 2:20 a.m. The employee that opened the exit yawned as he came in. The customers then started standing up from their seats. They mixed in with the ten or so people and left the theater.

A chill air brushed past his body.

“It’s well made, really well made. It’s just like the novel. No, I feel like it’s even better,” Daemyung said.

Maru nodded his head. The core content of the novel he read through from start to finish several times was all in there. Some of the scenes had changed, but the important flow stayed the same. Such editing was only possible thanks to the fact that the original author participated in creating the script.

“But, I don’t want to watch it a second time.”

Daemyung shook his head. Maru also didn’t want to watch it again. Watching once was enough. That was probably one of the disadvantages that movies with bitter endings had.

“It’s late. Let’s go down for now.”

“Alright.”

The footsteps of the two reverberated across the quiet hall.

[1] Spicy radish salad (It’s not really salad, but there’s no better word for it). Wikipedia for more info.

[2] Dried radish leaves and stem.

Chapter 470

“Strictly speaking, it’s not an indie movie.”

“No, there’s no need for ‘strictly speaking’. It’s very closely tied to money, so how can we call it indie? Of course, the exact meaning might be different from the American market, but going back to the roots of the word, it’s far from being independent.”

Junmin quietly looked at the two men who exchanged words with each other. One was General Manager Park from the distributor named ‘Bolt’, for Twilight Struggles, and the other was General Manager Choi from the parent company of ‘Dasarang Movies’, which was the parent company of Seoul Central Theater.

“There, there. Let’s stop talking about the boring stuff and have a drink. The food here is really good.”

When Junmin called for a waitress, the sliding paper door opened sideways. A woman dressed in a hanbok sat there and took a bow before walking inside with butterfly-like steps.

“Give us some food, and as for the wine, I’ll take your recommendation.”

“Understood, as for the flowers…”

“We’ll call them once we need them.”

“Then I’ll immediately get some food.”

General manager Park grabbed onto the woman’s hands as she took a bow and was about to leave.

“How fair. How old are you?”

The woman, who received the indecent gaze from general manager Park, made a calm smile as she replied,

“How cruel of you to ask a woman her age. How old do I look?”

“About, thirty-five?”

“That old?”

“Then thirty?”

The woman covered her mouth and chuckled. There was a smile on general manager Park’s face. Seeing him pull the woman towards him with some force, Junmin immediately coughed to make him stop.

“General manager Park.”

“Ah, yes.”

“The girls will be coming after a while, so why don’t us men talk among ourselves for now? It might not be fun, but it is definitely necessary,” Junmin said as he picked up a cup of water.

General manager Park was no fool. Although he was a playboy and had an arrogant attitude, he wasn’t an idiot who didn’t know the time and place.

“Right, right.”

General manager Park let go. The woman took a bow before leaving. Junmin lowered his head when he looked the woman in the eyes as the door closed. The woman faintly smiled as though to tell him not to worry about it.

“General manager Park. You should really fix that habit of yours,” general manager Choi narrowed his eyes as he said.

“A man is only a man when he seeks women, no? Men can only be real men if they bed some women and release their male energy. In that sense, you’re too gentle, general manager Choi. Don’t you think so, president Lee?”

Hearing general manager Park’s words, Junmin laughed without saying anything. These two general managers had known each other for a long time, so they didn’t hold back against each other. They even used the word ‘habit’, which was a taboo in business relationships, when talking to each other because they were quite close personally as well.

“General manager Park. Do you know who that woman is?” General manager Choi said in a condescending manner.

General manager Park pouted a little.

“Isn’t she just an employee here?”

“Oh my lord. General manager Park, you seem to have gone blind when it comes to the high class restaurant side of business since you’ve been golfing lately. Do you know where that woman you grabbed came from?”

“Where?”

“Samcheonggak.”

“Samcheonggak? You mean that Samcheonggak?”

General manager Park looked at the door with surprise.

“Consider yourself fortunate that you’re with president Lee right now. She’s not someone you can just fondle like that. If this was the 70s, you would’ve been dragged to the back alley, and… you know the rest.”

General manager Choi lightly swung his fist in the air. General manager Park made a sour expression as he spoke,

“But high class restaurant politics have ended a long time ago. If it was the Samcheonggak of before, I would find them amazing, but right now…”

“Even though the era has changed, there are people with the same connections. I heard rumors that a word from her will switch several politicians on the spot.”

Hearing that, Junmin clapped to gather attention and change the atmosphere.

“Let’s stop talking about that for now. We aren’t here to do politics, are we? We are here to eat nice food and talk about business.”

Hearing Junmin’s words, general managers Choi and Park nodded their heads. At that moment, the door opened, and some ladies wearing skin-tight hanboks entered carrying food.

“My, my. My nose and mouth are in for a pleasure, but I think the same can be said for my eyes too.”

Seeing the ladies come in, general manager Park smiled. When the lady that was putting dishes on the table next to general manager Park smiled at him, general manager Park couldn’t endure anymore and started fondling the lady’s thighs. Junmin did not stop him this time.

“Hey, pretty. What’s your name?”

“I’ll tell you if you call me later. I will be scolded by big sister if I talk about something else while I’m serving food. Please let me go for now.”

The ladies walking around the room scattering fragrant scents all left in one go. After looking at the laid out food, Junmin picked up the ceramic pot which was placed in front of him.

“Let’s have a drink for now.”

“Sounds good to me.”

“Very well.”

He poured a cup for general manager Choi first, then general manager Park. The one that filled his glass was general manager Choi.

“The drink is so sweet,” general manager Park remarked in pleasure.

The three of them talked about general manager Park’s daughter for a while. General manager Choi, meanwhile, teased him for being doting, but also indirectly boasted about his son.

“Aren’t you going to get married, president Lee?”

“I’m past fifty now.”

“Who cares how old you are in this day and age? A man has all of the financial and authoritative power, right? Although age is king when it comes to women, who cares about a man’s age. With your money and connections, there should be loads of women lined up wanting to marry you.”

It seemed that he was a little drunk as general manager Park bashed on the table as he spoke.

“General manager Park. Do you think anyone will catch our president Lee’s eyes? These days it’s better to live alone when you’re well-off. I also go home because of my son, not my wife. Rather than having your wife nag at you in your later years, it’s much better to just not get married and do everything you want.”

“I guess you’re right about that, general manager Choi. That woman. I wish she would just go traveling somewhere or do something. She’s holed herself up at home without thinking about leaving. All I see when I get home is her ready to pick a fight with me, and that really brings me endless headaches.”

Junmin, who stayed quiet this whole time in this rowdy atmosphere, thought that the time was ripe and started speaking.

“Since we had our fill in both food and drinks, should we start talking about business then?”

Hearing his words, general managers Park and Choi both put down their drinks. They sat up and tied their neckties again. That was probably a habit for them.

“This is what I like about talking business with you, president Lee. When I talk to other people, they’d always talk about the irritating work stuff first, but with you, I get to have my fill at least. Well then. Please tell us how you’re going to proceed in the future.”

“First up, as I told you before, I’m going to maintain the current number of cinemas in which the movie will be aired.”

“Isn’t that too low?” General manager Park asked as he pushed up his glasses.

“There are 80 cinemas managed by us at Bolt, and that amounts to nearly 600 individual theaters. We’re the number one distributor and theater in the country. I’ve been thinking from the start of our discussion, but considering the actors and the amount of investment you put into this, there are way too few cinemas that air the movie. I thought you were going to just keep the feel of an indie movie, but now you’re telling me that you’re planning to keep the number of cinemas like that of an indie movie as well? Isn’t that a little off?”

“General manager Park’s words definitely makes sense,” said general manager Choi, who had been listening all this time.

“If you air your film in the Seoul Central Theater, then it’s an unwritten rule that all the nearby theaters will air it. Although the movie scene in Seoul is practically under Seoul Central Theater’s control, the flow has shifted to multiplexes like Bolt’s B-Movies, or SC’s SC-Cinema. The production, investment, and even distribution are taken care of by one company. The reason we at Dasarang Movies quit movie production and changed our lane to being the cultural icon is also because we don’t have a way to compete with such multiplex businesses.”

“That sounds like we made the Seoul Central Theater go out of business, making me a little sad,” general manager Park laughed half as a joke.

General manager Choi also laughed out loud.

“It’s possible to gain some airing cinemas if you air your film on the Seoul Central Theater, but if you want to spread it across the country, you would need support from Bolt. Although you put on the mask of an indie movie and even advertised like one, the knowledgeable people already know everything, don’t they? That it’s a commercial movie. As for the contents, well, it is a little on the new side, but everyone should know what kind of movie it is after seeing the amount of investment and the distributor.”

“General manager Choi, that’s precisely what I wanted to say. Since president Lee is in the arts business, I can understand that you want to place your bet on the artistic and cultural part of the movie. However, you invested so much. You should increase the number of cinemas and see results in a week, don’t you think?”

General manager Park emphasized the word result.

“Betting on the artistic side, huh.”

Junmin tilted the empty glass in his hands as he spoke,

“I’m not such a romanticist.”

“I know, I really do. But I really can’t understand your actions on this matter. It’s been three days since it was released. Since only the arts theaters in the countryside regions are putting it on the screen, the ticket sales are seeing rock bottom.”

General manager Choi followed up on general manager Park’s words.

“Although the Seoul Central Theater is airing the movie across two screens at alternating intervals, we can’t handle all the people. Wasn’t this movie supposed to be the comeback piece for the actor Yoon Moonjoong? There’s Park Taeho in it too. I mean, where can you find a movie with Park Taeho in it these days that didn’t hit 5 million views at least? Not only that, there’s Jung Yoonhoe, Kang Suyeol, Ahn Joohyun, and Hong Geunsoo as well. If it was some other movie, these people would all be playing protagonists, and yet they’re side characters here. This is such a movie, so there’s no way it would do bad, is there? People are flocking, and ticket sales are on fire, but it’s not increasing that much because there simply aren’t that many places that air it on screen.”

“That’s good news.”

“President Lee. You should row when there’s still water. Stop making it look like an indie movie and go on the offense.”

“Right, that’s what you should do.”

Junmin glanced at general managers Park and Choi once before telling them as though he was consoling them.

“I was going to tell you soon to increase the number of theaters.”

“I think it’s too late as it is now. Just when are you…”

“I’m going to ease control once public opinion becomes just a bit hotter.”

General manager Park was clearly curious, while general manager Choi seemed to have caught onto something as he stayed quiet. Junmin poured some drinks into the empty glasses in front of them.

“Being common will reduce its value. But if you can’t take it at all, there simply won’t be a price tag. When I told you not to increase the number of theaters, I wanted to increase the value of this movie. Right now, the articles about the movie go something like this: that actors are escaping the commercialization of movies in search of true acting. With such articles going around, if we switch to an offensive strategy and increase the number of theaters, don’t you think that’s being too hasty?”

Junmin locked his fingers as he continued speaking.

“Rumors don’t spread around for no reason. You can always give it a push. This is the Sir Yoon’s comeback piece. I cannot accept a half-assed score. Direction doesn’t just occur for movies. There’s direction in business as well. It’s especially true when it comes to culture business. The flow of the public’s opinion will change depending on who does what. There’s a limit to literally copy pasting the movie across all the theaters through a colossal distributor and getting views that way. In the near future, once the multiplex movies managed by distributors themselves account for nearly 90% of all movies, there might come an era where distribution is the biggest factor in predicting the success and failure of a movie, but that time isn’t now. The audience still has the right to choose what they want to watch.”

Junmin closed his mouth and raised his glass. General managers Choi and Park raised their glasses as well while nodding.

“Wait just a little more. The voices of those that say that consuming this piece of culture will raise their dignities as humans will definitely become louder.”

Clang – glass hitting sounds could be heard.

“Well, your predictions were never wrong before, president Lee.”

“We’ll just put our trust in you.”

Seeing general managers Park and Choi, Junmin smiled without saying a word.

Chapter 471

“My girl. Aren’t you ignoring your mother too much these days?”

“Huh? What do you mean?”

“I think you promised to eat out with me last weekend.”

Hearing that, her daughter made a startled expression before approaching her with a smile.

“Sorry, mom. I completely forgot.”

“You mean you intentionally ignored it, not forgot about it, so that you can go on a date with your boyfriend. I guess this is why people say that raising a daughter is no good.”

“Mom.”

“Just go live with Maru already. This mom of yours will live a lonely life with this laptop.”

When she made a depressed expression, her daughter approached her back before starting to massage her shoulders. She was really good with her small hands as it felt as though all of her sore muscles were being relieved. Choi Haesoo subconsciously smiled, and her daughter caught onto that immediately and said,

“Mom, looks like you’re okay now?”

“It’s a big mistake if you think that I’d be okay with just a massage on the shoulders. Your mother is not that easy.”

“Then I’ll make dinner tonight. I’ll make your favorite omelettes.”

“Hm, that’s a bit tempting.”

“I’ll be going out for some groceries then.”

Her daughter soon changed her clothes and left the house. Seeing that, Haesoo thought that she was really glad to have given birth to a daughter.

“Just whose daughter is she? Wait, mine, huh.”

Haesoo turned her laptop, which she had turned off to rest, back on again. She had gotten a job from a magazine company. It was a movie column, and along with a line that asked her to do the job quickly, an internet reservation ticket, as well as the movie title, was there. As she had finished her final draft of the romance novel, she was just about to watch a movie to get some rest, so she really had gotten a good job.

She searched Twilight Struggles up on the internet. It had been six days since the movie was released. It was age-restricted. It received an R19 rating not because of sexual content, but because of cruelty and violence.

Haesoo was not afraid of spoilers. In fact, she watched a movie after she crammed as much information about the movie itself. Some of her movie friends asked her what the fun was in that, but Haesoo always retorted by saying that you see as much as you know. Of course, knowing the twist of a movie with a twist would make it less interesting, but it would allow her to watch the decisions of the director that lead to such a twist in much more detail. It would allow her to clearly grasp the flow of the story, and see the techniques of the producers by following minute visual cues. Such techniques helped her out a lot when writing, so Haesoo watched movies while focusing on the story rather than the beauty of the movie itself. Thanks to her preferences, getting her hands on a lot of information prior to watching helped her out a lot.

“A disturbing movie huh.”

Like the imagery given by the word ‘struggle’, most of the reviews online mentioned that it was disturbing and unpleasant. Leaving aside how good the movie was, the story itself was so unpleasant that most people did not want to watch it twice.

After reading a bit, Haesoo nodded. Her own household was much simpler compared to the movie. She frequently visited her parents, and her parents also frequently came to Seoul to visit their grandchildren. Before they passed away, they went on a family trip together, and both of her parents died in bed. She heard from around her that they had died a fortunate death, and even when she met up with her siblings, they talked about how their parents passed away in comfort and sent them off with a smile.

However, Haesoo also knew that such a household was not ordinary. The final moments of an elderly that did not possess anything were truly tragic. She had done some investigation on the state of living of the elderly while working on a drama before which allowed her to find out the truth then: that filial duty only existed in books. Abandoned elderly mostly lived in practically shack-like buildings in the most rural areas, where the gradient was so steep that even most young people would have a hard time climbing. To be precise, half of them were abandoned, while the other half imprisoned themselves there of their own accord. Haesoo still remembered the smile of a grandma who smiled at her saying that she couldn’t inconvenience her children on her ‘way’.

The movie used one such old man as the main character. He wasn’t some ex-special forces agent, nor some super-rich businessman who went bankrupt after someone betrayed him. He didn’t possess any special skills or had the smarts. He was the epitome of being ordinary. He had a decent job, met a decent woman, got married, had children, and spent his later years by himself like many other elderly people.

“What caused the civilian to become the villain?”

Haesoo decided on the title of the column on the spot. As for the contents, she was going to write it after watching the movie.

She expanded the information section of the movie and had a look at the actors. There were all sorts of famous actors that made her exclaim. Didn’t they say this was an indie movie? Just casting these people should have cost hundreds of millions. Haesoo thought that the identity of the movie was wrong. This was the literal definition of a commercial movie, wasn’t it?

There weren’t any articles about the budget for this movie. Normally, one way of advertising movies was to show off how much money went into it, but in the case of Twilight Struggles, there were no articles talking about it at all. Was it under control? Or was it that the journalists haven’t found out yet?

Recently, she was earning a living off of romance novels, but she actually liked this genre better. Deep-diving into the evil side of humanity. That was what piqued her interest.

Haesoo had a look at the clock. It was 2 p.m. When she looked it up, she saw that there was one airing in Suwon station’s B-Movie. If she got there by car, she should be able to catch the next one.

“Mom, you’re going out?”

After telling her daughter, who came back from buying groceries, to look after the house, she left. Although she liked watching movies with her daughter, it was age-restricted, so there was no helping it. She drove her car to the cinema and went to the ticketing booth to get her reserved ticket. She didn’t like eating while watching a movie, so she went inside with her hands empty.

‘There are quite a lot of people.’

The movie was quite cruel, so she didn’t think that it would be popular at all. She thought that the younger people would prefer the romance movie that had been released around the same time.

“Over here.”

“Excuse me, coming through.”

“Hey, the movie’s gonna start. When are you coming?”

She could hear the voices of various people.

People had filled up row A, which was the row closest to the screen, to row J, which was the closest to the entrance. Seeing the unexpected number of people, Haesoo stood there for a moment and looked at the audience seats. There were many young people, seemingly in their early 20s, filling up the seats. Were they here as a group from a movie circle or something?

After watching them for a while, she found out that they were all different groups. Perhaps they didn’t know what this movie was about?

“I heard that the acting in this is seriously no joke.”

“One of my friends lives in Seoul, and apparently, it’s practically a war if you want to watch it there. That’s what made her come all the way to Anyang to watch it.”

“I heard it was cruel though.”

“It can’t be compared to the other movies that are released these days.”

Those were the things she heard from around her. Was the movie popular among the younger generation? Haesoo sat down for now. Not long later, the ads finished. Seeing the lights become dimmer, Haesoo looked at the screen calmly.

* * *

“I told you it’s not that fun.”

“It’s fine. Mom and dad will have dinner outside, so you two can eat on your own. Money’s on the table.”

We’re off - they said before leaving through the door. Maru sighed. It wasn’t exactly a movie made for couples. Despite his advice to them not to go, the two ended up going to the cinemas in the end. It wasn’t really a fitting movie for a nice Sunday afternoon, he thought.

“Is the movie that strange?” Bada asked as she put some snacks in her mouth.

“It’s not strange, but it is strange for the two of them to be watching together.”

“Why? The internet was in an uproar about it though.”

“Uproar?”

“Yeah, don’t you know?”

When he asked back again, Bada waved at him. Maru followed her into her room. She pressed the power button of the PC with her toe and opened a browser. After typing a few things, she pointed at the screen.

“Look at this.”

It was the blog of a girl that Maru presumed to be Bada’s friend. On the main page, there was the line ‘I want to watch Twilight Struggles’ in a cute font. There was even a smile emoji right after it.

“My friends all want to watch the movie.”

“Do they know what they’re even getting themselves into?”

“Who cares? Sungjae-oppa is in it.”

Ah - Maru immediately realized what was happening.

“But that person barely has any screen time.”

“But still, Sungjae-oppa is in it. Just that is enough to watch.”

“How devoted. But what can you do? It’s age-restricted, so you can’t watch it.”

“I’ll watch it once it’s on the internet.”

When Maru narrowed his eyes, Bada asked back as though nothing was wrong.

“But it’s not just us that likes it.”

Bada clicked on a few things with the mouse and the blog changed. There was a photo of a man in his mid-twenties on the main page.

“Even if I go to other people’s blogs, there are a lot of people who want to watch the movie.”

Bada showed him the blogs of many other people. Like what she said, most of their recent posts mentioned either that they watched the movie, or that they want to watch it.

“A sister of a friend of mine went all the way to Seoul in order to watch it. The Seoul Central Theater, was it? She said that watching it there is the proper way to watch it.”

“The Seoul Central Theater?”

“Yeah. But there are only two theaters that air it, so reserving a ticket for that is as hard as reserving tickets for concerts, if not harder. Buying one on the site is out of the question.”

Bada opened the website for the Seoul Central Theater and showed him the current reservation status of the movie. Even the last run, which was on at 40 past midnight, was almost fully reserved.

“Just what is…”

Maru blinked several times as he looked at the screen. It was definitely a well-made movie. The staff and the actors were in perfect harmony and made a great movie. He could say that because he was there when it was shot. Twilight Struggles was definitely an incredibly well-made movie.

However, there was a clear difference between a well-made movie and a popular movie.

“You’re acting strange, oppa. You should be rejoicing if the movie you’re in does well. Why do you look so sour?”

Bada clearly looked confused.

“Also, have a look at this.”

The next site that Bada put up was a site that gathered reviews of movie critics. It was a platform provided by a web portal, and on the top of the page was Twilight Struggles.

“Look at this. It’s all praises. Isn’t that awesome?”

Most of them were 8 stars or above out of 10. Maru took the mouse from Bada and looked for a critic named Lee Onjoo. She was a movie critic that was known to not give many stars when she rated, and even she gave 9 stars out of 10.

-Nurturing children was an obligation, and looking after the elderly was an option. As a result, the murder was morally justified. The stage of this cruel murder is our neighbor’s house.

After reading up to that part, Maru went to a web portal to look up Twilight Struggles. When he went to the information section about the movie, he could see the reviews of the general masses as well. The average was 5 out of 10 stars. There were some statistics as well, and it was running on both extremes: 10 or 1. As a result, the average became 5. There was no middle.

“Huh? That’s a lower score than I expected.”

“No, this is normal. Normally, the scores of the general masses are lower the higher the scores from critics are. However, a reaction like this should lead to a decrease in view count, but…”

There were a lot of blogs that had reviews, or posts about boasting that they watched this movie on the web portal. There was no need to expand the search to the past week. There were several pages of articles that came up from just yesterday.

Was it a piece of work that would be controversial among the ordinary folk? Maru found the current situation a little curious. At that moment, a name caught his eye.

Choi Haesoo. It was the name of his mother-in-law. When he clicked on it, he found a column related to Twilight Struggles. The article, which started off with the sentence ‘this movie is something to be watched together as a family’, was giving it a sharp evaluation.

Articles related to the movie like that took a whole portion of the search results. Did articles like this always come out in batches when a movie was released?

Just as he was wondering about that, he heard his phone ring. He went back to his room and picked up the call. After listening to the other party for a while, Maru uttered a short exclamation.

“An interview?”

Chapter 472

“What? What was that?”

Bada stared at him intensely. It seemed that he was a little loud because he was taken aback so she had heard him.

“An interview.”

“Yeah, like, what interview?”

“I heard that it’s for a magazine, but I guess I’ll only find out the details if I go tomorrow.”

“Han Maru, you’re popular now, huh?”

“Like hell,” Maru said as he threw his phone on his bed.

Since he heard that the interviewee wasn’t just him, he was probably the sidekick of the interview.

He went to the kitchen and boiled some water in the coffee pot. Bada, who was sitting in the living room, shouted ‘hot choco for me’. He took out another cup before putting some cocoa powder inside.

“But hey, what have you been doing since just now?”

Maru put the steaming cup right next to Bada.

“Put it on the corner of the table. It’s dangerous.”

“You’re bossing me around huh.”

He clicked his tongue and put the cup elsewhere. Bada was handling a pair of needles and some yarn with a serious expression.

“I’m making a scarf, and it’s easier than I thought it would be.”

Bada proudly showed off the wool scarf. It wasn’t long enough to be called a scarf yet as it was at most the size of a half-handkerchief.

“It’s for me?”

“Are you crazy?”

“Phew, you’re still normal. If you said it was for me, I would have called the mental hospital.”

“It’s not happening, don’t worry.”

“Then a present for father? Well, I guess his birthday is coming up soon.”

“Uhm…”

“Hey, why can’t you answer that…”

“It’s dad’s birthday soon. You’re right,” said Bada as she looked at the calendar in the kitchen. Maru sipped on his coffee. Actually, ever since he found out that it was a scarf, he already had a guess as to who it was for.

“It’s not mom’s, since she doesn’t like red. Then I guess that leaves only one person left.”

“Don’t tell oppa about it.”

“Is that oppa this oppa or…”

Maru covered the coffee mug he was holding with his hand and immediately turned around. The ball of wool hit his shoulder before falling down. Even though she threw it on the spot, it was quite strong. Han Bada, nice shoulders, eh? You should aim to be a pro baseball player.

“I’m gonna kill you.”

“Why don’t you watch your mouth?”

“I do when I’m outside.”

“It must be nearing the end of the world. Just what does he find good about a girl like her…”

As soon as he said those words, Maru stood up and ran to his room. He saw Bada panting angrily as he closed the door.

“I’m going to kill you if you open that door again!”

“Should I text Dowook that he can look forward to the present?”

“Then I’m going to kill you for real!”

“Just go back to making that scarf before my hands move by themselves. I’m going to do some studying, so stay quiet. Oh, and let’s eat jajangmyeon[1] for dinner.”

“I don’t like jajangmyeon though.”

“Oops! My phone is turning itself on even when I didn’t do anything. Dowook, what do you think of a scarf as…”

“Fine! I’ll order it, I’ll order it, okay?”

“Also, our parent’s bedroom looked a little dirty. You should get some cleaning done in there. If you organize father’s shirts, he’ll love it.”

“I’m really going to get you back for this.”

Bada thumped on the ground outside the door before leaving. Maru put the coffee mug on the table before lying down on his bed.

“Becoming close with someone sure is hard.”

One fact he had come across as he lived one more life, was that there was no other method than approaching that person first when it came to becoming close with that person. A harmonious family, a close friend, and a faithful colleague. People with passive personalities had such people as well. That was because there were people in the world who always approached them first after breaking that barrier of difficulty and embarrassment.

Maru didn’t want to build a wall between him and his sister in this life at least. While they might not be at the level of close siblings in moving stories, he wanted to maintain a relationship where she could tell him about her worries at least.

In order to maintain that relationship, he had to keep reaching out and talking to her. He knew through the experiences of his previous life that not all families were close. In fact, the opposite can be said about it: perhaps being a family is precisely what makes them distant. Sometimes, blood relations were worse than those with strangers.

He grabbed his phone which was on the bed. When he opened it, he saw a message from Sooil.

-See you tomorrow.

It seemed that Sooil was the main, and he was the sidekick. But well, it was still great that he got his name in an interview. Considering that there were still numerous people in Daehak-ro that did not get to have their names known, just sighing about his interviewee status was a luxury.

“Alright. Let me borrow that famous actor’s name to get an interview done.”

Maru sent a text message to Sooil before closing his eyes.

* * *

The next day. He grabbed his bag and left his house. He briefly looked at where he placed his bike, but he shook his head. The weather was a little too cold for riding today.

“I guess it definitely is winter.”

December wasn’t far away. He wrapped his neck with his scarf one more time as he got off the bus. The news talked about early first snow, and it seemed that the first snow would be coming within the week.

The disciplinary teacher who always guarded the school gates couldn’t be seen today. That man always swung around a wooden rod with his half-balding head, but apparently, he came down with the flu.

“You’re here.”

*Cough*. Daemyung coughed while covering up his mouth with his hands even though he was already wearing a mask.

“A cold?”

“Yeah.”

“You looked okay until a few days ago though.”

“That day, we went back home after watching a movie late at night, right? I felt a little chilly that night. I felt okay the next day, so I thought I was alright, but I came down with a fever over the weekend.”

Daemyung stopped there and coughed again.

“What do I do? I need to practice.”

“Looking after your body takes priority.”

“I feel sorry for everyone else.”

Daemyung sniffed. The back door of the classroom opened and Dowook entered.

“You have a cold as well?”

Dowook had hung a mask around his chin as well. His sharp eyes, which always made him look angry, looked loose today. He coughed before sitting down at his desk and then collapsed. He seemed to be out of the energy to even speak.

“I did hear the news that it’s quickly gotten cold, but man, this is terrible.”

Maru looked around the classroom. Teen-aged boys who had nothing but their health to boast about were all limping. He didn’t hear any news about the flu though.

Dowook coughed a few times before sitting up.

“Hey, you wore a mask all the way here. You might as well put it on properly.”

Maru pointed at Dowook’s mask as he said that. Dowook glared at him before telling him to mind his own business.

Psychology said telling someone not to do something made that person want to do it more instead. Maru narrowed his eyes and had a look at the mask. Now that he had a closer look, he saw that it wasn’t white, but pink. The texture was different from the plain mask that Daemyung was wearing.

Dowook turned around in fright. The mask strap fell off his ears and it was unfolded for him to see. There was a cute cat on the pink mask. Dowook became visibly flustered and grabbed the mask, but the ones that needed to see it had already seen it. It seemed that Soojin was worried about her sick brother and gave him a mask. Though, the problem was that it did not reflect her brother’s preferences at all.

“Hi, kitty.”

Maru waved his hand at the mask. Daemyung turned around while making a noise that was a mix of a laugh and a cough.

“Don’t laugh. I’ll seriously kill you.”

“I’m not. It’s obvious that it’s a mask full of your big sister’s love. Rather than that, you’re quite amazing for wearing that in the first place.”

“Let today be your funeral.”

Dowook abruptly stood up, but he soon sat down again because he was out of energy.

“You might get your funeral earlier than me. Don’t overreact and just lie back down. Also, it suits you. Kittens are good. I can tell Soojin-noona’s aesthetics.”

“I should really throw it away.”

Dowook raised the mask as though he was about to throw it away, but then carefully put it inside his drawer. It seemed that he was going to wear it again on his way back from school.

“What a cute little brother.”

Dowook glared at him once before lying down. It seemed that he didn’t have the energy to speak.

“The club president is sick, and the other senior is sick as well. Looks like the first years will have to do their best today.”

“About that, Maru. Can I ask you to take care of them today? I was going to lead practice if I got better in the afternoon, but I don’t think it’s going to happen anytime soon.”

“I want to do that, but I have a previous engagement. I can look after them until 7, but I don’t think I can do longer than that.”

“Really?”

“Why don’t you guys take a break from practice today? Dowook doesn’t look like he’s in a good condition either.”

Dowook coughed a few times as he lay face-flat on his desk. Daemyung sighed before shaking his head.

“We don’t have that much time until the competition, so we can’t just take a whole day off. We should at least do a read-through before going home.”

“I can do that much, so both of you can go home right after school. Don’t ruin your body so that you end up screwing up on the important day.”

“Thanks, Maru.”

“Also, get some sleep. There’s still some time until morning homeroom.”

Maru sighed a little as he looked at his two friends lying face-flat on their desks.

“Whoa.”

Dojin, who came in late, blew his nose with a tissue as soon as he came in. It seemed that he had caught a cold as well.

“What the hell is up with all of you?”

“I don’t know. I’m dying.”

There was none of their usual vitality. Maru turned around to look at Iseul, who was outside the classroom.

“He’s been like that since yesterday. Please look after him.”

Iseul patted Dojin’s back worriedly before leaving. Maru pondered for a moment before looking at the faces of those that were sick. Now that he thought about it, all the guys that waited in the cold to watch the movie a few days ago had all caught a cold. They had shared the hot fish cake soup that they bought at the convenience store, and that seemed to be the cause of this.

“What is going on with all of you?”

Taesik, who came into the classroom with a smile, said with a dazed expression. Someone told him that everyone had caught a cold.

“You should’ve been careful. Those in bad conditions should go to the infirmary to get some medicine. Don’t push yourselves and drink warm water. If you feel something is wrong, then tell me immediately. It’d be horrible if it’s the flu.”

Taesik told the students on duty to follow him so that he could get the sick students some warm water. Maru shook his head as he looked at his three sick friends.

“You guys have nothing left if not for your health.”

“But hey, why are you the only one who’s completely fine?”

Dowook also seemed to have noticed what was in common between the people who caught a cold.

“Me? Because I have a sturdy body. Unlike you guys, I have divine protection.”

“Bullshit.”

“Don’t swear and get some sleep. Your face is red because of all the heat.”

Maru pressed down on Dowook’s back before standing up. He thought that he should buy them some warm drinks from the cafeteria.

“What a bothersome bunch.”

He put his coat around the sniffing Daemyung before heading to the cafeteria.

[1] Black soybean noodles.

Chapter 473

“They’re all things you know already, so you shouldn’t have to change much. There isn’t that much time left until the performance, so rather than looking for new things, you should do repeated practice so that you can smoothly show what you have already.”

Maru closed the script and had a look at the time. It was 6:48 p.m. Almost time to wrap things up.

“Try the things I told you before one more time once you get home. If you guys have the time, it’s not a bad idea to rehearse just by yourselves.”

“You’re leaving now, seonbae?” Aram asked as she stretched her arms.

“I have an appointment.”

“A date?”

“There you have it.”

“Oh, it’s not.”

“You’re good.”

“It hasn’t been just one or two days. Rather than that, what kind of appointment is it really? A shoot?”

“The first interview of my life.”

“Really?”

Bangjoo and Jiyoon also widened their eyes and approached him. Maru explained to them that he was just the sidekick.

“But still, it’s an interview.”

“She’s right. Congratulations.”

“Congratulations, seonbae-nim!”

He unintentionally got cheered for.

Maru shrugged before standing up.

“Anyway, what are you guys going to do? If you’re going to go home, you might as well leave with me,” Maru asked the three.

Jiyoon spoke after a while,

“I think we should practice just a bit more by ourselves. We usually practice until 9 after all.”

Jiyoon stared at Bangjoo and Aram. Bangjoo said that he didn’t care. Aram replaced her answer with a nod.

This was a little unexpected for Maru. When the 2nd years were absent, it was usually Aram who led everyone. Jiyoon was a girl of little words, and Bangjoo also followed Aram’s words without a fuss after all.

Jiyoon resolutely picked her script back up again after expressing her opinion.

“Jiyoon has changed a bit since Daemyung-seonbae is sick.”

Aram chuckled. Maru understood Jiyoon’s attitude after hearing that.

“It’s not like that.”

Jiyoon became flustered and denied it, but it was clearly written on her face. It seemed that a sense of duty drove her to replace Daemyung’s absence.

“Then I’ll have to ask you to clean up afterwards. Don’t go home too late.”

“Yes.”

“And also.”

Maru took out some money and handed it to Jiyoon.

“It’s dinner time right now, so go buy something to eat. Or just eat out once you’re done.”

It was Aram who took the money instead of the hesitating Jiyoon.

“Thank you, seonbae.”

“Thank you for the treat!”

He left and closed the door before glancing inside through the window. The three of them had immediately started practice. He wanted to show this to Daemyung who was worried sick about practice.

“Hello?”

He got a call when he climbed down the stairs. The caller was Byungchan.

-Maru, have you departed yet?

“Yes, hyung. I just left school. It won’t take that long to get to Suwon station from here.”

-Should I pick you up in my car?

“That’s okay. It’s not that far. Have you arrived yet?”

-I’m already here with Sooil.

“I guess I’ll be the last one there. Rather than that, I hung up after just hearing about the interview yesterday. What is this interview about?”

-Do you know Sharon?

“Sharon? You mean Sharon Stone?”

-No, the women’s magazine Sharon.

“No, this is the first time I heard about it.”

-Well, I guess it’d be even more strange if you knew about it. It’s the number 1 magazine ranked by subscription, and they wanted to interview you.

“An interview from a women’s magazine?”

-Yeah. It’s not that rare. In fact, those kinds of magazines interview a lot of male actors. And also, Sharon is really good when it comes to that.

“Why would something like that want me… I guess I can understand why they want Sooil, but I don’t understand why I’m in it. I don’t think bundling nameless actors like they do in dramas really work here.”

-They called your name out. They said that they wanted to interview Yoo Sooil and Han Maru among the young actors of JA.

“I was called out?”

-Yeah. I also thought that the agency approached them first about it, but it turns out that one of their journalists reached out first personally.

“What a rare event.”

-I got to call them due to scheduling and stuff, and the journalist there seemed to know you.

“Really? What is his or her name?”

-She’s the journalist Choi Miyeon. Do you know her?

“That’s not a name I’ve heard before. It’s not like I have any connections to journalists either. How strange.”

-Perhaps you became famous without you knowing it? I mean, your appearance in The Witness received very good judgement, didn’t it? Ah, there were articles about the beggar that was good at acting at the beginning of Apgu too.

“You’re quite knowledgeable.”

-It’s about actors I’m in charge of, so I should be up to date with the news.

There was a laugh of satisfaction from the other side of the phone.

“If it’s like that, I guess I must rejoice. But I won’t get too excited yet. I guess I’ll find out what’s really happening once I’m there.”

-Alright. Oh, have you had dinner yet?

“No, I’m kind of short on time, so I was going to eat after the interview. I don’t think the interview will take a long time after all.”

-Then let’s eat together once you’re here. I was told that the interview will last about an hour, so you can think of it as a late dinner.

“Alright then. Oh, the bus is here. I’m hanging up.”

-Watch out on your way here.

Maru got on the bus that stopped in front of him. A women’s magazine, huh. The thick magazine that he saw at the hairdresser’s he followed his mom to when he was young - that was the entire presence ‘women’s magazine’ had in Maru’s head. Maru wondered if they had the room to put an interview of an actor that was gradually gaining fame and an actor who was practically nameless when they must be lacking space to put ads on it.

‘She seems to know me, huh.’

He rolled the name Choi Miyeon in his mouth for a while, but nothing came to mind. In the first place, there was no way he had any connections to a women’s magazine.

He got off the bus and entered the café on the opposite side of Suwon station.

“Over here.”

He saw Byungchan wave at him.

“Where’s Sooil?”

“He left saying that he had an urgent call. You didn’t see him?”

“No, he wasn’t outside.”

“Where did he go then, I wonder.”

Byungchan leaned forward and looked outside the window before turning his head towards the entrance. The automatic door opened before a lady wearing jeans and a trench coat entered the café.

“Is she your type of girl?”

“Huh? No.”

“I think she is though.”

At that moment, the lady that came in looked around for a while before taking out her phone. A moment later, Byungchan’s phone started ringing inside his pocket. As soon as he picked up the call, the lady standing by the door smiled and approached them.

“Sorry, I didn’t tell you about the location for the interview even though I was the one who asked for it. Oh, let me introduce myself. I’m Choi Miyeon from Sharon.”

“Ah, you’re journalist Choi Miyeon. I am manager Lee Byunchan and I work for JA Production.”

The lady smiled and took off her backpack. Byungchan then gave her his business card. Miyeon also took out her business card and they exchanged them.

“You must be quite flustered since the schedule just came to be out of nowhere, right?”

“No. You’re doing an interview with some of ours. Who cares if it’s a little random?”

Byungchan scratched the back of his head as he smiled. His usual snappy attitude was gone and he was grinning from ear to ear.

“You must be Mr. Han Maru, am I right?”

Miyeon turned around to face Maru. Maru lowered his head to take a bow on the spot.

“Yes, I am Han Maru.”

“Nice to meet you. I’m Choi Miyeon. I hope I can get a good interview from you today.”

“Likewise.”

Miyeon took off her coat and took out a digital camera and a notebook from her bag.

“Where’s Mr. Yoo Sooil?”

“He left just moments ago, but I can’t see him anywhere. I’ll go look for him.”

“You don’t have to go that far.”

Without even listening to her, Byungchan stood up and left.

“What an urgent person.”

“He’s not like that usually. What would you like for a drink?”

“Sorry?”

“The main character isn’t here yet, so we can’t exactly start by ourselves, and since the weather has gotten quite cold, I don’t think it’s a bad idea to wait with some tea.”

Miyeon covered her mouth and laughed before speaking,

“You put me in an awkward position, saying everything that I have to say. You really are a peculiar actor like I’ve heard.”

“Like you’ve heard?”

“Ah, I guess you don’t know about it yet. Do you know journalist Kim Dongwook?”

“If it’s not someone else with the same name, then indeed, I do know him.”

“He’s a senior of mine. When he was a journalist for a TV station, and when I was a journalist for a newspaper company, we met a few times. I’ve been meeting him recently due to a few things, and somehow, things lead to one another and we talked about you.”

“Did he talk bad about me by any chance?”

“I wonder, did he?”

Miyeon stood up with a faint smile.

“Would you like coffee, then?”

“Yes.”

“I wonder what the other two like.”

“I’ll pick for them.”

“Can you do that?”

They walked to the counter and gave an order. Maru ordered a caramel macchiato for Sooil, who liked sweet things, and plain black coffee for Byungchan since he enjoyed those usually.

They got the buzzer and returned to their seats.

“Should I call them?”

“No, don’t do that. It’s not good to put the interviewee at unease. Also, it’s my fault in the first place for scheduling such a vague appointment.”

“Alright then.”

“Rather than that, though. You’re quite a good talker. Is this not your first interview?”

“No, it is my first interview.”

“I see. How is it? What did you feel when you heard that you were doing an interview?”

“I thought that I must be a sidekick bundled with someone else. After all, there’s not that much to interview about me.”

Hearing the word ‘bundle’, Miyeon faintly smiled as she opened her notebook.

“You really like being direct with your words as I heard before.”

“It depends on the occasion. Isn’t everything off-the-record right now?”

“I want to use it as my first impression of you, can’t I?”

“Of course you can. In fact, I would want you to do so. I have to put as much of myself in the interview so people get to know more about me.”

Miyeon opened her notebook and picked up her pen. Maru looked at Miyeon and thought that she was really proficient. She was someone who knew how to make a comfortable environment to speak. She also had the conversational skills to continue asking questions so that there was no gap while talking.

“Have you ever seen our magazine?”

“No, I don’t really have any interest in magazines.”

“Then do you not have any magazines that you subscribed to, or buy at irregular intervals?”

“I don’t. I usually read novels. I never picked up any other kind of reading.”

“Ah, novels. I also like novels. Since we’re at it, can I ask you one of the questions I’ve prepared? Though, I do have to ask for your permission before the interview.”

“I’m okay with it. I’m not going to answer if I can’t answer the question.”

“Very well. Twilight Struggles. You’ve read it, haven’t you?”

“Yes, I have.”

“You were in the movie as well.”

Maru was a little surprised at that remark.

“Is it strange that I know?”

“Yes, it was a little unexpected.”

“I actually watched the movie a while ago. It was a good… movie.”

“It is a good movie. Though, it’s not something comfortable to watch.”

Miyeon nodded in agreement.

“Indeed. It wasn’t that comfortable to watch. The other actors really put their skills on full display, but your acting left a deep impression as well.”

“It was only for a short moment though.”

“A big impact only happens within short moments.”

“You might stump me if you flatter me too much. I don’t have any immunity for things like that.”

“You’re quite good even now though.”

At that moment, the buzzer rang.

“Should we get the drinks first then?”

“Alright.”

Miyeon put down her pen and stood up. Maru also followed her. When they returned to their seats with the coffee, the sound of the automatic door opening could be heard. Sooil and Byungchan had returned while shivering.

Chapter 474

“Sorry I’m late. I had an urgent call.”

Maru greeted Sooil with his eyes and then looked at him. His cheeks were pale due to the cold. It seemed that the call was so personal that he couldn’t tell Byungchan about it.

“You should drink this. It should warm you up.”

Maru gave Sooil his drink. After drinking the coffee, Sooil sighed out.

“I’m Choi Miyeon.”

“I’m Yoo Sooil.”

Miyeon had waited until Sooil caught his breath to introduced herself.

“It’s quite cold, isn’t it?”

“Yes. Even though it wasn’t this cold just a few days ago,” Sooil said as he put down his coffee cup.

“The weather has gotten really whimsical lately. One of the editors at my office is down with a severe cold.”

“I’m also taking some medicine because of a slight sinus cold.”

“A sinus cold? Oh dear, are you okay?”

“Yes. It’s somewhat bearable.”

Miyeon smiled and spun her notebook 180 degrees so that Sooil and Byungchan could read it.

“First up, I tried narrowing down some of the interview questions I’m going to write in the column. I’m going to remove any if necessary before we get to it so that we don’t break the flow of the conversation. Oh, I also want to record the whole conversation. Will that be okay with you?”

“That’s a little…,” Byungchan said with a difficult expression.

“I’m not going to reveal it to anyone. I’m just recording so that I can recap when I actually start writing the column. Due to the nature of interviews, I’ll end up putting some of my own opinions once I start typing it out later. I like putting the raw version of the interview in the column, so I usually record them. There’s nothing better than a voice when it comes to interpreting the nuance of the words. The overall atmosphere of the text differs drastically if I type it out while listening to the voice recording. Of course, if you find it uncomfortable I won’t turn it on. The interview is supposed to be done in the most comfortable environment for the interviewee.”

Miyeon smiled. Maru sipped his coffee before looking at Byungchan. Byungchan spoke,

“Are you two okay with that? If it bothers you, it’s definitely better to refuse it now.”

“I’m okay with it. It’s not like I’m going to confess my sins or anything,” Sooil said in a joking manner.

Maru also nodded. The main event for the interview was Sooil anyway. The main character was okay with it, so there was no need for the sidekick to say something about it.

“I guess you can turn on the voice recorder then.”

“Thank you. I’ll repay you with a good interview. Then shall we get started?”

Miyeon pulled the notebook to her side.

“Oh, before that, let’s take a photo together. We might take more in different poses.”

Picking up the digital camera, Miyeon stood diagonally to Sooil. Byungchan stood up and fell back, and Maru moved behind Sooil.

“Consider that I’m in front of you. And place your hands naturally. Oh, holding onto your cup sounds fine as well. The outside is dark so it makes a good contrast.”

Hearing Miyeon’s request, Sooil picked up the cup. Maru placed his hands neatly on his thighs and looked forward. After a few shutter noises, Miyeon returned to her seat and sat down.

“I’ll show you the photos after the interview. If you like any of them, I’m going to use that one in the magazine.”

Pushing her cup to one side, Miyeon put the voice recorder in the middle. A red light started flickering to indicate that it was recording.

“Then let’s get started, shall we? Mr. Sooil. First of all, thank you for accepting our interview. I heard that you were busy with drama shoots. It’s the one directed by producer Heo Soogwan, right?”

“Yes. Thanks to director Heo, I was given the opportunity to shoot a good piece.”

“Were you acquainted with the director before this?”

“I saw him once during a drama afterparty. I was told that he wanted me to participate in his next work. Back then, I thought he was just joking, but I really was called.”

“I heard that the title of the drama is ‘Your Time’. What genre of movie is it?”

“The story is about a man who replaced another man that looks just like him. As for genre, there’s mellow, action, and a bit of mystery.”

“You are playing the role of the main character in his younger days, right?”

“Yes. I was lucky enough to play the younger days of senior Kang Suyeol.”

“Oh, I see. That must have been a lot of pressure on you.”

“Well, I did have to lead the first part of the story, and the one that will be receiving my acting is senior Kang Suyeol, so it did put some pressure on me. I’ll probably receive a lot of insults if I didn’t do well.”

“There are rumors about your good acting among the child actors though. The movie that starred you as the main character has also gotten good results.”

“I’m still far from perfect though. I’m still in a place where I receive a lot of help from others. I still need some time to say with confidence that I am fulfilling my role properly.”

“Are you dissatisfied with your acting?”

“Well, I think that it’s harder to find an actor who’s one hundred percent satisfied with their own acting.”

Maru sipped his coffee when Miyeon wrote things down. The interview was centered around Sooil’s career activity. It seemed that Miyeon had investigated quite a lot as she smoothly talked about what character he played in which work.

Twenty minutes passed after the interview began, but there were no moments of silence. Even during the little breaks they had, they talked about the atmosphere of the café, the taste of their drinks, or little things like what happened that day, so that they didn’t get distracted from the interview.

Sooil also focused on the interview. Even for questions where he could answer in short words, he added more detail, inducing the next question.

Maru remembered back to what happened at the JA building last time. Sooil had made a condescending woman fall back with his lies and smooth talking skills when that woman was acting cocky towards the part timer. He felt this back then, but Sooil did not waste any of his words as though he had learnt how to speak fluently. He increased the content when necessary, and decreased it when it was not. He was just like a negotiator.

Miyeon’s prior investigation, progressive skills, as well as Sooil’s talking skills made the progression of the interview very smooth. Maru just enjoyed his coffee as he listened to their conversation. Since he found out that he was just the sidekick, there was no need to be in a hurry. He was satisfied just by finding out what an interview was like.

“The movie you were shooting recently has come to a sudden halt, hasn’t it?”

“Yes. I prepared a lot for that movie, so it’s such a pity.”

“I hope the problem gets resolved and we get to see a good movie.”

“I also hope for that to happen.”

Miyeon smiled and put down her pen. Sooil also picked up his coffee again.

“Is that the end of the interview?”

“Yes. You said you have an appointment right? Oh, let me take some more photos.”

Miyeon walked around and took photos from different angles. They were all photos that zoomed in on Sooil’s figure. She talked to Sooil about some of the photos she took before sitting back down again with a nod.

“Then I’ll take my leave. Sorry about this. Maru, see you next time.”

Sooil left first. Maru looked at Byungchan.

“He has a schedule. Sooil was the one who said that we should hold the interview in Suwon because you might find it a little hard to come all the way to Seoul when we might as well have held it in Seoul.”

Maru was a little confused at first as to why they were doing the interview in Suwon, and now his curiosity was resolved. Byungchan lowered his voice and spoke,

“I’ll come back right after I give Sooil a ride.”

“You don’t have to. If it’s a shoot, he might need a manager. Don’t mind me and keep looking after Sooil.”

“That makes me feel sorry towards you though. Even though I’m your manager as well.”

“Sooil isn’t in the same league as me, is he? You told me last time that Sooil takes priority. You did everything you could by scheduling the interview here. Don’t exhaust yourself by going back and forth between Seoul and Suwon.”

Maru pointed at Sooil who was waiting outside. Byungchan grabbed Maru’s arm and spoke,

“Sorry. Even though I promised to eat with you after this.”

“Today’s not the only day. Let’s eat together later. Also, watch out for the cold. I saw you coughing before.”

“I’m already taking some medicine. It’ll be a huge problem if I get one of you sick because of me. Alright then, I’m going first. Sorry about this.”

Byungchan shook hands with Miyeon before asking her to take care of the rest. Miyeon saw him off without any signs of displeasure as though they had talked about this beforehand.

“I made you wait, didn’t I?” said Miyeon as she turned around a little.

“Well, I guess I did wait quite a bit,” he said in a joking manner.

Miyeon smiled as she controlled the voice recorder. A red light started flickering once again.

“Let’s continue from last time, shall we? Twilight Struggles, didn’t you have a hard time shooting?”

“I want to pretend that I didn’t have a hard time, but honestly speaking, it was very hard. I was cast in the movie not long after I started learning acting, and there were numerous people around me who couldn’t be compared with me at all. If I look forward while unfolding the acting I prepared in my head, I see their acting, immediately putting me in despair. I was only able to last because it was a single cut. If I stayed there any longer, I might have suffocated to death.”

“But those kinds of experiences help you out a lot.”

“That’s definitely true.”

“What kind of changes did you experience after the movie shoot? Maybe you became more proactive, or maybe you became more shy.”

“Honestly speaking, I became loose.”

“Loose?”

Maru pulled his chin inwards a little.

“Twilight Struggles was a huge pressure for me, but at the same time, it was a splendid objective. It was just a single line, but I held onto that line for a long time. I can’t say that I am satisfied with the acting I ended up doing in the end, but it is true that I did everything I could within my powers back then. After pouring everything into that, the next thing I did was background acting.”

“Background acting, you say?”

“Yes. An actor is always supposed to do their best regardless of what acting they’re doing, but I think that there’s a difference in that ‘best’ I just talked about. I tried my best regardless of whether I was a minor actor or a background actor, but the time spent preparing for each one definitely has a difference. In the end, that leads to a difference in immersion and a difference in tension as well.”

“You sound like a balloon that lost all its air after being inflated.”

“I guess you can compare it to that. I couldn’t feel the thrill I felt that day during drama shoots. Of course, I’m not saying that the drama shoots aren’t fierce. The problem was more with myself.”

“Let me change the question. When did you start learning acting? I heard that these days, people start as early as preschool.”

“It was the beginning of this year when any hesitations I had about acting disappeared and I started learning acting properly. Oh, to be exact, I guess it’s last winter when I received the novel version of Twilight Struggles. I started digging into characters back then.”

Miyeon was quite surprised.

“So you’re saying that it hasn’t been a year yet? Then what triggered you to start acting?”

“I guess that’s when I entered the acting club of my high school.”

“Did you have desires about acting back then?”

“No. The reason I entered the acting club wasn’t because of any desires I had, but because one of my friends persuaded me to.”

“Then you started completely out of coincidence?”

“Strictly speaking, yes. But nothing in life goes according to plan, does it? How many people become teachers because they wanted to be, and how many people become businessmen because they wanted to be? I think that everyone starts due to a coincidental trigger.”

“You’re right. My dream, when I was young, was to become a piano teacher after all. Who would’ve known I would become a journalist instead.”

“That’s just how life is.”

“This is quite interesting since your view of life sounds quite persuasive despite the fact that you’re a high school student. I feel like you have a lot of social experience, or am I misunderstanding?”

“I’m just imitating a few things I saw in books. Where do you think I can get any social experience at my age?”

Maru smiled nonchalantly. Miyeon also nodded with a smile.

“Let’s move over to dramas, shall we? Recently, you showed very characteristic acting through Youth Generation, The Witness, and Apgu. None of these characters had any similarities, yet you digested them quite well. Especially The Witness. There were a few articles when the episode was aired. Have you read them?”

“No, I don’t look for articles about me or my acting.”

“Really? If it was me, I would have been curious to death.”

“I am curious, but there’s nothing good for me if I look at something that happened in the past. If it’s a drama I’m participating in regularly, I’d be monitoring them and reflecting what I learned upon my next acting, but they were all minor roles. Oh, I did look some of them up when I did Youth Generation. Though, I was very embarrassed when I read them.”

Miyeon wrote down something with her pen before asking again.

“Your acting of the young murderer in The Witness, especially the interrogation scene with the actress Ahn Joohyun became quite a hot topic. What did you feel after that? It was quite a fiery scene.”

“That was the moment I concentrated the most after Twilight Struggles. The actress Ahn Joohyun showed splendid acting and expressions, and I was very nervous because I thought that I couldn’t reply to her skills. So, I started acting with the mindset that I should show her my spirit at least. Actually, I relied on her to cover my lacking acting skills. That scene was only created thanks to Miss Ahn Joohyun’s excellent acting skills. I didn’t contribute that much.”

“Don’t you think you’re being too humble?”

Maru shook his head.

“I’m someone that really cherishes my food bowl. If I could show off my humbleness to get profit, I would gladly do so, but I can’t lie because of that. If the opposing actor was someone else that day, my acting would’ve become a horrible one where I just screeched all over the place.”

“You’re quite harsh when it comes to evaluating yourself.”

“I’d like to call it being objective.”

Maru picked up his coffee cup.

The cooled coffee flowed down his throat.

Chapter 475

Miyeon flipped over her notebook page.

“Have you ever referred to other actors when you learned acting?”

“Countless times. Since I didn’t know anything, the only thing I could do was imitate other people.”

“Everyone starts off with that. If that’s the case, who’s the actor or actress that influenced you the most? Is it one of the cast from Twilight Struggles?”

“In my heart, I have three teachers. Sir Yoon Moonjoong, senior Yang Ganghwan, and lastly senior Yang Miso. They are my teachers.”

“Sir Yoon Moonjoong is very renowned. He’s treated as a great senior by many actors.”

“Yes, that’s right.”

“Mr. Yang Ganghwan has also spread his name recently. Oh, now that I think about it, you participated in the recent street performance that became quite an issue, right?”

“I only helped out a little from the side.”

“Mr. Kim Seokjoon, who has gained popularity through that street performance, has expressed that he is indebted to you. Can I ask what happened?”

“It’s nothing amazing, really. Back then, I was just looking for people to participate in the performance, and he entered my eyes so I just led him to the stage. After that, it was his own skill that captured the hearts of the audience.”

“In one interview, Mr. Kim Seokjoon said that you were the one who persuaded him until the end when he continued to refuse. Did you know that he would cause quite an uproar if he stood on stage?”

“It was a pure coincidence.”

“Still, I think there’s a reason behind why you continued to persuade him despite his refusal. I’m a little curious about what made you want to help him.”

Maru grabbed his cup tightly and smiled slightly. He sipped the last bit of coffee as he spoke. The reason he dragged that man to the stage that day was definitely not out of goodwill. That man just looked like he had a story, and he thought that he should be able to heighten the effect of their street performance if they used him. As such, ‘help’ wasn’t really a fitting word here. After all, he didn’t consider what kind of circumstances the man could be in at all back then.

He put down his cup and started speaking,

“I wasn’t trying to help him. He just looked like he had a story, and I just led him to a place where he could talk about it. The reason I continued to persuade him despite his refusal was purely because of my own greed. I thought that he had something that might change the stage. That’s why there’s no need for that person to thank me.”

He didn’t feel the need for any censorship, so he just told everything he had. Of course, he also had made the calculation that a characteristic interview like this might be better than an ordinary one. It would be somewhat too ordinary if he just acted like a kind kid after all. After writing something down while nodding, Miyeon looked at Maru again.

“It’s rather fresh since you really are just as I’ve heard.”

“Just as you’ve heard? Oh, you said that you heard about me from Dongwook-hyungnim, right?”

“Yes. The reason I’m doing this interview is quite simple. I am a little indebted towards senior Dongwook, and this is my way of paying him back. He asked me to interview the promising youths of JA Production and mentioned your name, as well as Mr. Sooil’s.”

Miyeon spun around her pen once. At the same time, she pressed down on the record button on the voice recorder to stop it.

“Back then, senior told me that Mr. Sooil was someone well-rounded, so too well-rounded that he felt a little artificial, and that you were…”

Miyeon faintly smiled before continuing.

“A warm calculator.”

“That’s a rather weird expression. I’m not sure whether I should be happy or not.”

“I think he used it in a good way. From the way you were worried about your manager’s health, you should be the type that’s kind to people around you. Actually, I didn’t expect that much when I was preparing for the interview today. Interviewing young people can get really monotonous at times. Although they say that a good interview is the result of good questions, the help of the one answering those questions is really important at times. In that sense, Mr. Sooil’s interview was very impressive. It’s somewhat funny for me to say this, but I felt that he was being rather strategic. It felt like he had prepared for the interview. I wondered if JA Production taught their actors like that, but when I talk to you, Mr. Maru, I don’t feel like that’s the case.”

“Am I that different from Sooil?”

“You’re both similar in regards to the fact that you don’t get dragged around by the questions and mediate between your opinions and the question. However, if Mr. Sooil felt like he had readied several model answers and choose from them, you, Mr. Maru, feel like… a warm calculator. You calculate your gains and losses on the spot and give an answer that profits you rather than a model answer.”

“Can journalists tell that?”

“Just like how a mathematician can deduce an answer with a formula, journalists like us gain something like an instinct if we face people for a long time. Of course, I don’t entirely trust it. Journalists love gossip, but they don’t stake their lives on it. That’s why most of that is talked about personally and privately. It’s something that I must dismiss.”

Miyeon tapped on the voice recorder that had its light turned off.

Maru also shrugged.

“Being calculative isn’t something bad.”

“Of course. In fact, we live in a world where being calculative feels more reasonable. There are too many people who force their way through with the wrong things without picking up the calculator first.”

“You said you used to be a journalist for a newspaper company, right?”

“Yes.”

“Can I also ask you a personal question?”

“Sure. The reason I’m chatting with you right now is because I have free time.”

“That’s good. Was it a major newspaper company?”

“It is one of the places you think of when you think about newspapers in the country.”

“If that’s the case, don’t they pay you more than magazine companies? There must be a larger variety of things you can do there as well.”

“That’s definitely true. I heard that becoming a senior journalist that can write the headlines regularly or the head editor for a department will allow you to encounter a lot of unimaginable and interesting things. Of course, a bigger salary as well.”

Miyeon stretched out her fingers as she spoke.

“You look like you’re wondering why I switched my job.”

“Yes.”

“Well, I’m not sure. When I left, I could come up with numerous reasons and circumstances for me to leave, but right now, I don’t know why I left.”

“Do you regret that decision?”

Hearing his words, Miyeon leaned back in her chair and made a relaxed smile. Maru nodded. That was enough of an answer.

“I came here to do an interview, but I was questioned instead.”

“Only by doing this would I leave behind an impression on you. I also heard that I should stay close with people who make their living with a pen.”

“I really look forward to what you will become in the future. I guess that kind of nonchalance is the secret to your rapid increase in acting skills. If you do become a popular actor, don’t ignore me and at least reply to me when I say hello.”

Miyeon turned on the voice recorder again.

“Then shall we finish things up?”

* * *

“Thank you for your work.”

“Thank you too.”

Maru stretched his arms out as he stood up. Unintentionally, he dragged things out. It seemed that Miyeon was really free as she talked about various things throughout the interview. As Maru was also free, he gladly chatted with her.

“Oh, it’s snowing.”

Leaving the café, Maru reached out. He thought that it was a raindrop that hit his face, but when he looked at the sky, he saw snow. The news did talk about an early snow, but he didn’t know that it would start snowing at the end of November. He saw documentaries about how global warming was a serious issue, but it seemed that Earth wasn’t that hot yet.

“I don’t think it’ll pile up,” Miyeon said after leaving the café much later than him.

She was holding her coat, her bag, and her notebook in her hands. She was looking at the small car in front of the café, and it seemed that it was hers.

“Then see you next time.”

“Yes, watch out on your way home.”

Miyeon nodded before walking off. Just then, it seemed as though her coat had been caught by her legs as she stopped for a while to look. At that moment, the backpack’s opening widened and a few notebooks fell on the ground. Maru quickly approached her and helped her pick them up.

“I forgot to close it.”

Miyeon smiled and closed the bag after putting the notebooks inside. Just as Maru stood up after thinking that it was done, a piece of paper caught Maru’s eyes. It was a cutout from a newspaper. He stared at Miyeon, who was opening the car, before picking it up.

The newspaper snippet was an article that Maru knew very well. The Five’s slave contract issue. It had caused quite an uproar during its time, but it was now a cold potato that no one talked about. There was another article cutout below that article, stuck with tape. That was about celebrity sexual bribery.

Next to a photo of a woman that had her head lowered, there were the names ‘Lee Miyoon’ and ‘Hong Janghae’ written in a red marker. The two rather unwelcome names reflected on Maru’s pupils.

At that moment, a hand suddenly appeared in his vision.

“I can take that off you, okay?”

She was smiling, but her eyes seemed to be panicking. Maru stared at Miyeon who was probably clearing up a bunch of thoughts inside her head. Was this woman chasing something? Was there something between Lee Miyoon and Hong Janghae?”

“What incident is this?”

If it was someone unrelated to him, he wouldn’t have asked that question. After all, it might provoke displeasure within them. As an unrelated person, interfering with someone’s personal life, especially when it was related to their work, was something incredibly rude. However, the name Lee Miyoon caught his eye. He could ignore Hong Janghae, but Lee Miyoon was working on the same shooting set as the person that meant everything to him.

And that person said that she hated Lee Miyoon.

He was aware that Lee Miyoon’s usual attitude and actions weren’t that good through experience. He was also aware, thanks to Suyeon, that Miyoon was called the ‘madam’ in the entertainment industry. Of course, in a bad way. A woman that calls out male idols to her private space and asks them to sleep with her.

However, the article that Miyeon dropped on the floor just now seemed to indicate that there was something else when it came to this Miyoon.

“You don’t need to know,” said Miyeon as she stiffened her expression.

Maru did not hesitate to ask further.

“Is the madam involved in something dirty? Such as sexual bribery of actresses?”

“How do you know about the madam?”

She seemed startled as she changed her way of calling Maru[1].

Maru narrowed his eyes.

“I’ll have to apologize in advance, but I think I need to ask the questions this time. Do you have some time?”

[1] She called her ‘Mr. Maru’ until now, and treated him politely, but she forgot to call him that and simply said ‘you’. The translator has put the word ‘you’ as well as ‘Mr. Maru’ in her previous lines to make it flow better.

Chapter 476

“Time?”

Miyeon realized that there were thorns in Maru’s words immediately after she said that word, but she did not apologize or make an awkward smile. In fact, she frowned and looked at Maru.

“I don’t know how you know about the madam, Mr. Maru, nor what you think about this incident, but this is not a matter you should get involved with so easily.”

Maru pulled on the newspaper article he still held on to. This was a problem that involved a lot of people and a lot of incidents. She was also almost used to their advantage after blindingly rushing into it, wasn’t she? Senior Dongwook told her to take it slow. That was a warning. This was something dangerous, so she did not plan on getting a high school student who just entered this industry involved in this.

She stuffed the article cutouts in her backpack and was just about to go back to her car when a strong grip held her hand back. Miyeon looked back at Maru with a bit of panic.

“What do you think you’re doing?”

“I understand that you’re worried about me and that you’re trying to prevent the reveal of this incident in a half-assed manner which would make the whole deal less significant. However, someone I know is involved with Lee Miyoon, and not in a good way.”

“With Lee Miyoon?”

“Yes.”

Miyeon looked down at her palms. Maru’s attitude had changed from his logical and calm one during the interview. He said that someone he knew was involved. She could tell that that someone was very important to him through the pain she was feeling in her wrists.

After a bit of hesitation, Miyeon shook her head.

“Then tell that person to never have a private schedule with Lee Miyoon. But you can’t say it as though she’s a bad person. This is all speculation right now. As long as that person maintains a certain distance from her, she won’t be able to do anything. That’s what this is about after all.”

He should’ve understood after this, so Miyeon tried to shake his arm off. However, Maru did not let go.

“It won’t take that long.”

He clearly wasn’t going to relent. Miyeon looked around her. She did so in order to see if anyone around them was listening to them, and also because it was hard to face Maru head on. She had a hard time believing that this was the same person that smoothly talked about himself with a faint smile until just now. Maru was just that offensive. Miyeon was reminded of an angry male animal, no, a beast. One that bared its fangs to an enemy that entered its territory, nay, tried to touch what was its.

At that moment, Maru loosened his grip. ‘I’m not a beast’ - Miyeon could clearly hear Maru’s words as she took a step back. Feeling that she was found out, Miyeon pulled down on her hems with the hand that wasn’t holding her bag.

“My answer is still a no. I can’t tell what are practically my speculations to other people. Also, this is not a problem that a high school student can do something about. Just tell that person to put some distance between them and Lee Miyoon. That’s the best thing you can do right now.”

This involved huge entertainment agencies. Not only that, according to the actress that told her about the sexual bribery matter, people higher up than that may be involved in the matter. Miyeon never thought deeply about who those ‘higher up’ people might be. That was because she had a strong premonition that she might end up letting go of this matter once she started digging that far. If she was to maintain the puny journalist mindset that senior Dongwook talked about, she had to focus on the problem itself rather than who she was up against.

Lee Miyoon. She was the bridge that connected everyone at the center of this incident. Although Miyeon wasn’t at a stage where she could prove that, her instinct as well as many testimonies indicated that she was the main broker.

She had seen numerous seniors who had to leave their positions because they used their pen the wrong way, and going further than that, had to forfeit their lives altogether. This incident was a dangerous item that had to be handled in secret. To give a comparison, she had to lead a huge truck carrying explosives to the side of the road with her small car and have it stop driving. The moment she made a mistake and crashed into the truck, she would be the only one being overturned. Also, once the truck started going haywire and started crashing into things, the people that needed to be protected might get caught in the explosion.

Miyeon predicted that there were other victims of this sexual bribery. The reason senior Dongwook told her to take things slow and careful when it came to prying into Lee Miyoon should have been to make her realize the dangers that would come with it, and also to tell her not to overlook the weak that might also receive damage through this incident.

She was practically running circles around a fire with dry firewood. Dragging a mere high school student into something like this was not right on her conscience, nor her work ethics.

“Do you understand now?”

Miyeon put her bag on the passenger seat and closed the door. Maru seemed to have given up as he didn’t say anything. Miyeon sighed in relief, thinking that he had finally understood.

She went around to the driver’s seat and opened the door. Now, all that was left for her to do was to leave. Although this could be considered a bad goodbye, she thought that she had to say it at least and looked at Maru.

Maru was holding up his phone. He was moving his fingers busily as though he was about to send someone a message. At that moment, Miyeon had a bad feeling. Maru smiled apologetically as he looked at her.

“Lee Miyoon will hide her tail once she knows about this, right?”

“Don’t tell me you’re…”

Miyeon quickly approached Maru and whisked away the phone he was holding. There were a lot of words written on the phone screen. It asked what she thought about sexual bribery.

“Are you crazy?” Miyeon didn’t hold back her words this time.

“Are you out of your mind?”

Lee Miyoon was never mentioned even when the prosecutors handled this matter. In such a situation, what would she do when she received this message? She would hide herself even more. It would become even harder to gather any evidence, and perhaps this whole matter would be brought down to nothing. That wasn’t the only thing.

“Do you think she’ll let you go if you send a message like this to her? Sending a text like this to her when her crime hasn’t even been proven is a threat and false accusation. Do you want to end your life in the entertainment industry?”

“I guess I can’t help it.”

Maru took back his phone before pressing a button. Miyeon looked at Maru in shock. Just then, she heard a sound from her pocket. The message she saw just now had arrived. The sender’s name was unknown.

“I don’t know Lee Miyoon’s number.”

“You…”

At that moment, she reminded herself of the fact that she gave him her business card back at the café. It wasn’t surprising that he knew her phone number. She felt pathetic for not remembering it, and laughed in vain when she experienced his scamming skills.

“But it’s not that hard to find out. She did express interest in me after all. I’m not doing this because Lee Miyoon was involved in sexual bribery. I don’t plan to discuss justice with you, nor do I plan to become some sort of exemplary citizen. However, if there’s the slightest possibility that that woman can become harmful to the person I know, then I want to know about it beforehand.”

Maru pointed at the café again.

“If you leave now, I won’t be able to guarantee what kind of actions I will take in the future. Since I don’t know anything, I’ll start poking around everywhere, and the day Lee Miyoon hears about my weird actions, the results of your investigation will become nothing but trash. So, can we talk just a little so that we don’t waste both of our time?”

If you want, I’ll buy you coffee - he added before shrugging.

Being played around by such a young kid, Miyeon didn’t have the energy to get angry anymore. She just wanted to sit somewhere and start sighing. It would be great if it was in her own car, but if she went inside her car right now, she didn’t know what kind of actions this weird guy in front of her might take…

Seeing Maru point at the café, Miyeon sighed a little.

“This is not something you can do anything about just because you know about it.”

“I know that already. I don’t plan to either. I just want to know just in case.”

Miyeon bit her lips as she returned to her car. She opened the passenger seat before taking out her bag.

“It won’t be a fun story,” she said as she closed the door.

* * *

“And that’s as far as I’ve found out until now,” Miyeon said to Maru who was skimming through her notebook.

The first snow of the year was falling outside. The small snowflakes at the beginning had turned into rather heavy snow right now. The world would probably be dyed white tomorrow morning.

She made a bitter smile. She didn’t know what she was doing here. At first, she was planning to tell him briefly and end things there. Her plan was to persuade Han Maru, who showed interest in this incident with a youthful curiosity and a vague sense of wariness, before going home, but the farther their talk progressed, the more Miyeon talked about thanks to Maru’s insight.

He listened to the whole circumstances with a serious face that did not fit a high school student before pointing out the core points in this incident and asked her important questions just like senior Dongwook. She was even scolded for being too careless when she talked about how she met the broker that worked with Lee Miyoon in the past. For a brief while, she even felt like she was being scolded by her teacher.

“By circumstantial evidence, it’s highly likely that Lee Miyoon was involved.”

“I say 100 percent.”

“Maybe. But aren’t you dropping the honorifics too easily?” Maru said as he sipped some tea.

Miyeon snorted back.

“Then would you like me to treat you politely again?”

“No, this is actually much easier for me as well.”

“You really tire out the people around you, don’t you?”

“Not entirely. But was the sexual bribery incident resolved after the broker was arrested?”

“I looked into that as well, but that seems to be the case. There was a crime, and there was someone that confessed that crime. It’s not like I can ask for help at this point in time.”

Prostitution was a very sensitive topic for women. Just asking them to testify had to be approached in a careful manner after all. There shouldn’t be that many people who would want to remind themselves of such a horrible memory.

“So the key to solving this incident is to find out what kind of contracts, if any, there are between Lee Miyoon and Soul, right?”

“It’s just as hard to find that out as it is important.”

“About the sexual bribery, the people involved are mostly new actresses and singers, right?”

“Yes, they’re the people most desperate for an opportunity after all. I think that the majority of the time, people involved in this approach them after finding the right opportunity. After all, these days, they might end up posting about it on the internet if they’re too forceful. MH Entertainment’s incident was like that. But also…”

Miyeon lowered her voice a little.

“I hear that there are a lot of people who willingly do such a thing.”

“It’s an incredibly charming offer as long as they don’t get found out. I think I’ll also consider it if complete secrecy was guaranteed - if I get some money or a role in a drama just by sleeping with someone once.”

“Don’t ever do it.”

“I said I’ll consider it. There’s no perfect secret in this world after all. Moreover, it’s obvious that you’ll eventually get caught doing it, so there’s no need to do it.”

“What a free way of thinking. Normally, people even detest talking about this.”

“It’s a result of people struggling their best to make a living, isn’t it? I can understand them. I can sympathize with them too. The world these days isn’t so clean that you can tell them that they should compete fair and square. Of course, that doesn’t mean that the ones that do are foolish to do so.”

Maru closed all the notebooks and put them in front of Miyeon in a neat pile.

“So? What are you going to do now?”

“Nothing. I listen to other people’s advice.”

Maru’s eyes seemed to gleam as he said those words. Miyeon believed Maru’s words. He should be telling the truth when he said that he won’t be doing anything. However, she was a little worried since those eyes clearly indicated that he was going to take action as soon as something went wrong.

“I’ll contact you once I find a good opportunity.”

“A good opportunity?”

Miyeon looked up at Maru who was standing up. Maru nodded back at her with a smile before leaving.

‘I wonder what he’s thinking about.’

Miyeon sighed as she drank the cooled tea. She had unexpectedly got a helper. Although she didn’t like this situation, why was it that she also looked forward to it somewhat?

“Let’s go for now, eh?”

Miyeon put her notebooks inside her bag before standing up.

Chapter 477

“You introduced yourself through the drama Apgu this time around. Since this was your first traditional drama, I think you must have been nervous. How did you feel?”

Hearing journalist Lim’s words, Kang Giwoo waited for a moment before speaking.

“I am always tense when I shoot a drama. I’m actually rather worried since although this is my fourth drama, I feel like my nervousness is rising instead of falling. Moreover, since it’s a traditional drama where I have to watch out for my intonation and pronunciations, I had to prepare more than usual, and the longer I prepared, the more nervous I became. Due to that, I ended up inconveniencing a lot of people around me including the director.”

“I see. But the reaction of the audience was quite good when it was broadcasted. Some netizens are saying that they would be rather disappointed to see Han Myunghoe turn into an adult.”

“Whenever I hear those words, I feel thankful and also responsible to do better in the future. The best reply an actor can give to repay the audience is better acting after all.”

Manager Cha nodded as he heard Giwoo’s words. He wasn’t wrong from one to ten. He could clearly see that this guy knew nothing but acting. From the way the company was giving him full support, it seemed that the president was aware of his good personality and skills.

“I heard that you were close to the actor Yoo Sooil. Is there something in common between actors around the same age?”

“Sooil is a splendid actor and a splendid friend. People that know him, know him for his good acting as well. If the opportunity arises, I’d love to work with him on the same work, but I’m still waiting right now since I’m not up to par yet.”

“Does that mean that the actor Yoo Sooil is better than you at acting?”

Hearing the provocation within the journalist’s words, manager Cha frowned.

“Of course. When it comes to acting, Sooil is better than me. That’s why I’m trying my best to chase him.”

“No way, is that how you actually feel?”

“Yes.”

When Giwoo replied with a smile, the journalist found no fun in it and went on to the next question. They also took photos from time to time with some props in the background. Since it was an interview that would go on a movie magazine, they put some effort into choosing the right place.

“Lastly, I heard that you were recently cast in ‘New Semester’, a drama about the growth of young people created by YBS.”

“Did the news already spread that fast?”

“Why of course.”

The journalist smiled before continuing.

“Since Youth Generation from RBS didn’t do as well as they expected, YBS is trying their hand at their own youth drama, right? Moreover, you are one of the main characters as well. Do you have any resolutions when doing the drama?”

“You’re giving me too much pressure, so I don’t really know what to say. Hmm, I will try my best to make sure the drama is worth watching so please watch the first episode. You’re going to watch it too, right?”

“Of course.”

The interview ended on a good note. Manager Cha saw out the journalist and the photographer before returning.

“There’s a lot of snow outside. It looks like it’ll be snowing all week.”

“Has it piled up?”

“Yeah.”

“You must have a hard time driving then.”

“This is nothing. Rather than that, you finished your schedule for the day. What are you going to do now?”

“You can go back first. I’ll visit a few places before going back home to rest.”

“If you want a ride, I can give you one.”

“It’s fine. Oh, yeah. Hyung.”

“Yeah?”

“Do you know someone called Han Maru?”

“Han Maru? Oh, isn’t that the minor actor back at the shoot? I do remember his name since he has a rare name.”

“Apparently he belongs to JA.”

“JA? You mean JA Production?”

“Yes.”

“Really? I thought he was just someone from an acting school or something. Well, I guess he was good at acting.”

Manager Cha thought back to Apgu’s shoot. That night was particularly hot. Giwoo’s acting had hit a block towards the end of the shoot, and according to his memory, that boy named Maru did a demonstration for him.

‘Giwoo asked him to do it.’

Manager Cha looked at Giwoo with pride. Boys at his age were filled with arrogance and did not easily make a request to others, and yet he asked an actor around his age to teach him acting.

Giwoo had what it took to become big.

“But what about him?”

“You gave me a magazine with my interview in it, right? Right after mine, there was an interview with Sooil and that Han Maru. It seems like the interviewer wrote a good note for him.”

Giwoo handed him the magazine. Manager Cha read the interview on the spot. It was easy to see that the main character of the interview was Sooil whether it was from the photo or the length of the interview, but considering the depth of each question, it was also easily noticeable that the interviewer took good care of Maru.

“He did do well. Looks like the interviewer knew that.”

“Right? Han Maru did do well.”

“Yeah. He was great that day. I was a little startled since he looked like he had practiced your lines.”

“Right. I was also surprised.”

Giwoo smiled and told him to give him back the magazine. After receiving the magazine, Giwoo looked at the column with a smile on his face. Manager Cha looked at him for a while before speaking,

“Then I’ll take my leave first.”

“Okay, watch out, the road must be slippery.”

“Yes.”

Manager Cha returned to the company with his car. Snow from a week ago still hadn’t melted completely and remained in the corners of the road. He parked the car before going up to his office.

“Hey.”

He was called by the head manager as soon as he went in.

“Yes.”

“I’m sorry to tell you this, but you’re out of a job.”

“What?”

He stared at the head manager for quite a while since that came out of nowhere. The head manager frowned and scratched his head.

“We’re going through a restructuring because the company is lacking money, and we didn’t have anyone else we could lay off.”

“Head manager, no, hyung-nim. You can’t do this to me. You know I moved houses to come here.”

“Hey, do you think I’m doing this because I want to?”

“Hyung-nim. Say it while looking me in the eyes.”

Manager Cha grabbed the head manager who turned his head away, but the head manager just sighed and no longer spoke.

“I didn’t do anything wrong though.”

“I know, I really do. I know that you work well. And also, I’m not looking down on you at all. We’ve been working together for a long time after all. I’ll look for a job for you. Go to a company much better than ours and work there.”

“Hyung-nim.”

“Sorry. You know the rules. That’s just the kind of field we work in.”

The head manager opened his wallet and took out all the bills inside.

“Here, take this. You should be able to pay this month’s rent at least.”

“Don’t do this to me, hyung-nim. Please. You told me I was going to be promoted to a schedule manager. Also, what is going to happen to Giwoo? There’s no one here that knows him better than me.”

“Hey, let’s leave things on a good note. If you act like this, I won’t be able to do anything for you. You know that this field is not that wide, right? If we end things with a smile, we will be able to meet again with a smile. The opposite is true as well. If we end things while swearing at each other, we’ll start off swearing at each other the next time we meet.”

The head manager then stood up from his seat. His face looked very apologetic and full of pity. Manager Cha looked at his face and swallowed his anger. The head manager was the one that brought him his current job when he was out of work.

‘He’s not to blame.’

That was obvious from his face. This wasn’t the head manager’s fault.

“You really can’t abandon me, okay? I’m not quitting everything just like this.”

“I know. How many years do you think we’ve known each other? Just wait a bit. I’ll look into another agency. You’re known to do good work. As long as I give them a little push, people will ask you to work for them. Who knows? You might start working for a busty actress instead of a kid. People need to switch their jobs once in a while to gain more experience and grow up. Let’s raise your value this time. You know that being a road manager counts as work experience, right?”

The head manager put the stack of bills into manager Cha’s chest pocket as he patted his shoulders.

Manager Cha nodded before leaving the office. The image of the head manager’s face as he grabbed his hand until the last moment still lingered in front of him. Yes, he should definitely get a call as long as he waited for a while.

“Oh, I guess I should text him at least.”

Manager Cha sent Giwoo a text message saying that he was sorry for quitting so suddenly. The weak-hearted Giwoo would probably feel uneasy as soon as he receives the text, but he sent a message anyway since he thought that it wasn’t right to quit without saying goodbye.

After leaving the company, manager Cha stared up at the building. He lived a cheap life of 900 thousand won per month without any insurance, but he still had a dream of his own.

“Right, it’s not over yet.”

Manager Cha gripped his fists before turning around. The head manager - no, it was just hyung-nim now - wasn’t someone that would betray him. He would probably provide him with a better opportunity soon.

As he walked while thinking about that, manager Cha took out his phone in his pocket.

‘Looks like he hasn’t seen the message yet.’

Normally, he would’ve gotten a reply as soon as he sent it, but he didn’t get one back even though ten minutes had passed. Was he busy right now?

“Well, he’ll probably call me with shock once he finds out I’m no longer working.”

Perhaps he might beg the president to get him working again. Giwoo was just that affectionate and kind after all. He felt better after thinking that. Manager Cha thought that he should have a fulfilling meal precisely at a time like this and went into the nearby supermarket.

He’ll probably get a call tomorrow.

* * *

“New semester?”

“Yeah, New Semester.”

Byungchan spoke in a happy mood.

Maru tilted his head. He did hear Byungchan tell him that he should look forward to some good news, but a new semester all of a sudden?

“You’re going back to college again?” He asked as a joke.

Byungchan shook his head saying that that wasn’t it. Just then, they got the udon they ordered. After putting down two iron pots with boiling udon, the owner gave them a small plate of soondae as a service. It seemed that Byungchan was a regular here.

“It’s a drama that is starting soon. Don’t you know about it?”

“You know that I don’t know things like that.”

“Hey, you should really watch TV. You’re on it, so how can you not watch it?”

“I was going to even if you didn’t tell me. I felt a little awkward when I did the interview last time.”

“Right, you should watch more TV and more variety shows. You should learn what they’re about when you can so that you can take the opportunity when it rises.”

“I will. But what about the drama?”

“There’s an audition for a supporting role. The main characters are already decided, and when I had a look at their schedule, the first episode is set to air in January next year.”

“So there are around two months left.”

“Yes. Since they started doing promotions after casting the main characters, they’re looking for supporting roles now. RBS didn’t do well with Youth Generation, right? It seems like YBS is trying to take a portion of the pie.”

“Didn’t Youth Generation do pretty well? I know it did when I appeared in it.”

“It was good in the beginning but went downhill towards the end. You know, one of the main characters belonged to Blue. The reactions became quite drastic when rumors about how Blue was over started circulating around, and perhaps due to that, some of the fan cafés forbid their members from watching it.”

“Fan cafés do something like that?”

“Hey, you don’t know how scary idol fans can become. If you meet any boy or girl idols at a TV station, you should keep your distance. If some of the extreme fans got a photo of that, it would be total chaos. If someone at a certain level hangs out with them, they might start shipping the two saying it’s a god-sent relationship, but if someone awkward hangs around them, they will attack with all their power in the comments.”

“That sounds scary,” said Maru as he raised some noodles.

He thought that he should just greet Chaerim with his eyes if he met Chaerim later.

“All the popular kids are in it, so you should do your best in the audition and get a spot.”

“If I have the skills, I will, and if I don’t, I won’t. But is it a public audition?”

“These kinds of dramas don’t hold public auditions. First, they’ll hold one for agencies like us, and then the acting schools, then personal connections, and if they don’t have anyone even after that, they’ll turn to public auditions.”

“So being in an agency is a huge advantage huh.”

“It is, especially if it’s something like JA.”

Byungchan told him that he should intake a lot of iron and put a piece of boiled liver in his bowl. Maru smiled and ate it.

“Anyway, do your best. You know that the child actors that became popular all did so through youth dramas, right? You should be able to become big if you take advantage of the opportunity this time. You’re good at acting, good with words and… anyway!”

“Why? Is my face bad?” Maru asked with a smile.

“Hey, face isn’t everything when it comes to actors. Of course, you aren’t bad-looking. In fact, you look manly. You’re decently tall and decently sized as well. You must be popular with girls.”

“Thanks for the flattery. Geez, I should really undergo cosmetic surgery or something.”

“Hey hey. Don’t say something like that. An idol that was found out to have had cosmetic surgery had to retire recently. You should watch out for things like that. No matter how much the entertainment industry changes, there won’t be a change to the perception that cosmetic surgery is unforgivable.”

“Will that really be the case?”

“Just you wait. Korean people despise people who have put knives on their faces. Just look at the TV. How many celebrities have had cosmetic surgery? At most, it’s double eyelids, or maybe corrective surgery. Anyway, even if you do have cosmetic surgery later, don’t ever admit to it. The best answer is to say that you became like that after going on a diet.”

“Okay,” Maru replied with a nod.

Chapter 478

“Drag your voice from your stomach and throw it out. Remember that the sound will meet less resistance if you expand your throat.”

Suyeon walked around placing her hands on the members’ stomachs to help them with their vocalization.

“Aram, relax your shoulders. Are you nervous?”

“It’s not like that, but I subconsciously end up tensing.”

“Look at me. Pull up your shoulders like you’re pulling them up to your ear level. Then let them go. It is true that you must watch your breathing, but if you focus on that too much, you’ll end up tensing the area around your trapezius muscle. That is even worse than just not watching your breathing. Close your eyes and take a deep breath. Feel where your breath brushes past in your body. Then, imagine that the breath you just inhaled is going past your lungs, through your stomach, down to your thighs, knees then your toes, then comes back up in the opposite order before bursting out. Haaa, haa. That’s right. Don’t let the breath and the voice play separately, let your breath carry your voice. Don’t roll up your tongue! Don’t brush the top of your mouth with your breath!”

Good - she added before going over to the next person. Since she couldn’t visit that many times recently due to her drama schedule, Suyeon stuck around till the end of practice, perhaps out of apology, or perhaps because she had free time.

‘She must have some feelings of responsibility.’

Suyeon stood in front of Maru, who was breathing out. After watching for a while, she made a smile before walking right past him. Maru exercised like he usually did and continued the vocal practice.

“Stop. Well done for today. You guys must be having a hard time since you’re trying your hand at a play different than the one you did in the summer.”

“Doing the same one again is just no fun,” Aram chuckled as she replied.

“Looks like you guys practiced pretty hard while I wasn’t here. You’re at a level where it would be fine for you to go up on stage now. As long as you polish your foundations a little more, you’ll see good results.”

Suyeon pressed down her baseball cap before picking up her bag.

“Since you’re at it, let’s give it one more push. Oh, once you’re done with the performance, we’ll hold an afterparty at my house again, okay?”

“Without the alcohol this time,” said Bangjoo as he shook his head.

Last time, he had a hard time thanks to alcohol. Suyeon accepted it.

“Then let’s wrap things up here today. Well done.”

“Thank you for your work.”

They clapped to signal the end of practice as always.

“Han Maru.”

Suyeon, who was leaving through the back door, called out to Maru and gestured to him to follow her. Maru put down the desk he was carrying and left the classroom.

“Our cute little brother.”

Suyeon approached him with a smile on her face. Maru immediately took a step back to put some distance.

“Why are you acting like that? You’re such a cold guy.”

“Why are you acting like that then? It’s creepy.”

“Can’t you see that I want to look after the junior of the agency as a senior?”

“Why don’t you tell me a more convincing lie? What’s this about?”

“What a disappointment. You fail to understand my feelings.”

After making a disappointed face, Suyeon sighed before crossing her arms.

“You are going to take the audition for New Semester, right?”

“The agency told me to, so I have to.”

“You know that I was cast there as a trainee teacher, right?”

“I didn’t, because I’m not someone who goes around digging into other people’s private lives. But is there a problem with that?”

“What problem could there be? I said I was just trying to cheer you on.”

Making a prankful smile, Suyeon tried to poke Maru’s cheek. Maru pushed her finger away with his hand. Suyeon didn’t give up and tried to do it again, but Maru kept pushing her finger away since he didn’t want it.

“You don’t like me, do you?”

“I don’t like you. That’s for sure.”

“Wow, what a disappointment. Didn’t we spend a romantic night together in a villa once? You even peeked at my inner workings.”

“Should I tell what you just said to Geunsoo-hyung?”

“Why can’t you take a joke? But hey, what is Mr. Geunsoo up to these days? We belong to the same agency, but I can’t seem to contact him.”

“So that’s your objective after all?”

“Don’t call it an objective. I’m just giving words of encouragement to my adorable junior while asking what Mr. Geunsoo is up to on the side. Don’t you think we’re lacking teamwork even though we belong to the same company?”

“Why don’t you give up already? Geunsoo-hyung looks like he doesn’t even have this much interest in you at all,” said Maru as he showed her his pinky fingernail. Suyeon looked at the ceiling and made a sad face.

“You know, these days, I lost contact with everyone. All the men that had interest in me are being too cautious.”

“There was a big event, so I’m not surprised.”

“This is different from sexual bribery. Those girls just didn’t enjoy it, while I did.”

“Why don’t you just date a man normally? It must be more fun than throwing them in the trash after sucking out the juice.”

Hearing his words, Suyeon chuckled.

“What horrible thing are you talking about? Are you serious?”

“I was just joking. But don’t go around teasing pure men. That’s just too pitiful.”

“Love is always about give and take. I can make a request since there’s something in me that the man wants. Even the guys that talk about platonic love are all the same when they go to bed. They think about nothing but discharging their desires.”

“What a good thing to say in front of a high school student.”

“You’re my stress relief window. It’s your fault for consulting me all the time, making me say everything in front of you.”

“It’s you who blabs on about things because you’re drunk, you know? It will be bad if there’s an issue with your memory at such a young age. I heard that Alzheimer’s disease doesn’t care about age these days.”

“I’m too healthy to catch something like that.”

Suyeon stretched her arms out with a refreshed smile.

“Ah! That’s much better. My mouth was feeling itchy too. A friend you can talk to sure is good, eh?”

“Were we friends? Ever?”

“We weren’t? Best friends that share our secrets?”

“You know a secret of mine?”

“I know the secret that you know my secret.”

“What an amazing secret that is.”

Maru didn’t talk anymore and looked at Suyeon. Suyeon calmed down again.

“You look like you have something to ask. And something important too.”

“You told me that Lee Miyoon is the madam last time, right?”

“Ah, the madam.”

Suyeon pulled her chin inwards and put her finger on her lips.

“What about her?”

“I was wondering if you knew anything about her other than the rumors.”

“And why do you want to know about the madam? You piqued my interest since it was so sudden. It shouldn’t be that you want to show off in front of her.”

“I just wanted to know what kind of person she is.”

After tapping on her lips for a while, Suyeon made a foxy smile.

“You just wanted to know, huh? What is this? What’s going on?”

“If you don’t want to say it, then that’s fine as well. It’s nothing serious.”

“I’m not thinking about ignoring you when it’s the first time you come to me for help. I’m just curious as to why you’re expressing interest in that woman. There’s no way you prefer older women. Oh, you said you had a girlfriend right? Then is it a one-off thing?”

“Think whatever you want.”

“You really should stop hiding in front of family members.”

Suyeon looked at her watch before speaking,

“It’s about time I went. Alright, I’ll tell you everything I know about Lee Miyoon. But what exactly do you want to know?”

“There’s a rumor that she’s the broker that connects women to the clients. Is this true?”

“I can’t give you a confident answer to that. It’s a sensitive topic. Well, I won’t deny that there are such rumors floating around.”

“Did you ever receive an offer?”

Hearing that question, Suyeon smiled without saying anything. Maru nodded once.

“Do you think I did it or not?”

“You probably didn’t.”

“Why is that?”

“Because you’re playing a game with other people’s hearts. It doesn’t sound like you to simply just sell your body in exchange for something.”

Suyeon’s smile became thicker. Her upper teeth were showing.

“You know me too well. Don’t go around spreading rumors though. But hey, why are you digging into Lee Miyoon? You can tell me that much.”

“As a preventative measure.”

“Preventative measures, huh? For who?”

“Do you prevent diseases for specific people? You just do it.”

“So you don’t want to tell me?”

“We aren’t close enough for that.”

“I guess that’s true.”

Suyeon took out her phone before busily tapping with her fingers. She seemed to be texting someone.

“Hm, I’ll look into her a little for my cute junior. But don’t expect too much. That woman’s scary. I don’t know what you’re trying to do, but don’t get involved too deeply. Even when I look at her, she’s a total witch.”

“A small witch, or a big witch?”

“Make that a young witch or an old witch. Oh, right. I didn’t call you out to talk about this.”

At that moment, Suyeon got a call. She winked before turning around to take the call. Her voice was very loud and clear as she took that call, and the other side of the phone seemed to be male.

“Yes, yes. Of course. I’m not saying this just because we belong to the same company. He’s really good. You should take a good look at him during the audition. Is this a lobby you ask? Do people lobby with words these days? I’m just recommending you a good actor. I also would have an easier time if there’s someone good next to me. You can decide for yourself after you see him. Well, if you think of me when you see him, you can always give him bonus points. Yes, director. Have a good rest.”

Suyeon closed her phone.

“Who do you think that call was from just now?”

“By the flow of things, the producer for New Semester.”

“Correct. What good is a family member if not something like this? Human relationships are all give and take, right? I gold-plated your name as compensation for you listening to my grumbles. Of course, I didn’t put too much on it, so don’t worry about that. You don’t hate it, do you? If you don’t like it, I can always just call the director again,” said Suyeon as she pressed down her cap’s bill.

“I like it when someone gives me a push. Like a certain someone said, a decent amount of promotion is always welcome. Since we’re at it, you can push me a little more. Tell them that Han Maru is quite useful.”

“I knew you’d say that. But you’re going to have to do this properly since I also put my name on the line to advertise you. This is a form of business for me as well. My words will sound more convincing in the future if you do well. Alright?”

“Got it. I’ll do well in the audition.”

“Good. See you during the shoot next time, my cute junior.”

Maru smiled and slapped away Suyeon’s hand, which tried to pinch his cheeks. Suyeon pouted before turning around.

“Your cheeks are really expensive, you know that?”

“They have an owner already.”

“Really? I guess there’s no helping it then.”

Then let’s go for real now, shall I? - she added before taking out a brown pair of glasses. Training clothes, a baseball cap, and glasses. Unless someone decided to take a close look at her, no one would think that she was the actress Kim Suyeon. Though, a fan might still notice.

“But do you think you can go to the nationals in the winter? You slipped in the summer,” said Suyeon as she put her hand in her pocket.

“We’ll see the results when we get there. We only slipped by a small margin during the summer.”

He never thought that they’d have to forfeit the grand prize to a school he had never heard of before. Myunghwa High probably was startled as well. Thanks to that, Myunghwa High got the gold prize, and Woosung Engineering High got the silver prize. Meaning, Woosung High failed to go to the nationals.

“I’m just asking this in case, but have you seen Hwasoo High’s performance?”

“I was late to even your performance, so how could I have seen anyone else’s? Also, that school is in the northern Gyeonggi region, so they didn’t even hold it in Anyang.”

“You’re quite knowledgeable.”

“Is it unexpected?”

“No. Actually, if I think about it, you weren’t an irresponsible person. It’s not that strange for you to know.”

“Why can’t you put it in a gentler way? I’m putting in a lot of effort, you know?”

“Alright. I’ll put in some effort as well.”

“You just won’t lose to me a single time, will you? From what I hear, Hwasoo High’s overall balance was good, but one person just dominated it. If you are interested, try looking into them.”

“I will if I have the time.”

“Why are you looking at me like that? I’m a busy woman, you know? Don’t make an actress that appears on TV do something like that, geez.”

“Did I say anything? I’m just looking at you.”

“Urgh, I shouldn’t talk to this guy.”

Suyeon waved his hand as she climbed down the stairs.

Hwasoo High, huh. He was reminded of something he had almost forgotten about.

Chapter 479

Beep beep beep - three beeps sounded. Maru took a deep breath as his eyes stayed shut.

‘My nose feels dry. I should watch out.’

He sat up, feeling the air that was quite chilly. He had put his phone on top of the shelf so that it was out of reach from his bed. That was done in order to prevent himself from turning it off while half-asleep. He reached out and grabbed his phone. The time displayed on the screen was 6.

He turned off the alarm and did some light stretching around his neck. After that, he lied down on the mat he laid on the ground before sleep and started stretching his muscles, which were still half-asleep. He stretched his legs out by locking his fingers and pulling on his knees, then turning around to do a cobra stance to relax his waist. He felt his dull senses wake up one by one as he breathed consciously. Maru’s mornings were always systematic.

After stretching, he went out to the living room. As it was Sunday, the house was still dark. He took a glimpse at the skies between the closed curtains and saw that it was still purple. It was winter, so there was still some time until the sun rose.

He washed his face and changed his clothes. He took out his trainers from the shoe rack and put them on before leaving the house. When he went down the stairs, he saw that the snow hadn’t melted yet. He walked past the snow that had been blackened from all the surrounding dirt and grease and took the path to the mountain. This path was paved for the residents of the apartment near the residential area.

His breath turned slightly white. Maru started jogging. The cold air made him wake up completely. After running for around 10 minutes, he saw a hiking trail with wooden stairs. He greeted the elderly that came from the top before starting to climb up.

“Aah, aah.”

He made some sounds as he moved. An actor had to be capable of speaking clearly even while moving, and practice was the only way to reach that level. He relaxed his shoulders and focused on the sound. If he messed up the vocalization, he would start to tense the wrong muscles. Once he did that, he would easily tire himself out and maybe even damage his throat.

A warm breath climbed up his throat. He remembered to expand and relax his throat as he voiced out. When he saw someone approaching him from afar, he became awkward and smiled before practicing again. As he didn’t have a suitable place to voice out all he wanted to, he had to risk some embarrassment.

After arriving at a place where he could look down at the apartment complex, Maru stretched his arms out before taking in a deep breath. When he was climbing up, he limited his voice to a certain volume so that only he could hear his own voice, but now, he was going to raise his voice. He placed his palms on his stomach to check the tension of it as he voiced out. He continued his vocal exercise while imagining that he was pulling out his voice from somewhere deep. All the breath in his body turned into sound and spread around.

When his breath filled up to his throat, he took in a deep breath then voiced out the lowest note he could do. His voice nearly sounded like breathing. He started off with a ‘huh’ sound before eventually changing it to an ‘uh’ sound.

He felt a presence around him, but he couldn’t stop. A man in his fifties walked past him while coughing.

After finishing his exercise, Maru greeted the man who was stretching nearby him. The man asked what he was doing.

“It’s a vocal exercise.”

“Are you preparing to become a singer?”

“No, I’m an aspiring actor.”

“Ah, alright. Do your best with that.”

He often encountered these kinds of situations, so he just smiled and focused on practice.

The elder said that he never skipped vocal practice for even a day. Even when he was hospitalized, he said that he opened the window in the ward every morning and practiced. Thanks to that, he was cautioned by the nurse a couple of times, but the elder always smiled back before continuing his practice. The figure of the elder who told him that there was nothing scarier than being lenient on yourself left a deep impression on him.

After sufficient practice, he climbed down the mountain. It was 7, and the sun was rising. Once he returned home, he took a shower before turning the stove on when his parents’ bedroom opened. He said good morning to his mother who went to the bathroom with a tired face before making breakfast. He knocked on Bada’s door to wake her up, but he didn’t get any response as he had expected.

“Wake Bada up and eat breakfast.”

“Okay.”

He saw his mother out as she went to work before washing the dishes. After looking at the clean dishes, he knocked on Bada’s door once again.

“Breakfast’s ready.”

“I’ll eat it later.”

“Later when?”

“Ah geez!”

“Eat it when it’s still ready.”

“Gosh, stop nagging me!”

He kept talking to Bada, who was grumbling, to get her to come out. He fled to his room when his sister ran towards him like an angry dog baring its fangs before getting breakfast ready for her.

“You should start waking up early now since you’re going to be in high school and all.”

“I can take care of myself.”

“Hope so.”

“Why are you nagging me in the morning? Even mom doesn’t nag me these days, who are you to nag me?”

“I took over from mom, satisfied?”

Maru took out an apple from the refrigerator before peeling it. He sliced it to bite size pieces before putting them on a plate.

"I heard you said that you want to go to cram school, right?"

“Yeah. All of my friends are going to one, so I thought I should go to one as well.”

“Make sure you do your research before registering for one.”

“One of my friends told me about one, so I’m going to try that place out.”

“How far is it from the house?”

“It’s right in front of the school. I’ll be able to go there right after school. I thought I wouldn’t bother going to one if it was too far, so I looked into nearby ones.”

“That’s good.”

“But hey, why am I reporting to you about all this?”

“It was you who blurted everything.”

“That’s true. Oppa, give me some water.”

It was ‘hey’ or ‘you’ when she didn’t need him, and ‘oppa’ when she needed him. Maru poured a cup of water before putting it down in front of Bada.

“I’m going to go to school so do wash the dishes before you get yourself comfortable.”

“School? Are you going to practice?”

“Yeah.”

“When does it end?”

“Why do you ask?”

“Buy some Bungeo-ppang[1] on the way back. I want some.”

“But it’s right in front of the…”

“I don’t want to leave the house. It’s cold.”

Maru sighed and told her to clean the house in exchange. Bada seemed to have some sense of shame left as she nodded.

“Look after the house. Don’t order things for lunch, warm up the soup and eat that instead.”

“I get it already so get going.”

“Also, don’t forget to lock the door. When I saw the news recently…”

“Okay, okay.”

Bada waved her hand back and forth. Maru looked at the clock in the living room. It was 10 past 8. It was about time he left.

“Don’t end up burning the soup while watching TV like last time.”

“I get it already!”

She answered properly, but Maru couldn’t help but feel that she was unreliable. He looked at the sour Bada once before leaving the house.

* * *

The phone alarm entered his ears. It was Red Star’s new song. Lee Heewon closed his eyes and hummed along with the song.

“Ah, the song is good.”

He briefly thought that he should get up, but decided to keep listening since the music was so good. When he followed along with the addictive lyrics, the song soon ended. Heewon opened his heavy eyelids and reached out to find his phone. After finding his phone next to his head. Heewon grinned and opened the folder phone. With his eyes closed, he pressed some buttons on the phone. Menu, four, and then two buttons down and then ok.

Red Star’s song started playing again. Heewon put on a satisfied smile and put down the phone.

At that moment, he heard a knock on the door

“Hyung, you up?”

It was his younger brother’s voice. Heewon wondered if he should answer or not for a while.

“Hyung, I can hear the song.”

“You must be mistaken.”

“Hyung, it’s morning. You should get up.”

“Can’t I sleep a little more? It’s Sunday.”

“Didn’t you say that you had practice for a play? You told me to wake you up yesterday.”

“Ah, right. Practice.”

“Then shouldn’t you get up?”

“I should.”

After replying, Heewon buried his face in the pillow. He thought that he would have no more wishes in his life if he slept like this for just ten more minutes.

“…Hyung.”

His younger brother sounded dejected. Heewon curled up in sadness. He covered his face with the blanket and stayed still like a log. Soon, the door opened.

“Get up, hyung.”

“Just ten more minutes.”

“No, you said you need to go to school. You must keep your promises,” said his brother calmly.

Heewon looked for a retort, but couldn’t find any.

“Then do you want to go in my stead?”

“I’d love to if I could, but you know I can’t.”

“Then just five more minutes.”

“Alright. Just five more minutes, okay?”

“Yeah! Just five more minutes.”

Ah, what an angel. Heewon smiled and grabbed his phone again. He didn’t get tired of Red Star’s song no matter how many times he heard it.

He could hear the sound of boiling soup through the slightly open door. Heewon sniffed. So breakfast was doenjang-jjigae today, huh. He tried poking his feet out of the blanket.

“Whew, so cold.”

There were still three days until December. Heewon thought that the weather was too cold as he sat up. The cold air brushing under his arms made him shiver.

“It’s so cold,” he said as he left his room.

His brother, who was doing the dishes at the sink, looked at him before going to his room.

“You should put this on. It’s cold.”

“Thanks.”

He put on the vest that his brother gave him. It was quite warm as though it was kept under a blanket. He sniffed as he sat down on the floor. On the table were side dishes made by his brother. He used his fingers to eat the stir-fried anchovies. The slightly salty taste was delicious. When he did that a few times, his brother glared at him. Enduring the gaze, he put a slightly larger anchovy in his mouth. It was delicious.

“Here, hyung. Your rice.”

“Thanks.”

There was a fried egg on top of the rice. The yolk was half-boiled. When he poked it with the spoon, delicious-looking yellow yolk seeped between the rice grains.

“Hyung, you should eat quickly and wash yourself.”

“I still have plenty of time.”

“I thought you had to go by 9.”

“Yeah.”

“Did you have a look at the time?”

“No.”

“…You should eat quickly. You might be late.”

Heewon glanced behind him. The clock that had been here since they moved, which made weird cuckoo noises every hour, was nearing 9. The minute hand was just going past the number 8.

“There’s still 20 minutes left.”

“You’ll be late if you get washed.”

“Then I’ll just go without taking a shower.”

“There’s a bird’s nest on your head, you know?”

“I heard that bird’s nest is trendy these days.”

“Says who?”

“Says the TV.”

“I never heard that before.”

“That’s because you don’t watch TV. So don’t just read books and watch some TV, okay?”

Heewon took the opportunity to play Red Star’s music from his phone.

“Hyung.”

“Yeah?”

“I think people should focus on eating when they’re at the table,” said his brother with a rather serious face.

Heewon hesitated before turning off the music. His brother nodded with a smile.

“How long are you going to practice today?”

“I’m not sure. It might take a long time.”

“I’ll eat lunch by myself then, okay?”

“You should come with me.”

“Why? I don’t have anything to do there.”

“You can watch from the side.”

“I’ll be inconveniencing everyone.”

“Why do you think that? The people in the acting class all like you, you know?”

“I still can’t. You’re doing practice, aren’t you? It must be rude for someone unrelated to be there.”

“No, it’s not.”

Heewon frowned before eating a spoonful of rice. He truly thought that everyone liked his brother.

“You should eat some soy-pickled garlic as well.”

“But it’s too spicy.”

“It’s good for your immune system. Consider it medicine and eat some. Also, the owner lady gave us this because she cares for us. We can’t throw it away.”

Heewon looked for a way to avoid eating it, but he had no choice but to put some in his mouth when his brother looked at him. When he chewed on it, the taste of soy sauce and spiciness filled his mouth.

“This really doesn’t suit my tastes.”

“It’s good for your health. We can’t have you becoming sick.”

After breakfast, Heewon went to the bathroom.

“That doesn’t look so bad.”

He put some water over his face before pressing down on his hair with some water on his hands to straighten it out. He couldn’t wash his hair in weather like this. It wasn’t because he couldn’t be bothered, but because he had to be careful to not catch a cold, so he could make an excuse like that to his brother.

After wearing a hoodie, he put the hood over his head. With that, he could fool his brother perfectly.

‘This is good.’

He left the bathroom with a satisfied smile.

“Hyung, you forgot this.”

Just as he was about to go out, his brother handed him his script. Now that he thought about it, he forgot to put it inside his bag after reading it last night. ‘Hwasoo High Lee Heewon’ written in large letters on the cover felt rather embarrassing.

“I won’t lose it even without my name on it,” he said to the perpetrator that wrote his name on it.

His brother smiled at him without a word.

“I’m leaving then. Don’t forget to eat lunch.”

“Alright. Don’t skip lunch either.”

“Okay. Ah, should we order fried chicken for dinner?”

“We’re almost running out of this month’s expenses that we got from our aunt[2]. We need to save up.”

“…R-really?”

Heewon said ‘but the chicken… ’ in a small voice.

An image of a chicken drumstick lingered in front of his face.

“But since it’s the end of the month, and we saved some last week, I think we can order one,” said his brother with a smile.

“Really?”

Heewon’s expression visibly became better as he looked at his brother. His brother nodded slightly.

“Fried? Or sauce?”

“I’ll order half-half.”

“As expected of my Haewon! How smart.”

Heewon said goodbye to his brother before leaving through the door. He climbed up the stairs of the semi-basement and basked in the rays of the morning sun. Just then, he heard the door opening behind him.

“Hyung, you forgot your phone.”

“Ah, right.”

Heewon smiled and took the phone that his brother gave him.

[1] Fish-shaped pastry with red bean paste inside. WIkipedia for details.

[2] Word used here refers to paternal aunt.

Chapter 480

“Good morning!”

Maru lightly waved at the first years who greeted him with a loud voice.

“Did something good happen? You guys are full of energy in the morning.”

“Dowook-seonbae said that he’ll buy us something good after practice,” said Bangjoo while licking his lips.

Maru sat next to Dowook, who was doing stretches.

“Are you okay with that? You treated us last time too.”

“I quit smoking, and I don’t have anything else to spend money on. Above all…”

Dowook, who rotated his waist without saying anything, whispered in Maru’s ear that his sister kept giving him pocket money.

“What an endearing elder sister. Doesn’t Soojin-noona need another little brother?”

“I’ll think about it if he’s my younger brother as well. I’ll half-kill you first though.”

“That sounds horrible. Rather than that, is her business doing well?”

When he first met Soojin, Soojin said that she was doing various things. Making stuffed dolls that he thought she did as a hobby, was one of them, and he recently heard the news that she opened a stuffed doll shop. Apparently, she sold her items, created her items there, and even taught others there as well.

“There are a lot of customers. Apparently, there are rumors about the store on the internet.”

“That’s good.”

“It’s not good at all. At this rate, I might end up having to stick eyes on dolls.”

“The employment rate is low these days. You should treat your sister nicely.”

Dowook called him a lunatic, but his face was smiling.

“Do you think practice is going well?”

“This is easier than our summer one. Though the number of lines has increased.”

“You’re smart though, a few more lines shouldn’t matter that much. Keep doing your stretches.”

After patting Dowook on the shoulder, Maru approached Jiyoon, who was sitting against the wall, and Aram who was pushing on Jiyoon’s legs with all of her power.

“Aram, wait!”

“I told you, you need to do this much to do a split.”

“But even so!”

Jiyoon was having a hard time even though it was the morning. She was only able to escape Aram’s grasp after tearing up.

“Do you want to do it as well, seonbae?”

“I’m probably better than you though.”

“Well, I guess you’re flexible after all. But how can a boy be so flexible?”

“You should’ve learned under senior Miso last year.”

“That instructor did look a little scary.”

The two girls switched positions and Aram sat against the wall. Jiyoon, who was getting ready to push Aram’s legs, quietly stood up and whispered into Aram’s ears.

“Alright, you can go to the toilet. Have a nice poop!”

“It’s not that.”

Jiyoon was about to shout at Aram but made an awkward smile when she saw Maru.

“Go ahead. I’ll take care of Aram in the meanwhile.”

After nodding, Jiyoon quietly left the class.

“You should really stop teasing Jiyoon. She might end up bursting into tears.”

“Before, I wasn’t able to tease her properly since she looked like she was really going to cry. Though, I’m teasing her all I want these days since she receives it well.”

Maru grabbed Aram’s hand before slowly pulling it towards him. Aram’s torso softly came down before hitting the ground. Her legs stretched to either side didn't even move.

“Looks like you’re still going to the dojo.”

“Of course. I’m going to go even when I go to college.”

“Why didn’t you try your hand at being a pro? I think you would do well.”

“I thought about that for a brief moment in primary school, but I don’t think I’ll be able to cope with a group lifestyle with my personality. I’m the type of girl who would charge at full throttle when I see something unjust.”

“I know what that’s like.”

Aram slowly sat up.

“How’s practice? You said you were having a hard time memorizing a line.”

“I figured it out after practicing with Jiyoon a couple of times. It still doesn’t stick to my mouth, but I don’t make a mistake at least.”

“That’s good.”

Maru let go of Aram’s hand. After rotating her waist left and right, Aram groaned before standing up. Maru then called out to Bangjoo, who was reading the script.

“Yes, seonbae-nim.”

“What are you doing? Sit down.”

“Me too?”

“Since we’re at it, why not?”

Bangjoo stiffly walked up to him and sat against the wall.

“I thought you were practicing.”

“I couldn’t do it no matter what I did.”

“But Aram managed to, though. You can do it since you do sports just like her.”

“Flexibility is important in Judo as well, but there’s no need to do leg sp… seonbae-nim!”

“You’re aspiring to become an action actor. You should be able to utilize your body properly for that.”

Maru slowly pulled on Bangjoo’s arm. Since there was a risk of injury, there was no need to push it. Bangjoo also didn’t seem to want to make a big fuss as he stiffened up before focusing on his breathing. After lowering his torso to a point where he almost touched the floor, Bangjoo said.

“Seonbae-nim, can you press down my back a little?”

“Are you really okay with that though?”

“Since I’m doing it, I might as well.”

“Don’t push yourself.”

He might injure Bangjoo if he pushed with rebound, so he pressed slowly according to his breathing. Although Bangjoo couldn’t do a perfect split like Aram, he was definitely better than his peers.

“What happened to asking your sister to teach you acting?”

Bangjoo, who was groaning, replied with difficulty.

“I wasn’t going to at first, but after I heard you, I thought it would be a loss to miss a good teacher so I told her about it. She said she’ll look after me when she has time. She’s busy with a drama these days.”

“Do your best to learn from her. Her acting skills are the real deal after all. How’s practice? Are you not stuck on anything?”

“I keep messing up my movement lines. I’m confident in using my body, but I can’t memorize things well.”

“Well, moving around consciously definitely is quite difficult.”

Maru tapped on Bangjoo’s back. After sitting up, Bangjoo smiled brightly saying that he felt refreshed. While Bangjoo was talking with Aram, Jiyoon returned to the classroom. Maru grinned and pointed at the wall.

“M-me?”

“There’s no one other than you though.”

“…Please go easy on me.”

“Don’t worry. You won’t die.”

While looking at Jiyoon’s posture, Maru asked a question.

“Is pronunciation practice coming along well?”

“Yes. I’m practicing with a pencil in my mouth like Daemyung-seonbae told me. I think I’ve improved my pronunciation when I speak fast.”

“Keep it up. You’ll become even better.”

“Yes.”

“But isn’t it better to call Daemyung, oppa instead?”

“……”

“Fine, you can decline to comment.”

Jiyoon leaned forward as much as possible with her stiff body. She struggled to lower her body, but the only thing that straightened out was her fingers, not her waist.

“Everyone’s here?”

Daemyung, who entered the classroom with a large insulated bottle, said that to everyone. Maru told Jiyoon that she did well before standing up.

“What’s that?”

“Barley tea. It was pretty cold in the morning, so I made some. Everyone, have a drink.”

Daemyung poured some hot barley tea into some paper cups. Maru felt his body, which had frozen up slightly due to the cold air, warming up thanks to the tea.

“Daemyung, see me for a sec.”

Maru pointed at the window with the cup in hand. Daemyung handed the insulated bottle to Jiyoon before coming to the window.

“Everyone seems to be doing well with practice.”

“Because the prize is big after all. You should’ve seen what their faces were like when they heard that the grand prize was 10 million won.”

Daemyung chuckled.

“I guess that’s the motivation down. Oh, you should look out for Bangjoo during practice. It seems like he’s still confused with his movement lines. Also, Jiyoon seemed to have gotten some confidence because of the practice you made her do.”

“That’s good. I thought she was getting depressed because of her pronunciation even though she’s doing well.”

“Aram and Dowook are doing well by themselves. Dowook seems to be a little nervous because of the number of lines, but practice is the only thing that can solve that.”

“I should have him practice more so that he can become used to it before we go on stage.”

Daemyung nodded and thanked him before going back to everyone else. Maru quietly looked at everyone talking to each other with Daemyung as the center. Everyone’s gears were fitting well with each other with Daemyung as the central pivot.

“Maru-seonbae! We’re going to the meat buffet in front of Suwon station after we finish practice a little early. You’re coming with us, right? Apparently, they just opened!” Aram shouted with excitement.

Maru made a circle with his fingers and nodded.

* * *

“It’s so cold. On days like these, I should really stay in bed.”

“Seonbae, you should really move around.”

“It’s too cold to move around.”

Heewon tried to pull a blanket over him, but his junior took away the blanket.

“You’re so mean.”

“Stand up and do some stretches. You’re the club president. You’re supposed to be leading everyone. Why are you acting like that?”

“I told you I didn’t want to be the club president…”

At that moment, the door to the clubroom opened and a bunch of people came in.

“Chansoo, do you wanna be the club president?”

“There you go again. You do it.”

“Inho, how about you? You suit this position more than me.”

“Forget it. Also, you can give it up now. There’s no one other than you.”

“But why me?”

Heewon made a sad face as he reached out for the blanket.

“There! We rested enough so let’s start practice.”

Inho encouraged everyone and had them stand up. Seeing that, Heewon thought that Inho was really the right man for the president position.

“You should stand up as well. We’re going to the practice room.”

“Can’t we do it here? The practice room is so cold because it doesn’t have a heater.”

“Once you move around with all your might, you’ll start sweating and no longer feel cold.”

“I don’t want to do that though.”

“Everyone, let’s carry our president.”

Hearing those words, the juniors approached him with suspicious smiles. Heewon thought that their faces looked even more malicious than the devil’s. He struggled until the end, but he couldn’t win against more than ten people. In the end, he was dragged to the next building.

“This place is way too cold.”

Heewon put his hands in his armpits. This separate building, which was used as an indoor gym as well as a lecture hall, was cold enough that his breath turned white. If he stayed here for a long time, he would catch a cold, and if he caught a cold, his brother would nag him worriedly.

“We should really…”

“Well then, let’s start running,” said Park Inho while clapping.

The juniors started running laps inside the hall in two lines. Heewon wanted to stay out, but his arms were being held, so he had no choice but to run.

After running five more laps, he felt his body heating up.

“Let’s do some stretches before starting the read-through.”

Heewon yawned and secretly walked into a corner, but his juniors didn’t know any mercy and dragged him to the center of the stage.

“Let’s follow what Heewon’s doing,” said Inho.

Seeing everyone’s eyes focus on him, Heewon had no choice but to start stretching. After some light stretching, he looked at Inho again. Inho made a satisfied smile as he spoke,

“We were defeated by Myunghwa High in the summer, but let’s take the grand prize this time. We got the best actor award, so there’s no problem with that.”

After saying that, everyone shouted ‘fighting’.

Thinking that they were really synchronized, Heewon was about to shout ‘fighting’ a beat later but awkwardly had to put his hand down.

“I heard that the grand prize is 10 million won for the winter competition. What happens if we win it?”

“We split it according to our headcount.”

“That means at least 700 thousand won for each of us.”

“700 thousand huh. I’m upgrading my PC.”

“I’m getting new clothes.”

The juniors seemed to be filled with expectations.

Heewon said in a small voice after looking around at the club members.

“If I knew this was going to happen, I wouldn’t have done my best during the summer competition.”

“What are you talking about, seonbae. You got 100 thousand won because you got the best actor award.”

“It’s only 100 thousand. My brother took most of it as well. I only got to use 20 thousand.”

He felt a little depressed when he wondered where the 80 thousand went and wondered if he should tell his brother to raise his pocket money a little.

“You should be thankful that your brother is Haewon, seonbae. Otherwise, you would’ve been in big trouble.”

“Right. You should be thankful that Haewon has a meticulous personality. If he was like seonbae… urgh it’s horrible just imagining it.”

The juniors of the acting club, who were the same age as Haewon, spoke with a smile. Heewon mumbled before sighing. He couldn’t retort since what they were saying was entirely correct.

“Let’s start the read-through. Oh, before that, I have something to tell you all.”

Inho coughed before speaking.

“If we manage to finish practice early today and not make any mistakes, we’re going to eat out.”

Eat out? Heewon widened his eyes. His stomach grumbled when he heard those words.

“Where are we going?”

“A meat buffet.”

“I’ll do my best today,” said Heewon as he clenched his fist.

“Are we going to go to the place we went to last time? That place wasn’t that good.”

“We’re going to Suwon.”

“Suwon? That’s a bit far.”

“It’s right below Seongnam, it’s not that far. Actually, my father opened a store there. He told me to bring everyone over once, so that’s why we’re going.”

“Then it’s free of charge?”

“Do you want me to have you guys pay?”

“No!”

Heewon was all smiles. A free meat buffet! At that moment, a face popped up in his head.

“Ah, uhm, Inho.”

“Yeah?”

“I’m sorry about this, but can I call one more person?”

“You mean Haewon?”

“Yeah. He’s by himself at home. Can I call him?”

“I was going to call him even if you didn’t. He helped us practice over the summer, so of course we’re going to call him.”

“Yes! I knew I could count on you.”

“But let’s do our best during practice today, okay?”

“Don’t worry. I’ll never make a mistake,” said Heewon as he raised his chin.

He couldn’t remember the last time he went to a meat buffet. He could practically hear the meat sizzling already. His brother should like it as well.

“Well then, let’s start practice,” Inho said as he straightened out his shoulders.

Chapter 481

‘I know that person’ was a play about the interactions between a normal person, who was hospitalized due to a mistake, and the patients. At first, the man distanced himself from the rest and told everyone else that he was different. He eventually found out that the people living there are just people just like him, and the story ended after the man talked about his escape plans from the hospital.

“Don’t come close to me. I’m different from you people. You know? I'm normal, not a freak.”

Daemyung pushed his hands out in wariness. The club members around him stared at him for a moment before laughing all at once.

“He says he’s normal.”

“Everyone says that at first when they come here.”

“I never get tired of it.”

“Fine, normal guy. You’re the best, okay? So you came here because your head was normal?”

Everyone stood in a circle around Daemyung, held each other’s hands, and started spinning around Daemyung. Daemyung got angry and waved his hand outwards, but Aram quickly dodged while Daemyung just fell over like that.

“He’s a crazy guy just from a glance.”

“Right.”

The four people that teased him snorted before going back to their respective places. Daemyung sat down on the spot and sighed.

This was going well. Maru coughed and pretended to open an imaginary door. When he did, Daemyung immediately ran up to him.

“D-doctor! I’m not crazy!”

“Yes, yes, Mr. Patient. You are not crazy. You’re just a little sick. But don’t worry, I’ll make you better soon.”

“Doctor!”

Maru walked between the four people, who were lying down neatly on their beds while Daemyung followed him on his knees. When Maru pretended to watch over Dowook, Aram abruptly stood up and started tickling Daemyung. Maru turned around after hearing Daemyung’s laughter.

“Mr. Patient. Something good happen?”

“N-no. That woman just!”

“Yes, yes, I know. You must be seeing women from time to time. I’ll give you some medicine so don’t worry.”

“It’s not that, that woman tickled me.”

“Is that right? Well, then. Princess Choi.”

Aram stood up and answered ‘yes’ like a child.

“Did you tickle this person?”

“No.”

She replied brightly like a preschooler before lying down again. Daemyung jumped around in frustration.

“Mr. Patient. If you keep acting like that, I’ll move you from the group ward to the solitary ward. Okay?”

“But I’m saying I’m normal.”

“Everyone here says that at first.”

Maru smiled and left the ward.

“See that? I knew he was a crazy guy.”

“He looks young too. Such a pity.”

Dowook and Jiyoon commented. At that moment, Bangjoo, who had been still this whole time, started laughing in a loud voice while grabbing his stomach. After rolling around sideways for a while, he turned serious and stood up before glaring at Daemyung.

“Am I funny to you?”

After saying that, Daemyung lied on the floor again, where the bed was supposed to be. After that was Daemyung’s monodrama. He utilized the stage to the fullest and talked about the events that happened to him. Maru held the script in front of him and compared Daemyung’s acting to the script. At the same time, he looked at the other members who brought out the characteristics of each character.

“Why do I need to come here? Huh? Huh? What did I do wrong? Just who reported me? My wife? She’s been looking at me suspiciously these days. No, wait, was it my son? Did he send me in here because I didn’t pay his tuition? No, there’s no way that’s true. Then is it mom? Ah, wait, she passed away.”

Maru subconsciously snapped his fingers as he looked at Daemyung who blankly stared into the sky as he said ‘passed away’. The rather dazed expression was a laughing point here, and Daemyung brought it out really well. Bangjoo, who had to start laughing out of nowhere while lying down, was doing so at the right time - when Daemyung’s lines had a break.

“Uhm, wait,” Maru said as he entered the stage. Daemyung, who just finished his acting, spat out a short breath.

“What is it? Is something awkward?”

“It’s good, but, Jiyoon.”

Jiyoon, who was crouching down with her knees together, raised her head.

“I think you should exaggerate your actions more. I can’t tell what you’re doing even when I’m right next to you, because your actions are too small.”

“Should I do it like this then?”

Jiyoon then pretended to wipe her tears off with the handkerchief she was holding.

“Do you think you can show your face a little more? I get that showing your teary sniffing face is something embarrassing, but if you’re too shy about it, the audience wouldn’t be able to understand what you’re doing with the handkerchief.”

Jiyoon nodded before distorting her face a lot and stamping down on her eyes with the handkerchief. Since she was at it, she even blew her nose. She really did have the courage to accept and try when someone gave her advice.

“How cute. Let’s do it just like that. Daemyung, what do you think?”

“I think that she should definitely exaggerate her actions like she is now.”

“No, I asked if you think she’s cute.”

“Huh? Uh, yeah.”

Seeing the two laugh shyly at each other, Maru clapped before leaving the imaginary stage again.

“Bangjoo’s doing really well right now. I can’t spot anything off. Dowook, why don’t you try expressing your anger in many different ways? This play is supposed to be humorous after all. I think it’s important to make the audience laugh with exaggerated actions.”

“But I can’t really make a sound, you know? It’ll interrupt everyone else’s lines. Hm, should I try flailing my legs in the air?”

“That sounds good. Try it.”

“Right now?”

“You can’t exactly do that at home. Okay, try.”

“God dammit.”

Dowook, who didn’t want to do it in front of his juniors, just gave up and lied down before flailing his legs in the air.

“Dowook-seonbae. You look like some fish,” Aram said.

Everyone laughed.

“That looks good. Let’s try that during practice. It should be fine as long as it doesn’t look too disorderly. Also, Aram, your sexy eyes are good and all, but you should look at Daemyung, not me. Looking at the audience is good as well, but you should try it with your fellow actors first, don’t you think?”

“That’s because you kept staring at me.”

“Then I won’t. Well, then. Let’s keep that there and…”

Maru looked at Daemyung. Daemyung looked around before speaking,

“Let’s continue where we left off. We didn’t make a mistake until now.”

“Alright. Then let’s start from where your lines end.”

Maru took a step to the side and waited for Daemyung to get into his character’s emotions.

The play continued along with Daemyung’s slow breathing.

* * *

“So? What do you suppose we do? Quit? Give everything up just like that?”

“Who said that?”

“How is it different from giving up when you’re saying that we should switch roles at this point?”

“Hey, isn’t it your fault in the first place for letting someone bad take that role? I’m saying that we should set that straight now. Why are you picking on me now? Oho, you’re taking her side because you’re close to her, aren’t you?”

“Are you for real?”

Seeing the two girls - juniors - that looked like they were about to start tearing each other’s hair out, Heewon thought that the mood was seriously hostile.

“Aren’t they going to get into a fight at this rate?”

He could feel Inho staring at him. Heewon asked ‘what’ in a small voice.

“It’s funny when you say it.”

“What’s so funny?”

“At least they look like they’re acting at least. Meanwhile, you’re just…”

Inho closed his mouth and shook his head.

“Seonbae-nim, how was it?”

“I think it’s better than before. But you know what the instructor said. You shouldn’t act realistically, be actually real. Of course, I can’t really give you any advice on that because I can’t do it either, but I think you should make it more realistic.”

Hearing Inho’s words, the two girls looked at each other and wondered if they should actually get into a fight.

“But you can’t actually get into a fight because of that.”

“This is hard. I thought it was okay, too.”

“I’m not saying that it was bad. I’m just saying that there’s room for improvement. You remember the play we all watched together last time, right?”

The club members sitting in a circle all nodded at once. Heewon wondered for a moment when he heard the word ‘play’. He couldn’t exactly remember the contents properly. He nodded and pretended to know about it since everyone else seemed to. However, it seemed that he couldn’t fool Inho’s eyes.

“Hey, Lee Heewon. You don’t remember it, do you?”

“Why are you saying that? I do remember. I’m not a fish.”

“You are a fish. Then talk us through what it was about.”

“He’s right, seonbae. Tell us what it was about.”

His juniors and friends looked at him with a sharp stare. Heewon sniffed.

“Why does everyone hate me?”

Muttering in a small voice, he looked at everyone else. At that moment, a light bulb lit up inside his head and he remembered what it was about.

“Ah! The story is about a policeman! I remember it now, I mean it.”

He laughed and scratched the back of his head. The club members booed him before smiling.

“But seonbae. How was it in your eyes? Were we good?” One of the girls that acted just now asked him.

Heewon just said what was on his mind.

“Hm? I liked it though. I almost thought that you were fighting for real.”

“Really?”

“Yeah, I mean it.”

Hearing that, another junior spoke,

“I don’t get what’s good and what’s bad since you say it’s good all the time, Heewon-seonbae.”

“I’m saying it’s good because it is. If you still don’t like it… you make me want to cry.”

He couldn’t say something was bad when it was good, could he? Heewon truly thought that the acting of the people here was really good, each had their own unique traits.

“Also, I don’t have the skills to evaluate someone else.”

“You? No way. That’s not true.”

“What do I know?”

Hearing that, one of his friends sitting opposite of him rested his chin on his hands and spoke,

“Honestly, there’s no one here who knows better than you. That’s why we’re asking. The instructor also told us to ask you if we’re stuck on something.”

Heewon made a disinterested face. The instructor definitely said such a thing - to help the others out. However, he didn’t know how he could help someone else. He had a headache just thinking about how he should teach others.

“Then just show it to us.”

“Show what?”

“That scene. Do it in your style and show it to us.”

Inho pushed his back. He almost blurted out not to annoy him, but he had to stand in the middle of everyone else when the juniors dragged him with an evil grin. These people had no respect for him at all.

“Your acting was really good, you know?”

“Okay, we get it so show us yours? Show us how you interpret it.”

“I’m really bad with things like this, you know?”

“We’ll be the ones making that judgement.”

“Tell me honestly. You don’t consider me a senior, do you? You just consider me some servant that you can use as you wish, don’t you?”

He grumbled and tried to sit down, but Inho placed his foot there so he couldn’t. He heard that ‘friend’ was another name for ‘enemy’, and it really seemed to be the case here. Heewon scratched his head and sighed.

“You won’t get anything out of it even if you do see it. It should be similar to you two’s. No, I should be worse than you two’s.”

“We get it, so get into the mood and try.”

Heewon took a deep breath. Let’s see. It was a fight between friends, was it? He narrowed his eyes and looked at Inho in front of him. How would it be if he fought Inho for real? It would probably make him sad. He would feel depressed at first and lack energy.

Heewon loosened his shoulders. Then, he focused on his breathing and listened to the story he made up. A ticklish feeling welled up inside him. He also felt a lump in his throat, and it was a bit hot. Hot? Hot means red, right?

* * *

“I told you not to do it!”

Heewon waved his hand outward violently before pulling his body back. He then shouted, causing his voice to reverberate in the hall. He stomped on the ground like a grumbling child before flipping his eyes over and saying his lines. His lips were stretched to either side and looked somewhat indescribable. Inho thought that Heewon went through three unjust events just now to be like that.

“It’s quite funny whenever Heewon-seonbae says he can’t explain his acting. He’s so good at it. No, he’s scarily good. I think he’s much better than the actors on TV. Also, I think that’s way beyond the point where he can’t explain things to us, but he always says that he doesn’t know.”

Inho smiled bitterly hearing the junior’s words.

“He doesn’t know.”

“What?”

“He really doesn’t know how to explain his own acting rationally. I guess you can say that he can’t conceptualize it?”

“What do you mean?”

“Hey. Do you know what it means to see pink light from a smile?”

“What do you mean, pink light?”

“That’s what his acting is like. He says that he can see color from emotions.”

“Color?”

“I asked him once before about how I could bring out a depressed emotion from within me. Do you know what his reply was?”

“What did he say?”

“He said: gather the yellowish stuff and slap it like this.”

Inho tapped on his chest. Seeing that, the junior frowned.

“You don’t get what it is at all, right? I don’t either.”

He smiled and shrugged. Inho crossed his arms and looked at Heewon who was in front of him.

“He’s a little different from all of us.”

Chapter 482

Heewon breathed out over a long span of time before calming down his emotions. He needed several breaths to calm down his thumping chest.

“That’s the gist of it, isn’t yours much better?”

He asked his juniors who were watching.

“Uhm, we’ll just do it our own way.”

“See? I told you that your acting is better than mine.”

“It’s not that, it’s just that your acting is too good. I don’t think I can do it like you.”

“Me neither,” the girls were pouting as they spoke.

At that moment, Inho clapped to gather attention.

“But it helped at least, right? You now know what kind of elements make it look more realistic.”

After saying those words, Inho stood up.

“Let’s do a full run then. Try to reflect on the things you saw in your acting right away. If there are any parts you find lacking or want to change, keep it in your mind and say it right after we finish the run. Also, the staff members should also say something if they want to give advice. Whether that person’s older or younger than you, we’re trying to learn right now. The acting club was just created. We should put our minds to it and do our best.”

Heewon applauded. Inho was really great with his words. Heewon felt that during Inho’s presentation in history class, but Inho’s talking skills really were extraordinary.

“Inho. I really think you should be the president.”

Although he said those words, his opinion was ignored immediately. Even his juniors didn’t agree with him. Heewon grumbled and complained to his other friends, but they only replied to him that he should be the president.

“Just do it. They aren’t making you the president for no reason.”

“It’s just a huge burden on me.”

“What do you mean, burden? You just can’t be bothered. You’re going to quit and become a staff member if you weren’t the president, weren’t you?”

“That’s true, but still.”

“Quit yapping and get going already. The main character can’t be here.”

One of his friends kicked him on the butt. Heewon massaged his aching buttcheeks and stood next to the club members.

The acting club was created early this year. Inho, who always said that he wanted to do something new during his first year, created the acting club as soon as he became a 2nd year. When he heard the club name ‘First Dream’ from him, Heewon said that it was really good. Up until then, he never knew that he’d be in the club. He was in the computer club as a1st year, and planned to enter the computer club again as a 2nd year since he liked games.

However, he was dragged by Inho, who was in the same class as him for two consecutive years, and became one of the founders of the acting club, which he thought he would never do. Inho tried to scout his brother as well since they were in the same school, but Haewon was interested in English speaking, and had already set his mind on the study club.

Heewon entered the acting club because he was tempted by Inho’s words when he said that it should be way more fun than computer games, and that he’d buy snacks. That was the start of his pain. Acting, which was supposedly several times more fun than games, was a repetition of studying and pain. Since the club started off with absolutely nothing, they had to do all the research and find the things they liked by themselves. Only after they invited an instructor thanks to a program from the city hall did they get some time to breathe, but the intensity of learning started rising after that.

In the youth section of the acting competition they prepared for, for the first time, they somehow managed to get 2nd place, whether it was through pure luck or skill. First place went to Myunghwa High, which was known to be the pride of acting clubs in Suwon.

First time participation and yet they became the runner-up. It felt like it was yesterday when they all hugged each other and cried, but now they were already preparing for the winter competition.

‘It’s fun, it definitely is.’

He didn’t deny it. Playing games was fun, but acting was just as fun. However, acting was also hard. There were mountains of things he had to learn. When he realized that the things he had studied until now were merely the fundamentals, Heewon seriously considered quitting and becoming a staff member. A staff member was relatively more free after all. They could also not participate in practice should they choose to. It meant that he would get the time to go home and play games with the others.

The runner-up prize was definitely sweet, but to taste that sweet emotion, he had to endure through harsh practice. They say patience is bitter, but its fruit is sweet, but the patience was way too bitter for him to endure.

As his desire to go home and eat the ramyun his brother cooked for him in front of the computer and run around on the online battlefields was skyrocketing, Heewon declared that he would quit acting and become a staff member. However, the position he got as a result of that was not the position of a staff member, but the club president.

When Inho said that the club can’t run without a president, he looked as though he had calculated everything. The result of that was his current situation: gathering on a day off in such cold weather to do practice.

“You guys are so evil.”

Heewon stood in the middle after glancing at all of the club members including Inho.

“Let’s get this done quickly and go to the buffet!”

Buffet - that word was what supported Heewon right now. Heewon tensed his eyes and got into position.

“Begin whenever you’re ready.”

Hearing his friend’s words from opposite of him, Heewon nodded. Wait for me, ribs. Wait for me, pork belly. I’m coming for you.

* * *

“You should have just been the main character if you had the time, seonbae.”

Aram, who walked ahead, turned around and spoke.

“It’s just a short break. I might become busy again.”

“Are you shooting something again?”

“I need to apply for an audition. There’s not long left.”

Maru pointed at a puddle with his finger. Aram hopped over it.

“New Semester, right? The one you’re auditioning for this time,” Daemyung asked.

Maru said yes as he nodded.

“Hope it goes well. If you pass, I’ll watch it every day.”

“That puts too much pressure on me, so please don’t. Oh, yeah, is the new place any good? I heard that the quality of meat is really bad in stores that are just trying to profit off the season.”

“From what I heard from the guys that went last week, they said that it was really decent, though the price is a bit high. There are things you can eat other than just meat, just like a buffet. Oh, they liked the tangsuyuk[1] there.”

“That’s good then. Rather than that, the guys in our class are really knowledgeable when it comes to things like that. You know, things like good restaurants and noraebangs with good service.”

“It’s because we don’t have after school studies. Everyone seems to flock to Anyang main street or Suwon station.”

It was 3 p.m. A rather awkward time that was neither a late lunch nor an early dinner. While they chatted inside the bus, they soon arrived at Suwon station.

“I think that’s the place,” Daemyung said as he pointed outside the window.

There were flags of various nations flapping outside a building in front of Suwon station. Quite a lot of people seemed to be going there.

“Do you think there are enough seats for all of us?” Bangjoo asked nervously.

He looked like he was about to cry if there weren’t enough seats and they had to go back.

“The restaurant takes up the whole floor, so there should be plenty of seats.”

Daemyung consoled everyone as they got off the bus. Bangjoo and Aram nervously rolled their feet in front of the traffic light and ran as soon as the pedestrian light turned green. After going inside like a lightning bolt, they came back out by the time Maru crossed the street.

“They have enough seats.”

Maru followed behind Dowook since he was the one buying. The salad bar was installed in the middle, while the meat was on one side of the wall, inside a refrigerator with a glass window. The interior design was clean and the rooms and the hall were separate, so this place looked like a suitable place for a company get-together as well.

“Are you perhaps from Hwasoo High?”

A rather burly-looking man approached them and asked. From how the employees were glancing at him in secret, he seems to be the owner.

“No, we aren’t from Hwasoo High,” Aram replied quickly.

The owner replied ‘oh, I see’ before laughing.

“So you’re here with your friends. I’ll put the drinks on the house as a service.”

“Wow, thank you.”

“Okay, eat all you want and tell your friends about it.”

After the owner went back, Maru sat down and asked Daemyung.

“He mentioned Hwasoo High just now, right?”

“Yeah, but what about it?”

Daemyung, who was wondering what it was about, soon realized what Maru was talking about.

“Hwasoo High! It’s that Hwasoo High?”

“I’m not sure if it’s the same Hwasoo High or not, but…”

At that moment, the door opened and a bunch of high school students entered the restaurant. There looked to be around twenty people. One of the students, who looked around by the entrance, approached the owner, who was cleaning up the refrigerator. The owner welcomed him warmly while the student smiled. He could hear a faint ‘dad’ from the boy’s mouth.

“I think they’re from Hwasoo High,” said Jiyoon, who was sitting quietly next to Daemyung.

It seemed that everyone remembered what Hwasoo High was. They looked at the students that were being guided by the owner with curious, or perhaps sharp, eyes.

“Hey, hey. They might not be that Hwasoo High, so don’t stare at them.”

“What if they are? We lost the prelims thanks to them,” said Aram as though she was ready to pick a fight with them at any moment.

Maru raised his hand and blocked Aram’s view.

“Just start eating, don’t pick a fight. I’m really worried because you might actually go and pick a fight with them.”

“I’m not that reckless you know?”

“But you are going to, aren’t you?”

“I can at least ask if they’re that Hwasoo High or not.”

“What if they are?”

“Then I’ll start complaining to them and just start…”

Aram clenched her fist. Maru thought that he shouldn’t talk to her anymore and gave a glance to Jiyoon. He signalled her to watch over the reckless girl.

“I’ll go get the meat.”

“Then I’ll bring some vegetables and rice.”

Daemyung and Dowook stood up. Aram, Jiyoon, and Bangjoo also walked over to the salad bar. Only after seeing Jiyoon hold Aram back from walking over to Hwasoo High’s table in secret did Maru stand up from his seat.

Hwasoo High’s table was diagonally opposite to where Maru was sitting. He picked up a plate and walked to the salad bar before sneaking glances at Hwasoo High. They looked harmonious. While putting some kimbap on the plate, he perked up his ears to listen to their conversation.

“Seonbae, you should give it up already. There’s no one else for the club president role but you.”

“Right. Heewon-seonbae. The position of the president of the acting club has been fixed to you.”

Acting club. It seemed that they indeed were Hwasoo High from Seongnam. The reason they came all the way here was probably because of the owner.

“Dad, I’ll take care of this.”

“Just sit down. If you run out of drinks, you can always take more out of the fridge.”

It seemed that one of the members was the son of the owner of this place. The owner was dragged by the student to stand in front of them. Then, everyone stood up and thanked the owner for the food. Their voices were pretty loud, so the other customers stared at them.

“Seonbae.”

“Whoa, that startled me.”

Maru twitched his lips when he looked at Aram who narrowed her eyes. From her expression, it seemed that she had heard that they were Hwasoo High’s acting club.

“So they’re the people that made us fail, huh?”

“They didn’t make us fail. We failed because we were lacking. Let’s set things straight.”

“Same thing. Anyway, we would’ve gone to the regional finals if not for them.”

He took Aram, who was staring at Hwasoo High intensely, back to the table. The others also came back and sat down.

“So it seems that they’re indeed that Hwasoo High,” Daemyung said.

“Then that means there’s the incredibly good person among them, right? The one that got the best actor award,” Jiyoon asked with curiosity.

Acting club from another school. Everyone looked at Hwasoo High with deep interest. It seemed that they were even more mindful of them because they belonged to an acting club in the same region and because of the fact that they lost to them once. Daemyung also gave them glances as he placed the meat on the grill.

“But why are there so many people there?” Bangjoo asked.

“Our acting club had a lot of members before as well. You saw the album right? There was one year where there were more than thirty members. Back then, you would have to go through a test to go on stage. Though, I only heard about it as well,” Daemyung explained.

“Hm, due to an accident, the number of members decreased drastically, and thanks to the seniors leaving, we have only six members in the club now, but more members doesn’t necessarily mean better, right?”

“But more is definitely better than less. Just thinking about the pains we went through to make the stage makes me sigh.”

Hearing Aram’s words, Daemyung smiled awkwardly. More members was definitely better than fewer members. There was nothing bad about gaining more labor force.

“Hey, hey. The meat is burning. Let’s eat for now.”

Maru refreshed the atmosphere and directed their attention to the meat.

Everyone seemed to be hungry and started moving their chopsticks without talking about Hwasoo High.

* * *

“Hyung, what are you doing?”

Hearing Haewon’s words, Heewon narrowed his eyes.

“The people over there. I think they’ve been staring at us for a while now.”

“The people over there?”

When Inho turned around, he said ‘ah’ in realization.

“I felt that too.”

“But why? Why would they stare at us? Is there someone they know?”

“Who knows? Don’t mind them and just keep eating.”

Heewon looked at the people sitting opposite of him before picking up his chopsticks. Just then, he met eyes with a girl with short hair, and that girl stuck out her tongue and made a funny face. Heewon flinched and turned around, wondering if she was doing that to someone else. However, there was nothing behind him but an empty table. Meaning… She did that to him?

Heewon raised his head and looked at that girl again. She was still making that face as though she was teasing him.

“Haewon.”

“Yeah, hyung.”

“Nah, just keep eating.”

He couldn’t ask his brother to switch places with him because he was scared.

[1] Batter-fried pork with sweet and sour sauce.

Chapter 483

“Uhm, Inho-hyung,” Haewon carefully called out to Inho.

Inho wondered why Haewon called out to him. Heewon, who sat next to them, also naturally looked towards Haewon.

“Please take this.”

Haewon handed him a stash of half-folded bills under the table. He was being careful to not be noticed by the others. Inho asked as he looked at the money.

“What’s this about?”

“When you said that we were going to eat meat, I thought you were going to buy some from the supermarket and eat at someone’s house. I didn’t know we’d be eating at your father’s store. I heard that it’s not right to eat for free in a newly opened store…”

“Hey, hey. It’s fine. My dad isn’t such a petty person.”

“Of course, I know that. But it just tugs at my mind. Please take it quickly. If the others notice, they might feel unpleasant.”

It’s just enough for the food - Haewon added before giving Inho the money. Inho refused at first saying that it was okay, but he had no choice but to accept it in the end.

Heewon looked at the two in an awkward position. He was just about to put a ssam into his mouth.

“I brought my wallet too though.”

“Don’t you do that to me too and just eat quietly. We don’t want the atmosphere turning weird after someone notices,” Inho said firmly.

Heewon nodded and put the ssam in his mouth. His younger brother did what he was supposed to do. Well, it wasn’t like this was the first or second time such a thing happened, so he didn’t mind it that much.

“Haewon, you should eat some as well. It’s really good.”

“Okay, hyung.”

“Also… you can reduce this week’s allowance.”

“I was going to even if you didn’t tell me. We’ll have to eat at home all week.”

“I wasn’t serious though.”

“But I am serious, you know?” Haewon tensed his eyes as he spoke.

Although he was a kind younger brother who did most of the chores, he was very rational when it came to living expenses.

“Looks like I should eat a lot then.”

“You’ll upset your stomach again.”

Hearing that, Inho tried to give back the money, but it ended up going into his pocket because Haewon politely refused.

“Heewon, eat a lot, okay?”

“I’m going to eat my money’s worth even if you didn’t tell me.”

He picked up an empty plate and went to the refrigerator to pick up some more meat. He picked up some skirt meat that was piled up like a mountain and reached out for the marinated ribs right next to it when,

“Please go ahead first.”

A rather chubby boy spoke as he retracted his hand. He was one of the students at the table diagonally opposite to them.

“Thank you.”

He nodded before picking up the tongs. While moving the meat to his plate, Heewon coughed awkwardly and glanced sideways. The chubby boy hurriedly looked away. He wondered what it was about.

‘There’s that girl from before too. Did I do something wrong?’

No matter how hard he thought about it, he couldn’t remember doing something that would make a complete stranger hate him.

“Excuse me,” he spoke up.

“Eh, yes?”

The chubby boy replied, visibly flustered. He didn’t look like a bad person.

“The girl sitting at your table kept staring at me and teased me. Is there something I did wrong?”

“Ah, no! That’s just a mistake of a junior of ours. Sorry about that.”

He apologized politely. Heewon was also rather confused because he apologized so easily. He thought that he would try to pick a fight with him, but he turned out to be rather polite.

“You don’t have to apologize. I must have been a little sensitive.”

“Not at all. My junior just wasn’t mature with her actions. I’ll bring her here and have her apologize.”

“No! Don’t do that.”

Heewon grabbed the boy’s arm as he was about to turn around. He intended to stop him, but he was dragged instead because the boy was so strong. Maybe this was what it felt like to be dragged around by a bull.

“W-wait! Don’t.”

“No, if she did something wrong, it’s only right to apologize.”

“Please.”

Heewon shook his head. That girl seemed quite strong-willed. Also, she had a good build as well. He thought that he’d lose if he fought her, so he had absolutely no thoughts of meeting her face-to-face.

“Ah, okay.”

The chubby boy turned around. Heewon sighed in relief before letting go.

“Uhm.”

“Yes?”

“You are from Hwasoo High, right?”

“Yes, we are.”

“You do acting, right?”

“Yes.”

The boy nodded in acceptance all by himself.

“But how did you know?”

“Things happened. And also, do you know about Woosung Engineering High?”

“Woosung Engineering High?”

Heewon pondered for a moment. He thought that he had heard that name somewhere before, but nothing lit up in his head.

“No, I don’t think so.”

Hearing that, the chubby boy said ‘I see’ by himself before smiling awkwardly.

“Aha, so you don’t know us.”

Heewon was startled when someone said that behind him. The chubby boy was also surprised and took a step back. When he turned around, the girl that teased him a while ago was standing there. She looked very sturdy - despite how weird it might sound for a girl - from up close.

“Aram,” the chubby boy said.

It seemed that the girl’s name was Aram. The girl looked up and down before snorting and walking past him to the refrigerator.

“Get out of the way so I can take some meat.”

“Ah, okay,” Heewon quickly replied before taking a step aside.

At that moment, the chubby boy tensed his eyes and said to her,

“Jeon Aram, don’t be rude.”

“But seonbae.”

“Aram.”

When said did, the girl apologized to him unwillingly before going back. As soon as the girl left, the chubby boy shrunk his shoulders and just sighed shakily. He looked stiff to the point that he was worried for him.

“You okay?”

“Eh? Ah, yes. I’m not used to doing things like that. I tried acting heavy for once, but it sure is hard.”

“You have it hard.”

Heewon subconsciously ended up encouraging the chubby boy. He knew what it felt like to be annoyed by a younger girl. The chubby boy faintly smiled.

“But why is she acting like that? I just don’t get it.”

“Uhm, the thing is… we are from Woosung Engineering High.”

“Ah.”

“We participated in the Gyeonggi regional preliminaries for the summer competition. Though, we didn’t see each other since it was on a different day.”

“Ah, I see.”

Now that he thought about it, he remembered that an engineering high school got the silver prize in the summer. So that turned out to be Woosung Engineering High.

“That girl is a little angry because we failed to go to the nationals thanks to Hwasoo High. Of course, I’m not saying that it’s because of Hwasoo High. We didn’t advance because we were lacking.”

The boy scratched the back of his head while laughing.

“Uhm, sorry about that,” Heewon apologized.

Even he would be angry if the results were bad when he prepared a lot. Of course, he was confused as to whether he should be apologizing or not, but he felt that it was the right choice when he remembered the girl that glared at him. For some reason, he felt really powerless in front of her.

“It’s not Hwasoo High’s fault. In fact, I should be the one apologizing.”

“No, no. You said that you weren’t able to advance because of us.”

“I said that’s not it.”

“Just let me apologize. Also, tell her I apologized.”

He would probably get an upset stomach if he kept eating while she stared at him like that. Since he paid a lot of money to eat, he wanted to enjoy it as much as possible.

Heewon stood there without saying anything for a while before nodding his head while picking up the plate he put the meat on. The chubby boy smiled and nodded back.

Everything seemed to be going well. But then,

“What are you doing?”

Heewon inwardly screamed when he saw his junior walking towards the salad bar. There was one in his school as well - a scary girl that didn’t lose out to that girl named Aram.

“Yeonji, it’s nothing.”

“What do you mean it’s nothing? What happened? Who are they to say something to you? I saw from the table that some girl was glaring at you. I know that our Heewon-seonbae has a ditzy side to him, but that doesn’t mean any random person can look down on him like that, you know?”

“Yeonji, it’s a misunderstanding. Also, ditzy, you say…”

“You stay quiet, seonbae!”

“Uh, okay. I’ll stay quiet.”

Heewon took a step back and signalled the chubby boy to run. However, unlike his immense physical strength, his personality seemed to be on the weaker side as he looked at Yeonji without moving.

“Did our seonbae do something wrong?”

“No, of course not! We were the one in the wrong.”

“Then why did you surround him and bully him?”

“So, the thing is…”

The chubby boy waved his arm in the air and tried to explain. Heewon realized that it was time to show his authority as her senior just like what he saw a couple of moments ago.

“Kang Yeonji!” He said in a strong voice and blocked her way.

However,

“What!”

“…Nothing. I’m just saying you should go easy. You know what I mean, right?”

“Geez, seonbae! It’s because you’re like that that those guys looked down on us in the theater last time.”

“That happened months ago though, why are you bringing it up now…”

“So I can’t?”

“No, you can.”

Kang Yeonji. Her nickname was bulldog. Of course, saying that word in front of her required some big courage. Even Inho, who was adept at handling others, had to relent in front of Yeonji.

Heewon subconsciously put his hands on his lower stomach. When he looked next to him, he saw that the chubby boy was doing the same. He signalled to ask why, but being pressured by Yeonji’s spirit, the boy just kept staring at Yeonji.

“What are you doing?”

A violent wave in the front, and a heavy storm in the back. That was how Heewon felt right now. The girl named Aram had returned.

A battle between a dragon and a tiger. There seemed to be no other expression that fit this situation.

“I think we should stop them.”

“Yeah.”

“Then you try.”

“Me? I can’t do it.”

“If I do it now, I think I might get shoulder-thrown. Aram’s good at Judo.”

“Ah. Actually, Yeonji is good at Taekwondo as well.”

“It seems like that girl’s name is Yeonji. What a feminine name.”

“Aram sounds cute as well, but why are they…”

Maybe this was what it felt like to suffer the same sickness? Heewon felt a sense of kinship in a strange way and talked to the boy rather randomly.

The two girls, who were glaring at each other while twitching their lips, eventually bared their fangs and were about to go at each other.

“Yeonji, stop.”

Just then, a savior appeared. The only one that could calm the bulldog Yeonji down. Heewon sighed in relief when he saw Haewon. With the appearance of his brother, Yeonji twitched her lips but held it in.

And a mediator appeared on the other side as well.

“Jeon Aram.”

Even though he just called out her name just once, the girl that had scary eyes groaned before turning around. The boy that calmed down the girl that was as aggressive as Yeonji had a rather desolate-looking impression. The chubby boy called him Maru. That seemed to be his name.

“You can’t do that in a place you are supposed to be eating.”

“Let’s eat in peace, alright?”

Hearing the two boys nag them, the two girls made a sour expression and replied ‘yes’.

Heewon sighed. The chubby boy next to him was also sighing in relief.

Chapter 484

“I saw you on TV! I knew I saw you somewhere before.”

“Your scene in The Witness was awesome.”

“The beggar from Apgu is also you, right?”

Maru nodded instead of replying. The amount of attention on him was rather overwhelming.

After they restrained the strong-willed girls, they apologized to each other and were about to go back to their tables when the other party asked them if they were in the acting club. When Daemyung replied yes, the people at Hwasoo High visibly brightened up and asked if they could have a talk. They ended up moving to the same table as Hwasoo High, and after a brief introduction, they talked about various things.

The boy named Inho would ask what they did to prepare and practice for their plays, and Daemyung would respond in kind. Since they had the common background known as acting, they became close in a flash. It was then that Bangjoo blurted out that his seonbae was on TV.

“Have you seen a lot of celebrities?”

“I didn’t play that many characters so I haven’t seen many celebrities.”

“Do you have any that you’re close to?”

“No.”

Since he wanted to escape being the center of attention, he made his answers as short as possible. After asking a few questions, the people at Hwasoo High seemed to have lost interest and talked about other people.

“Sorry about before. Yeonji’s the type to easily get agitated.”

The one at the corner of the table spoke. His name was Lee Haewon. Apparently, he was the younger brother of Heewon, who wasn’t participating in the conversation as he was eating aggressively.

“That goes for us as well. Aram doesn't exactly have a good personality either.”

“I thought they were fighting so I ran over quickly.”

“Me too. I heard that the girl named Yeonji is good at Taekwondo?”

“Yes. She participates in demonstrations and things like that all the time.”

“There might have been big trouble if a fight broke out. One side is good at Taekwondo while the other side is good at Judo. Imagine getting hit by them while trying to stop them.”

“You tell me.”

Haewon asked if he wanted Sprite. Maru extended his cup out.

“I saw you in Daehak-ro, hyung.”

“Me?”

“The street performance.”

“Oh, the street performance.”

“You aren’t doing them these days. It must be because it attracted too much attention, right?”

“Things started going in the wrong direction.”

“Looks like a lot of people tried to use it to their advantage?”

“Probably.”

“It’s such a pity. It was good too. I watched performances like that in small theaters, but that was the first time I saw one done with so many people in the streets. I hoped it could last a long time, but I guess that wasn’t so easy.”

“We aren’t entirely done yet. We might do it as a guerilla play later. Though, I can’t say for sure since I’m not the one making the decisions.”

He tossed a spoon to Dowook who asked for a bottle opener. After looking at him with a sour expression, Dowook pushed in the spoon between the bottle and the cap before pulling it upwards. Along with a pop sound, the cap flew into the sky. The people around clapped for him and started putting their empty cups in front of him.

“Are these all the members of your club?”

“Yeah. This is it.”

“Oh, a small number of elites I guess.”

“We became small due to an unfortunate event. Well, not that I’m saying we aren’t elites. You guys have over twenty, right?”

“Yes. But I don’t belong to the acting club though.”

“Really?”

“I only helped out a little since my brother’s in the club, but they thankfully called me to their get-together.”

“It’s not a little. You almost single-handedly paint the stage background. Also, your job was much prettier than the others too,” Heewon commented before focusing on eating again.

“Looks like your brother was enemies with meat in his previous life.”

“He is quite a glutton. Though, he doesn’t eat that much.”

As soon as Haewon said those words, Heewon put down his chopsticks and started looking at the ceiling in a daze. Haewon smiled faintly.

“He’s like that now, but he’ll probably pick his chopsticks up again saying it’s such a waste by the time we’re about to leave.”

Haewon poured some Sprite for Heewon. He was like a mom that was looking out for her son. After standing up from his seat, Haewon walked around the table picking up any pieces of food that fell on the floor, and put them on an empty plate before bringing the plate to the kitchen. He only came back after putting food on an empty plate, and meat on the empty grill. The people of Hwasoo High seemed to be used to his actions as they didn’t act weirdly at all.

“You look after them a lot.”

“It’s a habit of mine. Personally, I think it’s a bothersome character. I should just let them be, but I can’t do it.”

“You’re the type of guy who would be treated well by good people but make a loss otherwise.”

“The latter makes up the majority though,” Haewon twitched his nose as he spoke.

“Right. You keep coming here because you have to look after Heewon. Why don’t you just switch to the acting club?”

Hearing Hwasoo High’s students say those words, Haewon waved his hand and said that he would think about it. That seemed like an even firmer refusal than saying he didn’t want to.

“Everyone seems to want you there. Why aren’t you doing it? From what I hear, you seemed to like plays too.”

“Hobbies are only fun while they’re still hobbies. Once I start putting time and effort into it, I would feel more pity than joy, so I’m putting some distance. I’m satisfied with visual satisfaction.”

Maru nodded before drinking a sip from his cup.

“Also, I have something else I want to do.”

“Really?”

Haewon, who made a happy expression, suddenly changed and coughed awkwardly.

“I talked about something useless, right? I usually don’t talk about such things.”

“You can keep going. It’s not like I have anyone to talk to either.”

Maru pointed at everyone else. Somehow, they had gotten to the point where they were talking about how Daemyung and Jiyoon were going out, and thanks to that, the table had burned up with stories about love. They were disputing over whether to accept or ban relationships within the club, and the discussion was quite heated.

“You don’t have any walls between seniors and juniors.”

“That was how it was like when Inho-seonbae first created the acting club. He said that he didn’t want any special treatment just because he was born a year early. That’s why everyone’s close. We treat each other like siblings. Isn’t it like that for Woosung High as well?”

“Well, I guess…”

Maru pointed at Aram, who was chatting loudly. She was slapping Daemyung's arms while giggling.

“I guess it’s similar.”

“It is. Rather than that, continue what you were talking about earlier. We should talk to each other as outsiders. Who else can we talk to?”

Haewon nodded.

“I want to support my big brother. That’s my dream.”

“Support him?”

“Yes.”

“How exactly?”

“It’s a rather small dream, but I want to help him become an actor. My brother, while I don’t know about anything else, is really good at acting. Although he often forgets his stuff and is often late to appointments because he’s a sleepy-head, his acting is really the best.”

Supporting his brother, huh. It was a rather peculiar dream. Usually, such words were said by the parents: I want to support my son’s studies; I want to help my daughter’s dream come true. It was definitely not normal for a younger brother to want to look after his elder sibling.

“That’s your dream?”

“Yes.”

“Usually, aren’t dreams more related to you? Like for example, wanting to enter a big company, or wanting to become a civil servant or something.”

“Those are some realistic dreams.”

“Aren’t all dreams like that?”

“I guess they are. But that goes for me as well. Helping my brother out is the way I could raise my own worth. Hmm, actually, my dream was to become a civil servant until last year. Stable employment and a decent wage. Considering various benefits and pensions, I thought there was nothing better than it. But I changed my mind after seeing his acting. My brother doesn’t seem to have any thoughts on continuing down that path right now, but I am sure of it. He needs to do acting.”

“Haewon, you should eat. Why are you eating so little?”

“You can eat a lot. I had plenty already.”

“Hey, when else would we come to a place like this? We need to get our money’s worth.”

“Alright.”

A rather immature-looking elder brother and a rather strong-minded younger brother. They were an interesting duo.

Maru tried asking,

“What are you going to do if he doesn’t want to do it?”

“I’ll try persuading him.”

“Is he that good at acting?”

“Yes. I don’t like saying I’m sure of something, but I can say that in regards to his acting skills. Also, it’s not like he’s entirely unwilling. It’s just that he doesn’t have the confidence yet. Everyone around him is telling him he should try at least. With the right opportunity, he’ll prove his own worth.”

“Heewon has it good. He has a younger brother who has so much faith in him.”

Hearing that, Haewon shook his head.

“I’m the one who should be thankful. I get to help out a genius from the side.”

“Oh, a genius, you say.”

“Yes. My brother is a genius.”

At that moment, Heewon stood up from his seat with a sad face. It seemed that he spilled his drink as his pants were wet.

“Ah, a genius,” said Maru as he faintly smiled.

“…I think he’s a genius when it comes to acting,” Haewon said while shrugging.

Meanwhile, Heewon and Inho disappeared for a moment to the back of the kitchen before coming back. Heewon had changed pants.

Maru drank a sip of water before looking at Heewon. Heewon was the one that broke the win streak that Myunghwa High had for the best actor award. This meant that while they lost as a group, he won individually. Maru wondered how he did his acting. His curiosity was piqued since Haewon so confidently said that he was a genius.

“Well, then. We’ll do that, okay?” Inho said to Daemyung who sat opposite him.

His voice was pretty loud, gathering attention.

“Alright. Let’s see when we get the time.”

“Good. We are the ones learning here, so tell us when you’re okay with it. It’ll be a good experience to interact between acting clubs.”

“Alright, but I don’t think we can do it at my school.”

“Why?”

“Our practice room is small. We are borrowing a classroom to do it.”

“What about your clubroom?”

“We had one, but not anymore.”

“Really? Doesn’t your school give you a clubroom? Woosung Engineering High’s acting club is pretty famous, isn’t it? I heard that they wiped the floor with all the acting competitions when it was first created.”

“There were some events. But we do have a container outside the school building, so we can store our costumes and props there. Other than the fact that we don’t have a big space to practice in, we don’t have any difficulties. Though… that is the biggest problem. Where do you do your practice?”

“Us? The main hall. It’s usually used for indoor gym class, but we are able to use it freely in the afternoon ever since we got the 2nd place prize. There’s a huge banner for us as well.”

I’m envious - Daemyung commented with a bitter smile.

“Then you should come over to our school. It takes an hour by train, so it’s not that far.”

“That’s true.”

“Please come around. I want to watch how a good school practices.”

“You guys did better than us, though. There shouldn’t be a lot to learn from us.”

Things led to one another, and they started talking about practicing together, and they seemed to have come to an agreement. Maru thought that it wasn’t a bad idea since they could motivate each other. Moreover, since he would get to watch Heewon’s acting, he really wanted to go there.

“Since we’re at it, why don’t we do it today? It’s four right now, and we’ll be there by five. If we do it until 9, then there are around four hours, so we should be able to do two runs each. The play should be less than an hour after all,” Inho said. Daemyung looked at the faces of the club members before looking at Maru. Everyone looked at Maru as well.

“How is it, everyone? Are you okay on time?”

As soon as Maru asked, everyone nodded. They all seemed to want to go. Although they didn’t compete directly, the outcome was that Hwasoo High won the competition, while Woosung High lost. The club members must be looking at Hwasoo High as though they were the challengers.

“Daemyung, why don’t we try visiting?”

“Should we?”

As soon as he said those words, Inho stood up from his seat.

“Let’s go right now. We ate plenty, didn’t we?”

The people of Hwasoo High all stood up. Just one person, Heewon, was looking at the grill with a confused expression.

Inho smiled and dragged him away. Their juniors grabbed Heewon by the arm.

“Let’s go as well.”

Maru stood up after wiping his mouth with a tissue.

Chapter 485

“I think I’m going to go home late. You can eat dinner by yourself.”

But what about the bungeo-ppang? - Maru lightly ignored his sister’s words before hanging up. Bada had started to move a lot less ever since the weather became cold. During the summer, she was almost never in the house during the day, but right now, she was practically hibernating at home.

“Hey.”

Maru slapped Dowook’s back. Dowook looked at him.

“You should call Bada out and play together.”

“Are you teasing me right now? I’ll only be able to do it if I have the time to.”

“I guess that’s true.”

“But why? Did she say something?”

“She’s really edgy these days. Why does she come to me to nag about how you don’t call her frequently?”

“I have it hard too. I have to be on the phone for nearly an hour after midnight. My dad is already suspicious of me because the phone bill is pretty high.”

“Sorry about that, should I compensate for some?”

“Who said it’s a money problem? The problem is that dad keeps…”

Asking me if I have a girlfriend - Dowook added as he sighed.

“Why don’t you just reveal it to him?”

“I can reveal it to dad, for sure. But once dad finds out, my sister will find out as well. I don’t think I can cope with that.”

“I guess things will become a little tiring once Soojin-noona finds out since she dotes on her brother so much.”

“A little, you say?”

Even though there was no wind blowing, Dowook was shaking.

“Do you know what my wish is these days?”

“What is it?”

“It’s for my sister to get married. She’ll leave the house if she does.”

“Is it that bad?”

“It feels way too awkward now that she’s acting too close to me. It’s good that we resolved our misunderstanding and became close, but it’s honestly hard to cope with her coming to my room and chatting with me for an hour.”

“You should just try to understand your sister’s love for you.”

“Goddammit. Why don’t you take some of it?”

“I have to apologize, I have an owner already.”

Dowook panted in frustration as he started walking again.

“We’re almost there. The school’s right around the corner.”

Inho said those words after riding an hour by train - to Yatap station - and walking for another ten minutes. They walked deep into the residential area and turned right at the end. The school was there. Hwasoo Highschool. There was also another school in the distance. It was probably a middle school or elementary school.

From the school gate, the school building looked very clean and had a clear color. It seemed that it either underwent maintenance recently or was a newly built school.

“There’s Yoojin-unni’s school, and there’s this one. Why is our school the only one that looks shabby?”

“That’s because it’s an engineering high school.”

Aram went in as she twitched her lips.

There were quite a lot of people in the school field, and it seemed that a local soccer club had come out on an activity.

“That’s the hall.”

There was a dome-shaped building where Inho was pointing. Just like the main building, it didn’t look like it had been long since it was built. They pushed open the glass door before going in. Although there was a staircase to the upper floor, there was a sign that said no entry. It seemed that it wasn’t used normally.

“Wow,” exclaimed Jiyoon, who was the first to enter the hall.

Maru, who entered afterwards, also nodded his head as he looked around at the facility. The floor was elastic, which made him think it was urethane flooring. There was a platform 1 meter tall at the front, and on top of that was the national flag. He subconsciously imagined a principal’s speech, even though he had never seen that person before for this school.

“We do our practice here, and we keep our props over there. Since you’re here, wanna look around?”

Inho opened the door to the left of the hall. Behind the door was quite spacious. On the left end, there was gymnastics equipment like parallel bars and a gymnastics vault, and on the right were hangers with clothes, as well as some wooden boards that seemed to be part of a set.

“This is so spacious. I think it’s wide enough to fit five of our containers here.”

Bangjoo opened his arms wide to measure the distance.

“How many costumes do you have at Woosung High?”

“We don’t have that many. We had to throw them away.”

“Oh, I see.”

Inho smiled awkwardly and stopped asking. Daemyung said something about an unfortunate event back at the restaurant, so he seemed to have realized that it was a sensitive topic.

“I think we should exercise to digest what we ate, how about it?”

Inho switched the topic and pointed at the platform.

“Should we?”

Daemyung agreed and walked outside. Maru closed the zipper he opened when he entered the hall. He felt like the cold air reduced his body temperature a lot.

“There are heaters, but we can’t use them as we wish.”

There were large heaters placed throughout the hall, but they weren’t able to use them due to the electricity costs.

“Should we jog for a bit then?” Daemyung asked first.

Inho nodded before having his members stand in a line.

“Let’s stand with them.”

Behind Hwasoo High, who stood in two lines, Woosung High followed. Inho started jogging lightly. As the hall was pretty large, it took minutes to run a whole lap. They ran about three laps like that.

“I think that should be enough,” said Inho as he stopped.

The people of Hwasoo High seemed satisfied.

“Why?” Daemyung asked.

“Why? Because I think that was enough of a warm up.”

“Oh, I see.”

When Daemyung took a step back with a nod, Inho asked this time.

“How many laps do you do then?”

“Us? We usually run about ten laps around the school field before practice. At first, it was pretty hard, but we got used to it after doing it for a while.”

“Oh, ten laps?”

Inho looked back at his club members and spoke,

“Let’s go jogging in the school field.”

* * *

“No, but how…”

Heewon panted and put his arms on his knees. He ran long enough to the point that he didn’t feel the cold anymore. He was sweating hard. He raised his head and looked at the others. Everyone was panting heavily.

“You guys are good!”

“Do your best!”

The men from the local soccer club shouted as they grilled some meat on the side. Heewon looked at the people of Woosung High’s acting club who ran their last lap as he heard those words.

“I think I finally warmed up.”

Even the feeble-looking Jiyoon didn’t run out of breath. Woosung High looked like they just did some light stretches at most.

“You guys are good at running.”

“We do it every day.”

“I guess we should take note of that.”

Inho, who seemed to be confident in his stamina, seemed to like that intensity of running. Heewon wanted to shake his head vigorously and tell him not to speak nonsense, but he didn’t since he didn’t have any energy.

“Hyung. It feels good to run.”

“I’m exhausted. Give me a piggyback.”

“Hyung. Try taking a deep breath. It feels really refreshing.”

Heewon wondered why there was such a contrast in stamina even though they were brothers. He took a deep breath as he looked at Haewon, who was smiling brightly. He immediately coughed. Forget refreshing, he felt as though his throat was being frozen.

“Now let’s go back to the hall and do some stretches,” Daemyung said.

Faint screams could be heard from Hwasoo High’s party.

“Sounds good!”

Inho was the only one excited. Haewon wished for someone to hold back that guy filled with vitality. Heewon walked back into the hall with drooping shoulders.

“How do you do your stretches? We just add some moves to the national exercise routine.”

“We do stretches according to what our former instructor told us. She always said that an actor must have complete control over their body. It’s a bit hard, but we keep doing it.”

The rather chubby Daemyung sat down on the floor before splitting his legs. It wasn’t a perfect leg split, but considering his body shape, it was shocking. Heewon could hear the girls murmuring - how is that possible?

He took it a step further and leaned forward. He was very flexible despite how he looked. But it wasn’t just Daemyung that practiced like that. Everyone at Woosung High split their legs and leaned forward. Aram and Bangjoo, who were said to be sporty, were almost able to touch their chests on the ground.

“Let’s try as well.”

Inho shouted energetically.

“Try that?”

“Well, yeah.”

“I don’t think I can do it, though.”

“At first, you won’t, but you will be able to if you keep trying.”

Urged by Inho, the club members sat against the wall. Heewon really didn’t want to do this. Leg splits of all things. He looked around and split his legs just to the point it wouldn’t hurt. At that moment, Haewon sat in front of him with a suspicious smile.

“What?”

“You know what. Hyung, I’ll pull you forward.”

“No. I’ll do it by myself. I can do it alone.”

“I’ll help you.”

He couldn’t find his brother’s personality of keeping his words more detestable than today. Heewon groaned and split his legs.

“You might get injured if you force yourselves, so take it slow,” Daemyung explained as he walked around.

Heewon looked at Daemyung with eyes full of resentment.

“D-do your best.”

Daemyung ran away and walked to the next person. Like that, Heewon wrestled with his own legs for around ten minutes until he fell down when he heard someone say that’s enough. His crotch was hurting. It seemed that everyone else seemed to be suffering the same as they were groaning.

“Your way of practice is definitely different from ours, huh.”

“I heard that it’s important for an actor to train their bodies as well.”

“I can’t refute that. What else?”

Inho seemed full of the desire to learn. Heewon raised his hand while feeling his hair stand on end. He thought that he might have to continue these torture-like stretches if he let Inho do what he wanted to.

“Shouldn’t we start rehearsing? Quite a lot of time has passed.”

“Oh, it’s that late already.”

“Right? It’s late. Physical training is good, but we should do acting as well.”

“Whoa, what’s up with you? I never thought you’d say those words, Heewon.”

“H-haha.”

Heewon smiled awkwardly and looked into the distance.

“Then should we show each other what we’re preparing? We’ll start. Oh, we are taking an approach where we freely comment on each other’s acting. I hope you too can tell us if there’s anything you find awkward or anything you think there’s a better way to do. We never get any feedback from people other than us.”

Inho clapped and cleaned up. The club members that went on stage stood at the center of the platform, while the staff members walked to the side.

“What about them?” Maru asked as he pointed at the people sitting on the right.

“They’re staff members,” Inho said.

Hearing the word ‘staff’, the people at Woosung High looked at them with envy. It seemed that they didn’t have any staff members since they didn’t have many members in the first place.

“Then we’ll start. The title of our play is ‘Ready, action’, and the main story is about the conflicts happening in high school acting clubs. I hope you have fun watching, and tell us a lot of things at the end.”

* * *

“You want me to play the main character?”

“Yes, you do it.”

“But didn’t we decide that Yoonjoo is the one playing it?”

“You suit it much better than she does. Anyway, I told you about it, so practice.”

“Seonbae-nim! Seonbae-nim!”

Maru stroked his chin as he watched Hwasoo High’s acting. This was the scene where there was discord occurring in the once-harmonious acting club due to problems regarding casting. This was probably the moment where the dramatic tension was being heightened.

“They’re good,” Maru said to Daemyung who stood next to him.

Daemyung replied ‘true’.

It was quite impressive that they weren’t feeling shy about going on the stage. Despite the fact that the stage was prepared rather suddenly and they were being watched by people other than their own members, Hwasoo High’s acting club was showing a smooth progression of the play.

This proved one thing: a lot of practice. While their skills as individuals might be lacking, there were no big holes in their acting. It would probably receive high scores from the judges who were scoring by criteria.

Maru turned around to the staff this time. They were writing things down while following the acting of the people on stage. The ones that didn’t have any writing equipment in their hands were making small props. The fact that there was a group of people to give feedback to them, and the fact that they had divided up the tasks perfectly was quite surprising when considering that the club was rather new.

He heard that the club president was Heewon, but from the atmosphere, Inho seemed to be the one giving directions. He managed to bring a bunch of high school students together like this in such a short time. The word leader really suited him.

“I don’t find any shortcomings,” Bangjoo said.

That was the main point. There were no shortcomings. There weren’t any trivial mistakes that caused the flow to be broken. The play made a smooth curve upwards. It was pleasing to watch.

And also,

“He definitely is eye-catching.”

Dowook looked at a certain place - it was the place where Heewon was standing

Chapter 486

“We should do this together. Only when we do this together does any of this have meaning. Let’s make up. We promised we’d make a good play together, didn’t we?”

Heewon, who tried to mediate with a worried face, made an embarrassed smile as he stood in the center. His flustered hand movements stopped and his voice became a little lower.

“You guys were on good terms just before, weren’t you? Yoonjoo, don’t you remember? You were so happy when we first made that stage. We had to stay at school until 11 at night, but we had fun back then. Haejin, you said you were tired, but you were the most enthusiastic out of all of us.”

“Do you think I’m the same now?”

“Right. Back then, we decided roles based on skill, but now the one that’s closest to the club presidents gets to go on stage, no? Making the stage? It’s fun, I can say that. But the reason it’s fun is because it’s the stage I’ll be on. I’m not in the acting club just to make the background.”

The two girls commented with Heewon in the middle. After glancing at the two girls, Heewon gave an exhausted smile.

“Like I said, if we talk to the club president…”

“Forget it. You’re close to the club president, aren’t you? We’re all in this together, but why does someone get to go on stage while someone better has to watch from below? I won’t accept this.”

The girl to the left turned around before leaving. Heewon hurriedly followed her before looking outside the stage with vain eyes.

“You should stop there as well. It’s because you keep listening to her that the atmosphere and the club is awful. Why did you have to bring up what the club president said we should keep a secret? Did you really want to be the good guy?”

The girl on the right also glared at Heewon before leaving. After looking both ways alternately, Heewon sat down on the chair in the middle. He covered his face with both of his hands before shouting and standing up. He kicked the chair he was sitting on before stomping on the ground.

“Then what do you suppose I do? Just what the heck am I supposed to do?”

The boy that was working towards the harmony of the club ended up letting go of everything. Heewon showed the moment when the boy’s effort to mediate the situation while being sworn at by his peers turn to dust. Like a patient with paranoia, he walked around the stage with an uneasy expression and then suddenly stopped. He looked up at the ceiling and said,

“I quit.”

That line, mixed with his vain laugh, showed what the future of the acting club would be like. Heewon, who faintly gazed at Woosung High’s side while standing diagonally towards the audience seats, nodded his head before going off stage.

After that, another actor came up on stage, but Maru looked at Heewon, who had lost energy and sat down on the spot in the back.

Maru began to understand what ‘one leading everyone else’ meant. The actors other than Heewon focused on reducing their mistakes as much as possible so that the audience’s absorption in the play wasn’t reduced. The play they went with also seemed like the characters other than Heewon’s didn’t have that many fluctuations in their emotions. When the other club members created the stage for him, Heewon would free himself on top of it.

Heewon appeared every time there was a conflict, and when the story reached the climax, they created the play so that all attention was on Heewon. He was perfectly the main character, and the rest made up the stage that propped him up. This delicate balance was probably the reason they were able to get the prize.

If the acting club had 2nd years and 3rd years, there might have been some students who had a variety of experiences, but Hwasoo High’s acting club was only created this year. There was one student that poked out above everyone else, and the acting club decided to maximize their performance with the resources they had.

Maru didn’t know whether this play was something they created by themselves or an existing one they had modified, but whoever chose this play and chose this layout really had good senses.

‘But everything’s only possible because he’s here.’

No matter how great the stage was, if there was no main character to stand on it, it would only be an empty stage.

Heewon possessed immense energy. He was eye-catching even when he was portrayed as a kind senior at the beginning of the play. The energy he gave off caught everyone’s attention despite the fact that no conflicts between the characters had occurred yet.

To an actor, ‘energy’ was a combination of many different things. Appearances, breathing, walking form, speech, minute movements, or even the direction of their gaze. What seemed like completely irrelevant things individually might heavily influence the ‘energy’ of the actor. Energy was such a complicated criteria to judge, so it was hard to describe with words.

It was the so-called ‘you know when you see it’-thing. That was probably the most suitable description for the word ‘energy’.

Heewon was still panting even though he left the stage. The actors waiting around him did not say a word to him. Even the actors who were talking about the next scene did not say a word to him.

The scene then changed, and Heewon appeared again. It seemed as though he maintained the emotions he harbored before he left the stage all throughout his break. As soon as he came up, he continued his angry acting without a gap in the emotions.

As the play reached the later parts, everyone else’s acting was buried beneath Heewon’s acting. Although some awkward parts could be seen when it came to his vocalization, breathing, as well as minute movements, he was gaining complete control over the stage with his energy alone.

Although he didn’t have delicate techniques or some other things, Heewon’s act had something that attracted the audience’s gaze, just like a singer who could move the hearts of the listeners.

“That’s right. I was an idiot, and I was the bad guy.”

At the last part of the play, Heewon, who was struggling between the two split sides of the acting club, was eventually abandoned by both sides and had to leave in solitude. The remaining club members regained their harmony, and Heewon’s empty spot was soon forgotten. The play ended with a successful practice run.

Maru applauded. Everyone else did the same. Having finished their acting, Hwasoo High stood in a line and took a bow together. Their curtain call was clean as well.

“That’s it for now. I want to talk about our acting after we see yours. Is that alright with you?”

“That sounds good.”

Daemyung stood up. Maru also stood up and dusted his hands. Daemyung, who stood at the center, briefly explained the play.

“The performance we’re about to do is a play titled ‘I know that person’. A man came to a mental hospital because of a mistake, and the story is about his episode at the hospital. There’s an element of satire in it as well.”

After exchanging gazes with Daemyung, the club members got into their positions.

“Then, we’ll start.”

* * *

“Everyone’s good. Especially Daemyung.”

“Right.”

Heewon nodded his head as he heard Inho’s words. He wasn’t able to focus during the beginning since he was unable to calm down his agitated feelings. He was on edge, so he couldn’t keep watching the play in front of him. It took about five minutes for him to calm down, and he started focusing on the play since then.

Woosung High’s play was one that made people laugh. According to Inho, it was multiple times harder to make someone laugh than cry. He also added that he could feel the confidence in their acting skills from the fact that they chose this play.

‘Is that right?’

He didn’t really understand but Heewon nodded anyway. If he made a confused expression, Inho would probably continue explaining while using some complicated words. Since it was obvious that he wouldn’t be able to understand a word of his, Heewon just nodded and pretended to have understood. Listening to Inho’s passionate explanations was hard labor in itself.

“I can definitely hear them better.”

“Their pronunciation seems better than ours too.”

Heewon could hear his juniors whispering behind him. Maybe it was suitable to describe it as the ‘ring’ of their voices. Woosung High’s people’s voices had some weight to them and they spread across the whole place. While the 1st years felt more like them, Daemyung was definitely different.

Heewon looked around him before yawning. Actually, he didn’t like watching plays. He always thought that his younger brother was amazing for going all the way to Daehak-ro to watch plays. It must be a lot easier to go to the nearby cinema to watch a movie, yet he went all the way there to watch a play. Of course, he didn’t hate it either. To be precise, he didn’t have any interest at all.

Acting was fun. He was able to forget himself when he became the character in the play. Such a sensation was really wondrous, and he wanted to continue tasting it once he tasted it. That was the reason he continued acting, but he didn’t want to dig into the technical part of acting and study about plays.

‘It’s plenty fun even without that.’

Heewon was satisfied with where he was. He didn’t feel the need to do anymore.

That was why he didn’t feel anything even when he looked at Woosung High’s play in front of him. There were definitely parts they were better than him at. Their movements were cleaner, and it was much easier to see what they were trying to express.

But, so what?

Them being good had nothing to do with him. There was no way he could find their play fun since it was based on the assumption that they were trying to learn something when he had zero desire to learn. He just laughed a couple of times at the funny parts, and then went back into a daze, laughed again, then yawned.

“Hyung. You should focus. Especially Maru-hyung. He even came out on TV, so there must be something you can learn from him.”

“I am concentrating.”

“But your eyes look tired though.”

“N-no, of course not.”

Heewon twisted his body left and right as he was nagged by his brother. He didn’t know what his younger brother was thinking, but he had gained a dramatic interest in acting recently. Someone’s acting was good, some work was good, try watching this. His brother was probably trying to help since he said he was in the acting club, but it couldn’t be more tiring. He couldn’t entirely ignore his efforts, so he did reply to him that he would look into it, but he had never actually done so. He was running out of time just studying for tests and conquering dungeons with his friends.

He clenched his teeth and looked at Maru. Actually, Maru had been coming up on stage every now and then: as the doctor at the hospital, as the cleaner, as the person moving beds. He was also acting as two or three passersby. He seemed to have five roles.

“I guess it must be hard with a small number of people.”

“Yeah.”

“Also, I’m looking at Maru a lot, but I don’t really spot anything different about him.”

Hearing those words, his brother nodded his head with a confused expression.

“That’s strange. He was really good when I saw him in The Witness.”

“Maybe he’s not feeling well today.”

Heewon pulled his legs inwards as he watched the play.

Everyone was good. He had nothing more to comment other than that as the play ran towards the end. Woosung High showed a clean performance without any bad points. There were times when the first years wavered, but at those times, Maru covered for them so smoothly that it didn’t feel like a mistake.

Heewon observed Maru for the first time when he was off-stage. He kept watching the stage, but then watched Maru when he was reminded by his brother. Outside the stage, Maru was moving his hands slowly where the first years could see. Heewon realized what his hand gestures meant when he looked at the stage.

Aram, whose talking speed was a little too fast, slowed down when she saw Maru’s hand. Heewon looked at Maru nodding with a warm smile on his face. He felt good as though he was being complimented.

Heewon had a look at Maru in more detail. When he did, he could clearly feel the atmosphere of the stage change when Maru went on. The play felt like it was more filled. He was reminded of when his class played soccer with another class. There was a guy that was incredibly good at filling the gap on the field, and his existence decided what the match felt like as a whole. He was reminded of that guy when he looked at Maru.

He was the pivot at the center of everything. If the first years on stage felt like they were relying on Daemyung, Daemyung seemed to be relying on him.

When he kept watching, he spotted something else. It was that Maru’s acting was really simple. He didn’t mean that it was dry because Maru was bad at acting, but it felt as though Maru killed his acting completely. He was helping out everyone else so that they had more confidence and could be more natural as the background element of the play.

“I think he can do more though,” Heewon subconsciously blurted out.

Maru definitely had the power to pop out. He probably had the skills to conquer the stage as well. There was only one reason he didn’t: he didn’t need to. If the background popped, the color of the actors would decrease in comparison. That was why he chose to be colorless. He pressed all the colors into the center and quietly supported them from the bottom.

It was something that couldn’t be seen when looking at the whole picture, but something that could be spotted when looking at him. Maru was just that dissolved into the play.

Heewon sighed and looked at Maru.

“Do you find that fun?”

He muttered that question to himself.

Chapter 487

“Heewon’s acting has energy. He’s eye-catching no matter where he’s standing on the stage. This is definitely an advantage. However, since you attract more attention, I think there’s a need for you to be clearer in your movements. Your expression of emotion looks good, but once you get agitated, your actions become hurried and you move so quickly that it’s harder for the audience to catch up. Other than that, I don’t have anything to tell you. It was good.”

After saying those words, Maru looked next to him and asked his club members if they had anything to add. Everyone shook their heads.

“Heewon, hear that? You should slow down a little.”

“I can’t do that as I wish.”

He sighed disinterestedly and looked away.

“Then I guess that’s about done. Let’s see, the time is…”

Inho took out his phone to check the time. The others also looked at their watches or their phones. It was 8 p.m. Maru thought that it was pretty late.

“I guess we should turn off the lights. I told the teachers that we’d be using it until eight. If you guys don’t have anything else to do, I think we should wrap things up here.”

Inho’s question was directed at Daemyung. Daemyung nodded his head as he stood up.

“We don’t have anything else.”

“Alright, then let’s clean up.”

Under Inho’s instructions, the first years of Hwasoo High started putting away the chairs and mattresses. Woosung High just watched them from the side. As they didn’t take out a lot of things, it didn’t take a lot of time to put them back.

They all left together after getting their bags. The people from the local soccer club couldn’t be seen anymore on the school field.

The lights between the school field and the school building turned on. Someone that looked like the security guard stared at them from the main entrance before going inside.

“Thanks for telling us so many things today.”

“Don’t thank us. We learned a lot too.”

“Why don’t we meet up from time to time like this and practice together?”

“Sounds good.”

Inho and Daemyung walked at the front. It seemed that the two club presidents liked today’s practice.

‘Ah, right. This guy was the president.’

Maru looked at Heewon, who was walking with his arms crossed. He kept saying that it was cold. When his brother Haewon took off his coat for him, he wore it once before returning it.

“It’ll be even more troublesome if you catch a cold.”

After hearing Heewon’s words, the students of Hwasoo High laughed and agreed with him.

“He’s right, Haewon. Heewon won’t be able to do anything if you’re sick.”

“Heewon-seonbae would probably come to school without eating breakfast. No, I wonder if he would be able to wake up in the first place.”

“Don’t worry about your brother and worry about yourself first. Only when you’re healthy will Heewon be able to live normally.”

Heewon grumbled, asking if he was a kid or something, but the people around him just laughed without listening to him. In the end, he agreed with them and started laughing together.

“Uhm, Maru-hyung,” Haewon said.

“What is it?”

“Can I ask you a question?” Haewon looked hesitant.

From his expression, it didn’t look like he had a simple question. Maru walked away from the main group. Haewon naturally followed.

“What is it?”

“What do you need to do to become an actor?”

“You’re talking about Heewon, right?”

“Yes.”

“Why don’t you think about it after asking for his opinion first?”

“My brother… probably won’t care. Although he finds everything bothersome, he is the type to do it when it matters. Also, it’s somewhat weird for me to say this, but he doesn’t have anything he wants to do yet. All he’s passionate about is playing games at home, I think.”

“That sounds ordinary. Isn’t everyone like that?”

“I guess that’s true.”

Haewon laughed while scratching his head.

“My brother doesn’t like starting something himself. This club and playing games at home are the same as well. He only does it since his friends around him told him to. I’m not saying it’s a bad thing. He didn’t stray onto a wrong path after all.”

“And?”

“I told you right? My brother’s acting is somewhat special. Oh, how was it?”

“It was good. It definitely isn’t easy for a beginner to show so much emotion like that. I think that his expressivity is really good, too. Oh, not that I’m in a position to judge anyone. Personally, I thought he was really good.”

Haewon nodded his head.

“I talked to him before, but apparently, he feels emotions as colors. I didn’t really understand since it was such an abstract concept, but when I look at his acting, I can feel that something’s different about him. I told you about it, right? I like watching plays. He might be lacking in the technical aspect compared to people actually acting professionally in small theaters, but I feel like he isn’t losing when it comes to the feeling. No, I feel like he’s superior.”

“You sound confident.”

Maru saw Haewon being flustered and taking a step back. His face turned red.

“Sorry. I said something strange, didn’t I? I know that the entertainment industry isn’t something that you can stive in with confidence alone. I was just all excited by myself and…”

“I didn’t say it with a bad meaning, so you don’t have to panic so much. I just thought that you really care about your brother.”

There shouldn’t be that many younger brothers that were so seriously worried about their elder sibling’s future. While Maru felt that he was rather awesome, at the same time, he found it weird.

Maru gestured for him to come closer. Haewon carefully approached him.

“I think we strayed off for a bit. So, in the end, you’re saying that Heewon’s interested in working as an actor, right?”

“Hm, rather than explaining, I’ll just show you.”

Haewon called out to Heewon. Heewon left the group and asked what was up.

“Hyung.”

“Uhm, yeah?”

“I’m serious about this. Think about this carefully before replying.”

“Wh-what’s this about?”

He flinched and looked at Haewon and Maru alternately.

“Hyung. I want you to become a doctor.”

“A doctor? What is this about so suddenly?”

“Hyung, I know you’re smart. You have good grades too. You told me that you’ll become a doctor and look after me in the future.”

“D-did I, now?”

“So, how about it? Becoming a doctor, that is.”

“Even if you tell me that so suddenly…”

After twitching his lips, Heewon fell into thought for a moment before replying.

“Alright, then. I’ll try. But isn’t becoming a doctor really hard?”

“You can do it.”

Heewon closed his eyes for a moment and took a deep breath before saying ‘alright’ in a small voice. Maru laughed when he saw that. Haewon just shrugged.

“Lee Heewon,” Maru called Heewon.

“What?”

“Are you seriously going to try to become a doctor if your brother tells you to?”

“It’s not like there’s something I really want to do. I never went wrong listening to his words. I’ll have to do something to make a living. A doctor doesn’t sound so bad.”

“Where’s that confidence coming from? Can just anyone become a doctor?”

“I’m quite good at studying.”

“Quite good, you say…”

Saying that, Maru looked at the banner hung at the front of the school. He didn’t see it when he was walking towards the hall. The content was about a list of names that went to certain universities, but those universities weren’t really ordinary.

There were at least five of the top universities in the country, the National Police University, the National University of Transportation as well as various prestigious medical schools and law schools. Next to those education facilities was a list of student names.

Maru pointed at the banner.

“Oh, that? That’s the list of students that passed the examination tests for those universities last year. They hung that up for two months before the CSAT. Apparently, it’s for motivation. Once we get this year’s, they’ll probably renew it with this year’s entrants,” Haewon explained.

If any of Woosung Engineering High’s students got into any of those universities, there would probably be a party. Perhaps that person might get called out by the principal himself and be introduced as the person that made Woosung High shine. Yet here, there were two digits worth of students that passed the exams to such universities.

“Do you always send that many to those universities?”

“Hwasoo High is quite well-known in the area for its high advancement rate into higher education. I barely made it here as well. I had to study quite a lot to go to the same school as my brother.”

Maru looked at Haewon, who smiled in embarrassment, before looking at Heewon.

“You guys… are really good at studying.”

“Just a bit.”

“I guess I do decently.”

Maru palmed his head.

“Fine, become a doctor. And forgive me for laughing at you just a moment ago.”

“No, Maru-hyung. My brother is more suited to become an actor.”

Heewon interrupted, asking what it was about.

“Actor?”

“Hyung, you said that you find acting fun, right?”

“It is, I guess.”

“I never saw you say that something is fun with a bright smile like that before. I want you to strive for a dream that you like.”

“Wh-what about a doctor then?”

“To become a doctor, you would have to study really hard. I guess becoming an actor is the same, but acting is fun, isn’t it? How about it? Between a doctor and an actor, which would you rather be?”

“Uhm, thinking about it like that, I’d rather be an actor.”

“Then you’re going to become an actor, right?”

“Fine then. I’ll become one.”

When Haewon raised his hands and cheered, Heewon followed.

To Maru’s eyes, they looked like a dolphin and its trainer. He understood what Haewon was trying to say.

“His future career has been changed in just a minute.”

“That’s also one of his good points.”

“Hey, what are you two on about, you called me all the way here.”

Heewon, who was listening to their conversation, made a sour expression. Maru turned around to look at Heewon.

“Your brother wants you to become an actor. Are you really going to do it?”

“I’ll try. It’s not like there’s anything else I want to do anyway.”

“I’m not sure if you’re cool about things or if you’re just a simpleton.”

In any case, they were definitely an interesting pair of brothers.

“If you want to become an actor, you should look into acting schools first. The easiest way is to find an opportunity for an audition through those academies. If you’re tall enough and good-looking, you can look into street casting, but Heewon’s not that good.”

“I think so too,” Haewon agreed.

“You’re quite rational about it. I thought you’d find everything about your brother good.”

“I’m able to discern that much.”

“Hey, what the hell are you guys on about?”

Heewon muttered from the side, but the two lightly ignored him. Heewon felt that he was unnecessary and just pouted.

“There’s also the method of going to places that are looking for high school student background actors, and then catching the leader’s eyes to become a minor actor, but I don’t recommend this method. You’ll just be used as a background actor after all. There won’t be an opportunity to display your skills.”

“Then the most realistic method is to find and enter an acting school?”

“That’s right. Knocking on the doors of an agency is also a good way, but I heard that being good-looking is really important for child actors. Though, that goes for adults as well.”

“Thanks for telling me this. I’ll talk about it with my brother.”

Heewon[1] smiled as though he was done with the matter. Maru tilted his head and asked,

“That’s it?”

“Yes.”

“Really? I thought you’d try to get me to introduce someone to you.”

Heewon[2] gave an awkward smile.

“I’m not so shameless to ask you for that much. That was still very helpful. I’ll try to make something out of it after talking to my brother about it.”

Shame, huh. Maru really liked that word. So, he decided to give them one more act of kindness.

“I’ll recommend you an academy. There’s an academy called Film in Gangnam. When I looked last time, they were recruiting for a special class. You have to do various menial chores in compensation for not paying tuition, but you can try your hand there. Of course, just going doesn’t mean that you’ll get in for sure. They’ll probably do a test. If you pass, you’ll land yourself a pretty good opportunity.”

Hearing those words, Haewon bowed to him. Maru wrote him the academy’s number. He wasn’t planning to directly connect them to Miso. That was outside of his abilities. Introducing them to a place they could grab an opportunity was the best he could do.

Haewon returned to the group, and just as Heewon was about to follow suit, he stopped and turned around.

“Hey.”

His face was filled with curiosity.

“What?”

“Can I ask you one thing?”

“You brothers sure have a lot of questions. What is it?”

“That stage. Did you find it fun?”

“Fun?”

“Yeah. For me, I stand on the stage because I find acting fun. But all you’re doing is the extra roles. I also feel like you’re holding yourself back even though you can do better.”

“You could tell?” Maru asked in surprise.

Heewon just replied ‘somewhat’.

“Maybe your brother is right after all. Maybe you really do have the talent. Well, to answer your question, it’s not that fun.”

“Then why do you do it? There’s no reason to do it if it’s not fun, is there?”

Maru pointed at Haewon who was walking ahead.

“What about my brother?”

“When your brother told you to become a doctor, you said you would try, right?”

“Yeah.”

“That’s not something fun. Then why did you say you’d do it?”

“Because that’s not something I should find fun in. Being a doctor is about earning money. I have to look after my brother, no matter what. It doesn’t matter whether that’s fun or not.”

“This has been on my mind before, but what about your parents?”

“They should be doing well somewhere.”

There was faint rage burning on Heewon’s face as he said those words. Maru nodded once.

“It’s just as you said. I’m the same. It doesn’t matter whether it’s fun or not. This work will be the thing that will feed my family.”

Heewon looked as though he had understood a little.

Maru added,

“Also, I’m saying that it’s not as fun as when I’m playing the main character, not that the play is not fun at all. The stage is not something one person can create alone after all. Someone will have to become the floor, and if doing it myself is the most efficient way to do it, I just do it. There’s no fun in the acting itself, but there’s the fun of completing the whole play.”

“The fun of completing the play, huh. Hm, I don’t like that because it sounds too bothersome.”

“I can understand that too.”

“Also, can I ask one more thing?”

Maru said ‘sure’.

“Do actors have to wake up early in the morning?”

Hearing that question, Maru laughed and shook his head.

[1] See [2]

[2] Author has put Heewon (elder brother) for both of these lines, but they’re clearly meant to be Haewon (younger brother).

Chapter 488

“Casting director? There’s only one person in the country who can be considered a proper one.”

“Who’s that?”

“Lee Junmin.”

Producer Park Hoon said that as he flipped through the profiles that the managers gave him. The person sitting next to him said that he might have heard of that person.

“Give me that.”

“You want to make someone who came here to rest, do work?”

“I’m working though. Unlike a certain someone, I’m not a freelancer.”

He received the file that his friend gave him. Phoenix. He had never heard of that agency before. He flipped over the pages and checked the faces of the young actors. Most of them did not have any prior experience, and their self-introduction slot was completely empty as well. He closed the file since he didn’t find any faces he liked.

“I heard you were starting a drama. I guess many people are asking you to pick their people right?”

“Picking one out is also labor.”

“Can I have a look as well?”

“Go ahead.”

Park Hoon handed his friend the file. After skimming through them, he brightened up and chose one.

“This one’s cute. Twenty years old huh.”

“Doesn’t fit the drama.”

“But look at that face.”

“Goddammit, forget it. Give it back.”

Park Hoon yawned and grabbed the files. He left the meeting room at the TV station and went to a nearby café to change things up a little, but he didn’t feel excited at all since there was work in his hands.

“I saw the news. You already picked all of the main cast?”

“We did. Only then can we contact advertisers.”

“Then it doesn’t matter what you do with the other roles, right?”

“Do you think I’m in a position to do that? If I want to pick a minor role, everyone I know comes to me with their business cards, telling me who and who’s good. It’s goddamn tiring.”

“You have it hard. You need to pick from these people?”

“Not necessarily. If I want to make a good drama, I do need a good face, so I do go through all of them, but usually, the ones I take a liking to come from introductions, not profiles like these. The ones with talent will all come to me either way, through their acting schools or managers. Batch profiles like these are usually those that just entered an agency so they’re just trying things out.”

“Why are there so many people that want to become actors in a small country like this?” His friend asked as he lifted a few profiles up.

Park Hoon drank the cooled coffee in one gulp and stood up with the files.

“You’re going?”

“I have to. There’s an audition.”

“You have it busy. And here I was thinking we might be able to have a meal together.”

“You tell me. I’m tired too because I feel like I’m busy for no reason.”

When Park Hoon went to the counter with the files in his arms, his friend stopped him.

“Get going. I’ll pay for the coffee instead of food.”

“Thanks. Let’s have a drink together later.”

He left the café and went into the TV station building, which was right across the street. He walked past the pillar with the big YBS logo on it, towards the security check.

“Producer Park, good work.”

“Yes, hyung-nim.”

He greeted his senior producer before taking the elevator to the 3rd floor.

“Hey, follow me.”

He took the newest producer who was sitting in the meeting room to the 2nd floor public hall. People who seemed to be participants of the audition were walking around the corridor.

“My, producer Park.”

Just before he entered the audition venue, a fatty with a beard blocked his way.

“Manager Kang. It’s been a while.”

“I’m a team leader now.”

“Really? Congratulations.”

He lightly shook hands with team leader Kang.

“Producer Park, are you on a diet? You’ve lost weight since the last time I saw you.”

“It’s because the work is hard. Rather than that, what brings you here?”

“Oh, the thing is, one of ours is in the audition this time, and she’s incredibly good at acting.”

“Well, I’m sure all of them are incredibly good.”

“I’m telling you our kid is really good.”

“I’ll see for myself.”

“I’m telling you just in case - and I mean just in case - you miss her by any chance. Here, take this. It must be tiring so you must take your vitamins.”

Park Hoon handed the box of vitamin drinks that team leader Kang gave him to his junior producer.

“Team leader Kang. The one you recommended to me last time was no good though. Is Crystal bringing all the strange kids to me? I wonder if they’re looking down on me.”

“No way! Of course not. Three of our Crystal members became big thanks to you, producer Park. I’m only showing the capable ones to you first. The one back then was just nervous, and it will be different this time. She’s really good at acting and is pretty so please take a good look at her.”

“Fine, fine. So what’s her name?”

“She’s called Lee Joomin, and she’s the prettiest of the bunch today, so you’ll know when you see her.”

Why don’t we have a meal together later? - added team leader Kang before leaving with a slight nod.

“Junior, give me a bottle.”

He drank the vitamin drink that his junior producer gave him and went to the public hall. The staff members that were going through the equipment under the brightly lit stage recognized him and greeted him.

“Is everything ready?”

“Yes, it is.”

“Then let’s have a look.”

He sat down in the seat that was closest to the stage. In front of him was a monitor. There was a red light flashing on the camera that was installed for a test.

“Junior.”

“Yes.”

“You said you wanted to go to the entertainment department, right?”

“I also want to shoot dramas.”

“Yeah, yeah. It’s better to have big dreams when you’re still an assistant director. Anyway, watch closely. The drama will change according to how well you can pick out the good gems.”

“Yes.”

The junior producer took out some writing equipment, his eyes burning with passion.

“Please enter in order.”

The participants of the audition came up on stage with a number on their left chests. They all looked young. Since this was a youth drama, appearances were important as well. It would be troublesome if they looked too old.

He had a look at their profiles. The first line on the profiles wasn’t their names but the names of their agencies. If they didn’t belong to one, it was left blank. The big agencies were written in red, and the rest were written in green. There was also a blue checkmark(✓) next to some names, and they were those that were given recommendations. These days, the number one dream for youths was apparently not the president or a scientist, but celebrities or idols. In other words, just about anyone was trying to become a celebrity. It was no exception for the children of those higher up in the TV station, and there were many cases where they participated in auditions with those marks.

“Uhm, senior.”

“What?”

“What’s the blue checkmark for?”

“Oh, that? A letter of recommendation, I guess.”

The junior exclaimed before putting down the profile with the blue checkmark. Park Hoon laughed when the junior put it down carefully.

“Junior.”

“Yes?”

“You should choose the right side to stand on.”

“Ah, yes.”

“You must take into account academic, blood, and personal relations, okay?”

“…Yes.”

“You don’t seem to like it, huh.”

“N-not at all.”

Park Hoon smiled and looked in front of him. Young actors were standing in a line, looking at him with nervousness.

“Well, then. You must be ready. Since all of us are busy, I hope we can do this fast. Please show us everything you can within the allocated time. Even if you come crying to me later, we won’t be seeing each other again.”

“U-uhm.”

A girl with pretty big eyes raised her hand to ask.

“Speak.”

“Are we doing it together?”

“Then should I call you up one by one? One comes in, one goes out. Like that?”

“N-no.”

“Why are you stuttering so much? How are you going to do acting when you can’t express your own opinions properly?”

“I’m sorry.”

“Hm, Number four, Miss Yoo Minji?”

“Yes!”

“Don’t apologize so easily. Did you do something wrong?”

“No.”

Seeing the girl take a step back with a gulp, Park Hoon bitterly smiled.

“Well then. We’re going to start off from number one. Please show us two free skits that you’ve prepared for us, and as for the last one, you just have to do the one we give you. We aren’t going to have a look at your specialties, so you don’t need to be worried about that. If there’s something you want to show us no matter what, you may. However, no idol dances or singing. I’m sick and tired of that. Then let’s start from number one. Look at the camera when you act.”

The boy that came forward took a bow and revealed what his agency was before starting to act. Since it was a youth drama he was applying for, he prepared a student skit. Park Hoon crossed his legs and quietly watched his acting. After pretending to fight with an imaginary friend, the boy started acting as though he was eating food.

“Enough. Mr. Kim Doyoung.”

“Yes.”

“What did you eat just now?”

“What?”

“You were doing an eating act just now. What did you eat?”

“Uhm, it’s…”

“Okay, stop here. From now then, start acting as though you’re going against your teacher. And that teacher is someone you’re looking down on.”

“May I have a moment to think about it?”

“Go ahead. Don’t take too long though.”

After thinking about it, the boy started acting. He vigorously slapped away an imaginary hand and shouted into the air before stopping and then looking at him.

“Are you done?”

“Eh? Ah, yes.”

“Then thanks for your work.”

“Uhm… was that it?”

Park Hoon said as he slightly stretched his neck.

“Mr. Kim Doyoung. I don’t have anything to show you. No, I don’t need to show you anything. The one that needs to do their best to show me something is you. I told you before, right? Don’t come crying to me later. I’m someone that sees as much as you show me, Mr. Kim Doyoung. Well then, next.”

When Park Hoon waved his hand, the boy sighed before going back. His profile said that he belonged to an agency. Do agencies teach nothing these days? He clicked his tongue and was just about to call the next person when,

“You’re starting without me?”

A woman with short, blond hair sat down next to him. She was Heo Miri, the casting director.

“Miri, if you only came ahead of time…”

“That joke[1] isn’t even funny you know? Rather than that, how was the first person?”

Park Hoon quietly replied to her that he was no good. Miri nodded.

“Why don’t we continue, director?”

“Sure. Let’s continue. I don’t dare disobey.”

“Why are you so sensitive today? Is it that day for you, director?”

“Gosh, even though you’re a woman…”

Park Hoon looked forward while thinking that she was a hard woman to deal with. The second actor seemed to have finished preparing and was looking his way.

“Please start with your free skits,” Park Hoon said with a low voice.

The second actor also prepared a high school student act. Talking with an imaginary friend, then fighting.

“Thanks for that.”

“Thank you.”

“But why’s your voice like that when you’re acting? It’s completely different from when you’re acting before.”

“I think I raised my voice a little because I was trying to express agitation.”

“Really? It didn’t sound that good though. Then try acting normally this time. Same as before, going against your teacher.”

After clearing his throat, the second actor started acting again. His line was okay, but his tone became weirder the more he acted.

“Mr. Park Youngsoo. There’s a problem with your vocalization.”

“I’ll try my best to fix it.”

“Of course you will. An actor that can’t find his own voice, of course you have to fix it. But that’s not something you should say at an audition, is it? You should have come after you fixed it.”

“Sorry.”

“Ah, gosh. Are you trying to make me the bad guy? If you didn’t commit a crime, please don’t apologize. It’s not good to hear. Become bolder. You’re an actor. Maybe you’re very shy, but an actor on stage can’t show that. Okay? If you’re here to work, you must advertise yourself as a fitting character. Who would want to use you when you advertise yourself as a shy person?”

Park Hoon laid back in his chair and looked at Miri. Miri was also shaking her head.

“Let’s become a bit bolder, okay? Well, then. Next.”

Park Hoon looked at the third person.

[1] “Ahead of time” in Korean is ‘Mirimiri’. So the sentence above literally reads ‘Miri, if you came mirimiri’, hence the ‘joke’

Chapter 489

“No. It wasn’t us that did it.”

Park Hoon told the girl on the stage, who seemed to be dusting her shoulder, to stop.

“Uhm, Miss Han Yoonmi.”

“Yes!”

What a bright reply. He clicked his tongue and told her to stand still.

“Like this?”

“Yes. And try saying the line you just said again.”

“No. It wasn’t us that di…”

“Stop. Why are you shaking your shoulders like that? Are you trying to dance?” Park Hoon asked as he shook his own shoulders.

The girl couldn’t reply so she stayed quiet.

“I’m not sure how it might look from afar, but you look really frantic when you’re zoomed in on with the camera. Did you not act in front of a camera at your acting school? Have you never seen yourself on the monitor?”

“I have, but…”

“Then why are you like that?”

The girl hesitated with her clenched fist on her mouth before walking back without saying anything.

“Uhm, senior.”

The junior producer, who was watching from the side, pointed at the girl’s profile as he talked to him. There was a blue checkmark on it.

“Oh, looks like I wasn’t clear, huh. When I told you to stand on the right side, I meant that you shouldn’t be standing on the same side as someone like me.”

Park Hoon put a cross on the name ‘Han Yoonmi’ with a black marker. The junior looked at him with shock. The blue ‘recommendation’ mark. Park Hoon wasn’t swayed by such underhanded tactics. This always made him clash with the chief producer, but it didn’t really matter to him that much since the chief producer would stay quiet as long as he produced good results. This area was practically in the hands of advertisers anyway. It meant that the one that got good viewing rates was king.

“Don’t scold them so much. You’ll make them cry.”

“Are you here to play around? And also, that was at most a piece of sincere advice.”

“Like hell that was. Next,” said Miri as she looked at the stage.

This time, a girl stepped up with a fresh smile on her face. She looked to be in her early twenties. Park Hoon looked at the profile. She belonged to the agency Crystal. So this was the one that team leader Kang talked about?

“Hello! My name is Lee Joomin. Please take care of me.”

A clear voice entered his ears. Her voice received a pass. Park Hoon nodded and told her to start her free skit. She stood at the center of the stage and took a deep breath before smiling brightly. Her skit was her confessing to her friend that she had gotten a boyfriend. The romantic feelings of first love could be felt. Her second skit was a completely opposite one, she did a sad act this time. He didn’t like that she was trying to look pretty while crying, but her expression wasn’t that bad.

“She’s not bad,” Miri said.

Park Hoon also nodded.

“What do you think, junior?”

“Eh? I think she’s okay as well.”

“What part about her is okay?”

“Uhm…”

“Are you going to use her if it was up to you?”

“Yes. I think she would make the cast.”

“Why? Tell me the reason you’re thinking about right now.”

“Because she’s cute. I think a cheerful student might suit her.”

“Right. Keep practicing expressing your own thoughts in words. A producer’s plan begins with materializing abstract thoughts.”

He moved his eyes away from the nodding junior and looked at the girl in front of him.

“Miss Lee Joomin.”

“Yes.”

“There’s a character in the drama who is an aspiring singer. Can you try singing?”

“You said that an idol song was no good, right?”

“If you don’t know anything else, then you can try that one as well. The reason I said you can’t do it is because there are strange types of people who are fixated on that. How about it? You think you can do it?”

“I’ll sing just a little bit.”

The girl decided on a key without hesitation and started singing. As a decent performance was enough for the character, Park Hoon stopped her after a few lines.

“That was good.”

“Thank you.”

While the girl stepped back, Park Hoon talked with Miri.

“I’m thinking about choosing her if I don’t see anyone good after this.”

“I think she’s good as well. She looks cute too. She’s the type that would work well on students these days. As for acting, well, we’ll have to start shooting to find out for sure.”

“Then let’s do that.”

Park Hoon looked at the next person. He was around 175cm tall, and his build was pretty good. He was skinny but looked sturdy, so to speak.

“He’s from JA.”

“That’s Lee Junmin’s place, right?”

“Yes.”

Hm, Han Maru, huh. He felt like he had heard that name somewhere before.

“Next, please come forward and get ready.”

The boy came forward. He looked up at the lights on the ceiling before remarking,

“Can you see my face well?”

Hearing that, Park Hoon smiled and replied that they could.

This was the first time they received that question today. It was a question that an audition participant had to do, but the ones before him did not go through such a fundamental process. While they looked at the participants with their eyes, they also had to look at them through the camera. Although there was a mark on the center of the stage, the participants would have to adjust their positions according to their heights and builds. Finding out what they looked like on camera was the basics of an actor.

“Please do your two free skits.”

“Understood.”

His voice was on the lower side and was pleasant to listen to. The boy started acting. He moved around actively and talked about the pretty girl he saw yesterday. The way he was restless as he was babbling on looked really natural. When Park Hoon had a look at his profile, he saw that the boy was in his 2nd year of high school. Park Hoon asked after his first skit.

“Is your personality actually like that? Like being talkative and active?”

“I’m not like that at all. I prefer moving only when it’s necessary.”

“Alright. Then please show us your next one.”

The boy sat down on a chair this time. It was a rather still image, which was a contrast to the first skit. He was trying to show the wide range of his acting spectrum. He was someone who knew how to use his brain.

“I didn’t steal it.”

The boy clenched his fists in unease as he placed his hands on his pants. Park Hoon kept looking at the boy. If anyone asked him what the most difficult acting was, Park Hoon would reply that it was quietly talking about normal stuff. It wasn’t that an act with vigorous emotions was easy, but what discerned the truly skilled actors was their acting of normal, everyday life.

The boy neither shouted nor cried with a cringing face. He was just calmly claiming that he was wronged. Park Hoon rubbed the side of his head when he saw the calm acting. This was his habit when he concentrated.

“That’s it from me.”

The boy stood up from his seat. Park Hoon scratched the inside of his cheeks with his tongue and looked at Miri.

“He’s good.”

It wasn’t ‘he’s not bad’. The junior said that he was focused on the boy’s acting as well.

“What is the missing item?”

“I thought of it as a wallet.”

“What’s the teacher like in your act?”

“I modelled them after a high school teacher of mine. She’s the type to drag someone to the faculty office in haste.”

“Is the act you just did a portrayal of your actual self?”

“No, I thought about what a stereotypical shy person is like, and expressed such a character through acting.”

“The first character was an outgoing character?”

“Yes.”

“Good. Let us put in an order. Show us a person hopping around in joy.”

Park Hoon crossed his arms and waited. Just then, someone tapped him from behind. When he turned around, he saw a fellow producer. The junior producer stood up from his seat and took a bow.

“Sit down. I’m just visiting while I’m on my way to something else.”

“Are you here empty-handed? You should’ve brought us some coffee at least. For Miri and the junior.”

“I hadn’t thought of that.”

His fellow producer looked towards the front and said ‘oh’ in a rather surprised voice.

“That fellow.”

“Do you know him?”

“Are you getting old already? Didn’t I tell you that there was a good guy? Who was it again? Uh, Mari, Mara, Ah! Han Maru. It’s Han Maru, right?”

The moment he heard those words, Park Hoon remembered where he heard the name Han Maru before. He heard it from this fellow, who was the main producer of The Witness. Recently, the team that worked on The Witness was given holiday tickets to Jeju island. If they got over 50% viewing rates like the Wednesday-Thursday drama on RBS, they would’ve gotten tickets to Thailand at least, but since the drama was really unique and didn’t have a big fanbase, the viewing rates weren't that high.

“May I start?” The boy on the stage asked.

“Please begin.”

As soon as he said those words, the boy hopped on the spot as though he was a soccer player that scored a goal. He was smiling so brightly and was boasting so much that even Park Hoon ended up laughing. This boy perfectly understood his request and did not hold himself back. He liked the fact that the boy could exaggerate when he had to. If his act did not pop here, he would’ve just remembered the boy as someone who was good at bland acting.

“That suits him too, huh,” his fellow producer said behind him.

“Well done.”

“Thank you.”

Park Hoon took out the script for the first episode of New Semester. There was a character among the supporting actors who he needed a rather mature person for, and from the way the boy’s character so calmly told the teacher that she was wrong, he was reminded of that character.

“I think he might suit the Lee Chan character,” he tried saying to Miri.

Miri immediately looked at the boy and asked him to do a few poses.

“Uhm. Mr. Han Maru. Can you look at the camera with an expressionless expression?”

“Understood.”

Park Hoon turned his eyes to the camera screen. The boy on the screen had sharp eyes. His lips were stiff, and his gaze wasn’t wavering. For a high school student, his eyes were pretty decent.

“Can you try saying this just like that? The line goes: ‘You don’t want to do that’.”

After saying the words, the boy looked at the camera and uttered those words.

“Can you smile just a little there? Like you’re a little shy about it.”

The boy quickly accepted the trivial requests.

Park Hoon nodded his head as he looked at the boy’s gradual change in expression. He had a good feeling about this. Since the drama was a school drama, he needed characters that had student-like mindsets. One character was a student that had a calmness that did not lose out to a typical adult’s. He seemed to suit the character that might invoke the catharsis of the students.

“That’s enough. Thank you for your work,” said Park Hoon as he raised his hand.

“Let’s pick this guy as well if we don’t find anyone suitable after him.”

“I don’t think there will be one though?” Miri smiled as she spoke.

Park Hoon did not deny that. There was no need to reject an already-proven resource. A fellow producer already used him once, didn’t he?

“Also, apparently he learned acting from sir Yoon Moonjoong.”

That’s really tempting - he thought to himself as he reminded himself of the words that his colleague left behind while sending him off. After that, he looked at the boy that was returning to the line. Han Maru, huh.

“Well, then. Next.”

Park Hoon called out the next person. The audition wasn’t over yet. If someone caught his eyes, he might be able to turn that person into a ticket to success.

* * *

“Oppa, you got a call.”

Bada picked up Maru’s phone from the living room and knocked on his door but there was no response. When she opened the door, only an empty room greeted her.

“Is he out?”

Bada stared at the phone before picking it up.

“Hello? Ah, yes. It is. Yes, yes. Understood.”

As soon as she hung up, the front door opened and her brother came back. Bada stared at her brother with a dazed expression before exclaiming.

“Mr. Han Maru. You passed the audition, apparently.”

“There was a call?”

“Yeah.”

“That’s good. I thought I didn’t make it since there was no news.”

“Congratulations! My brother is popular now, huh.”

“Like hell I am.”

“Since you made it, why don’t we celebrate?”

“By doing what?”

“On a day like this, we should eat fried chicken.”

“What about the money?”

“Well, I don’t have any.”

“Haah…”

“I’m ordering one then, okay?”

Bada threw Maru’s phone at him.

“But what was that audition for? A play?”

“A drama.”

“A drama? What drama?”

“New Semester.”

“…New Semester? You mean the one on YBS? Like, for real?”

“Yeah.”

“My lord, my brother is doing super well. What are you? An extra? That can’t be right. There’s no way they’re holding an audition for an extra.”

“A supporting role, apparently.”

“Really? I guess we should congratulate doubly as much. I’m ordering two, okay?”

“You are really… fine, go ahead.”

“I’m not taking the opportunity to order it. I’m ordering them to congratulate you,” said Bada while grinning.

Chapter 490

-It was a new challenge for me. It definitely wasn’t easy. I had to change my acting style after all. At first, I was not planning on accepting it. It was obvious that the shoot would be an arduous one. But then, I was persuaded. You are the only one who can do it - I was tempted by those words.

Maru looked at the elder on the screen as he took a sip of green tea.

A month had passed since the movie was released. It had maintained a small number of airing cinemas immediately after the release, but after a week, it strangely received a lot of attention and the number of airing cinemas increased explosively. Watching Twilight Struggles and then putting a review on the internet became a trend that spread around especially quickly among people in their 20s. The post that Bada showed him was one of those.

Twilight Struggles spread around the entire country through B-movie theaters, and there was a Twilight Struggles craze for a while.

Maru checked the internet and blogs from time to time and found out that many people were outraged at the state of reality after watching the movie. The media started talking about Twilight Struggles in their articles as well. When he looked at the strange timing of various articles that seemed to fan the flames, Maru thought that all this was Junmin’s strategy.

-You played the warm-hearted Han Sang-deok during the beginning of Apgu. Are you returning to the acting scene properly?

-I’m not sure yet. Nothing is set in stone. However, I do have the desire to try out good pieces of work while I still have energy left.

When the reporter asked him to say some words of blessing for the new year, the elder smiled and wished that everyone could earn a lot of money in the new year.

After the interview ended, Maru switched the channel. Ever since Byungchan told him to watch TV as a duty, he had been sparing an hour a day to watch TV. Usually, he watched dramas, but if there was nothing to watch, he watched the news about the entertainment industry. He deeply agreed with Byungchan in that he should know what his industry was like.

“Hello?” Maru said as he picked up his phone.

-Maru, it’s me.

“Yes, Byungchan-hyung.”

-You haven’t forgotten about tomorrow right? The get-together.

“I haven’t.”

-I’ll give you a ride tomorrow.

“You should take a break since it’s Saturday. I looked it up. It’s only the minimum taxi fare from the train station.”

-It’s fine. You care about me all the time, so I should at least do this much. Rather than that, this is your first supporting role, huh. Congratulations.

“Thank you.”

-I hope you gain a lot of popularity and earn a lot of money.

“I hope so too. Oh, right, what happened to the movie audition you told me about last time?”

-That? I haven’t heard anything back for two weeks. Looks like it was no good. And here, I was confident about it too.

“Then you should challenge it again.”

-You aren’t even consoling me?

“Would that change the outcome? I’m willing to drink with you if that’s what you want.”

-Right, consolation is no good. It’s not like this is the first or second time. I found a place that’s looking for the main character in an indie movie, so I’m going to try my hand there.

“Good luck with that. There will be good results.”

-I sure hope so. Oh, right. I’m going to call you when I’m going to pick you up tomorrow so don’t turn your phone off.

“Okay.”

-Alright, good night.

Maru put his phone down and looked at the calendar in the living room. It was the 23rd of December. There wasn’t long left until Christmas and the winter holidays. Oh, and the acting competition as well.

He turned off the TV that was talking to itself and went back to his room.

* * *

“Director.”

Park Hoon looked at the woman that walked towards him wearing heels. He was wondering who it was, and she turned out to be Kim Suyeon.

“This is a coincidence. I never thought I’d see you here. Are you a regular here?”

Suyeon pointed at the pork rind restaurant behind her. Park Hoon nodded.

“Oh my, I didn’t know that. I should become a regular here in the future.”

“Whatever.”

Park Hoon poked his junior who was blinking his eyes in a daze next to him.

“What are you doing? Go inside and get the order in.”

“Ah, yes.”

The junior walked backwards while staring at Suyeon until the end before going into the store. Suyeon smiled at the junior PD with a wave of her hand.

“He’s the assistant director, right? He looks cute.”

“Don’t touch such a newbie. He’s a good guy.”

“Sheesh director. People might misunderstand,” said Suyeon with a wink.

Park Hoon picked his nose with his pinky and spoke,

“Looks like you have something to say to me. If it’s something important, you should leave it for the get-together tomorrow.”

“I just wanted to say thanks. Do you have a cold?” Suyeon asked as she handed him some tissues.

Park Hoon blew his nose as strongly as possible. When he tried to give Suyeon back the tissue, she paled in fright and took a few steps back.

“It’s not that dirty.”

“Geez, there you go again.”

“But what are you thanking me for?”

“For Han Maru.”

“Han Maru? What about that guy?”

“You’re feigning ignorance? I called you last time about him. I told you to look at him in a good light. Didn’t you pick him because of that?”

The moment he heard those words, Park Hoon said ‘aha’ and snapped his fingers.

“When you called me last time and said something about a lobby?”

“Yes.”

“Sorry. I was pooping back then so I didn’t hear you properly. I had horrible constipation so I was kinda out of myself.”

“…Ah, okay. Constipation, huh.”

Suyeon made a sour face before switching to a smile again.

“But how do you know Han Maru?”

“He’s in the same company as me.”

“Ah, you’re from JA?”

“Now that’s going too far. I told you about it when I greeted you last time.”

“Sorry about that. My memory is really not that good. Just leaving behind the necessary information in my head is almost everything I’m capable of.”

“Then I guess I’m not an important person to you, director.”

“Who said that? Of course I need you. That’s why I picked you as the teacher-in-training, didn’t I? So please do your best in acting, and just acting.”

“Yes, yes, sure.”

Suyeon was about to go inside the store as she said those words when Park Hoon discovered the junior producer looking at him with glee on his face.

“Where do you think you are going?”

“What else would I do in a restaurant? I’m going to eat.”

“With who?”

“With you, director. The assistant director is there as well.”

“Geez. I don’t want to have a stomach ache because I’m eating with a celebrity.”

“I’ll just eat obediently in the corner. Why don’t we get to know each other more? We’re going to be shooting together after all.”

Park Hoon sighed and nodded. Suyeon thanked him as she opened the door.

“Don’t say anything strange in front of that guy. He hasn’t been tainted yet.”

“Am I some bacteria or something?”

“I’m not sure about bacteria, but you sure are dangerous, that’s for sure.”

“Fine. It’s not like I’m expecting anything from you anyway. I don’t have the energy to waste on an opponent that I can’t win over. Oh, then why did you pick Maru?”

“Because he’s good, duh. You’re in the same company and you don’t even know the skills of your own member?”

“I do. I just tried my hand out just in case. Dang, I guess I did that for nothing. I was planning to show off to him a little.”

Park Hoon looked at Suyeon who walked ahead of him. She was probably shaking her butt on purpose. The junior producer yielded his seat to her with a big grin on his face. He decided to tell him later to wake up.

“Excuse me, we need an additional glass here.”

Park Hoon sniffed as he walked to the table.

* * *

“It’ll be winter break soon once Christmas is over. Ah, I hope winter holidays come quickly,” Aram said as she looked outside the window.

Maru checked the time on his watch before standing up.

“I’m going to leave first.”

“Where are you going, seonbae?”

“To work.”

“Work?”

He had already told Daemyung about this beforehand, so there was no need for additional explanation. He ran away from Aram who persistently asked him what it was about before leaving.

“Hyung, I’m here.”

-Okay. Wait a minute. I’m almost there.

While he waited in front of the school, he saw a familiar car approach from a distance. It was the car that Byungchan always drove.

“It’s cold, get in quickly,” Byungchan said as he opened the window.

Maru got in the passenger seat. The car was very dry to the point that his nose felt dry minutes after he got in because the heater was on.

“Did I turn it up too high? I’ll open the window a little.”

The car departed with the windows slightly open.

“I heard that it’s going to start snowing tomorrow.”

“Wow, I guess we might get a White Christmas this year.”

“Do you have anyone you’re dating?”

“Me? Do you think I have one? I’m always waiting and need to leave at a moment’s notice. I’ll leave the romance for when my pockets are deep enough.”

“I guess this year’s Christmas will be a cold one for you.”

“You just had to poke me where it hurts the moment we met. Are you boasting to me about your girlfriend?”

“You noticed?”

Byungchan turned the wheel with a laugh.

“Usually, drama teams do a get-together like this once they finish casting. It’s just to get to know each other. There should be barely anyone around your age. While it’s a youth drama, most of the actors should be in their early twenties.”

“Looks like I’ll have to go around greeting everyone. I hope my throat survives.”

“Do your best. That’s the cheapest form of self-PR. Ah, you know that Miss Suyeon is playing the teacher-in-training role, right?”

“Yes, I do.”

“Now that makes me envious. You get to act together in a drama with Miss Kim Suyeon when I’ve never seen her before despite belonging to the same company.”

“Do you want her autograph?”

“Forget it.”

The car entered Seoul and stopped in front of a sushi restaurant. Maru asked Byungchan,

“Hyung, you aren’t going to wait here, right?”

“I’m going to drink with someone I know. I used to work with him as a manager, and he told me that he got fired recently. I should insult some high people with him.”

“What a tough world we live in, huh.”

“You tell me. That guy was really well known for being earnest, and he got fired all of a sudden. My heart fell when I heard that.”

“Our president isn’t someone who would fire people without reason so don’t worry about that.”

“Yes. That’s true. But instead, I’d get pressure as soon as I don’t produce any results.”

“He’s a picky one after all. I’ll get going then.”

“Call me once it ends.”

“I thought you were going to drink though?”

“Oh, I’m not drinking. I have to drive after all.”

“You should drink. I can just take the taxi home.”

“No, no, I can’t do that. Call me once it’s over, okay?”

Maru nodded and got off. After watching the car make a U-turn and disappear into the distance, he approached the restaurant. The 1st floor was noisy with customers, and when he looked at the staircase leading to the 2nd floor, he saw a sign that said ‘reserved’.

“Uhm, I heard that the get-together for New Semester is here.”

When he asked a nearby employee, he was told to go to the 2nd floor. Maru nodded and climbed up. The appointment was at 7, and it was 6 right now. When he went up, the first thing he saw was a separate room with a long table that had drinks on it.

A few people were sitting at a nearby table, and they glanced at Maru before starting to chat by themselves. Maru smiled and approached that table.

“Hello, my name is Han Maru. I’m a new actor.”

“Ah, yes,” one man stood up and replied to him.

“I thought you were in the wrong place. My name is Lee Jinho. I’m a manager at Hansung Agency.”

“I’m manager Lee Minwoon.”

“I’m manager Hwang Jeongmin.”

“So you were managers. May I join you?”

“Ah, yes, well.”

Maru sat down and spoke,

“You can drop the honorifics with me. I’m a lot younger than you all after all. Were you eating?”

“We were just eating a light meal since we came here early.”

The manager laughed.

“But why are you here so early? The appointment should be seven.”

“I was planning to greet everyone and talk to some people. Oh, you can continue eating.”

The managers looked at him for a while before eating with smiles on their faces. Maru sighed as he looked at them. He knew how hard their lives were.

“I’ll bring you some drinks.”

Maru picked up a bottle of coke and a beer from the separate room before coming back out again. The managers coughed awkwardly.

“It’s not that noticeable. If they say something, I’ll just tell them I drank it. Here, I’ll pour you a drink. Drinking beer with rice is always good.”

The managers looked at each other before receiving beer from Maru with grins on their faces. At that moment, two more people came up the stairs.

“Over here, Kim-hyung!”

“Hey hey, sit down here.”

It seemed as though both of them were managers. Maru looked at the two new people before sitting down. A small ‘who?’ could be heard.

“He’s an actor apparently. Han Maru, right?”

“Yes, you should receive a glass from me as well. You must be thirsty,” said Maru as he picked up the beer bottle.

Chapter 491

Manager Kim had been operating on a harsh schedule recently. He drove back and forth between Busan and Seoul like he was commuting to work, so he barely got any sleep. As for meals, he got triangular rice balls from the convenience store most of the time. He couldn’t remember the last time he had proper, hot food.

“Hyung, let’s go now.”

“Oh… yeah, of course!” said manager Kim as he raised his head. He felt his vision go blank for a brief moment. When he pressed his fingers between his eyes to get himself together, Kang Giwoo asked him worriedly.

“Are you okay?”

“I’m okay, I’m fine.”

“You’re lacking sleep, aren’t you?”

“No. I slept from time to time, so I’m fine. Rather than that, are you done here?”

“Yes. I think we should head to the restaurant now.”

Manager Kim started up the car. He glanced at the shop that Giwoo had just been to before reversing his car. He always followed Giwoo, but he had never been to that shop before. From what he heard, it was a shop that handled luxury watches, and they seemed to sell watches that he wouldn’t be able to buy even with several years worth of salary. He looked at Giwoo’s wrist through the rearview mirror. The watch with a black leather strap was reflecting light.

“Do you want to try it on?”

“No, I don’t dare,” said manager Kim as he shook his head.

If he damaged it somehow, just the repair costs would amount to more than he could imagine.

“Alright.”

Manager Kim looked forward. Giwoo, who sat in the back seat, was known for his kind character at the company. When he actually worked with him, he found that Giwoo was really the kind and polite child from the rumors. However, manager Kim couldn’t entirely accept that at face value. That was because Giwoo’s former manager, manager Cha, left the company so suddenly, and his departure left behind several questions.

‘And there’s that sense of fabrication as well.’

Manager Cha was a devoted man. He was a little too devoted to the company, so even when they didn’t get paid their salary properly, manager Cha stood on the company’s side and stood up for them. Whenever others looked at him, people thought that he would become a team leader soon. He was called to various places ever since he started taking care of the rising star Giwoo. Manager Kim never doubted for a second that manager Cha would get promoted whenever he talked to the excited manager Cha.

However, manager Cha’s desk was missing in the company right now. Such a passionate man was fired without a moment’s notice. The head manager did not talk about manager Cha’s incident for a few days before starting to complain about him. He was talking about how manager Cha’s work attitude was horrible.

The other managers were confused when they heard those words, but they didn’t say anything since they knew that managers in this field got hired and fired quickly. It was strange that someone as loyal as manager Cha was fired, but nothing was set in stone in this field after all.

Manager Kim was put in charge of Giwoo as manager Cha’s successor. A manager’s power was proportional to the person they were in charge of. Of course, in official places, they were in a position where they couldn’t even budge their lips, but they could act with pride when they attended a shoot or something like that. This was especially true since people who tried to talk to Giwoo directly without going through the company would try to persuade him first. As long as he trod carefully, he would be able to get his hands on plenty of money other than his monthly salary.

It was good for a few days after he was put in charge of Giwoo. Giwoo was currently being acknowledged as one of the rising stars in the industry after he was picked as one of the lead characters in New Semester after Apgu. He found his work fun when he thought about how this was a great opportunity to get close to Giwoo, who would very likely enter stardom in the future. However, his head was muddled when manager Cha called him.

-It’s that fucker no matter how much I think about it. That fucker is the one that got me fired with a smile on his face. Otherwise, it doesn’t even make sense seeing as how he doesn’t reply to my texts and calls.

Manager Cha had become a different man since he left the company. The once devoted man who always spoke pleasant words with a smile on his face hurled unspeakable insults at Kang Giwoo and the head manager. Manager Cha said that he was betrayed. He told him that Giwoo and the head manager weren’t to be trusted and that he - manager Kim - would eventually suffer the same fate.

Manager Kim consoled him over a drink with a complex smile on his face. At first, manager Cha’s warning sounded like nonsense to him, but he became more worried the more he talked to him. The way he was suddenly fired and the sudden shift in the head manager’s attitude - manager Cha asked if he could have an opportunity to meet Giwoo just once. As manager Kim was unable to reject him as he used to treat him kindly, manager Kim set up a meeting which would look like a coincidence. He wanted to help manager Cha, and at the same time, he also wanted to know the truth.

He left for a bit saying that he had to withdraw some money, and manager Cha took that opportunity to meet Giwoo. Manager Kim put his ear on his phone as he watched them from afar. He had called manager Cha’s phone beforehand.

Giwoo’s calm voice could be heard over the phone. Even as manager Cha agitatedly shouted at him, Giwoo replied with a smile on his face. Manager Kim suspected manager Cha since he was the one who was flustered while Giwoo was calm and logical. He wondered if manager Cha was fired because he did something wrong. However, from some time onwards, manager Kim had to listen to Giwoo’s words with a frown. The kind-sounding calm words sounded incredibly iffy to his ears. Manager Cha, who was shouting in agitation, felt humane, but Giwoo, who was talking back to him, felt like a machine.

It was kindness just on the surface. Giwoo, who always seemed to look after manager Cha at the company, didn’t even get out of the car and pushed manager Cha away with polite words until the very end. While his words sounded calm, his actions couldn’t be colder. When he smiled at manager Cha who cryingly asked him to explain the reason at least, manager Kim felt shivers run down his spine.

After manager Cha left, manager Kim went back to the car in nervousness. He gave Giwoo a drink he bought and asked him if they could leave. Giwoo replied ‘yes’ with a smile on his face. He looked calm as though nothing had happened. Not long after they departed, Giwoo spoke.

-Hyung, please park in more remote places next time. I want to take a break but fans keep coming to talk to me. While I feel thankful, I should rest when I can.

Those words sounded very frightening to manager Kim. Manager Cha had somehow turned into an impolite fan. The way he lied without batting an eyelid made him gulp subconsciously.

Ever since that event, what awaited manager Kim was a murderous schedule. Not to mention official business, Giwoo called him out even for personal appointments. He couldn’t even remember what sleeping on his bed at home was like.

‘But I should endure it.’

Manager Kim stepped on the gas after looking at the lights change. He found out that Giwoo wasn’t really the kind guy he seemed like on the surface, but that changed nothing. He just had to do his work well. Manager Cha was fired because he got on Giwoo’s bad side, but he resolved that he would do his work perfectly so that he wouldn’t be abandoned.

“We’re here,” manager Kim said with a small sigh.

The sushi restaurant was in front of them. This was the get-together location for the drama New Semester. He turned off the car and got off. The stability given off by the solid ground almost made him want to fall over. Even the cold air felt refreshing. The outside air was definitely better, even if it was cold, than the stuffy air inside the car.

Giwoo walked towards the sushi restaurant. Manager Kim followed him. Although the get-together was for the main production staff and the actors, the managers would have to wait in the restaurant as well. They would have to stay still in a corner where they couldn’t be seen, but they could still eat delicious food, so he was satisfied with that.

“Oh, right, hyung,” Giwoo said as he opened the car door.

Manager Kim looked at Giwoo with exhausted eyes.

“Someone I know works as a designer in Daejeon, and apparently, he made a jacket for me as a present recently.”

“I see.”

What was he trying to say? Giwoo smiled and spoke,

“You know I have an interview with a magazine tomorrow, right? I want to wear that jacket to the interview. He put in all that effort after all. I want to promote him even if it’s for an event like this.”

“A-alright.”

“Well, then. I’ll leave that to you.”

“Huh? Leave that to me?”

“Hyung. I know it must be hard for you, but please get it for me. Who else can I ask for this? Oh, if you depart now, you might be able to get back before 11. Oh, are you tired by any chance?”

“The thing is… you know I’ve been driving for days recently. I haven’t gotten any proper sleep either. You know how hard of a time I had, right?”

“Of course, I do. I know how hard you worked.”

Giwoo nodded a few times.

“Then I guess there’s no helping it. You can take a rest. I’ll ask the designer to send it to me by post.”

“Are you sure?”

“Of course. You said you were tired, so there’s no need to push yourself.”

The moment he heard those words, manager Kim felt his stomach start to ache. That was because Giwoo’s eyes that looked at him looked too kind. Those kind eyes. That was the way he looked at manager Cha usually. The eyes of the kind little brother that his colleagues always praised him for.

Manager Kim clenched his fist and spoke,

“Y-you said Daejeon right? I’ll be right back.”

“No, hyung. There’s no need to push yourself when you’re tired. You should get some deep rest at home. I’ll just have to get that jacket later.”

“No, I can make it.”

“You look very tired though.”

“It’s fine. I’ll be fine once I wash my face a little. Moreover, I heard that it was a designer jacket, right? You should do the interview with that on. I’m sure it’ll look good on you,” said manager Kim with a smile.

His lips were trembling as he said those words. Ever since he dropped out of high school, he never had a decent job but he had finally found a job that he could boast to others about. On top of that, the head manager told him yesterday that his salary would double as long as he didn’t make the same mistake as manager Cha.

“I’ll be right back. Please let me.”

Giwoo made a vague smile as though he was put in a difficult position before speaking, starting with ‘then’,

“Please make it as fast as possible. So that you don’t come back too late.”

“Y-yeah! I’ll do that.”

“Also, hyung.”

“Yeah?”

“Do not ever try to toy with me again. I’ll let you go for the bank event this time, okay?”

“……”

Manager Kim could not reply.

* * *

Kang Giwoo went into the restaurant while dusting off his clothes. He politely greeted the restaurant staff before asking where the get-together location was.

“You should climb to the 2nd floor.”

He nodded before climbing up the stairs. When he went up, he saw the managers sitting in the corner. They were chatting by themselves. Giwoo immediately went to the large room. He took off his shoes and quietly greeted the people who were sitting down.

“You’re here.”

“Our lead character is here.”

Giwoo laughed and waved his hand.

“Don’t tease me too much. You’re embarrassing me.”

It seemed that the important people hadn’t arrived yet. The only people he saw were the rather old actors. He knew their faces, but not their names. These people appeared a lot on TV as supporting characters in dramas. There was zero nutritional value in becoming close to them, but Giwoo put on a smile and gave them the senior treatment.

After he sat down and talked to them for a while, the director, the assistant director, the main writer, and the main actors came arrived on the 2nd floor. People applauded to welcome them.

“Sit down, sit down. I just gathered everyone here today so that everyone can eat to their hearts’ content and then go back. Thus, let’s not talk about anything strange. Talking about the drama is not allowed,” said Park Hoon, the main director, as he drew the line.

The older actors welcomed his words and laughed.

After a brief introduction, food started coming out. People who knew each other got in groups and talked among themselves, when someone stood up from the corner and walked towards them. Giwoo thought that he was a manager at first, but when he looked up close, he found a familiar face instead.

‘There’s a familiar face here.’

Giwoo smiled and quietly watched Han Maru, who sat down at the edge of the table.

“Hm? Why are you coming from there?” asked Park Hoon as he looked at Maru.

People’s attention naturally gathered towards him.

“I was here a little early, so I was talking with the managers. I didn’t ruin the mood by chance, right?”

He smiled and stood up before saying that he’ll sing as compensation. He was so smooth that everyone was clapping along.

Giwoo smiled as he looked at Maru.

‘Goddammit.’

The paper cup in his hands had already become a crumpled mess.

Chapter 492

“Maru, can you hand me a glass from over there?”

Maru gave the empty glass to Lee Joomin. Joomin boldly said that she would become 21 next year as she introduced herself. She looked red in the face after receiving drinks from the adults. Joomin was far from the feminine type as she acted more like the neighborhood brother, making others treat her comfortably.

“I thought I’d see you after I saw you at the audition. Want a drink?”

“I’ll accept it if you’re giving it to me.”

“Can a high schooler drink?”

“An adult is pouring one for me, so I should.”

“Oho, very good attitude.”

He drank a sip of the beer that Joomin poured for him.

The get-together, which started off as one group, scattered into different groups as time passed. The main staff and the writers, as well as the elderly actors, were talking about something around the host seat. The adult actors centered around Suyeon also became close to each other and took photos as they drank.

The rest formed a group of young actors who were minors, so they couldn’t drink so easily. These young people were eating Maeun-tang[1] awkwardly without even talking to each other before Joonmin had decided to join them.

Before Joomin came, the mood maker for the place was Kang Giwoo. He talked to the others with a kind smile on his face, and as the young actors needed a center, they talked to each other while centered around Giwoo. Maru joined the conversation and talked every now and then while eating.

‘I think I made my presence known.’

The reason he sang a trot[2] while using a spoon as a microphone was to introduce himself. If the get-together had a heavy atmosphere that did not allow for him to do that, he would’ve just finished with a greeting, but as the main producer, Park Hoon, liked things to be noisy, he sang to his heart’s content. Thanks to that, he was able to make his name known to the others. He would have nothing more to wish if others remembered him as the ‘funny guy during the get-together’.

“Here, you should drink as well. You, too. Drinking with adults is fine. Also, it’s just beer. Soju might be a little strong, but beer is practically a soft drink.”

Even the ones that rejected her at first received a glass from her when Joomin kept offering them a drink.

“I would’ve felt really lonely if you ignored me. It’s somewhat awkward for me to continue being in that group.”

Suyeon was sitting where Joomin was looking. While they might only be three or four years apart, the actors sitting there were all actors that had works that could represent them. They were practically popular actors. Maru nodded faintly. She indeed would’ve felt some pressure in that group.

“That doesn’t mean I can join those people either,” Joomin said carefully as she looked at the main producer.

The others faintly smiled at those words.

“Unni, you should hang out with us in the future.”

“That’s right, noona.”

“We’re in the same class now.”

Kang Giwoo was the one that said those last words.

Maru glanced at the people sitting around him. There were seven people including him.

Kang Giwoo, Lee Joomin, Park Jichan, Ahn Yeseul, Kim Okseon, Seong Dongho.

These seven people were going to lead the class 2-1 in Myungnang High school.

The lead characters were Ahn Yeseul, Kang Giwoo, and Park Jichan - these three. The drama was centered around these three and talked about the episodes between students and adults. RBS decided to take a deep dive into the inner state of the female lead with their youth drama ‘Youth generation’, while YBS decided to approach it from the angle where they talked about a broader range of problems and conflicts that happened between generations.

Of course, nothing was set in stone since the shoot hadn’t even begun yet, but that was how it was going to go in the future according to the public information. The director of the drama was sitting right next to them, but he couldn’t exactly ask since the director had declared at the beginning that they shouldn’t talk about the drama here.

“So Giwoo and Jichan fancy Yeseul at the same time?”

Joomin asked as she rested her head on her hands. Giwoo smiled and said that that was the case. The lead characters had already received their scripts. According to Giwoo, one of the elements in the drama was that Giwoo and Jichan fell in love with Yeseul simultaneously. Love and one-sided love couldn’t be done without in a youth drama, so it was to be expected. Joomin was Yeseul’s best friend, while Okseon was portrayed as someone that opposed her. The story was that Okseon was envious and jealous of Yeseul, who was loved by all because of her kind heart despite the fact that her character was rather random.

This sounded similar to any other youth drama. It was the producer and the writers’ job to decide how they were going to use these characters.

Maru had the role of the ‘know-it-all’ in the drama. He knew many things, and sometimes even flustered the teachers with his knowledge. While he looked rational, he was actually a prankster at heart and turned out to be the perpetrator of a lot of events that happened in the class. Furthermore, he would always leave himself out of the plan before he got caught since he was smart. Apparently, Dongho and Jichan were the ones that would usually get scolded.

Maru rather liked his character. He even smiled a little when he heard that he always escaped trouble. This character sounded like he had some similarities with him, so he thought that acting would become quite easy.

“I’m already nervous. This is my first time as a lead character,” said Yeseul.

He didn’t know a lot about her since he didn’t talk to her much, but from the way she acted and talked until now, this Ahn Yeseul was a rather cautious girl. She always looked around her once before saying anything. Her distinct facial features seemed to indicate that she would become quite a beauty in a few years. He couldn’t easily picture her acting as a cheerful girl.

Kim Okseon was a girl wearing round glasses, and she didn’t speak a lot as though she wasn’t good with words. Whenever she smiled, her snaggleteeth could be seen, and from the way she covered her mouth in a hurry whenever she did that, she seemed to have a complex about it. That was something to be of note when he talked to her later. She was someone that had to play a character that was jealous of Yeseul. He would probably get to find out what she’s like in the future.

“I hope it goes well,” Dongho said.

He wasn’t saying those words for others to hear. He talked to himself a lot ever since they started talking together, and most of the time, his words had negative connotations. Did he want attention? Or was that just how he was? Maru wasn’t sure yet, but he never met anyone decent who complained all the time, so he decided to maintain his distance.

The plan was 60 episodes. It was one episode per week, meaning that the drama would run for more than a year. The number of episodes could be adjusted according to the viewing rates, but unless there were some big changes, it meant that Maru would have to spend a lot of time with these six people.

The first thing he had to do was to find out what everyone was like.

Shooting wasn’t a mechanical type of labor. There was a close interaction of emotions, making it relative labor where the output would differ according to how much the opponent could express in their acting.

It would be ideal if he could become friends with everybody and laugh together, but ideals were ideals because they did not happen.

Even in this get-together, where they could not talk about work, there was a strange confrontation between people. Being young didn’t mean that they weren’t capable of fighting over territory. In fact, the fight could be even more intense precisely because they were young.

“By the way, your historical speech wasn’t that good,” Park Jichan said to Kang Giwoo.

As he said those words rather randomly after a period of silence, everyone’s attention was directed towards him.

“It was pretty hard. I should’ve practiced more.”

“Not anyone can do historical dramas. I was also in one as a child actor 2 years ago, and it was really hard. But I gained some recognition. The director asked me to appear in his next work.”

“That’s good. I also wish I heard something like that.”

Giwoo praised Jichan with soft words. Jichan smiled in satisfaction before speaking,

“Hey, you were pretty good too. You’ll get better with a bit more practice.”

“Really? I don’t think I’m doing it right, so can you show it to me once?”

“Right now?”

“Who cares? It’s not like actors care about where they act.”

Kang Giwoo drove Jichan to a corner.

Maru sipped on some beer as he looked at the flustered Jichan. He was unnecessarily talkative. When he smiled awkwardly and said ‘maybe next time’, Giwoo said that it was such a pity.

“Please show me next time. I want to learn too.”

“Alright, I’ll show you next time for sure.”

Jichan, who boasted about himself for a while, did not say anything after that. He seemed like the type of guy who would forget about today’s events once the day changed, but for today, he wouldn’t be able to speak in front of Giwoo.

‘There was the time with Lee Uljin too.’

Giwoo, who met eyes with Maru, made a kind smile and pushed a side dish that Maru couldn’t reach, towards his side. Maru thanked him before picking up his chopsticks.

Each of his actions was filled with favorable impressions. He also didn’t act too considerate. It felt like he kept his territory and respected other’s territory as well. However, he would immediately retaliate once someone crossed the line like Jichan did. Of course, even that retaliation didn’t go too far and break his polite image.

During the summer, a boy named Lee Uljin hit him and pushed him over when he shot Apgu. He could have dodged it, but he got hit because he thought that it would act in his favor, and ever since that happened, Uljin latched onto Giwoo and begged him for something. He looked like a small businessman trying to beg his debtor to push back the payment date. Just what made him beg Giwoo so desperately at such a young age?

“It’s good to talk to you like this. I wanted to stay close to you when we shot Apgu, but there simply wasn’t enough time back then.”

Giwoo talked to him.

“It was quite busy back then. Oh, how are things with that guy named Lee Uljin from back then? You two looked close.”

Maru turned around slightly and asked as though he didn’t have any interest. Maru gave Giwoo a glance through the corner of his eyes while picking up a sea squirt with chopsticks, and saw that his smile had turned slightly stiff. It seemed that the name wasn’t entirely welcome.

“You two know each other?”

Yeseul, who was listening this whole time, quietly interrupted.

“Yeah. Maru was a minor actor in Apgu. He was great back then. Even the producer praised him for his acting. You know The Witness, right? The drama on YBS. Maru appeared in it as a one-off character, and he was really good. I watched that episode, and it made me exclaim out loud.”

Maru faintly smiled as he looked at Giwoo. This guy was talented in switching the topic. He praised Maru as though to tell him to not talk about Uljin anymore. The attention was switched to him. Maru explained about the shoot for The Witness and returned the attention.

“I recently had a photo shoot for a brand recently.”

Jichan spoke again after getting himself together. It seemed that his personality didn’t allow him to leave the center of attention. Maru thought that he would be able to gloss over some annoying things with flattery in the future when it came to this guy.

“Uljin was acting strange. I thought he was a good guy, but I stopped contacting him after I saw him do that to you. I’m telling you this just in case you misunderstand.”

Giwoo stood up, approached him, and whispering into his ears before going to the bathroom. He thoroughly prevented the others from listening to those words. Maru picked up his glass by the lip. He looked at Giwoo, who was walking to the bathroom before taking a sip.

‘A boasty, a mute, a cautious, a muttery, a cheerful and lastly… crocodile tears, huh.’

He tapped the glass down on the table.

Wasn’t this an interesting group of people?

Maru grinned as he looked at the people in front of him.

A year.

He had to spend a year with these people whether he liked it or not.

[1] Spice fish stew. Usually eaten after the main course at a sushi restaurant.

[2] A genre of pop in Korea that used to be popular before the 80s.

Chapter 493

“Let’s exchange numbers,” Joomin said as she held her phone out.

“Sounds good.”

“Let’s call each other frequently.”

Just like that, Maru had gotten six more numbers in his contact list on his phone.

“Yeseul. I think you should stop drinking,” Giwoo said as he put away the glass placed in front of Yeseul.

“What’s this? You’re looking after her already? Yeseul, it looks like Giwoo is interested in you,” Joomin said as a joke.

Yeseul shook her hands in front of her and laughed. From what Maru saw, she didn’t seem to hate it.

“I’m a little sleepy,” Dongho said rather suddenly.

His voice was a little loud, attracting everyone’s attention, and when Dongho received that attention, he twitched his lips and looked elsewhere.

“You must be worried sick about something, huh. Why don’t you tell this big sister?”

“I don’t have any worries. It’s just a little boring here.”

“Boring?”

“This get-together isn’t really necessary, is it? It would be fine as long as each of us does our work well.”

Dongho sat crookedly as he put his hands in his pockets. Maru let out a faint laugh when he saw that. Was he in the rebellious phase? He probably didn’t like literally everything so it wasn’t entirely out of the question for him to say those words.

“Why is it unnecessary? We got to meet like this and talk to each other, didn’t we?”

Joomin laughed exaggeratedly and poked Dongho’s shoulder. Dongho felt pressured by the gazes around him so he ended up relenting and said said ‘that’s true’. He was a cute guy.

“What was your debut piece, Joomin-noona?” Giwoo changed the topic.

Joomin sighed before making a complicated expression.

“It’s horrible to think about it now. You know, my debut piece was a movie.”

“A movie?”

“Yeah, but it turned out to be a scam. It was when I was in middle school, right? I was eating tteokbokki with my friends and some random man gave me a business card, asking if I was interested in becoming an actor since I looked pretty. I was immature back then, so I trusted his words and told mom about it. The problem was that my mom trusted that man as well. That’s why she spent around 5 million won for contract fees, shooting fees, and even lobbying fees for some reason, I think? I did stand in front of the camera though. It was really good back then…”

“What happened in the end?”

“From some time onwards, we couldn’t contact that man and he disappeared without a trace. My mom cried a lot back then. I also thought that I should get myself together and start studying, but it was so frustrating. Being deceived is one thing, but I really tried hard you know? I looked into acting a lot after this happened and ended up meeting my current president. That’s how my life as an actress began.”

“I heard that those kinds of scams happen a lot even now. A friend of mine was an aspiring idol, and a person who approached her asking for money to train her disappeared.”

“I think scams like that happen really frequently in the entertainment industry.”

Everyone nodded their heads as though they had experienced or came across a similar story before.

‘In that sense, I guess I was lucky.’

If he met a scammer like that before he met Lee Junmin, he might have let go of the entertainment industry and start looking into something else.

“Giwoo, what made you want to become an actor?” Yeseul asked in a quiet voice.

“Hm, I always liked drawing. That’s why my dream as a child was to become an artist. But one day, I was drawing a face, and this thought suddenly flashed across my mind - why is this person making this face? That’s when my interest shifted to people’s expressions. Watching people’s expressions was so fun. Then, I saw a foreign movie, and the expressions of the people on the screen looked incredibly cool to me. That’s when I thought that being able to create those expressions as work must be fun. It’s a little strange, isn’t it?”

“No, it’s not like that at all.”

“Yeseul, how about you? What made you decide to become an actor?”

“Me?”

Giwoo smoothly handed the question to Yeseul this time. Yeseul hesitated for a bit before talking about herself in a small voice. After an ordinary story of ‘my dream as a child was to become an actress’ was finished, Giwoo then asked Okseon about it. Thanks to the structured conversation, everyone could speak with ease.

“Maru, how about you?”

Giwoo acted like the presenter of a fair discussion and tossed the right to speak to the next person. When that person finished speaking, everyone would naturally look his way.

“I just became an actor due to a coincidence while I was doing a play. So I don’t really have an amazing story to tell.”

“You were really good considering that.”

“Thanks for seeing me that way. I felt this during Apgu as well, but I think I’m really lucky. I’m not that good, but the people around me make me look good. Giwoo, the producer praised you for your acting during Apgu as well. It was thanks to you that I had an easier time blending in.”

“I didn’t do anything. If it wasn’t for you back then, I would have troubled the shoot. I was at a loss on what kinds of emotions I should have while I was acting, but I got to know thanks to you.”

“Did something happen at the shoot?” Joomin asked curiously.

“When I was shooting Apgu, the shoot was delayed because my acting wasn’t up to par. I could make an image in my mind, but it was so hard to express it in my acting. Moreover, I was feeling a lot of pressure because there were a lot of great senior actors watching me. That was when Maru stepped up and showed me the direction. I got a hint thanks to him and everything went smoothly after that. I would have been in trouble if he wasn’t there that day.”

Maru smiled and shook his head.

“What are you saying? You were plenty good back then. You were just at a loss since it was late at night. The shoot was tiring after all. You didn’t get to rest properly due to all the heat and had to start the evening shoot like that, so it wasn’t surprising that you were exhausted. You got an okay right after a bit of rest. That was amazing back then.”

Giwoo smiled and shook his hand in front of him. Everyone else asked him to talk about it a little more.

Maru looked at Giwoo who smoothly told his story despite having a complex expression on his face. It had been a while since he was involved in a flatter-each-other situation. He remembered the days he had to say all sorts of good words in order to get the business deal in his previous life. He got along with Giwoo in that sense. He may have other motives in his mind, but it was fine as long as Maru wasn’t the one receiving the damage. There needed to be a center in a meeting, and Giwoo seemed like the perfect fit for such a position. It would be much easier for Maru to let him do what he wanted to.

“Looks like our main characters are getting along well.”

Producer Park Hoon appeared. He seemed to have drunk a lot as he reeked of booze.

“Have you eaten your fill?”

“Yes,” everyone replied in unison.

“We’ll have to see each other for a year whether we like it or not, so I hope we can get along well. You’ve introduced yourselves right?”

“Yes, we did,” Giwoo said as the representative.

No one complained about the fact that Giwoo replied by himself. Park Hoon seemed to have seen how this group of people worked and looked at Giwoo with a nod.

“You know that youth dramas are the gateway to stardom right? The popular actors in their 30s these days all debuted in youth dramas. Lee Joon, Ahn Dogang, Park Joonsik, Yoo Ilmin, as well as a lot of others. We can’t say for sure that the same thing won’t happen for us, so I hope everyone does their best.”

“Yes, sir.”

Park Hoon shook hands with all seven of the people sitting at the table. Maru grabbed his hand lightly, and Park Hoon spoke to him with a big grin.

“Please bring a viewing rate fortune to our drama as well. Like what you did for The Witness.”

Park Hoon patted his shoulder before walking over to the adult actors.

“Our director sounds like a friendly person.”

“I know, right?”

Yeseul replied to Joomin’s words.

“I hope it’s like this during the shoot as well,” said Okseon, who had been staying quiet this whole time.

“Does anyone know what his style is?” Jichan sounded a little worried.

He might be acting like a neighborhood man in this get-together, but no one here could say for sure what he was like during shoots.

“I haven’t heard about anything.”

“Me neither. He seems to be a famous producer, but since it’s my first time doing a drama, I really don’t know anything.”

“Joomin-noona, don’t you know anything?”

Joomin shook her head at Dongho’s question. Everyone here hadn’t spent a long time in the entertainment industry, so they didn’t seem to know what producer Park Hoon was like during shoots.

“He’s a pleasant guy.”

“Ack!”

A person appeared behind Yeseul. The one smiling with her hands on Yeseul’s shoulders was Suyeon, who had been rather far from them until just now.

“Senior Kim Suyeon.”

“S-senior.”

Everyone seemed flustered by her appearance.

Maru sipped some water and thought that this was really unexpected. The kids that didn’t seem too awkward with the producer found Suyeon difficult to deal with? That just went to show what she was portrayed as to these kids.

‘Does she pass off as a strict senior in front of the juniors?’

Someone who knew more than that would know her as the devious fox that devours men, but it seemed that such rumors didn’t spread around among the younger generation. Well, it wasn’t surprising since there was no way Suyeon wasn’t cautious of that, and Junmin wasn’t the type of person who would let someone in his company when she couldn’t even manage rumors about herself.

“Why does everyone look so nervous? You’re making me sad. Here, here. I’ll pour you one each.”

Maru ignored Suyeon who blatantly winked at him and held out his glass quietly. After she poured one for all of them, Suyeon looked at her empty glass.

“Should I receive one from the juniors as well?”

When everyone hesitated, Maru looked at Giwoo. When he did, Giwoo grabbed the bottle as though he was waiting for it. Everyone visibly brightened up and nodded their heads. They were urging him to do it.

“So Giwoo is pouring one for me.”

“Yes, senior.”

“You were doing well these days, Giwoo. You’ll become rich soon.”

“Please don’t flatter me.”

“Aah~, there was someone I specifically wanted to pour for me, but I don’t think I should stay here any longer so I’ll be satisfied with Giwoo. Well then, pour as much as you love this senior.”

Giwoo filled the glass to the brim. Suyeon raised the glass, which was overflowing with foam, above her head and shouted ‘For the drama’.

“Cheers!”

The senior actors, who were watching from afar, told her to not make the kids drink too much.

“Let’s get along well in the future.”

Suyeon wiped her mouth with the back of her hand and left.

“Phew, I was really surprised. But I don’t think she’s scary like the rumors say.”

“Apparently, she’s really sharp during shoots.”

“Oh really?”

“I guess I will have to not make a mistake if I don’t want her to scold me.”

Everyone spoke worriedly. Their words went through one of Maru’s ears and out through the other. Her strict image was probably done to make an image of herself for the juniors. She would have an easier time with the juniors being cautious around her. She was incredibly good at making a product out of herself.

“Well, then. Those that want to go to round 2 can get going, and the kids should go home and get some sleep. I guess the next time we’ll meet is at the shoot. Watch out for your health until then, and let’s hope the shoot goes well. Dismissed!”

Park Hoon shouted in a loud voice. Everyone clapped and fired up their fighting spirit. Some of the actors seemed to have made appointments as they quickly left.

“Watch out on your way home.”

Maru said goodbye to the others and left the sushi restaurant. He was about to call Byungchan as he took in a breath of cold air when he saw people sitting at the table outside the convenience store across the street. When he had a closer look, he found out that they were managers. Byungchan was among them as well.

Maru smiled and approached them.

“Hyung-nims, the get-together just finished.”

“Oh, really?”

The managers couldn’t be seen ever since the get-together started for real, and it seemed that they were spending their time in the convenience store like this. When he talked and laughed together with the other managers, Byunchan asked in curiosity.

“You know these people?”

“I talked to them on the 2nd floor before the get-together started. Oh, hyung-nims, please wait a moment before you go.”

Maru went into the convenience store and bought enough warm coffee for everyone.

“You must be tired, so drink these before you drive. Also, Jaehan hyung-nim. I saw you drinking beer and soju. You aren’t planning to drive, are you?”

“Hey, hey. Don’t worry about that. I only drank because I was given the okay to go home since he had business.”

He gave coffee to all nine managers. The managers told him that they’d treat him to food one day before leaving.

“I was planning to introduce them to you, but you knew them already, huh.”

“I had to get to know them. They are the people closest to us. Only when I become close to them will I be able to make requests in the future.”

“Hey hey, don’t say that with a big smirk on your face. You look like a typical villain.”

“Really?”

Maru sat down on the chair. He could see actors getting in their cars across the street and drive off.

“How was it?”

“People are the same wherever you go. I just blended in.”

“Why do you sound like an old man? Rather than that, were there a lot of people around your age?”

“There’s a lot. Looks like the shoot will be fun.”

“There weren’t any strange kids?”

“Well, I guess I’ll find out who’s strange in due time. Oh yeah, how did your talk go with that manager you knew?”

“He’s looking into some other line of work. He says he’s done with this kind of work.”

Byungchan smiled bitterly.

“Why don’t you get a license too? I heard that welding licenses are the best.”

“Hey, don’t say anything strange. I’m going to become an actor.”

Byungchan sniffed as he drank his coffee.

“But hey, does welding make a lot of money?”

“It’s tough work, but the money makes it worth it.”

“Should I try it out then?”

“I heard you wanted to become an actor.”

“Well, I need to prepare for retirement.”

“Then let’s get it together later.”

“Huh? Why would you get it?”

“To prepare for retirement.”

The two giggled at each other before raising their heads simultaneously.

“It’s snowing.”

“It sure is.”

Maru reached out and grabbed a snowflake.

“It looks like it will really be a White Christmas,” said Byungchan with a sour face.

Maru laughed when he saw that.

Chapter 494

He met the same man yesterday. He had become used to greeting him with an awkward smile on his face.

He spat out a breath of white air before breathing in deeply again. The cold air that raised his hair made him wake up completely. Feeling the cold air cooling down his vocal cords, Maru shook his body slightly.

Maru thought that the snow had piled up quite a lot as he looked down at the apartment complex from the mountain. The cars had become blocks of white under the snow. It would take quite a lot of effort for people to go to work tomorrow.

He returned home as he walked on the sticky ground. Bada, who was usually asleep at this time, was heading to the bathroom while scratching her head.

“You have something to do today?”

“Yeah, *yawn*.”

He took off his coat and turned the stove on. When the soup was just about to boil, Bada came out of the bathroom, and his mother came out of her bedroom as well.

“Mrs. Lee, have you woken up?”

His mother stood next to him while sniffing.

“You have a cold?”

“I’m not sure. I did feel slightly cold yesterday, and then this happened.”

“You don’t have any work today, so just go back and rest some more. I’ll call you once the rice is ready.”

“I’m fine.”

“I’m not fine.”

After taking his mother, who was adamant on making side dishes, to her bed again, Maru cooked the rice. He put down the spoons and chopsticks around the table while listening to the blow dryer sounds.

“Let’s eat breakfast.”

His mother came wearing thick clothes, while Bada came with her bangs rolled in a hair roll.

“Where are you going?” His mother asked Bada.

Bada scooped a big spoonful of rice and spoke gibberish as she put it in her mouth.

“Don’t go anywhere strange, and don’t come back too late,” his mother didn’t pry any further.

“Okay.”

“And how about you, son? You staying at home today?”

“I’m leaving as well.”

Bada finished eating quickly and rushed back into her room. His mother asked if she got a boyfriend in a small voice.

“It wouldn’t be strange if she did.”

“Sheesh, kids these days are too fast. I hope they don’t cross the line too early.”

“Don’t worry, your daughter isn’t that stupid. She should be able to take care of herself. Rather than that, you keep coughing. Are you sure it’s not serious?”

“Colds are things that get cured with a bit of rest.”

His mother returned to her bedroom while coughing. After washing the dishes, Maru had a look at the clock. It was slightly past 9. He put his jacket on again and went to the pharmacy near his house.

“Please give me something for a cough. As well as two ssanghwa-tangs.”

When he returned home with the medicine, Bada was getting ready to leave. She was wearing a beige coat and a new-looking t-shirt. She had even put some makeup on.

“Play healthily, okay?”

“Don’t worry. Dowook-oppa is actually pretty pure.”

“Like hell he’s pure.”

“Oh, I’m going to use the card a bit today.”

“Don’t spend too much.”

Bada left saying ‘thanks’.

Maru opened the door to the main bedroom and peeked inside. His mother, who was sitting on the bed, was coughing dryly.

“You should lie down a little.”

“The fridge is totally empty. I have to go grocery shopping.”

“I’ll go in your stead so get some rest. This is some cough medicine so take it and get some sleep. There’s nothing better than sleep when it comes to colds.”

His mother refused him, but he boiled her the ssanghwa-tang he bought anyways. She didn’t seem to like medicine but she seemed to be okay with ssanghwa-tang as she drank it without making a fuss.

“I’ll ruin my body if I take medicine just because of a cold.”

“I get it already so lie down.”

Maru stood next to his mother for a while.

“I thought you were leaving? Why are you still here?”

“Mom.”

“Yeah?”

“Why don’t you stop working? Working at the supermarket isn’t that easy, is it? You have to be standing all day, and facing customers should be stressful, too.”

“I should do it so that I can do something when you and Bada get married.”

“Don’t you know that kids grow up even without you having to do anything? You did everything when you gave birth to us. I heard you saying that the ahjummas are going travelling together.”

His mother was part of a housewives group that had formed between people that went to the same barbershop, and Maru had overheard his mother say that they were going to Jeju island together. She was saying how Jeju island during winter had a different charm than the other seasons.

“What travelling.”

“Why don’t you go?”

“Sheesh, forget it. Don’t say anything strange and get going.”

His mother kept coughing as she said those words. Maru left and returned with a cup of hot water.

“I’m not saying this out for nothing. I have a fixed amount of income now, and I think I will keep having one in the future. I understand that you want to keep working, but your complexion looks really pale these days. If you really want to do it, do it after getting plenty of rest.”

“I told you I’m fine.”

“Listen to your son. If you get ill while earning money, it will only harm you. Dad seems worried, too. He’s not saying anything because you’re adamant on working, but he probably wants you to stop as well.”

“Oh, geez.”

His mother made a complicated expression.

“I’m not going to ask you to send me to college, and I’m not going to ask you to buy me a house either. Mom, you actually don’t need to spend any money on me anymore. It’s not like Bada is asking you to send her to cram schools either. You kept working even after getting married, didn’t you? No one will blame you if you take a bit of a rest. There’s no one to say that to you either. Go travelling with your friends and get plenty of rest. If you still want to work after you become healthy, you can do that at that time.”

Maru sat down on the chair in front of the makeup table and continued speaking,

“Also, I don’t think I can keep up with cooking and washing the dishes every morning. We need a full-time housewife. Mrs. Lee, let me rest for a bit as well,” Maru said with a smile.

His mother stared at his face for a while before letting out a breath. Maru didn’t know whether it was a laugh or a sigh.

“Looks like my son has grown up after earning money from elsewhere.”

“Your son was mature from the beginning.”

“Fine. However, you have to contribute my monthly wage’s worth of money to the family account. If you can’t do that, this conversation never happened.”

“As expected, Mrs. Lee. You’re really meticulous when it comes to calculations.”

“It’s been twenty years since I lived with your immature father. This much is nothing.”

“Don’t worry. I can do that no problem.”

His mother, who hugged her knees with a smile on her face, spoke,

“You’re giving pocket money to Bada too, aren’t you?”

“Did she tell you that?”

“She never asked me for money even though she’s going out. It’s not like your father is quick-witted enough to give her money before me. So, there’s only one option left.”

Maru nodded.

“I’m earning enough, so you don’t have to worry and can get plenty of rest. You should go on that Jeju island trip as well. You should also boast to your friends about it as well; about how your son let you go.”

“I already told them that you’re on TV. But no one seemed to know you though. You really should appear in daily dramas. The ladies like that kind of stuff.”

“Mom, the competition for that is really high. It’s not something a beginner like me can try.”

“You are still a beginner?”

“I am. Also, there’s another pack of ssanghwa-tang, so take it when you feel like you need to. If you really feel strange, you should go to the hospital.”

He told her to rest before standing up. He closed the door and sighed in relief. He was worried that she would be adamant on working, but thankfully, she listened to him.

“It’s cold out there. Make sure you wear enough clothing.”

“I will.”

Maru put his jacket on before leaving. He was putting his scarf on as he was walking towards the bus stop when he received a message.

-You know mom really appreciates you right?

“Sheesh, you’re making me feel embarrassed.”

Maru faintly smiled before replying that she should go to sleep already.

* * *

She blew a breath of warm air into her hands. She didn’t realize that it was cold since she was so absorbed in watching the snow when she left, but now that she was staying still, she was shivering.

“Is he not here yet?”

She looked at the mirror she attached on the back of her phone. She thought that she had tidied her bangs in the morning, but now that she looked at it, they were a mess. She pouted and quickly started tidying it with her hands.

“You’re pretty even without doing that.”

She quickly put her phone inside her bag and turned around when she heard the voice.

“Why are you so late?”

“There’s still ten minutes until the appointed time. I’m still early, you know?”

“So, you’re proud of that?”

“No, of course not. It’s my fault, why of course.”

Maru grinned from ear to ear. She also chuckled.

“But why did you wear so little?”

Maru untied the scarf around his neck and stepped closer to her. She widened her eyes before pushing her neck outwards.

“You’re such a hard girl to handle.”

“Give it to me quickly. I feel cold.”

Maru wrapped the scarf around her neck for a while before making an evil smirk and wrapped her face with it as well. She shouted ‘hey’ in annoyance and punched out when she felt her vision darken.

“Don’t go around punching anyone. I think you might knock someone out with it,” Maru said as he put the scarf on her properly this time.

“I’m not such a violent girl, you know?”

“Yeah, right.”

“Hey, Mr. Han Maru, you keep getting on my nerves recently. Do you want a beating?”

“No.”

Maru reached out his hand. She shrugged before grabbing it. She felt warmth from their locked hands.

“Hey, let’s get your hair done,” she said as she pressed on Maru’s hair.

His hair had grown out quite considerably behind his head.

“Doesn’t your agency care about that?”

“They do, but only if I do anything. There haven't been any shoots lately.”

“You should still get your hair cut frequently. You give off a scary impression so you really need to care about your hair. Why don’t you try glasses today? I think it will make your impression look a lot smoother. Wait, let’s get everything done today since we’re at it,” she said as she locked her arms around his.

Maru flinched and tried to distance himself, but she quickly grabbed him and did not let go.

“I thought we were going to Daehak-ro to watch a play today.”

“We can do that next time.”

“Why don’t we go watch one today? We can go to your favorite pork cutlet restaurant. Oh, the curry on the next block over is good too.”

“You…”

She narrowed her eyes and looked at Maru. Maru shook his head.

“I’ve decided. Let’s go over to Yoojin’s right now.”

“Huh? Why there?”

“Because her mother runs a hair shop. I went there last time and it was really good.”

“No, but there’s no need to go today, is there?”

“Then we’ll go shopping for clothes together. I’ve been thinking about this for a while, but your clothing style is really bad. That vest and padded jacket you wore when we went fishing last time especially!”

Maru looked down at the clothes he was wearing.

“This is warm and good. It only costs 20 thousand won, but the durability and heat retention is really…”

“It totally makes you look like an old man though!”

She pointed at the shirt and cardigan that he was wearing underneath his padded jacket. A white and grey match. It looked clean and neat.

“You really care about the inside, so why not care about your jacket too?”

“Warm clothes are the best clothes.”

“You’re saying the same thing as my mom. Alright, I’m done with this. I got some money recently from the TV station, okay? Let’s go buy a good jacket for you with that. Also, one for my mom while we’re at it. Though, I won’t be able to get anything too expensive.”

“Forget it.”

“No. Let me spend some as well. Also, we’re going to get you a pair of glasses. Your eyes are good so let’s get one that doesn’t have any strength. Since your face is really angular, you’ll look cute with round glasses.”

She smiled and pulled Maru forward. Maru struggled because he didn’t want to go, but when she pinched his waist, he started walking slowly.

“We’re going to keep the window shopping short, right?”

“Who knows?”

She smiled as she listened to Maru’s sigh.

It was going to be a fun shopping time.

Chapter 495

Yoojin laughed as soon as she received the call and then changed her clothes before leaving. She was planning to get some rest during the day since she had an appointment at night, but she couldn’t miss this opportunity. She rushed to the street and grabbed a taxi.

“Take me to Hena Shop in front of Yeoksam station.”

Yoojin fiddled with her phone as she looked outside the window. Since they were coming by train, they should have arrived by now. She stopped the taxi at the junction before getting out. She found a couple holding hands in front of a building that was entirely covered in glass. Yoojin waved her hand and approached them.

“You’re actually here.”

“I dragged him here even though he didn’t want to.”

“Now that you did well. I always thought about this, but this guy really needs to get his hair done properly. Why don’t we try a baby perm on him?”

“I think that’ll suit him.”

Bunbun pulled on Maru’s clothes with a big grin on her face.

“Please touch it up just a little bit.”

“Let’s think about that once we’re inside.”

Yoojin opened the door and entered. The staff greeted her with a smile, and the head manager-unni standing behind them waved her hand and came to them.

“Where’s mom?”

“She’s not here because she had something to do at the branch shop. But what brings you here at this hour?”

Yoojin brought over Maru and had him stand in front of the head manager-unni.

“I want to change this guy’s style a little.”

“Who’s he? A friend of yours?”

“The boyfriend of a close friend of mine,” said Yoojin as she looked at Bunbun.

“Then I guess I should do it myself. I don’t have any appointments at this hour either.”

“I’ll be thankful if you do it, unni.”

Exchanging gazes with Bunbun, Yoojin had Maru sit on a chair. Maru looked around in unease as he sat down.

“Is this your first time coming to a place like this?” Yoojin asked.

“Not really. I’ve been to places like this quite often.”

“Quite often?”

“…In my dreams.”

He was speaking gibberish. Bunbun, who stood next to him, tapped on his forehead. The head manager brought a cape and put it around him.

“How would you like your hair done?”

Maru couldn’t look into the eyes of the smiling head manager. Yoojin poked Bunbun’s waist.

“Hey, he’s flustered.”

“You’re right. I’ve never seen him act like that before.”

“Should we keep watching him for a while? It looks fun.”

Bunbun fell into thought for a moment before nodding her head. They took steps back and observed as Maru mumbled. The scene of Maru desperately trying to find Bunbun through the mirror was so rare that Yoojin took photos of him with her phone while holding back her laugh. Bunbun also took photos.

“Why is he so flustered?”

“Looks like it really is his first time in a place like this.”

“Should we save him now? I think he might cry at this rate.”

“We should. He actually gets mad quite a lot, so it’d be troublesome if he does.”

Bunbun hummed as she walked forward. She always hummed that melody when she was having fun. As soon as Bunbun appeared, Maru sighed in relief.

“Why are you so flustered?”

“Because I don’t know anything. I’ll just go with a sports style cut.”

Maru desperately pleaded with Bunbun. Bunbun seemed to have become weak-hearted as well as she fell into thought while tapping her lips. Yoojin thought that this was her time to step up.

“No way, you came all the way here, so you can’t leave with just that. An actor should change up his image frequently. Only if you find the style you like should you start polishing up based on that style. Why don’t we dye your hair while we’re at it as well?”

“I have a shoot, so I need to keep it black.”

“Oh, really?”

“Just make me look like a student. A high school student can’t exactly have a peculiar hairstyle. I don’t want to get an earful from the producer later,” Maru argued logically.

“Oh, you’re an actor too?” The head manager-unni asked as she combed through Maru’s hair.

Maru nodded without saying anything.

“Unni, please look after this guy carefully. I don’t know when, but he will definitely become popular. Mom said that as well.”

“If the owner said that, then I guess I really should take good care of him. So, what do you suppose we do? From what I heard just now, I don’t think changing him up too much is allowed since he has a shoot.”

At that moment, Bunbun spoke.

“The character he’s playing is an intellectual one. A type of person who can use his smarts.”

“Really?”

“Also, we’re going to try putting glasses on him.”

“If it’s like that, why don’t we cut his back hair short and polish his bangs like this? Also, let’s do his eyebrows too.”

“Uhm, you can just use a hair clipper…”

When Maru tried to say something, Bunbun immediately covered his mouth. At times like these, Yoojin thought that Bunbun really had full control over him.

“Then please do it that way,” Bunbun said with a smile.

The head manager-unni said that he should listen to his girlfriend and consoled the sighing Maru.

“Let’s drink some coffee. I’ll make you some.”

Yoojin put some coffee beans from the shop on top of a coffee filter and poured hot water over it little by little. She picked up the steaming coffee mugs and went to sit next to Bunbun on the sofa.

“How’s it going with that crazy woman these days?”

Crazy woman - that was what Yoojin called Lee Miyoon. Bunbun grabbed a mug and spoke,

“The thing is, you really get used to getting insulted.”

“That’s not a good thing you know?”

“But she’s not shouting at me like before. These days, we don’t meet each other that often since our shoots don’t overlap. At first, I was frustrated and sighed all the time, but I don’t feel anything now. Also, I look at her with the gaze that’s asking if she has anything to nitpick with me, right? Then that woman snorts and turns around. That makes me a little thrilled.”

“Sheesh, hey. You really have a lot of courage. What are you going to do if she does say something to you?”

“I already declared war, so I won’t lose.”

Bunbun looked resolute. Yoojin stared at her for a while before pressing down on Bunbun’s wrinkled forehead.

“You’ll get wrinkles like that.”

“Ah, right.”

“Also, are you really looking after yourself recently? You have a pimple here.”

“Oh that, I get one on that spot all the time.”

“You should really take care of yourself. My mom always tells me that the skin is vital for an actress. You know that cameras have become really good and they capture every little detail on your face, right? One of the model-unnis that comes to the shop a lot told me that the skin is decided from birth, but you can’t ignore constant management.”

“I do have to look after it I guess.”

“And Maru, too.”

“He seems to be taking care of himself if not for his strange hair and jacket. I heard that he uses mask packs all the time.”

“That was unexpected.”

“I also thought that when I first heard him and he told me that he would be disqualified as an actor if he couldn’t take care of his own body.”

“At least he knows it. Even though he never went to a proper stylist shop before.”

Yoojin looked at Maru sitting on the chair. Whenever the head manager-unni asked him a question while cutting his hair, he replied awkwardly with a very tough expression on his face. Even though he was usually very snappy, he was being awkward in a place like this. She suddenly wondered how he would react if he was taken to a nail shop. If she told Bunbun about it, she would probably take him to one with joy.

“Looks like your mother is really busy.”

“My mom’s always busy. She has meetings, gets invitations, and stuff like that all the time. An unni that worked with her for a long time has recently opened a branch store, and she’s been going there a lot recently.”

At that moment, the door opened and a woman with messy hair entered. The head manager-unni realized who she was first and greeted her.

“Oh, what brings you here?”

“Looks like you’re busy. I had to come here without a reservation since I had something urgent.”

“The owner isn’t here right now though.”

“What about the designer who took care of me last time? That unni was good.”

“She’s on break today.”

“Then I’ll wait a bit, so can you take care of me, unni? I have plenty of time today.”

“Alright, then. It won’t take that long.”

The woman was led by an employee to a private waiting room. Bunbun asked in a small voice.

“That person is Hyerim, isn’t she?”

“Yeah, she’s a regular here.”

“You must see a lot of celebrities here, huh.”

“Yeah. Since my mom has a lot of connections, all sorts of people come to visit.”

Yoojin didn’t feel anything since this happened rather frequently. Once, she tried sitting here all week and saw numerous celebrities being guided quietly to private waiting rooms. If they made reservations, they were led to the 2nd floor, so the normal customers didn’t even see them usually. Also, most celebrities came here late at night or before dawn.

“Hey, he’s sleeping,” said Yoojin as she pointed at Maru.

He was cocking his head like a chicken.

“Do men feel sleepy when they get their hair done?”

“You tell me. It’s so curious. How can they be so insensitive?”

“He’ll probably wake up saying that a strange style is also okay.”

“You’re right.”

At that moment, the door opened again.

“Huh!”

Yoojin stood up in surprise this time. There was an unexpected guest behind her mom, who came in with a smile on her face.

“Come in.”

“Nice shop.”

“Of course it is. How much do you think I spent on interior design?”

The person that came in while talking to her mother was Ahn Joohyun.

“Hello, senior,” said Yoojin as she stood in front of Joohyun.

Bunbun was staring in a daze from afar. Joohyun blinked her eyes a few times before smiling.

“Didn’t think I’d see you here.”

Yoojin’s mom, who stood next to her, laughed quietly as she covered her mouth before speaking,

“That’s good. I was about to call you here too. But my daughter, what brings you here?”

"A friend of mine was looking to get a haircut."

Yoojin called over Bunbun. Bunbun approached and introduced herself.

“I see, I see. You’re a friend of Yoojin, huh.”

“And him.”

“Him?”

She pointed at Maru, who barely opened his eyes. Her mom narrowed her eyes to look at him before exclaiming ‘aha’.

“He’s the one I saw at the movie get-together. I should say hi to him later.”

Her mom quietly approached Maru and tapped on his shoulder. Maru flinched in surprise and turned to look at her. While the two had a conversation, Yoojin talked to Joohyun in front of her.

“What brings you here?”

“The owner of the hair shop I usually went to said she was going overseas for education. I was originally going to go to the shop that my agency introduced me to, but that person recommended your mother to me. I heard about this place a lot, but never actually got to visit this place, so this is my first time here. Oh, I know her on a personal basis, but this is the first time I’ve come to the shop.”

“Welcome. I’m not saying this just because she’s my mom, but her skills are really good.”

“I know, I know. Rather than that, I guess we haven’t met since the movie, right?”

“We haven’t. Didn’t you miss me?”

“Not really?”

“What a shame. And here I was once your daughter.”

When she said those words, Joohyun grabbed Yoojin’s cheeks and twisted them.

“Even though you were so awkward in front of me when we first met.”

“I always act nervous in front of seniors I respect. Oh, you’re busy these days, aren’t you?”

“I am, I guess. But why’s Maru here?”

“Because we want to change his hairstyle. Oh, and this is a friend of mine.”

“Hello.”

Bunbun greeted as she introduced herself. When Joohyun heard her name, she immediately looked at her hand.

While Bunbun was at a loss, Joohyun reached out. She grabbed Bunbun’s right hand and raised it to her eye level.

“So it’s you.”

“Eh?”

“The girlfriend that Maru’s been boasting about.”

“He boasts about her?” Yoojin asked while laughing.

“He told me that there’s a really skilled person. I asked him who it was and he told me that it was his girlfriend with a big grin on his face.”

“Really?”

“This rabbit ring is a couple ring, right? He was wearing it even when he came out as a minor character in The Witness.”

Joohyun closed in on Bunbun’s face and narrowed her eyes. Bunbun smiled awkwardly and tried to step back, but Joohyun held her still.

“You’re an aspiring actress, aren’t you?”

“Y-yes.”

Yoojin explained to her that Bunbun was already appearing in sitcoms.

“Really? What about an agency?”

“I don’t have one yet.”

“Ah, I see.”

She nodded before reaching out her hand again. This time, it was for a handshake.

“I’m Ahn Joohyun.”

Surprised, Bunbun grabbed her hand quickly.

Yoojin looked at the two from next to them. On one side, there was an actress who had entered the ranks of top stars, while on the other side, there was an actress who hadn’t even made a name for herself.

‘But they look good with each other?’

Joohyun and her sharp impression and the cute Bunbun matched each other strangely well.

“Let me in too,” said Yoojin as she stepped in between the two.

Joohyun smiled and hugged her neck with her arm as well.

“Let’s go watch that guy who’s been gazing at us this whole time.”

Joohyun, with Yoojin and Bunbun on either side, walked wide strides and stood behind Maru. Maru, who looked at Joohyun through the mirror, made a sour expression.

“Please don’t say anything.”

“Why? It suits you. Why don’t you just shave everything off?”

The sighing Maru and the grinning Joohyun seemed to be on close terms. Yoojin could see her mom’s eyes flash. Her habit was probably coming out again.

“Oh my, how crowded. Why don’t we sit down and have a talk? We need to finish this boy up first after all.”

Her mom pointed at the waiting room behind the counter.

Chapter 496

Maru recognized the woman that approached him, asking him if he remembered her. She was the woman who was standing with Yoojin during the get-together for Twilight Struggles. She was probably Yoojin’s mother. He nodded when she told him that he should come around often in the future. From the way she looked at him as though she was evaluating his worth for a brief moment, this woman didn’t seem as good as she did on the surface.

“You and Miss Joohyun know each other?” asked the lady who was doing his hair.

Maru explained to her that they shot a few scenes together before.

“You must be quite famous then.”

“It’s not like that at all. I only appeared for brief moments as minor characters.”

“But doesn’t it mean something when someone as famous as her recognizes you first? Try your best. Who knows? You might actually become famous one day.”

I want to become like that too - Maru smiled instead of replying and looked into the mirror. This was the first time he got a haircut in a place like this. He had been to many places like this as a manager in his previous life, but he had never actually sat in one of these chairs himself. As he thought that going to the neighborhood barber was the best option, being asked if he was okay with his current looks constantly by the stylist was stifling to him.

“You said that you were going to put on glasses, right? Wait a bit.”

He was going to tell her that it was okay, but the lady had already left. When she returned, she was holding a pair of round glasses in her hands. Maru remembered that one of the female employees here seemed to be wearing those. Did she get them from her?

“Try putting them on. You’re a friend of Yoojin, so we have to take proper care of you.”

Maru felt dizzy the moment he wore those glasses since they were very strong. The lady looked at Maru’s face from afar before nodding her head as though she had decided on a decision.

“Looks like we should reveal your forehead a little more. These glasses suit you as well. I think I’ll be done if I cut a bit more side hair, so wait a bit.”

Snip snip - scissors danced next to his ears. When he was told to open his eyes a while later, Maru opened his eyes slowly. His figure reflected in the mirror looked pretty good. The neat side hair was very much to his liking. Men really needed to cut their side hair short.

“I’ll wash your head.”

After washing his head, he had his hair dried with a dryer. The lady dusted his hair a few times and snipped a few more times with her scissors before taking her hands off, saying that she was done. After taking off the cape, Maru approached the mirror.

“It’s nice and neat.”

“You like it?”

“Yes, I do.”

He wasn’t saying empty words. His hair really looked good. Perhaps this was why people went to expensive hair shops. He had a brief thought that maybe the results would’ve been even better if he exchanged opinions with the hairstylist, but he came to the conclusion that that would’ve been useless since he didn’t know anything about hairstyles.

“I’ll be taking my leave since there’s a customer waiting for me. Your friends should be in the waiting room behind the counter. Tell me any time if you don’t like your hair. I’ll polish it up quickly.”

Maru said his goodbyes before going to the waiting room. When he went inside, he saw four people sitting around the table.

“That looks much better on you,” said Yoojin.

She, who was sitting next to her, quietly smiled before telling him that it suited him. Maru smiled awkwardly since he felt rather embarrassed.

“Then you three can talk by yourselves. Miss Joohyun, let’s go to my room.”

“Okay. See you two next time. And you too, Maru.”

Maru sat down as he listened to Yoojin’s mother say that they should take their time here. Maru strangely felt tired even though all he did was let someone else do his hair.

“You were dozing off and you’re still tired?” asked Yoojin as she offered him a cup of coffee.

“It’s because this doesn’t suit me.”

“You’ll have to become used to it.”

“That’s not good news.”

He took a sip. The bitter taste spread around in his mouth. His dreamy consciousness felt like it was coming back.

“Why is senior Joohyun here?”

“Apparently, the owner of the hair shop she’s a regular at went overseas to study,” she replied. After saying that, she yawned a little.

“Are you sleepy?”

“Maybe it’s because I warmed up. I’m a little sleepy.”

“If you’re tired, you can lean on me and sleep. I’ll sleep a bit as well.”

“Shall I?”

At that moment, Yoojin, who was watching them from the side, spoke,

“You guys really poke where it hurts.”

She and Maru chuckled.

“What are you going to do now?”

“I’m going to take him to some shops. The department store should be too expensive, so I’m probably going to independent shops.”

“Ah, you said you were buying Maru clothes, didn’t you? I wonder if I should join you guys. I need a place to kill time until dinner.”

“Then let’s go together. It’ll be less boring with the three of us.”

Maru narrowed his eyes and looked at her smiling face.

“Uhm, hello? Weren’t we supposed to be on a date today?”

“Who says only two people can go on dates? Also, I’m going to take you shopping all day today, so it’ll be better if Yoojin’s with us. She has a good eye for clothes after all.”

She seemed to have already come to a decision. Maru turned around to look at Yoojin. He signalled her to stay out of it, but Yoojin made a suspicious smile and said ‘let’s go’.

Dammit.

“Do you want to try the shops in front of the station first? There are a lot of stores on clearance so you should be able to get a lot for cheap. I saw them putting up a bunch of padded jackets for sale, so there’s probably some left.”

Yoojin walked ahead of them like their boss.

A cold wind blew past them as soon as they left the hair shop. Maru told her to put on the scarf.

“It’s cold.”

“If it’s cold, you can just go, you know?”

“It’s suddenly not cold at all!”

Yoojin grinned. She, who was next to him, approached Yoojin and hooked her arms around her. Maru stuck up his middle finger at Yoojin who looked at him with a smug expression. The only thing he got back was a snort.

As they walked towards the station, they saw a lot of independent stores just like Yoojin said. Flyers advertising cheap off-season products were rolling on the ground.

“Should we try that place first?”

“Yeah.”

The two girls opened the door to a shop with glee on their faces. Maru thought about it for ten seconds before deciding that he should not be entering the store. However, his decision was mercilessly trampled upon by the two that left the store to get him. Being dragged inside the store, Maru had to try on clothes like a lab rat. Resistance was out of the question.

“Is this better?”

“No, I think this looks better.”

Maru glanced at the clothes she told him to try on before speaking,

“I tried this on before.”

“I know.”

“But then why do I have to do it again?”

“Just try it on.”

“…We are planning to buy things here, right?”

Hearing that question, she avoided his gaze and started humming to herself. Maru saw a small tremble in the corner of her eyes. He fell into the trap. It was the discount sale trap that all married men went through. They would be dragged around to all sorts of places under the excuse that ‘there was something to buy’ and end up buying a bunch of useless things.

Telling the wife to just go home after buying a few things would only result in ‘why don’t you just wait in the car’ along with a fierce glare. It was a one-sided match that men could never dream of winning.

Not only that, there was another girl fanning the flames here.

Was this hell?

“There aren’t any pretty things here.”

“You’re right. Let’s try the next store.”

Maru tried to shake off her arm with a slightly dazed expression, but her gripping strength was quite considerable, not matching her cute face. In the end, he was dragged to the next store, and the same thing repeated again.

“This looks good. I want this.”

Under the pressure that the day would end fruitlessly at this rate, he ended up choosing clothes he liked, but that was the wrong move.

“See? This guy only likes stuff like this one.”

“Hey, this looks exactly like the ones ahjussis wear to hiking every weekend.”

“This is not good. I can’t trust this guy anymore. Yoojin, let’s tell Maru properly what kinds of clothes he needs to look for.”

“Good. I’ll gladly join you for that one.”

Haha - Maru laughed dryly as he put down the padded jacket in his hands. The padded jacket, which was a mix of red and grey, and had sufficient padding inside the jacket fell on top of the counter. The price was only 25 thousand won as well. It was really good for the price.

“Should we go to Dongdaemun after all?”

“That is definitely a better option, but-”

What the heck was this about? Maru interrupted their conversation. He tried to persuade the two that there should be good clothes here as well. If he was dragged all the way to Dongdaemun by them for clothes, they might as well drag him to Namdaemun for a pair of cosmetic glasses. His plan to spend his date in leisure might actually become out of reach.

“Well, I guess going to Dongdaemun doesn’t really make a difference.”

“It’s a pain to confront the owners there too. I was there last time, and they were scolding me for staring at the clothes for a while.”

“Right, right. They really scare us and look down on us just because we’re young.”

Thankfully, they seemed to have decided that going to Dongdaemun wasn’t the right idea.

Maru smiled powerlessly as he looked at the two girls walking into the next store. If he knew things were going to be like this, he should’ve told her that they should meet at home.

Maru put his hands inside his padded jacket. A box could be felt by his fingertips. He bought a necklace as a Christmas present, but the right time to gift it to her wasn’t coming. He couldn’t give this to her as long as Yoojin was around. He couldn’t leave her with teasing material for another year.

“Hey, what are you doing! Come in!”

Yoojin opened the door and shouted at him. All the passersby stared at them. Maru palmed his face and sighed in a small voice.

* * *

“Hm, this looks good.”

“Then let’s go with this, okay?”

“Han Maru, why does your face look so unwilling, huh?”

“Me? When did I look like that? Can’t you see me smiling? I’m so happy right now.”

Sure - Yoojin remarked while bursting out into a laugh. She was covering her mouth and laughing as well. He thought that everything was over when they managed to buy a padded jacket, but there were the glasses left.

Maru took off the large horn-rimmed glasses. Looking at her, who kept making him wear uncomfortable glasses and then laughing at his looks, he felt bitter and happy at the same time. Nothing relieved Maru more than her laughing at ease.

“Stop playing around, I think this is good. What about you, Yoojin?”

The pair she was holding was just a rim with short legs. The part where the lens was supposed to be was mostly round but was slightly angled at the corners. It was a mixture of silver and black.

“Wouldn’t that make him look old?”

“I thought that too, but look closely.”

She approached Maru and changed his glasses. Maru sat down upright and looked at her and Yoojin. After making a ‘hmm’ sound, Yoojin clapped.

“It does look good on him.”

“Right?”

“He looks mature. Not like, the old kind of mature, but, hm, hm, good.”

Yoojin raised her thumb. She laughed and told him to look in the mirror. Maru looked in the mirror next to him. His eyes that made him look cold looked a little softer now because of the glasses. He could tell that his impression had changed a lot at a glance.

“What do you think?”

“This looks okay. I’ll ask the producer if I can wear them during the shoot,” Maru said as he took off the rims.

He could see her with a satisfied smile on her face.

He had been dragged around for many hours today, but he felt that it was all worth it when he looked at that smile. If she was happy, then he was happy as well.

“Thanks.”

“Don’t mention it.”

Maru held out the rims to the optician.

“Please give me these.”

Chapter 497

“Merry Christmas.”

“Merry Christmas.”

Although it was a bit late, they separated from Yoojin with a greeting that was only allowed on Christmas. She waved at Yoojin, who disappeared in a taxi, and spat out a breath of white air.

“I heard that snowy days aren’t as cold.”

“It’s snowing because it’s cold.”

“Is that how it works?”

Maru grabbed her hand and started walking.

“You’re done shopping for the day, right?”

“Why do you ask? You want to do some more?”

“Of course not.”

“Oh, I thought you wanted to look around some more.”

She swung her hands back and forth while smiling. The hand he was holding moved back and forth like a swing.

“Are you hungry?”

“I was about to ask that. Now that I think about it, we didn’t even have a proper lunch, did we?”

“All we had was hotteok[1], I guess.”

They didn’t have lunch properly since they were busy walking around looking through clothes. It was 4 p.m. Although it was still a little early for dinner, Maru’s stomach was rumbling, wanting food.

“Why don’t we go there?”

The place she pointed at was a shabu-shabu[2] restaurant. A hot soup was perfect on a cold day like this. Thinking that it was a good choice, they entered that restaurant.

“Welcome. A table for two?”

“Yes.”

“Come this way.”

Since it was a public holiday, the restaurant was quite crowded. They sat by the window and Maru took off the padded jacket that she bought for him. They had spent an hour looking before deciding on this. Maru thought that he should wear it for a long time as he looked at it.

“Are you fine with the spicy one?”

“Yeah.”

They ordered the spicy broth. As for meat, they ordered 3 portions for now. Since she had a good appetite, it probably wouldn’t be enough. They were given a kettle with broth that was intended for drinking and Maru poured it into cups. The white soup filled up the cup. After putting down a cup in front of her, Maru tried drinking some as well.

“It’s good.”

“It is.”

The strong taste of seasoning was to Maru’s liking. Maru wasn’t planning on eating healthy so he liked strongly seasoned foods more. When he poured another cup for her, they got the shabu-shabu they ordered. After they put it on the stove and turned it on, the broth started boiling.

“You should leave the thick slices of mushroom in the soup for a while, and as for the rest, you can eat them immediately.”

Maru put a bunch of vegetables into the broth and cooked some thin slices of beef before putting it on her plate.

“I’ll eat by myself. You should eat as well.”

“Don’t worry about me.”

She blew on the meat to cool it down and ate it before making a joyous expression. Maru looked at her. Perhaps this was why being next to someone could empower a person so much.

“How’s the shoot these days? Isn’t it hard?”

“It’s hard, but it’s fun. I’m a little worried though.”

“Why’s that?”

“Because I feel like my portion keeps decreasing.”

She twitched her lips and twirled her chopsticks in the soup to look for the mushroom.

“At first, I started off with the mindset that I’m learning, but I still find it a bit of a pity. When Jiseok says he has a shoot but I’m staying at home, I feel like I’m lagging behind. If I get fired up because of that and stand in front of the camera, I get scolded for being too tense. Acting really is hard after all.”

“It just comes down to experience. If you get more experience, you’ll be able to do better.”

“Is that how it is?”

“It is how it is.”

Maru put some cooked meat on her plate again. Even while saying that he didn’t need to do so, she ate the meat quickly.

“Should we order some more?”

She nodded faintly. Maru ordered two more portions of meat before speaking,

“What are you going to do from now on? If you are going to continue being an actress, I think you should look into joining an agency. There’s a limit to how much you can do by yourself.”

“I’m still thinking about that. I do want to, but I keep wondering if it’s the right thing to do and keep hesitating. Acting definitely is fun. I want to keep doing it as well. But wanting to do something and doing something well are two different things, right? I don’t want to jump in hastily.”

“In my eyes, I think you’re doing plenty well.”

“Let’s say it’s a matter of confidence. Actually, I don’t know either. It’s a bit different from doing plays after all.”

“It is.”

“Mom’s telling me to do what I want to do, but there’s no guarantee that I would be as lucky as this time around.”

“You said that a graduate at your school connected you to the audition, right?”

“Yes. She works for an agency.”

“Did you look into that?”

“I asked her once before, and unfortunately, they aren’t looking for new actors for the time being.”

“What a pity.”

Maru picked up a suitably cooked mushroom before looking at her eyes. She chewed for a while before shaking her head.

“Don’t mention JA. I don’t think I’ll be able to last if I join like that. Also… that’s a place for only the talented people.”

“That’s not entirely true. The president supports people as long as he deems that they’re worth investing in. It’s not as much as an exclusive contract, but he’ll give you some form of care. Daemyung is going to receive college tuition from him. Of course, I’m not saying that Daemyung is bad at acting, but still.”

She bit on her chopsticks and looked at him. From her expression, it didn’t seem like she liked that. Maru smiled and no longer spoke. He did not plan to force her to do something she didn’t want to do. He could try explaining to her that grabbing an opportunity through people she knew wasn’t a bad thing, but he did not want to deny her way of life outright nor tell her to follow him. It had to be her decision. The only thing he could do was to give her some advice.

“I’ll tell you when JA is holding an audition to recruit new actors. That’s okay with you, right?”

She nodded. After looking at the pot that only had a few pieces of mushroom left, she spoke,

“Am I being too stuffy? It’s not that different from how I got the audition for the sitcom through a school senior.”

“It is a bit different. I understand where you’re coming from.”

Hearing those words, she made a sullen expression.

Maru raised his voice a little and spoke,

“Looks like I brought up something I shouldn’t have. You’ll be getting calls from various places because of your skills soon enough.”

“That’s obviously not happening.”

“You never know.”

She made a sour expression before saying that it would be great if it was like that. They left the restaurant after finishing their meal.

“It’s snowing again.”

Reaching out her hand, she brightly smiled and told Maru to see. There was a large snowflake on her palm. Though, it soon melted away.

“Looks like it’ll pile up again.”

“You’re right.”

“Where should we go now?”

“I want to drink some coffee.”

Maru pointed at the café on the other side. Actually, he wasn’t desperate for coffee. He just needed a quiet space.

“I’ll buy you the coffee.”

“Nah. I received a present from you today, so let me buy one for you today.”

“Then should I rip you off a lot? Maybe I’ll get some cake too.”

“You have the room for that?”

“There’s always room for desserts.”

She tapped on her stomach as she entered the café. They bought two cups of coffee and a chocolate muffin. She grabbed a table first and watched the snow outside. She was waving her toes, and they seemed to be in sync with the lights flickering on the other side of the road.

Maru quietly looked at her. He wished for her to only see and experience the pretty side of life without experiencing any of the hardships and bitterness of it. Just then, the emotions he had when he looked at his daughter became vivid again.

‘No wait, was it a son?’

Perhaps one day, he would even forget that he had a child at all?

“Here’s your order.”

He picked up the tray and walked towards her.

“Am I ordering you around too much today?”

“You can do that on a day like this. Here’s your coffee.”

He put down the tray and sat down. She grabbed the mug with both of her hands before drinking a sip. She smiled. It seemed that the coffee was not bad.

Maru thought that now was the right time and reached into his chest pocket.

“Here.”

“What’s this?”

“A Christmas present.”

“Ah… but I…”

“I already got mine.”

Maru lifted up the padded jacket. She widened her eyes before leaning backwards slightly in embarrassment.

“Aren’t you going to open it?”

“Can I?”

“I’m going to put it on you, but you can open the box.”

She nodded and opened the box. She carefully took out the necklace inside and put it on her palms.

“It’s so pretty.”

“Do you like it?”

“Yeah.”

“That’s good. I was worried when I was deciding. Can I put it on you now?”

“This? That’s a little…”

Maru got the necklace from her. She flinched and shrunk her neck back, but she eventually brushed her hair to one side, making it easier for Maru to put the necklace on her.

Maru grabbed the necklace in his hands to get rid of the coldness before putting it around her neck.

“If you wrap it twice, you should be able to use it as a bracelet.”

She fidgeted with the small jewel on her neck before frowning.

“It wasn’t expensive, was it?”

“Don’t worry. It wasn’t that expensive.”

“Why does that sound like it was expensive to me?”

“Please just pretend that you didn’t ask.”

“…Thanks.”

“Now all you need is a plunge dress to go with it.”

“There you go again with your mouth!”

She grabbed Maru’s lips before letting them go.

“The coffee is going to get cold. You should drink.”

“Yeah.”

Even while drinking the coffee, she fidgeted with the necklace. It seemed that she had taken a liking to it. He felt relieved to see her so happy about it. He was worried when he bought it thinking that she might not like it.

“Oh, did you get the stamp for this place?”

“No.”

“There’s one of these stores around my house. I got a coupon last time too.”

“I can’t be bothered with that.”

“Give me the coupon. I’ll get it. 8 coffees get you one for free, so it’s such a pity to miss out on it.”

“Fine, let’s live a frugal life.”

Maru handed her his wallet. She opened the wallet and took out the coupon when a piece of paper fell on the table. It was the tarot card Maru got from Daehak-ro.

“A tarot card?” she looked at The Fool card as she asked.

“You know about it?”

“I do. I like tarot after all.”

“Really?”

“But this was unexpected from you. I thought you wouldn’t like fortune telling.”

“I got it through a coincidence. I didn’t know what it meant, but Daemyung explained it to me. The upright position, was it? Adventurous and whatnot, wasn’t it?”

“Adventurous. Hm…”

“Why?”

She put down the card and spoke,

“You can interpret it that way, but usually, The Fool has more negative connotations.”

“Really? Well, it wasn’t like Daemyung knew that much about it. So, what does it mean?”

Her gaze headed towards the card.

“The foolishness of knowing nothing. Ignorance.”

* * *

“Have a safe trip back.”

He waved at her as she got on the bus. The bus soon disappeared from sight. While waiting for the bus home, Maru took out the tarot card from his wallet.

“The foolishness of knowing nothing. Ignorance.”

Was he ever concerned about fortune telling as much as this? Well, he did pray to whatever god possible when it came to his child. A clown standing on stage. He could throw the card away, but he kept it with him for some reason. That woman, he felt like he had seen her somewhere before, yet also thought that he had never seen her before. He was concerned and went back to that same place in Daehak-ro, but he never got to meet her even once.

Ignorance. Maru rolled that word in his mouth once before looking up at the sky.

It was snowing a lot to the point that the dark sky couldn’t be seen.

[1] A type of street food. Wikipedia for more details.

[2] A hotpot-like dish where you dip the ingredients in and fish them out when it’s cooked. Wikipedia for details

Chapter 498

The stage sunken in the darkness calmed him. He felt like he was in a space where all sound was cut off. The sound of breathing, the sound of his thumping heart, the sound of his clothes rustling all made him feel lax. Solitude, depending on the person, was the best kind of rest.

Eventually, the lights turned on, signifying the start of the play, and once the noise from the audience seats died down, the scattered tension gathered on the stage. The moment the high density of tension turned into just the right amount of pressure, Maru once again confirmed that he was in his best state.

On the stage were his club members. Daemyung at the center was saying his lines without any mistakes, and the club members lying down behind him were acting individually while waiting for their turn.

There were no mistakes, and the momentum was okay as well.

Everything was going well without any problems, but Maru couldn’t help but smile bitterly.

Maybe they shouldn’t have watched after all - he muttered to himself behind the side curtain.

Today was the 2nd day of the southern Gyeonggi preliminaries. Maru hesitated when he saw the list of schools posted outside Anyang Hall. Hwasoo High and Myunghwa High. The two schools in front of Woosung Engineering High were the two schools that pushed Woosung High to 3rd place and went to the finals. Myunghwa High had her, and Hwasoo High had Heewon. Myunghwa High boasted the greatest skills in the Gyeonggi province, and that went without saying. Meanwhile, Hwasoo High did impressive performances centered around Heewon. In order to advance to the regional finals, there was a need to beat one of these two schools at least.

Myunghwa High was first, Hwasoo High was second. Woosung Engineering High was 5th in turn, so there was plenty of time left. As the plays started in the morning and ended late in the afternoon, their original plan was to practice in the opening next to the hall, but the performances of Myunghwa High and Hwasoo High were things that attracted the acting club’s attention.

They wondered whether they should watch or not.

They weren’t the type of people who would make a mistake just because they lacked an hour or two of practice. If they were that bad, then they wouldn’t even be aiming for the grand prize in the first place. They clearly wanted to know what the people who won against them last year were like.

At that moment, Daemyung quietly called over Maru. Taesik had said that he was going to join them in the afternoon, so the decision was up to Daemyung. Before he even asked what Daemyung was going to do, he said that he wanted to see the plays.

Honestly, Maru thought that it might be dangerous. Actors who had consolidated their own system of acting would not be easily influenced by other people’s acting. However, that didn’t apply to the club members here. If they experienced a fresh shock or were deeply impressed by someone else’s acting, they might subconsciously change their acting style. If they showed an acting style that they didn’t even practice because they judged that they decided on a better acting style, that would become a variable in itself. Becoming ‘better’ at acting meant becoming different from before. The other club members might feel that discrepancy and panic slightly. Practicing was done in order to decrease mistakes, which creates a frame for everyone, but a sudden change in someone’s actions may break that frame.

High school plays were usually done in a fashion where everyone followed the instructions to a tee rather than watching others’ every action and then sharing their emotions and acting naturally according to that. That was natural. They had to show a completed play in such a short time, so they did not have the time to learn properly. So rather than striving towards completion step by step, they would try to fit themselves into an already completed script.

Blue Sky’s play was at a decent completion rate in Maru’s eyes. They would be able to show the audience a decent play without any mistakes if they brought themselves under just enough pressure before the play began.

Daemyung’s point was regarding that.

Not making any mistakes and achieving results. While they were similar, they were definitely not the same.

They weren’t able to follow Myunghwa High in terms of completion rate. Over there, they even held auditions before starting to practice for a play. Furthermore, their facilities and support from the school couldn’t be compared to Woosung High’s either.

In terms of being ‘impressive’, Hwasoo High was ahead of them. Woosung High might be ahead of them in terms of completion rate, but Heewon’s stage energy was enough to cover up trivial mistakes as though they had never happened.

Being average in every field was Woosung High’s advantage as well as disadvantage. In this situation, Daemyung said that they should watch the plays of the two schools as a means for them to advance to the finals. It was similar to cramming for an exam, in a sense. Daemyung said that while there was the risk of ruining the frame of their play, there was also the opportunity for them to improve.

The only way Woosung High with its inferior number of members and support could win against those two was to watch the other teams’ acting and improve themselves in a short period of time. Daemyung seemed convinced about that.

-Also, if we watch the plays of schools that are ahead of us, they may stimulate us to do better. If we find a point we’re better at, our confidence levels will rise as well.

Of course, Daemyung was thinking about the inverse effects as well. Maru told him that they should talk to the other members about it, and the other club members immediately said that they should watch it as though they had been waiting for Daemyung to say that.

Daemyung emphasized that they shouldn’t think too deeply as they watched the play, and the club members nodded vigorously. Even Dowook said that they should go in quickly. It seemed that the loss from last time had frustrated him quite a lot as well.

After putting their possessions on one side of the waiting room, they quietly entered the hall. They might distract the people on stage if they wore patient clothes - their stage costumes - so they changed into ordinary clothes.

They waited around 10 minutes for Myunghwa High’s play to start. There were sixteen people on stage. The number of staff members moving around during blackouts was quite high as well.

Maru watched the stage with his mouth firmly shut. Myunghwa High’s play was one where they modified Hamlet into a modern version, and the basic code seemed to be humor. When the line ‘To be or not to be: that is the question’ came from a passerby, the audience laughed. The structure of the play, the acting of the actors, the acoustic and light controls - everything seemed perfect to the point that he couldn’t think of it as a high school play anymore. The fast-paced music that sounded in the middle of the play seemed to be created by them as well as the voices of the actors could be heard from it. The actors moved according to the music as though it was a musical, and despite the complex movement lines, they did not clash with each other even once.

We can’t win against that - he heard those words next to him. Aram was the one who said that and no one seemed to disagree. Daemyung said that they should find something to learn from in a small voice, but everyone had become an ordinary audience member and was just watching them. It was just that overwhelming. It clearly showed why Myunghwa High swept the national prizes for the past several years.

Maru looked at her, who was combing her hair in a funny manner in one corner of the stage. She seemed to doubt her own acting skills, but in Maru’s eyes, they were incredibly good. She was the one that shined the most among the sixteen actors on stage. Of course, it might be because he was lovestruck with her.

After Myunghwa High’s play ended, the club members left and everyone sighed. However, they didn’t seem to be depressed. They were probably just surprised because Myunghwa High did unexpectedly well.

While they took a break, Daemyung gathered everyone and had a talk. They quickly gathered opinions, analyzed them, and shared them with everyone else. They changed their acting while being careful to not change it too much.

After that, they entered again and watched Hwasoo High’s performance.

Hwasoo High’s stage definitely lacked in the level of completion. The simple-looking lights and sound seemed even a little bland compared to Myunghwa High’s musical-like play. However, the situation was completely reversed ever since Heewon came on stage. The bland-looking production instead emphasized Heewon. It could even be said to be contrast effectiveness. Maru thought that they had made a splendid choice. As a newly-found club, they would not be able to win against the other schools when it came to the completion rate of the play. They had to make a decision, and by boldly abandoning things they did not need, they managed to gain a deep impression. Everyone supported Heewon so that he could shine on stage. They showed the audience that this stage was purely for Heewon. When Heewon took control of the stage and the play reached its peak, the audience turned freakishly silent.

If Myunghwa High brought out the emotional expressions from the audience, Hwasoo High did not even give them time to do that as they pushed ahead. Maru could not decide which one was better. However, he could say for sure that both of these plays did not lose out compared to the plays he watched in Daehak-ro, albeit in different ways.

Myunghwa High had brought the overall level to a very high level through combined harmony, while Hwasoo High had gained control over the stage with just one main character.

The club members didn’t say much after the play ended and they left the hall. Maru understood how they felt. Myunghwa High definitely had points that could be called ‘technique’. Those were things that they could follow, reference, and bring into their own play. However, when it came to Hwasoo High, honestly speaking, they were at a level where Woosung High had to teach them, except for just one - Heewon. Heewon’s acting wasn’t something that they could do something about after just watching him once. It felt different from watching him at Hwasoo High. It felt like a properly armed general had stepped into the front lines. He gave off a completely different pressure from when he was practicing.

They did read-throughs until the play started and burned with passion. They forgot about the things they couldn’t imitate and brought in the things they could follow. Eventually, Woosung High’s turn came and they were now standing on stage.

Maru looked at the acting of the club members from the edge of the side curtain. Fortunately, they were just like they were during practice. Daemyung’s vocal tone was a little high, and it seemed to be his way of inducing the audience to laugh. Myunghwa High’s stage code was humor, just like Woosung High. They were likely going to be compared to Myunghwa High rather than Hwasoo High since Hwasoo High went with tragedy. They had to bring their skills up as much as possible. Daemyung was showing an amount of change that did not change the flow of the whole play.

‘Good, you’re doing good.’

Everyone else seemed to be digesting the sudden change in acting as well. When Jiyoon started crying and blew her nose on Daemyung’s clothes, the audience laughed more than Maru had expected. Joining the flow, everyone became more daring. It seemed that Heewon’s acting had influenced them positively. The audience also noticed the confidence contained in their play. A play that did not contain any hesitation heightened the immersion rate of the audience.

Whenever he went on stage for his various trivial roles, Maru thought ‘maybe’. The situation was improving by the moment. They were fired up more than they were during practice and they expressed their emotions vigorously, but clearly. They also acted boldly as though they had thrown away any kind of embarrassment. He could see that they were bringing out the best in each other. There were parts that looked more awkward than practice, but that didn’t lead to making mistakes.

Their acting knitted tighter together. They were perfectly in sync. Maru thought that they were lucky. The coin they threw hoping for heads was spinning around and was falling tails first. He looked forward to the results. They were still lacking in their individual traits compared to the other two schools, but they seemed to have a chance of winning when everything was averaged out. He thought that they might be able to win against Hwasoo High depending on how the examiners did the scores.

Just then - he didn’t know where it started, but - the flow of the play was cut off once. It continued just as usual after that, and there seemed to be no problems, but Maru could clearly feel the difference.

They almost stumbled and fell over - that was the emotion he felt from everyone on stage. There were no mistakes. The play continued just like before.

However, the joy in it was broken. Their acting became more firm. They became perfect as though they would not allow a mistake to happen. At the same time, the fun that excited Maru, the passion that he could clearly feel despite being in the side curtains, had turned cold. The cogwheels that didn’t fit slightly, but turned with interesting sounds, had now become cogwheels manufactured to perfection and turned without making a single noise.

Maru watched from the side curtain as the stage reached its end.

“Well done,” he said to himself in a small voice as he waited for the curtain call.

The music they prepared started flowing out, and Maru stood at the very end and took a bow while grabbing Aram’s hand. The music ended and the curtains fell. When the audience clapped and they walked down the stage, Aram said ‘sorry’ in a very shaky voice. Maru realized where the flow of the play had been cut off.

“No. You did well. We did really well. We were just… a bit lacking. It’s no one’s fault, you don’t need to apologize.”

As soon as Daemyung’s words ended, Aram, who always acted boldly, collapsed on the spot and started crying. She was crying like a little child, Jiyoon was crying with her next to her, and the other club members were saying that it was okay. Maru faintly smiled and patted Aram’s shoulder before starting to clean up the props.

Their play was over, and the only thing left now was to clean up.

Chapter 499

They cleaned the stage and moved away the props. The hospital mark that was painted on a piece of wood, and the makeshift bed they got from god knows where. The elements that made up the stage felt foreign to Maru. That couldn’t be helped. While the rest of the club members prepared for the play, he was at Film or on a set. He bought some of the props, but the props that were made with effort clearly didn’t have the slightest traces of him.

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry.”

After watching everyone surround Aram and give words of encouragement for a while, Maru started moving by himself. He carried the wooden frame out, then the makeshift bed. He greeted the next group of students coming up to the stage for their play and cleared out the rest of the props. Around that time, the other club members started moving as well. As Aram hadn’t finished crying yet, she was sniffing as she moved the chairs.

-The next performance will be…

An announcement about the next performance started flowing out of the speakers.

“Well done. Also, Aram, you don’t need to cry. Why are you crying? We haven’t even got the results back yet. You did well.”

Taesik encouraged everyone. Suyeon wasn’t here. She apparently had a shoot.

“I ruined everything because I almost made a mistake,” said Aram while panting.

When she looked like she was about to cry again, the others all surrounded her once more. Even the people that told her that it was okay and that they did their best, had red eyes as though they were about to cry. Even the usually cold Dowook seemed to be sharing their sentiments as he clearly seemed to be holding back something to the point that his Adam's apple was trembling.

After watching everyone encouraging each other for a while, Maru started moving the props onto the back of the truck first. He moved quietly so that the others wouldn’t notice. When he loaded about half of the items, the other club members approached him.

“Seonbae, let’s do it together.”

“Why are you doing it alone?”

They started moving the props onto the truck. As they didn’t have a lot of things for the set nor a lot of props, they were able to finish rather quickly.

“I’ll go ahead by myself first, so take your time. Once you arrive, let’s go get something nice to eat.”

Taesik departed first with the truck. Daemyung led the rest to the bus stop. While they walked, Aram seemed to have calmed down as she no longer cried. Jiyoon and Aram were walking hand in hand and Jiyoon kept talking to her, seemingly to distract her from depression.

“You never know what will happen. We did really well today, so we might be able to win against Hwasoo High. Isn’t that right, seonbae-nim?”

Bangjoo used his usual loud voice to ask Daemyung. Daemyung made a confident expression and said ‘of course’.

“That would’ve been the case if I did a little better back then,” said Aram as she lowered her head.

“Hey, I did several times better than usual, so we’ll go to the finals no matter what you say. I could feel the examiners looking at me all the time. Also, you ‘almost’ made a mistake, you didn’t make one for real. No wait, who cares if you did? I was great. Seonbae-nim. Isn’t that right?” Bangjoo asked for agreement as he raised his head.

Daemyung gave a thumbs up. Jiyoon also clapped and agreed.

“Rather than you, Bangjoo, I did well.”

Even Dowook, who usually didn’t go along with pranks, chimed in this time. When Bangjoo and Dowook were arguing about who did better, Aram eventually chuckled.

“Did you just laugh? You laughed, didn’t you?” asked Jiyoon as she swayed Aram’s arm back and forth.

The laughter, which was as contagious as a sigh, quickly spread amongst everyone else, and the acting club returned to the usual, fun acting club that could be seen back at school. Aram still seemed a little cautious, but she did not mention that it was her fault anymore. After chatting for a while, they patted each other’s backs and made relaxing smiles. Maru could see that they were truly caring for each other.

Maru watched that scene from a few steps back. The cries and sighs of regret after the performance, as well as the encouragement and the smiles of harmony that followed suit, were emotions that only they could share. It would be deception if he cried amongst them, and it would go against his conscience to laugh amongst them. He wasn’t qualified to join them and discuss the performance together.

Envy - Maru envied the club members in front of him right now. He tried imagining himself in that group, smiling and chatting with them. Maru thought that sharing heated emotions with someone else was an incredible thing, but he eventually just chuckled and dismissed that thought.

It was instead him who had to apologize to everyone - he thought as he made a bitter expression while putting his hands inside his pockets. Between the acting club and studying, Maru chose studying. Making a choice did not mean choosing both sides. It meant abandoning one thing completely, and Maru decided to abandon the acting club. He did make some time to visit. He participated in practice, and he also helped them out by buying them props. It was a suitable compromise after his decision, but the results weren’t that good.

The sense of regret in his heart.

When Daemyung told him that they should watch Myunghwa High and Woosung High[1], he should have persuaded otherwise. Gambles usually ended in failure, and last minute cramming only added to the confusion. However, he could not stop him. In fact, he even agreed that they should watch the other two schools. This was because he was suspicious. Not of the acting of the other club members, but of his own acting. The suspicion naturally gained by those that did not practice enough made him unable to believe the things he had done until now which induced the decision of the wrong choice.

Would things have been different if he focused on the acting club more? Maru hypothesized such a situation, but he soon shook his head. The only thing gained from looking back at the past was the meaningless resolve to do better next time.

‘That’s just being greedy.’

He did not regret choosing to study over club activities. He had definitely gained a lot from Miso’s classes, and he had learned what it was like to stand in front of the camera through various auditions and playing characters in the field. He had definitely chosen the more profitable path if he looked at the bigger picture that was his life. Maru had already imagined that something like this would happen when he told Daemyung that he might not be able to frequent the acting club.

Feeling the same emotions as someone who put in 100% effort while he himself only put in 50% was not possible. That was definitely being too greedy.

“Seonbae, come here quickly.”

“Seonbae-nim! Run! The bus is coming!”

Maru nodded as he looked at his juniors waving at him.

He felt very sorry since he neither felt sad nor happy even though the stage had ended. He got on the bus and grabbed the handle. The others stood together at the back and were now talking comfortably.

“Thanks for your work,” said Daemyung as he walked up to him.

Maru only replied that he did nothing.

“Do you regret it?” Daemyung asked.

Maru looked at his friend’s face. He then slowly gave an answer.

“No. I don’t regret my decisions, as sad as it might sound to everyone else.”

“That’s good. I thought you were regretting it.”

“You know I’m not such a romanticist.”

“Well, I wouldn’t be so sure about that,” said Daemyung with a smile.

“How about you? Do you have anything to say to me?”

After thinking about it for a while as he looked out the window, Daemyung replied,

“I do, a lot, actually.”

“Really now?”

“Yeah, there’s a whole lot. How would it have been if you showed up to practice more often? How would it have been if you talked with everyone else more? How would it have been if you taught them in detail and guided them? Instructor Suyeon was definitely a good instructor, but we didn’t work with her that much. In fact, your explanations often sounded easier than hers. I feel like many things would have changed if you showed up more often. Everyone else should be thinking the same thing.”

He paused and spat out a deep breath. Maru did not speak. Daemyung’s words hadn’t ended yet.

“That doesn’t mean I hate you. In fact, I’m angry at myself. I feel sorry towards everyone as well. I should’ve done better to fill your absence so that we wouldn’t have to be as urgent before the performance, but I wasn’t able to do that. I keep thinking now that we should’ve spent more time practicing, that we should’ve concentrated more, things like that. If I did, maybe I would’ve trusted everyone to stand on stage and perform just like we’ve been practicing.”

Daemyung bitterly smiled.

“It seems like Aram felt something after looking at Heewon’s acting. She tried to do something better in the middle, and it didn’t go as she had intended. She didn’t reveal any mistakes, but everyone felt that they might really make a mistake at that rate. Even I was frozen stiff. How much better could the others be?”

The bus stopped. People got off and got on. Along with a beep, the doors closed, and Daemyung continued speaking,

“Perhaps what I should have said before the performance was not to watch the two other schools and try to learn from them, but that we should trust in what we have done.”

After saying those words, Daemyung shrugged once. Maru tapped Daemyung’s arm with the back of his hand.

“It would be interesting if the results were actually good.”

“True. It would be great if it was like that. We could just laugh it off and say that we were worried for nothing.”

After saying those words, Daemyung pointed at the rest of the members talking at the back. Maru shook his head.

“Alright, see you after we get off.”

Daemyung walked towards the back. The club members stared at Maru, and Maru just waved his hand to tell them that they shouldn’t mind him. He could also see Daemyung stopping Bangjoo from walking up to him.

Maru watched the scenery outside flash by. The last stage he could participate in as a member of a high school acting club was now over. He wasn’t planning to participate in club activities in his 3rd year even if he put his name on the list. If they asked for help, he might give them a helping hand, but he would never lead them by any means. Today was the last day he participated as an actor. Although the results weren’t out yet, he could intuitively feel it. There was no way the audience wasn’t able to realize the discrepancy when he was able to feel it on the stage. He thought that they might have a chance of competing against Hwasoo High for 2nd place if they finished the performance with that momentum, but it was very unlikely that they would win against Hwasoo High’s dominating performance with one that became stiff halfway through the play. There was no need to mention Myunghwa High either. They were just on a whole other level.

‘The end.’

He rolled that word with his tongue for a while. The times that would never come by again had gone past, and now he had to face a world he had never experienced before.

“What a pity.”

If the acting club was to become a memory for him, it would’ve been better if they won instead. What was he supposed to say after he got off the bus and ate together with everyone else? He could neither say that they did well nor that they should try better next time. Just as he was looking outside in a daze, the other club members had come up to him and were staring at him.

“It’s because of you, seonbae.”

“Right.”

“You should’ve looked after us more often.”

He looked at his juniors with a rather dazzled expression. After saying a word each, they grinned as though they were done before pointing at the door.

“What are you doing, seonbae? We’re here.”

“Get yourself together.”

“Let’s get off.”

The three juniors got off and Daemyung got off after them.

“Looking cool can come later, you idiot. Get off, we’re getting food.”

Dowook smiled and slapped Maru’s head. Maru chuckled and got off the bus.

The club members were standing in a line at the bus stop.

“Maru, let’s go.”

Daemyung directed his gaze next to him.

The juniors were all waving at Maru to come.

Maru scratched his eyebrows and started walking.

The words that ‘kids know what they need to know’ flashed in his head.

Oh, and one more thing,

‘They are better than adults’ - that as well.

[1] Author’s mistake. It’s clearly meant to be Hwasoo High here.

Chapter 500

“Yes, happy new year to you too. Be healthy and I hope you earn a lot of… I mean, I hope you get good grades.”

Daemyung hung up from the other side of the phone while laughing. It was January 1st of 2005. Last year, he spent New Years at the hospital, but fortunately for him, he didn’t have to do that this year. He felt nervous even when he thought about that event now. If Daemyung and Dojin did not return back then, he wouldn’t be at the hospital, but somewhere much worse. Perhaps the woman in white might have come for him with a disappointed expression again. All while saying ‘you died again, huh’ or something like that.

“Oppa, I’m leaving.”

Bada was busy even on the first day of the year. She was probably going out to meet Dowook. The holidays began and the acting club no longer had any practice. Since all they had was time, it wouldn’t be surprising for the two to meet up. The two seemed to be getting along well as they had hung out frequently without fighting that much until now. Dowook complained to Maru about how Bada always wanted to go to idol concerts, but he seemed quite weak at heart from how he ended up going with her anyway.

‘I wonder if he’s okay though. He was going at it yesterday… ’

He laughed to himself when he thought about how Dowook fainted while holding onto the toilet seat.

Two days ago, the results came out. When Taesik said that they didn’t make it, the club members smiled bitterly before sighing. The shock didn’t seem to be as big since they had expected it somewhat.

Suyeon, who joined them later, said that they should have fun precisely at times like those and took them to her apartment, where they had a wild drinking party like last time. Maru was unable to get any rest since he had to look after those that lost themselves, but he felt a little better after being able to help them, even if he got no rest. It was a twisted way of consolation as an adult. After that, he had to face Suyeon in drinking, and he could only get some rest after seeing Suyeon doze off.

In the morning, he cooked up some bean sprout soup for the half-dead students. When he returned home after sending the zombie students home, he realized that tomorrow was the next year.

“I hope there won’t be any accidents this year,” he said to himself before standing up.

Today, he had something to do. It was about time he got ready and left.

“Mom, I’m leaving too.”

“Are you going to be back late?”

“No, I won’t be that late.”

“Alright, be careful on your way.”

Ever since she quit her job, Maru’s mother’s complexion had definitely become better. Although it had only been a few days since she started resting, his mother no longer woke up in the mornings while coughing, and now woke up energetically and prepared breakfast. Maru’s father also really rejoiced when he found out that his wife quit her job. Maru could still remember how he had a smile on his face as he drank beer by himself during dinner. It would be great if he did that in front of his wife, but like any other breadwinner of his age, he was awkward at expressing himself in front of his family. Even so, though, Maru’s mother should’ve noticed already - about how worried he was about her.

“I’m off.”

Maru opened the door.

* * *

“I told you not to eat in my car.”

“Your car is already pretty dirty. A couple of crumbles shouldn’t make a difference. You don’t even clean your car often, but you’re acting like a clean freak. Hey, hey! There’s a car upfront!”

Miso let go of the wheel and reached out for Ganghwan, who sat on the passenger seat. Ganghwan screamed at her to look forward, but she did not bat an eyelid and grabbed Ganghwan’s hair before rocking it back and forth. Only when Ganghwan apologized and put down the bag of snacks did Miso loosen her grip.

“Maru.”

“Yes.”

“Should we get off and grab a taxi or something?”

“I think that is a wise choice, but I think you should ask if you can get off in the first place.”

Maru made a stiff smile. Geunsoo, who sat next to him, was the same.

“Men in the back seats. If we die, we die together. Alright?”

Miso giggled and stepped on the gas. Maru shut himself up before grabbing the handle above the window. Geunsoo put on his seatbelt.

The car, which was far from what was considered ‘neat’, was filled with all sorts of stage costumes, books, as well as cute dolls. Soojin was probably responsible for the dolls. Whenever Miso turned the wheel, the clothes and the dolls rocked left and right. No, ‘rolling around’ was probably a better expression.

“Geunsoo hyung-nim.”

“Yeah.”

“You should’ve brought your car.”

“I’m regretting that too.”

The car with the four people in it climbed up a hill. After climbing on a wobbly road for a while, the car stopped on the side of the road. As soon as the car stopped, Maru opened the door and rushed out. Geunsoo and Ganghwan did the same.

“Phew.”

He was sweating profusely. He knew that Miso’s way of driving was quite harsh, but today, it reached the level of a circus. He had his suspicions when she stepped on the gas while panting heavily on the driver’s seat, but he never imagined that she would be this rough.

“Apparently, she fought with the man that’s going to be her husband,” Ganghwan quietly whispered as he looked at Miso making a refreshed expression.

Maru and Geunsoo nodded their heads while saying ‘ah’. Miso said that she was going to get married this May. He could still remember how Miso acted a little embarrassed when she said that she was going to be a bride of May.

‘She should be busy right now because of that.’

The wedding wasn’t such a heavy occasion in itself. It was just that the process of getting there was quite tiring. She was probably starting to prepare now if she wanted to reserve a wedding hall she liked for May. Taking into account the photoshoot, honeymoon as well as the most important residence, it would be strange if a fight did not break out.

“A civil servant versus a famous acting instructor. In my opinion, I think it would be Miso noo-nim who should be buying the house and Mr. Taesik who should be marrying into her family,” Maru sneakily added.

“From what I know of her character, I’m sure she has saved up an enormous amount of money. Who knows, she might already have an apartment in Gangnam. No, I’m pretty sure she has one. I’m sure of it.”

Ganghwan’s words contained conviction.

“I still can’t believe that she’s getting married. If I think about how she was during high school… phew.”

Even Geunsoo, whose moniker was the lunatic during his time at Woosung High, seemed to be helpless in front of Miso.

“I still can’t believe it.”

“Mr. Taesik is a really good person. Maybe she knows his weakness or something?”

“That sounds plenty plausible. Maybe his household isn’t doing well financially.”

“Aah, so he’s being sold out, huh. Tsk, tsk. He gave me a good impression too.”

Just as they were whispering to each other, Miso approached them asking what they were doing. Maru and Ganghwan immediately looked up at the sky, while Geunsoo took out his phone and put it against his ear.

“Let’s go in. He should be waiting for us.”

Miso pressed the bell. A dog barking could be heard closing in on them before Junmin showed up at the door.

“The door’s open.”

Junmin walked back in again after saying those words. Geunsoo opened the front door and entered. Maru waved at Dalgu, who was jumping around in joy in the front yard. He seemed to have remembered his scent as he wagged his tail around him.

“I think this guy hates me.”

Miso reached out, attempting to stroke Dalgu’s head, but Dalgu turned his head away and stared at Miso’s hand. Miso reached out again to touch Dalgu’s head, but Dalgu didn’t allow it so easily. Watching that, Ganghwan and Geunsoo tickled Dalgu’s neck for Miso to see before going inside. The two were grinning.

“Alright, this is only the second time, so I’m not surprised he’s wary of me. But at least welcome me properly next time, alright?”

Miso waved at Dalgu before going inside. Maru and Dalgu crossed the main door together. The warm air and the smell of doenjang. The elder’s house hadn’t changed at all.

“So you’re all here.”

The elder was sitting in the kitchen while Junmin was brewing some tea.

“It’s really uncomfortable when there’s no one below me. I mean, I have to make the tea and everything.”

“That’s how it works.”

Junmin placed the tea on the table.

The four of them greeted the elder before sitting down.

“What made you come all the way here in this cold weather?”

“Of course, to say hi for New Years,” Ganghwan said.

The elder laughed and thanked him.

“I heard that Miso’s getting married?”

“Yes, sir. I decided to hold it in May.”

“I see. Congratulations. You must be busy right now if you’re planning on May.”

“Don’t even talk about that. She has been on the edge since the morning and she…”

As soon as Ganghwan tried to say something, Miso pressed his thighs with her elbow. Ganghwan groaned and made a teary face, and the elder laughed out loud while nodding.

“Marriage is always a noisy thing. You find out that your ideals and values might be different just before marriage, and you may get into a fight because of that. As long as you talk to each other a lot and adjust yourselves, and you listen to each other more than you listen to the others around you, these harsh times will become an opportunity to tie you closer together.”

I will - Miso slowly nodded as she replied.

“Give me an invitation once they’re out. I will definitely make some time to go.”

“Of course I will. But uhm, sir, I’m really not good at being roundabout, can I ask you to officiate for us?”

The elder seemed a little startled as well by her bold request as he didn’t say anything for a while.

Maru didn’t think she’d ask him to officiate at their wedding when she was here to greet him for New Years. He inwardly smiled as he looked at Miso.

“If you’re alright with me, I guess I can but… did you talk about this with your partner?”

“Yes. My fiancé also told me that it would be really great if you could do it.”

My fiancé - Maru almost burst out laughing when he heard that word. When he looked next to him, he found that Geunsoo and Ganghwan were also clenching their teeth trying not to laugh. Even Junmin was scratching his forehead, trying to control his twitching lips.

“I see, if you have already come to an agreement, I shall do it for you. But I’m worried if the parents of both of you are okay with it.”

“Sir, please don’t worry about that. Actually, you might have to prepare yourself. My mom might run up to you and ask you for an autograph halfway through the ceremony.”

The elder laughed and sipped his tea.

“How are you doing these days, Geunsoo?”

“I’m reading through a few scenarios I got. I seemed to have gotten lucky last year and there have been some talks.”

“Rather than luck, it must be because of your skill. I hope you encounter good work. Only when you do well will the guy next to me smile brightly for me.”

The elder pointed at Junmin with his chin.

“I was just going to find someone to do a ritual to wish that everything goes well. It would’ve been great if I started on that movie, but that went down the drain.”

“There are a lot of fraudulent people in this field whether in the past or now.”

The elder turned around to Ganghwan.

“As for you… I just hope you don’t cause an accident. That’s all I want from you.”

“No way, sir. You should say some good words for me too.”

“I saw you just a few days ago. What would saying a few more words do? I already told you everything over a drink.”

“That’s not true.”

“Just don’t cause an accident, and get married after meeting a good woman like Miso. If you do, you’ll be able to have a good year. Are you thirty-two this year? That’s the perfect year to get married.”

“Sir. I can acknowledge everything but the fact that Miso is a good woman. You should really see what she’s really like. She’s only obedient and humorous in front of you, you know?”

“Boy, what’s bad about Miso? Don’t speak nonsense and find a good woman to get married to. Geunsoo, you too.”

“Haha. I’ll do my best.”

Geunsoo laughed.

The elder’s gaze was directed to Maru this time.

“I see that you’re fortunately intact this year.”

“I had the same thought yesterday.”

“Yes, yes. Health is always the priority. Don’t push yourself just because you’re young and you should be careful in the future. Don’t get close to alcohol and smoking like a certain someone.”

“I will bear that in mind.”

“However, you should drink on a day like this. Ganghwan. There's ginseng wine in the cupboard. When would I open it if not on a day like this. Bring it here.”

“…Elder.”

The elder laughed heartily. Ganghwan quickly stood up and went to the kitchen. Maru also stood up. He got the drinking glasses and looked for light side dishes in the refrigerator.

“Drinking during the day is the best kind of drinking.”

Ganghwan said as he put the ginseng wine on the table. The thick yellow color made it look like it was brewed properly. At that moment, the bell rang.

“I’ll go get the door.”

Maru put his shoes on and walked outside. Outside the main gate was Suyeon, who was wearing a white sweater and jeans. He could also see Sooil yawning on the side.

“Open the door!” shouted Suyeon as she waved her hand above her head.

Chapter 501

“Sir,” Suyeon said cheesily.

The elder made a kind smile and looked at her.

“Don't Geunsoo-oppa and I suit each other?”

Geunsoo, who sat next to her, tried to stand up and leave, but Suyeon’s hand was quicker and grabbed him. Unable to leave, Geunsoo made an awkward smile.

“Suyeon, let go of me.”

Maru sipped a bit of the ginseng wine while exclaiming. It seemed that she had finally gotten to talk with Geunsoo properly. Geunsoo always called her ‘Miss Suyeon’, but it seemed that her persistence was effective.

“You do, you do suit each other.”

The elder, who was pleasantly drunk, laughed saying that they should get engaged. Even Ganghwan, who would usually clap and agree with him, was staying still. That was because the opponent was Suyeon. Above all, Ganghwan was unable to leave his place right now. That was because he had to hold back Miso, who had a faint smile on her face.

Miso was demonstrating just how scary a smile could be. If the elder wasn’t here, she might have flipped the table over. Fortunately, Miso was aware of the occasion, so she refrained as much as possible and stayed obedient in front of the elder. Thanks to that though, Suyeon was on a rampage.

“See? Sir Yoon says we suit each other. Geunsoo-oppa. You’ll be hated if you keep toying with a woman’s heart, you know?”

“I don’t remember ever toying with anyone’s heart though.”

“See? He ignores me despite my attempts to woo him. Sir, I’m really sad. I also feel rather humiliated as a woman. Am I that unattractive?”

“Suyeon, you are very pretty.”

“Really? Sir, let me pour you another glass. This cute junior would like to pay her respects.”

Suyeon approached the elder with a smile on her face and poured a bit of the ginseng wine into his glass. Suyeon seemed to be perfectly aware of how to suck up to people without getting on their bad side. With the elder completely doting on Suyeon, no one was able to say a thing.

“When did they get so close?” Ganghwan asked in a small voice.

“I heard that she visited frequently during Twilight Struggles. She was his conversation partner a lot of the time too. He practically gained another granddaughter. Oh, now that I think about it, she was his granddaughter in the movie too.”

“How scary.”

“It’s probably Geunsoo-hyungnim who’s the most scared right now though.”

“That’s true.”

While Geunsoo was laughing, Maru could clearly see that he was not at ease. Suyeon was perfectly toying around with Geunsoo since he couldn’t run away like he usually did. It was as though she was venting her pent up frustration.

“Uhu, uphew…”

Maru saw Sooil, who was lying down in the room next to them, open the door and crawl out. He quietly stood up and dragged Sooil by the legs back to the room. Being dragged back to the blanket, Sooil kept spitting out breaths that stank of alcohol.

“Why did you drink so much when you can’t even drink?”

“Maru, living in this world is so hard.”

“Yeah, yeah. I’m sure it must be. Even a newborn has a hard time living in this world. Stop talking nonsense and get some sleep already.”

“All I want to focus on is acting.”

“No one’s stopping you, though?”

“God, dam… grandpa…”

Sooil mumbled that before falling back asleep. Maru warned him when the elder first gave him a glass of ginseng wine, but when he was distracted for a moment, Sooil drank a full glass before becoming completely drunk. Maru didn’t know that he would be looking after this guy in a place like this on a day like this. From the way his luck was turning out here, it seemed that this year was going to be a difficult year as well.

He always thought that drunk people should be left on the streets to fend for themselves whenever he encountered situations like this. He covered Sooil with a blanket before closing the door.

“Is the boy okay?”

“Yes. He should sober up once he gets some sleep.”

“Looks like I made a mistake. I made assumptions after drinking with you all the time. I should’ve realized that you were strangely good at drinking.”

“He’s the idiot for not knowing how much he can drink.”

The seats had changed while he went to look after Sooil. Ganghwan and Geunsoo were enjoying drinks together, while Miso and Suyeon, who were practically enemies with each other, were giving each other cold smiles. In the middle of the two groups was Junmin. It was obvious who placed them in those seats.

“Are you sure those two won’t get into a fight?”

He sat next to Junmin and asked in a small voice.

“They should get close to each other since we’re in the same family.”

“I think they might shed blood before that though.”

“Then I guess they should decide who’s superior. We can’t have them behaving like cats fighting over territory every time they meet. They should probably get things sorted out today.”

“I bet 10 thousand won that Miso-noonim will win if they fight with strength.”

“I’m betting another 10 thousand on that.”

Ganghwan chimed in. The elder was talking quietly with Geunsoo.

“That bet’s invalid. Even I would be scared of fighting Miso,” said Junmin as he put down his glass.

At that moment, Miso stood up and left the house through the door. Suyeon snorted before following her out.

“They didn’t take knives or something with them, right?” Ganghwan asked suspiciously.

Maru nodded and replied that they were empty-handed.

“I’ll take a peek. Miso might pick up a rock or something once her switch is flipped.”

From the way Junmin didn’t stop Ganghwan from leaving, it seemed that he too judged that such a scenario might happen. Of course, Miso wouldn’t actually pick up a rock to fight, but she might start pulling Suyeon’s hair out.

“When did you say the shoot began?”

When the chaotic mood died down a little, Junmin asked.

“It starts on the 8th.”

“It seems to have been delayed since I heard that it was originally going to start airing in January.”

“The get-together before the shoot was at the end of December, so I don’t think they ever intended to air the first episode in January in the first place.”

“Well, that time slot on a Saturday is usually taken up by re-runs, so they shouldn’t be that urgent.”

Junmin picked up the soju bottle. Maru grabbed his glass with both of his hands.

“You are actually doing better than I expected. I feel like I’m profiting since you keep looking for your own work by yourself.”

“I do owe you 300 million won. I have to do my worth at least.”

“I see. I hope you continue that and raise the value of our company. I’ll give you some stock options once we decide to go public.”

“I guess I should do my best then.”

He turned his head to drink before picking up the soju bottle. Junmin reached out with his glass.

“Have you talked to Suyeon?”

“Not regarding the shoot, no.”

“You should learn from her once the shoot begins. They say that TV programs are a battle of money, but the ones that survive that battle are the ones with skill. Suyeon managed to gain a lot in a short period of time. Not all of it is from making men fall. There are her acting skills and her social skills too.”

Junmin emptied half of his glass before continuing to speak,

“Suyeon does not make enemies. In that sense, Miso’s rather special. This is the first time I saw someone express their hate so much to Suyeon. That’s why I thought that the two might actually become good friends. Well, from the way things are going now, I don’t think it’ll be that easy.”

“I think the reunification of the country might come sooner.”

“Maybe. Anyway, you should watch her. I’m a little worried about you since you seem to draw the line too well, but it won’t be that bad to learn a thing or two from her. Well, I’m sure you know better though.”

Junmin smiled in satisfaction. Just then, the door opened before Miso came in with a refreshed expression. A while later, Suyeon appeared with a rather sour face. Just from that, the outcome of this ‘battle’ was clear.

“Let’s get along well from now on.”

“Yes, yes. Unni.”

Of course, the two were still glaring at each other.

* * *

“Be careful on your way back.”

Maru said goodbye to the elder standing in his yard before turning around. Junmin, Ganghwan, and Geunsoo remained behind as they seemed to have something to talk about.

“I wonder if Sooil went back properly.”

“Byungchan-hyung is probably having a hard time.”

“True. I should beat Sooil up in the future if he grabs a drinking glass. He’s someone who shouldn’t drink,” said Miso while sighing.

“Ah, what do I do about the car?”

Miso crossed her arms in front of her car. She couldn’t drive since she drank quite a lot. Maru and Miso naturally looked at Suyeon.

“I’m going to take the taxi though?”

“Don’t say that. Why don’t you drive for me?”

“Why would I?”

“Listen to this unni’s words for once, hm?”

Miso opened the door to the driver’s seat before forcefully pushing Suyeon into it. Suyeon did not drink saying that she had a bad stomach. Well, she did drink until she passed out the day before, so she probably didn’t want to drink.

“I’m going to get some sleep. I feel dizzy. My house is on the GPS so please take me there.”

Miso lied down on the back seats and soon fell asleep. She looked completely fine when she left the elder’s house, but it seemed that she was only acting tough in front of the elder.

“I really hate this.”

Suyeon started up the car.

“I’ll take the taxi home.”

“Shut up. Get on.”

“What? I live in Suwon though.”

“My studio is in Suwon too, you know? Forget about it if you want to have an easy time.”

“Let’s minimize the casualties, shall we?”

“Oh, you’re going against me?”

Suyeon narrowed her eyes and stared at him. Maru got in the passenger seat with drooping shoulders. He had a hard time ignoring her gaze since she looked like she might actually do something bad if he left her alone.

After starting the GPS navigation, Suyeon started driving.

“Oh yeah, what did you talk about outside? I feel like something happened since you’re obediently giving her a drive.”

“I was hit.”

“I see, what?”

“I was hit.”

“Ah… really?”

“I’m joking. We can’t fight like kids until the end of time. It’s not like that ahjumma is completely incompetent, and she has a lot of connections too. There’s nothing to be gained from being at odds with her, so I made some sacrifices.”

Miso, who was lying down in the back, said that she wasn’t an ahjumma. Suyeon retorted that all married women were ahjummas.

“You should try to get along with her.”

“That’s the plan.”

Suyeon opened the window slightly.

“How long has it been since the car was cleaned? Why is it so smelly?”

“I guess it is a little bad.”

“Sheesh, whoever is marrying that woman is not sane.”

“I think Miso-noonim will say the same thing about you when you get married.”

“Me, married?”

Suyeon chuckled.

“Why would I marry anyone when I don’t trust men?”

“You’re going to live by yourself then?”

“I might get married since I don’t know what the future has in store, but right now, I can’t imagine such a thing.”

“What if Geunsoo hyung-nim wants to marry you?”

“That sounds attractive.”

“What a light-hearted person.”

“People think that everyone else other than themselves are light-hearted. But marriage, huh. Would I be able to get married at all?”

“If you live a quiet life from now on and spread rumors about how your dream is to become a faithful wife, I think it might be possible.”

“Maybe. Men are all idiots who believe me when I say that I’m not the person they think I am and that they should trust me. Just like how I trusted that man. Maybe this is why first love is important.”

“What good is complaining about past matters? You won’t get anything from it.”

“Ooh, I felt better now since you tried to console me in some way.”

“I’m only telling you that to tell you that we should get along well in the future. I feel good since I scored some points.”

“Right, do just that at the shoot too. This big sister will dote on you.”

“I’m asking this just in case, but you won’t actually touch the kids, right?”

As soon as he finished his words, Suyeon turned the wheel violently. The car shook a little and Maru shut himself up as he grabbed the handle above the window.

“I can’t guarantee what will happen if you touch the sensitive part of this big sister.”

“Yes, I will shut up now.”

“That’s right. That’s a good boy.”

After looking at Miso once, Suyeon kept driving while singing a pop song.

Maru thought that he should really have taken the taxi home as he made an awkward smile.

Chapter 502

New Semester - Maru looked at the title at the top of the script. Below were the names of the main staff involved in the production of the drama. He looked a little lower. To Mr. Han Maru. The script felt rather new to him since it had his name on it.

“The script will arrive before the shoot for a while. This means that you’ll have the time to leisurely read them at home. However, you’ll have less and less time as the drama reaches the second half. You see the name Lee Hanmi on the script right? She’s well-known for her scripts for dramas, but she has a critical flaw. It’s that she’s very very slow.”

Byungchan explained while he was driving. Very very. He emphasized that she was slow twice, so Maru could imagine the speed. Byungchan even went as far as to describe her as the god of last-minute scripts.

“Thanks to that, it’s the shooting staff and the actors that get busy. I found out this while working as a manager, but apparently, she was the one responsible for the legendary three-strike last-minute scripts.”

“The legendary three-strike last-minute scripts? What the heck is that?”

“She changed the script of a daily drama three times in one day. She brought a fixed version of the script during the shoot three times. Apparently, no one was able to say a thing to her because she’s a big time scriptwriter.”

“Why is such an amazing person doing a youth drama then?”

“That just goes to show how much effort YBS is putting into this project. I also had a look at her interview, and apparently, she feels responsible for the conflict between generations these days. That’s why she supposedly wants to create an opportunity for parents to talk to their children.”

“Wow, that’s incredible. And here I’m only thinking about the money.”

“Apparently, people do care when they have enough money. Rather than that, how are you feeling?”

“I had a good sleep and my voice is normal, I’m completely fine.”

Byungchan nodded as he drove the car.

Maru closed the script and looked outside the window. The first shoot of the drama in which he played a supporting role was about to begin. He went to the website for New Semester that was synchronized with the TV station yesterday, and his profile picture where he was wearing his school uniform was there. There was also a bulletin board for the viewers, where there were a lot of posts cheering the actors on. Most of them were for Kang Giwoo.

“We’re here.”

The shooting location for New Semester was a middle school located in Seoul. The building looked clean as though it was just built.

It was 8 in the morning. It was just around the time the sun rose in the winter.

There were people standing in front of the entrance of the school who were changing the middle school plate to ‘Myungnang High School’. He went inside with Byungchan on foot. Maru greeted everyone he came across. There were people that greeted back, and some people just walked by with awkward smiles.

“I’m just a part timer though.”

The man he greeted replied with a rather embarrassed expression.

“Please take care of me anyway. We might see each other later. Thanks for your work.”

He didn’t care if the person he came across was a staff member at the TV station or not. It wasn’t like lip service cost money anyway. Who could tell for sure that that man would never become his superior in this field?

“There’s the producer.”

He saw producer Park Hoon, who was talking to a man wearing a thick padded coat. When he went up close, he saw that the man was the assistant director he saw during the audition. From his memory, he went by the name Kim Minjoong.

“Good morning, producer.”

“Ah, yes.”

“I’m from JA Production. And this is Han Maru, who’s participating in the drama. I wonder if you remember him?” Byungchan asked cautiously.

Park Hoon made a relaxed expression as though he understood the situation.

“Of course. This fella left a deep impression on me.”

“Ah, I see. My name is Lee Byungchan. I’m in charge of the child actors in JA. Of course, there’s no need for you to remember me. I’m just here to say hello. But I’m asking just in case, may I give you a business card?”

“Go ahead.”

“Thank you. Please call me any time if you need me.”

Byungchan handed over a business card while bowing.

“This fella’s waist won’t last. Stop it there.”

“Y-yes.”

“JA, huh. President Lee has a good eye for people. I wonder where he found a smart kid like that,” said Park Hoon as he looked at Maru.

“Our Maru is really good at work and is smart. He won’t disappoint you when it comes to acting either.”

“I know, I know. I picked him because he was good.”

“Also, please take this. Take it whenever you want something in your mouth during the shoot.”

What Byungchan gave him were some cough sweets. Maru realized what all the candies, drinks, and chocolate bars in the back seat were for.

“Thanks, I’ll take it.”

“Please take care of our Maru.”

Byungchan smiled and stepped back. Maru also bowed towards the producer before turning around.

“Phew, thankfully, he’s not a picky person.”

“You’re going through hard work.”

“This isn’t even considered hard work. A person with a dirty character might have sworn at me for saying hi.”

Byungchan frowned as though just imagining it displeased him before patting Maru on the shoulder.

“Come with me. The camera director is over there. I got to know him while taking Sooil around before, so it should be easier.”

Byungchan smiled before starting to walk. Seeing that, Maru thought that Byungchan would become really well-known in this field. Of course, his own dream was to become an actor, but no one knew what the future had in store for him. Byungchan’s way of leaving behind a good impression of himself on the people he came across was a big talent when it comes to being a manager. Once he was promoted into someone like a head-manager, he would definitely shine even more.

‘Ah, maybe that’s why I was sworn at a lot when I was a manager, huh. Because I give off a bad impression?’

Just as he was thinking about such a thing, Byungchan’s voice could be heard.

“Maru, come here quickly.”

“Yes. I’m going.”

Maru also made a business smile and followed Byungchan.

* * *

“Let’s do it with your glasses on. It suits you more.”

He heard those words from Park Hoon during make-up. Maru quickly put on his glasses.

It was 9 a.m. The shoot looked like it was going to start soon. Maru picked up his script and stood in front of the 2nd year class 1. He saw the other actors getting some warmth from the heater placed in the corner.

“Wow, it’s cold. Okseon, don’t you feel cold?”

“I don’t.”

“Really? I’m freezing. Are you really okay?”

“Yes.”

Lee Joomin and Kim Okseon had met each other for the first time since the get-together. Joomin was still as outgoing as ever while Kim Okseon had a hard time talking. Seong Dongho was grumbling as always in a small voice.

“The shoot began over there,” said Joomin as she looked outside the window.

That was the scene where the three main characters: Kang Giwoo, Ahn Yeseul, and Park Jichan came to school. Students wearing school uniforms were acting as the background in groups of three to five.

The microphones, cameras, and reflectors moved according to the route the three were moving. The producer seemed to have shouted cut as the actors stopped and talked to each other before walking back to the entrance again. They repeated the same scene around six times before the camera and the actors moved towards the left entrance of the main building.

“Since we don’t have anything to do, should we go over the lines?” Joomin suggested.

Everyone gathered with their scripts since they didn’t have anything to do.

“But even if we want to, there are a lot of gaps since those three aren’t here.”

“They are the main characters after all,” Okseon said in a small voice.

“Let’s just ignore those lines. It’s not like we can’t act if the main characters aren’t here.”

Hearing Dongho’s words, Joomin made an awkward smile.

“That’s true, but we really don’t have any screen time in the 1st episode huh. Even though the supporting characters are supposed to be right below the lead characters.”

“If we aren’t going to start, I’ll just do one by myself,” said Dongho suddenly as he left the group.

Joomin didn’t say anything before laughing awkwardly.

“Let’s take it slow, to exercise our voices too. It looks like they’ll need some time over there. Dongho, why don’t you join us?”

Hearing Maru’s words, Dongho made an annoyed expression but still joined the group. It was good that he was easy to handle, Maru smiled as he looked at Dongho. Dongho looked at him sourly before turning his gaze to the script.

He did not want discord to occur on the first day of the shoot. Burning up in passion wasn’t something he wanted, he just wanted things to go smoothly. There wouldn’t be any noise as long as he showed some interest to the kid that wanted attention, and left the girl who wanted to stay quiet alone.

“Noona, let’s begin.”

“Oh, okay. L-let’s begin.”

As long as he gave Joomin, who wanted to lead everyone else as the eldest, a little push from the back, it would be much easier to gather everyone into a group.

“Then I’ll start.”

Joomin opened her mouth and said her first line.

* * *

“Everyone please move to the 1st floor,” said a staff member who came into the classroom.

It seemed that the shoot outside the school was finished somewhat.

“Noona, let’s go down.”

“Alright. Everyone, let’s go down.”

He let Joomin walk ahead and followed suit. When he went to the central staircase on the 1st floor, he saw cameras. Giwoo, Yeseul, and Jichan were there as well.

“Well then, please gather round, our little dreamers.”

Park Hoon called the child actors ‘little dreamers’. Maru moved in front of Park Hoon. After looking at the seven people lined up in a row, Park Hoon spoke,

“Well then. We are going to show your characters off here. Okseon and Yeseul will get into a staring contest. You know what a staring contest is right? Glare at each other like you’re going to rip each other’s hair out. You know, that feeling you get when you see someone you hate. Try to express it in your own ways.”

“Yes.”

“Good answer, our little Okseon dreamer. Well, then. Let’s get into position.”

This was the scene where Okseon blocked Yeseul and a minor actor in the corridor and picked a fight with them. This was the scene where Okseon said her first line and the first scene where Maru, Dongho, and Joomin appeared on camera.

Maru took a short breath before concentrating. All of his senses became sharp before becoming dreamy just like he was about to fall asleep. Maru always went through this process before he immersed himself in acting. That sensation of everything calming down, and at the same time, the appearance of another self inside him. A rational Han Maru who would look at the state of the staff and the actors around him at all times stood a step behind him, while a Han Maru fully immersed in acting stepped forward in front.

Maru could feel those two selves at the same time, and he could control them as well.

‘Myungnang High School, 2nd year, class 1, Lee Chan. He’s similar to me, but he has more childish characteristics.’

Creating a character boiled down to endless conversations with himself in the end. Once he created a topic, a long conversation where rebuttals tailed one another began between the self immersed in acting and the self rationally looking around the world. Once that conversation neared the end, a suitable character he could be satisfied with was created.

Maru finished his preparations to become the character known as Lee Chan in the drama New Semester. He pushed up his glasses a little and stood crookedly.

“Hm, good. Let’s begin the shoot,” said Park Hoon as he walked towards the monitor.

Maru waited outside the camera angle. He was in a position where he would be in the corner of the screen if the camera followed Yeseul. Next to him was Dongho. He had placed his hands politely in front of his stomach as though he was being scolded. It was completely off the mark for a scene where the students were supposed to be talking and laughing together with their friends. Maru didn’t want the shoot to drag out due to NG scenes, so he poked him with his elbow before giving his hands a glance.

‘Oh, no.’

Despite the look, Dongho maintained his posture as though he was frozen stiff. Now that Maru thought about it, Dongho did say that this was his first drama shoot. He should have received camera massages in other places since he got the role of a supporting character, so Maru was surprised that he was frozen stiff like someone standing in front of the camera for the first time. He signalled to him once again, but it seemed that Dongho didn’t even have the time to pay attention to his surroundings. He was probably busy reciting lines in his head.

“Yeseul, were you at the arcade yesterday? Someone apparently saw someone smoking and that person looked just like you.”

That was pretty decent. Maru nodded as he looked at Okseon’s acting. He was a little worried since she wasn’t good with words usually, but her atmosphere had changed now that they started the shoot. The producer seemed to be satisfied as well as he continued with the shoot.

“Seri, I never did such a thing.”

Kim Seri. That was the name of the character played by Okseon. The three main characters, Ahn Yeseul, Kang Giwoo, and Park Jichan used their real names in the drama.

After Yeseul’s line, the camera moved to the side to capture the two people in a single frame. Maru, Dongho, and Joomin would be located between the two in the background.

“Cut. Dongho, relax your hands. You’re not being scolded here,” said Park Hoon.

Chapter 503

“Yes.”

Dongho immediately unclasped his hands and stood properly. Park Hoon’s gaze returned to the monitor. Maru thought that the shoot would resume, but Park Hoon stood up again.

“Dongho.”

“Yes!”

“Look at me.”

Park Hoon took a step away from the monitor before hopping.

“Do as I do.”

“Eh?”

“I said, do as I do. Here, loosen your hands and start hopping. It might be too embarrassing for you to do it alone, so let’s have everyone do it.”

The shooting location turned into a gym class all of a sudden. Everyone started hopping around like the producer after hesitating for a while. Maru also jumped lightly. This continued for around 30 seconds. Everyone seemed confused at first, but they eventually started chuckling as they looked at each other.

“Okay. Dongho. Stay completely still.”

Dongho stood naturally as he exhaled. Park Hoon told him that his posture was good before shouting ‘ready’. The shoot immediately started. The camera skimmed over the main entrance before putting Yeseul and Okseon in one frame. After the two exchanged lines, Okseon snorted and turned around. When Okseon climbed about half of the stairs, Park Hoon shouted cut.

“That was good. We’re going to do the same thing again, but this time, the camera will focus on Yeseul. Okseon, you can keep doing what you were doing.”

The shoot was repeated to get more cuts for the edits. After shooting the same scene about five times from different angles, Park Hoon nodded and said that they should go up. Maru and Dongho stood in one corner of the corridor like mannequins during the whole shoot.

“Can’t he let us rest? It’s not like we’re in the camera angle anyway. I’m fine by myself.”

It seemed that Dongho had calmed down a little as he started grumbling again. It also seemed that he didn’t even remember becoming totally stiff in front of Park Hoon.

“You should understand. They’ll have to do the same when you start acting later.”

“Who says I don’t understand?”

Maru shrugged before avoiding Dongho’s gaze. He decided to let him be since he wouldn’t listen no matter what Maru said to him.

They moved to 2nd year class 1. The students wearing school uniforms were seated throughout. Okseon, who finished her cut without an NG, was mixed among them without her sour expression from before.

“Sorry, I’m late. Sorry, sorry. I was on the wrong schedule. Am I late?”

The one that appeared while making a nasal laughing sound was Suyeon, wearing a neat suit. She looked like a stereotypical teacher-in-training.

“You’re just in time. Let’s go over there. We’ll take a look at the movement lines,” said Park Hoon as he pointed at the podium.

Suyeon replied ‘of course’ before standing behind the podium. While those two talked to each other, a rather short lady approached Suyeon and touched up her hair. Her neat hair was ruffled which created a rather immature image.

“I’m tying up my hair, right?”

“You won’t look like a teacher if you untie it. Also, isn’t your make-up too heavy?”

“I’ll tone it down a little.”

The lady touching up her hair took out some cosmetics before fixing Suyeon’s make-up in a flash. Suyeon looked a little more immature than before.

“Is this okay?”

“Let’s keep that image in the future.”

“Okay.”

“Well, then. We’re going to start again. Since it’s the first shoot, let’s finish things off quickly and go home.”

Maru sat in his designated seat. He was at the back of the class. It would be his real seat at school if he was right next to the door. The others sat around him as well. At the center were Kang Giwoo and Ahn Yeseul. The two sat next to each other. Dongho and Joomin were in the next column over, and they sat next to each other as well. Okseon sat at the front of the class. The camera director climbed a low ladder. It seemed that he was trying to get the whole class in one shot. Park Hoon explained the scene before starting the shoot.

“This is the teacher-in-training who will start listening to class with you all starting today. Okay, let’s introduce you to everyone.”

Suyeon made a confused expression before carefully walking forward. The nervousness of her first time at work could be felt. It was as Junmin said: she didn’t gain everything through putting men to bed. The way she licked her lips slightly didn’t look unnatural at all. The fear and expectation harbored by someone that was between a university student and a teacher were expressed perfectly by her small actions and slight trembling.

“I’m Park Chaeyeon and I’ll be studying with all of you throughout May. Although it might be short, I hope I can get along with everyone.”

“Applaud.”

When the actor in charge of the teacher’s role started clapping, everyone else started clapping as well. The applause did not stop until the cut sound.

“Good, Suyeon. Keep that up.”

The camera director climbed down from the ladder and shot Suyeon from the front. During that time, the people positioned behind the camera sighed in relief.

“I should be like that too.”

Yeseul practiced her lines with different expressions as though she was provoked after seeing Suyeon’s acting. Maru also looked at his script during his waiting time. Drama scenes changed by the second when watching, but there were many occasions where a single cut would take more than an hour to shoot. If a producer who was very greedy for a good picture was in charge of directing the scene, or the script was delayed and they were running out of time, shoots through the nights were the norm. There were many cases especially with daily dramas where shoots would happen 24/7.

“Let’s do that again.”

Suyeon’s acting looked decent, but Park Hoon didn’t seem satisfied with it. Park Hoon looked at the monitor with a sharp gaze, while Suyeon talked as though she was talking to an invisible person. The lights on the camera turned on again and the film started rolling.

“That’s quite strict.”

“He wasn’t that strict with us though.”

“Maybe he has different expectations.”

Everyone nodded at Giwoo’s words. Despite the fact that there was no NG, Park Hoon kept saying that they should shoot again. Only on the fifth try did his mouth utter the word ‘okay’.

“Director, aren’t you being too strict with me?”

“Just consider my expectations of you that high. That’s my bottom line. If you go below that line, I’m going to shoot again, so it’s up to you to do what you want.”

“Yes, yes, director.”

Everyone laughed when they heard Suyeon’s nonchalant reply. Thanks to Suyeon who smiled at everyone, the atmosphere became more relaxed.

“Let’s go. Get ready, little dreamers. Also, Yeseul.”

“Yes.”

“Come here for a sec.”

Park Hoon called Yeseul out of the classroom. A moment later, Yeseul came back in again, looking a little dejected. It seemed that she was given directions in a place others couldn’t see. The director was being considerate of her, in a sense. If she was pointed out where everyone could see, she would have been even more dejected.

He told the actors he trusted upfront, and was considerate of the actors he did not. Producer Park Hoon showed everyone that that was the way he treated people.

“There’s a scene on the school field as well, so let’s hurry things up,” shouted Park Hoon as he sat on the chair.

The camera moved towards the front of the class and shot everyone in their seats. This was the scene where Okseon, the class president, fought with Jichan. Yeseul would interrupt the fight midway and reveal more of the relationships between the characters.

“Why don’t you stop talking since we’re in the middle of class?”

“When did I talk?”

“You shouted in front of that teacher-in-training. You might think it’s cool, but it only makes you look dumb, you know?”

“Hey, do you want to interfere with everything since you’re the class president?”

Okseon and Jichan glared at each other as they said their words. Yeseul, who was watching the situation, quietly walked in between the two. Just as Yeseul was about to say her line, Park Hoon shouted cut.

“Kids, you aren’t here to play around, right?”

Park Hoon’s mouth was smiling, but his eyes weren’t.

“Concentrate. If you don’t have the confidence to get your emotions together when the shoot starts, then you should get them together beforehand. The reason I respect actors is because they do their job. You see the actors standing over there? Even they are trying their best to get into their roles before the shoot begins. Do you think you can get into your character immediately once the camera starts rolling after laughing and talking while the camera isn’t? Why don’t you have a look at the monitor and see what your expressions were like?” Park Hoon said as he waved his finger up and down.

He looked a little angry.

“This is a year-long drama. Please allow me to send you off with a smile when the last episode airs. This is a big opportunity for you too, isn’t it? 800. That’s the number of people who participated in the audition in order to get a spot in this drama. Why not at least be aware of the fact that you deprived them of their opportunity? You’re here in the shooting location, and as long as you stand in front of the camera with a character assigned to you, you are a professional no matter what your age is. This is the last time I’ll say this. Today, I’m only doing this because I’m a senior on the scene and it’s the first shoot, but if I don’t see any improvements even after I give you directions next time, it’ll be an endless loop of shoots. If we run out of time to edit the scenes, then the drama will look like shit.”

Park Hoon signalled the camera director before walking in front of the monitor again.

“Bear this in mind. There’s a limit to how much editing can do. Although they say editing can make or break the drama, you guys are the ones providing the source.”

After saying those words, Park Hoon apologized loudly for saying nonsense.

“Standby.”

The assistant director shouted. Park Hoon crossed his arms and looked at the monitor.

It didn’t feel like a burst of anger had gotten the better of him. It felt as though he had been holding back for quite a while. Perhaps he was feeling that way since the first time the camera started rolling in the morning. If it was just one person doing bad, he would’ve called out that person separately just like he did with Yeseul, so he probably did that because he thought that everyone was doing bad.

Maru fixed his glasses. Park Hoon had just given them a warning, telling them that it was up to them to scoop the rice out and eat it. When he looked next to him, he saw everyone waiting for the cue sign nervously.

‘Yes. This is actually better in the first run.’

It would be harder to make the atmosphere strict again if they were let loose since the get-go. Although it was the actors that created the atmosphere at a shooting location, that was usually limited to the adult actors. With child actors, who couldn’t talk back to the producer in any shape or form, especially if they just entered the entertainment industry, the producer would direct the atmosphere at a shooting location.

Maru looked at how the adult actors were drinking coffee and laughing with each other. That strict atmosphere only applied to the child actors who were relaxed without knowing what they were going against. The veterans capable of perfectly digesting their part were just watching this place with interest. Producer Park Hoon did not say anything about them either. The respect that the producer mentioned was based on skill after all.

“Ready, cue!”

Park Hoon’s voice struck the shooting location.

* * *

Jichan felt his voice cracking. He raised his voice recklessly since he just had that type of character, but that seemed to have backfired on him. It was the second NG scene already. He felt as though he was sweating cold sweat on his back.

“Jichan, watch your diction. Also, control your emotions a little more.”

Ever since he shouted at everyone, producer Park Hoon spoke in a small voice. Jichan found that even scarier. When an NG happened and everyone looked at him, he felt like he had sinned and couldn’t raise his head. This wasn’t what he thought a shooting scene would be like. If he made a mistake, he thought that the staff and the director would encourage him as long as he apologized. That was the dream shoot he had in his mind. However, the drama shooting scene that he participated in as a main character felt completely different. He wondered how the actors he saw before were able to endure such gazes.

“Let’s go to the next scene.”

They finally went on to the next scene. Jichan sighed. The next scene was where the supporting characters talked to each other by the window in the class.

He saw Maru, Joomin, and Dongho sit down by the window. Dongho, who played the role of Dongwook, a prankster-type character, was muttering something to himself with a smile for a while now, but he didn’t look like he was having fun at all.

Joomin, who played the character of Yeonjeong, Yeseul’s best friend, kept uttering her lines as she stared at the script. It seemed that she had a hard time memorizing her lines.

Finally, Maru, who played the character Lee Chan, nicknamed the ‘professor’, just sat there calmly unlike the other two who were busy doing something. He looked strangely leisurely.

“Tell the Jimmy jib to wait once they’re done setting up. We’re going to go down right after I do this scene. Well, then. Let’s get ready and start.”

The camera moved in front of the three. Jichan was never as scared of the camera as he was today. It was thanks to producer Park Hoon’s words. The others sitting next to him were also busy looking at their scripts. Yeseul looked like she was about to cry, so he didn’t dare talk to her. The one that seemed to be the most normal was Okseon. She always had a poker face on.

“Let’s start.”

The coordinators stepped out and the three looked at each other in their positions. Producer Park Hoon’s start sign fell and Joomin immediately started acting.

Chapter 504

“Hey, Lee Chan, let’s go to the noraebang after school.”

“We have tests soon. Go after the exams.”

“The tests are ages away. Don’t say that and let’s go. Yeonjeong, you are going to go, right?”

“Me? I’m not sure. I was planning to go home with Yeseul.”

“Dongwook, you should go home as well. You should raise your scores.”

“Hey, why don’t we play around a little? We’re only in our 2nd year of high school.”

Jichan looked at Maru, Joomin, and Dongho saying their lines. Although it was an everyday conversation which was nothing hard, producer Park Hoon’s expression wasn’t that good. Jichan opened the script. Next to Dongho’s line was this: As though frustrated from not playing around for a long time.

Dongwook, the character Dongho played, was supposed to be a prankster character, but Dongho looked a little awkward. Even he could see that Dongho was hesitating, so the producer must have noticed that a long time ago.

“Cut, let’s do that again,” said producer Park Hoon.

The three got into position again. After one more round, the producer shouted cut again.

“Let’s do that again. Relax your shoulders. You should relax a little more. Think that you’re in your actual classes at school. We need you to look natural. Get ready.”

Again, again, and yet again. As the shoot repeated, everyone’s acting became stiff. Producer Park Hoon no longer said anything either. He only parroted the word ‘again’.

“Let’s take a little break,” said producer Park Hoon while stretching his arms out.

The people holding the lights and the reflectors yawned before doing some stretches. Jichan cautiously looked at producer Park Hoon. He was chatting with the other actors and the camera director. He didn't even glance at the three people sitting by the window.

‘This is the worst possible first shoot.’

It would be his turn again once this scene ended. If he didn’t want to be given the cold shoulder like those three, he had to do something now. He opened his script and went over all of the directions, situational contexts, and his lines. He even read the narration several times. He could feel that he wasn’t qualified to be worried about someone else.

At that moment, he heard a voice from the window side.

“Dongho, stand up for a sec.”

Maru was talking to Dongho. Dongho, looking nervous, signalled him to not talk to him. He thought that that side was in chaos as well. Joomin-noona didn’t say anything as though she was feeling rather complex as well.

“Stand up for a sec,” Maru said once again.

For some reason, though, his expression looked scary. Was he about to pick a fight? That would cause even more chaos.

‘No. I guess it might be better for me if they get into a fight?’

Giwoo, Yeseul, and Jichan himself were the three main characters. These three wouldn’t get scolded if those three caused trouble. No, perhaps this was an opportunity. Wouldn’t his evaluation rise if he showed everyone that he stopped a fight and encouraged them?

Just as he was thinking that, he saw Kang Giwoo standing up. Jichan intuitively realized that Giwoo was thinking the same thing as him. He was such a cocky guy. Jichan always believed that guys that acted gentlemanly were never good at heart, so he did not see Giwoo in a good way. Actually, he was aware that he was only jealous of Giwoo since he had more popularity, but didn’t want to admit that.

Giwoo slid on his chair loudly. The noise was quite loud. Jichan inwardly exclaimed. He was properly gathering everyone’s attention. He could see that some people were looking at him. From now on, everyone would watch as Giwoo stopped those three, between whom there was a bad atmosphere. He could practically hear everyone saying that Giwoo was a good boy. He looked at Yeseul through the corner of his eyes. She was staring at her script in a daze as though the scolding from producer Park Hoon had gotten the better of her. She had a really cute face, but she was really stupid.

Giwoo started walking towards the three.

‘Why is he acting like that!?’

Maru had grabbed Dongho’s collars before forcefully making him stand. Jichan inwardly screamed. He thought that Maru would fight in a quiet manner, but it looked as though it was going to break out into a proper fight. He thought that Maru was a quiet kid when they first met, but maybe his personality was just as vicious as he looked?

Giwoo also flinched and stopped on the spot. This must have been an unexpected situation for him as well. Dongho looked at Maru with shock, while Joomin stood up from her seat, even more surprised than Dongho. Although not everyone had noticed this situation since they were in a corner, it would be big trouble if Maru started beating Dongho up or something.

Those idiots - Jichan signalled Giwoo. Everything would go down the drain if those two fought here. They had to stop that at all costs.

“WAAAAAAAAAA!”

Maru suddenly peeked out the window before shouting. Jichan didn’t understand what was going on. He looked at Maru, half standing up from his seat. Everyone was looking at him now.

“Sorry about that. I was just exercising my throat while I took a break. Please don’t mind.”

Maru bowed before bringing the dazed Dongho near the window. Jichan walked past Giwoo who was standing still and approached those three.

“What are you doing?” He asked Maru while grabbing his shoulders.

“Exercising my throat.”

“What?”

“There’s nothing better than that when it comes to unsinking your voice.”

“Why would you do that here?”

“Is there a reason for me to not do it?” Maru asked directly.

Jichan couldn’t say anything. When he thought about it, there was no reason to stop him. An actor was exercising his voice. Why should he be stopped?

“There are seniors here too.”

He squeezed his mind to utter one reason.

“They don’t seem to mind though?”

Maru pointed at where the producer and the actors were standing. They looked at Maru for a while, but they soon lost interest and went back to talking amongst themselves.

Jichan no longer spoke and stepped back. He felt a little embarrassed because he felt like he made a big deal out of nothing. He watched Maru with his lips twitching.

“Seong Dongho, time’s passing. Do that quickly,” Maru said as he pushed Dongho’s shoulders.

“Why would I do something like…”

“You feel embarrassed?”

“What the hell do you mean?”

“Are you embarrassed about shouting outside?”

“Why would I feel embarrassed about something like that?” Dongho said as though he was throwing a tantrum

However, his voice was very weak.

“Then do it.”

“Why should I?”

“You can’t do it?”

“I can.”

“Then do it.”

Dongho’s cheeks twitched and he looked flabbergasted before placing his hands on the window sill. Was he about to shout? However, Dongho peeked out the window, but only mumbled something to himself and did not produce any sound.

“So you can’t do it.”

Maru stood next to Dongho before shouting as though he was demonstrating. His voice was very loud and clear. Jichan could hear producer Park Hoon saying that he had a good voice.

Dongho gritted his teeth and looked around before opening his mouth again. However, what escaped his mouth was a weak sound.

“Why are you wussing out? Just spit it out. Or do something like this instead.”

The next moment, Jichan subconsciously muttered ‘that lunatic’ when he heard Maru’s words.

“YOU SON OF A BIIIITCH!”

That was what Maru said out the window. Dongho made a flabbergasted expression. Joomin looked at Maru while covering her mouth.

Jichan couldn’t look behind him. He didn’t have the confidence to look at the expressions of the director, the actors, as well as the staff. He felt as though producer Park Hoon would be walking towards them with a scary face. He shrunk his neck and glanced behind him.

‘…No one’s looking here.’

Some of the staff were looking, but the rest looked uninterested like the first time Maru shouted. Producer Park Hoon was laughing and talking with the assistant director.

“Do it,” Maru said as he placed his hand on Dongho’s back.

Dongho was uncooperative at first, but it seemed as though he had changed his mind after seeing Maru do ludicrous things. Well, even Jichan himself would give in to the pressure if he was standing there.

‘He’s a complete lunatic.’

Dongho grabbed the window sill and took a deep breath in again. This time, his voice was much louder than before. He was just shouting ‘ack’ though, instead of swearing.

“Much better.”

Maru sat down while smiling. Dongho was panting with his face bright red. After that, the shooting location was peaceful for five minutes as though nothing had happened.

“If you’re done resting, let’s continue,” said producer Park Hoon.

The camera started rolling and started shooting the three again.

“Please wait. Sorry about that. Let’s try that again after I get myself together,” Dongho said those words as soon as the shoot started.

Producer Park Hoon unexpectedly said that it was okay and waited for him. Maru brought his face against Dongho, who was tapping his chest with his hand before grinning.

“Should I show you my balls? Are you going to smile if you see my twin jewels?”

Although it was a small voice, Jichan could clearly hear it. Giwoo and Yeseul should have heard him as well. Joomin, who was sitting right next to Maru, made a flabbergasted expression before laughing while slapping Maru’s back, and Dongho also looked at Maru like a madman before shaking his head.

“I think you guys are ready, shall we start?”

“Yes! I’m ready.”

Dongho’s voice contained power.

The shoot began, and Dongho, who was sitting on the desk, said his line to Maru as he kicked at empty air. His shoes touched Maru’s clothes and dirtied them, but neither of them minded. No, in fact, Maru naturally dusted his clothes off with his hand as he naturally said his line.

“We should really go to the noraebang.”

“Let’s just study.”

“Damn model student. Hey, play around a little.”

Dongho coquettishly shook his shoulders as he said those words, and he looked like he was really close to Maru. That kind of mischievous action did not look unnatural at all, and perhaps thanks to that, Jichan had a much easier time looking at the three. Joomin’s acting looked like it hadn’t changed at all, but thanks to the overall change in atmosphere, she did look a little softer than before.

“Okay.”

Producer Park Hoon gave the okay sign.

“Keep that up, you three. It’s good to look at. Well, then. Let’s go to the next place.”

That was the first compliment after the scolding.

* * *

Dongho and Maru hung their arms around each other’s shoulders. They were shooting their way home from school. It was a simple scene where they just had to walk behind some background actors. The camera and the microphone were pointing at Yeseul and Giwoo.

“Let’s walk energetically,” said Maru as he pulled Dongho closer.

Dongho looked at Maru with a displeased gaze.

“Don’t act close to me.”

“Are we doing this again?”

“Last time I was…”

Dongho was about to mention what happened in the classroom, but he didn’t say anything. He found it absurd even when he thought about it now. He was worried about what the producer or other people would say, but fortunately, none of them said anything.

The producer’s cue sign came. Maru walked forward with a big smile on his face. As they were hanging their arms around each other, Dongho had to walk as well.

“Can’t I act close to you? We have to act like we’re close to each other for a whole year, you know?” said Maru.

“It’s just a TV program.”

“Exactly. It’s just a TV program, so let’s pretend that we’re close. It’s not like I truly want you to like me or something. That sounds creepy. But at least make the people watching us think that we’re on good terms. Can you act like you’re close to me immediately after the camera starts rolling without talking to me even once off camera? I sure am not that skilled.”

Dongho glared at Maru who stroked his face with his hand. As the camera was rolling, Dongho had to speak without snapping at him.

“Just cut corners.”

“You’ll become sick if you get money from cutting corners, you know?”

“Then what do you want me to do?”

“I want you to at least pretend to be close to me. I know that you aren’t serious about it, so just pretend to do so. Is that so hard?”

“Hard? It’s not hard at all?”

“That’s that then. Well then, what shall we start off with? Do you have a girlfriend?”

“Uh, what?”

“Ooh, look at this guy. Your reaction told me everything. Who is it? Someone from the same school?”

“Wh-why would I tell you something like th…”

Just as Dongho said up to those words, the producer signalled them to walk back to the school field. They walked to the entrance with their arms around each other.

“Then let’s see. Do you have a cute little sister or big sister?”

“What the heck are you saying?”

“Nothing in particular. Don’t you want to know anything about me?”

“Nothing.”

“Then I’ll keep asking the questions then. What do you like? Video games? Soccer? Porn? Japanese? Western?”

“You lunatic, what are you saying?”

“That’s it, react to me like that. I don’t want to be talking to a wall. For me personally, I like western,” Maru said with a grin.

Dongho narrowed his eyes and looked at Maru.

The only thought in his head was that Maru was a complete madman.

Chapter 505

“Wow, fan service from the first shoot?” said producer Park Hoon as he waved the cup in his hand.

On the disposable cup was a photo of Kang Giwoo smiling, and inside the cup were pieces of fruits cut into bite sized pieces. Giwoo smiled in embarrassment.

“Looks like there’s a reason why the popular ones are popular,” said Dongho as he twirled the pieces of fruit inside the cup.

He didn’t know what was going on when a truck suddenly entered the school premises just after lunch, but it turned out it was something like this.

“Being popular sure has its good sides.”

Joomin ate the fruits with a bright smile on her face. Dongho just licked his lips and hesitated for a while before putting down the cup without eating any.

“You aren’t eating it?”

“You can eat all you want.”

The first shoot didn’t go well. Actually, he didn’t want to treat Joomin so coldly. Who would want to distance himself from a cute noona?

“Uh, okay.”

Joomin smiled awkwardly and avoided his gaze. Dongho inwardly sighed. He didn’t want this to happen, but nothing was going the way he wanted. If the shoot went well at least, he would have spent the break in comfort and maybe even joke around with Joomin. However, right now, he felt very stuffy inside.

“If you aren’t eating it, I will.”

Dongho looked next to him with a displeased face. Maru chewed on the fruits with a face that didn’t look worried at all.

“Noona, being famous does really have its benefits. The fans give you dessert, and even if they don’t prepare anything, they can boast about you. Maybe this is why people are so hung up on popularity.”

“Right? I didn’t care about things like these when I first started acting, but I came to realize after working for a while. In the end, what I want to be is a popular actor. Acting is fun, but it would be even better if I am loved by the people, right?”

“You’re right. The more you have the better. It’ll be great if you can catch both popularity and acting. Being a popular star is much better than being a tragic actor. Honestly speaking, how many things are more important than money in this world?”

Maru was speaking while winking one eye. Dongho snorted.

“How many things are more important than money? Is that what you’re thinking? Well then, our Mr. Grumbly Dongho. What kind of mindset do you have when acting?”

“Mr. Grumbly?”

He was flabbergasted. He was going to ignore Maru since he thought that there was nothing to be gained from talking to him, but Maru hooked his arm around his shoulders.

“Tell me. There are two people listening to you here.”

Dongho felt stuffy in his mouth as though he just ate a handful of sand.

“Why would I tell you anything?”

“Your acting philosophy. I’ll listen to you.”

“Like I said, why would I tell you something like that?”

“Then try telling Joomin-noona only. I’ll just stay quiet on the side.”

How can someone be so shameless? This Han Maru guy was completely unpredictable since there were so many discrepancies between the first impression of him, his actions during the shoot, and this situation now. Dongho didn’t get what he was thinking or what he wanted to do at all.

“It’s break time anyway. We should talk about something.”

Maru was creepily attached to him. Dongho tried to push him away, but he didn’t budge as though he was made of stone or something. Going by body figures alone, there wasn’t that big of a difference, which made it so strange.

“You know? Acting is the act of expressing the impossible. It’s creating what there isn’t.”

Dongho said what he heard in class. He even plastered those words on the wall since he found them so deeply engraved in his mind.

“Wow, what good words. I feel like that touched my heart. Noona, don’t you think so too?”

“They are good words,” said Joomin.

Dongho felt proud. Now you get it? I’m different from you. Just as he was making a smile of victory, Maru spoke,

“But that’s that. I was asking what your acting philosophy was. Don’t define what acting is, and tell me what you act for. It must be as cool as the line you just said, right?” Maru said as he crossed his legs.

His gaze was directed towards the sky. Dongho became speechless.

“Why do you act, noona?”

Maru changed the target of the question.

“Because I want to be popular.”

“That was fast. For me, I want to earn money. I want to earn a lot of money and feed my family all the good things, and buy only good clothes for them. That’s the best kind of life, don’t you think?”

“It is, it is.”

Maru spoke again,

“So, Dongho, what’s yours? Why do you act?”

“So, I…”

“So, you?”

“I-I act in order to reflect on myself.”

“Wow, self-reflection. That’s one good word after the other. So what is this self-reflection about?”

“Self-reflection is self-reflection, what else can it be?”

“I’m not that smart so I don’t understand difficult jargon like that. Liking money, liking fame. How simple is that? Even a dumb kid like me can understand easy things like that. But I don’t really get self-reflection. I don’t know what you’re trying to say, what you’re trying to do, or why you act.”

He sweated. Dongho tried to find a suitable answer before becoming angry.

“Why do I need to tell you something like that!” He shouted in a fit of anger.

When he did, Maru smiled back instead.

“That’s it, that’s more like it. If you don’t like it, you don’t like it. If you like it, you like it. If you’re annoyed, you’re annoyed. If you hate me, then hate me. Let’s make things easy and actually say what’s on your mind. Why do you need to tell me something like that? Do you think I’m asking because I have some big interest in you or something? Of course not. I might be much better off asking what Joomin-noona likes and doesn’t like instead.”

Maru’s face closed in on his.

“You asked me why I kept asking you questions, right? Because I need to know. Only when I know will I decide if I’m going to pretend, snap out at you, or whatever. The director said, didn’t he? This will be a year-long shoot. We’ll be seeing each other from now on whether we like it or not. You know? This is my first time doing a supporting role. This is a golden opportunity for me, and I don’t want to ruin such a precious opportunity.”

“It’s also an important opportunity for me as…”

Before he even had time to finish, Maru interrupted.

“Then why is that all you can do? Do you think you can do things half-assedly just because you’re a side character and not a main character? Or are you that good? Are you good enough to be acknowledged by the director?”

“That’s…”

“Because I’m not. I’m not good enough at acting to get an okay from him when I don’t take it seriously, nor have I made myself known to enough people that I’ll get another opportunity even if I miss this one. I have nothing, so I have only one conclusion. I will do anything it takes. You asked me why I kept asking you questions? I did so because I want to be closer to you even if it’s just a little. I’m not expecting something like friendship. I just want to be at a level where I can pretend to be close to you in front of the camera. I told you right, we should at least pretend. You told me you can do it.”

After saying those words without even breathing, Maru picked up the cup with fruits in it with a sour face.

“You said you aren’t eating this, right?”

“Uh, yeah.”

Dongho could only stutter.

“Someone I really respect once told me, yeah?” Maru said as he looked in front of him.

“That person said that I shouldn’t put on a lie when I act, that I should stay true when acting. But that is actually something incredibly difficult to do. It’s easy to say, but I wouldn’t survive if I wanted to do something like that. I don’t dare to either.”

After chewing on something, Maru spat out a persimmon seed.

“What can I do if I can’t stay true? I can only pretend. Pretending to be close, pretending to cry, pretending to be sad. But ‘pretending’ by myself gets me nowhere. My partner should match my pretense.”

Maru forked a piece of pineapple and gave it to Joomin. Joomin made a confused expression before accepting it. Dongho frowned.

“Here, say ah.”

Maru gave him a strawberry. Dongho shook his head, saying that he didn’t want it, but Maru was forceful. He eventually gave up and ate it.

“I know you don’t like me. I would be an idiot if I didn’t. But the thing is, I can tell that even when the camera is rolling. If it is obvious to me who’s right next to you, how blatantly obvious would it be to the director? No, it would actually be okay if you actually expressed your hate towards me openly. However, you smile awkwardly at me since you’re in front of the camera, and you have a weird expression on your face all the time.”

Maru closed his eyes and scratched his brows. Dongho couldn’t find any words to reply.

“You know that you, I, and Joomin-noona are a bundle. There are many scenes where the three of us are together. If the director gets mad, he will snap out at all three of us, but I don’t want to be wrongly accused.”

Maru emptied the cup before chewing it vigorously.

“That’s why we should get to know each other. You can swear at my face. You can also talk bad about me behind my back. But you have to at least look like we’re close friends when the camera’s rolling. That’s what the script says, doesn’t it? That we are best friends.”

“…So what do you want me to do then?”

“I’m saying that we should have a talk. Even if you hate me, you have to hate me after you get to know me properly. If you hate me awkwardly because you don’t know anything, it will show when the camera’s rolling. Either you completely turn away from me and make this into a business relationship, or we stay close normally too. Let’s decide on that first. Don’t get upset all by yourself and drag others down with you when you go down. Joomin-noona, you’re alright with that, right?”

Joomin said that she was okay with it as though she didn’t even need to think about it. Dongho sighed.

“I really don’t like you.”

Maru then replied,

“Who said I liked you?”

* * *

“Look at them.”

Park Hoon tapped on the new producer, Kim Minjoong’s head, before pointing at the young actors. Three people, standing next to the goalpost, were talking to each other.

“They’re getting along well.”

“Does that look like they’re getting along well to you? I’m not sure about Joomin, but Maru and Dongho are practically swearing at each other. It would be fun if they got into a fight.”

“Oh, really? Should I go and stop them?”

“Nah. They’ll take care of themselves. They aren’t popular enough to receive care from their agencies, so if they get into a fight, we just cut them off. I really don’t like that guy. Geez, was I wrong in the head when I did that audition? Why the hell did I pick that little shit?”

“You mean Seong Dongho?”

“Then did you think I would be talking about Han Maru? If he looks like he won’t improve after we shoot the 2nd episode, we should just cut him off. If we roll team B and edit the scenes, it will be easy to fill up a supporting character.”

“May I go and give them some advice?”

“You can try. But you sound like you have a lot of time, minding people like that. From what I know, you are supposed to be remaking the time schedule since Kim Suyeon can’t come to some of the shoots.”

“Oh, that? We just have to get one scene early Wednesday.”

“Really? That’s strange. Senior Kim Daesik, who’s in the same scene, said he can’t do early mornings. Am I the only one who got told that?”

When Park Hoon narrowed his eyes and said those words, Minjoong turned pale in fright before standing up.

“Work properly will you? Before you have time to care about the actors, you have to look after your own work.”

“Y-yes!”

“Get it adjusted quickly. Don’t just leave a gap.”

Park Hoon rolled his script up and hit Minjoong’s head lightly with it.

* * *

“Yeseul, that girl. I wonder if she’s a kind girl, or just a little lacking in the head.”

“I’m not sure about Yeseul, but I get that you sure are a little lacking in the head.”

“Lee Chan, that’s how you treat me?”

“What ‘that’s how you treat me?’. Forget it and just give me back my notes from yesterday. Though, you probably didn’t study at all.”

After Maru’s words ended, the camera moved off to the side. Producer Park Hoon gave the okay sign.

Okseon quietly looked at the two people. The two were terrible in shoots in the morning. But ever since lunch, the number of NGs decreased, and now, they were getting okay signs faster than anyone.

Did that mean the two got along well? Well, that wasn’t it either.

“You should have rolled your tongue a little more there.”

“Shut up. What I did was right, you know?”

“Even if I advise you, you don’t take it seriously.”

“Is that even advice? ‘Roll your tongue’?”

While the staff members moved the equipment in order to switch locations, Maru and Dongho kept quarrelling in one corner. Who’s better and who’s not - they were being childish. What was funny was that even though they looked like they were about to fight, Maru would hang his arm around Dongho’s shoulders, and Dongho would strangely smile even while being frightened out of his wits.

Are they perverts? Okseon could only think of it that way. Those two were an incomprehensible duo.

‘Though, he’s strange too.’

Okseon looked at Giwoo. He looked polite and was smiling on the surface, but from time to time, he would make an evil grin. Though, she didn’t care that much, since it wasn’t like she was going to become close to him. Okseon lost interest and looked at the script. She didn’t really care. As long as the shoot went well, that is.

* * *

“Okseon might actually be quite a lonely girl,” Joomin said.

“Why would you say that?”

“We met eyes a couple of times. She looks expressionless on the surface, but perhaps she’s waiting for us to talk to her?”

“I don’t think that’s what it’s about though.”

“You think?”

When Joomin tilted her head, Dongho added.

“I know. Girls like her think about strange things in their minds.”

“Okseon is not a pervert like you,” Maru interrupted.

“Why do you keep picking a fight with me?”

“Then do you want me to whisper love into your ears?”

“Urgh, you’re making me puke.”

Joomin smiled faintly when she saw the two talking. What she thought was going to be a horrible relationship looked somewhat better now. It would be great if the two got closer in the future.

“Hey, hey. Let’s go,” Maru said as he grabbed Dongho’s arm.

Dongho grumbled but still moved.

Joomin looked at the two before following them.

Chapter 506

“How’s Jeyeol?”

“Jeyeol? He hated the thought of doing that underwear advert, but he actually likes it now that he actually did it. When I showed him his appearance on a comic ad, he turned his eyes away, saying that he can’t look at it. He looked like he would look at it in secret when I’m not there. He’s so cute.”

“Look after him carefully. I had a hard time persuading his mother.”

“Understood.”

“What about Gyuho?”

“I think the movie audition fell through. I think they decided to go with a kid they found through connections with other agencies. I wanted to look further into it, but I wasn’t able to since everyone didn’t want to talk about it.”

“President Park told me that we should have a drink together a few days ago, so that’s what this is about huh. I guess we can’t help it. It’s a bit of a pity, but it’ll only ache your arms if you wave at a bus that already departed. I heard that RBS decided on a mini-series. Try to send a video[1] to that producer before the audition gets announced.”

“Yes. Gyuho, video, got it,” Byunchan noted that down on his notebook as he muttered to himself.

“What about Sooil?”

“He finished shooting the public service advertisement, and he’s now shooting an ad for an educational program. I heard that it was a day-long shoot, but it seems like some of their equipment died on them since they told me I should empty his schedule until tomorrow. I agreed for now since there’s no other schedule.”

“If they want something from us, don’t agree immediately and drag for some time instead, before you give them the okay. We should take the upper hand in this tug of war while we still can. If we let go or pull suddenly, they will get startled, so show them early on.”

“Yes, understood.”

President Lee Junmin, who had buried himself deeply in his chair, yawned before standing up. Byungchan also relaxed a little. The business meeting was now over.

“How is it these days? You have a hard time looking after all of them, don’t you?”

“Not at all. I seem to be blessed with my work when I listen to what my colleagues are going through.”

“Minors rarely have overnight shoots. Their parents will get mad if they do. Also, there’s a rumor circulating around about a law that will forbid minors from night shoots. Apparently, it will also restrict the shoot times to under 30 hours.”

“Will that really work?”

Junmin snorted before sitting down on the sofa on the other side. Byungchan received a green plum drink from him.

“Like hell it would. They might as well stop minors from doing shoots altogether. They’re just making a big noise about rights and whatnot. They look like they’re doing something if they look like they are taking action. If some journalists write something about that, the masses will think that ‘oh, the drama/movie industry of this country is also developing’, or something.”

Hearing that, Byungchan took a sip.

“Are you preparing your acting?”

The drink that was going down his throat came back up. He coughed a few times before looking at Junmin.

“Why are you so surprised? Did you do something wrong or something?”

“No, it was just unexpected.”

“Now that I think about it, I don’t talk with you that much huh. That’s just how it works. People that quietly do their work well aren’t looked for that often. They do well even if I leave them alone.”

“Ah, yes.”

Junmin crossed his arms.

“I really don’t like talking about things like this, but I don’t think acting suits you.”

Byungchan wiped his lips.

“I think so too.”

“But you’re still trying?”

“Yes, I am. I’m still twenty five, so I think I still have an opportunity.”

“Really? Then have a look at this.”

Byungchan had a look at the copy of a scenario that was placed in front of him.

“What’s this?”

“A scenario for a one-act play. It’s somewhat of a filler for YBS, and they wanted me to recommend someone. Go try it out.”

“President.”

“Honestly speaking, you’ll probably get rejected.”

“R-rejected?”

“The characters aren’t that hard. What’s left is the acting skill, and it’ll probably be hard for you. That producer, although he just became a full-fledged producer from an assistant director, has good eyes. He will probably use everything he can since it’s his first work, so he probably won’t pick someone he doesn’t think is perfect. It’s not like he’s running out of time either.”

“Then why did you give me…”

“To try doing it. And then think about your decisions afterwards.”

Decision - Byungchan felt that the stack of paper in his hand was very heavy.

“Twenty-five. You are at an age where you can try anything. Even if you fall, you will be able to get back on your feet right away. But you know? The world is becoming harsher by the day. Debuting is a red ocean, but surviving is an even deadlier blood ocean. Actors? They’re good. Receiving the spotlight, having journalists tail them all the time, receiving attention. Everyone dreams of that. But these days, everything is becoming more and more systemized. Kids are learning ballet and whatnot to learn to use their bodies when they’re still infants, and they undergo all sorts of care from child actor-specialized agencies. They will become young stars just like that and achieve beautiful success. We live in an era where the prepared gets what’s prepared for them.”

Byungchan slowly nodded. The children under his care mostly took those same steps to become an actor. The days where stars appeared out of nowhere and lasted a long time were long gone. There were times when an actor over 30 years old suddenly became popular, but even such people had at least 10 years of experience when you dug into them. The so-called top stars had enough experience to match. The current entertainment industry was one where a windfall star will not continue receiving the spotlight for long. There were more things to see, and even more actors. The audience chose very rationally between new things and what they were used to seeing. In that process, many actors lost their titles and left the field.

“You told me that you shot your graduation piece before you went to the military, right?”

“Yes.”

“Did anyone contact you after that? A lot of them must have gone to Chungmuro. Did anyone ever call you to play a minor character, or heck, to help at all?”

“Not even once.”

Byungchan smiled bitterly. He was aware that he didn’t have the talent. But he kept trying with the mindset that he should try hard enough to cough up blood before giving up.

Junmin sighed in a low voice.

“I really talk unpleasantly when I start to talk about personal stuff. That’s why others don’t usually like me. I am aware of it, but I probably won’t try to fix it. There are many people who still try to suck up to me even if I live like this.”

It was just as he said, his words weren’t that pleasant, but he looked cool for some reason. People who had deep thoughts really were different when they said something like that.

“Since I’m like this, let’s go even further. What do you think effort is?”

“Effort, you say?”

“Yes, effort.”

“Doing your best.”

“What’s doing your best?”

“Seeing blood at least.”

“Are you acting enough that you’re seeing blood?”

“I plan to.”

“When?”

“I’ll have a look at the scenario and do that until the audition…”

“No, you probably won’t be able to. Of course, you might do it. But from what I’ve experienced, that isn’t so easy. You think that acting is something you can improve if you try hard enough, right?”

Byungchan nodded. Acting was a realm of talent, but he also thought that effort could make up most of it.

“Is it not?”

“Let’s say there’s a swimming athlete. Is swimming a realm of talent or of effort?”

“I guess there’s a talent element to it since long limbs and a sturdy body gives them an edge.”

“Then what about studying?”

“Studying? I think that’s about effort. Your grades will rise as long as you do your best.”

“Then what’s the difference between swimming and studying?”

“Swimming is something you do with your body while studying is something you do with your head. I think that’s it?”

“Then what about acting?”

“…You use your body and your head.”

Byungchan gulped down his drink in one go.

“Studying is the realm of effort, huh. Never in my life have I thought that way even once. Sitting down in a chair for a long time is a talent in and of itself. There are people that, like you said, try their best to the point that they cough up blood to get what they want. But how many people actually get what they want?”

“Do I really lack that talent?”

“Take it from an actor who stayed nameless until I was over thirty - you are worse than me.”

“You are being too harsh.”

“If we are talking about work, I would tell you to put your effort in, that you will be able to do well if you try. But this is just a personal conversation. It’s not my style to give people useless hope.”

“I see.”

“People ruin themselves by trying to ape their betters, and yet we say that there are such things as ‘beautiful challenges’ amidst a difficult situation. These two contradict each other, but we accept both. And then, we just use the more convenient one according to the situation. Talent and effort. For me, I believe that both of them are the same. It’s an extremely personal opinion of mine, and I might be entirely wrong. However, seeing as how I became quite successful, it’s highly likely that I’m right.”

“What should I do then?”

“Do what you want first. Do it before coming to me. For now, there won’t be a huge problem being a manager and practicing your acting at the same time. I didn’t give you a lot of work after all. But I can’t always leave you hanging in the middle like that. If you come to a decision to focus on this work, I am going to give you a lot of work. You’ll meet a more diverse range of people, and your public position will naturally climb as well. I’ll set you up with a whole department, not just a corner desk in the office, and give you a nameplate to match. I climbed up all the way here with my talent to discern people and raise them. I was also quite lucky and didn’t experience that many failures. From what I see, you aren’t someone that should act, but someone that should lead those that act.”

Byungchan had a look at the scenario.

“I’m not telling you to decide right now. Decide after you see that. Though, you probably won’t make it.”

“Do I not have the slightest bit of hope?”

“If I was the producer, I wouldn’t use you.”

“I see.”

“Should I have given you some instead?”

“No. I think it’ll be better if I hear that there’s no hope for me. I’ll be happier if I do get picked after all.”

Byungchan tightly grabbed the scenario.

“I will do it.”

“Alright. They say the young will look for pain of their own accord. It was nice talking to you today. Do you have any work to do today?”

“Yes. I need to pick up Maru.”

“Today was the first shoot, wasn’t it?”

“Yes.”

“Alright, you can go. There’s a phone number behind it so try calling during the day.”

“Thank you.”

Byungchan quietly closed the door and left.

* * *

“Cut! That’s it for today. Let’s wrap up.”

“Thank you for your work, everyone. We are done.”

Maru looked at the sky when he heard that everything was finished. He felt rather exhausted even though he didn’t do anything much. He looked at the staff members that were folding up the equipment before walking out of the school entrance. He waved his hand at Dongho and Joomin who took the taxi. Okseon was walking towards the bus stop.

“Thanks for your work.”

When he turned around, he saw Giwoo, Yeseul, and Jichan. Yeseul and Jichan were getting ready to go back in their parent’s cars.

“You too.”

“Everyone doesn’t really listen to you, do they?” Giwoo smiled as he spoke.

Maru just shrugged.

“Tell me if you find anything hard. We are friends, after all.”

“Alright. I’ll tell you once something comes up.”

He smiled and waved at Giwoo, who was walking towards a van. He felt his neck aching even more. Playing with the others was even more tiring than work.

“Maru.”

Byungchan brought the car to the school entrance.

“I thought you had work to do. I can just take the bus home.”

“I’m going to go home as well after giving you a lift. What about dinner?”

“I haven’t had one yet.”

“Then do you wanna go eat first? We have the almighty company card with us. It’s the magical key to eating anything below 50 thousand won.”

“If it's on a company card, of course, I’ll take up that offer. Do you have anything you want to eat, hyung?”

“Me? I want to eat something spicy.”

“I thought you didn’t like spicy food.”

“Not today.”

“Something stressing you?”

“Stress, huh. I guess you can call it that. I just heard ‘you are no good’ said right to my face. But I was so clearly dismissed that I didn’t even feel angry. In fact, it even sounded relieving.”

“Haha.”

Maru got in the passenger seat.

“How was it for you today?”

“Me? Playing around with the others is hard.”

“Was the shoot easy, then?”

“Yes. I wonder why it’s so hard to get close to kids these days.”

“Do you know that you are included in those ‘kids’?”

“I do. Maybe that’s why, but I also want to eat something spicy. How about chicken feet?”

“Sounds good to me. Chicken feet to heal two stressed souls. Sounds nice.”

Byungchan laughed before driving off. Maru turned on the radio and switched channels for a while before letting go when he heard familiar music. It was Let It Be by the Beatles.

“Maru.”

“Yes?”

“Do you think that people should follow the order and know their place when they live their life?”

“If that’s easy, then sure, that’s probably for the better.”

“What if they have something they want to do?”

“Then they should do that.”

“What a backbone-less life.”

“Lives with backbones break easily so that’s not good.”

“Goddammit. The president told me not to continue acting.”

“Then don’t do it. Apparently, listening to adults has its benefits.”

“Cheer for me, will you?”

“Waa, go~ Lee Byungchan. I’m not sure if you’ll succeed or not, but go~.”

“Forget it. It was my bad for expecting anything from you. Let’s just go get chicken feet.”

Byunchan laughed as he turned the wheel.

Chapter 507

“Maru, it’s starting!”

“Oppa, what are you doing?”

He was in desperate need of some earmuffs right now. Maru tried blocking his ears with his hands, but he could not block out Bada’s voice since she spoke right next to his ears.

“I said it’s starting. Let’s watch it while we have dinner.”

“I’m not watching it.”

“Why? Let’s watch it together.”

Maru looked at Bada through the corner of his eyes. She had an evil smile on her face and was clearly enjoying this situation. Bada, who never watched a TV program without her favorite celebrity, was talking about how today was the first episode since the morning for some reason. It must have been for this moment.

“Do you want to watch my acting that bad?”

“I want to see you curl up like a squid. Come quickly. It’s starting now.”

Maru was dragged by Bada to the living room.

“Mrs. Lee. Wasn’t our family motto to eat at the table?”

The food was on the sitting table in the living room instead of the dining room. It was good that his favorite dubu muchim[1] and jeyuk-bokkeum[2] were on the table, but he felt like he had a bad stomach already when he thought about how he would have to eat dinner while watching the first episode of ‘New Semester’.

“From now on, we are going to eat dinner here on Saturdays at five.”

“Five is way too early. We usually eat past six, don’t we? Bada will screech at night because she’s hungry. Are you okay with that?”

“I can just give her some snacks when she says she’s hungry. Sit down already. The ads are almost over.”

Since both the mother and the daughter were acting against him, he was helpless. Maru gave up and sat down. The phone he brought with him was getting messages and calls since ten minutes ago, and they were all from his classmates. He checked the first text message just in case, but the content was quite a spectacle to look at.

-I shall watch your acting and give you an evaluation. Look forward to it.

The texts after that were about the same. He didn’t know that the rebellious and adolescent high school students would all be thinking about the same thing. It was lamentable. He ignored the texts and the calls and started eating.

“Aren’t you getting calls?”

“I can ignore them. It’s just my friends who decided to tease me. Mom, this is a drama for young people, so it won’t suit your tastes.”

“Forget about tastes. My son is in it, so I have to watch it.”

Maru wanted to go hide in a hole or something.

“It’s starting.”

Maru raised the TV volume. After the phone ad finished, the screen turned black, and following that, Yeseul’s face appeared.

“Who’s that unni?”

“Ahn Yeseul.”

“You close to her?”

“No.”

“What the heck.”

Bada quickly asked a question before focusing on the screen.

“You should focus on the food when you’re eating.”

“Don’t mind me. I can eat with my eyes closed. Right, mom?”

Even his mom, who would scold Bada for it usually, just replied to her with a smile. If it was going to be like this, it would’ve been better if he didn’t mention anything about the first episode at all. It was still too embarrassing for him to watch himself appear on the screen. If he thought of it as work and watched it by himself, he could watch it no problem, but watching it with someone else like this, especially his family members, was something he would not get used to in his entire lifetime.

“That school looks good. Where is it?”

“It’s a middle school in Seoul.”

“Wow, why is it so different from our school?”

He ate a spoonful of rice before looking at the screen. The camera slowly backed away from the scene where Yeseul, Giwoo, and Jichan walked through the school gates together, and the OST started flowing out of the speakers. Then it faded out. On top of the blacked out screen, the title of the first episode appeared. Just What is a Friend? - that was the title of the first episode.

“When do you come out, son?” His mom asked after watching it.

“Mom, it’s only been thirty seconds since it started. Wait a bit.”

“I thought you were a supporting character. Aren’t you going to appear really quickly?”

“I’ll probably appear soon.”

The first episode, which he shot two months ago at the beginning of January, aired in March just like the title ‘New Semester’[3]. He didn’t know why it was delayed from the original January airing date, all the way to March, but the internet seemed to think that the decision was well-made. Since it was a youth drama, the main target audience was naturally young people. The reason it was airing at 5 on a Saturday was also to target that student demographic.

He was chopping up some tofu when Yeseul’s narration started and the three people went into the left entrance of the school.

So it will come soon. Maru put the slice of tofu in his bowl before looking at the screen. He was originally going to watch it by himself later, but now that this happened, it would be okay to ask his mother and his sister for their opinion. He planned to ask them what about him looked awkward, and what he could do better.

The camera shot the corridor from the main character’s perspective. It then switched to an overhead view when the three reached the central door. This was the scene where Yeseul and Okseon confronted each other.

“I’ll be appearing soon, but only for a brief moment.”

Okseon talked to Yeseul with a proud expression, and Yeseul replied with a nonchalant face.

He remembered that it took about ten tries to do this scene. Yeseul and Okseon looked cute in the frame. Okseon was a little tanned, while Yeseul, as expected of a child actress, looked very bright. It was the makeup that differed according to the character, and it was emphasized under the lights and the camera.

“Oh! There you are!” Bada said.

The rice grains in her mouth flew outwards. He pitied Dowook when he looked at his sister who didn’t have the slightest bit of feminine charms. He was even worried if Dowook was being bullied by her or something.

“Maru, Maru. You are right there. Oh, my word. Oh my word.”

Maru clasped his arms with his hands. His mother slapped his arms with a giggle, and her hands were quite harsh. Bada’s harsh use of her hands was probably inherited from their mother.

That’s one goofy-looking person - Maru rubbed his nose as he looked at himself on the screen. He looked quite good in glasses. Her aesthetic senses had shone. There she goes again - his first line as a supporting character flowed out through the speakers. Of course, he didn’t say that line while the camera had its attention on him. It was more like background noise.

“Your voice is too small.”

“I’m talking from the side after all.”

“When are you going to appear again?”

“Mom, watch for the plot. Do you watch dramas just to look at your son?”

“Well, I sure do. So, when are you going to appear again?”

“In the classroom scene, probably.”

His mother was watching TV while on her phone, and she was sending texts at a speed that did not lose out to a high school girl.

“Who are you texting?”

“My friends.”

“What are you telling them?”

“Don’t mind. It’s just a mom-chat-thing.”

He peeked at her phone screen, and it was all about telling her friends to watch New Semester. He wanted to tell her to stop, but she wasn’t someone who would listen just because he told her, so he decided not to.

“OMG! Han Maru is on TV! He has glasses on! This is insane, insane. He’s actually there.”

After hopping around with a spoon, Bada approached him before putting her spoon before him.

“Mr. Han Maru. What do you feel now that you’ve become an actor?”

“Hey, put it away before I start hitting you.”

“Pop star Han Maru! Are you saying that you are going to use violence? If you do…”

He smacked Bada on the head. For some reason, she didn’t snap out with ‘Maru hit me’ like usual and just grinned from ear to ear. Maru once again realized that smiles could be really unpleasant at times. At the same time, he pitied Dowook even more. He even thought that he should give Dowook a warm hug the next time he complained to him about Bada.

The scene was now where Jichan and Yeseul were talking in the corridor. The background song was sung by a popular idol group. Their name was…

“It’s the Change-oppas!”

That was right, Change. Maru clicked his tongue as he looked at Bada. She practically read his mind this time.

A lot of NGs happened in this scene as well. Yeseul froze up from time to time, and Jichan stuttered a lot here.

The camera shot the classroom and it showed the students taking a break in class. This scene was also taken about seven times. The audio for this scene was taken separately with everyone gathered around the microphone. In this scene, Producer Park Hoon said that the classroom should look natural and at the same time, like a model classroom. In the end, he just said ‘do whatever you want’ and chatted with them.

The morning HR started when a senior actor, who played the HR teacher, appeared, and then Suyeon appeared.

“It’s Kim Suyeon.”

“You know her too, mom?”

“I do. She appeared in a weekend drama before. Mom really liked it. She was really nice to her parents. In moms talk, the model good kid refers to her.”

“Oh, really?”

“But how’s she really? Is she really kind?”

“I’ll leave that to your imagination.”

“I’m sure she is. People can’t hide their true thoughts. The bad ones will look spiteful even if they act a good character, and a good person will look somewhat pitiful if they act an evil character.”

“You know that?”

“My boy, mom has had 20 years of experience watching dramas. Morning dramas, daily dramas, weekend dramas. If you watch for a long time, you can see all of it. In that sense, I’m sure Kim Suyeon is normally a polite and cautious girl.”

“Ooh, mom’s good.”

Since actors and actresses lived off the fantasies of the audience, he didn’t see the need to correct her. At that moment, Bada spoke.

“Right, mom. Suyeon-unni is really kind. I saw her in the hospital. She replied to me when I thanked her.”

“You know Kim Suyeon?”

“I do. Oh, didn’t I tell you back then? When oppa was in the hospital, Suyeon-unni made a visit.”

“Oh my word.”

Maru turned his head around. His mother’s gaze was quite uncomfortable.

“You know Kim Suyeon?”

“Yeah.”

“How?”

“We belong to the same agency.”

“So my boy Maru was doing really well, huh.”

“Mom. Miss Kim Suyeon over there is a super popular actress while I’m at most a sidekick so don’t look at us like we’re the same.”

Maru ate a spoonful of doenjang-guk and looked at the screen. The woman that liked wearing tight clothes, liked wearing red lipsticks, and talked about how legs were meant to be revealed had now become an immature teacher-in-training. The kind that looked air-headed and awkward, but funny for some reason.

“Amazing.”

“What is?”

His mother turned around and asked. Maru told her not to mind. Since he was aware of her real personality, he felt that she was wearing clothes that did not suit her, but an ordinary viewer would never notice the difference.

“Suyeon-unni looks so pretty. Oppa, get me an autograph of her later.”

“Mom, she only calls me oppa when she wants something from me. What do you think?”

He looked at his mother with pleading eyes to side with him, but unfortunately, it seemed that he wasn’t able to break the mother-daughter alliance today. He sighed and looked at the TV. The scene that he shot after he grabbed Dongho by the collars aired.

“Ooh, Han Maru. you look pretty decent.”

“My son looks handsome.”

Maru twitched his toes when he was flattered so openly. Why was it so embarrassing to hear good words from his family? Even after all the years he lived, that did not change.

-Cut the nonsense and get back to studying.

“Cut the nonsense and get back to studying, gee.”

Bada turned her head around and imitated the line. Maru looked for a cushion around him. He wanted to throw one at her so bad. However, the quick-witted Bada had already taken all of the cushions.

-I will be able to go to Seoul U if I maintain my grades.

“I will be able to go to Seoul U if I maintain my grades… pfft. Mom, Maru thinks he can go to Seoul university! That’s funny. What a cocky character. Fine, you can be good at studying in dramas.”

Bada lied down on the floor and started laughing her ass out.

“Credit card.”

“Ah, why that again!”

“Don’t laugh. I’ll take it back from you if I see your teeth.”

“How petty of you. But today, I’m going to do it!”

Maru had to listen to Bada saying his lines after that as well. At first, it was utterly horrible to the point that his hairs stood on their ends, but he got used to it after a while. Bada also lost interest after a while and stopped.

“You’re quite good though. I was going to tease you about it if you looked strange.”

“I’m getting paid for it, so naturally I have to do well. Oh, mom. I won’t appear anymore after this.”

As soon as he said those words, his mother stood up.

“Then I guess I should do the dishes.”

“Now that makes me sad. Aren’t you going to watch until the end?”

“No. It’s not fun anymore.”

“How cruel of you, Mrs Lee. So? What do you think? Do I look awkward?”

“I’m not sure, since you didn’t even appear that much.”

His mother went to the kitchen with the plates and said that he did well in a small voice. Maru smiled when he heard that.

“Mr. Han Maru. I hope you do well in the future too.”

Bada patted his shoulder before going back to her room.

Maru watched the episode until the end in the quiet living room. He thought back to the memories of that day and thought about the framing of the scenes, and checked his own acting to see if he found anything he was lacking.

‘I guess I look decent. There was nothing until the 7th episode.’

The 7th episode of the drama had been shot already. Although he had an easy time attending the shoots since he was on holiday, the morning scenes would now be shot on the weekends and the afternoon scenes would be shot after school on a weekday starting the day after tomorrow since he, as well as many people, had to go to school. Byungchan also told him that he might have to skip classes to attend shoots. Someone would have to make sacrifices when they adjusted the overall schedule, and since the schedule priority was based on experience, the new actors would suffer most of the time.

“Looks like I’ll get busy.”

Maru turned off the TV after seeing his name in the ending credits.

[1] Tofu with vegetables

[2] Stir-fried pork

[3] An academic year starts in March in South Korea.

Chapter 508

A burly guy suddenly leaped at him as soon as he went into the classroom. Maru dodged to the side. After the guy waved in the air for a little, he turned around and sat down again. He was one of Maru’s friends from the 2nd year.

“Hey, hey. The actor is here!”

Everyone rushed at him and congratulated him by giving him a smack on the shoulders, and each hit was quite painful since they were all high school boys with a good build.

“Let me go already.”

He dusted his hands before sitting down. It had been one day since the new semester began. Since there were only two classes for electric engineering, he knew all the faces in his class. One thing that changed after he became a 3rd year was that he was separated from Dojin, Dowook, and Daemyung. Those three were in the next class over. Though, they came over every break, making him wonder if they actually belonged to the other class.

“Lee Chan! Don’t do it!”

“That’s right, Lee Chan!”

“Lee Chan! Chan Chan Chan!”

He gave a solid smack to everyone who approached him to annoy him like flies.

“Lee Chan just hit me!”

“You’re that type of guy?”

“Call Yeseul here! No, get the class president here. Bring Kim Seri here!”

“Yeseul is better than Seri. Yeseul is cute.”

“Hey, hey. Yeonjeong is better than Yeseul.”

“Who the heck is Yeonjeong?”

“You know, the girl next to our Channy over here. The tall one with a slightly bigger chest.”

“Oh, her! Joomin, that’s right. I actually researched online and found out her name.”

Maru hung his bag next to his desk before leaving the classroom. When he kicked at the people that followed him out, they flinched before taking a step back. Of course, these people wouldn’t stop just because of that, so he quickly fled to the 5th floor classroom.

“I thought you’d come here.”

Daemyung was there already. He greeted Daemyung who welcomed him as though he knew of Maru’s struggles before sitting down. He was a bit tired after running up the stairs.

“I will probably not live my full life like this.”

“They’re like that today too?”

“I thought they’d calm down since they spent the whole day yesterday doing it, but I feel like this will last a week if it’s like this.”

“My class was in an uproar too. Dowook barely managed to hold back everyone from going to your class and teasing you, so I think you should take refuge here during lunch.”

Daemyung threw something at him. When he caught it, he saw a sausage. So this was what he was munching on for a while.

“I thought enduring a day would be fine, but this is a real pain.”

“Everyone’s like that because they find it curious.”

“You mean because they find it fun to tease me.”

“I guess that’s true too.”

“Why are these boys clinging to me? It’s creeping me out.”

“Don’t worry. The design class will also make a visit too. Our friends there have spread the rumors there too.”

“My lord. Enemies everywhere.”

“But doesn’t it feel good? You’re experiencing what it’s like to be a popular actor.”

“Do you want to be in my shoes instead?”

“N-no.”

“I’ll be very disappointed if you really meant that even though you saw people calling me Lee Chan in the bathroom.”

“That’s true. Sorry about that.”

Daemyung threw him another sausage as an apology. Maru clearly saw his friend hesitating a little when he was about to throw that sausage.

“Let me ask you something. You’re going to tell noona where I am if she asks while treating you to a hamburger right?”

“I’m not that cheap. Though, I will spill everything if there’s coke too.”

“I can’t trust a damn person.”

“Enjoy it. You can’t help it. Everyone’s excited because of an event.”

He understood it for the first day of school. He laughed with anyone that blatantly teased him. He thought that their interest would die down the next day after all. He thought that it wasn’t such a bad thing to enjoy the popularity for a day.

But nothing had changed after a day. No, it was worse. People from other classes were going to make a visit. This was unforeseen. He would at least find it worthwhile if someone came up to him and told him how his acting was, how his character was, or talked about the plot at least, but literally everyone was parroting ‘Lee Chan Lee Chan’ at him, so he wanted to close his ears off.

“I think quite a lot of the kids in my class watched it.”

“Did they say it was fun?”

“They said it’s funny.”

“That’s fortunate.”

“Some said it was childish.”

“That’s understandable.”

“But everyone talked about how instructor Suyeon was pretty.”

“I’d like to see their expressions when I tell them that she came to this school wearing a jersey when they were going home. It would be quite helpful in my acting as well since I can use it as reference.”

“There will be an uproar.”

Daemyung chuckled. Maru looked at the clock. It was 8:30. He woke up early in the morning, did his vocal exercise, and came to school early since he didn’t want to daze out at home, but he thought that he should make it just in time so that he wasn’t late starting tomorrow.

“How are studies going?” Maru asked.

“I was at the desk until school started, and it sure was hard. I think I’m getting used to it though. You kinda have to force yourself to get into the habit of staying seated.”

“It is. Since you managed to persuade them, do your best at it. Your tuition is paid for too. You don’t have to rely on your parents for that.”

“I will. Oh, I’m watching the movies and dramas recommended to me by teacher. He told me it’ll help with studying direction.”

“It’s that person right? The one that did Apgu’s script. I can’t remember his name right now.”

“Writer Bae Chulho.”

“Right. Writer Bae Chulho. He’s a thankful person. Giving you tips like that.”

“Actually, I’m more comfortable around him than Joon-hyung. Joon-hyung is really merciless after all. Also, he’s a little scary when he doesn’t say anything.”

“Gwak Joon-hyung does have that kind of side to him. Anyway. Do your best. Since you’ve made a decision, you have to get top scores at this school at least.”

“I hope I can.”

“You will since you are smart. Oh, did you travel around with Jiyoon during the holidays?”

“Wh-what?”

“Damn kid. You really can pretend to not have heard people. If you don’t wanna tell me, you don’t have to. I was just curious.”

When he had a look at the clock, he saw that it was almost time for morning HR. The HR teacher for his 3rd year was the kindest teacher among the teachers for his major and did not scold him even if he was a little late. Actually, rather than kind, he was someone that couldn’t be bothered with anything. Though, to a student’s eyes, that was pretty much the same thing.

“Let’s go then, shall w…”

“I kissed her first.”

Daemyung said those words when he stood up about halfway. Maru was flabbergasted. What did he just hear?

He stared at Daemyung. Daemyung, beet red up to his ears, told him to meet during lunch before leaving the classroom in a flash. He was very agile, unlike his body figure. Maru chuckled once before fully standing up.

“He acted all naive, and yet he does everything, huh.”

Maru wondered if he should gift him some condoms. The naive and pure ones were the ones that would take it all the way once they were in the mood, so he didn’t think it was a bad idea. Maru closed the classroom door before walking down to the 3rd floor.

“Lee Chan, where have you been?”

“Lee Chan!”

That name struck his ears without fail as soon as he entered his class.

* * *

“Isn’t 15% pretty decent?”

“Youth Generation had below 4% when it was nearing its end.”

“Then this is huge, huh.”

“Not really. Youth Generation also got more than 10% when it started off. It fell when Blue fell apart. Teenage girls were in an uproar and stopped watching.”

“I’m not sure since there aren’t any girls in our class, so how do you know that?”

“I heard about it when I hung around with the girls from the girls high.”

“Hey. If you went to a place like that, you should have brought this big brother there t…”

Maru turned around.

“Are you guys related to the drama industry? Stop it already. Aren’t you guys tired of it?”

“Maru, I mean, Lee Chan. This is only the 2nd day. There’s still a long way to go. Also, we thought about it, and if New Semester wants to be a huge jackpot, I think Suyeon-noona needs to wear a sexy outfit.”

“It sounds like we’re joking to you, right? That teacher outfit is way too old-fashioned. It’s out of date. A mini skirt, black stockings, and a white blouse.”

“This fucker must have watched porn. But I think I prefer that too.”

“Right? It’s a form of art.”

Maru shook his head in resignation. He underestimated the fantasies of high school students. Whenever they spoke, they were talking about some absurd things, and it made him rather embarrassed that he was once a ‘high school boy’ as well. He must have acted like that before he was reborn, huh. Maru wanted to rip his hair out.

One of his classmates hung his arm around his shoulders.

“Maru.”

“What?”

“Suyeon-n…”

Maru blocked his mouth.

“Hey, I might turn crazy if I hear the name Kim Suyeon one more time.”

“Ooh, Han Maru, you still think that will work after knowing us for two years?”

“Lee Chan, I’ll take responsibility if you go crazy.”

Maru glared at his grinning friend before slowly closing on his lips. When the two pairs of lips neared each other, his classmate screeched and jumped backwards.

“I’m planning to shoot a homosexual movie.”

“You lunatic! That doesn’t mean you can…”

“Come at me. I’ll show you how tongue techniques can make you go limp.”

When he licked his lips and took a step towards that guy, everyone looked like they chewed on sand and shut their mouths. Maru sighed.

“You guys don’t even watch dramas properly. Let’s just stop it here. You must be bored of it by now, aren’t you?”

“Fine. Hey! Let’s go get food.”

Hearing the word ‘food’, everyone rushed away. Maru, who was left by himself, scratched his eyebrows before starting to walk.

“You’re having a hard time.”

“Why didn’t you smack their chins or something.”

Dojin and Dowook walked up to him.

“It sure is hard. You guys getting food?”

“Yeah.”

“What about Daemyung?”

“Don’t even talk about him.”

Dojin turned around and pointed at Daemyung. Daemyung was walking across the corridor, and Jiyoon was standing next to him. The two were holding hands, and they let go when they saw a teacher and held again when the teacher passed while smiling at each other.

“There goes their bullshit,” said Dowook as he saw the two.

“They look good.”

Maru smiled and waved at them to come quickly.

“If you’re jealous, you should hold hands with Iseul too.”

“I don’t want that. She’s way too into it that she scares me,” said Dojin as he trembled.

They walked to the cafeteria with Daemyung and Jiyoon. They sat down after getting the food on the food trays when they felt a gaze from afar. At first, Maru thought that he must have felt wrong, but he saw that some were blatantly staring at him.

“Maru, I think they’re looking at you.”

“They didn’t react when I was on Youth Generation and The Chaser[1]. So why now?” Maru said in a small voice.

There were so many people that blatantly stared at him to the point that he felt uncomfortable.

“That’s because they didn’t know it was you back then. Even we didn’t know and we were in the same class. How would anyone from another department know?”

Everyone nodded when they heard Dojin’s words. Daemyung followed up.

“Also, I told you this morning. That people are spreading rumors.”

“What good is it for them to spread rumors?”

As soon as Maru said those words, Daemyung, Dowook, and Dojin all said ‘because it’s fun’. Meanwhile, Jiyoon said that some of the first year students knew about it as well.

“What a star.”

“I think we should stop eating with him tomorrow. We might throw up if we eat like this.”

“Don’t abandon me.”

“Why is the almighty Han Maru acting like this? Just act as you usually do.”

Dowook patted his shoulder in pity.

“If it’s like this for the first episode where you didn’t get to do much, things would be even worse when you are at the center of the story in a later episode. The shoot has progressed quite a bit right? Do any of the episodes have a lot of you in it?”

Maru nodded when Dojin asked. The 7th episode was centered around himself and Dongho. It was the episode where a prank turned into something serious. He had quite a lot of lines so there were many scenes where he appeared by himself.

“They’ll lose interest in due time. Maru, don’t worry about it,” Daemyung consoled him.

The other two just giggled and told everyone that Lee Chan was here. He only appeared on TV for a brief moment as a supporting character, yet he was attracting so much interest. He could finally understand why the top stars frequently had psychological consultations.

It would be easier if he had a personality that enjoyed such a thing, too. Maru tried his best to ignore some of the girls that were whispering to each other while looking at him and tried to focus on his food.

He emptied his food tray earlier than usual before returning to his class. Thankfully, his classmates seemed to have lost interest and no longer looked for ‘Lee Chan’.

“Maru.”

Daemyung came to his class.

“Yeah?”

“I’m here to give you the application form for the acting club. The recruitment starts today.”

“Ah, that’s right.”

He wrote down his class, his seat number, and his name before returning the form to Daemyung. He wouldn’t be able to show up that often since he had a drama shoot most of the time, but he would be able to help out from time to time, so he decided to stay. Just like how the previous third years remained in the acting club despite preparing to get into college.

“Also, Joonghyuk-seonbae made a visit yesterday.”

“He did?”

“Yeah. He gave me some money to treat the new members.”

“Geez, that guy.”

He faintly smiled as he thought about Bang Joonghyuk. He was the only one among the previous 3rd year seniors that frequently made a visit. Yoonjung came from time to time, but she mostly laughed and chatted together with the others before leaving. Lim Danmi and Choi Minsung came for a brief moment at the beginning of the semester and never showed up again.

“Apparently, Joonghyuk-seonbae joined the acting club at his college.”

“Didn’t he say that he was going to become a salaryman?”

“You know he isn’t that type of guy.”

“Well, I guess that’s true. He liked acting so much, so he should continue doing it.”

Daemyung smiled at him before speaking cautiously,

“Uhm, Maru.”

“Yeah?”

“Can I use your name a little?”

“What the heck do you mean?”

The bell for 5th period rang at that time. When he turned around saying that they should talk later, he saw the application form in Daemyung’s hand. Maru realized what he was talking about.

“Don’t deceive the kids. Also, using my name won’t have that much of an effect. I’m not even that famous.”

“You never know. My wish is that we had a lot of members just like Hwasoo High or Myunghwa High. I really felt it when I watched their performance that having few members is a critical weakness.”

“Alright, do as you see fit. I don’t know how many of them have watched New Semester though.”

“There should be some effect if I tell them that one of our members appears on TV. I’ll be leaving for now. Talk to you later.”

Daemyung waved the application form before leaving the class.

[1] Author’s mistake. Is probably ‘The Witness’ instead

Chapter 509

“Hello, we are Blue Sky, the acting club.”

The teacher standing by the window told the class to applaud. The first year students started clapping with a dazed face. Daemyung, standing at the podium, waited until the claps ended before speaking,

“Since it’s class time, I’ll make this short.”

“No, no. You can take your time. I want a long rest.”

Since the teacher was quite well-known to have a good relationship with the students, he was quite generous. Daemyung thanked him.

“Then I’ll introduce us first. Does anyone know that there used to be an acting club here at Woosung High before you enrolled?”

Not even one raised their hand.

It wasn’t surprising. Maru signalled to Daemyung who just laughed with a slightly stiff expression. He came back to himself and started talking.

“Hm, the acting club was founded when the school was open for the first time, and this is the fifteenth year since it was founded. I am the 13th generation, and the people standing next to me are the 14th. Hahaha.”

“Summarize,” said Maru in a small voice.

There were still ten classes to go. They would only finish making rounds to every class if they took around 3 to 4 minutes in each class.

“Oh! The generations aren’t important. What I want to say is one thing. If you have any interest in acting or want to create a play, then I hope you will come to the acting club’s classroom on the 5th floor after school without hesitation. We don’t have an acting room since it’s a temporary classroom, but we’re practically using it all the time, so you might as well call it that.”

Maru tapped Daemyung’s waist. Daemyung stopped speaking when he realized that he was digressing. He was someone who didn’t know nervousness on top of a stage, but it seems like presenting in front of others was still quite nerve-wracking for him.

“Does anyone have any questions about the acting club?” asked Daemyung as he raised his hand above his head.

The first year students only looked at him with expressionless faces.

“N-nothing?”

“Yes.”

“…Okay.”

Daemyung smiled and said goodbye before stepping down. Maru showed everyone the application form for the club before speaking.

“I’ll put this next to the blackboard. Come and visit if you have any interest. There’s no pressure. Just think of it as getting some snacks. Sorry for interrupting your class, and thanks for listening.”

Maru said his goodbyes just like he planned beforehand before leaving the class. As soon as he closed the door, Daemyung spat out a deep breath as though he just surfaced from within the deep sea.

“That was unnerving.”

“Think of it as acting. There’s no pressure. Also, you’re using way too little time. You must attract their interest at least. It’s promotion after all,” said Maru as he looked at his watch.

“Seonbae! Do your best!”

Aram slapped Daemyung’s back. She probably did that to cheer him up, but Daemyung’s shoulders drooped even more when she did so. This happened last year as well when they were recruiting, but Daemyung was really not good around strangers. He formed a good relationship with anyone as long as he got past that first barrier, but that first barrier was hard to cross.

“But not a single person recognized Maru-seonbae, huh,” Aram said as she tilted her head.

“Of course not. Only the people that pay close attention will notice.”

“No. I heard it clearly when I went home yesterday with Jiyoon. There’s someone in the first year that knows you. Isn’t that right, Jiyoon?”

“Yes, there definitely is.”

He remembered what Jiyoon said during lunch. Some of the first years knew about him. Maru just shrugged. He was not wearing his glasses right now. On top of that, they might know the name Lee Chan, but not the name Han Maru. That first year Aram mentioned who knows about him probably overheard some third years talking about him.

‘There was all that fuss at the cafeteria yesterday, so I wouldn’t be surprised if some of the first year students caught that.’

Dowook pointed at the next class.

“Hey, we’re running out of time. Let’s go.”

“Uhm, Dowook.”

Daemyung frowned as he placed his hands on his stomach as though he had a stomach ache.

“I’m not doing it.”

Before Daemyung could even say something, Dowook refused.

“You’re the club president, so you do it. I hate stuff like this.”

“Y-yeah. I should be the one to do it.”

And yet, he was looking at Maru when he said those words. Maru scratched his eyebrows. People did not change easily, and it seemed that it was a bit of a stretch for Daemyung to continue the presentations in other classes. Even the bold Aram was shaking her head, while Bangjoo was avoiding his gaze.

“Should I do it?”

The one that said those words was Jiyoon, who had said it after gulping. She clearly looked nervous but looked like she was up for the task if Daemyung had a hard time. Now that he thought about it, Jiyoon was much more stable and was bolder compared to Bangjoo and Aram when they performed at Miso’s acquaintance’s café.

“Wh-what am I supposed to say?”

But it seemed that she was feeling a little confused since she was about to do something she hadn’t prepare for.

“Forget it. Let’s go. We’re really running out of time.”

Maru walked ahead and knocked on the door. Since he already made himself known through the window, the teacher inside knew what was up and did not ask why he was here. He first greeted the teacher. The teacher made room, telling him that he should get things done quickly.

“Hello, we’re here to promote ourselves. It might not be that fun, but it should be more fun than studying, so I hope you all can listen.”

He attracted attention to himself first and revealed his purpose here.

“We are Blue Sky, the acting club at Woosung High. People who like acting, and want to do acting, have gathered to create plays. There are many extracurricular activities at the school, but only a handful have specific objectives.”

It wasn’t that there was a club without any purpose, but since he was here to sell his product, he had to advertise his as the best. There was no such promotion that went like ‘I’m not sure if this product is good or not, but you should use it’.

“Does anyone here have experience watching a play, or have an interest in it?”

None of the students raised their hand. Though, it would’ve been quite a hassle if anyone actually raised their hand. Maru quickly scanned the faces of the students before pointing at a boy who looked back at him with confidence. It was the boy sitting right in front of him, and he looked defiant and judging as though he was expecting Maru to make remarks.

“Hello, there.”

“Yes?”

“Don’t you need to pay me back the 10 thousand won you borrowed from me last time?”

“What? I borrowed money?”

“Don’t you remember? You borrowed money from me in a hurry in front of the school saying that you had something urgent. This isn’t good.”

Maru used all sorts of actions to express his disapproval and that he was in a fix. The boy in front of him started panicking, and the kid sitting next to him asked if he really borrowed some money.

When the entire class looked at the boy who was desperately shaking his head, Maru smiled and apologized to him.

“That wasn’t much, but that is what acting is. To become a you that’s not you. There are a few things you can get through acting. First up, you can become iron-faced. You won’t feel a thing even if you talk to a complete stranger like how I did just now.”

That wasn’t entirely true.

“And you can gain confidence.”

This wasn’t entirely true either.

“Also, your pronunciations and expressions can become more diverse.”

That depended on the amount of practice.

“If you make some time after school today, we’ll be happy to explain how much acting can help out in everyday life, how fun school can become, as well as our experiences when we managed to put on a performance that we painstakingly prepared for.”

He didn’t lie since he did say that it was ‘painstaking’. Most of what he said now was true. There were just some individual differences.

‘Somehow, I remember assistant manager Park who told me I should get into selling insurance.’

After finishing his speech, he stepped down.

He didn’t see the need to introduce each of the members here. What was important was to get as many people to the 5th floor classroom after school.

“I’ll put the application forms right here. Don’t feel bad and you can leave after eating some snacks, so come around. Oh, and dating is free in the acting club.”

Some of the first year students changed their expressions when he said that suspicious line, regardless of gender. Actually, what he said just now would be more effective in mechanical and electrical engineering department classes rather than the design department class he was in right now. Those two departments barely had any girls after all.

They left after saying goodbye.

“I can clearly imagine the honeybees attracted to the sweetness of dating and finding out about the hardships of labor. Pfft,” Aram said in excitement.

“I didn’t lie though.”

“That’s right, seonbae-nim. You didn’t lie at all.”

Maru and Bangjoo high-fived before moving to the next class. The next class was the computer department. The ratio of girls was quite high in this department as well. Actually, the acting club was more in need of girls than boys right now. The boys around this age were too awkward at expressing their emotions and were more likely to become a stiff stick when they went up on stage. Above all, girls could crossdress to become boys on stage and still get emotional sympathy from the audience, but the opposite couldn’t happen. It would become a comedy at best. Of course, boys who could make stage props were welcome.

‘A five-to-five or a six-to-four ratio is the best.’

Maru signalled the people standing behind him with his eyes before knocking on the next class. He heard a ‘come in’ from the inside. The one that greeted him warmly and made way for him was the teacher in charge of the acting club and a history teacher, Taesik.

“I’ll take ten minutes of your time.”

“That’s a no-go.”

“What a pity.”

He smiled and said the same words as he did before. It seemed as though Taesik had notified his class beforehand as the students were listening quite earnestly this time. There didn’t seem to be a need to talk about some stories in order to attract attention.

After making a brief speech, he looked at the time. Thanks to everyone’s attention, he was able to finish early, so he decided to take questions for the remaining minute. He was going to leave if he didn’t get any.

“Does anyone have any questions?”

Maru expected there to be none. Someone broke that expectation though. A boy asked him a question.

“Doesn’t it take a lot of time to practice acting?”

“More than your average school club, yes.”

“Ah, I see.”

“There might be times when you stay at school until midnight. But staying in a classroom late at night with no one else is quite memorable in itself. If you want a new experience, then please come to the 5th floor. We’ll tell you about it in detail. Okay then, anyone else?”

The classroom was quiet. Actually, one question was a lot. He nodded and was about to wrap things up when he heard a voice.

“Are you really Han Maru, seonbae?”

The question was from a girl sitting at the back. It seemed that she had heard Taesik calling him Maru when he came in.

“Yes, I am.”

“You appear in New Semester, right? I mean the drama.”

The students started murmuring. It seemed that quite a few of them knew about the drama.

“I do.”

“So you are.”

Maru smiled and looked at the other students.

“If no one has any questions, we’ll take our le…”

“Uhm!”

The girl that just asked a question raised her hand again.

“Yes, go ahead.”

“Do you know Ahn Sungjae-oppa from TTO?”

That was a rather random question, but Maru replied without hesitation.

“I don’t.”

“I see.”

The girl shrugged and no longer spoke. Everyone around her asked her what it was about, but the girl just shook her head and smiled. Maru glanced at the girl once before stepping down.

“Come around after school. It’s on the 5th floor. You’ll get to hear a lot of the things you haven’t heard here.”

“Well then, give a round of applause for the acting club.”

Thanks to Taesik, the acting club was able to leave amidst applause.

“Do you know her?”

Daemyung asked after leaving the class. Maru shook his head. There was no way he knew a girl who was a middle school student up until last year.

“She seems to know you though,” said Aram.

“Maybe she’s mistaken.”

It was rather unexpected that she brought up Sungjae. Well, a hardcore fan of TTO might know about it. They should be aware that Sungjae appeared in Twilight struggles, and if she knew that he was in that as well…

‘No. There’s no way she knows that I was there.’

It was a bit strange, but Maru decided not to mind it. She might be someone who just knows a lot of trivia.

“So that proves that your popularity has spread to the 1st year students, right?” Aram asked as she stood up proudly.

“Fine, you’re completely correct and you da best. Next is mechanical, right?”

It didn’t look like he was going to run out of time. Maru walked leisurely.

Chapter 510

“Sit down over he… Oh wait!”

Jiyoon felt very chaotic right now. After the last period ended and she came to the 5th floor, half filled with expectation and half filled with worry, she was greeted by an empty classroom. So not even one - just as she felt rather sad, she heard some sounds from the staircase. A bunch of first year students came at once. Five came at first, and then ten, then another three and two. People kept coming, and by now there were over forty people.

“Maru-seonbae.”

There weren’t enough seats in the classroom. This was a classroom left for the third year students who wished to stay behind and study, so there weren’t that many desks here. Just as she was flustered and did not know how to handle the students, Maru-seonbae had come up the stairs.

“Wow, I guess we lucked out.”

“Seonbae. What do we do? There aren’t enough seats.”

“Then they can just sit on the floor.”

“Ah!”

Jiyoon nodded. She was so flustered that she thought that everyone had to sit down in chairs.

“What about Daemyung-o… I mean, seonbae?”

“You can call him oppa. I think they might be a little late. Their homeroom teacher seemed to be investigating something. What about Aram and Bangjoo?”

“Aram will be late since she’s on cleaning duty today. Bangjoo went to the cafeteria because we didn’t have enough drinks.”

“No wonder.”

Maru peeked inside the classroom before speaking in a loud voice.

“Hello everyone! I’m sorry to tell you this, but everyone will have to sit down on the floor. We’ll lay out some blankets so please leave the classroom for a bit.”

His voice was bright and clear. The juniors all left after hearing Maru-seonbae’s words. Jiyoon stroked down her chest in relief.

“Jiyoon.”

“Yes?”

“You’re their senior. You are supposed to be leading them.”

Maru smiled and laid out the blankets. Jiyoon shook her head. It didn’t suit her to guide or lead someone.

“Seonbae-nim!”

“Hey, hey. Keep your voice down.”

Bangjoo’s loud voice startled the first year students and attracted attention. Some of the girls looked a little scared as well[1]. Jiyoon frowned and slapped Bangjoo’s arm. Bangjoo avoided her gaze and laughed awkwardly.

“Well then, come back in. Sorry for making you all wait,” said Maru as he pointed at the classroom.

The first year students entered. After looking around for a while, they realized that it was no different from an ordinary classroom and just stared at Maru who was at the front.

“I guess we should start the event we do every year, right?”

“Event?”

Maru told her to wait before leaving the classroom.

Jiyoon made an awkward smile when the first year students all looked at her.

“Bangjoo, do something.”

“Should I do some falling moves?”

“N-no, that’s a little.”

“Should I sing then?”

“That’s a bit too…”

“Fine. Then I’ll talk to them for a while.”

Bangjoo clapped.

“Uhm, everyone. Thank you for coming. Hm… nice weather today, right?”

The weather was gloomy since it had just rained. Jiyoon sighed and stood next to Bangjoo. It seemed that she had to step up here.

“I’ll be receiving questions since you might be bored until the seniors come. Does anyone have any questions?” asked Jiyoon as brightly as possible.

She was worried that no one would ask a question just like when they made rounds, but thankfully, that didn’t happen. Ten or so people raised their hands at once. Jiyoon felt a lot better when it looked like people were eager to participate.

“Over there, please ask.”

She decided to take a question from the girl sitting at the front.

“You said you participated in competitions right?”

“Yes. There’s one in the Summer and one in the Winter.”

“Have you ever taken 1st place?”

“Hm, unfortunately, the answer is no, at least for us. The seniors before got the grand prize a lot of the time, but from some time onwards, we didn’t get it anymore.”

Then what’s the highest place you’ve ever ranked? - A question came from the back. Jiyoon fiddled with her hair and replied.

“3rd place in the regionals. If we got 2nd place, we would’ve been able to advance into the nationals, but we didn’t make it. If you join us, we might actually take first place this year.”

She gained confidence after she talked for a while. Her shaking hands had calmed down somewhat as well. She took the next question from a boy sitting in the middle.

“The seonbae-nim that introduced the acting club to us during the day said that you can gain confidence through acting, right? Is it true?”

She could answer that question for sure. She nodded vigorously.

“He’s right. It’s true. I was so nervous in my first year and I couldn’t imagine standing in front of so many people like this. I got nervous whenever I opened my mouth, and I would start shaking. I would freeze up when so many people paid attention to me, and I wouldn’t know what I’m talking about at all. No, in the first place, I would barely be able to speak. Is there anyone similar to me here?” she asked cautiously.

Quite a lot of the juniors raised their hands.

“You can’t help but become nervous the first time. Speaking is hard too. But if you continue acting, you’ll get into the habit of speaking in front of people. You’ll get more used to it, and from some time onwards, you’ll gain confidence as well. Oh, it doesn’t matter if you have an introverted personality. I’m really shy too.”

Jiyoon remembered back to what Maru told her during her first year.

“Being introverted means that you are just that more sensitive, apparently. It can also help with your acting since you are able to observe other’s emotions in more detail. You remember the seonbae that spoke for us during the day, right? That’s what he told me[2]. So don’t think that you aren’t fit for acting just because you are introverted and shy. You can still do it.”

After taking a short breath, she looked at the first year students.

The juniors that looked at her in a daze soon started talking with the people next to them.

“I was really impressed,” Bangjoo said from the side.

Jiyoon nodded. She did not think that the juniors would start applauding or something like that. She thought that they would show at least a bit of interest though. She felt a little embarrassed and looked at the door. She wondered when her seniors would come.

Just then, she found a shadow cast on the door. After looking at the lights in the corridor, Jiyoon left the classroom thinking ‘no way’. The seniors were standing there with big grins on their faces.

“We were about to go in, but the atmosphere was so good.”

Maru appreciated her for her efforts before going inside. Dowook then followed and showed her a thumbs up.

“Uhm… well done.”

Daemyung patted her. Jiyoon felt her face go hot as though it would explode. She felt so embarrassed when she realized that everyone heard what she said.

“You should’ve come in immediately if you were here.”

She pouted at Daemyung. Daemyung only awkwardly smiled.

“What’s this? Was there something fun?”

Aram, who had just arrived, widened her eyes as she asked. Jiyoon did not speak. She didn’t feel much when she received questions from the juniors, but now that she looked back, she wondered how she was able to say all those words.

“Let’s go in for now. We should show them this as well.”

What Daemyung was holding in his hands was an album.

So that was it. Jiyoon realized what the ‘event’ was that Maru was talking about. She also remembered being surprised when she saw that album.

“Let’s go! Let’s look at our cute juniors,” said Aram as she pushed her back.

* * *

It seemed that their interest was piqued. Maru took a bite out of the choco pie as he looked at the acting club talking to the first year students. Yakult and choco pie. They could have bought something different, but they didn’t change the menu since it was somewhat like a tradition at this point.

The atmosphere in the classroom was very good. Daemyung, who began to talk to people after getting to know them, became a splendid presenter and induced everyone to talk. Ever since the mood became soft enough for the first year students to talk, they kept asking questions. If there were too few people, they might not have said anything out of shyness, but since there were more than fifty people here, they seemed to feel no pressure. There were around forty people when the conversation started, but quite a lot more had joined them after cleaning duties.

“Eleven? Are you even allowed to stay at school that late?”

“We can if we get permission. We stayed until 1 a.m. during the summer holiday. Buying food outside the school and eating it inside the school is a really nice experience.”

Daemyung enticed the juniors while listing things that couldn’t be experienced in other clubs. Of course, he also emphasized that it would be laborious. After all, there might be trouble if they made some of the first year students join without letting them know about the hardships.

Maru peeled off the yakult lid a little. He sipped on the drink as he looked at the clock. It was 6. Since there was no shoot today, he could take his time here. Starting tomorrow though, he would have shoots all the way into the weekend.

“You should say something too, seonbae.”

Maru, standing in a corner of the classroom, shook his head when he heard Aram’s words.

He now had a TV drama that he showed up regularly on. If he received more work on top of this, he would barely be able to show up at the club at all. That was why he was planning to go home after doing the trivial stuff. He neither thought about receiving the senior treatment nor acting like one. He was planning to stay as the guy that only helped out the club every once in a while, so it would be better if he wasn’t remembered. He would practically be a ghost member after all.

Aram made a sour expression before turning around.

After the lightweight talk was finished, the serious stuff began with the album. The ones that decide to join and those that decided not to would probably be decided after this. It wasn’t like they could accept everyone here anyway. There was no limit to how big a club could be, but having too many would become uncontrollable.

Daemyung wanted around twenty-five to thirty. If all of the juniors gathered here decided to apply, about half of them wouldn’t make it.

‘The clubroom is a problem too, huh.’

They couldn’t use the self-study classroom as their clubroom forever. If anyone came around wanting to study, they would have to vacate the classroom without complaining. As for the clubroom matter, they would have to consult with Taesik about it. It would be great if they could get an empty classroom, but Maru wondered if that was even possible. After all, the acting club had a horrible reputation among the teachers.

“Will Maru-seonbae over there teach us acting if we enter the acting club?”

Maru raised his head. He had heard his name being mentioned among the juniors. He looked at the girl that looked at him straight in the eyes in a daring manner. He remembered her. It was the girl that asked if he knew Sungjae.

“I was curious about that too.”

“Me, too.”

“You are on TV, right?”

The people that glanced his way, thought that this was an opportunity and all started speaking. Maru looked at them. Even the people that didn’t know about him started talking about it.

“For acting, we’ll invite an instructor to teach you. There will be a great person coming so you don’t need to worry about that.”

“But you’re an actor too, seonbae.”

“I’m not good enough to teach anyone else. At most, I can give you some advice.”

“Ah, I see. Also, can I ask you a personal question?”

“Sure.”

“What landed you as a supporting character in New Semester?”

“I took the audition.”

“Then you can become a supporting character if you take the audition?”

“You must be lucky too, and skilled.”

“Then was it your skill that got you the role? Or luck?”

“I’m not sure. I never asked the producer that picked me, so I can’t say for sure.”

“No way. Can’t you tell us more confidently if you have confidence in your skills?”

“I don’t have that much confidence.”

“Then it’s luck after all?”

“Yes. I think it was luck.”

Maru finished the conversation with a smile. She had a slightly offensive tone in her words. She sounded like she wanted to dig into him, so he just stopped there. The girl grinned as though she had expected this before turning around again. The juniors that took interest in him turned around to focus on Daemyung again, seeming to have lost their interest.

That was rather good for Maru though. It would be quite a pain if someone entered the club because of him. From their expressions though, no one seemed to be like that. Well, it would be weird if there were any.

“There are many times when you get exhausted, and sometimes, you might regret, thinking about why you started this, but if you still want to try acting despite that, please write your name and self-introduction on the application form here.”

When Daemyung handed out the application forms, the fifty-plus first year students all stood up and took the paper. Maru exclaimed in a small voice. He didn’t think that all of them would take a form.

Was the three-year-long member problem finally solved? Maru stuck his thumbs up at Daemyung who made a happy expression.

[1] As in ‘is this club strict and make you reply to your seniors in a loud voice?’ kind of scared.

[2] Chapter 169

Chapter 511

“Why won’t you do your work properly!”

Maru turned his head around when he heard producer Park Hoon shout. He saw the assistant director, Kim Minjoong, standing stiffly. He wondered what the guy did wrong this time as he sipped on some coffee and switched locations. Park Hoon didn’t shout at the actors, but he didn’t want to be present when someone was being scolded. That would make things awkward.

“What’s up today?” Seong Dongho approached him and asked.

“Something probably happened,” Maru replied lightly.

Whenever Park Hoon raised his voice, it was always the assistant director, Kim Minjoong, being scolded. He wasn’t doing that out of malice, since the two were on pretty good terms usually, as seen by how they acted after the shoot. The two looked like two brothers, where the younger brother followed the older one, despite him being quite a lot older and very difficult.

“He should treat him better. But hey, what are you drinking?”

“Coffee.”

Maru pointed at the vending machine before giving Dongho a 100 won coin. Dongho walked towards the vending machine by the right entrance.

“It’s so cold.”

Joomin came up to him this time, with her arms crossed.

“It’s still pretty chilly, isn’t it?”

“It was quite warm yesterday, but I guess we’re back to winter today.”

“That’s just how March is usually. Why don’t you drink coffee as well? I think there’s still some time until the shoot begins.”

“Should I?”

“Do you want a coin?”

“I’ll gladly take it.”

Taking the coin from him, Joomin walked towards the vending machine. After seeing her greet Dongho and talk to him, Maru turned his head around. It was now the third month since the shoot for the drama ‘New Semester’ had begun. Thanks to his early efforts, his relationships with the other child actors weren’t that bad. He didn’t have any trouble greeting them or making jokes. He didn’t want a close friendship-kind of relationship, so he was completely happy how things were now.

7 a.m. He was now used to coming to this middle school every Sunday. He got used to the looks of the corridor, the classroom, and even the faculty office, as well as the scenery outside.

“Bring the crane over here! The rails should be starting here and ending here.”

The assistant director said that the shoot would begin at 7:30, but from the way things were now, it seemed like it was going to start around 8. Maru bit on the cup of coffee that he finished as he rolled his feet. The wind was pretty chilly, so he would lose body heat pretty quickly if he stood still.

“Hi.”

“I think this place is colder than the others.”

Kang Giwoo, Park Jichan, and Ahn Yeseul came. All three of them were wearing padded coats that reached their knees. Maru waved at the three instead of greeting them.

“Where’s Okseon?” Yeseul asked.

Maru just shrugged. Currently, the child actors were split into two factions. The main characters and the supporting characters. Okseon was classified into the latter, but she did not hang out with anyone. She walked around where the actors waited when the shoot wasn’t happening, and would only gather round when she was called by the assistant director.

“Don’t you think she’s too detached from all of us?” Yeseul asked.

Jichan agreed while Giwoo tried to switch the topic by saying that anything can happen.

Maru did not join their conversation. The coffee cup in his mouth helped out at a time like this.

During the pre-shoot get-together, Maru saw Yeseul as a very cautious girl. A month into the shoot, she exchanged smiles with the others but clearly kept her distance. But now, she seemed to have differentiated enemies from allies perfectly and did not hesitate when she talked. Okseon was her main target. She sneakily said words that would exclude Okseon from the group. Maru could see that she was someone who would become the leader if a faction formed among the girls.

“Okseon doesn’t hang out with you guys either, does she?”

“There are people who are more comfortable being alone.”

Maru made up an excuse since she was so tenacious with that question. It was an answer that stood up for Okseon yet did not go against what Yeseul said, so there should be no complaints.

“I should plan an event or something. Let’s hold a get-together party by ourselves,” said Jichan.

Giwoo agreed, saying that it was a good idea. Giwoo was someone who never disagreed with anyone when he talked to them. He was a smart kid. Giwoo faintly smiled when he met eyes with Maru. Maru smiled back. Two crocodiles had something in common.

Jichan seemed to feel better and talked about when they should gather in a loud voice. At that time, Dongho and Joomin came back from the vending machine.

“We haven’t met outside even once during these three months. Why don’t we meet up and eat something together as fellow actors?”

“That sounds good. Let’s hold one if we have the time.”

Maru made an escape route early on. It tired him out just by thinking that he would have to laugh and talk to people he met through work. It might be different if Dongho and Joomin were the only people, but eating with the other three would be very annoying for him. There was no trouble getting along with them during shoots, so there was no reason to make some time to meet them either.

He suddenly remembered Junmin’s words that he drew the line too clearly, but laughing and chatting with kids as a forty-five year old adult without any alcohol was actually quite painful for him.

“Director Park! When are we starting?”

Hwang Joonghoon, who played the role of the teacher, peeked out of the first floor classroom and shouted. That was the place where the adult actors waited. There was a warm heater and tea there, and everyone classified as actors could go inside and rest, but the new actors were all waiting outside. That was because it was much better to talk with their peers in the cold rather than staying awkwardly with the great seniors in warmth.

“Please wait a little more.”

“Hey, you told me we were starting early today. That’s why I drove my car so early in the morning.”

“Senior Hwang. This isn’t the first time. Please let me go this time.”

Park Hoon made a soft smile which made him look nothing like the angry man he was in front of the assistant director. Joonghoon made a prankful smile before closing the window. It didn’t look like he was serious when he said those words.

“Let’s get things done quickly! Also, Sanghoon-hyung, about that key light……”

Behind the shouting Park Hoon, the crane was moving up and down. On top of it was the camera director. He kept rubbing his hands as though he was cold.

“Hoon, let’s start already. I’m freezing.”

“Seniors! Just wait a little more. The sun needs to rise a little more.”

The two people’s voices resonated loudly.

Maru would walk between the staff members from time to time, and the opinion they had of Park Hoon didn’t seem to be bad. No, it was on the good side. He was a little picky when it came to choosing a good picture, but everything else about him was decent. That was what he got from summing up their opinions.

“We’re starting the rehearsal!”

The assistant director shouted. The classroom windows opened and the adult actors all peeked out.

Maru took off his coat and moved in front of the producer. The scenes taken in the school field were mostly centered around the students. Although New Semester was supposed to have a different story every episode, the 8th episode broke that trend by being a continuation of the 7th episode. The title was ‘Prank and Apology’.

In episode 7, Dongho played a light prank on the teacher-in-training, Suyeon. He asked a rather offensive, or perhaps childish question - when was her first kiss. As Dongho always played jokes like that on the female teachers, the other kids in the class didn’t think much of it, but Suyeon, the teacher-in-training, would look severely hurt by his words. The 7th episode centered around Suyeon, with Dongho giving off the bad image, and Maru would be portrayed as the onlooker, slowly turning into the character that urged Dongho to do it.

In the 8th episode, what was supposed to be a small prank actually made Suyeon cry, startling Dongho and Maru and making them feel responsible. They would get the help of the others in the class to find out about the reason and apologizing in the end.

“So her boyfriend passed away.”

“So pitiful.”

“What’s so pitiful? She’s just a fictional character.”

The kids talked about it as they looked at the script for the 8th episode in front of the camera. Suyeon, who played the role of Park Chaeyeon, the one kids pitied just now, was smiling from ear to ear while peeking out of the classroom. Thinking about how she would immediately start crying even if she looked like she was smiling right now, Maru thought that actors were incredible people, once again.

“I’m going to take a full shot of Maru and Dongho walking out together. You see the camera director on the crane, right? Walk below it slowly. The others should follow while chatting.”

They started the rehearsal after listening to Park Hoon’s instructions. Maru walked with Dongho towards the point right underneath the crane. His lines were about how to play a prank on the teacher-in-training.

“Okay, let’s go just like that.”

After Park Hoon called out to the camera director once and talked to him about a few things, he walked towards the monitor again. The assistant director’s stand-by sign appeared again.

“Ready, cue!”

The season in the drama was March just like reality. Maru shrunk his shoulders a little. There was no need to act like it was cold. It was actually cold, so he just needed to show it.

“Lee Chan. You saw how teacher Chaeyeon was at a loss for words yesterday in embarrassment, right?”

Dongho laughed. Dongho had adjusted quite a lot to fit the role of Dongwook during the past three months.

“Really now?”

Maru said that without a care. However, he kept giving him glances, nuancing that he wasn’t entirely disinterested. He followed the instructions on the script quite closely.

“Cut! Let’s follow after that.”

The camera director climbed down from the crane and grabbed the camera placed on the rail. Maru heard that he was going to get a bust shot. His hands should be more free here. After getting the start sign, he started moving again.

Dongho spoke first.

“I told you. She was really cute.”

“What are you planning to do now?”

“I’m thinking about it. I think we might be able to see her cry if I push her a little more.”

“You’re really going to make her cry?”

“You think? Duh. Also, does it even make sense that teachers can’t take a little joke like that? Teacher Chaeyeon should understand. Isn’t this what memories are about?”

Then cut again. The camera director, holding an ENG camera, stood behind Dongho.

Park Hoon did not comment about their acting method just like what he said on the first day. If he really didn’t like a cut, he would look at the monitor and talk to them, but most of the time, he did not give them specific directions so that the actors could set a direction for themselves.

Maru ignored the lens behind Dongho’s shoulders and looked at Dongho. In dramas, looking directly at the lens did not occur except in some extremely special cases.

Cue - he heard Park Hoon’s voice and started speaking,

“I guess it is.”

“And that’s where you come in. Don’t you have anything good? You were awesome during our first year. You completely fooled the homeroom teacher on April Fools. I think you need to be the one to come up with a scenario since you’re good at it.”

“A scenario? Well, it’s not like I don’t have one……”

Not interested yet interested - the directions written on the script by the writer always required him to express two conflicting emotions at once. Maru had to look in the mirror several times in order to create his current expression. He faintly curled up his lips on one end, while his gaze was directed at the school. He also slightly pulled his chin inwards, with his upper and lower teeth slightly apart. He practiced to the point that his facial muscles started aching so that he could express that conflicting emotion.

“Cut, okay. Let’s move.”

Maru looked at Dongho while loosening the tension in his face. Dongho was blinking in a daze as he looked at producer Park Hoon.

“That’s it?”

“I think it is.”

One take, and an immediate okay. Usually, they would take another shot even if there was no NG to take different approaches, but there was none of that this time.

“Good. That was very good.”

Maru heard Park Hoon say those words as he looked their way. Maru shrugged and looked at Dongho. Dongho was grinning as he clenched his fist.

‘That was very good’ - he felt good since he contributed to finishing the shoot early. He moved inside the school with Dongho, who was now able to hang his arm around Maru’s shoulders with ease.

“I guess they’re shooting senior Suyeon now,” said Yeseul as she tip-toed.

The camera was moving towards the faculty office. The adult actors and background actors that were waiting also moved into the faculty office. According to the order on the script, Dongho and Maru would continue talking about their scheme in their class on the 2nd floor, but they couldn’t move around the equipment too much, so it seemed that they were going to start with shooting the lower floor scenes.

The director already had his plans so it should be fine even if they didn’t shoot in order.

“Rather than that, this writer is just… geez.”

Maru clicked his tongue and opened the script to his lines.

‘Feeling slight pity and heartbroken yet not bursting out in anger.’

He knew that different writers had different writing styles, but this writer was very abstract. There was a series of emotional expressions that he would never understand without getting deeply into it, and every one of them gave him a headache.

Dongho and Joomin, who sat next to him, were also staring at the script with their mouths shut. The emotional detail was increasing with the episode. Maybe that was what made this person a big-time writer. He now missed the scripts for ‘Youth Generation’ that clearly stated ‘sad’, ‘laughing’, ‘angry’, and simple things like that.

Chapter 512

“It’s such a pity though. It’s such a pity though. It’s such, a pity though.”

The words became a little awkward when he took a breath midway through the line. The ‘with a bit of pause’ written on the script probably didn’t refer to that. Pause. It was a rather peculiar word. It was a very clear word, but there was an element of abstractness to it as well. He had to physically stop speaking, look at the opponent, and draw out the emotion in that short burst of silence. Facial expressions, speech tones, bodily actions - Maru flipped through the script and kept looking at the flow of emotions that the writer wrote in the script to see whether he missed anything, or if he got confused with the emotions of another character. Even after he checked several times, he still felt something was off as soon as he flipped the page.

“Let’s do that once again. Lights, don’t cast any shadows on our actors’ faces.”

Maru took his eyes off the script and looked at the camera. Suyeon was talking to the kids in the corridor. She was smiling as though nothing happened, but the face she had when she turned around and looked at the camera was colored with unspeakable sadness.

“Cuttt!”

Producer Park Hoon emphasized the t in cut. At first, Maru wondered why he did that, but now he knew that that signified. Park Hoon would shout like that whenever he got a take that was very much to his liking. He was standing up with satisfaction right now as well.

“Bring more of that emotion out. This time, make an expression that expresses more of a current pain rather one from sadness in the past.”

“I think that was pretty good though,” Suyeon said as she pouted.

“It was good, yes, but let’s do that one more time. Senior, please shoot from the right this time.”

“You’re having fun.”

The camera director cracked his neck sideways as he said those words.

“Please. Also, hold the boom mic as close as possible.”

Park Hoon did not give instructions to the child actors, but he asked for a lot from the adult directors. He even gave directions to Hwang Joonghoon, who he called ‘sir’[1]. Of course, with respect.

The camera started rolling again.

Maru closed his ears and focused on the script again. The reason the director doesn’t give out directions for the child actors was probably because of efficiency. Pros, such as Suyeon over there, would listen to what the director wanted and produce results that matched. The director might or might not like that result, but Suyeon would provide him with a result that was close to what the director wanted.

Park Hoon requested another take from Suyeon, and despite the fact that Suyeon showed a splendid act, he had her do the same scene with a different set of emotions this time.

That wasn’t easy. There were no lines involved here, and the only things that could change were the facial muscles and the movement of the eyes. Suyeon would have to use those limited resources and combine them differently to express two different types of sadness.

That was what a pro was about.

Park Hoon told the child actors ‘you are pros’ as well, but Maru understood the meaning of that ‘pro’ was something different from what he considered pros. To Park Hoon, the child actors were probably ‘pros’ in the sense that they were paid for their provided labor. If the child actors were able to prove that they were able to show different colors of their acting whenever the director requested them to, the director would probably give out instructions to them as well.

‘You can’t call yourself a pro if you can’t listen to the requests of your client.’

He muttered his lines several times to engrave them in his mind. Just then, Suyeon’s scene ended. It was 2 p.m. Everyone here knew that they had to shoot as much as possible on the weekend when the school was empty in order to decrease their workload during the weekdays, so the walking speed of not only the staff but also the actors was quite quick when they switched locations.

“We’ll move to the corridor of the 2nd floor now!”

There should be around 30 minutes of free time for the equipment to be set up so they entered the classroom. The staff did not care what an actor did when they didn’t have a scene to take. They just had to be in front of the camera when the shoot occurred. Jichan and Yeseul were probably waiting inside vans with heaters. He didn’t know where Okseon was.

Giwoo and Dongho were going over their lines together since their scene was right after the upcoming one. After their scene would be the classroom scene. Maru would become busy starting then.

“Your eyes might pop out, you know?”

Suyeon was standing in front of him with a bright smile. She was wearing a thick padded coat.

“Can I ask you a question?”

“Oh, my. What’s gotten into you? Asking questions like that.”

“I’ll take that as a yes so have a look at this part.”

Maru pointed at one part of the script. Eyes red due to being agitated - that expressed Lee Chan’s state of emotions.

“Does eyes red mean that I actually have to have bloodshot eyes?”

“That depends on the interpretation of the actor. Also on the director’s instructions. While there are people who really tense their eyes and make their eyes bloodshot, there are also people that interpret it as an emotional thing and just start glaring. Fundamentally, actors are supposed to act based on the script, but there are things that are left up to interpretation.”

“What would you do, senior?”

“Me? I like following the script. If I was the one doing this, I would either keep my eyes open for a long time without blinking or perhaps rub my eyes. That makes them look a little redder, you know? You can discern it through the camera if the camera has its focus on you. That’s how I would do it. It’s an interpretation that sticks to the basics.”

“Sticks to the basics, huh.”

He nodded. Suyeon told him good luck before walking past him. After watching her walk with the make-up artist for a while, he moved to the 2nd floor.

Interpretation of the script. When he shot Youth Generation, he didn’t hear much. He was only a minor character, did not have many scenes, and above all, the shoot was on a tight schedule, so he got an okay sign quickly most of the time.

In Twilight Struggles, he clung to that single line again and again before attending the shoot and finished the cut in one go. He did not even have the time to listen to what the director’s intentions were.

As for the movie he shot with director Park Joongjin, there was no room for ‘his interpretation’. Joongjin already had a near-perfect picture in his head, and actors were just tools to complete that image for him. On the last day of the shoot, he changed his acting on his own accord and caught Joongjin’s eyes, but that wasn’t an act that came about through plenty of talk with the director.

He thought that he rarely had any interactions with the directors about the interpretations of the script. Well, all he played were some minor roles or passing-by roles, so the directors probably neither had the time nor the reason to look at him deeply.

Was this right? Maru underlined the line on the script with a pen as he thought about that. There was no ‘answer’ when it came to acting. If there was a systemized answer just like mathematics, who would watch dramas and movies? It would be the same no matter who appeared in it.

Precisely because there wasn’t a correct answer, acting possessed infinite possibilities. That also made it hard. He chose a path that he thought was the best among the numerous split paths, but other people might see it as the worst. This was his first time as a supporting character. Maru felt very complex. He sighed in relief when he got an okay in one go, but looking at Suyeon who changed up her acting upon the director’s instructions, he inwardly felt like he could do better.

Could he have shown the director a different kind of acting when he said that they should do another take? The relief of having finished his scene and the regret of being excluded from more possibilities kept clashing inside him.

“Maru, can you help me with practice? I just can’t get my lines right,” Joomin approached him and asked.

Maru nodded. He couldn’t keep clinging on to a problem he couldn’t produce an answer to forever. He would naturally arrive at an answer as long as he kept working with producer Park Hoon, so it was much better for him to focus on working together with his colleagues right now.

“Should I start from here?”

“Yeah, it’s this part.”

“I wonder if Seri hates me?”

That was Yeseul’s line. There was no need for him to say the lines in a feminine way, so he just read it out clearly to practice his pronunciation. Joomin followed up with her line. Just like that, they exchanged a few lines.

“This line. I really can’t get used to saying this one.”

-(To Yeseul, grabbing her hand, wanting her to rely on her a little more) I’m on your side, so tell me whenever something happens. I’ll listen to you. We are friends, aren’t we? We’ll be best friends forever.

That was the line Joomin had to say. Maru reached out. Joomin looked at him.

“Wouldn’t it be better if you say the line while acting a bit?”

“Should I?”

Joomin grabbed his hand with both of her hands and said her line. The line wasn’t that long and did not contain any difficult words either, but she kept screwing up. When she did manage to say her words properly, even Maru could tell that it was way too dry.

“It’s no good, right?”

Joomin let go of his hand. Maru replied yes. Rather than shooting over and over again, it would be much better to listen to some bitter words and fix it right here.

“What do you think is the problem?”

“I’m not sure. I can only tell you the theoretical stuff.”

“Tell me. My head is completely blank right now.”

“First, I think the most important problem is whether you actually like Yeseul or not. Or perhaps there’s a word that you find hard to pronounce.”

“It’s not about pronunciation. There’s nothing difficult since it’s spoken normally. So I guess it’s an emotional thing after all?”

“Did something happen between you and her, and not the character Yeseul?”

Maru pointed at Yeseul, who was coming up to the 2nd floor with Jichan. Joomin shook her head.

“It’s just like usual. Greeting her and talking to her like usual.”

After thinking about something for a while, Joomin told him to help her out once again. She also told him to see if anything changed about her. Maru observed her expressions carefully as he repeated the same lines. It did sound much better than before.

“I think that just now was a lot better.”

“Is that how I should do it?”

“You don’t like it?”

“I was trying to change up my acting a little. I monitored the 2nd episode, but it looked a little too bland. That’s why I tried to be conscious of my expressions a little and I think that’s the problem.”

Joomin pouted before loosening her cheeks and sighing.

“My manager-oppa told me that I’m not eye-catching. I’m doing my best since I’m a supporting character, so I felt like I was losing strength when I heard him.”

Just how many actors did not want to gain recognition for their acting skills? Joomin even said that her dream was to become successful and famous. To her, being ‘not eye-catching’ must be a serious problem.

“Do you want to try asking the director?” asked Maru.

Joomin made a difficult expression. During the past 3 months, the director never talked to a child actor one-on-one in regards to acting. It wasn’t an easy thing to approach producer Park Hoon, who had made his intentions clear regarding acting philosophy. Even Maru was watching his words in fear that he might be hated, but now he felt the need to become bolder. There was a possibility of him swearing at Maru if he went by himself, so he felt that it would be better to go with Joomin, who would share that burden with him. He actually wanted to bring others in this as well.

He approached Jichan and Yeseul carefully. He asked the two whether they had anything to ask the director about acting, but the two shook their heads. Those two were being cautious about it as well.

In the end, the two walked to the director with Maru at the front. He had lost a bit of his confidence in interpreting the script. If he kept forging ahead without knowing what to do like this, he might start doing the wrong things, so he thought that he should ask questions now, even if it meant the director snapping out at him.

“Is it really okay for us to talk to him first?”

“I’m not sure either.”

Although producer Park Hoon called them ‘little dreamers’ in an endearing way, the sense of distance was quite considerable. That was probably because the way he snapped at them on the first day was engraved into their minds. Maru decided that he should approach him anyway, taking consolation from the fact that the director was actually quite close to the adult actors usually. If he was told ‘you’re cocky’ or ‘you can’t even interpret it by yourself?’ or something like that, he would make a foolish smile and quickly step back. At most, he would get the ‘silly kid’ treatment and things would end there.

After the corridor scene ended, Maru walked up to producer Park Hoon, who told the staff to move the equipment. Park Hoon, who was talking to the scripter, turned around to stare at Maru.

“Director.”

“Yeah, what is it?”

“There’s something I want to ask you about regarding the interpretation of the script and about acting, is that okay with you?”

The more adult you were, the weaker you became in front of power. Maru found the man in front of him really hard to deal with. He could act friendly towards Junmin since Junmin expressed his goodwill so openly, but meeting a superior he didn’t have a good relationship with made him gulp subconsciously.

After pausing for a while, producer Park Hoon spoke,

“That took you long enough.”

He sounded as though he had been waiting for this moment.

[1] Something’s wrong here. He called Hwang Joonghoon ‘senior’ and not ‘sir’ in the last chapter.

Chapter 513

He was at a loss for words for a moment due to the positive reply he got.

“Say it if you have anything to say. We need to get the next shot going.”

“YES.”

After exchanging gazes with Joomin, he opened the script in front of the director.

“About this part.”

-Feeling slight pity and heartbroken yet not bursting out in anger.

After seeing Park Hoon’s eyes move according to the text, he continued speaking.

“I think it’s telling me to express conflicting emotions, but I wonder what you’re expecting as a director when it says ‘heartbroken yet not sad’.”

“Writer Lee Hanmi likes lines like that. She always writes based on the principle that humans are never simple, are wicked at heart, and that they don’t even know that. That’s why you need to look at the context before and after that line when you get complex directions like that. Sometimes, it helps to talk about it with the actor you’re saying that line to.”

“This scene is about Lee Chan’s internal struggles, so I didn’t have anyone suitable to ask. Looking at the narration, the lines before, and the lines after it, he seems to be regretting urging Dongwook to play that prank, but he also looks like he doesn’t like how a teacher-in-training burst into tears with just that. Heartbroken probably stems from regret, and the anger part sounds like he’s a little flabbergasted that the teacher-in-training is so immature…”

“If you interpreted it that way, I think it’s good. If you can express your character’s emotions in words, it shows that you haven’t looked at it lightly. The problem then comes down to whether you can accept that interpretation or not, right?”

Maru nodded. He had a look at the context and figured out most of the emotions that his current character should have, but he doubted whether that was the writer’s intention or not. That doubt immediately led to his distrust of his own interpretations. If he could accept it himself, he could just push forward with that, but this time around, he didn’t have that confidence.

“What’s the Lee Chan that you’re playing like in your understanding?”

“Lee Chan is a smart kid. That’s why he doesn’t do things that might get him into trouble. The fact that he had Dongwook do the prank is also to watch from behind the scenes after all. He also has a bit of pride in the perfect pranks that he plans. His character background does say that he inwardly rejoices when his classmates talk about the pranks he planned during his first year. That doesn’t mean that he’s twisted at heart though. He just thinks that doing something himself is being childish.”

“And what’s the current situation like?”

“Since the teacher-in-training burst into tears, the kids in the class started to look for someone to blame, and their arrows were turning towards Dongwook. Lee Chan feels a bit of pity that his prank didn’t go well, sorry towards Dongwook who gets the blame instead of him, and lastly, feels angry towards the teacher-in-training. All of these combined should be making him incredibly irritated right now. That’s what I think.”

“You can see it that way, but he might be angry not at the teacher-in-training, but at himself. Like you said, Lee Chan is someone who is confident in his smarts. He had planned a perfect prank, but that was ruined, so this is a possibility as well.”

“That’s true. Then which one’s correct?”

“Try both.”

“What?”

“Let’s try both of them out. There is no correct answer. What the writer wants is already in the script. It’s the actor’s job to interpret that and show it to the camera. You might have a better grasp on his personality if you knew how Lee Chan would act after this, but as you know, the script isn’t out yet. Only the writer knows how Lee Chan would act in the ninth, tenth, and eleventh episodes. That’s why it’s important to keep researching what the writer wants, but at the same time, creating a character based on your own understanding. As for me, my job is to watch your acting in the editing room and choose the better one. We’re still in the early stages. We aren’t sure if there will be episodes in the future with Lee Chan as the main. So for now, show me everything you can.”

The assistant director came and said that everything was ready.

“Wait a bit. I’ll go up after I talk to these two.”

“Yes. I’ll go up first then.”

“Alright.”

Park Hoon looked at Maru.

“Anything else?”

It was time for the shoot, yet the director was sparing his time for them. There was no need to ask the foolish question of ‘don’t you have to go?’. He spoke since he was allowed to.

“I guess this might concern your personal preferences, but how do you suppose I express the line ‘red eyes’? Do you think I should actually rub my eyes and make them look red, or just express my agitation, or perhaps sadness, in actions only?”

“There aren’t any actors that like artificial things. Nor are there any that like what seems ‘normal’, and ‘common’. Actors definitely have the desire to show their ‘acting’. This should apply to you as well. That’s why they show some agreed-upon things when expressing certain emotions according to their experience, but I don’t like things like that. If you did this part and your eyes naturally became red, I’m okay with that. If you put up a pretense when you act just to show that your eyes are red when they aren’t, then that’s a no-no. However, this is up to your acting skills as well. If you rub your eyes to make them red and manage to persuade me through the monitor that you are truly agitated, then that’s of course okay. Making ‘common’ things look ‘uncommon’, and ‘artificial’ things look ‘natural’ is what acting is about after all. Of course, this acting philosophy is something different for every actor, so don’t take that too seriously.”

Anything else? - Park Hoon asked.

Maru replied that there was no more. He resolved most of his questions thanks to the answers he just heard. He might get new questions in the next episode, but he didn’t have any for now.

“Then next, Joomin. What do you want to talk about?”

Maru took a step back and looked at Park Hoon and Joomin. The two started a long conversation once again. When Park Hoon’s walkie-talkie asked him when they were going to resume the shoot, Park Hoon said ‘ten minutes’ before focusing on Joomin again.

Considering the time he spent with Maru, it meant that the shoot was delayed by about 15 minutes. Actually, he didn’t think that he would have such an in-depth conversation. He thought that the director would briefly explain what he was looking for if he asked a question. However, that wasn’t the case. He replied to a question with a question, and that led to a short discussion. It wasn’t ‘what you’re thinking is wrong’ but ‘what I think is this’. It was quite unexpected to see the director like that.

He might have just come up with a misunderstanding himself. Maru looked at producer Park Hoon nodding as he listened to Joomin. Directors were authoritative. They did not forgive those that challenged their authority - maybe he had consolidated that misconception in his mind.

Of course, not every director would be like Park Hoon. There should be a lot of directors who, like Park Joongjin, thought that an actor’s interpretation was not important.

The acting method might change according to the director. Maru thought that he should ask more questions in the future. Park Hoon was not the ‘caring mother’ character. However, he would even delay the shoot to listen to him when he asked something. He did not look down on younger actors and did not scold people for not knowing something. A companion - that was the word that came to Maru’s mind when he looked at Park Hoon. He was someone that could be relied upon on this rocky journey that was the drama.

“Thank you.”

Joomin turned around after thanking him. Only then did Park Hoon stand up and move. Maru looked at Joomin, who had an excited face, and asked.

“What’d he say?”

“He didn’t tell me to do anything specific, but I feel like I’m much more clear-headed now. He told me not to fear NGs. If I don’t make a mistake, someone else will.”

“Haha, that’s true.”

“It’s good to change up the expressions, but he told me that it would be reckless to try to do that during the shoot. He told me to bring only the verified expressions.”

“Looks like you have a lot of practice to do if you want to do the acting you are satisfied with.”

“Right. Looks like I’ll be staying in front of the mirror for a long time now. Also, in the same line of thought, can you practice with me until the scene? I want to return to how I was doing things before.”

“Let’s call Dongho as well. He’ll be waiting for a while once the next scene is over.”

“Sounds good.”

Maru closed the script and walked towards the staircase.

* * *

Okseon, who was reading the script at the end of the corridor, yawned slightly and closed the script. She decided to take a short break.

Since almost everything was shot on the weekend, the waiting time was pretty long. Shoot, then wait, shoot then wait. It was an endless repetition of that.

He looks energetic as always - Okseon thought as she looked at Giwoo, who was quite eye-catching among the actors gathered there. During the early days, Giwoo would put on a rather eerie smile from time to time, but these days, he acted very politely to the point that it made her wonder if what she saw was wrong. Perhaps thanks to that, the adults were very attentive to Giwoo as well. Giwoo acted kindly towards all adult actors, especially to the eldest, Hwang Joonghoon, going as far as to call him ‘father’. Just until three months ago, all of them found the adult actors hard to deal with, but thanks to Giwoo, it was a lot better now. Of course, none of them were as close to the adults as Giwoo was though.

“Okseon, want to practice together?” Joomin came to her and asked.

Okseon shook her head. She was taking a break just after a round of practice, so she didn’t want to go back immediately. Joomin made a disappointed expression before smiling and nodding. This unni didn’t change either. She looked after the others a lot. She felt thankful that she cared for her, but joining a group to share something and act together was honestly too much of a hassle for her. It was much easier for her to stay away.

Joomin, Maru, and Dongho. Those three were practicing in a corner today as well. Whenever she heard something during her waiting time, it was usually those three practicing together. Once the camera started rolling, they would leave the building so that they didn’t interrupt the shoot. During lunchtime, some loud noises could be heard as well, and it was mostly Maru or Dongho doing vocal practice. The staff members seemed to have gotten used to that as well, some even saying that they didn’t feel like they were having lunch if they didn’t hear that. Those two worked quite hard. While she respected their passion, she really did not want to join them. She had to take a break when she needed to.

“Why do you look like you’re being bullied? Let’s go.”

Jichan talked to her. Okseon shook her head without a word as she always did. Jichan used some unpleasant words from time to time, but that wasn’t out of malice. It was just that he was stupid. Dongho was also similar one time, but he was very calm these days. This guy was probably using some ‘rough’ words to look cool, but he would probably find it embarrassing later on in life.

Please have lunch - It was now lunch, just at 3 in the afternoon. Some actors left the school to get food, but Okseon received the lunchbox.

“You’re going to eat by yourself again, aren’t you?”

Yeseul glimpsed at her before jeering at her. Okseon didn’t reply and just received a lunch box before going somewhere quiet. While she wanted ‘quiet’, she was just sitting on the opposite end of the other kids. She wanted to get an empty classroom to herself, but she wasn’t allowed to enter classrooms other than the ones she was permitted to.

The adult actors probably went to the restaurant in front of the school, while the staff members ate on the floor below. From some time onwards, it became the norm for only the child actors to remain behind in this classroom, and at this point, it felt natural.

In this classroom where laughs could be heard every now and then, Okseon observed Maru and Giwoo closely.

Observing people - that was something Okseon did for fun, and for studying. She didn’t want to join the others and talk to them, but watching them from afar was quite fun. If she joined them, she would be pushed around here and there, but watching them from outside allowed her to indirectly experience the things happening among them without being influenced.

The reason she observed Maru recently was nothing special, it was because of his acting. How could he look so natural? Maru did not become stiff just because he was in front of the camera, and looked relaxed whenever she saw him. The fact that his real personality was similar to Lee Chan should have helped him a lot with that, but there seemed to be a special way he practiced other than that as well.

Similarly, the reason she observed Giwoo was because his acting became more and more similar to Maru’s. Last time, she even heard the director say that his character became Lee Chan-like. Giwoo immediately changed up his acting, but Okseon could still feel that Giwoo was giving off similar vibes to Maru. It wasn’t just his acting, but his hand gestures, his tone when laughing, his speech, and even his trivial habits. Of course, they weren’t eye-catching. Only Okseon, who thought of herself as really developed when it came to observing people, found out after watching him for a long time.

Was it a coincidence?

Okseon ate a spoonful of rice before observing the two. Giwoo was scratching his eyebrows just like Maru.

Chapter 514

A loved one passed away. He could sympathize with that. If it was in reality, he would’ve calmly listened to that person. If necessary, he might have bought some alcoholic drinks as well.

But how would Lee Chan act?

“I didn’t know that you went through such a thing.”

Maru lowered his gaze and breathed slowly through his nose. He was flustered, sorry, and felt sympathetic. He wouldn’t have carried out such a prank if he knew that the teacher-in-training’s lover had passed away. He was unlucky this time.

“Sorry, teacher. I’m really sorry.”

Dongho lowered his head and apologized. A rather sad smile appeared on Suyeon’s face, who stood with her back against the vending machine.

“No. I’m sorry. I made you panic didn’t I? Because I cried. It was all in the past, and I should’ve kept better control over my emotions as an adult, but I wasn’t able to.”

Maru raised his head as he heard those words. Actually, it was the teacher-in-training that made it a big deal. Had she not cried back there, Dongho wouldn’t be blamed by the other kids in class. Of course, Maru wouldn’t be blamed either.

Right now, an apology was wrapping things up nicely, but things had gotten too noisy despite it being just a prank. He felt sorry, yes, but the teacher-in-training didn’t do well either.

When he raised his head, he saw Suyeon who had teary eyes. She was acting like that again. Maru was about to frown, but then instead sighed and apologized once again. He didn’t want to scratch open a scabbed wound. He wanted to finish things up quickly, go home and study.

He bowed to the teacher-in-training one last time, feeling stuffy, before turning around. Dongho had remained behind. The moment he glanced back and left through the door, the director’s cut could be heard

Phew. He shook his head and scattered the annoyance and apologetic feelings remaining inside his heart.

Lee Chan was someone who already thought that he did not need guidance or protection. The reason that he didn’t cooperate with the teachers, and targeted them for his pranks was probably to get acknowledgment from the adults. Maru interpreted the character, Lee Chan, based on the writer’s intentions. From how the director gave him an okay sign for a few shoots without saying anything, it seemed that he found this character pretty good.

“That character is really like you, down to your cockiness. Tell me honestly. You weren’t acting, were you?” said Suyeon as she walked past him after the two-shot with Dongho.

Maru looked at her as she left towards the director after winking at him in a daze when,

“Ah, it’s finished,” said Dongho with an exhausted expression.

“Thanks for your work.”

“That’s the 8th episode over. I felt good since I got a lot of scenes, but I guess I won’t be able to anymore.”

“True.”

“But once this goes live, I think people might start saying that Lee Chan is too cocky.”

“I hope to get that at least. That’s much better than not being talked about at all.”

“That’s true. I want to hear the word ‘touched’. I want the final version to be so good that the people watching it would cry. Then, I would become popular and people would start recognizing me. Oh, what do I do if people recognize me and ask me for an autograph?”

“Delusion is free.”

“Don’t feel so sad even if I become big first.”

After saying meaningless words to one another for a while, Dongho went into the classroom saying that he felt cold. The skies had turned yellow. It would soon turn purple and night would arrive. Everything would be finished after just one night scene, so he had to wait it out just a little longer.

From what he heard, Yeseul and Giwoo were going to shoot late into the night. Yeseul had been waiting from midday until now just because of a single scene where she appeared briefly and said a single line. Since the schedule prioritized the busy adult actors first, the waiting time of the comparatively free child actors was quite long.

He had to raise his value. An actor’s life was one where the body would become more comfortable the more valuable they were. There was even a drama that was delayed by a whole year in order to get a top star in their ranks, so in this field, the price of an actor was equivalent to power.

“The sun’s setting! Let’s get things done quickly!”

The time and the general environment were written on the script by the writer. There were cases where the director would change the script if the environmental variables didn’t fit, but most of the time, the director would respect the writer’s notes. Although there were occasionally some cases where new writers would be swayed by the director because they didn’t have any voice, writer Lee Hanmi, who wrote this drama, was one of the well-known writers in the industry, so it would be incredibly difficult to change the situation.

The reason Park Hoon told the staff to hurry was probably because of the next scene. That scene required the sky to be ‘sunset’.

Maru clasped his hands and blew warm air into them. His frozen hands warmed up a little. He really envied Jichan and Joomin, who were able to go home after that scene just now. He wanted to quickly go home and take a warm shower.

He watched the staff members move to the central staircase with the equipment for a while before going into the classroom.

That wasn’t a good combo - Maru thought as he looked at Yeseul, who was sitting in the front of the class, and Okseon, who was sitting at the back alternately, before walking towards the middle. That was because the heater was in the middle. Yeseul brightened up and walked towards the heater.

“Isn’t it cold out there? It’ll be April soon, isn’t it way too cold?”

“That’s just how Spring is. But we’re really fortunate that there’s a heater here. I wouldn’t know what it would be like without it.”

Right - Yeseul agreed before closing her mouth. The way she rolled her eyes indicated that she was looking for a topic of conversation. It would be great if she could just stay quiet if she didn’t have anything to say.

However, Yeseul broke his hopes very quickly.

“I always get shoots at night on days like this. It would be okay if I could shoot everything at once, but I have to come early since I always have a scene during the day too. It’s so tiring.”

“You can’t help it since we’re shooting everything on Sunday. You’re also one of the main characters.”

The words ‘main character’ were magical words that made Yeseul smile. Maru used those words from time to time, and so far, it was still valid. He could have a nice quiet rest just by making an annoying girl smile, so those words were very precious to him.

While Yeseul rolled the words ‘main character’ in her mouth, Maru opened his hands wide and got some warmth from the heater. He started feeling sleepy. After he yawned and looked at the heater for a while, he remembered Dongho, who said that he would return to the classroom first.

“Where’s Dongho?”

“He came in then left again. Maybe he went to the bathroom?”

Yeseul tilted her head. Tilting her head - she was doing that on purpose. She was expressing ‘I am cute’ with all of her body, and Maru could only smile awkwardly at that.

‘He ran.’

Even Dongho, who was at the most daring age, seemed scared of the cold energy flowing between these two girls. He took out his phone and sent a text message: Dongho, where are you?

-I came out to find you, where are you? Oh, don’t go into the classroom. Only Yeseul and Okseon are there. Dang, that was stifling.

He left a message telling him to come to the classroom before putting his phone inside his pocket. Okseon was reading a book at the back. During the three months of shooting, they occasionally held afterparties, and Okseon participated in every one of them. From the way she acted, however, she looked like she would never show up to any of them, but she unexpectedly had a high participation rate.

‘Though, it doesn’t change the fact that she’s quiet.’

He brought a chair and sat in front of the heater. He didn’t plan to talk to a girl who wanted to stay alone. He wasn’t here to play around, so if there weren’t any bad effects on the shoot, he didn’t care about individual personalities.

Though, that didn’t mean that everyone thought like him.

“Okseon, you should come here as well,” said Yeseul.

Maru sighed a little. She maintained a cold war-like state all this while and yet she talked to her with a friendly smile all of a sudden. Maru felt embarrassed since what she was trying to do was blatantly obvious.

“I’m okay.”

I’m okay, no, you don’t need to mind me - Okseon said those words all the time.

“But it’s cold over there. You should come here and warm up a little.”

“You don’t need to mind me.”

“You really should. Did I do something wrong?”

“No, nothing like that happened.”

Maru heard this same conversation repeat over and over again during the past three months. Yeseul made a pitiful expression before looking at Maru and telling him in a small voice.

“Okseon seems to hate me. I did something wrong, right?”

How scary. She looked like she might as well be a politician. As long as she came up with a better situational context, she would be able to get a golden badge[1] immediately.

Maru did not reply. It would be much easier for him if he snapped out and told her to stop being childish, but he might become a target of her ‘politics’ instead of Okseon if he did so. He didn’t plan to side with Okseon either, so it would be much better for him to stay quiet so that he neither scored nor lost points from her. ‘Turning a blind eye’ - that expression didn’t exist for no reason.

After hesitating for a while, Yeseul was about to say something more when Dongho opened the door and came into the classroom. He came at the perfect time. Maru pointed at an empty chair and told him to sit. Dongho sat down next to him while looking at the two girls.

“I’m going to the bathroom for a bit.”

The sacrificial lamb had arrived, so it was time for him to leave. Dongho, who was chosen as the sacrifice, widened his eyes in questioning light, but Maru lightly ignored him.

Maru looked at Yeseul, who started talking to Dongho as he closed the door. “Do your best, Amen,” he said quietly.

“Amen?”

When he turned around he saw Giwoo. Maru shrugged. After taking a peek inside, Giwoo smiled as though he understood everything.

“Want some coffee?” he offered.

There was no reason to refuse since he was being treated. Looking at the staff members climbing up the stairs, they stood in front of the vending machine. Giwoo gave him a coffee cup.

“Remember what the director said during the day?” said Giwoo when Maru emptied about half of the coffee.

Maru didn’t know what he was talking about so he quietly stared at him.

“He said that my character is a bit similar to Lee Chan.”

“Oh, that.”

He remembered now. Maru looked at Giwoo as he took a sip. Giwoo scratched his hair with an apologetic expression.

“I thought you might have misunderstood.”

“Misunderstood?”

“Overlapping characters - that’s not really a good thing, right? It’s my mistake, so I want to apologize before there’s any misunderstanding. I wasn’t trying to imitate you or anything. Things happened and I expressed myself in a similar way to you, so I thought that might be on your mind.”

“If it’s something like that, you don’t need to mind.”

He waved his hand sideways in the air. He did not like adding hand gestures like that, but he made a special exception for the kid in front of him. Giwoo’s lips twitched for a moment. Maybe he couldn’t control his expression because the answer was unexpected? Maru crumpled up his cup and threw it in the trash.

“I imitate people a lot of the time too. Isn’t everyone like that?”

“I guess that’s true, but still.”

“Originality stems from numerous imitations. That’s what all the popular people say. The director said that we give off a similar feel, but didn’t say that it was wrong. Did he?”

“That’s true.”

“Then I guess there’s no problem.”

Maru patted Giwoo on the shoulder before turning around. Those eyes just now, they were overflowing with hostility. The fact that there was no speech bubble above his head meant that he wasn’t thinking about Maru, so maybe he was angry at the situation itself? He had no interest in what Giwoo wanted, or what he was scheming. Maru didn’t think that badly of shedding crocodile tears to get everyone’s sympathy.

Who in the world showed what they were thinking in their heart entirely? Wasn’t life about wearing a mask or two all the time? Walking around bare-faced would only get the madman treatment or worse.

Imitating his acting? Sure, he could do that all he wanted to. It wasn’t like there was copyright on acting or something, and in the first place, the acting that Maru was showing was something he learned from someone else.

It was completely fine if Giwoo wanted to take it for himself.

He would be stealing and learning from someone else even if Giwoo tried to imitate him.

Life was about being just one step ahead of other people. Walking miles ahead like those geniuses would most of the time, make that person sick. A small bird had its own way of flying. Just one step. It would suffice as long as he could gain recognition from just that one step.

But maybe it would be good to say a word or two in order to prevent any bad events from happening.

Maru turned around and spoke,

“If it’s a toy you’re looking for, you should start looking into something else. I’m not an interesting toy.”

Toy - that word broke all of Giwoo’s pretenses. So he was indeed related to the guy that mercilessly stomped on the background actor’s hand, huh. Just finding that out meant that Maru had gained a lot from this conversation.

Maru winked at the crocodile that no longer shed tears and turned around. A speech bubble appeared above his head, but he didn’t bother reading it. He knew what it said without having to look at it.

[1] A golden badge signifies the status of a member of the National Assembly.

Chapter 515

Haha, Giwoo stroked his hair upwards and laughed for a while before calming down his breathing.

“I see, so that’s how it is, huh.”

He punched the vending machine with his left hand. The more he thought about it, the more interesting it was. Giwoo smacked the vending machine until he felt pain from his left hand. A low thud could be heard.

“It hurts.”

His hand was scraped by the vending machine and was bleeding. Giwoo brought the wound to his mouth and licked it before taking out a handkerchief from his pocket to wipe it off. The vending machine was a little crumpled, but it wasn’t noticeable since it looked old. Giwoo threw the bloodstained handkerchief into the trash next to the vending machine. He had to calm himself down. Giwoo smiled and entered the building. He went straight across the corridor to the central entrance, where he saw Hwang Joonghoon coming out of the classroom.

“Father, did you finish your shoot?”

“Yes, it just ended.”

“Thank you for your work.”

“That wasn’t anything much. Are you shooting late into the night?”

“Yes. I’ll probably go home while looking at the moon today.”

“You’re working even harder than me, huh. But it’s better to be busy. There are many people who can’t work despite wanting to.”

“That’s why I always come to this school with an appreciative mind. Oh, it is really cold outside. Are you going to go like that? Don’t you walk home?”

“It wasn’t that cold though.”

“It’s even colder than it was in the morning. Wait a bit.”

Giwoo smiled and ran to the classroom on the 2nd floor. He opened the door and went inside to find the others sitting next to the heater. He met eyes with Maru for a brief moment, but they didn’t exchange words. From the look of things, it didn’t seem like he talked about unnecessary things to them.

So he knew his place - Giwoo thought that as he picked up his scarf before running down to the first floor again. He gave the scarf to Hwang Joonghoon who waited for him at the door.

“Put this on.”

“You don’t have to do this.”

“We can’t have you catching a cold. It will ruin our shooting schedule.”

“So you aren’t worried about me, but the shoot, huh?”

“Was it obvious?”

Hwang Joonghoon smiled in satisfaction before waving his hand. Giwoo bowed and saw him out. He felt eyes looking at him from behind. They belonged to the actors and the staff members. Giwoo then walked up the stairs again with a calm expression. He had to leave as soon as possible if he showed a good side. If he lingered around, the image of the ‘good kid’ he had acted until now would lose power. Even the people that didn’t look at him in a good light three months ago, now looked at him like it was natural. Putting up pretenses worked on people if repeated for a long time.

Giwoo opened his phone and opened his contacts list. He found the name Lee Uljin among the names and sent him a text.

-Don’t call me in the future. And delete my number as well.

The club lost a member, but he didn’t feel that bad about it. Uljin was a kid with potential, but he did a poor job at keeping it a secret. He lacked caution during Apgu and Maru ended up finding out. Thanks to that, Giwoo was receiving suspicion as well. No, those eyes looked like he was convinced, not suspicious.

Giwoo erased the name Lee Uljin from his contacts list. He also sent out a notification to the club members that knew Uljin. That he wouldn’t care if they meet that guy on a personal basis, but they shouldn’t talk about the club.

-Giwoo. I succeeded. The toy you talked about last time. I finally broke it.

Giwoo smiled when he saw the text message. He felt excited when he thought back to the pleasure he felt when he broke his first toy. Congratulations - Giwoo sent back.

-What do I do now?

The excitement could be felt from those words. Giwoo understood that guy. However, he couldn’t be hasty here. The most important rule of this ‘game’ was that it had to be secretive.

-Take a break for now. And keep a close eye on the toy, so that things won’t go bad. If a problem occurs because of the toy, that’s just absurd.

-Take a break? That’s a little unfortunate but okay. This game is too fun. I want to find a new toy quickly.

-The longer the wait, the greater the joy. For now, look out around you. Things might get out of hand.

-Okay.

Giwoo put his phone inside his pocket. Since this was an obedient kid, there shouldn't be a problem.

‘I should try calling him once the shoot ends.’

Texts were limited. He wanted to hear about how the toy was broken, and what that moment was like in a lively voice. From what he heard last time, the toy was a son of the assistant manager at a cooperating company. Did he break that guy mentally? Or break an arm or something just like he wanted? Personally, he liked breaking the mind rather than the body. Breaking the body would leave obvious signs, but the mind wasn’t like that. Looking at a person who gave up on everything with an empty gaze was frighteningly fun.

Father said that he had to understand the opponent truly. He wholly agreed with those words. Only when he sympathized could he enjoy that despair.

‘Now that I think about it, I didn’t find any new toys recently since I was busy.’

The manager he fired recently ended too blandly and he didn’t get the full fun out of it. It would be great if he started weeping, or going mad, even.

Giwoo thanked the fact that he was born in this world whenever he saw an adult wailing like a little child and begging him. He would feel touched when he looked at them praying for that slightest ray of hope. That was because the more desperate they were, the more exciting they looked when their hopes were smashed.

He really appreciated the person that told him about this game. He was indebted to that person. If the opportunity arose, Giwoo would pay him back in full.

Of course, through a game.

“This place is the warmest, huh,” said Giwoo as he opened the classroom door; looking at the people that may potentially become his toys.

* * *

He heard the name ‘Lee Chan’ to death, but after episode 3 aired, his classmates calmed down a little. They would pester him to introduce them to Yeseul or Joomin from time to time, but when he called them and tried to give them the phone, all of them would shake their heads and refuse to take the call. These high school boys were very shy.

Unlike his classmates, who had quietened down somewhat, people from other departments and classes came around to visit, but they didn’t actually talk to him. They only looked at him from afar before leaving. Maru understood what it felt like to be a monkey at a zoo.

“Do you have a shoot today?”

As soon as end-of-the-day HR finished, Daemyung came in through the back door. Maru shook his head. He usually shot around four days every week, but if the Saturday and Sunday shoots went well, there would be no weekday shoots. The three main characters, though, Yeseul, Giwoo, and Jichan of course had shoots on weekdays.

“Then can you help me out today?”

“Who am I to refuse? But I’m on cleaning duty today so I’ll go up after that.”

“Okay.”

Maru changed into shorts and went to the bathroom. Thanks to bad luck with draws, he had to wash the bathroom for three consecutive weeks. He grabbed his classmates who played around with the cleaning brushes and assigned them their areas and then finished the cleaning quickly.

“Hey, Han Maru. Let’s go get some tteokbokki. This bro will treat you.”

“I have to go up today.”

“It’s the acting club again?”

“Yeah.”

“Acting at school and outside the school. You might become a ghost of acting at this rate. But anyway, good luck with that.”

After sending his classmates off, he took his bag and went to the 4th floor.

The acting club managed to reclaim their original clubroom which they lost last year. The constellation research club used this room last year, but they were discovered drinking soju inside the clubroom, so the club was disbanded this year. As luck would have it, the acting club got this space again.

He looked at the sign that said ‘acting club’ before opening the door. There was no one inside. There were only bags. He thought that the room was quite small since just placing the bags filled up the whole room, but also thought that it was better than nothing as he closed the door.

He moved to the 5th floor. The large hall was still being used by the baseball club, which didn’t make it past the preliminaries for two years in every competition they participated in. Due to that, there were talks about how the funding for the baseball club might stop if they didn’t produce any results this year either.

Maru remembered back to when he went to meet the principal and the head director with Taesik. Taesik used his name, saying that it was an opportunity to raise the school’s name value through him, while he sat there smiling without doing anything since he couldn’t just leave. Thanks to that, the acting club received permission to use the hall for their practice when the baseball club wasn’t using it.

That was good.

Last year, when there were only six of them, it was possible to practice in the classroom. However, this year…

Maru slowly opened the door to the hall. What he first saw were the exercise machines located in one corner, and then the kids that were lined up next to them.

“GREETINGS, SEONBAE!”

He heard loud voices. It had been two weeks since Maru received this kind of greeting from his juniors, but he couldn’t get used to it no matter how hard he tried.

“Seonbae, you’re here.”

Aram, who was teaching the first year students some exercises, came up to him. Maru looked at the first year students who could be seen over her shoulders. Thirty-two. That was a big number. That was more than five times that of last year. Even the large hall looked small now.

“Looks like you don’t have a shoot today, huh.”

“I don’t. Also, can you stop them from greeting me like that?”

“They’re imitating Bangjoo, so don’t come to me about it.”

So that guy was the source of this huh. Maru scratched his eyebrows and walked inside. Numerous pairs of eyes looked at him. He really couldn’t get used to this.

“Where’s everyone else?” he asked as he sat down in a corner.

“Bangjoo and Jiyoon went to buy some kimbap. Dowook-seonbae said he had something to do today and left early, while Daemyung-seonbae came, but went to the container.”

“Why did he go there all of a sudden?”

“I’m not sure. Teacher Taesik came by and said something to him, and after listening to him, he was really startled and went to the container.”

What could be happening? Maru nodded for now and pointed at the first year students.

“Do what you were doing before. Don’t mind me.”

“How about you teach them?”

“It’s not good for someone who rarely shows up to give them instructions. You do it.”

“Alright.”

The thirty-two people, standing in a circle, were following Aram’s actions. He thought that things might be different this year as he looked at the kids.

Just then, the door abruptly opened. The moment he saw the face of the person that rushed through the door, Maru understood the reason why Daemyung went to the container. He fled. Maru was sure of it.

“Wow! That’s a lot!”

Coming in with a cheerful shout, the one that appeared wearing a blue jersey was Miso.

Maru lowered his head and walked towards the door as carefully as possible while sticking close to the wall.

When the wide open doors were just in front of him, a voice made him stiff.

“Maru, where are you going? We should do some workouts.”

Maru made an awkward smile as he looked at Miso, who was twitching her finger, beckoning him to come obediently.

“Aren’t you busy?”

“I’m on vacation.”

“Why don’t you rest if you’re on vacation? There’s not long until your wedding.”

“This is a vacation for me. Wow, I felt like things went to hell after leaving this club to that girl Suyeon. Blue Sky really needs to be managed by this big sister.”

Miso seemed happy as though she was a fish that found water.

Maru took out his phone, desperately hoping that there was a schedule he missed. However, there was no way he missed something like that. Just then, he saw Daemyung, who was peeking over from the central staircase.

Maru made the evilest grin he had ever made and pointed his finger. Daemyung shook his head before getting ready to run.

“Senior. The club president is right there.”

Nope, you aren’t getting away by yourself - Maru pointed at Daemyung. Miso twitched her eyebrows and spoke,

“Mister chubby over there, come here while this noona is still in a good mood. Or should we start off with twenty laps after all this time?”

Daemyung, standing at the tip of the staircase, came back in large strides.

“You’ve arrived.”

“I have. But why did you try to run away? You almost made me sad.”

“I-it’s not like that. I had something to check in the container.”

“Check what?”

“S-some clothes.”

“Then I guess I misunderstood. Daemyung, come here quickly. You missed me a lot, didn’t you?”

“Eh? Ah, yes. O-of course. I missed you.”

Maru coughed before speaking,

“Uhm, senior. I have a shoot today, so I need to get going.”

“Han Maru. Have you forgotten that we belong to the same company?”

“Don’t tell me you checked?”

“I asked Mr. Byungchan about it already. I was actually planning to come yesterday, but delayed it to today when I heard that you wouldn’t be available. The first greetings should be done when everyone’s around, don’t you think?”

What a meticulous woman. Maru gave up and stood next to Miso. Miso, standing between Maru and Daemyung, hung her arms around both of them.

“Hello everyone. I’m Yang Miso. I’m a really calm and kind woman. I look the part, don’t I?”

The first year students, who didn’t know what was in store for them, just seemed to think that she was an interesting person and nodded while laughing. Maru stroked down his face and sighed.

“Well then. Let’s get started, shall we? Let’s go outside.”

Miso dragged Maru and Daemyung by their collars. Maru started walking with the mindset of a cow that was being dragged to the slaughterhouse.

“A light ten laps. Let’s have a look at your stamina,” said Miso like it was something light.

Chapter 516

That should have been rather sudden for them. Seeing his juniors panting as they ran past him, Maru sighed in pity. These people would’ve never imagined such a future when they managed to pass the application test and came to the acting club’s clubroom for the first time.

“If you can’t run, then come over here. Don’t push yourself and fall flat. If you do, it’ll be even more difficult later,” said Miso to the students running around the school field. Some were running at leisure, some were panting, but still holding out, some were clearly pushing themselves, and some just sat down on the ground, panting. Miso was probably looking at each and every one of them, and wondering what she should do to make them suffer.

“I did hear about it, but there really is a lot.”

“I think you’re going to decrease that number though.”

“If they can’t endure this much, they might as well leave. Acting is not playing around, you know?”

“Uhm, this is a school club. You need to give them hopes and dreams, and then let them experience the fun activities after school, and you know, things like that.”

“My motto in life is that the harder you work, the sweeter the fruit will taste. Hey, over there! Don’t push yourself and come here!”

Miso shouted at the girl walking on the other side of the school field. The girl clenched her teeth and looked at Miso before starting to run again.

“I like that girl.”

“Sure you do.”

“Are you on your period or something? Why do you have so many complaints today?”

“Why don’t you have a look at their eyes first and ask me again?”

Maru looked at his juniors, who were sitting down on a platform to his left, panting heavily. They were looking his way, and they all looked like they wanted an explanation. Why do we need to run? Why do we need to be so exhausted? What’s the point of this?

“I haven’t had any dinner but I already feel uncomfortable.”

“That’s what being a senior is about.”

“Uhm, before you came here, seonbae-nim, I mean, noo-nim, it was all fun and good.”

“But you were going to do the physical exercises anyway.”

“Of course, if it was up to me, I would’ve done something similar. However, the club president is Daemyung right now. He should’ve had his own plans, but you had to come and ruin it for him without any warning, so everyone’s glaring at us.”

Until just a moment ago, it was more of a ‘let’s have some food and talk about it later’, but Miso appeared out of nowhere and had them start running. By now, the kimbap that Jiyoon and Bangjoo bought should have turned cold in the hall on the 5th floor.

“But you look like you’re having fun for some reason.”

There was a big grin on Miso’s face as she looked at the kids.

“Me? That shouldn’t be. There’s no way I’m having fun when my cute juniors are having a hard time?”

“Then why am I seeing a big grin on your face?”

Maru lifted the tips of his lips upwards with his index and middle finger. Miso’s expression turned sour.

“Fine. I’m having them run to vent some stress. Why, what are you going to do about it?”

“Did something happen again?”

“Don’t ask me, ask that certain teacher who teaches history at this school. I… urgh. I’m not talking about it.”

“Is it marriage problems?”

“Are you going to consult me?”

“No. I heard that there are three types of problems that you shouldn’t get involved with in this world, and one of them is marriage problems of people in their thirties.”

“What are the other two?”

“What do you expect? One is the marriage problems of people in their twenties and the other, people in their forties. This concerns the marriage of someone in their thirties and someone in their forties, so I of course shouldn’t get involved in it.”

Tsk - Miso clicked her tongue.

Maru looked at the two boys running past him and asked.

“Wasn’t everything going well?”

“I thought you weren’t getting involved.”

“I’m just listening. It’s less frustrating if you know why you’re being treated badly. What went wrong?”

“Things were going well. We managed to book the wedding hall, we greeted each other’s parents, and both of our parents have taken a great liking to each other, to the point that they’re going travelling together too.”

“That sounds great then.”

“Yes. The problem is that their travel overlaps with our honeymoon.”

Maru chuckled and looked at Miso. What kind of nonsense was that? He could laugh if the joke was moderately funny, but he couldn’t since it was way too nonsensical. Miso, who was supposed to deny that and continue onto the next part, looked in front of her with a sullen expression.

“Really?”

He asked just in case. Miso nodded without a word.

Maru blinked several times.

“Seriously?”

“Do you think I would be joking around with you because I’m free?”

“You’re going on a honeymoon with your parents?”

“Not with our parents, they’ll fly over on the 2nd day, but that’s pretty much the same thing.”

“No way.”

“It is what it is. My mom and mother-in-law got along so well together. I told you about this before, right? About how my dad left us with a big debt. My mother-in-law heard that story and started crying while grabbing my mom’s hands. Then, it turned into something about how she never went travelling with her sole daughter, and somehow our honeymoon got involved.”

Miso brushed her hair to the side.

“Fine, going travelling with mom is good and all. If I think about it, I only gave her money and did not actually fulfill my filial piety properly. The mother and the daughter holding hands, walking around various places, talking about things they didn’t talk about until now. I mean, that’s a little cheesy, but I’m fine with it. But why does it have to be on the second day of our honeymoon, dammit!”

Hey, if you’re gonna run, run, and if you aren’t, come here! - Miso shouted at the boy barely walking past the soccer goal post. An innocent junior groaned as he walked towards the platform.

“Don’t vent on a kid.”

“Yes. I guess I shouldn’t. I should rip apart that man’s collar.”

“Sounds like teacher Taesik agreed to go together, huh.”

“Yup. So clearly too. Maybe he was trying to be considerate of my mom, but there’s only one honeymoon in your entire life. Does it even make sense?”

“Hm…”

Maru decided not to say anything here. As someone who had experience marrying someone, Taesik would probably hear these words for the next fifty years: you like my mom more than you like me, don’t you? Just thinking about it made him shudder in fear and his stomach ache. He knew that the words of a bride-to-be were superior to the court law, but it seemed like Taesik had made a huge mistake.

It wasn’t that he didn’t understand him emotionally, but what about the stability of his marriage? Shouldn’t that come before the emotional thing?

“Is it set in stone?”

“Pretty much.”

“Why don’t you tell your parents that they should look into another date for travelling after the honeymoon?”

“You know my personality. I’m quite docile, but I say it when I need to say something. As soon as I heard that, I was going to say something, but…”

“But?”

“Mom really liked it. I never saw her smile like that before in my entire life. I just couldn’t say anything. In that situation, the man who calls himself my husband said that it would be great if they could go together.”

Miso sighed and scratched her head.

“I guess you felt both thankful and hateful.”

“That’s how it is. But can I get angry at my mom? Or at my in-laws for that matter?”

“So the only person you can pick on is your husband?”

“He’s so dead. I’m going to make him suffer at home.”

“Go easy on him. He’ll go bald if you give him too much stress.”

“That’s not good.”

“Anyway, so you don’t actually hate the fact that you’re going together, huh?”

“I don’t hate it. My father-in-law really dotes on me. It’s just, this is a once-in-a-lifetime thing, so it’s such a pity.”

“Then I guess you can only adjust the date you meet up. I think it’ll be better if you meet like three days later.”

“Yeah.”

“Good luck with that. Also, husbands that care about their in-laws are better. Rather than fighting over how much money to give them later, it’s much better to have a good relationship.”

Miso stared at him. Maru slowly averted his gaze.

Hey, if you’re going to walk, just come here - he slightly understood why Miso shouted at the kids.

“Your drama seems to be doing well.”

“You’re changing the topic so suddenly?”

“What good is talking about a matter I can’t solve? I should just vent my anger at home.”

Miso sniffed.

“Doesn’t Suyeon, that girl act condescending or anything?”

“She treats me well. Unlike a certain someone.”

“Why are you narrowing your eyes while looking at me when you say that?”

“Oh, no. It’s a misunderstanding. I didn’t do anything like that.”

“Look at me properly before I poke your eyes out.”

“I’m scared because you sound like you’ll actually do it. Hmm, we actually don’t talk much during the shoot. At most, we just briefly talk when we walk past each other.”

“I thought she’d pester you.”

“She’s someone who maintains a meticulous image making at the scene. She’s not that reckless.”

“Oh, so you’re taking her side?”

“Why does it come to that? I’m just saying that she’s someone who looks after herself a lot more than you think.”

“Looks after herself huh. And yet she goes around doing that.”

“It’s up to her to do whatever she wants with her life.”

“As long as it doesn’t cause harm?”

“Yes.”

“If I think about it, I think you two actually have a lot in common.”

“Now that, I want to retort.”

“I guess I went a bit too far?”

The juniors started returning to the platform after finishing the remaining four laps. Thirteen people lasted until the end. 8 were boys, and 5 were girls. This was a distance that even boys had a hard time finishing, so it seemed like the new recruits this year had good basic stamina.

“The fixed schedules are on Saturdays and Sundays, right?” Miso asked.

“Yes.”

“The schedule isn’t that heavy, is it?”

“Of course not. It’s not like I have a lot of scenes.”

Maru looked at Miso through the corner of his eyes. The flow of the conversation was somehow suspicious.

“I see, I see.”

“What’s this about?”

“Someone wanted an actor.”

“An actor?”

“It’s nothing grand. They’re high school kids, and they’re looking into participating in the Seoul Youth Film Festival.”

“Ah, I see.”

“Wanna do it?”

“I’m not sure.”

“I think you should though.”

“Why?”

“Because it’s an opportunity for you to participate in the production of a movie on equal footing as the director. They might be awkward, but it’ll help you gain experience in that regard. I heard you don’t have any plans to participate in club activities either.”

Maru nodded.

“Try various things out while you still can. Once you gain popularity and gain a price for your acting, it’ll be much harder for you to do anything proactively.”

“I guess that’s true. Which school are they from?”

“What do you think? It’s this school, duh.”

Miso crossed her arms and pointed at the school building.

“You mean our school?”

“Yeah. Don’t you know that there’s a film production club?”

“There are so many clubs at the school, there’s no way I know all of them.”

“That club was founded around the same time as Blue Sky. Well, they didn’t produce any concrete results like we did though.”

“You’re quite knowledgeable.”

“I am. We were quite close in my days. I still contact a few of them from time to time. The director of the indie movie that Geunsoo shot as his first piece is from Woosung High. Of course, he belonged to the film production club.”

“Then how come you’re the one telling that to me? You shouldn’t have any connections to the current film production club.”

“It’s an acquaintance of an acquaintance’s request. A friend of mine came to the school recently to look around the film production club and found a junior who was filled with enthusiasm. He told me that he couldn’t ignore someone like that and told me about it. I also didn’t think that it was a bad idea, so that’s why I’m talking to you about it. Oh, I heard that the film production club went to your class to see you.”

“Me?”

“They didn’t talk to you, they just looked at you for a while before going back.”

“Ah, them, huh.”

He remembered how people from other departments made a visit and just looked at him without saying anything before leaving. It seemed that they were mixed in that crowd.

“If you aren't busy, I think you should definitely do it.”

He didn’t have any schedule from Mondays to Thursdays, while Fridays were different every time according to how the shoot progressed on the weekends. Maru was worried that he might start getting some other schedules starting January, but the industry wasn’t so easy and did not allow a kid that just started appeared on TV to get more screen time. Thanks to that, he was spending a leisurely school life, but he did find the days he did nothing to be quite a pity.

“I can decide after I meet them in person, right?”

“Of course. The lead character can’t make a decision without even knowing the director. Those guys seemed to like you quite a bit, so they’ll probably start shooting immediately as soon as you give them the okay.”

“Do you know what it’s about as well?”

“All I know is that the topic can be anything. The details should be in the head of that little director.”

Miso took out her phone.

“I’ll give you their phone numbers.”

“You know their phone numbers as well?”

“It’s my principle to support someone fully if I decide to help. I got them quite early on.”

“Looks like you were really free ever since the movie with director Joongjin finished.”

“Yeah. I took a break from teaching at the academy because of the wedding. I don’t have any work either. I was rolling around at home all day, so I was feeling a bit itchy. That’s why I accepted when my darling asked if I could take care of the acting club again.”

“Ah, darling, huh.”

“Yeah, my darling.”

Miso winked. Maru couldn’t bear to look at her expression. After shuddering once, he asked,

“What’s this person’s name?”

“Oh her? Kang Sora.”

“Kang Sora? It’s a girl?”

“Yeah. You like that?”

“Not bad, I guess.”

“Should I tell your girlfriend what you just said?”

“You don’t know her number though.”

Maru saved the number that Miso told him. With the name, Kang Sora.

Chapter 517

“How are the expressions of our juniors?”

Break time. He bought a chocolate drink from the vending machine in the cafeteria and handed it over to Daemyung. Daemyung thanked him before receiving the cup.

“Half of them are puzzled, while the other half actually look like they like it?”

“There are a lot of perverts this year, huh.”

“When Miso-seonbae introduced herself, they liked it. They felt like they were actually doing something worthwhile. I feel heavy now. It’s too much pressure for me if they’re too passionate.”

“Someone who belongs to a huge agency is saying that she would teach them, so even the ones that didn’t like that exercise would like her. That’s just how the world works, isn’t it? If you do something and you aren’t capable, people would call you a madman, but if you are capable and you do something weird, people would call you an eccentric.”

“Right, right.”

Maru patted Daemyung’s back loudly.

“Rather than that, do your best here. I’m going to escape this hellhole.”

“Don’t leave me alone.”

“It will be fine. Senior Miso will always be at your side. Passionate juniors and an even more passionate senior Miso. Someone like me shouldn’t be there, of course.”

“…You look happy just because it doesn’t concern you, huh.”

“That’s why you shouldn’t take up positions without thinking. Club president Park Daemyung, I hope you have a hard time.”

Since Miso was practically on leave at this point, she should come to the clubroom every single day. They now had as many members as the days Woosung High swept the prizes, and there were also people who seemed passionate, so Miso should be able to teach them well.

“My bones won’t last.”

Maru shook his head in resignation. There was no middle ground in Miso’s training. If someone could do it, she would push them to the end, and if they couldn’t, Miso wouldn’t have them doing something in the first place. The ones that Miso had dibs on after that 10 lap exercise would probably suffer quite a bit. Whether they still liked Miso for being a proper instructor at that time was a mystery.

“What were you talking about before?” asked Daemyung.

“She asked me if I want to help out in an indie movie.”

“She’s shooting a movie?”

“No.”

Maru briefly explained what he talked about with Miso.

“Oh, the film production club.”

“You know them?”

“I only know that such a club exists. The classroom opposite of the applied music clubroom on the 5th floor is the film production club.”

Maru didn’t even know where they were since he never had any interest in any other clubs. Opposite of the applied music club meant that it was at the far right of the corridor. Both the 4th floor acting club’s classroom and the 5th floor hall were just a few steps away from the central staircase, so he never walked to the end of the 5th floor even once.

“Are you going to do it?” asked Daemyung as he grabbed the cup with both of his hands.

Maru replied that he was thinking about it.

“I’ll try meeting them for now. It’s not like I don’t have any interest in shooting a movie with a 6mm film camera.”

“I agree with Miso that you should do it if you have the time. I mean, it’ll contribute to your experience. It’s not like you plan to show up at the acting club regularly, right? If you want to use the remainder of your time in a useful way, I think participating in that is a good idea.”

Maru could feel that Daemyung’s advice came from his heart. Maru nodded his head. Like what Miso said, there was a time for everything. How many opportunities would he have in the future where he got to shoot a movie with someone around his age? This was an opportunity to learn what directors looked at. There might not be any expertise, but it should be very original and creative. If he lucked out and got a prize in the competition, that would add another line to his career, so he thought positively of it.

“You are going to come to the acting club from time to time, right?”

“I will. But tell me the days senior Miso will come beforehand.”

“Why?”

“I’m not going if she’s there.”

Daemyung laughed. After Daemyung finished the chocolate drink, they returned to the 5th floor hall. Miso was sitting in the middle of the hall, while the thirty-two first year students were standing in a line in front of her. The second year students were standing off to one side.

“A play doesn’t happen with just the actors. We need people that can support the actors. That’s what the staff do. Staff members have to take care of everything except acting on stage. Of course, that doesn’t mean that the actors will do nothing. We’re just deciding on roles so that we can distribute work better.”

So it began.

Maru leaned against a wall in one corner of the hall and looked at the first year students. Not all of them could stand on stage. It might be possible if they did a military drama or something, but that was a bit of a stretch for a high school play. Unless they wrote a play themselves, they would have to alter an existing one, and for a play written for young people, there were barely any that had more than ten characters. Even if they compromised and put fifteen on the stage, the other half wouldn’t get to stand on stage and would have to become part of the backstage staff. Usually, there would be some people that like helping out behind the scenes, but when they selected these thirty-two applicants from the fifty-plus applicants, most of them said that they wanted to be actors.

There was a commotion among the first year students. It was natural since they just found out what being a staff was about. Miso watched the first year students without saying anything for quite a while. A minute passed like that.

“Anyone want to volunteer to become a staff?”

Not even one of them raised their hand.

Miso made a satisfied smile. Maru, on the other hand, sighed. Everyone here should know by now that they would have to be split regardless. In the end, there was only one method. There will be another test.

“The staff will have more free time. You’ll be allowed to not attend club activities if something comes up. For example, it’s like this: Woosung High doesn’t have self-study periods after school. There's no need to come to school on the weekends either. That will allow you to make some appointments with your friends and go on a trip or something. Or, you can visit the noraebang after school or something. Anyone here who doesn’t want to become close to their classmates?”

No one raised their hand. How many people would want to be excluded by the social circles in their class? Maru looked at Miso, who was practically leading them by the nose, and thought that she really was a bad woman.

Hearing that, the first year students’ expressions turned sour.

“Are there really times when we stay at school late into the night?”

“It’s not that there ‘are’ times when we stay into the night, it’s that you will be spending time here until late into the night most of the time. Of course, that only applies to the actors. As for the staff members, you can easily leave just like I said before. Are some of your classmates enticing you to go playing around after school? Just tell me about it. If you’re a staff member, I’ll gladly tell you to go enjoy your time. But actors are different. I will not allow you to skip unless it’s something major. This is my promise to you. I will not skip teaching you guys unless something major happens to me. School ends at five, and the actors will be staying behind until 10. Cram school? I’ll tell you beforehand, but You. Can’t. Go. If you want to go to cram school and eventually go to college, don’t think about becoming actors. You'll just be an inconvenience to everyone else.”

Maru whistled silently and looked at Daemyung, who stood next to him.

“She’s got complete control over them.”

“I’m worried that none of them will apply to become actors at this rate.”

“Then you would just have to shoot a monodrama by yourself. You have no choice.”

Hearing Miso’s words, the expressions of the first year students turned worse and worse. While they heard that ‘it might be hard’, most of them underestimated how hard it could be, so Miso’s words should come as a shock to them.

“Also, I don’t swear at the staff members. But I will be very picky with the actors. ‘Damn’ will be the lightest form of swearing I’ll use. Of course, some of you might not understand why this is so heavy when it’s just a school club. If you thought that for even a brief moment, apply to become a staff. That will be better for both of us. If you say you want to become an actor and pull out later, I will really kill you.”

Miso looked quite scary when she tensed her eyes. The first year students who experienced Miso for the first time today should be feeling incredibly complex right now. They were imagining a glorious scene where they stood on stage under the spotlight, but Miso was telling them that they would suffer a lot if they wanted to go up there, so it wasn’t that surprising.

Miso said that she would give them five minutes to think about it.

Maru asked Miso, who walked towards him.

“What are you going to do if all of them say that they want to become actors?”

“Then I’ll take everyone with me. In just a few days, I’ll see who’s good. If I have them try acting, I’ll find an answer soon enough. Why? You wanna do it too?”

“My waist is still hurting from the exercises you had me do at the academy. I’ll just be a staff member. Or at most a passerby 1.”

“You might not be able to show up frequently, but you should show them some acting when you do.”

“There’s a splendid instructor here, so there’s no need for me to, is there?”

“The shock is bigger when someone around their age shows them a completely new level of acting. I heard that you guys didn’t even make it to the finals this time.”

“You just had to poke where it hurts so suddenly.”

While Maru casually talked about it, Daemyung shrunk his shoulders, feeling rather depressed.

“How long are you going to give the grand prize trophy to Myunghwa High? You should get it back soon. This year will be the year I get my reputation back.”

“Don’t kill them. You’ll get into trouble.”

“I will push them just enough that they won’t die. Just enough.”

Miso made an evil smile. That was close - Maru patted Daemyung on the back since he would have to spend time with Miso in the future as well.

“Tell Dowook that he should be prepared to die,” Maru said with a smile.

Daemyung nodded powerlessly.

“Well then, you made your decisions, right?”

Miso asked everyone after five minutes. The first year students all nodded.

“Then those of you that want to become staff, come to this side.”

Miso pointed towards her right, and not even one of the first year students budged. Maru saw a smile appearing on Miso’s face. That wasn’t a smile of satisfaction. That was a smile of competitive spirit.

“Good! From now on, all thirty-two of you will stay behind until ten. Of course, I don’t plan to do that forever. Once we decide on a play that you are going to do, we are going to hold an audition immediately. You guys know what an audition is, right?”

“Yes!”

“There’s a limited number of roles, and there are many people who want to do them. We can only solve that through competition. Is there anyone here who wants to become an actor or another kind of entertainer in the future?”

After hearing that question, around half of the students raised their hands, which was quite surprising. Maru didn’t know how many of them were serious, nor how many of them were just swept by the flow, but he still looked at them thinking that it was rather unexpected.

“I will promise you one thing. Putting your effort in is not enough. If there’s anyone who puts in their utmost effort and does everything competitively, and you manage to catch my eye, I will support you. Not just here at the club, but actually help you join an agency and start working.”

Hearing those words, everyone’s eyes changed. Maru clicked his tongue. If someone actually caught Miso’s eye, she would really give that person her full support. With Miso’s connections, finding an agency to join wouldn’t be impossible. Since Miso always kept true to her words, she might even go to the president to talk about it. Miso was fully capable of providing all sorts of opportunities as long as she liked that person.

That was how he started after all. Maru told the first years to really try their best. In the entertainment industry, skills were important, yes, but the right timing and connections were important as well. More exposure to the public meant becoming closer to them, and that was what being a popular celebrity was about. If any of them actually wished to take that path, doing their utmost best here wasn’t a bad idea.

“Well then, let’s start off with self-introductions, shall we?”

Miso stood up from her chair and placed it in front of the first years.

“So she’s doing that again,” Daemyung said in a small voice.

Maru remembered it as well.

“You’re the president, why don’t you show them an example?”

“I don’t want to do that. I think I’m traumatized.”

Meanwhile, Miso pointed at the chair and said that anyone can go and do their self-introduction. The first years all looked at each other and didn’t easily do so. Miso just watched them without a word. When some time passed, a boy who had gelled his hair to look cool, went up on the chair.

“Phew, hello everyone. I am…”

“Hey!”

As soon as he started speaking, Miso shouted. Startled, the boy climbed down from the chair quickly.

“You want to become an actor and your voice is that small? Do it again.”

Looks like that boy will be in for a bad time. Maru looked at the junior who stood on the chair with pity. Miso did not go easy just because he was the first. She did go easy in the sense that she just shouted at him since he didn’t know anything. If he kept shaking after that, then Miso would point at the school field and…

“Hey you, go run three laps around the field. I think you need to loosen up a little.”

…that would happen. Maru patted the shoulder of the boy who walked past him.

“She’ll swear at you if you run slowly.”

“Y-yes.”

The junior climbed down the stairs with quick steps.

Maru crossed his arms and looked at his juniors. They were probably feeling dazed right now. Miso wasn’t joking. Although they did say that club activities would be quite hard when they promoted themselves, it became reality when Miso came as the instructor. Maru said those words in order to make them slightly afraid, but at this point, what he had said became the truth.

“But they have good guts.”

Perhaps because there were a lot of people, or because Miso said that she would give her full support, but the eyes of the juniors as they looked at Miso did not waver at all. This was why rewards were necessary. The atmosphere changed when someone who belonged to a big company like JA said she would try her best to support that person. Kids knew how the world worked after all.

“Phew, so scary,” said Maru with a smile.

Chapter 518

The film production club had a simple schedule. First, they only gathered in their clubroom on Saturdays, when they held their club activities. They would enjoy the passionate music from the applied music club from the opposite side of the corridor and take out their food. On half-day Saturdays, when they only had classes in the morning, they would usually buy some snacks from the cafeteria, while on full days when they got to spend the entire day at the club, they would usually bring food from home. Some brought kimbap, while some brought side dishes, etc. The ten-or-so club members would take out some food and talk about dramas or entertainment shows they watched the night before, while the one that brought a movie would get ready to play the movie. After that, they would all watch the movie together.

After they finished watching a movie while eating the food they brought, they would exchange opinions about it for a while before resting and then watching another one. They usually finished all the food they brought during the first movie, so they would usually collect some money from everyone and buy some food from the supermarket in front of the school. Going to that supermarket as a group and getting food to eat was one of the joys of being a film production club member. Since they had a limited budget, they had to list the good things about the snack they wanted to buy if they wanted something, which was really fun. This rather cozy film production club was a group of students who shared that fun.

Until last year, that is.

“There’s a limit to what we can do when it comes to lighting. Renting equipment costs too much money. That’s why the time we shoot is important. We need to use natural lighting as much as possible. Also, I prefer warm colors like that of incandescent light bulbs over fluorescent tubes. So while we shoot at school I’m going to make some lighting out of incandescent bulbs.”

Kang Sora put a dot with the marker on top of the word ‘light’ which she wrote on the whiteboard. Koo Ando, the club president of the film production club, avoided her gaze and laughed awkwardly. Just where did she get that whiteboard? There was nothing like that in the clubroom before. Oh, wait, there was that white thing above the DVD display case, so maybe it was that?

“Seonbae-nim.”

“Yeah?”

“We should discuss our plans.”

“Uh, yeah. We should. Plans.”

Ando signalled the 2nd year students, but they avoided his gaze. Thinking that he couldn’t do anything about it, he started speaking,

“Uhm, Sora.”

“Yes?”

“You know, we, uh.”

“Yes.”

“While we are called the film production club… we never produced any film before. I told you about it, right? About how our club operates.”

“I know. You meet up, and eat some food while watching a movie before disbanding.”

“Right, right. That’s what we did as the film production club. Of course, while it might not sound right, it is our tradition and…”

“Seonbae-nim.”

Sora placed her hands on the table. Ando became quiet. Sora was a girl with a small build, but she was scarier than an average teacher when she glared. It had been three weeks since he got to know her, but Ando couldn’t get used to her. But it was better than when they first met. When Sora intruded in their club with the application form on the first day, Ando treated her as politely as possible.

“We are the film production club, right?”

“R, right.”

“Then which of these is the right tradition? Making a movie? Or watching some movies and eating food before going home.”

“I guess the right tradition should be making a movie, but-”

He wanted to say some more, but Sora interrupted him midway.

“Yes! That’s it! If we are supposed to be the film production club, we should produce something. Doesn’t everyone else think that too?”

She turned her gaze to the other 2nd year students. Everyone was nodding their heads passionately. Ando sighed slightly. The comfort of the club was now at risk, but he couldn’t do anything to stop her. He reminisced about the graduated former third year students. The bibimbap he ate with them… that was so nice.

“Uhm, Sora, why don’t we talk while we eat something or…”

“No. We should limit the things we can eat inside the clubroom to light snacks and drinks. You aren’t coming to the club to fool around.”

But I am though - Ando barely held himself back from retorting. These words wouldn’t work against a girl that was like a bulldozer.

“A graduate of our school came to us and said that he’ll help. Not only that, he works in the movie industry. If we miss this opportunity, we’ll definitely regret it.”

I think only you’ll regret it though - of course, he had to swallow these words as well. Ando sneakily reached out to the snacks placed on the center of the table. It wasn’t that he was hungry or something, he just wanted to do something in order to avoid Sora’s attention. When his hand arrived at the snacks, the snack tray moved away from him. Sora placed the tray on the floor like it was nothing.

Ando fidgeted before placing his fingers on his thighs.

Sora, who then wiped off the words on the whiteboard, took out her phone. It would really become bothersome at this rate - Ando signalled the other 2nd year students when Sora wasn’t paying attention to him. The 2nd year students all nodded. If they thought about it, Sora was a new student who just entered the school. If they showed her what being a senior is like, she should probably forget about the things she said just now.

‘Let’s regain our cozy clubroom and our kind club.’

Receiving the encouraging gazes from his juniors, Ando coughed once. Just then, Sora put her phone inside her pocket and looked at him.

“You know, Sora…”

“Seonbae-NIM!”

“Uh, yeah.”

Ando flinched since Sora’s voice was at least an octave higher than before. Sora, who had the dominant position in the conversation, continued to speak,

“I got a text from Han Maru-seonbae. He wants to see us.”

Han Maru. That was the guy in electrical. He heard that this person appeared in ‘New Semester’, but Ando did not have that much of an interest. If it was a girl, he might have made a visit to have a look, but there was no reason to make some time to go see a boy. It was much better to read a book or get some sleep if he had the time for that. However, ever since Sora came to the club, he was forced to go and see Maru several times. Sora slapped his back saying that they should know his face and his personality at least.

“I don’t think he’s that good at acting, but he should be much better than a complete newbie. I think it worked when I used flattering words and said that I want to work with him.”

Sora widened her eyes as though she had thought of something before telling everyone to gather round. Ando thought that this wasn’t right but still followed her words.

“I told that graduate from before that we are really looking at Han Maru-seonbae in a good light. That’s why we need to agree on some things now. When you see him, tell him that you really wanted to meet him at least once. Also, flatter him a little.”

“But I don’t really…”

Ando had to shut up after saying just that. Sora was glaring at him.

“Let’s act nicely, shall we? Let’s flatter someone who will become the main actor of our movie. I don’t really like it either, but rather than a completely clueless person, it will be much better to have an actor who shows up in dramas to act for us, don’t you think?”

“That’s true.”

“Anyway, once he comes, applaud for him and say that you’re a fan. The graduate should have told Han Maru-seonbae that we are waiting for him, so it would be weird if we acted salty, you know what I mean, right?”

Just as he was about to nod subconsciously, Ando felt a 2nd year junior poking his waist. Are you going to keep being dragged around by her like this? - That junior’s eyes were saying such.

That can’t happen. Ando coughed dryly to get her attention again. The opponent was just a first year student anyway, and a girl to boot. If he frowned and told her to stop, she should obediently reply ‘yes’ and stop what she was doing. Once that happened, they would be able to gather every Saturday here and enjoy nice foods and movies just like he did for the past two years. Although they were called the film production club, who cared?

“Hey, Kang Sora.”

He had to be strong here. It was finally time to get payback for his three weeks of agony. I am a man. Koo Ando. Someone who forged ahead strongly when I mean it.

“What is it?”

Sora grabbed the two ends of the table and leaned forward. Ando subconsciously made some distance.

“Do you know what the film production club does?”

“Making films, of course.”

“That’s not it.”

“Then what does it do?”

“We, the film production club, was a club to watch movies for generations of seniors. We talk about various things while eating the food we wholeheartedly created, and exchange friendship, and also…”

“That’s the movie watching club. As far as I know, there are two movie watching clubs at our school.”

“Th-that’s true, but-”

“Then in the first place, why are you still here in the film production club?”

“That’s…”

“Don’t tell me you’re here because you just find fun in meeting up and chatting while watching a movie, right?”

She was right on the mark, but he didn’t want to admit it. When she put it so blatantly, it sounded like the club had neither hopes nor dreams, no?

Ando looked back at his previous 2 years. He remembered the time he spent with his seniors, as well as his juniors next to him in order to retort to Sora’s words. After watching the panorama of memories, Ando came to a conclusion.

‘…I can’t retort.’

A club that could meet up and fool around without many restrictions before disbanding again. That was the biggest merit of the film production club. What was really good was that even the teacher in charge didn’t care.

“Seonbae, we are the film production club.”

Sora’s face was right in front of his nose. Ando clenched his eyes shut and nodded. The exclamations of the 2nd year juniors could be heard from next to him.

After seeing Sora, who turned around with a pleased smile on her face, Ando realized what kind of position he was in.

‘We are just sheep.’

The film production club, who only knew how to munch on grass under the warm rays of the sun, realized that they couldn’t win against the wolf. Ando turned his head around to look at his 2nd year juniors. They were all cute juniors that looked docile. He was impressed by their skills since all the food they brought was great, but now it would be hard to have a taste of those ever again.

Ando looked at his juniors with pity. The juniors were also looking at him with pity as well. Even though it was him who failed to secure their resting place, these people understood him and didn’t hate him.

This warmth, this affection. Wasn’t this the essence of the film production club?

Bam! - that sound startled not just Ando, but also his 2nd year juniors. Sora had slapped down on the whiteboard.

“Seonbae-nims! Let’s create our best movie!”

Aah, he hated this.

Ando missed the graduates from last year.

* * *

“Is this the place?”

Maru knocked on the door as he saw the sign that said ‘film production club’ above the door. He had made an appointment to see them after classes on Monday. He got a ‘the door’s open’, from the inside. It was a girl.

When he opened the door, he saw a boy sitting on the other side of the table. Next to him was a girl who had a devious smile on her face. Maru knew this girl.

“You know me, right?”

“I do. So you must be Kang Sora, right?”

“Yes. This is the club president of our film production club, Koo Ando. He’s a third year just like you.”

Koo Ando, Maru looked at Ando while muttering silently. He somehow looked like a hostage.

“Hi.”

“Yeah, hi.”

His voice didn’t contain any power, and his eyes looked sad as well. What the heck is this? Maru turned around to look at Sora.

“I thought you’d join the acting club, but you’re in an unexpected place.”

She was the girl who asked him if he knew Ahn Sungjae when he made rounds in the first year classes for promotion. After that, she even came to the acting club and asked him about his acting skills. He thought that she’d enter the acting club after seeing her take the application form, but she couldn’t be seen anywhere after that. He thought it was strange, so she was in a place like this.

“Uhm, you are Bada’s brother, right?”

“You know my sister?”

“Yes, I do. We were in the same class in middle school.”

“Ah, I see.”

“Bada once brought Sungjae-oppa’s autograph to class. That’s why I asked you that. Bada kept saying that Sungjae-oppa and you know each other.”

Maru shrugged before pulling a chair towards him.

“May I sit down?”

“Of course.”

From the way things were going, it seemed that Bada got into a conflict with this girl while boasting about the autograph in class. So girls really got into fights for trivial stuff.

“So then, why did you want to meet me?”

He asked Ando. He thought that he’d get an answer soon, but Ando didn’t say anything and just looked at Sora.

“Because we want to shoot a movie with you.”

The reply came from Sora. Maru looked at Ando and Sora alternately. Ando scratched his head before saying that he had to go to the bathroom.

“What a strange atmosphere.”

“That’s because he’s nervous. He’s a fan of yours.”

“A fan?”

“Yes, a fan.”

She lied without batting an eyelid. Since it was blatantly obvious that it was a lie, Maru was rather flustered.

“Anyway, you are participating in our movie, right?”

“That was my intention, but-”

“Wow, then let’s do it.”

“But before that, I want to hear what it’s about.”

“Ah, what it’s about, huh. That’s important.”

Sora had a confident smile on her face.

Chapter 519

“Please wait just a bit.”

Sora left the clubroom. She had apologized before leaving and gave him some snacks and drinks, so Maru thought that the treatment of guests was pretty decent here. He picked up a bite-sized cookie so that he wouldn’t get crumbs all over the place, and ate it before drinking a bit of orange juice.

“What kind of movie are you guys looking to make?”

He had asked Ando, who sat opposite him. Ando, who was eating snacks just like him, made a complex expression after receiving that question.

“We haven’t thought of anything specific yet.”

“You haven’t?”

“We never intended to make one in the first place.”

Ando sighed as though he was grieving about his fate. A new student at the school was eager to work, while the club president was unmotivated. It seemed that there were a lot of circumstances behind this club.

“Then why did you want to see me if you don’t plan to make one?”

Just as Ando was about to say something, the door opened again and Sora came back. She opened a thin notebook in front of Maru.

“This is the synopsis.”

When Sora returned, Ando just reached out for some snacks quietly again. Maru looked at the notes for now.

“I’m thinking 20 minutes.”

“Can I read it out loud? That lets me focus better.”

“Sure.”

Maru started reading from the first sentence.

“Minho is being bullied at school. He didn’t know why he was being bullied. When he realized it he was already bullied. He was afraid of going to school every day, but the alarm that woke him up every morning pushed him to the school. Then one day, a transfer student came to the school. Since the transfer student was shy and had a small voice, he soon became a target.

Minho decided that he should help. It was because he understood the pain of being bullied more than anyone. He gathered up the courage to talk to him first. They ate lunch together and went home together. Eventually, Minho realized that he had made a friend. When he realized that he had a friend he could talk to no matter what the others did, Minho gained strength.

After that, Minho was no longer afraid of going to school. That was because he was able to endure all the bullying and teasing just by talking to the transfer student. Minho became brighter by the day. He started talking to a lot more people instead of just the transfer student. Just like how he didn’t know when the bullying started, Minho didn’t know when he had gotten a lot closer to everyone.

After some time, someone told him that he should stop hanging out with the transfer student, that a decent guy like him shouldn’t hang out with a strange kid like that. The moment he heard those words, Minho somehow thought that the transfer student looked poor and stupid. He didn’t even understand why he hung out with such a guy in the first place.

From that day onwards, Minho intentionally ignored the transfer student. He went further and started teasing and swearing at him. A week after that, the transfer student no longer talked to him, and a few days after that, the transfer student transferred to another school.

Minho no longer had any memories of the transfer student. What remained was only his own, joyful class.”

Maru closed the notes. It wasn’t possible to put a lot of content into a short story. In cases like this one, actors would have to absorb as much of what the director was trying to say in as short a time as possible. In that sense, this was good in the perspective that it focused on the emotional changes of just one character. Had she gone and put all sorts of characters in it despite it being a short skit, he would’ve closed it without even reading it.

“What do you think?”

“Is this supposed to be a satire on society?”

“Yes. Bullying is a social issue these days. There are even many different types and it has even been made into a documentary.”

“Are you following the trend then?”

“There’s that too, but I want to show that bullying doesn’t happen because of some kind of intention or reason, and to show the abstractness of the victim and the bully. Lastly, I want to ask the audience if they are entitled to insult Minho for his actions.”

Maru tapped on the table and thought about it. He was quietly going to stand up and leave if this turned out to be all talk and no action, but that girl was trying to make a movie with clear intentions. The synopsis which she had printed and pasted in the notebook, the notes at the bottom listing the characters, as well as the specific plot points she wrote herself on the next page. Although the specific plot points didn’t seem to be completed yet, it was enough to see that she had some concrete plans.

“What do you think?”

Maru asked Ando, who sat in front of him. Ando looked rather dazed.

“I think it’s good, unexpectedly.”

“Sounds like this is the first time you’ve heard about it, am I right?”

“Yup. This is the first time.”

Maru looked at Sora. She was smiling awkwardly. He pushed the note back over to her and spoke,

“Before we talk about the details, I see that there’s something you guys need to get resolved first. The club president over there doesn’t seem to want to do anything at all, while the new student over here is burning up with passion. I hope you guys can decide on who I should be following.”

If they had the clear intent and will to create and produce a work, Maru was willing to participate. Since there was no pressure on him with this, he would be able to exchange opinions freely and gain some experience from it. It wasn’t a bad thing at all. However, the creators of the film were in conflict. This was something that had to be solved before the production started.

“We are going to create a movie. Right, seonbae-nim?”

Sora looked at Ando. Ando did not reply. Sora frowned before approaching Ando. Maru clearly saw Ando flinching.

“Uhm, Koo Ando, was it?”

“Yeah.”

“Can I ask for your number?”

“My number? Why?”

“If you don’t like it, should I call the girl next to you and tell her to hand the phone to you?”

“N-no, I’ll tell you my number.”

It seemed as though he was being completely dominated. Maru saved Ando’s number on his phone.

“Well then, please get it sorted before you guys call me again.”

“Seonbae-nim!”

He acknowledged Sora, who called out to him, with his eyes before closing the door.

* * *

“Kang Sora?”

Bada’s eyes turned fiery when she heard that name. She couldn’t understand why her brother was mentioning that name.

“From the looks of it, I guess you know her.”

“I do, I really do. That cocky, really, really cocky girl.”

“You’re quite firm on that, huh.”

“Of course. But how do you know her?”

“She goes to my school, apparently.”

“Really? That’s strange. From what I know, she’s really good at studying.”

“So you know that she’s good at studying.”

“Of course, we were in the same class. But how do you really know her? It’s not like you know the face of every single new student. Don’t tell me she joined the acting club?”

“She didn’t.”

“Then what?”

“She said she wants to create a movie, and asked me for help.”

“Ah, a movie.”

“You know anything about that?”

“She said from time to time that she wants to become a female director. She seems knowledgeable in that regard as well. Oh, do you know that she looked down on you? When you appeared in that drama briefly last time, she said that anyone can do it.”

“If it’s about background acting, then yes. Anyone can do it.”

Her brother nodded without denying it. He then put a tomato in his mouth like it was nothing. Bada really didn’t like that reaction.

“Anyone can do it?”

“Yeah. It’s more like a part time job.”

“Then what about that murderer character?”

“I was lucky. I was there for a part time job, and got to shoot through connections.”

“Ah, luck, huh. So what she said is right? Do you know how frustrated I was? And yet you say that she’s right? Huh? She’s right?”

Bada poked her brother’s leg with the backside of the fork. Her brother lifted his leg onto the sofa.

“Aren’t you upset? She looked down on you.”

“If you get upset by every little thing like that, you won’t be able to last in society.”

“Dammit.”

She was about to say more, but she didn’t. At times like these, he seemed a bit overly generous or something. Or maybe he was that idiotic.

“Did you cry back then because of her?”

“What do you mean?”

“You know, you told me that someone said that the autograph is fake. That was Sora, right?”

“Yeah, it was her. I feel really angry when I think about it even now.”

“But hey. Did you take that autograph to school and say something along the lines of ‘my brother got it cuz he’s close with Sungjae’ or something?”

Bada avoided her brother’s gaze. Actually, when her brother got her that autograph and the tickets, he told her not to boast about it. He also said that it would be incredibly difficult to get one again. However, Bada wanted to boast about it and said that her brother easily got his hands on the tickets and the autograph. It was that point that Sora had made her remark about.

“Did Kang Sora say that?”

“Yeah. She boldly asked if Ahn Sungjae and I know each other.”

“So, what did you tell her?”

“I said I don’t know him.”

“Why! You do know him. You even got him on the phone for me.”

“That’s enough to say that I ‘know’ him on a personal basis. Geez, you really don’t listen, do you? Is it TTO that you like? Or do you just want everyone around you to put you on a pedestal because you have something TTO-related?”

Her brother was making a really hateful face, but Bada couldn’t retort. It was her who did things that he told her specifically not to do after all. It was also true that she did boast about the autograph, so all the more reason she couldn’t say anything.

“Fine, it’s all my fault. I’m the bad one and I’m the one to be blamed. You satisfied now?”

When she pouted, her brother smiled awkwardly and loosened up his expression. Bada inwardly sighed in relief. She had a hard time getting adjusted to her brother since he had changed too much when he entered high school, but now she got used to handling him. When he was in middle school, he would shout at her first when something like this happened and he would even hit her, but right now, if she made a pitiful expression, her brother would loosen up first and forgive her. She inwardly laughed and looked at him.

“Are you going to do something to me?”

“No, Sora was in the bad.”

“You mean I was in the bad. Hmph.”

“Fine, fine. Here, eat this. I sprinkled some sugar on it, so it’s good.”

Her brother forked a slice of tomato and gave it to her. Bada barely held herself back from grinning from ear to ear and grabbed the hand in a delicate fashion. She was about to get a scolding, but thankfully, she managed to avoid it. Hooray. Bada thought that this was the moment and started speaking. She thought that there was a need to switch the topic at hand.

“But you told me something about Sora shooting a movie?”

“She wants to apply for the youth film festival.”

“She might be cocky, but she’s good when it comes to work. She was the class president too. Everyone didn’t want to do it, but she raised her hand and even volunteered for it.”

Bada chewed the tomato properly before swallowing it.

“So, are you going to do it?”

“I’m not sure about that yet.”

“Do you want to do it?”

“It’ll be a good experience, so yeah.”

“Don’t tell me you’re doing it because you’ve taken a liking to Sora. I’ll tell big sis immediately if that’s the case.”

“Why don’t you write a novel instead, huh.”

“Just saying. She’s not that pretty.”

“She looked cute in her own way though?”

“Oppa!”

“Just saying.”

Bada frowned and bared her fangs. Her brother scratched his eyebrows before turning his gaze.

“Should I not do it?”

“Oh? I thought you said it would be a good experience. Then you should do it.”

“But I thought you hated her.”

“Oppa, do you still take me for a middle school student? I’m not that childish anymore. I’ve grown up now. I know that Kang Sora, that girl, is a cocky one, but I can turn a blind eye to that. Also, even though she’s cocky, she was never someone who would put less than full effort into something she wants to do.”

“That’s a decent evaluation, coming from you.”

“I told you, I’m a grown up now. You should learn from me and not let your personal feelings interfere with your work, okay?”

“Yeah, yeah. I’ll keep that in mind.”

Smack, Bada covered her head and looked at her brother. After smacking her head with the back of the fork, he took the empty plate and put it in the sink.

“Bring anything that needs to be washed.”

“I have a cup in my room!”

Bada pointed at her room when she saw her brother looking at her. He sighed before going to her room. She won this battle. Bada smiled in satisfaction and changed the TV channel.

* * *

Before Maru closed the door, he looked at Bada, who was sitting in the living room. She looked like she did her best to put up a pretense, but it was so obvious to him.

‘How cute.’

He closed the door before sitting down on his bed. He got a basic grasp of what Sora was like. She was someone who was filled with confidence. It also didn’t seem like she was just all talk. While she didn’t seem to have a good relationship with his sister, he couldn’t evaluate her personality just based on that. He needed some experience with that girl to know what she was really like. It was very dangerous to evaluate someone based on someone else’s opinions.

He took out his phone and looked for Koo Ando’s number. Since he got to know about Sora a little, it was the club president’s turn now. He had to know about what was going on in the film production club before he accepted or denied their offer.

-Hello?

Maru greeted first when he heard that voice.

“Is this Mr. Koo Ando’s phone?”

-Yes. I’m Koo Ando.

“Then that’s fine. I’m Han Maru. Can you take the call right now?”

Chapter 520

Ando hesitated for a while before hanging up after saying that he would call back in just a bit.

“I’ll be leaving for a bit.”

Bada, who was absorbed in watching TV, just waved at him without looking. After leaving the house, Maru went into the nearby convenience store and bought a canned coffee. It was nearing the end of March. The evening winds had warmed up to the point that he could stand outside without shivering. Just as he was sipping on the coffee, he got a call.

“Hello?”

-Hello? It’s me, Koo Ando.

“Yeah, can you take the call now?”

-I just left, so I’m fine.

“You couldn’t take the call before?”

-I was at a study café.

“Sorry about that. I called thinking that you were at home.”

-I was about to take a break anyway, so it doesn’t matter that much. You called because of Sora, right?

Yeah - Maru replied before standing up with the coffee in hand.

“From what I saw during the day, you don’t seem to have any interest in shooting the movie, am I right?”

-If it’s about if I do or not, then I guess I lean towards the latter. While we are called the film production club, we didn’t produce anything during the past few years.

“I only heard a bit so don’t count me on this, but I heard that you guys did do shoot in the past.”

-Nothing like that happened even when I was a first year. We just discussed movies in depth. Like you said, I heard that they shot movies and played them during the festival around five years ago, but there’s none of that now. No one knows what shooting a movie requires, nor do we want to do anything like that.

“So Sora’s getting excited all by herself, huh?”

-That’s right, probably.

Probably, huh. Maru kicked the bottle cap on the ground.

“Then can I take it that the club does not have any intention to help out with the shoot?”

Ando fell silent at that question. Maru did not urge him to speak and just waited patiently with the phone against his ear. When he left the residential area and entered the park in the apartment complex, Ando spoke again. Maru looked at the spotted cat walking nearby as he listened.

-It’s not like we need to do something.

“You’re right. Since we’re at it, can I ask what you do at the club?”

Ando started talking in excitement. About how cohesive the film production club is, how warm they were, and how comfortable it was there. He listed the good things without taking a single breath. Just listening to him was enough to know just how much he cared about the club.

“Good club.”

The acting club charged forward with only the goal of winning the acting competition. Achieving an objective required sacrifices, so the acting club only had people that were willing to invest their own time. They trained very harshly, and sometimes even brutally, yet those kids would endure it. That was because they had a clear destination.

The film production club should be in the same position. It wasn’t that they had an explicit objective, but the purpose of their activities was clear in that they increased the friendship between students, and relieved stress from studies. On the surface, it was strange that the film production club did not create any movies, but considering that it was just a high school club, there shouldn’t be much of a problem. In fact, they could be considered much healthier than the people who went to their clubroom because they had nothing to do during extracurricular activities time.

“Then let’s say that we never had that conversation. Tell Sora that as well.”

-Huh? Ah, okay.

“Sorry for calling you so late.”

Maru hung up. In a situation where the rest of the film production club didn’t have any will to work, there was no way things would progress smoothly if he just worked with Sora alone. A movie wasn’t shot with just the director and the actor.

A cameraman to hold the 6mm film camera.

A person in charge of sound to monitor the sound coming through the microphone attached to the camera.

A person in charge of lights in order to block out unnecessary lighting.

A scripter to record each shoot in detail.

Even if the director was the one holding the camera and even doubled as the scripter, more people were needed to hold the reflectors, the boom mic, as well as various other equipment.

Well, if forced to, one director could take care of all of that. Putting a directional microphone on the camera and putting it on a tripod, then clapping the slate for each scene and cut, and then watching the footage after the shoot - it was possible to do all that by oneself. The director could then reorganize the script while watching the footage and do the final check on the equipment before going to the next scene, starting all of that from the beginning again.

It wasn’t impossible to do a one-man shoot, but Maru had no intentions of participating in such a messy thing. Sora said she was planning on a 20-minute movie. 20 minutes. It only amounted to a third of an hour, but Maru knew because he had experience shooting a movie. Shooting 20 minutes of a movie with a camera took an incredibly long time.

Judging from the synopsis that Sora wrote, they wouldn’t be able to complete all the scenes at the school. School, the main character’s house, the background that represents his inner state. Even if she minimized the locations to those three locations, as each scene in a film needed to be shot several times at different angles, it would take an absurdly long time.

It was impossible to do that by herself. Even if she did, she wouldn’t end up with a good result. If a director, who was supposed to wholeheartedly focus on the film itself, was concerned with the various equipment, there would definitely be problems with the final product. Furthermore, what about the post-processing? There should be narration in the movie since this was a movie that portrayed the inner state of the main protagonist, and that would require post-syncing the audio during the editing process, and even mixing the audio. It just wasn’t possible.

There shouldn’t be a reason they couldn’t do so if they took shortcuts, but Maru was doing this in order to gain high-quality experience, not because he wanted to waste some time on fun club activities. If he deemed that filming the movie would not help out in his career or if the environment to shoot wasn’t even set up properly, there would be no reason for him to participate.

If a proven director, such as Choi Joonggeun from ‘Twilight Struggles’ and Park Joongjin, or someone else who already had experience producing something asked him to help, then he would’ve said yes even if it was a one-man shoot. No, he would even be willing to carry the equipment himself and climb a hill, if necessary, and then set up everything and do the acting after that. Those directors were worth his effort after all.

However, Kang Sora clearly didn’t belong to that category. She was just a high school student who never shot a movie before. There was no need for him to accept her request when she couldn’t even set up a proper environment to produce a film.

“She’ll take care of that by herself.”

If she was really willing to shoot it, Sora would eventually find a way, whether it be persuading the film production club, or looking for other people to do it. He pitied Ando a bit since she would obviously try to nag him first, but he was the club president of the film production club, so what could he do about it? He would have to either persuade Sora otherwise or reach a different conclusion.

Maru crumpled up the empty can and started walking to his house.

* * *

“Why do you look like an uneasy puppy?”

“Don’t ask.”

Ando picked up his bag and left the classroom. He thought about going home, but he headed to the clubroom since he felt like he would be dodging the problem if he did so. He opened the door and looked inside. It seemed that Sora wasn’t here yet. He sighed and sat down. When Sora came to this clubroom, Ando inwardly rejoiced. That should have been the same for the other 2nd year juniors as well. A cute girl said she wanted to join. They would never reject her, and would much rather hold a welcome party instead.

Ever since the pretty 3rd year senior graduated, the clubroom was a bit lonely, and then a girl appeared, so he even imagined a school romance. However, such a fantasy was broken in just one week. Sora looked like she was crazed over film production. What about this kind of movie? Do you think there’s a suitable location to shoot it nearby? Do you know anyone good-looking? Hearing the barrage of questions, Ando, not to mention the others, fell silent. They were called the film production club on paper, but as they didn’t have any experience in participating in the production of one, there was no way they had any knowledge about it.

The atmosphere naturally leaned towards the person with the stronger will, and while Ando found it bothersome, he did not stop her. He couldn’t really say something to someone who wanted to make a movie in the film production club.

Recently though, she seemed a little too overbearing and did everything by herself without telling the others, so he tried to caution her, but that did not work. She was like a bulldozer. However, that ended today. Maru refused. He texted Sora about that yesterday. From what he knew of her, she would immediately call back and snap out asking why he decided that by himself, but unexpectedly, he only got a text back asking him to come to the clubroom tomorrow.

Along with a knock, the door opened once again.

“Huh?”

Ando looked at Maru who came in while yawning.

“Why are you here?”

“Sora called me here.”

“Sora, did?”

After that, the 2nd year juniors all came to the clubroom as well. Everyone said that Sora had called them here. When the promised time of 5:40 came around, Sora came in. She was with a girl he hadn’t seen before.

“First, I’ll apologize for being so rude until now.”

Sora bowed and apologized. Ando scratched his head.

“And this.”

Sora handed out some A4 papers. On the front page, it said ‘Friend’, and below that were the objectives and directions.

“The one next to me is a classmate of mine who wants to make a movie with me. We talked to our homeroom teacher, and she decided to switch clubs.”

The girl introduced herself in a shaky voice. It seemed that she was nervous. She immediately hid behind Sora after she did so.

“I thought that you all weren’t creating anything just because you didn’t have any good ideas. I thought all by myself that you would definitely be eager to participate if there’s a decent item. I’ll apologize once again for misunderstanding all of you.”

Sora bowed once again in apology. The girl next to her also bowed with a puzzled expression.

“But I found out after talking to Han Maru-seonbae yesterday. That I wasn’t listening to you. Like what you said, I think it’s good to gather with the intention to watch a movie. Of course, I’m still a bit angry at the fact that you all have zero interest in film production despite being in the film production club.”

After saying that, Sora sighed. She looked like she was calming her agitation.

“That’s why I’m going to talk to you all properly this time. If you hear me out and still do not gain any interest in film production, then I will never talk about it again. I will not make any more rude requests. Instead, just once, I hope you all can hear me out seriously. I’ll also listen to your words.”

Ando curled his lips inwards and looked at the plan. He thought that she would act like usual and force her ideas on everyone else, but he didn’t know that she would prepare something like this.

Ando looked at Sora. She was waiting nervously with her lips sealed.

“What do you think we should do?” he asked the 2nd year juniors.

They were all staring at the paper they were given in puzzlement. After a bit of time passed, one of them spoke,

“Shouldn’t we hear her out at least?”

The others seemed to be in agreement.

Ando grabbed the plan with both of his hands and asked Sora.

“I’ll tell you this beforehand, but we don’t have any experience in shooting a movie. That’s why we don’t have any interest. You know that there’s no guarantee that we’ll do it after we listen to you, right?”

“Yes. But I am confident. I will persuade all of you. Film production is a fun thing after all. There’s nothing better in this world than it.”

Ando nodded. If he thought about it, he also didn’t hear her out properly because he was tired of her attitude. He then looked at Maru. Maru just shrugged once. He didn’t seem to care at all.

“Then we’ll hear you out.”

“Okay.”

Sora took a short breath before standing in front of everyone else.

Chapter 521

“I’ll first tell you why I want to shoot this movie. At first, my intention was to be the whistle-blower. There’s a bullied main character, the bullies, and then the onlookers. By having the camera observe the three groups from a distance, I wanted to show the problems that the students living in this era are going through. But I thought a bit more about it. I believe that there should always be a solution to whistle-blower-type situations. It is definitely valuable to make it known that such problems exist, but bullying has long since been an issue, and many discussions have taken place already. There are proposed solutions, and whether they are effective or not, we’ll have to see in the future, but since it’s already been talked about, I decided to change the direction a little.

That’s when I thought that I should escape the whistle-blower mindset and decided to show how people act instead. The main character is a target of bullying, but he eventually escapes that restraint. Having been freed, the main character could reach out to others that are in the same situation that he used to be in, but he could also prove himself to be different from the rest by ignoring them completely. Usually, it would be a happy ending just by grabbing that person’s hand, but you know that doesn’t happen in real life. I wanted to create a story that’s more extreme and wanted to show the vagueness of people.

Is the main character, who was someone that got bullied, somehow that managed to escape, and someone got into bullying others really evil? Or is he a victim as well? If you want to blame someone, then whose fault is it? I want to throw these questions to the audience. The synopsis I wrote based on that is on the next page. Please have a read.”

Maru flipped over the page. The synopsis he saw yesterday could be seen. It seemed that this was the first time anyone else in the club had a look at the synopsis as they all seemed quite absorbed into it. He skimmed over it to find any differences, but there didn’t seem to be any.

Sora, standing at the front, was looking at the club members with an expression filled with confidence.

Everyone seemed to have finished reading the synopsis as they started moving. Sora started speaking around that time as well.

“Does anyone have any questions about the synopsis?”

Maru quietly looked at the people of the film production club. They looked at each other but did not say anything. Well, it wasn’t that surprising since none of them had any interest in producing a film before today. If they passionately asked questions about this synopsis, there wouldn’t be a problem in the first place.

“I’ll consider that you don’t and go to the next part. If you flip over another page, you’ll see the storyboard. It’s not completed yet, it’s just the beginning parts. I made it to show you that that’s the plan I have, so just take it as a reference.”

Maru flipped over the page at the same time as everyone else and looked at the next page. There were some illustrations that looked like it was a scan of some hand-drawn pictures. They were very crude. A circle was a head, and a long object connected to it was the body, while hands and feet were represented by triangles. Next to the pictures were some sentences that describe the situation.

“What is this?” One of the club members had asked that.

“It’s called a storyboard, you can think of it as a manual for shooting the movie. I’m not good with my hands, so the drawings aren’t that good, but I think the structure is perfect.”

“So you’re shooting it just like this?”

“Yes. As long as we stick to that, we’ll end up with a splendid movie.”

She sounded very confident. The club members all looked at each other and whispered among themselves. So she even went this far, looks okay, she looks serious, etc. There were some good reactions. Sora’s confidence seemed to have risen a level. It was obvious from the thickened smile on her face. Maru did not say anything and just checked a few things with his pen. He was planning to ask all the questions he had in one go at the end.

“Seniors. You should have seen the content our club produced before up there. Don’t you feel your heart racing when you look at the movies that our seniors made six years ago? You know, I really want to try making this movie seriously. It’ll be hard. It will take a lot of our time as well. But I believe that the satisfaction and fun we will get out of it are worth it. Think about it. Imagine shooting a movie with all of us. Watching movies is good, but that's just consumption. I believe that true fun lies in the creation.”

Sora raised her synopsis to her eye level.

“Also, with this, I believe that we’ll get good results at the film festival. Plus, that’s one more line on your student record. It won’t just end as a simple hobby, you’ll be able to gain prizes for it, I mean, there’s a prize for the winners after all. From what I know, the grand prize is around 1 million won. If we get the prize, we’ll split it fairly. Don’t you think that’s good?”

Sora stopped there. She seemed to want everyone to exchange opinions.

Ando spoke after staying silent for a while.

“What do you all think?”

“I don’t think it’s a bad idea. At first, I didn’t really like it since when Sora first said that we should do it, it seemed like she was just bothering us, but now that we got to hear her out like this, she sounds like she knows a lot, and isn’t just being reckless.”

That was positive feedback. Then, the boy sitting next to him spoke,

“Meeting up and watching a movie together is good, but after listening to her, I think it’s a good idea to create something. After all, we are the film production club. Sora seems knowledgeable in movie production as well.”

The general opinion seemed to be leaning towards do than don’t. The people that seemed to be 2nd year students all agreed that they should try it out. Ando put down the plan and asked.

“You’re asking us to help you make this movie, right?”

“Yes. I’ll also be really happy if I can make it with all of you. Since it’s like this, we should really try it out. I’m really confident. As long as you follow me, I’ll pay you back with a year that you will not regret.”

Sora’s provocative words made Ando groan before nodding. He still didn’t look like he accepted it fully, but it seemed that he couldn’t just ignore the opinions of his juniors.

“It’d be strange not to do it when you prepared so much for it. Honestly, I was surprised. I thought you were pretty much joking since you seemed to be over your head when you talked to us about it.”

“Sorry about that.”

“No, I did have my misunderstandings after all.”

Seeing the other members, who had lukewarm reactions at first, leaning towards doing it, Maru tapped on the table with his hand. While he felt sorry for breaking the mood, he had to ask some things here.

“You are accepting questions, right?”

“Eh? Questions?”

Sora hesitated for a while before replying ‘yes’ in a cheerful voice.

“First, the synopsis. You switched your mind from being a whistle-blower to showing what people are like, right?”

“Yes.”

“So what are you trying to tell your audience through this movie?”

“Like I said before, whether the main character should be seen as a sinner or a vic-”

Maru raised his hand to stop her. Sora curled her lower lip inwards and stopped speaking.

“Sorry for stopping you. I heard that before but what I really want to ask is what you’re trying to show through this movie. Throwing questions at the audience. Is that it?”

“Huh, that’s…”

“I’ll change the question. Which side are you on? Is the main character you created a victim after all? Or is he in the wrong?”

“I think that…”

He is in the end - she added after a pause.

“Why is he in the wrong?”

“Because in the end, he abandons his friend.”

“Then the intention is a little weird. You shouldn’t be asking the audience whether he’s good or evil, but rather you should be portraying him as an evil person and asking the audience what they think, am I wrong? The film will change according to which side the director is focusing on, and if you create the movie when you have already deemed him as evil, then wouldn’t the audience think that he’s evil as well? They might be misled into thinking what you’re thinking.”

“That wasn’t my intention though…”

“But you’ve already come to the conclusion that the main character is in the wrong. Oh, do tell me if I’m jumping to conclusions when I’m thinking that the main character is evil because he’s in the wrong. Is there another interpretation?”

“Uhm… I just wanted to show that such a thing can happen.”

“Show that such a thing can happen, I see.”

Maru twirled the pen in his hand. There were works that were created without intention. Not all people working in the arts produced their works with perfect calculations. However, Sora expressed her confidence in her work. She even said that she had an intention, and he just asked her to make that vagueness a bit more definite, but she was at a loss for words.

He nodded once before flipping over to the next page. This was the storyboard part.

“Did you check on all the locations?”

“Eh? The locations?”

“You said this was the storyboard. Aren’t storyboards supposed to be made after scouting all the locations out and getting the angles from them as well?”

“Ah, right. I just made it thinking that that’s the general direction I’ll take.”

“Then this is more of a sketch than a storyboard. Also, how are you going to take the shots in each scene? The actor’s movements, camerawork, shot types, there’s nothing about those on here.”

“I was planning to decide after looking at the camera at the scene.”

Maru twirled the pen once again.

“Didn’t you just say that this was the manual?”

“I did.”

“A manual doesn’t just mean vague direction, does it?”

Sora fell silent.

The reason Maru asked questions about the storyboard was because of two things. One was to see if she really knew what she was doing, and the second reason was because he was curious about the reason why she actually put this here.

“Did you just draw poorly to show the seniors of your club that something like this exists? That’s how I felt about it.”

“……”

“I’m not trying to interrogate you or anything, I just want things to be clear. If you truly want to shoot a movie, these are the people you should be asking help from more desperately than anyone. Don’t you think you should have been more honest? I am lacking in some parts, but I want to fill that up as we shoot things together - or something along those lines. Were you planning to pretend that everything was perfect and get their agreement first before starting the shoot?”

Sora silently looked at him. Maru did not look into her eyes. He didn’t want to peek at someone’s mind without reason. The emotional consumption on his part was quite big when he looked into someone’s mind. He especially felt really iffy if the opponent was swearing on the inside while smiling on the outside. He would use it if it was necessary, but he didn’t feel the need to use it against a kid.

Since there was no reply, he just went on to the next question.

“From what I heard, you have to hand in the final piece by the end of May, am I right?”

“Yes, that’s right.”

“I’m not that knowledgeable about short films, so I looked into it a little, and apparently, most of them take about two to three months to make, even on a tight schedule.”

“I’m also thinking around two months.”

“I feel like we can only fill those twenty minutes if everything from the pre-production to the post-production is smooth. What are you going to do about the equipment?”

“Equipment?”

“You need a camera to shoot a movie. A camera that can shoot with the required specifications for the festival.”

“I’ll look into it.”

“It takes a lot of money if you want to buy it, so try looking into renting. I guess you can ask that graduate.”

“Yes!”

Sora replied in a brighter voice than before.

“You said that you haven’t scouted the locations yet, but do you already have some places in mind?”

“For now, there’s the school. As for the house, I’m planning to use mine. I’ll think about the rest and write it down afterwards.”

Maru nodded. Sora sighed.

“Then it’s decided, right?”

“What’s decided?”

“That you’re shooting with us, of course.”

He was wondering why she sighed, but it turned out that she was sighing in relief. Since she looked like she misunderstood, he decided to correct her quickly.

“What about the script?”

“Ah, the script. I can make one quickly. It’s all in my head.”

“In your head, huh. So what, I’m supposed to be shooting inside your dream or something?”

Maru rotated the plan he placed on the table 180 degrees before pushing it towards Sora. Sora made a confused expression.

“I believe that there’s at least 10 million people in this country that shoot dramas and movies in their heads. But shooting is reality. Equipment, location, script. Not even one of them is ready. It’s not that the character I’m supposed to be acting is attractive to me either. Let me ask you one thing. Why should I do this?”

“I can prepare everything quickly. I’ll show you I can.”

“Then get everything ready and bring it to me. I think you’re mistaken about something. Just because I have time left over doesn’t mean I want to do unnecessary labor. It’s much better to get some other experience during that time. Also, I might not look the part, but I am an actor who works on contract. No, let’s say I’m some random nameless actor. Even a character that walks by without saying a single word gets paid to do it. Compensation is required for labor. That compensation doesn’t necessarily have to be money, but it needs to be something that benefits me. Creative experience? Honestly speaking, from what you’ve shown me until now, I don’t understand just what you’re trying to do at all. If you want to write a novel, I can cheer for you. You were good with your sentences. But if you are going to direct and produce a movie, then bring something that might entice an actor. I don’t belong to your club, and I hope you can remember that I’m here due to someone’s request.”

He looked at Sora, who shut her lips. She didn’t look like she had given up. That was good in its own way. He was thinking that he would gladly accept the shoot as long as she prepared properly. However, if this was all she had, he was planning to take his hands off this entirely. What he wanted to do was acting, not film production.

“I’m not that knowledgeable about movies either. But what I do know is that shooting is not that easy. Talk about it amongst yourselves before giving me an offer. If I think I’m interested, I’ll definitely do it for you. I don’t want to be too stingy after all.”

Good luck - he added before standing up. He heard Sora call out to him, but he closed the door.

Chapter 522

“Move as slowly as possible. But you need to be conscious of the fact that you are walking. You are slowly recreating the motions of walking. Expressing slow movement and slow walking are two completely different things. You have to consider in your mind which part of your foot detaches from the ground first, how your arms are moving at that time, and where your gaze is heading. It will be no good if you stop thinking completely. You have to use your brain fully. Think that there’s a camera above your heads. You will be looking at yourselves through that camera. Imagine a strict teacher inside your heart. That’s the best method.”

Miso clapped very slowly. The students, lined up in a long line, slowly started walking according to her claps. Moving slowly. That was a method of bringing natural and subconscious usage of the muscles into the realm of consciousness. If even one’s breathing speed was controlled to a slow speed, it was possible to feel the movements of various muscles. For the first few minutes, it might be a little boring, however, with enough time, those that did this exercise would find themselves sweating.

Maru looked away from his juniors and looked at an old-style paper in front of him. Next to that was a board of mdf that would have to become a door frame. They decided on the play they were going to perform at the summer acting competition two days ago. It was a story set in a countryside village.

The stage included a flat wooden platform and a house with a thatched roof. They decided to make the old paper doors with old-style papers, and the roof with some straws glued to some mdf with wood glue. He drew some lines on the mdf with a pencil before dragging it over to the other side of the hall. He placed the mdf on a chair to act as a table and started sawing the wood with a coping saw. Maybe being a woodworker wasn’t so bad either - he thought as he looked at the falling sawdust.

“That looks fun.”

“Want to have a go?” Maru asked as he offered the coping saw.

Miso refused with an expression that said ‘why should I?’. The other club members were still walking slowly.

“Have you talked to the film production club kids?”

“Talk to them, huh, that I did. Over there, can you step on that part on the chair at the end?”

Miso stepped on the end of the mdf. Maru got into a sawing posture again before continuing.

“So, did you decide to do it?”

“For now, I haven’t decided yet.”

“Why? You don’t like it?”

“They haven’t shown me anything yet, so I can’t exactly like or dislike anything. Oh, press a little hard. You’re capable of snapping this board with your bare hands, aren’t you?”

He agilely avoided the slap that flew at him before moving the saw to the next line. It wasn’t that the door was actually going to be used, so it just had to look the part. He was planning to snap it off once he sawed quite far.

“They haven’t shown you anything? From what I heard, they seemed to be really passionate though.”

“Passionate, yes. But passion doesn’t create films. I made a visit to the film production club, but they haven’t produced anything for several years, so they don’t even have the basic knowledge nor the tools. There are no cameras, and it’s just filled with DVDs and video tapes.”

“For equipment, you can just rent. I mean, students can’t really afford a 6mm film camera. That’s why they just buy the film rolls.”

“I’m thinking that too. Actually, equipment isn’t a big problem. Bluntly put, you can just solve it with money, and that graduate friend of yours who used to belong to the film production club can also help out. But the main problem is that there’s no script either.”

Maru exerted some strength and snapped the wood. Along with a loud crunch, the board was snapped unevenly. It was around 50cm, and the outcome looked decent enough.

“There’s no script?”

“Nope, there isn’t one. Also, what’s interesting is that there’s a storyboard. No, it’s like a storyboard, but it’s more like she just sketched some things that were inside her head and I can’t exactly make my decision based on that.”

“I get what you mean. But that’s the norm. If she had perfect pre-production skills, she’s way past being an amateur. Go easy on her. Oh, should I pull on this part?”

Yes - Maru replied before pulling the board too. It snapped cleanly in half with a snap. Looking at the clean cut, Maru smiled for some reason.

“Maybe I should try making more sets some time. This kind of thing is fun.”

“Playing house is always more fun than running a real house. So, what are you going to do”? If you refuse, that friend of mine will call me and start nagging.”

“Does that person have your weakness or something? That isn’t like you.”

“He’s taking the photos for the wedding album.”

“Aha, that makes more sense now. So that goes down the drain if I don’t do it?”

“Our friendship isn’t that cheap. We made this promise a long time ago. Also, I’m paying him. Among the people that work in this industry, not even one person likes doing something for free for a friend.”

Miso turned her head around before shouting. You guys are speeding up! - Hearing her shout, everyone flinched before slowing down again.

“The reason I told you about that shoot, was only because it could help you out. Don’t have too high standards. They just started off after all.”

“To be precise, it’s not they, but her. I told you right? That they don’t have any intentions of making a film despite being a film production club. Right now, just one girl is jumping around everywhere trying to make this a thing.”

Miso blinked several times.

“They aren’t at the stage where the whole club is preparing for it and they called you when just one kid is fantasizing?”

“Pretty much.”

“Forget it. Don’t do it. I thought that they were all preparing for it and that one girl popped out in particular. If what you say is true, then that means that she’ll be a one-person director, and if she doesn’t have anything prepared at this point, that’s game over.”

“I thought you told me to go easy on her.”

“I thought she would have the basics down at least.”

“I’m a guy who will do things if people tell me not to, so I somehow want to help them out since you said that.”

“Why don’t you come up with a better lie? I can clearly see that you have zero intention of helping them.”

“I do have some. Like what you said, they are students, so they can’t be perfect. It’s not that I don’t have any time either, so I can help them out if I really wanted to. But like I said before, they weren’t able to show me just what kind of a film they were trying to shoot, so they don’t sound attractive right now. I’m not getting paid for this, so that’s even more of a reason not to do it if it’s not fun either.”

“Do you know that you sometimes sound like you’re a veteran at life?”

“My motto in life is that money is the best. Didn’t you know that already?”

“I did realize that you weren’t right in the head, when you wrote down 300 million, but I didn’t know you were that crazy for money,” said Miso with a laugh.

Maru also laughed back.

“So, what’s the conclusion? You’re going to help them if you find it interesting?”

“You told me that it will be a good experience. I’m going to wait it out a little longer before deciding. That Sora girl isn’t entirely dumb. If she has the desire to shoot the film, she’ll get herself ready before calling me again. I’m going to make my decision then.”

Maru placed a few pieces of MDF on top of one another. It should be about done if he nailed these together and pasted the paper onto it.

“What if it’s lacking at that time as well?”

“I don’t really mind it being lacking. I raised my expectations since she looked so confident, but they’re currently at rock bottom right now. The environment for shooting, minimum preparation, and also, a bit of respect. As long as she has those, I’m planning to talk to her properly.”

“Respect?”

“She was taking for granted that I will be participating in the film. She didn’t look like she was trying to persuade me. She looked like she was announcing facts to me, so I grumbled a bit yesterday.”

“How picky.”

“Another one of my dreams is to become a splendid kkondae. I should build up for that while I’m still young. Using my connections to flex, using money to persuade people, and being treated like an important person. That’s my ideal life.”

Miso raised her thumb, saying that that was splendid.

“I’m thinking about this big for the door. What do you think?”

“We’re going to place two, so it’s not bad.”

“I should really finish making the set and go watch the others. It’s also a little boring to do it by myself.”

“You’re the only staff member for now, so do your best. If you don’t like it, you can always come to the actor team. You’re very welcome there after all.”

Maru shook his head as he looked at the club members frowning as they walked slowly. It was much better to nail stuff here rather than joining that group.

“I am practicing the basics on my own, so I’m okay.”

“Really? What a pity. It would be really fun if you could join us.”

Work hard - Miso turned around after adding those words. Maru whistled as he heard the groans of the others. He could already picture them going home in pain.

* * *

It had been a while since he didn’t have a shoot on a weekend. This was because the episode about Yeseul’s one-sided love was starting. From what he heard, Yeseul, Jichan and Giwoo had a shoot from Saturday through Wednesday.

“I’ll go up to the clubroom today.”

“You don’t have a shoot today?”

“It’s been a while since I didn’t have a shoot on a Saturday. I’ll go up and see how the others are doing. Is senior Miso coming today?”

“No, she’s not coming today.”

“Also, I heard that you decided to meet up on Sundays as well.”

“That’s because we decided on the script. There’s yours in the clubroom too so take a look later.”

“There’s mine as well?”

“Well, we made a copy for now. So that you can help when we go over the lines.”

“Uhm, president, I’m a staff member though?”

“Do it anyway, you’ll help out, right?”

“Whew, our little Park Daemyung has gotten a lot more evil.”

Daemyung went up first. Maru shrugged before returning to his class.

“Maru, let’s start cleaning.”

A classmate tossed a broom at him. He was going to the faculty office, since he was supposed to clean it, when he saw a man walking up the stairs with a tripod and a black bag. From what he saw in that brief instance, there was a Sony logo on the bag.

‘Is that him?’

It seemed that he was the graduate from the film production club. He also looked to be around his early thirties, so Maru was probably right.

After finishing the cleaning of the faculty office, Maru went up to the clubroom. He saw thirty bags lined up neatly on one side. The small clubroom only acted as a storage space for bags, since there wasn’t enough room. It was good that they had a lot of members, but that came with its drawbacks as well. He stepped between the bags to go to the display stand. The script that Daemyung talked about before was placed there. He grabbed a copy before going up to the 5th floor. When he climbed about half way up, he could hear some loud voices. It seemed that they were doing a vocal exercise, and since there were more than thirty of them, their voices reverberated throughout the corridor.

He quietly opened the door and entered. The juniors were looking towards the window. He greeted Daemyung, who noticed him coming in, with his eyes, before sitting down in a corner.

“You have to make a sound as though you are pulling out all the air you breathed in. You might feel dizzy, so watch out for that.”

The juniors all voiced out upon Daemyung’s instructions. Daemyung looked quite good as an instructor. Maru flipped the pages of the script so that he didn’t interrupt them. Just when he was looking at the first page, a shadow loomed over him.

“Should I tell them that you’re here?”

“Forget it. That’s not why I’m here. But their focus is pretty good. Not even one of them turned around even though the door was quite loud.”

“That’s because they suffered enough of instructor Miso’s punishments. They would have to run laps around the field if they lost focus after all.”

“That’s true. How are the 2nd years faring?”

“Ever since they heard that skill will decide who will go up on stage, they’ve been practicing like mad. They are putting even more effort in than last year. Dowook seemed to want to do it as well.”

“That’s why this country will never abandon competitive studies. It’s effective. So, when are you going to decide on roles?”

“I’m talking to the instructor about it right now.”

“Don’t you need to decide soon? It’ll be April next week.”

“We will. She seems to be picking some people as well in her mind. She’ll probably tell me soon.”

“How do you see it? Does anyone catch your mind?”

“I’m torn because everyone’s good.”

“What a happy worry you have there. You are going to do the read-through today, right?”

“Yeah.”

“May I add some input after I listen to it?”

“Of course.”

Just then, there was a knock on the door. Maru thought that he was mistaken and looked at the door for confirmation when he heard the knock again.

“I’ll go get the door.”

Maru stood up before walking towards the door. He waved his hand at the first year students who glanced his way before opening the door.

“Ah, seonbae-nim.”

Sora was standing outside. It wasn’t just her. The members of the film production club were there as well.

“What brings you here?”

“The script is done.”

Sora carefully took out the script from her bag. Her attitude had slightly changed from last week, when she boldly put the synopsis in his face.

“You could’ve texted me though.”

“There’s something else I need to talk about as well.”

“Something else?”

Sora fell silent and looked at Ando standing next to him. Ando coughed before stepping up.

“We want to try creating a movie with the acting club. We wanted to talk to you guys about it, and that’s why we’re here.”

Chapter 523

Although their visit was rather sudden, from their serious expressions, it seemed that they had resolved their internal problems.

“You came to our club last time, seonbae-nim, so I felt like we should be the ones visiting this time. Are you busy right now? If you are, we’ll come back another time. It won’t be that long, so I hope you can hear us out at least.”

Saying that with a foolish laugh, Sora turned around to look at Ando behind her. Ando also nodded.

“I’m not really busy, so it’s fine. Also, we need to get this resolved quickly. The film festival isn’t that far away. But I just heard that you wanted to create a movie with the acting club?”

“Yes.”

“Then wait a bit. I should bring the right person as well.”

Maru called Daemyung over. Daemyung came to the entrance wondering what it was about.

“Daemyung, this is the film production club. Film production club, this is Daemyung, the president of the acting club.”

Maru introduced both parties as the middle man. Ando, the president of the film production club, stepped forward as their representative and greeted Daemyung.

“The film production has something to say to us, are you okay with that?”

Maru waited for Daemyung to answer. Since the film production club expressed their intention to work together with the acting club, Daemyung’s opinion was going to matter a lot.

“For now, come inside. It’ll be a bit noisy though since we’re practicing.”

Daemyung led the film production club inside. The film production club was startled when they heard the loud voices resounding in the large venue. When Daemyung left, Dowook was naturally put in charge of everyone. Although he didn’t like stepping up in front of others, Dowook did what was necessary if the circumstances pushed him to. Maru glanced at Dowook before sitting down in front of the acting club.

Daemyung brought some drinks and handed them out to the film production club members.

“I get the general gist of it, but I don’t know the details. I hope you can tell me the reason why you’re here.”

Daemyung started first. The film production club looked at Ando, and Ando spoke,

“The reason we’re here is to ask you guys, the acting club, if you can work with us.”

“Work with you?”

“Yes. We are going to make a film, and we need people other than just the lead character. Characters that just sit down in class, the chatters, the passersby. Ever since we started trying to add details to each situation, we realized that we need quite a lot of people. That’s why we thought about borrowing the acting club’s power.”

“It’s a collaboration!” Sora said in excitement as she clenched her fists.

“I get what you mean, but this isn’t something I can decide on by myself. There’s an instructor for the acting club, so we operate on a set schedule. It’s not that we don’t have time, but I can’t really make that decision.”

“I think that this is a good opportunity for the acting club as well. It’s an opportunity to practice acting.”

The talker had switched to Sora for some time. Maru looked at Ando. He didn’t look uneasy like he did before. It seemed that he thought it was natural for her to be the one talking.

“We are doing our own practice,” said Daemyung softly, but firmly.

Ooh, Maru was a little impressed. From the way things were going now, it seemed that his intervention wasn’t necessary here. Daemyung was splendidly fulfilling his role as the president.

“However, I get that it’s not a bad opportunity, can you wait a bit?”

Daemyung stood up while taking out his phone. After seeing him leave through the door, Maru spoke,

“Can I have a look at the script now?”

“Yes!”

Sora handed him the script with both of her hands. The tentative title was still ‘Friend’. Below that said ‘Planned by Kang Sora’ and then ‘Produced by Film Production Club’ below it. There were also the words ‘To Mr. Han Maru’ in bold letters. He wondered where she found out about something like this.

He smiled and flipped over a page.

-Scene 1.

The Alarm rings and Minho wakes up. Minho, having woken up, looks around for a while before turning off his phone alarm. Then he eats breakfast. His parents aren’t here. They have gone to work. He feels a little sad about that, but he also thinks that it was good that they weren’t here.

Minho: (sighs).

He eats breakfast. He then takes his bag and goes to school. He sees a black plastic bag on the ground on his way to the school. Minho feels sad since he feels like he’s similar to the plastic bag. He stares at the plastic bag for quite a while before continuing to walk. He sees the school. Minho is afraid of going to school. However, he couldn’t not go in, so he hesitates around the school gates before going in.

Maru nodded while looking through it. When he turned about three pages, he peeked forward, and the gazes that looked at him were pretty intense. Sora especially was acting uneasy. Please tell me what you think of it quickly - her eyes were saying those words.

Since it was a short film, the script wasn’t that long. After reading the last page, Maru closed the script. The moment Sora asked how it was, Daemyung opened the door and came back inside. Maru gestured to them to wait for a little before looking at Daemyung.

“You called senior Miso, didn’t you?”

“Yeah, we would have to split practice to do it after all.”

Daemyung sat down.

“I called the instructor for our club to ask if we can help the film production club with creating the movie. To tell you the conclusion, we can.”

“Really?”

Sora rolled her feet on the ground and shouted yes. At the same time, she grabbed Daemyung’s hand and thanked him.

Maru coughed in a small voice and tapped Daemyung’s arm. Jiyoon was staring this way. Daemyung was visibly startled and flicked Sora’s hands away. While he overreacted a little, Sora didn’t seem to mind.

“Then you’re helping us, right?”

“Y-yeah. We will. I talked to the instructor about it, and she said that acting in front of a camera is just as helpful as acting on a stage. However, you must clearly tell us the number you need as well as the schedule. If you can’t keep that up, we will make it as though we never had this conversation.”

“I will definitely keep that promise.”

“And one more thing. Does the film production club have a camera?”

“Yes! The graduate from our club came today and told us that we can use his until we hand in the film for the film festival. It’s a Sony 6mm camera from 2003. It’s a model that can record and show a live feed of it through a laptop at the same time. We tested it, and the quality is really good.”

Sora visibly brightened when she talked about the equipment. Maru just shrugged when Sora looked at him.

“I hope the acting club can borrow that camera a little.”

“Borrow the camera?”

“Yeah. Of course, only when it’s not being used for shooting the film. If you aren’t going to use it immediately, we want to use it first tomorrow. Can we?”

“That’s also one of the conditions right?”

“Yeah.”

Sora looked at Ando. This time, Ando took out his phone and walked outside. Since they couldn’t just lend other people expensive equipment that wasn’t even theirs, they needed to get permission for it.

“Did senior Miso tell you about the camera as well?”

Maru had asked. Daemyung shook his head.

“No, that was my idea. We are lending people, right? Even if the film does well and wins a prize, the only thing we get out of it is that ‘we had a good experience’, so I felt it was somewhat lacking. That’s why I talked about the camera. It will definitely be helpful if we can shoot our own acting and have a look at it ourselves. While it’s important for others to point things out, I heard that watching your own acting and analyzing it is a great way to improve.”

Also, it’s expensive to rent - Daemyung lowered his voice when he added those words.

“That’s pretty good.”

Maru raised his thumb. As both parties were students, they couldn’t exactly pay hourly wages for each person, so borrowing a high-quality camera was definitely not a bad idea. It could also give the acting club a fresh shock if they could watch their own acting through the screen. The practice rooms for actors weren’t filled with mirrors for nothing. To see and feel and improve, actors needed to be able to see their own acting in the perspective of a third person. In that sense, a camera was a splendid tool.

“Uhm, how was the script?” asked Sora.

“Ah, the script. For now, it looks ok since it has all the basics down. You managed to stick to the synopsis well huh.”

“Then…”

“For now, I will help you out regardless of whether the rest of the acting club helps out or not. You put in so much effort, so it’d be funny to say no at this point.”

“You mean it right? That’s good. I was actually really worried that you’ll refuse. When I was doing it, I was really fired up. I worked with the mindset that I will have you on my stage. Anyway, you liked the script, right?”

Hearing that question, Maru immediately shook his head.

“No. I just checked the bare minimum requirements for the shoot as well as your will. That doesn’t mean I like the script. There are a lot of things that need to be fixed. It’s bothering me and I’m not even an expert.”

“What? Really? I was confident though.”

“Regarding scripts, this guy knows better than me, so can I show it to him?”

Maru picked up the script and handed it to Daemyung. Daemyung looked at Sora.

“May I?”

“Ah, yes. You can read it, but…”

Sora clearly looked suspicious. Maru inwardly laughed. She wouldn’t be making such an expression if she knew who the person reading her script was studying under. Gwak Joon, the author of a bestselling novel with experience in writing a scenario for a full-length movie, as well as writer Bae Chulho, who wrote the historical drama Apgu, which got a peak viewing rate of over 35% on RBS. Daemyung met those two frequently and was widening his horizons. Maru told Daemyung that he wanted to read Daemyung’s autobiography-like novel several times, but Daemyung clearly told him that he had no intentions of showing anyone until it was completed. Daemyung also told him that it was ultimately going to become a script for a play based on a novel.

Daemyung silently read through the script. His round eyes turned sharp for just this duration.

As soon as he flipped over the first page, Daemyung spoke,

“First up, I think you have the wrong understanding of scenes.”

“I’m wrong?”

Sora tilted her head.

Daemyung then continued to read through the script without a word. Silence flowed for a while. The only sound they could hear was the sound of rustling paper as well as the sounds of exercise coming from the first year students of the acting club.

After reading the last page, Daemyung came back to the first page and spoke,

“Hm, fundamentally, you must state which location or venue the scene is happening in. The script is for the reader to clearly understand what’s happening, instead of being left up to deduction. For example, scene 1 should be set in Minho’s room right? And the time should be morning.”

“Yes.”

“If the director is also the writer and the actor, it doesn’t really matter if only he or she can understand it, but many of us here are going to use this script to do the shoot, right? If that’s the case you must be clear about the details. The emotional states can be left up to interpretation, but everything else should be clear and objectively understandable.”

“…Yes.”

Maru saw Sora pull her chair towards Daemyung. Daemyung didn’t seem to have noticed since he was focused on the script.

“Also, I don’t really want to say anything about your writing style, but I think you can write things a little more comfortably. Use short and compact sentences. The longer the sentences are, the more prone to misunderstandings they will be. Oh, about scenes, right? A scene is an event that occurs in just one place and one time. Here, when Minho wakes up and leaves the house, this should be scene 2. Then there are the directions. A script is supposed to be a picture. It’s just a text version of the images that the camera will eventually take. In other words, the script should allow the reader to easily picture the scene in their mind. Writing ‘his parents aren’t here’ and ‘he feels sad’ on the script like this… feels like the writer is lacking skills since they’re replacing everything with explanations, and relying on the actor for everything. Honestly speaking, a script like this isn’t necessary. This is nothing more than storytelling. The script should be something that should be close to the finished movie. That’s the reason for its existence.”

After saying those words, Daemyung blinked once before raising his head. Then he smiled awkwardly. Having finished talking about the script, Daemyung became the round man he usually was.

“O-of course, I’m not saying that what I said until now is entirely correct. You don’t need to take it to heart. I mean it. I don’t know anything. I’m just talking about some things I picked up here and there.”

Just as he was about to put down the script after scratching his head, Sora grabbed his hand. Daemyung weakly screamed.

“Seonbae-nim. Can you teach me about writing?” Sora asked.

Maru laughed while covering his mouth, but then felt something prickle him so he turned his head around. Jiyoon was looking at this place with a plain gaze. There were no fluctuations in her emotions, so it felt even scarier.

He immediately forced Daemyung and Sora apart. It would be incredibly annoying if they caused her to misunderstand or something after all. Just then, Ando returned to the hall. From the smile on his face, it seemed that the talk went well.

“He told us that we can use it to our heart’s content, and wouldn’t mind even if it broke.”

That was very nice. Maru looked at Daemyung. Daemyung nodded.

“Then let’s talk a little more about what we’re going to do with this thing, shall we?” said Maru as he pointed at the script.

Chapter 524

“If I connect the line here and press record…”

When Sora moved back, the laptop screen switched. It was showing a live feed of the camera. Aram stood in front of the camera in curiosity.

“Can you see me?”

“Yep.”

Maru pressed the record button which was on the lower left of the video editing program. The recording began and a window popped up that said it was recording. They recorded for about a minute before playing back the video.

“Oh! It’s me.”

It played back everything without skipping from when Aram waved her hand to when Daemyung spoke.

“But the sound is echoing.”

“Don’t worry about that. The graduate seonbae gave us this.”

Sora connected a directional microphone covered with soft fur at the top of the camera. It seemed that she had learned how to use the camera properly from that person.

“Everyone. Walk in front of the camera and say something.”

The juniors walked past the camera one by one. The ones that liked to stand on stage showed some things off, while the others just awkwardly said their names before walking past.

Maru tried playing back the recorded footage. The sound of the wind, the background echoing noise, as well as the voices of the people talking behind the camera were mostly removed. The microphone was pretty good.

“He also gave us this,” said Sora as she opened a long bag that she brought.

Inside were some lines and a boom arm.

“Then we’ll leave for now. Do you guys have practice tomorrow too?” asked Ando.

“We do. We’re going to finish at one since it’s Sunday,” Daemyung replied.

“We’ll be here around 12. We do want to watch your practice as well. Of course, that’s if you guys are okay with it. Will that be okay?”

“An audience is always welcome. Having people around helps during practice as well.”

The film production club left the hall. After the messy atmosphere died down, the acting club started a read-through. Since they hadn’t decided on roles yet, they split into three groups of ten to practice.

“How was the script? Not from a technical perspective, just the content,” Maru asked.

After thinking about it, Daemyung replied,

“It does feel rather common, but it wasn’t that bad.”

“I guess it’s not that uncommon.”

“She isn’t using someone else’s work and everything is coming from her head though. I think that’s pretty amazing. Also, from what I saw today, they all seemed eager to do it.”

Maru leaned against the wall. Daemyung stood next to him. Maru watched his juniors do the read-through for a while before speaking,

“They weren’t that close when I saw them just a while ago, but they looked like they were on really close terms today. Even Ando, who said that he had no intentions of shooting any film, became eager to do it.”

“Looks like that Sora girl managed to persuade him well. She was full of energy.”

“If there's a person like that nearby. It’s one of two things. Either it’s really exhausting, or you become crazy with that person.”

“He didn’t look crazy though.”

Daemyung burst out into a small laughter.

“Maru, has it been decided that the main character will be you?”

“Well, I’m not sure. They just said that they wanted to scout me, but I don’t think I’ve heard them say that I’ll be the main character. Also, it doesn’t matter if I’m the main character or not. What’s important is that I get to talk to the director. I should get to talk to her a lot when we film it. Since neither of us is knowledgeable, I hope I can gain something from this.”

“You are a regular character in a drama and yet you say that you don’t know anything. What does that make me?”

“I’m just saying. Rather than that, if they come back tomorrow with the characters sorted out, we’ll have to pick out actors for those roles from our club, right? You’ll have to talk to the film production club about it, but from the way I see it, I think they’re going to listen to your opinions, no?”

“Well, I’ll have to ask them tomorrow. Since holding an audition does require extra time and effort on their part, I do have to tell them that it might be even more tiring.”

“Don’t you have any thoughts about doing it?”

“I have my hands full just preparing my script and studying. These days, the writer gives me a lot of homework. He told me to analyze the script for the movie Chinatown, and it’s so hard.”

Daemyung stood up.

“Group 1, stand in front of the camera! After we shoot group 1’s read-through, group 2 and group 3 will come up afterwards. Let’s have a monitoring time where we tell each other their good points and bad points. I’m also going to show this to instructor Miso, so watch out for your pronunciation. You know that this isn’t reading lines from a textbook, right?”

Daemyung clapped and started moving.

* * *

He left his house after eating a slice of apple and a handful of cereal with milk. His mother worried about him, asking him if that was enough. Maru said that he was okay. Since he was controlling his weight, he was avoiding oily and salty foods as much as possible. It wasn’t that he had gained weight or something. He thought that he had a suitable weight, but he decided to try this out as a test. He currently weighed 68 kilograms. He was planning to bring it down to 63 kilograms, and then go back again.

He smelled something very tempting from the toast shop. He stared for a while before walking to the school. Intentionally losing weight definitely wasn’t easy.

‘No wonder girls always talk about going on a diet.’

It was like a life-long homework. Before he went inside the school, he visited the supermarket to buy some drinks and snacks. There were over thirty high school students with good appetites. The sheer money required for eating was definitely a little heavy for a student to bear. This was why Maru bought the snacks most of the time. Daemyung told him that he’d pay him later, but how much pocket money would a student get? Oh, he did receive some from Dowook, since he was pretty well-off.

Sunday morning. Although it was quiet on the 1st to 4th floors, the 5th floor was noisy. He could hear the voices of his club members through the closed door to the hall. Maru quietly opened the door and went inside. He saw the club members doing some warmups.

“Hello!”

Maru waved his hand when he heard the shout. He put down the food he brought before doing some warmups as well. Recently, the baseball club no longer used the hall on the 5th floor. He didn’t know what happened, but he was thankful since it meant that the acting club could use it without worrying.

“Line up. Let’s do a read-through. We’re going to do it standing up today. Also, you can look at the script if you want, but try to memorize as much as possible.”

The juniors, who were divided into three groups, started going over the lines. The thirty of them showed different levels of skill. There were some that seemed to have memorized the lines already and said everything from memory, and some that memorized most of it and just looked at it from time to time. Memorizing lines was the basics of acting. Since that was just pure repetitive labor, more time investment meant more memorization, and it showed. There were seven people who had memorized the entire thing completely, and there were ten who couldn’t take their eyes off the script. Although it was a short period of time, there were clear differences showing up among the kids already.

Maru also looked at the script while leaning against the wall. Although he wasn’t participating, he wanted to get the basics down at least. He thought about the emotions of the characters as he went through the lines and said them out loud.

There was a method that he took great interest in lately, the ‘internalization of the character’. It was a way of acting after bringing the traits of the character being acted inside of the actor. It was slightly different from method acting.

Method acting was an act of becoming the character itself. In order to sympathize and feel the same emotions as the fictional character, the actor would call out a similar experience or emotion he or she had in the past in order to try and understand the character as much as possible. If they didn’t have such experiences or emotions, they would expose themselves to similar situations in order to do that. As a result, the actor would perfectly imitate the character and taking a step further, would become that character.

Internalization was a bit different. It was the same in the regard that it requires sharing the experiences, emotions, and traits of the character, but in this case, the actor would not throw him or herself into the character. Instead, the character would be brought inside the actor.

Maybe these two were just two different stages in acting, or they might be two different formats altogether. Discussing which one was better was meaningless, it was much wiser to think about which method fit the actor more.

Maru was thinking about how to efficiently use his two ‘selves’ inside him.

The self that fulfilled the acting instinct tended to lean towards becoming the character. That self would reach a stage where he forgot about himself to reach a state of selflessness in order to imitate the character to the limits. If it was not possible to imitate and the expressivity of acting was immature, that self would then burst out all the emotions, forgetting that he was acting and would throw everything out there. The act he did with Joohyun was similar to this. Since he couldn’t dig deeper into a character who became a murderer at a young age, he instantly clashed a bunch of emotions together. Putting it simply, he was relying on Joohyun.

Unlike that, the self that watched everything from a step behind chose not to become the character itself, but to bring the character into him. He tried to understand the traits of that character and analyze them to act out the movements that the character is most likely to take in certain situations. It was clearly different from becoming the character itself. When he looked into it, he found that this was a more traditional way of acting. What he did in Twilight Struggles was similar to this. He dug into the character, but ‘Han Maru’ was at the core of that character.

It did not change the fact that both of them required some basic studying. There wasn’t any act that could ‘just be done’. Acting required expressing what an actor knew, or felt before after all.

“Uhm, seonbae-nim.”

Maru raised his head when he heard a voice call out to him. There was a junior standing in front of him. He had fallen into contemplation while staring at the script without even realizing that someone was in front of him. That junior laughed foolishly before saying that they should eat some snacks. Looks like it was break time. He had a look at the clock. The hour hand was on 12.

‘I was completely out of it, huh.’

He walked over to where everyone else was sitting.

“Sit over here.”

Daemyung made some room for him. Maru sat in that gap. He saw a first year junior smile awkwardly at him from next to him. He had never talked to this person before.

Maru looked at the thirty-two people sitting in a circle. He realized that he had never talked to the first year students. During weekdays when he didn’t have a shoot, he was always making props in the corner, and during weekends, there weren’t any opportunities to talk to them properly since he had shoots. It would be great if the senior-junior relationships were good, but he didn’t feel the need to force himself to try and get close to them, so he didn’t talk to them. Due to this, it seemed that a lot of juniors were awkward with him here.

‘Even I would be awkward if I was in their shoes.’

He was always by himself, and whenever he talked, he was talking to the instructor, so there was no way the distance between them could shrink. Maru picked up some snacks and gave them to the junior sitting next to him, and he flinched when he saw that junior lower his head as he received those snacks with both of his hands. Was he that difficult to deal with?

Fortunately, they were on close terms with the other seniors. Bangjoo seemed to be called ‘hyung-nim’ among the first year boys. For reference, the ‘big hyung-nim’ was Dowook. For some reason, this felt like a mafia organization.[1]

This should be fine. Since he decided to put some distance, this was suitable. It wasn’t like he was going to meet them a lot either.

“Who’s going to be the main character for the film?”

One of the juniors asked. Since the acting club didn’t have any of those strict relationships between seniors and juniors, none of them held back from speaking.

“The film production club will be here in just a bit. We’re going to talk about it then. Though, it’ll probably be Maru.”

“Ah, Maru seonbae-nim, huh.”

Maru looked at the eyes that all looked at him. Some of them had the ‘I see’ eyes, while others questioned ‘why’. Miso declared that she would give her full support as long as they did well. They were probably all greedy for results. Maru in fact welcomed the challenging eyes. It would be no fun if he just snapped their spirits just because he was the senior.

“They’ll probably hold something like an audition, right?”

Another junior asked. His face was even smaller than Aram’s. Oh, how handsome. Maru realized once again that he had zero interest in the new members this year.

“Looks like everyone wants to do it.”

They all replied ‘yes’ as though they were waiting for that line. Daemyung seemed a little surprised by their boldness.

“I’m asking just in case, but who wants to be the main character here?”

An actor always had to be bold - Miso said this all the time, and the juniors all kept those words close. Maru looked at the boys that raised their hands immediately. Out of the seventeen boys here, more than half - eleven of them - raised their hand. A lot of girls also raised their hands as well. Unfortunately though, the main character for this play was a boy. The girls probably raised their hands since they didn’t know about the script, but in any case, they were really eager to do it.

“This was unexpected.”

Although he said those words, Daemyung was smiling in satisfaction. Maru grinned at some of the juniors that looked at him before eating some snacks. He wasn’t overly eager to do this role, but since this was a great opportunity to create a film on equal footing as the director, he did not plan to concede so easily. Of course, if there was someone good, he would gladly hand it over. Having not enough skill in this field of work meant being pushed to a supporting role, or even a minor role.

“Han Maru, are you sure you can keep that main character role?” Dowook giggled as he said those words.

Maru shrugged and looked at the first year students sitting on the other side. There was a boy that was staring holes into him. He didn’t know the boy’s name. He looked like he wanted to duel fair and square or something, so Maru felt quite perplexed.

“Daemyung.”

“Yeah?”

“What’s that guy’s name?”

“Him?”

Daemyung shortly uttered ‘ah’ before speaking,

“Ahn Chihwan. He’s good looking isn’t he?”

“Ah, Chihwan, huh.”

“You should learn their names at least.”

“Yeah. I really should.”

“But Chihwan’s really staring at you. Maybe he considers you a rival?”

“Hey, I already lost to him in the appearance area. If he’s good at acting as well, I’m gonna be sad.”

“There you go, joking again.”

Maru looked at Chihwan. When he met eyes, that boy became startled before bowing. He was very tall and good looking, but his actions were pretty cute. He was the type that would be popular with the girls.

‘He said he wants to play the main character too, huh.’

Maru nodded and looked away.

[1] Korean mafia call their boss ‘hyung-nim’. So you can see it as the first years are calling those two ‘boss’ and ‘big boss’.

Chapter 525

Ahn Chihwan was mesmerized by instructor Miso at first glance. Her unstoppable actions and crisp voice, as well as the confidence she exuded whenever she did something. She was someone who he thought of as a cool woman, and he respected her a lot. Of course, it wasn’t that he started liking her as a member of the opposite sex. He just liked her as a person. Actually, their age gap was too wide.

Chihwan wanted to catch Miso’s eyes. It wasn’t only because she said that she would give her full support to those that proved their skills to her, he also wanted to hear her compliment him in person. There was nothing better than being acknowledged by the people you acknowledged after all.

‘Maru-seonbae.’

It wasn’t that Chihwan was confident in his acting. However, he knew that acting was a form of art, and therefore, vague without clear measures of performance. That was why he thought that he had the potential. Evaluating acting had to be very subjective because of its nature. Since there were no clear answers like mathematics or something, he should be able to win against a senior who started acting much earlier than him.

Chihwan bowed towards Maru-seonbae, who he met eyes with. It had nearly been a month since he entered the acting club, and he had never seen Maru talking to anyone in the first year. He would always be reading a script from far away or be making some props or sets. It would be understandable if he was some peculiar person, but he also looked like a decent person from how the 2nd year seniors and 3rd year seniors talked to him. The food they were eating now was also brought by him.

“Uhm, aren’t you doing the play with us, Maru-seonbae?”

Chihwan asked. Maru was in a vague position among the 1st year students. He didn’t act like a senior, nor did he completely ignore them. He came to practice when it wasn’t the weekend, but he did not practice with them with the intention to go up to the stage together.

He was the only staff member in this club. Chihwan was curious. Why did someone capable enough to show up on TV volunteer to be a staff member? From how he came to practice, it didn’t look like he didn’t have the time either.

“I am doing the play,” said Maru. Chihwan couldn’t understand him.

“That and that. And that thing over there.”

Maru pointed at the stage props piled on one side of the hall. They were items created by Maru when the acting club gathered to practice.

“I’m not participating in the play as an actor, but ‘doing the play’, as you put it, is something I’m doing.”

“But isn’t acting much better?”

“There are plenty of people who want to be actors, so why would I? You and I aren’t that different, and since I’m saying this, I’ll make this clear. To me, the acting club is second on my priority list. Right now, I’m showing up regularly since I don’t have a busy schedule, but I don’t know when I’ll become busy again. It’ll be nonsensical for me to want to be an actor in such a situation.”

Chihwan nodded. He was right. It would be a huge problem if he couldn’t perform when he was an actor.

“Why don’t you talk to us, Maru-seonbae?”

A girl asked. She was Park Hayeon. Last week, the first year students had a get-together by themselves, and she was the moodmaker back then. Chihwan perked up his ears. He was curious about that as well.

“It’s not that I’m trying not to talk to you. Like I said, I’m someone who’ll rarely show up to the club if I become busy. I don’t plan to act like a senior, nor expect the treatment of one, so most of the time, I just end up observing. Daemyung and Dowook are leading you guys perfectly well, so there’s no need for me to interfere with that either.”

“Oh, I see. It would’ve been great if you talked to us though. I thought you hated us first years.”

“There’s nothing to hate, nor anything to like. We don’t know anything about each other after all, and I don’t have a huge interest either. I’m looking at you just like you are looking at me. There’s no need to act friendly just because I’m your senior, right? There’s no law stating that a junior must respect their senior.”

True - Chihwan thought as he sipped on his drink. Now that he heard all that, he thought that Maru was pretty reasonable. He originally thought that this senior was someone who was detached from the rest, but it seemed that he might get along with him.

“But it would be great if we can get close to you.”

“If you want to, then you can try. I’ll always be over there. If you want to become friends with me, then come to me and talk to me. I’ll judge whether you can be a friend of mine after a small interview.”

After smiling, Maru’s eyes swept across the first years before he started speaking,

“For now, this is strictly my personal opinion, so don’t take it to heart. I do not think that you need to become close to someone just because they’re in the same social circle as you. Becoming friends is something very personal. While I’m willing to help you and care for you as your senior, don’t expect any friendship from me. Of course, I will treat you nicely if you treat me nicely too.”

“Then I guess we should talk to you if we want to become close to you, right?”

“Usually, I prepare various talking subjects before I talk to someone who I want to become friends with, and say that ‘we should be friends’ to those that I need to become close to.”

Chihwan nodded subconsciously when he heard those words. He agreed with that statement. The more he listened to Maru, the more he liked Maru. He thought that Maru was a senior who liked quietness, but he was completely off the mark.

Park Hayeon nodded in understanding with a smile. When there was a short silence, Chihwan thought that this was an opportunity and asked,

“Then what do you do usually, seonbae-nim?”

Chihwan became curious about this person named Maru. The way he thought was similar to him.

“Me? Usually, I read books at home.”

“What kind of books do you read?”

“Anything that I can get my hands on. Oh, except self-improvement books.”

“Do you like sports?”

“I don’t really do ball sports. I mostly do boxing.”

“What’s your favorite food?”

“I’m not picky with food, but I like healthy foods. Natural mushrooms, eels, and even octopuses are good too.”

“I like eels too. Though not octopuses. What made you want to become an actor?”

“To earn money. But hey, why does this feel like we’re conducting a hearing here?”

“It was you who said that we should talk if we want to become close to you. To talk to you, we need to have something in common, and to find that out, questions are the best way. I’m going to become close to you, seonbae.”

“I don’t like men though.”

“Think of it as a friendship between men. Oh, can I ask you one more thing?”

“Go ahead. I’ll answer you as long as you don’t ask for something like my bank password.”

“This is my first time learning acting, okay? When I thought about it, I realized that I can only evaluate myself properly if I compare myself to someone else. It’s not that there’s a checklist or something, right?”

“You’re right.”

“With that being the case, uh, I might sound a little rude, but may I ask anyway?”

“I think you’re being plenty rude already, so go ahead. The others seem to want to know as well.”

Chihwan felt everyone looking at him as he spoke,

“I can be better than you at acting, right?”

“Sure. Among the thirty-two people here, there might be people that are even better than me. I believe that talent is more important than effort or being passionate.”

“Then since I’m being rude, can I ask you another question?”

“You don’t have to ask for my permission, just ask. It doesn’t look like anyone else has a question anyway.”

Maru changed his posture and looked like he was a bit interested. Chihwan nodded and spoke,

“I heard that the film production club is coming today. Has it been decided that the main character is going to be you?”

“No, nothing’s set in stone. Like I said before, I was only asked to participate before.”

“Then if the film production club states you as the main character, that means that we don’t have any opportunities, right?”

Chihwan saw that some of his colleagues’ eyes had changed. Everyone probably wanted that role.

“Do you want to do it?”

Maru asked.

Was there a need to think about it? Chiwan replied yes.

“Alright, then. I’ll tell the film production club that we should hold an audition. I’ll try to persuade them even if they want me as the main character. I’ll tell them to decide after seeing everyone’s acting.”

“Really?”

“It’s not even that hard, so yes. But you guys will be going home late if that happens, is everyone okay with that?”

Everyone said that they were okay with it. Even the people that didn’t seem to have any interest in becoming the main character seemed to become greedy now that Maru said all that.

Knock knock - there was a knock on the door.

‘They came at the perfect time.’

The door slowly opened and the people from the film production club came in. When the bold girl that always walked at the front came in, she gave Maru a pile of paper. It seemed to be a script.

Maru and Daemyung quietly talked to the film production club. Words like ‘why’ could be heard every now and then. After around ten minutes, a rather skinny man stood in front of the acting club.

“I am Koo Ando from the film production club. Uhm, we were originally going to take people based on recommendation, but we discussed holding an audition to pick people out. That’s why we’re going to hold an audition right now. Also, bear this in mind, but neither I nor anyone else in my club is an expert in acting, so we are only going to base our judgement on our feelings. We don’t know anything about acting.”

Ando smiled awkwardly before stepping back.

The camera was then set up. The film production club sat in front of the laptop connected to the camera. They all looked rather embarrassed. Oh, the first year girl that he thought was the oldest among them was glaring at the acting club with her arms crossed. He overheard her name before - Kang Sora. She was apparently the director of this film.

“We’ll start with the main character. The method is simple. We’ve brought five copies of the script. For now, five of you, please come forward if you want to try out for the main character.”

It was better to take the beating first, so Chihwan went forward. When he did, the others did so as well. After hearing that the main character was a boy, the girls had to watch from the side.

“Please take a copy, each of you.”

Chihwan picked up the script. It was much thinner than the script for the play.

“Don’t read it yet. We’re going to make it a fair competition,” said Sora as she walked forward.

“Is there anyone else who wishes to apply for the audition?”

Hearing her words, all of the first year boys from the acting club raised their hands. The only ones that were not were Bangjoo and Dowook.

“If you don’t plan to participate, please sit over there,” said Sora as she pointed at the first year girls.

“Just one was bothersome enough already. Two sounds like a total pain in the ass.”

“I want to focus on the play as well.”

Dowook yawned before sitting next to the girls. Bangjoo sat next to him.

“Then I’ll take it that the rest of you are all taking the audition, so please step outside for now.”

Sora proceeded with the audition as though she had prepared for this beforehand. As Chihwan had a script in his hand, he remained behind. The four others with the script did the same.

“You have ten minutes to read through the script. After that, you will act the scene you’re most confident with. I won’t mind overlaps between the participants. It will be fairer if we look at you one by one, but that takes too much time. Also, Daemyung-seonbae. Please watch it with us and give us some opinions.”

Daemyung, who was watching from the side, sat in front of the laptop.

“And I hope everyone here can give some judgement as well. When they start acting, please write down your impressions of them. You can write anything you like, whether it be long or short.”

Ripping out pages from her notebook, Sora handed out pieces of paper to the two seniors, Dowook and Bangjoo, as well as the girls. She was really clear-cut when it came to work. Chihwan was inwardly impressed. As the acting club always carried writing equipment with them in order to edit scripts, there shouldn’t be a problem with writing their impressions down.

“Ahn Chihwan, you won’t make it if you do it awkwardly.”

“Seongsoo, you nervous now?”

“Why is Sijoon here? He doesn’t suit the role of the main character!”

The girls giggled and got ready to write. Chihwan felt his grasp of the script tightening. He suddenly felt nervous.

“Then I’ll give you 10, no, 15 minutes starting now. Please read through the script.”

As soon as he heard Sora’s voice, Chihwan opened the script. It was written a bit like a script for a play. What was different was that it was split into even smaller scenes. It didn’t seem like there would be any problems with understanding it.

“You don’t need to memorize it. You can read it while you act, so please find the scene that you’re most comfortable with. The seonbae said before, but we don’t know that much about acting. That’s why we are going to go with the person that we feel is the best. Oh! You need to do actions as well. Lastly, we are going to look at your appearance too.”

Hearing that, Chihwan raised his head.

“Appearances counts towards the score?”

“Well, it is a story about being bullied.”

“Then am I not at a disadvantage?”

He had never heard that he was ugly wherever he went. He was also far from the ‘being bullied’ type according to his appearance. While this might seem cocky of him, it was an important problem to Chihwan. It would be rather frustrating if he didn’t get the role because he didn’t look the part.

“Try doing it for now. It’s the air around you that matters.”

Chihwan nodded.

That’s right, I’ll show them what I got.

Chapter 526

15 minutes. It was a short amount of time, but still long enough to finish reading the script. Since she said that they didn’t have to memorize it, rather than reading through all of it, it was more important to understand the general context. This was his first time acting for something in front of everyone here. Rather than acting skills, Chihwan thought that it would be the setting of the environment that would decide the audition.

‘The main character’s name is Minho. There’s no mention of his looks.’

Since the script wasn’t that difficult to read, he managed to read the entire thing in just ten minutes. Personally, the main character had a personality he really hated. Abandoning someone that was once his friend? But it wasn’t that he couldn’t understand him completely. There was a guy that didn’t talk much with the others when Chihwan was in middle school, and he did feel pity when he looked at that guy. Leading a solitary school life had to be very excruciating.

“Five minutes left,” said Sora.

Chihwan flipped the page back and looked at the middle part. This was the part where Minho reached out to the bullied friend and said that they should overcome it together. Chihwan really liked this part. It was clearly the moment in the play that was abundant with emotions. Rather than a scene where he was being bullied, a bright and cheerful scene would probably be better for the audition.

He uttered the words in the script out loud. The other students sitting next to him seemed to have decided on the scenes they wanted to do as they all started muttering their lines. He also imagined the situation inside his head and practiced some actions as well.

“Then let’s start. If anyone wants to come forward, please go ahead.”

Chihwan looked at the others for now. Being first was definitely going to be quite a burden here. While he was confident, he thought that he should improve himself after looking at how everyone else did it.

“Then let’s start from the left.”

Since there were no volunteers, Sora pointed to the left. His peer walked forward with an awkward expression on his face. Chihwan was sitting to the far right, so he was last. That wasn’t bad.

“Don’t be too nervous. We aren’t looking for perfection. If you can’t remember the lines, don’t panic and just look at the script.”

Daemyung told him to relax and take it slow. Chihwan felt himself becoming even more nervous when he heard those words. It finally felt real to him that he was acting in front of someone else.

“Please begin when you’re ready. Oh, tell us which scene you’re doing before you start.”

After saying those words, Sora looked at Chihwan’s peer who stood in front of her with a calm gaze. Chihwan felt as though he had a stomach ache. Just watching from the side was so nervewracking already, so how nervous would he be if he was the one standing there?

“I’m Kim Yoohwan. I-I’ll do scene 11.”

Yoohwan barely managed to speak and readied himself. Chihwan quickly flipped through the script to look at scene 11. It was the part that was slightly ahead of the scene he was planning to do.

Yoohwan, who wandered around in front of the camera for a while, took some deep breaths before starting his act.

“Uhm, if you’re going to eat by yourself, would you like to eat with me?”

As soon as he started talking, Chihwan clenched his eyes shut. He couldn’t bear to watch. The shaking voice, nervous hand gestures - it was an act that made the watcher feel ashamed. Chihwan clenched his teeth since he felt as though his whole body was being tickled. If he laughed now, he would be glared at by everyone else. He glanced next to him and saw that the others were also desperately trying to hold back their laughter. Some were twisting their bodies up. The girls were better. Since they were the judges, they were watching the act quite seriously. He felt rather ashamed when he saw that. He calmed his mind down and watched his friend’s acting to the end.

“That’s the end.”

“Okay, thank you for that. Next person, please come up.”

The friend that finished his act first sat down with an expression that looked like he was freed. Chihwan thought that he should’ve gone first if he knew that this was what it was going to be like. Chihwan licked his lips because of his impending turn. This was no time to laugh. He was going to be standing up there quite soon. He thought that he should try not to be nervous, but that made him more nervous instead.

“I am Kim Jinpil, and I’ll do scene six.”

It seemed that being second didn’t lessen the nervousness. Jinpil’s breathing was even shaking. As he looked at the script several times even during the same sentence, Daemyung told him to take deep breaths midway.

Chihwan couldn’t laugh this time. He realized that what he was seeing now, might very well be his own future. So acting wasn’t so easy. He focused and watched the acts of his friends. When he watched seriously, he no longer felt embarrassed. Instead, he was now filled with worries since he could catch the many immature parts that they showed. Younghoon, who went up third, was someone who was often complimented for his good pronunciation by the seniors during read-throughs, but right now, everything he said sounded completely incomprehensible. Chihwan realized just how hard it was to read through a script in a short time and act based on it immediately.

Eventually, the person sitting next to him stood up. He somehow felt even more scared with no one beside him. The fellow that stepped forward took a deep breath before starting to act. He didn’t think much about him usually since this guy was rather docile normally, but he was much better than the three that came before him. He was shaking and was stuttering from time to time as well, but this was the first time he felt that someone was looking at the camera while acting.

“Jinsoo, you’re good,” Daemyung said those words after the act ended.

Now there was even more pressure on him. Chihwan had another look at scene 14 before standing up.

“I am Ahn Chihwan, and I’d like to do scene 14.”

He felt like he was going crazy. As soon as he stood in front of the camera, his thighs tensed up and his knees started shaking. The gazes of the people that looked at him from the other side of the laptop were scary, but he never realized that a camera lens, which wasn’t even a living thing, could give off so much pressure. He felt his head go blank as he barely managed to utter his first line.

“It’s hard going to school, isn’t it? I find it hard too. Everyone looks down on me.”

What was the next line again? During that instant of silence, Chihwan could feel gazes that looked at him and hear some whispers, which made his head go completely blank. He dazed out for a few seconds before hurriedly taking out his script. He finally realized why the people before him looked so nervous. They all probably felt like him. What was the next line again? Which page was it on? Wow, this is completely crazy.

“Uh, uh… so it’s we should uh… we should help each other out. The winner is the one that lasts till the end!”

At the end of his sentence, he put too much strength into his words because he was so relieved that it was over. He didn’t even remember what he said. He heard the judges thank him before he walked to the others and sat down next to them.

“How was I?” he asked.

“You looked like a total idiot,” his friend replied.

“That was so damn hard.”

“I couldn’t remember a thing when I walked up there and saw the camera. I chose a short scene on purpose, but why couldn’t I remember it?”

“I tried to go with the cool scene, but boy do I regret it now. I was thinking about how I should do my hand gestures, my gaze, and my walking style, but nothing came to my mind when I actually stood up there. It’s driving me crazy.”

Chihwan clicked his tongue. It wasn’t even that hard. He just had to say a few lines and reach his hand out with a smile on his face, yet that was so hard to do. What was curious was that his nervousness disappeared when he realized that his act was over. Disappointment replaced his nervousness, and only regret remained behind at the end. Even though he had a plan, he couldn’t even start the ‘p’ of his plan before everything ended.

“The next group is coming in,” his friend pointed at the door and said.

Chihwan shook his head as he saw the five people come in with confident expressions on their faces.

‘Let’s see how you do in fifteen minutes.’

The benefit of being the first to take the medicine was that he could enjoy the pains of the followers. Chihwan looked forward to what kind of acting his friends would put on show. It was definitely a comedy, to say the least.

* * *

Ando glanced at Sora. She was writing things down with a serious expression. It seemed that none of them were to her liking.

‘Well, they were all strange.’

In the first place, they shouldn’t have had any expectations for them to do it properly after giving them only 15 minutes. Even he, who had zero experience in acting, knew that that was a difficult task. That was why he tried to look at the air they gave off rather than their acting skills as much as possible, but this audition made it hard to do even that. No, this couldn’t even be called an audition anymore.

“Wait a moment.”

This participant had a quick look at the script before continuing. A person with good memory should be able to memorize a couple of lines in a few minutes. But not even one of them finished their act without looking at the script. Was it that hard? Ando tried memorizing the lines after reading for ten minutes, and it was so easy. If he, who wasn’t so smart, could do it, they should be able to do it as well.

‘Looks like stage fright is really scary.’

Even though the judges were their peers, there were more than twenty people watching them. These boys probably rarely stepped up in front of the blackboard in class to present their answers, so it might be much more difficult than he imagined to act while everyone else paid attention to them. Ando imagined himself in front of the camera.

‘Oof, that’s not happening.’

Just imagining that was enough to make him become nervous. He could indirectly understand that not just anyone could become an actor.

“Seonbae, do you have anyone you’ve taken a liking to?” asked Sora in a small voice.

Ando slowly shook his head.

“They all look pretty much the same to me.”

“I think so too. I’m watching them seriously, but none of them caught my eyes.”

“We were going to pick them according to the feeling they gave off anyway.”

“That’s true. What do we do if even Maru-seonbae is like that?”

“Well, I’m not sure, but he’s been acting for a long time, hasn’t he? He should be different.”

“I’m worried since he only has 15 minutes.”

“Ah, right. Then he might be similar.”

“For now, I picked these five. Since the main character is being bullied, I excluded the ones that looked cheerful. Also, the good-looking ones too. I might be biased, but from the way I see it, most of the people that are bullied are shy-looking or are quite small.”

Ando nodded. Ando never had bullying issues in any of his classes throughout his school life. He didn’t know what kind of people were bullied, but like what Sora said, they shouldn’t be the likable-looking type. Thinking about it rationally, the ones that were teased when he was young all looked a bit dazed. Bullying had to be something that started from a trivial reason like that.

“I was actually bullied because I was overweight. Also, I stuttered quite a bit. Though, I still do that now,” Daemyung confessed something unexpected.

Ando looked at Daemyung in surprise. Bullied? He didn’t look like someone who would experience that at all. In fact, with a body like his, Ando thought that he was the one who overpowered everyone else.

“You were being bullied, seonbae? You don’t look like that though. Since you are quite cute, you’re more like a mascot rather than someone who would be bullied,” said Sora.

Daemyung smiled awkwardly and said that the reason he was bullied was something very trivial. Someone who had experience was sitting right next to him? Daemyung must’ve heard that someone that had the image of ‘being bullied’ was not good-looking, right? Ando felt sorry.

“So having a big body is a reason for bullying as well, huh. This whole bullying thing, I guess it starts off because of the pettiest reasons. It’s childish, really childish.”

Sora looked a little uncomfortable as she said those words. Maybe something came to mind?

At that moment, the door opened and the last group entered. Ando looked at Maru, who stood fourth in line. Until now, it was hard for him to discern the level of acting of the participants since they were all generally the same. If even Maru was like that, they would really have to base their judgement on looks.

“You have 15 minutes to read the script, and please start acting starting from the person on the left,” said Sora.

Ando picked up his pen. The audition was over after these five. The film production club, after all its ups and downs, was going to start creating a film again. Ando looked at Sora, who looked resolute. Although she was quite rude, he had seen her true feelings during the past couple of days. Plus, the other club members also agreed to create a film together. When he decided that they should create a good movie and told Sora about it, Sora expressed her thanks with a face that looked like she was about to cry.

‘We were a little taken aback back then.’

They didn’t know that she would show tears, so they had quite a hard time calming her down. Ando looked at Sora. He met eyes with her since she just happened to turn her head to see him as well, and Sora warned him saying that he should watch properly.

“Alright, alright,” said Ando with a smile.

For some reason, he felt a bit hot.

Chapter 527

Chihwan had almost given up at this point. There were seventeen first year boys in the club. Until now, he and thirteen of them had performed, and each one, including his own performance, was utterly cringe to look at. Just watching them made him feel embarrassed. It felt like there were thirteen antenna towers spreading embarrassment frequencies around him. At first, he could laugh about it, but after thirteen repetitions of that, he felt utterly embarrassed. He wanted someone to put on a good show to relax those expressions on the faces of the film production club. Well, from the way things were going now, such a thing didn’t seem to be possible.

“Thank you for your performance.”

The fellow that just finished scene 14 returned with a bitter smile on his face. Scene 14. It seemed that everyone thought that that scene was cool. Before that fellow, he and seven out of thirteen participants did the same scene. Chihwan wanted to cry because he was reminded of his awkward acting whenever scene 14 replayed in front of him.

“Why did you do scene 14?”

“Because the lines are cool.”

“That’s so simple-minded of you. You did it because it was cool?”

“What did you do then?”

Hearing that question, Chihwan didn’t say anything. That friend of his asked if he did 14 as well in a small voice. He quietly nodded and was given a smack.

“Next.”

Chihwan raised his head when Sora said those words. He saw Maru standing up. The others, who were chatting among themselves, all quietened down as well. Their senior was finally up.

‘Will he really be different?’

Chihwan watched nervously.

“I am Han Maru, and I’ll do scene 1.”

He thought that he had heard wrong. Scene 1? Chihwan looked at the script. That was the scene where the main character woke up from bed, turned off the alarm, and left the house. There weren’t any lines, not to mention big movements. It was a scene that had nothing to show. There wasn’t anyone until now who chose this scene.

The film production club sitting behind the camera also seemed a little startled by his decision.

“Ah, okay. Please start once you’re ready.”

Maru calmly looked at his script in front of the camera. He didn’t look hurried at all. That was completely different from himself, who acted uneasy when he got in front of the camera. It was then that he realized that he could gain some time by doing that.

After closing the script, Maru said that he’ll start and lied down. When Chihwan looked at just that, he laughed a little, but it also made him realize something.

‘It’s not cringy like before.’

The situation itself was rather funny, but he couldn’t take his eyes off Maru. He was able to watch properly. This was a stark contrast to when he had to look at his awkward friends.

An act that didn’t look bad or weird.

Maru sighed as he reached out with his left hand without looking. He pretended to grab something before stopping. Like that, about 10 seconds passed before he slowly got up.

‘His expression is… ’

He subconsciously thought that Maru’s eyes were cloudy. Maru sat down on a chair without any emotions before starting to eat. It was clear that he was eating even though there was nothing there. It wasn’t exaggerated either. A really exhausted kid was just eating food.

Chihwan felt as though he could hear sand being chewed. It was strange. There was nothing there, yet there was. There were plates, food, and water where Maru’s hands were reaching out to. He saw what he was not supposed to. It wasn’t like some precise pantomime or something either. Sometimes, he just awkwardly waved his hand in the air. However, that didn’t look forced at all. It was limitlessly natural.

He stood up from his chair and picked up his bag before leaving. He sat down in a place that was thought to be the shoe area before putting his shoes on. The fidgeting fingers tied his shoelaces several times, before loosening them again. Although he wasn’t that slow doing it, Chihwan thought that that moment was being dragged out endlessly. After standing up slowly, Maru opened the door and left.

“I’m finished.”

Turning around, Maru dusted off his pants before returning to where he originally was. Chihwan was unable to say anything. He realized too clearly how different Maru was.

‘So this is what acting is like.’

Maru-seonbae had shown him acting, and he was busy just following and understanding in his mind.

Chihwan smacked his own knees.

He wanted to become like that senior - he suddenly had that thought. Although all he did was a sequence of actions without saying anything, Maru was much better than himself, who just talked about something random. Chihwan could clearly tell that something was happening to the main character.

Chihwan reflected on his own performance. He wanted to look cool. After all, the character in that scene was a cool character that had escaped being a loser and had approached a bullied friend. All he had in mind during his fifteen minutes was just that. Although he wasn’t able to show it off properly, he thought that he didn’t take the wrong direction.

However, the moment he saw Maru’s performance, he realized that he was horribly wrong. He couldn’t explain exactly why, but he noticed that his own performance was aiming in the wrong direction. He was reminded of the words that art and porn were different. It was really true.

“Ah… yes. Thank you for that.”

Sora, who always spoke immediately after everyone’s performance ended, paused for quite a long time before speaking this time. Next - she added as she looked at the student sitting next to Maru.

“…Do I have to? I mean, can I do it?”

Those words came from that boy’s mouth.

* * *

Sora was watching the last acting club member. Scene 14. The scene where the main character reached his hand out to the new transfer student. Sora also thought that it was the most important scene in the movie. That was because it was when the main character became the most likable. After this, he would ignore the transfer student and start bullying him instead. The members of the acting club seemed to think the same since many of them chose scene 14.

A performance in just 15 minutes. She didn’t have high expectations, but she found it a little pity since they were all similar across the board. She could understand stuttering and getting the gestures wrong. She wasn’t holding the audition to see acting experience after all. She had already expected that they would not be that good at expressing their emotions and gestures. However, the fact that they all focused on that scene was rather disappointing. Had they read the script from beginning to end, they should have realized that the main character wasn’t feeling entirely good when he reached out to the transfer student.

A film was a series of organically connected flows, but everyone based their act on short context alone. This also couldn’t be helped since they only had 15 minutes to prepare, but as the original creator of this work, she felt quite bitter that her work was expressed in a way she didn’t intend.

‘But despite that.’

Sora looked at the memo on her desk. There were five names on that paper. Since their acting skills were generally on the same level, she picked out people who suited the character based on appearance. The club president, Ando, also didn’t have any problem with that.

However, this list was no longer necessary.

She crumpled the piece of paper before putting it in her pocket. She had already decided. The moment she watched his performance, nothing else came to her mind other than the fact that he was the right one for the job. If anyone disagreed, she was willing to fight that person to maintain her opinion.

“Thank you for your performance. For now, I’ll gather everyone’s judgments.”

Sora collected the notes that she handed out to the watching members of the acting club. At the top were Kang Dowook’s and Ahn Bangjoo’s. Sora looked at theirs first. They were the seniors of the acting club. She was curious about what kind of opinions they gave.

‘They didn’t put any effort into this at all…… ’

From numbers 1 to 17, the two of them only wrote one line for everyone. They were generally negative as well. Well, Ahn Bangjoo’s was pretty decent. At least he wrote which part he liked, and which part could have been done better.

‘It’s cringe.’

That was it for Kang Dowook’s paper. He wrote that for numbers 1 through 15. He only wrote something different for number 16, which was Maru.

-Just go with him.

He was blatantly disinterested, but Sora liked that. His thoughts matched hers. Everyone else was no good. Maru-seonbae had to be the main character. She handed over the notes to Ando-seonbae. He made a flustered expression as soon as she handed them over.

Sora then looked at what the girls wrote. Some of the girls even made a list of criteria and scored based on the participants’ performances. This kind of meticulous judging was quite useful. The main character was already decided to be Maru, but a movie wasn’t just created with the main character. The transfer student as well as the original bully were important as well. As long as she based her decisions on the opinions of the majority, the chances of her failing at casting should decrease considerably.

After looking at the notes for a while, Sora spat out a short breath before lifting her head. Although she had already decided on the main character in her heart, she couldn’t just ignore the audition altogether.

“I recommend Han Maru-seonbae,” she said first.

Ando nodded.

“Me too.”

“Me too.”

“And me.”

The 2nd year seniors were of the same mind. Sora looked at Daemyung this time. She asked if he had any other opinions and Daemyung shook his head.

“I thought that Maru should be the one to do it from the beginning. It would instead be strange if he lost to the juniors.”

It was decided then. Sora stood up and spoke,

“The main character will be Maru-seonbae.”

She pressed down on the desk with both of her arms and looked at the acting club sitting in front of her.

“If you have any complaints, you can say them now.”

No one said anything.

“Well then, please take care of us in the future, Maru-seonbae,” said Sora as she looked straight into Maru’s eyes.

* * *

“Try to do the read-throughs without looking at the script as much as possible. Starting next week, we are going to plan movement lines. Instructor Miso becomes more strict once we start practicing with movement, so you should be prepared for that.”

Chihwan looked at Maru, who sat in the corner, as he listened to Daemyung’s words. After the mini audition held by the film production club, Maru sat down in a corner as though nothing had happened and started making props again. Chihwan realized that many others were looking at Maru just like him. It was natural. They got to watch how he acted right in front of them. The air he gave off was completely different. They couldn’t help but take glances at him.

‘I only thought that he looked natural when I watched the drama, but now that I think about it again, he fitted into the drama better than anyone else without feeling off.’

Although he originally didn’t watch ‘New Semester’, ever since he entered the acting club and found out that Maru-seonbae was in it, he started watching it for fun. As Maru was a supporting character, he didn’t appear or talk that much when he did, so he never got the feeling that Maru was good at acting. However, he realized after seeing the wordless performance he saw today. He never got the feeling that Maru was good since he looked natural and didn’t seem like he was acting at all.

‘He didn’t look forced at all.’

He was thinking such, when,

“Looks like everyone’s mind is elsewhere right now.”

Daemyung smiled and put down the script. Chihwan immediately came back to himself.

“Maru, can you come over for a bit?”

Daemyung called out to Maru. Chihwan observed Maru, who came with wood glue in hand, in detail. The gloomy expression he had during the wordless performance couldn’t be seen anywhere. He looked like a completely different person due to the discrepancies in emotional states.

“Why?”

“Because everyone’s looking at you,” said Daemyung.

“Me?”

Maru turned around to look at the juniors. Chihwan did not look away when Maru’s eyes were on him.

“Uhm, seonbae-nim!” Chihwan raised his hand and spoke.

Since he spoke up anyway, he decided to do something big.

“I want you to watch my acting.”

“Acting?”

“Yes.”

“Instructor Miso will be coming tomorrow, so tell her to do that. She has much better judgement than me, and is also a lot better at explaining as well.”

“Uhm, the instructor is… a little scary. Also, I want to show my act to you and get your opinion!”

“From me? Why?”

“I fell for you after I watched you before!”

He realized that he said something rather strange after he uttered those words, but he believed that his true intentions had gotten across. Man to man. Such a thing was supposed to be direct.

“If you’re confessing, I’d like to decline politely. Also, I hope you stay 10 meters away from me from now on.”

“No, that’s not it!” He had shouted in panic when Maru smiled back faintly.

“Ahn Chihwan, right?”

“Yes!”

“Go ahead. I’m not sure if I can be of help, but I’ll try.”

As soon as he said those words, the others raised their hands as well.

“Can you have a look at me as well?”

“I’d also like you to watch me.”

“If you have the time, please watch me too!”

Chihwan glared at the others.

“Hey! I’m first!”

He darted off and stood in front of Maru. Maru-seonbae said he liked boxing, and he really had a good build. He realized when he stood in front of him. Although he was a little shorter than him, he looked solid, or maybe his center of gravity was really stable. He felt like he was looking at a tree that sprouted out of a block of concrete.

“Daemyung. Is it okay to do this during practice?”

“It’s fine. This can also be a facet of training. Also, we need to start picking as well.”

Hearing Daemyung’s words, Chihwan gulped. Although they had split up into three groups to practice, more than half of them, no, more than two-thirds of them would not be able to go up on stage. Daemyung was probably referring to the fact that it was about time they selected the actors and started practicing for real.

“Then I guess I can have a look. It’d be good if the girls can do it as well, right?”

“Yeah. Girls, you can perform with the script for the play. As for the boys, you should show Maru what you did for that audition before. Maru will tell you various things.”

“I don’t have that much to say though.”

“Do it anyway. They are our juniors.”

Maru crossed his arms and sat down on the chair. Chihwan felt a completely different kind of nervousness than when he stood in front of the film production club. Maru’s eyes looked scary. He felt like anything uttered from that mouth might make him dizzy.

‘This, this is the real deal!’

If he was going to do it, he might as well do it properly.

Chihwan snorted.

Chapter 528

Giving advice was a sensitive thing. Maru dug up an old memory. He didn’t remember exactly what kind of situation he was in, but he could clearly remember the woman’s words filled with conviction.

-My words will never reach you since they are always said in vain, but I will keep saying them. Maybe one day, I’ll reach you if I try several, dozens, or hundreds of times. I cannot guarantee that my words will change you. However, there’s no guarantee that my words will never change you either. Even if my words disappear in vain, if I say them many many times, perhaps one day, one person out of the hundreds of people that heard me might have changed. I will be able to smile in satisfaction when that day comes.

Whether he heard those words from a company education session, or from a teacher when he was in school, he didn’t remember. The voice was clear to him, but the context wasn’t. He didn’t even know who those words were directed at, but he could make out the meaning quite clearly.

These kinds of words appeared quite a lot during speeches on TV programs. They were said to wrap things up after giving a speech. That the speaker would be satisfied if just one person out of the entire audience had his or her life changed because of that speech.

Most of the time, advice was useless. Maru thought that as well. If advice was effective, this world would have turned into a utopia a long time ago. To listen to others and make those words their own was definitely not something easy. There were very few people that could do that. Words that took the form of advice when entering other people’s ears usually disappeared without going through the brain. They were mostly substituted by mocking laughs or perhaps annoying noises, before getting dumped into the psychological trash can.

Maru was aware of the importance of advice. If there was one way to learn about the essence of life without experience, it would be to get advice from those that had experienced it already.

He had already experienced how important it was to listen to someone else’s words, so Maru did not take any advice he heard lightly. He took them to heart even if it was something awkward. Even from nonsensical advice, there were things to be gained after disassembling its meaning and reversing its intent. Maru was well aware that a combination of such words was enough to change the personality known as Han Maru.

Most of the time, advice did not hold more meaning than words of interruption.

However, from time to time, they possessed power unlike any other to people that were ready to accept that advice.

That was the reason he rarely advised people despite knowing that it was useless most of the time. Maru did not like responsibility, nay, he was afraid of it. He wanted to make an escape path for himself whenever he thought about the weight that words contained.

Advice always came hand in hand with responsibility. Whether it was advice coming from the bottom of the heart, or an awkward one made up on the spot in order to maintain face, if there was a person that listened to that advice and changed their life due to it, the advisor might one day receive this question: I lived my life as you told me to, so why am I in this state?

“I am going to have a look at your acting, and I will tell you my own opinions without holding back. If you need advice, I will naturally give you some. However, there’s something you must keep in mind. You may listen to my words, but don’t trust them fully.”

Maru looked at the kids standing in front of him.

“Those of you that said you dreamed to become an actor, please raise your hand. Only raise your hand if you truly want to join the entertainment industry.”

Seventeen boys, and fifteen girls. All of the first year students raised their hands. Whether it was Miso fanning the flames, or it was just that such people had gathered at the acting club, he did not know, but Maru still sighed in a small voice.

“I want to become an action actor!” Bangjoo, who was watching from one side, raised his voice.

Maru told him to calm down. In Bangjoo’s case, his will was clear. His familial circumstances could help his dream as well. There was Ahn Joohyun to back him up, so what did he have to worry about?

But that wasn’t the case with the first year juniors here.

“Since you are all aspiring to become true actors, I will say it once again. You may listen to me, but don’t trust my words fully. If you live your life while taking my advice as the truth, you will definitely regret it.”

He paused after saying up to that point. After a moment, his juniors spoke.

“Seonbae-nim. You’re being way too serious.”

“Right. Just do it lightly. We aren’t kids.”

“We’ll filter things out by ourselves. We aren’t idiots.”

Maru hammered the nail once again as he looked at his juniors.

“If you think that way, then I guess it’s good.”

“But why did you say those words?” Chihwan asked.

“To avoid responsibility.”

“To avoid responsibility?”

“Yeah.”

After making sour expressions, the juniors burst out laughing. The girls were even slapping each other’s arms as they giggled.

“Maru-seonbae. You’re actually funnier than you look.”

“I thought you were a scary person since you always stayed quiet, but you’re a completely different person once you start talking.”

“No one’s going to ask you to take responsibility. You’re worrying way too much.”

“No one’s going to blame you so just tell us a lot.”

Most of them seemed to think that he was joking. Maru also did not add anything. He did expect things to go like this. They were still students after all. They were detached from words like ‘responsibility’.

“Then let’s start. Jinpil, was it?”

“Yes!”

“Do the same thing you did in the audition,” Maru said to the first year junior standing in front of him.

* * *

“It’s natural that you are bad since you didn’t have enough time to interpret the script. However, you should have thought about what you are going to do at least.”

Chihwan looked at Maru, who was speaking with his legs crossed. Dongmin, who had finished acting just now, was totally silent as he listened to Maru’s words. His expression became stiffer and stiffer as Maru continued to speak. It wasn’t that he was dissatisfied. It was probably because the questions Maru asked were very hard to answer.

The nine people that showed their acting to Maru until now experienced the same thing. Whether they were good at acting or not, they were given sharp questions. They tried their best to give good answers, but Maru would give them new questions as soon as they answered.

“Th-thank you.”

Dongmin turned around with his shoulders drooping. Chihwan looked at Daemyung, who stood behind Maru. Usually, the club president would clap and encourage everyone, but he was staying quiet for some reason. Thanks to that, the atmosphere on the 5th floor was quiet and even desolate.

‘I thought he would take things lightly.’

He did find it a little strange that Maru was talking about responsibility and whatnot before he started looking at people’s acting, but he thought that he just understood wrong. When Jinpil’s acting ended and he was given a barrage of questions, he thought that that was because he was the first. But that wasn’t it. Maru was very persistent with his barrage of questions to the point that it felt unpleasant. During Jinpil’s turn, he honestly just laughed. He found it funny that his friend was just licking his lips, unable to answer the questions at all, and he even wanted to leave behind a record of it as a video. However, when the same thing repeated for the 2nd and 3rd times, he was no longer able to laugh. He realized that he would soon be one of the sacrifices to those merciless questions. The girls sitting next to him even started writing things down as they waited for their turn. The acting advice session that started off with a laugh became a stifling event.

Looking at Maru, who took a bit of a break to drink some water, Chihwan took a deep breath. It was his turn now. He kept looking at the script while he waited. Even if he couldn’t act that well, he didn’t want to make any mistakes.

“Chihwan was next, was it?”

“Yes, it’s me.”

“Do you think you can do it now?”

“Yes!”

Chihwan thought about scene 14 as he stood up. He missed a lot of things during the audition since he didn’t have much time, like the fact that the main character was reaching his hand out to the transfer student when he was in a difficult situation himself. Based on common sense, it would be incredibly difficult to even talk to the new student. The scene 14 that he only thought of as cool might not turn out to be really like that.

“Are you ready?”

“Ah, yes!”

He hesitated for a while because he was thinking. Chihwan started acting immediately. A little more awkwardly, thinking that he should do it like he was struggling.

“So, we should help each other out. They say the winner is the one who lasts until the end, right?”

Chihwan slowly reached out. He briefly forgot what kind of shape he should make his hand when offering a handshake, but he did not have any time to think about such a thing so he just pretended to grab slightly.

He then breathed in deeply before stepping back. He sighed in relief. He didn’t make any mistakes when saying his lines. Unlike the first time, when his head was totally blank, he was able to think a bit while he acted this time. Wait, wasn’t that a great improvement? He was still awkward, but he was proud of the progress he made.

“You’re finished, right?”

“Yes.”

“Is your dream to become an actor as well, Chihwan?”

“Yes! I want to become an actor.”

“May I ask why?”

“Uhm… I haven’t thought about the reason, but being an actor is good. You can become famous and earn a lot of money.”

“I see. I guess that’s clearer than the others. Then let me start asking questions.”

It was finally here. Chihwan straightened his waist. He did not make any mistakes when he acted. He believed that the intensity of questions would be a lot weaker than the people that came before him.

“I keep saying this, but there’s no need to take me so seriously.”

“Yes.”

“Then onto the first question. What kind of character was the main character that you acted?”

He could answer that quickly since he was expecting that sort of question.

“A pitiful person who’s being bullied.”

“Does being bullied make you a pitiful person?”

“What? Don’t most people think that way?”

“I’m asking about your opinion, not the general opinion.”

“I think that it does. He’s being bullied and excluded by the others in his class. It’s definitely not a situation where you should laugh.”

Maru faintly nodded. Perhaps he was satisfied with that answer?

“How did you feel when you acted?”

“How did I feel?”

“I’m asking for the emotional state you were in when you acted out the ‘pitiful main character’ that you talked about.”

“Honestly speaking, I didn’t really feel anything. I was too caught up with doing my lines properly.”

“That’s definitely possible. Let’s make assumptions then. Let’s say that you have a perfect interpretation of the script. What did you feel when you acted out this character in front of the camera?”

After thinking about it for a while, Chihwan replied,

“Of course, I felt pity.”

“Why?”

“Eh?”

“Why did you, I mean, why would you feel pity?”

“Because he’s a pitiful character.”

“Let’s say that you and I are two people on very bad terms, and I just won the lottery. How would you feel when you saw that?”

“Not good, at least. I might be annoyed. You’re a person I hate after all.”

“Now, let’s say that in this situation, your soul came into my body. You have just won the lottery. How would you feel?”

“Hm, good, probably. I won the lottery after all.”

“Then, let’s change it again. You are looking at the main character being bullied. You felt pity. Now your soul went into the main character. Would you still pity yourself?”

Chihwan felt like he was given a big whack. He quickly opened the script. Throughout the script, there were parts that implied that the main character was going to commit suicide. When he read that, he pitied the main character even more. However, how would he feel if he was in the main character’s shoes? Would a mere ‘pity’ be enough to describe his own emotional state?

“I want to live. I want to kill. I want to die. I don’t know how, but I need to go to school. I feel crazy. I want to throw up. I want to run away. It’s horrible. There’s no hope. I want time to stop. I hope the world can end. I want to go where there’s no one. I want to start over in a place no one knows me. I want someone to help me.”

Those words came from Maru’s mouth. The individual lines, that weren’t connected in any way, sounded scary as though they represented the main character’s emotions.

“I think that the foundation of acting is whether you can make the viewers accept or not. Acting contains a lot of variability, but I think that it all comes down to whether you can invoke sympathy in the viewers. The character on the screen is definitely not them, but they sometimes cry, laugh, and even become angry when looking at that character. That’s because they are sympathizing with the character. The emotions that the character harbors inside are also within the viewers and are also similar. That’s why we are able to share emotions with fictional characters.”

Chihwan nodded. He understood what Maru was trying to say.

“Do you get what I mean?”

“Yes, I think I get it.”

Something welled up in him. He felt like he found out some great secret. Maybe his acting would reach a completely different level - Chihwan had such thoughts.

At that moment, Maru gave him the next question as though he read his mind.

“However, most of us don’t have any experience being bullied. What we know is a fraction of abstract emotions that we ‘think’ such people feel, as well as the persuasive information that we receive through the media. In the end, it is all fake. We can only act on what is fake. In that sense, Chihwan.”

“Y-yes!”

“What do you think you need to do in order to make something real out of something fake? Don’t think about it too deeply before answering. I’m not taking an ‘I don’t know’ for an answer, so bear that in mind as well.”

Oh no. The barrage of questions had just started.

“You can take your time. Daemyung, give me some water.”

Chihwan looked around. He saw the faces stricken with fright from those that were waiting for their turn. It seemed that practice was going to be really long today.

Chapter 529

“It’s quite late.”

9 p.m. Although Sunday practices usually ended around 3, it went on for longer today. He waved his hand at his juniors leaving the hall in tatters. They smiled back at him awkwardly.

“Aren’t you tired?” Daemyung asked as he tossed him his bag.

“I am. My throat hurts a bit as well. I’ve never talked for so long before after all.”

Maru looked at the three 2-liter water bottles in the plastic bag. He had drunk those over the span of six hours. When he decided to watch everyone’s acting, he did not plan to do things lightly, but nor did he plan to dig so deeply. When he talked to them, he realized that he got something out of it from talking to them, and when he kept asking questions because of that, the sun had set.

“Why didn’t you stop me?”

“I just kept watching since it looked fun.”

“Really? They looked tired though.”

“Not for them, it looked fun for you. Also, it was fun just listening to them, so I didn’t want to stop you. In the first place, they wanted this after all. They should have been prepared for this much at least.”

“Were you always the strict character?”

Daemyung shrugged. Maru turned the lights off in the hall before checking whether there were any windows open.

“Where’s Dowook? I think I saw him with Chihwan before.”

“He left first. Apparently, he has to help out with cleaning a large vehicle at the petrol station.”

“He’s going to succeed that business, so I guess he should do that. But it looks like Dowook and Chihwan are pretty close, eh? I could see them together for quite a bit today.”

“Chihwan also likes bicycles, apparently.”

“Oh, really?”

They relied on the light from their phones to walk down to the 2nd floor. They knocked on the door of the night-duty room which was to the right of the staircase and told the security guard that they finished practice.

“You should go home early.”

Leaving behind the security guard who climbed upstairs while yawning, they went down to the 1st floor.

“You’re riding your bike home, right?”

“Yeah.”

“Then I’ll get going first. See you tomorrow.”

“Watch out on your way home.”

Daemyung disappeared with the juniors who were waiting by the school gates. Maru pulled his bike out from the bicycle rack. The wheel moved and the chains started turning.

He thought that he should lubricate it since he could hear unpleasant friction noises from the chains. Dowook would probably take care of it if he asked. As for the fee, some bread and milk should suffice.

He turned on the headlights he attached in between the two handles. He lightly kicked off and went outside of the school when he saw a long shadow right underneath his wheel.

“Why haven’t you gone home yet?” Maru asked as he looked at Chihwan.

“I had something to ask you, seonbae-nim.”

“Ask me? You should’ve done that through text.”

“I don’t think that’s polite.”

“I’m not that stuck-up… So, what did you want to ask?”

“It might sound like a stupid question, but there’s no one to ask around me other than you.”

Chihwan tensed his eyes.

“Is it hard to become an actor?”

Maru replied without hesitation.

“Yeah, it’s hard.”

Done? - he added before pedalling away. The bike moved forward.

“Seonbae-nim!”

Chihwan walked quickly next to him.

“Is it really that hard?”

“It is really that hard.”

“Do you think it’s harder than studying?”

“Studying is hard too.”

“Then which one is harder? Becoming successful as an actor, or becoming successful through studying?”

“Well, both of them are hard. But in the case of the former, there are elements of gambling. If you have an ace up your sleeve, you will become popular, but if you don’t, you either take it slow and steady, or just fall altogether.”

Maru sped up his pedalling. He was pretty exhausted right now. If the questions were on point and he could help with them, he would’ve stopped to answer them, but he didn’t feel the need to answer any of them since all the questions required the resolve of the person.

“You’re good at running.”

Despite the fact that he sped up, Chihwan kept up with him.

“If there’s one thing I’m confident in, it’s running.”

“Why don’t you make use of that talent and become an athlete? You have a good build too.”

“I only like running. I’m not good with ball sports either, and I’m a little afraid of them.”

“I guess you’ll be a marathoner then.”

“I abandoned any thoughts of that after I did a half marathon once. I’m not fast enough for short distances, and I tried swimming as well, but there are real freaks in swimming. Their legs and shoulders are just enormous.”

“You tried a lot.”

“My older brother used to tell me that it’s good to try everything.”

“Then you can continue to do that in the future. If you keep trying, you’ll find something that fits you.”

“What if I don’t?”

“There actually might not be any. Actually, that’s the case for most people. How many people in this world actually know precisely what they want to do? They just end up doing it due to circumstances and become adjusted to it. That’s just how people live.”

“But that’s a really boring life.”

“Is your house well off?”

“I think so.”

“How good is ‘I think so’? Do you have real estate?”

“Uhm, I’m not sure about the details, but as far as I know, we own a building.”

“What did your parents say when you said you were going to an engineering high school?”

“They just wanted me to graduate safely, and not make any bad friends.”

“Are you on good terms with your father?”

“Before I entered the acting club, we always used to go fishing together. My father really likes fishing. He’s totally obsessed with it. I like it too.”

“What about your brother?”

“He runs a café.”

“I guess that’s that then.”

Maru put the brakes on. Even though Chihwan must have run for around five minutes, his breathing was stable. His stamina was really good.

“What’s what then?”

“Don’t worry about anything and just try various things out.”

“Can I?”

“If you are uneasy about it, then you should first go home and consult your father about it. He’ll probably tell you to do what you want. If you slip midway, you can just succeed one of your family businesses.”

“But that’s not my life. I want to try achieving success with my own power.”

Maru narrowed his eyes and looked at Chihwan. Why did these Ahns have such strong personalities?

“What do you want to hear from me?”

“What?”

“I might not show a lot of emotions on my face, but I’m really tired right now, okay? If there’s an answer you want, tell me. I’ll give you that answer.”

Hearing that question, Chihwan crossed his arms and pondered about it. Maru looked at him for a while before stepping on his pedals. Chihwan chased him from behind while shouting ‘seonbae-nim’.

“Are you a stalker?”

“No.”

“Then please let me go home. I really don’t have good stamina. I have a fatty liver as well.”

“Really?”

“Oh, I didn’t tell you yet, did I? I actually have cancer.”

Chihwan quietened down before narrowing his eyes to look at him.

“Why are you doing this to me? If you are doing this to me to haunt me, then I’d like to tell you that it’s really effective. Your plan was very good.”

“I said that’s not it.”

Maru narrowed his eyes and spoke,

“This is becoming really unpleasant for me. I have an incurable disease where my self-confidence plummets when I’m with good-looking people, okay? If you were a cute girl, I might have made some time to listen, but no matter how I look at you, you aren’t the cute type. You are biologically male as well.”

“…You’re really different from what I thought.”

“That’s how it is most of the time. Well, can I leave now? It’s getting cold too.”

“Then should I buy you coffee or something?”

“No, I’ll politely decline.”

“Then what about a blind date?”

“Sorry about that, but I already have a girlfriend.”

“Really?”

“I’m going to propose to her soon.”

“I’m scared because that doesn’t sound like a lie to me.”

“Well, I’m serious about this one.”

After making a surprised expression, Chihwan soon clapped and congratulated him. Maru shook his head in resignation.

“I lose.”

“Lose what?”

“You really are my natural enemy.”

He was daring, yet pure. It was impossible to calculate his next actions because he didn’t think about such a thing at all. He was like a puppy that wagged its tail as it approached him. Even if he shouted ‘go away’ and flicked it away, it would flinch and glance at him before approaching him again and then lying on its backs wanting to play with him. Maru really wasn’t good with people like that. He could easily come to a conclusion with people who talked while pressing buttons on a calculator, but those that stayed true to their emotions were hard to deal with since there was no concrete result in mind, causing the conversation to drag out endlessly. Bangjoo seemed reckless because of his loud voice, but he knew how to handle himself in front of others, so this guy couldn’t be compared to Bangjoo either.

To compare him to someone, he was like the polar opposite of Suyeon.

“Think about what you want to ask. I’m going to give you ten minutes to ask and then I’ll leave right after that, so choose your question carefully,” said Maru as he pointed at his watch.

Although Chihwan’s personality was hard to deal with, Maru liked him because he approached him in order to solve his curiosities. It was just like how people who asked how to eat something were much more likable than those that just nagged to be fed.

He got off his bike and looked at Chihwan.

After thinking about it for quite a long time to the point that he was groaning, Chihwan brightened up before speaking,

“How did you become an actor?”

“Things happened.”

“Can’t you explain to me in more detail?”

“I was acting in the acting club, and an opportunity arose which led to my meeting with the president of my current agency.”

“Ah! I guess you asked that president to make you an actor.”

“That’s how it was.”

“What did you ask him to do?”

“It’s a bit complex, but to sum it up into one line, I told him that I’ll act for three years for 300 million won.”

“Ah… what? You gave him three hundred million won?”

“No.”

“Then you received three hundred million?”

“I did.”

“No way, that must be a lie.”

“You’re quick.”

“It’s hard to know whether you’re telling the truth or not because there are no signs when you are lying, seonbae-nim.”

“That’s why one of my career paths was a scammer. If I scam about 10 billion and then rot in jail for two years because of economic offense, I’ll still be able to live an easy life after all. If I put all that money under someone else’s name, it won’t be taken either. This country is so pro-scamming.”

“Th-that doesn’t sound like a joke to me.”

“Then maybe I’m right. Also, you know that time is ticking right?”

Five minutes - he added before putting a foot on a pedal.

“Have you ever regretted doing acting?”

“Regretted? Fortunately, no, at least not until now. I’m earning money, it’s fun, and I get to spread my name around. If I can last long, I’m thinking that it’ll be a pretty good job even if I don’t become hugely popular.”

“Don’t you want to become successful?”

“It’d be good if I did. Yeah, that would be great. But rather than becoming successful, I’m more interested in not failing. It’ll be fine as long as I don’t slip. I’ll be satisfied as long as I can feed myself and my family.”

“Is feeding your family that important of a goal for you?”

“Being able to eat properly is the most important thing. Of course, pooping too.”

He yawned and looked at the time. Ten minutes was almost up.

“Time’s almost up.”

“Wait!”

“Let’s do one last question. I’m really tired right now. You should go home as well. Where do you live?”

“It’s nearby.”

“Damn kid. I have to ride my bike for over 30 minutes to get home. Let me go home already, okay?”

Chihwan laughed before scratching his head.

“Then let me ask you just one more question.”

“What is it?”

“Can I become an actor like you?”

“I wouldn’t know.”

“Can’t you tell me that I can?”

“You will not be able to become an actor.”

“Seonbae-nim!”

“I’m leaving now. Also, you are forbidden from approaching me within a 5m radius for a while. You’re draining my energy. Oldies like me get tired when talking to young ’uns like you. Okay?”

The bike strode forward. His sleepiness flew away when the cold air hit his face. Once he got home, washed up, read through his script once, and lied down, the long day would finally be over. Just as he was thinking that, a short breath escaped Maru’s mouth because he heard a breathing sound. Chihwan was running towards him.

“Seonbae-nim! I really want to become an actor after I saw you acting! So I’m going to ask you a lot of things in the future too! I’m quite persistent, you know?”

Watch out on your way home - Chihwan saw him off with a cracked voice. When he glanced back, he was panting with his hands on his knees.

“Just go back to studying, kid!”

“No!”

“Then become an actor!”

“Yes!”

Maru smiled as he pedalled.

He found a new junior he had taken a liking to, though he was a bit reckless.

* * *

Chihwan straightened up his body after seeing Maru-seonbae going off into the distance. He felt like his heart was going to burst after running at full speed for a while. He panted for a while to calm his breathing before turning around when,

“Ah.”

He forgot about something important. He took out his phone. He looked for a number in his contact list before pressing the call button. There was a series of call beeps before the other party picked up.

“Uhm, Maru seonbae-nim! I completely forgot about this and didn’t giv… seonbae-nim? Seonbae-nim?”

Maru hung up on him. Chihwan licked his lips before looking inside his bag. The lubricant for bicycle chains that Dowook-seonbae gave him was still inside.

-You have something to ask Han Maru? Then give him this since you’re waiting for him. He’ll take care of it if you give it to him. He rides his bike every day, yet he really doesn’t take care of it.

Chihwan shut his lips tight.

“I guess I can’t help it.”

He tightened his bag straps before running at full power. He should be able to catch up if he ran like his life depended on it.

“Seonbae-nim! Wait! Don’t run away, just wait a bit!”

Chihwan ran at full speed towards the bicycle that kept speeding up.

Chapter 530

“Let’s come back after some food. Tell everyone to regather by 2 o’clock,” said Park Hoon as he cracked his neck sideways.

He left a few days ago to cover for the historical drama B team at the request of a senior at the TV station and returned yesterday, and it seemed that his fatigue hadn’t completely disappeared yet. This was why he disliked shooting in the countryside.

“Please come back by 2 after lunch,” Minjoong shouted.

Until a while ago, Minjoong was just an immature assistant director, but now he was a full-fledged worker capable of handling his own jobs.

“Senior, let’s go. I booked the cutlassfish restaurant nearby.”

“You should take some people and eat without me. I’ll look after the equipment.”

“Eh? You should come with us.”

“Go when I tell you to. Senior! Please go and have your meal. I’ll look after the equipment.”

The camera director made a circle with his fingers and then took the camera team and left. The lighting team also left their equipment behind before starting to leave.

“Then I’ll be back as soon as possible.”

“Take your time. Also, sir Hwang likes cutlassfish a lot, so give him the big one.”

“Yes, of course.”

“Don’t order any rice wine though. One glass will become two.”

“Understood.”

Park Hoon stretched his legs out as he leaned back in the temporary chair. Right now, he needed sleep more than he needed food. In his mid twenties, when he just entered the company, he didn’t feel anything when he stayed up the entire night, but now that he was nearing his forties, he had to prepare himself for quite a lot if he wanted to stay up the entire night. As stamina meant everything in this field, it was about time he left the field for the desk, but Park Hoon wished that he could shout ‘cut’ even when he was past 50.

“Director, aren’t you going to eat?”

Suyeon, wearing a white T-shirt and jeans, waved her hand as she approached him.

“Nah. You should have yours, Miss Kim.”

“I heard that the cutlassfish restaurant nearby is really good.”

“Maybe it’s good, but I can’t leave behind all this equipment here. Urgh, I’m lacking energy so stop talking to me and go get some food.”

“Thank you for all your work.”

Park Hoon nodded. If he was shooting at the school like he normally did, he would’ve gone to the restaurant with ease of mind, but he was outside right now. This was in order to shoot a field trip episode that was essential to youth dramas.

“The Spring wind is good.”

Early April, this time of the year had the perfect weather to shoot outside since it was neither cold nor hot. Park Hoon covered his eyes with the shade of his baseball cap before placing his feet on the camera box. This place felt like heaven.

When he enjoyed about ten minutes of relaxation, his hunger, which he had forgotten about, came back to him. Now that he thought about it, he only had a pack of soy milk for breakfast. Although he bought those soy milk packs since they were good for the body, he started drinking them as replacements for breakfast after some time.

He reached inside his jacket in order to soothe his hunger. The chocolates he always brought with him out of habit were supposed to be there, but his fingers came across nothing. Maybe he finished them yesterday? He suddenly remembered that he was chewing on something during the night.

Park Hoon sighed before taking his hand out. There wasn’t anyone around either, so it seemed that he was going to have to wait in the middle of nowhere. Just then, he found someone walking into the shade of a nearby tree with slow steps. He pushed aside the cap that covered his vision before having a closer look.

“Maru, what’s that in your hand?”

Maru, who was about to sit down and lean on the tree, stood up again. Park Hoon’s attention was on the black plastic bag in Maru’s left hand. It was highly probable that there was food in it.

“Are you not going to eat lunch?” asked Maru as he walked up to him.

Park Hoon said ‘later’ before pointing at the plastic bag.

“It’s bread and milk. Would you like to eat some? I only got them because I felt low on sugar. There’s strawberry flavor and chocolate flavor. Which one do you want?”

“Chocolate if possible.”

Maru took out some bread and milk from the plastic bag. The bread was a type of castella that was known for being hard.

“Don’t kids these days dislike bread like this?”

“I once ate it like it was my main food, so.”

“This?”

“Yes.”

Park Hoon stuffed the bread in his mouth before drinking a bit of the milk. When the sweetness seeped into his body, he felt much more clear-headed. It seemed the reason he felt tired was the same as Maru - he was running low on sugar.

“But you’re still young, why are you worried about your sugar level?”

Maru didn’t reply and just grinned instead.

To Park Hoon, Maru was a peculiar kid. Other child actors around Maru’s age usually found him very difficult to deal with. Recently, they started asking him questions about acting, perhaps due to all the time they spent together, but they never talked about personal stuff. A young actor and a director. It somewhat sounded natural for there to be some distance between the two, and even Park Hoon thought that it would be rather weird if the two were close, but when he talked to Maru, he strangely felt at ease. It wasn’t just because of Maru’s character. When he talked to him, he felt like there was something in common. If it was a kid pretending to be an adult, he would feel something iffy about it, but Maru didn’t give him that feeling.

“Is the cutlassfish really good?”

“It’s decent. The roasted one is meh, but you can eat the simmered one because of the spice.”

“Don’t people usually refer to that as bad?”

“Well, it is edible. If you can’t leave because you have to look after the equipment, I’ll look after them in your stead.”

“Forget about it. I’m responsible for them. It will be a huge pain if I leave it to you and something bad happens.”

“I guess that’s true.”

“But why are you here alone? Where’s your usual crew?”

“I’m not sure, I left early after eating. There was a café in front of the restaurant, so they might be drinking coffee there.”

Park Hoon nodded.

“Would you like more?”

Park Hoon hesitated as he looked at the bread in front of him before accepting it. Ruining his appetite with sweet food was secondary. Right now, the priority was to ease his tongue and stomach that desperately craved food.

“I’m not stealing this from you okay? I’m only eating it because you’re giving it to me.”

“Why of course.”

He chewed pieces off the bread before suddenly thinking that it was quite funny seeing this scene. He was getting food from a little kid. Just as he licked off all the cream on his hand, he heard some rustling behind him.

“What’s this? And here I thought I could score some points with these.”

When he turned his head around, he saw Suyeon, whose hands were holding a paper bag with a café logo on it.

“I guess I’ll have them instead.”

She brought over a folding chair before naturally sitting next to him.

“Miss Kim, what about lunch?”

“I’m not good with fish. Maru, would you like one?”

“Sure. I’m trying to lose weight, but I can give up for today.”

“Hey, you’ll never lose weight like that. You should be desperate.”

Park Hoon looked at the sandwich moving around in front of him before reaching out.

“You want one too, director?”

“Give me one if there’s some left. For some reason, my body is craving for some flour today.”

“This isn’t free, so you have to treat me to something later.”

“How petty.”

Thanks to the fresh vegetables in the sandwich, his mouth felt much better now.

“You should eat some more. I was too greedy and ended up buying too much.”

“You’re right, why did you buy so much? Who’s going to eat all this?”

“I’ll just say that this is a stress-relief method for an actress. Now, get eating. I want to get some vicarious satisfaction from it.”

It seemed that he wasn’t going to get that cutlassfish. His stomach wasn’t big enough to eat fish after eating all the sandwiches here.

“Now that I think about it, you’re both in JA, huh,” he said as he drank the coffee that Suyeon gave him.

Suyeon nodded.

“Rather than me, why don’t you look after your junior?” asked Park Hoon.

“I do. I even called you to look at him in a good way. Well, it turned out that you forgot about all of it. Also, he’s the type who would get his own food by himself, so I don’t need to worry about him.”

“I gladly accept any food coming my way. But you keep wanting something from me when you give me something so that’s why I don’t take anything from you.”

“There’s no free lunch in this world. If something comes, then something goes.”

Park Hoon watched Maru and Suyeon talking to each other. He had never seen these two together during the four months he had been working with them. There was no rule that stated that people belonging to the same agency had to be close, and in fact, he saw many cases where they were even wary of each other, so he thought that these two might be such a case, but from the way things were going now, these two seemed to be on pretty close terms.

“Are you two close?”

“No.”

That reply came from Maru.

“We’re really close. Just like siblings.”

And that was from Suyeon.

The two replies came at almost the same time, and Maru didn’t seem to show much of a reaction while Suyeon tried to take away the sandwich in Maru’s hand. Of course, Maru did not let it get taken. He opened his mouth wide and stuffed in half of the sandwich in one go.

“Look at that, he’s totally selfish.”

“You ‘han’t ‘yust ‘hake ‘hack wha’ you ‘have away.”

“Say it after you eat it.”

“You can’t just take back what you gave away. They say that even dogs don’t touch you when you eat.”

Park Hoon came to his own conclusion after looking at the two: the two were very close.

“Uhm, director, may I ask you something?” Maru asked after wiping his mouth with some tissue.

“What is it?”

“When we shoot, there are cuts taken from the main character’s perspective, right?”

“The POV cut. What about it?”

“When should it be used to be effective?”

Park Hoon stared at Maru.

“Are you studying directing already? You want to try your hand at being a director?”

“No. I am participating in a film festival soon, and what we’re making is made by just high school students, so we are lacking a lot of things. The script is pretty decent after polishing it up, but I’m worried about how to make it look good on camera.”

“Film festival?”

“Apparently, it’s the Seoul Youth Film Festival. I’m also on the helping side, so I’m not sure about the details yet.”

“Oh, that. The international competition that’s being held for the first time this year, huh.”

“You know about it?”

“I do. I don’t know a lot, but I do know one of the judges for that. But hey, are you directing that film?”

“No, I’m an actor.”

“Yeah, you should stick to one thing. You’ll end up losing both if you try to chase two. Um, POV cuts are taken from a subjective angle. It’s very good for expressing the mental state of the character. Even when just showing a simple view, when it’s taken from the main character’s perspective, the audience will try to find some meaning in it. In suspense films, the tension of the emotions will vary according to how well you use those POV cuts.”

“Oh, I see.”

“If you want to use a POV cut, you first have to make it clear whose perspective it is. You can’t have the audience wondering whose view it is. However, POV cuts require some specific cuts before, so it’s no fun if you use them all the time. It’s not called the ‘point of view’ for nothing. You should use it in scenes that you want to emphasize but think twice before using it. It will be a waste of cuts if you try to emphasize something unnecessary.”

“Thank you. I’ll remember it to tell the person that will be directing the film.”

“Man, the world has gotten good. High school students can shoot films now, and there’s a place where they can show it off.”

He didn’t say that in a mocking tone. He sounded truly envious. This was something unimaginable when Park Hoon himself was in high school

“Try your best. A director only gets better the more he shoots, and actors improve the more they get shot.”

After saying those words, he sat up. Maru and Suyeon also stood up.

“Alright, have a nice rest.”

“I’ll be leaving too. Also, you should get some sleep. It’s really dark under your eyes,” Suyeon said as she pointed at his eyes.

When he yawned and after getting some rest, Minjoong came back telling him to get lunch.

“Nah.”

“Aren’t you going to eat?”

“I had something to eat separately. But rather than that, didn’t you get a phone call from an unknown number recently?”

“An unknown number?”

“Wasn’t there some woman that talked in a really soft voice?”

“Soft voice, ah! There was. Why do you ask?”

“What did you do back then?”

“Well, she was saying something, but I couldn’t hear anything so I just hung up. It was during the shoot as well.”

Park Hoon faintly smiled and nodded his head.

“Congratulations.”

“Eh?”

“Writer Lee Hanmi wants to see you personally. She wants to see who it was that hung up on her after answering her phone call like that.”

Park Hoon continued,

“Let’s pull the shoot by 10 minutes. It looks like everyone has eaten already. The higher ups have been nagging about going over budget and whatnot recently too. Okay?”

“S-senior. Was that really writer Lee Hanmi?”

“Consider yourself lucky. That proud Mrs. Lee wants to see you in person. Who knows? She might throw another script at you for your own personal work. Though, you’ll probably be half dead by then because the president will kill you.”

He tapped on Minjoong’s shoulder. Minjoon’s face was going dark.

‘Ah, now that I think about it… ’

Writer Lee Hanmi also said that she wanted to see Suyeon once. Since she was an immensely popular writer, he couldn’t just ignore her. Suyeon would also probably accept gladly if he told her that.

“What are you doing? Message everyone.”

“Y-yes.”

Park Hoon chuckled as he looked at Minjoong, who looked like he was dying.

Chapter 531

“If you like her, you should just confess,” said Maru as he grabbed Giwoo’s shoulders.

Giwoo made a complex expression as he shook his head.

“Yeseul wouldn’t want me to confess to her.”

“So? Are you going to keep watching her like a flower in a vase? You are really frustrating. You have the smarts to study, but you don’t have the smarts in this area. Jichan will take Yeseul away from you like this, you know?”

“What?”

Giwoo widened his eyes and made a surprised expression, when,

“Cut. Let’s do that again. Giwoo, your expression is good, but don’t reveal it too much.”

“Yes, understood!”

Maru pushed up his glasses before taking a step back. This was the episode where Giwoo’s and Jichan’s one-sided love for Yeseul became deeper. It was the main event of youth dramas, the one-sided love. The role of Lee Chan - Maru’s character - in this episode was to fan the flames. He, along with Dongwook, induced Yeseul, Jichan, and Giwoo to gather in one spot while they watched. The cheerful girl who knew nothing about love, Yeseul, would start to become conscious of Giwoo, and Jichan would express his heart in a twisted way after he saw that.

“I guess our characters are turning into flintstones huh,” Maru said to Dongho, who stood next to him.

“Flintstones?”

“We are characters that lose all presence once we set fire to the event. There was a huge decrease in cuts after the trainee teacher’s first love episode.”

“What can we do about it? Their popularity is through the roof. Have you seen the forums?”

“I haven’t checked them since the first episode.”

“You should look at them when you go home today.”

Dongho sighed a little before leaving the camera angle. Producer Park Hoon’s ready signal entered Maru’s ears. He stood in front of Giwoo before getting his emotions ready. Since he just had to say a couple of lines, he didn’t need deep emotions for it.

“If you like her, you should just confess,” he uttered the same words.

* * *

“This shoot is quite long.”

Joomin sat next to him. When she opened the orange insulated bottle, a bitter coffee fragrance could be smelled. Maru reached out.

“What?”

“Aren’t you going to give me some?”

“I am, but you’re reaching your hand out like it’s natural. This is mine, you know?”

“I’m a bit tired. I haven’t done night shoots in a long time. Anyways, it is black coffee right?”

“I always drink black.”

He received the coffee that Joomin poured for him with both of his hands before taking a sip. It was 10:13 in the evening. They had returned from the field trip shoot to the school and had kept shooting until now. Only one episode aired per week, and there were rarely any night shoots since there were a lot of underage actors, but it seemed that they were going to spend the whole night today from the way things were going now.

“Why do we have to be caught up in this when they’re the ones busy?” Dongho grumbled.

Maru gave him the lid of the insulated bottle with coffee in it. He intended for Dongho to shut up after drinking it. After drinking a sip, Dongho made a sour expression before putting down the lid. Dongho did not like black coffee. Of course, Maru knew this already.

“If you don’t like that, you just have to become successful. The schedule is only tight because the main actors can’t make the schedule. We can’t really do anything about it.”

Maru shook the lid off before returning it to Joomin.

The reason they were shooting late into the night was because they were shooting for two episodes worth of shots. Since the three main characters, Giwoo, Yeseul, and Jichan, couldn’t make time to shoot together next week, they naturally shot more today.

“I also want to become a popular star so that everyone else can match my schedule,” said Joomin while resting her chin on her hands.

Maru looked 20 meters away from where he was sitting. In the corner of the school field, where bluish lights were installed on either side, Yeseul was sitting there. They were given a break after three consecutive NGs, and Yeseul, who was responsible for the NG cuts, was looking at the script with a face filled with worry.

“If they had me do it, I’m confident that I can do it without NGs.”

Dongho clicked his tongue. This time, Joomin gave him the lid filled with coffee. It had been five months since they had started working together. They knew how to handle each other now.

Maru picked up the script. Only when Yeseul completed this scene properly could they go to the next scene, and only then could they go home.

Yeseul: (Smiling, but not knowing what to do) Y-you’re here.

Giwoo: (Looking at Yeseul without saying a word)

Yeseul: You don’t need to mind what the others said during the day. They just said that to tease you.

Giwoo: (Opening his mouth trying to speak, but then closing it again)

Yeseul: (Looking at Giwoo, before looking at the school gates behind him.) L-let’s get going. It’s pretty late. Should we get some tteokbokki on the way home? That place was really good.

Giwoo: Uhm, Yeseul…

Yeseul: (Flustered)… Yeah?

Giwoo: What the other kids said, they weren’t lying. I like you.

Yeseul: (Clasping her hands, looking a little uneasy) What do you mean. Wh-why are you…

Giwoo: (About to speak, but then looks at Yeseul’s hands) I-I was joking. I just said it because I wanted to see how you react? How could I possibly like you? We are just close friends.

Giwoo turns around, and Yeseul looks back. After a sigh of relief comes a sigh of disappointment. Yeseul shakes her head in an attempt to deny her own emotions, but she can’t call out to Giwoo so easily.

Yeseul: (Just barely, in a small, muffled voice) G-giwoo.

NA: If I had acted a little more gentle to Giwoo back then and had listened to his words just a little more carefully, maybe it wouldn’t have turned out this way.

The NG kept happening when Yeseul collapsed her hands. She looked visibly flustered even from afar. It wasn’t a scene filled with affection. It was more of a cozy love between high school students, but Yeseul kept freezing up and causing NGs. Maru inwardly tried saying that line. The number of periods in the lines indirectly expressed the pause between the lines. One was a short one, two was a visible pause, and three periods meant that there should be a slight pause in the audio.

Dongho, who stood next to him, said the lines in a falsetto voice.

“What do you mean. Wh-why are you. - What’s so hard about this?”

Maru pressed on Dongho’s shoulder before standing up.

“Where are you going?”

“To the director.”

“Why?”

“To tell him that I just found a new actress for the job. You can do it right?”

Dongho violently shook his head and pulled on his arms. He would probably stay quiet for a while.

“Have you ever shot romance, Joomin-noona?”

“Me? Other than when I helped out a senior of mine with her graduation piece, no.”

“Is it hard?”

“It’s different from person to person. You’ll have to act in front of the camera, right? I think that the emotion of liking someone can only be perfectly expressed when it is true to a certain extent. Yeseul is probably embarrassed by that. Not as much as stripping naked, but in any case, she would have to show her inner feelings to others. It’s hard to act in a love scene without any emotions at all. Moreover, this is about the awkward first love of a high school student, isn’t it? It’s a bit complex too. I looked at the script, and it doesn’t look that easy. Those directions before the lines, they only have their facial expressions to express them. It might have worked on the first try, but with things dragging out like this, it should be pretty difficult.”

As soon as Joomin’s words ended, a ‘cut’ could be heard from a distance. It seemed that the shoot was stopped once again. Maru saw Yeseul apologizing to everyone. Giwoo seemed to be consoling her, but Yeseul didn’t seem to be calming down at all.

“Looks like this will take long.”

“Right?”

“If they can’t do it, they’ll start with us, so there shouldn’t be a problem. Noona, do you have some coffee left?”

“Yeah.”

He took a sip of the steaming coffee when he saw the assistant director coming their way.

“We’re going to start right away, you okay with that?”

“Yes. But I don’t think that scene’s over yet.”

“We decided to do yours first. The director told me that we can’t keep you waiting.”

Maru drank the coffee in one go before standing up. Dongho and Joomin also followed him. The shot with the three of them was quite simple. They just had to hide on top of the platform and then come out and say a few lines.

They walked across the school field to the platform. Maru saw Yeseul and Giwoo leaving the camera frame and sitting on the stand. Maru met eyes with the two, but he didn’t say anything.

“Hyung-nim. Please do a crane shot from above and tilt down to the door on the platform.”

Park Hoon talked to the camera director before coming their way. Maru put away his script before looking at Park Hoon.

“You guys should go home after getting it done. As for your eyes, look at where Yeseul was looking. Also, watch out for your breath since it might turn white if you breathe too heavily.”

“Yes.”

Park Hoon returned to the monitor before giving the ready sign. He blew any thoughts besides those of the shoot out of his mind as he said his line. They got an okay sign pretty easily.

The camera director moved positions.

“Watch out for double action! Just do what you did just now!”

Hearing Park Hoon’s words, Maru returned to his original position. Since they shot several cuts of the same scene with the same camera from different angles and edited them in post, the actions of the actor differed quite a lot according to each scene, but when it became discernible to the audience, it would become a clear error. Since he had put his hands on the floor of the platform, he put his hands on the platform this time as well. He bent his right knee slightly and lengthened his neck out.

“Noona, didn’t you place your hand on my shoulder before?”

“Ah, right. I forgot.”

“What about Dongho?”

“I’m ready. I’m the same as before.”

“I don’t look different, right?”

“You don’t.”

Confirmations between actors were important as well. The camera started rolling again and they repeated the same lines. Thanks to practicing together while they rested, they were able to get an okay sign in one go without an NG.

“Thanks for your work. You should go home.”

Home, hearing that sweet word, Maru smiled subconsciously.

“Your eyes were good, you three. Well done.”

“Thank you.”

The compliments of a camera director had a different flavor to a director’s.

“I just wish that they could do as well as you. I want to go home too.”

The camera director walked away from the camera while groaning. Maru looked at Dongho and Joomin. The three of them climbed down the platform with pleased smiles on their faces.

“I’m going home~.”

Dongho hummed for a while before coming back to himself. He started saying his goodbyes to the staff and the director. Maru and Joomin also said their goodbyes to everyone they came across. They couldn’t show their excitement to everyone else who would be staying behind. If they weren’t polite, people might talk bad behind their backs.

“Thanks for your work.”

“Watch out on your way home.”

Since they worked together, if he talked to them with respect, the other party would reply with smiles as well. He picked up his bag that he put in front of the vehicle carrying the props. Dongho was picked up by his parents, while Joomin ran outside saying that she had called a taxi.

Phew, it’s over - just as he was about to leave the shooting location with ease of mind, he heard a voice calling out to him. When he turned around, he saw Giwoo and Yeseul.

“Do you have some time?”

It was Yeseul who spoke first. However, Maru could see that it was Giwoo, standing a step behind Yeseul, who urged Yeseul to speak to him.

“What for?”

“Uhm, Giwoo told me that asking you will help quite a lot.”

“Help?”

Maru looked at Giwoo standing behind her.

“You were of big help during Apgu as well. I was reminded of that time.”

He understood what this was about now. Maru looked at Yeseul.

“I’m sorry, but I wouldn’t know how a girl thinks on the inside.”

“I knew it, huh.”

Yeseul sighed. Maru looked at the staff members standing behind the two. Since he had experience being a background actor, he knew how stressful it was for the staff when the shoot kept getting delayed. Maru was reminded of producer Park Hoon’s tired face. It wouldn’t be strange if he collapsed at any moment due to exhaustion.

“Let me ask you something.”

“Huh?”

“What do you think of Giwoo?”

“Giwoo? Why do you ask?”

“Do you like him?”

“N-no.”

“Then are you awkward around him?”

“No, that’s not it either.”

“Then there’s only one thing you can try out here. Would you like to try? I can’t guarantee that it will be effective though.”

Yeseul nodded. Maru waved at Giwoo.

“Stand face to face.”

“Like this?”

Yeseul looked at Giwoo. Giwoo also looked at Yeseul.

“Try hugging each other.”

“What?”

Yeseul took a step back as though she thought that this was nonsensical. Giwoo looked like he didn’t care.

“If you can’t do it through acting, what else can you do other than make yourself actually feel affection? I heard that skin-to-skin contact is good for raising emotional intimacy. That’s all I can say to you. Whether you try or not, it’s up to you. But bear in mind that the director’s expression does not look good right now.”

He told them to work hard before turning around. Maru predicted that the two would try hugging. What could they do about it? Time was ticking after all.

‘Rather than that, Kang Giwoo, that guy, I really like him.’

He asked for help wherever possible in order to escape a disadvantageous situation. Maru wanted to applaud him when he acted like this had nothing to do with him. He really liked this guy. So much in fact, that he felt angry.

Maybe this was a likes repel scenario? Maru clicked his tongue.

He felt like he would never be able to get close to that guy, ever.

Chapter 532

When he arrived home, it was nearly midnight. He almost had to take a taxi from Seoul to Suwon if he was just a little late. He went to the convenience store near his house and bought a triangular rice ball and a ramyun. He was hungry since although he had some bread for lunch, he didn’t have anything for dinner. Thinking that going on a diet without a clear objective was really hard, he ate the rice ball and the ramyun.

After leaving the convenience store, he walked as he stroked his full belly. When he walked for a bit, he saw his house. He climbed the stairs and arrived in front of his door. Maru entered the passcode before opening the door.

“You’re late, have you had dinner?”

He saw his mother coming out of the bedroom.

“I did. Go to sleep already and don’t worry about your son.”

His mother nodded before closing the door. He took a light shower before going to his room. Parents were people who would worry about their children even if they were fully grown up if they couldn’t see their children for a while. Her son, who was still a minor, was walking around late at night, so it was no wonder that she was worried. Even though he understood how she felt, he felt a little frustrated whenever he saw her peeking out with a tired face. She could be a little more at ease.

Usually, Maru would have read a book before sleeping, but there was something he needed to check today. He turned on the PC and opened a browser. He searched ‘New Semester’ and went to the TV station’s website. He saw the internet forum for the viewers right next to the replay service.

Click.

After he clicked and the page loaded, he saw titles decorated with all sorts of special characters. It was practically unreadable by those not familiar with the internet.

“O… ur, Giwoo… oppa…”

He interpreted those words as he kept reading. When he read for a while, he learned a few familiar patterns, which gave him some speed. There were nearly 3000 posts, and there were new articles popping up even as he read them. Maru opened another browser before searching New Semester again. He scrolled down to find some articles about it.

“18% viewership, succeeding the lineage of youth dramas. Talented acting from fresh actors. Popular with students. Unexpected love from the soldiers. Oh, what?”

New Semester’s broadcasting time was 5 p.m. When he thought about how the soldiers would finish their weekend work and then watch New Semester in their barracks, he pitied them. At the same time, he sighed when he thought that he would have to enter the military in a few years.

That was for later, so he decided to forget about the military for now. He looked at the rest of the articles. Most articles talked about three child actors, and there were quite a few articles that were written in an interview style. He didn’t know about this. The difference in treatment of the lead actors and support actors was quite high. No one asked Maru to do an interview regarding New Semester.

After reading those interviews, Maru closed the page.

“Yeseul is unexpectedly popular.”

There was Giwoo as well, but a lot of the articles talked about Yeseul. There was also an article talking about how the cosmetics she used in the drama became popular among middle school girls. It seemed that they gained satisfaction from following an actress that they could relate with rather than top stars - the article ended with that.

He thought that that was reasonable. The products used by top stars were mostly brand-name products and always had a high price tag. To middle school girls, who had thin wallets, imitating Yeseul, who felt much closer to them, was better than imitating top stars who they had to just admire like idols. The journalist also kindly said that the cosmetics were products from a relatively low-cost cosmetic company. There should be many girls who would buy the products after looking at this article.

Maru returned to the TV station website. He rested his chin on his hand before going to the next page. When he scrolled through about 10 pages, he understood what Dongho was talking about on the set.

They were all about Giwoo and Yeseul. There were especially a lot of requests that went ‘please let them start dating’. There were articles cheering for Lee Chan, but it seemed that his popularity wasn’t as high as Giwoo’s since he grumbled quite a lot during the story.

Maru’s opinion was that the rebellious Lee Chan was much more attractive than the bright and sincere Giwoo, but from the proportion of the forum posts, Giwoo was overwhelmingly ahead.

“The interpretation of the character became a little strange, I guess.”

Through the screen, Lee Chan looked less like a rebellious kid and more like a nagging kid. This was after he fixed his acting upon the director’s instructions. During the shoot, he even looked like an idiot with a loud voice. He could understand it since the charm of being rough was something that was really hard to express, but it did not change his thought that the character became a little lacking.

Maru clicked on the post titled ‘Our Marriage(12)’. As this forum was a public TV forum, it allowed him to see the real name of the poster who seemed to be a girl. In that post was a novel with lots and lots of unreadable special characters in it.

Bringing a cup of water, Maru started reading it. The story was quite simple. Yeseul and Giwoo graduated and got married. What told Maru that she was quite an enthusiastic viewer was that she was bringing up props and lines that briefly flashed past in the drama. Looking at the comments, there seemed to be a lot of people cheering for her.

He suddenly thought of something and then pressed the back button to read the titles. There were quite a lot of posts written in a novel format. Surprisingly, they were all wishing for Giwoo and Yeseul to become a couple.

“Was this reflected in the script?”

He knew about the love triangle between Giwoo, Yeseul, and Lee Chan because he heard about it during the get-together before the first episode was shot. This drama was supposed to be a youth romance with Yeseul, who was ignorant about love, Giwoo, who was too shy to confess, as well as Lee Chan, who expressed himself without holding back. That was one of the main themes in New Semester.

And the confession just happened today. Maru looked at the script for episode 13.

Giwoo: What the other kids said, they weren’t lying. I like you.

Yeseul: (Clasping her hands, looking a little uneasy) What do you mean. Wh-why are you…

Giwoo: (About to speak, but then looks at Yeseul’s hands) I-I was joking. I just said it because I wanted to see how you react? How could I possibly like you? We are just close friends.

The conclusion was that it was just a joke, but in the first place, Giwoo wasn’t someone brave enough to confess. Up until episode 13 at least, the character known as Giwoo was a well-rounded boy, but he was awkward when it came to love.

Maru thought about the scenes he shot today. He played a prank with Dongho to make Giwoo and Yeseul get closer together. The character known as Lee Chan was originally supposed to induce Dongho to do everything while watching everything from the back. He only stepped up to apologize in episode 8 because he had no choice. He wouldn’t have apologized if things didn't blow up.

Yet that character started coming out to the front lines, as though he had become a cupid to connect Giwoo and Yeseul together. When he received the script, he thought that it was a way to express the many facets of the character, but now that he thought about it a little more, this felt like the writer had given up on the character. His thoughts branched out. Just when did this all start…

Maru had a look at all of the scripts of episode 1 to episode 13.

Giwoo, Yeseul, Lee Chan. Were these characters made like this from the beginning? Or did something change mid way?

His thoughts reached back to the novel he just read. Maru left the scripts on the floor before sitting down. He grabbed his mouse and quickly started searching the posts. He mainly looked for those that were written in novel format.

“This is…”

In some of the short stories, Lee Chan had the role of tying Giwoo and Yeseul together. In those stories, only the smart aspect of Lee Chan was used to connect the two main characters. Although the method he used to connect the couple was different in every story, there was no difference in the fact that Lee Chan and Dongwook were at the center.

“Episode 6 has aired.”

Only when the episode about the teacher-in-training started would the character known as Lee Chan properly take root in the story. Doing pranks was just one way of showing himself off, and he was actually a character who would never do something that would bring himself harm. Lee Chan was a character who blamed the teacher-in-training’s lack of perseverance even as he apologized to her, instead of feeling sorry about it. Although it wasn’t explicitly expressed through his lines, his expressions and actions were enough to tell that Lee Chan wasn’t someone who just played pranks for fun. He was someone who thought himself to be equal to adults and acted as such; someone who hated being ignored, and even more despised others telling him to do things; someone who was at the peak of adolescence, but didn’t admit it. The fact that he didn’t step forward during most of the matters was also his own way of feeling smug.

‘The people that only watched up to episode 6 should know Lee Chan as someone who just shyly pulls off pranks.’

Once the 7th and 8th episodes aired, the writers of these short stories should get to know more about the character known as Lee Chan, but at the current point in time, there was no information given, so these short stories were written with the right level of knowledge of the story at this point in time.

Lee Chan the cupid.

Maru looked at the script for episode 13. Was the Lee Chan in that episode the same character as the Lee Chan in the 8th episode? He personally felt that two completely different people were borrowing Lee Chan’s name in these episodes.

The love missionary Lee Chan found in numerous short stories.

The minute change in Lee Chan’s character in episode 13.

He had a bad hunch, but he shook his head thinking that he was wrong.

The original author changed the personality of their character in order to use an idea from a novel written by fans? And so hurriedly at that?

Maru drank some water as he read those short stories.

On the first day of the shoot, Byungchan told him that she was the legendary writer that did 3 consecutive last-minute scripts. He also told him that she was a big-time writer who the staff members of the drama couldn’t do anything about even though she changed her script three times in one day. When he heard those words, he just thought that she was really powerful as a writer.

But right now, that incident ticked his mind off. If it was a clear error, she should’ve just checked all of it at once and fixed them then. However, Byungchan said that she fixed it three consecutive times. Would a writer confident in their story stop the entire shoot and fix their script three times on the spot?

When he thought about that, Maru smiled bitterly and closed the website.

“Is that the problem?”

He looked at a mystery novel he was reading recently. It was a thriller/mystery about a woman who encountered trouble because she became the author of a bestseller by employing a ghostwriter, and how she solved those problems.

“I’ve read too many novels.”

She was supposed to be a big-time writer. She should’ve changed the character because of clear intentions. If she was someone who would be swayed by the delusions that school girls wrote on forums, she would never have become a ‘big-time’ writer in the first place.

Thinking that he was fantasizing too much, Maru searched ‘Writer Lee Hanmi’ on the web portal. A woman with a bright smile popped up on the ‘people’ tab. Beneath that picture were numerous interviews and a list of her books.

“She looks younger than I thought.”

He was thinking of a rather mature person since he heard that she wrote this drama to express the conflicts between generations, but she was a woman in her early 40s. As for her photo, she looked graceful to the point that she looked like an actress.

Maru yawned before clicking on an interview article. When he scrolled down as he read it, he came across the last answer. He crossed his arms and started reading it slowly.

-I do not look at the internet until the moment I finish the manuscript completely. That’s what drives me to keep writing: having faith in myself and pushing forward with it. There’s no one that knows my work better than me, so I believe that it’s important to focus on that while writing. From time to time, some writers try to dissolve the ideas of others into their story because they think that feedback is important, but too many cooks will obviously spoil the broth. A writer must have confidence. I say this all the time when I give lectures. Have confidence in yourself to the point that you look arrogant. It’s fine to do that when writing since the writer is god. Of course, I’m not saying that the opinions of others aren’t important. I just want to emphasize that the opinion of others may be poisonous if you aren’t at the center of your writing. Believe in yourself, and start writing. Then, the story will take you aspiring story writers into a world of fantasy. Muse doesn’t exist outside. Muse is inside you. Look inside and find him. Then maybe, all of you will be able to become writers. (Laugh).

Chapter 533

Looks like it’s going to begin - she thought as she sat in front of the sitting table with the bread and coffee she bought from the bakery. She put down the laptop, which was her first treasure, before putting a plate and the cup of coffee on the table.

She opened the paper bag with the bread in it. The savory smell of freshly baked bread wafted upwards. She grabbed the bread before pulling it apart. The bread was split apart while showing off its spiderweb-like insides.

She munched on the bread as she turned on the TV. She would usually download most of the programs she wanted to watch on her laptop, but she always watched this specific program on TV, though, it was a re-run.

The title popped up on the screen. That family is suspicious. That title was good. Choi Haesoo thought that she should take note of it. She turned the volume up with the remote.

“It’s the last episode.”

She did hear that sitcoms were on the fall these days, and it seemed that they were discontinuing this series just half a year after it began airing. Considering that Soonpoong Women’s clinic, which started off in 1998, had nearly 700 episodes now, sitcoms had gotten really short as of late. As the days changed and people’s consumption patterns changed along with them, those long-running sitcoms might reach their ends.

“Is this country going to go with seasons now like other countries?”

Haesoo thought that it was still too early for that, but she did believe that things will start to change into season-based programs like foreign dramas. That was because ads earned more money that way. There was also less investment risk, so the investors should shift towards seasonal programs. Although there were loyal watchers right now and not that many channels, so they could still make a profit, but it was likely that the throne would have to be handed over to the internet soon. There were all sorts of videos floating around web storage services. When she saw the news that those websites that violated copyright laws earned tens of millions to even hundreds of millions of won, Haesoo believed that capital would start flowing into that place.

Sipping the cooled coffee, she watched the sitcom. When about 4 minutes had passed, a girl appeared, holding a spoon while knocking on her neighbor’s door with an awkward smile on her face. Haesoo’s smile thickened. Her daughter was cute today as well.

Her daughter had gone to the afterparty not too long ago. She looked rather disappointed and didn’t say anything when she got home. When she said that she wanted to act in middle school, Haesoo told her to go ahead without the slightest hesitation. She also told her to do it properly if she was going to.

Her daughter surprisingly did it earnestly. It was to the point that Haesoo was worried that she was going to ruin her body. As a result of that, she was picked for a sitcom and managed to safely finish the last shoot as well. She was proud of her. What was so bad about being a single mother? It was okay as long as she raised her daughter properly - that was what she had on her mind as she raised her child, but in one corner of her heart, she always wondered if her daughter lacked something because she was raised by a single parent. Thankfully, her daughter grew up properly. Haesoo didn’t raise her, she just grew up. Perhaps her dream was to become an actress from the moment she visited Daehak-ro with her dad.

The coffee tasted a little bitter. Her daughter, who had briefly appeared on TV today yet again, left the scene with a grain of rice around her mouth. That hadn’t changed until the end, so that felt rather unfortunate. She was a cute girl if she put on some makeup, though, that look of hers was cute as well. Haesoo was pretty sure that her daughter took after her when it came to her looks.

Looking at the ‘thank you for your support until now’ on the TV, Haesoo switched the TV off. It was time to work now. She put down the plate and the mug before turning on the laptop on the table. She ran the messenger program and the word processor.

“It’s time to do work now.”

The stain on the window, the laundry, the floor she hadn’t cleaned since yesterday, as well as the rather bland-looking wallpaper had to all be ignored. The main enemy of a writer was not traveling that took a long time, but trivial jobs like that. Once she started on one thing, she would not be able to work that day anymore.

She exercised her fingers before starting to write the scenario. The romance novel she released at the end of last year had pretty good responses, so she decided to make a spinoff. She didn’t know that a supporting character could be loved so much. Just as she was tapping on the ctrl key meaninglessly and cursing the white paper in her head, her messenger ringed. She usually turned the notifications to silent when working, but she had forgotten to do it this time. She could just ignore it, but Haesoo ended up clicking on that notification. Perhaps the fact that she hadn’t turned the notification to silent was her subconscious trying to stop her from working.

“That’s a name I haven’t seen in a while.”

A familiar name had a light next to it.

-Unni, can I see you?

She checked the message before replying.

-What’s up for my dear famous writer to message a housewife with a kid.

-Are you busy?

She got a rather shy-sounding reply. Haesoo’s eyes twitched. This person usually didn’t act like this, as she was usually filled with confidence. Seeing her so careful with her words, Haesoo felt rather complex.

-What is it? Did something happen?

-Nothing. I just wanted to see you, unni.

Haesoo looked at the clock on her laptop. 12:40 p.m. She had eaten some bread, but she didn’t feel full.

-Have you had lunch?

-Not yet.

-Come out. Let’s go get something to eat.

-Thank you, unni.

-Why are you being so cheesy? Where should we meet?

-I’ll go down to Suwon. Unni, you still live in Suwon, right?

-Yea, but since we haven’t seen each other in a long time, let’s meet somewhere good. I’ll drive up to Seoul, so you treat me to some food, okay?

-Okay.

Haesoo changed her pants before putting on an indigo-colored cardigan. As for make-up, some sunscreen was enough. She had been living as a writer for 20 years and had become a woman who didn’t care much about making herself look good.

“My girl, mom’s going out to meet a friend. As for dinner, eat out with Maru. You know that mom’s cheering for you, right?”

She muttered as she sent a text. She got a reply as soon as she sent it.

-What cheering! Are you going to be back late?

-Why do you ask? Were you going to do something with Maru if I’m late?

-Forget it, I shouldn’t have asked.

Haesoo put her phone in her bag before leaving the house. She drove her car out of the apartment complex and started driving towards Seoul.

“I haven’t been here in a long time.”

It had been around 2 years. Haesoo smiled as she thought about the kid who cried a lot while writing when she was still a secondary writer. That kid had now become a well-known mini-series writer in the drama industry. Matters of the world were really unpredictable.

Haesoo drove all the way to Cheongdam-dong and got off in front of the place they promised to meet before calling her. It had been quite a long time since she called this number. They had been so close before, too. She felt that becoming negligent happened in a short time.

“Unni.”

She took her phone off her ears when she heard the voice behind her.

“Lee Hanmi, haven’t seen you in a long time, eh?”

“Unni, it’s been a long time.”

“Are you on a diet these days? You’re so skinny. Though, you always have been.”

“Unni, you look as healthy as always. That’s good.”

“That’s one thing I’m good at. But hey, are you really feeling ill?”

Haesoo touched Hanmi’s cheeks with both of her hands before pushing left and right in a joking manner. She thought that she would feel awkward, but it didn’t feel like that at all. She found Hanmi familiar as though there wasn’t a 2 year gap at all. She even felt rather embarrassed that she hadn’t called her first.

“Why are you so obedient now? You should shout ‘stop it!’ like you used to do.”

“Unni, I’m over 40 now.”

“Already? Nah, let’s not talk about age. I’m kinda scared of the fact that I’m 42.”

“Unni, you really haven’t changed, huh.”

Hanmi smiled faintly. Haesoo felt a little relieved when she saw that smile.

“Let’s go in.”

Hanmi guided the way. Haesoo lifted her head to look at the building. She was somewhat overwhelmed by the exterior of the building which was pitch black. After glancing at the signboard that said ‘House H’, she followed Hanmi inside.

“This place looks expensive.”

“I haven’t seen you in a long time, unni, so let’s get something good.”

“So big-time writers are different, huh.”

“Don’t put me on a pedestal.”

“Are you afraid that you’re going to fall?”

“Well, I might feel at ease if I actually fell.”

Haesoo stopped walking and looked at Hanmi. Hanmi became flustered and said that she was speaking nonsense.

“This place is really good. Unni, you should like it as well.”

Haesoo felt that she was trying to switch the topic. She decided to stay quiet for now. If this girl she hadn’t seen for a long time was not speaking about something, there should be a reason for it. And that reason should also be related to the reason she called her here today.

‘I just need to wait.’

She would probably talk about it if they ate some good food. It was probably her duty as the elder to calm down this uneasy-looking little sister. Haesoo stood right next to Hanmi.

“I’m going to eat a lot. You know how much I eat, right?”

“Go ahead. It’s fine even if you eat a lot.”

They were guided by the waiter to the 2nd floor. The tables on the 1st floor could be seen as she climbed up the stairs. The tables, which were placed regularly throughout the restaurant, were occupied by couples who looked their best, as well as middle-aged people who boasted their mature beauty. Haesoo looked down at her clothes. Perhaps she should have changed her clothes. She came here thinking that they were going to eat pig skin and drink soju like the old times.

They were led to a room with a curtain door around. She could see a bar on the other side. Although there were separate rooms here, it wasn’t that the rooms were soundproof. In the first place, that was to be expected from how there was a curtain instead of a door.

“Order anything you like.”

“Hey, you know I’m weak with English. You do the order. It’s been a long time since I came to a place like this, so I don’t know anything.”

“Then I’ll leave it up to the house. What about drinks?”

“I brought a car you know.”

“But we haven’t met in a long time.”

“Looks like you really set your mind on it huh. Alright, I’ll have to tell my daughter to sleep by herself tonight.”

After ordering, Hanmi spoke again.

“I still can’t believe that you got married and even had a kid.”

“You feel jealous because a tomboy like me got married?”

“I thought you’d stay single your whole life.”

“Hey, you are being quite strong even though we just started. Though, that’s more like Lee Hanmi to me.”

“Is your girl obedient?”

“Of course. I wonder who she takes after to be so smart. She does everything by herself and makes me sad at times. I wonder if I’m really a parent.”

“You are way too blessed. A friend of mine told me that she regrets marrying every day.”

“At times like that, she should just split up.”

“You are really cool when it comes to things like that.”

“Not as much as you, though.”

Haesoo laughed as she looked at Hanmi. It felt like 20 years ago all over again. Haesoo was a senior in the creative writing department in college, while Hanmi was a freshman. Haesoo took a liking to Hanmi at a glance and dragged her semi-forcefully to her club, and they stuck together until they graduated. Everyone in the creative writing department knew the two alcoholic sisters of Dongchun university.

“What are you saying? I told you you peed on the blanket that day.”

“Hey, let’s set things straight. Was I the only one? What about you?”

“I didn’t.”

“Like hell. Should we gather everyone from the class of 83? Everyone else remembers except you.”

Haesoo laughed as she talked about old events. The tired-looking Hanmi returned to her bright expression as soon as they started talking about memories. When they were in a heated conversation, the food came out.

“I was just feeling hungry because of all the yapping, nice timing.”

“You still use the word yapping huh.”

“I blurt it out from time to time.”

After eating the pieces of complimentary bread, she ate the mysterious appetizer. It seemed like some fried jellyfish or something, and when she dipped it in sauce and ate it, the crispy texture and the slight acidity tasted good.

“Unni, you still write, right?”

“I do, every day. Magazines, magazines again, and then some novels, and sometimes congratulatory speeches.”

“A congratulatory speech?”

“Just once.”

“You are good at writing after all.”

“You are mocking me, aren’t you?”

Haesoo drank a sip of water before looking at Hanmi. Having returned to talking about reality, Hanmi was just fidgeting with her fork as though she had lost all of her appetite. Haesoo felt frustrated from just looking at her.

“What happened to you? I was waiting for you to say something, but this won’t do. I can’t wait.”

“It’s nothing…”

“Do you know what my girl used to say when I tried to take her to the dentist when she was young? I’m fine, it doesn’t hurt - that’s what she said. Your expression right now looks the exact same as hers. Didn’t you call me because you wanted to talk about it to me?”

Haesoo nearly pulled out her hair before moving next to Hanmi. She saw Hanmi closing her mouth firmly.

“Is it a man?”

“No, I don’t have a man.”

“Then what is it? Did you get scammed?”

“I would’ve gone to the police if that happened.”

“Then what is this problem that made the almighty Lee Hanmi so shy?”

After hesitation, Hanmi eventually spoke.

“Unni.”

“Yeah?”

“Have you seen my drama?”

“New Semester, was it? I did. Now that I think about it, that annoys me. You didn’t even tell me about this one, did you? When did things get so cold between us.”

“Sorry, unni.”

Hanmi lowered her head.

“I’m just joking. It’s my fault for not calling you when I'm the older one. Oh, and I’m enjoying the drama. It was good, you know?”

“Really?”

“Yeah. It’s just what I expect from a youth drama written by Lee Hanmi. Why are you talking about it all of a sudden? Don’t tell me you…”

Haesoo stared at Hanmi’s lips. A while later, those lips started moving again.

“What do I do? I can’t write anything.”

“This isn’t the first time, is it? Just think about the number of manuscript sheets we wasted trying to write a short story when we were young. A slump is just…”

“I ended up copying.”

“Copying? Copying what?”

Haesoo looked at Hanmi who closed her eyes.

Copy what?

She had an idea, but Haesoo intentionally suppressed that idea.

Chapter 534

She suddenly got a lot of time, so she walked into the fruit juice store in front of her school.

“You’re early today.”

The owner lady noted.

“We don’t have practice today. That’s why I was going to go home early and eat out with my mom, but I just got the cold shoulder. Oh, a strawberry smoothie please.”

She ordered before sitting down. The sitcom ended around a month ago. As for the afterparty, they held one the day before the last episode aired. When she started off, she was worried if she could handle it, but she managed to finish the last shoot without any big troubles.

‘Though, there were a lot of trivial events.’

Lee Miyoon. During the early days of the shoot, she trembled just by thinking about that name, but she didn’t feel anything now. Becoming used to being scolded was just that scary. Ever since she glared at Miyoon and snapped back, the number of scoldings she got increased, but that died down around two months before the end of the final shoot. She didn’t know whether that woman was fed up or was no longer interested, but it was a small victory on her part. Thanks to that, her mental stamina became a lot better.

“Here you go. Strawberry smoothie.”

“Thank you.”

She bit on the straw with her front teeth. If it was a month ago, she would be reading the script for the sitcom, but there wasn’t anything for her to do now. The acting club was also on break from practice today, so the only thing that waited for her at school was an empty practice room. Her classmates had all gone to cram schools.

‘I should go to college, right?’

The strawberry smoothie climbed up the transparent straw. A fresh strawberry taste spread out in her mouth, but she wasn’t able to savor that taste because she was fixated on the words ‘3rd year of high school’. When she was a 2nd year, only half of her class went to cram schools. The friend that sat next to her said that after school self study sessions were enough. However, ever since she became a 3rd year, the number of people going to cram schools increased a lot. When she headed towards the acting club after school, most of her classmates left the school with their bags. That was because the students that went to cram schools didn’t take self-study sessions after school. There were only around three or four people remaining behind.

Whenever she looked at those people, she thought about her own grades. Her school grades were about average. As she was aiming to enter the department of theater and film through early decision[1], she studied whenever she had time while still going to the acting club. Since the amount of time she invested was quite small, she couldn’t rank any higher, but she maintained her grades so that they didn’t fall below average. Back in 2nd year, she didn’t have any worries about that.

She naturally thought that her school grades were enough for the early admission and that she would boldly enter the department of theater and film through early decision. However, when she became a 3rd year student, and the sitcom ended, she started worrying. Would she really be able to pass the practical test?

She had confidence in her acting. She always believed that she could do well, and she put in the effort, having faith in the words that effort never betrays. As a result, she got to play the main character for the school play and did the sitcom as well. That was good. Everything went smoothly.

‘But I’m starting to lack confidence.’

Phew - she sighed a little. If there was one thing that she felt while shooting the sitcom, it was that her acting had nothing special.

That right now was good - these were the words used by the director when praising an actor. She heard those words several times during the shoots. Of course, those words weren’t directed at her, they were directed at other people. She had never even once heard the director say those words to her. Cut, okay, next. These three words were the only words she heard during the half-a-year that she spent with the director.

It wasn’t that she was being arrogant when it came to acting. She thought that it was natural for there to be people better than her and that she should try to learn from them and aim to be like them. However, the fact that the director never praised her even once made her feel dejected.

Her peers who also appeared in the sitcom heard something from the director several times. If they did well, then they heard that, if they didn’t do well, then they heard that as well.

‘I really didn’t hear anything.’

She realized the fact that she didn’t even hear that she didn’t do well. Was her acting that ordinary? Or was it horrible to the point that it wasn’t worth mentioning at all?

On the other hand, Jiseok really shone throughout the shoots. The director also mentioned Jiseok’s name several times, saying that he was good. Even the picky Lee Miyoon said that Jiseok was someone who knew how to act. That was the first time she saw Lee Miyoon praising someone like that.

Department of theater and film at Chung-ang University. That was her aim. It was one of the top three colleges for theater in the country. She had been aiming for that ever since she was in middle school. Jiseok also said that Chung-ang University was his first choice.

-There are lots of kids who are as good as me in the academy I go to. Try going to Film later. You’ll roll your eyes if you see the kids preparing for the practical test. There are those that are practicing singing and even dancing. Oh, you know that Maru used to go there too, right? Try asking him.

Jiseok said those words to her.

Jiseok was praised by the director, and there were several people on a similar level as him aiming for Chung-ang University. As soon as she heard those words, the word ‘study’ came to her mind. She thought that perhaps she had a chance at regular admission since regular admission placed less importance on the practical test.

That was the reason she felt uneasy while looking at the people going to cram schools. Perhaps she should be getting her insurance ready for when she didn’t pass the early decision?

She blinked and looked at the straw. The transparent straw had become a faint white. That was the result of her chewing on it.

“Ah, right. I saw the last episode of the sitcom. You looked pretty in it, you know?”

“Thank you.”

She replied with a smile, but she couldn’t put any power into it. She returned the empty cup before leaving. Perhaps it was about time she seriously considered it. She would be able to increase the time she spent on studying if she reduced the time she spent at the acting club. Grade 3[2]. That was the cutline for regular admission to the department of theater and film at Chung-ang University. She would have to take the practical test after that which would account for 70% of the admission test, but those that are really good at acting should have passed through early decision already, so the chance of passing that was definitely higher than early decision.

‘I got grade 6[3] in the mock exam I took in 2nd year.’

There was also the fact that she took the test lightly because she didn’t think it was important, but even if she did take the exam seriously, the results wouldn’t have changed that much. Raising her grade from 6 to 3 in 8 months clearly didn’t seem like something she could do while participating in acting club activities. That could be seen from the kids remaining behind in class to study. Just as how she was putting her all into acting, those people were putting their all into studies. Yet their grades still did not rise.

Perhaps she should make some time to study after all. If she quit the acting club right now, she would have a considerable amount of free time. If she asked her mom to send her to a cram school, it wouldn't be impossible to raise her scores. She never thought herself to be dumb, so maybe there might be visible results if she invested as much time into studying as she did in acting.

“Cram school, huh. I heard that that place was really good.”

There was a cram school that the classmate sitting next to her praised endlessly. There was definitely potential if she raised both her school grades and prepared for the CSAT. She felt a little sorry towards the others in the club, but that was an inevitable choice, wasn’t it? In order to go to a better college, it would be better if she focused on stu…

“What am I thinking?”

She looked at her reflection in the show window of a clothing store. A girl with a really dry, bland expression was standing there. She slapped her own cheeks loudly. She then started pulling those cheeks outwards. It hurt to the point that she screamed just a little. She felt the passersby staring at her.

She turned around completely to look at the show window. The reflection of herself in the window had a better expression now. She smiled brightly to the point that her lips ached a little.

Do not run away - she said those words with a muffled pronunciation. She started acting because she liked it. She dipped her feet in acting because she liked the vibe and the plays she used to watch with her father. Chung-ang University. It would be great if she got in, but it was no good if that was her dream. She was mistaken. What she had to chase was acting, not college.

If she focused on acting a little more than she did now, she should get results that fit her the best. She didn’t want to look away from the important thing for better results. She should be able to pass if she managed to find a way to pop out like Jiseok. If she didn’t reach that standard, she would just simply choose another college.

Let’s study if my acting isn’t up to par - it horrified her to think about how her friends would be disappointed in her if they found out she was thinking such a thing. The opposite was true as well, if someone told her that they wanted to focus on studying because their acting wasn’t up to par, she would’ve fought that person in anger. She would ask if acting only amounted to that for that person.

She turned her wrist to look at her watch. It was 20 minutes before 6. She felt drained of energy because of all the thoughts that flashed in her mind. It would be really depressing if she went home right now and then ate by herself. Just then, she was reminded of Maru. The text her mom sent as a joke mentioned that she should eat with Maru.

“I wonder if he’s busy today.”

Today was Wednesday. Since the drama shoots mostly occurred on weekends, he would be busy with his club activities if he was busy at all. Maru did say that he wouldn’t play any roles in his 3rd year, but he also said that he would go to the acting club to look after his juniors and make some props, so it was likely that he was at school now.

She opened her phone but then hesitated a little. Was it really right for her to call when she was in a bad mood? She didn’t want to become a naggy woman at all, so she was worried that she would start telling her worries to Maru if she met him right now.

“Should I just eat by myself today?”

Eating by herself. She realized that she had never eaten by herself ever since she entered high school. She would usually eat dinner with the acting club, and on days she didn’t have practice, she would come home and eat with her mother.

‘Ah.’

It suddenly came to her that her mother always ate dinner by herself. She suddenly felt very apologetic. The table at home was very large. Thinking about how her mother would eat by herself at such a big table, she felt a little sour in the nose. Today was very weird, so she decided to call today the emotional day. She texted her mom that she loved her. She got a reply back soon.

-Mom’s drinking with a junior from college! Kya!!!!!

“Kya?”

There were five exclamation marks after it. She wondered what that was about. Rather than that, drinking? Her mother was drinking? It was likely that something good had happened. After all, she only drank when there was something good happening.

-Did something good happen?

She sent that text. About a minute later, she got a reply.

-No!!! It’s a total mess!!! Writers are shit, and my junior is so pitiful!!

“A total mess?”

She stared at her phone for a while before sighing. It seemed that her mother was drunk.

What to do now, then…

After hesitating a little, she sent a text to Maru asking if he was practicing.

-No, I’m doing a shoot.

-You’re shooting the drama even though it’s not the weekend?

-No, one of my juniors is going to apply for the film festival, so I’m helping out.

-You must be busy then.

If he was doing a shoot, it would be better if they didn’t meet. Just as she was about to text ‘do your best’, she got a reply.

-I want to see you. Do you want to come over?

She wrote down ‘I’m going to go home’ before quickly erasing it and sending another text.

-Can I?

-Come. Let’s eat dinner together.

That couldn’t sound more welcome.

-Wouldn’t I be a nuisance?

-An actress is coming so of course not. We’re running out of actors actually. Everyone will like it if you come over, you know? Come quickly. I want to see you.

She folded her phone before turning around. The bus stop was on the other side of the road.

[1] In South Korean colleges, they look at school grades + practical test (optional depending on the department) + interview for early admission , and CSAT grades + practical test (optional depending on the department) + interview (optional) for regular admission. So some people strategically choose to enter schools with kids with bad grades so that they can get a higher score (All high schools have relative grading).

[2] Top 11 to 23 percentile.

[3] Top 60 to 77 percentile.

Chapter 535

“I think 3rd year classrooms are better, so let’s have a look. I think different classrooms have different vibes. There isn’t a class that looks beautiful though, does it? Since it’s an engineering school and all.”

Sora went up to the 4th floor with her notebook. She visited the empty classrooms and wondered which place was the best. The classroom was supposed to show a healthy and energetic image as much as possible, because only then would the main character’s sadness would be portrayed even more in contrast. She went into the 3rd year class 2 of the mechanical engineering department. She thought that it would be quite dirty since it was an all-boys class, but it was unexpectedly clean. There was even a cute tiger doll next to the frame for the class rules. It seemed to be hand-made from some sort of fabric.

The personal lockers at the back were decorated in various colors as well. There were even cushions on the backrests of the chairs. They were all hand-made.

“What the heck is this place? This is completely different from my class.”

Sora said that as she sat down on a chair. The seniors of the mechanical engineering department she saw when she came to school all looked menacing, yet their classroom was so clean and pretty. She even saw a purple ribbon on the curtain.

“This place. I think this place is good. What do you think, everyone?” Sora asked as she looked at the back.

The seniors of the film production club all nodded.

“Looks decent.”

“Let’s go with this place.”

She felt like she would not come across a better place than this in the school. She tried visiting the other 3rd year classrooms just in case, but class 2 of 3rd year mechanical engineering was the best.

“Well then, let’s start our monumental first shoot in this place. Oh, what do you think, Maru-seonbae?”

“It’s good.”

“Okay. Oh, when is that friend of yours coming?”

“Within 30 minutes at the latest.”

“Then I guess we should get ready and start shooting. Minji, you are going to have to write down the things that happen here from now on.”

Her classmate, Lim Minji, nodded before opening the notebook she was holding.

“When should I call our kids?” Maru asked.

Sora looked at the clock. It was 6 right now. She needed some time to get the position of the camera right and to position the props properly.

“I’ll try to get everything ready by 6:30. Seonbae-nims, please close the curtains for now. It’s supposed to be daytime, so it would be weird if it’s dark outside. As for the lights, we’ll try using just the fluorescent lights in the classroom and we’ll add additional light with aluminum foil and a hand-held torch if necessary.”

While the seniors of the club closed the curtains and arranged the desks, Sora moved the desk at the very back and put the tripod there. She connected the camera and turned on the laptop. At first, she was going to record on a 6mm film tape, but she changed her mind and decided to save it on the laptop since she heard that that made it easier to edit. The film festival allowed for DVDs so there wouldn’t be a problem if she didn’t record on 6mm film.

“Minji, you have to draw the structure of the classroom and the position of the camera, okay? We need that if we want to shoot additional scenes later down the line.”

“Okay.”

Minji was very good with her hands, so there was no need to worry about that. After they closed all the curtains, they turned on all the lights in the classroom. Since there was no natural light at night, the classroom was definitely darker than it was during the day.

Sora turned on the camera and checked the video on the laptop. The world portrayed by the lens appeared on the screen.

“Hm, Andon-seonbae. What do you think about this? It looks a little dark, right?”

She asked Ando, who stood next to her. After looking at the screen and the classroom alternately, Ando spoke,

“Jihoon, could you try standing in front of the camera? I want to see how dark it is.”

“Yes, seonbae.”

Jihoon, who was a 2nd year, stood in front of the camera.

Hm - Sora tapped on her chin. Perhaps due to the light coming from the ceiling, there was a shadow cast on the shadow. At first, it looked a little gloomy, but when she thought about it, it didn’t feel that bad since the vibe it gave off felt close to how the main character felt.

“Jihoon-seonbae. Could you try standing over there?”

“About here?”

Jihoon stood in front of the TV in the classroom. Sora checked the screen before looking at Ando.

“What do you think, seonbae?”

“I’m not sure.”

“Just tell me how you feel about it.”

“Personally, I think it’s good. The movie isn’t exactly set in a good tone, right?”

“Right. The classroom itself looks cheerful, but the mental pressure experienced by the characters is quite considerable. The pathetic fallacy of the depressing lighting and the bullied kid might be a little cliché, but it makes it easy to tell, so the audience should have an easier time accepting it.”

“You’re the director, so do whatever you want. We’ll help you out from the side.”

Sora pondered for a while before deciding to shoot just like this. If the shadows were thick when they shot up close, they might have to use a reflector, but it seemed okay for now.

“Sora, I brought the vase from the faculty office.”

“Please put it next to the window.”

“Over here?”

“Yes!”

Sora moved to the back of the class before looking at the whole classroom. The white curtains brightened up the tone of the classroom. The vase also fit well with the scene and did not look awkward.

“The desks are a little too lined up. Let’s move them a little out of order.”

The seniors adjusted the distance between the desks. Just sitting down and standing up again messed up the order a little, which made it look much more natural. Sora nodded her head in satisfaction.

“Do you think this is okay?”

“Yes. This is fine.”

Sora looked at Ando. She felt happy when she saw him looking at the classroom with a smile.

When she first entered the film production club, she felt really bleak. She even felt hopeless when she looked at the seniors who had zero intentions of creating a film. She resolved that she should try to make a movie by herself and did her preparations, but the more she looked into it, the more she found out that a movie wasn’t something that could be made by one person.

It felt frustrating. She hated her seniors who had no interest in filmmaking despite the fact that they belonged to the film production club. That was why she tried to force them to do it, but she was willfully roasted by Maru. She thought that she had prepared a lot, but when a professional looked at her, it turned out that she hadn’t even scratched the surface.

What was funny was that once she suffered a defeat from Maru, she had much more leisure. She thought in the perspective of her seniors and looked back at her own hastiness.

Her seniors wanted to watch movies as much as she wanted to make them. Once she understood that difference in perspective and talked to them about it with her honest feelings, it surprisingly turned out that they actually had something in common. Even though her seniors said that they had no interest in making films, they knew too well about what made a movie look good. They talked about movies for hours. What content was good, what video was good - they talked about such things for half a day. Sora found out at that time that her seniors also loved films.

The day after that, Sora heard from her seniors, including Ando, that they should try to make a movie together. Due to the unexpected answer, Sora ended up bursting into tears right there. It was at that time that she realized that a person could cry from being happy.

“Seonbae, it’s fun, isn’t it?”

“We haven’t even started anything yet. We should look for fun once we get started at least.”

“What do you mean we haven’t started? We got everything ready. That means we are halfway done. So tell me. It’s fun, isn’t it?”

She persistently asked. Ando eventually nodded. Sora asked the same question to the 2nd year seniors as well. Everyone smiled awkwardly before saying that it was fun.

“See? I told you making films is fun. It would’ve been great if you had helped me out from the beginning. Anyway, you should listen to me from now on, okay? That’s your punishment for making your junior sad!” Sora said as she placed her hand on top of the camera.

“Haha, I wonder who it was that burst into tears and thanked us.”

“Fine, you’re the boss. I’ll do everything you say, so give me something proper to work on.”

“Get yourself together. Since we’re doing this, I want the prize.”

Sora’s nose twitched when she heard the words from her seniors.

“Don’t worry. I’ll get a prize, no, the grand prize. If we get the money, we’ll go and eat out together, okay?”

“Sounds good!”

“Let’s go to a buffet!”

“I like sushi.”

Sora tried capturing the figures of her seniors on camera. It felt good. This movie felt like it was going to go well.

“Maru-seonbae. I think we can start now.”

“Then I’ll go up to the 5th floor now. I’ll call 10, okay?”

“Yes!”

Maru left the classroom.

“We’ll get our uniforms as well.”

“Yes, please do that.”

The two 2nd year seniors left the classroom. Since Woosung High didn’t have a school uniform, she thought about shooting in casual clothes, but they decided to wear uniforms to give a sense of unity.

“I’m surprised you got them. You didn’t buy them by chance, right?”

“I got them from my middle school friends. I had to make a lot of calls, you know? Fortunately, everyone had theirs lying around. They gave me permission when I told them I’ll give them back after washing them. It’s all thanks to my personal connections.”

“Personal connections, yeah right. You really don’t change, huh.”

“That’s a compliment, right?”

“Yes, it is.”

Sora smiled at Ando’s words. A while later, Maru brought ten people from the acting club. They had picked these ten out beforehand.

“Ah, but what happens if the uniforms don’t fit?” Sora wondered as she looked at the members of the acting club who just came in.

“Only the ones that are in the frame need uniforms that fit. Hm, Chihwan, I don’t think you’ll fit any,” Maru said.

Sora looked at the boy called Chihwan. He was someone over 180cm in height. There wasn’t a school uniform that fitted a boy that tall.

“Seonbae-nim, don’t abandon me.”

“I can’t help it.”

“Ah, Maru seonbae-nim. Should I cut my feet off?”

“Lunatic, stop talking nonsense. Uhm, Sora. Is there a uniform that fits him?”

“Hm, I do have a uniform I got from a pretty big guy, but I’m not sure. This guy’s very tall too.”

“It’s not ‘this guy’, I’m Ahn Chihwan. Also, if I fold my shoulders inward like this, I should be able to wear one.”

Chihwan curled his body inwards with a frown. Maru pulled back Chihwan’s neck from the back. Sora giggled as she looked at those two. They were a funny duo.

“Here they are.”

“Thank you for these.”

She laid out the uniforms that her seniors brought. 8 of them had perfect fits, but the other two were a problem. Chihwan didn’t fit into a uniform as she had expected, and one other person, a girl, didn’t fit because of her large build.

‘Well, the one that lent me this uniform was really skinny.’

No, rather than skinny, she was practically just skin and bones.

“Aram, I don’t think you’ll fit either.”

“Why? I can wear this.”

“The uniform will rip if you wear it.”

“What do you mean rip? You’re being really offensive you know, seonbae? Here, look!”

The girl named Aram tried putting her arm into a sleeve, and just that was enough to make the sleeve stretch out dangerously. Sora groaned and narrowed her eyes. Her seniors standing next to her had similar expressions.

“Why are you looking at me like that? I said I fit! Here, look. If I put my other hand in like this…”

Aram ended up putting both of her arms through the sleeves. Sora subconsciously placed her hands in front of her eyes. She felt like the clothes were really going to rip.

“…Won’t it fit?”

Aram tried twisting her shoulders in various ways, but the buttons never met their buttonholes. Maru tapped on Aram’s shoulders.

“There’s no way.”

Aram clicked her tongue before taking off the uniform. Sora sighed in relief after looking at the uniform. Fortunately, nothing ripped.

“But who was going to do the delinquent girl 1?”

She had Maru pick for the roles other than the main character because that was more efficient.

“Her.”

Maru pointed at Aram.

Sora had a hunch that would be the case. Sora bit her lower lip and fell into thought. The role of the delinquent who bullied the main character was quite important. She had to look like a student, but also feel evil and hateful at times. The fact that Maru recommended her meant that she was pretty good, so it would be quite a pity to leave her out because of the uniform.

“There’s no one to borrow it from though.”

Just as she thought about buying one, someone’s phone rang. It was Maru’s. After taking the call, Maru left the classroom and went downstairs.

‘Ah, his friend is here?’

He did say that someone who could help was coming. Maru came back a while later. Behind him was a girl who had long hair and a short stature. She was wearing a uniform, but it didn’t belong to any school she knew of.

‘It’s a girl?’

She thought that Maru was talking about a boy since he was talking about a friend. Maru brought in the girl who awkwardly stood in the corridor.

“Oh! Unni!”

Aram seemed like she knew her.

Sora quickly scanned the girl standing next to Maru. Her body figure was small, but her limbs were really long. She was quite skinny as well. She looked like she could fit the uniform in her hands.

‘It should be fine since we’re just getting a group shot, right?’

After organizing her thoughts, Sora asked about it immediately,

“Uhm, Maru-seonbae! Can your friend try this on?”

She offered the new girl the uniform first.

Chapter 536

She looked at the uniform in her hands once before looking at the girl who looking at her with a bright smile on her face. Perhaps this was what it meant when a person looked ‘blindingly bright’. Her eyes were so sparkly that instead of making her question why she had to wear this uniform, she just kept thinking that she should wear it. She came to herself and looked at Maru who was standing next to her.

“She’s a bit reckless.”

“Well, I get that.”

“Sora. At least explain to her what this is about. Don’t just ask her to wear something out of the blue. You’re supposed to be the director.”

Director? She looked at the girl. Her name seemed to be Sora.

“That’s true. I was looking at you thinking that that uniform would fit you perfectly, so I ended up saying that without thinking. I’m Kang Sora, and I’m directing this film. You know that we’re shooting a film, right?”

“Yes, I heard about it.”

“Oh, don’t speak politely. You must be a 3rd year if you’re a friend of Maru-seonbae’s, and that makes you an unni. Unni!”

Sora emphasized that word. She also briefly introduced herself.

“But I think I saw you somewhere before.”

Sora tilted her head before exclaiming.

“‘That family is suspicious’, am I right? You appeared in that one! U-uhm, that’s right, Wansook!”

Wansook. That was the nickname of the character she played in the sitcom. Although that character had a real name, she was called by that nickname more often than she was called by her real name, and after the 10th episode, she was never called by her real name. Everyone at the shoot called her Wansook as well, so it was a familiar name for her.

“Ah!”

“She is.”

Everyone around started recognizing her. She made an awkward smile.

“Oh my god! So both of you are on TV? That’s awesome.”

She looked at Sora who grabbed her hands while smiling brightly. Perhaps she would have a similar face if she picked up a 10,000won bill on the street. She coughed slightly when Sora looked like she had picked up a treasure, but Sora did not let go. In fact, she scanned her even more closely.

“Uhm…”

“Unni! Today’s our first shoot.”

“Oh, really?”

“Also, there’s a really attractive role for you here, do you want to try?”

“Me?”

“No, you must do it. This is called fate. I already have a premonition. The fact that that uniform fits you perfectly is proof of that.”

“I haven’t even tried putting it on though…”

“No! I’m sure of it. It will definitely fit you.”

“Moreover, she appeared on TV, so her skills could be vouched for.” Sora made an evil grin as she said that to herself in a small voice.

She pressed her lips together. She felt dizzy because of the storm brewing in front of her. She felt like she would accept whatever the girl in front of her said at this rate, so she stepped backwards for now. Sora approached her with a disappointed gaze. She quickly moved behind Maru. She needed a shield. This girl was somewhat scary.

“Calm down. Also, Aram is going to play that role,” Maru said.

“I don’t care if it’s unni who plays the role.”

Aram smiled and followed up. She looked at Aram. What she found out through the conversation just now was that she was taking something away from Aram.

She tensed her eyes before walking forward. She then gave the uniform back to Sora.

“What is it?”

“If there’s someone who has already been chosen to play the role, then use that person. A director must not lose the trust of the actors. I don’t feel good about it either.”

Sora blankly stared at her after taking the uniform. She just returned a firm gaze back to her. An actor always had a desire to act. Aram was also an actress. It was unthinkable for her to take away Aram’s role when she wasn’t here to play the role in the first place.

“Unni,” Sora spoke.

She couldn’t predict what was next, so she paid attention to Sora’s lips.

“You’re so cool.”

A smile returned to Sora’s face. Sora moved even closer to her. She flinched before taking a step back.

“You are right, unni. I was wrong. Uh, Aram…”

Sora’s lips twitched as she looked at Aram. Aram, who saw that, spoke,

“I’m a 2nd year.”

“Then, seonbae! Sorry about that Aram-seonbae. I was too fixated on the uniform, so I didn’t think things through.”

“Forget it. I’m not someone that gets angry at something like that. Also, unni, I really don’t mind. I’m only doing this because Maru-seonbae asked me to, I don’t really want the role that much. In fact, I want you to do it. You were really cool in Myunghwa High’s play. I want to see that again. Also, the uniform doesn’t fit me, unfortunately.”

Aram shrugged.

She looked at Maru.

“Weren’t the roles decided?”

“Just the main character. As for the rest, we decided to decide on the rest while shooting today. Aram’s role was a delinquent, but now that I look at you, I think you’ll do a fine job too.”

“What do you mean by that?”

“I mean that you look really gentle.”

She was about to punch Maru’s waist, but she stopped after seeing that there were many people around her. However, everyone was already looking at her clenched fist with awkward smiles on their faces. She smiled wordlessly before loosening her fist.

“You aren’t going to hit me today?”

Maru was being really spiteful today. She decided to record it in her mind. One punch to the stomach. She turned her head around to face Sora.

“How are you going to use someone who knows nothing about this?”

“We were just going to get the background shot and the group shot. Oh, and test the camera too. Since the shoot overlaps with the acting club’s practice hours, I don’t have much time. Plus, other than Maru-seonbae, there’s no one who’s memorized the lines. I was planning to test the people recommended by Maru-seonbae and decide the roles that way. That’s when you came in, unni.”

Sora gave her back the uniform with a smile.

She stared at the uniform.

“Also, I’m not going to have you play Aram-seonbae’s role. I’m going to get a uniform that fits her and shoot it that way. Instead though, it will look quite awkward if there’s an empty seat when we get the group shot. You just need to wear this uniform and sit down as an extra. Can’t you do that? It’s just for memories!”

Sora widened her eyes and approached her.

“Shouldn’t that be fine? I think it’ll be good if I can shoot with you.”

As she was hesitating, Maru approached her and talked to her in a small voice. She sighed slightly before accepting the uniform. Sora cheered loudly.

“So I just have to sit here without doing anything, right?”

“Yes! That’s fine. You’re pretty so just that will be enough to make the scene look good. Well then, everyone. Please get changed. We’ll start the shoot now!”

She took the uniform and went to the bathroom to change. The skirt was a little short, but it was nothing unwearable.

“It suits you perfectly.”

Aram said as she stood in front of the mirror. She checked herself in the mirror and left the bathroom, only to see Maru standing opposite to her.

“It suits you.”

“Isn’t it a bit short?”

“Girls these days all wear it like that. Rather than that, it’s quite interesting to wear the same uniform as you.”

“Should we take a photo together to commemorate?”

She took out her phone. Aram, who was watching, said that she’d take the photo and took the phone from her.

“You are too far apart. Get a little closer together.”

Just as she was about to say that she should just take it, a hand grabbed her hand. It was Maru’s. The distance between them closed to the point that a paper wouldn’t fit between the two. She widened her eyes in surprise before smiling in resignation and then hugged Maru’s waist.

“Whoo, the two of you look hot.”

After taking the photo, Aram gave her the phone back. She checked the photo.

“Looks good,” Maru said.

“Isn’t my face a little too big?”

“You just have a big head.”

After poking the grinning Maru on the waist, they returned to the classroom. She was originally just here to watch, but now she had changed uniforms and was getting ready to shoot. It didn’t feel unpleasant though. Although it was just a background shot, she felt good shooting with Maru. This was the first time this happened since the amateur acting class during the winter two years ago.

“Uhm.”

She turned around when she heard a voice. A rather tall boy was looking at her shyly.

“Yes?”

“Are you perhaps Maru seonbae-nim’s girlfriend?”

“Eh?”

When she blinked at the sudden question, Maru, who was talking to Sora, came over and grabbed the tall guy by the ear before dragging him into a corner. The big kid flailed his arms in the air and shouted “Please look at me in a good light! I’ll do my best!” before being dragged off. For some reason, it looked funny so she chuckled while covering her mouth. There seemed to be a lot of interesting folk around Maru.

“Who was that?”

She asked Maru when he returned.

“Don’t take interest. He’s a tiring guy.”

“Why? He looks like an interesting kid.”

“He’s a stalker. That’s what this is about.”

“Stalker?”

She tilted her head and looked at the big kid standing in a corner. She met his eyes and he smiled back like a puppy. I’m Ahn Chihwan - he said to her.

“Hm, usually, people sit according to height, so can you sit like that for now?”

They sat according to Sora’s arrangement. She sat at the very back, while Maru sat at the very front.

“Please act like there’s a teacher in front of you for now.”

She opened the book that Sora handed out and pretended to study. When she looked at the book, she felt a little disturbed because it reminded her of college, but then she remembered that it was just a shoot and calmed her expression. The boy holding a camera slowly moved and started the shoot. It wasn’t that the entire class was in the frame. It seemed that he was shooting just the first and second columns from the left. The boy walked past her. There was a long black cable attached to the camera which was connected to the laptop that Sora was looking at. She looked at Sora’s expression through the corner of her eyes. Sora’s eyes as she looked at the screen looked very serious.

“Cut. The person on the 3rd and 4th seats, I can see that you’re being conscious of the camera. I want you to look more natural. Let’s do that one more time.”

“Sora, you don’t need to clap the slate?” Maru asked from the front.

“It’s a cut I’m going to add in the middle, so I’m not planning to use a slate for this one. I’m just going to get a few group shots to use in between scenes.”

Maru nodded before looking at the front. He looked quite serious. She also sat up. She started this shoot due to a coincidence, but since she started it, she didn’t want to do it awkwardly.

‘I need to experience as many things as possible so that I will gain individuality in my acting and have others praise me.’

After uttering a short breath, she grabbed the pen on the window sill. She slightly tilted her head like she usually did and started writing things down. Since there was supposed to be a teacher at the front, she also had to look forward from time to time. This time, the camera was shooting from the front. Unlike when the camera just shot the back of her head, she had to mind her expression this time as well. She felt a little tense when she thought that this was someone else’s work.

“Good. This time, we’re going to get an overhead shot. Ando-seonbae! Please get up on the desk over there and shoot from there.”

A shot was taken from the top of the lockers, from the top of the window sill, from the top of a chair, and even from the top of the TV box.

“I think that will do for now.”

She sat up before looking at the clock. It was just going past 8.

“Sorry for having you do all that when I called you out to eat dinner,” Maru approached her and said.

She shook her head. Her heart, which was quite complex due to college problems and acting, calmed down a lot during the shoot. Just like how people were necessary to soothe wounds caused by people, perhaps acting was necessary to solve problems related to acting.

“It was fun. It was also good to see some interesting people.”

“That makes me feel a little better. But are you okay with the time?”

“It’s fine. I’ll be by myself even if I go home tonight, so I might as well play around here. Ah, well I guess it’s not exactly playing, huh?”

“Just play around.”

Just as she smiled faintly, Sora spoke after looking at the screen for a while.

“This time, we’ll shoot a scene where everyone throws things at the main character’s head.”

She couldn’t understand what it was about at first.

“Throw things?” She asked Maru.

Maru brought the script next to Sora and showed it to her.

“Can I see it?”

“You’re helping out. Of course you can.”

She nodded before looking at the script. As it wasn’t that long, it didn’t take her long to finish reading it.

“So that’s what this is about. So you are being bullied?”

“Yeah. Suits me, doesn’t it?”

She shook her head. That was something she didn’t want to admit even as a joke. Maru smiled faintly before showing her the back of his head.

“Aim properly. Also, no sharp objects.”

“Should I throw a mechanical pencil?”

“I said no sharp objects.”

Maru returned to his seat. She split pieces off the eraser she was holding. At Sora’s signal, she threw the eraser bits. The camera that shot Maru from up front moved up and down. “We’ll take multiple angles this time as well. Oh, should we rest for 10 minutes before that? Now that I think about it, you’ve been sitting all this time. Let’s start after a 10 minute break!”

At Sora’s words, the students stood up and headed towards the bathroom. She also stretched her arms before standing up. Just as she was about to open the window to get some air, she saw Sora checking the laptop screen. She cautiously approached Sora and asked.

“Can I have a look as well?”

Sora grinned before turning the laptop around.

“Of course you can.”

She sat on a chair and looked at the screen.

On the paused screen was Maru, curled up into a ball.

“Unni.”

“Yeah?”

“Look at Maru-seonbae’s eyes. Oh my god. If I don’t get the grand prize with this, I’ll just consider myself horrible at directing.”

She clicked on the play button as she said those words.

Chapter 537

The Maru on the screen had buried his head in his arms. This was when all sorts of trash flew at him from behind. After silently taking the trash, Maru slightly raised his head. All sorts of trash obstructed the frame and slid down Maru’s head before falling down. It seemed like rain. Maru quietly looked at the pieces of trash that fell on his desk. After slowly brushing away the countless bits of trash on his desk, he looked in front of him. His gaze was directly looking at the camera lens. She couldn’t turn her head away from the screen.

Maru’s eyes did not look depressing. He wasn’t frowning and he didn’t groan either. He just kept his mouth shut. He just looked at the lens expressionlessly with his pupils widened to the point that it looked merciless. A rain of trash fell in between him and the lens. She had the thought that the person watching this video would subconsciously hold their breath. It just had such a strong appeal. Maru, who was staring at the lens, slowly lowered his head back to his crossed arms. The rain of trash was still falling.

Tap - Sora pressed the spacebar and stopped the video. The white noise flowing out of the speakers stopped. Whee - the laptop fan started turning in order to dissipate the heat.

“I just chanced on it by luck,” Sora said.

Luck. She understood the meaning of that immediately. She would have been truly surprised if Sora had shot that scene intentionally. The actor looking at the lens, the falling bits of trash, and a noise that was nearly silent. The combination of those bland elements provoked a fearful sense of sympathy within her. If it was just Maru in the frame, no one would have figured out the meaning behind this footage. Perhaps they would have just felt awkward from the actor looking at the camera. However, the trash being thrown from behind, as well as Maru’s bland reaction combined into one to create a gloomy atmosphere. The disharmony of ordinariness. By themselves, these elements were nothing special, but combining them provoked the senses of the viewer.

“I only asked them to throw some trash from behind.”

“You really didn’t ask them to do this?”

“I really haven't done anything seriously since today’s the first day. So, I really didn’t want anything much…”

The only direction was to throw some trash, and if Maru stayed down, the intention behind that might have been unclear. The video only had meaning because Maru looked at the camera. She felt as though Maru was talking to her. Are you going to pretend to never have seen me like the others? - like that.

“Maru-seonbae!”

Sora called out to Maru, who was peeking outside the window. Maru approached her.

“This, this was really good.”

Sora played back the footage. After checking the footage, Maru nodded.

“I was planning to go with this image for the main character before he changes. Are you okay with that?”

“Of course I’m okay with it. If there’s something better, you can try that one, but please go with this if you don’t have anything else. I was originally going to have him frown a little more and express his pain, but I changed my mind after looking at your eyes. The expressionless one looks much better.”

“If the main character is at the point where he refuses to go to school and is even thinking about suicide, he has pretty much given up on everything. There is no resistance in a person who has put everything down. They’re a lifeless being. They get pushed, they get pushed, they get pulled, they get pulled.”

Sora opened the notebook next to the laptop and started writing. She took a step back and looked at Maru and Sora. Both of them were doing what they had to. That made her think - what am I doing here?

The Maru on the screen was doing an act that the director did not intend for. This meant that he researched just that deeply into the character. The acting club, the drama, and even a film shoot to help his junior. He had such a tight schedule, yet he did not slack in any of them. His gaze and that output might have been a coincidence, but his acting definitely was not. If she showed something like that during the sitcom shoot, would the director have told her something other than just ‘cut’?

“Maru-seonbae. I want to try doing this scene as practice. Do you think you can do it?”

She returned to her seat and sat down after looking at Sora and Maru looking at the script together for a while. Her mind felt complex again. Now that she thought about it, she felt like this when she saw Maru’s acting for the first time when they were 1st years. Maru, who went on stage, had a force that attracted people’s gazes. A power that made the viewers keep looking at him. That was an incredibly important talent for an actor. Talent - she erased that word from her mind and shut her lips. It wasn’t that she denied the very concept of talent. People definitely had their differences. There definitely lived a person who could reach heights she could never reach in her life very easily. That was the difference in talent. However, wasn’t it so sad to just use that single word to accept all the differences in this world?

‘And it’s not like talent is everything.’

To show off a character outside the director’s intentions was not in the realm of talent. Analyzing and understanding the character to bring out a new face of that character should be the result of countless repetitions. Trying this one, then that one - a character’s depth and variety was only completed after numerous trials and errors.

She looked at Maru, who returned to his seat with the script. She had seen Maru’s script a couple of times in the amateur acting class. It was filled to the brim with text to the point that she subconsciously exclaimed, nay, groaned. Maru analyzed the character in so much detail that it made her wonder if it was really necessary to go that far. No, that was no longer in the realm of analysis. It was in the realm of creation. A character that existed in the script didn’t have a date of birth, height, or even a precise appearance. Maru came up with a few possibile characteristics based on the clear facts stated in the script, and based on those characteristics, he made new false truths. Under the main points, numerous trivial traits came about, and those traits multiplied to the point that there was no blank space on the script. Maru completed his character by listing a countless number of varieties that a character could be and then selected what he thought was right among them. If the character he completed didn’t receive a good evaluation, he brought out a different combination, and after two or three tries, he got a good reaction from the coach - Yang Ganghwan.

Maru’s method was well-known among the people that were a part of the amateur acting class. Everyone knew about it, but they did not imitate him. There were a few people that tried, but they soon gave up. At a glance, selecting a few traits to create a character might look efficient, but the path to that efficiency stage was way too difficult. Analyzing a character was definitely not something fun to do. Listening to the history of a real person was boring enough, so there was no way it was fun to create a false history of a character. The more traits there were, the higher the possibility of two traits conflicting with each other, and one couldn’t just increase the possibilities endlessly because of that.

She also tried to analyze in depth the character she played in the play for her school acting club, but she wasn’t able to do it like Maru. When she spent hours, or even days increasing the number of traits, the thoughts ‘this should be enough’ and ‘is there a need to go this far for a character that I will never see again after this?’ filled her mind and she immediately let go of her pen. The moment satisfaction poked its head up, she couldn’t find a reason to continue.

She wondered what Maru’s script was like right now. She wanted to have a look but decided not to. She felt like she would fall into despair the moment she saw the script filled with text in all of the gaps. He kept forging his way forward, while she kept shaking on the spot. The unease stemming from that difference made her tremble.

More earnestly, with more effort, harder - she clenched her fist. She suddenly felt as though Maru was infinitely far away from her. Acting had always been something fun for her, but it pained her right now. Even though she knew that Maru’s acting wasn’t good because of talent, she felt jealous when she thought about the eyes she saw just now. She remembered something she saw in a book.

-I feel the most tragic when a genius says ‘I tried my hardest’. I don’t feel tragic while looking at the genius, but when I realized my subconscious attitude to devalue his effort.

She brushed her hair upwards with both of her hands in order to shake off the line from a book that echoed in her head. She suddenly felt sorry towards Maru. She also felt frustrated at herself for not being as honest as Maru. Maru sometimes said that there’s nothing that ruins a relationship more than being too honest, however, Maru always showed the right amount of honesty, and relieved her with non-fancy words.

She looked at Maru’s back. Before she came here, she had made a resolve. She made a resolution to not complain while telling him about her worries. She made a resolution to overcome this by herself.

The shoot continued. They shot the classroom scene from multiple angles. When about 40 more minutes had passed, Sora said that they should try shooting the next scene. It was probably the scene that Sora asked Maru whether it was possible.

She sighed a little before standing up. Since this wasn’t a group scene, there should be no need for her to keep sitting down. She wanted to get some fresh air. She should calm down once she left the classroom and cooled her head a little - she thought such as she walked towards the back door when Maru grabbed her hand.

“Help me out a little.”

“You want my help?”

“Yeah. Let’s do this scene together.”

Maru gave her a script. She hesitated a little before slowly opening the script. Just as she had expected, it was filled with text everywhere. Words filled every corner of the page as though they wouldn’t allow the tiniest bit of blank space. She felt a little dizzy as she read the script. This was the scene where delinquent 1 bullied the main character. She had to press on Maru’s head and say words that she would usually think three times before saying.

“But Aram was supposed to play this role.”

“Aram went up to practice.”

Now that she thought about it, Aram couldn’t be seen anywhere. Well, there wasn’t a spare school uniform, so she couldn’t exactly participate in the shoot. However, she couldn’t easily give the okay. She was afraid. She felt as though she would be overwhelmed with guilt if she acted with Maru right now.

“Can’t you… do it with someone else? You just need someone to say the line, don’t you?”

Maru stared at her. She did not avoid his gaze. She wanted to, but she felt like Maru would misunderstand if she did so. She wanted to portray to Maru that she simply didn’t want to do it.

“I want you to do it.”

“Uhm…”

Just as she was about to shake her head, Maru winked at her.

“I know that my handsome face is giving you a lot of trouble, but it’s about time you got used to it, don’t you think?”

“It’s not like that.”

“Then what’s the problem?”

“It’s not that there’s a problem but…”

At that moment, Maru took a step closer to her before looking her straight in the eyes.

“Then do it. You can do it.”

It was a declaration. It wasn’t a request nor an offer. It was just a one-sided proclamation. She felt her heart thump loudly when she heard those words. While she was a little angry at Maru’s overbearing attitude, she also felt his boundless trust in her, which made her laugh. She didn’t know whether to get angry or laugh, so she decided to grab the script.

“You know what will happen to you if you tell me I’m bad, right?”

“It hurts when you say something like that to someone who was trampled on several times by Myunghwa High. Well then, please take care of me, my actress.”

She bit her lower lip before opening the script.

‘Fine, I’ll do it. I just have to do it, don’t I?’

She decided that she would become a really scary delinquent.

Chapter 538

“Oh my word, ‘my actress’? Maru-seonbae, I didn’t hear wrong, did I?” Sora asked as she looked at Maru.

“You want me to say that to you too?”

“No. I wouldn’t be able to sleep at night if I heard something like that. Because of all the goosebumps.”

“Dating is half being childish and half lying.”

“I had my guesses, but you were dating after all?” Sora awaited confirmation as she looked at the unni sitting at the front.

Maru nodded.

“No wonder.”

“Isn’t it strange that you didn’t know about it before? Where can you find another couple that suits each other more?”

“Wow, where did the serious Maru-seonbae on this screen go? Why is there a cheesy man in front of me?” Sora asked as she pointed at the monitor.

Maru winked before walking towards that unni. Sora laughed and then started getting ready to shoot.

“Ando-seonbae.”

“Yeah?”

Ando, holding the camera, came towards her. It now looked natural for him to support the camera with his right hand. She was very worried when she first gave him the equipment, but now he handled the camera better than anyone else in the film production club.

“We’re going to shoot this scene.”

“I thought you were only going to do the group shots and some tests.”

“Yes. This is one of the tests. I want to try capturing more of the main character that Maru-seonbae is acting out. For now, please shoot it from the front since it’s important to get a look at his facial expression.”

“I just need to focus on shooting Maru?”

“Yes. We aren’t going to use this cut, so don’t worry about the angle and just try to get as much of Maru-seonbae’s expressions and gestures that you can.”

Ando said he understood before walking in front of Maru with the camera. Sora also walked over to Maru with the script.

“Unni, you need a script too, don’t you?”

“No, it’s fine. I memorized it already.”

“Already?”

“It wasn’t long.”

Sora exclaimed in surprise before taking back the script. She managed to learn several lines in just 15 minutes?

‘The people from the acting club couldn’t do that though.’

Sora thought back to the audition at the acting club that happened a while ago.

“Do you have anything specific you want me to do?” Maru asked.

Sora broke out of her contemplation before explaining what was on her mind.

“You said that the main character should be in a lifeless state, right? Please act based on that for now. After that, I want you to express the mental state of the main character that I originally had in mind. Of course, I understood that the character you showed through the camera was much more appealing, but I want to be safe. A person’s charm isn’t something that you can know about before you see it in person. I want to go down the route where you bring out the stereotypical bullied kid more tastefully.”

“Alright, I’ll do that.”

She didn’t say anything to unni. Since she was here to just fill the role for now, there was no need to ask her to do anything.

“Then please get ready, the two of you. We’ll start as soon as you’re ready. The rest of you, please sit down on your seats and act. Show me how you would act when you see someone get bullied. Of course, you can’t try to stop the bullying. Either you just keep watching or you enjoy it. Choose one of these two.”

Sora watched the acting club members sitting down before returning to the laptop. The camera held by Ando was turned on and then a video appeared on the laptop. She hadn’t given the cue sign yet, but everyone had fallen into their inner worlds and were doing their own acts. The acting of the 1st year members of the acting club looked awkward when looked at up close, but that wasn’t a big problem since they were just there to fill the background. It would be fine as long as they polished themselves up later. What she had to focus on right now was Maru’s facial acting. She decided to do everything else after setting the main character perfectly.

‘I also need to test the transfer student role.’

The main character, who was a target of bullying, would escape being bullied by bullying the transfer student. Stepping above the transfer student, who was a target of sympathy at first, allowed him to escape his old position. The role of the transfer student, who had to be the most gloomy and depressing until the last moments of the movie, was like the second main character of this movie. Since he was a projection of the old main character, the standards of choosing that person had to be quite strict as well.

“Are you ready?” Sora raised her voice and asked.

She saw Maru and unni nodding in the front of the class. Sora inhaled shortly.

“Then let’s begin the shoot. I really wanted to do this, so allow me to do it.”

Sora rolled up the script before pointing at the ceiling.

“Lights!”

She then pointed at Ando.

“Camera!”

She then scanned the actors.

“Actors!”

She sat down and shouted.

“Standby, action!”

* * *

She looked at Maru, who buried his head in his arms on the desk. Usually, she would have patted his head or something, but she couldn’t do that right now.

Ha - she uttered a laugh mixed with a sigh before standing up. She walked up to Maru’s desk before kicking it.

“Hey, you asleep?”

There was no reaction. A sneer appeared on her face. She erased the image of Maru she had in her mind and drew a really wimpy boy in that place. This kid didn’t speak, was slow, and would stutter whenever he talked, making anyone who talked to him feel unpleasant.

“Hey, hey.”

She kicked once more, and after seeing that there was no reaction, she kicked it hard. The desk made a loud noise and moved, making Maru, who was pretending to be asleep, flinch. Oh?

“Wow, ignoring me, huh. Are you being sexist? You aren’t answering me because I’m a girl? You’re total trash, aren’t you?”

She laughed as she bit on her thumb slightly. She looked at the others in order to get their agreement, but they were all looking at her in a daze. For a moment, her desire to look down again was broken and her heart flinched, but she soon returned again. An excuse like ‘I couldn’t keep my emotions properly because of another actor’ didn’t work on a shooting set.

She clenched her teeth slightly before kicking the desk even harder. The fear that Maru might get injured flashed past her mind, but she ignored it. Right now, she had to put everything into acting. If she still had any consideration left, that would show in her acting as being awkward. She wanted to test herself against Maru and see how far she could keep up with him, who seemed so distant from her.

Immersion. That was the only answer.

The desk jerked up and down and books started falling out. Maru flinched and stood up before picking up the books. It was an uninteresting reaction where he just swayed if she kicked him like a roly-poly toy. She laughed to the point that it resounded in her stomach before pushing Maru’s head with her palm.

“Hey. Say something. If you’re so afraid of me, what does that make me? Hey, do you want to get hit by this noona? Should I strip your pants and chase you out to the corridor like last time?”

She laughed before pushing on Maru’s forehead relentlessly so that the head of the roly-poly toy didn’t return to its original position. After swaying, Maru’s body eventually fell on the ground.

Crash - the chair that fell over made a loud noise.

“Putting on a show huh? Someone might think that I beat you up. Hey, you got a lot better at acting, you know that? Are you going to tell the old dudes that you got hit?”

She looked at Maru who slowly stood up. He dusted his clothes and set the chair straight before politely placing both of his hands in front of his stomach. His clasped hands didn’t look like they had any energy. Those two powerless hands would fall apart the moment she tapped on it. She pushed Maru’s shoulders in annoyance. Maru, who was lowering his head, staggered as he was pushed back towards the window.

She crossed her arms before walking up to him.

“Why don’t you raise your head, huh? Or are you going to make me bend down like this?”

Hearing those words, Maru slowly raised his head. He looked expressionless. There was no happiness, no sadness, no joy, no anger, no hate, no love. There was simply nothing in that expression. She felt angry when she looked at that face. She felt like this - let’s see how long you last.

She chewed on her inner cheeks before taking a step forward.

* * *

Maru looked at her standing in front of him. No, he didn’t even know if he was looking at her, the window to the corridor behind her, or Chihwan, who was dazedly standing in a corner. Since he started acting, no, even before that, he had let go of all of his emotions. Since something might pop out if he tried to suppress them, he just let them all go. The keyword here was to be lifeless. A stone does not feel pain or react.

The main character, who now took bullying as a part of his everyday life did not react to any external stimulus. That was the only way. Becoming angry, crying, and resisting was something that was possible with energy. The main character, who has gotten used to powerlessness, was just pushed around. He would get hit, get hit again, and then again. Once he thought that getting hit was the norm, it allowed him to endure. He could endure if he wasn’t conscious of the pain, the gaze, and even the sympathy.

Maru was not afraid of her. In fact, she was a target of admiration. She was the prettiest in the class, the mood maker, and was also loved by the teachers. It was unthinkable for him to get angry at her, who was practically a figure of worship. The only feeling he had towards her was jealousy, but he didn’t express that either.

He was just a stone.

A stone’s duty was to stay still.

Still, still - he felt his weight disappear as his consciousness sunk deep inside. The girl in his vision, the classroom, as well as everything else, started to lose their meaning. Tick, tock, tick, tock. The sound of the clock could be heard amidst the mocking laughter. That was the sound of the powerful gallops that led him to his salvation. 5 o’clock was when regular classes ended. He had to continue as a stone until then.

A hand flew at him. His shoulder was pushed back. She had an arrogant expression on her face. That was natural. She was the idol of the class. It was natural for her to put on such an expression. Compared to her, he was just a small stone by her foot. A stone that did nothing but stay still.

“Sorry.”

He cautiously uttered the only word that was allowed to him. In this classroom, where rules of bullying applied, he was only allowed to utter two words. Okay and sorry. Refusal wasn’t an option. He felt as though his vision turned blurry. He kept repeating the word ‘sorry’ several times. He was immersed in the character, but there was no worry of forgetting his lines. There was another self of him that was watching the situation from behind after all.

Unlike the main character who had turned himself into stone, the Maru observing everything rationally from a step behind looked at everything in front of him in a cold fashion. He observed the acting of his juniors and checked the position of the camera through the corner of his eyes. He let his self that was immersed in acting, be, and turned around slightly. He moved, but his emotional state did not break. The more he acted the clearer the distinction between his two egos became. Unless his observing self intentionally disrupted the emotional state of the immersed self, the continuity of his acting did not break even if he thought about something else.

‘Does she have any worries?’

She was focusing on this too much to the point that it looked like she was being chased by something. There was no hesitation in her actions when she tapped his cheeks, but he couldn’t erase the feeling that she was forcing herself to act.

There was no flaw in the way she expressed the character or the mood itself. She was really good. However, for some reason, the joy he could feel from the stage play couldn’t be seen. Just because an actor or an actress played a cruel delinquent, it didn’t meant that the joy of acting couldn’t be felt from them. He knew this even more clearly because he was looking at her from up close and not through a screen. Her acting was filled with hastiness. An act that stormed forward without any leisure was something to be applauded, but to Maru’s eyes, she looked like she was avoiding something rather than being passionate about acting. She seemed as though she chose acting as a method to intentionally avoid something she didn’t want to be conscious about or was too afraid to admit.

If it was someone else, he wouldn’t have felt this. However, he knew because this concerned her. The one he loved, respected, and relied on the most was making such an expression, so it would be strange if he didn’t notice.

Along with a loud slap, his head was turned away. His cheek felt numb. The script said that she slapped him with the back of her hand, but she used her palm to slap hard. Perhaps due to being so absorbed, she didn’t notice the strangeness of this situation.

The juniors, Sora, as well as Ando who was holding the camera looked towards him with panicked expressions. Maru looked into her eyes. Was he supposed to break out of his emotional state and tell her the mistakes she made?

Maru stood still. Her next lines continued and Maru replied with his own lines.

After the lines were over, she took a deep breath and took a step back. Just as she felt relieved that the acting was over, she looked around her.

There was a dry silence before she looked at Maru in confusion. Maru stroked his cheek before speaking,

“Man, you hit me properly.”

“Maru, I uh…”

“Director. Did we look good?” Maru asked as he looked at Sora.

Sora, who had a dazed expression, clapped and cheered before approaching them. The other juniors also exclaimed loudly.

“I was so surprised. I thought it was real.”

“Acting is always about being real. Rather than that, how did it look?”

“Awesome. It was totally awesome. Unni, can’t you just keep shooting the movie with us?”

Sora requested as she grabbed her hands. She put on a dry smile.

“Wait a minute. I’ll have a talk with her. You can look forward to it. I’ll get you something surprising.”

“Of course!!”

Maru smiled at Sora before grabbing her hand.

“Let’s get some fresh air, shall we?”

“Ah, okay.”

Maru left the classroom while holding her hand after telling everyone that they’ll be gone for 10 minutes to come up with some ideas.

Chapter 539

“This is a popular item at our school.”

She received a cup of hot chocolate from Maru. She was supposed to be relaxed by the warmth coming from her hands and the sweet smell, but she had no choice but to focus on Maru’s cheek in unease. It was red. There was a clear trace of her hand. She slowly reached out to touch Maru’s cheek and she sighed bitterly when she felt the skin that felt a little rough like it had rashes.

“Sorry.”

“About what? Oh, this?”

Maru pointed at his cheek and laughed. She couldn’t just take that laugh as a joke. She was immersed in acting with the sole purpose of concentrating. She became absorbed into the character and managed to act in a way that didn’t look embarrassing. However, from some time onwards, she was unable to control her emotions. As a result of that, she injured Maru. Even after she hit him, she did not realize that what she had done was not in the script. Only after the shoot stopped did she realize that her hand felt a little hot, and after looking at Maru’s cheek, which would hurt even more than her hand, she gulped.

“How’s the hot chocolate? The cafeteria lady manages the machine, and she puts a generous amount of powder in it. That’s why it’s better than the hot chocolate from most cafés.”

She kept looking at Maru’s swollen cheek. It had become even redder than when they were in class. It suddenly came to her that it was irresponsible of her to just say ‘sorry’. This was clearly something that shouldn’t end with just an apology.

“Why do you look so dark?”

Maru walked up to her before sitting down. Having a hard time looking down at the gaze coming from below, she turned her head away a little. She felt sorry just looking at him.

“If you’re going to keep avoiding me, please tell me, so that I can keep looking at you.”

“I’m sorry. I really mean it.”

“Do you feel that sorry?”

“I do.”

“Will you stop feeling sorry if I say I’m okay?”

She looked at Maru when she heard those words. Maru was smiling as though nothing had happened.

“It happened while we were acting. Anyone can do that if they get absorbed. Also, it didn’t hurt that much.”

“It’s still red.”

“That’s because I don’t have good skin.”

Maru smiled nonchalantly. She faintly smiled back. She couldn’t help but smile because she didn’t want to put Maru even more at unease. She had to smile it over and put an end to it here. She just had to joke with Maru like usual and apologize to him refreshingly before returning to the class. Then, she would finish the shoot as though nothing had happened. As for worries and regrets, she could just go home and deal with those by herself.

“What the, it didn’t hurt? I was really worried because it looked really painful. Looks like I was worried for nothing.”

She drank the remaining hot chocolate in one gulp.

“Let’s get going now. We need to finish the rest of the shoot.”

Even though it had to be quite painful for him, Maru worried about her more than he did about himself. She couldn’t keep things awkward. Maru would only be at ease if she was as well.

Just as she was about to throw the paper cup into the trash can and leave the cafeteria, Maru grabbed her hand.

“It’s still break time.”

Let’s go back to the shoot - she couldn’t utter those words. The moment she looked at Maru’s eyes which were calmly looking back at her, she realized that her lies had been exposed. She sat down as she felt her pretentious smile break apart.

“How was the afterparty? It’s too late to ask now, huh. Sorry for being an inattentive boyfriend.”

“…Why are you sorry?”

“Because I thought saying sorry was the trend these days. Rather than that, how was it really? Was it fun?”

She looked at Maru again and thought that he was really unpredictable. Until just a few seconds ago, he was like an adult who looked like he could accept anything, but right now, he was excited like a child. It wasn’t a pretense nor acting. It all felt real, which made her curious.

She tried to clear her messy mind up before giving up. When talking to this guy, sometimes it became meaningless to keep thinking about something. At times like this, it was much better to just speak what was on her mind.

“It was both refreshing and a bit disappointing. When I first started the shoot, I was wondering when it was all going to end because it was hard, but just as I feel like it’s doable, it’s the end already. I don’t know what I did, nor whether I did well or not.”

She sighed.

“I don’t want to be grumbling in front of you. Can we stop here today? I feel like I’ll say something really depressing if I keep talking.”

She meant it. It would be easier on her mind if she consulted Maru about it, but she couldn’t always rely on him for everything. This was a path she had chosen to walk. She wanted to arrive at an answer herself with her own philosophies when it came to acting.

“You’re being really unfair. Some Mr. Han-something-Maru from somewhere bawled his eyes out in front of you. I know that I’m not reliable, but…”

“It’s not like that at all.”

She cut off Maru’s words. When she did, Maru made a sneaky smile and asked,

“So I’m actually very reliable?”

Maru shrugged and spoke in an annoying way. She buried her face in her hands. Would she ever win against this boy with words in her life? Looking at that nonchalant smile of his, it felt like she was stupid for worrying about this by herself.

However, she soon realized that it had always been this way. Maru never urged her to speak. He did not tell her to speak about her worries, nor that he’d solve all of them. He just kept watching after placing the foothold for her to speak first. That process was so relaxing, which made her talk about what was on her mind, while Maru just listened to her. For some reason, most of her worries no longer became worries when she put them into words, which made her finish her conversation with Maru with jokes.

He looked immature, but he was more serious than anyone. However, she knew. She knew that even such a person suffered by himself endlessly and cried. She did not know Maru’s worries nor could she solve them, which caused her to be disappointed in herself because of that. She found herself pathetic for not being able to support Maru like he did for her. That was why she didn’t want to rely on him this time, but when she looked at this nonchalant consultant, the lock on her mouth opened by itself.

At school, she was mostly on the listening side when it came to consultation. For some reason, a lot of people came to her to discuss their worries since she was young, and through those people, other kids came to her to listen to their worries. You’re relaxing for some reason - those were the words from the people that talked with her. That was probably because she inherited the warm eyes from her father.

‘But in front of him, I just… ’

She closed her eyes before opening them again. Maru was still smiling in front of her. She lost. She could just turn around and run away, but it was likely that he would chase her all the way to her house if she did so. No, she was 100% sure of it. Han Maru’s specialty was to come to her house all of a sudden, wasn’t it?

She talked about the story she had wrapped up inside her heart. The mood at the set, the distrust towards acting she gained because of that, and the connected college admission problem. After listening, Maru spoke.

“I don’t think it’s too bad.”

“My situation?”

“Yeah. Especially the way you hit my cheek.”

“Are you going to make me feel sorry like that?”

“It’s not a joke. I mean it. Normally, people only say that they’re desperate but they don’t take action. Something’s hard, something’s not working right, big trouble occurred, or things like that.”

Maru shook his head slightly.

“Let’s say that your house is on fire. What would you do?”

“Get out of the house of course.”

“But there’s 1 billion won in cash in the room next door.”

“1 billion? Wouldn’t I have to bring that with me?”

“Of course you do. 1 billion isn’t someone’s kid’s name. But what if the fire is really strong? What if you might get engulfed by flames if you didn’t leave immediately?”

“Abandon the money of course. Survival comes first.”

“Yes, that’s what desperation is. If you’re desperate, you only see one thing. In the face of desperation, there are no excuses. That’s because there’s no room to think about anything else because the problem in front of you requires solving. This is also why desperate people are more prone to scams - because they’re desperate.”

Maru shrugged once.

“But being desperate isn’t always a bad thing. It means that you’re very sensitive. I got the feeling that you were concentrating really hard when I acted with you before. It scared me a little.”

“Me?”

“Tell me honestly. You didn’t realize what was wrong when you hit me, did you?”

She nodded honestly. Back then, she had forgotten about the script. She was so absorbed in the delinquent character and only thought about toying with the weak toy in front of her.

“I couldn’t find a flaw in that acting. Do you remember everyone falling silent when you hit my cheek?”

“Yeah, a bit.”

“That’s because your acting was real, at least for that moment. Everyone felt shivers run down their back despite knowing the fact that you were acting. Your acting had the charm to attract everyone to the point that they stopped their own acting and looked at you. The motivation for that acting was probably, desperation.”

Maru grinned before stroking his cheek.

“Though, you’ll probably run into trouble if you do this elsewhere.”

“It still hurts, doesn’t it?”

“I think I might become okay if you kiss me to heal it.”

“Should I?”

When she brought her face closer, Maru leaned backwards.

“Looks like you regained that leisure.”

“Thanks to you.”

“I won’t tell you to always tell me about your worries. You probably won’t like that either, based on your personality. However, if it’s something that drives you into a corner to the point that you can’t look at anything else, I hope that you can tell me about it. Talking about it with me doesn’t mean that you’ll always arrive at an answer, but you know what they say. Happiness is doubled when shared, and worries are halved when they’re shared.”

“Isn’t it supposed to be sadness?”

“Same thing.”

“I don’t think it is though?”

“Then we’ll just add it. Sadness and worries are halved. You shouldn’t think that you’re burdening me by sharing your worries with me. It doesn’t make you irresponsible if you do so. We’re going to see each other for the rest of our lives, so it’s a shared worry in the first place.”

“See each other for the rest of our lives?”

She pouted.

“Didn’t I tell you that I already booked the wedding hall?”

“You really don’t get tired of that joke, huh.”

“I’m not joking though?”

“You’re really going to marry me?”

“I told you the first time we met. I’m going to marry you.”

His face didn’t contain the slightest bit of pretense or falsities. She felt her face heat up. If he was just joking, she could just joke back, but she didn’t know what to do if he talked about such a thing so seriously.

“Why do you think I’m working so hard? It’s so I can take the position of your husband before anyone else does.”

“This is killing me.”

“Think about me and keep living.”

“Go away.”

“Weren’t you going to kiss me? Is this how you’re going to treat me?”

“That’s separate!”

“Then this is separate too.”

“You won’t lose a word against me huh.”

“I am going to once we get married, so don’t worry about that.”

“Who’s marrying you!”

“You are.”

“I am?”

“You aren’t?”

“No, well… we’ll have to see that later…”

“I can guarantee you that there’s no better husband material than me.”

“Why do you sound so confident?”

“Why? Because it’s fate.”

“Fate?”

She looked at Maru. There probably wasn’t a word that didn’t suit him more.

“You believe in something like that? You don’t look like you do.”

“I didn’t, before anyway.”

“When is before?”

“Hm, I don’t know. Maybe my previous life?”

“There you go again with that. Previous life?”

“You don’t trust me? It’s true, you know? You confessed and proposed to me in my previous life.”

“Forget it. I’m going to consult you about every single worry I have, so stop. Now it’s about previous lives. Sheesh.”

She pushed against her knees to stand up. It was about time they returned. The problem was still there, but she didn’t feel troubled by it. She gained courage when she heard that desperation could become motivation. Make some room and walk forward - Maru probably wanted to tell her those words.

“You should finish what you started.”

“Finish what?”

Maru stuck his lips out in a cringy fashion. She frowned and stepped back before sighing.

“Fine, this is the consultation fee.”

But aren’t my lips chapped at the moment? - she had some trivial worries as she put her lips closer to his.

“Maru-seonb… uwaaaak! No, nothing!”

She looked at the tall boy standing at the entrance of the cafeteria. His name was Ahn Chihwan if she remembered correctly. Maru grinned before walking over to Chihwan.

Let’s creep everyone out - Maru said those words.

She looked at the two people before bursting out into laughter.

She suddenly thought that it was the right decision to come here today.

Chapter 540

“Thank you for your work!”

Sora clapped as she announced the end of the shoot. It was 9:40 p.m. It was pretty late, but everyone attended the shoot without a single complaint.

“I really got a lot out of today. This is going well even though it’s the first day. I’m sure that the film will turn out great.”

“Aren’t you being too optimistic?” Ando asked as he put away the camera.

Sora shook her head and pointed at the laptop.

“Can you still say that after looking at this?”

Tap - she clicked on the play button. The paused video resumed. The unni pushed Maru and glared at him fiercely. She focused on Maru but was distracted by Unni’s acting. Both of them did better than she had expected, no, they were perfect. She had played this footage back several times during the break. Their expressions, postures, voices - everything was exactly like the ideal scene she had pictured in her mind, so she wanted to put this into the movie without editing it at all.

“If the acting of the people around was a little more decent…”

Compared to the two, the acting of the 1st year acting club members left a lot to be desired. When the shoot just began, they dissolved into the film without looking awkward, but their emotions were broken the moment unni slapped Maru. The first year actors had become audience members.

“But we can’t use it because she is in it.”

Ando looked at the unni on the screen.

Sora was dissatisfied with that. She found the most ideal actress, but she just had to be from another school.

“Can’t we do anything about it?”

“About what?”

“I want to shoot with this unni. Aram-seonbae said she was okay with it as well.”

“I thought she went to another school.”

“That doesn’t really matter actually. It’s not like I’m handing this film in under the school’s name.”

“I guess that’s true.”

“The problem is whether that unni wants to help out or not.”

“She appears on TV. Wouldn’t she be busy?”

“That’s what I mean. Oh, but I should at least ask, right?”

Just then, unni came back to the classroom after changing her uniform. Sora ran up to her without hesitation.

“Unni. You really were the best today.”

“Thank you for saying that. I was feeling sorry because I felt like I was bothering you.”

“Bothering? Of course not! I got a good picture thanks to you today. Want to have a look?”

“May I?”

“Of course. You were in it. Let’s have a look at it together.”

Sora brought the unni to the laptop. The 1st year members of the acting club had all returned to the 5th floor, so the classroom felt rather desolate. She raised the speaker volume and played back the video in full screen. The two people on the screen became vivid and started moving again. Sora looked at unni’s expression through the corner of her eyes. As expected of a pro, she was focused on watching her own acting.

‘It feels like I’m about to get my grade card.’

She felt nervous for some reason. Eventually, the loud slap could be heard from the speakers. It was a scene that took away her breath no matter how many times she watched it. The unni’s eyes that were captured by the camera were, as much as she felt sorry about putting it this way, like those of a bad bitch’s. Meanwhile, Maru-seonbae was listening to unni’s words like some organic lifeform without free will. Sora decided to add the slapping scene after watching that scene. From still, to dynamic, to dramatic - she liked that sequence. If she could capture the other classmates looking at that scene in surprise, or perhaps even joy, it would be a dream-like classroom. The kind where it was hell for just one person.

“How is it?” Sora asked cautiously.

“Not bad. I thought it would look strange.”

“Of course not. You did so well. Especially this part. I really liked this part where you kept staring at Maru-seonbae. It felt like you were really treating him like a toy. It’s a malicious scene, but the person doing it didn’t seem to think that it’s a serious thing. I had a Eureka moment the moment I saw it.”

“My acting was okay?”

Unni didn’t sound confident for some reason. Sora firmly spoke,

“It was the best.”

Unni stopped talking and started tapping on the keyboard. She pulled the slider forward to look at her own acting before putting on a faint smile. For some reason, Sora felt relaxed when she looked at that smile.

“Thanks. This is the first time I got complimented by a director when I acted in front of the camera.”

“No way.”

“It’s true. I have never heard anything on the shooting set. Even if it wasn’t a compliment, I wished I could hear something about my acting, but I didn’t get to hear anything.”

“You didn’t, unni? The shooting set you’re talking about is the sitcom one, right?”

“Yeah.”

“That’s strange. I watched that sitcom often too, but your acting was really good. The cute girl that’s hungry all the time. You were good to the point that I thought you were actually such a person. Though, you’re actually really snappy in real life.”

Sora looked at the laptop. An unni who could act so well didn’t get praised for her acting? Sora spoke after she slightly scrolled the slider.

“Isn’t it like this? A shooting set for a TV program must be the world of pros, right? And it’s natural for pros to do well. So what I’m saying is that the fact that the director of the sitcom had no comment about you should mean that you are doing really well as a pro. I might be wrong, but if I was the director, I would be like that. I would leave the people who can take care of themselves alone and take care of those that need care.”

“Are you consoling me?”

“No, I’m not good with things like that. Do you know what my nickname was in middle school?”

“What was it?”

“The cocky girl. Everyone who hated me called me that. But I don’t care. There are a lot of people in this world. I’m busy enough already taking care of the people that like me, so there’s no need to suck up to the people that hate me, is there? Also, I honestly liked the nickname. When you call someone cocky, you do that because you envy that person, right?”

“It’s cool of you to think that way.”

“You’re cool too, unni.”

Sora grinned.

“Uhm, unni.”

“Yeah?”

“Can’t you keep shooting this film with me?”

“This film?”

“Yes. I was touched after seeing this scene. I have a really good feeling about it. All I can think of now is that it has to be you.”

“I’m thankful to you for telling me that but…”

“You must be busy, aren’t you? I can understand that, you’re on TV and all.”

“It’s not that I’m that busy…”

“Really? Then can you do it?”

“But Aram was supposed to play this role.”

“No, the only character we decided on for sure was Maru-seonbae. As for the others, we decided that I will decide the roles after a test. Seonbae[1], I'm not going to do something like ruining my good work because of formalities. I saw Aram-seonbae’s acting in the acting club. She is not that awkward with the role, but you go far beyond that.”

Sora stomped her feet in unease. She had a feeling that this unni wanted to do it. If she wanted to grab her, now was the right time. She might change her mind later.

“Please wait a moment.”

Sora ran up to the 5th floor. She knocked on the door to the hall before peeking inside. The people from the acting club were resting. It seemed that they were just about to wrap up practice and go home.

“Uhm, Daemyung-seonbae.”

She greeted Daemyung-seonbae before walking up to him.

“What is it?”

“Are you practicing right now?”

“No, we just finished. We’re going to take a small break and then do some stretches before going home. Why do you ask?”

“Can I borrow Aram-seonbae for a moment?”

“Aram?”

Daemyung called for Aram. Aram hopped her way over.

“What is it, seonbae?”

“Sora seems like she has something to say to you. Go with her.”

Sora thanked Daemyung before grabbing Aram’s hand and running towards the stairs. Aram started speaking when she stepped on the first staircase.

“What? What is this about?”

“Aram-seonbae. How desperate are you in wanting to appear in my movie?”

“Actually, not that much. I just went because Maru-seonbae told me to.”

“As expected of you. You’re so clear-cut when it comes to this. I didn’t expect you to say that you wanted to do it even for etiquette.”

“That’s how I roll. Aren’t you similar?”

“Yes! I am.”

Having returned to the 3rd year classroom, Sora put Aram in front of the waiting unni.

“Aram-seonbae. Please watch this for now.”

She played the video she recorded. Aram quietly looked at the screen. After the short video was over, Sora spoke,

“Aram-seonbae. If you do play the role, can you do this much?”

The answer came immediately.

“I can’t.”

Aram looked at unni.

“Unni, you were going to refuse this role? It’s fine if you refuse it because you have something else to do, but - this shouldn’t be true but - if you are refusing because of me, I’m going to feel hurt.”

Then, Aram watched the video again after asking if Maru was hit for real. Sora looked at unni. At that moment, Maru-seonbae came through the back door.

“Maru-seonbae!”

“What?”

“Do you like Aram-seonbae more or unni more?”

“Are you asking about my taste in girls?”

“No! I’m asking who you would prefer as a partner in the shoot?”

Maru made a ‘hm’ sound before looking at Aram.

“Aram. Do you think you can hit me like what happened in that video?”

“If it was real life, I would gladly do so, but acting? I don’t think I can do that.”

“Don’t you want to try shooting this movie?”

“You’re asking the same question she did. Hello, seonbae? You know? I always had my way with the things I wanted to do since I was young. Do you think I’m the kind of girl who would try to read the mood and say pleasing words?”

“No.”

“There you have it. That’s cleared up now, right? I’m going back up. I just got an earful from the club president for my pronunciation. I have my hands full solving my homework right now.”

Aram waved her hand before leaving the classroom.

Sora’s jaws gaped slightly as she watched Aram leaving. So cool - she wanted to chase Aram.

“But are you okay with time? You have practice at your own club, don’t you?”

Maru asked that as he looked at unni.

“3rd year students don’t go every day. The stage is usually created around 1st and 2nd year students. Only then would we keep the trophy even if we graduate.”

“That’s just like Myunghwa High. Why don’t you do it with us then? I think it will be good if you do it.”

Nice, Maru-seonbae - Sora inwardly shouted. Since there was support fire, she just had to get an answer from her.

“Unni, please help me. We’ll really get the grand prize if you help us.”

“Are you really okay with someone like me?”

“It’s not about being okay. It has to be you!”

Sora stared holes into unni. Unni closed her mouth and looked around the classroom before speaking,

“Alright, I’ll try.”

* * *

“The night’s still cold, huh.”

“It still feels like winter.”

Maru reached out his hand. She grabbed his hand with a smile.

“It’s getting late. I’ll take you home.”

“Forget it. Also, 10 isn’t that late.”

“You don’t know how scary the world is. You should always be careful at night.”

“It’s so bright here. You’re being needlessly worried.”

Her lips twitched before she took out her phone. She seemed to be texting someone. A moment later, the sound of a message arriving could be heard from her phone.

“She’s still drinking?”

“What’s that about?”

“It’s my mom. She left around lunchtime to meet a friend, but I think she’s still drinking. She’s not coming back tonight.”

“Maybe she went to attend a funeral?”

“No. She said that she was going to get something good to eat. I got a couple of texts after that, but I can’t understand anything. She is suddenly saying that writers are shit, that her little sister is pitiful, and now she’s asking me if I know the pains of a writer…”

“I guess she did send such texts whenever she got drunk.”

“Hm? What was that?”

Maru smiled faintly and shook his head. From the content of those texts, it seemed that she was consoling a friend of hers who was complaining about life. It shouldn’t be anything major.

“Since it’s like this, should we go over to your house?”

“Forget about it.”

“You’re disappointing.”

“Do you know that you sometimes have a really perverted expression when you speak?”

“Do I now?”

“There! You’re doing it again!”

Maru shrugged before walking. When he pulled on her hand slightly, she sighed before following him.

“It’s good to walk together like this.”

“Is it that good?”

“It is. It’s even better now that we have a public reason to see each other.”

After walking wordlessly for a while, she spoke in a small voice,

“The film, do you think I can do it?”

“Why are you suddenly running out of confidence?”

“I wonder about that too. I was never worried when it came to acting until now. Maybe getting paid for it really does make a difference.”

“Opening someone else’s wallet isn’t easy, whether it’s through acting or anything else.”

Maru looked at her walking by his side. She had stopped speaking and was looking up at the sky. There was only a half-moon in the sky without any stars.

“I want to continue acting in the future.”

Maru tensed the hand grabbing her hand as he heard those words. He would make her. He would pave the road for her so that she could do everything she wanted in life.

“Then I guess I’ll do the housework. You can earn the money, with your acting.”

“Hey, you’re the man.”

“Hey, men and women are equal in this era, aren’t they?”

Maru placed his lips on hers when she kept staring at him. Their lips touched before moving apart again. She looked at him with widened eyes before making an expression as though she had remembered something.

“Ah, right. Dinner. You were supposed to treat me.”

She looked at him with dissatisfaction.

[1] For some reason, Sora calls Maru’s GF ‘seonbae’ here, instead of the usual ‘unni’.

Chapter 541

“Seonbae, aren’t you going home?”

“You guys can go first, I have something to do.”

“What is it? Do you need my help?”

Daemyung shook his head at Aram’s words. It was past 10 p.m. already. It was better to send her home before it got even later.

“Go home. Thanks for your work today.”

“Then I’ll be off first. Let’s go, everyone.”

Aram took the 1st year students and left the hall. Dowook had gone home an hour ago. It seemed that his family still hadn’t found a part time worker yet.

“Seonbae.”

Daemyung turned around and saw Jiyoon standing there awkwardly.

“Aren’t you going to go home?”

“Sorry. I think you’ll have to go home first today.”

“Is it work? D-do you need my help?”

“N-no. I think it’ll take a long time.”

“I think we can finish it earlier if we do it together…”

“That’s true but…”

Both of them entered a state of silence. Daemyung looked at Jiyoon for a while before laughing. Although they were dating, they were still nervous around each other when the two of them were alone. Jiyoon probably felt the same.

“Alright, seonbae. I’ll go home first.”

“A-alright. Be careful on your way home.”

“You too. Uhm…”

“Yeah?”

“Can I call you at night?”

“Of course.”

“Then I’ll call you later.”

Jiyoon smiled before leaving the hall in a cheerful manner. Daemyung looked at Jiyoon until the door closed before sighing.

“How the heck did I manage to kiss her?”

He wondered about it even now. If he was told to do it again, he probably wouldn’t be able to. When they met up with each other over the spring holidays to watch a movie together before going back home, he was suddenly reminded of a scene he saw in the movie, and when he came to himself, he saw Jiyoon’s face with her eyes closed right in front of him. Honestly, he didn’t remember what it felt like. It was just like how the contents of a dream were blurry after waking up. The sensation from back then had disappeared into the realm of forgetfulness.

Phew - Daemyung shook his head. The guide to romance he read said that the man should be leading, but that wasn’t so easy.

‘I think it might be better if I take it easy a little.’

Maru’s girlfriend had come to the school. He didn’t know the details, but it seemed that she was going to take Aram’s place in the film. He watched Aram to check if she felt disappointed, but fortunately, that didn’t seem to be the case. Well, she wasn’t someone who hid her emotions so he was probably worried for nothing.

Maru had held his girlfriend’s hand in front of many people without hesitation. Daemyung was surprised and had looked at Jiyoon. He was worried that perhaps Jiyoon was disappointed in him because of his shy attitude.

“…I’m being needlessly worried, aren’t I?”

He muttered that to himself as he left the hall. He never felt as complex as this in his life. Being president of the acting club, dating Jiyoon, and the writing class on top of that. He had seen a documentary on TV talking about the lifestyle of successful people. One man from that program said that he didn’t like playing because studying gave him more mental satisfaction.

At first, he thought that he was hearing some alien language. What the heck was he saying? His mom stared at him and said that he should follow his ways, but Daemyung didn’t listen to those words at all. Playing, that is, online games were things that gave him more mental satisfaction than anything else. They were his only window of venting the stress he received from studying and personal relationships.

However, he could understand that man’s words a little now. It wasn’t that he found games no longer fun. It was just that he found something just as fun as online games.

‘Actually, I don’t have any time to play even though I do want to play games.’

If he had the time, he had the confidence to spend three days and three nights playing games, but school homework, preparing for the acting club, as well as his personal studies and the assignment from teacher Bae Chulho, left him with no time. Thanks to those, he even lost a bit of weight. Though, it was only a single kilo.

Daemyung went to the container at the back of the school and opened the padlock before going inside. The stage background that Maru was making was leaning against the wall. As Maru was good with his hands, it was really well-made. Daemyung walked further inside and took out some clothes. They were trousers, skirts, and jegori[1]. Since they were doing a historical drama, they had to be mindful of the clothing.

“I think it just needs a little stitching.”

If they didn’t have the clothes left behind by the seniors who graduated, the preparation for the play would have taken several times longer than what it took now. Daemyung looked at the clothes hanging in one corner. They were the clothes he used during his 1st and 2nd years. There were a few he had a hand in making. He felt proud when he thought about how the juniors would use them after he graduated.

He measured the clothes using a tape measure and checked the number of outfits they had before grabbing out a lamp on the display to the right. The lamp, made with paper, had mold on it so it had to be taken care of. He went back up to the hall with his hands full with the clothes and the lamp. He placed the items against one wall before turning the lights off and leaving the hall. With that, the preparations were done. All that remained was for Maru and the juniors to start working on them tomorrow.

He left through the school gates and looked at the clock on his phone. 10:48 p.m. It had ended earlier than he had expected. The day would reach its end once he went home, did his homework, and crawled into his bed.

As he was walking to the bus stop, Daemyung suddenly turned around. His destination was the convenience store. He did eat some kimbap with the others at around 8, but that had been digested already. He thought that having a single roll of kimbap for a meal was something pretty cruel. Although he ate less than he used to, his stomach was still pretty wide.

Just as he put on a happy smile while looking at the new flavors of triangular rice balls, the phone inside his pocket started ringing loudly.

He wondered who it was since it was rare that someone would call him this late at night. Gwak Joon - that was the name on the screen.

“Yes, hyung.”

-Where?

Gwak Joon’s habit was to leave out all additional pieces of information. He had gotten used to him talking like that, but during the early days, he thought that Gwak Joon was upset, which made him worry needlessly.

“I’m in front of my school.”

-Come to the opposite side of the road from the school.

“What?”

The call was cut off. Daemyung blinked several times before leaving the convenience store. He was walking towards the school gates which could be seen in the distance when he saw a car with its headlights on parked on the opposite side of the road from the school. It was a grey sedan. Daemyung knew who the owner of that car was.

“Hyung, what brings you here?”

Gwak Joon, who was in the car, gestured to him to get in. Daemyung sat in the passenger seat for now.

“Do you get scolded if you go home late?”

“No, not really.”

“You can drink a couple glasses of beer, right?”

“If it’s beer… yes.”

“I’m going to go meet Pilhyun hyung-nim. Do you wanna come with me? Hyung-nim said he wanted to see you, so I came to pick you up for now.”

“Mr. Ahn Pilhyun?”

Gwak Joon nodded. When Daemyung went to Bae Chulho’s house during the winter holidays, Ahn Pilhyun was there as well 7 times out of 10. The two of them would talk about the affairs of the world every night over a glass of beer and some fried chicken, and Gwak Joon and Daemyung were there usually as well.

“Is it okay for me to go?”

“If you’re okay with it. It sounds like we’re going to eat out somewhere pretty expensive, so I recommend you come.”

“Looks like something good happened to him.”

“A movie scenario he had been saving for a few years finally got sold. We talked about you when I talked to senior Bae a few days ago. It’d be good if we can meet during the day, but as you know, those that live on writing are mostly active around this hour.”

Daemyung checked the time on the clock on the car. It was 2 minutes to 11. Before, he would have refused with the reason that he was uncomfortable with such occasions, but it wasn’t that he was excited by such things now either. Considering that he had to go to school tomorrow, he wanted to go home and rest easy.

“I’ll go.”

Daemyung put on the seatbelt. If there was anything he learned during the past two years, it was that he had to act if he wanted to change himself. Moreover, this was Pilhyun’s call. He was one of the two people he called teacher as he had taught him a lot of things. Such a person called him first, so he had to go.

“If it looks like it’ll get too late when we get there, let’s sleep over at his house. I’ll drive you to school in the morning.”

“I can take the bus early in the morning. It doesn’t take long from Seoul to Suwon.”

“I’m basically kidnapping you, so it would be absurd if I don’t do at least that.”

Gwak Joon started his car.

“But what were you going to do if I wasn’t at school?”

“I was planning to go to your house.”

“It would’ve been easier if you called me earlier.”

“True.”

Gwak Joon yawned. His actions, as well as his questions, were unpredictable.

“Hyung, you’re tired, aren’t you?”

Gwak Joon usually managed himself meticulously, but he became a little dull once his fatigue went past a certain point. He saw Gwak Joon working on his manuscript for several nights without sleeping, and he had acted like he had left his mind at home, just like he did now.

“I’m a bit tired since I haven’t slept for two days, and I just came up from Busan.”

“From Busan?”

“There’s a writer’s office over there. I tried going there to focus, but it wasn’t that good. I wrote one page, and stared at the wall for the rest of my time there. I’m just coming back from there.”

“Why don’t you go home and get some re…”

“The stingy hyung-nim is treating me, so I can’t miss that. If I go and drink and daze out for a while, I’ll recover.”

Gwak Joon narrowed his eyes and turned the wheel. Daemyung gulped before grabbing the side handle. For some reason, he felt like they were speeding up.

“The car feels a little slow, doesn’t it?”

“N-no! You’re driving at 140 right now.”

“Oh really?”

Only then did Gwak Joon slow down. Daemyung sighed inwardly. He had ridden Gwak Joon’s car several times before, but he had never seen him go this fast. He always drove slowly, so it felt relaxing to ride next to him, but just now, he drove like a complete speed freak.

After that, Gwak Joon drove past 100 km/h from time to time, but fortunately, he slowed down soon enough.

“We’re here.”

The car stopped. Daemyung sighed in relief before getting out of the car. The two of them left the parking lot and walked towards the entrance. There was hanja written on the front of the building, and a small ‘Izakaya’ was written underneath it in the English alphabet. He followed Gwak Joon inside.

“There’s someone waiting inside.”

“May I have a name?”

“Gwak Joon.”

“Ah, okay. Please wait a moment.”

While Gwak Joon talked to the employee, Daemyung looked around. A large hall could be seen behind a large glass wall. Everyone was drinking quietly. There were a lot of couples and most of them were young. To the left was a long bar, but there weren’t any customers sitting there.

When he sniffed, he smelled some charcoal. The hunger he had forgotten about made his stomach rumble again.

“Allow me to guide you to the 2nd floor.”

They followed the employee to the 2nd floor. Unlike the 1st floor, the 2nd floor only had individual rooms. Alcoholic drinks he had never seen before filled one wall, and unfamiliar paintings were hung up along the wall as well. At a glance, they seemed to be landscape paintings from Japan. Going past a curtain that replaced a drawer, they arrived in front of a private room with a sliding door. Noise could be heard from the inside. Some men and women were talking loudly.

“Isn’t this voice him?”

“I think so.”

Daemyung thanked the employee before standing behind Gwak Joon. Gwak Joon slowly opened the door. The loud noise inside died down in an instant.

Pilhyun was sitting on the left. Since he was supposed to be here, that wasn’t strange at all. However, who could the two ladies on the other side be?

“Ah, oh! You’re here? Oh, fatty’s here too.”

Pilhyun, who looked very drunk, ran up to Daemyung and grabbed his cheeks. Daemyung coughed slightly due to the smell of booze.

“Well then, sit down.”

Daemyung was dragged inside.

“Ahn-hyung. Who are they?” asked the lady sitting on the left.

Daemyung looked at the person in detail unintentionally. He felt like he had seen this person somewhere.

“My little brothers that I cherish!”

“But this one’s too young to be a little brother?”

Daemyung smiled awkwardly at the lady that pointed at him. He had no idea what was going on here.

“Then let’s make him my son. Well, then! That’s not the important part. Drink for now. Let’s talk after we drink!”

Pilhyun raised the glass over his head while shouting. Daemyung looked at Gwak Joon with a look that meant ‘send help’, but Gwak Joon was half-out-of-it as well and had already started drinking. It seemed that fatigue numbed his brain functions.

‘I don’t get it anymore.’

Daemyung picked up a glass as well.

[1] Traditional Korean clothing. They are also parts of hanbok

Chapter 542

He drank the first glass in one go. He thought that it would be bitter like the soju he first had at Suyeon’s house, but a faint peach fragrance spread inside his throat instead. He thought it would be a strong alcohol, but maybe it was fruit juice?

“Phew, that makes me feel better. Toilet, toilet…”

The two ladies sitting on the other side immediately left the room after emptying their glasses. Daemyung grabbed the drink bottle that was standing on one side of the table. It was the drink he just had now. 2% alcohol content. It seemed to be a Japanese alcoholic drink but he could not read anything else on it.

“Hyung-nim, isn’t this just juice?”

Gwak Joon also picked up the bottle before he asked. Pilhyun spoke, his breath smelling like alcohol,

“Don’t you start. This is our 3rd round. We’re drinking that to sober up.”

“You people are amazing. But who were the two women?”

“Scary women I got to know through work. It’s been about 15 years since I got to know them, I think?”

“So they are writers.”

“Joon, your personal network is too narrow. You would’ve known them if you came to the writers’ meetings when I told you to.”

“You know my personality. I’m gloomy.”

Daemyung nodded when he heard Gwak Joon say that he was gloomy. It wasn’t just his impression. His style was like a crow as well. Black glasses, a black t-shirt, and even the strap on his watch was black. When he first looked at Gwak Joon’s car, he even asked why the car was grey without thinking. At that time, Gwak Joon said that he didn’t like black with his own mouth. That didn’t sound believable at all.

“I’ll be going to the toilet too then.”

“Alright.”

Gwak Joon left as well. Daemyung looked at the sighing Pilhyun before picking up his chopsticks. He thought that it should be okay to eat. First, he picked up a piece of fried chicken. Even though he hadn’t put it in his mouth yet, he felt like he could taste it. Just as he was about to put it in his mouth as his starved stomach cheered gleefully,

“Hey, did you ride Joon’s car?”

“Eh? Ah, yes,” he replied as he watched the fried chicken stop 5cm in front of him. He felt as though he was going to start drooling.

“I’m surprised you’re still alive. Didn’t he drive like he was on the motorway?”

“I panicked and stopped him after I saw him go up to 140.”

“Well done. Joon, that guy kinda gets weird when he can’t write. It’s fine on empty roads, but he starts getting hysterical once he goes somewhere crowded. You have to especially watch out for him if he drives in the middle of the city. If he ever says that he’s frustrated because he’s stuck in his writing, open the door and jump out of the car. One mishap and you’ll be shaking hands with the grim reaper. I mean, I have experience with him.”

“I’ll bear that in mind.”

It definitely was dangerous. He decided that he should watch out the next time he rode Gwak Joon’s car. Daemyung looked at Pilhyun before moving his chopsticks again. Gulp - his mouth was more than ready to accept the food. He opened his mouth and put the fried chicken about halfway in. Just as he was about to bite down expecting to hear the crunchy sound of the fried batter breaking, he heard a voice call out to him again.

“Daemyung.”

“Yeh?”

The meat juice flowed out, but he had to take it back out.

“Why do chickens have two legs?”

It began again. Moreover, it was a topic he had talked about before. Daemyung knew that this conversation would branch out and they would eventually talk about the cosmos. Food was cooling, but Pilhyun was looking at him seriously. In the end, Daemyung put down his chopsticks.

“That’s…”

Just as he was about to step down the path leading to the unknown, the door opened and the two ladies that went to the bathroom came back. Pilhyun’s attention turned towards them.

“Feel good?”

“Of course it does. Why don’t you do it too?”

Daemyung thought that the lady with the short hair had a rather… incredible mouth. He knew instantly that she was close to Pilhyun. Pilhyun faintly smiled before standing up. This was his opportunity. He picked up his chopsticks again and reached for the fried chicken that he had half-bitten into.

“Looks like you’re about the same age as my child,” the short-haired lady noted.

Daemyung raised his head. The lady rested her chin on her hands and stared at him. Her eyes were saying: ‘play with me’.

“Ahaha, yes.”

Although he thought that his personality had changed quite a bit, it wasn’t that he was better around strangers. Now that Pilhyun and Gwak Joon weren’t here, Daemyung looked at the two ladies with a racing heart. Their status as writers made him even more nervous. Things like ‘are they famous?’, ‘what if they ask about my writing?’, and ‘what am I supposed to say?’ riddled his mind.

Daemyung’s only option was to look at the door. He hoped for Gwak Joon and Pilhyun to come back quickly, but unfortunately, the door didn’t budge.

“Can I ask how old you are?”

The short-haired lady had a potty mouth when talking to Pilhyun, but she unexpectedly used a calm speech tone. Daemyung could feel that she wasn’t treating him like a child. An adult - that was the word that flashed past Daemyung’s head.

“I’m in my 3rd year of high school.”

“Oh, you’re actually the same age as my daughter. But that makes me curious. Bro Ahn, ah, I mean, how did you get to know writer Ahn Pilhyun? He’s the type of guy who’d rather smoke at his house instead of going around meeting people. Especially not young fellows like you.”

“I got to know him through someone else. Through the introduction of a friend of mine, I got to know Gwak Joon-hyung, and I got to know the writer through him.”

“Really? You have a good friend then.”

“Yes, he’s a good friend.”

Daemyung looked at the short-haired lady in detail again. Those round eyes, he felt like he had seen them somewhere.

“Are you perhaps an aspiring creative writing department student?”

“No, I plan to major in philosophy.”

“Philosophy? Now you’re someone I haven’t seen in a long time. You want to learn philosophy?”

“N-no. I want to write. My ultimate goal is to direct a film though.”

“Then you should come to the creative writing department.”

“I’m thinking that I should learn more about people. I do want to write, but as I told you before… my ultimate goal is to become a director.”

“I see. You feel a little strange because a woman you’ve never seen before is asking too much about yourself, don’t you?”

“N-no. It’s not like that.”

“You’re a good boy. I can see that at a glance.”

The lady hummed for a while then grabbed the drink bottle before giving him a glance. Daemyung immediately picked up his glass.

“This place will go out of business if law enforcement shows up.”

“Then I won’t drink.”

“I’m joking. Those people don’t come here. But are you okay with alcohol? This might not have a lot of alcohol in it, but it’s still an alcoholic drink.”

“I’ll be fine if it’s just a little.”

“Then this must be fate so have a drink. We might see each other again once you start writing properly.”

When the glass was half-filled, the short-haired lady exclaimed a little.

“You said you wanted to become a director, right? For a movie? Or for a drama?”

“If possible, I want to try both of them.”

“Then you should try talking to this girl. She’s famous in the industry.”

The short-haired lady pointed at the lady sitting next to him. That lady had long, silky hair as though she managed it well, and the clothes she was wearing looked very expensive to Daemyung as well. The way she opened her eyes made him think that she was high-class which made it hard for him to talk to her. The lady with the blue shawl chuckled before drinking.

“There you go, acting heavy again. It’s really a habit of yours, isn’t it? I thought you had a hard time because of that. Why are you doing that again? Lee Hanmi, get yourself together, will you?”

“Haesoo-unni, it hurts!”

The short-haired lady seemed to be named Haesoo, while the unapproachable lady with the blue shawl was named Lee Hanmi.

After the two wrestled it out for a while, the two giggled and raised their glasses. Hanmi, who had been acting heavily until just moments ago, laughed like an idiot before starting to speak.

“Hey, kid. What’s your name?”

“M-me?”

“Yes, you! Who else is here?”

“My name is Park Daemyung.”

“Daemyung? Hey, Daemyung. My name is Lee Hanmi, do you know who I am?”

“N-no.”

“Then what about this unni? She’s called Choi Haesoo.”

“Sorry. I’m not too knowledgeable about writers.”

When he said that, Hanmi laughed as she mercilessly slapped Haesoo’s arm.

“Unni, unni! He doesn’t know us. I’m not a famous writer after all, right?”

“It’s natural for him to not know me, and it’s not that surprising that he doesn’t know you either. So stop making a fuss about it.”

“Goddammit, no one knows me anyway. Should I just write whatever I want? Even if I go through the pains of writing, I see the same stuff on the internet all the time.”

“There you go again.”

Haesoo hugged Hanmi and patted her back. Looking at the immature sides of the people who seemed at least double his age, Daemyung realized that this was an opportunity. He picked up his chopsticks and decided to stuff the chicken in his mouth before anyone interrupted him.

He moved the quickest he had this whole year. He picked up the fried chicken with his chopsticks and put it in his mouth. The rendezvous he had been looking forward to so much began, and just as he was about to let the two sides of his mouth say their goodbyes, a hand appeared out of nowhere and grabbed his chopsticks. The chicken that shook at the end of his chopsticks fell on the ground like a dried out leaf.

“Hey. Listen to me. Why are the kids on the internet all like that these days? Hey? You’re that Gen X or whatever. Explain to me, hey? Just what is there to dislike about my writing?”

Hanmi said that with a crying face. Daemyung couldn’t hear her voice. His mind was wholeheartedly focused on the piece of fried chicken that fell on the floor.

“Uhm…”

He didn’t know why, but he felt like crying.

“Can I say it after I eat this?”

* * *

Haesoo smiled in satisfaction as she watched Daemyung eat. After watching her daughter eat practically nothing for a while because of her diet, it felt rather refreshing to see someone devour food using both of his hands.

“My, good boy. Eat this as well.”

“Ah, yes!”

There was a bright smile on his face. It made her happy just seeing that expression. Haesoo turned around to look at Hanmi. Even she, who had been complaining the whole day, was smiling as she looked at Daemyung eating.

“He eats so nicely, doesn’t he?”

“Yeah, that’s right. Daemyung, eat this as well.”

Hanmi placed the fried udon in front of Daemyung. Daemyung’s eyes shone before he started eating the udon with glee. The noodles were sucked into his mouth endlessly at an incredible speed.

“Take it slow. You might upset your stomach.”

“Y-yes.”

After taking a deep breath, Daemyung moved his chopsticks again. Since it was their third round of drinking, they only ordered some light snacks to go with their drink, but it seemed that they had to order some proper food.

“Bro Ahn is the one paying. But what are those two doing? Why aren’t they coming back?”

“I saw them smoking outside.”

“They’ll rot their lungs soon enough.”

They called the waiter and ordered a few more dishes. Daemyung refused, saying that he was okay, but he quietened down when he was asked if it was really okay. He was unexpectedly cute for his size.

“Hey, do you know about ‘New Semester’?” Hanmi asked.

Haesoo almost spat out what she was drinking. What was this girl going to talk about in front of a kid. She tried to stop her, but Daemyung showed interest instead.

“New Semester? I do know about it. You’re referring to the drama, right?”

“Yeah, yeah. How is it? Do you watch it?”

“Yes. I watch it every week.”

“Every week? I heard it wasn’t popular with the boys though.”

“I find it fun though.”

“Really? Uhm, Daemyung. Can I ask you something?”

“Sure.”

Haesoo signalled her not to with her eyes, but Hanmi ignored her.

“What do you think it’ll be like if two of the characters started dating?”

“D-dating?”

“Yes, dating.”

“I think it’ll be interesting.”

“Right? Everyone’s at that age where they’re curious about love. Okay then. Who do you think fits Yeseul?”

“I think Giwoo would suit her.”

“Right? The two of them suit each other. Then, what do you think about Giwoo doing the confession?”

“I don’t think that’s too bad. He is a little embarrassed, but I don’t think it will be too disconcerting.”

“Disconcerting?”

“Eh? Giwoo is that kind of character after all, at least from what I saw until now. Yeseul is clueless about love, and while Giwoo does know about dating, he’s embarrassed about it.”

“…Then what if someone bridged the two of them? For example, Lee Chan.”

“Lee Chan? Sounds good. He’s a real prankster. I also like Lee Chan.”

Haesoo blinked several times as she listened to the conversation. Didn’t boys usually like girl characters from fiction? And yet he liked Lee Chan? She decided to tell Maru that he had a male fan when she saw him next time.

“I see. So it’s good… of course it is. So internet authors are much better than me after all…”

Hanmi lowered her head while laughing like an idiot. Haesoo sighed. She fell into that rabbit hole of guilt all over again. Just as Daemyung was looking at both of them due to the weird atmosphere, saviors appeared. The door opened and the two men came back.

Chapter 543

“What the heck happened to her?” Pilhyun asked as he pointed at Hanmi.

Haesoo clicked her tongue.

“She’s in a state of self-loathing again.”

“Again? She was okay before though.”

“It began again.”

Haesoo patted Hanmi’s head, who was lying on her legs. The girl that was like the manifestation of confidence fell to such a low state due to a slip. She pitied her.

“Uhm. Mr. Gwak Joon, was it?”

Haesoo looked at Gwak Joon, who sat next to Pilhyun. The man who was clad in black from top to bottom, nodded back to her.

“Looks like I haven’t introduced myself properly. My name is Choi Haesoo. I’ve known bro Ahn for quite a while, and I’m just a woman who writes stuff.”

“Gwak Joon. I write novels.”

“Uhm, I’m asking just in case, but did you write Twilight Struggles?”

“Yes.”

“So you weren’t someone with the same name. I enjoyed the movie. I haven’t read the novel yet though. I also wrote an article about it, quite generously too.”

“Thank you.”

“Bro Ahn, you should’ve introduced him to me if you knew such a good person. You were monopolizing him to yourself?”

Pilhyun made a sour expression and denied that claim.

“This dude is someone who holes himself up even more than me. Even I have a hard time meeting him. Not only that, he’s no fun to hang out with, and he looks scary too. I don’t think there are many people who even know this guy in the novelist world, you know? Even his editor asks me where he is. At most, he knows brother Bae.”

“Really?”

Haesoo nodded as she looked at Gwak Joon’s face. He definitely didn’t look like the sociable type.

“I tried to introduce him to you once, but he was writing back then. He’s hard to call out once he starts writing, so I just gave up on that notion.”

“Then I guess I’m lucky to have met him like this, huh. Nice to meet you, Mr. Gwak Joon.”

“No need for honorifics.”

Haesoo shook hands with Gwak Joon. A writer who’s rarely seen when he writes, huh. Haesoo felt like she was meeting a creature known as a ‘novelist’ that only existed in fiction. While she also made a living through her writing, she was far from having such a personality. She was passionate when it came to writing, but she forgot about everything once she left her keyboard. Sitting still in a room while focusing only on writing made her shiver just by thinking about it.

“This is Lee Hanmi, who’s at the epitome of self-destruction. Ever heard of her?”

“Hyung-nim told me a few times, so I do know her. He told me that she’s the one who became the most famous among the writers in Suwon.”

“Hey, hey, Hanmi. I’m boasting about you. Wake up.”

Haesoo tapped on Hanmi’s cheeks. Hanmi slowly sat up.

“It’s a shit life anyway. I don’t care what happens. Writers are shit,” Hanmi said.

Haesoo poured a cup of cold water for Hanmi. Although she had sobered up a little, Hanmi’s mentality had crawled into the depths of the abyss so she wasn’t able to get herself together. She couldn’t imagine how she normally acted.

“Lee Hanmi, I knew you’d get yourself into trouble one day. This is why people need to make numerous mistakes. Look at me. I’ve fallen over several times on my way to being fifty years old, and now I’m at the point where I don’t get disappointed with most things.”

“Who’s the one who nagged everyone around him because he couldn’t write just a while ago?” Haesoo asked as she looked at Pilhyun.

Pilhyun replied ‘who might that be’ as he drank the low-alcohol drink.

“Stop making her feel bad and console her a little.”

“What good is consolation when it comes to writing? Do the keys type by themselves just because someone consoles you? Do the manuscripts get written by themselves? It’s just how life is.”

“Bro Ahn. You’re such a bad guy.”

“Choi Haesoo, I’m gonna have you pay for what you ate.”

“Urgh, what a stingy man. Little brother Joon, don’t treat a guy like this as your elder.”

“I’m used to it, so I’m okay with it. Also, I freeload at his house from time to time, so I can’t afford to have him hate me.”

“Money’s the greatest enemy, eh?”

“Indeed.”

Pilhyun, who had been listening this whole time, suddenly shouted.

“Lee Hanmi, stop whimpering and let’s start drinking. What are you going to do about something that has already happened? Spilt milk won’t go back in the glass by itself. Just pray that the viewing rates stay up and write the next part. You’re just a contracted writer, so you need to write those episodes to earn money.”

“You really are a bad guy, oppa.”

Hanmi said that as she raised her eyebrows. It had begun once again. A bad relationship - this seemed like a gentle expression. In a feud - that wouldn’t suffice either. Archenemies - that was a much better description.

Haesoo looked at the two people growling at each other like dogs fighting for territory before giving up. They should stop once they got tired. She was also tired because she had been listening to Hanmi’s grumbling all day.

She ate some fruits as she sighed. Just then, Daemyung, who was sitting on the other side, entered her eyes. He was looking at the two with sharp eyes. Unbefitting of his rather rounded face, his eyes looked pretty fierce. He didn’t look angry though. He looked more like he was incredibly focused.

“What are you looking at?”

“E-eh? Oh, it’s nothing.”

“Don’t lie. You were staring holes into them.”

“It’s just… oh, you can speak casually with me.”

“Alright then. But why were you really looking at them? I’m not trying to pick on you or something. I’m just curious. It’s fun to watch people fight, but people don’t watch fights with eyes like yours,” Haesoo said as she tensed her eyes.

Daemyung replied after a bit of hesitation.

“I was just watching them. A friend of mine told me that I have good eyes for observation. Honestly, I really don’t have a lot of strengths. So in order to make the most of my lacking strengths, I kinda got into the habit of watching people.”

“Good. Famous writers say that they go to the bus stop when they want to make a character. They say that they can come across all sorts of characters there. If you have good eyes for observation, it’ll be much easier to create a character.”

“I think so too.”

“But don’t look at them too fiercely. They might misunderstand you.”

“It lets me focus better. It also leaves a clearer image in my mind.”

“Really? Looks like you have a good memory. I could never remember things like that.”

Daemyung smiled in embarrassment. He was such a cute kid.

“It looks like you live nearby huh. It’s quite late.”

“I live in Suwon.”

“Suwon? That’s a coincidence. I live in Suwon too. Wait, tomorrow’s not a day off.”

“Yes. I was planning to sleep at teacher Ahn’s house and go to school early in the morning.”

“You have it hard because of Bro Ahn as well. Bro Ahn! Why did you call this guy here? He’ll have a hard time going to school tomorrow.”

Pilhyun, who was quarreling with Hanmi, twitched his eyes.

“I’ll drive him back!”

“Like hell you will. Obviously, little brother Joon will be the one giving him a ride.”

“He and I are two in one. Rather than that, Hanmi’s really in a bad state, huh.”

Haesoo looked next to her. Hanmi had buried her face in her palms. She was muttering some things, and they mostly seemed to be some curses directed at the world, so there didn’t seem to be a need to listen to her closely. When they met for lunch, she ate like she was the only one aware of the world’s destruction tomorrow, but once some alcohol entered her system, she started blabbing about all sorts of things, which included stories about herself. She talked about everything to the point that it made Haesoo wonder how she had held that within her for so long. She would probably be able to write Hanmi’s biography from the stories she heard today. Of course, it would be incredibly depressing.

“Sorry for acting like this when we’re adults. I’ll apologize in everyone’s stead,” Haesoo said as she faintly smiled at Daemyung.

Daemyung smiled awkwardly before nodding.

“Joon, let’s go smoking.”

“Already?”

“I just feel stuffy in here.”

Pilhyun took Gwak Joon outside. Hanmi, who had lost her opponent to growl at, shriveled up like dried up seaweed.

“Man, you have a tiring way of living your life, huh.”

“It’s over for me.”

“Like hell it is. You have loads of days left to live. You fought well until now. You should just keep doing that. You won’t find anyone who’s never made a mistake in this world, you know?”

“Maybe I should’ve slipped like oppa said?”

“Now you’re just making me look bad. If you are successful, then you should be thankful for it. Don’t go churning the insides of countless people who don’t get their works sold.”

Haesoo looked at Daemyung. She wondered if it was okay to say this in front of a student, but he didn’t look like the light mouthed kind, so it should be fine. In the first place, Pilhyun wouldn’t have called him here if he wasn’t.

“Try talking to the producer about it. Imagine how good it would be if you can discuss with others like the other writers do.”

“Unni, don’t you know how I’ve been doing my interviews until now?”

“I do, I really do.”

Hanmi was someone with a high ego when she was in her 20s, but she had the writing skills to back it up. While Haesoo was focused on publishing her work, Hanmi staked her life on dramas. She earned money as a secondary writer for some documentary series at a TV station to get by everyday life, and she split what little time she had to write a scenario for a mini series which she handed in for a contest. The day she was notified that she passed, Haesoo celebrated with Hanmi, who froze up in front of the camera.

After that, Hanmi became successful with many mini-series titles. Hanmi in her thirties was a writer who lived in the world by herself. Looking at what she said for various lectures would make anyone wonder if such an arrogant and cocky person could exist in the world. Haesoo wasn’t surprised by it. A writer who never failed even once. She was someone who hit it big for 8 years straight while many others of her profession rarely even had one hit, so who could insult her for being cocky? Her speech had toned down quite a bit ever since she reached forty, but her arrogance was still very high and looking at her work was pretty hard.

“Why did I do that?”

“You shouldn’t have become such a character.”

A writer who never holds prior discussions with the producer. A writer who refuses feedback. A perfectionist writer. That was Hanmi’s identity according to what Haesoo heard from other people. Haesoo had seen the extremes of that cockiness once before. 3 fixes to a script in one day. Even after committing such a tragic crime, Hanmi was bold about it. She was filled with the confidence that only she could write the script, and that confidence was something that supported the perfectionist in Hanmi. Indeed. The atlas that propped the being known as Hanmi up was that confidence.

Yet now, that confidence had been shattered. She said that it wasn’t something that happened recently. She said that she had become afraid of writing about a year ago. However, since she acted as such until now, she kept wearing the hat that didn’t suit her and kept writing without any consultations with the producer. Haesoo swore at her saying that she was foolish, but it wasn’t that she couldn’t understand her. Everyone lived that way after all. A meager pride had become the identity that represented oneself from some time onward, so that pride couldn’t be easily thrown away. Hanmi was pushed to the extreme, and this was the result.

“Unni, unni.”

“Urgh, damn girl.”

She had become a kid. The writer whose pen broke had become a child who burst out into tears while playing with fire. Since she lost her confidence, she lost her directionality, which was how she ended up writing the latter half of her script while referencing fan-fiction on internet forums. The problem with that was that she borrowed some of the ideas despite the fact that they had conflicting elements with what she originally wrote.

As stifling as her persona might be, she couldn’t really go anywhere to complain about it, and with the deadline approaching, she probably ended up finding a breakthrough by referencing a fan-fiction. She shouldn’t have had any time to cross-reference her own work to make sure that it wouldn’t sound disconcerting. If she had time to do that, she would’ve consulted others a long time ago.

This little sister was incredibly frustrating with the way she worked. Since writing was everything to her, and she was never betrayed by her writing before, she had been pushed into a corner like this. Because of that meager pride, because of that meager reputation, Hanmi said that she was afraid of being tagged the ‘failed writer’.

“Ah!”

Just then, Daemyung made a sound after being quiet all this time. Haesoo tilted her head and looked at him.

“What is it?”

“N-nothing.”

“Hey, you stutter quite a lot, huh? What is it? Tell me about it. I’m someone who can’t hold back my curiosity.”

“Uhm… the thing is, I thought you looked similar to someone I know when I first met you.”

“Me?”

“Yes.”

“A celebrity?”

“No…”

“Just joking. But who exactly?”

“A friend of a friend of mine. You really look like her.”

“Really? You said you live in Suwon, right? Do you perhaps go to Myunghwa High? My daughter goes there.”

“No, I go to Woosung High.”

“Ah, I see.”

“But that person that looks similar to you goes to Myunghwa High.”

“I also know someone who goes to Woosung High.”

“……”

“……”

Something just clicked. Haesoo spoke, thinking there’s no way it would be true.

“No way, it shouldn’t be. You said that you liked Lee Chan from the drama, right?”

“Yes. Because he’s a friend of mine.”

“…Really?”

“Yes.”

“Oh my word. You know Han Maru?”

Daemyung, sitting opposite to her, blinked before opening his mouth wide.

“Yes. I do. He’s my best friend.”

“Oh my, you’re friends with my daughter’s boyfriend?”

“I knew it, huh. I thought I was mistaken.”

“Do I look like my daughter?”

“Yes, a lot, actually.”

“No way, I’m much better, aren’t I?”

“……”

“You’re quite honest. Sorry that I’m being quite senseless. Rather than that, we meet like this huh. Do you also do acting?”

“Yes. I do. Ah, right. She came to our school today.”

“My daughter, you mean?”

“Yes.”

“I told her to go play with Maru and she actually did go there, huh. Kids these days are so fast.”

Haesoo smiled and picked up the drink bottle.

“As strange as it might be, here, you should drink a little.”

She never thought that she’d meet an acquaintance of her daughter here.

It once again came to her that the world was pretty small.

Chapter 544

“Come in, come in.”

Pilhyun opened the door and waved at them to come in. Daemyung carefully went inside. The faint smell of cigarettes tickled his nose. There were piles of books stacked to the side around the living room. Pilhyun’s house hadn’t changed at all.

“Bro Ahn, you should really clean your house a little.”

“This is serious, oppa.”

Haesoo and Hanmi clicked their tongues as they made their way in. They were holding large plastic bags, which contained some cans of beer that they bought from the convenience store before they came to his house. Gwak Joon came in last and closed the door.

“Let’s start the 4th round! I’ll see the end today! Wait a bit, I’m going to change my clothes.”

Pilhyun went inside his bedroom after saying that. Gwak Joon, Haesoo, and Hanmi turned on the TV in the living room and watched it in a daze.

“Shall I put this away?” Daemyung asked as he pointed at the plastic bag.

There were around 20 beer cans. There was no way they were going to finish all that, so he was planning to leave some out and put the rest in the refrigerator.

“The beer ghost will drink it so leave it there,” Haesoo said.

Daemyung nodded then looked at the TV. There was a B-rated horror movie on TV. It was about starfish-like monsters latching onto the necks of people to control them, and it was pretty fun. He watched the movie for about 10 minutes.

“Wait, don’t tell me hyung-nim is…”

Gwak Joon stood up and quietly opened the door to the room Pilhyun went to. Daemyung also poked his head over to look. Pilhyun was lying on the bed inside the lit room. He was snoring loudly as well.

“Daemyung, help me out a little.”

“Yes.”

He went into the room and laid Pilhyun out in a proper posture before putting a pillow behind his neck. He didn’t feel flustered or anything since this happened quite frequently when he came to Pilhyun’s house. He put a blanket over him before leaving the room.

“What about bro Ahn?”

“He’s asleep.”

“He’s getting old, huh. Let’s put this in the fridge. I guess it counts as a visitation present.”

Daemyung put the beer and some snacks from the plastic bag into the fridge. He only left out three beer cans and a bag of snacks to eat at the living room table.

“Little brother Joon, you drinking?” Haesoo asked as she waved a can of beer.

“Sorry. I’m tired since I drove all the way here from Busan. I think I’ll go to sleep first.”

“No wonder you looked exhausted. Go to sleep. We ladies will chat by ourselves.”

Daemyung looked at Gwak Joon entering a room as well as Haesoo and Hanmi. He wasn’t that sleepy thanks to the alcohol in his system. It was also just 1 a.m. It was a little early to fall asleep.

“Then I guess this is for you, Daemyung?”

Haesoo gave him the canned beer. When Daemyung hesitated a little, Haesoo immediately followed up.

“I’m just joking. You have to wake up early tomorrow if you want to go to school, right?”

“I usually sleep late.”

“Really? Well, I heard kids these days don’t sleep until late at night. It’s a lot different from when we were kids. Then do you want to try drinking? Only if you can, though.”

Daemyung accepted the beer for now. The beer-soju he drank at Suyeon’s house was bitter which made him get drunk easily, but he should be fine if it was just beer. He also liked the sparkling sensation when he received a drink back at the Izakaya.

“Fuu, unni, give me some water,” Hanmi, who was leaning against the sofa this whole time, said.

“Are you feeling better now?”

“Yeah. I think I am. What about oppa?”

“He’s dead.”

“What?”

“I said he’s dead.”

“Oh, he’s sleeping, huh. I thought that would be the case. Pilhyun-oppa would fall asleep while trying to write when we shared an office together.”

“He’s a man who gets a lot of sleep. Daemyung, can you get some water? Not for me, but for her.”

“Yes.”

Daemyung poured a cup of cold water in the kitchen and brought it to Hanmi. Hanmi pressed down between her eyes after she accepted the cup.

“Looks like I’m old as well. I didn’t know I’d feel dizzy after just that.”

“Being dizzy isn’t the only problem. You said all sorts of stuff. If I didn’t like you, I’d have recorded all of it and then posted it on the internet with the title: ‘Almighty Lee Hanmi’s downfall’ or something.”

“That might feel refreshing. Should I stop writing dramas now? I earned plenty.”

“I thought you were writing the drama in order to solve the conflict between generations. Why are you sounding so weak now?”

“Whose side are you on, unni?”

“On the side of justice.”

“Be on my side. I have it hard.”

“Alright, who else will take your side if it’s not me? Come over here, this unni will pat your back.”

Daemyung sipped on the beer as he looked at the two. He tried to ignore them since he thought that listening to other people’s conversations was like a sin, but he couldn’t help but listen since this space wasn’t that wide. He didn’t know the details, but from what he gathered here and back at the Izakaya, Hanmi seemed to have done something bad.

‘She said she’s the writer of a drama, so it should be about New Semester.’

New Semester didn’t have that many problems until now, at least according to what aired. All of them did well in acting, and the story was good as well. From how Hanmi was worried sick about something, it seemed that she ran into trouble with an episode that hadn’t aired yet.

Daemyung thought that writing really wasn’t that easy after all as he emptied about half of the beer.

“Your name was Park Daemyung?” Hanmi asked as she stared at him.

“Yes, it is.”

“I hear that you write, correct?”

“It’s nothing amazing. I’m just learning.”

“Really? Do you find writing fun?”

Daemyung stopped to think before speaking.

“It’s not that fun.”

“Then why do you write?”

“I-I don’t know.”

“Just tell me. It’s not like I’m going to spread it to everyone. This old lady is just feeling stifled.”

Daemyung looked at Haesoo. Haesoo silently told him ‘go on’.

“It’s because what I’m writing right now is about myself.”

“About yourself?”

“I am going through the events that I encountered from elementary school to before I entered high school. It’s in a novel format, and since it’s about me, it’s not that fun.”

“Isn’t writing about yourself the most interesting writing out of everything? Writers usually don’t live in the same society as other people. Moreover, they’re frustrated all the time as well. That’s why they try to appease their inner desires by writing. It’s especially the case when the writing has the characteristics of an autobiography. Under the condition that they aren’t being censored, they can write anything they want, and that’s insanely fun. It’s just fantasy! You know, when I first wrote novels, I wrote sexual fantasy. I mean about sex, sex! Is that too blatant of a word? Then what about sexual intercourse?”

Daemyung almost spat out what he was drinking. He didn’t know where to look when she said all those words.

“Hanmi, why don’t you watch your words a little more in front of a kid?”

“Unni! Writers should not be afraid of taboos. Did you become a writer because you wanted to be respectful? No, you didn’t. You became a writer because you want to poke at the desires that you wrapped up inside your heart and liberate them. Politics, religion, sex, capitalism! Aren’t people with pens supposed to rush at those topics like madmen?”

“There you go again. Daemyung, I’m going to go away for a while, so be her talking partner for now. Now that she’s sober again, she’s trying to go back to being a lofty crane again.”

Haesoo blocked her ears and went to the kitchen. Daemyung tried to run away sneakily, but he found Hanmi sitting next to him.

“Listen to me.”

“Y-yes!”

Was he supposed to kneel here? Daemyung’s body jerked before he looked at Hanmi. Like what Heasoo said, her eyes were clear as though she had sobered up. Her voice was also vivid and clear. The limp person complaining about life was gone.

“Park Daemyung!”

“Yes!”

“Why do you find no fun in writing? Tell me honestly. You know that this is an opportunity you won’t get anywhere, right? There are hundreds of aspiring writers who want to listen to my lectures. Even if it’s paid seminars.”

“Ah, yes.”

“Amazing, aren’t I?”

Daemyung hesitated a little before saying ‘you are’. Hanmi smiled when she heard that answer. For some reason, that smile looked very worrying in Daemyung’s eyes. He felt like she was the type of person who had to have other people confirm for her to keep her self-confidence.

“Tell me. Why do you find no fun in writing?”

“Uhm, if it’s just writing scripts, it’s fun. Coming up with lines is hard, but when I finish that process and look back at my work, it’s really fun. The novel I’m writing right now is about self-retrospect though, so it’s not that fun.”

“Why?”

“Because I was bullied.”

“With a body like that? I think you’ll be able to blow anyone out the window with a punch.”

“I look better than I did before. Before… It was all just flesh and no muscle.”

“Well, I guess such things do happen. But you still shouldn’t find writing no fun. You’re supposed to flap your wings and take off, and if you are fed up with writing at this time, you won’t be able to do anything.”

“I-is that so?”

“Of course! Look at me. You know, I’ve never failed with my writing before. Starting off my first ever mini-series, even a short skin that I wrote got good reviews. Do you know about ‘To the Sun’?”

Daemyung nodded. That was a drama he watched in middle school. It was a story about the people working in a hotel, and he had watched every single episode from beginning to end.

“I wrote that as well. 45% viewing rate. Isn’t that incredible?”

“Really? I really liked that drama.”

“I’m not surprised. I write quite well if I do say so myself. Do you want to hear about what happened back then? I was sitting in front of my desk with my laptop open when I suddenly got ideas springing up in my mind. From then on, I stayed up for three nights to create the character and the synopsis. I finished the manuscript for four episodes in exactly three months.”

“Amazing.”

“It is. I’m an amazing woman. It was back then when the chiefs of drama departments in all three TV stations wanted to meet me. Gee, even the president of RBS visited me once. He asked me to work with him. He asked me for my scripts that I had saved up. This Lee Hanmi is that kind of woman, I’m telling you.”

“Really?”

“Really. Do you finally get how amazing I am?”

“Ah, yes.”

“And this one time…”

Daemyung realized one thing as he listened to Hanmi’s words, this person wasn’t sober. Hanmi combed through her history while laughing like a fool. Daemyung kept listening to her story. She was a successful writer who still worked in the field. Although she was drunk, there should be something to learn from her from this story. Like that, he listened to her for about 30 minutes.

“But it’s over now.”

“What?”

“I became scared of writing. I can’t think of anything anymore. I don’t even know what I want to write and I’m not sure if I’m writing the right thing. This never happened to me before. When I picked up the pen, my hands always started writing by themselves, and when I turned on the laptop, I could easily fill pages with text. But now, I can’t do that.”

Hanmi smashed her head on the table and started crying. Daemyung panicked. He had never seen someone so much older than him cry so sadly in front of him. Haesoo was sleeping on the sofa, so he couldn’t wake her up either.

For the time being, he gave her a tissue. After crying, Hanmi wiped her tears with the tissue.

“You shouldn’t start writing. This is horrible. I can’t see what’s in front of me anymore.”

“B-but you did well until now.”

“Until now, sure. But it’s all over now. I couldn’t write a single line even after staying up for three days and three nights. I could only type dots before I gave up. Not only that, I used a plot written by someone else; a plot that doesn’t even suit my story.”

“E-everyone makes mistakes.”

“No! I can’t make mistakes. You might not know because you’re young, but a title written by Lee Hanmi must not fail. Failure is intolerable. But I can’t write. That’s why it’s over for me.”

“Uhm, why don’t you try talking to other people?”

“If this was something I could solve by talking to another person, the pains of creativity wouldn’t exist in this world.”

Hanmi sighed. She was at the epitome of a pessimistic thought process, so Daemyung couldn’t say anything to her. If he was good with words, he could have tried consoling her, but he didn’t have that talent.

Hanmi started sniffing again.

Daemyung looked at her for a while before being reminded of his own novel. The novel that he only showed Gwak Joon and Maru. The work he wrote as he reminded himself of the days where he insulted himself even more than others insulted him. Daemyung didn’t want to go back to the past at all. He was so proud of himself right now.

He treated the previous him before he started writing as someone who deserved those insults and resolved that he should make the most out of the present. However, he changed his mind when he started writing. His past - those painful moments - wasn’t something to be cherished. There were memories he wanted to forget about and a past he wanted to erase - that did not change. He tried to remove more of his shameful moments and fill his work with his cool moments, but the more he wrote, the more he thought that he shouldn’t run away from reality. That was why he wrote about everything. It was an excruciating process. The emotions from those moments came back to him vividly to the point that they made him want to stop writing.

Despite that, Daemyung kept writing. It was not fun nor was it enjoyable. However, he continued because he thought that it was a necessary process. Writer Bae Chulho once told him that writing is like cloning oneself, as well as the fact that writing will lose all power when the writer denies themselves, whether it be their past or their present.

“Uhm, madam.”

“What?”

“Can you have a look at my writing?”

“Your writing?”

“Yes.”

Daemyung quietly looked at Hanmi, and Hanmi nodded even while frowning. Daemyung took out a notebook from his bag and gave it to Hanmi.

“You want me to evaluate your writing?”

“No. It’s just… I thought that I should show you.”

“What do you mean?”

“Just read it for now. I hope it can be of help to you. Though, I might be misunderstanding something all by myself.”

After that, Daemyung no longer spoke.

Chapter 545

It came to him after he passed the novel to her, this felt incredibly embarrassing. That notebook contained his writing which was a little too honest. In fact, he thought that he would be better off if he was naked.

Daemyung calmed down his breathing before looking at Hanmi. She was making a bored expression, but it didn’t look like she was just skimming over his work. She even flipped pages backwards in order to check some things from time to time.

Haesoo’s snoring could be heard. Heavy breathing could be heard from the room Gwak Joon had entered as well. It seemed that everyone was tired.

“Bring me,” Hanmi said as she reached her hand out.

Daemyung looked at her because he didn’t know what she meant.

“Bring me water.”

“Ah, yes.”

He didn’t do anything wrong, but he still flinched. Daemyung brought some water and put it in front of Hanmi. Hanmi put down the notebook and drank the water.

“Have you finished it?”

“Yes.”

Daemyung nodded slightly before pressing his lips together. He had no specific purpose behind showing her the novel. He just wanted her to read it. He wanted to let her know that writing isn’t fun all the time and that facing oneself is very hard, but important.

After gulping the water down, Hanmi heaved a sigh before picking up the notebook again.

“I thought you finished…?” Daemyung quietly asked.

“I can’t understand it in one go because the writing is sloppy and unpolished. It’s grammatically incorrect starting from the first sentence. Also, although perspectives are quite liberal these days, you’re lacking basics as the perspective changes without any signs.”

“S-sorry about that.”

“Also, why are the line breaks like this? If you chose to go with a novel format, you should draw the shape of the paragraph inside your head. Are novels a joke to you? You should give the reader a sense of speed by formulating paragraphs. Sticking everything together or splitting everything apart isn’t going to be the solution.”

“I-I will bear that in mind.”

“I can preach to you all day about just the first page, but I’ll hold back for now. Give me some more water. No, brew me some tea. Green tea, red tea, barley tea - I’m fine with whatever so just get me something hot.”

“Y-yes!”

He replied energetically before standing up. If Miso pressured people physically, Hanmi used her words to exhaust him mentally. Daemyung left behind Hanmi, who opened the notebook again and went to the kitchen.

* * *

Hanmi flipped the page while taking a sip of the steaming tea. She always drank something hot whenever she read some form of text. Without it, she couldn’t focus. The novel that Daemyung handed to her was sloppy to the point that it made her laugh. She could tell at a glance that Daemyung was full of the desire to write and did not consider the reader at all. There were unpolished words embedded inside the sentences. They were absent where they needed to be, and they were present where they shouldn’t be. It was a mess. If a student learning to write brought her this kind of writing, she would have asked that person to read it out loud on the spot. No, she might have ripped it apart.

“If you want to start a thought, mark it so that the readers can understand. Whether you change the paragraph or put some special character, it doesn’t matter. Just do something. If you don’t want to change the scene, then insert a sentence to transition between the two states. If you suddenly go to the past and then come back to the present, the perspectives are all screwed up, making it hard to read.”

“Y-yes. I will keep that in mind.”

“Hey, how many books have you read?”

“I’ve been reading ever since I entered 3rd year…”

“That’s not an answer. How many? How many books do you read per month?”

“I think about five.”

“That’s not too little. Though it’s not that much either. Keep that up. Someone who wants to write must keep reading. If they don’t read, they won’t be able to write.”

After saying that, Hanmi focused on reading the writing again. It was really sloppily written. There were no writing techniques used here, and the flow of emotions was all over the place as well. The distance between the narrator and the main character was random, so the reader had to be the one adjusting the distance between the two. Not only that, the vocabulary was so limited. It would be much better if he used some synonyms for repetitive words, yet he was using the same words repetitively to say the same thing. No, repetition would actually be better. There were some hanja words in some of the sentences which seemed to have been used to sound cool without actually considering the meaning. Those caught her eyes a lot.

“When you first write, pretend that your readers are elementary school students. If you do, you’ll be able to structure your sentences better. You won’t be using difficult words, so there should be fewer grammatical mistakes as well, and the sentences will become simple. Untwist your sentences and split apart the long ones.”

After saying that, she flipped the page over. The very first sentence made her feel dizzy again. It was blatantly obvious that it was written by a novice to the point that it made her lose her motivation to point things out. She should have closed this kind of writing a long time ago. It would’ve been more like her if she asked the boy what he was up to by showing her this kind of rotten writing.

However, her fingers flipped the pages by themselves. This was her second time reading it already. At first, she speed-read it, and this time, she was taking in everything including the spaces. It was sloppy and messy. The writing felt ‘noisy’ and it made her reluctant to keep reading it.

Yet her eyes were looking for the next sentence. Hanmi knew what this meant.

‘His writing was interesting.’

Before the widespread adoption of the internet; back in the days when they wrote on manuscript papers and ripped them apart to throw them away or ate them when they forgot the beginning indentation, writing was something sacred for Hanmi. She was enraptured by the glory of words that allowed her to construct an infinite world with limited resources. Her dream was to become a novelist, but she found out that she was more talented at turning her words into scripts, and ever since then, she started digging into scenario writing for dramas. Hanmi went through all that to reach her current status, and there was one writing that shocked her about a year ago.

Writing that was flooded with various emoticons. At first, she just laughed about it. She thought that it was just a child’s joke. However, the effect that writing had was beyond her understanding. A drama adaptation and a movie adaptation for that novel had been decided. She thought that the world was going crazy. That thing, which she wouldn’t call a novel, was being treated as one.

Hanmi thought that writing that a child could make, which inserted pictures to depict the emotions instead of the subtlety of words, could never be interesting. That was why she read it. She didn’t just skim through it, she read it over and over again so that she could research it.

The conclusion she came to back then was that the writing was interesting. It felt as though a pillar that supported her, one that was known as common sense, had collapsed. Around that time, novels based on emoticons started flooding the publishing industry. Some of the novelists she knew snapped their pens. They quit writing saying that the market had changed and that they were lagging behind. They shouldn’t have that many regrets though since they only wrote as a side job. Making a living as a novelist in this country was pretty much impossible after all.

As a drama writer, the effect didn’t reach Hanmi. However, ever since she read that writing, she had an identity crisis. Writing that had no form. Scenarios were considered liberal when compared to novels since it was a form of writing that would be used for shoots. It used mostly spoken writing without using narratives, so it was very different from normal writing. However, even those scenarios had rules they followed, but the emoticon-filled novel had no rules at all. She was honestly depressed when she saw some special characters replace the flow of emotions and the fact that such writing was loved by many of the young people.

Had that been all of it, she would have ignored it, but that novel was definitely interesting. The readers recognized it. The moment she saw a novel that completely ignored the grammatical structure being loved by many, she felt stifled and felt her vision go dark. Before that, she did not acknowledge the culture created by the internet generation. Looking at people who wrote internet novels, she thought that they were novices who didn’t know the weight of the pen. However, reality was completely different. While readers liked structure and rules, they valued fun even more.

Fun. Contemplating that word, Hanmi started reading other things written by the younger generation. She decided that she should read the trend and write something that would be popular with that generation. She thought that such a thing would be easy. She resolved to become a writer who could read the trend and write dramas that led the trend, being popular across both generations.

She spent a year like that, and she forgot how to write. She analyzed the emoticon-filled novels she had laughed at so many times and felt depressed because she couldn’t write like that. The dramas she wrote still did well, but it was about time she wrote something new, and because of what she said in an interview, she was tasked to write a youth drama. The interview that she did when she still had the confidence to accept the younger people’s senses and dissolve it into her own writing had dragged her down.

During the beginning stages of the planning, it was pretty okay. However, the more episodes she wrote, the less confidence she had. Writing something without confidence was like torture. In the end, Hanmi went around internet forums like she always did, and took inspiration from novels posted there. The novels posted on internet forums had a unique taste, and Hanmi did not have the confidence to do something like that. In her haste, she borrowed a plot from one of the novels and when she came to herself, she had already handed the script over. She rested a bit due to the relief that she was not late, but when she woke up, she realized what she had done.

She had told the producer not to fix the script or comment on it at the beginning of production. She had always said those words, but she regretted it dearly this time. However, she couldn’t give in and ask the producer for consultation first. After all, the writer known as Lee Hanmi had to be perfect.

“Phew.”

Hanmi closed the notebook. When she looked next to her, she saw Daemyung who had fallen asleep. When she looked at the clock, she saw that it was 3 a.m. She felt like she had read that novel 7 times. It was really bad writing, but it was too fun. The story was bitter but the writing itself was interesting. It was writing that felt raw and one where she could gleam the face of the writer. The structure was unstable, but the contents were weighty. She hadn’t felt like she had read such powerful writing in a long time.

“Bullying.”

Hanmi went into the room where Pilhyun was lying down and took two of the blankets on top of Pilhyun before coming back to the living room. She put one over Daemyung and the other over Haesoo before sitting down in front of the sitting table in the living room. After that, she turned on the power of the laptop that she presumed to be Pilhyun’s.

‘That’s right. There was no need for me to chase others. It’s something that only I can write after all. Good, I’ll make it more perfect. Who am I? I am Lee Hanmi.’

Hanmi glanced at Daemyung’s notebook before turning to the laptop monitor.

* * *

Daemyung, who woke up early in the morning, could see Hanmi sitting in front of the laptop. She was tapping away at the keyboard with fierce eyes, and he kept watching her in a daze because she looked like a master delicately baking a piece of pottery.

“If you want to keep writing in the future, learn the basics at least, okay?”

Hanmi said that without even looking at him. Daemyung nodded subconsciously.

“Also, that novel. It was really interesting. I mean it.”

Daemyung smiled like a fool when he heard the compliment. He didn’t know what happened during the night, but it seemed that things went well.

* * *

“What? A re-shoot?”

Maru hung up after writing down the schedule. He looked at his phone in a daze. It wasn’t a supplementary shoot for an episode that was already shot, but a whole re-shoot of the majority of an episode? Moreover, he was even told that he would get the script on the day of the shoot. Even the assistant director, who was adjusting everyone’s schedule, sounded flabbergasted.

“What the heck is happening?”

Supplementary shoots occurred quite a lot, but this was the first time an entire episode was scrapped.

Maru scratched his head and got off the bus. He had to go to school for now.

Chapter 546

“Aren’t you supposed to be busy?”

“I have some free time now, thanks to Sooil overworking himself until he got sick. I heard that you’re going to shoot immediately?”

“Yes.”

Maru got in the car. Byungchan stepped on the gas pedal and drove off.

“A re-shoot?”

“Yes. A re-shoot of the entire episode, apparently.”

“Writer Lee Hanmi is big alright, including the scale of her accidents.”

“Why do you think she suddenly changed it?”

“I wouldn’t know. That woman is known for being a pain in the butt as well after all. Though, it looks like she changed the direction of the whole story if she’s changing an entire episode.”

“Right? I did find the script slightly weird when I studied it, and it seems like the writer thought the same.”

“It’s good that she changed it before the episode aired. There are tons of dramas that went downhill because the writer was swayed by the viewers' opinions. The internet really is a problem. If you listen to their opinions, you’ll drive the ship up the mountain, but if you ignore them, the media will cause a fuss.”

“I guess the only way is to stick to your roots.”

“Veteran writers have experience and character, so they are affected less, but apparently, the new writers have it hard. The older generation aren’t really close to the internet, but the younger folk are different. It’s not like the writers can hole themselves up somewhere to write like before.”

“There’s nothing easy, huh.”

“There sure isn’t.”

“Oh right, what happened to that audition you were going to do?”

“The short play? I screwed up badly. I listened to the director’s advice as I monitored my own acting, and man, it made me so embarrassed that I wanted to escape that place. I screwed up so hard. I get worse by the day.”

“Do your best. You always say that there’s always a next chance,” Maru said as he looked at Byungchan.

Although Byungchan kept doing auditions while taking care of young actors, no good news ever came out of that. The president apparently connected him to the audition this time, so he should feel incredibly disappointed that he didn’t make it.

After tapping the wheel with his fingers, Byungchan looked his way. There was a relaxed smile on his face.

“You know? I got business cards now.”

“Business cards?”

The car was stopped by a traffic light. Byungchan took out his business card wallet from his chest pocket. One stiff business card that had a bluish tint, came out of it.

“Here.”

“You made one?”

“No, they made me one. The company, that is.”

Maru checked Byungchan’s position on the business card the moment he received it. Head manager Lee Byungchan. There was a big JA Production logo on the top. Maru noticed the meaning behind the business card immediately, and did not know whether to congratulate him or not.

“Why don’t you congratulate me, huh? I finally got an official position.”

“Can I?”

“Yeah. Now my dream is to own a building in Gangnam.”

“That makes becoming an actor sound more realistic.”

“I had to shut down my old dream and find a new one, so it should be bigger than the one before it, no? Dream big. ‘Boys, be ambitious’, don’t you know these words?”

“You know that the words after that are ‘be ambitious not for money or for selfish aggrandizement’. Right?”

“People only listen to what they want to hear. Let’s be ambitious. Whether it’s for money or selfish whatever-that-thing-was.”

Maru smiled faintly and put the business card in his wallet. Byungchan shut off his dream to become an actor and as compensation, he gained a position. Only Byungchan knew whether it was a good thing or not, but he was smiling right now, so it should be something to be congratulated.

“Congratulations, head manager Lee.”

“Looks like I won’t be called actor Lee anymore in the future.”

“You won’t know for sure. You might stumble on a chance. Anyway, you got a pay raise and even got a decent-looking business card. I guess you levelled up as a man of society.”

“True.”

“All that’s left is to pay off your mortgage, get married, loan money for the marriage, childcare, and have your child be taken by someone else after you worked your ass off for that child. Congratulations. You just got on a really rocky road.”

“That’s one substantial blessing right there. But at least I finished my military service. Thinking about how you’ll be entering that gate in a few years, I’m much better off.”

Maru felt pained when he heard those words, so he looked outside. Thinking about standing night duty gave him a headache.

“Maru. Do you know what cold weather training and guerilla training are?”

“Guerilla training is where you say ‘Oh, I’m dying’, and cold weather training is where you say ‘Oh, please save me’.”

“…You’re quite knowledgeable.”

“That’s true, I am knowledgeable, sadly, that is.”

Maru smiled as he looked at Byungchan. Byungchan looked much more relaxed today. His speech, actions and even his voice. Perhaps due to having let go of the weight of his dream, or because he was given a balloon of success, he became pretty good to look at.

Byungchan turned on the radio.

Maru thought back to what happened during the day as he listened to the calming music.

‘I think something definitely happened to Daemyung.’

Daemyung, who came to school two days ago in baggy clothes kept yawning during lunch and even during practice. Thanks to that, he was scolded a lot by Miso. He looked like he had stayed up the night and when Maru asked him about what happened, he just replied that he met some other writers and talked about different things. Today, Daemyung came to school with a better expression and asked Maru if he knew writer Lee Hanmi first thing in the morning. Maru nodded. Hearing those words, Daemyung made a dazed expression before saying ‘okay’. Seeing his rather strange attitude, he asked Daeyung why he asked such a thing, but Daemyung smiled and said that it was nothing.

The day he was notified of the re-shoot, Daemyung mentioned the name of the writer for New Semester. Was there a relation between the two events?

‘No way, huh.’

He was clearly overthinking. How would Daemyung meet writer Lee Hanmi? Even if he did, there was no room for Daemyung to influence the overhaul of the script. He probably asked about the writer after hearing that Lee Hanmi was one of the writer’s acquaintances.

“We’re here. Good luck.”

“Yes.”

Maru picked up his bag and got out of the car. The gates to Seokjin middle school, the shooting location, could be seen right in front of him.

* * *

“Although we have room when it comes to episodes, you never know what will happen when it comes to broadcasting media, so we have to shoot this as quickly as possible. I know that it’s hard to act with a script that’s fresh, but I’ll have to ask you to bear with it. Once we start lagging behind the schedule, we might actually end up having to edit the episode on the day of the airing itself. Let’s do this, everyone!”

Hearing Minjoong, the assistant director, shout, Maru opened the script. It was 7 p.m. on a Friday. Usually, the supporting actors had no scenes or only a couple of scenes, but it seemed that they were going to have to shoot late into the night today.

“What’s up with the overhaul so suddenly?”

Yeseul grumbled as she opened the script before walking away. Giwoo and Jichan also followed her to the front of the class. Okseon had disappeared from the classroom as always.

“I think it was pretty decent. Why do you think it was changed so suddenly?”

Joomin pouted as she sat next to Maru.

“Noona, I did hear something.”

Dongho said that as he sat down. Maru looked at him. He heard something?

“Apparently, writer Lee Hanmi told the director that she’d give up the payment for one episode, so they should re-shoot the 13th episode. She apparently threatened him by saying that she’d quit if the 13th episode aired like this.”

Dongho glanced at the staff members. It seemed that the source of the rumor was the staff.

“Wow, a tough person as always. If it was me, I wouldn’t have been able to do that because I’d feel too apologetic.”

Joomin clicked her tongue.

“She has a lot of self-confidence. She probably doesn’t care about the efforts and pains that other people go through if it doesn’t meet her standards. Rich writers have it good alright. She can make a week’s worth of effort useless with a word from her.”

Dongho flipped through the script in a temperamental way. Joomin also sighed before looking at the script.

“I guess this weekend’s full.”

“What can we do? We just do what we are told to do.”

Going along with Joomin's grumbles, Maru opened the script in his hand. The background hadn’t changed, the field trip episode was still there. However, everything other than that had undergone a complete overhaul. The conflict between the characters especially, was completely different from the previous script.

“Lee Chan has changed to being an onlooker huh.”

“Well, that’s more like Lee Chan.”

Maru faintly nodded as he heard Joomin and Dongho’s words. The drastic change in the personality of the character that he felt while analyzing the previous version of the script for the 13th episode was all gone. Giwoo noticed that he liked Yeseul, but did not end up confessing, and Lee Chan had changed from being the cupid between the two to being an onlooker. Now, it was changed so that the hesitant Jichan used his straightforward personality and showed his interest in Yeseul.

“Wow, so this is how it’s going to go?”

“Looks like Jichan’s popularity will rise. The lines in the script are good today, aren’t they?”

“You think so too, noona? Me too. Maru, what about you?”

“I like the new one much better as well.”

The rather hasty progression of events returned to the norm. Why did someone who could write such a splendid story write the previous episode 13 like that? Was she in a bad condition or something? Or was it the political struggle between the writer and the producer that he had only heard about in rumors? From how she gave the producer a fitting script at this point in time, it did sound like there was some trouble between the writer and the producer.

‘Is she trying to tame us?’

Maru looked at producer Park Hoon, who was preparing for the shoot, from afar. A writer who could control the producer as she wished, huh. He could somewhat imagine such a person. Sharp eyes, graceful hair, and a silver pair of glasses. A middle-aged woman who would spit out frost with each word. It felt quite reasonable after he covered the stereotypical ‘elegant female writer’ figure with the right authoritative power. She was probably a woman who didn’t speak a lot and wore fashionable clothes.

That was enough delusion though. Maru threw away the distracting thoughts from his head and focused on the script. Regardless of what kind of person writer Lee Hanmi was, or what trouble there was between her and the producer, none of it concerned him. She was someone who he wouldn’t be able to meet for the foreseeable future. Unless he became famous, there was no reason for a mere supporting actor to associate with a big-shot writer. Also, if she really was someone who was bossy and tried to make those working with her submit to her as he had imagined, he wouldn’t want to meet her. Just meeting someone like that would be very stressful.

* * *

Daemyung was in a pinch. It was because of the name on his phone. Writer Lee Hanmi. His phone started shaking for some reason.

When he found out that the title of the script that Hanmi wrote overnight two days ago was ‘New Semester’, Daemyung blamed his idiocy. When a writer who had to have others confirm for her that she was famous, asked about New Semester several times, he should have deduced that it was her work. That morning, Hanmi suddenly told him to write his number on a memo with a refreshed face. Not daring to refuse, Daemyung hurriedly wrote down his number before heading to school in Gwak Joon’s car. That day, he was quite relieved since he didn’t get any calls but…

“Y-yes.”

-Son, we should hold a celebratory party today.

She definitely said ‘son’ with a nonchalant speech tone.

“Ye-what?”

-Haesoo-unni will pick you up so wait for her. Pilhyun-oppa and Joon will be coming as well. I feel very good thanks to you, son, so I’ll treat you to something nice.

“S-son, you said?”

-Anyway, come. Don’t ask questions.

The call suddenly ended.

Daemyung blinked several times and looked at the club members practicing in front of him. The juniors looked at him in confusion.

“What’s up with you, seonbae? You look really bad,” Aram asked.

Daemyung shook his head.

“I-it’s a prank call, it must be.”

“What?”

“It must be a prank call.”

“What do you mean by that? You were dozing off yesterday too. Jiyoon, your hubby is not looking good today.”

Jiyoon worriedly approached him. Daemyung smiled and said that it was nothing. There was no way she actually called him for real, right? And son? She had to be teasing him. That’s right. Of course, she was just teasing him.

At that moment, he got a call from an unknown number. Daemyung picked up the call nervously.

-Is that you, Daemyung? It’s me. You remember my voice, right? No wait, that’s not the important thing. What time do you want me to go pick you up?

It seems that it wasn’t a joke after all.

* * *

“Okay. Maru, thanks for your work.”

“Thank you for your work. I’ll be going first.”

Maru said his goodbyes to the staff before leaving. Lee Chan didn’t have many appearances in the new version of the script, so his shoots were finished quite quickly. He was prepared to shoot throughout the night, so it felt like he had lucked out. Of course, the main actors, Dongho and Joomin had more to shoot. It was 11:14 right now, so fortunately, he could catch the train home.

“I guess I’ll be shooting late tomorrow as well?”

After the Saturday classes at school, he would have to come to the shooting location immediately and shoot until late into the night, or throughout the night, get some sleep, and then shoot again. Although they had about 5 episodes of leeway, this intensive work schedule was decided by producer Park Hoon who said that they can’t be too sure. He might have to come on weekdays as well.

Just as he was about to pick up his bag and leave through the school gates,

“Han Maru,” he heard a voice.

A person walked out from the dark shadows. Maru stroked his chest. He was a bit scared just now.

“I thought you were a ghost,” Maru said as he looked at Okseon standing there with an expressionless face.

Chapter 547

“Going home?”

“I just finished, so yeah. Didn’t you finish a while ago?”

Okseon nodded at Maru’s question. This was unexpected. Okseon had never taken the initiative to talk to him until now. She looked like someone who innately refused to join a group. She appeared in places she deemed necessary and liked to stay alone otherwise. Of course, this might be all wrong. She might actually be someone who had a shy personality around other people. The reason Maru had to deduce even such a simple thing was because he knew absolutely nothing about her. Okseon even quietly disappeared during meal times and only came back just in time for the shoot, so there was no opportunity to talk to her.

“Yeah.”

“Then why are you here?”

“Because I had something to ask you.”

Maru looked at his watch. Okseon’s last scene should have ended 20 minutes ago.

“You should’ve texted me. It seems you’ve been waiting for quite some time.”

“It doesn’t matter.”

“Well, if you say that, it doesn’t matter to me either. So? What were you going to ask?”

“Kang Giwoo, what do you think of him?”

“Kang Giwoo? Kang Giwoo is Kang Giwoo.”

“You haven’t noticed?”

Maru scratched his eyebrows.

“Okseon.”

“What?”

“I’m sorry, but I have a train to catch, okay? There’s not long left until the last train. So if you have something to ask, ask properly. I don’t like puzzles.”

“Good, then I’ll ask right away. Giwoo seems to be copying you, what do you think about that?”

“If he’s copying me, then he’s copying me.”

“Is that so?”

“Yeah. Is that all you wanted to ask?”

Maru looked at the time. If he missed the last train, he would have to take a taxi and pay nighttime fares. He wanted to avoid that.

“Was I wrong this time? I thought you weren’t like this.”

“I don’t know what kind of Han Maru exists is in your head, but can I get going if you’re going to keep beating around the bush? Nighttime taxi fares are scary.”

“Don’t you need to solve the problem?”

“Is the fact that Giwoo is copying me a problem? If it’s that, you can just ignore it. Whether he copies me or not, it’s up to him.”

“I thought you were more mature than the others, but I guess I was wrong.”

“Me? Of course not.”

“There’s that time with Dongho as well - you proactively solved trouble that other people created. You handled it maturely too. I thought I had a lot to learn from you based on what I saw. However, it seems that I was mistaken. You were just cocky. You don’t know the real problem.”

“You sound so serious, but I’m fine. I’m thankful if you’re worried about me, but you don’t have to mind it at all. Like you said, if it’s a big problem, I’ll take care of it by myself.”

“No, you don’t know how serious this is. Giwoo isn’t just imitating your acting. He looks like he’s imitating everything about you. Recently, Giwoo’s acting skills rose a lot. I can tell that from how the producer doesn’t say much about him. That’s all thanks to him copying you.”

“That’s good. If Giwoo’s acting skills improve, New Semester’s viewing rates will rise and our faces will become more well-known as well. I don’t see what’s bad about that?”

“You are a really stupid kid, huh. You didn’t calm Dongho down back then. You are just both stupid and somehow just clicked and synergized with each other.”

“Well, this makes me thankful. This is the first time we talk like this after the months we spent shooting together, and the conclusion is that I’m stupid, huh. I always forget that I’m stupid, so thanks for reminding me of that. Is that all you had to ask? Your question should have been answered with the conclusion being that I’m stupid. I think I'll have plenty of time to catch that train if I go now, so can I get going?”

Maru looked at Okseon’s mouth. He thought that she was some female monk who chose to be mute outside of work, but she turned out to be some alien girl from the 4th dimension. He thought that she didn’t have any interest in the others, but it turned out that she had actually been observing everyone this whole time.

He already knew that Giwoo was imitating him. All forms of studying started from imitation, did they not? Maru didn’t mind it since it would be laughable for him to scold Giwoo over copying something abstract. It would be much more beneficial for him to research facial expressions if he had the time to do something like that.

“I told you all this, and yet you’re going to stay still?”

“Please, I beg you. Tell me what you want from me. I want to stay friends with you as much as possible. We are coworkers after all, aren’t we? Even if we can’t be friends, I don’t want to be at odds with you either. But, if you keep beating around the bush like this, I have no choice but to ignore you. You don’t want that, do you?”

Hearing those words, Okseon’s lips twisted. Whew, so she could make expressions like that. She always stayed expressionless except when she was acting, so Maru thought that she switched her emotions off when she wasn’t acting, but it turned out that she could make expressions after all.

“Go up to Giwoo and tell him to stop copying you.”

“You want me to tell him that?’

“Yes.”

“Why?”

“What do you mean why?”

“I think it would be strange instead if I understood.”

“You are really stupid, aren’t you? Don’t you know the meaning behind what I just said? He improved his acting by imitating you.”

“I got that, but I think I’m a bit stupid after all.”

“Then you should obviously make him stop.”

“Like I said, why? You don’t want the reputation of the drama to rise?”

“The problem is not the drama. The problem is that Kang Giwoo is getting the focus. You really can’t calculate, can you? Are you naive? Or are you stupid to the point that you can’t take care of yourself?”

Okseon walked out from the shadows under the school gates. She had returned to being expressionless, but her eyes were still fierce.

“This is why I don’t want to hang out with kids like you. It’s hard to give you advice. What else would I talk to you about?”

“Okseon, did you perhaps lie about your age?” Maru asked with a smile.

“What do you mean?”

“You said ‘kids like you’, so I just asked. If you’re older than me, I’ll treat you as such. If that’s what you wanted, you should’ve told me sooner.”

“Are you making fun of me?”

“Of course not. I’m just asking purely. I’m a bit stupid after all, so I don’t know the underlying meaning behind words so I just interpret them as they are. You understand that, right?”

Okseon sucked her lower lip inwards before biting on it.

“Anyway, you must say that to Kang Giwoo. We are all creating this drama together, but the popularity will be divided among us. Looking at the interviews and news articles recently, I can see that they’re all focusing on Giwoo. Until about episode 4, the child actors were lumped together, but after that, the spotlight is going to Giwoo and Yeseul, these two. This is because Giwoo’s acting skills improved. Yeseul is just riding his popularity.”

Okseon stepped a bit closer to him. The light from the lamp cast a long shadow over her face.

“You might not know because you’re young, but this is a fierce competition. If one person becomes a star, then the actors beside that person will just fall to being extras. The viewing rate for this drama is pretty high. From the way it’s gaining more and more views with each episode, it’s clearly gaining momentum so we need to suppress Kang Giwoo before he gets even more attention. Okay? Popularity is limited. The more popular Giwoo becomes, the less known we’ll be, you idiot.”

“So the conclusion is that you’re dissatisfied with the fact that you aren’t popular, and the reason is Kang Giwoo?”

“This is why kids are no good. I’m not talking about my popularity.”

“Then what are you talking about?”

Maru quietly looked at Okseon. Okseon tapped on her chest as though she was feeling stifled.

“You are just a fool who’s a bit good at acting, huh. If Giwoo’s popularity rises, yours will fall in comparison. In this field, there is no such thing as two similar characters. To actors, being number one is important, but being the only one is just as important. Do you understand? The more popular Kang Giwoo becomes, the less your worth will be. Do you know what lies at the end of that? You'll never make it past being a child actor. Why? Because rather than using you, they’ll decide to use the much more popular Kang Giwoo. Because you two are similar after all. It doesn’t matter what you say at that time. Even if you go around telling people that Kang Giwoo stole your acting style, you’ll just get mocked by the others. You understand, idiot?”

“Yeah, I do. You’re really smart. Also, I was a little surprised. You can talk so well, so why did you stay silent this whole time?”

“Didn’t I tell you? I don’t talk to you guys because you’re kids. I’m not working half-assedly like you guys are. I’m serious. I found out that the world isn’t a place where many people can climb to the top together.”

“So you aren’t on the same level as us, huh. You’re amazing, I’m amazed.”

Maru clapped loudly. Okseon frowned and told him to stop.

“You get it now? If you don’t say it, you’ll never receive attention. And that’s critical as someone reliant on the media.”

“I understand you now. So can I get going?”

“Honestly speaking, you probably didn’t understand anything I just said. You might be wondering what kind of nonsense I’m saying. However, you’ll thank me later.”

“Of course, of course. I’m thankful. I’ll get going then. You should go home as well. It’s cold.”

Just as Maru smiled and was about to turn around, Okseon moved next to him.

“So, when are you going to tell him?”

“Well, I’m not sure.”

“Did you not listen to anything I just said? The later you do so, the more you’ll lose, you idiot. Do you want to make losses in life? No, right?”

“Of course not. I hate making losses.”

Maru started walking towards the station.

“So? When are you going to tell him?” Okseon followed him and asked.

“When should I do it?”

“As early as possible.”

“How should I tell him?”

“Just tell him to stop imitating you. Be strong. Only then will he stop.”

“Okay.”

“So, when are you going to tell him?”

“In about 30 years?”

Okseon stopped. Maru calmly kept walking forward. He was wondering what she was up to, and whether it had something to do with the ‘toy’ thing that concerned Giwoo, but it turned out to be nothing much.

“Are you really stupid? I said all that and you still…”

“Okseon.”

Maru stopped and looked at Okseon.

“I usually don’t give out advice, but allow me to give you advice today. If you don’t have confidence, you should quit this line of work. You clearly seem like someone who’ll ruin yourself while trying to do this job. Also, you should be more careful about saying words like that. What are you doing telling me everything when you don’t even know me? Have you thought about what would happen to you if I happened to be close to Giwoo?”

“I observed you all enough by now, and I saw no interaction between the two groups separated by main and supporting characters. There’s no way you guys are close.”

“We met up and hung out a while ago, did you know that?”

“What do you mean by that?”

“We tried to call you too. Don’t you remember? That day when you just walked away when I tried talking to you. Oh, I guess you don’t remember it since it happened so many times, huh. The six of us met up quite often without you. Of course, like you said, it’s not proof that we got closer, but wouldn’t that make me at least closer to them than you? I mean whether it’s Giwoo or Yeseul.”

“You, so you’re telling me that you’ll tell him what I just told you?”

“No, I don’t plan to do that. That would be childish of me. Also, didn’t I tell you? I want to get along with you as coworkers. I’m willing to listen to you talking behind his back any day, so don’t worry about that.”

Maru took a few more steps before clicking his fingers and turning around to look at Okseon.

“Also, if you would allow the stupid me to give you a tip, if you want to use others, you better prepare some form of compensation. Trying to use only your words is well… childish. Plus, before you worry about your popularity, why don’t you try analyzing your character more? If Seri instead of Giwoo is getting edited out more, I think that’s because the actress’ skills are lacking, not because Giwoo is good.”

“You…”

“Don’t try to put down someone who’s doing well. I thought you were an adult, no? Have some generosity. See you tomorrow. You can ignore me if you like.”

“Wait! I said you’ll regret it, didn’t I? You just don’t know how scary this field is. Are you letting him go because he’s a friend? Is that what you think? Hey, you stupid idiot. There’s no other way of moving up other than by stepping on others!”

“I just don’t have to be stepped on.”

“What?”

“If I get stepped on by someone who’s imitating me, I might as well quit. If that’s all I amount to, I might as well stop this line of work and join a company. This line of work is definitely fun, but I’m not doing this because I want to earn a small sum. Well, no, I can’t be sure about that. I might still be doing it while earning really little.”

Maru shrugged. Okseon looked like she didn’t understand.

“And this is the most important bit, but.”

I don’t think Giwoo is good at acting - Maru added before turning around. He thought that he should walk to the train station and go home. Just then, he heard quick footsteps.

“…Gee, you are more tenacious than I thought, huh.”

Maru looked at Okseon who fiercely glared at him before running towards the station. He heard something behind him, but he ignored it.

“Hey, Han Maru!”

“Sorry! I already have a partner, so I can’t accept your love!”

He waved at Okseon who stood there in a daze before running again.

Chapter 548

“The world sure has gotten cruel.”

“What the heck, that was so random?”

“Why can’t the young’uns grow up more brightly?”

“Park Daemyung, what did you feed this guy?”

“I-I don’t know.”

Maru patted Dowook’s shoulder before picking up his food tray and standing up. He just got a text from Okseon. She told him to forget about the conversation they had yesterday in an imperative tone. It was cute to see her thinking that she could tell others what they should do with every word and every sentence of hers. Though, she might be thinking that she was being serious.

He talked with her a bit yesterday since he thought that she was impressive for trying to do something proactively, but her insufficient mindset and actions made him almost encourage her instead.

“It really doesn’t matter what people look like on the outside, does it?”

“Are you picking a fight with me? You’ve been saying weird things for quite a while now.”

“Even the angry-looking Dowook is actually a cute little brother in front of his big si… whoa there, put your hands down.”

After sending off the steaming Dowook, he walked onto the school field with Daemyung.

“Have you picked the ones for the play?”

“Yeah. A total of 13 of them.”

“I guess the ones that didn’t get picked are disappointed right now.”

“That’s why I’m planning to pick different members for the winter competition. Getting the prize is important but having everyone enjoy it is even more so. Oh, how’s it going with the shoot? We discussed that we should send people down, but we just ended up practicing because I didn’t hear anything.”

“We were originally going to shoot on Thursday, but something came up on the drama side. Thanks to that, I got an earful from Sora. Why am I being scolded when I’m volunteering for this?”

“You did break your promise, so you can’t help that.”

“Wow, you sounded quite firm there. I really have a good friend. Why don’t you stand surety for me later?”

“No.”

“Daemyung, you’ve become a lot crueler. Is it because of Jiyoon?”

“Wh-why would Jiyoon come up here?”

Daemyung turned red up to his ears in an instant.

“You know, that must be a talent you have there. Your ears turned red in an instant.”

“That’s because you said something like that. Are you shooting the drama today too, then?”

“That was an awkward change in topic, but I’ll let it slide. I have a full schedule on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. I’m about to cry tears of happiness because I’m flooded with work.”

“Will it be like that next week as well?”

“Who knows? I’ll find out about it next week, but I think so. We’re practically overhauling an entire episode, so I think I’ll be busy if we don’t want blanks in the shooting schedule. It’s all because the writer suddenly decided to overhaul the script. I do like the new one better, but it’s hard to get adjusted to the new schedule.”

“I-I see. You’re working hard,” Daemyung said as he looked away.

Maru stared at him.

“Oh yeah, you look a little tired today.”

“I-is that so?”

“You’re wearing the same clothes as yesterday too. You’ve been looking after yourself quite a lot ever since you met Jiyoon though. This is pretty strange.”

“H-have I now?”

“Don’t pretend that you don’t know. You looked like you stayed up the night a few days ago, and it’s like that again today. Did something happen? I heard from Dowook that you left during practice because of some matters.”

“The thing is, I met them again.”

“Them?”

“The writers.”

“Oh, the acquaintances of writer Ahn Pilhyun?”

“Yeah.”

Maru smiled and patted Daemyung’s back.

“I thought there was a big problem or something, but it turned out to be something good. You should try to act affable in front of them. Meeting such people is a part of work too.”

“I-I want to do that, but…”

Daemyung looked at him before lowering his head. His reaction was somewhat down. Maru pointed at the gazebo in the corner of the school field. It was an octagonal one, and apparently, the head director bought one for the school for aesthetic reasons. Of course, it wouldn’t make a worn-out school look good just by itself.

After sitting down in it, Maru spoke,

“What’s up? If it’s something you can’t tell me, you wouldn’t have talked about it in the first place, and if you are going to tell me, you shouldn’t be hiding it so much. So what’s up with this vagueness?”

“So, the thing is…”

Maru quietly looked at Daemyung. Daemyung was capable of knowing what he could and could not say. From the way he hesitated a lot, it meant that he was wondering whether it was really okay or not.

“If it’s something you can’t tell me, you don’t need to…”

“I saw mom.”

“Mom? Whose mom? My mom?” Maru asked as he pointed at his own face.

Daemyung shook his head. Mom? Just what was he talking about? At that moment, an unexpected name came out of Daemyung’s mouth: Choi Haesoo.

“Mother-in-law?”

“M-mother-in-law!?”

“Oh, it’s just a habit of mine to call her that, so don’t mind it. Rather than that, you met mother-in-law?”

“Yeah. She is one of the acquaintances of teacher Ahn.”

“That was surprising. She can be quite mischievous at times. Were you okay with her?”

Daemyung only made an awkward smile and did not reply. The answer was obvious from just that. She was someone who could play high-level pranks. Moreover, she was impulsive as well. The words she said were all direct-to-the-point and might hurt someone weak-hearted. Of course, she was a good person. Probably.

“Actually, Haesoo-ahjumma is okay.”

“It is a bit strange to hear her name from you. Anyway, if you’re okay with her pranks, then there should be no problems, no?”

“…There’s one more person. Another friend of teacher Ahn.”

“So the reason you look so gloomy is because of that person.”

“That writer isn’t so bad. We’ve only met twice until now, but I can tell that much. In fact, it’s the opposite. I got a lot of helpful advice. A lot, like, really, a lot… really, really, a lot…”

Daemyung’s voice became quieter and quieter. Perhaps it wasn’t a coincidence that he looked like someone who was tired from work.

“Looks like that writer scolds you a lot.”

“Y-yeah. It’s a bit scary.”

“I see. I guess it must be scary if a middle-aged man shouts at you.”

“…She’s a woman.”

“Oh, really?”

“In fact, it’d be less scary if it was a man instead.”

“Just what happened last night?”

He asked for more details, but Daemyung no longer spoke. He just trembled once before staring at the ground. Maru decided to stop since he might traumatize him if he asked any more.

“You’re having a hard time.”

“Nah. It’s good since I have a lot to learn. Though, I do wish that she can take it easy on the alcohol.”

“Don’t force yourself to drink. If you keep accepting drinks, they’ll keep pouring you a glass thinking that you’re good with it. Even if you get scolded or insulted, you should firmly reject it at the beginning.”

“They aren’t people who would force me to drink.”

“That’s good. But who is this female writer?”

“Uhm…”

After hesitating, Daemyung slowly spoke.

“It’s writer Lee Hanmi.”

“No way. She shouldn’t be the Lee Hanmi that I know of, right?”

“She should be. She writes New Semester.”

“Hey, this isn’t the time to be grumbling. Bear with it and stick to her. She’s known to be a big shot writer, isn’t she? Such a connection has to be maintained at all costs. It seems like she takes good care of you from what you just said though, huh? They say scolding is a waste for hateful kids.”

“I’m not so sure. She did thank me, but from how I had to hear her scolding all night last night, I think she might hate me.”

“She thanked you?”

“It seems like she had hit a writer’s block or something. She told me about the situation while drunk, but the details… are a bit hard to disclose. You get me, right?”

“Yeah, those kinds of things aren’t supposed to be told to other people. It would be disrespectful.”

“Yeah. Anyway, while I was listening to her, I ended up showing her my novel.”

“Novel? Oh, the one you wrote?”

“Yeah.”

“I’m surprised you decided to show her that.”

“I-it was really embarrassing, but I still wanted to show it to her. She said that writing is always supposed to be fun. When I wrote that novel though, there were many occasions where I felt agonized. That’s why I showed it to her.”

“Always having fun while writing, huh. She’s one incredible writer.”

“Apparently, she never failed. I also looked it up after I got back home, and all the works she wrote were huge hits. She also told me that it took her only 3 days to lay out the groundwork for some of them. And here, I’m having a hard time writing a single page over several days.”

“I don’t like this phrase that much, but I guess I can use it today. That writer must be a genius who enjoys working[1].”

“Yeah. I was really surprised when she read my novel. I thought that she’d just skim over it, right? But she read it very seriously. At first, I was really embarrassed to show her the novel, but I realized that I shouldn’t be when she read it so seriously. I felt like I would be betraying my own work if I thought of my work as embarrassing when someone’s earnestly reading it in front of me.”

Maru nodded as he listened. He didn’t know what that exactly felt like. He never wrote something, much less showed his writing to others. But this much was for sure. There was nothing more joyful to a content creator than the content consumer taking that content in with all of their heart.

“I fell asleep because it was late at night, and when I woke up in the morning, she was writing on a laptop. It looked very cool. Though… she went on to criticize my novel so badly and was insistent on telling me about just how horrible of a novel I wrote.”

“Consider her a good teacher and study under her.”

“That’s what I should be doing, right? But I don’t know if I can adapt to her personality.”

“There’s no free lunch in this world. A writer on her level should be earning tons by holding seminars and lectures. You get that for free.”

“Yeah, that’s what she told me. That her words are worth hundreds of thousands of won.”

“You lucked out then. Try to earn as much as you can from her.”

“It’d be better if she went a little easy on me. I feel like my soul is being dried out when I listen to her words. Yesterday, she made me wonder if it was okay for me to keep writing, you know?”

Daemyung sighed.

He didn’t know the specifics, but from this, it was clear that Daemyung was the reason why episode 13 of the drama was changed so suddenly. An aspiring writer who cleared the writer’s block of a genius, huh.

‘No, wait. If the thing she wrote overnight was episode 13, that means that she just wrote it in one day?’

Maru clicked his tongue as he thought back to the script for episode 13. The actors discussed and said that the new episode had a lot of good lines while going over the script. Thinking about how those lines were created in less than one day, he laughed like an idiot. An aspiring writer might go beyond the point of despair and start worshipping her.

“If you ever direct your own film, ask her to write something for you.”

“Even if I do become a director, I will never, ever, ask her to write something for me.”

“Why?”

“Because I’ll obviously have a hard time. I want to avoid that at all costs.”

“Just how hard was it…?”

Daemyung smiled bitterly before standing up.

It was about time for 5th period.

* * *

“Good night.”

“Good night sounds so weird.”

“Then should we call it a ‘let’s-go-home-early night? I think I like that better.”

“That’s good.”

Maru greeted Joomin as he walked inside the classroom. Okseon watched them from behind. Maru talked for a bit with the people gathered around as he put his bag on the desk. He then looked at her before approaching her.

“Good night.”

Okseon did not reply. When she didn’t, Yeseul, who sat at the front, said ‘oh my’ while widening her eyes. Okseon did not feel the need to react to such a childish reaction. Did she act like that at school as well? Yeseul was really beneath her level as always.

Maru shrugged before walking over to Dongho. Dongho also looked at her before turning away.

Okseon observed Maru for a while after that, but fortunately, it didn’t seem like he talked about the conversation he had with her yesterday. He was an idiot, but it seemed like he could tell what was right from wrong at least.

“Good night.”

The door opened and Giwoo came in. He kept smiling as though he wanted to infect the others with his bright smile. Okseon thought that he was really a viper at heart. She had to admit though, Giwoo knew how to act in society. He was worth observing. He sometimes had others see through him, but that should be because he was still young.

“You’re saying good night as well?”

Jichan grumbled. Giwoo laughed before sitting down. The adult actors were waiting in the next classroom over. In the beginning, they all shared one classroom in an awkward manner, but they naturally split apart after some time. Both groups created a space that was more comfortable for them.

“Okseon, let’s practice our lines together,” Giwoo said.

Okseon did not reply and just picked up her script before walking over to the others.

“Okseon, isn’t it about time we became friends? I’m worried about you.”

Yeseul said that with a faint smile. Okseon maintained her expressionless face.

If you want to use me to raise your value, go ahead, do what you want - Okseon had no plans to follow along with childish things like that.

[1] This sentence: “A genius will never surpass a hard-worker, and a hard-worker will never surpass one that enjoys” became quite popular in self-improvement books. Maru is saying that she’s a combination of the 1st and the 3rd. Basically saying that she’s invincible (if that’s the right word for it)

Chapter 549

“Why is she so frustrating?”

“Who?”

“Who else? Kim Okseon of course. How can she lack sociability so much? I’ve never seen her speak of her own accord first. That’s not the only thing. She always eats alone, away from the rest of us unless we’re all in a restaurant or something. It’s like we’re ostracizing her.”

Dongho shook his head. Joomin, who had been listening, spoke,

“Okseon doesn’t necessarily lack sociability.”

“Noona, what do you mean?” Dongho asked as he turned around.

Maru also closed the script and looked at Joomin.

“You guys don’t know huh. Well, I guess so since you have never followed her before. Okseon is actually a bright girl.”

“No way.”

“I think it was around a month ago when I tried to talk to her since I was quite worried as she kept eating by herself. That was when I saw her talking to senior Kim Suyeon in a nice manner. She also talks a lot with the other seniors as well.”

“Now that I think about it, sir Hwang Joonghoon also greeted Okseon first, right? I thought it was a coincidence, but after hearing that, it doesn’t seem like it was.”

Dongho crossed his arms and frowned.

“So what. She doesn’t say a word when she is with us, and yet she talks to the seniors, huh? That’s absurd.”

“Is it really so absurd?” Maru asked as he opened the script again.

From his experience with Okseon yesterday, it wasn’t that surprising. Though, he might have been surprised if he didn’t know about it before he heard this.

“It is absurd. We tried to treat her so well, didn’t we?”

“Do you have to get back as much as you did for others?”

“No, not really.”

“Then just let her be. Let’s look at it from the opposite direction. Do you think you’ll feel good if Okseon comes and talks to you in a friendly manner right now?”

“That sounds freaky in its own way.”

“Unless you have feelings for her, just forget about it. Let’s have another look at the script.”

“Wh-why would I be concerned about her!”

“From the way you’re shouting, I think you’re serious here. What do you think, noona?”

“Well, as much as I want to tease him, he might get upset if I actually do, so I’ll just let it slide.”

Joomin smiled and picked up her script. Dongho, who was announcing his innocence also eventually quietened down and opened the script.

“It does feel a little disappointing though. Like what Maru said, there’s no need for us to be on close terms, but I wish that she’d at least reply to our greetings.”

Joomin had a tired smile on her face. Maru glanced at her. It was probably only Joomin who could express her disappointment in Okseon’s cold attitude. There was no one else who put as much effort into getting close to her after all. Even Giwoo, who consolidated his position as the group leader, had given up on talking to Okseon, yet Joomin kept trying to talk to Okseon with some coffee in hand. Maru had seen her do so several times.

“So the bullying episode comes out after all,” Dongho said as he looked at the script for episode 14.

As soon as the main characters of the drama went through a sweet love story, the main story became one about bullies, the cancer of the classroom.

“It’s somewhat awry to end it like that. What do you think, noona?”

“I think it’s better than ‘and then everyone lived happily ever after’ like fairy tales. Writer Lee Hanmi used to write revenge stories, right? New Semester isn’t supposed to be a light-hearted youth drama, so I think this kind of ending is pretty okay. Though, the viewers might think otherwise.”

Maru nodded as he listened to Joomin’s words. If the bullied student eventually led a healthy school life in other youth dramas, New Semester seemed to be trying to break that fantasy and show the reality.

“That’s why I hate it even more. This is way too vague, isn’t it? Like, what’s this about? Is it saying that the bullied kid became happy because he transferred to another school? Or is he still sad?”

“It’s not a happy ending, but I think the conflict is resolved at least,” Joomin said.

“Noona, look at this last part. There’s a letter of apology, but the bullied kid never expresses anything after reading it. If it’s supposed to be a sad ending, then it would be much better if it was clear about that. This just leaves a bad taste in my mouth.”

“I think the emotions get across though. He does call at the end.”

“He does, but the script says that he just hung up without saying anything. How do you know if he wanted to say words of forgiveness or curses?”

“According to the flow, it should be forgiveness. It’s not a perfect happy ending, but isn’t it an acceptable ending?”

“I would’ve poured insults.”

“I would’ve forgiven.”

“That’s why you aren’t good enough. I’m sure that he tried to swear at the bully, but hung up because he was scared.”

“It’s because he became emotional. He did receive a letter of apology after all.”

“It doesn’t even make sense that an apology can make up for it.”

“I believe that the kid was kind and gentle at heart.”

The biggest change during the past 4 months should be how they interacted. Dongho and Joomin always disputed over the script whenever it came out. Maru would’ve stopped them if it was meaningless, but they were constructive and helpful when it came to interpreting the work, so he opened his ears to their conversation when they started talking. He thought it was quite fun to watch the two people using their different values to dispute with each other since it felt like he was learning about human nature.

“Han Maru, what do you think?”

“What’s your opinion?”

After going round and round, the question arrow didn’t find a target so it shot itself at Maru instead. This happened all the time, so Maru just looked up at the ceiling and spoke in a small voice.

“I think it’s a compromise. If we show the real state of bullying on TV, the forums will be on fire, but if we go with a happy ending, the writer won’t be satisfied with that. I heard that censorship of TV media was really harsh these days, so maybe that’s why the writer just went with the ‘I will leave the interpretation of the ending to you’-ending.”

After saying those words, Maru looked at Dongho and Joomin again. A moment later, the two spoke simultaneously.

“The bullied kid must be sharpening his sword of revenge!”

“I’m sure he’s a kind boy and has forgiven the bully!”

Phew - Maru sighed as he shrugged.

This kind of discussion never reached one clear conclusion. It even made him wonder why they were having this dispute even though they never cared about what the other party said. Well, it was helpful for him, so that wasn’t an issue.

“But did something happen to the writer? We haven’t finished shooting episode 13 yet, but we got the script for the 14th one already.”

“It’s a good thing, but it does feel strange,” Dongho and Joomin conversed as they looked at the script for episode 14.

Maru did not say anything. There was no reason to make matters worse after all.

“Actors, please be on standby!”

The staff opened the door to the classroom and spoke. Maru stood up with the script. It was 7:40 p.m. The shoot finally began again today.

* * *

“Cut! Let’s move on to the next scene after a 10 minute rest,” producer Park Hoon shouted.

The lights that lit up the classroom to make it seem like day were switched off, and the line-men started collecting the cables.

‘Just one more scene.’

He would get to go home once he waited for the main characters’ school field scene to end and shot the going home from school scene. He wished for the going home scene to be done first since that involved all the characters, but it probably wouldn’t happen because of the schedules of the main characters. He still had to wait a long time even though he was a supporting character instead of a background character.

He left the crowded classroom and stood in the corridor. He saw the leader instruct the background actors to go home. Maru said goodbye to all the background actors that walked past him. He couldn’t look down on them since he was aware of their efforts.

“See you next time. Yes, noona. You, too, hyung-nim.”

Since it was a youth drama, a lot of the background actors and minor actors were around the same age since they had to fill up the classroom. Most of them quit after just once, considering it as a part-time job, but there were some who participated in the drama until the end. It had been four months since he started working with them. He got used to calling them.

After saying goodbye to the leader, he was about to go to the waiting room on the 1st floor when he saw Okseon looking inside the classroom from the middle of the corridor. At that moment, Suyeon walked out of the classroom.

Unni - Maru was a little surprised when he heard Okseon’s voice hit his ears. So she can act cute. As Joomin said, Okseon seemed to be quite sociable in front of Suyeon and the other senior actors and actresses.

“What are you doing? Let’s go down and get some rest.”

“Yeah, we should.”

He nodded and walked down the stairs.

“Did you see her just now? Kim Okseon, that girl was talking to senior Suyeon.”

“Yeah.”

“I didn’t think she was like that, but she’s really sneaky.”

“What’s so sneaky now?”

“She’s so expressionless when she’s with us, yet she’s smiling like that as soon as she’s in front of a senior. I was wondering where she was all this time, and it seems she couldn’t be seen because she was looking good in front of the seniors.”

“So, you feel jealous?”

“Me? No. I am going to become an actor who lets his skills do the talking. I don’t want to suck up to others like that to get something. That’s how an actor is supposed to be, right?”

“You were a lot cuter when you grumbled by yourself. Don’t you feel embarrassed saying that out loud?”

“Wh-what? Don’t you think so too? If you’re an actor, you should battle with acting.”

“It’s not like Okseon lobbied anyone, so why are you overreacting? You’re being really strange now. Are you really sure you have no feelings for her?”

“Me? For her? For that block of ice? That’s funny.”

“There’s an old saying that goes ‘strong rejection is strong affirmation’……”

“Shut up!”

“I don’t think my voice was that loud. In fact…”

Maru did not finish his words and just pointed at the top of the stairs instead. Some staff members, who were carrying down some equipment, were looking at them. Dongho was startled and quickly apologized to them.

“Ah, youth.”

“…It’s embarrassing, so let’s get going quickly.”

He followed Dongho to the 1st floor waiting room. The three main characters, as well as the minor actors that appeared in the next scene all moved to the school field.

The lights were installed on the school field and drove out the darkness from it. As he was looking out the window, he got a text. Come to the back of the school - it was from Okseon.

Maru immediately replied.

-Why?

He got another one 5 seconds later.

-I told you to come.

Maru could somehow hear an upset voice. He closed his phone and put it in his bag.

“Should we go through the script for episode 14 together?”

“Again?”

“We should do it until we become proficient at it. It’s a bit wasteful to daze out while we’re on break, isn’t it?”

Dongho sighed and opened the script. Joomin was shooting on the field.

“So, do we start from scene 3?”

“Let’s start and go from there.”

They took turns doing the lines. They had to make guidelines for themselves about the emotional state of their character during the read-through. It was impossible to bring out emotions during the real deal without having handled the emotions even once. They had to polish it during the read-through and burst out with them during the shoot. A lot of the top-tier actors often had sharper emotional expressions during read-throughs than the actual shoot. If 100% of their skill came into effect during practice, 80% was practically the limit for the real shoot. This was why it was necessary to break that limit during practice if one wanted to bring out 100% of their skills.

“Don’t you think you should say that a little slower?”

“You think so?”

Just as he was about to say his line again while keeping Dongho’s remarks in mind, the door to the classroom quietly opened before Okseon walked in. Maru smiled at Okseon faintly before focusing on the script again. Okseon, who sat at the edge of the classroom, did not say anything.

Instead, Maru got a text.

-What are you doing? You’re being childish. Why are you ignoring me when I’m trying to help you?

Maru sighed a little and told Dongho that they should take a break. He left the classroom. When he leaned against the wall in the corridor, he saw Okseon stepping out.

“Han Maru, you…”

“If it’s about Kang Giwoo, let me make this straight. You go tell him to stop copying me.”

“What?”

“If you mind it so much, and if it’s for me, then you tell him. If Giwoo is a considerate person, he should change his ways.”

“Why would I? This is your problem.”

“Like hell it is. It’s yours, not mine. I can tell that much from how you’re so hung up over it even though I’m saying it’s okay. I’ve been wondering, but do the senior actors compliment Giwoo a lot?”

“…That’s.”

“If that’s the reason you’re being hasty, then try to solve it by yourself, because I sure don’t plan to say it. Also, if you want to ask me to do something in the future, tell me in person. One more thing. I’m fine with you thinking that I’m childish, but please stop thinking that I will blindly listen to whatever you have to say and do everything that you want me to do. You should know with a bit of thinking that I have zero reasons to listen to you.”

“I told you, your character is…”

“Okseon. Your words don’t sound that attractive to me. Didn’t I tell you yesterday? If you want to lure me into doing something, then get a suitable bait for it. I’m an idiot, one that only moves when there’s food to catch.”

Maru yawned.

“Oh, and while we’re at it, let me tell you one more thing. Don’t try to act kind in front of the actress Kim Suyeon. It doesn’t matter if you’re really honestly talking to her, but if you have other thoughts, she might just bear her poisonous fangs at you.”

Maru bore his own canine tooth at her before turning around.

“If you have anything else to tell me, let’s do it with words. Text messages cost money.”

He shook his hand before returning to the classroom.

Chapter 550

“Black coffee is way too bitter.”

“You’ll get used to it if you keep drinking it. While we’re at it, wanna have some?”

“Hell no, noona. Give it to Maru instead.”

“Noona, give it to me. This guy has childish tastes and doesn’t know what’s good for his body.”

The three ‘pathetics’ were chatting with each other. Do they not know that they can’t be at leisure for too long?

9:40. Okseon closed the script for a bit and took out her English vocabulary handbook. Many books said that using free time was the key to success. This was an era where English skills graded people. Being good at English would allow her to receive more attention. She flipped over the pages and memorized the words. Memorizing words was a boring thing, but effort was always rewarded. While those three pathetics laughed and chatted with each other, she would study. Even a dog would know who was closer to success.

‘So pathetic.’

She looked at a word, closed her eyes, and reminded herself of the word several times in order to memorize it. What a perfect life this was? She was not being complacent just because she was working as an actor, she kept studying. Okseon was proud of herself. She could feel that she was leading a much more fulfilling life than others of her age. I am different from you - Okseon shook her head as she looked at the three people laughing with each other.

“Uhm, Okseon.”

She raised her head when a shadow was cast over her. Joomin had approached her with coffee in hand.

“Would you like to drink some coffee?”

“I’m okay.”

“Do you hate black coffee?”

“I drank some during the day. Plus, too much caffeine isn’t good for the body. An actor should take care of their body, right?”

“R-right. But hey, what are you looking at right now?”

“English vocabulary.”

“You’re studying?”

“Isn’t that obvious? I believe that actors should be perfect in all aspects. Only then can they act properly.”

Okseon tried to criticize her even more but decided not to. If it was anyone else, she would’ve just ignored that person, but it was a waste to ignore Joomin. She was a 3rd year in college, so she was definitely not young. Even she herself, who was a 3rd year in high school, was putting so much effort into preparing for the future which was still unclear to her, yet someone who had lived a few years more than her was talking and laughing with those that were younger than her. She should be leading the others to the right path, yet she was instead pushing her future into the depths of failure. Looking at her, Okseon had the urge to preach to her.

However, there was no need for her to do that herself. It was much more useful to get one more word memorized or to have another look at the script if she had the time to do that. After all, she’d never meet her again after this drama.

“I interrupted you, didn’t I? Sorry.”

Joomin faintly smiled before turning around. Do you have the time to care about others? - Okseon barely managed to swallow these words back down. Joomin was a stifling woman. She couldn’t be any more idiotic.

“Actors, please come out. We’re starting the shoot.”

A scene where people come out of the west entrance while talking, and a scene where they were leaving the school. These two were the last scenes for the day. Although she didn’t get good treatment because she was a supporting actress right now, she would soon become a lead actress. Okseon had the confidence. She was putting in more effort than anyone else, so the important people should soon recognize her efforts and then reach out to her. She just had to polish the sail in preparation for the wind. Of course, there was something she had to solve in order to do that.

Dongho and Joomin left first. After seeing Maru leaving a step behind them, she walked next to him.

“You’ll regret it.”

“If there’s an award of the year for being tenacious, I think you’ll win it,” Maru said as he raised his thumb.

An immature kid who can’t even take care of himself. She had thought that he was someone who had the same ideals as her once, but when she pried into him, he turned out to be all talk just like Seong Dongho, who only acted cool. Well, pathetic people really got along well with each other. Out of goodwill, she told him what the future held for him, but Maru just smiled it off. It was really pitiful. Was it that hard to see the impending future with a dumb mind? He uttered confident words like Seong Dongho, trying to look cool, but he really was pitiful. Why can’t he understand even after she went through the effort to explain in detail? Even dogs could understand human speech with enough training, yet here, a human could not understanding human tongue.

‘I do need to do something about Kang Giwoo though.’

There was something Okseon did every day. It was to read all the news articles regarding the entertainment industry regardless of the outlet. She did so in order to keep up with the latest trends in the industry.

‘We were too sidelined.’

The interest of the media was wholly focused on Kang Giwoo, and Yeseul was getting popular due to the reflected benefit. It couldn’t be helped that the main characters became more popular since they were the main characters, but due to the characteristics of youth dramas, the supporting characters could also become popular as long as they had a firm character. This was proven in previous youth dramas. Yoo Joonsung, Lee Minha, Ha Jimin. They were all popular actors right now who were also supporting characters in youth dramas when they were younger. There were many people who gained popularity beyond the main characters’.

If Kang Giwoo was the same as when he just started New Semester, he wouldn’t be as popular as he is now. As his previous work was a historical drama, his acting was a bit unnatural, and Okseon was sure that Giwoo would never see the light with that kind of acting. However, as the episodes progressed, Giwoo’s acting skills improved rapidly. To be precise, he gained stability by becoming similar to Maru. Until two months ago, his character in the drama was unable to find its unique traits due to imitating Lee Chan all the time, but now he had his unique character as well.

If left alone, Giwoo would continue imitating Maru’s acting, polishing it and improving it even further. If Giwoo was simply good at imitating, she wouldn’t be worried like this. That boy had the talent to copy others and make it his own.

Of course, as Maru mentioned, all forms of learning started from imitating, but this wasn’t the time to be talking about such idealism. Okseon was worried sick because she couldn’t find her name anywhere in the news articles. Even though she had the character of Seri, who was the main opposition of the female lead, she didn’t get a single mention, which made her feel wronged.

If Giwoo kept that vague position, Yeseul wouldn’t have received the spotlight either. Yeseul’s acting was terrible. When shooting the previous version of episode 13, she made everyone waste hours because she couldn’t act like a girl whose heart was racing with first love. Okseon had watched the two of them hugging each other in front of the school gates, where the staff were absent. Giwoo hugged the awkward-acting Yeseul several times, and the moment she saw that she admitted that Giwoo knew the method to improve unlike everyone else here. Yeseul managed to finish the scene safely after that. That day, Yeseul received applause. It was all thanks to Giwoo’s lead.

If left alone, Giwoo would continue to shine. The brighter the light, the darker the shadow, and as a supporting character, she would only have a meaningless line on her career record that stated ‘appeared in New Semester’.

If Giwoo wasn’t here, the spotlight that was currently aimed at Yeseul would be hers. Okseon hated that correlation. Yeseul was receiving so much attention despite her lacking skills just because of the fact that Kang Giwoo was next to her.

‘I need to make Kang Giwoo falter.’

She read from a book that minor details were very important. If she wasn’t able to outdo herself in the first drama she appeared in as a supporting character, she might become one of those one-shot entertainers who appeared and disappeared in batches every year. Even at this hour, there were many other child actors who were preparing themselves. In order to survive this silent war, she had to not let her guard down and do everything within her power.

“It would be much easier if that idiot moved according to my will.”

Giwoo was mindful of his public reputation. As long as Maru told him not to imitate him, Giwoo would definitely stiffen up. For the maximum effect, it would be for the best if Maru declared that in front of everyone, but it was frustrating since Maru didn’t look like he had any intentions of telling him at all.

That didn’t mean that she should tell Giwoo herself. She would be laughed at if someone other than the person in question told him that. She had to be cautious. She had to look for a way to blow her nose without using her own hands.

‘Should I write a memo then?’

No, based on Giwoo’s personality, he would definitely ask Maru. If that happened, it would be revealed that she was the one who did it. Okseon wanted to prevent an unnecessary relationship of conflict with Giwoo. Giwoo was someone who would forge ahead. It would be foolish for her to be at odds with someone who was gaining popularity.

Okseon had already thought of a way to get close to Giwoo. It had been four months since she kept her distance. This awkward distance definitely had the potential to turn into romantic feelings. Once she talked to him and talked about what she hadn’t revealed to anyone else, Giwoo would definitely have romantic feelings. She read about this in a psychology book, so it couldn’t be wrong.

Okseon neatened her uniform before going to the platform. The background actors wearing school uniforms were waiting nearby. This was the scene where they went home after self-study sessions after school.

“Why do you always go around by yourself? It’s about time you became used to us now, don’t you think?”

Okseon looked at Yeseul, who spoke to her with a slightly mocking smile on her face. She didn’t smile like that in front of the others. How childish was that? It was pitiful to even see her trying to cause conflict between factions.

Okseon was about to say something to her before deciding not to, as usual. She felt angry but thought that she should endure. As the mature one, she thought that she couldn’t give in to a taunt like that. She made a calm smile before looking at Yeseul.

“You’re an idiot aren’t you? Why do you choose to be alone? You’re so strange.”

At that moment, she felt a rush of anger. This girl couldn’t even tell who was lacking. She breathed deeply to calm down her anger. She had the urge to shout because of the frustration.

After looking at Yeseul smile like an idiot as she walked over to Giwoo, the rehearsal began. As there were no lines in this scene, the shoot didn’t take long.

She finished a cut where she glared at Yeseul leaving the corridor with Giwoo in just one go. Hearing producer Park Hoon’s okay sign, Okseon made a confident smile. Her acting was flawless after all.

As she watched the equipment being moved over to the school gates, she saw Suyeon, who had untied her hair after her shoots had ended, walk to the back of the school. Okseon joyfully approached her quickly.

“Senior, did you finish your scenes?”

“Oh, Okseon. I just finished mine. Also, stop with the senior. I told you to call me unni when we are alone.”

“Ah, yes. Unni.”

“How about you? You done?”

“I still have some left.”

“Okseon’s working hard, I see.”

Suyeon pinched her cheeks before letting go. Skin contact was a sign of intimacy. Okseon smiled to the point that her teeth showed a bit. Suyeon was her role model. She had climbed her way up from being a supporting character, and her acting skills were acknowledged. She even played main characters from time to time. Although she was not at the level of a top star yet, Okseon was impressed just by the fact that she had climbed her way up steadily while building up her foundation. A smart actress. She had to act like Suyeon if she didn’t want to become a star that twinkles once, never to be seen again.

“Uhm, unni…”

This was a pleasant time where she got to confirm her bond with Suyeon. Just as Okseon was about to say some words in excitement, Suyeon suddenly raised her hand before speaking,

“Hey, Han Maru. Geunsoo-oppa wants to meet us after this.”

“U-unni?”

“Sorry, Okseon. I’ll be right back after talking with him for a little.”

After patting her shoulder to wait, Suyeon walked over to Han Maru. Okseon bit her lips. It was because she saw Maru look at her before pointing at her. It was as though he was telling Suyeon to continue her business with her. A sense of shame and anger welled up in her body.

‘Why does she smile like that so pleasantly? Just why?’

This was the first time she saw Suyeon smile at ease like that. The two looked like old friends. Just then, Okseon saw Suyeon try to pinch Maru’s cheeks. Maru avoided her hands with a sour face. The two looked to be at ease as though this happened all the time.

“Okseon, got something to say?”

Suyeon asked her that after coming back. Okseon slightly frowned. Did she make the wrong judgement about her? This unni played around with an idiot like that. She thought that Suyeon was a reasonable person who only talked to people that benefited her.

“Unni, are you looking after him because you two belong to the same agency?”

Maybe she was doing that out of kindness.

However, the reply she got disappointed her a lot.

“This isn’t looking after him. I’m refraining because he’s telling me to pretend that we don’t know each other.”

Okseon looked at Suyeon with her lips firmly sealed.

It seemed that this woman didn’t have a good eye for people.

Chapter 551

Seeing Suyeon smiling, Okseon calmed down her expression. She felt displeased since she saw the true face of the person who was once her idol, but she wasn’t going to do something pathetic like expressing her displeasure

“Unni, you’re too nice, taking care of others and not just me. That’s why we like you a lot.”

“Nah. I don’t like kids that much. Have you ever seen me go out of my way to talk to them? Probably not.”

“Th-that’s true.”

She was about to finish up the conversation with some formalities, but she got an absurd reply. Wouldn’t people normally reply with a smile here? Okseon made a vague smile. She wanted to finish this conversation smoothly, but it seemed that wasn’t going to happen.

“You don’t seem to be close to the others, huh?”

“Me?”

“Yeah. I see you by yourself all the time during breaks.”

“I guess it does look like that. I’m not good with words, so I’m still quite awkward with them. But it’s fine since they’re all good people.”

“That’s strange. Yeseul seems to hate you though.”

“R-really?”

She didn’t think that Suyeon would bring up such a sensitive topic so openly. Just then, she met eyes with Yeseul, who was walking towards the school gates. Yeseul smiled brightly and waved at her as though to tell her to come quickly. She probably acted like that because Suyeon was nearby.

“No way. We aren’t that close, but we aren’t on bad terms. Yeseul is looking after me a lot now too.”

“Really? That’s strange. I think you’re being ostracized. No, to be precise, you don’t have any plans on getting close to the others.”

“Maybe it looks like that because I’m shy. I heard that I got embarrassed a lot when I was young. I guess that’s something I should try to fix. If I try to talk to them more proactively, they’ll treat me kindly soon enough.”

“Is that how it works?” Suyeon wondered out loud as she swept her hair backwards.

Okseon felt a bad taste in her mouth. Suyeon was being oddly persistent today. She wasn’t like this usually. When Okseon approached her and greeted her, Suyeon would usually return the greeting in kind and encourage her before going on her way. Okseon thought that Suyeon was a refreshing, cool woman, but that didn’t seem to be the case from what she saw today. This senior disappointed her a lot.

“Well, if you say so, then you must be right. Anyway, try to do your best to get along. You’ll have to see each other for months, so it’d be strange to not talk to them even once. Don’t you think?”

“I’ll try my best.”

She was cautious with her words because Suyeon might talk to the others about it, though that was very unlikely. Since she realized that Suyeon was someone who liked to meddle in other people’s matters, she had to watch her words from now on.

“Try, huh. I’ll keep that in mind.”

Those words sounded quite suspicious. Okseon looked at the hands that came to pinch her cheeks before subconsciously taking a step back. Suyeon’s hands stopped in mid air.

“Is the coquetry over now?”

Okseon widened her eyes at the sudden words. Coquetry, she said? Suyeon faintly smiled before turning around.

“Nothing. Do your best for the rest of the shoot. I’ll be watching from the side, so you can ask me if you’re stuck on something. I’m an unni after all.”

Okseon somehow felt chilled by Suyeon’s last words. She said goodbye to Suyeon, who walked over to a car before walking towards the school gates.

“I wonder what you talked about with senior Suyeon. Even though you don’t say a word usually,” Yeseul said after approaching her quietly.

Okseon maintained her expressionless face. Yeseul was feeling jealous right now. She was green with envy because she saw her talking closely with a senior. What a childish reaction. She was like a child who would cry when her toys got taken away. Okseon honestly didn’t feel the need to confront her. At the same time, she was surprised at herself for being calm and rational even after receiving such a gaze. I really am different from these kids - she thought.

‘I thought Kim Suyeon could be my conversation partner, but she was an idiotic woman like the others.’

Though, she still decided to maintain a good relationship with her. Bad rumors would start floating around if a senior saw her in a bad light after all.

“Can you hear me?”

“I can.”

“Then why aren’t you answering me?” Yeseul spoke in a small voice.

She was even glaring at her. Yeseul was under a misconception. She was riding on the bandwagon of popularity driven by Giwoo, but she thought that she was gaining popularity with her own skills. She was really pathetic and foolish. Once the main driving force, Giwoo, left, she would be stuck in that bandwagon without being able to do anything. Yet she still acted arrogantly as though she was the princess of the shoot. If it was a battle of words, Okseon had the confidence to make her start crying in an instant. However, going along with such a childish play would lower her status as an intellectual, so she decided to react appropriately.

“The shoot is going to begin soon.”

“I know.”

“So unless it’s something critical, please leave it for later. We aren’t close enough to talk to each other during shooting hours, right?”

“What was that?”

“Also, it was senior Suyeon who talked to me first, what can I do about that? Is talking to a senior such a big fault? Do I have to get your permission or something? If that’s the case, I’ll immediately go up to her now and say that Yeseul said such things.”

“Wh-when did I say that? I’m asking because I was just curious. You’re overreacting, geez.”

Yeseul walked over to Giwoo while grumbling. She tapped Giwoo’s shoulders as she glared at Okseon. She was like a little child going to her mom to tell her what others did wrong. Giwoo consoled Yeseul with a smile and just greeted Okseon with his eyes.

As expected - Okseon smiled in satisfaction at Giwoo’s reaction. Giwoo was the only one worth talking to here. It would be great if she was the female lead. Thanks to Yeseul, who had zero skill in acting being the female lead, she had to bring Giwoo down. This was a perfect occasion for the saying ‘one loach could muddy an entire creek’.

There seemed to be some problems with the lighting as the shoot was delayed a little. During this time, Okseon approached Maru, who was taking a phone call in a remote place. She watched him until he finished his call before calling out to him.

“You seem to be on close terms with Suyeon-unni, huh?”

“Rather than close, we’re in a cooperative? No wait, enemies that have to be kept at bay? It’s a complex relationship.”

“If you’re trying to sound funny, it wasn’t.”

“That’s why I’m not aspiring to be a comedian. Because I’m not funny.”

“You turned out to be a really boring type huh. I didn’t think that would be the case.”

“You know, it really makes me wonder whenever I talk to you. Just what kind of person is Han Maru in your head to be disappointing you all the time? Did you perhaps mistake me as a perfect person? I’d be rather embarrassed if you did.”

“Me? No way.”

“Right? Then don’t be disappointed in the future. Why get disappointed about someone you didn’t have any expectations for, to begin with? It makes me sorry for disappointing you.”

Okseon felt her toes tensing. She felt this yesterday, this boy’s speech could really make people uncomfortable. She decided to endure since it wouldn’t be mature of her if she got upset over some wordplay like this.

“Suyeon-unni says she’s close to you though.”

“So you’re investigating the relationship between Suyeon-noona and me after the one between Giwoo and me? Man, I feel like I’m leading a fulfilling life because of you.”

“You have a talent to put words in a funny way, huh.”

“Now I have a talent to say funny words after not sounding funny? Okseon, should I be aspiring to become an average comedian then?”

Okseon frowned. This guy was really frivolous. He had no weight to his words just like how boys would play pranks on girls when they were toddlers. He was beyond idiotic and had no wits. This was why talking to dumb people was excruciating.

“Suyeon-unni is quite a good person, isn’t she? Looking after you and all,” she said with a smile.

She was being sarcastic, but as Maru didn’t have a brain, he would probably interpret those words as-is.

“Of course, she is,” Maru replied with a smile.

There. The boy in front of her did not know the concept of sarcasm. This was why he was not able to predict what kind of consequences there would be if Giwoo continued to improve. He was done for. It would be much easier if he just went to Giwoo and told him to stop as she said, but he couldn’t even do that. He just kept saying unfunny words.

‘Suyeon-unni is close to a guy like this? I guess JA Production isn’t as great as the rumors say.’

It seemed that president Lee Junmin has gotten on in years if he decided to take Maru under the wing of his company. Although he was called the maestro of digging up new talent, he didn’t have much activity recently, did he not? Even a master craftsman would return to being ordinary if they did not continue to polish their skill. She could already imagine what the future of JA Production was going to be like.

“So why were you waiting for me when I was on a call? If it’s about Suyeon-noona, I’m willing to talk about her more.”

“Forget it. I just asked to confirm.”

“Did the matter with Giwoo go well?”

“Why? You worried now? I said go tell him if you’re so worried about it. I’m giving you this advice for your sake.”

“I said I don’t plan to. I just asked out of curiosity. It doesn’t seem that important though, huh?”

“Not important?”

This time, she couldn’t hold back her vexation. They were away from other people, so there was no one to hear. It wouldn’t be a problem even if she snapped out a little.

“You really are clueless, huh. Even after the lengths I went to explain to you in kind. Just how much more do I have to explain so that you can understand that you are in a bad situation?”

Her lips were trembling due to the frustration.

Maru spoke with a smile.

“Okseon. I really like people like you. You keep taking action to do something. It’s really good to see that you’re trying to do something rather than sighing about it while doing nothing. But you know? You really don’t take other people’s words seriously, do you? Or is it that you forgot in such a short time? You take pride in yourself for being smart. So act like it.”

“What are you talking about?”

“I told you that the matter with Giwoo is for you to solve, right?”

“I told you several times that it’s for your sak…”

“Second, if you really don’t want to do it, I told you to prepare a form of compensation if you want me to take action. Did I not?”

“The whole premise is wrong! This is for your sake! Why do I need to do something like that?”

“They say the thirsty will dig the well, but you just look thirsty. If you are thirsty, you should be the one to dig the well. That’s what desperation is, and if you aren’t, then just let it go.”

“You really are dumb, aren’t you? You just can’t understand a single thing I say. You should just listen to me, go to Giwoo and tell him to stop copying you. I told you that your life will become much better if you do, didn’t I?”

“Oh, it was about my life? I didn’t know that. If it’s like that…”

At that moment, Maru retracted his smile and put on an expressionless face. Okseon was a little surprised at this new side of him. When hanging out with Dongho and Joomin, he was always smiling like a fool. Maru moved to the side before turning his back to everyone else. Now, Okseon was the only one who could see Maru’s expression.

“Okseon.”

“Wh-what?”

“I’ll say this again, but I really like that you’re trying to take action. Your thoughts are reasonable, and your actions have a reason behind each one. You probably thought that the attention you receive will rise once Giwoo falters and Yeseul’s acting skills fall in tandem. It’s reasonable. But why are your thoughts the only things that are reasonable? If you want to attain something, you need to give up just as much in order to attain it. Do you want to take it? Then you should go get it. Do you want to have someone else do it? Then you should compensate that person. This is the second time I’m telling you this. I quite like you and I respect your thinking, but if you keep treating me like your personal property and try to order me around regardless of the time, then I can only change my opinion of you.”

Maru took a step closer to her. Okseon stepped back just as much. She felt scared for some reason. Maru’s slow moving hand grasped Okseon’s arm softly.

“Just like how you want to stay quiet among us, I want to smile. I do not want my workplace to have a stiff environment. Dongho has adjusted himself to the current atmosphere, and the same can be said for Joomin-noona as well. I painstakingly made this atmosphere, so it would be quite troublesome for me if you keep acting like this. The two of us will just keep our businesses separate and to ourselves, okay?”

“Y-yeah.”

“Good, that’s good. But you know? I hope you don’t talk about other people’s lives so easily like that. I’m quite desperate, you know? And desperate people don’t see anything other than their objective. If I think I can only survive by stepping on someone else, I really will do it. So be careful when you approach me. Stepping on a friend isn’t really pleasant. You know that, right?”

Maru returned to his smile. It seemed as though the childish character from when he was with Dongho had come back to him. However, Maru’s eyes just now were nothing like the frivolous boy’s in front of her. They were incredibly ferocious. He was like a wild dog that growled at other animals that tried to invade its territory.

“Haha, I just tried being heavy, because you seemed to like this sort of stuff. You’re quite mature, you know? You like this kind of thing better than talking with a smile, right? How was it? Was my acting okay?”

“…Yeah.”

Maru tapped on her arm before turning around. Okseon couldn’t say anything besides that ‘yeah’. This was the first time a man felt scary to her. She couldn’t even budge her lips.

“Talk to me from time to time, okay?”

Maru waved his hand before walking away. At that moment, she heard that the shoot was ready as the lights turned on. Okseon was about to follow Maru, but waited until Maru disappeared into the crowd.

She slowly breathed out before taking her first step. She felt a little dizzy.

Chapter 552

I think it would be better if we did this part this way - Dongho thought about such things as he watched producer Park Hoon give instructions around the set. If the shoot kept getting delayed and the actors started complaining, he would go up to the producer and say such. The producer would become touched and would compliment him, but he would say it was nothing much and credit the producer instead, all the while with a slight smile on his face.

‘Man, so cool.’

He coughed awkwardly in order to dismiss the smile sneaking onto his face.

‘The girls will see me in a new light when they see that. What if they confess? A popular man has a hard life.’

What should he do if Yeseul decided to confess? Accept smoothly? Or pretend to reject her mercilessly before hugging her from behind. He heard that ‘bad boys’ were the trend these days, so he would act disinterested, and then hand her some ice cream with a ring in it. With a nonchalant face, too. Then, Yeseul would eat that ice cream and say ‘oh’ after discovering that ring which would cause her to look at him with adoration and embarrassment.

‘Perfect.’

It was a flawless plan. Just as he turned his head around with a satisfied smile on his face, he saw Joomin stamping her feet to chase away the cold. Her heart would definitely start racing if he handed her a blanket right now. There was also the possibility of her confessing, so he had to get ready for that. Joomin-noona was a really decent woman after all.

“But where the heck did that guy go?”

He crossed his arms and breathed out. He didn’t bring a coat since he heard that it was supposed to be ‘Spring weather’, but it was really cold at night.

“Dongho, take this. It’s cold, isn’t it?”

Joomin offered him a blanket. Dongho watched her do so in a daze before hurriedly accepting the blanket. He felt rather embarrassed because of the thoughts he had just moments ago.

“What is it?”

“Oh, nothing. Noona, do you know where Maru is?”

“Maru? There he is.”

Dongho turned his head around to where Joomin was pointing. Maru and Okseon were standing in front of the school’s west entrance. Their business seemed to be over as Maru had turned around and was walking towards them. Just then, the lights turned back on again. The shoot would resume soon.

“But Okseon is a little no-no.”

“What do you mean?”

“Nothing, just talking to myself.”

“You really are funny at times, Dongho. You talk to yourself a lot, too.”

“It’s none of your business whether I talk to myself or not.”

“You mad?”

“Noona, I’m not a man who gets mad over something like this!”

However, his voice had become a little louder. Joomin smiled before reaching out her palm. He didn’t know what she was trying to do so he stared at her hand before putting his hand on Joomin’s.

“Pfft, what are you doing?”

“A-ah! The blanket! You mean the blanket, right?”

“Yeah. Give me the blanket, I’ll put it back.”

“You should’ve just told me to give you the blanket.”

“Don’t most people understand that gesture? Rather than that, why did you suddenly give me your hand? You were like the puppy at my house.”

“I’m not a dog, you know?”

“Did I say something? You really are funny.”

Funny? Wasn’t ‘funny’ a softer way of saying ‘I like you’? So he was a popular man after all, huh. Dongho laughed to himself before shaking his head. That delusion just now went too far. He had recently thought that fantasizing by himself like this was quite foolish. He was now in his 3rd year of high school, so he was a pseudo-adult already. He wanted to act more maturely. A serious Seong Dongho. Hm, cool.

‘I might actually be a little scared if she’s the one who tells me she likes me though,’ Dongho thought as he looked at Okseon walking towards them.

He had no idea what she was thinking all the time. Han Maru liked childish pranks, but he was a decent guy, while Joomin-noona was a kind person. Giwoo, Yeseul, and Jichan were just lucky people. It was Okseon he didn’t know anything about.

Well, he never talked to her after all.

“Did you talk to her about something?” He asked Maru, who just returned, while hanging his arm over his shoulders.

“Nothing much. I was just on a phone call and Okseon was next to me, so I just told her that the shoot was delayed.”

“What did she say to that?”

“She said she understood, duh.”

“That’s it?”

“What else would she say?”

“Well, that’s actually probably it considering Okseon’s personality. She never says a word with us. Well, just like what Joomin-noona said, she seems perfectly capable of speech from the way she talks with senior Suyeon.”

Okseon walked up to him before walking past him. At that moment, Dongho spotted something strange. Okseon glanced their way, albeit for a brief instant, before walking past. She seemed somewhat hesitant and cautious.

‘Don’t tell me she’s… ’

Dongho felt his heart race a little. Okseon, who was like a cold wind this whole time, walked past him like a feeble girl. What could that possibly mean? Wasn’t this the stereotypical pattern of a girl in love?

‘If I look at her closely, she’s quite cute too.’

The slightly tanned skin made her look cute. Was the reason she didn’t talk to them this whole time because of embarrassment? Now that he thought about it, she talked to Maru just now and even talked to Joomin a couple of times too. Just not him.

It felt like the pieces of the puzzle were all here. Dongho felt nervous. There were a lot of girls at his school who flattered him for being an actor, but none of them approached him with romantic interest. Was a warm breeze finally coming to his youth that felt like an ice age this whole time?

‘Don’t get excited. I might be misunderstanding.’

He liked fantasizing by himself, but he wasn’t stupid to the point that he couldn’t differentiate reality from fantasy. He had to make sure without getting excited. At that moment, Okseon looked their way again. Her eyes shaking; her lips sealed; her body shrunk back. Was Okseon always so cute?

“M-M-Maru.”

“What?”

“I think Okseon likes me.”

“…Ah, okay. Congrats, I guess.”

“You noticed it too, right? Look at her. She can’t look at me properly. I found it strange this whole time. Okseon talks to you from time to time, but she never talked to me even once. I finally know the reason now. I was such a fool, why didn’t I notice sooner?”

He felt like his feet were getting sweaty. She was looking at him nervously. Okseon was a really decent girl from up close. How nervous must she have been this whole time? She was someone who talked to the seniors with so much vitality. If she was hesitating that much, she must have been extremely nervous.

This wasn’t a delusion. This was reality.

‘There’s really someone who likes me.’

Thinking about it, Okseon was much better than Yeseul, who implicitly boasted from time to time. How feminine was that? She felt very mature. Joomin-noona was really good as a person, but dating was better between two people of the same age, no?

“…Probably not.”

Dongho toppled the tower of thoughts with a small laugh.

“What’s not?” Maru asked from the side.

“It’s about Okseon. It doesn’t make sense for her to fall in love out of nowhere.”

“You’re quite realistic when it comes to that.”

“I’ve always been a realistic person. I’m just a slight romanticist.”

“Like hell you are.”

“You don’t believe me?”

“Why don’t you go talk to her, just in case?”

“Should I?”

“Weren’t you supposed to be a realistic person?”

“You never know.”

Dongho calmed down his breathing before approaching Okseon. Why was it that his heart was racing even though he knew that it shouldn’t be the case? If it turned out that she liked him…

‘At that time, it’s ring in ice cream.’

Dongho calmed down his face before standing in front of Okseon.

* * *

“Well done. We have to keep this up just until next week, so please hold on,” producer Park Hoon said.

Next week was filled with weekday shoots as well. Monday and Tuesday. Thankfully, Wednesday and Thursday were empty. This would allow Maru to focus on the acting club and the film shoot during those two days.

“Maru.”

Joomin approached him and tapped him on the shoulder before pointing at Dongho. Dongho was getting ready to go home with a depressed face.

“What happened to him?”

“It’s the pain of loss.”

Seeing Joomin’s confused expression, he said that it was just a joke.

“The shoot ended early today.”

“That’s true. We don’t have any remaining shoots either. Looks like everyone gets to go home together for once.”

Joomin stretched her arms out.

“I’ll only return to a normal schedule once the additional parts for episode 13 are shot.”

“Sounds like you’re busy.”

“I’m a college student after all. I have a mountain load of assignments.”

“The theater and film department should learn stuff like acting theory, right?”

“I don’t know. I’m not in it.”

“Didn’t you say that you helped out with the graduation piece of the seniors from theater and film during the first meeting?”

“Since I was working in this area, I got to know a lot of them. That’s how I helped them out. I actually major in advanced materials engineering.”

“You’re doing this work on top of your studies?”

“I guess it turned out like that. I might apply for leave soon though. No, I might even quit altogether. It’s curious. I never knew I’d become an actress. I somehow became the female lead of an indie movie through some connections and ended up joining an agency. The head manager in charge of me told me that I’d become successful, and honestly, I didn’t believe it, but it ended up coming true. It fits me and I’m having fun as well.”

“Good for you. But don’t you find it a little wasteful that you aren’t going to finish your studies?”

“I do. In my 1st year, I had nothing to do so I just went to college earnestly, but right now, I’m doing this drama on top of a few other things. I think that it would be a bit greedy of me to try to do both things at once. I do want to graduate, but I don’t want to be half-assed with both of them.”

“If it’s graduation, you can always do that later.”

“Right?”

Just then, Dongho, who was walking ahead, shouted at the two to come quickly.

“Ah, right. We’re going to eat out to celebrate the fact that we finished early today. You are coming, right?”

“Sorry, I have a prior engagement.”

“Really? Then I guess it’ll be just Dongho and me, huh.”

“I’ll definitely attend next time. Or, why don’t you ask them to come?”

Maru asked that as he looked at the three main characters walking to their respective cars. Giwoo was going to his agency’s van, while the other two were being picked up by their parents.

“Those people are busy. I asked them last time, but was refused.”

“Why don’t you take Okseon then?”

“Okseon? Would she?”

“Who knows?”

“Alright, I’ll try talking to her. It’d be bland to eat with just Dongho.”

After smiling, Joomin suddenly widened her eyes before greeting politely. Senior - that word made Maru turn around as well.

“Hi.”

Suyeon was standing there, waving her hand. Joomin told her goodbye before leaving.

“Did I interrupt you?”

“With what?”

“You trying to woo her.”

“Should I call Geunsoo-hyung and tell him to cancel this meeting?”

“No, no! You’re acting all stuck-up again. Sorry, sorry.”

“But didn’t you two make an appointment without me?”

Suyeon sighed.

“For me, it’d be much better if we just met by ourselves. But that guy isn’t someone who would do that. That’s why I used you as an excuse.”

“You’re using me again?”

“Let’s help each other out, yeah?”

“Why don’t you give up at this point? I don’t think Geunsoo-hyung has an ounce of interest in you.”

Suyeon shrugged.

“It doesn’t matter even if he doesn’t have any interest in me. It’s me who likes him.”

“Financially?”

“It’s pure love.”

“I thought you were fed up with men.”

“Don’t you know the saying that you should heal wounds gained from people with other people? And you know, it’s fun. I’ve known him for years, but I still haven’t closed the gap at all. He’s like a flower growing on the top of a cliff. It’ll be very fun to snap it.”

“I think I should cancel this appointment after all.”

“I’m just joking.”

She then said ‘also, it doesn’t hurt me to one-sidedly like him’. Maru stared at her.

“What?”

“I was wondering what would have happened if the man who was your first love was actually a decent man. You actually sound quite pure when it comes to that.”

“Well, like you said, if that man was a kind man, I might have become a faithful wife by now.”

“Yeah, I think so too.”

“…What the. It’s slightly unpleasant when you say it like that.”

“You got me. I was trying to make you feel displeased.”

“You really are the despicable type huh.”

“Not as much as you.”

“Well, I guess there isn’t someone like me either. I should be proud of it.”

He walked towards the parking lot behind the school with Suyeon. There was a van that was going towards the school gates at that time, and it stopped in front of Suyeon. The door opened and Giwoo came out.

“Senior. Thank you for your work today.”

“Oh my, my dear Giwoo. You’re good with your greetings. I really like you.”

“Haha, this is nothing.”

“Thank you for your work today too. I hear that it’s thanks to you that our viewing rates are going up.”

“Of course not. It’s all thanks to your beauty.”

“So you’re good with words too.”

“Are you going somewhere with Maru?”

“I have an appointment. Why? Want to join us?”

“Really?”

“No, I’m just joking. I don’t take anyone to places where I’m at ease.”

After pinching Giwoo’s cheeks once, Suyeon walked ahead. Maru waved at Giwoo.

“See you next time.”

“Yeah, you too.”

“Maru.”

“Yeah?”

“Can I see you separately some time? I want to become close to you.”

“It would be an honor. I’m willing to go anywhere if it’s the lead actor calling me out. Call me any time, I’ll leave my schedule empty.”

“You mean it, right?”

“Probably?”

Maru yawned before following Suyeon. He walked over to the car with the headlights on and got in the passenger seat.

“He’s like a snake.”

“Oh no, not as much as a certain someone.”

“I’m more of a doe.”

“You’re trying to be funny, right?”

“Was it funny?”

“Just a little.”

“I guess I succeeded then. Also, are you on good terms with Giwoo?”

“I’m not that close with a snake.”

“What was that earlier then?”

“I’m not denying it. I just found it a little strange that a thousand-year-old viper was calling someone a snake.”

“Am I that old? I don’t have any wrinkles, you know?”

“How long are we going to keep going with this conversation?”

“Until we meet Geunsoo-oppa?”

“Then let’s get going. I’m tired already.”

“Hey, hang out with me. I’m bored because I haven’t been meeting any men these days.”

Suyeon started driving with a small smile.

Chapter 553

Giwoo had a pleasant smile on his face as he got on the van. However, manager Kim did not get deceived by that smile. He even nervously checked whether he made any mistakes when he saw that smile through the rearview mirror.

“Shall we go?” he asked carefully.

Giwoo was looking outside the window. Eventually, a car passed by in front of them. Manager Kim knew that that car belonged to actress Kim Suyeon. The car became distant and Giwoo’s gaze fell from the car to his phone. Manager Kim stayed quiet. This was a sign for him to wait.

He took out a mint candy. The plastic wrapping didn’t come off easily. Tschk, a violent ripping sound could be heard. He felt all of his senses tingle and immediately looked at the rearview mirror. Giwoo was looking at him with a bored expression.

“Manager-hyung.”

“Y-yeah.”

“Can you be quiet for a moment? I have to send a text.”

“Sorry, should I get off and come back later?”

“You don’t have to, but I’d be thankful if you did.”

Manager Kim nodded before quickly getting out of the van. He felt much better now that he escaped that stifling atmosphere. If he didn’t have the ambition to succeed in this field of work, he would have long since given up on being Giwoo’s manager. Whenever his eyes met Giwoo’s, which felt frosty despite the smile on his face, he was reminded of manager Cha, who was fired without a single word.

‘I wonder who he’s texting all the time though.’

Giwoo did not care who was around when he made or received calls, but he was strangely wary of his surroundings whenever he texted. He once approached Giwoo from behind when he was writing a text, and Giwoo looked at him as though he would kill. Ever since then, he looked away as much as possible whenever Giwoo was texting.

“Hyung, get back on.”

“Alright.”

He got back in the van. Giwoo thanked him for his work today. He knew that those were just empty words, but manager Kim smiled as brightly as he could as he nodded.

“Let’s go then.”

“Yes.”

He ignored Giwoo’s phone that was reflected on the rearview mirror as much as possible before starting the car.

* * *

“How’s the acting club going?”

“Going pretty well. Let me open the window a little.”

“You feeling hot?”

“I’m just a little stifled.”

Maru opened the window about halfway. A wind strong enough to hurt his eyes rushed in through the window. Listening to the loud noise of the wind, he felt as though his head had cleared a little.

“I’m cold though.”

The window closed. Suyeon was the one who did it. He got some fresh air, so he wasn’t dissatisfied.

“Miso-unni is quite strict, isn’t she?”

“She is. She’s going to be even stricter starting next week. The actors have been decided after all.”

“Are you in it as well?”

“No, I decided not to since I don’t think I’ll have the time.”

“Daemyung must be disappointed then.”

“It’s not like that.”

“I guess I should come over some time to have a look.”

“Come when Miso-noonim isn’t here so that you don’t get into a fight.”

“We’re pretty close now.”

“No way. A dog will never get close to a monkey.”

“Who’s the dog and who’s the monkey?”

“Which one do you like?”

“Me? Monkey.”

“Then you can be the dog.”

“That’s good, I actually like dogs better. I thought you’d tell me that I was the dog when I say I like monkeys.”

Maru stared at Suyeon in a daze before laughing.

“Where’s Geunsoo-hyung?”

“He’s nearby. You know the plan, right?”

“The plan?”

“When we get there, you leave after you eat a little. I’ll spend the rest of the time enjoying sweet moments with Geunsoo-oppa.”

“I happened to have a lot of time today. Tomorrow is Saturday as well.”

“You’re going to school though.”

“I just have to go to school after staying up all night. Don’t look down on the stamina of a teen.”

“Let’s form an alliance.”

“As a man like Geunsoo-hyung, I want to protect Geunsoo-hyung instead.”

“Why did I even try?”

Suyeon turned the wheel. As it was Friday night, there were a lot of people on the streets. The restaurants and various stores were busy with the golden time sales. The energy of drinking in the air felt like it could make any sane man drunk.

“It’s over there.”

Amidst the hazy lights, there was a building that gave off a calming purple light. The word Izakaya entered his eyes.

“There’s a lot of standing bars these days, huh.”

“It seems to be a trend. They keep popping up. But this place is pretty decent. On the first floor, you can play around with a bit of energy, while the 2nd floor is for talking quietly.”

Suyeon walked through the automatic door that opened by itself. Maru looked at Suyeon on the spot.

“What are you doing? Come in.”

“This place will have to stop doing business if patrols show up. In the first place, I probably won’t even be allowed in here.”

“Only the restaurants that high schoolers target have that sort of problem. Excuse me, it’s fine if I take this guy in, right?” Suyeon asked an employee.

The female employee nodded with a smile.

“Sheesh, you’re worried about strange things. Let’s go.”

Maru walked into the restaurant, thinking that it should be fine since they asked. He walked past the 1st floor, which was a wide open space, and went up to the 2nd floor. Seeing Suyeon’s confident steps, it seemed that she was a regular here. After walking past a few rooms, Suyeon greeted in kind before turning around.

“Oh, Geunsoo-oppa. You aren’t alone,” Suyeon said.

Maru followed her into the room. Just as Suyeon said, there was another person in front of Geunsoo. Maru greeted him since he knew the person.

“Sungjae-hyung is here too, huh.”

“Hi, Maru. It’s been a long time.”

Ahn Sungjae, who was sitting opposite Geunsoo, greeted him.

“It’s good to see two handsome men together. Didn’t you guys order anything? There’s nothing here.”

Suyeon naturally smoothly sat next to Geunsoo, which left Maru to sit next to Sungjae.

“I called you to see you after all this time. Are you doing well?”

“I’m doing fine.”

Maru lightly shook Geunsoo’s hand. This was the first time they had met up since New Years at the elder’s house.

“But it was rather unexpected to see you two together.”

Maru looked at Geunsoo and Sungjae alternately. Although both of them did appear in Twilight Struggles together, as far as he knew, the two never met each other.

“Oh, Maru shouldn’t know about it yet, huh.”

“Know what?”

“That I’m doing a movie with Sungjae,” Geunsoo said with a smile.

Maru looked at Sungjae. He never met up with Sungjae after Miso’s classes at Film, but he did text him from time to time. They exchanged texts a while ago, and he didn’t mention anything back then.

“It hasn’t been that long since it was confirmed. I can’t exactly go around telling people about it when it’s not even set in stone,” Sungjae said as he stroked his chin.

“Are you two really going to be starring in the same movie?”

“Yeah. I got to shoot with Geunsoo-hyung.”

Congratulations - Maru said with a smile. The two of them were in the same movie, huh. Geunsoo’s acting skills went without saying. His skills, consolidated in the independent movie, were well-known throughout Chungmuro. In his distant memories, he remembered the middle-aged Geunsoo in a talk show, but he couldn’t remember the contents. From how he appeared in talk shows though, it should signify that he had gained some popularity.

‘I think there was something with Ganghwan too.’

Geunsoo and Ganghwan. He thought that these two, as a pair, had something about them, but it felt stifling because he couldn’t remember it properly. Were they known for their deep friendship in the industry? He thought that there was a much larger impact than just that, though.

“What are you thinking about?”

Suyeon asked from in front of him. Maru shook his head and said that it was nothing.

‘It’s becoming fainter and fainter, huh.’

Until just a while ago, he thought that he remembered what the future held in store for Ganghwan and Geunsoo, but right now, his memories were fuzzy like a tangled up lump of thread. The one thing he was sure about was that the two were friends even 30 years later. He somewhat remembered that young people were going to the national theaters to see plays, but he didn’t know what they were about.

Just as it was about to feel like ants were crawling around his head, causing him pain, the door opened and an employee came in. It seemed that Geunsoo had called for one. When he heard Geunsoo’s voice and the employee’s reply, the stifling feeling in his head disappeared. At that moment, Maru realized that the remnant of memories that caused his headache had disappeared completely.

He still had a vague feeling about it because memories weren’t independent, but Maru could feel that it was going to disappear completely when he woke up tomorrow.

Maru decided not to mind it so much. There was no need to try and cling onto that memory. This was something about the future that didn’t happen yet. He had his share of explanations when he got this life, so there was no need to feel uneasy about it.

‘If I can write it down, it would be good, but I can’t do that.’

It was only natural. He had to be thankful that he got to live a second time. If he was too greedy, he might receive divine retribution. Didn’t he check already? He had just thought about investing in real estate when the price of the land that he thought about buying fell to rock bottom. God was very fair.

‘My family. It’s fine as long as I remember just that.’

He had the confidence to not forget about his love towards her, even if all of his memories disappeared. Just then, he had this thought.

‘But… why did I get this life again?’

He thought that he had someone’s help, but did even that disappear now? He still remembered the woman in a white suit clearly. That was probably thanks to the fact that she was a spiritual being.

‘Now that I think about it, that woman is as pretty as her.’

He smiled faintly as he thought about the woman in a white suit. It seemed that he was quite love-struck. He was thinking that a woman who could be described as a heavenly beauty was around the same as his wife.

“Maru, what are you going to eat?”

“Anything that can fill me up.”

Geunsoo smiled and ordered the rest. The employee checked the orders before quietly leaving.

“Anyway, what’s it about?” Maru asked Sungjae.

Sungjae pointed at his own face and said ‘new detective who’s passionate.’

“And Geunsoo-hyung is a corrupt detective.”

“What?”

Maru looked at Geunsoo. A corrupt detective, huh. Geunsoo looked pretty gentle on the surface. He was far from the ‘lunatic’ nickname he got when he was in school. If he wore some neat-looking glasses and asked other people what job he looked like he had, most people would probably reply with lawyer or doctor.

That was precisely why the title of a corrupt detective quite suited him.

“I’m pretty good when it comes to being corrupt,” Geunsoo said as he crossed his legs.

“Then I’m the tragic woman in love with the corrupt detective?” Suyeon softly placed a hand on Geunsoo’s shoulder.

Geunsoo replied with a ‘I’m not so sure’ and a smile. Geunsoo would have refused her touch before, so it seemed that the two had gotten closer.

“When does it start?”

“The crank-in is set to be in August.”

“There’s quite a lot of time until then, huh.”

“I should gain some muscle until then. I’ll have to quit drinking and start learning action acting again.”

Hearing Geunsoo’s words, Sungjae breathed out heavily as well. Rather than a sigh, it looked like he was getting resolved.

“That’s why today’s the last day for drinking.”

“Looks like you should drink a lot then,” Maru said with a smile.

As they were talking about recent matters, the door opened and the food came.

“Let’s talk further after we drink a little. I’ll tell you a few of Sungjae’s episodes. That will be very interesting.”

“Hyung, stop it.”

“I’m going to bring this up for the rest of my life while drinking. Ahn Sungjae, the actor burning with passion!”

Hearing that, Sungjae leaned back against the door as though he had given up. It seemed that a lot of interesting events happened between the two. Maru received just a bit of alcohol in his glass before picking up his chopsticks. He wanted to eat first.

Chapter 554

“When I first met Sir Yoon, I actually didn’t feel anything. Naturally, I knew that he was a famous actor, but I’ve never seen his work after all. A kindly smiling senior was my first impression of him.”

Sungjae drank the rest of his glass before continuing to speak,

“Then I met him again at the shoot. Now that I think about it, I met Maru for the first time back then as well. He asked me for an autograph which was quite peculiar. He was really calm about it after all.”

“It’d be strange for a high school boy to fanboy over a male idol group,” Maru remarked.

Suyeon added ‘that’s true.’

“Anyway, the first day I met him at the shoot, he told me a lot of really important things. Actually, back then, I had somewhat of a victim mentality.”

“Victim mentality?” Geunsoo asked.

“One of the senior actors coughed when he saw me. Do you know what I thought back then? I thought that was his way of expressing his displeasure. I thought that that was his way of saying that an idol shouldn’t be here. Actually though, it turned out that he just had a cold.”

“You were being way too shy for a grown-up.”

“I was lacking confidence back then. I had a guilty conscience too. I felt sorry that I received an actor’s work after being successful as an idol, and when I looked at the actors with that kind of mindset, I thought they were all ostracizing me. It’s embarrassing to talk about it like this, but it was really bad back then. I even had the thought that that was what I got for being a traitor.”

“Maru, Sungjae’s quite innocent, you know?”

“I actually felt that quite a while ago.”

Maru smiled as he ate some food.

“Well, ever since I got a good scolding from Sir Yoon, I came to myself though.”

“What a kid.”

Suyeon pointed at Sungjae and giggled.”

“If he’s a kid, then so are you. You guys are the same age after all.”

“Hey, even though we’re both 27, there’s a huge gap between our mental ages, you know? I’m a mature lady, and you’re a kid.”

Sungjae was about to retort but did not in the end. It seemed that he had learned that he couldn’t win against Suyeon in a battle of words. Maru picked up the drink bottle and held it in front of Sungjae.

“You should drink when you feel bad.”

“Right?”

After pouring a drink for Sungjae, he poured one for the other two as well. Since this drink cost 60 thousand won per bottle, it tasted really good. He could drink something like this only when other people were buying.

“Idols or whatever. It’s laughable to put up an entry barrier to keep our plates safe. Who the hell cares about what people used to do? All that matters is acting skills,” Geunsoo said.

Suyeon, who was next to him, slightly frowned before he continued.

“I oppose the notion of acting being treated like some sanctuary. Of course, those that have half-assed acting can get insulted for all I care. However, I find it pathetic that people insult each other based on what the other party’s background is. No, it’s beyond pathetic. I’m angered by it. Actors need to be evaluated on acting skills alone. Good acting will definitely receive the light after all.”

“That only applies to people like you, Geunsoo-oppa, who have the acting skills to back it up.”

Suyeon rested her chin on her hands. Both of them looked slightly drunk.

“I think we’re past the age where we can become successful through acting alone. Of course, someone as good as you might be able to do it, oppa. These days though, the system relies on agencies most of the time. What good is being good at acting? There are fewer stages to show it off.”

“If it’s stages, it has increased compared to before. There’s cable TV as well. Since the number of people watching movies is increasing every year, the pie has increased.”

“But the difference between having someone behind you and not having someone is too big. You know how many actors disappear every year without being able to knock on the door of commercial media after having debuted in indie movies.”

Phew - Suyeon sighed before falling towards Geunsoo. Geunsoo used his left hand to receive Suyeon’s head before carefully pushing sideways. Suyeon tried her best to lean against Geunsoo’s shoulder, but Geunsoo’s left hand mercilessly and perfectly defended it.

“Are those two always like that?” Sungjae asked quietly.

Maru nodded.

“Even that’s considered close. A year ago, they were still using polite speech to address each other. No, I guess Geunsoo-hyung was the only one who did that.”

“That’s somewhat incredible, both of them.”

“The two of them aren’t exactly normal. Rather than that though, a movie, huh. Are you going to quit being an idol completely?”

“We’re doing well in our respective fields, so I don’t think we’ll have any activities for a while. President Park promised as well.”

“You belong to NL Company, right?”

“Yeah, why?”

“I met president Park Narim once. I got some tickets to your concert from her as well. Thanks to that, I scored some points with my sister.”

“The president did that? She usually doesn’t do something like that though.”

“Our president was with me back then.”

“President Lee Junmin? That makes sense. He’s one of the people she has a hard time dealing with. Perhaps she wanted him to see her in a good light. So, how was your first impression of her?”

“She felt like a politician. She was good with words as well.”

“That’s how she is.”

Maru ate a piece of sushi with fish eggs on it. The texture was pretty interesting.

“Who’s the director?”

“It’s director Lee Jincheol, and he’s known Geunsoo-hyung for a long time. I met him for the first time not too long ago, so I don’t know what he’s like. Well, I did get that he was a quiet person.”

“An acquaintance of Geunsoo-hyung, so that means he’s the director of the indie movie?”

“Yeah. It’s his first try at a commercial movie.”

“Can I ask which places invested in it?”

“I thought you’d be interested. It’s SC. SC Cinema.”

“The same place that invested in the production of Twilight Struggles, huh. It belongs to the SC Group[1], right?”

“Yeah. Thanks to them, we get to procure hundreds of cinemas to air the movie in as long as we finish producing the film. When I see situations like this, I can sort of sympathize with Suyeon. The investor even has its own cinema branch. How many film actors can survive after going against their wishes? No matter how good the final piece is, it’s not good for anything if there isn’t a place to air it.”

“The dream of all film actors is to shoot a movie that can surpass all of those conditions. A film that everyone wants to see will have to go up in cinemas.”

“You’re right. This is a bit different, but in the case of music, there are some people who rise with skills alone. Even in Hongdae, there are many indie bands with large fanbases.”

At that moment, Suyeon, who had been struggling to get herself on Geunsoo’s shoulders, said something.

“But every one of them wants to become major. Why do you think that is? It’s obviously for the exposure. Indie bands, they’re good. I have a lot of teams I like as well. But they disappear quite easily. There’s no music without food in your stomach after all. With that being the case, Geunsoo-oppa!”

Suyeon, getting encouraged by her drunkenness, latched onto Geunsoo. Geunsoo wrestled with Suyeon before standing up.

“Looks like I’ll have to get some fresh air.”

“Wait for me.”

Suyeon followed Geunsoo, who sighed as he walked out of the room.

Maru looked at them as he chewed on some pineapple. At this point, Geunsoo was practically enjoying it.

“How did you get to know Geunsoo-hyung? A get-together?”

“The first time we met was back when we had a get-together for Twilight Struggles. Back then, we didn’t even talk much. We just greeted each other out of formality. We never meet during shoots, either. Then, I went to the get-together after the film was released because I wanted to see Sir Yoon, and we introduced ourselves properly at that time. Though, we got properly close when Miso-noona held a drinking occasion with the two of us.”

“I thought it’d be like that. You must have had a hard time drinking with the two then, huh? Miso-noonim usually drinks until her limit once she starts, doesn’t she?”

“So you know about it.”

“I had to massage her back several times. A woman who’s over thirty was… geez. She doesn’t know how scary the world is.”

“It’s strange when you put it like that. What’s even more strange though, is that it suits you.”

“I do look a little old. With the right hair style, I think I’ll be able to pass off as thirty,” Maru said as he combed his bangs backwards with his hand.

Sungjae laughed.

“Anyway, that was really unexpected of Miso-noona. She couldn’t be scarier during her lecture, but she’s kinda cute when she drinks. She was crying and sniffing, and I really had the urge to shoot a video of her.”

“Hyung, did you take videos?”

“No, I didn’t. I don’t want to die early after all. Geunsoo-hyung said that she’d kill me.”

“Well done. You’ll really get killed, and you won’t even know why.”

“She’s getting married in May, right?”

“Yeah. There’s not long left. Man, I already feel sad for the teacher who’s going to live with her for a lifetime.”

“I was also surprised when I heard about it for the first time. A school teacher, huh. Doesn’t that only appear in movies?”

“Teacher Taesik is a winner in life.”

“Yeah, that’s right.”

Both of them laughed. Miso-noonim in a wedding dress, huh. He couldn’t imagine it that easily. It would fit her more if she ripped that dress and abduct Taesik during the wedding instead.

“Rather than that, I’m kinda envious. You get to be a lead actor.”

“It still doesn’t feel real to me either. Well, it also doesn’t feel like I didn’t get the role with my skills.”

“If you don’t like it, you can always give it to me.”

“I’m going to cling onto it like my life depends on it. I spent all this time as an idol in order to grab opportunities like this after all. For now, I’ll start with getting the title of a ‘skilled idol actor’.”

“Sheesh, I wonder what my president is doing.”

“Should I tell that to president Lee Junmin?”

“Hyung-nim, here, receive a glass from me and forget about it.”

He poured a glass before pushing it over to Sungjae. It was pleasant to drink since the alcohol content wasn’t that high. Maru looked at the door. It had been around five minutes, but the two of them did not return.

“Were we interrupting?” Sungjae asked.

“No, we’re the guardian angels.”

“Guardian angels?”

Maru just smiled back at Sungjae who looked at him in curiosity.

“Oh yeah, I’m watching the drama.”

“Really?”

“I’m watching it in the van while travelling. The character seems to be similar to you, right?”

“I was lucky.”

“You should really wear your glasses. I think people will recognize you more that way.”

“Are you serious?”

“When I first made my debut, I went around in my stage outfit. It’s quite fun, you know? Now, I can’t even reveal my face in public, but back then, it was really enjoyable to see people looking at me half with doubt from afar.”

“I was forced to change my name to ‘Lee Chan’ at school for a few days, and from that, I don’t think I enjoy someone recognizing me like that.”

“Is it annoying?”

“Rather than annoying, it’s embarrassing. I didn’t show anything much, nor did I do anything much, but they still kept calling me by the character’s name, so it felt rather strange.”

“Maru, you’re quite strict with yourself, aren’t you?”

“Personally, I don’t think that’s true, but what do you think?”

“I do feel like you’re lashing out at yourself from time to time. You’re doing plenty well now, but you seem quite urgent too. Though, maybe that was just during the acting classes.”

“Urgent, you say… I guess you’re correct about that. I’m actually quite eager to become successful right now too.”

“I think that’s good. For me, such obsession was what motivated me. It’s similar when I look around. There are kids who are fixated on success among the aspiring idols around me. And most of the time, it’s kids like them who succeed. After all, they’ll do anything to get it.”

“Did you do anything you can as well?”

“I spent my time passionately as an idol, and that’s how I got this opportunity to become a lead actor.”

“…I know that it might be rude and foolish of me to ask this, but should I try being an idol as well? I’ll rise to the top ranks first and then get the roles.”

“Hm.”

Sungjae looked at him with a piercing gaze. Maru looked back at him in a serious manner.

“From the perspective of a company, you won’t make the cut because of your face.”

“I knew it.”

“Right now, the softer-looking ones are the ones that work against people. Some places seem to be preparing idols that focus on masculinity, but it’s unknown whether the market is ready to accept that or not.”

“Do you also look at the trainees applying to NL Company from time to time?”

“It’s one of my important schedules.”

“Suddenly, you look like a big-shot now. Please take care of me later.”

“Likewise. Oh right. I heard that it’s going to be released next Wednesday.”

“What’s going to be released?”

“Director Park Joongjin’s movie. Didn’t you participate in that?”

“I did. But I didn’t know that it was going to be released.”

“I thought Miso-noona would have told you about it.”

“Looks like she’s quite busy with the wedding. Is it getting released next Wednesday?”

“Yeah. That makes it your 2nd film, right?”

“Yes. Though, I didn’t have many lines and just rolled around in the dirt in the mountains.”

“Go watch it and see if the action scene came out well.”

Maru rested his chin on his hand and sighed.

“I wonder when I will be able to stand in the same line as a director during movie previews.”

“Once you become a lead actor, of course.”

“I guess there’s a far and rocky road ahead of me.”

“It won’t take that long. Here, have a drink and cheer up.”

Maru faintly smiled at Sungjae who picked up the drink bottle.

[1] Group as in a group of companies/conglomerate.

Chapter 555

“What a dirty life. Aah, I wish a meteorite fell right on top of my head.”

Suyeon, who had been chuckling until just now, finally fell over. Just before she hit her head on the table, Geunsoo reached out and caught her head.

“I did think that she was overdrinking a little, and it really came to this, huh.”

“I think it’s about time we get up,” Maru said as he looked at Suyeon who had licked her lips.

Although she was strong with alcohol, it was natural that she got drunk since she drank without rest. Maru didn’t know if this was a part of her plan or not, but in any case, she was completely drunk.

“I want to cry.”

“Suyeon-noona. Get yourself together.”

“I don’t want to. Life’s too hard.”

“This woman turns pessimistic once she’s drunk huh. Woman, you should watch your mouth. Aren’t you trying to look pretty? Geunsoo-hyung is right next to you.”

“Ah right, Geunsoo-oppa’s here. I know, I know. I’m the bad bitch. I’m the bad girl.”

Suyeon lept into Geunsoo’s embrace with a grin on her face. Maru paid his condolences to Geunsoo.

“I’m in charge of her?”

“Consider it as punishment for a popular man. Suyeon-noona, get on Geunsoo-hyung’s back.”

Geunsoo sighed before piggybacking Suyeon. At that moment, Maru saw Suyeon’s lips curve into a big smile. He didn’t say anything since she looked really happy.

“Sungjae-hyung. Let’s leave.”

Sungjae put on his baseball cap so that other people couldn’t see his face before putting on his hoodie as well. It would be incredibly hard to recognize him without getting up close.

“Maru. There’s a wallet in my pocket. Use the credit card in the wallet to pay.”

“Yes, sir.”

After paying the bill, Maru came out of the restaurant with the receipt. He saw the three sitting down under the parasol by the convenience store. They each held a hangover drink.

“You should call a chauffeur service and go home.”

“No. Sungjae and I are going to sleep there,” Geunsoo said as he pointed at an alley with motels in it.

“What do we do with Suyeon-noona?”

“Get her a taxi home.”

“No!”

Suyeon, who had her face buried in her arms on the table, suddenly woke up and shouted. She grabbed onto Geunsoo’s arm and said something in a weird voice. To sum it up, she said she couldn’t go home because her car was right in front of the restaurant. Maru didn’t know what the car being here had to do with not being able to go home, but the stubborn Suyeon looked like she was about to lie down on the street if they called for a chauffeur service.

“Fine, fine. I’ll grab a room for you as well, so go sleep there.”

“Yes! I’m sleeping here!”

She became docile after that. It took around two minutes for her to start snoring.

“There’s Miso-noona too, and there’s this girl. Do the women at JA all act like this when they’re drunk?”

“Don’t ask. I’m beginning to get suspicious myself.”

Sungjae laughed before pressing on Suyeon’s forehead. Suyeon seemed to be in deep sleep as she didn’t even budge.

“Geunsoo-hyung. What are you going to do?”

“I’ll grab two rooms, one for this embarrassment of a woman and one for me and Sungjae. Maru, do me a favor.”

Maru grabbed Suyeon’s left arm and Geunsoo grabbed her right.

“Sungjae-hyung, let me borrow your cap for a moment.”

He put the cap he got from Sungjae on Suyeon. Her long, disheveled hair covered most of her face, but they couldn’t go wrong with too much caution.

“Sungjae, you should wait here. We don’t want people catching you with us.”

Sungjae nodded at Geunsoo’s words. Sungjae was the most well-known out of the four of them here. There would be disastrous consequences if a photo of him going into a motel leaked out. First up, Bada would bawl her eyes out. That was disastrous enough. Since it was such a horrible matter, they had to be prepared.

He and Geunsoo threw Suyeon into a motel room before leaving. It wasn’t just an expression. They literally threw her on the bed.

“I’m sweating.”

“Me too.”

“She’s such a hassle to deal with.”

“So you’ll put her next to you?”

“No.”

“You’re quite firm with that stance.”

“I’m trying to think of an excuse to get far away from her, but I can’t because of the alcohol. Leaving JA is one method.”

“Suyeon-noona might follow you out.”

“That sounds more scary than the horror movie I watched a few days ago.”

Maru had to stop as he was walking back to the convenience store from the motel. Geunsoo sighed.

“I think he got caught.”

“He got caught indeed.”

The convenience store was flocked with people. The women standing on the perimeters were raising their phones up high to take photos. Maru climbed the stairs next to the building and looked down at the convenience store. Sungjae was in the middle of everyone as though he was a gladiator in the middle of an arena. He professionally signed autographs and took photos. It was probably very hard for him to do that because he was drunk, but he looked immaculate.

“Should I try calling him?”

“Can he even pick up?”

“I’ll try anyway.”

He grabbed onto the rails as he tried calling. He saw Sungjae take out his phone in the middle of the crowd.

“Can you take the call right now?”

-Ah, yes. Please speak. Uhm, can you be quiet for a second? This is an important call.

The whole alley turned quiet in an instant with a word from him. Maru saw Sungjae leave the crowd before speaking,

“Can you escape?”

-No. Even if I can, I won’t be able to go to the motel. It seems like I’ll have to take the taxi back for today.

“Okay. Popularity has its demerits, huh.”

-I can’t help it. Oh, tell Geunsoo-hyung I said sorry. I’ll be going back first. I think I won’t be able to go home at all if I stay any longer.

“Alright. Have a safe trip home.”

He saw Sungjae wave from afar. He probably waved towards Maru’s general direction.

“Sungjae-hyung says he’ll take the taxi home. Also, he wanted to apologize to you.”

“That’s a pity. I wanted to talk with him in a quiet room. He was too famous to be hidden with a single hoodie, huh.”

“Taking his cap off wasn’t the best idea, it seems. But it’s quite curious to see so many people gather in such a short time. He feels like a true celebrity.”

“You envious?”

“No. I can’t get envious after seeing him getting almost squished to death. Wouldn’t people recognize you as well?”

“Probably not.”

“Twilight Struggles became so controversial though.”

“Hey, you make me sad by saying that even though you know what happened.”

Maru smiled and nodded. Geunsoo, the third son in the movie, had his head smashed by the elder’s hammer. As that scene was filled with blood and insults, it was switched to the next scene quickly, so it was hard to recognize any actors in the scene. When the camera showed Geunsoo from up close, his face was already covered in blood, so he was far from his normal immaculate self.

“Won’t you get a lot of female fans like Sungjae-hyung if this movie goes well?”

“That sounds good. It’s about time I buy my own house too, so I have to earn a lot of money.”

“Do you have some money saved up?”

“Actually, quite a lot.”

Geunsoo made a suspicious smile.

“You should get going too. I’ll get a taxi for you so take that.”

Geunsoo took out a few ten thousand won bills and gave them to him. Maru accepted the money without refusing. They walked through the alley, which was now devoid of people after they all left, and went to the main street. They waved at the taxi across the street, but it just drove past as though it had a passenger already.

“Do you regret continuing acting?” Geunsoo asked from the side.

“Fortunately, or perhaps, unfortunately, I’ve never regretted it for now. Now that I think about it, it was you who planted the fear of acting in me.”

“Did I?”

“Are you going to pretend that you forgot? You called me all the way to the rooftop to lecture me.”

“So, did you not like that?”

“No, it was good. There aren’t many people who listen to other people so seriously and then advise them. Did I tell you? You’re on my list of the people I respect, you’re at the top ranks too.”

“I’m sorry. You are not in my list of cherished juniors though.”

“Well, I’ll strike your name off then.”

“I just put your name on it, so don’t strike me off. We’re family, you know?”

Geunsoo looked at his watch.

“Please go home and rest. I just have to take the taxi home.”

“Nah. Since I’m out here, I’ll sober up a little. It’s about time she woke up and started causing a fuss.”

As soon as he said those words, Geunsoo’s phone started ringing.

“You got a call?”

“No, I didn’t.”

“It keeps ringing.”

“You must be hearing things.”

A moment later, Geunsoo’s phone became quiet. Maru took out his own phone just in case. As he had expected, he immediately got a call. The caller was of course, Suyeon.

“You’re hallucinating. Don’t take that call.”

“How are you going to face the consequences?”

“I’ve changed my mind. Sungjae isn’t here, so I’ll just take the taxi home.”

“You’re running away? After throwing a woman in a motel room by herself?”

“As an accomplice, you should be on my side. Also, being with her just by myself is a little scary.”

“I guess that makes sense.”

Maru pressed the decline button and then asked.

“Is Geunseok doing well recently?”

“He’s much more docile now. He’s always been good at studying, and these days, he talks to me quite often. He’s much better than the sensitive brat from before.”

“That’s good. A friend of mine is worried sick about him, so it made me a little worried as well.”

“The kid named Jiseok, right?”

“You know him?”

“He comes around from time to time. We talked about the sitcom Jiseok was in until just a while ago. It’s good that such a bad kid has a good friend.”

“Yes, so fortunate.”

“Geunseok talks about you from time to time, too.”

“What does he say?”

“That you’re hateful.”

Maru smiled. Hearing that he was hateful put him at ease instead. If Geunseok said something like ‘sorry’, he would’ve doubted that.

“Tell me if something happens to you. I’m definitely willing to help you out,” Geunsoo said with a pat on his back. Maru nodded.

“Oh yeah, are you busy these days?”

“Me? Just moderately busy.”

“If you have the time, let’s go visit director Lee together. We need a delinquent role, and you seem fit for the job.”

“In the movie you’re shooting?”

“Yes. Actually, it was him who talked about it first. He had dibs on you when he saw Twilight Struggles.”

“Me?”

Geunsoo put on a thick smile and spoke,

“He wants to know who that cocky delinquent was. He said that the delinquent was cocky to the point that he wanted to meet the guy.”

* * *

“Why aren’t you picking up, dammit!”

Suyeon shouted at her phone, but there was no reply. She swayed as she walked towards the door and grabbed the knob, but at that moment, she felt like she couldn’t be bothered with anything. She just lied back down on bed before heavily breathing.

“I know, I know, okay? A bitch like me and love? That’s laughable.”

It was all a game. She would live like this until she became a grandma. One dog and one cat. She would eventually pass away like that. Aah, a beautiful life.

Suyeon clutched her aching head and closed her eyes. She faintly saw the door slowly open amidst her fading consciousness. No, was it even opening?

‘I don’t know. My head aches.’

Suyeon closed her eyes just like that.

* * *

Her mouth felt bitter. She reached out while still lying down, but the bottle of water that was always within reach, could not be reached. Only after waving her hand in empty air for a while did she realize that she was in a motel. She buried her face in the thick duvet and sighed. Why did she always get drunk first when she drank with Geunsoo? It was like that at the villa before, and this time as well. She couldn’t understand.

“But still, he really left me here, huh.”

Of course, she didn’t actually feel disappointed. She had expected it after all. She smiled senselessly and sat up. She yawned and started getting ready to leave when she saw a paper bag on the dresser. Suyeon tilted her head and looked at the contents.

-What made you feel so bad that it made you cry throughout the night? I couldn’t get any sleep because I was worried.

It was Geunsoo’s writing. Suyeon took out the contents of the bag. It was a bowl of porridge, and it was still warm.

“You really… make me unable to give up on you.”

She rubbed her nose. Her nose strangely tingled.

“Dammit, really. Really…”

It seemed that she couldn’t eat right away.

Suyeon reached out to the tissue box on the dresser.

Her nose still tingled.

Chapter 556

He had gained momentum. It now felt natural for him to go to the shooting set after school instead of going home. The change in his everyday life had now become so smooth that going home after normal classes felt weird to him.

And today, he finally threw his body into awkwardness. Maru was waiting for Bangjoo in front of the ticketing office. They originally planned to come together after school, but Bangjoo had said that he had something to do so he had Maru go ahead. It was Wednesday afternoon. Usually, he would be at the acting club, the shooting set, or at school to shoot the short film with the film production club, but today, he left all that behind and came to the cinema.

Maru picked up a pamphlet before sitting down in the lounge. Lee Hyuk, Yoo Joongang, and Kwon Dayoon were drawn on it in black and white, standing side by side under the title ‘Those Guys’. They were grabbing each other’s hands, but the enraged expressions seemed to explain the relationship between the three. On the top left hand corner, it said ‘Return of director Park Joongjin from Spring Calendar’. The director of this film was more well-renowned than the actors. The pamphlet advertised the director quite blatantly.

Maru looked at the people lined up outside the ticketing office. It was a pretty busy hour and there were a lot of couples. Most of them seemed to be wondering what they were going to watch. Among the titles airing right now, there was no ‘big’ movie. No foreign Blockbusters, nor any domestic ones with famous actors.

It was a night before the storm. The release lineup for May, which was next month, was crazy. Whether the publishers were confident, or they just screwed up the release timing, he did not know, but the titles that many people looked forward to would start airing in about 2 weeks time. ‘Those Guys’ hit this blank spot. Whether or not it would do well, Maru did not know.

‘He’s late.’

There was no need to hurry since ‘Those Guys’ was airing on screens 2, 3, 4, 5, and 7 at different times, but Maru started getting worried since Bangjoo did not show up even after 30 minutes. He should have told him if his business took a long time, so Maru wondered what was going on.

At that moment, he got a phone call from Bangjoo. When he picked up the call, Bangjoo was saying that he had just arrived at the cinema while heavily breathing. Just then, Maru heard a not-so-unfamiliar voice amidst the heavy panting.

“Who did you br…”

Just as he said up to that point, he saw two boys opening the door for the emergency staircase. One was Bangjoo, who was on the phone, and the other, who stood next to him, was Chihwan.

“Seonbae-nim!”

“I’m here!”

Bangjoo’s greeting was as loud as always, while Chihwan’s greeting was a little less loud but still enough to attract attention. Maru groaned and ended the call.

“Why are you here?” Maru asked Chihwan.

“I wanted to watch it as well. Bangjoo seonbae-nim is the senior I like the most after you, Maru seonbae-nim.”

“I was just about to go, but Chihwan said he wanted to watch. I helped him finish the props so that he could come. Of course, we got permission from Daemyung-seonbae.”

Miso wasn’t here today, so Daemyung was in charge of everyone. As Daemyung was pretty lenient, he would have a hard time holding Chihwan back if he asked earnestly.

“No wonder you were late. Are you sure you finished your job?”

“Daemyung seonbae-nim double-checked mine. I seem to be quite talented at sewing,” Chihwan said proudly.

Bangjoo looked at Chihwan as though he was proud of him.

“Were you two always close?”

Since he rarely spent any time in the acting club, he did not know the relationship between the juniors. The two were similar in regards to the point that both of them were overflowing with energy, but just because they had similar personalities didn’t necessarily mean that they were close.

“At first, I thought he was someone with no bone in him, having only his height, but he turned out to have quite a refreshing side to him.”

“I thought that Bangjoo-seonbae was weak too at first because he was short, but I liked him after I found out that he’s full of energy.”

Both of them remarked similarly. It seemed that they were close enough to joke around with each other.

“Seonbae-nim. Let me watch it with you. I want to see you two acting.”

Chihwan jumped around like an excited puppy on a snowy day. Bangjoo also got swept up by Chihwan’s mood and jumped around.

Maru had a headache. He felt like he brought some toddlers to a theme park. What if I lose them, what if they cause trouble, what if there’s an accident - he hadn’t done anything, yet he felt tired already. Maru sighed in a small voice before walking towards the ticketing office.

“Bangjoo-seonbae, what kind of movie is this?”

“An acting movie. I had to roll around in the dirt in the mountains.”

“Wow, did you use wires and things like that too?”

“For this one, I had to use my body instead of relying on contraptions. I was like Jackie Chan. There was total chaos when fighting in the mountains. It was summer too, so we were sweating throughout the whole shoot.”

“Sweat and fists. A movie for a man, huh.”

“An awesome one for sure.”

“Will I get to see you in it?”

“Probably.”

“Wow, you’re a film actor.”

“Stop that, you’re making me embarrassed.”

The people lined up outside the ticketing office looked back and giggled. Maru did not look back. He pretended that he didn’t even know them. His head was filled with the thought that he should choose a different screen from theirs to watch. Unfortunately, the thoughtless duo called out to him with ‘Maru-seonbae’ and caught up to him.

“Seonbae-nim. I will buy the popcorn.”

“Then I’ll buy the coke!”

“Good. Let’s go, Chihwan.”

“Yes, seonbae.”

Maru stroked down his face with his hand. The lady at the counter, who was asking him which seats he wanted, chuckled. She calmed her expression and asked him to assign the seats, but there was still a smile around her eyes.

“I don’t know them.”

An awkward excuse subconsciously escaped his mouth. Maru nodded towards the lady who gave him the tickets while saying ‘yes’ with a smile, before turning around.

“A man should have onion-flavored popcorn!”

“Good! Onion!”

He heard voices from the convenience store far away.

How should he put this… It felt like Bangjoo was let loose. Maru realized how scary friends who clicked together could become. Chihwan was way more cheerful than normal as well. No, he was beyond cheerful. He looked mentally ill.

“The two of you, you really shouldn’t walk around together.”

“Why?”

“Why is that?”

Do you really have to ask? - these words came up to his throat, but Maru suppressed them. It would be fine as long as he wasn’t involved. It would be much more relaxing for him if he thought that he was just taking a couple of ponies for a walk.

“Don’t shout inside the theater.”

“Seonbae-nim. That’s obvious.”

“Seonbae. That’s called etiquette. We aren’t kids.”

Maru quietly calmed himself down as he watched the two enter the theater while laughing.

“It’s my bad for asking to watch it together.”

He shook his head and walked into the theater. After looking around the theater for a bit, he sat down on his assigned seat. Bangjoo gave him a cup of coke and put a bag of popcorn on his knees saying that it was his. After about 10 minutes of ads, the lights dimmed.

Maru looked at Bagjoo’s facial expression. Even though he was so excited, he was now looking at the screen very nervously. That sense of nervousness seemed to be contagious as Chihwan, who sat next to Bangjoo, also looked at the screen without saying anything.

The shoot for this movie was done without a script and everything was done on the fly with instructions from the director. Maru did not know how the movie went, nor how it ended. He looked forward to - and on one hand, was uneasy about - how complete the film would be, when literally everything was planned out.

One hit wonder. This term was often used in the music industry to refer to composers or lyricists who left behind just one, incredibly good, song. The movie industry wasn’t that different. The reason the word ‘genius’ wasn’t used was because the directors who created incredibly good pieces disappeared after leaving behind just one work. Director Park Joongjin was also dubbed a genius with ‘Spring Calendar’, but ever since that, he created experimental works, turning away from the masses and capital.

This was an era where money controlled everything. Even the purity of the title of genius would turn cloudy if there wasn’t enough money to back it up. Director Park Joongjin had returned to the commercial movie industry. For Twilight Struggles, Maru could say with confidence that it was the combined work of the director, staff, and the actors, but ‘Those Guys’ was different. Bluntly put, the success or failure rested on the director’s shoulders alone. It was a one-man show from him after all.

If the movie succeeded, it was thanks to the director, and if it failed, the director would take the blame. This directing style was just that extreme.

Maru was curious. He wondered if the director dubbed a genius, albeit not willingly, would continue his reputation as a genius. Also, what kind of direction he would show in the final outcome.

The shoot was quite short, but during that time, Joongjin had never shown any hesitation. He looked like he was just bringing the perfectly clear picture from his head to reality. He shouted ‘action’ and ‘cut’ without any hesitation.

Eventually, light returned to the darkened screen.

Maru crossed his arms and focused on the film.

The start was the sound of a wave.

* * *

“I’ll be off to the toilet!”

Chihwan went to the bathroom as soon as he left the theater. Maru looked back inside the theater, which was giving off faint light inside.

“It’s really well-made. Really, really well-made.”

Maru understood just a little how direction can overwhelm acting. The story of the film was stereotypical. Some might even say that it was on the level of a B-movie. This film did not contain character reflections, philosophical content, or satire. It just started and ran towards the end.

Friendship, betrayal, and revenge. This was something that was talked about for thousands of years, and they were still being used as main plots nowadays as well. The recent trend was to give a twist to boring clichés to make them look new, but director Park Joongjin seemed to be laughing at that notion as he directly showed everything. There was no foreshadowing, nor any kind of props that represented a character’s current state of mind. In fact, he even added narration to prevent any misunderstandings. To be precise, he did not give the audience any time to think.

Being drunk on watching.

Maru wanted to judge the movie as such. An absurdly close friendship between two men, an understandable betrayal, then revenge. Plus the love story of a woman who was stuck in between the two of them. Joongjin seemed to be telling the audience to not think about anything as he just mercilessly dragged the plot from beginning to end before putting it in the goal.

“It feels a little… vain.”

Bangjoo suddenly said. Maru knew what he meant by that. They ran around the harbor like their life depended on it, and they rolled around in the dirt in the mountain for half a day. The scenes they had to get injured to shoot, were mostly edited.

Even that edited part was muted the whole scene, so the voices of the actors could not be heard. About 10 seconds. That was how much their effort amounted to in the final work.

“But it was still good. It was really cool. The scenes just flashed past without any sound. I even forgot that I was in that scene and just kept watching.”

“It’s about 10 seconds, but I’m good with that. The people watching this movie will definitely remember those 10 seconds.”

“But it still feels off. I understood when I watched the movie. That director should be able to shoot this kind of movie regardless of who was there. I lose my energy when I think about how the director does not need actors.”

Bangjoo dazed out as he looked at the theater. The lights were coming back on in the darkened room.

In a state of deep immersion, muting the whole movie for about 10 seconds should have been a big gamble. The silence increased momentary concentration, but it would break the mood if it was too long. In that sense, Joongjin distributed the time perfectly. He used the muting to make the audience tense up even more and just progressed on with the story without any room for rest. The calm music just before the silent part should have been intentional as well. The silence, which he thought was just a rest, actually made him tense up even more after all.

Then there was his way of handling people. He turned the idol singer Kwon Dayoon into an adorable lady. It was to the point that Maru couldn’t think of any other actress that fit the role. However, it wasn’t that Dayoon’s acting was good. He knew because he saw her at the shoot. She was bad at acting. Only when Miso coached her for dozens of minutes before every shoot could she barely get a cut done. She was just that bad at it.

Yet the lady on the screen looked adorable. The plot and the direction of the movie made her perfect. To be honest, it felt like a scam. According to what he saw from her during the shoot, Dayoon was definitely not an adorable lady.

“You two, why do you look so dark?” Chihwan returned from the bathroom and had asked.

Maru shrugged and started walking.

Joongjin denied that he was a genius and disliked being called such, but this movie seemed like it would give him the genius title once again.

It was quite ironic.

Chapter 557

His cheeks felt cold. Junmin stroked down his cheeks with his palms. Something slippery could be felt. Amidst his hazy vision, he saw Mint sticking out its short tongue as much as possible.

“I feel like you’re gaining wrinkles by the day.”

He grabbed the bulldog’s - Mint’s - cheeks and stretched them apart. He was suddenly reminded of the fact that this innocent dog’s breed was born because of humans’ selfish desires.

“Today, I’ll give you your favorite as a special service.”

After stretching his jaw once, he got up from the bed. He pulled open the blinds to chase away the darkness. A slight green colored light seeped through the blades of the blind. It was a color that couldn’t be seen in Seoul. He brought Mint, Pansy, and Rose to the front yard. This place was a villa in Gyeongju where no engine noises could be heard. It was a quiet place where the number of cars and people passing by for an entire day combined would not go past 10.

“Someone might think that I’ve been starving you for days.”

After watching the dogs bury their noses into their plates to eat ravenously, he went to the kitchen to prepare breakfast. He had prepared breakfast for his dogs before his own. Junmin wondered what the life of a dog owner was supposed to be like before deciding to stop thinking about it. A salad with a pinch of almonds, one slice of baguette, a boiled egg, half a slice of chicken breasts, and lastly, a banana. He felt his stamina was depleting rapidly ever since he reached fifty, so around that time, he started looking after his health more. He had to drink because of business and he considered smoking to be the food of his soul. Those two were his companions for a lifetime, so he could not abandon them. Perhaps the reason he started eating healthy was to compensate because he wasn’t able to give up those two. I am eating such healthy food so drinking and smoking should be fine - something like that.

After eating breakfast, he left the house. He put the three dogs that were looking at him in leashes and took a trip around the neighborhood. Though, while he called it a ‘neighborhood’, it was just some villas positioned far apart.

He relied on the dogs climbing up the hills to move. They moved quite quickly despite having short legs. They were very restless. Halfway up the mound, which was too small to be called a mountain and too tall to be called a hill, Jumin looked down at his villa.

“This should be considered a successful life.”

Some dogs and a house under his name in a relaxing place. There were also friends - or perhaps enemies at times - who would come at a moment’s notice. According to the views of society, he had a pretty decent life. Junmin sat down for about ten minutes before standing up.

It was about time to go.

To the person who was supposed to enjoy all this luxury.

He unleashed the dogs inside the house before opening the closet. It was a large closet, but there was only a set of yellow suits. He got them on clearance, twenty years ago. The necktie was grey and had kimchi stains on it. He also took out the flat cap next to the necktie. He took out the shoes which had their soles all worn out before heading towards the door. He opened the cabinet which had one of its handles missing and took out a stick which was about an arm’s length. Inside was a small sickle.

“Dad will be going out for a moment.”

He said goodbye to the dogs who came all the way to the door and sat down before opening the door. The 23rd of April. After rolling the date in his mouth once, he started walking. He walked away from the villa and towards the bus stop. He then got on the village bus, which only came once every hour.

He smelled something nostalgic inside the rattling bus. He rested his head on the window and took deep breaths. Riding this bus made him feel like time was going backwards.

“If only that was true.”

The destination entered his eyes. Junmin pressed the bell and stood in front of the back door. An elderly lady sitting next to the back door smiled at him. Junmin couldn’t reply to that smile. He just nodded before getting off the bus. He smelled cow dung from afar. The moos of the cows could be heard as well.

He went to the small shop next to the bus stop. The elderly man who was dozing off flinched and woke up before looking at him. Maybe he didn’t like customers at this hour? Junmin apologized for waking him up before buying a bottle of soju, two drinking glasses, a bag of shrimp crackers, and a packet of Anseongtang-myun[1].

“Did you perhaps come here last year as well?”

“I come here every year.”

“I knew it. My memory isn’t that bad.”

Unlike the rather cold first meeting, the elderly man in charge of the shop saw him off warmly. It seemed that he was celebrating that his memory hadn’t gone bad. Junmin left the shop after saying that he would visit next year as well.

He moved along the paved paths. A red sedan drove past him. It looked like a car someone young would drive.

He turned right after the big tree that everyone in the village called the ‘Big Elder’. From now on, it would really be just mountains. All the buildings that could be glimpsed in the left corner of his eyes disappeared leaving only trees, tall grass, as well as a signpost that the villagers placed in his view. The signpost said one thing: watch out for boars.

Indeed, there were boars in this area. Junmin faintly smiled before walking onto the path with tall grass surrounding it. Junmin kept walking deeper and deeper. The flat terrain eventually turned into a gradient, and Junmin started sweating as well.

“It’s about time the Earth is wiped out.”

He saw during the morning news that it would climb up to 28°C during the day. 28 degrees in the middle of April? The Earth might explode soon. He used his handkerchief to wipe his sweat as he walked. That continued for twenty minutes until the trees that covered the sky cracked apart and he arrived at a wide open space. In the middle of the basin-like ground, there was one mound, a grave to be exact.

Junmin walked towards the burial mound. In front of the mound, he sighed a little. The tall grass seemed like they were going to poke his eyes. He reached inside his pocket. The cotton work gloves he put inside last year were still there. He put them on before pulling out the tall grass first. As for the thick ones, he used the sickle to cut them. It didn’t take that long. Not to boast, but he was quite proficient when it came to cleaning graves.

“The weather has gotten quite hot.”

He took off his gloves and sat in front of the grave. He used a handkerchief to wipe the marble tombstone. His gaze lingered on the cleaned tombstone for a long while.

Jung Haejoo - he ran his finger across the engraved name.

“Hope it’s a little cool over there.”

He leaned against the mound and looked up at the sky. The sky was depressingly blue.

“Don’t you feel thankful that I come every year?”

He stretched his legs out and got some rest. A pleasant wave of wind blew, cooling his sweat. After regaining some of his stamina, Junmin took out the shrimp crackers and the Anseongtang-myun. He opened the shrimp crackers and laid them out, and then crushed the ramyun before mixing it with the powder. These were the snacks that Haejoo liked to eat while drinking. Despite being young, her taste in snacks was pretty old.

Junmin poured a glass of soju and poured it over the burial mound before drinking one himself. The alcohol that went down his throat felt bitter like a grass root. Junmin frowned because of the bitter taste.

“For some strange reason, drinking here makes it taste really bad. Is it because of you? Or is it because of my guilty conscience?”

He poured another glass before scattering it.

“I say this every time, but what would you be like right now if the traffic accident didn’t happen that day? I really can’t imagine it. Would you have gone to Hollywood? No, well, you didn’t like studying, so I guess English was a little hard for you. Perhaps you might have become one of the numerous actors who disappeared without making a name for themself.”

He emptied the glass in his mouth. It tasted way too bitter.

“I really don’t like ‘what if’s. Haejoo, you should know that as well, about how much I despise uncertain things. Despite that, you know, I keep thinking about those ‘what if’s. What if I went to the hospital quickly, what if the traffic accident didn’t happen, what if you stayed at home that day, and what if… you didn’t meet me in the first place.”

Perhaps you might have lived - Junmin reminded himself of Haejoo’s laugh. It had been 16 years, but her laugh was still vivid to him. The twenty-two-year-old girl was more beautiful than anyone, making him desire her. That was Haejoo, who was eternally a little girl to Junmin no matter how much time passed.

He took a portion of the snacks in front of the grave. He then poured a glass of soju and put it next to them.

“These days, your juniors are doing their best. Thanks to them, the company’s getting bigger. I’ll bring them here once. You’ve never seen them before, but I hope you can take care of them. They are the people that work in the company that’s named after you. I really wanted to go with AJ, but that was already registered as a company. Actress Jung Haejoo or Jung Haejoo Actress doesn’t really make a difference, so please understand. I know you must be getting fed up listening to all this since I tell you this every time I come here, but please listen to me anyway. I really don’t have anything else to talk about.”

After looking at the grave without a word for a while, Junmin took out his phone from his pocket. It didn’t feel like a lot of time had passed, but it was already past 4 in the afternoon.

“I’ll get going now. Have a good rest.”

After cleaning around the grave one more time, he dusted the mud off his pants and turned around. Just then, he saw someone walking up the mountain. That path wasn’t a hiking route. There was only one reason for its existence - to lead to this place. Junmin pressed down on the flat cap that he had taken off before. He wondered who it was. It couldn’t be Haejoo’s parents, because she didn’t have any family members. The figure kept coming closer.

There was a reaction from the other party as well. Junmin narrowed his eyes. The moment his aged eyes discerned who that person was, he exclaimed.

“I always thought it was strange. The grave was way too clean. It didn’t take that long for me to realize that someone’s been cleaning this place right before the date of her death. The 23rd. That was the day of the accident. I did think it would be you, so I didn’t bother coming. But I did come today, just in case. So it turns out I was right after all.”

“It’s been a long time since we met in private.”

“Yes, president. It really has.”

Junmin shook hands with Ahn Joohyun.

“What’s that?” Joohyun asked as she looked at the plastic bag in his hand.

Junmin said that they were shrimp crackers and Anseongtang-myun. When he did, Joohyun shrugged and opened her own plastic bag. There was a bag of shrimp crackers and Anseongtang-myun as well. What was different was that there was rice wine instead of soju.

“I’ll get going first.”

Junmin walked past her.

“You’re going already?”

“I did what I came here to do. Also, you probably don’t like me being here.”

Joohyun had treated Haejoo like a real sister. Junmin still couldn’t forget Joohyun’s eyes that looked at him at the hospital on that day - the day Haejoo died. It’s all because of you - the high school girl’s eyes that just witnessed the death of her elder sister seemed to be saying those words.

“It’s been quite a long time,” Joohyun said.

Junmin did not stop.

“Back then, I needed someone to resent. I was too young to endure if I didn’t do that. No, perhaps being young might just be an excuse. Maybe I just didn’t want to admit that very situation was real.”

Hearing those words, Junmin stopped and quietly turned around.

“Come. So that unni doesn’t feel lonely. Or do you still find me hard to deal with?”

Joohyun took out the bottle of rice wine.

“Haven’t we aged quite a lot to be shy? I’m thirty four and you are…”

Junmin quietly replied ‘fifty-one’ when he saw her eyes staring at him.

“How about it? We’re old enough now, so shouldn’t it be fine? It’s not like we’re at an age where we would get hurt just because we reveal what we’re thinking. Well, if you still don’t want to, I can’t stop you.”

Her faint smile overlapped with Haejoo’s. Junmin nodded before turning around fully.

“Unni, I’m here. Moreover, there’s one more person today. What? He came here just now? It’s fine. You always liked it rowdy,” Joohyun said as she raised the rice wine above her head.

[1] A specific brand of ramyun.

Chapter 558

“Have you come every year?”

“I have.”

“Unni must have liked it.”

“Well, I wouldn’t be so sure.”

“No, unni should have liked it. She liked it every time you came to the theater after all.”

“I see.”

Junmin quietly looked at the grave. Joohyun poured a glass of rice wine and gave it to him.

“Do you still not contact director Park Joongjin?”

“I don’t think I will ever do that. I did see him because of business before, but he’s still hard to deal with.”

“Still in a cold war?”

“Rather than a cold war, it’s me who’s being one-sidedly hated.”

“Of course. Unni liked you, after all. Director Park can only hate you. Even I would.”

“It’s all in the past.”

Joohyun checked that Junmin empty his glass before drinking a sip herself. She usually did not drink any rice wine. She only drank this bittersweet drink when she came to visit her unni.

“Did you know that director Park’s movie was released?”

“I watched it already.”

“If you did, give me your impression.”

“It’s well-made. I’m sure that that fellow’s talent has reached the skies. I can’t think of him as a director who hasn’t been working in film for years. Being trendy is one thing, but his techniques really show why he’s called a genius.”

“You couldn’t think about anything else, right?”

“That’s the most suitable expression, I guess.”

Joohyun thought back to the movie ‘Those Guys’ which she watched a few days ago. It seemed to be the textbook version of a refreshing revenge story. Actually, the movie itself was very boring when looked at in parts. There were many clichés that were outdated to the point that they weren’t even used in children’s comics. When compared to a man, this movie was wearing a stereotypical suit and shoes, and a fedora to top it off. It was fated to be butchered by critics. There would be no one who would be willing to call it a masterpiece of the ages. It was a repetition of clichés and stereotypes and contained nothing new. The conclusion was very ordinary as well. Critics would use their words to dismantle the movie into pieces before throwing them in the trash.

However, what if it was viewed from the commercial and popularity perspective? Being typical was instead a sign that it was proven to work. No gourmet could deny basic condiments. Even the most intricate of sauces were likely to be just a different ratio of existing additives. Taste was a matter of a suitable combination, and this movie created a splendid taste using a fantastic combination. Another word for that taste was ‘fun’.

“Shooting a movie with director Park wasn’t something so fun. The result was good, but I didn’t feel like I was the one who produced that result.”

“At least you can complain about it. I know what happened during the shoot for ‘Spring Calendar’.”

“Back then, director Park was quite desperate. He was laughing like he always did, but he didn’t look like he had any leisure. Well, it wasn’t surprising since that movie was probably created in memory of Haejoo-unni.”

Joohyun looked at the flowers blooming at the foot of the mound.

A flower that held up its wide petals proudly among the tenacious grass. Yes, unni had such an atmosphere as well.

‘Spring Calendar’. To Joohyun, that movie was a precious one that changed her life. The event where she proved her skills as an actor was a short play, but she was loved by the public thanks to Spring Calendar.

She had known director Park Joongjin since she was pretty young. When she was in high school, she always visited the theater Haejoo was in. Joohyun liked plays, but she liked Haejoo more than that. She liked the Haejoo since she always welcomed her whenever she went there and respected her since she shone more brightly than anyone else on stage.

Haejoo loved that small theater troupe that borrowed a small underground room in the corner of Daehak-ro to operate. Of course, Joohyun cherished them as well. The people working there were like family to her.

One of the people that supported the theater troupe was director Park Joongjin. He did not show up a lot. The director showed up very rarely to the point that even Joohyun, who went there every day, barely had any recollection. The time she realized that the reason such a small-scale theater troupe without a lot of customers could last so long was because of Joongjin was not long after she found out his name. What she also realized at that time was that Joongjin, who worked in the financial district and drove an expensive-looking car, liked Haejoo. She realized that with one look when she found Joongjin quietly looking at Haejoo from the dark spot in the audience seats. However, Joohyun knew very well that his feelings could not reach Haejoo. The straightforward Haejoo-unni was straightforward when it came to love as well. Her love was directed not at the financial man with a solid background, but at the man wearing a yellow suit who visited their troupe quite a lot.

Joohyun looked at Junmin as she ate a shrimp cracker. The yellow suit. It was the same suit she saw 17 years ago. The person that always came to Haejoo-unni and told her that she had to become a bigger actress.

“So you still have that suit, huh?”

“It’s rather embarrassing that you know about it.”

“Whether then or now, I really don’t like that color. Unni really didn’t have a good eye.”

“For what?”

“Nothing, talking to myself.”

When Joohyun found out that the sweet girl, aged twenty-two, was in love with a man over thirty years old, she turned pale in fright and bombarded Haejoo with questions. It was probably back then that she started disliking president Lee Junmin. Back then, the Junmin in Joohyun’s eyes was a total scammer. Someone who had lived as a nameless actor until his thirties had given up on becoming successful as an actor and switched to management, suddenly went up to Haejoo saying that she could become a star, so there was no way she could look at him in a good way.

The man wasn’t even funny. However, Joohyun’s thoughts changed a few months later. As Haejoo spent more time with Junmin, her acting skills rose drastically. She knew that Haejoo was good before, but even Joohyun back then, who was a beginner in acting, could tell that she was improving to the point that it couldn’t be called an improvement anymore; it was more like she was leapfrogging.

Energy returned to the theater troupe. Everyone waited expectantly for Haejoo’s debut. What put an end to the days that felt like everything was going to go well, was an unexpected accident. 23rd of April. It was today. After talking with Haejoo over the phone about how her debut was decided, Joohyun returned to studying but was called back not long later. She got a call from a woman she didn’t know, and she was told that she was called from the hospital. Joohyun’s memories were a little blank after that. When she came to herself, she was sitting in front of the surgery room. Haejoo did not have any family members. The members of the theater troupe, who had hurried to the hospital, signed as her guardian, and Joongjin came after that. Junmin was the last one to arrive. He was holding a bouquet.

Joohyun knew that the cause of the traffic accident wasn’t that man. However, her thoughts and emotions played separately. On that day, she glared at Junmin as though she would kill.

When her unni died without lasting a single day, Joohyun resolved - though she didn’t know why - that she would do acting. In retrospect, perhaps she wanted to continue Haejoo’s incomplete dream.

After that, she heard the news that the theater troupe was going to close down. It was around that time that Joongjin quit his work and started a restaurant. Joohyun visited Joongjin’s restaurant once. Since he was someone who cheered for and loved Haejoo from afar, she felt worried. Joongjin, who she hadn’t met in a long time, was watching the counter with a bored expression. The sparkly eyes he showed when he visited the theater were all but gone. She had talked to him as well, but Joongjin only said that life was boring. He had changed into someone who had lost all interest in life.

On the other hand, Junmin became incredibly famous. All the actors he came into contact with had become superstars and could be seen on TV every day. He even earned the title ‘maestro’ of digging up new talent. Joohyun was reminded of Haejoo-unni whenever she saw the name Lee Junmin on TV. Perhaps because of that, she felt angry. When she became an adult, she understood that Haejoo-unni’s death was not Junmin’s fault, but she felt so sad when she looked at the man who led a brilliant life even without her.

It was around that time that she started becoming obsessed with becoming successful as an actress. Simultaneously, she was cast in a short play. Then after that, Joongjin, who suddenly showed up saying that he would become a director, asked her to appear in his film as a supporting character. Joohyun accepted. She liked the scenario, and she did not want to reject the request of an old acquaintance.

From a financial man to a restaurant owner. Joongjin had no affiliation with directing films and treated actors like machine parts in the shoot. You just have to follow my instructions - he wanted living and moving props. The lead actress was dissatisfied at first but became more obedient as the shoot progressed. Joohyun also listened to him obediently during the beginning, however, the moment she realized that the acting method he wanted to see looked very similar to a certain person, she opposed him. Joongjin aimed for the ideal; by recreating the dead unni’s image through another actress.

A movie in remembrance of Haejoo - Joongjin mentioned those words at a private occasion. Hearing those words made Joohyun even more unable to act like a machine. It wasn't that she didn’t like Joongjin’s ways. It was just that she wanted to honor her with the greatest acting possible. The unni that Joongjin saw was definitely different from the one she remembered, and Joohyun acted the unni that she saw.

As a result of that, she got the nickname ‘the supporting actress that gobbled up the main actress’, which wasn’t even funny. Something terrible happened right after that, but she managed to overcome it.

“Spring Calendar should’ve been a commemorative piece,” Junmin said.

“Did director Park tell you that?”

“No, we aren’t close enough to talk about such things. I just realized while I was watching. When I looked at the actors in the movie, I could only think of one person. If you think about it, the title was a dead giveaway. Spring Calendar. In the last scene, the calendar wasn’t flipped over from April. The film should have been created solely to show that one cut.”

“If she watched that movie in heaven, would she have liked it?”

“Probably. Haejoo was someone who liked everything after all.”

“That’s true.”

The conversation stopped there. Junmin spoke after a long period of silence.

“Sorry. For making you lose someone you loved.”

“That’s a really late apology. Plus, you know that it wasn’t necessary. Also, everyone was sad that we lost her.”

Joohyun looked at Junmin. Junmin slowly nodded.

“Can I ask you one thing?”

“Go ahead.”

“Is it because of her that you aren’t getting married?”

“Probably.”

Joohyun laughed. She felt that the last bits of bitter feelings she had towards Junmin had dissolved away. At that moment, Junmin’s phone rang. Seeing him trying to reject the call, Joohyun quickly spoke,

“Take it. It might be something important. You are the president of a company after all.”

Junmin took the call. After a few minutes of talking over the phone, he hung up.

“I wish I could talk to you more, but I need to get going.”

“It’s fine. It was me who held you back in the first place.”

Junmin turned around and walked away.

Just as Joohyun faintly smiled while looking at the drinking glass placed in front of Haejoo’s tombstone, she was suddenly reminded of the name of the boy related to Haejoo-unni’s acting.

“Uhm, president.”

“What is it?”

“Do you remember what Haejoo-unni said about her acting?”

“About her acting?”

“That there are two separate egos inside her - one focuses on instinctive acting, and one focuses on watching over the other.”

Hearing that, Junmin made a longing face.

“I do. It was a rather curious story.”

“I know someone who said the same thing as well. He works for you too. Han Maru, you should keep watching him. If he wasn’t lying, he might shine like her one day.”

After finishing those words, Joohyun looked at the white flower at the foot of the mound.

She longed for her unni’s laughter even more than usual today.

Chapter 559

“Come in,” Sora said as she walked inside.

Maru took his shoes off as he looked around the inside. This apartment complex, which was located around 20 minutes away from the school by bus, belonging to the more expensive real estate in Suwon, was Sora’s home. He did expect that she was well-off from how she bought the items necessary for the shoot with her own money, as well as paying for some of the snacks.

“It’s wide.”

“This looks good.”

The people from the film production club remarked.

“We’ll take a bit of a break before starting the shoot immediately. We don’t have much time, so we have to start shooting as quickly as possible.”

Sora took out some drinks from the fridge and put them on the table. Maru wanted to have a leisurely time drinking, but he drank it in one gulp when Sora looked at him as though to make him hurry. This little director loved labor, to the point that it was a little cruel.

“You done?”

The film production club told her to wait, but Sora took away the drinks.

“Looks like you’re done drinking. Let’s start the shoot immediately.”

“Right now?” Maru asked.

He wanted to rest for at least 10 minutes.

“You didn’t forget who was responsible for us running out of time, right?”

“Looks like I said the wrong thing. Well then, let’s get started.”

Due to the additional shoot for episode 13 of the drama, the film production club’s schedule was delayed a little. Although it was only an extracurricular activity at school, he was in the film as the main character, so he couldn’t make excuses. Since they were running out of time, he had no choice but to decrease the overall time by increasing the density. If they shoot without any NGs, they should be able to make it in time without worries.

“Which room are we using?”

“This one.”

They walked into a small room located between the kitchen and the living room. An empty room with minimal furniture greeted them.

“It was originally used as a storage room, but I cleaned it up a little. I had to visit around five to six furniture stores to get those pointy clothes hangers. I fell in love with them at first sight because they looked so dry.”

Sora put a set of school uniforms on the clothes hangers before stepping back. From the smile on her face, it seemed that she was satisfied with it.

“This is the alarm clock. It looked too new, so I rubbed it against the floor. Pretty good, huh?”

Maru picked up the crude-looking alarm clock. There were minor scratches and dents on the face of the black alarm clock. It looked used.

“Did you prepare these all by yourself?”

“Well, it is my house after all. I couldn’t really get any help from the seniors, so I had to do it by myself.”

Hearing her words, the people from the film production club praised her. Sora said that it was nothing, but she clearly looked pleased.

Maru looked at the electric heater mat on the floor as well as the waist-height drawers. The electric heater mat also looked quite old.

“I got that from the next house over since they were going to throw it out. Apparently, the lights turn on, but it doesn’t become warm. It looks pretty decent as a prop for a main character who’s not well-off, right?”

“If the director likes it, that’s that. What about these drawers?”

“I walked around the neighborhood and brought one from someone who was moving away. I got it for free when I said that I’ll put on the stickers and throw it out.”

“Terrific.”

Maru tried lying down. He thought that it might smell bad, but it actually smelled quite good. It seemed that it had been washed. He turned his head up. There were some stained newspapers on the ceiling.

“I tried to make it look moldy, so I stacked some newspapers and tried painting it. I quite liked it when I first put them up there,” Sora said as she lied down next to him.

Maru told the people from the film production club to try lying down.

“What do you think everyone? Looks like the director wants to shoot that,” Maru asked.

“Isn’t that a little too exaggerated?”

“The newspaper does make it look a little off.”

Ando spoke last,

“Let’s take them off.”

Maru looked at Sora who was next to him. She, who was looking at the ceiling while lying down, just sighed before sitting up.

“Alright. I’ll take them off.”

“If you really want to try expressing mold, buy a new sheet of wallpaper and try it on top of that. It doesn’t take that long if you just make a part of it and stick it on the wall. If it’s too hard by yourself, there are always others to help you,” Maru said.

“No. I’ll just paint directly. We’re going to shoot all the main character’s home scenes today, so I don’t have any time to decorate them right now. I want to focus on producing the film.”

Sora bit on her thumb before leaving the room. Maru looked at Ando. Ando just shrugged before saying “You know that she’s a reckless girl.“

“I think we should apply some of this and rub it.”

What Sora brought were some cosmetics. She brought a chair from the kitchen and climbed on top of it before opening the mascara.

“You’re going to do it directly?” Maru asked while narrowing his eyes.

Even if this room was used as storage, Sora’s parents probably would not want the wallpapers to get dirty.

“It’s fine. I won’t get scolded over something like this,” Sora said with confidence.

She probably meant that her usual actions were proper and that her parents would overlook this kind of thing, but to Maru, it sounded like she caused so much trouble that this wasn’t anything much.

“Sora’s parents must be having a hard time,” Ando said in a small voice.

Maru nodded.

“What was that?”

“Nothing, I didn’t say anything. Also, don’t paint it too thick. It will be obvious.”

“Okay. Ando-seonbae, how does it look?”

Sora used her fingers to apply the mascara. After turning off the lights, it looked like mold.

“That’s pretty good,” Ando said.

Sora climbed down from the chair before wiping her hands on some tissue. There was still some black stuff left, but she didn’t seem to mind.

“Then shall we start right away? Maru-seonbae. Are you okay with that?”

“What about the clothes?”

“I’ll give you a t-shirt and some pants. They should fit you just fine.”

He received the clothes from Sora before going to the bathroom to get changed. The grey t-shirt with its neck slightly stretched out, as well as some brown shoes that looked like they could have been bought for cheap at the marketplace. As for the size, they fit him perfectly. Sora was very awkward and everything she had was incomplete during the planning stage, but now that the shoot had started, she really knew her stuff. Without any help from the film production club, she managed to get the props and the background done. Her passion had to be acknowledged.

“I just woke up, right?”

“Yes.”

“Do I just go with my current hair?”

“No, I already have that ready.”

Sora brought some hair wax and a hairdryer.

“Maru-seonbae. How do you sleep usually?”

Maru did not reply and just lied down. He used the pillow to support his neck and laid upright.

“Aren’t you sleeping a little too much like a log?”

“This posture is good for the waist.”

“The waist?”

“Let’s not mind the minor details. Anyway, if you don’t like the posture, just say it. Should I curl up on my side?”

“I think that’ll be better to express the main character’s introverted personality. Try curling up like a pill bug.”

Maru did as Sora said. Sora, who was staring at him from above him, said that he was okay now.

“I think I should touch up this side and this side. Press this side and ruffle that side.”

Whiiiiii - the hairdryer spat out hot air. Ando came up to him and pressed down on the left side of his head. Meanwhile, Sora used the wax to ruthlessly roughen up the hair on his right.

“I think that should do.”

Maru looked in the mirror to check his hair. Even if he did a headspin in his sleep, his hair would look better than this.

“It’ll die down a little once you lie down, so it doesn’t matter. Let’s start the shoot. As for the lights, I’ll use this flashlight instead. Let’s try shooting for now, and I’ll adjust the lights if there’s too much shadow. As for the camera, it will open the door, enter the room and scan the whole room from the ceiling to the floor before looking at you. Maru-seonbae, just move a little while you’re asleep. That is one cut, and in the next cut, we’ll place the camera on the floor and have a close-up of Maru-seonbae’s sleeping face.”

Sora clapped before shouting standby.

* * *

He held up the camera with his left hand and covered the body with his right. He put his left arm right against his side and positioned his elbow like he was putting it between his ribs. His left arm started aching immediately, but the shaking of the camera should stop with this. When he first got into this position, he couldn’t last for five minutes, but now, he was able to maintain this posture for a pretty long time.

Ando walked into the room upon Sora’s gesture. Sora was not standing in front of the monitor but was right next to him. A girl’s breath could be felt on his cheeks, but his heart did not race at all. He had gotten used to this reckless girl’s actions. He reminded himself of Sora’s instructions and quietly scanned the ceiling. During the past few days, when Maru was busy shooting the drama, Sora just showed up at the club before heading straight home. He thought that she would be resting at home, but it turned out that she had gotten everything ready to shoot at her house. Had she told the club about it, everyone else would’ve been willing to help out. Ando felt a mix of disappointment and pride as he slowly moved the camera angle down.

Maru, who was lying down like it was his own house, was on the screen. The club members had tried shooting this scene to play around while looking at the scenario. They thought that they should be able to get a pretty good picture since lying down didn’t really require any technique, but the video they saw after they shot it was incredibly shabby and awkward. It was then that they realized that even lying down required acting skills.

‘He’s an actor alright.’

He didn’t show up on TV for nothing. Maru rolled over naturally. He did not mutter to himself or frown exaggeratedly. Those were things that naturally came to the mind when thinking about ‘acting sleeping’, but Maru did not do any of them. Just sleep - he seemed to be focusing his whole attention on that.

“Cut,” Sora said in a small voice.

“I didn’t look at the monitor because of the movement line, but I don’t think we need to take another shot for this.”

Ando looked at the monitor placed in front of the door with Sora. The video started with some white noise, and like what Sora said, was very clean. The video that Ando shot and the recorded footage on the laptop did not have many differences.

“Looks like I was right to get things ready beforehand. If we prepared it after Maru-seonbae’s shoot, we might have lost some time.”

“True. If it’s Maru’s acting, we’ll be able to procure good footage quickly and edit it.”

Maru asked if they were doing it again. Sora replied that they were going to the next scene.

“One cut to turn off the alarm. After that is the long take. That one lasts until Maru-seonbae stands up and comes to the kitchen and eats breakfast.”

They shot the alarm clock scene right away. Only Maru’s hand and the alarm clock showed up on the screen. They shot it around three times, and that was because of Sora’s pickiness in hand acting. Ando felt like there were no differences though.

“This is the most important scene among the starting scenes. Well, then. Maru-seonbae will stand up and head to the kitchen. He’ll sit at this table and start eating. Ando-seonbae, don’t shoot the fridge. That one’s an expensive model which doesn’t suit the picture.”

“Alright.”

Sora looked at Maru again.

“I want to see a glimpse of the main character not wanting to go to school while doing everything, from the walking to the eating.”

“Tell me if you want me to do anything specific.”

“Try doing it your way for now. I really like most of your acting. If there’s anything I want to see after I look at it, I’ll tell you then.”

“Okay then.”

“Well, then. Go back to sleep. Ando-seonbae! We’re continuing.”

Ando massaged his left arm before picking up the camera again. It really was quite agonizing to maintain a single posture for a long time. He put the camera on his hand before getting into posture again when he felt a hand massaging his left arm. Ando looked at Sora.

“Does it hurt a lot?”

“Not that much.”

“I’ll give you some medical patches later. Please hold out until then.”

“Today’s not the first day I’m having a hard time because of you. Don’t worry, it doesn’t hurt that much.”

Ando took a short breath before sitting in front of Maru. The camera director - it wasn’t a position filled with glory or any authority, but Ando actually liked his job. He liked how he got to shoot Maru, who was actually an actor, and he felt proud whenever the film production club was happy as they watched the video that he shot. He could endure an aching arm like it was nothing.

A better picture than before - he had gotten ambitious, and Ando wanted to stay true to that desire.

“Well then. Let’s start.”

The member with the slate stood in front of the camera.

“Scene 2-dash-3-dash-1.”

Clack - Ando looked at the world beyond the lens as though he was going to capture everything in it.

Chapter 560

When eating, one acted before the will to ‘pick up the spoon’. Drinking water was similar. There was no one who put thought into the movement of the shoulders, the angle of the elbow, the gap between the fingers, and the gripping strength. Action occurred before the will to ‘grab the cup’. There should probably be no one who worries about every minor detail when taking actions that happen in everyday life. However, actors had to get used to seeing the obvious as not so obvious.

Maru had his eyes closed. He was acting sleeping. If he was actually asleep, there would be no need to worry about his action. The height of the pillow might be a point of consideration, but the angle of his face, the curling of his body, and the number of breaths per minute would not be something to worry about. However, since he was acting, he had to put thought into everything.

‘Maybe it’s better if I move a little?’

He slightly twisted his right arm, which was between his body and the floor. He pictured what an organic movement would look like in his head and opened his chest as naturally as possible. Being conscious of his every action was an incredibly tiring thing, but as his bodily actions were what transmitted the message to the audience in this scene, he had to concentrate on everything.

Sometimes, actors would get told to ‘relax’ when they’re shooting. This was usually said because the stiff movements looked unnatural and that the actor should loosen the tension and act naturally. The director might say it as though it was something simple, but the actor who receives those instructions would probably have their head go blank. Just relax which part and how?

Maru also did not know what a completely ‘relaxed’ acting was like yet. He just had a vague grasp of it as he watched the elder and other senior actors do their work. They made up his thoughts of was what a ‘relaxed’ acting was like. How do those seniors act naturally? Was there a formula for ‘being natural’ and he just had to follow those guidelines? Or did he have to immerse himself to the point that he forgot that he was acting?

There was probably no correct answer for this. He had never heard someone say that there was an answer to acting theory. The people that say that one path was the true way were probably fraudsters.

The actors who looked natural when acting probably gained that naturalness through hard effort and/or the accumulation of time. Just listening to them describe what being natural was would not let a new actor gain that naturalness. It might help out somewhat, but in order to truly make it their own, they would have to find their own unique ways.

This was a topic thrown to all those that aspired to be actors: imitate being natural.

Acting and being natural. These were two contrasting concepts. Acting was an artificial art of becoming a certain target with a specific purpose. The moment ‘acting’ was added into the mix, it would move further away from being natural. How could there be any naturalness in abandoning oneself and becoming someone else? The life of actors was perhaps the path to resolving the contradiction that ‘natural acting’ contained.

“Okay. Maru-seonbae. We’re done,” Sora said.

Maru slowly opened his eyes. His body, consciously drained of energy, was telling him that he was tired. He felt that he might actually fall asleep if he kept lying down.

“Come and check it out.”

Maru stood up and walked over to Sora and Ando. The video that was shot just now was being replayed on the laptop.

“Ando had it hard, huh.”

Ando controlled the camera for a long time while crouching down in order to shoot a person lying down. He was holding a heavy camera in a fixed posture for a long time, so the pain in his arms had to be substantial.

“Are we going with this?” Ando asked.

Maru looked at Sora and said that he liked it. Sora also didn’t have any complaints. It seemed that she quite liked it as well.

“Let’s do the long-take now. Please get ready.”

Maru sat down on the electric heater mat and read through his script again. As they did a rehearsal, he knew what to do. What was left was to express the emotions requested by the director in detail and as naturally as possible.

He slowly closed his eyes and controlled his breathing. He felt his thought processes separating. He had the funny thought that he might be able to hold a discussion with himself later.

‘2nd year of high school. Ordinary family, both parents working, cheap house, the damp and moldy smell of a semi-basement, mold strewed throughout the home. The home might not be much, but to me, it’s my only shelter. Once I leave this 40 or so square meter area, I would start breathing heavily. This place is my shelter. Leaving it is worse than death for me.’

Powerlessness overwhelmed him. He also felt like he had a stomachache. He could hear a mocking laugh from somewhere. His instinctive self, which was thrown into the role of the main character, was dissolving into the character quite well. While the grey-colored inner state of the main character surfaced, Maru’s other self took a step back and watched and evaluated the other one in a rational sense.

A tired high school boy. A student who found no joy in life and was afraid of the school. He was pained with diarrhea and stomach aches every Monday morning, yet could not tell his parents that he was being bullied at school. It was a depressing character background, but this place was his shelter. It would be better if the unease inside him slowly leaked throughout in a progressive manner. It would keep increasing as he opens his eyes and goes to the kitchen to eat breakfast then reach its peak when he leaves through the front door.

A self that was trying to understand the psychology of a cornered student and a self that had turned into that student. The important point was to pick out just the advantages of each.

Maru did not know how other actors did their acting. To be exact, he did not want to. Having another, recognizable self was probably not a typical case. It was clear that no one’s acting theory could explain his current situation. Maru intuitively realized that this gift was from god. As the woman in white said, it wasn’t a superhuman power or anything, but it was definitely useful.

Before, when he did the audience-participation act in Daehak-ro with Ganghwan, he saw an illusion that came alongside extreme pain. He had witnessed many instances of what could not be possible: the man and himself standing as though they were close friends. Back then, he wondered if there was a problem with his nervous system and visited the hospital, but there were no anomalies found. Such an accident probably happened because the rational self and the instinctive self were not as distinct as they were now.

“We’re starting the shoot. Please get ready. The camera will keep moving, so bear in mind the camera angle when you take action.”

Hearing Sora’s voice, Maru got his emotions ready. He lied on the mat and watched himself as a 3rd person.

“Ready, action!”

He pushed back Han Maru’s consciousness and put forth the ego that had turned into the main character of the film. Unpleasant emotions stormed inside his body. He extracted the negative emotions from the numerous events in his life. The depressing consciousness soon took over his body.

He then slowly opened his eyes. He looked at the alarm clock placed next to his head. 7:30 a.m. What a painful number.

Being conscious of the camera was the job of the rational self. The instinctive self, which had practically become the main character with method acting, probably could not recognize the camera even if it was within his vision. The instinctive self was really thrown into another world. This was why the directing part had to be done by the self that was aware of everything going on around him.

“Haa.”

He sighed as he stood up. The fact that he had to go to school tightly wrapped around his heart. His body became heavy regardless of his will, and an unpleasant burp kept escaping his mouth. He blankly stared at the clock before standing up. He didn’t want to go, but he had to. He didn’t have the courage to pick the choice of not going.

‘Think about the distance between the camera when walking outside.’

What was for breakfast? This was the only moment he could have any expectations in his day. After breakfast, hell would unfold. He went to the kitchen and lifted the tablecloth[1]. Stir-fried anchovies, cooked beans, and fried fishcakes. At that moment, egg-fried sausages entered his eyes. That little bit of happiness made him smile. At the same time, he was reminded that this might be the last smile of the day.

‘Don’t do any exaggerated actions. Eating is what’s important, not showing that I’m eating. Seeing is the worth of the audience. I just have to eat.’

He scooped out a bit of the cooled rice and put it in his mouth. He looked at the family photo placed at the tip of the table as he stuffed his mouth. He was suddenly reminded of his middle school days. Back then, he got along well with his friends. But what led him to his current state? Once he finished eating, he had to get washed, change his clothes and go to school. Ah, twenty thousand won. He just remembered that he had to bring twenty thousand won today.

“…Fuck.”

Maru calmed his agitated emotions down. The main character of the film was someone who had never expressed any distress in his life. Swearing at the table was the only relief he was allowed. He couldn’t get emotional and smack on the table with the spoon or anything like that. An extremely shy boy - that was the impression he had to show the audience.

‘I guess it’s not that bad until this part.’

The absorbed self ate slowly as though this was the last meal of his life. He felt that it was too artificial and sped up a little. Until last year, he had the tendency to break the immersion when the rational self directly interfered with the instinctive self, but he had now gotten used to it so his emotions did not waver.

As planned, he ate around a third of the rice before putting down his chopsticks. He covered the food with the tablecloth again before slowly standing up. There was a camera right in front of him. At this moment, he had to leave everything to the self immersed in the main character.

I don’t want to go. I don’t want to get washed. I want to stay here. This is bad. I feel like what I just ate is coming back up. What can I do?

“I need to go. I need to go.”

If he had the courage to run away, he might as well have talked to the bullies to stop. He knew that he couldn’t do anything; other than just going to school.

* * *

Ando clenched his teeth. He even held his breath. He instinctively realized that his scene was the best one. Even if they took another shot at this, Maru might not be able to produce this level of quality.

Looking at Maru’s face through the LCD screen of the camera, Ando swallowed his groan. There was no dark makeup on his face, and it wasn’t like the lights were off either. There were fluorescent lights on the ceiling, and Maru’s face had a good color thanks to the light from them. His complexion looked good. However, his expression - those eyes - looked devastatingly depressing. Ando could feel with his body why they called the eyes the window into the soul. It did look a little over the top, but he didn’t think that it was a flaw.

Maru acted as though there was no camera in front of him. But it wasn’t that he wasn’t entirely unaware of it. He moved his head and body slightly so that the contours of his face could be captured on the camera. It was curious. Actors were really different. Ando was realizing the wonders of someone who got paid for acting.

‘That’s right, come slowly. Just a little more, just one more.’

He matched his steps with Maru backwards to the bathroom. His left wrist was screaming at him to rest for quite a while now, but this wasn’t the time for that. He had to capture this fellow. He closed up on the face so that it was at the center, and slowed his breathing down so that the camera did not shake when he was trying to capture Maru, who was looking at the lens with disinterest.

This was one of the things that Sora requested. Maru was not looking at the camera right now. He was looking at the audience that would see this film. Sora intended to throw a question at the audience with this scene by having a similar one right at the end.

As this was the most important cut, he didn’t want to make mistakes. He stepped backwards so slowly that his feet had cramps. When Maru’s feet finally touched the doorsill of the bathroom, Sora said ‘cut’ in an extremely small voice, so small that he would not have heard it if he didn’t focus, even in this silent situation.

Ando definitely heard her voice, but he did not put the camera down.

The main character was still in front of him.

When he breathed about two times, Maru, standing in front of him, suddenly frowned and violently breathed out. From that moment, various noises could be heard as though the silence was broken with a hammer. Ando also spat out his breath as he put down the camera.

No one spoke for quite a while. Even Ando did not. Only after about 10 seconds of silence did Sora say something.

“Hm, I think we finished the shoot, right? Haha.”

Hearing her laugh, Ando finally loosened up his tension. Maru was faintly smiling as well.

“That was awesome! Let’s check the footage for now!” Sora shouted excitedly.

[1] One used to cover the food, not the table itself. Korean people used to do this a lot when leaving food on the table.

Chapter 561

Sora bit on her thumb as she looked at the screen.

A whistleblower-style movie. This movie handled the bullying problem which was present throughout all of society. It was a problem where everyone kept shifting the blame onto others without any proper countermeasures. The objective of this film was to throw a question to the audience who turned a blind eye to such events. It was a common topic, but she thought that it wasn’t good to be greedy so she wasn’t dissatisfied.

Since she decided on a topic, the next course of action was to decide how to play this out. A character-centric film or a story-centric film? Show the entire story or hide some bits of it? As she came to decisions regarding those things, she was set on one rule which had to be prioritized above all else.

It had to be not boring.

Even the best quotes would fall on deaf ears if it was boring. The reason the line ‘slow and steady wins the race’ was formulated into the story of the tortoise and the hare was because a line would never reach other people’s ears no matter how good it was if it was not interesting. The numerous masterpieces that existed in this world could be summed up into a few lines. Love is mighty. Greed calls for misfortune. Effort is the greatest talent. They were words that would be very useful to keep in mind, but those lines were not interesting at all. Without interest, it wouldn’t be eye-catching, and it would not get the chance to leave its mark behind in the heart.

Film was the same. In order to transmit the message that the film was trying to say, it had to be ‘shown’ first. To be shown, it had to attract interest, and interest came from something that wasn’t boring. In the end, even film, which was considered a composite art, had to be ‘interesting’ at the bottom level.

‘This… this is not boring.’

Sora’s eyes followed the video. Maru was sighing as he ate breakfast. This was the beginning of the stage. The audience would get to see Maru waking up and eating at the table without any prior information. There was no background music, nor any loud events. She allocated two minutes to portray Maru before he commuted to school. In a short film that was about 20 to 30 minutes long, 2 minutes was an incredibly long time. No, even in full commercial movies, 2 minutes was long enough to finish a whole action scene or to reveal a plot twist beyond imagination.

She decided to spend such precious two minutes as a long take. There were no gimmicks in the direction, and there was no dramatic plot progress. It could be considered a boring part, but Sora was confident that the people who watched this would never think that it was boring.

After finishing breakfast, Maru put the plates in the kitchen sink[1] and started walking towards the camera. The distance became smaller while Maru’s face became bigger. It was eventually big enough to fit the whole screen. Then, those two eyes that looked like they were looking beyond the screen. Sora could not stop biting the fingernail on her thumb despite the fact that she should stop. She could feel the tension. The quiet swear word uttered at the table inserted a sense of tension in the simple series of actions. Why did he swear? Was there a problem? Why are his eyes like that? It threw such questions, and those curiosities would steal the audience’s attention.

“I’ll watch it just one more time.”

Sora rewinded the video with the mouse and watched it again. The cut that was edited crudely on the spot and the long take were played back in series.

Splitting up cuts and connecting them required editing. A complete piece would only be made after collecting the best cuts for each scene among the hundreds of takes. This was why the skills of the video editor could be considered important.

In that sense, a long take removed any room for interference from editing. Of course, a long take was in itself, just a cut with a long duration, and were targets of editing in the sense that they had to be joined with other cuts, but it was definitely different from the short, chopped-up cuts. Perhaps it would be fitting to call it a ‘lump’. If a scene with a series of short cuts felt light, long takes felt much heavier. A long cut without any switches in the scene. It would feel like the scene was drawing the viewer in.

As such, the actor’s skill was very important when it came to long takes.

Actors had to show flawless acting in front of the camera that kept rolling without end. It might not sound so difficult when considering that it was simply just a longer take than usual, but that extra time became an incredible pressure for the actors. Shooting short cuts were very lenient when it came to NGs. It was a short scene that was about a few seconds long anyway. They just had to keep taking the shots and then try to pick a good one out of many. The overall shooting time wouldn’t be that long after all. This long take was 2 minutes and 36 seconds in its entirety. A small mistake in the middle of the shoot would mean that they had to start over from the beginning.

Sora found out what an incredible pressure that was to the actors as she studied directing. Long takes were about the tension that grabbed and drew the viewers in. A scene that continued without any switch in the perspective gave the sense that the viewers were spending the exact same amount of time as the character in the film. For that scene, one second in the film would mean one second in reality. The tension that came from that part was what would catch the audience’s eyes. In other words, not being able to grab the audience’s interest with that tension would mean that the audience’s expectations would plummet.

Footage that kept going on without any edits had to be ‘crazily’ reliant on the actor’s acting. The skills of the actor would solely decide the quality of the final product.

Actually, Sora was worried a lot before the shoot. It wasn’t a scene where Maru kept sitting down but one where he had to constantly move. Moreover, there were no lines or any other actors in the scene.

One actor had to fill the screen for two minutes without a voice and had to make it not look boring. She started off the shoot thinking that the whole premise was a joke. She originally planned to take a shot at it a few times and then split up the scenes if the progress was too slow. Time was one thing, but she had to keep the actor from getting exhausted.

Contrary to her expectations though, a single take was all that was needed. It wasn’t a scene that just scraped by without making mistakes. It was the ideal picture. Honestly, she didn’t expect Maru to do so well. She did have expectations, and although trivial mistakes were unacceptable in long takes, she decided to make compromises and go to the next.

“Here.”

Sora pressed the spacebar. This part was when Maru was quietly eating, taken diagonally from the back. Sora almost cheered out loud when she saw this part, where she could see a part of Maru’s face from the side.

Sora requested one thing from Maru: to express the main character who doesn’t want to go to school with his whole body. It was easy to say, but expressing that with just a single swear word and a few actions was definitely not simple. Even someone clueless about film would know that. She asked him to do that because she had a lot of expectations of him, despite knowing the fact that it might be impossible. Yet Maru answered her with the greatest result possible.

Maru’s gaze into the lens at the last part of the long take was good, but she could say with confidence that the part where he quietly chewed and swallowed food was clearly the best. It portrayed the depressing current state of the main character. Once the audience sees the bullying at the school, the audience would see an overlap with Maru who was eating very unpleasantly. This was the ideal prelude that planted a mysterious unease in the viewer.

“Now we just have to shoot you changing clothes and leaving the house.”

“Is that it for today?”

Sora nodded at Maru’s question. She originally expected several hours for the shoot, but it ended just 30 minutes after they came to her house. If the end result was not up to par, she would retake it over and over again, but since the first shoot was this good, she did not get the desire to shoot it again. But even so, she did ask just in case.

“Maru-seonbae. What do you think about doing it again? Do you think you can do better?”

“I don’t know. It’s not like I have perfect control over myself. I think that one just now was pretty good though. I was pretty absorbed in it.”

“Then that’s fine.”

“Are you really fine with just one take?”

“Yes. Retaking doesn’t necessarily guarantee that I’ll get something good, and I really like this cut. I can feel your breath from the screen.”

“Don’t put me on a pedestal. You won’t get anything.”

“I really don’t do things like that. However, I do have to say what’s good is good. Don’t you think so too, Ando-seonbae?” Sora asked as she looked at Ando.

Ando would probably agree since he got to watch Maru from up close through the camera.

“It might be somewhat off for me to say this, but I don’t think we’ll get anything better than it. I just feel like that. When I was shooting you from the front, I felt stifled, and that was the first time I felt something like that. It felt like everything just fell into place. Anyway, I’m not Maru, so I can’t say anything about the acting, but I think this is the best we can do. If you tell me to do that again, I don’t think we’ll get the same thing.”

Sora was slightly surprised by Ando saying something so serious. The seonbae that was so opposed to shooting a film at first was talking about the shoot with such a serious face. She felt proud and touched. At that moment, she saw Ando-seonbae massaging his left arm.

“Ah! Wait. I’ll give you some plasters. Let’s take a 10-minute break! Maru-seonbae are you okay with that?”

“I don’t mind. Rather than that, look after his wrist. It’d be a big problem if the camera director is ill,” Maru said.

Sora agreed with him and went to the bedroom to find a plaster.

* * *

The shoot was very short, but the immersion was definitely different; Maru thought that as he looked at the script.

Dramas required long shoots. The shortest was around three hours, and sometimes a shoot would take a whole day. However, to be specific, the combined time of the shoots wasn’t that long. That was because he didn’t appear that much since he was a supporting character. He spent most of his time waiting. A short burst of a shoot followed by a long blank. The time he was absorbed into his character was extremely short. Also, the duration of that immersion was short as well. There were many cases where he just had one line or a short exclamation.

However, the film was different. He was the main character. The camera solely focused on him. That tension and pressure; as well as the black body of the camera and the transparent lens made him feel like he was on stage. It felt like the atmospheric pressure increased, his five senses became more sensitive. During Twilight Struggles, he got absorbed to the point that he lost himself, but back then, it felt more like he was being dragged along. He couldn’t fully control his acting back then and had to have Jiseok step in and help him out.

It wasn’t that he was perfect now. However, he definitely had a better and more precise understanding of how a shoot progressed. He now had the room to think about the camera, the director, the staff, as well as the position of the props naturally on top of being absorbed in acting. It seemed that shooting with other people around his physical age did give him some mental stability. Above all, this shoot didn’t have money on the stakes. This allowed him to focus on acting more than he expected.

“Maru-seonbae. I’m thinking that you should walk out like this. What do you think?”

Sora asked for his opinion as she walked out the door. Being able to consult and tune the film with the director. It was a different experience, and also a good opportunity to learn about how a director sees the film. He realized just how much it helped him study directing when he directly interfered with the directing of the film itself. Miso probably had him help out the film production club for this experience.

Of course, everyone here was an amateur so there was a tendency for everyone to get stuck on the same, unfamiliar problem, but discussing with the others in order to solve that problem helped him expand his thought processes as well.

Actors had to get absorbed in acting and portray someone else through acting, but a director would have to think about how to portray that acting. It seemed that it was good to consider the perspective of the director for a more varied style of acting.

“Why don’t I crumple the back of my shoes?”

“Let’s try both. One where you are wearing them properly and the other with the heels crumpled. I feel that crumpling it might feel better, but you never know without seeing it for yourself.”

Maru nodded. You never know without seeing it for yourself - she was right about that.

“Once we do this, we’ll be done with the beginning parts! Let’s go get something nice to eat after this,” Sora said with a smile.

[1] An error here. He’s supposed to have covered the table cloth without finishing the food.

Chapter 562

“What do you think a good film is about?”

“A good film is a good film.”

“That’s too generic.”

“The question is too abstract, so I can’t help it.”

“That’s why you’re no fun, Maru-seonbae. What do you think, Ando-seonbae? What do you think a good film is?”

“A good film? I guess it is something that a lot of people watch, I guess? If many people watch it that would mean there’s a good message and is entertaining, so that would mean that a good film is something that is watched a lot?”

“No way. Then are all the films in this world that aren't ‘major’ bad films? Because no one watches them?”

“That’s not what I meant.”

“Then what do you mean?”

“If you ask that specifically, I guess I have nothing to say.”

“What the heck.”

Maru quietly ate the fried dumplings during Sora and Ando’s discussion. Sora praised this place for its dumplings in this neighborhood, and indeed, they were really good. It lived up to its reputation. The other members of the film production club, who sat around the table in the living room, didn’t care whether or not their club president and this rookie director were discussing or not and just kept eating. Thinking that they were wise to do so, Maru also moved his hand.

“Maru-seonbae, don’t just keep eating and tell me something.”

“Now what?”

“A good film. Who else would discuss film philosophy in depth if we don’t when we’re the ones making one? All of you, please stop eating and participate in the discussion. The dumplings won’t run away.”

“I wouldn’t be so sure. I think they will run away.”

Maru looked at Sora’s face and put some dumplings in his mouth. Crunch - just as he was feeling bliss from the sound of crumbs breaking apart in his mouth, he saw Sora bring the tablecloth. It was placed on top of the fried dumplings which were still giving off some steam.

“Eat after we talk.”

“Aren’t you overusing your authority?”

“I’m worried because you’re all eating like you’re possessed.”

“Let’s rest when we can. Looking after the health of the staff is one of the director’s jobs. Isn’t that true?”

Maru looked at everyone else in the film club. Everyone nodded as though they were waiting. Sora twitched her cheeks before removing the tablecloth again. The 9 seconds of the forced barrier was over.

“Why don’t you talk about it first? About what a good film is,” Maru said to Sora.

“I asked because I’m not sure.”

“You’re saying that you are not sure, so you must be thinking about something, right? Tell us about that. A film follows the ideals of the director, not the actors or the staff. Tell us what you think a good film is. We’ll come up with something after we hear from you.”

“Maru’s really good at talking.”

Ando gave a thumbs up to Maru. Maru did the same back. A treaty made under the shade of the fried dumplings was formed. While Sora organized her words, the men reached out to the fried dumplings in a busy fashion. Eating was the best course of action here.

“To me, I think a good film is… something that makes you watch twice.”

She made a proud smile after saying those words. It seemed that she quite liked her own answer. Maru briefly counted the number of remaining dumplings. There were still quite a lot left. If he wanted to eat in peace, he had to seal this little director’s mouth shut.

“What if the film is not kind to the audience? What if it’s riddled with trivial foreshadows and tricks that only the director can see, making the audience unable to understand if they don’t watch it two or more times?”

“Hm, I guess you can’t call that a good film.”

Sora licked her lips and fell into thought again. Meanwhile, Maru reached out to the kimchi dumplings. The fried dumplings were good, but the moderately sour kimchi dumplings were incredible as well.

“A film with a lesson… is too obvious. Maybe a good movie is a fun movie after all?”

“We want answers, not questions. Also, pass me that pickled radish over there.”

“Hey, everyone’s thinking about this right? You’re going to have to talk after I finish my part; about what makes a good film.”

Sora passed over the pickled radish with a suspicious gaze.

The members of the film production club started looking at each other worriedly.

Maru also sped up his thought process. This picky director probably won’t let everyone off easy. She indirectly mentioned this topic back when they were buying the dumplings from the restaurant. It was as though she was declaring that these dumplings were the fuel for the discussion. If he actually didn’t say anything after eating the dumplings, she might actually start pecking him like a bird. Maru could always run away with the excuse of going to the acting club, but the next shoot was a problem, so he had to end this somehow.

“I’ll be off to the toilet. It’s a small one.”

Maru looked at Sora, who stood up with a smile on her face just as he was about to put a piece of pickled radish in his mouth. Everyone else looked at her like they chewed on something bitter as well.

“Did she really have to say that?”

“I’m sure she was born as a girl because of a mistake when she was supposed to be born as a boy. Minji, do something about your friend.”

Minji, who was in charge of writing everything down, nodded her head without saying anything. This girl was really shy and did not speak a lot. She was the polar opposite of Sora.

“Maru-seonbae, Ando-seonbae, what are you going to do? From the way she’s talking, it looks like she’s going to talk about it for the whole day.”

“True. She held me back for three hours during editing last time. It still gives me the chills when I think about it.”

The members of the film production club, including Ando, all frowned. Maru did not ask what that was about. He could imagine from just their expressions.

“Should we just decide on an answer ourselves and put an end to the conversation?” One of the juniors from the film production club said.

It was a nice idea. Since this was a discussion, Sora should probably stay quiet if the majority of people said the same thing. She might not like that answer and would keep asking more questions about it, but that shouldn’t last that long.

“So, what is a good film in the end?”

And now, the topic, without its owner, was thrown onto the table again. The only thing left now was to come up with an answer that could satisfy Sora.

“Hm.”

“A good film, huh.”

While Maru washed his mouth with some water, the film production club did not say anything. Somehow, the atmosphere turned strange.

“A good film is an interesting film.”

Maru quickly suggested something since he felt that a whole other discussion was about to take place. According to their original plan, everyone had to accept this answer, but everyone tilted their heads in a serious fashion.

“Then what makes something interesting?”

“Interesting is about being interesting, isn’t it? Like laughing. You don’t say it’s interesting when it’s sad.”

“Does that mean that sad films aren’t good films then?”

“Hm, that’s not right. What do you think, Ando-seonbae?”

“Isn’t ‘being interesting’ a combination of many things? You can say that the four major emotions: happiness, wrath, sadness, and pleasure are all interesting things.”

“Then is a good film something that contains a variety of different emotions?”

“If you think of it like that, every film in this world becomes a good one, you know? There aren’t movies that have no emotions in them. There’s no way there’s a movie about a rock as a protagonist or something.”

“That’s true.”

“What do you think, Maru-seonbae?”

The gazes gathered on him. Maru stroked down his face and sighed in a small voice. They had forgotten about their original objective and walked right into the swamp of discussion.

“Hello, people? If we keep doing this, we might have to do this the whole d…”

“What’s this? You’re talking about something interesting while I wasn’t here?”

Sora’s voice could be heard from behind him. Only then did the film production club widened their eyes in surprise, realizing the seriousness of the situation. Maru shook his head in resignation. Sora sat back down.

“I thought about it in the bathroom… Oh, the bathroom is a really good place to think of ideas. If you can’t think of anything, try going to the bathroom. Anyway, I had an idea about what makes a good film the moment I sat down on the toilet.”

Toilet - Maru scratched his eyebrows as he looked at Sora and Minji who sat next to her. Sora was the one who said those words, but it was Minji whose face turned red. He was reminded of Aram and Jiyoon. Perhaps there were a lot of cases where friends had opposite personalities? Though, compared to these two, Aram and Jiyoon could be considered to have similar personalities. Sora and Minji were actually polar opposites.

“Ehem, listen carefully. A good film is a touching one. It’s a bit obvious, but don’t you think this is the definition of a good movie?”

“That’s right. It’s a clear answer without a better alternative. Our director is really amazing.”

Maru struck first. At the same time, he signalled everyone else with his eyes. Everyone started agreeing and said that Sora was right.

“Right? A good film has to be a touching one, right?”

“Of course. Well, then. We now know what a good film is about. Let’s strive to produce a touching film in the future.” Maru said as he cleaned up.

Since the shoot was over, he just had to go home now. By agreeing with Sora’s conclusion, the discussion came to an end.

“Do you think that way too, Ando-seonbae? That a good film is a touching one?”

“Well, I do.”

“That’s a rather lukewarm answer.”

Maru signalled Ando. This was a trap. An endless, inescapable battlefield of discussion lay ahead of this road. Treading lightly would delay his golden time to go home. He wanted to prevent that at all costs. Of course, he was all for getting inspiration about the film with constructive discussions. That is, under the condition that he wasn’t here.

“It’s just that it’s not like the film we’re shooting is touching.”

“Hm, isn’t it rather dramatic and touching when the main character stops being bullied?”

“For the main character, probably. But at that point, the audience would probably be focusing their attention on the transfer student. A character they were sympathizing with is getting abandoned by the main character, so getting touched from that is a little…”

Ando just had to tread on the taboo area. Sora’s eyes shone. They shone to the point that it was unpleasant and it seemed that Maru wasn’t going home during sunset.

What a group of inconsiderate young people. Maru looked towards the other members of the film production for help, but they had joined the discussion instead. Having finished preparations for battle, the film production started the unending war.

Maru scratched his eyebrows and looked at the others who were gaining energy. He had forgotten for just a moment. These people refused to shoot a film but did not hate film at all. In fact, their main activities before the shoot began were to watch movies and discuss them. They were given a splendid topic of ‘what makes a film good’, so it was obvious that they fell for the trap.

They were all talking about it with joy. Was this youth? It was so brilliant that it was hard to look at. This old man, who was nearing fifty, felt faint because of their clear eyes. His heart was too weak to endure the heat of youth.

“Then I’ll just take my leave…”

He tried to stand up and leave but was immediately caught. It seemed that they didn’t have any intentions of letting him go. A warm shower, a light dinner with some cold beer, and a soft sofa to finish it off. Wasn’t the best rest for a modern man tapping buttons on the remote control before eventually falling asleep? That dream was being blocked by these passionate youths. Maru felt like his soul was escaping his body.

“A good film is a good film.”

“That’s too abstract!”

“There’s no sincerity in that!”

“That’s right, Maru-seonbae. You are an actor, so you have to give me something better than that!”

Urgh, he felt his head aching. He wanted to run away to the acting club. He wanted to run to the boring shooting location.

“Everyone, a good film is one that makes a lot of profit,” Maru said in a small voice.

“What the heck? I will not accept an answer that’s too tainted by money,” Sora remarked.

“She’s right, that’s going a bit too far. Art isn’t about money.”

Ando shook his head.

“Right. Art is truly art when it’s independent of money. Oh! What about this? A good film is something that’s independent of capital. In that sense, independent movies are good films.”

“No way. There are lots of good commercial films as well. Does that mean that The Godfather is a bad movie? No, right?”

The members of the club spoke one after another.

After listening to the film theory coming out of everyone’s mouths, Maru quietly spoke,

“Uhm, got some soju??”

Everyone looked at him once before continuing their discussion as though nothing had happened.

Maru lied on his side like a pill bug and curled his body.

Man in his forties, dried out by the heat of youth, sleeps here.

“Seonbae! Say something for our film.”

“I think this is an important problem.”

Maru blocked his ears and shook his head.

These were scary people.

Chapter 563

Geunsoo opened the door to the shabby-looking Soondae-gukbap restaurant, the place of his appointment. Two flies buzzed past his ears. The electric fans installed on the two walls of the restaurant made pitiful noises as the fans rotated around. There didn’t seem to be any air conditioning. An alleyway split this part of the area into a forest of buildings and a shanty town. Perhaps Seoul was built to show what the gap between the rich and poor was like?

“Over here!”

He saw someone wave from one of the seats inside. Geunsoo smiled and walked over.

“I’m honored that journalist Kim Dongwook has called for me, but isn’t this too shabby for an interview?”

“Should we meet in a high-class restaurant next time then?”

“I was just joking, hyung. So this is the restaurant you come to a lot, huh.”

“You won’t know when this place will disappear.”

The lady chopping up spring onions at the table in front of the TV said ‘bullshit’ in a loud voice as though she had heard what Dongwook just said.

“See that? I’m one of the main sources of income here, and yet that’s the treatment I get.”

“Your job is to get sworn at though.”

“Right. Journalists get sworn at by others. Only then can they live a plentiful life. Journalist Awards and things like that aren’t that good since most people that get them are probably injured. Receiving back-hand money and treats to meals while writing is the splendid standard of a journalist. Oh, you haven’t eaten yet, have you?”

Dongwook shouted ‘one gukbap please!’ in a loud voice. A reply came from the kitchen, saying ‘shur’. It seemed that the owner here was quite old.

“I heard you’re doing a movie?”

“There was no official announcement, so I’m surprised that you know about it already.”

“Of course I do. Your president told me everything so that I can release articles at the right time.”

“Oh, my president? What does your president do?”

“My boss? I’m guessing he must be looking at some papers while drinking some tea for his health?”

“What a coincidence. My president should be doing business while drinking tea now too. Is that tea perhaps red ginseng tea?”

“What a coincidence indeed. My boss likes red ginseng tea too. He likes to smoke and drink but drinks red ginseng tea for his health. How romantic is that? Moreover, he is so patriotic that he likes to buy alcohol and cigarettes, the two most taxed items in the country. He’s the taxpayer of the year.”

Geunsoo laughed silently. Junmin did say things like that from time to time; that he looked after his health in order to drink and smoke.

“I haven’t seen you lately at the company. Where have you been?”

“Our president Lee Junmin is quite picky, you know? He instructed me to do so many things that I haven’t had time to come to the company. I wonder why I joined JA in the first place. I should’ve just stuck to internet writing.”

“Who was it that liked it when he got a fat paycheck and even an office-tel to live in?”

“That, I must agree. Though, I don’t like how I have to leave the house to smoke.”

“Why don’t you take this opportunity to quit?”

“Why don’t you tell me to die instead? It’s too cruel to tell me to quit smoking when even the strong president Lee can’t do that.”

Just as Dongwook grabbed the cigarette he placed on his ear, the soondae-gukbap came out. Just looking at that steaming food made Geunsoo sweat.

“Try eating it without the additional condiments. It’s really good. Even Maru, who has childish tastes, emptied it in one go, so don’t worry about the smell.”

“Maru might be a kid, but I’m not sure about him having childish tastes.”

“Is that so? Well, I guess that’s true. I subconsciously end up ordering a bottle of rice wine if I eat gukbap with him. If I do, he puts out his glass so boldly. It’s flabbergasting. But what’s even more absurd is that I end up pouring one for him. I want to see him drunk once, but I’ve never gotten the chance.”

“Now that I think about it, I don’t think I’ve ever seen Maru drunk. I had a chance to drink with him a few days ago, but his facial color didn’t change at all.”

“Hey, you leaving me out like that? Are actors bullying journalists or what?”

“Suyeon was there too. Should I have called you?”

“She was there too? Then forget it. I’m a bit scared of her.”

“Isn’t ‘scared’ going a little too far even though we belong to the same company?”

“Like you haven’t said the same thing until a while ago. How’s it these days?”

“How’s what these days?”

“What do you mean what? I’m talking about your progress. If you’re going to date someone in the company, then tell me beforehand. Oh, also the marriage announcement.”

“If you keep doing this, I’ll just leave, okay?”

“There you go again. It’s not like you are completely opposed to it.”

“Family members shouldn’t do that.”

“Tell me honestly. Do you really have no thoughts about it at all?”

“At this current state, well, I just got an uncute little sister.”

“You never know what might happen between a man and a woman. Little sister this, little sister that might eventually become honey this, honey that.”

“Why are you doing this to me? Hey, you seemed to be meeting that other journalist frequently these days.”

“That other journalist? Who?”

“Miss Choi Miyeon from Sharon, was it? The pretty journalist who’s wasted on you.”

“Her? Don’t make me laugh. She’s a junior of mine, and I’m hanging out with her only because of some headaching matters. After that’s done, I’m not going to meet her again.”

“A certain someone said that junior this, junior that will become honey this, honey that.”

“Sheesh. Do the people at JA drink olive oil for breakfast? Why are they so good with their tongues?”

“You aren’t better off. I mean, you belong to JA too.”

They stopped talking and Geunsoo focused on eating for a while. He didn’t add any additional condiments, but the savory taste filled his mouth.

“How about some drinks to go with it?”

“I brought my car, so I can’t. Didn’t you bring your car as well?”

“I’ll be the only one drinking then, so take me home later.”

“What about the opposite?”

“What a cruel guy.”

“I can say the same thing to you. Also, drinking when the sun is still high up in the sky is a bit, you know. Plus, looking for alcohol when you aren’t supposed to be drinking is negligence of duty.”

“It’s already well-known in the industry that drinking one glass increases business efficiency. Even a renowned medical journal talked about it.”

“Which medical journal?”

“Kim Dongwook medical journal.”

“What a quack medical journal.”

After finishing off the food, Geunsoo made two cups of stick coffee before coming back to the table. After giving one to Dongwook, he drank a sip.

“But hey, what are you really doing these days? I feel like it’s even harder to see you than when you weren’t in JA.”

“I told you. The president has me do a lot of things.”

“Junmin-seonbae told me the opposite though.”

“What did he say?”

“That he’s not telling you to do anything because you look busy. Apparently, he’s not interfering with your work because of the freelancer-like contract. What do you think about that?”

Dongwook drank the coffee without saying a word. Geunsoo noticed that something was going on.

“Are you still chasing that president of the production company?”

“That’s my normal schedule. It’s still one of the big topics for journalists who have set foot into the film industry.”

“The police still haven't announced anything, have they?”

“There are a few, but they’re all useless. The individual investors who got ripped off by that company have been nagging the involved department for nearly a year now, so the police must be having a hard time too.”

“Maybe he fled the country?”

“That’s a big possibility, but one of the rumors floating around says that it’s likely that he’s still in the country. That he’s not getting caught because some bigshot is looking after him.”

“Looking after a scammer like that?”

“The investment funds from the forgone movie are mostly from individual investors, right? It’s almost 10 billion won too. 10 billion isn’t a small amount to hide a criminal. We live in a world where murders happen because of a million won.”

“The people that shot like mad didn’t get anything out of it too. How sad.”

“You and Sooil were just unlucky. But at least you got a commercial movie again, right? Ahn Sungjae from TTO will mean that it’ll go past the break-even point at least. Just take the number of his fans and multiply it by two. How many views is that?”

“That’s why I’m going to rely on Sungjae this time.”

“Yeah right. You and Yang Ganghwan are both lunatics crazy for acting, aren’t you?”

“Journalist, your selection of words is too beautiful.”

“I know a lunatic when I see one. Are you surprised by my precise choice of words?”

“Fine, I lost. I shouldn’t have tried.”

Geunsoo smiled and put down the paper cup.

“But that’s not what you’re busy with. The journalist from Sharon shouldn’t be chasing the 10 billion won scam incident, so, what are you two up to?”

“All I can say is that I’m trying to help out a junior with a just mindset. That girl is reducing my lifespan by the second. It’s a vague problem to release to the public, but she keeps going at it like mad. Thanks to her, only I’m having a hard time.”

“Is it something I shouldn’t know about?”

“It’s not like that, but it’s not something good to hear as you’re working in the same pool.”

“So it’s about actors, huh? Some scandal?”

“Scandals look cute in comparison. Once dear journalist Choi Miyeon procures evidence and witnesses, it’ll become really noisy. Well, actually, it’s likely that it’ll be put under the bus like before. Some actors will have to leave the industry for good.”

“Sounds like a problem with sexual service?”

“Good intuition.”

“The only things of issue in this field are either sex tapes or sexual services. A female journalist is digging into this?”

“She’s a fearless kid, that’s for sure. She doesn’t get at all that things will go really bad if she takes the wrong step. You should know that many actor agencies also have ties with mafia groups. There was one a while ago right? An actor who was threatened regarding switching agencies.”

“There was.”

“The world sure has gotten scary. Before, when you talked about the mafia, they were mostly just big burly guys who let their fists do the talking. Of course, there were some who went around swinging sashimi knives. Anyway, it was visible violence, right? Usually, there was no need to go as far as swinging around sharp objects. That was why it was usually a matter of getting beaten up a couple of times. If you get beaten, you can go to the police. Of course, there would be a few problems after that, but at least it didn’t threaten your life.”

Dongwook smiled bitterly.

“But what about now? The thing in the mafia’s hands is not a sashimi knife but money. You are at least better off if they have sashimi knives. At least you can try to dodge it if you see it coming. With money, you can’t do that. You can’t see it, yet it strangles your neck. Legally, too.”

“Do you think that actor can return to the TV media?”

“Probably not. The opposing agency is pretty big. If that agency declares that programs would not have access to the actors in their agency if that actor showed up on TV, who would the producer of that program listen to? People use money fairly, as well as underhandedly. How can an individual win against that? Anyone other than a top star wouldn’t last.”

“I’m not sure about the TV media, but it’s quite a dirty place, isn’t it?”

“It is. Advertisers are businesses while the mafia are the ones who decide which actors go where. Actors are powerless to do anything about it. In that sense, perhaps people like Suyeon are wise instead. At least she’s created her own net of safety.”

“Maybe. But is this different to the sexual service accident from before?”

“Take what I’m going to tell you from now on as all lies. Don’t talk about it anywhere either.”

Geunsoo nodded.

“You know Lee Miyoon right?”

“Of course I do.”

“We’re acting under the assumption that that woman is the broker. There’s nothing I can say for sure since all I have is circumstantial evidence, but if the things we found out until now turn out to be true, it’ll become interesting.”

“Doesn’t sound that interesting to me.”

Geunsoo finished the remaining coffee in one go before standing up.

“Where are you going?”

“To pick up my uncute junior.”

“Junior who?”

“Maru. The director wanted to meet him.”

“The director of the film you’re about to shoot?”

“Yes.”

“Maru was cast in it as well?”

“No. He just wants to see the boy personally. Are you going to stay here longer?”

“I also have an appointment in a while. I’m going to loiter around here before I go there though.”

“Then I’ll take my leave first. Also, if it’s dangerous, be careful out there.”

“Don’t worry about that. Unlike missy junior with a just mindset, I’m very worried about myself. I’ll go find you for an interview not too long from now, so try to come up with some things to talk about. I’ll write you up a good one.”

“Isn’t that supposed to be the interviewer’s job?”

“Let’s not mind that when we’re the same family. Oh yeah. What’s your relationship with Mr. Hong Janghae?”

“Legally, I’m his son.”

“I see.”

“If that dude went around doing something, please tell me about it. I’ll tell you all I know.”

“That escalated quickly. I’m asking because I was reminded of an interview I did with him. You have a splendid father, eh?”

“He’s splendid, in many ways. Let me take my leave now.”

Geunsoo made a bitter smile before leaving the restaurant.

It was 2 p.m. on a Sunday. According to the schedule, Maru’s shoot should have finished by now. Geunsoo got in his car and started it up. It should take around 30 minutes to get to the middle school where the shoot takes place.

Chapter 564

“Are you a person from the school?”

“No. I’m here to meet producer Park Hoon who’s shooting here.”

“Ah, I see.”

The youth nodded before making way while gesturing to someone. Geunsoo parked his car before getting off. The school parking lot had a few vans, presumably belonging to some of the actors.

There was no one on the school field, so they were probably all shooting inside. He walked inside the school building through the right entrance. The 1st floor was very quiet, so he took the stairs to the 2nd floor. He started hearing voices halfway up the stairs. It was someone’s bold voice. It seemed that the shoot was still going on. Geunsoo walked close to the wall worried that he might interrupt them. He saw some staff members surrounding the monitor in the corridor and in the middle of them was producer Park Hoon. He got to know Park Hoon through director Choi Joonggeun not too long ago. The guy who lives a tiring life and refuses all ‘requests’ from agencies - that was Joonggeun’s introduction of Park Hoon. After that, they rarely met because they worked in different parts of the industry, but still maintained contact.

He leaned against the wall and watched the shoot for a long time. He saw some students absorbed in acting through the classroom window. He also saw Maru, sitting in the corner of the classroom. It was actually quite weird to see him in glasses.

“Okay, let’s take a break,” Park Hoon said.

The quiet corridor became noisy in an instant. The staff, who were crammed in the narrow corridor, sighed in relief and scattered around. Geunsoo smiled at the staff members who glanced at him as they walked past before approaching Park Hoon.

“Director.”

“Oh, you’re here. Looks like you have lost some weight since the last time I saw you.”

“I have to reduce my weight.”

“Working on something?”

“Just one.”

“A film?”

“Yes.”

“Joonggeun, that fella, always said that you’d become big one day. Do you think this will be the piece that will make it happen?”

“Actually, I’m not that interested in popularity. If it goes well, it’s good, and if it doesn’t, I’ll be satisfied as long as I can enjoy acting.”

“Investors wouldn’t want to hear that.”

“That’s why I’m telling you about it in a small voice.”

Park Hoon laughed in a small voice as well.

“So? What brings you here? Doesn’t look like you’re here to see me.”

“I am here to see you, on the side anyway.”

“Well, thanks for that. Coming here to see me on the side. So, why are you here?”

“To take him.”

Geunsoo pointed at Maru, who was looking at the script in his seat.

“Han Maru, you mean?”

“Yes.”

“You two know each other?”

“We belong to the same agency. He’s a junior at school before that though.”

“Gimme a sec. Where did Maru belong again?”

“JA. Of course, that makes me a JA person too.”

“Right. The kid under Lee Junmin. Is the president doing well?”

“He’s doing a little too well that it’s making us tired.”

“The people who live busily are mostly healthy. Folks like me, who move busily once in a blue moon due to work usually die from over exhaustion. Is the president still finding new talent?”

“I’m not so sure. He likes working by himself, but I think he meets them at least once or twice a year. He met Maru like that too.”

“His eyes for actors are incredible. He keeps picking up gems in this vast land like picking up rocks. If he sets his mind to it, he’ll probably take all the gems for himself.”

Geunsoo stayed quiet while Park Hoon gave out orders and just looked around. The shooting location was filled with vitality. Lots of equipment and even more numerous people. This was hard to see at indie movie shoots where they had a limited budget.

Young people, who seemed to be actors, walked in front of the director. They glanced at him, curious about who the new guy next to the director was. Geunsoo smiled and looked at them. The people that met eyes with him greeted him awkwardly before walking away.

“Looks like you aren’t popular at all.”

“I have no ties with dramas after all.”

“Why don’t you ask the president to get you one? With his connections, you’ll be cast in a mini-series from the three main stations in an instant.”

“I like films for now. Before, I was a die-hard fan of plays, but ever since I shot a movie, I fell in love with it.”

“You’re in a different league, you’re saying?”

“Don’t people value drama actors more highly these days?”

“If it is about the money, it does look like dramas will surpass film soon, but there’s a difference in mindset that will never be overcome. Especially among actors.”

“Fortunately, I don’t have anything like that.”

“That, I know. If you were that kind of person, you’d have probably splashed drinks at me on the day you met me with Joongjin.”

“Looks like I’ll have to be careful with my words in front of you next time. When’s Maru’s scene going to finish?”

“I think it’ll take about an hour, give or take. Since you’re here, why don’t you take a look around? Even if you decided to rot in the film industry for life, you won’t know what will happen. You might end up working with me.”

“If that happens, please take care of me.”

“If it’s JA Production, I’m the one who’s thankful.”

Geunsoo accepted a cold drink from Park Hoon.

“How’s Maru?”

“He’s good. He’s a pro.”

“In what sense?”

“In the sense that he does just enough for the money he gets.”

“Hahaha.”

“I’m not saying it in a bad sense. He knows what kind of role he has. It’s not like he doesn’t have any desires, but he doesn’t think about overdoing things so that he can rise up. Also, it’s quite fun to see him from time to time. He’s the boss at acting.”

“Boss? What do you mean?”

Park Hoon pointed at the three people in the corner of the classroom. Maru, a boy with a sharp-looking face, and a girl in her early twenties were sitting in a group. Maru seemed to be at the center.

“If you keep watching them, Maru really knows how to match the others. At first, I thought that was just his personality, but whaddya know? I found out that he’s acting excited on purpose after I talked to him.”

Just then, laughter could be heard from the three of them. The boy with the sharp-looking face grabbed Maru by the collar and shook him. Maru, who was grabbed, laughed like a little prankster.

“He knows that that’s what’s good for him. To be precise, he knows that it benefits him,” Geunsoo said.

Two years ago, Miso called him excitedly about being an acting instructor at Woosung High and then one day called him again in an angry voice. The situation was quite simple. A conflict occurred in the acting club, and Maru just solved it in one go. Geunsoo asked her why it wasn’t a good thing since it was solved. When he heard his method though, it wasn’t something to laugh about.

Maru’s ways were quite extreme. There was a quite commonly used expression that went ‘you need an external enemy to put down internal conflict’. Maru literally became that external enemy to extinguish the conflict within the acting club. The people that growled at each other became of one mind and turned their hostility to him. A boy in his 1st year of high school did not hesitate at all when breaking apart his own personal relationships. Even adults had a hard time making right of wrong relationships. His lack of hesitation, his choice, and his actions - Maru decided to be the devil’s advocate, and as a result of that, the relationship between everyone else, except him, became sturdier.

When he heard that, Geunsoo thought that it was quite like him. On the day he first met Maru, on that rooftop, and during that get-together, he had a brief glimpse at what was inside him. A kid who was realistically worried about an unrealistically far future. Someone who was strangely fixed on efficiency. The fighting spirit or recklessness usually possessed by boys around his age did not exist inside him, and he was only thinking about how to stably gather income.

He had definitely changed a lot now compared to two years ago, but he still did not hesitate to put himself down for the environment. Some might call it a sacrifice, but in Geunsoo’s mind, that was definitely not it. During the acting club incident two years ago, if Maru received practical damages as a result of his actions, Maru would not have played the devil’s advocate. It might be a cold evaluation of him, but back then, the acting club was perhaps just one of the ants on the road, which he could give up at any moment without any consequences to his feelings. Of course, while the individuals that were a part of that club might be important, the frame that was known as the acting club was probably useless to him.

“He’s an interesting kid. He doesn’t try to look cool. He’s not doing that in order to look good. Should I call him a natural? He’s just naturally used to doing things like that. It's like how I smile at my president even if I don’t want to.”

“He’s a realistic kid after all. Wasn’t there a problem at the beginning of the shoot?”

“There was. The boy next to Maru is called Dongho. He has decent skills, but we couldn’t make progress with the shoot because he froze up. I watched him and thought about calling him out separately to talk to him about it, but Maru struck first.”

“What did he do?”

“He shouted a bunch of swear words out the window, saying that it was vocal exercise.”

“Oh my lord.”

“Back then, I thought he was a little weird in the head. But when I watched him, it turned out that he’s really smart, eh? Should I say that he thinks deeply? Or that he uses his brain in a sneaky way. Thanks to that, I grab him from time to time to talk.”

“You found a good conversation partner huh.”

“But it really feels quite weird to talk to him. Maybe I’m an idiot for complaining in front of a high school kid when I’m over forty.”

“He’s someone who even talks to sir Yoon Moonjoong over a drink.”

“Seriously?”

“He’s one of the drinking friends that he cherishes.”

“Now I feel even more that I should get closer to him. One of my wishes was to shoot a drama with senior Yoon too. Maybe I’ll get to talk to him if I ask him?”

“Sure, you can try. I’m not sure it’ll work on him though.”

Park Hoon laughed silently before waving his hand. Geunsoo also knew that he was joking. He was someone who detested ‘requests’. Of course, he’d probably welcome a light meeting to get close.

“Can I watch while you shoot?”

“Sure. It’d be even better if you can teach them. There are many cases where hidden experts teach young disciples.”

Geunsoo shrugged before stepping back. Park Hoon looked at his watch before telling everyone that they should start getting ready. When the staff members around him talked into the walkie-talkie a few times, the scattered staff members and actors all returned to the classroom.

Geunsoo found the face of someone who he wanted to avoid and quickly turned away. However, it seemed that he couldn’t escape that woman’s field of vision.

“Geunsoo-oppa. What brings you here?”

‘She was the teacher-in-training, right.’ Seeing Suyeon wearing formal attire, Geunsoo made an awkward smile.

“Are you here to see me?”

“You know that I’m not.”

“Acting embarrassed, are you? How cute.”

“Why don’t you trust me?”

Suyeon smiled before leaning forward towards his face. Geunsoo became slightly flustered and took a step back. He could get back at her if she used words, but he was defenseless if she attacked him physically like this.

“What a pity. If there weren’t any eyes around, I would’ve left a hickey.”

"Phew……”

"I’m happy that I'm getting to know your weaknesses, Geunsoo-oppa. But what really brings you here? Are you here for me? Or is it for him?"

Suyeon pointed at Maru. Geunsoo nodded.

"How cruel. You came to meet a boy instead of a cute girl like me."

“I get it so get going already. The shoot must be starting soon."

"They're still getting ready."

"Then go check your script or something."

“I can recite everything, including other people’s lines without a single mistake.”

Geunsoo sighed in a small voice. It was easier to deal with her when he completely ignored her before, but now that they had gotten a little closer, he felt like she was leading him by the nose. Not to make excuses, but at times like these, he regretted not dating because he was busy. He honestly didn’t know how to deal with women like her.

“You’ll hate me if I tease you too much, so I’ll let you off here. Then, see you later.”

Suyeon waved her hand and walked into the classroom. Geunsoo tried to put on a poker face in order to endure the gazes of the staff who looked at him with weird gazes. He then met eyes with Maru inside the classroom, and Maru smiled as though he understood everything.

‘I suddenly feel exhausted.’

Geunsoo crossed his arms and leaned against the wall.

It was time to remind himself of the scariness of creatures known as women.

Chapter 565

“Who’s the person next to the director? They seem close,” Joomin tilted her head as she said that.

“A person from the TV station, probably. Rather than that, noona, let’s try the lines over here,” Dongho said while picking up the script.

Joomin, who was looking at the director, turned her attention to the script.

“You two can do it by yourself for now. I need to send a text.”

Maru leaned back in the chair and started typing. After sending the text, he got a reply soon. It was from Geunsoo.

-Don’t worry about me and just focus on the shoot.

Maru put his phone in his pocket and joined in the read-through. In the middle of their practice, Joomin suddenly interrupted.

“To think that the episode after the one about first love is about bullying, huh. That changed quickly.”

“Maybe it’s to show that it’s not a sweet youth love story. But noona, who’s going to be the bullied kid?”

“I’m not sure. Apparently, they’re a one-off character for episode 15.”

“I wonder who it is.”

“Don’t you think it’s likely that they’re going to bring someone from an academy?”

Maru listened to the conversation between Dongho and Joomin as he scanned his script. As the scene wasn’t that long, there was no room for mistakes. If the shoot progressed without a hitch, it would end in around 30 minutes.

“Maru, don’t you know something?”

“Me?”

“Yeah.”

Joomin looked at him expectantly. Dongho was the same.

“I don’t know anything either.”

“Really? I thought you of all people would know something.”

“How would I know anything about the drama’s production schedule?”

“You talk to the director from time to time, don’t you? Weren’t you talking about the drama?”

“No, it’d be tiring to talk about work during breaks. The director is human too.”

“Then what do you talk about? From what I saw last time, you talked for quite a long time over a cup of coffee.”

“Just about this and that. Fishing, real estate, hidden good restaurants, and stuff like that. We just talk about what’s going on in the world.”

“Really?”

“Don’t think that the director is hard to handle. He only acted scary in order to scold us a bit. He’s a soft man at heart.”

At that moment, they saw director Park Hoon shout at the assistant director. Joomin and Dongho narrowed their eyes and looked at Maru.

“He’s only like that to the assistant director. You know the saying that goes: a lion pushes its cubs off the cliff to raise them strong.”

“I still find it hard to talk to him. Of course, I’m sure that he’s a good person since he listens to us a lot.”

“He’s a superior in terms of work after all. It can’t be helped. It’s not like he’s someone who would push you away just because you approach him though, so if you want to talk to him, try buying him a cup of coffee. He’ll ask what’s up.”

Maru looked at Joomin after saying those words. Joomin nodded in understanding.

“Hey, hey. There they are,” Dongho said as he tapped on Maru’s shoulder.

Maru turned his gaze to where Dongho was pointing. While the shoot was on a small break, some people came from YBS. It was the reporter and shooting team of the main program for YBS’s entertainment channel ‘The Entertainment Show.’

“It’s Nam Joongyeon,” Dongho said.

Maru remembered that man as well. When he was shooting ‘The Witness’ a while back, he came to the set. He found out then that he was one of the crucial reporters in ‘The Entertainment Show’. Joongyeon, wearing a casual suit, was interviewing the 3 main characters of New Semester.

To the left was Ahn Yeseul, the main-main character, and next to her was Kang Giwoo, followed by Park Jichan. The shooting staff for New Semester had left the scene temporarily so as to not disrupt them.

“I wonder what they’re talking about,” Joomin said, resting her chin on her hands.

“They’re probably being asked why the drama is performing well and stuff like that. Ah, I wonder why we don’t have any interviews. Those three look like they’re doing a lot,” Dongho complained.

It had been nearly two months since New Semester went on air. It showed a steady increase in viewing rate until the 4th episode, which was aired on the last week of March, and at the start of April, the viewing rate surpassed ‘Youth Generation’ which was aired by RBS. These two dramas were similar in the sense that they centered around a girl, but Youth Generation focused on looking into the girl’s heart, while New Semester focused on provoking sympathy by talking about many different topics.

To resolve the conflict between generations. These were the words from writer Lee Hanmi, who was in charge of the script for New Semester. Her starting point seemed to have been finding something the two generations could sympathize on. Perhaps thanks to that, New Semester received good reviews from both the student demographic as well as the parent demographic.

‘There are many people who state that they’re parents on the forums after all.’

It was natural for a TV company to promote their own drama when it was doing well. The fact that Nam Joongyeon was here proved that those three were popular.

“I want to do the interview too.”

“Go and ask if you can join,” Maru said.

Dongho snorted.

“Don’t you think they would call us?”

Joomin looked at the shooting team for The Entertainment Show, slightly expectant. Maru thought that there was a possibility. It wasn’t anything special, but they would definitely go on the program as a ‘no-name actor’ who shouts ‘Fighting!’[1] at the end with a group photo. Whether that could be called an interview was a different question.

“I think it’s almost over now.”

Maru saw Joongyeon stand next to the three actors. It seemed that he was about to finish the shoot with a closing comment. Some people from The Entertainment Show team talked with Park Hoon. Something along the lines of a ‘thank you for your cooperation’ conversation was probably going on between them.

“Actors, please come here.”

A staff member from The Entertainment Show team called the rest of the actors. Joomin and Dongho stood up excitedly. Even Okseon, who had been sitting down quietly this whole time, combed her hair before walking over to the main actors. Maru put on the glasses that he had taken off. From the way they were called as a group, it was definitely not an interview.

“Stand here, here and here. Can you bend your knees just a little? Yes, yes. That looks good.”

The three main characters stood at the front while the four supporting characters stood behind them. Maru looked at Dongho and Joomin through the corner of his eyes. They looked slightly disappointed, but they soon smiled and raised their fists in the air.

“Well, then. Once I give you the signal, shout ‘New Semester, fighting!’. Follow that with ‘Give us lots of love!’ with Energy, okay?”

They shouted fighting at the cameraman’s signal.

“That was good. Thank you all.”

That was it. Maru yawned slightly before returning to the classroom.

“They should’ve let us talk a bit as well.”

“I looked forward to it too. What a pity.”

The two lied down on the desk as they spoke. Maru patted both of them on the back.

“Looks like Suyeon-seonbae gets an interview of her own.”

Maru saw the team from The Entertainment Show switch places, taking Suyeon with them since she didn’t appear in the next part. It seemed that her interview was going to be on the show to show a contrast between her and the child actors. The noisy shooting location became quiet again. The staff, who were resting, returned to their places and started preparing for the shoot.

“It would’ve been good if everyone could do it. Now, I’m feeling sorry.”

Giwoo said that as he approached. Joomin waved her hand and said that that wasn’t true.

“Noona, I’ll try telling them next time. That they should interview us together.”

“Don’t push it. They have their own circumstances. It’s only right that the main characters do the interview,” Joomin said as she looked at Giwoo.

Giwoo made an apologetic expression.

“Dongho, when they come for an interview next time, I’ll try to sneak you in there.”

“Hey, hey. You’ll get scolded.”

“You never know. They might let us go thinking that we’re cute. You have a good sense of humor after all. Once people find out, they would definitely approach you for an interview first.”

“Well, I do have a good sense of humor.”

“I hope that we can do the interview together next time.”

“True.”

Giwoo’s eyes headed towards Maru. Maru smiled and just looked back. Giwoo faintly smiled without saying anything before turning around.

“Giwoo has good eyes.”

Maru just smiled at Dongho, who shrugged. Just when they were planning to prepare for the shoot after talking, Maru met eyes with Okseon, who was sitting at a table far away. Okseon flinched before turning her head around.

“Did you two get into a fight?” Joomin asked worriedly.

It seemed that she saw that just now.

“I kinda let my tongue slip in front of her.”

“You should get that resolved quickly.”

“Yes, noona, I will do that. Okseon is a good girl so she should accept my apology.”

“Yeah, she probably would. Oh, yeah. I didn’t talk about it last time, right? I asked Okseon if she would eat dinner with us like you told me, and she accepted for the first time.”

“Thanks to that, I had an unpleasant time eating. Okseon, that kid doesn’t say a word, and Joomin-noona had to keep talking.”

Dongho sighed.

“But it was quite unexpected, you know?”

“What was?”

“Okseon didn’t say much back then, but everything she did talk about was related to you. I thought that she might be interested in you or something, but from the looks of it, that doesn’t seem to be the case. Maybe she has a hard time dealing with you.”

Maru nodded before giving Okseon a glance. He couldn’t see her expression since she had her head turned away, but Maru could imagine what she felt. She probably asked how Maru acted normally. She probably tried to find out what kind of person Maru was, and the replies that Dongho and Joomin gave her probably made her feel even more chaotic.

“Actors, please get ready.”

They returned to their seats when a staff member made the announcement. Maru put the script inside the desk drawers before walking over to Okseon.

“Let’s not concern ourselves with each other so much. I didn’t do anything wrong to you, did I?”

“Uh, yeah.”

“So, did you decide to talk to Giwoo about it?”

“No, I thought it would be better if I improved myself.”

“If you did, then I guess that’s that taken care of. Let’s get along together in the future, okay? As coworkers.”

He lightly waved at Okseon before sitting down. He felt Okseon’s gaze but did not bother looking back. She was a smart kid, so she should have understood the meaning behind his words. She probably wouldn’t see him again with a stiff expression again.

“Did you apologize?” Joomin asked with a bright smile.

“Yes, noona,” Maru replied.

* * *

“If it’s about JA Production, I guess I can’t leave out talking about president Lee Junmin.”

“This is why being a part of JA is sometimes quite pressuring. They always talk about the president.”

“Haha, we can’t help it. He’s one of the few agency CEOs who is getting a lot of attention from the public. Everyone that went through his hands became high class actors, so we can’t help it.”

“Hm, does that make me one of the high class actors as well?”

“You always were, Miss Suyeon.”

“Really? Looks like I should thank the president.”

Nam Joongyeon flipped over a page.

“Mr. Yoo Sooil, who’s been getting a lot of attention recently, also belongs to JA, doesn’t he?”

“Yes. You can look forward to his future.”

“That same person recently revealed that you acted incredibly badly when drunk in an interview with another media. There’s even a rumor that you cry in a cute way.”

“I do? Oh, how embarrassing. I’m not good at drinking. I just drink to go with the flow, and I believed that I didn’t have any bad drunk habits until now. I wonder why no one told me about it.”

“Maybe it was because you were cute.”

Suyeon covered her mouth and laughed before slapping Joongyeon’s arm lightly.

“But that might be Sooil’s lie. Sooil still can’t drink because he’s a minor.”

“He testified that he heard about it from another senior actor.”

“Oh, is that so?”

“Actually, we have a voice recording of Miss Suyoen’s cute drunk speech. I will play this for a brief moment during the broadcast.”

“Please don’t. It’s really embarrassing.”

“Misters, pay attention. It will only last a brief moment.”

Joongyeon flipped over the page after that. Suyeon raised her hand slightly.

“Please wait.”

“Ah, yes. Miss Suyeon.”

“I’m a bit thirsty.”

Suyeon drank some water. Forcefully smiling was definitely taxing. She knew that only a few seconds of this long interview would show up in the actual program, but she had to act as a cheerful and bright actress since she wanted that brief moment to last as long as possible.

“Sorry about that. Please continue.”

“Okay, then I’ll start where we left off.”

Obvious questions came after that. She barely held herself back from yawning, and the interview eventually ended. It was an interview in name only. Since they interviewed a bunch of kids who weren’t good with words, they probably lacked content for editing and seemed to have decided to fill up the rest with this interview.

“Thank you for the interview.”

“Thank you too.”

She felt tired. Suyeon stood up before walking over to the classroom next door, where the shoot was in progress. It was a short scene, so it should have finished by now. Just as she had expected, they were cleaning up and getting ready to move.

“I wonder where my darling Mr. Geunsoo has gone.”

He was definitely someone who would leave without saying his goodbyes. She yawned slightly and leaned against the wall. Just then, Nam Joongyeon, who followed her out of the classroom, looked inside before walking in. She wondered who he was going to. Breaking her expectation that he would go to one of the main actors, the person Joongyeon stopped in front of was Maru, who was getting ready to go home after the shoot. With her curiosity piqued, Suyeon quietly walked inside the classroom.

“I was right. I was a little confused because you were wearing glasses, but you saw me in The Witness, didn’t you?”

Those were Nam Joongyeon’s words.

[1] The Korean shout. It’s to wish good luck to the team and the work in this case.

Chapter 566

Nam Joongyeon had a good memory. His colleagues even called him the memorization king. There were a lot of cases where he benefited from his good memory, and many of the people around him said that they were envious of his innate talent, but in actuality, this memory wasn’t something he was born with. When he was young, he was very forgetful to the point that he was nicknamed a traffic light[1].

The event that triggered his memory to become good was when he started his work as a reporter. He worked in a limited ecosystem known as the entertainment industry, but there were still an uncountable amount of people who worked in that industry. After trial and error, Joongyeon realized that a good memory was the most important thing when it came to living as a reporter.

There wasn’t a more incompetent interview than one where the same question was repeated. The important questions had to be repeated, but the interviewer’s job was to include other questions so that the interviewee stayed interested in the interview.

Joongyeon studied other people when he started working at this job. At the same time, he always looked at the previous interviews of the person he was about to interview and summarized them. He memorized the things he summarized in the car so that he wouldn’t have to look at the interview sheet during the interview as much as possible, and after repeatedly doing that, he reached a level where he could clearly remember things with a single glance.

As a result of his efforts, he became the main reporter for ‘The Entertainment Show’, one of the most popular programs on YBS, for 13 years.

However, he started losing passion for his work and fell into mannerism lately. The entertainment industry, which he thought to be a wide world, felt like a cramped aquarium after spending 13 years in it. The faces he saw did not change. His corner of the program ‘Star On The Field’, was about showing the figure of professional actors during work, so he rarely had any opportunities to meet a new face. He regained some of his energy when the industry was swept by a ‘wave of change’ and a bunch of child actors became popular, but most of the time, he was talking to close acquaintances about obvious things, so he didn’t feel energetic at all.

He could go about interviewing new actors when they were just gaining popularity with pleasure, but once that repeated itself, the new actors would avoid interviews as well. Interviews did take place during programs so the actors could promote their work, but otherwise, interviews did not happen that much.

Of course, ‘Star On The Field’ was one of the main sub-programs of a program that was really popular, and thanks to that, Joongyeon was able to meet with many of the popular actors and actresses in the country.

Perhaps that was one of the reasons he lost interest.

The so-called ‘high-class actors’ would become experts at interviews whether they liked it or not. When they were asked difficult questions, they would pause the interview on the spot and openly ask that it be edited out. To prevent such events, the interviewer would tell the interviewee beforehand about the questions being asked, and as a result of that, the interview would become bland. Obvious questions and obvious answers. As a reporter, he would try all sorts of things to make the atmosphere more friendly, but the interview itself would feel dry since the questions had zero nutrition. The memorization skills he had painstakingly acquired had recently become useless as well. What good was extra information when the interview questions were known beforehand? He actually had more fun working with fresh actors who made all sorts of mistakes during the interview. Back then, he had a reason to put an effort in, as well as an objective he wanted to achieve, but none of that existed nowadays.

Moreover, actors had gained a lot of power lately, surpassing industry people. This was thanks to the internet. Before, it would mean the end for an actor’s life if an industry personnel cut them off. As the entire TV industry was in cahoots with each other, being abandoned by one place meant being abandoned by all. The TV stations ruled with supreme power over actors and agencies with their right to cast, but the game had changed recently. The moment they tried to control an actor to make them abide by their will, the mass media would rise up. This could be seen from the slave contract incident that happened not too long ago. The celebrity had gained power from the masses through the internet and won against his agency, which was considered impossible until now. We want to watch this person, who are you to stop them? - That was what the masses said.

Actors were the same. On top of that, a whole new market, known as Japan, had appeared, further solidifying the position of the actors. Now, it had become commonplace to delay the entire schedule for a drama in order to scout one actor. There were actors that the director and the writer would have to look good in front of. That was enough to see how high actors’ statuses have become.

He had to do interviews with such actors. If he was acquainted with the interviewee, it would be a lot easier, but in the case of actors who couldn’t be bothered with interviews, his whole day would become a nightmare. The more arrogant actors would sometimes overhaul the whole question sheet before the interview. At first, his pride fell rock bottom when such a thing happened, but now, he felt nothing. This was why mannerism was scary. It made his emotions dull.

His interview with Suyeon was like that as well. Since he worked at his job for a long time, he could faintly tell what the actor was thinking about. He had gotten tired of imbuing vitality into actors who just did the interview out of duty. If the opponent was smiling out of formality, Joongyeon did not ask sudden unexpected questions. He just did the interview like a play with a plot that was already set in stone.

However, he sometimes met actors who reminded him of his old days when he just joined the industry. The interesting people who gave interesting, and sometimes unexpected, answers to his questions.

Joongyeon looked at Han Maru, who sat in front of him. He remembered the conversation he had with this boy when they first met. It was on the shooting set for the drama ‘The Witness’, and back then, Joongyeon was exhausted thanks to Joohyun, who acted cold throughout the whole interview. When he heard the production team suggest that they should take an interview from another person to finish things off, Joongyeon held up the microphone to one of the waiting minor actors who happened to be Maru. The question he asked back then was still vivid in his mind. Why are you trying to become an actor? Without hesitation, Maru replied ‘to earn money’ to that question.

It was incredibly fresh. New actors these days made their debuts after undergoing meticulous teaching. It had become incredibly rare to be casted from the streets, debut through some magazine and somehow end up on TV.

The new people that entered the industry after being taught everything had terrible answers. Their answers were so boring that it made him wonder if they were new to the industry or veterans of several wars. This was thanks to the education on how to act during an interview, taught by many academies and agencies. Joongyeon felt bitter whenever he heard answers that talked about half-assed acting theories, and answers that started with ‘I respect this person and that person’. He reached a point where he could discern the agency of the actor he was interviewing based on the answers. Each agency had fixed answers to fixed questions.

He admitted that it was hard for half-assed new people to survive since the eyes of the masses had become much more picky. He understood that agencies prepared their actors meticulously before their debut for the purpose of stability. However, since ‘ordinariness’ was everywhere, the fun disappeared. The unease and nervousness that new people showed in interviews, as well as some smart answers and fresh ideas had become a thing of the past.

In such a situation, a simple answer like ‘to earn money’ had the power to make him laugh. Yes. Rather than boring, being blatant was much better. He finished the interview thinking that the boy was an interesting fellow.

Of course, if Maru’s impression on him was just that, even his good memory would not remember the three syllables Han Maru. What engraved that name into his memory was when he watched the shoot after the interview.

Even until the moment the boy who did the interesting interview with him sat in front of Joohyun, all Joongyeon was thinking about was to go home and rest after the shoot. However, the acting that unfolded after the director’s cue sign was enough to stop his thoughts there.

Ahn Joohyun. Her acting skills were well-known, along with her cold - or perhaps even offensive - attitude towards the people from the media. An actress who did short plays, films, and even mini-series dramas. Another step forward, and she would join the ranks of top-tier actresses. Her acting skills didn’t need mentioning. A detective act that made his heart race despite knowing that she was acting. The reason she was loved by the media despite her hatred for it, was probably thanks to her fantastic acting skills.

Now that was understandable. After all, her acting was being praised to the point that she was solely responsible for the drama’s popularity.

What surprised him was Han Maru’s acting. Maybe that’s what it would look like to set free a wild dog that had been starving for days. When he heard from the director that Maru’s role was a young assassin raised solely to kill, Joongyeon subconsciously nodded. It was just as he said. The Maru inside that interrogation room looked like a beast who had nothing left but primal instincts. It even made him worried that he was being epileptic when the boy kept convulsing while growling. The shooting location fell into deep silence. Many of the staff members watched the two acting to the point that they looked like they forgot to breathe.

A wild, violent act.

It eventually reached the peak, and chaos ensued. Maru treated his body roughly to the point that it made Joongyeon worry that Maru might get a cerebral hemorrhage. The fact that his two arms were tied didn’t look like it was for show; it looked like it was truly there to restrain a lunatic. Joohyun was incredible as well. She treated Maru like how a hunter would treat prey.

If either one of them was awkward, that kind of act would not have formed. A rampaging beast without a hunter, and a hunter without a prey. Both scenarios would look awkward after all. It was an act that charmed him. Seeing the incredible act from the two, Joongyeon almost forgot that they were in a shoot and almost ended up clapping.

A rather crazy child actor who does not treat his body with care.

The fresh new actor gave him such an impression.

“Do you remember me?”

“Yes, I do,” Maru replied, standing in front of him.

“I don’t remember you wearing glasses.”

“These don’t have any strength.”

“Are you wearing it because of your role?”

“Yes.”

“Wow, still, I never knew I’d see you like this. A lot of people end up quitting early, so it’s hard to see new people more than once.”

“I haven’t earned enough money to be satisfied yet. I will cling to it like my life depends on it until my wallet becomes thick enough.”

“Haha, yes. You should. Cling to it like your life depends on it.”

Joongyeon reached out to Maru.

“I hope we meet as interview partners next time. I feel like I will get a lot of interesting answers from you.”

“I don’t mind even if you do it right now.”

“Right now, you aren’t at the right level.”

“It’s like that after all, huh.”

“If your acting that I saw back then is truly your skill, I feel like I’d see you again quite soon, but I guess it’d be hard for you to display your skills in a drama like this.”

Joongyeon grabbed Maru’s hand tightly before letting go.

“See you next time. I hope all of you grow up quickly and get to do an interview with me.”

Joongyeon waved at the child actors before turning around. He wondered how many of them would survive in this field and receive love from the masses. Actually, he wasn’t that interested in who survived and who didn’t, but if there was something he did want, it was that the ones that survived weren’t the ones who feel ‘mass-produced’. This was due to the fact that all the people he worked with had zero personality during his work.

“Hyung-nim, let’s go to the next location.”

Joongyeon went down the stairs while putting his arm over the producer’s shoulders.

[1] Because ‘flash, and it’s gone’.

Chapter 567

“Are you sure you don’t want to say goodbye to Suyeon-noona? She’ll definitely put it in her heart, you know?”

Maru said that as he put his seatbelt on. Geunsoo replied that he said goodbye to her in his heart.

“I saw that you seemed to be acquainted with Mr. Nam Joongyeon.”

“I was surprised as well. I only saw him once before, but he remembered me.”

“It’s a good thing that a reporter remembers you.”

Geunsoo started driving. The pile of papers on top of the dashboard started shaking. It seemed to be a script.

“You can have a look. It won’t be a problem as long as you don’t talk about it elsewhere,” Geunsoo said.

Maru nodded and opened the script. On the cover was the word ‘Detective’ in a simple font.

“The title of the movie is ‘Detective’?”

“No, that’s the project name. The title hasn’t been decided yet.”

“So sometimes you shoot before the title is even decided, huh.”

“In the pre-production stage, usually a project name or a tentative title is used. It’s mostly like that for security. That’s why there are times when actors show up to an audition not knowing what the title is.”

“Doesn’t it help with promotion to reveal it early?”

“They’re being cautious because the project might not see through to the end.”

The car entered an 8 lane road. Considering that it was Sunday, there was little traffic. Getting caught by a single traffic light might make them as slow as a snail though.

Maru flipped over the cover and had a look at the contents. Traces of editing and some notes left by Geunsoo could be seen. The story was about corrupt policemen just like he heard at the restaurant last time. A policeman who was acknowledged for his skills at a young age and was promoted quickly, one day witnesses the corruption of his superior. A detective filled with righteousness would persuade his superior or report the crime, but the character Geunsoo played used that event to threaten his superior to go up even further. Another policeman, played by Sungjae, also witnesses it and tries to get his respected senior back on the right path, but in the end, he too becomes a corrupt policeman and puts all the events under the rug.

“Hyung-nim, you die in the last part, huh?”

“It’s a simple case of evil being punished.”

“But the remaining Sungjae-hyung is also evil.”

“Without a witness, a villain is a hero.”

“I wonder what real policemen would think when they watch this movie. They must think that it’s absurd, right?”

“That’s actually based on a real event.”

“A real event?”

“There are some changes, but apparently, it’s almost all real. It should be interesting. I’ve always wanted to play a charming man with a hint of lunacy.”

“If you think about it, you died in Twilight Struggles as well so perhaps you are quite fated with dying characters.”

“Now that you mention it, it's true.”

Maru closed the script and put it back on top of the dashboard. The trend in film these days was plot twists. There probably wasn’t a movie pamphlet that did not include the word ‘twist’ among the ones displayed in cinemas. Even family movies contained plot twists these days. Perhaps thanks to that, plot twists, which were a sign of fresh things, had become rather old-fashioned recently. In that sense, he thought that this script was pretty interesting. The story progressed without any sudden reversals. The story ended with the smaller evil being engulfed by the bigger evil, and there wasn’t anything that was hidden in that process. He didn’t know how the director was going to play this out, but according to the script at least, it was a pretty simple movie where the audience could just follow the characters on the surface. He was reminded of director Park Joongjin’s ‘Those Guys’ that he watched before. Perhaps the film industry was moving on from the boring plot twists trend.

“I’ll say this beforehand, the director for this film is quite peculiar.”

“I kinda noticed when he wanted to see a badass delinquent.”

Geunsoo then said that he wasn’t as peculiar as Maru. Maru stared at Geunsoo.

“What?”

“I believed myself to be an extremely normal person living a normal life.”

“What you believe and what actually is might be different.”

“I’m not peculiar.”

“Sure you aren’t.”

Geunsoo turned the wheel. The car entered a residential area. Going past the dominos of buildings on either side, they were met by a rather weak-looking bridge, as well as a 3-story building that towered above the others. Geunsoo stopped the car in front of that building.

Getting out of the car, the first thing Maru saw was a standing sign that said ‘Coffee of the day’. A pastel drawing of coffee, bread, and cats looked quite cute. He raised his head to look at the signboard above the sunshade. ‘Cat & Coffee’. It couldn’t be simpler.

He saw some people sitting down with laptops through the glass window. Next to them were some cats. Tired-looking cats and coffee-drinking people. It was literally just ‘cat & coffee’.

He followed Geunsoo inside. A woman in her thirties faintly smiled and welcomed them.

“You’re here.”

“Ah, ma’am. Where’s hyung-nim?”

Geunsoo seemed to know her. The lady, who was reading a book behind the counter, pointed above. Geunsoo nodded and walked towards the stairs.

“She’s the wife of the director you’re about to see.”

“Ah, I see.”

There were photo frames along the wall of the staircase. They were small - about two hand-widths wide - and they were all focused on cats. There were standalone photos of cats and some photos where a person was hugging them. Just as he thought that this was a café where cats were the alpha and the omega, there was one photo that caught his eyes.

A lady was hugging three puppies. Maru wasn’t knowledgeable about breeds of dogs, but he did know the breed of those dogs with vicious-looking faces - bulldogs. The lady, who was hugging three little bulldogs in her arms, had the happiest smile in the world. Perhaps because he saw some dogs in a world of cats, Maru stood there and appreciated that photo for a while.

“What are you doing?”

“Oh, nothing.”

Going past the photo with the lady, Maru arrived on the 2nd floor and could see a cat that had come right by his feet. It was a spotty one and it didn’t seem to be wary around strangers. Although he didn’t have any experience raising pets before, he wanted to touch this docile-looking cat.

“I wouldn’t do that if I were you.”

Just then, he heard a voice. It was from the table by the window. At the same time, he felt something prick his hand. The spotty cat scratched him with its claws. He looked at the cat which turned around in a haughty manner. It seemed that he wouldn’t be able to get close to that one.

“That one’s pretty sensitive. He always attacks when a stranger reaches out to him. So you need to suck up to him a little.”

The man that approached him gave him a square object. It was some kind of item packed in a plastic bag with a picture of a cat on it.

“If you give it that snack, you can touch it once.”

Maru followed the man’s words. He ripped open the packaging and took out the snack. It was some kind of squishy jelly, and it smelled pretty good. It was similar to a strawberry smell. He put it on his palm and approached the spotty cat. The one that peeked out from the corner raised its tail and ran towards him. Maru flinched at first since he thought he was going to get attacked again, but the cat just quickly snatched away the snack from his hand.

“Now you can touch it.”

Hearing the man’s words, Maru reached out. He couldn’t believe that this was the same cat as the one that scratched him.

“They’re pretty sneaky.”

“It won’t attack me again, right?”

“It’s fine while he’s still eating. Well, after that, you’ll become a stranger to him again, so watch out.”

Maru stroked the cat’s hair and turned around to see the man. The round silver glasses entered his eyes first, and after that, he saw the rough-looking beard. As for his age, he seemed to be in his late thirties. Unlike his messy beard, his hair was quite neat. As for his stature, he was neither big nor small. He seemed to be around the Korean average.

“Han Maru, right? I told Geunsoo to bring you here because I wanted to see you once.”

The man reached out to him. Maru shook hands with him.

“Han Maru, sir.”

“Have you heard about my name?”

“I heard that you were director Lee Jincheol.”

Geunsoo, who was listening from the side, blinked his eyes in confusion.

“Did I tell you that?”

“Sungjae-hyung did.”

Geunsoo smiled in understanding.

“Now that I look at you like this, you look like a normal man. I thought you’d have some more… mad elements in you.”

“I’m an ordinary student.”

He sat down when Lee Jincheol offered him a seat. Just then, Jincheol’s wife, who was watching the counter on the first floor, came up with some drinks.

“Thanks.”

“The three of you aren’t going out or anything, right?”

“My wife, I’ll obediently stay at home today so don’t worry.”

“You always say that.”

The married couple lightly kissed after that. Maru was rather taken aback by the events that unfolded out in front of him as he was drinking.

“We’re still newlyweds,” Jincheol said.

“Hyung-nim. I never knew you could be a newlywed when you have three kids.”

Geunsoo shook his head in resignation.

He was definitely peculiar, alright. Maru put down his cup on the table.

“Well then. Shall I hear your opinion about this store?”

“It’s an interesting store.”

“In what sense?”

“That there are cats mixed amongst the people.”

“Looks like this is your first time at a cat café, huh.”

“Yes. It is.”

“Good, then one more thing. Do you like cats or dogs better?”

“I don’t particularly like either of them.”

“Then try to like cats. Cats are definitely better than dogs.”

Just then, he was reminded of Junmin, who was a dog-lover. He thought about what would happen if he put those two together.

“The president of your company would be a better man if he raised some cats.”

Maru felt like this man knew what he was thinking. Maru smiled awkwardly before drinking a sip.

“Honey, come here for a moment.”

He heard a voice from downstairs. Jincheol told them to wait before going down the stairs.

“Is he acquainted with the president?”

“Yeah. Though, Junmin-seonbae is trying to avoid him since he tells him to raise cats every time they meet.”

“So even the almighty president has someone who he has a hard time dealing with.”

“I told you he was peculiar.”

“Does he direct films on top of managing this store?”

Hearing that question, Geunsoo shook his head.

“He doesn’t manage the store. This building belongs to him. So ‘manage’ doesn’t really fit the situation. He doesn’t care whether it’s profitable or not.”

“…The building belongs to the director?”

“Why? You thought the director of an indie movie would be poor?”

Maru subconsciously nodded. A director of an indie film that Geunsoo had known for a long time. Since indie movies were called such because of their independence from capital, the profits would be low, so he thought that the director wouldn’t be that wealthy. But it turned out that he owned a building.

“Director Lee… sorry, I’m kinda used to calling him that. Anyway, that hyung-nim’s passion for film is not ordinary. He never took it as a hobby. He’s always serious as though his life is on the line. It’s just that his wallet is pretty thick.”

“I’m starting to get confused by the definition of indie films.”

“It can be called an indie film in the sense that one hundred percent of the creator’s wishes are reflected in it. Also, that hyung-nim always uses the budget tightly. Just because he has a lot of money doesn’t mean that the shooting environment is good. He’s quite meticulous when it comes to things like that.”

“For now, I get that he’s not shooting a film because he’s short on money. Oh, but I heard that this film was a commercial one.”

“Because we got investors. Both that hyung-nim and I are charmed by indie films, but that doesn’t mean we despise commercial movies. Who would hate movies with lots of airing cinemas?”

Geunsoo smiled and picked up his cup.

Maru turned around to look at the café. Arts activities when he was well-off, huh. Considering that art historically used to be something unique to the high-class, it wasn’t so strange that the director was wealthy. Perhaps he had a bias towards indie films for being ‘minor’.

“Why would he want to see me?”

“I don’t know. There might not be a big reason for it, so don’t think about it so deeply.”

Just then, the spotty cat walked over from the corner and sat down on Maru’s thighs. Maru laughed in vain when he saw the cat boldly claim his thighs as his.

“Ooh, Picky approached you first, how rare. Looks like he’s taken a liking to you.”

Jincheol said those words when he returned.

“So his name is Picky, huh.”

Maru reached out and tried to touch the cat. However, just as his hand was about to touch its head, Maru had to pull his hand back quickly. The cat was glaring at him and was clearly telling him that it would scratch him if he tried to do what he was about to do.

“Congratulations on becoming his exclusive chair,” Jincheol said while laughing.

“Have you two eaten yet? I haven’t had my lunch yet. Why don’t we eat some lunch/dinner?”

“I’m good with that.”

“I’m hungry, so let’s eat.”

Jincheol made a circle with his fingers.

“Good. I’ll go buy some things to eat, so play around with the others here.”

Maru looked at Jincehol who went off before looking at the cat on his thighs while sighing. The cat was yawning.

“You have it good.”

Meow - the cat meowed in a low voice.

Chapter 568

“It has only been two years since you started acting?”

“It’s my third year, but if you only count the time I’ve properly gotten into acting, I don’t think it has even been a year.”

“Yet you can put on a delinquent act of that level. Are you good at punching at school or something? Did it feel that realistic because it was based on reality?”

“I’m on the side of getting hit, not the one doing the hitting.”

“Hey, hey. Guys like that scare me the most. You know, in movies, they’re always the ones that stab you in the back in the end.”

“No way.”

Jincheol giggled.

Maru took a bite out of the sandwich. Jincheol had brought back some sandwiches when he went to get some food. He made a joke that went like ‘I bought it from my wife’ or something, but Maru stayed expressionless thinking that there wouldn’t be an end to his jokes if he reacted. Of course, it was completely ineffective. Jincheol’s awful jokes continued regardless.

“Did you know? Cats live in cat-hedrals.”

The pun came out of nowhere, but Maru did not bat an eyelid. Jincheol kept signalling him to laugh.

“The sandwich is good.”

“And a cat’s favorite movie is The Sound of Mew-sic.”

“The madam’s cooking skills are really good. I would come here more often if this place wasn’t so far from where I live. What a pity.”

“Plus, looking at a cat makes you feel purr-fect.”

“I should buy some for myself when I leave. This bread with the black sesame seeds especially. I have similar tastes as my family, so I’m sure everyone will like it if I take some home. It’s really a pity that it’s so far away.”

He munched on the sandwich as he looked at Jincheol. After groaning while stroking his beard, he took off his glasses and stroked his face.

“Geunsoo. This guy is way too dry. He could laugh at least once.”

“Don’t you like him because he’s the lunatic you thought he is?”

“There are different levels to lunatics, and this one is on the higher side. Normally, people would laugh out of courtesy at least, but this kid is way too cold even though it hasn’t even been an hour since we have met.”

“Rather than cold, it looks like he understood how he should handle you.”

“He won’t talk about cats with me. What a disappointment.”

After grumbling, Jincheol picked up a cat that was rolling around on the floor. The cat purred for a while before falling asleep.

How interesting - Maru thought as he wiped his hands with some napkins. The cat in Jincheol’s arms looked extremely sensitive. It acted even more violently than the spotty one, so he didn’t even think about touching it, but that cat was sleeping like a baby in Jincheol’s arms. Do cats know their owners as well?

“It’s because cats are territorial animals. They are pretty generous to the things they got used to seeing in their territory. To this guy, I’m probably something like ‘human 1 that feeds me’. That’s why it doesn’t put up its guard around me. It doesn’t act cute, but that’s one of a cat’s charms. Bad kitty.”

After tickling the sleeping cat’s head, Jincheol said ouch before grimacing. The cat had woke up and bit him. The cat then jumped down from his arms before walking around the 2nd floor. Maru was reminded of a stereotypical businesswoman from how it acted.

Maru looked down at his knees. The spotty cat was sleeping in a weird posture. At first, he was sleeping docilely with his front paws together, but after twisting around for a while, he was now sleeping in a weird position that made Maru wonder if such a posture was possible. He wanted to tickle the cat’s belly since it was widely exposed, but he held back since it might cause some bad things to happen.

“Why don’t you take this opportunity to raise a companion cat?”

Companion cat[1]. Maru thought that he should not use the word pet in front of this person.

“I don’t think I can.”

“Why?”

“I don’t like them to the point that I want to take responsibility for one.”

“Just take it easy and raise one. A lot of people raise one these days.”

Maru raised his head when he heard Jincheol’s words. Was he serious? Maru looked around at the cats walking around the 2nd floor before speaking,

“I don’t think you can take anything easy when it comes to taking responsibility and raising something. Even raising a plant requires you to change out the soil and even the vase sometimes. On top of that, there is watering them and cutting off dead leaves. There’s no need to talk about animals like cats when they need so much freedom on top of that. They say babies grow up by themselves, but you know it isn’t like that. Seeing them born is a miracle, and it’s wonderful when they start talking. But it all ends there, doesn’t it? After that, you’re filled with worries. A little creature, who can’t even walk, crawls around everywhere, including dangerous places, and puts sharp objects near their mouth all the time. The day they have diarrhea or something, you won’t be getting any sleep. Furthermore, even when they fall asleep, you feel like your world is collapsing if you hear their breaths going faint.”

Maru subconsciously stroked the spotty cat’s chin.

“When they reach an age where they can bow to others, that’s when the real troubles start. Even if you tell them not to run, they will never listen to you, and even if you tell them not to go to high places because it’s dangerous, they always end up there, making you feel worried sick. If you want to feed them a carrot, you gotta suck up to them with all sorts of actions. And once they get sick or something, you hope that you were the one sick instead.”

The spotty cat turned around. Maru smiled bitterly. There was no memory of anything. He just ‘knew’ that ‘something’ had happened, but anything other than that was pitch black. There was definitely something between him and her, which he poured all of his love into, and sometimes treated more preciously than his own life, but he couldn’t remember what that was. It was probably a child. Maru could only guess. Perhaps there was never a baby between him and her. Perhaps they lived with some cute dogs or some cats.

However, that small voice which was his motivation in life, as well as the reason he appreciated life, was definitely similar to his. That, no, that child’s trace definitely remained inside him despite his memories becoming fuzzy like a burned up ash. Was it a boy? Or was it a girl? Perhaps he had twins.

He tried not to forget. He thought that there was no way he would be able to forget. He thought that it would be engraved in his soul as something eternal and that he would be able to see that child’s smile in the flashbacks even if he died once again. However, the pitch black memories cruelly painted over the figure of his child as well. His own figure, uneasily trembling outside the delivery room, no longer felt realistic as it felt like it was a scene from a movie. What happened after that? What was the child’s face like? What was his or her favorite clothes? Or food? Or name, even?

“Raising a baby requires an unspeakable amount of responsibility.”

Meow - the spotty cat cried. Maru looked down at his hand. His hand was shaking endlessly as though he was someone who drenched his life with alcohol. That trembling seemed to have affected the cat. He tensed his hand before sighing.

“…is what I heard from my mom before. Looks like I caused her a lot of trouble. I went to places she precisely told me not to, I was picky with food, I had a weak body, and… you know. Things like that.”

Maru said that as he looked at the two men who were staring holes into him.

“That’s why I don’t think I can raise something like this one. Moreover, these ones can’t even talk. It means that I would have to pay that much more attention to them, and for now, at least, I’m not prepared to do such a thing.”

The spotty one stretched its front paws out and did a body stretch. Maru looked into the cat’s two eyes. When he focused, some speech bubbles appeared on top of the cat. Meow, meow, meow. It was filled with incomprehensible cries. After stretching, the spotty cat jumped down. He licked his paws as he looked at him, and he seemed to be saying ‘you did well for looking after me’, or something. He felt proud because he felt like he fulfilled his role as a chair(?). Leaving aside the dignity of humans or the superiority between species, Maru decided to obediently get praised by the spotty cat. Maru smiled as he looked at the cat that rubbed his legs.

“Geunsoo, what do I do?”

“What?”

“I think I really like this guy?”

Geunsoo laughed. Maru looked at Jincheol.

“Do you know what one of the best ways to find out what people are thinking is?”

Maru replied that he didn’t. Jincheol pointed at the cats.

“You just have to see how that person treats animals. It’s been proven many times that there aren’t bad people among the ones that like cats.”

He told his bad jokes about cats whenever he had the opportunity. Jincheol took a breath before continuing to speak. It looked like he felt quite depressed because Maru didn’t laugh.

“There are a lot of people who want to raise dogs or cats. That’s especially the case when I ask people around your age. Animals are cute and adorable. Even on TV, they’re described as creatures that only look at you.”

When Jincheol tapped on the table, some cats approached him.

“But when they’re given the opportunity to, most of them refuse. The reason is simple. It’s because they treated animals as accessories. Looking at them through pictures or videos makes them look endlessly adorable. They speak as though they are ready to do anything if they could raise one. However, when dreams become a reality, people start seeing what they couldn’t see before. They make noise, bite, scratch… and there’s the matter with fur too. Plus, once you mistrain them when potty training, there’s nothing worse than that. You have to feed them, play with them, take them to the hospital if they become sick, and… that's when they find out. Oh hey, this is actually much more bothersome than I expected. And boom.”

When Jincheol shouted, the cats jumped before running away.

“They end up abandoning them. Of course, they might feel sorry. I don’t think humans are that evil. There shouldn’t be anyone who abandons animals with a smile on their face.”

For a while after that, Jincheol was unable to speak because all the cats tried to bite him. Maru thought that he was really a peculiar person after all. After begging for forgiveness from them, Jincheol spoke again.

“In that sense, I’ve taken a liking to you. People like you, who are much more cautious towards them from the beginning, end up loving animals to the end. They aren’t like the ones that say they love animals and start raising them recklessly. They start things knowing the difficulties, so they take responsibility and look after them until the end. In that sense…”

Jincheol picked up a small cat before pushing it onto him.

“You need to raise a cat. If you don’t become a cat lover now, your president might come up to you one day giving you a puppy to raise. I can’t miss such a talented candidate like you. Here, take it. That one’s called Han Maru II from now on.”

Meow - the little kitten cried sadly. It definitely did not like the name. Maru shook his head and refused.

“Are you telling me that you’re going to pick dogs over c…”

“Animals are forbidden where I live.”

“Oh, really?”

“Yes.”

“What a pity. If you ever have the opportunity to raise one, definitely come to me. I’ll make you a cat person.”

This person, if he didn’t become a film director, might have become a cat’s rights activist instead of a human rights activist. Just then, Maru was reminded of the only dogs in this store.

“It looks like you like bulldogs though.”

“Bulldogs? Why do you say that?”

“Because I saw a photo with three bulldogs on my way up. Some lady was holding three bulldog pups.”

“Oh, that photo. That’s not there because of the dogs. It’s there because of the fella that’s smiling like an idiot.”

Jincheol’s smile disappeared. The cats in his arms looked at him.

“She was someone who really liked dogs. She always tried to spread her love for dogs to other people. It was pretty much a religion for her at that point.”

“Sounds like she’s similar to you.”

Jincheol faintly smiled. Only then did the cats become calm.

“Your president was one of them.”

“What?”

“He’s one of the people who the dog evangelist managed to persuade. I’m pretty sure your president still raises them now. Those ugly bulldogs in the photos. Their names should match their faces too.”

Jincheol had a rather vague expression as he said those words. Maru didn’t know whether he was feeling happy or sad.

[1] There are two terms in Korea that refer to ‘animals that live with people at home’, and both of them are usually translated to ‘pets’, but while one fits perfectly with that term, there isn’t a preferred translation of the other one, which puts accompanying animals to a higher level. Hence a companion animal, in this case a cat, was used here.

Chapter 569

“Was she, perhaps, an actress?”

For some reason, he had a feeling that that might be the case. The lady with the three puppies. The time her figure was reflected in his eyes was a brief moment at best, but he had gotten a deep impression. It wasn’t just because she was holding dogs, which didn’t suit this place. If he had to give a reason, it had to be her smile. Her smile was so fresh that it felt like it was going to poke out of the frame.

“She was. She was our Madonna, and she was really pretty. There probably wasn’t a single one of us there that didn’t get their heart stolen by her.”

Of course, you need to keep this a secret from my honey - Jincheol added as he pointed downwards.

“Regardless of male or female, everyone loved her. She was someone who you couldn’t help but love.”

“I see, but by ‘there’ you mean…”

“Yecheon[1]. It was the small theater that she belonged to. I worked there for a while too.”

Yecheon, he had never heard that name before. Jineheol spoke as though he read Maru’s mind.

“It’s not there anymore. They went out of business and had to hand over their spot to someone else.”

“Small theaters go out of business quite frequently after all,” Geunsoo added from the side.

“Hey, I feel rather sad to hear you say that. It’s your juniors who are working in that small theater right now.”

“My juniors?”

Geunsoo looked at Jincheol in confusion.

“Blue Sky. Daehak-ro, Aram[2] Building. Isn’t Blue Sky on the 2nd floor of that building?” Jincheol asked.

“Yes, we are there. It’s the place Junmin-seonbae prepared to train some of his talent pool. Wait, that place used to belong to Yecheon?”

“Looks like your president didn’t tell you anything, huh. Well, I guess it’s not surprising since he’s not the type of person who would talk about old events. Then I guess you don’t know about the person named Jung Haejoo either, huh?”

An unexpected name came out of Jincheol’s mouth. Maru definitely had heard that name somewhere before. It was when he talked to Junmin about working with director Park Joongjin. Back then, Junmin said this:

-Also, one last question.

-Yes.

-… Have you heard him mentioning the name Jung Haejoo?

-Jung Haejoo? No, this is the first time I’ve heard of that name.

-I see, I see. Alright.

-Is she someone you know?

-She was one of the geniuses I knew of.

Back then, he also felt a sense of déjà vu when he heard that name. It was a name that he felt like he had heard in passing somewhere before. He combed through his memories and searched for past events. He then remembered the name of the person who mentioned that name to him.

-Hey, do you know who Jung Haejoo is?

-Who’s that?

-It’s fine if you don’t know.

Ahn Joohyun. That name was mentioned when he talked to her regarding Bangjoo’s matters. A woman mentioned by both Lee Junmin and Ahn Joohyun. Not only that, Junmin had described her as a genius. Junmin was a very picky person when it came to judging people. He definitely wasn’t someone who would let his personal emotions like sympathy or friendship interfere with his judgement of other people’s acting skills. If he of all people said someone was a genius, then that person had to be a genius.

“But he seems like he knows?”

Maru looked at Jincheol who was staring at him before faintly nodding.

“I heard the name from the president.”

“The president mentioned that name to you?”

“Yes.”

“Really?”

Had his wound healed now? - Jincheol said in a small voice as he stroked his chin.

“What did he say when he talked about her?”

“He said she was a genius.”

“Ah, a genius. I guess that’s one way of putting it. Nothing else?”

“Yes. That was it.”

“Well, I’m not surprised since going into any more than that will make things complicated. That was unexpected though. Why would he mention that name to you when he hasn’t even mentioned it to Geunsoo?”

“We were talking about how I met director Park Joongjin, and somehow that came up.”

“Aha! So Joongjin-hyun was involved. If that guy was the middleman, I guess it’s not that surprising that Haejoo’s name was mentioned. How was the mood back then? Did your president look like he was going to cry?”

“You’re kidding, right?”

“I’m completely serious.”

Jincheol laughed as he tickled a cat’s chin. Geunsoo, who had been listening this whole time, sighed because he didn’t understand a thing before making a phone call.

“Hey, Ganghwan. Do you know someone called Jung Haejoo? You do? Now I feel like I’m being bullied. Okay, have a good rest. Actually no, you should stop resting. How long are you going to rest?”

Ganghwan’s angry voice could be heard through the closing phone. Tap - Geunsoo closed his phone and put it in his pocket. The phone started ringing again soon, but Geunsoo smiled and gestured at them to continue talking.

“Even if I want to talk about it some more, I think I should stop here in order to keep a man’s privacy. He might end up calling for me if I tell you everything.”

Jincheol stood up from his seat.

“Let’s go down and drink some coffee. My wife’s coffee is the best in the world after all.”

Maru waved at the cats that stared at him before walking towards the stairs. He looked at Jincheol who walked downstairs with large strides before looking at the photo on the wall. A lady was smiling happily while holding puppies inside the frame.

‘This lady is Jung Haejoo.’

From the way things looked, it seemed like this person was no longer working as an actress. Perhaps she looked for a new job when the theater went out of business. Maru looked at the corner of the photo. 19th February 1989. Now that he knew that the photo was from 16 years ago, the colors did seem to be a little washed out.

“She’s an attractive person,” Geunsoo said.

Maru faintly replied ‘for sure’.

“Junmin-seonbae is raising three bulldogs. Mint, Pansy, and Rose.”

“They’re all names of flowers, huh.”

“They sure suit those vicious-looking dogs for sure.”

What was Junmin’s relationship with the person in the photo? That day, Junmin’s expression when he mentioned Jung Haejoo looked considerably complicated. A Madonna that everyone couldn’t help but love. Perhaps the two were lovers. Or perhaps Junmin had a one-sided crush.

“She must be working on something else now, right?”

“Well, I get the feeling that she passed away.”

“You mean this person?”

Maru looked at the Jung Haejoo in the photo as he spoke.

“Junmin-seonbae described her as a genius, didn’t he?”

“Yes.”

“Would he have missed a person like that? There’s no way. He’s someone who definitely gets what he desires, yet all he does now is reminisce about her. I might be wrong, but my senses are telling me that she has passed away.”

“I guess that might be true.”

“If she’s completely fine, I’ll apologize to her later for having her funeral without knowing.”

At that moment, they heard a call for them to come down quickly. Maru moved away from the photo and climbed down the stairs. He saw some cats running around among some people on their laptops. Jincheol was waving at them from the bar. On the bar were three mugs.

“Were you looking at the photo?”

“Yes. Uhm, excuse me for asking this, but did the person called Jung Haejoo pass away?” Maru asked cautiously.

“She did. 16 years ago.”

“16 years ago.”

Maru was reminded of the date in the photo. So Haejoo died the year she took that photo, huh.

“I wonder what you’re talking about?” Jincheol’s wife leaned against the bar and asked.

Maru greeted her once again. He realized that he hadn’t given her a proper greeting.

“Han Maru.”

“Hello. I guess I showed you us kissing before we even said hi. The beautiful noona in front of you is called Yoo Jinjoo. You can call me Pretty Jinjoo-noona.”

Jinjoo reached out to him first. Maru grabbed that hand. She laughed as she shook his hand, and her gripping strength was quite considerable. Whether it was her personality or actions, these two seemed to be a match made in heaven.

“You mean a beautiful ahjumma.”

“My dear Geunsoo. Just because you have a mouth doesn’t mean you can say anything you want. I might sew it up.”

Geunsoo covered his mouth in a prankful manner.

“Where are the kids?”

“Two of them are at nursery, and the other one should be coming soon,” Jincheol said as he looked at the clock.

Just then, the door opened with the jingle of a bell. A small child wearing a yellow backpack had opened the door.

“I’m home!”

She was a girl around 10, who put her hands around her belly button and did a 90-degree bow. The people at the store waved at the child as though they were used to seeing this scene. After greeting all the customers, the girl arrived at the bar with light steps. Maru looked down at the child grinning in front of him.

“Hello!”

“Oh, hello?”

“Hello, Geunsoo-ahjussi.”

“Please call me uncle Geunsoo. That sounds younger than ahjussi.”

“Yes, ahjussi!”

She was a stubborn kid. Maru didn’t know who did it, but she had a hairstyle that looked like it would take ages to do. The girl approached Jincheol and jumped into his arms.

“My girl, you’re good at greeting.”

Jincheol raised the girl into the air. When he tried to rub his face against the girl with an unshaven beard, the girl firmly rejected him.

“Daddy, I don’t like prickly.”

Maru laughed out loud. The girl’s expression when she crossed her arms and got angry at him was way too cute. With a daughter like that, any father would be lovestruck. Jincheol also didn’t let go of his daughter either.

“Honey, let go of her already. You see her every day yet you still act like that.”

“My wife, are you being jealous right now?”

“I am being jealous right now.”

“Popular men have it hard. Isn’t that right, Gaeul?”

Jincheol called the girl in his arms ‘Gaeul’.

The name ‘Gaeul’, the girl smiling brightly, then Jincheol.

Maru had a slight headache. It came from nowhere. He pressed firmly between his eyebrows. For some reason, he had a hard time looking straight at the father-and-daughter duo. Looking at them gave him a mysterious feeling aside from the pain. Whether it was happiness, sadness, or rage, he did not know, but a complex ball of emotions was thumping against his chest.

“What’s wrong?”

“I feel a little dizzy.”

“Did you not get enough sleep?” Geunsoo asked worriedly.

Maru tried to smile back and said that he was okay. The headache lasted for 10 seconds before going away. It didn’t leave any traces, which caused Maru to have a hard time believing that he had a headache at all.

‘Am I tired?’

Now that he thought about it, he never got to rest during rest days. He had his entire week jam packed with schedules, so he didn’t remember the last time he had a proper rest. Youth was nothing without energy, so perhaps taking breaks were necessary after all?

“Are you hurt?”

Gaeul had left Jincheol’s arms and was in front of him. Maru subconsciously reached out and patted her head.

“It’s fine. It doesn’t hurt. Thank you for worrying about me.”

“My daughter is such a kind girl, isn’t she?”

Jincheol said after he sat down.

“Gaeul, you can go home. Mom will be there soon.”

Gaeul cheerfully replied ‘yes’ before turning around. Maru couldn’t take his eyes off her. The small body, the chubby face, the cute bag, and the colorful shoes. He met eyes with Gaeul just as she was leaving through the door. Maru waved at her. Gaeul bowed to him before running off.

“Geunsoo.”

“Yes.”

“You should definitely get married.”

“I guess.”

“Also, give birth to a daughter. Daughters are the best. My sons treat me as nothing more than a toy.”

“I’ll keep that in mind.”

Just as Maru was blankly staring outside while listening to the conversation between the other two, he saw a car slowly approaching the store. It slowed down before stopping in front of the store. It was a red sedan. The color was rather showy for the older generation to ride, so he thought that a younger person should be riding it.

“Oh, we have another guest,” Jincheol said as he looked outside at the car.

At that moment, the door of the car opened. The man that got out of the car was wearing a flower-patterned shirt, cotton pants, and slippers. Also, Maru knew this man very well.

“Director Park Joongjin?” He said to himself in confusion.

Geunsoo shouted ‘aha’ in realization while Jincheol stood up after dusting his knees and walked towards the door.

“Haven’t you been coming over too frequently these days?”

“If you don’t welcome me, I guess I can’t help it. But there are a few interesting guests with you today, huh?”

Joongjin smiled as he walked over. Maru stood up and stood in front of Joongjin.

“Long time no see, Mr. Han Maru.”

“Yes, director.”

“Why don’t we shake hands since it’s been a long time?”

Joongjin reached out to him. Maru grabbed his hand.

[1] I am not given the Hanja form of this word, so I can’t really translate it. The acting club ‘Blue Sky’ is ‘Cheongcheon’ in Korean, but ‘Ye’ isn’t a color.

[2] It has the same spelling as Aram, the character, but has no relations to her. In fact, this is the only mention of the building’s name in the entire story.

Chapter 570

“I told you to wait at home.”

“I’m going to stay here. Mom, should I wash the dishes?”

“Can you do it, Gaeul?”

“I can.”

“Then do you want to do it for mommy?”

Behind the bar, the mother and daughter were standing there, creating a warming scene. Gaeul, who was standing on a chair, was using her little twig-like hands to touch the cups. As the ones she was washing were plastic cups that could not shatter, her mother seems to be at ease letting her do it. It was a very heartwarming scene to see, but when Maru looked at them, or to be precise, at Gaeul, he could only smile dryly because of some mysterious longing in his heart.

“A wholesome mother and daughter, aren’t they?”

“Yes, they really are.”

Maru looked at director Park Joongjin, who sat next to him. In front of him was the espresso that Jinjoo had given him while saying that it was her best work. The bitter fragrance of coffee could be smelled from a small cup that looked like it was made for playing house.

“Gaeul. The ahjussi in the flowery shirt over there isn’t drinking mommy’s coffee which is making mommy feel sad. Go punish him for me.”

“Okay.”

Jinjoo made a prankful smile as she wiped her hands on a towel. With orders from her mother, Gaeul put her hands on top of the bar and stared at Joongjin.

“Director. I think you’ll have to drink that.”

“I really like how I’m welcomed every time I’m here. Why don’t you try some at this opportunity as well, Mr. Maru? I always feel like I’m stepping into heaven when I drink Mrs. Jinjoo’s coffee.”

“I happen to be allergic to coffee.”

“Yet you seem to be great with cappuccinos.”

“Milk just so happens to make the allergy bearable.”

Just looking at the espresso was enough to make him salivate. It would be very bitter. Just as Joongjin said, it might be sufficient to make him step into heaven. Joongjin, who had always maintained his composure, was looking at the coffee with nervousness. If Gaeul wasn’t in front of him, he might have left the coffee right there.

“Is mommy’s drink not good?”

Gaeul asked with her squirrel-like eyes. It was an irresistible attack. She looked like she was going to cry if he did not drink it. Maru looked at Jinjoo who was putting a suspicious smile on her face behind Gaeul. From the way she greeted Joongjin when he came to the store, they didn’t seem to be on bad terms. In fact, they seemed pretty close.

“Becoming close to someone is similar to stepping into an affectionate maliciousness.”

Joongjin picked up the small cup and drank it in one gulp. He made a fragile smile before handing the cup back to Gaeul.

“Can you give it back to mommy?”

“Yes!”

As soon as Gaeul turned around, Joongjin quickly opened up a sugar cube and put it in his mouth. Joongjin was unable to speak for a while. The coffee must have been that bitter.

“I’ve seen the movie.”

Maru spoke first. Joongjin spoke, as though he had been liberated from the bitter taste.

“Did you enjoy it?”

“Yes. I was absorbed in it. It really was eye catching.”

“That was my intention after all. Hm, there’s still the taste of coffee in my mouth.”

“Why don’t you ask for some milk?”

“If I did that, she’ll give me another one of those devilish black liquids. Mrs. Jinjoo is more than capable of doing that.”

“Hey, I can hear you.”

“Oops, she has good ears too.”

Jinjoo had replied while she made some sandwiches, Joongjin rolled his eyes. He was a really interesting person. He used his meticulous directions to pressure everyone during shoots, but he made the atmosphere soft with his words during private occasions. He sometimes made people flustered with his words, but that was also one of his charms if you got used to him.

“Did you always know director Lee Jincheol?”

Maru asked that as he looked at Jincheol and Geunsoo, who were talking by the window. They were looking at some documents on a laptop, and it seemed to be the scenario for the movie they were going to shoot.

“We’ve known each other for quite a long time. He’s one of the members of my short list of acquaintances. Mrs. Jinjoo over there is included as well.”

“Director Park. Going by year, it’s been seventeen years since we’ve known each other. Why don’t you stop using those awkward honorifics?” Jinjoo asked as she put down the sandwich in front of Joongjin.

“I don’t think I can do that. The only ones I don’t use honorifics for are very unique people.”

“I really want to see what’s inside your head, oppa. Just what’s in there?”

“Morals that ordinary people have?”

“Tsk. You really won’t get married at that rate.”

“I’ll take Gaeul once she grows up.”

“Oh my word. Would you like some more coffee?”

“I retract my words,” Joongjin said before he bit into the sandwich.

“What brings you here, then, Mr. Maru?”

“Director Jincheol wanted to see me.”

“Ooh, doing a shoot then?”

“No.”

“Then?”

“He really just called me because he wanted to see me.”

“If that is the case, get him to pay for your fares to go back home. That man’s rich.”

“I was planning to.”

“What a pity though. I think it would have been really interesting if you appeared in the movie that Jincheol directs. The way he directs has some interesting points. Do you know what kind of movie he’s shooting?”

“I had a look at the script before I came here. It was about some detectives.”

“It looked fun, didn’t it?”

“Yes. I liked how it didn’t have any plot twists. Actually, I was reminded of your work when I looked at it. I can’t comment anything about the directing methods, but the way you two unfold your stories is…”

After saying that, Maru stopped and did not finish his words. Telling a creator that he or she had a ‘similar’ style to someone was not that respectful. If a mere actor who had just started acting talked about things like that, he might touch Jincheol’s pride. He knew that Joongjin wasn’t someone who would talk about it anywhere, but it was better for him to be careful with his words considering the relationship between the two.

“Similar?”

Joongjin said that word. Maru took a deep breath before acknowledging it. He tried to be roundabout about it, but he could only admit it since the other party said it outright.

“Jincheol and I have some similarities. After Spring Calendar, I stopped doing commercial movies and dazed out, trying out many things with Jincheol. Those were probably the days where I was the most experimental. It was the first time I tried things that didn’t make money. It was fun. Though, the people around me were shocked.”

“Did you shoot indie movies?”

“A couple. There were times when Jincheol did the directing, while I did the script, and sometimes it would be the other way round. However, it didn’t last long as I got fed up with that quite quickly after all. Ever since my dreams had been deflated, nothing I did was fun.”

“Dream…”

The word Joongjin used was a little sad for some reason.

“Since we’re talking, shall we chat a little? What is your dream, Mr. Maru?”

“To live a long life without being sick with the people I love. A bit of money sounds good to me as well.”

“Sounds like a simple dream.”

“It might be simple, but it’s strangely really hard to achieve.”

“You’re right. I was like that too.”

“What was your dream?”

“My dream? When I was your age, it was to earn a lot of money. Money itself was my dream. Even when I think about it now, I lived a diligent life. I did my best in studies for money, went to a good university for money, and became successful in the end. Do you know what I used to do?”

“From what I heard, you ran a restaurant.”

“That happened after I lost my dream. Oh, the dream I’m talking about here is my second dream.”

“Your second dream?”

Joongjin faintly smiled.

“Let’s talk about that later. Anyway, I went to the financial district in order to realize my first dream. Do you know how high KOSPI is right now?”

“Around 900[1] as far as I know.”

“When I was working, it was around 100. It was back in 1984. Back then, everyone put their money in the bank. The interest rate wasn’t as hopeless as it is now. Moreover, it was prior to the Asian Games and the Olympics, so back then, people working in the financial district had very high expectations. I realized my first dream somewhat. After I got my hands on so much money, I had some cultural desires. Well, I call it desires, but I actually just wanted to show off. I wanted to take a beautiful girl to an opera.”

Joongjin smiled.

“But operas weren’t really to my tastes. That was how I stumbled on Daehak-ro. The place where people my age are burning with passions. It was really fun. I think it was called the Art Plaza. There were a huge number of people that gathered on that cramped road. That was when I found her.”

Joongjin rested his chin on his hands and tapped on his cheeks with his index fingers. That rhythmic tap was similar to that of a hand of a clock. The clock that was going to the past. He wondered what point in the past Joongjin was looking at. Just then, Maru uttered out a name that came to his mind.

“Are you perhaps talking about Miss Jung Haejoo?”

Joongjin looked at Maru without saying a word. After a long while, he started talking again.

“Have you seen the photo on the stairs?”

“Yes, not too long ago.”

“A charming girl, isn’t she?”

“I don’t know anything about her, but I did think that the smile in the photo looked very pretty. It looked like she had the power to make people around her look at her.”

“You’re right about that. That was her essence. The power that attracted people’s eyes. However, that wasn’t all. She had the ability to make the people around her smile. She was like the protagonist of a children’s movie. Do you know about Hani[2]?”

“I do.”

“Her personality was different, but she was like that. Looking at her made you want to cheer her on, and the passion she gave off infected everyone around her. She was a little stubborn like Hani as well, but in her heart, she was a really gentle girl. Hm, now that I said those words, she’s not that similar to Hani. Hani is a scary tomboy after all. Anyway, she was a cool girl.”

“Someone you couldn’t help but like?”

Maru borrowed Jincheol’s words. Joongjin nodded.

“From that day onwards, I went to the place where she worked. It was a rather worn-out building. The theater didn’t have that many guests either. That girl was charming, but back then, she couldn’t be said to be good at acting. Customers pay money to consume an actor’s acting, but no matter how charming she was, the theater troupe she belonged to lacked something to open the wallets of customers. That was when I had the thought. Ah! The reason I earned all this money is for this moment!”

“Did you support them?”

“Yes. That was the start of my second dream. Yecheon, the theater troupe. I wanted to see that troupe succeed. Unfortunately, I wasn’t as honest as I am now back then. I was focused on earning money, so I didn’t know what kind creatures women were nor did I know that the emotion I had back then was love. But isn’t it kind of boring to hear a middle aged man like me talk about love?”

“I think it’s suitable as a coffee time talk. Also, I have some personal curiosities about Miss Jung Haejoo.”

“Then I guess I can talk a little more about some old memories then.”

Joongjin looked around before putting three sugar cubes in front of him.

“This is me, and this is Haejoo. Lastly, I need to add this cocky-looking sugar cube in order to progress the story.”

“Is it president Lee Junmin?”

“It’s a bit scary to see you know so much. Did you investigate or something?”

Joongjin laughed and tapped on the sugar cubed he named Lee Junmin.

“One girl, two men. It’s a rather obvious love triangle. It’s too cliché these days but back then, it was good. Being cliché means that it was once loved by people.”

Joongjin put one sugar cube in his mouth.

“Hear me out while you eat.”

Maru picked up the sugar cube given to him. The name of that sugar cube was Lee Junmin.

Sorry, president - Maru put the sugar cube in his mouth.

[1] The stock market. Currently, KOSPI is around 3000 won.

[2] This is not referring to the singer belonging to the idol group EXID, but from the program Boni Hani that aired in 2003. EXID debuted in 2012, and Hani was born in 1992, which makes her younger than Maru.

Chapter 571

“My first impressions of the theater were literally the worst. The seats were cramped, the air was damp, and there were even some cracks on the wall, making me feel uneasy. But what could I do? I had no choice but to go there since that girl was there.”

Joongjin faintly smiled.

“On my first day in Daehak-ro, I met Haejoo, and after that, I followed her to Yecheon. The small theater that I thought I would never get used to made me realize that smaller theaters had their own charms after I went there a few times. Going to that building where Yecheon was after work and filling an empty seat - this became my schedule every weekend. I watched the same play over and over again, and I naturally got to know the people of the troupe as well. I wasn’t that social, though, so most of the time I went back home after watching. Of course, the reason I went there is also because of Haejoo. But as I said earlier, I wasn’t honest with my emotions. That’s why I made up an excuse. I told them that I wanted to help them because I liked the theater troupe so much.”

“How romantic.”

“It might sound like that, but I was actually just afraid. I sort of realized that I would get hurt if I approached that girl and got rejected. The reason I probably didn’t choose to take the straightforward path was perhaps because I was afraid of getting hurt. Back then, I didn’t know what it meant to clash head on and get kicked. I told you before, right? That I hate the word genius. However, in terms of earning money, I actually accept that term. Back then, I was receiving more benefits than I was putting in. I was quite timely with my work as well. I only knew that the vague thing known as failures existed, as I never actually experienced one for myself. Perhaps that’s what made me even more afraid. I wasn’t sure if I would be able to return to my ordinary life once I fell over.”

“Is that why you kept circling around us?”

Jinjoo had joined in on the conversation as well. Her daughter Gaeul had left the store just a while ago. It seemed that she went back home.

“That’s how it was. Also, why does it feel like I’m in a confession session at a church? Do I need to keep going?”

“I want to keep listening,” Maru quickly said.

Junmin and Joongjin, while he had some interest in the events that occurred between these two, he was more interested in the lady named Jung Haejoo. Junmin, Joongjin, and also Joohyun. He was curious about the identity of the person, who these three people who were known to be top-rate in their respective fields, kept reminiscing about to this day.

“Keep going. When else would I be able to get you to talk about something like this?”

Some light snacks were placed on the bar. Joongjin made a sour expression before continuing the story after putting a piece of jelly in his mouth.

“Circling around, the expression you used is the perfect fit, Mrs. Jinjoo. It was true that I was attracted to Haejoo, but it was a bit vague, and I didn’t have the courage to resolve that vagueness. When I got closer to the other members of the troupe, I kinda started feeling that that kind of situation wasn’t so bad. It was around that time that I started helping the operation of the theater troupe financially after hearing that they were having a hard time.”

“I heard that it was several months’ worth of rent. Your help was really big.”

“It’s not like I had anything else to use it on.”

Maru exclaimed. It was unimaginable for him to pay several months’ worth of rent out of goodwill alone.

“Unfortunately, some problems appeared after that. There was a sense of distance. The way the theater troupe treated me changed and it reminded me of how I treated my clients. I really gave that money without thinking, but they seemed to think that the money contained a lot of meaning.”

“Well, I guess it did feel like that a little,” Jinjoo said.

Maru asked Jinjoo about it.

“Were you perhaps at Yecheon as well?”

“I wasn’t affiliated with the troupe. I went there a lot because my husband over there had been working there for a while. I was still in college back then. Daehak-ro is filled with romance, right? I practically lived there during holidays, and I helped out when I could. That’s when I met our director Park over here and talked to him. Ah, this makes me think of Joohyun.”

“Was senior Ahn Joohyun also a member of Yecheon?”

“No, she was a student back then. She was a peculiar girl who came around every day. Though she strangely didn’t meet Joongjin-oppa that much, I think? Joohyun usually didn’t visit on weekends, when Joongjin-oppa came the most. Well, the two were close though. Isn’t that right, oppa?”

“I’m not entirely sure about that.”

Joongjin shrugged.

Jinjoo crossed her arms after saying hm.

“Anyway, back then, we talked about a lot of things internally. Someone who was no different from a complete stranger suddenly gave us a lot of money. Honestly speaking, Yecheon back then wasn’t some great theater troupe that was worth investing in. When my husband was working there for a brief moment, he was saying that it was finally going to go out of business that year. After all, the members were doing part time jobs and collected what money they had to pay for the rent. They only lasted because they loved Yecheon. Otherwise, we would have been thrown out a long time ago.”

“So smaller theaters weren’t that good back then either.”

“I didn’t major in acting, so I can’t comment about other theaters, but with Yecheon, they were in a really bad situation financially. My husband also just went there to help because someone asked him to. He didn’t get any payment besides food expenses. In that sense, he’s quite cool.”

Jinjoo waved at Jincehol who was sitting by the window. Jincheol stared at her for a while before waving back. Maru looked at the two and thought that they were a couple that suited each other.

“Then something happened. I think that was when you started coming less and less, right?”

Joongjin silently nodded when Jinjoo said those words.

“What happened?” Maru asked.

“Someone ran off with the money. I think it was around 1 million won back then.”

1 million won during the mid 80s was a considerably large sum. Some money suddenly appeared for the theater troupe who were in a bad financial situation, and a member ran off with that money. Joongjin would feel very awkward about it. After all, the money he gave them out of goodwill caused problems.

“That kind of thing happened, but the members didn’t make a big deal about it. In fact, they apologized to me, saying that they lost some of the money I gave them. Of course, I found out not too long later that it was stolen, not lost, but they did not resent or report the member that ran off with the money. It was pretty amazing.”

“Everyone had similar feelings after all, and everyone had it hard,” Jinjoo said.

“Even though it was called the 3-low era[1], not everyone had the benefit of that after all. Whether then or now, people who do acting have glass wallets. It’s because I knew that that I didn’t feel that bad about it. In fact, I came to like them even more because they were honest with me about it and because they just forgot about the member that left them to focus on their work. However, from that moment onwards, I never handed them my money directly. It would be quite troublesome if the same thing happened again after all. Instead, I only gave them money on the day they had to pay rent to the landowner. The people of Yecheon refused my money after that, but I wanted to give them the money. That place was my resting place after all.”

Joongjin quenched his thirst with some water. He looked past the window when he talked about the past.

“However, that incident did make me feel a little cautious. It was just as Mrs. Jinjoo said. I didn’t go there for a month, thinking about our future relationships. When I went back after that, that person was there. I’m talking about president Lee Junmin who was wearing that worn-out yellow suit. Oh, of course, back then, he was just the president of a small agency without any achievements at all.”

“So the president got to know about Yecheon back then, huh.”

“He came to the theater for Haejoo, just like me. A man, who quit his life as a nameless actor and started a management business suddenly came up to Haejoo and told her that she couldn’t act in a place like this.”

Joongjin laughed self-loathingly.

“It was incredibly rude. Even I was angry and I didn’t even belong to Yecheon. What would the other people of Yecheon think? There was total chaos. The place they’ve tried so hard to maintain, even going as far as giving up their ordinary life became ‘a place like this’ due to a few words from a man wearing a worn-out suit.”

“The president had a sharp tongue back then too, huh.”

“That’s his nature. He was chased out of the theater, but he kept knocking on the doors persistently after that. When he paid for the ticket and came as a customer, the troupe couldn’t say anything to him either. Lee Junmin, that man, kept talking to Haejoo. That she could improve further, and that she had to go to a bigger stage.”

Joongjin looked a little angry as he said those words. As for who he was angry at, Maru didn’t know.

“They say sincerity is the way of heaven, right? It was the theater troupe that started saying that they should listen to that man even though they’ve been giving him the cold shoulder this whole time. When I saw that, and I’m being honest here, I didn’t think anything of it. That was because I didn’t know anything about acting back then after all. I did get the impression that the acting displayed in Yecheon lacked something to attract more audience, but I didn’t have a solution to that. Supporting them financially was the only thing I could do.”

No, that’s actually not it - Joongjin smiled with a sigh.

“I felt that they couldn’t improve further. To be precise, I never thought that Haejoo’s acting was anything special. She was definitely an attractive girl, but if you asked me if she was charming as an actress, I would hesitate to answer. Yet in that situation, Lee Junmin, that man had such confidence in himself when he said that she can do better. Now that I think about it, I was perhaps just jealous of that man who could talk to Haejoo with such confidence. After that, Haejoo changed, surprisingly. On top of the charm she gave off as a human being, she gained the charm of an actress. I even felt weirded out by her. I wondered if it was really possible for someone’s skill level to rise so dramatically. It wasn’t just Haejoo. The entire theater troupe improved. Of course, they didn’t have that many customers so their skills weren’t really known by others, but I had a feeling back then. Ah, a star will be born here in Daehak-ro.”

The first actress that president Lee Junmin nurtured. Maru thought back to the figure of the lady in the photo again. What kind of acting did a woman, who the president did not hesitate to use the word genius for, do?

“I stayed close with the theater troupe back then. President Lee Junmin was always with us as well. However, he and I didn’t talk that much. That was the case even while drinking. The reason I didn’t talk to him was because Haejoo was next to him. The reason he didn’t talk to me was probably because he noticed my feelings towards her. When I saw with my own two eyes that president Lee Junmin was the one next to Haejoo, and realized that the relationship between the two wasn’t that ordinary, I finally became honest with my own feelings. Ah, I am in love with this woman.”

Joongjin gulped down some water.

“Not too long later, Haejoo’s debut piece was set. President Lee Junmin was good at running a business back then too, so he actually managed to snatch a pretty good piece considering that his business had just taken off. We held a party in the theater troupe. I congratulated her as well. I could no longer like her, but a pretty close acquaintance was making her debut after all. Furthermore, on that day, I was confessed to.”

“Confessed to?” Maru asked.

Joongjin, who had a heavy smile on his face this whole time, looked like he had shaken everything off for the first time.

“By Haejoo, that is. She actually liked me. I felt like I was smashed on the head with a hammer. It meant that I would be the one standing next to her had I had the courage. However, human nature was devious and I also had this thought - why did she not tell me before? When I asked her that, Haejoo told me this: that confession was not a challenge but a confirmation. I understood after hearing her words. It was me who just funded them from afar while not expressing my feelings towards her even once. In a time I didn’t know, her one-sided love had reached its end, and president Lee appeared in front of her. Moreover, president Lee was someone who knew her true worth. It was clear who she would choose.”

Joongjin stopped and checked the time. He said ‘it’s dinner time’ in a small voice.

“I’ve talked a long time about such an old love story, huh. To wrap things up, it’s simple. I dislike president Lee. I dislike him because he was the man who received Haejoo’s love, and I dislike him because he couldn’t take responsibility for her until the end. Ever since Haejoo passed away, he had become a cold businessman who never experienced failure. However, it was already too late for him. He had to be a businessman who did not fail before Haejoo passed away. I hate it so much that the first ever failure he made was Haejoo.”

Joongjin stood up from his seat, saying that he wanted to go to the bathroom. Maru looked at Jinjoo, who was sitting in front of him.

“May I ask how she passed away?”

“Hm, it was a traffic accident. When the accident happened, my husband and I had left Yecheon and were focusing on college, so I didn’t hear specifically what happened, but that I can be sure of. On the day of the accident, Haejoo met president Lee Junmin. That’s why back then, we even talked about how she might have lived if she did not meet the president that day.”

Maru groaned. If it was like that, he could understand Joongjin’s hostility. ‘What if’ was a really useless assumption, but people couldn’t help but think about such things after all. Had she not met Junmin that day - everyone who loved the woman named Jung Haejoo should have thought about the same thing that day.

He was then reminded of president Lee Junmin’s strict expression.

Perhaps that was a mask he put on?

Perhaps, there was a man who still struggled in the agonizing sadness beneath that mask?

“Phew, it’s time for dinner, huh,” Jinjoo said.

[1] A period in South Korea in the mid 1980s when: 1. The dollar was low; 2. Oil prices were low; and 3. Interests were low.

Chapter 572

Jincheol brought the standing sign inside and flipped the status sign on the window. The hand-written ‘open’ sign now could be seen from the inside. Just as Jincheol was reaching up the glass door to lock it, two women, who seemed to be customers, came around. Jincheol poked his head out of the door and talked to them with a smile. He seemed to be apologizing for closing early.

“Give us some freebies next time.”

“Yes, of course. I’ll give you some buns the next time you’re here.”

“Have a good day.”

The women turned around after saying goodbye. They didn’t seem to feel unpleasant at all as though this happened frequently. It probably meant that the café was just that comfortable for the customers.

“Don’t your sales take a hit if you close so early?” Maru asked Jinjoo who was busy inside the kitchen. It was 6 p.m. It was the golden hour when they could attract people going home from work and school, yet they had closed the store and were preparing to eat dinner. He was a little envious seeing them being leisurely, but he was slightly worried as well.

“We don’t need to be in a hurry since we don’t have to pay rent. Well, normally, we stay open from 9 till 8, but we should close early on a day like this when we have some people around.”

He had forgotten. Forgotten that this place was run by the landowner as a hobby. Maru realized that there was nothing more meaningless than worrying about these two so he decided to mind his own problems.

“Don’t pull too much,” he said as he looked down.

Two children were sticking to a leg each. They were Jincheol’s children who had come back from nursery. The one quietly grabbing his left leg was a boy, while the one mercilessly shaking his right leg was a girl. It seemed that the girl inherited traits from her mother. This little one had a very strong gripping strength.

Maru walked around the store with the two children in his arms. The kids giggled when they were lifted in the air.

“I was always worried because those two didn’t like strangers, but I’m glad to see that they’re obedient in your arms,” Jincheol said.

Joongjin, and Geunsoo, who were drinking beer next to him, were also looking at Maru with interest.

“Perhaps I was a childcare worker in my previous life.”

He lifted the children up high and ran around the store. He was soon surrounded by cats, and the ones that were playing around on the 2nd floor were around him as well. There was a total of 11. It seemed that the ones from the 2nd floor were the bosses as they were on the sofas meant for customers. The spotty one was one of them.

“Dinner’s ready.”

A savory fragrance could be smelled from the counter. He brought the two children over. A large bowl of red-colored bibimbap, miyeok-guk[1], and stir-fried potatoes were there.

“Bada, Haneul. Come to mommy and get ready to eat.”

The two children that left Maru’s side walked to the counter. Gaeul sat next to Jincheol.

“She has the same name as my sister.”

“Who?”

“Bada.”

“Really? Is your sister a tomboy like our dear Bada?” Jinjoo asked as she pinched Bada’s cheeks.

“She’s a tough one alright. Father named her such intending for her to become like the calm sea[2], but she grew up like a storm.”

“I hope our Bada becomes a little more obedient. She always causes trouble at the nursery. I heard she goes around beating up the boys or something.”

“I don’t!” Bada denied it in a loud voice.

Maru quietly laughed. Girls were bigger than boys when they were very young. It wouldn’t be strange if a girl like her made boys around her cry. Compared to her, Haneul was very calm for a boy. He could tell at a glance that he didn’t make his parents worry.

“Bon appetit, everyone. Don’t leave any behind.”

Maru looked at the two children who were using their little hands to use a spoon to scoop up food before picking up his chopsticks. He thought that he wouldn’t have any appetite since he ate a lot of things, but it came back to him when he ate a spoonful of bibimbap. The spiciness of the gochujang[3] was just right.

They talked about a lot of things over dinner, and most of it was about children. They look the cutest around that age - he thought that as he looked at the children and time passed by in a flash.

“Honey. I’m going to go back first with the kids so come home after you clean up. Don’t be too late.”

“Alright.”

Jinjoo took the three kids out of the store. While Jincheol and Geunsoo cleaned up the store, Maru washed the bowls. After putting the bowls in the cupboard, he shook off the water from his hand. He suddenly had the thought that it was not a bad idea to open a store like this. Of course, he knew that running a business was akin to war, so it was very unlikely that he would do so. Though, he might consider it if he earned an uncontrollable amount of money as an actor.

“Looks like you wash your dishes a lot at home, yes?” Joongjin, who was watching him from the counter, asked.

There was a strangely large number of cats around him. Perhaps he had a smell that attracted cats.

“If there’s a pro license, I would get one.”

Jincheol and Geunsoo also finished cleaning the store and came back to the 1st floor.

“I wish I was born a cat.”

Geunsoo said that as he looked at the corner of the store. A large cat was sleeping. Maru smiled and left the counter.

“Sorry to make you work when I called you here as a guest,” Jincheol apologized.

“I ate for free, so I should at least do this much. Is it all done now?”

“We don’t have any more things to do. Oh, wait.”

Jincheol, who went behind the counter, took out a bag of coffee from the display. He then put the coffee bag in a paper bag along with some other things.

“Take this home with you. You just have to put one scoop on a filter and brew it with some hot water. Do you want one too, hyung?”

“I don’t.”

Joongjin shook his hand.

“Hyung-nim, why aren’t you asking me?”

“You can drink here. You’re gonna have to be here every day once the shoot starts.”

“Now that makes me feel tired already.”

Geunsoo laughed. Joongjin looked at his watch.

“Looks like I’ve been held up here for longer than I expected. Jincheol, thanks for the food and drinks today. Mr. Geunsoo, Mr. Maru. See you later.”

“Have a safe trip back home.”

Joongjin left while dragging his slippers. Some of the cats followed him to the door and meow-ed at him.

“We should get going too.”

Geunsoo picked up his jacket. Maru looked at the store once more. He liked this place. He decided that he should visit this place, if he had the time, and enjoy some coffee. His gaze moved along the wall and stopped on the staircase that led to the 2nd floor. He was reminded of Jung Haejoo, who wasn’t here but was mentioned more than anyone.

“It would’ve been good if I could see her.”

He talked to himself in a small voice. The actress that stole the hearts of geniuses. He wondered what her acting was like. However, it was impossible to see the acting of an actress who died 16 years ago. Hearing about it from someone else wouldn’t give him first hand experience, so it would be meaningless.

“If you’re talking about Haejoo’s acting, there’s a way you can see her.”

He heard a voice right next to him. It was Jincheol, who was holding a cat.

“I can?”

“We have some videotapes we recorded while I worked at Yecheon. I can’t guarantee the quality, but there shouldn’t be a problem with just watching it. I was feeling a little sorry since I only gave you coffee after you came all the way here, so I guess this is good now.”

Jincheol told him to follow him and left the store. He locked up the store and went around the building. He opened a glass door and went in. An iron door leading to the store and a staircase appeared. On the iron door was a sign that said ‘no entry’.

“The 3rd floor is my house.”

TV sounds could be heard from above. When they arrived at the top of the stairs, a door with a heart-shaped sign that said ‘Jinjoo’s’ on it could be seen.

“Wait a bit.”

Jincheol went inside first. After a while, the commotion died down and the door opened.

“Come in.”

Maru carefully walked inside. There was a soft mat at the entrance. In the living room were two toy slides that were shaped like an elephant. It was clearly a home that had children in it.

“The kids just fell asleep. There would be big trouble if they wake up, so be careful,” Jincheol said.

He walked across the living room with cat-like steps. Jinjoo and the three children could be seen inside the room that seemed to be the baby’s room. Jinjoo was gently stroking the stomachs of the children who were sleeping. Meeting eyes with her, Maru silently greeted her. Jinjoo smiled and nodded.

Jincheol opened the door to a room and went inside. This room seemed to be used for storage as there were a lot of boxes and items piled on top of one another.

“It should be inside this box.There’s quite a lot, so you need to check the label.”

Jincheol dragged out five blue plastic boxes and placed them in the middle of the room. Maru cleaned off the dust with some wet wipes and slowly opened the cover. Inside were a bunch of videotapes.

“It looks like there’s around three hundred in total.”

Geunsoo said as he sat down.

“It’s over a decade’s worth after all. These days, they don’t take up much space because you can put them all on CDs, but those didn’t exist back then.”

Listening to Jincheol’s words, Maru took out the videotape at the very top. A tape that was slightly longer than his handspan. It had been a really long time since he had seen one. CDs had replaced all storage media when he entered middle school, and ever since then, videotapes became a relic. There probably wasn’t a household these days that still used videotapes to watch movies.

“There’s a treasure here,” Geunsoo said as he took out one of the tapes.

‘Secret sister-in-law.’ - that was the label on the tape.

“It’s one of the relics from cheonggyecheon[4]. Do you want it?”

“Nah. This seems to be filled with wedding videos and celebratory occasions. Maru, how is it on your side?”

“I’ll have a look at what’s below.”

Maru took out some of the tapes at the top and looked below. Unlike the top, which just had tapes, the lower tapes were stored in casings. Jincheol exclaimed when he saw them.

“It’s those. I remember now that I see it.”

Jincheol took out the blue casings. The yellowed-out paper labels on them said ‘Yecheon’.

“Let’s take them all out for now.”

The three of them took out all of the tapes in the big box.

“Man, we took a lot of videos.”

There was a total of 57 videotapes encased in blue casings. All of them had a label that said ‘Yecheon’.

“One VHS is around 220g each, so they should be about 13kg if you count the casings. If I could, I’d love to have you watch them at my house, but we have children, and more importantly, don’t have a VCR.”

“Of course. I’ll take them and watch them by myself. I’m thankful that you’re lending me these at all. I would hate to disturb you even more.”

Maru placed the tapes in a cardboard box that Jincheol gave him. After wrapping the box with tape, he tried lifting it. It was quite awkward to lift it up since the volume was big, but it wasn’t like he couldn't move.

“I want to watch them too since he told me that the president fell in love with her as well.”

“You aren’t taking a step out from this place today, you know that, right?”

Geunsoo licked his lips in pity as he looked at the box.

“I’ll give them to you once I finish. I’ll take notes on them too.”

“I’ll be thankful if you do. Uhm, hyung-nim. I’ll take Maru home.”

“It’s okay. I can take the taxi home. It looks like you have work to do. You don’t need to mind me.”

Maru picked up the box. He quietly left the room, trying to not make any sound. He met Jinjoo in front of the door and she told him to visit again. Maru nodded before going towards the door.

“I hope the next time we see each other, we do it because of work. I feel like working with you will be fun.”

“I’ll gladly take you up on any offer.”

Maru shook hands with Jincheol.

“Are you sure you don’t need a ride home? You look pretty uncomfortable.”

“I can load it on the taxi.”

“I feel sorry about it.”

“Why would you be? Thanks to you, I got to meet the director and got precious things too,” Maru said as he thought about the videotapes and the coffee. Geunsoo took a step back, saying okay.

“I’m off then.”

“You’ll probably have to go to the high street to get a taxi. You don’t see them around here that much.”

“Okay.”

He picked up the box and left the house. His steps were light thanks to the unexpected gifts. He looked forward to watching them already. What kind of acting did she do? He was excited like a child.

Just as he started walking, he remembered something important.

“Did we have a VCR at home again?”

Maru frowned.

[1] Seaweed soup.

[2] Bada means sea

[3] Red pepper paste. It’s the reason why bibimbap looks red.

[4] A popular electronics district in Seoul that no longer exists today.

Chapter 573

“Why don’t you try expressing a little more? They say restraint is good, but it might make you look like a shy actor. It’s fine if you did that intentionally, but if you didn’t, then you should try making your actions look a little bigger.”

“Like this?”

The junior shook off her hands and stepped back.

“I think that looks better.”

“Ah, okay.”

“What do you think?”

“I’m not sure. It feels a little exaggerated.”

“Then let’s research it together. If you can’t accept your own acting, no one will.”

I’ll think about it some more - her junior stood in front of the mirror with a contemplating expression. She looked at the back of her junior before sighing. The first year students that joined this year had strong colors. On top of that, their natural senses in bringing those colors into their own acting were good as well. The reason why the audition, which would usually end in a week, took two weeks this time was because there were a lot of competent first year students. The first year students that were picked were filled with the passion to learn, and thanks to that, the 2nd and 3rd year students had become a lot busier than before. Her friends were already saying that Myunghwa High had won the nationals.

“The first year students are scary,” said Kim Seol as she wiped her sweat with the towel around her neck.

She was someone who had joined the acting club in her first year, and was now currently the club president. She originally had long hair that reached beneath her shoulders, but she showed up two months ago in February, after having cut her hair short. That day was the graduation day of the senior who was the club president until last year. The former club president laughed big time when she saw Seol’s short hair. It was probably her way of showing her resolve as she succeeded the title of the president, but the graduating seniors and her friends chuckled until the end.

“In a few years, I feel like kids who have been studying acting since elementary school might enter. It’s good to see Myunghwa High’s fame rising, but it does put a lot of pressure on me as a senior,” Kim Seol said as she looked at the juniors.

“I have so many worries since I’m graduating this year,” she replied.

“Should I repeat a year? I like this acting club too much.”

“I feel like you’re someone who would really do that so don’t say that.”

She blocked Kim Seol’s mouth. Just then, she was startled by the sticky sensation that she felt from her palm and immediately lifted her hand. Kim Seol was reaching out her tongue.

“Bunbun, your palm is too salty.”

“Who told you to lick it?”

She pouted and wiped her hand on Kim Seol’s towel. This girl was really unpredictable.

“Who do you think is going to win the individual prize this year?” Kim Seol asked as she looked at the practicing first year students.

The first year students took most of the important roles for the summer competition. Although the 2nd year students applied for the audition as well, they were unfortunately pushed back to being supporting characters since the new members were so good.

“I don’t know. Everyone’s so good.”

“Don’t say that. There are two that have already caught your eyes, no?”

“You don’t say that in front of everyone, right?” she asked as she narrowed her eyes.

“Of course not. I’m only saying it because it’s just between us.”

Kim Seol pointed at two of the first year students.

“Park Hoyoung, Kim Yuna. I guarantee that one of those two will win the individual prize. Bunbun, you think so too, right?”

She nodded unwillingly. The two that Kim Seol just talked about had top skills even among the new members.

“They both learned acting after all,” she said as she did some stretches.

Unlike the other first year members, who had started learning acting after joining the club, those two have already been studying acting and were seriously considering taking that path in the future. Those two possessed acting skills that got the unanimous approval to join when they applied for the club.

If someone did get a prize, it would be one of those two, just as Seol had said. She looked at the two juniors who were reading their scripts as she thought about it.

“So look after them, will ya?”

Hearing her words, she, who was stretching her legs, raised her head.

“Me?”

“Yes. Honestly, ever since the seniors graduated, there’s no one in the club who’s as good as you when it comes to acting. Above all, you have experience appearing on TV. On the days when the instructor is here, we’ll follow the instructor, but otherwise, I hope you can be the one to take care of those two. That will help them out as well.”

“I don’t think there’s a need to go that far though.”

Kim Seol shook her head.

“They are people who can bring out more of their skills if there’s someone to guide them. I hope you can be the one to do that.”

She quietly looked at Kim Seol. She was an unpredictable girl, but she wasn’t someone who would speak out of line. The reason she succeeded the title of club president was because she had sufficient talent and leadership skills.

“Do you really think so?”

“Yes. I think they want that as well.”

“But is there anything I can even help with? They probably know everything from acting schools.”

“Acting schools don’t teach you everything. Plus you have first-hand experience in shooting the real thing, meaning, you got to act with real actors. I hope you can use your experiences and guide them. They aren’t treating acting as a mere hobby, so I want to help them out as much as I can.”

She sighed and stood up. She approached the smiling Kim Seol and pinched her waist.

“Don’t blame me if something goes wrong.”

“If someone says something to you, bring that person to me. I’ll punish that person for daring to tease our Bunbun.”

How could she win against that? She smiled and approached the two juniors. Because they were so absorbed, they didn’t realize that she was standing behind them. Their concentration was really something.

She tapped on the two people’s shoulders.

“Oh, seonbae-nim.”

Hoyoung closed the script and looked at her. Yuna, who stood next to him, seemed a little startled as she dazed out for a while before standing up straight.

“How is it? Did you learn your lines?”

“Yes. I can probably recite them in my sleep.”

“You sound confident. How about you, Yuna?”

“Me too,” Yuna replied in a small voice.

She really found Yuna cute. Her soft skin and her facial features that were so delicate that they made her look like a doll. From what she heard, there were at least five boys among the first year students who had an interest in her. She was really polite as well, so she was doted on a lot by the older students. Furthermore, unlike her cheerful-looking appearance, she was actually really calm, making her think that she was a shy girl at first, but now she knew that the girl was filled with passion. There were times when she looked quite dull, but that was because her actions were streamlined without any wasted movements. Yuna showed really clean movement when one observed her.

“Do you want to go through the lines? I’ll fill the other roles.”

“Really?”

Yuna became visibly happier. She smiled awkwardly because of the pressuring gaze.

“I would love to have you check on us.”

Hoyoung urged Yuna, saying that they should begin quickly. Yuna also quickly got ready.

“We aren’t just going over the lines. Put your emotions into the lines as well. We’re going to exchange what we felt from each other’s lines and think about how we can change them after.”

She no longer spoke and just looked at the other two. Since these two were really good, she might actually distract them if she wasn’t serious. She would have to watch them while maintaining the tension she was in during shoots.

“Begin once you’re ready,” she said as she opened the script.

* * *

“…That is my opinion. These are purely my opinions so if you don’t think one is right, then just ignore it. I know that both of you are learning in acting schools.”

“I think I like your teachings better. In acting schools, it’s not personal guidance. It’s more like checking homework when we prepare some acting. We rarely get the chance to have someone comment on our every action,” Hoyoung said.

“What you taught me is the same as what I learned in acting schools. No, I found it a lot easier to understand so it was very helpful.”

Yuna nodded after saying those words. It was as though she was trying to cheer her up. She inwardly felt relieved. She was worried since she had never taught junior like this one-on-one, but it seemed that they were satisfied.

“I’ll do this in the future as well. If you want to practice with me, talk to me any time. I’m an extra in the play this time, so I have a lot of time. Don’t feel too bad and just talk to me whenever you’d like.”

“Right, seonbae-nim. I find that strange. Why did you not take up any roles this time?” Hoyoung expressed his dissatisfaction.

“Because I’m in my 3rd year. Myunghwa High has always been like this. In our 3rd years, we either take insignificant roles or don’t participate at all and help out as staff instead. Only then do the juniors get a chance. Of course, if the juniors are not worth looking at, all of us 3rd years would have to participate……”

She looked at the other first year students who were practicing on the other side of the clubroom.

“But as you see, we have a splendid new batch of members this year. We need to be the ones to support you since we have stage experience, because who else will?”

“Wouldn’t we get the grand prize if the seniors go on stage though?”

“You can’t say that for sure. Even if we do, we won’t feel that happy about it. After all, there will be a gap once we graduate. If the alumni happened to hear about that, they’ll immediately barge in and scold us, you know?”

“Well, the seniors were a little scary back then.”

“They’re all working in society after all. You’ll realize what I mean once you become 2nd and then 3rd years. Going on stage might be fun, but it's even more fun helping out the juniors. I think that’s the driving force behind Myunghwa High getting the grand prize every year.”

She smiled and closed the script.

“Well done, both of you. It’s time to go home.”

Hearing her words, the two juniors looked at the clock simultaneously.

“Oh, it’s gotten so late already.”

“I didn’t realize.”

“Sorry for holding you up so late on a Sunday. Get your things. Let’s leave together.”

Hoyoung replied ‘yes’ in a big voice before running over to the other first year students. She turned around after putting her script between her arm and her body. She had to get changed and then get ready to go home.

“Uhm, seonbae-nim.”

“Yeah?”

She turned around. She saw Yuna hesitant to do something.

“What is it?”

“Uhm… can I ask you about one thing?”

“Do you have something to ask already? What is it?”

“Uhm… there’s this thing I coincidentally overheard.”

“Yeah, go on.”

“I heard that you know Han Maru-seonbae who appears in ‘New Semester’.”

“Han Maru? Uh, yeah. What about him?”

“Do you really know him?”

“Yeah.”

Hearing that, Yuna became even more hesitant to say something. She tilted her head and took a step closer.

“What’s this about? Don’t be too stiff. I won’t eat you.”

“…Uhm, seonbae-nim. Can I meet Han Maru-seonbae?”

“Meet Maru?”

“Yes! I mean, it’s not me who wants to meet him. My sister says she wants to meet him.”

“Your sister?”

“Yes. She’s called Kim Bitna. She just entered elementary school this year.”

“Really? She must be cute if she’s anything like you.”

“Yes, she’s really cute.”

“But she wants to see Maru?”

“…Yes.”

Yuna turned her head away slightly. She tilted her head in confusion but still replied.

“I’ll ask him for you. It sounds like your sister really likes New Semester.”

“No, she doesn’t watch New Semester that much.”

“But she knows Maru?”

“I heard that she got to act together in the same drama before.”

“Drama?”

“Yes. My sister is a child actress.”

“Wow, that’s incredible.”

“Heheh, my sister’s good at acting.”

Seeing Yuna smiling happily made her realize just how much Yuna cherished her sister. She took out her phone on the spot.

“I’ll try calling him.”

“Thank you.”

She checked the time. 9 p.m. He probably had a shoot today since it was Sunday, but he also said that it might end early, so he should probably be home by now.

She long-pressed the shortcut number: 2.

Chapter 574

The taxi drove off. Maru took a deep breath before lifting up the box with the videotapes. It wasn’t that heavy, but it was hard to walk because of the sheer volume. Just as he barely managed to carry the box, that got caught on his thighs every time he walked, to his house, his phone rang.

“Yeah, what?”

-Were you exercising? You’re out of breath.

“I was moving some stuff.”

-Stuff?

“I received some presents. Anyway, what’s up at this hour? Didn’t you say you were going to practice late into the night?”

Maru pushed the box in front of his house and sat down on the stairs. 9:10 p.m was the time when he checked his watch.

-I just finished.

“You have it hard.”

-Nah.

Her small laugh could be heard over the phone.

“If you just finished should I go pick you up? I think I have time to see you for around an hour.”

-You must be tired because of the shoot, so get some rest. Oh, I called you because a junior of mine wanted to see you.

“Junior? Junior who?”

-Junior at our school’s acting club. To be exact, it’s her sister who wants to see you. Do you know someone called Kim Bitna?

“Kim Bitna?”

He contemplated when he heard the rather familiar-sounding name. He remembered the small pretty girl who played the role of a beggar with him during the shoot for Apgu last summer. That girl’s name was Bitna. At the same time, he was reminded of Bitna’s mother, who wore sunglasses and drove with one hand. Even though he had only seen her once during the audition, she left a deep impression on him.

“I know her. I met her when I shot Apgu last year. She was a really polite kid, so the adults doted on her a lot.”

-Then that must be her. A junior of mine is her sister, and I heard from her that Bitna wants to meet you.

“Bitna wants to meet me?”

-Yeah. Looks like you two were close?

Maru thought about what happened last year. He couldn’t say that they were on really good terms. Unlike the other boys who he had gotten close to by living together with them for a while, Bitna always disappeared with her mother after the shoot.

“It wasn’t bad, I guess.”

-Really?

“I did treat her to some snacks from time to time, so maybe that’s how I scored in her heart?”

Maru reminded himself of the young Bitna who did the shoot without any complaints. Even adults found the weather hot, yet Bitna continued acting without crying even once. Her clear eyes left a deep impression on him.

Just then, he could hear her start talking to someone over the phone. He had waited for a while when the door to his house opened.

“Oppa, what are you doing here?”

It was Bada. Maru pointed at the phone.

“Oh, it’s unni. What’s this? It’s in the way here, so I’ll take it inside for now.”

Bada struggled to put the box inside. Maru thanked her in a small voice.

-What’s this thank you?

“I said thank you for being born.”

-What the hell was that so suddenly?

“This wasn’t the first time I’ve said that. Anyway, I thought you were talking to someone.”

-It’s the junior I was talking about. She’s next to me. How’s your schedule? Bitna apparently really looks forward to meeting you.

“No way. I’m fine with Tuesday. I wonder if Bitna is okay with that?”

-Wait a sec.

Her voice became smaller again. She seemed to be talking with her junior.

-She’s okay with Tuesday.

“Really? I’m fine with meeting her, but I don’t know what she wants to do. If it’s just saying hello, I can go over to your school. Bitna can do that too.”

-That sounds good. Then you should come on Tuesday, and I will send you the time by text.

“Okay.”

-I’m going to hang up then.

“You are?”

-What else?

“How disappointing. It’s the perfect time for a call, yet you want to just hang up after doing business?”

-If you don’t have anything to do, just sleep!

“How heartless.”

She hung up after wishing him good night. Maru smiled and closed his phone.

“Rather than that, Bitna, huh.”

That was unexpected. Just as they talked about, they weren’t on bad terms, but they weren’t close enough that they would meet up like this in person. At most, they would greet each other if they met each other on the streets. If it was one of the boys that rolled around the floor with him to act like a beggar, he might gladly meet them, but for Bitna, he felt more confused than happy.

What were they supposed to do when they meet? - he thought about it as he opened the door. He couldn’t think of anything to say to her when they met. There weren’t many things he could do with an elementary school kid. Maybe he should buy some food for her at a restaurant?

“Oppa, what’s all this?” Bada asked after opening up the box.

She opened one of the casings for the videotape.

“Are these movies?”

“No, some recordings of acting practices.”

“All of this? No, wait, 1988? These are super old!”

“They were taken a long time ago after all.”

“How many are there?”

“About sixty.”

“You’re going to watch all of this? How long is each one?”

“Probably at least an hour?”

“Then that means at least sixty hours, huh.”

“Do you want to watch it with me?”

“Forget about it. I need to study. But why’s there so many? Who’s in it?”

“An amazing actress.”

“An amazing actress?”

Bada tilted her head. When she asked who they were, he just replied to her that they were a nameless actress.

“An amazing, yet nameless actress? I don’t get it. But how are you going to watch it?”

“Don’t we have a videotape player at home?”

“We threw it out a while ago. No one was using it, and it was taking up space in the living room, so mom gave it away to a junk dealer if I remember correctly.”

“So it’s like that after all. Do we have to buy one then?”

Maru put the videotapes back in the box and took them to his room. It seemed that he had to look for a VCR first. Maybe he should visit Yongsan[1]?

“Ah, right, promise.”

Tuesday was his only day off but he had already made an appointment. The only other day he could take off was Thursday when he had acting club practice. However, he hadn’t been to practice a lot lately thanks to shooting the film and the drama. Although practice was lower on his priority list, he had talked to Daemyung about it, and considering what he had to do as a senior, he probably shouldn’t miss out on any more practice sessions.

Should he try to borrow one at school? Maru thought about Taesik. The school probably had a VCR, and it was probably in some storage room somewhere because it wasn’t in use. He might be able to get this resolved quite easily if he asked.

‘Let’s leave that at that.’

Let's wash up for now - he was drenched in sweat after moving some heavy stuff. He decided that he should think about other methods after having a shower.

Maru looked at the box with the videotapes pleasantly before opening the door.

* * *

“Thank you.”

“Don’t mention it. I can do this much. Here, drink this.”

Yuna accepted the strawberry milk while bowing. Her seonbae also went with strawberry milk. They were in the convenience store in front of the school. They naturally came here as they talked to each other.

“The seonbae who graduated used to take me to this place a lot,” her seonbae spoke.

She had a bright smile on her face.

“You’re talking about the one who came for the welcome ceremony for the club right? The one with the short hair.”

“Yes. That’s her. You didn’t know that Seol cut her hair short following her, did you?”

“Oh, did she?”

“Yeah. Seol really liked the former president. Well, you can say the same thing about me. She always asked if we were okay when we were having a hard time. She was really scary when it came to practice, but she was kinder than anyone once practice was over. This is the place I used to talk to her a lot. I think everyone in the acting club drank with her here at least once.”

“She must be a good person.”

Yuna said as she grabbed the strawberry milk with both of her hands. Just from her seonbae’s words, she could tell just what a warm person the former president was. Likewise, the seonbae that brought her here like the former president had to be a good person.

Yuna bit her lower lip and looked at her seonbae. Actually, she had told her a lie. It wasn’t her sister who wanted to see Han Maru-seonbae. Well, she did say it from time to time, but she never desperately wanted to. At most, it was just ‘there was this interesting oppa’. It was her who fanned the flames. When she heard that her seonbae knew Han Maru-seonbae, Yuna thought about it for a long while before talking to her about it.

“Yuna, you said that you wanted to become an actress, right?”

“Yes.”

“Is your sister the same?”

“My sister’s popular. She showed up quite a lot in dramas, as a child actress.”

“Really? It wasn’t just Apgu?”

“She was actually a child model, but she started acting because mom said she should try. She’s really good at acting. I started practicing acting ever since I entered middle school, but my sister debut when she was five. She’s a senior in that regard.”

“Yuna, you’ll become a splendid actress too one day. I managed to, you know? You’re much better than me, so there will come a day when you will be able to display your skills.”

Yuna couldn’t lift her head due to embarrassment after hearing that. She felt extremely happy that the number one seonbae she liked in the club was complimenting her. She felt like the fatigue she got from practice was melting away.

“Ah, do you like strawberry milk? I forgot to ask and ended up buying what I like.”

“I really like strawberry milk.”

Yuna gulped down the strawberry milk.

“Take it slow. You’ll choke.”

As soon as she said those words, Yuna choked on her drink. She coughed and wiped her mouth with her sleeve. She felt embarrassed.

“See, I told you to be careful.”

“Sorry.”

“There’s no need to be sorry. Do you want some tissues?”

“Oh, I have some with me.”

Yuna took out some tissues from her bag and wiped her mouth. She then carefully looked at her seonbae. She was leaning against the chair and looking at the sky as she drank.

‘Wow.’

Yuna subconsciously gasped because her seonbae looked nothing like the character she played on television. She was good at acting, kind, gentle, and… Yuna thought that it was the best choice she ever made to come to Myunghwa High, purely because of the acting club alone.

In Suwon, Myunghwa High was well-known for two things.

One, a school where celebrities attended, and two, a school with a great acting club. Most people who had an interest in this field knew that the alumni of the acting club at Myunghwa High were powerful in the entertainment industry. Yuna also chose Myunghwa High because she wanted to become an actress.

“If you’re having a hard time, then tell me or Seol about it. Or you can go to the other seonbaes about it. They’ll all help you like it’s their own matter. The acting club is no different from family after all.”

“Yes, seonbae-nim.”

“Then shall we get up? Oh! You can meet Maru at 6 on Tuesday. We don’t have practice that day, so that’s a good thing, isn’t it?”

“Thank you.”

“What are you going to do for your sister? Can she come to the school by herself?”

“I’ll go pick her up. We live nearby, so it’s fine.”

“Then I guess there are no problems. I’ll tell him to treat Bitna well. He’s not someone who would play pranks on children, but he’s quite weird.”

“Weird?”

Yuna blinked her eyes and asked. However, her seonbae didn’t seem to have heard as she kept tapping away on her phone. Yuna smiled and no longer spoke. She couldn’t care less about the trivial stuff. What was important was that she got to meet Han Maru-seonbae in person.

“Let’s go, Yuna.”

“Yes!”

Yuna walked right next to her seonbae.

[1] Popular electronics district in Korea.

Chapter 575

“I’m home.”

“You’re late. How about dinner?”

“I ate already with a seonbae of mine.”

“What did you eat?”

“Strawberry milk.”

You should eat properly - seeing her mother worried about her, Yuna smiled and said that she was okay.

“I’m fine since I ate a lot for lunch. Where’s Bitna?”

“She should be sleeping right now. She said she was tired after we came back from the studio.”

Her mother pointed at the bedroom. Yuna quietly opened the door to the room. She could hear regular breathing. She tiptoed so she wouldn’t make any noise with her feet and approached Bitna who was sleeping on the bed.

“Bitna, your unni’s here.”

She whispered and waved her hand, and just then, Bitna opened her eyes. As Yuna didn’t have any intentions of waking her up, she quickly apologized.

“Unni, you’re here.”

“Sorry. Looks like I woke you up. Go back to sleep.”

Bitna, who sat up while rubbing her eyes, yawned before standing up.

“I’m going to watch TV.”

“Do you want me to carry you?”

After thinking for a while, Bitna nodded. Yuna quickly piggybacked Bitna and went to the living room. Some metal sounds could be heard from the kitchen. It seemed that her mother was putting some fruits in a bowl.

“Bitna, did you wake up?”

“I think I woke her up.”

After replying, she put Bitna down on the sofa. Bitna, who was still sleepy, looked at the powered off TV in a daze before looking for the remote.

“Bitna, what do you want to watch?”

“A drama.”

Yuna turned to a Sunday drama channel. Bitna got herself together and started watching TV.

“Have some fruits.”

Her mother put down a large bowl on the living room table. Yuna forked a chopped banana before giving it to Bitna. She subconsciously smiled when she looked at Bitna, who ate the banana with her small hands.

“You’re going to cry even more than I will when Bitna gets married in the future, aren’t you?”

“Of course. Bitna, even if you get married, you must come and see your sister, okay?”

Bitna’s small head nodded.

“You should eat as well, mom.”

“You should eat first. Also, are you going to keep coming home around this time in the future?”

“We’re in our busiest period right now. The characters have been decided, and we’re also making the props. It won’t always end this late though. I find myself lacking no matter how much I practice, so I want to do about an hour more, but the seonbaes told me that it’s important to rest as well.”

“They’re right. Staying in your top condition is also important.”

Yuna looked at Bitna who was watching TV before turning around to look at her mother.

“What did Bitna shoot today?”

“An acquaintance of mine opened a studio. It was really well-decorated too. She said she needed a photo to display at the counter, so I had Bitna do that.”

“Are the photos good?”

“Of course they are. Who do you think the model is?”

“Did you take photos of them with your phone?”

“I thought you’d ask that, so I did.”

Her mother went to the room and came back out with her phone.

“Here. Don’t they look good?”

Bitna was standing in a beige-colored background. She was wearing a light blue one-piece dress and was sitting on a chair that was larger than herself. It was way too cute.

“She’s even prettier if you see the actual photos.”

“Bitna, these look so good,” Yuna said as she showed Bitna the photos.

Bitna smiled faintly before looking at the TV again.

“If this place does well, it’ll be all thanks to Bitna.”

Yuna looked at the photos in satisfaction before giving the phone back to her mother.

“What happened to the audition she took last time?”

“We didn’t hear anything back, so I don’t think she made it.”

“Where can you find a girl prettier than Bitna, huh? They just don’t know their stuff.”

“There are many girls who are just as pretty as Bitna.”

Her mother waved her hand and stood up. Yuna followed her to the kitchen.

“Did you decide on what to do about the acting school?”

Her mother sat down in the kitchen and crossed her arms. When she made a posture like that, the manager side of hers would surface. Yuna organized her thoughts before speaking,

“I want to focus on the acting club for the first year.”

“Is that because the acting club is fun for you? Or because it’s helpful to you.”

“It is both fun and helpful.”

“Yuna.”

“Yes, mom.”

“As you know, we live in an era where only those that have been preparing steadily since youth can grab the opportunity. Mom thinks that both you and Bitna are very pretty and talented, to the point that I can’t believe you two are my daughters. That’s also why I think you’re at a very important moment right now. Think about it carefully. There is a right time for learning. Hanging out with your friends at your age is very important, yes. It’s not like mom doesn’t understand that. Also Yuna, you must remember that the successful actors and actresses all gave up some things to reach their level. It’s not just actors. You can apply that logic to every other job. Achieving something is the same as giving up just as much. Yuna is smart, so you know what mom is saying, right?”

“Yes, I do.”

“And you still want to reduce the number of acting school lessons that you took during middle school and focus on the acting club?”

“Yes, I do.”

Her mother closed her eyes. Yuna waited patiently. Her mother was making her decision right now. If she said no, Yuna was planning to act stubborn, which she hadn’t done in a long time.

“Are you doing the acting club in order to play around?” she asked.

Yuna immediately shook her head.

“No. If the acting club really just played around, I wouldn’t have joined in the first place. Mom, I want to become an actress. I’m not lying about that. And, just as you said, I know that there are things I have to give up in order to become one. That’s why I want to take a break from acting school for a while. Actually, the acting I do at the club is much harder than what I do at the academy. At the academy, I do exactly what the instructor tells me to do, but in the acting club, I have to be more proactive. I liked that feeling. It’s unlike anything I have done until now.”

“Do you really think so?”

“Yes. Honestly speaking, acting with my friends is fun. I have friends at the acting school, but we don’t strive to put on a play with all of us. Mom, you said that actors need to have a variety of experiences, right? The acting club is a really new place for me. Oh, there’s also a special instructor who comes every week, so it’s not like the education level loses out to acting schools.”

Yuna then thought about one person.

“Also, I have a seonbae I admire at the acting club, and I could learn a lot of things while looking at her acting.”

“A seonbae you admire?”

“The one I talked about last time.”

“Oh, the one that appeared in the sitcom?”

“Yes. The one who bought me strawberry milk today was also her.”

“You admire her?”

“Yes!”

Hearing that answer, her mother’s lips softened. There was a smile on her face, and the tightly locked arms loosened up as well.

“If there’s a seonbae like her, I guess there’s no need to go to an acting school.”

“Are you really giving me permission?”

“Have I ever not give you permission after I talked to you seriously about it? Yuna, if you are really sure that what you feel is right, I am going to try to understand you and allow you to do what you want. You’re my daughter after all.”

“Thank you, mom.”

“Here. Give mommy a hug.”

Her mother opened her arms wide. Yuna smiled and gave her a hug. Just then, Bitna, who was watching TV in the living room, came up to them and got in between the two. Yuna gave her sister a big hug.

“Mom, I want to sleep.”

“Bitna must be tired. You must brush your teeth first, right?”

Her mother patted Bitna’s buttocks. After brushing her teeth, Bitna went to the bedroom.

“If you ever change your mind later, tell me. I’ll try to contact someone who can get you into Film.”

“Isn’t that place expensive?”

“It is, but when I think about your future, it’s absolutely worth it. Mom will do everything I can for your sake. So, if you ever want something, then tell mom about it.”

“Okay, mom.”

Her mother picked up the vase placed on the dining table. As Yuna was watching the water level rise in her mug, she heard her mother’s voice.

“Also Yuna, who is Maru-oppa?”

“Wh-what?”

“Bitna said in the studio today. That you seem to want to meet Maru-oppa.”

“Bitna said that?”

Her mother did not reply and just stared at her. Yuna did not know where to look, so she stared at the mug.

“If it’s something you need to keep secret from mom, then you don’t have to tell me. But if it’s about dating someone, you must be very careful. Liking and loving someone is a natural thing, but sometimes, that natural thing can put people in pain. You must understand that. Of course, mom believes that my daughter knows about such things already.”

Yuna hesitated before speaking,

“Mom, you know the drama called The Witness, right?”

“I do. I liked it to the point that I kept up to date with all the episodes.”

“Then do you remember one of the extras who was a murderer? The one that appeared in the interrogation room.”

“Do you mean the scene where Ahn Joohyun was shouting?”

“Yes.”

“I remember that scene. I was really nervous when I watched that scene. It was quite scary after all. Why do you ask?”

“The one that played the role of the murderer in that scene is Han Maru-oppa. Right now, he’s in New Semester.”

“Oh really? He’s an actor?”

Her mother smiled as though she was interested and leaned forward. Yuna slightly leaned backwards after seeing her mother so close to her.

“Do you know him?”

“No, I’ve never met him. But Bitna seems quite close to him. They both used to be beggars in Apgu.”

“Apgu? Oh! I remember. There was this mature boy who was always taking care of Bitna when I went there to pick her up and… right. His name was Han Maru. Your mom’s memory is still good.”

Her mother clapped and rejoiced. Yuna smiled awkwardly.

“Actually, I was really surprised when I saw him acting in The Witness. How can he do such a thing… Then, I found out that Bitna knew Maru-oppa so I asked her. Because I wanted to meet him once…”

She said that last part in a really small voice.

She had a lot of actors she admired. However, most of those actors were much older than her.

The only one that managed to show impressive acting and was around her age was Maru, so Yuna became curious about him. Just like her friends who liked idols, she investigated the actor named Han Maru, but she couldn’t find anything worth noting. Then, she found a short interview with Maru on a magazine website known as Sharon. While reading that interview, Yuna nodded several times. There were many things she could sympathize with.

Through that interview, Yuna found out that Maru appeared in a movie called Twilight Struggles and managed to find a short clip of when Maru appeared on a video website. In that clip, Maru left a short, but deep impression. He gave her a sense of chill that was different from the violent struggle he showed in The Witness. Yuna replayed that clip several times. The moment she realized he enraptured her with just one line, Yuna wanted to know more about that actor.

“Wait a sec.”

Her mom picked up her phone and stood up while talking. It seemed to be a work-related call. Yuna saw her mother go to the veranda before sighing.

“So Bitna knew about it.”

She was so embarrassed because she wanted to meet a man who she never met before, so she very indirectly asked Bitna if she wanted to meet Maru, but it seemed that her quick-witted sister had seen through everything.

The reason she wasn’t able to tell her seonbae that it was her who wanted to meet Maru was also because she felt very embarrassed about meeting him one on one. It was also because she felt that Maru-seonbae might be weirded out since someone he didn’t know wanted to meet him. That was why she tried so hard to come up with that lie, and yet…

‘If Bitna knows about it, seonbae must have noticed as well. She must have pretended not to know about it because she was being considerate, right?’

She really thanked her seonbae now. Yuna slapped her cheeks lightly. She decided that she shouldn’t have lied no matter how embarrassed she was. She resolved that she should definitely apologize to her seonbae later.

“But at least I get to meet him now.”

Yuna calmed down her breathing as she thought about Maru’s face. She looked forward to meeting him as an actor. Just what kind of thoughts did he have? What kind of practice did he do that allowed him to act like that? She had a mountain of questions. She decided that she would ask everything when they meet the day after tomorrow.

‘I can do it, right?’

She could picture herself not being able to ask anything in embarrassment, but it should be fine since Bitna would be next to her. Yuna nodded her head.

‘It’s fine, I can do it!’

* * *

“Did something good happen to Yuna? She seemed really happy about something.”

She, who was taking a shower, thought back to the smile her junior had before focusing on washing her hair.

‘Well, something good probably happened to her.’

“Ah, the warm water is so good.”

A pleasant sense of relaxation filled her body

Chapter 576

“I don’t think I am allowed to let you take it home. I did look for one, but all the VCRs registered as school items are integrated into the TV, so I can’t really let you take it home.”

“I see. Sorry for asking you something absurd.”

“No, no. Sorry for not being able to help. But why are you looking for a VCR? Most people use CDs these days.”

“I have some videotapes I got from someone.”

“Don’t tell me they are red tapes[1]?” Taesik teased.

“We’re past the era of watching such things on videotapes. It’s just a video recording of a real play and a real stage. They are precious resources, so I wanted to watch them quickly, but things just aren’t going well.”

“If it’s like that, you can bring it to school and watch it here.”

“There’s about sixty of them…”

“Oh, I guess you need to look for a VCR and watch it at home then.”

“I was counting on the school to have one, but I guess it didn’t go that well. I’ll try visiting Yongsan next week.”

“If I had one at home, I’d love to lend it to you, but we threw it out a few years ago as well.”

“Most households don’t have one these days. I guess they’ll soon be treated like record players, while videotapes become vinyl records.”

“Probably.”

Just as he was about to say goodbye and leave, Taesik’s laptop made a noise. When Maru had a look at the screen, he saw a messenger window pop up. Taesik sighed after checking the message.

“You seem busy, so I’ll take my leave now. Thank you for looking into it.”

“Oh, okay. But this isn’t work. This is something worse.”

“Worse? Is it…”

Taesik pointed at the laptop screen as though it was fine for Maru to read. Maru narrowed his eyes. He could see the text on the screen. The first thing he looked for was the name of the one who sent the message. He realized then what was worse than work.

“So you still haven’t finished preparing for the wedding yet.”

“The important things have been dealt with.”

“Then I guess it must be about the honeymoon huh.”

“I heard Miso vented her stress on you, and it seems that she told you about that after all.”

“I heard it a while back. But did you really invite your parents and mother-in-law to the honeymoon?”

“Things happened that way.”

“You were too generous. She’s going to use this to nag you for a lifetime.”

“I know, right? I’ve never dated anyone until now, and I’m suddenly getting married, so people around me are like… you know. There’s the age gap between me and Miso too. We met each other’s parents amidst the confusion, and thanks to that, we found out about each other’s family history. I know just how hard a single parent’s life is since I’m a teacher. I thought that it was good to take mother-in-law since she must have had a hard time until now, but when I got myself together, I felt like I made a mistake.”

“It would’ve been perfect if it wasn’t the honeymoon. Such a pity.”

“You’re entirely right. Plus, it’s not like I can suddenly go up to mother-in-law and tell her the disappointing news. If I go through like this though, I’m afraid of the consequences.”

“…Congratulations on your marriage. I guess that’s the only thing I can tell you.”

“Don’t you have a way out?”

“My mother said this once: A wife is above the national leader before marriage. Anyway, Miso-noonim does really love you, so perhaps you’ll be able to gloss over it if you act cute?”

“Act cute at this age?”

“Teach, acting cute works if someone who never does it does it. Rather than regretting it later, even the young me thinks that you should look for peace right now by getting her to forgive you.”

Good luck - Maru cheered in a small voice. Taesik made an awkward smile and put his hands on the keyboard. When Maru glanced back, he was creating an emoticon on the keyboard. Bless the latecomer husband. Of course, it was likely that she would nag him about it their whole lives, but what could he do about it? He should have been prepared for what’s coming since he got a young wife.

“Hey, Han Maru! Where do you think you’re going without cleaning!”

A broom was thrown at his face as soon as he returned to the classroom.

“How heartless. Can’t you fill in for a friend?”

“Stop yapping and do it quickly. You’re in charge of the corridor!”

Maru smiled bitterly when he felt the kindness of a friend who would not accept other people’s happiness. He was sweeping the floor with the broom in the corner of the corridor when he heard a pair of deep voices from the floor beneath him. Maru grabbed onto the banister and looked down. A skinny tall guy and a small but well built guy were talking to each other.

“Did you guys eat steam engines or something? Quieten down a little,” Maru said as he looked at Bangjoo and Chihwan, who were climbing the stairs.

These days, they always walked around together like a duo from a comedy movie. Of course, it was rather rude of him to compare those two to renowned actors, but he couldn’t help but be reminded of such a pair when looking at the two.

“Hello, seonbae-nim!”

“Maru-seonbae!”

Bangjoo greeted him politely while Chihwan waved his hand. Bangjoo scolded Chihwan saying that he was rude. Maru sighed.

“Both of you are just as bad so stop. Also, lower your voices. Leaving aside Chihwan, Bangjoo, isn’t it about time you got that fixed?”

“I am trying to, but I always end up raising my voice when I’m next to this guy. He’s too loud so I can’t hear anything whenever I say something.”

As soon as Bangjoo’s words ended, Chihwan countered.

“Bangjoo-seonbae. You can’t just say that. I’m raising my voice because your voice is loud.”

“That’s not true.”

“That’s what I want to say.”

Maru quietly approached them from the back and pulled both of them by one ear.

“Go up to the hall already. No one will say anything about your voice there.”

The two juniors grabbed their ears and walked up the stairs. Usually, the meeting of two people gave rise to a synergistic effect, but with these two, that effect took place in a weird direction.

“Good to see that they’re lively. I had them do the same things since I thought they would become close to each other, and it seems I was right.”

When he turned around, he saw Daemyung. Maru slapped Daemyung’s chest without saying a word.

“So you are the cause.”

“Wh-what?”

“That’s not called lively. That’s called being loud.”

“At least it’s nice to look at them. They’re filled with vitality.”

“As expected of the club president who loves the juniors. Are you going up right now?”

“No, I’m going to buy some drinks from the cafeteria. You’re coming to practice today, right?”

“I will. I’ve been missing practice for quite a while now.”

“If you’re too busy, don’t push yourself.”

“Hey, the word is that you work until late into the night. Do you think I can rest like that? I’m going to go and do some practice and check on the props as well so don’t worry about it. Also, sorry. I feel like I’m pushing everything onto you.”

“Oh, don’t mention it.”

“Dowook isn’t coming either these days, right?”

“Yeah. He went home early today as well.”

“Looks like they’re having a hard time looking for a part timer.”

“They did find one, but apparently, that person didn’t show up without notice after a few days. Is a petrol station job that hard?”

“It’s a bit hard because of washing the larger vehicles. Although the machine does the brunt of it, it still requires a person to help.”

“Maybe that’s why Dowook said he wanted to have you do the work. His father is also apparently looking for you all the time.”

“The auntie there made some really nice food, so it was really good working there. Though, I can’t do it now because I’m busy.”

“Everyone’s busy.”

“You are doing the club on top of your studies too, aren’t you? If it’s really that hard, tell the 2nd years about it. It’d be better if I or Dowook could show up from time to time, but that’s hard for both of us.”

“I’m starting to realize why the 3rd year seniors never came to practice last year. You really get that pressure that you have to study huh.”

“Tell me once something happens. I’ll try whatever I can to help.”

Daemyung smiled and climbed down the stairs. It was really satisfying to see the increasing number of club members at the beginning of March, but problems started occurring when they started practicing for real. There were over thirty juniors to guide, yet two out of the three third year members were absent all the time, so there had to be problems. Daemyung was trying his best, but he probably had it hard, both psychologically and physically.

‘I don’t think it’s a bad idea to pick a club president from the 2nd year members quickly.’

Once Daemyung retired from being president, he should get more time to focus on his schoolwork. The acting club was an important place, yes, but compared to Daemyung’s future, not as important. Rather than achieving something as an acting club, Daemyung’s stable entry into college was much more important from Maru’s perspective.

“Seonbae, are you cleaning?”

“Hello, seonbae-nim.”

Aram and Jiyoon appeared in front of him. They seemed to be going up. Maru stroked his chin as he looked at Aram. Among the 2nd year students, Aram was probably the best-suited to be the club president. Bangjoo wasn’t bad, but he wasn’t capable of being harsh. If they were given some work, he would cheerfully solve everything by himself. Compared to him, Aram was someone who could distribute the work suitably. She would also be moderately strict as well. The club president had to be able to become strict and snap out. In that sense, Aram was a decent candidate. Of course, Jiyoon was a really decent person as well, but…

“Seonbae-nim. Do you need help?” Jiyoon offered.

Jiyoon did not suit the position after all. She was a docile sheep, so she would get swung around by the wolves if she was given armor to wear. It was better to give the position to someone who knew how to bare their fangs.

“You shouldn’t do that. Seonbae, we’ll be off first.”

“Alright. Daemyung said he’s going to buy drinks before going up, so go up and have everyone start practice. Bangjoo is up there as well, but he’s probably fooling around with the others.”

“Okay.”

Aram led Jiyoon up. Hm, she was really reliable. He decided that he should talk to Daemyung about stepping down from the role of president.

After sweeping the floor, he went to the classroom and got his bag. Although he usually only carried around a script and a novel, there was a videotape inside today. He couldn’t hold back his curiosity and ended up bringing one. There was a VCR in the classroom opposite of the hall, so he could watch it there.

“7th of August, 1987.”

Maru looked at the videotape he took out from his bag. This was the oldest record among the videotapes that director Lee Jincheol gave him. The sixty videos were recorded a few days apart at the shortest and months apart at the longest. The last video was taken in January of 1989, a month before Jung Haejoo passed away. According to the timeline, the Jung Haejoo of 1987 had not met president Lee Junmin yet. He would find out what kind of acting she did through this video.

After putting the videotape back in his bag, he started walking up the stairs. When he arrived at the hall and opened the door, he saw the juniors who were stretching under the guidance of Aram.

“Hello.”

“Hello, seonbae.”

He nodded at the juniors before going to a corner. He planned to watch the video leisurely after doing everything he needed to do.

“For now, let’s start with sewing.”

Maru put some clothing on his lap as well as some cloth to patch it up.

[1] A.k.a porn.

Chapter 577

“Let’s take a 10 minute break! Those of you who want to go to the bathroom should go now, and those of you who want to drink something, there are drinks right there so drink as much as you want. Let’s start again after we take a break.”

As soon as Daemyun’s words ended, Chihwan sat down on the ground. The others also sat down on the floor as though they were falling.

“I don’t think I’ll ever get used to this even after a year.”

Chihwan wiped his sweat. Even though they had finished only their streches, his whole body was aching. ‘Stretching’ was supposed to be something done lightly before an actual sport or other activities, but it had a completely different meaning within the acting club. Extreme exercise, that was another name for stretching in the acting club.

“That seonbae is sewing again today.”

“You’re right.”

Chihwan’s colleagues were whispering to each other. Maru had shown up to practice after a long time, but what he did was always the same: making props. Most of the props that were piling up inside the container had been created by Maru’s hands.

“I wonder why he’s not doing acting.”

“He must be busy.”

“Really? He doesn’t even show up on TV that much though.”

“Now that you mention it, that’s true. In last week’s episode, we only got a brief glimpse of him from the side.”

“Did he get edited out because his acting was bad?”

“No way.”

“I saw on TV last time that there are people who only show up for a minute after shooting for five hours. Dramas must be the same, right? If they aren’t good, they just won’t show up.”

“I guess that’s plausible. I only watch New Semester for Giwoo-oppa.”

“Isn’t Kang Giwoo so handsome?”

“You can say that again. A friend of mine sneaked out of her house and went to Daejeon to see him last weekend.”

“I also chased after TTO oppas a lot once. Though, I stopped doing any fan activities since they haven’t been active recently.”

“Have you seen TTO in real life?”

“I did. Man, they’re no joke. Do you know what a halo is? Those oppas had halos so bright that I couldn’t see them properly.”

“Giwoo-oppa must be even cooler from up close then, right?”

“Of course. I’ve been chasing after media people for 2 years. Even the best idols can’t hold a candle to handsome actors. You know Lee Hyuk, right?”

“I do!”

Chihwan looked at the two girls when they raised their voices. The girls lowered their voices after looking at him. However, they still looked excited. Was the guy named Lee Hyuk that good?

“I saw Lee Hyuk-oppa from up close, and I almost fainted. His eyes, nose, and mouth are like they have been sculpted. I thought he was a foreigner at first.”

“I also saw the movie. I was really surprised when I watched it, you know? Lee Hyuk-oppa looked so handsome.”

“I almost dazed out as well. His looks are just, whew. Also, you know that there were bad rumors about him, right? There were talks about how he is an actor with a pretty face but terrible acting because all the pieces he shot produced bad results, but those allegations faded away with this movie. He’s too good at acting. I even watched it twice.”

“Really? That’s awesome.”

“At first, I watched it without thinking, but when I watched it again, I saw things I didn’t the first time. Especially Kwon Dayoon’s acting. Honestly, I haven't looked at her in a good light ever since Blue split up, but Kwon Dayoon was different.”

“I know right? I didn’t realize it was her at first.”

“She was an idol, but her acting was so good. I saw from a fan café that the reason Blue split up was to let Kwon Dayoon debut as an actress. Being dubbed an idol actress does sound a little cheap after all.”

“Didn’t they split up because they had a bad relationship? I heard that someone got pregnant.”

“Maybe that happened, but Kwon Dayoon’s acting is so good that it wouldn’t be strange for her agency to give her their full support, right? Seeing as how Kwon Dayoon didn’t leave the company even though the group split up, I think they terminated Blue because they wanted to turn her into an actress. Was it Lee Chaerim? She switched to acting as well, didn’t she? I’m sure that acting makes more money than being an idol.”

“Right. I heard that actors earn a huge amount of money through commercials. If I was the president, I would let someone as good as Kwon Dayoon be an actress and not an idol.”

“My words exactly.”

“I guess the reason she doesn’t show up recently is because she’s practicing acting. I almost fell in love with her when she snapped out in the movie. I originally didn’t like her that much, but I feel like becoming a fan is okay after looking at her acting.”

“Me too. I shivered when I saw her.”

The girls started talking about the movie ‘Those Guys’. Rather than talking about Lee Hyuk being cool, they were talking about how Kwon Dayoon’s acting was good.

“It’s not that her acting was good, it’s that the direction was good. You don’t know your stuff,” Chihwan said after listening for a while.

“What direction?”

The girls looked at him. Chihwan made the biggest smile he could. Maru and Bangjoo, with who he watched the movie, definitely said that the movie was good because of the direction.

“The direction of the director. It’s not the actors who were good at acting, it’s the editing that made them look awesome.”

“No it isn’t. Their acting was good. Did you even watch the movie?”

“I did.”

“And you can still say that? What direction. Dayoon-unni just had awesome acting.”

“You really don’t know your stuff. Listen up. Maru-seonbae said that it’s a victory for directing after seeing the movie.”

“So what?”

“Do you want me to explain in detail? Who is Maru-seonbae? He’s an actor who has acted in dramas and movies, right? Who do you think knows more about movies? Him, an actor? Or us, an audience? Of course it’s h…”

“That’s not right! I get that Maru-seonbae is on TV, but whether he is good at acting is another story,” the girl said after giving a glance in Maru’s direction.

Chihwan raised his eyebrows. She dared to say something that was disrespectful.

“Maru-seonbae’s acting is awesome!”

“It’s not in New Semester.”

“Can you still say that after seeing Maru-seonbae in Those Guys?”

The girls widened their eyes.

“Maru-seonbae was in Those Guys? I watched it twice and I don’t remember seeing him.”

“Me neither. He wasn’t in it.”

“When did he appear?”

The girls glared at him and asked. Chihwan did not step down before their fierce gazes.

“You know, the fighting scene at the beginning.”

“The fighting scene? Oh! The scene where there was no sound? Maru-seonbae appeared there?”

“Yes! He shot together with the Kwon Dayoon that you’ve been praising.”

He thought that they would look at Maru differently now, but the girls’ reactions were lukewarm at best.

“What the heck? He’s just an extra then. He barely showed up as well. I actually expected something because you said he was in it, but it turns out it was nothing much.”

“See? That seonbae isn’t anything much.”

“If he was really popular, why would he come to the acting club? He should be busy shooting. He just got lucky to show his face here and there.”

Chihwan felt like he was going to become angry. The girls were respectful to the other seniors, but it was easy to see that they were disrespectful to Maru.

‘Fine, I get it. I get that seonbae doesn’t show up that much and is always by himself, so it’s not surprising that they don’t know about him. But this isn’t right.’

Chihwan was deeply impressed by Maru during the audition the film production club held. Although they had the same role, Maru showed him a completely different side to acting and made him realize what acting was about. If the girls watched him properly that day, they wouldn’t say such things.

Chihwan stood up and walked over to Maru. The girls were frightened and grabbed him, but he shook them off and stood in front of Maru.

“Seonbae-nim!”

“What?”

“Show us your acting. Those girls are looking down on you.”

Chihwan pointed at the girls. The five people who were sitting in a circle stiffened up like concrete. They didn’t dare say what they said directly to his face. Chihwan boldly looked at the girls like they deserved it.

“Chihwan.”

“Yes, seonbae-nim!”

“If you have energy left over, go run a lap.”

“What?”

Chihwan looked at Maru with a dazed expression. He had told him that the juniors were being disrespectful to their senior, yet this was his reaction.

“Seonbae, I said they are looking down on you.”

“Three laps.”

“No, but, seonbae!”

“Four laps.”

“Fine, I won’t say anything.”

Maru hinted at him to walk away. Chihwan sighed and turned around. The girls seemed to have realized what had happened and started to laugh about it.

“See? Maru-seonbae doesn’t have anything to say about it either.”

“Also, did you actually just tell him? Are you really a man?”

“Stop overreacting to jokes. Maru-seonbae must feel that it was absurd as well.”

The girls chuckled. Chihwan glared at them and sat in front of them. The girls who met eyes with him fiercely looked at him for a while before turning away.

“Are you trying to pick a fight or what?”

“He’s so ridiculous.”

“What a cocky guy.”

Cocky? Chihwan tried to go up to the girls to nitpick them, but he couldn’t do anything thanks to the other boys coming up to him and holding him back.

“Why don’t you calm down a little, dammit.”

“I’m going to kill you if our relationship with the girls goes bad.”

“Did you forget that we were going to hang out together? Why are you fighting?”

His friends smiled like idiots while looking at the girls. Chihwan was boiling inside. At first, he was angry at the boys, but it soon turned into disappointment towards Maru. Wasn’t he supposed to protect his pride as a senior? Maru treated Chihwan like that, yet he didn’t say anything to the girls. He simply couldn’t understand. It would’ve been great if he showed them his acting and had them shut up about his skills.

Chihwan walked to Maru again.

“Seonbae.”

“Yeah, what.”

Maru was focusing on sewing and didn’t raise his head. Chihwan pouted.

“Isn’t hierarchical order important in group activities?”

“That’s right, it is. In that sense, what am I supposed to do with you when you keep interrupting me while I’m making props?”

“No, seonbae. I’m on your side. I’m Ahn Chihwan, the man who knows honor. I am taking your side with the resolve to fight against the girls.”

“Good for you.”

“That’s it?”

“Why are you being so naggy when you’re so big?”

“I’m not being naggy. I like you. That’s why I can’t stand you being disrespected.”

“Why can’t you do that?”

“Because a senior shouldn’t be ignored.”

“Is this the military or something?”

“Are you fine with being ignored?”

“I am, so please be quiet while I sew this. Or you can help out. Daemyung, that guy, he gave me a mountain load of work with a smiling face, so I don’t have any time to rest.”

“What? Here I was prepared to fight the others because of you.”

“No, no, not because of me, but because of you.”

“Because of me? Of course not! I said because of you.”

Maru raised his head. He yawned before starting to speak.

“I’m fine with it though.”

“Even if you are, I’m not.”

“See? It’s because of you. You aren’t my manager. Why do you care about my reputation? If you have time to think about that, then go read the script one more time. You have a role, don’t you? Is your acting perfect? Can you say that your acting is perfect?”

“It is perfect!”

“Really?”

“Yes!”

“Then do it.”

“What?”

“I said do it. Think of this place as the stage and do it.”

“…Fine. But you have to do it too. It’d be weird for only me to do it.”

“You really know how to annoy a person, huh. Fine, instead, you have to do this as well,” Maru said as he pointed at the pile of clothes next to him.

“Okay! But it would be no fun to just do it, so let’s make a bet. If you win, then I’ll help you out until you finish.”

“You really won’t stop until you have everything done your way, huh. Fine, a bet or whatever. Do what you want.”

“Since it’s a bet, I should get something if I win as well.”

“How meticulous. What do you want?”

“Teach me acting.”

“The others are teaching you already. Instructor Miso comes here too.”

“I want to learn from you. Your acting is really good.”

Chihwan looked at Maru. Maru palmed his face.

“Just where did a guy like this come from…”

“You should be prepared to accept me as your disciple. I’m not sure about anything else, but I really did memorize everything about this play perfectly.”

Chihwan turned around and shouted at everyone else.

“Everyone! Listen up!”

Chapter 578

“You want me to be the club president?”

Aram looked at Daemyung with a startled expression.

After stretching, Daemyung called for the 2nd year students. She followed him to the cafeteria while slightly confused since they had never been called out separately like this before, but it was happening now. Aram looked at Jiyoon and Bangjoo, who were standing next to her.

“Seonbae, what do you mean by that so suddenly?” Jiyoon spoke first.

Following that, Bangjoo also asked for an explanation. It seemed that it was the first time they heard about this as well.

“You were talking to Maru-seonbae just a while ago. Was it about this?” Aram asked.

“I have actually been thinking about it for a few weeks now, but after talking to Maru, I felt that it’d be better for both you three and the first year students if I decided quickly.”

“Why are you doing this so suddenly? Did someone say something to you? Are the first year students looking down on you? Who is it? I will trample on them.”

“A-Aram, calm down. It’s not like that.”

Aram panted and looked at Daemyung. If it wasn’t like that, then why was he suddenly quitting? Daemyung had led the club very well until now. Thanks to his gentle guidance, the first year students managed to adapt to the club quickly. On days where Miso treated them harshly, Daemyung encouraged everyone after practice and eased the atmosphere so that they didn’t hold any grudges.

Whenever she watched him, Aram felt that Daemyung was a really good senior. When she first met him during her first year, she didn’t like him. She was thinking that he was just an oversized guy who had a shy personality, but after finding out about his actual personality, she felt like he was a reliable senior. That was why she congratulated Jiyoon and Daemyung when they started going out. He would never hurt Jiyoon after all.

Yet right now, such a reliable senior was saying that he wanted to step down from his position, so she was very confused. Why was he stepping down when he had no trouble guiding her and her crazy antics even when he was in his 2nd year? No matter how she thought about it, the only thing that changed was the addition of the 1st year students, so she wondered if some of the juniors were looking down on him.

She quietly looked at Daemyung. Bangjoo and Jiyoon seemed worried as well.

“It’s not a problem with the first year students. It’s my own problem.”

“Your own problem?”

“Hm, honestly speaking, I’m a bit tired recently. As you know, Dowook and Maru haven’t been able to come to the club recently, right? It’s probably going to stay that way in the future. I tried to do my best by myself, but it seems like I was just too greedy.”

Daemyung smiled awkwardly.

“Thanks to your help, I managed to get through the two busiest months, March and April, but once May starts and the national competition comes around, I don’t think I’ll be able to handle it.”

“Seonbae, you are preparing for college entrance exams, right?” Jiyoon asked.

After hearing that, Daemyung indeed looked considerably exhausted. When Aram thought about it, the other 3rd year students in the club were all busy with their own work and rarely showed up to club activities, yet Daemyung consistently came to the club and looked after the others.

‘It was always him who stayed behind until the end to clean up and turn the lights off too.’

Now that she looked back, all the trivial things were done by Daemyung. It was him who had everyone practice after talking with Miso, and it was him who came up with ideas for props. Maru helped out from time to time, but since he rarely showed up to practice in the first place, he didn’t contribute that much. Moreover, the first year students went to Daemyung with their questions since he treated them nicely and rarely went to Maru, whom they still felt distant to.

‘Leaving aside Dowook-seonbae and his violent tendencies, Daemyung-seonbae really did do everything.’

Now that she looked back in retrospect at the things that she took for granted, she could see just how much effort Daemyung had put in to lead the club. Bangjoo and Jiyoon seemed to have realized something as well as they were both making bitter expressions.

“I don’t plan to just push my burdens on to you. I’m still going to do what I have to do in the future, but I want you to succeed the role of the club president, Aram. We need a person who can handle the others even without me, and I think you, Aram, is the best fit for it. Maru has the same opinion as me in this regard. Dowook said he doesn’t care who does it, but mentioned your name in a text. The 3rd year students are all thinking that you are the right person for the job.”

“You aren’t going to just not show up like the other seonbaes, right?” Aram said jokingly.

“If I did, I’m sure you guys would come and grab me.”

Daemyung smiled faintly.

“Of course, I’m not forcing this on you. It’s a request in the end.”

“I’m good with things like that. Pestering everyone. The elementary school kids always freeze up when they see me at the dojo.”

“Maru said that that’s what’s good about you.”

“Then what is it that you see in me?”

“Your sense of responsibility.”

“I don’t have any of that, you know?”

“I think you do. You can do this. I feel like the others are relying on you a lot as well. I’m not saying that Bangjoo and Jiyoon are bad. If we had small numbers like before, I would instead have picked Bangjoo or Jiyoon. Bangjoo maintains a close relationship with the juniors, and Jiyoon is someone who looks after others a lot from behind, so they’re well-suited to lead the club when there are not many people. However, there are more than 30 people now. If we assume that a similar number of people apply next year and that some of the current recruits quit next year, we will still have over thirty people. With more people, there’s bound to be more conflict, and I felt like the new president needs to be able to maintain order at times like that.”

“If it’s like that, it’s not like I can’t accept…”

“Is it too hard after all?”

“Being hard doesn’t really matter. If it’s something I like, I’d do it even if it’s hard. But, you know, it’s just a bit of a pity. You were doing great until now.”

“It’s thanks to everyone being good kids and following my words.”

“I tried handling some children in place of the master at the dojo, but they don’t just follow someone because they’re gentle. It’s because you were doing well that they would rely on you and follow you.”

Aram turned his head sideways.

“What about you two? Are you two fine with me doing it?”

Bangjoo and Jiyoon both nodded their heads.

“If you stop showing up to the club like the others just because you stepped down from being president, I’m going to find you and drag you here.”

“O-okay.”

“Fine. I’ll do it. Also since I’m doing it, you should understand that I’m going to do things my way.”

“Of course. But what are you going to do?”

“You probably don’t know, but groups have formed among the 1st years recently. Well, you can’t really stop groups from forming since there’s a lot of them, but there are some that slightly look down on others. I have my sight set on a few that got roles this time. I haven’t said anything until now, but I am going to interfere starting now.”

Hearing that, Daemyung just quietly nodded. He seemed to know something.

“Seonbae, don’t you have something to say?”

“For now, I’ll just listen to what you have to say first.”

“Hm, okay. Firstly, I can say with confidence that you are perceived very highly even among the 1st year students. You get along with them without getting angry, right? That’s why everyone likes you. The problem is Maru-seonbae.”

Aram thought about Maru’s face before continuing to speak.

“You know, some people have the tendency to either talk bad or suck up to people who seem to be doing better than them, right? It was fine when Maru-seonbae showed up to practice frequently, but recently, there are people that are starting to look down on Maru-seonbae. They only judge what’s shown on the surface since they don’t get to spend a lot of time with him. You know the things unique to girls right? Where they express their disdain for others without actually doing it directly. If I was in the same class as them, I would have grabbed them by the hair and just…!”

“Aram, calm down,” Jiyoon said as she grabbed her sleeves.

Aram sighed.

“I tried to talk to them nicely about it, but they said they didn’t do it. Even though it was as clear as day. Those devious bitches……”

“Aram, watch your mouth!”

Jiyoon looked at her with a sour expression. Aram smiled awkwardly. She promised one thing with Jiyoon and it was that she wouldn’t use bad words in front of her. Jiyoon said something about how girls shouldn’t use such words or something.

Aram started talking again.

“They acted ignorant and I didn’t have concrete evidence, so I just told Maru-seonbae about it, but Maru-seonbae just told me to let them be. When I asked why he just said that I shouldn’t be the one to be in that position. That’s why I let them be. Recently, though, I think they became more obedient since Maru-seonbae hasn’t been showing up at all.”

Aram sometimes couldn’t understand Maru’s actions. He could just give them a sharp scolding, but he didn’t do so and didn’t let her do it either.

“That problem does exist,” Daemyung said.

Aram twitched her eyebrows.

“You knew that?”

“I was with you every day, how could I not?”

“Then why didn’t you say anything?”

“Because I felt like it would be better not to do anything for the time being. In one way, that’s one of the reasons I’m giving the title of the president to you.”

Daemyung made a soft smile.

“I think it was at the end of March? When I started seeing signs of that. Especially after Maru started taking time off because of the film production club, bad opinions of him started popping up. Unlike the drama, the film production club is just another club that’s like us, right? They probably got the notion that he’s placing more importance on the film production club than the acting club. Of course, I know that most of them don’t think like that. A lot more people treated Maru like a senior even though he didn’t show up that much. That’s when I talked to Maru about that, and asked what he thought.”

“What did he say?”

“He said that the method is important.”

“What does that mean?”

“The fundamental problem is that Maru was negligent about the acting club. This is the undeniable truth. The first year students are different from you three. You know what kind of person Maru is since you got to spend a year with him. The first year students, on the other hand, only saw Maru for a month, no, even less if you actually calculate the time. What do you think when Maru misses practice?”

Aram replied without hesitation.

“Nothing. Maru-seonbae isn’t taking the day off to rest.”

“I think so too.”

“I always think that he has his reasons.”

Aram looked at Jiyoon and Bangjoo. Both of them were thinking the same thing as her.

“Exactly. You know Maru’s circumstances, so you understand him. That’s not the case with the first year students. They know nothing about him. At most, it’s that he shows up on TV. That’s why Maru, during the beginning of the semester, mentioned that he doesn’t plan to get the senior treatment in the club. You know how clear Maru is when it comes to drawing the line.”

“He’s not just clear, he’s kinda merciless about it.”

“Maru is thinking that it’s natural for him to be hearing things like that since he is unable to do the things he has to do as a senior. However, he simultaneously knows that it would negatively impact the whole club if it continues.”

“That’s why he should have scolded them at that time. Even if he doesn’t want to get the senior treatment, there’s a minimum amount of courtesy towards other people in the club, isn’t there? Take this as something coming from a former athlete, but I hate hierarchy becoming messy. I’m not going as far as to say that we should maintain order, but I think we should keep everyone in line.”

“Yes, what we have to set straight, we have to set straight. It’s just like how school rules exist for a reason - the club has its own rules. Since the acting club isn’t something we made but received from our seniors, we should take care that it doesn’t become a mess. That’s why I’m going to give you the role of the president. This was what I was talking about with Maru in the hall earlier. Maru was talking about the method, and I was talking about the order.”

“So me becoming the president comes first in this order?”

Daemyung nodded.

“Maru compared it to this: If a fresh employee insulted the president and the manager scolded him about that, that company would definitely not see a good end. Of course, I think that’s taking it a little too far. Maru’s serious when it comes to things like that, but he wasn’t entirely wrong, so I thought about it. We will graduate and leave the school after this year anyway. The ones remaining behind will be you guys and the first year students. In such a situation, is it a good thing for a crack to appear between the first and second years? Maru and I don’t think that’s the case.”

Aram’s lips twitched.

“But once I become the president, I’m not going to let the backtalkers be, you know?”

“It doesn’t matter if it’s after you become the president.”

“Why?”

“Because it’s the club president who makes the mood of a club. When you interfere with the first year students while I’m still the president, they might start thinking ‘who are you to say something when even the president isn’t saying anything’ or something like that. Though, it’s a different story if you’re the president.”

“Some of them will start hating me, are you okay with that?”

“That’s why you’re the president. The ones scolded by you will probably go to Jiyoon and complain to her about it. I guess you’re the dad and she’s the mom in that sense.”

Bangjoo, who had been staying still until now, asked what he was.

“The unemployed uncle who freeloads in their house. I feel like playing with the kids suits you the best.”

“No way, unemployed is a little…”

Bangjoo chuckled.

“Does Dowook-seonbae know about this as well?”

“Dowook is barely conscious at school because of his family matters. He’s not going to college as he is going to succeed the family business. Even when I try to talk to him about the club, he just says ‘I don’t care!’ in a loud voice.”

“That’s just like him.”

Aram sighed.

“Sheesh, Maru-seonbae makes things way too complicated. We should’ve just scolded them at once. Sometimes, I feel like he’s some stuck-up geezer.”

“Well, his style is to do everything meticulously.”

“There’s you too. You never said a word to us.”

“Sorry, I didn’t want to make you guys worry.”

“That’s the problem. You are tired because you are trying to do everything by yourself. Fine! I’ll take that president role. Unlike you though, I’m going to be strict from the beginning. You can’t say anything about that, okay?”

“I will absolutely not say anything about it.”

Aram nodded.

“Then that’s that, right? Let’s go up. We’ve been talking for more than 10 minutes. They must be waiting,” she said as she looked at the time.

Chapter 579

“So when are we telling the others about it?”

“I’d like it to be before the competition.”

“Since we’re at it, let’s just do it today. Bring it up after practice, seonbae. I don’t like delaying things.”

“Okay, let’s do that.”

Daemyung thought that it was just like Aram to think that way. She did not hesitate with her actions once she decided on something. Once Aram became the president, the acting club would probably become more cheerful. He looked forward to seeing how the acting club would change after this.

“Seonbae, did you have a hard time?”

Daemyung smiled awkwardly when he heard the soft voice from beside him. Jiyoon was looking at him with a worried face.

“It’s not like there’s a big problem. I’m just a bit tired so there’s no need to worry about me.”

“…In the future, tell me about it, even if it’s just once in a while. There’s nothing I can do, but I can listen to you. Like you were to me, I want to be of help to you.”

“O-okay, I’ll consult you from time to time.”

He looked at Jiyoon, who smiled back at him.

“Maybe I should get a boyfriend too.”

“Seonbae, aren’t you being too cruel in front of the singles here?”

Aram and Bangjoo commented as they walked up the stairs. Daemyung immediately turned his face forward. Although he was going out with Jiyoon, he didn’t know how to react whenever he heard something like that. He looked away in awkwardness before looking at Jiyoon. She was making a pouty face for some reason.

After looking at the grinning juniors, he closed his mouth and reached out behind him to grab Jiyoon’s hand. Jiyoon flinched and curled her shoulders upwards a little before making a smile. He grabbed her hand tightly before loosening his hand. Jiyoon’s expression was calm unlike before.

‘I feel like I just overcame a big hurdle.’

He grabbed her hand out of instinct, and it seemed to be the right answer. Had he pretended not to know anything, he would probably have received a gaze filled with disappointment. He had grown so he felt proud about it.

When they went up to the 5th floor, Daemyung saw the door to the hall closing. They usually left it open during breaks for ventilation, but it seemed that the juniors closed it.

“Maybe they’re starting to practice?”

Aram twitched her eyebrows and pulled the door open.

“What are you doing?” Aram asked after looking inside.

Daemyung also walked inside and looked inside the hall. The first year students were all looking in one direction. Daemyung then moved his gaze to the right end of the hall. Maru and Chihwan were standing on top of a wooden platform raised 10cm above the marble floor. The barbells and dumbbells were moved to one side.

“Seonbae-nim is here.”

“Do we continue?”

The juniors murmured amongst themselves. Daemyung walked up to Maru for now.

“What’s happening?” he asked as he glanced at Maru and Chihwan.

The script in Maru’s hand was a little odd. Did Chihwan ask him to look at his acting or something?

“You’re just in time. Daemyung, before we resume practice, can we do a short act?”

“Act? You mean from the play?”

“Yeah.”

Maru flapped the script in his hand.

“If you’re trying to teach the others, it’s more than welcome. What made you want to do this though? I thought you weren’t going to act as much as possible.”

“Why don’t you ask that proud-looking junior over there? He’s a pain in the butt.”

Maru sighed.

“Chihwan, what’s happening?”

“An acting battle.”

“Wh-what? What battle?”

“Acting battle!”

That term reverberated in Daemyung’s ears. It felt like his brain had shut down. After looking at him in a daze for a while, he turned around to look at Maru.

“What does he mean by that?”

“It’s a little complicated to explain so just give us scores after you watch. We’re going to act the same scene, so you guys should help out as well,” Maru said as he looked at the 2nd year students.

Daemyung brought a chair and sat in front of the platform, despite still being confused. Meanwhile, Aram had the first year students sit near the platform as well.

“Daemyung-seonbae, I can start now, right?”

Chihwan looked excited. Daemyung permitted him for now. He still couldn’t get a grasp on the situation, but from how Maru was staying still, it seemed that he had his plans.

‘But an acting battle all of a sudden?’

Daemyung calmed down his heart and grabbed the script. He didn’t know the circumstances, but it was pretty clear that the two were going to act the same character.

‘Now that I think about it, Maru has never shown off his proper skills, huh.’

Maru had drawn the line and said that he would just be a staff member this year. Even after they finalized the characters and started practicing, Maru had never shown off his script acting. He did demonstrate some of the technical elements like pronunciation and voicing, but he never showed anything that combined everything.

Perhaps this was a good thing. Seeing Maru’s stage acting would probably be a fresh shock for the juniors. Watching an actor on a TV screen was qualitatively different from seeing the acting firsthand. Even a CD recorded with the greatest recording equipment couldn’t be compared to listening to a live orchestra. Acting was the same. Unlike watching a tiny bit that was edited to go on TV, an actor’s real performance could only be seen in whole from up close.

Daemyung told the juniors to come as close as possible.

“If there’s not enough space, you can sit on the platform as well. Maru, is that okay?”

“It’s fine even if they come on stage.”

Daemyung told the first year students who had important roles in the play to go up on the stage and watch Maru from up close.

“…Isn’t that too close?” Chihwan asked as he looked at the others who were less than 10cm away from him.

They were within an arm’s reach.

“It doesn’t matter who’s there.”

“That’s true, but… A-alright. You and I are under the same conditions. But seonbae, you know what the saying ‘a man’s word is heavier than gold’ right?”

“Heavier than gold or whatever, do as you wish.”

“Fine.”

It seemed that there was some sort of agreement between those two.

‘It doesn’t matter what kind of agreement those two came to. It’s fine as long as he can show others good acting.’

Daemyung took out his pen. He would probably find out more about Chihwan through this stage. It would help him with his growth if he wrote down his bad habits and told him later.

‘There’s probably nothing to write about Maru anyway.’

Maru would definitely show good acting. Maru was always serious when it came to the stage. He wasn’t someone who would accept showing a ‘practice’ that he didn’t prepare for fully instead of a ‘performance’. While he never participated in acting practice, Maru probably had a better understanding of the characters than anyone here.

‘Maru’s script. There’s a lot of signs that it’s been written on.’

Daemyung looked closely at the script in Maru’s right hand. The cover was tattered and from what he could glimpse of the inside, it was filled with pen writings. Although he did not take up a role, he probably analyzed and researched the script. That was because it would allow him to study which would help him improve his acting. Perhaps he might have delved into it thinking that he might be able to give a solution to the juniors when they were stuck on something.

Maru volunteered to be an outsider during his first year, but didn’t he care about the harmony of the acting club above everyone else?

Maru couldn’t be more disinterested in the things that weren’t related to him, but when it concerned the people around him, he looked after them to the point that it could be described as ‘meticulous’.

‘Though, he’s so clear cut when it comes to setting his priorities straight.’

Daemyung sometimes wondered to himself when Maru was with his girlfriend. Other than his family, was there anything or anyone that had as much value to Maru as her? Despite the fact that it was just a romance between students, Daemyung had the feeling that Maru was willing to give up anything for her. Even if it was something very important.

It sometimes gave him the chills.

It made him feel that perhaps real love was not as beautiful as people made it out to be. As ironic as that might be, looking at Maru made him think that. He couldn’t explain exactly why he had such an impression, but it sometimes made him uneasy when looking at the couple.

‘I must be mistaken, right?’

Daemyung shook off his thoughts and looked at the makeshift stage.

Chihwan seemed to have finished his preparations as he was calming down his breathing.

“It won’t be easy, you know?” he said in a small voice as he spun around his pen.

This would be completely different from practice. The colleagues who were practicing with him had now become the audience.

Audience, was there a word that made an actor experience such excitement and worry as that word? Chihwan had nearly non-existent stage experience. He might be able to gain confidence while practicing, but acting in front of an audience was something completely different.

“Phew, I’m nervous.”

His shoulders were stiff and the distance between his legs was awkward. His gaze was at a loss as well. He was pretending to be okay, but his nervousness was clear for Daemyung to see. As for Maru…

‘If he too is excited, Chihwan is a bit pitiful… ’

It was clear that he was excited. Not the agitated kind that came from unease, but a sense of heightening that came from a situation where he had full control. He was reminded of Maru’s acting which he saw from behind the side curtains when he was in first year. Maru, who went up to the stage and talked to the audience, ended up devouring everything on stage like a predator who found fresh meat.

Daemyung remembered that moment. The curious feeling where he could feel Maru’s emotions and a sense of tension that was qualitatively different circulating inside his body. When he stood on the same stage as Maru, he felt that every one of his cells was reacting to Maru’s actions. Even when he didn’t have any confidence in his acting usually, he was filled with confidence when he was next to Maru.

A power that led other people forward.

Daemyung believed that the Maru on stage had such power.

“If Maru-seonbae was feeling bored, he should have done it with us. Ah, that looks fun,” Aram said next to him.

Bangjoo and Jiyoon were all looking excited as they looked at the stage that Maru was on.

“Before we start, I hope you can be fair in your judgment. The first years shouldn’t give me a good score just because we’re friends, and you shouldn’t take Maru-seonbae’s side, seonbae-nims. It’s a competition of pure acting after all.”

“Don’t worry about that. We’ll clearly see who’s better once we get a look,” Daemyung said.

Acting was the act of giving a form to something abstract. That was why there couldn’t be a real ‘scoreboard’. However, for some curious reason, it was possible to clearly distinguish acting that people liked and disliked. That was why acting was fun. It was as if there was an answer that existed since they were born. Good acting was good acting to anyone’s eyes. Conversely, awkward acting made even the audience feel embarrassed.

“Fine. I’ll go first. I’m a bit nervous, but I can do it. I practiced more than Maru-seonbae when it comes to this role at least.”

“Do everything you can.”

“I like Maru-seonbae, but I will win this time. It’s a fair battle between two men.”

“I wish you luck.”

Maru sat on the ground. He rested his chin on his hands and looked at Chihwan. Chihwan licked his lips before slapping his own cheeks.

“You can begin as soon as you’re ready,” Daemyung said to the two people.

Although they were consuming practice time, an event like this was perfectly fine. Daemyung hoped the first year students would show more interest in acting through this opportunity.

‘Oh, it’s different from my acting’. Once the juniors started thinking that, they would definitely start thinking about what better acting is, and that question, which there was no answer to, will make them grow.

Was Chihwan able to receive the gazes of the audience around him without letting them affect him? If he was not, he wouldn’t be able to start. A stage was where an actor was evaluated. Chihwan would be able to show a decent act if he didn’t get nervous and just showed what he practiced, but as long as this wasn’t a practice but a place for evaluation, his attitude when acting would be different, and that difference would show up in his acting.

Whether that difference would produce a good result or a bad one, he was about to find out.

“I’ll start after drinking some water.”

Chihwan stepped down from the stage for a moment.

Daemyung felt like he could see the results already.

Chapter 580

Shit, shit, shit - that word kept reverberating in his head. Why was this happening? His heart was racing without his consent. It was good that it was pumping out blood, but it was clearly overdoing it. He could feel his blood wildly circulating around his body. Thunderous noises echoed inside his body. He could hear loud thumping noises as though his heart was beating right next to his eardrums.

He emptied a whole 500ml bottle of water to suppress his nervousness, but his mouth became dryer instead. Did he even drink any at all? Chihwan looked at the empty water bottle in his hands in vexation. Was there only half of it left?

“Hey, when are you going to start?”

“Let’s get started already.”

His colleagues jokingly commented. Although they were just acting like usual, their words made him even more chaotic today. Their words were stretched out like an audio clip from a stretched videotape. After that, the noise slowly died down. The voices of his friends became smaller and conversely, the noise of his heart became louder to the point that he thought it was about to jump out of his mouth.

Chihwan bit on the flesh inside his cheeks and went back to the platform. The hall he thought he had gotten used to felt so unfamiliar as though this was the first time he came here. The reason was probably those ‘eyes’. Dozens of pupils looked right at him; the biological organs mixed with black and brown felt like they were sticking all over his body. He was suddenly reminded of when he saw a cockroach at home while he was alone. He was well aware that the small insect wasn’t a big threat to him, but when the glossy back shell twitched, it made him startled nonetheless. He felt sorry towards his seniors and colleagues, but he felt like he was standing amongst dozens of cockroaches right now while being barefoot.

‘It wasn’t like this before.’

When he took the club entry audition as well as the film production club’s audition, he was shaking as well, but he didn’t feel ‘afraid’. He knew that everyone was human and like him, just students, so he felt ‘embarrassed’ at best, but he never felt like he was afraid or wanted to run away. If he disliked standing in front of people, he would’ve never opted to enter the acting club in the first place.

‘Then why?’

Fear? That wasn’t the right word. Disgust. The emotion he felt at the center of dozens of gazes was something unfamiliar and horrific. Nothing had changed from the times he was practicing, so what was making this so hard? He looked at the faces of his friends. They weren’t monsters with disgusting faces, nor did they provoke any kind of negative emotions in him. They were just colleagues he liked. However, why was it that when he looked at his colleagues, who had taken a step back and became the audience, his stomach started to ache and his vision became dark?

Let’s try standing for now - Chihwan stood at the center of the stage while trying his best not to be conscious of those gazes. Maru stepped back.

Various gym equipment, such as dumbbells, barbells, and benches were taking up one corner, so the platform should have seemed small, yet it looked endlessly wide today. It was as though space itself had some sort of life energy and expanded itself causing Maru to look so distant. However, regardless of the wideness of the stage, the distance between him and the audience looked strangely close no matter where he was. Was there a need to watch from up close like this? - he had this question.

Chihwan looked down at his palms. They were wet with sweat. He wiped his hands on his pants and took a deep breath. He tried fooling himself to think that this nervousness was only temporary, and that he would soon adapt to it once he started speaking. He closed his eyes and opened them again.

The gazes had become even closer to him. Their pupils were even clearer to his eyes. They were chatting amongst themselves, and it ticked him off so much. Shut up - he wanted to say.

It was all messy. The noise was bad enough that he couldn’t concentrate. His heart was messing up his focus from the inside, while the chatter from the others was disturbing his heart even more. At that moment, Chihwan realized that he had forgotten his line. The lines that filled his mind until just 10 seconds ago had disappeared in the blink of an eye. He felt as though his mind was refusing to think and was just meaninglessly processing the information gotten from his eyes. I must remember - he tried to get himself together, but his blank mind did not give him his lines.

“Aren’t you going to start?”

Aram’s voice could be heard.

“I am. I am going to do it.”

“It’s been a minute already. If we need to wait, we can always see Maru-seonbae’s acting first.”

“No! I can do it.”

He quickly opened the script he was holding in his left hand and checked the lines. The moment he flipped over the page and found the first line, nay, the colon after the name of the character that he was playing, he suddenly remembered all the lines afterwards. He didn’t know why he forgot such a simple line. He sighed in relief and looked forward again.

‘No way.’

Was there a problem with his brain or something? The moment he became conscious of the gazes again, the lines he remembered literally 0.5 seconds ago with confidence disappeared from his mind again. He hurriedly opened the script again. He chased the lines with his eyes and memorized them. He remembered all the lines again. He could probably sing them as well.

“Are you going to do it while looking at the script?”

One of his colleagues spoke out. Chihwan said ‘no way’ and closed the script with confidence. A black curtain enveloped his mind again. He felt ashamed. He even felt relieved that this wasn’t an actual stage.

‘I can’t do it.’

He realized just how pathetic he was. He thought that he had done plenty of practice over the past two weeks after his role was decided. Even with tests, he would score above 80 points if he studied the night before, but he had practiced the lines for two weeks, so he felt that it would be stupid to not be able to do them.

Yet, he was the stupid one.

He realized that gazes were heavy. He felt firsthand the dangers of going on stage. In his current state, even if he read the lines out loud while looking at the script, his voice would probably be shaky.

He was about to apologize and stop, when,

“Mr. Hwang? There’s no man with that name here. I don’t dare lie to you, officer. Dangerous people, no, miscreants like independence[1], I stop them from coming to this area in the first place.”

Maru read the line without any fluctuations in his voice.

“If you can’t remember your lines, say them out loud. If you really have practiced properly, your body will take over once you start. That is, ‘if’ you have practiced to the point that your body remembers it.”

“Maru-seonbae, I’ll just…”

“Do it. Try reading them out loud.”

“I’m sorry. I can’t do it.”

“So you did it so many times that you know whether you can or not before you even try? I still don’t know until I try, you know?”

Chihwan looked into Maru’s eyes. He wasn’t speaking in a scolding voice. He was talking as though he was stating the obvious.

Chihwan clenched his teeth until his teeth started aching before saying his lines out loud. He just said his first line, but his lips and tongue had followed up by themselves. His mind was still dark, but his tongue and vocal cords were saying the right words as though they knew what they were supposed to do.

When he finished one line, Chihwan felt that something had changed. It was the gazes. The gazes that looked at him no longer disgusted him anymore. Even though all he did was finish just one line, his heart became calm. The nervousness he felt until now seemed like a lie and his body relaxed. He felt light as though he had lost some weight, and the endlessly wide stage became narrow again.

I can do it - an endless stream of confidence filled the parts where nervousness left. His mind started working. He could remember all the lines clearly as though he had scanned them into his brain. He could practically read the lines off the script in his head.

“Seonbae-nim.”

“What?”

“C-can I do it now?”

“We never stopped you. Take a deep breath like you usually do.”

He breathed in deeply just like Maru said.

“Breathe out lightly.”

He breathed out with the thought that he was leaving half of his breath inside his lungs.

“Your lines?”

“They’re perfect.”

“Then I guess there’s no problem.”

“Watch me. I’m going to do really well.”

“Just start already.”

Chihwan stomped one foot and stood at the center of the stage.

* * *

“He’s the type to do great in front of other people,” Daemyung said after watching Chihwan’s performance.

He seemed nervous at first, but the atmosphere around him changed after Maru’s short advice. Chihwan did well to express ‘Mr. Baek’ who secretly helped out the independence fighters. During practice, his character felt lacking since his unique cheerfulness kept showing in his performance, but he showed a heavy act that made the audience feel just how dire the situation the character was in.

“He has power,” Bangjoo said.

That was a really suitable expression. Chihwan had a power that ruled over the stage. Thanks to his loud voice, his lines were refreshing and clear. On stage, pronunciation and voicing were the two most important things. As acting was a way of transferring information to others, a solid foundation gave a sense of depth to acting.

“Yeah! Wasn’t I great just now?”

“Ahn Chihwan, not half-bad, eh?”

“You were much better than during practice.”

“You were good!”

His colleagues applauded him. Even they, who had seen Chihwan’s acting before this, acknowledged his performance. Chihwan definitely shone on stage.

Daemyung put down his pen. He originally picked the pen up thinking that he should write down some things that he should point out, but he really didn’t have much to write. Chihwan’s acting just now was ideal and it felt like Chihwan had shown everything he could. The word ‘perfect’ could be carefully attached to him here.

“It’s your turn now, seonbae-nim,” Chihwan said.

Maru nodded and stood at the center of the stage.

Daemyung lifted his head and looked at the faces of his juniors. They seemed to be deeply impressed by Chihwan, who had unexpectedly put on a good performance. Moreover, they were personally much closer to Chihwan than Maru, so it was likely that they might give him a higher score. Some of them might even think that they should give Chihwan a higher score purely to one-up the seniors.

Daemyung sighed.

‘It’s always like that.’

Without Maru’s advice, Chihwan wouldn’t have been able to do anything. If Maru acted after that, he would have finished things while propping up his pride as a senior and put an end to things there.

Yet he did not. Maru probably wouldn’t care even if he was ridiculed by the others here. In fact, he might want that instead. After all, that would result in the first year students gaining more confidence and Chihwan improving further.

Maru was probably thinking that being ridiculed was just temporary.

“I’m starting.”

Daemyung nodded and crouched down to pick up his water bottle.

Chihwan had put on a good performance and Maru was next. Since he had achieved what he wanted to do, he would probably come down after putting on a decent show. Although it was only for two weeks, Chihwan had practiced properly. On top of that, he was in his best condition when he acted. Even if it was Maru, it would be difficult for him to show a better stage than Chihwan since he had never actually practiced.

He thought as such and sat back up again when he saw the faces of his juniors, who looked very serious. They seemed like they were faced with a serious problem. Daemyung hurriedly looked at the stage.

‘Ah.’

He subconsciously clenched the water bottle tightly. The plastic bottle made a loud noise as it crumpled. However, no one reacted to that.

All eyes were on Maru.

“Mr. Hwang? There’s no man with that name here. I don’t dare lie to you, officer. Dangerous people, no, miscreants like independence, I stop them from coming to this area in the first place.”

A man with an insinuating voice was rubbing his hands as he spoke. His voice was thin, and his waist was bent. He looked like he was willing to give the patrolling officer everything. The man who bowed his head towards an invisible Japanese police officer looked really pathetic.

“My good sir, I will report to you as soon as I find them. No, no, I will capture them with this body and soul of mine that I dedicated to His Imperial Highness and drag them to you. Why, yes, of course.”

The man who was looking ahead of him with a fishy smile slowly looked around him. His clasped hands twitched. His chin shook slightly and his healthy chin could be glimpsed at. Like a rat living with a cat, he walked around the stage while looking around everywhere.

It was tense. Daemyung wetted his dry lips with water again. The others also picked up their water bottles and drank.

“My word, my word, my word. I must be going crazy for sure.”

The man who was scurrying around the stage looked forward. His fear-stricken eyes could be seen by the audience. No one made any noise. Even Daemyung just watched the stage in a daze.

The moment his gaze intertwined with the actor’s, Daemyung felt the distance between him and the stage shrinking rapidly. It felt like Maru was standing right next to him. The nervousness that was contained in his every breath and action dissolved into his own body without filtering. Daemyung looked for his water bottle again, but sadly, it was empty.

“I find this horrific! I despise these days where I can be killed any day.”

He looked desperate. The man who rolled his back like a hunchback and opened his eyes in an afraid manner, didn't have any strength at all.

Chihwan’s acting of this part could be called reverent. He was grandiose and heroic. The man acted out by Chihwan was someone who could calmly accept death for the sake of independence. He felt like he would accept his fate while saying his lines in a calm manner. He had power, and the stage had vitality.

On the other hand, Maru was, well, unsightly. The man on the stage was pathetic, ugly, and sometimes even disgusting. Heroic traits were all but missing. Despite that, the man still fought. Bowing to the Japanese authority was his battle, and selling his smile to the Japanese was his way of fighting. He always desperately survived, and helped out the independence fighters despite extreme fear. Even while helping, he despised the independence fighters. He cursed himself for not being able to live with the status quo. He resented himself for not being able to become a Japanese citizen.

“I may die without seeing independence, but I have faith; I have faith that there will be rest after this.”

When Chihwan said those words, Daemyung was reminded of the independence. He thought that it was the bright death of a hero who had brilliantly fooled the Japanese authorities.

And now, Daemyung was met with another scene where the man met his death that he so looked forward to. To him, independence might have been a cloud in the sky. It was just the death of a small, weak civilian man who could smile due to the fact that he no longer had to be afraid of the Japanese authorities.

The act ended.

Maru dusted off his pants as though nothing had happened and stepped down from the stage.

There was only one thing that Daemyung could do.

The simplest reason why mankind was given two hands: that is, to applaud.

[1] As strange as this might sound, the original doesn't make sense either… Replace it with ‘independence activist’.

Chapter 581

For a brief moment, he felt like he forgot to breathe. His breathing, which was supposed to be occurring outside the realm of consciousness, had briefly stopped for a while. He took a deep breath afterwards as though he had just become conscious of it. Following that, applause could be heard. Chihwan applauded as well. He subconsciously started clapping harder and harder. The moment he realized what he had just seen, Chihwan even cheered out loud and clapped to the point that his hands felt numb.

This was it, this was Maru-seonbae’s acting. Chihwan turned around and looked at the girls who were looking down on Maru earlier. When he met eyes with them, the girls made an awkward smile and applauded Maru louder than everyone else. Chihwan felt proud as though he was the one being complimented.

“Are we done now?” Maru said.

Chihwan nodded without a word.

“So how do we decide who wi-”

“You won, seonbae. I totally lost. You really are the best after all.”

Chihwan interrupted Maru’s words. Was evaluation even necessary at this point? When he first challenged him, Chihwan thought that he would be able to win. Maru-seonbae was definitely a splendid actor, but Chihwan believed in the hours he put into practice. That confidence continued until his act ended. No, the moment he finished his acting, his mind was filled with the word ‘victory’. After all, he had never done better than this during practice.

However, after Maru’s acting began, Chihwan put aside the matter of victory and defeat. He focused on engraving Maru’s performance into his eyes. Although they were given the same script and the same role, the ‘character’ was completely different.

Maru amazed him. Just how could he have interpreted the script like that? The character had turned from a lively independence fighter who used his wits and spirit to drive the Japanese authorities into a corner, into a mere civilian who felt fear from the very era itself and was struggling to survive. Considering the overall atmosphere and the relationship between the characters, the lively independence fighter was the more accurate one, but this stage wasn’t a display of the whole play but just one character, so there were no problems there.

Chihwan realized that even the same roles become extremely different characters according to the actor playing it by watching Maru’s acting.

‘No! Perhaps this was what seonbae wanted to show me! I knew it!’

The text was definitely important. However, it was in the end, the actor’s job to turn text into an actual performance. Polishing the source stone that the scriptwriter wrote into a beautiful gem - Chihwan felt that that was the essence of what being an actor was.

“But when did you practice?”

This was what he wanted to know the most. Maru never participated in practice. On days where he showed up in the hall, he was always caught up with making props. Chihwan had never seen him reading the script nor practicing, yet he was able to put on such a good performance. It couldn’t be considered his talent either, as Maru had utilized a personality completely opposite to that of the original character but still managed to create a suitable character that was completely different. It meant that his character would never have been made without prior analysis.

Just when did he create such a cool character like this? Chihwan wanted to know.

Maru lifted his finger. Chihwan looked at the pieces of cloth right beneath the platform.

“While you guys practiced acting while looking at the script, I kept following you from over there. After all, my hands are what’s needed to connect pieces of cloth together, not my brain. With the part of my brain that was playing around, I imitated your words, imagined actions, and tried changing things up a little too.”

Ah - Chihwan exclaimed and nodded. He remembered how Maru always worked on making props in the corner. He probably watched everything that was going on in the hall from that space. He wasn’t simply creating props, he was studying acting even while creating them, and the result was the character he just showed.

“Seonbae-nim, can I have a look at that script?”

“This one?”

Chihwan received the script that Maru was holding. The cover was in tatters. He then looked at his own script which he had placed on the platform. Although the corners were slightly worn out, it was still clean.

The paper which was smudged in finger oil said everything. He thought that his practice was not lagging behind, yet that didn’t seem to be the case. Chihwan felt his cheeks turn hot and his body turn cool. He slowly lifted his head and looked at Maru’s face before flipping over the page.

“Ah.”

He subconsciously exclaimed. It was filled with text everywhere. The script, which was printed on A4 pages, actually had a lot of gaps. Not to mention the left and right margins, plus top and bottom, there were sometimes gaps as wide as two fingers-width in places where the lines were short. Chihwan went up to the platform and placed Maru’s script next to his own. Then he started comparing the two.

‘This one, and this one. And even this one?’

Chihwan turned around. He saw Maru talking to Daemyung. For a brief moment, something more than simple ‘amazement’ popped up in his heart. He started probing around the feeling that started from his heart and went to his head.

Terrified. Rather than being amazed by the wall of text that did not allow for a single gap, he felt terrified.

Was there a need to go this far? Chihwan quickly flipped over the script and looked at it.

‘It’s not just the character he played. He had a general analysis of all the characters.’

He went beyond the characters and even went on to make notes about the era. Just as he felt dizzy following all the text with his eyes, a line written in red in the corner entered his view.

-Is this enough?

It seemed to be a question he was asking himself, but Chihwan was flabbergasted the moment he saw that text. There was this much analysis. It looked as though the gaps were screaming for help, yet he wrote a line that suggested that he hadn’t done enough in the corner.

He looked at his colleagues who were talking about Maru’s acting below the platform. Did we ever practice at all? Were we just fooling around under the premise of practicing? The hints of contemplation continued all the way to the last page.

Chihwan closed the script. He looked at the corner seat where Maru always sat. He went there and tried sitting down.

“I can see everything.”

He said that with a laugh. Maru didn’t come here because he thought that he might be a nuisance to everyone. Maru-seonbae just chose a place where he could see everyone. He observed everyone and broadened his expression range and recreated it for himself.

“I will call this place the sanctuary now,” Chihwan said as he looked at everyone around him.

His friends were looking at him like looking at a lunatic, but Chihwan didn’t care. He realized the deep meaning behind Maru’s choice of seat here. He was incredible after all. Every one of his actions contained deep intent. He realized once again that Maru wasn’t someone who would do something for nothing.

‘He’s so cool.’

Chihwan grinned and looked at Maru. Although Maru was only 2 years older than him, there was an insurmountable gap between him and Maru whether it was character, skill, or personality.

If he was a narrow-minded person, he would have stayed still when Chihwan was shaking. He would then take victory and show the skills of a senior.

‘Seonbae was worried about me becoming a laughing stock and advised me because of that. His consideration, acting skills, and even his effort are incredible!’

He was the literal definition of a mentor, no master!

‘I will treat you as a big brother for a lifetime.’

Chihwan thought about Maru’s gentle advice on the stage and smiled in satisfaction.

* * *

“What the heck is with him this time?”

Maru wondered after he finished drinking some water.

Daemyung looked at the corner of the hall. Chihwan was looking at Maru with an indecent gaze.

“He seems to be in love with you.”

“Bullshit.”

“Anyways, that was unexpected.”

“What was?”

“I thought you’d lose to Chihwan.”

“Huh? Why would I do that?”

“Hm, because that’s a simple way out?”

Maru closed his mouth before laughing.

“No matter how much I like efficiency, I can’t really be concerned about that when I’m being chased by a weird pervert.”

“P-pervert?”

“What else do you call that then? He’s a splendid pervert,” Maru said as he pointed at Chihwan with his chin.

Chihwan stood up like a soldier and saluted him.

“See that? His mental world is strange. I tried my best to put him down a little, but it’s not working at all.”

“Then what was with that advice you gave him?”

“According to his personality, he would have nagged me later to hold another round of this ridiculous ‘battle’ if it ended awkwardly. I set him up so he could act in the best condition so that he can’t come crying to me later. However, why does that guy look like he likes it instead of being disappointed?”

“…Did you put on a different act from the script in order to one-up him as well?”

“There won’t be a clear difference if we acted the same thing after all. He’s been practicing, and he did pretty well, so I couldn’t exactly do the same performance. I tried twisting it up a little. It wasn’t strange, was it?”

“It wasn’t strange, but…”

“But?”

“I thought you helped him out on stage as a senior being concerned about a junior.”

“You’ve gotten a lot more creative with your imagination ever since you started studying directing.”

“Hm, but I think he’s thinking the same thing as I am though?”

Daemyung pointed at Chihwan.

Maru blinked several times, scratched his eyebrows, frowned, and sighed in lamentation.

“No, no. Humans aren’t single-celled organisms. How could he accept everything positively? Right? Chihwan has his pride. I broke his pride on stage, so he should no longer talk to me because of…”

Just as Maru was justifying himself, Chihwan came up to him like a puppy. He then looked at Maru with a loyal look in his eyes.

“Seonbae-nim. I will help you with sewing starting today.”

“I just said that so that you won’t bother me any m…”

“No! Seonbae, I mean, seonbae-nim! I finally realized today why you always sewed in that corner.”

“It’s because it’s comfortable if you lean agains…”

“It’s to watch and analyze everything that’s happening in the hall before sublimating it into your acting, right? It dawned on me the moment I sat there. Ah! Maru-seonbae had his reasons when he sat there!”

“That’s because the sun doesn’t shine on me so……”

“On top of that! You kindly reached out to me when I wasn’t able to do anything because of nervousness. Your noble personality is just… I am ashamed that I tried something senseless like asking you for a battle. You empowered me and even showed a different interpretation of the character. Honestly, I felt afraid when I looked at your character. I don’t have the confidence to do something like that after all. As such! I will try to learn as much as I can from you starting today. I will sew next to you, look at the same things as you, and become a good actor based on that!”

Wow, what a good choice of words. Daemyung looked at Chihwan who cheered after giving his sermon. He was such an interesting kid. Next to him, he saw Maru who was pressing his fingers down between his eyebrows.

This was the first time he saw Maru make such an expression. He was unresponsive even when he was hospitalized for a month after being hit on by burning wood, yet he was frowning while looking at Chihwan, who was running wild in excitement.

Daemyung took out his phone and captured Maru’s face. As for the file name, he saved it as ‘The Scream’. Looking at this photo would cheer him up whenever he felt depressed.

“Daemyung.”

“Hm?”

“Does teacher Taesik have the secession form for the acting club?”

Maru asked him with a serious face.

Daemyung smiled and asked Maru.

“It doesn’t feel that bad though, does it?”

He looked at the members of the acting club.

Maru turned his head and said in a small voice.

“He’s a pain in the butt.”

“Guide him well in the future.”

“That’s the president’s job.”

“Unfortunately, I’m no longer the president.”

“Oh, you guys talked about it already?”

“Yeah. Aram will be the next one.”

“Sounds like it will be a fantastic acting club then. Looks like things are about to become noisy.”

“That’s a good thing.”

Maru threw the empty plastic bottle into the trash can next to the entrance. The bottle drew a parabola in the air and hit the wall before falling into the trash.

“You had it hard until now. From now on, look after yourself more than the others.”

“I will.”

“Don’t just say that. Try actually living a bit more selfishly. Do more things for yourself and let the others be for a while.”

“I’m plenty selfish, you know?”

Just then, the first year juniors all came up to them. They all said that they should resume practice. Daemyung looked at Maru as he was surrounded by the others. Maru, who was standing outside the wall of people, was making a faint smile.

Plenty selfish, my ass - Maru seemed like he wanted to say those words.

Chapter 582

“Bitna, can you lift the product upwards a little more?”

Bitna slightly raised the cereal box at the request.

“That’s a good girl.”

The photographer, who was taking photos from multiple angles, eventually stepped back, saying that they should take a bit of rest. Bitna, who was sitting on a wooden chair in front of a white background, sighed slightly as she came down from the chair.

“Bitna, wait a moment.”

The coordinators came up to her and fixed her makeup. Bitna raised her head as she drank some water. The lights installed on either side were quite hot.

“It’s hot, isn’t it?”

“I’m okay.”

“Bitna is such a good girl. I wish I’ll have a daughter like you in the future.”

Bitna faintly smiled at the coordinator’s words. She stared at the coordinator who walked away with the empty cup before turning around to look at the table, where the big monitor was.

“This looks good.”

“I like this one too. How about this one?”

“That’s good too.”

“Why aren’t you nitpicking today?”

“Do you want me to?”

“Of course not. If you don’t have any complaints, it’s better for me.”

She saw her mother, who was talking to the photographer.

Bitna sat down on the chair again. She took her time swinging her legs around, when,

“Bitna, we’re done for today. Thanks to you, this ahjussi had a really easy time today.”

The photographer smiled and approached her. Bitna jumped down from the chair and bowed.

“You have it good, having a daughter like Bitna. I wish I had a girl like her too.”

“Why don’t you say that after you get married first? I thought you went on a blind date last time.”

“That doesn’t mean I’m going to get married. Plus, that only works if the other party likes me. But what are you saying in front of a kid?”

“Bitna is smart and ignores what she doesn’t need, you know?”

Her mom smacked the photographer on the back. Bitna was more familiar with this photographer’s face than even her school teacher’s.

“Bitna, you must say goodbye to everyone here, right?”

Bitna said goodbye to everyone, who were cleaning up, after hearing her mother’s words. Everyone smiled back at her and said goodbye as well.

“Hope you can take care of us again next time.”

“That’s what I want to ask. You’re the one giving me work to do after all. Bitna, this ahjussi will treat you to something good, okay?”

She left the studio and returned to the car. Her mother, who had disappeared for a bit, returned with some sandwiches in hand.

“My dear, sorry mom couldn’t even give you proper food.”

“No, it’s fine. I don’t care since this is tastier.”

Her mother looked inside the sandwich.

“I forgot to ask them to leave out the olives. It smells a little, are you okay with that? If you aren’t, I can go and change it.”

“I can eat it. I’m hungry.”

“Oh, dear. You were hungry, weren’t you?”

She picked up the sandwich which has been sliced into halves and took a bite. Her mother was also eating a sandwich, and that one had a spicy smell.

“Mom.”

“Yeah?”

“Are you going to marry that ahjussi?”

Pfft - her mother spat out chunks of her sandwich from her mouth. A spicy smell spread around. Bitna pinched her nose with one hand and pulled out some tissue with the other to give to her mother.

“Here.”

Her mother wiped the food that got on the dashboard.

“Bitna, what do you mean by that?”

“You aren’t marrying that ahjussi?”

“Do you want mommy to get married?”

“I don’t know. It’s just that mom looks happy when you’re with that ahjussi, so I don’t think it’s bad.”

“Mom looks happy?”

Bitna put her sandwich on her knees and pulled up the corners of her mouth.

“Mom is smiling like this when you work with that ahjussi.”

“I do? Really?”

“Yeah.”

Her mother did not speak for a long time. Bitna focused on the sandwich again. Although it wasn’t tasty because of the olives, she ate it regardless since she was hungry.

“Do you want to see daddy, Bitna?”

“No.”

“You don’t want to see daddy?”

“Do you want to see him, mom?”

“Mom wants to see him sometimes. You look really like him after all. That’s why looking at you reminds me of him from time to time.”

“I don’t know. I don’t know daddy after all.”

“Do you want a daddy, Bitna?”

“I don’t know about that either. I just need mom. But if mom likes him, I think it’s okay for you to marry him. I don’t think ahjussi is a bad man.”

Bitna looked at her mother. Her mother made an incomprehensible smile and patted her head.

“Mom isn’t getting married. Mom just needs you two.”

The patting hand felt good. Bitna nodded. If her mother said that she was okay, then she was okay.

“Let’s stop talking about mommy and talk about your school, okay? Have you gotten close with your friends?”

“I have. There’s one guy who keeps bullying me, but I like everyone else.”

“Who dares to bully our Bitna? Mom will scold that person for you.”

“He’s a boy, and he keeps playing pranks on me. I told him to stop, but he keeps cutting up erasers and throwing the pieces at me.”

“Do you think he hates you?”

Bitna thought for a moment. Then she shook her head.

“I don’t think so. He stops when I’m about to get angry. Though, he goes back to doing it again the next day.”

“That boy, does he look straight at you?”

“I don’t think he does.”

“Mom might be misunderstanding, but that boy might like you.”

“Me? Why?”

“I wonder why. Maybe because you’re cute?”

“He likes me but bullies me?”

“At your age, Bitna, it’s more important for boys to play with other boys. He shouldn’t hate you. He wants to stay close to you, but is playing pranks on you because other boys might tease him for it.”

“Mom, didn’t you say liking someone is the same as becoming honest with yourself?”

“I did.”

“Then why do you say that he likes me even though he keeps bullying me? Isn’t that not liking me?”

“Hm, you’ll understand once you grow up a little, Bitna.”

“I will understand once I become bigger?”

“Of course.”

“How big?”

“Hm, high school maybe?”

“Then unni knows all about it?”

“That’s not entirely true.”

“Then what about mom? Do you know everything at your age?”

“Uh, I don’t think that’s right either.”

“Mom, you are strange sometimes.”

“…Sorry for being a weird mom.”

Bitna looked at her dejected mother before saying that she was just joking.

“My dear Bitna, you know how to make jokes, huh. You got me there.”

“I learned from that oppa.”

“That oppa?”

Bitna thought back to last summer. The shooting location was incredibly hot, and there was one oppa who encouraged the other oppas during the shoot. Bitna called that oppa the big oppa.

“Is it the Maru-oppa that you talked about last time?”

“Yeah.”

“Bitna seems to have taken a liking to that oppa, huh?”

“He was a fun oppa.”

“Do you like that oppa?”

Bitna shook her head.

“He’s just a fun oppa.”

“You’re quite picky, my girl.”

“But unni seems to like him, I think.”

“Unni does?”

Bitna thought about her sister’s - Yuna’s - expression. Ever since Bitna said that she knew who Maru was when he appeared on TV, she kept asking her about him. She asked when they played together and asked when they watched TV together. Her unni looked really happy when they talked about oppa.

“You said you were meeting him tomorrow, right?”

“Yeah, after school.”

“Bitna is letting her meet him, right?”

“Unni wants to meet him after all. But I am going to have to lie. Is that okay?”

“Lie?”

“I don’t really want to see big oppa that much. However, unni said that I wanted to see big oppa. If I become honest, unni will have become a liar, so I think it will be better if I lie instead.”

“Bitna is going to lie for your big sister’s sake?”

“Yeah. Otherwise, unni will be a liar.”

“But lying is a bad thing.”

“Isn’t it fine if you do it once a year?”

“Santa might not come to you.”

“Do you believe in Santa, mom?”

“…You can lie from time to time.”

Bitna lifted one finger.

“I will lie just this once. I don’t want unni to become a liar.”

“It’s fine because it’s a good lie for your big sister.”

“What’s a good lie? Weren’t lies bad things?”

“Hm, Bitna.”

“Yeah?”

“Try asking Maru-oppa that tomorrow.”

“Can’t you tell me, mom?”

“Mom needs to rest from time to time. Also, it’s no fun if mom tells you everything.”

“Is that how it is?”

“Of course.”

Her mother turned the car key. The car started vibrating with a low rattling noise. Bitna moved her little hands to put her seatbelt on.

“But mom.”

“Yes?”

“Do you get married if you like someone?”

Her mother didn’t reply.

“Will I understand when I become big?”

“Mom wants to explain, but I think it needs a lot of time. To put it very simply though, if you like someone, you get married, I think?”

“Then will unni marry big oppa?”

“That won’t necessarily be the case… but you can’t really say that it definitely won’t happen, it’s a complicated thing…”

Bitna crossed her arms.

“How hard.”

Her mom agreed.

“It is.”

The car left the parking lot.

* * *

“Yuna.”

“Yeah?”

“I think he fancies you.”

“What do you mean?”

Yuna turned around, unable to resist the pull on her uniform vest. The boy sitting at the end of the 3rd column was smiling at her.

“Girlie, you have it good, being popular and all.”

“It’s not like that.”

“What’s not? He’s completely in love with you. What do you think? I don’t think he’s that bad. Yuna, I heard you have never gone out with someone, right? Try going out with him at this chance.”

“What are you saying?”

Yuna shook her hand before taking out her textbook. Her friends covered their mouths and laughed. They always teased her when it was related to boys.

“Think about it seriously. I thought you wanted to become an actress. You won’t be able to date as you wish once you become one, so when else will you get the opportunity to date someone?”

“Right. You should do away with it while you still can.”

Do away with what? - Yuna pushed her friends away. Her friends giggled and went back to their seats. After hearing that, she felt a gaze on the back of her head. When she turned around, the boy that the girls talked about was still looking at her.

Haha - she smiled awkwardly before looking forward again.

‘I don’t necessarily hate it, but.’

It didn’t make her heart race. Actually, this might be because she was concerned about something else. She raised her head to look at the clock on the wall. She would get to meet him in just five more hours.

‘I wonder what kind of person he is.’

Just what kind of lessons did he receive and what kind of things did he learn to put on an act like that? Yuna had a lot of things to ask Maru.

Chapter 583

“Han Maru.”

When he lifted his head after hearing the voice, he saw a piece of chalk flying right towards his face. Maru slapped the chalk with his left hand. The smashed chalk fell to the floor. He wondered why such a thing flew at him.

“Huh, you managed to stop that?”

Only when he heard the voice again did he remember that he was in class. His classmates sitting on either side of him chuckled.

“Where did you leave your soul behind?” asked the teacher who taught electric circuits as he rolled his right sleeve up.

“You’re a smart guy in the drama too. If you’re sleepy, go wash your face.”

He slightly bowed to the teacher before standing up. As this teacher liked to be quite authoritative, he always nitpicked students if they did not follow his words no matter how trivial they were. He walked across the corridor and went to the bathroom. Smelling a rather foul stench, he felt his sensitive mind calming down a little.

He wasn’t sleeping because he was tired. He was thinking about something else to the point that nothing in the class entered his mind. Maru turned the tap. He looked at the mirror as he put his hands under the chilly running water.

“1989. No, if I expect a year of delay, there should be a change in 1988 maybe?”

He was reminded of last night’s matters as he looked in the mirror.

After acting practice, which was rather fussy thanks to Chihwan, Maru went to the classroom on the opposite side of the hall. He sent his juniors home first before taking out the videotape he brought in his bag.

“I was told that you were here. What are you doing?”

When he was about to start playing the videotape, Daemyung entered the classroom. Maru told him that they should watch the video together if he had the time. Watching good actors should be helpful for directors after all. As it was an old videotape, the sound and video were stretched out at the beginning, but it wasn’t unbearable.

The video started off with some chatter between men he had never seen before. The background seemed to be a corridor in a building.

-Are you sure this is filming right now?

-That’s curious.

-Hey, this is really small. Aren’t video cameras things that people put on their shoulders?

-That’s because this is the latest product from Japan. You don’t even know that? But Jincheol, are you sure this is working?

-You bumpkins, it is working.

A long-haired man appeared in the video. It was director Lee Jincheol in his younger days. The immaturity and daringness of a man in his 20s showed from his face and fashion.

“Maru, what’s this? It looks like an old video. 1987?”

Daemyung looked at the corner of the screen while narrowing his eyes.

“It’s a video about one actress.”

“Actress? Who?”

“I don’t know yet. We’re about to find out.”

Maru crossed his arms and leaned back against the door. 3 minutes passed in the video without any content. During that time, the only things that appeared were some men putting their faces right up against the lens to play around and Jincheol, who was moving around here and there. A man with a shaved head showed some different facial actions in front of the camera.

-Are we shooting now?

A girl’s voice sounded from the video. Maru focused on the screen. The man with the shaved head waved outside the frame at someone and asked her to come. A while later, a girl with bangs peeked into the frame.

-Am I on right now?

The girl waved at people outside the frame. Maru faintly smiled.

-Hey, Jung Haejoo. What are you doing, acting like a bumpkin? Is this the first time you’ve seen a camcorder?

-Yeah, it’s my first time.

-What a bumpkin. What about Joohyun? She always follows you around every weekend.

-She’s not here today.

-She should really stop coming. A high school student should be studying. No wait, was she in middle school?

The world inside the screen became noisy. Jung Haejoo - she looked the same as the photo where she was holding the three puppies. She looked like an adult lady, yet still somewhat immature. Her reddish cheeks, rather large cheekbones, as well as the curiosity-filled eyes and hands that endlessly touched her hair when she looked at the lens were indicative of what kind of personality this Jung Haejoo had.

“She’s an interesting person,” Daemyung spoke next to him.

Interesting person - it was a fitting description.

“That’s her. The actress I was talking about.”

“She’s an actress?”

“Everyone on the screen now is an actor, probably.”

Just then, the people on the screen stood in one line.

-Hey, shouldn’t we stand in order of height?

-Are we kids? Just stand wherever you want.

-Let’s go with age. When someone watches later, we can just say that the one at the end is the oldest

-That sounds good.

The people on the screen switched places. Jung Haejoo was in the middle.

-Well then, if you are done standing in a line, introduce yourselves. I will see how cool you can make it.

Jincheol spoke from outside the frame. The people on the screen coughed and looked at each other in the face before shouting the line in unison.

-Youth to the stage! We are the play-loving Yecheon!

The people, who shouted in unison, looked at the lens blankly for a while before twisting up in embarrassment.

-Gosh that was embarrassing.

-I got goosebumps.

-Do we have to do this? Shouldn’t we just go with ‘We are Yecheon’ or something? We aren’t kids.

Jung Haejoo, who was staring at the lens amidst the others, started speaking.

-Why? I like it though. Don’t you? It’ll be fun when we watch it later. It’s definitely better to be funny than to be stiff.

She then tapped on the lens with her finger. When Jincheol told her not to do that, she stepped back with a dejected expression.

-It is embarrassing, but it’s not that bad if you think about it.

-I might die of embarrassment when I watch it at an old age.

-That’s good. Let’s all die together!

The men and women hung their arms around each other and stood in a line.

-Youth to the stage! We are the play-loving Yecheon!

The screen then snapped off. A noisy grey screen filled the TV for a while.

“So they are people who used to do plays, huh. Yecheon. That sounds similar to our Blue Sky[1],” Daemyung said.

Maru faintly smiled. Daemyung would be surprised if he knew the place in the video was currently where Blue Sky stood in Daehak-ro right now, but he decided to tell him that later. He wanted to focus on the video for now.

-I’m starting the shoot.

A voice sounded again. It was Jincheol. The background changed to the stage from the corridor. It seemed that the camcorder was moved. On top of a worn-out stage that definitely couldn’t be considered good stood the people who just did the embarrassing greeting. Their clothing had changed. They were wearing jeans and white t-shirts now.

Haejoo, who was looking around from the center of the stage, walked in front of the camcorder.

-We are going to start the play now. The main characters are Yoonsung-oppa, Chasoo-oppa, and Mijin-unni. I hope you have a good time.

She whispered that in a small voice. People gathered around Haejoo, who had gone to the back of the stage with a smile. After shouting to get fired up, the members of the troupe went to their places.

The play that followed was about college students who were activists[2]. It seemed to reflect the environment of that era. The story itself wasn’t that boring. The flow was cut off during some parts due to opting to go with the boring route, but the story did not miss the big events, so it wasn’t that disturbing to the immersion. The members of the troupe didn’t have bad skills either. As a man who seemed to be in his early thirties held the ground, the overall balance did not shift.

-Well done!

The play ended while the remaining members were mourning the death of one such activist student. The actors on stage applauded each other and gathered in front of the camcorder. They looked agitated and excited. They were truly enjoying acting.

But that was it.

“They’re good.”

“They are for sure. But Daemyung, what do you think?”

“About what?”

“That lady.”

Maru pointed at Jung Haejoo, who was smiling brightly in the middle of the screen.

“Do you think there’s anything to learn from her?”

“Hm.”

“Just tell me what you think. Don’t evaluate her, just tell me what you think about her.”

“Honestly speaking, they all seemed to be good actors generally, but I think that’s about it. They aren’t eye-openingly good. That lady is the same. In fact, I feel like she’s worse than the others.”

“In what aspect?”

“She seems a bit… lighter? The topic of the play is quite heavy, isn’t it? However, she seems too bright. Rather than saying that she’s bad at acting, it feels like her personality is way too positive that it’s influencing her acting or something like that.”

Maru nodded. Daemyung was definitely sharp. Maru was thinking about the same thing. It wasn’t that the people on the screen were bad at acting. They definitely fulfilled their role of imbuing truth into an imaginary world very splendidly. If he watched their stage without any prior knowledge, he would have praised them, saying that a group of youths had done a splendid job.

‘But that shouldn’t be all of it.’

She was the one who had stolen the hearts of two geniuses. He refused to believe that Junmin was surprised and charmed by that level of acting. 1987. Although this was before Haejoo and Junmin encountered each other, her first appearance in the video definitely left room for a lot to be desired.

“Who are you watching this video for, though? That lady?”

“Yeah, that’s right.”

“It doesn’t look like you’re trying to study by doing this…”

“Why do you think that?”

Daemyung couldn’t reply immediately and hesitated for a while before carefully speaking.

“Because honestly speaking, I feel like you’re better at acting than that lady.”

“You’re putting me on a pedestal all of a sudden.”

“I’m serious. Don’t you think so too?”

“I’m not that into self-flattery, you know?”

“But aren’t you thinking the same? You look pretty disappointed.”

“You’re quick to catch on.”

Maru took out the videotape that finished playing.

“There’s around 50 more of these in order of time.”

“There are so many?”

“I really want to see the last one right now, but I feel like I wouldn’t be able to catch the hint like that. I want to know what kind of acting that lady did, and how her changes made people unable to forget about her to this day.”

“Just who is she?”

“Jung Haejoo.”

“Jung Haejoo?”

Splash, Maru bowled some water with his hands and washed his face. Daemyung’s confused expression disappeared along with the cold water that hit his face.

“Two years. No, one year. Just how much did she change after meeting Junmin?”

He thought about the piles of video tapes at home. He brought one today as well. A video from 1987. This one was taken a month after the video he watched yesterday. Maru was curious. He wanted to know how the lady’s acting would change since she was called a genius by two other geniuses. He couldn’t imagine anything right now. Junmin definitely had good eyes for talent, but Maru had never heard that he was a good acting teacher. Just what kind of magic did he cast on Haejoo?

Maru shook his hands before walking back to his classroom. The teacher, who was teaching the class, gave him a glance before continuing on with the class. Maru sat down quietly so that he didn’t make any noise. He touched the videotape he put inside his drawer while looking forward to watching it after school, when he remembered an appointment he had forgotten about.

‘Today’s Tuesday… ’

It was 3 p.m. He would have to meet Bitna in just two hours. Although it was a rather sudden appointment, he had to keep the appointment since he promised. It seemed that he wasn’t going to get to watch the video today.

‘Is there really no one around me who has a VCR?’

It seemed that he would have to make a visit to Yongsan after the shoot this weekend.

“Han Maru, have you gotten yourself together?”

“Yes. I feel much better after washing my face.”

Maru replied as he took his hands out of the drawers.

[1] The Korean for Blue Sky is Cheongcheon and they share the same character ‘cheon’

[2] In this specific case, ‘college activists’ refer to left-wing supporters who went against the right-wing government rule in South Korea during the 1980s (hence the following line).

Chapter 584

“Help me out at the petrol station, will you?”

“Is it that bad?”

“The guy that said he was going to work ran again. We pay more than everyone else around, but we still can’t get anyone.”

“You must be having a hard time, but what can you do about it? You’re going to succeed the business, so you have no choice but to do it.”

Dowook climbed down the stairs after complaining.

“I’m leaving as well. See you around, you two.”

“Have fun making gukbap.”

“Why don’t you visit and eat some? Missus hasn't been looking good recently since sales are dropping.”

“You’ve totally married into their family now, huh. You just have to deal with it. Have fun too, Iseul.”

Maru waved his hand at the two people that left.

“They’re like workers,” Daemyung said, standing next to him.

“They are workers, and also students. Both Dojin and Dowook that is.”

“Sometimes, I envy them. I feel like they’ve grown up already.”

“That’s nothing to be envious about. It’s best to delay jumping into the working force as long as possible. The best scenario is to not have a job forever and just live off rent if you’ve inherited a building from your family or something. We have sad lives because we can’t do that.”

“Did you have to make it that depressing?”

Maru shrugged before looking at the staircase to the 3rd floor.

“You’re going up, right?”

“Yeah, what about you?”

“I can’t do today.”

“Do you have a shoot for the film?”

“No, that’s on Wednesdays. Today’s a personal thing.”

“Everyone should be waiting for you though.”

“Waiting for me?”

“When we scattered last night, all the first year students were talking about you. It seems like you left a deep impression on them.”

“What an honor. Oh, for Chihwan, it’d be better if you have him do practice runs rather than read-throughs. Putting him on stage will benefit him more.”

“The plan was to rehearse as a whole starting today anyway.”

“Really? Instructor Miso is coming, right?”

“Yeah. Everyone seems to be happy that basic practice is over and they’re going to do a play, so I feel kinda sorry for them.”

“They’ll find out today that their happy times are now over and hell is about to start. After all, what awaits them when they make a single mistake is a 1-to-1 meeting with the grim reaper after all.”

The first year students would find out today how the word ‘again’ can drive a person crazy. Miso would no longer be lenient once practice runs started. If they made a mistake, they would receive near-traumatizing additional instructions and would have to sweat even in winter. After a few rounds of that, they would start to think that they should stop making mistakes because they would drive them crazy.

“I’ll go up then. See you tomorrow.”

“Keep up the good work. No wait, I guess I should tell that to Aram now, huh?”

“She’s just as tough as instructor Miso, so she should be fine. Probably.”

“Nah, she can’t match up to Miso-noonim.”

“So you think so too, huh?”

Daemyung, who climbed the stairs with an awkward smile on his face, suddenly stopped.

“Did you bring a videotape again today?”

“I forgot that I had an appointment, so I brought one. I won’t have any time to watch it though.”

“Can I watch it with you if the time is right? If that lady is someone amazing like you said she is, I definitely do want to watch them.”

“I’ll go through them and show them to you once I feel like I saw something important. The videos taken in 1987 probably won’t be that helpful.”

“Alright, then.”

“Good luck with practice.”

Just as Daemyung was about to climb the stairs again, he stopped and took out his phone before sending a text with a difficult expression.

“What’s making you so serious?”

“I-it’s not that serious. It’s just that I’ve been asked to eat out together… but I’m a bit scared.”

“You’re scared of eating out together?”

Daemyung smiled wryly before turning around. From the way he acted, it didn’t seem to be that serious. It seemed that he just got a text from someone who he has a hard time dealing with.

Maru hung one of his bag straps on his shoulder and looked at his watch. It was 5:16 p.m. The students that chose to stay behind after school for self-study sessions all rushed out of the building to play soccer on the school field. Maru mixed in with the group and left the school.

“Hey, you should just go study at home.”

“Shut up. Han Maru, you should hang out with us as well.”

Maru waved his hand. These people had gathered together with the aim to enter Seoul National University through special college entrance requirements, but their objective seemed to have been kicked into the horizon with the ball they were kicking around as they seemed to have turned into a soccer group instead.

“Dreams are the best when they are still dreams. Have fun.”

He left the school after watching his friends running towards the ball for a while. After getting on the bus, he called her.

-Hello?

“You’re about to receive a human parcel.”

-Can I reject it?

“I’m sorry, customer. This product cannot be returned. You’re at school, right?”

-I’m packing up to go home. There’s no practice today after all.

“Should we hang out after I meet Bitna?”

-Unfortunately, I have a prior appointment, Mr. Han Maru.

“Prior appointment?”

-I promised I’d eat with mom. Oh, and Hanmi-ahjumma as well. It seems like she has taken a liking to Daemyung. She said we should invite him as well.

“So that’s what it was.”

-What are you on about?

“Daemyung received a text just now and froze up when he read it. I heard that writer Lee Hanmi is quite picky, so it’s not like I don’t understand.”

-She does talk a lot about work even when she eats. She probably told Daemyung a lot of things as well. Heck, even I got nagged at the last time we met. She told me that I’m bad at bringing out emotions.

She laughed awkwardly. Being able to eat with a big-shot writer was definitely a good opportunity, but for a sensitive guy like Daemyung, he should have his troubles.

“But Daemyung probably won’t make it today because of practice.”

-I know. That’s why she seemed a little disappointed. From what I think, Hanmi-ahjumma seems to consider Daemyung as a disciple she’s going to raise in a strict fashion.

“I feel like he’s gained a lot of recognition without me knowing.”

Maru spoke as he looked at the students who were getting off the bus.

“Where should I go after I get there?”

-She should be waiting for you at the school gates.

“You’re going to be there too, right? Let’s meet up.”

-I don’t want to.

“Why are you being so cruel? You don’t want to see me?”

-We’re going to meet tomorrow anyway. You’ll see me as much as you want when I go to your school tomorrow, so hold it for today. I need to go right now.

“Alright, alright. I guess I have no choice but to play with Bitna. I should tell her about how I got thrown away by my girlfriend.”

-I’ll kill you if you tell a kid something like that.

“Violence isn’t good. Anyway, wouldn’t it be strange if a small girl is standing in front of a high school by herself?”

-Bitna’s big sister will be there as well. She’s a junior of mine named Yuna. She’s a good kid. Plus, she’s really cute too.

“I guess I’ll just have to play around with two cute girls then. My girlfriend isn’t here for me after all.”

-Be prepared to get hit tomorrow.

“Please come over to hit me. And shoot the movie while you’re at it.”

He could hear a laugh over the phone. Maru focused on his hearing. Her happy laughter was always pleasant to hear.

-Anyway, take good care of my junior. She’ll be with you since she can’t leave Bitna alone. Oh, right. She also said that there are some things she wanted to ask you. She’s an aspiring actress too.

“How do you feel having a popular guy as your boyfriend? Don’t you feel uneasy at all?”

-Should I switch at this opportunity?

“I might start crying in despair if you dump me. In front of your house, that is.”

-That sounds horrific. I won’t dump you. I’m going to hang up now. I need to go.

“Watch out for cars, only cross the road when the light is green, and raise your hand.”

-Yes, yes, Mr. Han Maru. I’m a good girl, so I’ll do everything you just said.

“What do you do when a bad mister is asking to go with you while giving you candy?”

-I take the candy and kick his butt!

“Correct. See you tomorrow. Also, text me the number for this Yuna just in case. It will be a pain if we miss each other.”

-Hey, you’re trying to pick up a girl’s phone number like that?

“I’m quite good at things like that, you know?”

-Fine. Anyway, treat her well. She’s a really good kid.

After hanging up, Maru looked outside the window. He started seeing a familiar road. He would arrive at Myunghwa High after ten minutes or so.

He had a look at the number she texted before pressing the stop bell. He saw students wearing Myunghwa High uniforms lined up at the bus stop.

After getting off the bus, he walked along the road until he saw Myunghwa High across the two-lane road. The black vans parked near the school were something like a signature for Myunghwa High.

“Good luck with the shoot!”

“Good luck!”

A girl who came out of the school amidst the cheers of the students got in one of the vans. She seemed to be an idol of sorts. As this school was known for having many young people who worked in the entertainment industry attend, this was not a rare scene. Maru crossed the street and walked over to the school gates. When Maru, who wasn’t wearing any uniform, stood in front of the school gates, people wearing uniforms glanced at him before going past.

“Are they not here yet?”

He heard that they would be waiting for him in front of the school, so he took out his phone. Just as he inputted the number he was texted and was about to press the call button, he saw a girl holding the hand of a little girl. Maru smiled and put his phone back inside his pocket.

“Hello.”

Bitna politely greeted him while putting her hands, which were holding a drink can, by her belly button. Her politeness left nothing to be desired. She seemed to have grown a lot over the past year. Well, they did say kids grow up quickly.

“Hello.”

Another girl, a student, greeted him as well from next to Bitna. She seemed quite excited for some reason.

“You must be Yuna then.”

“Ah, yes. Have you heard from unni?”

“Yeah. You’re Bitna’s sister?”

“Yes.”

“You’re better than me, listening to your sister’s request like this.”

“O-oh, no, not at all.”

Maru then looked at Bitna who was staring at him.

“I wonder what Bitna wanted to see me for.”

“Uhm, you know…”

Bitna, who was usually clear-cut about everything, seemed hesitant. Did she feel awkward after not seeing him for a long time? He thought that it might be better to put some distance, when,

“Uhm, there’s something I need to apologize to you about.”

The one that spoke was not Bitna but Yuna. An apology all of a sudden? Maru asked what it was about.

“Actually, it wasn’t Bitna who wanted to see you.”

“Then?”

“It was me who wanted to see you, seonbae-nim… may I call you that?”

“Call me whatever you want. Han Maru, Maru, hey, you, et cetera.”

Yuna seemed taken aback. Maru scratched his eyebrows when he saw that her thought process seemed to be stuck. It seemed that he should refrain from making jokes.

“Just call me seonbae.”

“Ah, okay.”

“I don’t think I need to listen to the rest. You asked Bitna to meet me because you have business with me?”

“Yes! You found out pretty quickly.”

“Anyone would know that if you’re making an expression like that. I did find it a bit strange when Bitna suddenly said that she wants to meet me. I guess Bitna helped out her big sister, huh?” Maru said as he looked at Bitna’s eyes.

She was a calm child who did not complain even under the scorching sun, but she was still a child. He couldn’t let her mind about what her sister and this brother were thinking about. Bitna should probably be at ease just by notifying her that there was nothing wrong with this situation.

“Sorry, oppa. I lied.”

“This isn’t even considered lying. People like me know best since I lie all the time.”

“Do you lie a lot, oppa?”

“I do.”

“Then does that make you a bad person?”

“Does Bitna see me as a bad person?”

Bitna stared at him for a while before shaking her head.

“If Bitna says I’m not, then I shouldn’t be. Uhm, Yuna, was it? Shall we switch places? This place is a little crowded.”

“Shall we?”

Bitna naturally grabbed Yuna’s hand. They seemed to be sisters who got along well.

“Yuna, why are you looking around like that?”

“What? Oh, I was worried that someone might recognize you and come, seonbae. I heard that image management was important for actors…”

“You’re clearly overly worried. There’s no one who recognizes me.”

“Not at all. You’re famous, seonbae-nim.”

“I’m famous?”

“…You’re probably famous.”

Maru then grabbed a random person who was walking by.

“Uhm, excuse me, but do you happen to know who I am?”

“What? No, I don’t seem to know you.”

“Sorry about that. I seem to have been mistaken.”

That student scanned him from top to bottom before leaving. Maru looked at Yuna, who was blinking her eyes.

“See? No one knows me.”

“A… ah! It’s because you aren’t wearing glasses. You’ll definitely be recognized if you wear glasses.”

Yuna then suddenly started rummaging through her bag.

“What are you doing?”

“I have a pair of glasses I wear when I’m studying. If you wear that, people will recognize you.”

“Isn’t it supposed to be problematic if they do?”

Hearing that, Yuna’s actions suddenly froze. She stiffly raised her head, not knowing what to do.

“You have a peculiar character, huh.”

“Sorry.”

“Not at all. I meant to say that I quite like you. Bitna, your sister seems to be an interesting person, isn’t she?”

Bitna faintly smiled while nodding.

“Where shall we go? I don’t know the area that well. Preferably, we should go to a place where we can eat.”

Whenever he came here, it was his girlfriend who always guided him around. Most of the time, she took him to restaurants that were gaining popularity.

“There’s a place I visit a lot with my friends. Can we go there?”

“Sure.”

Yuna nodded. Maru took a step back and looked at the sisters who were holding hands.

‘Now that’s the kind of daughter I want.’

The word ‘daughter’ gave him a sense of nostalgia, but he didn’t know what that was about.

Maru smiled and followed the two.

Chapter 585

“Nice place.”

“A friend of mine told me about it.”

Maru looked around the café. There were shelves with books on them, ranging from liberal arts books to comic books. There was a faint smell of coffee in the air, as well as the smell of something sweet. It seemed to be milk tea. The music playing inside the café was very faint, and one would miss it if they didn’t focus on it. As for the interior design, there was no sense of uniformity other than the color. Square tables, round tables, and even triangular tables that they got from god-knows-where. There were many different kinds of spots where people could sit down and enjoy reading a book.

“Don’t girls around your age prefer louder places? Or a board game café where you can enjoy yourselves?”

“It’s not always like that. Maybe it’s because of the atmosphere here, but we end up talking about what we usually wouldn't. I like that sense of unfamiliarity here,” Yuna replied.

Bitna took out a book as soon as she came to the café. It was a thin essay. It was about travelling on a bike. Although half of the book was filled with photos, Maru thought that a child wouldn’t enjoy something like that due to the nature of the writing, but Bitna kept reading calmly. She had a higher concentration than most others of her age. Usually, children like her would get fed up with any kind of reading after ten minutes and would look for dolls or something.

‘Dolls?’

Maru tapped on his arm and focused on his thoughts. Why dolls of all things? He was reminded of a teddy bear as though he had experienced it for himself. Just as he was entrapped in a strange sense of déjà vu,

“Seonbae-nim?”

“Ah, what is it?”

“Nothing. You seemed to be engrossed in something. I interrupted you, didn’t I?”

“Nah. I was just distracted. Shall we eat something for now? They seem to sell some simple meals here.”

“Actually, the bagels here are one of the reasons I come here all the time. They’re really good.”

“What would you like to eat, Bitna?”

Bitna took her eyes off the book and said ‘anything that doesn’t have olives’.

“Do you not like olives?”

“They don’t smell good.”

“It’s not good to be picky with food.”

“Mom tells me that too, but isn’t it worse to force myself to eat something I don’t like? I become happy when I eat what I want, but it makes me feel bad if I eat something I don’t like,” Bitna replied clearly.

Her way of expressing her thoughts was really refined for a girl of her age.

“Looks like I wasn’t thinking far. Then I’ll order something without olives for you. What about you, Yuna?”

“I’ll go with you to order. I need to pay too,” Yuna said as she took out her wallet from her bag.

“I’ll treat you.”

“Oh, no. You came all the way here for me.”

“It’s just a few bus stops away. Let’s go for now. I’m a bit hungry since I haven’t had dinner yet.”

They walked over to the counter.

“I’d like an onion bagel and a cup of black coffee. Yuna, you can order yours.”

“I’d like a cream cheese bagel and a blueberry bagel. As for drinks, a grapefruit juice and a chocolate latte.”

Upon order, Yuna quickly took out a 10,000 won bill. Maru said that it was okay, but Yuna just shook her head and did not take back the bill.

“I’ll pay with this card.”

He gave the store owner his credit card and took the bill from Yuna.

“Does this satisfy you?”

“Yes.”

“Also, if an adult says they’ll treat you, just accept it. It’s one of the privileges you have when you’re young.”

“An adult?”

Yuna stared at him strangely before nodding in acceptance. I guess you’re an adult, too, seonbae-nim - she said to herself. Maru smiled awkwardly. After waiting for a while, they got the food they ordered and returned to their original table with the tray. Bitna was still focused on the book she had chosen.

“How’s the book?”

“It’s fun.”

Bitna closed the book and quietly placed it in the corner of the table.

“Isn’t the bagel too big for Bitna to finish by herself?”

Maru looked at his own bagel as well as his palm. The owner here seemed to be very generous, as the bagel was pretty massive. Since it was bigger than what would suffice for a meal, it would probably be hard for Bitna to eat it all.

“It’s fine. She has a good appetite. Bitna, you can eat all of that, right?”

Bitna did not speak and just started eating the bagel with her two hands. Maru was reminded of a hamster nibbling away at some pumpkin seeds.

“Should we talk while we eat? I feel hungry after seeing Bitna eat.”

“Yes.”

He split the bagel in half before taking a bite. A smile appeared on his face, since the taste wasn’t too stimulative.

“It’s good.”

“Right?”

Yuna replied almost at the same time as he spoke. Maru smiled and looked at Yuna.

“So you are an aspiring actress?”

He asked a question first. Since he was looking for a question that wouldn’t make her feel uncomfortable, he naturally had to talk about acting.

“Yes. Bitna is my senior in that regard. I wanted to act after seeing Bitna acting.”

“Bitna is pretty good too. You are in the acting club at Myunghwa High, right?”

“Yes.”

“Myunghwa High is known for being pretty strict. How is it?”

“It’s harder than going to an acting school, but it’s just as much fun. The seniors treat me well, and it’s fun to try and put on an act together with my friends. You are…”

“I’m also in the acting club. At the school that’s always 2nd place thanks to Myunghwa High, that is.”

“Oh, you mean Woosung High?”

“Yes.”

“The seniors told me a lot. That we should just watch out for Woosung High in Suwon. As for the nationals, it’s Hwasoo High and Jinwon High.”

“Tell your seniors to go easy on us. I want to touch the trophy at least once before I graduate.”

“…Uhm, I’m not exactly in a position where I can say something like that.”

Yuna became stiff. She really couldn’t take a joke.

“I was just joking. We got a bunch of new kids this year, so we won’t slip before the nationals like last year.”

“Are you going on stage as well?”

Yuna’s voice clearly went up a pitch.

Maru shook his head.

“I’m just a staff. The performance will be done by the 1st and 2nd year students.”

“Why aren’t you in it?”

“Because I don’t exactly have enough time. I don’t want to do things half-assedly when everyone else is trying their best.”

“Oh, I see.”

“How about you? Are you going on stage?”

“Yes. I was lucky.”

“I don’t think there’s luck involved when it comes to performance.”

Yuna stared at him in a daze for a while before smiling, however, she soon covered her mouth and calmed down her expression. While the conversation was stopped, Maru reached out to his bagel. As he was enjoying the faint smell of onion from the bread, he saw a pair of clear eyes staring at the bagel.

“It’s onion-flavored. Do you want to try it?”

Bitna immediately replied yes. When Maru had a look at her plate, the large bagel was nowhere to be seen. Did she finish it off while they were talking? He did just hear that she had a big appetite, but he didn’t know she would eat this much.

‘Well, she did finish a lunchbox made for adults by herself during shoots.’

He ripped a chunk off the bagel and gave it to Bitna. She started eating it as though everything that didn’t contain olives was okay. Maru thought that parents weren’t lying when they said that they were full just watching their children eat. As Maru didn’t feel hungry anymore, he gave Bitna the rest of the bagel as well. Bitna accepted it and immediately started eating it. The little glutton only seemed satisfied after that.

“You got some on your mouth.”

Yuna wiped Bitna’s mouth with some tissue. While siblings close in age fought each other all the time before getting close in their later years, there were many cases where the older sibling would become a secondary parent for the younger sibling with siblings who were far apart in age like these two. Maru thought about Bada before snorting. If Bada treated him nicely now, he would doubt her instead, wondering what she wanted from him this time.

“Bitna has it good, having a sister like her.”

“Yes, that’s right.”

The honesty of children made him emotional from time to time. Everyone had a time when they were honest with their feelings without calculating what others would think about. Only after enduring the hardships of life did they realize that being honest was a weakness, not an advantage. That would be the moment when a child grew up and became an adult.

“You’re different from how I imagined, seonbae-nim,” Yuna said in a daze.

After saying that, she got startled by herself and no longer spoke.

“If you say that, I can only ask what is so different.”

“Uhm…”

“If you don’t want to talk about it, you don’t have to.”

“It’s not like that.”

Yuna started fidgeting with her fingers on the table.

“I watched your acting in The Witness. To me, it came as a shock. You seemed to be around my age, so how can you act so well? I really thought a lot about it.”

“That only looked so good since Joohyun-noonim was there to back me up. It’s because the receiver was so good that such freaky acting looked good.”

“…I also watched your scene in Twilight Struggles.”

Maru then replied while sipping on his coffee.

“That shouldn’t be available to minors though.”

“I only watched a short clip on the internet.”

“You mean, my scene?”

“Yes. After I saw that, I became sure that your acting wasn’t due to a coincidence. Unlike that rough, violent acting you showed in The Witness which even contained a hint of craze, you looked very cynical and evil in the film. It might sound similar since the words I used are all used negatively, but you understand the slight difference when you’re acting, right?”

She seems passionate - Maru thought as he looked at Yuna, who spoke clearly. He could see her mindset towards acting from this conversation alone.

“Oh, sorry about that. I guess I sounded quite strange since I said that all of a sudden. It’s a bit rude too.”

“It’s not rude at all. It’s not like you did anything wrong.”

Maru put down his cup before continuing to speak,

“So you thought that I’d be cold and stiff since all my roles are like that, and were disappointed to see that I’m actually quite ordinary?”

“Of course not! Of course I’m not disappointed. I know well that people acting an evil role aren’t evil at heart, so I wouldn’t think like that.”

Yuna grabbed her cup with both of her hands.

“I was just curious about how you could show such a performance.”

“You’re doing pretty well in your acting club though, aren’t you? You managed to win a role too. I think you’re doing plenty well.”

“No. I have never had confidence in my acting skills. I was told reasons for that at the academy as well - that my expressions are boring. Of course, I have never thought that acting was hard. It’s always enjoyable and fun. I think that I’ll never get fed up with it.”

“Really? That’s amazing.”

“What?”

“Should we ask Bitna about it then?”

Maru turned around to see Bitna. She was reading the travel essay after finishing her food and raised her head when Maru looked at her.

“Bitna. Did you always find acting fun? Did you ever think that it was not fun?”

“I can’t lie, right?”

“If you want to, you can, but I hope you can be honest right now. Your sister is listening as well,” Maru said as he pointed at Yuna.

Bitna licked her lips before looking at Yuna and speaking.

“It’s not always that fun. There are times when I want to stop because it’s hard.”

“Do you hate acting?”

“No, I don’t hate it.”

“But it’s not always fun, right?”

“That’s right.”

Maru then looked at Yuna again.

“Have you really never ever hated acting even once? No, let me change that question. Have you never felt afraid of acting?”

Yuna’s expression stiffened after hearing that question. She rested her lips on her right hand, unable to speak.

“In my case, I had fun when I first got on the stage. I was excited. So this is what acting is about! I felt like I was going to get addicted. However, from some time onwards, I found out that I can’t control myself. Actually, no, I only found out because someone else told me about it. That’s when I realized. Oh! I was showing a performance without proper control over myself. When that realization popped up inside me, I thought of a question that should come before that. Is the acting I’m showing really satisfying the standards that I’ve set?”

“The standards that you’ve set…”

“I was originally someone who was generous to myself. Whether it’s studying or sports, I always found a suitable middle point. That’s the only way I can receive less stress. If I lower the standards even further, I wouldn’t receive any stress at all.”

Yuna’s gaze lowered even more. Maru tapped on the table. Yuna, who lowered her head with a low groan, raised her head again.

“I’m not telling you this to be mean to you. You might actually be right. I mean to say that you might be in love with acting at every single moment. I wish I was like that. That would be a blessing after all. Unfortunately, it’s generally not like that, so I can only think my way.”

“Am I wrong?”

She looked like she did something wrong. Maru grabbed the handle of the coffee mug and spoke,

“When you say that you like every facet of something unconditionally, is that really liking that something? What do you think?”

Chapter 586

“Unconditionally liking…”

Yuna thought back to yesterday. She went to her clubroom after school and passionately practiced. She did some stretches, then did some vocal exercises, and then did some acting. She physically felt tired, but while she was acting, she forgot about the sweat on her forehead and enjoyed it. Becoming someone other than herself was something exciting. It was like going on an adventure.

She rewinded the clock some more. She was in her 3rd year of middle school. She saw herself, who was acting at the acting school. The lessons were a bit hard to follow, but it did not change the fact that the very act of acting itself gave her excitement. To her, acting wasn’t the sweet fruit that she could get at the end of a harsh class, but the sports drink that enabled her to last the harsh class.

She went back even further to when she just entered middle school. Bitna, who was a child model back then, tried her hand at a drama for the first time, and successfully won a role. Yuna became interested in acting after seeing her very young sister acting on TV. Her mother happily enrolled her in an acting school, telling her that she should try it out. When she first went to the academy, she felt rather overwhelmed since everyone around her was already good at acting. The people that received the so-called ‘camera massage’ were different on a fundamental level. She felt like an ugly duckling amidst a group of elegant cranes. Did acting not suit her after all? - she had such negative thoughts when she received her first lesson. Indeed, she was overwhelmed and couldn’t do anything. She was the only one who lacked basic voicing and pronunciation skills and had to receive personal lessons from the instructor. Her first lesson was terrible. She even had the feeling that she couldn’t do anything there. When she had almost given up, the instructor told her to try some simple acting. As she hadn’t learned anything yet back then, the word ‘acting’ seemed like a big wall to her. Her peers next to her all displayed good acting one after the other. They became angry, smiled, and cried. Just when she felt deeply impressed by them, it became her turn. Her head turned blank since she didn’t know what to do. As she stood there frozen like a statue, the instructor told her that it was okay and told her to express anything she wanted. At that moment, a clothes hanger entered her eyes and Yuna imitated that clothes hanger without thinking. She stood upright, bent her arms into an L shape and pressed her fingers together. She saw her own figure reflected on the wall and she found herself really freaky. She thought that she was going to get laughed at, but no one laughed at her. In fact, what she received was a compliment. Yuna was curious. The performance she had just shown was too different from the acting that her peers had shown. It was nothing more than an infantile form of imitation, so she couldn’t understand why other people would say that she was good. The instructor smiled gently at her and replied to her:

That. That is what acting was about.

The moment she heard those words, Yuna’s body shook, without knowing why. Acting, which existed in another world and was something that she could only watch from afar, felt like it was right in front of her now. Ever since that day, Yuna became engrossed in acting. Expressing something other than herself - that kind of excitement was what she liked.

Until now, Yuna had never once felt afraid of acting nor felt that it was hard to do. She may have thought that a technical aspect of acting might be difficult, but she never felt burdened by acting itself. To her, acting was a refuge, a playground always filled with new and fun things. Being afraid of going to such a place? She couldn’t imagine such a thing.

“Learning to act is definitely a difficult thing. There were many times when it was hard, but I’ve never felt afraid or like I was afraid of acting even once.”

“If you think that, then there’s no problem. You don’t need to hesitate and can just keep doing things the way you’ve been doing until now. The path you’ve been treading on is very solid and must be heading in the right direction,” said Maru, who sat in front of her.

They were words of encouragement, but the same words were echoing inside Yuna’s head. Is unconditionally liking something really liking something? When she thought about it simply, there was no need to hesitate. She unconditionally liked it because there was nothing to hate about it, right?

Yuna shook her head. With years of practice and effort, her skills had definitely improved. She knew that she had improved dramatically when she thought back to how she was during her 1st year of middle school.

However, as the years passed by, her technical skills may have improved, but the instructor became even more strict. The instructor that used to compliment her for her improvement now started pointing out the dullness in her emotional expression. The way you express it is not bad, but the appeal is lacking - that was what the instructor said about her.

It was around that time that she saw Maru’s acting. That was the first time Yuna felt dazed by an act from someone around her age. The words that she lacked appeal became a mallet and smacked her head. The moment she saw Maru’s acting, she realized that what he was showing her was the ‘appeal’ that she lacked. She thought that she wanted to be like that as she continued with her acting. Acting was still enjoyable and she felt happy whenever she acted, but what increased was only her technical skill, while the emotional expression that couldn’t be formally verified did not improve at all.

If she was doing nothing wrong, then shouldn’t she be improving? As time passed, the instructor’s opinion of her became worse by the day, and recently, she even felt hopeless.

She wanted to know how this person named Han Maru could act like that. The explanation from the adults didn’t feel real to her, and always felt distant, making it hard for her to accept. She also felt like she would have an easier time understanding if someone around her age told her about his own experiences.

However, the result of the conversation made Yuna feel more confused than ever.

‘Afraid of acting?’

Yuna had a look at Maru’ s face. He was talking to Bitna with a smile on his face. When she looked at his face, she was reminded of his acting. The person that displayed such chill-inducing acts was afraid of acting? They say a genius cannot win against one that puts in the effort, and that one that puts in effort cannot win against one that enjoys. Isn’t enjoying something the same as liking it? Yuna couldn’t understand how it was possible to like something and be good at it when he was afraid of it.

“Is unconditionally liking something a bad thing after all?”

“I told you it’s not. It’s more likely that I’m wrong. If you think of something as infinitely good, that’s an incredible thing. If you truly never felt afraid of acting, then there are no problems at all. In fact, it would be me who would be envious of you.”

“But my performances don’t have the attraction that yours does.”

“That’s probably because the roles I played were impactful ones. I don’t have any presence in the drama, right? My acting is nothing special, so there’s no need to worry about it.”

“In the drama, you’re so natural that you feel flawless. When I perform an ordinary life act, I always get told that I’m bland. You really are different from me.”

“I’m happy that you see me so highly, but I wonder if that’s what’s troubling you instead. You acted until now without any worries at all, didn’t you?”

“I did have my worries. I just didn’t mind them that much since I enjoy myself a lot while I’m acting. Now, however, I have a dream to debut as a proper actress. There won’t be a problem if I’m just acting as a hobby, but I think I need to change if I want to become a pro.”

At that moment, Maru sighed and turned his eyes towards the counter. Maru spoke for the first time without looking her in the eyes.

“I do not know a lot about you. That’s why I can only tell you basic and fundamental things. I think I have a vague grasp of what you’re worried about, but I can’t answer you precisely because I only have a vague grasp.”

“I’m fine with anything. I just want to hear your story.”

“Will my advice have a chance to change you?”

“Yes. I want to act just like you.”

“Then that’s all the more reason I can’t tell you anything.”

“Why is that?”

“It’s because I don’t want you to resent me. If my words influence you, and you end up failing later on in life, you will remember this moment. You might swear at me. I don’t want to get sworn at in a place I don’t know.”

Yuna widened her eyes.

“I won’t do something like that.”

“You might.”

“I’m not someone who would do that.”

“I can’t be sure that you aren’t someone who would do that.”

“I just wanted to hear your opinions though…”

“Why don’t you look for someone that’s much better than me? Someone who can take responsibility for their words, that is. You said you go to an acting school right? Asking the teacher there is also one way.”

“The instructor’s advice doesn’t really feel that real.”

“How about your seniors at school then?”

“No.”

“Why not?”

Yuna bit her lower lip before speaking,

“You were the only one. You were the only one I was deeply impressed by. Of course, I am deeply impressed by some adults acting on TV, but you were the first high school student who impressed me that much. That’s why I tried to meet you even when I had to end up lying to a senior I really liked. I thought that you would tell me something different.”

“I have to apologize, but I’m no one special. I just happened to grab some lucky chances, and I managed to make use of them.”

Yuna felt her chest tightening. Maru’s words were right. Someone he had seen for the first time was asking him for an answer with a serious face, so it would be even stranger if he replied properly. However, she felt frustrated and sad when she thought about how she wouldn’t be able to get any hints from the meeting she looked forward to so much.

This is not right - Yuna forced herself to smile. She couldn’t inconvenience him here. After all, she had to thank him for meeting her in the first place.

“I’ll keep doing my best like this then. Since it’s what I like to do, I will definitely change if I keep doing it. I learned a lot from meeting you today, seonbae-nim. Thank you.”

She decided to let him go and hoped that Maru didn’t feel bad for coming today. She didn’t want to be hated by Maru. It would be horrible if the actor who made her excited looked at her with contempt.

Just as she was about to stand up,

“Oppa, don’t hate unni,” Bitna said.

Yuna looked at Bitna in surprise.

“I don’t hate your big sister.”

“Then why aren’t you answering her?”

“Because it’s not something I can solve.”

“Can’t you just tell her something? Unni really looked forward to meeting you today, like, thiiiis much.”

Bitna created a big circle with her arms. Yuna grabbed Bitna’s hands.

“Bitna, unni is fine. I’m completely fine.”

“You’re lying. You’re about to cry.”

“No, I’m not.”

“No, you look sad.”

Large teardrops appeared on Bitna’s face before she started crying. Yuna quickly embraced Bitna.

“Sorry, Bitna, your sister was in the wrong.”

When she patted Bitna’s back, Bitna stopped crying. She never thought that the docile girl would cry all of a sudden. Yuna felt her heart aching. It felt like everything was her fault. Just as she was wiping Bitna’s tears with her palms, she heard a voice.

“If I assume that you’re in a similar situation as me, I can tell you a few things.”

“Seonbae-nim?”

“I feel bad now since I feel like Bitna will hate me if I go just like this. I’m weak against children. Especially against good girls like Bitna.”

Maru brushed his hair upwards with his hands before speaking,

“If you’re okay with regretting after hearing my story, I can talk to you for another hour or so. However, there’s no customer service after that. Even if what I tell you sets you off-track, the only thing I can do is to hear you swear at me.”

“I don’t care. I want to listen to you.”

Yuna had a look at Btina. Bitna was smiling brightly as she looked at Maru. Maru also looked at Bitna as though he had lost.

“But seonbae-nim. What changed your mind so suddenly?”

“I told you. I don’t want to be hated by Bitna.”

“Is that really it?”

“That’s really it. I find it strange too. I usually never step into other people’s business when they aren’t related to me. For some reason though, I can’t win against Bitna’s eyes. Perhaps this is what a father with a daughter feels like.”

After saying those words, Maru frowned and didn’t speak for a while for some reason. He seemed to be in deep thought as he though he was going through his memories before he eventually sighed.

“Not that I would know what a father with a daughter would feel like.”

Chapter 587

“What I’m about to tell you uses me as the basis. None of it might apply to you. If you can’t sympathize with something I say, then just ignore it. That’ll be better for you.”

“Okay.”

“First up, let’s have a look at what the problem is. Before that though, is Bitna going to be okay? She looks tired.”

Yuna looked at Bitna, who was dozing off.

“Bitna, are you sleepy?”

“No.”

“I think you are.”

“I’m not.”

Bitna then stood up, saying that she wanted to go to the bathroom.

“I think she’s being considerate for her sister.”

“She thinks deeply. Sometimes, I can’t believe that she’s my sister. That’s why I like her.”

Yuna looked at Bitna until she entered the bathroom before turning around to see Maru again.

“This isn’t something worth talking a lot about, so let’s finish it quickly. Both you and Bitna need to go home.”

“Yes.”

“Tell me what you’re troubled with in detail. While you’re turning your troubles into words, you’ll realize that most of the things you are thinking about aren’t actually that problematic at all. If there’s still something that remains in your heart at the end, that’s something you must think about.”

Yuna thought about Maru’s words and tried summarizing the events she experienced starting from when she started acting to now. While they were talking, Bitna returned. Yuna’s heart tingled when she saw Bitna trying to stay awake and felt thankful.

Like what Maru said, unlike when her thoughts were running wild everywhere, when she put it into words, she could clearly differentiate between the important things and the not important things. To be precise, she found something she couldn’t say easily, and that seemed to be her biggest problem. However, she did not know what it was exactly. Only a strange sense of rejection towards talking about it remained in her heart. She felt like she might catch a clue to resolving her current situation if she managed to put it into words.

“Give me some time to think. If there are things you couldn’t tell me, then think about those really carefully. Why couldn’t you tell me about them and how are they troubling you?”

Maru started writing something. Seeing Maru write, Yuna looked inside her.

‘I lack too much skill to enter the ranks of pros. That’s what made me worried and hasty. My technical skills are definitely improving, but the instructor told me that I have a problem transmitting my emotions to the audience. I wanted to seek Maru-seonbae’s help because of that.’

After thinking about that, Yuna sighed. Was that it? She felt like there was an even more fundamental problem. She still felt like there was something inexpressible with words cluttered up inside her. She felt stuffy. Even though it stemmed from herself, she couldn’t tell exactly what it was. This was the first time she felt like this. It felt like something completely different existed inside of her. A sense of displeasure spread out inside her.

“I’ve summed up what I heard so far somewhat, so hear me out.”

Maru started talking. Yuna exclaimed from time to time and nodded. Just listening to her own problems from an objective point of view cleared her head up a little. She found Maru amazing for summarizing and narrowing down the problem in such a short time.

“In the end, you feel uneasy because your emotional expressions in acting aren't improving even though you’re enjoying acting, right?”

“Yes. I think that’s what it is.”

“Good, then let’s start here. Before that, though, did you try doing what I told you to do? Organizing things that you couldn’t tell me?”

“Uhm… it might sound strange, but I can’t express what I’m feeling right now. I know there’s something important, but I can’t put it into words.”

“You can’t explain something that you don’t have a full grasp on, however, you instinctively know that you have a problem, so keep thinking about it for now. Also, listen to me while you think. I don’t want to drag this out, so I’m going to be as extreme as possible. First, why acting?”

“Because I like it.”

“Aren’t there other things that you like?”

“I like acting the most.”

“More than anything else?”

“Yes.”

“Then second, why are you worried that you can’t become a pro?”

“That… I think, is a realistic problem. No matter how much I like something, I can’t help but think about the future. Just because someone likes playing around doesn’t mean that they can play around forever, right?”

“So it has to be a means of economics, you’re saying?”

“Yes.”

“Why don’t you earn money through something else and do acting as a hobby then? These days, there are a lot of civil theater troupes and there are acting clubs in district centers too.”

“I want to become an actress.”

“So you want to live off your acting?”

Yuna replied ‘yes’ in a small voice.

“Third, what is the baseline of ‘living off your acting’?”

“Baseline?”

“I mean how much profit you want.”

“I just have to be able to live off it. I think it’ll be fine even if I’m poor as long as I can continue acting.”

“Do you really think so?”

Yuna nodded without hesitation. At the same time, Maru put down his pen. He locked his fingers and stretched his arms upwards as though everything was finished.

“Then we have a solution.”

“What?”

“Regardless of the occupation, as long as you do it steadily, you’ll be able to live off it. This society isn’t that bad. You might not be able to eat things you want, nor have a house under your name, nor possess a car, and you might live in a semi-basement apartment without any hopes of getting married, but you will be able to live off your work. That was your baseline, wasn’t it? That you want to live off your acting; that you don’t care how poor you are as long as you can continue acting. If that’s your baseline, then there’s no need to worry. Congratulations, you can live off acting.”

Yuna became speechless for a moment. She opened her mouth, but she couldn’t say anything. Living off her acting. Yuna believed that she would feel happy as long as she could continue what she wanted to do even if she was poor. Nothing shook her faith in that until just now. The moment she heard a detailed explanation of what such a life would be like, she felt something twitching inside her.

“What about getting cast in a good work and…”

“I told you. I am going to be extreme here. If that’s what you want, this conversation was unnecessary in the first place. You have the potential to display good acting, you have the potential to solve this problem easily, and going further, you have the potential to become a huge star. Everything in the world is your potential. When you want to know about the essence of a matter, you should exclude abstract things. You should think about the extreme case scenario. If you wanted to hear a hopeful story, then I guess I shouldn’t have said any of this. I thought you looked a little desperate. I know that vague hope is essentially the same as poison to people who are desperate. That’s why I started off with the extreme, but if you aren’t ready for that, then I think we should stop talking about it here because no matter what I tell you, you will dream of the moment the sun shines in your little rat hole. There’s only one thing I can say to someone like that.”

I’m sure you’ll do well in the future - Maru said with a smile.

He then grabbed his bag and stood up. He tucked his chair in and slowly turned around. Yuna watched him turn around in a daze. Was this what she wanted? Did she need someone to console her to make her feel better?

‘What I wanted… ’

Yuna abruptly stood up and grabbed Maru’s sleeve. She felt like she would regret this moment forever if she sent him off right now.

“Mark Twain once said: ‘It isn’t what you don’t know that gets you into trouble. It’s what you know for sure that just isn’t so.’ Sometimes, you should doubt things that you’ve never doubted before. You’ll get unexpected answers from unexpected places.”

The moment she heard those words, Yuna felt like the lump of indescribable emotions inside her dissolved away. What she had blind faith in, what she never thought was wrong, what she thought that there was no way could be true.

She thought about herself acting. That self was smiling and enjoying herself. She felt like she was able to overcome any kinds of trials and pains as long as she hopped into the pond known as acting.

That was why to her, acting was a sanctuary. It was a perfect place that could not be tainted or become imperfect. She put a barrier around it so that sadness and pain couldn’t enter the realm of acting. Acting was always something enjoyable and happy - that was her faith when she did acting.

But what if acting was painful?

That couldn’t be. Acting had to remain an eternal oasis. The source of the pain lay in something else, not acting. The instructor’s words, her lack of skill in emotional expression, the pressure that she had to become a professional. Those were the problems while acting itself was something pure and clean without any malice. No, it was ‘supposed to be’.

“…I’m fed up with acting.”

The moment she said those words, Yuna could no longer control her emotions. Her head felt chaotic. She felt like the only way she could quell the chaos in her heart was by letting the boiling emotions inside her out. When she came to herself, she found herself crying. The tears she had such a hard time seeing when she tried to cry while acting, flowed out uncontrollably right now. She wanted to cry out loud as well. She didn’t want to cry ‘prettily’. She wanted to bawl her eyes out, with her snot dripping everywhere and drool flying everywhere while crying in a disgusting fashion. However, there were too many people around her for that. Even amidst the world-turning shock, her pride still raised its head up high.

Yuna needed somewhere to lean on, and Maru happened to be right in front of her. She took a step forward and reached out to Maru, who was making a difficult expression right now. She thought that it couldn’t be helped even if she wasn’t accepted, but she couldn’t stop there. Her body was just that uncontrollable right now.

“How young.”

A warm hand gently patted her back. Yuna buried her face into the chest right in front of her until she felt suffocated, and cried while clenching her teeth. She felt like she would be embarrassed to death after this, but she couldn’t help herself right now.

“Just cry without minding about others. You just have to come here wearing a mask next time, isn’t that right?”

“Even if I wear a mask… people will… recognize…”

“Forget it. Let’s not go there. Are you done crying?”

“No…”

Yuna grabbed Maru’s sleeves again and cried until she felt her throat go numb. She saw Bitna looking at her worriedly amidst her hazy vision. In her hand was a piece of tissue.

“Mom said that you’ll become sick if you can’t cry when you want.”

Yuna sniffed and nodded.

“Why don’t you be the big sister starting tomorrow, Bitna?” Maru asked.

Chapter 588

“Go back to the past?” She asked as she put some salmon salad in her bowl.

“Yes, what do you think you’ll feel if you go back to the past?”

“Well, I’m not sure.”

She couldn’t reply immediately. There were a few times in life when she wanted to go back to the day before. She had wished to go back one day after tests or when her acting performance was terrible or when she made a mistake. However, she had never thought about going back even further in the past so she couldn’t answer easily.

“Unni. Being young is the best. They don’t think about such things.”

“Hanmi, you’re plenty young too. So you should get mar…”

“Haesoo-unni! You always talk about marriage this, marriage that. I get it, you have a pretty daughter, okay?”

“I’m sure that there must be a lot of men who like you, so I wonder why you say something like that. Get married. You’ll start nagging an old woman like me less with your life stories.”

“We have only met a few times after several years, but you’re fed up with me already?”

“Hanmi, three times a week is more than enough. What you need is a man who will listen to your stories.”

“What are you talking about in front of a kid?”

“My daughter is doing fine. She knows what she needs to know. Since we’re at it, shall we ask how far she went with Maru?”

She immediately picked up her cup and started drinking. She drank as slowly as possible and looked alternately at her mother and writer Lee Hanmi, who both stared at her. She should have secretly put back the soju bottle when she saw it at the supermarket. She didn’t know that she’d be handling two drunk adults.

“Unni, stop teasing her. She’s going to get mad.”

“My daughter is not that petty. You don’t know because you are not mar…”

“Ah! Just drink! Stop talking about getting married and just drink. Here, here. Unni, pick up a glass. Would you like to drink as well?”

“I’m okay.”

She shook her head with a smile. The two women snapped their heads back with their drinks before putting down their beer glasses.

“Oh, right. We should keep talking about that.”

“About what?”

“I mean the past. What would you do if you return to the past, unni?”

“We’re still talking about that?”

“Give me some ideas.”

“Is this for your next work?”

“No, I just wanted to write down a few ideas. I went to the cinema a while ago, and there was a movie about a military soldier who went back to the Japanese invasion of Korea in 1592[1]. Watching it made me wonder what kinds of things would happen if I went back to the past. I’ve never written anything in the sci-fi genre, so it looks fun as well. No, wait, is time travel a fantasy? Anyway, since we’re both writers, I wanted to hear your stories. Don’t think about it deeply and just tell me whatever’s on your mind.”

“How are you going to take care of my intellectual property if it gets adapted to a video format? What are you going to give me for my source?”

“Fine, fine. If I sell this, I’ll buy you a fur coat.”

“I don’t want things like that, just give my daughter an entrance gift.”

“Unni, there’s still a lot of time left this year. College is still far away for her.”

“Time flies, you know? April is ending and then it’ll be May soon. After the flower season, it’ll get hot, and then chilly and once it snows, that’ll be the end of the year. So that’s why you should get married before it’s too la…”

“Why does it always end with my marriage? That’s a serious condition, you know?”

Hanmi clapped once.

“Well then, you start, unni. What are you going to do if you end up in the past? You can think about it starting now, you’re up next.”

A finger with a purple manicure pointed at her face. She nodded. Hanmi wasn’t someone who would accept an improper answer, so she decided to think about it. When her mother, who was staring at the clock on the wall, was about to speak, Hanmi half-stood up, saying that they needed more beer.

“I’d have him take a medical test,” her mother said.

She understood what her mother meant immediately. Her mother omitted a lot of words, but her expression said everything that she didn’t say out loud.

Hanmi, who was about to stand up, sat back down again.

“Is this about your husband?”

“You’re knowledgeable.”

“I had a hunch. It was heart disease, right?”

“He was healthy. He told me that he was just a little tired, but then he went just like that. If I can go back to the past, I’ll put everything aside and drag him to the hospital first.”

Her mother picked up a bottle of water instead of the beer glass. She gulped down water in large amounts and looked like she was suppressing something with cold water.

“Hanmi, what about you? What do you want to do?”

“I want to go traveling with my mother. And be a filial daughter. You know, things like that.”

“That’s not that much different from mine. This is no fun.”

“Perhaps that indicates that what everyone desperately wishes for is similar? Being able to stay longer with loved ones. It’s quite cliché, but that’s human nature after all. When my mother closed her eyes, I regretted so much. I never showed up in front of her because I wanted to write, and then when I heard that she had terminal stage cancer, I just lost it. It was so absurd. Why did it have to be my mom of all people? Just when I thought that I could repay her, she left this bad daughter here as though she was in a hurry.”

“Both you and I need to visit the hospital, huh. Going back to the past doesn’t sound that fun.”

“At least we get an opportunity that way; an opportunity to live our lives once again.”

After saying those words, Hanmi looked at her.

“Have you thought about it?”

“I want to see dad as well. I want to hold his hands and go to Daehak-ro together, and if possible, I want to show him my acting. Dad will love it if I can show him how much I can do. I want to show him that his daughter became so big.”

“Then you should go back with your current body, huh. But that causes a time paradox. If you go back to the past, only your mind should go back to your younger self. If there are two of you in one era, it will cause an endless amount of trouble,” Hanmi said with a smile.

She could tell that Hanmi had intentionally switched the topic. Talking about people that weren't here anymore and falling into sadness didn’t suit an occasion like this after all.

“So only my mind flies into the past and enters my younger body? That sounds good, becoming young again. I thought I was going back to the past with my body.”

Her mother joined the conversation as well. The atmosphere became brighter in an instant.

“Unni, would you meet another man if you’re younger?”

“No. I wouldn’t be able to meet my daughter if I did that.”

“Geez, you’re too silly.”

“You’ll understand once you give birth to a child like me.”

“I already had indirect experience through writing. How many moms do you think I’ve written about that are obsessed with their children? You wouldn’t know how many emotional babies I’ve given birth to.”

“Fine, you’re popular, okay? What would a third-rate romance author like me tell a big-shot writer?”

“Now you see the difference?”

“I think you need some slapping.”

Seeing the two giggling, she was reminded of something she wanted to think about.

“Ahjumma, what if you have to throw away your memories in order to go back to the past?”

“Throw away my memories?”

“Yes. If some god or alien tells you that you can’t bring your memories back to the past with you, are you still going to go?”

“Now that, I’m going to have to think about it. If I can go back to the past with my intact memories, I think I can go without hesitation, but if I can’t then there’s no merit, is there? If I have the same ego in the same era, I’ll probably end up living a similar life. Is there a reason to go back to the past then?”

Just then, her mother interrupted.

“There’s no charm in that story. Why is the main character a main character? It’s because he or she has something that other people look up to. Let’s just assume that the character goes back with all of their memories.”

“Unni, the trend in dramas these days isn’t like that. Where’s the fun in a character who knows everything? They need to go through a trial. Just like your romance novels, there needs to be a love rival to be more interesting.”

The conversation started burning brightly again. She felt like she had stepped on a landmine, but the two women were already deeply immersed in talking about the topic. She could only listen to them. Ah, one more thing. She had to be ready for Hanmi’s sudden questions.

“What if you slowly lose your memories? At first, you passionately fall in love with your loved one, but the memories become faint, and then time-transcending love turns into just an ordinary love for a youth in that era,” Hanmi said.

She listened with interest as she ate some salmon salad.

“But there’s no problem with that right? They love each other already.”

“That’s why we should change it up a little. You’re going to meet your husband even if you go back to the past, right?”

“Am I supposed to give you a serious answer?”

“Of course.”

“Like I said before, I am going to meet him again. And I’ll meet my daughter again too. As long as I have my memories and affections of this life, I don’t think I’ll be able to easily meet someone else.”

“That’s precisely it. That’s what a time-transcending love is. The person you unwillingly departed with in the future is still alive and well in the past. If you really liked that person, you would grab him thinking that this is a once in a lifetime opportunity.”

“Right.”

“Even if that person in the past does not like me, I’ll still like him, right? Because I’ve been in love with that man in the ‘future’.”

“My husband will probably confess to me on our first meeting, you know? He couldn’t live without me after all.”

“Fine, stop boasting, sheesh. Anyway, it’s all good until you go back and meet the person you love and live a happy life. That’s when the trial starts. You slowly start losing memories. The personality, impressions, and preferences you knew about that person slowly disappear.”

“I think I’ll still love him though? Memory is just information after all. I believe that a person possesses something that is superior to memories formed by the brain’s electrical and chemical signals.”

“Like a soul you mean?”

“Maybe it’s something like that, or maybe it’s called a heart.”

“Unni, you know what amnesia is, right?”

“I understand what you’re trying to say, but I still believe that there’s something that transcends information. Otherwise, it’s just too cruel, you know? I’m sure that love is something special that does not rely on memories.”

“Do you really think so? In our heads, there’s something called the frontal lobe, and damage to that part causes a lot of disabilities, one of the significant ones being the loss of emotions. That’s why that might cause someone to become antisocial, and such a person doesn’t have something called altruism. They would justify themselves with anything they do without realizing what they’ve done wrong even if they make a mistake. That’s just a result of a part of the brain not functioning properly. And here, we’re talking about losing memories as a whole, which make up the foundation of a human. In some sense, that’s the same as becoming dull to emotions. You know that even the most passionate love is bound to cool down, right? If your warm moments get erased, don’t you think you’ll fall in love with a new person just like everyone else?”

“So you want to say that memories are everything?”

“Reasonably speaking, one’s personality is the amalgamation of experience, right? And experience becomes systemized into a mechanism that reacts to external stimulation. Doesn’t that mean that everything is caused by memories?”

“Despite that, we can’t even be sure of the existence of god, right? As long as agnosticism exists, the theory that the mind comes before memories will always exist as well.”

“That’s too unscientific.”

“Is going back to the past scientific? Einstein would love to have a word with you.”

“But this is an agreement.”

“I’ve never agreed to it.”

“I can’t get anything through to you, can I?”

“Hah, that’s funny.”

She looked at the two women who glared at each other and sighed. She thought about the topic while she did so. Memories versus the soul. Which was on a deeper level?

‘I wished it was the soul.’

If the disappearance of memories meant the disappearance of emotions, that would be too sad.

“Forget it, just drink!”

“Right, let’s drink!”

It seemed that the two adults reached the conclusion that they should get drunk. She shook her head. These two adults were really hopeless.

‘Rather than that, I wonder if he went back home properly after meeting her.’

She looked at the clock on the wall. It was 7:40 p.m. She felt that it was still quite early. She wondered if she should text him or something, when,

“Unni, you should’ve been careful.”

Her mother spilled some water. She put her phone down and went to the kitchen.

Chapter 589

She wanted to die - Yuna raised her head before sighing. Maru was wiping his clothes with some tissue. The tears from heroines crying in movies looked pretty like flower petals, but hers were far from it and in fact, were rather ugly instead. The moment she saw that other forms of secretions(?) were on Maru’s clothes, Yuna wanted to run into the window of the book café.

‘But that’s still okay.’

There was an even bigger problem. Yuna barely managed to turn around and looked at some girls in the corner of the café. They were students that entered while she was crying, and unfortunately for her, they were her classmates. The classmate that sat next to her and told her about this place was also among them. They walked past while she was busy crying, so they should have seen everything. Her head turned blank when she realized that her friends had seen her crying in Maru-seonbae’s arms.

“Are you feeling okay now?”

“Ah, yes.”

Yuna looked at Maru before taking a slight glance at her friends sitting behind her. They were chuckling and whispering among themselves. She felt even more gloomy because she was close to them.

‘I don’t want to go to school anymore.’

She vowed to never cry again. When she cried, she felt like she was liberated from something incomprehensible, but the embarrassment that came afterwards made her feel heavy as though there was a lump of lead inside her.

“Sorry, seonbae. I really wasn’t planning to do that.”

“Sometimes in life, you just can’t hold yourself back. I understand what it’s like.”

“I’ll wash your clothes and give them ba…”

“This is the only thing I’m wearing though?”

“Like I said, I’ll get them washed an… no. Oh, it’s nothing!”

She was so flustered that she did not realize what she was even saying. He would be half-naked if he took off his t-shirt. Yuna violently shook her head.

“If you’re calm now, let’s go home. While I don’t really mind that much, you look like your face is going to burst at any moment. Bitna, wait for just a bit longer, you’re going to go home soon.”

Maru reached out and patted Bitna’s head and stroked her hair. She didn’t realize since she was so flustered, but Bitna was dozing off. The sleepiness she had been holding back since coming to the café seemed uncontrollable now.

As she stroked Bitna’s cheeks and told her to sleep, she heard a noise from her bag. She took out her phone, which was vibrating, and received a call from her mother.

“Mom.”

-Bitna’s next to you, right?

“Yes, she is.”

-I suddenly got some work, and I think I’ll need to bring Bitna to Seoul for a bit. Where are you right now? I’ll be there immediately.

“We are at the book café near the school.”

Her mother seemed to know about this place as well and hung up after saying okay.

“I didn’t intend to eavesdrop, but is your mother coming to pick up Bitna?”

“Yes. She should probably be here in less than 15 minutes.”

“That’s good. I’ll get going first.”

“You’re going?”

“If you want, I can stay and say hello, but are you okay with that?”

Maru smiled and scanned her from top to bottom. Yuna came to herself and told him to go first.

“You should wash your face a little. Also, your makeup is a bit smudged. Though, it doesn’t look terrible.”

“…Okay.”

Only then did she remember that she wore faint makeup around her eyes. She carefully looked at Maru’s shirt. There was a faint trace of black around the part that was wet with her tears.

“Sorry.”

“You should get yourself together if you have the time to apologize. Also, don’t make your mother worried.”

“Okay.”

“How do you feel now? A bit refreshed?”

“I’m not sure yet.”

“I’m sure that’s the case. If you keep leaving behind that vagueness in your heart though, you’ll definitely end up regretting it sooner or later. It’s a painful thing to dig deeper into your worries, but I feel like this is the right time for that. Think carefully about what made you say that you are fed up with acting, and once you come to a conclusion yourself, you should be able to improve your acting a lot. I believe that you will.”

Maru patted her shoulder. Yuna sighed silently. They were words of encouragement, but she couldn’t smile when she saw the stains on his t-shirt. She wanted to find a hole to hide in when she thought that she caused a massive inconvenience to a boy she had never met before.

“I’m leaving then. Thanks for telling me about this good place.”

Maru faintly smiled and left the café.

Yuna stood still and watched him as he left. The door swung past the entrance and the bell that was hung on the door rang. At that moment, Yuna subconsciously started walking. She pushed against the door that was still swaying. A loud bell noise pierced her ears. She grabbed the banisters on the stairs and looked down. She saw Maru walking downstairs while checking his watch.

“S-seonbae-nim!”

Maru wordlessly looked at her. Yuna shouted at him.

“Next time, contact me next time!”

As she was driven by emotions, she blurted out her thoughts without thinking.

“I mean! Can I contact you next time? As an apology, I’ll…”

“As long as you don’t cry, I’m okay with it.”

“Ah, okay.”

“Take good care of Bitna and I hope you can get your emotions together.”

Maru waved at her from the bottom of the staircase. Yuna waved back. Maru then disappeared from her sight along with the low sound of his footsteps. Her hands holding the banisters lost energy. At the same time, she lost power in her legs as well. She sat down on the spot and blankly stared at the wall. The events that happened during the past dozen seconds flashed past her mind.

“C-c-contact him ne-next time!?”

Yuna banged her head against the wall. She wanted to fly to somewhere unknown right now. Why did she do that? What she should’ve said was goodbye, but why did she say that she wanted to meet him again? It had to be that her embarrassment had caused her brain to malfunction. See Maru-seonbae a second time? That was just crazy.

She barely got a hold of herself and stood up. When she went back into the café, she could feel other people looking at her. Well, it wasn’t surprising since she cried the heck out.

Bitna had fallen asleep at the table. She wanted to wake Bitna up and leave, but she couldn’t after seeing that her sister was sleeping so soundly. Truth be told, it was Bitna who had it the hardest today. After all, she created this opportunity for her big sister and stayed with them until she tired herself out to sleep.

“Unni will buy you something nice later.”

This girl was totally an angel. As she was looking at Bitna,

“Ohmigosh, what was that? Yuna, what was that just now?”

“Boyfriend? That was your boyfriend right? Why did you cry? Did that fucker two-time you? Is that what it is?”

“If he two-timed you, you should kill him!”

She had forgotten. Her friends all came up to her and demanded an explanation with all sorts of expressions on their faces. The friend that sat next to her in class even grabbed her hands worriedly.

“It’s not like that. He’s not my boyfriend either.”

“Really? I’d be sad if you’re lying to us.”

“I’m not. I saw him for the first time today. He’s a seonbae I really appreciate.”

“You appreciate him even though it’s your first time seeing him? Then why did you cry?”

“That’s… a bit complicated.”

“What was it? What was it?”

Her friends changed their expressions. They asked her questions with bright smiles on their faces. Just then, Bitna moved a little. Yuna pressed her index finger against her lips and switched places.

“Tell us quickly. So first, who is he?”

“…A seonbae I got to know.”

“Oh, my. Look at you, girlie. A seonbae you got to know? That sounds suspicious.”

“I said it’s not like that.”

“Then why did you cry? We were really surprised, you know? I thought he did something wrong to you. I almost went up to him and was about to ask what he was doing to you. When I had a closer look though, he was consoling you. You two looked like lovers.”

“What lovers! I’m not in that kind of a relationship with him. He just listened to my story.”

“What story?”

“…About acting.”

“Does he belong to our school’s acting club? Why is he not wearing a uniform?”

“He goes to a different school.”

“Really? That sounds suspicious.”

“There’s nothing to be suspicious about.”

She didn’t realize that explaining would be this hard and felt her energy draining away from her. However, these girls were sure to start rumors if she didn’t explain properly now, and that might affect Maru in a bad way, so she had to set things straight now.

Yuna took a deep breath and explained to them what happened. They were good girls, so they wouldn’t start rumors as long as she told them honestly what happened and asked them not to.

“So while you were talking, you suddenly had the urge to cry and jumped into his arms?”

“…Yeah.”

“So you like him then.”

“It’s not like that. I feel really sorry for him right now, and I would be really embarrassed to see him again.”

Just thinking about Maru’s face made her face turn hot. It wasn’t because she liked him, but because she felt apologetic and embarrassed. After looking at Yuna’s face, her friends eventually nodded and said,

“Well, I guess even I would be creeped out if a girl I’ve never seen before suddenly cries the heck out in front of me.”

“Yuna has a pretty face so he shouldn’t be totally creeped out.”

“But hey, I feel like I’ve seen him somewhere before.”

“You too? I thought the same. I feel like I’ve seen him.”

“He looked pretty decent.”

“I don’t like his sharp eyes. He looks scary.”

They started evaluating him for some reason. Yuna waved her hand and stood up.

“Anyway, he’s a good person, and is not anyone strange, so don’t let your imaginations run wild.”

“Alright, girlie. And here I was thinking that you ran into trouble while dating in secret.”

“It really isn’t like that…”

“You know that you’re kinda suspicious for denying it so strongly, right? Maybe you’ve taken a liking to him? I mean, isn’t it plausible? Someone you’ve never seen before gave you consultation and even lent you his shoulder. I think he has good manners.”

Her friends grinned in an evil fashion.

“Do you really not feel anything towards him?”

“I don’t. It’s the first time I saw him today, so there’s no way such a thing would happen. I just… found him amazing.”

“You said he’s someone doing acting, right?”

Yuna slightly turned around and said yes. Even though she found it unfortunate that no one recognized Maru until they came to the café, she kinda wished no one would recognize him right now, for some reason.

‘He’s a celebrity after all.’

Just as she made an answer for herself and accepted it,

“Yuna.”

She turned her head around when she heard the voice from the entrance. Her mother was waving at her with a smile. She felt better now. Since her mother was here, her friends wouldn’t be able to nag her anymore.

Her friends ran up to her and greeted her. Her mother returned their greetings before looking for Bitna.

“She’s asleep right now. I’ll go get her.”

She carefully picked up Bitna, who was sleeping at the table and passed her to her mother.

“Are you going to be late?”

“Probably. Mom will give you some money so you should go eat out with your friends.”

“Okay.”

“But Yuna.”

“Yes?”

“Did you cry?”

She forgot to wash her face. As she was at a loss what to say, her friends came in.

“We asked her to show us some tear jerking action. Yuna’s really good at acting, so she ended up crying.”

The girl that sat next to her in class stepped up.

“You should redo your makeup around your eyes. It’s smudged. Yuna, your mother has to get going, so have fun with your friends.”

“Okay mom. Have a safe trip.”

“Okay.”

Yuna sighed and turned around.

“I saved you this time.”

“Yeah, thanks.”

Yuna smiled and looked at her friend, who managed to get her through this situation.

“But do you really not have any interest in him at all?”

She retracted her thanks.

Yuna pouted.

Chapter 590

“Have a good day.”

Maru smiled bitterly as he left. He visited a local electronics store after parting with Yuna just in case, but unfortunately, all he heard was that they weren’t selling VCRs. The once must-have item for marriage had disappeared into the annals of history ever since it abdicated its throne to the CD player. As electronics stores usually handled the latest devices, it would indeed be quite strange for them to have something that was past its popularity.

It seemed that the answer was to go to Yongsan after all. While Maru was thinking about the maze-like dungeon of Yongsan, he got a call.

-How was the meeting?

It was her.

“If you ask that all of a sudden, then I guess I can only say that it went pretty well.”

-You did treat her nicely right? Yuna, that girl, might seem spirited at a first glance, but she’s quite feeble at heart.

Feeble, huh. Definitely. Maru replied as he rubbed the makeup stain on his chest.

“I did treat her nicely, so don’t worry about that.”

-Somehow, that makes me even more worried.

“Why can’t you trust me? Rather than that, how’s dinner going?”

-Don’t even start. Those two are hugging each other and laughing. Alcohol clearly got the better of them.

“Looks like you must be having a hard time then. Don’t worry, I won’t make you worried over something like alcohol.”

-We’ll see about that.

“Oh? So you’re saying that you’re going to continue watching me in the future? Why don’t we set an engagement date right now?”

-Hell no.

Low laughter tickled his ears. He felt like it was yesterday when she became all embarrassed and snapped back at him due to it, so he felt really pleased when he heard the smooth reaction.

“You know, you should really listen to what Yuna has to say. I feel like she’s at a loss on what to do, and it’s a lot easier to have someone to talk to at times like that.”

-Did something happen?

“Ask her yourself. If she doesn’t answer, then don’t pry her. Actually, she should’ve looked for you instead of me. She made the wrong choice.”

-She said she had something to ask you as an actor. So you… are better than me.

The voice from the phone became smaller as though it was coming from afar. Maru stopped walking and spoke.

“You don’t sound energetic.”

-It’s not like that.

“It clearly is. What’s wrong?”

-There’s nothing like that.

“I just opened up a consultation business that is free of charge, and I’m worried because I’m not getting any customers. I wonder if there’s one nearby?”

-When did you open a consultation business?

“Just now. Don’t make me start imagining what’s happening and just tell me. If it’s really not anything much, tell me anyway.”

She didn’t answer for quite a while. Maru went into the nearby convenience store and bought a packet of soy milk. He sat under the parasol[1] and waited for her to speak. After a while, her voice could be heard again.

-These days, I sometimes think that maybe I don’t have any talent as an actress.

“Did someone tell you that you were bad? If it’s the producer of the sitcom you did last time, then…”

-It’s you.

He momentarily couldn’t understand what she was saying. He even wondered if ‘It’s you’ had any other meaning.

“Me? Did I ever say something like that to you?”

-You didn’t. You wouldn’t dare.

“Can I ask what you mean then?”

-I don’t want to say since I might sound like I’m complaining.

“One way of using a man is to complain to them. Moreover, it’s 8:40, the perfect time to listen to complaints.”

-Do you always prepare commentary like that?

“You didn’t know? I have multiple scripts when I’m talking to you. Just consider how far this man goes to entertain you… and just tell me about it; what I did to you. You know that I’m kinda stupid and won’t understand if you don’t say it properly, right? Consider it as talking to a bear and tell me in detail.”

-What are you going to do if I say that we should just forget about this?

“I’ll just let you be. I don’t plan on forcing you to tell me something you don’t want.”

-You know what?

“What?”

-If you say something like that, it makes it even harder for me to hide things from you.

“I know that. That’s why I said it.”

-How sneaky.

“Why don’t you call me a splendid businessman instead?”

-Fine. You’re the type of guy who would pick up a rock in the middle of nowhere and then sell it to a complete stranger saying that it’s a gem with special powers. At an expensive price too.

Maru smiled and perked up his ears. He could hear her coughing to calm down her voice.

-When I just watched you, I didn’t feel it that much. You’re rather good at acting - that’s the only impression I had of you after all. It was the same when we were a part of the amateur acting class in first year. No, honestly back then, I thought I was better than you.

“In acting?”

-Yeah.

Maru nodded as he looked at a couple that entered the convenience store.

“And?”

-It came to me when I shot the film with you. We only did it three times, but it is clear that there’s a big gap between us.

“So you feel hasty now?”

-A little? I told you, didn’t I? I want to go to Joonga[2] university.

“Yeah. Thanks to that, I also decided to go there.”

-I’m not sure if I can pass the practical exams. It’s not like I don’t have the confidence, but when I watch your acting, I honestly feel really uneasy. How far can I go with my current skills? Jiseok seems a lot better than me too. So… I just don’t know.

“You’re doing plenty well.”

-Thanks.

“I can tell that you’re down just from your voice. You know? There’s one thing I can say for sure. You aren’t lacking. You are definitely improving. How would I know that? Just like you have been watching me, I’ve been watching you. I understand that you’re hasty. When you look back, the path you’ve walked on until now seems really short, while the path that other people have taken looks really long. Everyone has experienced something like that. You entered puberty just like everyone else once did. Congratulations. All that’s left for you is to be true to your desires and push forward.”

-This is why I didn’t want to tell you about it. It puts me at ease. It’s like I was stupid for being worried in the first place.

“That’s why I’m here. So use me anytime you want.”

-No. I’m going to do things my way.

“Being stubborn as always, huh.”

-Today though, it doesn’t make me refreshed from the bottom of my heart. This is all because of you. Why did you make me jealous?

She spoke as though she had shaken her worries off somewhat. However, the moment he heard her words, he realized that her worries weren’t something so simple that they could be resolved with a simple talk. There was a thick shadow behind her words.

“Should we meet up?”

-Right now?

“Why? You can’t?”

-Sorry. I can’t exactly leave the house right now.

“Then I’ll go there instead.”

-What?

“Oh, and since we’re at it, do you have a VCR at your house?”

-VCR? You mean the thing you use to watch videotapes?

“Yeah.”

-We do. Though, it hasn’t been in use recently.

“That’s one more reason for me to go to your house then. I want to borrow it from you. Meeting you is only secondary, so don’t stop me.”

-You’re coming right now?

“Don’t worry. I’m really not going there to meet you. I’m just going there for the VCR. I can take it home with me for about a month, right? Oh wait, I think I should talk to your mother about this. I’ll buy some hangover drinks then.”

-You’re really coming?

“Yes, I’m really going.”

-Don’t.

“Usually, I would listen to you, no wait, I would listen to you for the rest of my life, but for today, I think I’m going to have my way. You don’t have to put on makeup just because I’m going. You look cute without it.”

-You must be crazy, geez.

“So you aren’t telling me not to come?”

-You’re going to come even if I tell you not to, aren’t you?

“Probably?”

-That’s why I didn’t say it.

“It’s too late already. Anyway, since I’m in front of your school right now, I should be there soon. It’s only a few stops away. Should I buy some strawberries? Your mother likes them, doesn’t she?”

-I don’t know!

“Okay, then. I’ll take that as a yes and go right now.”

-… Come slowly.

“I told you, you are pretty no matter what you do.”

-My hair is in a mess!

“It’s fine, it’s fine.”

She then hung up. Maru looked at her name, which was on his phone screen, for a while. Forced smile. When she really felt pained, she would smile. Something like this happened before as well. She acted like usual and smiled as she always did without saying that she was okay. Compared to back then, it was much easier to find out from the younger her if he probed her out just a little, but the adult her hid her pains so deeply that it was hard for him to tell how she was feeling without watching her for a long time. That was her way of being considerate. She tried to digest her pains herself without sharing them with others.

‘I got really angry back then too.’

When he found out that she was trying to endure the pain by herself as though it was her own matter, Maru felt like he was betrayed. Remembering that moment still ached his heart to this day. The tragedy he felt when ‘your problem’ could not become ‘our problem’ was beyond imagination.

He entered a supermarket nearby. He picked up a basket and made rounds. He bought some fruits that his mother-in-law liked, some hangover drinks, and also some dry snacks just in case. A lot of people had come just before closing hours, so the line at the counter was pretty long. While he was waiting for the line to become shorter, the stand next to the counter entered his eyes. The chocolate on it boasted their aura as though tempting him to buy them. Maru looked at his basket. He was only thinking about his mother-in-law and had almost forgotten presents for her.

He picked up a bar of chocolate with almonds in it. It was her favorite.

‘She ate a lot after we got married too.’

It was to the point that Maru had to hide the chocolates high up in the cupboard. It was so cute to see her bring a heavy chair to climb on to try to reach the cupboard that was close to the ceiling…

“…Climb a chair?”

The moment he realized something strange, he got a call from her. He looked at the almond chocolates as he put his phone against his ears. What was that just now?

“Yeah, what is it?”

-Are you really coming right now?

“How many times do you have to ask? I’m buying some fruits and dry snacks right now.”

-Wait, did mom call you already?

“What do you mean?”

-When I said that you were coming, she told me to tell you to buy some snacks. She also said that she’d pay you.

“She and I click together. Should I start calling her mother-in-law officially now?”

-Don’t say anything strange. Seriously, I mean it.

“Fine. Oh, I’m bringing something for you as well.”

-For me?

“Yeah. You’ll jump in joy if you see it.”

-What did you buy to make you feel so confident?

Of course, he was confident, Maru smiled and spoke,

“Almond chocolate.”

-Almond chocolate?

“It’s your favorite.”

-It is? Since when?

“Why are you doing this to me? I know everything.”

-What?

This conversation wasn’t going anywhere. Maybe she didn’t like them when she was young? It was possible that her tastes changed as she grew up since some people picked up an urge for desserts as they grew up.

“I tried to guess, but I guess I guessed wrong then. Try it anyway though, you might end up liking it later.”

She couldn’t live without chocolates. He definitely remembered that. She might sound oblivious right now, but it was very likely that she was going to be a fan sooner or later. No, she will become such. Her obsession with chocolate was just that strong.

-Uhm, I’m really thankful that you’re thinking about me.

She clearly sounded reluctant. No, it was more like she was apologetic.

“What is it?”

-Did you buy them already?

“No. I’m still in the line.”

-That’s good. Actually, I can’t eat almonds. Well, I can eat them, but they give me slight rashes afterwards. So I avoid them whenever I can.

“…You can’t eat almonds?”

-It’s not like I can’t eat them. I just feel itchy afterwards, so I tend to avoid them. I probably won’t seek them out of my own accord in my lifetime. I went to the hospital just in case, and I was told that it was only a mild allergy, so there’s no need for me to be super careful. Oh, I was told not to eat too much. Hello, Maru? You still there?

Maru blankly stared at his phone. Her voice cut off after echoing around the phone for a while.

“Uhm, excuse me. Are you going to pay for your items?”

Maru nodded when he heard the voice of the lady at the counter. He took out the items from his basket and gave her his credit card, all the while thinking about her words.

‘Allergic?’

No way. Didn’t she like almond chocolates above anyone else? That’s why he sometimes did evil pranks like hiding them on the top shelf or on top of the fridge. When he did, she would get flustered and cry…

“Cry?”

“Would you like your receipt?”

The moment he heard the voice again, a sharp pain pierced his head. He clutched his head as he accepted his credit card and the receipt from the lady.

“Uhm, excuse me. Are you okay?”

“What?”

“You don’t look good right now.”

“Oh, I was just feeling a bit dizzy. Thanks for being worried about me.”

He put the card inside his wallet and picked up the plastic bag. Just as he was about to turn around, the lady stopped him again.

“Sir, you should take this with you.”

It was almond chocolate. Maru thanked her as he accepted it.

“…Why did I buy this again?”

It wasn’t like anyone liked it. Maru stared at the packaging for a while before putting it in the plastic bag.

“Rather than that, allergic, huh. I guess there are things even I don’t know about.”

Finding out more about her was always fun. Maru smiled and started walking.

[1] Some convenience stores have places outside them where people can sit and eat what they’ve bought.

[2] Was formerly translated to Chung-ang university, which is a real university in Korea. This has been changed to Joonga university.

Chapter 591

“Sheesh, I really can’t stop you, can I?” She asked as she looked at Maru standing in front of the door.

This man, who was smiling as he lifted the plastic bag he was holding slightly, was way too whimsical. The problem was that she didn’t dislike that daring part of him. Thanks to him, she had to use a hair straightener to straighten out her messy hair and even get clothed properly. She sighed, thinking that she was doing so much at 9 p.m. in the evening, but she also found herself slightly despicable for smiling as she looked at herself in the mirror.

“I haven’t seen that t-shirt before.”

“I bought it a while ago. Come on in. It’s a bit like a war zone though.”

She took the plastic bag from Maru and turned around. Maru came in and whistled when he looked at the scenery in the living room.

“Looks like they got drunk pretty bad.”

“Not really.”

“Where are the two who caused this mess?”

She put the plastic bag on the table and slightly opened the door to the bedroom. She saw her mother and Hanmi lying on the bed. They were sleeping while still hugging each other. She closed the door quietly so that it didn’t make any noise before turning around to Maru again.

“They’re asleep.”

“Really? Then tell them I was here when they wake up.”

She nodded before taking out the things that Maru bought. Dry snacks, some fruits, and hangover drinks. She put away the drinks and the snacks and then put the fruits on a tray before taking them to the living room.

“Eat some before you go.”

“Give me the knife. I’ll peel it.”

“I’m going to do it. If you’re so bored, you can clean this place up a little.”

“Is this how you treat your guests?”

“I did tell you not to come, you know?”

“Fine, it’s my fault for barging in.”

While Maru cleaned the living room, she peeled the fruits and put them on a dish. As she was peeling an apple, she suddenly found this situation pretty funny. This guy came to her house late at night and was cleaning, while she herself was peeling some fruits for him. There were also two people sleeping in the bedroom. It all felt like some weird messed up orchestra.

“Want some?” Maru asked as he picked up a can of beer after finishing cleaning.

She shook her head when Hanmi offered her a drink, but she was quite tempted when Maru was the one offering her a drink instead.

“Isn’t this situation quite funny?”

“It’s good if it’s funny. It’s better than being sad. You’re going to drink, right?”

“Just one glass.”

“Where did you put the dried squid I brought?”

“Drink with some fruits. Or with this.”

She pushed the almond chocolates to him. She thought that he wouldn’t buy them since he said that he hadn’t paid for them yet when she called him, but they were in the bag regardless.

“These are nuts, too, I guess.”

Tss, along with a refreshing sound, the can of beer opened. Maru, who tilted the glass about halfway down to pour the beer, smiled in satisfaction when he saw the beer filling up the glass with a suitable amount of foam.

“It always makes me feel good when the ratio is just right.”

“You look experienced.”

“Don’t take me for an alcoholic. I’m not even close to being one.”

“Lies.”

She got the chilly glass. Perhaps due to the warm house, moisture formed droplets outside the beer glass. She drank the beer with the foam. The first taste was a bit bitter, and the aftertaste was bitter as well. She really didn’t understand why people drank alcohol.

“Serious talk is always the way to go when drinking.”

Maru held up his glass. She grinned and clanged the glass against his. Along with a clanging sound, the droplets on the outer surface of the glass fell off.

“Today, I’m a persistent man. Thus, I’m going to act quite stubborn.”

“I thought you were here for the VCR.”

“Promises are meant to be broken.”

“Wow, what a bad guy.”

She looked downwards. Maru was probably waiting for a continuation of the conversation they had on the phone. She felt complex right now. Half of her wanted to spit everything out, while the other half wanted to hold everything in. She found out from Maru that relying on someone wasn’t something wrong. People relied on others when they were in a difficult situation. She also realized the joy of relying on others thanks to Maru.

“I got an offer,” she said as she looked at the beer glass.

“An offer?”

“I mean an agency.”

“Really? That’s good.”

“But I don’t know, I mean, whether this is a good thing or not.”

She fiddled with a slice of apple with her fork.

“Looks like it’s related to the acting problem you said before,” Maru said.

She didn’t say anything. She needed some time to think. She turned on the TV with a remote. Currently, a drama was airing. She fixed her eyes on the female lead acting inside the box TV.

“Hanmi-ahjumma, I mean, the writer told me that she can establish a bridge between me and an agency. She knows an agency that’s looking for a new actor or an actress to nurture and said that I would have an easier time if I work with them. The agency has Han Mijeong, Yoo Jihoon, and Park Jungho, as their main lineup.”

“Sounds like a good place.”

Like what Maru said, the agency was more than suitable for her to choose as her first agency. The actors there also had solid careers. She felt good since she might get to be in the same agency as actors and actresses that she looked up to, but then an unavoidable problem found its way to her.

“Will my acting really be good enough? In the first place, is it even right for me to join an agency like this?”

“So acting aside, you’re more concerned about using your connections to join an agency, huh?”

She slowly nodded. She wanted to be evaluated based on her skill. That part of her was definitely there. However, it was also likely that she would not receive good gazes from the people around her if she joined an agency through Hanmi. What troubled her even more was that there might be some people who would lose their opportunity just because she took their spot through her connections. How terrible was that? If a trainee who had prepared for an audition for a long time saw her, who had managed to easily pass with her connections, the shame and apologetic feelings she would have would be unimaginable.

“Man, I have a really kind girlfriend.”

“This is not about being kind. It’s natural.”

“You’re thinking about other people who might fail to make it because of you, right?”

“Is it on my face?”

“It was easy enough to read.”

“I wish I could do that. I really have too many worries. What you said aside, I’m more worried if it’s really okay for me to join an agency with my lacking skills.”

She heard that her acting lacked personality. She did well, but there was nothing more than that. She felt this clearly when she shot the sitcom. Actors who received the love of the masses possessed a different aura from the ordinary folk. It was hard to explain in words, but when she looked at such people standing in front of the camera, it was pretty easy to see that they were people who were standing on a completely different level.

And that applied to Maru as well. When she went to Woosung High and shot the film with him, she found out what kind of face Maru made during shoots. He showed incredible concentration and analyzed the script to extreme depths. He would look at her with a smile if she tried talking to him, but when they finished talking, he would give off an aura like a wild beast about to hunt, making him unapproachable. She had a hunch that Maru would definitely become a respectable actor. At the same time, she felt afraid. Would she ever be able to stand next to him as someone doing the same job?

Acting was the link that connected her to her father. The only memories of her childhood, Daehak-ro, had now become a stage where she had to make her dreams come true. I will become an actress - this resolution she had never wavered even once. However, the drama scene that she had experienced for herself was nothing like the small stage at her acting club, and her acting did not work there. She felt like she was just one of many people who finished their lives in the entertainment industry after showing their face once on TV.

“It will be great if everyone can become happy, but that’s an impossibility.”

Maru emptied the beer in one go.

“Also, there’s nothing more stupid than being worried about something that didn’t happen yet. Though, I find that part of you lovely as well.”

“But it’s a bad thing to use connections to join an agency, isn’t it?”

“Most of the time, yes. People usually don’t see them in a good light since most of them don’t have any skill and just ruin everything.”

“I really feel like I should take a proper audition.”

“Well, I think that you should accept that offer instead.”

“Even if I take an easy way in, I will get left behind in the end. That will be even more tragic.”

“You don’t have any confidence in your skill?”

“For now, I don’t. I’m sure you’re different though.”

“Why would you think that?”

“Because you’re good.”

“You see me in a good way.”

“I’m not seeing you in a good way. It’s just the truth.”

“Your acting is not lacking either.”

“Don’t lie.”

“Why are my words lies when yours aren’t?”

“Because you are not me. You don’t know everything about me.”

“So you can’t trust my judgement?”

“N-no, it’s not like that.”

“Then what are you so afraid of? You really were someone with a lot of worries before, but it wasn’t to the point that you would worry about something that didn’t even happen, right”

“…Maybe it’s because the opportunity came to me all of a sudden. Moreover, it’s the opportunity that I’ve always wanted. I want to grab it, but I’m afraid because I might regret it later. I should improve my skill and challenge it by myself, as I will fail if I use someone else’s influence to succeed - that kind of thinking will definitely haunt me later.”

“You really are overly worried, huh.”

“That’s not a bad thing though.”

“It’s not. It definitely reduces the chances of failure. However, it doesn’t make sense to doubt the opportunity right in front of you and miss it. You must grab this. It might become the foundation for you to leap as an actress.”

“I don’t think my acting skills are on that level yet.”

“Then don’t believe in yourself.”

“How can I not believe in myself?”

Maru walked towards her on his knees. She stared at Maru’s face, which was right in front of her nose.

“Let me ask you one thing.”

“What?”

“Who do you think has a better eye for actors, you, or writer Lee Hanmi?”

She was momentarily at a loss on what to say. She realized what Maru wanted to say.

“I don’t know what kind of personality writer Lee Hanmi has, however, I believe that a person of her status won’t just recommend a random person to an agency. After all, her name value is at stake here. If you really think that she’s introducing you to an agency purely because you’re the daughter of a close friend of hers, then yes, it’d be better for you to give this opportunity up. But if it’s not like that, then grab onto it. Ignoring a shortcut and choosing a path filled with hardships is something only a monk does.”

“I don’t want to be disappointed. If I challenge something and fail, it would be me who would be in pain, but if I use connections…”

“Can I tell you something really ordinary? You just need to prove yourself. You should go in there and show everyone else that you have the skill.”

“I’m worried because I might not be able to.”

“You just have to make it happen like your life depends on it. There’s no one who pursues failure. If you have time to be worried about failure, then think about how you can do better instead. Your acting is definitely not lacking. No, you might even be cocky by thinking that you’re lacking. You showed up in a sitcom that airs during golden hours. You already have experience going on a TV program that countless people want to be on. If you are lacking, then you just have to improve yourself.”

His eyes were clear. Maybe this was too fundamental. If it was Maru, he would make it happen. The problem was with herself - can I really do it?

“I’m not a third-rate writer who uses anyone at random!”

She suddenly heard a loud shout behind her and saw that Maru had a big grin on his face. She turned around thinking ‘no way’. Hanmi was standing there, glaring at her.

“There you have it.”

She got played really well this time. Maru grinned and stood up.

“You must be writer Lee Hanmi, right? My name is Han Maru.”

“Ah, I see. Han Maru, I know you.”

“I really like the character Lee Chan that you created.”

“Of course you do. Who do you think made him? Rather than that, I’m really glad that this is the only drama I didn’t have any influence over the casting for the characters. If I did, I wouldn’t have picked you. I don’t like your eyes.”

“I do get that I look quite cold quite a lot.”

Hanmi burst out into laughter.

“Hey! I’ve taken a liking to you! Unni! Your son-in-law-to-be is here!”

Hanmi staggered her way back into the bedroom again.

She fell into a panic as she watched as all of this happened.

“Phew, is it time to meet mother-in-law now?”

Maru’s shameless face could be seen. She frowned and threw a cushion from the sofa at him.

Chapter 592

“How can friends be so different?”

“It’s because we’re different that we became friends. There’s nothing more boring than two similar people getting together, you know?”

“I am always surprised because that naïve-looking Daemyung throws sharp questions at me from time to time, and that seems to be your influence, huh.”

“I think you’re wrong about that. He might look dense at first glance, but his thought process is thorough. He’s a smart guy.”

She looked at Maru and Hanmi alternately, as they talked to each other. 10 p.m. It was around the time when the lights on the tall buildings started turning off one by one, but the fire of conversation that was lit up in this space was burning brightly. Maru was on his third can of beer, while Hanmi was sipping on her first can.

“Hm? You finished that? You’re drinking more right?”

“If you’re giving me more, I will have to.”

“You’ll be in big trouble if you keep accepting drinks like this, you know?”

“If this much was enough to put me into trouble, I would’ve encountered it already.”

“Are you trying to score points with me? You’re a smooth talker.”

“I’ve been trying to do that since the beginning.”

“I didn’t feel good since it felt like you were trying to use me, but well, I’ll let you be since it was for her. Though, you still are despicable.”

She quietly looked at Hanmi, who was patting her head. Hanmi smiled pleasantly when she met eyes with her.

“I told you before, right? I’m not thick-faced enough to introduce a half-assed actor to an agency. Well, yes, my work has been horrible recently since I’ve hit a block. I will admit that, however, I’m doing that under my own name. Even if it goes horribly wrong, it’s me who ruins it, so I can endure that. Lending my own name to someone else is a different story. I will be much more meticulous when it comes to that. Recommending you to an agency simply out of pity or friendship or just because you’re unni’s daughter? Don’t joke with me. I’m not that cheap. Well, I might write cheap writing, but the author definitely isn’t!”

She still seemed slightly drunk. She poured a cup of cold water and gave it to Hanmi. Hanmi smiled.

“You’re so gentle. Hey, can you be my daughter? I’ll treat you nicely.”

“My mom will probably say no.”

Hanmi nodded and drank the water. Then, she sighed before semi-lying on the floor. She got a cushion from the sofa and pushed it beneath Hanmi’s waist.

“How did a picky woman like unni give birth to a pretty daughter like you? It’s such a mystery.”

After giggling, Hanmi abruptly sat up.

“This isn’t the time for this. Hey, Han Maru. I was about to give a touching speech to this girl. How dare you take that away from me?”

“I’m sorry. It looks like I was out of my place.”

“Yes, you were out of your place. This old woman was about to tell this girl that I am recommending her because I trust her, and then give her a touching hug, but you took that away from me.”

“Should I give you a hug now?”

She interrupted since Maru looked like he was in a pinch. Hanmi spread her arms wide immediately. She gave Hanmi a light hug.

“Pat my back, will you?”

“Yes, yes.”

“This ahjumma will never get married, right? There’s no man in this world who would like a mischievous woman like me, right?”

“Of course not. Mom was joking with you. I’m sure you’ll get married to a splendid man.”

“If I grow old without getting married, you have to play with me, okay?”

“I’ll be your conversation partner.”

“Thanks. I feel much better after your consolation.”

Stepping back, Hanmi looked for some water. This time, Maru gave her a cup.

“But hey, you’re not normal, coming to this place at this hour.”

“There was something I needed to borrow, and I wanted to see her. So, I came here.”

“How daring. That’s right, a man should be like that. Though, I don’t know what ‘like that’ is since I never got married.”

It seemed that she really felt sullen. Although she acted like she wasn’t interested in marriage when talking to her mother, maybe she wanted to get married after all? She looked at Hanmi for a while before turning around to look at Maru. This boy talked about marriage whenever he had the chance. She knew that he was joking, but sometimes it did sound like he was serious. Was he really thinking about marrying her? Despite the fact that they were still too young to talk about marriage, she felt strange whenever she heard him talk about it. She still dreamed about such a scenario from time to time even though she treated it as a joke. The house the two would live in, the scenery outside, their neighbors, and a new member of the family. They would quarrel with each other from time to time, but then make up and confirm their love towards each other again. Even though she had never experienced a married life before, she could imagine one in detail as though she had experienced it before. There were times when she was surprised at how much detail she could imagine. She would also feel rather absurd since that made her seem like she was looking forward to their marriage.

“Since you’re here, let’s hear your opinions as well.”

Hanmi, who jerked her head backwards to flip her hair, took a big gulp of cold water before speaking.

“Opinion about what?” Maru asked back.

She could predict what Hanmi was about to say next.

“About going to the past.”

Yes, that. She nodded. The discussion between her mother and Hanmi never reached a conclusion and just ended in a drinking fest, so Hanmi brought this topic up again when there was a new person to talk to.

She looked at Maru. She felt a bit curious as well as to what kind of an answer Maru would give.

“You’re still young, so let’s imagine that you grew up a little. You’re going to the past in that state.”

“Do I have to go?”

“Why, you don’t want to?”

“If I am living a satisfying life, I want to keep that going. Going to the past is definitely a tempting thing, but tempting opportunities like that are bound to have consequences.”

“You know your stuff. We were quarreling about that as well. Well, then. How about this? You have to go back. You have all the memories of when you were an adult. What are you going to do first when a fifty-year-old you returns to your current age?”

“Earn money of course. Then I’ll buy stocks for major companies like SC, DK, and YM. Otherwise, I’ll buy a bunch of new entries that will become big later. I’ll sell them when they become big and buy a building.”

“These days, kids have a frightening sense of economics. It’s all about money.”

“I heard a saying that goes: You can’t buy happiness with money, but it’s much more comfortable to cry in a Benz than on a bicycle.”

Maru shrugged. Hanmi seemed to like that answer as she faintly smiled.

“I’m sure it won’t be that easy though.”

“Why?”

“Going back to the past means that some supernatural power has intervened, right? For example, a transcendental being. Usually in movies, it’s the god who pities the protagonist and sends them back to the past, right? They tell them to right their life again. However, god fundamentally pursues equality. They have already given the protagonist a special right to return to the past, but giving knowledge that might shake the economy as a whole, albeit by little, is being a bit greedy, I think.”

“Sending you to the past but not allowing you to do things that will make you easy money? That’s funny. It’s not like people working in the financial world aren’t doing labor. We’re long past the age where sweating is the only form of labor. In an era where white-collar jobs earn plenty of money, is taking interest in the stock market and real estate and studying about them not considered labor? Above all, stock trading is the ultimate capitalism, isn’t it? Wouldn’t the god be biased for preventing that?”

“I feel that god can be biased. No, maybe it doesn’t matter that much. After all, it’s about getting another chance at life. It’s about getting a beginning at a life that was supposed to end, so I don’t think anyone would be dissatisfied just because they can’t use some financial tricks. They have the knowledge, so they should use it to do something else. The important thing is that you’re still breathing after all.”

She agreed with Maru’s words. Money was important, yes. People could not live apart from economics after all. However, as Maru had just mentioned, living was more important. Having another chance at fulfilling what they couldn’t do would make them feel endlessly thankful for just that.

“I like your answer. Good. We reached that point as well. The problem is this. It involves the person you like, say, this girl, since you like her now anyway.”

Hanmi hung her arm around her. She ended up looking at Maru face-to-face, but she moved her gaze up to the ceiling, feeling embarrassed for some reason.

“Let’s say that things went well and you got married to her in the future.”

“That’s how it will be.”

Hanmi was at a loss for words momentarily.

“Hm, well, that’s for you two to sort out. Anyway, you were living a happy married life, but then returned to the past. Are you going to like her again?”

“That’s what I’m doing right now,” Maru replied with a smile.

“Fine, Mr. Han Maru-from-the-future. That’s all fine and good. However, the god we talked about just now is a petty person and gives you a trial.”

“Like, slowly losing your memories, for example?”

“You’re quick. How did you know that?”

“I’m actually from the future, so I know most of this stuff already.”

“I’m sure you get called out for being crazy. Though, I like such people. Fine, like you said, you slowly lose your memories. In the future, you might have been deeply in love and couldn’t live without this girl. Furthermore, now that you returned to the present, you still have your memories and still love her. But as time passes, your memories of her, your memories with her, slowly fade away. Now here’s the problem. Will your love still continue to be? Or will she turn into just one of your acquaintances like everyone else?”

“Losing my memories will definitely change things. But that won’t include my feelings of love towards her.”

“How can you be so sure about that?”

“Because memories are like this.”

Maru showed her his hands interlocked with each other.

“I think that an event doesn’t exist independently. I think that events are intertwined with each other in countless ways. Losing memories does not equate to losing all the imagery, momentary feelings, and impressions disappearing as well. Maybe, yes, some memorable events might disappear. Things like going out on a picnic, having a quarrel, or crying together. The events themselves might disappear, but other memories linked to those events will still remain behind. Even if it’s a really small memory that’s trivial at best, as long as they remain inside me, I will continue to like her.”

Her face felt hot. Maru said words that made her feel embarrassed without batting an eyelid. If Hanmi wasn’t holding her, she might have punched him on the chest already.

‘But still, it doesn’t feel bad.’

Even if memories disappear, I will keep loving you as long as there’s still a speck of memories within me - those intentions entered her heart.

At that moment, Hanmi spoke again.

“But a god is an omnipotent being. That was the assumption after all. Without omnipotence, a god wouldn’t be a god either.”

“That’s true.”

“If god is omnipotent, it should be possible to snap all the connections between those memories and take only them out, right? You’ll perfectly return to your past self. Right now, at this moment, you might like this girl as a girl, however, it is not as someone you promised your life to. It is now as a change-up to boring school life, and as a fresh experience. It might change into that. Why? Because if your memories of the future cleanly disappear, the fact that you loved her at all will disappear with them.”

“That won’t happen.”

“Do you also believe that there’s a storage media that goes beyond memories like the soul?”

“Even without such a thing, my feelings will not change.”

“You’re being illogical at this point, huh. That’s no fun.”

“Well, talking about impossibilities is no fun in the first place. Isn’t going back to the past outdated in the first place?”

“Why? It sounds fun as long as you can get the balance right.”

“Maybe.”

“Come to a conclusion anyway. I’m on the side that your very being will change if all your memories of the future disappear. The woman sleeping over there says that there’s something more powerful than the brain, with which information can be exchanged.”

“If I have to take a side, I also believe that memories don’t control everything. I believe that there’s something more than just the physical body.”

“I thought you were a realistic kid, but you’re an occultist when it comes to that, huh.”

“I’m well-rounded.”

After speaking, Maru looked at her as though he was telling her to feel at ease. I won’t forget about you - he seemed to be saying. At that moment, she felt uneasy. That was because Maru, who always looked to be at leisure, seemed like he was being chased by something.

“Even if memories disappear, people don’t change. I believe so.”

Maru said that as though he was making a resolution.

Chapter 593

-One, two, three - Hello, everyone! We are Redday. I’m Hana, the leader, and this is Jiyoung, the main vocalist. Then this…

“Hey! Move your head out of the way. I can’t see my Hana!”

“Hey, honestly speaking, Jiyoung is much better than Hana.”

“Shut up. Seul-i is the best. Man just look at her volume.”

“Quit yapping and just watch.”

It was lunch time. The boys gathered in front of the TV in the classroom and sang along to the idol music. They shouted the names of some members when there was a break with a perfect sense of rhythm.

“This place is chaotic too, huh.”

Maru closed the book he was reading and turned around. Daemyung was standing there with some drinks in his hand.

“Are you guys watching that as well?”

“Yeah. Apparently, they’re quite popular these days.”

Maru had a glance at the screen. Unlike the girl idols he had seen until now, the girls on the screen had very powerful moves. Breakdancing, back tumbling - they were better than most boy bands out there.

“They do look different from the rest.”

The boys in front of the screen suddenly crouched down. The girls’ skirts were waving around on top of their thighs. Their inner trousers could be glimpsed at.

“Just a little more!”

“Camera, go down a little more!”

Perhaps this was proof that people gained not collective intelligence but collective stupidity. Maru shouted at the boys that wouldn’t be able to see what they wanted before turning back around to Daemyung.

“Man, they’re devoted.”

“That’s just how they are. I guess they must have startled you from time to time, huh?”

Maru could not understand what Daemyung was saying. At that moment, the others shouted the names of the idols in unison. Maru smiled faintly when he heard the names hitting his ears.

“So that was what was bothering me this whole time while I was reading.”

“Oh, take this. I met Aram on the first floor and she bought it for me.”

“What’s gotten into her?”

“Apparently, it’s natural for the club president to look after the aged members.”

“I guess aging has its merits then?”

“Thanks to her, it has gotten a lot easier for me. The others follow Aram well too. In fact, I think we’re doing even better than when I was the president.”

“Aram is the type to gain full control after all. Even the ones that were secretly defiant should have changed their attitudes now.”

“True.”

After taking a sip, Maru spoke,

“I met writer Lee Hanmi yesterday.”

“Really?”

He briefly explained what happened yesterday. Daemyung trembled when he heard that Hanmi asked him all sorts of questions while drunk.

“Once she starts, there’s just no end. Teacher Ahn Pilhyun also bombards me with questions when he drinks strong alcohol, but he doesn’t really expect an answer from me, right? But Miss Lee Hanmi wants an answer from me until the very end. If I give her a vague answer, she will nag at me for that too. If I think of a decent one, she will say it’s boring. I mean, I’m sure she’s a good person, but I get stomach pains whenever she asks me something.”

“So that’s why you didn’t go yesterday.”

“I-it’s not like I didn’t go. I had no choice because of practice.”

“Same thing. She was looking for you yesterday too. She said something about how she was disappointed since she has fun teasing you.”

“You didn’t tell her anything, right?”

“Who do you think I am? I told her that you like her very much. She’ll give you a call soon enough, so try your best to look good in front of her.”

“Looks like I might have to turn my phone off for a while…”

“It’s a good opportunity, isn’t it? Have her teach you.”

“The mental damage is too much. I want to train my mind for it before I go to her.”

Daemyung sighed. It seemed that he had a hard time handling Hanmi.

Maru also talked about how she might join an agency.

“That’s good. She’s coming today for the film shoot, right?”

“No, not today.”

“There’s no shoot?”

“There is, but she won’t be coming. She’s meeting the president of the agency today. Writer Lee Hanmi is incredibly quick when she sets her mind on it.”

“Reckless, you mean. But an agency huh. I hope it goes well.”

“Yeah. When I heard about it, it sounded like a really solid place. Since it’s her first workplace, I hope they can lead a new actress like her well.”

Maru turned around to look at the TV again. The new idol group was introducing themselves. Their stiff smiles and shaky voices were followed by their performance.

“I wonder how many idols can make a living off their work.”

“I heard that it’s only a handful of groups out of hundreds of thousands. I saw it on TV before.”

“We aren’t that different either. Joining an agency is merely the first step, and I guess only a handful will become able to start running by themselves, just like idols.”

“I’m sure it will go well for the both of you.”

“Thanks. Call us when we don’t get any jobs in the future. What good are friends for? That’s when friends come to save the day.”

“Hey, I don’t know if I will ever get to direct a film either. You two both appeared on TV, so it’s me who should be asking you instead. If I ever do become a director, I will have to ask you two to join me without any guarantees.”

“Park Daemyung, you’ve become quite shameless, eh?”

“Who do you think I’ve been learning from?”

Daemyung looked at the clock before saying that he would leave. Maru waved at him before turning around to look at the TV again. The artists who just finished their performance took a bow before leaving the stage. Despite the fact that the stage was open to the public, no one applauded. When the idol group left the stage amidst silence and the camera switched to the show host, the TV turned off.

“HR is coming.”

The one with the remote control shouted. Maru looked at the screen which had turned black, for quite a while, before picking up his book. Would I be able to leave amidst applause? - he suddenly had that thought.

* * *

She drank a sip from the teacup in front of her. She saw people walking around busily through the whole-glass wall that had a hint of blue. Some of them were people she recognized. Though, they wouldn’t know her.

‘It’s the actor Lee Seokcheon.’

She met eyes with Lee Seokcheon who was walking on the other side of the glass wall. He faintly smiled at her and waved. She quickly took a bow. She felt quite weird, having a famous actor like him greet her first. She had seen numerous professional actors in shoots until just a while ago, but this felt different. She felt rather excited when she thought that she might be working in the same agency as such people.

“Did you wait a long time?”

The door opened before a woman came in. She was wearing a dark brown office suit and a fedora. She blankly stared at the woman for a brief moment after seeing that the woman looked very stylish.

“Why? Is it strange?”

“No, it really suits you.”

“That’s a compliment that doesn’t feel too rushed. I like that.”

The woman took off her fedora and sat down on the president’s seat. Her eyes landed on the glossy black nameplate. Yoo Ahyoung[1]. She was the president of the entertainment agency ‘Hwan’.

“Not many people get a recommendation from writer Lee Hanmi.”

Ahyoung faintly smiled. She made an uncomfortable smile back. There were thorns in the president’s words.

“I really like writer Lee Hanmi, because she’s an interesting person. She has skills too. If she ever wants me to recommend to her a person for a character she wants to use in her work, I am willing to give her the best actors I have. However, this matter is completely unrelated to my friendship with her. This is about choosing someone who would be working with me after all. So, even if you end up not being able to work with us, I hope you don’t resent writer Lee. A recommendation is, after all, just a recommendation, right?”

She nodded. In fact, it would make her much more comfortable if she was given a strict examination. If she was told to join without a second thought just because of the recommendation, she might have thought a second time about this contract instead.

“Good then, shall I have a look? I’m not sure if you know this, but our company really gives a lot of support for new actors. Do you know Ahn Yeseul?”

“Sorry. I don’t.”

“That’s disappointing. Oh, I don’t mean that I’m disappointed with you. I’m disappointed in myself. It’s me who failed to raise the name value of my own actress. Do you know about ‘New Semester’ then? She’s the heroine there.”

“Oh! Ahn Yeseul from New Semester? I know her.”

“You do? That’s good. I almost got dejected. I was about to boast about my company, but it’s no good if the start isn’t good.”

“Is she in this company as well?”

“Yeah. She’s the same age as you, 3rd year of high school. Also, ‘supporting’ you naturally doesn’t mean I’ll use underhanded means to get you into something. I don’t have such tendencies. By support, I mean things like auditions. In this industry, even opportunities for auditions are given differently to different people. Think of yourself as a producer of a movie. Would you notify a third-rate agency that there’s an audition?”

“I think I will,” she replied honestly.

“Hm, why?”

“Because just because the agency is third-rate doesn’t mean that the people there are third-rate too.”

Ahyoung clapped.

“You’re right. That’s true. A dragon might be born from a small stream. But you know? Dragons usually arise from the cleanest waters. Yes, a dragon might live in muddy waters. There are people like that from time to time. There are people who stay in a place that’s not on their level, but stay there because of a contract gone wrong, or because they don’t know what they’re capable of. But that’s also a form of skill. Do you know why the top businesses in this country take importance in the college their applicants are from? Because the ones from those colleges are capable? Maybe, but the main reason is different. It’s efficiency and connections.”

Ahyoung stood up.

“This field is not that different. A good agency doesn’t necessarily have good actors. There might be some half-assed people who have a high name value but no skill. But on average, there are better people in better agencies. It’s natural. The fact that an agency is popular means that they manage their business well with decent actors. That’s why when the producers create a good scenario, they either directly give a copy to an A-grade actor or distribute them to agencies that are classified as A-grade. Of course, the majority goes to the former. There are producers who do all sorts of things to sneak a script into the hands of top actors. After those scripts make rounds but do not fill up the cast, they will get distributed to companies like us. That’s when the first round of auditions happens. Hey, you’ve seen a lot of what’s called ‘open auditions’ right?”

“Yes. I saw a lot of leaflets looking for actors.”

“Have you ever seen one that was looking for lead or supporting actors?”

She shook her head. She had never seen one before.

“Very rarely, film producers who are reckless might pick supporting actors through such auditions. However, even for such films, the lead characters are decided with an internal audition. An open audition is the same as an audition picking dregs. Anyways, if the producers hand out their scripts to every single agency, they’ll get calls from everywhere, right? Going through every one of them will take a lot of time, and precisely because of that inefficiency, A-grade films are usually given to A-grade agencies. B-grade to B-grade, C-grade to C-grade. Now then, what grade do you think we are?”

“…A-grade?”

“A plus-grade I would say. We’re pretty well-known. Well then, through that efficiency, we got a script and managed to successfully shoot that film. What does that create?”

“New connections.”

“Right, connections. Backers, influence, or whatever you want to call it. You’ve heard of the term ‘director brigade’, right? In this field, there are teams where actors or directors have a team they frequently work with. This means that there are outsourcing teams for lighting, arts, costumes, music, and sound effects who always work with some director. And companies like us stand in between them. Movies aren’t shot by just one person, right?”

“Yes.”

“The places left after the lead and supporting characters - where do these teams find people to fill up those roles? It naturally is likely that the agency the director feels comfortable working with will get those roles. The lead and supporting roles might differ according to the director’s preferences, but below that level, most of them are at a similar level, so most of the time, they just make do with just one agency. Lee Hoseok, Choi Joonggeun, Park Joongjin, Yang Woonjoong. Park Changyung. Baek Joonyeol. Don’t you find it quite tempting to get an opportunity to work with such people even as a minor actor?”

They were famous directors with famous works under their names. She felt her lips go dry but still nodded.

“You have a basic understanding of why actors seek good agencies, and why agencies seek good actors, right?”

“I do.”

“Well, then. What I’m about to do now is similar. First up, I will show you the reason you have to join us. After that, you have to be the one to show me what level you are on as an actress. Stand up for now. Let’s take a tour around the company. I’ll be the one guiding you because writer Lee brought you to me.”

Think of it as an honor - Ahyoung added with a smile.

[1] Pronounced “Ah-young”

Chapter 594

“At heart, we aren’t a company that focuses on actors. If we only had actors, we wouldn’t need a building this big in the first place.”

She followed Ahyoung down to the lobby on the first floor. Although she had walked past this place when she was heading to the president’s office on the 4th floor, she didn’t take a closer look because of her nervousness.

“The lobby is the face of a company. It’s a place where artists play around, so you know, it’d be somewhat iffy if it looks boring, right?”

The people walking past the lobby greeted Ahyoung. Among them, one even approached her and gave her a hi-five. She was slightly impressed by the fact that the atmosphere wasn’t overbearing here. Some people that she encountered while visiting shooting locations were filled with authoritative pride, but none of that could be seen here. The employees didn’t have any difficulties greeting the president. She was given a fresh shock.

“Our building has separate facilities from the 1st floor to the 5th floor. The first floor is, as you can see, a space for guests. The restaurant is also on this floor. We have great food, you know? Let’s go eat together later.”

“Yes.”

“The 2nd floor is filled with practice rooms. There are large ones and small ones. The 3rd floor has musical equipment, and it’s where most of the mixing and recording happens at our company. Though, the ones with their personal studios use their own. People who can’t afford them come here to do it. The 4th floor is the general office. It’s quiet and cozy. It might sound strange coming from me, but our company has really good welfare you know? If you feel like it’ll be hard to succeed as an actress, then come back as an office worker. I’ll accept you at that time. Oh, the 5th floor is the terrace. It’s a place to rest. Honestly speaking, most of the building is set aside for musicians. The actors usually come to the 4th floor whenever they have business here, or hold small parties on the roof. Most of the actors and actresses usually stay at home. After all, you know how hard their work is, despite how fancy they look. That’s why most of them rest at home or carry themselves out of the country. Wait, is that expression usually with bad connotations?”

She looked at Ahyoung in a daze. Her pronunciation was perfect throughout the whole time. All of her lines were catchy and her gestures were eye-catching.

“Why are you looking at me like that?”

“Your pronunciation is really good.”

“Are you flattering me?”

“No. I’m just telling you my honest opinion. I even want to learn from you.”

“Really? That makes me feel good. I also aspired to be an actress once. You know what this is, right?”

Ahyoung took out a pen from her chest pocket and put it in her mouth. She jokingly said a few lines.

“Yes, I do that all the time.”

“I did that to death too. Thanks to that, I got something out of it. An attractive voice is necessary for a businesswoman, you know?”

Ahyoung put the pen back into her pocket.

“But unfortunately, I don’t seem to have any talent in acting, so I quit after a few years of being nameless. I hope you don’t become like me. I mean, if you’re going to do it, being a star is better than being dirt poor, isn’t it? A shining star.”

Ahyoung raised her hands above her head and spun around her wrist with a smile. She subconsciously imitated her. It was as though she was infected by Ahyoung’s cheerfulness.

After that, she took a tour throughout the building with Ahyoung. Just as she had said, the majority of the facilities here were tailored towards musicians and singers. Sometimes, people that looked like singers greeted Ahyoung. There were some that she felt like she had seen somewhere before.

After the tour, she was brought to the 5th floor terrace as the last course. There was a field of grass on top of the building. It was quite refreshing to see greenery in the forest of buildings.

“I told you about how our agency is A plus-grade, right?”

“Yes.”

“Unfortunately, that is only when we consider actors. If we include actors and singers alike, I guess we’re B-grade? We don’t have any power in the singer department. And here I thought I invested quite a lot too. Well then, sit down here for a moment.”

She sat down on a colorful beach chair. She put her feet together on the ground and sat down in a proper manner, but when Ahyoung told her to lie down, she just gave up and lay down on her back. She saw the clear skies. The wind she couldn’t feel until just now started blowing.

“When you rest, you gotta rest lying down. Feels good, doesn’t it?”

“Yes, it does.”

“This space is always open, so many of our workers come up here. Freedom is the motto of the company after all. If we try to roll a stiff rock, we’ll only get stiff ideas, right? We can’t have that when we’re supposed to be working with entertainment.”

She thought about the things she saw after coming here. The neat-looking interior, the self-proclaimed but still good-sounding welfare, a recording space that was filled with equipment she had never seen before, as well as the overwhelmingly large practice room. However, what she liked the most was the smile from the employee who gave Ahyoung a hi-five. She might have just seen the good side of things, but she really liked the vibes that this company gave off. It flashed in her mind that she wanted to work here.

“It might be impossible, but my dream is to create a company where I can quit working with a smile.”

“You sound incredible, president. Also, I feel like you’ve achieved your dream to a certain extent.”

“I’m still far from it. If I want people to quit the job with smiles on their faces, the severance pay should be more. If I want to do that, I have to dig deeper into the pockets of the investors. And to do that, we must become an A-grade agency in both aspects. We have really good actors. I wish that I could do something about the singers, but I can’t do anything about that. In that aspect, Yellow Star acted really quickly. You know what Yellow Star is, right?”

“Yes, I do. One of the three major agencies.”

“If we went against them with actors alone, we won’t lose that easily. However, once you count the singers, I’d have a hard time showing them my business card. Honestly speaking, I didn’t know that idols would become so big. I thought that traditional singers would never step down from the music market. But what do you know? Who would’ve thought that those brats could have so much power? NL Company, Jewel - They all have two to three idol teams that represent their companies, but we don’t have that. We can’t bring in existing groups either since their ties with their current companies are too sturdy. I wish someone like that fell right in front of my eyes. On that note, do you want to try being an idol?”

“I want to become an actress.”

“It might be better for you to raise your popularity as an idol and switch to acting later. I heard that you appeared in a sitcom before, right? Your face is known already, so it should be easier for you to enter the market. You’ll be an actress as your main image and have being an idol as your sub-image. It will be a fresh change of things.”

Ahyoung stood up and started dancing lightly. It looked like some kind of idol dance, and her movements were very snappy as though she had been practicing for a long time.

“Pretty good, aren’t I?”

“You are. Did you practice?”

“I do it in secret when everyone else is practicing. Rather than that, what do you think? I was planning on releasing a girl idol group, and honestly speaking, you don’t look that bad. You might be able to stand in the center if you change your character to be more daring.”

Ahyoung came closer to her. She ruffled her hair and nodded.

“Looks like a short haircut should suit you too.”

“Uhm, president.”

“What?”

“I have no intentions of becoming an idol. I want to start as an actress and end as one.”

“Is it because you don’t want the idol tag on you for life?”

“No, it’s not like that. I know how hard idols have their lives, and how hard they practice. There’s one around me.”

“An idol? Who?”

“A member of Blue. Though, they disbanded.”

“Blue, huh. They were pretty good. It was good to see them because they all had unique characters. You know someone from that team?”

“She went to the same school as me. Though, she has graduated now.”

“You’re from Myunghwa High, right? Let’s see Myunghwa High, that means… Oh! Lee Chaerim, am I right?”

“You’re quite knowledgeable.”

“I have basic info on all the people that became big at least once. I should try to buy their goodwill whenever I meet them after all. I’m the president for a reason.”

Ahyoung sat down at the edge of the beach chair.

“Since we’re at it, let’s talk about her. She started off as an idol, but she’s growing as an actress too. Before, idols received a lot of hate for shooting movies with their popularity alone instead of with their skill, but how is it now? We’re in an era where idols aren’t sinning by acting. Of course, people around them might not look at them in a good light. Some foreign fish are trying to play in their own waters after all, so the lofty ones don’t like that. Do you know why they don’t like it? It’s because those idol actors do better than them. They’re snatching away the food from all the traditional bigshots. Now, they can’t really blame the popularity of idols, since their acting skills are improving really fast. Once, the realm of actors was really solid and impenetrable. Actors who do not have experience in theater troupes and did not work in Daehak-ro were practically unable to gain the title of ‘actor’, especially in Chungmuro[1]. But it’s not like that anymore. It’s showing signs of reversal. People are saying that the quickest route to becoming an actor is to become an idol first.”

She listened to Ahyoung until the end. She really had an urge to interrupt mid-way, but she couldn’t do so when she thought about writer Lee Hanmi who introduced her to this place.

“Wow, speak of the devil,” Ahyoung said as she looked at the entrance to the 5th floor.

She also turned her head around. A woman wearing slim-fit white pants, a semi-transparent sky-blue blouse, and a necklace with black beads on it came in, carrying a clutch bag.

“Unni, wait a bit. I’m in an interview right now.”

“Well, I’ll just sit here for the time being then. Continue with whatever you were doing. I’m here to get some sun.”

The woman put on the glasses she put in her pocket and smoothly took a beach chair for herself before lying down. Ahyoung laughed when she saw that woman.

“Unni, can you come to places like this when you have your own company to deal with?”

“It’s between you and me. Go on, continue with your interview. Hear out my frustrations after that.”

“Are the kids bothering you again?”

“Don’t even start. Those TTO brats, guh, they were cute when they followed me like puppies. Anyways, she has a good face. Do you want to come to my company if you get rejected here? My company’s much better than this place, you know?”

The woman lying down faintly smiled. She stared at the woman for a while before turning around to look at Ahyoung. She needed an explanation of who this woman was.

“She’s the president of NL Company, which has been gaining rapid popularity as of late. Her hobby is to come to a competing company and cause havoc on their rooftop. Geez, and you are so calm when you go over to JA.”

NL Company. She widened her eyes and looked at the woman lying down in front of her. She had a hunch when she heard the words ‘those TTO brats’, but she didn’t think that she was the president of their agency. Park Narim - even she, who had little knowledge about management agencies, knew her name. She was just that famous. She was the lady who was at the top of one of the three major agencies in the country and appeared frequently as a model in women’s magazines. She also saw her name in the chart of ‘50 most influential people in Korea’.

“Ignore the rude lady. Let’s finish what we were talking about before.”

“You’re talking about being an idol, right?”

“Yes. It’s not a bad idea for you. It’ll be quite hard for you if you want to sign a contract with me as an actress. I told you right? We’re an A plus grade when it comes to actors. However, if you wish to join the company as an idol I’m willing to write a contract right now.”

“But you have never heard me singing before.”

“The main vocalist is the only one that needs to sing well. Plus, once a singing instructor teaches you, you’ll be able to sing the basic harmony without trouble. As for the album, machines will do most of the work, so don’t worry about it. What era do you think this is? There’s no one who relies solely on their vocal cords to do the recording. Even if you read it like a book, we’ll get decent results as long as you get the pitch about right and we touch up the rest.”

“I want to join as an actress.”

“Hm.”

Ahyoung crossed her arms and sat down.

“Honestly speaking, I think it will be hard for you.”

“How can you be so sure without watching me act?”

“Acting, huh. Yeah, that’s important. But the media these days isn’t all about acting.”

“Then what is it about?”

“It’s about image, and image consumption. If you want to get treated well based on your acting skill alone, you have to reach the level of those that you think are ‘famous actors’. That’s what it means to live off your acting. However, living off your image is a different story. Even if your acting is terrible, you’ll still sell if you look cute and pretty. If you gain a fandom, then you’ll be able to go on TV even if you lack acting skills. When you do that, you’ll gain skill. In that sense, you look a little lackluster. I’m not saying that you aren’t pretty. It’s just that you’re ‘just’ pretty which isn’t anything special.”

“I… want to become an actress. I want to continue acting.”

“Why do you want to walk down the hard path? I’ll let you act all you want. Just allocate some of that time to learn singing. You can act all you want in the remaining time. Support? I’ll give you everything you want. I can tell from your figure. I’m sure you’re strictly controlling your diet and I’m sure you’re doing gymnastics or dancing. I can tell from your thighs and calves alone. You aren’t simply skinny. With a figure like that, you’ll be able to learn to dance in no time. Isn’t that good?”

She looked at Ahyoung’s eyes. Ahyoung seemed to be serious here. Her hands tensed. She wanted to shout and stand up. At that moment, Maru’s face appeared in her mind. She calmed down her breathing and started talking.

“Do I not have an opportunity as an actress then?”

“Hm, probably?”

“Then I shall take my leave.”

“Really? You’re going just like that? Don’t you feel pity about the recommendation? Do you know how many people knock on our doors to just talk to me?”

“I can guess. This place is a really good company. You’re a splendid person as well, president. I really wanted to act in a place like this, but it won’t do for me if it’s not acting. I’m not saying that becoming an idol is a bad thing. It’s just, I don’t want to awkwardly do both of them. Actually, I’m quite lacking, and you might be correct about me. I know that I’m lacking. I’m really thankful for your offer. But I want to continue acting. If I can’t do that, there’s no reason for me to stay here.”

“Writer Lee will be disappointed.”

“I will tell the writer about this myself. I’ll tell her that I was stupid and rejected a really good proposal.”

She bit her lower lip. She wanted to leave this place this instant, but when she thought about the nonchalant smile Maru would have on his face, she thought that it wasn’t the right course of action. It was unknown when she would be able to meet such people again. She had to leave behind a good image of her. You’ve gotten better - she felt like she could hear Maru’s words.

“You’re quite young. In this world, you need to take shortcuts when you can. Only fools choose the hard path.”

“Then I’ll choose to be a fool.”

“Why are you so hung up on acting like that? I told you I’ll let you do it to your heart’s content later.”

“…It’s because I feel like I will run away again later if I run away now. Also, there’s a person I want to stand next to on stage. If I want to chase that person, I have to try my best starting now. I have no time to be singing.”

“What a pity.”

“Sorry.”

“Don’t be.”

Ahyoung reached her hand out. She closed her eyes and opened them again before grabbing her hand. She didn’t know how she should apologize to writer Lee Hanmi. Perhaps this was her last opportunity? Should she just take up that offer instead? - she had such thoughts even as she shook Ahyoung’s hands. It was a charming offer after all.

“Are you really not going to regret it?”

“I will come back later once I feel confident in my skills as an actress. I will try my best to reach your standards.”

“So you like this company?”

“Yes! I especially like this chair.”

She forcefully joked around. She felt a lot better now. When she tried to let go of Ahyoung’s hand after a light handshake, Ahyoung did not let go.

“President?”

“Hm? What is it?”

“Can you let go of my h…”

“No.”

“What?”

“I have to start explaining to you about the contract, so I can’t let go. I have a bad feeling that the bad woman over there is going to take you away from me,” Ahyoung said as she looked at Park Narim next to her.

She stared at Ahyoung in a daze.

“Now, then. Let’s get down to the real stuff, shall we?”

Ahyoung’s smile became a bit thicker.

[1] A place that was considered to be the ‘mecca’ of acting in Korea in the late 20th century to early 21st century. It’s no longer the case. Replacing it with ‘Hollywood’ might make it easier to understand.

Chapter 595

“About work?”

Ahyoung replied with only a nod to her question.

“Unni, have you had lunch yet?”

“No. I was planning to eat here.”

“Then shall we all go down?”

Ahyoung led the way. She thought about what was happening right now as she walked. They came down to the first floor and entered the corridor to their right. There was a glass door at the end of the corridor, and in front of the door was a hand-written menu. The Korean menu item was Ugeoji gukbap(Cabbage rice soup), and the Western menu item was pork cutlets. Ahyoung entered the cafeteria and took out her ID from her pocket.

“What are you going to eat?”

“Korean for me.”

“How about you?”

“I’ll take Korean as well.”

“So I’m the only one getting pork cutlets huh. Don’t you like fried food better?”

Ahyoung bought the food tickets from the ticketing machine. She thought that Ahyoung would just show her face and ask for food since she was the president, but she just bought the tickets like everyone else did and lined up. The employees who were lining up in front of her talked to her from time to time. They didn’t look like they were uncomfortable with talking to her. They seemed to be having fun talking about trivial things.

“I can never get used to this place.”

She looked at Narim, who had whispered in her ears. This person was also the CEO of a company. Did NL Company have a strict hierarchy? She followed Ahyoung to an empty table with her food tray.

“I went to a lot of places to find the best food service company. I can proudly say that this food service company is top class when it comes to food.”

“Yeah, I have to admit,” Narim said.

She first smelled the savory smell from the gukbap before putting a bit of her rice in it.

“You put your rice in the soup?”

“Eh? Ah, yes.”

“You know your stuff. Hey, why don’t you come to our company instead? If you work with this girl, who keeps probing other people out like she did to you before, you’ll have a hard time, you know? I’m quite direct so there’s nothing like that. Yes is yes, and no is no. I tell people clearly.”

Narim said that with a smile. She couldn’t tell whether Narim was joking or not.

“She’s going to join me so don’t even think about it. Also, writer Lee recommended her to me.”

“Writer Lee? Writer Lee who?”

“Writer Lee Hanmi.”

Narim abruptly turned around when she heard the name Lee Hanmi. She flinched and leaned away from Narim. Narim’s eyes were a bit scary when she looked straight at her.

“I am Park Narim, the president of NL Company. I should have introduced myself properly before. Oh, would you like my business card?”

She took out a business card from her clutch bag. She looked at Ahyoung and Narim alternately while fidgeting nervously. She felt sorry towards Ahyoung if she receive it, but she felt like it wouldn’t be polite of her to not accept it. As she was hesitating, Ahyoung told her to take it.

“Take it and ask her to treat you to a meal later. Don’t go over to that company though. Big companies are big for a reason. Our company is much better than a stuck-up place like that.”

“Excuse me? What part of my company is stuck-up?”

“The fact that you’re the president says everything that needs to be said. Well then. Let’s get some food. I’m hungry.”

“There’s no company that’s better than mine, you know?”

“Oh, there’s one here.”

“I won’t accept it.”

“Should I ask my employees which one they like better?”

“After you reveal the base pay for both companies, sure.”

“That’s cheating. A company listed in the KOSDAQ shouldn’t do that.”

“Having a higher base pay isn’t a bad thing, though.”

“Fine, you pay a lot, okay? I admit that. But your terrace is on the 5th floor. How about that?”

“I guess I’ve lost when it comes to that. Should I expand the resting area in the company? Or should I just modify the rooftop to a grassland like you did?”

“It’s expensive, you know?”

“Oh, you want to talk about money in front of me?”

“Forget it. Goddamned money. Is money all you care about?”

“Who was the one who said things about being an A-grade agency or whatever?”

She lowered her head slightly and picked up her spoon. Bullets made of words were flying right above her head. She couldn’t follow what these two CEOs were talking about. If they were ordinary people, she might have thought that they were joking, but they looked very serious because of their titles.

“The food here is really good though. I really wanted this company to sign a contract with our company too.”

“The president doesn’t plan to expand though. I got the golden egg-laying goose. As long as we have this good food, the welfare at our company will be top class. Don’t you think so too?” Ahyoung asked around her.

The employees, who were eating, all said ‘yes’ in a cheerful manner while raising their spoons in the air. The president was cheerful, and the employees were cheerful as well. She looked at herself, who had also raised her spoon. Being next to Ahyoung, she subconsciously imitated how she acted. What was funny was that Narim was also shouting the same thing.

After that, they didn’t talk for a while. Everyone focused on eating. She also tied up her hair and focused on eating. Just like how Ahyoung praised it, the food here was really nice. After finishing their food, she drank some coffee that Ahyoung brought. It was from a small vending machine that worked by inserting coins, but the coin entrance was blocked off. She tried to go get coffee with her, but she had to wait awkwardly since Ahyoung told her to sit.

“You’re still a guest for now, so I have to treat you like one. You should take one too, unni.”

She accepted the paper cup. Ahyoung crossed her legs as she drank the coffee and looked like she was about to get to the serious stuff. She felt slightly nervous and straightened her posture.

“I’m going to ask some personal questions, but you don’t have to answer them if you think they’re too sensitive. People are sensitive to different things, right?”

“Yes.”

“Good, then let me get to know you better. When did you first start acting?”

“I first started acting in my first year of middle school.”

“When did you take interest in it then?”

“Since I was very young.”

“What made you interested? TV? Or is a member of your family a celebrity and you wanted to be like them?”

“I watched a play with my father and it was just too fun. When I was young, that was the only impression I had, but when I entered middle school, I thought that I wanted to do more than that. That’s when I started practicing by myself while watching my favorite dramas and movies.”

“Did you ever go to an acting school?”

“No.”

“Then you mostly practiced by yourself?”

“When I started off, yes. Eventually, I met a few friends that I got along with and practiced together with them.”

“May I ask why you chose not to go to an acting school? You could have had an easier time learning the basics if you did.”

“When I was in middle school. I had plenty of fun with my friends practicing by ourselves with the scripts we found. That’s why I didn’t think about applying for one.”

“So you didn’t want to do it that much, huh?”

“Maybe you can see it that way. I only thought that I should start learning properly when I got to high school. I joined the acting club after all. There were seniors who were fundamentally different from me with their movements and pronunciations. A lot of people at my school wanted to be celebrities or work in that area, so everyone had solid foundations. That’s when I started getting taught by my seniors and the instructor.”

“I don’t mean to look down on your acting, but if you join my company, you’ll have to start getting basic training first. You understand why, right?”

“Yes, in fact, I was going to ask for an instructor if you didn’t.”

“I like your attitude. Well, I guess that’s enough questions.”

Ahyoung finished her coffee in one go.

“From now on, I am going to talk one-sidedly. Even if you think I’m wrong about something, just hear me out.”

“Okay.”

“You said that you wanted to be an actress no matter what, right? You don’t want to take a detour by being an idol. For now, I’ll talk about the reality of things first. There are actually quite a lot of kids who join an agency and make their debuts in dramas and movies. There’s a trend where they get their first, or even second piece smoothly. The problem occurs after that. Let me be clear with you. Actors who don’t have recognition earn less money than part timers at cafés. There are loads of people like that in this field. If there’s a list of people who do part time jobs even though they are actors, I can probably read off that list for days without rest. And that’s only among the people I know.”

She nodded heavily. She was prepared for this when she came here. She knew how hard it was to receive the love of the masses.

“You have to remind yourself that you might be throwing the most important moments of your life away by doing this. A trainee’s practice is worthless by itself. The worth of their practice is only shown when they catch the eyes of the public and become a product. Before that happens, everything is just a waste of time. You might want to retort, however, I’m not talking about acting here. I’m strictly talking about business. As cruel as it might sound, actors who don’t become big are not actors. That’s because no one calls them that. This applies to you as well. There’s no guarantee that you will become successful. What I’m doing is just giving you support to increase the probability of that happening. Do you understand what I mean?”

“Yes, I do.”

“As for the details of the contract, I’m going to go through it with your parents. It’s an important step after all. But the most important thing is your willpower. I’ve seen numerous people who gave up after years of circling around the industry. Do you think they were bad at acting? No, at least I don’t think so. There were many that had much better skills than the child actors that show up on TV. However, they never became big. This is what I mean by image business. The public looks at a person’s image before they evaluate their acting skills. As long as an actor has an image that they’re good at acting, that actor’s acting skills will be evaluated higher than it actually is. It doesn’t sound like it makes any sense, does it? You might ask: shouldn’t you be good at acting to have an image that you’re good at acting? To tell you the answer, those two are completely separate things. Of course, if a person is stupefyingly good at acting and can enchant anyone that looks at them, then movie companies will treat them like a VIP. What I’m saying though, is that it usually isn’t like that. Most actors are around the same level. Then how do you make that image? The answer is character.”

Ahyoung sighed.

“If we officially sign a contract, I will definitely include this clause. Your first piece will be decided by the company. Before that, you are not allowed to do any work.”

“Nothing?”

“I’m not going to allow you to participate in auditions either. I’m going to reduce your exposure as much as possible. Right now, there’s the unnecessary image you got from the sitcom. I’m going to remove that first.”

“Was my acting bad in the sitcom?”

“It’s not about being good or bad. The problem is that it sticks to you. Especially for people like you, who caused quite a stir by appearing intermittently.”

“I caused a stir?”

“A miserly girl who’s quite cute. There were rumors in the industry that quite a decent rookie has joined. But that’s quite troublesome. If you really want to succeed as an actress, we need to reset that image.”

“I don’t specifically want pretty and feminine characters. It’s fine if I’m funny. Isn’t that what acting is about?”

Ahyoung slowly shook her head.

“I told you, didn't I? What I’m talking about is business. You still don’t know how terrifying an ‘image’ is for an actress. Later, you can act like a madwoman all you want. But you can’t do that now. I told you, didn’t I? A daring character should suit you.”

Ahyoung approached her and grabbed her hair. She then pulled out her hairband and lifted her hair to look at her nape.

“Cinderella heroines are past their time now. You need to ride a different line. I got a few ideas when I looked at you. If we get a piece that has a suitable character, that’s when I will put you in front of the public. Image is consumable. You can’t look cheap from the get go.”

“If I sign the contract, will I really not be able to do anything until a suitable piece comes in?”

“At least not within my sight, no. I’ll allow school club activities though, but no more than that. That’s the strongest condition and my final condition.”

“…Did you do that with Ahn Yeseul as well?”

“I told you, didn’t I? That being good at acting and having the image of being good at acting are separate things. Yeseul, that girl’s acting skill is about B-tier? No, perhaps she’s even below that. But the public likes her. She has already had two heroine roles in two dramas. There was a slight controversy about her acting skills, but that soon died down. You probably know about it since you have experience shooting, but under an atmosphere like that, anyone can reach a decent level, or other people will make you look like you are at one. Of course, I’m not sure if Yeseul can become a top star in the future. The funny thing is, what puts people at the top of the ranks comes down to acting skill again.”

“Can I have some time to think about it?”

“Of course. It’d be strange instead if you decided right now. I am going to do some image-making for you. I can’t have you be a doll that’s thrown away without being able to stand in front of an audience even once. I will put you on the stage, but you will have to put your full trust in me. After you get on the stage, you’re the main character, so you can do whatever you want. That’s my condition.”

She clasped her hands. It was just one condition, but she couldn’t take it lightly. She wanted to focus on acting without being worried about anything else, but society wasn’t that easy.

“Oh, and there’s one more thing.”

“Yes?”

“You need to use a stage name. Your name is really good, but it’s kinda common.”

“A stage name…”

“Think about it for now. I really like you. How can I hate you when you’re willing to run forward even if you break your legs? Think about it carefully and call me back. Talk to your parents or other people around you who are related to this line of work.”

She smiled heavily and replied that she would.

Chapter 596

“Aren’t you going to go?”

“I don’t know, don’t ask.”

“I thought you came here just to make a visit, but you actually have some problems, huh.”

“I told you I was here to complain. Rather than that, I need some water. You have carbonated water, don’t you? Give me some with lemon extracts.”

Ahyoung blankly stared at Narim, who boldly asked her for a drink while lying on the beach chair. She could tell that Narim was giving her glances through the sunglasses.

“Why don’t you get it yourself?”

“How cold-hearted. Unni is asking you for a favor, but you’re glaring back at me instead.”

“Why don’t I make you feel cool by spraying you with some water instead?”

Ahyoung walked up to a hose. Only then did Narim stand up in a hurry and enter the building. She came back with two bottles of carbonated water in her hands while grumbling before sitting down on the beach chair again. She gracefully stretched out her legs.

"You keep posturing like that, but it doesn't look good you know? Sometimes, you get all hung up on putting on a front."

"Front? Please, just call it a facade."

"That's a bit harsh."

"Good on you for being so nice. Also, who else could I even be this open with? Out there, I’m the definition of charisma, so I can't put it down around other people."

“Why don’t you take it easy a little? Don’t try to look too heavy.”

“If I put those weights down, those weights will all go to the people below me. Do you think I can accept that?”

“And you’re acting like the good guy again.”

Ahyoung stretched her arms out and lay down on one of the beach chairs. A parasol was shielding her face from direct sunlight. As for her body and arms, they were being scorched.

“Is that how you usually do your interviews?” Narim asked.

“What do you mean?”

“Telling her every little detail.”

“I have to. It’d be too pitiful if she challenged the industry without knowing anything and then got horribly burnt from it.”

“I thought you were talking from a business perspective. Don’t you have to lure her in no matter the cost? From what I saw, I thought you were trying to stop her at all costs.”

“It’d be too pitiful if she challenged the industry without knowing anything and then got horribly burnt from it, wouldn’t it?”[1]

“It’s her who has to bear the risks, isn’t it? If you’re going to take her in, you should urge her to be energetic. You’re supposed to be the president, yet you show her the shithole reality of things first. Don’t you think she’s gonna be scared and not come?”

“Maybe not coming will be better for her.”

“She has a pretty decent face though, and she seems resolved. I’m not sure about her qualities as an actress, but that’s not something you can find out in a short time. The person herself isn’t lacking by any means, so it’d be good to accept her. Why did you make her turn around by telling her all those things?”

“She said she likes acting. It’s been a long time since I met someone who didn’t have any ulterior motives. She is uneasy about becoming successful, but she has values she prioritizes above that. For girls like her, it would be for the best if acting stayed a hobby.”

Just as Ahyoung was about to take a drink,

“Aha, I was wondering why you were treating her so emotionally. You found your younger self in her.”

“Unni, why don’t you stop being a CEO and open a fortune telling business? I think you’ll earn a lot of money that way.”

“Maybe I will once I get old. Rather than that, are you going to accept her if she wants to sign a contract?”

“I will. As long as I’m doing business, I can’t keep acting like that. I definitely did tell her though. That countless people disappear from the industry while practicing.”

Ahyoung had a look at the empty bottle. As pretty as it was, it no longer had any value. A bottle was only fulfilling its job when it contained something inside.

“So, what’s the real reason?”

“For what?”

“For scaring her like that.”

“You were the one who told me. I was emotional because I saw my younger self in her, and because I pitied her.”

“How many years do you think we’ve known each other? You’ve never even done acting properly. Why don’t you tell me the real reason now?”

“Hey, I was praised by her for good pronunciation, you know?”

“That wasn’t because you were practicing acting. You only practiced like that for your career as a businesswoman. Hey, did you lie to her and say that you were acting when you were young?”

“That’s good for the flow of the conversation. There’s no need to break that misunderstanding, is there? It’s something that both of us can talk about.”

“What did you tell her?”

“I told her that I was a nameless actress for a few years before I quit. I wasn’t entirely lying. I’ve seen so many people doing that, so I know what it’s like. I just never experienced it for myself.”

“She looked like a good girl though. You shouldn’t tease her like that.”

“I never did. I only gave her a reason to accept. Rather than as a woman who had a fantasy about neckties since young, don’t I give off a much better image when I say that I used to pursue the same thing as her?”

“What are you going to do if she finds out later?”

“If that happens, it happens.”

“Sometimes, you’re a really bad girl.”

“Deceiving someone isn’t a bad thing. Illegally doing things is obviously not good, but deceit of that level is just some condiments to spice things up. In fact, it’d be weird if I showed her everything about myself. Don’t you think so? Miss Charisma?”

“I don’t dare retort.”

Ahyoung threw away the empty bottle into a trash can next to her beach chair. The plastic bottle made a low bumping noise.

“And I wasn’t entirely lying. Like what you said, I did find a nostalgic figure in her. It’s just that it’s not me.”

“Who is it?”

“Someone who belonged to the theater troupe I used to be in.”

“Was that person an actor too?”

“No, she was more like the manager. She was the one who managed the funds so that we could buy the props we need to perform plays. Man, it feels like yesterday when we were quarreling with the owner of that building all the time, and now, here I am, lying on top of a rooftop of a building.”

“That was unexpected, I mean, you belonging to a theater troupe.”

“Unni, I’m running an agency here. It doesn’t make sense to not have worked in a related field even once. I even went up on stage a couple of times. Though, I was a passerby.”

“So there was someone who’s similar to that girl in that theater troupe?”

“They were both similar in the way they were honest about acting. She was four years younger than me, and she loved dogs. Though she had a weird preference when it came to dogs and liked the vicious-looking ones. No matter how hard I look at them, they’re ugly, but she found them so cute. When I think about it now, maybe the reason I stayed in that shabby theater troupe that didn’t have a future was because of her. When I looked at her putting in so much effort, I wanted to give her a share of my own time.”

“The lofty Yoo Ahyoung even thought about doing that? Is this the same Yoo Ahyoung I know of, who has a special attachment to her own time?”

“Why do you keep making me out to be some heartless person? Unni, I’m also a woman who has a warm heart.”

“I acknowledge that you’re a woman, but I’ll pretend that I never heard anything about the warm heart.”

“You just listen to the parts you want, huh.”

As Narim put down the bottle on the floor, she spoke.

“But this is a bit disappointing. I don’t know the person you seem to cherish so much. Why don’t you introduce me to her?”

“If you want her greeting, you gotta go pretty far away, you know?”

“Where? Does she live overseas?”

Ahyoung pointed up at the sky. Narim blankly stared at the sky before looking down again.

“She died?”

“A long time ago. After I left the troupe to start my own business, there was an accident. When I first heard about it, I thought it was a terrible joke. Unfortunately, it turned out to be real. Back then, I went home and threw the bible into the trash. I had been a faithful person since I was born thanks to my parents, but after I visited her ashes, I couldn’t find it any more disgusting. The people that deserve to die are alive and well, yet that pitiful girl went ahead just as she was about to unfold her dreams. If God exists, he shouldn’t do his work like that.”

“Didn’t you introduce yourself as a faithful Christian in a private meeting? I thought you were one too.”

“I told you, didn’t I? I choose whatever has a good image for business. There’s nothing better than the Church when it comes to that. If God wants to test my faithfulness, then he’s gotta come himself. But he probably won’t. Because. God. Doesn’t. Exist.”

“My Lord. What this little lamb just said has nothing to do with me. I have dire faith in you, so please bring me salvation.”

“I am going to say that I believe in him just before I’m about to die. I mean, if I believe in him he’ll give me a ticket to heaven, won’t he? As God, he shouldn’t retract his promises.”

“Sheesh, I really can’t stop you.”

Narim shrugged.

“So what, you were strict with her because she has the same air about her as the one you cherished?”

“There are lots of things you can do other than acting to keep living.”

“Who knows? She might become a superstar one day.”

“I’m not so sure about that.”

“Why? Does your intuition tell you otherwise?”

“No, it’s nothing like that. Also, if I had an intuition that can tell who’s going to be successful, do you think my company will be so small? I would have put up a building in the most expensive place in Cheongdam, and then put my nameplate on it. I just wanted to stop her because she felt similar.”

“Girlie. I get that you pity the dead girl, but you shouldn’t force your emotions onto a girl who has a bright future.”

“Do you think I told her everything because of a horrible reason like that?”

“Then what?”

“It’s just, I subconsciously ended up comparing the two.”

“Comparing the two?”

“Those eyes that seemed to be in love with acting itself… Both of them had similar eyes. When I looked at those eyes, I couldn’t help but compare the two.”

“Compare their skills, you mean?”

“Yeah.”

“You don’t know much about the girl that just came though, do you?”

“Of course I do. I looked into her the moment I got a call from writer Lee. I’ve read about what she was doing until now, what kind of pieces she participated in, and everything. There wasn’t much, so it didn’t take that long.”

“You sounded like you didn’t know anything about her when you were talking to her. You were probing her about that as well then? So that you can interrogate her when she says something different to what you know?”

“I’m not that evil, you know?”

“There’s ‘evil’ written on your face. So, what is it in the end? Who’s better? Personally, I think that someone who has debuted on public TV would be better. You know the difference between street acting and TV acting. The fact that she made a debut at all is huge.”

“Unfortunately, you’re wrong. This is extremely subjective, but if I have to invest all of my money into one of them, I will invest all of it into Haejoo. She was really different after all.”

“The person that died was called Haejoo? She must have been really good, if you’re the one saying that.”

Ahyoung reminded herself of Haejoo, who quietly remained on stage and looked up at the lights. If there was one person that was receiving the love of the monster known as the stage, then it was probably her - that was what she thought back then.

“Sometimes, I wonder, maybe the reason I’m doing this work is because of her. There are actors like that hidden in the world. Maybe those people are just unable to find the stage they need to be on and end up leaving. I’m just providing a stage for such people. I’m just letting them be where they should be, while I get a small fee for doing so.”

“Small? Smaaaaall, you say?”

“What’s up with you? You’re in the same line of work, so you should be consoling me instead.”

“Fine, who else could understand you but me?”

“Oh, didn’t you say you were here to complain? I think I’m about done, you know?”

As soon as she said those words, Narim abruptly stood up. She, who didn’t look like she was in her forties thanks to her skin care, turned into a vicious old woman in an instant.

“Unni, you look scary. Calm down.”

“When I just think about that man, I just…”

“That man?”

“I’m talking about Lee Junmin! Sungjae, who I painstakingly nurtured, is meeting him more frequently than he meets me these days!”

“I thought he was going to be in a film, no? JA is one of the investors, and they are putting their own actors in it as well. Hong Geunsoo, was it? In such a scenario, it’s not strange for him to be meeting president Lee Junmin. He’s kinda well known for meeting many people in private, isn’t he?”

“That’s exactly what I don’t like about him. At this rate, once Sungjae’s contract is over and he switches over to JA, I might end up fainting because of anger.”

“You should console him well so that he doesn’t.”

“If he does, I’m going to make an announcement to all the producers in the TV industry. That they’d better get prepared to become enemies with me if they use Ahn Sungjae.”

“There you go again. Calm down a little.”

“How much effort do you think I’ve put in to nurture him?”

“He didn’t even go yet, so why are you so worried? Even though you’re like this now, aren’t you going to tell everyone else that you’d let him go without any trouble?”

“That’s why it’s a problem. I really hate myself.”

“Why don’t you call him out in private and ask yourself? Or you can call him here, so that I can see him after a long time.”

“Should I?”

“No, wait. Forget I said anything.”

“No, I’ll try calling him here now. I have to get a concrete answer from him so that I can be at ease.”

Narim coughed a few times to clear her throat before taking out her phone. Ahyoung clicked her tongue when she watched the process of a whiny voice turning elegant.

“Mm, is this Sungjae? Why don’t we eat out together today since it’s been a while?”

“I bet ten thousand won that she’ll get hospitalized for mental illnesses later in life.”

Ahyoung faintly smiled and thought about the girl she talked to today.

‘She’ll probably say she’ll do it. Girls like her don’t know how to give up.’

What was left was how to package and decorate her.

“I don’t think it’s a bad idea to be a bit unconventional.”

Ahyoung started planning out the future.

[1] It’s the exact same sentence as the one above.

Chapter 597

A notebook, an old pen, and a cup of thick coffee with two sticks of coffee in it. After setting up everything, he turned on the VCR. He heard the tape turning inside the device before he saw a grey screen appear on the TV. He took a sip of the coffee while listening to the noisy tape. The videotape should start playing soon.

-Get into position.

-Jincheol, you’re going to shoot today as well?

-Records are only meaningful if you leave them behind frequently.

Yecheon was as bustling as always. Maru felt a sense of intimacy with the people on the screen as though he had known them for a long time. He saw the members of the theater troupe acting awkward and standing dazedly in front of the camera in the videos that were shot in early 1987, but they seemed to have gotten used to it since they were just doing their own thing regardless of whether Jincheol was shooting or not.

-Miss Ahyoung, can you have a look at this for a sec?

-Sure, but you gotta pay me extra.

-No way, you’re joking, right?

-I never joke around when it comes to money.

-Can I just give you some snacks instead?

-Well, fine.

A woman’s voice could be heard from outside of the frame. She seemed proficient in handling the camera. The screen shook for a moment as it was lifted off the tripod and then the camera angle was elevated a little.

-Should we do an interview or something?

-Nah. But Ahyoung. What happened to the monthly rent thing you were talking about?

-I managed to get 80 thousand won off after negotiation. I even had to cry to do it.

-What? 80 thousand won? You aren’t kidding, right? Did you really manage to shave off 80 thousand won from our rent?

-Who do you think I am? I’m someone who does not goes back on my words.

-No way. Wow! Everyone, Ahyoung managed to shave off 80 thousand won from the rent!

-What? Are you serious? 80 thousand won?

-Let’s open some soju today. Let’s fry some bulgogi too!

There was a ruckus for a while. The woman, who was dragged in front of the camera, smiled in confidence before the rest lifted her into the sky. The process was all captured in the video.

-What is this? What’s happening?

Another voice came in late into the video. It was Jung Haejoo. After hearing about the circumstances, Haejoo also rejoiced while grabbing Ahyoung’s arm.

-If it’s 80 thousand won, I think I can take a breather.

-It’s the four of us’ turn this month, so we practically earned 20 thousand won each. 20 thousand, huh. Thanks to you, Ahyoung, I managed to earn this month’s rent for my room.

-Everyone, stand in front of the camera! Miss Ahyoung, you stand in the center. If we don’t take a celebratory photo on a day like this, this camera wouldn’t have a point being here.

Jincheol held the camera. Every member of the troupe gathered in front of the camera.

-Wait! What’s that? Let me in too!

There was a girl who jumped into the frame as though she was about to fall over. She was someone Maru hadn’t seen before, and she looked quite young. She was also wearing a school uniform. Maru raised his cup as he focused on the video.

-Fine, you can join the photo as well. It’s a good thing after all.

-But hey, don’t you have any friends you hang out with? You come here all the time.

-I do have friends, you know? Plus, I’m not here to see you oppas, I’m here to see Haejoo-unni!

-There she goes again. Look at her talk. She has a bad temper.

-I have a bad temper? No, I don’t!

-Stop! Both of you, stop. Jincheol-oppa, what do we say?

Haejoo said that as she hung her arms around the girl who seemed to be a student. The girl, who glared at the man standing to the left of her, smiled brightly.

“Are they sisters or something?”

Maru took a sip of the cooled coffee, when.

-Haejoo, you move a little to the right, and Taewook, you too. Ahyoung, you should say something for all of us. And you over there, yes, whichever-schooler you are.

-Ahn Joohyun! How many times do I have to tell you that I’m Ahn Joohyun, ahjussi!

-Ahjussi? I’m not even thirty yet!

-If you look like an ahjussi, then you are an ahjussi! Hmph.

Maru almost spat out what was in his mouth. He coughed dryly and paused the video. He had a closer look at the girl on the screen. Her clear eyes, thick eyebrows, and well-balanced nose. Indeed, it was Ahn Joohyun’s face, albeit a little younger.

“How refreshing.”

He already knew from Jincheol’s wife, Jinjoo, that Joohyun frequented Yecheon. So she was quite frivolous back then. When he thought about how she acted now and compared it to the girl on the screen, he ended up laughing. Would the people there at that time have known that the little girl they were talking to would go on to cause several big issues in the entertainment industry?

“Though, she still had a potty mouth back then, huh.”

He resumed the video. After a few more mentions about the 80 thousand won saving, the scene switched. On one side of the stage were three women wearing long skirts. On the other side were two men wearing drill uniforms, looking at the three women sitting opposite them. Coquettish smiles and behavior - it seemed that the background was the red light district.

Maru focused on looking at Haejoo. She sat down on a chair and crossed her legs. She seemed to be acting like a sexy woman, but it looked awkward as though she was wearing clothes that didn’t suit her. After a series of unstable acts continued, Jincheol’s voice eventually resounded.

-This isn’t good, is it? I don’t think Haejoo fits this kind of role.

-Is it like that after all?

-Let’s have a talk again after we see what we recorded later. We should change the roles or reduce them, I think.

-Well, Jincheol has good eyes. If you think that way, then I guess it’s really not good. I do like the story, so I want to go with it.

Their lines and movements were perfect, but Haejoo couldn’t get herself into the mood of the play. Maru repeatedly played back Haejoo’s acting part and wrote things down in his notebook. Her walking motions, hand gestures, the changes in her facial expressions when she said her lines. As the videotapes were old, he sometimes wasn’t able to observe her expression due to the low resolution, but he could get a close look most of the time.

He had watched eleven videotapes until now. Although he hadn’t watched a lot of them, he could come to an understanding of Haejoo’s acting. Her acting gave off a ‘clean’ feeling. It was different from a ‘neat’ image. Her acting skill was lacking, but he kept watching her because of the clean vibes that the person herself gave off. If someone hateful made a mistake, it would increase the urge of wanting to scold that person, but if it was someone likable that made a mistake, it would instead be the opposite - one would want to encourage and care for that person. If it was Haejoo who made a mistake on stage, not to mention the members of the troupe, even the audience might let her go. Of course, that was under the assumption that they knew what Haejoo was usually like.

If someone who knew about the usual Haejoo looked at her acting on the stage, they might just accept it and move on. That was the kind of person she was after all. That was just her character. However, an audience who had never seen her before might find her strange. What the heck is up with that actress who pops out from everyone else?

Haejoo maintained her unique character a little too much causing her to be unable to blend herself with the rest of the characters in the play, making her always a ‘Jung Haejoo’ on the stage. In the ten videotapes Maru had watched during the past few days while reducing his sleep, Haejoo always managed to overlay the characters of a prostitute, a parent of a student, and even a woman in immoral love over herself. While the other actors jumped into that character or brought out some of their own characteristics within them that were similar to the characters they were acting, Haejoo consistently acted a ‘Jung Haejoo’.

That kind of phenomenon didn’t just occur because her efforts were lacking, or because her understanding of the characters she was acting was shallow. Haejoo was the one who practiced the most while they were shooting. While everyone had gone off to rest, Haejoo quietly remained behind and checked her own pronunciation with the camera. She changed her expressions, checked her gestures, and even exaggeratedly put emotions into some of her acts, but the character that stuck with her on stage was Jung Haejoo herself.

The ‘clean’ vibe she gave off seemed to stem from that characteristic of hers. His senses that discerned acting skill wasn’t able to find anything artificial-feeling from Haejoo’s acting, which ended up giving him that ‘clean’ vibe from her.

Maru wondered what it would’ve been like if Haejoo chose to do a form of art that wasn’t acting. Her character was unique and strong. The character that seemed to poke through no matter what you covered her with seemed like it would be a strong point in music. Like a violinist, for example. He subconsciously smiled when he imagined her showing off her might during a recital stage.

Acting was the act of revealing oneself, yet simultaneously hiding oneself and changing oneself. Haejoo, whose character revealed herself no matter whose figure she tried to borrow, didn’t look like she was suited for acting. That was the case at least from the videos he had watched until now.

Many people would remember the actress Jung Haejoo, but the characters she acted wouldn’t remain in anyone’s memories. Currently, Haejoo’s face was zoomed in on just as she heard that they should consider changing up the characters.

“Haaam, oppa, you’re watching those videos again?” Bada came out of her room and said.

“Wanna watch too?”

“Nah, it was boring. Is that really going to help you learn though? I really don’t get it.”

“Maybe I’ll see something if I keep on watching.”

“Okay, good luck with that. I’m going to go to sleep. Have fun.”

“Good night.”

Maru stretched his arms out. It was just past midnight. He picked up his notebook again and had a look at the things he wrote down until now. He had summed up some of the things he liked, such as some movements, lines, speech tones, and facial expressions. One thing he realized while learning acting was that people don’t actually use their facial muscles that much. When he imitated other people’s expressions, some of his facial muscles would flinch at times, and he found out that focusing on moving those muscles would make his expressions look a lot smoother. They say the depth of emotions comes from a person’s inner self, but it would probably be impossible to transmit those emotions without minute muscular movements.

“The charm coming from the person herself is incredible.”

The moment this person receives Junmin’s influence, the charm unique to her character would turn into a trait for acting and would charm many people, giving birth to the Jung Haejoo that enchanted many. He could imagine what kind of acting Haejoo would show at that time. She probably acted in a way that didn’t overwhelm others with an explosion of emotions and focused more on calm acting. Calm wasn’t the same as boring. She probably acted in such a way that people would end up falling for the character she acted without even realizing it.

He looked at the empty coffee cup for a while before standing up. It seemed that he was going to need another cup. Just as he turned the kettle on, his phone in the living room started ringing. He slowly walked over and picked up the call.

“What’s up? Calling at this hour.”

-Can you take the call right now?

“Sure.”

Maru put his phone between his ear and shoulder before picking up the kettle that finished boiling the water.

“So, how was your visit to the agency? Did it go well?

-For now, I think so.

“You sound quite listless despite what you’re saying.”

Maru said that as he smiled. He would subconsciously smile whenever he talked to her. He listened to her, who seemed like she was about to start complaining to him at any second while picking up his coffee cup.

-I just heard a bunch of things.

“That’s good. I just made some coffee. Tell me some of those bunch of things, so that I can drink while listening to you.”

-I’ll be a bit long, though.

“It’s only midnight. We have plenty of time. But aren’t you tired? You usually tire yourself out to sleep by 11.”

-I just had a lot to think about.

“What a coincidence, I’m also worried because I’m thinking too much.”

-What happened?

“I was researching someone. I almost feel like I can get a grasp, so I end up thinking quite a lot.”

-I’m not sure what it is, but take it easy. Don’t push yourself.

“I am going to. Now tell me. What happened at the place you were recommended to.”

Maru sat down on the sofa and played the video. As he muted it, the video progressed without any sound. The person on the other side of the phone did not speak either for a while.

Feeling that the silence before the conversation was especially long today, Maru took a sip of his coffee.

Chapter 598

-Do you think it’s right for me to do it?

She spoke with very little confidence, which he had never heard her frequently do before. The voice even sounded a little tragic, which made Maru cautious with saying his words.

“I want to hear your decision first.”

-I want to continue acting. I also want to stand on the same stage as you.

“I’m with you on that. There would be nothing more enjoyable than working on the same piece as you. In that sense, I’m in favor of you joining an agency. That president, while she said those words, I think she’s a good person. No, leaving aside whether she’s a good person or not, I’m sure that she doesn’t treat other people lightly. Business skills are important, but sometimes, their character is important as well. The fact that she tried to scare you might be for your sake, or maybe she had a completely different motive, but I like the fact that she didn’t try to lure you into joining with sugar coated words.”

-I feel the same. She definitely looked like someone who makes her intentions clear. I also liked how she didn’t just push a contract in my face because of the recommendation. It’s just that…

“You’re concerned about the image making that she’s talking about?”

-It’s a bit iffy. I know in my mind. This is business after all. I know that I can’t act immaturely and demand that everything is done the way I want. But I get cautious since it’s related to acting. If, and I’m just assuming here, I don’t get any of the roles that the president has picked for me, I wouldn’t be able to act at all while I’m in the agency.

“If the president is like how I think she is, then I guess it would definitely be like that.”

-That’s what I’m a little concerned about. I will hear about the details of the contract on my next visit, but I got the general content through text. Wait a sec.

She hung up for a while before calling again.

-It will be an exclusive contract, and the contract period will be 7 years. During that period, everything related to the entertainment industry has to be done through the industry, and if I make a mistake during the contract period which damages the reputation of the company, I will have to pay the contract penalty that was agreed upon at the time of the contract. She told me that that’s the most important part.

“It’s usually around 7 to 10 years. How was the atmosphere at the company?”

-It was really good. It looked like there was no barrier between the president and the employees.

“Did they not look like they were on too close terms?”

-They looked like they respected each other. It was only for a brief moment, but I felt that they were treating everyone else like coworkers.

“If you felt so, then I guess the company itself must be very good. Honestly speaking, I don’t think a ranking system is always just good or bad. If there’s a clear hierarchy, it might not bring out the proactivity of the members, but it will definitely be more efficient. If it felt like there was no order because everyone treated each other like friends, it would be a bad thing, but if you felt that they had respect for each other as colleagues, it might really be a good place.”

-If I do sign a contract, I do want to do it with this agency. I will have to know more to be sure, but I think the president is a good person as well.

“When are you signing the contract? Did you get a specific date?”

-No, but I think I should do it as early as I can.

“You talked to your mother about it, right?”

-Mom told me that I should do what I want. She’ll just go with me to the company for the contract as long as I’ve made a decision.

“She raises her child strongly. So it comes down to your decision in the end. From what I’m hearing, I think you’ve already made up your mind though?”

-Like you said, this is an opportunity after all. I won’t know when I’ll get the chance again. If I do join, I will have to start over from the basics, but that puts me at ease instead. I’m quite lacking right now after all.

“Then sign the contract. The people there are decent, and there wasn’t any bad news about that place, was there?”

-I did look it up, but I didn’t find anything.

“Hm, can you wait for a little? You said the agency was named Hwan, right?”

-Yeah.

“I’ll call you back. Give me 10 minutes.”

After hanging up, Maru sent a text message to Joohyun. What he said was pretty simple - can I ask you for the favor you promised last time?. Instead of a reply, he got a call back. It didn’t even take 10 seconds.

-It’s midnight right now.

“Sorry, I usually would have never called you at this hour, but I had no choice.”

-I was a little surprised when I got your text. You’re quite sensitive when it comes to etiquette, yet you sent a text at this hour. So, what is it that you want help with? Considering what you did for Bangjoo, I am willing to do quite a lot.

“It’s just that the information I need is hard to access as an ordinary person, so you were the only one that came to mind.”

-What is it?

“Do you know about an entertainment agency named Hwan?”

-Hwan? I do. Ahyoung-unni is there after all.

“Ahyoung?”

Maru rewinded the videotape with the remote control in front of him. He then played it back again. He looked at the woman with the confident smile and spoke again,

“Is it perhaps the Ahyoung who used to be in the theater troupe Yechoen? I don’t know her surname, sorry.”

-She is, but how do you know Yecheon?

“I met director Lee Jincheol a little while ago. I got some videotape recordings of Yecheon from him.”

-Director Lee Jincheol?

“Yes.”

-That’s a name I haven’t heard in a long time. I did call him a couple of times, but after something happened, we never contacted each other. Is he doing well?

“He got married and is doing well.”

-Ah, right. I heard that he got married to Jinjoo-unni. How nostalgic. It’s a place that contains my studenthood after all. But wait, videotapes? Am I in them as well?

“Yep, you’re here alright.”

-That doesn’t feel that good. Wasn’t I like… a little cocky when I was young?

“Not really. You’re completely the same as you are now.”

-That doesn’t sound like a compliment to me. Why did you get those videos?

“You know the person called Jung Haejoo, right? I wanted to have a look at her acting.”

-… Haejoo-unni, huh. Do you perhaps remember what I asked you before?

Maru leaned on the sofa as he replied,

“Yes. You asked me if I know Jung Haejoo. Well, things happened and it reached this point. Can I ask why you asked me such a question back then?”

-Because you’re similar.

“Similar?

-Yes, you and Haejoo-unni.

“In what aspect?”

-Your acting methods. You told me back then right? That when you act, there’s another self that looks at you from an objective perspective. Unni said a similar thing. She said that if she took a step back, she would see another one of herself and that acting with that girl was too much fun. This is interesting. So you ended up finding out after all.

“That’s quite surprising.”

-Speaking of videotapes, when were they taken? I remember taking quite a lot of recordings.

“I’m watching the ones taken in 1987 right now, and I received up to January 1989. There’s about sixty of them.”

-1987, huh. That’s a long time ago. How is she? The Haejoo-unni on the screen, I mean.

“She looks like a charming person.”

-What about from the perspective of acting?

“I don’t know yet. I see some things that I can learn, but nothing that amazing. Once I get to 1988, I guess I will be able to see her polished acting skills that our president fell in love with.”

-You can look forward to it. She was incredible back then.

After that, Joohyun didn’t speak for a while. Maru waited patiently. He didn’t want to interrupt Joohyun as she was reminiscing about the past.

-Hm, let’s leave the old stories here for now. You said you wanted to know something after all. Hwan, huh. It’s a good company. I’ve talked to a couple of actors who belong to that agency, and they all have high opinions about it. I’m not sure about new actors, but as far as I know, the treatment there for veteran actors is very good. Also, I heard that they weren’t nurturing new actors because they are stressing the music side. Is someone you know going to join?

“She said she might sign a contract, so I thought I’d look into it.”

-Looks like she must be important to you. If you’re messaging me at this hour.

Maru replaced his answer with a small laugh.

-For now, they have a good reputation here. I haven’t heard of them having any discord, and above all, Ahyoung-unni is someone worth trusting. She’s a little overly sensitive when it comes to money, but she doesn’t let money direct her ways. In fact, she’s the type who controls the money. Hm, her strong point is that she doesn’t fear losses. Though, that’s pretty obvious from the fact that she’s investing in singers even though it’s not going well. As long as that person doesn’t make a mistake, she will keep holding onto that person’s hands. I’m planning to switch to that place once my exclusive contract with Yellow Star is over.

“You just said something that puts my mind at ease. If it’s a place you can trust, I guess I can rest assured.”

-Don’t trust me too much. I might be slightly biased since Ahyoung-unni is someone I know. I can tell you for sure though, that it’s not one of those trashy companies who run off with the money, so tell the person signing the contract that Hwan can be trusted.

“Alright. I’ll tell her that.”

-Is your business over now then?

“Yes. Sorry for calling you late at night.”

-It’s fine. I was watching TV anyway. Just keep watching over Bangjoo so that he doesn’t cause trouble. I’ll hang up now then.

“Have a good night.”

Maru sighed in relief as he hung up. The reason he called Joohyun was because she had once been wounded by the entertainment industry. She was still active in the entertainment industry, but her despise towards trashy companies shouldn’t have disappeared. Yet such a person said that the agency was trustable. From the impression she got from looking around the company, Joohyun’s evaluation, as well as the articles about Hwan in the news, it seemed to be sufficient to be her first company.

He called her back again. As soon as the signal sounded, she picked up the call.

“I asked someone I know, and she said it's a reliable company.”

-Can I ask who you asked?

“Senior Ahn Joohyun.”

-Really?

“Yeah. She seems acquainted with the president there as well. She’s not someone who would be biased because of personal connections, so I think it’s worth trusting. The only thing on my mind is her opinions about your first work, but honestly speaking, I agree with the president.”

-Why?

“Since you’re doing it, don’t you want to become an actress that sells well?”

Maru continued speaking after picking up his coffee cup.

“I definitely want to. Art is good, but to me, acting is a form of labor that I enjoy, and it would be troublesome if it doesn’t become a splendid means of income. I would one day have to feed my family with it, so I wouldn’t want to become an actor who doesn’t have value.”

-I’m the same. I mean, everyone would be like that. No one wants to stay being a nameless actor.

“That’s why the president suggested such a thing to you. It might be bias or even discrimination against women, but the reality is that image still matters a lot to actresses. Not just anyone can be like senior Joohyun. I believe that she managed to make a splendid comeback only because she had proven her acting skills by the time she got caught up in something bad. Without popularity, you can’t even prove yourself in the industry. That’s just the way it works, and you should know that.”

-What if I never get to do anything decent for seven years?

“You aren’t going to be doing nothing for those seven years. In seven years, you’ll be 26. Don’t you think you’ll be in your prime as an actress? It’s the age where mature charm coexists with the purity of youth. Even if you end up not doing any activity for the next seven years due to a series of absurd coincidences, it doesn’t mean that it’s over for you. Also, if the agency is intentionally not letting you do anything, you can sue them as well. Once you start worrying, it will never end. You have to start something one day. What do you think? I think you’re plenty ready to start things off.”

-Do you think I can do it?

“You can do it.”

-Good, I’ll do it then. I’ll try.

“You actually made your decision before you called me, didn’t you?”

-Not entirely, but I was leaning towards it. I wanted to hear your opinion for some reason though.

“Would you not have done it if I told you not to?”

-I’m not sure. But I think that I might not have done it.

“That makes me happy, and a little awkward.”

-Why? You don’t like me relying on you?

“No. It’s awkward because I feel way too happy. I feel like it’s the first time you told me your worries of your own accord. Now I feel like you’ve opened up to me. I guess the only thing left now is to open up when farting, huh.”

-You always stray off to weird directions, you know?

“That’s what’s good about me.”

-Right, that’s your charm. Oh, one more thing. Actually, I’m gathering some opinions about this since it’s a pretty important thing.

“What is it?”

-A stage name.

“A stage name?”

-I heard that a lot of people use the same name as mine. Apparently, there’s also an actor who used the same name as me before.

“Ah, right. I guess it is pretty common. So? What did you decide on?”

-Nothing yet. I thought about it, but nothing really came to mind. Mom’s the same. Actually, my mom might be good at writing novels, but she has a terrible naming sense.

“Don’t say that. Your name is really cool. I really like it because it feels similar to mine.”

-Dad named me.

“Did he?”

He felt like he heard this once before. Maru felt like there was a vague error in his memory, but he didn’t think deeply about it.

-Did anything come to your mind? I’m going to come up with a few and talk about them when I write the contract.

“Now that you say it, I don’t think anything comes to mind.”

-Right?

“Are you going to change your surname as well?”

-No, I’m going to leave it be. Just my given name.

“So I guess, it’s still Han, huh.”

-Yep.

“I think about this sometimes, but if I met you ten-or-so years ago, we wouldn’t have been able to get married because we have the same surname and lineage[1].”

-You’re always on about marriage. I forbid you from talking about it from now on.

“It’s one of my only joys in life though.”

-Quit joking. Anyway, don’t you have anything good? Just tell me one. I’ll go to sleep afterwards.

“Well, then.”

He faintly smiled and looked at the ceiling. A name popped up in his mind. He was surprised by the two characters that filled up his head. He was even given the feeling that this has to be the one.

“I got one. It’s the commonality of our two names.”

-I wonder what it is?

“Gaeul[2]. Han Gaeul. It’s a pure Korean[3] name. Don’t you think it’s pretty?”

-Han… Gaeul. It’s pretty. It sticks to the mouth too.

“It’s just one option, so think about other options as well. There must be many good names out there.”

-Okay. But I quite like Gaeul, you know?

“I’d be honored if you use it.”

Then good night - Maru whispered before closing his phone. The night winds slightly blew into his house from the slightly open window. Perhaps due to the fresh air, he felt a slight pain in one corner of his heart. It was quite weird.

“They say you become emotional with time.”

Maru sipped some of his cooled coffee before picking up the remote.

The night was still young.

[1] Here, ‘lineage’ refers to your family descent. Most commonly noted by ‘region’ then ‘surname’. For example, “I am a Choi from XX region”. Marriage between those of the same ‘lineage’ was forbidden until it was officially changed by law officially in 2005 (same year in the novel) but people have been ignoring it for quite a long time, since this ancestry/lineage was never a rigorous concept in terms of genetics (A child would blindly follow the father’s lineage; it was possible to ‘buy’ lineage with money; and many records were lost in the 20th century due to war.). In this case, Maru and his GF must be a Han surname from the same region. If they are two different Hans from two different regions, the law wouldn’t have applied to them.

[2] Means autumn

[3] Meaning it doesn’t have a Hanja representation.

Chapter 599

“This is a neat-looking company.”

She grabbed onto her mother’s arm, as her mother looked around all over the place. Somehow, they were gathering a lot of attention. After waiting for a while in the lobby on the 1st floor, they were guided to the president’s office on the 4th floor.

“Welcome. I am Yoo Ahyoung, the one managing this company.”

“Oh, yes. I am this kid’s mother. The interior design is really good.”

“I put a lot of effort into it. Also, nice to see you again. And thank you for contacting me back so early.”

Ahyoung offered for them to take a seat. She sat down on the sofa with her mother.

“You have heard about the general gist of things, yes?”

“Yes. But are you really okay with accepting my girl?”

“Of course I am. In fact, I’m looking forward to it. I am sure that she will raise the value of our company. Would you like some tea first?”

“Sure.”

Ahyoung left the room after telling them to wait for a while.

As they waited, her mother looked around the president’s office. For a brief moment, she saw her mother smiling faintly. She looked as though she met a friend of hers. She wondered what her mother saw.

Not long later, Ahyoung returned with some pretty-looking pottery.

“It’s a hobby of mine. I hope you like it.”

“I like tea too. Is it red tea?”

“Yes. If you want, there’s milk too.”

“No thanks. I like tea by itself.”

“You have similar preferences to mine.”

Red tea was poured into the transparent cup. She took in a sniff of the fragrance that wafted into the room and felt her tense body relaxing a little. She met eyes with Ahyoung who asked if it was good. She curtly replied ‘yes’.

“If she was an adult, I would have asked her to sign a contract on the spot, but in the case of minors, a parent or guardian needs to be present. There are cases where this isn’t the case, but it is the tradition, so please understand.”

“In any case, doing everything neatly is good. Like this tea.”

Her mother and Ahyoung smiled at each other.

She found the eyes of sharp observers between the two warm smiles. The two people seemed to have started probing each other out. Whether it was in an official place or not, she never saw her mother lose in a battle of wits. Even when the editor sometimes comes to their house to beg her mother for a manuscript, her mother would always put on her neat smile and maintain her usual calmness. Her editor would become more and more fatigued as time went by, and it was to the point that she would sometimes give her a drink in secret and cheer her on.

“For now, this is the contract form.”

“May I read it?”

“Of course. Let’s talk again once you’re done reading.”

There were two copies of the contract. While her mother carefully went over the contract, Ahyoung pushed the other copy to her side.

“You should read it as well.”

“Yes.”

When she read the words 'exclusive contract’ at the top, it finally came to her that she was stepping into the entertainment industry. She took a deep breath before reading the form below. The wall of text that filled the entirety of the page made her feel suffocated. There were many difficult words and terminology that made it hard to understand if she did not read it in detail.

“You don’t write standard contracts, huh?”

“That’s because we include intangible assets. Also, to be clear, she is not in a state where she can bring us profit. It’s not like she’ll be working at our company either. Most of her time will be spent on education, so standard contracts are meaningless.”

“That’s true. Then what happens to the deposit?”

“The exclusive contract deposit is 14 million won. It’s paid in one go, but will be taxed over 7 years, 2 million won each time. It will be amortized under activity fees after her debut.”

“What’s this clause about development expenses?”

“It’s money we invest in her. This money will also be amortized after the debut. Of course, most of the time, we just ignore it when we extend the contract. She’ll get treated according to her name value.”

“So it’s a conditional debt in a sense?”

“Yes. It’s a debt for us. Even if she does not produce any profit in the 7 years after she signs the contract, there will be no monetary losses for her. However, that’s not in the best interests of either of us. Gaining as much as the investment, if not more, is how people feel after all. Since we’re doing it, isn’t it better to earn a lot?”

“Money is not always right, but it’s right most of the time. Now that I actually see it, the entertainment business is pretty risky, huh. There must be cases where you don’t make money off your investment.”

“That’s why over a dozen agencies appear and disappear every year. Perhaps an entertainment agency is similar to gambling. Doing things little by little doesn’t guarantee that you’ll make it, but if you do make it, it’s a huge jackpot.”

These two looked like they were at each other’s throats. She put down the contract after reading it until the end. The contract was just like what she had heard, and there were no major differences. Her mother, who had stamped several contracts, said that there were no problems, so it was definitely a normal contract.

“Hey, you seem to like that book, huh?”

Her mother pointed at the one book that was placed on the display case next to the president’s desk. The moment she had a look at the cover of that book, she understood the meaning behind her mother’s smile from before.

“That book? It’s a new work from a favorite writer of mine. It’s a romance novel, and I end up reading it without noticing the passage of time once I start.”

Ahyoung said that while brightening up. Her good feelings towards the book could be felt from her words. She could see her mother’s smile becoming thicker. It wasn’t surprising, since it was her own writing that was being complimented.

“As awkward as it is for me to say it in a place like this, I wrote that book.”

“What? Really?”

“Yes.”

“You are writer Choi Haesoo? Oh my god, wait a sec.”

Ahyoung stood up before hurriedly moving somewhere. After a while, Ahyoung returned with her hands full of books. They were all her mother’s novels. There was even an essay.

“You bought all of them?”

“Of course. You won’t know how much I advertised these books to my friends.”

“Thank you for that. Perhaps the slowly increasing income of mine might have been thanks to you, president.”

“Uhm, can you give me an autograph right here? I really enjoyed this book. I was thinking that it would be really good as a drama.”

“Hm, actually, there are already talks about publication rights on adaptations. This is not set in stone though, so don’t go talking about it to others.”

“Really? Tell me once the adaptation is decided. I will put any actor you want in the drama.”

“Thank you for that. Oh, I saw Mr. Yoo Jihoon’s photo just now.”

“He’s with us.”

“If it ever does happen, I’d like to ask for him. I really like him.”

“Don’t worry about that. As long as the script is good, I will definitely make him do it. But oh man, I would have never imagined that you were my favorite author. Uhm, shall we eat out somewhere? There are so many things I want to ask. The contract matter is done after all.”

“Rather than eating out, I’d like a light drink.”

“A light drink, huh. I’d love to do that. But your daughter…”

“Let’s just finish up with her first and have a get-together with just us adult women, shall we?”

“I think I’m about to become a passionate fan of yours.”

Ahyoung smiled and put the two contracts side by side.

“If you don’t have any objections, shall we stamp the contract for now?”

Her mother looked at her, as though the final decision was up to her. She took out the stamp that she brought with her.

“If it’s someone who has signed multiple contracts, I or the head manager would be the one to do it, but since it’s your first contract, you should try stamping it yourself. It feels different after all. Oh, you can use this stamp ink.”

She put her stamp on the red stamp ink. She pressed deeply before placing her hands above the contracts. Her hands shook. She took a deep breath before stamping in the middle of the two contracts placed side by side. She stamped deeply to the point that her hands were shaking before lifting it up again. The moment she saw her name stamped between the two copies of the contract, she sighed out in relief.

“Hey, there’s more to go, you know?”

Ahyoung smiled and flipped over to the next page. She smiled awkwardly before stamping all the pages. After stamping everything, Ahyoung put one copy in an envelope before handing it over to her. She looked at Ahyoung’s hand for a moment before grabbing it.

“I will definitely make sure that you won’t regret coming to us.”

“Please take care of me.”

After shaking hands once, she let go. Only then did she realize that her palms were sweaty.

“Oh, and about your stage name. Did you think about it? It’s not that you have to decide on it now, but the quicker the better. There’s a superstition that calling people by their stage names will make them lucky.”

“Uhm, there’s one.”

“What is it? Tell me.”

“It’s Han Gaeul.”

“Han Gaeul?”

Ahyoung contemplated for a while before smiling.

“That’s decent. If it was something strange, I was going to go to a naming center and get one from there. Han Gaeul, Han Gaeul, huh. There’s no one who uses the same name, and it’s easy enough to pronounce. Above all, it’s an actress-like name. What do you think, writer?”

“If my girl’s okay with it, I’m okay with it too.”

“Then I guess I should call you Han Gaeul from now on. Also, tell the people around you to call you that from time to time. If you get famous, you’ll get called by that name more often than your real name. It’s also to get more luck.”

“Okay, I’ll do that.”

“I guess that’s done now then. Well then, shall we go out to have a drink, writer?”

“Sure.”

The two looked like long-time friends. She blinked a few times before standing up with the contract in hand.

“Han… I mean, dear Miss Han Gaeul should go back first. Mom will talk with the president here before going home.”

“Gaeul, take a look around the company. If you put this around your neck, you won’t be stopped from going anywhere, so you can visit anywhere you like.”

Ahyoung gave her the company ID card she was wearing.

She - Gaeul - looked at the company ID card in her hands. The two women had already left the room. Alone in the president’s office, Gaeul looked around and took in the scenery into her eyes.

“So I really signed the contract.”

Her heart raced. She lifted the contract in her arms up high. It’s not a dream, right? - she tried pinching her cheeks. The pain told her that it was indeed not a dream. She stared at the contract for a while before coming to herself. She left the president’s room. As the 4th floor was an office space, the entire floor was quiet. She looked at the people standing at their desks drinking coffee, and happily chatting to other people before heading to the staircase.

“It was this place, right?”

She used this staircase to go to the 5th floor with Ahyoung last time. She looked at the colorful stairs before climbing up step by step. Eventually, she was greeted by a door painted blue. She pressed down on the doorknob before pushing it. A cool wind brushed past her body. The green grass, the beach chairs… There were quite a lot of people resting on the grass. Some of them were even eating. No one seemed to mind who came up here. There was a sense of liberty, so Gaeul boldly stepped outside.

She walked up to the banister and looked around the scenery. To the left were towering buildings, and to the right were houses and shopping complexes. She never knew before this moment that standing in the middle of Seoul was such an exciting thing. Ah, so this place is my agency now - she thought.

She embraced the strange feeling that was mixed with expectation and unease. Just then, she heard a voice behind her.

“Hyung, get up.”

“I don’t think I can.”

“This is why I never let you come here. The president also said that you were forbidden from using the beach chair, didn’t she?”

“I can’t help it. It’s so warm up here. I might as well live here. This place is better than our house.”

“It’s true that this place is better than our house, but you’re being a disturbance by being here. Other people should rest too. Now, get up!”

The boy that seemed to be the little brother dragged the big brother onto the grass. The people around looked at them and giggled. They seemed used to seeing it.

“My little brother, you should lie down as well. This place is heavenly. Ah, I really want to live here.”

“You’re almost late for practice.”

“It’s fine. It will be fine. Time is generous, isn’t it?”

“Who said that? Stop being lazy and move!”

When the little brother glared at the big brother, the big brother, who was lying down on the ground like a sloth, finally stood up slowly. It was a little funny to see that the big brother was submissive to the little brother. Just then, Gaeul subconsciously bowed to them to greet them. The two greeted back, and the little brother’s greeting was the very definition of politeness, in contrast to the big brother that greeted while almost leaning sideways like a deflated balloon. He looked very tired.

“Hyung, this isn’t good. You should wash your face first.”

“Can I not get washed?”

“Really? You should wash your hair as well.”

“I just washed my hair yesterday.”

“If you’re human, you should wash it once a day, or even twice.”

“You know what? You’re being too cruel to me lately.”

“I can’t help it since I’m your manager. Just accept it. Now, stand up.”

The big brother was dragged by the little brother. Gaeul giggled and looked at them until the door closed behind them. This company seemed to have some very interesting people.

Chapter 600

“Why are there so many people who are good at acting these days?”

Joomin sat down while sighing. Dongho also nodded.

“Apparently, he’s training to be an idol.”

“An idol?”

“You didn’t know that, noona?”

“I didn’t.”

“I asked and apparently he’s going to make his debut soon.”

“An idol, huh. Is that why he looks polished?”

The two people looked at the boy they were talking about. Maru also followed their eyes. Ever since New Semester started its school bullying arc, they got a new character, which was played by him. He had joined them a while ago and was shooting with them.

“Are idols equivalent to general entertainers these days?” Joomin wondered as she rested her chin on her hands.

“They do everything. Don’t you think he’ll gain quite a bit of popularity when he makes his debut? What do you think, noona? Does his face work on girls?”

“Well, he does have a pretty face. It’s not a face that I like that much, but I don’t hate it either. It’s just moderately good, I guess?”

“Looks like he’ll definitely make it big then. I should’ve tried to be an idol too.”

“With a face like that?”

“What’s so bad about my face?”

“Nothing, I mean that you’ll do well. You should definitely make your debut later. Oh, yeah. You remember the last time we went to the noraebang together, right?”

Hearing Joomin’s comment, Dongho shut himself up.

If it was about the noraebang, Maru remembered that as well. The always confident and proud Dongho was strangely quiet at the noraebang and thinking that it was strange, Joomin forced him to take the microphone. Following that, a song that completely ignored pitch and rhythm could be heard. Ever since that day, Dongho wouldn’t give a glance to such places.

“Maru, what do you think? Don’t you think he’s pretty good at acting?”

“He is. Producer Park Hoon didn’t make comment about him either.”

“That’s true, he scolded all of us once.”

Joomin seemed a little dejected when she thought about how all of them were scolded before.

“A friend of mine is also preparing to become an idol, and it’s really no joke. Noona, you haven’t seen aspiring idols during training, have you? They learn something every single hour like squirrels on squirrel wheels. There are those that only prepare their singing and dancing, but these days, the trend is for them to compose and write their own songs or even do acting.”

Dongho locked his fingers and put them behind his head.

“That makes me worried. Do you think we need to learn some specialties too?”

“I thought you majored in chemical engineering. Why don’t you go with a smart image? You should go to Seoul University then.”

“Seoul University isn’t the name of someone’s dog’s house. It’s not a place you can get into just because you want to. Anyways, Dongho, why don’t you go with an actor who’s terrible at singing?”

“Stop teasing. There are only four verses in the national anthem, yet you were trying to sing a fifth. I’m never going to a noraebang again.”

“Let’s go again. I think that was the biggest laughing moment in my life. Where would I see something like that again?”

While Joomin and Dongho quarrelled with each other, Maru read the text he got from her yesterday.

-I signed the contract. I guess this is the beginning for me now, too. I feel uneasy, but I’m more excited than uneasy. I feel like I’m getting a sense of belonging here already. Since I’m doing this, my aim is to be an actress with 10 million views!

He could imagine her jumping around while making that text. Everything had changed now. While they might have started off on the same line, her life had definitely taken a different path now. The steering wheel of the car that was driving down the road of life had been turned. It turned onto a new road, and ahead was the unknown. Her life of entering a theater troupe had been erased. What was left was a blank diary that would be written over.

“What is it? Did something good happen?” Joomin asked.

“A friend of mine signed a contract with an agency. Her dream was to become an actress, so I’m relieved. I was actually quite worried.”

“Which agency?”

“Hwan.”

“That’s a good place. I’ve never been there, but there are many good rumors about them.”

Joomin’s words put him at ease one more time. He checked over and over again, but since this was related to her, he couldn’t help but be concerned about it. Whenever people around him said that Hwan was a good agency, he felt relieved, and at those times, he realized just how much he loved her.

He was about to put his phone away after checking the text when his phone vibrated. He got another text from her.

-There’s something I didn’t tell you yesterday. You probably won’t be seeing this right away since you’re in a shoot, right? It’s about the stage name. It’s been decided that I’ll go with Han Gaeul. The president likes it so call me Han Gaeul a lot in the future. Apparently, being called by my stage name will make me lucky. While I don’t believe in things like that, now that I’m in such a situation myself, I end up believing it. You’re the first one to know that my stage name is Han Gaeul. Of course, except mom and the president. Work hard during the shooting. Also, thanks.

“Han Gaeul.”

Maru rolled that name several times in his mouth. It was a name that made him smile warmly. Han Gaeul. He decided to call her that loudly the next time they met.

“Uhm, Han Maru, right?”

Maru raised his head when he heard a voice interrupt his thoughts. The actor that was participating in the drama as the bullied kid for three episodes was standing in front of him.

“Uh, yeah.”

While they were introduced to each other as a group, he never got to know this person personally. Other than the fact that his name was Song Siwoo and that he was an aspiring idol, he knew nothing about him. The fact that he was an aspiring idol was also something he just found out thanks to Dongho.

“Do you perhaps know Heewon and Haewon?”

“Heewon and Haewon?”

Just as he was thinking that they were unfamiliar names, the name Hwasoo High flashed past his mind. He was reminded of the faces of the brothers he met last year. The lazy-looking big brother and the very quick-witted little brother. The big brother was Lee Heewon and the little brother was Lee Haewon.

“I do.”

“I knew it. A couple of peculiar kids entered our agency last year. Lee Heewon and Lee Haewon. It was pretty peculiar since the little brother is the manager of the big brother. I talked to them out of curiosity and we ended up talking about you.”

“Really? So he got into an agency too, huh. Why would you talk about me though?”

“Haewon said that it was thanks to you that they could join the agency.”

“I didn’t do anything. I just told them the location of Film, the academy. The fact that he managed to join an agency probably means that he stood out even at Film.”

Lee Heewon. He was a peculiar guy. He didn’t have a clear image of the guy since he only met the guy a couple of times, but the acting he showed was deeply engraved in his mind. Perhaps that was what it would look like at the epitome of instinctive acting. His acting did not use any of the standard methods or gestures of acting and yet still managed to pop out. It was something that only he could do. If another young actor tried to imitate the way he acted, it would either be overly exaggerated or look strange.

“Do you know Heewon well?”

“No, I only met him a couple of times.”

“Really? From what Haewon said, it sounded like you were close.”

“I talked to Haewon for a bit, so I guess I’m closer to him than I am to Heewon. But I still can’t call it ‘close’. We’ve never contacted each other since last year. Oh, I guess I did receive a message of thanks. Anyways, why would you come to me to ask about Lee Heewon?”

“Because he’s pretty strange. We get the same acting lessons, and what should I call it… it feels like he’s living in a world of his own. The instructor doesn’t touch him either and just gives him assignments.”

“Why didn’t you try talking to him?”

“He couldn’t be bothered with anything in life, so I don’t get a satisfying answer even if I ask him something. Having Haewon next to him makes it a little better, but Heewon is the only one there during practice. Oh, yeah. Did you hear this from him as well? That he can see colors from emotions?”

“I did. He said it himself.”

“Do you think that makes sense?”

“I don’t see why it would not.”

In a world where a dead man comes back to life, what wouldn’t make sense? Maru smiled as he looked at Siwoo.

“Acting is something hard to describe, isn’t it? Heewon should feel like that too.”

“Is that how it is?”

Siwoo scratched his head before flinching and taking a step back. He seemed to have realized that Dongho and Joomin were staring at him. Siwoo, who probably had no idea that he was the topic of conversation until just now, looked at the two people alternately, clearly clueless.

“Uhm, can I ask you one thing?” Joomin asked.

“Ah, yes.”

“I heard that you were an aspiring idol, am I right?”

“Yes. We formed a team and we’re getting ready. I think we’ll be able to make our debut soon.”

“Idols usually sing and dance, don’t they? Do you have to learn acting too?”

“Hm, these days, the boundary between the two has thinned quite a lot. It’s thanks to the seniors of TTO. Before, everyone glared at idols when they were trying to do acting, but it’s not like that these days. In fact, I believe that making a debut as an idol has its advantages.”

“That’s true.”

Joomin nodded. Her expression wasn’t that bright. Rather than being dissatisfied with idols, it seemed that she was worried about the fact that the position of actors was being narrowed.

“Isn’t it hard to act while being an idol?” Dongho asked.

His words contained thorns. Siwoo also seemed to have noticed the dissatisfaction in his gaze and smiled awkwardly.

“I’ve never taken acting lightly. I’m putting in just as much effort as the others, if not more. I can’t have people swearing at all idols because of me.”

“No, well. It’s a world where focusing on one thing is hard enough, and focusing on two things is a bit…”

Just as Dongho got up to that point, Maru covered Dongho’s mouth. Dongho flinched before moving his head backwards.

“You were good. I’m sure you’ll become a good actor.”

“Ah, uh. Thanks. I’m also watching your acting a lot. I think I have a lot to learn from you. It’d be good to talk again later. We’re friends who are both learning acting, aren’t we?”

Siwoo slightly bowed before returning to Yeseul and Giwoo. Yeseul, who was glaring at this side, probably because of Siwoo, turned her eyes away. Giwoo was maintaining his polite smile.

“You should’ve been harsh on him at this opportunity!”

“You know well that that’s no different from embarrassing yourself. He’s good at acting. Isn’t that good enough? Not only that, he can dance and sing as well. You said it yourself, didn’t you? That idols have a huge amount of practice to do. If you look down on something he’s practiced so hard to gain, what does that make us, who are on a similar level to him?”

“I know, but it’s annoying. You know it too, don’t you? That acting is only a form of insurance for them. If it doesn’t work out for him, he’ll just change lanes to singing and dancing and come back later. I don’t like that.”

“Do you think he’s going to beat you at acting?”

“Me? Hell no!”

“Then there’s nothing to worry about, right?”

“That’s true, but still.”

“Now then. Let’s have a look at the script one more time. Being harsh on him when he came here to greet us with a smile is something you shouldn’t do. If you want to tell him that acting is not something you do on the side, you should prove that during the shoot. You should just get the producer to tell you that you’re on a different level. Of course, I can’t do that, but what about you, noona?”

“I think Dongho’s going to do something big today. I’ll be cheering for you. Should I tell the director that Dongho’s resolve is different today?”

“F-forget it! I just tried saying it. Do you have to go this far?”

Dongho turned his head away violently like a horse. He was really easy to handle. Maru exchanged gazes with Joomin and smiled.

“Ah! Hwan!”

Dongho suddenly shouted when he just started reading the script.

“What the heck was that all of a sudden?”

“It’s Hwan.”

“What?”

“He’s also in Hwan.”

Dongho pointed at Siwoo who was sitting behind Maru.

“His agency is Hwan?”

“Yeah. Didn’t you say that a friend of yours joined Hwan? That person is not going to start off as an idol and switch to being an actor later, right?”

“You’re being too worried. It’s not like that, so don’t worry about it.”

Rather than that, if she was in Hwan, she might have met the brothers already. Maru texted with one hand to her, Gaeul, about the two brothers.

-Is there someone named Heewon there? If there is, try to stay close to him. You should be able to learn a lot of things from him. You won’t understand him since his acting is peculiar, but it will still help to broaden your horizons.

He hit the confirm button. A winged-envelope special character appeared on the screen before it disappeared.

“Shall we go through our lines?”

That was Giwoo’s voice. Maru looked at the two next to him before standing up. Gathering at Giwoo’s signal before the shoot began had become a routine for them. Giwoo was now clearly at the center of the young actors.

“Let’s go,” Maru said

Chapter 601

Park Hoon took his eyes off the monitor and stood up. The actors all looked at him.

“Cut. Let’s take a break. Also, Yeseul, Giwoo.”

When he waved, the two kids came towards him.

“It’s hot, isn’t it?”

“Eh? No, it’s not that hot.”

“If it’s not hot, why are you all wobbly like you’re having a heatstroke?”

Yeseul became quiet after his reply. Park Hoon then looked at Giwoo.

“Kang Giwoo.”

“Yes.”

“Do you think you have everything perfect since I tell you that you’re good? Maintain your emotions until the end. Don’t get loose just because you’re outside the frame. You’re not at a level where you can pick up and put down emotions in a blink of an eye, are you?”

“I’m sorry, sir.”

“Don’t do things you’ll be sorry about. You’re killing me because you stop when you can clearly do more. Okay? Also, Ahn Yeseul. Get yourself together. If I see you turn your head to the fans one more time, I will quit shooting today, you understand?”

“Yes, I’m sorry.”

He waved at them to go away. The two of them bowed before walking off.

“Director Park. Seems you’re giving those two the proper treatment now, huh?”

“Senior, don’t say that. I’m just scolding them because they’re dazed out.”

“That’s what I call proper treatment. How long do you think I’ve known you for? You don’t even talk to those that you don’t like. Seeing you pick specific people out and scold them, I already have an understanding. So you’re supporting those two.”

Park Hoon looked at Hwang Joonghoon, who came and sat next to him. He was the eldest member on the shooting set of New Semester and a senior he personally respected. He was one of the rare actors who could perform intense actions like rolling on asphalt despite the fact that he was nearing 60 in age.

“This is why I can’t say anything in front of you. I feel like you know me better than I do.”

“I can tell from looking. So the one you’re pushing is the boy side, huh? Kang Giwoo, that boy’s pretty decent.”

“Yeah, he’s a good seedling. When I touch him he shows change immediately. I don’t want to touch those that sulk when I point things out, but if I see people trying to improve like that, then I want to keep supporting them. Yeseul became okay recently, but she has a tendency to rely on Giwoo. That’s why, in order to raise Yeseul’s skill, I need Giwoo to do better. ”

“You should compliment them from time to time. They’re still young kids. How are you going to handle it if they sulk without knowing that you did it for their sake?”

“If I can’t tell that much, I should quit being a director. Oh yeah, I have some chocolate. Would you like some?”

“I don’t eat such things because of my blood sugar.”

“Oh, looks like I’ll have to prepare some tea next time then. It’s become quite warm since we entered May. Are you doing okay lately?”

“Me? I’m nothing without my health.”

“I saw you on TV yesterday. Are you okay with doing another historical drama? I saw that you’re going to have to roll around in the mountains.”

“Isn’t that my specialty? It’d be bland if a historical drama with me in it didn’t have such a scene. The directors seem to want that as well.”

“Still, you should use a stuntman if you want to look after your body. If you get injured, you’ll be in a world of trouble.”

“It’s been 38 years since I’ve been doing this business. If something was going to happen, it would have happened a long time ago. Rather than that, those kids seem like they don’t get tired of standing there all day.”

Park Hoon looked at ‘those kids’ that Jonghoon was talking about. He saw some students gathered at the entrance of the school. Most of them were girls, and they had cheering messages written with highlighter on banners that were tied around their necks. They were Ahn Yeseul’s fans, who had been showing up every weekend for a while.

“They’ll tire themselves out soon enough.”

“Shouldn’t you at least give them water or something? It should be hard standing there all day.”

“Sheesh, senior. Your generosity is your greatest downfall. If you give those kids something, they’ll bring more next time. These days, girls like that are scary. They claim themselves to be fans but they practically stalk the people they like, and sometimes, they appear at shooting locations that we’ve scouted even before we get there. I wonder where the information is leaking.”

“They’re thankful people. What do you think an actor lives off of? It’s the interests of those kinds of people.”

“Honestly, isn’t it the money paid to you by the TV stations?”

“Hey, you know what I’m getting at here. Anyways, Yeseul has it good. She has so many fans already.”

“I’m worried since she keeps getting distracted by them. It’s not like I want her to look stiff all the time, but like this, she’s all wobbly like molten ice cream.”

“That happens to everyone who’s receiving attention for the first time. You know that better than anyone. You shouldn’t be so cruel.”

“I’m telling her about it so that she doesn’t get a celebrity complex. You know that they don’t know what’s right and wrong if they attract attention at such a young age. I’ve seen too many promising kids who fell from popularity after thinking that they were bigshots just because the adults around them complimented them a little.”

“There are kids like that.”

“So don’t act so generously towards the kids either, senior Hwang. These days, I can see that the kids go look for you after getting a scolding from me.”

“Maybe they like me.”

“You’re turning me into the villain?”

“It’s fine, isn’t it? You’ve always been evil. It’s not the first time this happened.”

“Someone might misunderstand that I’ve been evil since I was born if they heard you.”

Yeseul! - he could hear the fans shout from afar. Yeseul waved her hands at the fans before looking his way and turning around.

“Don’t scold her. It’s not like she can completely ignore them.”

“Hey, little one! Aren’t you going to restrict them properly!”

Park Hoon shouted at the youngest recruit of the direction team. The quick-witted member ran towards the school entrance.

“If I was under you, I would’ve quit already.”

“Senior, I’m not such a bad guy, you know? I just have a slightly louder voice than others, and I’m a little more sensitive.”

“Sure you are.”

Joonghon laughed before pointing at someone else.

“That one, the one that joined us recently. He’s pretty good too.”

“You mean Song Siwoo? You know early education is the trend these days, right? Unlike when you were in your prime, kids get educated starting at five, you know? I was flabbergasted when I was introduced to a kid, who turned out to be a trainee at a pretty famous company. These days, these agencies just take anyone they think is promising. I wonder where they get all their money from.”

“You don’t seem to like that, director Park?”

“It’s somewhat funny for me to talk about who is and who isn’t a proper actor in front of you, senior, but the basic criteria for actors in my opinion is that they must have experienced life. Being young is completely fine and all, but do you know what I think when I see kids who have received top-quality education like a flower raised in a greenhouse? I think, ‘wow, so robots with elastic skin can make expressions huh’ - just that. Even if they’re young, they can polish a splendid foundation with a variety of experiences. However, when I see kids acting in front of me like they are something after being fed their food their entire life like some rich young master, I get frustrated to death. There are definitely good ones among the young actors. When you have a close look at them though, they’ve experienced a lot of ups and downs in their life. I’m not saying that a good actor cannot emerge from a good environment, but kids like that don’t have that raw tastefulness. What would they know when they’ve been treated like an actor their whole life?”

“There you go again. Eating good food and seeing good things can allow people to do good acting. It’s not like you think that experiencing hardships is everything, do you? You’re way too old fashioned. If it’s your brain, I think it’s even older than mine.”

Park Hoon sighed softly.

“I know that the trend is teaching them at an early stage, and I can’t help that, but child actors are appearing by the dozen like they’re some mass-produced goods. When I look at them, it makes me wonder if it’s me or the world that’s going crazy.”

“Be more flexible. If you keep living like that, you won’t live a long life.”

“Don’t you think it’s worrying, senior Hwang? When you see all of the kids acting like they’ve learned from the same book?”

“It’s the era that changed, so don’t keep bothering yourself with it. Director Park, you already know what kind of actor survives in the industry, don’t you? No matter how much the world changes, the public only wants one thing when they watch TV. That is, actors that make them excited. If they have the talent, even if they look like they’re injection-molded plastic, they’ll show their unique acting one day, and if they don’t, then they’ll just become one of those so-so actors like me.”

“If you’re a so-so actor, then there would be less than ten actors in the country who can call themselves that. Try telling that to the kids, they’ll be in an uproar.”

“I knew it, you’re the only one who cares about me.”

Joonghoon smiled in satisfaction before massaging his shoulders.

“Don’t do that. The kids will swear at me if they see this. They’ll think that a young person like me is ordering around a senior.”

“Stop grumbling. That’s what you do to me all the time. Anyways, how long are you going to keep doing this?”

It was rather sudden, and there was no context, but Park Hoon could only smile bitterly.

“I wonder about that too.”

“Don’t you like deeper stuff, director Park? Like thrillers. I wonder why you’re holding on to such a cheerful one like this one.”

“I do it because the president told me to. Plus, there was no one to do it too since the mini-series lineup was screwed. Above all, I don’t see any good works from any good writers. Well, I am contacting one, but it’s still unknown if that will come to fruition or not.”

“You were contacting one?”

“Yes.”

“What’s the genre?”

“A romantic thriller.”

“A what thriller?”

“A romantic thriller. Don’t you think it sounds cool?”

“Cool my ass. Did you change your tendencies since you’ve been doing flowery dramas lately?”

“Senior Hwang. One of the biggest elements of a successful drama is the twist, isn’t it? I tried reading the novel, and it was pretty interesting. The writer never worked on writing scenario scripts before, so I would probably have to have a proper script writer work with her, but the story progression is really good. If it does come to fruition, I’ll start preparing from the 4th, no, the 3rd quarter even if it means that I hand this over to someone else.”

“Your eyes are sparkling. You seemed to have taken a liking to it, huh?”

“You sure got that right. If I do it, help me out a little, will you? It’s a minor one, so we won’t get a lot of funds, meaning I can’t pay you much.”

“Why don’t you rip me off instead? Well, if it’s something you’re trying seriously, I can’t miss out. I want to do something proper with you while my body still lasts.”

“A verbal promise is still a promise okay? You can’t come to me and say no later.”

“Fine, fine. I’ll do it.”

Joonghoon yawned before looking at the school field. Park Hoon also yawned. The sunlight in May was in itself a strong sleeping drug. There was even a cool wind, so he felt like he could sleep until the next day if he closed his eyes right now.

“That one, that one over there,” Joonghoon pointed at a boy near the goalpost.

“I like him too. He’s a kid, but his acting isn’t too overdone. I’m not sure about veteran beauty, but he looks like he knows what acting is.”

“If it’s him, I’ve already been taking note of him. One of my colleague producers used him for a brief moment as a minor actor. It was the role of a murderer, which is hard for a kid to do, and he did really well. It did feel like Ahn Joohyun received it well, but without a solid foundation, he couldn’t have acted like that.”

“You said that the one you’re planning to do is a romantic thriller, right?”

“Yes. If I do it, I’m taking him as well. If I give him a role, he’ll do better than I expect him to.”

“What about Kang Giwoo then?”

“He’s good too, but how should I put this… He’s good at acting, but he doesn’t have that attraction. You know how people prefer infighters when it comes to boxers even though they get beaten up horribly? Outfighters can become popular, but they’d have to be really good, but Giwoo isn’t on that level yet.”

“Why? I like him because he’s polite.”

“Acting isn’t based on politeness, is it? Also, I don’t like people who are too clean. Maybe because I’m not that clean myself, but looking at someone who’s too clean makes me feel like they aren’t human. In that sense, that boy is moderately not clean. Well, he said he’s going to be an actor for money, so that says a lot about him.”

Park Hoon turned his phone on to have a look at the time. It was about time to resume the shoot.

“Senior, I’m going to resume the shoot. Please get ready.”

“Alrighty.”

“Assistant director! Have everyone on standby!”

“Yes!”

Park Hoon dusted off his pants and stood up.

Chapter 602

“The director is looking at us.”

“I slightly bit my tongue when I said my line, did he notice that? Man, he has the ears of a bat.”

Dongho avoided Park Hoon’s gaze and turned around. Joomin also seemed to have done something wrong as she was fidgeting while pulling on the net on the goal.

“I think both of you did pretty well though,” Maru said as he turned around with the script.

He personally didn’t find anything wrong with the two people’s acting. Dongho said that he screwed up his line slightly, but from how the director didn’t stop the shoot and continued, it was either a small mistake that the director didn’t mind or a mistake that looked natural even through the camera. The director wasn’t someone who would be okay with mistakes in his work, so the fact that he continued rolling the camera without stopping it signified that there were no problems.

In fact, what caught Maru’s eye was Yeseul’s acting. At the beginning of the shoot, she was clearly way too tense, and now she looked way too loose. She seemed to be trying to show herself as an actress who can do things at a leisurely pace, but to Maru, she looked like an athlete after running at full speed. There was no way the director couldn’t notice her bad acting. The fact that he called out Giwoo and Yeseul privately was probably to warn them.

The reason Yeseul couldn’t act properly was probably due to the fans that came here to see her. Maru had a look at the students who peeked from everywhere throughout the shooting set despite the shouts from the assistant director. There were fans who passionately cheered for her. It wasn’t that he couldn’t understand why Yeseul was slightly agitated. It was an actor’s desire to do well in front of an audience. Perhaps it couldn’t be helped that Yeseul couldn’t get used to the change in atmosphere on the shooting set. It was the director’s job to set her straight and guide her down the right path since he was responsible for the whole shoot.

“They’re still here,” Dongho said as he looked at Yeseul’s fans.

They were waving panels that contained Yeseul’s name, character by character, above their heads. They seemed to have some sort of a fan chant as well. He couldn’t hear it because he was too far away, but he could definitely make out the three characters Ahn, Ye, and Seul. Despite being girls, their voices sure were loud. Maru thought that they should strive to be singers.

“What’s so good about Ahn Yeseul? And why are they all girls? Don’t girls usually have guy fans?”

“You don’t get it. The most loyal fans are mostly women. Why do you think TV stations usually target women in their 20s and 30s when they make their programs? It’s because men don’t open their wallets that easily. Girls, however, open their wallets without hesitation for the content they like,” Joomin said.

“You know a lot, noona. So you used to chase around actors like that too, huh?”

“Well, it wasn’t for an actor, but I did camp outside a TV station to see a singer I liked. That was back in middle school.”

“Wow, you were a girl too, huh? I thought you were a bro until now.”

“Hey, if you don’t fix your attitude, you’ll live alone for your entire life. This noona is advising you out of concern. You don’t want to go to the afterlife after living a solitary life without a girlfriend, do you?”

Dongho became quiet. He probably felt something from that. Maru faintly smiled and walked up to the two.

“Looks like the shoot should begin soon. Give me the cups, I’ll put them away.”

He got the empty cups from Dongho and Joomin and placed them behind the goalpost. It was outside the camera frame.

“Actors, please stand by! We’re resuming the shoot!”

The camera started moving left and right on the rails. The camera director checked the camera feed before looking at Park Hoon. Maru saw some hand signals between the two. It seemed that they were ready.

“Dongho, have fun out there.”

“God, this will be tiring.”

This scene was a soccer scene. It was a mixed-gender match, and they just had to run around with the background actors who had been waiting since morning. As for Maru, perhaps due to his character’s personality, he was given the role of the goalkeeper. Thanks to that, he could stay comfortable at the goalpost and just get into posture whenever the camera looked at him.

“Hey, it’s going your way!”

“Run!”

The ball was mostly passed between Giwoo, Jichan, and Dongho. The camera busily slid across the rails to capture the three. After that, the ball was passed to Yeseul who started dribbling by herself. She looked pretty cool when she kicked the ball once and started running after it with all of her might. Pretty girls looked pretty no matter what they did. She seemed to have done some sports when she was young as her running posture looked quite convincing. Okseon and Joomin marked each other and were at odds even when neither of them had the ball. The writer seemed to think that it was interesting to put these two together as they seemed to be at odds with each other quite often in recent episodes. This was on top of the conflicting relationship between Yeseul and Okseon.

Removed from the fierce and flowery atmosphere was Siwoo, who was running on the school field with a dejected expression. As he had the role of the transfer student who’s getting bullied, he was, directly and indirectly, being bullied by the other kids. The three main characters, Yeseul, Jichan, and Giwoo were unrelated to the bullying. The main characters had to be cool even when they were evil. However bullying was an act of maliciousness that could not be packaged with the word ‘cool’, so the main characters weren’t directly related to Siwoo’s bullying problem yet.

After running around, the actors all stopped. While everyone caught their breaths, Siwoo’s acting began. The minor actors, like Siwoo, had joined for the bullying episode and they all pushed Siwoo as they ran past him. They were the perpetrators of the bullying. Siwoo, who tried to participate in the whole match with his classmates until the end, was eventually pushed out of the field. Siwoo looked at the others running inside the field like a lighthouse on a solitary island. The camera, which had filmed the whole process, stopped in front of Siwoo and the director made a cut there. Maru stretched his body out as he walked towards the center of the field.

“Han Maru, don’t you think that you have it too easy?”

“I want to just stand there too, doing nothing.”

“Maru, wanna switch?”

The main characters all spoke to him. Maru shrugged before looking at the director, who was coming towards them.

“You were good, everyone. It does look better now that you all aren’t being conscious of the camera. Jichan, you seem to have kicked some balls when you were little, huh?”

“Yes. I quite like soccer.”

“I’m planning to add a scene where you dribble with the ball, so have fun kicking the ball from the goal line to the half-line. Dongho and Giwoo should take either side. You can shoot too, right?”

“Yes!”

“That’s some good confidence. Han Maru, you bored?”

“No, I like it this way.”

“Today, you look like you’re having an easier time than me.”

“This isn’t bad from time to time.”

Park Hoon chuckled before continuing,

“After we shoot the shooting scene at the goal, we’re going to switch over to the faucet scene. There, the three of you will find out that something bad is happening to Siwoo. Now, you gotta bring that part to life. It’s not a conviction, but a suspicion. I’m going to close in on your faces, so don’t put on too much makeup. I know that the boys put a lot of strength when washing their hair, but wash your hair so that it looks like you’re taking it easy.”

“Yes.”

“Let’s finish things off nicely before we eat lunch. Now, get ready for the shoot. Oh, Han Maru. Try clenching your fists and jump.”

Maru clenched his fists while wearing the goalkeeper gloves and jumped. He even shouted ‘yes!’ in an energetic voice.

“Good, we’re going to take a cut of that, so do exactly that. Well then, get into positions!”

The director went back to his monitoring position.

“You get a cut too, huh?”

Dongho came up to Maru and giggled. Maru smacked Dongho’s chin with his fist.

“You go do your thing.”

“Fine, I’ll run around like hell.”

The shoot resumed amidst a liberating atmosphere. There was an energy of freedom from the kids who ran around with all their might without being conscious of the camera. Some of them couldn’t have ordinary school lives because of their work as actors and those people seemed to be really enjoying this moment as they just laughed even when they fell over before getting up and running again. The director did not shout cut and captured everything on video. He looked pretty satisfied.

After dribbling the ball and shooting it into the net, Jichan caught his breath while Maru was being shot. There were no detailed instructions and it seemed that the cut would only be used as a montage. Maru decided to jump high and cheerfully and bring out the most of Lee Chan’s personality. Maru did just as the director instructed him to. He jumped with all his might and then fidgeted in embarrassment.

“Well then, let’s clean up and go to the next part.”

The staff moved the equipment in a hurry. It was 1 p.m. They would only be able to eat after finishing this scene. The actors gathered at the faucet area installed in one corner of the school field. They washed their faces and hair just as the director told them to. The girls had water sprayed onto their hair since they could not tolerate their hair looking like seaweed.

“Siwoo, you’re going to have to fall back. You can do that, right?”

“Yes.”

A camera was located behind Siwoo. There was a mattress right below the camera, and the opposing actor just had to push Siwoo over and Siwoo would fall onto the mattress.

The progression was pretty fast since it was right before lunch time. After doing one rehearsal, Park Hoon started the shoot immediately.

Maru stood opposite Siwoo and observed his expression. Personally speaking, he quite liked Siwoo’s acting. His movements were clean without any unnecessary movements and his pronunciation was clear. Leaving aside a unique character, there was a lot to learn from him when it came to acting skill alone.

Siwoo was pushed back and he fell over. As expected of an idol who had a harsh training regime, he had no hesitation when he fell over. Siwoo fell over on the mat and he stood up again when the director gave the cut sign.

“Siwoo, I like that you don’t have any hesitation, but you’re trying to show off too much. Remember that you’re supposed to get pushed powerlessly and then fall because you misstep. It’s not about falling over in a cool fashion.”

“Ah, yes.”

“Good, let’s do that again.”

They did the same shoot and the director once again shouted cut with a sour expression.

“Song Siwoo. Come over here.”

The director looked at Siwoo and the monitor alternately. They talked about something and Siwoo’s expression didn’t look that good.

“Can you do that again?”

“Yes.”

“Alright. Let’s do that once again and go with the best one.”

Please take care of me - Siwoo said to the opposing actor before falling over on the mattress again. This time, he seemed to have pushed off quite strongly unlike before. The director shook his head as soon as Siwoo landed on the mattress.

“You’re overdoing it. Let’s just go with the one before. Still, you did well. Let’s wrap things up and have lu…”

Park Hoon paused mid-way. Maru was stretching his arms out, wondering what the menu was for lunch when he noticed a stare from Park Hoon, which made him blink several times.

“Hey, Han Maru.”

“Yes.”

“You’re good with your body, aren’t you? I think I heard something about you.”

“I’m not that good.”

“So you are good to a certain extent. Hey, take your glasses off and stand in front of the camera. You know how to fall over, right?”

“Do I just have to fall over?”

“If you know, then do it.”

It seemed that Park Hoon didn’t like the cuts he took. Maru took his glasses off and handed them to Dongho before standing in front of the camera. His hairstyle was similar to Siwoo’s so it wouldn’t look that strange if it was just the back figure that was being filmed. His build was slightly larger, but it would only last an instant, so that shouldn’t be a problem either.

“One, two, three, cue!”

At the signal, Maru took a step back before falling down. He imagined that the mattress wasn’t there and twisted his body as much as possible. When falling over, a person was bound to reach out towards the ground. There was no one who just fell over on their backs. The white mattress reached his face. Maru was now lying down on his stomach when he heard Park Hoon’s voice.

“Hey, that’s good. Let’s go get lunch!”

Park Hoon tapped Maru’s head.

Chapter 603

Maru had gotten used to eating lunch boxes at the shooting location now. He opened the plastic lid and started eating when he felt a presence behind him.

“Can I eat with you?”

It was Song Siwoo.

“Do whatever you want. It’s not like anyone owns this place.”

As soon as he said those words, Siwoo sat next to him. Dongho, who sat opposite to him, twitched his eyes and spoke,

“What made you come here today? Instead of going to Ahn Yeseul’s side?”

“Uhm, if you don’t want me here, I’ll go somewhere else.”

Siwoo didn’t seem flustered at all and looked straight at Dongho’s face as he said those words. Instead, Dongho was the one who made some weird hand gestures before saying ‘that’s not what I mean’. As pouty as he was, Dongho was kind at heart and compromised with himself as soon as his opponent acted upright.

“I did get used to it, but it does hurt me to see other people looking at me like that. Sometimes, I wonder if idols shouldn’t be acting,” Siwoo said in a small voice.

“It’s not like there’s a law that forbids idols from acting, so don’t worry about it. Dongho’s just a bit twisted, and he doesn’t actually hate you so just be understanding. Isn’t that right, Dongho?”

“Of course. I’m not that petty.”

Dongho told Siwoo to quickly start eating. Finding that funny, Joomin continuously slapped Dongho’s arm as she laughed.

“Maru, isn’t this guy pretty cute from time to time?”

“Dongho is pretty cute.”

“He’s like a total kid. When are you going to grow up?”

“You’re both bullying me again. Just get eating.”

Dongho hurriedly picked up his lunch box and started eating.

You’re gonna choke - Maru pushed the drink in front of him over to Dongho’s side before looking at Siwoo.

“So there are similar happenings in other places too?”

“It doesn’t happen that much, but when I meet people who don’t see me in a good light, I kinda end up regretting that I started doing this. Despite the fact that I’m putting a lot of effort in, you know?”

“You’re like a mutant who popped out of nowhere after all. You suddenly barged into an already stable ecosystem and started eating everything in sight, so there are bound to be people who won’t look at you in a good light. Rumors always circulate around rich households. It's proof that things are going well, so just ignore what you don’t want to listen to.”

“My president said something similar. That half of the words from adults are from pride and the other half are from their conservative nature. That’s why I don’t need to listen to them that deeply.”

Only after Siwoo finished did he smile and pick up his chopsticks. They ate while talking about trivial stuff like the weather.

“Uhm. Can I ask you something?”

Maru looked at Siwoo as he stuffed his mouth with some rice. What entered his view was Siwoo’s lunch box. Siwoo had left all the fried food untouched.

“Aren’t you going to eat those?”

“Hm? Oh, these? I have to maintain a strict diet. I’m only going to eat fried food after the debut. I’m going to have to shoot a debut soon after all.”

“Then I’ll take it, okay? As compensation for answering your question.”

Maru poked one chopstick into the shrimp tempura and put it in his mouth. He suddenly had a thought when he put it in his mouth - that he should not take up roles that had to look skinny. He seriously didn’t have the confidence to control his weight.

“So, what do you want to know about?” he asked after swallowing the shrimp tempura.

“Back there, at the faucet.”

Dongho and Joomin, who had almost finished their lunches as well, also took interest in their conversation. They closed in with drinks in their hands.

“Why do you think I wasn’t able to get an okay sign?”

“Everything other than the falling over part was okay. Falling over is something that’s not that related to acting. Well, in a broader sense, it is, but it’s more about using your body.”

“That’s what I don’t understand. I thought that I fell over really well, but the director said he didn’t like it. Falling onto a mat is something that happens often when I’m practicing choreography, so it shouldn’t have looked that awkward.”

“Do you remember what the director said to you?”

“That I’m trying to look cool? I never intended to.”

“He put it that way, but he probably meant something different.”

“What did he mean?”

“You weren’t afraid. You fell over too cleanly.”

Maru closed the lid of his lunch box since he finished it. Siwoo seemed to be thinking about what happened back then as he was staring at his own legs.

“Dongho, give it to me if you’re finished. You too, noona. I’ll collect them and throw them away at once.”

He stacked the lunch boxes and stood up before moving. He handed over the trash to the car that brought the lunch boxes and went to grab four cups of coffee from the vending machine inside the school. He grabbed one cup with his mouth and the other three with his hands. Just as he approached the three who were sitting on the platform, he heard Siwoo’s voice.

“Then how should I have fallen over?”

“Just throw your body.”

“I think I did that.”

“Should I have looked afraid like what Maru said? No, that can’t be right. It shouldn’t matter since my face wasn’t in the camera.”

Maru joined the three people who were talking among themselves.

“You’re still talking about that?”

“What do you mean by I wasn’t afraid? I took a few steps too before I fell back,” Siwoo asked.

“Take this first.”

“Oh, thanks.”

“Dongho and Noona, you too.”

“Thanks.”

Maru sipped on the coffee before starting to talk.

“It generally varies from director to director according to their preferences. While there are some that like falling over refreshingly and don’t look at other things, there are people who place importance on detailed expression even if the movements look a little awkward. Director Park Hoon is sort of in the middle since he’ll be fine with any extras as long as the actor expresses the things he wants them to. Trying to look cool, exaggerating - when he uses these words, he’s not asking for the clarity of the movements. He’s for the actor to describe the situation the character is in a little bit more.”

“I think I did what the director told me to do.”

“You did, but it wasn’t enough. I’m not entirely sure about this either, so do you still wanna hear it?”

“You got an okay from him. I want to know what I did differently from you. Honestly speaking, I don’t think there was a difference between you and me when I watched you.”

“If it’s just about falling over, maybe. But you know…”

Maru suddenly pushed his hand towards Siwoo’s face. Siwoo was startled and pulled his body back. The coffee in his cup started sloshing and some of it spilled out.

“W-whoa! That startled me.”

“I thought you finished it, sorry about that.”

“I almost finished it and nothing got on my clothes, so it’s fine. But why did you do that all of a sudden? Was there something on my face?”

“No, I thought it’d be easier to show you than to explain to you. This is what I mean by ‘afraid’. It is the most core element that your character needs to have. Throughout the shoot, you shrunk your shoulders and stared at the ground. You were trying to express that you were lacking confidence and that the character was in an extremely defensive state, am I right?”

“Yeah, that’s right.”

“Continue that line of thought. Just because something is an action scene, doesn’t mean you can just look at it independently. This is something I’ve heard numerous times when I learned acting. When shooting dramas, the camera usually focuses above the shoulders, right? The camera is angled like that because facial expressions are very important. When the camera is in front of you, you act so that you reflect what the character’s emotions are as much as possible, don’t you? I mean, not just you, but everyone here should be like that.”

Maru looked at Dongho and Joomin after saying those words. They nodded. Siwoo did the same.

“But adding an action scene into that sometimes makes people forget about the context because they’re too focused on the action itself. In your case, you were too focused on falling over, so I think you probably forgot about the basis of your character. This is just my opinion, so you have to ignore most of it, okay?”

“Okay. Please continue. I think I’m beginning to understand.”

“You’re in a situation where you’re surrounded by bullies. Faltering back is just a device to express your emotions, which is fright. However, before that, you have to express what kind of situation made you feel afraid. If I, who doesn’t have any malice towards you, suddenly reach out towards you during our conversation, you’ll falter back in surprise, right? If you didn’t have anything in your hands, you might have put up your hands to defend yourself. That’s a reflexive action. It’s the most principal reaction that does not go through the thought process. If you think back to your acting now, you will find what you did strangely.”

Siwoo contemplated before standing up and walking in front of the platform. He faltered back like there was an imaginary person in front of him before falling on his butt. It seemed that he chose to fall down on his butt since there wasn’t a mattress here.

“I get it. So this is why he told me not to try to look cool.”

Siwoo returned and had spoken with a much brighter expression.

“Continuity is important for acting after all. Even if it’s split up into different cuts, what you need to show in the end is the flow and the context. The director probably didn’t repeat the scene because of the falling part. He was probably dissatisfied with your actions before you fell over.”

“I don’t think I would’ve okay’d that either. I wonder why he didn’t explain it to me though. He only asked me if that was all I could do while monitoring.”

“That’s just director Park Hoon’s style. He doesn’t overly interfere with acting. Even when he gives out directions, he only mentions the general gist of things and leaves the details to the actors. No, rather than leaving it to us, he might not be saying anything because it is our job, not his.”

Maru gave Siwoo some tissues because he saw that the coffee that splashed onto the back of his hand had dried out.

“Shooting for real is definitely different from practice alright. There are a lot more things I need to be concerned about.”

“If you understood that much from just that, I guess you won’t be scolded for your acting wherever you go. You’re much better than me.”

“No way, what are you saying? I only understood thanks to your explanations. If it weren’t for you, I would’ve been stuck thinking about my falling posture, you know? It really was the right thing to ask you. It’s just as Haewon said. You’re like a problem solver.”

“Haewon called me a problem solver?”

“He did. He said that he did the right thing when he consulted you about his worries. Uhm, can I ask you more from time to time?”

“But you won’t be here since it’s your last day here, isn’t it?”

“Just in case. Or am I being too annoying?”

“That’s not entirely false, but…”

Maru reached out with his phone. There was nothing to be lost by making more connections. Moreover, this guy belonged to the same agency as Gaeul. He thought that it would be good to get to know him.

“Thanks. Your explanations were really good. I think I had an easier time understanding than in the classes I received.”

“That’s all I can do. Don’t compare me to fully fledged instructors. It’d be rude. It just so happened that I could explain it to you, so don’t expect any more from me in the future.”

“You know? Hearing that makes me expect even more. Anyway, thank you so much. I feel much more refreshed now. I hope I can see you next time, with Heewoon and Haewon at that time.”

Siwoo thanked him until the end before leaving. Whether it was his agency that taught him, or if that was just his nature, it was really good to see him. Even if it was just a mask, if he maintained that without being found out, that mask might become the truth.

“Han Maru, what’s up with you today?” Dongho said from behind him.

“What?”

“Your explanations were really kind, unlike usual. When I ask you something, you’d usually reply with ‘look at the script’ or ‘think about it yourself’ or ‘is that all you know?’ or something like that. Are you discriminating just because he’s an idol?”

“I did? Am I not the same as always?”

“What the heck are you saying? When Jichan came to you for advice before, you made your face like this and told him ‘my advice will be meaningless to you’. You were so cautious about explaining things to others, yet you’re spilling all the beans today. Are you planning to get close to him and get an idol girlfriend? If it’s like that, let me in too.”

Maru laughed before waving his hand in denial. He was different from his usual self? He scratched his eyebrows and thought about it. When he thought about it now, he did think that he was a little bit harsh. He thought that interfering with other people’s lives was crossing the line, and above all, had no benefit for him.

‘Well, this much advice is fine I guess.’

Wouldn’t it be fine as long as the listener just took what was necessary? He even thought that he restrained a little too much from talking. He thought that there was no reason to actually go that far. Now that he thought about it in retrospect, his actions did feel quite stuffy.

“Maybe this is the original me. The kind Han Maru.”

“Wow, that really doesn’t suit you. Don’t you think so too, noona?”

“Yeah. He definitely isn’t like his usual self.”

Maru shrugged.

He changed? People were bound to change. Staying still without changing was the same as regress, so changing was something positive.

“Never mind that, let’s have a look at the script. We have two scenes left.”

“Right. The phantom of the script wants to look at the script, so we have to look at the script, yes.”

“Shall we start from this point?”

Maru looked at the two people and opened his script.

Chapter 604

Changed, huh. Maru thought about it as he looked at Dongho, who was acting. The words he didn’t think much about during lunch kept reverberating inside his mind. He felt unpleasant as though he was watching his room being messed up. The negative emotions he didn’t know the reason for did not become bigger or smaller. They just exuded their presence as though to prove that they were there, sitting on one corner of the desk in his mind. He tried meditating in order to clean up the desk in his mind, but that minute displeasure did not disappear. Even when he looked at the script, it kept bugging his mind as though someone was calling out to him softly from behind.

Change. In retrospect, it was the thing he wanted the most. Escaping the death of a miserable middle-aged man and creating an environment without any deficiencies, even if it did not look beautiful was far better. Although he maintained passiveness until now, it was still a series of challenges for him, and some of his choices were bold to the point that they could be considered reckless. As a result of them, however, he was where he was right now. He was steadily gaining career experience and connections. There were no problems anywhere. He even managed to play a supporting character in a public TV program before he was even twenty. It wouldn’t be exaggerating to say that he got on the elevator that led to success. It was a series of contradictions where he chose to escape being ordinary to live an ordinary life, but the result was golden, so he could say that there were no worries.

Then why - Maru pressed his fingers between his eyes. It wasn’t that he was tired. He didn’t have a headache either. He needed some pain. Usually, he would’ve stopped thinking about trivial things like that due to the pain. Maru sighed softly when he felt the unpleasant sensation that kept sticking to him. Was it because he didn’t get enough sleep recently due to watching all those videotapes? He glared at the innocent Dongho before picking up his script. The camera did not care about whether he was in a good condition or not. It was crucial for an actor to display their full capabilities no matter the time. He repeated the few lines he had several times to wait out the waiting time. He could feel a part of him still concerned about the word ‘change’ in a corner of his mind, but he intentionally ignored it. It would negatively affect the shoot if he kept thinking about it. It would be enough to think about it after the shoot.

“Han Maru, get ready!”

“Yes.”

He put down the script and entered the camera frame. As soon as he saw the black camera and the transparent lens, he calmed down as though he had never had any of those thoughts. Regardless of the characteristics of the space, he liked stages.

“We’re starting the shoot. Joomin, come a little more inside. Jichan, make sure you make your movements clear. Three, two, one, cue!”

* * *

“What were you thinking about so deeply before?” Joomin asked Maru after finishing the shoot.

This was the first time she saw Maru thinking about something instead of looking at the script during waiting time. He had looked up at the sky, then looked at the ground, shook his legs before calming down again. She found it so unusual that she glanced at him during the shoot as well.

“There was something I needed to think about.”

“Is it something serious? It might be just me, but you looked a little uneasy.”

“I did? Was I that strange?”

“You were. I was even wondering what you were thinking about that it made you like that. But you look okay now. Did you get it cleared up?”

“When I thought about it for a while, I found myself rather pathetic for worrying about such a trivial thing. So I just shook it off.”

“That’s good. I was slightly worried thinking that it was something big.”

“Well, what kind of big things would I be worried about at my age? I just thought about whether changing is a good thing or a bad thing. Earlier, I felt like it was a complex problem that made my head hurt, but from some time onwards, I started thinking that it didn’t matter. It’s not like clinging onto such a useless topic is productive either.”

“Is it because of what Dongho and I said to you before? If it’s like that, you don’t need to mind it. I was just joking. Dongho probably didn’t mean anything much either. We did that because you were just slightly different from usual.”

“So I was different from usual?”

Joomin looked at Maru’s eyes. For some reason, she felt that this boy’s eyes, which contained no hesitation before, seemed to be wavering and unable to find the right direction to go. She thought that this was the moment for her to set him straight as a senior.

“It’s not like that. It’s not like we meant anything much when we said it. If you’re still worried about what we said, then just forget about it. You haven’t changed. Of course, you’re changing in the sense that your skills are improving to the point that I can’t find any flaws, but your personality is still the same. I’m saying that you’re good. You treat us well. Dongho was just playing a joke on you when he said that you were coldhearted. Try grabbing anyone here and ask if you are a coldhearted person or not. You’re a good guy, so don’t worry about such things.”

She felt a little proud after saying those words. Maru was always the reliable sort, so it was rather refreshing to see his feeble side like this. Joomin smiled as she looked at Maru.

“Right? It’s not like a person’s nature would change that easily. Thank you, noona. I think you cleared my head up a little.”

“Nah. I am still a senior who has lived a few years more than you. I can tell you things like this anytime. I’ve once worried about the same thing after all.”

“I’ll come to you for consultation from time to time then. Oh, it’s our scene this time. Let’s get ready.”

“Yeah.”

Maru walked forward with his usual faint smile.

“But he really is different from usual,” Joomin said to herself as she looked at Maru getting farther away.

The Maru she knew was proficient in everything which was unlike a high school student. He was someone who sometimes reacted a little too well that it made her feel slightly scared. She never thought that someone like that would have such worries just because he was told that he was ‘different from usual’. Was it because of his age?

In any case, it did look like things went well, so Joomin followed Maru.

* * *

“Thanks for your work. See you next week!”

“Yes, please have a safe trip home.”

Dongho and Joomin waved their hands as they got in the taxi. Maru watched the taxi drive off and turn at a junction before starting to walk. It was 3 p.m. Unlike the main actors, who had shoots until late into the night, the supporting characters had finished all their scenes. Although the shoot ended earlier than usual, Maru felt that today was longer than any other day. It was because of the train of thought that he had.

Fortunately, he no longer had a headache now since he got things cleared up, but until just an hour ago, numerous thoughts filled his head to the point that he was worried about his brain melting from overloading.

Thousands of thoughts popped up into his mind without any commonalities before disappearing at once. As though to reply to the topic of ‘change’, his current and past memories branched out infinitely and brushed past each other at crossroads. In that process, he embraced the excitement of a new challenge that he had forgotten about, tasted the infinite possibilities of youth, and saw the goodness of mankind.

It was to the point that he felt strange for being so cautious when he approached the world until now. Was there a need to draw such a clear line? Why did he suspect people first without first treating them with an act of goodwill? A stable future was good and all, but since he only had one life, shouldn’t he have been more proactive about what he did?

It was the same for interacting with those around him as well. Couldn’t he have talked to them more? Why did he not tell his juniors his own experiences and knowledge? What was he so afraid of; what scared him so much that he ended up drawing a line between him and others, and staying away from approaching them more than necessary?

It was a foolish thing to not approach people because of worries of being injured by them. It was fine to hit a wall and break. It didn’t matter if people made him disappointed. Why? Because he was still young. While it might not be infinite, he still had a lot of time ahead of him. He could try sidetracking and escaping from ordinary life for a little. Wouldn’t it be fine to experience the numerous things he couldn’t in his previous life?

“Phew…”

Maru clenched his teeth. He put his hand against the wall of the building right next to him before smashing his head against it. A sharp pain arose. The vortex of thoughts broke apart and his mind became empty.

He leaned against the wall and slid down.

“Just what’s the problem?”

Treat others with goodwill? Love challenges and escape the highway to experience many things? What kind of nonsense was that? Those were the kind of thoughts that could only stem from naïvety.

Challenge was a privilege for those that had a place to return, and goodwill was something given when a person had the power to endure betrayal. Didn’t he choose to try acting because there was a 300 million won condition to act as a safety device? Why was he trying to package that as a beautiful challenge and induce himself to try out more challenges?

He felt like his head was about to burst. A ‘Maru’ that he didn’t know about kept whispering to him. Return to your pure youth, back to the days when you were a student without any knowledge, back to the days where you enjoyed yourself. And then, withdraw yourself.

Maru closed his eyes and took out his phone. He then deeply pressed his shortcut number. The signal to Gaeul rang inside his ears.

The signal sounded especially long today.

* * *

“Hello?”

Gaeul picked up the call with a smile. A call on the weekend. It seemed that his shoot ended early.

-I was just wondering what you were up to.

“I’m just resting at home of course. My lessons start on Monday.”

-Yeah, I guess you should be. You’re going to get busy starting Monday.

“Yeah, I will. Anyway, it seems like the shoot ended early for you, huh?”

-Yeah, it did.

After that, Maru didn’t say anything for a while. He was probably waiting to play a prank on her again.

“Since you finished early, should we meet up?”

-No, it’s fine.

“Really? What’s gotten into you? You used to be naggy about definitely having to meet up on weekends.”

-Sometimes, we need some time by ourselves. Oh, the bus is here. I’m hanging up then.

“Already?”

-Yeah.

“What the heck? That was boring.”

-I had a lot to say before I made the call, but strangely, I now can’t find anything to say.

“What happened to you? That was unexpected.”

-It’s not that surprising, is it…? Anyway, get some good rest.

“Okay, uhm… What the. Did he just hang up?”

Gaeul quietly stared at her phone. She felt strange since the boy who would never hang up on his own accord ended the call just like that.

“…He must have done it to get on the bus.”

It wasn’t anything much, but it strangely nagged her mind for some reason.

Gaeul grabbed onto her phone for a long time. She thought about texting him, but she felt like she was getting fussed up over something trivial so she decided not to.

“Why must I care about this? Gosh, I’ll forget about it.”

It was a problem that she kept adding meaning to everything related to Maru.

Gaeul lay down on the sofa, thinking that she was overthinking things.

Chapter 605

Was her mother going to be late again today? - Gaeul wondered as she opened the door to the refrigerator and took out the salad she made in the morning.

Lately, her mother was spending more time outside than at home. Every weekend, she would usually be wondering whether she should be writing her novel or doing housework, but these days, she kept telling her to look after the house before quickly going out to meet someone. She wondered if it was a man, but it wasn’t like that. No, it was a man, but it was purely for work. You can look forward to it - her mother made a suspicious smile as she put on her shoes at the door. Look forward to what?

She put a slice of apple covered in mayonnaise and ketchup in her mouth before going into her room while munching on it. She turned on the power for her computer and opened the messenger program. She said hi to her friends who were online before opening a web browser.

“Is this the one we’re applying to?”

In the middle of the web portal was a banner ad about the Seoul Youth Film Festival for 2005. When she clicked on it, she was greeted by the official homepage, which had a clean blue theme. She moved her mouse cursor to the application section.

“So anyone who's a student can apply. Oh, the actor doesn’t have to be a student, huh.”

It was split up into different categories. There was a category that only young people could participate in, and a category that adults could participate in with a topic related to youths. Gaeul looked at the bulletin board for the youth competition, but there weren’t any articles. The participating works would be displayed here after the 23rd of May, the deadline for the application, after a simple selection process. The film she shot with Maru should be one of them.

She heard that only the latter half was left now.

Gaeul pushed the walnuts in her salad to the edge of the bowl with her fork. Mayonnaise and walnuts? She thought that it was a really unfitting combination, but her mother always put in walnuts.

She put her fork down and placed her hands on the keyboard. She entered the URL for her blog and logged in. She was greeted by the main page for her blog, which she used the default theme for since she didn’t have any talent at decorating. Gaeul clicked on the ‘greetings’ section of the menu on the left side. This was a space where the visitors of her blog could leave behind some words.

-I have an opportunity to go to Daehak-ro soon. It was really hard to go since I live in Daegu, and I’m going to watch plays until I get bored of it. I hope I can see you, Black Swan.

-You haven’t been writing much for your blog recently. I guess you must be busy. I had a really interesting time reading your posts about plays, what a pity. Remember to write something when you return. Oh, my school got an acting club recently. Now I get to try acting myself with my friends.

-Black Swan. I went to the restaurant in Daehak-ro that you posted about before, and it was really good. Their curry really was different from the instant ones like you said. I hope you can recommend me more in the future.

Gaeul read each and every one of the posts before replying to them. Until she started shooting the sitcom, she came to her blog and managed it once every two days at least, but ever since she started working, she was so busy that she couldn’t log into the blog for a while.

After deleting all the advertiser comments, she wrote a new post. As the blog guaranteed anonymity, she only revealed herself as a high school girl here. When she passed the audition for the sitcom, she felt so happy that she almost wrote about it for the blog, but after contemplating for a while, she just wrote that something good had happened to her. She felt the need to be cautious since it was related to the TV media.

“Hello, it’s been a long time.”

She spoke out loud as she typed. Her habit of typing with just her index fingers and reading what she typed out loud now felt like she would never get rid of it in her lifetime. She wrote down her impressions of the play she watched with Yoojin last time before putting a period. It was a short post, but she had a hard time writing.

She checked her post one last time before posting. Although it was a small blog without a lot of visitors, she was always concerned whenever she uploaded a post. She rested her chin on her hands and read through her previous posts. There were a lot of things in the blog she created when she was in her first year of high school. When she read her old posts and saw the glee and regret she felt from her first ever play performance, as well as her future resolve and results, she ended up chuckling. You tried hard - she wanted to compliment her past self. She thought that she was only here because she didn’t give up when she was having a hard time.

A familiar name entered her eyes. It was a greeting post from two years ago, and it was written by a person with the ID ‘Maru’. It mentioned that he was happy to see a blog about acting. The two were already saying hi to each other through blogs when they hadn’t even met yet.

-We also decided to participate in the winter acting competition. Maybe we’ll meet each other there, though that’s if we both pass the preliminaries. Do your best, Black Swan.

It was the post Maru left before the winter acting competition. Thinking about it now, it was quite funny. So there could be such a coincidence.

“No, wait. I guess we did meet.”

Gaeul faintly smiled. She remembered how she went to Daehak-ro with the people from Myunghwa High’s acting club when she was in her first year. There was a boy that stared at her on the streets. Now that she thought about it, that boy was Maru. When she thought about every event that happened, she thought that there couldn’t be a weirder series of coincidences. At first, she really didn’t like how nonchalant he acted, but at one point, she realized that there was a completely different person inside, and when she realized that, she already liked him.

Gaeul tried going onto Maru’s blog. The blog entry with the huge banner ‘Life, Once Again’, was still there, however, there were no new posts starting last year. There seemed to be almost no visitors either.

Maru was busy too after all. Gaeul grinned before leaving a post in the greetings section.

-Mr. Maru. Do you know what the meaning of a black swan is? It’s the happening of something impossible. The reversal of what was perceived to be absolutely impossible. I hope everything goes well for you like a miracle.

She wondered what kind of expression Maru would have on his face when he stumbled on this later and felt proud just by thinking about it. Life’s energy didn’t come from anything special. Drinking a cup of cold water in hot weather, discovering a flower by the roadside, or even a post like this. She hoped that Maru could smile when he opened his blog again before closing the browser.

* * *

It was immediately obvious that it was a dream.

A street crossing with the paint starting to peel off, the blinking traffic lights, the students walking by while eating ice cream, a driver holding the wheel with a bored expression, a woman consoling a grumbly kid, and a man looking forward in a daze. The damp smell from the ground that was cooled off by the rain, the moderately hot weather, and the noise from a truck engine that clearly seemed like it needed maintenance. Everything was a scene from ordinary life, and despite the fact that there was nothing strange with it, he realized that this was a dream when he took in everything.

Maru quietly turned his head around. The scene he could see outside his house unfolded out in front of him. It was an ordinary scene from an ordinary day in an ordinary town in the afternoon. Maru walked when the light turned green. He did not know where he needed to go nor what he had to do, but his body walked forward without hesitation as though his steps knew of his destination.

Was this what a lucid dream was? Just in case, he tried imagining flying through the skies, but his two legs on the ground were definitely following the rules of gravity. He momentarily forgot about the movements of his two legs, which seemed to be moving on someone else’s accord, and looked around him. Why was he having a dream like this? Was his desire for ordinary life creating the dream?

“Han Maru, we’re late. Aren’t you going to run?”

A boy spoke as he brushed past him. It was Daemyung.

“Yeah. I will.”

His mouth uttered the words by itself. A smile appeared on his face. His footsteps became lighter, and the wind hitting his body became warmer. So he was on his way to school? He exited the alley and turned around at a supermarket when he saw the school in the distance.

“Seonbae, let’s go quickly.”

“We’re going to be late.”

“Quickly!”

The juniors from the acting club stood in front of him. Maru nodded and joined the group. They talked about trivial stuff like what they ate for dinner last time, what movie they enjoyed, and things like that, as they moved forward. Maru joined in on the conversation from some time onwards. I had a hard time levelling up in a game, I acquired a good item, I watched soccer throughout the night; whenever he talked, the people around him laughed.

This was the first time he had so much fun going to school. He decided not to worry about dreams or whatever. He found it too much fun talking to his friends about trivial things that he couldn’t think about anything else.

“So there, I got…”

Just as he was going to talk about what happened yesterday, a man looking at him while standing still entered his eyes. Maru knew this man, who was wearing worn-out clothes. He was Kim Seokjoon, the man he met during the street performances and led to the stage. Now, he had become an actor who played main characters in dramas with considerable skill.

But why would that man be here? Just as he thought about such a thing, Seokjoon’s clothes changed. His clothes magically turned into a full suit, but Maru didn’t find it strange since he knew it was a dream. Seokjoon’s clothes kept changing. His face was changing as well, ranging from a face that did not know the hardships of life to a really aged face.

What was curious was that Maru was too familiar with all of those faces even though he couldn’t have seen most of them. He was standing still and looking at Seokjoon when someone pulled on his arm. When he turned his head, he saw the people from the acting club, his friends, as well as the people he got to know through acting. When did they all gather?

“Let’s go, Han Maru. We should go.”

“It’s this way.”

“You should go to school since you’re a student.”

Maru slowly nodded. He had to go to school. He was a student after all. The thought that he should go to school with the brightly smiling people filled his mind, but for some reason, he couldn’t take a step. Maru turned his head around again. There was a grown up version of himself standing next to Seokjoon. Just like Seokjoon, that figure’s clothes kept changing as well. Among those clothes was the vest he wore when he was a bus driver. Next to his figure, an unfamiliar woman appeared. Again, she changed into different figures. Next to the next figure, and next to them again, different people he had never seen before appeared.

They were unfamiliar people, but for some reason, they felt familiar. It was a strange sensation he couldn’t describe with words. He had never seen them, but it felt like he did.

“Han Maru, I said we should get going.”

“Seonbae, we should go to school.”

The pulling strength became stronger. When he looked at the school gates, he wanted to forget everything and just laugh together with his friends. He felt like that was the shortcut to happiness.

However, he couldn’t take his eyes off the people standing on the other side. They were still increasing in number. Just when and where did he see them before? What was this sense of déjà vu he was having?

At that moment,

“…A rabbit?”

The cars on the road disappeared and a rabbit stood there instead. The rabbit was wearing a grey fedora and holding a pocket watch in one hand. In its other hand, it was holding a rather cute-looking staff that was black. The tip of the staff had the shape of a bird, and it seemed like a cute carving of a swan. Since it was black, it could be called a black swan.

The rabbit sniffed a few times before walking towards the people on the other side of the road, where Seokjoon and the others were standing. Maru subconsciously walked to the middle of the road. He heard his friends call out to him from behind, but for some reason, he couldn’t stop.

In the middle of the four-lane road, he regained control of his body. To his left were the people whose clothes were constantly changing, and to his right were his friends and the entrance to the school.

“Han Maru, there’s a car coming! What are you doing!”

“Seonbae! It’s dangerous over there!”

“Come here quickly! What are you doing!”

The sounds felt like they were traveling through water.

Maru felt the flow of time slowing down as he looked at both sides. Just what was this dream? The rabbit with the pocket watch walked past Seokjoon and went into an alley. Maru felt his breathing being stifled. His head started hurting, and he felt like the skies and the earth were flipping over.

At that moment, a bus appeared on the road out of nowhere. There was a metal beam stuck on the windscreen, and that metal beam had penetrated through the driver’s seat. Maru looked at the bus that slowly approached him. When the bus arrived right in front of him, Maru could see himself desperately trying to turn the wheel in the driver’s seat.

The moment the bus crashed into him, it dissipated like smoke. Maru put down his arms that he raised instinctively. Just what was happening?

As confusion kept piling up inside him, he heard a voice behind him.

He saw a man collapsed on top of a desk with piles of paperwork. The man had bled from his nose and was still as though he was dead. Maru gulped before approaching the man. The collapsed man looked familiar to him. Maru reached out and grabbed the man’s ID card, which was swaying sideways. He flipped it around with shaky hands.

‘Steel Logistics Team 1, Manager Han Maru.’

The ID card in his hands disappeared like a mirage. The collapsed man had disappeared as well. Maru looked around.

“Who?”

Chapter 606

Manager Han Maru. If he didn’t see it incorrectly, that was what was written on his ID card. He didn’t see the man’s face, but Maru was sure that the collapsed man was himself.

No way - Maru shook his head. Manager? In his previous life, he never climbed up to the position of a manager even once. When he worked at a company, his position as an assistant manager. Not only that, he had to quit without being able to work much since he ended up whistleblowing due to an employee who entered through the president’s connections. He had never spent enough time at a company to rise to the position of a manager. He worked as a road manager for an entertainer, then entered a small-scale company and spent his time as a salaryman for a while, before quitting and becoming a bus driver. Nowhere in his career history was he a manager at a logistics company.

Then who was the man he saw just now?

To treat this as a simple dream was impossible since the meaning behind this situation wasn’t that light. He was in the middle of a road, and there were people looking at him from either side of the road. One side was quietly staring at him, and the other side was telling him to come back. Which side was he supposed to choose?

Despite the fact that he was in a dream, his breathing slowly became hurried. He wondered what he was like currently in reality. Perhaps he was breathing heavily while sweating coldly.

Maru moved to slap his cheeks with all his might, to the point that it wouldn’t be strange if he dislocated his jaws and broke a few teeth. However, before his palms hit his cheeks, someone grabbed one of his hands. The hand that grabbed his hand belonged to a man. Maru blinked and looked next to him.

There was a foul stench. He even lifted his hand reflexively to block his nose.

“Hey, you little shit, this is my place. Why are you rubbing your body all over? Move!”

The man who was talking about ‘his place’ in the middle of the road had ruffled hair and a dirty face as though he hadn’t washed in days. He was wearing a thick winter jacket, which had the cotton padding inside spilling out through some rips. His shoes had greyed out to the point that the original color was unrecognizable.

“Your place, what do you…”

Just as he was about to shake the man’s arm off, he felt slightly dizzy and closed his eyes. When he opened his eyes again, what he saw was a train station which had turned dark. In the middle of a large train station that was presumed to be Seoul Station, he was standing there.

“Where do you think you are looking? Hey, don’t act crazy and get out of my way.”

The man pushed him away strongly. Maru was powerless to resist. The scenery had changed in an instant, and there was this man. Just what was this dream trying to show him?

He turned around to look at the man. That man, who took a bench next to a pillar all for himself, put down some newspaper and some cardboard in a proficient manner before sitting down on top of it. He took out a bottle of soju and a plastic cup from his jacket.

“Oi, Lee. Get the ramyun over here.”

The man called ‘Lee’ walked over from the other side. He also looked quite dirty. The two men, who sat facing each other, started eating ramyun out of its packaging over some soju. They had a conversation as well, and most of the time it was about how they could escape their situation soon.

Maru looked down at his body. He was wearing a dark grey suit with the elbows worn out as though it was quite old. His watch had a tattered leather band that looked like he could rip it with some force. Furthermore, from how the noses of his shoes were wrinkled, his shoes seemed pretty old as well.

What was this now? Maru stroked his face with his hand. The first thing he felt was his cheeks, which had lost their elasticity. His two eyes had sunken, and on his forehead were numerous thick grooves that seemed to have appeared with the passage of a long time.

His body suddenly felt heavy. He felt hungry, and his knees felt numb as well. Maru followed the signs to the bathroom. He met eyes with the cleaning lady, and the lady clicked her tongue as though she had seen something she didn’t want to before walking away. He stared at the lady’s back for a while before standing in front of the mirror. He saw his clothes. He also saw the light blue-colored necktie that did not fit the dark grey suit. However, the thing he had to see couldn’t be seen.

He couldn’t see his face. His face in the mirror couldn’t be seen as though it was hidden behind a thick mist. He could make out the general features through touch, but it felt stifling not being able to confirm it with his eyes. He turned on the tap, but no water came out. When he left the bathroom with a burning thirst, he saw the two drinking men. The station had become filled with people now. Everyone had depressed faces without any life in them, and they were all leaning against the wall or were lying down. Among them were men who were wearing suits just like he was. There were over a dozen of them.

Anyone who’s not an idiot would know why they were here. Maru put his hand on the wall. Just what was this dream trying to show him?

Strength drained from his body all of a sudden. An immense sense of loss suddenly overwhelmed him.

“Look at that. He’s wearing something like that in this cold weather. No wonder he’s collapsing. Oi! If you don’t wanna die, then get some clothes to wear. Also, you should tell your family that you got fired, you know? It’s kinda obvious that you’re trying to pretend to go to work while looking for work instead, but that’s really not something you should do.”

One of the drinking men shouted at him. Was he saying that to me? - Maru felt his ears go numb. The sounds became distant.

“Oo-uh? What the heck is up with him? Hey, hey!”

“Holy shit, he’s trying to die here. If you die here, the station staff will block the entrance again, dammit! If you wanna die, die outside. Or jump into the Han River or something!”

People ran towards him and violently shook him. Maru felt as though he was standing on top of a ship in stormy weather. His insides were churning, and he couldn’t prop himself up properly. He felt like he was going to die just like that, when,

His closed eyes suddenly opened. He intuitively sucked in a deep breath. The foul stench that haunted him until a moment ago had disappeared. Instead of a bad smell, what tickled his nose was the scent unique to disinfectants. Maru looked at the white ceiling before sitting up. He was in a quiet ward. There wasn’t anyone around him. It wasn’t that he was in a private room. There were four beds, there just wasn’t anyone occupying them. The news was flowing out of the large TV on the wall. It was talking about how the first ever electronic retina transplant was successful. It was then followed up by the fact that it could connect to the network with some peripheral devices.

He blinked and looked around him before he realized that he was having a hard time breathing with his mouth open. His breath circulated around his mouth. He wanted to breathe in deeply so that his lungs would puff up, but for some reason, such a simple act felt very burdensome.

He tried touching his forehead with the back of his hand. There was nothing on it. He thought that he would have been sweating cold sweat, but what he felt through his hand was a texture akin to dried tree bark. He raised his hand to touch his face. He understood what ‘skin and bones’ meant from just a single touch. He moved his fingers according to the shape of his skull that was clearly outlined on his skin. He felt like a thin hide was covering his bones. Maru quickly took his hand off his face in fear that he might poke a hole through his face. He knew that this was a dream, but the frightening sense of reality pushed him into the depths of fear.

Haa, haah. He kept breathing dryly. Was this not a ward? Why wasn’t he getting any treatment even though it looked like his body was in a bad state?

Just then, the door to the ward opened and a man came in. The skinny man smiled at him before sitting on the bed next to his. The man that Maru seemed to remember, yet did not, opened his mouth,

“I’m going to go home now. Forty-seven years huh. I’ve lived a fierce life until now, so I guess I’ll spend my last at home at ease.”

“Go home? What do you mean?”

He subconsciously talked to the man without any polite speech. The man opposite him laughed.

“Of course, I’m talking about hospice. But this country is pretty good too, eh? Just 110,000 won a month will get a doctor and a nurse to visit you every month. My family seems to be at ease too. I mean, you know? There’s a man with terminal cancer alone in a house. What kind of family would be at ease knowing that?”

“Terminal cancer?”

“What’s up with you, fella? You had a dream? Well, I guess you do talk about weird stuff from time to time.”

The man sitting opposite him talked about some things after that, but none of it entered Maru’s ears. Terminal cancer. These two words blocked his ears. Only then did his twig-like arms and legs enter his eyes. Perhaps this was a body that relied on porridge to live on, if it could even.

This is a dream, this is a dream - he felt like vomiting. What did he have to do in order to escape this nightmare? After looking around, a window entered his eyes. He pushed himself up and walked over to the window.

“Getting some fresh air? Sounds good to me. There’s nothing better than spring wind. It might be our last spring, so let’s do everything we want.”

Immediately after that, a smashing sound could be heard behind him. Maru slowly turned around. The man, who seemed to have given up everything in life as though he was enlightened, had grabbed the table clock and smashed it against the corner of the bed.

“Stop fucking ticking. Just stay still, goddammit. Dammit. I’m not even fifty yet. I haven’t even seen my kids get married. Why, just why…”

It was tragic. Maru couldn’t bear to look.

If there was a gentle hell, it would be this place.

He opened the window wide. The room seemed to be around the 4th floor. It was a tall enough height that he would die instantly if he fell on his head. Maru stepped on the window sill without hesitation. The wind made his patient clothes flutter.

“H-hey. What are you doing!”

“Waking up. I’m going to wake up from this terrible dream.”

“You crazy? What about insurance? You know that you won’t get paid if you commit suicide. What about the family you boasted about so much! What are you going to do about them!”

The man who was cursing at the flow of time until just moments ago was now worrying about him. How cruel was that?

“I’m fine. This is a dream after all.”

“This is reality, you know? Reality!”

“No, this is a dream. I’m sorry to say this, but this is a dream. Don’t worry about it. You won’t die either. Because this never happened in the first place.”

“H-Han Maru! Hey! No, you can’t do that!”

He hurled his body outside as he listened to the despair contained in those words. Now, I should be able to wake up from this horrible dream - just as he thought that,

“If you’re tired, you should go inside and get some rest. A chief mourner always has it the hardest.”

There was a person who propped him up as he was shaking. Yet again, it was a man he did not know. Hearing the word ‘chief mourner’, he reflexively looked at his arm. He was wearing a band around his arm.

“A funeral?”

“This fella, you’re out of yourself. You should get some sleep. I’ll keep watch over this place for you in the meanwhile.”

The moment he stood up while clutching his aching head, he saw a photo in the black frame beyond the thick smell of incense. In the photo was a lady with a bright smile.

Maru laughed as though he lost it.

“Why don’t you… kill me instead.”

It was her photo. He stared at the photo of her, who wasn’t even in her mid twenties yet, before laughing in vain. Was this god’s prank? Did he have to pay the price for the blessing of living another life? He looked at the calendar. It was 2010.

He felt tired, he wanted no more of this. Maru smashed his head on the floor. He wanted to escape this dream now since it only showed him despair. This damned dream didn’t end even when he died. It was a horrific maze without an exit. He suddenly felt that this dream might never end. A chill ran up his body. He lost strength in his legs, and he couldn’t stand up again.

When he smiled like a lunatic amidst a group of strangers, people wearing black clothing clicked their tongues in pity and told him to cheer up. What was the meaning behind this dream? Whose product was this? If it was god’s will, he wanted to say that it was too cruel.

Just then, he saw the rabbit from before amidst the people walking by. The rabbit sniffed while holding the pocket watch and stared at him. Then it started hopping away as though it was telling Maru to follow before looking back again. Maru stared at the rabbit hopping away in a daze before hurriedly following after it.

“Hey, Han Maru! Where are you going!”

He shook off the hand that grabbed his arm and desperately chased after the rabbit.

Chapter 607

He ran across the long corridor. The people that looked at him with weird gazes became distant behind his back. The sounds that mourned for the dead faded away and he entered a space without any sound. Now, he was no longer in the corridor of the funeral hall. He ran recklessly through the now long tunnel that was made of concrete. In front of him was the rabbit, which seemed like the symbol of hope. He felt like he would fall into the depths of this nightmare if he missed it, so he followed the rabbit like his life depended on it. The distance between him and the rabbit seemed like it would shrink, but it did not. The rabbit turned around from time to time and nodded as though it was checking that Maru was following him properly.

After running for god knows how long and just as he felt the limitations of his stamina, the rabbit in front of him disappeared. Maru looked around him. Where was this place? For now, there was nothing he could see around him. Even light didn’t exist, so he couldn’t make out his arms. The sudden blackout was enough to paralyze his reason. All of his thought processes stopped in an instant, and just as he felt afraid due to the loss of direction, he heard the sound of heartbeats. Only then did he realize that there was no sound around him either. Instead, the sounds coming from inside the body became so loud. He could even hear his stomach vigorously churning. Thinking that this was the perfect environment to faint, he tried to regain his calm as much as possible, but the sounds of physical metabolism inside his body kept eroding away his reason. When he lost his hearing, his minimal sense of position, which relied on his sight, disappeared as well. Feeling that his body was leaning towards the back for some reason, Maru laid on the ground. If this was a torture room, Maru wanted to give the designer of this room the Nobel prize for torture.

He didn’t know how long he spent lying down like that when he started to feel a warmth that he had been longing for. It was the warmth of a person. He smelled the fragrance of a person. Maru slowly opened his eyes.

“What is it? Did you have a dream?”

She - Gaeul - was lying next to him. Gaeul, who was wearing a short-sleeved t-shirt, sat up before turning on the light next to the bed. Maru touched his face with his right hand. His face was drenched as though he had been through a rainstorm.

“Look at all that sweat. Are you okay?”

“I’m not sure.”

“Wait a moment. Drink some warm water.”

Maru strongly hugged her, who was about to turn around and stand up.

“Mr. Han Maru, don’t act like a kid.”

“Just a moment, let me stay like this for just a moment.”

“Honey, what is up with you? Did something happen?”

“No, it’s not like that. I just had a terrible dream.”

“Dream? What dream?”

She stroked his face with her hands. Aah - Maru felt a deep sense of relief. He felt like his two legs finally landed in reality. The nostalgic smell of the duvet, the faint shampoo fragrance, and the 5,000 won clock he bought at a discount store couldn’t be more welcome to him.

“Do you feel a bit calmer now?”

“Yeah. I think so.”

“Then why don’t you let me go already?”

She smiled mischievously and shook off his hands.

“I’ll get some water and aspirin for you. It looks like you’ve been pushing yourself too much recently. Wait a sec.”

Light entered through the opening of the door. Maru looked at her, who was rummaging through the cupboard in the kitchen as she put her hair behind her ears. A dream, yes, it was a dream. Maru looked down at his hands before clenching them. There was a sharp pain from his palms.

“Did I finally wake up?”

He pinched his cheeks as well just in case. It hurt. For some reason, he couldn’t help but smile.

“Here, say ah.”

Maru opened his mouth. She put some medicine inside his mouth. He accepted the cup of water she gave him and drank the lukewarm water. He felt a lot clearer after the water entered his body.

“Are you not feeling well?”

“No, I’m okay now.”

Maru grabbed her hands.

“Are you really okay?”

“I’m fine. I just had… a cruel dream.”

“A cruel dream? If you put it like that, it makes me want to know what it was about.”

She made a devious smile. She climbed onto the bed and leaned her head against his shoulder. Maru lightly hugged her with his right arm.

“I died, and then.”

“That’s a bad start.”

“I told you it was a cruel dream. Anyway, I died, and I went back to my high school days with the god’s help.”

“That sounds good. What happened after that?”

“I tried my best to live. Oh, and I found you as well.”

“Back when we were in high school? Dang, you should’ve let me meet some other boys too.”

“Should I have done that?”

She shrugged.

“Just from that, it doesn’t sound like a nightmare to me. Or, don't tell me, was meeting me that cruel of an event for you?”

“When I think about it now, I think it might have been.”

“You’re looking for a beating.”

She slapped his back endlessly. Maru twisted his body to avoid her hands. He wondered why he felt so thankful about quarreling with her like this.

“So, after that…”

“Nah, don’t say it. It was a bad dream, wasn’t it? You should forget about things like that as soon as possible.”

“Is that how it is?”

She nodded.

“Get some sleep. You should sleep early if you want to wake up early tomorrow.”

“Yes, I should.”

“Should I sing a lullaby?”

He lay down again with his head on the pillow. Next to him, she started humming a song. He felt relaxed as though the nightmare didn’t exist at all. He thought that if he woke up tomorrow, he would start another ordinary day.

Just as he closed his eyes, feeling the warmth from her body,

‘Wake up tomorrow?’

Maru moved his hand and grabbed her wrist. He sighed as he made out the outline of the thin wrist. From one moment onwards, the sensation of her skin had disappeared from his palm.

He slowly opened his eyes and looked around him. He was in a place with a lot of empty chairs. He looked forward. He saw a stage that was sunken in darkness.

Tap tap - the sounds of a shoe rang across from the center of the stage. Eventually, the white pin light shone on the center of the stage.

“Was the play fun?”

At the center of the stage was a masked man. Maru knew who that man was. He was the man he had seen several times in his dreams. The man, wearing a mask that was colored in black and white, walked around the stage with quick steps. It started raining on stage, and the masked man took out an umbrella from nowhere. The song 'Singing in the Rain’ faintly started flowing out in the theater. Maru watched as the man tap-danced on the stage according to the rhythm for a while before jumping onto the stage. He then grabbed the collars of the man doing the musical right in front of him.

“What do you want from me? Just what the hell do you want from me!”

“Nothing. I told you. It’s your choice, but the choices will be given by me.”

Maru intensely glared at the man who shook his hands off. He could no longer tell what was a dream and what was reality; whether he truly went back in time or not. He couldn’t even tell if he was still dreaming right now.

“Was the play fun?”

“Get me out of this place now. Make me wake up from this goddamned dream.”

“I’m sorry to tell you this, but that’s not something I can do. That’s because I’m an incompetent creature who can only do things like this.”

The man started tap-dancing again. He threw away his umbrella and started running across the stage while getting hit by the rain. Although it was only for a brief moment, Maru felt that the man’s movements felt sad. He soon came to himself and chased the man before grabbing him.

“I’m against violence.”

“It wasn’t your doing?”

“I can only live on this small stage that you provided for me. I’m a puny existence. I only know what you know.”

“Then what the hell is up with all these dreams! Is this the damned god trying to screw with me? Or did I finally go crazy and start hallucinating?”

“No, you didn’t go crazy. You are talking to me properly like this. However, this won’t last that long either. Don’t worry. You’ll wake up soon. Probably.”

“How do you know that when you said you don’t know anything?”

“Because I know a few things. I humbly said that I was incompetent, but I’m not that incompetent.”

“Didn’t you say you are giving me the choices? That sounds like you have some power.”

“That’s only a play on words.”

“Tell me properly. What the hell are you?”

The masked man took a step back before taking something out of his pocket. It was a long object - a necktie. The masked man wore the blue necktie around his neck and tied it in a proficient manner.

At that moment, Maru was reminded of the tarot card. The clown wearing a tie on a stage. It was the same as the man in front of him.

“What is it that you want to say?”

“Was the play fun?”

“Why do you keep asking me that question?”

“Because that’s the only thing I have to ask. I can only live on this small stage, and I’m a pitiful creature who can only breathe when you are consumed by the monster known as acting.”

“If you want to bullshit like that, you better do it after taking your mask off. If I hit you while you still have it on, it might hurt more.”

Maru violently reached out and grabbed the mask. The masked man did not resist at all. He put his hands behind his back and even leaned forward as though he was telling Maru to take it off.

“It’s quite embarrassing to meet you like this. Even though it’s about time I get used to it.”

Hearing the man’s voice, Maru pulled on the mask. Snap - he heard the string that tied the mask to the man’s face snapping off before the mask fell off his face.

“……”

Maru couldn’t say anything. He looked at the man, who was smiling in embarrassment before taking a step back.

“I really can’t get used to this.”

“You are…”

“You make the decision. I will give you the choices. Do you finally understand what I mean now?”

Maru started making out the facial features of the man in front of him with shaky eyes.

The exact same face appeared opposite him as though he was looking at a mirror.

“Should I introduce myself properly? My surname is Han from the Yangjeolgong faction[1] and my name is Maru, as enforced by mother’s strong request to not use the same characters for siblings[2]. Because of the reason that pure Korean names[3] sound pretty, my younger sister was named Bada. Anyways, it’s good that my name is not Haneul[4]. Maru is much better than Haneul, don’t you think so?”

The man reached out his hand and smiled. Maru stared at that hand before looking into the man’s eyes. Unfortunately, he couldn’t see any speech bubble that reflected the man’s thoughts.

“I am you, and you are me, so you don’t need to mind things like that. You don’t usually use it, right? Against an enemy, it might come in handy, but you don’t use it that often on the people around you. That’s because looking into what someone else is thinking is very uncomfortable. You know that better than anyone else.”

“What are you? Is this the god’s prank as well?”

“Well, I’m not sure either. What I know is that I’ve been acting on this stage for a very long time now. But I’m still happy to see guests from time to time. Though, it does feel strange that I myself am the guest.”

“What do you want from me?”

“Want?”

The man smiled before speaking,

“Can you take me out of this boring place?”

“What?”

After saying those words, the man shrugged before putting on the mask again.

“This is much easier for the both of us, right? It’s not like we’re doppelgängers. Talking to yourself is the same as talking on your own.”

At that moment, the rabbit from before appeared through the slit of the stage curtains.

“It’s here again.”

The rabbit hopped its way over before climbing onto the man’s shoulder and rubbing against his cheek. At that moment, Maru could hear a girl’s voice. I’m sorry, I’m sorry - the desperate voice echoed on the stage for a while before disappearing.

“So it’s about time to leave. I hope this is the end, but it won’t be, right? Let’s meet again, in your heart, that is. Also, set me free for a while. That’s my only form of leisure.”

The rabbit climbed down from the man’s shoulder and hopped off the stage.

“What are you doing? Go,” the man said as he pointed at the rabbit.

At that moment, Maru saw that the man was crying through the holes of the mask.

“She’s a lovely woman. So…”

The moment the man’s words flowed out of his mouth, Maru felt his body float into the air. He focused on the man with all of his strength. He felt like he needed to hear the words that would come after this.

His body slowly became distant from the stage, and the man as well. The side curtains slowly closed and just before the man disappeared, the man took off his mask and threw it away as he shouted.

Don’t hate her too much.

That was what the man said.

[1] Think of this as a certain lineage.

[2] In Korea, there’s a tendency to use one same character for siblings (or even across cousins). For example, “Gayoung” and “Nayoung” would share the same character for “young”. It can be the first character/syllable of the name as well, for example, “Jaehoon” and “Jaehyun” would share the same first character (Jae). In this case, “Maru” and “Bada” clearly do not share the same character.

[3] Pure Korean names = cannot be written in Hanja.

[4] Again with naming tendencies, ‘Haneul’ means sky while ‘Bada’ means sea, which would be a common pair of names for siblings. The ‘clown’ is saying that ‘Maru’, which is also commonly known to refer to the ‘sky’ (though, proper online sources say it does not), is a better name than ‘Haneul’.

Chapter 608

When he opened his eyes, the first thing he saw was a book with a bookmark in it. A ray of light entered the dark room, shining down on that book. He looked at the cover of that book in a daze for a while. He started regaining his hearing when he blinked about four or five times. He heard some sounds of war and many gunshots. It seemed that the movie of choice for his neighbor today was a war movie. He sat up and looked outside the window. Boom, boom. Whenever a loud cannon noise could be heard, the large TV in the house across from his flashed. He yawned as he quietly watched that TV for a while. Large-screen TVs were really good for watching stuff.

At that moment - “Turn your TV down” - he heard the deep voice of a man, presumably from the house above. Hearing the loud voice, his neighbor immediately turned down the TV volume. Maru smiled faintly and moved away from the window.

This is a mess - Maru thought as he went over to the kitchen and looked at the clock. It was 1 a.m. These days 1 a.m. wasn’t even that late. Maru would also usually watch a videotape or read a book around this time.

He wondered when he fell asleep since he didn’t remember feeling tired even once. He picked up the bottle of water on the table and went to the living room before sitting on the sofa. The sunken air of the night put him at ease for some reason. He took a sip of the water before leaning back on the sofa. Maybe it was because he only slept for a short while, he felt really drowsy.

This had never happened to him before. Did he gain too much fatigue? Maru stroked his face dryly. He felt the remnants of drowsiness slowly disappearing. He took a sip of water and tried to sleep again, but when he came to himself, he didn’t want to lie back down again. He thought about turning on the TV and picked up the remote before putting it back down. Instead, he hugged a cushion on the sofa.

Tick tock. The clock on top of the TV sounded especially loud today. Did it need lubrication for the second hand or something? For some reason, he felt really annoyed by it. Was it the influence of the short sleep? Or did he become sick or something?

He licked his dry lips when a black dot appeared on the cushion he was hugging. Maru wiped his forehead with the back of his hand. He was sweating profusely. The face which felt dry when he stroked his face was now covered with sweat. He put away the cushion and went to the bathroom. He turned on the lights before going inside.

“Am I really sick?”

The reflection of his face in the mirror looked terrible. He looked at the fatigue-stricken face for a long while before turning on the cold tap. He dipped his hands in cold water and stayed like that in a daze before crouching down. He cupped his hands into a bowl and scooped up a handful of water. The moment the water touched his face, the faint images in his head became vivid again with loud snapping noises as though several light switches were being turned on at the same time.

Maru roughly washed his face. Water sprayed everywhere, but he did not care and just washed his face over and over. Blurry memories popped up inside his head chaotically. Maru could not remember them properly, but he intuitively realized that they were horrible things. After washing his face until he completely woke his mind up, he felt like his figure reflected in the mirror felt much more like a human.

He wiped his face before leaving the bathroom.

“What the heck was that just now?”

He clutched his aching head and sat back down on the sofa.

It was clear that he had a dream, a vicious one at that. Normally, the contents of a nightmare would be vivid right after waking up before fading away into the depths of memory after a few breaths. However, right now, he was remembering his dream little by little as though he was dragging out an old memory from his mind. Maru calmed his breathing and focused. If the dream was something absolutely absurd, he would have just ignored it and gone back to sleep, but the fragments of memories that were popping into his mind right now felt very important as well as something that he must never forget.

He clasped his hands as though he was praying before putting them against his nose. The more he calmed down and focused, the faster the pieces of the dream fell into the right positions.

The first thing he saw was a stage. Maru knew that stage very well. He saw a man as well: the masked man. That man jumped around the stage in joy, and inside that dream, Maru grabbed the collars of that man in agitation. As for why he became agitated, he could not remember. It was something he had to think about after revitalizing this portion of the dream.

He closed his eyes. With his vision replaced by a black curtain, the world of the dream became much clearer. The masked man’s voice slowly became clear again. Maru honed his senses as much as possible in order to hear that man’s voice. When he did, the man’s voice became clear, little by little.

-So it’s about time to leave. I hope this is the end, but it won’t be, right? Let’s meet again, in your heart, that is. Also, set me free for a while. That’s my only form of leisure.

He didn’t know what that meant just by itself, but a while later, when he remembered what happened that led to that situation, he could understand that man’s words. The face behind that mask, it was definitely himself. A pitiful creature that could only live on the stage.

Maru put his hand on his chest. When he became immersed in acting, he always felt two egos. One was always rational and observed the surroundings to react properly to the changes in the environment, while the other only looked at acting emotionally and did not care about anything else. The ‘me’ behind the mask inside the dream should've been his ego drunk on acting. That interpretation made sense.

At that moment, he felt like there was something else other than himself on that stage. He focused a little more. The masked self was crying at the last moment. Why was he crying?

He felt his neck stiff up at that moment. No matter how much he focused, he couldn’t find out the reason ‘he’ cried back then. Also, he couldn’t clearly remember the other presence that seemed to have been there. He only remembered that ‘someone’ was there other than his two egos.

Maru breathed in deeply. The dream ended there, but it did not begin there. There was definitely something before that. He focused again and again. He felt time flow backwards as he swarmed through the darkness. Unfortunately, there was nothing that came to him as clearly as the stage did. Nay, the moment he tried to dig through the memories below the surface, he was interrupted by something.

Hm hm hm - it was none other than her humming. Every time he tried to pull out the strand of nightmare from his memories, he heard her humming. His brain, which was trying hard, became drowsy the moment he heard her hums. It was to the extent that it made him wonder if there was any point in remembering that dream.

Was this her way of being considerate while telling him that he should not try to remember a terrible nightmare and that he should just go to sleep?

Maru did not give up despite that. He had a strong premonition that he should not stop there. This life was given to him after death. He couldn’t take his dream lightly. Perhaps it might be a precognition of sorts.

He probed around the vortex of memories. He walked along the road mixed with reality and dreams, looking for a clue to that dream when everything flashed and a short scene appeared in his mind.

He was standing on the street, and the bus was coming from the other side. Inside the bus was himself, penetrated by a metal beam and slowly dying. Maru groaned as he watched that scene. Was this the identity of the nightmare?

Death was certainly something hard to handle. He knew it well since he experienced it. He knew just how much despair death brought. He shivered in fear even now when he thought about the moment he died.

But what was this iffyness? He felt like it was telling him that there was something beyond death. Maru frowned and remembered the moment he faced the bus. The bus was driving right at him who was in the middle of the road. Was that all that happened?

He shook his head in reality. Curiously, the scenery inside his dream also moved to the side along with his head. At that moment, Maru could see the two groups of people on either side of the road. To his left was a group of unfamiliar people. To his right were the people he met and got acquainted with in the current era.

What did this scene mean? Maru contemplated.

Just then,

She wasn’t here.

Maru clenched his teeth until his jaws started making creaking noises. Among the people on either side of the road, Gaeul - her figure, couldn’t be seen anywhere. For other people, he could remember them clearly to the point that he could draw their faces right now, but he couldn’t find her face among them.

Who had the most important meaning in his life? It was none other than her. It was strange not being able to find her here.

Where was she?

Just where?

At that moment, Maru felt something twitching around his feet. His figure inside the dream slowly looked down his vision moving along with it. There was a small, feeble rabbit shaking. Maru slowly reached out and enveloped the rabbit with both of his hands.

When he did, the rabbit spoke,

-How?

The already big eyes became even wider.

Maru felt his mouth open by itself.

-This time, I will save you.

He said such in the dream.

* * *

“What was that?”

Maru scratched his head when he woke up. Why was he on the sofa? He felt confused. He remembered falling asleep while reading in his room.

Was he sleep-walking now? He thought about things like that as he turned on the TV. It was still 7 a.m., and there was still time until he had to go to school. He went to the bathroom midway through the morning news. For some reason, his body felt strangely refreshed. Was the sofa right for him?

He faintly smiled and looked into the mirror. His eyes were all swollen. He felt quite curious since his eyes were in a bad state even though his body felt extremely light. At that moment, tears fell from his eyes.

“What the?”

It seemed that his tear glands started malfunctioning. Maru turned on the tap and washed his face. Even while washing, he kept crying for some reason, which made him panic slightly. Fortunately, when he finished washing his face, tears no longer fell, just like the faucet that was turned off.

‘As strange as it is, I feel great.’

He looked at his reflection in the mirror and smiled before leaving the bathroom. He saw Bada leaving her room after waking up.

“Han Bada, good morning.”

“What’s up with you this early in the morning?”

“I said good morning because it’s a good morning. Why don’t you return my greeting? You’re making me feel embarrassed.”

“I wonder what you’re trying to get me to do this time.”

Maru put down the hand he raised.

“Forget it. What would I expect from you? Get washed quickly. We’re gonna have breakfast.”

“What’s for breakfast?”

“The usual stuff.”

“I’m not eating then.”

“Are you going to eat after I hit you once, or are you going to eat obediently?”

“You’re not my mom.”

“If you have time to complain, get washed quickly. You’re gonna be late.”

“It’s still early. Fuaam. Make me a fried egg.”

“I’ll make you two.”

Maru lightly cracked his neck before getting breakfast ready.

When the soup was just about boiled, Bada came out of the bathroom. Looking at her patting her hair dry with a towel after just wetting the tips of her hair, he pitied the man who would eventually have her as his wife.

“It’s not like you have long hair. You should’ve just washed it.”

“It’s bothersome. Hm, nice smell. Good work, secretary Han.”

“I’m curious as to why Dowook is still dating you.”

“How laughable. Do you know how well I treat my oppa?”

“I’m not included in that ‘my oppa’?”

“You are you, and my oppa is Dowook-oppa.”

“Forget about the fried eggs then.”

“What a cheapskate.”

“Why don’t you go tell your great ‘my oppa’ to do it for you?”

“Fine. You can be my oppa too. But did something good happen? You’re all smiles, even though it’s the morning.”

Maru crossed his arms and thought. Something good, huh. At that moment, something vaguely came to his mind.

“I think I had a dream.”

“A dream?”

“Yeah. A really good dream.”

“Did a pig appear in it or something? Should we buy a lottery ticket[1]?”

“No, it wasn’t a pig…”

“Then what?”

“A rabbit. A really cute rabbit.”

“What the, so it’s bullshit then.”

“Why don’t you watch your words a little?”

Maru smiled and put the cutlery down for Bada. He couldn’t remember the details, but he remembered the warmth he felt at that moment. That nostalgic temperature belonged to someone very familiar. It was the person that made him smile just by thinking.

“Tsk! Who told you to grin like that while eating?”

Bada cringed and spoke in a playful manner.

“Fine, let’s just start eating.”

Maru shrugged and picked up the chopsticks.

[1] Pigs are a symbol of wealth in oriental countries, and ‘pig dreams’ are supposed to signify that something good is about to happen.

Chapter 609

“So it’s today, huh. If we finish the shoot today, we can start the final editing. Once that’s done, we’ll be handing our work in for participation. Of course, we should have a screening session for ourselves, right?”

“French fries and coke for me.”

“Fried chicken for me.”

“Popcorn is the best for movies.”

Sora smiled in confidence as she looked at the people of the film production club, who were just as excited as she was. When they started, there were a lot of problems, but they finally reached this stage. Sora was confident in her scenario until they started shooting, but she changed her mind when she saw Maru’s acting. She felt that the story wasn’t up to par with the actor. It wasn’t like she could change the plot because of that though, so she decided to finish the film by changing the direction slightly. Today, there were two scenes to shoot. One was the conclusion, where the main character escapes being bullied and then bullies the transfer student to join the ‘mainstream’. They decided to shoot another scene, where the characters went to school, to add to the ending. She was going to produce a cheerful and bright school entry scene to contrast the gloomy school entry scene at the beginning of the film. She planned to show the subject of the film to the audience by blatantly exposing the contrast between the start and the end.

“Maru-seonbae will be here soon, right?”

“He should be. Most classes should have finished their afternoon HR now. We should get ready too.”

Ando instructed the juniors to get the equipment when the door smoothly opened and a smiling face came in.

“I’m here.”

“Maru-seonbae!”

“Let’s go shoot the last bit.”

“Yes.”

“Are you going to start editing as soon as you finish today’s work?”

“That’s the plan. I’m going to make it so that we can watch it tomorrow even if it means staying up the entire night. Oh, and also, we’re going to hold a screening session…”

Sora didn’t finish her words and looked at Maru’s face. The other club members were probably looking at him as well. The reason she didn’t finish her words was because the reply was too obvious. Maru would probably not participate in the screening. After all, he had said several times that monitoring his own acting was very hard for him. He also said that he wouldn’t participate in the monitoring at all if it wasn’t for the money.

Maru did not reply and just stared at her.

‘I knew it. So do I just have to tell him the results later?’

He was already a busy person, so there was no way he would participate in the screening. Maru had clearly drawn the line since the beginning. He said that this film was not at the top of his priority list. That was why they had to change the entire schedule of their staff when Maru’s schedule changed. That was the agreement they made when they started off after all. It was them who wanted Maru, and Maru was someone who deserved that treatment.

“Of course I will go. What do you think we should eat? Should I try cooking something? I mean, on occasions like that, it’s good to try hand-made food. I heard that Ando did that from time to time too. Am I right?”

Sora blankly stared at the man who made a refreshing smile in front of her.

“Maru… seonbae?”

“What?”

“N-nothing. I just thought that I have never seen you smile like that. Did something good happen today?”

“No, rather than something good, something bad happened instead. I stepped on dog dung on the way to school. I’m having a terrible day really.”

“Ha, haha… dog dung?”

“Yeah. Anyway, you weren’t planning to hold a preview without me, right? I might be a guest member, but I still did my best to participate in the film production club’s activities, so let me in, will ya?”

“Of course we were going to invite you. But I thought you’d refuse…”

“Me? Oh, I did think about that too.”

Pausing, Maru looked around the clubroom before speaking again.

“Since I started it, I thought that I might as well stick around until the end. I do want to watch it too. Anyway, I’ll visit the classroom for a bit. Homeroom hasn’t ended yet.”

“Ah, okay. We’ll be in the 3rd year classroom so you can go there after.”

“Alright, see you later.”

Maru even waved his hand and closed the door. Sora blinked a couple of times before turning around to look at Ando, who stood behind her. Ando also looked dazed as though he had seen something he shouldn’t have.

“Ando-seonbae.”

“Yeah?”

“I’m a bit confused, Maru-seonbae wasn’t such a character before, was he?”

“He definitely wasn’t. He was like that when he was with his girlfriend, but definitely not with us.”

“Do you think he fell over and hurt his head or something?”

“That sounds plausible. It’s kinda weird to see him acting so fresh all of a sudden.”

“Right? I was right, wasn’t I? He’s the same person as the guy who always opened his eyes like this and acted arrogantly all the time, right?”

“Rather than arrogant, I would say he was scary. Anyway, I think they’re the same person.”

“Something great must have happened for him to look that pleased. What do you think happened to him?”

“Maybe… he got an offer for a cast?”

“That sounds plausible… but when I think about it, I don’t think Maru-seonbae’s the type of person who would show that on his face.”

“That’s true. In the first place, he never talked about himself and talked just about the film whenever we were working on it. We asked him a couple of times about what a shooting set looked like, and he only replied that there was nothing much, didn’t he?”

“Today, though, he looks like he’ll spill all the beans if we ask him, doesn’t he? Let’s try that out later. Who knows? It might be an alien in a Maru-seonbae suit.”

“…I think that’s going a little too far.”

“A film producer must not limit their imagination!”

“But it has to be plausible.”

Sora made a sour expression before laughing.

“But really, Maru-seonbae is really curious today. Well, I like him better now than before.”

“Let’s just take what’s good as good. Get the equipment. Let’s go up.”

“Yes! Seonbae-nims, we’re moving!” Sora said as she waved her hand above her head.

* * *

He smelled oil from his fingertips. He was becoming more and more like his father. It wasn’t that he didn’t like that, but when he laid his head on his arms to sleep, the slight smell of oil annoyed him a little. Perhaps he should look into some perfume?

Just as he was stretching his neck, getting ready to go home, Dowook became rather startled when he saw two hands on his shoulders.

“Wow, you must be working hard. They’re as stiff as a rock.”

An affectionate voice could be heard. However, the owner of this voice would never do something like this. He turned around with a complex expression. He saw Maru, who had a serious expression on his face.

“You should rest a bit. Even though kids our age are overflowing with energy, you’ll get sick if you overexert yourself.”

“Y-you, what’s gotten into you?”

“Stay still. This part makes you feel refreshed, doesn’t it?”

“Y-yeah, it does… but hey! What are you doing! You’re creeping me out.”

Dowook couldn’t endure it. It would be less surprising if this guy swore at him and started beating him up instead. He abruptly stood up and stared at Maru. He couldn’t possibly figure out what Maru was thinking by doing this.

“What is this. What’s up with this bullshit all of a sudden?”

“What bullshit? I just thought you looked tired.”

“Godammit, really? What is this? Are you trying to screw with me? Is Dojin in on this as well?”

At that moment, Dojin spoke with a sleepy voice next to him.

“I’m not. What’s up with Han Maru? What did you do wrong to him?”

Dojin seemed no less surprised. It didn’t seem that these two were in cahoots. That made things even more strange. Who was Han Maru? Spraying salt on an open wound with a smile on his face suited him more than this. Of course, he knew that Maru thought very deeply. He was willing to skip school to help Maru if Maru asked him to. Wasn’t he the thankful friend who recovered the relationship between him, his sister, and his father?

However, he was definitely not someone who would act friendly like this with a smile on his face. He was the kind of guy who would help others without them knowing or by leaving behind a very short, but helpful, piece of advice before leaving. He was definitely not the kind of guy who would say ‘doesn’t that feel refreshing’ while massaging someone else’s shoulders.

“Is it Park Daemyung?”

“Hey, do you think he would play a prank like this?”

“That’s true.”

“Then what the hell is it? What the hell has gotten into that Han Maru?”

“I dunno, but I can be sure that you, Kang Dowook, must have committed a grave mistake. Otherwise, Maru wouldn’t act like that. He’s blatantly toying with you. Oh, hey, did you do something to his sister?”

“Are you crazy? There’s no way I’d do something like…”

“Oho, something like what?”

Dowook palmed Dojin’s grinning face.

“Dojin, should I massage your shoulders as well? I know that culinary arts are tiring.”

“I-I’ll refuse this time. What’s up with you today? Did something happen?”

“Did something happen? No, nothing happened.”

“Then I wonder why you’re doing this… If you continue like for just a bit longer, I think I can show you what I ate for lunch right away.”

Maru chuckled before shrugging.

“Both of you, watch out for your bodies when you work. Don’t forget your studies too. I’m leaving.”

Just as Maru turned around to leave the classroom, Dojin shouted in a loud voice,

“I heard Dowook and Bada are going on a 1 night trip over the weekend!”

Dowook turned around to look at Dojin. There was nothing like that. Just as he was about to snap out at him, Maru spoke in a small voice as he was leaving the classroom.

“Then you’ll die.”

He left those words before waving his hand and leaving.

“Hm, that sounds more like the Han Maru I know of. See? He’s trying to mess with you.”

“You bastard! Bada and I are going where?”

“You’re going to go somewhere. Anyway, we can be sure that Han Maru didn’t go crazy. It’s fine since we checked, isn’t it?”

Dojin stepped backwards with a grin on his face. Dowook grabbed the pencil case right next to him and threw it at Dojin’s face.

“I’ll fucking rip your mouth apart.”

“Oh? You aren’t a match for me.”

Dowook clenched his teeth as he looked at the sneaky Dojin.

* * *

“So you acted like that the entire day?”

“Yeah. There were all sorts of reactions.”

“Of course there were. They just can’t match your current image to the usual you. Even I would’ve been in a fix.”

“Was I that cold?”

“You weren’t always like that but with her… Gaeul, was it? Compared to when you were with Gaeul, there was definitely a difference. People who have seen you with your girlfriend must have been surprised, you know? After all, they would have never seen you talk so gently and kindly to someone before. Thinking about it now, I feel like you always put everything down only when you were in front of her.”

“Park Daemyung, that makes me feel disappointed. I think I treated you pretty well.”

“I know, I really do. But I can tell when I look at you, that you take a few steps back when you talk to others, figuratively, I mean.”

Daemyung looked out the window. Today as well, there were a lot of big guys playing soccer on the school field. Whether it was raining or snowing, there were always people kicking balls in that field. This was a rare sight for normal academic high schools. Balls could be seen every break time[1], which said a lot.

“Maybe I should play soccer with the people from the acting club.”

It was Maru who said those words. Daemyung spoke as he put his backpack on one shoulder.

“What made you change your mind so suddenly?”

“Nothing, I mean, literally nothing. I did hear about it from time to time. Even the president told me that putting too much distance is not good. In truth though, that’s more comfortable for me. There’s no worry about getting caught up in trouble, I can ‘moderately’ be happy for someone, I can ‘moderately’ be sad for someone, and the fatigue that comes from human relationships is also pretty small.”

“That sounds like Han Maru to me. And?”

“I don’t know. For the past few days, I’ve been thinking that a dry relationship is too sad considering that I only have one life.”

“I guess that’s true. You’ve been changing ever since you entered 3rd year.”

“So you noticed? I only noticed it recently.”

“You have changed the way you treat other people after all. You were like that with Chihwan too. That was the first time you replied to other people’s questions so passionately, wasn’t it?”

“It was.”

Maru leaned against the wall.

“But is it that strange?”

“It is definitely strange.”

“Should I just act like usual then?”

“It’s strange that you’re asking me such a question in the first place. If it was the old you, you would’ve made the decision by yourself.”

“It’s not bad to listen to other people’s opinions. Especially if it’s yours.”

“Honestly speaking, I don’t know. To me, you were, uhm, don’t take offense for this, but how should I put it, uh, you were pretty desolate. I’m not saying that in a bad sense. You were putting distance between yourself and others in order to minimize the damage that would come your way, and that even made you look cruel at times.”

“I still haven’t changed my mind about that.”

“R-really?”

“Yeah. It’s just that… I wanted to know more about the people around me. Also, I feel like it’s not a bad thing to be reckless from time to time. I just realized that there’s a place that can care for me when I’m exhausted. I thought that she was someone I had to protect, but it turns out it wasn’t like that.”

Maru, who made a faint smile, looked more amazing than before. There was a sense of instability about him, but it was the kind that could be seen from someone who was moving forward.

“But it is a little tiring.”

Maru erased his smile and returned to his calm expression.

“Doing things I’m not used to doing.”

“Are you going to keep trying?”

“For the foreseeable future. Oh, I’ll be going off first. The film production club is waiting for me.”

“Okay.”

Maru stretched his arms out and turned around. Daemyung waved at Maru.

“I’m not entirely sure what’s happening, but good luck.”

Daemyung checked the clock once before leaving the classroom.

[1] In Korea, there are 10 minute breaks between each class, not 5.

Chapter 610

People do not change. His thoughts on that still did not change. He could tell just how static and unshakable human nature was, from just looking at the news. Those that were imprisoned for fraud would aim for other people’s pockets even after they leave. Sexual criminals would also chase the weak again in order to prove their superiority. Prison might be a very special experience, but that special experience did not change the evil nature of mankind. There might be some rare cases where a strong experience changes a view a person has on life as a whole, but changing one of their views and changing their ways was definitely different. “I didn’t intend to do it” - this excuse that appeared on the news every time just showed how hard it was to change a man.

That was why he always maintained a minimum distance. That distance was an insurance of sorts to minimize damage in case something happened. Being close to the center of the explosion would mean a higher degree of burn. People were all walking explosives. The reason they didn’t explode was because a strand of reason suppressed primitive instinct. Despite the 12 years of education from elementary school to high school, the reason there was no end to accidents was proof that there was something violent and impulsive laying inside humans.

He always kept a safe distance in order to not get hurt, and in order to run away. When he approached something without putting a safe distance between them, he did it with a sense of duty; the resolve to bear the burden of the danger in that person’s stead. Only when he had the confidence to not regret being with that person in the face of an explosion, did he remove that minimum insurance and enter the range of that person.

Ever since he came back to life, the number of people he did that with could be counted on one hand. He had already experienced the pains given to him by other people. He knew that there were people without ulterior motives, but the likelihood that it was the opposite was much higher. People would split up into different factions even under a forced grouping like a class. In society, he smiled in front of other people and insulted them from behind. He couldn’t be an upright person, he was sneaky, petty, and narrow-minded. From the view of a narrow-minded person, the world was filled with similarly narrow-minded people. He became even more cautious, and became even more wary; so that he didn’t get hurt; so that he did not make losses.

“I’d like pizza bread and milk.”

Maru handed the cafeteria lady the money before getting the food. Now, he just had to go up to the 3rd floor and meet the people from the film production club. It was like any other meeting and any other shoot, but today, Maru would take a big step towards them.

A world of narrow-minded people that a narrow-minded person sees. Until just a while ago, that frame the world was in was too sturdy and nothing seemed able to break it. He thought that it was natural to meet other people with a mask on his face and that the expression of his hostility towards people that approached him without being on their guard as a method of survival. He returned from the end of his life to the beginning, so his defense mechanism declared that he must not fail again. However, a crack appeared in the frame of that world. He didn’t know where it came from, nor when it happened, but what he could be sure of was that he was different from before.

When he realized that, he felt a little afraid. After all, the entity known as ‘myself’ was approaching something completely different from what he intended to aim for unbeknown to him. What would’ve happened if he did not realize the change that occurred within himself? It was just an assumption, but he might have become a gentle young man. He had the feeling that that would be the case. He would be kind to everyone, would help other people out, and be praised for stepping up for things that other people did not want to do. In other words, a model Han Maru.

“Han Maru, where are you going?”

“To shoot a movie.”

“What the, you’re working again? Let’s play soccer. We need a winger.”

“Let me in tomorrow. I can do tomorrow.”

“Really? You can really join us tomorrow?”

Then I’ll make a bet with the mechanicals class! - his classmate added before walking down the stairs. Maru threw the bread at the fellow that was getting further away.

“Thanks!” the guy said with a weird pronunciation.

A tenderhearted Han Maru. Maru thought for a long time about why his nature changed without him knowing it. He was living in a world that was only possible through a miracle, so he couldn’t really ask anyone else. The only thing he could do was to contemplate and look for an answer by himself. What was fortunate was that he wasn’t that stupid.

The conclusion he arrived at after some deduction was that he noticed the change in himself after something strange happened a few days ago. The day he opened his eyes on the sofa, Maru had a warm dream. He woke up from the dream after acting like a baby in the warmth that enveloped his whole body. In that dream, he saw a white rabbit. It was a happy dream. However, that morning, he kept crying for reasons unknown to him.

A happy dream and tears. These two definitely didn’t fit together. Some people might cry out of happiness, but Han Maru was definitely not such a person.

A happy dream, tears for reasons unknown, and then the change in his personality that was occurring outside of his conscious. Just as he was thinking about these three seemingly independent clues, he was reminded of the conversation he had with writer Lee Hanmi. Where are memories stored?

Memories. The moment he focused on that word, he came up with a hypothesis. Ever since he came back to life, his memories were slowly fading away. According to that angel-like woman, the memories weren’t disappearing. They were sinking below his subconscious, but that didn’t change the fact that he couldn’t remember them.

Slowly disappearing memories.

Tears that appeared without reason.

An inner change that occurred without him realizing it.

He experienced the miracle of reliving his life thanks to the god’s help, but there was still a sense of order and logic in that process as well. This phenomenon should have been caused by something as well. When he played around with some fragments of his memory and fit them together like a puzzle, he came up with a plausible progression.

If human emotions - including love, which is said to transcend everything - are based on memories, then human nature, or personality, should also be rooted in memories as well. Maru believed that his loving heart would not change even if he did not have his memories. That was why he replied confidently during the conversation with Hanmi, that his feelings towards her would not change even if his memories disappeared.

However, it seemed that he was wrong. If the foundations of what made up the human known as Han Maru collapsed along with the disappearance of his memories, he couldn’t guarantee anything.

The proof of that should be the change in his nature. He was turning into a more open-minded self without him knowing it. Thinking about it now, it was pretty strange. Giving other people advice, talking to other people on his own accord, being kind to others more than necessary were all definitely not in line with the way of living he maintained until now. What made him feel afraid was that he couldn’t notice that change despite the fact that he was at the center of it.

Tears that appeared without reason.

On the day Maru opened his eyes on the sofa, he came to a potential conclusion that he had lost something very important to him. Something unimaginable must have happened before he had the happy dream with the rabbit that seemed like Gaeul. If some of his memories were rooted out, and the only thing that remained was the tears with the emotions erased, then just what was the dream he had back then?

Right now, he couldn’t think of anything no matter how hard he focused. He just remembered the warmth. The warmth similar to Gaeul’s.

He might be taking things a little too far, but he may actually have realized the dangerous change that occurred within himself precisely because he felt her warmth in his dream. If he acted normally that day like he always did, Han Maru might have become a completely different person. Of course, this was all an assumption. It was impossible to find a concrete formula for a life that could only exist because of a miracle.

‘The change has already occurred.’

He believed that humans could not change, but the god changed his nature as though to toy with his thoughts.

He noticed the change in his nature and acted accordingly, but he was already feeling a lot more leisurely at heart. His wariness towards others also relaxed considerably. If he consciously sharpened himself, he might be able to act like before, but acting like that at this point would make him feel very fatigued. It had changed from a reflexive and mechanical response to conscious action.

He also realized that he would never be able to return to how he was in the past. Since that was the case, he was only left with one option.

Adaptation.

He had to suppress that dramatic change as much as possible to protect the ego that was himself and change only within the realm of tolerability. At the same time, there was now one more thing he had to do alongside that.

It was to make memories with Gaeul.

He felt fear from the disappearance. That was why he had to prepare. If it was the god’s will that made his memories disappear and change his nature, even if it was something he could not resist, he should at least struggle.

He would consolidate the ties he made with Gaeul so that he could keep loving her even if all of the memories of his previous life became blank. Maru chose to stand on the same stage as her as the method of doing that. He would work on the same piece as her, breathe the same air as her, and spend time together.

He might be being foolish. Gaeul might despise him if she found out. She might get fed up with him trying to artificially create a tower of love.

Despite that, Maru did not want to let go.

He did not want to let go of the woman named Han Gaeul.

“I’m here,” Maru said as he opened the classroom door.

The people from the film production club welcomed him.

“We can start shooting immediately, right?”

“Of course.”

“Let’s finish it off well and get that prize.”

“Maru-seonbae. You want the prize?”

“I do now. I think I’m going to need it in the future.”

“I’d love to get it too. Well then. Our main character’s will to act is burning up! Let’s start immediately!”

Maru spat out a short breath when he heard Sora’s shout. He then walked up to Ando, who was looking at the camera.

“If you don’t like the angle, then tell me anytime. I’ll try to match you as much as possible.”

“Oh, alright. But looking at how things are going right now, I don’t think I’ll have anything to say to you. I mean, you’ve been doing great until now. Also, what would a beginner like me know?”

“Everyone has the same eyes. Since it’s the last bit, we should make sure to end things cleanly. If you want to ask me to do something while shooting, then tell me immediately. A camera director is also a director.”

Ando stared at him before slowly nodding.

“Please take care of me.”

Chapter 611

A result derived from deduction was always just a probability. It was possible that it was right, and it was possible that it was wrong. If there was clear evidence of a result, regardless of whether it was right or wrong, he could come up with a more concrete plan, but since that was impossible, he could only act according to a broad spectrum. Currently, the thing he had to be wary of was the disappearance of his memories. It would be possible to come up with countermeasures if he knew what part of his memories was being erased, and from what point onwards.

‘But the problem is that I can’t know that.’

Maru looked at his shaky right hand. He looked at the busily moving Sora and Ando before putting strength into his right hand, which was gripping a pen. What he was doing now was pretty simple. He was trying to organize the memories of his previous life into a few words. It was a very simple and even abstract process, but the god did not even allow that. If he tried to leave behind any records of his previous life while his consciousness had the slightest bit of control, his entire body refused to do it. He couldn’t write the ‘m’ from ‘memory’ because his hand was shaking like a patient's. This was something he knew since before. He already knew that recording the disappearing memories was impossible.

If it was before his personality changed, he might have thought that he could accept the penalty of disappearing memories as a form of compensation for coming back to life, but after experiencing the influence they had on his personality, he could no longer treat them lightly. He tried to leave behind the minimum amount of recorded information that he needed for Han Maru to stay as a Han Maru, but the cruel god did not allow that. He couldn’t take any action when he possessed the will to create records. He tried changing the medium just in case, but it was the same regardless. PC, phone, electronic dictionary… even the school field, which was made of sand, and would leave behind nothing after the wind blew, did not allow him to leave behind records.

What a petty god - Maru muttered with a voice filled with the uttermost ire that a human could muster.

“Though, if they disappear cleanly, this will be meaningless too.”

Maru looked at the corner of his script, which was riddled with illegible fragments of text. Even if he could leave behind records, if he read them after his memories disappeared, they wouldn’t leave any impressions on him. Even if he left behind the most important moments of his previous life in the form of words, once his memories disappeared, he would think ‘what novel is this?’ when he read them.

What good was information about memories without himself to confirm it? Maru clicked his tongue and put down his pen. The god was definitely smart. Even if he used some unimaginable method to successfully leave behind memories of his previous life, it would become the records of a stranger the moment his memories disappeared. Even if he read the records after he changed, it would be impossible to gain the same emotions as before.

Was there really no way to avoid the god’s radar? He thought about it for a while before he gave up on it. He wouldn’t be able to do anything to a transcendental entity who could bring the dead back to life, even if it didn’t mean omniscience and omnipotence.

Maru took out his wallet. He opened the half-folded wallet and took out a card from it. It was a tarot card with a crease across the middle. He stared at the masked clown who was standing on the edge of the stage with a necktie on. For some reason, he started carrying this card around like a good luck charm. Even though it was supposed to be destined to go into the trash along with some other receipts, he kept it because it strangely bothered him.

When he first showed it to Daemyung, Daemyung gave him this interpretation: challenge and adventure. He experienced the existence of the god personally, so there was no reason for him to not believe in fortune telling. It wasn’t that he had blind faith, he actually did think that it was somewhat reasonable. He thought that it was perhaps the god’s tip for him to strive towards challenges and adventures.

However, the meaning behind the tarot card that Gaeul told him after that was something completely different.

“The foolishness of knowing nothing. Ignorance.”

Was that talking about the current him? Maru looked at the man on the card. It felt as though the man on the card was looking at him. It was strange. The man in the picture, who was supposed to feel like a stranger, felt very familiar to him. Of course, it might be possible that he felt familiar because he saw the man in a dream a few years ago. However, the emotions he currently had didn’t indicate that. It felt as though he had met the man on the street just a few days ago.

Perhaps he met this man in a dream. Maru flipped the tarot card several times.

“Seonbae, we’re ready. Oh, what’s that?”

“This? A tarot card.”

“You believe in stuff like that?”

“I guess I’m on the believing side if you have to put me on one side. I’m not a blind follower though.”

“You’ve been acting really unexpectedly today. I thought you’d never believe in something like that, seonbae.”

“Why?”

“Just a feeling. No, your actions expressed that, too. If someone said that a god exists, you’re the type of person who would tell that person to bring god in front of you.”

Sora made a slightly fed up expression. Maru smiled and put the card inside his wallet.

“Well, that’s a pity. I believe in god too.”

“Really? Do you go to church? Or a temple? You’re definitely not catholic though.”

“I believe in something similar to reincarnation, so I guess it’s related to a temple?”

“Reincarnation!?”

Sora narrowed her eyes before going over to Ando and whispering into his ears. Even Ando, who had pretty big eyes, narrowed his eyes and stared at him. Was it something that whisper-worthy? Maru took out his phone and his wallet and placed them on a desk before picking up his script and walking over to the two.

“You’re going to start shooting, right?”

“Yes, I am. But are you really a Buddhist? I think I saw you eat meat.”

“There are many different branches to Buddhism. Also, I’m not a Buddhist.”

“But you told me that you were.”

“I said I believed in reincarnation, not Buddhism. The cycle of reincarnation is something I have great faith in. Call me a fanatic if you want.”

“Seonbae, you know that you’ve been really strange today, right? Can’t you just act like before? I feel like I’ve done something wrong because you’re smiling all the time. Why don’t you just act like the first time we met when I showed you the scenario and look at me like this?” Sora asked as she stretched the corner of her eyes upwards.

Maru laughed loudly. Sora made a flabbergasted expression before sighing.

“Let’s begin shooting.”

Sora walked over to the laptop. Maru placed the script on a desk before sitting down. A junior from the acting club approached him and sat in front of him.

“Hochul, think of it as playing.”

“Ah, yes.”

“Are you nervous today as well?”

“A-a little.”

“Nervousness is not something you can consciously suppress, so if you’re nervous, just take that nervousness with you. Thinking that you should calm down will make you even hastier instead. Once you keep doing this, you’ll become a lot more immune to it. It’s fine even if you make some NGs. It’ll be weird if we don’t get any.”

“Yes, okay.”

The junior, who played the character of the transfer student, controlled his expression and looked forward. This was the first time this junior was placed in the center of the frame after being in the corner all the time. He had to express the despair the character felt when the transfer student’s only friend, the main character, ignored him and turned his back on him.

Sora gave a pretty difficult request. She wanted compressed emotional acting. The most efficient way to express ‘anger’ was to act like he was ‘angry’. The stereotypical ‘being angry’; shouting and breaking every item in reach while crying and saying out loud the name of the target would make anyone feel that the character is angry. Sora didn’t want an act like that, she wanted an act where anger was expressed through the lack of expression. That is, through the eyes. Of course, expressing anger through the eyes didn’t consist of eye movements. Hochul had to describe the inner state of the character with the minute movements of his facial muscles.

It was pretty difficult. Maru tapped the junior’s shoulder before looking at Sora. Sora, who was giving instructions to the other juniors who were playing the characters in the rest of the class, pulled her chin inwards before speaking,

“Actors, please get into your standby position. The camera will be moving according to the same line as the practice. This is the final decoration of the film, so please bear that in mind. Be cheerful and happy more than ever, okay?”

The actors slowly nodded.

“Also, Hochul, I’ll say this beforehand, I’ve completely made up my mind today. I’m willing to retake it as many times as we need, so don’t get timid on me.”

“Don’t worry about that,” the junior replied resolutely.

Maru slightly closed his eyes and pictured the scene in his mind.

A child who has regained ‘normality’ after escaping being bullied. The character would be touched beyond words. The streets that looked monotone until just days ago were now colorful, and the rice that he ate like he would grains of sand became so tasty and did not lose out to the best delicacies in the world. The only thing that changed was his position, but his lifestyle, and going further, his view on life itself had changed.

The taste of friendship that he had tasted for the first time in his life was so sweet that he didn’t want to give it up. Back when he didn’t know about it, he gave up easily thinking that it was something too distant from him, but ever since he entered the realm of ‘normality’, he felt afraid of falling out of that normality more than anything. The classroom, which was a place of disdain, contempt, and complete disregard was now filled with joy. It was a power - in a sense - that he could never lose hold of. There was a trial that he had to take in order to maintain that lifestyle.

It was to create a bait. In order to consolidate the bonds in a group, an enemy was necessary. An inferior enemy that was weak enough for them to toy with. He was going to turn the transfer student, who was his only friend until just days ago, into the bullied kid. It wasn’t that he didn’t have a guilty conscience. He felt incredibly sorry to the point that he felt afraid of it. However, his own misfortune was more unbearable than his friend’s despair.

Maru took a deep breath in. He had finished consolidating the character a long time ago. The only thing left was to throw that character to the ‘other me’.

He dug deep into his mind. The noise around him became distant until he met another Han Maru that existed inside him. ‘He’ was someone who he couldn’t feel the presence of normally, but whenever he began acting, ‘he’ always cried out, saying that he wanted to stand in the front.

‘A stage?’

Maru could see a stage in his heart. Before, the ego was in an immaterial form that just floated around in the darkness, but right now, he saw another instance of himself standing on top of a proper stage.

It was a peculiar experience. It felt too clear to the extent that he felt it was real. Could that ego be talked to? When he came to himself, Maru realized that he was on the stage. There was another ‘me’ less than 3 meters away. The face couldn’t be seen because of the thick shadow, but he had a strong feeling that it was ‘me’.

Uhm - he tried talking to that figure. However, there was no response. Like that, a few seconds passed before the ‘me’ on the opposite side reached out towards him. Maru looked at that hand before giving that ‘me’ the script. Many questions appeared in his mind, including since when he was holding the script, if such a process wasn’t necessary since it was his imagination, and how he knew what the ‘me’ in front of him wanted despite the fact that they couldn’t communicate; but even all that melted into nothing the next moment. The ‘me’ that accepted the script made a satisfied smile. Maru smiled back in response as well.

He didn’t know why, but he felt like the distance between the two had shrunk. Before, that ego felt like a beast that he couldn’t tame. ‘He’ was under the control of the leash known as reason, but it was impossible to have total control so he always went about it like he was suppressing a wild animal. Reason would stand close watch and suppress the beast immediately whenever it thought that the beast was going too far. Until now, this kind of method posed no problems. However, he did have a feeling. During his acting with Ahn Joohyun, Maru unleashed the acting ego. The result of that was compliments from the staff.

He definitely had the thought that he might be able to show better acting if he had more complete control, but looking at that smile just now, he realized that his entire assumption was wrong.

There was no need for control. He always called that ‘another me’, yet ruled that ‘me’ out as a different person. After all, it was a difficult thing to feel close to an ego that only showed its face during acting.

Also, since he only had one body, he couldn’t help but be cautious of potential conflicts between egos. Weren’t there numerous stories about big trouble occurring because of the disregard of the dangers of another ego within oneself? He couldn’t help but consider the possibility of split personalities.

However, the moment he saw the other ‘me’ smiling brightly with the script, he realized that that ‘me’ wasn’t a target to be wary of.

Evidence?

There was nothing like that. Funnily, it was just his instinct and intuition. Normally, he would never trust such a thing, but for some strange reason, they felt strangely trustworthy right now.

It was as though that ego was a long-time friend of his.

‘Well, that too is me after all.’

Lights shone down on the other ‘me’ that stood in the center of the stage with the script. Maru opened the script, which just appeared in his hand, as well.

It was just like a director looking at the best possible actor.

“Seonbae! We’re starting.”

“Okay.”

Maru opened his eyes.

‘He’ that coexisted with him, also opened his eyes.

Chapter 612

The easiest way to emphasize a white color was to make the background black. Acting was the same. There was a limit to showing emotions. There was no limit to emotion itself, but there was a limit to the methods of expressing them. No matter how varied one made their facial expressions, there was a limited range for the facial muscles to move, and that was the same for voices as well. After expressing stronger and stronger emotions, acting would become bland after one point. The character would become very flat. That was why the beginning was important. What was more important than the explosion was to keep the fuse lit.

“I am going. What’s today’s lunch again?”

Maru smiled and looked at the actor in front of him. For this moment, the guy in front of him was not a junior from the acting club, but his friend in another reality. Actors needed to accept falseness as reality. Acting could only begin after that.

“Doenjang soup and fried pollacks.”

“That’s terrible. Wanna go buy something instead?”

“Are you treating me?”

“Yeah, well, I’ll buy it. We’re friends after all.”

The most obsequious thing was to try to act like the other side. Maru hung his arms around the people who bullied him until just a while ago. Inside, he created an endless number of excuses to justify himself.

It wouldn’t matter even if he went about acting while thinking ‘I’ll do this kind of acting’. Even if he did not synchronize with the character, the majority of the audience would accept the film without feeling anything strange even if he just went about acting while listing the objective facts in his mind. That was because there was a limit to expression, and the audience would also take the film in while acknowledging that it was fiction.

In one sense, acting was an occupation where effort did not correspond to matching results. Unless it was something blatantly obvious, like losing an extreme amount of weight or acting as a character with a disability, the audience would have a hard time noticing what kind of effort the actors went through in order to act. If it was possible to get just as many results as the investment, anyone would try their utmost best, but if it was unknown if people would recognize their efforts at all, was there any need to practice acting so hard?

For Maru, he could neither say yes nor no. A veteran actor would probably give a meaningful answer based on experience or statistics, but he himself was just a newbie at the foot of the mountain. He wasn’t in a situation where he could say which path was the best in order to reach the peak.

Despite that, if he had to give an opinion, he was on the side that yes, they had to repeat the arduous and boring task to the best of their efforts even if it was highly probable that no one would recognize them for it. With acting, efficiency wasn’t a part of the equation. If it was a college entrance exam, an efficient acting method might exist. That was because the professors at those colleges would have a preferred form of acting. However, an actor didn’t face just one individual. They had to target numerous people that might exist in front of the TV screens at home. Among them, there might be some people who would overlook the awkwardness of their acting, and there might be some who would discover a flaw in their acting that even the video editor couldn’t find. It was impossible to satisfy the entire audience when they ranged across such a broad spectrum.

In the end, actors were creatures that challenged the impossible. Talking about efficiency in front of such a task was meaningless. The only thing anyone could do was to increase the probability by just a little. Broadening the spectrum of acting and adding depth to it in order to be loved by many viewers and used in many pieces was the only way to keep the title of an ‘actor’ for a long time.

After all that, it came down to effort in the end. Maru had to join a game that had a random result and everything was based on probability with chips that had the word ‘effort’ engraved on them. If he succeeds, he would become a named actor and land himself on riches, and if he failed, he would become dirt poor and have to leave the field altogether.

As despicable as the word was, he had to embrace effort in the end. There definitely existed a systemized way of acting, but that method was definitely not the formula that led to success. Taking the path that everyone takes and then taking the path that no one takes - this has to be the source of energy for most actors.

However, just counting on effort alone was too risky. That was why Maru wanted a safety measure in this bet. A minimum safety net where he could receive compensation for his work. Even if he could not survive as a main character, if he wanted to keep his lifeline of being supporting characters, there was a need to increase the variation of his acting. He needed to put in an effort not to become the best, but in order to NOT become the worst.

If he didn’t notice the change in his nature, it might have been detrimental to him. He might have turned into an optimistic fool and challenged unnecessary things. Or, he might have gone about his career with a challenging mindset before being broken down the line. Fortunately, Maru noticed the change. Rather than rejecting this bright personality that eroded his nature, he decided to make use of it. In retrospect, his acting that received compliments until now were all ones that asked him to leave behind a deep impression. A delinquent, a young murderer, a beggar, a bullied student. Even in the drama, he played a character that opposed the teacher. No one proposed that he should play a tenderhearted character. Likewise, he did not look for such roles either. Perhaps he might have felt it without knowing it - that he, who possessed extremely negative emotions due to his experience of death, suited characters that poked out of the story rather than the calm ones.

Before he played such characters though, there was something else that he received great compliments for from the audience. From an audience who paid money to watch a play, even.

The bus driver role. When he played a character for a filler skit prior to the main play, he always received applause from the audience due to his one-man act. Thinking about that time, being a bus driver didn’t require any sort of rough acting. It was something where he just calmly looked back at his own memories and touched the hearts of the audience. There was no violent expression of emotions, no frowning faces, and no angry voices, but the audience who had seen his act back then all looked like they were fully immersed.

If he used his past to act, then showing off such soft emotions wouldn’t be too hard. However, what if his memories disappeared and the ‘fact’ that he ‘experienced’ those things disappeared with them? He would probably never be able to show off something like that ever again. Moreover, the him before the change would be riddled with distrust towards mankind, so it would be even harder to play a softer role.

‘It’s different now.’

Something fundamental had changed. The self that always placed suspicion and distrust in front had been weakened. He believed that he would continue living his life in that way, but if he had laid them down, he might have become a soft man who believed in others.

Being poisoned without any preparation would put life in jeopardy, but being poisoned with proper preparation might become a medicine that strengthened the immune system. His now-positive nature should allow him to have a more flexible mindset in the future, and it would help out with the acting side as well. This meant that the frame of his acting spectrum would broaden from just being able to act out characters with deep impressions to being able to act in such a way that he blended in with the rest.

He had to be sensitive to change but he also had to proactively make the most out of the properties. That way, he would be able to form a different kind of relationship with people other than the ones he made until now. He would be able to gain new opportunities and new things to learn through them. A fish that could live in both clean and dirty waters would have a much larger advantage surviving than a fish that could only live in clean waters.

He didn’t have to play a character that received attention. It would be fine as long as he and Gaeul made enough money to live. Of course, saving up additional money for their future child might be good, but that was for the future. After all, having a child was something unimaginable right now.

For a brief moment, he wondered if it even made sense that they didn’t have a child even though he died at 45, but he shook off his thoughts when he heard Sora’s voice enter his ears.

“Let’s insert more laughs this time. Also, Maru-seonbae, it was good.”

“Tell me anytime if you’re dissatisfied.”

“Of course. But that really was good just now. I don’t have anything to add. Let’s go over to Hochul’s cut now.”

The camera moved over to the junior’s side. This junior digested the role of a lead supporting character splendidly until now, but he seemed under rather high pressure today. Normally, he would say something before he started acting, but right now he was staring holes into the script with his mouth shut.

“Well then. This is the scene where seonbae looks at Hochul with pity before turning around. Hochul, you know that expression, right? You have to express the despair as though you just lost your foothold. I know it must be difficult, but please do it.”

Maru exchanged gazes with his junior before starting to act.

“Uhm…”

Maru looked at the transfer student, who reached out to him just like always to eat lunch together, before swiftly turning around. The original plan was to turn around with hesitation, but they changed it to turning around in a hurry in order to express the main character’s desperation to not return to the days when he was bullied. He turned around and stayed like that until he was no longer in the camera frame before turning around to look at his junior.

The junior was making a very gloomy expression in the middle of the camera frame. Maru walked over and looked at the monitor that Sora was looking at. He could see the face of his junior, which shook a little inside the frame. His eyes shook slightly as he licked his lips. Maru looked at Sora’s face from the side. She was looking at the screen with a serious expression, but her lips did not utter the word ‘okay’.

After a while, Sora shouted cut.

“Let’s just try Hochul’s part again. Hochul, are you okay with that?”

“Yeah.”

“We’re going to keep rolling the camera. Express everything you want. Don’t worry about the time.”

They started shooting without hitting the slate. Maru crossed his arms and watched the monitor. His junior was repeating a few facial expressions and was playing the role of the slate himself by sighing every other beat.

“What do you think?”

“Since you’re asking me that, you must not like any of them, huh?”

“They’re good, but I feel like it’s lacking something.”

“Turning that something into words and telling the actor about it is the director’s job.”

“I know that. That’s why I know that the deficiency is on my end. If it was clear, I would’ve told him properly about it, but I’m asking you since even I don’t have a full grasp on it. What do you think about his acting?”

“Like you said, it is good.”

“So not very good?”

Sora frowned before clapping.

“Hochul, you can stop for now.”

She called Hochul over to the monitor. Ando also put down the camera and came over. The four of them looked at the video which was recorded without sound. The junior’s face continuously played out for a pretty long period of 8 minutes.

“Do you feel anything?”

Sora asked a question to the actor in question, but Hochul only shook his head. Maru understood how he felt. There were actors who felt confident about their acting, but there were also many actors who relied on the okay sign from the director rather than their own confidence. The director was asking a question with suspicion on her face, so an actor would rarely say that something was good. Not only that, Hochul just started off acting.

“Should I do that again?”

The only thing that came back was the dejected voice of the junior. Sora also made an apologetic expression. Continuing the shoot without a proper direction from the director signified the incompetence of the director. Relying on the actor for everything should also be a difficult matter for Sora, who had a very high self-esteem.

“How is it?” Maru asked Ando.

Ando’s camera movements looked really good. He didn’t feel like a newbie with the camera. This meant that he had pretty good eyes.

“This one is confusing me too. They all look okay, but they all look not okay.”

Maru nodded. This was one of the most crucial cuts in the film. No, since this was the scene where the conflict was brought out to the extreme, it was no different from the face of the film itself. The reason everyone refrained from answering was probably because they knew that their opinion might influence the quality of the whole outcome.

Maru looked at the three, who stayed quiet, before speaking,

“Let’s get your heart rate up.”

“What?”

“I’ll go for a jog with Hochul for a bit.”

Maru pointed at the school field with his chin.

“If your head doesn’t know, you should make your body feel it instead. Run until you feel like your heart will burst. If you hold your breath in that state, you’ll know a little more about what desperation is.”

“Ah, yes.”

“Director, take a break with the others. We lowly actors will make use of our bodies for a bit.”

Maru pushed the junior’s back outside the classroom.

Chapter 613

A monitor reflected the world. A whole new world existed inside of that small and rectangular frame. Even ordinary life without anything special would become a film if a certain part of it was sliced out in a rectangular fashion. Slicing. Direction was the act of creating a world unto itself by slicing from another world to create a story.

“Uhm…”

Sora became silent and looked at the monitor. The close up of the camera was taking in the full view of Hochul’s uneasy face. The droplets of sweat on his face reflected the light off the ceiling lights, and the dry lips uttered an even dryer voice. The hand he raised with difficulty lost its trajectory and returned to its original place as the expression turned darker by the moment. As the expression turned darker and darker and was about to disappear completely, Sora barely shouted ‘cut’, while holding back the urge to shout hooray.

“Good!”

There was nothing else she could say other than that. Adding any adverbs would undervalue the ‘goodness’ of it. It was simply good. That was enough.

Despite the ‘cut’ sound, Hochul’s expression did not loosen. Just like how it was impossible to stop suddenly after a full sprint due to momentum, his expression, which was approaching full nervousness, was maintained as though his face was waxed.

“Good job.”

It was Maru’s voice that broke that wax. Hochul shut his eyes and sighed with complex emotions. The backrest of the chair supported him and stopped him from falling over. Hochul became limp and chuckled.

“That was really hard.”

“Thanks to that, the director was able to shout cut with pleasure. Well done.”

Maru patted Hochul on the shoulder after saying that. Sora immediately called Ando over and played back the video.

“What do you think, seonbae?”

“Let’s go with this. Honestly, I don’t have the confidence to take something better than this.”

“Right?”

Sora bit her lower lip and quickly saved the footage. She copied the file and created a file specifically for editing before moving it to the editing folder. As soon as she saw the copied file, it finally felt real that they were past the 90% mark. There was still a lot of work to do considering that they had to cut, prune, join, and even tamper with the sound, but she could sigh in relief from the perspective that she had finally gathered all the ingredients.

“But running really was effective, huh,” Sora said while looking at Maru.

When Maru took Hochul to the school field, Sora was honestly half-doubtful. Wasn’t expression acting something that came out from inside a person? Yet Maru was exhausting the body instead. The cut take they took immediately after returning from the run was utterly terrible. Despite wiping off the sweat, Hochul was still drenched with sweat. Furthermore, his shoulders were heaving heavily, his breath was unnatural, and his lines were stretching out. She thought that it was actually better before the run. Just before they started the shoot again, Maru approached Hochul and told him a few things. After that, Hochul blocked his mouth and nose with his hand and held his breath. Maru did say before running. He said that Hochul would find out what desperation is if he raised his heartbeat and held his breath. Sora thought that he was joking, but it was actually happening. Hochul held his breath for a while before frowning and letting go. He panted heavily to the point that it made her wonder if something went wrong.

The cut take they took after that was what she was looking at right now. It was surprisingly close to the picture she wanted. It did look a little hurried, but it was much more satisfying than the previous ones, which lacked character.

“It was sort of a last resort, and I guess it worked. You don’t have any dissatisfaction with that, right?”

“I don’t. Would you like to have a look? Hochul, you should come too.”

The other staff members, who helped out with the production, also gathered in front of the monitor. Sora turned up the volume and pressed the play button. Hochul’s line could be heard alongside the noise that the microphone captured. Then, his face was zoomed in on. His eyes exuded unease, which made everyone exclaim.

“Can I watch that again?” Hochul asked.

Sora quickly moved the progress bar to the front and played it again. She smiled proudly no matter how many times she watched it.

“Remember that feeling, so that you can use it later. If you can’t, then I guess running like we did just now is not a bad idea either,” Maru said.

“It really is different huh. I can tell after looking at the video,” Hochul said.

“Would you like to compare it side by side?”

Sora put up the two videos and played them simultaneously. Even though it was acted out by the same person, there was a clear difference. The Hochul on the left was clearly ‘trying’ to express the desperation. There didn’t seem to be anything wrong with his acting method, but Sora couldn’t help but feel that it was lacking. Meanwhile, the right side exuded desperation. There was even a sense of pressure that made the viewers stop breathing for a brief moment. It was not that different in an overall sense, but the atmosphere created by the minute differences completely changed the character in the video.

“You can’t bring out something you entirely don’t know. That’s why many people say that the most important thing to complete your acting skills is acting experience. However, that doesn’t mean that you can experience everything, so you have to experience something similar and leave the rest to your imagination to bring out your emotions. Exhausting your body is only a temporary measure. In the future, you’ll have to use your head to do it.”

Those were Maru’s words to Hochul. Sora perked up her ears and remembered those words. She had gained footage that she really liked, but it wasn’t thanks to her own ability. In the end, it was something directed by a veteran actor. This made her embarrassed as a director. That was why she had to learn. A director who could only look at the bigger picture would never be full-fledged. Looking after actors who were lost - this was also one of the qualities of a director.

“Thank you for your work everyone. But we aren’t done yet, so please work hard for just a little more. We have to shoot the transfer student’s last moment, and the main character’s changed ‘going to school’ scene.”

“You’re going to do it right now?”

“We have to strike the iron while it’s still hot. Well then, we’ll keep going without taking a break! Take the equipment and move outside!”

Sora shouted in a loud voice.

* * *

“First, I’ll ask the graduate seonbae while editing. I did learn a bit, but I’m not entirely sure about the sound part yet.”

“Alright, work hard. I can’t help out with editing even if I wanted to.”

“I know. Then we'll be going first. You’re going to come by after visiting the acting club, right? Don’t say that you aren’t coming.”

“I’ll be there soon. You’re going to the restaurant in front of Lucky Mart, right?”

“Yes. I’m treating everyone today, so you have to come, okay? I got a credit card from dad. Anyway, we’re off first.”

At that moment, Hochul and the rest of the juniors from the acting club stepped out from the group.

“Should we also visit the acting club?”

“Nah. I’ll be fine by myself. You guys all worked hard so go ahead and start eating. I’m sure you must be hungry,” Maru said as he looked at his watch.

It was just before 9 at night.

“Then we’ll be going.”

“Please come soon!”

He stared at the group before returning to the school. When he went up to the 5th floor, he heard some loud noises. Now that he thought about it, Miso was here today. He slightly opened the door and looked inside. He saw his juniors voicing out a low pitched-tone with all their might. Behind them, Miso was watching them with scary eyes.

It seemed that Miso was out for blood. Maru greeted Miso with a nod before going inside. The moment some of the juniors tried to greet him, Miso shouted.

“I’ll kill you for real if I hear you roll your eyes one more time. Focus on the sound. There are only two months left until the competition! I’m fine with you doing things half-assedly if you want your voice to be shit on the stage, but I will not let someone like that on stage. Don’t think about doing things moderately just because you’ve been picked as the members to stand on stage in the summer competition. You weren’t picked because you were better than the others. You can be switched out at any time. The moment you forget the fact that there are more than thirty people who are just as good as you, you’ll have to step down from the stage and repeat basic training over and over again. Understood?”

“Yes!”

She was as harsh as ever. Maru smiled awkwardly before standing next to Miso.

“You’re quite savage.”

The faces of the 1st year juniors he saw from where Miso stood were quite a spectacle. Maru thought that they might make such faces on the edge of a cliff. From how they were sweating heavily, it seemed that they started the vocal exercises right after intense physical training.

“This is normal.”

“Don’t you usually start rehearsing at this point?”

“These little shits are mumbling their lines. I could clearly see that they were only practicing the basics in the practice room, so I scrapped the rehearsals and started polishing their basics. Hey, Kim Inho! Don’t squeeze your neck to make the voice; push it up from your stomach!”

“You can hear that from here?”

“I can.”

“You’re a total machine.”

“What, you wanna join them?”

“I already shout on the local mountain every single day whether it’s raining or snowing, because I’m afraid of losing them.”

“Yes, you should be afraid. If actors just dig into emotions, then they’ll become trash. Basics are something you have to practice your entire life.”

“That’s true. But hey, aren’t you going to give me a wedding invitation?”

“A student doesn’t need an invitation. You should just come.”

“I don’t need to pay congratulatory money?”

“Who do you take me for? The acting club should just visit and eat all they want.”

“How generous. But hey, you look good. Is it because you’re a bride of May?”

“Would you like to try my training after all this time?”

“I’ll keep my mouth shut.”

Miso twitched her nose before walking around and adjusting the voicing of some of the juniors. When she placed her hand on their stomach and below the waist and said a few words to them, the ring of their voices would become a lot better. Teaching wasn’t done by just anyone after all.

After giving out instructions, Miso looked at the juniors with serious eyes. Was there someone she didn’t like? Just as he was thinking about such things, Miso turned her head to look at Maru.

“It dries my blood.”

“What?”

“It dries my blood. Was it always this annoying? Now that I finished preparing, I’m starting to get nervous instead. I think about all sorts of things.”

“Are you talking about your marriage?”

“Why? Should I stop?”

“No, I didn’t mean that.”

Miso was on edge. She widened her eyes in a glaring fashion before sighing and turning around. It seemed that she didn’t want to show her weak side to everyone else. Maru looked at his juniors. They were absorbed in their vocal exercise, so no one took notice.

“You’re nervous now that your wedding is finally approaching?”

“Me? Haha? Me, nervous?”

Miso laughed as though it was absurd and spoke after a while.

“Am I the problem?”

“It’s always like that. No matter how much you like a person, living together is a different problem after all. Don’t think about it too seriously. If you get stressed out already, you’ll probably start planning to escape before you even get to throw the bouquet, you know?”

“You’re quite knowledgeable. I’m thinking about running away now too.”

“You aren’t actually going to do that, are you?”

“I’m not sure.”

“Don’t feel too much pressure. Once the wedding begins, time will flash by with you greeting everyone. Once you get yourself together, you’ll probably find yourself on the plane.”

“You sound like you’ve experienced it yourself?”

“I heard about it from someone I know. She told me that the wedding isn’t all laughs and smiles. You’ll have a lot of worries and think about trivial stuff.”

“Taesik-oppa will probably laugh at me if he finds out I’m like this, right? He’ll say that it doesn’t suit me.”

“Tell him about it. What good is having a husband? He’s there to listen to you at times like this.”

“Is that how it is?”

“Actually, I was thinking that teacher Taesik might be even more nervous than you. If anyone asks how he met his wife with all of his family members around, whew. Just thinking about it makes me shiver.”

“It’s not a crime for a teacher to get married to his student.”

“Did I say that? I’m just saying that many people will feel jealous.”

“What am I even doing with you…”

“Cracking light jokes is the best when you have a headache.”

Miso chuckled.

“If you’re so uneasy, just declare that you aren’t going to hold the wedding.”

“Are you crazy? I’ve already handed out all the invitations.”

“Then you know that you’re past the point of no return. Just bear with it.”

Maru put his thumbs up.

“If you need someone to sing a nuptial song, then just tell me. I’m quite good at singing, you know?”

“Lee Jinmo’s coming, you know?”

“You mean the singer? Wow, you’re in a different class alright.”

“Hey, rather than that, you should just get going. I feel pathetic talking to you. Why are you here in the first place?”

“I’m here to see everyone else, and to see if they’re doing well or not.”

“You? Of all people? Looks like the sun will rise from the west tomorrow. You never showed up on days you didn’t have to.”

“I decided to passionately give more love to my juniors now.”

“So you’re trying to screw with them, huh?”

“I wonder why everyone’s taking my intentions the wrong way when I say them.”

“Like hell they are. If you don’t have anything to do, just get going. Don’t bully them.”

“Hey, I never…”

He just shrugged towards Miso, who glared at him, before turning around. He waved his hand at Daemyung, who was practicing with the others on one side before leaving the hall. He could hear Miso’s shout through the closing door. Who’s bullying who? Maru chuckled before climbing down the stairs.

Chapter 614

“It’s killing me. I thought I would be able to touch up the sound with a few clicks, but it wasn’t like that. I have to extract the sound from the video, edit that, and then overlay it over the muted video. It kills me to see it rendering on my junk computer. So I decided to buy a computer at this opportunity.”

Sora spoke as though she was buying a bag of snacks on the way home.

“I’ll help out. It’s not like a computer costs pocket money.”

“It’s fine. I’ve saved up for months now.”

“Oh, you’re buying a computer with several months’ worth of pocket money?”

Sora nodded. Maru did have a suspicion when he found out that she lived in a wealthy apartment, so he decided to stop worrying about the wallet of a rich kid.

“You’re also doing the editing, right?” Maru asked Ando.

“I’m helping out from the side, but almost everything is done by her. I just give her my opinions from time to time.”

“When do you think you’re going to finish?”

“Today’s the 8th, so let’s see. The estimate is the 15th. Of course, we’ll have to do finishing touches after that until we hand it in.”

“So you’re going to edit it until the last moment, huh.”

“Looking at all the footage we took, it really made me want to do better. Isn’t that right?” Ando asked Sora.

“Don’t even start. Some of the footage I thought I was never going to use because it was an NG during the shoot was actually so good. If it was just me, I might have thought that I was overthinking, but Ando-seonbae said the same thing. It’s haunting me. Even though the take was supposed to be no good, it looked better than the original.”

“That sounds like I’ll have to do better in the future. If you need me for any additional shoots, then tell me about it. I’m free except on weekends.”

“You said that the drama schedule returned to normal, right?”

Maru nodded. The drama shooting schedule, which was messed up thanks to writer Lee Hanmi overhauling an entire episode, finally got back on track. He was now pretty free except on Saturdays and Sundays, and sometimes Fridays.

“Alright. I’ll see what I can make before contacting you. Ando-seonbae, let’s go. We don’t have time for this.”

Sora dragged Ando by the sleeve. Ando left the classroom while waving his hand with a tired face.

“So you finished the film?” Daemyung asked as he came into the classroom, looking at the two that just left.

“You can say that the actors’ job is almost over. Editing is not an area I can help out with.”

“A film huh. I want to make one too.”

“Why don’t you write a short scenario over the summer holidays?”

“Summer holidays?”

“You’re gonna have some time left over after the summer competition, won’t you? From what I see, Aram seems to be doing well as the club president. Are you going to go on stage during the winter competition?”

“No. I didn’t go up this time, so I’ll just look after the juniors in the winter too.”

“That’s why I’m saying it. Try making a scenario about 5 minutes long. And try drawing a sketch too.”

“5 minutes?”

“What, is it too short?”

“Yeah, a little.”

“If you try, it won’t be that short. In fact, it might be even more difficult than longer ones, you know? You will only be able to put in the most crucial parts.”

“Now that you say it, that’s true.”

“I heard that writers for publications prepare short stories first. Wouldn’t the film industry be similar? You need to start off with writing a proper short film, and only then will you be able to write longer ones later.”

“A 5-minute film huh.”

“Once you finish the scenario, show it to me. I’ll act in it for you if I like it.”

“Y-you weren’t going to do it without any conditions?”

“If I don’t get paid, I’ll have to see what it is like. If you pay me, I’ll do it without any conditions.”

“Ha, haha. Alright, I’ll try to come up with something you’ll really like. But five minutes huh. I’m not sure how that’s going to work.”

“Try looking things up on the internet. There’s actually quite a lot. There are especially a lot of videos made by people our age. You can refer to those.”

Daemyung nodded before asking.

“What kind of topics do you like?”

“The topic? That’s the director’s job to come up with.”

“There are joint projects, you know? I want to try looking for topics in the range that you want. Acting something you’re good at is good too, but I think acting something you want to do is going to be better.”

“Something I want to do, huh. What about a deep romance?”

The reason he made a joke was because nothing came to mind. He had his hands full digesting what he was given, so he never thought about such things. He chose acting as a way to earn money, and he adapted his acting to the roles he was given just like a factory stamping out items on order. In such a situation, asking things about the labor itself, rather than the benefits of it, was something quite difficult for him to answer.

“You have a talent to put people in a fix.”

“M-me?”

Daemyung blinked with a dazed expression. Maru put his bag on the desk before sitting on the window sill.

“I wonder what kind of acting I want to do.”

“You never thought about it?”

“Have you ever thought about the reason you like math?”

“No, I just do it because I’m told to.”

“It’s the same thing. I somehow stumbled on it, and there are people telling me to do it, so that’s why I’m doing it. Of course, I’m not saying that I dislike acting, or find it not fun. I find it really fun to the point that I can’t think of anything else to do as a job at this point. However, if you ask me specifically what kind of acting I want to do, then it becomes quite difficult to answer.”

“That’s plausible. Hm, then what kind of acting do you find yourself comfortable with? I think this will be easier to answer.”

“Something I can go all out on. I mean like something where I can burst out with all of my emotions. I’m still quite lacking when it comes to restrained acting.”

“Then I guess I should try creating a calm and relaxing scenario.”

“I thought I just said I’m not confident in doing that?”

“That’s all the more reason you should try shooting a film with fewer fluctuations in emotions. Don’t you think it’s gonna be really fun?”

“Sheesh, you really have a knack for putting other people in a tight spot. Don’t you feel that the juniors are avoiding you these days?”

“N-now that you mention it, maybe.”

Daemyung grinned.

“Oh, how are the videotapes coming along?”

Daemyung asked as though he just remembered. Maru jumped off the window sill.

“Thanks for asking. I just entered 1988 now. I should start seeing the changes soon.”

He finally reached the point when Jung Haejoo’s acting would become more polished. What Maru looked forward to was that the conversations between Haejoo and Junmin behind the scenes might be recorded. Yes, watching a good actor’s acting will allow him to learn many things, but if he managed to get his hands on the teachings of the mentor that nurtured the actor, then he would have even more things to learn.

He could go to Junmin and learn from him directly, but he now vaguely understood what kind of meaning Haejoo had to Junmin. Perhaps the woman named Jung Haejoo might be an irrecoverable wound for his lifetime. He didn’t want to get on his bad side by poking that wound.

“Can I watch with you as well?”

“Come over to my house on Saturday. I don’t have a shoot that day.”

“Can I?”

“Can you not?”

Maru picked up his bag.

“Let’s go up. Everyone must be waiting.”

* * *

“Should I say my words more strongly?”

“Do you find them lacking?”

“No, it’s not like that, but when I see how the others are doing it, I feel like I need to do more.”

“If you think that way, then it’s not a bad idea to put more energy into your lines. However, what you need to think about more than that is the harmony on stage. Having one person receive all the spotlight doesn’t complete the play after all. Try doing it differently in the next rehearsal. Daemyung and I will have a closer look.”

“Yes!”

The junior returned to his original position after a short reply. Maru opened the script and picked up his pen. This was the first time he saw a full rehearsal run. He did watch it during practice, but he wasn’t fully paying attention because he was busy making props.

“Well then! You should have had enough rest. Let’s begin shall we?”

Aram shouted the moment the second hand on the clock hit the number 12. The first year students groaned before gathering in the middle.

“It really was unexpected. I thought Aram was more of a whimsical kind,” he said to Daemyung, who sat next to him.

“Maybe it’s because she’s someone who does sports, but she finds it natural to keep things on time. You haven’t seen her bring a stopwatch to do the stretches, have you? If anything, she’s even more strict than Miso-seonbae, not less.”

“I guess we picked a good president.”

Daemyung smiled.

“But hey, what have you been writing on your script this whole time?”

“Their habits and stuff like that. I’m just writing down what I can see for now.”

“You’re going to tell them about it?”

“I thought I’d act like a senior for once.”

“Everyone will like it.”

“I’d be thankful if they do.”

Practice began under Aram’s lead. The juniors split up into two sides of the imaginary stage and went up on the ‘stage’ one by one.

Maru spoke in a small voice as he looked at the juniors who were acting.

“Isn’t the topic of the play a little too heavy? It’s about just before the independence, isn’t it?”

“I thought so too, but the script is created for young people. I think it’s also made as educational material, but the content is good. I think everyone likes the tragic beauty too.”

“Miso-noonim had everyone go over the basic vocalization because of the pronunciation a while ago, right?”

“Yeah, she did.”

“I can definitely tell that their voices are a little weak. If they can’t fill this small hall, then their voices will be eaten up by the audience’s clothing on an actual stage.”

“We’re increasing vocal practice before and after practice, but it’s not something that improves in a short time.”

“That’s why practicing outside this hall is important. Do you think they’re practicing at home?”

“They’re all doing their best.”

“Do you really think so?”

“I believe them. They aren’t the type to lie about that.”

“Well, I wouldn’t be so sure about that. I don’t think Miso-noonim got angry over something they couldn’t do. It’s also true that she has better eyes and ears than us, and she definitely told everyone to practice outside of practice sessions.”

“Everyone’s fired up. They should be putting in just as much effort.”

“If you think so, then I guess that’s fine.”

Maru stopped talking and looked at his juniors. He might be asking for too much from students who had started learning just two months ago. However, Miso never asked people to do the impossible.

After thinking for a while, Daemyung spoke.

“You know? I sometimes think about this, but she… Gaeul, I mean. You trust her fully, right?”

“Why do you ask?”

“It might sound strange coming from me, but I found it a little curious. I admit that your attitude towards the juniors definitely changed after you decided to change. However, you still sometimes choose to be doubtful instead of believing in them, don’t you? I’m not saying that it’s a bad thing. I know that it’s your way of doing things. Sometimes, I even want to try living like you. Not that it would work out. That’s what an innate nature is, right?”

“Maybe, maybe not. I think that human nature can be changed after being born. People change according to what they experience too.”

Maru paused before continuing.

“So the point of your question is, why am I so blindly faithful to Gaeul when I’m so doubtful of other people and like to make use of others?”

“You always put my words like that. Of course, you’re not wrong.”

“Aren’t couples all like this?”

“Probably not, I think? Normal people aren’t like that. That’s what makes me curious. Honestly speaking, I like Jiyoon, but I don’t think that everything about her is good. Jiyoon should be the same. When I look at you two though, no, when I look at how you treat Gaeul… how should I put this… I’m not sure if saying it like this is right, and I might be being rude to you, but I can only think of it like this.”

“What is it?”

“I think you’re afraid of her. And you look unstable.”

“…Really?”

“Sorry. I think I went too far. I’m sure it’s not like that.”

Daemyung quickly apologized with a complex expression on his face. Maru could only chuckle.

“Looks like everyone must be doing their best with their practice at home.”

“What do you mean by that so suddenly?”

“What do you mean, what? I’m saying that you’re right. Also, try to refrain from telling someone your honest words. People generally get angry, not embarrassed, when other people find out what they’re thinking.”

Maru closed the script.

“Maru.”

“I’ll go get some fresh air for a while. Also, don’t think about it too deeply. I am a little angry, but I also feel thankful. It’s quite interesting, you know? When I think about the fact that I have a friend who knows me better than I do.”

I’m off - Maru slapped Daemyung’s back before leaving the hall.

Chapter 615

The relationship between lovers was a tug of war in the end. It was a fight to see who pulls the rope stronger, and who gets pulled. A relationship where one side is one-sidedly pulling, while the other side is being one-sidedly being dragged will make the involved parties fed up eventually. Only when a change of power happens regularly, so that neither side knows who was in the lead, can a relationship between lovers continue without both sides losing interest. This is why many people think about making changes to their relationship when they find out that they’re scheduling the next date out of habit. They say love will eventually turn into an agreement and a duty, but anyone would want to maintain the ‘love’ in their relationship while they were still lovers. A relationship that’s stimulating and new every time they meet - in order to maintain such a fresh relationship, Maru knew that there needed to be a tug of war with a balance of power, but he couldn’t do that.

He bought a cup of coffee from the cafeteria before walking a lap around the school field. He could hear vocal exercises from the 5th floor of the main building from where he was.

“I am afraid.”

Maru looked down at the half-filled coffee. Daemyung was very adept at observing others. What was surprising was that he didn’t just see the surface; he noticed the underlying meaning behind each of those actions. He might have been born with it, but he probably learned to notice what other people were thinking when he was being bullied, so that he could avoid getting injured, which improved his talents even further.

Daemyung’s words were true. He hit right on the bullseye, rendering Maru unable to retort with a joke like he usually would. When someone got hit on a part that really hurt, that person would not have the leisure to counterattack and would lose strength before avoiding that place altogether.

I am afraid - Maru smiled bitterly as he looked at his eyes reflected in the deep brown surface of the coffee. A relationship always had to be fresh, otherwise, both sides would get fed up. Time did not consolidate relationships. It wasn’t that there was a special reason for long-time lovers turning their backs on each other. Maru listened to his long-time friends whining about breaking up. He couldn’t remember their names, faces, or the specific details of their situation, but he could remember their words to a certain extent.

They… just didn’t have a reason to keep meeting.

There was no grand reason for breaking up. This was especially true in a romantic relationship.

A partner bound by business is generally continuous unless the monetary agreement is broken. For an employer and an employee, as long as there’s a clear employment contract, neither side can break it one-sidedly. However, friendship and romantic relationships didn’t have such clear-cut contracts. Friendship would sometimes mature on its own even if left alone sometimes, but for lovers, that definitely wasn’t the case.

Love, it was such a vague word. No literature anywhere in the world had a clear definition of love. Some called sacrifice the essence of love, while some called devotion the essence of love. Some called overcoming hardships together love, and some called mercy and forgiveness love.

Perhaps the reason why the reasons for lovers breaking up were so bland was precisely because of the vagueness of love.

That was why Maru decided to fit himself into that context. Maru was playing tug of war with Gaeul. However, he never pulled too strongly. He always readied himself to be dragged, and sometimes he would pick up the rope and walk over to her side on his own accord. He knew that the exciting tug of war of love was the route for their relationship to not become worn out, but Maru knew the downsides of that tug of war too well.

A tug of war could only occur when both sides are grabbing the rope. If either side lets go of the rope, it’s no longer a tug of war. It’s just playing with the rope by oneself in a lonely manner.

The reason he showed her a side of him that he did not show others was a way for him to show his struggles. Yes, he was revealing his honest feelings, but at the same time, he was acting cute in front of her. Don’t abandon me - that might be his honest feeling.

Maru emptied the rest of the coffee in one go before crumpling up the paper cup.

Sometimes he thought - why does it have to be her? Rationally speaking, it was definitely strange for him to be so hung up over Gaeul. Indeed, Gaeul was definitely a charming woman. She was lovely, and he thought that he could give her his everything. However, it wasn’t that people were matched 1 to 1 like a puzzle piece. Even if it wasn’t Gaeul, if he looked closely enough, he might find another woman who’s more lovely and would make him want to endear more.

However, from the moment he came back to life, he only thought about Gaeul and wanted her.

Thinking about it closely, it was definitely something strange. Why did he try to regain Gaeul? Was it because he hadn’t given her enough things in his previous life? If he had to come up with a reason, that was the most plausible one. After all, his wife quit doing the plays that she so loved in order to take care of the housework. It wasn’t that he couldn’t understand the compensating mindset, but was that really all? Was that the only reason he did all the things he did in order to meet the woman who was his wife in his previous life and became lovers with her?

“If that’s the case, I guess this is more like redemption, not love, huh.”

It became vague. The thoughts that never came to mind when he pursued blind love and wanted a return of the same love, gained weight with Daemyung’s words and dug into his mind.

Of course, it wasn’t like he was dissatisfied that she was the only woman in his life. It was just that he found it strange, now that he thought about it. What made him want Gaeul so much? Strictly speaking, it was all a matter of the past, so why was he so hung up on her?

Why would there be any reason to like someone? - he tried to think that way and start walking, but the iffyness in his mind still haunted his thoughts. As he climbed up the stairs from the 1st floor, the 2nd floor, and then the 3rd floor, his thoughts ended up taking root in a completely unexpected place.

“Is it fine as it is now?”

He thought about it carefully. For Gaeul, this was her first romantic relationship. Until now, they had met up with each other without anything bad happening, but there was a possibility that it might go wrong in the future. No, that moment would definitely arrive. After all, he had multiple quarrels with her in his previous life before they got married.

The problem was his actions. Weren’t his actions driving her emotions one-sidedly into one corner? A person matured as they loved and had their heart broken by others. This was the same for both men and women. That was why many people asked the question: Is it really a happy thing to get married to your first love?

Gaeul dated others before she met him in his previous life. The same thing could be said for him as well. They met each other while looking for their lovers, and happened to have found a partner that matched their styles in each other.

In his previous life, his wife was a woman in society who worked in a theater troupe, and was over 20 years old. The man known as Han Maru liked the Han Gaeul who had walked her own path in life. They shared their own ups and downs that they’ve experienced, cherished the different parts about each other, and sometimes quarreled but held on with the love they’ve experienced before to heal themselves with it to give rise to new love.

It was because there was a Han Gaeul that he didn’t know of; that he couldn’t understand, that he could love her existence.

“I look unstable.”

Was he perhaps making a tailor-made doll?

He had that thought. Wasn’t he perhaps blocking Gaeul’s own path forward and changing it to his own tastes by imitating a destined meeting?

His actions of giving up on the tug of war and matching her every wish might also be quite pressuring in her perspective. She didn’t feel it now, but the moment she realized the ordinariness of their romantic relationship, she might begin to doubt their current relationship.

‘Am I really an idiot?’

Writing the period in a novel that was still unwritten in order to reform the ending of a novel that he already once saw should be wrong. Perhaps him asking her to get married might be a net that shackled her.

Maru leaned against the wall.

Wasn’t that too irresponsible? - he was at the epitome of ignorance to the point that it made him wonder if it was really his own doing. What right did he have to approach her and force her to take action? What right did he have to make her like and love him?

At that moment, Maru felt as though something very important escaped him. He felt like there was a magical word that made this messed up formula make sense, but he couldn’t think of it. The reason he was so blindly faithful to Gaeul, the reason it couldn’t be anyone but her - he had a strange feeling that the reason lay apart from her.

But, that was only just a feeling. Maru shook off those emotions by shaking his head. He had to base his thoughts on facts. There was a possibility that he might have lost something he absolutely must not, but such an assumption would only leave behind meaningless results.

If he endlessly dug into the ‘what ifs’, he might as well come to this conclusion -

That his memories were manipulated.

However, that shouldn’t be the case. That was why he had to think based on clear facts.

“What do I have to do now?”

He wished to continue the current relationship where he matched her. He would reform himself into the ideal man that Gaeul wanted. They would be able to continue their relationship as long as he changed himself to freshen things up whenever their relationship hit a habitual routine.

It was fine as long as he acted like he was doing now.

Maru was reminded of a well-crafted doll walking. That doll’s face looked similar to Gaeul’s.

Was he in love with the current her? Or was he in love with her of the previous life?

There was one thing that was clear.

His actions will continue to restrict her options, and as a result of that, she might become a completely different person from the her of the previous life, in a sense.

When he looked at her, who coexisted between two different memories, he honestly couldn’t give a clear answer to which one of her he would eventually end up liking.

‘I’m a total coward.’

He was afraid of being abandoned; he was afraid of losing her, so he approached her first and planned out everything from A to Z. Perhaps he should not have done that. Perhaps he should have let her live her own life and stand in front of her with confidence once she matured.

Perhaps the fear that she would be taken away, and that meager confidence of his have ruined her life? Perhaps she was destined to meet a man incomparably better than Han Maru in this life and live the rest of her life in happiness, but a dude who got a second chance at life might have ruined her future out of his own greed.

“It had to be ordinary love.”

Maru put his forehead against the wall and sighed.

Perhaps the reason he was thinking like this was an influence from his change. Now that his thought process changed, he felt like his own philosophy had been twisted as well.

‘But I still don’t want to give her up.’

Perhaps the god might think of him as an underhanded man.

At that moment, he heard some voices from above. It seemed that the door to the hall was opened. They were probably taking a break from practice.

“Maru-seonbae?”

“Yeah. You guys finished?”

“Yeah. We got a 10-minute break.”

“Would you like to drink something? I’ll treat you.”

“Really? Guys! Maru-seonbae’s treating us!”

Maru looked at everyone rushing down. You’re really good at deceiving your own emotions - he felt like someone was saying to him from within.

Chapter 616

-We got an audition scheduled for you, so prepare for that. The reason I’m telling this to you directly is because I have big expectations from you. Team leader Han will tell you the details, so you can hear that from him. This drama is something heavily marketed by YBS. You’ve made your name known through the sitcom, so don’t you think it’s about time you make your face known to more people? You should row while the water is still flowing. If you make your name known to more people with this opportunity, you’ll have an easier time later. Your acting is pretty decent, so you have the potential to become big. Also, your heart is really okay, right? Tell me if you have a problem later. Don’t suffer by yourself and make other people worried. If necessary, we’ll introduce you to a good hospital.

Jiseok reminded himself of the words he just heard as he left the president’s office.

“Since he’s caring about me, does he think that I’m worth it now?”

He did not hide the smile that crept onto his face as he walked. It was well-known that the president of Yellow Star was quite cold to actors without any fame. Jiseok also only talked to him a couple of times when he signed the contract, and never talked to him after that.

“What, did something good happen?”

“Oh, noona.”

Jiseok waved his hand at Chaerim, who stood in front of him. She was wearing slightly tall shoes, a blue shirt, and beige cotton pants. She also seemed to have become taller, but he did not say that out loud. Anyone in the company knew that Chaerim was sensitive about her height.

“Didn’t you go to Japan?”

“The plan was to have a relaxing rest, but my schedule was leaked on the internet. So I postponed it to next week.”

“Popular people have it hard. What brings you to the company?”

“To see the unnis.”

“Unnis, you say…”

“What other unnis are there in this company other than them?”

“I knew it. What is it this time?”

“Blue’s farewell concert.”

“What concert?”

“They want to do a farewell concert. They asked me for my opinions about doing a farewell concert even though it’s been half a year since we officially split up, and gee, I can only say that the president is amazing. He’s the kind of guy who would dig out a body from a grave before selling it to someone else.”

“Ha, haha.”

Seeing Chaerim with a glare on her face, Jiseok couldn’t do anything but laugh. Jiseok was there when Blue had a press meeting. Camera flashes baptized the girls, and those girls hugged each other warmly in front of the journalists and cried as they declared the last moment of Blue. As soon as the press meeting finished though, they wiped their eyes off with some tissue, got on their respective vehicles, and split up without saying goodbye.

Seeing the five fairies of Blue, who split up as though they were refreshed, Jiseok and his manager talked about how the entertainment industry was nothing magical. An idol group, who split up with tears in front of the fans - regardless of what was actually happening - is going to hold a farewell concert after half a year.

The more he thought about that, the more flabbergasted he became. Leading a company really wasn’t something anyone could do.

“So, are you going to do it?”

“Would you do it if you were in my shoes? After all that trouble?”

“How about the others?”

“I wouldn’t know. Minji-unni and Dayoon-unni are doing well as actresses, so they have nothing to lose, but the other two aren’t. They haven’t done any activities ever since Blue split up, and from what I heard, they invested into some franchise and miserably failed.”

“You don’t seem to contact each other, huh?”

“We’ve had enough of each other, so why would I? I just assume that they’re living their lives well. Honestly, I didn’t want to see them today either.”

“You really don’t hold back, huh. Are the other noonas coming now?”

“Probably? Why do you ask?”

“I thought I should watch.”

“Watch if you want to. It’ll be quite interesting.”

“I-I was just joking.”

“Rather than that, what happened to you to be coming out of the president’s office?”

“He told me to do an audition for a drama.”

“You should get yourself together then. You’re quite soft, so it’s likely that people will push you around. Especially that president. Don’t listen to his words fully. He’s not totally trash, but he’s definitely not someone who can be called good.”

“I’ll keep that in mind.”

“Keep raising your worth. If you don’t want to get backstabbed later, you will have to do that.”

“Aren’t you being too pessimistic?”

“I’m just saying. I found out that the only things you can trust in the end are money and your own skills. I’m twenty and I’ve realized that already. Aren’t I amazing?”

“Yes, you are.”

Charim made a self-loathing smile before sighing. Although she spoke in a relaxed manner, she probably wasn’t that comfortable with meeting people from the group she split up with.

At that moment, a person wearing training clothes appeared behind Chaerim. From the figure, it seemed to be a woman. She was covering her face with a hood and was yawning as she walked over. She stopped after seeing Jiseok.

“What are you two doing?”

“Oh, it was you, seonbae-nim. I was wondering who it was,” Jiseok said as he looked at Joohyun, who took off her hood. Chaerim turned around.

“U-unni. Hello.”

“Haven’t seen you in a while, Chaerim. How have you been?”

“I’m doing okay. How about you, unni?”

“Well, I’ve just been resting ever since The Witness finished. It’s been a while since I came to the company too.”

“Wow, it must be my lucky day today then. Meeting you here and all.”

Jiseok slightly walked over so that he could see Chaerim’s face from the side. The way she chuckled in embarrassment made her look like a completely different person. Chaerim, who was looking at Joohyun with a slightly flushed expression, suddenly turned around.

Aren’t you going to get going? - she seemed to say with her eyes. Jiseok smiled awkwardly before moving a step away.

“Then I’ll take my leave. Have a nice talk, you two.”

“Jiseok, wait.”

Joohyun stopped him.

“Eh?”

“Aren’t you doing a drama soon?”

“Ah, yes. The president just told me to do an audition.”

“I knew it.”

Joohyun smiled.

“Are you perhaps playing the lead character, seonbae?”

“Yeah. I was originally planning to take a one-year break, but this one looked interesting. That’s why I decided to do it. Plus, I know the writer as well so I have faith in the work.”

“I was just a bundled product then, huh. I did find it strange because I was told to audition for a mini-series on public TV.”

Chaerim interfered after listening to the conversation.

“What’s so bad about being a bundled product? Products that don’t have value can’t even be put in a bundle.”

“Chaerim is right about that. I’m not saying that it’s the right thing to do, but that doesn’t mean that it’s not an opportunity. Don’t feel disappointed and do your best. I’m looking forward to it because I think that it’ll be quite interesting to do it with you.”

Joohyun waved her hand and walked to the president’s room.

“Now that’s what I call a superstar’s leisure. It’s amazing that she can meet the president wearing something like that.”

“Joohyun-seonbae will probably wear things like that even if she’s not a star, though. She has a strong character after all.”

“That’s true, I guess. You have it good. You get to shoot with Joohyun-unni.”

“It’s a lot of pressure on me. Everyone will probably think that I was cast simply because I’m in the same agency as Joohyun-seonbae. If I end up doing badly or something…… Urgh, that’ll be terrible.”

“What’s not terrible? Everything’s terrible when you work in this field. Look at me, I’m going to talk about holding a concert even though I’ve disbanded.”

“You told me you weren’t going to do it though.”

“That’s what I want to do. However, you know that work doesn’t always go the way you want to, right?”

“I just want to live my life while acting the things I want. Using my brain and measuring things out isn’t my style.”

“If you want that kind of life, the only option is for you to become a famous actor. If you become an actor who gets work prepared for you even if you stay still and have everyone wanting to scout you, then you’ll be able to do that. Heck, I want to be like that too.”

“Are you going to quit singing? I quite liked your singing. You know that I have every one of Blue’s CDs, right?”

“Thanks for that. As for music, I want to try it again later. I want to do emotional ballads instead of dance music though. I don’t want to be a singer who runs around on stage; I want to be one that just stands on the stage with a single microphone and a single light. But I like being an actress for now. I think I’ll remember bad things if I sing now.”

“Tell me about it if you ever decide to sing later. I’ll go watch you.”

“Alright. I guess I’ll be eating at the cafeteria until the other unnis come. I should consume company food since it’s been a while. It’s still terrible, isn’t it?”

“It’s not like the terrible taste would go anywhere.”

Chaerim smiled and turned around. Just then, she stopped as though she was reminded of something.

“You were friends with her, weren’t you?”

“Her?”

Just as Chaerim was about to say the name, she chuckled before changing what she was going to say.

“Gaeul, I meant Gaeul.”

“Ahaha, Gaeul, I do.”

“Do you know that calling her Gaeul in front of her makes her really embarrassed? She was so cute. I met her two days ago, and I kept calling her Gaeul for the whole day. Even though it was her who told me to call her that, she was really embarrassed when I did. She’s really cute.”

“I haven’t seen her face since I only called her, but her voice was a little shaky. It seems like she’s not used to it.”

“What can she do? She can only get used to it. Just like how I’m Chaerim.”

“Ah, right. You changed your name, didn’t you?”

“I became more used to being called by this name after all. It’s a name with a lot of terrible memories attached to it, but there’s no other name that expresses me as well as this one. Are you going to keep using your real name, Yoo Jiseok?”

“Yes. No one’s using the name, and the name isn’t that bad either.”

“I guess it’s fine as long as you’re ok with it.”

Later - Chaerim started walking across the corridor as she said that.

Jiseok stretched out his arms and climbed down the stairs. When he was shooting the sitcom, all he ever wanted was a day of rest, but now that the series finished and there was nothing for him to do other than going to school, he was filled with the desire to shoot. Luckily, he was given some nice work. He was a little disappointed that he was being sold as a bundle, but thanks to Joohyun and Chaerim’s words, he realized that he wasn’t in a position to be complaining.

“Rather than that, I wonder what he’s doing these days.”

There was a name that came to his mind when he talked about Gaeul. He wondered if he should try calling and took out his phone. Just then, he saw the cleaning lady, who was cleaning the stairs.

“Hello, ma’am.”

“Ah, yes. It’s been a while.”

“I haven’t had any work recently, so I didn’t need to come. Give me the mop.”

“Oh, no, it’s fine.”

“Just give it to me. I don’t have anything to do anyway. I have to come down from the top, right?”

“It’s my work though.”

“We can finish it earlier if there’s two of us. Have you eaten yet?”

“Not yet.”

“Then eat with me after finishing this. I have a spare food ticket.”

“Oh, no, I’m okay.”

“I just don’t want to eat by myself. I mean it.”

He went up to the 3rd floor with the mop and came down while wiping the stairs. He also cleaned the banisters with a rag. When he put his strength in it, the stairs and the banisters were sparkly. Jiseok looked at his own work with a satisfied expression.

“You’re doing that again?”

It was Chaerim who said she was going to the cafeteria. She was holding a canned drink and a sandwich in her hands. It seemed that she didn’t like the company food after all.

“Do you want to help too, noona?”

“Don’t bring me into it. I’m not that kind. Also, hey, that’s a bad habit you have.”

“We should help each other out.”

“Like that, you’ll get scammed by a fraudster someday, you know?”

Chaerim glanced downwards before going over to the cleaning lady and handing her the drink. She forced the can into the lady’s hands even though she tried to decline, before returning.

“That’s it for me. You can do the cleaning.”

“Okay.”

“Geez, you’re too kind for your own good.”

Chaerim went up the stairs while taking a bite from the sandwich. Jiseok shrugged before finishing the rest of the cleaning.

“Ma’am, let’s go eat.”

“Thanks every time.”

“Don’t say that. Oh, can you go ahead? I’ll make a quick phone call before catching up to you.”

“Alright. I’ll get your portion as well.”

After sending off the cleaning lady first, Jiseok took out his phone and pressed some buttons. After a few signal sounds, the signal suddenly cut off before a lady’s voice could be heard.

-The number you’re trying to reach is currently unav…

“Oh, is he in a shoot right now?”

Jiseok remembered that the shoots for New Semester were on the weekends. He nodded before putting the phone inside his pocket. They should also eat around 1 p.m. so he decided to call after finishing lunch.

“Ma’am! Wait for me!”

Jiseok quickly went down the stairs.

Chapter 617

-Uhm…

Hochul’s face was zoomed in on. The classroom in the background became narrower and narrower, but the sound given off by the surroundings became louder and louder. The creaking of the desks, the sound of footsteps, the laughter of the students, and somehow, the sound of faith crumbling apart within a certain character, even though it should not be something that could be heard.

The close-up slowly fell back after it was changed to the next cut. Maru rested his chin on his hands and focused on the monitor. This cut was originally taken as a single cut. The camera had first zoomed in on Hochul’s face, then zoomed out before the scene changed to the classroom. Sora, however, scrapped the original finished cut and took another shot. She did not control the sense of distance by manipulating the lens; she put the camera on a cart and moved the whole thing backwards, in other words, she used a dolly shot. Thanks to that, Hochul had to run another lap in order to bring back the desperate emotions.

“It has a much bigger sense of space now that the camera is moving.”

“It’s good that I changed it, right?”

He could hear Sora and Ando having a conversation. It seemed that they were satisfied with the result. He turned around. He could see Hochul looking at his own figure passionately acting on the screen. His expression was somewhere between pity and satisfaction, and seeing as how he sighed in relief when the cut was switched, it seemed that he wasn’t entirely dissatisfied.

“Looks good.”

“Yes. I was worried, so I’m very relieved.”

Maru patted Hochul on the shoulder before looking at the monitor again. Sound from the surrounding space reached the level of being noisy. The scenery of the harmonious classroom was captured as the camera distanced itself from Hochul. Hochul, who seemed isolated in his own area, tried to wave at the camera before lowering his head and turning around.

-That couldn’t be helped.

Maru’s voice could be heard from the speakers. His voice was recorded later and overlaid on top of the video. Maru looked at his own figure laughing and playing with the others. He tried his best to insert some uneasy expressions throughout the scene to express that he was afraid of losing the peace he managed to painstakingly get, but it seemed that it wasn’t enough. It would’ve been better if he secretly expressed the wariness that he might lose this joy from time to time. It was such a pity, but Sora said that it might look too artificial to go that far and used the first shot they took.

‘I got a lot of benefits thanks to the director being so clear cut.’

Since acting was a field where he could only be subjective, an actor couldn’t help but aim for the ideals. Perhaps the thought that he could do better if he tried more might be a mistake on his part or was him being arrogant. Being able to give strict evaluations to actors that couldn’t be satisfied with their acting should also be one of the qualities of a director. While Sora might be a tomboy, he had to give her acknowledgment in that regard.

The film now headed towards an entirely different direction from the beginning. The main character, who chewed on rice as he would sand at the beginning of the film, now texted his friends and looked forward to going to school. He joked with the friends he met on his way to school and talked to them without restraint. The main character, who sought out dark alleyways, now raised his head up high and walked on streets where students, who were wearing uniforms just like his, were everywhere. Finally feeling a sense of belonging that he was now the same as the rest of them, the main character entered the classroom, and the camera slowly followed the main character’s back. After greeting his friends cheerfully, the main character sat down and took out textbooks from his bag. He talked about trivial everyday life stuff with the person that sat next to him as he prepared for morning homeroom. Meanwhile, the camera separated from the main character’s back and approached the blackboard in a slow fashion.

“We got a lot of NGs on that part, didn’t we?”

“That was the 19th take. Everyone seemed a little overly excited because it was the last part. I actually held myself back from snapping. I too was excited after all,” Sora said with a smile.

Maru also remembered that part. Even Ando, who always carried the camera seriously, shook the camera up and down because of the light-hearted atmosphere. Perhaps because of the sense of leisure that arose since it was the last part, no one complained about it. Thanks to that, the classroom scene just before the last cut was harmony itself and was at the epitome of ordinariness. The camera, which captured a scene that could be seen in just about every school, slowly turned to look at the desk right in front of the teacher’s desk. There were students sitting at thirty seven desks in the classroom, but that desk alone was empty. The guest appearance, Taesik, who should be on his honeymoon at this moment, opened the door and came in.

-Everyone, sit down. Class prez.

The camera now shot from the teacher’s point of view. Gaeul, who played the role of the class president, and was standing up, stopped talking with the person next to her and smiled.

-Stand, bow to the teacher.

-Good morning, sir.

The camera scanned the bowing students before stopping at the empty desk.

-Don’t chat and do your best during class. Don’t cause trouble. Understood?

-Yes.

Even while the teacher had a conversation with the students, the camera shot the desk which was now without an owner. Taesik left and chatter erupted from outside the frame once again.

-What’s for lunch today?

-Did you do that homework?

-Wanna go to the PC bang after school?

The scene faded out amidst the ordinary conversation. As the screen turned dark, silence fell on the film production club as well.

The film wasn’t over yet. There was still a cut left.

Breaking the silence, light appeared from in the monitor again. Maru saw himself in the film. Someone called out to him, who was standing in front of that empty desk in front of the teacher’s desk.

-Hey, the teacher said to take that desk out and put it in the storage room.

-Really?

The camera, which was shooting from the back of the classroom, slowly moved around to the side of the main character and shot his face; the same face that was smiling in happiness after being freed from shackles.

“What a bad guy,” Maru said after checking that the video stopped.

It was definitely something satisfying since he was moved when he saw his own acting, but it also made him feel bitter because he felt as though a facet of the character in the screen also existed inside of him. Considering the rule that one could only express what they know of, that child who was fleeing from reality on the screen was undeniably a part of him.

“That goes to show how good your acting was. Now then, that concludes the premiere. Give a round of applause, everyone! For the actors, the staff, and lastly, to me, who fought until the end on the computer!”

Sora stood up first and started clapping. Everyone laughed and followed suit.

“Now, I can’t edit it anymore. The day after tomorrow, the 23rd, is the deadline after all. And honestly speaking, I wouldn’t know what to edit at this point. I’m confident now. This will definitely win a prize.”

“Isn’t it a little too early to be happy?” someone from the film production club asked.

Sora shook her head.

“A sports player who plays a match expecting to lose will not win the prize. That’s why, we should all think that we will definitely win a prize. Now, the only thing left is to hand it in properly and pray to god.”

“What are you going to do about the prize money?”

“We should gather everyone up and have a blast!”

“Sounds good!”

The juniors from the acting club, who also helped out in the production, cheered as well. The film production clubroom, which was half the size of an ordinary classroom, was filled with cheers.

“Well, then. You know I like speeches and things like that, right? Before we eat the stuff we bought, let me say a word or two as the director. Is that alright with you all?”

Go on - everyone replied.

“Thank you for trusting in me and helping me, despite my lack of skills. I hope that we can create another one next year, or if possible, this winter. Of course, I’m going to get help from the acting club at that time too. Why don’t we make this an annual event or something? The film production club and the acting club should become sister clubs.”

“Talk to our club president for that,” Maru said with a smile.

“I am going to, you know? Anyway! Thanks for your efforts until now!”

Sora bowed. The people gathered inside the clubroom smiled and started applauding. Maru did the same. Now that he heard it from Sora herself, he finally felt like this film was over.

“Next, our lead actor should say a word or two.”

“Nah, leave me out.”

“Why? It’s embarrassing for only me to do it, so you should say some words too, seonbae. You’re supposed to do it on occasions like this.”

Sora pulled on his arm. Maru scratched his eyebrows and stood up. The eyes on him made him feel a bit of pressure. He smiled awkwardly before speaking,

“Let’s just get to eating.”

After a moment of silence, everyone in the clubroom reached out to the food in front of them.

“Let’s eat!”

“Thanks for the food!”

Maru grinned at Sora, who glared at him, before reaching out to some snacks.

“Raw ramyun? This looks terrible.”

“There are uncooked wiener sausages here too.”

“Should we just bring a pot and cook some budae-jjigae[1]?”

“I’m sure the teachers would love to see that.”

Since the food was brought by students who didn’t have deep pockets, most of the items were snacks or cheap frozen foods. Maru checked the time on his phone before calling a few of his juniors from the acting club and leaving the classroom.

“What is it, seonbae?”

“Go to the fast food restaurant in front of the school and buy everything you want. You should buy about 30 people’s worth of food.”

He gave his credit card to his juniors. After accepting the card, the junior hesitated before asking,

“Really?”

“Don’t hold back and get everything you want. I’m going to make you run a lap around the school field if the receipt is shorter than your face, so buy a lot of things. If you want to eat something else, you can buy those too. But you have to hurry.”

“Yes!”

The juniors seemed to have thought that refusing once out of politeness was enough and ran down the stairs without even looking back. Seeing that, Maru was a little scared of the soon-to-be-coming receipt, but he decided not to mind since the bus had already left.

Oh, I had a missed call - when he opened his phone, he saw that he had a missed call. It was from Jiseok. He pressed the call button before waiting a little.

-Are you on break from your shoot?

“No, I’m at school because there’s no shoot today.”

-Oh, really? I thought you were shooting because you weren’t picking up.

“I turn it off completely when I’m shooting. Anyways, what’s up?”

-I was just checking if you were alive or dead.

“You want me to die?”

-If I say yes here, is that a scenario for a movie?

“A third-rate one, maybe.”

-Hey, third-rate is going a little too far. I just called because I was reminded of you. I was talking about Gaeul, and thought that it’s been quite a while since I saw you. Do you have time this weekend[2]? Let’s eat out together. Of course, you’ll be the one buying since you have a job right now.

“But my plan is to stay at home for the entire day tomorrow.”

-Even though it’s Sunday? Aren’t you going to meet Gaeul?

“I have something to do.”

-What is it?

“Watching videotapes.”

-Wow, so your love has finally cooled down. I was wondering when it would happen.

“It’s nothing like that, so stop talking nonsense.”

-Haha, but what videotapes are you talking about? Aren’t we past the era of watching films on videotapes?

“They’re records of old times. It’s for studying, mostly.”

-Studying acting?

“If it wasn’t that, then I wouldn’t have a reason to watch them.”

-Let me in then. I’d like to visit a friend’s house too.

“The seats are already full though.”

-Is someone else coming?

“A friend of mine.”

-Then let me in as well as one of your friends.

“I’ll ask first. He’s someone who’s not good around strangers, so he wouldn’t want a weird guy to be invited all of a sudden. He’s a good guy, so he should probably be understanding, but it would definitely not be polite of me to decide by myself.”

-I’m a weird guy?

“A maniac is definitely a weird guy. Anyway, I’ll call you back once I tell him about it. He’ll probably accept though.”

-Should I buy some toilet rolls?

“It’s not a housewarming party. Just bring some things to eat. If you do come, anyway.”

-Got it. I’ll be waiting so call me back quickly.

“Hey, why don’t you have anything to do on the weekend? Don’t you have a shoot?”

-I’m completely jobless right now. I’m going to meet everyone I can before I start working.

Call me back - Jiseok added energetically before hanging up.

“A high school student is not jobless…”

Maru chuckled before closing his phone.

[1] A.K.A (Korean) Army stew. Link for more details.

[2] Students went to schools on Saturdays (every Saturday), until 2006 (though, schools ended before noon on Saturdays), when it was changed to going once every two weeks and eventually just five days a week in 2012. So Saturday(the day in this chapter) was technically not a ‘weekend’ in the sense that it was a resting day.

Chapter 618

“Seonbae, are you leaving?”

“Yeah, sorry about that.”

“Don’t say that. Do your best, seonbae. Treat us to some food if you become big later. You can’t ignore us, okay?”

Gaeul said yes to the juniors of her acting club before changing her shoes. Although club activities finished at 5 on Saturdays, she notified the teachers beforehand that she would be leaving at 2.

She took the bus and then took the train to Seoul. She grabbed the handle with one hand and held up the script that her instructor gave her in the other to read out loud.

“I like you. I don’t care what you think about me. I’m selfish? I still don’t care.”

It was the line of a woman in a movie who desperately pleaded while grabbing the hands of a man who was in a coma. When she first watched that movie, Gaeul understood what it was like to be at a loss for words due to being touched. She sniffled like a fool by herself and replayed that scene over and over again. The title of that movie was ‘Spring Calendar’.

When she went through the lines, the emotions became vivid again, making her nose tinge. It was a really good movie - just as she was thinking that, she met eyes with the woman right in front of her, who seemed to be a college student. Seeing her turn her head away in a fluster, Gaeul felt her face turning hot. She decided to go through the lines quietly, but it seemed that she raised her voice again while she was absorbed in the lines. She smiled awkwardly before turning away. When she did, she could see another lady looking at her with pity. It’s alright, go on - the lady’s eyes seemed to say.

Gaeul looked around before fleeing to the next car over.

As she stared at the train map, she eventually arrived at her destination. When she sighed and took a step off the train, she saw the college girl she met eyes with before getting off the neighboring car. They met eyes once again, and the college girl nodded in pity. She wanted to grab her and tell her that she was practicing acting, but she made a sad expression instead because she thought that it would make matters worse. She went further and even covered her mouth and pretended to swallow her sobs. After receiving twisted pity for a moment, Gaeul quickly left the station.

“Wow.”

Gaeul chuckled after looking at the script in her hands. It seemed that she was misunderstood because she looked sad. It also meant that she managed to bring out the emotions in the lines pretty well. It made her pretty flustered, but now that she took a breather, she felt good since it was like her skills were acknowledged. The lines she practiced plentily while harboring them in her heart managed to stimulate other people’s emotions. Gaeul engraved the line she put in her notes once again as she started walking.

As she was walking on the streets that she had not gotten used to yet, she saw a large poster ad on the wall of a large store. A woman wearing a black coat was looking down on the streets. The woman, who seemed to fit so well with the brand-name clothes, looked like she would rip herself out of the poster at any moment.

“Wow.”

Gaeul exclaimed softly. Ahn Joohyun, she was such a good actress. She was cool right now, but the act she showed in ‘Spring Calendar’ was charming to the point that she couldn’t forget about it. The line she was studying and practicing as an assignment right now was also her line in the movie. Perhaps it left an even deeper impression because that was the only scene in the movie where strong emotions were exposed.

She stopped and admired the poster for a while before taking out her phone from her bag and taking a photo of it. She was an actress who she wanted to have as a role model. She didn’t know if it was possible, but Ahn Joohyun was the type of actress she wanted to be.

She thought that she should hurry. Gaeul pulled on her bag straps before walking quickly. When she walked past the restaurant that she resolved to go to one day, she saw the agency building. She took out her entrance card in order to enter the company. She pushed the glass door open and went inside, walked past the people who were resting, and put her entrance card on the security gate. She stared at the plastic gates that opened sideways before quickly going inside. She came to the company by herself a few times before, but she was still not used to this place.

She took an elevator up. After getting off, she turned left and went inside the door that was right in front of her.

“You’re here.”

“Hello.”

Gaeul greeted Choi Gyeonmi, who was inside the practice room. Gyeonmi was reading a book on a tall chair without a backrest, and spoke while looking at her in a slightly glaring fashion.

“Since you’re here, you should do some stretches.”

“Ah, yes.”

She felt nervous. It was definitely a joyful thing that she got to learn from an actress who she only saw on TV programs, but being alone inside a practice room with Gyeonmi, who seemed slightly cold, definitely placed a lot of pressure on her. Gyeonmi was over 50 years old, but she didn’t look like that. The loose-fit black shirt, the contrasting white cotton pants, and glasses with a silver strap attached to it - all of these elements seemed to represent her as a cool beauty.

Gaeul sat on the ground and looked at her own body. Although she had taken good care of her body since young, she felt immensely lacking compared to Gyeonmi.

She wished that she was a little taller. She looked at Gyeonmi, who could reach the ground with her foot even on a tall chair, before calming down and starting to exercise. She did some stretches starting from the middle of her body. Just then, she heard the door open and heard a yawning sound.

“Huh?”

Heewon, who just entered, looked at Gyeonmi and made a surprised face. He quickly looked at the clock in the practice room before sighing in relief.

“Lee Heewon. Personally, I’d like you to come a little earlier in the future.”

“I don’t think I’m late yet…”

When Gyeonmi glared at him, Heewon quickly changed his words.

“I’m sorry. I’ll be early starting next time. I mean it.”

“Do you know how many times I’ve heard that already?”

“Twice…?”

“Twice after another five times.”

“Really?”

Heewon smiled brightly before slowly coming over to her and sitting down. Gaeul coughed softly before speaking,

“You should come a little earlier. You know that teacher always comes early.”

“That’s why I came 4 minutes early today. I wonder why she’s so early this time when she usually comes around 5 minutes early.”

Heewon laughed when he felt Gyeonmi’s gaze. She really couldn’t imagine how this guy would continue living if not for his little brother. Would he even eat properly? Perhaps he would even find breathing too bothersome. While Heewon sweated due to Gyeonmi’s stare, a savior appeared.

“Hello, ma’am.”

Haewon came in and greeted with a clear voice. Gyeonmi, who was sharply staring at Heewon over her glasses, made a gentle smile.

“Yes, Haewon, you’re here too?”

“Yes. May I watch today as well?”

“Sure, you can.”

“Thank you for accepting my request every time. Oh, yes, ma’am.”

Haewon took out something from the bag on his back. It was a brown paper bag, and a savory smell wafted out from inside.

“If you’re okay with this, please eat some.”

Gyeonmi put her hand inside the paper bag. Gaeul also stared at the bag.

“You don’t need to buy something like this for me.”

“I was just walking by and it smelled so nice. I thought it would be great to eat them together so I bought some. I also remembered you saying that you liked them.”

“I couldn’t buy them because I was busy, but I guess I still get to eat some thanks to you. Thank you.”

What Gyeonmi took out of the bag was a slice of baguette which had a rough texture. Now that she thought about it, the bread Gyeonmi always had by her side wasn’t there today.

“Ooh, bread.”

Heewon went over as well. Gyeonmi unwillingly gave him a piece.

“Gaeul, you should come as well.”

“Yes.”

“Thank Haewon for it. Sheesh, I really wonder who’s the real big brother here.”

“Haha, I get that a lot,” Heewon said.

Gaeul laughed inside. This guy really didn’t care about what others thought of him. Being able to say something like that without restraint was, in some way, an ability in itself. Gyeonmi pressed between her eyes and shook her head slightly. She always made that gesture after talking with Heewon.

“So delicious.”

“Hyung, take it slow. No one’s taking it away from you.”

Looking at Haewon reminded her of mothers holding their newborns. Those mothers would console and look after their babies. He would be a kind, caring father if he ever got married.

Gyeonmi shook her hands before standing up. Gaeul also cleaned the surroundings.

“Aren’t you going to eat more?”

Only Heewon stayed seated, reaching out to the bag of baguettes. Just as he was taking out a new piece of bread, Gyeonmi hit the back of his hand with her script.

“We should begin, don’t you think?”

“How about we do that after we fini… nothing.”

Heewon quickly changed his words after seeing Gyeonmi roll her book even tighter. She had seen this several times already, yet she laughed every time.

“Gaeul, you’re laughing?”

“Oh, no, I’m not.”

She ended up laughing when she put her guard down. She turned her head away from Gyeonmi’s prickly glare and saw Heewon, who had a big grin on his face. Gaeul groaned since Heewon was clearly greeting a comrade.

“Looks like the both of you have prepared the assignments I gave you perfectly, huh? Seeing as you are so leisurely. Leaving aside Heewon, Gaeul, you seem pretty confident too, huh?” Gyeonmi said as she took off her glasses.

It seemed that the class today was going to be quite strict. Haewon quietly took the bag of baguettes and moved to a corner of the practice room.

“I’ll watch from here.”

“You can freely move around and watch from anywhere. There are drinks in the fridge, so drink them if you feel thirsty. Make yourself at ease.”

“Thank you, ma’am.”

Gyeonmi, who looked at Haewon with satisfaction, quickly changed her expression before turning around.

“Well, then. Let’s start with Heewon, since you were late, shall we?”

“Uhm, I wasn’t…”

“Wasn’t?”

“Nothing. I was late. He, heheh.”

She moved away from Heewon, who was standing in the middle of the practice room. Gaeul slightly tapped her cheeks to shake off the leisure and prankful nature she had. From now on, she had to be very tense. She especially had to watch Heewon’s acting closely. She desperately needed the power of her eyes in order to understand that indescribable thing. In order to not miss an expression or a gesture, Gaeul took a deep breath before straining her eyes.

“Where did you get your lines from?”

“Maskman, the Warrior of Light.”

“What?”

Gyeonmi twitched her eyes. Gaeul also perked up her ears, thinking that she might have heard wrong.

“Maskman, the Warrior of Light. He transforms like this and…”

He made a weird posture before shouting ‘transform’. Gaeul palmed her face. She never thought that he would bring something like that.

“It’s really fun. I have videotapes of it at home, and I probably watched it around five times.”

“Is it something like Superman, then?”

“It’s different, but it’s something similar.”

“I’m not sure what it is exactly, but I’m glad that you’ve prepared something. I actually thought that you would come without preparing anything.”

“Oh, no. I’m not that lazy. I do it when I need to.”

“Obviously, Haewon probably had to nag you to do it.”

“He didn’t.”

“You still don’t get that lying takes skill, huh. It’s written all over your face, so stop saying nonsense and try doing it. After acting, summarize what you wanted to show me.”

“Okay. But do you really not know Maskman?”

“Do you know Moulin Rouge?”

“No.”

“Then forget about it and show it to me already.”

Heewon blinked before taking a deep breath and getting into position. He was in the funny posture he made earlier. He stood with his legs wide apart and crossed his arms before putting them in front of his face. A sigh could be heard. Gaeul turned around. She saw Heawon, who was smiling awkwardly in embarrassment.

At that moment, a loud voice could be heard.

“We fight for the peace of Earth!”

Oh my lord - Gaeul had to seal her lips tight in order to prevent herself from laughing. She was reminded of the actions that boys would make during elementary school. What Heewon was doing right now was extremely similar to that. He made a big circle in the air with his crossed arms before jumping. He seemed to be transforming(?) or something. She quietly looked at Gyeonmi. Gyeonmi had a faint smile on her face as though she was wanting to see where he was going to go with this.

“Mask Black!”

Heewon waved his hand in the air as though he was ripping out of something and then raised his head while putting one knee on the ground.

Gaeul had to turn her head away in order to hold back from laughing.

Chapter 619

Sometimes, she changed the channel subconsciously while watching TV. Most of the time, she did that when the scene was lewd or uninteresting, but sometimes she did so because she couldn’t bear to keep watching.

She did that not too long ago as well while watching a late-night drama. She kept watching it because the story was unlike that of the other dramas aired during the golden time and because the actors were good at acting, but she couldn’t bear to keep watching because of an actress that appeared halfway through. She had a hard time watching. Unlike the other actors who decorated the first half of the drama with stable acting skills, that actress looked like she was desperate to make herself known. That actress’ acting skills were terrible to the point that it made her wonder why the director okayed that in the first place. It was acting that made the viewer embarrassed. That actress maintained the vague emotional acting until the end, and Gaeul, who watched it for a while, felt disappointed before switching the channel.

She didn’t think that the actress’ real acting skills were only so much. Perhaps she was having a bad day that day, or it might be a mistake of the editors. For example, they might have taken footage off tape B instead of tape A, or other similar mistakes. In any case, it wasn’t something she could bear to keep watching, and she would have to have locked her fingers so that they didn’t curl up from the terrible acting. Gaeul called ‘bad acting’ like that as ‘uncomfortable acting’.

“Let go of her right now! If you want, I’ll become the hostage instead!”

Gaeul chuckled as she watched Heewon’s acting. In some sense, his acting was uncomfortable. As Gaeul was used to the more modern kind of acting, chuckles escaped her mouth when she looked at Heewon, who was expressing something along the lines of sword fighting, gun fighting, and some magical thing through his mimes. However, what was decisively different about him from the terrible woman from the drama was that she kept looking at Heewon’s acting. To be precise, just ‘looking at his acting’ might be a wrong expression. He made it so that she kept looking. Heewon was doing a funny act, but there was nothing that made her cringe.

It was a bit like black comedy. It didn’t make her laugh awkwardly because it was terrible to look at; it had elements that she could enjoy, which made her laugh. The contents, the lines, and his gestures were all very direct and sometimes childish - which was the intention for the targets of the original content anyway - but Heewon, who took it seriously and passionately, definitely had a charm that enchanted people.

Gaeul found herself clasping her hands. Gyeonmi’s assignment was just one line, but Heewon didn’t seem to have listened to that and continued his one-man skit for three minutes. Gyeonmi was tapping on her lips with her fingers with her legs crossed. Look at this guy - her expression seemed to say.

“My transformation time is almost up. Everyone, run! I will defend with my body!”

Heewon, who even bent his legs and said in a desperate tone, slowly stood up. He made a dazed expression for a few seconds before spitting out a lump of breath and started to laugh.

“And that’s it.”

“Lee Heewon.”

“Yes?”

“Didn’t I tell you to prepare one line?”

“It wasn’t one scene?”

“One line. Prepare a few lines from your favorite actors or actors you were deeply impressed with and act them out in class. I definitely said that.”

“If I knew it was just one line, I wouldn’t have put so much time into practicing…”

Heewon grumbled in a small voice, but as the practice room was closed off, the voice was clear to the ears. Gyeonmi probably heard it as well. Heewon, who noticed it a little too late, made a smile, but that didn’t work on Gyeonmi.

“Looks like you need more assignments. Haewon, can you lend me your ears?”

“Of course!”

Seemingly disappointed by the cheerful reply from his brother, Heewon became dejected and sat down. Gyeonmi and Haewon quietly talked to each other. Haewon wrote down Gyeonmi’s words with a suspicious-looking expression, and he wrote down quite a lot. It seemed that Heewon might not be able to rest at all until the next lesson.

“Why didn’t you listen more carefully?”

“I think I did… forget it. Ah, this is so bothersome.”

“You really are weird.”

“Don’t talk to me. I don’t have any energy right now. I did a whole scene when I only had to do one line. This can’t be happening to me.”

Gaeul shook her head. It seemed that voluntarily doing additional assignments came as big despair for Heewon. Well, he was someone who surprised her every time, both in a good way and a bad way.

“Lee Heewon. In any case, you did well. I had a fun time. Have you ever watched children’s musicals or something?” Gyeonmi said to Heewon as though she had finished talking to Haewon.

“No. Those things are expensive, aren’t they? It should cost around a few dozen thousand won for a ticket. If I had the money for that, I would spend it on food instead… is not what I meant to say, why are you asking that?”

“Because I felt like I was watching a children’s musical. Children’s eyes see what adults cannot. They use their exceptional imagination and imagery to see what adults, who are haunted by plausibility and reality, cannot through the directors inside their minds. If you did your act in front of kids, you would’ve gotten a very good reaction. It was very good.”

She was all praises. Heewon made pouty-smiled - meaning, he felt good because he was praised, but was sad that he did extra homework.

“However, you’re playing by yourself. I’m supposed to be the audience. A world inside a children’s movie has been nearly perfectly recreated inside your head, and you are freely running around inside it, but you were not conscious about me even a little even though I am right in front of you, making me feel a little displeased. Do you remember that you turned your back on me halfway through?”

“N-no.”

“It’s good to get absorbed. But don’t get buried under it. You need to be conscious of where you are and what you are doing at all times. This is especially important if you’re going to be an actor who acts in front of a camera. If you forget the angle and your movement lines, it will be the same as doing no acting even if you show the best of the best acting.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

“Sheesh, I wonder why everyone with talent has a screw loose. Is that the compensation for their talent?” Gyeonmi sighed softly before looking at Gaeul.

“Han Gaeul, you ready?”

“Yes.”

“Did you prepare a scene as well?”

“No, I prepared two lines from my favorite movie and one line from a drama.”

“I see. I appreciate that you understand my words at least. If you prepared something strange as well, this class might have been really tiring.”

Gyeonmi faintly smiled before pointing at the center of the practice room.

“Then let’s have a look, shall we?”

Before Gaeul moved, she looked at the note she wrote the lines on.

“It’s a good habit to check. Be fully prepared before you go up on the stage. Everyone can wait for that much for the actors,” Gyeonmi said.

She felt slightly relieved by the unexpected encouragement but that didn’t last long when she heard the following words.

“However, something bad would be waiting if the results don’t live up to the wait, right? Maybe, you’ll receive a glare, or get your guarantee shaved off, or you might become an actor without a script at all.”

Hearing the words that pierced her heart, Gaeul quickly put down the note before standing in the center.

“It has to be long enough to understand the context. Just because I said one line, if you really prepared just one line, I would still be disappointed.”

“I prepared a little bit before and after it as well.”

“Good, go ahead.”

Gaeul thought of an image of a virtual bed. It would be great if she could perfectly forget about the real space, but that was something impossible for her. She had to compromise and get her emotions ready. There was a bed and the man she loved was on the bed. She had never confessed her love to this man before this day. What she was trying to do right now was to confess the love she had holed up within her all this time to the man in a coma. There was no meaning, and it might be even underhanded, but she could only say it in a situation like this since she was a coward. What if she confessed before the man got into an accident? Harboring regrets, she would promise her undying love for him.

“It’s been two years since I met you. I smiled a lot when I looked at you until now. Back then, I just watched you from afar since I just liked looking at you. I could be satisfied with just that. However, the moment I saw that woman next to you, I came to realize. I realized just how foolish I was to think that I could be satisfied with just looking at you. What would’ve happened to us if I confessed to you back when that woman hadn’t met you, and I was the only one who discovered you and was in love with you? Would we have become lovers?” Gaeul spoke as she grabbed the imaginary patient’s hands.

“I like you. I don’t care what you think about me. I’m selfish? I still don’t care.”

Gaeul had to bite her lips tightly closed to hold back the surging emotions. She slowly calmed down as she remembered the touched feelings she had when she watched the movie.

“Spring Calendar?”

“Ah, yes.”

“It’s a good movie. I had fun watching it too. Only that scene violently fluctuates amidst the calmness that does not stimulate the emotions too artificially. Of course, it can’t even come close to other movies, but everyone probably cried there. Going by the plot though, the woman’s confession is really useless, you know? After all, she’s confessing to a man who already has a woman he likes. Usually, it would make people frown, but for some reason, people cry during that scene. The dam that the actor had piled up suddenly collapses without a sound, so the viewers can’t help but silently cry as well.”

“Yes. This scene left a deep impression on me as well.”

“Good, well done for now. So what did you want to say through this scene?”

That was a question she didn’t ask Heewon. Gaeul was a little flustered but quickly came up with an answer.

“I wanted to show that such a kind of love can also touch people.”

“No, no. That’s the director’s intention. I’m asking why you liked that scene, and why you chose to act it out.”

“The reason I liked it was because it was really touching.”

“Well, okay. Then why did you decide to act out that touching scene?”

“I wanted to express that moment as well.”

“What moment precisely?”

She was at a loss for words. It kept looping. She couldn’t exactly give the answer she gave for the first question.

“Did you do it because the crying Ahn Joohyun looked cool?”

“There’s that too.”

“But would that be the touching element? Of course, if you say so, it might be, but I think there’s something else as well.”

Gaeul couldn’t say anything and Gyeonmi kept looking at her.

“Gaeul.”

“Yes.”

“Don’t freeze up. I’m not trying to scold you.”

“Yes.”

“You did well. If you were terrible, I wouldn’t have asked you such questions in the first place. It’s because you expressed it well that I’m asking you more than just that. What are you trying to express? Why did you like it? What are you ultimately trying to say by doing that acting?”

Gyeonmi stood up from her seat.

“I think that your expressivity was good. You showed enough emotions for the viewers to accept as well. However, actors shouldn’t stop there. Just showing emotions is something anyone can do with enough technical practice. A good actor needs to know what the source of those emotions is and make the viewers perfectly understand it through their acting. A person who knows a language system can speak. However, the important thing is not the act of speaking itself, but the intentions contained in the words. What do you want to show through your acting? Knowing it exactly and not knowing it definitely has their differences.”

Gaeul could only nod as she listened. To her, who only acted out that scene because she liked it, the question of what she wanted to say through her acting was something quite hard to answer.

“If you just imitate someone else’s acting, that’s just a well-performing machine. You need to imitate and after that, you need to make your own claims. That’s what an actor’s character is. The reason why every actor is different despite the fact that we have limited word selections and muscle movements is because there are infinitely many different claims contained in those acts. Gaeul, you need to think about that a little more.”

Gyeonmi put on her glasses again.

“Should I give you some time to think?”

“Yes, I’ll think about it for a while.”

“Good. I really like that attitude of yours. It’s unlike a certain irresponsible guy.”

Gaeul faintly smiled but was dizzy on the inside. She had to think. Feeling that it was hard to breathe for some reason, Gaeul sat down.

Chapter 620

Perhaps due to her senses having become overly sensitive, the breathing of those around her became annoyingly loud. Gaeul thought that she should focus, but her ears kept receiving useless information. Don’t think about anything else - Gaeul said to herself as she tried her best to understand Gyeonmi’s advice. What was she trying to say through her acting? This was definitely an important part. In this world, there was perhaps no action that contained no meaning. Even newborn babies express their desire to eat by crying instinctively. They did not cry for no reason; their actions contained a clear objective, in other words, a claim. With that being the case, the fact that an actor did not have such a claim even though they were supposed to stand in front of an audience with their acting was perhaps a big problem. A well-performing machine - Gaeul shook her head. The word ‘machine’ also contained the meaning that there was a lack of character. When the words that haunted her came to her mind again, she felt uneasy.

‘What was I trying to say through that act just now?’

The fact that twisted love can also be touching is a claim of the director. While twisted, that heartrending love definitely made her touched. There was a deep sense of lingering feelings that she couldn’t forget easily causing them to remain behind in her heart, and her desire to express such a scene for herself was projected through this assignment.

In the end, could she say nothing other than the fact that she just wanted to imitate the scene? She looked back on her acting. The warm emotions in the lines definitely were there. The scene she saw from the movie filled up her mind fully, and she even had a feeling that she had forgotten about herself, albeit for a brief moment. It was definitely an act that she could be satisfied with. However, if asked what she was trying to say through that acting, she couldn’t give a clear answer.

“Can you show me the next one?”

“Can I think about this for just a little more?”

“Very well. You should ponder when you still can. Then shall we take a 30 minute break? Gaeul, you should get your thoughts organized, and Heewon, you can do whatever you want.”

Gyeonmi left the practice room. Heewon lay down on the ground with his limbs out wide the moment the door closed. Gaeul looked away from the joyfully grinning Heewon before looking at the mirror in front of her. She saw a girl who was at a loss in that mirror.

“Noona, you should drink this.”

Thanks - she replied to Haewon, who offered her a cup of water.

“Acting is hard. Just listening to it from the side makes me feel dizzy.”

“You tell me. Even after all that learning, I still find it confusing every time. I’m not sure what’s right and what I should be doing.”

“But you are doing well, noona. The problem is my brother over there.”

Heewon rolled over when the two looked at him.

“Man, the floor feels nice and cold. I love this company. There’s air conditioning, there’s food… I wish I lived here.”

Heewon spoke like he was a fish as he put his cheeks against the floor.

“See that? He might become one with the floor at this rate. He really sets his mind to doing stuff when he has to, but the problem is that it doesn’t happen that often.”

Seemingly having heard Haewon’s words, Heewon blocked his ears with his hands.

“I can’t hear anything, la-la-la.”

Gaeul spoke as she looked at the grumbling Heewon.

“But he’s good.”

Laziness was only a problem when one couldn’t bring out their fullest skills because of it. To those that cleanly finish their work, laziness was a facet of leisure. Seeing Heewon dazing out on the floor, Gaeul felt envious. Gyeonmi praised Heewon’s acting. Forgetting about the audience due to being immersed in acting is only a small problem that can be fixed at any time. It was really good - she was reminded of the satisfaction in Gyeonmi’s voice.

Compared to that, how was she? She was pondering because she couldn’t set her aim properly. She only found the lazy-looking Heewon amazing.

“Lee Heewon.”

“Yeah?”

“What did you try to say through your acting?”

“Say through acting? Nothing.”

Heewon yawned after saying those words.

“Nothing?”

“I would crack my head open if I think about every detail like that. Even back in the acting club, I just memorized the script and did what it said.”

“Teacher just said that actors need to do an act that contains their own claims though.”

“Oh, that? Didn’t she mean that we can do whatever we want?”

“No. What did you think about when you were acting before?”

“What did I think about? About acting of course.”

“I’m asking about the kind of thoughts you have when you are acting.”

“Acting is acting, where are thoughts in that? I just do it since I decided to do that. There’s no reason or a thought for that. Isn’t acting about emotions? I really like Maskman and find it really cool, so that’s why I did it. Once I start, well, all sorts of trivial stuff do come to mind, but those things have no relation to acting at all. I just do what my heart tells me to and accept what my body wants to do. If there’s a script, I would follow that, but there was nothing like that today, so I just did it however I wanted to. Well, thanks to that, I heard that I should be more conscious of the audience.”

Of course, I’m a high school student too, so I don’t like it like the kids do - Heewon added, but that did not reach Gaeul.

He did what his body led him to do? If that was the case, she would have had a much easier time answering Gyeonmi’s question. She would’ve replied that she did it because she found it cool.

“You said it too, didn’t you? That you did it because the scene was cool.”

“But she said it was wrong.”

“I don’t think that’s right. I kept listening because I felt like I would get more assignments if I got scolded again, but teacher never said that you were wrong. She just kept asking for your opinion. It was you who kept changing your answer. When she asked if you liked something, you would reply that you weren’t sure. I think that happened a few times. Am I wrong?”

Haewon also spoke as well.

“She definitely said it like this: ‘Of course, if you say so, it might be, but I think there’s something else as well.’ While it does sound like she was inducing you to say another answer, she didn’t say you were wrong.”

Hearing the two brothers say those words made her even more confused. What did Gyeonmi want? If she thought about it, Gyeonmi never asked Heewon that question. Why didn’t she ask? Did she forget? Or was there some other reason?

“Also, I might be wrong about this, but isn’t acting about doing what you want? You need to cry like this, laugh like this - are there rules like that? Well, I might be stupid and might be ignoring those rules, but even if they did exist, I wouldn’t want to follow them. It’s annoying enough as it is already, so what fun would there be if I can’t do it the way I want to? The only fun thing I find in acting is that I can do as I wish.”

“Do as you wish?”

Heewon, who stared at her while lying on the ground, sat up.

“You know? I usually don’t have any energy when I’m talking. That’s why Haewon does it for me most of the time. If Haewon tells me that he’s getting married in the future, I might actually end up crying.”

“Hyung, don’t do that. I mean it.”

Haewon smiled awkwardly.

“Anyway, I usually don't have any energy, so I don’t want to do anything. But somehow, I ended up in the acting club, right? Moreover, I have to practice according to a set frame. Studying was hard enough, so telling me to learn a script was really cruel.”

Heewon yawned. Gaeul also opened her mouth wide, as though she was infected by that, before quickly closing her mouth.

“If acting was like studying, I would’ve quit ages ago. When it comes to acting, you know, there are things that surge up from your heart, right? Isn’t it fine as long as you express those things? Red as red, yellow as yellow, blue as blue. I think that’s it. Making it complex like what were your intentions or claims or stuff like that - I don’t know any of it. It’s kinda annoying to have an act planned out for me, but once I memorized it, I would just play around to my heart’s content. After all, as long as you don’t derail yourself, there’s nothing ‘wrong’ in acting, right? As long as you take care so that you don’t drive the story up the mountain, I think anything’s okay.”

“Do you really act like that? Do you really not study the character’s emotions, background, and things like that and just act according to what you’ve seen and what you feel like?”

“That’s who I am. Do this, do that - I’m not that smart, so I can’t do stuff like that. Expressing the colors that come to my mind to their fullest - that is my acting. Claims? There’s nothing like that. Honestly speaking, comedy acting is there to make people laugh, and sad acting is there to make people sad. I really don’t get why there’s any grand reason for it. Am I an idiot after all?”

“No, I don’t think so.”

“Then a genius.”

“That’s even more of a no-no.”

Gaeul thought back to Heewon’s words. She didn’t understand why she was so happy when she heard that Heewon wouldn’t have chosen acting if there was a set method to acting. It wasn’t that her mind was cleared all of a sudden, but the halted cogwheels of thought started turning again.

When she first thought hard and uttered the subject of the scene itself, Gyeonmi stated that that was the director’s intention. This was the truth. After all, she thought that that was the director’s intention herself when she said those words. After that, Gaeul carefully mentioned her own opinions, but Gyeonmi kept asking her more questions. Seeing the questions return to the original, Gaeul kept looking for other answers.

‘Maybe there was no need to be so lost?’

Her very first answer - the fact that she acted that scene out because she found Ahn Joohyun cool. Was that a wrong answer?

When acting out an already existing scene, the original creator’s opinions couldn’t be entirely ignored. What that scene tried to tell the audience was that a feeble woman’s pathetic and improper confession can look adorable. The director perfectly managed to express that, and arriving at a conclusion other than that for that scene was something incredibly hard.

Was she overly worried and was avoiding the obvious answer?

“Uhm, when you acted out Maskman, right?”

“Yeah, what?”

“You just did that because you found it cool and you wanted to do it, right?”

“Of course. If it wasn’t cool then I would have no reason to do it in the first place. It’s fun too. Like I said before though, I’m also an adult and it’s not like I truly admire…”

Gaeul raised her hand to stop Heewon. Heewon pouted before lying back down again. Gaeul looked at him before speaking with a smile,

“Thanks. I feel like I cleared up my head thanks to your simple and clear answer.”

“If you feel thankful, why don’t you buy me some hamburgers instead? Haewon’s not allowing it saying that we have to save up this month.”

“Hyung, it’s not that we’re saving up. It’s you who has to lose weight.”

Haewon quickly interjected. As she kept watching the rather cheerful brothers, Gyeonmi returned.

“Gaeul, you look good. Did you get an answer?”

“Yes. It’s my answer. Oh, I did refer to Heewon’s answer though.”

“Really? Referring to that strange kid’s answer makes me worried though.”

“Actually, I am too.”

Gyeonmi sat down.

“Then let’s have a listen, shall we? What did you want to say through your acting?”

“I just found that scene really cool. That’s why I wanted to try doing it. That’s all.”

“That’s all?”

“Yes.”

“Really? Even though it’s just a surface imitation?”

“No, it’s not just the surface. When I act that scene out, all sorts of emotions surge within me. But those aren’t from wanting to express something. I just want to let my acting, and myself fall into that scene. I didn’t just imitate what could be seen on the surface. I might be lacking, but I did my best to imitate everything in that moment, including the emotions contained in the scene.”

After saying that, Gaeul felt that she couldn’t make out any more words. She detected a clear acting philosophy taking root within her, but she also realized that her experiences and ways weren’t sufficient to express it in words.

“If I get a script, and I become the one to act, I might be able to imbue something in it. However, the acts that the seniors have shown me are already perfected. It’s to the point that it’s easy enough to understand what they were trying to say through their acting just by imitating that scene. That’s why I cannot express my words through this one line. I’m satisfied with just recreating it in a cool way.”

After saying those words, she breathed out heavily. It took a few seconds for Gyeonmi to nod.

“Is that what you think?”

“Eh? Ah, yes.”

“Good.”

“What?”

“I said good. I did get the impression that you weren’t getting to the point and were circling around it, but now I get what you’re trying to say. Gaeul, do you know what’s really important to an actor?”

“Emotional expressivity?”

Gyeonmi shook her head.

“No. It’s the boldness that they are the only ones that can do their acting. Of course, they will have to match up to their seniors, because that’s just how society works, but they all have to think like that inwardly. Shout. Han Gaeul’s acting can only be done by Han Gaeul, after all. It’s good that you’re trying to learn. It’s also good that you’re open minded and ready to accept new things. However, actors must have endurance, pride, no, arrogance is a better word. Before you form your acting, you have to form yourself as a person. There is no answer to acting. If someone says it’s wrong, then fight that person. If they ask, ask back. Of course, there are methodologies out there, so you might be wrong, but you can apologize at that time.”

After saying those words, Gyeonmi faintly smiled before continuing,

“Actors aren’t about pride and prejudice, but pride and humility. First, become proud. Form a clear character for yourself. After that, be humble. If you do, people will start saying this at some point.”

- That is Han Gaeul’s acting.

Gaeul energetically nodded while feeling her heart race.

Chapter 621

“Should we try expressing an object?” Gyeonmi asked after looking at her bag, which was in one corner of the practice room.

“An object?”

“Yes, an object. Thanks to our reckless fellow Lee Heewon, who did the wrong homework, we can’t exactly proceed with the class as I planned. I can’t let that fellow play around though, so let’s have a refresher and become objects.”

Refresher - that was the word she used. Gaeul noticed that this assignment was definitely not going to be easy after seeing Gyeonmi’s smile.

“I’ll give you one minute. Go look for an object nearby that you want to try expressing.”

As soon as she said those words, Heewon lay down on the floor.

“What are you doing?”

“I found mine.”

“Already?”

“She said an object. Everything around us is an object, so there’s no need to go looking for one. I’d rather just lie down for a minute.”

Heewon put his face on the floor as he laughed. Even a sloth would tell this guy to move a little. Gyeonmi was drinking water without saying anything. It didn’t look like she had strict standards when it came to choosing objects.

Gaeul looked around the practice room. She couldn’t find any object that she wanted to express, so she left the practice room. When she walked through the colorful corridor and arrived at the lobby, something entered her eyes. It was a recycling bin, and it was shaped like a frog.

‘Maybe that?’

After engraving the figure of the frog crouching down into her eyes, she returned to the practice room.

“Have you all decided?”

Heewon and Gaeul both replied yes at the same time.

“Then shall we start with Gaeul first? Heewon started off last time.”

Gaeul nodded and stood in front of Gyeonmi. She was at a loss on what to do now that she had to do it, but she decided to embody what she saw as it was. She curled her body slightly and made a ring with her arms like a basketball hoop before sitting down. She could feel Gyeonmi staring at her. She thought about adding elements to it, but nothing came to mind.

‘It’s still a trashcan after all.’

This should be enough to represent an immobile object, no? She decided to be confident about it.

“Are you done?”

Gyeonmi asked about 20 seconds later. Gaeul curtly replied before standing up.

“Haewon, what do you think Gaeul was trying to represent?”

“The trashcan in front of the elevator. There’s one shaped like a frog.”

Gaeul smiled at Haewon before showing him a thumbs up. She felt happy that he recognized it immediately.

“Were you reminded of the trashcan after what you saw Gaeul do? Or did you think about what she was trying to do and the trashcan came to your mind?” Gyeonmi asked.

Haewon made an awkward smile before slowly speaking.

“I was reminded of the frog trashcan immediately. It’s something I see every time I come here after all. It’s quite eye-catching too.”

“You’re saying that you’re reminded of it because it’s something you’re used to seeing. Does that mean that Gaeul’s expression itself doesn’t easily remind you of the trashcan?”

“Honestly speaking, yes, you’re right.”

Gaeul also nodded as she listened to Haewon’s answer. Actually, anyone not familiar with that frog trashcan would be hard-pressed to know what she was doing from just that. In fact, some might think of toilets instead.

“Was there a standard that you chose your object on?”

“No, I didn’t find anything suitable in the practice room, so I left, and the recycling bin was just what caught my eyes.”

“I also know what that frog trashcan looks like. If someone in the know saw your actions, they should easily be able to deduce the frog-shaped trashcan. I won’t say much since we didn’t set up any conditions, but personally, it’s a little disappointing.”

I feel that way too - Gaeul inwardly replied. She wondered if it might have been easier if she expressed a moving object. Of all things, it was the trashcan that caught her eyes. As disappointing as it was, she had to take a step back for now. Once Heewon does his, Gyeonmi would probably explain more in detail.

“Lee Heewon.”

“Yes.”

Heewon stood in the center and suddenly lay down. It seemed that he was about to begin.

“Fuuuuuuu.”

Jutting his lips out, Heewon made an air leaking sound and started rolling from side to side. Gaeul jumped in order to avoid Heewon who was coming her way. Those mysterious actions continued after that. Heewon, who rolled around everywhere in the practice room, returned to the center.

“Haewon, what do you think that was?”

“At first, I thought he was trying to be a vacuum cleaner, but there isn’t one in the practice room. Hm, I don’t know.”

“What about you, Gaeul?”

Receiving Gyeonmi’s gaze, Gaeul fell into thought. What Heewon showed just now definitely shouldn’t be a prank. He was someone who couldn’t be bothered to do anything, but he wasn’t the type of person who would half-assedly do something he had to do. Heewon rolled around everywhere in the practice room in random directions. Besides that, there was that weird sound he made. Just then, something came to her mind. Gaeul looked up at the ceiling. There was cool wind flowing out of the ceiling air conditioner which had air vents in four directions.

“Don’t tell me it’s the wind from the air conditioner?”

Pfft - she couldn’t help but laugh. Should it be called ingenious or strained? However, compared to her, who stayed still in one posture, his act was definitely more liberal and irregular.

“Ding dong. That’s correct,” Heewon said.

“Teacher, I believe that Gaeul-noona’s act was splendid. I understand after seeing my brother’s,” Haewon commented.

“Gaeul, what do you feel?”

Gaeul looked at Heewon, who looked like he was fine with anything, as she spoke,

“Leaving aside whether he expressed it well or not, I think he is definitely interesting whenever I look at Heewon. That just now is the same. I had to look around to guess that it was the air from the air conditioner, but that doesn’t mean that his way of expressing it is strange. In fact, I think that’s the correct way to do it.”

After hearing that, Gyeonmi loosened her crossed arms.

“First, Gaeul focused on the external looks. You expressed what you saw. Meanwhile, Heewon put more focus on the properties. He brought to sight what cannot be seen.”

Bring to sight what cannot be seen. Gaeul thought that Heewon was a step ahead this time as well. Perhaps what Gyeonmi wanted was that. Even a grade schooler could imitate something externally. As an actor, realizing what was abstract was much more…

Just as she was about to continue that train of thought, Gyeonmi asked her a question.

“Gaeul, which one do you think was better?”

“I think I have to say that Heewon’s was better. My method is something that anyone can do after all, and I didn’t do a good job at it either. On the other hand, Heewon’s method was novel and ingenious. I’ve never even thought that wind could be expressed like that.”

She gave her honest opinion. However, Gyeonmi’s expression wasn’t that bright. Although she had a stiff demeanor about her usually, it wasn’t to the point that it was unpleasant, but her current expression was enough to startle her.

“What about you, Heewon?”

“Is there something better? I think they’re the same.”

That answer sounded like him.

“Both of you, well done. Let’s take a break. Also, Gaeul, can we have a talk for a second?”

Gaeul followed Gyeonmi out of the practice room. Gyeonmi headed to the 5th floor without even looking back. There were a few employees resting on the nice and warm rooftop.

Was she angry? Just looking at her back made her feel that Gyeonmi’s expression was on edge right now. Gaeul had a vague understanding of why. Self-confidence. This was probably the problem.

“From your expression, I think you know what I’m trying to say. That’s why I like you, Gaeul. You can think for yourself. Dumb people are honestly quite hard to deal with.”

“Was my answer wrong after all?”

“What part of your answer do you think was wrong?”

“I think it’s a matter of self-confidence. I think I might have answered that vaguely because I didn’t have confidence in my own acting.”

“So you do know about it after all.”

Gyeonmi gestured to her to come over. Gaeul leaned against the banisters. Behind her, she could see the road and cars.

“Gaeul.”

“Yes?”

“Do you understand what it feels like to see color from emotions?”

So it was about Heewon - Gaeul shook her head.

She felt that Heewon was a peculiar guy the first time she met him at the agency. Leaving aside the way he acted, she felt like he was looking at the world in a different way than her. That assumption turned into assurance when she took the same class as him. Heewon said himself that he saw colors from emotions. Gaeul could neither understand what that meant nor even begin to grasp what that would feel like. At best, she only assumed that warmth was red and coldness was blue.

“I don’t know either. Usually, emotional things are represented by red, and rational things are represented by blue right? This is the same for all things like literature and art. But Heewon, that kid, is different. He sometimes says that he sees green when he sees someone angry, and sometimes even purple. Even if I ask him what those colors mean, he can’t answer. Perhaps those colors contain too many meanings and can’t be expressed in words. It’s something that ordinary people can never understand nor sympathize with.”

Gyeonmi looked away. Gaeul followed her gaze.

“In the end, Heewon is definitely different from us. His character, his immersion, his acting skills. Everything about him is special. Though it’s not too special that it looks out of place among normal people, and he has the potential to mix in with the others. No, he might be able to lead the trend. In other words, he’s a genius.”

“Ah…”

“Gaeul. What do you think about taking classes separately from him?”

“Eh?”

“I know the depression you get when you stand next to a talented person as an ordinary person. If it’s someone you can chase after, then you might try harder, but if that gap is too wide, most people just give up. Then, they’ll either admire or disrespect that person. These days, I kinda think that putting you two together might have been the wrong decision.”

Gaeul sealed her lips. She was envious of Heewon’s character. She even felt jealous when she saw him come up with awesome answers for every assignment. Perhaps those kinds of emotions piled up inside her, and made her feel dejected recently?

After pondering, she spoke,

“I want to keep taking classes with him.”

“Are you saying that out of stubbornness?”

“No, it’s not like that. It’s just that I think that avoiding talented people doesn’t make me do better.”

Gaeul clenched her fists.

“Heewon is definitely different from me. He’s an amazing guy. As you said, perhaps I was jealous of him, and maybe that’s what made me turn timid. No, if I look back at it now, I’m sure that’s what happened. However, that’s all the more reason I want to keep taking classes with him. I feel like I would be stuck walking on the same spot if I take a step back now.”

“So you’re going to try to catch up to him, are you?”

“I might not be able to, but I want to try at least. Actually, Heewon told me this before. He acts because he wants to.”

“You do realize that you might subconsciously compare yourself to him and become dejected if you keep taking classes together, right?”

“Yes.”

“And you’re still doing it?”

“Yes. I might be able to learn a thing or two if I stay next to a genius, you know? Plus, now that I have a clear understanding of how I feel, there’s no need to be depressed either. I’ll do things properly from now on. I’ll focus on my acting and my acting only.”

After hearing those words, Gyeonmi faintly smiled.

“I see. If you feel that way, I will not mention this again. Do your best and make Heewon feel uneasy because of your skills.”

“Yes, I’ll do just that.”

“Now that I look at you, you have a bold side to you, huh? I’ll go down first, so you can take a breather and come down after a minute or so. I think you’re a little too agitated right now.”

“Yes!” Gaeul replied energetically.

Gyeonmi turned around and started walking away. At that moment, a question popped up inside Gaeul’s head.

“Uhm, teacher.”

“Yes?”

“In your eyes, how was Heewon’s expression of his object? I mean, the wind from the air conditioner.”

“Oh, that.”

Gyeonmi smirked.

“It was utterly pathetic and I could clearly tell that he did it because he wanted to lie down. But it was quite eye-catching.”

Gaeul nodded after hearing that answer.

Chapter 622

“I’d send them off.”

Maru said to Daemyung, who was next to him.

“Competing against someone full of talent is a stupid thing to do. If you overpace yourself to catch up to a person running on a different track than you, then you’re bound to end up exhausted. That’s why you have to send them ahead. When you see geniuses running far ahead of you, you have to look at them and learn what you can, instead of actually trying to run next to them.”

“I guess that’s one way of thinking about it.”

“You’ll get hurt if you try to chase them. I don’t like the saying ‘know your place’, but there is definitely a need to keep that in mind to a certain extent.”

“Don’t you want to try going against them once?”

Maru turned his head to the left. It was Jiseok who said those words.

“A genius is not a genius in all aspects, are they? There should be something they’re bad at. Don’t you think you would be able to find a way to win if you dig into that part?”

“Maybe, but there’s no need to clash, is there? I clearly know that I’m going to get hurt, so I should avoid it if I can.”

“There are definitely things you can earn by being defeated.”

“If you can’t take care of the aftermath of the defeat, then you get into trouble.”

“Challenge always comes with the risk of failure. It might hurt, but it’s also an opportunity to change yourself, isn’t it? Whether it’s a genius or not, you might hurt your pride if you suck up to them, but you’ll be able to gain a lot of things too.”

“That’s how you become Icarus. If you have wings that let you enjoy yourself, then you should know how to be satisfied with them. The moment you seek to play with those above you and fly higher, what little you might have will be gone.”

“If you don’t have wings, you can just ride the plane.”

“What am I even talking about with you? Why don’t you just ride a spaceship then?”

“Spaceships are good. But you know the saying: A genius cannot win against a hard worker, and a hard worker cannot win against those that enjoy.”

“When you call something ‘talent’, it means that it’s beyond the scope that can be covered by hard work alone. It’s just like how I can’t become Michael Jordan no matter how hard I try. Above all, those who have the talent are probably hard workers as well. To catch up to a genius who is also a hard worker and enjoys their profession, you just have to give up on competing and chase from behind.”

“I can win against Michael Jordan.”

“Why don’t you say that again after winning against a neighborhood kid?”

“You’re way too pessimistic.”

“And you’re way too optimistic?”

Jiseok, who was listening, suddenly ran forward. Maru looked at what he was up to, and it turned out that he was approaching an elderly.

“He hasn’t changed.”

“He looks like a polite kid.”

“To be precise, he’s a meddlesome guy.”

Jiseok, who was talking to the elderly, returned while scratching his head.

“He told me he’s not old enough to receive help yet.”

“Elderly people who are still healthy often don’t like being helped. So do something about that meddlesome personality of yours. It’ll come back to haunt you later.”

“Even if it’s like that, I can’t help it. Also, wouldn’t that grandpa be happy to see someone like me? He might say something like ‘kids these days are so cocky, but there are at least boys like him’. He might also say stuff like ‘the future of this country is still bright.’”

“As if you weren’t delusional already.”

“I’m delusional? No way. I’m just seeing the world in a slightly better light. Though, I kinda stand out because you’re way too pessimistic. Daemyung, don’t you think so too?”

“It hasn’t even been that long since you two met and you’re trying to split us up already? Park Daemyung, don’t get influenced by him. Optimist Virus doesn’t have a cure.”

As soon as he said those words, Maru looked at Jiseok and chuckled. Leaving aside what he was saying, this fellow was definitely an interesting fellow. The way he trusted those that gave him goodwill was also rather manly, so Maru looked at him as a good guy. Of course, he managed to reduce the RPM of the motor behind his mouth.

“Should I not have called him?”

“Oh, no. When else would I meet an actor besides you who’s on TV?” Daemyung said.

Jiseok brightened up and got closer. Maru, who was pushed to the back, saw Jiseok and Daemyung putting arms around each other’s shoulders and laughing.

“Hey, it’s this way.”

He pointed at the building to their right as he called out to his two friends who were endlessly walking forward. Jiseok nodded and turned.

“What is all that that you’ve brought with you?” Maru asked as he looked at Daemyung and Jiseok’s hands, which were holding large plastic bags.

“Some gifts.”

“I bought some light snacks.”

Light snacks huh - Maru shrugged as he looked at the plastic bag which was filled to the brim. Perhaps it was okay since the fridge was empty anyway.

He climbed the stairs and stood in front of the door.

“Wait a sec.”

Maru opened the door and went inside first. His father was currently living somewhere else. He went to a factory in another province for a few months because of a new production line, and his mother would cook some food and bring them to him every weekend. Last week, the entire family went there and had a family meeting. After seeing the news about a migratory bird father on TV, she kept texting every single night.

After scanning the empty kitchen, he went to Bada’s room and knocked on the door.

“You there?”

Bada slightly opened the door.

“Yeah?”

“I brought a couple of friends so it might get a little noisy. We’re going to watch videotapes in the living room.”

“Okay. I’ll be in my room so consider me non-existent. Also, are the people coming handsome?”

“They look just like me.”

“Oh my word. How can they live such sad lives? Should I get some tissues ready?”

“Maybe.”

Bada grinned before closing the door after saying that she would stay quiet. Maru sighed a little before opening the door.

“Is your family inside?”

“My parents aren’t here, but there is a sensitive high school girl, who I’m worried about since I wonder who will take her as a bride in the future.”

“What the, you had a sister?”

“Didn’t I tell you?”

Jiseok chuckled before coming inside.

“I think I told you a lot of things, like how I have a brother in the military, that I don’t have a good heart, and that I don’t have a lot of friends due to transferring quite often. What did you do while you listened to all of my history? You didn’t even let me know about your sister.”

“There wasn’t any opportunity for me since you were confessing your sins all the time. Well, now you know I have a sister.”

Jiseok twitched his eyebrows as though he didn’t like it and grabbed Daemyung, who followed him in.

“Daemyung, did you know that Han Maru had a little sister?”

“Y-yeah. I did.”

“Wow, I feel betrayed now. Daemyung’s closer to you than I am, huh.”

Of course, duh - Maru replied before organizing the shoes the other two took off. Jiseok was saying that he was disappointed, but his expression was all smiles. In fact, it was Daemyung who was at a loss as he was without an understanding of what was going on.

“Just ignore most of his words. He’s the type to say stuff without going through filters in his brain.”

“R-really?”

Only then did Daemyung make a relaxed smile and sit down.

“Is your sister pretty?”

“I was wondering when you were going to ask that. Just think of my face, but with longer hair.”

“Oh my word. Aren’t you being way too cruel to your little sister?”

Jiseok spoke in a serious voice. Just then, Bada’s room abruptly opened.

“Now that’s not something I can pass. I’m much better than you, oppa.”

Bada moved out of the room. Maru never believed that she would stay quiet in the first place, so Maru just looked at Bada before going to the kitchen.

“Ooh, you must be Maru’s sister?”

“Yes. I’m that ugly Han Maru’s sister.”

“You’re quite pretty. Maru was lying.”

“Right? How do I look anything like him? It makes me puke just thinking about it.”

Jiseok and Bada had something that clicked and got along even though this was their first meeting. Daemyung just sat in front of the sofa neatly and was laughing dryly.

‘I guess this is the first time he’s seeing her properly, huh.’

Daemyung had seen Dowook on a date with Bada inside a bus and had seen her face through photos that Dowook took, but had never met her directly like this before. He still became stiff in front of girls. Maru brought some cold water for Daemyung.

“It’s the first time you’re seeing her directly, isn’t it?”

“Y-yeah.”

“She’s just as you heard, isn’t she?”

“T-true.”

“Dowook, that guy, he might look like that, but he has a deep heart. Or, he must have betrayed his country in his previous life. Man, I feel sorry for him whenever I think about how she makes him suffer.”

“She doesn’t look that bad.”

“Really?”

Daemyung didn’t answer. Bada, who was talking with Jiseok, stared at Daemyung. Being conscious of that gaze, Daemyung turned his face away and Bada looked at him as though she had found something interesting.

“Han Bada, aren’t you going back inside already?”

“I will. But what’s that?”

Maru opened the plastic bag that Daemyung brought. Inside were some snacks and drinks that he bought from the convenience store.

“I’ll give her some to shut her up, okay?”

After saying that to Daemyung, he threw a few snacks to Bada.

“He’s the one who bought it, so thank him.”

“Thank you, chubby oppa.”

Bada grinned before going to her room.

“I thought you were becoming okay since you’re with Jiyoon all the time, but I guess you are still awkward around girls.”

“I don’t think I’ll ever get used to them.”

“Man, how are you ever going to go travelling together if you’re like that?”

Hearing the word ‘travelling’, Daemyung visibly flinched. Oh? His reaction was as though he had already made plans with Jiyoon.

“Who’s Jiyoon?”

At that time, Jiseok interrupted. There was a possibility that they might get distracted so Maru quickly stood up and brought the videotapes.

“Oh, these are the ones you were talking about?”

Jiseok picked up one of the videotapes and had a closer look at it.

“Why are you acting like someone who has never seen videotapes before?”

“It’s just been so long since I last saw one. I rented quite a lot when I was young too.”

Daemyung had a similar reaction. Now that they were used to CDs and downloading, videotapes had become a relic of their memories.

“So that genius actress is on this tape, right?”

“Whether she’s a genius or not, we’ll have to see for sure. Circumstantial signs all indicate that she’s an incredible person, but there are cases where old memories are blown out of proportion. So, we’ll have to see for ourselves.”

He received the videotape that Jiseok was holding and put it in the VCR. Meanwhile, Daemyung laid out some food on the table.

“Remember that you aren’t here to watch a film, but to study,” Maru said as he picked up the remote.

Both Jiseok and Daemyung turned serious and nodded. Maru sat on the sofa and pressed the play button. 1988. This was the year that Jung Haejoo and Lee Junmin met. Wondering if the change that occurred within Haejoo was on this tape, Maru felt slightly nervous as he picked up a cup of water.

“Can I watch as well?” At that moment, Bada opened the door and spoke.

She seemed to be bored by herself and peeked out.

“We’re not watching a movie.”

“I know. I’ll quietly watch from the side. It’s a little awkward for me to stay in my room by myself, isn’t it? Eating by myself is also a bit boring.”

Maru pointed at the empty spot next to him while looking at Bada, who was waving a bag of snacks. Bada tiptoed and walked over quietly before sitting down.

“Ooh, it’s on now.”

Color filled the monochrome screen, showing the familiar building. Maru tensed his eyes at the same time the video started. There was a man who was barely inside the frame. He was wearing a suit that seemed to be worn-out and had a very bland expression.

President Lee Junmin. He, who was in his thirties, was in the frame.

“Ah!”

Hearing an exclamation, Maru spat out a short breath before pausing the video. After seeing that the video had stopped, he looked at Bada.

“What is it?”

“I was wondering where I saw this oppa before. He’s actually someone who was in the same sitcom as unni, right?” Bada said as she pointed at Jiseok.

Jiseok thanked her for recognizing him.

“A celebrity.”

“Nah, I’m no one that good. Hm, should I give you an autograph?”

“I’ll be able to sell it for quite a lot once you become famous later, right?”

“Of course. Should I give you one? I’ve practiced mine, you know?”

Maru looked at the two before making a thick smile.

“Would you two like to go to a corner? Or be quiet and watch this?”

“We’ll be quiet.”

Jiseok and Bada smiled awkwardly before looking down.

Maru glared at the two before grabbing the remote again.

Chapter 623

He always appeared wearing a suit with the sleeves worn out. I noticed him, who was only a guest since he stayed in the theater even after the play ended, or to be precise because he was staring at me. That persistent gaze happened again and again for a few days. At first, I thought he was an ordinary salaryman, but he appeared in the theater regardless of weekday or weekend, morning or afternoon. Around that time, my thought that it was simply my misunderstanding that he was looking at me turned into assurance.

He came today as well. He always sat on the same seat, placed his briefcase of unknown contents on his lap, and looked at the stage. I showed up for a brief moment before the play started, and indeed, he looked this way. Rather than feeling unpleasant, curiosity came first. At first, I thought he was simply a fan, but his gaze wasn’t entirely gentle, so I changed my mind. Why would a man in his early thirties visit this specific theater so often?

“That man came here again today.”

“Right.”

The people of the troupe started noticing his presence as well. As he always sat on the same spot even when the seats were almost empty, it was natural for the other members to be conscious of him as well. He quietly watched the play and kept his seat until the very end before disappearing without a word again.

By this point, worries that he might be a threat had been thinned out, but the curiosity still remained. Did this place have an importance to him? But then, how would you explain the stare he always gave me?

The man once again sat on the same spot as though to indicate that he would be there next week and even the week after that.

“It’s a bit strange.”

“He’s staring at you weirdly too. Should we report him?”

The opinions of the other members of the troupe became worse by the day. The other members had also found out that he was staring at me until the very end.

“He doesn’t look like a bad person.”

I calmed down the others who asked me if I was okay. I might get an earful that I’m immature, but no malice could be felt from that man.

“If you say it’s okay, then it should be fine, but he’s still suspicious. He came here so many times already and is always staring at you. There’s nothing bad to be gained from being careful.”

“Anyway, if you feel like anything’s going to happen, call out to us, okay?”

Those were Jincheol-oppa and Jinjoo-unni’s words. Everyone in the troupe, including those two, did not look at the man in a good light. He was an appreciated customer who raised their sales, but everyone agreed that they should be suspicious since he always looked at one person.

“Okay.”

That evening, after the play ended and they said hello to the audience, I did not step back and walked towards the audience seats instead. Leaving behind the panicking troupe members, I walked up to that man, who sat down on the very left seat of the third row. He slowly raised his head and looked at me.

“You have something to say to me, don’t you?”

I don’t know where I got the courage to do that. The leaving audience members gave glances before moving towards the exit. Listening to the quiet footsteps of the other people, I stared at him. From up close, I found out that he had a sharp-looking face. Just changing that worn-out suit would make him give off a much better impression.

“Hello? Didn’t you have something to say to me?”

Looking at him, who didn’t speak a word, made me a little annoyed. He definitely should have something to say. At that moment, he stood up with the briefcase. I had to tilt my head backwards from looking down. Having stood up, he had quite a tall stature. I was momentarily at a loss because he felt completely different from when I looked at him from the stage, but I soon got myself together. Since I decided to make a judgement today, I wanted to get an answer out of this man regardless of what I had to do.

The man, who was staring at me, turned around. He then walked in large strides as though to run away. Looking at the man heading for the exit in a daze, I snorted before following him. I’m seeing the end of this today.

“Hello!”

I walked out to the streets without even changing out of my costume. It didn’t look that out of place since it was a contemporary play, but thanks to my thick makeup, I attracted a lot of gazes. I chased the man walking in large strides and grabbed his shoulder. The man slowly turned his head around before walking forward again. Having been ignored twice, I felt annoyed. What frustrated me above everything was that this man clearly had something to say to me, but kept trying to avoid me.

I lifted my skirt a little and started running. I blocked the man’s path and stared at him while panting. The emotionless expression on the man’s face finally turned into panic. Seeing that expression, I felt good since it somehow felt like I won.

“You have something to say, don’t you?”

I asked once again. The man’s gaze started wavering everywhere. It was quite unexpected. Unlike how he looked, the man became flustered quite easily. I thought that he’d be more rational and heavy, but the way he panicked was kind of flabbergasting and somehow relieving.

“If you don’t talk to me now, I will never talk to you again. If you’re a man, then be a man and talk to me. I’ll listen to you.”

I tensed my eyes and glared at the man. The man’s tightly sealed lips slowly parted.

“…small for you.”

I couldn’t hear what he said at the beginning.

“What?”

I somehow ended up sounding nitpicky, but I had no time to think about that. The man’s words were just too unexpected.

“That stage is too small for you.”

* * *

-This is the man who said to our Haejoo that the stage is too small. Well then, why don’t you go ahead and introduce yourself?

The camera turned to Junmin in his younger days. Junmin looked at the camera with a cold expression.

“Wow, that man looks scary. If I actually looked at him in real life, I might have turned my eyes away. Heck, I’m doing that now too,” Jiseok said.

Daemyung, who was staring at the screen in a daze, put down the sliced bread and spoke,

“M-Maru. Is that president Lee Junmin?”

“Yes.”

“So he was like that back then too, huh.”

“Human nature doesn’t change that easily. He looks like he became a lot softer over the years. The president in the video looks like he’s on edge.”

“You’re right.”

It felt like Junmin’s sharp aura was being scattered in this space, transcending ten-something years of space and time. It was clear from the video, so it would’ve been even worse for the people there. Most people probably avoided Junmin.

-You’re making that expression again. Uhm, bro, everyone here knows that you can’t lift a finger against Haejoo, you know?

-Oppa, why don’t you act like you look? You look like the kind of man who would subdue back alley delinquents with just your eyes yet you just melt in front of Haejoo.

The conversation was completely different from what he expected. Junmin also seemed to have felt awkward and left the frame. The camera tried to follow him, but he seemed to have run out of the practice room as only the doors could be seen. The conversation between the members continued out of frame for a while. Like that, about two minutes passed before Junmin appeared at the entrance again, seemingly being pushed by someone. The one who was struggling to push Junmin’s wide back was none other than Jung Haejoo.

-Stop running away. It’s been more than two weeks since we’ve known each other. Why do you keep runnin away every single time? Is it okay for the man who told me that he’d help me become a superstar to be so shy?

Haejoo stood in front of the camera while holding onto Junmin’s wrist. Maru pressed the pause button there. Junmin in an awkward posture and making an awkward expression was something unimaginable right now. As the representative of JA, Lee Junmin always met other people with smiles, but he was the kind of man to harbor several snakes inside him, wasn’t he? The man who even had the devilish Suyeon under his complete control, was helpless against a woman, and had that sort of expression? That was beyond fresh, it was shocking.

“That was unexpected.”

Maru looked at the two people on the screen for a while before pressing the play button. He was expecting to see Junmin leading Haejoo with meticulous planning, but the reality was that Junmin looked rather shy and Haejoo looked rather bold.

“That’s the president, right?”

Daemyung asked in a very different tone from before. Maru couldn’t reply. He was also wondering if that man was a doppelgänger or something.

“President? Wait, do you mean president Lee Junmin from JA?”

“Yeah, him.”

“He feels very different. I’ve never seen him in person, but I’ve always thought of him as a scary man. But he looks like a rather gentle person in reality, huh?”

Probably not - Maru and Daemyung replied at the same time. Jiseok tilted his head before focusing on the video.

“So that ahjussi over there is your president, oppa?”

“Yeah, he is.”

“Looks like he wasn’t well off back then. Look at that, his suit is all worn out.”

Like what Bada said, the Junmin on the screen looked quite far from being rich. Compared to the current him, who always wore neat clothing, albeit not ‘brand name’ stuff, there were a lot of differences. Perhaps the only thing the two had in common was their stubborn expressions. However, even his expression turned weird like it was a malfunctioning computer whenever Haejoo was next to him.

‘So you become such a simpleminded man when you stand next to the person you like.’

Jung Haejoo loved Lee Junmin, and Lee Junmin likewise loved Jung Haejoo. This was something he heard from director Park Joongjin. Of course, he couldn’t find out what they felt for sure back then. He couldn’t transcend space and time to go back to that time, so he could only try to arrive at a conclusion as a third person.

Despite that, Maru could sympathize with the two people, no, with Lee Junmin on that screen. A man who loves one woman is bound to show their emotions through their eyes after all.

“It looks like the president likes that lady, right?”

“I have to agree.”

Those were Jiseok and Bada’s words. Daemyung didn’t say anything, but he probably had the best understanding of the exchange of feelings shown in the video out of all of them.

“We’re not trying to watch other people’s love history, so let’s focus on the content.”

Maru watched on. After a commotion, everyone except Junmin and Haejoo, who were in front of the camera, left the practice room. What was funny was that Jincheol said that he turned the camera off before leaving. Making assumptions, it seemed that the other members were playing a prank on them to peek at what the two were doing.

-You should get used to it now. How can you be so hesitant when you told me you’ll teach me?

-Like I said, we shouldn’t do it here and find somewhere quiet to…

-What? Do you know that you sounded very indecent just now?

-I didn’t mean it that way.

-Yeah, I’m suuure you didn’t.

-I said I did not.

-You’re trying to be angry again. Fine, I’ll trust you this time. Anyway, let’s start practice. It’ll be hard for you to coach me once the other people come back.

Haejoo smiled before distancing herself from the camera.

-Should I continue what I was doing yesterday?

-Yeah, go ahead.

Maru focused on the screen. Would Haejoo’s acting have changed after Junmin’s coaching? Haejoo started acting the prostitute that she played before. She tried to seduce an imaginary man with a smile on her face, but her unique clean image still remained with her, making her not seem like someone who sold her body at all. It felt like a child was wearing adult clothes and was trying to play a prank. The tone of her lines, her gestures, and her expressions didn’t look wrong, but the combination of all of them simply couldn’t be called good in any way.

-How is it?

-It’s still terrible.

Junmin spoke firmly without hesitation. For that moment, he looked like the man who founded the current JA. Haejoo shrugged without a shred of disappointment.

-Ahjussi, am I no good after all?

-No, it’s not like that at all. You’re filled with potential. You just need to learn how to bring that out.

-Really?

-I don’t come here just to play around. My life’s on you.

Maru almost dropped the remote from his hand. Having said something tremendous like it was nothing, Junmin also seemed to have realized the meaning behind his words and started explaining.

-I-I don’t mean something personal, no wait, I guess it is personal, but not anything romantic, nor am I saying that you should leave your life in my hands.

While he was making excuses, Haejoo suddenly burst out laughing.

-Ahjussi, you know that you look very stupid now, right?

Maru wondered how Junmin would react if he saw this video. He was very curious, but Junmin might dissolve the contract there and then, so he decided not to try.

“Your president seems like an interesting person.”

Jiseok spoke while giggling.

“Looks like time changed a man a lot.”

To be exact, it was a certain incident that changed him. Ice age probably overcame his face after Jung Haejoo’s death. Lee Junmin should’ve changed after that incident.

Maru leaned back on the sofa.

Lee Junmin and Jung Haejoo, the story between the two had just begun.

Chapter 624

“Then let’s do it that way, yes. Thanks for your work. Dinner? Oh, it’s that time already. You should eat. I will take care on my own.”

Junmin put down his phone and pressed firmly between his eyebrows. His body felt like a lump of lead, as he hadn’t had much sleep recently. He leaned back in his chair and took a deep breath before looking at the clock. It was 5:49 p.m. It was time for dinner. He briefly thought about going home and cooking his own dinner, but he didn’t feel like he had the energy to drive himself home. He picked up his wallet and left his office. He said goodbye to a few of the managers who were waiting inside the company before going to the kimbap restaurant in front of the company.

“Tuna kimbap?” The lady asked as soon as she saw him.

Junmin nodded before taking a seat. Back in the days when he used to wear the worn-out suit every day, he swore that he would eat the delicacies of the world for every meal when the number of digits on his bank account surpassed ten, but after achieving that goal way too easily, the restaurant he frequented the most was still a kimbap restaurant and one that was located in front of his company. He could go to the restaurant in his company, but when he ended up making a subconscious decision, it always turned out to be kimbap.

As he ate the tuna kimbap with the miso soup, he looked at the TV on the cabinet. He looked at the ad that was airing out and compared the image of some actors in his mind. When his mind was filled with a rather decent-looking business plan, Junmin shook his head. At this point, he was obsessed with work. He wanted to forget about work when he was eating at least, but whenever there was a TV or a radio around him, his stream of consciousness naturally flowed towards the entertainment industry.

“Thanks for the food.”

“Goodbye.”

It felt like he was leaving his house. These days, a lot of people asked him if he was going to get married soon. It made him tired of retorting to them every time that it was already too late for him since he was in his fifties.

He returned to his office and took off his shoes before lying down on the sofa. He kept training to stay fit, but he could feel his stamina decreasing every year. Wondering whether or not he should try to quit smoking, Junmin put a cigarette in his mouth. That was definitely not happening.

He puffed a short one before looking at his laptop. There were tons of emails regarding advertisements. Despite the fact that the head manager had filtered them once, there were more than forty of them. Most of them were for Suyeon. After that was Sooil. There was nothing for Geunsoo or Ganghwan.

“Well, these two will become big soon.”

Suyeon was currently the face of JA Production, but Junmin thought that it would soon change. Junmin had excavated and nurtured many actors until now. However, most weren’t a part of JA right now. Although he kept a good relationship with them, Junmin did not choose them. Geunsoo, Ganghwan, Suyeon, and the child actors who were still growing right now - Junmin decided to house them in JA. Not the best, but the irreplaceable. Junmin set a clear path that JA was going to take.

Perhaps his dream might have strayed off, but Junmin still wanted to achieve it. That was because the only way he could atone was for him to pave the path that Haejoo should have walked on.

Junmin took out a phone from his chest pocket. The light from the phone screen colored the dark office in a hazy white color. He pressed a few buttons to bring up the photo gallery. When he clicked next a few times, some old photos filled his screen. Junmin zoomed in on one of them. Haejoo was standing with a prankster smile and he was standing next to her. Junmin faintly smiled as he looked at his past self that was at a loss on what to do since Haejoo had hooked her arm around his.

The gallery on his phone was a treasure island that he could visit at any time. There was no need to worry about losing directions, no need to go past the rocky waves, and yet he could still come across treasures that couldn’t be compared to anything else in the world. Junmin rubbed the smiling Haejoo’s face with his thumb.

“If she was still alive, would I have gotten married?”

I am going to confess one day - Haejoo’s whisper rang inside his ears. Junmin reminded himself of the two regrets that changed his life. One was that he made an appointment with Haejoo on that rainy day, and the other one was that he did not reply to that shy question. If he acted differently in any of those two scenarios, would that girl’s fate have changed?

Junmin looked around his office. A thirty year-old nameless actor with no assets had now achieved all this. Ironically, Haejoo’s death brought a drastic change to his life, and that became the motivation that led to his success. Perhaps due to that, Junmin would sometimes want to vomit when he looked at the building that he named after Haejoo. It wasn’t just once or twice that he wanted to turn his back to this place and leave, thinking that everything here was built on top of another person’s life as the foundation. But, whenever he felt like that, he scolded himself. He told himself that running away right now would make Haejoo’s death even more meaningless.

‘Though, even that is just an excuse and self-justification.’

In retrospect, he lived a dream-like life. They say a story of a hundred different people was equivalent to a hundred different dramas, but how many people would actually live a drama-like life? Most people just joined the rail that society wanted them to. They would come across a few opportunities that could be said to be a turning point in their life on their narrow railroad, but that did not change the fact that they were still on the rails. Before he met Haejoo, he was also following along the ordinary rails. It was because he met her that he came to doubt the rail, stopped, and eventually escaped it. The start of the change definitely stemmed from Haejoo.

“Where am I heading now?”

His objective was still clear now. It was to nurture another actor like Jung Haejoo. Well, it was unknown whether an actor like her would ever exist again, but the ones growing under him right now definitely had the potential.

After gazing at the photos for a while, Junmin felt his vision go blurry and closed his eyes. He felt like fatigue was piling on his eyes. He wondered if he should sleep like this. When he sighed and opened his eyes again, he had a sharp sense of déjà vu. Junmin quickly stood up and looked at his work desk in front of him. He felt like he had seen the same desk somewhere before.

‘What am I thinking… ’

Obviously, he would have seen it before, since he came here every single day. However, it also felt like there was a slight difference. He felt like it looked redder before. Before? Junming stroked his face. His head felt hazy and he couldn’t continue thinking properly anymore. Was a lack of sleep this frightening? Feeling a floaty sensation, he opened the fridge. After he drank a cup of cold water and turned around, a heavy headache overwhelmed him.

At the same time, he experienced the scenery in front of him changing all by itself. His office, which had a blue overall theme turned grey for a moment before it changed into an extremely ordinary-looking office. He could see his own figure looking at the computer with a bored expression. No, could it be expressed as ‘seeing’? He felt like he was being reminded of an event in the distant past. Was he hearing things? Seeing things? Did something bad finally happen to his mind? Perhaps it was his body’s way of telling him that he should quit the goddamned alcohol and cigarettes.

He clutched his head and sat down on the sofa. The scenery in front of him was still changing. He could see himself working while wearing more informal clothes like he was wearing now, and he could also see himself running around busily with a necktie tightly strapped around his neck. Everything in this space changed except for the sofa he was sitting on. Even the people changed, whether it was their faces or their clothes. Some of them were people he knew, and some of them were people he did not know at all. However, these seemingly unfamiliar people felt incredibly familiar to him. It was an indescribably complex and strange, nay, rather horrifying sensation if he dug into those feelings more deeply.

The scenery, which was rapidly changing like switching TV channels, was eventually fixed on one scene. Junmin heaved out a deep breath and focused. Did people go through this kind of strange phenomenon when they were tired? He was reminded of his friend, who was a doctor and had told him that he should get some rest.

“Is it finally time that I rest?”

He did feel like it was about time to rest since he had been working non-stop for the past twenty years. Junmin lay back on the sofa again. It would be a huge problem if he kept standing up and collapsed and injured his head or something. He clutched his still dizzy head and forced himself to sleep.

Fortunately, he calmed down when he closed his eyes. He felt like he could fall asleep quite soon at this rate.

‘Looks like I really needed some rest.’

His body felt very drowsy immediately. When he felt a little better, his brain, which had stopped working because of all of the chaos, started working again. He was slightly worried that the strange phenomenon from before would happen once again, but the blue-themed office looked deadly still. While he sighed in relief, his brain replayed the fifty years of life he had experienced. Junmin watched his own life happen in his mind as though he was watching a movie. An elder who was struggling to live because of the failure he experienced in youth, the love that came to him too late after an early farewell, and even his middle ages when he burned even more passionately than his youth. It was riddled with trials, but he smartly overcame all of them and arrived at where he was now. Looking back, there were quite a few decisions he made that could only be described as luck. The past him made choices that the current him couldn’t understand at all, but as a result of that, he always saw profit. To be precise, he never made losses.

He wisely walked the curvy road that was his life as though he had been on it once before.

“Like a person who’s lived once again…”

Those words subconsciously escaped his mouth.

This life, in which he had gained clear success, despite the ups and downs, suddenly felt unfamiliar to him now. The life he lived until now felt like a well-made script all of a sudden. Thinking that he was following a script of a perfect life that was written over several iterations of editing, Junmin uttered.

“Looks like I’ll have to visit the hospital.”

He had heard of a mental disease that made one suddenly feel unfamiliar with oneself. Depersonalization, was it? He had just experienced realities where he was detached from himself. The sense of alienation and deprivation made him think that it might actually be symptoms of an illness rather than simply being tired.

Junmin called for his head manager, who should still be at the company. It was a stupid thing to ignore something that happened as nothing much. As sorry as he felt for his friend, he needed medical attention.

“Head manager Lee, can I ask you to drive?”

Calling the internal line, Junmin looked at his cell phone on the sofa. Haejoo’s face was still on the screen, which hadn’t been turned off yet.

* * *

“Were you always a good eater?”

“Don’t talk to me. I feel like I’m gonna burst.”

Maru looked at Jiseok and Daemyung, who tapped on their bellies. They ate lunch after watching one video, and these two ate tremendous amounts. Even Bada, who actually liked eating, declared forfeit midway in front of these two.

“I’ll get some sleep.”

“Sorry, Maru. I feel sleepy too.”

Jiseok went to the sofa and lay down on it, while Daemyung lay down in front of the window. Bada also crawled back to her room.

Maru shook his head and put away the dishes. He thought that there would be quite a lot left over after seeing all the food that Daemyung bought, but they actually managed to finish it all. When he returned after cleaning up, the two had fallen into a deep sleep. Maru brought some duvets from the bedroom and covered the two of them.

“Sleep. I guess that’s for the best.”

Maru put the next videotape in the VCR and played it. The previous video only contained the awkward-looking Junmin and Haejoo. There was a brief practice moment, but there weren’t that many differences as though it hadn’t been long since the coaching started.

Like always, Jincheol’s face appeared on the screen after a buzzy screen.

-Doesn’t Haejoo feel different now?

-Well, I didn’t notice.

-Really?

-How can her acting improve in just a few weeks? Also, honestly speaking, I don’t trust that Lee Junmin guy. He’s a nameless actor himself, and he wants to coach someone? Haejoo is way too nice to him. If it was me, I would’ve kicked him out without a second thought.

-Yes, yes. He looks quite capable though.

Just then, Jung Haejoo’s voice could be heard from outside the camera frame.

-There, there. Talk after you eat this kimbap!

-That again? Sheesh, you really like them, huh.

-There’s nothing better than it though.

People started gathering in front of the camera.

Chapter 625

-Then I’ll leave this on, so practice as much as you want. I’ll also leave the power cable attached, so you can press this button to shoot whenever you want. There’s a video overwrite function built in, so you can reshoot, but if you do it more than three times, there will be noise in the video. Bear that in mind. Then Haejoo, I’m leaving. Junmin-hyungnim, also…

The screen slowly moved. Haejoo and Junmin became further away from the center and a man standing in the right corner was captured by the camera.

-Joongjin-hyungnim. I’ll be leaving first.

-Okay, Jincheol. Thanks for your work.

The young Jincheol put his face close to the lens and waved once before pointing the camera back at Joongjin and Haejoo again. Bye - Jincheol’s distant voice was caught by the microphone.

-Joongjin-oppa. Don’t just stand there and come here.

-I’m okay. I’m fine with watching from here. Also, don’t mind me when you practice.

-There’s a person, so how can we not mind? You’re a precious guest, so come here.

Haejoo left the screen. A moment later, some metal clashing sounds could be heard right next to the camera. It seemed that they were setting up some metal chairs.

-Try moving next to the camera. That’s where we can see you the best.

-Thanks.

-Don’t thank us. It’s us who should be thankful. Then Junmin-ahjussi, shall we start?

Hearing the word ‘ahjussi’, Junmin faintly smiled, but soon returned to his stiff face.

-Did you practice what I told you yesterday?

-I did.

Haejoo went up on stage. The lights on the stage slowly turned dim. It seemed that there were other people helping out with their practice other than the three people on stage. Maru turned up the volume with the remote. When he did, he could hear some small sounds from a conversation. It was from the rest of the theater troupe.

-Before you start, draw a clear picture of what you want to do. I want to laugh, I want to cry, I want to be angry. It can only begin with showing a relatively simple emotion. Don’t try to do something complex. Do it one by one, like you’re learning to walk.

-Okay, I know that much.

-If you do, then show me.

Haejoo coughed a few times before starting to get her emotions together. Maru rested his chin on his hands and watched Haejoo on the screen. He once again realized that the energy given off by this Jung Haejoo was tremendous. Her expressions and actions made other people focus on her. Separately, they were nothing special, but after combining them together, Jung Haejoo had turned into a charming person. That charm multiplied when Haejoo was on stage.

However, it was still the person herself that gave off the fun and enjoyable aura; it couldn’t be said to be from her acting. When Junmin instructed her to express joy, she was flawless but other than that, there were still parts that were lacking. It was incredibly good to watch, but if he was asked if she was perfect in regards to acting, he would tilt his head.

-How is it?

-It’s good to look at.

-Really?

-Yes. It’s good to look at. Like a doll. You know, those things that make you smile when you see them on a display. However, if you keep looking at them, you’ll eventually get bored of them. That’s because dolls only smile. An actor who only excels in one area is just like a doll.

-As always, you say stuff that hurts others without batting an eyelid.

-… Sorry about that.

Maru couldn’t get used to seeing this Junmin. He looked at Junmin’s figure from the side, as captured by the camera. He was slightly embarrassed, but he apologized without the slightest hesitation. He could see just how much Junmin cherished Haejoo from how he consoled Haejoo after saying harsh words. If he didn’t care about her, he wouldn’t have said those harsh words in the first place. Whether then or now, Junmin always talked only to people with potential after all. It was slightly strange to see him apply ointment to a wound after lashing out, but Haejoo, who didn’t lose a word against him, was also quite impressive.

-What was the problem this time?

-I say this every time, but you look like you’re enjoying it too much.

-Can’t I? I’m doing something I like, so of course I’d be enjoying it.

-That’s your business. The people watching you are there to indirectly experience the story through you. The actress they’re supposed to be in the shoes of though, looks like she’s enjoying it regardless of the flow of the play. Of course their immersion would break.

-So, did your immersion break?

-Honestly speaking, it made me keep watching you. That’s your charm after all.

-Did you get fed up with me while watching?

-No, in fact, it felt refreshing.

-Doesn’t that mean that there’s no problem then?

-You, the person, won’t have any problems. The person known as Jung Haejoo will be loved by all. However, you’ll never become big as an actress. People will look for you not for your acting, but just as a celebrity. You might be able to shoot countless commercials. All the major companies will call out to you, and you’ll become busy to the point that you won’t have any time.

-No way. Aren’t you going too far with that?

-No, I believe that you will become like that. If you debut in your current state.

-I’ll earn a lot of money, huh.

-You will. Your image will be very effective in advertising products. People will like you, and therefore will feel positive towards the products that have your image. You will become successful, at least.

-But you’re saying that I will be successful not as an actress but as a celebrity, am I right?

-That’s how things will go. The market just works that way. Of course, that doesn’t mean that you won’t be able to keep acting. You’ll get numerous scripts. However, you won’t be able to play the roles you want, nor would there be roles that you could digest. A director who only chases money will use you, but those who want to make their work a piece of art won’t use an imperfect actress who only excels in one area.

Maru nodded. That was the correct notion. In the movie field alone, there were numerous celebrities who kept working in the advertising field without shooting any movies at all. It wasn’t that they were wrong to do so. Their value was acknowledged, or they had an image that was preferred by the advertising companies. That was why they were called by the advertising companies, and the actors just simply responded. Of course, someone might ask if it was correct to call someone who only worked in the advertising field without appearing in dramas or movies an ‘actor’, but considering the limitations of the occupation of an actor, as well as the reality that there was no precise definition of it, it was just a shout in the void.

However, Haejoo wanted to live as an actress. Not as an advertising star, but as an actress who does good acting. Junmin just responded to her wishes. He was saying that she was no good as she was now.

-Can you try again?

-Sure. Uhm, Gwangsoo-oppa! Fix the lights just like this. Also, you can go home first. I can clean up afterwards. The rest of you can go home too. Don’t keep watching this terrible acting and go rest at home. Ahn Joohyun, you too.

-I have plenty of time!

Joohyun’s voice could be heard from outside the frame. After that, Haejoo did a few more skits. Whenever she did, Junmin gave her directions, but Haejoo’s acting did not visibly become better. Maru could feel just how hard it was for someone who had a strong unique energy about themselves to hide it. Actors had to show themselves perfectly to the audience, yet paradoxically wear a mask at the same time. For someone who naturally made other people smile, he or she would have to learn to hide first in order to make others cry.

Just as he was concentrating on the video, he heard a choke next to him. Jiseok, who was sleeping on the sofa, snored heavily before becoming quiet again. He shouldn’t have sleep apnea at his age, but Maru still put his ears against his face, and heard that Jiseok was still breathing properly. Daemyung, who was sleeping by the window, was now sleeping with his stomach exposed. He had long since kicked the duvet away.

-Is this how I do it?

The volume from the TV suddenly became louder. Maru quickly turned the volume down. The camera, which showed the stage from the front until just moments ago, felt like it was tilted to the right slightly. It seemed that they turned off the camera once before turning it back on again.

-Are you really not leaving? It’s ten o’clock already.

-I’m going to stay a little longer.

Joohyun said while yawning softly. It seemed that the person handling the camera was Junmin as his face suddenly appeared in front of the camera. He nodded in satisfaction.

-I think it’s working.

-Then let’s start again. Are you going to keep staying here as well, Joongjin-oppa? Don’t you need to go to work?

-It’s okay. I’ll go after I watch just a little more.

-Well, okay then.

10 p.m., huh. Quite a lot of time had passed. Haejoo went up on stage again. She looked slightly tired as she smiled at the camera. Assuming that she kept practicing even after the camera was turned off, it meant that she had been practicing for five hours now. It was no wonder that she was tired.

-Let’s stop here today.

Junmin spoke first.

-What are you saying? There’s still plenty of time.

-It’s too late. We have tomorrow and the day after that. We can just take it slow.

-Ahjussi, you know what? You’ve been saying the same thing for weeks now.

-Acting is a slow process. If you could improve in a short time, then anyone would have become an actor. It’s because that’s not possible that actors are treated well.

-We just turned on the camera, it’s such a pity, isn’t it?

-Resting is important too.

Junmin filled up the screen and approached the camera. Just then, Haejoo’s voice sharply flowed out from the speakers.

-Ahjussi, tell me honestly. I don’t have any talent after all, do I? You’re actually regretting what you said to me that day, aren’t you? They say anyone can make mistakes. I know that my acting is terrible. I know about it, but I can’t quit because I enjoy acting. That’s why I was really happy when you told me that this stage is too small for me. I thought that I might have something called potential.

Junmin slowly turned around. Next to Junmin’s waist, Maru could see Haejoo walking to the side of the stage.

-Let’s stop. I think that will be for the best. Joohyun, let’s go home. Joongjin-oppa, you should leave as well.

The camera captured the smiling Haejoo’s face. For the first time, the person who looked like she was enjoying herself on the stage, looked rather sad.

At that moment, a sharp voice filled the theater.

-Ahjussi, you’ve clearly gone too far! What did you say when the oppas chased you out the first time? You said to the troupe that they can’t act in a place like this, didn’t you? I was really angry when I heard you back then. Who are you to say that? I was really angry to the point that I had to hold back from hitting you. What did you do after that? After you were chased out, you shamelessly returned and bought tickets and kept watching the play every time, didn’t you? Because we couldn’t chase you out if you’re a customer. Honestly, I was really annoyed. After watching you though, you didn’t look like you were doing it as a joke, and that’s why the others listened to your story, didn’t they? Thanks to that, we resolved the misunderstanding between us. But you know what? I’ve hated you since the beginning. It’s not like I don’t talk to you for no reason. I never smile at you, do I? That’s just how much I hate you. But at least I didn’t show it on my face, since you’re someone who helps unni out. Now that I look at you, that was fake too, huh. I knew it. Bad first impressions simply don’t change.

They were Ahn Joohyun’s words.

* * *

“Let’s stop here for today.”

“Should we? We still have plenty of time,” I said as I went down from the stage.

There was tomorrow, and there was the day after that as well. Taking my time was the best.

“Let’s try again tomorrow. And you should go home now.”

Junmin pointed at the yawning Joohyun.

“Is it over now?”

“Yeah, we finished. We’re going to try again tomorrow. But I feel hungry now. Uhm, Joongjin-oppa. Let’s eat together before going home.”

“I’ll leave first. Let’s eat together next time.”

“Okay, then. Have a safe trip home. Don’t be late to work tomorrow.”

I waved at him with a smile. Joongjin slightly nodded before leaving the theater.

“Ahjussi, give me your hand.”

“What now?”

“Just give it to me. I’m too tired to stand up.”

Junmin sighed and pulled Joohyun up.

“Ahjussi, I don’t want to walk, so can you piggy-back me?”

“You have two intact legs, why would I do that?”

“Geez, I know you’ll piggy-back unni if she asks you.”

“N-no I wouldn’t.”

“It’s as clear as day, you know?”

Joohyun teased Junmin. Looking at them reminded me of a father and a daughter. When I watched them with my arms crossed, the two looked at me.

“Nothing, I just thought you two had a good relationship. You two got along great when you first met too.”

“No way. I was afraid of this kid. She tried to be so close to me.”

“Ahjussi, is this how you want to do things? Don’t you remember what happened when you came here for the first time and ran away after seeing unni? All of the people at the theater mocked you, and only I treated you like a human being. But you know? That was really weird. You ran away as soon as unni talked to you.”

“I didn’t run away. I was just a little flustered.”

“That’s called running away. But thanks to that, the unnis and oppas who looked at you like a strange man became relieved. We thought you were a stalker since you came every day and quietly watched the play, but you turned out to just be head over heels for unni!”

“Like I said, it’s not like that.”

“Like hell it isn’t. You really are an interesting guy.”

Looking at the two made me smile subconsciously. Everyone at the troupe now liked Junmin as well. Joohyun especially followed him quite a lot. Well, she was the only one who took Junmin’s side from the get-go.

“What would you have done without Joohyun, Junmin-oppa? You know that it’s because Joohyun took your side that everyone else accepted you easily, right?”

“That’s right. You should be thankful to me, ahjussi.”

“Joohyun, do you really like Junmin-oppa that much?”

Hearing that question, Joohyun pondered for a moment before replying with a smile.

“Hm, maybe I like him. Of course, it’s not like I have any intentions of intruding on the romantic relationship between you two!”

Joohyun pulled Junmin’s arm. Junmin awkwardly let himself get dragged. Watching that from the back, I made a faint smile.

Chapter 626

“This is fresh. I didn’t think that you were the type of person who’d intrude at this hour.”

“Sorry about that.”

“It’s not something that you need to apologize for. It’s bothersome, but what can I do? It’s not like I can see you if not for something like this. Come, have a seat.”

Junmin was led by his friend to sit down.

“So, you must have a reason to come to a single lady’s house at this hour, right?”

Junmin nodded as he received the tea that his friend gave him.

“I was wondering if we could have a talk,” he said as he looked at the teacup.

His friend, who was enjoying tea on a chair, quietly spoke,

“As a friend? Or as a psychiatrist?”

“If possible, the latter.”

“Don’t tell me you’re unable to sleep like before?” His friend narrowed her eyes as she asked.

Junmin shook his head.

“I reduced my sleep because of some work, but I’ve never had insomnia.”

“That’s good.”

Junmin remembered back to 16 years ago. To be precise, the 23rd of April, 1989. Ever since he heard the news of Haejoo’s death, he hadn't been able to sleep for a while. Whenever he closed his eyes, the sound of the car horn, the friction of the tire, as well as the smell of burnt rubber haunted his mind. Even though he had never seen the scene of the accident, the accident vividly appeared in his mind as though he was a witness. The urge to vomit followed afterwards, and thanks to that, he couldn’t sleep at night and had to spend night after night by the toilet.

By the time ‘I’m going to die at this rate’ turned into ‘it won’t be too bad if I die like this’, he got help from this friend here. His symptoms became better thanks to mental consultation and medical treatment, and he was able to return to his ordinary life. After that, he worked non-stop until he reached this point.

“You look nervous. Drink that tea first for now. We don’t offer warm tea for no reason when we do consultations. There are many cases where the body affects the mind. Just warming up your body will allow you to regain your calm.”

“I guess I can’t ignore a doctor’s advice.”

Junmin drank the tea for now. Just like she said, he felt a little better after warmth circulated around his body. When he regained a bit of his calmness, he started taking in the scenery of her house. He had never been here since his last visit about a year ago, but nothing had changed at all.

“Generally we should start from the outside, but you don’t like things that way, so let’s hear what the problem is first.”

“I saw something strange. A scenery I could never have seen flashed in front of me. I could hear sounds as well.”

“Was it a one-off thing? Or did it happen frequently?”

“I’ve never experienced something like that before.”

“You aren’t on drugs, are you?”

Junmin stared at his friend. She just shrugged.

“There are an uncountable number of causes for hallucinations. It might be a psychological thing, or it might be a problem with your nervous system. It could be a problem from the increase of brain pressure, too. In your case, there are so many potential causes. It’s not that strange for such things to happen after fifty too. On top of that, there are reports of mental illnesses recurring after decades even after being completely cured in the past.”

“I see.”

“How did you feel when you experienced that situation? Did you get into a panic just like in the past?”

“No, it wasn’t like that. It was just confusing.”

“How about your breathing?”

“I didn’t pant heavily or anything.”

“In my personal opinion, you should get diagnosed not only in the psychological area but physically as well. Your body is honest. It’s sending you signals because there is an anomaly. You’re still smoking these days, aren’t you?”

“I can’t quit.”

“Doctors don’t tell people to quit for no reason. There is nothing proven other than the epidemiology of it, but it’s pretty clear that it’s not good for the body. Stop thinking of it as a cure for the soul and think about it seriously. Next time, it might not end with just knocking on your neighbor’s door at night. I’m saying that it will be too late once you’re in the ambulance. No, you don’t even have someone who could call an ambulance for you. You aren’t married after all.”

“Don’t you think someone married should be the one saying that?”

His friend raised her teacup and faintly smiled. There wasn’t a ring on any of her fingers.

“On the surface, you might look okay, but you never know what’s happening on the inside. Don’t ignore my words and get proper medical attention. What you can solve with consultation is extremely limited. Most of the time, it’s medicine that resolves the clump in people’s hearts, not the words of a consultant.”

After saying that, his friend sighed.

“That’s it from me. I think you still have more things to say, so go on. This reminds me of the old times. You always came to me even after the treatment and grumbled to me.”

“It’s always good to have a secret place.”

“Do the people at your company know that you’re like this? From what I hear, you’re known as the iron-blooded man.”

“Maybe that’s how they want to see me.”

“Sheesh, I wonder why there are so many stubborn people around me. There’s Seonwoo, and then there’s you.”

“What happened to lawyer Park?”

“Hey, aren’t you two treating me like some kind of ever-giving tree? Do you think I feel good when you guys come to me and complain about stuff whenever you are having a hard time? Do you know what kind of people look for psychiatric consultation most often? It’s none other than psychiatrists themselves. Sheesh, I wish you could take your confessions to the church.”

“Well, sorry about that.”

“Don’t apologize so easily. It makes me seem like a bad woman. Man, why don’t I have any luck with friends?”

She chuckled before leaning forward.

“Tell me about it. I know that you aren’t the type to come to me just because you’re afraid of some illness.”

“It was for a brief moment, but I felt so unfamiliar with myself. I felt like what I achieved was something I just received from someone else.”

“There are many causes and symptoms for depersonalization as well. Most of the time, it’s a result of a big wound, but that shouldn’t apply to you. You didn’t get into an accident without me knowing, did you?”

“No.”

“Have you ever felt paralyzed?”

“No.”

“Did everything look unrealistic to you? Did the hallucination you mentioned earlier seem far from realistic?”

“That’s the strange thing about it. Leaving aside the fact that I felt unfamiliar with myself, the things I saw were way too familiar to me.”

“Don’t you think it’s from your memories? You know, maybe a drama, or a movie, or a book that you’ve seen before.”

“No, I can guarantee that I’ve never seen those things in my life.”

“It’s the first time you saw them, yet you felt familiar with them?”

Junmin nodded.

“The degree of realism you felt is important. You were normal in your ability to check for realism, and it didn’t feel unrealistic but familiar huh. The answer is simple then. You should seek medical attention.”

“So that’s the conclusion after all?”

“Obviously. If I could correctly diagnose you with a few questions, why would we need medical equipment? We should use machines to look into what we can’t.”

His friend stood up.

“Sleep over.”

“You don’t have to…”

Just as he was about to stand up, his friend pressed his shoulders down. Junmin raised his head. He could see that she was looking at him worriedly.

“You really don’t look good right now. If I send you off now, I fear that I won’t be able to sleep in peace.”

“Sorry for being a bad friend.”

“You just found out?”

When she returned after putting away the teacups, there was a bottle of wine in her hands.

“You’re giving wine to a patient? I thought a certain someone was telling me to quit smoking just moments ago. Isn’t alcohol similar?”

“I would feel terrible to hear that from you but you don’t even listen to the doctor’s words. Here, have a drink. You haven’t been here in ages, so it’s such a pity to just sleep like this.”

He smiled as he accepted the glass, and she sat down right next to him. Seeing her sitting right next to him, Junmin couldn’t help but smile.

“So you really aren’t planning on getting married.”

“This isn’t the first time you’re saying this. I’ll just die lonely.”

“Then what about me?”

She leaned against his shoulder. Junmin just drank the wine without saying anything.

“A forty-nine year-old woman is no good after all?”

“Much better than a man in his fifties.”

“Didn’t you notice my feelings a while ago?”

“I did.”

“What a bad man.”

“Sorry.”

“Jung Haejoo, is that girl still in your heart?”

Junmin smiled bitterly instead of replying. His friend’s face became closer and closer to his face.

“I’ll take the consultation fee now.”

Her lips touched his cheeks. Junmin looked at her.

“What, were you expecting something?”

She giggled before touching her lips.

“Now that I think about it, the kid that you introduced me to last time.”

“Han Maru?”

“Yeah. Have you heard?”

“I’ve only heard that there were no anomalies after a detailed medical check.”

“I am obliged to keep things secret, but I’ll give you a hint since you’re like his social father. That child said something similar to you.”

“Similar to me?”

“His sense of depersonalization, that is, being unfamiliar with himself, was fainter than you, but it was the same in regards to the fact that the scenery around kept changing. It was even down to the fact that it felt familiar despite the fact that he had never seen it before. Of course, the change in surrounding scenery is something separate from depersonalization, but the fact that the two occurred at the same time is definitely a strange thing. I’m thinking that there’s an environmental element at your company causing the symptoms, but that child doesn’t commute to the company or something, does he?”

“There’s no way he does.”

“There are no contacts between you two either. There’s nothing similar about you two, yet the peculiar symptoms match. What’s interesting is that even after a detailed diagnosis, the result is that there are no external or psychological problems. You might turn out to be the same.”

“That’s quite a coincidence.”

“It is a little surprising to be a coincidence, but since the results are normal, I had nothing to say as a doctor.”

She yawned softly.

“It’s somewhat wrong for me to say this to a patient, but can I get some consultation as well?”

“If it’s just listening, I think I can do it.”

“Then just listen. This is the thing I want to consult about. A cocky man suddenly came to my house and is stirring my heart. What do I do with this man?”

“Get him to drink and have him sleep.”

“What a really cocky man.”

Junmin could only repeat the word sorry.

* * *

“Be careful on your way.”

“Sorry about that. I was going to watch with you, but I ended up sleeping.”

“You must have been tired. We can watch the important stuff later, so don’t worry about it. Also, Yoo Jiseok, you should visit an ENT doctor.”

After sending Daemyung and Jiseok off, Maru cleaned the living room. It was 11 past 10. The videotape he was watching was on pause. This was the part where Joohyun shouted at Junmin. This could potentially be a sensitive part, so he did not continue the video when the others woke up.

“Did they leave?”

“Yeah. It was noisy, wasn’t it?”

“Not really. Are you going to keep watching?”

“I am.”

Bada nodded before returning to her room.

Maru resumed the video. He met Joongjin when he visited the coffee shop to meet Jincheol. He heard about the past between Joongjin and Junmin and received the videotapes there. Like what Joongjin said, Junmin didn’t have a good relationship with the members of the theater troupe, but it was getting better as time went by. However, Joohyun didn’t seem to like Junmin. Perhaps this was the case since Joohyun cherished Haejoo a lot.

-Ahjussi, you’re thinking that unni doesn’t have any talent, aren’t you? What you said at the beginning is just a lie, isn’t it? That’s why you’re talking like you’ve given up, aren’t you?

The agitated Joohyun stood in front of Junmin. The camera captured her face. Joohyun was angry, and Haejoo was looking at her with surprise. Junmin was also in the frame.

After a moment of silence, Junmin spoke,

-Haejoo can do better. It’s such an obvious thing that I don’t need to mention it. Confirming her talents, and giving her the conviction that she can do better - how is that any important? The reason the word ‘faith’ exists is because people do not trust. It’s because they do not trust that they keep seeking such a word and then affirm it for themselves. What I am doing is helping Haejoo become a better actress, not giving her faith.

When Junmin said those words, Joohyun made a complex expression. After that, Joohyun ran past the camera.

-Joohyun!

Haejoo called out to her and followed.

The video showed the stage with nothing on it for a while before it was turned off. Hm, Maru played the next video. The first thing he saw was a grey screen. There were people cooking pork belly on a frying pan. He also saw Joohyun, who was smiling awkwardly, as well as Junmin, who was cooking for her.

“Looks like things went well.”

Maru looked at the screen with a smile.

Chapter 627

After taking a shower, Maru poured some green plum concentrate in a cup of water before bringing it to the living room. He opened the veranda and went outside.

“It’s pretty quiet.”

For some reason, the lights were off all the way from the distant apartment complex to the residential area nearby. It was 11:40 p.m, pretty early for everyone to be sleeping, but for some curious reason, other than the street lights, shop signs, and car headlights, there was no other source of light. When he turned his head just a little, he saw the streets, which were bright due to the lights. He observed the boundary between blocks which looked way too distinct. The stage and the audience seats - Maru was reminded of that place, which he had become familiar with now. Eventually, the lights along the streets started turning on. It seemed that there was a temporary blackout. He brushed the droplets of water on the surface of his cup and shook them off the veranda before turning around.

Thinking that he should watch one last video, he sat down on the sofa and played the video. The contents of the video hadn’t changed for the past few videotapes. What was different was that the videos, which were taken every two weeks or so, were now taken every three - or even two - days. Most of it was about some chatter between the members of the troupe, practice, as well as Haejoo and Junmin’s lecture.

-You need to show yourself a little more.

Maru put down his cup. Junmin’s words sounded a little different right now. There was even a hint of anger.

-Show what?

-Yourself. I was mistaken because your character keeps being reflected when you are acting. You aren’t hiding anything, so everything about you is being reflected on the character you’re playing.

-I’m not hiding anything.

Haejoo said.

-I thought about it. No matter how bright a person’s nature is, is it really possible for that nature to protrude out in every single act? It’s natural for some traits, or habits to show. Of course, there are other characteristics that show as well. However, if it shows in every single act, even when acting another emotion, don’t you think it’s not being done subconsciously, but consciously?

-Are you saying that I’m intentionally ruining my own acts?

Haejoo glared this time as well. The two seemed to be the only people in the practice room, as it was silent otherwise. Just as the motor sound from the camera filled the audio, Junmin spoke again.

-You definitely have the skills to do better. It might look awkward because your unique character shows through in every single role, but once you take that away, I can’t find any flaws.

-Oppa, you know what you’re saying, right?

-If I am wrong, I will kneel and apologize to you. But from what I saw, you aren’t someone who would repeat her mistakes. I was convinced when I first saw you during the street performance that you were a gem; a gem undiscovered by any other. The actress that made me fall for her in that instant keeps being awkward on stage? At first, I thought your acting method was wrong. That’s why I tried to fix it. After some time, however, I realized that fixing it was no good. Because there was nothing to fix to begin with.

Junmin had no hesitation as he said those words. It wasn’t stubbornness. It was conviction. Maru was rather surprised by that conviction. What did president Lee Junmin see from Jung Haejoo back then to be so sure?

‘Well, he is someone who could chuck 300 million won to a high schooler, so he must be rather extraordinary.’

Perhaps Junmin had the ability to see something that other people could not. Whether that was intuition based on logic, or something spiritual, Junmin probably had some kind of evidence he could base his conviction on.

Maru was curious about Haejoo’s reaction to that. Being the target of other people’s expectations wasn’t entirely a good thing. To a certain extent, it would increase her motivation and pride. There were many people that overcame their despair and gained courage from a simple ‘you can do it’. However, too much expectation would erode away at their hearts. The moment they doubted that expectation, the target of the expectation might fall into a state of self-loathing. They would hate themselves for not being able to live up to those expectations, and would ultimately end up despising those that had high hopes of them. Expectations were like fertilizers. A moderate amount would accelerate the growth of a plant, but too much would make the soil rot. A plant rotten at the roots was bound to die.

-Oppa, you see me too clearly every time. Even though my body isn’t made of glass, you see through me too well. I’m angry about that. It makes me realize that you will never change.

Haejoo spun around on stage before speaking.

-Do you know? There’s another me inside me. A me fully immersed in acting. If I borrow her power, I will be able to do better. Just like… the first day you saw me.

There was a gap in her words. It seemed to signify some sort of event, but Maru focused on Haejoo’s confession first. A me inside of me.

‘She’s the same as me.’

Maru turned up the volume.

-Oppa, tell me honestly. You fell for me at first glance, didn’t you?

-I didn’t look for you for such personal feelings like t…

-Really? Do you really think so?

Junmin made a difficult expression and looked at the camera. It seemed that he remembered that they were shooting.

-Oppa, what did you see in me that made you think I’ll become a star?

-I can just tell.

-How?

-It’s hard to describe with words. But I can tell. I can see what that person’s talents are like, how far they will reach, and things like that.

-That’s curious. It’s like magic from fairy tales.

-Perhaps that’s what it is.

-Haa, alright. I’ll try.

Haejoo closed her eyes.

-At first, just feeling the existence of this girl inside me gave me a hard time. As I got used to it, I became able to move together with this girl. When I close my eyes like this, I can feel my consciousness sink into the depths. In those depths, there is a very dark curtain, and once I cross that curtain, there’s a stage just for me. That girl is there standing on that stage. She’s sleeping there. I can borrow her power in that state, but that shouldn’t be enough to satisfy you. So I need to wake her up. I need to talk to her, share my consciousness with her and act together.

Haejoo, who was running around the stage, stood in the center. She slowly kneeled and sat down. The lights were fixed, but for some reason, it seemed to turn bright around her.

Haejoo put on a tragic smile. Her gaze was looking in the distance, but her body was fixed there. Maru frowned. She changed. He could tell that at a glance. On stage, Haejoo was always bright. The pink energy that circulated around her was like a paint that couldn’t be removed, but for that moment alone, it dissolved into nothingness as though it came into contact with paint thinner. Conversing with another, inner self. That should be the identity of that thinner.

The person changed. The woman who always had a smile on her face disappeared and Haejoo put on a very thick smile very lightly. Her clear eyes changed and seemed like the faint moon hanging behind the mountain, and it felt like he would get sucked in if he kept staring. Her casual shake of the shoulder showed the extremes of a curvature that only women could show off, and her legs hid the secret between them, yet was still very provocative. Rather than a miserable woman selling her body in the red-light district, she looked like a high-class courtesan[1] working in a luxury restaurant.

In that state, Haejoo said her lines. The words that escaped her round mouth likewise formed a round shape and jumped around the stage. Maru subconsciously gulped when he heard the sweet voice knock on his ears. It was a voice that too easily stimulated the desires he hid deep inside.

Haejoo raised her hand. Just like a butterfly with a ripped wing, the courtesan that tragically longed for her beloved just looked into the distance, calling out his name again and again, her body unable to move. Desperate, yet not desperate, affectionate, yet not affectionate. Haejoo interchanged between a seductive courtesan and a devoted girl before returning to ‘Jung Haejoo’ again.

Maru clapped. This wasn’t something he should watch for free. The only thing he could do was to applaud, and he felt that it was such a pity that he could not reach out to the woman inside the video. What would Junmin have felt after seeing such an act up close? Probably overwhelmed?

-I knew it. You are still, and you always will be, perfect.

Those were Junmin’s words.

* * *

“How is it?” I asked as I feigned calmness.

Junmin’s request was simple. It was to show myself a little more. Not hiding it, but showing it even more. I shook off my embarrassment and poured out all of the desires boiling inside me. Even though the air conditioning was on in the theater, my clothes were drenched.

“Unni, you looked like a completely different person,” Joohyun replied first.

She was such a thankful girl who joined practice all the time. I looked next to her. This person’s answer was more important.

“It wasn’t perfect, but you broke the frame. It was good, I mean it.”

When a compliment, which I had never heard from Junmin’s mouth since the start of practice, escaped his mouth, I felt my legs go loose. I tensed my shaking knees and ran to Junmin. Just like that,

I then hugged Junmin, who tried to dodge. My legs gave up at that point.

“Unni, aren’t you being too bold?”

Joohyun’s tone seemed calm, but her face was red. Joohyun left the theater, saying that she wanted to go to the bathroom.

“Wh-what are you doing all of a sudden?”

“I just wanted to do this. Why, can’t I do it?”

“No, it’s not that you can’t…”

“It’s been months. You gave me a compliment for the first time in months. Don’t you think I’d be happy?”

“But even so, there’s a kid watching.”

“Are you shameful of me?”

“Of course not.”

“Then do you like me?”

I said those words because I wanted to see Junmin panicking, but Junmin spoke in a firm voice without any fluctuations in his expression.

“What are you going to do if I say I like you?”

I was waiting for those words. I tip-toed and put my mouth against his. He awkwardly put his hands around my waist, and I had to pull his hands for him.

“That wasn’t your first kiss, was it?”

“Think whatever you want.”

“It’d be great if it was, but it doesn’t seem to be.”

The man who appeared out of nowhere. The man who kept watching wordlessly and ran away when I talked to him. The man who taught me in this strange relationship of teacher and student. When was it that I started liking him?

“Shall we get married?” Those words escaped naturally.

“Sure,” Junmin also said nonchalantly.

We stared at each other’s face for a while before kissing once again.

“Are you serious?”

“If you’re okay with it.”

“You know that we’re twelve years apart, right?”

“Actually, it’s thirteen.”

“People around you will swear at you for it, are you okay with that?”

“It doesn’t matter to me.”

“I don’t care either. So we’re really getting married, okay? I’m not joking.”

“I don’t like jokes in the first place.”

I let go of my hands that I put around Junmin’s waist. It was a curious feeling. It was curious that I came to like a man who was much older than me, but it was even more curious that I wanted to live together with this man. When people around me got married after dating for a few months, I thought that their courage was incredible, but now that I was in a similar position, I could understand them. This man is enough. An indescribable sense of fulfillment filled me up and became impenetrable by fear and worries. I only thought about the happy days that I would have in the future with this man.

“But we should try dating at least, right?”

“Yeah.”

“Can I get a refund if I don’t like it?”

“Honestly speaking, I think I’ll be very sad if I get refunded.”

Junmin made a difficult smile. I just found his expression too adorable. I put my hands on his face and spoke,

“Me too.”

At that moment, we exchanged a long conversation with things other than words.

Destiny - I became drunk on that word.

“Uhm, can I go in now?”

Joohyun’s voice could be heard. I chuckled and left the theater while grabbing Junmin’s hands.

“Joohyun, let’s grab something good to eat.”

“Forget about that, what was that just now? Are you two dating?”

“I’ll tell you that as we eat.”

I took Joohyun, who was nagging me to tell her what happened, outside. It was raining outside. It was the rainy season. Joohyun opened an umbrella and walked forward.

“Let’s use one together.”

I had an umbrella but didn’t bring it with me. I went under the umbrella that Junmin put up and walked next to him.

“Ah, there’s one thing I have to tell you.”

“What is it?”

“You have to quit smoking.”

“That’s a bit…”

“Then I’ll start smoking as well.”

“I’ll quit.”

“You have to look after your health. You aren’t young, you know?”

“It’s sad that I can’t retort.”

I boldly hooked my arm around his. It felt like the statue of emotions I’d been secretly carving over the past few months during practice was finally completed today.

“Oh, you know that I don’t have any parents, right?”

“It’s fine. I don’t have any either.”

“Looks like our wedding will be a small one.”

“Yes.”

Joohyun, who was nagging them to come faster, crossed the road. The green light was flashing.

“Oppa, run!”

“You’ll get wet.”

“This is youth.”

I ran while looking at the flashing green light. The splashing beneath my foot was cheerful, and the sound of the rain hitting my head made me smile. Just as I was feeling that everything was going to go well, I saw Joohyun’s face, who was on the other side.

Joohyun, who was stiff with her eyes wide open, threw the umbrella and reached out to me.

Why? - before that question even came to mind, someone strongly pushed me from the back. I was pushed forward and ended up on my knees. Just as I grumbled about how my knees were hurting after being scratched on the asphalt,

Thud - a heavy sound could be heard. It was an unpleasant sound I’ve never heard before. I quietly stared at my scratched knees in a daze before slowly turning my head around. A truck, with an ad for frozen dumplings on one side, had crashed into a commercial building. People were screaming. Screams gathered on one side, and my eyes naturally headed that way as well.

Pitter, patter, the sound of the rain hitting my head vanished. The rain that muddled my vision couldn’t be seen either. There was only one thing that entered my eyes.

“No,” I said as I looked at the blood being washed away by the rain.

Chapter 628

I raised my head when I heard the ambulance break the silence. Droplets of rain were bouncing off the ground, people were murmuring, and there was a streak of red that was clearly distinct from the rain.

“Unni.”

I turned around. It was Joohyun, who had changed her clothes. Ah, this was the hospital. The sense of realism kept disappearing.

“Is the guardian of Mr. Lee Junmin here?”

Guardian, am I even qualified to be that? The person who pushed my back and saved me was wandering between life and death in that white room, and yet could I dare to call myself his guardian?

“Unni.”

Joohyun grabbed my hand. Yes, get yourself together. Just as I was about to walk up to the doctor with shaky steps,

“Senior Choi!”

A startlingly loud voice could be heard behind me. A woman rushed across the corridor and stood in front of the doctor.

“What happened to him? What happened to Lee Junmin?”

“Kang Seoyeon, do you know the patient inside?”

“I’m asking what happened!”

“Calm down. I was just about to tell the guardian.”

“Guardian?”

The woman named Seoyeon looked at me. The moment I met her gaze, my breath stopped. What am I supposed to say to those eyes that were seeking an explanation? The unpleasant sound I heard during the accident echoed inside my head.

“You’re a doctor, so you should calm down. Also, Miss?”

“Yes.”

“I’m sorry for your loss. We tried everything we could, but he didn’t make it.”

The doctor’s words couldn’t continue after that. Another emergency patient came to the unit. The doctor sighed in annoyance when a nurse called out to him before starting to run. My head blanked out for a moment. I think I just heard the news of someone’s passing away, but I couldn’t understand who. In the first place, why would he say something like that to me? He should be telling me about the state of Junmin who was inside. Why is he apologizing?

The woman who shouted earlier collapsed. I looked at her before standing in front of the room that said ‘Operation Room’. There was a no entry sign on the door, but that didn’t matter. I walked up to it with the intention of going inside. When the door opened, there was a long corridor.

“Miss! You can’t go in there!”

A nurse ran up to me and grabbed me.

“No, but he’s inside.”

“We can’t have you act like this here.”

“It’s just for a moment, just a moment is fine. I’ll just have a look at his face. Please?”

“If you keep acting like this I have no choice but to call security.”

I stared at the distant doctors and nurses in green before turning around. Right after that, strength escaped my legs. My vision became dark, and all sound was cut off. Joohyun ran up to me and said something, but I couldn’t understand a thing. From afar, a man in a suit was running towards me. Who was it? People called him ‘Prosecutor Park’.

“Unni, unni!”

Sorry, Joohyun. I decided to let go of my consciousness. I wanted to take a breather from the reality full of despair. My body complied with my wishes.

* * *

The yukgaejang[1] cooled down. I didn’t know who brought it here. There were about twenty tables, but there weren’t many people sitting. It was 3 a.m. The procession was tomorrow.

“Haejoo.”

It was someone from the theater troupe. I mechanically smiled and tried to rise from my knees, but my body didn’t listen to me. It wasn’t that my legs had become numb. My body just didn’t feel like mine and didn’t heed to my intentions. The intense powerlessness made me into an incompetent human.

“Stay seated. I know this isn’t the time for this, but I thought I’d let you know. The plays are on hold for now.”

“No, oppa. I can do it.”

“You aren’t in the right state. Joongjin-hyung decided to help us. He’s willing to loan us the monthly rent. He was adamant on paying it himself, but we barely managed to talk him out of it and settled with a loan. We can’t keep relying on him after all.”

“Sorry, it’s all because of me.”

“I’m not here to listen to you say that. I just want you to not worry about anything and get some rest. Okay? You really don’t look good right now. As cruel as my words might sound… dead people are dead. The living cannot chase after them. So… nah, I hope you get better. I’ll be leaving now.”

I wanted to stand up and see him out, but my legs really did not listen to me. I barely managed to lower my head before leaning against the wall. The jeolpyeon[2] had dried into stiff blocks, the yukgaejang had turned cold, and the watermelons were crumbling apart. What was I doing here?

“Miss Jung Haejoo?”

I was staring at a fly that was on top of a slice of a watermelon when I heard my name and raised my head. There was a man with a worried face, and behind him was the clock. It was 4 a.m. An hour had passed already. It felt like my sense of time had disappeared completely.

“Ah, yes.”

“You’ll ruin yourself if you keep acting like that for two days in a row. You should get some rest.”

“No, I can’t rest.”

“I understand how you feel. No, I can’t truly understand how you feel, because I’m not you, Miss Jung Haejoo. However, what I can be sure of is that Junmin, that fellow, doesn’t want you to get in trouble.”

The man with a heavy expression asked if he could sit next to me. I nodded. I felt this when I came here, but there were only three things I could do. One was to say sorry, one was to carry food around, and the other was to nod.

“Did I tell you my name?”

“Prosecutor Park Sunggoo, was it?”

“So you remember. Junmin was a friend of mine.”

Sunggoo poured some soju in a glass before drinking it without a word. I couldn’t say anything. I was a sinner. A horrific sinner who took away his friend.

“Junmin, that fellow, he’s been all smiles recently. I thought he was sick. He isn’t someone who would act like that. That’s why I asked. Were you cast somewhere? He told me no. Then I asked again. Then why do you look so happy?”

Sunggoo refilled his glass. He didn’t drink it this time.

“He told me he finally found the one. You know? There was something he always mentioned. He said that there lies a true actor somewhere in this world. He wasn’t someone who liked idealism, but for some reason, he kept saying that. I think that you are the actor he’s been looking for this whole time, Miss Haejoo.”

“I’m nothing like…”

“I don’t know you that well, Miss Haejoo. However, I do know the man known as lee Junmin. He tried to protect you and based on the fact that he did that without hesitation, I believe that you’re worth trusting, Miss Haejoo.”

Sunggoo gave me a business card. The prosecutor mark and the word Seoul entered my eyes.

“If something happens because of this incident, call that number. I will help you as much as I can. Also, keep in mind that this isn’t your fault.”

I stared at the business card and the filled glass. Just then, my head felt cold. Water flowed down and dripped off my hair onto the table.

“Kang Seoyeon!”

“It’s all your fault. Because of you, Junmin is!”

“Hey, Kang Seoyeon!”

The smell of soju was ringing in the air. It entered my eyes, making my eyes hurt. I lifted my head up in a daze. I saw Seoyeon, venting her anger with a haggard face, as well as Sunggoo, who was trying to stop her.

“Seoyeon!”

“It’s because of her. It’s because of HER! You saw it, didn’t you? You saw the CCTV footage! Junmin died trying to save this girl. That foolish guy died! Just to save this girl!”

“Seoyeon, stop!”

“How can I stop? How could I possibly stop! Junmin was my… I… Junmin…”

Seoyeon fell down and curled up. She cried loudly as though she was trying to fill the funeral hall. I couldn’t say a word to her. I knew that anything that escaped my mouth - even my breath - would hurt her. I’m not someone who should be here. I’m like that piece of dried out rice cake…

“I’m sorry.”

I kneeled and lowered my head. Would my guilty conscience become better if she swears at me more? There was no reaction even after a few seconds. When I raised my head, what I saw was Seoyeon’s face, which had given up on scorning me. She was half-dead. She looked even more hurt than I was. That… that was what made me feel even worse.

“Miss Jung Haejoo.”

I left the funeral venue as I heard Sunggoo call out to me. Only after I left did I realize that I hadn’t brought an umbrella, forgot to wear shoes, and that my feet were bleeding. But who cares? What good was that? That didn’t kill people. A truck was required at least to kill a person.

I saw a 6-lane road in the distance. People that started up the morning were busily driving. If I throw my body there, will the busily working people clean me up? The moment I was about to let death take my body, the thought that it would inconvenience them woke me up. I wasn’t afraid of death; I was afraid of inconveniencing others with my death. The bitch that drove a man to death is now haunting people by committing suicide - I honestly didn’t want to hear something like that.

Is this why people went to one of the bridges over the Han river? There was no need for cleanup, and did not pain anyone either. It’s such a neat cleaner of death. I kept walking. I kept walking and walking without knowing where the bridge was. I could hear people murmuring around me. Look at that, it’s blood.

I kept walking down the road and eventually came across a bridge. I didn’t know what bridge it was, but I felt like I could jump off it. For this moment, I found it fortunate that I lived in Seoul. There was a quick and easy method to commit suicide so nearby.

I walked up to the bridge. I could see the river below. The river, which I never looked at closely before, was murky. Would this memory sink with my body so that it would never come up again?

“How charming is that.”

Not having any family members was convenient at a time like this. Perhaps it was a happy thing that there weren’t many people to grieve for me. I grabbed the banisters and lifted my legs.

“How about you live another life?”

Someone spoke from a distance away. I looked at that person for a while before putting strength into my arms. I didn’t want to think about it. I didn’t want to hear anything. What I want to do now is to throw my body into that body of water.

“Will dying change anything?”

Those words stopped me. What did that mean? Was this person a civil worker? The kind that is affected by people committing suicide? Is that why there was a patrol here?

“I’m sorry.”

“I didn’t intend for you to apologize. It’s just, I want to give you an opportunity.”

“An opportunity?”

“Yes, an opportunity. Well, to introduce myself briefly, I’m an entertainer of sorts.”

“Entertainer?”

“Yes. I provide gods with entertainment or something like that.”

What did that even mean? For some reason, though, my mind kept being attracted to that person. That person’s appearance was rather peculiar. I couldn’t discern whether it was a man or a woman. The person looked like a man, and yet a woman.

“I will bring Mr. Lee Junmin back to life.”

“What?”

“It’s just as you heard. I will bring Mr. Lee Junmin back to life. Not only that, I will hand him some things that might help him in his life. Furthermore, you will also return. Return to the time before that terrible traffic accident happened.”

Did this person even understand what was being said? Was this person some kind of lunatic? Or was this person just like me, someone that came to commit suicide? If this person was trying to play a prank just before committing suicide, well, the target was wrong.

“I’m not a lunatic, and this is not a prank either. I’m just offering you an opportunity. What do you think?”

“Bring that person back to life?”

“Yes.”

“Ha, haha. Go ahead, try all you want. If you can, I’d be willing to give you my soul or anything.”

“You’re rather straight to the point. But since this is for entertainment, there are a few things I must warn you about.”

That person came up to me and continued speaking,

“First up, you will lose your memories.”

[1] Spicy beef soup. Often served in Korean funerals. Wikipedia for more info

[2] Ricecakes. Also often served in funerals. Wikipedia for more info

Chapter 629

When he opened his eyes, he subconsciously touched his head. He expected that his head would be covered in blood, but unexpectedly, his hands were clean. He saw a messy desk and clothes strewn everywhere. Junmin stood up from the floor. The small kitchen had a foul stench, and his friends were sleeping on the floor.

“It wasn’t a dream?”

He hurriedly looked at the monitor. 1988. Those four numbers entered his eyes clearly. He walked past his snoring friends and went into the bathroom. He checked his face in the mirror that had a corner broken. His eyes looked exhausted, but he was not injured. It was the him from a year ago. The loud bang that muffled his ears, the shock that followed after that, his body that flew through the air, as well as the people that looked at him with shock. That was then followed by the memory of Haejoo screaming in the rain as she looked his way.

“I’ve really returned.”

It was a shocking matter. Unless he was in a dream, he really came back from the dead.

“It’s just as that woman said.”

The woman he saw at the boundary of life and death - just like what that woman with an indescribable beauty said, he really came back to life.

“They say animals have souls…”

There was a time in his early twenties when he picked up three stray dogs by the road and raised them. The dogs had ugly features all over their faces. That woman told him that he was given another opportunity because he looked after those dogs dearly. He never knew that such a trivial good deed would allow him to go back in time. As unbelievable as it was, though, he really came back to life.

He couldn’t hold back his glee and came out of the bathroom, waking up his friends. His friends, who earned money by playing minor characters in various theatrical pieces, woke up in vexation.

“You guys should treat dogs well in the future.”

“Dogs? What dogs?”

“You don’t know dogs? I mean dogs, the ones that bark.”

“You hated them though. What changed your mind?”

“What do you mean, I hated dogs? Where can you find a bigger dog lover than me?”

“What the hell man, did alcohol get to your brain after drinking too much? Hey, everyone you know knows that you hate dogs. What nonsense are you saying? If you are still drunk, then get some more sleep. Leader[1] told us that we’ll have our schedules full tomorrow with a historical drama. I think I’ll rot in the countryside for about two weeks. He got us historical dramas from all the three major companies, RBS, KBS, and YBS. With those, we won’t have to worry about money for the time being.”

Another friend, in the corner, spoke,

“Hey, how long do you think we can keep doing this? We’ll be forty in a couple of years.”

“What can we do? We just have to keep trying ourselves out at the TV station. Let’s get some sleep first.”

His friends giggled before going to sleep again. Junmin couldn’t understand. He hated dogs? He was given another chance at life because he saved some dogs. Just as he was thinking about that, he saw faint colors emanating out of his friends. The area around their ears had turned cloudy as though it was painted with pastel. He rubbed his eyes, wondering if he was hallucinating, but the cloudy colors still remained. One of them had a red color, and another one had a blue color. The one sleeping in front of the fridge had a grey color, and the one next to that had a yellow color.

After staring at the colors for a while, he came to a realization. The colors varied according to what he thought of his friends’ acting skills. The one that had a hard time memorizing lines was black, and the one that could memorize but had terrible acting was grey. The ones that were decent looked red, blue, and yellow. Junmin went back into the bathroom and looked at the mirror. Unfortunately, his ears reflected in the mirror did not have any color.

“I’ll be leaving for a bit.”

“Can you buy some ramyun on the way back? We’re out.”

Just as he was about to rush out wearing shorts and a baggy t-shirt, something came to mind. He opened the closet and took out his suit. He changed into his only suit and put his shoes on.

“What the heck? Why did you change your clothes?”

“Reasons.”

He even put his necktie on before going towards the streets. He grabbed a bus and headed towards Daehak-ro immediately. Everything was the same as though his death was just a figment of his imagination. Junmin immediately headed to the streets with the small theaters. He saw the building, that Yecheon resided in, that he had been to many times. He bought a ticket and went inside. There were 10 minutes until the play started. He sat down on one of the narrow chairs. Before he embraced this new life of his, he had to check something first. After more people came in, and one of the members of the troupe made an announcement, the play started. The lights turned dim, and an actor appeared on the stage right in front of him. All of them were familiar faces. Eventually, Haejoo came up. Her good, yet awkward acting hadn’t changed. So I’ve really returned to life. Joy overwhelmed him.

At the same time, Junmin discovered it. There was a beautiful light circling around Haejoo’s ears. Unlike his friends at home and the other members of the troupe, her color was composed of multiple different colors. Sometimes it was yellow, sometimes it was blue. It felt as though a rainbow was hanging on her ears.

He smiled.

He could begin again.

He would finally make that woman into an actress that was sought out and loved by all people.

After the play ended, Junmin approached Haejoo. He wasn’t embarrassed like in his previous life. He was planning to say it boldly this time.

“Do you have any thoughts on doing acting properly?”

* * *

“Time of death: 20:28.”

Those words reverberated in my ears. Hearing that, I could neither become angry nor deny it. I didn’t cry either. Crying would be shameful here.

“Because of you!”

She called herself a friend of Junmin’s, huh. The woman wearing a doctor’s gown shouted. When she struggled, the nametag on her gown fell off.

Kang Seoyeon, neurosurgeon. That seemed to be her name.

I picked up the nametag and gave it back to her. The nametag was smacked away into the air, and my cheeks felt like they were burning.

“Because of you!”

She kept repeating those words. I felt my insides churning. Even though I hadn’t eaten anything, I got the urge to empty things out. I quickly went to the bathroom and grabbed the toilet. What came out after an intestine-churning vomiting was just some murky stomach fluid.

Why am I alive? Why did that person die? I could feel the sensation of the kiss we exchanged just a few short hours ago, yet that person left for a place I could not reach.

I left the bathroom and walked through the corridor. The people I came across looked at me strangely, but I didn’t care. The moment I left the hospital, an intense headache assaulted my head. I felt like I had experienced this scene somewhere before.

When I came to, I was standing on a bridge. I couldn’t remember how I came here. I looked around, the moment I saw the black river water flowing beneath, I sighed in relief. If I was at home when I came to, I would have felt even more horrible. It was obvious that I would be disgusted at myself for trying to live on by myself by going home.

It didn’t take that much hesitation as I grabbed the banisters. My body was smoothly heading forwards as though I’d done this before. Now, I just needed to put strength into my arms and stand over the guardrails. It would all be over.

One step. All that was left to put everything down was just one step.

Just then,

“Don’t you want to start over?”

I turned my head slowly to the left, along the guardrails. There was a woman standing about five meters away from me. I hadn’t seen her before, yet she looked familiar.

“Start over?”

“Yes, start over.”

“Start what over?”

“Do you really not know?”

“I’m sorry, but I don’t even have the energy to speak right now. I’m going to put everything into jumping off.”

“Will jumping off change things?”

The woman’s words clearly touched my nerves. I let go of the banisters and looked at the woman.

“What are you saying?”

“Lee Junmin.”

That person’s name came from the foreign woman. I looked around as though I'd sinned. Was she a relative? Was she here to pick a fight with me? Or to console me?

My legs started shaking. Just seeing someone who knew Junmin made me feel like the floor beneath me had disappeared.

“What would you do if you could live your life again?”

“Live my life again?”

“Yes.”

“That’s not possible.”

“In this world, sometimes, the things that aren’t possible do happen from time to time. I mean, really absurd things.”

“Forget about getting me to do something just because I’m a woman who’s about to commit suicide.”

“I know it too well.”

“Know what?”

“Know what ‘you’ know.”

“What ‘I’ know?”

The woman raised her head. There was nothing in the sky, but the woman’s lips moved as though she was talking to something.

“It’s about time. Now, you must make your decision. You just need to answer with a yes or a no. Simple, isn’t it?”

“This will change if I just say yes?”

“Yes. It will. It will change somehow.”

I laughed in vain.

“I don’t need anything like that. Even if I live my life again, there’s no meaning in…”

“Living your life again means turning the clock to the past.”

“Turning the clock to the past?”

“You know what that means, right?”

“…Will that person come back to life as well?”

The woman wordlessly nodded. At that moment, there was a smile on the woman’s face. For some reason, the smile looked tragic.

“Time will go back to the past as long as I say yes?”

“Yes.”

“The dead will come back to life?”

“Yes.”

“That sounds way too good to be true. What does that leave you?”

“Let me just say entertainment. I don’t know the details either. What I can be sure of is that the moment you say yes, time will rewind and everything will start over.”

This was absurd. It was 1989, where cutting-edge science was blossoming in all areas. Who would believe in something like that? However, unlike what I was thinking, my heart had already decided on an answer.

“I’ll do it. What do I need to do?”

“You just need to say ‘yes’.”

“Yes, I will do it.”

“Wait. Before that, there are a few things I must explain to you. First up…”

The woman paused before staring at me.

“Do you really want to live again?”

“You said you know me as much as I do, right? What would you do?”

“If it was me, I would have chosen to live again.”

“Me too.”

“I see. That must be the case. Good. I will start explaining now. The moment you say ‘yes’, the clock will turn back one year. Of course, Mr. Lee Junmin will come back to life too. Everything will be just as it was in the past. That accident would not have happened, and no one will be sad. However, there will be a few restrictions on you.”

“Restrictions?”

“Yes.”

The woman took away her smile.

“First, you will lose your memories.”

* * *

Pss, he opened his eyes because of the noise from the TV. Maru scratched his head and yawned. What time was it now? The sky he saw outside the veranda was purple. It was 6:23. It seemed that he just fainted while watching the video. It was Sunday today, but there was no shoot today. Today, he got to rest, which didn’t happen a lot.

“Man, they ate a lot,” he said as he looked at the traces - empty bags of snacks - that Jiseok and Daemyung left behind.

He collected them and put them in a trash bag, but the trash bag looked like it was about to burst. He stuffed them all inside a 10L trash bag before putting the bag outside his house. An old lady holding a bible walked past him. He didn’t know whether she was going to the church or coming from the church. God, huh. Maru smiled at the granny he met eyes with before nodding. The granny glanced at him as though she had seen something strange before walking off.

He returned to the house and tidied up the videotapes. He got a clue at least. Conversing with the ego inside him. That should become a foothold to improve his acting skills more.

‘But is this also a form of mental illness?’

He was rather happy to have found a colleague in the same situation as him, but there being another ego inside himself was definitely not normal, no matter how hard he thought about it. When he received mental consultation at the psychiatrist’s before, he was told that he was normal, but an ‘inner self’ was definitely not normal.

“Jung Haejoo, it would’ve been great if I could have met her in person.”

As unfortunate as it was, there was no way to meet a dead person in this world. Well, it might be possible for the fellows up there. Maru stretched his arms out and went to the kitchen. For now, he decided to make breakfast.

[1] Referring to the ‘leader’ that schedules jobs for minor actors.

Chapter 630

It was a rabbit with a pocket watch. The rabbit, which twitched its nose as it looked at the pocket watch, put the pocket watch away in a calm manner as though the time was nigh before hopping away. Gaeul hurriedly followed after it. She wondered why she was chasing it, but she couldn’t care less when she saw the rabbit waving its round tail before disappearing into the narrow alleyway. She decided to follow for now.

The alleyway was curvy and only wide enough for one person to pass through. She used the rabbit’s white fur as a guide as she kept following it. The rabbit always waited for her in this maze-like place. Perhaps she would go to the world that Alice went to if she kept going down this path.

The guiding rabbit suddenly stopped. Gaeul looked at the wall that blocked her path. The large stone wall, which even covered the sun, looked like no human could overcome it. The rabbit looked at the pocket watch. After twitching its nose, it slowly approached her. Gaeul slowly reached out. She was helpless against rabbits from a young age. Just as she was about to touch the soft-looking fur, the rabbit spoke.

“It’s a dead end again.”

The rabbit’s words didn’t contain any emotions. Gaeul quickly pulled her hands away as she felt the hair behind her neck stand on its end. Scary - a clear feeling rose up inside her.

“It can’t be helped. It just can’t be helped.”

The rabbit opened the pocket watch. Gaeul looked inside. It was an ordinary watch with indications for 12, 3, 6, and 9. However, when she had a closer look, there were different numbers between those numbers. 12, 3, 6, 9. The same numbers appeared in each of the four quadrants divided by the original four numbers. More numbers existed between those, and that was being repeated infinitely. The two hands - the hour hand and the minute hand - were split into four along with a screeching metal sound. The hand that pointed at the hour fell on the floor and cracked like a crumbling cookie. Just as she was becoming unable to tell what numbers the hour hand and the minute hand were pointing at, the rabbit spoke.

“Time is a thing that can be rewinded after all.”

She felt a hint of emotion in the colorless voice that belonged to the rabbit.

That emotion was deep resignation.

* * *

7 a.m. She tried to sleep in since it was Sunday, but her eyes opened by themselves. The rabbit she had seen in the dream. What was up with those sad-looking eyes she saw at the end? Gaeul sat on her bed in a daze before standing up. The clear scenery from her dream started to blur. She didn’t mind it that much since that was how dreams worked, but for some reason, the figure of the rabbit engraved in her mind became clearer and clearer. She came out to the living room and stood in front of the fridge. She saw a sticky note left behind by her mother.

-My girl, had a good sleep? Mom’s going out for work.

“She’s busy.”

She took off the sticky note and took out some water. It wasn’t a nightmare, but it gave her an iffy feeling. After drinking about two sips, she sat down on the sofa with her phone in hand. When the cool leather touched her skin, her drowsiness left her.

She thought about turning the TV on but decided not to. She wanted to enjoy the silence of the morning for a little longer. When she looked at the ticking clock, she was reminded of Maru for some reason. It was still early, so she thought that he wouldn’t pick up.

Just in case though, she tried calling him. He said that he didn’t have any shoots this weekend, so he should be sleeping in. After the signal sound rang out once, she thought that she shouldn’t interrupt his sleep and was about to press the end call button when,

-Hello?

“Oh, Maru.”

-What’s up? You’re calling at this hour.

“Sorry, did I wake you up?”

-No, I’ve been up for quite a long time now. I woke up at around six, so it’s been an hour.

“You woke up early. Didn’t you say you didn’t have a shoot today?”

-I’m on break, which I haven’t had in a long time.

“You should’ve gotten some more sleep. You must be tired.”

-I just happened to wake up. Also, I could say the same thing to you. What woke you up at this hour? You said you didn’t have classes today and told me that you were going to sleep in.

“I also happened to wake up,” she said as she poked the cushion.

She thought that he would be sleeping, but he was awake just like her. It had to be a coincidence, but she was rather happy that they matched like this. They say those in love will become similar to each other, and perhaps this was a facet of that?

“Have you had breakfast?”

-I was planning to eat with Bada when she wakes up. What about you?

“I have to eat by myself.”

-What about your mother?

“She left early in the morning. She’s really busy these days. I rarely see her during the weekend, and even on weekdays she leaves quite frequently with her laptop.”

-She’s being chased by deadlines?

“Probably not. She always shows me her drafts when she’s done with them, but with the novel she’s writing this time, she hasn’t even finished her draft yet. When I ask her, she just smiles and won’t answer me. She’s my mom, but she really is ill-natured.”

-That’s her charm. If you don’t want to eat by yourself, would you like to come over to our house?

“Nah, it’s way too early. Also, you said Bada’s there too, didn’t you? She would be uncomfortable.”

-Wait a sec.

She heard some noise over the phone. A while later, she heard Maru talking to someone. He was probably talking to Bada.

“Han Maru, don’t do it. Let Bada sleep. She must be tired.”

She waited for Maru’s answer, but what she heard was Bada’s drowsy voice.

-Is that you, unni?

“Yeah, Bada. Sorry to wake you up from sleep.”

-Nah. I was planning to get up early anyway. I’m a high school student too now. I should study.

“That’s amazing, Bada.”

-Nah. Rather than that, you’re alone in your house? Then come over. Let’s eat breakfast together. I can’t say that all of my brother’s cooking is good, but his egg bibimbap is definitely good.

“But…”

-So unni hates me?

“It’s not like that. It’s just that it’s still early and…”

-It’s fine, it’s fine. I’d be bored by myself at home anyways. I might as well play with you. Also, I want to hear from you about how it went with the agency stuff. Han Maru, that guy never mentions stuff like that. Unni, have you seen celebrities?

“I did, I guess.”

-Do you have photos?

“A couple.”

-Come over right now. Oh, and Han Gaeul, I think that name is really good.

“Thanks.”

She felt like she had a phone call with a family member. She felt grateful towards Bada who told her to come over without hesitation. Gaeul threw her phone on the sofa before running to the bathroom. Since she was going, she had to fully prepare herself.

* * *

“Unni?”

“Uh, yeah?”

“Wow, you put your mind to it. I was wondering why you weren’t coming even though it only takes 40 minutes by bus.”

Bada grinned and poked her side. Gaeul smiled awkwardly and went inside. She heard the sound of frying while she was taking her shoes off. The savory smell was a bonus.

“Where are your parents?”

“My dad is working in the countryside, so my mom goes there every weekend. Thanks to that, I’m enjoying my freedom!”

Bada lifted her arms in joy and threw herself on the sofa.

“You’re here.”

Maru peeked out from the kitchen. In his hand was a frying pan. Gaeul put the eco bag she brought on the table.

“Should I help?”

“You should just sit since you’re a guest. But what did you bring?”

“Some fruits.”

“You shouldn’t have done that, you should’ve just come empty handed.”

“That wouldn’t be too polite of me.”

“Where did you learn things like that? I guess our little Gaeul is all grown up now, eh?”

“Wanna get hit by a grown up?”

“Uh, I’d like to refuse. If you’re so bored, can you take out the side dishes and put them on plates? There are big containers in the fridge.”

She took out the side dish containers from the fridge. She put some delicious-looking cucumber kimchi onto a plate and looked at Maru’s figure from the back. He was stirring eggs with chopsticks in front of the stove, looking completely natural as he made food. He even cracked some eggs with one hand.

“Do you cook a lot?”

“I do. The food I brought you when you were sick last time was also made by me. Wasn’t it good?”

“It was, but just thinking about it startles me. I opened my eyes and there was a boy in front of me. I hadn’t gotten washed too.”

“That’s just how people live.”

“No, it isn’t. Most people don’t make sudden visits.”

“That’s most people, not everyone. So tell me, were you happy that I visited or not?”

“Are you going to be mad if I say I wasn’t?”

“No, I’ll make even more visits. I’ll bring food every weekend. I’ll do that until you say you’re happy.”

“What a guy. Fine, I was happy, you satisfied?”

“Acting embarrassed, huh. Come here for a sec.”

“Why?”

“Have a taste test.”

He gave her a spoonful of the fried rice. Didn’t Bada say bibimbap? Anyway, she leaned forward and ate off of the spoon.

“It’s okay.”

“Our household doesn’t put a lot of salt in food.”

“It’s good enough though.”

“That’s good, then. Han Bada, clean up the table. We’ll eat there.”

Bada yawned and cleaned up the table in the living room. After all she said about her brother, it seemed that she listened to his words.

Maru put the fried rice into three bowls.

“Usually, we put chilli paste and some vegetables before mixing it together.”

“You mix it after frying the rice?”

“It’s better this way. The calorie count is higher too.”

“You just had to add that at the end.”

“You’re going to eat anyway, aren’t you?”

She was going to have to eat. Gaeul headed to the living room with the bowls. She put them on the table Bada had cleaned. As she was looking at the golden-colored fried rice, something caught her eyes.

“Are these the videos you were talking about before?” she asked as she picked up one of the videotapes that were piled into a tower.

Maru nodded as he brought the chilli paste.

“Thanks to the VCR you lent me, I could watch them.”

“There’s a lot.”

“There’s even more in my room.”

“How many did you say you have?”

“About sixty.”

Gaeul looked at the videotapes in each hand. If there were sixty of these, then the sheer volume would be quite considerable. She could see a box in Maru’s open room as well. It was a blue plastic box, and the videotapes seemed to be from there.

“Unni, they’re no fun at all. I thought they were movies, but they aren’t. The resolution is terrible too. It makes my eyes hurt.”

“I told you many times that they were for studying. Here, take your spoon.”

Bada shook her head and started mixing her rice.

“You said they were videos about an actor, right?”

“Yeah, but it isn’t just one person; it’s the practice of an entire theater troupe, so it’s taking quite a lot of time to go through them. But they are helpful, so I’m not finding it a waste of time.”

“They were helpful?”

“To me, quite a lot.”

Gaeul put down her spoon and looked at the videotapes. It kept tugging at her mind when she heard that they were helpful.

“Let’s watch them together after we eat.”

“Can I?”

“It’s no big secret after all. For now, eat before the food gets cold.”

Gaeul put down the videotapes. Her desire to do better in acting formed a more specific goal after she entered the agency. She wanted her laugh acting to be more detailed; for her sad acting to exude sadness; and for her to be able to transmit anger without expressively being angry.

Those kinds of thoughts came up all the time when she looked at Heewon’s acting. When she looked at him, and his acting, which looked very liberal like a bird flying without restraint, she wanted to become like him. However, she was aware that Heewon’s method was not something an ordinary person could understand and imitate just like her teacher said. She had to look for Han Gaeul’s unique color. Gaeul stuffed her mouth with food as she looked at the videotapes.

Chapter 631

“I want to visit too.”

“Now is not a good time. I’ll definitely bring you if I have the chance, though.”

Bada smiled, telling Gaeul that she had to keep her promises.

“How are classes?”

Maru was peeling an apple with a fruit knife. The peels were so thin that light passed right through them. Bada said that it was one of her brother’s few specialties.

“I’m trying my best not to lag behind.”

“Is it hard?”

“I can’t really say whether it’s easy or difficult. The assignments that the teacher gives me are definitely simple things, but I have to think about a lot of things when I do them. I can just take it easy and take a break, but I keep holding onto them because I find something lacking.”

“It doesn’t sound boring at least. That sounds good.”

“I don’t have any time to get bored. I can’t say it’s fun all the time, but I’ve never felt like I am wasting my time. I think teacher sees what’s lacking in me.”

“Sounds like a good person. Here, take this.”

Maru forked a slice of apple and gave it to her. After being surprised due to the surprisingly smooth exterior, Gaeul put it in her mouth. Maru probably would’ve done well even if he chose cooking as his career. Bada ate the apples lying down and ended up coughing before sitting up. That was immediately after Maru told her that she would become a cow if she ate lying down. Gaeul smiled and put the rest of the apple in her mouth. The apple crumbled with a pleasant crunch. Had she ever visited a friend’s house on a Sunday morning and had a conversation like this? She stretched her legs, which she had modestly put to her side. It was comfortable. The awareness that this was someone else’s house disappeared into the back of her throat along with the apple.

“Unni, what do you like about my brother?”

That almost made her choke. She gathered her legs again and put them by her side. Bada was smiling at her while she was holding up her chin with both of her hands while lying down. Gaeul looked around her to find a helper. Maru, who was still holding an apple, had a similar smile as Bada, and was looking at her as though he was looking for an answer. The quarrelling siblings combined their forces in an instant. Seeing the impenetrable wall in front of her, Gaeul just kept staring at the wall.

“Oppa, what do you like about Gaeul-unni?”

“Everything.”

The answer that came without hesitation pressured Gaeul even more. The way these two asked and answered such questions like it was nothing was definitely proof that they were siblings. It wasn’t that it was a difficult question. She had a few answers she could easily respond with. She didn’t know when she got those answers ready, but plausible-sounding answers were raising their hands inside her. Gaeul chose to save her words even though she could just reply nonchalantly and smile it off. She knew that they were joking with her and that they weren’t looking for some grandiose answer, but for some reason, she couldn’t speak that easily. She saw Bada not saying anything after blinking a couple of times. Gaeul saw her fingers slowly curling up, and her shoulders crouching inwards as well. It was clear that Bada felt embarrassed when Gaeul reacted seriously since she was just joking. Say something - Gaeul spoke with difficulty as she looked at Maru.

“Sorry.”

There were a lot of pretty words in her mind. It would’ve been fine even if she picked any random item off the display in her mind. Or, she could’ve grabbed one of the toys that sprung up when it was opened. Sorry - that was definitely not on the list. On the list of numerous words in her mind, ‘sorry’ definitely did not exist. Where was that from? Why that word out of all things?

“Unni… I was just…”

Bada sat up now. Gaeul brought both of her hands to her mouth. She felt like she was really going to feel sorry. She felt chaotic. Why did she have to choose that word out of everything and make people awkward?

“Han Bada, she got you good this time.”

Maru gave Bada a big sliced apple. Bada accepted the apology in an awkward posture.

“What does that mean?”

“Don’t you get it? Gaeul was joking with you.”

“Really?”

“That’s how frightening an actor can get if they decide to set their mind on teasing someone. You were fooled instantly, weren’t you?”

“That startled me! I thought unni was angry,”

The tension in the atmosphere loosened up immediately. Bada lay down again and started eating the apple.

“Unni, you are really good at acting. I thought you were angry.”

Gaeul wasn’t a fool who would pour cold water over this situation by telling the truth. She made the smile that she practiced hundreds, thousands of times. She felt like the natural smile stemming from her emotions would creak like a broken cogwheel.

“Were you surprised?”

“I was. I won’t do that next time. Unni, you are a formidable foe.”

Maru pushed the tray with the apple peels and the empty plate over to Bada.

“Can you get out of the way now since you’re done eating?”

“Fine. I know when to leave. But also, you can’t do something strange, okay? I’m going to be listening to everything.”

Bada took the tray to the kitchen before going into her room. Gaeul had a smile until she closed her door. She didn’t know when to put it away.

“It’s been a long time since I’ve seen you panicking so much,” Maru said.

He sounded as though he had seen through the fact that she wasn’t playing a joke a long time ago. He probably sent Bada away after noticing that something was strange.

“It came out of nowhere.”

“Now that’s a little suspicious. Are you sure you didn’t do something wrong to me?”

“There’s nothing like that.”

It wasn’t something she should get angry about since she was the cause of it, but her words sounded thorny. She felt really strange today. She thought about the date of her period. It was still some days off, but her relaxed mind and body became tense like a kitten that had seen a person in an alleyway when she was asked what she liked about Maru.

“Do you want some green plum tea? It will make you relax.”

Gaeul nodded. She contemplated as she looked at Maru standing in the kitchen. Was she supposed to apologize? Was she supposed to thank him? Or should she talk about something else as though nothing had happened? Maru started humming. It was a song that Gaeul knew as well. It was the song that her father used to hum all the time when he was in a good mood. She hummed it herself a few times in front of Maru, and it seemed that he had memorized it. She dazedly looked at him as she listened to the melody that entered her ears. Why do you like him? Bada’s voice became vivid again through that music.

‘Why do I like him?’

She rolled that question in her mouth. She realized why she said sorry. She didn’t know why she liked him. There was nothing that she could say ‘this is it’ about. She could say that it was a combination of many different things that made her like him, but she couldn’t think of a single thing to give as an example. That was why she was ‘sorry’. It was because she couldn’t easily say why she liked him.

Gaeul looked at Maru, who was stirring a cup with a teaspoon. She definitely liked him. There was nothing false about that. But why was it that the word ‘sorry’ preceded the word ‘I like you’ when she looked at him?

“Here.”

“Thanks.”

It was just warm enough to drink. It seemed that Maru had cooled down the tea by pouring some cold water into the boiling tea.

“I like you.”

“I know.”

Maru faintly smiled before he drank. Gaeul drank a sip of the light brown-colored tea. It was just as Maru said. It calmed her down a little.

“When I heard Bada ask me that question, I was suddenly at a loss for words. I just couldn’t think of a reason for why I liked you. However, it’s not like I hate you either. It’s so strange, isn’t it?”

She could just not talk about this anymore, but she didn’t want to do that.

“That’s how it usually is.”

“Is it like that for you too?”

She didn’t ask that question just because she wanted him to sympathize. She was really curious as to whether Maru also felt the stuffy feeling that arose when he couldn’t think of a reason for why he liked her even though he liked her.

“Honestly speaking, if someone asked me to explain why I like you, I don’t think I can even say sorry.”

“What do you mean by that?”

“Let’s just say that it’s a very complex thing that adults have.”

Maru twitched his eyebrows before drinking the remaining tea. The tea had already cooled down.

“You don’t have to be sorry. Anyone would be at a loss for words when a family member of your partner asks that question. It would be even more strange if you could smoothly talk it out. Liking someone isn’t something that needs to be checked by others, is it? It’s fine as long as you can accept it. If you want to boast, I guess you’ll have to come up with clear reasons for it, but if it’s your own emotions and you just feel that way, I don’t think there’s a need to express it clearly in words. Don’t you think so too? If there’s someone you like, and you definitely like that person, that’s enough, isn’t it? Expressing reasons for liking your partner is something you only do when you start dating. In that sense, we’re quite incredible you know? We’re like a married couple who’s in their boredom stage already.”

It was Maru’s usual jokes. Gaeul smiled and gave Maru her cup since he asked for it.

“I’ll wash the dishes now. You can watch some of the videotapes in the meantime. You just need to press play since there’s one in the machine already.”

Maru stood up with the cups. Gaeul did not put away her smile until the moment Maru turned around. Her head definitely understood. She accepted that it was fine as long as there was a feeling of liking him without any detailed explanations. His words were idealistic, and they also calmed her down.

Gaeul clenched her hands, which were on the ground, into a fist. So then, why did her heart feel so stuffy? She felt as though a black cloth was tightly wrapped around the lantern of ‘I like him’. The light faintly seeping out of it made her realize that she was in love with him, but she wanted to have a look at the lump of emotions burning inside the tightly wrapped cloth directly. What was it? What was this thing that prevented her from seeing her feelings towards him directly? Gaeul tried her best to unwrap that black cloth, but she couldn’t do it.

Sorry - that came to her mind again.

Just what did she feel sorry about?

Gaeul sighed softly as she looked at Maru washing the dishes with a smile on his face.

* * *

Did something bad happen? - Maru looked at Gaeul, who had a vague smile on her face. There were times when she made awkward expressions to the point that it was obvious. Anyone else might not have noticed, but Maru could tell instantly. Especially in these kinds of situations where her expression was contrary to her actions. When she smiled, she usually opened her hands wide like a paper fan. Right now, though, she clenched her hands into a fist like a curled up animal cub.

Maru wondered if he had to ask, but decided not to in the end. Gaeul was a wise woman. If it needed mentioning, she would’ve mentioned it on her own volition.

“You’re practicing with Heewon, aren’t you?”

He changed the direction of the conversation to switch the mood a little. Gaeul brightened up instantly and nodded. Anyone acting with Lee Heewon while studying acting would react like that. After all, he was somewhat akin to a fantasy creature when it came to acting.

“He’s special, isn’t he?”

“You tell me! I was really surprised when I first met him. I thought he was lying.”

“About how he sees colors?”

“Yeah. I realized when I practiced with him though. He sees something that I can’t.”

“He’s an amazing guy.”

“Did you see him too?”

“Just briefly. It was near intuitive acting. In one way, it was like an artistic performance. It feels a bit iffy though when I think that he’s getting proper education.”

“Why?”

“Because we’re in the same field. We’re bound to be competing some day.”

Gaeul made a flabbergasted expression when he said that before bursting out into laughter. It wasn’t the fragile smile she could barely maintain, but a refreshing one. She returned to the her before Bada’s question. Maru inwardly sent a letter of gratitude to Heewon, who should be sleeping somewhere at this time. Thanks to him, he managed to turn things around.

“But the person in this video is even more incredible than him.”

“Really?”

“In my eyes at least. Heewon will definitely become better with more time, but for now, the person in the video is better. See for yourself. Watching her might be helpful for you too.”

Maru picked up the remote from the sofa.

Chapter 632

She was a woman who pleased her just by being there. When Gaeul looked at the woman brightly smiling on the screen, she subconsciously smiled as well. Gaeul fell for the charm of that woman after watching her for about an hour. Leaving aside the acting part, she was filled with the desire to meet her as a person. That daringness, that kindness. The camera always focused on her. It probably wasn’t intentional. It was probably just that she naturally became the center of everyone when everyone gathered, making her end up at the center of the frame.

“She passed away?”

“A long time ago. Apparently, it was a traffic accident.”

Jung Haejoo. A person who could make a smile like that passed away in an accident? It was very unfortunate. How tragic the people who’ve spent time with her must have felt - she never saw her in person, but she could feel how that felt like.

The screen turned blank before continuing again. It seemed that some time had passed. It was the same practice room, but everyone wasn’t in it. The only ones on screen were Jung Haejoo, Maru’s agency’s president, a man wearing a neat suit, and a high school girl who had a grumbly expression on her face. Gaeul fixed her eyes on that girl after Haejoo. When Maru asked if she recognized who that girl was with a smile, Gaeul was unable to answer. She felt like she had seen that girl somewhere, but couldn’t think of who it was. When she registered that the name of that girl was Ahn Joohyun, Gaeul grabbed Maru’s hand and asked him if it was real.

The contents of the video were similar to before. Haejoo would show off her acting, and the president would tell her what she had to fix. It was an affectionate scene. She was reminded of her own teacher who taught her acting with a serious expression. The practice, which seemed like it was going to end on a good note, suddenly took a different path. Haejoo suddenly doubted her talents and expressed her lack of confidence. Maru’s president said that they should rest for the rest of the day after hearing those words. Suddenly, a sharp voice interrupted the two. It was Joohyun, who seemed angry.

Joohyun proactively agreed with Haejoo and attacked the president. She said something about how she didn’t like him from the beginning and pointed his actions out. It looked as though a fight was about to break out, but the president’s following words extinguished the kindling of fire instantly.

I believe in her. The president’s words were long, but to sum it up, it was that he had faith in Jung Haejoo. It was a declaration of truth rather than his expression of faith. Gaeul was truly impressed by the president’s words. There was probably nothing more reassuring than those words to someone who was about to get tired of oneself. Haejoo probably cheered up as well. As soon as the president’s words ended, Joohyun rushed out. Gaeul felt like she could understand how she felt. It was clear that Joohyun liked Haejoo and cherished her. She did her best in order to protect her big sister, but the president saw through the errors in her words and even cheered Haejoo up, so she must have been quite embarrassed. Gaeul never knew that the actress who held nothing back against the press had a past like that. She felt somewhat happy because she felt like she now shared a cute secret with her.

The camera shook a little. It seemed that Joohyun ended up touching the tripod as she left. The camera was slightly pointing towards the left, capturing the president looking towards the direction Joohyun left with a bitter expression. It seemed as though he regretted being harsh with her, even though it was too late. Just as she was focused on the president’s zoomed in face, she saw a person moving in the corner. It was Haejoo, who was looking at the president’s back. She was clutching her chest as though she was stifled, and she was licking her lips. The moment she felt a sense of desperation from her, the screen turned off. The video was over.

“It’s like a drama, isn’t it?”

“Huh? Yeah.”

Haejoo’s eyes that looked at the president lingered in her mind. Just what was that expression? It wasn’t that she was scolding the president for being harsh on Joohyun, nor thanking him for cherishing her. It was more like the despair of not being able to tell him what she had to say. That was what Gaeul felt in that brief instant. Was she wrong? The videotapes weren’t made in high quality, and Haejoo only briefly appeared in the corner, so it was likely that she was mistaken. Emotions only appeared according to the situation. There was no context or reason for Haejoo to make such an expression, so she must have been wrong. Perhaps it was her uneasy heart that made her see it that way. Gaeul saw Maru approaching the TV in order to change the videotape. It was this precise emotion in the video as well - expressed by the way Haejoo looked at the president. She was suddenly reminded of the rabbit she saw in a dream. Time is something that can be rewinded - those words tickled her ears.

“In this one, senior Jung Haejoo’s acting changes.”

Maru played the new videotape. A dim light shone down on the stage. Haejoo and the president were talking to each other in the center of the stage. The usual advice seemed to come out before the conversation headed towards a difficult to understand direction. Haejoo said that there was another self inside her. That self was specialized in acting, and she said that she could bring out that ability through talking with that self. Haejoo, who closed her eyes as though she was praying, looked sacred. A moment later, she opened her eyes and started acting.

Just as Maru had said, Haejoo’s acting took a dramatic turn from that moment onwards. It was unbelievable even though she was seeing it for herself. It changed from a ‘rather decent acting’ to an ‘acting that she couldn’t take her eyes off of’. The prayer seemed like a magic spell. Gaeul was unable to hold back her shock when she looked at the change in the acting style.

“I think she’s like the de-facto standard of immersive acting,” Maru said.

She felt that it was the right idea. That acting attracted all five senses. While she watched the screen, all of her senses were pointing towards Haejoo. She felt like she could smell things from her, and felt like she could touch her. It was as though a slice of the TV was planted in her head. Haejoo’s acting left that deep of an impression. It felt like she could replay it back in her head if she closed her eyes. Just thinking of it made her heart feel full of emotions. Gaeul had tasted a sensation like this a few times before. It was when she watched her favorite movie; when she looked at the character that lived and breathed inside it. She played back a scene from it over and over again with the hot passion of wanting to act like them. Whenever she did, her heart raced like it was going to burst. The acting of the woman on the screen was not lacking even when compared to the seniors in the industry who had left their names behind as legends. In fact, her emotions that made people’s heart ache was better than anyone she had seen before. It was incredibly difficult to express so much emotion with a character created on the spot, yet Haejoo managed to succeed.

She watched the screen with admiration, envy, and jealousy as an actress like her before turning her head around. Maru’s face was filled with something very easy to read as he watched the TV while pressing his lower lip. Fighting spirit. It was the spirit of challenge and pure passion. Gaeul looked at his face from the side without thinking about anything else. He, who was in arm’s reach of her; was close enough that she could hear him breathing, looked strangely distant. There was an immeasurable psychological distance between the physical space. Was it because of the difference in their attitude towards acting? It didn’t feel like that. Things much more fundamental and indescribable seemed to have piled up to create this sense of distance. The distance towards Maru looked endlessly far. She felt like it was an illusion that she could reach him when she reached her arms out.

Gaeul reached out and grabbed Maru’s sleeves. The texture of the clothes and the sensation of touch calmed her down.

“What is it?”

“Nothing.”

I grabbed you because you seemed to be getting distant - she couldn’t say those words. Just as she was being conscious of the sudden distance, she heard a voice. Gaeul turned her head around. Did the house upstairs turn the radio on in a loud volume? Or did someone shout from outside? The moment she focused on her ears in order to find the source of the vivid voice, she realized that the voice wasn’t coming from the outside, but from inside her.

“Wait.”

Gaeul went to the bathroom. A voice she could not understand swirled inside her. She felt like cold sweat was flowing down from the side of her head. Her figure reflected in the mirror was a mess. Could a person become so pale so suddenly? She saw her eyes angrily shooting upwards. Gaeul pressed between her eyes with her palm. Was she lacking sleep?

She sat down on the toilet. She felt very strange. There was that dream she had, and there was that strange sense of distance as well. It felt like her day was messed up as badly as it could be. She wondered if taking some headache medicine would make her feel better. Eventually, the voice that made its presence known inside her faded away. She was reminded of when she lost her umbrella during a storm when she was little. She was unable to hold herself steady because of the wind, and she was unable to get a hold of herself because of all the loud noise around her. That was how she felt right now. Just as she calmed down her breathing and had the thought that she might be ill, a very clear voice resounded inside her. Unlike the storm of language that swirled until just moments ago, it was something that she could understand.

-I want to act.

* * *

Maru had a look at the clock. Gaeul’s demeanor looked very bad. It had been ten minutes since she went to the bathroom, and just as long had passed without him being able to hear anything. Just as he was about to stand up, worried that something was happening, the bathroom suddenly opened.

“I-I heard it.”

“What?”

“A voice. I heard a voice.”

“What voice?”

Gaeul blinked her eyes and raised a finger. The direction her finger was pointing to was the paused screen.

“I heard a voice from here,” she said as she put her right hand on her chest as though to calm herself down.

Maru had her sit on the sofa first.

“Do you feel ill?”

“No, it’s not that. I just heard it. It wasn’t a mistake. I really heard another voice inside me.”

“Are you saying that there’s another you inside you like what senior Haejoo said?”

“I’m not sure yet. I just heard a voice. I was startled and stayed still before focusing again, but it disappeared soon after. I’m not lying. It really……”

Gaeul hurriedly added hand gestures as she tried to explain. Maru grabbed her hands, which were waving around without direction in the air.

“Calm down. I believe you. So let’s calm down a little, okay?”

“Ah, okay. Looks like I was too surprised and didn’t know what to do.”

She took a deep breath before gulping

“I looked strange, didn’t I?”

“No.”

“I really heard it. I really heard a voice inside me.”

“Do you remember what that voice said?”

“Most of it was things I couldn’t understand, but there was one thing I heard for sure. She said she wanted to act.”

Her stiff face blushed before it turned into an expression of excitement. However, a moment later, Gaeul made an awkward smile after looking at the screen once.

“A mistake. It must have been a mistake, right?”

“If you heard it clearly, it shouldn’t be.”

“But it doesn’t make sense, though. A voice that is unrelated to my will.”

“But the person over there seems like she has experienced such a thing,” Maru said as he pointed at Haejoo.

“Calm down for now. You don’t have a headache or feel hurt anywhere, do you?”

“I don’t. I felt a bit unpleasant until just moments ago, but I’m completely fine now. No, I feel refreshed.”

“That’s fine then.”

She repeatedly opened and closed her lips as though she didn’t know what to say next. The moment she thought of what she had to say and was about to speak,

“What’s happening?”

Bada opened the door.

Chapter 633

“You should stay for longer.”

“I’ll come again next time. See you then, Bada.”

Gaeul waved at Bada before turning around. Maru said he would take her back, but she refused. There was only one thing on Gaeul’s mind as she walked down the stairs. That voice. If she heard that voice out of nowhere, she would’ve been worried, but right now, she felt rather excited.

Jung Haejoo. That woman said that she heard a voice as well. That overwhelming flow of emotions that could even be felt through the screen. Gaeul had fallen for Haejoo. She had fallen for the acting that she showed. How could she act like that? It shocked her the entire time. The desire to become like that, and the self-depreciation that it was impossible for her clashed inside her. It was then that the voice spoke out to her. Jung Haejoo, she also said that she heard a voice inside her when her acting miraculously changed. The identity of that voice wasn’t important right now. What filled her mind was that this was an opportunity to improve her acting skills. Rather than worries and fear, she felt the urge to hear that voice once again. That was also why she hurriedly left Maru’s house. She needed a space where she could think about it by herself. She wanted to look for that voice in a quiet place. The decision she made was to go home, where it was empty. It was the best decision for now.

She didn’t remember how she got on the bus or how she got off. The compass of her thoughts was pointing at the voice. She got the password to her front door wrong about three times before she managed to get in. She threw away her shoes and immediately went to her desk before opening the drawer. Inside were some earplugs that a friend of hers gave her as a present to use while studying. She compressed the sponge earplugs before putting them in her ears. The sponge expanded, blocking off all sound. After even the whining noise of the refrigerator was blocked off, the only thing she heard now was the noise within her body. She sat on her chair and closed her eyes. When she consciously rejected the faint noise coming from the surroundings, she felt like she was floating.

She wanted to grab that clue. Gaeul wanted to know what the essence of acting was. She wanted to figure it out so that she would be able to stand on equal footing with the others. Maru, Heewon, and Jiseok. Whenever she felt the gap between herself and her peers, she was filled with unease. If she wanted to escape her position as a trainee who might be kicked out at any time; to become bold as an actress; to say goodbye to the unease for good, she had to change herself. The voice that said it wanted to act - that could be a trigger for her to change.

Gaeul probed around the darkness. She walked around in the cloudy darkness and opened her ears. She couldn’t hear the voice yet. Her neck became stiff. She realized that it had been quite long since she had been sitting. She wandered around in search for the formless for god knows how long. The desire to open her eyes and look at the time surged inside her, but she suppressed it. She felt as though it would all be for nought if she opened her eyes now. Although it was completely dark without any guideposts, she was definitely walking forward. She couldn’t turn back now. Her shoulders started hurting. She wanted to sit up straight and stretch her arms out, but she also endured that. She wanted to focus everything inside her. She might regret it for her entire lifetime if she lost focus now because of a minor distraction.

Time passed by slowly. Her butt felt sweaty. The journey through the darkness was still ongoing. She felt like she could faintly hear her heartbeat. Gaeul walked towards the source of the sound. Her body in her mind walked forward. When she stopped going forward, it was because of a small voice she could hear. It wasn’t a voice she heard through her ears. It was a voice that played inside her. She focused in order to grab onto that voice. The voice that sounded like it was from a stretched out videotape became clearer.

What are you going to do during the holidays? - the voice belonged to a friend of hers. The scenery of the classroom appeared and the dark background changed into the classroom. The noise started taking clear shapes in the form of chatter. Mijin, Jiae, Yeonjoo, Minseon, Eunji. This was the conversation they had a few days ago in the classroom. Mijin was saying that she had plans to go to the sea with her boyfriend, Jiae said that she was going to stay at home the whole time, Yeonjoo and Minseon said that they booked tickets for a concert, and then Eunji who was sad because she had to go to cram school. Such a trivial conversation, which wouldn’t be surprising if she forgot about it, clearly came to her mind as though it was a math formula that she memorized. The warm classroom air, someone’s thick perfume, the tight-fitting uniform that made her embarrassed, as well as the sourness of the lemon candy - everything about that situation was clearly pictured in her mind as though she was reading off a detailed report.

The delicate details of the classroom became distorted after a heartbeat. Gaeul started walking amidst the blurry images again. Eventually, she came across a similar situation. This time, it was a more distant event. The hardwood stage, the bright lights - her colleagues were telling the 1st year students to calm down, while the seniors were looking at her proudly. Her consciousness had flown to the summer competition during her 2nd year. The scenery filled with vitality flashed in front of her eyes. Each and every sound was deeply engraved on her body.

She experienced a similar thing several times. When she came to herself after dazedly looking at the flow of her past, the one that stood in front of her was her father, who was smiling warmly. It was early autumn, the wind was cool, and she was wearing a white hat with a wide brim and a one piece dress with a rabbit on it. Her body flew into the air and landed on her father’s shoulders. She reached out with her little toddler hands and grabbed her father’s hair. Her father had never told her that it hurt. When her father’s mountain-like body started moving, her vision started shaking. The way it shook up and down made her feel like she was on top of a boat. She saw a couple eating cotton candy together, a musician singing while playing the guitar, and the autumn leaves falling down. Just as everything was being deeply engraved into her eyes, she heard a humming sound. Hm~hm~hm, the sound was quite off like the rough beard, but it sounded more grand and wonderful than any other orchestra. Louder, louder! - she shouted as she swayed back and forth.

My daughter, you aren’t going to cry even if daddy’s not around, right? - at the same time that her father said those words, the scenery shattered. The flying fragments shone before disappearing into nothingness. The only thing left now was the pounding of her heart. Thump, thump - she started walking towards the sound once again. From the present to the past. Where was the destination of this journey?

While she was unaware, the darkness had been lifted. Gaeul saw herself standing on a stage. The audience seats were completely empty. She looked around and combed through her memories. Had she ever been to a place like this? When she opened a drawer of memories in order to check, something white flashed by her feet. It was a rabbit with round eyes. The rabbit, with its four legs on the ground, slowly stood up. It took out a pocket watch with one hand, and a short cane on the other. On the top of the cane was a black-colored bird. It looked graceful. It was a black swan.

Who are you? - Gaeul squeezed out her voice. Reacting to that voice, the rabbit turned around. There was rage on its cute face.

In the end, you came here again. - the rabbit said.

It was the voice she heard back in Maru’s house. Gaeul calmed down her heart and spoke,

-You were the one who called out to me before, weren’t you?

-Probably.

-Didn’t you say that you want to do acting?

-Acting? I do. I like acting after all. As much as you.

-Then come and act with me.

-With you?

-Yes. I’m not entirely sure, but I have a strong feeling that I will do much better if I’m with you. It will at least be better than what I can do right now. I want to become better at acting.

-What are you going to do after getting better?

-I want to stand on equal footing with Maru. I want to act with him. I want to stand on the same stage as him.

-Is that really enough? Really?

-Yes.

Did Jung Haejoo have a conversation like this as well? The rabbit glanced at the pocket watch. On its mouth was a smile that did not represent its joy.

-Fine. Do what you want. The moment you wanted to do that, my right to decide became as good as non-existent.

The rabbit twitched its nose before hopping to the other side of the stage.

-Hey.

Gaeul hurriedly stopped the rabbit.

-I can talk to you again, right?

-Do you want to?

-Yes.

-If you want to, then go ahead. The decision is entirely up to you. The current you will be able to come and find me whenever you want.

-Uhm, one more thing.

-What is it?

-How are you inside me? How can we hold a conversation like this?

The rabbit stomped the ground with its cane.

-Do you believe in god?

-God?

-Yes, god. Jesus, Buddha, Allah, or whatever. You know, an omnipotent god.

-I don’t.

-Why is that?

-It’s like how I don’t believe in destiny. A life predetermined by god, a life lived according to god’s will. I think such a thing is very tragic. I believe that people should live based on their free will.

-Then what about miracles?

-I believe miracles can exist, but only the ones that appear from people’s efforts. I mean not the kind of benefit that god gives to a certain person, but the kind where human effort turns the impossible into the possible.

-Yes, that was the kind of girl you were.

The rabbit looked at her directly. Its red eyes were scary. It felt like something was burning inside those eyes.

-And you should’ve been that kind of girl back then too.

-Hey!

The rabbit then ran off. Gaeul wanted to chase after it, but her legs did not move. Hey! - she shouted once again, but the rabbit did not turn around. It became distant. When it became small enough that it was akin to a white dot on a black paper, Gaeul stumbled on a woman wearing white clothes. Just looking at her back was enough for her to make out that she was wearing a white suit. That woman then changed into a woman wearing a more cheerful suit, before returning to being a rabbit.

Gaeul looked at the stage devoid of the rabbit before finding a card on the floor. The Fool. The tarot card with a clown on it was something she had seen a lot before. The moment she looked at the clown wearing a neck-tie, the beeping of the door lock to her house faintly entered her ears. That electronic noise that penetrated the earplugs caused a fissure to appear in her inner world, and Gaeul was pulled out to reality in an instant. The moment she uttered a deep breath, she fell sideways. Her arms, legs, and waist were too numb, rendering her unable to move.

“Mom’s here. What are you doing over there?”

“Uh, hm? Oh, I was just dozing off.”

“You should sleep on your bed. Don’t keep holding onto your studies. But my girl, did you give up on acting?”

“I didn’t.”

“Okay, then, what about dinner?”

“Dinner? What time is it now?”

“Now? It’s past 9.”

“9?”

“Looks like you were in deep sleep. Stop looking like an idiot and let’s eat ice cream together. Come on.”

Gaeul slowly sat up before looking at the clock on her desk. It was 14 past 9. When she came back home and sat down on her chair, it was 1 p.m.

“8 hours.”

Gaeul tried stating the time she spent inside her mind. It sounded as absurd as seeing a dragon.

“My girl, are you sleeping again?” her mother called.

Gaeul shook her head and left her room.

Chapter 634

“Are you doing research for your novel?”

“No.”

“Then a travel essay like the one you wrote last time?”

“It’s not that either.”

“Then what is it?”

“Do you think mom will tell you?”

“No, definitely not.”

“Then why did you even bother asking?”

Gaeul looked at her mother, who was making a suspicious smile. She wondered what her mother was up to that required her to go out not only on weekdays but on weekends as well. When she looked at her mother, who was displaying a ‘you shouldn’t mind it since it’s your mother’s work’, as well as a ‘you want to know, don’t you?’ face, she wanted to dig into that secret. If it wasn’t for her novel, what could it be? It didn’t seem like she was doing something other than writing for work.

“Do you really want to know?”

“Can’t you give me a hint? Your daughter might die of frustration at this rate, you know?”

“Okay then. I’ll give you just a small one.”

After crossing her arms and thinking about it for a while, her mother spoke,

“Nah, I won’t after all. If I say it now, it might ruin the luck for it, so I’ll tell you later.”

“You’re so bad. What is it? Did you win the lottery or something? Is that why you’re going around since you are looking for a new house to move to?”

“If it was like that I would have told you a long time ago. Do you think mom’s playing around?”

“No, I knew you were going around doing work.”

“Just wait a little more. Once the plan is solidified and it progresses a little, no, when I press the stamp, I’ll tell you about it. Mom wants to tell you about it too. Of course I’d want to boast to my daughter.”

“Anyway, it’s a good thing, right?”

“Of course. Perhaps you might like it more than me. You’re still practicing acting right?”

“Why does acting practice come up all of a sudden?”

“It just reminded me. Anyway, do your best. And do your best at studying too. You have to hone your skills so that you can take the opportunity when it comes to you. Who knows? That opportunity might suddenly spring up from your side. Well then, get washed and get to sleep. Don’t sleep on your desk like you did before. Resting is also a form of practice.”

“Okay.”

Gaeul put down her spoon and went to the bathroom. She turned the tap to warm water before turning it on. After cold water escaped the showerhead, steaming water sprayed out. She took off her clothes and put them on the shelf before taking a step into the water that was falling down like a waterfall. What was that rabbit? Warm water flowed down her head. She thought about it while she was eating ice cream, but the conclusion she came to was that she didn’t know. It might be a frightening thing to think that there was something inside her that did not share her memories, but after conversing with the rabbit, she was relieved because she felt like it wouldn’t influence her negatively. She was a little concerned about the rabbit’s last words, but the answers were generally positive, so it shouldn’t be a problem.

After taking a shower, she wrapped her hair with a towel. She went to her room so that water didn’t fall off everywhere and sat down on her chair. She took a deep breath before thinking about the stage that the rabbit was waiting on. A feeling of time slowing down overwhelmed her before a ray of light broke through the darkness under her eyelids. She was now on the stage where the lights were installed on either side.

Hello? - she tried calling out. Her actual neck muscles tensed. She could feel her tongue inside her mouth, as well as her vocal cords, moving downwards. Although she was speaking in her mind, her body also reacted accordingly. This didn’t happen during the day. Gaeul thought that this was a difference due to concentration, or immersion. Considering the fact that 8 hours had passed by in a flash, the current situation felt better because she could feel the state of her real body. She didn’t want to experience having half a day passing after blinking again. Her shoulders were still screaming at her that they were exhausted.

After calling out several times, the rabbit appeared from behind the curtain. Gaeul was sure that the rabbit was a female. She was sure that the two ladies she saw in the distance when they parted last time were other forms of the rabbit.

-Why are you in the shape of a rabbit?

-Are you not okay with it?

-No, it’s not like that. I like rabbits.

-Do you really?

She thought this during the first time they met, but this rabbit seemed to be rather disappointed with the situation. There were thorns in its words.

-Do you perhaps hate me?

-No, I like you to death.

-What?

-I said I like you. There’s probably no one in this world who likes you more than me. Also, there should be no one who knows you better than me.

The rabbit twitched its nose before turning around. Its triangular mouth moved as though it was conversing with someone. Gaeul looked behind the rabbit. There was a darkness, which looked like it was sucking in everything, including light. The moment she saw it, she felt wary and turned her head around. What was that place?

-Don’t take interest in that. You will find out later anyway.

-Ah, okay.

-Alright. So what brings you to me again? You aren’t going to act now, are you?

-I just wanted to have a talk. I wanted to know who you were too. You didn’t answer me the last time I asked, did you?

-I don’t have a reason to answer your every question, do I?

-That’s true, I guess…

-Then forget about it. The reason I’m allowing you to meet me is because you came all the way here. It would’ve been better if you never noticed this place in your lifetime.

-Why is that? Is there a reason I should not know about you, miss rabbit?

-No, there is no reason for that. You’ll find out eventually after all. I’m just vexed at you because you’re so foolish.

-But I thought you liked me.

-I do! More than anyone. That’s why you vex me even more.

The rabbit stopped talking before raising its head.

-I don’t want to talk to you any longer. From now on, I’m not going to reply even if you come to this place. If it’s about acting, then don’t worry about it. You will definitely change. You will improve to the point that the people around you will be surprised. So don’t think about anything and keep walking forward. If you are stuck on something then just think about this stage. If you do, you will naturally see what you have to do to proceed.

The rabbit with its fire-like eyes turned around and left. Two red glass balls floated in the darkness. Gaeul looked at those eyes until she opened her actual eyes due to the cold sensation from her shoulders. A drop of water fell from her hair, which she couldn’t wrap with the towel completely. When she checked the time, she saw that about 20 minutes had passed. She threw the wet towel into the laundry basket before drying her hair with a hair dryer. When she looked at the fluttering hair in front of her eyes, she was reminded of the fluttery fur of the rabbit. Just why was that person angry? Rather than questioning the very existence of that strange being inside her, her curiosity was directed towards the emotions it harbored. It was a curious thing. It should be natural for her to be wary and watch out, but her body was completely vulnerable without any defenses towards that rabbit. It was as though she had met someone she knew well.

Why did it have to be a rabbit of all things? To her, rabbits were an important symbol. It was an animal that had a special meaning. Gaeul returned to her room and touched the ring that Maru gifted her. It was a ring with a cute rabbit engraved on it. When she stroked the rabbit’s ears with a smile, she suddenly had this thought - what made her like rabbits in the first place?

“Must be because of Alice, right?”

A rather vague answer reverberated in her mouth. She thought that she would give a clear answer just like how she would when showing off an act that she had practiced for months, but what came up was a twisted fragment of memories. There should definitely be a reason that made her like rabbits, so she decided to think about it at this opportunity.

“My girl, can you bring me a towel?”

The strand of memory that was about to come to mind shattered into smithereens. Gaeul sighed softly before standing up. That was enough thinking. She was curious, but it wasn’t important.

“I’ll put it in front of the door.”

Gaeul put a towel in front of the bathroom.

* * *

“I want to ask one last question I really wanted to know.”

“You know? You’ve always asked a difficult question when you said those words, journalist. Can I take a sip of tea before you ask?”

“Sure. You can take two if it means that I will get a good answer.”

Junmin raised the teacup. He quite liked this young journalist that was interviewing him. He was much easier to talk to than the self-proclaimed ‘veterans’ who monitored his mood at every moment. Thinking that youngsters were full of energy these days, Junmin put down the teacup and looked at the journalist. This was his signal for the journalist to ask.

“This is a really personal question, so I will ask if I can put this on the final interview separately. If you have to come up with one reason that you were able to become successful like this, what reason would you pick?”

“Just one?”

“Yes. Of course, as of right now, JA Production is said to be lacking when it comes to the scale or the careers of the actors in it compared to the other management agencies, but there are a lot of expectations placed on it just from the fact that you, president Lee Junmin, is the one leading it. Also, I have the feeling that this agency will operate with only a small group of elites. I think my prediction is not wrong based on the fact that you, who has produced multiple stars, are not cooperating with them, and instead choosing to start the JA business with a completely new group of people. Am I wrong?”

“You’re entirely right. I don’t plan to host a lot of actors in this agency. Below ten. That’s the range I plan to maintain while operating this company.”

“So I was right after all. Does that mean that you think that the current actors under your wing will grow to be bigger than the actors who have been through you?”

“You can see it that way.”

“That’s what I’m curious about. How can you strategically pick your actors like that? Oh wait, was I a little strange with the choice of words?”

“Not at all. Strategic choice, in one sense, that’s the right expression for it. A management agency is ultimately a business whose merchandise is people. You have to find the source stones, refine them and then package them before you put them out in front of people. This is primarily the case.”

“What do you mean by primarily?”

“If it’s just that, an actor’s lifespan will be too short. Actors who were nurtured to suit the tastes of the public will not be able to continue sailing and will sink if they get swept by the trends. In the end, as fundamental as this might sound, acting is everything for an actor. Everything from beginning to end is about acting. It’s a hard job that requires you to keep climbing onto a stage where you will be evaluated critically.”

“Do you mean to say that JA Production is not nurturing actors to fit the public, but rather actors that the public will have to adapt to?”

“Ultimately, that is the goal. As arrogant as I might sound, that is my dream. I will not accept any other actor than this actor - that is what I plan for the audience to say.”

“I think that’s very cool. At the same time, it begs the question: potential is a matter of probability in the end, is it not? If that’s the case, I think interacting with more actors and finding value among them will be better.”

“That is definitely correct. It is right, but it does not apply to me.”

“I see that you have confidence that the actors currently with you will stand at the top of the country?”

“It’s not confidence.”

Junmin faintly smiled.

“It’s closer to blind faith.”

The young journalist looked rather flustered.

“I’m really curious. How did you find and pick such actors? Is it a business secret?”

“I know that you will definitely get angry at me if I say something like this, so I must apologize in advance, but you will know when you see them. I was able to tell by looking.”

“We’ll know when we see them. Masters used that expression quite a lot, yes. Also, when you say you ‘were’ able to tell, does that mean that you no longer can?”

“Honestly speaking, yes, that is the case. Perhaps it’s because I’m getting old, but my eyes that discern people aren’t functioning properly anymore. That’s why I plan to pour everything into the ones I’m currently raising. Sorry for that bland answer.”

“Not at all. In fact, I am grateful that you’ve committed to the interview. Actually, I was quite nervous before we began. You are a famous person after all.”

The young journalist turned off the recording device and his laptop.

“Thank you for the interview. We’ll send you a copy of the interview before it’s released, so if there are any expressions you don’t like, please don’t hesitate to tell us. We’ll fix it right away.”

“Alright then. I very much enjoyed today. Let’s have a meal together next time.”

“I would be honored.”

Junmin stood up from his seat and shook hands with the young journalist.

Chapter 635

After sending off the young journalist, Junmin lay down on the sofa. According to his medical check-up, he didn’t have any big problems, but the doctor did tell him that he should increase his sleep time. Sleep is not said to be the cure for everything for no reason - the doctor emphasized the importance of sleep once again. He thought about having a midday nap according to the specialist advice, but he didn’t feel sleepy even after counting 100 sheep. He had spent 20 years without naps, so his body refused to sleep during the day. He just closed his eyes until the heat inside his eyes died down. That made him feel much better.

“Head manager Lee. See if you can pull next Wednesday’s dinner schedule ahead by an hour.”

With a slightly clearer head, he immediately took care of what was on his mind before sitting at his desk. There was a business card on the sofa that the young journalist was sitting on. He had not put it away after receiving it. Junmin touched the nameplate on his desk. He picked talents that had the potential to become big and nurtured them in order to earn money. This building was founded on that money. The last question that the young journalist asked him was asked to him several times before. Did you know that such and such actor or actress would become so big? - those journalists asked as though they were asking if he knew the winning lottery number. Whenever he was asked that question, he gave the same answer. Surprisingly, I can see the lottery numbers - the journalists ended the interviews on an iffy note after hearing that response. He remembered their expressions as they turned around. They seemed to think that he had a special education method for actors or a specific criteria for picking them. They were wrong. Even if he said that there was nothing like that and that he could just ‘see’ it, the journalists would misinterpret his words by themselves, yet Junmin respected them for it. After all, the important thing for journalists was not the ‘undeniable truth’, but a ‘realistic-sounding truth’.

He finished everything he had to do before dinner. When he realized that there was no longer any work for him to do, he was suddenly overwhelmed with sadness. How would he live on without work? He heard that male hormones would decrease with age, making men sensitive as they get older, and thought that perhaps he was reaching that stage as well. Junmin looked at the photo album he put next to his nameplate. They were photos he took with the puppies he raised at home. He opened the album and took out one of the photos. Behind the photo was another photo that had been discolored. The Junmin in that photo was young. The woman smiling next to him was also young. This was a photo he had to hide behind a dog photo and look at secretly. This photo was simultaneously a memory for Junmin and at the same time a hot iron. Whenever he felt that his mind and body were about to collapse, he looked at this photo. The smile of the woman in the photo became a hot iron that burned his soul, and whenever that happened, Junmin reminded himself of his guilty conscience and the tragedy once more. He could not allow himself to rest until he could achieve what Haejoo had to see. The sole survivor had to feel the warmth of the dead in a way like this.

Knock knock - Junmin slowly put the photos away when he heard a knock on his door. He closed the album before telling the person outside to come in.

“Prez.”

Ganghwan came in while calling him such. In his hands were canned beers. From the way water droplets had formed on it, it seemed that it had been quite some time since they were taken out of the fridge.

“Why don’t you have a drink?”

“The sun’s still up.”

“Senior, I mean, hyung-nim. Beer is supposed to be drunk during the day, you know? It’s not like you have anything to do, right?”

“How would you know if I don’t have any work or not?”

“How long do you think I’ve known you for? The day of your interview is the day you don’t have work. Your work patterns are already inputted in my mind.”

“Looks like you and I have known each other for too long. You know me better than I do.”

He wasn’t feeling sleepy and he didn’t have anything to do. He rather welcomed Ganghwan, who appeared at a time like this. Honestly speaking, he welcomed the beer even more. Junmin sat down on the sofa. Ganghwan sat down diagonally opposite him.

“What did the doctor say when you went to the hospital?”

“That’s the reason you barged in?”

“Don’t change the subject. What happened? Did they say that you were still healthy? Perhaps they told you that you had cancer?”

“Do you want me to have cancer?”

“Looks like you’re completely fine from the energy in your words. So there’s no problem, right?”

“I’m supposed to drink less, smoke less, and get more sleep.”

“That’s what all doctors say though. When they say that, it means that there are no big problems. That’s good, I was worried.”

“Thanks for being worried about me.”

“You should live a long, healthy life. Only then will you see me rise into stardom.”

“Why don’t you stop saying those words and actually start climbing? How was Russia?”

“The theater troupes there are really something. The translator I brought with me was almost exhausted to death. Oh, I visited the ballet side as well, and man, I never knew people could fly. I’m not lying. They can fly like they have wings on their back or something.”

“If tourism is all you did, I’m going to deduct your travel expenses from your contract, okay?”

“It wasn’t tourism. It was studying. How’s the company these days?”

“It’s doing well.”

“It’s doing well without me? I can’t believe it.”

“When you were out of contact for months because of your homeless life, and when we lost contact because you wanted to try experiencing a boat life, the company was still doing well. It won’t help you even if you try to express your love for your company at this point.”

“I won’t be able to feel the desperation if I have a secret escape route. Only if I cut off everything will I feel like I’m doing it.”

“I know that your personality is like that. It’s not like you did it just once or twice. But really, you should look into preparing for work now. I got talks about a double casting for you in a musical.”

“Man, they must have fallen for my singing.”

“They know what they’re dealing with. But your double is pretty popular so it will hurt your pride if your ticket sales are less than your double. Are you okay with that?”

“I don’t have a pride to get hurt.”

Ganghwan clenched the beer can and emptied it in one go. He said stuff like this a lot before he started acting: that it was okay, that he could just ignore it. If this oblivious-looking, smiling Ganghwan was the real him, Junmin would not have picked him and led him this far. Ganghwan was a docile wolf, the kind that escapes from group life and lives with humans. To kind people, he would lie on his back and try to act cute, but the moment he smells blood, he would change. To him, the stage was a place filled with blood. Once he started working and digging into his play, he would show an obsession on the level of madness. That didn’t mean that he showed it on the outside. Other actors working with him would only think that he’s doing his job.

Junmin thought back to the time he got to know Ganghwan. Only a murky gray floated around the ears of a young actor who was staring at the stage while mopping the floor. An actor without talent - Junmin branded him as such immediately. His magical senses had never been wrong. He watched the play in order to find a decent talent. He watched until the curtain call ended, but there was no one to his liking. He thought that it was no good, but just as he was about to return after saying goodbye to the members, he saw Ganghwan, who was cleaning the stage. The grey color around his ears had changed into a bright color. He had never seen someone with a bright color like that after Haejoo and Geunsoo. The moment he tried approaching that actor in order to have a closer look, that light disappeared. The other members of the troupe said that he just joined them and had nothing to show, but Junmin shook his head and put him on stage. Under stage lights, Ganghwan shone brighter than when he was in the corner. When he started acting his entire person changed. Junmin decided to bring him in without hesitation.

“What are you thinking about?”

Ganghwan was wiping off the beer around his mouth with his thumb. Junmin closed the drawers of memories and spoke,

“I was just thinking about when we first met.”

“Why that all of a sudden?”

“You were such a bad guy, so I was thinking that you grew up rather decently.”

“I had my way with being bad. But now that I look back, why did you decide to choose me? I didn’t show you anything special.”

“I told you. I have good eyes.”

“You know? You look like a gambler from time to time. You keep trying things out without measuring.”

“Gamblers bet on the things they want to believe, while a risk-taker bets on the things they trust in. I had something I trusted, and you fit that criteria. Well, the results speak for themselves. You became a good actor.”

“Why do you sound so cheesy all of a sudden? Are you sure there was nothing wrong with your medical check-up? I think something happened to your emotional side of things.”

“Maybe something is malfunctioning because of old age just like you said. Why don’t you take the mantle of the president at this opportunity?”

“I can say this with confidence. This company will go bankrupt in less than a month.”

“Sounds reassuring.”

“You should leave the business side to that girl. I mean Kim Suyeon.”

“Have you two become closer now?”

“It took years to drop the honorifics so like hell we’ve gotten closer. Even now, the first thing I think when I see her is that I have to be careful. Then again, she seems pretty docile these days.”

“Because Geunsoo never falls for her antics. She’ll probably stay obedient until he does.”

“Man, Geunsoo is quite something too. If Suyeon came to me to sleep together, I’d unbuckle my belt in one minute.”

“Not five seconds?”

“Is that how it is?”

“I know you’d run away if that actually happened.”

“Just saying. If Suyeon does come at me, I will run. She’s not a woman anyone could handle.”

“She has her circumstances.”

“Is there someone who doesn’t have that?”

Ganghwan jerked back his head before flicking the beer can by his mouth. When a few drops fell, he grinned in satisfaction.

“Where’s that musical going to be held?”

“Seoul Art Center.”

“Wow, the rental fee should be quite expensive there.”

“The actors are just as expensive too.”

“Can I really join them and ruin the reputation of their main actor? I’ll do it if I set my mind to it, you know? If they thought that they got a double cast who’s a lower tier than they thought and I actually end up getting more ticket sales than them, what would their actor become?”

“That’s why I’m sending you. If you’ve spent company money for your studying, you should pay it back.”

“This is why I try not to borrow money from you.”

“Since you did, you have to earn me several times as much.”

“Okay then. I’ll cause a ruckus. Oh, is that guy doing a single drama these days too?”

“That guy?”

“The guy you gave a 300 million won cheque to.”

“He’s only doing New Semester. He’s quite earnest. Unlike a certain guy who has only been spending money for all sorts of peculiar reasons, he’s at least earning profit. He’s different from a certain precocious kid.”

“It’s all thanks to my teachings, don’t you think? Even though I might look like this, he’s my first disciple.”

“But sir Yoon says he’s his first disciple?”

“Sir Yoon Moonjoong did? No way. I nurtured him first.”

“Go to him for that later. No, you should go visit him quickly and say hello. You’ve never been there since New Years, have you?”

“That’s right.”

“What did I expect from a guy who sent the congratulatory gift money by bank transfer for Miso’s wedding, huh.”

“Ah, right, Miso’s back, isn’t she?”

“She is.”

“I guess she’s an ahjumma now.”

“Try saying that to her face.”

“I’m still too young to smell incense from behind a portrait so, I’ll refuse.”

Ganghwan checked the time on his phone.

“Let me just ask in case, but do you know Han Maru’s schedule?”

“His shoots are on Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays, but recently his role has been decreasing in importance so most of his shoots are on Saturdays alone. It’s mostly during the night as well.”

“You know all that?”

“I should at least know how my money bags are moving. There are only 11 of them. But why Maru?”

“A youngster like him shouldn’t play around all day. I’m going to have him do some work while he has time.”

“Work?”

“Yes. I’ll have to talk to the director to see if I can make this happen or not, but the producer who is debuting with a short drama is someone I know. They said they needed a decent young boy, so I’ll try to see what I can do.”

“You got work for me, huh. How rare.”

“You did spend money on me after all. I know how to write accounting books too, you know? Let me get going now. Also, you should get some sleep. Your eyes are red. See you later.”

Junmin waved his hand at Ganghwan, who was leaving with the two empty cans.

Chapter 636

After Ganghwan left, an oversized silence crawled its way into the office. It was so large that Junmin was pushed into the three-legged chair in the corner of his office. After vitality made rounds and left, his office felt like a foreign space. Junmin decided to escape this place until the stiff atmosphere of the office filled this place again. The three-legged chair wasn’t a chair he could sit comfortably on. He had to pull himself together to maintain balance. He sat upright and thought back to the words that the chatterbox said: “What did you see in me?”. Until just five years ago, Junmin’s eyes discovered the special talent within people as though there was a special filter on his eyes. As the accuracy was pretty high, it was very easy to make a profit. It was five years ago when a problem occurred with the filter that allowed him to continue to score. It was when he was looking at young actors just like normal. His eyes that saw many colors from people suddenly became colorblind. He had finally become able to see the world in the same colors as the others, but the sense of loss was immense. After all, there was nothing more frustrating than a privilege you took for granted being taken away. He felt rather confused, but he soon came up with a counter plan. It was to pick people who had similar characteristics to the ones he nurtured until now. The accuracy was now lower, but he could still maintain his reputation as the ‘master of finding new talent’. Among the child actors he contracted until now, the only one who he had seen the ‘color’ of was Sooil. The rest were those that he picked based on his knowhow, as he did not have any means to see their talent.

Han Maru was one of them, but he was a different case than the rest of them. When he made a pseudo-contract with Maru on a piece of tissue, Junmin did so according to his intuition, which he stopped believing in after losing his ‘colors’. Back then, he thought that relying on intuition should be fine for just one person. Perhaps he was being conceited, thinking that he could find actors even without his magical powers, or perhaps it was his way of teaching the bold kid a lesson. It was true that he was hasty, but the results brought by that were very satisfactory. Maru was smooth-sailing and did not run into swift currents or obstacles. He was a rather pleasant kid. If there were flowers that required the caretaker to switch out the vase, the soil, and water them frequently to grow, there were also some flowers that blossomed even with watering every now and then. Maru was clearly the latter. He was a flower that had the vitality of grass. There was fun in nurturing him, but there was fun in watching him.

Junmin stood up from the wobbly chair and picked up his coat. Staying still was akin to torture. Rather than waiting for sleep that wouldn’t come, it was better to go meet work nearby. He wasn’t someone who ignored the doctor's advice, but he wanted to work busily for today. Even Ganghwan, who wandered around like a loafer, brought work today after all.

“Get the car ready.”

He talked through the interphone before opening the door.

* * *

“I know it’s hot. I really do, but don’t make that tired face in front of me. The stage you are supposed to go on is even hotter. This place doesn’t have lights after all. Once you go on stage after getting fully dressed and putting on thick makeup, even the people who say they never sweat will sweat buckets. Are you going to cringe while acting because it’s hot? Unless you’re an idiot, you can’t do that. Once you’re on stage, or behind the side curtains, watch your expressions. If you go on stage after cringing, even if you smile, the only face you’ll make is a mouth smile with cringing eyes. You have to consciously look out for your facial expressions. Understood?”

Hearing Miso’s merciless words, the club members were unable to even make tired expressions. The seventeen people not participating in the summer competition were watching the others practice nervously from one side. They knew that Miso’s scolding would be directed at them once winter comes.

Miso clapped and said that they would start practice again in three minutes. The heavily sweating juniors all left the hall. Their destination should be the bathroom. Only after pouring cold water over them would they be able to stave off all the heat.

“Aren’t they going to collapse at this rate?”

Maru looked at the ceiling. There was a large hole between the ducts. That was where the air conditioner was supposed to be. He felt like the temperature was getting even higher when he looked at the electrical lines and pipes that were dangling like a tired dog’s tongue. The school building, which was receiving the brunt of the heat of July, was becoming a splendid oven.

“Don’t worry. I might collapse before they do.”

Miso wiped her face with the towel around her neck.

“But hey, what the hell is up with your school’s administration staff? They know full well that we’re practicing here. How could they rip out the air conditioner like that? I want to have a look at the faces of the administrative staff here.”

“As far as I know, teacher Taesik is one of them.”

“My oppa is so pure that he probably doesn’t know that such an evil thing is happening at school.”

“Man, that’s marriage for you. There’s someone always on your side.”

The juniors returned. Water was dripping off their faces regardless of whether they were boys or girls.

“Let’s do one more rehearsal. Everyone here is feeling hot so don’t express it. Get yourself together and we’ll do this without making a mistake. Okay?”

“Yes!”

Maru picked up his script and got away from Miso. The rehearsal began with Miso’s nod. Usually, the rehearsal would continue until the very end without interruptions, but for the past few days, Miso interrupted from time to time to point things out. This was the final check for the performance they were going to hold in just a few days. After this check, MIso would not speak anymore. From then on, the club members would have to discuss among themselves to find the solution.

“Wait. What was that awkward hand gesture just now?”

“Eh? I-I was pointing towards the right direction.”

“I’m not trying to eat you. Don’t shake and say it clearly. Are you going to shake like that on stage too?”

“I’m sorry!”

“Say that again. Why did you do that hand gesture?”

“I was trying to point out the right direction.”

“For who?”

Being pointed out, the junior pointed at another junior who was on stage. This was when two onlookers disappeared into the back of the stage, and that boy was gesturing towards the direction they were going in.

“You didn’t do that before.”

“Ah, yes.”

“Then why did you do it now?”

“Uhm, so…”

Under Miso’s pressure, the junior was unable to speak a word as though his lips were sealed together. Maru groaned lightly. It was easy to tell the temperature of this air conditioning-less hall. He just had to look at the corners of Miso’s eyes. Miso’s eyes were very precise, and they would point upwards along with her thick eyebrows the higher the temperature was. Right now, the corner of her eyes and her eyebrows were as high as they could go. Without any air conditioning to cool her off, that position was very dangerous now. It was a sign that she was about to explode, and a warning for others to evacuate.

“If you are going to do it, you have to do it properly, right?”

Maru stood next to that junior. After checking that Miso’s lips stopped twisting, he continued to speak,

“When you’re practicing, you’ll sometimes forget the basics. I’m the same. However if you forget the basics, there will be no order. Instructor Miso said that actors must be able to control everything about their body down to each strand of hair, right?”

“Yes.”

“It’s true that you have to follow a specified movement path, but actors aren’t machines, are they? If you keep doing this, you will naturally wave your hands and perhaps you might do something like an unplanned action such as ad-libbing. It’s something that happens all the time. However, even those actions have to look natural for the audience and furthermore, have to have meaning. Do you know how you were before?”

The junior looked at Miso before raising his left hand to point left. His arm was right by his side, was not sticking out, and his fingers were curled up. Maru grabbed the junior’s arm and changed his posture. He made the fingers open up wide while extending the arm towards that direction.

“This should be a lot easier for the audience, and your fellow actors to understand, right?”

“Yes.”

“That’s what instructor Miso wanted to tell you. Don’t forget it. Okay?”

“I won’t.”

“Good. The rest was good. Isn’t that right, instructor?”

Miso’s eyebrows slowly fell. It seemed that the barrage of words inside her mouth returned to where they should be. Maru inwardly sighed in relief. If Miso snapped out, the temperature in this already hot hall would have risen by another two degrees centigrade. After all, running caused the heat within the human body to rise.

“You seem caring these days.”

“I thought you wanted that. I’m doing just as I’m told.”

“I thought you’d say a couple words at best, but you’re explaining from A to Z in kind. It makes me wonder if you’re still the cold kid from before.”

“Looks like you didn’t know that even I want to care for my juniors.”

“Like hell you do. But still, it’s a good thing. I’m not going to make a move, so you give them feedback.”

“Isn’t that dereliction of your duty?”

Miso wordlessly pointed at the others. Maru knew that there was no winning when quarrelling with your superior, so he obediently stood in front of everyone.

“From now on, Maru here will be the one coaching you. I’ll set the general direction, but ask Maru for the details. Also, Aram.”

“Yes!”

“Listen to what Maru’s saying carefully and watch out for it when you practice by yourselves, okay?”

“Understood,” Aram replied from the side.

“Then let’s continue, shall we?” Miso said that while leaning against the wall as though it had become much more comfortable for her.

Maru just shrugged.

* * *

“Thank you for your work.”

Miso left in her car. The first year students of the acting club gathered by the school gates also started leaving one by one.

“Maru, where are you going?”

“The hall. I’m going to stay for a little longer.”

“Is there something you need to make?”

“No. I’m just going to practice. I can’t exactly scream my lungs out at home. There’s no better place than the hall if I want to practice with my heart at ease.”

Daemyung took out his phone and looked at it before speaking decisively.

“Can I watch you practice?”

“There’s nothing special. Plus, what are you going to do about her?”

Maru glanced at Jiyoon, who was staring at them by the school gates.

“Ah, right.”

“Don’t ‘ah, right’ me. You’re going to get dumped if you do that. Anyway, get going. She’s waiting.”

Maru pushed Daemyung’s back. Daemyung walked over to Jiyoon while telling him that he’d definitely like to watch next time. Daemyung was incredible in a sense since he put importance on practice even though his ‘youth business’ was still ongoing. After sending Daemyung off, he went up to the 5th floor by himself. He opened the tightly shut door before going inside. The hall still retained its heat and was like a stage after a play had just ended. The thick smell of sweat calmed his mind.

“Good.”

After putting his bag down. He walked slowly along the walls. The sound of his footsteps quietly rang out. At the end of May, he met Haejoo through the videotapes. He also had a glimpse at the secret she held. After hearing that she was conversing with another self that existed in her inner world, Maru talked to himself several times. When acting, the other self naturally came forward, but normally, that self did not reply to him no matter what he said. Once he started acting, he could see that self, but he could not talk to him. If he tried to consciously talk to him, his concentration would waver, breaking the immersion and making him no longer able to detect that other self.

He loosened his feet and slowly started walking. He constantly tried to converse with that other self after practice ended and when he was by himself in this hall. Haejoo said that she improved her acting skills by conversing with her inner self. He would be able to show off better acting skills if that inner self was a target of communication rather than a target of control. He couldn’t be sure about this, but since there was a precedent known as Jung Haejoo, it was worth trying.

“Why don’t you stop blocking me off and answer me for once?”

He quietly talked as he kept walking along the wall like a monk in training.

Chapter 637

Facing a silent partner was something that felt much more solitary than facing the wall by oneself. The wall would reflect their voice at least, so it was at least possible to check that they said something. However, talking to someone with sealed lips was even worse than talking to a wall, because the soft skin that humans had absorbed all sound. It would be better if that partner rolled their eyes to express that they’re up to something, but the person he was facing now didn’t have any eyes. He didn’t have a nose or a mouth either. Not to mention arms and legs, he didn’t even have a body. There was only one thing that was there - it was the presence.

Maru leaned against the wall and sat down. He breathed calmly and closed his eyes. A man who didn’t even have a phone these days? He wanted to get that man the latest phone and say a word to him - pick up the phone when it rings. The man within himself did not reply as though he was a bear in hibernation. He popped out without asking when he started acting, but now that he wanted to have a slow conversation, he did not show up at all.

Around two weeks ago, he did things that would make other people call the ambulance if they saw him. He shouted into thin air in order to wake up the unresponsive guy and tried bashing his head against the wall to see if that guy reacted to pain. He even kneeled down in the center of the hall and tried politely writing a letter too. My dear nameless guy within me - of course, there was no reply. Though, he was willing to try again if he found a post box that could deliver letters inside a person’s body.

After that, he tried numerous methods in order to just get a greeting. He tried his hand at meditating to access his afterlife, tried dreaming a lucid dream, and even did some weird physical exercise that was known to allow one to see the inside of a person through qi. As he had experienced that there was a world that surpassed science, he tried his hand at many things with faith, but that guy, within the world of his mind, did not even budge.

In the end, the only way to see him was to act. That guy seemed to have no interest in everyday life other than acting, and when he stopped acting and tried talking to him, he disappeared into thin air. He tried changing things up and tried to talk him through the lines in his acts, but again, there was no response. That guy went back home deep inside the heart like a civil worker who tightly kept office hours. In other words, he was an extremely hard guy to talk to.

Someone that he could call out, but not talk to. There was nothing more frustrating than this.

Maru opened his eyes. The tug of war with the presence was something very tiring, but it was still too early to give up. He had his experiences with boring, dragged out fights. That guy would be in trouble if he underestimated the mind of a father who fed a family. A tree that did not fall even after ten chops with an ax, can be cut down with a chainsaw. If there wasn’t a chainsaw available, he could just keep shaving away at it with a wire saw.

Maru stood up from his seat. The only window of communication was acting after all. Who knows? That guy just might give up and speak.

He opened the script that the acting club was practicing. There were 11 characters. Including the bypassing characters, there were around 16 people in total. He was going to do all the roles by himself. If he kept expressing different characters like he was driving a car with 16 different gears, the guy inside will have to raise his head up numerous times. He didn’t know if there was such a thing known as stamina to spiritual beings, but he was going to have a battle of endurance with him.

“Officers!”

The start began with a shop owner. He was one who bribed the Japanese police in order to live a fulfilling life. The moment he thought of the character he had to express, ‘he’ reacted. That guy who didn’t appear when he called out to him several times. Feeling rather frustrated, Maru handed that guy the baton immediately. He took a step back and watched his act. Now, even his emotions were completely separated, which allowed him to regain calm when he stepped down from the stage no matter what intense emotions he had. This was the result of calling him out so many times. It was definitely a big advantage for an actor to quickly switch emotions without mental pressure.

“What did we ever do wrong?”

Maru acted out the wailing man on the floor himself. If he took control away from that guy and acted himself, he could vaguely feel the guy’s gaze. Until a while ago, he only had the feeling that he was just being watched, but right now, he could faintly notice the emotions hidden inside as well. Dissatisfaction. Maru could feel the gaze of a pitcher who’s being switched out at the last second just before winning.

Maru, who was about to finish acting out one role and was about to go to the next, gave that guy the baton for a brief moment before taking it away again.

“Deal with it. This country is done for. The Empire of Japan will not fall. If you’re an intellectual, then act like one and read the trends. Are you going to let your children be the children of a fallen country? Don’t do it. Look at the future.”

When he played the role of a news journalist, Maru felt that the gaze was thickening. ‘He’, who was just staring at him as though he didn’t exist, was coming towards the stage. Maru tried to be conscious of him before deciding not to. He focused on acting and intentionally ignored him.

He yielded the next turn to that guy. He saw that the guy was overjoyed like a puppy who had seen snow for the first time. Even though Maru and that guy had separate emotions, thoughts, and the like, it was sometimes easy to see through what he was thinking as though they were one. It was like that right now. That guy acted as though he was trying to quench his thirst. Maru could feel through his own body that the emotions being released from his body were much more intense and compressed than usual. That guy was acting as though he was possessed and put all of his energy into it. Watching, Maru became an audience member and was in a daze for a while. It was an act that shook something at the very foundation of any human. Just watching him filled his blood vessels full of satisfaction.

“Why do you think we are still alive even though those distinguished high officials had their heads chopped off? The foundation, the root of a country lies within us, does it not? Also, isn’t protecting that our duty as the owners? Even if the word ‘Chosun’ disappears from this land, as long as we, who have rooted down in this place, are still alive, the lineage will continue. Isn’t that what being the people of a country is about?”

He grabbed a mop in reverse and raised it high into the air. For that very moment, he was a hero with a resolve. He was an anarchist pointing his spear at the ideals that were forced on him. The marble floor was a grassland scattered with blood, and the empty hall was filled with people under the will of the old nation. Intense heat rose from the surroundings, and an ear-piercing shout seemed to feel real.

That was the result of continuing ‘his’ act. His body that was filled with passion towards acting forgot about the lines and made him become that character itself. This was a different acting method from his usual one. It was that guy’s role to become immersed and become that character while Maru’s role was to analyze that character to the very core before unfolding it in the form of acting. That guy used instinct and intuition, while Maru himself used reason and judgment. His mind, which was supposed to be cold and rational, was filled with heat. This was an acting method he usually avoided, but he could not hold himself back this time. Immersing in the character gave him a sense of bliss like a tight knot being untied in an instant. His senses spread out in all directions without stopping. For this moment, he felt a sense of satisfaction that made him think that it would be fine even if the being known as Han Maru disappeared.

It was when the character’s lines reached their peak that a hand suddenly poked him, causing ripples to appear in the lake of immersion. His immersion broke instantly. The delicately locked gear wheels did not allow even the tiniest gear to leave its spot. The owner of the hand that interrupted the perfect moment was none other than ‘that guy’.

Maru threw the mop on the floor and plopped down on the ground, panting heavily. He didn’t know how long he had been rampaging for. He felt like his sense of time disappeared somewhere far away. He barely raised his head to look at the clock. Only 10 minutes had passed. Maru’s container for emotions was too small to accommodate the emotions he felt during those ten minutes. Maru felt the records of his experience that he could not fully contain scattering away. As much of a pity as that was, he couldn’t help it. 13 eggs couldn’t fit into a carton made for a dozen. He had to accommodate what he could and let the rest go. If he tried to be greedy, it would ruin everything else.

“Looks like you were pretty desperate, huh?” Maru said as he raised his head.

Even though the act was over, that guy was still around, glaring at Maru. Acting is mine - he seemed to shout.

Maru bit his lower lip as he stood up. It was that guy that did not accept despite waving so many carrots at him. Now that there was a whip in his hand, it was time to do a tug of war.

“Keep watching from there. It’ll be quite fun,” Maru screamed his lungs out before picking up his script.

You like acting, huh? Why don’t you keep watching from there? You shy guy.

Feeling that guy shaking as though he wanted Maru to let him off, Maru joyfully went about his acts.

* * *

A voice could be heard through the slightly open door. Daemyung felt like his ears were burning from the voice alone. He had a look at Jiyoon next to him. She also had her eyes fixed on what was behind the door. Daemyung exerted some strength to push the door slightly. He did so carefully so that it didn’t make any sound.

Maru was in the middle of the now wider vision. Around him were mops, brooms, hammers, nails, and the like. Maru ran around the messy hall. He was a colonist, the spearhead of the ruler, and the flagbearer of the rebels. His voice, which was filled with heat, filled the entire hall. It was hotter than when thirty people were practicing. It was so hot that he couldn’t dare to go near him.

Daemyung subconsciously grabbed Jiyoon’s hand tightly. The act felt like he was going to be sucked in. Jiyoon also tensed her hand.

“Maru-seonbae wanted to do this kind of acting. Something that he could never do with us.”

Jiyoon spoke in a small voice. As sad as that might sound, Daemyung couldn’t help but nod. Maru, who rampaged around in front of the moonlit window, was an actor who could fill the entire hall with his presence just by himself. There were no gaps. After spending ten minutes as an uninvited audience member, Daemyung sat down and took out his notes.

“Sorry Jiyoon. I think I’ll keep watching.”

“Not at all, I want to keep watching too.”

Daemyung tensed his eyes. He moved his hands to record everything about Maru: his facial expressions, speech tones, and gestures. He momentarily stopped when he saw Jiyoon taking a video with her phone, but Daemyung thought that this was a method that suited him better. Videos contained facts. However, words contained opinions. What he needed right now was not facts, but the emotions he felt at this moment. Rather than a video, he wanted to express this moment through writing after all.

Maru rampaged around like an unleashed pony. How did he manage to hold back the boiling urge this whole time? Maru sometimes said incomprehensible stuff, but Daemyung thought that it happened because Maru was immersed in acting.

“It feels like two people are acting.”

“I’m thinking the same.”

He flipped over the page. His words filled the empty space without stopping. It was incredibly hard to transform into writing the changes occurring in the acting right before his eyes, but Daemyung did not rest. Eventually, Maru stopped before looking up at the ceiling and sighing.

“This is so goddamn hard.”

They were Maru’s words.

Chapter 638

Jiyoon barely managed to get her breathing going again. When she looked at Maru, who was breathing out a heavy breath, she thought that it was the right thing to have come back to the hall. It was back when they were parting with each other by the school gates. Daemyung said let’s get going, but was actually looking backwards. Jiyoon stopped and asked him what was going on.

“Maru’s practicing by himself these days. I want to help him, but I can’t think of a way to do so.”

“The reason Maru-seonbae hasn’t been going home with us is because he was practicing?”

Daemyung nodded. Jiyoon raised her head to look at the 5th floor. The hall had its lights turned on again. She knew that Daemyung and Maru were very close friends. When Daemyung said that he couldn’t find a way to help Maru, he probably didn’t exaggerate. After a little bit of hesitation, Jiyoon carefully grabbed Daemyung’s hand. She was still as nervous as ever when they made skin contact, but now she was able to grab him whenever she wanted. It was great progress. She led the confused Daemyung up the stairs.

“We might not be able to do anything for him, but wouldn’t Maru seonbae do better if there’s an audience for him?”

She mustered up the courage to say those words. Jiyoon did not want to see Daemyung with a powerless smile on his face. It would be great if she could solve his worries, but she had no such ability. The only thing she could do was to lead the disappointed-looking Daemyung up towards the hall. Daemyung walked from behind until the 2nd floor and took the lead afterwards. He looked bold, which made Jiyoon smile in satisfaction. They eventually reached the hall where Maru could be seen practicing through the small opening of the door.

From that moment onwards until now, when he finished acting, Jiyoon stared at Maru’s acting in a daze without any time to become shocked. When Maru fell on his back like an athlete after a full sprint, Jiyoon grabbed Daemyung’s hand and shook it slightly. If they wanted to go inside, now was the chance.

* * *

“Why are you here?”

Maru looked at the couple that had opened the door and came in. They say those who like each other will become similar to each other, and the way the two smiled awkwardly looked very similar.

“We were about to go, but we came here.”

“You should’ve walked Jiyoon home. It’s getting late.”

“It was me who said that we should make a visit. I’m sorry,” Jiyoon said while looking down.

Maru’s nose twitched.

“It’s nothing to be sorry about. A student wants to come to school. Did you come here just now?”

“No, we were watching from outside the door.”

“You should’ve come inside if you were here.”

“Uhm, should I say that we couldn’t interrupt you mid way? I just felt like I shouldn’t open the door.”

“You’re worried about unnecessary stuff. How long have you been there?”

“About 20 minutes?”

“20 minutes? Hey, you let Jiyoon sit down on such a cold floor for so long?”

Daemyung, who stared at Jiyoon in a daze for a while, suddenly flinched and waved his hand around in the air.

“Uhm, Jiyoon, sorry for not being able to take care of you.”

“It’s okay. I used my bag as a cushion so it wasn’t cold.”

“I should’ve noticed anyway.”

“I said it’s fine. But rather than that, are you okay, seonbae? You were crouching down the whole time.”

“I did feel a little numb, but I’m okay now.”

“That’s a relief.”

Maru looked at the smiling couple before picking up the mop. He poked the long handle of the mop in between the two people who were confirming their love for each other. How dare you flirt in front of me.

“If you’re here to make me cringe, then you should get going. Geez, your PDA is out of hand. You want me to feel jealous, don’t you?”

“It’s not like that.”

“Why don’t you say that again after removing that grin on your face?”

He put the mop against the wall. He also placed the rest of the cleaning equipment in their respective places. Daemyung and Jiyoon also helped out.

“I want to show the others this too,” said Daemyung while putting the broom inside the container.

“Show what?”

“You practicing.”

Maru shook off the rag in his hand before placing it by the window. With that, the cleanup was done.

“It’s nothing worth showing. It’s just me going on a rampage by myself.”

Practice was the act of slowly unfurling what was agreed upon. There was no impulsive action, nor intuitive lines. Constructing the tower known as ‘completion’ by confirming their agreements - this was what practice was. Wrestling with a mysterious man inside oneself couldn’t be called practice.

“I thought it was moving though.”

The words that entered his ears made him feel ticklish. Maru quietly looked at Daemyung. Did this chubby fella not know that his words could shock others, make them shy, or sometimes even very embarrassed? He looked at Jiyoon through the corner of his eyes. He was looking for a target of sympathy. Unfortunately, she was looking at Daemyung with admiration. She was completely hopeless. Maru shook his head once before speaking.

“This isn’t the right occasion to use the word ‘moving’. Do you see these goosebumps on me?”

“Why? It was very impressive, I was touched. It was the best act I’ve seen in my life.”

“I’m going to shut you up physically if you say that again. Why don’t you nag at me instead? That would be much better.”

Labeling a scene of screaming and screeching his lungs out while running around everywhere as ‘touching’ was splendid mental torture. It made his hairs stand on end whenever he heard it and want to run away due to the shame he felt. The memories of his reincarnation on top of his personality gave birth to a persona that could not accept compliments as compliments. He knew that Daemyung did not possess any malice, jealousy, or a teasing tone in his words, but his gaze was like a child looking at a superhero from a cartoon movie. It was naively malicious, naively jealous, and a pure tease. Not only that, there was Jiyoon who was adding fuel to the fire, so he could feel his heart cringing into nothingness. At times like these, he really wanted to become a genuine high school student. The disparity of his body and mind felt realistic at odd times like these.

“That was just me putting on a show by myself. It’s nothing worth showing to others.”

“I think it’s fine though.”

“I’m not okay with it. If you’re done cleaning up, let’s go home.”

“Did we disturb you?”

“No, I was about to leave as well. The security guard will give me a glare if I stay any longer.”

He led the hesitant duo outside. He knocked on the guard room on his way out and told that he was done. The security guard opened his tired eyes and waved at him to get going.

“Let’s practice together next time.”

“I told you it wasn’t practice. Jiyoon, take your boyfriend and get going already.”

After sending the two off, Maru slowly started pedaling on his bicycle. Today, he had made some progress, as little as it might be. That guy, who didn’t budge like a statue, didn’t just stop at moving, he even came around to the stage and hung around. Had he managed to fan the guy a little more, that guy might have jumped on stage. He had to stop because of the appearance of Daemyung and Jiyoon when he was about to do the tug of war with that guy, but he had no regrets. In fact, he felt good after thinking that doing that might have made ‘that guy’ feel urgent. After all, bargaining was usually done by the side that was at a disadvantage. If he slowly waved the fishing rod with the bait known as ‘acting’ on it, that guy will have no choice but to break his unresponsive state. If there was a reaction, Maru could counterattack. Silence was that guy’s weapon of choice until yesterday but starting today, it was the other way round.

* * *

Gaeul looked in the mirror. The face she always saw when she washed her face was there. Her clearly open eyes, quite sharp nose, and lips which she wished were slightly thicker. She could say with confidence that she saw it more than anyone, but these days, she found the figure somewhat unfamiliar for some reason.

“What kind of magic did you use?”

Gaeul was at a loss for words when Gyeonmi said those words with a smile. She knew that it was a compliment, but the word ‘magic’ became the water that soaked her cotton, rendering her unable to speak. She raised her fingers to stroke her face in the mirror. Ever since she talked with the girl inside her - the rabbit - her acting skills improved. It was something she should be happy about, but rather than happy, she was at a loss. It was just like how losing ten kilos overnight was a cause for worry, not joy. It was something she always wanted, but the acting skills entered her grasp way too easily and simply. It tugged at her mind that this wasn’t the result of her efforts until now, but the product of a mysterious meeting.

“If I earn enough money to move, I’m going to install two, no, three air conditioners in the house. That way, I’d catch a cold even in the summer. Man, it feels good just thinking about it,” said Heewon, who was lying down at the back.

Heewon always became one with the floor during breaks. The way he rolled around on the ground regardless of Gyeonmi’s presence was something that Gaeul actually quite envied.

“Do you think my acting improved?” she asked in a light tone.

She tried to not be mindful about the fact that her acting skills improved too easily.”

“Don’t ask me stuff like that. I don’t know.”

“But you should feel at least something. Tell me how it feels.”

“You know? You look really restless recently. It’s like you’re a dog holding back the urge to poop.”

“Hyung!”

Haewon, who was sitting next to Heewon, lightly smacked him on the shoulder.

“Noona, don’t mind what he said. He didn’t get proper sleep last night because it was hot.”

“No. It’s my bad for asking something like that.”

“Uhm, I’m not that knowledgeable about acting, but I could tell that there’s much more leisure in the way you act, noona. It’s much easier on the eyes. You look much more natural as well.”

“Thanks.”

Gaeul sat down on the chair. She closed her eyes and tried to talk to the girl inside her. That girl said that she would not reply, but when Gaeul kept knocking, she eventually came out and greeted her with a vexed expression.

-What is it this time?

The rabbit said from the center of the stage.

-Can I earn it so easily like this?

-It’s what you wanted.

-But I feel like I’m cheating.

-Do you want to go back to the old times then?

Gaeul couldn’t reply easily. The rabbit looked at the pocket watch she always carried with her before continuing.

-This is really the last time.

-What?

-This is farewell, I mean. But don’t worry too much. Your acting skills will keep improving.

-Will we not meet again?

-No, we will meet eventually. At that time, I guess we’ll talk about things we couldn’t talk about. There’s only one thing I want to say. Don’t…… yourself too much[1].

She couldn’t hear the important part. The rabbit disappeared.

“Han Gaeul, why don’t you get up?”

Gaeul opened her eyes when she heard the voice next to her. Gyeonmi was looking at her with dissatisfaction. She shook her head and stood up. The illusion of the stage disappeared, and she was greeted by the practice room where Heewon was lying down.

“I get that it’s summer and you’re tired, but perk up a little. It will get even hotter in August, so you can’t be like this already. Lee Heewon, you go wash your face a little. Get that dumb expression off your face.”

Gaeul sighed softly. The presence of the rabbit who always existed inside her disappeared completely. What was she trying to say before she disappeared? She thought about the rabbit that vanished in front of her eyes. The rabbit had the same gaze of those that looked at her when she told them that she didn’t have a father. The eyes that she could never get used to - eyes full of pity.

* * *

-This is a first. I didn’t know I’d see you like this.

Should he be surprised, or welcomed? Maru decided that he should feel both as he looked at the man before his eyes. The mysterious existence that sprouted inside him turned out to be the masked man from his dreams. The man wearing the funny white and black mask led Maru to the chair in the center of the stage.

This is the first time I’ve wooed a man. Did you know that? - Maru said as he sat down.

It was a novel experience. He could feel his actual body flinching. His mind wasn’t entirely cut off from his body and he was feeling everything from his physical body even at this moment. He thought that he wouldn’t be able to feel the outside world since he was in the world of his mind, but his predictions were wrong.

-Do you remember me?

The masked man asked. Maru nodded.

-Didn’t we meet in a dream before? Acting and monster or whatever. It’s been quite a long time, hasn’t it? A year, two years?

-Do you feel that we haven’t seen each other in a long time?

-Then did we meet recently?

-Not at all. I must have been mistaken. So, how do you feel?

-Rather mysterious, if I think about the fact that there’s another person inside my body.

-Don’t you feel worried because it’s the symptoms of a psychological disorder?

-I’ve returned from death. I am willing to believe if you tell me that ants could speak the human tongue, so this is nothing. I guess this must also be one of those presents that god gave me?

-Who knows? Maybe, maybe not.

Maru stroked his chin. He could feel his beard. Even his hand had grown some curly hair. His blood vessels were popping out like they were trying to break free of his skin, and his hands were tattered. It was the hands he had right before his death when he was driving buses. It would be great if there was a mirror around. After thinking about such things, he talked to the man. There was one thing that the man said that tugged his mind.

-When you say ‘this is a first’, you seem to imply that there have been other, similar situations?

Maru asked.

[1] The original has the omission at the end of the line, but due to the difference in grammatical order in the two languages, I had to put it in the middle because omitting ‘yourself too much’ feels like omitting too much.

Chapter 639

-You won’t miss a clue, will you?

The masked man said.

-I slipped up a couple times after missing them. You know, assistant manager Han, just turn a blind eye to it. You just need to let it flow by this time. If I knew that not listening to those words would be the end of me, I would have stayed still. Whether it was obstinacy, faith, a sense of justice, or even the mindset of youth, this is what I had on my mind when I just quit that place: Ah, I threw myself into a shithole.

He endured each day by looking forward to the weekend, endured a month by waiting for his salary, and endured a year hoping that he would get promoted. Perhaps it was because he became frustrated with that life that he became a whistle-blower. The president’s son embezzled money – had he not said that one line out loud, he might still be wrestling with numbers and not driving buses. Though, as a result of leaving his company, he got a chance to live another life.

-But didn’t you feel happy when the president’s son was fired from the company as a punishment? You got him good.

-How do you know that?

-Because I share your memories.

-Now that’s very unfair. I don’t know anything about you.

-Was the world ever fair?

After hearing the masked man’s words, Maru burst out laughing.

-Right, right. The world was never fair. I was being foolish for a moment.

Maru wiped his mouth. He liked this masked man even though the only interaction he had with him was meeting him face to face a couple times. He was reminded of when he was having a talk about life over a drink and some grilled pork belly with a very close friend. The feeling of liberation from a smooth conversation as well as the informality of laughing together without restraint.

-I shouldn’t have stopped and should have tried to sue him, but I was too scared and wasn’t able to go that far. Now that I look back, I was a rather incompetent father. I had a family to feed at home, yet I ended up whistle blowing without being able to hold back. Perhaps I should’ve acted shamelessly and stuck to the company while the president hadn’t processed my letter of resignation yet. Many things might have turned out differently if I desperately kept clinging onto it even after a friend of mine told me that he would introduce me to a bus driving job.

-Do you regret living your life again?

-Regret? There’s no way I’d feel regret when I got another chance. It’s just that it’s such a pity. I feel extremely apologetic. Did you know? In the world I died, my wife is living by herself. Fortunately, I did have life insurance so she shouldn’t be living a financially difficult life.

-Did you not have any children?

-Children? Children, huh. Now that I think about it, I didn’t have any children.

-Not having any children at 45 is rather peculiar. Were you afraid of having children?

-It’s not like that. It just turned out that way. Isn’t it common to have a late child in a household that’s busy with work?

-But forty-five is still late.

-I guess that is true too.

-Why did you not have any children?

-Why do you want to know that so much?

-There’s no reason for curiosity is there? I’m just curious because I don’t know. Usually, around that age, it’s the children that brings the family together to the point that some say that they aren’t getting a divorce purely because of their children. Was it your wife who didn’t want to have children, perhaps?

-No, it wasn’t like that.

-Then perhaps there was a problem with you. If you were having a hard time getting her pregnant, perhaps you should’ve considered the possibility that you had aspermia.

Maru glared at the masked man. He felt like the masked man was smiling under that plastic-looking mask.

-You said you share my memories, so why don’t you look into why I didn’t have any kids?

-Just because I share your memories doesn’t mean that I know everything.

-How peculiar. You know the reason I quit my job, but you don’t know the reason I didn’t have kids. Which one am I supposed to trust? Do you know what I’m thinking right now?

-You must be thinking that I’m playing with words.

-There you have it. Looks like your thought process is similar to mine. Did you get influenced by me because you had a look at my memories?

-I wouldn’t be so sure.

-Asking about my family matters, no my children problems is making me feel suspicious of you. I feel like you’re even obstinate about it.

-I just can’t hold back my curiosities, that’s all.

-Why don’t you try to deduce it with that good head of yours? About why I didn’t have any children even when I was forty-five.

-Well, that’s not my job, but yours, is it not?

-My job?

-Don’t take it badly and think about it deeply. Why did you not have any children? No, why do you believe that you didn’t have any children?

-Your words are pretty strange. It’s not that I believe that I didn’t have kids, it’s that I did not. I don’t have to believe whether I didn’t have kids or not. I just didn’t have any.

-Do you really think so?

What close friend. It was all a momentary misunderstanding. The man in front of him was like mud, sticky, and unremovable. Just when he thought that he washed the mud away, there would be some left behind his ears, and below his armpits. What kind of an answer did this guy want? What was this masked man trying to get from this conversation? In order to solve that question, he felt like he needed to find out the identity of this man first.

-Let me ask you a question too then. Just who the hell are you? No, are you even a person? Why are you inside me?

-You said ‘a’ question, and you managed to ask three.

-They’re all similar questions, so think of them as one.

-I don’t like half-assed negotiations like this.

-With that logic, you are no better since you’re the only one asking questions without showing anything in this ‘negotiation’, don’t you think so?

-You really haven’t changed in the way that you won’t lose a word.

-I’d like to return those words right back at you.

-You hear that you’re obstinate quite often, don’t you?

-Not as much as you, I would think.

Maru blocked one nostril with his thumb and blew his nose. A habit he had forgotten about popped out. Whether it was his speech or his appearance, he felt like his 45 year-old self was being shown without filtering in this place. Just what did this secretive stage that existed within him signify? Where did this person, who acted like the owner of it, come from, and why did he live in this place? He was sure that this was related to his second chance at life, but the reason behind his existence was a complete mystery. Did god send another resident to his body? It would’ve been great if the guy paid rent. He did not welcome a neighbor who had good skills but had a bad attitude.

-Just what are you? You keep popping up in my dreams from time to time, and there’s also the fact that you’re practically making a living inside me.

-If you’re so curious, why don’t you guess?

-Are you like this because I mocked you? If that’s the case, you’re quite narrow-minded, I must say.

-Looks like you’re getting annoyed because the conversation is not going the way you intended it to, huh?

Maru smiled bitterly. It seemed that the opponent had nothing to lose. He only asked sharp questions when asking about his children, but after that, they had been exchanging empty words until now. Since the opponent had the lead, he could only change strategies. That guy looked like he had a high pride and looked pretty smart, so he thought that he might try to make him feel unbearable by speaking nonsense.

-Are you perhaps the ghost of Chungmuro that everyone’s been talking about? The one that became a resentful ghost because you never became big?

-Do I look like one?

-If you aren’t, then don’t mind it. But why do I think that you are one? The fact that you’re hiding your face means that you want to hide something, and hiding something is something you do when you have done something that goes against your conscience, no? Dying after a pathetic life and freeloading in another person’s body, huh. That’s something that definitely goes against your conscience.

-Rather than a certain man who quit his job because he couldn’t endure a momentary insult without thinking about his family, a life that ends by drowning in dreams is not irresponsible at least.

-So you don’t plan to reveal yourself until the end?

-In the first place, there is nothing to reveal. It’s just you who doesn’t recognize.

-I don’t recognize? Don’t recognize what?

-If I was in a position to tell you all that, we would have never reached this point in the first place. Let’s stop this meaningless probing. We both won’t lose easily when it comes to a fight with words.

-What I do get is that your mouth is a force to be reckoned with. I’m not someone who loses a battle of words easily… Oh, don’t misunderstand. That was a compliment.

-Of course I’m good at talking.

-Of course?

The masked man laughed once. That laugh seemed like his way of not answering the question.

-Hey, now that I look at you, you’re quite similar to me.

Maru uttered after a realization.

-No, it is you who is similar to me.

The masked man retorted.

-Let’s leave aside the trivial talk for later since the important thing is this, isn’t it? What will we do about acting in the future?

Finally, a conversation that was meaningful. Maru loosened the tension in his eyes. He put aside the conversation they just had. Right now, he had to have a more constructive talk with this guy.

-This right now is a bit of a special case. Originally, I only open my eyes when you act.

-Are you asleep normally?

-Rather than sleep, it’s closer to a blackout. I am not able to hear anything, see anything or feel anything. I’m trapped in stopped time until the moment you start acting which allows me to barely manage to wake up.

-Why did you not respond when I talked to you before?

-I just told you, didn’t I? This right now is a bit of a special case. Originally, we cannot meet or converse. That’s the kind of relationship we are in. We coexist and help each other, but cannot check each other’s wills. Put it simply, it’s closer to using a tool. A tool that can’t speak.

-But you can talk to me right now? Did my wooing work then?

-I guess you can say that. Honestly speaking, even I don’t know why we can converse like this. This is extremely rare.

-Extremely rare? So that means it happened before, huh?

-Stop digging into details like that. Right now, you’d be better off focusing on work and business. You don’t know how long this will last.

As soon as the man’s words ended, a crack appeared in the ceiling. The thin hair-like crack soon became wide enough to fit a foot. Bright light seeped in through the crack. It was quite a contrast to the gloomy-looking stage. Stop staying in that gloomy place – someone seemed to tell him. Maru looked at the masked man. Was this man good or evil? Beneficial or detrimental? Harmful or helpful?

-So it is time for us to part.

The masked man turned around, seemingly feeling pity. The light seeping out from the ceiling slowly formed into a hand, grabbing Maru’s arms and shoulders. Come to the right path – someone engraved that into his mind.

The moment he heard those words, Maru violently reached out and grabbed the masked man’s shoulder. The masked man became surprised and turned around.

-We’ll have to see later. Let’s have a handshake.

The strength pulling on his body became stronger. The hand of light did not seem to like Maru hanging out with this masked man. Maru resisted that force until the end and reached out. The masked man looked at him in a daze before grabbing that hand.

-See you again soon.

-Alright, cocky guy.

-You are no less cocky yourself.

At the moment he shook hands, his eyes opened. He could see the monitor that went into sleep mode and the book that he opened. It was dark outside, and the clock was showing 2 o’clock.

“I really don’t like this roommate.”

Maru looked down at his right hand. The sensation from the hand he grabbed still remained. The rough hand. Unlike his skinny body, his hand was that of a laborer’s. It was also a hand that was very similar to his own.

Chapter 640

“Why is there no announcement?”

Maru felt like he was hearing a clattering sound. He looked at Sora, who was biting on her thumb’s fingernail. Today was the 19th of July, the 2nd day of the long summer holidays. Today, Sora and Ando came to visit the acting club. It wasn’t that they had some special business for their visit. After all, grumbling could not be categorized as business.

“Why the heck did she come here?”

Maru looked at Ando, who stood next to her.

“I don’t know. I want to ask too. Why am I here?”

Ando yawned as though he was very tired. From the way his face was colored with the desire to sleep, it seemed that he was dragged here against his will.

“But why! Is! There! No announcement?”

“What announcement?”

“The film festival. It’s been two months since we handed it in. The deadline was the end of May. It’s strange that there was no news for two months.”

“Why are you asking me? Ask the organizers.”

“Of course I did.”

“What did they say?”

“They said that they are going to delay the deadline by a month due to internal circumstances.”

“Well, there you have it.”

“But two months have passed. Isn’t it strange? So I asked again, about why there has been no news at all even though an extra month had passed. Apparently, they were supposed to announce a recruitment notice for the judges of the non-competitive sections, but apparently, the employee in charge of that went missing, and the entire festival is being delayed. It didn’t stop at that either. Apparently, the number of volunteer applicants wasn’t going well either, so it might be delayed even further. It’s flabbergasting. They’re adults, but their work speed is really subpar. Even I would do better than that.”

Sora sighed towards the ceiling.

“Is my comprehensibility lacking because it’s the morning? You phoned the organizers and found out about all of the circumstances, yes?”

“I did.”

“So you know why they aren’t giving out notifications, right?”

“Yes!”

“Then why are you venting it out on me?”

Maru thought that Sora would flinch since he attacked the bullseye, but Sora boldly raised her head as though that wasn’t a problem.

“Because it’s frustrating! I was frustrated the entire time I was calling them. They’re adults yet they can’t even work properly.”

“I’m asking you why you came all the way to me to vent.”

“You know, just telling you while I’m here.”

Maru felt like he was looking at a vegetarian holding up a piece of steak with a smile. I am a vegetarian and this steak is delicious. What the heck did that even mean? He was combing through his memories to see whether he did anything that might have gotten on her nerves when Daemyung came inside the hall. He greeted the first year students who were doing stretches before finding Sora and coming over. Maru raised his eyebrow. What was the meaning behind those cheerful footsteps? Sora jumped out as though she was waiting for him. The two met up in the middle of the hall and talked to each other before going to the window.

“What the heck is up with them?”

“I don’t know.”

“Koo Ando, what do you know?”

“I don’t know anything. I’m lacking sleep, and my head isn’t working. She called me at 5 a.m. Not throwing my phone at a wall was the last strand of rationale I had in me.”

“And this Mr. Rationale of yours has left the house?”

Ando nodded before leaning against the wall. His body softened like ice cream under the hot sun. Ando was crossing the line of sleep and awake several times while he was curling up his body, and he looked very miserable like an abandoned dog. He was so pitiful that Maru even felt sorry for him. Maru brought a blanket and covered him with it. Sleeping on the cold floor was not a good thing.

Maru walked towards the duo talking by the window. When did these two get so close? According to his memory, there was no point of contact between these two. At most, it was a couple of conversations as the president of the acting club and the director of the film. After that, they didn’t even have the opportunity to greet each other. Maru suddenly jumped in between the two, who were having a secret talk and looked like Jiyoon would definitely misunderstand.

“That startled me! What the heck was that, seonbae?”

“That’s what I want to say. Don’t you think I’m kinda pitiful when the person venting her frustration on me suddenly disappears without a word like that?”

“There’s Ando-seonbae. I left him by the wall because I thought you might get bored.”

“Ando is an object to you, isn’t he?”

“What the heck are you saying? Do you know how much I like Ando-seonbae? I’d never treat him like an object.”

That smile was very suspicious. Maru turned away from the girl with the deceitful mask. Picking an opponent that could actually communicate through words was an attitude that any intellectual must have after all.

“Now that I think about it, I think you’re the reason she barged into the acting club so early in the morning.”

“Don’t call it barged. I scheduled a meeting beforehand.”

He turned away from the chatterbox Sora and looked at Daemyung. He wanted a quick answer, but Daemyung’s lips were clearly hesitant.

“Seonbae. He’s my guest, you know?”

Sora waved her hand and interrupted.

“Guest?”

“Daemyung-seonbae. Let’s talk over there. It’s no fun to reveal it now, right?”

Sora took Daemyung to a corner. She also took Ando, who was drooping on the ground like seaweed, on the way as well. Maru couldn’t begin to imagine what they were scheming.

A chatterbox girl, a dozing-off guy, and the former president of the acting club were forming a different space within the acting club in the corner. It was natural for the juniors to watch them. Maru clapped to get their attention. He didn’t know what they were up to, but since Daemyung was involved, he didn’t feel like it would become a problem.

“Let’s not mind the three strange people over there. Aram, what should we start with?”

“Let’s do some warmups first.”

Standing in front of the juniors, Aram led the practice without looking awkward. After some light stretches, starting with turning the wrists, she started properly working out. When an ordinary day at the acting club - mixed in with slight groans from time to time - began, the second guest arrived in the hall. Maru forgot to greet that person since he was even more unexpected than Sora showing up and just stared at him.

“Why are you looking at me like that? You’re making me embarrassed.”

“I thought you were a ghost.”

“So I look healthy?”

“Correct. But, hyung-nim. What brings you here?”

Ganghwan had brought some paper bags in both of his hands. The first year students, who were working out, all stopped and looked at the door. It seemed that they were curious about who this man with a stubble was.

“Keep going. It’s not good to stop practicing just because someone is visiting,” Ganghwan said.

Maru signalled Aram with his eyes. As someone who was quick to take a hint, she quickly gathered their attention and continued the exercises. Seeing her take control of them instantly, Maru quietly uttered ‘good’.

“Have you been doing well?” Ganghwan asked as he put the paper bags on the ground.

“I have. When did you come back hyung-nim? This is more surprising than when you said you’re going overseas through text.”

“It hasn’t been that long since I came back. You can be touched. Be impressed by the love of your teacher who came to visit his student as soon as possible since he came back into the country.”

Maru ignored those words. He was perhaps a teacher the first time they met two years ago, but right now, he was nothing more than a hopeless big brother. Well, hopeless was going a little far, so slightly lacking?

“Do you want a hug and a deep kiss or something?”

“Come on then!”

“I do it when I say I will.”

Maru jumped towards Ganghwan without hesitation. Before he could hug Ganghwan with all of his might, Ganghwan groaned and took a step back. He looked like a caterpillar had landed on the back of his neck.

“You’re creepy.”

“You’re even more creepy for asking me to do it. Anyways, what’re all these?”

“Your group uniform. I went to meet Miso yesterday and she gave me two options: either die or deliver these to the school.”

“You should be thankful that you didn’t die. Someone who sends congratulatory gift money through bank transfer with a single text that he’s going overseas is definitely more than death-worthy. She’s a close friend of yours too.”

“I couldn’t bear to look at her in a wedding dress. Wasn’t that dude a man? I’m sure there’s something between the crotch.”

“I’m surprised you’re still alive. Miso-noonim should have chased you with a sushi knife in hand a long time ago.”

“I finally feel like I’m home after hearing you say things like that.”

Ganghwan suddenly reached out his hand. Maru responded to the handshake.

“I’m glad that you’re back safely. I was kinda worried because you said you wanted to try wrestling with a Russian brown bear. I know you’d definitely do it.”

“I did see some bears, but man, they were freakishly huge. It’s unthinkable to go against them as a human. I’d rather jump off a bungee without a rope instead.”

While Ganghwan clicked his tongue, Maru picked up the paper bags and went to the first year students. Inside the heavy bags were hoodies with the hanja characters for Blue Sky stitched on them in blue.

“Miso-noonim is quite caring when it comes to stuff like this. Everyone, take one.”

There was a nametag on the neck of the hoodie. Everyone soon found their hoodie thanks to that. Although these free-size hoodies were generally large so anyone could wear any one of them, Miso went through the lengths to match the sizes to each person. She won’t have a problem doing household chores at least - that suddenly came to Maru’s mind.

“How was Russia?”

“Cold.”

“And?”

“The women are pretty. Oh, they also drink vodka like water.”

“That sounds very educational.”

“Educational indeed.”

Maru asked Aram to take care of the rest before leaving the hall.

“So what was the real reason you went there?”

“Of course, I went there to study. The history of acting over there is quite solid.”

“Was it helpful?”

“I was only there for two months. I wish I could stay there for a few years and learn various things, but you know that our president despises playing around without working.”

“That I do. So you’re going to start working again now?”

“He got me some work already. I guess I have to start earning my expenses now.”

“There goes your good days then.”

“Indeed.”

“What’s going to happen to the street performance?”

“It’s too late for that. There’s a right time for everything. Unfortunately, once it went on the media, we got a lot of people coming to us with fake stories, didn’t we? It was practically over from that point. There’s no need to continue a stage that has lost its purity.”

“I was planning to get famous through that, but I guess it isn’t happening, huh?”

“Of course not. Rather than that, you’re already famous, aren’t you? You’re in a TV drama.”

“I’ve been getting a lot less screen time recently. Ever since the story started focusing on the love story between the main cast, I only appear biweekly. I might lose my means of earning money at this rate.”

“When I looked at the news articles, the drama itself was doing well though.”

“The next door neighbor becoming successful doesn’t mean that my food plate will be filled. I want to try other pieces too, but I’m not finding anything suitable. In an era where fully grown adults are acting high school students, there’s practically no one who’s willing to use a less-grown-up kid. I only managed to get into this drama since it’s a youth drama, otherwise, they would have used an adult actor instead.”

“You haven’t changed that pessimistically realistic view, huh. I’m glad that you haven’t changed.”

“You came here to tease me, didn’t you?”

“Hey, don’t say that to the mother bird who brought an insect for the little bird. Or wait, am I the father bird?”

Maru’s ears perked when he heard those words. Associating the word food with Ganghwan’s suspicious smile brought him to one conclusion. Work, or an audition.

“Let’s do a one-act play. A refreshing one.”

“I like refreshing.”

“You can make the time for it, right?”

“I can.”

“Good. Then do you have a shoot this weekend?”

“No, I will be a splendid unemployed man.”

“That’s good then. There’s an assistant director that I’m close to, and he’s shooting his first main piece. A late-night piece on YBS. You know, that one that numerous stars went on.”

“I know that one.”

“I said that I’d introduce a young face, so do your best. Okay?”

“You don’t have to tell me twice.”

Opportunity landed at his feet so he couldn’t miss it. Even an idiot would swallow if someone put porridge in their mouth.

“But he’s quite picky.”

“Is anyone not picky working in that field?”

“I guess that’s true. Good, that’s the attitude. Please come back alive.”

Those last words were questionable - Maru made a stiff smile.

Chapter 641

The appointed place was not the TV station. It was an acting school located on Rodeo Street of Apgujeong-dong, Seoul. Maru checked the address he got through text once again, before pushing the glass doors of the building. He headed towards the 3rd floor through the stairs next to the noodle restaurant on the 1st floor. He opened the door that said ‘emergency staircase’ and went inside. It seemed that this wasn’t used as there was an elevator in the building. On the walls of the 3rd floor that were painted black were three stripes of red, yellow, and blue, curling around like waves. When he followed the complex lines, he saw banners lined up in front of the entrance. Exceptional teachers, custom-fitted entrance exam acting, the acting school of your dreams. Reading the promotions, he walked past the automatic door. Behind the semi-circular desk in front of the entrance was a lady wearing a black suit, who looked like she might as well be a model with her beautiful body figure. On the chairs lined up next to the walls were people of both genders seeming to be muttering something. He instantly realized that they were here for an audition.

“What’s the reason for your visit?”

“I came here after hearing that there’s an audition.”

“Oh, I see. What is your name?”

“I’m Han Maru.”

“Han Maru.”

The lady repeated the name, emphasizing each character, as she typed on the keyboard. The name ‘Han Maru’ appeared briefly on the monitor on top of the desk before disappearing.

“You’re on the list. Please sit down here and wait for a while. We’ll call you when it’s your turn.”

Maru joined the line of people waiting in line with nervous faces. As there was no spare chair, he just leaned against the wall. For a usual audition, he would be busy preparing a character or some lines that were provided to him beforehand, but there was nothing to prepare for today’s audition. A healthy body - that was all the requirements. What kind of character they wanted, what kind of aspects they were looking for in actors - there was no information about those at all. The people who were muttering might actually be chanting incantations. Perhaps something along the lines of ‘don’t make me do something weird’.

As for the age group, they all seemed to be around the same age. Most of them seemed to be over 20, but there were some that looked younger. There were also about two or three people wearing school uniforms. From this, it looked like they didn’t want a middle-aged man as the character. A student, then?

The door to the right at the end of the corridor opened and a woman with long hair walked out. She crossed the corridor while not hiding her dissatisfied face before leaving the acting school. The woman at the desk called out to her, but she didn’t even turn around. Just what happened inside that made her so angry? The shockwave left behind by that woman was fully absorbed by the people who were waiting. Maru felt that the mutterings around him became louder. Some people couldn’t keep sitting and stood up before walking around. The lobby of the acting school, which couldn’t be said to be small, looked quite crowded. Maru took a seat for himself. As he got older, he felt much closer to the floor. It would be optimal if he could lie down, but he couldn’t do that, so he went with the next best option of sitting down.

The anxiety left behind by that long-haired woman continued until the woman at the desk called out the next audition participant. A man who was waiting abruptly stood up before walking to the end of the corridor. For a moment, the mutters ended. Amidst the silence, everyone paid attention to the man opening the door. A girl wearing a school uniform leaned against the wall. It seemed that she wanted to see inside the audition room.

“You can’t see inside,” said the woman at the desk.

Maru watched the people, who looked like they were caught up in a torrent before closing his eyes. He didn’t feel nervous at all. When the woman with long hair rushed out, he only watched with interest and did not think about the meaning of her actions. Not being swept up by the atmosphere was quite helpful at times like these. Since he had the time, he tried talking to the guy inside him. Uhm, hey, hello? Mr. Masked man - his inner mind was filled with the voice that seeked him out, but the man did not appear. The dim stage did not appear either. Would it be hard to experience such a happening again like how the masked man said? - that that time was a special case? That guy was a man he didn’t like very much, but Maru didn’t despise him. If possible, he wanted to have a long conversation with him. Maru wanted to ask what he meant by sharing his memories, why he lived in his body, and ultimately, who he was. There were a lot of things he wanted to ask, but the person to ask the questions to, had hidden himself deep inside the utter silence.

After about ten minutes had passed, the door opened again before the man that went in before came out. He looked angry as well. Just what was happening inside that made all the participants angry? Ganghwan’s last words, ‘please come back alive’, suddenly felt like they had more meaning. Ganghwan seemed to be telling him: You thought I was joking, didn’t you?

“Miss Lee Yeji.”

Two out of two people left the acting school looking angry. The woman who was supposed to enter the batter’s box next heavily swallowed a breath as though she was swallowing a bitter pill before she walked towards the audition room. The door closed and the rest of the applicants were looking at the audition room with uneasy eyes. Maru also looked at the door before looking away. Unless he was capable of seeing through walls, there was no way for him to see what was going on inside. Instead, he decided to look at what he could see. The man next to him had earbuds on while sitting with his legs crossed. From the way he nodded rhythmically with his eyes closed, he looked like he had leisure. The woman opposite him was showing her unease without hiding it. She even glared at the woman at the help desk from time to time. Just what the hell is up with this audition? - she seemed to be saying with her eyes.

Among the dozen or so people, half of them were staring at the door nervously. The ones that kept their calm had formed their own realm and were absorbed in their own things. There was the man next to him, who was absorbed in music, there were some that looked at the brochure that introduced this acting school, and there were some who were reading books. Reminding himself of Ganghwan’s words that observing people was the foundation of acting, he started getting some samples. Just then, a strange movement caught his eyes. The woman at the front desk was moving her hand busily. It wasn’t strange that she was typing since she was working here, but the timing she chose to type was quite strange.

Maru pretended to read a brochure as he watched the woman at the desk. He might be wrong, so he had to check one more time. The woman moved. She didn’t turn her head around, she just moved her eyes. Her target was the man who was reading a script with a peaceful face. The woman scanned the man for several seconds before looking at the monitor in front of her and typing. She also looked at the man with the earbuds on and typed something.

Observing? Observing what? Her eyes moved again. This time, she looked at the girl wearing a school uniform. It was the same girl who was looking at the audition room nervously. For a brief moment, the woman at the desk clicked her tongue. Maru looked at the corner of her lips rolling upwards, the distance between her eyebrows shrinking, and her head itself shaking from side to side. Negative emotions appeared on her face briefly before disappearing. When they disappeared, she typed on her keyboard. It was clear that she was observing and recording.

Maru turned his eyes to the brochure. Was it a personal hobby of hers? There was that possibility. Just like how people of both genders gave scores to the members of the opposite sex that they come across on the street, she might also be evaluating the applicants because she was bored. I like someone’s face, that person looks hopeless, or that person over there is shaking too much - things like that. Thinking about such things, he raised his eyes. Her pupils were directly in line of his sight. Beneath the eyelashes that were rolled upwards, the pupils that moved from side to side stopped in the middle. Maru realized that she was looking at him. When meeting eyes with a stranger, it wouldn’t usually last more than 2 seconds. Most of the time, people would look away as though they had done something wrong. There should be about two likely possibilities when people keep looking at someone else without turning away. Either, the pride of the alpha male had been activated, or they found a member of the opposite sex they really liked to the point that they forgot about the shame.

The woman did not belong to either of those. She wasn’t looking for a fight, nor was it an expression of like. She looked like she was looking at an animal in a zoo. They were clearly the eyes of an observer. She did not look away. She kept looking at him without a change in her expression. Maru also did not avoid her eyes. He wanted to find out why she was observing them. If it was a hobby, she would have turned her eyes away the moment their eyes met. That was the normal reaction. This woman was clearly not normal, and Maru wanted to know why. What are you doing over there?

The woman’s eyes did not even budge. Instead, another part of her moved. Her hands were placed on the keyboard. Tap, tap. The sound of typing could be heard. A moment later, the woman who entered the audition room came back out again. Like the two before her, she also looked angry. The moment she left the acting school without even turning around, the woman at the desk spoke.

“Mr. Han Maru.”

That was his signal to go in. Maru could feel other people’s gazes. Why - they seemed to be asking. They seemed to want to know the reason why a participant who came later than them was being called first. The people looked for an answer by looking at the woman at the front desk. The woman at the desk just smiled. She didn’t seem to have any intentions of answering. Maru put down the brochure he was holding on the chair before walking towards the audition room. Since an audition was also a form of an interview, it would normally operate on a predetermined schedule. The fact that they did not hand out number tags meant that the order of the audition was based on a first come, first served basis, so why did the order suddenly change? He would probably find out once he met the producer who should be waiting in the audition room.

He took in a short breath before opening the door. In the middle of the room that looked like it was about 30 square meters big was a plastic chair. It was one of those that were commonly found outside convenience stores. In front of that was a table, and on top of that was a 30-inch monitor and a camera pointing towards the chair. It was an ordinary audition room, but the most important thing was missing.

People. There was no one in the audition room for him to show his acting too. Were they on a bathroom break or something? Maru soon realized that it wasn’t that. The only door that led into this room was the door he just entered through. This meant that there was no one from the beginning. He first sat down on the chair. As soon as he sat down the monitor turned on.

-You passed the 1st audition. You have to rest there for exactly 8 minutes before leaving. When you leave, please leave without saying anything with the most angry face you can make. The 2nd audition venue will be notified immediately, so please rest in a nearby café. If you talk to any other applicant when you leave, you will fail immediately. Please bear this in mind.

After that line came up, the promotion ad for the acting school started playing. Maru watched the ad in a daze. After seven minutes, the video ended. As instructed, Maru rushed out the door and walked towards the exit with his lips sealed. He did not forget to glare at the woman at the front desk on his way out. The woman winked at him with a smile.

Chapter 642

The franchise café in front of the acting school was filled with people who were studying. The seats by the glass wall were taken by people with laptops, while the tables inside were taken up by study groups.

“One latte please.”

While he admired the sliced cakes in the display case, the coffee came out. He picked up the paper cup from which he could feel the heat before sitting on one of the sofa seats in the middle. It seemed that this seat was avoided because many people passed by. He took a sip of the hot coffee under the air conditioner. His mouth was warm, and his body was cool. Was there a luxury better than this? He looked at the girl dozing off on the table next to him and thought back to the audition he had just taken. He passed the first round. He didn’t know what the audition was for, but it seemed clear that the woman at the front desk had something to do with it. Was she a person related to the audition? Or was she doing this work because she was asked to by someone? As he was thinking, his phone vibrated. He got a text from an unknown number.

-Please eat lunch and return to the acting school by 2 p.m. The 2nd interview will be held.

Interview - that was a word that smelled like neckties. When he checked the time, he saw that it was 11:40. He lay back against the sofa before drinking his coffee. He had a lot of spare time to the point that it would bore him out.

“Welcome to Real Coffee.”

After hearing the employee’s voice, Maru turned his head around. The one that entered was the woman he saw in the lobby of the acting school. She was the one who read the brochure while calmly leaning against the wall. They met eyes. He nodded slightly. The woman also greeted him with her eyes. From the way she came here, it was likely that she passed the 1st round as well. After all, the instruction to wait in a nearby café should have led most people here. The woman ordered a coffee and sat by the glass wall. As there was no need to go beyond a simple greeting, Maru stayed seated and just sipped on the coffee. Another 10 minutes later, a student wearing a school uniform entered. He was the only one who was reading a book among the applicants who were wearing school uniforms. The rest of them stared at the audition room with curiosity and nervousness.

Just like the woman, he met eyes with the boy. As he sat on the sofa located in the middle of the store and was in the direct line of sight with the entrance, he met eyes with all the people who entered. The boy acted like he knew him. He smiled brightly before becoming awkward and just nodding. Maru also just greeted him with a nod. The boy looked around the coffee shop after getting his coffee before going to the 2nd floor. From the look of things, it seemed that all the applicants that passed would come to this café. Maru took his time drinking the coffee. Meanwhile, three more people he had come across in the lobby came to the café.

It was 12:30. It was about time he got his lunch. Maru threw the empty paper cup in the trash before leaving the café. The common point among the ones who came to this café was that they did not mind the audition room wrapped in mystery and waited calmly. Maru also belonged to that criteria. This meant that the ones that came to this café very likely had passed the first audition. When he left the café in search of a restaurant, the door opened and someone came out behind him. It was another applicant for the audition. Just as they became conscious of each other and smiled awkwardly, Maru nodded before turning around. It was much better to look for a place to eat instead of being here.

He saw a ugeoji gukbap restaurant about two blocks away from the café. There was another ugeoji gukbap restaurant right across it. They weren’t restaurants that belonged to the same brand. Maru thought about common sense as he looked at the restaurants placed right across each other, but it wasn’t something he should be concerned about as a consumer. Regardless of the place, it would be good as long as it was cheap and tasty. He looked inside the restaurant with a clean interior. He saw young men and women in pairs. He tried sniffing. The smell that came out of the ventilation hole was rather clean. It looked like a decent restaurant, but it wasn’t the smell that Maru was looking for. Just as he turned around to go to the other gukbap restaurant, a group of people standing near him entered his eyes. They were the group of applicants for the audition. Awkwardness exuded from them even from afar. It seemed that they grouped up and followed him since it wasn’t like they had a destination in mind. The one at the front was the woman who came to the café first. The woman with sharp eyes sighed softly before taking a step forward.

“Hello? We aren’t kids and it’s not like it’s necessary for us to get close, so let’s not stand here awkwardly like this. It’s a waste of time. Let’s get something to eat for now. I think this place looks okay.”

The woman pointed at the ugeoji gukbap restaurant. It was the place where the young people gathered. The applicants looked inside the restaurant and nodded before going inside. After the small girl at the very end entered as well, the woman who took the lead held the door open.

“Come quickly,” she said.

Maru shook his head.

“I don’t think that place fits my tastes.”

“What?”

“You can eat by yourselves. If there’s something you want to talk about, we can do it after the meal.”

“No, but, we should eat together.”

“I’ll try going to that place first. If I don’t think it’s good, I’ll come back.”

He tried going to the gukbap restaurant across the street. The appearance was just as clean as the other one, but the restaurant was filled with middle-aged men wearing work outfits. The man who had put sunglasses in his chest pocket seemed to be a taxi driver. That was a combination he didn’t even need to hesitate about. He opened the door and poked his head inside. A heavy yet savory smell filled the restaurant.

This was it. Maru turned around and told the woman waiting at the entrance of the other restaurant - I’m eating here. The woman made a sour expression before saying okay.

“Auntie, gimme a bowl of gukbap.”

As soon as he ordered, he was given side dishes before the gukbap came out. He subconsciously smiled when he looked at the steaming hot gukbap. Ugeoji gukbap was one of the pillars that supported his life. When he worked mornings - coming to work at dawn and finishing work at 2 p.m. - Maru started off his day with this gukbap. At 4 a.m., before even the sun rose, the one that greeted him when he pushed open the door after walking through the cold air was none other than ugeoji gukbap. It liberated his wife from waking up during the night to be by the stove to cook for him so early in the morning, and also allowed him to have a fulfilling meal with his thin wallet. From the moment he washed the bus, filled the gas tank, and went through a checkup to the moment he finished his work for the day, the warmth of the gukbap remained deep inside the stomach of the forty-five-year-old bus driver, supporting his day. Of course, it wasn’t that tasty. It was more of a value food.

He took a spoonful of the soup and ate it. Just as he had expected, the taste was quite thick. It had such a good taste that it made him slowly forget about the ugeoji gukbap he ate along with the cold air of dawn. When the taste of his memories became blurred, Maru laughed out lightly. It was a memory when he thought about it now, but back then, it was his method of survival.

After emptying everything in the bowl down to the last bit, Maru stood up. He took a piece of mint candy placed on the counter. For some reason, he felt lacking when he didn’t eat the mint candy. Before he left the restaurant, he checked the time. It was 1 p.m. There was about an hour left, so he wondered where he should go to kill time.

“Excuse me.”

He suddenly heard a voice next to him. He saw the applicants exiting leaving the ugeoji gukbap restaurant across the street. The one who talked to him was just as he had expected, the woman with sharp eyes.

“Isn’t it awkward to eat by yourself? You should’ve eaten with us.”

“Taste is important when it comes to food. This place was good because the soup was thick. Gukbaps are best served thick.”

He cracked open the mint candy with his molars. When he rolled the candy inside his mouth, sweet saliva pooled up below his tongue. The woman twitched as though she was dissatisfied.

“You passed the first audition, right?”

“Yes. Everyone here has passed, right?”

“Yes. I think only the people here have passed the first audition.”

“I think people who weren’t swept up by the atmosphere were the only ones who passed, but I don’t know why they did that.”

“What do you mean by that?”

Not to mention the woman, the other people behind her also expressed their questioning minds and gathered around him. Maru told them what he saw in the lobby. It wasn’t anything worth hiding after all.

“Now that I think about it, I think that was the case.”

“I was reading a book.”

“And I was listening to music.”

“I was doing image training, so I didn’t have any time to think about anything else.”

From listening to everyone’s stories, it seemed that his hypothesis was right to a certain extent. Now that they knew the reason they passed the first audition, everyone fell into contemplation. In an audition, where they were supposed to be evaluated on their acting skills, the first screening was based on the ‘waiting look’ in the lobby instead. Since the situation was rather incomprehensible, Maru understood that they were thinking about it.

“If you want to talk, let’s move inside somewhere. The sun’s hot. The café from before is crowded, so what about that place?”

Maru looked at another café with two floors. Since this street had a lot of cafés, there shouldn’t be a lot of people going to the 2nd floor to enjoy their coffee time. The woman replied ‘okay’ immediately before taking the lead. Everyone entered the café like little ducklings following the mother duck. Just as Maru had expected, there weren’t a lot of people. It was a perfect place to hold a conversation.

“Why do you think they did that?” the woman asked.

Maru just shrugged when everyone looked at him. He had nothing to respond with even if they looked at him. He only found out about the screening process, and not the intention behind it.

“Is there anyone here who has ties to the producer of the one-act play?”

The man who was listening to music in the lobby had asked everyone. Replies all came at once - no. There was no one who knew the producer. Maru found out about this audition through Ganghwan, but he had no information about the producer. Come back alive - that was the only clue he gave him.

“What are they trying to do here? Are they trying to make fun of people?”

“They should have their intentions.”

“In any case, I can clearly see that the producer definitely conforms to the norms. Do you know how confused I was when I saw a single chair when I opened the door? Moreover, how could they notify us through a video? I’m sure the producer doesn’t have the slightest bit of manners,” said a man with curly hair.

He was the guy who had his eyes closed and was unbudging back in the lobby. The curly haired man chatted about the unfairness of the audition to the point that it made Maru wonder how he stayed silent while he was waiting. When he did that for about 3 minutes, everyone seemed to have gotten annoyed and started fidgeting, and only then did the man stop talking. Maru leaned back against his chair and sent Gaeul a message. I passed a weird audition.

“In any case, I hope we can cheer for each other.”

The small girl who was always at the tail, whether it was going inside the restaurant, or coming to the café, spoke. As her voice was small, even Maru had a hard time listening to her even though he was right next to her. The girl looked around her before making an awkward smile and lowering her head.

“Isn’t only one of us going to pass anyway? I think it’d be somewhat funny to cheer for each other,” said the woman who always took the lead.

The girl looked around before chuckling and nodding. Maru looked at the people seated in a circle through the corner of his eyes before picking up his teacup. The woman’s words seemed to have provoked the wariness within them as they all kept touching the teacups with their mouths shut. They seemed to have forgotten since they ate lunch together, but right now, they were in a competitive relationship vying for one spot.

“What do you think the 2nd interview is?” wondered the boy in a school uniform.

They did not talk to each other because they were conscious of one another, but they seemed to feel that this topic was worth discussing as they started talking immediately. The one who started off was naturally the woman who always took the lead.

“This time, they should be looking at acting.”

She had done away with the polite speech now. No one objected to it though. She was in her mid-twenties from a glance, clearly the oldest in the group.

“I heard this when I was recommended for this audition, but apparently, the director for this one-act play has a terrible personality.”

“I think I heard that too.”

“Me too.”

It seemed that the bad rumors about this producer were quite widespread. Ganghwan’s words became more and more credible. He also had the thought that the strange interview wouldn’t just end with the first round. Just as they had come up with predictions about the 2nd audition, their phones all rang at the same time. All six people here grabbed their phones.

“They want us back now,” Maru said.

Chapter 643

“Let’s go for now.”

Maru picked up his bag and stood up. Even though it wasn’t 2 p.m. yet, they got the message to gather as though the schedule was pulled forward. On the way back, Maru observed the group who went ahead of him. The order they walked in seemed to have settled as the woman with sharp eyes took the lead, followed by the earphone man, the one in school uniform, the chatterbox, and then the small girl with a foolish smile on her face. There was no change to the order, and every conversation started from the front and flowed to the back. Not once did it go the other way round. Even a band of marching soldiers would be more free than this. Maru left the group. The woman at the front glared at him slightly. He replied back with a smile.

When they arrived, the only one waiting in the lobby was the woman at the front desk. It seemed that the rest of the applicants had returned. What was different was that the woman was now wearing a baggy t-shirt and jeans instead of a black office suit. There was a large clock drawn in the middle of her t-shirt, and two hands were grabbing the hour hand and the minute hand respectively. It couldn’t be said to be a good design, even as a joke.

“Did you have a good meal?”

Hearing the woman ask, they all replied ‘yes’, ‘well’, ‘it was so so’ and other vague answers. Maru did not reply.

“Shall we go inside?”

The woman at the desk led them to the room where they took the audition in the morning. Other than the fact that there were six chairs inside instead of one, nothing had changed.

“Please sit down in order.”

If the order was the order they entered the room, the woman with sharp eyes should sit at the very right, but she looked around once before sitting in the middle. It seemed that she had done some calculations. Maru went to the seat on the far right which she should have sat on. After everyone sat down. The desk lady sat down at the table in front of them.

“I should introduce myself first, right? My name is Yoo Jayeon and I work for the drama department at YBS.”

Maru nodded. One of the topics they talked about at the café was her identity. As everyone predicted that she had a direct relation to the audition, no one was surprised when she revealed herself to be the producer.

“I was put in charge of a late-night one-act play, and all of you are here in order to participate in it. Some of you might have seen the information about this audition through your acting schools, and perhaps some might have found out through other means. I’ll say this beforehand, but please don’t ask me to take care of you because you’re close to someone. I hate those people.”

Jayeon took out her ID card for the TV station and put it around her neck.

“Everyone here should be in a similar place as me. I have to produce a good work in order to prove my skills, and everyone here has to prove their worth by shooting a good piece. Am I right?”

As it wasn’t a question that was looking for an answer, Maru stayed quiet. Jayeon then stood up and sat on the table.

“You know why you passed the first audition, right?”

“To a certain extent,” replied the woman with sharp eyes.

“Miss Park Minjoo, correct?”

“Yes, that’s me.”

“You were reading this acting school’s brochure, right?”

“I was.”

“What did you feel when the man who finished the audition first, left the school looking angry?”

“I thought that he was lacking in both skill and manners.”

“Is the fact that you weren’t disturbed based on your confidence?”

“Yes. I thought that there was no need for me to mind what someone who failed should do.”

“I like that mindset.”

Minjoo replied confidently. It wasn’t just her eyes, her words were razor-sharp as well. She only said what was necessary. It seemed that she knew how to score points.

“Miss Lee Haejung, you were reading a script, right?”

“Yes.”

The small woman, Haejung, replied in a small voice.

“I’ll give you the same question. What did you feel when the man left the place looking angry? Also, what was the reason you kept reading the script without being disturbed? Everyone else, please think about an answer as well. I’ll be asking the same question.”

Haejung, who expressed her nervousness by sucking her lips in, finally spoke.

“Actually, I didn’t know about it. When I raised my head because of the noise, everyone was looking at the entrance nervously. I often get that I’m quite dense.”

“I see. Okay, then. Then what was that script for? Your next audition?”

“Eh? The next audition? N-no, it’s just the script of a film I like.”

“What did you feel when other applicants left the place looking angry just like the ones before them? Did you not notice them too?”

“No, I had found out by then. They left with scary-looking faces, so I was actually really nervous.”

“But you didn’t look nervous to me.”

“Uhm, I kept looking at the script in order to not get nervous. That’s probably why I didn’t look nervous. That’s probably what happened.”

Unlike Minjoo’s clean and confident answer, Haejung’s answer was quite slow and shy in contrast. Jayeon nodded in understanding and then turned her head to the next person. It was the earphone man.

“What about you, Mr. Park Taemin?”

“I usually don’t mind what’s going on around me when I take auditions. I just listen to music and organize in my head what I need to do. When the man left, I just thought ‘okay, cool’. There are people who can’t hold back their emotions wherever you go.”

“Didn’t you feel strange when every single applicant left looking angry?”

“I just thought that there were many weird people. There is no need for me to be assimilated with them and get angry too.”

“Good. I like that attitude. Next is, Mr. Koo Jiyeop?”

It was the man who had his eyes closed. He was also the man who had turned into a chatterbox at the café.

“I was half-asleep so I didn’t quite notice. I did see someone barging out, but I just didn’t mind because it was none of my business. It was the same when other people were staring at the audition room. Rather than being worried about something like that, it’s much better to wait with your eyes closed, don’t you think so?”

He sounded rather cocky, but his conversation style suited his unique expression. Though, he was the type that people would get fed up with after a while.

“You don’t seem to get nervous that often, do you?”

“Nervous? Nervousness gets me nowhere. I need to have leisure when I prepare so that I won’t narrow my vision. Isn’t that for the best?”

“You’re entirely right. That attitude of yours is really good.”

Jayeon put her thumb up. Jiyeop’s shoulders jerked up and down as though he was being notified of his passing already.

“How did you feel, Mr. Kang Manjin? I saw that you were reading a book.”

The question was directed to the one in the school uniform.

“Actually, I was quite worried because this is my third audition. I usually don’t get nervous, but I get really nervous whenever I’m waiting for an audition. When the man barged out, I was nervous to the point that I had a hard time calming down. I was wondering what happened inside that made him so angry. Reading a book is something I do to regain my calm. Though, it sometimes doesn’t work.”

“If you were so worried, you must have been concerned about the audition room too. I’m surprised you didn’t look there.”

“I did look, though, it was just once. But everyone kept staring at it and I found that a little bad. Since it had started already, I thought that calming my nervousness was more important than focusing on that room, so that’s why I focused on my book.”

Jayeon nodded without saying anything.

“How about you, Mr. Han Maru?”

Before he answered, he went through his thoughts. This woman intentionally caused an event and personally appeared at the event to observe. She finished the first interview using the trivial actions the applicants took in a given situation. She was proactive, calculative, and had no hesitation in her judgement. This short question-and-answer session should not end with just finding out what the applicant was like. Perhaps this might very well be the 2nd interview. Even the 1st interview was done in secrecy, was it not? He had to be open to possibilities. Considering that this was the 2nd interview, what did producer Jayeon want? What was this producer trying to find out through these questions that made it seem like she was re-confirming what she saw with her eyes?

She’s picking a doll who she can move as she wishes - those words suddenly popped up inside his head. Maru instantly realized the source of those words that appeared regardless of his thought process. It was the man with a weird preference for masks that lived in his body.

“Mr. Han Maru?”

The producer crossed her arms and looked his way. It wasn’t that she was urging him to speak, but a late answer would not score highly with her. He tried talking to the guy that existed inside him, but there was no reply. That fellow was quite rude, just saying what he wanted before disappearing. However, the answer he produced was something very much to his liking. The thing she wanted to find out through the 1st interview was probably concentration ability. The ability to not be shaken by any external forces and continue on with their work. That was different. Maru thought that he should quickly note that he was aware of the situation.

“When the man barged out, I was a little worried. I was also a little curious about what was happening.”

“But you didn’t show it on your face, did you? You looked like you were reading the brochure, before thinking about something very deeply as though you were meditating.”

“I just thought about what could be happening; about why he rushed out and why he looked angry. But nothing came to mind, so I decided to do things I can do.”

“Doing things you can do is definitely good. But why did you not place any interest in the audition room? If you were concerned, don’t you think it’s normal to look that way like the other people? Or was it that you didn’t want to mind?”

“Allow me to give a similar answer, but there are a lot of things I can’t do. Seeing through walls is one of them. I had no way of looking inside a closed door, so I didn’t do it. If I had a way to do so, I would’ve checked. It is true that I wanted to know what was happening.”

“I see. Okay, then. Let me ask you one more thing. You noticed that I was observing people, didn’t you, Mr. Han Maru?”

“Yes.”

He didn’t avoid her eyes and looked at her directly, so it wouldn’t make sense to say that he didn’t notice.

“Then why didn’t you ask anything?” the producer asked as she looked down.

She had also turned her body around as well before touching the paper on the table and writing some things with a pen. Her entire body seemed to be screaming that it was a question she asked without meaning. With that, however, Maru became sure that this was the most important question.

“Because I thought you’d take care of everything. Also, I didn’t know what to ask either.”

He faintly smiled while scratching his eyebrows. Jayeon had her body turned around, but for some reason, Maru felt like she was scanning him from top to bottom.

“I see. Good. Thank you for your answer. Then before we start, let me get some things sorted out.”

Jayeon picked up her paper and turned around.

“Mr. Park Taemin, Mr. Koo Jiyeop.”

“Yes.”

“Yes.”

“Thank you for your effort. You may go now,” Jayeon said as she pointed at the door with her finger while her eyes were fixed on the paper.

The two men didn’t say anything for a while before realizing that they were given the hot potato and raised their voices. The one who spoke first was Taemin.

“Producer, what do you mean by that?”

“I regret to inform you that you don’t fit with us. I hope we can meet in better circumstances another time. A time that isn’t today.”

“What do you mean by that? We didn’t do anything, so how do you know that we fit or not?”

“I do.”

Jayeon sounded firm as though there was no need to talk about it. Jiyeop’s lips went on rapidfire like a camera shutter during burst mode.

“The reason is not just. You didn’t even watch my acting yet you want me to leave? Are you sure this isn’t a rigged audition?”

“Do you think I have so much time?”

“Then why are you doing this so suddenly?”

“Because you don’t fit with us. I don’t know how great your acting skills are, Mr. Taemin, Mr. Jiyeop, since I haven’t had a look at them. I’m telling you to leave because I am sure that we won’t get along as business partners.”

“That doesn’t even make sense!”

“Then why don’t you be the producer?”

Maru looked at Jayeon, who was speaking with a smile. The words that Ganghwan said to him circled around his mind. Come back alive, come back alive… It was clear that she was definitely not an ordinary woman.

Chapter 644

“Aren’t you being a little too much?” asked Taemin, who had been keeping his calm while Jiyeop’s ears turned beet red.

“I’ll apologize if my words were a little rude. I can apologize, but I hope you can leave now. You know well that both you and I are busy people.”

“In any audition, they decide after looking at the acting. I think that’s common sense.”

“Common sense is good, but I said before, didn’t I? Mr. Jiyeop, Mr. Taemin. No matter how good you two’s acting skills are, it’s no use if you can’t get along with me. Of course, if your acting skills are on the level of Park Taeho, Choi Changhyun, or Yoon Donggil, I’d welcome you with open arms. But it isn’t, is it? Whether it’s the two of you, or me, we’re all little ducklings who haven’t made ourselves known in the industry. And for us little ducklings to survive, we need to have our own philosophies for survival. The two of you regrettably don’t fit my life philosophy nor work philosophy.”

“I think you may change your mind once you see our acting.”

“No. Good acting to a certain level isn’t good enough. I am prepared to suck up to the people who are way beyond my level, but unless it’s like that, I’m planning to match everything to myself. The only reason I didn’t use a casting director nor my connections to various managers that belong to many agencies, is just that. I will see for myself and choose those who can work together with me.”

“I think that’s not being professional.”

“Pros have their pro ways. If you’ve accepted it now, then please leave, I must continue.”

“I didn’t accept anything!”

Maru frowned as he looked at Jiyeop. His ears had turned bright red and he ended up expressing his anger in the form of words. To put it in a good way, he did what he wanted, but normally, he would be called a rampant pony who can’t look at anything around him.

“Excuse me, producer Yoo Jayeon, but you won’t be able to continue saying that to me if you know whose introduction I came here on.”

“I should’ve told you before we started, didn’t I? I hate it when people ask me to take care of them because they’re close to someone.”

“I’m not telling you to take care of me. I’m just telling you to look at me. Just how are you entitled to pick people without even looking at them?”

“So you have the confidence that I will definitely choose you if I see your acting, Mr. Jiyeop?”

“Of course I do. My acting will definitely satisfy a producer doing her first piece.”

“Really?”

“Yes.”

“But I don’t want to see. You’re giving me even more of a reason not to work with you, aren’t you? I’m picking people who're going to ‘work’ with me. That means that you have to follow my words to a certain extent. Whether you like it or not, I’m the director. Also, if you’re so confident in your skills, don’t come here and go to a large-scale project done by major companies. You must be a good actor, so I’m sure you have several scenarios you can choose from. Or, you can use that connection of yours that you told me about to go to another drama. Don’t dirty your career with a newbie producer’s work.”

“You keep getting on my nerves. Even though you’re a woman.”

He was like a train with broken brakes. Maru picked up the chair slightly and moved sideways. He didn’t want to get caught up in an explosion by being next to this guy. He also signalled Kang Manjin with his eyes. Kang Manjin also moved sideways while pulling his school uniform tight. Minjoo, who was sitting in the center, stood up and walked to the back.

In a makeshift square ring, Haejung was blinking her eyes and standing in a daze among the three people who had readied themselves for a fight. Maru signalled and gestured to Haejung to step back. Haejung came to herself and finally stepped down from the ring.

“Even though you’re a woman. I’ve become immune to those words since I heard them a lot, but I didn’t know I’d hear those words here. You think a female producer is easy to deal with, don’t you? Producers belonging to the drama department quit quite easily after all. Isn’t that right?”

Jayeon stood in front of Jiyeop. Maru thought this when she sat down on the table, she was quite tall. Jiyeop’s head was level with her eyes. Jiyeop seemed to have noticed that he had committed a mistake, but didn’t seem to have any intentions of taking his words back. After all, an apology was much harder than math formulas to a man who was filled with arrogance.

“So you have a complex with regards to being a female producer, eh? You seem triggered.”

It seemed that peace was out of reach now. Maru decided to step even further back because he didn’t want to get caught up.

“A complex, huh. Yes, that’s right. I do have a complex because I’m a woman who’s a producer. It feels refreshing to say things without thinking, doesn’t it? Now then, can you leave now?”

“You’re being wishy-washy to the end, huh. Excuse me, producer, what do you think will happen to you if rumor gets around that you’re doing your auditions like this? I think people will swear at you.”

“It’s me who gets insulted, not you, so get going. If you keep wasting my time like this, I’m not holding back.”

“What are you going to do if you aren’t going to hold back? This is why there aren’t any famous women amongst film or drama directors. They get mad at the slightest things and start grumbling. They have no patience or leeway. But that doesn’t mean they have any skill either. After all, they decide to hold such shitty auditions like this one and decide who fits them and who doesn’t.”

Jiyeop, who thought things were going well for him, didn’t even hold back now. Whenever his words hit Jayeon, her eyes twitched. Her fingers were scratching her sleeves, and her heels were tapping on the ground. Maru felt like he was looking at a ticking time bomb.

“You’re done, now, right?”

“Why do you ask? Do you finally want to have a look at my acting now?”

“Yes, I must have made a little mistake. Before that, who introduced you to this audition?”

“Why do you ask that?”

“Because I think I should give that person a greeting. That I should take things easy,” Jayeon said as she took out her phone.

Jiyeop made the arrogant smile of a victor as he spoke.

“I wonder if you know producer Lee Kangho or not. He’s in the drama department of YBS.”

“Ah, so you came here on senior Lee’s introduction.”

“You should know him because you belong to the same department, right? We would’ve never gone through this in the first place if you had some leeway, right? You don’t want your relationship with your seniors to turn bad, right, producer Yoo? I didn’t want to say this much, but producer Lee Kangho kinda dotes on me.”

While Jiyeop was talking, Jayeon was moving her fingers. She put her phone against her ear and waited for a while before speaking in a cheerful voice.

“Yes, senior. It’s me, Jayeon. Yes. Oh, seonbae, there’s something I have to say.”

Jayeon took a deep breath before speaking in a loud voice.

“Senior Lee, do you want to be at odds with me? Are you picking a fight with me? Do you want me to act nasty again? Calm down? CALM DOWN? Fuck it, do you want me to beat you up? Where are you right now? I’ll be there immediately, so let’s take off our rank stickers and fight. I said let’s fight!”

It didn’t even take 10 seconds for Jiyeop’s expression to stiffen. Jayeon hopped around everywhere like a horse stung by a wasp as she did her call. Maru had to flee to a corner. He felt like he would get a loud slap the moment his shoulder brushed with hers or something.

“Uh-uhm.”

“Shut up before I kick you in the balls.”

The arrogant Jiyeop quietened down. Jayeon’s phone call continued for around one more minute. Jayeon’s rampaging movements then calmed down, and her hair also stopped fluttering like a lion’s mane. She raised her voice to the point that even a marketplace salesman would concede defeat, and now she returned to her calm and polite voice. When Maru saw that, he was sweating. Perhaps he should quit the audition here?

“Yes, yes, senior. Of course. You know I like you, right? Buy me a drink later. I’m a great drinking friend, aren’t I? Also, you know that I was shouting at you because I love you, right? It’s definitely not because I was angry. It’s just me acting cute.”

Jayeon looked at Jiyeop before looking away.

“But this Jiyeop kid, you didn’t send him to me to annoy me, did you? I know that there’s no way you would do that, but I’m asking just in case. You know my nickname, the nasty bitch, so there’s no way you’d try to annoy someone like me. Yes, yes. Then why don’t you give him a call? I’ll help you out a lot as a B-team later.”

Snapping her phone shut, Jayeon looked at Jiyeop. A moment later, Jiyeop’s phone rang. To Maru’s ears, it sounded more gloomy than a requiem.

“Hello?”

Jiyeop’s face turned visibly darker by the second after picking up the call. His upright waist turned curved like a shrimp and he bowed before leaving the audition room just like that. Jayeon’s head turned around to Taemin this time. Taemin did not say anything and just left after picking his stuff up.

“Finally, we got rid of the trash. There’s something I forgot to say when I was introducing myself. I have quite a potty mouth. When I was a newbie, I was called a ‘bitch with a rag in her mouth’, and these days, I’m just called a nasty bitch. I must have spent a splendid company life, right?”

Jayeon stretched her arms out.

“If there’s any of you who’s not willing to work together, then the door is open, so you can take your leave. Doing work with the people you want. It’s a very important thing, you know?”

Jayeon looked around as though she was seeking affirmation. Maru neither expressed his agreement nor disagreement. If it wasn’t for Ganghwan’s introduction; if he didn’t say that she was a capable producer, he would’ve stood up and left. While he understood her work ethics and her methods, working with an oddball meant that he would very likely end up physically and mentally tired. He wasn’t in a position where he could choose who he could work with, but he wasn’t desperate enough to jump into a sea of thorns either. A person who introduced herself as a ‘bitch with a rag in her mouth’ or a ‘nasty bitch’ wouldn’t have just any ordinary thorns, she would have poisonous ones.

“No one’s leaving, right?”

No one stood up when she asked. Maru also maintained his seat. A skilled producer. If that was true, then it was worth rolling around in thorns. So what if he bled a little? He could become famous.

“Good. Then for now, I’ll tell you the reason I picked you. I want to know those who know what’s going on around them. At the same time, they must also have a concentration that would not budge even if a fire started next to them.”

So she wants a superhuman, huh. Maru imagined Jayeon shouting her lungs out at the shooting set. The fact that it suited her scared him a little. Don’t exaggerate just because of a 3rd degree burn. Die after you do the last scene - Jayeon looked like she would say such things without holding back.

“Since the two wussies - oh, let me use a more polite word - idiots took up some time, we’ll start the audition immediately. Everyone here has had lunch, right?”

“Yes.”

“Good. From now on, you have to show me your eating act. Think about what you ate for lunch, copy that and recreate it here.”

“Eating act?”

Minjoo raised her hand and asked for confirmation. She looked like she must have heard wrong or something. Jayeon said ‘yes’ with a refreshing smile to turn her suspicion into confidence.

“I don’t know what to show you by eating.”

“Don’t think too hard about it. For now, think about what happened during lunch and recreate that scene right here. How was the atmosphere of the restaurant? What other customers were there? What caught your eyes? How was the food? It’s only been 30 minutes so don’t tell me that you forgot. I despise disappointing answers like that.”

“Is that all we have to show you?”

“Yes. I may ask you to do some other things midway, but for now, that’s all you have to do.”

“If it’s not too rude, can I ask why it has to be eating?”

“Oh, I guess I didn’t explain that. Sorry about that. The two idiots made me forget about the most important thing.”

Jayeon sat on the table again before speaking.

“The set we’re going to do the one-act play on is a pojang-macha.”

“A pojang-macha?”

“A space decorated in orange, and the place where you can experience the most of your life’s joys and sorrows. Why do you think I allocated the time so that you could eat? It’s to see your eating acts. Well, then, if you got it, let’s begin.”

Actually, wait a sec - Jayeon left after adding those words before bringing back a blue plastic table. It was a square one with bits and pieces burnt in black from cigarette ash. It was like the definition of a pojang-macha table.

“Let’s have a look then, shall we? At how tasty you can make the food out to be.”

Chapter 645

“Yes, writer. Then see you this evening. Yes, yes. That place sounds good.”

Park Hoon threw his phone and shouted hooray. His work was now finally on track. Once things went according to plan, it wouldn’t be a dream to start airing by the end of the year. Although the drama times were full for this winter, there were times where things didn’t go well for some of them, so he could use that opportunity. He grabbed his mouse and double clicked on the plan document icon on his desktop. The scripting was going well. To a producer, their work was like their child, and as the creator, he would think that it was very pretty, but the thing he was working on this time was actually pretty enough to participate in the Miss Korea contest. Since the writer gave birth to a pretty piece, the producer had the responsibility to put that child on the stage. If the script symbolized the skill of the writer, the plan was the barometer that measured the producer’s skill. No matter how good the script was, if the plan was like an elementary schooler’s diary, it would never see the light of day. As he was staring at the black text on a white background looking for things to fix, he saw Lee Kangho, who had gone out to smoke, return to his seat while ripping out his hair.

“Did you swallow your cig or something? That was quick.”

“I didn’t get to smoke at all because of a phone call I got.”

“A phone call?”

“This is gonna be an unlucky day today.”

“Didn’t I tell you? I told you not to do bad things. Which police branch is it? Do they want you to come right now? Or is it the bank asking you to pay back your interest?”

“I’d be happy if it was one of those right now.”

“Then who was the phone call from? Your wife?”

“Yoo Jayeon.”

The moment he heard that name, Park Hoon could sympathize with Kangho’s pain. Some of the producers belonging to the drama department at YBS would shiver in fear when they heard the name ‘Yoo Jayeon’ and Kangho was one of them. Even chief producer Cha and president Jung would helplessly tell her to put down her teacup before calming her down. The members of the drama department knew that an angry rhino was supposed to be avoided, not blocked.

“What did she say?”

“You know she’s doing the one-act play, right?”

“Right, it’s her first work, isn’t it? She gets to do her own work just 3 years after entering the company huh. I gotta say, she has some skill.”

“I sometimes forget because of her personality, but her skills are really goddamn good.”

“So what does her debut piece got to do with her shitting on you?”

“I thought I’d try to help her out as a senior, but I ended up getting a scolding instead.”

“Hey, do you like Jayeon? Otherwise, why would you try to help out that crazy girl?”

“Hey, I’m married, don’t go saying weird stuff. Also, I admit that Jayeon has the looks and the body figure, but what good is all that? She’s a different species. Humans and aliens can’t fall in love with each other.”

“Calling her an alien is putting her in a good way. At least aliens are classified as humanoids. In my opinion, she’s closer to a reptile. You know, maybe a tyrannosaurus rex or a triceratops.”

“Can I tell her what you said?”

“Sure, if you want me to barge into your house at night with a knife in hand.”

Kangho rubbed his face.

“I had my plans. I was planning to help her out this one time and was going to take her next bitching off, but looks like I was too complacent. I forgot about that woman’s eyes.”

“What did you do?”

“I sent in an actor I know of. He’s pretty decent, but it looks like he said a word to Jayeon.”

“What did he say?”

“Even though you’re a woman - that.”

“Hey, is the guy that said those words still alive? Are you sure he’s not encased in concrete and thrown into the sea?”

“For now, she just sent him back. Though, I can’t be sure of that ‘just sent’ part.”

Kangho sighed. He collapsed on his desk without saying anything else. Kangho was the grim reaper to the new producers and was a strict senior to the juniors, but in front of Jayeon, he was just a feeble senior.

“You should’ve thought things through. You know how much she screens the people she works with. I got to know the term ‘human allergy’ thanks to her.’”

Jayeon was someone who refused to even eat together with the people she didn’t like. She wouldn’t even talk to someone if that person got on her nerves. She never made compromises. Her likes and dislikes were too distinct. Above all, she was a ‘crazy bitch’. The ‘crazy’ of ‘crazy bitch’ included many concepts that only the people of the drama department would understand. It even included the meaning of respect.

“Is Jayeon coming back to the company today?”

“She said she’s doing the audition herself, so she’ll probably come back once that’s done.”

“Lee Kangho, don’t talk to me today. I’m not going down with you.”

Park Hoon stood up and clapped. The members of the drama department, who were working, all looked at him.

“Today, our beloved Kangho has gotten on Yoo Jayeon’s nerves. Keep that in mind and avoid him at all costs. I won’t take responsibility if you get caught up in the storm just because you talked to him. Oh, chief producer Cha, you just came. Don’t get involved with Kangho today, hyung-nim. Jayeon is getting ready to tear him apart.”

Chief producer Cha, who had just walked in with a magazine in his arms, nodded before going to his seat. The other producers also looked at Kangho with pity before taking their eyes off him.

“Should I take the afternoon off?”

“She’d probably go to your house if you do that. She’ll probably team up with your wife to tear you apart. Can you handle that?”

“No, I definitely can’t. But rather than that, Park Hoon, you were grinning when I came in. It looks like things are going well for you, huh?”

“It’s going so well that I’m wondering if it’s okay to be this smooth. I can’t believe that she’s a first time writer for scripts. The distribution of cuts and time is just that exceptional. The description of the character’s psychology is good too, and the background is good as well. I will have to work my ass off in order to find a suitable shooting location, but it’s been quite a while since text alone got me so excited.”

“That’s because you have a reassuring ally named Lee Hanmi. Do you know how hard I tried to work with her? And yet she won’t even look my way. You won’t know how much I cried when she told me that she was working with you the last time I called her.”

“Thankfully the writer I’m working with is close friends with writer Lee. Thanks to that, I have no problems with the script. It’s all going smoothly.”

“You are lucky, you know that?”

“I do. Now, I just need to get this proposal approved and pray that one of the winter series goes bust.”

“Hey, wishing your colleague does bad doesn’t sound that good.”

“You know that we can’t all have the good stuff. Only if I slip up will you be able to do your work, and only if you slip off will the juniors be able to take your position.”

“I have never created a hit piece yet. Stop cursing me.”

“You’re gonna get stabbed in the back if you say that even though you hit 30% viewership for a program already. No, wait. I guess you’d get stabbed by Jayeon anyway.”

Park Hoon looked at his friend before sending a text: Good luck finding good actors in the audition and I hope you the best in your work. Hm, it was a flawless text. Since she was apparently angry because of Kangho, her bitching would probably avoid him if he sent a message cheering her on right now. A moment later, Jayeon sent a text back. Senior, I don’t bite just anyone.

“What a good instinct.”

Park Hoon shrugged before putting his phone down. She doesn’t bite ‘just’ anyone, meaning that she will bite ‘someone’.

“Lee Kangho, good luck running away.”

That crazy junior of his would definitely keep her word once she said it.

* * *

“Yes, that’s enough. Is there anything else you want to show?”

“What do you mean by anything else?”

“I mean about the act you just did.”

“Should I try the eating act again?”

“No, looks like there’s no need to have a look from what you’re saying. It’s okay,” Jayeon said.

Minjoo, who was acting, made a bitter expression as she stood up. Jayeon fiddled with her phone before looking at the next person. It was Manjin. He took off his uniform top before sitting down. He looked at the blue table before giving a glance at Jayeon.

“You may begin whenever you’re ready.”

“Yes.”

“Also, Miss Minjoo, you can get going now.”

When Minjoo was about to object, Jayeon put her index finger on her lips. Manjin was starting his act.

Maru focused. Minjoo’s acting couldn’t be considered exceptional, but she wasn’t lacking either. It was relatively decent, but Jayeon was fiddling with her phone the entire time Minjoo was acting. There was a time she even took her eyes off Minjoo and smiled while looking at the phone. Minjoo, who failed to get her acting evaluated and was ignored, tried to exaggerate her motions in order to attract Jayeon’s eyes, but even that didn’t end up working. Minjoo’s audition started off silently and ended silently. Jayeon didn’t even tell her ‘thank you for coming’. Just what did she not like about Minjoo’s act? There were a lot of elements Maru could think of, but he couldn’t say which was the right one.

This was why Manjin’s act was important. With two samples, he would have an easier time figuring out Jayeon’s preferences. Once he listened to what Jayeon had to say to Manjin and compared that to Minjoo’s act, he would probably decide on the direction of his act.

Manjin sniffed as though there was a warm gukbap placed in front of him. He fanned with his hand and inhaled deeply before picking up his spoon. He picked up the rice bowl before dunking the rice into the soup. It was enough to know how Manjin acted when he ate during the day. He shook the spoon within the bowl before taking a big scoop. He widened his eyes to express the joy of eating before putting the imaginary spoon in his mouth. He moved his jaws to chew before swallowing exaggeratedly to the point that his Adam's apple was moving. Fuu, after exhaling in satisfaction, he smiled.

“Okay, you can stop. Is there anything else you want to show me?”

It was the same question as the one she gave Minjoo. Manjin couldn’t reply immediately and thought about it. He should have also noticed that the situation was repeating. Minjoo was unable to answer this question, and as a result of that, had to leave.

“Can I ask what you want to see from me again, producer?”

Manjin replied with a question. Jayeon then answered that question without showing any dissatisfaction.

“I said everything that I want to see before. Think about it carefully. If you don’t remember, you can rest a bit.”

“Then can I have some time to think?”

“Of course, you can. I can give that much consideration to a person who asks the right question. Meanwhile, next. Mr. Han Maru, it’s your turn. Miss Lee Haejung, you are the last one, so you know that you have to do better than the rest, right?”

After gazing at Haejung, who clearly seemed nervous, once, Maru sat in front of Jayeon. Jayeon said that she had said everything she wanted to see. Maru thought about Jayeon’s words. While she said she wanted to see an eating act, she did not place her emphasis on the act of eating alone. The mood of the restaurant, what caught their eyes. What other customers were there.

Maru looked at the blue table that Jayeon brought. That table was a trap. It was a device that restricted the range of thinking by making the actors think that it was the stage. No one agreed to the scope of the stage, but the two before him started off their acts by sitting in the chair. Their thoughts couldn’t escape the frame.

He understood what he had to do. The most important thing was to expand the stage. If he didn’t limit himself to the blue table, he could use the entire room as the set. If he turned the table, which acted as the stage until now, into a mere prop, he would have a much broader scope of acting to do.

Maru did not go to the blue table. Instead, he stood quite far away. There was a limited thing he could do when he ‘ate’. Why he decided to eat at that place, what the atmosphere was like, what he thought as he ate. He took away the spotlight from the act of eating itself and placed more emphasis on the story. Of course, the eating act was important, but it couldn’t be the main dish. At most, it was an appetizer.

Maru decided to start by looking inside the restaurant. The memories and emotions of his past that he was reminded of during lunch, would become splendid ingredients for his acting. Injecting his previous life into his acting was a method he already used before. He had the confidence to do well. However, he didn’t plan to do well. If he stopped at just subliming his past experiences into his acting, he wouldn’t have a long acting career. The current Han Maru had to reinterpret the emotions that he brought out from the past. As there was a middle process, acting it out would become that much more complex, but if he could do so, his skill as an actor would rise by a level.

“You may begin when you’re ready,” Jayeon said.

Chapter 646

What he found out through some of his experiences with auditions was that the producers, casting directors, and the majority of the staff were actually quite lax. They did not ask pressuring questions like they were interviewing, nor did they urge the participant to start acting. If they delayed the whole thing without reason, the organizers would naturally warn that participant, but most of the time, if the participant asked for some time, they would allow it. That was because the organizers knew that acting wasn’t a standardized thing like injection-molded plastic.

“Can I get into the right emotions after thinking a bit?”

“If that’s necessary for your acting, then sure. But don’t make me wait too much. You know that my expectations will become bigger the longer I wait, right?”

There were thorns in her soft words. Maru accelerated his thought process. Just as Jayeon said, her score of him would become lower the longer she had to wait.

Maru started sketching. Since he didn’t start sitting down, he had to decide on a general movement path. Delicate acting was the combination of the expression of emotions that provoked sympathy, as well as the rationale to assign those expressions to their right timings. Too much emotional expression would make the act lose context while being full of rationale would make it look dry. Actors had to construct a building with the ever-changing emotions using the blueprint known as the script. That was why the majority of the good actors were smart.

Maru, who thought of a design and also thought about the middle point of his act, took a deep breath before drawing the finale in his mind. Starting well would win half of the battle, but that also meant that a half-assed finish would mean the result would be half-assed as well. He played the short skit in his mind from beginning to end. He couldn’t say that it was perfect, but it was definitely satisfactory.

“I’ll begin now.”

In his declaration was a trigger for himself. Just like inserting and turning the key to the car would start the car, Maru felt that his own words were revving up the engine of acting within him. That sound was enough to awaken a certain man who slumbered within him. He could feel that the guy had opened his eyes slightly. Maru offered his place on the stage, but he refused. It seemed that he was only going to move after being fired up a little more.

Maru didn’t ask anymore either. It wasn’t that he was in need of his help. The true worth of the masked man would only appear in an act with violent fluctuations in emotions to the point that reason could be abandoned. Right now, he had to inject his past into this acting and put on a more delicate type of act, so it would be better if Maru himself stepped up. The only reason he offered the guy his place on stage was to see how much he could negotiate with the guy. When he couldn’t feel the guy’s conscience before, he just called him the ‘red guy’ and did as he wished, but ever since Maru realized that he was a completely different entity unto himself, Maru was no longer able to call him out as he wished to. In order to work together with the guy, who only voiced out his opinion from time to time from a corner of his heart, he would need to set up a reward and negotiate with him.

He loosened his jaws. He also relaxed his shoulders. Becoming nervous would make a person tense, and conversely, relaxing would resolve that nervousness as well. It was a trivial but necessary trick to use.

He stood in front of the imaginary door with a lightened body. He started off by looking inside the door. He looked back on what happened during lunch. The two gukbap restaurants were facing each other. That in itself wasn’t that interesting, but a highschool student hesitating between the two definitely would. If he sublimed his memories with his father into the process of selecting one of the restaurants, that interest just might turn into focus. The figure of a necktie-wearing father going to work would provoke the tear glands of everyone in the world, but it was rather common, so it might look a little boring. Then what about a father who drove a bus for a living? It might feel like a familiar subject, but it also might become an element of interest to the audience who did not know the reality of that occupation.

Everything was something he experienced himself, but Maru decided to borrow his father’s name here. That was reasonable enough, so the only thing left was to show it through his acting.

Maru, who was wandering between the two restaurants, eventually chose one of the restaurants.

“Yes, hello there.”

There was no one there, but he strongly believed that someone was there as he made his greeting. He felt like the annoyed restaurant owner’s voice could be heard. He pulled his chair out and sat down. He could see Jayeon’s eyes fixed on him. He blew those ink-black eyes out of his consciousness and continued on with his acting. After all, Jayeon didn’t exist in the gukbap restaurant.

He did exactly the things he did during lunch as though he was going over a prior chess match. His actions before the gukbap came out - he crossed his legs and put his locked hands on his knees. He listened in on the taxi driver’s laments next to him. He was saying that he had a fight with a drunk customer during broad daylight. Maru didn’t look into the void, he actually pictured the taxi driver and looked right at him. He then turned his head left. Three men wearing paint-colored work outfits were just focusing on eating the gukbap without talking. It was as though they believed that talking while eating was a sin and scraped the bottom of the bowl as though it was their worst enemy. Creak creak - when Maru reminded himself of the screeching sound, his body reacted by itself. To Jayeon, neither the taxi driver nor the three men in work outfits would be visible. However, she should have felt that something or someone was there. He left her to deduce and continued with his acting. The focus was on eating, not the other customers inside the restaurant.

A boiling gukbap was placed in front of him. Maru looked at the gukbap before shaking the rice bowl, which had a lid on it. He grabbed the silver-colored stainless steel bowl and shook it up and down before tilting it and pouring the contents into the soup bowl. He did not exaggerate anything. He just repeated what he did during lunch. He did not stuff his nose into the bowl to smell it, nor did he look down at it with a blissful expression. He just picked up his spoon and fixed his gaze on the TV hanging on the wall. A baseball match between The Eunsung Dragons and The Joogook Eagles was showing. He decluttered the rice grains with his spoon and put a piece of cubed radish kimchi into the bowl. He then ate it. He opened his eyes and focused his eyes on the TV as his mouth mechanically chewed on the food.

Having meals was important. If this ugeoji gukbap was something he ate after days of starving, he would look at it as though he was blessed, become touched, and might have even prayed to god in appreciation. On the other hand, a normal meal was, while important, frequent as well. Since it happened very frequently, no one would focus on the motion of chewing. The ugeoji gukbap was, while tasty, nothing special, and had no worth beyond being food. He simply chewed and simply swallowed. He did not bestow any meaning to eating beyond just eating. Maru just slowly picked up some side dishes and scooped up the gukbap.

When half of the gukbap was left in his imagination, Maru thought about the past. The memories of his previous life. He remembered the ugeoji gukbap that supported the mornings of a bus driver in his forties. He took out the gukbap, which had a bland taste but had a wonderful spice known as cheap price and put it on the table. It was something he had experienced himself, but he was going to package it differently now, as something that his father had experienced; that it was something he had heard from him.

He did not make a depressed face. He did not bite his spoon and frown either. He just looked at the gukbap for a long time. He rolled over the cubed radish kimchi and reminded himself of the chilly early morning wind, and reminded himself of the taste of the cheap coffee that he drank. Gukbap was a bridge that connected his present life to the previous one. There was a memory in each rice grain inside the oily soup: when he had to apologize to the passengers for the broken air conditioner, when he had a hard time because the schedule was messed up during winter, when he was insulted by a youth that he didn’t know the name of, as well as the faces of the people who offered him a cold drink for his efforts.

That happened huh - a smile briefly appeared on his face before disappearing. Maru tilted the bowl and scraped the rice inside. After putting every last grain in his mouth, he had a momentary look at the TV. A home run - he said as he wiped the sweat below his nose.

He stood up from his seat and called out to the owner. He handed over the money before taking out a mint candy from the plastic container next to the cashier’s desk. He put it in his mouth before leaving the restaurant. Feeling saliva gathering below his tongue, Maru turned around to look at Jayeon.

“That’s it.”

“Sit down again.”

Jayeon pointed at the chair without giving him any time. Maru sat down on the chair.

“What was in the restaurant that made you choose this one?”

“There was a taxi driver and some construction workers. There was also a savory smell as well. My father always said that if you want a thick-tasting gukbap, you should go to the restaurant where people wearing work outfits go.”

“Good, okay then. Overall, the drive behind your acting was pretty decent. It almost became a little boring, but the smile you showed midway changed the atmosphere. What was the meaning behind that smile? I thought you were looking somewhere other than the present.”

“I was watching a baseball match while eating gukbap during lunch when my father’s words came to mind. He liked ugeoji gukbap a lot. No, rather than saying he liked it, I guess he just ate so much of it, that he came to like it. It was gukbap that he ate while working.”

Jayeon nodded her head in understanding. Maru, who was preparing to explain further, could not do so because Jayeon didn’t ask any more questions.

“That gaze, I loved that gaze of yours. Do you see that I’m really excited right now? That’s precisely the kind of act I wanted. The joys and sorrows of life, and then a pojang macha.”

Jayeon smacked her hand on the table and jumped around in joy. She walked around the audition room and clicked her fingers several times before returning to her original position while heaving out a deep breath.

“Mr. Han Maru, was it?”

“Yes.”

“You’re mine now. Don’t think about going anywhere else. You gotta work with me. Oh, right. There was one more person.”

Jayeon looked at Lee Haejung, who was waiting on one side.

“Are you ready, Miss Haejung?”

“Eh? Ah, yes.”

Haejung calmly walked over. Maru stood up from his seat and moved back. Since it looked like he passed, he just had to wait calmly now.

Haejung took several deep breaths before starting her act. Just like the two before, she ordered an ugeoji gukbap before starting to eat. Her act was something easier on the eyes. She did not cheer out loud or make a big deal about it. It seemed that she also didn’t bestow any meaning to eating beyond just eating.

Maru observed her acting in detail. Generally, shy people were sensitive to those around them. Their sharp radars, if used in the right way, would become an ability that would suck in information from around them. To an actor, it was a treasure-like ability. Like him, she also put a lot of detail into her acting. She tried expressing the appearances of the other applicants who were sitting with her and even showed what was placed on the table. Good - Maru inwardly shouted. She had gotten the form down to a certain extent. The only thing left now was to burst it out. An act that was too unified would not look fun. It was about time to spice things up.

Haejung put down the gukbap bowl and finished her act. Jayeon looked at Haejung for about five seconds before speaking.

“Is that all?”

“Yes.”

“Your acting was pretty good, but do you know what you lack?”

“I don’t.”

“Drama.”

“What?”

“There’s no drama in your act. What does acting exist for? Is it fine if you just imitate doing something? Of course not. If it’s just taking form, even a machine can do it. Drama, a human’s act needs drama. Of course, I’m not saying that you did bad, Haejung. I just find it a little lacking. You are a hundred, a thousand times better than the failures before you. If you develop your acting brain a little more, you will become a great actress.”

It was a compliment. Haejung, who had shrunken up, finally smiled shyly.

“Two people, huh. I guess that’s a decent harvest. Oh, Mr. Manjin, you can go now. Also, take Miss Minjoo over there with you. Before you go, if you would allow me to give you a tip, don’t overreact. Did you really eat like that when you ate food? You exclaimed at the taste of the food and moaned whenever you picked up a side dish? Think about it carefully. Sometimes, exaggeration is necessary, but that is usually for dramatic expression which doesn’t happen normally. I’m saying this because you show promise. I hope you can improve your skill and meet me again at a later date.”

Her tongue was really relentless and merciless.

Chapter 647

“I’ll give you a call, so see you then.”

Maru turned around to look at the building as he remembered Jayeon’s words. For someone who bombarded the applicants with ruthless words, her goodbyes were pretty ordinary.

“Then be careful on your way home.”

“Ah, yes. You too.”

Lee Haejung left after saying that with a barely audible voice. Jayeon did not say how many people she was going to pick until the very end. Whether both of them passed or only one of them passed, she did not mention. She did tell Maru that she wanted to work with him, but since words weren't as binding as a fully fleshed-out contract, there was definitely a possibility that he didn’t make it. Rather than experiencing disappointment after having his hopes up, it would hurt less if he considered that slipping up was one of the possibilities.

It was 4 p.m. Maru called Gaeul. He heard that she had lessons on Sunday. Since he was in Seoul already, he wanted to see her before going home.

After the signal sound went on for a long time, it went over to voicemail. It seemed that she had muted her phone and was practicing hard. He didn’t want to disturb her since he thought that she must be trying her hardest. Good luck - he sent a short text. Picturing her practicing while sweating made him subconsciously smile. She was probably practicing under the air conditioner though. Practicing outside in weather like this would probably make her collapse from the heat.

Maru wiped the sweat off his face until he thought that he could no longer do so and entered a nearby convenience store. When hit by the air from the air conditioner, he felt like he was able to breathe a lot more smoothly again. He enjoyed the cold wind as he bought some drinks and stayed inside the store for a long time before leaving. He sipped on his drink under the parasol and watched the people going past. Everyone was frowning due to the heat. The heat was unbearable yet it was only July right now, so Maru wondered what it would be like in August. He threw the drink can in the trash after it became empty very quickly.

“Take a fan.”

This was the first time he was glad to find someone handing out hand fans in the street. The fan had an ad for a telecom company, and in the middle was Suyeon, who was holding a baseball bat. She actually shot a lot of commercials. Maru folded the part where her face was printed and started fanning himself. Hot air blew against him, so it wasn’t that cool, but it was better than nothing.

There was a wide street between the various buildings, but no one walked in the middle. Everyone stuck themselves against the walls in order to hide in the shade provided by those buildings. The people walked in a line like ants carrying food until they came to a stop. Maru, who was in the middle of that line, also had to stop.

“Are they shooting a drama here?”

“Don’t you think it’s for a movie?”

Everyone’s gazes had gathered in the middle of the street, where the sun was blazing down. There was a shooting team right next to the fountain, which was spraying water everywhere. Maru saw reflection panels, cameras, and a boom mic held in midair. There were also line-men, who were protecting the electrical lines, as well as other people from the staff that were moving around busily in order to block the people from approaching. A lot of effort was put into doing that last part because this street was usually a crowded one.

“Sorry. We hope you can take a detour down this road. We apologize for your inconvenience.”

The staff guided the passersby to another road with unlit traffic wands.

Maru stopped and tiptoed. He saw actors behind the reflection panels. He could pinpoint an actor without having to look at the face because there were many people around that person fixing his makeup and turning on the fans for him. Maru then looked at a group of people holding sunshade umbrellas about 10 meters away. White, black, light violet. Many different sunshade umbrellas had filled that area like parasols on beaches during the summer season. From the way they waved towards the shooting location, it seemed that they were fans who had come to watch. There were around 30 from a glance, and including the people standing outside the sunshade umbrellas, it seemed that there were around fifty people. The ladies who were looking at the shooting location all turned their heads in unison. A man walked out of the group of people behind the staff lines. He waved towards the fans before standing in front of the cameras. Maru had a close look at the man’s face after he left the curtain of men. The man with disheveled hair, wearing a t-shirt that had the collars all stretched out was none other than Ahn Sungjae.

“Ahn Sungjae-oppa! I love you!”

“Sungjae-oppa! Please look over here!”

There was another group a little away from the group of people with sunshade umbrellas, and they were screeching their lungs out. They seemed to be a group of middle school girls. The staff quickly went over and asked them to refrain from doing so, but the teenage girls did not easily quiet down. In the end, Sungjae had to go over himself.

“He’s having a hard time.”

Maru looked around to look for another person. Sungjae being here meant that Geunsoo was probably nearby as well. A little away from Sungjae, who was at the center of attention, was a person who was crouching down with a large black umbrella open above him. It was Geunsoo. There were fans who had come to see Sungjae, but no one showed an interest in him.

Maru approached Geunsoo. As it was a little far away from the shooting location, there was no problem going there.

“It’s hot, isn’t it?” he remarked as he kneeled and poked his head under the umbrella.

Geunsoo, who had been staring at Sungjae in a daze, blinked before yawning.

“It is. I’m sweating buckets.”

“Weather like this would probably make people collapse.”

“It would do more than just make people collapse. Look over there. Youth sure is good. They can stand in the scorching sun like that. What incredible stamina.”

Maru crouched down next to Geunsoo.

“Anyway, why are you here?”

“I was on my way home after an audition when I came across this place. I was wondering what was happening so I made a visit.”

“An audition? What audition?”

“It’s an audition Ganghwan hyung-nim recommended to me. It was rather peculiar.”

“Ganghwan did? If it’s his recommendation, of course it’s peculiar. He’s a peculiar guy himself, and he only befriends peculiar people.”

“So you must be one of them?”

“Probably? You are one too.”

“I’m extremely normal. You can’t find anyone more normal than me.”

“Crazy people don’t think of themselves as crazy people. But man, Sungjae’s popularity is through the roof huh.”

“Of course it is. He’s part of TTO, the top idol group in the country. Even if he’s taking a break from his activities, that popularity wouldn’t just vaporize.”

“That’s true. I was deeply impressed when I saw fans renting an entire coach to come all the way to the shooting location in the countryside. Their passion just goes to show how amazing Sungjae is after all.”

“Are you envious?”

“You think I’m not?”

“Why don’t you show off your friendship with Sungjae-hyung at this opportunity? I heard that TTO’s fan café has a member count in the hundreds of thousands. If you get a photo up there, your popularity will rise in an instant, don’t you think?”

“That’s a good idea, but I don’t need to do that. I’m going to become famous anyway, through acting, that is.”

His words which were uttered with a refreshing smile contained faith and confidence in his own skills. It would be rather off-putting if someone who was all talk and no bark said something like that, but Geunsoo saying it made Maru accept that naturally. Someone who would definitely succeed. He sounded as though he was stating that one plus one equals two.

“How’s the shoot?”

“It’s fun. I’m just hoping that the weather could help us out a little, but looks like that isn’t going to happen. Though, the director did say that it’s good to be able to see everything so clearly.”

“Where’s the director? I think I should say hello at least.”

“He went to talk with some people from the shopping complex, along with the location team manager. There was a prior agreement that we would shoot here, but it looks like some problem occurred. Thanks to that, the shoot is on hold.”

“Nothing’s easy, huh.”

“It’s definitely not easy to shoot a film on someone else’s territory.”

Maru moved sideways. A makeup artist had approached Geunsoo in order to fix his makeup. Maru was watching as she wiped the sweat off Geunsoo’s forehead with a makeup cotton and redid his facial tone, when he saw director Lee Jincheol walking over to the shooting location. He met eyes with the director. Maru greeted the director, who came over while waving his hand.

“You here to watch the shoot?”

“I actually had something else to do in Seoul, and I just came across this place by chance. Also, thank you for the videos you lent me. They’ve been very helpful.”

“Was there anything worth studying?”

“Yes. I’ve learned a lot thanks to them.”

“That’s good. We shot them ages ago, so the contents are blurry to me now. I’m glad that you could learn something from them. How was I in my younger days?”

“You haven’t changed.”

“I’m not sure if that’s an insult or a compliment.”

Maru faintly smiled. Jincheol grabbed the walkie-talkie and said that it was 10 minutes until stand-by. The door to the nearby café opened before people came out. They seemed to be the background actors.

“Are you busy?” Jincheol asked.

“No. I finished what I came here to do, so I have plenty of time.”

“Then wanna take a walk since you’re here?”

“Take a walk?”

Jincheol pointed at the fountain. The background actors had gathered there.

“You just need to walk by. I went over the script and thought about what role you could play, but it was hard to insert anything in the middle.”

“Oh, no, please don’t. You’re just giving me pressure. Just call me to an audition when you do your next piece. But do I just need to walk?”

“Yes. Just keep on walking. I’ll capture you in the middle of the frame once.”

“You don’t have to do that. I don’t have a decent face, so you won’t get a good picture if you do that.”

“Hey, you aren’t half-bad, you know?”

Maru looked at his phone once. He didn’t get a reply from Gaeul yet.

“But you are paying me a wage, right?”

“I’ll treat you to some coffee after this.”

“Thank you.”

Maru walked past the camera towards where the other background actors were waiting. He met eyes with Sungjae midway and just nodded lightly to greet him. Sungjae tried to come over, but the wall created by the fans was thick. Maru gestured to him to not come and joined the rest of the background actors.

“Yes, director. Okay.”

After receiving a message, the staff explained to them how they should move. Just as the director said, he just had to walk right past Sungjae, who was sitting by the fountain. Maru grabbed the coffee cup that the staff gave him and waited.

“Actors, please stand by.”

Sungjae, who was calming down the fans, started walking over to the director before turning his direction midway. Maru looked at Sungjae, who stood in front of him and spoke with a smile.

“Hyung, your popularity is through the roof.”

“That’s because the president put this on the official schedule. I’m rather flustered too because it’s been such a long time since this happened. But why are you here?”

Everyone he came across asked why he was here. Maru explained.

“How did the audition go?”

“I think I did okay. If it goes well, I’ll get to appear in a one-act play.”

“Congratulations. I’m sure you’ll do well.”

“Thanks. But hyung, the director’s waving at you to come.”

Sungjae turned around before hurriedly walking over. The fans all became quiet in an instant. It was good to see that they didn’t want to disturb the shoot. Some students who discovered Sungjae while walking by cheered out loud, but it wasn’t bad enough to pause the shoot. An expensive directional mic should be enough to filter that much noise.

“Let’s go, let’s go.”

The man who was called ‘assistant director’ by the others gave the start signal. Maru picked up his coffee cup and walked forward in leisure. Since he was outside of the camera’s focus, he just walked leisurely since there was no pressure when he heard the director giving the cut sign. The director looked very dissatisfied. When Maru followed his gaze and turned around, he saw a woman wearing a sleeveless shirt blinking her eyes multiple times.

“Assistant director, let’s do that again.”

The walkie talkie held by the assistant director made some sounds.

“We’re doing that again.”

Maru lightly dusted off the water droplets that formed on his coffee before returning to his original position.

“Uhm, what is your name?”

“I’m Choi Minae.”

“Miss Minae. Don’t look at the camera, okay?”

“Ah, yes. I won’t.”

“Alright, please focus on that. Also, wipe your sweat off before we do the next scene.”

Maru looked at the sleeveless shirt girl who soaked up the sweat from her head with some tissue. Although she was warned, it didn’t look like she cared. In fact, she met eyes with everyone who looked at her as though she was enjoying the attention. Maru also greeted her lightly. Was she someone who enjoyed something like that? Well, Maru thought that it was at least better than being nervous to death.

“We’re doing that again. Please stand by,” the assistant director shouted.

Chapter 648

There was a cut signal, and the woman in the sleeveless shirt turned around with a smile. She didn’t have an embarrassed expression nor an apologetic expression and just returned to her original position. This was the 2nd NG. She had been pointed out for the same mistake - don’t look at the camera.

“Sorry, it keeps catching my eye.”

Maru looked at her, who had a bright smile on her face. Her eyebrows were trimmed neatly and her makeup emphasized her facial features. She had the most decent appearance out of all the background actors. She followed the camera with her eyes even when the assistant director was telling her to be careful. Maru, who was right next to her, was able to observe that. She was scanning the camera as though she was admiring her own work with pride.

“I get that you’re concerned about the camera, but looking at it straight on like that makes the film look strange.”

“I’ll do it properly this time.”

“Please do that. Everyone’s having a hard time because of the weather, so let’s finish this in one shot and not drag things out.”

The assistant director put the walkie-talkie against his mouth and said that things were ready. The director gave the signal. Geunsoo approached Sungjae, who was sitting by the fountain. Sungjae, who had disheveled hair, played the role of a new detective, and Geunsoo, who was wearing a neat suit and a pair of nice shoes, was the corrupt detective. From the gist of things, this looked like one of the beginning scenes. Geunsoo, who handed some coffee to Sungjae with a friendly smile on his face, looked like a man who worked in the finance business rather than a detective. He had a refreshing laugh and his movements were clean cut. He smelled like a charming villain. The two naturally clicked together. Sungjae was acting with passion in order to not lose to Geunsoo, and Geunsoo was accepting all of that as he did his own acting. This felt like the birth of a splendid duo.

“Go.”

Maru took his eyes off them and started walking. Since the main characters showed such a smooth act, it was now the background actors’ turn to give a sense of reality to the world they lived in. Maru calmly walked along the movement line that the assistant director told him about. The camera moved on some rails. The background actors walked between the main cast and the camera, and just as the main characters were about to disappear into the crowd, Maru noticed that the steps of the sleeveless shirt woman next to him were slowing. She, who was supposed to be right next to him right now, was now 3 meters behind him. Her steps slowed down just as she was exiting the frame. Having left the camera frame, Maru had a look at the woman who was walking proudly. She was chasing the camera through the corner of her eyes, before looking at the director, who stood up after looking at the monitor.

“Cut!”

The director shouted and also left his monitoring seat before walking over to where the background actors were. The woman in the sleeveless shirt only then looked around in unease. Her actions until now were plenty intentional. Maru couldn’t understand what she was thinking when she decided to disrupt the shoot.

“Director, director!”

Before the director could reach the woman in the sleeveless shirt, someone jumped in midway. The director looked at the man before asking - what is it, leader?.

“Looks like she’s very nervous.”

“Is it someone you know, leader?”

“It is. Also, she’s pretty good at acting. She’s quite pretty too, and you won’t find someone as skilled as her so easily these days.”

“Leader.”

“I know, I know. I know what you’re trying to say, director Lee. Just let her go this once. We are close, aren’t we? Minae, Choi Minae. Come and say hello to the director.”

“Hello, director. My name is Choi Minae.”

The woman in the sleeveless shirt quickly went over and said hello. The director stroked down his face and told her to go.

“Don’t be like that, director. Give me a handshake.”

The woman in the sleeveless shirt only returned to her place after grabbing the director’s hand. This woman was rather proud-looking even when she was being warned. Then there was the leader who tried to resolve the situation with a smile, and then the director. Maru understood what was going on instantly. Maru looked at the director, who turned around with an expression that looked as though he had chewed on something bitter.

“Minae, do it properly.”

“Okay. I just wanted to get him to notice me. Thanks, ahjussi.”

The shoot only resumed after the two high-fived each other. The woman in the sleeveless shirt digested the scene in one go without causing an NG this time, unlike before. Actually, causing an NG in a scene like this was even harder.

“We’re moving over to the next location.”

The staff members picked up the equipment and started moving. The background actors were also guided to the commercial district. Maru approached the director.

“Thanks for your work, Maru.”

“I didn’t do anything. Rather than that, the shoot must be hard for you.”

The director made a bitter smile.

“That’s just how working with people goes. You’ll feel it when you grow up. Why does everyone call themselves ‘hyung-nim’ in front of me, I wonder…”

“There’s no one more awkward to deal with than someone who uses connections to join.”

“My words exactly.”

“But looks like she won’t do anything more since you dealt the first blow. I found her rather peculiar when I was watching her from the side. She suddenly changed her walking pace and then looked at the camera as though she was getting her eyes checked.”

“I guess she’s confident that she’ll rise if she shows her face to the camera. When you work in this area, you’ll come across a lot of people who you can’t measure with common means.”

The director gave a few orders through the walkie-talkie. The assistant director’s voice returned through it. The assistant director was asking him if he could come over.

“Maru, are you going to go now?”

“If you would allow me, I’d like to keep watching from the side. May I?”

“Of course you can. We’re going to eat soon, so you can join us there before you go. You did your work, so you should at least get your compensation.”

“Okay, I’ll do that then.”

After replying, Maru looked at his phone. No missed calls, no text messages. It seemed that Gaeul was practicing without any regard for her phone today. Seeing his wife’s face was even harder than seeing a celebrity’s face. Thinking about it like that caused a sad laugh to leave his mouth.

“Go talk to everyone else.”

The director pointed at Geunsoo and Sungjae before walking over to the assistant director. As he was walking over to the two men, who were having their make-up fixed, someone jumped in front. It was the woman in the sleeveless shirt.

“Hey, are you close to the director?”

She didn’t have any etiquette even though this was their first time talking. Maru tilted his head slightly and quietly stared at the woman. Either she was acting bold because she had the leader backing her, or she was born with that kind of personality. Maru wondered which one it was.

“Hey, kid. Can you not hear me?”

“Why do you ask?”

“Because you two looked close. I saw that the director was trying to put you into the film. You must be close to the director, right?”

“Well, who knows? Maybe I am, maybe I’m not.”

“What kind of an answer is that? Tell me properly.”

“So what if I am close?”

The woman pouted.

“Hey, you’re pretty rude.”

“I’m sorry if you heard it that way. But I thought the word ‘rude’ was supposed to be used to refer to people who cause two unnecessary NGs, am I wrong? Oh, wait, is ‘brain dead’ the right description to use here? As you can see, I’m kinda stupid.”

“What are you saying?”

The woman in the sleeveless shirt glared at him. What was he saying? Did he have to explain in kind that he was mocking her? He didn’t mind using personal connections to join something since that happened pretty often. The problem was that she made the entire shoot stop twice because of her deeds. If she wanted to promote herself, she had to use another means, not disturb the rolling of the film.

It’s not like you to get angry like that - The moment Maru tried to say a word or two more to the woman in the sleeveless shirt, the guy that resided inside him spoke out. Maru heaved a deep breath as soon as he heard those words. While he was unaware, anger had gotten to the top of his head. ‘Not like you’ - the guy was entirely right. This kind of method wasn’t like Han Maru.

“Sorry about that. I’m having a really bad day today so I must have blurted out something rude without realizing. I must have become strange because of all the heat on top of the anger.”

He smiled awkwardly. The woman did not remove her suspicion, but it seemed that she put down the arrow of words that she was about to attack with.

“I’m not that close to the director. I’m only close enough to say hello.”

“Also, I saw you talking with Sungjae-oppa too.”

“Sungjae-hyung only recognized me because we shot something together before. He’s not a star for no reason. He really takes good care of the people around him.”

“Really? You aren’t close or anything like that?”

Maru just replied with a shrug. The woman in the sleeveless shirt narrowed her eyes at him before sighing.

“And here I thought you were close. I was planning to get you to introduce me to them, but I guess that’s not happening. But hey, I didn’t see you in the morning.”

“The director asked me to fill in the head count.”

“Really? You must be living a pathetic life too then. You know, let me give you some advice, don’t work in this field unless you have a backer. This noona is telling you this after experiencing more life than you. A rude boy like you will have a hard time even with a backer. No offense, but that’s just how the world is.”

“I see.”

“You’re a high school student, aren’t you?”

“Yes.”

“Just go back home and start studying. Don’t poke your head around here just because you want to become a celebrity. Okay? If you work part time jobs like this one from a young age and neglect your studies you will fail life. Only those with both talent and backing like me can succeed in this field. Consider yourself lucky today. Other people don’t tell you stuff like this, do they? I’m a good person, so I’m telling you as a special bonus, okay? Don’t have weird dreams and just go back home and study. You don’t have good looks either, so you don’t fit in this world.”

“I’ll keep that in mind.”

“Now we’re talking. Don’t be so disappointed. Now that I look at you, you don’t look like you’re good at studying, but you do look quite athletic. Am I right?”

“Yes. I do have decent motor nerves.”

“There you have it, go to that side. Don’t poke your head around here and make your parents worried. You’re really lucky today, you know? You won’t hear philosophical talk like this from anyone else.”

“Yes, thank you.”

The leader shouted to gather up from afar. The woman in the sleeveless shirt, Choi Minae, turned around and walked away.

“Someone you know?” Geunsoo approached him and asked.

“No.”

“It looked like she was preaching to you.”

“I did hear some life lessons.”

“What’d she say?”

“She said my face isn’t good enough to make a living in this field, so I should get back to studying. Oh, wait, she told me to choose an athletic field, because I look like I’m terrible at studying.”

Geunsoo tapped on his shoulder and laughed.

“What an absurd woman. Do you know her name?”

“Choi Minae, apparently.”

“Looks like I should keep that in mind.”

“Why?”

“Because if you want to avoid shit, you have to know shit. But you’re pretty amazing yourself. You listened to all that with a smile on your face?”

“Well, you never know when I’ll come across her again. They say you shouldn’t make enemies if possible.”

Then the fact that you still got angry at her is proof that you have come to like acting just as much - the masked man’s voice resounded within him again. The guy was kinda distasteful seeing as how he didn’t reply when Maru called out to him, but he still said everything he wanted to before disappearing. To borrow Choi Minae’s words, he was rude.

“Since you’re here, you should eat before you go. Our almighty Lord Sungjae apparently booked a good restaurant.”

“That was the plan. I don’t have anything to do, and I don’t have anyone to meet either.”

“You’re still young, why do you sound so miserable?”

“You tell me. Oh, Geunsoo hyung-nim, how is it going with Suyeon-noona lately?”

“That was abrupt. That’s not how you hold conversations, boy. You’re making my head hurt.”

“Don’t tell me you’re dating?”

“If the Earth explodes tomorrow, then I guess dating her is not a bad idea.”

“Suyeon-noona would love to hear that.”

“Don’t even start. I’ve never seen someone as sticky as her in my life. She might be an even bigger lunatic than Yang Ganghwan and Yang Miso.”

“That’s taking things too far.”

“Hey, you have a rather positive opinion about her. Are you on her side or something?”

“If I bridge the two of you together, I’ll get a full suit as a gift. A good one at that.”

“I’ll buy you two, so what do you think about separating us?”

“That sounds tempting. I’ll think about it.”

Maru said that he should go before walking over to the background actors. He met eyes with Minae midway, but neither of them said anything.

“It’s a hard job, isn’t it?”

He talked to a man in his 40s, who was sitting next to him. At first, the man looked at him in puzzlement, but they soon got along and talked to each other. Maru talked to other people as well. Perhaps it was because he had done this background actor job for a long time, but he had a strange sense of kinship with the people who did this job. He wanted to do more things for them if possible. The scattered people eventually gathered around him. The woman in the sleeveless shirt did not join them. She kept staring at Sungjae and the director, looking for an opportunity to approach them.

“This fella is good with words.”

“Staying still while waiting is pretty boring after all. We should talk like this and get to know each other. That way, we’ll be able to greet each other the next time we meet in a different place too. Hyung-nims, noonims, don’t ignore me when I say hello later, okay?”

“Of course.”

Time went by in a flash when people talked about their circumstances. The stiff air disappeared and they gathered like people who had come on a picnic together. As a man in his thirties talked about how he had just become a father, the assistant director gave the standby sign.

“Hyung-nims, noonims. Let’s get to work.”

Maru clapped before standing up.

Chapter 649

“We’ll begin after you change into the clothes you have brought.”

Maru changed into a shirt that the staff provided for him. The other background actors changed into the clothes they brought as well before gathering up.

“It should be fine if we don’t change our clothes. I mean, we just walk by, don’t we?”

“That’s true, but people in the audience with good eyes can catch it. If someone that just walked by walks around the main characters wearing the same clothes, it breaks the immersion. That’s why they change the clothes of the background actors so that they don’t look like the same person as much as possible. They might change their hairstyle too.”

Maru responded with that to the woman wearing glasses, who was standing next to him. She said that this was her first time doing this part time job, and that she didn’t know much. As this job didn’t require any special skills or a long time investment, there were many people who chose to do this job as a part time job. Most of the time, they only do it once, but there were quite a lot of people who did this for a living.

“Oh, I know how that feels. It does bother you.”

The woman with glasses nodded. Another woman, who had freckles, spoke after listening for a while.

“Me too. I usually don’t care about things like that, but once I do catch one, I keep looking for people in the background instead of focusing on the main characters. If I find the same person again, then it’s fun because it feels like I found a flaw in a jade or something.”

“Right, that’s how it feels.”

The two clicked with each other since they were friends. Behind the two was the woman with the sleeveless shirt. Her name was Choi Minae, huh. She was looking at the director like a lovestruck girl. She was clearly obsessed. Maru wondered just how shameless a person could be.

“The shoot is getting delayed.”

It had been thirty minutes since they were told to gather, but the camera wasn’t showing any signs of rolling. The director had been talking to the camera director for 10 minutes now. Maru couldn’t hear their conversation, but from the expression on the director’s face, it didn’t seem like things were going smoothly.

“But hey. Do we always have to wait so long?”

The one who asked was a man wearing a baseball cap. He was in his fifties, and he said that the grocery store he was running went out of business and that he came across this job while looking for a job. He was a man who had to quit the business he had nurtured from scratch and then jump into a totally different field. Maru could only treat this man well since he willingly stood up to fight against unfamiliarity in order to solve the basic problem that was living. A father, or a husband with a family to take care of would probably feel the same as him.

“You said that the first place you went to was a drama shooting scene, right? In Seoul.”

“Yeah, that’s right. Back then, I sat around in a large hall for around one or two hours, I think? I just drank some canned drinks while feeling the cool air from the air conditioner. After that, they just told me to go home since they were done. It was so easy that it made me wonder if that was really okay.”

“It really depends on your luck. There are some where you get to sit around casually before leaving, and there are some, like this one, where you have to slave away under the sun. If you’re planning to do this in the long term, you should register yourself at a company and get close to the leader. Also, avoid historical films in the summer and winter.”

“Are historical dramas that hard?”

“It can’t be helped. There’s the outfit as well, but the more important thing is that most of the shoot happens away from the capital, so the trip takes a lot of time and energy as well. Doing it during Spring and Autumn is relatively okay, but if you run around wearing armor under weather like this, you might be having an interview with the grim reaper. He’d probably ask why you came so early when it’s not your time.”

“I’ll remember that. Thanks for telling me all this. I was kinda nervous last time because I didn’t know anything. The younger people moved around busily as though they knew something, but I didn’t know anything.”

“I was also dazed when I first worked this job. I just found out some tricks after doing it for a while. If you feel like you can adapt to this job, it’s not a bad idea to keep doing it. I’ve seen many people who’ve started off as background actors before proceeding to become minor actors. It’s easier if you’re older because the industry people would call out to people who are known to be decent.”

“Do you think I can keep doing this job? I’m not sure about standing still like this, but I don’t think I can do anything that requires me to move around busily. Acting is not my thing either.”

“You don’t have to worry that much. It’s just like selling groceries. It might make you feel embarrassed and might make you wonder why you have to smile at strangers in order to sell your stuff, but after you keep doing it, you end up smiling naturally and become a smooth talker, am I wrong? It might seem rather cocky of me to say this since I’m young, but the jobs in this world are generally similar.”

The man with the baseball cap nodded with a faint smile. When he finished talking, Maru realized that people had gathered around him. They were the people who had gotten to know each other during break time while chatting with each other. Another woman started speaking, saying that she had a tip as well. Following that, other people gave their tips and precautions as well. They talked about this background acting job in this small network that had formed.

“If you're not doing this short-term, then it wouldn't be bad to exchange contact info and share things now and then. The place I worked at before did things like that. It works like this: the leader would get access to where people could work, and then they would send out information and get people to contact each other. People get their work from each other, and it’s also easier to have someone else fill in for you if you can’t make it to a certain job on short notice.”

Maru added that midway.

“So it’s like a fishing net huh. I was actually thinking about doing this properly, so I’d love to have people I can contact.”

“Me too. I’m trying to do this in the long run.”

“I’m not going to do it that often, but I hope I can get to know a lot of people. We can help each other out when we have a hard time.”

“Should we exchange numbers? I think that’s a good idea.”

“Well, they say you can’t have too much information.”

About fifteen people gathered in a circle before starting to exchange numbers. Maru quietly looked at them. Due to the nature of background acting, there were a lot of cases where the actors were bossed around by the brokers. Since it wasn’t a regular job, it was hard for the workers to form a relationship with each other, and as a result of that, they would scatter and work individually. In the market, an individual worker was just a target of exploitation so there were a lot of cases where they would get scammed. He had also seen many cases where the leader just took ‘fees’ and did not give them any work. This happened because the individual workers did not have access to the bare minimum amount of information. However, these people were probably going to be okay now. Once they shared information among themselves, they would no longer be scammed out of their hard-earned money.

“Hey, what about you?”

That voice was directed at Maru. Many eyes were looking at him.

“It was you who talked about it. Since it’s like that, let's exchange numbers and share information if we come across one. Or perhaps you don’t plan to do this job long term?”

“Maybe he’s only here for today because he’s still young?”

“No. He’s pretty knowledgeable about this area, isn’t he? How would someone who only worked here for a day or two know about that?”

“That’s true.”

While he kept quiet, everyone exchanged words among themselves. Then they became quiet before the woman with glasses spoke.

“You said you were still in high school right? Are you here for a part time job after all?”

“No, it’s not really a part time job. I’m also doing various things because I want to become an actor.”

“Really? Then give us your number. It must be fate that brought us together, so it’d be good if we could get to know each other.”

Everyone was waiting with their phones open. It was indeed Maru who brought up the topic in the first place, but he didn’t mean that he wanted in, he just wanted to let them know they should look after themselves. He was telling them that they should help each other in order to not get exploited by others. Maru was young so he thought that they’d only do it among themselves, but he got an unexpected offer. He was still in high school and wouldn’t be able to share much, yet everyone was eagerly waiting for his number. Maru smiled back at them.

“That’d be great for me. Hyung-nims, noonims, I hope I can get close to you. Also, treat me to food from time to time. I’m the youngest here, so I’d love to get treated.”

“Hey, we are having a hard time too. But I guess I can pay for food if we meet up every now and then.”

“I’ll pay for the drinks then.”

“Hey, he’s still in high school.”

“These days, high school boys start drinking quite early. You drink too, don’t you?”

Maru looked around to look at all the people who had circled around him. He felt like he understood why elder Moonjoong would often join the background actors and laugh with them whenever he had time during shoots. Whether emotionally or for work, these were the kind of people who were closest to him at the shoots. There were people who aspired to be actors, and there were people who simply tried to make some money out of background acting without having any huge dreams. Their dreams and natures were all unique, but they shared a common point in that they all earned money by appearing in films like this and that they did acting for a living. All animals found relief when they were in a group, so the animals known as actors were probably finding comfort when they hung around those who had similar natures as them. The noble and proud breed might not approach this kind of group because of the messy nature it’s based on, but Maru liked this kind of group, which was a cluster of different and complex background circumstances.

“My number is…”

After he said his number, he got a lot of text messages at once. They had another conversation to learn each other’s names. Although this group happened rather suddenly. There was no awkwardness. They even made an appointment to drink together after the shoot. The middle-aged man with the baseball cap said that he’d treat everyone. He shouted heartily as though he had forgotten that his grocery store went out of business. That was a fast track to get a smashing from his wife. Maru laughed when he thought about it.

“Wait. I think I saw you somewhere before, Maru.”

The woman with glasses tilted her head before taking her glasses off. She told Maru to stay still before putting the glasses on Maru.

“That’s right! That drama. Was it New Semester?”

“What the heck is that?”

“Ah, you’re right!”

Half of them didn’t know about it, but the other half did. The ones that did started explaining to others what it was about and soon they all knew about it. The kid that appeared in a drama - that was his new title now.

“Looks like we didn’t recognize a fully fledged actor.”

“Oh no, it’s fine to not recognize me since I don’t really have any recognition.”

“You should’ve told us. You’re a celebrity after all.”

“There’s nothing more pitiful than trying to paint yourself in gold. It is only cool when other people recognize you.”

Maru returned the glasses to the original owner.

“Then I guess we know an actor’s number, huh? Or maybe you don’t use this number that often?”

“I use it all the time. I’m a nameless actor, so I won’t get called anywhere either.”

“You are on TV. You aren’t exactly nameless.”

“Apparently, being on TV doesn’t make you amazing. There’s the money too. Don’t ask about it because it’s a sensitive topic.”

Maru sighed softly in relief after he said those words. Their eyes towards him didn’t change. If someone looked at him with eyes filled with expectations, he might have felt bitter. He wanted to leave this good meeting as a good meeting until the end.

“What was that? What is up with this kid?”

Seemingly having overheard, an unwanted face joined them. Maru did not reply and looked at the woman with the sleeveless shirt, Choi Minae. Go away - he barely swallowed those words to stop them from coming out of his mouth. He didn’t want to deal with this woman since she had the stereotypical ‘I’m evil’ eyes.

“What the heck was that? You’re leaving me out?”

Just as the woman with the sleeveless shirt joined the group while trying to act cute, the assistant director gave the signal. Everyone stand by - Maru walked past the woman immediately.

“This is the last time apparently, so let’s do our best,” he said as he ignored the stare from the woman with the sleeveless shirt.

Chapter 650

“Get a decent-looking actor ready. Also, find out when the child actor is coming.”

That came out from the assistant director’s walkie-talkie. The walls of the buildings had turned yellow-ish now. The shoot moved on to the next scene. Geunsoo and the actress that played his wife were sitting on a café terrace. From the way their shoulders touched each other’s without making them look awkward before the shoot, they seemed to be on pretty close terms.

“Actors have it good. They get good treatment.”

“That’s true.”

The woman with glasses and the woman with freckles spoke as they looked at the café terrace. The other background actors also commented.

“Maru, do you also get that kind of treatment when you go to a shoot?”

“Someone as lowly as me would never get that treatment.”

“How about your manager? Doesn’t your manager look after you?”

“I do have a manager, but he’s in charge of all the child actors and usually moves around with Sooil a lot. The other child actors usually work without a manager.”

“Sooil?”

“Oh, there’s someone named Yoo Sooil.”

“Ah, Yoo Sooil! I know him. I saw him in a drama before. Didn’t he shoot a commercial as well?”

“He’s famous after all.”

For some time, everyone asked him about Yoo Sooil. He didn’t know anything much, so he couldn’t give them a specific answer. The people asking questions also changed topics after hearing obvious answers. They asked what being an actor was like, what they had to do, and what was hard about it. Maru replied with what he could and what he knew. He neither exaggerated nor undermined it. He only said the facts so that it could be a guideline for those looking to walk down this path. They would have to choose whether they proceeded forward or turned back.

“She’s here.”

That came from one of the staff. A car entered the parking lot and a woman walked out after the car stopped. The woman, wearing sunglasses, immediately opened the passenger seat. Maru looked at the girl getting out of the car. She was Kim Bitna, who walked boldly with a child’s face. She walked over to the terrace and sat in between Geunsoo and the actress. Geunsoo grabbed Bitna’s hand and waved it around.

“Looks like she’s that woman’s daughter.”

“She’s pretty. My daughter was cute like that when she was that age.”

Maru smiled as he listened to the grocery store man’s words. The shooting set became busy along with the arrival of Bitna. Makeup stylists all flocked to Bitna, while the director approached the three people sitting on the terrace and explained to them what they had to do.

“Looks like it’ll start soon.”

Maru stood up and did some stretches. The sun was going down. The assistant director, who had been looking at the sky for a while now, grabbed the walkie-talkie and called the director. It seemed that the sky was finally in the color they wanted. The director also looked up at the sky from the café terrace. From the way he nodded, he seemed satisfied with that as well.

Maru finished off his exercise by trilling his lips to relax his facial muscles. It wasn’t that he was going to do an emotional act in front of the camera, it was just something he did out of habit before every shoot. He also took a deep breath. The air at a shooting location would be thick and would make him pant if he didn’t breathe plentily right now. He had gotten used to that environment after shooting dramas, but it was still pretty difficult to deal with. He would probably never feel at home during a shoot until he retired.

“You’ll start from this bench.”

The assistant director walked forward. The background actors followed him and learned about their movement path. They walked past the terrace the main actors were sitting on and entered the café.

“You and you. Sit down here. We’ll bring you coffee so talk to each other naturally. Anything is fine. The camera won’t be able to catch your mouth in detail. If you don’t have anything to say, you can recite the national anthem.”

The glasses woman and the freckles woman sat at the table next to the main actors. It seemed that they were chosen because they were decent-looking college students. There were a total of three tables on the terrace, and the sleeveless took the last table. She was putting on a pose while holding a cup with a straw in it.

“We’re starting the shoot. You just have to start from the starting point and walk over once we give you the signal.”

They left the café. Along with the action sign from the director, the main actors started acting. Geunsoo, the actress, and Bitna produced a bright mood and showed what a harmonious family was like. Just as the café part timer actor came out with the drinks for the main characters, the assistant gave the signal. It was the signal to move. Maru looked at the background actors behind him before moving first. There were people who were uneasy about their movement, so he decided their path for them beforehand. Ahjussi, go past the bench, hyung, walk towards the street lamp, and noona, to the center - like that.

A dozen or so people walked past the café. Maru went inside the café and looked at the last background actor that was leaving the camera angle. Everyone moved according to their predetermined paths without making a mistake. If an extra made a mistake, they would get an earful 100% of the time. A leader with a bad personality would swear at them as well. Mistakes were only tolerable for the main actors.

“Cut! Again.”

The director’s loud voice could be heard. He was shaking his head as though he didn’t like this. Maru listened to the director’s voice that was coming out of the assistant director’s walkie-talkie - Assistant director, the two women at the front are too frozen up.

The assistant director approached the glasses and the freckles and said something. It seemed that he was consoling the two, telling them not to be so nervous. It seemed to be going well until the freckles stood up.

“I don’t think I can do it. I’m too nervous.”

The staff sighed and put down the equipment, which made the freckles turn pale. Unlike the glasses, who had an interest in acting, freckles just came here following a friend. It was hard to receive gazes from over fifty people including the staff and the onlookers. To someone without immunity, attention was nothing more than a net that strangled them.

The assistant director tried to calm her down to no avail. The leader, who was watching from the side, also stepped up. The leader sent away freckles and walked over to the director. Maru observed the situation before approaching freckles.

“Are you okay?”

“Yeah, I think I’m okay now. But before, I thought I was dying.”

Freckles sighed in relief. Glasses also approached and patted her on the back.

“Uhm, who is Han Maru?”

That was the assistant director with the walkie-talkie. Maru raised his hand.

“The director’s looking for you.”

When he left the café, he saw the director standing right in front of him.

“Maru, can you replace that woman from before? We don’t have any decent faces around right now.”

“Okay, I can do that. I don’t have to do anything specific, right?”

“No. You just need to sit down and have a chat. If possible, try to get the woman sitting in front of you to relax.”

Just as he was about to return to the café after nodding, the leader spoke out in a loud voice.

“Director Lee, I said we can just pull her forward. She won’t make a mistake now, you know?”

“Leader, she has a very strong face. It’ll be captured by the camera all the time, and it doesn’t look good.”

“But the young ones are all pretty and fashionable these days, you know? And it will look more realistic as well.”

“Leader.”

“Director Lee, don’t say that and just try her out once. I’m not saying this because she’s the daughter of a friend of mine, but because she really has the skill. She had the power to attract attention.”

“Yes, I get that the lady over there has a character. But just like you said, she attracts attention. An extra should look like an extra. Look at that.”

The director pointed at sleeveless who was sitting at a table on the terrace. As soon as she realized that the director was looking at her, she crossed her legs and leaned back before making a drowsy face. Maru couldn’t tell whether she was trying to boast her feminine beauty or was acting, but it was clear that she wanted attention.

“She might look like that right now, but she’ll change dramatically once the shoot begins.”

“I don’t believe in actors who say ‘they’ll switch modes once they start the shoot’. Do you think actors that get into the emotion before the shoot do that because they have nothing better to do?”

The director had raised his voice a little. It seemed that the frustration and anger he had suppressed with a cap known as ‘relationship’ had reached the limits of the cap. The leader immediately stopped telling him about using sleeveless as a better character and accepted. He probably noticed that probing the director out further would result in losses. The leader scanned Maru from top to bottom before walking away from the monitor.

“He’s rather consistent.”

“He doesn’t have a bad personality, but he covers for the people he considers his own a little too much. I really want to flip everything over when he acts like that from time to time, but he never crosses the line. His ability to not cross the line just by a hair’s breadth is so precise.”

Maru was reminded of the leader’s eyes. He had a look at the café. The leader was talking to sleeveless. When sleeveless tilted her head in dissatisfaction, the leader quickly combed his rather spare hair sideways. It seemed that he was embarrassed that he wasn’t able to show his friend’s daughter his own abilities.

“Should I go up just like this?”

“Should we comb your hair backwards? To make you look older, I mean.”

When he went to the café terrace and sat down, a woman holding makeup tools approached him and touched up his face and hair. While undergoing makeup, Maru felt a prickly gaze, and it was from the leader and sleeveless.

“Are you the one?”

“Yes. The director told me that he doesn’t care even if it’s a couple.”

“Really?”

Glasses, who was sitting in front of him, smiled faintly before sighing. It wasn’t that she was at leisure, she just liked the fact that she could be in front of the camera. She was talking naturally while holding the coffee cup before, but right now, she sat upright and looked clearly stiff. It seemed that the absence of her friend had brought out her nervousness.

“Why am I so nervous all of a sudden…?”

Glasses kept blinking endlessly. Her eyes were looking towards her friend, freckles, in a nervous manner. Unease exuded from her eyes. Maru tapped on the table to get her attention.

“Do you know how many dwarves lived with Snow White?”

“Why do you ask so suddenly?”

“No particular reason. How many were there?”

“Isn’t it seven?”

“Correct. Then what was the material of the magical carriage that took Cinderella to the ball?”

“A pumpkin of course. Why are you asking such a thing?”

Just as glasses was becoming curious, Maru saw the background actors start to move. Following that, they got a sign from the assistant director.

“Ready.”

And roll - Following that, the slate could be heard as well. The only remaining one was the director’s action call. Glasses’ lips trembled. 1, 2, 3, action - as soon as that came out, Maru grabbed the cup with his hand.

“Noona, do what I do.”

“Huh?”

“For now, try grabbing the cup like this.”

“C-can we talk like this? The camera’s rolling now, isn’t it? It will be an NG if our voice gets captured, and that…”

“It’s fine. Go on.”

Behind glasses were the main cast, who were acting. As soon as she heard a voice from behind, glasses tried to look back with a stiff expression.

“Noona, look at me.”

Maru estimated the location of the camera and turned around slightly so that his expression wouldn’t be captured. Then he stretched out the part below his nose and widened his eyes.

“I look like a monkey, don’t I?”

Glasses looked at him with absurdity before laughing with her mouth covered as though she was coughing. What are you doing - while she was saying that, her eyes were drawing a curve.

“The camera might see you.”

“It can’t. According to the layout right now, it’s shooting my shoulder, so your face won’t appear in it either, you know?”

“Really? Did it just go past us?”

“Of course. Did you think that the camera would be shooting you all the time? Aren’t you a little too full of yourself?”

“We’re pretty close to the main actors, so I thought I was in it for sure.”

“Honestly speaking, your face doesn’t look that good, so they can’t afford to shoot you for a long time.”

“Hey, what’s wrong with my face? I’m not too shabby.”

“And where’s that confidence coming from?”

“I look pretty decent, don’t I?” glasses said as she raised her chin a little.

Maru smiled. At the same time, an ‘okay’ could be heard from afar.

“What the heck? Is it done, just like that?”

“Yes, it’s over. Well done. Your expression was really good.”

Maru heaved out a heavy breath before stretching his arms out. If she stayed frozen in front of the camera, the director would have shouted cut instead. It was rather fortunate that they finished without a hitch, but Maru thought that she just barely made it. Freckles walked over and complimented the two, saying that the two looked great. Just as Maru was looking at glasses, who looked confused, Maru saw Bitna, who was walking over to him.

“Hello, oppa.”

“Hi, Bitna. How have you been?”

“Good.”

“You were good at acting back there. I should learn a thing or two from you.”

“Thank you.”

Bitna bowed as though she learned that she should thank people if she was complimented. Maybe this was why people said that daughters were great. When he looked at Bitna, who looked at him with round eyes, Maru was reminded of her sister. He wondered if she was doing well and whether she got rid of the problem she had. Just as he was about to ask, everyone was told that they should eat. It was time for dinner.

Chapter 651

“Where’s Maru?” Sungjae asked as he looked back.

Geunsoo, who said he’d bring Maru, came back holding Bitna’s hand. Maru couldn’t be seen with him.

“He says he’ll be eating over there.”

‘There’ - Sungjae looked at the lunchbox vehicle. People were taking lunchboxes from the lunchbox vehicle that had a large logo plastered on the side. Maru could be seen in the middle of that line. He was talking to the people standing in front and behind him. He shouldn’t have had that much time to get along with them, so his ability to get close to strangers was kinda incredible.

“It kinda suits him.”

Maru looked so happy that Sungjae would feel sorry if he called him here. He met eyes with Maru from afar, and Maru just took a bow. He seemed to be apologizing for not being able to take him up on the invitation.

“Looks like we’ll have to eat together next time.”

As unfortunate as that was, he couldn’t force Maru to come. Sungjae grabbed Bitna’s hand and put some strength into his arm. Bitna, who was standing between the two men, jumped high into the air and laughed. That was the only activity she liked. She was kinda hard to approach at the beginning because she was so polite, but playing ‘aeroplane’ and lifting her like that would make her chuckle, so he was at ease with her after that. Maybe she remembers her father doing that for her - Bitna’s mother told him that. Bitna was raised in a single-parent household.

“Isn’t Maru-oppa coming?” Bitna asked.

“You know Maru too, Bitna?”

“Yes, I do. We shot together before.”

“Really? Do you want to eat with Maru-oppa?”

“I don’t have to, but I do have something to say to him.”

“Something to say? What is it?”

Bitna stared at Sungjae when she received that question. Sungjae became awkward and started laughing awkwardly. He even felt that he was being scolded by her. The clear and translucent eyes looked upwards and, at the same time, Bitna’s curved lips turned into a straight line.

“It’s about my sister, so I can’t say it. Sorry.”

“No. It’s my fault for asking. Maru won’t be going home right after eating, so remind me about that later. I’ll call him over for you.”

“Yes.”

Bitna’s face became delicately frozen again after loosening up. The frozen princess had returned. Sungjae sent Geunsoo a signal for help.

“Bitna, hand.”

Geunsoo grabbed Bitna’s hand again. Sungjae also grabbed the other hand again. The two lifted Bitna up at the same time. After swinging back and forth like a swing, the princess’ mouth curved again. Sungjae sighed in relief. The appearance of the frozen princess made him nervous every single time even though it wasn’t like she was throwing a tantrum or something.

“Our Bitna’s not ordinary, isn’t she? She’s much better than most adults. The boy that will wed her in the future will probably have a hard time. He’s going to have to treat her like a queen,” said Bitna’s mother, who had been talking to the director until now. Sungjae could only smile and nod.

* * *

Fried fish, seasoned burdock, stir-fried kimchi, and miso soup. Maru put a ruptured cherry tomato into his mouth. It was probably there as a dessert, but it had already become a side dish after being mixed with the stir-fried kimchi.

“You looked really natural, though?”

“No. I was so nervous that I don’t remember what I did. I couldn’t even hear the cut sound,” said glasses as she put down her chopsticks.

“You even smiled in leisure yet you’re acting embarrassed? Why don’t you take an audition? Who knows, you might actually become an actress. Just take a break from college and try it out. If things go well, hire me as your manager. How about it? Isn’t that perfect?”

“What a dream. Also, I told you it’s not like that. It wasn’t that I was at leisure; I only managed to let it pass because of this guy. I didn’t understand when we were doing the shoot, but it all makes sense when I think about it now. I’m right, aren’t I? You asked me about those fairy tales on purpose, didn’t you?”

“I asked because I was curious.”

Maru ate a piece of fried fish. The fish was very oily because it had been a long time since it was fried. The rice was all soupy and the side dishes were quite salty, but he didn’t have a problem with eating them because he was hungry.

“The man wearing a suit came up to you and talked to you, didn’t he? Isn’t that person the main character of this movie?”

She seemed to be referring to Geunsoo. Maru chewed on his food as he nodded. When he affirmed that, everyone’s attention was gathered on him. Maru smiled awkwardly and picked up the miso soup that he had left to the side. He thought that no one would be listening because they were absorbed in eating, but it seemed that they had been paying attention to them the whole time.

“Why would he talk to you?”

“I just know him personally.”

“Really? What did he tell you? Did you just say hello?”

Before he could say yes, freckles interfered.

“I overheard. He said they should eat together. They seemed to be pretty close.”

Freckles raised her voice and asked ‘am I right?’. Maru took another sip of the miso soup to buy some time to think. He had always been quite uncomfortable with being pushed into the center of attention. There was a need to make up an excuse here. He thought that he should say that it was just out of formality. People would talk about something else once they lost interest.

“There you are.”

A shadow covered him. Maru looked behind. Sleeveless was standing there with two drink cans. He wondered what she wanted, so he stared at her. Sleeveless did not speak and just pointed at a bench, which was pretty far away. Leader was standing around the bench. Her intention was pretty clear.

“If you say we’re close, I guess I can call it that,” Maru said, as he looked at freckles.

Freckles and glasses quickly turned away from sleeveless. They started talking non-stop as though they were fish that had just been fished out. All sorts of questions burst out in the span of one breath. The other background actors also showed interest. Having become the center of attention, Maru looked back at sleeveless who was standing behind him.

“I’m sorry. I’m talking to them right now.”

He made an expression that said ‘as much as I want to talk to you, I’m tied up here’. It was a soft way to refuse. Someone who was quick witted would turn around and come back at a later time.

“Save that for later.”

Unfortunately though, sleeveless wasn’t quick witted. Maru wondered if he should tell her to get lost. The other background actors also looked at sleeveless with displeasure. There was no one here who would accept her kindly after she intentionally caused NGs to attract attention. Receiving the attention, sleeveless just crossed her arms and pulled her chin inwards as though she didn’t care. Maru clicked his tongue inwardly. She was way too egoistic. At the same time, she also was someone who enjoyed other people looking at her. No matter how much people glared at her, she probably thought that they were jealous of her. Maru scraped the remaining side dishes and finished them at once.

“I’ll be right back.”

He followed sleeveless to the bench. Leader, who had been watching until now, turned around. If sleeveless was acting like that by herself, Maru would have ignored her and kept on eating, but he decided to follow her obediently after seeing leader standing behind her back. Sleeveless and leader. There was nothing for him to lose even if he earned the ire of these two, but he was rather concerned about the other background actors. Since she was capable of openly causing an NG in the middle of a shoot, it was clear that she would tell everything she didn’t like to the leader. The shoot would probably continue into the night, so if the leader got pissed off, the people remaining here would have a hard time. Sleeveless looked like she was more than capable of asking the leader to do something like that.

Moving for other people’s sake, it’s really good to see you do that - the man within him said. Maru also replied - is that a compliment or are you mocking me? The man did not reply.

“What is it?”

Maru asked as he received the canned drink. He didn’t know what she wanted, but he wanted to get this done quickly. Talking to a woman who considered other people as her foothold was not going to be constructive in any way.

“Are you pissed because of what I said earlier?”

“Of course not. I just want to take a break quickly. Is there something you want to know?”

“There is something I want to know. You looked pretty close to Hong Geunsoo back there. You know the director, you know Ahn Sungjae too. I heard that you were in a drama too?”

“That I do.”

“Why are you still standing. Come sit. Why don’t you have a talk with this noona? We should stay close to each other since we’re both aiming to be actors.”

Maru curved his lips upwards as he sat down.

“There, I sat.”

“Good boy.”

“What do you want to say?”

“Nothing much. I just want to be close to you. And if possible, introduce them to me.”

“Introduce who?”

“Who else? I mean the actors of course.”

Sleeveless turned around slightly.

“Actually, I have the skill, but I just haven’t come across a good opportunity. You should know too that auditions are rigged, don’t you?”

She looked around her foot. There were ants underneath the bench. A cicada, which had died after crying its lungs out for all of summer, was being disintegrated by the ants. Sleeveless lifted her foot before cutting the line that the ants were following. Tsk - she shook her foot in displeasure.

“No amount of effort is enough. The one who’ll get picked is set in stone after all. Trying hard was only for the fools. The people who used their connections are laughing at the people who are trying their best. I should’ve realized that earlier…”

“And so?”

Maru looked at the line of ants. The other ants were carrying the ants that were squashed. They acted as though the disaster didn’t happen at all. They continued moving their six legs and returned turned the world into its original state.

“Let’s help each other out. I’ll also give you an opportunity. Don’t you think it’s not a bad idea?”

“What kind of opportunity exactly?”

“Meetings with other actors. Or maybe writers and producers. Of course, I won’t be able to set up ones with top-tier ones, but you aren’t exactly top-tier either. First, you start by meeting with the lower people. Then, you make your connections. You just need to grab those and slowly climb up, then you’ll be up there eventually.”

Sleeveless pointed at the sky. The red in the sky was slowly being pushed away. It was turning dark now.

“Doesn’t that sound like a good idea?”

“It’s okay.”

“Right? I thought I could get through to you. Honestly, it’s not anything hard, is it? We should just eat together and get to know each other. Right?”

“It’s not hard.”

Maru looked at sleeveless.

“How old are you this year?”

“Huh? Why do you ask?”

“No particular reason.”

“Twenty-four.”

“Good times.”

He looked into her eyes. He tried to read what was on her mind, but he couldn’t see the speech bubble pop up. It was rather strange. He tried again to no avail.

“What is it?”

“Nothing.”

Did his ability disappear just like his memories? It didn’t matter that much since it wasn’t an ability that he used frequently. It was a pity that he had lost an advantage, but it was something he could replace with his experience. Though, he might miss that ability when he had to face a real veteran.

Maru straightened out the crease on his knees before standing up. Sleeveless’ story was so bland that her words disappeared into the abyss of his mind the moment he heard them. It should be fine if he hung out with her this much, right? She didn’t look stupid enough to throw a tantrum just because he didn’t comply with her.

“But I’m the tortoise style. I’ll just take things slow.”

“You’ll never get anywhere like that. We’re in a world where you can only climb up using your connections.”

“Rather than trying to climb a rotten rope, it’s much better to walk even if it’s slow.”

“Rotten? That’s a strange way of putting it.”

“I’m just not that good at making analogies. Anyway, you get my point, right?”

“Hey. You just have to tell them that we should hang out. Men fall for it easily.”

“Probably not, I don’t think. Especially for those two. One of them has been haunted by female fans for the recent part of his life, and the other one is being chased by a stalker right now.”

“What do you mean by that?”

“Well, what could it mean?”

Maru shrugged before turning around. Sleeveless called out to him from behind, but he didn’t look back.

“You seem to not know your stuff since you’re still young, but-!”

Those words pierced his ears, but Maru just sighed it off. It’d be great if he was young and didn’t know better. How old was he now? He left behind sleeveless and returned to where the rest of the background actors were.

Chapter 652

Choi Minae’s eye twitched as she watched the cocky kid walking away. They say people act like they look, and the kid who was exuding coldness from his sharp-looking eyes kicked away the laws of this world and decided to walk his own way. He probably thought that it was cool because it made him look rebellious. He was at that age after all. He was still immature and thought that the world revolved around him and that everything was decided based on his efforts. He would take nothing she said seriously since he treated convenience as trickery. He would probably find out what it meant to use connections when he becomes of age and has to take responsibility for himself. I shouldn’t have rejected her offer - that Han Maru kid would regret it later on.

“Did it not go well?”

Leader slowly approached her. Unlike his fat body, his steps were silent. And his hands were likewise silent as well. He was quietly grabbing her buttock and was twisting it from side to side. Minae slapped away the hand that was grabbing her buttock like she was chasing away a mosquito. The leader licked his lips.

“Everyone can see us here. If we get caught, both you and I will get into trouble.”

“Now, that shouldn’t be how you talk to me.”

“This isn’t the first time I’ve been like this.”

“That’s right. This isn’t the first time you’ve acted sassy.”

His hand sneakily touched her body while he was speaking. From the way he got up close to her to grope her, his skills were top rate. If there was a competition that awarded prizes based on perverted hand techniques, this guy would get the grand prize. Minae exerted some strength into her hand and grabbed his wrist. Leader made an awkward smile and took his hand off. He was a persistent man who would only stop his actions after being warned twice.

“I told you to leave it to me.”

“So? Did you manage to set up an appointment? You didn’t.”

“People’s matters don’t progress that easily. Director Lee has a conservative side to him, and he’s also married, so he might not like such a place, but the other two aren’t. Ahn Sungjae might be difficult since he knows the taste of fame, but Hong Geunsoo will probably take the bait if I say I would get him more connections, you know? There’s no man who would refuse to play around with women.”

“Don’t take things too far. We should only play in the range we can handle.”

“I know, I know.”

“But what about the director? Is this method really going to work? If I get stamped as an annoying girl who ruins his work, I’m going to hate you for real.”

“I told you, it’s going to work. I’ve known director Lee, I mean, that Lee Jincheol dude for five years now. He has a lenient personality, so he can’t refuse a favor from those above him. Moreover, I’m quite close to him, and if I tell him it’s a hyung-nim’s favor he’ll probably refuse at first, but he’ll probably listen to me in the end. He’s that kind of guy after all.”

“Then didn’t we choose the wrong strategy to begin with? I think it would have been fine even if I acted obediently.”

“Then wouldn’t give him an impression, would it? Don’t you know the traits of directors in general? They like those that stand out. You might have acted quite rude, but you didn’t cross the line. If you listen to him well from now on, you’ll be able to get close to the director as well. You get what I’m saying?”

“Okay, then.”

Leader, who was giggling, picked up his phone. He looked around before turning his head away.

“Go take it. Isn’t that your wife?”

When she talked to him, leader’s eyes widened before he placed his index finger on his lips.

“Hello? Yeah. Of course I remember Minah’s birthday. Don’t you know me? I know my daughter’s birthday the best. She wants to have a party at home? That’s fine. You’re going to be home at that time, aren’t you? Tell her that she can invite her friends home. I know that cooking for them will be hard, so you can just have food delivered. Kids like fried chicken and pizza these days, don’t they? A birthday present? She said she wanted a piano a while ago, so should we buy an upright piano? How about an electronic piano? Let’s change it to a grand piano once we move to a bigger house. Also, what should I get for you? Don’t refuse. I wouldn’t be qualified to be your husband if I don’t get my wife a present. I’m thankful that you gave birth to our daughter, so you’re more than qualified for a gift. Okay. Then should we go traveling over the weekend? You said you wanted to go to Daecheon last time, didn’t you? Okay. Why don’t you set up a schedule with the things you want to do? I’ll take you on a full course. Alright, alright. Love you too, bye.”

After making a deep smooch sound, leader hung up.

“You really surprise me every time. Don’t you feel ashamed?”

“Why would I? Why should I be ashamed? I’m fulfilling all of my responsibilities as a husband and as a father. Did I make them sad? Did I not bring them money? I hold events for all the anniversaries, I do household chores, and I take my family traveling often during the weekends too. I score full points as a father, so why should I be ashamed?”

“So you don’t remember what you did with me?”

“Miss Choi Minae, are you perhaps jealous?”

“You’re being delusional, Mr. Fatty. I just pity your wife. I wonder what kind of expression she would make if she found out that her husband is rolling around in bed with a young girl.”

“I use my head so that she won’t find out. I am very devoted to my family during the weekend, and I stay the night out during weekdays. If I do that, my wife doesn’t suspect me, and I can enjoy myself. It’s a new world where no one gets hurt and no one gets sad. Since we’re talking about it, how about tonight?”

A hand crawled towards her thighs like a snake. Minae shrugged. Leader was a trashy man. He put a photo of his family in his car, spoke of love to his wife, and yet had her sit on the passenger seat next to him. He took her to motels, to mountains, and to seas. They rolled around both inside and outside of the car. He was a shameless man who still told his family that he loved them at times like that. And Minae liked that shameless side of his. A person with a thick face would lie naturally. It meant that he was safe. Don’t even bother with awkward guys. Only touch those that lie like they’re breathing. That will be better for you - those were her teacher’s words. Those words had never been wrong.

“I want to buy some new clothes.”

“It hasn’t even been that long since I last bought you some.”

“So, you don’t want to?”

“No, I am going to. As long as you keep being to my liking.”

“No matter how I think about it, I pity your wife.”

“She’s a happy woman right now so don’t you worry. I’m a perfect husband.”

“And a perfect cheater too.”

“A lie that isn’t discovered is not a lie. Everyone has it good, so there’s no problem.”

Minae glared at the leader who slapped her butt before walking away and turned around to face where the background actors had gathered. She wanted to naturally set up a meeting with Sungjae, but that seemed to be out of reach. It would be easy for her if that kid knew the workings of the world. This was why she hated kids. Their complacency in not knowing what was important was to the point of being disgusting. Background actors had gathered around Maru and were chatting. They were slaves who didn’t know the importance of every single day. They gave up on trying to climb up and were satisfied with their cheap daily salary. Looking at such losers made her feel like she wanted to vomit. The ones who said that they were just here to make a quick buck were better off. She couldn’t understand the people who proudly said that their dream was to become an actor in that group. Background actors spent most of their time waiting. That was equivalent to wasting time. The people who lightly talked about dreams were wasting their lives, drunk in their satisfaction of being on the shooting set. They consoled themselves by looking up to stars and thinking that they would one day become like those people. They were no different from shit. Perhaps that was why she felt like there was a foul stench around those people.

Minae made a wise decision. Since she had decided to step into the entertainment industry at a late age, she used her smarts in order to not waste any time. She was running out of time focusing on her acting skills already, so she couldn’t waste her valuable time laboring away to earn chump change. She needed a backer, and she took immediate action. However, it wasn’t easy for her to find a backer. There were a lot of delinquents who would hand money to a girl with a decent face, but the capitalists who would support her in what she wanted to do were hard to encounter. She didn’t need a man who would run away like a rat once they were done relieving their desires with her; she needed a proper backer who would support her consistently. It wasn’t like she could go around looking for one openly, so she had to be careful, but there was a limit to that. The information network of someone who didn’t possess anything was something as small as a spiderweb in the corner of an old house.

She needed a breakthrough point so that she could spend her time wisely. That was when she came across her teacher. Her teacher was the definition of a wise woman. She understood her situation instantly and consoled her saying that she was also a nobody in the past before immediately providing her with a method. That was how she met leader. Leader was fat, had a foul breath, and was a man who had a strange obsession with doggy style, but he was not foolish, knew how to earn money, and knew what cooperation was. Her teacher’s recommendation was perfect.

Her financial situation improved quickly. Leader was a man who easily spent his money. As a successful man, his wallet was thick and chump change didn’t exist inside his wallet. She stopped all of her part time jobs and focused on acting. She didn’t see immediate improvements, but she wasn’t afraid. After all, it was natural that the results would be late since she started late. She kept practicing and broadening her relationships following her teacher’s words. She also reminded herself of her teacher’s words that she would never become first rate with a backer alone.

“Life is about efficiency, kid.”

Minae looked at Maru, who was sitting afar. She only pitied the pathetic kid that could not use his connections.

* * *

“I was originally going to let you go after shooting the first scene, but I changed my mind after looking at the footage. The screen feels much more full now. It looks just the way I want it to.”

Maru accepted the coffee that director Lee Jincheol gave him with both hands. He saw the staff members putting away the shooting equipment. The background actors were getting on the bus, following leader. Freckles and glasses waved at him. Maru also waved back.

“You became close in that short time, huh?”

“They’re good people after all. I can get through to them.”

“It felt like everyone was scattered before you were here, but ever since you became their pivot, the shoot was smooth, and it looks so much better.”

“Don’t put me on a pedestal. I didn’t do anything. Everyone just cheered up since it became cooler after sunset.”

“Do you think my eyes are here for show? I can see it. Films are ultimately shooting people, but they’re shot by people as well. It’s obvious that things have changed ever since you joined.”

“It’s a coincidence.”

“No, there is no coincidence when it comes to people. Everything happens for a reason.”

The director patted his shoulder, thanking him. Maru sipped on the coffee. The only thing he did was join and chat with the background actors, so he felt rather embarrassed when he was complimented for it.

“There are actors who influence the shoot, and there are actors who have no influence at all. I can’t say which one is better. It depends on the situation after all. However, you were really helpful today. Both Sungjae and Bitna looked a lot softer after seeing you. Geunsoo, is well, he was perfect from the beginning, so let’s put him aside.”

“Don’t say all that. It makes me want to hide.”

When he had a look at the smiling director, his phone started vibrating. He excused himself before opening the phone. He got a text from Gaeul.

“So you need to go?”

“Yes. There’s someone I need to meet.”

“I was planning to take you to the next location if you said you didn’t have anything to do. What a pity.”

“I find it a pity too. I’ll come again if there’s an opportunity next time.”

“You’re not telling me to call you huh?”

“It’s the holidays, so I’m going to play around.”

“Yes, you should.”

“I’ll return the videotapes in a while. Can I visit your house?”

“You can take your time. There’s no one who’s going to watch it anyway. Thanks for everything. Watch out on your way home.”

“Yes, I’m leaving now.”

He shook hands with the director before turning around. He met eyes with sleeveless on his way, and she was exuding an aura that read ‘I don’t like you’. It would be great if this was their last meeting, but he would probably continue coming across her as long as he kept doing this job.

“Kid, life is about efficiency,” said sleeveless as he walked past.

Maru nodded.

“Yes, it is about efficiency indeed.”

Just as he was about to go, he saw her staring at him with displeasure, so he added,

“Contraception is really important when you sleep with a married man. Though, I’m sure you must know that already.”

Sleeveless’ eyes became wide. Her mouth did not budge. As she started looking around in unease, he heard leader call out to her.

“Why don’t you get going? To your daddy, that is.”

Sleeveless looked around several times before quickly running towards the bus. She looked very uneasy when she turned around to look back at him.

“Why don’t you ask Kim Suyeon for help? She’d probably tell you a really efficient way.”

Maru said that to himself as he saw her becoming distant. Leader, who was groping her butt, also seemed to have heard from her as he was glaring at him from afar. Maru just nodded. They were a fitting duo for sure.

Chapter 653

“Oppa.”

It was Bitna’s voice that stopped him in his steps. He could see Bitna’s mother smiling from afar. A year ago, during the historical drama, he was called ahjussi, but it seemed that his title was promoted(?) to oppa recently.

“Looks like I almost forgot to say goodbye to you, Bitna.”

“Are you going?”

“I have an appointment. You’re still shooting, right?”

“Yes. I think it will continue into the night.”

“It must be tiring.”

“It’s my work, so I can’t help it.”

Maru couldn’t help but smile whenever she sounded like she was a long time veteran. As she had been working as a child model since before she entered elementary school, perhaps it was natural that she seemed like a pro. The pivot of her life could be seen in her young eyes.

“I think unni wants to see you, oppa.”

“Me?”

Maru thought she was here to say goodbye, so it was rather surprising that he heard something else. He was curious about what happened to Yuna after that, but he didn’t know that he would hear her name from Bitna’s mouth.

“Can you give unni a call? Unni probably won’t be able to call you, probably.”

Bitna took out her phone from her small cross bag. She pressed some buttons with her little fingers before turning the phone around so that Maru could see. Yuna’s phone number was on the display.

“I know her number already.”

He got her number last time.

“Bitna, we should get going now.”

Bitna’s mother called out from behind. Bitna put her phone away and took a bow after grabbing her bag strap. Maru looked at Bitna running away before taking a bow towards Bitna’s mother. Bitna turned around after she reached her mother and waved her hand. Maru waved both of his hands in response.

“Looks like we won’t be able to meet today.”

He got a call from Gaeul as the car the mother and daughter were in disappeared into the distance. Hello? - before he could even say that, he was told that practice was going to end late today. She was panting. It seemed that she had called during practice.

“You don’t have to be sorry. We can just meet next time. It’s the holidays after all. We can just meet up when you don’t have practice. But rather than that, you seem to be quite passionate these days. Are you having fun with practice? Oh, you want me to look forward to it? Alright, I’ll have high hopes. Don’t push yourself though. You know that resting is just as important as practice, right? Yes. Since you’re doing this, don’t leave behind any regrets.”

He hung up. Gaeul was a girl who looked like a rabbit and liked rabbits, but her personality was more similar to a beast that would not let go of its prey than a docile herbivore. She didn’t show it usually, but during the important moments of her life, she would become a huntress. She would not let go of the opportunity she got by signing with an agency. She showed some hesitation until the moment of her decision, but once she decided on something, she would rush straight ahead like a racing horse. It seemed that something changed within her when she came to watch the videos last time. She didn’t explain anything, but Maru could tell from looking at her. All of her actions contained some kind of intention in Maru’s eyes.

He looked up at the skies for a moment. Since he was rejected, he had to change his destination. It wouldn’t be bad to go home like this, but he felt somewhat lacking. The conversations he had with the background actors reverberated in his ears. He needed more stories.

He opened the phone in his hand. He put his thumb on the menu button and thought for a moment. It was 8:10 p.m. It wasn’t that late to make a call, so he wondered if he should try calling. She might be at a loss if he called so suddenly, but he didn’t want to ignore her after he was asked to call her by Bitna. His thumb wavered between the menu button and the cancel button before it decided on a destination. He opened his contact list and called Yuna.

Once, twice, three times - the signal sound was repeated seven times, but she did not pick up the call. Since it was the weekend, it was likely that she was hanging out with her friends. Just as Maru placed his thumb on the end call button,

Hello? - he heard a hurried voice picking up the call. He put his phone against his ear again.

“Is this Miss Kim Yuna’s phone?”

-Yes, it is. Aren’t you Maru-seonbae?

“Yeah, it is me. I just asked just in case. You sounded like a different person.”

-Must be because I picked it up in a hurry. I ran because I heard my phone ringing.

“Ran? Are you outside?”

-No, I’m at home.

“Ah, I see.”

There was a moment of silence. Maru knew what he had to say, but it was hard to say. What happened after that? - asking that question made it seem like he was being too meddlesome. Though, telling her that he called because Bitna asked him to do so was also rather strange. Bitna seemed to want to keep her interference a secret.

-Sorry for leaving after just saying what I wanted last time.

Thankfully, Yuna spoke up first. This was why having a phone call with an unfamiliar person was rather difficult. If they were talking face-to-face, Maru would have had a much easier time talking to her since he would be able to watch her expression and mood. In Maru’s memory, Yuna was a big sister who looked after her little sister a lot; a student who had a passion for acting; and, at the same time, a little child who was fed up with acting. He couldn’t say anything much since he didn’t know much about her, so he was rather relieved that Yuna talked to him first.

“In the first place, you called me out for a consultation, didn’t you? Though, it started off with a lie.”

-I’m sorry about that as well. You were displeased after all, weren’t you?

“No, I said that to sound funny, but it looks like it wasn’t. It’s really hard to talk over the phone, especially when we don’t know each other that well.”

-Then can we see each other right now?

The conversation strayed off towards a completely unexpected direction. Maru stopped walking. His thought process also stopped as well. It was nearly 9 p.m. Not exactly the greatest time to meet up. Moreover, they weren’t close enough to set up an appointment like this so easily and meet each other. Maru was rather flustered when she told him that they should meet right now so easily.

-Is it not good after all?

“No, well, it’s not like that, but I’m in Seoul right now.”

-It only takes an hour by train.

“An hour is not entirely short.”

-Then what should I do?

It seemed that meeting was set in stone, just not the time. Maru started walking again for now. He thought about what kind of expression she had right now. Did she have an unspeakable worry like the first time they met? If it was like that, he could understand. After all, last time she was under pressure high to the point that she ended up bursting into tears on the spot. Perhaps she was in desperate need of an ear that she could say that the king’s ears are donkey ears to. Associating that with what Bitna said, he was probably right. Unni wants to see you - it must be that Yuna has another worry.

“If there’s something you want to say, you can tell me about it. I’ll listen.”

She was a junior that Gaeul cherished. Maru remembered that she was smiling pleasantly when she mentioned Yuna. He wanted to help her out with her worries if possible. Since she was a junior of his important person, it wasn’t a waste of time to allocate some time for her.

-Uhm, I did say that I’ll treat you to food last time, and I’m really okay with the time right now.

Was it a story that was important enough that they had to meet? She sounded rather urgent.

“Then let’s meet in Suwon. I’m going to go down anyway. You shouldn’t come all the way here.”

-I can be the one to go there.

“I have to go home as well, you know? But by the time I’m there, it’ll be 9 p.m. Are you okay with that?”

-Yes. I don’t care.

“Don’t you think your parents will worry about you?”

-She’s not someone who would become worried because of something like that. I’m alone at home right now, and I’ll be by myself until tomorrow because of my sister’s schedule.

“That’s true. I came across your mother by chance, as well as Bitna.”

-Really?

“We met on a shooting set in Seoul. Bitna was as composed as ever.”

-She can be awkward at times. She’s quite stubborn at home, you know? Though, she never acts like that outside.

“She has to relieve her stress like that. She’s still young after all. Then see you in Suwon.”

-Okay. I’ll buy you dinner.

“Nah.”

-Don’t refuse. I definitely have to do something I said I’ll do. I definitely want to buy you dinner.

Yuna sounded rather insistent. Maru felt like there was an unshakable wall right on the other side of the phone. A person like that would never go back on her words. She was the type of person who would do something if she had to. Maru said okay. He avoided being treated without any reason, but he did not refuse free food if there was a reason.

-Where should we meet? I think Suwon station should be good.

“Isn’t that place far from your house?”

-No, it’s close.

“I’m good with that.”

-Then give me a call before you arrive at Suwon station.

“Okay. Send me a text if you change your mind midway. It’s getting late, so don’t bother yourself.”

-Not at all. I’m really okay with it.

Yuna’s voice became higher. It seemed that she had a lot to talk about. Maru pressed the end call button.

* * *

Yuna threw her phone before getting up from her bed. The phone bounced off the mattress and fell on the floor, but she couldn’t care less about that. She had to do her hair first. She puffed up the flattened parts with a hairdryer before using a hair iron to groom her hair. Her hair, which had been scattered everywhere, looked decent now. She put effort into her hair, more than when she took an audition three days ago, before opening her closet.

“Why are there so few clothes?”

She looked at the clothes hanging in the closet before picking a few she liked and putting them on her bed. Black was too stifling, gray was too dusky, pink looked too childish. It’s summer, so a bright one might be better, but it’s the night, so perhaps a darker color would be better? She groaned and barely managed to choose her clothes. An ivory round-neck shirt and a pair of jeans. She wondered if she should wear a skirt, but she wasn’t feeling confident for some reason. She put on her clothes and twirled around in front of the full-body mirror. The combination that the coordinator-unni, that worked with her mother, picked was really to her liking. The clothes themselves looked rather bland, so she accentuated herself with a wristwatch and a bracelet.

She smiled at herself when she looked good before sighing. There was no reason to be so excited. She was just buying dinner for Maru, who gave her consultation. It would be fine as long as she wore something that wouldn’t embarrass her. She should just wear things that she would wear when she hung out with her friends.

However, unlike what she was thinking, her hands were already reaching out to the cosmetics on the cosmetics desk. She usually didn’t put on any make-up unless it was for a special occasion or for an audition because she sweated during practice, yet she was pondering about her facial tone more seriously than ever before. What if it didn’t look good?

She finished off her make-up with a light-colored lipstick as the final touch. The make-up was very light. Yuna looked at the mirror before making an embarrassed smile. She found her actions rather laughable. It wasn’t that she had any special feelings towards him. In fact, she would feel very embarrassed if she saw Maru’s face because of all the things she did last time. She ended up bursting into tears all of a sudden, hugged him even though it was their first time meeting, and even smudged his shirt with make-up. It would be normal if she felt like she didn’t want to meet him, but she said that she wanted to see him while they were on the phone.

“No way, it can’t be, right?”

Yuna shook her head. There was no way romantic feelings would arise so easily. The reason she felt rather nervous, despite looking forward to it, was probably because she felt apologetic and thankful to Maru. It was obvious that once she met him today and thanked him after treating him to dinner, these inexplicable feelings would go away. Yuna thought as such and looked at the mirror. The make-up on her cheeks was a little off. She hurriedly took out a make-up sponge. She tapped on her cheeks until she thought that she didn’t look too bad.

After doing everything she could, Yuna sat down quietly and stared at the clock. She felt like the second hand was ticking backwards. She wondered if time always passed so slow. She gulped down some cold water before looking at the clock again. Only 20 seconds had passed. Maybe the clock was broken? - she seriously thought about that possibility. She turned on the TV, but nothing entered her mind. Her favorite comedian was making a funny face but her smile only reverberated deep within her. The TV, the clock, her phone. Was time being sucked into the Bermuda Triangle formed by those three? Only 30 minutes had passed, but she felt like 4 hours had passed. Just as she walked around the living room, feeling a strange thirst, her phone rang. Yuna picked up the call, getting surprised at herself for being able to move so fast.

-We’re going to return tomorrow night, I think. Don’t skip your meals.

“Huh? Oh, okay.”

-Why do you sound like you’re out of energy?

“Nothing, it’s just hot.”

-Yeah, it is pretty hot. Turn on the air conditioner. Don’t forget to turn it off when you go to sleep.

“Okay.”

She sighed before hanging up. Was Maru-seonbae’s call not coming? Just as she was thinking about that, her phone rang. She immediately pressed the call button and waited with her breath abated. Hello? - it was Maru’s voice.

Chapter 654

Choi Gyeonmi thought about her past. She was an actress who had gained a decent amount of fame in the drama industry after debuting through a play. Although she stayed as a TV actress without being able to cross that wall into the realm of film, she wasn’t disappointed. There were people who recognized her, colleagues who she could work with, and above all, a loving family. She wasn’t that desperate for success. She had the confidence, but she was afraid of slipping. Rather than tasting failure after poking her head around in the film industry, she thought that it would be for the best if she kept playing supporting characters in dramas. That is, until she got divorced.

Divorce didn’t come to her suddenly. Just like how a newborn baby would eventually graduate from their mother’s breasts, divorce found its way to her after a suitable amount of time. It wasn’t that her relationship with her husband had gone bad. The relationship she had with her two daughters was just like others as well. There were no problems and life was smooth. It was her husband who showed her the divorce papers. Her husband was a gentle man who had deep thoughts. When he showed her the papers and apologized to her, she nodded without a word. She thought that there must be a reason for him to do that even though he was cautious about his every move. Gyeonmi just had that much faith in her husband. Marriage failures didn’t always happen after a dramatic event. The break occurred very slowly. Their two daughters said that they would follow their father. Her husband was a director at a large pharmaceutical company, so he was more than capable of taking responsibility for their two children.

After breaking up, Gyeonmi challenged the film industry. Although the challenge of an actress past her forties did not attract anyone’s attention, Gyeonmi did not mind. She wanted to put a burden on her body that had been lightened. She tried to fill that absence of the weight that was her family with work. In 1990, she got her first film script. Since this was her first try, she went about the shoots with the mind of a rookie. The film she tried her hardest for went bust halfway through the production. Everything stopped. The director waited for a few months before he started working on another film, and other actors were also selected for various other commercial films, but Gyeonmi didn’t have anywhere to go. A rumor started circulating. An ahjumma with half-assed acting is being a pain.

One of the pillars that supported Choi Gyeonmi collapsed into rubble. She believed that she would be able to stand up again, but that was her being arrogant. Only then did she find out that one of the pillars that supported her had collapsed already. It was the pillar known as family. From then on, the acting skills of her juniors started catching her eyes. Acting techniques were developing rapidly by the day, and likewise, shooting equipment and techniques were also improving rapidly. As the importance of post-sync recording decreased, the very concept of acting changed as well. Dramatic acting became more focused on placing importance on the ordinary. It didn’t take that long for the skills she had polished through plays to become outdated. Her colleagues started quitting their acting career one by one. The ones that managed to adapt to the new norm belonged to a minority. Unfortunately, Gyeonmi belonged to that minority.

It wasn’t that her livelihood was in danger because she had saved up quite a lot, she now no longer found any reason or fun in life. Humans probably weren’t born in order to spend their time doing nothing before their life came to an end. She fought her best in order to become the actress Choi Gyeonmi, and although she tasted failure, she did not want to despair and collapse on the spot. She needed an opportunity to leap. She was already branded as a failure as a mother, so she didn’t want her acting career to have the same branding. At least, she wanted to do something related to the entertainment industry.

It was around then that she was given an offer to teach children. Around that time, the debut age for entertainers had gotten lower because of idols, so the trend now was to try and raise child actors professionally. Gyeonmi accepted after thinking about it for a few days. She decided as such because she realized that she would no longer be able to continue as an actress. Teaching others about acting was something she had been doing when she was in the theater troupe, so she thought that there wouldn’t be any difficulties, but as with all matters, it didn’t entirely go the way she expected it to. Teaching the foundations of acting was easy. After all, those foundations would not change even if the era changed. The problem lay in form. Why did she have to step down from the entertainment industry? It was because her acting techniques were outdated. She was in a situation where she couldn’t let her students inherit her own acting. Gyeonmi started studying. She handed the children who were above a certain level to other teachers with the excuse that she wasn’t qualified. She once again realized that there was no end to learning as she chased down the latest trends. It was a duty of sorts for an actor to become sensitive to the trends. At the same time, they had to be not swept by those trends, and if possible, they had to be the ones leading it. She changed her vocal methods and her movements. She tried her best to learn what a ‘natural’ acting was and then tried to break it down so that she could standardize it and teach it to her students. She lived a much busier life than when she was an actress. Even when she was resting, she continued to think about such things. There were times when she woke up in the middle of the night to think about a natural pose for sleeping. It was tiring yet surprisingly fulfilling and fun.

Once she gained a bit of confidence, she started accepting children. In order to guide the young actors who didn’t have as much patience as the adults, their teachers had to have several times the amount of patience. She started teaching the children the acting style that she had discovered and nurtured. She was afraid of not being able to achieve anything with her teachings, but she tried believing in herself. Eventually, the results were out. The four students she had taught had all successfully managed to debut. One in a sitcom, two in a movie, and one in a drama. When her students, who received the spotlight, mentioned her name in passing and thanked her, Gyeonmi became assured that this was her path forward.

After that, she continued to accept a few children and taught them. The number of students she taught at the same time didn’t go past three. Getting to know people and teaching them was definitely not an easy thing, so having more than three tired her out physically. Every year, she produced two or three disciples. Among them were some who stopped without becoming big. Becoming perfectly successful was impossible.

Gyeonmi gathered the successful cases and thought about what she could do in order to increase the chances of success. However, the more she analyzed the children that stood out, the quicker she arrived at the conclusion that actors had to have something special. Effort was, yes, very important but even that effort had to be at the level of that ‘special something’. She couldn’t help but agree that the people who put effort into practice like their life depended on it had bestowed upon them the ‘talent to try hard’. The more she taught, the more she realized that talent was not distributed fairly.

Gyeonmi became cold from that moment onwards. She rarely said that trying hard would lead to success. She kept teaching the people who really put in the effort after hearing her words, but she immediately gave up on them the moment they tried to take a detour, even if it was just a small one. You should look into doing something else - Of course, even if she said those words, the children did not give up and looked for other teachers. Among them were people who managed to debut after having their skills acknowledged, but the overwhelming majority of them did not. Gyeonmi trusted her own discerning eyes.

Ever since her teaching ways became concrete, the students she took in were also ‘different’ from the rest. Innate acting talent, the one chosen by the god of acting, the one that makes everyone surprised - she was now in charge of the so-called ‘elites’ with fancy titles to their name at a young age. Like that, she had encountered a few incredibly surprising kids. There were times when she even felt jealous as she looked at the gemstone ores who rushed forward without stopping after she set a direction for them. The children with that much talent lived in a different world from the rest. However, even those geniuses sometimes failed to enter the entertainment industry. That ‘special something’ wasn’t restricted to elements about acting. The children who had developed an increased amount of ‘something’ that they possessed as humans showed a higher level of acting than even the talented kids with special kinds of acting skills. There was something that surpassed form. Gyeonmi intuitively realized that that something should be her ultimate objective as an educator. Among the people that went past her, there were a few people who possessed that ‘something’. The one named Yang Ganghwan was one of them. He was crazy and that was put in a soft way. There was a boy named Hong Geunsoo as well. He was a lunatic. Other than these two, the children who possessed that ‘something’ were now at the center of the entertainment industry. Gyeonmi could guarantee that those two would one day join their ranks.

And, the two in front of her right now also clearly possessed that ‘something’.

“Teacher. Can we seriously stop for today?”

Heewon fell on the ground like melted ice cream. Gyeonmi snorted. Heewon sounded like he was lacking energy every single time, but he had never collapsed during practice. He was a guy who made other people shiver with his eyes despite looking like he was a fool. Gyeonmi had set an objective this year, and it was to see Heewon truly exhausted. Whether physically or mentally, she wanted to see his rock bottom.

Heewon was very special even among the students that she had taught until now. His emotional processing procedure was different from other people’s. Gyeonmi understood to a certain extent the concept of seeing color from emotions from his words, but she had no confidence in formalizing it. It was a cognitive ability only allowed to the human known as Lee Heewon. Gyeonmi focused on setting a direction for him to follow. It was hard to teach him since he strangely lacked any motivation, but as he was a kind kid at heart, he did listen if she asked him to. If he was stubborn, Gyeonmi would have given up on him as well. Even now, she would be having a hard time if not for Haewon. Gyeonmi believed in the existence of God whenever she looked at Haewon. Otherwise, there was no way such a bad kid would have a gentle brother like him. Haewon was both the carrot and the stick for Heewon.

“Let’s continue while we have time. Also, isn’t practice fun?”

Gaeul said that before she took a deep breath. Gaeul was also a special child to Gyeonmi. Until not too long ago, she was just one of the many children who had a refined form without that ‘special something’. She was taking care of her because of a request from the president of an agency she was close to, but she was rather skeptical about Gaeul. It was more likely that she would fail than succeed. How disappointed would she be when she realizes that what waited for her at the end of her path was the lack of qualities as an actress? Gyeonmi was worried about that. Not only that, she was taking the same class as someone who had a talent that couldn’t be explained with human words. She thought that Gaeul would become dejected soon and leave, but recently, Gaeul had become a completely different person.

Honestly speaking, she wanted to focus on Gaeul rather than Heewon right now. Heewon was a semi-perfect actor who only needed time, as his thought processing system was already perfect. In contrast, she still had a lot to teach Gaeul. They had a lot in common as ‘ordinary folk’ after all. Rather than Heewon, who was no different from an alien, it was natural that she had an easier time talking to Gaeul.

“We’re going to start again after taking a 10 minute break. Get ready,” Gyeonmi said to the two children.

She was fifty-six, the perfect age to teach two children.

* * *

Maru looked at Yuna, who was standing in front of him. He could smell something good from her. Did she put on perfume? He felt rather sorry because he thought that he made her concerned about looking good. It would have been fine even if she was in casual attire. Well, she was a girl after all, and since she was at an age where she cared about her looks, he could understand what was on her mind.

“You have something to say, right?”

“Eh?”

“I just thought so because you said you had to see me no matter what.”

“No, I was planning to just treat you to dinner because I promised last time.”

“Really?”

“Yes.”

He decided to think of her as someone who could not live while being indebted to others. They walked side by side until he pointed at a kimbap restaurant in front of Suwon station. It was cheap and they could eat it quickly. It was the perfect choice. However, it seemed that Yuna didn’t like it.

“Can we go over there instead?”

The place Yuna pointed at was a fancy-looking family restaurant.

“That place looks expensive though.”

“It’s fine.”

“I’m not fine. I know how deep the pockets of a high school student are. I don’t want to get treated to something like that for listening to a couple of words. Also, I like kimbap.”

Just as he was about to open the door to the kimbap restaurant, someone pulled on his clothes. It was Yuna. She kept staring at the floor without saying anything, but he could understand her intentions.

“You’re quite stubborn.”

“It’s not like that.”

“You should save up and use that money when you go on a date.”

“I don’t have a boyfriend though.”

“I’m sure you’ll get one soon.”

“How do you know?”

“Just a feeling.”

Maru tried to go back into the kimbap restaurant, but Yuna didn’t budge as though she had taken root. It wasn’t like he could force her either. He was in a fix.

“Fine, let’s go then.”

He turned around, intending to give his credit card to the cashier before she could.

Chapter 655

“Would you like to sit by the window?”

Yuna nodded at the waitress who smiled at her. She scraped the soles of her shoes on the mat before walking inside. Was this place always this wide? - Yuna thought as she followed the waitress. Family restaurants were familiar to Yuna since her mother had taken her to such places a lot. When Bitna had a tight schedule she would always drive the two of them to a nearby restaurant to get their meals, and this place was one of them. Both the interior as well as the employees were familiar to her, but for some reason, they felt rather unfamiliar today. Perhaps it was because she was the one leading someone in to eat rather than following her mother inside?

They sat by the window from which they could see Suwon station. Buses that left Suwon station were lined up in a long trail, and there were people moving next to that line of buses. This was a busy time when employees going home intermixed with people seeking out entertainment.

“I’m going to eat something expensive, okay?” Maru said as he sat down.

He was tensing his eyes. Yuna opened the menu and pushed it towards Maru.

“Sure.”

“I’m not holding back, okay?”

“Yes.”

“Then I’ll go with this one.”

Maru pointed at the corner of the menu with his index finger. The word ‘special discount’ could be seen. Chicken steak, the price was 9,900 won. It also said in red that the price did not include drinks.

“Seonbae, you can eat something more expensive, you know?”

“In that case, I’ll get something expensive and pay for it myself.”

“No, I said I’ll treat you.”

“I’m sorry, but I don’t like being treated without reason. I think 9,900 won is enough for listening to your story last time.”

Although he was saying that softly, persistence could be felt from his words. Yuna looked at the menu again. The words ‘special discount’ and ‘does not include drinks’ couldn’t be more bothersome right now. Maru was being polite, and she knew that it was for her sake, but she didn’t like that for some reason. Yuna fell into thought as she looked at the menu. Why did she feel upset about it?

“Are you uncomfortable with me, seonbae-nim?”

“I’m not exactly uncomfortable with you, but nor am I comfortable. This is only the second time we’ve met.”

“That’s true. Looks like I was thinking too much even though this is our second meeting. Seonbae, I know it’s late, but do you think we should go over there now?”

Yuna pointed at the kimbap restaurant across the street. She felt a sense of distance from Maru ever since they entered this restaurant. All she wanted was to have an enjoyable meal and have a talk with him. She wasn’t planning on thinking deeply about the menu, nor did she want to look at him awkwardly like this. Yuna felt like she had become a fool. Why did she get so excited, get dressed up, and put on make-up like it was a special occasion? Why did she bring seonbae to a restaurant like this?

All she wanted to do was have a talk…

“Something’s wrong after all, isn’t it?”

“Eh?”

“I was rather confused when you said you wanted to meet me at this hour. Bitna mentioned when we met that you seem to want to see me.”

“Then the reason you called me was…”

“I didn’t plan on saying that if possible, but I think that’s the least of your problems right now. You still have some worries left, don’t you? I’m not sure if I can be of help, but I can listen. They say just spilling out what you have pent up inside you will make you calm down. So there’s no need to force yourself to buy me something expensive. In fact, it might be better if we have a quiet talk in a café or something. Don’t feel too much pressure. I have plenty of time to listen to you.”

The moment she heard his words, Yuna realized the identity of the sense of distance and unfamiliarity she was feeling since a while ago. Maru wasn’t here to get a meal from her. He was here to listen to her worries. She was here to have an enjoyable talk, while Maru came here with the mind of a consultant. Naturally, there would be differences in their attitude towards this meeting. She now understood how she was portrayed when she suggested to Maru that they eat something more expensive. The way she talked about meaningless trivial talk while picking the menu might have been portrayed to Maru as her being hesitant to talk about her worries. Perhaps that was why Maru was being direct - don’t beat around the bush and say what you really want.

“Seonbae.”

“Yeah?”

“I don’t have any worries at all.”

Her voice didn’t contain any energy. She could see Maru’s expression coloring with confusion in front of her. Then why did you call me out at this hour? - his eyes seemed to be asking.

“I just, wanted to treat you to dinner…,” she spoke slowly.

This meal had no meaning to Maru. Perhaps the reason he said they should eat light while pointing at the kimbap restaurant was also his way of indicating that they should finish the side event that was having a meal quickly and start talking about her worries as soon as possible. Thinking back, perhaps it was natural that he misunderstood. When he said that he was in Seoul, she reflexively said that she would go there. She even said that it only took an hour by train and that she definitely wanted to go. ‘Just having a meal’ was definitely something strange to do for a meeting at 10 in the evening and without any prior appointments made beforehand. Like what he said, this was only their second time meeting after all.

“Did nothing happen at all?”

Yuna nodded with difficulty. If possible, she wanted to break the window and escape from this place or turn back time. She only continued sitting still because both of those were impossible to do.

“You really called me out just to treat me to dinner?”

“Yes, that was my intention…”

Yuna felt dizzy. She felt like she would have a hard time enduring if they became silent here. She kept turning her head in order to find something to talk about.

“And there’s something I want to boast about.”

That was the answer she came to in the end. Maru spoke after drinking a sip of water.

“Boast?”

“Yes. I actually passed an audition.”

“Really? Congratulations. Looks like you had no problems with acting after that.”

“I felt really refreshed after talking it all out back then. I stopped acting like it was my duty and thought about it deeply. Do I really want to do acting? When I asked, I came to an answer quickly. I felt itchy. I was itching to do more acting even though I thought I was fed up with it.”

Yuna collapsed her hands.

“Like you said, acting wasn’t entirely fun. When I looked back, there were more times when I had a hard time. But I just thought of it as ‘not hard’. I fooled myself into believing that it wasn’t hard. Acting is something really precious to me, so I thought that feeling tired or painful because of it was something that doesn’t make sense. This isn’t hard, this isn’t painful - like that. Then, before I realized it, I became insensitive. There were definitely times when I was tired and when I didn’t want to do it, but I ignored those feelings. I can only say it now, but I was really stupid. It’s not like ignoring them would make them disappear. After I talked to you, I talked a lot with my mother. Mom said that it was natural. That it was obvious for the painful feelings to be just as intense as the fun feelings; that not everything would be just good. She also said that knowing the exact reason why you hate something is also an important process to becoming a pro. When I heard that, my thoughts all just cleared up. It was then I found out that I like acting more than I want to avoid it. After I realized that, I started liking acting even more.”

Yuna spoke without stopping as though she was uttering out what she had pent up inside. She was afraid that things would get awkward if she stopped talking. Once silence arrived, she would start thinking - that Maru-seonbae was only here to give her a consultation; that he wouldn’t be here if not for that. She kept talking in order to not think of the conclusion that followed after that. However, unlike her mouth, her mind produced the conclusion and brought it to the center of her mind. Maru-seonbae was not someone who would come and meet her for private reasons.

She thought that she didn’t have any special feelings. It was just one meeting. Although he ended up embracing her and wiping her tears, she thought that it was just an accident. She thought that she wanted to treat him to a meal purely to pay back her gratitude, not because she had fallen in love at first sight like in dramas. She realized that she was wrong while they had their conversation. The fact that Maru-seonbae was here for a consultation and out of a sense of duty made her feel cold. The fact that he wasn’t here just to get dinner from her - the fact that he wasn’t here because of a trivial reason like that made her disappointed.

She now felt embarrassed by the perfume she put on. She felt more embarrassed by her clothes now than when she was naked. She felt ashamed due to all the hopes she had while looking at the clock while waiting. She found herself pathetic for denying the fact that she was dreaming of being Cinderella. It was just like her acting. She avoided it without looking at it straight on. She had plenty of time to look at herself, but she did not do so. She suddenly felt her face go hot. She felt like a child who had just lied.

“That’s good.”

“Yes, it’s good.”

“Then I’ll treat you for today, as a celebration of sorts. Also, don’t feel too much pressure. All I did was just listen to you, you don’t need to think about paying me back or anything like that.”

Maru spoke with a smile. For some reason, she found that side of him rather hateful. She thought that he acted like that while knowing everything. Her head knew that it wasn’t like that, but her emotions started going rampant. So I’m really a child - she thought. At the same time, she spoke,

“You can treat me, but I can’t treat you? Why? You said you didn’t like being treated because we aren’t close, didn’t you? Why didn’t you think that I would be the same?”

“It’s okay when it’s an adult buying it for you.”

“We’re only a year apart. Seonbae, you’re young too.”

Unlike what she thought - I should be more polite - her words were quite thorny. She could feel the blood vessels in her head thumping. Her neck became hot. She didn’t even know what she was doing, yet her mouth kept blabbing on. It had escaped the control of her mind.

“I am young, I guess. Well, yeah, I’m young. I was too short-sighted. Sorry about that.”

Maru scratched his eyebrows and immediately apologized. That nonchalance stopped Yuna. It was clearer than ever now. Maru didn’t have any personal feelings towards her. It was obvious. It was normal that he wouldn’t. It was her who was strange.

Let’s calm down and act like it’s nothing for today - Yuna decided to act wisely. It would be foolish of her to reveal her heart so suddenly. She just had to admit that she had favorable feelings towards him and keep proceeding when they met next time. After all, she decided not to fool herself from her feelings from now on.

Her head felt a lot clearer now. She just had to ‘coolly’ eat the food and return home. She just had to retract her grumbling attitude, thank Maru-seonbae for coming, and finish up for the day. Maru-seonbae would probably just laugh it off thinking that it was a child being coquettish. He looked like someone who would do that after all. Everything was perfect.

“Seonbae, I think I like you.”

Then, the words she said completely betrayed her perfect plan. The gap was as wide as the price tags on the dishes from this family restaurant and the kimbap restaurant across the street.

“Mommy.”

Today, Yuna found out why people called out to their mothers when they were surprised.

Chapter 656

She said those words without thinking. Even Maru, who was listening, almost replied ‘okay’ without thinking. Those words contained her purest emotions, so Maru reached out to his cup of water in order to buy some time to organize his thoughts. When the cold sensation of his cup climbed up his fingers, Yuna, who was sitting in front of him, abruptly stood up. She sprang up and leaned sideways so that she could escape at any time, but she did not move her legs. Whether it was her reason that held her back or it was her body that just froze up, he did not know, but he did know that he had to talk to her right now.

“You’ll fall over. Sit down for now.”

Yuna’s gaze was on the exit. A suitable excuse, no, just a touch of his finger might make her sprint towards the exit. Maru did not want to embrace the silence, the confusion, and the lump of emotions that would replace Yuna by himself. That would be mentally exhausting. It was obvious that doing that would be even more tiring than listening to her worries.

“Sit down. You know that you’ll put me in a tight spot if you just go like that, right? And you’ll probably regret it a lot afterwards. Sit down so that both of us won’t get embarrassed. Please.”

The distance between Yuna’s nose and upper lip shrunk in an instant. Her expression was hard to describe, and it seemed that she was trying to show a hard-to-describe emotion as well. Her body slowly moved down to the seat. It seemed that she realized that things would go awry if she left just like that.

“I spoke wrong,” Yuna said as soon as she sat down.

Her urgent-looking face made it seem like she had hundreds of excuses ready. Her lips twitched in nervousness.

“Alright, I get it. Calm down for now. No one’s going to fault you for it. Do you want some water?”

“Yes.”

Yuna quickly brought her cup to Maru’s side with both of her hands. Maru filled the cup to the brim. It was a lot to drink in one go, but Yuna gulped down everything as though she had just trekked through the desert.

“Do you feel a little calmer now?”

“Can I have another cup?”

“Sure.”

He poured some more for her. After emptying her cup, she took a deep breath before breathing out. It was a warm breath that Maru could feel from that distance. He felt like he understood just how much she was boiling on the inside. She must be flustered. After all, he was quite flustered as well, and he was the listener.

From the way she denied those words immediately, it seemed that she didn’t think deeply when she said those words. They were impulsive. Maru could understand her. After all, not everyone spoke the words they had logically thought of inside their head. To change the atmosphere, he opened the menu for now.

“We should eat now, don’t you think?”

Yuna nodded after a bit of hesitation. Maru chose a suitably-priced dinner set.

“I’ll go with that as well,” Yuna said.

After ordering, Maru sighed in relief.

“Uhm, seonbae. I startled you, didn’t I?”

“You sure did. But you did say that you said wrong, so it’s fine. I also make mistakes like that from time to time.”

He tried to change the topic naturally after burying her mistake like that. He didn’t want to pry deeply into that and find out what she really meant by those words.

“Did you also make mistakes like this?”

“When I was young. I am young right now, but it was when I was even younger.”

“What kind of mistakes do you mean?”

“Trivial things. Like saying a different word or forgetting an honorific towards a senior. Sometimes, I would be on a completely different line of speech because I can’t follow what others are saying. Everyone has those moments, you know? So don’t worry about it. I won’t tell anyone about this even as a joke. Just forget about it, it’s not even funny, right?”

“Yes, it’s not a joke.”

A corner of her lips twitched as she said those words. Maru wanted to smoothly pass this situation. He did not want to waste any energy trying to understand what was really on her mind, what made her commit that mistake, nor what her wavering eyes meant. He had a vague awareness that her actions, packaged as a mistake, contained feelings that might put them both in an awkward situation, but he intentionally ignored it. Unless she wanted to talk about it, Maru was not planning to mention it either.

They got some bread as an appetizer and then the main meal. Maru kept bringing up topics so that they didn’t spend any time in awkward silence. The shoot he had during the day became a splendid topic of conversation. Just talking about Bitna allowed them to chit-chat until they finished about half of the steak.

“Bitna is really obedient when she’s outside. People are surprised by her. Sometimes, even I think that the way she’s acting is like a pro. Though, sometimes, the disparity between her actions at home and her actions outside does make me feel rather weird.”

“I think Bitna knows exactly what she’s doing.”

“Yes, that’s exactly it. I probably won’t be able to do that.”

“Yuna, I’m sure you can do it as well. You’ve splendidly overcome your trauma and you’re still doing your favorite thing - acting. That’s something really hard to do. There are many people who turn away after not being able to overcome that. Since we’re at it, what kind of audition was it for? A film? A drama?”

“A drama. It was a rather weird audition. When I first met the director, I was quite confused, but after I had a realization, everything had an intention behind it. I was rather uneasy because I couldn’t follow the audition for the first half, and I didn’t know what the director wanted from me, but the director told me midway: show me drama. When I heard those words, I suddenly had something I wanted to do. When I finished my acting, the director told me that we should work together. Those words really made me happy.”

“That’s good. Maybe you’ll get famous immediately and become busy?”

“No way.”

“You never know what will happen.”

“Geez, everyone’s teasing me about it, whether it’s you or the seonbaes from the acting club.”

“I’m not teasing you. I’m just saying that it’s a possibility. The people from your acting club cheered for you when you said you were doing an audition, right?”

“Yes. Gaeul-seonbae also encouraged me a lot. The other seonbaes did too. I feel like I passed the audition thanks to them. If I kept going to acting schools to do my acting, I would never have known what the director meant by ‘drama’. I really think I did well by choosing to do acting. I like acting.”

“I like acting too.”

Maru drank the rest of the drink. Their stiff atmosphere became a lot softer once they started eating, and now they were at a point where they could talk with smiles. Things were probably going well. He put down his fork. The only thing in front of him now was an empty plate. He had a decent talk with a junior he wanted to look after over a meal. This was a clean ending.

“Thanks for the meal. I’ll have you buy it this time and I’ll buy you one next time.”

If he tried to pay this time, she might try to do something, so he gave Yuna the bill just as she wanted. The emotions squirming within Yuna would probably die down in due time. Once she realized that it was a momentary mistake and a temporary excitement, Yuna would probably come to the next meal with an ease of mind. Yuna’s clothing entered his eyes. The faint make-up also caught his eyes. Yuna was smiling awkwardly. She had returned to the expression she had before they started eating. Her lips were still trembling. Her expression was confessing that the words she said before were not just a mistake. Maru wiped his mouth with some napkins. It was about time to go.

“Uhm, seonbae,” Yuna said as she grabbed the bill before continuing,

“You said that you have to look at what you like with truthful eyes, right? That you should not try to fool yourself into thinking that you have different feelings from what you actually feel.”

“I think I said something similar.”

“Seonbae, I think I like you after all.”

“I think you’re making a mistake this time as well.”

“No, it’s not a mistake. I don’t think it is.”

“Then you might be misunderstanding your feelings. I also once felt rather attracted to a seonbae-noona who listened to my worries before. However, she said this to me - being grateful and liking someone has similar characteristics that can easily be mistaken; that I’m feeling reliant on her; and that what I feel is actually far from the feelings of love. After some time, I understood what she meant. That’s why psychologists consider falling in love with their patients a taboo…”

Maru stopped after saying up to that point. Yuna’s eyes, which had been wavering everywhere throughout the entire meal, were now fixed on one point. Maru closed his eyes. This was why he tried to ignore her. He had a lot of resistance to emotions close to malice and could easily come up with countermeasures, but a pure confession of emotions that put down the person herself and hurled everything she had at him irresponsibly was still something that made him smile in bitterness. It seemed that this child still had not learned the ways of an underhanded adult who avoided other people’s emotions by talking about something else. He felt rather iffy.

“You know that I have a girlfriend, don’t you? Don’t you think it’s rather disrespectful for you to do that when you know that?”

He finally took out the last words he wanted to say because he didn’t want to have an awkward relationship with her. They say love between students was something that burned easily and cooled just as easily, but Maru did not want to treat Gaeul like that. Of course, they might end up breaking up, but for now, he still liked Gaeul.

“What?”

“Hm?”

Yuna blinked in confusion. Maru did the same. She looked like she didn’t know at all.

“You had a girlfriend, seonbae?”

“You didn’t know?”

“You didn’t tell me, so there’s no way I would know, right?”

Her words slowed down. There were question marks between every single one of her words. Maru scratched his eyebrows. Yuna tilted her head.

“Didn’t Gaeul tell you?”

“What would Gaeul-seonbae tell me?”

“That she’s going out with me.”

Yuna’s expression changed by the second. Maru felt like he was watching a timelapse of a flower blooming before wilting. Yuna became blue in an instant and sealed her mouth shut before taking her bag and walking over to the counter. Maru followed her. While she paid for the bill, Yuna kept staring at the ground.

Thank you for your visit - the employee’s goodbye seeped out through the open glass door. Maru waited for Yuna in front of the stairs. Yuna returned from the bathroom. Her face was all wet. Only after drops of water dripped off her chin did she run back to the bathroom. When she came back, Yuna had a lot of toilet paper on her face. It seemed that pieces had gotten stuck on her face when she was wiping her face, and it seemed that Yuna didn’t notice.

“Uhm, on your face, there’s…”

Maru said those words with much difficulty. It was harder to say than asking someone to guarantee for him. Yuna abruptly turned around and started dusting off her head starting from her hair. Maru was reminded of a dog shaking off water from its body. When she turned around, Yuna couldn’t be said to be looking good at all. Her hair now looked like a lion’s mane, and the remaining make-up on her face made her look like she was playing around with make-up tools.

“Seonbae.”

“Yeah?”

“I’ll call Gaeul-seonbae and apologize.”

“No, you don’t really need to do that.”

“No, I have to.”

Yuna, who smiled at him, started to make a crying expression. The ‘crying’ was complex, but the element that made up most of it was probably ‘embarrassment’.

“Uhm, Yuna?”

“Seonbae, I’m really sorry. I mean it.”

Yuna kept bowing to apologize before running down the stairs. The sound of hiccups and crying was mixed with the loud sound of footsteps. Maru stood still for three minutes. Just then, he got a text on his phone. Seonbae, I’m really sorry for today. If we ever meet again next time, please just smile at me, or you can tease me about it.

He chuckled. The way she acted was pretty cute. He didn’t feel that good when Yuna confessed to him, but when he found out that she didn’t know that he and Gaeul were dating, he ended up smiling instead.

“Han Maru, you’re still pretty useful.”

He didn’t know when the next time would be, but if he did meet her again, he thought that it might be good to try and tease her just like she said. Since she was a pretty decent girl who knew how to be polite, had a good personality, and was rather conservative in nature, he didn’t want to have an awkward relationship with her. She was also a precious junior to Gaeul, so it would be better if their relationship was one where they could shake hands when they met rather than an awkward one.

And three days later.

“This is Han Maru, and this is Kim Yuna. You can introduce yourselves to each other.”

Maru came across Yuna again, and she looked like she was seriously considering running away.

Chapter 657

Yoo Jayeon regretted being born as a woman several times throughout her life. I wish I could take off that thing between a man’s legs and stick it on me - she said this every time she got semi-drunk during drinking occasions. When she was in school, she didn’t have any deep worries about her gender. The problem occurred when she graduated college and entered the TV station. During the period where new recruits were sent around to various departments to gain experience, Jayeon saw the limitations of a female producer. Entertainment, culture, radio - there were female producers in these departments. Some of them were even treated with respect. While there was a disdaining gaze from around, at least there was the opportunity to prove oneself.

However, it was a different story for dramas. The drama department was a taboo zone for women. It was a sanctuary of men. There wasn’t a single female producer. The department simply didn’t pick any in the first place. When Jayeon said that she was going to apply for the drama department when she was new, she heard these words hit her ears - ‘how dare you, even though you’re a woman’.

How dare you. The moment Jayeon heard those words, she decided to bury her bones in the drama department. There were many reasons the drama department avoided women. The biggest reason was health. Unlike entertainment or culture, the producers of the drama department would often have to work outside of the company. On top of that, there was a saying that extra working hours were a necessity and that staying up the night was a must in the drama department. It was also a place where showing signs of fatigue or having a nosebleed was a sign for other people to ridicule them for causing a ruckus. It was no different from a warzone, so the general consensus was that they could not tolerate women in such a place. Who’s going to cover for her when she takes a leave because of her period? - these were the words of a mocking senior, who also said that female producers were never allowed in the drama department.

Jayeon nurtured her stamina. As she had a strong body and had never caught a cold since young, she was quite confident in herself. She reduced her sleep and tried doing more work. She also planned her schedule so that it matched the schedule of a member of the drama department. When her colleagues told her to stop being foolish, she clenched her teeth and endured. She had absolutely no plans to change her objective because of a childish reason such as her having a woman’s body.

An opportunity came. Rumors spread that there is a ‘lunatic woman’ among the new recruits in the drama department. Go on, try - the one to put his hand out to her was producer Park Hoon. He was an acknowledged producer in the drama department, who, while never having done any works that were huge hits, had constantly produced works that had steady viewership. Jayeon was rather confused. She wondered why he gave her this opportunity. That was why she asked Park Hoon before they started working - why did you give me this opportunity?

Park Hoon’s answer was quite simple. He said that people with tenacity are worth believing. Jayeon fully prepared herself. She learned everything she needed to do as the assistant director and pulled herself together so that nobody would be able to say to her that a woman is no good ‘after all’. She always acted with the mindset that she would move 10 minutes earlier than most people and resolved to herself that she would never fall down, even if it meant dying under all the workload.

When she went to her first shoot, Jayeon encountered the second reason why ‘women were no good as producers’. It was authority. In other words, charisma. The overwhelming majority of people ignored her words because she was a woman. They did what she told them to, but they either were very lax about it or did it very unwillingly. Otherwise, they did things by themselves and did not give her any room to interfere. Jayeon realized that she was going to be eliminated in this kind of atmosphere and that she would become a precedent that supported the unwritten rule of ‘female producers are no good’.

A woman appeared in an ecosystem without women. It was natural for the rest to try to exclude her in confusion. Logical persuasion was only possible when they could talk. In an environment where she couldn’t even get a conversation going, her words were shouts in the void. Jayeon had to choose. Either she would have become ‘Miss Yoo’ and struggle to survive by sucking up to others or become an eel that muddied the waters by jumping into the center of the ecosystem. Her hesitation did not last long. Jayeon chose to become a very vigorous eel that would muddy the waters.

The first thing she had to do was to make them forget that she was biologically different from them. For efficiency, she constantly uttered swear words. Her mouth became violent. The men who smiled at her until just yesterday no longer smiled. She did several times the work that other people did so that no one could nitpick her for not doing enough work. She did everything meticulously in order to not give them any room for doubt.

It was only a matter of time before displeasure replaced the absence left behind by the smiles. Complaints continued to arise. Word arose that she was being cocky for being a woman. Producer Park Hoon asked her - do you want mediation? Jayeon slowly shook her head. This is only the start - she told him.

If a resentful woman could make it snow during the summer months,[1] she had to show that a bitchy woman could turn the drama shoot upside down. However, it wouldn’t be good to act crazy without restraint. She had to discern her allies and enemies clearly, and then reach out to the people she had to keep on her side. If she tried to fight against an organization of men by herself, she would most definitely lose. She had to be strategic, and Jayeon moved in order to pull the people related to the production to her side. They were none other than the directors of each area[2].

It was very difficult to attract the directors of each part since they were the epitome of being conservative and condescending, but fortunately, they were people who could discern passion from bitching. Ever since she got close to the directors, the friction between her and the staff was definitely reduced. Her plan to conquer their chiefs was a success.

Next were the actors. Actors, who could say that they couldn’t trust a woman without holding back, were in one way, even harder enemies to deal with than the people at the TV station. The staff members at least had a common point with her in that they worked for the same company, but the actors had none of that. But raising her voice at the actors was too risky. Jayeon knew her own position, and she knew that she wasn’t important enough to challenge the actors yet.

If a frontal breakthrough wasn’t possible, she had to go at them from the back. There was one person, who, while not showing up to the shoots, had the ultimate key to the production of the drama itself. It was none other than the writer. And that was the first time being a female producer was to her advantage. Other than historical dramas, the overwhelming majority of writers for dramas were women. Jayeon looked for the writer of the drama. Jayeon, who was the sole female in the sea of men that was the drama department, was a topic of interest to the writer as well, so they could get close very easily. The way she called the writer also changed from simply ‘writer’ to ‘unni’. They would also often drink out with other actors at night. Jayeon’s first ally was writer Lee Hanmi, and she was a very strong one.

There came the day where the actors, writer, and production staff all gathered to have a read-through. In that place, writer Lee Hanmi said: there’s no one here who’s stupid enough to look down on women just because they’re women, right? It was a single arrow that penetrated the enemy general’s heart.

Jayeon managed to successfully finish her job as the assistant director for her first drama. She was even tossed into the air during the afterparty. Her enemies had become her allies. Of course, even after that, she received biased gazes of contempt and even a bit of jealousy, but that disappeared soon. After all, a ‘bitchy woman’ did not let go of what she bit. The moment the vice-president declared that ‘she is a woman, but not a woman’, Jayeon became the first female producer to put her flag in the drama department.

This was her 4th year, and she got to produce her debut work. She got to shoot her first piece in her 4th year when the norm was 5 to 8 years. When Jayeon was told by the president to prepare a one-act play, she almost screamed in joy. She rushed out of the president’s office and walked around between the producers and cheered out loud. She could now make her own work as a producer, instead of as an assistant. This was her true starting point, and it was also a result she gained from fighting for it. The drama department was still a taboo area for women. She had survived as a mutant. Jayeon wanted to change this stiff environment from the ground up. The first step to doing that was to prove her skills. She had removed the bias of ‘women are no good’ to a certain extent. The only thing left was to make other people say ‘women are okay too’, followed by ‘only women can do it’. Since she was doing it, she had a ton of ambition. In order to grow up into a powerhouse in this area, she first needed a good piece to work with. A work that no one could ‘dare’ retort to.

The late-night one-act play theater at YBS was a great stage both for experimentation and to prove her skills. Although the budget was tight, the producer had full control over the direction of the drama. The production budget was completely provided by the TV station, which meant that it was a haven where she didn’t have to worry about advertisers. It was a great opportunity to let her presence be known from the planning phase to the final piece.

Traditionally, the late-night one-act play theater at YBS was used as a stage to excavate new stars. Not just one or two people who went on this stage became splendid actors within the country. This was why, before the start of every season, which there were four of every half a year, one call would come in once from agencies that had a close relationship with the TV station, while two or more calls would come from agencies that didn’t. They were all calls to recommended actors.

Jayeon refused all the recommendations she got and carried out an audition herself. In order to prove herself in both potential and usefulness through this debut work, she needed a set of people who could work with her perfectly like fitting cogwheels.

As a result of that, she managed to get actors to her liking. There were some who had a decent reputation, and there were some who were close to being nameless. It was the two child actors that she delayed her decision for until the very end. No matter how good the adult actors were, if the child actors looked awkward, the whole play would look incomplete, so she picked actors who had not only great acting skills but also fit well with her.

She had the two child actors she found through that method meet each other today. The reason she had the two of them meet before they met the other actors during the get-together, was to form a sense of kinship between the two. Even the actors who had a lot of experience would sometimes change their acting style according to who they were working with. These tendencies would be more pronounced with child actors, who were just stepping into the industry. Rather than meeting each other for the first time on set, she calculated that having the two of them get close beforehand would make the shoot a lot smoother.

Jayeon looked at the two people in front of her alternately. It seemed pretty clear that they knew each other. However, their reactions were quite contrasting. One side greeted in kind while the other looked like she was about to leave at a moment’s notice.

“You two know each other?”

“Yes.”

The answer only came from the boy named Han Maru. The girl, Kim Yuna, sat there without saying anything and looked like she was sitting on thorns. Jayeon frowned. While Yuna had a shy side to her, she was someone who knew what Jayeon wanted and did just the things she wanted her to. Yet now, she was unable to meet the eyes of the other person.

“Did you do something wrong? Did you borrow money from him or something?”

Jayeon questioned Yuna. This wasn’t good. There was a girl that she thought was pretty decent among the people that took the audition with Maru, but she gave up on her because she had picked Yuna beforehand. She was naturally thinking about changing her plans if Yuna did not live up to her expectations. If she called the other person right now and told her that she passed, then a change of child actors would occur immediately. It wasn’t like they wrote a contract, so there were no problems either.

“Yuna, you’re at work. I thought you wanted to become a pro,” Maru said.

His words seemed to contain some magical power as Yuna, who had been avoiding his gaze this whole time, shook her head before looking at Maru. The expression that Jayeon liked returned.

“I won’t ask what happened between you two, but tell me clearly if it will influence what I’m doing - that you can’t do it. Han Maru, are you okay with it?”

“Yes. Yuna shouldn’t have a problem either.”

“I should hear that from the person herself. Kim Yuna, what about you?”

“I can do it! Please allow me to do it.”

Yuna spoke firmly. While Jayeon had her doubts, she decided to watch for now.

“When you said you found two decent people last time, I thought the other girl passed as well but looks like I was wrong.”

“When did I ever say that both of you passed? I just said that I found two decent people. I’m going with you and Yuna. I was planning to tell you to get close beforehand, but it looks like that was unnecessary. You two know each other already.”

“Yes.”

“You’re going to have to get close to each other in the future. After all, you’re going to be portrayed as a couple. It won’t be funny if you act awkward during the shoot. This is the first piece I’m producing so my life is on the line. That’s why I’ll ask again. There are no problems between you two, right?” Jayeon asked as she looked at the two people alternately.

After exchanging gazes, the two nodded at the same time.

[1] A saying in Korean.

[2] Like lighting director, camera director, sound director, etc.

Chapter 658

“Did you get back home safely back then?”

“Yes.”

“I was slightly worried because you were so rushed. I’m glad you’re okay.”

“Sorry, I was so out of it back then. I tried to call you… I typed in your number several times, but I couldn’t bear to press the call button.”

“I understand how you feel. I wouldn’t have been able to do that either.”

“But I did call Gaeul-unni. Unni laughed a lot. She did say that it was okay, but I still felt sorry.”

“It’s okay since she said it’s okay. Liking someone isn’t a crime, you know? You met Gaeul during practice, right?”

“Yes.”

“Did she say something to you? Or did she glare at you?”

“No, there was nothing like that. In fact, she told me not to worry about it.”

“Then you must know that there’s nothing to worry about, right? Just think of it as an accident.”

Yuna nodded. Maru saw a doubtful smile briefly appearing on her face before disappearing.

“Rather than that, I never imagined that the audition you passed was for this.”

“I was really surprised too when you first came here.”

“That’s why you grabbed your bag the moment you saw me? So that you could run?”

“That’s… no. Probably…”

“Yuna.”

“Yes?”

Maru reached his hand out to Yuna.

“Since it’s like this, let’s try our best. I know that the awkward feelings won’t disappear immediately, but both you and I need to do this drama.”

“Are you okay with it?”

“Me? I’m okay. I told you, didn’t I? Liking someone isn’t a crime. In fact, I’m grateful. When else would I get to hear such an honest confession like that?”

“Don’t keep mentioning it. It’s making me embarrassed.”

“We’re going to have to see each other for a long time anyway. I’ll keep bringing it up until you get fed up with it. Maybe that way you’ll no longer feel awkward with me. Don’t you think so?”

“That’s true, but it also sounds wrong…”

Yuna hesitantly looked down. She met him again even though she didn’t have any time to take care of her feelings after the messed up confession, so Maru understood that she felt rather complicated, but he couldn’t afford to have her avoid it all the time. Maru shook his hand which he reached out.

“I’m asking you to take care of me in the future, are you not going to accept this handshake?”

Yuna became startled and grabbed his hand with both of her hands. Maru looked at the small hands that were grabbing onto his. She had her hands clasped as though she was praying.

“That’s a weird handshake, but anyway, take care of me in the future.”

He shook her hands up and down slightly. Yuna, who was smiling awkwardly, also loosened up a little. A sigh escaped her mouth. It seemed that she was very nervous. He took Yuna back to the café. He saw Jayeon waiting by the window.

“4 minutes and 48 seconds. You didn’t go past 5 minutes. From the way you look, it looks like things are okay now?”

“Yes.”

“Yes.”

Jayeon nodded and stood up.

“I hate starting things off awkwardly. If you’ve decided to do it, let’s do it properly like a pro. I don’t plan on interfering with your history, but like I said, there’s no privacy if it affects work. I will ask about everything. Take care of your matters so that something like that doesn’t happen. If I feel a strange sense of distance between you two before the shoot starts, I’m going to switch both of you out. I mean it so keep that in mind.”

Maru had seen that Jayeon wasn’t all bark and no bite during the audition. She was someone who would really switch them out if she said so. They left the building and got in Jayeon’s car. Inside the black SUV was a change of clothes, various scenarios, sketches of the stage, as well as some energy drinks.

“Push them aside and grab a seat,” Jayeon said.

Maru cleaned the items inside the car as he thought of Miso’s car. There was a pair of underwear on one of the seats, and Yuna stiffened up when she saw that. Maru wrapped the underwear with a t-shirt and put it on the passenger seat next to Jayeon. Jayeon gave them a glance before starting the car without saying anything.

“Have you ever been to a pojang-macha before?”

Maru said yes, while Yuna shook her head while saying no.

“Looks like Yuna will have to watch in detail today. You’ll only be able to reflect the feelings you get from the scene if you remember the scenery of the place you’re going to now. I’ll say this beforehand, but to be honest with you, I’m worried about you two the most. Not to mention acting experience, you have little experience with the world itself. This drama requires you to dissolve your livelihood into it. Of course, I’m not expecting anything amazing from you. I’m just asking you to hold back from doing awkward imitations. See and feel for yourself as much as possible and instill it into your acting. Don’t try to drag other people’s stuff into your own.”

After saying those words, Jayeon started driving.

“We’re now going to a pojang-macha. It’s the place that is the closest to what I’m thinking of. No, in some sense, it’s more than what I imagined. If it’s possible, we’re going to do the shoot here, and if that doesn’t happen, we’re going to recreate everything there as a set, so engrave the images into your mind.”

The radio announced that it was 9 p.m. Soon after that, shoulder-jerking rock music vibrated the air. Jayeon raised the volume. The whole car became a giant echo chamber, amplifying the sound. As Maru didn’t have any preferences for music, he just listened without feeling anything. The drums and bass didn’t sound too bad, resonating inside his body. He listened to the music without thinking much before he turned his head sideways. He saw Yuna scrunched up like a turtle with her hands clenched into fists. When an ear-screeching electric guitar flowed out from the speaker right next to Yuna, she twitched before closing her eyes.

“Uhm, producer.”

“What is it?”

“Can you lower the volume a little?”

“Was it too loud? I don’t really drive with other people in the car, so sorry about that.”

Unlike what she seemed like on the surface, it didn’t seem like she was extremely self-centered. Jayeon turned down the volume and changed the channel as well. A calm voice from an announcer calmed down the air inside the car.

Maru rested his chin on his hand and looked outside. The car was entering a main street. The car crawled its way in between the various signs put out on the street. The distinction between the sidewalk and the road was quite vague here. The loud music from the speakers of various stores mixed with the loud shouts of drunk youths seeped into the car. The radio channel had changed back to the rock music channel from before. Fortunately, the volume wasn’t that loud.

“It’s a blessing to play around to your heart’s content, don’t you think?” Jayeon said while driving.

Her eyelids were moving like the shutter of a camera in burst mode. It seemed like a process of taking in the scenery of the street into her eyes. Perhaps she was gathering materials to use later.

The street that was divided into the heat of youth and the beauty of debauchery became distant and they entered a quiet, dark alley. To their left were many stores with their lights off. It seemed to be the traditional market. The car, which drove around the old-looking stores, eventually stopped in front of a store named ‘Miyoung Firm’. That store looked like it hadn’t been in use for a long time.

“You can get off now.”

Yuna got off first through the door on the right, and Maru followed her out. The door to the left was blocked by the wall. The first thing Maru noticed was a fishy smell. The ground was wet with a mixture of water and oil that was flowing between the cracks of the asphalt. They were only five minutes away from the street filled with youths, yet the atmosphere had changed completely. Jayeon then started walking towards an alley where no human presence could be felt. Maru glanced at Yuna before starting to follow her. The signs of the various stores around here were barely hanging and had lost their colors. It wouldn’t be strange if this area was going to be under redevelopment starting tomorrow. Was there a pojang-macha in such a place?

Just as Maru got used to the smell of sewers, he saw a faint orange light that was different from the street lights. Jayeon smiled and raised her head. It seemed that they had arrived at their destination. They turned around at the store with a sign that said ‘Shinil Grocery’. There was a pojang-macha enveloped in an orange curtain, shining in the middle of the darkness just like a traffic light protecting a crossroad in the dark countryside.

“This is where my drama is going to be made,” Jayeon said.

She seemed excited like a little kid who had just gotten some pocket money. They pushed aside the plastic curtain and went inside. This wasn’t like the pojang-macha seen in crowded places, where there were many tables laid out. Instead, there was only a long, fold-out shelf-like stainless steel table with the cooking area right behind it. There were a total of 8 chairs. A couple seemingly in their 30s as well as two men in their forties were eating on each end.

“Sir, I’m here.”

“You never get fed up with this place, do ya?”

“You shouldn’t say that to someone who’s here to give you sales. At least today, there are some seats.”

“Do you think people will come all the way here in this weather? Everyone would go indoors to drink. Anyway, who are the two kids behind you? Your illegitimate children?”

“You know that I’m a celibate. They’re my actors. The actors who will act here.”

“I never said I’m letting you borrow my store.”

“There’s still some time until the shoot, so think about it slowly. Well then, you two. Have a seat.”

Jayeon said that as she sat in the center.

Maru pulled out a round plastic chair and looked around. There were boiled eggs inside a basket made of bamboo. The price was 100 won each. Behind that was a steaming bucket. Inside were fish cake skewers. The owner put his hand inside the container that seemed like a steamer before taking it back out again. In his hands were pig lungs. He then chopped them before putting them out in front of the two men in their forties. If there was tteokbokki and fried food, it would be a similar menu composition to the bunsik restaurants near schools, but those two couldn’t be seen. Next to the steamer for the soondae was another steamer, and what came out of that were some dumplings. Their shapes were inconsistent as though they were made by hand. Soondae, fish cakes, and dumplings. As side dishes for drinking, they seemed kinda lacking, and it was a rather vague combination for a meal as well.

“For now, give us three bowls of udon.”

Jayeon ordered. She looked like she couldn’t care less about the opinions of boy 1 and girl 1 sitting on either side of her. Maru just shrugged. It was the perfect time for some night snacks, so he didn’t have any complaints. The owner took out some broth from the fish cakes and put some noodles he took out from god knows where before putting it out. The only other thing in that bowl of udon was some dried fish cakes.

“It might look like that, but the taste is quite decent,” Jayeon said as she picked up her chopsticks.

Maru drank the broth first. It definitely didn’t taste coarse. It lacked something that would draw him into it but considering that it was something he could eat on the spot, it was quite luxurious. Above all, the price tag hung on the side multiplied the taste. 1,000 won per bowl and 1 free refill. Just as he was about to eat the noodles, a white plate containing soondae and some steamed organs was placed in front of him.

“Don’t bring kids and feed them flour. They look like they’re in their growth period.”

They seemed to be freebies. The men in their forties and the couple in their thirties smiled pleasantly. They seemed to be used to that kind of scenery. Maru swirled the noodles once with his chopsticks before putting them in his mouth. The noodles were elastic and retained their shape until they went through his throat. The quantity wasn’t that small either. This was just 1,000 won?

“Do you have any margin if you sell these at 1,000 won?” he asked the owner.

The man, who seemed to be in his forties, made a faint smile and replied.

“There’s nothing more foolish than being worried about a merchant. Just eat it. Tell me if it’s not enough.”

When he finished his words, more customers came in. They seemed to be a student. They seemed to find the lack of seats natural and ordered some udon while saying that they would eat outside.

“You should eat more rice and fewer noodles if you’re going to study.”

“Your udon is much better than any rice out there. Call us once they’re ready. We’ll be outside.”

“It’d be boring if you wait while doing nothing, so take a skewer each. And an egg.”

The owner put the skewer and an egg into each of the two students’ hands even though they tried to refuse before starting to make the udon.

“This is one of the few resting places that remain in this busy city,” Jayeon said as she lifted her bowl.

Chapter 659

The couple in their thirties left. They put the money inside a blue plastic basket. They put the money in there before the owner said to put it there. It seemed that there were a few unwritten rules in this small pojang-macha. It was something cozy and not uncomfortable. It was one of those ‘oh, there’s something like that’ elements that people could smile at.

Maru downed his udon and gave back the bowl. Can I have another bowl? - The owner said yes before putting some broth and noodles in the bowl. The quantity didn’t decrease from before. In fact, Maru felt like there was more. There was a lot of topping as well. Although it was only some fish cakes, the amount provoked Maru’s gratitude in his heart.

The owner told the students eating outside to come in, but the two students refused, saying that they liked eating standing up better. It seemed that right below the street light, where the light from the pojang-macha could barely reach, was their secret hideout of sorts. Maru could hear the conversation the two had through the opening of the plastic curtain. They were talking about how it was the summer holidays and yet they had to go to school or something, about teachers, and about cram schools.

“Thanks for the food.”

The two salarymen in their forties paid before leaving. They each had a bottle of soju, some soondae, and a bowl of udon. There were warm smiles on their faces as they left. The smiles seemed to be due to a combination of the warmth of the udon and the alcohol.

As though it was a relay race, the next set of customers entered the pojang-macha as soon as they left. A woman, who was carrying a drunk man on her shoulders, took seats on the left. The man, who was balding, kept heaving out heavy breaths as though he was a humidifier, and the woman next to him kept stroking his back in worry. Were they married? The man loudly ordered a bottle of soju.

“You drank enough already. Don’t get yourself into trouble tomorrow. Drink some of this.”

What the owner gave him was some fish cake broth. The woman, who seemed to be the wife, accepted the bowl instead of the man, who seemed like he couldn’t move properly.

“Sorry, this man just has to visit this place whenever he’s drunk. Yoonji’s dad, drink some of this.”

The man, who had his face against the table, abruptly opened his eyes and snapped out, but when his wife narrowed her eyes and glared at him, he accepted the bowl without saying anything. It seemed that a wife’s glare is something undefiable even when one was drunk.

“Oh, you’re open today.”

The right seat was soon filled as well. It was a man in his mid twenties with a neat haircut. He was also wearing a suit.

“I took a break yesterday. You said you were going to an interview?”

“Yeah. Today, I think it really went well. I got the feels. The interviewers asked me my name one more time when I left, so I’m sure of it this time.”

“Didn’t you say that last time as well?”

“It’s for real this time. Oh, one udon and a portion of soondae.”

“What about dumplings?”

“No thanks.”

“They’re good though.”

It seemed that the dumplings here were an unpopular menu item. The owner made a disappointed expression before putting down a bowl of udon and soondae in front of him. The man placed his phone next to the bowls before he started eating. He ate a mouthful of the noodles then the soondae. While he was eating, his gaze did not move away from his phone. The phone must have been a symbol of faith for him.

“Interesting, isn’t it?” Jayeon said.

She said that this pojang-macha was a theme park. She smiled in satisfaction, saying that it was possible to see many different types of people here as long as they bought the ticket known as a bowl of udon. Maru had a look at the drunk man, his wife, the students eating while chatting outside, and the man who said that he did a good interview before nodding. It was indeed a theme park. Instead of rides though, it was filled with people.

“Uhm.”

Yuna, who had been sitting quietly for a while, quietly called out to the owner. In her hands was a bowl. The owner wordlessly gave her another bowl. When everyone looked at her, she smiled and picked up her chopsticks again.

“Owner, please let me shoot here. I don’t think I’ll ever get this feeling even if I make this into a set.”

“Just recreate it to make it look similar. I’m sure you have a lot of money since you’re working for the TV station.”

“This kind of scenery isn’t something you can make. Look here, this oil stain. Then there’s this dented iron griddle as well as the steamer that makes you doubt the hygiene of this place. All of this is what makes this atmosphere.”

“Why don’t you swear at my face instead?”

Despite Jayeon’s wooing, the owner did not budge. The students eating outside returned the bowls before leaving. The owner took off the vinyl wrap around the bowl and put it in the trash before starting to clean up. The way he exchanged words with the customers looked very affectionate. Usually, pojang-machas were filled with loud noises, but this place looked rather calm like an ordinary house. Maru felt like anyone would be energized even if they were tired due to all the work and life things they had to do as long as they had a bowl of this warm udon. It was a safe haven located in the corner of the traditional market. It was a place where life dramas happened.

Maru looked at Jayeon. She was looking at the owner as well as the other customers with a smile on her face. Her eyes looked like she was wondering how to bring all this into the world of the screen.

The wife left the pojang-macha, carrying her drunk husband with her. The man, who came from an interview, also left after saying thanks. This place didn’t look like a place where one could make themselves at home; it looked more like a temporary shelter. A place where people with shallow pockets could come and eat lightly before leaving pleasantly. If they were lucky, they would be able to get a free boiled egg as well.

“This place is good.”

Maru remembered the jeyuk-bokkeum restaurant in the shanty towns of Seoul. Like that place, this pojang-macha was also a refuge where people could console their tired bodies.

“It’s only a pojang-macha no matter how good it is,” said the owner.

Unlike his cold-sounding words, he was smiling.

“I’m also going to clean up and go home. You should go home as well, miss producer.”

“Are you not going to give me an answer today?”

“I said I’m not doing it. Look for somewhere else.”

“I said this has to be the place. Why do you think I, the producer, came all the way here to beg you? I really don’t act like this usually, but I really want to use this place even if it means begging you for it. Please? Please allow me to. It’ll be good promotion for the store.”

“Like I said, I don’t need any promotion.”

“I know you don’t. It’s just, the only thing I can give you is some compensatory money and promotion, so I can only keep mentioning it.”

“Use that money to make that set or whatever it is. Don’t waste it on me.”

“Are you really not letting me borrow this place?”

“I’m really not letting you borrow this place.”

“Even if I beg you like this?”

“No.”

“How about if I cry? Can I?”

“I’m going to report you to the police.”

The owner reached his hand out. Maru cleaned up his bowls and gave it back to him. Yuna was still eating.

“Take your time,” the owner said to Yuna.

It seemed that he noticed her starting to eat quickly after he said ‘clean up’. The owner was watching the customers even while talking.

“Yuna, eat as slowly as possible. We’ll stay the night up here.”

“What a great thing you’re teaching to a kid even though you’re supposed to be a TV producer.”

The owner clicked his tongue. Jayeon did not feel dejected due to the cold reaction and stared back at the owner. Her face seemed to be saying ‘I won’t give up until you give me permission’.

Maru smiled faintly as he looked between the stubborn Jayeon and the uncaring owner. A firm-willed owner and a producer who’s trying to persuade him no matter what the cost. Since there was a conflict between two extreme characters, it was enough foundation for a drama. The only thing left was to see if it had a happy ending or a bad ending like the current trends. From the look of things, there seemed to be almost no chance of the owner giving permission. He looked far from a person who wanted money and he didn’t look like he wanted any fame. Maru didn’t think that someone who could give students boiled eggs without boasting would be persuaded by the producer’s words when the only thing she could offer was money.

“Thanks for the food,” Yuna said as she gave back the bowl.

She seemed full and looked very satisfied. Her smile was really good to look at. People who had their fill would often smile defenselessly.

“Thanks,” said the owner.

Maru felt curious now. 100 won for a boiled egg, 1,000 won for a bowl of udon. Plus a bowl of soondae was 1,500 won, and it was filled to the brim. Moreover, he often gave the customers some extra. While he said that worrying about merchants like him was useless, if it was like this, it seemed like he would hardly be able to recoup any labor costs. Why was the owner running a pojang-macha in this place? If it was for his livelihood, the prices were questionable. If he lived alone, it might not be entirely impossible but…

“Hello? Oh, yeah. I’ll go back soon. Where’s Jooyoung and Jooin? They went to watch a movie? They have good stamina. Well done driving them to places like that. Go get washed and have a rest. You must be tired. Okay, see you later.”

The owner put down his phone, which he had placed between his shoulder and his ear. From the call, it was clear that he was a father of two. Would he be able to feed his family with this pojang-macha which was no different from charity? Simply speaking, he was probably continuing this job because he wasn’t short on money, but no matter how hard Maru thought about it, he couldn’t calculate things properly.

“It’d be great if you bought your kids some presents with the compensation.”

“Even without something like that, I’m capable of giving my kids some gifts. Rather than that, why do you sound like you’re drunk even though you didn’t drink anything?”

“It’s my strategy for the day.”

“What a good thing you’re doing next to some kids. You two must be having a hard time since the one that calls herself producer is like this.”

Maru laughed before hurriedly sealing his mouth when he noticed Jayeon glaring at him. She was a scary woman.

“Ahjussi, you have a family, right?” Yuna suddenly said.

“I do. They’ll be going to college next year, and my words are the last thing they will ever listen to.”

“Then wouldn’t it be good to get the money from the producer?”

After saying that, Yuna looked at the steamer before continuing to speak.

“I had a look at the household account book that my mom wrote when I was young. I was really surprised. I didn’t know that so much money went into me. Don’t you need a lot of money when your kids go to college? I hope you can earn a lot of money, ahjussi. The udon here is delicious and it’s calming. It must all be thanks to you. I believe that good things should happen to the people who do good deeds. Whether it’s money or anything else.”

Yuna’s eyes looked resolute as she uttered her dogma. However, that expression did not last long. She soon scrunched up and made an awkward smile. It seemed that she thought she was overstepping her bounds.

“I wish my kids could grow to be a resolute person like you, lady,” the owner said.

His eyes were drawing a curve. Perhaps he felt that Yuna’s words weren’t just out of formality, but that they stemmed from her heart.

“But you don’t need to worry about me. The reason this ahjussi is running this pojang-macha is simple. I like kids coming over and having a laugh, and it’s also fun to see drunk people doing drunk things here. If I act generous to people who are short on money, that’s also somewhat fulfilling. In the end, I do this for my own self-satisfaction. I’m not doing this to feed my kids.”

Just then, a car approached from the left of the pojang-macha with its headlights on. The car approached slowly and was turned off right in front of it. It was a high-class foreign car. The door opened and a woman wearing light clothing got out. She entered the pojang-macha and stood next to the owner.

“Honey, you still haven’t finished yet?”

“I was just about to. Get inside the car. It’ll take a bit of time to clean things up.”

“Then I’ll come back after parking. Let’s do it together.”

The woman, who brought a foreign-made car, bowed towards Jayeon before driving off. Maru looked at the car becoming distant before turning his head around to the owner.

“Generosity stems from possession. If I was short on money, I wouldn’t be doing this in the first place.”

Aha - Maru nodded in acceptance. At the same time, he understood why Jayeon was acting like that. She was asking for his generosity since he wasn’t a man who could be shaken with money.

“Owner, please give me permission. Think of it as earning some pocket money.”

Suddenly, the word ‘owner’ sounded a lot heavier now. Who knew what he ‘owned’?

“I said no.”

The owner didn’t seem like he would give in. Maru gave a glance at Yuna while peeling a boiled egg. Yuna looked at the owner with a shocked expression before laughing. So you weren’t worried - she seemed purely happy for him.

Chapter 660

“I’m going to clean up now, so you can get going.”

“I’m going to come back until I get permission from you.”

“Sheesh, I said that won’t happen. What a stubborn lady.”

The owner started cleaning things up with laughter. The owner’s wife, who disappeared with the foreign car, returned with two buckets of iced water and started helping out with the cleaning.

“Let’s go now. We should stop here for today.”

Jayeon looked at the pojang-macha before turning around. Yuna said goodbye to the owner before following Jayeon. The pojang-macha’s lights turned dark. Darkness crept closer to the street light next to the pojang-macha. The husband and wife cleaned the pojang-macha while relying on the light from the street light. They put food ingredients into a cooler and put the cooking tools inside a plastic container. The owner’s wife’s movements were agile and meticulous as though this wasn’t the first time she was doing this.

“Han Maru,” Jayeon called out to him from in front.

Maru looked at her before speaking,

“If we create a set, it won’t have the same vibes, right?”

“Yeah. An atmosphere that can only be created with the flow of time isn’t something that can be imitated so easily after all.”

She was right. The reason why directors were so intent on scouting good locations was because the place the characters step on would be a representation of the world inside the screen. Most of the time, even the scenery behind the characters would be decided by the director as well. The pojang-macha was a pivotal point in Jayeon’s work. The reason she used her own private time to scout this place out was because she wanted it that much, and probably because she thought that this place had to be the one. Maru looked forward to the drama that would occur within the orange curtains. What would it feel like to do acting here? Just imagining such a thing made him joyous.

“You can go first.”

“What are you going to do?”

“Throw a little tantrum, I guess.”

“Tantrum?”

He smiled back at Jayeon, who creased her eyebrows, before walking over to the pojang-macha.

“You didn’t leave yet?” asked the owner as he lifted up the cooler.

“I was planning to help.”

“You don’t need to help. Just get going.”

“It looks like there’s a lot to do here though. Shall I fold this?” Maru said as he pointed at the orange plastic curtain.

The owner shook his hand, saying that he should get going, but his wife walked over to him with a smile.

“Grab the end over there.”

“Yes.”

He folded the plastic curtain so that the metal rings in the corners met another when it was folded. He was reminded of when he put a vinyl film over a military tent during guerilla training.

“Give that part to me.”

Maru moved according to the owner’s wife’s gestures. He ironed the curtain with his hand so that it wouldn’t become all creased before he folded it. Once, twice, three times - after folding it until it couldn’t be folded anymore, he placed it next to the cooler.

“You’re good. I’ll ask you to help me with this one as well. Grab the end like just before.”

The owner told her not to make the kid do it, but his wife just smiled back at him, telling him not to be so picky. The owner pouted before sighing. The king of the pojang-macha had kneeled to the king of the household.

“Are you a student?”

“Yes. I’m in my 3rd year of high school now.”

“From how you came here with that person, you don’t seem like an ordinary high school student. Are you preparing to become an actor?”

The owner’s wife’s eyes were directed at Jayeon.

“I’m doing my best.”

“That must be hard. My son is also going around to various places, saying that he wants to become a singer, but gosh, he’s a pain.”

“Becoming a singer is hard too. You have to do a lot of practice, and you have to have the talent as well.”

“That’s right. You must have the talent. But the problem is, I don’t think my son is that good. He’s trying his best, saying that he wants to join an agency, but the results aren’t that good. He doesn’t show it, but he probably feels really bad every time he doesn’t get a good answer from auditions.”

“That can’t be helped. Despite that though, I don’t think it’s a bad thing to taste failure early on. There’s nothing more disappointing and regretful than not being able to challenge something properly after growing up. It would be for the best if things are smooth sailing from the get go, but realizing your limits early is also quite helpful in life. If he sees the limit, he’ll be able to decide for himself clearly. He can decide whether he’s going to continue challenging that route or look for another path.”

He folded the last curtain and stacked it on top of the rest. Meanwhile, the owner had finished cleaning up the interior of the pojang-macha and was closing off the kitchen area. He took out the support pillar and folded the stainless steel plate upwards. The kitchen turned into a rectangular shape.

“Honey, this boy says he’s preparing to become an actor.”

“I know.”

“He’s just like our son, isn’t he? It’s just the difference between an actor and a singer.”

Maru received a bitter gaze from the owner. The owner was telling him with his eyes to get going. Maru wouldn’t have come if he was planning to back off here. The owner was like an iron castle and did not budge to Jayeon’s persuasion, but what about his wife?

“I’m also doing my best like your son.”

“Really? I hope it goes well.”

“I’m not sure if you know this already, but the drama producer standing over there wants to shoot a drama with this pojang-macha as the stage.”

“If it’s that, I have heard about it from him.”

The owner’s wife smiled at the owner. The owner clearly seemed like he wanted to get going, but his wife shook her head. Maru saw an opportunity there. The owner’s wife in front of him was a drawbridge. In order to conquer the castle that was the owner, he had to do so through his wife. A mother who has a son who’s striving towards the uncertain future of being a singer. The household was financially stable, but she must be quite uneasy. After all, there were no parents in the world who wanted their child to fail. If he showed sympathy towards her son and put his own story into it, perhaps he would sound persuasive? Maru finished calculating and started speaking.

“I want to become successful as an actor. Just like how your son must encounter good composers and lyricists in order to become a good singer, I also have to come across good directors and scenarios. Right now, I don’t know exactly what the director over there is planning to produce. However, when I see the pojang-macha the owner has made, I can picture what she wants to make. It also makes me realize that it’s something I don’t want to miss out on. I only came here for the first time today, but I really like this pojang-macha. The people sitting next to me are strangers, yet I felt a sense of familiarity when they ate next to me. When the customers talk about good or bad things that happened to them, and the owner replies to them without ignoring them every single time, I really think it was a pleasant scene to look at.”

“My husband is a good listener of other people’s words. At first, I was opposed to him running this. He said he wanted to run a pojang-macha all of a sudden. But when I see him working hard at this hour, I feel like allowing him to do it was the right decision. My husband, he really doesn’t smile at all in other places, but he smiles all the time when he’s here.”

“I didn’t do that.”

The owner, who was listening by the kitchen, said that he didn’t do so even while shaking his hand, but when his wife asked him ‘really?’ with a grin on her face, the owner did not say anything. Maru thought that the two were a really fitting couple. The husband felt like he purposely lost to his wife instead of being dominated, and his wife understood that and played pranks without crossing the line. Perhaps this was what a happy couple should be like.

“So the point is you want us to allow you to shoot here, right?”

She immediately got to the point. Maru was unable to answer. He was robbed of any time to answer because of the sudden question. Maru changed his trail of thought when he looked at her face. Perhaps it was harder to gain this woman’s heart than it was to persuade the owner.

Should he be upfront with the persuasion? Maru had no ace up his sleeves. It would be possible to drag the conversation on with roundabout words, but he didn’t feel like it would work against her. Numerous thoughts flashed in his head in an instant. He even came up with a hypothesis that the owner’s wife might be the one who has the financial rights in the family. Perhaps when she said she ‘allowed’ her husband to run the pojang-macha, she might have meant it literally. Not just in the sense of a wife permitting the actions of her husband, but in the sense that she would support him financially.

That was unexpected, but the conclusion did not change. In the end, the person he had to settle the deal with was the owner’s wife.

“Have you ever heard what kind of drama they want to shoot in this place from that director over there?”

“No, today’s the first time I’ve seen her.”

“Then if it’s okay with you, can you listen to her about what the drama is about?”

“Is there a reason I should do such a thing?”

That question made him feel the chills. At the same time, he was sure that they would be able to shoot here as long as he got permission from the woman in front of him.

“Unfortunately, I cannot guarantee you anything in this situation. I’m a mere actor after all. However, there’s one thing I can say with confidence. It’s that the eyes of the director that found this place are pretty amazing.”

“Honey, did you hear that? The pojang-macha you’ve been taking care of all this time is a great place.”

Although he said it in a roundabout way, she saw through him immediately and told that to the owner. When you want to flatter someone, you have to do it subtly like a gentle blow of wind - he couldn’t remember their face, but his superior at work used to tell him that. They weren’t words he liked, but he couldn't deny the fact that it was useful. Thanks for that, mister.

“I think it will be pretty interesting to hear what she has to say. About what kind of drama she wants to shoot here and how she wants to use this place as a set.”

Other than ‘interest’, he had nothing to persuade her. While it might be old fashioned, it was still enough to stimulate a person. It wasn’t that shooting here would be decided just based on the owner’s wife’s decision, but as long as he could get the director and her to sit at the negotiation table, it would definitely increase the chances for the shoot.

“You look pretty desperate for a young person.”

“They say tasting failure early is better, but I already tasted mine. I want to try succeeding from now on rather than failing. Of course, take it as something said by a brat who doesn’t know the reality of the world yet.”

She nodded before looking at the owner.

“Honey, did you hear her out properly?”

“No. I’m satisfied with running my business here after all.”

“That’s not good. A boy who can ask so politely wants you to listen to her just once. Why don’t you hear her out at least? Of course, if you still don’t want to do it, then you can clearly refuse her here. Decide so that both of us won’t have to drag things out, and that she can drop her hopes.”

As soon as she said those words, the owner wiped the sweat off his forehead with the towel around his neck. He then looked up at the street light before speaking,

“Go call her over. If it’s just listening, I can do that. Like what someone said, a boy wants to challenge his dreams, so I should at least give him a chance.”

Maru bowed to the two people before running over to Jayeon. Having detected that something was up, Jayeon immediately called out to him.

“What is it?”

“They want to listen to how you are going to use this place, and what kind of drama it is.”

“Really?”

“Yes. I’ll ask just in case, but you do have a scenario, right?”

“Everything on it, down to the last dot is in my head.”

“I guess that’s fine then. That’s all I can help you with. The rest is up to you, director.”

“I’m not sure what’s happening, but well done.”

Maru looked at Jayeon, who gave him a slap on the back before going over to the two people. He hoped for them to give permission. Not long later, Jayeon returned. The couple was leaving the alley with their stuff.

“What happened?”

As soon as he asked those words, Jayeon grabbed Maru by the collar. She cheered loudly to the point that her voice echoed in the alley as she spoke,

“We got the place!”

Maru sighed in relief as he was being shaken back and forth. It was 10 p.m. when the dramatic negotiation came to a success.

Chapter 661

“You’re proactive, seonbae.”

Yuna said those words as she looked at Maru right when the train made a loud noise as it went through a tunnel. She remembered him walking over to the pojang-macha. Maru continued to hold a conversation with the owner and his wife, who were cleaning up the store, and he eventually managed to bring both parties to the negotiation table. When he returned with a deep breath and said to the producer that the owner of the pojang-macha was willing to hear what she had to say, Yuna, who was standing next to Jayeon, was deeply impressed, and at the same time, disappointed in herself. When the producer said that they should go, she just left, feeling disappointed. She thought that they could always try again next time.

Maru-seonbae was different. He immediately walked over to the owner of the pojang-macha as though there was no next time and started talking to him. While she was thinking about a ‘next time’, Maru-seonbae took action and brought back good results. Even if he failed, his action of approaching the owner without hesitation was definitely worth respecting. Yuna was envious of his proactivity, his skills, as well as his confidence.

The train escaped the tunnel. Yuna’s ears felt a little numb. Just as she opened her mouth wide to take a deep breath as though to yawn, she felt Maru-seonbae’s gaze. Yuna quickly closed her mouth. She felt awkward because she felt like she had shown something she shouldn’t.

“Isn’t everyone like that?”

She thought that he wouldn’t have heard it because of the noise, but it seemed that he had heard it all, Yuna fidgeted as she replied,

“I’m not like that though. I don’t think I have the confidence to do things myself like you did. It was like that just before too. Talking to the owner didn’t even cross my mind, but you were different.”

“That’s because I have more social experience. That wasn’t something amazing like courage. It’s a fight of chances, and if I think I can do it, I will try to do so. What I did was just provide suitable flattery; not something grand like courage.”

Yuna thought to herself as she heard those words. They were in their 1st year of high school and 3rd year of high school respectively. Was the gap of 2 years that amazing? Normally, it wouldn’t be. Maru-seonbae wasn’t someone who quit school and focused everything into the entertainment industry. He was working as an actor after taking all the regular classes at school. From the perspective of time, there wasn’t that much of a difference between the two. In fact, she invested more time when it came to acting-related stuff. Excluding school classes and acting classes, the rest should be what he referred to as ‘social experience’, but was two years enough to justify such a drastic gap in experience?

Maru-seonbae was different. She might be feeling reliant on him because he listened to her worries but even putting aside personal reasons, this seonbae felt different from others of his age. Like today, the thought of trying something like that never crossed her mind, yet he went straight for the crux of the issue and solved the problem. When she was thinking that doing nothing was the natural course of action, this seonbae faced the matter straight as though what-ifs were meaningless. He also crossed that difficult stage of persuasion. Did he have some extraordinary qualities?

“I don’t understand. I also wonder if I can act like you in two years.”

“I think ‘like me’ is a little difficult?” he replied without hesitation.

He didn’t seem like he was boasting. In fact, he seemed to be feeling pity instead. What was so pitiful?

“Your skills in dealing with people will increase whether you like it or not with the more people you deal with. It will increase rapidly once people tell you off for your attitude. What can I do to be hated less? How can I reply so that I earn the goodwill of the other party? There will come a day where you think about such things in front of other people.”

“Is that the moment when you become an adult?”

“Rather than becoming an adult, I would say you’re becoming better at hiding your weaknesses. Honestly speaking, I find you even more amazing.”

“Eh? What about me?”

“Because I can’t speak like you. I don’t have the confidence to reveal what I’m thinking or talk about my worries without holding back. That’s because those things will become my weaknesses. People who have difficulty believing others will not talk about what’s inside them. It’s the same when it comes to talking about your worries. They don’t have the courage - The courage to believe in others.”

Maru yawned before turning his head away. An apartment complex that was under construction was flashing past. Red lights flashed on the tower crane. Yuna stared at the construction zone that was becoming distant before speaking,

“Do you say what’s inside you to the people you believe in?”

“I do. I’ll be like a chatterbox.”

“Do I count as one?”

“To a certain extent.”

Yuna somehow liked what he said because it felt neither distant nor close. She looked at his face. It was neither far nor close. There was a sense of relief stemming from the suitable amount of distance. She was worried about how to face him after confessing to him, but she felt at ease right now. Perhaps because of that, she thought of a rather bold question.

“Uhm, seonbae. Can I ask how you and Gaeul-seonbae met?”

“Me and Gaeul?”

“Yes.”

“Two years ago, when I was in my first year, we met for the first time in Daehak-ro.”

“Through an event held by your acting club?”

“No, we just came across each other on the street. We just passed by each other and she caught my eyes.”

“Does that mean you fell in love with her at first sight?”

“At first sight, huh? Maybe you can call it that.”

It was a rather vague answer. Yuna tried picturing it. The scene where the two came across each other coincidentally and then became conscious of each other felt like a scene from a drama. Maru and Gaeul were definitely a couple that suited each other. They had a clear sense of their objectives and were producing results in their field. Yuna thought about Gaeul-seonbae and thought that she should try harder. Though, try harder at what, she did not know.

“Did you confess first?”

“They say everything’s hard the first time, but it becomes easy the second time… you feel like you forgot about your embarrassment. It was just a few days ago when you boldly confessed to me.”

“P-please forget about that. I did it without knowing. Why did you have to make me feel embarrassed again by bringing that up?”

“Because I feel grateful.”

“What?”

“Honestly, if it was someone who held it within her without saying it like you did, it might have been hard to act together. How could we act together if you can’t even meet me in the eyes? In that sense, perhaps it was a blessing that it was you. Thanks to that, we can talk with ease like this. And now that I think about it, it’s pretty interesting. When we first met, you ended up bursting into tears while speaking of your worries, and the next time we met, you suddenly confessed to me. You sound like a splendid character to use for a film.”

“You’re quite a prankster, seonbae.”

“Didn’t you know that? I talk about nonsensical stuff quite a lot. That’s why if I say something absurd during the shoot, just ignore me. I won’t get hurt by something like that. Well, if you are in a good mood then you can hang out with me.”

“I don’t have such a numb personality, you know?”

“Well, you’ll gain resistance if you hang out with me for a while.”

“I don’t want such a resistance.”

“I guess I can’t help it then.”

Yuna giggled. When she saw him at the café with the producer, she felt like the world was collapsing in on her, but now, they were talking with ease. It was probably because of Maru-seonbae’s consideration. She looked forward to the shoot with him already. The shoot would probably be arduous, but she felt like many enjoyable things would make up for it.

“Going back to what we were talking about earlier, I confessed first. Actually, I wanted to confess on the day we met, but that would be a little too weird. When we met for the second time, I told her my name, and we started meeting frequently through a noona who knows her. Then, one day, I went to her house on a snowy day and confessed.”

“On a snowy day?”

“It was a coincidence. I was quite reckless about it. I told her that I will barge into her house if she doesn’t come out of her house.”

“Did, I mean, could Gaeul-seonbae hold back after hearing that? I think she would have done a shoulder throw on you.”

“She almost did that. The reason I exercise is to get hit less by Gaeul.”

“That sounds plausible. So did Gaeul-seonbae accept?”

“She did. Oh, there’s something I want to boast about.”

Maru-seonbae put his hand inside his pocket before taking out a ring. It was a ring with a rabbit engraved on it. Yuna remembered the pale, thin finger that had the same ring on it.

“The ring that Gaeul-seonbae’s wearing… is a couple ring?”

“Cute, isn’t it?”

“Gaeul-seonbae bought it, right?”

“No, I did.”

“Really? That so doesn’t suit you.”

“You really don’t have good eyes. I’m a romanticist, you know?”

“Seonbae, now that I look at you, you are totally cocky.”

“That’s good, I feel like we’re getting to know each other better. Since you’re so direct with your words, shall I give you the title of ‘neighborhood foolish little sister’?”

“I’m not foolish. Well, I guess I did commit two foolish mistakes.”

Yuna had a look at the ring that Maru put on. She felt envious, yet at the same time, thought that they were a really fitting couple. She confessed unknowing of the two, so she could imagine how flustered he would have felt, and how much he laughed about it. She felt her face become hot again.

“Then why don’t you put it on usually?”

Yuna spoke up when she saw Maru put the ring back inside his pocket. Now that she thought about it, Gaeul-seonbae always had the ring on other than when she was practicing. She also saw her treat the ring preciously when she washed her hands in the bathroom. Compared to that, Maru had not been wearing the ring whether it was the first time they met or now.

“Because it’s a bother.”

“Ah, okay.”

Unlike the series of sweet words she heard until now, the reply this time was very casual. What mattered was that they liked each other, not the ring. Yuna looked at Maru, who kept yawning.

“Maybe you’ll appear on TV as a popular celebrity couple in the future.”

“I would love for that to happen, but don’t you think it’s quite improbable?”

“Why would you say that? Both you and Gaeul-seonbae will become successful. When I see Gaeul-seonbae acting during practice from time to time, she surprises me every time. She’s not the same as she was at the beginning of the semester. Her acting skills just make me exclaim. I think Maru-seonbae is really good at acting too.”

“Thanks for saying that.”

Maru locked his fingers before putting them behind his head. At that moment, the train entered another tunnel, and at the same time, there was an announcement about an energy saving campaign before the lights became dim in the train. It seemed that the air conditioning was turned off as well. When she got used to the heavy noise made by entering the tunnel, Maru spoke again,

“Even if we both become successful, there’s no guarantee that we would still be dating by then. You never know what will happen. Even if I continue to like her, it would be over if she says she doesn’t like me. The opposite holds true as well. Romantic relationships between students are shallow after all. I like her, but I don’t know how long that seriousness will last. That’s just how dating is when you’re young.”

When he finished his words, the train left the tunnel. The dim lights turned back on and the air-conditioner started again with some machine noises.

Yuna turned around slightly. She still couldn’t look at Maru straight in the face. Her heart worked harder than usual. She felt like the blood flowing in her blood vessels were moving quicker than usual. She tried putting her hand on her cheek. It was hot as though she had a fever.

“So look for someone you like. You will never be able to date freely if you don’t do it now, you know? You know that, right?”

Maru closed his eyes after saying those words. He then fell asleep. His head, which was jerking back and forth, leaned sideways. Yuna had a look at her shoulder. Maru-seonbae’s face was right there, breathing regularly.

The train shook as it sped across the rails. Yuna sat there without being able to do anything. She hoped for the train to go a little slower. A naughty thought raised its head inside her, but she did not put her shoulder out. His words reverberated in her ears. I don’t know how long the seriousness will last - these words kept echoing inside her head.

Chapter 662

The fog was thick. He reached his hand out the window, and his hand became wet as though he had just dipped it in a bucket of water. The headlights of the car dissipated into the darkness without being able to penetrate 3 meters. The road was quiet without any other cars going by. Maru turned the wheel to park by the side of the road. It wasn’t even close to the sea here, and yet the fog was so thick. He was quite surprised.

“We’ll wait here for a bit. Fog like this should disappear soon.”

“Okay, then.”

Maru rested his chin on the wheel as he listened to the answer that came from the seat next to him. He was now used to driving early in the morning, but the fatigue of his body piled up regardless of the proficiency of his mind. He even thought that he might end up in the hospital at this rate. He sometimes wondered to himself if the fuel inside the car contained a part of his life-force or something.

“You should get some sleep if you’re tired. I thought we were going to be late, but it looks like we’ll have time left if we continue at a speed like this.”

Maru turned his head next to him. A woman wearing a khaki-colored coat was looking at him with clear eyes. A ‘fill-in’ road manager and a ‘fill-in’ actor. They were colleagues in the sense that they weren’t able to go mainstream.

“I think I won’t be able to wake up again if I sleep now.”

“Must be hard for you.”

“Who in the world doesn’t have it hard? Being an actor is hard too, isn’t it?”

“I’m okay because acting is fun.”

“If you put it like that, I guess I am in a worse position. Driving isn’t that fun.”

A dry laughter escaped her mouth. The thick fog dissipated. As the view became clear, the end of the bridge could be seen. Light was slowly rising in the sky that was deep indigo.

“I’ll start the car again now.”

He turned the wheel and got on the road again. Just as the engine of the car started sounding like a lullaby, the woman sitting next to him started humming again. It was the same song she hummed when she first got in the car. The woman’s hum was pretty decent, to the point that Maru didn’t feel bored even with the radio off. Maru also followed her tune inwardly as he drove.

“I don’t think that’s a pop song you’re singing,” he said as he looked at the rear-view mirror.

The woman stopped humming before smiling faintly.

“It’s something my father used to hum. I don’t know what song it is either. I just heard it many times and got used to it, and before I knew it, I was humming the same thing. Did I disturb you?”

“No, it was pleasant.”

“That doesn’t sound like a lie this time.”

“Is it really that obvious that I’m lying?”

“No, it’s not like that… but I can tell through feel.”

“Looks like you’re quite developed in that aspect. Good for you. You have a lie detector installed inside you, so I guess you will never get deceived when you face other people.”

“Uhm, that’s not true. I do get that I’m quite witty, but this is the first time I got it right like this. Strange, isn’t it? It’s not like this for other people, but when I look at you, I feel like I can tell what you’re thinking. Oh yeah, it feels strange for me to talk to you like this, doesn’t it?”

The woman covered her mouth and smiled faintly. What a strange person. Maru looked at the woman through the corner of his eyes. On her left hand, which was by her mouth, there was a ring with the symbol of a rabbit on it. She was in her mid twenties, definitely not an age where a rabbit ring suited her. It was a ring that looked like it would cost 1,000 won on the street. Was it a friendship ring?

“Is it strange?”

The woman asked while touching the ring.

“Looks like a friendship ring. You know, the ones you match with your friends.”

“No, I just bought it because I thought it was pretty. This caught my eyes on my way home from buying groceries. I picked it up without hesitation. I like rabbits.”

The woman boasted her hand. Maru stepped on the brakes to slow down a little. There was a traffic jam at the end of the bridge. Was there an accident or something because of the thick fog? He felt like he could hear a siren.

“Looks like there was an accident.”

“That’s a pain. If it’s a big accident, we’ll have no choice but to stay stuck here for a while. We’ll be late like that.”

Maru tapped on the wheel with his fingers. If they were late, it would be him, not the actor next to him, who would get into more trouble. His superior would mock him for not being able to make it on time, the production team would give him glares, and if there’s a director or an assistant director with a bad personality, he might get a load of insults.

“It would be great if we can fly at a time like this. Or maybe find a secret underground path. Do you know Alice in Wonderland? There’s a magical cave that leads you into a different world, and whenever I get stuck in traffic, I get reminded of that. Once we go in and come back out, we’ll be at our destination. Of course, the big bad rabbit only leads us inside the cave without telling us the way out.”

Maru stopped everything and looked at the woman sitting next to him. In this chaotic situation where loud car horns could be heard everywhere and where people were busy making calls, she was peacefully talking about a fairy tale. He didn’t understand if she was bold or didn’t have a sense of crisis. The woman leaned against the back of the seat before pushing the chair back. Half-lying back, the woman stared at Maru.

“You should get some rest at a time like this.”

She closed her eyes and started humming. That humming blocked out all the noise from the outside, and the faint splashing sound below the bridge became faint. People’s voices also disappeared into the rhythm of her humming. Only the space where she was lying felt like it was separated from reality. When he looked at her, who was enjoying the rhythm, he found himself rather laughable for being in a hurry. Que sera sera, huh?

The nervousness disappeared in an instant. His tense mind also became relaxed. If they were late, they were late. An irresponsible thought came to his mind. Maru rested his neck on the headrest and calmed his breathing to match the faint hum. He didn’t know how long had passed before he heard the other cars moving along with loud car horns. When he opened his eyes slightly, he saw the cars moving forward on the first lane.

“Thankfully, it was solved quite early,” said the woman sitting next to him.

Maru stretched his arms and started driving immediately. Maybe thanks to the short sleep, he felt a lot more clear-headed. The fatigue that had built up was definitely not something that would dissolve with a few minutes of sleep, too. It was quite a curious thing.

“You look better now.”

The woman was smiling. She opened the window slightly. A damp early morning wind entered the car. Her hair started fluttering, and her exclamations could be heard distinctively within the wind. The light that lit up the sky colored her cheeks in a reddish color. Maru continuously stared at her face, her smile, her fluttering hair, as well as the sunlight breaking into pieces on the river.

“What’s your name?”

That question escaped his mouth without going through his brain. Maru turned his head forward in a fluster after saying those words. He could feel her gaze hitting his cheeks. She looked at him for a while before speaking with a chuckle.

“Isn’t it courtesy to introduce yourself first before asking for someone’s name?”

“That’s true.”

“So, what’s your name?” she asked.

Maru felt a strong sense of nervousness as though he was doing an interview and barely opened his mouth.

“Han Maru.”

Speaking his own name couldn’t feel more strange than that. He felt like he was uttering some scientific jargon he had never heard of before. He even explained because he wondered if he said his name properly.

“Quite strange isn’t it? Apparently, Maru means the sky.”

“Really? That’s a different meaning from what I know.”

“Eh?”

“The meaning of Maru I know has the meaning the summit. It also had a meaning of the sky, huh?”

She nodded. Maru focused on driving with his ears perked open. It was her turn to say her name.

“My name is…”

* * *

Maru woke up, feeling a chill. He saw a man holding a briefcase. Next to him was a group of people wearing hiking clothes. Tudum-tudum, the vibration of the train shook his head. Maru heaved out a hot breath that was inside his chest. He had a headache.

Did he fall asleep? He didn’t feel that tired, but it seemed that he fell asleep because he was sitting down. Just as he was about to twist his body to stretch, he realized that there was something on his shoulder. Yuna was sleeping deeply. He moved his left hand to take out his phone. It was 11 p.m. There were still seven stops until Suwon station.

He tapped on Yuna’s shoulder. He thought that she would wake up soon, but she didn’t budge. Just as he was wondering if he should shake her awake, he saw Yuna licking her lips. It seemed that she was tired.

Maru put down his hand. He decided to pretend to be asleep until they arrived at Suwon station and to shake his shoulders to wake her up when they arrived. Now that he thought about it, Yuna might feel embarrassed if he woke her up now.

Just as he stretched his neck slightly so that Yuna wouldn’t wake up while he was yawning, he remembered his dream. He was driving and a woman was riding next to him. Maru blinked his eyes in a daze. He remembered that it was a very pleasant dream, but he couldn’t remember the conversation they had nor what situation he was in. Only fragments of the sound reverberated in his head. Car horns, complaining sounds, the sound of the wind that entered through the window, the splashing of the river.

He felt like there was a conversation as well. He remembered asking for the other’s name. Han Maru - that was what he said. What did the woman say? The moment he remembered the woman’s lips moving, the woman’s face was colored in darkness as though a drop of ink fell into the water. He could remember the khaki-colored coat, but her face was hidden behind a black dot. What did the woman in his dream say?

He thought about it before stopping. It was just a dream. It wasn’t worth it to be so hung up on it. Just as he was about to put his phone back into his pocket, he touched the ring. Maru took out the ring and put it in front of his eyes.

“I guess it is childish.”

Why did he buy such a childish ring? When he stared at it, something came to his mind. The animal that Gaeul liked was a rabbit. Maru nodded before putting the ring back in his pocket. It wasn’t something he was interested in. Whether she liked rabbits or whatever, they were dating right now, so there shouldn’t be a need to be considerate to such detail in order to fit each other’s preferences.

At that moment, he felt Yuna, who was leaning against him, moving. Maru slowly closed his eyes. He inwardly counted to 30 before opening his eyes again. When he looked next to him, he saw Yuna looking at the train map nervously.

“Oh, I fell asleep.”

“Seonbae, were you sleeping until now?”

“Yeah, I was. Why do you ask?”

“Nothing, it’s nothing.”

Yuna sighed in relief. Maru thought that he did the right thing not to wake her up. It was obvious that she would’ve been uneasy if he woke her up before. After a while, there was an announcement about arriving at Suwon station.

“Should we get off then?”

“Yes.”

After getting off the train, he did some stretches by twisting his body. As he had been sleeping while sitting for quite a long time, he felt rather stiff. Yuna also seemed to feel stiff as she was spinning her arms around.

“Well done today.”

“You too, seonbae.”

“Looks like the next time we’ll be meeting is during the shoot.”

“Probably.”

“Do your best practicing for that. We must shoot a good drama, right?”

“Yes. I’ll try hard.”

He told Yuna to go first. Yuna, who looked stiff, took a bow before leaving the station. After checking to see that Yuna left, he massaged his shoulder. He thought back to Yuna, who was dozing off on his shoulder, and smiled when an ad entered his eyes. A couple wearing a tuxedo and a wedding dress were standing with bright smiles. It was a wedding hall ad.

“I won’t live as a bachelor in this life.”

A loving wife and child or maybe children. Just imagining such a thing made him happy. Living alone in his forties was a pretty sad thing. If he had a lot of money, he would live a decent life, but with the wage of a bus driver he had a hard time preparing for his retirement. On days where he felt sick after working, he would suffer by himself and…

‘I felt like someone cooked porridge for me. Was it Kim-hyung? Or Choi-hyung?’

Maru scratched his head before turning around. Wasn’t it okay now to forget about a life that was past him? He had a bright future in his hands. It was time to focus on reality. Passion and a challenging mindset. He would be able to do anything with those two. Maru put his hand in his pocket before starting to walk. When his hand touched the ring, he felt slightly stuffy in the chest, but he soon felt okay. Perhaps this was why people slept while lying down. Shaking off the slight headache and chest pains, he headed towards the bus stop.

<blockquote class="prose max-w-none dark:prose-invert !pl-[15px] !border-l-[5px] !border-l-[#e6e6e6] dark:!border-l-[#333]">KTLChamber's Thoughts

Now you see why I only read up to 662 and not more…

At this point, I don't know what feels more tragic. Opting to go back to the past, knowing full well that you'll lose all your memories? Or Opting to go back while fully knowing that you'll gradually lose your memories……

Maru lost his memories about his wife!

After all the "Even if I lose my memories, I will keep loving Gaeul forever" crap, he now thinks that it's just a typical relationship between students…

Author, is this a setup for Yuna to date Maru!? Is it!? Man, I don't know what I would feel about that.

Editor's Note:

Well. That was very depressing. Like Chamber said, we even had that whole spiel about never forgetting her. Wonder if his memories will come back one day or if he'll just get his current set of memories in the next time loop or whatever.

Chapter 663

“I think breathing is hard to explain. There are definitely parts you need to be conscious of and parts you should cut off subconsciously, but it won’t be easy to make you understand with just words. For example, take this line, ‘I want to give up on independence’. Let’s have a look at that one, shall we? If you read the line while being conscious of the spaces, then you can separate your breathing like this: ‘I. Want. To. Give. Up. On. Independence’. Do you want to try it? Think of it as intentionally putting a gap between the words.”

Maru gave a signal by lightly clenching his hand into a fist. The acting club juniors seated around him all started saying the same line at the same time. Blunt voices, thin voices, tense voices, loose voices - many different voices repeated the same line about 3 times.

“If you think about how you talk in reality, cutting off every word like that will probably sound awkward. Even on stage, you will only speak like that when it’s intentional. In that case, let’s have everyone say it as they want to, shall we? Don’t think about the people next to you, and don’t think about the meaning of the line. Just read what’s in front of you. Of course, you can’t be completely devoid of emotion. Don’t apply the emotion into the line, and just think about whatever emotion comes to mind when you read the line. Three, two, one.”

Voices burst out everywhere. The calm ones read as though they were reading from a textbook while the more proactive juniors even mixed in hand gestures. Maru watched as the same line took many different forms through each of these individuals. This time, listen to other people’s voices when you say the line - he repeated the same line about five times like that.

“It’s completely different, isn’t it? The way you read is the same, but the voices you each made were completely different. There are two reasons they sound different. First is the tone of your voices. The ones who were born with good voices and those who weren’t will have differences even when they say the same lines. If you practice your vocal exercises and watch out for your pronunciation during everyday life, your tone of voice can definitely change, but that’s not something you can achieve in a short time. There are only a few days until the competition, so it would be a waste of time trying to change your tone at this point. Thus, you have to focus on the same point. It’s none other than emphasis or stress. By stress, I don’t simply mean stressing some words while not stressing some others; it’s a method of expressing what the most important word is in the line that the actor thinks, as well as what kind of intentions he or she has by saying those words. Let’s see. Jiyoon, can you say that line from earlier? Say it ordinarily.”

Jiyoon cleared her throat before speaking. Her voice did not have any ups or downs.

“This time, you can stress or de-stress the parts you want or even drag your breathing out. Don’t think about the character of the play, just the line itself. Think about how you would say the line if you were the one saying it.”

“I want to… give up on independence.”

Maru had a look at the juniors. After giving them enough time to digest what they were feeling right now, he asked Jiyoon once again.

“Can you explain why you slurred before you said ‘give up’?”

“I want to express my hesitation. I thought about when I would say such words and how I would feel. I want to run away - that was how I felt.”

“Thanks for explaining in so much detail. Well, then. Let’s have a listen to what the character has to say about this line. Gwangjoon, do you want to try? Try saying the line like you’ve always practiced until now.”

After taking a deep breath, the junior shouted in a loud voice.

“I want to give up on independence!”

From the way he clenched his fist, there was no regret or escapism in his words. In fact, it was filled with passion and challenge. Maru clapped. The juniors applauded after him.

“The line we’ve been practicing and listening to until now was that, right? I! Don’t have any intentions of dedicating my life to this kind of independence. I’m going to aim for a more practical benefit. That’s what I want to do - this is the basis of the character’s psychology. Lines change according to what character they’re said by, and the changed lines have a different breathing pattern. The stress also changes. You won’t have a hard time understanding this character based on Gwangjoon’s line alone. After all, we all have a stereotypical villain in our minds already. However, let’s take it a step further. We’ll put more detail into the character.”

Maru opened the script and placed it in front of the juniors.

“I want to give up on independence. The character in the play is fed up with independence. That’s why he tries to hand the information to the Japanese army in order to prolong his life. If you keep looking at the script, you should be able to find out that he’s the stereotypical opportunist. This is the character’s root that can’t be changed, so you have to build a personality on top of that. First up, Gwangjoon. What do you place the most focus on when you act out this character?”

“I tried to be as sneaky as possible. Instructor Miso also said that he’s such a character.”

“Good. A sneaky character is good and all. Then what does it mean to be ‘sneaky’?”

After a bit of thinking, the junior spoke,

“Being annoyingly good at reading the atmosphere.”

“You can look at it that way. After all, such people will definitely feel ‘sneaky’ if they use their heads for the wrong purposes. Let’s have a look at that line again after putting the word ‘sneaky’ in your mind. There’s a stage direction that says ‘worked up’, right?”

“Yes.”

“Not ignoring the stage directions when you’re acting is definitely an important thing. However, the subject of the acting is, in the end, you. You have to follow those directions, but it would be even better if you could add your own character into it, and lines are a great method of projecting that character. Well then, in order to show that ‘sneakiness’, what do you think you have to do in order to show that sneakiness through the line?”

“I don’t feel like it’s a good thing to shout so strongly. I think it would be more sneaky if I say it in a way that stimulates sympathy.”

“Once you’re at that point, you should think about how you should express that, right? You don’t have to go much into detail, so show me what you think.”

The junior closed his eyes and licked his lips. He was probably saying the line inwardly. Maru put his index finger on his lips. The other juniors waited with their breath abated. Eventually, the junior said his line again. The line, which contained a mocking laugh, definitely had differences from when he said his line while clenching his fist.

“How is it? Does it feel different now?” Maru asked the juniors.

The majority nodded their heads.

“Well done, Gwangjoon. If you want to go further after analyzing your characters like this, try adding more detail into your words. It might be difficult, but it’s worth trying. However, you should only do that when your basic practices are in a perfect state, and if you change the emphasis of the lines, get it checked by Aram. Harmony is key in plays after all. Acts that might look decent when separated might change the flow minutely. Aram knows the overall flow and atmosphere of the play better than anyone here, so if you want to change your individual acting style, then definitely consult her about it, okay?”

“Yes!”

“Good. Let’s stop here for today. You still got practice to do, so I guess I shouldn’t hold you back.”

As soon as he said those words, the juniors started shouting.

“We don’t mind though!”

“I like Maru-seonbae explaining things to us. Of course, I like instructor Miso too.”

“Hey you guys, you are setting up insurance by saying that, aren’t you? Instructor Miso is quite concerned about things like that after all.”

“Was it obvious?”

“Hey, hey, shut it, idiot. Maru seonbae-nim still looks like he has something to say. Right?”

“Can’t you show us more acting?”

Maru shook his hand. Since the preliminaries were right in front of them, they needed more time to practice rather than listening to someone else’s words. Just as he was about to stand up with a soft sigh, a hand pressed his shoulder. When he turned around, he saw Aram grinning at him.

“Seonbae-nim, show them. I don’t think they understood properly since you only used words to explain.”

As soon as Aram said those words, the juniors agreed with her, saying ‘that’s right’, ‘we want to see it’, ‘please do it,’ with big grins on their faces. Maru looked at Aram and said ‘maybe next time’, but Aram did not budge. This junior was merciless even towards seniors.

“How would you play this character if you were the one acting it out?”

“There won’t be a big difference.”

“Show us anyway. It will help Gwangjoon out a lot. You should act like a senior from time to time. Of course, you’re helping us really passionately these days, but when else would we be able to see your acting if not now?”

Maru raised the white flag when Aram sneakily mixed the current situation into it. He stood up with the script in hand. He coughed awkwardly when dozens of pairs of eyes looked at him.

“Don’t expect too much.”

“Oh, yes we will!”

“Seonbae-nim, do your best!”

After making an awkward smile, he looked at the script. Passion and sneakiness. It was a combination of words that felt rather distant yet interesting if mixed suitably. The junior’s line had its own taste. The mocking laugh, which was a symbol of being nasty, emphasized the evilness of the character, making the character more three-dimensional.

Since he was putting on a demonstration, he wanted to change the trail of thought a little. After thinking about what would be helpful to the juniors, he cleared his thoughts with a short breath. He could picture it now. There was no depth because he came up with it on the spot, but since it was the best he could do as improvisation, he decided to show them for now.

He took a deep breath and held it in his stomach. A passionate opportunist was going to appeal to other people’s emotions. He was going to grab their sympathy and shake it to make the general opinion lean towards his side.

There was no need to act strong, so he revealed all of his weaknesses. He loosened his shoulders and un-focused his eyes as though he was a herbivorous animal after an attack. He was shaking, but he said his line clearly so that he got his meaning through. I, want to give up on independence - he emphasized that the individual was exhausted because of the grand duty of independence. After raising his voice on the ‘I’, he squeezed out the rest as though he was dragging a heavy cart downhill. As he finished, he had a look at the imaginary group of people. Since he was a sneaky character, he couldn’t miss the process of checking for other people’s reactions. Then, he finished off his acting with a cough.

“Or you can do it like how I did. Of course, Gwangjoon’s act was more true to the script, so it would be better to do it like that.”

Maru looked back at Aram and just moved his lips to ask ‘done now?’. Aram raised her thumbs up towards him.

“I, want to give up on independence.”

“That’s not it. It’s - I! Want to give up on independence.”

“That’s not right. What Maru-seonbae did was say the rest of the line after resting a beat after ‘I’.”

The juniors burst out into discussion. Maru looked at them with satisfaction. These juniors weren’t just baby birds looking for food from their mother’s mouth; they knew how to act in order to pick their food up.

“You’ve become a lot more lenient recently, Maru-seonbae. If it was before, you wouldn’t have done it with a simple ‘no’.”

“Me?”

Aram nodded vigorously. Maru shrugged. He was just about to explain that he wasn’t so cold but did not do so because he felt like he would be seen as a cheapskate. How many seniors would refuse to speak when their cute juniors are asking for help? When he looked back, he did feel a little cold, but right now, he was wholeheartedly helping out his juniors.

“Seonbae-nim! You got a call!”

Bangjoo, who was sitting by the window, called out loudly. Maru told Bangjoo to throw the phone. He caught the phone and opened it.

“Hello?”

-Didn’t you see the text message?

It was producer Jayeon.

“I’m in practice right now.”

-Then okay. Do you have time today? Don’t say no. You’re my lucky boy after all.

“I can make some time, but can you not call me like that?”

-Why? Doesn’t ‘lucky boy’ sound good? Anyway, come over later. The actors decided to hold a meeting before the whole get-together. You know that these occasions are important, right?

“Of course.”

-You’re going to get a call in a little while, so don’t miss it. I’m hanging up now.

Jayeon hung up. Maru looked at the calendar as he took his phone off his ear. It was the 17th of August, a Saturday.

Chapter 664

“Hyung, over here.”

Jayeon waved her hand over her head. The man wearing a baggy t-shirt and jeans with holes in it walked over with loose steps before sitting on the chair in front of her.

“You should wear some proper clothes. People might think you’re a beggar.”

“Normal people think this is fashion, not me being a beggar. Also, how long are you going to call me hyung?”

“Then do you want me to call you oppa?”

“I’m about to throw up what I just ate, so let’s just go with senior.”

“Hell no. Senior is used for people I can learn from, so I can’t call just anyone senior. Just take hyung. I mean, doesn’t it sound good, hyung?”

“If you ever date a man later, call him oppa. Otherwise, he might dread you.”

“Life is supposed to be lived alone. Hyung, don’t you know that gold miss[1] is the trend these days? Relying on men to live is no fun.”

“So you’re going to live alone your entire life?”

“I might change my mind if someone says he’ll do the household chores, but… nah. I won’t be able to work if I get a kid. Also, I don’t have any confidence to raise kids. I still wonder how my mom raised me all this time.”

“That’s true. Your mother should be on the level of Mother Teresa if you consider how she raised Yoo Jayeon into a person. Had it been me, I would have given up a long time ago.”

“I think so too. That’s why I don’t plan on getting married. Living alone is much more comfortable. There’s no need to match other people, and there’s no need to deal with in-laws either.”

“Doesn’t your family say anything about it?”

“Hyung, I’m Yoo Jayeon. Who do you think can say anything to me?”

“Probably no one. If anyone did, you’ll turn the whole house upside down. Who would be daring enough to do that?”

“Hyung, I’ve been thinking this since before, but you have talent in making me feel upset.”

“Don’t do that here. It’d be scary. Rather than that, can I order something? I feel hungry because I haven’t eaten anything. Oh, by the way, I didn’t bring my wallet.”

“Hah, great for you. You don’t even eat properly at that age. Order lightly. The actors are going to come soon.”

Jayeon pressed the bell on the table[2]. As soon as a waiter came, this ‘hyung’, who had been sticking his nose in the menu board, ordered four different dishes consecutively. Jayeon canceled three of them.

“Order more when other people arrive.”

“You’re being too much. How can a producer treat the main actor like this? I’m crying because I’m so sad.”

“There’s no one who calls for you if it isn’t me. I know that already.”

“Oh, no, don’t give me that. I’m going to start practicing for a musical starting in November.”

“A musical? With a face like yours?”

“Don’t look down on me too much. I’ve never heard that I’m ugly at least.”

This ‘hyung’ giggled. Jayeon shook her head. He hadn’t changed at all from before. She first met this man during an MT[3] for the department of theater at college. He was wearing worn-out clothes like he was wearing now back then as well. The seniors from college pointed at him, who was drinking soju by the bottle in the corner, and said this: that dude is a madman, a madman for acting. Unlike the other return students, who tried to stick to other girls[4], that hyung left the lodging with a red face. As she was interested in him, she observed his actions. She was attracted when other people called him a madman. Back then, she was known as a crazy bitch as well. She left behind the semi-corpses of drunk people and followed him out. That hyung was acting in front of the lodging. He seemed to throw his body into the embrace of the air and seemed to squeeze something out from within his body. His vocalization was so good that his voice could be heard clearly despite the many noises from the people inside the building. Jayeon watched his acting while hiding. She was shocked, surprised, as well as regretful. She realized the moment she saw him - Ah, I will never be like that.

“Aren’t you gonna eat?” hyung asked.

“You can eat all you want. But hyung, is it true that Miso-unni got married?”

“Yep.”

“I can’t believe it. She actually got married. I definitely thought that she would be forever single. Or live with you.”

“That’s the most horrific thing I’ve heard this year. But from the sound of it, you didn’t go to Miso’s wedding?”

“I’m not that close to her to get a wedding invitation. I only met her with you sometimes. Though, the impression she left on me was so deep that I thought she would never get married.”

“You have the same opinion as Miso on that. Miso said the same thing when she met you for the first time. She said that it’s the first time she met someone worse than her.”

“Worse at what?”

“Don’t ask if you know.”

Hyung smiled as he picked up his spoon. Jayeon sipped some water.

“Talk about Russia.”

“I said everything the last time we met. That’s all of it.”

“Talk about it in more detail. So that I can get something out of it.”

“It was disgustingly cold, and the acting was vigorous. That’s it. Oh, I also saw a bear. Done now?”

“What did I expect from you…”

“I won’t do your drama if you keep acting like that.”

“Why don’t you try saying that again? Oh, and bear in mind that I know your address.”

“Sorry. Looks like I was out of my mind just now. I don’t dare pick a fight with the almighty Yoo Jayeon.”

Jayeon looked at her hyung, who was scraping the bowl pretty hard. This hyung, who lived his whole life drowned in acting in his twenties, was still swimming in the sea of acting right now even though he was in his thirties. He would probably step into the lava if it was for acting. He was someone who was more than willing to do that.

He was one of the few people that Jayeon called regularly. Whenever she heard some absurd news about him through other people, she called him on the spot. She would first ask if he was still alive and then ask what he was doing. When he disappeared for a few months saying that he wanted to know what it felt like to be homeless, she even held a funeral for him in her heart. Don’t become a resentful ghost at least - like that. After that, he seemed to be living a docile life, but he would throw his life into the extraordinary if he deemed that it was necessary for his acting. Jayeon had the confidence not to be surprised even if he said he was going to be an astronaut. That was at least within the realm of reason after all. If he said he was communicating with an alien, she might be a little surprised.

“Anyways, you actually got to produce your own thing huh. I should call you director, now, right?” hyung said as he put down his spoon.

In his bowl were just traces of what was once some fried rice. He ate incredibly quickly.

“Of course. On the set, you have to call me ‘director, director’ with politeness.”

“Hey, I don’t think I can do this drama after all. I belong to the stage.”

“It’s too late for that now. I’m not sure about anyone else, but I will not change you out. You’re the perfect fit for the owner of the pojang-macha. I cannot imagine someone else doing it.”

“I’m not good at acting in front of the camera though.”

“That sounds to me like a monkey that can’t climb trees. If you can’t act, then the actors in training should all go and die.”

“Why don’t you use your mouth more prettily? Your mouth got a lot more vile ever since you joined the TV station. Even someone I know, who directs stages, speaks more kindly than you.”

“It’s just a method of survival for me, so bear with it. It will be over once I don’t get taken lightly because I’m a woman.”

“Is your work hard?”

“If it isn’t hard, is it even work? It’s work because it’s hard. At first, I felt like I was going to vomit blood, but these days, I can handle it with just a nosebleed. I get into less trouble with other people, too. Or rather, people avoid me. Hey, there goes the crazy bitch - like that.”

“You must be proud, director Yoo. You got to be a crazy bitch in the TV station too after being called that in college.”

“You tell me, actor Yang.”

Hyung took a sip of water before speaking.

“Rather than that, why did you suddenly switch to production? I thought you would become an actress.”

Hearing that question, Jayeon had to do her best at hiding her bitter smile. She entered the department of theater in college to become an actress. After all, she believed that she would be able to become one if she tried hard. That faith did not shake until she saw this hyung’s acting during the first MT she had after entering. When she felt that she couldn’t become an actor like him, her ambition to become an actress snapped a little. Jayeon thought - was her dream so shallow that she would give up so easily?

“Who do you think made me switch to become a producer?”

“Who did that?”

She had the urge to swear at that curious-looking face, but she held back.

“Hyung, you know? You should be more aware.”

“Of what?”

“The feelings of a firefly who happens to fly past a lighthouse.”

“What the heck is that?”

“I don’t know. Anyway, I forbid you from talking about this in the future. If you bring it up one more time, I’ll take it as you picking a fight with me and smack your face, so bear that in mind.”

“What a temper. Anyways, how many people are coming today?”

“All the main actors. Two high school students, two in college, and then you. For now, these five. You should say hello before you shoot at least. You should get to know each other.”

“Get-togethers and stuff like that don’t suit me.”

“It’s nothing grand like that, so don’t worry about it. We’ll just have a chat with everyone. Geez, you are more shy than you look.”

“I’m not shy. I just don’t like people gathering. It’s no fun.”

Jayeon checked the time. There wasn’t long until the promised appointment.

“Ah, right. Hyung, why don’t you tell me now?”

“Tell you what?”

“The one you recommended. Who is it?”

“I thought all the main actors were gathering today. I’ll tell you once they’re all here.”

“I might have dropped him, you know?”

“You said you picked two high school students, didn’t you? Then one of them must be it. It was me who taught the guy, so there’s no way he failed an audition held by a newbie producer. If he didn’t make it, I will have to doubt the qualities and eyes of the producer.”

“Don’t joke with me.”

“Do you think I’m joking?”

Jayeon frowned. This hyung acted quite arrogant and yawned a lot, but the expression he showed at the end was pretty serious. He acted immaturely a lot during private occasions, but he wasn’t someone who would speak lightly. He was someone who knew the weight of his words.

“Are you so confident?”

“If you watched properly, you should have picked the right person. I thought you only looked at the name and acting, right? You didn’t consider anything like connections, agencies, and things like that.”

“I don’t have enough leisure to take all of that into consideration.”

“Then that’s that then. In terms of acting, you shouldn’t have had any reason to fail that person. The two of you are quite similar in the humane sense as well. You are similar in the aspect that you glare at people in order to keep yourself fed.”

“Am I even a human in your eyes, hyung?”

“You were a human?”

“Do you want me to go mad today?”

“Why do you become scarier and scarier as the years go by?”

Ganghwan shrugged and pulled back.

“If I really dropped the kid you recommended, are you really going to quit?”

“I’ll see how things go. I’ll do it if the people you picked instead of him are acceptable in my eyes. But if that isn’t the case, I won’t be able to do this either. I won’t do it. I only do two types of acting: acting that I want to do and acting that I have to do. Among the two, the latter consist of the pieces that my proud president prepares for me. Honestly speaking, your piece isn’t something I want to do nor is it something I have to do.”

“Then why did you give me the okay when I asked you to join me?”

“Because I believe that you have the skill. It’s enjoyable to do something together with a skilled director. But if you have a defect in your eyes for actors, then it means that you don’t have the skill, and I don’t want to work with people who don’t have the skill. If you beg me to do it, I guess I can do it… but the Yoo Jayeon I know isn’t someone who would do that.”

“Hyung.”

“Yeah?”

“Why don’t I give you solid smack later? Also, another smack if I picked the one you recommended.”

“Wait, why is this suddenly about that?”

Just as he gripped his fist in order to defend himself, the door to the restaurant opened and the first actor arrived. Jayeon waved her hand and shouted.

“Hey, lucky guy! Over here!”

Mr. ‘lucky guy’, who came over after taking a bow, looked at ‘hyung’ in front of Jayeon before speaking.

“Why are you here, hyung-nim?”

* * *

Smack - it was a refreshing sound. Producer Jayeon, who had an evil grin on her face, stood up rather abruptly and smacked the shocked Ganghwan on the head before he could even dodge. When Ganghwan lowered his head with a tearful face, the producer slapped Ganghwan on the cheek. The producer did not take her hand off Ganghwan’s face as though to immerse herself in the aftermath of the pain.

“Uhm, can anyone explain?” Maru said as he took a step back.

He didn’t want to join this duo for some reason.

[1] Unmarried women who either have a lot of money or are in high positions of power. Wikipediafor more details.

[2] Korean restaurants have bells that call for waiters.

[3] Stands for Membership Training. Usually held in college clubs/circles.

[4] Usually, return students would be male, because they would do their military service mid way through college.

Chapter 665

“I guess Maru has such traits. I mean, taking a jab like that. You’re not entirely wrong when you call him ‘lucky boy’. He did poke the gold vein after all. You will probably be shocked if you know what kind of deal he made with our president before joining the agency.”

“What is it?”

“I don’t want to tell you, but I’ll tell you since you’re holding the fork in a reverse grip.”

Ganghwan whispered into Jayeon’s ears. As she listened, Jayeon’s eyes became wider and wider. Maru could read a lot of things from Jayeon’s eyes. It started with disbelief before changing into interest and then turned into curiosity. Maru turned his head away and drank some water. He was given a sticky gaze from a viper looking at their prey.

“What a guy. 300 million huh,” Jayeon said as she held up three fingers.

“Hyung-nim, it’s not that good to reveal other people’s contract terms like that.”

“I should tell her stuff like this beforehand so that she knows you aren’t a cheap actor, and so she can make the most out of you. Who knows? You might get more screen time.”

“If that does happen, I don’t have any complaints either.”

Maru smiled at Jayeon. Jayeon laughed and said that she would think about it.

“Yoo Jayeon. You really struck gold. You won’t find anyone like him anywhere. He’s smart, and he’s quick-witted, not to mention his acting skills are good. Sir Yoon doesn’t treat him dearly for nothing.”

“Sir Yoon? Which Sir Yoon?”

“Sir Yoon Moonjoong.”

Jayeon turned her head to Maru.

“You know Sir Yoon Moonjoong as well?”

“He doesn’t just know him. He’s one of the few drinking friends that he cherishes,” Ganghwan said all that before Maru could say anything.

Maru just drank water instead of saying anything. The expectation placed on the three characters ‘Han Maru’ was rising. He didn’t know what Ganghwan’s intentions were, but he felt like they would arrive at a weird conclusion if he got caught up in their conversation.

Maru looked at the two people whispering to each other. Jayeon called Ganghwan ‘hyung’ while Ganghwan used a casual tone to speak to her. From the way they naturally touched and looked at each other, did that mean that they had feelings towards each other? Or were they just long-time friends? When Ganghwan told him to take the audition, Maru thought that it was just one of the producers he knew through his connections, not someone that was close enough to him that they could call out to each other casually.

“I have two things I want to ask, may I?”

“Go ahead. I’ll answer my lucky guy’s question anytime,” Jayeon said.

“Are you two dating?”

As soon as he asked that, Ganghwan threw some tissue at him. Maru titled his head to dodge. Jayeon was gripping her plastic cup hard.

“Care to ask again?”

Jayeon asked in a mild tone. Maru said no before going to the next question.

“Did you pick me because of Ganghwan hyung-nim’s request?”

“What do you think? Do you think I would have listened to him or not?” Jayeon replied with a question as she crossed her arms.

“If hyung-nim did ask you to put me in, then I should be thankful. After all, it would mean that I passed the audition thanks to him. But I’m asking because it doesn’t seem like that.”

“Why do you think that?”

“Because you said that you won’t look at connections. The producer I know doesn’t look like she would get swayed by something like that.”

“Look at this guy. He’s trying to score points since he’s joined us. Hyung, is he always like this?”

“That’s the type of guy he is,” Ganghwan replied.

“Hey, do you have confidence in your acting?”

Maru got a question this time. Maru replied immediately,

“I don’t.”

“If you don’t have any confidence in your acting as an actor, why would a producer use that actor?”

“Well, I’m not sure. I will not say I’m confident in myself no matter what I do, not just acting. Even if I possess the skill to finish the job precisely and have the eyes to determine that level of skill, I would still never say that I am confident.”

“Why?”

“Because they say it’s better to not say anything you can’t take responsibility for. You’ll go halfway if you stay still - I like these words quite a lot.”

“Who would want to buy a product that’s promoting itself as a flawed product?”

“You won’t promote the flaws. You just don’t exaggerate.”

“Hey, you might end up in the warehouse without anyone recognizing you.”

“That’s why I’m praying all the time that a good director will fish me out. I’m not perfect, but I promote myself as a useful product.”

“Oh man, this boy is totally like an old man. The way he acts is similar to my uncle,” Jayeon laughed.

“Did things go well for your uncle?”

“Extremely.”

“Well, there’s a role model. I guess I should maintain my attitude.”

“Alright. The decent ones are bound to get used even if they’re in a heap of trash. Why is that? Because they will shine amidst the rusty metal pieces. Unless someone’s blind, they’ll pick it up. Like how I did.”

“This girl, she always finishes up by complimenting herself,” Ganghwan commented from the side.

Jayeon did not mind his comment and chuckled instead, telling him to praise her more. She was rather different from what she showed during the audition and at the pojang-macha. During the prior occasions, Jayeon spoke as though she was a bomb that had its fuse almost all burnt, but all of her actions were trapped within a frame. Even when she shouted, drove people into a corner, or introduced herself as a crazy bitch, she looked like someone who stuck to the rules, even if she looked rather chaotic.

“Hyung, it’s not like that.”

Laughing next to Ganghwan, she looked very liberal, but it felt like the frame that formed her core was out of place a little. There was a sense of hurry or unease. Ganghwan called Jayeon casually while Jayeon called him just hyung. To Maru, it looked like she was drawing the line. Perhaps Jayeon found Ganghwan hard to deal with. Maru kept editing his impression of the two people and kept observing them. He was going to work together or clash with her a lot from now on. The common point between an enemy and an ally was that the more you know, the better.

“Hello.”

A voice sounded behind him. Maru turned around. There was a man with curly hair dyed brown. He was very tall to the point that he would have to raise his head to see the man’s head. He seemed like he was at least 185cm tall.

“You’re here. Have a seat.”

Jayeon pointed at a seat. Maru moved inwards. The curly hair nodded before sitting.

“You should introduce yourself.”

“Ah, yes. My name is Ha Byungjae. I’m twenty-five this year.”

“Byungjae is well, how should I put it, very kind or very bland? Well, I like that part of him too. The one sitting next to you is Han Maru, and he’s going to work with you.”

Maru shook hands with Byungjae.

“Also, the cocky dude next to me is Yang Ganghwan. You’re forty this year, aren’t you, hyung?”

“Hey, don’t just add numbers to people’s age like that. Ignore her. I’m thirty-three. No, wait, was I thirty-two? Maybe four? Being younger is better, so let’s go with thirty-two, shall we?”

“As you can see, he’s a worthless man when it comes to something other than his acting. He’ll be playing the owner of the pojang-macha. Say hello to him, you’ll be acting the most with him in the future. Hyung, you should take a closer look at this boy as well. In my eyes, he’ll become big in the future.”

“Really? Then I guess I should get to know him. When would a worthless stageman like me get to shake hands with a TV star if not now? Nice to meet you, actor Ha.”

“D-don’t say that, senior.”

Byungjae and Ganghwan exchanged greetings. Maru looked at Byungjae, who was sitting upright as though he was nervous. He had looks that looked like he was cast from the street. He didn’t look as ripe as the other actors in their mid-twenties to early thirties who were becoming big, but he looked like he would not lose out to top stars in terms of appearance depending on how he put on make-up. Maru subconsciously touched his chin. Do male actors do a lot of plastic surgery too?

“Why do you look so nervous? Relax.”

Byungjae only then faintly smiled. Maru felt like he needed more time to observe him to see whether he was weak-hearted or was just warming up to them.

“I’m not late, am I?”

The one who came next was a woman who dyed her hair orange. Yes, orange. The bright tangerine color that would make her head look like it was floating by itself when she walked during the night. The woman with the eye-catching hair color looked at the seats before sitting next to Byungjae. The moment orange hair sat down, Byungjae pulled his chair inwards to gain some distance.

“If you’re here, you can introduce yourself.”

“Do I have to do something childish like that?”

“Then should I call you delinquent-unni?”

“Okay, fine. I’ll do it. My name is Choi Mira. My hobby is reading, and my specialty is reciting poems. Usually, I stay at home reading books. I’m a total shut-in.”

Maru scratched his eyebrows and looked at Mira. What was her hobby and what was her specialty? Mira finished introducing herself in a joking manner and added that she was twenty-four.

“Reciting poems? Do you have something you can recite off your mind?” Ganghwan asked.

Mira immediately recited a poem as though it was nothing that difficult. She recited the poem with a fair voice as though was singing and finished off with a ‘satisfied?’ at the end. Maru applauded. It was unexpectedly good. The poem recited by a woman with a flashy hair color and ear piercings was good enough to be called a specialty.

“Byungjae, don’t you think you have to show us something after that?” Jayeon asked without thinking.

Byungjae hesitated for a moment before impersonating someone, but no one could tell who he was imitating. Mira giggled and Byungjae looked down at the table in dejection. Maru stayed still. It wouldn’t do any good for him to show a reaction here.

“Whew, the youngest one is the latest. We should have a penalty for that, right?”

The moment Jayeon said those words, the door to the restaurant opened and Yuna rushed in. She looked around the restaurant while panting before rushing over to the table.

“Sorry for being late.”

“There’s still 10 minutes until the appointed time, so you aren’t late. Buuut, while you aren’t late, you are the last one here, so you have to show us your specialty, you know?”

When Jayeon said that while resting her chin on her hands, Yuna gulped before looking at everyone in the seats. She looked like a young gazelle that was separated from the herd.

“I’m just joking so don’t cry. I hate crying kids.”

Jayeon quickly waved her hand and said that. It seemed that the pure-looking eyes were something that even the cold producer couldn’t handle.

“But you should at least introduce yourself, right?”

“Yes! Hello. My name is Kim Yuna and I’m in 1st year class 2 of Myunghwa High School. No wait, forget the class. Uhm, I’ve been practicing since I was in middle school, and I was lucky enough to get the opportunity to participate in this drama. I may be lacking, but please take care of me.”

“I’m not a caretaker though, ” Ganghwan, who was watching, suddenly uttered.

Yuna hesitated before speaking again,

“I will do my best not to bother you. I hope we can get along!”

“Jayeon, where did you find all these unique people? I totally love them,” Ganghwan said as he raised his thumb.

“Well then, sit down for now. We should commemorate the first get-together for the drama. Excuse me! Waiter!”

Jayeon put her hand against her mouth and shouted.

Chapter 666

“I wish I could see everyone’s bottom lines by drinking until we lose our minds, but we’re with minors, so let’s just talk about healthy stuff,” Jayeon said as she opened the soju bottle.

She was practically saying: I’m not going to give the two minors any, but the rest of you should prepare to die. From how Ganghwan, an alcoholic, was freaking out, it seemed that Jayeon’s drinking ability was incredibly impressive.

A cup of soju went around to all the adults. Maru drank soda and Yuna did the same. He inwardly wanted to drink as well, but Jayeon clearly drew the line. She was quite firm in unexpected places.

Bottles of soju and beer started piling up on the table. The meeting, which was originally intended for them to get close, turned into a drinking session of sorts. Byungjae, who drank every glass Jayeon poured for him, had gone to the bathroom around 10 minutes ago and did not return, while Mira said she would not drink after drinking four glasses. Jayeon offered her another glass, but Mira shook her head. I don’t like getting drunk - that was what she said as she pushed away the glass. After that, Jayeon did not offer her another drink either.

“Uhm, can I drink just a little?” Yuna asked when Byungjae, who had gone to the bathroom, returned looking haggard.

Jayeon stared at Yuna.

“You never drank before?”

“I haven’t.”

“You’re like a natural treasure in an era like this. Do you want to drink?”

Yuna slowly nodded.

“Unfortunately, I definitely won’t let you drink today. Later, if we meet somewhere else instead of a restaurant like this, I will definitely treat you to some. If I let you two drink and law enforcement shows up, both I and the owner of this place will get into trouble. I was just joking before, I will not treat you like children. It’s just that I don’t want to cause unnecessary trouble. There’s nothing more annoying than something happening before the start of the drama, right?”

Jayeon sipped some soju. She frowned and sighed a little before putting the glass down with a tapping sound.

“Since we drank for about an hour, it’s good enough to get talking, right?”

“He looks like he’s gonna fall asleep at any moment though,” Ganghwan said as he pointed at Byungjae.

“Byungjae, do you want to go home and sleep?”

“No, producer. I can talk. I can do it. Of course I can.”

Maru looked at Byungjae through the corner of his eyes. Was he the type of person that would repeat his words when he was drunk? He swayed back and forth while sitting before running to the bathroom again.

“Don’t give him alcohol in the future. People who accept all the drinks they’re given are dangerous.”

“Okay, hyung. I was planning to do the same. Mira, you’re going to drink some more after you clear your head a little, right?”

“I’ll see how things go. I really hate becoming drunk, so I’m not going to drink if I think I’m the slightest bit drunk.”

“I really like that attitude of yours. You look like you’d drink from the bottle though.”

“And you drink just like you look.”

“Look at her speak. I might as well be suppressed by her during the shoot.”

Jayeon smiled in satisfaction. A while later, Byungjae returned, looking much more exhausted. Maru gave him the orange juice he ordered beforehand.

“If you drink this now, you’ll have an easier time emptying your stomach.”

“Thanks. But I emptied everything just now, so I don’t think any more is coming out.”

Byungjae drank the juice with difficulty.

“Maru, sorry to ask, but can you buy some hangover drinks?” Jayeon asked as she took out some bills.

Her eyes were glued to Byungjae. Byungjae stood up, saying that he will go instead, but he soon collapsed back onto the chair as though he lost strength.

“I’ll go then.”

He accepted the money and stood up.

“I’ll go with him.”

Yuna hurriedly pushed back her chair and followed him. Maru looked at the people sitting around the table. It would be quite awkward for Yuna if she was alone amongst a group of drunk people. Jayeon also told them to go together. It seemed that she was being considerate of Yuna.

“I saw a convenience store right in front of this place when I came here.”

They left the restaurant. The air was very humid and hot.

The convenience store opposite the restaurant was very crowded. One part-timer was dealing with dozens of customers. There was also a line of people waiting outside, so it seemed like it would take time to get inside.

“I saw another one up there.”

Yuna pointed at a sign that could be seen afar. There was a faint logo of a convenience store. Maru started walking and Yuna followed suit.

“Have you ever drank alcohol before, seonbae?”

“I have. Have you not drank at all in your entire life?”

“I haven’t.”

“That’s quite peculiar. Don’t people around our age drink out of curiosity or something?”

“I’m not sure. I don’t think any of my friends have tried drinking either.”

“Myunghwa High must be a great school then. You should learn how to drink from adults in the future. Don’t learn from guys that say they’ll treat you to a drink.”

“Did you learn from an adult, seonbae?”

“No. People who say righteous stuff like me are always enforcing what they couldn’t keep to others. It’s quite pathetic.”

Maru shrugged after saying that. The convenience store located a little away from the store was in better condition. At least they could go inside. He bought four hangover drinks before asking Yuna,

“What are you going to drink?”

“Can I pick?”

“You’re supposed to take the errand fees by yourself.”

Yuna grabbed a strawberry milk.

“You like strawberry milk too?”

“Yes. Gaeul-seonbae treats me to it quite often.”

“Looks like the strawberry milk faction is prospering by the day. Can you grab me one as well?”

Yuna brought another strawberry milk. They paid for the items before leaving the store. Maru turned around because Yuna wasn’t coming out, and saw that she kept uttering ‘I’m sorry, excuse me’ amidst a crowd of people. She looked like she was on a crowded train. Maru asked the man blocking the entrance to step aside before going inside and bringing Yuna out.

“You should have pushed your way out.”

“If I do that, people might feel displeased.”

“You look like you’re going to live a tired life.”

“I do it when I need to. It was just that there were too many people before…”

Yuna muttered those last words in a very small voice. Maru handed Yuna her strawberry milk.

“Let’s finish them before we go back. You were just staring at the table before. Wasn’t it boring for you?”

“I was too busy listening to the producer and uhm, senior Yang Ganghwan. Their words were so interesting that I wasn’t that bored at all. But you seem to have known senior Yang Ganghwan before this meeting, right?”

“He’s the one who taught me acting after all.”

“That must have been fun. That senior looks like he’s a jolly person.”

“He’s not just jolly, he’s a freak. He had me do all sorts of stuff when I learned from him. Though, they were quite helpful.”

“All sorts of stuff?”

Maru placed his palm over Yuna’s eyes since she looked curious.

“You can’t see, right?”

“Yes.”

“That’s one of the things I learned from him. Experiencing what it’s like to live as a blind person. I walked the street while covering my eyes, and man, even now it gives me the chills.”

“Did you really do that?”

Maru nodded before drinking the milk. He crumpled the empty carton and threw it in the recycling bin. Yuna folded the carton neatly and put it in the recycling bin as well.

“Shall we go?”

They went back the way they came from and entered the restaurant again. They seemed to have asked the waiter to clean their table as the empty bottles of alcohol in the corner were gone. Byungjae also looked better than before.

“Are you finished drinking?”

“Yep, and thanks.”

While the four of them drank the hangover drink, a boiling-hot budae-jjigae came out. It seemed that they didn’t eat a lot of side dishes with the drinks because they were going to have a full-on meal.

“We should talk about work over food rather than drinks. I ordered portions for you as well, you are going to eat, right?”

“I am.”

Yuna also said that she’d eat. They ate the budae-jjigae as though they were relieving their hangover. When they emptied about half of the rice, Jayeon spoke,

“The production schedule is set for September and October, these two months. It will air starting late October or early November. There will be four total episodes. If the Wednesday-Thursday drama series do decently well and continues until the end without finishing off early, it will air starting early November, and if they have to cut two episodes short because of bad results, it will start airing in late October. If it does really well and they shoot extended episodes, maybe it will start mid November?”

“Aren’t YBS one-act plays aired at 11? I also thought it was a Friday-Saturday series,” Maru said.

“That’s gonna disappear. We’re the last ones.”

After saying those words, Jayeon blew on the ham before putting it in her mouth. Everyone, who was listening, kept staring at her. The fact that they were the last members made them feel very iffy.

“What do you mean by that?” Mira asked as she put down her spoon.

“It’s just as I said. The one-act plays are going to disappear now. It’s going to be excluded from the regular schedule. It doesn’t have good viewing rates and we don’t get any ads. We only consume money without earning any since it’s self-produced. It’s a natural course of action, really. There is the title of the gateway to becoming a star, but those stars don’t make the TV station any money. Also, there haven’t been any stars from it recently.”

“So it’s a filler between the regular series,” Maru said.

Ding dong - Jayeon replied while tapping on her bowl with the spoon. He could see Yuna make a dejected expression. Byungjae, who sat next to him, also resumed eating with a not-so-pleased face. It seemed that they didn’t like that they were ‘filler’.

“It’s an opportunity, huh.”

“It is.”

Maru scooped out some sliced sausage and put it on his rice. He put a big spoonful of rice in his mouth and was chewing when he saw Yuna staring at him. Why is it an opportunity? - she seemed to be asking with her eyes.

He believed that Jayeon would explain, but she seemed busy eating. Ganghwan also seemed to have finished thinking things through but he didn’t look like he intended to explain.

“10 p.m. is golden time.”

The answer came from Mira. Yuna still looked puzzled. Maru added,

“Did you see the viewing rates of the YBS Wednesday-Thursday drama that started yesterday?”

“Yes, it was 18%.”

“Late-night one-act plays have a single percentage viewing rate. And that’s only when famous actors are on it. It won’t become a hot topic if there are nameless actors in it, and the same goes for the producer as well. Moreover, there’s a special series in the same time slot by RBS with all the big stars, isn’t there? Which one would you watch?”

Yuna did not reply. Maru drank some water before continuing.

“In such a situation, it’s a fortune that we can enter the 10 p.m. lineup. Even after the drama airs, there will be many viewers who keep YBS on due to sheer momentum. No matter how good our work is, we’ll only get evaluated if there are people watching it, right?”

“If you look at it that way, I guess it really is an opportunity.”

Jayeon raised her spoon high.

“Yes, it is an opportunity. At the same time, it’s also a very big risk as well. There will definitely be more viewers than usual. The fact that there are more eyes on us, means that there will be more criticism as well. I’m one thing, but you guys should get prepared as well. Actors live off their image, don’t they? If you start off good, the industry people will call for you, but you know what happens if you do badly, right?”

Jayeon pushed her spoon into the budae-jjigae and started twirling it. Maru felt like he was one of the ingredients in the budae-jjigae. It was an opportunity to get his face known, as well as a stage where he could get evaluated. If he became known as a gemstone, he would be sold, but if rumors spread around that he was a defect, he would have to focus on practicing for a while. Considering that a single piece could change the life of an actor, this piece could be considered pretty important.

“We now share the same fate. Directed by Yoo Jayeon, scripted by Yoo Jayeon, produced by Yoo Jayeon. Welcome aboard the Yoo Jayeon ship. Men, start rowing!”

Jayeon raised her spoon high into the air. Ganghwan, who sat next to her, also reached out his hand. In his hand was a spoon as well. The spoons crossed each other in the air. Maru was reminded of a movie he saw a long time ago. It was the three musketeers.

“What are you doing? We should consolidate our resolve,” Jayeon said.

She seemed very drunk. Maru faintly smiled and raised his spoon. The atmosphere was very ripe. It was very childish, but he couldn’t help but go with it. Six spoons crossed each other in the air.

“To Yoo Jayeon’s first step to becoming a CP[1]! Cheers!”

Jayeon tapped on the spoons with a cheer phrase that contained her ambition. The sheer strength made Byungjae, Mira, and Yuna’s spoons fall on the ground with a loud noise, while Ganghwan’s spoon fell into the budae-jjigae. Red soup spilled everywhere.

“That’s a bad sign. It’s a sign of doom,” Ganghwan said.

Jayeon immediately blocked Ganghwan’s mouth.

[1] Chief producer.

Chapter 667

“You know? I believe that the total quantity of happiness and unhappiness is equal. If something good happens to one person, someone somewhere will definitely encounter a mishap,” Jayeon said as she grabbed her cup.

“It’s the case when I look back at my life as well. It might look like only shit stuff happened which makes my life looks like a shithole, but if I keep going through my memories, there are definitely happy things taking up space in a corner. If life was a series of downhills with no room to breathe and no moments of happiness, that person would have jumped into the Han river in order to find happiness. They are only able to live because there’s a reason that allows them to endure.”

Maru ate a piece of sliced peach. There was a slight bitterness after a sweet taste. Was happiness and unhappiness like this as well? Like what Jayeon said, the total quantity of happiness and unhappiness should be equal. In a general view, happiness should fill 50% of society while the other 50% is filled with unhappiness. He could agree with that. But when it came to the individuals? The first thing that came to his mind was ‘really?’. The total amount of happiness and unhappiness might equal each other when you consider society as a whole, but he believed that it would be different when it came to individuals.

“It might be possible that the majority of the people take up unhappiness which means a small minority might be taking up a lot of the happiness. In the broader sense, the ratio of the total quantity does not change even if it’s like that,” Ganghwan said.

Maru nodded.

“Well, you might think like that, hyung. You’re a pessimist after all. In any case, the point of the drama is simple. Their happiness and unhappiness. I want to show a slice of those. If there’s a beginning, there should be an end right? You can consider the start as happiness and the end as unhappiness.”

Jayeon placed two almonds and two peanuts on the table.

“One couple is the main characters of a youthful love story. They are not conscious of each other at first, but they become aware of each other and their feelings for each other start blossoming.”

Two peanuts disappeared into Jayeon’s mouth.

“While there’s the peanut couple becoming happy, there should be a couple somewhere that’s becoming unhappy, right? The almond couple feels their love cooling down as time goes by, and they become further away from each other’s awareness.”

Jayeon chewed on the almonds and the peanuts.

“I’m going to express it as plainly as possible. I will add some dramatic devices, but I want to show what it’s like to be human. Love that anyone might have gone through, parting that anyone might have gone through. People who look like they could exist anywhere might become the main characters to a rather bland story. Love begins, it ends, then begins again. I want to show a simple logic that we cannot escape through the drama.”

“From the look of things, these two are the starting couple, right?”

Mira pointed at Maru and Yuna. Being pointed out, Maru looked towards Jayeon.

“Maru and Yuna couple will fall in love with each other, while Byungjae and Mira couple will start off as lovers but become strangers in the end. That process will repeat again. Maru and Yuna will part, and Byungjae and Mira will meet again.”

“You can do all that in just 4 episodes?”

“It’s 55 minutes for each episode. That’s more than enough for two whole movies, so do you think we’ll run out of time? I’m going to do this without the boring background explanation and just focus on the characters. There is no cool background like the super-scale historical dramas. The main stage for the drama will be a pojang-macha in the middle of nowhere, a school, and then an office.”

“That sounds so dry,” Mira said as she drank a sip of beer.

“I said we’re not shooting Cinderella. We’re shooting the love stories of ordinary civilians.”

“Don’t you think it’ll be hard to find the ‘drama’ that you like so much in that?”

“Mira, what is a drama?”

“A play.”

“That’s too basic.”

Maru was pushing a piece of watermelon into his mouth when Jayeon gave him a stare, which made him pull the watermelon back out again.

“A dramatic incident, of course.”

“This guy is like that too. Yuna, what do you think a drama is?”

“Me?”

With the question directed at herself, Yuna fidgeted for a bit before replying.

“The story of people similar to me doing different things from me.”

“Yuna.”

“Yes?”

“Did you just go inside my heart or something? You’re thinking the same thing as I am. Here, let’s toast.”

Jayeon held out her beer glass. Yuna raised her cup with two hands. The glass and the plastic cup hit each other, making a blunt sound.

“There are many different reasons for why people watch dramas. Vicarious satisfaction, to kill time, for the feels, for the fun, to learn something. There must be numerous reasons. But if there’s a basis for all of those reasons, it’s that they are watching a story that is different from theirs. Do you think I would watch a video that portrays Yoo Jayeon’s life as it is? I will never watch it. Why would I watch something I know already? That’s why dramas have to be something close to me yet different from me. That’s the reason I talk about Cinderella all the time. Anyone can be the poor Cinderella before she gets on the pumpkin carriage, however, no one can become Cinderella in the pumpkin carriage. She’s similar to me, yet she walks a different path from me.”

“Uhm, wouldn’t it be difficult to attract public attention if it’s an ordinary story?” Byungjae asked cautiously.

Jayeon nodded before speaking.

“Everyone here knows the lineup of the mini-series for the three main companies, RBS, KBS, and YBS, for the four weekdays[1], right? Mira, tell me about them.”

“KBS is ‘Return of the Castle’ for Monday-Tuesday, and ‘My Lovely Flower’ for Wednesday-Thursday.”

Jayeon looked at Byugnjae.

“RBS is the ‘The Judge’ for Monday-Tuesday, and ‘Hooray Girl’ for Wednesday-Thursday.”

“Han Maru, what about YBS?”

“The Monday-Tuesday lineup is ‘Chivalrous Knight’, and the Wednesday-Thursday is ‘My Wandering Diaries at Twenty-three’.”

Jayeon clapped to get everyone’s attention.

“You know how dramas compete with each other these days, right? They don’t clash with different stories. They compete with similar genres and similar content and fight head-to-head. That’s why if one side gets 40% of the views, the others will simply be forgotten. The genre is the same, so it would be over if they lose in terms of interest.”

Jayeon drew a line across her neck and smiled mockingly. She looked like the perfect villain character for a movie.

“Ever since the historical drama season ended, all three companies nailed romantic comedies in the Wednesday-Thursday slot. Moreover, everyone uses the same Cinderella story. All of them are about simple girls meeting rich boys. Although only the first and second episodes have aired, the viewers should have seen enough to know the rest of the plot. They should be thinking ‘ah, it’s the same thing over and over again’.”

Jayeon raised two fingers.

“Two years. Ever since KBS hit a viewing rate of 50% with ‘Beautiful Lovers’ back in 2003, Cinderella-style romantic comedies kept coming out for a whole two years. Do you know why?”

“Because proven steady-sellers have steady sales. If they’re lucky, they might ride the flow and become a bestseller again,” Maru replied.

Jayeon nodded.

“That’s it. The TV stations do not like adventure. This tendency is even more pronounced with dramas. There is only one reason why genres like detective, mystery, and horror rarely appear on TVs. It’s because they are extremely unstable. If they do well, they will do really well, but if they do badly, there won’t be a way to fix it. Moreover, these kinds of genres aren’t popular with women, especially women in their twenties to forties. Would the advertisers like that? Of course not. That’s why romantic comedies prevail. After all, as long as it doesn't do too badly, they will get suitable advertisers for it. In this situation, let’s think back to the definition of dramas. The one that Maru mentioned before.”

“Dramatic incidents,” Maru said to Jayeon.

“Yes, dramatic incidents. What does it mean to be ‘dramatic’? Dramatic, spectacular. A twist from an ordinary progression of events. If it’s red, it has to be an apple, but it turns out it’s a banana. Well then, in the last two years, Korean dramas have kept riding the Cinderella rails. On the internet, there are loads of articles and comments about being fed up with it. In a structure where the fancy love of Cinderella is everywhere, would an ordinary love with ordinary people really be ordinary? Or…”

“A new story. Or in one sense, a dramatic story, huh,” Mira said as she grabbed her lower lip with her fingers.

“That’s right.”

“You’re producing the drama after taking all of that into account?”

“There aren’t any idiots who don’t take into account such trivial stuff. Ultimately, dramas are about trends. You lead one or you get dragged by one. If possible, I want to do the leading. That’s the quickest route to success after all.”

Jayeon emphasized the word ‘success’. Maru smiled pleasantly as he felt that word hit his ears. Success, wasn’t that everyone’s dream? It was the magical word that made everyone feel hopeful.

The table became quiet for a while. It wasn’t an awkward, unnerving silence. Everyone seemed to have forgotten to talk because they were digesting the word success. Maru put a grape in his mouth. Sweet success.

“But that doesn’t guarantee that ordinary stories will work, does it?” Ganghwan remarked.

He didn’t seem to be saying it lightly. He seemed to be asking the producer for her opinion as an actor participating in the production.

“It’s ordinary, but it shouldn’t look ordinary.”

“Just like how rich boys don’t look like they’re rich?”

“That’s right.”

“Do you know what advice I hate the most? It’s ‘try to get more out of that feeling’. I don’t know what ‘feeling’ that is, so how am I supposed to get more out of it?”

“Hyung, don’t worry about that. I will give you clear directions until your act is to my liking, and until you can act the ordinary in an extraordinary way.”

Jayeon’s declaration came with an evil business owner’s smile. Maru pictured himself brooming the garden as a manservant. He was in a pitiful position where he had to obey every whim and gesture of the producer that was sitting in comfort.

“It’ll be an interesting shoot for sure. I believe in the power of you actors. I can do that, right?”

Maru looked at Ganghwan. He asked ‘is this gonna be okay’ with his eyes. The reply came back immediately. ‘We’re all dead’ - Ganghwan’s cloudy eyes seem to be saying such words.

* * *

“Careful on your way back! Make sure you take Yuna home!”

Jayeon waved her hand over her head while laughing. Ganghwan, Byungjae and Mira were standing next to her. Looking at the three who were going to, no, dragged to a 2nd round of drinking, Maru took a bow. It was his way of expressing his condolences - hope you don’t drown in alcohol.

“Seonbae!”

Yuna shouted loudly enough to ring his ears as she stuck to his back. Maru frowned and looked back. Why is the docile girl acting like this now?

“Did you drink?”

“Yes!”

Maru looked at Yuna, who had turned red like a tomato.

“When?”

“Mira-unni gave me some.”

When she said that, he remembered Yuna drinking some water while frowning. So that wasn’t water.

“Hey, are you drunk?”

“No, I only drank one glass, so there’s no way I’m drunk. But why do people drink? It tastes so bitter and doesn’t seem like it will be tasty at all.”

“Good for you for drinking something that doesn’t taste good. You drank it with your water cup, didn’t you?”

“Eh? I think I did, but I don’t remember.”

After chuckling, Yuna started sniffing.

“Seonbae, you can smell chicken skewers, can’t you?”

“I can.”

“But why does it smell so disgusting?”

Yuna covered her mouth. Maru flinched and tried to gain some distance, but Yuna grabbed onto his sleeve.

“Your stomach doesn’t feel good, does it?”

“N-no, I’m fine.”

“You aren’t fine. Your expression doesn’t look good.”

“It’s fine. I can swallow it.”

“Swallow? Swallow what?”

“It’s okay.”

Yuna frowned after laughing again. Maru could smell it. She was practically just before throwing up.

“Yuna, if you feel like vomiting, you should go to the bathroom.”

“I’m fine. Why would I vomit when I only drank one glass? I definitely won’t do that.”

“Your face says otherwise though.”

“Does it, seonbae?”

Yuna, who kept chuckling, ended up sitting on the ground.

“Do you feel dizzy?”

“No.”

“Gosh, this girl. She’s trippin’ after drinking one sip.”

“Trippin’? Trippin~.”

“What the…”

Maru stroked his face. He had to look after a girl younger than him. If it was a boy, he would have abandoned him here and now. Or maybe he would take him to a back alley and stick a finger inside his throat.

“Sit down for now.”

“Okay.”

Maru looked at Yuna, who staggered while grabbing onto his sleeves. He didn’t know who would wed her in the future, but that person should have a tiring life.

[1] Monday-Tueseday series + Wednesday-Thursday series. Friday-Saturday series are considered weekend series.

Chapter 668

“Why did you become an actor, seonbae?”

Maru looked at Yuna. This young junior, who had bashed her head into the table in front of the convenience store while breathing heavily, had raised her head. From the rather abrupt way she asked the question, it seemed that she hadn’t sobered up yet.

“You feel okay now?”

“No, seonbae. My question was, why did you become an actor, okay?”

Yuna’s head made a big circle as she asked the question. It seemed like there was a large weight attached to her head. She seemed to be experiencing her world turning upside down as she bashed her head on the table again. She kept muttering something as though she was reminding herself of something, but Maru did not want to know what was happening within her.

Maru gave her a hangover drink he bought from the convenience store. Yuna accepted the canned drink and started scratching the lid. Tic, tic - after wrestling with the can, she looked at the can with teary eyes.

“Seonbae, why doesn’t this work?”

“Hey, don’t you ever drink when you’re with me next time.”

Maru stole the can away from Yuna and opened it for her.

“Drink.”

Yuna, who accepted the can with a dazed expression, drank a sip before frowning.

“It’s not tasty.”

“Just drink.”

“I have to drink it even though it isn’t tasty?”

“Do you want me to force you to drink it?”

“No.”

Yuna sniffed and kept drinking it. She gulped it down in one go before sticking her tongue out with a frown.

“It’s not tasty.”

“Consider it as medicine. Don’t vomit it out.”

“I feel even more strange now that I drank it.”

“If you feel like vomiting, run over to the corner over there.”

“You’re too cruel, seonbae.”

“You’re even crueler for holding back someone who should have gone home. You should’ve held back if it was your first drink. You drank a whole cup because you were given one? And in secret too? You might really get in trouble for that, you know?”

“I’m also regretting it. Don’t tell me off.”

Yuna glared at him, but she soon made a displeased expression again because of her upset stomach before bashing her head into the table.

“If you don’t feel good, it’ll be easier if you throw up.”

“No. I don’t want to do that in front of you.”

Yuna groaned as though she was sick, but she became better as time passed by. Though, she still had her head planted on the table.

“Can you tell me why you became an actor?”

“You’re quite persistent, you know that?”

“Can’t I be?”

“Why are you so curious about my story?”

“I’m curious because I’m curious. Do I need a reason for it?”

It was a strange logic, but he couldn’t think of a retort. He had the confidence to win if he dragged things out and disputed with her, but quarreling with a drunk kid was a tragic thing. Maru looked at his watch. It was 10:40 p.m. He calculated that they should stay here for about twenty more minutes. After twenty minutes, Yuna should either feel better or throw up.

“I think I said something like this before, but the reason I became an actor isn’t because of anything grand. I just had an opportunity, and I grabbed that opportunity because it looked good.”

“So you never intended to become an actor in the first place?”

“That’s right.”

“Lies. In my eyes, you seem to like being an actor more than anyone else.”

“And what makes you think that you know so much about me?”

“I have seen you a lot. Do you know how many times I played back your acting in Twilight Struggles? How about The Witness? I even practiced the same interrogation scene, you know?”

Yuna, who had been sitting obediently, suddenly fiercely glared at him and shouted while slapping down on the table. Maru quickly reached out and covered her mouth. Thankfully, no one was looking at them. As this street was filled with pubs, this kind of noise wasn’t even considered noise.

“That now was just like you, wasn’t it?”

“Yeah, yeah. It was similar, so please be still.”

“I can also act your character in New Semester.”

“Okay, you’re good at acting. So be quiet, okay?”

Yuna nodded slowly. Just as Maru was about to feel relieved, she started acting. Maru fixed his eyes on Yuna, who said some lines that were familiar to him with a serious expression before standing up and walking a little away.

“Seonbae, where are you going?”

“You do your thing. I’ll just watch from over here.”

“Are you embarrassed by me?”

“Would I not be?”

“I’m not embarrassed at all though.”

Did the alcohol get to her brain a little late? Yuna stopped using polite speech. Maru took out his phone and started shooting a video. Yuna, who acted for about 2 minutes while swaying, suddenly stood upright before swallowing something. She fell back onto the chair as though all the acting churned her stomach.

“I feel like vomiting.”

“I knew it’d come to this.”

“Can I throw up?”

“If you’re going to, do it over there.”

“But I don’t want to. I’m going to hold it in.”

From what Maru gained from experience, an upset stomach from the first time drinking wasn’t something a human could control. Maru grabbed Yuna by the arm and went to the bathroom behind the building. The unisex toilet stank of cigarettes. Until Maru returned to the convenience store with Yuna after she grabbed the toilet, made inexplicable noises, and came out with dark eyes, Maru did not say anything.

“Shall we go?”

“Yes, seonbae-nim.”

Yuna became much more polite again. She seemed to have sobered up as she did not raise her head properly, and walked while looking at her feet. On their way to the train station, Yuna would sometimes stop walking and rip her hair out before sighing and starting to walk again. Maru looked at her for a while before deleting the video he shot before. Showing that to her later would be a cruel thing to do. Yuna, who walked down the stairs right by the wall, shook her head halfway down the stairs. Maru, who was up ahead, stopped walking and looked at her. Yuna raised her head. They met eyes. She seemed to have thought that he wouldn’t be looking at her as she hiccuped as soon as they met eyes before walking backwards.

Maru laughed out loud. He couldn’t help but do so.

“It’s funny, isn’t it? I got drunk and I couldn’t control myself. No wonder I’m funny. Why did I do that? My head and stomach still hurt. I’m never drinking again,” Yuna said.

From the way she got herself together quite quickly, it seemed that her resistance to alcohol was on the strong side. Those that didn’t have resistance would often suffer until the next day when they first drank.

“Sorry, but the way you acted was funny.”

“Funny, huh. I see.”

Yuna made a dejected expression as she walked. Maru looked at her before approaching her.

“Can I continue from earlier?”

“Eh?”

“You know, what event triggered me to become an actor. Think of it as an apology for laughing at you.”

“Th-that sounds good.”

Maru put his left hand into his pocket before speaking,

“As I said before, there really wasn’t anything on my mind back then. I coincidentally came across an opportunity and I judged that taking that opportunity was a good thing, so I did it. It might make aspiring actors a little angry if they heard me though.”

“Then you really have no intentions at all to become an actor?”

“Absolutely none.”

“Would you have worked on something else if an opportunity for that came before your opportunity to become an actor?”

“Probably. So don’t study from my acting. It’s not worth your time.”

“Then what about now? Did you really not feel anything even after you became an actor? Are you going to switch to something else if it pays you more?” Yuna asked in a hurry.

Maru shook his head.

“I might have started doing this because of a coincidence, but right now, I’m grateful that I’m doing this line of work. Of course, acting is enjoyable, and even if I come across a job that will pay me more, I think I will continue my acting career. Like I said before, there are times when acting turns into something hard and painful, making me suffer, but my efforts to endure that process is proof of how much importance I place on it, as well as how much I enjoy it.”

After passing through the ticket barrier, they walked down the stairs. A train was coming in on the opposite side. A warm wind swept past the station.

“I was lucky. Something I started because of a coincidence turned out to match my aptitude and even earns me money.”

“It’s also because of your effort as well, seonbae. I believe that fortune does not come to people who don’t do anything. I believe that you can only enjoy it because you tried your best. I’m going to try harder in the future. I’m not going to run away. I’m going to face it head on.”

It seemed that she wasn’t completely sober yet, from how she could say those words so clearly while looking him in the eyes. Maru grinned. There was an announcement that a train was coming in. Scattering bright light, the train entered the tunnel. There weren’t many people entering or exiting the train.

“Sit.”

“What about you, seonbae?”

“You’re drunk, so you should worry about yourself.”

When Yuna sat down on the one seat that was empty, the man who was dozing off next to her became startled and stood up before leaving through the closing door. Yuna tapped on the seat next to her and smiled.

“You should sit down.”

Maru sat down and looked at the window opposite him. The world of black, which could be seen between the people dozing off, only had a few dots of light from the streetlights. Soon, however, numerous stars appeared in the sea of black. The lights from buildings, and the lights from bridges as well as cars. Yuna, who sat next to him, was dozing off while leaning forward. Her hair draped over like a waterfall. She swayed left and right whenever the train stopped, and at those times, her hair looked like seaweed.

He yawned. They said sleep was infectious, and indeed, his eyes soon closed. A dark scenery like the outside world unfolded in front of him. Just as he thought that he was going to fall asleep, he felt like the floor suddenly disappeared. Chills ran down his back and his sense of direction stopped functioning.

-You must be tired.

Maru found himself sitting on a chair. He was on a stage with two top lights on. On the other side was the masked man.

“It’s been a long time. You never answered my calls.”

-I did answer you from time to time.

“Those weren’t answers. You just said whatever you wanted before disappearing again.”

-That’s also a splendid form of conversation.

“If you say so. So, what made you call me here this time?”

-I didn’t call you, you were the one who came here. I neither have the power to call you nor summon you. I’m a trivial existence who only gains life whenever you act.

“So I came here because I wanted to? How peculiar. I didn’t really want to come here.”

-There are times when individuals do not understand their own hearts. Oh, now that I think about it, you were having an interesting conversation with the cute lady sitting next to you. The reason you started acting, was it?

“Was that fun?”

-Living here, cut off from the world, you’d laugh your ass off even if you watch ants in a trail. I had the chance to listen to a conversation between people, no less, so of course it was fun.

“It wasn’t anything much. It was the usual, boring stuff.”

-Don’t say that. Do you know how interesting that was?

The masked man stood up.

-I want to ask a few things.

“Do I have to answer you?”

-We are in a cooperative relationship in a way, aren’t we? We should help each other when we act in the future. If we’re supposed to help each other out, it will be better to get to know each other. I feel like we’re going to have a long conversation tonight, so I hope you can hang out with me.

“The night is long?”

-Yes. I can definitely feel that the time you can reside here has increased. Oh, before we start, can I ask you a simple question first?

“If it’s something I can answer.”

-It’s nothing much. It’s about your previous life. Do you still remember when and how you died?

“I won’t forget that. It’s still vivid in my mind.”

-Can you tell me about it?

“That’s not too hard. I was a bus driver. It was the 3rd of October. The weather was cool and the skies were clear. I detected something off while I was driving, but it was too late by then. A thick metal beam broke the windscreen and hit my chest. I felt stifled and I heard screams, yet the only thing on my mind was one thing - If I’m going to die, I might as well die alone. Well, something like that.”

-Splendid. Thanks to you, many people kept their lives.

“Maybe I did that because I didn’t want to get insulted after I died. Since I’m going to die anyway, I might as well be a courageous bus driver, right? It’s better than being a driver who took everyone with him to the afterlife because of immature driving skills.”

-That’s true. Do you remember when that was?

Maru sighed before speaking,

“I told you. 3rd of October.”

-How old were you?

“I thought you could read my mind, yet you ask all sorts of useless stuff.”

Maru reminded himself of back then and spoke in a small voice,

“I was thirty-seven at that time.”

Chapter 669

-Thirty-seven?

“Yes, thirty-seven.”

-That sounds like an unfortunate age to die.

“Is there an age that’s not unfortunate to die? Whether you’re seventy, eighty, or even ninety, there is no good age to die.”

-That is true. But still, you were very young. If you were in your late thirties, isn’t that around the time when you find your place in society and get acknowledged?

“Now, you just had to poke where it hurts fully knowing what kind of life I’ve led. Why would a single man have a family?”

-Didn’t you have children?

“What children. I didn’t even get married. Rather than that, you’re kinda suspicious when talking about obvious things. You can see in my head, so why are you saying such a thing? If you were trying to toy with me, congratulations, you have pissed me off. It isn’t just old single women who can become mad.”

-I can read your thoughts, but that doesn’t mean I know all of your history. Why didn’t you get married? Being a bus driver might have been hard, but the pay should have been decent.

“Can you get married by yourself? People live alone because they don’t find a suitable partner.”

-So you didn’t have a partner. How unfortunate. But then, why didn’t you have a partner?

“How would I know? I might not have recognized my partner predestined by the heavens, or perhaps I might not have been so hung up on marriage. If I think about it, I feel like it kinda got glossed over since my parents didn’t say anything about it. If they urged me, maybe I would’ve gotten married, even if it was through a mediator.”

-Did you not have a lady you liked?

“Why are you so interested in someone else’s love life?”

-Because nothing’s more fun than love stories.

“Then why don’t we talk about your love life? I like listening too.”

The masked man raised his chin slightly. The light reflecting off the smooth mask hit Maru’s eyes. Maru frowned slightly and waited for the answer.

-Very well. It’s nothing that interesting, but I will tell you. But as compensation…

“I will also talk about my uninteresting love.”

-It’s always good to talk to a person who I can get through to. Don’t you think so too?

“Well, I can’t really look into your head. I’m not sure whether I’m getting through to you or you’re just reading my mind, so it’s not that entirely enjoyable.”

-If possible, I want to show you what’s inside my head.

The masked man spoke as he tapped on his head. Maru just sighed.

“Why don’t you get on with the talk already? I’m curious as well. Just what is the identity of the person living inside me? Why does it have to be me of all people? Is it an effect of traveling to the past? Or did my personality divide like it’s some mental disease? I want to know all of it.”

-You have a lot of questions after all. Unfortunately, my story will not be an answer to your questions. It’s just the story of an uninteresting love.

The lights on the stage focused on the masked man. The man stood up from his seat. He reached out to the ceiling and started speaking in a low voice,

-She was a peculiar person.

“Do you have to lower your voice like that?”

-Just think of it as watching a musical. Isn’t this more enjoyable?

Maru didn’t speak. It wasn’t like this man would listen to him even if he told him not to. He grabbed empty air as though he was chasing something. He looked rather pitiful.

-Her profession was an actress. Not a famous one though. She belonged to a theater troupe that sold its tickets decently in Daehak-ro. The first time I met her was in a restaurant. I was a college student, and I was working in a barbecue restaurant in Daehak-ro to earn money for tuition along with a friend of mine. It was an incredibly busy restaurant known for its taste. She came to the restaurant a week after I started working there. She brought a friend of hers as well. Actually, I don’t remember the first time we met. After all, Daehak-ro is a place where many young and pretty ladies visit. Our first meeting was nothing special. I think she smiled at me and said ‘thank you for the food’ as she paid the bill, but honestly speaking, I don’t know if that was her or not.

“So it wasn’t a dramatic meeting or anything.”

-Don’t you think living like a drama is actually quite tragic? Characters in dramas always encounter trials. For example, the character might turn out to be an illegitimate child of someone well-known, a friend might be a foe, or you might be surrounded by enemies. Generally speaking, people would have tried to run away from such a situation. The only reason the main characters can face the depressing reality that seems devoid of hope is because there’s already a predetermined happy ending. Is there anything more horrific than running a marathon where you can’t see the end? If a person in reality lived like the protagonist of a drama, they might have fainted from just breathing.

“Maybe. Life is where accidents and incidents happen every single day. If you think about it, being a drama protagonist isn’t such a charming life.”

-A lady who went to the psychotherapist asked for consultation because her life was too dramatic. The doctor kept consulting her, and one day, the lady said these words: doctor, life is a series of ordinary incidents, huh. Then the doctor replied to her: congratulations, you’ve been cured.

Maru smiled faintly. Everyone sometimes dreamed of the extraordinary, but they probably did not dream of the extraordinary to become ordinary. Escaping from reality was only exciting if it was a one-off thing. If it became a part of life, it would be a pain to deal with.

-Returning to the topic at hand, I saw her about two more times while working. I remember our third meeting clearly. That was when I fell in love with her after all. The event went like this. She said to the auntie carrying side dishes: give that to me, I’ll do it. Nothing special, isn’t it? But to my eyes, she looked so beautiful.

“Doesn’t it start like that for everyone?”

-Yes, it might start like that for everyone. We aren’t characters in a drama after all. I just couldn’t work properly because of the woman who smiled so gently. Even as I cleaned the tables, I chased her with my eyes. That’s when I decided. The next time she visits this restaurant, I should try talking to her.

“You lack courage for being a man.”

-Yes, I’m a coward. But that was still as much courage as I could muster. If I didn’t fall for her, I wouldn’t have even tried talking to her.

“So, did you talk to that girl?”

The masked man shook his head.

-She never made another visit. Just like that. Ever since I made my resolution, I kept staring at the door, waiting for that woman to come in, but she didn’t. It was frustrating. Ah, I should have asked for her number at least - I regretted that as I continued working there.

“You never thought about looking for her?”

-Nope.

“You’re starting to lose credibility that you fell for her at first sight.”

-I must have been just that cowardly. I only fantasize about it in my head. Can I find her? If I find her, will that change anything? What if I get ignored? Then I just came to accept myself. Ah, it would never have come to fruition anyway.

“How pathetic.”

-Indeed. Despite that, I kept working there, looking at the entrance, wondering that maybe, that woman would open the door and visit again. A month passed like that.

The masked man shrugged.

“So you worked there for a whole month?”

-Yes.

“That’s incredible in one sense. I wouldn’t have done that. Whether it’s love or loss, it only begins once you start taking action. If you stay still in one spot, the only thing that remains is the regret of not having done anything.”

-You’re entirely right. I thought that in my head as well - I must look for her before I regret it. But it was hard to put it into action. I did have the will to do it, but I kept hesitating. I kept looking for a reason that I wasn’t able to do so, persuaded myself, and well, spent a month like that. Do I look like a stupid person now?

“You do. But I do understand you.”

-I knew you’d understand. Of course you would.

The masked man chuckled as he covered the red-painted lips on the mask.

-Her face, which I could swear I could draw on a piece of paper, became blurred after a month. Inside, I thought about numerous reasons why she and I would never be a thing and I leaned towards giving up. I felt a little depressed as well. Was I so pathetic that I can’t say a word to the woman I fell for?

“So, did that girl return to the restaurant?”

-No. We met outside; in Hyehwa station. I was walking towards the station to go home, and her face suddenly appeared when I went down the stairs. She was with a friend and was wearing a white scarf. I didn’t think about anything back then. She was laughing with her friends as though she was talking about something funny.

The man stood upright.

-I froze then and there. Maybe it was the cold wind. I was frozen stiff like an icicle beneath the roof right on her path. The distance between us kept shrinking, and eventually, she walked past me.

“Did you just send her off like that?”

-I was going to. She was with her friends, and if I had the guts to talk to her so openly in the middle of the street, I would have done so already back at the restaurant. According to my personality, it was nonsensical that I would take action in that situation. But when I came to myself, I was standing in front of her. My vision turned pure white and my head became empty. Her friends whispered among themselves and she looked at me, but I was frozen stiff, looking dazed. It was the perfect situation to be treated like a psychopath.

“So, what did you do?”

-I said my name. A self-introduction, perhaps. I fell for you, please tell me your name, I want to talk to you - I wasn’t able to say anything constructive like that, so I just said my name. Hello, I’m Masked man.

“It wouldn’t be strange if you got ignored.”

-Indeed. Even if she snorted at me and just walked by, it wouldn’t have been that surprising. But that woman told me her name just like I did. She also added that I should maybe add what business I had with her next time.

“Sounds like she’s a bold girl who’s wasted on you.”

-You’re right. She’s endlessly wasted on me.

“So, how did it turn out?”

-It seems like she liked the immature-looking side of me. After that, we met a couple of times. Our dating location was always the theater. For me, who worked near Daehak-ro but have never seen a play before, it was a fresh experience. And eventually, I had this thought. What would it feel like to stand on stage with her? Ever since I had that thought, I made the most impulsive decision in my life. I quit college and jumped into the acting life.

“That’s a little too courageous for a man who couldn’t even talk to a girl.”

-I was half crazy after all, for her, that is. Well, I guess this would be boasting, but I did pretty decently at acting. I won a minor character role in the first audition I ever took to gain some experience, and through that, I kept working as an actor. She worked in the theater area, while I worked in films.

“I see.”

-Those were good days. We rented a small semi-basement and started living together. When I returned after shoots, she would be sleeping, and I would lie down next to her and chuckle. I thought it was a dream. I wondered if I could be so happy. Back then, I won a supporting role in a commercial movie, and she was pregnant with my child. The movie did pretty decently, and she gave birth to a healthy girl. Our parents met each other with the grandchild. We were scolded a lot, but we managed to get married with the blessings of our parents. I gained a decent amount of money through commercials and dramas, so we left that basement and got an apartment. She, who left the theater troupe after getting pregnant, started working as a local acting teacher in the neighborhood. When I didn’t have work, I would watch over the child, and in the opposite case, she would look after the child. Every day was a blessing.

The masked man stopped talking. Maru could tell that he was making a warm smile. He couldn’t see the face behind that mask, but from the way he acted, as well as the atmosphere, everything was pointed towards the word ‘happiness’.

“Must have been good.”

-Yes. We couldn’t be happier.

Maru sighed softly.

“But the fact that you are in that shape means that she is no longer of the living, right? Or maybe I became crazy and created an ego who could create a story like this.”

The masked man shrugged.

-You can make a judgement after you listen to the story until the end. Though, like I said, it is nothing special.

Chapter 670

-I became a pretty well-known actor. The movie I participated in as the lead role achieved good results the year my daughter became six, and not long later, scenarios started flooding my agency. I could pick a scenario! Isn’t that amazing? I wanted to immediately start another one, but when I looked at my daughter, who kept asking me to play with her, it dawned on me that I’ve been an ignorant father. I knew I should rid the wind, but I took a year break from work thinking that that was the only time I could make memories with my daughter. I had confidence in my skills, so I wasn’t that uneasy. That year went by really fast. I took my wife and daughter anywhere they wanted. The mountains, the plains, the seas - I took them to all the well-known places in the country. I can still remember it like it was yesterday. I can’t forget about my girl’s smile.

The masked man looked at his hands before clenching them into fists.

-Everything was going smoothly. My return was just as smooth as well. I struck a deal with the scenario I liked, and I could sign a contract with a higher guarantee compared to before. I was like a ship with a smooth sail. There was nothing in my way, but just as I thought that the only remaining thing for me now was happiness, that accident assaulted me without any premonition.

“Accident?”

-It was a traffic accident. It might sound like a comedy movie if I explain, but that day, I bought some beer from the convenience store to drink with my wife, along with some strawberry milk. I said goodbye to the part timer working at the counter and left the store. Then, I got hit by a car. The bumper hit my thigh. Actually, I didn’t feel anything. My consciousness flew away at the moment of impact. The only thing I saw before I died was the beer flying into the air and the strawberry milk splashing on the ground. Like that, the masked man’s life came to an end. I found out later that it wasn’t the driver’s fault. Apparently, the car was faulty. He was trying to do a U-turn after getting in the car on the opposite of the road, but apparently, he couldn’t slow down.

“How unlucky.”

-Yes, I mean, no. Maybe I was too lucky. My life was going too well after all. I did not have a nameless period, I never failed any of my works, and above all, I had a lovely wife and an adorable daughter. Maybe I was given a trial because of that. Didn’t someone say this? The total quantity of happiness and unhappiness is equal.

“Do you know what happened to the rest of your family?”

-I can’t tell you that. As much as I wish to tell you, I feel like something very dangerous will happen the moment I say it. There is an eye that’s fiercely watching me even now. I’m just being watched and nothing else since this is an unprecedented incident, but I probably won’t be forgiven if I say something I am not allowed to say.

“That fierce eye, you must be referring to god. The god that gave me another chance at life.”

The masked man fell silent. Maru took it as an answer. He did not reply to what he could not answer. The masked man replied with silence instead. Just as he thought that maybe he could get a few more secrets out of him if he changed the form of his question,

-That’s not possible. I really can’t answer what I’m not allowed to. I could answer that last question by being silent because it didn’t cross the line. Any more is not allowed.

“Can’t you stop reading what’s in my head without my permission?”

-That is also impossible. Honestly speaking, it’s not that I’m reading your thoughts, Mr. Han Maru. It’s that if you think of something, I just naturally know about it as well.

“I’m suddenly beginning to place more weight in the idea that there’s something happening to my brain which ended up generating an alter ego. After all, it wouldn’t be strange to say that we are sharing our thoughts if it’s like that.”

-You can believe whatever you want to believe.

“What a useless answer.”

-Please be considerate of my circumstances as well. I also want to tell you everything.

“Okay, let’s leave that aside. In my memories, I do not know of a well-known actor dying such an unfortunate death.”

-I do not lie. I did indeed die like that.

“What was the year of your death?”

-2020, I think it was.

Maru breathed out slowly. If it happened in the past, he could probably find something out by searching online, but if it was a future incident, there was no way for him to judge whether what he was saying was true or not. He had memories of his previous life, but they were becoming blurry. He couldn’t even remember the faces of his close friends, so it wouldn’t be strange if he couldn’t think of the death of a celebrity he had no relationship with.

“Okay, let’s say that it’s true that you died. So, why is a dead man inside me?”

-That’s not something I can answer.

“Can you show me the face underneath that mask?”

-That is also impossible.

“Are you going to reply that it’s impossible for you to answer anything that might let me identify you?”

-That’s how it is. I do not have the right to tell you who I am. No, this isn’t about ‘rights’. It’s about survival as well. Just like how the autonomic nervous system maintains homeostasis in order to survive, I can only watch what comes out from my mouth.

“Does a dead man die again or something?”

-From my experience, the dead cannot die again, no. Only the living can die.

“Then what is it that you’re afraid of that renders you unable to talk?”

-Because I may not die, but I might get punished. Scary eyes are saying from above that if I talk, I will receive the scary punishment again. Actually, going through that again is pretty tiring.

“That means that you’ve already been through many of such punishments. Does that make you some parasitic ghost that haunts those that go back in time?”

-Parasitic, huh. I’m not exactly parasitic. I can tell you that for sure.

“You can’t tell me this. You can’t tell me that. How cheap of you, when we’re using the same body. I can’t really drag things on when you can’t answer, so I should stop here. But if you died in 2020, doesn’t that mean that you’re alive since it’s 2005 right now?”

-Yes, that’s right.

“Then what’s inside the you living in the current era?”

-Well, I wonder what’s inside.

“You look like you know. Is this something you can’t say too?”

-I think it’s okay because what’s inside my body isn’t necessarily related to you, I think?

“I just found it a little curious. Were souls something that could divide?”

-Souls?

“Yes, souls. If what’s in front of me is not an alter ego from a mental disease, there’s no other option than being a soul, are you not?”

-Do you believe in souls, Mr. Han Maru?

“I have no choice but to believe in them. I also have vague memories of visiting something like heaven. Plus, if you aren’t something spiritual in nature, how do I explain your existence?”

-I see, that’s definitely true. But do you remember that conversation from before?

“What conversation?”

-The one you had with writer Lee Hanmi. I remember that you had a hot discussion about memories and the foundation of existence itself.

“Were you listening back then too?”

-My ears are always open. Even when you are asleep, that is. Well, there’s nothing I can do other than listen, though. Anyway, you replied like this back then. You said that precious memories are stored in something that transcends the physical body - a soul, for example - so people’s feelings of love toward other people will remain regardless of the change in memories.

“I did say that.”

-Do you still believe that?

“I do. Even if my memories change, my love will not.”

-Can I ask you one more thing?

“Go ahead.”

-What made you think like that?

The masked man leaned back on his chair and waited. There weren’t any of the light gestures that he made every time he spoke. He asked in a heavy and dry tone, unlike how he was acting until now.

Why did he think like that? He thought about it. Why did he think that his love would not change? Thinking about it, it was quite strange. There was a reason for faith. His belief in spiritual things was kinda natural since he experienced time travel, but what made him believe in eternal love? Did he even have experience with such a kind of love?

Suspicion sparked within him. It was strange. He did date people a few times, but he always broke up with them in the end. These experiences were lacking for him to have such faith that his love would not change even if his memories did. Why did he start placing blind faith in the notion that his love would not change? Baseless trust was something he avoided all the time. Just what made him possess such a faith?

“Now that you ask, I can’t really answer.”

-Strange, isn’t it? You believe in unchanging love, but you don’t remember how you came to believe in it.

The masked man pulled back his left sleeve. As the sleeve pulled back, Maru saw his watch. Maru looked at that watch for a while before looking at his own left wrist. There was the same watch on his wrist as well.

-Time is ticking. Ticking endlessly, without end. It falls down like the grains of sand in your hand. You cannot grab onto it nor can you stop it. Mr. Han Maru. Did you know that time is actually walking around the same spot? The hour hand that runs past the 12 hour mark will return to the 12 hour mark. Going round and round. Time is always going round and round.

“You… who are you?”

The masked man looked at the watch again. He nodded.

-The scary eye disappeared. It looks like time’s up. You might have forgotten, but we actually met not too long ago. From then onwards, your inner time should have started flowing vigorously. This time, it was really unprecedented, so the scary eyes must have become flustered as well. No, perhaps this is also a scheme of the gods.

“Just who are you?”

-Think about it carefully. You saw my face before. From really up close too.

Maru squeezed his memories, but he couldn’t think of the man’s face. Thinking of something he has never seen before was akin to a magician pulling a rabbit out of a hat without any preparation. Technical ‘magic’ and real ‘magic’ were definitely different things.

“I never met you before.”

-You did. Your memories of it just disappeared.

“My memories disappeared?”

-Let me tell you another story. There was once a man. He was a forty-five-year-old bus driver that had a wife and daughter he loved. However, that bus driver died because some construction materials that penetrated the windscreen hit his chest. His wife and daughter cried a lot, apparently. Well, then. Whose story is this?

“A forty-five-year-old bus driver, a wife, and a daughter?”

-Did you forget, Mr. Han Maru? You should have had an irreplaceable family.

“There’s no way that’s true.”

-You said you died at thirty-seven, correct?

“Yes. I died then. I had no family.”

The masked man looked at the clock again. Three, two, one. After counting, the man raised his head again.

-When did you die again?

“Thirty…”

Maru clutched his head. It was disappearing. The scene of his death at thirty-seven was becoming faint. He was conscious of it, so he could realize that those memories disappeared. At the same time, he also had the premonition that the very fact he was conscious of it was soon going to disappear as well.

“Did I die at forty-five? And I had a wife and daughter as well?” asked Maru as though he was screaming.

-Answering that question became useless now. Time’s up after all. You said before, right? That memories are intertwined like a net and that you will be able to remember the incident and the circumstances even if a portion of it was gouged out. Let me tell you this. You have underestimated god. God has removed your memories with an omnipotent scalpel before perfectly stitching together the remaining memories with the omniscient stapler. From now on, you will have memories of dying at an even earlier age than thirty-seven.

Maru gulped. It was just as the man said. His memories whispered to him that he died at thirty-two. The masked man’s hand moved. He slowly took off his mask. The face underneath the mask was revealed.

Maru was unable to say anything. The moment he saw the man’s face that looked just like his, a memory that lay dormant in the river of forgetfulness leaped out like a salmon during spawning season. It was momentary but left a deep impression on him.

“That’s right, you were me,” Maru said as he glared at the man who had a face that looked just like his, as though he was looking at a mirror.

-This is also unprecedented. A memory that you forgot once has returned. However, it’s useless. You’ll forget it again anyway.

“Why is there another me inside me? What did you mean when you said you died in 2020?”

-You must know the answer to that already.

Maru clenched his teeth. Just as the masked man said, his head had already arrived at a conclusion.

“Time goes round and round… back to the same spot,” Maru said as he stared at the eyes of the masked man who didn’t have his mask on.

“How… many times did I die and come back to life again?”

KTLChamber's Thoughts

DUN DUN DUN, the BIG REVEAL…… is

Chapter 671

Yuna opened her eyes as her right leg flinched. She had a dream where she ran to her heart’s content until she slipped, but the place she slipped turned out to be right in front of a cliff. Was she about to grow taller[1]? She rubbed her arms, which had gotten goosebumps. There was the freaky dream, but there was also the air conditioning within the train that was pretty chilly. She sighed a little and looked next to her. Maru-seonbae was sleeping with his arms crossed.

“Seonbae, are you asleep?” she called out in a small voice.

There was no reply. The man sitting to her right seemed to be dreaming as he widened his legs while licking his lips. Yuna was pushed towards Maru a little. She was able to see her seonbae’s face - his eyelashes that protruded out of his closed eyes, clearly. Yuna looked at his face for a while. He had a cold-looking impression when he had his eyes open, but he looked much softer when he had his eyes closed. Perhaps the reason he looked so cold was because of his eyes.

Maru-seonbae, who was sleeping soundly, suddenly frowned. Was he having a bad dream? Looking at his face, she felt worried. He lowered his head even further and curled up his body. He seemed cold. If he was having a nightmare, she thought that she should wake him up. Yuna touched Maru’s shoulders. Tap, tap. She tapped his shoulder a few times, but he did not open his eyes. The sound of stale breathing came out of his mouth. Yuna lowered her head and checked his face. Fortunately, his frowning face had returned to normal. It seemed that he was cold due to the air conditioner as well.

-This stop is…

Yuna opened her bag that she placed on her lap. Although it was summer, she had brought a cardigan because she thought that it might get cold during the night. She took out her cardigan and covered Maru’s back.

“The air conditioner is too strong.”

Yuna crossed her arms and kept rubbing them. The words ‘air conditioned carriage’ on the sticker on the door opposite her looked rather mean.

* * *

Warning: Gore, Depression

-How many times, huh. Well, then. How many times indeed.

The masked man’s voice was devoid of any vitality. His cheerful hands had calmly sunk into his lap and the shoulders he jerked every time he spoke looked like they were fixed in position. He put his mask back on again.

-Talking face to face is a little uncomfortable after all, right?

“Just what are you?”

-Don’t you have the answer already? But let me introduce myself anyway, shall I? Greetings, my name is Han Maru. However, this is all meaningless. You will end up forgetting this anyway.

“I’m aware that my memories are becoming blurry. But this isn’t right. My memories aren’t fading out, they’re changing. And what are you? Why are you inside me? Does the personality split if you get another chance at life?”

-If it’s now, I can tell you about the things I am not allowed to, so let me answer your questions. First, I’ll tell you the same thing I said just now for your first question. Greetings, my name is Han Maru. As for the reason I’m inside you, I don’t really know either. That’s because I also don’t know why I remain. And lastly, it’s not that your personality was divided.

The masked man stopped and tapped on his mask before speaking with a rather prankster voice.

-Strictly speaking, you can consider me closer to the original.

“Original?”

-Yes. I’m saying that I’m closer to being the first one. I’m not saying that I am the original. Mr. Han Maru - that is, you and I - has experienced several deaths. Every time we experienced death, our memories were reset to a certain point as though we’ve gone back in time for the first time. I was like that as well. I first started off living with the memories that I’ve gone back in time before I got hit by a car. In other words, there have been several deaths before me as well.

“Did you hold a conversation like we’re doing now too?”

The masked man shook his head.

-In my case, I didn’t have an ‘inner ego’ to speak of. In fact, there was nothing. I only did acting based on experience.

“Then why are you inside me?”

-That, I don’t know either. However, I can tell you some things for sure. My memories were cut off the moment I became aware of my death. According to the sequence until now, I should have started another life with the memories of an actor in his thirties who died in a traffic accident, but without the memories of the life before it, and I would think that it’s my first time going back in time. However, something interesting happened. I was inside a Han Maru who started a new life. Of course, back then, I wasn’t in a state where I could speak or even be conscious. I was like a cockroach. A trivial being that lives in hiding inside the house known as Han Maru. I could not speak nor think properly. The only thing I could do was one thing - to view the new life of Han Maru as a third person.

Maru saw through the point of his words immediately. He asked the important question,

“How many times have you seen it? Just how many Han Marus were there that started anew?”

-Twenty-one times.

“Twenty-one?”

-Yes. You are the twenty-first. Until now, Han Maru - though it’s kinda funny to say your own name like it’s a stranger’s - anyway, I quietly watched the life of the Han Maru who began a new life. It was a curious experience. The characters in it are the same. It’s the writer who changes every time.

The masked man raised his head. His eyes were directed at the ceiling lights above.

-The first and the seventh Han Maru lived a surprisingly similar life. Oh, the thirteenth and the fifteenth was like that too. Both of them wedded the woman they loved, had a child, and died on their children’s first birthday. When they died, they were guided to begin anew. I kept watching the process without missing a single thing.

“That sounds horrific.”

-Yes, it was horrific indeed. I couldn’t even begin to imagine who or what was doing such a terrible deed with what kind of intentions.

“From the moment you started remembering the first life, you remember all of the lives of Han Maru that have died? Not missing a single one?”

The masked man said ‘yes’ in a small voice. Maru groaned. What would it feel like to watch his own life in third person? It definitely wouldn’t be a good experience.

“Do you share the sensations as well? I mean like the five senses.”

-If that was the case, I would probably have been trying hard to commit suicide even now. Interestingly, I became a totally separate third person and watched my death. It was like watching a movie. A life began, ended, and then began anew. In that process, the twenty-plus Han Marus lived without even suspecting the fact that it was their first revival.

“In terms of time, then…”

-It should be meaningless, but I’ve lived here for at least 300 years. Among them were Han Marus who lived until forty-four. But all Han Marus did not live past forty-five. Forty-five, I also tried hypothesizing the meaning behind this number and…

“The first Han Maru that died probably died at forty-five. Considering that none after that could break that barrier.”

-I thought of something similar. You are Han Maru after all, huh, as I am.

The masked man smiled bitterly.

“Can you tell me about those that died before?”

-If it’s now, it’s not too hard. Hm, the ninth should be interesting. The ninth Han Maru died of overexhaustion. Work stress, frequent overtime work drove him to have a heart attack. He fell on his desk and died just like that. He was found the next day by another employee. The tenth Han Maru, who remembered that life, abandons the route of being a salaryman and turns his eyes to self-employment. He worked as a blue-collar to save up money and opened his own store. He seemed to do well after marrying the woman he loved until his store went out of business. He became homeless and worked unstable, daily jobs until he eventually died at Seoul station. The last thing he did was to send his wife money. What he saw as he died were other homeless people looking at him from a corner as though he was a nuisance. Like that, the eleventh life begins. The eleventh Han Maru. In the memories of the eleventh Han Maru, the memories of the death of the ninth Han Maru do not exist. The only thing the eleventh Han Maru remembers is the tragic death of the tenth life as well as the self-employment that led to it. What do you think he did then? He studied hard, went to college, and got employed by a super company. He gets married to the girl he loves, has a child, and strives towards the middle point of his life until he dies due to a traffic accident. He was driving slowly in the 2nd lane, but a drunk truck driver crashed into him from all the way on the other side of the road. His torso breaks right through the windscreen, kisses the front of the truck killing him instantly. During the twelfth life, the new Han Maru does not choose to be a salaryman and walks the path of an actor through a background actor part time job he chanced upon.

“But he must have died eventually as well, huh.”

-Yes. He dies two months after he gets married. The reason for his death? He slipped[2].

“The cause of the death is not consistent.”

-There is a lot, but most of the time, it’s traffic accidents. The second most frequent is illness.

Maru breathed out faintly. He felt like something important that made up his body was slipping away along with his breath. He wanted to believe that the masked man was lying. He wanted to believe that this entire situation was an illusion created by his brain. It would have been much easier if it wasn’t true. He really had the urge to deny everything, but his head, his heart, and a mysterious something that transcended the judgemental powers of his brain, all whispered to him that the masked man’s words were nothing but the truth. Prediction, premonition, hypothesis, intuition - everything indicated that this situation was indeed true.

A life that was repeated twenty one times, or even more. A life that was moving around like a hamster wheel was no different from punishment. Maru wanted to know why such a thing happened to him.

-Oh, no. Time’s up. It’s time to part.

“Wait! I still have more to ask!”

Maru saw cracks appearing on the stage around him. Light seeped in through the cracks. The dark stage became brighter.

-Don’t worry too much. If you don’t know it, there will be no pain either. Once you leave this place, you will forget everything. Everything down to the fact that your life has been repeating. You’re returning to the lucky child who received another chance at life. Nothing changes for you.

“Just because I’m not aware of it doesn’t mean that the terrible thing disappears!”

-Yes, that is true, too. I’m experiencing that very thing myself. But what can I do? I don’t know how this all started nor how to end all this.

“Was it because of the desire to live again? If that’s the case, why is it me who got this opportunity? Before that!” Maru shouted as he resisted the force that pulled him back.

“Who is that woman that guided me? What’s up with the woman who told me that I was given the opportunity to live again? Is she god? Is she the god that planned out this goddamned life?”

At that moment, a white rabbit jumped in through one of the cracks. Maru looked into the rabbit’s eyes. All the sadness of the world was contained in its eyes. The rabbit hopped onto the masked man’s shoulder. The masked man slowly took off his mask. He was faintly smiling.

-Looks like time will tick faster. Thanks to that, I think I can tell you a few more things. First up, I actually know the reason why all of this started. This little rabbit, she told me everything. However, just because I know, it doesn’t change much.

She - the masked man pointed at the rabbit on his shoulder.

-Second. I said this the last time we met, but don’t hate her too much. She should have spent even more despairing times than you and I did.

“She? Who’s she!”

-The woman you’ll love forever.

“Hey! Han Maru!”

Maru was pulled back. His feet were lifted into the air and his body started heading towards the ceiling. Amidst the collapsing stage, the masked man was waving his hand. The rabbit on his shoulder was gone.

-It will be our first meeting again the next time we meet, right? It was nice knowing you, Mr. Han Maru. The twenty-first you was very special.

At the same time the masked man said those words, the world split apart.

* * *

Having opened his eyes, Maru placed his hand on his shoulder. He touched an unfamiliar cardigan. When he looked next to him, he saw Yuna dozing off. There was no way a stranger put this on him, so this cardigan should belong to Yuna.

He was smiling due to her kindness when he felt an aching sensation around his heart. The chest pain wasn’t that serious, so he became okay after taking a deep breath once. The images he saw in the dream came to his mind along with that pain, but he couldn’t understand the meaning of any of it. He tried his best to connect the fragmented memories together, but they were blown away the moment he heard an announcement.

“That’s what happens with dreams, I guess.”

Maru crossed his arms while yawning.

[1] There’s a myth in Korea that dreaming about falling off will make you grow taller.

[2] Korea classifies a lot of things as ‘slipping to death’. You might have fallen off a high place. You might have slipped and fell into a body of water and drowned, or simply slipped and hit your head on a bad place. All of these are classified as ‘slipping to death’. The specific reason for the twelfth Maru’s death is not mentioned.

Chapter 672

The 27th. The heat of August seemed to be cooling down a little. It had been raining since early morning, the wind was pretty cool, and since heat came early, Maru wondered if it was going away just as fast, but he soon realized that it was nothing but a delusion.

-The motto of our school is to try hard. I hope you spent your summer holidays with the faith of…

After they spent twenty minutes just lining up properly, the sweat that formed on his forehead started falling down. The rays of the sun hit them at a right angle, scorching their heads. Maru tried touching his hair a little, and it seemed like he could fry some eggs on it with ease.

-As I have emphasized, the safety of playing around water and…

The voice of the principal, which was broadcasted out the front speakers of the school, still was full of energy. Maru predicted that it wouldn't end for at least ten more minutes. The principal, who couldn’t stand on the dais platform all summer, seemed to have taken a liking to the microphone he hadn’t grabbed in a while. Maru couldn’t see because he was too far away, but he felt like he could see the principal smile. He decided to believe that the one who just chuckled with a ‘pfft’ was not the principal. Whether it was due to humane reasons, morals, or common sense, he shouldn’t do that.

“Is anyone willing to fall over? I think it’ll only end if someone collapses.”

Someone from the front spoke. Maru nodded energetically. Any traces of the rain during the early morning had disappeared. The black dots on the floor were from the sweat of the students. The teachers lined up underneath the dais also looked stiffer and stiffer as time went on. You have it good, teachers, at least you get to stand in the shade - Maru thought.

Maru wiped his sweat with the back of his hand. Sometimes, he thought that schools were even more absurd than the military. Even the military made its soldiers refrain from outside activity when the sun was scorching, but this principal did not seem to have any intentions of doing that. 20 minutes lining up, 10 minutes waiting, and 10 minutes of speech. It had already been 40 minutes since they came out here, but the principal probably didn’t even consider the 30 minutes that they had been waiting before he came out. Maru looked next to him. He saw Dojin, Dowook, and Daemyung, who belonged to the next class over. All three of them were glaring at the principal with killing intent. Even Daemyung, who always looked at other people with gentle eyes, was fiercely staring at him. The heat was enough to make any man a psychopath.

-Your principal appreciates the fact that you have returned to the school safely and…

Maru had the thought that the same students who returned to the school safely might meet their demise right here. He tried wracking his brain. What did he need in order to escape this terrible trap of words? The answer was simple. It already came out from the front. Someone had to take the brunt and collapse.

Maru scratched his eyebrows. That was when he met eyes with his three friends in the next class. They exchanged short gestures and eye signals. Dojin crossed his neck with his thumb, Dowook laughed fishily, and Daemyung nodded heavily as though he was some revolutionary preparing for a grand scheme. Maru understood the grand scheme immediately and expressed his will to participate.

“Uh?”

Someone groaned. Dojin became the fuse. He suddenly collapsed on the ground before leaning back slowly. Dowook supported him and made some noise. He didn’t shout out loud. It was a restrained shock. He didn’t show up to acting practice a lot because of his work at the petrol station, but his acting skills had not rusted. Maru raised his thumb as he looked at them. If there was a high school acting competition, that guy would probably win the male actor award.

“Dojin!”

Maru shouted in a moderate voice. He provoked the vigilance within people as he approached Dojin, and the lines they painstakingly stood in became twisted. The students murmured as they looked at the fallen Dojin. Some people sat down as well due to this opportunity. This looked like the textbook definition of ‘all for one’.

Maru approached Dojin, who was lying down obediently. Dojin winked at him before closing his eyes again. The teachers waiting beneath the dais and the back quickly ran over. Piiiiii - noise could be heard over the microphone, and the principal’s speech stopped.

* * *

“Our hero is here!” Maru said as he waved his hand.

Dojin, who was sitting down with the food tray, started chuckling.

“What did the nurse say?”

“I just found a way out. We can’t have anything serious happening, right? I just said I fell over because I felt dizzy, so the nurse said I should drink some water and lie down. Thanks to that, I was able to spend first period with air conditioning. But how was I? Did I not look awkward when I fell over?”

“The year of acting practice shone through. It was perfect.”

“I also had the feeling when I fell down. That this was gonna be perfect.”

When Dojin clicked his finger and laughed, Maru saw the girl who approached him from behind. It was Iseul who was looking down on the back of Dojin’s head with a serious expression.

“Hey.”

Maru gave him a signal. Dojin’s eyes became round and he turned around.

“You deserve a beating.”

Iseul’s hand hit Dojin’s back. Dojin struggled and tried to use his hands to protect his back, but Iseul’s hand fiercely aimed for the vacant spots. Only after ‘I’m sorry’ came out of Dojin’s mouth about ten times did Iseul sigh and sit down next to him.

“I heard that someone collapsed so I peeked over and I saw this guy. All sorts of things crossed my mind. Did he help out at the restaurant too much throughout the summer and it took a toll on him? He said that he had a stomach ache yesterday, so did that become a problem? But then I found out that… what? Pretending to be sick? It was so absurd. Considering how surprised I was, you deserve to get hit even more.”

Iseul glared at him. As Iseul was quite pretty, she didn’t look scary even if she fiercely glared at someone, but it showed that she was truly worried. Dojin kept apologizing to Iseul with an uneasy face.

“Thanks to him, we got to rest. Isn’t that good?” Dowook said as he put down his food tray.

Daemyung was next to him. Iseul glared at Dowook, but it wouldn’t be Dowook if he backed off from that. In fact, he snorted and kept eating.

“Park Daemyung. You of all people should have stopped them.”

“I know, sorry. It looks like I was out of it because of the heat,” Daemyung made an excuse.

Iseul did not drag things on with Daemyung either. Her arrows were pointed at Dowook, yet Dowook just picked his ears as he moved his spoon.

“Han Maru, you let them be because you didn’t know, right?”

Maru, who was eating some tofu, shook his head.

“You knew?”

“I did.”

“Then why didn’t you stop them? What were you going to do if the teachers found out?”

“Things like this are okay once in a while, right? It’s impulsive and thrilling.”

“What?”

Iseul looked at him with a shocked expression. Everyone else did the same.

“Why are you saying something that Dojin might say?” Dowook asked as he scanned Maru from top to bottom.

Maru pressed Dowook’s cheek with his finger to turn his head away.

“Well, I guess it was strange that everything clicked together. You’re the type to hold everyone back. As for Daemyung, he’s the type to go with the flow if we shake him up a little,” Dojin said.

“The weather was way too hot. I felt like falling over if I stayed any longer, so since you were doing it, I even felt grateful.”

“It feels strange when you say stuff like that.”

Maru shrugged at Iseul.

“I can’t interfere with my friends when they are saying that they are going to do things together. Also, the risk of being found out was small. The weather was hot enough that it wouldn’t be strange if someone fell over, and the principal’s speech was no different from torture. If Dojin didn’t act like he collapsed, maybe we would’ve seen a real heatstroke patient. Iseul, there are quite a few girls in your class, right? Some of them should have said that they felt dizzy, you know?”

“That’s true, but it was still too reckless.”

“When else would I do something as reckless as this?”

“Did something happen to you over the summer? Or did I miss out on practice too much? Daemyung, was he always like this?”

Everyone’s focus was directed to Daemyung, Daemyung, who was putting laver on his rice, thought a little before speaking,

“Maru did change a little. He treats his juniors well and teaches them acting in his spare time. I think he’s no longer the guy who drew the line and will not interfere with anything. He jokes and smiles a lot now.”

“Han Maru, you became human now, eh? You were such an outsider in your first year.”

Maru looked at Iseul, who patted his head as though she was proud of his growth, before speaking,

“Maybe I finally feel like I understand high school students? These days, I feel a lot younger.”

“Now of all times? We talked about this amongst ourselves, but you did seem like an old dude.”

“Dojin, Daemyung. That’s how you saw me all this time?”

Dojin and Daemyung nodded without the slightest bit of hesitation. Maru made a bitter smile. He might be mature on the inside, but he looked like a completely normal high school student on the outside, and yet they still thought he was an old dude. He would much like the expression ‘mature’ or ‘composed’ instead. Or maybe even ‘kkondae’[1] instead. Kkondae felt like it was the essence of survival in society, so it didn’t make him feel bad to be described as one.

“That’s unfortunate. I took care of you guys so much too.”

“I know. I do know that, but during the beginning of first year, you definitely had a stiff side to you. You didn’t have a good relationship with the seniors either. When I found out that you sacrificed yourself for the acting club, I honestly felt really disappointed. You never talk about your own worries yet you care about the ones around you. That’s not what being friends is about, is it?”

Dojin drank some water after saying those words. Maru faintly smiled.

“In that sense, I really like your attitude recently. You moderately play around and joke around. Before you were like - how should I put it? - distant? I felt something like that, but you don’t feel like that these days. Though, you’re still hella smart.”

“That’s strange. I’ve been treating you all with my whole heart since the beginning.”

Dowook said ‘bullshit’ in a small voice next to him. Everyone chuckled. Maru looked at them composedly. Everyone had their circumstances, but they had smiles that were truthful. He felt relieved when he thought that he had contributed to those smiles. Distant, huh. Looking back, he felt like he was rushing ahead too much. It would’ve been fine to look around him from time to time and get some more breathing room. When he thought about it now, he only wondered why he was so hung up on success. What good would it be if his life after succeeding was lonely? Matching his steps with his friends, who were sharing his time, was probably just as important as success.

For a brief moment, he was reminded of a railroad that went straight towards success. For a strange reason, what lied at the end was not success but something else. Something more important than success, and something that was founded on success seemed to lie at the end of the rail, but even if he focused, nothing specific came to mind.

“What are you thinking about?” Iseul asked.

Maru talked about what he just thought in his mind,

“It just suddenly came to mind, but why do we need to be successful?”

“Is there a reason to need to be successful? It’s better than failing. If you fail, your life will be doomed,” Dowook said in a grumbling tone.

Daemyung replied that it was because success felt good.

“Like what Doowok said, don’t you think it’s because success is better than failure? If you ask me precisely why people need to be successful, I think it’ll be hard to answer.”

That was Iseul’s reply. Just as everyone was coming to similar conclusions, Dojin spoke as he grabbed the yoghurt that came out as dessert,

“Only if I become successful would I not make the woman I love suffer.”

Iseul asked if that woman was her with an evil grin on her face, but Dojin refrained from answering. Maru looked at the two quarreling. They were a couple that did not show any signs of breaking up. For a brief moment, he felt dizzy as though he woke up with a hangover. Maru drank some water. Amidst the fading pain, blurry figures could be seen. A young woman and a little girl were waving at him as they looked at him.

“Hey, do you feel sick?” Dowook asked as he grabbed his shoulder.

Maru smiled and shook his head.

“Looks like I basked in the sun too much in the morning.”

“Just eat your stuff and sleep. That’s the best cure.”

“Couldn’t find a better answer.”

Maru put the last spoon of rice in his mouth.

[1] Wikipedia for details

Chapter 673

“I don’t see you in the drama these days. Did you get fired?” A classmate sitting next to him asked.

They had switched seats ever since the second semester started, and Maru got someone he had never talked to as his neighbor.

“I guess my appearances did decrease. I wasn’t fired. You know how the story is all about the love relationships of the main characters, right? Just that takes up all the time.”

“That sounds unfortunate.”

“I guess, I do get paid by the episode.”

“You don’t get a contract fee or something? Like in the tens of millions.”

“Those that sign a contract are the amazing people. In my case, I’m similar to a part timer. I get paid according to how many times I show up on TV.”

“Is your face all that needs to appear? Then do you still get paid if you don’t shoot but still show up in the episode?”

“If I don’t participate in the shoot, but my face shows up through someone’s memories or through a photo, I do get paid, though, not as much as shooting a full episode.”

“That sounds good, but it’d be better to get proper treatment by raising your value, right?”

“Obviously.”

His classmate nodded. Maru remembered this guy as one of the quiet kids in class, but it seemed that he was no different from a chatterbox. Did he not know because they weren’t close?

“Uhm, can I ask, is it hard to become an actor?”

For the first time, his classmate asked after a bit of hesitation. He looked rather embarrassed.

“Why? You wanna become a celebrity too?”

“No! I hate standing in front of people. I don’t have the confidence either.”

Wait - his classmate added before taking out his phone and showing him a photo. There was a girl who looked to be in elementary school. His classmate was in the photo as well, and the girl was smiling brightly while grabbing onto his pants.

“Who?”

“My sister.”

“You two look like you are far apart in age.”

“She’s ten. She’s a late child. She’s really energetic, and she always sings and stuff whenever our whole family has a meeting, right? She doesn’t do that well, but my relatives always tell her that she should be a singer since she sings without getting embarrassed, and it looks like she took it seriously.”

“10? Isn’t she only in her 2nd year of elementary school then?”

“Yep.”

“I don’t think you should take it so seriously then. I mean, we were like that when we were young. You’d dream of becoming the president, a scientist, or a fireman. We just said whatever looks cool. Maybe kids these days find idols and celebrities cool, so that’s why they’re saying that it’s their dream?”

“I think so too, but the problem is mom. The mother and daughter duo have set their minds on it. Mom’s fanning the flames every single day, so my sister’s always talking about how she’ll become a celebrity.”

Maru could draw the whole picture now. To a parent’s eyes, babies doing cute things might look like talent to them. They would wonder if their child might have talent in music just by seeing their child blow into the recorder, or they might think that their child had talent in soccer when they just kicked a ball around. Even a hedgehog would find their offspring pretty, so how proud would a parent be if their child did a little better in some field than other children? As the parents would have seen the downsides of the competitive society every single day from the news, it was natural for them to worry about the future of their children. As a parent, any talent that might guarantee their children’s future, on top of studying, would look like a tasty fruit. With minds like that, they would think their child was a superstar even if their child just acted a little cute in front of relatives.

Just then, Maru realized that he deeply sympathized with parents. As though he had first-hand experience, that is. Did something he read from a novel overlap? Maru stopped thinking about it and looked at his classmate for now.

“From the way you sound, you’re opposed to it, huh.”

“Honestly, I am neither for nor against the idea. But I am a little worried. My mom is - well, how should I put it - a little reckless at times. That’s why my dad is in charge of the accounting at our house.”

“You know stuff like that too?”

“Our family is a little close. Anyway, my mom keeps asking my sister if she wants to become a celebrity, and my sister says she wants to do it, so she’s looking into entertainment agencies, child acting schools, and stuff like that, so I’m a little worried about her.”

“Talent is something you need to polish to be sure of, so I don’t think it’s a bad idea to try it out once. From how you’re talking about acting schools, it sounds like you’re pretty well-off.”

“I guess we are. From the way mom’s putting so much hope in my sister though, I’m reminded of when I was young, so it does make me feel a little off.”

His classmate stroked up his hair. It seemed that he was feeling complicated.

“Actually, my mom dragged me around to places when I was young, saying that I had talent in playing the piano.”

Hearing the word ‘piano’, Maru had a look at his hands. He had short and blunt fingers, like a typical boy of his age. It seemed far-fetched from the stereotypical image of a pianist’s hands, which were thin and long.

“Having short fingers doesn’t affect playing piano that much. Of course, the ones with long fingers do play better.”

“You seemed to have learned quite a lot, huh?”

“When I was young, yeah. I spent more time playing piano than playing around with friends. That gives you a rough estimate, right?”

“You were quite studious. Do you still play now?”

“As a hobby. The grand piano we bought when I was young is still at the house.”

“Oh, a grand piano…”

It seemed that he wasn’t ‘pretty well-off’ but ‘very well-off’. He could understand his classmate’s mother’s feelings. If the household was financially well-off, it would allow them to do more things than just study. After all, learning something couldn’t escape the bounds of time and money. Maru looked at his friend, who was smiling awkwardly. If he was tied to the piano his whole youth because of his parents saying that he had talent in the piano, it would be natural for him to worry about his sister.

“What a good brother.”

“Huh?”

“Nothing, just talking to myself. So the conclusion is, you want to help your sister not take the same path as you?”

“If it’s possible, I want to make my mom think about it more deeply. Right now, my sister is excited and saying that she’s going to do her best, but if she ever starts thinking that it isn’t right for her, she would want to stop. But it would be too late by then. My mom will tell her to try just a little more after all. My sister might be quite hot-headed, but she actually has a lot of patience. One time, she fell off a slide midway, which made her knees bleed, but she came home by herself without crying and washed it. She said that mom would worry if she cried. That’s the kind of girl she is, so I think she’ll endure even if she doesn’t want to do it. I don’t want to see that.”

“If it’s like that, you should first talk to your mother about it. Like about how you heard from a friend of yours that being a celebrity is no easy task and that preparing from an early age does not guarantee that she would blossom and stuff like that.”

“Would mom hesitate after just that? I think she will start looking for institutes starting tomorrow.”

“Then let her be for now. Perhaps your sister might really have the talent. You said she will look for institutes, right? Then try persuading her to send your sister to Film Academy in Gangnam. That place doesn’t have any college test classes since it specializes in nurturing professional actors.”

“Film Academy? Is that place good?”

“It is good, but it doesn’t accept just anyone. If you’re going to register here, you need to have her take the test. Also, there are numerous people going there to take the tests.”

“There’s a test to register for an academy?”

“Their intention is to filter their entrants for the pride of their name. You’ll see when you get there. Once you go there, you’ll see photos of current professional actors in the lounge. If you do go there, you’ll probably see what you can do for your sister. Also, she probably won’t pass in one go. Most of the time, people train for it before going there.”

“If she’s going to fail anyway, doesn’t that have nothing to do with talent?”

“She needs to slip up once. Only people who cling to their dreams even after hearing that they have no talent will make their talent blossom. Talent isn’t like an ATM where you can pull things out at will. In the end, you have to polish it through effort and hard work. Once you start doing that, you’ll eventually start to see the limits of your talent. Only then can you discern whether you have the talent or not. The important thing here is that she needs to do all that willingly. Being pushed to do it by someone else is meaningless. After all, even if she has the talent, it would be the same as not having it if she doesn’t have any intentions of using it.”

After listening, his classmate nodded.

“I feel much better after talking to you about it. You’re right. It’s not the talent that’s important but her will to do it. Maybe I would have played the piano more seriously if my mom didn’t bother me so much about it.”

His classmate looked down at his hands. He looked like he was thinking of something old.

“Uhm, Maru.”

“Yeah?”

“Can I ask you questions next time as well?”

Maru replied ‘anytime’ to his friend, who seemed quite cautious. Maru told his friend to give him his phone.

“You don’t know my number, do you?”

“Huh? I don’t.”

“I’ll type it in for you, so call me or text me once something comes up. I’m no one great and I can’t tell you much, but I’ll tell you the things I know.”

“Really? Thank you so much.”

“If you’re so grateful, treat me to a meal. Meat should be good.”

“Okay. I’ll definitely treat you next time.”

His friend smiled and controlled his phone. Soon, Maru got a text. Thank you - it said.

“I did so good talking to you about it. Actually, it was kinda hard to talk to you.”

“To me? Why?”

“Uhm, you look a little cold. I also wondered if it’s okay to ask questions like this. I mean, you’re an actor after all.”

“You’re needlessly worried about it. We’re in the same class.”

Maru chuckled and looked at the clock. There were about 10 minutes until the next class.

“I’m going to sleep. Wake me up when the teacher comes.”

“Oh, go on. I’ll wake you up as soon as the teacher comes,” his friend made a big deal as he said that.

Maru fell on the desk and closed his eyes. Just as his mind was becoming hazy due to the sleepiness, his vision suddenly brightened up before darkening again, unfurling a completely different scene in front of him. It was the stage he had gotten used to seeing now. The owner of the stage was sitting on the chair today as well.

“These days, I can come here just like that, huh.”

-True. Perhaps it’s because the firmly locked door has opened up a little?

“You’re going on about that door again.”

Maru looked at the masked man. Ever since the summer holidays began, he had been able to talk naturally with this man. If he wanted, he could move his consciousness to this place. The stage, which was sunken in darkness, had the effect of calming the mind, so Maru visited this place pretty often.

-You are giving your friend consultation about his worries, giving him directions, and you even told him your number. Your social skills are splendid.

“Normal people do this much.”

-Really? Someone I know was the king of drawing the line between himself and other people until just a few years ago. He also didn’t interfere with other people’s matters that much.

“There you go again. That’s because when I just came back to life, I couldn’t make out the things around me, so I was really scared. If I think about it now, it feels rather weird. What was I so scared of that stopped me from taking challenges and made me look for safe routes? If I don’t taste failure at this age, when will I?”

-So you’re trying your hand at everything?

“No, that’s not it. I do have to seek things that are beneficial for me. It’s just that I am thinking that I should look around myself a little more. They’re all good people after all.”

-Aren’t people fundamentally evil?

“They might be, but don’t you think they’re generally good? At least the people I came across were like that. Even in my previous life, that is.”

-Previous life. What a magical word. I asked you last time, and you said you died as a salaryman, correct?

“Yes. That was when I was trying my hardest. I, with a couple of colleagues, was doing my best to get promoted. Back then, some lacking kid came under my wing, and I gave him a bad memory. I made him witness a corpse.”

-You said that the new member was the son of an associate company, right?

“Yes. He did use his connections to join.”

-It’s a little funny to think about this after you died, but it would’ve been pretty bad if that person decided to betray you. He had the connections while you didn’t after all.

“He was my direct junior. He was a little picky, but he’s not the type of person to betray people.”

-You never know, he might have embezzled some funds.

“Why do you talk so bad about him? Do you have a bad memory related to that or something?”

-No, it’s nothing.

“That was bland.”

-I guess I am a little bland.

Maru looked at the masked man who just laughed.

Chapter 674

-Following last time, why don’t you tell me your story, Mr. Han Maru? Hearing your story is my only solace here.

“Your life is quite pitiful, having to spend your time in here. But do you really not plan to tell me who you are? I’d be grateful if you could tell me your name at least.”

-Just know me as a pretty well-known actor who’s going to die in the future.

“How cheap. It’d be good if you tell me something. Why don’t you try being in my shoes? If someone suddenly shows up at your house asking to live together, don’t you think it’s the right of the owner to know something about that person? I could only sleep soundly if I at least know if that guy is a thief or not.”

-I don’t have a knife nor do I have any intentions of stealing something. In the first place, I can’t leave this place, so it’s not like I can do anything. Also didn’t I tell you last time? It’s a secret I cannot tell. Please be understanding.

“If you ever become able to say it, then tell me everything about it. I’ll be understanding even if you turn out to be some evil ghost that has resentment towards me.”

-I’m not that, so don’t worry about it. I may look like this, but I was a very kind person. I abided by the rules and the law.

The masked man was extremely reluctant to talk about himself. Was he going to die if he said something? He didn’t have a physical body, so would ‘disappearing’ be a more correct term than death? Maru stared at the masked man before loosening his eyes.

“I don’t think you’re lying, so I guess I have no choice but to fall for your tricks.”

-Thank you every time.

“I’ll ask this just in case, but can I help you with passing on? Maybe you’d be able to rest if I go to the cathedral, church, or the temple.”

-I don’t think it’s a problem that can be solved like that. Rather than that, tell me about yourself. Once you wake up, I’ll have to be by myself for a while.

“You get really lonesome, huh.”

-Anyone would long for the warmth of people if they’re left alone here.

A teardrop appeared on the masked man’s clown mask. He was a refreshing man who did not lose his humor even as he talked about his solitude. Maru had talked to this mysterious man for a long time. Before the new semester started, he had spent the whole week talking to this man every night. They talked about a lot of topics, but most of the time it was related to acting. If he went to the man with a drama or a movie he watched in order to learn from it, he would discuss it with the masked man and broaden his vision, which helped him out quite a lot. According to Maru’s thoughts, the masked man was likely to be a child actor who’s pretty popular even now. He had the destiny of dying an unfortunate death due to a traffic accident and leaving behind his wife and daughter, but the masked man enjoyed the present without grieving. From how he did not warn the current him even while knowing that he’s going to die, it seemed that an existence that transcends human willpower was binding his actions.

“Don’t you wanna live? If you give me hints, I’ll warn him for you. If he’s in his 30s in 2020, he’ll be similar in age to me. I’ll probably be treated like a psychopath if I walk up to him and say that half of his soul is inside me, but don’t you think he’ll watch out for traffic accidents regardless as a result of saying that? Or maybe, if I tell him that he dies in 2020 and even tell him the location of the convenience store, don’t you think he’ll avoid that place even if he’s not conscious of it?”

-Thank you for being so considerate. But I can’t do it. The only thing I can do is to watch, whether it is my death or another person’s death.

“What a stuck-up man. Both you and the god preventing you from speaking.”

-You tell me.

Maru leaned back against the chair. It was a stiff wooden chair, but when the masked man snapped his fingers, it changed into a soft sofa. He spoke as he felt the comfort against his back.

“Where were we again?”

-You were talking about how you failed to find a job after graduating.

“But this isn’t really fair, is it? You can’t tell me a single thing about yourself, yet here I am, revealing everything about me. Pay me back with acting later.”

-Yes. I’ll help if possible.

“I feel like I’m being scammed.”

The masked man tilted his head. He was wearing a mask, but Maru felt like he could see his expression. A scam? No way - he seemed to be saying.

“Let’s see. I was a road manager. Those were hard days. I felt like I did all the driving in my life back then. Moreover, I was up against a wall mentally too. I told you about it, didn’t I? That I started the road manager job thanks to a senior’s introduction after failing to get a job many times. You know? After failing so many times, people’s self-confidence falls to rock bottom. When I just graduated, the news was talking about how youth employment rates were at an all-time low, but all the people around me got jobs. So I thought I’d naturally join their ranks. I was quite nervous when I drank beer with some of my college friends. I thought that when I actually got a job, I’d say that getting a job was nothing much and that doing the job was much harder. But the reality was that I couldn’t even step past that barrier. Whenever I was texted by my friends who got jobs, my annoyance hit the skies. You won’t know how many self-introductions I wrote, how many copies of resumes I had to send, and how many interviews I took. I was regretting it, thinking that maybe I shouldn’t have graduated and should have taken those interviews as a student instead. The offer of work that came to me at such a time was like a savior to me.”

Maru thought about what happened back then and sighed. It was still an unnerving experience even now. The mental pressure of a person who did not reach the ‘average’ was similar to balancing on the edge of a cliff.

“I couldn’t say no, so I took them up on the offer immediately. What I needed was stamina, driving skills, as well as a waist that could fold 90 degrees. Actually, when I was told that I was going to be a road manager, I actually kinda looked forward to it. I thought that it was an opportunity to see famous celebrities from up close. Unfortunately, it turned out driving famous celebrities isn’t something that anyone did. Their value is so high that there’s no way they’d let a newbie like me drive them to places. Above all, the company I worked for did not have any famous celebrities in their ranks. That was around the time when the idol market was just becoming hot. Right now, TTO has full control over the boy’s side and TheGirl has full control over the girl’s side, but when I was in my late twenties, the market was much bigger than that. The more well-off groups went to Japan or China, and the latecomers tried to fill in the gap they left. The kids that I drove in the van were like that as well. They got on the cramped van and went to lesser-known festivals to sing and dance. Meanwhile, I had to drive them day and night.”

-You must have been to many places then, right?

“There’s not a province I haven’t been to in this country. I would sleep in the van as I waited for the kids, and when they came back I would then take them to the next location. After repeating that a couple of times, I would return to the company and get some sleep before the alarm rings again. Then it’s the same thing over again. This time with another group. The agency nurtured so many idol groups without caring. If I think about it now, there were a lot of reckless people. They didn’t even look into the financial state of the company and just signed the contracts. The idol world was already saturated yet the promise of hitting a jackpot if they became famous did not change.”

-That’s because people are easier to manipulate if their dreams are held hostage.

“That’s how it is. After working in that company for a bit, I switched to another company. The team leader that worked there left the company and set up another agency, and I switched on the condition that I would get a pay raise if I went there. He was a guy who looked after me quite a lot, so I thought that it wouldn’t be bad to work with that person. That team leader started his management company with the actors he knew. I just did what I did before. I took actors to their shooting locations on schedule in the van. I had a lot more free time than when I was driving idols. I saw a lot of actors I could only see on TVs back then too. Unless the actor was very picky, I was quite free when I arrived at the shooting location. Other than the fact that I couldn’t leave the premises, I didn’t have a lot of restraints. Of course, that differed according to the shooting locations. If the director was not so nice, I had to wait with the staff all the time. Those people were the type to have the managers do work if they lacked manpower.”

-It is not easy to support other people.

“Oh, you were a pretty well-known actor yourself, weren’t you? How was your relationship with your manager?”

-A friend of mine worked with me for five years, and I paid for his honeymoon. He was a grateful friend. He worked without complaints, and he was someone who knew how to plan his future.

“That must have been a nice person. I was gonna boast about how I got a new phone on my birthday, but I guess that’s nothing compared to a honeymoon.”

-I told you, didn’t I? I was a pretty famous actor.

“Alright, alright. Anyway, when I spent time busily like that, I suddenly had this thought. How much longer can I do this job? I had no confidence in making connections since it wasn’t like I was social like the team leader, so it wasn’t like there was a future in being a road manager for me. That was when I started preparing to join another company. I also wanted to try working at a desk.”

The masked man nodded before asking,

-Wasn’t there any woman who gave you a deep impression?

“A woman? You mean an actress? Don’t even joke about it. The only thing I learned while driving was that actors lived in a different world. I did feel quite excited when I saw pretty people. After all, they’re pretty. But that is all. It’s not like I’ll ever get involved with them, so I never placed any feelings on them. It was just like looking at dolls.”

-Even if it wasn’t a famous actress, you were at an age where you should be looking for love. There must be someone who caught your eyes.

“You know? You’re actually quite adamant about talking about women. From how you asked me if there was any girl I liked a few days ago, I think you want me to talk about the lewd stuff, don’t you?”

-Lewd stuff is good, but I want to hear stories about pure love more.

“Pure love, huh. Let’s see. Now that I think about it, I think there was a woman who I was really attracted to.”

-When was that?

“It was when I had to fill in for someone in the early morning, I think? I drove a pretty peculiar woman.”

-What was she like?

“I don’t know.”

Maru focused, but while he could remember the weather, the scenery, and the sound of that day, the appearance of the woman sitting next to him was foggy. After probing around his memories, Maru shrugged and stopped thinking about it.

“I can’t remember. From how I feel rather fluffy about it, I think something happened. Well, the fact that I can’t remember it immediately probably means that it’s nothing much.”

-Why don’t you try focusing a little more? She might have been a very beautiful woman.

“Forget it. I can tell that these kinds of memories will forever be vague. It won’t work even if I try to remember it more clearly. It’s like seeing lottery numbers in a dream. It’s clear when you’re inside the dream, but once you wake up, it’ll be all gone.”

The masked man said ‘I see’ in a composed voice.

“You seem disappointed. Is it because you didn’t get to hear a story about a pretty woman?”

-Yes, I am very disappointed.

“You womanizer. I died single, so there’s nothing special about my love story either. Don’t expect anything.”

Just then, Maru felt a hand grab his shoulder and shake him. Maru gave the masked man a signal before taking a deep breath. The sensation of his body became vivid again before he opened his eyes. He saw the teacher open the door.

“I get that you’re sleepy because it’s 5th period, but don’t sleep from the beginning, okay? Okay, open your textbooks,” the teacher said.

* * *

After Han Maru left, the masked man took off his mask. He sat down on the sofa in front of him and sighed. At this point, he was used to the darkness and the silence as though it was his own body. Once Maru’s consciousness surfaced, this place became a world severed from reality.

“Thirty-three.”

Han Maru’s memories had changed enough to the point that now he thought that he died at thirty-three.

Thirty-three. After entering a company, he worked arduously and was acknowledged for his efforts, and was close to being promoted. He had not been sacrificed to the injustices of the world yet, and he was at an age where he hadn’t tasted the unfairness of using connections. The current Han Maru returned to the Han Maru that he trusted his colleagues, did not hesitate to take on challenges, and always looked forward. There was a faint trace of his distrust for people and his cautiousness of when he was forty-five, but the scale tilted towards the Han Maru that shone in his fresh youth.

The masked man closed his eyes slowly. This Han Maru was definitely different from the previous Han Marus. The fact that he could talk with ‘him’ was different, and the fact that the alteration of his memories was extreme was also different. The previous Han Marus did lose their memories of traveling back in time as time went on, but the memories of their times of death did not change.

He felt like he could hear the pivot of the hamster wheel being put off-axis. Whether this was a positive sign or the sound that was leading to fast destruction, the masked man did not know. There was one thing that was clear though.

This time was different from before.

Chapter 675

He realized that he had left his textbook at home. He opened his bag just in case but the only thing he saw was a script and a novel. He had forgotten to bring his textbook, which he had taken home over the summer holidays because of homework. Having no choice, he stood up. He was sitting right in front of the teacher’s desk, and the Korean teacher always checked for textbooks. There were two reasons he had to go borrow it.

He left through the back door and peeked his head through the front door of the next class over. He was planning on borrowing it from Daemyung, who was sitting right in front of him.

“What are you doing here?”

Kang Sora, the junior from the film production club, was standing in front of Daemyung’s desk. When they met eyes, she waved her arms in the air in a flurry before hiding a notebook behind her back. Daemyung, who was sitting down, also feigned ignorance like he was caught stealing.

“That looks suspicious.”

“Wh-what is?”

“You’re even stuttering too.”

“That’s because you’re looking at us in a strange way, seonbae. Why did you come to another person’s class so suddenly? You startled me.”

“I can say the same thing to you. Why would a first year poke her head around a 3rd year classroom, not to mention that it’s the electronic engineering class[1]?”

He was now curious about the contents of the notebook she hid behind her. When he took a step close to Sora, Sora took a step back. He walked another step. She went back another step.

“Park Daemyung. Are you two-timing?”

“NO!” Daemyung shouted as he stood up.

Ever since he started exercising, ‘burly’ fit him better than ‘fatty’, so when he stood up, the desks, which had a short distance between each other, made loud noises and became disoriented, with Daemyung’s desk even falling over. They got the attention of everyone in the class. Daemyung smiled awkwardly and quickly straightened up the desks.

“If they fight, I bet 500 won that Han Maru wins.”

“I bet a bread on Park Daemyung.”

Everyone giggled and gathered round, but when Daemyung said that it was nothing much, they soon lost interest and scattered. Dowook and Dojin also looked at them suspiciously before returning to their seats.

“I was startled because you acted like that. It’s not like there’s actually something going on between you two, right?”

“N-no, there isn’t. I wouldn’t do something like that.”

“Maru-seonbae! Daemyung-seonbae definitely might be kind, but he’s not my style, you know? You made me mad, sheesh.”

Daemyung sighed in relief after hearing those words.

“Fine, I’ll stop. But if it’s not like that, then what were you two really up to? It looks like it’s related to me since you’re so startled. If it’s something like a surprise party, it’s fine even if you tell me now.”

“Do you think we’re doing this because we want to have a party? Anyway, Maru-seonbae, you should just stay out of it. We’ll tell you everything when the time comes.”

“When the time comes? So you two are preparing something, huh? I wonder what it is. If you’re planning ideas in a notebook, there’s not much you should be able to do. Ah, now that I think about it, you came looking for Daemyung last time during practice, didn’t you? Looks like it requires a lot of work, huh?”

“Stop there. Don’t think about it anymore and just wait. They say good things come to those who wait. It’s nothing harmful to you, okay?”

Sora spoke firmly and loudly as she looked straight at him. Maru felt like he would get scratched by her if he kept interfering. Maru looked towards Daemyung.

“Can’t you just trust us and wait for us?” Daemyung pleaded.

Maru nodded right away. It was the words of a friend he trusted. There was no reason to disagree.

“What the? You grinned deviously and tried to pry more when I asked you to wait.”

“Your credit rating is pretty low.”

“And Daemyung-seonbae’s is high?”

“Higher than yours at least.”

“Daemyung-seonbae! Is that something to laugh about? Your business partner just got disdained.”

“Ah, sorry. Maru, you should trust Sora as well. I’ll tell you everything once what we’re preparing is complete.”

Maru looked at the notebook that poked out of Sora’s waist. Sora frowned and hid it even further.

“I don’t know what it is, but if you’re doing it in secret, hide it well.”

“I get it, so get going already. We still have things to talk about.”

“Fine, fine. The hindrance will go now.”

He waved his hand, left the class, and took two steps before he was reminded of the purpose of his visit.

“Uhm, can I borrow your textbook?”

“Ah, seonbae, please!” Sora shouted.

* * *

“The preliminaries, especially your first performance, will be the hardest. However, you guys managed to pass that. Now, the only thing left is for you to go up on the stage, which you have gotten used to, and play around to your heart’s content. 1st of September. That’s the date of the regional finals. Once you pass that as well, you’ll go to Seoul.”

“Yes!”

Miso clapped to signal the end.

“You worked hard today, everyone. Until the finals, Aram will lead the practice. From now on, don’t do useless things like trying to change up your acting. Focus on bringing out the details. Check your movement paths as well. It’s not good to push yourself in practice just because the competition is coming up, but it’s even worse to just let go of it completely. Just do what you have always done. You get what I mean, right?”

At Miso’s ‘that’s it for today’, Maru picked up the indigo-colored jersey that he had taken off during practice. The juniors, who had been standing nervously, all sat down as though they had lost their tension. They had been practicing for five hours, from five to ten, without rest in order to get back the tension they lost after the preliminaries. Those that weren’t participating in the play this time were preparing for the winter competition, so they were just as exhausted as well. Maru encouraged everyone before following Miso out of the hall.

“I heard you were gonna start shooting soon,” Miso said as she walked down the stairs.

She wasn’t looking back. Maru spoke as he looked at her back.

“Yes, there are two days left.”

“You should strike the iron while it’s still hot. If it’s someone Ganghwan introduced to you, then that person is pretty trustworthy. I can’t say for sure since I only met that producer a couple of times, but she definitely wasn’t the arrogant type who would get boasty just because she got to be at the helm. She’s worth trusting.”

“Of course I’ll place my trust in her. If I don’t trust the producer, who else would I trust?”

“That’s not always the case, but well, I guess you’ll be fine by yourself.”

He followed Miso all the way to the parking lot. Miso opened the trunk of her car and gave him a box. It was some snacks and drinks.

“Eat it with the others.”

“You should eat with us.”

“Hey, I’m still a newlywed. I don’t have time to play around with kids. Also, no matter how close we become, it’ll be uncomfortable to have a superior nearby. Console them well, especially the kid that made a mistake during the preliminaries. Give him some advice. At your age, it’s better for someone your age to tell them something rather than having an adult say it.”

“You should tell Aram that. She’s the president.”

“Aram is - well, how should I put it - good at controlling a group but is quite awkward when it comes to managing the individuals. She’s like me. She ditched any sort of the delicate side of women.”

“I wholly agree with that.”

“Do you wanna get hit after all this time?”

“I want to live a long life, so no thanks.”

“If you do, then watch that mouth.”

Miso smiled and got in the car. He was waiting for the car to depart when the door to the passenger seat suddenly opened.

“Han Maru.”

“Yes?”

“You look good these days.”

“Me?”

“Yeah. I did like you when you were like a precise calculator, but it’s not bad to see your humane side like this. I don’t know what brought about that change of heart, but you should enjoy your emotions when you’re young so you won’t regret it when you’re older. I don’t need to explain, do I?”

“Yes, I understand.”

“Good luck with the shoot. Once you become used to the schedule, you should leave some time. Let’s drink together with my husband.”

“Isn’t that a little wrong? I mean, a teacher and his student drinking in the same spot.”

“Like hell you care about that sort of stuff.”

“I guess that’s true. Watch out on your way home. I’ll get these to the others.”

“Alright, thanks.”

He looked at the car disappearing into the distance before returning to the hall. No one said anything until the guys resting by the wall and on the floor all suddenly shouted ‘food’ before rushing over.

“Don’t forget to thank the instructor later.”

“Yes!”

“Also, Aram, see me for a sec.”

He called Aram and stood a little away from the rest.

“The instructor seemed worried about Jincheol. Daemyung and I will see him, but you should give him some care as well. You should probably tell him not to get traumatized since anyone becomes nervous if they go up on stage.”

“I was planning to do more practice today anyway.”

“Even more?”

“Yes. Just today, though. Practice is the best method for overcoming your nervousness. I told everyone about it.”

“You should spare the ones who are tired.”

“Maru-seonbae, it’s them who told me that we should do more practice. It looks like they felt good passing the preliminaries in 1st place. They’re rearing to take the grand prize, so I can’t exactly not help them as their senior.”

Aram laughed reliably. Maru nodded.

“Alright then, work hard.”

“Are you going to go, seonbae?”

“Do you want me to stay behind?”

“I just tried saying it. I heard that your shoot starts soon. You should look after yourself then. You should become big and shoot commercials.”

“You’re going way too far with that.”

“I thought that’s how it went though?” Aram said in a prankster manner.

* * *

When he was dusting off the water from his hair after a shower, he got a call. He put the towel around his neck and picked up his phone.

“What nice timing. I just left the bathroom.”

Gaeul’s laughter could be heard over the phone.

-Really? That’s good. Are you home right now? Didn’t you say you were gonna be late because you’re looking after their practice?

“That’s just until yesterday. I should look after myself now. I don’t wanna be all powerless from the first shoot.”

-Ah, right. You had a shoot, didn’t you? Looks like you must be busy if you’re going to do it alongside New Semester.

“It’s okay since I don’t have a lot of scenes in New Semester anymore. It’d be a pain if the schedules overlap on the weekend though. How’s practice these days? Is it going well?”

-I’m doing it to the death. Oh, right. I had a reason for calling you.

“What is it?”

-I’m shooting a commercial.

“Really?”

Maru threw the wet towel into the laundry basket. As the towel entered the basket, Gaeul spoke.

-It’s a commercial for a company, and I’m a running girl.

“Wow, you’re doing much better than me. Is it solo?”

-Of course not. I think a lot of people are participating in it. I’m one of them.

“Still, that’s a good thing. Did you take an audition or something?”

-I’m doing it on the introduction of my teacher.

“Looks like the one teaching you looks at you in a good light. Is it gonna be on TV?”

-It’s an internet ad apparently. The ones you see before each video.

“Tell me about it if you shoot it. I’ll look it up.”

-I feel like I’ll be running all day but not even appear for a single second though. I mean, ads are short, aren’t they? But still, I’m quite excited since this is the first time I’m doing something for money. Though, it’s not much.

“It’s not the money that’s important, it’s the experience. Make yourself known to everyone there. Who knows? The advertisers might look for you again.”

-No way.

“I can hear the excitement in your words.”

-Was it obvious?

Maru laughed. Bada peeked out the door asking what it was. He waved his hand as though he was chasing away a fly.

“When’s the shoot?”

-This weekend.

“So it's good news and bad news.”

-Sorry. It’s been a while since we met too.

“There’s nothing to be sorry about. Right now, work is what’s important. Also, both you and I are busy because of acting club.”

-How’s next week?

“Well, I’ll have to get there to be sure, but right now I’m okay with Wednesday and Thursday.”

-I have lessons then.

“Ah, right. So our time is crossing again. If I knew it would be like this, I should’ve seen you more during the holidays.”

-You were held up with the acting club throughout the whole vacation. You passed the preliminaries, so you should do your best there too.

“You don’t wanna see me?”

-Not that much.

“How disappointing. Bye.”

After a bit of silence, Gaeul started giggling first.

-We should go on a date sometime. It’s been a while since we last watched a play together.

“Alright. You must be tired, so get some rest. You should’ve gone to Seoul today too, right?”

-Yeah, thanks. Thank you for your work too. Also, good luck with the shoot.

“Good night.”

After hanging up, Maru stretched his arms out before standing up. When he had a look at the time, he saw that it hadn’t even been 3 minutes since they started the call.

“Well, both of us are busy after all.”

Maru yawned before going inside his room.

[1] The engineering class doesn’t have any girls.

Chapter 676

“Cut, we’ll flip around and start again.”

After hearing producer Park Hoon’s words, Kang Giwoo and Ahn Yeseul, who were looking at each other nervously, relaxed their facial muscles and smiled. When their faces, which looked like they were about to touch, moved apart, the makeup artists approached and fixed their makeup. It was 6 p.m. and the heat had cooled down somewhat, but due to the lights and the heated air, the actors were still filled with sweat.

“Just how many times are we going to do the kiss scene? They should just get it done already,” Dongho complained as he sat down.

As this was an important scene where their romantic feelings were reaching their peak, the shooting time was becoming long. Maru received a cup of iced water from Dongho. Half of the ice had melted already. Wasn’t it too hot for September?

“It must be because it’s their first time.”

“If it was me, I would’ve hugged her and just!”

“That’s why you’re no good. Nervously twitching, just barely touching, heart throbbing - that’s the feeling you should go with. Are you going to push her onto the bed during your first kiss?”

“Just saying.”

Maru drank the cold water. He felt like the hot air filling his body was going away somewhat.

“It’s hot. You should’ve waited inside. Why are you suffering all the way out here?”

“Because it’s stuffy inside. Plus, even though it’s melting temperature if you’re under the sun, it’s somewhat cooler in the shade.”

Maru pointed at the sunroof installed over the stands in the school field.

“If you’re all gone, what would I do by myself?”

When he turned around, he saw Joomin standing there. She was moving her fan busily and was watching the shooting location, which was about 10 meters away.

“It’s still that scene?”

“They flipped the camera now, so it should end soon.”

“They’re sure taking their time. Looks like a kiss scene is hard after all.”

The three of them sat down side by side. Just as the camera location changed and they thought that the shoot was going to resume, someone from the shooting location ran over to them. It was a staff member from the progression team.

“Uhm, the camera director asked you to move away because you’re in the frame.”

Leaving behind those words, he ran back to the scene. Maru picked up his bottle of water before leaving the stand. It was definitely hotter outside the shade.

“If you aren’t going to go inside the classroom, we should go there. It looks better over there.”

Joomin pointed at the platform. They walked around the stand on top of the platform. They subconsciously smiled when they felt the slab of concrete that was cool due to the shade, touching their butts.

“It’s much clearer from over here.”

Dongho grabbed the banisters and stood up. Right below was the camera that was doing the shoot. Giwoo and Yeseul, who were staring at each other on the stand, slowly pushed their upper bodies towards each other. When Yeseul flinched back and was about to pull away, Giwoo grabbed her arm and pulled her forward.

“Cut. Yeseul, you’re too hurried when you’re pulling back. You’re already set on him, okay? You’re hesitating only because you lack the courage to take that final step; you are fully willing to take that step. That’s how your character is feeling in this scene. But right now, you’re pulling away like you clearly don’t want it to happen.”

“I’m sorry. Let’s do that again.”

“I’m giving you a lot of directions today. This isn’t good. I’m interfering only because I feel like the whole day wouldn’t be enough if I left you to your own devices. Understood?”

“I’m sorry.”

“Straighten out the clothes of the actors and redo their makeup! Let’s do it again after drinking some water.”

Producer Park Hoon spoke as he waved a rolled-up script over his head.

“The producer is serious today. He’s so sensitive. Is it because of the weather?” Dongho wondered as he turned around.

“I heard that he’s on the edge because he’s preparing for his new work.”

Joomin said that as she looked at the producer standing below the platform.

“Noona, is that true?”

“I’m not sure. I kinda overheard it from some people, so I can’t be sure if it’s true or not.”

“The producer’s doing this, isn’t he? Is it possible to do two dramas at the same time?”

“Probably not. If it’s true that he’s preparing to do a new one, he’ll probably be preparing for the one after New Semester. But hey, that’s not the important thing here. When are we going to do our shoot?”

Joomin sighed.

“At this rate of NGs, we’ll probably have to wait another hour or so.”

“I only have one scene today, yet I’ve been waiting for three hours for it. Whenever this happens, I always resolve that I should become a popular actress. It would be great if I can set the shoot to match my schedule.”

“I want to get that kind of treatment too,” Maru said as he looked at Giwoo and Yeseul, who were getting ready for the shoot.

“Oh, right. Maru, I heard that you’re starting a new drama tomorrow?”

“Yes. The first shoot is tomorrow.”

“That sounds good. You’re part of the main cast, aren’t you?”

“I guess things turned out that way.”

“A main character of a one-act play, huh. I wonder if you will suddenly become popular and your importance in New Semester will rise as a result.”

“No way. There are main characters already, so what would the viewers say if a side character suddenly rose up?”

“You never know what will happen with today’s dramas. You know that weekend drama that ended a while ago right? Viewers kept posting on the bulletin board begging not to kill that one side character, and the writer changed the script in the end. There were so many people who said that they wouldn’t watch the drama if that character died, so the production staff should have been in a fix too.”

“Looks like that supporting actor was popular.”

“He’s the Terrius[1] of ahjummas. My mom also never left the TV since she was watching that drama on weekend nights.”

“Terrius, huh. That sounds good. There’s nothing better than being an actor loved by the viewers.”

“As a bonus, you get more popularity too.”

“And get paid more.”

Dongho shushed them and pointed down. The shoot was resuming. Stand by! - Along with a loud shout, the atmosphere at the scene became tense again. The camera started rolling, and the kiss scene of the two followed that. However, silence didn’t last long. An unwanted guest crossed the skies.

“We’ll do it again once the plane goes past!”

It seemed that the shoot was going to get delayed today - Maru thought as he followed the plane with his eyes.

* * *

She felt good in the morning. This was her first time shooting a commercial. It didn’t have that important of a meaning, but a ‘first time’ was always exciting after all. When she left her house with her uniform in her bag and when she got on the train, she was looking forward to the shot, but now that the sun was setting, she only wished to finish the shoot as soon as possible. The joy and excitement had long since disappeared.

“Okay then. Let’s shoot that again. Student roles, please get ready.”

Hearing the word ‘ready’, Gaeul pushed herself up by pressing on her knees. Other people next to her also sighed and went to their designated positions. She wanted to admire the Han river during sunset, but the moment she saw the rail right next to her, she came to her senses. She had to run again, with all her might, that is.

Initially, after hearing that she just needed to run, she thought that it was something simple that didn’t require her to act, but that was a mistake. She gulped and exercised her wrists and ankles. Ever since she saw a boy running with her fall over, she consciously tried to loosen her muscles. The boy that fell over went home. The reason was that his injured knees weren’t aesthetically pleasing.

“There, there. The sun is setting. If we miss this opportunity, we won’t get another one. Let’s just work hard for another hour,” the director said.

One hour. He said those same words when they were running under the scorching sun. Gaeul closed her eyes before opening them again. Bring it on.

“It’s so hard,” said a girl standing next to her.

She looked young, but apparently, she was in college. The school uniform she was wearing was given to her by a staff member. Around thirty people lined up into lines. Gaeul was in the front line.

“Over there! Front row! Don’t make a tired expression when you run. Smile! We only shot for two hours. You got plenty of rest, so I’m not accepting tired faces!”

It seemed that the director didn’t care that they'd been running for those two hours. Gaeul re-tied her shoelaces. She didn’t hear what this advertisement was about. The only thing she heard about the ad was that the theme was ‘youths energetically running to their future’. Gaeul looked at instructor Choi Gyeonmi who had a sleepy expression next to the director. Follow the director as much as possible - her expression seemed to be saying. She came to her during the break and told her this: Not all shoots treat the actors properly, so try experiencing what it’s like to shoot under harsh treatment.

“I wanna go home!”

That voice was loud enough for all of the thirty people to hear.

Gaeul chuckled and looked at Lee Heewon, who was standing at the far left of the front row. Unlike everyone else, who was standing up and getting ready, Heewon was still sitting and putting his hands on the ground as though he wanted to become one with the ground.

“Lee Heewon, we’re going to run again now,” Gaeul said.

Heewon looked at the instructor with resentment. He took the bait of ‘an easy advert’, but it seemed that he might use up a week’s worth of energy here.

“Well then, ready! Cue!”

Along with the director’s cue sign, Gaeul started running. The camera in front of her slid across the rails as it moved backwards. The whole shoot consisted of just chasing that camera from a certain distance. It was simple but definitely not easy.

“Hey, hey, hey! Number three! I told you not to frown, didn’t I!”

The director never used polite speech. He looked like he was more than willing to swear at a person he never met before. The runners all stopped and returned to their original positions.

The director, who was sitting in front of the monitor, stood up and walked over. Gaeul looked at the director while suppressing her panting.

“Front row. Do you lack understanding? You need to show the vision of looking forward to tomorrow. You’re going home after passing the test for a famous college exam. You might be out of breath, but your expressions must look excited. I passed. This isn’t a dream, right? What do I say to my family when I get home? How proud will my mom be? - all sorts of emotions must cross your mind making you forget that you’re running out of breath! Also, don’t laugh like a fool. Who laughs like that when they’re running?”

The director listed a bunch of requirements before turning around. When the director walked away, people started swearing. Idiot, why don’t you try running? - these words were the most gentle and nice-sounding out of all of those words.

“Hey, Han Gaeul,” Heewon called.

Gaeul turned to look at him.

“What?”

“I was just wondering if you were still alive.”

“I am.”

“Tell me if you’re too tired.”

Oh? - Gaeul narrowed her eyes before she heard what Heewon added.

“Because I’ll tell you, I have it even harder. I’m dying, goddammit!”

Heewon was practically about to cry. Gaeul picked up a small pebble and threw it at Heewon. Being hit on the calf, Heewon glared at her.

“Don’t say nonsense and just run. Don’t try to cut corners.”

“Can you run in my stead? I really don’t wanna do this. Or maybe Haewon can fill my spot.”

“The instructor will never allow it though.”

“Damn that hag.”

“Can I tell that to the instructor?”

“Do whatever you want! I’m going to die running anyway.”

As soon as Heewon started snorting angrily, the director raised his hand.

“Ready!”

Gaeul clenched her teeth.

* * *

-I thought I was gonna die.

Maru got on the bus with a smile. Gaeul had finished her ‘debut’ in quite a flashy way.

“So, you’re lying down with plasters on you?”

-Yeah. I can’t budge. I’ve never run as much as that in my life. If it was sprinting all the way, it would’ve been refreshing at least. Running ten meters then back, ten meters then back - urgh, the director looked hateful.

“I would have been the same. So you’re resting for the whole day?”

-No, the instructor wants us to come.

“Even though it’s Sunday?”

-Yeah. There’s something she has that we have to watch.

“Must be hard for you. Should I give you a piggyback ride?”

-I know you aren’t coming.

“That you know well.”

-Are you on your way to the shoot now?

“Yeah. It’s my first shoot too, I guess.”

-I got our share of bad luck for the shoot with the advertisement, so the drama should go fine.

“I hope so.”

-I want to see you.

She said that in a soft voice after laughing.

“Do you really want me to go? Should I just ditch everything?”

-This is why I can’t say things like that to you. Just go and shoot! Become big!

She hung up after wishing him good luck. Maru put his phone inside his bag. This was his first piece where he would put his name as one of the main cast. As this was a one-act play, the producer’s preferences would be on full display, but perhaps it would be for the best if it was to bring out his character. Amidst the buildings that were whizzing past him, he saw a photo of an actor wearing a suit. He wondered how high he had to climb to shoot an advert like that.

He got off the bus at Suwon station and looked at the clock. He was 3 minutes later than the appointed time.

“Seonbae, you’re late.”

Those were Yuna’s first words when they met up in front of the ticketing office.

[1]A nickname given to handsome, long-haired men. Its origins seem to be from a Japanese manga titled ‘Candy Candy’ (The character is “Terrence/Terrius “Terry” G. Grandchester.”)

KTLChamber's ThoughtsSo we don't get to see Gaeul's reaction to the fact that they'll be on the show as a couple? Or is this one of those NDA stuff? Or maybe Maru (or Yuna) simply didn't tell her about it?

Editor's Note:

You know old Maru is gone when the man who used to arrive early now arrives 3 minutes late :(

Chapter 677

“Get ready to scout out another location just in case. Senior Kim! You have to grab an exceptional angle today, okay?”

“Director Yoo, we’ve known each other for three years now. Don’t you know my skills?”

“I do, that’s why I’m asking you. You know that this is my first piece, right?”

“I do, I do. But don’t put too much energy into it. I’ve seen many cases where people shot too much and it ruined the editing process.”

“Of course. Let’s just do the necessary parts and fulfill every producer’s dream - go home on time.”

Jayeon fired herself up before walking over to the arts director.

“Senior Park, whose idea was it to put a water bottle here?”

Jayeon pointed at a water bottle on the desk. It was a rather crude bottle that was reminiscent of the old milk bottles that couldn’t be seen these days.

“It might look crude, but the feeling it gives off is somehow cozy. I like the pencil here too.”

“It’s from our newest member. Pretty decent, huh?”

“Please introduce me to that guy later. He knows what I want.”

“Alright. But hey, how does it feel to produce your first work?”

“Crazy bitch gunna be real crazy.”

The arts director turned around while laughing. Jayeon looked at the main character’s room which had been completely decorated. This was a place where a man in his thirties, who ran a pojang-macha in a secluded alley, lived by himself. He liked the quiet and did not like noise, but he liked the bustling of people.

On the old desk was a laptop, a lamp, a water bottle with a pencil inside it, and then finally, a manuscript. The main character’s job was as a novelist. He made himself known through short to middle-length novels after debuting, but he hadn’t been able to make any progress since that. He would try to write every night in this shantytown where no engine noises from cars could be heard, with the company of the moonlight, but the white cliff of the manuscript would always stop him.

Jayeon tried matching the objects in the room to the character’s current situation. She smiled every time she found something matching, and whenever she found something lacking, she noted it down on a memo.

“Good, this is splendid.”

The slightly study-looking room seemed like it was enough to represent the main character’s feelings of being driven into a corner. The piled manuscript papers as well as the worn-out keyboard of the laptop showed that the main character did not give up even in the middle of despairing. The room, which had an overlap of many different feelings, was very much like what Jayeon was imagining. If there was something lacking, it was that the wallpaper was a little too clean. That wasn’t anything much since she could just consult the arts team and have them fix it.

“It looks like the company is supporting you quite a lot, eh. They’re lending you such an expensive camera even though it’s a one-act play,” said senior Kim, the camera director.

“It’s pretty long, so as long as you shoot well and put effort into the editing, it’ll have a film-like vibe to it.”

“Maybe it’s because it’s the last one-act play.”

Senior Kim nodded.

“So YBS is quitting one-act plays huh.”

“Because it doesn’t make any money. It doesn’t look like they’re planning to invest as much as RBS does either.”

TV stations were places where the latest trends and traditions coexisted. If they only focused on the tastes of the younger generation, the older generation would turn away, yet if they focused too much on the older generation, the younger generation would turn their backs. They had to broadcast daily lifestyle programs for the elders, and also tell the younger generation about the latest fashion. Or, they had to combine the two into one. Unfortunately, one-act plays catered to neither. In the first place, one-act plays were an experimental stage for the writers and the producers. As it prioritized the ideals of the maker before viewing rates, it was a place where the witty ideas of new writers and the daring direction of new producers were forgiven. There was an era when some refreshing ideas shone like a pearl hidden in the mud causing the three major television companies to heavily invested into it, but the times had changed. TV schedules became longer and more competitive. There was less room for an experimental show with an unstable theme to stand on. Rather than challenges, they pursued stability. Perhaps it was a natural course of action for the TV stations who had become massive.

“If it’s the last time, we might as well do it with a blast.”

“Of course. Let’s make those executives change their minds.”

Senior Kim laughed and walked over to the camera. Jayeon walked around the room by herself and started picturing the content. The main character enters through the door. He walks around the room for a while before sitting down on the chair. He hesitates before turning on the laptop, but he only stares at the desktop. After staring at it for a long time, he pulls out his pencil and glares at the manuscript. That only continues for a short while before he looks out the window and sighs with a mocking smile. The laptop and the manuscript. He leaves behind the items that are the foundation of his lifestyle before standing up.

She could draw the picture clearly inside her head as though she was going through an already shot footage. Jayeon thought about the main character leaving through the door. The pojang-macha, which was his refuge and resting place, would become the refuge and resting place of other people as well. The story of other people would blossom there, and she had to capture it all on camera.

“It’s pretty well-made.”

“You’re here?”

Jayeon looked at Ganghwan, who was standing behind her with the script in hand. This drama wouldn’t be complete without this man. She tried substituting the main character in her head with Ganghwan. The appearance was a little awkward, however, Ganghwan would fill that discrepancy between reality and ideal with his acting. As he was someone who would fulfill her requests to perfection, she wasn’t that worried. In fact, it was herself that she was worried about. In order to bring out this man’s one hundred, nay, one thousand percent, she would have to bring out all the skills of production she had learned until now. A small bowl could only hold a small amount of water. In order to hold the entirety of the man known as Yang Ganghwan, she would probably need a big bowl.

“Hyung, since you’re here, try standing here.”

“Are you going to call me hyung during the shoot too?”

“Fine, actor Yang. For now, try standing in the set.”

Ganghwan entered the room. As the set had all four sides closed off, which was unlike normal sets where one wall was open, Jayeon had to follow him inside.

“How is it? Do you think it fits the image of the main character that you’re thinking of, hyung?”

“Well, I’m horrible at arts.”

“Just tell me what you think.”

“I think it’s pretty good. I think this kind of mild image fits a writer who moved to a shantytown because he can’t go to a temple.”

Ganghwan walked around and looked around the set. His eyes looked pretty serious.

“Please take care of me, hyung. Let me become a star producer with your help.”

“Why are you suddenly putting me on a pedestal? You’re making me uneasy.”

Ganghwan left the room.

“How about the other sets?”

“That one over there is for Maru and Yuna. There’s a limit to the area we can use, so I think we have to assemble and disassemble every time. Anyway, that one over there is for Mira and Byungjae.”

“The TV station set area is really wide huh. I thought what I saw in dramas were actual houses that they rented.”

“Are you really someone who’s been staying in this industry for over a decade? You don’t even know stuff like that?”

“Well, I never showed up on TV. At most, I just showed up briefly as a cameo or something. This is my first time on a set too.”

“Why don’t you come over to the drama side using this opportunity? I think with your skills, you’ll be able to have your name known to all the major producers, you know? Also, what company do you belong to? It’s JA, isn’t it? It must be easy for you to find connections.”

“I thought you hated stuff like using connections.”

“I mean to say that I can’t have that stuff interfere with my work, not that I’m rejecting it entirely. I mean, you can’t keep working in this industry if you ignore it.”

“The reckless street thug can now think for herself huh.”

“I’ve always been smarter than you. But really, why don’t you think about it seriously? I mean, about switching to camera acting.”

Jayeon cautiously looked at Ganghwan’s face. Leaving aside personal feelings, when viewed objectively, the actor known as Yang Ganghwan was a very desired talent. Watching his act would make anyone excited. Yes, excited. There was no other word that described Yang Ganghwan’s acting more properly than that. The viewers would forget that they’re ‘watching’ something and become synchronized with his act. They would become objectified by his acting before being drained of their energy, and only after his act ended would they start breathing again and exclaim. Ganghwan was a merciless actor who sucked in everyone’s gazes.

“Camera acting just doesn’t suit me. I also don’t like the fact that I’m restricted by the location. I heard that shooting a drama is like war, right? You need to be fierce when you’re preparing for plays too, but it’s not as bad as dramas. I want to do the leading, not chasing,” Ganghwan smiled as he spoke.

He didn’t look disappointed at all. Jayeon immediately gave up on the idea. There wasn’t a method to grab a star in the skies after all. Unless that star came down by itself, there was no way of touching it.

“Superstar Yang, it sounds good too.”

“I’ll introduce you to Hong Geunsoo later, so go chase him. He was born to live in front of the camera.”

Ganghwan said he’d look around the set a little more before walking over to another set. Jayeon shrugged. In a world where there were as many actors desperate to debut on TV as there were grains of sand on the beach, this man was rejecting the opportunity. She would understand if he was lacking skill, but he was acting like despite having more than enough skill, so she only found it unfortunate.

“Hello.”

Another one of the main characters, Byungjae, arrived. He had cut his hair cleanly like college students these days. His clothes weren’t too flashy either. If he walked around a college campus right now, he would be one of the ‘handsome oppa on campus’.

“Are those clothes sponsored?”

“No, they’re mine,” Byungjae replied with embarrassment.

“They suit you. Who did the styling?”

“A friend of mine.”

“That friend of yours has good taste. You said you don’t have an agency yet, right?”

“Yes, I’m by myself.”

“Then have your phone with you at all times. The assistant director or I will call you quite frequently. If you don’t pick up, be prepared for the consequences.”

“Yes, I’ll keep that in mind.”

Byungjae raised his head to look at the ceiling. His mouth became open and his expression looked so pure that Jayeon subconsciously smiled.

“Is it your first time at a set too?”

“Yes. In fact, it’s the first time I came to a TV station.”

“Oh my word. Was I too focused on the acting skills? You should have a look around as well. Watch out for the cables on the ground.”

“Yes!”

Byungjae trotted away like a kid on a field trip.

“Looks like he doesn’t need to do acting at all.”

He seemed like he came straight out of the script. Of course he’d suit the character since she picked the one that suited the image, but Byungjae especially had no difference from the character in the script when compared to his real character. Whether this was an advantage for him or not, she would have to find out once they began shooting.

“But hey, the oldest one arrived at the scene first, huh. What a lax atmosphere.”

Jayeon looked at Ganghwan, who was taking Byungjae around the set. There were 30 minutes until the appointment. She would scold the latecomers without mercy.

* * *

“It’s big,” Yuna said in front of the TV station.

Maru tapped on Yuna, who was gasping at the building, and pointed at the building next to it.

“We’re going that way.”

“Eh? Isn’t it this one?”

“That one over there is the building with the sets. This place is for broadcasting and office work.”

“You’re quite knowledgeable.”

“I’ve been here a few times after all.”

They walked past the guard post for cars and entered the 5-story building. The 1st and 2nd floors were combined into a huge warehouse-like area, and that place was the drama set. On the ceiling, which was high above, were bars installed at regular intervals on which lights could be installed. He took Yuna, who was marveling at the forklifts that were used to move the walls of the sets, to Jayeon, who was standing in front of a completed set.

“Hello.”

“Hello.”

As soon as they greeted, Jayeon placed a finger on her mouth, signaling them to keep quiet. Maru shut his mouth and directed his gaze to where Jayeon was looking. He saw Ganghwan leaning against the wall behind the door to the set. He flipped a page of a book with a bored expression before he expressed his annoyance and rolled on the ground. People laughed when a grown adult was acting like a child throwing a tantrum, but they soon became quiet upon Jayeon’s glare. After rolling around in his room for a while, Ganghwan slowly stood up and sat at his desk. Only his back could be seen, but Maru could tell that Ganghwan was pondering. He heard a soft sigh. Ganghwan was clutching his hair as well. While his expression couldn’t be seen it could be gleaned from his actions alone.

“About that much, maybe?” Ganghwan said as he turned around.

Maru subconsciously nodded. This person is an actor after all - these thoughts filled his mind.

KTLChamber's ThoughtsCan we have the title of the drama please…?

Editor's Note:

Man, I always want to watch these serious moves/dramas/plays that they talk about. This time is no different.

Chapter 678

“Come in,” Jayeon said while opening the door.

Inside the meeting room next to the set, there was only a rectangular table.

“It looks like we’re gonna have to wait for about five minutes. Have a drink or something.”

Jayeon left the meeting room. Maru sat on the left. Yuna sat next to him, and Byungjae sat opposite him.

“Is Mira on her way here?” Ganghwan asked as he sat at the table.

“She said she arrived. I got a text that she’s in front of the building, so she should be here soon.”

As soon as Byungjae’s words ended, the door to the meeting room opened before Mira came in. She looked around while not looking to be in a hurry before sitting down next to Byungjae.

“Where’s the producer?” she asked.

“Dunno. She disappeared.”

Ganghwan grabbed a paper cup that was placed on the table before pouring some orange juice from a plastic bottle.

“Let’s wait while we have some drinks. She said we’d need to wait for about five minutes.”

Yuna poured the drinks in five paper cups. Everyone thanked her before taking a cup each. The juice was very cold as though it had just been taken out of the refrigerator.

“Does everyone here have experience acting in front of a camera?” Ganghwan asked.

Byungjae and Mira replied ‘yes’.

“I know about Maru, and you said you were Yuna, right?”

“Yes. My name is Kim Yuna.”

“How about you, Yuna? Have you acted in front of a camera before?”

“No, this is my first time at a shoot like this.”

“Really? That sounds fortunate. This is my first time as well, doing it properly. Let’s get along well as beginners.”

Maru looked at Ganghwan while he drank. He was probably one of the least-fitting people to use the word ‘beginner’ for. Ganghwan looked back at him while asking ‘what?’.

“I was just thinking that if you’re a beginner, hyung-nim, I may as well be a worm,” Maru said as he looked away.

“I’m also no different from a beginner,” Byungjae suddenly added.

From the way he even raised his hand to speak, his nervousness could be seen.

“Byungjae, relax your shoulders. As you all know, producer Yoo Jayeon is pretty liberal during personal occasions, but she’ll become very strict once the shot begins. You’re gonna have a hard time if you are so nervous from the beginning,” Ganghwan spoke as he pressed down on Byungjae’s shoulders.

Byungjae twisted his body while groaning but Ganghwan did not let him go. Yuna and Mira laughed as they watched.

“If you feel stiff again, I’ll loosen you up so just tell me about it.”

“Oh, no! I’ll do it myself next time.”

It seemed that it was pretty painful. After Byungjae replied in a fluster, the door slowly opened.

“Here’s the writer who helped me out.”

Maru widened his eyes when he looked at the woman who followed Jayeon inside. It was someone unexpected. After meeting eyes with her, Maru quickly nodded.

“We meet again, huh?”

Writer Lee Hanmi waved her hand as she sat down. Producer Jayeon looked at her and asked,

“You two know each other?”

“We do. He’s in my work, and I know him personally too.”

“Your work? But New Semester is the only thing you're doing right now, isn’t it?”

“Yeah that. He’s in it, you know?”

“Maru is?”

Jayeon looked at Maru in a questioning light.

“You’re in New Semester?”

“Yes.”

“Why didn’t you tell me about it?”

“I thought you knew.”

“I was completely unaware of it. So you must be working with senior Park Hoon, huh?”

“I saw him just yesterday.”

Jayeon nodded while crossing her arms.

“Oh well, that doesn’t matter. There’s no way I would know since I didn’t have anyone write their filmography in their application. Also, it’s not like I’m the type to watch my seniors’ works. But if there is a fixed drama, wouldn't it be hard to adjust the schedule?”

“It doesn’t matter since my appearance has decreased quite a lot recently. Also, the schedule doesn’t overlap because the shoot for this drama is on Sunday nights and Monday and Tuesday afternoons.”

“Well, my assistant director probably took care of that. I left him to his own devices for schedule management so I don’t know much about it. It’s fine as long as it doesn’t affect my shoot,” Jayeon said as she tapped with the script.

“You’re the producer in charge, and it’s a YBS program, too. Don’t you think it’s a negligence of duty to not know that?” Ganghwan said, who was sitting next to Jayeon in a corner.

“It’s fine since I can learn more about him starting now. Don’t you think so, actor Yang?”

Ganghwan looked away hearing Jayeon’s thorny words. He was only joking, but he didn’t manage to gain anything from it.

“Looks like I only talked about a lot of nonsense with a lot of guests here. Well then, everyone. This is our touching first read-through. I’ll first introduce myself. I am producer Yoo Jayeon of YBS Drama. I’ll be working with you all to create a 4-episode one-act play for the next two months. It is a coincidence that we were given a whole four episodes as filler, but creating a drama thanks to this coincidence depends on our skill. I hope we can make a great drama together.”

Everyone knew each other but the producer introduced herself as though to tell that this was their first official meeting. Her ambitious words signaled the start of the drama shoot.

“And this is our writer.”

“There are people I haven’t seen before, as well as those I’ve met, but anyway, nice to meet you all. I am Lee Hanmi. This drama is a co-product of me and director Yoo here. I added the flesh to director Yoo’s idea, so I guess you can call director Yoo the original author. However, the characters moving inside it are under my influence. I’m going to watch whether you can bring it out or whether you ruin the whole thing. Oh, and one more thing. I’m quite picky during read-throughs. I’ll be saying some words to make you feel bad and to piss you off so don’t just misinterpret it as you wish. If you are pointed out, you better think about fixing it. Understood?”

Her resolve could be felt from those words. Maru looked down at the script. The fact that she was going to say stuff to piss people off did not sound ordinary to him.

“Well then, why don’t we introduce ourselves starting here?”

Jayeon pointed at Ganghwan.

“I’m Yang Ganghwan, and I’ll be playing the role of Lee Jaewoo. I don’t have experience acting in front of the camera, so I might be lacking, but I will do my best in order to produce good results.”

“Hello, my name is Ha Byungjae. My role is Choi Jihoon. I will try hard not to be a hindrance to everyone.”

“I’m Choi Mira. I play Kang Haeyeon, please take care of me.”

Maru also stood up from his seat.

“My name is Han Maru. I was assigned the role of Park Haejoon. I want to make a good drama. Please take care of me.”

The last one was Yuna.

“Hello, my name is Kim Yuna. I will be playing the role of Yoon Jihae. I’m a little nervous because it’s my first drama. I will do my best.”

They finished introducing themselves. At that moment, everyone picked up their scripts as though this was agreed upon beforehand.

“Then let’s begin. Maru, can you read the narratives?”

“Yes.”

“Yuna, you should read them when it’s Maru speaking. If they’re both speaking, Mira should take over.”

“Understood.”

Hanmi took out her glasses. After checking that Hanmi had put on her glasses, Jayeon signaled with a nod. Maru cleared his throat before starting to speak,

“Scene one. In front of Jaewoo’s house. Jaewoo, who is climbing a hill, quietly stares at the drainage hole. There is all sorts of trash blocking the metallic grid. After looking at the trash for a while, Jaewoo clicks his tongue before resuming to walk.”

* * *

“Is what is not possible, not possible after all?”

Jaewoo put down his pencil. He had sharpened his pencil like a knife in order to do the cleanest form of writing possible but a black dot never appeared on the white manuscript paper. Jaewoo looked at his pencil holder. This pencil holder, which was a glass bottle he picked up from the side of the road, was one of Jaewoo’s treasures. He cherished that pencil holder even more than the cutting-edge laptop that he bought at a very expensive price. The water bottle was proof that he overcame hardships.

He ran away from the keyboard to the manuscript and then to the floor again. Jaewoo lay down on the floor. He looked up slightly to look at the desk. The holy sanctuary that made Lee Jaewoo a popular author now became a place that made him sick. It would be great if he could run away.

“Goddammit.”

He went back to the days when he threw a tantrum in front of his parents to make them buy him toys. He twisted his body and expressed his frustration. He was in his 30s, so anyone looking at him would say that he’s unsightly, but there was no one to see him anyway. He was deep inside the shantytown. This was the unpolished part of the city where no one walked around.

The more tantrums he threw, the bigger the presence of his desk became. It slowly took over his small room as though to conquer it. Jaewoo leaned against the wall and looked at his desk. He despised the desk that was greedy for the little space he was in as well.

“Fine, I’m leaving then, okay?”

Jaewoo opened the door and left.

* * *

“Cut!”

Having left the set, Ganghwan snapped his neck left and right before stopping. Maru looked at the script and Ganghwan alternately before pressing the inside of his left cheek with his tongue. The acting of a beginner, huh. The character from the script was vividly alive for everyone to see. If this was what a ‘beginner’ was, how would the rest of the actors have to act?

Maru looked next to him, at the ‘actors’. Byungjae, Mira and Yuna. The three of them had different expressions, but their feelings probably all contained the emotion of marvel. They probably felt that he was on a different level. They were feeling pressured.

“Now I have the urge to write something with that fellow as the main character.”

Writer Lee Hanmi, who said that she’d watch for a bit after the read-through, had been sticking around the set for two hours already. She seemed like an adventurer who discovered a chest full of treasure and did not let her eyes leave Ganghwan even for one moment.

“Actor Yang. Everything’s good, but can you show me something different?”

“How?”

“I’m sorry to say this as the director, but I don’t have much to give you. I’d be okay as long as you’re satisfied with it, hyung. However, if you still want to try something else, you are welcome to try more.”

“Well, I’m not sure. I don’t even know how I’m appearing on camera. Also, I told you not to call me hyung.”

When Ganghwan got mad, the staff started laughing. He mesmerized everyone here with his skill. He didn’t do anything like saying kind words, playing jokes, or acting polite or anything, yet people listened to his words and chased his actions.

Maru looked at the camera director, who just now looked like he was going to be sucked in by the monitor. Do more, more! His lips were definitely saying such words. Ganghwan was the so-called ‘an actor worth shooting’.

Ganghwan walked over to the monitor. He checked his acting and nodded a few times before saying ‘looks good’.

“Okay then. Let’s go over to the next part.”

Next - Maru looked at Byungjae. The next scene was set in Byungjae’s room. He could see Byungjae sighing. Ganghwan had just shown an act that he would not dare to complain about. The pressure had to be immense.

“Byungjae, come on. We need to do the rehearsal.”

Jayeon stepped up herself. The assistant director was next to her.

“Yes!” Byungjae replied energetically before walking off.

“I’m so glad that the next scene isn’t mine.”

“I thought the same thing.”

Mira and Yuna looked at each other and laughed. Ironically, Ganghwan’s perfect start raised the nervousness within the rest of the actors. Maru also stuffed his eyes into the script. Once Byungjae was done, it would be his turn.

“Man, shoots don't have that tingle after all,” Ganghwan said after hitting a home run.

His leisurely attitude couldn’t be more hateful than today. Maru sighed.

“If you’re a beginner, you should’ve made mistakes and acted awkwardly too.”

“I don’t think I did that well though.”

“Those words, Byungjae-hyung will probably froth at his mouth if he heard those words. You should’ve seen his face.”

“You just need to do what you’re capable of. Moreover, it’s not a live program, is it? It’s not like making a mistake is a big deal either. There’s simply no tension. The stage is more enjoyable after all. Don’t you think so?”

Ganghwan locked his fingers behind his head before walking away. He looked like a loafer usually, but he would become an acting monster once he stood in front of the camera. Maru clicked his tongue. With that, he was sure now. The biggest enemy at this shoot was not the producer nor the writer. It was this man in front of him. He was going to be at the shoot and be compared to this actor the whole time. He felt like he swallowed a bunch of sand.

“Seonbae, do you think I can do this well?” asked Yuna, who was next to him.

“I think ‘doing well’ will be a reason for an insult. Let’s do it to the death,” Maru said as he opened the script.

Chapter 679

I want to do ordinary acting - Byungjae never felt that he wanted to become the main character. A decent actor who wouldn’t look out of place no matter where he was placed but was slightly lacking to lead the whole drama. That was his objective, an ‘ordinary’ actor. Those thoughts never changed throughout his time in high school when he belonged to the acting club. He was much more relaxed if he was a supporting character rather than a leading character. Your acting was okay - these words were the best compliment for Byungjae. You were the best, your acting was the best, that was once in a lifetime - these kinds of words made him rather awkward. Although he had never heard something like that before, he felt like his vision would darken if he heard those words. Byungjae simply didn’t have the confidence to endure the expectations that would be placed on him after that.

“Just do what you always did.”

Byungjae entered the set as he listened to producer Jayeon’s words. The room was small, the bed was narrow enough that a person would fall down if they moved while asleep, and the desk was a cheap one that could be assembled with ease. The space between the furniture looked like it wouldn’t even be a couple feet at best. Was a goshiwon always this small? Byungjae heard that they would start shooting in five minutes. He tried lying down on the bed for now and tried to take in the fact that this room was his residence.

The set had no ceiling. He could see lights that had been turned off up high.

“I won’t make a mistake.”

He never even thought about doing well. His objective was to digest his scenes fast so that the shoot wasn’t delayed and so he wouldn't put any pressure on the other actors and the staff. He remembered when he first met Jayeon. Jayeon called him out when he was about to leave the audition room that didn’t have an auditioner in it. She looked at him for a while before telling him to say a few lines, so he obediently obeyed. He walked because he was told to, and he sighed because he was told to.

“You’re doing everything I’m telling you to, huh?”

After saying those words, Jayeon reached out her hand, saying that he passed the audition. After hearing that he perfectly suited the image that she was looking for, Byungjae didn’t know if he should be joyous or sad about it. Was the character that passive?

Choi Jihoon. Twenty-nine years old. He is an ordinary man who gets drafted after graduating junior college and gets discharged without any problems. After getting discharged, he is looking for employment and hears that being a civil servant is promising from the people around him. He spends the next five years in a goshiwon towards that goal. He is one of the sad youths of the times who works part time jobs in convenience stores at night and at bars on weekends.

Byungjae thought about the character he had to play. Was he similar to Choi Jihoon? Whether he looked similar in appearance to the image of the character that the director was thinking of or had similar personalities, Byungjae did not know, but when he thought about Choi Jihoon’s life, there were a lot of similarities with him. Both of them had never gone against adults or deviated from everyday life, and they just walked down the path that people told them to. After being persuaded by a relative who told him to try being an actor or a model with his decent appearance, he started acting, which was originally going to be left behind as a part of his high school memories. Luckily, he managed to reach this point.

The Choi Jihoon in the drama would also have become a civil servant if he was lucky. He might also have gotten married to a woman that he had spent a long time with since college without a fight. Conversely, the man known as Ha Byungjae might also have become a person who does part time jobs in order to get by aimlessly had he not been so lucky.

“Standby!”

Byungjae put his script under the bed. He wasn’t that confident in doing well, but he wasn’t that worried. He just had to do what he could. Like he always did.

* * *

“Cut! Let’s keep this one and do one more. Byungjae, we’ll do that one more time.”

Yes - Byungjae’s voice could be heard. After entering the set, Byungjae became limp as though he was lethargic. Jayeon inwardly cheered as soon as she saw that even time itself was being stretched out. She was somewhat worried about her decision at first, but this proved that her decision wasn’t wrong. There probably wasn’t a better person to express Choi Jihoon, who had chronic fatigue.

“He looks completely different from when we were drinking,” Ganghwan said from next to her.

It seemed that he had finally escaped the clutches of writer Lee Hanmi.

“He is. He is different, but that’s probably the real him. He easily gets swayed by the ones around him, has no challenging mindset, and has zero motivation.”

“Don’t you think you’re insulting him too much?”

“Hyung, being adventurous and forward-looking aren’t the only qualities that make a good person. If everyone was like you, the world would probably have ended a long time ago, you know?”

Jayeon looked at Byungjae. He was quietly looking at the script. He never proactively created things to do or lead people, but he earnestly did the tasks he was assigned.

“He might be frustrating in your eyes. After all, you are someone who charges towards the goal without caring about anything else if it’s for acting. However, people generally aren’t like you. If there are people who take the initiative to guide others, there should also be the people that are guided in order for society to keep working. A senior producer told me that dramas were ultimately just miniature versions of life. Is being passive a bad thing? A wrong thing? I don’t think so. The reason society is working stably is because the passive majority is backing up the proactive minority.”

“You’re suddenly talking about life philosophy. But it does put me at ease when I hear that.”

“Put you at ease?”

Jayeon turned around to look at Ganghwan. She somehow found Ganghwan rather hateful when she saw him smiling with satisfaction.

“I told you, didn’t I? I won’t work with a producer who has no skill.”

“Having such a mindset is skill in your eyes?”

“Seeing people as they are and reflecting that into your work isn’t something people can do without deep thinking. Showing the viewers everything in the raw without packaging it. To do something like that, casting an actor who has a similar image to the imaginary character means that the producer’s eyes and skills are good. After all, discerning people’s natures is one of the necessary skills of a producer.”

I’m off to the bathroom - after saying those words, Ganghwan turned around with a smile on his face.

Jayeon looked at his back. It was two years ago. She went to see a play that was produced by Ganghwan and acted by Ganghwan. She bought a ticket without knowing what it was about, and just watched the play without thinking too much. Her objective was to see his face after a long time. She wasn’t that interested in the play itself. The play started. Jayeon started watching the play in comfort, but she soon realized that her waist was becoming stiffer and stiffer. The play, which was about the life of a wanderer, expressed the people living in the streets without holding back. Honestly, it made her uncomfortable. She was uncomfortable with the fact that she had to see the problems of society through a media known as a play. The play didn’t give her any room to breathe and kept showing the rawness of the people branded as ‘failures’ by society. The audience didn't produce a single sound. They probably couldn’t. The play pressured their whole bodies just that much. There was no reversal in the ending either. It didn’t talk about ‘splendid worker A returning to his job because he was acknowledged for his earnestness’ or anything remotely close to it. Suicide via jumping off from a bridge. That was the ending of the play. Jayeon immediately ran out of the theater. She felt horrid and disgusted. She also felt angry that she paid money to watch such a play. She sat down on the stairs in front of the theater and thought for a long time. Weren’t dramas supposed to be fantasy?

“Hyung, I mean, seonbae. I still believe that there’s a ray of hope in life. I am going to draw a harsh life. The ending will be a happy one. Yours is just way too sad,” Jayeon said in a small voice.

The man who shook the person known as Yoo Jayeon twice. The play she watched that day became the motif of this drama. A true-to-life kind of life. The life of an ‘ordinary civilian A’ and not a Cinderella. A drama that didn’t contain happiness the size of a magical pumpkin carriage, and instead contained happiness the size of a 100-won yogurt would be her work.

“Get ready!”

Jayeon said as she sat down in front of the monitor.

* * *

“He looks natural,” Yuna said when Byungjae’s act was nearing its end.

The producer gave the okay sign as Byungjae left his room with his bag.

“You should get ready too. It will be you after Mira-noona.”

“I’ve been looking at the script for quite a while now.”

Yuna walked circles around the same spot nervously. After Byungjae’s shoot ended, the camera stationed in front of Byungjae’s room started moving. The lights and the monitor moved along with it.

“Can you come here for a second?”

Maru closed his script and walked over to the woman who was in charge of make-up.

“Close your eyes.”

He sat down and closed his eyes. The soft sensation of cosmetics brushed past his face. The woman didn’t stop after his face and went to his hair as well.

“Director, how does that look?”

Maru squinted his eyes open. Jayeon was in front of him.

“He needs to look like a goody-two-shoes, so I think we should lower his eyelashes a little more.”

“Then I’ll also brighten up his skin tone a little more so that he looks like someone who only studies.”

“Okay then. Please do that. Do his hair so that he looks neat but also rather outdated.”

“I just need to lower his bangs a little.”

Unlike when he was receiving make-up in the styling room, the on-the-scene make-up artist was quite rough and quick with her hands.

“Can you have a look in the mirror?”

Maru checked his appearance in front of the full-body mirror in one corner of the set. The boy who was wearing a dark indigo uniform vest looked extremely ordinary. It was a different feeling from the character from New Semester. There were similarities to the character he played in ‘Youth Generation’, but the current style was more dry. There were no distinctive characteristics at all.

“Good,” Maru said.

His appearance fit the image of the character Park Haejoon that he was playing. He liked it quite a lot because he looked like a stereotypical shy high school student. Expressing a character’s inner world through acting was important, but appearance was just as important sometimes.

“Follow me once you’re ready. We’ll do a quick rehearsal.”

Jayeon went inside the close-off set.

“The camera director will follow you inside. He’ll be standing here.”

The corner next to the desk was the camera director’s position. At that moment, the camera director came in. The director stood where Jayeon pointed.

“Once you open the door and come in, the director will slowly follow you with the camera as you sit down on the bed. You can’t be too slow or too fast. Bring out the feeling of when you just come back home with a tired body.”

Jayeon gave a demonstration. Maru inputted the time that the director wanted into his mind. It took around seven seconds for her to open the door, come in, and sit on the bed. For now, he decided to follow that time.

“Once you sit down and have a look at your desk, lie down on the bed with your feet on the ground. Did you get that?”

“Yes.”

“For now, act just like I did. If it looks okay, we’ll use some ad-libbing. Start your lines once you lie down. There will be a boom mic above you, so don’t be conscious of it. After saying your lines, the cut will end with you walking towards the desk. It is pretty long, so don’t let down your guard.”

Maru slowly nodded. Perhaps because this was her first work, Jayeon seemed to be mindful of the little details. Unlike producer Park Hoon, who just threw the work to the actors and adjusted the details afterwards, it seemed that Jayeon’s style was to decide everything beforehand and adjust accordingly. Maru looked around the room and drew an imaginary movement path. The acting had to be mild without any kind of technique. Perhaps this was why it was even harder.

-If it’s too much for you, you can hand it over to me.

The masked man’s voice could be heard from his heart. He seemed eager to act. Maru told him to calm down. His cooperation wasn’t necessary for this level of acting.

“Don’t get nervous,” said the camera director as he tapped on his shoulder.

Maru replied yes. Jayeon left, and the first cameraman handed the camera on his shoulders to the camera director. The long cable was managed by the lineman, the youngest member of the camera team, so that it was lined up against the wall and did not enter the camera frame. Maru calmed his breathing and left the room. The staff closed the door for him, and Maru waited in front of it. There were people assigned to even the trivial things for dramas.

“Please get ready,” said the assistant director who had an in-ear monitor.

Jayeon, who was watching the monitor from quite far off, was holding a walkie-talkie. Maru could only hear the vibrations of a motor. Every sound produced by people disappeared. The only person who could break this silence spoke at that time,

“Ready.”

The assistant director signaled him with his eyes. Maru uttered out a short breath and grabbed the doorknob.

“Cue!”

KTLChamber's Thoughts

I swear, these directors/producers say different things every time they want to have the actor start acting.

"Cue!" "Action!"

People sometimes add stuff in between as well… like slates, camera cues, etc

Editor's Note:

Cue people being wowed please.

P.S: a goshiwon is a small room that is fully finished with everything one needs. If you want to know more you can click on the word (it's linked to an article)

Chapter 680

There was a quiz. The subject was math. The math teacher was known to give out hard questions, so he studied quite hard. He checked his score after the quiz ended, and he scored 80 points. Woojin, who sat next to him, also scored 80 points. Hojoon got 82. He thought that he did pretty well, but it was just so-so.

As always, he did decently. He didn’t excel at anything, but he wasn’t bad at anything to the point that he was pointed out for it. Whether it was studying or games or sports, he was always average. If there was one thing he could boast about, maybe it was that he never missed a class. He had the confidence to never miss a class even if it was for a cram school. He did have the desire to do better, but he always ended average or just a little above it. He was like a mass-produced item. No matter what he did, the result was always conformed to the specs.

He lied down. Although the urge to sleep overwhelmed him, he didn’t want to sleep. He thought about studying or maybe playing a game. He was more than willing to do so, but his body refused to leave the bed. Haah, Haejoon sighed and covered his eyes with his arm. He didn’t know what it was that he wanted to do.

Just then, he remembered an unfamiliar smile. It was from the girl sitting next to him. They had been in the same class for the semester, and it had been a few weeks since they started sitting next to each other, but the number of times he talked to that girl could be counted on one hand. There was no real reason to talk to her, and he didn’t want to do that either. Actually, the more accurate reason should be that he wasn’t interested. She was just one of the many classmates that he would spend the year with. Today, she made a bright smile. He had never seen that smile before.

* * *

Hearing the cut sound, Maru took his arm off his eyes and sat up. The camera director, who had been shooting from the corner, handed the camera to his assistant and exercised his shoulders.

“The director is coming,” said the assistant director as he opened the door.

Following that, Jayeon entered the set.

“You did just as I told you to.”

“Thank you.”

“For now, your movement was according to the plan, but your mood is a little too dreary. The character known as Park Haejoon is a student that might exist anywhere. He’s not a character from a tragic story, so I think you need to adjust that tone a little.”

“Should I try being a little more cheerful?”

“Go ahead.”

Maru left the set. He shook his body off lightly before waiting for the assistant director’s signal. The assistant director, who was nodding while putting his finger on the in-ear monitor, shouted to him to stand by. Maru grabbed the doorknob. Following that, he got the cue sign.

He pushed the door open and went inside. He took his steps while being conscious of the camera director who was waiting on the left. This scene didn’t have a single line. His only form of expression was his facial expressions, actions, and sighs. He widened his steps a little to speed up a little. He moved according to Jayeon’s request and sat down on the bed before starting to act.

Maru thought back to the character known as Park Haejoon. He was someone who gained comfort within the fences of ordinariness, and yet he was also an ordinary student who yearned to be like his friends that were playing outside those fences. He sometimes sought to escape from everyday life, but whenever he was given the opportunity to, he would always refrain from doing so after thinking about the realistic problems. He was dissatisfied with the repetitive life of going to school and then to cram schools, but he had no intention of expressing that. He had a sense of rejection to revealing himself, and yet he contradictorily also wished for someone to look at him and think that he was special. However, that balance was delicate and neither pulled him up nor dragged him down. Like the Earth rotating around the sun, Haejoon was just spending his school life while in orbit.

He was a character that could bring out sympathy within people. He was an ‘ordinary’ person after all. However, transforming that ordinariness into acting was pretty difficult.

Acting had to contain an intention or a meaning. Actions that made up the act likewise had to have intent behind them for the people watching to focus. If the objective was to show an ‘ordinary student’ as it was, there was no real reason to use an actor for it. After all, having an ordinary student do that role instead would be perfectly sufficient. There was only one reason why an actor was used. It was to show the ordinary so that it did not look ordinary. The ‘natural act’ that people talked about was not supposed to be understood literally. The very act of acting itself was at the epitome of unnaturalness. When actors talked about being ‘natural’, they didn’t mean that they should show what they were supposed to as it was; they meant they should show it in a ‘convincing’ manner. The two might sound similar, but there was a big difference between the two. Shooting a class full of people would show a group of ‘natural-looking’ students. However, people did not call that acting. It was only called acting when someone that was not a student was wearing a student uniform and ‘convincingly’ expressed being a student.

To convincingly express something, the actor had to become infinitely close to the essence of the target. How would the Park Haejoon, who was analyzed and interpreted by Maru after looking at the script, act in various situations? While Maru proceeded with the act that Jayeon requested him to do, his head was looking for another form of expressing Park Haejoon. This character, who was satisfied being average, belonged to the more earnest side. From the fact that he spent time preparing for the quiz and that he was never late to school and cram school classes, it could be gleaned that he was someone who always did things ahead of time in case he was late.

He raised his arm and blocked his face. The script did not contain a detailed description of the situation. Haejoon, who enters the room, thinks about some things for a while before sitting at the desk. Jayeon had re-interpreted this description into one where Haejoon would enter his room and lie down on the bed instead.

Maru continued his thoughts as he continued to act according to what he saw during the rehearsal. Being earnest could also be interpreted as having and maintaining one’s own schedule and movement patterns. Is throwing his bag on the bed despite not experiencing anything fatiguing and then falling on the bed really suited to this character? There were a number of fixed patterns after finishing school. Mixing things that an ordinary, earnest student would do might be something trivial, but it would definitely bring out character.

After finishing his thoughts, Maru sighed. He couldn’t start improvising halfway through. The thing that a new actor had to prioritize above everything was to listen to all of the producer’s instructions. Even if he couldn’t accept it, it would be fine as long as the producer was satisfied with it. Being able to go against the director was something that only verified actors could do. New chicks had their new chick ways.

“Cut!”

The shoot ended in the same spot as the first shoot. Maru sat up. Jayeon came over this time as well. She could have told him everything through the assistant director, too. It could be seen that she was quite a passionate producer.

“It is the picture I want, but it somehow feels lacking.”

“Director Yoo. I told you you shouldn’t be so greedy on your first work. He looked good in my eyes. From how he didn’t look awkward when it came to his gaze and actions while lying down, don’t you think that that was a successful cut?” The camera director spoke with a smile.

He seemed to be acquainted with producer Jayeon as Jayeon accepted his words without feeling displeased.

“You’re right, but something’s just not to my liking.”

“Is my acting insufficient?”

“No. You were good just as the camera director said. You were good, but it just isn’t enough for me. I’m not saying that your acting is the problem. I’m saying that there’s a flaw in my production methods.”

Finding insufficiencies from oneself. School textbooks thought that that was the normal thought process, but anyone with a decent amount of social experience would know how absurd that was. The higher a person climbed, the more authority they gained, and the more achievements they sought, the more they shifted the responsibility onto others. That was an unwritten rule in this society.

Producer Jayeon tried to find her insufficiencies from within herself. Meaning, she wasn’t someone who would shift the blame on others. Maru couldn’t be entirely sure from just this one thing, but it seemed that she was on the relatively decent side of society.

“Han Maru.”

“Yes.”

“Would you like to solve this yourself?”

“May I?”

“Sounds like you have something in mind.”

“An actor not drawing a picture inside his head after receiving a script would be a negligence of duty.”

“That’s the answer I wanted. Honestly speaking, I don’t really know what it means to be ‘ordinary’. That’s why I want to listen to as many opinions as possible. I already told this to the other actors. If there’s something they can’t understand or can’t accept after listening to my directions, I told them to say it to me on the spot without hesitation. It will be no use if it happens after the shoot. You know what I mean, right?”

Maru nodded.

“Good. How are you going to express it?”

“As I analyzed it, I thought that this fellow needed to base his actions on the ‘right actions’.”

“Right actions?”

“It’s nothing grand. It’s those things that adults always tell the youths, the ones that appear in textbooks. To be more precise, the right actions that are generally sought. For example, washing your hands after going out or organizing your items.”

“After listening to that and thinking about Park Haejoon, he really sounds like a boring character to me.”

“It is as you say.”

“But I also like it.”

Jayeon grinned.

“Try coming up with a movement path so that the camera director can capture you accurately and properly.”

“For now, the entering process is the same. However, I won’t throw the bag. I’ll just go to the desk and start organizing the desk so that it looks neat and tidy.”

“Then should I have the desk neatly cleaned up?”

“No, we must give the feeling that Park Haejoon is going through such processes. It’s not like he’s a clean freak nor is he paranoid over things like that. Having a moderately messy desk is good since it looks like it belongs to an ordinary student.”

“Good, I got that.”

“After that, he sits on the bed.”

“Okay. After that, do the things you are thinking about as well. Also, from waking up from the bed to sitting at the desk. That will be one cut.”

“Understood.”

“Senior, please take a pretty shot. Maru, do what you just said.”

Jayeon left with the walkie-talkie in hand. Maru also picked up the bag on the bed before leaving the room. This was the third shoot. The cue sign came soon. He opened the door and went inside before standing in front of the desk. Since he was given permission to improvise to a certain extent, he used his mouth a little. He yawned and took out his textbooks from his bag before piling them in a corner of his desk. Putting them neatly on the shelf was unnecessary so he skipped that part.

He put his bag under his desk before sitting on the bed. Then he pulled his pillow towards him. He hugged it before lying down. Being conscious of the fact that the camera was tilting a little, he opened his lips slightly. Sighing deeply might feel too artificial, so he replaced that with breathing slightly heavily. He rolled around in bed a little as he thought about the unordinary ‘her’ who had barged into his ordinary life. He was in his youth, a time when he couldn’t express himself clearly because he didn’t know the identity of his feelings. Maru looked at the ceiling in a daze before walking over to the desk.

Cut, the sound could be heard from outside the set. Producer Jayeon entered the set along with some footsteps that sounded like they came from a burly man.

“Isn’t it a little too girly to hug a pillow?”

“Kids these days can get emotional, you know?”

“Are you like that too?”

“No, I’m not.”

“Okay, let’s leave you aside since you’re a little strange. Don’t you think a boy hugging a pillow and rolling around on bed is a little off?”

“If it’s strange, should we leave that out and try it again?”

Jayeon, who was tapping on her neck with her index finger, eventually shook her head.

“Did you hug the pillow to suggest that you had some feelings of first love?”

“It’s not something grand like a suggestion. I just tried expressing the ‘unordinary’ through that. Love finally showed signs of appearing to a boy who doesn’t have any ups nor downs in life. It’s rather stereotypical, but that just makes it easier to understand. It also suits an ‘ordinary’ character.”

Maru could not become Park Haejoon. Synchronizing with the character was the specialty of the masked man inside him. His specialty was to analyze everything meticulously in order to increase the level of similarity. As he had multiple analyses of the character inside his head, he didn’t feel that bad even if someone felt dissatisfied with his expression of the character. He just found it a bit of a pity. If he borrowed the masked man’s powers and became Park Haejoon down to his bones, he might have retorted to producer Jayeon’s words - perhaps he might have asked her what she knew about Park Haejoon.

“If you don’t like it, I can always go with another…”

“Nope! I will let you go for now. Your words persuaded me. Good, I really like this kind of thing.”

Producer Jayeon made a satisfied expression.

“Now we just have to get a cut of the creased duvet, a cut where you stand up, a cut of the clock, and finally a cut of you sitting down at the desk and fidgeting with a pencil.”

Jayeon pointed out the things they had to do in a clean fashion.

KTLChamber's Thoughts

Gee, I hope we're getting back to track……

Editor's Note:

I missed the acting aspect after all that confusion with memories and time loops. Also, I don't care what anyone says, hugging a pillow gives me comfort so Imma do it regardless of if I'm a guy or not. Lul

Chapter 681

Maru took a deep breath of the air in the set. He felt that he was becoming more and more sensitive with the repeated cues and cuts. Jayeon was someone who knew what she had to shoot. As she had a clear sense of objective and directionality, she solved what she lacked - instructions for the actors - by talking to the actor about it. For an actor, working with a producer who listened to their words is something happy but also rather pressuring. It might be an opportunity if the actor was ambitious with acting and knew a lot of things, but if the actor was someone who relied on the director for everything, they might find it a disaster.

He could see Yuna through the gaps in the set. She was licking her lips as she flipped through her script. Maru could tell from afar that she was nervous. The set should still be an unfamiliar stage for her. She was someone who once turned her eyes away from the fact that acting was difficult and tiring because she forced herself to think that acting was supposed to be enjoyable.

“You’re good.”

“Thank you.”

While producer Jayeon checked the footage, they got a break. The one who talked to him was the camera director who went into the set with him. Jayeon called this man ‘senior Kim’.

“You’re used to shoots, huh? You don’t look nervous at all.”

“Well, I guess I do have more room to relax after dipping my feet into it a couple of times. During my first shoot, I was so torn between whether I had to look at the camera or not.”

“It’s a problem if you’re conscious of it, but it’s also a problem if you aren’t.”

“Yes, that really was the case.”

“You’re doing well though, so don’t worry about it.”

The camera director put his hands in his pocket before taking out a piece of chocolate.

“Would you like one?”

“I’ll gladly take it if you’re willing to give it to me.”

The chocolate, which was wrapped in plastic wrap, drew a parabola in the air as it flew towards him. Maru thanked him before putting the chocolate in his mouth. When something sweet spread around in his mouth, he felt like he had gotten energy.

“I have a kid your age at home,” said the camera director.

“Is he in his 3rd year of high school?”

“No, he’s in his 1st. Because the work I do is like this, I don’t really have a lot of time to see him, and when I became aware of it, he had turned into an adult already.”

“I guess that must have made you both proud and a little disappointed.”

The camera director blinked once before putting on a faint smile.

“I’m not that proud. He’s still immature.”

“You know there’s a proud smile on your face right now, right?”

“Was it that obvious?”

The camera director laughed.

“He’s also getting ready to be an actor. I stopped him at first. I mean, I’ve seen a lot of things. This place is so desolate that studying towards success seems easier.”

“I personally found studying much harder. Maybe it’s because I’m not that smart.”

“No way, you look smart at a glance. If the almighty director Yoo asked you for your opinions and followed your words, then that explains everything. That girl, she’s more than willing to kneel to the people she could learn from, but to anyone else, she would never be subservient even to her superiors.”

“She’s a female general.”

“That’s right, she’s a female general. A fussy one too.”

As he was listening to the camera director’s words with a smile, Yuna caught his eyes again. She was muttering something with her eyes closed before she opened her eyes and checked the script. From the way she was sighing, it seemed that she incorrectly memorized her lines. It was something that everyone experienced. The lines they could practically sing before reaching the shooting set would disappear the moment they stepped into the set. They would be as clean as a new slate.

“Uhm, director.”

“Hm?”

“May I have another one of those chocolates?”

“This is my medicine, you know?”

Despite saying those words, the camera director chucked two at him.

“It’s tasty, isn’t it? They’re foreign-made.”

“It’s good. I’m planning to give one to her over there, do you mind if I do?”

“Over there?”

The camera director stepped sideways to look at Yuna who was outside the set.

“Oh, her.”

“I think she’s very nervous right now, so I was wondering if something sweet might make her calm down.”

“I see, you can give it to her if you like. Don’t forget to tell her that I’m the one who gave you them,” said the camera director with a smile.

Maru left the set with the chocolates in hand. He could see producer Jayeon and Ganghwan talking in front of the monitor. It seemed that something wasn’t going right.

“Yuna.”

Yuna raised her head. Maru tossed her one of the chocolates. Yuna, who was in a daze, hurriedly closed the script and received the chocolate.

“What’s this?”

“What do you think?”

“Oh, chocolate.”

“The camera director gave it to you. He says you’ll ease up a little if you eat it.”

Maru pointed at the camera director who was waving his hands inside the set. Although the camera director was in his middle ages, his actions looked somewhat cute. Yuna immediately bowed towards him.

“I know nothing I say will be helpful, but don’t try too hard to memorize it. If you’ve prepared properly, you’ll naturally remember everything once you start.”

“You don’t feel nervous, do you, seonbae?” Yuna asked as she fidgeted with the packaging.

“I do. I just don’t show it. Ultimately this is a group project. The actors are the ones who will show up on screen, but everyone else here make all that possible. If the person going on the screen is nervous, the staff here will feel exhausted.”

“That’s true.”

“So eat it and relax a little.”

After seeing Yuna eat the chocolate, Maru entered the set again.

“You’re looking after her?”

“She’s someone I know, so I should take care of her when I can. Though, I won’t be able to do it if the hot potato falls into my hands.”

Maru took out the script he put underneath the bed. The start was good, but to maintain this current atmosphere, he had to increase his understanding of the character.

“You’re earnest,” said the camera director who approached him.

He pointed at the script which was filled with notes everywhere,

“It’s the same for every job. Regardless of what you do, you always have to keep studying. Did you write all that?”

“Yes, it’s become a habit now. If I see any blank space on the script, it makes me feel like I haven’t done enough.”

“I wish my kid knew that being an actor isn’t simply about consuming emotions.”

“He’ll probably realize It once he starts doing it for real. There’s nothing in this world that can be done without planning.”

Just as he was about halfway through the script, producer Jayeon came in.

“We’re going to do the next scene. If there’s any improv you want to do, then try putting it in. I’ll see how it goes and will cut if necessary.”

“Okay.”

Maru chucked the script beneath the bed again.

* * *

Feeling something sweet in her mouth, Yuna looked inside the set. Maru-seonbae’s shoot was currently underway. Like the two people before him, his shoot was progressing smoothly. Cut signs could be heard, and whenever that happened, producer Jayeon talked to seonbae with a pleasant smile on her face. It felt like two pros working towards the same goal.

Yuna thought that she shouldn’t get nervous, but she was still worried that she might derail everything. She had recovered to the point that she was able to look around her thanks to seonbae’s consideration for her. 10 minutes ago, she was so out of it that she couldn’t hear anything around her.

She could see Maru behind the door in the set. He lay on the bed before standing up and going to his desk. They were simple actions that did not require anything technical, but Yuna knew that the less technique there was, the more an actor’s skill would show.

“I did about that much when I was his age.”

Hearing the voice next to her, Yuna was startled and turned around. Ganghwan was there. Yuna stared at him with her mouth slightly agape. Ganghwan’s act, which had started off the shoot, shocked Yuna a lot. Actually, when she saw him for the first time during the get-together, she just thought that he was one of the seniors who had spent a long time as a nameless actor. Even after hearing that he had been an actor for a long time on the theater side, she didn’t think he was that amazing. That was because of her bias that actors who were active on screens were generally better than the ones in theaters.

He seemed light-hearted and laughed very easily. She just thought that he was a cheerful senior actor when she heard about his life stories, which she couldn’t tell whether they were true or not. However, the moment she saw him acting, her bias was shattered to pieces. She felt ashamed for thinking that actors in theaters would be inferior to actors who were active in dramas.

Producer Jayeon asked for a few changes because of his vocalization and speech tone which was unique to theatrical acting, but that only happened once. From the 2nd time onwards, he looked just as professional as veteran drama actors. Ganghwan expressed a rather successful writer who hit a writer’s block with just his movements and breathing since he did not have any lines. Even viewers who did not know the scenario would instantly realize that this man had a big worry.

“Why are you looking at me like that?”

“N-nothing.”

“I guess I am a little handsome.”

Hearing the joke, Yuna chuckled. She then realized that she was laughing in front of a great senior and tried to hold back the laugh, but she couldn’t do anything about the fact that she had laughed already.

“If it’s funny, you should laugh.”

“What?”

“You know? For actors, there definitely comes a time when they have to look at their own feelings honestly and express them. When you first start acting, you would probably think that hiding yourself is the essence of acting, but once you keep doing it, you realize that there’s a limit to hiding and that revealing yourself is the only way to survive. How do you feel right now? Are you nervous?”

“Yes, just a little.”

“Then try getting close to that nervousness. Don’t just think ‘I’m nervous’. If you are nervous, observe what kind of changes are happening to your body, from the tip of your head to your toes. Since I said that, let’s try that right now instead of watching that kid over there, who can take care of himself.”

Ganghwan pointed at Maru with his index finger. Yuna inwardly flinched. This wasn’t the time to be looking at other people. She had to use this time to improve herself. Just as Maru said, she had to do it for the sake of the people working here.

She closed her eyes and focused. She intended to find out how every one of her cells was reacting to her current feelings.

* * *

“Kids these days are scary.”

Jayeon, who was still standing up after shouting cut, tilted her head when she heard Ganghwan’s words. Ganghwan was pointing at Yuna, who was standing next to the set with her eyes closed.

“They absorb everything they’re told. At this rate, I will use up my arsenal of tricks.”

“Is there even an end to that?”

“If I keep taking things out, it will bottom out eventually.”

“So it’s not happening for a while, huh. Anyway, I’ll let you take care of the others when it comes to acting. That’s why I picked you after all.”

Ganghwan cringed one eye.

“If you’re gonna do that, do that after you pay me extra. I might look like this but I once taught at the Myeongdong Arts Hall, you know?”

“I’ll treat you to meat.”

“Good. I accept that deal.”

“You’re such an easy man.”

Jayeon smiled.

“But Han Maru, where the heck did that guy pop out from? He’s really good.”

“I told you he’s a precious disciple of mine. Try using him well. There’s probably no one who has made full use out of him yet.”

“I’ll drain him to the bones so don’t you worry.”

Just then, Jayeon saw Yuna making a resolve behind the shrugging Ganghwan.

“Looks like she’s ready too. I guess we’ll be able to finish today’s scenes before sunset.”

“Do we get a get-together if it ends early?”

“Uhm, hello, actor Yang? We don’t have a lot of budget, you know?”

Jayeon pushed Ganghwan away and walked over to Mira who was waiting.

“You ready?”

“I’m always ready. It’s a matter of whether I do well or not.”

“All of your comments are gold. Just keep doing that. It fits your character.”

“I think I’ll have an easier time thanks to that. The character has a similar personality to me.”

“That’s why you were picked. So show me perfect acting.”

Jayeon stood in front of the B set. The set that was Byungjae’s room before had changed into Mira’s room. The position of the furniture had changed, and when the color of the walls changed, it felt completely different before, despite the fact that it was the same space. There were posters of rock artists on the wall, as well as a shelf full of hiking boots. Mira’s room was a stark contrast to Byungjae, who was an examinee who lived a strict everyday life, since she belonged to a well-off household.

“We’ll do a rehearsal and shoot in five minutes.”

“Okay.”

“Show your confidence in the form of acting.”

Jayeon looked at Mira, who boldly walked into the set, before turning her eyes over to Yuna. These were the actors that she chose. Until now, there had been no problems. As long as that girl shows her colors, this drama would definitely do well.

“Well then, let’s get ready!”

KTLChamber's Thoughts

I'm still waiting… for the day when Maru becomes big

Editor's Note:

Ganghwan actually acting like a senior seems odd.

Chapter 682

The shoot began in the set after it was cleaned up. The slightest bit of noise disappeared, and everyone’s attention was focused on the firmly shut set. Maru walked silently behind producer Jayeon. He saw Mira captured in the monitor that she was looking at. On it, Mira was dancing on the spot joyfully with her eyes closed. When producer Jayeon grabbed the walkie-talkie and said ‘more’, Mira shook her body even more violently.

“Cut, Mira!”

Jayeon stood up from her seat and ran over to the set. Maru saw Jayeon appear on the monitor when she rushed in. Jayeon’s hands moved up and down. After explaining something with big hand gestures, she suddenly started dancing. A rather abrupt dance session unfolded. The two people, who looked at each other inside the screen while dancing, eventually returned to normal and started walking around. The dance was hot, just like the instructions.

“That’s the first time I saw a dance without music. Dang, it’s something,” Ganghwan said.

“They’re adding the music afterwards, right?”

“Probably.”

The two women inside the screen exchanged a quick conversation. Jayeon quickly returned to the monitor and ordered through the walkie-talkie to standby. Maru became quiet and breathed as shallowly as possible. Jayeon, who was staring holes in the monitor, would react to even the most minute sounds. The Mira inside the screen let her body loose to the soundless music. She waved her hand above her head and shook her head so that her orange hair was fluttering around. Apparently, it was a dance that was recently trending in night clubs, and it looks like it would strain the neck bones considerably.

A newly debuted writer who has hit a writer’s block after writing a good work, an exam student who lived a plain life and was now living inside a ravine and was having a hard time escaping, a college girl who focused all her energy into the things she wanted to do, a high school boy who decided to throw out his ordinariness for the sake of his first love, and a high school girl who likes that ordinariness and has a lot of pains. Characters who might exist somewhere had been polished and fitted into a scenario, and were being brought to reality through the acting of the actors.

Mira was expressing a college girl whose entire body was filled with passion with all her body. She was dancing in silence, but looking at her expression, it felt like some strong beats were flowing out from somewhere. At that moment, the lights stretched in a long fashion next to the set had turned blue. Even psychedelic lights had appeared and started flashing. Jayeon also jerked up and down as she watched Mira shaking her body. About 40 seconds passed like that before Jayeon shouted cut.

“That’s it! That was very good!”

Jayeon even snapped her fingers in joy. Inside the screen, Mira was panting heavily with her hands on her waist. She had done some vigorous actions, so she must have been out of breath.

“The production is just like the script.”

Maru thought about Mira’s scene. In the script was a line that said: a nightclub-like environment formed inside the room. Whether the final version made it look like it was the imagination of the character or like a sitcom, Jayeon would be the one to decide.

Maru took out his phone and checked the time. It had been 3 hours since they started shooting. Up until now, they finished his own scene, Ganghwan’s, Byungjae’s, and Mira’s scene, but in terms of the actual air time, it wouldn’t even be 5 minutes. The scenes they shot were the introduction scenes where they showed off the characters one by one. These scenes would allow the audience to deduce the nature of the characters through their actions as well as their rooms. If it was a play, they could just introduce the characters to the audience in detail, but the moment someone said ‘I’m someone and I have the role of X’ in a TV series, the viewer forums would explode and the channel would be switched to something else.

“We’re moving now!”

The assistant director’s voice could be heard. The staff, who had gotten into position in front of set B, moved over to set C with all the equipment. Maru looked at Yuna. It was her turn now.

“Do your best.”

“Yes, seonbae.”

Yuna walked over like a machine that wasn’t oiled properly. It seemed that nervousness had gotten to her again. It was impossible to avoid being nervous in a situation where one was about to do what one came to do. There was only one solution - to overcome it. As long as one was a pro, the option to run away or to give up did not exist. She would either have to finish the act successfully or leave behind a terrible act. There was nothing inbetween.

Maru stood in front of set C. This was the space he had been acting in just a little while ago, but everything had changed. There was a blanket on the floor which looked really old. The blanket had cute characters on it, and it was stained as though it had fungus growing on it. It was small as well. Even Yuna, who didn’t have a big stature, would have her feet sticking out if she lied down on it.

Against one wall was a circular metallic table. On the surface of that table were many dents indicating that it was used for a long time. The only thing that could be considered ‘furniture’ was a shelf, and even that was completely empty. On the floor were textbooks and various problem solving books, and the problem solving books had been discolored into a yellow color. Everything in the set indicated that she was poor. Yuna entered the room that looked like the manifestation of poverty. Her shoulder-length hair was tied with a rubber band, and she was wearing a pink ‘jersey’ that had been discolored from the wrong use of bleach and had holes at the knees.

“Looks good on you,” Jayeon said.

Yuna laughed. Her lips were slightly shaking as she laughed. It seemed that there was still a hint of nervousness.

“I hope she does well,” Ganghwan said.

He looked rather worried. He no longer had a joking tone, and his words sounded heavy.

“Have you ever worked with the director?”

“No, I haven’t. But I did watch her.”

“How was she?”

“She was similar to how she’s doing now. Jayeon is an angel when everything goes well. She’s probably happy that the actors she picked are doing their jobs properly.”

“How about when things are not going well?”

“I told you, she’s an angel when things are going well.”

Maru stopped asking. Dramas were the work of many people working together, but for the shoot alone, the responsibility would lie with the actor. It was something very difficult and solitary. It was especially worse when the actor caused a series of NGs and people around started looking at the actor with displeased eyes. By then, the shooting set would become hell on Earth for a new actor.

“But don’t worry too much. This is something that has Yoo Jayeon’s name on it. She might not show it, but she should be feeling very responsible. It’s not that surprising since the number of digits of money that’s being moved around is different, and there are a lot of people putting their effort into this. If she doesn’t feel the pressure, that’s also a problem.”

After listening to Ganghwan’s words, Maru looked at Jayeon’s face from the side. She was explaining to Yuna her movements and she definitely looked confident, but after what Ganghwan said, Maru felt that she seemed somewhat nervous.

Ganghwan made a rectangle with the thumbs and index fingers. He captured the two women in the rectangle like he was taking a photo.

“I’m saying that strictly speaking, this is the first time for both of them. It’ll be a debut piece for both of them. They should be just about as nervous as each other.”

“Why didn’t you give them some advice?”

“I will if they reach out to me. If they come to me, then I’ll help out at that time. Director Yoo is someone who would growl at me, telling me not to pity her if I tried to do that. I’m not sure about the details, but apparently, it’s not an easy thing for a female producer to survive in the drama field. She climbed up all the way here after going through all of that hardships. I can’t help her out so easily. There’s her pride on the line.”

Ganghwan crossed his arms.

“She tells me in passing to help her out, but that shouldn’t be what’s really on her mind. I know a little about her. She’s an unrelenting general. She’s the kind of tree who would manage to take root even in the desert. If I stick my head around trying to be gentle to her, I’ll get hated instead… Yeah, no matter how much I think about it.”

This will be the best piece ever! - Maru remembered Jayeon saying those words during the get-together. The shadow from that high self-confidence of hers should be that stifling nervousness. If things went well, she would gain momentum and climb the ranks, but the moment she looks back, she might fall in despair because of the drastic difference between her ideals and reality. It was at those times that Ganghwan would reach out. After all, he was a veteran among veterans. As Ganghwan had experience both directing and acting in a piece, he was probably well aware of what Jayeon was going through. The fact that there was someone to support her would relieve her a lot, just with him being here. Even if she did not rely on him, she would be a lot more relieved knowing that he was here and could proceed onwards.

Maru had a look at Yuna. He was the only one who could be considered her ‘peer’ in this wide set area. If Yuna felt pressure and reached out to him for help, what could he do for her?

“I wish I had confidence like you, hyung-nim. If I had the ability to solve everything that people ask me to do, then I would feel confident too.”

“The fact that you’re thinking about such a thing means that you are a good man. There are kids who need a friend’s encouragement more than an adult’s advice, so you should try to do that. From the way I saw it, she seemed to follow you a lot?”

“I’m the only one around her age here after all.”

“Well, to my eyes, she looks like a girl who’s acting embarrassed in front of the oppa she likes though?”

“No way,” Maru said as he looked away.

He couldn’t be sure that Yuna had resolved all of her feelings towards him. However, it was impossible for him to date her when he already had a lover. People betraying each other wasn’t something that happened frequently, and he did not experience that a lot, but for some reason, when he thought about that word, rage boiled up inside him. As such, he did not plan on accepting other people’s feelings towards him as long as he maintained a good relationship with Gaeul. It was a student romance that would end one day, but as long as that romance existed, he wanted to give her the best memories possible.

“Just think of her as a cute junior and listen to her a lot. An actor is a solitary job after all.”

“Okay.”

“Also, I saw that your acting has improved quite a lot. I also feel like the way you do it has changed somewhat.”

“The way I do it?”

“Until last winter, you felt like a machine. You were good. You were good, but it somehow felt artificial. But right now, a lot of that has dissipated. I feel like you’re finally acting like a person of your age.”

Maru smiled inwardly. I’m actually thirty-one - if he told him that, he wondered what Ganghwan would say about it. Since he was at it, he thought about how he acted before. He couldn’t understand before he heard about it, but now that he looked back, he did somewhat understand. The way he acted was similar to now, but back then, he just had no leisure.

‘Rather than leisure… I might have thought that I had to do it that way.’

It was a strange feeling. There was a sense of disparity between the current him and the past him. Was it happening because the memories had been fading this past half a year? He felt like the naturally mature child had now become a natural youth. Mature… naturally mature, huh.

As he was thinking deeply about it, the shoot started and the first cut sign fell. He saw Jayeon standing up in front of the monitor. Her expression didn’t look that good. She started moving. Thud, thud. The sound was heavy like an elephant’s footsteps. It seemed to be representative of her heavy heart.

KTLChamber's Thoughts

It's been a couple days since I last translated and I come back to this…

Editor's Note:

Am I the only one who imagined pole dancing even tho there was no pole…… I'll excuse myself now.

Chapter 683

The words that Maru-seonbae said still remained in her heart. Acting can’t always be fun. Those words were like a lighthouse that shone on the path that she should take.

Ever since her attitude towards acting changed, acting was no longer just a fun thing like what seonbae said. Learning was a painful process that birthed another learning process, and it became harder to taste a sense of achievement. The sense of satisfaction became faint and she became more afraid of acting, but simultaneously, she started seeing what she couldn’t see before. Only after realizing that acting was something hard did she find herself changing. When acting was a form of refuge for her, she always stopped when she felt stuck. After all, it wouldn’t be good if the joy broke. It was a ‘play’; something joyful that does not include pain.

After escaping just ‘playing’, acting became a series of hardships, but unlike before, it gave her a lot of other good things. She finally felt like the her of today was different from the her of yesterday, and that she would change yet again tomorrow. The joy of walking forward little by little made her accept the hard practice. While she was going through that process, she gained a challenging mindset. She also gained the confidence that she would be able to digest the roles given to her to her satisfaction, even if it was not perfect.

“Yuna, is there something you’re angry about?”

Hearing producer Jayeon’s words, Yuna shook her head. The confidence she had before they started the shoot could no longer be seen now. If there was a sense of nervousness at least, she felt like she could burn up in passion, but right now, her head had turned blank.

This was the third time already. Producer Jayeon was repeating the same words. Yuna felt afraid of looking at the producer in the face. It would be better if she was scolding her, yet instead, she was apologetically asking her if something was wrong as though it was her fault. Yuna felt that the sense of guilt had increased severalfold.

“When you said your line, before, you were too relaxed, and right now, you’re putting too much strength into it. Also, your eyes. I think you’re making your eyes like that to show that your character has been raised in a difficult environment, but you’re exaggerating too much. You’re too sharp throughout the entire call. The character known as Yoon Jihae is a strong girl who befriends others at school and boldly goes to school despite many external influences. And I don’t think that becoming angry on a whim is being strong.”

Yuna nodded. She was entirely right. When she analyzed the character, she also thought that the girl was like ‘Candy’[1], who never cried despite the environment she was in. A Candy with an angry voice was not Candy. Yuna set herself straight.

“Sorry.”

“Eh?”

Yuna raised her head when she heard the sudden apology. Jayeon patted her on the shoulders before continuing to speak,

“I should have guided you better, but I’m still lacking. Let’s think about it together and find a solution. We still have a lot of time for the shoot. You know what I mean, right?”

“Yes.”

Jayeon left the set. Due to the sudden apology from the director, she felt like her dazed mind was becoming better. She thought of what she had to do.

“Just shake it all off. Acting is something you can’t put too much energy into. Though, I can’t be sure about that since it’s not my specialty,” said the camera director who was also on the set with her.

First, the chocolate, then the words of encouragement - Yuna thanked him twice in a row. It came to her that this wasn’t something she was doing by herself. Just knowing that there were people to lead her and push her from behind made her calm down a little. However, she couldn’t entirely calm down. Once the camera started rolling and the cue sign fell, she had to fight by herself again. She wanted to finish this quickly even if it was for the sake of the staff who were being considerate of her.

The assistant director gave the cue sign. Yuna became conscious of the character and started acting. She opened the folded table in the corner and put her textbooks on it. She opened her notebook and picked up a pen before resting her chin on her hands. Following that, the assistant director outside the set gestured to her to pick up her phone. Yuna picked up her vibrating phone. She opened the phone and put it against her ear. She couldn’t hear anything.

“Oh, you want to go out over the weekend? I’m so sorry. I really want to go, but I don’t think I can make it. Yeah, okay, I’ll definitely go with you next time. Alright, see you tomorrow.”

She pictured an imaginary conversation in her head and thought about the speed before hanging up the call. She looked at her phone with a slightly relaxed expression before turning her eyes to the notebook. She started copying down the formulas in the book into her notes expressionlessly. The pen scratched against the paper, making some noise. Yuna waited for the cut sign to arrive. This was one cut. This time, she didn’t make any mistakes and did not act too tragic either. Did it look like a plain act? Just as she thought about that, she heard the cut sound.

She stood up as she pressed on her strangely stiff shoulders. Was producer Jayeon satisfied this time? She heard footsteps approaching the set. Following that, the door opened before Jayeon came in. The moment she looked at her lips, Yuna realized that she was wrong this time as well. She knew because she saw. When actors successfully finished a cut, Jayeon would cheerfully run over. The four that acted before her all managed to digest the scene and hear that laughter from her.

“You’re better than before. You definitely are, but…”

Jayeon couldn’t continue. Yuna felt her neck stiffening. Her head kept going down.

“Yuna, how did you feel?”

“Yes?”

“Were you satisfied with your acting?”

When she just finished acting, she thought that that may have been enough, but the moment she saw Jayeon’s face, that belief disappeared.

“No.”

“Okay. Good, let’s take a break. I heard a few seniors tell me that the first shoot is always the hardest. But you know the advantage of shooting beforehand. I don’t care how many times you make a mistake. If I can get a finished cut during that process, I will be satisfied.”

Jayeon turned around as she brushed up her hair with her hand. Yuna also left the set. Her footsteps were heavy.

“Why do you look so dejected?”

Ganghwan was standing in front of her. Behind him, she saw Byungjae, Mira, and Maru as well.

“I’m sorry, it’s all because of me…”

She didn’t know until yesterday that not being able to act the way she wanted was such a frustrating thing. She had the urge to cry. If she was by herself right now, she might have been sniffling.

“Is your act not going well?”

“Yes.”

“Did you try everything you prepared?”

“I think I did.”

“Thinking that you did and actually doing it is strictly different. You know that, right?”

Yuna nodded.

“What should I do? I don’t get it. Was my preparation not enough?”

“I wouldn’t know that. We didn’t practice together after all. Do you want to try doing it here? What are seniors for? We should help out in a time like this,” Ganghwan said as he looked behind him.

The eyes of the staff were directed their way. Yuna felt like all the eyes in this place were looking at her. She felt her heart race, but there was no reason to hesitate. She started acting immediately. She was in dire need of advice right now.

After acting, she looked at the four.

“You did that?”

“Yes.”

“Doesn’t look bad to me,” Ganghwan said.

Yuna then had a look at Maru. He was the first person to shock her when she watched his acting and was the one who helped her out with coming up with her new resolve, so she felt like she could trust his opinion.

“I also think it was okay though. There might be a difference in taste, but don’t you think that it’s worth keeping?” Maru said.

Ganghwan nodded in agreement.

“It wasn’t too bad. If you were awful, then I would have said so. What I saw, though, was really decent for your age. You’d also be in the top few among the people I have taught. There’s something called the ‘feel’ you get when you watch, right? In that sense, Yuna, you gave off a pretty decent feel.”

“Then do you think that the director wants even more than this?”

Yuna had a look at Jayeon, who was sitting in front of the monitor. Were her expectations too high? Or was she not giving an okay sign because she was lacking when compared to the people that went before her? The problem ultimately came down to the fact that something was wrong with herself. What excuse could she make when she was an actor who couldn’t satisfy the producer?

Just as she was in deep thought, Jayeon called out to her.

“Have a look at this.”

She looked at the screen that Jayeon was pointing at. The scene they just shot was being played. The noise that could be heard before the cue sign fell disappeared as soon as it fell. She momentarily gasped at the fact that she was being shot from three angles before she started frowning. Her acting on the screen was terrible. Her eyes were wavering everywhere, and her actions were clumsy. Her pronunciations were okay, but her breathing was unstable from time to time. The problems she wasn’t aware of were plain to see in the video.

“Is that how I did?”

“Yuna.”

“Yes?”

“Are you perhaps afraid of the camera?”

“No, that’s not the case.”

“If your level of skill was just this, I wouldn’t have picked you in the first place. When I watched you act just now, I could tell from this distance that you were pretty decent. But why were you like that inside the set? I thought that you were nervous and tried to encourage you as much as possible, but from the way things are looking right now, I don’t think it’s nervousness that’s the problem.”

Yuna had a look at the screen again. She felt like she was watching someone else’s acting. Not only that, they seemed like a beginner. She felt her hairs standing on end. Just what happened?

“Especially when you take that call.”

Jayeon showed her the part where she picked up her phone. Her movements became awry the moment the phone started ringing. It was to the point that her acting before the call looked good in comparison. When she took the call, her pronunciation was mangled. She felt like the line of emotions that she was barely holding onto was blown away. It was such a strange thing. She thought that she did quite decently when she acted inside the set, but from the video, her act was beyond saving.

“At times like this,”

Just then, she heard a voice behind her. Ganghwan, who was watching the screen with sharp eyes, pushed Maru forward.

“We should try using this guy.”

“Me?” Maru retorted.

Yuna didn’t understand what was going on. Use Maru? Use him where? Ganghwan and Jayeon exchanged words in a small voice.

“Should we go then?”

Jayeon’s eyes were filled with vitality. It seemed that she had found a good method. Yuna wanted to ask what was going on, but before she could ask, she was pushed from behind into the set. Following her, the camera director came in after taking the camera from the first cameraman.

“You don’t look good. Get an earful?”

“No, it wasn’t like that.”

“Then why do you look so dejected?”

“I just realized that my acting skills are terribly lacking. I saw my own figure through a screen, and I looked really bad.”

“Don’t blame yourself too much. Everyone starts learning like that.”

As thankful as she felt, those words sounded too bitter for her right now. She calmed down as she looked at the camera director’s gentle smile. There was no way producer Jayeon pushed her in without thinking like this. Her eyes looked like she had found a method. Yuna looked outside the door which was still open. Ganghwan and Maru were having a conversation. She wondered what it was about until she met Maru’s eyes. Maru waved his hand as though to tell her not to worry.

“Well, then. We’re starting now. Standby!”

The assistant director’s voice hit her ears. Yuna closed her eyes and tried to fish out her confidence that had sunk deep inside the lake in her heart, but the only thing that was fished out was unease.

“Ready!”

Yuna opened her eyes. Get yourself together - that was the only thing she could tell herself right now.

[1] Presumably from the series ‘Candy Candy’

KTLChamber's Thoughts

Now then, Jayeon & Ganghwan. What are you two scheming……

Editor's Note:

Watch this be a shounen power of friendship makes her better moment.

Chapter 684

It felt like all the sound in the world was being cut off. Her ears became numb and she could only hear the beating of her own heart. She felt like she could hear the sound of her blood coursing through her blood vessels if she tried hard enough. Yuna shook her head.

“Action,” said the assistant director who was standing in front of the camera director.

Yuna reached her hand out while picturing the actions she had repeated several times. Her own figure in the video made her frown. She would only be able to act well if she took away the exaggerated actions and expressed the character more mildly. Her imaginary self in her mind was acting without any wasted movements, but what about in reality? The video kept overlapping in her mind. The video where her acting looked pathetic.

She unfolded the table and started writing in her notebook. What was she supposed to do next? Just when her head started working hard, she heard a vibration. It was time to act like she was on a phone call. She picked up her phone and put it against her ear. Hello? - she opened her mouth and said. At the same time, she counted the time. After all, talking non-stop on the phone would not be a phone call; it would just be complaining.

-Yuna?

The phone, which was supposed to be silent, made some sound. She realized that it was Maru the moment she heard that voice. Her attitude changed immediately. She raised her head a little and took her eyes off of her notebook. She felt her jaws opening slightly. She almost uttered ‘what is it?’ out of confusion but managed to hold herself back. She was acting right now. Her reason cautioned her.

“Yeah, Yumi.”

-We thought about going on a trip over the weekend, wanna come with us?

Maru made a nasal sound. He seemed to be pretending to be a girl. She almost burst out in laughter because of the funny voice. She also heard other voices telling her to hang out with them. They were Ganghwan, Mira and Byungjae. Her actual friends asked her like this as well. Let’s go together, you can’t miss out, etc. She was feeling a lot more relieved after hearing those voices when she heard the familiar patterns.

“You want to go out during the weekend?”

-Yeah, let’s go.

“The weekend…”

There were a few more words in that line in the script, but those words didn’t stick right now. She subconsciously turned her head to look at the calendar, as though she was really checking the date.

“I really want to go, but I don’t think I can make it.”

-Come on, come with us. You couldn’t make it last time either.

“I know. I really want to go too. I’m so sorry.”

-You really can’t make it?

For a moment, her heart raced because she felt like Maru-seonbae was asking her out on a date. She pictured a Maru who was asking her desperately to go out together. There was quite a disparity between that and the real Maru, but she wondered how good it would be if Maru actually did that. The moment her heart moved, she was reminded of the reality that such a thing would never happen. Her lips softened and she sighed.

“Next time, please bring me with you next time.”

The original line was ‘I’ll go with you next time for sure’, but what came out of her mouth was ‘please bring me with you’. This line felt like there was a lot more regret in her words. Yuna wiped her mouth in order to wipe away the trace of the words in her mouth. At the same time, she closed the phone. She looked at the phone she put down before pushing it away until it stopped after hitting the blanket.

Everything she did after the call ended was improvisation. She knew that she should stick to the script, but her emotions ruled her actions. It was impulsive, and she felt like she would lose the base of her acting if she didn’t do that. She didn’t even take another glance at the phone she pushed away. Instead, she fixed her eyes on her books as though she was going to melt herself into them.

“Cut!”

The assistant director shouted. Yuna turned around to look at the assistant director’s face. He, who was wearing a hat, was raising his thumbs up.

“Okay. That was good.”

The pressure that shackled her was released all at once. Yuna stretched out her legs and put her hands on the ground before sighing. She could see the ceiling above her. Ah, so it was so high. She felt like she could take a breather.

She stood up and opened the door to the set. She saw Maru who was waving his phone in the distance.

“Well done!”

After a loud slapping sound, she felt that her back was becoming numb. It was painful, but she smiled. Yuna asked if she was okay after seeing Jayeon rush over to her.

“That’s the kind of acting I expected from you. I knew my eyes weren’t wrong. You’re completely fine, yet you dared to tease me like that.”

“That’s good. I was wondering what I would’ve done if it was no good this time as well.”

“If it was no good, we could just take another shot. Why is there a need to worry? Come here for now. I need to take a few shots of you pushing your phone away and you looking away.”

Yuna entered the set again and pushed the phone away just as Jayeon had instructed. Only her hand was captured this time. After a few repetitions, the producer said that it was enough.

“Senior, we’ll take a few more cuts with the calendar and her POV shot. Yuna, you can leave.”

“Yes.”

She left, sighing in relief. She never knew that the ‘okay’ sign after the cut sign would be so sweet.

“Well done,” Ganghwan said.

“Thank you for your help. I don’t think I could’ve continued acting if it wasn’t for that phone call.”

Yuna looked at Maru. It was just a meaningless conversation, but just listening to his voice cheered her up. The voice, which felt like it was consoling her not to worry, supported her from behind very softly.

“Thank you too, seonbae.”

“It’s Ganghwan hyung-nim’s idea. But that really was curious. Your acting became much better even though the only thing I did was reply to your lines. No wait, it must have been your usual skill that came out on display.”

“Right.”

Yuna looked at Ganghwan. She was curious about the meaning behind that splendid prescription, about why he had Maru say those lines over the phone, and what made him think that it would make her do better.

“Do you want to know the reason?”

“Yes.”

Ganghwan raised two fingers.

“First up, you were stiff to the point that you weren’t aware of your nervousness. You were doing well in front of us, but you were doing terrible in front of the camera, right? However, you didn’t look that nervous. Then there’s only one answer - It’s the fear of standing on the stage for the first time. This place doesn’t have an audience, but it’s still a stage in a sense.”

“I’ve been on the stage a few times while I was doing plays. This isn’t my first stage.”

“But I heard that this is your first time doing camera acting. A change of environment means that it’s no different from your first time.”

Yuna nodded. A subconscious nervousness ruled her body, and perhaps that was why she was so terrible in front of the camera. In retrospect, she pictured each of her movements before putting them into action. Perhaps that process created a disparity between her head and her body, creating a completely different result from what she was thinking. Did this indicate that she still wasn’t used to acting? Learning and practice - these two words came to her mind.

“And secondly.”

Ganghwan lowered his voice. Then, he spoke in a small voice right in front of her.

“The power of love.”

“What?”

Before she had the chance to ask what that was about, Ganghwan turned around and left. Love, love. Her head suddenly felt dizzy as though she had been on a roller coaster. She felt her cheeks heat up. She immediately raised her hands and put them against her cheeks. Thankfully, they weren’t burning hot.

“What did he say?”

Mira approached with a suspicious gaze. After hanging her arm around Yuna’s shoulders, she kept shaking her, urging her to answer. Yuna shut her mouth with all her might. She could never say it.

“Uhm, don’t bully her too much.”

Byungjae spoke up with an awkward smile.

“Do you see this as bullying her? We’re getting intimate. Yuna, do you hate me?”

Yuna shook her head. Mira nodded before taking her arms off.

“Don’t be nervous and tell me if you have any worries. If it’s anything you can’t tell the men about, you can always come to me about it. I might look like this, but I’m somewhat of a consultant amongst my friends. This unni is always on your side.”

Seeing Mira’s smile, Yuna thought of the word ‘cool’. She thought that she was incredibly lucky for shooting her first piece with these people.

“Byungjae-oppa. Come and go through some lines with me.”

“Oh, okay. Which part?”

Mira and Byungjae left. When she looked at the two, who practiced during their free time, she couldn’t help but think that she should try harder. She found out her position in the first shoot. This drama - it was her who had to do well. Everyone else was doing fine.

“I guess you’ll do fine now,” Maru said.

Yuna made an embarrassed smile. She somehow felt rather ashamed to look at him.

“It’s thanks to you, seonbae.”

“Nah, I didn’t do anything. It’s you who prepared well. Whether it’s Ganghwan hyung-nim or other people, they’re all people who are willing to help you out, so don’t hesitate to ask.”

“No, I will get myself together and do my best not to hold you back.”

“I like that attitude, but it’s fine to rely on us a little. I also ask him a lot of things when I get stuck. They’re all seniors after all. They might not know the correct answer, but they will definitely lead us in the right direction.”

Yuna looked around. She felt lonely while she was acting, but right now, she had a strong feeling that she was one of the people working towards the same goal. Together - that word suddenly came to her mind. At the same time, Maru’s face caught her eyes. Together.

“Should we go through our lines together too? We’ll be acting together in the next scene.”

“Yes! I’ll just go get my script.”

Yuna suppressed her uncontrollable smile and entered the set. Producer Jayeon, who was talking to the camera director, gave her a glance before continuing to talk. After returning to Maru with the script, Yuna calmed down her expression. She had to feel goodwill towards him as a colleague in acting. Any more than that was not acceptable.

“Should we go from here?”

Maru pointed at the position in the script. Yuna nodded before saying her line. The shooting set had a strict atmosphere just a moment ago, but now that she was practicing with Maru like this, the entire space felt a lot more relaxing.

“You should decide on the nature of your character before you start. That will make things much easier. Even though characters are three-dimensional, there is always a trait that lies in the center. If you act with that as the basis, your character will seem more consistent and you’ll have an easier time acting.”

“Ah, okay.”

Yuna looked at Maru’s script as he replied. There were notes in every blank space. She somewhat felt embarrassed about her script, which only had a few underlines.

“Seonbae.”

“Yeah?”

“Can you tell me how to analyze characters later? I mean, like the things that are written in your script.”

“This? It’s nothing much. I just wrote down what came to my mind, so there’s no big meaning.”

Yuna showed him her own script. Maru spoke with a smile.

“Everyone has their own style that suits them. Ganghwan hyung-nim’s script only has a few circles. That doesn’t mean that his passion for analyzing and researching character emotions is shallow. I only do it this way because writing makes it easier for me.”

“I also like writing.”

“Then I guess it won’t be a bad idea to try.”

Maru pointed at the notes he wrote in his script and started explaining. Yuna looked at him from the side. His eyes were filled with concentration and were shining with passion.

‘I’ll do my best.’

Yuna cheered up inwardly. She thought that she should cherish this short time.

* * *

“Was it that good?”

Jayeon thought about Yuna, who was running with a big smile on her face with her script.

“Was what good?” Ganghwan asked from the side.

“I’m talking about Yuna. She looked dejected because she caused a few NGs, but she looked like she was about to fly after the okay sign. The girl is so cute. Hyung, what do I do? I don’t think I can scold her. How cute can she be?”

“Like hell. Rather than liking it, she must have been relieved. There’s another reason she looked so good.”

“Another reason? What is that?”

“You can just think of it as something delicate that young girls have. Sheesh, you call yourself a producer when you don’t even know what your actors are up to.”

Ganghwan clicked his tongue and said that he was going to the bathroom. Jayeon crossed her arms and looked at Maru and Yuna, who were going through the lines together.

“Something delicate that young girls have, huh.”

She thought about it for a moment before stopping. She would rather pursue the delicateness of the production, not something that a young kid would have. It was helpful for her shoot, so she decided to look into it, but she had no intentions of prying into it. After all, she had to put a clear distinction between public and private matters.

“Well then. Let’s finish up,” Jayeon shouted.

KTLChamber's Thoughts

What a sweet chapter for a sweet day (Valentines Day by the time it goes live for free tier)

…

…

orz

Editor's Note:

So it was the power of love…… Sigh another Valentines alone……

Chapter 685

“Well, then. It’s the first shoot after-party you’ve all been waiting for!”

“Isn’t it strange to have an after-party when we just took the first step?”

“Shaddap! That’s why I said it’s the first shoot after-party. I waited for this moment and pushed away all the people that annoyed me. Anyway, forget the trivial talk and everyone raise your glasses!” Jayeon shouted as she raised her glass.

The fifty-something people in the restaurant all raised their glasses.

“To 50% viewing rate of ‘Pojang-macha’! Cheers!”

After chanting, Jayeon gulped down the mixed drink in the beer glass.

“Producer, 50% isn’t your neighborhood dog’s name, you know?”

“That’s a bit impossible.”

“Director Yoo, wish for something more realistic. I would die satisfied if it gets 5%. 50% is just being shameless. It’s a value that’s only possible in your dreams.”

Boos came out from everywhere. Jayeon glared around and said that she wasn’t going to accept objections. The people who raised their glasses faintly smiled and shouted ‘50%!’.

They exchanged drinks in this noisy atmosphere. Jayeon, who hopped between tables and toasted, was a literal mood maker. A get-together with a leader-level personnel being overly enthusiastic would usually make the lower employees suffer, but this place seemed to be an exception. The horizontal relationship that Jayeon wanted probably stemmed from trivial things like this.

Maru also got drunk on the atmosphere and drank some soda. He wanted to drink some soju with pork gukbap, but he had to hold back since there were a lot of people here. He thought that he should only drink in a quiet place with only the people he knew.

“You again.”

Maru took away the glass in Yuna’s hands. Her cheeks had turned red.

“Why?”

“I warned you last time not to drink. It seems you didn’t even listen.”

“Who are you to dictate what I do, seonbae? Give it back. I’m going to drink that.”

“It’s a problem because I have to take care of the aftermath. Also, who did you get this from?”

Maru glared at the people sitting around. Everyone was talking to other people, but there was one person that was looking at the two of them with a strange smile.

“Mira-noona, you gave it to her, didn’t you?”

“I never gave it to her. I just poured one and put it in front of her.”

“You did that last time too. Don’t make her drink. I will have a hard time if she gets drunk.”

“Alright. But isn’t Yuna cute when she’s drunk? Look at that, she’s smiling like a puppy.”

Maru sighed and downed the drink in Yuna’s glass. He thought that it was just beer, but it was a mix of drinks. He wiped his mouth with his thumb before looking at Mira. Mira just drank without doing anything and replied ‘alright’.

“You, don’t you ever drink. If anything, you should drink orange juice instead.”

“But you drank just now, seonbae.”

“It’s alright for me to drink.”

“Why?”

“Because I don’t get drunk.”

“I don’t get drunk either!”

Yuna had raised her voice.

“The fact that you’re raising your voice like that means you’re drunk. Don’t throw up and cause a mess like last time. Just stay still.”

“You always tell me not to do things.”

“What else did I tell you not to do?”

“You said I can’t do anything. I can’t drink, and I can’t like you.”

She pouted before putting her spoon in the jjigae in front of her. She scooped some bits of the jjigae into her rice bowl before mixing and eating a big spoonful. Maru watched it all happen. Unlike how bold she sounded when she said those words, Yuna was avoiding his gaze right now.

“Hey, you’re acting like that because you’re embarrassed after realizing what you just said, aren’t you?”

“No, I’m not.”

“Yes, you are. Also, what do you find so good about me that you can’t give up? I’m pretty sure there are a lot of good people in Myunghwa High’s acting club, aren’t there? If you look around, there should be good people around so go take your romance there.”

“How can you say such a thing so easily like that, seonbae?”

“Is there a reason to find it difficult?”

“N-no, I guess that’s true.”

Maru gave her some napkins. Rice grains had gotten onto Yuna’s pants because she was talking while eating. It seemed that her organ that detected embarrassment was still working perfectly despite being drunk, as she wiped the food off her clothes without saying anything after receiving the napkin.

Maru faintly smiled. She looked similar to his sister, Bada when she was drunk. She would complain and raise her voice when things didn’t go her way. When they got hit on the bullseye, both of them would look away from the incident. If there was a difference, it was that Bada would exert violence when faced with a difficult question while Yuna would blush and turn silent.

“Liking someone is only a temporary thing. Especially at your age. Of course, you might not feel like that right now, but you’ll realize not long later. You’ll see that talking to a wall isn’t that fun.”

“But you are no wall, seonbae.”

“In some aspects, I can be a wall.”

Yuna lowered her eyes.

“I’m a bad girl, aren’t I? I know that you are dating someone and that I shouldn’t like you, but you’re treating me too gently.”

“So the problem’s simple then, huh. I’ll stop talking to you about private matters from now on. We’ll only talk about work. How about it?”

“I don’t like that. Also, aren’t we a couple in the drama?”

“That’s what I want to say. Whether you like it or not, we’re going to be acting together for a while. I wish for you to treat me comfortably. Just like how the feelings of liking someone don’t appear out of nowhere, they won’t disappear so suddenly either. I just think of you as a good little sister. You’re a junior that my girlfriend looks after a lot too. If you run into difficulties, I’m going to try to help you. I’ll listen to your stories, too. However, I don’t think I can reciprocate your feelings.”

“I know, I already know that. I’m just liking you all by myself, so don’t mind me. Just like you said, these feelings won’t disappear so easily, but they will turn into something like friendship eventually, right?”

“Precisely.”

“You know what, seonbae?”

“What?”

“You look like a really good person, but you’re actually a really bad person.”

“I never thought of myself as a good person in the first place.”

Yuna sniffled. She wiped her nose with the napkin she was holding.

“You should look away when a girl is doing something like this.”

“It’s you who blatantly wiped your face. If you tell me beforehand next time, I’ll turn my head away as a form of manners.”

“You really are a bad guy.”

Yuna stared at the table before reaching out. She was reaching out for Mira’s half-empty glass. Maru tried to take it away, but Yuna’s lips had already touched the glass. Yuna clenched her eyes shut and gulped down the transparent liquid in the glass.

“So you decided to become a drunkard.”

“Because drinking this gives me the courage to talk.”

“Words that you can only say after drinking are ignoble words. There’s no meaning to them either.”

“Why should that be? A senior of the acting club said that you can’t talk honestly without alcohol.”

“Perhaps you can bring out their inner mind as it is. You might be able to blab on about things you usually wouldn’t be able to do. But nowhere in that lies your true intention. You’re leaning on the power of alcohol to speak after all. Even if it’s what you’re truly feeling, relying on alcohol to say something like that is useless.”

“I’m being scolded right now, aren’t I?”

“It’s fine as long as you know.”

Maru poured some soda into his glass and drank it. There was something that tugged on his mind while he was talking with Yuna. There was a sense of iffiness as though he had left the gas on at home. Whenever he walked through the warehouse of memories, something kept catching his feet. Even when he focused due to the feeling that those things were asking for his attention, he could not find out the identity of the strange feeling. Just what was the problem?

Maru looked at Yuna, who was dozing off, before moving his eyes to the glass in front of him. A soju glass with meat oil all over it caught his eyes. Would he be able to take a step towards that sticky feeling if he removed his reason with the power of alcohol? Just as he was thinking about such things, Yuna leaned towards him. Her head touched his shoulder. At that moment, he was reminded of a woman’s face. The girl who had no hesitation when revealing her feelings despite not having any drinks at all - Lee Chaerim. She, who used to belong to Blue, one of the top girl idol groups, had confessed to him. She was bold, didn’t have any hesitation, and was honest.

It was that he questioned. Why did he refuse that confession? Back then, he was dating Gaeul as well, but he rejected her coldly even though she was a top idol, and she even showed tears. Since he was dating someone already, rejecting her was common sense, but when he looked back at the feelings he had back then, he was incredibly calm and mild. He acted as though he was someone who wouldn’t give a second glance at someone other than Gaeul.

It wasn’t something strange to doubt one’s past actions. There were many people who regretted their past choices after all. However, it was strange that he rejected Chaerim’s confession without a second thought and only thought about Gaeul as though he was a gambler who was staking everything on one number without any fallback plans. If there was the slightest ripple or even the slightest sense of regret, he would understand that, but the fact that his emotions weren’t stirred at all was something to be thought about.

Just the fact that a girl was leaning against him, dozing off, made him smile. He had no intention of dating her right now, but since he didn’t know what the future had in store, his mind went off on a tangent of imagination and delusion, picturing a future filled with desire.

Maru stood up before letting Yuna lie down across two seats. He asked Mira, who was at the same table, to take care of her before leaving through the door. He walked around on the noisy pavement in front of the store before sitting down on a bench. He wished that he could smoke right now.

“Then we’re dating starting today, okay?”

“F-fine! Let’s go out!”

A man and a woman, who had put their arm around each other’s shoulder, were walking past him while shouting in loud voices. Maru looked at the two of them and dipped his hands into the pond of memories. The pond that seemed clear enough to see the bottom, had now turned into a murky color.

“Is this related to the fact that my memories are becoming faint?”

His 31 years of memories were becoming fainter. However, from the way he remembered old events from time to time, he didn’t seem to have completely forgotten about them. He knew that his firm personality was also becoming more and more relaxed with the change of his memories, but in the first place, he thought that it wasn’t a big change since he wasn’t a stuck-up person in the first place. He was only 31. He didn’t have that much social experience, and perhaps his mental age was not that different from his current, high school student self.

Then why could he be so rational when he received Chaerim’s confession? When he thought about the situation back then, he felt like the Han Maru that received Chaerim’s confession was a completely different person from the current him.

Maru opened the cabinet that contained the memories right after his revival. The memories of his previous life were becoming faint, but the things he experienced in this life were clear. He took out the folder inside that cabinet and opened it. Did the distortion occur back then too? Maru was going through his past memories when he came across the trial that came to the acting club. Geunseok’s mistake became a trigger that increased people’s distrust in each other. No one mentioned Geunseok’s mistake since he was the ace of the club, and they kept continuing practice amidst an awkward atmosphere. No one had the guts to face that situation head on.

‘Back then… I provided them a common enemy.’

He provoked the people of the acting club, who had become sensitive, and received their frustration all by himself. He started circling around the acting club, and he worked at the petrol station during the summer holidays. It was definitely himself who chose to become an outsider. He became the prey in order for everyone else to stick together.

“Why?”

Groan-like questions kept coming to his mind. Why did he do that? Because he was asked to do so by the teacher in charge of the acting club, teacher Park Taesik?

Maru shook his head. Just because he was asked to solve it, there was no reason to solve the problem like that. Why did he create enemies? What he should’ve done was to help them regain faith by harmonizing and facing the problem head on with an honest, true-to-heart conversation. Yet, he chose despise as the solution to the problem. The cohesiveness of a community like that would be no different from grains of sand, no?

When he entered a company and did a group project, he did it with a colleague that he did not like. They didn’t get mesh well together, whether it was their personality or their opinions, so it was hard at the beginning, but both Maru and that fellow had the thought that they would be in danger at that rate. After that, Maru took him to a jeyuk-bokkeum restaurant and had an honest talk with him throughout one whole night. There wasn’t anyone who was born evil, and he believed that there was a conflict only because they pursued different things. He also believed that their relationship would become better if he showed his true feelings. After that, that person became one of the best partners in his life. That person should have cried a lot for him who died of exhaustion at 31.

Honest feelings would always work. That was the motto of his life.

“Then why did I act like that back then?”

Maru wanted to question himself from 2 years ago. Why did he not solve the problem like this back then? Why did he simply throw them something to chew on in order to solve the problem?

He covered his mouth with his hand. He sighed in frustration.

KTLChamber's Thoughts

You know, whenever main characters go through personality changes like that, I always wonder if the girls that liked him would still feel the same about him

Editor's Note:

Oh hell naw. No way the author is making Maru regret the 1 scene that sucked me into this novel.

P.S:

Antagonizing himself scene: Chapter 53

Chaerim confession scene: Chapter 326

In case anybody needs a refresher

Chapter 686

He felt like he could not let go of this lead. He felt like he would enter a world where all of his predictions would be useless if he let go of this clue that he stumbled upon. Maru entered the nearby convenience store and came back out with a hot coffee can in his hand. He tightly gripped the hot can to the point that it felt like his hand was burning. The air of summer, which hadn’t dissipated yet, as well as the heat from his hand, lashed out at his brain. It is not time to rest yet.

The compass pointing towards the past worked properly. Maru was able to clearly remember the memories he wanted when he wanted to. He took out the memories of when the acting club felt like it was going to disband from the cabinet of memories. Rather than going through the circumstances back then, he tried going through what he felt back then.

The acting club was experiencing the crisis of being on the brink of disbanding before the next performance. They couldn’t be left alone, and they had to be returned to their original state. The method Maru chose to do so was extremely simple.

The question was, why did he not try to solve that problem with a conversation, and instead proactively made himself the prey for the others to focus their energy on. Was the past him too immature?

Maru shook his head. He didn’t act like that recklessly. It wasn’t that he had turned his eyes away from the frustrating reality nor had he been fleeing from forming relationships either. It was a reasonable decision that was formed after perfect calculations. Maru licked his lower lip. The memories of back then became much clearer. That day, he chose to become the prey of all of them after a reasonable thought process. The reason was simple - that was the most efficient method.

Maru frowned. He felt incredibly displeased. What he did was not lead the kids on the right path when they were trying to look away from responsibility; he simply resolved the ‘situation’. There was no effort or emotional expenditure. The students that could not express their rage to Geunseok instead attacked him when he declared himself as the enemy. The cohesiveness of the acting club increased by attacking an outsider who could only say the right things and didn’t put them into practice. Declare war on another country if you want to stabilize yours - it was the plan of a schemer.

These actions were incomprehensible. If he was an adult, if it was him, who had eaten many more bowls of food than the others, he should have led them on the right path instead of thinking about efficiency, gains, and losses. As hard as it might be, they had to become honest with each other, admit that they were different, interact with each other, exchange emotions, and become a ‘team’ with the help of the shock absorber known as friendship; not a group of hyenas that would growl at each other if they ran out of meat to chew on.

Maru opened the can. He drank a sip of the coffee which had turned lukewarm.

The fact that his decision was wrong that day could be seen from what happened afterwards. Just like how the flap of a butterfly caused a storm on the other side of the world, he ended up buried under burning wood. Had he set their relationship straight, he might have prevented Geunseok from becoming twisted and there wouldn’t be an event where Yurim would start a fire due to her delusions.

“Though, that’s all just hypothetical.”

There was nothing more foolish than talking about ‘what if’ for a situation that had already occurred, but how many people in the world did not dream of that ‘what if’? Geunseok, who was fundamentally twisted because of his father’s violence, was bound to cause problems one day, and Yurim, who had feelings for him, might have ended her uncontrollable love with another kind of arson. However, what Maru could be sure of was that it was his own decision that pulled the inevitable forward. Had he consoled Geunseok’s twisted heart and understood and sympathized with Yurim’s obsession, he might have been able to delay that event until the very end. If that had been the case, he could have avoided being hospitalized due to a broken ankle and have gone on the winter stage with the rest of the acting club.

-You’re interpreting things too optimistically.

The masked man suddenly interrupted. Maru took another sip of his coffee.

“I know. What’s bound to happen is bound to happen. There’s a possibility that the results wouldn’t have changed no matter what I did.”

-Well, yes, but what I want to tell you is about your decision. You’re thinking too pessimistically about your decision to make yourself the prey. As a result of your actions, the acting club could continue to exist and the stage had finished splendidly. It required the sacrifice of one person, but overall, it was a gain.

“No, I should have talked to the others much more back then.”

-Would that have changed a lot? Would Geunseok, a lump of pride, admit his faults? Would the others accept that even if it happened? Would there really be harmony? Do you really think that?

“Are you saying that it wouldn’t have?”

-I won’t tell you that it definitely won’t be like that. I’m just telling you to think about it. Stones are just stones no matter how much time passes. Trees are the same. The wind and the storm might scratch them a little, but the fact that they are stones and trees do not change.

“And like those two, people do not change, you mean?”

-They do change. Just eventually.

“So you’re saying that it’s extremely unlikely for them to change in a short period of time.”

The masked man did not reply.

“Pursuing efficiency is definitely a good thing. I don’t like meaningless labor either. However, when it comes to people, you sometimes need to invest in that meaningless thing. Having a conversation with the others back then should have been for something similar. Yes, it would have been a difficult thing. It might have been frustrating and I might have questioned why I should do such a thing. There’s the easy way of creating one enemy, so it might feel like a foolish thing to try to regain the embarrassing thing known as friendship. However, you know? I think that this world only turns because of the dreams of such foolish people. While ‘what if’ is a useless thing to think about, I still want to think about it. What if I joined that group and we thought about the problem together instead of viewing it as an outsider? - like that.”

-Everyone will look away from reality, put on suitable smiling masks and prepare for their next performance, of course.

“We might have clicked and produced a good result instead.”

-But that is only a ‘what if’. The truth of the matter is, you came to a decision that day, and as a result of your decisions, it was a happy ending.

“Except for me, that is.”

-So? Did you find that unfortunate?

Maru stroked his chin. It was that question. That question popped out from the many thoughts in his head. The answer to the question that took form with the masked man’s words made him incredibly confused.

“While it was a pity that I couldn’t participate in the performance, I didn’t really regret anything about the conclusion of that event itself.”

-If you have a look in detail, you also blocked the storm caused by the butterfly with your whole body. That day, you saw the burning set and jumped in. It was for the sake of the next performance. Is there a need to blame yourself so much?

“But that decision wasn’t like me.”

-Then what is, being ‘like’ you?

Maru sighed.

“Just what is happening to me?”

The masked man, who kept nagging him with questions, suddenly fell silent. This man always chose to not say anything at the most important times. Maru wished for him to not shake up his heart if he wasn’t going to give a solution. The man always threw out a topic to think about before disappearing like he was some old-fashioned philosopher. He was light-hearted, yet heavy; he agitated others while also being a large hill. He was completely unpredictable.

“I was wondering where you went.”

Ganghwan sat next to him. Maru could smell alcohol from his breath.

“Did you drink a lot?”

“Just enough to feel good. But man, Yoo Jayeon won’t let me go. She’s telling me that we should go to the 2nd round. How about you?”

“I heard from one of my school teachers to not hang out with drunk adults.”

“Alright. Children of the wonderland should sleep early and wake up early. Also, you have luggage to transport.”

“Is Yuna wasted?”

“I dunno. She keeps twitching from time to time and mutters something like she’s an old vinyl record, but I can’t really hear anything because it’s noisy in there. But I can tell you that she’s not in a state where she can go home by herself.”

“Looks like I should really tell her that I will dump her in the recycling bin the next time she does that.”

“Don’t you ever do that for real. I’m kinda scared that you might actually do something like that.”

Maru chuckled.

“Do you really think that I’m such a bad man?”

“You aren’t a bad man. You’re just very calculative.”

“That’s strange. I thought of myself as a really affectionate guy that proactively did things that other people didn’t like to do.”

“You? That sounds unheard of.”

“Yeah right. I also want to ask. Just what was I doing in the past?”

“Are you drunk too right now?”

“All the soju on the table won’t be enough to get me drunk, you know?”

“Ah, right. You are even more of a drinker than I am. Damn, I’m envious.”

“Are you going to that 2nd round?”

“I am. I have something to talk about as well. While it’s a good thing that the director is discussing things with the actor, it’s a bad sign if they can’t set the right path for the actor too. I have to tell her to keep that in mind. Even if the ship capsizes, the captain of the ship has to hold onto the rudder.”

Ganghwan looked at the coffee can and reached out for it. Maru blinked once before emptying the can in his mouth.

“Cheap guy.”

“I heard that there are no teachers who get food from their disciple.”

“The one who earns money is the big brother and the teacher. Right now, you do more work than me, so you might as well be the teacher.”

“What a cheap title, then.”

Ganghwan smacked his back before standing up.

“Humans are creatures who can’t even understand what they did yesterday. Even while resolving to quit smoking, we think about doing it ‘starting tomorrow’. It’s a natural thing to regret your past actions when you look back in retrospect. It just means that you have improved that much. If you have no regrets while thinking about the past, it’s one of two things: You’re a man who transcended mortal thinking or you’ve stopped making progress. Oh, I guess there’s one more thing.”

“What is it?”

“That you’re a god.”

Don’t think about it too much and come back soon - Ganghwan added as he walked off. Maru crumpled the can and threw it in the trash can near the bench. If you haven’t changed, you have either transcended mortal thinking or you’ve stopped making progress.

“Or a god.”

By now, his memories of how he came to the past after his death had become faint. He didn’t know the reason behind his reincarnation nor what kind of god provided him with this opportunity. The only thing he could remember was the woman in white who looked like she was the epitome of all the beauty in the world.

“Did it really just change with the flow of time?”

People do not change so easily - the masked man’s words reverberated in his ears. Change and stillness. Maru stopped thinking about the two words. However, that topic remained in his heart as though it was engraved on it.

He turned around and returned to the restaurant. Many people had left already. The ones who were still drinking until the end were Jayeon and the actors at the main table.

“Where did you go?” Jayeon asked.

“I was just getting some fresh air.”

“I see. This place is a bit stuffy. Well then, should we drink a little in an open space?” Jayeon said as she stood up.

Byungjae, who sat next to her, tried to stand up before falling back down again. He was as weak as Yuna when it came to alcohol, but it seemed that he drank everything he was given today as well. Mira looked fine, but from the way the ends of her eyes had sunk a little, it was clear that she was drunk as well.

“You guys wanna go too?” Jayeon asked as she looked at Maru and Yuna.

Maru shook his hand.

“I’ll bring her home and then go home.”

He pointed at Yuna, who had lowered her head with her hair drooping like she was from a horror movie.

“What a pity. I was planning to have a drink with you guys in a place where I don’t need to watch out. No, wait. I told everyone not to give minors drinks. When did she drink?”

“I gave it to her.”

Mira raised her hand boldly. Jayeon looked at her before chuckling.

“I guess I can’t help it then.”

“Yes, it can’t be helped.”

“Mira, let’s go for a 2nd round!”

“Let’s go. I think I can drink a little more.”

Mira pulled up Byungjae who was all wobbly. Byungjae, whose limbs looked like they belonged to an octopus, groaned and expressed his desire to go home, but Jayeon didn’t look like she was willing to let him go.

“We’re off first. You two, watch out on your way home and text me once you get there. This mom of yours is worried.”

Jayeon and co left while giggling. Maru sighed and shook Yuna up.

“Milady, it’s time to wake up.”

“Eh, eh?”

“I said let’s go, class is over.”

“Ah, yes!”

Yuna abruptly stood up.

KTLChamber's Thoughts

Dang, Ganghwan ruined it for him (imo)

Editor's Note;

I still can not get over how cute drunk Yuna is. I was bothered last chap by the whole regretting being a chad, and didn't talk about the fact that Yuna got sisterzoned and at the same time has hope???

Chapter 687

“Why do you do acting?” Gaeul asked as she drank the cooled omija tea.

She had been drinking it ever since she heard a while ago that it was good for her throat.

“Me? Why do you ask so suddenly?”

Heewon, who was lying down in the practice room with his limbs stretched out, raised his head just a little.

“I was just curious. I was wondering what made someone who can’t be bothered with anything in life make the decision to become an actor and even take lessons like these.”

“You’re curious about something rather meaningless. Anyway hey, is that tasty?”

“I’ll give you a sip, so tell me.”

She poured some of the omija tea into a paper cup and handed it to him. Heewon, who was quite a glutton, gulped it down as soon as he received it.

“It’s sour and bitter too. Why do you drink this stuff?”

“If you focus, you can taste something sweet, too. It’s called ‘omija’ because there are five flavors[1]. Also, apparently, it’s good for your throat.”

“Not my cup of tea though.”

Heewon put down the cup down in front of him.

“You drank it, so tell me. Why do you do acting?”

“I can ask you the same thing. Why do you do acting?”

“I asked you first.”

“Doesn’t mean I have to answer you first.”

“What about the omija tea then?”

Heewon opened his mouth wide and put his finger inside. Gaeul sighed.

“Geez, I can’t win against you, can I?”

“Don’t think about useless stuff and just get some rest. You’ve been working hard throughout the whole class, so you should get some rest when you can. If you keep talking about acting even during breaks, your brain will burst, you know?”

“I don’t care since I love acting.”

Gaeul sat down on a chair, placed her elbows on her knees, and rested her head on her hands. The reason for acting - she looked at Heewon, who was rolling down on the ground, before speaking,

“I used to go to plays a lot with my father.”

“What the heck are you talking about so suddenly?”

“We just talked about it a few seconds ago yet you forgot already?”

“Oh, the reason for acting?”

“You leave your concentration at home, don’t you?”

“I’d love to do that. If possible, I’d like to leave my mind at home too. Then I’ll be able to rest at home. Man, that sounds so good.”

“I’m sure sloths do more activity than you.”

Heewon rolled over to the wall while covering his ears as though he didn’t want to listen. Gaeul looked at him and spoke in a small voice,

“I loved the plays I used to watch with my dad. The atmosphere in Daehak-ro was good too. Actually, I just liked going out somewhere with my dad when I was young. With one hand, I’ll hold my dad’s hand, and with the other hand, I’ll be holding cotton candy. When I walked around with those two in hand, I felt like I was flying.”

They were memories from when she was very young, but she could still picture them. The memories of those times were unforgettable no matter how old she got.

“I can still remember the play I saw for the first time. It was a play aimed at children, Peter Pan. The actor wearing the Peter Pan outfit kept running around the audience seats. He high-fived me too. I thought he was so cool. It was the same when I watched other plays as well. The actors looked so cool, and I wanted to be on the same stage as them. I think it was probably back then that I started writing ‘actor’ as my dream; from all the way back in elementary school.”

“Memories with your father, huh.”

“Of course, right now, I just like acting itself. It’s kinda curious that I can express something like those actors I saw back then as well. Also, I have an objective too.”

“An objective?”

“To be in the same work as a certain someone.”

Gaeul stopped talking and stared at Heewon quietly. Heewon made a sour expression.

“Do I have to say it too?”

“We still have 10 minutes left of break. There’s nothing else to do either.”

“I’d be happy to spend that time lying down.”

“Then you can stay still for all I care. I’ll blab on by myself. Maybe I’ll get better at talking to myself if I keep doing it,” Gaeul said with a smile.

Heewon, who was lying down and hugging his knees like a pillbug, slowly sat up.

“Well, I don’t have something grand like that. I never watched plays when I was young either. In the first place, my environment didn’t allow such a thing.”

“You’ve never watched plays?”

“I think there are more people who did not watch plays when they were young than the ones who did.”

“Then what made you like acting?”

“There weren’t any big events. I entered high school, and I was told that joining a school club was mandatory. When I asked my friends from middle school, they said that it was up to them whether they joined one or not, so it turned out to be mandatory for my school. Having no choice, I had to choose one, but going around outside needed money and time, so I passed on those, and when I looked at the ones that happened inside the school, there were the literature club, origami club, and the English-Speaking club. I’m not that good with moonrunes, so I put aside the literature club and the English club. I mean, isn’t it horrific to think about studying on a Saturday?”

“That sounds just like you.”

Heewon scratched his head.

“That’s why I tried to join the origami club, but who would’ve known that it was a club that disbanded due to lack of members, and they forgot to erase it from the print? I was in a fix. No matter where I looked, there wasn’t a club that I wanted to join. I don’t even want to imagine doing something athletic, and if club activities needed money, I would hate that even more than doing something athletic.”

“But club activities don’t need that much money, do they?” Gaeul asked.

As most clubs were light-hearted clubs that happened after school, unless it was something that the school was famous for, there wouldn’t be a lot of funding. Even if it did require a lot of money, most schools would fund those the majority of the time. Myunghwa High was famous for its acting club, and they needed a lot of money for it due to things like inviting instructors and getting materials to make props and sets. Luckily, the school funded most of it and there was practically no burden on the members.

“When I thought about living expenses, even that was too much. I do like watching movies, but how much would it add up to if I watched one movie every single week? The same goes for going to PC bangs too. I wanted to choose something that didn’t need money, which limited my range of options.”

Living expenses. Gaeul thought that he was talking about his pocket money.

“So? How did you end up joining the acting club?”

“A friend of mine from the same class asked me if I wanted to join. That’s why I asked - don’t you need a lot of money for it? He told me no, so I said okay. Actually, he bought me a lot of things since the beginning of the semester.”

“That’s how you joined the acting club? Without thinking?”

“Without thinking? I told you - I considered everything. But I let my guard down at the last moment, you know? I was so hung up on the fact that I didn’t need money for it, and I forgot about how much time it needed. It was too late by the time I put my name on the list. I had to stay behind every single day after school to practice. It was practically hell.”

“I’m surprised you’re still acting. It’s not like you’re doing it for fun either.”

Heewon hesitated a little before speaking,

“It’s not that I hate it. But it doesn’t mean I love it to death either. It’s just somewhat endurable? I just do it because I can take it.”

“Isn’t acting hard if you think of it like that? You have no motivation, no dream, nor an objective. In the first place, you don’t want to do it either.”

“Well, definitely, I don’t have any of those in me.”

Heewon yawned. Gaeul quietly looked at him. What was the motivation that moved him? What brought this lazy guy all the way here? She was suddenly reminded of the talent he had. If that was given to someone other than him, if someone who desperately wanted to become an actor had Heewon’s talent, she thought that that person would be more than glad to sweat in order to train themself.

She met eyes with Heewon, who was rubbing his eyes after yawning.

“Well, there’s no reason I should find my motivation within myself,” Heewon said unwillingly.

His sour expression became thicker.

“It’s because it’s what Haewon wants. He wants me to act.”

“Haewon?”

Heewon nodded as he stood up. He started walking while looking at the floor.

“Even when I think about it, I’m a done cause. I have nothing I’m good at, I’m lazy by nature, and even if I want to concentrate on something, my heart and body will demotivate themselves before I even start. It’s Haewon who looked after me during those times. I’m not saying that as a figure of expression; he actually does look after me from A to Z. Sometimes, I even have this thought - maybe it’s because I, the older brother, am such an irresponsible person that the little brother matured too early. I sometimes think that if I was someone who fulfilled my job properly, maybe Haewon would focus on the things he wants and sometimes complain to me about things.”

“Don’t you think you’re overthinking? Even without Haewon, your parents will-”

“They aren’t here. Mom and dad - I’ve never seen such people.”

Heewon interrupted midway. Gaeul didn’t understand what he just said for a moment and when she did realize, she blocked her mouth as though to lock her mouth up.

“I thought I got used to expressions like that, but it makes me question every single time. I mean, not having parents isn’t something that special, is it? There are loads of people who don’t have parents.”

Heewon scratched his head as though he didn’t want to say it. Gaeul couldn't say anything. At the same time, she realized that when he said ‘living expenses’ it really did mean money that was crucial for living everyday life.

“Then do you two live by yourselves?”

“Ever since we entered high school, yeah. There is someone who supports us and thanks to him, we were able to get a semi-basement room.”

“Was it maybe an accident that…”

“No, we just didn’t have any. They don’t exist even in all of my memories. Apparently, my surname was originally Kim. There was my name on the cardboard box that I was in or something. When I became mature enough, I heard that from the director[2] and changed it. The director was wise and never registered my name legally. I might be insensitive to things like that, but using the surname of those that abandoned me is, well, you know.”

Heewon, who walked around the practice room, leaned against one wall and sat down. Gaeul felt her throat go dry. She grew a guilty conscience and felt sorry.

“Lee is the director’s surname. Also, Haewon doesn’t know his parents’ faces either. He was abandoned around the same time as me. I kept hanging around him because I quite liked him since we were young. Haewon followed me around too. Well, from some time onwards, it was him instead of me who took care of the other.”

“It must have been h… no. Forget I said anything.”

Gaeul tried to console him but decided not to do so. She felt like it would be too deceitful to sound like she understood what he was going through. Heewon also glanced at her and nodded.

“You know? I never wished for anything much. I used to think this when I was young - just how useless was I to be abandoned in the streets? I mean, I would’ve died if things went wrong. I was a toddler after all. When I thought about that, trying hard seemed so useless. I mean, what good is trying hard? I’m a useless guy anyway. But Haewon, he’s different. He always looks ahead of him. When I am down, he always comes to me, pulls me up, and empowers me. That’s why I am planning to do whatever it takes if Haewon wants me to. He sees what my blurry eyes cannot. He is smart, hardworking, polite, and… anyhow amazing. Unlike me, that is.”

Heewon lay on the ground.

“Why do I act when I have no interest in it at all? Because Haewon told me that I can be good at it. Because he told me I can earn money with it. That’s why I’m doing it. There’s only one thing I want as an actor. I want to earn a lot of money to build a building for the director and pay back all the graces that our supporter has done for us. Haewon is smart, so he can probably become a doctor or a prosecutor or something like that. I’m sure of it.”

Heewon smiled in satisfaction. Gaeul thought about what she was thinking for a long time before saying one thing,

“I’m sure things will go well.”

“Of course. Everything will go well. If Haewon said it’s going to work, it will work. Also, why don’t you put away that weird face of yours? You’re the one who asked me about all this, so you can’t be the one crying.”

“Sorry, I’ve been misunderstanding you this whole time.”

“No, you haven’t. I really am a good-for-nothing.”

Heewon yawned and stretched his arms out before raising his head. At that moment, the door to the practice room opened and Gyeonmi came back.

“Well then, you got your rest, so let’s get back to it, shall we?”

“Teacher, I think I have a stomach ache and need to go home.”

“Lee Heewon, your nonsense is increasing by the day. Should I prick your finger if your stomach hurts[3]?”

“N-no, I think I’m fine now.”

Seeing Heewon act like usual, Gaeul realized that he was actually quite a strong boy on the inside, unlike what he looked on the outside.

“Gaeul, don’t daze out and stand up. We’re going to start again from act two,” Gyeonmi said with a clap.

[1] The ‘o-mi’ in Omija literally translates to ‘five-flavor’.

[2] Of the orphanage

[3] In the old days, parents usually pricked their children’s fingers (usually thumb) with a needle to calm an upset stomach. Acupuncture, apparently. I’m not sure if this practice is still ongoing, but I do remember having that done to me when I was little.

KTLChamber's Thoughts

So… these two don't know that they know Maru in common?

Editor's Note:

If anyone remembers, I made a comment that Heewon and Haewon's extremely close relationship was really weird, but now it seems like we know why.

Chapter 688

“Fit yourself to the character or change the character to suit you. There is no correct answer, but there is definitely a better one. If you keep doing acting, you’ll be able to discern for yourself which is better. There are people who find it easier to fit themselves to the character, and there are people who have an easier time fitting the character to their own nature. It differs according to what kind of work they’re doing, but a person’s acting generally fits either of the two scenarios. That’s why it is better to find out which side you’re on as soon as possible. Like I said earlier, the only way to find out which one is better for you is to spend time. In other words, you have to undergo numerous experiences to raise your judgment and eventually find the right one for you. Only then will you be able to find the clothes that suit you. The reason why the acting of child actors look rather odd when compared to mature actors no matter how good they are is not because of their form of expression, it has more to do with whether they are wearing the clothes that suit them.”

Gyeonmi flipped over her wrist to look at her watch.

“Is the time allocated to each person the same? I don’t think that’s true. The fact that there are 24 hours in a day is only just a concept. It’s not given to me in form like this chair in front of me. Time is a tool that you can utilize. Experience absolutely requires time. That doesn’t mean that you can just sit around and wait. Just this year, there should be an unimaginable number of people around your age knocking on the doors of agencies for their dreams. Don’t wait for your opportunity. Take your time and stretch it out as much as possible and increase your experiences. Think about it outside of my lessons and even when you’re resting. If you absolutely need to rest, rest properly after determining what your mind and body really want. Beginners watch TV without meaning when they rest. That’s not resting. That’s just meaninglessly wasting time. Don’t just waste your time with something that has no meaning. You can do that when you have the leisure later.”

That’s it for today - Gyeonmi stood up as she picked up her book. The book she brought today was titled ‘The Grapes of Wrath’. Gaeul tilted her head when she first read the title. What would happen if grapes became enraged?

“It’s over!”

Heewon cheered. He gained vitality as soon as the lesson was over.

“Hello.”

The door to the practice room opened and Haewon came in. He was in his school uniform and was wearing a backpack. She had heard that he was studying for midterms, and it seemed that he got here right on time for his brother’s practice to end.

“I told you, you don’t have to come.”

“It’s because we don’t have anything to eat at home. Hyung, let’s go grocery shopping on the way home.”

“Ah, right. We finished everything yesterday, didn’t we?”

“You just remembered?”

“How about pork cutlets for dinner?”

“If there’s anything cheap, sure.”

Gaeul always thought that the two brothers were just much closer than other blood-related siblings. A smart younger brother that looks after a lazy bigger brother. However, it turned out that there was a pain that she couldn’t begin to estimate beneath their relationship. Heewon said that it was okay and that it wasn’t anything much, but was it really? Gaeul tried placing herself in Heewon’s position. A life where she did not even know the face of her parents, much less their warmth - honestly, she didn’t have the confidence to last. She would have cried herself to sleep and gotten pushed around by the environment she was in before eventually disappearing into the abyss where no one could see her. Heewon and Haewon endured such an environment and were in the process of overcoming it. Pity? That would be absurd. Gaeul looked at the two with admiration. Of course, that wasn’t something she could say out loud. Even if they were okay with it, this was something she couldn’t speak about so easily.

“Haewon’s here, so let’s get going, shall we?” Gyeonmi said as she put her book in her bag.

Gaeul looked at her and asked,

“Where are you going?”

“There’s a reason I ended class earlier than usual today. Let’s go, I will treat you to dinner. Haewon shouldn’t have had dinner yet either, so save those pork cutlets for later.”

Haewon spoke as he looked at Gyeonmi,

“It’s okay, teacher. We can go home and cook our food. You don’t need to watch out for us.”

“It’s because I want to treat you. Or do you want an old woman to treat you guys to food? I’m going to get something good, you know?”

“No, I didn’t mean it like that. I was thinking that you should be tired and that you’re pushing yourself to watch out for us.”

“Why do your words sound like they’re straight out of an etiquette textbook? I’m sure you’ll be loved wherever you go. Heewon, you should learn from him as well. Acting isn’t everything.”

“I can’t do things like that. That’s why Haewon is amazing.”

Heewon chuckled and got his bag. His face changed when he heard that Gyeonmi was going to treat them to dinner. He looked gloomy throughout the whole class, yet now he was even blushing a little. Was food that good?

“Teacher, of course we’re going to eat meat, right?”

“I can’t feed veggies to the meat ghost, so yeah, we are. Gaeul, you’re coming with us too, right?”

Gyeonmi glared at her slightly. Seeing Gyeonmi hint at her to come even if she didn’t have the time, Gaeul smiled and nodded.

“Of course I’m going.”

“Good. This old woman will bring you to a nice barbecue restaurant, so you can look forward to it.”

Heewon dragged Haewon who looked hesitant. They all got into Gyeonmi's car which was parked outside the agency building. Just like the owner, the car looked neat both on the outside and the inside. On the dashboard was an egg-shaped picture frame, and in it were the figures of Gyeonmi and her two daughters hanging their arms around each other’s shoulders.

“My daughters are pretty, aren’t they?”

“Yes.”

“The one on the right is going to get married soon. I can still remember her when she was around your size, Gaeul, yet now she has found her own partner for marriage already. It’s such a curious thing. Even if I keep watching them, I don’t think I’ll ever stop feeling curious.”

Put your seatbelts on - Gyeonmi added. Gaeul had another look at the photo while pulling the belt. Gyeonmi looked at least a decade younger than she looked right now, and she had a gentle smile on her face. She was different from the cold and rational-looking Gyeonmi that she and Heewon saw all the time.

“What? Doesn’t look like me?” Gyeonmi asked with a smile.

“No, it’s not like that, but…”

“I get it. Even in my eyes, the woman in the photo looks really different from me. I thought I didn’t feel that bad about the divorce, but when I look at my old photos, it still startles me from time to time. It makes me think that I changed quite a lot.”

Gaeul looked at Gyeonmi in surprise. It seemed that it wasn’t a coincidence that the face of the father wasn’t in the photo.

“Did you really get divorced?”

“Yeah, I did.”

Her words sounded as though it was like saying she had rice for dinner yesterday. However, Gaeul was at a loss for words when she heard her. What could she say? It felt like her mouth wasn’t functioning properly today. She ran out of words in her vocabulary, and the only thing she could do was to sigh.

“Wasn’t it hard?”

Her reinforcements appeared from behind. It was Haewon who cautiously asked that question.

“Right now, I’m not sure. Back then, I thought I was being chased, but these days, my brain isn’t active enough to remember all that. I’m getting old after all. I heard that you get more emotional with age and cry a lot, but it looks like it’s the opposite for me. I get more and more picky as the years pass. You guys talk a lot behind my back too, don’t you?”

“I never did. Also, you’re still young, teacher. And pretty, and thin.”

Those words burst out of Gaeul’s mouth the moment she saw Gyeonmi laugh in self-loathing. It wasn’t flattery. She truly thought that. Gyeonmi, who acted as a magazine model from time to time despite the fact that she was in her mid-fifties, didn’t fit well with the word ‘old’.

“Gaeul, having you tell this old woman that makes me want to boast a little. I’m gonna be a grandma soon though, so it’s true when I say I’m getting old.”

“Grandma, you say?”

“The one on the left in the photo. She’s going to give birth next week. Apparently, it’s a little princess who has quite a kick. I guess I’m finally becoming a grandma. Though, I guess it’ll be hard to see them. To my granddaughter, I’m nothing more than just an old woman who’s not related to her. But I do feel a little proud when I hear that my daughters are becoming mothers. I think that they grew up splendidly.”

For a brief moment, Gyeonmi made the same gentle smile as the figure in the photo.

“Congratulations.”

“Thanks. I didn’t say that in order to be congratulated, but thanks anyway.”

“I hope the daughter will be born healthy.”

“That’s my only hope as well.”

Gyeonmi’s eyes were directed at the photo.

“There’s something I want to say, not as your acting teacher but as an old woman who has lived just a little more than you in life. What I want to say is that everything will become experience. The hard things, the painful things - once they all pass, they will become a part of you and empower you to overcome the oncoming trials and suffering. So no matter what is happening, don’t give up on what you’re doing and overcome that immediate moment. There’s no one who’s eternally happy, and there’s no one who’s eternally unfortunate either. There is only momentary happiness and momentary misfortune. That’s how I feel at least according to my experience.”

Gaeul slowly nodded. The words went straight to her heart. At the same time, she reflected on herself for being so ignorant of her surroundings. Heewon, Haewon and now there was Gyeonmi. She had spent a lot of time with them in the same space, but she knew nothing about them. She thought that she knew quite a lot, yet it turned out that she knew absolutely nothing.

“Teacher.”

“Yeah?”

“Tell us a lot of things in the future as well. I only realized today that just because you spent a long time with a person doesn’t mean that you can say that you know a lot about them.”

“…So you realized what I was only able to realize when I received the letter of divorce. I’m proud of you. Yes, I guess it’s not such a bad thing to learn about each other in the future. The skill pool of an actor increases with the number of people they meet.”

“Yes, teacher.”

“Anyway Heewon, why haven’t you been saying anything for a while?” Gyeonmi wondered as she looked at the rearview mirror.

Gaeul also turned around in curiosity.

“Sheesh.”

Heewon was sleeping with his head resting against the window. Gaeul wondered when he fell asleep. Haewon was smiling awkwardly.

“I swear I’ll reform that kid before I quit this job.”

Gyeonmi spoke with resolution. Her eyes looked fierce. Gaeul chuckled while covering her mouth. The car slowed down. They entered an alleyway where there was no distinction between the road for cars and the road for pedestrians.

“Gosh, this place looks busy because it’s the weekend.”

“You’re right. Oh, teacher. I think there’s a spot to park over there.”

Gyeonmi, who was looking forward while raising her chin a little, drove her car that way. The street was noisy with car horns, music from the stores, as well as the shouts of the people who had gotten drunk. Gaeul rather liked this crowded place. She looked outside and was imagining where Gyeonmi was going to take them.

Just then,

“It looks like an accident happened up front,” Haewon said from the back seat.

The car, which was going forward little by little, had stopped completely. Gaeul opened the door and got out of the car in order to find out what was happening. A loud voice hit her ears. She walked a bit forward and looked up ahead. A middle-aged man was blocking a car. The middle-aged man was pointing fingers at the car and was shouting ‘get out’ in a loud voice while the person in the car just kept honking at the man.

“Someone’s blocking the way forward.”

“There are always a lot of interesting people on weekends. Gaeul, come back in. We’ll go to the left.”

“Yes.”

She tip-toed to look at the scene last time before opening the door. Was a drunk person running amok? Or was the driver at fault for driving violently? She hoped that things would work out between the two of them. Just as she was about to get back into the car, she found a familiar face amidst the crowd of people.

“Gaeul?”

“Ah, yes.”

Gaeul got in the car again and looked outside. She saw a boy and a girl walking amidst the crowd. The boy was walking, and the girl was staggering while grabbing onto the boy’s arm. Gaeul had a closer look at the boy’s face. No matter how she looked, it was Han Maru. Then who was the one staggering next to him? Just then, the girl turned around. The girl was also someone she knew. It was Yuna.

The car drove off. Gaeul turned her head and fixed her eyes on the two. When Yuna, who was about to start walking, started staggering again, Maru grabbed her hand. At that moment, Gaeul managed to spot it. What caught her eyes more than Maru’s scolding look was Yuna’s eyes that were filled with affection. Gaeul placed her hand on her chest at that moment. The figure of Yuna, who was grabbing Maru’s hand and swinging it back and forth, was engraved into her eyes.

Then, the words she said herself flashed in her mind.

I only realized today that just because you spent a long time with a person doesn’t mean that you can say that you know a lot about them.

KTLChamber's ThoughtsGee… with the amount of foreshadowing… This twenty-first life *better* be different

Editor's Note:

The time travel thing aside, this little love triangle keeps me so invested.

Chapter 689

“Maybe I should’ve joined the acting club too.”

“Hey, I heard that Aram stays behind at school until 10 or 11 every single day. If taking a single day off from classes means I have to spend every single day like that, I’d rather not do it.”

“Really? Then I don’t wanna do it. The acting club’s that hard huh. Aram, you must have a hard time.”

“Good luck with the competition. Though, we won’t be able to see it.”

“The first-year students will watch it for you. Good luck!”

Aram shouted ‘fighting’ to her friends, who waved at her whole wishing her good luck for the competition. This week was the last week of September, and today was the day of the National Acting Competition Finals in Seoul. Last year, the finals were held at the end of August, but it was delayed by a month this year. Apparently, the Korean Drama Association, who was supposed to be the host of this competition, had delayed it due to rental problems, but no one knew what really happened.

“Jeon Aram!”

As soon as she left her classroom, she heard a loud voice. It was Bangjoo who was waving in the corridor. There had to be some kind of device that was amplifying his vocal cords or something.

“Thanks to you, the entire 2nd year knows my name.”

“Feel thankful now?”

“Yeah, I’m soooo thankful that I’m embarrassed.”

She reached out to grab his sleeve in order to deal him a blow, but Bangjoo lightly stepped back to dodge her. It was like that during their first year as well, but Bangjoo was getting more and more agile by the day. Apparently, he was learning Jiu-jitsu as well. He seemed like he would become a fighter before he became an action actor.

“Let me shoulder-throw you once.”

“Hell no.”

“You’re a wuss for a boy.”

Just then, Aram saw Jiyoon who was leaving her classroom while waving her hand shyly. It seemed that her classmates were wishing her luck as well. Aram ran over with all of her might and hung her arm around Jiyoon’s shoulders. She smiled when she saw Jiyoon flinch.

“Oh! That startled me.”

“I wonder when our cutie will stop being surprised.”

“Anyone would be surprised if you suddenly do that from behind them. And hello, Bangjoo.”

Aram pointed at the stairs. She had gained a lot of worries ever since new students joined the club and she became the leader of the club, but thankfully, they managed to advance into the finals.

“It was a little unexpected that Hwasoo High didn’t pass the preliminaries. Their stage was also not as good as last year’s,” Bangjoo said.

“It’s not a surprise. That seonbae wasn’t there. You know, the one that was dazing out all the time. Everything died without him on the stage.”

“Heewon-seonbae.”

Jiyoon mentioned his name for her.

“Yeah, him. The reason we lost last year is because of him if you think about it. He was no joke, wasn’t he? On a stage with more than 10 people, only he caught people’s eyes. He practically won their grand prize and he also won the individual prize. He did everything by himself.”

“That’s true. He even won against Myunghwa High.”

Bangjoo smiled bitterly as though he was remembering what happened last year. Last summer was a season filled with disappointment since they didn’t even pass the preliminaries.

“It might have been a different story if Maru-seonbae was there,” Bangjoo said with confidence.

“I’m not so sure about that,” Aram said as she thought about Hwasoo High’s stage that she saw last year.

Maru-seonbae was definitely good at acting. When she watched him from time to time, she had the feeling that an eagle was playing around in a flock of chicks. Heewon-seonbae from Hwasoo High also gave off that feeling.

“Are you saying that Maru-seonbae is worse than that seonbae?” Bangjoo said poutily.

Aram shook her head.

“Do you think I’m capable of evaluating the two? I can only tell that both of them are really good. That’s for sure, but, let’s say the roles they play are different.”

“Their roles?”

“Look here. The seonbae from Hwasoo High is in a sense, a ‘general’. The strong champion wearing a fancy helmet stirring enemy front lines.”

“I heard you were into historical dramas lately, and it sure shows, huh,” Jiyoon commented with a chuckle.

Aram shrugged. Like what she said, Aram was currently deeply mesmerized by a traditional historical drama that was being aired on KBS. Yesterday’s episode was about a general who was marching forward with the intent to conquer the enemy castle, and Heewon had a similar image to that general.

“Anyway, the seonbae from Hwasoo High has that image. The other members are merely sidekicks. With his bow and arrow, he shoots down enemies while trotting on a horse. He can lead the whole battle by himself without any help. It’s like this - you can win the battle as long as you have him.”

Bangjoo and Jiyoon nodded at the same time.

“I guess you do get that feeling.”

“I’m not saying that the people from Hwasoo High’s acting club are bad or anything, but it is true that Heewon-seonbae’s acting is eye-catching.”

Aram climbed the stairs and continued,

“Meanwhile, Maru-seonbae is more like a strategist. He doesn’t get any attention himself, but he brings out the best of those around him. I can still remember my first stage during 1st year. It was when I had to say my line. I felt really confident because I practiced a lot, but when it actually became my turn, my head just stopped working. I felt nervous even though I’ve never felt nervous during Judo competitions. I couldn’t remember what my line was, and my turn was approaching. I was just beginning to wonder what I should do when Maru-seonbae told me my first line and to not worry. He looked like he understood what I was going through. Curiously, when I heard him say that, I could remember my lines clearly again.”

It was quite dizzying to think about it even now. Had she stuttered there, she would have been the one to ruin the play they’d been practicing for months.

“Right, Maru-seonbae gives that feeling. I also received a lot of help from him. He tells me what I need to do when I get stuck on something, so I feel I can always rely on him,” Jiyoon said.

“That’s not always the case. He might act like that when he’s with us, but when we went to the movie shoot with him, he was always proactive. And you know that drama, right? The one where he comes out briefly as a murderer,” Bangjoo interrupted.

“You mean The Witness?”

“Yeah, that one. Take that. His acting skills don't lose out even when he’s up against my sister. Maru-seonbae definitely is capable of going wild if the stage is right.”

“That’s true. But if I had to classify him, I feel like the seonbae from Hwasoo High belongs in the spotlight. Maru-seonbae suits that position as well, but for some reason, he looks like he doesn’t want that,” Aram said.

They did not hear any details, but apparently, Maru participated in club activities but avoided going on stage. He only got on stage after Miso, the instructor back then, had painstakingly persuaded him, but apparently, he never showed up to practice during summer.

“Even if you look at him now, Maru-seonbae has never wanted the main character position even in his second year, has he?” Aram questioned as she looked at Jiyoon.

After thinking for a while, Jiyoon spoke,

“Last year, there were only seven people in the club. Dowook-seonbae was in a different club in his 1st year, and he just switched over last year too.”

“Ah, right. Speaking about him, Dowook-seonbae should be coming today, right?”

“Well, I’m not sure. He didn’t show up at all last week, so he must be busy?”

“That seonbae has it hard. He might have a bad nature, but it is definitely reassuring to have him around.”

Aram sighed. Just then,

“Hey, if you’re gonna insult someone, do it when that person is not present.”

They heard a voice as they were climbing up to the 5th floor. Aram raised her head. Dowook was standing there with a frown on his face.

“Seonbae!”

“You were insulting me just moments ago, yet now you call me seonbae?”

“You shouldn’t mind that between us. Also, are you coming with us today?”

“It’s a great opportunity to skip classes, so what do you think?”

Dowook entered the hall while yawning.

“What the, he’s tagging along to skip classes?”

Aram made a sour expression and entered the hall. The 1st year students, who had arrived before them, greeted them.

“All the 1st years are here, right?”

“Yes!”

“Today’s the finals, so I’m sure you must feel nervous. Also, you’ll become even more nervous once you get there. But there’s nothing you can do about it. Nothing will prevent you from getting nervous after all.”

Aram gave a cursory glance at the 1st year students.

“But we passed the preliminaries after months of practice, and we’re going to the finals with that skill. We’ll be up against people from all over the country. You should’ve heard this when you first joined the club, but in the past, Woosung High used to sweep all the prizes. Recently though, we’ve never been close to winning. That’s why, let’s win one this time. Let’s show our seniors that we are better than them by winning the prize!”

“Yes!”

“Good. We’re going to go once the instructor arrives, so get your costumes and scripts. Staff, look out for the props so that they don’t get damaged. Once the truck arrives, we’re going to load them there. If you break one in a hurry or something, that’ll be worse than anything, so take it slowly and safely. Okay?”

Aram nodded as she looked at the first-year students replying. They would get good results as long as they did what they did during the preliminaries.

“Daemyung-seonbae, Maru-seonbae.”

The 3rd year students came in through the door. They looked tired for some reason.

“The speech was so good that we didn’t dare interrupt midway,” Maru said.

Aram crossed her arms and laughed.

“Why are you so late when you are in your 3rd year?”

“Daemyung, the club president is mad. Let’s be quick.”

“Huh? Yeah. We should.”

Aram grinned as she looked at the 3rd year students who were lining up behind the 1st year students.

“The instructor said she’ll be here by 9:10, so let’s do some vocal exercises and stretches until then. We’re 2nd, so when we get there, we won’t have time to do anything. We need to prepare ourselves here.”

Aram did some stretching exercises like usual. The first-year students all followed suit. They were used to these exercises by now. Miso arrived around 20 minutes later.

“You’re here.”

“Yes, I’m here. You look good, everyone. Well, I guess we did beat Myunghwa High in the preliminaries, so it’s not that surprising. Do just that and get the grand prize again today, alright?”

“Yes!”

“Then let’s go down. I’ll come once I get my honey.”

People booed when she said the word ‘honey’. Of course, when Miso glared back at them, they all shut up.

“Aram, get everyone downstairs. I rented a coach, so you can get on it.”

“Really? I thought we were going by train.”

“I spent some money as a graduate of Woosung High. So bring me that grand prize. It hurts me to see that this school didn’t get any grand prizes after I graduated.”

Miso left the hall with a smile. She probably went looking for teacher Taesik.

“Looks like we’ll have an easier time getting there. Everyone, go down. We need to get the props from the container.”

“Uhm, seonbae-nim. I went to the parking lot before I came here, and I saw all the props loaded on a truck?” one of the first-year students wondered.

“What are you saying? The truck is supposed to be here at 9:20.”

“If I didn’t see anything incorrectly, the truck was already here, and all the items were loaded as well.”

“Really?”

Aram exchanged gazes with Bangjoo and went down to the 1st floor. There was a 1t truck parked outside the school gates. She lifted the weatherproof sheeting and looked inside. The props for the play were all lined up neatly.

“Who did all this?”

Just as she was wondering, the coach arrived. Miso and Taesik waved at everyone to get on. Aram had the first-year students get on first. There was a rental coach, and the props were loaded already. Thanks to that, it seemed like they would get some leisure time when they arrived. Perhaps they would even be able to get a proper rehearsal done.

At that moment, she saw the 3rd year students get on the truck while yawning. In the driver’s seat was a woman she had never seen before, and she was smiling in joy as she looked at Dowook. Not only that, she was pretty to boot. Dowook seemed to have a hard time around that woman, but he eventually put a smile on his face.

“Look at that. Dowook-seonbae is smiling.”

Aram stopped Bangjoo and Jiyoon from getting on the coach. They also watched the smiling Dowook with their jaws agape.

“Who is that?”

“I don’t know.”

“I’ve never seen Dowook-seonbae smile like that before. Look at that! He’s acting embarrassed, too!”

“I’m not sure what that’s about, but let’s take a photo for now.”

The three of them took out their phones at the same time. They took photos of Dowook smiling shyly in secret. This was something they couldn’t see even if they had to pay.

“I guess we’re lucky today for seeing something new?”

Aram looked at Maru and Daemyung who had fallen asleep inside the truck already. From the way things looked, it seemed that those three were the ones to check the props and load them onto the truck. She remembered how Dowook was yawning when she came across him at the staircase. It seemed that they were still seniors after all.

“Let’s get in. We might be able to get a rehearsal done if we get there quickly,” Aram said as she clenched her fists.

KTLChamber's Thoughts

Nothing to comment here.

Editor's Note:

Nearly 700 chaps in but we got an acting club arc when… Maru isn't even acting??????

Chapter 690

“You said the competition is today, right?”

After hearing that question from the person next to her, Gaeul nodded her head.

“Is it in the evening?”

“No, I have to go after 2nd period.”

“Really? Then are you going to skip classes?”

“Probably.”

“Sounds nice. On a day like this, I’d love to ditch class and play outside,” said her friend as she looked outside.

The weather definitely looked good today. There wasn’t a single cloud in the sky outside. The sun that was high up in the blue sky looked like a ceiling light in a theater. Today, her juniors would also get to act under one of those lights.

“Over there, if you’re gonna chit chat, you might as well raise your hand and do it openly,” said the history teacher as he smacked the chalk on the board.

Gaeul became quiet.

As soon as the period was over, her friends all rushed to her class. During nationals season, the school hung up huge banners above the school gates and on the walls of the school. ‘Win the Grand Prize this year too!’ - thanks to this promotion line, everyone knew that today was the day of the competition.

“Those of you going to cheer for the acting club, go downstairs and get on the bus,” said her homeroom teacher who came in as soon as it was break time.

It seemed that the 3rd year students who had gained admission into college already were all going.

“I wanna go too. I hate studying.”

“Can’t you take me as well?”

Gaeul told her friends to study since she obviously knew that they weren’t being serious.

“I’ll do well, don’t worry.”

“Yeah. Win the grand prize while you’re at it.”

“Good luck!”

Gaeul picked up her bag and stood up. She waved the cheering cards that her classmates made for her. Gaeul gripped her fists and did a ‘fighting’ pose.

-The vehicle for the supporters of the acting club has arrived. Would the faculty please lead the students and have them board the vehicle.

There was a school-wide announcement as well. Gaeul could see the 2nd year students go down in a line. When she went down to the 2nd floor, she saw the first-year students as well. She saw this every year, yet it excited her every single time.

She left the main building and ran towards another building. Having arrived at the acting club practice room, Gaeul took a deep breath before opening the door.

“Seonbae-nim, you’re here.”

“Hey, come quick! Even if you’re a celebrity, we cannot forgive you for being late,” said Choi Seol, the club president, with a smile.

Gaeul pinched Choi Seol’s waist before standing next to her colleagues.

“Well then, the 3rd years are all here as well, so we’ll depart after I say some things. Before that, instructor, do you have anything to say to us?”

Hearing Choi Seol’s question, the instructor shook her head.

“The instructor doesn’t have anything to say, but I do. Let’s reclaim the grand prize that we couldn’t get last year!”

The juniors all cheered out loud. The shout from nearly 100 people was sufficient to fill the acting club’s practice room which was as large as a small-scale hall.

“Let’s get results that match our practice. Those of you who didn’t pass the audition, watch today’s performance carefully, and put everything into the winter audition, okay? You know that skills are everything in Myunghwa High, right? This year, I’m really proud to say that there was no room for the 3rd year students since you were all so good. I’m done now so next, we’ll have the mascot and the pride of our club who goes by the name of Han Gaeul, which now suits her more than her real name, say a word for us!”

The microphone was suddenly tossed over to her, but Gaeul did not panic. There was something she wanted to say to them as well.

“Go and have fun everyone. If you do, there will be great results.”

Gaeul raised her hand that was holding the mic and shouted fighting. The juniors also followed suit. She then gave the mic back to Choi Seol.

“The coach is waiting outside, so get on coaches 2 and 3. Coach 1 will be for the actors and the staff that will go on stage. There are things I want to tell you as we go. Okay?”

“Yes!”

“Good, let’s go!”

The juniors started moving when she clapped her hands. Gaeul also picked up her bag and started moving. As she did not go on stage, she had to support the actors that did as much as possible. When she got to the school field, she saw the coach with the cheering team leave. The first-year students, who saw this for the first time, were all gasping.

“Good for you! You get to ditch classes!”

“Good luck this year!”

“Kim Soomyung, don’t get nervous and do your best!”

“Park Minji, fighting!”

Voices could be heard from the main school building. Students were poking their heads out the window and were cheering with envy. The juniors whose names were called out waved their hands in excitement or covered their faces with their bags before running over to the coach. This was the rowdy ceremony for Myunghwa High’s acting club.

Gaeul patted the juniors who were frozen stiff before getting on the 1st coach. She sat on the window side around the middle. The club president, Choi Seol, stood outside to check the members. The club members boarded the coach one by one. There was a hint of seriousness on some of the junior’s faces.

“Do your best, first-years. You are the main characters for this year,” said her colleague.

This year, the audition to join the club and the audition to select the actors were extremely fierce, and due to that, a lot of hopes were placed on the 1st year students who managed to pass all that. Hearing the 1st year students reply in loud voices, Gaeul smiled faintly. At that moment, she saw a certain junior get on the coach with a script in her hand. Gaeul met eyes with her, who looked around looking for a seat, and that junior smiled and approached her.

“Seonbae, can I sit next to you?”

“Yea, I left this seat for you.”

“Thanks.”

Gaeul looked at Yuna who sat down next to her. She was originally going to play the main character, but she changed to playing a side character because of the reasons that she found herself lacking as well as the schedule for her drama shoot.

“Seonbae, what do I do? I feel so nervous.”

“It’s fine, it’s nothing much so don’t worry about it.”

Gaeul grabbed Yuna’s hand. Since she was a junior that Gaeul cherished, she hoped for her to bring out the best of her skills on stage.

Just as she was going to smile back at Yuna who was smiling at her, a memory that she had consciously been putting aside poked through her surface consciousness. She could picture Maru’s face next to Yuna’s.

Gaeul shook her head. That matter shouldn’t be talked about right now.

“Seonbae?”

“No, it’s nothing.”

“You must be tired, right? Looking after all of us.”

“I said it’s not like that. I have great stamina, you know? Rather than that, you memorized the script perfectly, right?”

“Of course! I woke up early in the morning and read it over and over again. I don’t want to make a mistake.”

“Nice to see you all fired up.”

Yuna smiled.

“It’s all thanks to you, you know?”

“Me?”

“Yes, Gaeul-seonbae. You were the… Ah, sorry. That name is stuck to my tongue now.”

“It’s okay. Everyone calls me Han Gaeul now, so I even wonder what my real name is sometimes. Actually, it’s better to call me that. My agency’s president told me that being called by my stage name will bring me more luck.”

“Then I’ll keep calling you Gaeul-seonbae in the future so that you get more and more luck.”

“Thanks. But what did you mean when you said it’s thanks to me?”

Yuna spoke while folding the script in half,

“Do you remember back then?”

“Back then?”

“When you bought me strawberry milk at the convenience store in front of the school.”

“I do. I also remember what we talked about back then.”

Yuna nodded.

“Actually, I was having a bit of a hard time back then. No, I didn’t even know that I was having a hard time. I just practiced every day before going home, and I thought that acting was something fun but never truly enjoyed it. Back then, I never was truly acting. You noticed that first and talked to me about it. The strawberry milk I had back then was the most delicious one I ever had.”

“It’s just strawberry milk you can find anywhere.”

“No. It was a special one that you bought for me. You don’t know that I became a fan of strawberry milk after that, do you?”

“Really?”

“Yes!”

Gaeul covered her mouth and chuckled. The term ‘strawberry milk friends’ suddenly popped up in her head. While it might sound strange, she quite liked that term. However, the more she enjoyed her conversation with Yuna, the thicker the steam of unease that arose from the depths of her consciousness became. It was an emotion that she couldn’t fully grasp.

“The words you told me back then helped me out a lot.”

“…I see.”

“Yes. And thanks to you, I got to know Maru-seonbae as well.”

Gaeul turned her head away. She didn’t know what kind of face she had on right now. Would her lips be twitching? Or would she be expressionless? She had heard everything from Yuna already; that she had confessed to Maru. At first, she just found it funny. She thought that it was a cute mistake by a cute junior. Things wrapped up well, and Yuna told her that she didn’t have any feelings for Maru anymore and that she would be careful in the future. Gaeul even told her that it was okay.

She thought that she took it smoothly without any negative thoughts about it. Had she not seen Yuna’s expression a few nights ago, she would still be feeling at ease.

Gaeul calmed her expression and looked at Yuna. Yuna was looking at her, curious as to why she turned her face away so suddenly.

“The weather’s really good.”

“Yes, it really is. Perhaps thanks to that, my body feels really light today. I feel like I’ll do great on today’s stage.”

“I hope so.”

It must be a mistake - she tried consoling herself, but whenever she saw Yuna’s face, she couldn’t help but be reminded of what happened back then. Maru didn’t look affected. In fact, he even looked annoyed somewhat. However, Yuna was different. Her eyes contained feelings that she could notice from miles away. It was a gaze that she could understand clearly because she was a girl as well.

Gaeul tried to understand it in her head. She consoled herself by thinking that she liked him as an admirable seonbae. It must be a relationship between a senior and junior instead of a man and a woman.

Just then, her phone started ringing in her bag. Gaeul picked up the call without even checking who the caller was. Her eyes were fixed on Yuna’s face, so she didn’t even have the room to check.

-That was quick.

It was Maru. Yuna had turned her eyes to her script just as she picked up the phone. Gaeul looked at the side of Yuna’s face before speaking,

“Yeah, Maru.”

She felt her eyes tense as she said those words. It felt like her optic nerves were on edge in order to capture something. She was disappointed in herself for suspecting a junior, but on one hand, she wanted concrete evidence that would put her at ease. It was her heart that ordered her to say Maru’s name out loud before her head could decide otherwise. And the following events made Gaeul’s eyes hurt.

Yuna looked her way. If she was just looking, she wouldn’t have felt anything. Yuna had the eyes of a startled rabbit. It looked like she was caught while doing something wrong. Yuna’s following gaze was that of probing and even a hint of guilt. It was for a brief moment, but Gaeul was able to read all that. Just as she was about to deny that, she heard a voice.

-Is it really not? In my eyes, I think that girl still likes Maru. No wait, loves Maru, maybe?

Gaeul turned her head around to the window. She could feel a vibration from the seat next to her. Yuna was definitely shaking. She probably read something from Gaeul’s eyes as well.

Gaeul shouted at the one inside her heart,

There’s no way that’s the case.

-No, you know better than that.

No, Yuna is a junior I cherish.

-There’s no reason why the junior you cherish can’t be the one that likes Han Maru, is there? Can your juniors not like Maru?

That’s not what I’m talking about.

-How is it not? You know, you’re a bad girl. Is Han Maru yours or something?

Shut up.

-Greedy girl.

I’m not.

-I think you are. If you aren’t, then look at Yuna right now. Look at her and tell her properly. If you don’t feel afraid that is.

Gaeul clenched her teeth as she listened to the voice of the one in her heart.

-That’s why you’re no good. You were always like that. You tried to have everything. Every little thing.

What do you know about me?

-Oh, I do know you. I know you really well. But I’ll stop here for now. We are partners after all, aren’t we? Without my help, your acting will never be complete.

Her voice became faint.

“U-uhm, seonbae.”

“Yeah?”

Gaeul smiled and turned her head around.

She turned off the phone without being able to greet back.

KTLChamber's Thoughts

The rabbit inside Gaeul's heart isn't as cooperative as the masked man, eh?

Editor's Note:

So this is why we brought back the acting club. Well played author, I truly am more interested in this.

Chapter 691

Maru looked down at his phone. The call had been hung up so suddenly.

“What is it?” Daemyung asked.

“I made a call, but I was hung up on so suddenly. I did hear my name being spoken.”

“Maybe she accidentally pressed the wrong button?”

“I don’t think that’s what happened.”

If it was a mistake, he would have gotten a call back. However, his phone was very still right now.

“Now that I think about it, isn’t it about time for Myunghwa High to arrive as well?” Daemyung said as he pointed at the clock.

Maru checked the time as well and nodded. Since she said that they were going to depart after 2nd period, this was about that time. She was in her 3rd year, so she had a lot of things to take care of. She was probably busy on the way here as well.

“Uhm, seonbae! Can you watch over the rehearsal? Instructor Miso said the seniors should watch once,” Aram shouted towards them as she was opening the glass door.

Maru left the Jayu theater with Daemyung and went to the clearing next to it. In the clearing, from where they could see the Music Hall and the Art Gallery, there were students who had come from many parts of the country. Woosung High had also gotten a spot in a corner as well.

“You’ve all changed.”

The juniors had changed into their stage costumes and were holding their scripts while standing in a circle. The other schools were in the same situation. Students had finished dressing up and putting on makeup, and they were doing their last rehearsals in nervousness.

“You already did a run as soon as we arrived, didn’t you? I think that should be sufficient,” Maru remarked as he opened the script.

“But we have time left. Rather than dazing out and losing our tension, we should do something. Instructor Miso said that as well.”

“If the club president and the instructor say so, then I must comply.”

There were forty minutes until the start of the performance. Since the play was about 1 hour long, they would have to be quick to reach the ending scene. Maru looked at his juniors and spoke,

“It’s just before our performance. At this point, you shouldn’t change anything and should solidify what you already have. There are forty minutes until the performance, so I’m going to have you do it quickly. As you probably know from the preliminaries, going on stage is different from practice. The stage here is much larger than the one in Anyang City Hall. Above all, since it’s a place designed for performance, the lights are strong as well. Once you go up, it’ll feel completely different from anything you have felt before. Since there’s a change of environment, the practice you’ve done until now will be very important. Practice is about teamwork after all.”

Maru looked at the junior in front of him and gave him the signal. The junior took a deep breath before saying his first line,

“There’s a reactionary here!”

* * *

The bus shook up and down. Gaeul felt a light car sickness. Even though she had never felt car sick in her life, she felt rather bad today. The reason was probably…

“Attention!”

Choi Seol stood up and shouted. Everyone’s eyes were gathered on her.

“We’ll be arriving at Seoul Arts Hall soon. Once we arrive, the staff in charge of the set should get off quickly to check the set and the large props. We don't want the props to fall down during construction like what happened last year. Okay?”

“Yes!”

“And actors. Grab your personal water bottles and scripts when you get off. We’ll start the rehearsal immediately. I’ll ask just in case, but does anyone feel sick?”

The only ones that raised their hand were the 3rd year students who had come for support. Everyone had prankish smiles on their faces.

“We can be sick. We won’t be going up on stage anyway. If you ever feel sick, have a sore throat, or something else, tell me immediately. I’m gonna kill you if you hide it and say it when you are up on the stage. Go up on the stage in perfect condition. That’s the first thing that actors must do. Understood?”

“Yes!”

“Good. We’re going to do a read-through right now. Just think of it as a light vocal exercise. However, you have to be loud enough so that everyone in this coach can hear you. The Jayu theater may have good acoustics and many say that getting heard isn’t a problem, but if you don’t have the basic vocalization down, you’ll sound like a mosquito.”

Choi Seol uttered out a low hum after saying that they should exercise their vocal cords. The juniors followed suit. Gaeul looked at Yuna who sat next to her. They’d been talking about insignificant things ever since she got a call from Maru. To anyone else, it might not seem any different from usual, but Gaeul knew that both she and Yuna were avoiding the topic they had to talk about.

“You should practice.”

“Ah, yes.”

Yuna looked forward and exercised her voice. Gaeul inwardly scolded herself. How pathetic. The senior, who was supposed to help a junior relax, was instead giving her pressure. If Yuna ended up making a mistake on stage, it would be entirely her fault.

Gaeul hesitated. When should they talk about this iffy problem? Before Yuna went up on stage? After everything was over? Her hesitant heart floated on top of the sea of chaos. At the depths of this car sickness was probably her unstable heart.

The read-through began. The juniors were loud enough to engulf the sound of the engine. These juniors had spent the better half of the past half a year purely for the sake of this performance, and they showed their skills without holding back. The moment their efforts had materialized, Gaeul felt even sorrier for Yuna.

When she got a call from Maru, she should have not shown any emotion at all. It was her fault and mistake for provoking Yuna’s feelings with a provocative gaze and a scolding voice. It would’ve been fine to ask after the performance. Gaeul closed her eyes and sighed softly.

“Hey, Kim Yuna!”

Choi Seol’s shout burst out. It was before Yuna’s line ended. Gaeul was startled as though she was the one who was scolded and looked at Choi Seol. The friend that had protected the acting club alongside her all this time was looking at Yuna with scary eyes.

“Kim Yuna.”

“Yes.”

“Are you playing jokes on me?”

“I-I’m sorry.”

“Sorry? What the heck was that just now? If you made a mistake, I can understand. Anyone can make a mistake, and mistakes can be overcome on stage with the help of other people. But what was that just now? Do you not want to do this? What the hell is up with that puny voice!”

Choi Seol looked very upset. Gaeul looked at her friend and her junior alternately. Yuna was a feeble girl. While she might look bold, it was clear after some time that she was someone who got hurt easily. Such a girl was given tremendous pressure just before the performance. Gaeul clenched her eyes shut. Even she herself felt car sick from that conversation. It would have been a massive pain for this child.

Gaeul saw Yuna bite her lower lip. Yuna was unable to raise her head. She looked like she was on the edge and felt like a candle that was about to flicker off at any moment. Gaeul reached out. She grabbed Yuna’s hand which was clenching the script to the point that the script was being creased.

“Seol.”

“Yeah.”

“I gave her some milk a while ago, and it seems like that was the problem. I feel a little bad as well.”

“What? Hey! How can you give her something like that inside a vehicle!”

“Sorry, I’m really sorry.”

“You… Hey, Kim Yuna. Do you feel sick?”

“Eh?”

Gaeul grabbed Yuna’s hand. When she did, Yuna replied ‘yes’ in a small voice.

“Is it bad?”

“No! It’s nothing serious. I’m sorry.”

Choi Seol undid her hairband and shook her hair loose.

“Taehoon! You fill in Yuna’s spot for now. Everyone, focus and continue.”

After saying those words, Choi Seol knelt down next to Yuna.

“Give me your hand.”

“What?”

“I said give me your hand.”

Yuna put out her hand. Choi Seol frowned and started massaging Yuna’s hand on the part that connected the palm and the wrist. Yuna flinched as though it was quite painful.

“Endure it. This is the best thing when you have a bad stomach. There are cases where medicines give you side effects. How do you feel? A bit better now?”

“Yes.”

“Gaeul, do the other hand for her.”

Gaeul nodded.

“Sorry for shouting.”

“It was my fault. I know that eating something inside a moving vehicle is a bad idea, but I still gave it to her.”

“Yeah, you’re a problem because you are so generous to others. Kim Yuna, do you think you’re getting better?”

Yuna quickly nodded.

“For now, keep massaging it. Close your eyes as well. Unless it was actually bad food, you’ll feel better when you get off.”

After massaging for a while, Choi Seol picked up the script and led the read-through again.

“Gaeul-seonbae.”

When Choi Seol walked away, Yuna spoke. She looked like she had a lot to say. Gaeul looked at her eyes. Her eyes contained unease, nervousness, and even a sense of guilt. What would happen if Yuna confessed again and she heard the same thing she heard last time? She probably wouldn’t be able to laugh it off like a character in a movie. Confessions required courage beyond imagination. And after a confession, the confessor would become uneasy because of the potential aftermath.

Was Yuna in a situation where she could endure that storm? Gaeul would have to shake her head to that question. What this junior needed right now was the concentration to go up on stage and the energy to release on the stage. If she wasted energy apologizing and making excuses for a vague matter, she would have little energy on the stage.

“I saw hearts in your eyes as soon as you heard Maru’s voice just now.”

Gaeul looked at Yuna’s expression. There were a lot of complex expressions on her face, but the biggest one of them was confusion.

“You still like Maru, don’t you?”

“Eh? No, that’s, uhm…”

“Yuna.”

“Yes!”

“Don’t get stiff because of something like that. Do you think I would care about something like that?”

Yuna blinked several times. Her lips melted after being frozen from all the nervousness.

“You can stay close to him. You don’t have to mind me.”

“Eh? But…”

“I was like that too. There was an oppa I liked in middle school, and he had a girlfriend. But what could I do? My feelings for him didn’t disappear immediately. Also, it’s not like Maru and I are engaged or anything, so you don’t have to feel so much guilt. That’s just how everyone gets by.”

The moment she finished those words, she heard a voice.

-Pretending to be an adult, pretending to be generous, pretending to have good endurance, pretending like it’s for her sake, pretending to be cool about it. What a good pretender you are.

Gaeul was unable to reply to that voice. That was because Yuna, who looked like she was about to cry at any moment, had a smile on her face. She looked liberated.

“Sorry, seonbae. I still like Maru-seonbae. That’s why I felt scared whenever I saw you. I felt sorry. I knew that I couldn’t be like this.”

“It’s okay, it’s fine. Don’t fret over something like that. You’re going to be acting together in that drama anyway. I heard you two were lovers in it, right? Being close to him is natural.”

“But…”

“I said I don’t mind. Right now, Maru and I are dating because we get along, but you never know what the future holds. You know, I think it’s somewhat funny to tell other girls not to get close to him just because I’m dating him. I mean, that just shows that I’m not confident, right?”

Gaeul took out some tissues from her bag and gave them to Yuna. Yuna dabbed her tears and put on the relaxed smile she had when she just joined the club.

“Do you feel okay now?”

“Yes.”

“I don’t have to worry about the stage, right?”

“Yes!”

Gaeul smiled and patted Yuna’s shoulders. It seemed that the sense of guilt that weighed down her body had mostly lifted.

-Hypocrite. In the end, you still appealed to her that you are the one dating Maru; to not to touch him. You just did it in an indirect way so that she doesn’t catch on. You are really evil. You always were. You always had to have everything. You want to stay in a good relationship with your junior, but you don’t want what is yours to be taken away. But you know what? People only have two hands. If your hands are full because you’re greedy, you won’t be able to grab the important thing when it truly matters.

Gaeul looked outside.

She didn’t want to listen to that voice.

-You will have to face it without dodging it. Whenever it is or whatever it is.

Shut up - Gaeul told ‘her’ those two words with difficulty.

KTLChamber's Thoughts

Gee, this rabbit inside Gaeul doesn't seem as cooperative as the masked man within Maru…

Well, not that surprising if our(my) assumptions are true. Gaeul has 'opted' to go back to the past multiple times (20 times at least), because she 'wanted' Maru (if you know what I mean). And the rabbit (presumably also her), has watched her take that option multiple times. (For Maru, it was just 'congratz, you get another chance!', not 'Do you wanna go back?')

Now, this is just an assumption, but if Maru's death triggers her memories to come back (!!), that would make her even MORE selfish.

On a side note, I think I overwrote chapter 690 with this chapter in my google drive folder… Good thing I uploaded it already.

Editor's Note:

I'll add my own thoughts to what Chamber said. I'm not sure if she gets her memories back, or if the 'first' her just knows everything and is watching from inside the current her (like the Maru inside Maru). If so, it makes sense why she is so bitter. She is the most selfish one, the one that is essentially 'killing' Maru over and over (hence the don't hate her too much), just so she can enjoy his presence. Now, we are on the 21st life, and the rabbit seems to be very against Gaeul keeping her relationship with Maru, but she never tells her no. The suffering rabbit, who has lived so many times and watched her beloved die each and every time, is trying to end the cycle, but once again she is selfish (since she does not want to do it herself) and is pushing that responsibility on the current Gaeul.

Chapter 692

-Would Woosung Engineering Highschool please enter the waiting room.

There was an announcement. The club members, who were doing one last rehearsal, closed their scripts and started moving.

“Just do what you did during the preliminaries. I’ll treat you all to good things afterwards, so if you get nervous, think about the food.”

Miso clapped and patted the back of each member of the club as they went into the waiting room. It was up to the actors and the staff now. Maru looked at the club members calming their breathing inside the waiting room before leaving.

“Han Maru! Let’s move this stuff.”

He heard a voice from the parking lot. Dowook was waving a drink bottle above his head. He went down the stairs and stood in front of the truck.

“What’s all this?”

Maru looked at the box by Dowook’s feet. There was a box of sports drinks that each had a wrap that said ‘Good Luck’ on it. The box had just as many bottles as the number of members in the club.

“I said it wasn’t necessary, but my sister…”

Dowook slurred the end of his words and looked inside the truck. There was Soojin who was writing lines of encouragement on the wrap on the drinks in the driver’s seat.

“Maru.”

Soojin smiled as she got off the truck with the bottle in hand.

“When did you get all these?”

“While you guys were practicing.”

Soojin gave him a bottle with the wrap.

“I’m a senior of Blue Sky too, so I wanted to do something.”

“We received plenty of help already. Thanks to you driving the truck, we managed to get here early, and we were able to get in plenty of practice too.”

Maru received the bottle and put it inside the box.

“I’ll get these to the others.”

“Thanks.”

“That’s what we should be saying. The older sister is much more helpful than the insufficient little brother.”

Dowook twitched when he heard the term ‘insufficient little brother’. However, he didn’t frown or swear like he would usually do. It was probably because Soojin was looking right at him. Even the monkey king would become docile in front of Sanzang.

“It’s going to begin soon, isn’t it?”

“Yes. We unloaded everything, so you should come and watch.”

Maru looked at the bottles as he continued to speak,

“And you should hand these out yourself. They’ll be more encouraged that way.”

Maru lifted the box with effort.

* * *

“It’s Woosung High.”

Hearing Choi Seol’s words, Gaeul reflexively turned her head to look in that direction. There were a bunch of students wearing a black hoodie that said ‘Blue Sky’ in front of the opera house. From how there were around ten or so people, it seemed that the actors and the main staff had already entered the building. Behind them were students wearing casual clothes. From the way they weren’t wearing school uniforms, they seemed to be students from Woosung High who came to cheer for them.

-Woosung Engineering Highschool’s performance will begin at 12:30.

As the announcement resounded, the students from Woosung High went inside.

“Well then. Don’t get distracted and keep moving! We’re going to change after we do a rehearsal here.”

The juniors got off the bus and got into a line. Gaeul looked at Yuna, who was standing at the end, before looking away. From the relaxed expression she had, it seemed that she no longer had any internal conflicts. She wouldn’t make a mistake on stage due to being distracted at least.

“Handle the background set carefully. When you carry it, do it with four people. Haeji, where’s the sprinkler?”

“Here.”

“Fill it up right now. We can’t forget it.”

After watching the junior run over to the bathroom, the checking resumed. Gaeul looked at the props laid out on the ground and checked the list.

“There are no problems. But do be careful when you move them. The smaller props will easily get lost, so the ones in charge of them should have their eyes on them at all times, okay?”

“Yes.”

Gaeul wiped her forehead with her hand and went over to the next thing.

* * *

“Man, look at the sheer scale that Myunghwa High has.”

Dowook clicked his tongue as he looked at the students of Myunghwa High get off the bus.

“Apparently their graduates help them out a lot. You know they have a lot of graduates in the entertainment industry,” said Daemyung who was standing next to him.

“Don’t we have anything?”

“Instructor Miso got us a coach too.”

“Not that. I’m talking about whether the school does anything for us.”

“Unlikely, seeing as how they don’t like us in the first place. I’m actually glad that they let us take classes off.”

Daemyung ran off saying that he would go in first. He was probably busy helping the others behind the stage side curtains. Dowook walked over to Myunghwa High while fiddling with a drink bottle in his hand.

“Be careful with the costumes. Check the buttons and zippers especially. If you find any problems, tell me immediately so that we can get them fixed. The wigs too, check the pins inside.”

Maru’s girlfriend could be seen amidst the students taking care of the props away from the main group that was practicing. She was looking alternately at the items in the plastic box and the sheet of paper in her hands.

“Come to think of it,”

Dowook thought about what he talked about with Maru. Maru said something about how she suddenly hung up when he called in the morning.

“Should I tell him that Myunghwa High is here?”

Dowook took out his phone.

* * *

“There, gather your hands together.”

Aram reached out her right hand. Everyone reached out and formed a tower of hands.

“Let’s do our best just once. We’ll win the grand prize.”

“Yes!”

“Focus. There should be many people in the audience seats, so watch out and do not freak out. Go up thinking that you’re going to have a blast up there. Blue Sky!”

“Fighting!”

As they raised their hands energetically, the door to the stage opened.

“Woosung Engineering Highschool, please come up to the stage.”

The staff from the hall gave them the signal. Maru clapped twice and wished them good luck. The actors went up first, followed by the staff who were going to set up the background and the items on the stage. Daemyung was in charge of the tempo control in Aram’s stead, since she had a role to play on the stage. The overall instructions would come from Miso who would be watching them from the control room.

“Good luck,” said Maru as he pushed Daemyung’s back.

Daemyug put on his in-ear monitors and started moving. Maru started cleaning up the waiting room which had become empty. The next school would enter soon. The other club members were getting ready to watch from the audience seats along with the other students that came to cheer them on. Watching was an important way to study after all.

He finished cleaning up and told the staff about it. The next school immediately occupied waiting room A. Maru stood in the corridor that was to the left of the Jayu theater with chairs in each hand. He could hear the murmurs dying down.

“I hope they do well.”

He left through the door in the corridor. As Seoul Arts Hall was located right next to Mt. Woomyeon, he saw the green forest in front of his eyes. He unfolded the folding chair that he brought out and sat down. He could finally take a breather. He drank the sports drink that Soojin handed out and was relieving his fatigue when his phone started vibrating. He got a text message.

-Myunghwa High is here. I can see your gf too.

Maru stood up with the chairs. When he went around to the entrance of the opera house, he saw students from Myunghwa High standing in a group. The number of students was at least several times that of the other schools. They seemed to be here to cheer for their team as none of them seemed to be from the acting club.

He went over to the truck with the chairs. He couldn’t keep carrying these around after all. As he was loading the chairs onto the truck, he saw Dowook walking over.

“You didn’t go inside?”

“I watched them multiple times already, why would I need to see it again?”

There was a trash bag in his hands. The hosts told each school that they should take care of their own trash. Maru reached out and told him to hand the bag over. He tilted the trash bag against one wall of the truck.

“Then why are you here?”

“I was cleaning up the waiting room.”

“Both you and I are having a hard time taking care of the others, huh. Rather than that, have you met your girlfriend yet?”

“No, I haven't seen her yet.”

“Well, she did look busy. Myunghwa High looked all serious this year as well. I mean, just their prop vehicle was a 2.5t truck. It was a boxed truck too.”

Maru looked at the 1t truck that he was standing on.

“They have a lot of members after all. As far as I can tell, there’s around 100 of them, I think?”

“That’s one hell of a lot.”

Dowook opened the door to the passenger seat and went inside. Maru jumped off the back of the truck.

“Are you going to stay here?”

“I’ll look after the luggage and the trash. You should go watch.”

“Aren’t you gonna be bored here?”

“Like hell. I’m going to sleep.”

Dowook tilted the chair backwards and closed his eyes.

“Alright, get some sleep. Thanks for all the work since morning. The juniors will all look at you with respect.”

After hearing those words, Dowook put up his middle finger with one hand and waved with the other. Maru faintly smiled and walked over to Myunghwa High’s buses.

* * *

“Good. We’ll take a 10 minute break and practice again afterwards. In the meantime, you should all visit the toilet. The first years should get some rest while looking around, okay?”

“Yes!”

“We prepared some food for you all, so eat if you feel hungry. But don’t eat too much, it will make your head work less. Okay, we’ll meet again in 10 minutes.”

Yuna uttered out a short breath. Perhaps because the opera house was right in front of her, she felt her nervousness intensifying.

“Yuna. We’re going to go inside the opera house, wanna come with us?”

“I’ll stay outside. I don’t think my heart can handle going inside right now.”

“Oh right. You said you weren’t feeling well, didn’t you? You’ll feel better if you get some more fresh air.”

“Yeah.”

Her colleagues went inside. Yuna stretched her arms out and shook her hands and feet lightly. She was in her worst condition inside the bus, but she felt better than ever right now. It was probably thanks to Gaeul-seonbae’s encouragement.

Seonbae is so cool after all - Yuna thought back to Gaeul who had a firm expression on her face. It wouldn’t be surprising if she snapped out, yet Gaeul-seonbae consoled her instead. Yuna was able to feel Gaeul-seonbae’s firm faith in Maru-seonbae at that moment. That was when she realized that she wouldn’t be able to wriggle her way between the two. She was finally able to put down her feelings.

‘I’m just a junior and a little sister.’

Neither Maru-seonbae nor Gaeul-seonbae made a big deal about it. It meant that Yuna herself wasn’t someone charming enough to threaten their romantic relationship. While she felt bitter about it, she also felt like this was a better ending. Feelings would go away someday - the two seonbae said those words in common. Yuna decided to believe in those words.

She drank some water and took a stroll around the art gallery. Just then, she discovered a student walking up the stairs from the parking lot. That student also noticed Yuna. Yuna hesitated for a moment before greeting him cheerfully,

“Maru-seonbae.”

Maru, who was at the top of the staircase, waved back at her.

* * *

“Gaeul, there are no problems with the costumes, right?”

“Wait a sec, I just need to put this on.”

“Did something fall off?”

“One of the buttons is loose.”

“Those first-year students, they said there weren’t any problems yesterday,” Choi Seol said as she tensed her eyes.

Gaeul tapped on her forehead when rage got the better of her.

“It might have come loose from all the shaking on the way here. It’s something I can fix easily, so there’s no problem. Here, it’s perfect, isn’t it?” Gaeul said as she put down the needle.

Choi Seol tried pulling on the buttons before nodding.

“We’re now going to get changed and do one final rehearsal.”

“Do you need my help?”

“You should get some rest now. You were even busier than the first-year students.”

“I didn’t participate in practice, so I should at least make up for that.”

“You did enough, so stay still until the performance begins.”

Choi Seol left the bus with the costumes. Gaeul sighed softly before leaning back. She felt tired for some reason. She was dazing out, and her eyes felt blurry as well.

“Geez, what’s up with me…”

She pondered how she would deal with Yuna in the future. Today, she acted boldly and glossed over it, but just as the ‘one inside her’ said, she felt very uneasy. Of course, Maru wasn’t some item that belonged to her. If he changed his mind someday and left her, that would be it. However, bad thoughts kept appearing in a corner of her heart. They were telling her to stay wary of Yuna and block her. There was a part of her that told her to not let the relationship between the two people get better.

Perhaps ‘her’ words were right. A greedy hypocrite. Gaeul rested her hands on her chin and looked outside the window. At that moment, she found Maru standing at the top of a staircase like it was a lie. At the same time, she was reminded of the phone call they had in the morning. She had forgotten about it because she was busy with all the work.

For some reason, she felt happy. Naturally, Maru was in this place and she might run into him, but it felt like a miracle that he appeared right at the moment she wanted to see him. Gaeul opened the bus window. She poked her head out and tried to call him. That is, if she did not see Yuna running over to Maru.

She blocked her voice from escaping her mouth by blocking her mouth with her hands. She immediately crouched low and got away from the window. She did nothing wrong, yet she clutched her racing heart. She couldn’t understand why she had to hide, but her body proactively got away from the window. On top of the staircase, which she could see from a diagonal angle, she saw Maru and Yuna greet each other. The phone she placed on her thighs fell down. Gaeul stared at that phone for a while.

KTLChamber's Thoughts

Gee, I don't think I like where this is going……

Editor's Note:

Damn. I haven't been this absorbed in a while.

Chapter 693

Maru looked at Yuna who had approached him. She was wearing formal attire that seemed a little too large for her.

“Is that your costume?”

“Yes. I play the role of a new employee that is a bit of an airhead.”

“You definitely do look airheaded.”

“Is that a compliment?”

“Probably?”

Yuna smiled.

“Thankfully, you look like you don’t seem that nervous.”

“Yes. I was really nervous until we got here, but I’m feeling okay now.”

“I’m supposed to be a competitor, so I’d like you to be a little nervous. I can applaud if you make a mistake on stage.”

“Are you serious?”

“We should win the grand prize at least once, don’t you think? Hwasoo High isn’t here, so as long as Myunghwa High slips up, I think we can make it.”

“That’s going too far.”

Maru smiled and looked around. Since Myunghwa High’s performance hadn’t begun yet, it was likely that the actors were together. It would be the same for the 3rd year students as well.

“Are you looking for Gaeul-seonbae?”

“Yeah. I tried to call her in the morning, but the call was hung up so suddenly.”

Maru took out his phone. There wasn’t a missed call. Was she busy to the point that she wasn’t able to check?

“Uhm.”

Yuna’s voice became a pitch lower. Even though she was smiling just moments ago, she looked hesitant to speak.

“Did something happen?”

From the way things looked, Yuna seemed to know something. Yuna nodded.

“I talked to Gaeul-seonbae in the coach for a bit.”

“About what?”

“A-about you, seonbae.”

“Me?”

Maru was unable to understand, so he waited for Yuna’s next words. She licked her lips slightly and spoke after a bit of hesitation,

“Gaeul-seonbae talked to me first. She told me that I can’t help my feelings of liking someone. She also told me that I shouldn’t feel sorry for her and even worse, avoid my feelings.”

“Gaeul said that?”

“Yes. Honestly, before I heard her say those words, I felt scared. I did say I confessed due to a mistake, and I tried my best not to show it, but it looks like Gaeul-seonbae noticed that.”

Yuna fidgeted.

“Gaeul-seonbae is amazing. I wouldn’t be able to do that. I would have scolded them, asking why they did that, and tell them not to do that anymore, yet she consoled me instead.”

“She has a bold side to her. If she was born as a boy, she would have been a general.”

“You’re right, she really would have been.”

Maru scanned Yuna’s face. After a refreshed expression, there was a hint of disappointment on her face. Maru could tell what kind of feelings were going through Yuna’s heart right now, but he did not mention it. It was just as Gaeul said. Time would solve it.

“Both of you, you really suit each other.”

“It’s kinda embarrassing to get told that to my face. Uhm, while we’re at it, can you tell me where Gaeul is right now?”

“Gaeul-seonbae? She should be in the parking lot right now. I saw her go down to check on the costumes before practice was over.”

“Really?”

“Over there, you should go over to our school’s coaches.”

Yuna pointed at the coach with her finger before speaking,

“I’ll get going now.”

“Good luck with your performance.”

“Yes. I’ll do my best to win the grand prize.”

“Don’t do that well.”

Maru waved at Yuna before walking towards the parking lot again. On his way, he called Gaeul on her phone. After a few signal sounds, the call connected.

“It’s so hard to see your face, huh. I’m going to the parking lot right now.”

-You’re coming here?

“Yeah, can I not?”

-No, it’s not like that.

“You’re starting to make me feel disappointed. Are you perhaps busy? If you’re not okay with seeing me right now, we can meet later.”

-It’s not like that.

“Then let’s meet. I’m standing in front of your school’s coaches,” Maru said as he looked at the coaches that said ‘Myunghwa High’. There were seven coaches in total. After calculating how many students they delivered all the way here, he started laughing. The treatment of Myunghwa High’s acting club was totally different from what Woosung High’s acting club got.

“Han Maru.”

Maru turned to the source of the voice. He saw Gaeul poke her head out through the coach window. Maru walked over.

“You’re such an aristocrat that it’s hard to see you.”

“Don’t get started on that. But didn’t Woosung High’s performance just begin?”

“It should be about halfway through now.”

“Is it okay for you to be here when you’re a third-year senior? You should be helping them.”

“Daemyung’s with them, so I’m not worried. Also, I can’t exactly help when I haven’t been participating in practice. The only thing I can do is to carry the luggage and clean up afterwards. What are you doing here?”

“One of the buttons on a costume got loose, so I was sewing it back on.”

“You can sew too?”

“Why? You never thought I could?”

“Your hands are vicious, so I thought the only thing you could do was hit people.”

Maru raised his arms as soon as he said those words. It was to defend against the oncoming hit. Strangely, Gaeul just faintly smiled and stayed still. Maru looked up at her.

“What is up with you today? You’re strangely merciful.”

“Nothing.”

“That makes me feel suspicious. Are you sure you don’t feel bad somewhere?”

“No, I feel really good right now. I’m so itching for something to do that I can’t sit still.”

“But you are standing still right now.”

“I’m resting.”

Gaeul rested her elbows on the window sill and her chin on her hands.

“How was the drama shoot?”

“Barely scraped by the first episode. The set was large.”

“Was it fun?”

“I’ll see when the viewing rates are out. This is the first work that I’ll be doing as a main character, so I hope it does well, but that’s not really up to me.”

“You’ll do well.”

“Is today April Fool’s Day? Your words are so kind that I want to suspect you.”

Maru took a step closer to the window. There was less than a foot between the two. Gaeul, who was looking down from the bus, stretched her arms suddenly and leaned back.

“I feel a little tired. Is it because I have been tense since morning? It’s more tiring to look after the others than actually going up on stage, right?”

Gaeul’s eyes did not stay fixed in one place. They moved everywhere. Maru saw that and spoke,

“Do you want to take a walk?”

“Sorry. I’m a bit tired right now.”

“Then should I go inside? Just because it’s Myunghwa High’s coach, doesn’t mean that students from other schools aren’t allowed in, right?”

“There are a lot of personal items of our members here.”

There was no leisure in her voice. Her emotions were excluded from her answer as though she was saying the answer to a mathematical question, and she quickly gave her answers. Maru scratched his eyebrows and spoke,

“I know that being roundabout is usually better for not injuring people’s feelings, but I have heard some things, so I’ll ask. Is it because of Yuna?”

Maru saw that Gaeul had fallen silent. She did not put on a stiff expression and just stayed still without panicking. Maru thought that it was a sign that he was indeed right on the mark. Thinking that he had to set things straight, he was about to speak, but Gaeul spoke first,

“What, you’re on about that too?”

Gaeul made a cheerful smile that did not look different from usual. Maru looked into her eyes. He had a strange confidence that he would be able to read what she was thinking if he did so. However, there was a limit to reading people’s feelings from their eyes. There was no way he could see through the heart of someone else just by looking.

She didn’t look like she was lying. Maru trusted his senses. They had known each other for a long time. He had been by her side when she was sick, and they shared feelings when she cried as well. While he didn’t know what she was thinking deep in her heart, he thought that he would be able to see what she was thinking on the surface at least. She was emotionally stable right now, that was the conclusion Maru came to.

“Both you and Yuna are like this. If you keep talking about that, I’m gonna get angry, okay?” Gaeul said with a frown.

“If it’s not because of that, then why are you acting like this?”

“Geez, why can’t you notice with those good wits of yours? It’s that day of the month! Okay? I feel sick right now, and that’s why I’m here without moving. Did you really have to make me say that?”

She chopped down mercilessly. Maru was able to block that, but he let her hit him. There was a sharp pain along with a small thud.

“Really?”

He smiled faintly and looked at Gaeul. She narrowed her eyes and had pouty lips. Her expression was proof that she was the Gaeul of usual.

“Go over to your juniors. It’s your duty as a senior to watch their performance.”

“I would prefer to spend a sweet time with my girlfriend over that.”

“Do you need another beating?”

Gaeul reached out the window and swung her arms. Maru stepped back.

“I’m glad to see that you have the energy to do that. It looks like it’s not driving you crazy, huh?”

“It’s not that bad, that’s why I’m talking to you like this. But I’m not good enough to move around. Sorry about that.”

“Don’t say that. Get some good rest. I’d love to be in pain in your stead, but that’s not something I can do. You know that right? In many ways.”

“If I sue you for sexual harassment, you’ll get sentenced to a decade in jail.”

“Looks like I’ll have to watch my mouth in the future. Do you want me to buy you something warm?”

“I have water here.”

“Should I hold your hand?”

“Just get going so that I can get some rest.”

Maru nodded. Gaeul, who was staring at him quietly, said something rather random all of a sudden.

“You’ll always be like that even if you are forty-five. You can’t read the mood and you always play jokes.”

“What a pity. I’m going to be a gentleman when I grow up so that won’t happen. But why forty-five of all ages? That’s a rather random age.”

“Nothing. I just felt like it had a good ring to it.”

Gaeul stared at him. Maru was confused but did not avoid her gaze. After looking at him for a while, Gaeul smiled.

“Get going.”

“Fine, I’ll get going.”

Maru waved at her. Gaeul smiled and reached out her right hand when Maru was thinking that she would just wave. Maru looked at the hand that was right in front of him. It was open as though she wanted him to grab it. Maru grabbed the hand.

“I love you,” she said.

* * *

Gaeul looked away from Maru, who was getting distant, and closed her eyes. After the sensation of being sunken into the deep sea, a stage unfolded before her eyes. There was a white rabbit standing on a round chair. It was the ‘her’ that lived within her.

“Why did you do that?”

-Do what?

“Why did you say ‘I love you’ by yourself?”

-Isn’t that what you wanted? Also, you had me take your position because you didn’t have the confidence to talk to Maru, didn’t you? Well, I guess Maru would have noticed otherwise. He was already suspicious of you after all. If it wasn’t for my acting, he would have noticed that something did happen between you and Yuna, and he would have asked questions. If he did, then you would have acted like an adult again while trying to maintain your façade.

Gaeul became quiet. The rabbit was right. When Maru asked if it was because of Yuna, she asked the rabbit to replace her for a bit. She didn’t have the confidence to face Maru. She didn’t want him to find out that she was a narrow-minded person who was jealous of a feeble junior. She hid inside because she wanted to maintain the cheerful ‘Han Gaeul’.

-You’re a kid who wants to act like an adult. Ever since your father passed away, you kept acting like an adult because you thought that you don’t want to drag down your mother and because of the expectations placed on you by the people around you. Ultimately, when you saw Maru cry, cry like a child in the cinema, you were no longer able to give up that position as the ‘adult’. It’s a false image that you put up out of your greed.

“I wanted to be of help to Maru! That’s not a bad thing, is it?”

-Yes, that is the case. It’s not a bad thing. But remember. Lies will become bigger. They might not grow fast, but they will grow steadily. And ultimately, the lies will replace you. By that time, you will play the role of the shadow of your lies, and your lies will replace you.

“No, it won’t be like that.”

-Let’s see about that, shall we?

“You don’t know anything about me.”

The rabbit suddenly became quiet. A moment later, she nodded.

-You’re right. I don’t know anything. So, I’ll stop here. If you want my help, call me any time. If it’s about acting, I’ll help you for free. Even if it’s for something special like that just now.

The stage started collapsing. Gaeul felt like the rabbit, who was the owner of this space, was telling her to leave.

“I’ll ask you just one thing. Why did it have to be I love you out of all things? I didn’t want that.”

The stage collapsed completely, and she was dragged into a world of white. At that moment, she heard the rabbit’s voice, which had turned faint,

-Because I’m a child too. I’m a child who still wants to check on things.

KTLChamber's Thoughts

Gaeul: Why did you do that?

Rabbit:… because… I am you… T^T

Editor's Note:

Whew, so that confirms that the rabbit is 100% the Wife from the timeline we started with at the beginning (pole through bus window). Furthermore, it also shows a bit more to why inner Maru said to forgive her for being so selfish, because even tho she's an observer, she wants to spend more time with Maru. That's why she suddenly changed her stance and told Gaeul that she could call 'her' any time.

Also. RED FLAG, HUGE RED FLAG. "Why did it have to be I love you out of all things? I didn’t want that.” Excuse me?????? She doesn't want to say that to him????

Chapter 694

Music flowed out and the stage darkened. With the top light turning off after shining down on the fallen soldier, the stage turned completely dark. A moment later, the background music became fainter and a faint light appeared on the stage. The main character walked out amidst the actors.

Maru applauded. The other people in the audience started clapping as well. Eventually, the background music was buried under the sound of applause. The juniors, who were waiting behind the curtain, all went out on the stage. They pulled up the actors on the ground before bowing towards the audience. As they bowed, the applause became louder. The main character appeared at the end and grabbed the hands of the actors, joined the line, and raised his hands up high before putting them down while bowing. It was a good curtain call that was worth all the preparation.

-Woosung Engineering High school’s performance has ended. The next performance will be in 40 minutes including lunchtime. Thank you.

The lights among the audience seats turned on along with the announcement. Maru stood up from his seat and headed to the stage. The independent soldier, who was shouting ‘independence’ until just moments ago while dying, was now trying his best to peel off the glowing tape on the ground, and the evil man, who had to choose betrayal for the sake of his family, was struggling to dismantle the set. The actors had returned to reality as though they were Cinderella after midnight.

“Good. You did really well,” said Maru as he patted his juniors’ backs.

There were two moments throughout the play where they had almost made a mistake, but they managed to gloss it over with the help of those around them. That was when teamwork shone through.

“Daemyung, great job.”

“Did you notice that we almost made a mistake in the middle? Was it obvious?” Daemyung asked hurriedly as soon as he saw Maru.

Maru shook his head.

“Only those in the know would be able to catch that, so the audience shouldn’t have noticed. You guys did well handling that.”

“Gosh, that’s good. I was sweating hard when I saw that.”

Daemyung showed Maru his script. Daemyung’s script was usually very clean, yet now it was crumpled up. He could tell how nervous Daemyung had been from just looking at it.

“Everyone, let’s get these cleaned up quickly. Only then will we get some rest and eat, ” Aram shouted from the center of the stage.

The first-year staff all rushed over and cleaned up the props and the costumes. Maru walked over to the side curtains and took away the water bottles that the actors had left there.

“Seonbae-nim, I’ll do it.”

“Nah. You go and erase your makeup and change your clothes.”

The junior, who had fake blood over his face, nodded before turning around. The actors were all exhausted after spending their energy.

“The energetic ones should be doing the clean-up.”

Dowook had appeared. He had a large trash bag over his shoulder.

“Man, you’re cleaning up trash all day.”

“That’s my job today after all. How was the performance?”

“If you are so curious, then why didn’t you come and watch? I started watching halfway.”

“I said I watched enough of it. Don’t say nonsense. How was it? Were they good? Did they screw up?”

“Look at their faces.”

Maru pointed at the juniors who were cleaning up while high-fiving each other. Dowook grinned after seeing the juniors.

“Dang, they seem to have done well.”

“Dowook, you said you were too nervous to watch, yet you’re here?”

Maru looked below the stage. Soojin was smiling from below the stage. She seemed like she was planning to come up as she placed her hands on the edge of the stage before jumping slightly.

“Noona, watch out. There are stairs on the side.”

“I always came up to the stage like this before.”

Soojin lightly hopped onto the stage and dusted her hands. Maru narrowed his eyes and looked at Dowook.

“So the reason you didn’t watch was because you were nervous? Whew, I see now, my dear little delicate Dowook?”

“Set your face straight before I beat you up.”

“Hey, Kang Dowook. Are you okay with saying such cruel words in front of Soojin-noona?”

Usually, after hearing that, Dowook would throw the trash bag and stomp towards him, but he gave glances at Soojin and hesitated.

“Maru, don’t tease him too much. Dowook gets pissed easily.”

“When have I ever!”

Dowook left the stage while shouting as though he was running away. Maru laughed as he looked at Soojin.

“You two look a lot better.”

“Thanks to you.”

“Is the petrol station busy these days? I saw that Dowook always went home right after classes.”

“It’s not that busy because we hired some people, but Dowook is learning under a friend of our father these days. That’s probably why.”

“He’s learning?”

“Car maintenance. I don’t think he’s going to go to college.”

“Looks like he matured.”

“I wish he had a broader experience though. It looks like he’s firm on his will. He’s just like mother when it comes to his stubbornness.”

“Please watch over him from the side.”

Soojin smiled in acceptance. Just then, Miso called out to her from the audience seats.

“Then see you later.”

“Yes.”

Maru looked at Miso and Soojin before leaving with the rest of the luggage.

“Actors, get changed first! The others, let’s move the props to the truck.”

Aram was leading the others well even though it was rather chaotic after having just finished the play. The first-year students moved quickly and cleaned up the set which was placed outside the opera house.

30 minutes later, the acting club all gathered in front of the truck. Nearly forty people wearing matching hoodies all looked at Miso while sitting down. Behind her was Taesik.

“Good work, guys. There were moments that made me nervous, but it was good overall. I could feel the pride of having put in the effort all this time. Well then, a round of applause for all of you.”

When Miso clapped, the others followed suit.

“And over there, she is also a graduate of Blue Sky, though it should be the first time seeing her for you first-year students. She came over early in the morning with a truck so that you guys can move faster. Let’s give her a round of applause too.”

Soojin, who was standing by the window, stroked her hair backwards and lightly nodded. Maru had a look at Dowook's expression, and he was smiling as though it was he himself who was receiving the praise.

“I had a look at the leaflet, and I think there are about four schools that left a deep impression on me, including our school. I think you should be able to aim for the grand prize if you can do that much on a high school level.”

“How was the school before us?” one of the juniors asked.

Miso shrugged.

“I watched them, but they were honestly so-so. We have only one school to worry about. It's them over there.”

Miso pointed at Myunghwa High's students on top of the hill.

“We have the afternoon off from school as well, so let's eat for now. We're going to return in time for Myunghwa High's play. Theirs is worth watching after all.”

“Where are we going to eat lunch?”

“We’re going to have a feast in the evening, so you can buy some things to eat from the convenience store. Of course, it’s on me.”

Miso took out her credit card. Everyone cheered as they stood up.

“Aram, take care of it.”

“Yes!”

“Don’t eat too much if you want to eat delicious things in the evening. For now, meet up back here by 2 after eating. Okay?”

Yes - after replying, everyone ran over to the convenience store. As many of them hadn’t eaten breakfast due to nervousness, they became frantic after hearing the word ‘food’.

“Let’s go.”

Maru glanced at Daemyung and Dowook. They waited outside the crowded store before going inside. There wasn’t a single piece of bread on the shelves. The same was true for triangular kimbap. Maru ended up going to the counter with one ramyun and some milk.

“Seonbae, is that it for you?” Aram asked.

Maru pointed at the empty shelves without replying. The lady at the counter also chuckled.

“Did you get your stuff?”

“I should take care of the others first. Looks like I’m going to have to get ramyun too. Instead, I’m going to eat properly during dinner.”

“Yeah. The instructor did say she’s going to treat us to something good, so that sounds like a wise decision.”

Maru put some hot water into the cup ramyun before leaving. The tables in front of the convenience store were full, so they had to look for another place.

“Maru, shall we go over there?”

Daemyung pointed at a small park located between the opera house and the concert hall. There was a bench under the tree, so it looked like a good place to get some shade. They waited for Dowook, who was the last one out, before walking over to the bench.

“There’s quite a lot of people,” said Daemyung as he looked around.

Many families could be seen walking around.

“It’s Saturday after all. It also looks like there’s an event in the art gallery.”

“Should we go see that after eating then?”

“I’m gonna get some sleep,” Dowook said as he stuffed some ramyun into his mouth.

“Maru, how about you?”

“Alright, let’s kill some time there.”

Maru blew on the steaming noodles. He couldn’t remember the last time he had ramyun as the first meal of his day. He sipped a bit of the soup before he started chewing when he saw a group of students enter the Seoul Arts Hall. He narrowed his eyes when he saw the familiar uniform. The figures of the students in the distance became clearer.

“Uhm, isn’t that Hwasoo High?” Maru said.

Daemyung also looked at the approaching students after putting down his chopsticks.

“I think it is.”

“Didn’t they fail the preliminaries?”

“They did.”

“Then why did they bother coming? Are they here to see the plays or something?”

“Probably.”

Maru looked at Hwasoo High approaching as he stirred the noodles in the cup.

* * *

“Didn’t failing mean that it ends early?” Heewon said as he looked up at the sky.

It was almost October, yet the sun was glaring enough that calling the season summer would be more appropriate.

“Is that something you should say as a senior member of the club?” said Park Inho who was walking by his side.

Heewon pouted and turned around. The juniors were following with evil grins on their faces.

“I need Haewon.”

“Your brother is in the English-speaking club, not the acting club. Stop looking for people that aren’t here and get yourself together.”

“But the acting club’s fine without me.”

“We did fine and failed the preliminaries, huh?”

Heewon shut up when he heard Inho’s sharp words.

“It’s not like I wanted to, not participate, you know?”

“I know. Heck, I even felt happy when I heard that the one guy who can’t be bothered with anything in this world was taking lessons late into the night. I was wondering if you were finally finding your place in this world. But what’s a pity is still a pity. If you were here, we would have breezed through the preliminaries.”

“I heard that putting all your hopes on one person is a bad idea.”

“It’s okay when it’s something like school extracurricular activities.”

Heewon shook his head.

“But hey, why are we here?”

“Why else would we come to Seoul Arts Hall? We’re obviously here to watch plays.”

“Why?”

“Well, you and I are done with clubs after summer[1], but the juniors aren’t like that. We got so many juniors thanks to the grand prize we got last year, so we should at least tell them what we can, don’t you think? Moreover, the school even gave us money to go and watch.”

“It was a stroke of luck that we got the grand prize, sheesh. I still don’t get it.”

Heewon looked behind him again. He saw a bunch of first-year students. He even felt a little dizzy. He didn’t have the confidence to become a respectful seonbae who could teach them a lot of things.

“This is nothing new, but being a seonbae doesn’t sit right with me.”

“I’m sure you just can not be bothered. Why don’t you explain to them about acting more kindly when they ask?”

“I would have if I could. You saw what happened last time. When I explained what I felt to those first-year students, they looked at me like some madman. Heck, I felt hurt, you know?”

“I’m talking about ordinary stuff and not your special stuff. You know, tricks that you get from experience. You need to explain stuff like that. If you suddenly went up to people and said ‘sadness is a colorful green’, anyone would treat you like a madman.”

“If you know that, then don’t make me do all that. I’m more suited to watching from the sidelines.”

Heewon sighed.

“Huh? The ones over there.”

Inho, who was turning towards the opera house, pointed at some people sitting on a bench beneath a tree. They seemed to be around the same age and were wearing casual clothes. In their hands were some cup ramyun.

“Aren’t they people from Woosung High? I think they’re Han Maru and Park Daemyung,” Inho said.

Heewon nodded as well. They were indeed the people from Woosung High.

[1] Third year students are busy with focusing on college exams, so most schools allow their students to not participate in extracurricular activities.

KTLChamber's Thoughts

Sadness is a colorful green -Lee Heewon

What the heck is a 'colorful green'?

Editor's Note:

Heewon finally gonna figure out the link between Gaeul and Maru?

Chapter 695

“Are you not going to drink that?” Heewon asked.

Maru handed him the cup ramyun container. Heewon stuck his nose against the container and started drinking the soup.

“Did you not eat anything?”

“I did. Why do you ask?”

“Because you look like you’ve been starving for days.”

“I get that a lot.”

Maru looked at Heewon who was gulping down the soup. Daemyung and Inho went into the opera house together with the shared opinion that they should help their juniors as much as possible. Dowook went back to the truck, saying he wanted to get some sleep.

“Myunghwa High is at 2, right?” Heewon asked as he threw away the empty container in the trash can next to the bench.

It seemed that he had downed the soup which had filled more than half of the container.

“If it doesn’t get delayed, then yeah, 2 o’clock.”

“Gaeul is from Myunghwa High, right?”

“Yeah.”

“Is she in it?”

“No, she’s a staff.”

“Then I guess there’s nothing to see.”

Heewon lay down on the bench. The bench was quite small, but he looked quite at ease. He looked pretty used to doing that.

“It’s the perfect weather to sleep.”

Heewon’s eyes lost focus quickly. Maru also nodded. The sunlight seeping through the gaps in the leaves was just warm enough, and the wind was just cool enough. He stared at the round roof of the opera house for a while before speaking,

“How’s Gaeul doing during lessons?”

“She’s doing too well. I’m receiving harm because of her. She’s way too enthusiastic. She can take it easy, but she’s practicing like there’s no tomorrow. I can’t really rest in fear of being compared.”

Heewon’s eyes contained resentment. He truly looked rather troubled.

“Help her out a little. She’s someone who likes acting.”

“Hell no, too bothersome.”

“Sheesh, you are one thing. That personality of yours didn’t change after joining a company.”

“You tell me. I thought I’d change if I became busy, but it looks like my laziness is on a completely different level. I was running for an entire day because we were shooting an ad, right? Not gonna lie, I wanted to run away. That was way too much for me.”

“I’m surprised you didn’t.”

“If I did, Haewon would find me and scold me.”

“You should really put a stop to that, you know? Your brother needs his own time. How long are you going to make him look after you?”

“It’s been a while since we met, yet you’re on about that as well? Why are there so many hardworking people around me? There’s Haewon, Gaeul, you, and even Inho. There should be just as many lazy people like me to make the balance right.”

“It’s because you are beyond easygoing and more of a sloth.”

“Is that how it is?”

Heewon yawned before standing up.

“Talking to you made the sleepiness run away. I feel like I made a loss.”

“You should sleep if you’re tired. Once I see that you’re asleep, I’ll just walk away.”

“I don’t think I can sleep after that… hey, is that school Myunghwa High?”

Heewon pointed with his finger. There were students heading towards the opera house. A hundred or so students wearing black t-shirts moved in unison, which made the spectators around look at them in a daze.

“Yep, that’s Myunghwa High.”

“That’s a lot. I think there’s more than a hundred in just the acting club alone.”

“You’re probably right.”

“20 people was a pain already, yet they have 100? Looks like Gaeul does an incredible job huh, being a seonbae in a club like that.”

“But you’re the club president of Hwasoo High, aren’t you?” Maru asked as he looked at Heewon.

“That’s because Inho pushed that title onto me so that I can take care of the annoying stuff. I didn’t do anything this year as the club president, but I still am. Does that even make sense?”

“Looks like you have everyone’s trust then. Oh, come to think about it, you didn’t participate at all, huh? In the competition, I mean.”

“You want me to participate in the acting club alongside those lessons? I can’t do it. I have to give up on one of the two.”

“Gaeul is taking those lessons with you, isn’t she? Gaeul applied to be a staff member after saying that she had quite a lot of free time.”

“I pulled myself out early. If I participated in the club as well, I would have no free time for the entire week. Also, what fun is there in a club that relies on one person for everything? I pulled out for the sake of the members.”

“So you were pretending to be busy?”

“Well… I guess you can put it that way. It’s a white lie?”

“Well done. Thanks to you, we managed to pass the preliminaries easily.”

“Don’t say that in front of Inho. He might try to kill me.”

“He probably knows already, you know? I mean, Haewon has access to your entire schedule.”

Heewon made a shocked expression before muttering ‘is that why they dragged me here?’ by himself. This guy was quite unpredictable. Looking at his acting, he had the skill to gain anyone’s applause, yet the person himself lacked the will to make use of that. He was the complete opposite of Gaeul who put her best effort into everything she did, so those two might have quarreled with each other quite often.

“Are you getting along well with Gaeul?”

“There’s nothing to say about that, really. She’s like a bull who can only charge forward. If I want to be friends with her, I need to be working hard towards something as well, but I don’t wanna do that.”

“You’re taking those lessons anyway, so try to get some fun out of them. And help Gaeul out when you can. If it’s your acting, she might feel a lot of things after looking at you.”

“Feel things?”

Heewon made a bored expression after yawning.

“Now, I wonder about that.”

“What do you mean?”

“What you’re telling me is that my acting will be helpful for improving her own skills, right?”

“Yeah, and?”

“My acting will not be helpful to her. No, she doesn’t need my help at all. When I first saw her, I didn’t feel much about her, but she has changed a lot recently. The teacher is telling her off a lot less too. It’s somewhat strange to say this, but she seems like a changed person.”

Heewon stared at Maru.

“For example, when I first saw your acting, the feel you gave off was a thick blue.”

“I think I said this before, but only you can understand that color theory in this world.”

Heewon scratched his head.

“To put it in a different way, you’re stuck-up. Your acting style is like a rock. It’s hard and heavy. If people keep watching, they might get a sense that it’s tiring, but it’s fundamentally flawless, so it’s something you can keep watching.”

“Sorry for being tiring.”

“It’s just a form of expression. It’s quite peculiar. I had to explain what thick blue is in words. In any case, when I first met Gaeul, she was yellow. She was shining beautifully. But, that was it. There was no fun in her acting. I can feel her intention of showing something, but that didn’t influence her acting. It was to the point that when I blinked, I would forget what she was doing just moments ago.”

The criticism was rather severe. Maru couldn’t entirely agree with him, but he did nod when he heard that her acting was no fun. Gaeul had splendid skill in interpreting the script, but she lacked character. This was something that Ganghwan pointed out in the amateur acting class 2 years ago.

“But it’s different these days. It’s quite curious. She’s a rainbow. One moment, she would be red, but then she would leap to blue the next moment, followed by green. It's a chaotic and unsettling type of acting, but she draws attention until the very end. If you tell me to do that, I can’t do that. That’s something like having bipolar disorder. Her emotional mood swings are way too extreme. And yet, she looks natural.”

“I’m surprised you managed to understand all that.”

“It’s just a gut feeling. Anyway, the type of acting she does these days is like skipping back and forth between ages from a newborn to a granny. It’s unpredictable. That’s why the teacher is having so much fun these days. And thanks to that, it’s more tiring for me.”

Maru looked at the opera house. Gaeul’s acting had changed, huh. He couldn’t get a feel of what that would be like. He had never seen her act recently after all.

“In any case, I get that she’s doing well.”

“She’s doing too well. I want her to be a little lazier, but I don’t see that happening anytime soon.”

“Why don’t you learn from her and change your habits? Who knows? You might change that lazy nature of yours.”

“You want me to live a busy life like her? If I start making money in the future, I might have no choice but to do that, but no, I don’t want to do that now. I’m going to embrace this leisure as much as possible. What do you have left if you live a busy life when you’re a student? Dying after working your entire life sounds way too sad.”

“If you become a workaholic, even working should change into something fun, you know?”

“What’s a workaholic? Sounds like a magic spell from a game to me.”

Maru stared at Heewon before chuckling.

“Anyway, look after her for me, will you? I think I’ll be more at ease knowing that you are taking care of her since you’re by her side every day.”

“Even if I don’t do it, Haewon is doing it as well, so don’t worry about it. Geez, this is the problem with couples.”

Heewon stood up from his seat and checked the time. Maru also took out his phone to have a look. It was nearing 2 o’clock, the time he was supposed to meet up with the others.

“Looks like I should get going. Inho told me to come inside by at least 2.”

“I also need to go.”

“Okay, see you later.”

Heewon, who walked off while moving his hands back and forth, suddenly stopped and turned around.

“Oh, I almost forgot.”

“What?”

“Thanks. It’s thanks to you that I joined the agency. If I ever become big later, I’ll treat you to something good.”

“Did Haewon tell you to do that?”

“You really are quick-witted. As expected of thick blue.”

“Away with your color theory. I don’t understand anything.”

“But don’t you get a feel of what it is when I say thick blue? Like ‘wham’ or something? Why don’t other people get this?”

“Whim or wham, I don’t care, so don’t go saying that to others. You might get reported to the psychiatric hospital.”

Heewon nodded and turned around.

* * *

“You did well, you did well.”

Gaeul consoled the crying junior. They were reaching the climax point without any accidents when something happened to one of the first-year juniors. One of the high-heels worn by her to represent a ‘bold new employee’ had snapped off right in the middle of the stage. As this was just her second time going up on the stage, that accident was something hard for that junior to bear. In the end, she froze up, and a character that wasn’t supposed to be there had to hop out from behind the side curtains and bring her out. Thankfully, nothing happened after that, but the junior who was at the center of the accident was still trembling.

“You were just unlucky. Don’t worry about it. Well then, let’s clean up,” said Choi Seol.

The juniors started moving. The shaking junior also helped the others after calming down a little. It was colleagues who were helpful when people had it hard, so there were many first-year students gathered around her. It should be fine now - Gaeul sighed before helping out with the cleanup.

It was when she was sweeping the sticky notes scattered on stage with a broom. She saw someone wave towards the stage. It was Maru, wearing Woosung High’s acting club hoodie. Gaeul barely managed to smile and wave back. What happened back at the bus still remained in her heart. Honestly, she didn’t have the confidence to face Maru right now.

After that short greeting, Gaeul walked around the stage in a busy manner. She wasn’t that busy, so it made her feel pathetic to pretend that she was, but she wanted to avoid Maru even if she had to do that right now.

Her head was filled with the thought that she had to calm her heart and go see him next time. She looked at the exit after a long time. All the students had left. Maru wasn’t there either.

Just then, she got an alert from her phone. She got a text message.

-You seemed busy, so I just left. Actually, I wanted to keep waiting, but the instructor was noisy about getting food. Sorry.

Gaeul put her broom between her arm and her waist and quickly sent a reply.

-Don’t feel sorry. It was me who was in a bad condition and snapped out. Have a nice dinner and see you next time.

-Alright. Hope you feel better soon. If you get really annoyed or something, call me and vent it on me.

-Not happening.

She felt like she could hear Maru’s plain tone from the text. It was her who had dodged him, yet he was the one apologizing. This made her sigh. It should be fine to look at him straight and to chat with him, but why did that become so hard?

-It’s because of your guilty conscience and jealousy. It’s also the difference between a mature kid and a kid pretending to be an adult.

That voice suddenly spoke up. Gaeul ignored it because she couldn’t retort. When she didn’t retort, the voice faded away as though it had lost interest.

“It’s so hard,” Gaeul uttered to herself on the stage after all the juniors and the audience had left.

She didn’t want anything amazing. All she wanted to do was to act alongside Maru on a stage like this. Watching Maru’s acting, which had become so distant, she wondered if that day would ever come.

She stared at the empty stage for a while before turning around.

“Today, you’re a depressing sky blue.”

She suddenly heard a voice from the audience seats. She stared at the dark corner towards the right.

“Lee Heewon?”

“Yeah, it’s me?”

Heewon looked back at her in a questioning light as though asking why she called him. Gaeul chuckled when she saw that. He was the one who called out to her first, yet he had an expression like that.

“You laughed, so it means I took care of you, right?” Heewon said from below the stage.

She couldn’t understand a word he was saying.

KTLChamber's Thoughts

I feel like Gaeul doesn't understand the level of her own skills anymore…

Editor's Note:

So Heewon did know of the connection between Maru and Gaeul. Interesting. <s>It w</s><s>ould low key be kinda interesting if Heewon and Gaeul got together. </s>

Chapter 696

“Why are you here?” Gaeul asked as she held onto the broom with both hands.

“Club activities.”

“I see. Then did you come here to watch the plays in the finals?”

“The only one we watched was Myunghwa High’s play. A friend of mine said that we had to watch this one at least.”

“Ours?”

“Apparently, there’s a lot to learn. But yeah, you guys are definitely good. The mistake in the middle was definitely unfortunate.”

“That can’t be helped. I think we still handled it well. If everyone froze up, it would have been a mess.”

“Yeah, if it was me, I would definitely have hid behind the curtains. I’d leave the rest to everyone else.”

“If that ever does happen to you, don’t ever run away. The other actors will be panicking, you know?”

Heewon shrugged.

“Oh, have you met up with Han Maru?”

“Maru?”

“I just met him, and he told me to look after you. Well, if you’re going through something difficult, I guess I can listen, but don’t expect anything from me. You know, right? I can’t handle anyone relying on me.”

Heewon clearly seemed unwilling. Gaeul sighed a little.

“I have no intentions of doing that either. But did Maru really tell you to look after me?”

“Yeah. It’s nothing serious, and I think he told me that because he can’t see you that often. But you know? Isn’t it kinda funny? It’s been a while since I last saw him, and the first thing he does is ask me a favor. Han Maru, that guy is so shameless.”

“You’re talking to me like this though. Doesn’t that mean that you’re listening to his request?”

“Because I got something from him.”

Gaeul tilted her head.

“You got something from him?”

“Leftover ramyun soup. The director that raised me always told me that people are supposed to pay back what they’ve eaten. Anyway, I did my part, so the rest is up to you two. I don’t know any stuff about love and whatnot. You guys didn’t get into a fight, did you?”

“That’s… not it.”

“That just now felt similar to a lie. If you did get into a fight, make up over some food or something. It’s not good to see grownups being mad at each other.”

Just as Gaeul was about to reply, a student poked his head inside the theater and called out to Heewon in a loud voice. Heewon shouted ‘I’m coming’ before turning around. Gaeul, now by herself again, took out her phone slowly.

“Is it really just a guilty conscience?”

When Maru, who always looked calm and solved the problems that came his way instantly, cried in front of her like a little child, Gaeul decided that she would become the supporting pillar for him. It was probably back then that she started wanting to stand on the same level as him. But how did things look now? She was avoiding Maru because she was afraid that the image she built up until now was going to break. This was the same case with Yuna’s matters as well. She had to be honest. I actually don’t like you and Maru being together - if she said that, things might have gone well instead. When she told Yuna that she was okay with Yuna doing well with Maru, Yuna made a rather disappointed expression. After all, depending on the interpretation, the fact that she said ‘I’m completely fine with it’ could convey the notion that Yuna was a girl without any charms at all. If she showed jealousy or anger without holding back, they might be at a standstill for the immediate future, but they would laugh about it in the future in due time. A wound that had healed awkwardly couldn’t be healed again, and with this one, they couldn’t exactly open the wound again either. Only Yuna knew if it was filled with puss on the inside or if it had healed properly.

-Get some distance for a while.

The one within her spoke.

“Get some distance?”

-I’m giving you advice since I have lived longer than you, even though I may look like this. I mean, people say all the time that lovers need some time apart. It’s that distance that makes you feel endearing again and will allow you to find new charms in each other. At the same time, the time spent apart will help you heal your pain.

“You were snapping out at me in the morning so much, yet now you’re giving me advice?”

-I say this all the time, but I don’t want you to be unhappy. I’m someone who wishes for your happiness more than anyone. I don’t think there’s anyone else in this world that wishes for your happiness more than me, you know?

“I don’t want to believe in a stranger’s words.”

-Think what you want. However, you should definitely try getting some distance from him. This is definitely a necessary process, even if it’s for the sake of your self-confidence.

“My self-confidence?”

-That’s right. Self-confidence. Your idols were always your parents. The gentle father is your foundation, and your competent mother is your aim. There shouldn’t have been any problems when you looked at those two in life. That was because those two are people that support you and, at the same time, guide you. However, Maru is different. No matter how close he feels to you, he’s another person. People take a hit in their confidence when they get compared to a member of their family. So how bad would it be if that person was an outsider instead?

“I’ve never compared myself to Maru.”

-Now that’s wrong. You always said with your mouth that one of your dreams is to stand on the same stage as Maru and that it is objectively difficult to do that right now. You know the reason why. The difference in skill; the difference in talent; as well as the difference in your attitude towards life and acting. You started acting as a way to remember the old times and continued it just for fun until you only started desiring to become better recently. Your focus is on becoming successful as a professional. Maru is different. To him, acting was nothing in the first place. It was just a method to earn himself a living.

Gaeul’s mouth itched. She wanted to retort and ask how much she knew about Maru, but there was nothing she could say. Her words were entirely right. They were words that Maru said himself.

-You should know how difficult it is to choose one thing as a means and then put everything into that. But that changed. Acting, which he chose purely because he wanted to make a living out of it, ended up suiting him. His skills improved rapidly. Do you remember the winter 2 years ago? Even back then, he was miles ahead of you. What do you think became of that gap now?

“I know that. That’s why I also…”

-Yes, you’re doing your best as well. There’s nothing false in your efforts. In fact, you’re trying harder than anyone. That is why I’m telling you to stay away from him. Right now, you are definitely improving. Just like what happened to Maru before, this is the most important growth period in your life. You met the greatest teacher known as Choi Gyeonmi, and you are in an environment where you can learn real, practical acting instead of the acting skills that are needed to enter college. You should be feeling yourself changing every day as well. It’s not purely because of my presence. It’s your skills that are finally coming to fruition.

“My skills?”

-A good teacher and the environment has their limits if you lack the talent. You haven’t seen your limits yet. You can rise even further. You also have the greatest partner next to you. Lee Heewon will keep giving you more and more inspiration. Whenever you fall into mannerisms when acting, you will look at him, which will enlighten you and allow you to take another step forward. Eventually, you’ll become the best. If you realize how important this moment, this kind of time really is, then don’t try to create an event that will eat away at you.

“Are you saying that it’s unnecessary for me to go and meet Maru right now?”

-If you can see him face to face with a pure heart, then it doesn’t matter. But that’s not the case, is it? You couldn’t even say what was on your mind to Yuna, your junior. Can you really tell Maru your honest thoughts in such a situation?

The one inside her paused a little before continuing,

-Above all, what I’m worried about is how Maru would act when he finds out about your lies and actions that you took to avoid him. What kind of expression would he make when he finds out that you gave Yuna mental pressure when he’s supposed to be working with her? What would it be like for Yuna? This may be an important time in life for you, but it’s the same for those two as well. No, those two are shooting their first drama as a main character, which might decide the quality of their lives in the future. If they manage to attract attention, they would be among the successful cases of numerous aspiring actors, but if they fail and get that ‘unskilled’ branding, they would never be able to find work for a while. You should know too about how much of a loss it is to miss the flow in the entertainment industry.

Gaeul gulped. That was definitely true. Maru and Yuna were facing very important shoots in their lives. No, the shoot had begun. Actors who were used to the scene and had been professionals for a long time would proficiently kill their personal emotions and act flawlessly, but that would be difficult for newcomers. Perhaps it was possible for Maru. He was different from the rest after all. However, for Yuna, there was the possibility that she might bring her personal matters into her role. If her acting is affected and it affects the overall atmosphere of the shoot as a result of that, Yuna would become even more nervous and enter a vicious cycle that would result in her ruining the greatest opportunity of her life.

She felt afraid now. She would never be able to get any sleep if bad things happened to those two because of her.

-You aren’t an adult yet. You are in the process of becoming one. As long as you get past this, you will grow up a lot. At that time, you’ll think back to this day and just laugh about why you were so worried. That’s because, by then, you will have the leisure. You will be able to smile.

“But not now?”

-I think you know the answer to that more than anyone.

“Why are you telling me all this? Don’t you hate me?”

-I say this all the time, but I wish for your happiness more than anyone in this world. Because your happiness is my happiness.

“…So the conclusion is to stay distant from him for a while?”

-Solitude makes a person mature. People may not be able to live alone, but they definitely need time for themselves. That will make you stronger.

“I don’t get it. I also don’t know what I have to tell Maru and Yuna.”

-Don’t worry about that. I will help you. I’m on your side. You should definitely have felt that there’s no malice in my intentions. I’m happy as long as you are.

Gaeul put her hand on her chest.

“Just who are you?”

The one inside her replied,

-The one who has been watching over you for a long time.

* * *

“Yes, seonbae.”

“Sorry, but I wanted to tell you my honest thoughts.”

“No, seonbae. In fact, I’m relieved that you told me like this.”

Yuna looked at Gaeul who was smiling with difficulty.

“I won’t be able to look at you comfortably for the immediate future, but I just want you to know that I don’t hate you. It’s just because I’m afraid.”

“It’s not like that. If it was me, I wouldn’t be able to say any of this at all.”

“Thanks for telling me that. I will try my best to get my stuff together and try to go back to normal. If I get mad and don’t answer you, please don’t get too mad at me.”

“It’s me who’s in the wrong. I’ll wait until you feel better.”

“Thanks. I’m really glad that you’re my junior.”

Gaeul left, saying that they should meet later. Yuna gasped as she clutched her heart. Gaeul-seonbae’s sudden confession made her feel chaotic. When she heard that Gaeul actually quite hated her, she flinched, but at the same time, she felt relieved. Being jealous meant that Yuna had charm as well.

“I should get myself together too.”

Gaeul-seonbae told her all that. She would never tell Maru-seonbae that she liked him out of her immaturity again. Drinking was also banned. At the same time, she also had the daring desire to think about what would happen if the two broke up. Yuna shook her head. She would never approach Maru-seonbae of her own accord in the future. She didn’t want to be an underhanded woman.

“But what if…”

Yuna thought about some things that she felt apologetic about as she saw Gaeul getting distant. Not a bad thought but an apologetic one.

* * *

“If that’s what you think, then okay. I will never contact you of my own accord for a while. But I do wish for you to tell me if something ever happens. I feel like I’m gonna be a little sad if I hear about you through other people. Okay, good work today. Have a good rest.”

As soon as he took his phone off his ear, the others, who had been silent until now, turned around and started talking. Maru picked up his chopsticks and spoke,

“What’s there to overhear from me that would make you guys sit still in front of meat? You should just get to eating.”

Maru put a piece of meat on top of Daemyung’s rice as he looked at Maru worriedly.

“Did something happen?”

“Nah. You know, the usual stuff. You know how girls are like, I want some time by myself or whatnot.”

“It’s nothing serious?”

“If it was serious, she would have told me about it. I’m not opposed to the idea of spending some time alone.”

“That’s good then. I thought you got into a fight or something.”

“There is nothing to fight over. We haven’t seen each other that much recently.”

Hearing that, Daemyung widened his eyes.

“Isn’t it dangerous then?”

“What is?”

“I mean, you haven’t seen each other a lot, and yet she suddenly says she wants to be by herself…”

Maru wrapped a piece of meat inside some lettuce before putting it in his mouth.

“Don’t just assume.”

“You never know. Don’t you think you should call her again? I heard that many people break up that way…”

“I don’t think Gaeul is that impolite. However, if she’s really getting ready to break up……”

Maru put down his chopsticks before continuing,

“Then I can’t do anything about it.”

“I-is that how it is?”

“Why do you look more serious than me? There’s no grand reason for breaking up. If she wants to avoid me and wants to distance herself from me, then I should let her go. Dating is something that’s done on the assumption that both parties like each other.”

Maru stared at his phone. He didn’t know whether she had become sensitive because of her period, or if there was some other reason, but he was sure that she had thought a lot about it. If that was the case, he had to respect her decision, regardless of the results.

“Eat a lot!”

Miso’s loud voice could be heard. Maru put aside his worries and picked up his chopsticks.

KTLChamber's Thoughts

You know, when I was reading, I was like 'huh, the rabbit doesn't want her to end up with Maru?'

Then I was translating, and I was like 'huh, the rabbit actually has a profound plan?'

Then I was translating the part about Gaeul confessing to Yuna, and I was like 'huh, the rabbit's plan is actually a bad one after all?'

And by the end, I'm like super confused.

Editor's Note:

This chap made all of my previous thoughts go up in smoke. Confusion

Chapter 697

“Things have gotten really good these days. Back when we were young, we couldn’t even imagine that it would be possible to shoot a film with just one machine.”

“Using large rolls of film was natural back in the day. Not only that, it was impossible to shoot during the night without lights. I had a look at a camcorder from Japan the other day, and there was some attachment that you can put in at the top to use as a light. It is frontal light, so the contours of the actor’s face would all disappear into oblivion, but still, if you think about how you can shoot during the night with that…”

“You’re right. I heard that people make short movies with videos from their phones these days. The quality might not be up to par, but with more accessibility, there will be more good directors in our country in the future. It has become a lot easier to take the challenge after all.”

“I would’ve gathered a few people and tried shooting if I was just 20 years younger. I guess I can’t do it now since I have a family to feed at home.”

“Looks like you’re a good husband.”

“It’s not that I’m a good husband, I’m just kinda scared of her. When she was younger, she was really gentle, but she became a really strict ahjumma once she started raising our kid. Don’t tell me anything unless you had to sleep in front of the door because you went back home at dawn all drunk. Do you know what kind of things I had to go through when I knocked on the door after drinking?”

Many people at the table smiled bitterly after hearing critic Park Jangho’s words. Film director, writer, journalist, critic, film production CEO, and actor. These were the occupations of those who had gathered in order to assess the pieces for the 1st Seoul Youth Film Festival.

Jangho looked at the list in front of him. They were the works of aspiring film directors. Films had come in from all over the country, and the 1st round of assessments ended in the middle of September.

“There were 90 of them. That’s quite a lot.”

“I would’ve never dared to watch all of them if they were all long ones,” said journalist Kim Dongwook who sat in front of him.

This journalist was someone he got to know through this assessment, and he was quite likable because he didn’t have that persistence that journalists usually had. His business card had the words JA Production on it.

“I heard that there were 140 pieces originally. That means that there were 50 or so pieces that didn’t fit the criteria. Apparently, there were a lot of prank applications, as well as abridged versions of the actual film,” said the drama writer.

Jangho was uncomfortable around this woman. During the whole time they were watching the movies in order to give an assessment, she always complained and criticized. Unqualified, subpar - these were the kinds of words she used. It seemed that she didn’t take into account the fact that these youths had just entered the field of shooting film.

“There were a lot of interesting ones considering that it’s the work of beginners. I especially got a deep impression from the ones that did horror. That’s a hard area to do,” said the film director.

The work in question was also inside Jangho’s memory. It was a traditional horror-thriller piece, and there were many unique and fun-looking devices throughout the film. That was on top of the production style that stuck to the basics, which was quite enjoyable to look at. However, as the video itself was shot with a limited amount of lightning, and the make-up was not up to par, the outcome was something with a lack of contrast, which made it quite hard to watch.

“Wasn’t the train journey quite good too?” commented the CEO of the film production studio.

“That was pretty good too. It should feel just like that if an essay is adapted into a film. There was an element of biography as well,” Jangho replied.

“The colors were good too. That one knew how to use lights.”

“I liked the film itself, but I also quite liked the extra footage at the end. It was quite cute to see them stomp their feet in order to get permission to shoot inside the train.”

“I think that’s the good thing about youth. If it was a commercial movie, there would be all sorts of procedures and money involved. It’s quite difficult,” said the film production CEO.

“What did you think of the documentary about the cow in the stable? I thought that was pretty good,” said actor Park Taeho as he reached out to the snacks placed in front of him.

Everyone turned quiet whenever he spoke. While there were many different people ranging from film production studio CEO to drama writer, drama director, and journalist, they only ‘worked’ in their field and had nothing that could represent them. That wasn’t the case for Park Taeho. He was one of the top actors in the current era of South Korea’s male actors. In the controversial film released last year, ‘Twilight Struggles’, actor Yoon Moonjoong did a great job of portraying a father consumed by lunacy, but the acting of Park Taeho, who disdained his father and showed the epitome of immorality, also made many people gasp. When Jangho watched that movie, he thought that Taeho would win the Daejong award that year, but the ones that swept the Daejong prizes last year were the actors of the film that got 10 million views, which happened in South Korea for the 7th time in history. It was actor Yoon Moonjoong though, who won the lead male award, and proved that the Daejong awards had a sliver of public credibility left. If even that went to another actor, they would have been branded as unifying the commerciality and the quality of the film.

“The cow documentary was good too. But that was way too bland. 20 minutes of showing everyday life should be ‘Hometown Six[1]’, not a film,” said the drama writer.

Her tongue always became more vile after Park Taeho said something. She showed goodwill towards him on the first day, but she was probably unhappy that Park Taeho didn’t reply to her.

“I found it rather refreshing actually. They captured the figure of the child leading a cow pretty well. It’s something you can make because you don’t shoot it expecting commerciality,” said the film director.

The drama writer seemed to have become mad and just drank some water.

“It seems like our young judges liked that one as well. The overall assessment is pretty good. Of course, there’s no dramatic tension or a notion of the subject, and other parts that are also lacking. But I don’t think it was that bad to show a part of everyday life so plainly like that,” added the film production CEO.

Jangho flipped over the list. He saw the assessments of the youth judges. The 1st round of assessment was done by 50 young judges from many parts of the country instead of the professional judges gathered here. As this was a youth film festival, the assessment of those around the same age was pretty important. The professional judges accounted for 60% of the scores, while the remaining 40% was decided by the young ones.

“Their one-line assessments were quite entertaining too. There are many that are even more evil than a critic like me, and there were a lot of funny ones too.”

“Personally, this gave me a deep impression: ‘It looks like the cow didn’t get enough guarantee, that is, feed, from how it kept yawning’.”

“That was pretty funny.”

“I found it absurd though. This is not a joke. I frowned as soon as I looked at it.”

The drama writer clicked her tongue. Jangho did not reply. A rampaging pony was better left alone.

“Since it’s a youth film festival, the eyes of the professionals may be important, but I think we should take into account how it appealed to their peers.”

The film director pointed at the blue piece of paper on the table. It contained the 10 films that received the best scores from the youth judges, as well as their criticisms.

“First up, the film that tried to be heavy awkwardly didn’t make it onto this list. The problems of the era, environmental, and religion. I can praise them for their challenging mindset and deciding to handle those topics, but there were too many of them who just skimmed the surface and went downhill during the conclusion without any clear points at all. Some of them had the wrong approach in the first place,” said journalist Kim Dongwook.

“They must have hit a block while shooting. Anyone can say that there is a problem, but it’s impossible to take that next step unless you have a deep reason for it. There were many that tried the topic out but ended up with an awkward ending because they hit a block. While I can understand them, if you end it like that, it just goes to show that the director doesn’t have any plans when he or she shoots the video, so it’s even worse of a reason to the point that it’s displeasing,” Jangho added.

“Meanwhile, the works at the top have a shared point. It’s the point of sympathy. The ones that handled school life especially, got a good score.”

“That’s to be expected. Children around that age project themselves into fiction pretty easily. Even though there’s no power in the story, there were many pieces that got good scores purely because they could sympathize. That’s why I don’t trust this assessment.”

The drama writer flipped the blue assessments on the table.

“Don’t be too critical and be a little gentler when it comes to this. You might be a professional, writer, but these fellows aren’t. Just think of it as them trying hard,” said the film production CEO.

The drama writer seemed to have liked that flattering tone and eventually nodded.

“For me personally, I liked these ten pieces that the young judges have picked. Especially when it comes to the acting. Leaving aside a sense for a topic, and the production quality, I’m not opposed to the idea that these 10 will receive the prize based on acting skills alone. What do you all think?” Park Taeho, one of the top actors in the country, gave an assessment about the acting.

Jangho didn’t want to retort to that. Above all, just as Park Taeho said, the ten works picked out by the youth judges showed a pretty decent level of competence in terms of acting. It was clear that they weren’t shameful to look at.

“Based on acting alone, maybe, but if you ask me about other areas, then, I’m not sure,” said the drama writer.

Park Taeho smiled and nodded. He didn't say anything.

“We just have to decide by this afternoon, so I guess there’s no need to try so hard right now,” said the journalist as though to mediate.

“Since we’re at it, can I ask you a question, actor Park?” the film director asked.

Park Taeho replied after drinking some water,

“I always get nervous when directors say they want to ask me a question. What is it?”

“It’s nothing much; I’m just curious as to why you decided to participate in this. I mean, considering the name values of everyone here, the rest of us can’t hold a candle to you, can we? I thought I saw the wrong person when I first came here. I was wondering why such a bigshot was here.”

Park Taeho shook his hand.

“Oh, no, please. I’m no bigshot. I’m just an actor.”

“If you’re just an actor, I might as well throw away my film director title.”

“What can I say if you keep doing that? Please, don’t lower yourself so much.”

While everyone was laughing, the drama writer stared at the film director with a pissed expression. She looked as though she didn’t want to be lumped with the rest.

“I just had a personal interest. I wanted to see how young people do acting and how they produce a film.”

“From what I hear, it seems that you are preparing to become a film director yourself. Did you come here to see if there are any promising ones?” asked the film production CEO.

From how his eyes flashed, the businessman side of him became more intense.

“No, not a film director. I’m just trying my hand at writing. I’m learning little by little from someone I know, and it sure isn’t easy.”

“I see.”

“Anyway, I quite wanted this spot because I would get to see the acting of young people. I can see young actors in the field from time to time, and how should I put it… they’re good, but I never get the feeling of wanting to do something with them. Before, there were many people who gave off the feeling of a rough stone to the point that I couldn't find a way to deal with them, but these days, they all look like smooth pebbles. Their overall acting skills may have risen, but it’s hard to find people that stand out. Maybe because of that, I want to see raw acting from those that haven’t learned properly.”

“I guess it’s like that these days.”

Jangho nodded as there were parts that he sympathized with.

“Let’s pick out ten recommendations for now. I think we will only be able to finish in the evening if we pick them out before lunch,” said the journalist as he picked up the list.

It was lunchtime already. Jangho picked five pieces that he had decided on his mind. There were quite extreme pieces, so it wasn’t hard to pick them. Creative and fresh ideas were good, but Jangho placed more importance on the basics.

“I picked mine.”

“Me too.”

The lists written by the six people were gathered in one place. Jangho combined the lists together into one.

“Let’s get back to it after lunch. We need energy to talk even more.”

The film production CEO stood up. The four others followed suit. Jangho, who stayed behind until the end, had a look at the list of pieces that the other judges had picked. Just as he had expected, there were quite a lot of overlaps. Among them were ones that were beyond just ‘decent’ and could be called good.

“Kids these days are good at everything.”

Jangho left after putting down his pen.

[1] A Korean TV program that airs at six in the morning, usually targeted at elderly people. And like what it says, it usually shows a bunch of everyday life stuff.

KTLChamber's Thoughts

I thought the author forgot about this lol

Editor's Note:

Man, I hope this drama writer doesn't stay. She seems like such a horrid chara.

Chapter 698

“This place has some good food, doesn’t it?”

“Right. I guess you have to go around with someone who goes to a lot of places to be able to go to the good restaurants.”

Jangho left the store and saw that the store owner was shaking hands with Park Taeho. The full-course Korean restaurant that actor Park brought them to suited Jangho’s taste buds perfectly. Thanks to that, he had to loosen his belt buckle a little.

“You paid for the meal too, now I feel bad,” said the film director.

After saying goodbye to the store owner, Park Taeho said that it was nothing to worry about and just laughed.

“Then, I’ll buy the coffee. We might be working together in the future, so I should score some points when I can.”

The film production CEO took out his credit card. They went into a nearby coffee shop and ordered some coffee. While the coffee was coming out, they naturally started talking about the applicants of the youth film festival.

“We should decide on the grand prize first before talking about the rest, right?” journalist Kim Dongwook mentioned.

Everyone seemed to be in agreement with him.

“There are a few I want to pick that fit that criterion.”

“Me too.”

It seemed that everyone had decided on a few pieces in their minds. There were a couple of pieces that came to Jangho’s mind when he thought about the grand prize. If he could vote, he would vote for one of the two.

“How about ‘I Walked the Streets’?”

The one who spoke first was the drama writer. As soon as he heard the title, Jangho could remember what that film was about. It was the only monochrome piece among the applicants. It was a film taken from the point of view of a girl who had failed the CSAT college exam, and it expressed the depressing color quite well by synchronizing it with the character’s feelings and the objects in the scene.

“That one was good. It wasn’t stretched out unnecessarily,” said the film production CEO.

The drama writer looked at other people. Jangho also said good things about it.

“It is quite cliché to have the colors return when she comes back home, but personally, I was a little touched. I quite liked it because the producer’s aims are quite clear,” the film director gave his opinion.

“The acting skills of the characters left room to be desired. Inputting sadness amidst complete ignorance is quite a hard technique to do after all. The overall good structure made the lack of acting skills stand out even more,” commented Park Taeho. He had approached it from the facet of acting.

The drama writer, who always retorted to everything, agreed this time.

“But I think it’s okay to put it as a candidate for the grand prize. Well, I might not have as good of an eye as everyone else here, but from the eyes of an ordinary civilian, that film was definitely interesting. As actor Park just said, there is room to be desired on the side of acting, but I quite liked it because that was the only thing that stood out to me as a flaw.”

Journalist Kim Dongwook also said that he liked the ‘I Walked the Streets’ piece.

“Then let’s put it on the list of candidates.”

Jangho marked it with a red pen on the list that he brought.

“We should choose a few like this and then select the final candidate later, and have the rest of them take the other prizes.”

“Sounds good. But aren’t we putting in too much effort?” remarked the drama writer as she stretched out her arms.

Everyone laughed after hearing that. Just then, they got their coffee. As it was a paper take-out cup, they drank a little in the coffee shop before returning to the judges’ office.

“Having coffee like this reminds me of director Park Joongjin who I met a little while ago,” Jangho said to the others who sat down with drowsy faces.

He brought out a different subject because it looked like they weren’t going to go back to the assessment immediately.

“You met director Park?”

The film director seemed to know him.

“Yes. I was a fan, so I always wanted to meet him, and I kinda got the chance a while ago. It wasn’t because of work or anything; I was just having some food with someone I know, and it was rather unexpected.”

Jangho thought about the Park Joongjin he saw that day and continued speaking,

“You know how everyone calls him a genius, right? I thought that he would be quite peculiar because of that, but it turned out he’s actually quite a prankster and down-to-earth.”

“Director Park does have a prankster-like side to him.”

Jangho nodded when he heard the film director’s words.

“We were going to talk about a film that was released last year, but he said that was no fun and I ended up listening to a coffee lecture on the spot. He talked about how coffee beans taste different according to the region and according to how they are fried, or whatnot. He also talked about a sense of the body or something, too. I wanted to talk to him about films, but I couldn’t speak a word about it.”

“Director Park is someone who puts a wall between him and films before he goes into pre-production. I mean, he’s someone who says he does it for the money in public places. Of course he’s weird.”

“Looking at it like that, it does seem like he’s a genius. Such a disinterested person gets at least 5 million views whenever he shoots a movie. The one that was released last year also got over 8 million, didn’t it?”

“It was a great comeback. Honestly speaking, I thought he would do a romance because he said he’s doing a commercial piece after a long time, but he did a noir film instead.”

“I really enjoyed it. It had been a long time since I last didn’t look at a watch during a movie.”

“So you must have looked at your watch frequently while watching my movie, right?” said the film director with a smile.

Jangho quickly replied that he didn’t, but in truth, he checked the time about three times during the film director’s movie.

“I don’t get why that was successful. Everyone was all crazy about it, so I did watch it, but that was so cliché, wasn’t it? Moreover, he used a completely inexperienced idol as a main character. I’m shocked that such a thing got 8 million views.”

“Didn’t you use an idol in a drama that you wrote last time?” asked journalist Kim Dongwook while spinning a pen in his hand.

The drama writer suddenly became quiet. Jangho inwardly snickered.

“Well then, let’s all stop and finish this up.”

The film director refreshed the atmosphere. The drama writer stared at the journalist without holding back her displeasure.

“Mr. Jangho. How is it? There are quite a few overlaps, right?”

Jangho replied yes before putting the combined list in the middle of the table.

“The opinions are mostly the same. First up, there are three pieces that all six of us have picked.”

“What are they?”

“The first one is ‘I Walked the Streets’, that we talked about back at the coffee shop.”

Jangho wrote it down in big handwriting on a new piece of paper.

“The next one is ‘The Reason the Boy Went Home Early’. This was a little unexpected. None of you talked about this before, so I thought I was the only one who found it good.”

That film was about a boy who dreamt about going home early from school for the sake of a girl who was going to move away soon. The freshness of people around that age as well as their cute recklessness made him smile throughout the whole film.

“Their idea was good. The subject is rather normal, but I liked how it turned out. They managed to find something that kids these days might do but do not actually do.”

That compliment was from the drama writer. Jangho thought that that was an extreme praise considering that it was from her.

“It’s a fantasy within everyday life. Actually, it’s not easy for students to come up with things like that. I mean, kids these days are very calculative when it comes to their studies, tests, and whatnot. Thinking about missing regular classes up front instead of supplementary classes is something unheard of amidst regular students,” the film director added.

Jangho nodded and read one of the comments left by the youth judges.

“This is one of the criticisms that the youth judges left behind, and it got stuck in my head. ‘That’s what we dream of’. It’s simple, but it’s a statement that represents the film itself.”

Jangho wrote down the second title on the paper.

“The last one is ‘Classroom’. I quite liked the director’s eyes for poking where it hurts so plainly. There were many pieces that talked about controversial topics, but most of them were too emotionally biased and went nowhere because they thought that they had to solve the problem.”

‘Classroom’ was about something that seemed plausible. It was about bullying, which made the headlines pretty frequently these days. Perhaps because of that, a total of seventeen pieces talked about that same topic. However, other than ‘Classroom’, the other pieces did not capture the balance of the film properly.

“‘Classroom’ focused on getting that topic out there. The director must have good skill in setting up the structure. It didn’t talk about the problem and show the bad sides of it before ending it in an awkward note like the others. It actually puts the result of the bullying as well as the bullied student’s feelings on the sidelines when progressing with the story. It does show the pain of the character in the film at the beginning of the piece, but they didn’t dive into it too much. Many students made the mistake of keeping the bullied student within a cruel environment in the frame. Most of them forget that it gets pretty tiring quickly.”

The film director smiled bitterly. Jangho agreed with that. Continuing to show a scene of fingernails being ripped off in order to show the painful side might be shocking at first, but if it was repeated several times, it would eventually get boring. Sometimes, it was necessary to defocus on the topic that they wanted to show. ‘Classroom’ followed that method pretty well.

“The ending was good too, wasn’t it? It wasn’t the awkward ‘justice is served’ ending. The role of the victim and the bully was switched, but they made it sympathizable. They didn’t emphasize the concept of good and evil, and it seemed more like they were asking ‘who is responsible for all of this?’ by showing what happened in the classroom. Honestly, it hurt me a little. I’m a parent, but I never thought about the matter of bullying so seriously after all. Maybe it’s because I think that ‘my child is not involved in such a thing’ as the basis of my judgment,” said the film production CEO.

“The plot itself is rather cliché, but I liked the scene structure. It allowed the audience to see the maximum of the main character’s feelings. It might lack that freshness, but I liked how they dealt with the topic as well as that mild ending. Of course, the acting was good too. The long take at the beginning made me think that it would have taken a long time to shoot.”

After hearing the drama writer’s words, the film director laughed and agreed. Jangho also thought about that scene. That kid, who ate some food without any fluctuation in emotion, was pretty impressive.

“His acting was really good.”

The film production CEO clicked his fingers. Jangho smiled in satisfaction without thinking. ‘Classroom’ was a film with one main character and many supporting characters, and the power of the lead character was pretty amazing. He has an absorption power that many talked about.

“Well then, let’s choose the grand prize among these three. This is just my opinion, but why don’t we give the two others the judge’s special prize?”

“Doesn’t sound bad. All three of them are worthy of prizes after all.”

Jangho picked up the piece of paper with the three titles.

“Then shall we decide on the grand prize now?”

* * *

Kim Dongwook was about to turn on the lighter for the cigarette in his mouth when he got a call, which made him put the cigarette on the back of his ear.

“Yes, president. You called at the perfect time. Yes, it’s been decided. I didn’t really need to do anything. It was on the list of grand prize candidates. Yes, just like that.”

Dongwook clicked his tongue as he thought about president Lee Junmin’s face which would be on the other side of the phone. Although the entertainment industry was now filled with words about how stars were not born but created, he didn’t know that people cared about a film festival organized by the city. When he was invited as a judge, he wondered what it was about, but he understood what it was about after getting a call from the president afterwards. It was Junmin who had put him in there. Dongwook was rather curious about what kind of methods he used, but he didn’t make the foolish decision of asking. A superior-subordinate relationship was the most ideal when both parties didn’t ask unnecessary questions.

“The ceremony will be in Myeongdong Artrex. Yes, then please have a good rest.”

Dongwook hung up before pushing the cigarette into the corner of his mouth.

“Man, South Korea is such a clean place.”

He puffed once. It was unknown whether the reason his mouth felt bitter was because of the cigarette or because of his underhanded actions. Only a newbie journalist would be able to differentiate between the two. Dongwook threw away the half-burnt cigarette and stepped on it to put it out.

KTLChamber's Thoughts

This was a comment I was going to make in the last chapter: Dongwook? Isn't Maru going to be in an advantage then?

And reading this chapter… it turns out it's all a scheme.

Editor's Note:

Rigged?

Chapter 699

-The weather is still hot. Yesterday, I saw that it went as high as 28 degrees. Even this principal, who doesn’t feel hot that often, is having a hard time, so I’m worried about all the students, wondering how hard it must be for them. It looks like October being the start of autumn is a thing of the old.

The principal, who was talking on the podium, had a look at his watch. At the same time, sighs of relief could be heard. The principal always looked at his watch before finishing his speech.

-Anyway, watch out for heat strokes. Studying is important, but the most important thing is your health, after all.

The principal nodded towards the headteacher standing next to him. The headteacher put his face close to the mic and spoke,

“Next, there will be an award ceremony. Would Woosung High’s acting club please come forward.”

Maru uttered a short breath before walking forward. The acting club, whose members were standing at the front of their respective classes[1], got out of their line and gathered in front of the platform.

“Don’t screw up,” he said to Aram who was going up the platform.

Since there were too many of them, only the representative would go up to receive the prize from the principal.

“But I guess we did get one before we graduated,” Maru said to Daemyung.

“I feel really proud.”

Daemyung was looking up at the platform with a blissful expression. Maru saw a hint of red in the corner of the gentle-looking eyes.

“Are you crying?”

“I’m not.”

Although he was saying those words, Daemyung had turned his face away and was wiping his face with the back of his hand. It wasn’t just Daemyung who had become emotional. There were many first-year juniors who were stomping their feet in nervousness and those whose noses were twitching. Monday to Sunday. Two months before the preliminaries, they started gathering every single day to practice. They practiced for a minimum of four hours and at least half a day on weekends. Their passion finally bore fruit. It was natural for them to get emotional.

-The following school has achieved splendid results in the National Youth Acting Competition that is organized by the National Theater Association and sponsored by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, and the Ministry of Education and is awarded this commendation. October 2nd, 2005. Prime Minister Park Kwonho.

Aram received the certificate given to her by the principal. Having received it, Aram immediately turned around and waved the certificate above her head before cheering her lungs out.

“Oh geez.”

Maru scratched his eyebrows as he looked at the rejoicing Aram and the principal who was holding his hand out awkwardly. Only the head teacher’s awkward cough could be heard through the mic.

“It’s the grand prize!”

Aram shouted towards the sports ground.

* * *

“The grand prize, huh. Must be nice.”

Maru looked at Kang Sora who was sitting on the other side. She shouted ‘seonbae’ from afar, and she approached before sitting down after putting her food tray on the table.

“Don’t you have any friends?” Maru asked.

“Do I look like that?”

“I’m just asking why you eat here every time you see us.”

“Why do I need to get your permission to eat here? I’m a student here too.”

Sora grinned sneakily.

“Also, I’m not coming here for you, seonbae, so don’t take interest. If possible, block your ears too.”

Maru turned to look at Daemyung. Only Daemyung knew why Sora came to the 3rd year electrical engineering class to eat. Daemyung, who met eyes with him, suddenly started to quickly finish his food before standing up. Sora also stuffed her mouth with food.

“I’m leaving first.”

“Seonbae, I’m leaving first.”

The two left first while talking.

“What the? Daemyung, did you switch your girlfriend? This must be the mystery of the century.”

Dojin put down his spoon in disbelief. Maru just shrugged. He knew that these two were up to something together, but he didn’t know what it was about. If he wanted to know, he was more than capable of finding out with little effort, but he was staying still since those two told him to stay out.

“Uhm, I just witnessed the ex? Or the current? Girlfriend, I think?”

Dojin pointed at Jiyoon who was standing at the entrance. She was locking arms with Aram while watching as Daemyung and Sora left the cafeteria. Maru put his chopsticks in his mouth and looked at the two alternately. He wondered if it would be better to tell them so that it didn’t cause unnecessary misunderstandings.

Maru waved his hand at the members of the acting club who were looking for a place to sit down after getting their food. His classmates had all stood up after finishing lunch. The only one left was Dojin who remained behind due to curiosity.

“Well, if it isn’t the club president who one-upped the principal this morning.”

“Maru-seonbae, please don’t talk about that. Do you know how much of an earful I got from the headteacher? This was supposed to be a good day, but it was ruined.”

Aram sat down on the spot. Jiyoon sat next to her. Maru glanced at Dojin, who kept poking his side, before talking to Jiyoon.

“Uhm, Jiyoon.”

“Yes?”

Jiyoon was smiling as though her favorite side dish was on the menu, or perhaps it was due to lingering feelings from winning the grand prize. From the way there were no fluctuations in her emotions despite the fact that she saw Daemyung and Sora leave together, she seemed to know something as well.

“You know that Daemyung and Sora are preparing something together, right?”

Maru asked her in a roundabout way. He was planning to tell her that they were working together on something if she said she didn’t.

“Oh, they told me to keep it a secret from you,” she said cautiously.

As he had expected, Jiyoon also seemed to know that Daemyung and Sora were secretly working together.

“If you know, then it’s fine. I thought you might have been misunderstanding something.”

Jiyoon dazed out because she didn’t know what that meant, and when she realized, she shook her hand in the air and spoke,

“Daemyung-seonbae and I are still doing well together.”

“I know.”

“Okay… but who told you about it, seonbae? That they’re preparing a scenario. They told me to never tell you about it since it was a secret from you. How did you even find about it?”

Maru put on an awkward smile. He unintentionally found out what those two were up to. A scenario, huh. When he smiled and didn’t say anything, Jiyoon seemed to have noticed that something was wrong and spoke first,

“Did… you not know?”

“I only knew that they were up to something, but I didn’t know that it was a scenario they were working on. I didn’t mind it since they told me not to stick my nose in, but I guess I just found out.”

“I just made a mistake, didn’t I?”

Jiyoon widened her eyes in surprise and fell silent.

“Just pretend not to know anything. I’ll pretend not to know anything either. But since we’re on the topic, can you tell me what kind of scenario it is? I’ll forget about it afterwards.”

Jiyoon hesitated before speaking in a small voice,

“It’s a film scenario. One with you as the main character.”

“Me?”

“Yes. I don’t know the details either. I think they called it a five-minute film? Anyway, they’re working on a really short film scenario. Daemyung-seonbae told me beforehand that he might be spending a lot of time with Sora, so I knew about it.”

“A film huh. Alright. Oh, as I said before, I will keep pretending that I don’t know anything, so you don’t have to worry about it either.”

“Seonbae.”

“Yeah?”

“Uhm… I don’t have the confidence to lie…”

Haha - Jiyoon laughed awkwardly.

* * *

“That’s the problem with you, seonbae. Why do you think a surprise is called a surprise? It’s because the person in question doesn’t know about it. Didn’t I tell you back then? To just pretend to not know anything about it? You just don’t have the patience, I tell you.”

Maru pressed his fingers between his eyes as he listened to Sora’s words. He felt like a woodpecker was pecking on his skull. Her sharp words made his ears hurt as well.

“I told you I’m sorry. I was so curious that I grilled Jiyoon about it. She seemed to be in the know.”

“Poor Jiyoon-seonbae. That seonbae is really feeble and gentle, so she’ll get hurt if an evil person like you pecks her for answers.”

“I’m no bird. I don’t peck. I just asked her what it was about in a gentle manner. A;lso, I’m not evil.”

Sora raised her eyebrow. Maru stayed quiet. He was unnecessarily causing more trouble for himself.

“Sora, since it’s like this, do you think we should get Maru’s opinion as well?” Daemyung said from the side.

“Daemyung-seonbae. You are the father of this scenario. Are you saying that you are going to hand over your precious child to someone else?”

“N-no. It’s not like that, I was just saying that maybe we could get a little of his input…”

“No! Solitude is important to a creator.”

“But we’re working together on this anyway…”

“I’m only working with you to write the script. The overall plot and structure of the play is only meaningful if you’re the one who comes up with it. How many times do I have to tell you? Seonbae, you have the talent, and in order to make that talent blossom, you have to learn to clash against a blank piece of paper and to fight with it.”

“S-sorry.”

He didn’t do anything wrong, yet Daemyung apologized quickly. Maru understood how he felt. Being grilled like that would make anyone apologize regardless of their will.

“That’s enough. Whether I know about it or not doesn’t have a huge influence on your work, does it? Just do whatever you were doing. I’ll just stay out of it.”

“It’s over now. This is like preparing for a secret birthday party, but the person in question finds out and goes ‘oh, you guys can go on’. It’s disheartening and unmotivating. It’s your responsibility, so you should treat us to something good.”

“Sora, you should definitely look into being an insurance saleswoman or selling things to oversea travelers. You should be able to earn hundreds of millions of won per year.”

Maru calmed Sora down by promising to treat her to dinner.

“But hey, you are pretty well-off. Do you really have to get food from me?”

“My mom always told me that getting cheap food from others is always better than getting expensive food for yourself.”

“What a good teaching at an early age.”

Maru sighed before looking at Daemyung.

“So you two were creating a five-minute short film because of what I said before?”

“Yeah. I thought that gathering like this would be difficult once we graduate. I wanted to try shooting a film with my scenario and your acting. The thing with the film production club also motivated me.”

“But you increased the time while you were doing it because you felt like 5 minutes was too short?”

“That hasn’t completely been decided yet, but I think it’ll be around 20 minutes.”

“You do know that a 20-minute short film is pretty hard, right?”

“I know. I heard it from Sora. She told me about how many times you guys had to move around.”

Sora, who was listening from the side, raised her chin upwards and snorted.

“For me, I’d love to do your scenario as long as I can fit it in the schedule. Since we’re at it, what’s the plot like? Is it based on the auto-biography-like novel that you were working on before?”

Daemyung shook his head.

“No, it’s not that one. That one’s not even complete yet.”

“Then what’s it about?”

Daemyung looked at Sora. Sora nodded once.

“It came to me after watching your acting until now; I think you get absorbed when you handle negative emotions. The pains in life, should I call it? There’s a sense of experience as well. That’s when it came to me to write about something very sad, and I want you to do it.”

“Something sad?”

“A sad love story. A bit cliché, isn’t it?”

Daemyung looked down.

“Do you not have confidence in your story?”

“No, it’s not like that.”

“Then you shouldn’t make a face like that as the original creator, especially in front of the actor you want to cast. Geez, I wonder if I can shoot in peace.”

Only after hearing that, did Daemyung faintly smile.

“So scripted by Park Daemyung and produced by Kang Sora?”

“It’s scripted by Park Daemyung and produced by both of us. I heard Daemyung-seonbae was also an aspiring producer, wasn’t he? That’s why we decided to do it together. Oh, I guess it’s sponsored by Kang Sora. I am in charge of the equipment and the food.”

“The rich sure are different.”

“That’s basic.”

Maru looked at the two alternately. Did he pursue something passionately when he was at that age? Striving towards a concrete objective, for some reason, made Maru feel proud of the two.

“Wait a sec.”

Sora took out her phone. After parroting ‘yes’ for a while, she widened her eyes as she hung up.

“What made you so surprised?”

“Uhm, Maru-seonbae.”

“What?”

“Let me pinch your cheeks for a sec, okay?”

After saying that, she suddenly approached and grabbed his chin. Maru groaned because of the sharp pain. After pinching ruthlessly, Sora asked,

“Seonbae. Did that hurt?”

“Get your cheek over here. I’ll let you find out.”

“So it does hurt, huh? Then it must not be a dream, right?”

“Do you think it’s a dream? Just what was it about?”

“Uhm, the thing is…”

Her voice, which always sounded bold, was shaky for some reason. She clasped her hands and licked her lips before speaking in a dazed manner,

“We’ve been invited to an award ceremony. It’s the grand prize.”

[1] Class 1-1 would be standing in one line at the very left, followed by 1-2, all the way up to 3-X at the very right.

KTLChamber's Thoughts

Eyy, they got it.

Editor's Note:

Hmmm. Was it just me, or was Sora unreasonable this chap.

Chapter 700

“Here, have a drink.”

Dongwook tilted the soju bottle.

Park Taeho, who had put his soju glass at the tip, got the bottle from him before pouring him a glass in return.

“Never knew there would come a day where I would drink with a celebrity like this. Looks like I should try buying a lottery on the way home. If I win 1st prize, I’ll give you 10 million.”

Taeho laughed before replying,

“But don’t you have a lot of places like this as a journalist?”

“That’s for the journalists who have actually made a name for themselves. A shabby journalist like me would get rejected at the manager level. Here, let’s toast.”

The soju glasses clashed and produced a crisp sound. This barbecue restaurant in Seongsu-dong was apparently one that Taeho was a regular at. Thanks to that, the owner gave them a private room in the back. Dongwook couldn’t begin to imagine how many people would gather if Park Taeho started grilling meat in the main hall. All the people in the neighborhood would at least gather.

For a while, they talked about the lives they led as they drank. Taeho was the first one to talk about his younger days, and Dongwook also talked about his high school days, when he was a goody-two-shoes, and they laughed about it.

When they emptied a bottle, Taeho switched the topic.

“Did Junmin hyung-nim call me here?”

Dongwook, who was chewing a piece of meat with ssam-jang pasted over it, stopped after hearing those words. The scent of garlic inside his mouth felt like it was being amplified. Dongwook slowly chewed and swallowed the food in his mouth. While eating, he thought about three ways to counter that argument.

“I don’t understand what you mean…”

“You don’t need to be so wary. I’m not here to talk about who did wrong nor morals and things like that. I’m just purely curious.”

“Sounds like you are acquainted with president Lee Junmin. Am I right?”

“We’re like brothers. We’ve seen each other for a long time too. Also, I’ll soon be a member of the same household as you, journalist.”

“Does that mean that you’re signing an exclusive contract with JA?”

“Yes. I believe that hyung-nim will probably tell you about it soon.”

Taeho picked up the soju bottle. Dongwook smiled without letting down his guard as he accepted another glass.

“I was quite surprised when I first met you. There was a journalist belonging to JA among the judges. At the same time, one thought came to mind. Ah, that hyung-nim might have used his powers here too.”

“You’re overthinking. Prizes for snot-nosed brats are not that important.”

“Really? When he found out that I was invited as a judge, he immediately told me this: a high school student who shot the same work as you has applied for the film festival. Have a look and if it’s on par with the others, I want you to push him forward.”

Dongwook rubbed his nose. They were the exact same words that Junmin told him, word for word. When he first heard that he was going to be a judge for the festival, he thought that he was going to be told to push Maru’s piece unconditionally, but the reality was slightly different. He was told that, if he thought that it was worth the prize and wasn’t that different from the other pieces, he was to support the piece that Maru was in.

“Can I make a call?”

“No, you don’t have to do that.”

Dongwook was soon able to realize what Taeho meant by those words. Someone outside said that a guest had arrived before the door opened and Junmin and the drama writer came in. Dongwook had a look at Junmin with a flabbergasted expression before looking at the drama writer following behind him. She also looked rather surprised. It was clear that she came here without anything being explained to her.

“Looks like you two were up to something interesting.”

Junmin took off his top hat before sitting down next to Taeho. The drama writer looked around before sitting next to Dongwook.

“Uhm, president? Forgive me for being stupid, but I don’t really understand what’s going on right now.”

He already had a hypothesis that would explain everything in his mind, but he wanted to get a clear answer from the person himself.

“It is indeed what you’re thinking about right now, Dongwook.”

Dongwook laughed.

“Then the drama writer too?”

“She listened to a favor of mine that’s not so much of a favor.”

The drama writer interjected immediately,

“I never got any favors. I just heard that perhaps I should focus on a piece that handles controversial topics these days.”

Dongwook faintly smiled before speaking in a small voice,

“I wonder why someone like that is here, then, eh?”

The drama writer didn’t say anything. Her face had turned red as though she had downed half a bottle of soju already.

“Why are you being so nasty when we’re here to make friends? Taeho, you seem like you’ve lost weight these days?”

“I should get ready for my next piece. A certain agency president told me that a contract was a no-go if I lost value.”

“What a cruel man that is. I wonder who can say such a thing to the actor that many look up to within the country.”

“You tell me. Maybe it’s because he lives with ugly dogs and without getting married despite being in his fifties that he’s really narrow-minded.”

Dongwook, who was listening to the conversation, couldn’t help but flinch when he heard that. The man living with dogs in his fifties that Taeho talked about was none other than Junmin. He had kinda expected things to happen when he saw the two greet each other, but he didn’t know that the two were this close.

“Why does your mouth get even more merciless as the years pass?”

“This is all because of your influence, hyung-nim. You should’ve shown your little brother good things so that he could have learned those things from you.”

“Fine, this is all because I’m not good enough. Oh, you don’t need any introduction, right? This is Park Taeho and Kim Dongwook. And this is writer Lee Sinae. Thank you all for the film assessment. You must be hungry, so let’s get to eating first. Though, the two that were here before us seem like they had a meal already.”

Dongwook shrugged and put down the soju bottle on the table. Had he known that the president was coming, he wouldn’t have eaten anything without him.

“It might be a little uncomfortable for you, writer Lee,” Junmin said softly.

Sinae, who looked like a resident who had missed paying rent, immediately changed her face to a lofty expression before speaking,

“Not at all. These things are quite common in life, aren’t they?”

“As expected of writer Lee. You’re just the kind of person I thought you were.”

Sinae faintly smiled when she heard the slight praise. Seeing that, Dongwook inwardly clicked his tongue. Junmin had completely understood this woman named Lee Sinae. He made her unable to leave by touching on her pride. Scolding her after getting her excited. What was amazing about Junmin was probably that tongue of his, rather than his business practices.

Some drinks made rounds. The atmosphere became heated, and people talked about all sorts of things ever since Lee Sinae put down her guard. Dongwook pulled his glass backwards when he felt like he was getting slightly drunk. While he loved getting drunk in a pleasant atmosphere, he despised being consumed by alcohol.

“Just what is an opportunity, do you think?”

There was only one person here that Junmin would use polite speech to. Sinae, who wiped her mouth with some napkins, spoke,

“An opportunity is what it says, an opportunity. Luck? Fortune? Well, those can be other names for it.”

“I think so too. Then what are the characteristics of those that grab opportunities?”

“Either they are lucky, fortunate, or maybe prepared. Opportunity avoids stupid people because it has eyes.”

“You’re right. Opportunity is discerning and does not show itself to people who look like they wouldn’t be able to make any use of it. But you know? Since opportunity has a factor of luck involved, there definitely are cases where it goes to people who are completely clueless and get consumed without any meaning.”

Sinae slapped the table and agreed.

“Right. I was like that. There are two works rotting in my cabinet because of the trash working at public TV stations who don’t know their value. What good is winning money in competitions? It simply won’t get used. But I can’t give them to somewhere else either. It drives me crazy. Those pieces of trash don’t know the opportunity when they see it. They just don’t realize that my golden writing is an opportunity for them.”

“Right. That’s why opportunity must go to the right people, to the capable people, and to the people who are ready to grab it.”

“You’re right.”

“In that sense, how was it? Was the piece titled ‘Classroom’ worthy of the grand prize?”

Sinae smiled mockingly.

“It was a rather bland one, but well, it was decent among the applicants. Of course, it is true that I gave it a better look since you told me that you’d look out for me.”

Dongwook looked at Junmin as he heard her speak. Junmin was shaking his head.

“Writer Lee Sinae, what do you mean by that?”

“Eh?”

“That sounds like I asked you to do a personal favor. Did I make you commit fraud?”

Junmin looked at Sinae with a smile. Sinae’s slightly loose eyes suddenly turned nervous with a slight spasm. Dongwook understood the reason why the president suddenly talked about such things.

“I just told you that you should give the prize to a fitting work, did I not?”

“Ah, yes. You did. You definitely said that.”

Dongwook saw Sinae’s eyes looking down. She put down her pride in an instant, like a dog putting down its tail, and showed submission.

Dongwook quietly poured himself a drink before drinking it. Exposed to sudden authority, she should have thought about her own state, compared her position to his, and going further, thought about what would happen in the future. As she was someone who made a living on writing, she should be smart enough to understand what Junmin wanted to say as well as the atmosphere that was tightening in towards her.

“Anyone has the potential. There can be an infinite number of stars. It’s just a difference of who supports who. Of course, not everything goes the way people expect, but some people can at least pave the road for others.”

Junmin grabbed the bottle of soju with both of his hands before offering Sinae some. Sinae grabbed her glass with both of her hands as well.

“You should drink less in the future. Let this be your last one for today.”

“Yes, I think I should.”

“I will talk to you later about the things I said before.”

Sinae nodded before drinking.

* * *

Junmin and Sinae left. It hadn’t even been an hour since they came here. Dongwook looked at the glasses that Junmin and Sinae left behind.

“Today, I realized that not anyone can take the title of ‘bigshot’ in an industry.”

“He might look like that, but he’s very cautious, so he doesn’t do risky things. Well, this was quite unexpected though. Perhaps he might have decided to give him proper support,” Taeho said.

“Well, it’s not that surprising. He’s someone the president brought with that absurd contract after all.”

“Oh, you mean that 300 million thing?”

“Yes. No matter how much money he has, 300 million is definitely not a sum he can chuck around like that. Yet, he did. He also signed on a napkin. When I first heard that, I thought it was a joke, but it turned out to be true.”

“Hyung-nim told me that he’s worth guiding since he’s someone who’ll do well by himself. I think he’s planning to support him properly once he graduates.”

“Looks like he’s planning on a two-top formation with him and Yoo Sooil.”

“Maybe. I can never understand what he’s thinking though.”

“Whether it’s you or me, we both have a tremendous person as a superior, huh.”

“If you get to know him, there’s a pure side to him too. Especially when it comes to love.”

“Love?”

“Yes, first love. He hasn't gotten married at his age because he couldn’t forget about his first love. How does that even make sense? Of course, this is a secret from him. He gets mad when others tell him that.”

That president? Getting mad? Dongwook laughed out loud.

“Anyway, journalist Kim. Let’s get along as people from the same agency in the future.”

“Yes, actor Park.”

Dongwook emptied his glass before speaking,

“But hey, do you think I passed the loyalty test?”

Hearing that, Taeho just smiled. Dongwook did not ask him for answers. That smile was enough. Dongwook first came across the president because he was discovered while digging into JA. Back then, Junmin said that he was just checking his skill. This time, he was probably checking on his tongue. He probably didn’t need a tongue that said what should not be said.

“Geez, it’s really hard to gain his trust.”

“He’s someone who even suspects himself. Don’t worry about it too much.”

“Yeah. It’s fine as long as I get my salary on time.”

He toasted with Taeho as he thought about a junior who was pursuing an event for over a year now. Dongwook tilted the glass against his mouth while thinking that the ink must be expensive for a pen that writes down the truth.

Chapter 701

He opened his eyes and looked at the time. It was 6:59 a.m. When the digital clock, that blinked red, turned to 7, it made a beeping alarm. Junmin turned off the alarm and covered his eyes with his hand. 2 minutes ago, he was in the past. It was when he was the most passionate and the most pure. The dream didn’t feel like a dream and left a long trail as though it happened just yesterday. Junmin sighed and probed the traces of the dream that still remained within him.

He hadn’t had a dream in a long time. He was in Daehak-ro and he met Jung Haejoo there. They shared love, promised success, and whispered to each other about the future, but then, everything was taken away by a speeding car. The dream ended there. When he heard the news of her accident through a call, he was consumed by darkness, and that was when he opened his eyes.

He wiped the back of his neck with his hand. It was very damp. He could still hear the nurse’s voice ringing in his ears: I’m calling you after looking at her calling history. Miss Jung Haejoo was caught up in a traffic accident.

Junmin went to the living room. The dogs with good ears had gathered by his feet already. He subconsciously took out dog food from the cabinet. When he was pouring the dog food out, he ended up laughing. He never knew that the dogs would be prioritized over quenching his own thirst.

After giving them some food, he drank some water. The lingering sensation of the dream just didn’t go away. His body felt like it was still in the past, right at the point when he got the call that she had been in a traffic accident.

He pressed his fingers on the side of his forehead. He prayed that the sharp pain would drag his consciousness out of the sea of his dream, but it was to no avail. The lingering sensation was that dense. He picked up the puppy by his feet and put her on his lap. After sniffing, she curled up as though she found her resting spot and started breathing regularly. Junmin stroked the puppy from head to tail. The soft and smooth sensation from his hand was reminiscent of when he touched Haejoo’s arm. Once again, he realized that she was too young to have died.

Why did it have to be Haejoo of all people? Junmin thought of the old question that was by his side for a long time. It would’ve been great if he died in her stead. How great would it be if he, who chased a vain dream with half-dead eyes, died instead of the person shining brilliantly with limitless potential and talent?

The puppy that had been sleeping soundly suddenly raised her head before biting his finger with her still growing teeth. Junmin put the puppy down on the ground. The docile puppy hid behind the dining table leg as though she was wary. Junmin got up and looked at the mirror he put in the living room. A skinny man in his fifties with vicious eyes. He looked like he was about to kill someone.

He sighed before sitting down on the sofa. Was it the self-disgust perking its head again after calming down a little thanks to all the psychotherapy? He remembered that his friend told him to not push himself and get some rest. If he ended up going to the psychiatrist again, she would definitely become angry. Though, she would still give him consultation.

Junmin slowly turned around to look around his house. This was everything he managed to achieve after her death. The company, this house, the people. Things that he would never have been able to dream of before she died, were achieved way too easily after she died.

Thinking back, it was a series of surprises. Every single new actor that he came across rose rapidly. It wasn’t just once or twice. Whenever he nurtured someone, that person would become the icon of the year which made him tons of money. He gained reputation, and that reputation called about even more people. JA Production was the crystallization of everything he achieved until now.

Junmin looked at the sun rising. To him, she was that sun. The one woman who defeated the darkness and shined a ray of light on him. Without Jung Haejoo, Lee Junmin was a pathetic man who would never become successful or strive towards a future. Yet ironically, everything went well after her death.

Just then, he suddenly had the thought that everything around him felt unfamiliar. He suddenly questioned why he was able to become so successful. Right now, he could make a judgment on individual success based on his experiences and the data he had gathered, but this should have been impossible for the Lee Junmin in his 30s. Yet strangely, all the actors he touched back then became hugely successful.

He felt like he found a puzzle piece that was off by a little as he was looking at it proudly after having finished it. It was a pretty big piece as well.

Junmin felt agitated and went to his study. He took out one of the plastic files on his shelf. Inside was a diary that he had been writing for a long time. Among the diaries sorted in chronological order, he took out the diary he wrote in the year she died. The diary was filled with excitement and joy until it was suddenly cut off. That was when he heard about the accident. He started writing again two months after her funeral.

His handwriting was terrible as though he was being chased by something while writing it. The moment he looked at the writing, he could feel the emotions he had back then. It was an obsession that was close to lunacy. His feelings of love towards her had mutated into raising a star that was just like her. Junmin sighed. Back then, he dreamed of committing suicide. He also attempted to do it, but when that moment came, he wasn’t able to do anything. He was a coward. That was why - because he couldn’t follow her into the afterlife - he became obsessed with things that were similar to her in order to prolong his life. He couldn’t understand how he acted back then, but now he did after reading the diary. He sympathized with his past self.

After that, the diary was filled with stories of success. The details weren’t written. I met someone in the street. I saw potential so I helped him debut.

More than a dozen actors were written that way. There was nothing about what he saw in them that he saw as ‘potential’. Junmin felt a sense of unfamiliarity and started focusing. He went back to the past, back when he was hung up on casting people.

“Why did I cast them?”

It was his own doing, but it made him wonder. His memories weren’t complete either. After combining his fragmented memories, the conclusion he came to was something absurd. Junmin took out another file on the shelf. It was the file that contained the photos and profiles of the people he cast during the beginning stages of setting up JA Production.

Some of the photos had lost color, but most of them had been laminated and were easy to recognize. Junmin had a look at the appearances of the actors he had cast and nurtured, year by year. The first actor he made debut was Kim Seungjin. Although he lived in the US right now, he was a big star just a decade ago.

“I picked such a man?”

Junmin paled as he picked up the photo. The man looked really shabby. He wasn’t someone who had a career related to acting either. His profile said ‘worker at a construction site’. He probed his memories. Junmin approached him, who was working with cement at a construction site, and told him that he had to become an actor. Junmin felt freaky. Just what did he base his decision on, that made him approach that man and even persuaded him to debut as an actor? He even made the promise that he would pay the man 10 million won if he failed. It seemed like winning money on a slot machine at a casino would be easier than that.

He went to the next one. This time, it was a woman. She received good reviews in dramas thanks to her good acting, and she was called the queen in the advertising industry who took all the commercials that required a high-class, luxurious image. When he had a look at her profile, Junmin groaned because of the massive headache he had. The woman couldn’t be called elegant in any sense of the word when he looked at her plump figure. Back then, she weighed 93kg. She worked at a hospital with reversed night and day, which broke her physical balance. She definitely wasn’t an item that would become an actress. The current him would have turned her away, telling her to come again after losing some weight. Actresses couldn’t make the shoot if they had ramyun the night before. The woman in the photo had an appearance that clearly didn’t suit an actress.

Yet in the past, he persistently tried to persuade her and started managing her health. He paid her 3 times her monthly salary and had her take diet and acting lessons, and the result of that was the birth of an actress who stole the hearts of many men.

The other actors were similar. In many cases, he picked actors who already had a similar career, but there were a considerable number of cases where he didn’t. What surprised him was that he didn’t value appearance when he did his casting, unlike what others would do when they go street casting. He gathered people of all sorts of colors and those that looked like they didn’t have a sliver of becoming successful and dramatically made them debut. That was a gamble like no other. Was he possessed by a spirit in the past or something?

Junmin then opened the file that contained his interviews. The title that said ‘The Maestro of Finding New Talent’ caught his eyes. Junmin quickly skimmed through the interview. Halfway through the interview that talked about his success, the thing he wanted to read finally came up.

-You’re known for casting actors without looking at the manifestation of their talent, much less an audition. Do you have a special method? Or is it just your nature to enjoy adventure?

His answer to that question was quite simple. He could see it. He explained that line over the course of several lines, but the point was that he could ‘just see’ it. What he saw, and what kind of standards he had was asked after that, but his past self finished that interview with vague answers.

Junmin felt like he was going into a daze. For the past 17 years, he came all the way here without looking back after Haejoo died. In truth, he didn’t have the courage to look back at the past either. After all, that meant looking back at Haejoo’s death. Amidst the wealth that had been piling up as well as the human resources he had, he thought that his success was something that his own skills had brought him, but his past self was definitely not someone who was capable of achieving something like this.

The facts, recorded alongside this interview, were telling him. He achieved success through a very shocking method that was no different from being crude. How was that even possible?

Junmin returned to the living room. He spent 30 minutes, then another 30 minutes trying to bring back the memories, but he couldn’t remember the important bits. It was clear that he met those actors, nurtured them, and made them successful, but the answer to the most important question, ‘why’ he chose those people, did not come to mind.

It was rather weird. He thought about the interview again. He could even remember the face of the interviewer back then, but he couldn’t remember why he answered that ‘he could see’. It was like someone pulled his memories out from the roots.

“How did I even become successful?”

The doubt that sprung up from his dream did not get solved easily.

* * *

After making Bada wash the dishes, Maru returned to his room. He sat on his chair, turned on the power to the computer, and waited for a little before he saw his desktop screen with many icons on it. He opened an internet browser and went to his blog. Recently, he hadn’t been managing it, so it had become a ghost blog, but he was quite diligent at writing them when he was in his 1st year. Among them, the thing he had never failed to write every day was his diary. He clicked on the diary page. He made public the things he didn’t care whether other people saw them or not, but the majority of them had been privated so that only he could see them.

Maru scrolled up to the first diary entry that he wrote after creating the blog. Starting with the word ‘unbelievable’, the diary talked about what kind of mindset he was going to have in the future.

He looked at the next one. He saw a wall of text as though it was a report on his day job. He met someone, did something, and was preparing something. His past self was quite diligent when it came to writing.

Maru scratched his eyebrows. He felt weird after all. His personality was never so meticulous. Rather than planning something out, he preferred solving the problems when they came. The fact that he worked as a road manager without continuing to try and join the employment lines, and the fact that he switched jobs as soon as he was accepted to a mid-sized company, was all because he had the belief that things would go well one way or the other.

However, two years ago, his past self that just came back to life looked like he was a little too worried about the future to the point of obsession. Just like someone who had no second chances.

“I was indeed the one who wrote it, and I even have memories of it, but it feels so strange.”

Was it because he had just come back to life?

Maru narrowed his eyes and kept reading the diaries.

Chapter 702

Can his current self be called the same as his past self? Maru thought that the answer to that question was no. He believed that the accumulated experience would change the nature and tendencies of a person. His current self should be different from his past self of a few days ago, from his past self of a few months ago, and from his past self of a few years ago. However, just like a randomly changing graph had a set standard, he also thought that he had some things that did not change within him; one of them being his challenging mindset. Taking a step forward without fear even when the environment or the circumstances change should be one of the traits that represented Han Maru.

Maru put down the mouse for now. On his monitor was an old diary entry. What was he thinking back then as the person who wrote it? Maru wanted to ask his past self that.

It felt way too different. When he had a look at the diary he wrote in the past, he felt as though it was another person who wrote it. He had the memories of writing such a diary, but he could not remember what kind of feelings he had that made him write something like that back then.

“I tried to focus on studying, but I reached the limits of my concentration too soon. I don’t think I can expect the great concentration I get when I look at scripts during studying. I must look for another way for the sake of a stable life.”

Maru read the sentence on the screen out loud. It was from one of the entries he wrote during his first year. When he grabbed a script, all of his neurons awakened and did their work, but when it came to school work, they became lazy ponies and didn’t do any work. While it was a pity, there was no need to be so disappointed. It meant that he had talent in acting after all. He had a talent that not many people had, so he should have been happy, yet his past self wrote the diary with disappointment.

He picked out some words that the diary entries had in common and wrote them down on a piece of paper. Stability, future, probability, success, profits. These five words were distributed everywhere as though they were the crux of the issue in his diary entries.

“Stability, future, probability, success, profits.”

Maru read those words out loud. They were definitely important elements in life. However, he was only in his first year of high school back then. He also had the wisdom of his previous life to a certain extent. There was no need for him to be so hurried. In fact, that was when he should accept many different forms of experiences in life, ones that he could not experience in the life before this, and broaden his horizons.

So what if he wasted some time because he took the wrong path? So what if he failed and fell down for a bit? He was young and the future was limitless. Rather than going through the same life as the previous one and aiming for a white-collar job, wouldn’t it be better to pioneer the unknown and enjoy his second life as someone who got another chance? The way his past self was looking for a ray of hope at the edge of a cliff felt not only unfamiliar but also like it was to the point of uninterpretable.

“I looked into getting a freight truck driver’s license. I looked into the job transfer rate of the sister company to our school. I looked into the wages at the company that my father works at.”

Along with those five words, the other information that showed up quite often was about employment. He could still remember right now. He looked into all sorts of jobs. He especially looked into those that had a future for him even if he was employed upon graduation without going to college.

Maru chuckled in vain. Why was his past self so hung up on things like this? Every single action sounded like he was going to die the day after he didn’t do so. It was as though he had a wife and kid to feed.

Things that didn’t match his own values and ideals continued to occur. As he looked at the remaining entries in the diary and thought about what happened back then, he felt an even bigger sense of disparity. He was unfamiliar with this guy who wrote them.

Maru went to the kitchen and got a cup of cold water before coming back to his room. He felt like all the blood in his body was rushing to his brain. He felt so hot and needed something to cool him down. When he drank some cold water, he calmed down a little. He stared at the monitor for a while before picking up a note and going to sit on the bed.

“Is the drastic difference in nature a result of the memories after all?”

The woman in a white suit said that his memories would eventually become faint. As though to prove that, the memories of his previous life had become faint to the point that he had almost forgotten everything. He could only remember the big events, and he could no longer remember what kind of events occurred between them nor the people he met.

“But it shouldn’t change the fact that I died at twenty-nine.”

His last memories were pretty clear. While he was working as a road manager, he got employed by a mid-sized company, and not long after admission, he died. The reason for his death wasn’t clear. From how he saw the woman in a suit when he woke up, it was likely that it was a sudden death. Perhaps all those drives that were late at night during his manager days ruined his body.

“Then I met that woman and got a new life.”

When he opened his eyes after that vain death, he met that woman in a white suit. He walked down a beach with her and talked to her under a white parasol. He heard about the circumstances behind how he got another chance at life. Apparently, an elderly lady had yielded that opportunity to him. He didn’t know why that lady yielded that to him, but for some weird reason, the name remained in his mind. Yoo Bokja. It was a rather affectionate name for some reason.

Thus, he started anew and wrote this diary that he was seeing on the monitor. Why did he look at the future with such a narrow vision like that? There should have been many other important things in life, not just stability and success.

He realized the disparity between his current actions and past actions when he thought about what he did in his 1st year. It was when he became the devil’s advocate for the unity of the acting club. Back then, he smoothly did the things that he would find unacceptable to do right now. While he understood what kind of intentions he had when he made enemies out of everyone around, he couldn’t remember the reason why such thoughts came to mind in the first place. He could have just persuaded them to understand each other, yet under the pretense of ‘efficiency’, he just solved it in a violent manner. It was good that things ended well. Had it not gone well, he might have left the acting club just like that. Meaning, he might not have met Junmin in the first place. His past self thought nothing of the important crossroad in his life. He could get a glimpse of what he felt back then when he read the diary. Those lines made it seem like the acting club, the people around him, and basically everything didn’t matter that much. It looked as though it didn’t matter if club activities didn’t go well since it wouldn’t make him any money.

“That was me, huh.”

There was physical evidence here, so he couldn’t deny that. He had the memories of it as well. It was just his emotions back then that were missing. It felt like an art gallery had popped up between his current self and his past self. Inside that gallery, the photos of the old times were hung up on the walls, allowing him to look at the past, but he could not understand the emotions and intentions that each of those photos had.

Were memories all like this? Would the passage of time separate the emotions from the incident itself and disappear, leaving behind only the events that could be interpreted in multiple ways? When he discussed transcendental cognition with writer Lee Hanmi a little while ago, he said that there were memories that transcended the physical body. Yet, when he looked at how he acted just two years ago, it made him wonder if he was the same person.

Were memories that shallow? Or was there something beyond his cognitive abilities happening?

Maru thought about all the events that happened from his previous life until now. There were no contradictory things anywhere. While there were some questionable decisions and actions that he took, his actions for the past year were all within his realm of understanding. The problem was 2 years ago, when he just came back to life, all the way until he entered his 2nd year.

He looked at the words he wrote on his note. He found himself avoiding challenges, distancing himself from adventure, and despising the unknown. A rather headstrong man was there.

At the same time, that man looked like he was desperately trying to protect something.

“Just what was it?”

Maru looked at his note before sighing. Right now, there was nothing he could find out. He only felt that there was something that he desired in the past. He didn’t know it, he felt it. It was a signal that he couldn’t even tell if it was true or just a mistake.

If he could record his current state in detail, it would be good material to reflect on in the future, but god did not allow that. Maru grabbed his pen and tried to write down what happened in his previous life, but just as he had expected, his body didn’t listen to him as though his hands were broken. This was probably why the records in his diary were fragmented and abstract.

God prevented him from reflecting on his life. Despite the fact that personal history had an insignificant influence on society or the greater world, god did not allow for recording. What could be the reason for that? His memories will remain behind anyway. Was there an absolutely necessary reason for not allowing him to write down things that were meaningless and unbelievable in the eyes of others? Or was it to simply prevent him from mentioning the past?

“So there’s no way of finding out, even if the memories of my previous life and my current life, have changed?”

The words he subconsciously uttered had considerable weight. He felt a chill run down his spine, and his eyes opened wide. If he had that as the hypothesis, he would have to suspect every single thing. That would be beyond just exhausting, it would be painful and utterly horrific. His memories changing unconsciously meant that he was becoming something completely different from before.

At that moment, Maru remembered the change in his emotions. He was definitely conscious of the fact that he had become more proactively amicable to the people around him.

“Contradiction.”

He was originally very proactive and challenging. The way he focused on harmony with the people around him showed no difference. So then, why was he so hung up on the fact that his personality changed when it happened? That meant that he was a cold, uncooperative, safety-seeking man before his personality changed.

He kept discovering the contradictions in his thoughts.

* * *

“What a busy life.”

“You tell me,” Maru said as he flipped over the script for New Semester.

Byungchan, who was driving, told him that there were drinks at the back.

“But hyung, are you okay with time? You don’t need to give me a ride.”

“It’s fine, I have time now. I’m a team leader not only in duties but in position too.”

“Ah, right. Congratulations on your promotion.”

“Sounds way too late at this point, but thanks anyway.”

Maru grabbed the business card that Byungchan gave him. Externally, he acted as a team leader from a while ago but had a really weird position within the company, and now it looked like he had found his position.

“For it though, I had to quit my dream to become an actor.”

“Don’t. You can always try later.”

“No, I’ve given up now. The president connected me to an audition, telling me to check myself objectively, and I failed that miserably. That’s when I felt that the office suits me better. After I gave up, the president properly supported me as well. It’s a good thing.”

“If you say so. Then since you started, you should aim to be the president of a super agency.”

“That’s the plan. Anyway, the company got a new department to handle the management of youths, and I’m in charge of it. Before, I was the only one in it, but there’s three of us now.”

“So you got two subordinates?”

Byungchan laughed in embarrassment.

“That’s why I’m going to be focusing on you and Sooil only. Thus, you’re going to call me a lot in the future.”

“That’s better for me. But when are you going to treat me since you got a promotion?”

“I was wondering why you weren’t mentioning that.”

Byungchan started slowing down. They had arrived at the middle school, the location of the shooting set.

“I’ll go back to the company and come back when you finish.”

“I can go back home by myself.”

“I was ordered to safely bring you home by the president. This means that you’re on the list of managed people. Doing two dramas at once is not easy. Moreover, there’s school as well. You’ll only have an easier time saving up energy if you don’t spend any on transportation. Once that mini-series drama starts, you’ll probably go to school after shooting all the way till dawn pretty frequently.”

“Yes, okay then. See you later.”

“Alright. Good luck with the shoot.”

Maru got off and asked a question before he closed the door,

“Uhm, hyung, have I changed a lot from before?”

Byungchan stared at him for a while before replying with a smile,

“I guess you did become a bit cheerful.”

Maru nodded and closed the door.

Chapter 703

“Apparently, Kang Giwoo is shooting a movie,” said Seong Dongho.

He enviously looked at Giwoo who was talking to the director.

“Good for him.”

“From what I hear, he has a pretty significant role. Maybe it’s the winner takes all in acting too after all. I don’t think my acting skills are that bad.”

“You should keep trying. Maybe you’ll do well someday.”

“Why does that make me feel worse when you say that? It’s because you got a main character role in a drama, huh? Is that why you’re doing this to me?”

“Dongho, you should have a good heart because only then will fortune come to you.”

Maru patted Dongho on the shoulders before walking over to the assistant director.

New Semester had been getting good ratings with the young romance between Kang Giwoo and Ahn Yeseul, but it had now changed lanes and abandoned the sweetness. Signs started showing up a few episodes ago, and it was going to get even more serious from this episode onwards.

“Director!”

Producer Park Hoon, who was talking to the camera director, walked over. Kang Giwoo and Ahn Yeseul were with him.

“As you know from the script, there will be a lot of detailed emotional expressions from this episode onwards. I’m going to give you as much advice as I can, but things will change depending on how much preparation you’ve done. Giwoo, Yeseul, you two especially should try hard. Just from the script, it’s obvious that the writer has a lot to ask from you,” said producer Park Hoon with a serious face before they started the rehearsal.

What New Semester ultimately aimed to do wasn’t school romance; it was to reflect the ecosystem known as a school in both the dramatic and ordinary aspects. Just as writer Lee Hanmi said openly, New Semester had brought social problems as well as the conflict between the student and the adults in order to escape that cheerful image of youth dramas. This episode was going to be a concentration of all those elements.

“We’re going to be zooming in on you a lot. Until now, we tried covering things up by going with a full shot if your emotional acting was not up to par, but it’ll be hard to do that anymore. If you don’t want to get caught up in acting skill issues, you will have to do your best,” Park Hoon said in a cold manner.

The camera was installed in place. After looking at the boom mic above his head, Maru took a deep breath. Today, he only had one scene, and it was a conversation with Giwoo. He had a line that was more than three sentences after not having one for a long time. Above all, he started his shoot first. He didn’t need to wait, and he would get to leave after this shot.

“I heard Dongho say that you’re shooting a movie. Congratulations,” he said to Giwoo.

Although they couldn’t be said to have a good relationship, he wanted to congratulate him as a coworker at least. Giwoo looked back at him with complex eyes. His trademark smile was gone without a trace.

“I’m just congratulating you. I don’t have any other intentions.”

“What the hell happened to you?”

“I said nothing. Oh, yeah. You aren’t up to that childish stuff too, these days, are you?”

“I’m not sure what you’re talking about.”

“Yeah, who am I to say anything? But let’s not bully people who have it hard. It’s all karma you know? If you don’t want to get into big trouble later, you should do some good deeds too.”

“If you’re trying to pick a fight with me, why don’t you do it after the shoot? Or are you coming at me openly? Are you underestimating me that much? You just won against me once. If you’re trying to use that to put me below you…”

Maru shook his hand. Giwoo became quiet.

“You went too far there. That’s a bad habit of yours.”

Giwoo, who was glaring at him, eventually just sighed. It seemed that he also thought that he was acting too sensitively.

“Standby!”

That signaled work time. Maru tapped on his cheeks before calming down his emotions. Giwoo also put away that arrogant smile of his and loosened his lips.

“Ready, cue!”

He looked at Giwoo while thinking about the line in his head.

“Are you worried about something lately? Why do you look so gloomy?”

Giwoo sighed very softly.

“Lee Chan, I should go to a factory and not to school if I want to earn money, right?”

“What do you mean by that so suddenly? You need money?”

“The thing is… nah, it’s nothing.”

Giwoo turned around and walked over to the end of the corridor. Maru looked at his back without relaxing his emotions until the very end. When Giwoo turned at the end of the corridor and left his vision, Park Hoon shouted cut.

“Good. We’ll flip around and do it again. Keep your emotions together.”

The lights, the camera, and the staff all moved. The camera was pointing at the side of Giwoo’s face this time. Maru relaxed his shoulders. His face wouldn’t show up in this cut. Only his body and his shoulder would appear like a background object.

“Maru, say the same line just like before. And Giwoo, we’re going to do a tight shot now. Watch out for your expression. Also, I see something on Giwoo’s lip. Let’s quickly take care of that before we start.”

The make-up artist touched up Giwoo’s face.

-I’m a little bored, so why don’t you let me?

The masked man spoke to Maru after staying quiet. He looked like he felt restless whenever he was at the set. Maru told him to stay still before doing the same shoot with the same line. The director shook his head and shouted cut. It seemed as though he didn’t like Giwoo’s face from what he saw when he looked at the monitor.

“Giwoo. I said that’s the wrong expression. Giving up education, something that a student naturally receives, and choosing to work over that is something very frustrating and scary. Even though the Kang Giwoo in the drama might be someone who’s just and cheerful, he can’t stay calm in the face of a gloomy situation like this. You should know that from interpreting the script, right?”

“I’m sorry. I’ll do it properly this time.”

“I know that it’s difficult. That’s why I told you that I will be giving you a lot of advice even though I haven’t been interfering with you that much until recently. You’re going to have to watch out for the minor details. Even the most minute details will be captured by the camera.”

Park Hoon looked at the monitor in displeasure. He looked like he was on edge as well. Perhaps the change in the drama exhausted the director as well.

Maru nodded towards Suyeon who was smiling brightly behind the camera. He had to greet her first because she would make her way over and talk to him if he didn’t do so.

“Let’s do that again.”

The shoot resumed. As though to prove that he didn’t win the spot of the lead male for nothing, Giwoo managed to get an okay from the director the second time.

They spent 3 hours shooting that short conversation in the corridor. Just like how the director’s expectations had gotten higher, the waiting time for New Semester would get even longer in the future.

The staff cleaned up the equipment and moved towards the classroom. Usually, producer Park Hoon would rest for about five minutes before going over to the next scene, but he seemed to have thought that they were short on time as he started decreasing breaks. Quickly, quickly - the line frequently heard in South Korea could be heard from all around.

“Han Maru, wait a bit.”

Park Hoon waved at him. Maru folded his script and approached him.

“How is it going with the other drama?”

“For now, there are no problems. I’m not sure if I’m doing well or not. While I’m doing my best, I’ll have to see the results to be sure.”

“There you are, acting modestly again. You’re done shooting for the day right?”

“Yes.”

“Do you have anything else to do?”

“I need to go over to the other set later.”

“Really? I guess you’ve become a busy person now.”

“No, it just happened to overlap. Oh, was there something you wanted to talk about with me?”

“Rather than something to say, there’s a line I want you to read.”

“A line?”

The assistant director approached them and said that the setup would be done in 10 minutes. Park Hoon replied to him before pointing at the end of the corridor as he looked at Maru. After going there, Maru received a phone from Park Hoon.

“Can you say the stage directions and the line shown there? With your emotions too.”

Maru looked at the phone screen. He gave a cursory glance at the stage direction and the lines before giving the phone back.

“What, you can’t?”

“Oh, I just memorized it all.”

“All of that?”

“You want me to read it out loud for you?”

Park Hoon smiled and shook his head.

“Can I ask why you are having me do this?”

“I’ll just say that it’s a simple audition. There’s no big meaning.”

“An audition?”

Just then, the assistant director called for the director from afar. Park Hoon raised his hand instead of replying.

“I’m just trying to get a feel, so you don’t need to put in too much effort. You just have to show me an image. Just show me the things that came to your mind first after seeing that.”

Park Hoon seemed to be in a hurry. Maru decided to hold off on asking for explanations until later and got his emotions together. The text on the phone was pretty provocative.

- Chulsoo looked at his sister. For a long time, he stared at her as though he was dissecting her with his eyes before he groaned.

“You… aren’t my sister, are you?”

The moment he dissolved his emotions into that line, Maru felt a sense of thirst. His emotions naturally dissolved into the line. As this was practically improvisation, he couldn’t really show any depth. He just stayed true to the text.

“Where’s my sister! Where is she! Tell me!”

A rather agitated voice popped out of his mouth. The raw, unrefined emotions shook his body and the space around it. Maru shouted into the emptiness. Unease, nervousness, and rage. Unrefined emotions surged and took away the unity in his acting. It was something that left room to be desired, but it was also something he couldn’t do anything about because of the conditions given to him. There was a limit to acting without knowing what the situation the character was in, his emotions, or the circumstances of the event.

Maru calmed his breath and his shaking lips. He finished off by dragging the fragments of rage that touched his brain inward. He lost focus and when his vision became full again, he saw people staring at him from the other side of the corridor. Maru made an apologetic expression before bowing.

“Is that how it goes?”

“It suits you much better than I expected. I also like how it tingles my back. Good, it’s good.”

Park Hoon smiled and told him to go. Maru returned to where Seong Dongho and Lee Joomin were, still with questions.

“What was that?”

“I’m not sure either. The director just had me say some lines.”

“I thought you were fighting or something.”

“I don’t have the guts to do that.”

The assistant director called for the actors. Maru waved his hand at the two people who started to move.

“Are you done?”

“Ah, yes.”

Suyeon talked to him just before he was about to walk down the stairs.

“Good for you, it ended early.”

“I have another shoot to attend to.”

“Really? I guess I can’t hold a busy person back for long. You can go now.”

“Good luck with work too, noonim.”

While waving, Suyeon spoke after she looked like she thought of something,

“I heard that the acting club got the grand prize.”

“Yes. Did you hear the news?”

“Unfortunately, I got the news from Miso-unni. You guys were once my students too. How could you not give me a single call?”

“You’re a popular actress, so it’s kinda hard to call you.”

“It’s not that you didn’t care about me? That unni, you should’ve seen how proud she acted in front of me. I wanted to give her a beating.”

“Then just come again next year and get the grand prize then. If you do that, it’ll be a tie.”

“But you would have graduated by next year, won’t you? That’s no fun. Facing little kids is only good as an experience. Anything more than that would be boring.”

“Don’t say that and make a visit later. Everyone will love it. A lot of them want to see you again. The 1st year students will probably freak out though. It’s Kim Suyeon in person after all.”

“What’s up with you? You’re saying something nice for once. Did you do something wrong to me? Or maybe you want me to do something for you?”

“I’m not that bad of a kid. Anyway, noonim, good luck with work. Treat me to some food later. What good is eating out of the same food pot? You should treat people from time to time.”

Maru waved at Suyeon who looked at him with weird eyes. He left through the school gates and took another few steps before looking back at the school.

“It does feel rather unfamiliar.”

He started becoming conscious of the fact that his attitude towards the people around him had changed. Something different from before had become distinct. Was he heading in a good direction? Or was he heading down a path of no return?

For now, he had no way of knowing.

“Yes, hyung. I just finished. You can take your time. I’ll be reading my script in the nearby café. Okay then, see you later.”

Maru called Byungchan before starting to walk.

Chapter 704

Gaeul grabbed onto the hem of her one-piece dress. She couldn’t believe that this rather fluttery yellow dress cost 700 thousand won. It looked like it would only cost 30,000 won at the shopping mall in front of her house.

“Models, please get ready,” said the woman, who she saw when she just arrived at the studio, with a clap.

“I think I’m going to suffocate if I keep wearing this,” Heewon grumbled.

He was wearing a gray check-patterned shirt and indigo overalls. He kept touching the blackish-red bow tie around his neck as though he found it uncomfortable. Whenever he did so, the stylist next to him told him not to touch it.

“Looks good on you.”

“Don’t laugh.”

Gaeul pouted. As Heewon usually wore similar-looking t-shirts and trainers usually, overalls and proper formal shoes would feel like nothing but annoying pieces of cloth and leather.

“Should we start with you, Mr. Heewon?”

The photographer told him to stand in the middle of the set. There were two old tables and three chairs without backrests. One of those chairs had fallen down.

“You said that this is your first time modeling, right? For now, please stand in the middle like that. As for your face, keep it expressionless as much as possible. However, don’t tense or relax your eyes too much.”

Heewon stood upright. Gaeul covered her mouth and chuckled, but the photographer didn’t say anything.

“Can you push your right leg outwards from that position just a little? Yes, that’s good.”

Heewon did exactly what the photographer told him to do. He reached his hand out when he was told to, and he turned his head when he was told to. Heewon’s awkward-looking body eventually dissolved into the set naturally.

“Mr. Heewon. Can you sit down on the chair?”

Heewon sat upright on the chair with his hands clasped by his lap, and his knees were together like a goody-two-shoes waiting for a graduation album photo. Gaeul crossed her arms. When she looked at him along with the bookshelf behind him, she felt like a smart child had entered his father’s study. It suited him, but whenever she thought of how he acted usually, she couldn’t help but chuckle.

“Can you do a pose that you want to do? Anything is fine. If that’s too difficult, try using your arms first. After that, your legs, then your expression. There’s no need to be so confused about it. You just have to do things one by one.”

The photography set, which she thought would be very strict and would only be filled with shutter sounds, was filled with laughs and light jokes instead. The photographer, who was in his mid 30s, was very witty to the point that he might as well switch jobs to being a host for a TV program. Heewon made little changes to his expressions and posture as he heard his words. His awkward-looking pose gradually became better. His hands, which would usually be placed awkwardly by the side, would point at objects or be placed naturally on his body, and his eyes, which only looked at the lens, eventually looked everywhere around the studio.

“Good. It’s fine to become daring. You can smile, and crying is fine too.”

“Can I take off this tie?”

“It looks good on you, is it too suffocating?”

“Yes. I just want to throw it away.”

“Hm, that sounds good too. Wait a moment.”

The photographer approached Heewon with the camera. He kneeled before getting a side view of Heewon.

“Can you try throwing the bow tie on the ground with all your might? I’ll give you the signal.”

“Can I really throw it?”

“Yes, put all your strength into it!”

When the photographer started counting from three, Heewon grabbed the tip of the bow tie and took it off before he eventually threw it on the ground after the count of one. Heewon smiled as though he felt refreshed.

“It’s good, but we did style you so that the bow tie completes the picture, and taking it off blurs out the overall atmosphere. Miss Minjeong, please put it back on him.”

The stylist, who had been waiting on the side, quickly rushed over and put the bow tie around Heewon’s neck again. Heewon jerked his shoulders, as though he was a dog that didn’t like being put on a choker, before he eventually became docile.

“This is so exhausting.”

“That exhausting expression is good too.”

Regardless of what Heewon did, the photographer did not say a single bad thing. The camera motor kept moving relentlessly, and shutter sounds filled the space.

“Can you make a drowsy expression now?”

The photographer, who was talking with Gyeonmi while looking at the monitor for a while, gave a new request. Heewon’s face immediately turned into a daze. It was a drowsy expression that would make anyone yawn just by looking at him.

“That looks good. Can you lean on the wall and sit down? Think of it as getting a rest after a long work session.”

The shoot gained speed. The shutter sounds became a lot more frequent. It looked like the camera was definitely on burst mode. Heewon seemed to have adapted, as he slightly reacted at the shutter sounds and changed his body. Whenever his arms waved out, the photographer excitedly shouted out ‘good’.

“Finished. Can you come over?”

Heewon walked over to the monitor. Gaeul stood next to him. The photographer dragged a few files with the mouse and organized them before he pressed down on the keyboard to show them in order.

“In the photos taken at first, your eyes look unstable, and your body looks inconsistent, but you can see the change as time goes by, right?”

Gaeul exclaimed as she looked at the photos. The later photos made her wonder if it was the same Lee Heewon. When the photographer pressed a few buttons on the keyboard, the photos turned monochrome, and they gave off a dreamy sensation that was in tandem with Heewon’s drowsy-looking eyes.

“How are they? Did you find any photos you like?”

“I’m not sure.”

“Choose some anyway. It is important for you to discern which photos are good and for the photographer to find out about your preferences. In the future, you’ll be working with other people a lot, so the more professional you become, the less good it is for you to be so vague. This is the case for both the photographer and the model.”

“Then I like this one and this one. It makes me happy just by looking at them.”

Heewon picked two photos. The first one was where he had his eyes closed as though he was sleepy, and the second one was where he was leaning against the wall with his arms crossed and looking slightly down.

“Why do you like these two?”

“Because I look like I’m sleeping.”

The photographer put on a thick smile. He selected a few photos including the ones that Heewon chose before moving them into another folder.

Gaeul started getting nervous. She wasn’t aware of the passage of time when Heewon was shooting, but as soon as she realized that it was her turn, she wondered if she could do well. On top of that, Heewon managed to bring out his unique traits and finished the shoot successfully. She now felt pressured to do well.

“Miss Gaeul, shall we start?” The photographer said with a smile.

Gaeul nodded and stood in the middle of the set. There was a black piece of cloth covering the giant lights on the side, and the heat from that light was quite intense. It felt like it could be used as a heater. Now, she found Heewon amazing for being so calm in front of it. It was on a completely different level from the lights she saw when she helped out Maru.

“There should be some heat. Don’t get conscious of it though. If you keep thinking that it’s hot, you might really start sweating.”

“Yes.”

“Miss Gaeul.”

“Yes?”

“What did you eat for lunch today?”

“Lunch? Four pieces of kimbap.”

“Oh, my. You must be hungry then. Don’t you want to eat a lot of things?”

“There are a lot of things I really want to eat.”

“For example?”

“Fries! I like anything fried.”

“Fries, huh. I love them too. There’s nothing that tastes better than fries during the late night.”

“Right, I feel you.”

“Becoming an actress is hard after all, right? Sometimes, you have to skip your meals, and you have to ignore it even if there’s something tasty in front of you. Sometimes, you have to smile even though you feel sad.”

“There’s that, but I enjoy acting, so it’s fine.”

“So you’re an adult already, Miss Gaeul. I still can’t shake off such temptations.”

The photographer kept talking to her without holding the camera. He asked what she liked, what her favorite animal was, if she could differentiate between different dog species, and things like that. Eventually, Gaeul felt like she had become used to the heat and the air inside the studio, as well as the gazes of the people. At that moment, the photographer picked up the camera. She was inwardly a little startled. It felt like the photographer was saying ‘I see you’re ready now’ just at the right time.

“You can put your eyes on anything you want. But looking at empty air must be quite difficult, right? There’s a poster behind me right? Can you have a look at that one for a sec?”

Just as the photographer told her to, Gaeul looked at the poster on the wall. That poster, expressed with a violent mix of gray and white, showed an elderly with cloudy eyes was looking right ahead. Gaeul felt a chill. She felt as though the elderly on the poster was about to pop out at any moment.

“That kind of feeling is good. The disparity between your colorful clothes and your expression is good to look at. But your expression does look a little stiff.”

“Oh, I’m sorry about that. I was focused on the poster so I subconsciously…”

“Oh really?”

The photographer turned around before laughing awkwardly.

“I see. That poster is definitely quite burdensome to look at for a long time. I might sound like I’m flattering myself, but I actually felt really proud after shooting that poster. It gave me the chills the moment I saw it.”

“Yes. It really does give off that feeling.”

“Do you recognize who it is?”

Gaeul squinted. She was overwhelmed by the elder’s eyes that she didn’t have the chance to look at his whole face. When she looked at the elder with more leisure, Gaeul exclaimed,

“Isn’t that Sir Yoon Moonjoong?”

“Yes, it is. Do you perhaps know what Twilight Struggles is?”

“Yes! I do.”

Gaeul replied loudly. How could she not? It was Maru’s first appearance in a film.

“It’s one of the posters for that movie. But it wasn’t used. Apparently, senior Yoon’s eyes are too much to bear. Actually, I felt rather frustrated. The photo turned out so good. Miss Gaeul, how is it? Do you like that photo?”

“Yes,” she replied without hesitation.

While she felt scared, she was able to see that the photo was a really good one. It was a photo that shook one’s emotions subconsciously. There was no way she didn’t like it.

“That kind of expression isn’t something you can make with just a good camera and a good photo editing program. Honestly speaking, that senior will probably look like that even with a disposable camera. That’s because that’s the power he himself possesses. Of course, you can shoot photos like that too.”

“Me?”

“People all have their unique atmospheres. Of course, it’ll get deeper with experience and time, but there are definitely characteristics you can only show at that certain moment. Miss Gaeul, can you try smiling?”

Gaeul hesitated before smiling. It was something she did numerous times when acting, but it was quite hard to maintain a static smile.

“Miss Gaeul, you can feel that the smile is a little awkward too, can’t you?”

“Yes.”

“It might be because it’s your first time, but it might also be because you’re only moving your muscles. When you’re acting, your expressions aren’t separate from your emotions, right? It’s the same when it comes to photos. It might be more static and more momentary compared to a video, but emotions definitely do get captured in it. I want to see your pure smile, Miss Gaeul. What might make you smile in comfort? Family? Friends? Or maybe a lover?”

Gaeul had a look at a few of the images that swirled inside her head before smiling. The photographer started pressing the shutter.

“It looks okay, but you do seem rather uneasy.”

“Is that so?”

Gaeul was startled because she felt like he found out what she was thinking. What she thought of just now was Maru’s face. She wanted to be with him, but she kept thinking about her lack of qualities and how she decided to put some distance between them for a while. It was true that she liked him, but whenever she thought about him, she subconsciously ended up comparing herself to him. Did she have what it took to stand on the same stage as Maru right now?

“How about something else? I want to see you more relaxed.”

A relaxed smile, huh. Just then, she saw Heewon yawn like a frog behind the lights. He looked like he would actually go to sleep if there was a blanket nearby. Seeing his goofy attitude, she felt like a fool for being so worried. Just then, a smile crept onto her face.

“That’s it, that one’s good. Remember that feeling and let’s have your right arm grab your left for a moment, shall we?” said the photographer.

Gaeul did what he said and smiled according to her memory.

Chapter 705

“Have a look. Sometimes, you might feel embarrassed and don’t want to look at your own photo, but you already know that actors and actresses are always on the side of being shot. You should find out what kind of photos make you look good. It might not seem like anything much, but it’s pretty important.”

The photographer showed her a photo after it went through some processing. Just as he said, it was quite embarrassing and unfamiliar to see her smiling face through a screen. Gaeul endured the ticklish sensation rising up inside her and looked at the screen. The feelings of embarrassment eventually dissipated, and she started focusing on her expression and the composition of the photo. Now that she was able to look at the whole picture, she found things that weren’t to her liking.

“Veteran actors can play around with their atmosphere like professional models. That’s because they know how they would look through the camera. The more frequently you stand in front of the camera, the better your eyes will become at discerning things like that.”

“Would we be able to shoot photos like that in the future?” Gaeul asked as she pointed at the poster for Twilight Struggles.

“As I said before, you will be able to do it once you find out what your charm is and how you should express it. Of course, that won’t be easy. If it was, there would be no reason for professional models, photographers, or actors to exist.”

Gaeul nodded after hearing that.

“Let’s finish choosing the photos for now, shall we? Pick those that you like as well as those that you don’t like. You might have overheard me saying this to Mr. Heewon before, but I’ll say it again - vague answers aren’t good here. In fact, a clear expression of like and dislike would be preferred. A clear opinion would make the final product much more distinct. That is regardless of whether that’s in a good way or a bad way.”

The photographer flipped through the photos. Gaeul selected the photos while thinking about what the photographer said. There wasn’t a photo to her liking, but there were things that she didn’t like.

“Then I’ll do my work based on these. Senior Choi, we’re all done here.”

While the photographer had a conversation with Gyeonmi, Gaeul looked at her photos that were hung across two screens.

“Uhm, sir, can I take a photo of this one with my phone?”

“You aren’t going to use it commercially, are you?”

The photographer had spoken with a smile. Gaeul said yes.

“Then take as many as you like. Mr. Heewon, there’s a folder next to hers too, so you can open it if you want to take photos as well.”

“I’m okay.”

Heewon looked like he clearly couldn’t be bothered. Gaeul took photos of the one that emphasized yellow and the one where she was looking into the distance while sitting in a diagonal position. Although the resolution wasn’t that clear since she was taking a photo of the screen, it was enough for her to discern that the model was herself.

This was her first time modeling. Although any information about her or her interview wouldn’t go alongside it, as the photo was for a concept page, she still felt rather excited that her face would be going on a magazine. She felt like she was definitely making progress, albeit little by little. She also had the small expectation that she might achieve what she aimed for in the future.

-But this isn’t enough.

The rabbit in her heart had spoken.

-You’ll have to be strict in the future. As you know, what matters is your actions after you declare your resolve. If you call Maru just because you feel a little lonely or tired, you’ll stay where you are forever.

I know - Gaeul inwardly replied. She was still far off from facing Maru boldly when he had won the role of a main character in a drama with his skills.

-It might be hard right now. You might want to see him. However, if you meet in that vague state you are in right now, you’ll obviously feel even worse. You have a dream, don’t you? A dream to stand on the same stage as Maru. You’re going to endure everything for the sake of that. You might feel rather tragic right now, but you’ll be able to stand up straight in front of Maru without feeling embarrassed once enough time passes and you have grown up properly. You’ll be in a splendid relationship where you both acknowledge each other. You’ll be standing on the same level, and you’ll love each other without differences. You want that, don’t you?

An equal relationship, the ring that term brought had filled her body. Just as the rabbit said, it might be a little hard right now. However, she would be able to see Maru with more leisure and more confidence if she won against that temptation and practiced and improved herself. By then, her confidence would come back as well.

-If you want your relationship to be smooth, you’ll have to become perfect first. So that you won’t lose when compared to him.

Gaeul listened to her words. The rabbit living inside her heart sometimes made her sad by telling her sharp words, but objectively, it was all advice in the end.

Why are you looking out so much for me? - Gaeul asked her.

-I said this many times before, but allow me to say it again. I’m the one person who wishes for your happiness more than anyone in this world. Han Gaeul, you’re an adult now, aren’t you? Not a little child. Adults should learn how to look into the far future. You have to suppress your desire and receive an achievement in the future; that’s what being an adult is about. You are an adult, aren’t you?

Gaeul nodded faintly. She didn’t want to be a stubborn little child. Whether it was for her mother’s sake or for those around her, she wanted to become an independent person as soon as possible. By then, she would be able to stand up in front of everyone else with confidence.

-Yes. Preparations are good when it’s perfect. Starting off recklessly and continuing on without a plan is something that only little kids do. Gaeul, you are an adult, aren’t you? If you are an adult, you should plan ahead. You are doing really well right now. You’ve suppressed meaningless temptations and impulsive emotions, and you are focusing on what matters. You’re an adult who’s rational. Don’t be shaken. For now, just look forward. Bring back results and achievements. Who knows? Maru might fall in love with you even more. Become a capable woman and start off with a perfect love. Not something trivial and immature, but a perfect, flawless love. I don’t think that dating someone when you aren’t completely prepared is being respectful to the other party. Don’t you think so too?

Gaeul looked at her own figure reflected by the monitor. For now, it was time to focus on this. Picturing an ideal environment where she started off everything in a perfect condition made Gaeul tense her eyes.

-Yes, you should put more effort in like that. Forget about Maru for the time being.

* * *

The radio notified him that it was 7 p.m. Maru, who was inside the car that was driving at a slow speed, realized that he was almost at his destination.

“Hyung, I’ll walk from here. It’ll be difficult for you to get in there with the car.”

“I’ll give you a ride all the way. It won’t take that long.”

“It’ll be a pain to bring the car back out later. There are a lot of people since it’s the weekend. Also, the alleyway where the pojang-macha is is a one-way road, so it’s quite complex. It’ll be better for me to walk from here.”

“Really?”

Byungchan nodded and stopped the car. Maru opened the door and got off.

“I’ll come over once I park the car, so go ahead.”

“You’re coming?”

“Of course I am. The actor is doing his job, so the manager can’t leave his side.”

“You should go back and get some rest. I can get a taxi if there isn't any public transport.”

“I told you, didn’t I? It’s going to be a war of stamina from now on. You should just listen to me and let me give you a ride. Plus, I’m trying to do my work here, so I’m going to feel sad if you don’t let me do it. Are you trying to make me feel unemployed?”

Byungchan smiled and drove the car in reverse. Maru picked up his bag and entered the alleyway on his left. The street that was covered with all sorts of fancy lights disappeared from view, and he eventually came across closed shops. He moved according to the streetlights that were placed far apart. This place still smelled of sewers.

While he was walking across the asphalt, he started hearing some murmurs. A bright light that was a contrast to the dark alley, shone down on the pojang-macha in front of a shabby shop.

“Hey, new guy! Bring a Jem Ball and a tungsten focus light. Yes, the one with four lights in a row. Director, I think we should change the position of the lights in the pojang-macha a little. Like this, it’ll cast shadows on the actors’ faces.”

“Okay, go ahead.”

The staff were moving busily in and around the pojang-macha. The last time he came here, the pojang-macha was like a silent isle in the middle of the city, but right now, it was just as bustling and noisy as any other part of the city.

“Hello.”

Maru greeted producer Yoo Jayeon who was watching the lights director.

“Oh, you’re early. Did I look at the schedule wrong?”

“I came early because I finished early for the other one. There wasn’t anything to do for me.”

Maru looked at the pojang-macha. It looked different from before. The signature dropping orange curtain had been rolled up and tied at the ceiling. It seemed to have been done because it would be hard for the camera to capture the actors as the pojang-macha was a small one with just six seats. The lights installed on either side gave off some light similar to that of the streetlights, brightening up the surroundings.

“Now that I look at it like this, it looks really small. Even smaller than last time.”

“It’s not surprising with this many people around. But when we’re shooting, we’re going to have a maximum of 7 people in the set, so it doesn’t matter.”

“You took out two of the stools too.”

“I wanted to emphasize that it’s cozy.”

Jayeon approached the staff who was placing the props throughout the pojang-macha. The two steamers, the container for fishcakes, as well as the basket for boiled eggs. The interior was mostly the same as before.

“Han Maru.”

Producer Jayeon waved at him. There was a person holding a camera below the streetlight next to the pojang-macha.

“This is our stills photographer, and this is one of the main characters in the drama.”

Jayeon briefly introduced them to each other. Maru immediately greeted.

“Hello. My name is Han Maru.”

“Yes, nice to meet you. I’m Kim Joon.”

Maru shook hands with the photographer.

“Can you take a photo of him? We’re going to put it in the making film, so let’s get a single shot of him since he arrived first.”

The photographer smiled and nodded.

“Do I have to pose?” he asked as he looked at the camera lens since he had never experienced getting a stills shot.

“Just act naturally. It’s no fun if it looks too artificial.”

Maru nodded. The photographer didn’t immediately press the shutter. After a few minutes, the camera no longer bothered him. Maru picked up his script and looked around inside the pojang-macha while saying his lines. There were about 30 minutes until the appointed time.

Just then, he heard the photographer call out to him. His head turned left. He saw the photographer checking the screen on the camera.

“They turned out pretty good.”

Maru walked over to him when the photographer waved at him to come. He showed Maru the back of the camera. On the screen was a figure of himself who looked like he was muttering something while holding the script.

“I’ll shoot you a lot. I like cold images like this. Of course, I’m not saying that your impression is desolate.”

“It’s fine. I get that my eyes look nasty a lot.”

The photographer looked at him in a daze for a while before laughing out loud.

“Which one among these do you like the most?”

The photographer showed him several photos while pressing some buttons. He had shot nearly 30 photos in that short time. The composition, the colors, and the intensity of the light were all different. Maru looked at the photos and picked the one where a shadow was cast on his face because of the light from the streetlight.

“I like this one.”

“Really?”

“Yes. I’m not knowledgeable in photography, but I feel like this suits the mood of this alley quite well.”

“How about this one?”

The photographer showed him another photo. That one looked okay as well, but Maru liked the one he picked a little more.

“I like this photo better.”

“Haha, alright. I like people with clear opinions like you, Mr. Maru. I don’t like vague things.”

The photographer started walking around again with the camera in hand. Maru looked at him for a while before moving his eyes onto his script.

Chapter 706

Maru sat down on the chair given to him by the staff. When he was part-timing as a background actor, the shade and the uneven ground was his shelter, so it did feel like his treatment had changed. When he was a supporting actor, he could sit down on a chair, but he had to find his own.

The preparations were almost done at the set, and the staff was mostly waiting for the actors.

As he was looking at his script, he saw a motorbike coming near. The man got off the motorbike after parking it against the wall before taking his helmet off.

“You’re here,” Maru greeted as he stood up.

Ganghwan came over with a faint smile as he rustled his hair.

“It feels really strange to be doing something outdoors.”

“You should get used to it. You’re the main character of this drama.”

Ganghwan brought a chair and sat next to him.

“Where are the rest?”

“Yuna should be here soon. Mira-noona and Byungjae-hyung will be a little late since their scene isn’t until later.”

“I can’t get used to things like this. I mean, the main characters arriving at different times and shooting separately.”

“It’s not a play after all. Also, don’t you need to go through makeup?”

“I do.”

Ganghwan went over to where the makeup artist was. As he was supposed to be a writer living alone in a shanty town, it didn’t seem like it would take a long time. After watching Ganghwan getting his makeup done for a while, Maru found a white sedan slowly entering the premises. As the alley was narrow and had become even narrower thanks to the various vehicles of the staff, it wasn’t able to come that far. Yuna got out of that car after it stopped in front of a small building. She started running over.

“You’ll fall over. We haven’t started yet, so take it slow.”

“But I feel nervous when I see you all together like this.”

“You can’t feel nervous already. We haven’t even started the shoot yet,” Maru said as he looked at the car that was turned off.

“Wasn’t it hard getting here? It should’ve taken ages since it’s the weekend.”

Yuna sighed.

“I might as well have walked. We tried to come into this alleyway from the main street, but a fight broke out in front of us. It suddenly turned into a fight between two groups, causing total chaos. I was going to get off and walk here, but mom said it’s dangerous and told me to stay.”

“You did well to do that. If you got off and got injured or anything, it would be very troublesome. Is your mother over there?”

“Yes. I told her that she doesn’t have to come, but she told me she wanted to give me a ride.”

“She’s sending her daughter to a shoot that’s done late at night. I’m sure she must be worried.”

Maru saw that white sedan for the first time when he went to the audition for ‘Apgu’. That day, Bitna was in the passenger seat, but today, it was Yuna instead. Both sisters were debuting on TV. It seemed that their mother’s business senses were exceptional. Yuna’s mother got out of the car. She, wearing casual clothes, walked over to where Yuna was.

“Hello,” Maru greeted first.

After Yuna’s mother looked at him for a while, she smiled back at him.

“I did see you quite frequently during Apgu, but this is our first time talking like this, isn’t it?”

“Yes. Is Bitna doing well?”

“Of course. I’m troubled because she’s doing a little too well. How can she be so mature? I’m her mother, but I feel like there’s nothing I can do for her. On the other hand, our Yuna is an airhead and is a little too cautious with things, so I have to watch her nervously whenever she does something,” Yuna’s mother answered with a smile.

Yuna became startled and tried to push her mother away. Just from looking at her back, Maru could imagine what kind of expression was on her face right now.

“You don’t have to be so polite with me.”

“Then shall I? We might see each other often in the future.”

“Yes.”

After smiling, Yuna’s mother spoke again as though she thought of something,

“Now that I think about it, did you meet Yuna a little while ago? Bitna told me that Yuna wanted quite a bit to see you.”

“Mom!”

Maru could see that Yuna’s face had turned red even in the darkness.

“We did, and I heard a lot of good things from her.”

“From Yuna?”

“Yes, she’s an honest fellow, so there’s a lot to learn from her.”

“Then I guess that’s good. I was worried that she might have troubled you or something. Anyway, I hope you can take care of her from now on. She’s someone who does really well if people look out for her just a little.”

“I think so too.”

Yuna, who had been causing a ruckus on the side, eventually managed to push her mother away. Only after checking that she had walked away did Yuna sigh powerlessly.

“Sorry.”

“Don’t be. She looks like a good person. She seems cheerful too.”

“She’s way too cheerful, that’s the problem. She’s not like that around Bitna, but she always treats me like a kid.”

“It’s because you are a kid. It’s true that Bitna is a little more mature, isn’t it?”

Yuna, who looked at Maru in a daze, shut her mouth before sitting down. She looked at her script without even looking up.

“You mad?”

“I’m not. I’m just reading my script like how an adult would.”

“You know, I thought of this a while ago, but even now I think that it’s quite fun to tease you.”

“It’s not!”

When he first met her on Bitna’s introduction, he thought that she was a docile little girl, but after seeing her cry on the spot, he realized that she was someone who was honest about her emotions. She probably showed her emotions to those close to her without holding back.

“You know? It’s a good thing to be so close to your parents. There are many people who are worried because they can’t do that.”

“I know. I know about it too, but she teases me like this from time to time.”

“Pranks only work if there are people to receive it. Honestly, I don’t have the confidence to play pranks on Bitna. When I make a joke, I think she would just stare at me and ask ‘is that supposed to be funny?’ with a straight face. That’s really scary, you know?”

“Bitna is smart after all. Unlike me.”

“That’s why your mother is playing jokes on you. Just take it with a smile.”

“Fine, I get it.”

Yuna pouted as she closed the script.

“What do you get?”

Ganghwan had appeared behind them after finishing his makeup. Yuna immediately stood up and greeted him.

“Hyung-nim, don’t tease her in the future. Yuna really hates it. Okay?”

“N-no! Senior, I’m okay. Maru-seonbae is saying strange things.”

Ganghwan chuckled after seeing Yuna, who retorted immediately, for a while.

“I’m not sure what it is, but Han Maru, don’t tease her too much. You’re supposed to be looking out for her.”

“Looking out for others is supposed to be the job of the great senior, don’t you think so?”

“But I’m not a great senior though. Also, I have my hands full taking care of myself. Standing in front of the camera does really feel weird.”

Ganghwan walked over to Jayeon. Yuna glared at Maru and stayed standing up.

“Really, Gaeul-seonbae must be an angel.”

“Why is this suddenly about that?”

“She is an angel! She accepts your teasing, doesn’t she? You really are a bad person.”

“Hey, can you say that when you put your tears, snot, and even makeup all over a person’s shirt on their first meeting?”

“Th-there was no snot!”

Now, even her ears had turned red. Maru covered his mouth with his script and chuckled. He decided to stop there since she might actually get pissed if he teased her anymore.

“How is Gaeul doing these days?”

“Gaeul-seonbae?”

Yuna became calm. Maru remembered that change.

“Well, I guess she’s doing good. She comes over to the acting club once every two days because she’s busy with work, but she looks out for us whenever she does come by.”

“Looks like she’s doing well. Does she look like she’s hurt or has a problem?”

Yuna’s voice became lower.

“Gaeul-seonbae is always cheerful. That’s why the juniors like her. It didn’t look like there was a problem with her.”

“Then I guess that’s good.”

“Don’t you have any more to ask?” Yuna asked grumpily.

“You don’t like the fact that I asked you about Gaeul?”

“That’s… not it.”

Even though she said that, her eyes were on the ground. Her words and her body were moving separately. Maru no longer spoke. It looked like she hadn’t put aside her feelings yet.

“Sorry. I didn’t intend for things to go this way,” Yuna said after a long time.

“I want to have a comfortable relationship with you. We’re going to be working together for over a month from now, so it’s somewhat iffy to stay awkward all that time.”

“Yes, you’re right.”

Yuna, who flipped over her script meaninglessly, spoke again only after a long time.

“But you’re quite mean too, you know? You didn’t have to ask me that.”

“About how Gaeul is doing?”

“Yes. I’m sure you must know well since you’re dating. Even without asking me, you can call her about it too. Don’t tease me like that. It was you who told me that I’ll put away my feelings soon, wasn’t it? But it hasn't happened yet.”

After saying those words, Yuna bit her lips slightly. She then shook her head and looked like she was full of regret after realizing that she said something she shouldn’t.

Maru tapped on his script and spoke,

“I had no intention of teasing you. First, I was too short-sighted, sorry about that. I thought you were over it after seeing your expression.”

“Then why did you ask me about Gaeul-seonbae?”

“Because I really don’t know.”

“What?”

“I don’t know, so I asked you. That’s all.”

“You can call her up though.”

“Unfortunately, dear Miss Gaeul doesn’t pick up my calls.”

“Why doesn’t she pick up your calls?”

Yuna’s face was colored with a questioning light. Maru didn’t explain and kept staring at her. After looking at him for a while, Yuna became stiff like a startled cat and spoke,

“D-did you get into a fight or something? Is it because of me? Is it because of my mistake?”

Maru shook his head.

“It’s not that we fought.”

“Th-then why?”

“People need some time to themselves in life, right? I think it’s that time for her right now. That’s why I asked you. I was wondering if perhaps she was worried about something. From what you said though, it doesn’t look like that’s the case. Perhaps there’s a different reason other than time.”

Maru stood up as he stretched his arms out. Romantic relationships during studenthood usually ended with separating after a period like this. They were at an age where they had nothing to worry about in terms of relationships. Meeting and dating were easy, but separating was just as easy as well.

After getting older, there would be a lot of things to think about. People would become cautious and would think about what the other party is thinking. There were a lot of other variables at play as well. Money, time, acquaintances, and jobs. Once a relationship becomes deep, it would be hard to untangle like a pair of earphones that were stuffed inside a pocket. That was why there was a need to notify the other party when there was a need to split up. Only after telling each other clearly that they were done would they be able to untangle that earphone cord.

During studenthood though, there was nothing that bound them or restricted them. There was no need to worry about social appearances, so splitting up was always done in a vague, subconscious manner. Though, the ones who knew etiquette would still tell the other party that they should get along well in the future.

Gaeul was currently standing on a very important crossroad in her life. She joined an agency and was seeking opportunities while taking lessons with a talented person. She might be psychologically and/or physically tired. Perhaps she crossed off dating from her list of priorities after realizing that romantic relationships weren’t anything great. Regardless of her decision, Maru was willing to respect her for that and follow it. Even a snot-nosed brat knew that the future was more important than immediate relationships after all. There was also the possibility that her agency had banned her from having romantic relationships.

“Seonbae, there’s nothing wrong, is there?”

Yuna had asked nervously. It seemed that she thought that her presence might have influenced their relationship negatively. Maru put on a relaxed smile. For now, the priority was to calm her down. Just as this was an important period for Gaeul, Maru was also facing an opportunity he could not miss. Calming down his work partner and helping her focus on the drama was his priority.

“I said there’s none. We’re doing well.”

“I-if you’re curious about how Gaeul-seonbae is doing, I’ll tell you from time to time. I can do that much.”

“How much of a bad guy are you trying to make me? I won’t ask about Gaeul in the future. In fact, sorry about that. I asked you something unnecessary.”

“No, I… am really fine.”

“Thanks for the words.”

Maru shoved a script in front of Yuna’s face.

“Anyway, did you memorize the script properly?”

“The script? Of course, I hugged it in my sleep.”

“Shall we go through it once before the shoot begins?”

“That’s good for me.”

“You have to do it like it’s the real thing even while practicing. You know what I mean, right?”

“Of course, I’ll do just that,” replied Yuna who had been trembling like a scared herbivore.

Maru became relieved and opened the script again.

Chapter 707

“Do I look good?” Ganghwan asked.

The apron he was wearing, which had udon broth splattered here and there, was from the owner of the pojang-macha himself. The navy-blue jersey was apparently Ganghwan’s own. It seemed like there were no sponsored items or anything.

“It suits you. But do you know how to cook? You’re going to have to use a lot of tools during the shoot.”

As soon as Maru said those words, Ganghwan put a ladle in between his fingers and spun it around.

“You shouldn’t underestimate a single man living by himself.”

“But is there anything to cook?” Yuna asked.

As the main menu of the pojang-macha only included udon, dumplings, and soondae, it didn’t seem like there would be a lot of cooking scenes. At most, Ganghwan would just have to put the already-cooked food onto the plates.

Maru looked behind him. The staff surrounding the pojang-macha were all looking at producer Jayeon. She, who was sitting in front of the monitor, was staring holes into a paper in her palm. It was probably the order of contents that she wrote down.

Jayeon stood up. It looked like she was about to begin.

“I’m sorry to say this before we start, but it’s gonna be tight. Be prepared, actor Yang.”

“Yes, yes, director. This is your debut piece, so you should try your best.”

Ganghwan joked around.

“It’ll be quite hard since there will be eating scenes in it. You’re going to have to keep eating until we get a proper cut, so if you feel sick or anything, just put a little in your mouth and continue chewing. I’ll place a trash can next to you, so if you really feel like you can’t do it, you can spit it out.”

Yuna smiled brightly and replied ‘yes’. Maru inwardly sighed. During his shoot of Apgu, there was a scene where all of the minor actors ate boiled chicken soup. People ate the chicken happily during the first shoot, but eventually, they looked like they were chewing on rubber. Maru was the same. There was nothing scarier than repeatedly acting out an eating scene.

“Good, let’s have a go then.”

Jayeon returned to the monitor.

* * *

“That’s two udon for you. Enjoy yourselves. Tell me if you want more.”

Yuna accepted the bowl with both of her hands. She looked at the bowl of udon that was steaming before smelling it. It was a fragrance that made her stomach feel warm. She maintained the smile that crept onto her face before putting some noodles inside her mouth with her chopsticks. The elastic noodles snapped just perfectly and added to the chewiness. The udon was delicious to the point that she didn’t need to exaggerate that it was delicious. It should suffice if she just showed the camera what she felt like right now.

She picked up her spoon and took a spoonful of the broth before blowing on it. From the way there was no cut sound, it seemed to be going well. Was she doing rather well for her first shoot? Just as she thought that and was about to drink the broth, she heard the cut sound which broke her immersion. Following that, she heard footsteps approaching the pojang-macha.

“Yuna.”

“Yes?”

“You’re eating way too blandly.”

“Eh? Me?”

“Look.”

Jayeon picked up some strands of noodles with the chopsticks. She put them inside her mouth with a faint smile on her face before she started chewing. What seemed to be the problem? Yuna kept observing Jayeon before she widened her eyes. The way she chewed looked way too haughty. Her lips were sealed as though it was zipped up, and the movement of her jaws was way too small. Compared to that, her head was nodding way too exaggeratedly.

“Was that how I ate?”

“Wanna look?” Jayeon said as she pointed at the monitor.

Yuna shook her head.

“You’re trying to eat way too prettily. Well, yes, if you’re on a date in a nice restaurant with a romantic atmosphere, then sure, I can take that. You would look around to take in the mood, admire the fragrance, and evaluate the food while nodding. But this place is a pojang-macha. Moreover, isn’t the character known as ‘Yoon Jihae’, that you’re acting out, supposed to be a determined girl? Or am I the only one thinking that?”

Jayeon handed her the bowl. Yuna accepted the bowl with an apologetic expression.

“I’m not telling you to exaggerate it. But you know, how would it look normally? You just need to show that. Think about how you would eat ramyun at home. I don’t think you would nod with your mouth closed like some noble lady, would you?”

“I’ll try again.”

“Yes. I like that you aren’t shrinking back on your first shoot. I also like how you’re trying to show a lot. However, I’m telling you now that that’s not enough. You have to do well, please.”

The word ‘please’ reverberated in Yuna’s mind. The bowl of udon suddenly felt heavy now. She quickly placed the bowl on the folding-out table. The pressure overwhelmed her body.

“We’ll do that again.”

Yuna shook her head and got herself together. This wasn’t the time to daze out. She thought about the director’s instructions. She needed to forget about eating prettily and act normal. But wait, were the chopsticks supposed to go in the right hand?

“Three, two, one, cue!”

Jayeon’s voice woke her up. She picked up her chopsticks as she looked at the broth that was changed out in order to renew the steam. She thought that she should smile and eat like it’s delicious. She opened her mouth moderately and put the udon in her mouth. The udon had become bloated in that short time causing the noodles to just slide down her throat before she could even chew on them. It was much worse compared to the elastic noodles of the first time, but Yuna acted as though she was impressed by the noodles and just kept eating.

“Cut!”

She heard those words when she scoped her third round of noodles. Her tension loosened up, and she let go of her chopsticks. She turned her stiff head around to the monitor. Yuna subconsciously bit the inside of her mouth. Jayeon was approaching her with the same expression as before.

“It wasn’t good, was it? I’m sorry.”

She said those words as soon as she met Jayeon in the eyes. Reality hit her. The fact that this was a shooting set and that many people’s time depended on her pressured her a lot.

“Kim Yuna.”

“Yes?”

“What are you so scared about?”

Jayeon asked her with a smile. Yuna focused on her straight upper teeth before she was startled by the hand that was placed on her shoulder.

“Are you nervous?”

“N-no.”

“Do you remember when you did your audition? I did pick you because I liked your acting, but I gave you high points because you showed yourself without hiding anything. Of course, I get that you’re having a hard time since it’s your first time shooting. I have it hard too. I honestly don’t know where I should start. I imagine that you’re the same.”

“I’m sorry.”

“No, no. It’s not something for you to apologize about, and no one here would feel pleased about your apology either. You know? I just want to see your honest acting. Right now, it feels like you’re trying to show something off. I get that you want to do well, but I want you to rein it in. Also, one more thing. Remember that there are three of you acting right now. Don’t focus on the udon so much. You don’t have to. Just be natural. Of course, I understand how hard that must be, but don’t you think actors should be able to do that?”

Yuna slowly nodded. Nothing Jayeon said was wrong. Jayeon followed on to give her more detailed instructions.

“As I said during the rehearsal, look around when you eat and exchange gazes with Maru. You didn’t realize that Maru was looking at you from the side, did you?”

Yuna honestly nodded. She was so focused on the udon that she was unable to think about other things.

“This time, try having a wider vision.”

Jayeon went back. Yuna apologized to Ganghwan and Maru in a small voice.

“Making mistakes is how you learn. Anyway, Jayeon, she became rather lenient. If it was before, she would’ve slapped you and asked if that’s all you amount to.”

Ganghwan said that while shivering. Maru agreed with those words

“It’ll become like that soon enough. She’s letting her go because this is the first shoot outside, but I think she’ll definitely say something later on.”

Hearing the two say that, she became extremely worried. When she made a dejected expression, Maru spoke to her,

“Don’t be afraid of people swearing at you. It’s normal here. Just like what hyung-nim said, everyone here learns from mistakes. What’s important is to make the director not say the same words twice. Do you remember what she said to you?”

“Yes. I remember them.”

“Try being conscious of that when you act.”

“Can I do it?”

“Well, we’ll see when the shoot starts.”

Good luck - Maru added. Yuna puffed up her cheeks before slowly loosening them. Nervousness left her face after being taut from the puffing.

“Also, don’t forget to turn your head my way after you eat some noodles.”

“Yes.”

While she gathered herself together and muttered her lines, there was another cue sign. Her lips rendezvoused with the bloated noodles. Let’s just eat comfortably - thinking that, Yuna chewed on the noodles that just fell apart. Then she picked up the bowl. She usually drank the soup from the bowl instead of using her spoon. The perfect temperature broth entered her body. The prickly air at the set felt a little softer.

When she put down the bowl, Yuna thought about the rehearsal. I should turn my head - just as she saw the side of Maru’s face, Maru also turned around. He, who had a few strands of noodles in his mouth, hurriedly slurped them down before wiping his mouth with the back of his hand. He then made an awkward smile as he looked at her.

For a brief moment, Yuna forgot that this was a shoot. Maru, who expressed his embarrassment openly with a pure face, looked nothing like the usual him. She could feel a ticklish embarrassment welling up from inside her throat. She felt like she could feel the exact same thing that Maru was feeling.

For now, she carried out all of the director’s instructions. This was an eating scene without any lines. She wondered what she had to do next. Yuna looked at her own feelings first before she looked into the character’s background. What would love be to a girl who had been living alongside poverty for a long time? What would a ‘normal date’ feel like to a girl who had been handing out leaflets during middle school and was still working four days a week even now that she was in high school?

Yuna couldn’t smile that easily. If it was the real her, she would grin helplessly, but she felt like the ‘Yoon Jihae’ in the drama wouldn’t be so relaxed. Despite that, Yuna smiled. The smile was far from a pleasant one, but she still smiled. It was a smile that was a mix of truth and lies; a mix of the drama character and her own self.

Yuna looked at Maru’s eyes for a while before turning back to her bowl. She then started eating wordlessly. She felt happy but sad at the same time. It was because of the drama background as well as her own feelings towards Maru. She thought that perhaps the character in the drama was in a similar situation to her.

“Would you like some more?” Maru asked.

This wasn’t in the script. After all, there weren’t any lines in the script. Haejoon and Jihae eat udon together at a pojang-macha - this was everything in the script.

Yuna’s thoughts raced. How should she reply? Before she could finish thinking about how she should answer, her mouth gave the answer already.

“May I?”

When her words entered her ears, Yuna thought that this was the best outcome possible. They were words that were from both Yoon Jihae, who had been living a life where she read people’s feelings all the time, as well as her own, who was having a hard time during the shoot.

“Of course. Not that it’s something I’m giving you.”

Maru asked Ganghwan for another bowl. Ganghwan made a gentle smile and scooped out a ladle of boiling broth and a handful of noodles. Seeing that whole process, Yuna felt like this pojang-macha was something real. She was also dissolving into this atmosphere. It was relaxing and comfortable.

“Good!”

The moment she heard that shout coming over from where the monitor was, Yuna felt like she had woken up from a dream. Her eyes were fixed on Maru.

“You did well there, eh?” Maru said.

Yuna felt an indescribable sense of excitement.

“How’s the udon I made? Pretty decent, isn’t it?”

“Hyung-nim, the owner of this place prepared all that, though.”

“But you know, but there’s still the taste of the hand.”

The two laughed at each other. Yuna looked at the two for a while before smiling. If she was by herself, she would have never been able to do anything. These were people who led her into the world of acting just by acting with her. She gained the confidence that she would do well.

“I thought we’d take an hour at least, but 20 minutes was all it took. At this rate, we might be able to reduce the number of shoots and save up some money for eating out, you know?” Jayeon said as she walked over.

Yuna sighed in relief when Jayeon patted her like she had done a good job. It finally felt like she had finished a cut.

“The start is good.”

The director’s voice made everyone feel pleased.

Chapter 708

The first thing that people thought of when they thought of pojang-macha would be the bustling noises from the customers. Going past that orange-colored curtain would increase the noise level by at least double. It was a place where all the emotions in life reverberated and where glasses hit each other with a clang. It was a place of complete disinterest when it came to other people making noises. It might feel desolate at first glance, but people still gained consolation from it.

Maru lightly brushed his hand over the fold-out table. This pojang-macha in the middle of the set had less of that noise. Other than the time when a drunk customer came by and complained about life to the owner, it would be very quiet. The people that came here just sat down and ate udon and paid for their meals before going off to wherever they had to go. It wasn’t like other pojang-machas where people finished off the day by spending hours here; this place was a refuge where they could rest their bodies and minds.

Maru picked up a boiled egg and looked in front of him at Ganghwan. He had turned into the owner of a pojang-macha in just one day. After the cut ended, Ganghwan kept making bowls of udon without rest and handed them to the staff when it was supposed to be a break. It was 8 p.m. There was no better time to end their starvation than now. Everyone in each department, from the youngest to the oldest members, lined up outside the pojang-macha and received bowls. Ganghwan made bowls of udon leisurely without looking like he was feeling rushed. He shook off the moisture from the noodles and put them in some hot broth before he added some spring onions, dried tofu, and dried fishcakes. His movements were very quick and without any wasted movements. He looked like he had done it for a long time. Don’t look down on a single man - he showed what he said through his actions.

Sometimes, there were people who approached the set from afar in confusion, and they were mostly the previous customers of the pojang-macha. When they asked if something happened, like there was something big happening, Ganghwan explained the situation to them in kind. Although it was supposed to be done by a staff member, Ganghwan drew the line, saying that it was his job. Ganghwan gave the customers, who looked like they were rather disappointed after listening to the circumstances, a bowl of udon They looked at Ganghwan with suspicion when they received the bowls, but when they ate a little, they would raise their thumbs up. You learned properly - these were their words.

“That was the agreement, so we can’t help it,” Jayeon said.

One of the conditions to rent this pojang-macha was to explain the situation to the customers who came by and give them food. While it couldn’t be helped while they were shooting, the pojang-macha’s owner told them that they must absolutely give food to the customers who came during break time.

“You should watch while you eat. Also, there’s no shoot tomorrow, so you can come by and be at ease.”

Ganghwan gave a bowl of udon to each of the two students that just arrived. They were the students that Maru saw when he first came here. This place was probably like the mill for the little sparrows they were.

After the untimely supper, they started preparing for the shoot again. Maru asked Ganghwan, who was washing his hands,

“When did you learn all that? Your movements looked quite experienced.”

“I came here starting the day after Jayeon, no, our director said she rented this place.”

“Here?”

“Where else? I came here and helped out so that I could learn by watching. That hyung-nim looks like a man among men on the outside, but he has an emotional side to him. He especially said that the placing of the toppings must not be done wrong several times. His wife said that he had an intricate personality, and man, I could nod to that.”

“Then you came here frequently for weeks?”

“I came here every day. I told everyone I met that the shoot starts this month, but it looks like the regulars who visit this place every now and then didn’t catch the news.”

Now that he thought about it, Ganghwan did talk to the students like they were close. He was wondering when they got so close, and this solved that question.

“Actors, please get ready,” said the assistant director while clapping.

Looking at the sky where the sun had completely set, producer Jayeon made a satisfied smile.

Maru and Yuna got out of the pojang-macha. This time, Ganghwan had to act alone. As soon as they finished cleaning up the surroundings, the shoot began. Maru flipped his script over. Both the actors and the production staff would have an easier time acting and editing if they shot in the order of the plot, but shooting environments were always rather restricting. Even in just one episode, they had to skip back and forth several times. If they were given more time, they would set the schedule accordingly, but once they started running out of time, they had to go to the future, then back to the past, and to the present again.

Right now, they were on scene 13 after having done scene 1. They had skipped over the cuts that would show the everyday lives of the various characters so that they could shoot all the scenes they had to shoot at the pojang-macha.

“Thank you for your job today too.”

Ganghwan was talking to a minor actor while chopping up some soondae. There were five minor characters talking to each other in the pojang-macha. Jayeon was smiling as she watched them. It seemed that she had taken a liking to the atmosphere.

Maru called out to Yuna who was dazing out as she looked at Ganghwan’s acting.

“Yes, seonbae.”

“You know that it’s our scene next, right? It should become easier if you think about the incidents leading up to that scene to get your emotions ready.”

Yuna nodded and opened her script. Her script was stained with highlighter pen ink.

“Should we go through the meeting part in scene 3?”

“Yes.”

Maru pictured a classroom in his mind. The surrounding noises became faint, and he eventually felt like the classroom was real. It was the masked man helping him out. The dark stage where he resided could be used in this way by changing the scenery.

He grabbed onto his consciousness which was floating among tens of thousands of thoughts and put it next to the character known as ‘Park Haejoon’. His focused consciousness started analyzing the character in depth. After tearing apart the character from all facets, he classified the parts into hundreds of elements and accepted them into his own body, practically imprisoning ‘Park Haejoon’ inside him. Acting rationally while looking at the traits of the character lying below his consciousness - this was the acting method specialized for Maru.

“How can you be so bold?” Maru spoke.

This was his first line said to ‘Yoon Jihae’, the character played by Yuna.

Park Haejoon was an average student. Number of family members, household circumstances, academic achievements, hobbies, friends, dreams. After extracting a mean or median value from every single one of them, they would represent ‘Park Haejoon’. He acted righteously from time to time, preferred not to stand out, and wanted to study well but liked playing games more. To him, who felt a sense of kinship with the ‘average joe’ in textbooks, Yoon Jihae was a mystical being that lived outside the fence of ordinariness.

Yoon Jihae was a firm girl. When the other people in the class boasted their brand-name student uniforms, she boldly boasted her second-hand one, and she always raised her hand to refuse when teachers asked who was willing to buy postage stamps from the red cross or badges from NGOs as donations. To Park Haejoon, who unwillingly took out his money because he didn’t want to stand out, that was something very bold to do.

‘Maru’ knew her household circumstances, but Park Haejoon didn’t. That was why his first line was that of admiration, envy, and respect.

“What do you mean?”

A rather gruffy reply came back. Maru, no, Park Haejoon thought of that cold answer as an expression of confidence. Compared to him, who could never say something like that in fear of ruining his relationships, she looked like a strong woman who could survive in the world by herself.

“I mean, before, when we were buying badges.”

“What about it? Are you dissatisfied because I didn’t buy one?”

“No, it’s not like that.”

“What then? What do you want to say?”

“So uh… you look really bold.”

“Are you mocking me?”

The moment he saw Yuna’s face as she said those words, Maru felt that the characters of Park Haejoon and Yoon Jihae that were within him were creaking a little. Maru raised his hand. Yuna, who was about to follow up, blinked her eyes and didn’t say anything.

“What is it, seonbae?”

“You’re doing well, but can you do that last line again?”

“The one where I ‘are you mocking me’?”

“Yeah.”

Yuna cleared her throat and said the line again. With a prickly tone of speech, her lips curled up a little. It felt a bit like she was mocking him.

“What is it? Was I strange?”

“Before that, can I ask how you interpreted this? I mean, people have their own ways.”

Yuna opened the script and spoke,

“I just said what I felt when I read this line.”

Maru nodded. There were no directions for the expression of emotions indicated by the writer for that line. It just went according to the flow.

“Was it strange?”

“If you’re sure about it, then I don’t really have anything to say to you.”

“No, say it anyway. I have to learn a lot.”

Maru scratched his eyebrows and spoke,

“You know how when you see the other lines, the writer has indicated what emotions to express and the circumstances, right?”

“Yes. At those times, I try to follow them.”

“There are times when you should change it according to the requests of the director, but most of the time, it’ll go according to how the writer wrote it. The problem is when such directions aren’t there. This is when the actors need to think about the most. While the director is in charge of everything, she won’t instruct you on everything. The director’s job is to bring out the best of each part after all. So in parts like this one, the actor needs to decide how to say the lines and how to show them to the director. If that process is smooth, the director would entrust the rest to the actor, but if there’s a disparity, the two should start tuning it together.”

“Ah, yes.”

“I’m saying this again, but this is an extremely personal opinion of mine, and I’m not telling you that your acting method is wrong, so just take it lightly. First, the background of scene 3 is the classroom, right?”

“Yes. It’s when the two first talk to each other.”

“As you know from the script, episode 1 doesn’t portray the household circumstances of the characters. But we know about it already. Park Haejoon is the epitome of being average, while Yoon Jihae is someone who feels that poverty is shameful and expresses herself as a vicious girl in order to hide it.”

Yuna flipped through the script and replied ‘yes’.

“If you say that line like how you did with just the information given in episode 1, I would say that your interpretation is good. After all, these kinds of lines are usually said with a mocking tone in a drama. It also suits the character of Yoon Jihae shown on the surface. But you are already aware of what kind of life she leads at home. Do you remember the script for episode 2? The scene where you hang up your call with your friends, who asked you to go out with them, and then started crying by yourself. Her personality might be bold on the surface, but don’t you think that Yoon Jihae is actually extremely defensive and shy on the inside? If her exterior personality was because of rebellious psychology or some sort of self-defense mechanism, then I don’t think it’ll be a bad idea to say the line how you did.”

Maru looked at Yoon Jihae’s line. Would ‘mocking’ be the only thing in her mind when Park Haejoon tells her that the shell she created for herself is cool and amazing? Rather than that, a dry rage without any sort of mocking tone would suit the line better. In order to prop up the collapsing true self, she had to put up an even stronger barrier of falseness which would increase the intensity of the line instead.

“Are you mocking me?”

Maru said the line mixed with anger and wariness. He could see Yuna flinching back a little. Maru loosened his expression and showed her the script.

“You see my line right afterwards, right?”

“Yes. Extremely flustered and apologetic, that’s what’s written above it.”

“If Yoon Jihae replied with a mocking tone, don’t you think that is overreacting?”

“That’s definitely true. Now that you mention it, cold rage might suit the flow better.”

“Of course, I might be wrong.”

“No, I’m sure you’re right. In the last part, the directions also say that Park Haejoon wants to talk to her but he could not. He could not - this always tugged on my mind and I feel like I finally understand why.”

Yuna’s eyes sparkled as she kept reading through the script. After she finished, she nodded as she accepted.

“This is what you call attention to detail, right?”

“It’s just a difference of interpretation. I might be wrong about this, so don’t believe in me too much.”

“We’ll find out when we act it out later. We’ll see which one the director likes better. But in my opinion, I think what you said is close to the answer. Ah, and here I thought I analyzed the script quite thoroughly. I was unable to connect other characters’ lines to the stage directions. I guess they don’t give you the script to just look at it.”

Yuna snorted before taking out a pen.

“Uhm, seonbae, let me write things down for a little.”

“Take it slow. I think it’ll take a while for scene 13 to end.”

“Yes. Please wait a little.”

Yuna’s hands started moving busily.

Chapter 709

Ganghwan liked acting. The first reason for that was it used the body, and the second reason was that there was no correct answer. With acting, there might be a standardized pattern, but there was never a fixed answer, allowing for all sorts of challenges. He found the world of acting way too charming since even a misinterpretation might be a trigger to view something from a different perspective.

A play had a script as well as a general direction, but the details were up to the actors. During practice, actors would have to talk to others to tune their acting and to exchange opinions, but once the play started, time would become solely their own. Even if they made a mistake, the ‘producer’ couldn’t just interrupt halfway and tell them that they did something wrong nor could their colleague actors ask the audience for forgiveness and then try the same scene again. After the starting point, there would only be the driving wheel with no access to the brakes.

“Cut!”

Ganghwan felt his heightened emotions collapsing at that sound. The background actors sitting in front of him put down their bowls and sighed. The breaks had been stepped on. This mechanism, which wasn’t present during a staged play, existed during camera acting. It was also in the most authoritative and powerful form.

Once there was a ‘cut’, everything would stop even if the actors were at the epitome of their emotions or were creating a great picture. The time when acting, which solely belongs to the actors in a stage play, would be taken over by the producer, which made Ganghwan feel extremely iffy.

“Why do you look so gruffy, hyung?”

“Dramas don’t suit me after all.”

“There you go again. You started already, so you can’t go back. There’s only going forward.”

“Just let me keep going forward then. Stop cutting in midway.”

“If I don’t cut and keep going, who would do the editing, and who would come up with the composition? Stop complaining and fix your makeup. Your hair is too down. You should also get your cheeks touched up.”

“Sweating on the stage is supposed to be natural.”

“Unfortunately, this is not a stage.”

“Then give me thick makeup so that it doesn’t get wiped away with sweat.”

“If I do that on an HD broadcast, the forums will go into an uproar, you know? They’ll ask if you’re an actor for a Beijing opera or something.”

“You just won’t lose a word, will you?”

“If I lose, it means that everything will become a mess. Get your makeup fixed and get ready for the next cut.”

Ganghwan brought his face in front of the makeup artist. After a few brushes, he returned to how he was during the beginning of the shoot. Ganghwan found the quick makeup method rather desirable. He decided to ask later.

The shoot resumed. Ganghwan spoke to the girl sitting on the left,

“Did the assistant director instruct you on anything before the start?”

“He told us to eat naturally.”

The others said the same.

“If that’s the case, you should look at each other when you eat. You all are very pretty and handsome. You should exchange numbers too. What do you think?”

Hearing that, the background actors who were supposed to be a couple became slightly embarrassed as they looked at each other. They smiled awkwardly. Ganghwan liked how they looked. At least for this moment, the expression those two showed looked really natural. He gave some advice to the others as well.

“Let’s enjoy ourselves.”

“Yes, okay.”

Just then, they got a signal from the director.

The following cut was given an okay after just two shots. Ganghwan thanked the background actors for the job.

“We’ll take a 10 minute break,” the assistant director shouted.

Ganghwan sat down inside the pojang-macha. It would be better if his role required him to move around, but since he had to stand still throughout the whole shoot, his calves were hurting.

“Why don’t you quit stage plays and continue with dramas since you’re here? I’ll definitely use you if I manage to win a mini-series or something.”

“You can do that all you want. I don’t think dramas suit me after all. There’s no sense of tension here.”

“Do you want me to bring an audience then? So that you feel like you’re being watched?”

“Will you?”

Jayeon shrugged. It was an absurd notion, so Ganghwan didn’t expect anything either.

“What do you think about those two?”

Jayeon pointed at Maru and Yuna with her chin.

“For Maru, I find him reliable since I’ve been watching him for a long time, but as for Yuna, I’m not too sure. What did you see in her that made you choose her?”

“The fact that she can become endlessly honest with herself. Also, a bit of acting skill.”

“That was your criteria? Aren’t you being too lenient because it’s your debut piece?”

“Hyung, don’t you know me? You know I despise being lenient. I actually thought about it until the end. I thought about who would fit this drama better. Actually, I didn’t pick Maru based on acting skills alone. I liked his attention to detail and his quick adaptation to the system. That’s why I gave him high marks.”

Ganghwan nodded. Jayeon was someone who prioritized cooperation ever since she was in college. She preferred team members who were slow but could walk together with the others towards the goal rather than those who were individually very good but couldn’t fit in with the rest. Of course, it wasn’t that she didn’t value their skills entirely either. She would just prefer someone with better teamwork if two people were around the same level.

“Yuna is definitely rather subpar when it comes to acting skills alone. But, she’s only in her first year of high school. It’d be rather strange to look for perfection.”

“But she made quite a lot of mistakes though.”

“That’s true. Compared to everyone else here, she’s quite lacking in terms of acting. I’m not that worried though.”

“Why?”

“I told you, Yuna is a very honest girl. I’m not sure what she was like before, but Yuna is someone who is true to her desires right now. While she sometimes tries to hide herself because of the gazes around her and holds herself back due to etiquette, fundamentally, she doesn’t hold back when it comes to projecting her emotions.”

“To me, she just looked like a shy little girl.”

“That’s because you weren’t there at the audition. Yuna doesn’t ignore her own emotions. Normally, when people are told that they’re bad, they would despair or snapback saying that it’s not true, but when it comes to Yuna, while she might feel frustrated at the fact that her skills aren’t up to par, she would not blame herself or others because of that. In fact, she asks this: what can I do to improve myself?”

“Really? She is someone with ambition.”

“Yes, hyung. She’s ambitious. I could see that she was longing for something. That’s why I brought her here. Honestly speaking, I think that the acting skills of minors are all so-so at best. If that’s the case, the things I have to look for are how they can fit in with the rest of the team and how much they can improve themselves throughout the shoot.”

Ganghwan nodded. It sounded like something like Jayeon would think. However, there was one thing she was wrong about. This was something he had to mention.

“If you still think that minors are all so-so at best, then you should scrap that mindset right now.”

He stood up and looked at Maru, who was standing afar.

* * *

Jayeon looked at the monitor with her breath abated. She could see Yuna’s face over Maru’s shoulders. Yuna, who was hesitating with chopsticks in her hand, slowly started speaking. Jayeon thought that she looked pretty okay and listened to the voice she could hear through the monitors.

“Poverty is a sin. I’m sure of it.”

She could see Yuna’s firm eyes losing strength. Yuna’s loose eyes were captured on camera. Jayeon tapped on her thigh with her finger. It was slightly lacking, but she decided to keep watching for now.

“It’s not entirely like that.”

That was Maru’s voice. Even though she couldn’t see his face, the emotions contained in his voice were very good.

Having heard that, Yuna became quiet and looked towards the udon. About 3 seconds later, Jayeon shouted cut. While the progress was smooth, she found the depth of emotions to be a little lacking. She felt like one more step would scatter a depressing light all over the screen.

“Uhm, you know.”

Before she could say anything though, Yuna raised her hand as though she was in a classroom. Jayeon looked at her in confusion.

“Can I do that in a different way this time?” Yuna asked.

She seemed filled with the desire to challenge. Jayeon looked at her for a while before looking at Maru, who stood next to her. He was smiling as though it was okay for her to trust Yuna.

“Alright. If there’s something you thought of doing, then try it out. We still have time.”

Jayeon returned to the monitor. She decided to keep the footage they shot just now. Tapes that were totally unusable or had an NG in them usually wouldn’t be numbered, but if it was decent, it would be kept for editing purposes. If the shooting schedule was strict, she would be satisfied with the footage she got just now, but they had some leisure. Moreover, an enthusiastic actress wanted to do something. As a director, she couldn’t ignore that passion.

She shouted cue and looked at the screen. This was scene 13, where the two high schoolers started taking interest in each other and telling each other about how they truly felt. The meeting between the ever-average boy and the girl who had lots of ups and downs in life would give the viewers a sense of expectation. Whether they could overcome the difference in opinion and into love or go their separate ways. In order to heighten that sense of expectation, their natures had to be shown in full in this scene. Viewers projected themselves onto attractive characters, not nobodies who just walked on the street.

Jayeon rested her chin on her hands and focused on the monitor. The order of progression was similar to before. There was no difference in how she brought out her emotions either. She wondered where Yuna would show that change. After watching for a while, Jayeon stopped breathing. Yuna’s expression crumpled miserably. She could feel the emotions strongly even when she was just looking at the monitor.

Too exaggerated - that was the first thought she had. Yuna’s acting was definitely fit to be called ‘exaggerated’. Usually, she would cut this off and start again, but for some reason, she couldn’t say anything.

It was exaggerated yet attractive. Yuna exuded the feeling of ‘look at me’, which made her unable to find the exaggerated acting bad.

Jayeon stayed quiet for five seconds before shouting cut. She stood up and walked over to the pojang-macha.

“How was it?” Yuna asked.

Even though her act had ended, Jayeon could feel a sense of sadness and rage from Yuna. She looked like she was deeply immersed in the sea of acting.

“Did you two go through that together?” Jayeon asked Maru.

Maru nodded. Jayeon looked towards Ganghwan. She needed an expert’s opinion.

“While it was exaggerated, it was something that made me want to keep watching. At least, I didn’t think about anything else while watching.”

That confirmed it. Jayeon had to think about it. After all, she was asking for his opinion, not judgment.

“Let’s finish up for now.”

“Shall we keep going like this?”

“Yeah, go on.”

Jayeon said with a smile.

Chapter 710

“Does she mean that she’s satisfied when the director said we should go on?” Yuna asked.

She had the confidence that it would work, but now that she actually finished acting, she was very worried. In the first shot, she stayed true to the script, but in the second shot, she mixed in her own interpretations. Naturally, the first one contained her interpretations as well, but it was much fainter compared to the second one.

“Rather than satisfied, I think she means that she’ll watch how it goes,” Ganghwan said.

Maru nodded. It wasn’t a ‘pass’ quite yet.

“But still, well done,” Maru consoled her.

Yuna scratched her head. Whenever she was complimented by Maru, she felt relaxed. She couldn’t help but think about his words more than the director’s. Ever since she heard that he wasn’t contacting Gaeul-seonbae, a greed that should not raise its head up kept poking its head up within her. No, no - she kept shouting inwardly several times, but when she came to, she would have written a novel in her head. A sweet and romantic one, that is.

“It’s exaggerated, but it doesn’t look overdone. I’m not sure if we should polish this or not,” Ganghwan said.

“Is there really a need to? Since the director said that she would keep watching us, I don’t think it’s entirely off the mark.”

“If it’s for play, I won’t be too sure, but this is a drama, isn’t it? I honestly don’t get whether this goes with the latest trends or not. I mean, what do I know about dramas? If the director says it’s okay, then I guess it’s okay.”

Ganghwan prepared for the next cut while washing his hands.

Yuna also tapped on her cheeks and focused. There were two things she learned from the read-through with Maru. The first was that she had to have a clear understanding of the structure of the script and the relationship between each character. The second was to not be afraid of expressing emotions. ‘If you can use your personality, then you should’ - she thought about what he said.

The assistant director gave the standby signal. After becoming conscious of the new placement of the camera, Yuna started acting. She did not restrain the emotions surging inside her and impulsively let them all out. Yuna found a common ground between Yoon Jihae, who had found a clue for change, as well as Kim Yuna, who had feelings for Han Maru and scattered them without restraint.

“On weekends, I have to go to part-time jobs. Do you think it’s any different on weekdays? I have to keep working even at home. I don’t even have time to do homework. But that’s not the case for you, is it? You have it easy, yet how can you say that poverty is not a sin in front of me? You don’t even know what it’s like.”

It felt rather curious. Even though she was acting, it didn’t feel like she was acting. The percentage of falseness in her lines was less than 1 percent. She projected her emotions through the frame known as acting. She truly felt angry and then sad. Yuna felt her nose tingling. She felt like she was about to cry, so she turned her head away to look at the pile of boiled eggs. She was in a state of acting yet not acting. She felt really complex and simultaneously, a sense of liberation. It was thanks to remembering the script that made her turn back around while holding back her tears.

She heard a cut sound. That became the trigger for the teardrops in the corner of her eyes to fall.

“What do I do? I’m so sorry, I didn’t plan on doing this.”

Her acting was over, but her emotions continued. Yuna urgently wiped the corner of her eyes with some tissue.

“Yuna.”

Jayeon had approached her.

“Yes?”

“Are you going to be okay with that?”

“With what?”

“I mean the current situation. Isn’t it hard?”

“I don’t think there’s anything like that. Please give me a second.”

Yuna sighed while trembling before raising her head. The emotions finally died down.

“The emotional consumption in that must have been immense. Are you really okay?” Jayeon seemed concerned.

Yuna nodded energetically.

“I don’t feel bad at all. In fact, I feel refreshed.”

She wasn’t lying. When the lingering emotions disappeared, she felt refreshed as though she felt a breeze of wind after a light jog. There was no residue left at all from the sadness. Jayeon looked at her for a while before speaking,

“How peculiar. Is being honest an advantage at times like this?”

“Eh?”

“Nothing. If you’re okay, then you should keep doing that in the future. When I first looked at you, I thought you were exaggerating, but if you can fit all of your acting on this level, you will create a solid character for yourself and it would look more natural instead.”

“Should I keep going like this then?”

“Yes, well done.”

The words ‘well done’ made her sigh in relief. She felt proud as though she had received a good mark on a subject that she didn’t prepare that much for. Perhaps luck was on her side.

“There is no correct answer to acting. However, if you think that something isn’t right while acting, you should definitely say so immediately. Emotions aren’t like visible wounds, so only you would know whether you’re hurt or not,” Ganghwan said.

“Yes!”

Yuna replied in joy.

‘Only I know it.’

This seemed like very important advice. Yuna relaxed her shoulders and checked on her own state. She learned from her acting school that actors needed to be able to check on their current state. She was told that she should observe not just the physical things, but the mental things as well. Thanks to that, Yuna was able to see whether she was in a good state or not quite clearly. And, according to her judgment, the current state of her mind and body were above average.

If spending too much emotion was a problem, then she should have been very emotionally tired right now, but for some reason, she felt better than normal. She felt like she had just expelled a bunch of clumped emotions, so she even wanted to maintain this current state. Her shoulders, which felt heavy from fear and pressure, no longer felt that way either. The gazes of the staff felt very distant as well. While her heart was excited, it didn’t go overboard, and she was in a state where a moderate amount of tension was perfectly mixed with the joy of working.

She liked acting. No, she liked acting together. Yuna looked at Maru’s face for a moment before staring holes into her script.

* * *

Ganghwan leaned against the wall and looked at the two kids acting. Maru was his senior when it came to acting in front of a camera at least, while Yuna had never even done a part-time job as a background actor. In terms of skill and experience, the two had a lot of differences, making him suspect that the disparity would show, but right now, he was watching the two juniors with a relaxed mind.

Maru’s acting had become much more intricate than before. If he acted like a machine doing a specific task, then he would have given the judgment that he had regressed, but his act, which maintained a standardized form but still had his nature dissolved in with it, had definitely improved compared to before. Above all, he liked the fact that Maru’s act had become closer to that of his own age. A long time ago, Maru’s act showed an incredible display of familiarity with a middle-aged man to the point that Ganghwan wondered if he was possessed.

This was especially the case when Maru helped out with his play two years ago. The bus driver act he showed back then gave Ganghwan the feeling that a real bus driver was borrowing Maru’s mouth to tell his own stories. His act was abnormally mature. While people said that exceptional actors could show an act that transcended age, the fact that a teenage boy could display the emotions of a man who was halfway through his life without any sense of awkwardness was something that made him feel worried rather than surprised.

Right now, however, Maru had lost the weight that he had before, and he had gained the cheerfulness and passion befitting his age. A mature act was definitely good, but as appearances were definitely an element of concern for actors, an act that suited one’s age was definitely necessary, and the current Maru had a perfect balance of appearance and age. While there was still a sense of maturity to him, it was just enough to make the whole thing look stable. His eyes, which looked at the very foundation of an object, combined with his not so exceptional but realistic expressivity showed a great combination, heightening the quality of his acts. Ganghwan really looked forward to what Maru would become in one year and in ten years.

Then there was Yuna. She became more and more interesting the more he watched her. Ganghwan believed that there existed a total quantity to emotions. He believed that the fact that humans couldn’t be limitlessly happy nor limitlessly sad was due to the fact that there was a limit to how much emotion a person could possess.

Actors were fundamentally emotional laborers. They had to be sad when they weren’t sad, and they had to be happy when they weren’t happy. They also had to be able to do so whenever and wherever they had to. Expressing emotions at just the right time would maximize emotional consumption. Ganghwan also spent his life lying down in stillness at home once he finished a very dynamic play. When he recovered some stamina he would start watching dramas, movies, or reading books. Only after checking that he would cry at the sad things and laugh at the funny things would he feel that his twisted inner emotions were healing.

If an actor brought out emotions without end, the well would dry up quickly and the actor would become an empty can, no longer able to do anything. Ganghwan had seen numerous people who have given up on this job because they spent more emotions than they could recover. It was a well-known fact even to ordinary civilians that actors frequently visited psychotherapists, so he thought that emotions should not be pushed out so recklessly.

Yet Yuna seemed different. The backlash of spending her emotions seemed especially little for her. She was someone who exuded an incredible amount of emotion to the point that she couldn’t hold them back even after the director gave a cut sign, yet with a bit of time, she would no longer look tired and would instead smile as though she was feeling refreshed. There was no lie in her smile. This was amazing. It was definitely outside of what Ganghwan considered to be common sense at least.

A girl who’s endlessly honest to herself - Ganghwan thought about what Jayeon said. Emotions that were brought out artificially by the actor would clash against the actor’s true emotions and erode away at their mentality. However, if someone could easily synchronize their real emotions to the artificial emotions, that fatigue would be relatively low.

Ganghwan looked at Yuna. She was huffing as though she was very angry. As she had a cute appearance, she didn’t look that scary, but her rage was something unrefined. It lingered for a long time because the anger was truly there. However, once those lingering emotions disappeared, Yuna would soon return to her usual, smiling self. It looked as though her emotional expenditure had been refilled instantly.

On one side was a boy who dug into the extreme depths into not just himself, but the characters as well, and on the other side was a girl who emphasized the character with pure, visible emotions.

What a nice pairing - Ganghwan inwardly muttered to himself as he nodded.

“I think you should press it down a little. Everything was good, but that was just a little lacking.”

“Then I’ll try changing it just a little.”

It was probably thanks to Maru that Yuna’s emotions weren’t bursting out uncontrollably and were at the level of being just a little too much. His quick thinking had reached a level where he could influence other people’s acting. This would be a useless skill against those much higher than him in acting skill, but for the current Yuna, it would be akin to treasure.

“There’s also the fact that her heart is open too.”

It was obvious just how much Yuna had opened up her heart to Maru from how she accepted Maru’s words without any doubts. There was probably more than just ‘goodwill’ in her emotions. Perhaps it was the synergy of all these elements and working with someone in the same space that allowed Yuna to bring out her full potential. If there was someone else in the place of Maru, Yuna might overdo it with her emotions.

Jayeon said that she valued Maru’s analytical skills and calmness and Yuna’s honesty. While her decision of not prioritizing acting skills was a big gamble, from the results that could be seen now… she had hit the jackpot.

“Senior, do you have anything to say?” Yuna asked while taking a break.

Ganghwan shook his head.

“No, you’re doing good. Maru, you should try to be more like her.”

Maru, who was flipping through his script on the side, frowned and spoke,

“Why do I feel a sense of defeat when I hear that from you, hyung-nim?”

“Because I’m good, and you’re not.”

“Man, I miss Geunsoo hyung-nim.”

“You know, he and I aren’t that different when it comes to being a lunatic.”

“But at least he doesn’t boast like you do.”

Maru chuckled. Ganghwan also agreed, saying ‘that’s true’, with a smile.

Chapter 711

“That’s not what I mean.”

“Then what do you mean?”

“I-I just wanted to tell you that you are amazing. I definitely didn’t plan on mocking you.”

“But it sounded like you were mocking me.”

Yuna’s eyes looked like they were spitting out fire. Maru raised his concentration. The wave of emotions that Yuna showed was not the shallow one that started off near the beaches, but a giant one that started in the deep sea. If he got swept up, he would lose his balance and would become busy trying to pour out his acts in a busy manner. In order to not let that happen, Maru had to adjust the speed himself. Since she changed her way of acting on such short notice, Yuna probably couldn’t control herself fully. He had to provide her with a guideline to lead her bloated emotions down the right path. He prioritized that for the moment.

He slowly guided her with the experience he had gained from coaching his juniors at the acting club, but as Yuna’s pure breadth of emotions was too wide, Maru’s own mental consumption was considerable as well.

He had to control his own acting while observing himself through an objective eye, and at the same time, he had to watch out for Yuna’s expressions and body language in order to decide on the overall pacing of the scene.

-I think we should bring her out a little more here.

The masked man had spoken. Maru quickly checked if the masked man’s advice was suitable or not before taking action. The times when he didn’t have a line and used just his emotions to act was the time he discussed with the masked man. Controlling himself perfectly consumed too much energy, and it was impossible to look after Yuna as well with just his own power. In that sense, the masked man’s advice was precise and clear. Maru thought that he was above him in the facet of acting by several levels.

-To put it simply, this lady has a really deep well. If given the opportunity, she might be able to cry all day or laugh all day. Of course, she’s a person as well, so she should eventually tire herself out, but as long as she is given enough rest from time to time, she will recover incredibly quickly. People’s talents are really different and come in all sorts of forms. It’s just a matter of whether they can discover it and use it properly.

Maru agreed with those words. If he himself acted like Yuna did, he would have a hard time digesting just one scene. Maximizing one’s emotions all the time wasn’t something easy. Even athletes with the biggest lung capacity were bound to run out of energy if they kept sprinting, yet Yuna kept running like a person with three or four lungs. As envious as Maru was, he didn’t long for such a talent. It was a talent that did not suit his acting methods. Yuna probably didn’t take any damage to her own emotions, even if she amplified the emotions of the character like a balloon, because she was someone who could be extremely honest with herself. That was something he couldn’t imitate, so there was no need to be greedy for something like that.

“I didn’t… mean to mock you.”

He split up his line so that Yuna could find the right speed. While Yuna acted like an onrush of waves, she wasn’t just spending emotions without reason. She was quick to catch on when Maru gave her the hints. Yuna took a breather before continuing her line.

“Okay, fine. I get it.”

Yuna started taking back the overflowing emotions. It was at that time that Ganghwan gave them a bowl of udon to continue the situation. Maru was inwardly very impressed. Ganghwan, who received the act at just the right time, when the emotional depth was just the right, was definitely one of the best actors.

“It’s hot, so be careful.”

“Thank you,” Maru said first.

Following the script, Yuna spoke a moment later. A script would never indicate when to speak or take action. Hurriedly, urgently, leisurely, slowly - words like these that indicated the speed would show up from time to time, but it was up to the actor to decide how long he or she should take to do one line or one action. Even a simple conversation would feel incredibly different according to how much time they put in between the lines. Ganghwan went over to the next act before Yuna sidetracked. If he was just a little quicker, Yuna would have stood out from the scene with her remnant emotions, and if he was too late, it would have been awkward and the director would have jumped in.

“Thank you,” Yuna replied as she looked at the bowl of udon.

Ever since she no longer restrained her emotions and instead started to project them, her expressions became really plentiful. Even now, her face melted down from a frosty one to a faintly happy one. Maru made a faint smile. While it was the smile belonging to the ‘Park Haejoon’ in the story, it was also ‘Han Maru’s’ honest emotions towards the junior that followed without getting tired.

“Cut, okay! Let’s flip the camera around and do that one again. The mood is good, so please hurry up.”

Jayeon’s voice could be heard. Yuna put down her chopsticks while relaxing her shoulders.

“Is it hard?” Maru asked.

She nodded.

“I think this is the first time I’ve been so focused. I’m even more nervous than when I was doing a play.”

“There are a lot of eyes on us. The camera lens especially exudes quite a big pressure.”

“Yeah. I feel really iffy because it feels like a giant eye is staring at me, and I can’t entirely be unconscious of it either.”

“I feel like my soul is being sucked out too,” Ganghwan said as he sat down on the plastic chair. While he was someone who was used to people’s eyes on him, it seemed that the stiff ‘gaze’ of the camera was something he had not gotten used to yet.

“You should cause some NGs. I want to rest a little too,” Ganghwan said while stretching his arms out.

Maru looked at the camera which was now placed on his right. As this scene was going to be taken from the side, Ganghwan wouldn’t be in the scene.

“If you’re ready, let’s start right away.”

Jayeon clapped and asked everyone to move quickly. It seemed that she didn’t want the atmosphere to relax. Maru took a glance at the camera director standing next to him before he immersed himself in acting. He got his emotions together and reminded himself of the nature of the character that he analyzed and grabbed the bowl with both of his hands. There was no need to say that he was ready. Jayeon was very good at discerning the state of the actors.

“Three, two, one… cue.”

Maru picked up his chopsticks and ate some noodles. As he pushed the udon into his mouth with slightly hurried movements, he looked towards the side. Yuna, who was not in the camera angle, was using her chopsticks on an empty bowl. She was probably practicing in order to help him out.

He met eyes with Yuna as well as Ganghwan who was yawning right in front of him. This was the difference between acting in front of a camera and acting on a stage. In a play, all the actors would have their concentration up at every moment while they were on the limited space known as the stage, but in front of a camera, there were cases where only the actor in the camera frame was focusing on acting.

It would be a lot easier for the actors if the other actors around them set the mood up for them, but continuously doing that was practically impossible. While plays had a limited run time of one or two hours, the same wasn’t true for dramas. A drama shoot would continue late into the night if they couldn’t digest their full schedule. Not to mention the staff, the actors had to save up energy, so actors who weren’t even in the camera frame could not possibly act with passion. They had to do their own acting regardless of whether the others were yawning or using chopsticks in empty air.

Before tasting the sweetness of first love, what would Park Haejoon’s state be like? Among the core elements that made up Park Haejoon, Maru brought out ‘nervousness’ and ‘worry’. By nature, the character known as Park Haejoon could not be enthusiastic towards women even if it was a girl from his class. What would he feel when he looked at a classmate acting really cold towards him? It definitely wouldn’t be something like pity. Park Haejoon was an awkward boy who couldn’t even go that far.

A sense of excitement towards the unknown as well as a bit of admiration. It was probably at that level for now. As the word love was unfamiliar to him, he would always act cautious and be ready to run away at any time, but in a corner of his heart, he would have tiny hopes while continuing to just eat the udon quietly without stopping the distance from getting further.

His brain reached the conclusion of the analysis instantly. The masked man talked to him, saying that he wanted to fall deep into the character, but Maru had no plans on letting the man take over. What he needed right now was a variety of experiences. It would be better if it was a first-hand experience as well. He would toss the baton over if he was in a situation that he couldn’t solve himself, but until then, he planned to have full control.

The more characters he experienced and the more acting patterns he gained, the easier it would become for him to combine various different elements to come up with something new. Even trivial acting was precious data. If he could engrave his actions into his mind, he would become even better when he came across a situation where he played a similar character.

He picked up his bowl and drank the broth. The camera standing two meters away from him caught his eyes, but his consciousness erased the camera calmly. In a state of complete self-understanding, he even had the space around him under the domain of his consciousness. It felt like the ‘camera’ that looked at Han Maru, the individual, had fallen back to capture everything around. The objects in his vision didn’t disappear into the depths of short-term memory but remained in his mind as though he had memorized them. This increased his fatigue, but it definitely helped him out with the details.

The moment he put down the bowl, Maru heaved out a deep breath. He had put a surprising amount of focus into that act. He felt like the stage where the masked man was, had popped out into real life. He gained the strange confidence that he would be able to do anything in this space. If given enough time, he might be able to find out what his partnering actor would want him to do.

This would be useless when he acted by himself, but if synchronization with the partner was important, he felt like he could get some use out of it. If he could discern the partnering actor’s advantages and disadvantages and then adapt real-time, he himself would become better as well. Not to mention, he would be able to go home early.

“Seonbae, are you hot?” Yuna asked as she gave him some napkins.

Maru accepted the napkins and wiped his forehead. He had sweated quite a bit.

“It’s not that hot. Yuna, is my makeup okay?”

“Yes. Nothing smudged.”

Maru shook his hair off slightly before picking up his script. He compared the things he wrote down about the character beforehand as well as the things he felt while acting and started tuning it. The character kept generating new information as he continued acting with the other actors. Although the character had a set frame thanks to the script and the scenario, they were never static. If the actors became lazy and took their eyes off the character, they would eventually find themselves in a situation where they were the ones acting, but also the ones finding themselves to be awkward. The reason even the best actors sometimes got caught up in an ‘unskilled actor’ controversy was not because they lacked skill, but because they had become complacent after getting used to the character.

In order to not make such mistakes, actors could not relax their tension. The only time they could let their guards down and rest is at the end-of-series party.

But where did he hear about all this? Maru found the thoughts that came to his mind curious. These thoughts were something he had never learned or heard of before, but they still naturally came to his mind as though he had learned them already.

Maru sought the masked man.

Did the masked man tell him that while he wasn’t conscious of it?

The masked man did not answer. Instead, there was laughter that sounded like air escaping a vent. To Maru, the laughter seemed to contain a vow to never have hopes again.

Chapter 712

Koo Ando was the president of the film production club. Last year, the film production club was closer to being a film appreciation club, but ever since Kang Sora entered as a new member, they changed lanes. The scene of the members eating snacks in the clubroom had disappeared, and they were now a club where they passionately put their efforts into creating a film even over the weekend.

It was a little bit of a pity that he could no longer see the cozy film production club of before, but he didn’t regret it because seeing the film production club trying their best to make a film wasn’t so bad. The clubroom had become a lot more bustling than before, and their activity was at an all-time high. The club was colored in a different color from before, and it would become a magnificent memory for the members in the future.

At least that was what he thought until this morning. He smiled in satisfaction as he looked at the photo that they shot with everyone in it on the last day of shooting ‘Classroom’. He thought that the experience was really fun and worthwhile.

“Seonbae. I don’t think this is right.”

Ando felt his lips twitching. This junior had barged into his house at 10 a.m. in the morning on a Sunday and had managed to buy his parents’ goodwill with her smile. He could see the members of the film production club and some of the acting club smiling on his phone screen. To hell with good memories. It had only been two months, but his brain had already started beautifying those events. He remembered the hard times when he had been pushed around here and there and had no days to rest because of the tight schedule that the film director had set up. It wasn’t that he was dissatisfied with everything. There definitely were moments of glee, happiness, and pride. The problem was that 80% of the time, it was exhausting.

“Are these all the clothes you have?”

His brain, which had been slowly beautifying those moments, was currently reminding him of the pains and was shouting at him to get out of this place as soon as possible. Ando glanced at the door. This was his room, and he didn’t know why he couldn’t act, but he felt like he would feel really happy if he could leave this place.

Just then, the door opened 3 seconds after a knocking sound. The one who opened the door was his mother. Ando blinked in confusion. His mother, who had never learned to knock during his lifetime, had quietly knocked and even took out the pretty plates that she never used and had placed them at the top of the cupboard to bring some fruits and snacks.

“Ma’am, you don’t have to do this.”

Sora, who was just going hard on him about how he didn’t have any decent clothes to wear to the award ceremony, had changed her personality and approached his mother. It was that smile. It was that evil smile that made his mother say ‘what a polite girl’ and ‘you should come over more frequently’ within 3 minutes even though a complete stranger had barged in on a Sunday at 10 a.m. This junior shouldn’t have played the role of the director. She should have been an actress. Her act could probably sweep all the acting awards out there.

“Sora, was it?”

“Yes, ma’am.”

“Is it true that my child is getting an award?”

“Of course. Ando-seonbae was the camera director.”

“Director?”

“Yes. It’s not a small prize that the school gives you; it is something that’s given by Seoul’s City Hall itself. And the grand prize that we’re getting is something that is given after a decision made by experts in many different areas so it has a completely different meaning.”

“That’s amazing.”

“It is. If it wasn’t for him, we wouldn’t have been able to get the grand prize. He really worked hard after all. Other people were impressed by his efforts and did their best too.”

Ando felt rather queasy about his mother’s eyes. She was clasping her hands and nodding as though she had finally realized her son’s true worth. He couldn’t possibly say that he did everything on the girl’s orders and that everything she was saying was an exaggeration. The only thing he could do was to avoid her gaze with an awkward smile on his face.

“I was wondering what was happening when he kept coming back from school late at night. So he was shooting a film.”

“Didn’t he tell you about it?”

“Do you think boys would tell me things like that? Before, he would tell me about bugs he saw at school in excitement too.”

“That just goes to show that he grew up and became a man. I mean, he’s quite reliable, isn’t he? You must feel proud.”

There had to be someplace to hide in his house… If possible, Ando wanted to break the window next to his bed like a scene from an espionage movie and leave this place. If his house was not on the 5th floor, and if his window didn’t have anti-theft fences, he might have tried.

“Then take your time here.”

“I want to do that too, but today’s the award ceremony.”

“Ah, right. You said you were here to pick him up. Sora, please take care of our boy.”

“Of course, ma’am. In fact, he would take care of me. His leadership is outstanding.”

Leadership, he had heard that word used to describe him for the first time in his life today. Ando lowered his head as he listened to the mysterious ‘Mr. Koo Ando’ that was being created by the mouths of the two women. Given more time, they might even talk about how Koo Ando created heaven and earth. This girl was more than capable of doing that.

Finally, the door closed. It was a short time that wasn’t even 10 minutes long, but Ando felt exhausted. He remembered when he forgot to hang out his clothes to dry for a night and when he opened the washing machine the next day. He felt like his current state was a little like the crumpled clothes inside it.

“We’re going to take a photo too when we’re there, you know?”

“I can just wear this.”

Ando pointed at the t-shirt that he frequently wore to school.

“No.”

“Why?”

“Because getting a photo taken while wearing a horribly stretched-out t-shirt is bad. I guess I can’t help it. Let’s go for now.”

Sora folded the clothes that had been taken out.

“What about the clothes?”

“We will buy them outside.”

“Right now?”

“Why do you think I came here so early? The award ceremony is at 2, so we still have time. We should go to a clothing store and get some clothes before meeting up with Maru-seonbae.”

Who’s paying for it? - before he could even say those words, he saw Sora take out a credit card.

“Interest-free installment over 5 months. You can pay me back in February, when you graduate.”

Ando reached out and grabbed his t-shirt.

“I’m just going to wear this.”

However, it was a meaningless resistance. He lost strength in his hands even though all Sora did was stare at him. Ando sighed and stood up.

“Get yourself together, camera director,” Sora said as she opened the door.

* * *

Maru looked at his watch. It was 2 minutes past 12. It was the time of the appointment. He looked at the ticket barrier as he grabbed a fish cake skewer in a store inside Yeongdeungpo station. If they were coming from Suwon, they should come out from there.

We’ll be visiting some shops before we meet up with you - these were Sora’s words from when she called. Before he could ask what that was about, he could hear Ando’s stretched-out voice. Maru could picture what happened so he hung up without asking for details.

“Maru-seonbae!”

He saw Sora waving her hand as she walked out of the ticket barrier. Behind her was Ando wearing neat clothes. He always wore a t-shirt and khaki-colored pants, but he was wearing gray-toned clothes today. He had also waxed his hair.

“I knew I didn’t need to worry about you.”

Sora scanned him from top to bottom in satisfaction. He took out a suit that he bought before when he heard that he was going to an award ceremony, but he instead decided to wear a plain cardigan that looked okay to be worn in autumn since the suit looked a little too un-student-like. He did have a sweater he liked, but the weather was still too warm to wear that.

“Koo Ando, you’ve become handsome,” Maru said.

The gray shirt suited him because he was skinny. Ando rubbed his eyebrows and spoke,

“I can’t get used to this. Also, do I really need to do up all the buttons?”

He was used to wearing baggy t-shirts, so it seemed that a shirt that fit him tightly was too awkward for him. He kept touching his face as he looked at the mirror in the restaurant, and he even touched his hair from time to time, but whenever he did that, Sora scolded him to stay still. She looked like a big sister taking care of an immature little brother.

“Why don’t we have lunch and take it slow?” Sora said.

They left the station and followed Sora. She had no hesitation as though she had done her research beforehand. The place they arrived at was a well-known rice noodle restaurant.

“Both of you said you were okay with it the last time I asked, right?”

Maru nodded. He remembered how Sora asked him about this in passing. She really cared about the details as always.

They sat at a table and ordered some dishes.

“Maru-seonbae, I heard that you were shooting another drama these days, right?” Sora asked.

“It’s a mini-series. I was lucky enough to get into it.”

“You must be busy then. Don’t you have a shoot today?”

“Fortunately, there isn’t one today. Also, Ando, give it up now. If you mess up your hair, Sora will nag you about it for the rest of the day.”

Ando, who was touching his hair carefully, looked at Sora with blank eyes. Sora nodded. Ando made a bitter smile and placed his hand obediently on the table.

“I said it suits you.”

“I find it strange.”

“You should make yourself look good, you know? We live in an era where men wear makeup.”

“For celebrities, maybe. Hey, Han Maru, were you interested in things like fashion before you were an actor?”

Maru shook his head at Ando’s question. He lightly ignored Ando’s plea to side with him.

“Don’t regret it when you go to college and learn from her right now. You’ll thank her one day.”

“College is college. If I think about how six months of my salary was spent on this, I feel really sad,” Ando said as he grabbed his shirt.

Not long later, they got their food. As Maru had a lot of udon while shooting the mini-series, he groaned slightly when he saw noodles.

“Maru-seonbae.”

“What is it?”

“How many episodes is the mini-series you’re doing?”

“Four.”

“Then when do you finish your shoot?”

“It depends, but I think it will be around late October to early November.”

“Today’s the 6th of October, so you have around 3 weeks, huh? You’re shooting all four episodes in one month?”

“Usually, when it comes to mini-series, you get about 15 minutes of runtime if you shoot the whole day. But in our case, we don’t have any off-site shoots and do all our shoots in Seoul, so it will take shorter than normal. A full week of tight shooting might be able to get us 2 episodes.”

“You’re quite knowledgeable.”

“I hear about it during the shoot all the time. I just have to listen closely to find out generally about what is happening from the staff.”

“I’ve seen a drama about TV stations before, right? The actors there were treated like kings. But it looks like reality is different, huh?”

“There are actors who do get that treatment. It depends on the actor and the shooting location. But why are you asking all this?”

“Because I’m curious. Though, the most important thing I wanted to ask is whether you have time during the winter holidays.”

“Winter holidays?”

“We’re gonna shoot, of course. With Ando-seonbae too.”

Ando, who was eating the cilantro and the noodles together in delight, suddenly looked at Sora with a sour expression. His entire face seemed to be asking ‘what the heck does that mean?’.

“We can’t help it if something happens at that time, but if possible, give us some time. The scenario that Daemyung-seonbae wrote is almost complete.”

Now he understood why she asked about his schedule. Maru stirred the noodles and spoke,

“I don’t 100% plan on participating.”

“I know, but you are going to if you find it interesting, right?”

“Yep. But how is it? I mean, you should have a grasp of it if you worked on it so much.”

Sora tapped on the table and spoke,

“It’s good enough to make me confident that you’ll do it.”

“Then I guess you shouldn’t worry about it.”

Ando, who had been just listening this whole time, suddenly interrupted the conversation and asked what this was all about.

“What do you mean, what is this all about? It means that you’re going to have to work with us and the camera throughout the winter holidays.”

“Says who?”

“If you do, I’ll waive the cost for the clothes.”

Maru clearly saw that Ando had glee on his face for a brief moment. It seemed that the clothes he was wearing were pretty expensive.

“I’ll help out. I should have plenty of time.”

Whether that was acceptance of the request or the acceptance of his fate, only he knew. In any case, Ando came to a decision pretty easily.

“But what are you going to do about college, Maru-seonbae? I don’t think you did enough studying.”

“I decided on the thing I wanted to do, so I don’t plan to go to one. If I want to do so later, I will look into it then.”

“Well, that’s true. I heard that famous actors are invited by universities. Or, they just get admitted through donations.”

“That’s for the famous ones. Ando, you’re taking CSATs, right?”

The answer came from Sora instead,

“Ando-seonbae is super leisurely because he passed the non-regular admission already. Isn’t that right, seonbae?”

Ando avoided her gaze, saying that he was busy in his own way.

“No, you aren’t busy. Since we’re at it, come meet me and Daemyung-seonbae tomorrow. And come with us to scout locations.”

“Why should I?”

“Just come with us.”

Maru stared at the two quarreling before eating the slightly bloated noodles. There was an hour until the award ceremony.

Chapter 713

“Hey, why are we the only people going there?” Ando asked.

Sora, who was walking ahead, turned her head around slightly and spoke,

“Because only two people other than the director are allowed to attend. Apparently, the award ceremony is done alongside premières for some films in a theater.”

“Then you should’ve called someone else. You know, like that friend of yours who helped out or one of the actors. They should have wanted to come.”

“I did ask.”

“Really?”

“Think about it. How many people do you think are willing to spend morning till afternoon at an obviously boring award ceremony hosted by the City Hall, on a Sunday of all days?” Sora said.

If Sora hadn’t barged in in the morning, he would also have made an excuse and would not have gone to it. He got admitted to college already, so he had zero interest in spending a ‘full’ weekend. He wanted to become one with his bed.

“That’s why you were picked.”

“What about my opinion?”

“You should sacrifice yourself for the juniors at a time like this. Do you think I’m doing this because I want to?”

For someone who was unwilling to go, Sora was grinning like a child the night before a picnic. That wasn’t the kind of expression someone who was forced to go would make. Ando was very willing to nitpick with her, but after seeing Sora’s bright smile, he felt his energy draining. He sighed before looking at Maru.

“Then you were dragged here as well?”

“No, I was asked by her if I could go with her the day she got the call to come to the award ceremony.”

Someone was asked, and someone was dragged. It wasn’t probably just him that thought that the treatment was different.

Ando stared at Sora. She chuckled and fidgeted.

“Fine, I’m easy for you huh. That’s right, I’m easy…”

“Ando-seonbae. What’s good is good, isn’t it? If not for a day like this, when else would we get to go to something like an award ceremony? For Maru-seonbae, he might be able to attend the Daejong awards and things like that in the future, but this might be our last chance, you know? Or what, do you hate me that much? Do you dislike me because I nagged you to come with me since morning?”

Ando was flustered now that a smiling girl was suddenly looking dejected. He tried to look for Maru to help, but he had become distant already.

“No, it’s not like that. I was planning to go as well, but it just surprised me because you came over so suddenly.”

“What were you planning to wear if I didn’t come over?”

Sora had asked with a scolding look. Ando replied while stuttering,

“The things I usually wear… I mean, those clothes aren’t that strange, are they? They might be a little dated, but I find them comfortable.”

“The things you’re wearing now vs that stretched-out t-shirt at home. Which one do you honestly think is better?”

Ando looked at his reflection in the glass on the building next to him. When he just changed his clothes at the clothing store, he felt really embarrassed as though he had become butt-naked, but now that he was used to it, his neat hair and clothes really did look quite cool.

“I guess this one is better.”

“Then did I do well going over or not?”

“You did well… I guess?”

“Then were you in the wrong or not when you said that earlier to me?”

Probably in the wrong - he replied, feeling like he was being driven to the edge of a cliff. Sora, who looked like she was about to cry at any moment, instantly changed her expression. It was the same face she made when she was pondering over which clothes were better back at the clothing store.

“Then as an apology, you should hold the camera during the winter holidays.”

So it comes back to this - Ando sighed as he nodded.

“Looks like you should just obediently follow Sora,” said Maru, who was far ahead of them just until a few moments ago.

Maybe there wasn’t anyone on his side here - Ando thought.

“Anyway, I’m looking forward to working with you over the holidays too, seonbae,” Sora said with a smile.

For some reason, Ando thought that her teeth were really straight as he looked at her. It would be great if her personality was neat just like her teeth - he thought, but it was too late.

“I think it’s over there.”

Sora pointed. Ando followed her finger. On a building that was fully covered with glass, he saw a banner that was hung vertically. The words ‘The 1st Seoul Youth Film Festival’ were fluttering in the wind.

* * *

“We’re going to do the award ceremony after the première ends, and you just have to come down these stairs. We’re going to call you by the order you’re sitting, so if the person next to you stands up, you should get ready. Also, Miss Kang Sora?”

Hearing the guide’s call, Sora raised her hand.

“Photos will be taken when the grand prize is awarded. You just have to smile without getting flustered. As for the handshakes, I’m going to tell you about the order later, so you should do it just like that.”

“Yes.”

“You can go to the bathroom during the ceremony, but it would be troublesome if it somehow coincides with your award time, so please go in advance if possible. If you take the door on the left once you are outside Cloud Hall, the place you are in right now, you’ll see a lounge immediately. We’ve prepared some snacks and tea, so you can stay there until the ceremony begins. If you sit down in the order I told you by 2:50, the ceremony will begin.”

The guide put on a faint smile.

“The people who are giving speeches today are all rather old, so it might not be any fun, but you can’t doze off because of that. There are seats for journalists on the side, so if you get your photo taken while dozing off, you might be in an internet news article. You should open your eyes as much as possible.”

Then, you can come back after resting - the guide finished her words and pointed at the door towards their left.

Maru stretched his neck lightly and stood up. The people sitting in front of him also stood up one by one and left Cloud Hall.

“There’s a lot of people,” Ando said as he left.

“There are awards for 10 categories, so there should be around 30 students from that alone,” Sora said.

“Anyway, it looks like this is a newly-built building. It’s really clean.”

Maru looked at the glossy marble floor and the pure-white walls. There was a theater that took up the 1st and 2nd floors, and from the 3rd floor upwards, there were multiplex movie theaters. The Youth Film Festival that was being held for the first time in a building that was built for film & culture businesses in mind should have some meaning.

He went inside the lounge, to which the doors were open. It was completely empty inside and seemed like it would serve a different purpose in the future. Inside, all there was, were some lights and some snacks on a table.

“Quite a lot of people came here in uniforms.”

More than half of the students that came inside were wearing student uniforms. For middle school students, almost all of them were wearing student uniforms. Perhaps their schools instructed them to.

The students were in groups of three throughout the room and they watched each other as they quietly ate the snacks. However, the silence only lasted a brief moment. The students, who came all the way here because they were mesmerized by creating the type of content known as film, immediately became close to each other and started talking about the film they shot.

“Uhm, I heard that you guys won the grand prize.”

“What did you shoot?”

In the middle of them was Sora. As the guide had mentioned that she got the grand prize in front of everyone, they all knew who she was and gathered around her. Maru slightly fell back with a paper cup in hand. Ando also sneaked his way out of the crowd.

“She must feel proud,” Ando said.

His eyes were fixed on Sora, who could be heard clearly despite being in the center of the crowd. Sora didn’t feel pressured by all the attention on her and was speaking with even more delight.

“You don’t seem to like it,” Maru noted as he sipped his drink.

“I do like it. I mean, for the first time in my life, I get to receive an award. I’ve never received an award, you know? Not even an attendance award.”

“Then why do you look so gloomy?”

“Because honestly, I didn’t do anything. She wrote the scenario, and you did the acting. But as for me, all I did was chase you guys around with a camera. I did something that anyone else could have done, so it doesn’t feel real that I’m getting a prize.”

Ando spoke as after he ate some snacks,

“Also, look at those other people. They created a film because they are full of the will to do something and have received a prize as compensation, right? But as for me, I just did what I was told to do. There was no sense of duty in me either. It just suddenly dawned on me that maybe it’s not really okay for me to be here.”

“I heard that people get emotional during graduation season, and I see that it must be true.”

“Maybe that’s why?”

Ando laughed powerlessly. Maru looked at him and spoke,

“If you’re envious of them, then why don’t you try doing it properly?”

“What?”

Ando stopped just as he was about to eat some snacks.

“You might not have had the intention to do it, but the videos you shot were really decent. Just look at Sora. Do you think she’s the kind of person who would be okay with a not-so-decent video?”

“Absolutely not.”

“Yet she still let you have the camera. If, like what you said, shooting is about chasing the actor with a camera, then there would be no reason for her to pick you to hold the camera. When it comes to work, the will to do it isn’t always the most important. Heck, it would be weird instead if you think that this is your path when you are just a beginner. No, you can call that crazy. In your eyes, everyone here might look like they have a specific purpose in life, but people aren’t that different.”

Maru raised his hand and pointed at the people chatting in front of them. Ando no longer spoke and focused on their conversation. The things he heard weren’t anything much. ‘We just shot it for fun’ and ‘we got a prize, isn’t that lucky?’ could sum up the entire conversation.

“That’s true,” Ando chuckled.

“While it might sound funny for me to give you any advice, you should look into learning about shooting videos. I’m not telling you to learn about it seriously; I’m just telling you to do it as a hobby.”

“As a hobby?”

“You don’t have anything to do since you got admitted to college already.”

“Both Sora and you, why do you think that I would have a lot of free time?”

“So, do you have anything better to do?”

“If you say it like that, I’ll get hurt, you know?”

Ando leaned on the wall before continuing,

“After we finished shooting, I suddenly got my hands on a lot of free time. We were really busy during summer, weren’t we? We met up on days when you didn’t have shoots and walked around late at night, and we even went to Sora’s house to shoot more.”

“It was the best when we walked around alleys to shoot street scenes.”

“Yeah, I thought I was going to die. I mean, you guys weren’t carrying anything, but I had to carry the camera bag, the microphone bag, and gee, don’t even mention it. I was sweating like mad, my shoulders were aching… Back then, I wanted to throw everything away and go home.”

“Yeah, you worked really hard. You deserve the prize.”

“Now that I think about it, if I don’t get the prize, no one here should,” Ando said as he flicked his chin with his fingers.

“How is it during a drama shoot? Are camera directors people who just work according to orders from the overall director?”

“There’s no way that’s true, is there? It depends on how old they are, but usually, the camera director is the one who talks to the producer the most. It is up to the producer to decide on how to shoot a scene, but it’s the camera director’s job to get the perfect picture. There are times where the two clash and delay everything.”

“So you’re saying that they aren’t just lackeys?”

“Why do you think they’re called camera ‘directors’ in the first place? Though, some places call them the cameraman.”

“So in any case, they aren’t just yesmen under the overall director, right?”

“Why, you want to go against Sora?”

“I’ll see how it goes.”

Ando tensed his eyes and looked at Sora. Perhaps feeling his gaze, Sora turned around and looked at him in confusion. Ando looked at the ceiling before putting his head down again. He didn’t seem like he had any intentions of going against her for the time being. After watching others chat for a while, Ando quietly spoke,

“I don’t have anything better to do, so should I try?”

“You should investigate it first. You haven’t fully decided that you are going to do it, have you?”

“Of course not. My dream is to become a civil servant.”

“What a nice dream.”

“People around me always said that becoming a civil servant is the best when you don’t have anything you want to do.”

“Right, civil servants are the best.”

“Or get employed in a big company.”

“That’s good too.”

After saying those words, Ando pointed at the table and spoke,

“Let’s eat all those up. Since I’m here, I’m going to get the most out of it.”

“I’ll treat you to dinner afterwards, so don’t eat too much,” Maru said as he hung his arm around Ando’s shoulder.

Chapter 714

Although it was titled the Youth Film Festival, the ones leading the ceremony were adults. Someone went up on the stage along with the host’s introduction. This man from the Ministry of Culture, who was in his fifties, cleared his throat before starting to speak. He glanced down at his speech notes from time to time and ended his words with ‘I hope you have a meaningful time’ before he ultimately went down the stairs. Maru mechanically applauded.

“Thank you for your good words. Next, we will watch one of the award-winning pieces, ‘The Reason the Boy went Home Early’.”

Maru turned his head to the left. Three students, who were sitting a little away from him, looked at the screen while exclaiming. It seemed that it was their piece that was being screened.

The lights dimmed and the screen became bright. Five minutes into the movie, people in the audience started laughing. They laughed when they saw a boy trying all sorts of methods to leave school early in order to meet the girl he liked. Comedy was something that was hard to try, so Maru gave his applause to the director, who managed to bring out comedic elements by giving a twist to what would otherwise be slightly boring, as well as the actors who acted oblivious to the whole plot. As the equipment was not up to par, the video and the sound didn’t balance that well, but when it came to ideas, it was better than any other commercial movie in the market right now. This was something that only students could make as they weren’t bound by capital and could pursue pure fun.

“Awardees, please come forward.”

As they had been told about this beforehand, there was no chaos during the moving. All the students became alert and moved sideways to fill the gap.

The award was given by a film director. No titles came to Maru’s mind when he heard that name, so he asked Ando about it. Ando listed a few titles saying that he was quite well known.

“Oh, he shot that one.”

Maru nodded when he heard a familiar title. When the three students that received the prize stood next to the director, the civil servant from the Ministry of Culture stepped up next to them. Soon, flashes burst out. The civil servant didn’t even say a word of congratulations before sitting down in the front row seats again.

“The movie was quite cheerful. I also always thought about how to leave school early when I was a student, so I quite enjoyed it because I thought that the dreams of a student were mixed into the film quite well.”

The host grabbed the microphone and proceeded with the ceremony.

“Following that, we will watch ‘I Walked the Streets’, which got a judges’ special prize. It’s a monochrome movie, so don’t panic when you don’t see any color.”

The host smiled after that and left the stage again.

The lights dimmed once again before another film was screened. Just like he said, the movie was a monochrome one. A girl who failed the CSATs and was walking the streets endlessly was all that the movie was about. The main character muttered to herself as she projected herself onto the objects she saw on the streets. Even though the plot might become boring at the slightest mistake, Maru was absorbed in the movie because her voice was very cozy yet clear. Furthermore, that was on top of the fact that people around his age could sympathize with her. The production itself was rather simple, but he exclaimed when he felt that the ways the director looked at the objects around them were so different. The daring approach of removing all the colors from a movie as well as the fact that it brought the nostalgia of monochrome movies out well made it seem like it was definitely worthy of the judges’ special prize.

Again, three students to Maru’s left stood up and walked to the stage. They were awarded the prize and took a photo as well.

The student who had the role of the director grabbed the microphone.

“I will try my best in order to get another prize like this and to become a good film man. Thank you.”

It was short, but the students here could sympathize with him. Maru could see that Sora and Ando’s eyes had changed. Perhaps the term ‘film man’ provoked them.

“Since a monochrome film is hard to come by these days, I believe that there were a lot of difficulties during the planning and the shoot. It must have been a literal challenge. I also wish to learn from your challenging mindsets.”

The host glanced at the cue sheet before speaking again,

“Before we watch the next piece, I’d like to introduce you to the person who will make this place shine today. Please give him a big round of applause.”

Maru yawned as he applauded. The owner of the center seat of the front row, which had been empty this whole time, had finally appeared. The one who entered through the door on the right was a man with a slightly balding head. The civil servant from the Ministry of Culture stood up and welcomed him. The one who made the cold-looking civil servant stand up was none other than the Mayor of Seoul.

“Mayor, please come this way.”

The host politely pointed at the center of the stage. A round of applause much louder than before spread throughout the theater.

“So there was a different main character. I thought it would be us,” Sora said in a sour voice.

The mayor glanced at the audience seats before starting to speak. He talked about something completely irrelevant to the Youth Film Festival for about three minutes before saying ‘lastly’,

“I am incredibly delighted to meet you all who will lead the film industry in the future. I believe that the people who will make the Korean film industry shine will be among the people here. Also, I thank all of the guests for your efforts in the film festival. I'd especially like to thank the person who has built this New Millennia Building a Cultural Complex, Mister…”

The mayor’s words, which sounded like it was about to end, only ended after mentioning the name of the colossal construction company. As soon as the mayor got away from the microphone. The middle-aged men and women sitting in the front row seats all stood up and got on the stage. They stood in line with the mayor at the center and went back down after being bombarded with flashes.

Maru saw the host touch his in-ear monitor. It seemed that he was given instructions to proceed with the next part.

“Following that, there will be the partial awards.”

Unlike how they were guided at the beginning, they did the main award ceremony immediately. Good Title Award, Commendation Award, Fresh Gaze Awards, etc all the prizes were handed out quickly. Presidents from god-knows-which companies gave the awards, and the students were pushed to the left like they were on a conveyor belt in a factory: they went up to the stage, took photos, and went down. The part where the director got to say a few words wasn’t there either. Some of the students even wrote down what they were going to say on the stage, but they couldn’t say a word. Maru felt pity when he saw the students return to their seats and throw away those pieces of paper. Just revealing their ambitions and getting applauded for it would give them a lot of energy. Perhaps that child might feel disgusted by the film industry and lose interest in the industry as a whole. After all, the most trivial events would trigger them to change their decisions when they’re young.

“Then, allow me to announce the grand prize for the 1st Seoul Youth Film Festival. The award will be handled by Mayor Moon Joojin.”

Maru stood up from his seat. He went around the left of the audience seats and went up to the stage. He glanced at Sora’s face a little when he came up, and her lips looked like they were full of dissatisfaction. Ando also did not hide his bored expression.

Sora went up to the front, got the prize, and did a handshake. Applause could be heard and journalists took photos. One of the journalists requested them to smile. Only then did Sora smile brightly. It was a dry and artificial smile; even an expressionless face would look better than that.

After the award ceremony, they returned to their seats. Maru saw the mayor stand up and leave first with some other people. The host at the front tried to make some jokes to refresh the atmosphere, but the eyes of the students were fixed on the back of the mayor who was leaving. Now they understood why the order of progression was changed. It was the progression team’s consideration for the mayor, who was a busy person. Their consideration for the students was probably infinitely near zero.

“Well then, we should naturally watch the movie that will decorate the end of the ceremony, right? This is the work of the students at Woosung Engineering Highschool. The title is ‘Classroom’.”

The lights slowly dimmed. Maru chuckled as he looked at the empty front row seats. Well, it is a wonder that the mayor made a visit at all for a business that doesn’t even make money.

“If it was going to be like this, they should have mailed the awards,” Sora spoke as though she found this absurd.

“At least they screened the movie. I thought it was going to end just like that with the mayor gone.”

Maru crossed his arms and looked at the screen. Watching the movie on a big screen like this should definitely feel different from seeing it on a small monitor. Even while grumbling, Sora seemed to have realized that her work was going to be screened on a big screen, and started to focus with an expectant look.

The movie screener scattered white light. A moment later, the first scene they were so familiar with came up on the screen. Maru looked at his own acts like he was monitoring. Even the acts he was satisfied with at the time would sometimes later feel flawed, and this time was no different. The way he did his gaze and expressions, the way he changed his tone of voice and breathing patterns. There were a lot of things he wanted to fix.

“We should have zoomed in a little more.”

“Yeah. Back then, it looked pretty good, but now that I’m watching it here, Maru’s expression feels too distant. Is it because of the big screen?”

“It might be like that. We should consider it the next time we shoot.”

“I’ll also keep that in mind.”

Ando and Sora, who were sitting next to him, also observed their work in detail like a professional Go player going through his match. How many people would be 100% satisfied with the work they created? - Maru suddenly had this thought. Perhaps even God clicked his tongue in disappointment after the creation of Heaven and Earth.

As they watched the movie multiple times before, their excitement soon died down. Maru turned his head around to look at the reactions of the other students. Fortunately, they were all focusing on the movie. It seemed that the leaving of the people who had no interest in film helped out with the mood making of the ceremony at least.

The film ended after showing the empty desk of the transfer student. At the same time, people started applauding. Sora and Ando looked embarrassed, but they still smiled in delight. This was the one moment when the creator could be happy with their work.

The host grabbed the mic and came forward again. It seemed like he was going to finish the ceremony. Just then, the host touched his ear before nodding towards the back of the audience seats.

“Looks like we have a really special guest here. I hope she can give good words for the filmpeople of the future.”

The host put down his microphone and made way. Maru looked at the woman taking the right staircase up the stage. She was wearing a white t-shirt and jeans. While it might look simple, the presence she gave off was never as so. The woman stood under the stage lights and took off her baseball cap. Maru’s jaws became agape as he checked that face. An unexpected figure was standing in front of the mic.

“Huh? Ahn Joohyun, it’s Ahn Joohyun!”

“Joohyun-unni! I’m a fan!”

“Noona! Wave your hand!”

Grabbing the mic, Ahn Joohyun walked over to the edge of the stage.

“Ah-ah, can you guys hear me?” Joohyun asked.

When she did, the students answered ‘yes’ with passion.

“I’ll say this before I start. The main characters of this festival aren’t the morons that left halfway through the ceremony; it’s you all. So, there’s no need to feel dejected or disappointed. In the first place, they don’t know jack shit about film. No, let me be blunt here. Those guys came here to shoot photos.”

Her words were brutal. Cloud Hall became quiet in an instant. Maru laughed when he looked at the host trying to hide in the corner. Thanks to his laugh, the stiff atmosphere broke apart. People started applauding and cheering.

“I’ll drop the polite speech with you all because I’m the older one. I watched all the movies they screened, and they were all good. I mean, of course, they’re good. You guys put so much effort into them, right?”

“Yes!”

“Don’t feel dejected because you didn’t get the grand prize. It’s just a matter of preference. Everyone here did really well. I mean it. You know me, right? I can’t sugarcoat my words.”

“I saw you swear in a magazine!”

“The F-word? Should I do it again?”

“Yes!”

“Fuck you! Tell them to go fuck themselves!”

That was the moment when the ceremony turned into a crazed party.

Chapter 715

“She’s telling people to go fuck themselves?” Park Taeho said as he pointed at Ahn Joohyun on stage.

He did expect this from the moment she went up there so boldly, but he never knew that she would start off like that. If the people who left heard what she said, they would probably feel their blood rush backwards.

“It’s not like no one knows her foul mouth,” said Lee Junmin, who stood next to him.

He was smiling in delight as he watched the whole thing unfold.

“Did you bring her here for that purpose?”

“I did want her to liven up the mood a little, but I didn’t want this much. Look at all these people.”

“I honestly feel scared when I work with her. It feels like she might fight the director at any moment.”

“She won’t bark without reason, so you don’t need to worry about that.”

“But if she does bark, she does things beyond imagination. I mean, just look at her now. I can hear everyone related to this event getting hot on their butts. The journalists are shooting photos like mad.”

Junmin put his phone against his ear. After a short call, his right-hand man, head manager Kang, entered the theater. Head manager Kang walked over to the journalists taking photos before leaving the theater with them. Taeho could easily imagine what kind of conversation would be held outside.

“Hyung-nim, it looks like you’re quite bored these days, coming to a kiddy event like this. Is it because of Maru?”

“I’ll only be able to catch fish easily if I have many fishing rods fishing at the same time. Now that he should start working, I should give him support when I can.”

“Aren’t you being a little too biased?”

“What’s so bad about being biased? Giving motivation to those who do worse will no longer work anymore. We live in a world where taking care of the good ones is hard enough. Who would want to care about those lagging behind?”

“I just feel like you’re investing too much. If you expect too much from someone who’s just starting off, you’ll be just as disappointed later. An actor’s career won’t always work out just because you support them.”

Joining a large agency would make debuting a lot easier. It would also be a lot smoother to bundle-sell them with a famous actor. They might be able to start off in a better environment than someone who joined a nameless agency, but the entertainment industry was one where it was impossible to predict the immediate future.

“Then, have I ever slipped up like that until now?” Junmin said as he looked forward.

His gaze was directed at Maru. Taeho faintly smiled and nodded. If anyone else said the same words, he would have thought that that person was being arrogant, but when it came to Junmin, he couldn’t help but accept. Junmin looked like someone who wouldn’t predict only the immediate future, but the far goal ahead of him as well, when he chose the people he decided to nurture. As he had no history of failing, the ‘possibility of failing’ might be meaningless.

“Also, he’s the last crew to board my ship.”

“Are you going to quit your job?”

“I’m only fifty, so it’s still too early to quit. However, I don’t plan on recruiting any more new actors. I’ll just make do with the people I have and turn them into stars to my satisfaction.”

“Stars to your satisfaction? If my memory serves me correctly, there’s only one person who ever fit those criteria. Moreover, that person isn’t even around anymore.”

Junmin shrugged.

“Taeho.”

“Yes, hyung-nim.”

“Do you remember what I told you when I saw you for the first time in Daehak-ro?”

Of course, I do - Taeho replied without hesitation. He was in his mid-twenties when he met Junmin while trying to sell tickets to the play that he was an actor in. He considered the words of a man in his late 30s wearing a worn-out suit absurd. You have the look of a person who will blossom soon and become successful - these words sounded like he was some cult leader.

“Back then, I thought you were just cheering for me, but ever since then, things have turned out really well for some strange reason. It’s all in the past and now it doesn’t really matter anymore, but why did you tell me such things back then? I mean, you never saw me before that.”

“The thing is, I don’t know either.”

“What?”

“I said I don’t know why I said such things either.”

Taeho thought that he was joking, but Junmin’s expression was pretty serious.

“Did something happen?”

“The reason I decided not to raise any more new recruits is one, because I want to focus on the ones I have right now, but the bigger reason is that my eyes aren’t functioning properly anymore.”

“Do you have a problem with your eyes? That’s why I told you several times to quit drinking and smok…”

“My body’s completely fine.”

“Then what’s the problem?”

Junmin stroked his chin.

“Until now, I’ve come across numerous people and selected those I saw talent in and nurtured them. But a few days ago, it suddenly came to me. What did I see in them to convince me to make them debut?”

“That’s because your eyes for people are special, so you must have seen things other people couldn’t. You’re someone who told me that I would become successful when I was just handing out leaflets.”

Junmin pulled his chin inward.

“Indeed. I had special eyes that saw special qualities in people, so I dragged in people who might seem completely unrelated to this field and had them practice. But now that I look back at it, even I don’t understand why I picked them. I looked at my interviews from before for a reason to make me accept it, but I couldn’t find anything. That’s why I thought - ah, my eyes for people are dead. The special eyes I possessed a long time ago have disappeared.”

“Are you sure you aren’t in a slump or something? You should take a few days off and have a look at the trainees again. Who knows? You might be able to regain them.”

“I did that already and nothing came to me. The only thing I could do was to pick people based on the data I’ve gained in the past. But that’s something that all moderately-decent agencies do. It’s different from what I was doing before.”

“Well, it did seem like your choices were completely based on instinct before. You didn’t even look at people’s acting and just chose them seemingly at random. Back then, I thought that maybe you had a completely different set of eyes from me.”

“I can’t do that anymore. I don’t even remember what kind of standards I had when I picked people before. I don’t even know if it’s memory loss resulting from psychotherapy, or because my special eyes disappeared with my messed-up brain returning to normal. You know what’s even funnier? I skimmed through the diaries and materials I wrote 17 years ago, and I felt like it was a completely different person writing it. The current me cannot even begin to understand what kind of thoughts I had in life back then, or what kind of confidence I had at the time when I did my work.”

Junmin smiled with a refreshed yet bitter smile. Taeho made a bitter smile as well as he looked at the legend who had zero losses against the industry, quietly declaring his retirement.

“That boy is the last product of my instincts. I’m not capable of picking new people, so I plan to invest everything I have into the people I have.”

“Hyung-nim, you never know what will happen in life. Who knows? You might regain that instinct tomorrow.”

“There are a few things I’ve come to realize as I got older, and one of them is that my intuition has rarely failed me.”

Junmin turned around.

“Are you leaving?”

“Do you plan to go up there?”

Taeho looked at Joohyun, who was talking to the students at the edge of the stage. The main character had completely taken over the stage and the audience was completely captivated by her.

“I don’t see a place for me.”

“Right? Let’s leave now and eat dinner while we’re at it. I let you go through so much effort for this, so I can’t let you starve.”

“I didn’t go through that much. In fact, it was good to see films that were produced without any strings attached. Kids these days are really amazing. They are a generation that grew up watching high-quality films, so they don’t follow the standards. Once those guys grow up and grab the megaphones, I think the movie industry of this country will change a lot.”

“Well, I wouldn’t be too sure about that.”

“Why, you don’t think so?”

“It would be great if that happens, but I question if there will come a day where actors and directors could win against the production companies and distribution companies. It might become even worse in the future, but it will definitely not be better. Businesses do not like standing out. They like being stable. The people gathered here definitely possess different qualities from the rest, but whether that will work in the market or whether the market would allow them to do so in the first place, is up to debate.”

“Did you really have to nip the buds like that? If they can’t, people like you should support them.”

Junmin, who walked towards the exit without saying anything, spoke in a small voice: that’s why I’m earning money like mad right now.

While there was a sense of loathing in his words, he sounded more reliable and credible than any hypocrite.

“I would like to shoot a deep, romantic one.”

“I can’t do that with my powers either. No matter who looks at you, you have the image of a psychopath or a warm father. Very far from feeling romantic.”

“Gee, that was a little too much. Hyung-nim, can’t you do this little brother a favor?”

Taeho smiled and caught up to Junmin.

* * *

“Why did you quit acting midway into your career and switch to commercials?”

A girl with glasses had raised her hand and asked. Maru flinched and looked at Joohyun. Having received a question, Joohyun smiled and replied,

“Should I tell you what really happened? Or what I tell the media?”

She had a smiling face, but the girl seemed to have noticed it was something serious as she hesitated a little before saying ‘the real thing’.

“Does anyone here have the dream of entering the TV or the movie industry in the future?”

Hearing Joohyun’s question, more than twenty people raised their hands.

“That’s quite a lot. Good, it’s not fun to go into the details, so let me put it simply. I was asked to serve someone, and I refused to do it.”

For a brief moment, the theater turned completely silent. The girl who asked the question especially couldn’t say anything.

“The news you see on TV from time to time, while I can’t say that they are all true, they aren’t entirely false either. There are definitely not-so-decent events happening and while there are people who manage to shake off their temptations, there are those who can’t. Don’t ask me who. You shouldn’t ask things like that.”

“Really?” another one asked.

“Whatever you do, illegal things will tempt you from all around. As there are many people who live by selling off their faces in the entertainment industry, the temptations are just usually related to your faces. Of course, it’s not as bad or as forceful as it was before. As I said, it’s a temptation. There shouldn’t be any places anymore that say ‘there’s no future for you if you don’t take this’. There’s the internet after all. But that just makes them even more secretive when they give you suggestions. They make it sound really sweet - they tell you that just once is enough. Let me tell you something because there seems to be a lot of you who want to come to this industry: don’t ever fall for their temptations. If you give in once, you will keep falling for it the second time and the third time. People's willpower and their urge to restrain isn’t really anything strong. Just once, the important thing is to endure that first time.”

“Did you not have any difficulties returning?”

The girl who asked the first question had asked another. She seemed like she wanted to become an actress as desperation could be felt in her voice.

“People’s gazes. That was the scary part. But the thing is, you know? If you don’t have bad skills, some people are bound to call for you. That’s just how the market works. Even if some company says ‘don’t use her’, there are bound to be other businesses who go ‘use her’. People who have value will not have to worry about feeding themselves. Was I too blunt with that?”

Joohyun laughed out loud. Having listened to the dark parts of the entertainment industry, the students’ faces looked stiff for a while, but they soon regained their smiles. Perhaps the shock wasn’t as big because it was a distant thing for them.

“Do you have to be good-looking to become an actor?” asked a boy.

“I also have an answer for the media and an answer not for the media.”

“I’d like an answer not for the media.”

“For men, they’re better off. But for actresses, they have to be good-looking, at least right now. That’s the truth. Should I show you proof if that’s true or not?”

Joohyun raised a finger.

“Raise your hand if you saw an ordinary-looking male actor play the role of a main character in a Korean film recently.”

The majority of the students raised their hands.

“Conversely, raise your hand if you saw an ordinary-looking actress play the role of the main character in a movie. I don’t mean minor roles, but as a main character.”

None of them raised their hands. Joohyun shrugged.

“You get what I mean, right? I’m sorry to say this, but you can improve your acting skills, but there’s a limit to what you can do for your appearance. These days, the general trend is that you will be forgiven for undergoing plastic surgery if you reveal it carefully, but there are still people who don’t like people who have had knives to their faces. As such, if you are dreaming of becoming an actress, and you think your appearances are at or below average, then I’m sorry to say this, but you won’t be able to for the time being. It would be great if actresses with character are loved in the future, but I’m not sure about the future either.”

Joohyun put the mic against her mouth.

“But still, I’d like to you to tell you to try. It might sound arrogant of me, and I can’t help it even if you call me irresponsible, but I don’t want to tell you to give up on your dreams just because of your looks. That’s because I've seen someone who could dominate everyone with her acting skills alone despite looking really ordinary.”

“Who is that?”

“There used to be an unni like that. That’s why, I’m telling you that while reality might be harsh, I believe that you can do it. Bluntly speaking, if looks decide what kind of acting you do, that would be really sad, won’t it?”

Joohyun looked at the girl who asked the question.

“It didn’t help that much since I sounded irresponsible, didn’t I?”

The girl shook her head.

“No, in fact, I want to try challenging it. I just have to do what everyone couldn’t do until now, don’t I?”

“I really like that mindset of yours. I hope we see each other on set in the future.”

Joohyun raised her thumb and smiled.

Chapter 716

“Can I ask how much you earn?”

“Isn’t it strange to ask if you can ask when you asked already?” Joohyun said as she crossed her legs.

She had come down from her chair and was sitting at the edge of the stage.

“I can’t really tell you a specific amount. Actors don’t have a fixed income. Of course, if you sign a long-term commercial ad contract, you will earn money even if you’re resting, but there aren’t that many actors in the country who will get offered something like that.”

“Aren’t you one of those few, unni?” asked a girl with side part hair.

“First up, thanks for complimenting me, and as you said, I’ve earned enough to the point that I won’t starve to death even if I don’t work immediately. Money, yes, it’s important. However, there’s no other job that has as big of a disparity between the top earners and the bottom earners, so speaking from my standards won’t help you in any way, but…”

After blurring the end of her words, Joohyun lowered her voice before speaking,

“You want to get a clear answer, right? I can’t tell you about my contract fees and guarantees because those are sensitive pieces of info, but I can tell you how much I own right now. It would be too long to list everything, so I can pick two things that make me the most money. One is properties and two is stocks.”

“What building in which area? What rank is the company you’ve invested in on the KOSPI rankings?”

Maru turned around to the side. Sora was the one asking and her eyes were shining. The concept of economics for a girl from a well-off family seemed to be more developed than her peers.

“I won’t answer that because revealing that would make me feel naked. Well, I can tell you that there’s one on Gangnam’s main street.”

“That means that you have more than that, right?”

“Probably?” Joohyun smiled and no longer spoke.

“Do you have anything else you want to ask? There are about 10 minutes until the end of the ceremony, so you guys should ask everything you want until then. However, you guys know that it would be your loss if you ask questions that aren’t beneficial for you, right? Even if you guys find out about what’s in my possession, it won’t do you any good. Ask things that can benefit you. I will answer as much as I can.”

Maru quietly raised his hand. Joohyun flicked her eyebrows upwards before pointing him out.

“What should we not do in order to become a good actor?”

“So you’re not asking what you have to do, but what you shouldn’t do, right?”

“I’ve heard a lot about how to become a good actor.”

“I see. But that was unexpected. I thought you would ask about how to get good earnings as an actor.”

“Me? I know that money is important, but I’m not so hung up on it.”

“Really? You sound different to the kid I know. I don’t know whether you had a change of heart or some sort of realization, but I will answer you anyway.”

Joohyun crossed her arms and started pondering. Sora, who sat next to him, poked him and moved her lips. Are you two close? - she seemed to be asking. Maru just shrugged.

“Things you shouldn’t do, huh. To think about it simply, you can think about the things opposite of what you should do, but that would be boring. So, let me tell you the things you would really regret based on my experience. First is, as I said before, to not fall for temptations. You will hit a lot of blocks while doing your work as an actor. You might not get any decent jobs or fail all the auditions you try before running out of them. If you are given an offer at times like that, you will feel really tempted. You should first endure that. Are you so poor that you won’t be able to continue being an actor if you don’t accept such offers? If so, then quit being an actor immediately and start working somewhere else. Anything is fine. Once time passes and you are financially better, and you still want to become an actor, then you should try again at that time. I can guarantee you that people who have gone through such experiences will see dramatic improvements in their acting. After all, what actors are capable of acting comes down to the quantity of life they’ve experienced.”

“Don’t you think it would be too late by then?” one of the students asked as she looked up at Joohyun.

“If your dream is to become an actor or an actress who’s young and is active during his or her most beautiful days, then yes, it would be too late. It is a natural desire to not want to miss the time where your beauty and body are at their peak. However, how many people do you think can debut in the role they want, when they want in this world?”

Joohyun paused a little before making a phone call. After a while, she hung up and spoke again,

“You all know who Park Taeho is, right?”

The students all nodded. Maru did the same. Was there anyone who watched movies in Korea who did not know that name?

“That senior worked for a theater until he was 28 and played a minor role in a film when he was 30 before getting his first main role. That’s probably what you guys want. From the side, it might look like he climbed the ladder without any hardships or experience being nameless. But what do you think he was like when he was young? Didn’t I tell you? The quality of your acting is decided by the life you’ve lived. The role he played in the first film he was the main character in was a murderer. He played the role of human trash who beat up his wife and son ruthlessly. That senior was freakishly good at acting that part out. That act only looked realistic because it contained his youth. He lost his mother due to domestic violence when he was young. Such terrible times filled up the majority of his youth.”

The venue became quiet. Not even a single breath could be heard. Joohyun coughed faintly.

“Actors can only make use of what they have. Just like other creators. People that don’t know him well always say that he must have god-sent talent and luck because his debut was quick and his rise to fame was fast. Yes, but we can’t entirely rule out the presence of talent. He probably survived in this competitive market where tens of thousands of people exist because he had the talent. However, talent cannot replace experience. Senior Taeho was able to show an empathetic act that also looked realistic because he had piled up sadness in a corner of his heart since he was young. He himself said those words after all. Actors need to learn how to use their hardships as fertilizers. Right now, the future might look unclear, so anything you do might feel meaningless, but the moment that experience meets the right role, you will be rewarded for it. You will feel that those hardships weren’t entirely meaningless.”

“But don’t you think that acting doesn’t necessarily require experiences and is possible to do with imitation? You can’t kill a friend in order to long for a dead friend,” a girl asked while staring holes at Joohyun.

She didn’t look like she was trying to nitpick. She looked like she was desperately waiting for an answer.

“It’s called ‘acting’, so you might be asking the question ‘can’t I just copy it off someone else?’. You can start off with imitation, yes. But if you want to keep living as an actor, you should one day realize that you have reached your limits. That limit equals your bottom line. No matter when it is, the day they see their bottom lines is the day their future is decided. There are actors who will rise to become stars, and there will be actors who will stop there. They might even quit acting altogether.”

Bottom line. Maru thought about the conversation he had with Joohyun a long time ago. She said that it was important to get to the bottom of his emotions.

“If you keep continuing your career as an actor, you will definitely gain skills in terms of acting. You are bound to become proficient and improve if you keep repeating one thing. When you just start off, smiling and walking forward might feel awkward, but you will eventually become used to it and will be able to do it without feeling awkward at all. After that continues for a while, you would think - hey? Acting isn’t anything that difficult?; or perhaps - Why don’t I get a good role when I’m doing so well? How am I failing all the auditions I’m trying?”

Joohyun held up two fingers.

“This is the second thing you must not do. It is using momentum in acting. Acting definitely has technical parts, and it might feel easy if you become proficient at it. Make this expression when you’re sad or make that expression when you’re happy. You will gain tricks and methods with time. I’m not saying that it’s a bad thing. Every actor goes through that point at least once in their career. The problem is that many people stop there. Acting, which felt awkward at first, would start to obey your will and will look natural like clothes you’ve been wearing for a long time.”

Joohyun nodded once.

“Numerous actors push themselves into environments similar to what the character goes through in order to understand their role better. There are people who even block off all sound in order to understand the world that a deaf person sees. However, you can’t say that you understood all the uncomfortable parts of being a deaf person just by doing that. In the same notion, it would be hard to experience the sadness of losing a friend. Of course, it would be a different story if murder becomes legal,” said Joohyun with a laugh.

Though, not many students laughed with her.

“Well then, what do you do now? Should you just give up since it’s something impossible and just imitate a scene that’s widely considered to be very good? No. That’s not an actor; that is an acting machine. What actors need to do is analyze the numerous indirect experiences he or she had and assimilate them by empathizing with them and understanding them to recreate the emotions necessary for the specific role they’re playing. They can’t become 1, so they have to be a 0.9 recurring that’s infinitely close to 1. The result of that is what the audience experiences as 1. An actor who can only imitate will never even become 0.9. There’s nothing inside them after all.”

The girl who asked that question sealed her lips and nodded. She looked like she was given a satisfactory answer. Joohyun smiled and continued to speak,

“For that reason, the last thing you should not do is this one thing: to be satisfied with one thing and then stopping. Being happy with little things would definitely make you live a happy life. I also wish to live with the bare minimum once I quit being an actress. However, while you still possess the occupation of an actor, you cannot stop. To an actor, a resting period is a period for them to accept new things. New things always bring tension and stress. You have to keep repeating that. Of course, even I sometimes think that I should just throw everything away and just keep doing what I was doing. As long as you are human, you can’t help becoming tired. The important thing is whether you’re being dragged by time while you’re stopped or whether you continue to change along with time. If you want to keep playing similar roles, then it’s fine to stop there. However, if it’s not like that, you must pursue challenges and change endlessly.”

She was right. It was completely in line with the views he had, so he would have been very impressed by those words. The moment he felt a sense of rejection was when he heard the words ‘challenges’ and ‘change’. His face tilted sideways and he subconsciously clicked his tongue. It was quite peculiar. Primitive emotions that ignored his reason were welling up inside him. Maru raised his hand.

“A person specializing in one thing doesn’t necessarily mean that they’re bad though, does it?”

“Generally, yes. I’m not saying that specialists are bad. I’m just saying that it doesn’t fit my ideals of acting.”

“You might lose what you already have if you take on challenges and lose the image you originally had. Is there really a need to do that?”

Maru sighed as he finished his words. He was blurting those words out subconsciously. Challenges and change. Why did he feel a sense of disgust towards the two words that he admired?

Just as Joohyun was about to speak again, the host, who had been watching quietly until now, approached her.

“Uhm, our rental time is over.”

He smiled awkwardly.

Chapter 717

“Seonbae, you aren’t angry, are you?” Sora asked.

Ando, who sat next to her, also looked at him worriedly.

“No, it’s not like that.”

Maru felt that his answer was poor. The last words he said to Joohyun were pretty aggressive. The words he said were completely contrary to what was on his mind. He felt like his mouth was beyond his control.

“I just felt so nervous as I kept talking to her. I think maybe that’s why I sounded so stiff.”

“Was that what happened? I thought you got angry or something. Your voice was really low and rough. I was worried about you for a while.”

“Sorry.”

“So someone like you becomes nervous too?”

“I’m only human. Of course I do.”

“That’s not an answer I like, but okay, let’s leave it at that. You don’t look like you want to answer. This quick-witted junior will stay quiet now.”

Sora grinned and no longer said anything.

The ceremony, which became heated along with the appearance of Joohyun, was brought to a close in an awkward fashion. The important people from the host side had left already, so it ended with the host reading the closing comments.

Students exchanged words as they left the theater. Most of them were talking about Joohyun. As she left a deep impression, she would probably continue to be their conversation topic.

“Let’s leave too. Oh, who’s going to take the plaque?” Sora asked as she held up the plaque.

“Don’t you think placing it in the clubroom is the best option?” Ando said.

When Sora glanced at him and said that she wanted to bring it home, Ando quickly took the plaque away from her. Sora pouted.

“I can’t make a joke, can I?”

“You sound serious when you say things like that.”

“Fine. I’ll make do with taking a photo of it and taking that home. Oh, apparently, the prize money is going to come into my account. I hope we get it early.”

Sora hummed and walked forward. Ando shook his head and followed her.

As Maru was walking, he thought back to the recent conversation he had with Joohyun. Her advice all came from her own experiences. Even people with different ideals would respect her for her values, not be angry with her. The more he thought about it, the more confused he became. Why did he snap out at her when he had similar ideals as her?

There was a need to look back at his thought process. He should be able to approach the essence of this problem if he thought about which part his reason was unable to retain control of himself. At first, he had definitely accepted her words and was even impressed by them. The part that changed him was as he had expected, when he heard the words ‘challenge’ and ‘adventure’. He became more confused. Why did he react so sensitively to the two words that he liked quite a lot?

As he was pondering, he got a call. He looked at Sora and Ando before taking the call.

-It’s been a while since we last met, so let’s have a meal together. Come with your friends.

It was from Joohyun.

* * *

“I’m not dreaming, am I?” Sora said as she sat down.

When he said that Joohyun invited them to a meal, Sora and Ando told him not to lie. Maru gave them the phone while he was still on call with Joohyun, and having listened to Joohyun’s voice, the two people came to the restaurant in disbelief and in a daze.

“I’ve only seen this in movies,” Ando said as he slowly rotated the circular table.

Sora also agreed and started rotating the table. When an employee came in with a bottle of water and some cups, the two people flinched and grabbed the table to stop it from spinning.

When the employee, who was wearing a Chinese dress, was placing the cups down, the door opened and Joohyun came in.

“Oh, the food isn’t here yet. Will it come out soon?”

“Yes. I will prepare them for eating immediately.”

The employee quietly closed the door and left.

“Oh, you’re the girl who asked me where the building I owned was,” Joohyun said with a smile to Sora, who was sitting opposite to her.

Having met Joohyun up close, Sora hid her usual cheeky side and just smiled. Maru didn’t know if she was probing Joohyun out or whether she was really feeling shy.

Joohyun asked for the two’s names. Ando and Sora introduced themselves.

“Kang Sora, Koo Ando. I have a pretty good memory, so don’t forget to greet me the next time you see me. But man, I’m so hungry after not eating anything since morning. Moreover, I talked so much, so I’m running low on energy.”

“Was that event in your schedule from the beginning?” Maru asked.

Joohyun shook her head as she placed her cup against her mouth.

“Originally, senior Taeho was the one to do it, but somehow, I ended up going there. That senior is really sneaky. He tossed something so hard to me and left by himself. If I think about it carefully though, I feel like I was fooled by your president into doing this, not him.”

“The president is here?”

“He came to the ceremony. Seems like he took quite an interest.”

“Looks like it was pretty meaningful then. Or maybe he was here to do business.”

“In my opinion, I felt like he came here to see you.”

“Me?” Maru questioned as he wiped his hand with a wet towel.

He wasn’t notified of anything like this beforehand. Just then, they got their food. It was pine nut porridge as an appetizer and some warm tea.

“Should we talk after we eat? You guys should eat a lot. If you want more, tell me anytime,” Joohyun said.

When they finished about half of the porridge, other dishes were placed on the table. While Joohyun said they should ask for more if they wanted to, there was an endless stream of dishes. When the pieces of pineapple came out as dessert, Sora, who had a great appetite, gave up on finishing the meal. The course meal was just that plentiful.

“That’s a lot better,” Joohyun said as she put down the teacup.

Maru also stroked his stomach. Although he would usually finish a meal given to him for free, he decided to leave some behind for today.

“I can’t keep occupying busy people here. Shall we go?”

Joohyun stood up first. Sora looked like she wanted to talk more, but she left after reading the mood.

Just as Maru was about to follow Ando out, Joohyun called out to him and waved at him. Maru told Ando and Sora, who were outside the room, to leave the restaurant first.

“What is it?”

“I’m not someone who likes leaving things on an awkward note.”

Maru could imagine what Joohyun had to say.

“You’re talking about what happened at the theater, right?”

“Yeah. You being cynical is not that rare, so I didn’t really care, but back then it was a bit different. It even made me wonder if I did something wrong to you.”

Maru apologized first. He wanted to explain why he became so emotional, but he couldn’t make others understand when he himself didn’t have a clear understanding.

“You didn’t know why you did that? I’m rather confused because that doesn’t sound like you.”

“You tell me. I don’t even know why I felt so angry back there. There was nothing in the things that you said that made me angry, but for some reason, anger got the better of me. I did think about filtering my words calmly, but my mouth didn’t follow my intentions. I was in a fix too.”

“Are you tired lately? I heard your president mention that you’re doing two dramas at once.”

“The schedule isn’t that tight, so I’m not that tired. No, wait, I guess I don’t really know about that. Perhaps I’m too tired to the point that I can’t judge my own condition properly.”

“It’s not easy to work while going to school. Most people take time off classes and take remedial ones later, but it doesn’t look like you’re doing that. Also, Bangjoo told me that you’re looking after the acting club quite a lot these days.”

“I felt like I was too detached when I was in my 2nd year. I should at least act like a senior.”

“If it’s like that, I guess it isn’t strange for you to be exhausted mentally, even if you aren’t tired physically. I’m not that worried since it’s you we’re talking about, but don’t miss the danger signals that your body is giving off. Just because you’re young doesn’t mean that illnesses will purposely avoid you.”

“Yes, I’ll keep that in mind.”

Joohyun smiled faintly.

“Was I being too nosy? I’m not sure if it’s because of Bangjoo, but I feel like you’re a little brother of mine. Bangjoo is the immature little brother, while you’re the reliable one.”

“Please treat me like that in the future too. Teach me a lot, and treat me to a lot of good food.”

Joohyun approached him and patted him on the head before leaving. Maru faintly smiled and touched his hair. Even in terms of actual age, he was the little brother, so there should be nothing that awkward, but he felt strange for some reason. He felt like he was consoled by someone much younger than him.

-She’s a good person. There shouldn’t be that many people who look out for others so much just because they’re indebted.

The masked man, who had been silent until now, had spoken. Maru inwardly spoke: is it because of you that I said all those words regardless of my intentions?

-If I had the power to do that, I would act like a villain from a movie and do all sorts of things in an attempt to take over your body. From how such cliché things didn’t happen, it proves that I don’t have such amazing abilities.

“Then what are all the strange phenomenas that's been occurring around me recently? I’m guessing you know something about it.”

-Phenomenas, you say. Are you talking about how you feel like someone completely different wrote your old diary or things like that?

“Yes.”

-Well, I don’t really know either.

“You really won’t tell me anything other than things related to acting, huh.”

-That’s just how I am. I am in an extremely limited position, so what I can say is very limited. But isn’t that diary thing pretty common? Many people feel really unfamiliar with the photos they took when they were young. Even photos feel like that, so old things you wrote must feel even more strange.

“It’s only been two years. I don’t think my brain is so flawed that I won’t remember my personality from two years ago.”

-The person in the middle of the problem does not know what the problem is.

“You sound very suspicious.”

-There’s nothing to be suspicious about. There are slight changes, but it doesn’t change the fact that you’re in a hamster wheel. Oh, no. The fact that I can say this means that that time is coming close.

“That time?”

-Happy birthday.

The masked man left those words before disappearing into the dark.

“Birthday?”

He probed his memories, but there was no one around him who had a birthday in October. Did that mean that the masked man’s birthday was in October? The clown who liked puzzles always disappeared after throwing out a question. Would there ever come a day he says an answer?

“Han Maru?”

Joohyun, who was standing outside, looked at him in puzzlement.

“I just remembered something I forgot. Sorry for dazing out.”

“Looks like you are tired. Managing your body is a part of work. If you want to be a long runner, you should watch out.”

Maru nodded.

* * *

Having returned home, Maru washed himself before sitting in front of the computer. These days, there was something he did before opening his script. It was the process of trying to understand his past while reading the diary he wrote before. While the masked man spoke like it was nothing much, Maru was still concerned about the traces left by himself two years ago. Twenty-nine. That was the age where people’s recognition of society solidified. If he was actually a student, he would be able to accept the dramatic change in his personality in two years, but he was not a high school student.

“Why did I think like this?”

It felt new every time he read it. It felt like reading an autobiography of someone else. He had the memory of writing it, but the memory was superficial at best, so he couldn’t remember the emotions he had back then. Where did the dramatic shift in his personality come from?

Maru compared the conversation he had with Joohyun during the day to the diary entries he wrote in the past. Their ideals were surprisingly similar. The elements shown in these entries showed how much he despised challenge and adventure, and how he was even disgusted by them.

“Something’s happening.”

Even a miracle known as coming back to life had a clear cause and an outcome. The meaning of the ending lay in the beginning. The opposite was true as well. His past self from two years ago as well as the personality that suddenly protruded today could be classified into one. This meant something simple. What happened today wasn’t a sudden protrusion of emotions, it was the expression of emotions that he already possessed.

Maru wrote down the things he thought about. He also wrote down the hypothesis that some of his memories might be missing. When he put the final period and turned his head around……

That woman was sitting on his bed.

Chapter 718

That woman, who was sitting on someone else’s bed like it was nothing, was wearing a white suit again today. She looked like she was remembering something from the past. Maru wondered if he had to offer her a drink or something. Unlike before, she was quiet today. It was as though her business here was to watch.

Maru looked at her with a calm look but inwardly, he was exclaiming. She had the face of a human, but her face possessed a beauty that couldn’t be described as anything human. Her beauty looked like it was about to suck him in.

Looking at her in detail, there were ordinary parts about her as well. For example, her nose. From the perspective of western beauty, her nose was slightly low and round. Her eyes and mouth were also very normal-looking when viewed separately, but with all of them together, she was practically the goddess of beauty. Maru, who admired her like he was admiring a splendid piece of art, suddenly came to himself. She wasn’t a sculpture. Though, she wasn’t human either. Would she have emotions then?

“What were you doing?” the woman asked as she looked at his desk.

“I thought people with your job all knew? I thought you were watching my every action.”

He blinked once. The woman, who was on the bed, was now right next to him, reading a memo in her hand. From up close, her skin looked like semi-translucent glass. He felt like it would be hard and cold like glass instead of soft like real skin. The moment he realized that she was different, the ‘mysterious beauty’ about her vanished, giving him a look at her true appearance. The side of the face was familiar to him. He could smell something human from her. The smell wafting into his nose was remembered by his brain cells.

“Have we seen each other before?”

He remembered back to the time he awkwardly asked for her number. It was a rather crude question and one that was meaningless, but he had to do it. A sharp sense of déjà vu. Something told him that she was a woman he had seen before. And from real close too.

“Looks like you forgot that I’m the first person you saw after you died.”

She sounded like how a lady at the counter would give him a receipt. Her words didn’t contain any emotions and she looked expressionless as well.

“Why are you writing down things like that?”

“Am I obligated to say it?”

“You aren’t, but I’m personally curious as to why you’re writing down such things.”

“If it’s something personal, I guess I don’t need to answer you.”

Only after he said those words did Maru realize that he was strangely uncooperative with her. Her monotone words put him off. Why? - he asked that question to himself. The answer came quickly. It was because of her unkind-sounding words.

It was strange. Why did he feel awkward and even feel a faint sense of rage when he experienced her cold attitude even though he didn’t have any specific relationship with her? She wasn’t someone who worked in the service industry. Her being unkind should not be a target of rage. A fire was set to his emotions and it burned in a strange direction that was hard to describe. However, Maru was also able to derive another feeling. He felt disappointed, enraged, and even sad that she spoke without even looking at him.

She started reading other memos. Does she, a spiritual being, read text word by word like people did? She took quite a long time to read a piece of text written on a small piece of paper.

“You were born again.”

“I was.”

“The fact that you were born again means that your previous life is a thing of the distant past. The past isn’t something you can change just because you look back.”

“That sounds about right.”

“It’s the same for this life as well. Even if you look back at the past, you will not gain anything. As someone who lived another life, you should be aware of the importance of preparing for a better tomorrow rather than looking back and regretting the past.”

“I know. But isn’t it strange? Something I wrote a mere two years ago suddenly feels strange, and I can’t understand the actions I took back then. Yes, since this is my new chance at life, going forward is very important. But that doesn’t mean that I can abandon the past entirely. It is extremely iffy to know that there is a me that I don’t know of.”

“Everyone changes with time. They have to change with time. What’s so important about the past? You are walking down the correct path right now. You should have your hands full going forward. Why do you keep minding something that has passed already?”

“It may have passed already, but ultimately, they lie on the same path. If I keep walking when I don’t even know that my trajectory has veered a little, I might end up having regrets. Once that happens, I won’t be able to do anything, so that’s why I’m trying to think about it now.”

“Time is not continuous. It’s discrete. That’s why looking at the past is something meaningless. You already have plenty of experience, don’t you? You are going to run out of time even if you move forward with your experiences as the basis. Why do you keep looking back? You are going on the right path. You should believe that and…”

For a brief moment, Maru saw a tinge of red on her pale face. The way she expressed a big of vexation and discomfort made her, someone who had transcended humanity, human again.

Maru reached out and took away the memo in her hands.

“Whatever I do, it is my freedom to do so.”

“No, your life is something that someone else gave you. Is there a freedom to a life yielded to you?”

“Then take it back. I feel incredibly confused and displeased right now. Just what are you planning to say? Is the reason you came here to mock me for wrestling with my past? Or is there a reason that I can’t look back at my history?”

Her overbearing eyes closed before opening again. The humanity about her that was faint but definitely present, had disappeared at once. She seemed to have changed into god’s messenger: someone flawless and perfect.

“Okay then. I’m not qualified to say anything. But please, do keep something in mind: there is no meaning to the things that have already happened. The world is strict, and you should have your hands full trying to move forward.”

“You don’t need to worry about that. I can take care of myself.”

“I’m sure you can. Like what you just said, I hope you can take care of only yourself.”

She looked at the memos before turning around. Her body slowly turned translucent. Just before she disappeared, she spoke at the last moment,

“It was not my intention to get annoyed at you. I’m sorry.”

Her body completely disappeared. Maru put down the memo in his hand on the desk.

“Oppa, you should eat some snacks.”

Just as he was analyzing her words and actions on his bed, he could hear Bada’s words. He opened the door and came out to the living room.

“Were you calling someone?”

“No.”

“Really? Then what were you doing by yourself?”

“What else? I was practicing my lines,” Maru said with a smile.

He put a snack in his mouth and bit on it. He could hear a short snap. What was she trying to say? Her lips, voice, and image kept playing repeatedly in his mind. The parts of his brain responsible for memory were trying their best to capture her figure.

“Did something happen?” Bada asked.

Maru looked at the stick-shaped snack in his hands. The chocolate part had long since disappeared in his mouth. He realized that he was clattering his teeth in empty air. It was natural for Bada to ask if something was up.

“If you’re sleepy, you should go to sleep. I’ll eat these in your stead.”

Bada pulled the basket over to her side. Maru told her to eat moderately before returning to his room.

Everything in the world was tied by the laws of cause and effect. His expression of emotions during the day and her appearance shouldn’t be coincidental. Did the gods not look favorably on the people who came back to life and were being clingy to their history? Or was something he was not allowed to know buried under the 2 years' worth of time?

Maru lifted up his memo and shone it against the light.

“Is something happening?” he wondered to himself in a small voice as he looked at the semi-translucent memo.

* * *

“An audition?”

“Yes. I thought that the role fits you so I brought it over. If you like it, then you should try it. Trying an audition is also a form of experience.”

Gyeonmi gave her a stack of A4 papers in a clear file. When she received it and opened it, she saw a scenario, the characters appearing in it, as well as the script.

“Can I have a look?”

“It’s not like you’re going to tell other people about it, are you?”

Gaeul started reading the scenario. The story was that of many people getting trapped under a collapsing building, relying on each other while waiting for rescue, and beginning to suspect each other, before ultimately reaching their demise.

She looked at the list of characters.

“I don’t see a high school girl here though?”

“Because there isn’t one among the leading and supporting roles. Were you expecting one of those?” Gyeonmi asked with a smile. Gaeul felt slightly embarrassed.

“But don’t be too disappointed. It’s a minor role that gives off a deep impression at the beginning of the story. It should be quite hard because the act is quite dynamic, but if you do it well, you will be able to make yourself known. Have a look at scene 68.”

Gaeul flipped through the script to find scene 68.

-Scene 68. Inside a collapsed building.

A schoolgirl has a leg trapped under debris. She breathes heavily while struggling in pain. In the complete darkness, the camera shows the whole scene. The girl groans before finding signs of cracks. Amidst the silence, she could start to hear cracks. Happy then appears.

“What’s Happy?”

“The name of a dog.”

“Ah, a dog.”

Gaeul nodded and kept reading on.

-Seeing Happy approach with big, clear eyes, the girl feels relieved for a moment before seeing an iron rod starting to bend. The building is about to collapse at any moment. The girl shouts at Happy, who approached her. Happy runs away startled. From the view of Happy, the building debris, which was maintaining a delicate balance, could be seen falling on the girl.

Gaeul pictured the scene in her head. The appearance of a dog just as she was about to die. The meaning the dog had should be very special amidst extreme pain and unease. She should have wanted the dog close to her, but the girl knew that the building was going to collapse. How would the girl feel when she shouts at a dog to run away at the last moment? Just imagining such a scene made her feel suffocated.

“You would have to see the final product to be sure, but you’ll be on screen for 30 seconds by yourself at the very least. It’s not ordinary for a nameless role to take up so much time in a movie. This film director places importance on human love, so as long as the acting is up to par, he’ll put you on the screen. That is, if your acting is up to par.”

“Do you think I have the potential, teacher?”

Gyeonmi replied as she rubbed her wrist.

“Gaeul, I’m not an incompetent woman who gives others false hope. You definitely have the potential. When I watch you act these days, I feel like you should be able to digest dynamic acts like this quite well. How about it? Are you going to try?”

“Of course I am. I want to do it.”

“That’s the kind of attitude I like. The audition for this role will probably be done through the connections of the director. Prepare this act and one free act. Even if you don’t win that role, you might be able to get another role if you manage to impress the director, so try your best.”

“Yes!”

An audition for a film. Gaeul felt her heart racing. She had to show violent struggling and also the emotional part of shouting at the dog at the last moment. As the change in emotion was quite big, if she could do it well, she might be able to leave behind a deep impression.

“For the time being, try focusing on that script. The audition is in two weeks, but it might get pulled ahead. That’s why you should try focusing on different types of pain per day. Go into as much detail as possible. Think about how you’re going to express the pain of your leg being crushed, and what happens to people’s expressions when they experience pain that is beyond their scope of handling. This director pays a lot of attention to things like that.”

“I’ll do my best.”

“You also might want to look into documentaries about people in wards. There’s nothing more educational than learning what reality is like. Do your best to prepare. I already told the director that you’re someone I cherish.”

“Really?”

Gyeonmi smiled faintly and stood up.

“Anyway, Lee Heewon, where is this guy slacking again?”

“He’s probably on the rooftop. Should I call him?”

“Tell him to come down if he doesn’t want me to beat him to death.”

“Yes, teacher.”

Gaeul put the script against her chest as she started to make the call.

Chapter 719

“So you’re shooting a film?”

“Yes, grandfather. I’m playing the lead role,” replied Kang Giwoo politely as he put down his spoon.

His grandfather scooped a little of the radish soup with his spoon and put it in his mouth. Giwoo watched as his grandfather’s chin moved slowly. His grandfather’s spoon then headed to the multigrain rice. He scooped out enough for just half of his spoon before putting it in his mouth. While his grandfather savored the rice, Giwoo waited as he placed his hands on his lap.

“The lead role, good. Since you’re doing it, you might as well be the main character.”

“Yes.”

“Oh, yes. Isn’t Jaeho working as an actor too?”

“Yes, Jaeho is also working in the entertainment industry.”

“What was his stage name again? Sooil?”

“He goes by the name Yoo Sooil.”

“Sheesh, I never knew that chairman Lee would let his grandchildren be entertainers.”

“I’m not sure because I don’t meet him that often, but from what Eunjoo-noona is saying, his house still seems to be against it.”

“If a man has made up his mind, he should try at least once. Jaeho, that boy, his eyes looked smart, so I’m sure he’s doing well.”

Giwoo replied ‘yes’. His grandfather’s words were always correct. It was on the level of foretelling. Giwoo admired his grandfather for his exceptional judgment and decisiveness.

“Eunjoo, that girl, she’s pretty decent for being a girl. They say a hen crying means doom for that household, but it should be fine for a girl of her caliber to cry. Giwoo, how about it? I think she’s not so bad to be your companion.”

“Eunjoo-noona isn’t ordinary. She probably still treats me like a child.”

His grandfather smiled pleasantly.

“Yes. Chairman Lee’s blood won’t go anywhere. Both his daughter and his granddaughter. They would be generals if they joined the military.”

“Last time I met her, Eunjoo-noona said she wants to meet you, grandfather. Apparently, she got her hands on some good wine.”

“Tell her to visit any time.”

His grandfather nodded before continuing his meal. After making sure that he did not have further questions to ask, Giwoo picked up his spoon again. He filled just half of his spoon like his grandfather did, remembering his grandfather’s words: don’t put too little because it will make you look poor but don’t put too much because it will make you look greedy. His grandfather’s spoon was an old iron spoon. Compared to a normal spoon, the head was more concave compared to other normal spoons, and the handle was rough, making it look bad compared to factory-made spoons. But, while his grandfather was okay with changing out anything else, he never changed his spoon.

“Giwoo.”

“Yes, grandfather.”

“It’s up to you to do what you want, but you have to look after your health at all costs, okay?”

“I will bear that in mind.”

“Yes, yes. Losing health means losing everything. You must be healthy in order to look around you. You must chew your food before swallowing, and wash your hands after going o…”

Ugh - a groan interrupted his words. Giwoo didn’t mind, but his grandfather’s face had turned stiff.

“Junior director Kim.”

His grandfather put down his spoon.

“I-I’m sorry.”

“Junior director Kim. You’ve worked with me for years. Can you still not fix that habit of yours? Who am I talking to? I’m talking to my cute little grandson, aren’t I?”

“Y-yes. I’m sorry, sir. I subconsciously…”

Giwoo looked at junior director Kim, who was kneeling next to the dining table, through the corner of his eyes. It had only been an hour. He found kneeling for merely an hour[1] so hard that he twisted his body and ended up making a sound. He was pathetic. He had been serving his grandfather for months, yet he couldn’t even keep his table manners.

His grandfather took his spoon and went to the kitchen. After hearing running water, junior director Kim became shocked and shouted ‘sorry’. Giwoo inwardly clicked his tongue. He was so stupid. If he made a mistake, he should get punished for it, yet he was trying to make do with an apology. He needed a beating.

After shaking off the water on the spoon, his grandfather stood in front of junior director Kim.

“Junior director Kim, you can do better, can’t you?”

The spoon was placed on the ground. While kneeling down, junior director Kim started shaking. Giwoo held back from letting a smile creep onto his face. He didn’t want to become a rude boy in front of his grandfather.

Junior director Kim bashed his head against the handle of the spoon. Thud- a heavy thump resonated across the ground. Giwoo looked at the rough curves of the handle. Whenever junior director Kim bashed his head on it, the curvature of the spoon changed little by little. How many foreheads have gone through that spoon? He started feeling admiration for his grandfather. Giwoo looked at his own spoon. Perhaps it wasn’t a bad idea to get one ready right now.

His grandfather spoke again when junior director Kim’s forehead started bleeding,

“Enough. You are getting on with age, so I should give you proper treatment.”

“Thank you, chairman.”

Just as junior director Kim picked up the bent spoon with both of his hands, he put it back down again.

“Chairman, the spoon is a little bent, allow me to straighten it back out.”

“This is why I cherish you, junior director Kim.”

His grandfather patted junior director Kim on the head like how he would treat a child. Junior director Kim flipped the spoon over and started bashing his head on it until the curved handle became flat again.

After washing the spoon and placing it on the table again, junior director Kim bowed before going away.

“Giwoo, people, you know, are very sneaky. Give them an inch, and they will try to take a mile. They don’t know their graces.”

His grandfather picked up his spoon and looked at all sides of it.

“But objects are honest. Just look at this spoon. This one has never betrayed me. It has always made those arrogant, bow their heads to me.”

Giwoo nodded.

“Sometimes, you come across people who are mistaken. They are strange creatures that believe that they are more precious than objects because they are people. That’s because they are not educated properly. If people were more important than objects, people like this grandfather of yours would have long since been thrown out onto the streets.”

After looking at the spoon with sharp eyes, his grandfather eventually put on a gentle smile.

“Giwoo, people like us must be able to discern the sea of objects very properly. And we must also know how to handle people like objects. It does not matter where you are. Regardless of your position, you must know how to order others. That is the duty of those who own objects. You must never let the foolish ones make a mistake. If you let the stupid people be, society will become a mess.”

“Yes, grandfather,” Giwoo replied as he looked at the old spoon.

* * *

“When does the shoot start?” asked Ahn Yeseul, who sat next to him.

Giwoo accepted the yuja tea that she gave him and replied,

“I think the crank-in will be within the year. I’m not sure about the details, but since the background is set in winter, it’ll probably start before the season passes.”

“You said it was a disaster film, right?”

“That’s the frame, but the plot is closer to a thriller. The content is really good. I read it a few times, and I keep getting absorbed in it.”

“That sounds good. I want to try acting in a film, but I don’t have the skills.”

“Yeseul, you are more than good enough. I’m sure you’ll be able to do it if you have the opportunity.”

Giwoo smiled and put the cup against his mouth. Talkative women were annoying to deal with. They lacked wits, so the conversation could drag on limitlessly. She seemed to think that her smile was her charming point, but to Giwoo, she looked stupid no matter how he looked at her. If possible, he wanted to splash this hot yuja tea over her face to stop her from grinning, but he decided to hold back since it would be such a waste of tea.

“Uhm, Giwoo.”

“What?”

“It’s my birthday the day after tomorrow. Can you come?”

“To what?”

“What else? My birthday party of course. I’m going to rent a party hall and invite some of my close friends to play around. You should come over too,” Yeseul said as she moved closer.

Giwoo maintained his smile and scanned her from top to bottom. Was this girl not capable of differentiating drama from reality? He had realized that she was showing more than just goodwill towards him from a while ago. She seemed to like him. It seemed that romantic feelings blossomed inside her just because they hugged and kissed once in the drama. He, on the other hand, just found it absurd.

“I don’t think the day after tomorrow is a good time.”

“Why? Do you have a shoot?”

“I have something to do.”

Yeseul smiled awkwardly. She looked away while saying that it was okay, but she clearly seemed disappointed. Giwoo thought that this was enough and put his hand on top of hers.

“But it’s your birthday, so I can’t be the one to miss it, right? I’ll try to make some time.”

“No, it’s really okay. You can’t miss your work because of me.”

“But I want to go.”

He tapped the back of her hand with his fingers. He could see Yeseul flinch before relaxing her expression. The way she was swayed by her emotions without using her head was the stereotypical example of a foolish person. She was such an easy thing to toy with. There were people worse than objects all over this world.

“Can you really come?”

“Just text me about the details. I’ll definitely make it.”

“Thanks. It’ll be a great party.”

His grandfather once said that having the other party say ‘thanks’ would mean that he would be in the superior position in the relationship. Giwoo didn’t consider Yeseul someone he needed; however, he believed that she would be a decent lackey that he could make use of some time. It was a trivial investment towards a better tomorrow.

“It’s starting to get cold.”

Park Jichan arrived. Giwoo greeted him with a smile. Jichan approached him and started talking about what happened yesterday even though no one told him to. When Jichan looked around cautiously, Giwoo signaled to him that he was listening. After receiving that signal, Jichan became more excited and talked about all sorts of things. Giwoo looked at Jichan, who rejoiced at every one of his reactions, and thought about junior director Kim. The sense of superiority that seeped into him felt thrilling.

Everyone on the set welcomed him. As long as he acted politely, the others created good rumors about him and raised everyone’s opinions of the actor known as Kang Giwoo. How convenient tools could they be? Using money to promote himself was very inefficient and expensive, but with people, it became possible to promote himself free of charge. Seeing people being toyed around with just a few words from him made him realize that his grandfather’s words were entirely correct.

As he was listening to Jichan’s words with a smile, something that vexed him entered his eyes. That boy, who was walking with a script in hand, was the only person Giwoo avoided. If his grandfather found out what happened between the two of them, he too would have had to kowtow towards that spoon. The people that his grandfather hated second most were incompetent people, while the people that his grandfather hated the very most were incompetent family members.

When it came to Han Maru, things didn’t go the way he expected them to. Maru had noticed the ‘play’ like he was someone who could read many moves ahead and even threatened him. For the first time ever, Giwoo lowered his gaze in front of someone. It was a shameful history and a great humiliation. And also, there was fear. Fear became the fertilizer for hatred. Giwoo felt burning hatred whenever he saw Maru, but he couldn’t project it. He wasn’t someone foolish who would get swayed by emotions after all.

Until some time ago, there wasn’t a big problem. Maru was someone who only raised his edge when he touched him, so he could just ignore him.

“Kang Giwoo, let’s go through lines together.”

Maru approached him with a bright smile. Giwoo stood up while trying to hide his rotting feelings. If he was mocking him, it would be better. It would be understandable at least. He smiled and looked at Maru’s face. The smile on this guy’s face was relaxed to the point that he couldn’t think of this guy as the same person as the cold man from before. He looked really pure without any evil intentions.

Giwoo felt confused. At first, he felt like Maru was toying with him. After some time passed, he realized that he wasn’t toying with him and that he truly wanted to become close to him. Giwoo couldn’t believe it. The eyes Han Maru showed him that day were similar to his grandfather’s. He flinched back due to the presence that was similar to a god for him, but the current Han Maru looked like all the other idiots he could toy with.

Was it a trap? Or did he want something else?

“Sounds good. Let’s practice.”

Giwoo went along with him for now. He had to stay docile before he found out what was on the other guy’s mind.

Chapter 720

“You’re pretty diligent. I thought you were going to quit school just like that.”

“I haven’t completely decided yet. I didn’t tell the teachers because I felt like quitting school like this isn’t right.”

“It’s up to you to do what you want, but I don’t think quitting school is a good idea. If you’re having a hard time to the point that you have to start working immediately, why don’t you tell the others about it? If we collect a few tens of thousands of won per person, you should be able to fend off immediate trouble.”

“I don’t want to go to school if it means bringing harm to others. Above all, I won’t be able to last long like that. If I get contacted about work tomorrow, I might quit school right then.”

Giwoo looked at Maru as he calmed down his breathing. He was more serious when he was practicing. A slight change occurred in Maru’s expression. He remembered that slight change in facial muscles and tried imitating it. The muscles around his left cheekbone didn’t follow his will properly. It would look slightly different if he looked at a mirror.

To steal, he had to be able to perfectly imitate. Giwoo felt a sense of superiority when he did a better act than the original creator after finding flaws and fixing them. He had stolen actor Lee Hyuk’s acting a long time ago and made it completely his. When he realized that acting was nothing different from memorization, Giwoo felt that he would become successful. There was no failure on this path after all.

“I think that should do. I hope we don’t get any NGs during the real run,” Maru said.

Giwoo smiled and started doing simulations in his mind to probe this guy out. His grandfather once said that people were like stones and would not change if left alone. He had to find out what changed Maru. Whether it was goodwill or ill intent, he would feel at ease if he found out what Maru’s intentions were.

“How's it going with the other shoot?”

“The director there is full of energy. Unlike director Park Hoon, who keeps watch from afar, that director approaches the actors and discusses with them. There’s so much energy that I’m having a hard time following.”

“It must be bustling.”

“Yes. Thanks to the producer being like that, everyone’s all laughing.”

“That sounds fun, shooting with a director like that.”

“Yeah, it is.”

The conversation was very smooth. Maru didn’t look like he was wary. Giwoo felt nervous. He felt that those who approached him with a smile were much harder to deal with than those bearing their fangs. Was he planning to threaten him to do something if he made a mistake with his words?

No, Maru knew about that ‘play’ already. While not many people would believe such a thing, he had indeed done some things, and people would start suspecting the person known as Kang Giwoo. That would tarnish his reputation. If Maru was still the same guy that told him to stay quiet with eyes that looked similar to his grandfather’s, he would definitely have done so.

What was the reason behind his current actions then? - Giwoo’s thoughts started straying. What if Maru didn’t have any malicious intentions and was purely trying to get close to him? There is no such thing as implausible - these were his grandfather’s words.

“You know, about last time.”

He spoke first. If this guy pretended not to know anything, it would mean that he was up to something.

“Last time? Oh, when I told you off?”

He was unexpectedly blunt about it. Giwoo felt his lips go dry. He thought that Maru would twist his words at least once.

“Was it a mistake? I thought we were done after that.”

Maru nodded.

“I guess I was a bit too strong back then. You must have had your circumstances. Of course, you made a mistake. Using others to bully adults who can’t resist is not a good thing to do.”

“I’m repenting.”

“I know. There’s a sense of rebellion in kids our age, right? You want to stand out, which can be by rebelling against adults. I’m sure your actions were a part of that.”

Giwoo found it harder and harder to maintain his smile. He was angry that his graceful ‘plays’ were being sugar-coated as some childish pranks. If possible, he wanted to twist that mouth of his. He also thought about the spoon handle. It would be quite a sight to see Maru bashing his head against rocky sand.

“Y-you understand me, I see,” he said while barely suppressing his emotions.

Maru wasn’t looking at him with frosty eyes. Was he practicing universal, agape love or something? The Han Maru who showed the epitome of distrust towards humanity didn’t seem like the same person in front of him right now.

“You don’t do that these days, do you?”

“Of course not. I’ve gotten myself together. I regretted my actions a lot after thinking about your words for a while. I think you were right. Maybe I was in a rebellious phase.”

“Yes, everyone makes mistakes like that. What’s important is to repent after you made a mistake.”

“Do you really think so?”

“Of course. There aren’t people who do not change. People are bound to change if they strive to change for the better. I mean, you’ve changed and are leading a better life.”

“That’s true.”

He laughed his ass off when he got a call from his friend yesterday about how he trampled the hands of his driver, but there wasn’t a need to reveal that right now.

“So don’t avoid my eyes when we meet eyes in the future. You make me all sorry.”

“I thought you hated me.”

“I was a little tired back then. I should have talked to you about it slowly. I don’t know why I did that either. You’re such a decent kid too.”

Maru turned around, telling him good luck with the shoot. Giwoo touched his lips. It didn’t seem like Maru was planning a smokescreen tactic. Giwoo had seen that stupid smile several times before. It looked similar to the smiles of his idiotic peers that wanted to befriend him. Where did that chilling gaze go?

If that was an act though - Giwoo opened himself up to that possibility. Maru might have set up traps in a place he didn’t know. Pushing other peoples into these ‘plays’ with the excuse to ‘get close’ was his specialty.

“What a cocky bastard.”

He changed his mind when he saw that smiling face. There was no way Maru truly wanted to get close to him. They say the devil comes with a smile. He could not be fooled by that spiteful face.

“Giwoo, did something happen?”

Giwoo turned around. He saw Yeseul standing there with a worried face. Annoyance surged within him. Who are you to worry about me?

“Did you want something to happen to me?”

“N-no, I didn’t mean it like that.”

Yeseul looked at him without any will to fight back or put up her defenses. She was like a puppy being punished. Yes, this should be the correct way. Weak and stupid people had to look up to those higher up with this kind of attitude.

He felt like the humiliation he got from Maru was being washed away. Giwoo immediately put on a pleasant smile.

“Sorry about that, I couldn’t hold back my emotions because I was too absorbed in the script. You know, right? My character has a really heavy mood these days.”

“Is that what it was? I almost thought you were angry at me. But Giwoo, you’re really good at acting. I think you’re improving day after day.”

“I’m not that good. In fact, Yeseul, you are better than me. The director doesn’t give you any comments. From how I still get an earful, I still have a long way to go.”

“That’s because the director expects a lot from you.”

Seeing Yeseul doing her best to buy his goodwill, Giwoo felt like everything had returned to the way it should be. His position, his authority, his feelings… if there was one flaw…

“Giwoo, let’s go.”

Giwoo looked at Maru in the distance before turning around. If an opportunity came, he would definitely do something about him.

* * *

The prickly gaze on him disappeared. Maru scraped the back of his upper teeth with his tongue. Giwoo’s reaction was outside of his expectations. He thought that Giwoo would at least be repenting, but he realized something from his gaze and expression just now. Forget guilty conscience, he was gritting his teeth to get revenge.

Maru opened his notepad. He brought his pen tip to the place where Kang Giwoo’s name was written: not friendly; no evidence suggests he has changed; it is unclear why he looked good until now.

In this situation where he couldn’t clearly remember the basis of his past actions, the only thing he could do was to re-analyze his own relationships with those around him. Resolving the acting club’s matters efficiently instead of pursuing a warm ending, driving Geunseok into a corner, not protecting Yurim. There were many other incidents where he put up a wall around his relationships in the past and thought about benefits and losses so meticulously. How much has he changed since then?

He chose Giwoo in order to calculate the changes that occurred within him. Giwoo was someone who enjoyed bullying the defenseless. He even made his own group and gave out orders. He was just that meticulous and evil.

While he was a bad boy, Maru believed that he should have changed now that he knew his wrongs, and he ‘believed’ in him to have changed himself. Before he discovered the disparity in his history, this was the thought he had when looking at Giwoo: he just goes a little too far with his pranks, but he’s not a bad kid at heart.

That thought made a chill run down behind his back. As to why that happened, he did not know.

He did not think that Giwoo was a bad kid. Since he was young, it was natural for him to make mistakes, and he deeply believed that people grew up that way. What generated such beliefs in him? He thought about that fundamental question. Maru kept asking and answering his own questions. He thought that it was natural for him to believe in others because he believed in others before he came back to life.

Then what was the identity of this sense of disgust? Why did he find it so terrifying that he believed in Giwoo?

He felt like emotions were split into two within himself and were at a war; they were tearing each other apart. The distrust and blind faith towards humans created a sharp conflict.

-There’s a storm in your heart.

The masked man had spoken.

“Don’t you know something about this? I feel really confused right now. Emotions I don’t know where they came from are surging inside me. I have a strong urge that I cannot trust Kang Giwoo at all. I believed in him. He’s a partner that keeps this drama together after all. I believed that he had repented and changed. But the Giwoo I just saw tried to fool me. He probably thinks that he glossed over it quite well, but I saw it clearly. I don’t think that was a mistake. It’s closer to conviction. I’m sure he’s still repeating that trashy behavior.”

-I have nothing to tell you. However, there is something I do want to ask.

“What is it?”

-Just like that woman said, is there really a need to be so hung up on your past? It’s the past you forgot after all.

“Just because I forgot it doesn’t mean that it disappeared.”

-Don’t you think that the fact that you forgot about it means that it’s not important?

“Maybe, but the more I dig into this, the stranger it becomes.”

-Mr. Han Maru.

“Yes?”

-Don’t try too hard. The waves of forgetfulness are not something that human strength can hold back. I also tried my best before not to forget, to transmit to you as much as I can. But it didn’t work. After I painfully saw for myself that it’s useless, I didn’t know what’s right or wrong anymore. I’m tired of watching, and I might be tired of getting tired.

It wasn’t the energetic voice of the masked man. His voice sounded vain as though he had seen the end of the world. It was the skepticism of one who had all of his expectations betrayed, the resignation of someone who had lost hope, and the vanity where even despair felt like a luxury. The masked man laughed dryly.

“I will not become tired.”

-Everyone was like that.

“I will not forget.”

-There is no one who forgot because they wanted to.

Maru could hear a clock ticking noise from somewhere. The masked man’s sigh could be heard on top of it.

-Mr. Han Maru.

“Yes.”

-Maybe it’s a good thing to forget. Just one more time, just this one time - perhaps it’s these decisions within you that caused the problem to become so big in the first place. Perhaps you became unable to forget what you need to forget because of the sin of not letting go when you need to let go.

“Why do I need to let go? Is it absolutely necessary that I forget?”

-There is a word that everyone talks about in the world, ‘flow’. Think about it. Think about whether being born again is according to or against that ‘flow’. Mr. Han Maru. The reason you find your memories strange and why you can’t understand your past actions is maybe because that’s just how the flow is. Perhaps God is setting right what’s twisted and wrong. You are a lucky person. You got to live again, didn’t you? So why don’t you give up on suspecting? It’ll make your life a lot easier just as that woman said.

Tick- the ticking noise stopped. The masked man stayed silent for a bit before making his cheerful laugh again.

-Well, that’s how it is. Mr. Han Maru, don’t think too much. You’ve done plenty well until now. I know because I’ve been watching you from the side. Maybe it’s not a bad thing to forget about it now.

The moment he heard those words, Maru felt like everything became meaningless. Why was there a need to make himself tired by suspecting other people? What was the benefit in comparing his previous actions to his current ones? After that ticking noise stopped, he felt like his head became numb. He felt like it wouldn’t be so bad to forget about it.

Just then……

He remembered a hum, it was a song he had heard a long time ago. It was a familiar humming song that he had heard not in this life, but before he died. His hands clenched tighter. He grabbed the notepad he had half-let go. He tied a rope around the scattering memories.

“Is forgetting, really according to that ‘flow’?”

Chapter 721

The masked man forgot about when he started wearing a mask. Was it the 13th or the 14th? He couldn’t remember because it had been such a long time. Perhaps he didn’t want to remember.

He did not know what was happening for a while after his consciousness spurred into life. He was earnestly living his life after coming back to life, but he died due to a sudden accident. Was it really over now? Was he finally reaching either heaven or hell? In a space without light nor darkness, in a place where the sense of time was distant, he wandered around. He didn’t know whether it was for just an instant or for a whole eternity because his senses had been isolated.

When he realized that a change occurred within him, the masked man was within ‘Han Maru’. He wondered what was happening. I am Han Maru. Who is the owner of this body? That was his meeting with the first Han Maru.

The first Han Maru had succeeded the masked man’s memories. He rejoiced at his second life and even vowed to live his new life for the sake of his wife. The masked man screamed. He wanted to talk to the living and breathing Han Maru at that time.

His voice did not reach. The dark stage existed within Han Maru but was surrounded by a thick wall. The only thing the masked man could do was to keep watching. He watched Han Maru’s first life with a cautious mind. He cheered for the living Han Maru if he made the right choice and groaned whenever he stepped onto something he should not step on. The masked man did not know why he had split off from the entity known as Han Maru, but he cheered on for the Han Maru living in that era regardless. It was all thanks to the baseless belief that the living Maru’s happiness would be the same as his own. That belief was his last hope and the last safehouse that prevented him from mentally breaking down.

When the first Han Maru met his wife, became affectionate, confessed, and whispered love, the masked man closed his eyes for the first time. He couldn’t bear to watch. The fact that her eyes were looking at another man agonized him. It was a strange dilemma. The man his wife was looking at was indeed Han Maru, but that Han Maru was not him. The masked man thought about the things that he started worrying about when he first found himself within the ‘first Han Maru’: why did I split off and why am I here?

The first Han Maru had sexual intercourse with his wife. The first Han Maru’s emotions splashed into the masked man’s space like waves. Her breathing sounds, her smell, and her moans with them.

The masked man only had one thought in his mind: I want to disappear. His wish was not fulfilled.

Time kept ticking. The first Han Maru managed to get himself a great position in his company thanks to the social skills he gained in his previous life. His promotion was set in stone. As though to prove that it wasn’t just misfortune that happened in series, the first Han Maru encountered a series of fortunate events. His wife became pregnant.

By that time, the masked man realized that the first Han Maru’s state had changed a lot compared to before. The reason was simple. His memories had vaporized. He wasn’t that surprised that his memories disappeared as he already knew about it from the ‘woman in a white suit’, but there was something different about the disappearing memories. The memories didn’t become faint, they were completely changed. Eventually, he wouldn’t remember the fact that he had revived at all.

Perhaps that was god’s will to make him lead an ordinary life - the masked man thought so at least. He had long since given up on thinking about these things deeply, so he arrived at a conclusion pretty quickly. He found it laughable that he had to watch the success and happiness of someone that was himself yet not himself, while he himself was in a state that was neither human nor ghost. There was only one thing he wanted to know - when was this life going to end?

The day arrived when the first Han Maru forgot about the fact that he had revived at all. That day was a week after Han Maru had managed to win a big contract, and it was also the day his child became one year old.

The masked man’s only joy in life was to watch the daughter that looked just like the wife. Even amidst the guilt, despair, and unease, he was able to put down all of his worries when he looked at Gaeul[1], who looked just like his wife. Babies were a product of miracles. He realized every day that those words weren’t wrong.

The first Han Maru’s life seemed to be sailing smoothly. He was an acknowledged employee at work, a good husband at home, and a splendid father. There were very few things that could break such a perfect life. Who could destroy this family?

The masked man then came across Han Maru, lying on the ground after having been hit by a car. A car rushed into him when he was seeing the teacher out after his daughter’s one-year birthday.

The masked man saw the stifling malice. The car accident was too impossible to happen. While he was close to the road, the place Han Maru was standing on was the pavement. It felt as though death had made his way out to get him. While watching his wife cry out in horror, the world became distant. He had returned to that space where he could feel nothing again.

A sense of fear overwhelmed him. The fact that he had to be here by himself in this meaningless space made him afraid, but what made him even more afraid was the life that might begin once again. He prayed that it wasn’t like that. He prayed that he would be judged at the end of the world and sent to heaven or hell, where he could settle down.

When his senses returned, the masked man grit his teeth at the vanity of his prayers. His hairs stood on end due to the mercilessness of god. The second Han Maru was preparing his new life after having succeeded the memories of his first one.

The masked man looked at the woman in a white suit standing in between the boundary of life and death. The woman who offered him the chance to come back to life was giving the second Han Maru the same opportunity in the same space. He thought that he was cursed to repeat his time over and over again. He was going to live the life of a hamster in a hamster wheel whose time didn’t move forward even by one second.

The second Han Maru did not follow the life of the first Han Maru. He had decided to become an actor, and he became successful with incredible luck and opportunity. He met his wife during that process and shared their love.

40 years. That was the time that the masked man had watched the lives of the first and second Han Marus. The second Han Maru also died due to an accident. It was on his pretty daughter’s birthday.

He sent off the third, fourth, and fifth Han Marus.

During that process, the masked man came to a realization. It wasn’t that the same time was being repeated over and over again. While time returned to 2003, when Maru was in his 1st year of high school, the time for those existing outside life and death kept flowing.

The masked man’s attention fell on the woman in a white suit. He wanted to know why she was committing such terrible things. She should be aware of everything. Unfortunately, he didn’t have a way of reaching out to her. It was hard to ask her a question when he couldn’t even talk to himself.

The masked man became proactive. He had sent off five Marus while he was a complete observer, but from the sixth onwards, he called out to Han Maru with all of his might.

The voice that didn’t seem like it would reach, finally reached. He had finally interacted with someone else after 80 years. Though, that ‘someone else’ was himself, he rejoiced that he could have a conversation.

The sixth Han Maru was startled upon seeing a man with the same face as him. The masked man wanted to explain everything slowly, but he could not say that the reincarnation was being repeated. Every time he tried to say the truth about coming back to life, an invisible hand blocked his mouth.

As frustrated as he was, the masked man did his best. He told Maru to look around carefully when he thought that he had succeeded. He believed that this unending life would change if he prevented accidental deaths and Maru died in peace.

“Why do you have the same face as me?”

His expectations shattered when the sixth Maru turned thirty-three. His memories had been altered by someone. The years of talking to each other like friends had disappeared overnight.

Not long later, the sixth Maru died. The masked man did not give up. The seventh, eighth, ninth, tenth, eleventh, twelfth, thirteenth.

“Who are you? Why do you wear a mask?”

The masked man started wearing a mask and he did not speak anymore. He did not reveal everything. He had come to a realization that the only thing a hamster could do inside a hamster wheel was to walk on the same spot.

A time longer than 200 years forced him to make a decision. He would either collapse mentally or become numb to everything. The masked man chose to become an indifferent observer. A good way to endure the punishment was to otherize himself. The one being whipped there is not me - thinking that was enough to make him feel relieved.

Time kept passing. Han Maru lived and died. The ending was always Han Maru’s death. What was strange was that she never got caught in accidents. Whenever a traffic accident occurred, it was always Han Maru who died.

When the twentieth Han Maru’s life began, the masked man was able to talk to the woman in a white suit. She talked about a story that was nearly an eternity long, and the masked man realized that the time he spent was a brief instant compared to what she spent. It wasn’t him being punished.

The twenty-first. The masked man met himself with a smile that was no different from an indifferent expression. The twenty-first was a little special. He was able to tell Maru the secrets of coming back to life. This was something impossible before. However, he didn’t have any expectations or anything. Maru was bound to forget and die soon anyway.

The twenty-first Maru also experienced changes in memory. He had forgotten about the things precious to him like all the Han Marus before him and started changing. He had forgotten about the secrets of revival that he had told him.

The masked man knew what this signified. He had experienced it twenty-one times before. Even a dog would learn tricks in 3 years, and he had lived observing Han Maru from this cramped stage for centuries. He will die soon - that was the conclusion he came to.

Perhaps the ones who had bestowed her that great punishment had decided to deal with this special Han Maru early so that the hamster wheel could keep turning.

“Is forgetting, really according to that flow?”

The masked man smiled bitterly. The twenty-first Maru knew everything, but he now became a man who did not know anything. He wondered how many years of memories would disappear this time around. Perhaps he might forget that he was revived from this moment onwards. The earnest hamster wheel would once again bring a corpse to life again to let the man turn the wheel again.

He did not say anything. He didn’t want to. He was thinking about what he should say to the upcoming twenty-second Maru.

Just then……

There was a man who stepped out of that hamster wheel. A man was trying to do something that he wasn’t permitted to. The masked man could feel that. He could hear the sound of someone trying to reverse the flow decided by the great one. Tick, tick, tick. The stopped clock hand started moving again. It wasn’t the sound of a clock hand from the human realm. It was the sound of the flow of time of the great ones, residing above the six destinies.

“If forgetting is set in stone, I will not forget. To hell with things like that. I will not forget; not this moment, not that humming song.”

It was twisted. The masked man could feel the cage that imprisoned her was creaking. He could feel the clock of the world created in order to punish her trying to move again.

The masked man looked at the twenty-first Han Maru.

-Who are you?

There was no reply. Han Maru had stopped as though he was sleeping. The masked man laughed. What did he expect? There was a momentary change, but that was it in the end. Humans could not break out of the world created by the heavens.

“You.”

Han Maru, who had been silent this whole time, had spoken. At the same time, he collapsed sideways.

“What the! Hey, Han Maru!”

“Director Park! Maru collapsed!”

The sounds of this world rushed in. However, only one word was echoing within the masked man’s head,

You.

[1] Here, Gaeul is referring to the daughter.

Chapter 722

When he realized that he was falling, his center of gravity was already outside his body. His body was leaning towards a point in the air. When his body leaned about halfway, he saw Joomin dropping the coffee cup in shock as well as Dongho who was reaching out to him. The falling cup eventually stopped in the air, and Dongho’s actions also stopped like a paused video.

Time passed by slowly. At this speed, he felt like he needed ten years to fall down on the ground. It was a strange experience, but that wasn’t the important part. Maru probed his memories and became an adventurer treading on the wrinkles of his brain. Fragmented memories shot out from around him as though popcorn was popping out of the ground. He felt like his brain was being fried. All the calories that were supposed to be spent in his body was being stolen by his brain. Maybe even his body weight was being consumed by his brain.

Amidst the swirling memories, Maru saw the masked man. He did not say anything. Maru soon realized why he was silent. It wasn’t that he was being silent. He had said everything already.

He could hear eggshells cracking. No, he felt like he heard such a noise. A thin layer of something crumbled apart, allowing a sunken memory to surface.

Maru remembered the masked man’s face. Han Maru. What would the historian who has been watching an individual’s history repeat itself over and over again, feel like?

The fragments of memories that had been scattered and blocked by someone were gathering little by little. In the middle of them was a song. The humming song that tickled his ears was like a lighthouse shining down on the vast sea. The memories curled up beneath the darkness followed that faint light. The memories gathered towards that one guide and mixed among each other in a chaotic manner, but the organization was happening steadily.

Maru saw a drop of coffee that popped out from the cup. He was still falling, and he felt like the distance between him and the ground was as far as the distance from the Earth to the moon.

He went through a process of turning and moving the various memory puzzle pieces before putting them together. It was a hard and excruciating process. It hurt his brain so much that he wanted to give up immediately. What’s the point of regaining those memories? - these sweet words reverberated inside his ears. His reasonable mind whispered to him that it was right and proper to focus on the present rather than being obsessed with the past.

Yes, that was right. Longing for a bus that had already passed won’t make it return. A wise person would wait for the next bus at the bus stop. Perhaps it was a good idea to enjoy some coffee in the meantime. Only people who were able to let go of what had already passed would be able to grab the future.

Bullshit - someone said. It was a familiar voice. It was rough, unlike the voice that told him to let go of the past. Just listening to it made him feel uncomfortable. If you missed that bus, you should chase it down and catch up to it - the voice said. Maru felt stifled when the voice told him not to package the past as good memories and to face them properly.

A voice that made him comfortable, and a voice that made him uncomfortable. It seemed clear who to follow at this crossroad. Maru consciously ignored the voice that scolded him. He felt like a wave of pain would crash into him if he followed that voice. He wanted to choose the side that others suggested he take, which was also the path that he wanted to choose. The words that told him to let go of his past felt warm like his mother’s words that he heard when he was young. They felt right like the advice of his wise father. Was there a reason to follow the rough words where a gut-churning, difficult journey was certain?

He felt like time was returning to normal. The falling cup started speeding up. Everything was returning to normal. Everything was returning to the flow, where everything should be.

The sunlight was very strong. He suddenly remembered an old memory. He was driving across Hangang bridge, and next to him was a woman. She was someone who he met for the first time that morning. He was a ‘fill-in’ manager, while she was a ‘fill-in’ support actress. The sunlight that seeped through the window emphasized the contours of her face. The car audio was quiet, but the car was filled with her humming.

That hum. Maru knew that song. It was a song that he could sing and listen to right now. It was the song that Gaeul hummed from time to time after all.

Maru felt his pupils widening. His back felt chilly. The puzzle that was his memory fit together at this moment. The voice that whispered to him became smaller and smaller. Instead of the voice that told him to forget about the past and look at the present and the future, the humming song filled his mind.

The memory of his death at 29 started expanding. The memory of his death at 30 returned to him, then 31, then 33, then 35… The memories that had been swapped out numerous times by someone started returning to their original places.

Maru saw the cup falling in front of him start to rise again. Experiencing a phenomenon where something that should be falling was not falling. Maru felt the tight chains that bound his memories starting to snap apart.

The rough voice became vivid again. I’m sure you remember now - the voice that had become thick due to experiencing all the hardships in life belonged to himself. It was that same voice he used to fight against his superior, console his junior, and quarrel with a customer. It was the voice of his forty-five-year-old self.

The masked man suddenly asked something,

-Who are you?

Maru replied,

‘You’.

The moment he replied, the clock that had been ticking everywhere; forward, backward, and nowhere, returned to its original path. Maru immediately crashed into the ground that had come slower to him. He saw people approach him in shock. He wanted to say that he was okay and stand up, but he felt too dizzy.

“Han Maru, Han Maru,” producer Park Hoon said as he took out his phone.

He seemed like he was going to call for an ambulance. Maru barely managed to reach out and pushed Park Hoon’s phone cover down.

“I’m okay.”

“No, you’re not. You just collapsed.”

“It’s because I’ve been crouching for a while. It’s not a big problem.”

Maru clenched his teeth and smiled. Thankfully, his sense of balance had returned to normal. Only his head felt heavy and dazed as though he hadn’t been sleeping for days. He stood up and jumped lightly.

“See? I’m completely fine.”

“Forget it, and go to the hospital. We’ve got a long time until we do your scene anyway.”

Maru looked at Park Hoon’s face before nodding. As the person responsible for this place, it should be putting a lot of pressure on him, so he couldn’t act so stubborn.

“I’ll go to the hospital and get some vitamins. I’ll also get a doctor to say that I’m okay.”

“Give me a call once you get diagnosed.”

“Yes. I’m sorry for making you all worried.”

“Just get going already.”

Maru smiled at the people that gathered around him and told them that he’d be back soon.

“Are you really okay? You suddenly collapsed.”

“Men can get anemic too sometimes. Looks like I ran out of stamina because I haven’t been able to get good sleep these days.”

Joomin dusted his clothes off with worried eyes.

“I knew you were going to collapse one day. You looked somewhat weak since morning. Do you want me to bring you to the hospital?” Dongho asked.

“You have a shoot to do. You aren’t going anywhere. I can go by myself.”

“What are you going to do if you fall down again?”

“That won’t happen, so don’t worry about it.”

Maru thought about Byungchul, who would be at the company, but he decided not to call him. After all, he knew that there was nothing wrong with his body. He left the middle school through the school gates and grabbed a taxi. On his way there, he organized his thoughts. When doing a 1,000-piece puzzle, the start would feel incredibly slow and unclear, but once the edges were done, it would become a lot faster. This was also true for his fragmented memories. When some of the pieces fit together, he could see the general picture. The thing he had to do now was to grab the floating memories and stitch them together in the correct order. His brain was doing this job even without him having to be conscious of it, so the memories should soon be restored with a bit of time.

He went to the nearby hospital, got diagnosed, and left. Naturally, there was nothing wrong with him. He sent Park Hoon a text message. He got a call right away.

-Can you do the shoot?

“Of course. There’s a lot of money involved. The doctor said there’s no problem, so if you would allow it, I’d like to shoot.”

-It’ll take some time before we start your scene, so get some fresh air before coming back. You should get some sleep or something. If you feel anemic at your age, you won’t be able to do this job for long.

“I’m okay now. Then I’ll get some fresh air before returning.”

After hanging up, Maru called Dongho.

-Yeah, it’s me. Are you okay?

“I’m okay. I’m going back soon, so can you give me a call when my scene is approaching?”

-Alright. I’ll give you a call, so get some sleep before coming. It looks like you ran out of strength because you’re doing two jobs.

After thanking him, Maru sat on a bench in front of the hospital. He laughed in vain when he looked at the people walking around in patient clothes. His own state was not that different from them.

-Do you remember?

He wondered when he was going to speak. Maru closed his eyes. He was standing on the stage where the masked man lived.

“Somewhat.”

-Really?

Maru nodded.

“I have a lot to ask, but now’s not the time. My head is still in a mess right now.”

-I’m sure it must be like that. Tens of years of memories should have returned all at once.

Maru looked at the masked man.

“Are you going to keep wearing that mask?”

-It’s somewhat embarrassing to take it off right now. At this point, I’m more comfortable with it on.

“If you’re okay with it, then so be it. But how funny. We’re all Han Maru in the end.”

-Yes, it’s comedic.

“We have a lot to talk about.”

-Yes, we do.

“But before that, there’s something I want to tell you.”

Maru reached out to him.

“You’ve been working hard until now. And since you’re at it, let’s do some more.”

-I don’t remember the last time I was thanked like this.

“I’m sure you don’t. You’ve lived for centuries after all.”

-I’m not sure if ‘lived’ is the right word. The concept of life is very vague here.

“Can I ask you something?”

-Yes, to commemorate your return.

“What is it that you want?”

-I’m sure you must know already.

Maru could read the expression hidden behind the mask.

-I don’t care if it’s a happy ending or a bad ending. An ending - that is all I want. I want to stop getting tired and to stop watching for that matter. If I could have the luxury of choosing, I wish to lie on the same bed as her, with our daughter in the middle. I long for human smell. I long for emotions too. But I’m sure it must be impossible. I don’t have a body after all.

“Why did you pop out like that? Why did you get separated and become another me?”

-I’m not sure. Perhaps it was for the sake of you, the twenty-first Maru.

“The twenty-first.”

It was not a big number, yet an extremely large one too. In this place where no one called out to him, a man had to witness his own death more than a dozen times. What would that man be like? It shouldn’t be something that a human could imagine. This being was once Han Maru, but now, it was questionable whether he could still be called Han Maru.

-Let’s talk once you get your thoughts organized. Right now, you seem to be in need of some rest.

“Yeah, I think I’ll do that.”

Maru slowly opened his eyes. The dark stage disappeared, leaving the autumn sky and the tall hospital building in his vision. He took out his phone from his pocket. He pressed some buttons to pull up Gaeul’s phone number on his screen. Maru took his finger off when all he needed to do was to press the call button.

“This shouldn’t be the right time.”

He could not hurry. His fate, as well as his life, was very twisted and tangled right now. If he impatiently touched it, it might break everything. He had to be careful as though he was walking on a tightrope.

Rather than that - Maru smiled at the memories that flashed through his mind. He felt stifled when he had a look at what the warm-hearted Han Maru had done until now. Ever since his memories of being betrayed by a devoted junior at the company disappeared, his entire person became really docile. It was him who said that memories didn’t disappear easily, yet he had made a complete fool out of himself.

Maru pinched his fingers and put them between his eyes.

“So I can resist, huh.”

Was this a victory for the man that had repeated the déjà vu-like life over and over again? Or was this another one of god’s mischiefs? Maru opened the memo application on his phone. There was something he needed to test out.

‘I died once and came back to life.’

He could write things about his revival. Of course, this wouldn’t help that much. If all of his memories vaporized, he would obviously treat this memo as a joke even if he found it.

“Uhm, excuse me.”

Maru stopped a woman who was about to enter the hospital. He then looked into her eyes for a while. A moment later, something familiar popped up above her head.

-What’s this child up to?

God didn’t seem that picky. He didn’t take away the gift that he sent out. The lack of functionality in this gift was still a pity though. It would be great if he could see other people’s inner psychology, but he could still only read thoughts related to ‘Han Maru’ within the target.

“Nothing. I must have been mistaken.”

He had to check things like stocks and estate prices, but he didn’t feel like that would work. He only had some restrictions on his memory lift, not all of the ones placed on him.

Maru twisted his neck left and right as he entered the convenience store in front of the hospital. He needed something to drink right now

Chapter 723

Mindsets were scary things. Despite the fact that the coffee he drank today was the same brand as the coffee he drank yesterday, it tasted different. It was probably due to the fact that the ‘person’ drinking it was different. Ever since the internal elements that defined an individual changed and expanded, his personality, as well as his preferences, had changed. How tragic was an individual by himself? How weak was he? The disappearance of a small amount of memories changed his entire person. The time he spent and the experience and the know-how he gained seemed like it was well-managed by the system known as memories, but he was helpless against a 3rd person’s simple prank.

Maru threw the empty coffee can in the trash. He knew that he needed to come up with plans, but he didn’t have a suitable method. It was impossible for an ant to fight against an elephant. The only thing an ant could do was to take a detour so that it didn’t meet the elephant. There were two types of people who wanted to fight against the irresistible: one, those that wanted an honorable death, and two, those that just wanted death.

As he wasn’t suicidal, he had to look for a way to live. What was urgent was to check the integrity of his memories. He would be worrying for naught if his memories disappeared after all.

“Man, it’s looking dark,” he muttered to himself out of frustration.

If an electronic device broke, he could look for a repairman. The repairman would then look at various parts of the product and either fix it or replace the broken parts. However, there were no experts when it came to memories. As this wasn’t a neuro-scientific problem nor a cerebral problem, he had to resolve this by himself. There was one more fundamental problem. It was that the one giving the diagnosis was the patient himself. Maru hadn’t yet heard of a story where a brain surgeon had operated on his own brain.

He needed other people’s help desperately. There was one suitable person, but that person couldn’t help.

-The moment you lose your memories will be the moment I lose my authority to speak again. It’s not something I can do something about.

These were the masked man’s words. He was a rational observer and was qualified to discern and judge the changes, but his opinion was under the control of a god.

Maru first did the thing he could do. It was to write down everything he knew on a notepad that he bought from the convenience store. It was now possible for him to write down the emotional evaluations of the events that he participated in, in both his previous life and this life. Could he conclude that the restrictions were lifted then?

He wrote down the events as well as his emotional evaluations of those events that happened after his revival. If his memories disappeared, they would turn into meaningless words, but these words might trigger his memories to come back again. He had lost his memories and regained them once. There were plenty of possibilities.

He wrote ‘A scenario on revival’ on the cover of the notepad so he would have an easier time explaining if other people found out about it. He put the notepad in his back pocket. The things he wrote in the notepad were the record of his life as well as his checklist. He would have to compare his memories to what was written on the notes every single day. If there was a discrepancy between his memories and the contents of the notepad, it would be a sign that his memory loss had started again. He wished that there would come a day he could throw away the notepad in relief.

“Excuse me, but can you take a photo of me?”

A man approached him with a digital camera. Maru nodded. The man thanked him and turned around before going to stand next to a woman in a wheelchair. The two people grabbed each other’s hands.

He pressed the shutter. One more time - he said before taking a few more photos. After taking the camera back, the man and the woman looked at the photo together. Maru sat down on a bench and watched the two. A moment later, the woman entered the hospital, while the man stayed outside. The man who was looking at the people entering and leaving the building sat down on the spot. He was crying.

Maru thought about Gaeul. In the lives that repeated itself as though they were a möbius strip, she should have watched the death of the human known as Han Maru over and over again. Thankfully, she was outside the ring of reincarnation, so she shouldn’t have continuous memories. Sometimes, forgetting was helpful.

Wait - Maru probed his memories and opened the notepad. He remembered something that happened before. The woman in the white suit said once that an individual going back to the past doesn’t mean that the time of that world would regress along with him. She said that there would be a crossroad when the human known as Han Maru revived. She said that the world that his wife and daughter live in after losing the father is a different world.

Twenty-one times. That was the number of revivals that the masked man had seen. This was not an accurate number either. There should definitely be Han Marus that died before the masked man gained consciousness. Did an innumerable number of Han Marus die, resulting in many different branches in the timeline? Just how many single-parent households did he produce?

He sighed. Even if those timelines were completely separate worlds, it meant that there were perhaps hundreds of wives and daughters that had to live a lacking life because of him.

Was it a tragedy caused by someone who longed to come back to life? Of course, this might also be a mechanism that pushed him to focus on his new life. It was true that he focused on his new life after seeing his wife and daughter faring well. Now that he found out that the woman in white was not his ally, there was a need to go through the things that she showed and told him.

Maru rubbed his eyebrows. That was one more thing to think about.

“Did I wish to come back to life?”

No, he did not. The reason he was revived was thanks to the granny that lived near him. Yoo Bokja, that was a name that he could not forget. When he lost most of his memories, he even forgot about that, but he could remember it clearly now.

Maru decided to approach the more fundamental problem. When he thought about how she was someone who gave him one more chance at life, she was like his savior. After all, she had given up on her one and only chance to live another life.

Yes, once. If it was just once, she was his life’s savior, but if that was a repetitive thing, that would change things. The masked man once said that Han Maru’s life would begin during his high school days and end when he died, but that the cause was different every time. In the dozens of lives that were repeated, there was a time when he died in his late twenties. The possibility of coming across granny Yoo Bokja when he had a short life? Infinitely near zero. After all, he met the elderly woman when he moved houses when he was forty.

“Was it a story to make me accept it?”

That seemed very plausible. There was no way Han Maru did deeds of kindness every single time. It was likely that the woman in the white suit had used that ‘good deed’ story in order to lessen his rejection towards revival.

Maru then had another question. It was the most important question as well.

Why was his life being repeated?

Was he repeating his life because he could not escape the cycle of Samsara in the Buddhist sense? Or was he repeating his life in paradise until the arrival of heaven in the Catholic/Christian sense? Or was this how life worked in general?

He lacked information. At the same time, he could finally understand why people fell for occultist religions. There was nothing that felt more uneasy than being thrown into the middle of uncertainty.

-A branch forms in the timeline immediately after reviving. In this case, there are many worlds where my family has lost me. However, the possibility of this is low. It was something that woman showed me after all.

-A repeating life. There are two possibilities: one, whether it’s a reward or a punishment, I’m repeating life by myself, and two, all of the people in this world are experiencing the same thing as me, and it’s just that they don’t remember.

While reading his notepad, Maru decided to exclude the possibility of the second one. If the world was fixed and the people in it were repeating their lives over and over again, nothing he did would help. Perhaps this world would rewind once he reached forty-five. In that case, he would be greeted by the world of nihility once he escapes the cycle of revival. This would be something beyond his cognitive abilities, so if this was true, losing memories would be a blessing.

Maru focused on the fact that only he was repeatedly coming back to life.

“Why did the repetition begin… well, fine, I don’t care why it did. But why insert a bothersome event like Yoo Bokja?”

He tapped on the notepad with the back of his pen. If the human known as Han Maru started repeating his life due to a certain trigger, why was there a need to procure the plausibility of reviving every single time? When the masked man talked about the dead Han Marus, he also said that he met the woman in white.

If repetition of life was predestined, there was no need to explain the trigger for the revival through the use of the Yoo Bokja episode. It would be fine if the woman in white told him ‘you got another chance at life thanks to god’s blessing’.

His suspicion started storming. Maru thought about what happened after he died. It was the question he had before he opened his eyes. Had he regretted anything in life? Why did that question suddenly come to his mind at that specific time? It felt like a setup to make him possess regret towards his life.

After opening his eyes, he walked on the sandy beach before listening to the circumstances from the woman in the white suit. You have died, but you have gained another chance at life. It was then that Yoo Bokja appeared. The elderly woman who had lived her whole life helping other people despite leading a poor life herself said that it was okay and yielded the chance of revival to him. Wasn’t that like a fairy tale? It could even be called a myth.

This put more weight on the fact that Yoo Bokja was an imaginary figure. Then why was there a need to go through such lengths to create a character and set up the mood?

“What if I refused?”

At first, he definitely refused. He told her not to waste such a precious opportunity on a person like him. What was the result? He was persuaded after a long time and received the opportunity himself.

No matter how much he thought about it, repeating one’s life meaninglessly could not be called a reward. This meant that ultimately, his life was being repeated as punishment.

There was no need to ask a criminal for his opinion. Telling him to do what he is supposed to do should be fine.

“I could choose.”

Maru could feel the heat rising in his head. It was wrong from the beginning. It must be a natural thing for the dead to long for life. The woman in the white suit paved a path for him to choose life. Who would choose death when they were urged to choose life?

What if he did not choose to revive?

“If that’s the key to ending this cycle… do I need to die first or what?”

Maru called for the masked man.

-You must feel complicated right now.

“I feel like my head is going to burst. Let me ask you one thing. The woman in the white suit. Is she simply a guide? Or is she the judge?”

-I’m sorry, but I can’t tell you that.

“Fine. Then what about this? You said this to me before I lost my memories; that you know why this all started.”

-Yes. I know the circumstances behind all this. Including how and why it all began.

“Fine. Back then, you said something as you looked at that white rabbit on your shoulder. You called the rabbit ‘her’. Right before that, I asked you this question: what is the identity of the woman who led me to revive? And whether or not she was god,” Maru said as he probed his memories.

“Is the woman that guided me the rabbit?”

-I’m sorry.

“Then you told me this: Don’t hate her too much; she has spent a much longer time in despair. That’s when I asked: Who is this ‘she’?”

-The woman you’ll love forever.

“Yes, that’s how you replied. There’s only one woman I can think of that I will love forever. She’s the only woman Han Maru has loved over numerous lives. She must be Gaeul.”

-I’m sorry.

“What did you mean when you told me not to hate her? Is my life repeating because I loved her? Or are you saying that the reason this all began is because of her?”

-You must know the answer to that already, right? I’m sorry. As much as I want to tell you, my mouth won’t open.

“Gosh, this is driving me crazy.”

Maru then asked one last question. He knew that the answer would be yet another ‘I’m sorry’, but he had to ask anyway. It was the question he was the most afraid to ask as well as the question that assumed the worst.

“The woman who guided me, the rabbit that was on your shoulder, and Gaeul. What is the possibility that those three are the same person?”

The masked man once again replied ‘I’m sorry’.

Chapter 724

Maru decided to look at what was clear for now.

-The revival occurred many times, the reason for which is unclear.

-Memories have disappeared. They have returned, but there’s the possibility that they might disappear again.

-The woman in the white suit is deeply related to this cycle.

As for the unclear things, he decided to put them in a corner of his mind for the time being. It was meaningless to hypothesize about a hypothesis. He had to base his assumptions on the facts. It was nearly impossible to take precautions against what would happen in the future, so he would have to act depending on the situation. He could only shirk back in order to survive the gaze of the omnipotent beings.

Maru grabbed a taxi. The fact that his memories had returned would definitely be unexpected. If even this was within the schedule of god, then every action he took after this would be meaningless.

Did the fact that no measures were taken mean that there was a hole in the surveillance? Something that was progressing according to divine providence had gone wrong. In order to set things straight again, god should send the woman in white or take away his memories or do something, but there were no reactions until now.

Not knowing or letting him go. Regardless of which was true, it did not change the fact that he had gained freedom. If he could meet the woman in white again, he would be able to get some hints through some questions, but she always appeared at the most random moments before disappearing after saying what she needed to. Was there a method to call her out?

Maru called for the masked man, but there was no answer. If god was really omnipotent and omniscient, he should have realized that Han Maru’s soul had split into two. Did he leave that alone while knowing it? Or did he not know about it?

He felt like Sun Wukong, the Monkey King. Despite having an immortal body, the monstrous creature could not escape Buddha's palm and eventually became punished after accepting defeat. The punishment even lasted five hundred years until the monk Sanzang freed him. Did a being like Sanzang exist for someone like him as well?

The more he thought about it, the more he felt like he was playing in the playground that god had made for him. To think that god had a blind spot in his view and that there were things he could not see made him feel like that was a too optimistic thought, but to think that god knew everything would make all of his assumptions meaningless.

In order to have a sense of purpose, he assumed that god had weak points, but ‘is that really the case?’ kept reverberating in his head. Was there such a thing as free will? Is the fact that he was thinking about this at this specific moment predestined from a point way beyond history? Was there really a path that allowed him to escape this cycle?

He slapped his cheeks. The taxi driver looked at him, wondering what was going on.

“Oh, I was getting a little sleepy. There’s something important today, and I can’t afford to doze off.”

“You look like a student. Sleep is very important for people of your age.”

“You’re right. I need to get some sleep, but I couldn’t because I had a nightmare.”

“Are you in your 3rd year of high school?”

“Yes.”

“I guess it must be hard for you then. Here, have some of this. It will clear your throat and drive away your drowsiness.”

It was a throat candy. The strong mint refreshed his nose and throat. It would be great if it could refresh his mind as well - Maru thought in vain. He paid the taxi fare before getting off. When he went through the gates, he saw people gathered by the central door to the main school building.

“Are you okay?”

“Yes, I’m fine. Sorry for making you worried.”

A staff member that he had gotten to know patted him on the shoulders, telling him to be careful. Maru walked over to the stands. He saw Joomin and Dongho, who were getting ready to shoot.

“You came back pretty fast.”

“It wasn’t anything much after all. What about the shoot?”

“It’s going well. You really should’ve taken some time to rest at the hospital. There’s still some time.”

“I should come early and prepare beforehand.”

After talking to Dongho, he looked at Joomin.

“Noona, I saw that you spilled some coffee because of me. Is your hand okay?”

“It was completely lukewarm so I didn’t get hurt. Rather than that, how do you feel? Even if the doctor told you that you were okay, you should still get some rest if you don’t feel good.”

“If I really felt bad, I was planning to get some rest as well, but I completely woke up by the time I arrived at the hospital. The doctor also told me it was nothing to worry about.”

“Are you sure you weren’t anemic or something?”

“Yes. I think I was just a little dizzy because blood rushed into my legs. Looks like I need to do some more exercise. I feel like I’ve gotten weaker after resting for a while.”

“You have a good figure, you’re not lacking exercise. It must be because of your schedule. No matter how good your body is, you’re bound to become ill if you push yourself. You should watch out for your health. I still feel freaky if I remember how you stumbled and collapsed.”

“I’ll definitely watch out.”

Just then, he could hear a ‘cut’ sound in the distance. Maru greeted everyone he came across and approached Park Hoon.

“Were there no problems?”

“Yes.”

“That’s good then. You can make the shoot right?”

“Even if I collapse, I will do the shoot.”

“If you collapse, you can’t do the shoot. Anyway, I feel relieved to see you’re doing okay. Let’s get ready and start immediately. I pulled your scene ahead, so let’s get that done quickly so you can go home.”

“You didn’t have to do that though.”

“If an accident occurs under my watch because I’m working with a patient, it’ll be me who’ll be in trouble, okay?”

Park Hoon smiled and told him to go. Maru was just feeling complex because of all the thoughts that rushed into his head. He felt thankful for Park Hoon’s consideration. He thought that he should finish the shoot early, go home and think about it.

After wracking his brain over things that completely transcended common sense, he felt like he was resting now that he was met with a more realistic problem. While there was no correct answer to acting, there was a correct area. It felt so relieving to think about something with an answer. Maru smiled in vain and flipped through his script.

“Looks like you feel okay now.”

Giwoo had approached and spoken to him. Maru looked at him and nodded. He realized once again how scary losing his memories was as well as how scary the change in his cognition was when he looked at this guy. He acted kindly towards a person he would never want to keep close. He felt like he wanted to slap his own mouth.

How complex - the emotions from how he acted while he had lost his memories still remained within him. While the social Han Maru did not act the way he liked, it wasn’t something that should completely be ignored. The young Han Maru’s consciousness definitely helped when expanding his relationships. If he could let his forty-five-year-old self control the recklessness of youth, he would gain a social weapon. Take what was necessary and abandon what wasn’t needed. Although ‘challenge’ and ‘adventure’ were still terrifying words, he wouldn’t just exclude them outright from the get-go.

Of course, there were things that simply weren’t an option. For example, his relationship with this guy. He said all those things before he regained his memories, so he would follow along, but if he tried to do something, Maru would let him know why the tongue was called the knife within the mouth. There were young people who had to see blood to realize what they’D done wrong.

Maru looked into Giwoo’s eyes. The quicker a person’s thoughts were, the faster the speech bubble would appear. Giwoo very quickly managed to finish analyzing and judging the person in front of him. This guy, he has the same eyes as grandfather again - that was what was written above him.

Grandfather, huh. That was rather unexpected. Maru thought that he would not rely on others with the personality he had. The ‘grandfather’ that Giwoo thought of when analyzing him seemed to be a pretty important figure.

“Now that I think about it, we never talked that much, haven’t we?” Maru started off the conversation.

Giwoo made a comfortable smile, but Maru could see the minute cracks in it. It wouldn’t be a stretch to say that Maru’s eyes, which looked similar to Giwoo’s grandfather's, have broken his tranquility. This might be a weakness. If he could get a grasp of what this person’s grandfather was like, Maru would gain the upper hand. While Kang Giwoo was trash that couldn’t be turned into anything good, there should still be a way to use him. For example, fight your enemy with your enemy - or in this case, clean trash using other trash.

“Talk?”

“Maybe the reason I said all that to you before was because I felt envious.”

Maru could see his wariness rising rapidly. While Giwoo’s lips were still in the shape of a smile, his eyes that looked at him became a lot sharper. He was the type who would only feel relieved after knowing what the opponent had in mind. In that sense, Maru thought that Giwoo was like him. Because they were similar, it was easy to understand him. Moreover, while it might be superficial, he could read Kang Giwoo’s thoughts as well. If Maru took the time and effort to shake him up and down, things would become really interesting.

“What do you mean, envious of me?”

Giwoo looked really nervous when Maru sounded friendly. Maru did not go out of his way to relieve his nervousness. Reaching a hand out to a wary cat was a foolish thing to do. He had to make the cat stand down by itself.

“Who here do you think is not envious of you?”

“I’m not someone so amazing.”

“There you go, being humble again.”

Maru took a beat of rest before speaking again,

“But you know? How does it feel to do that play of yours?”

He could see Giwoo’s shoulders stiffening as though he was about to attack at any moment. He looked like a soldier that had met an enemy during war. Maru looked into his eyes. Thoughts seemed to be flashing through rapidly inside his head to the point that there was no room to think about Han Maru. He could not see any speech bubbles. Though, he could see Giwoo’s lips trembling. It seemed that he was pretty flustered if he couldn’t maintain his signature smile.

If Maru wanted to stop him from doing bad things around him in the future by pressuring him, he could just stop speaking here. Giwoo would start worrying about the things he did after imagining all sorts of outcomes, and as a result, become rather docile. If this guy was an idiot, he would start rampaging the moment he realizes that he had been driven into a corner, but Kang Giwoo was cautious to the point that he would control others through phone calls, so he should probably choose to stay still.

“Why do you ask?”

There was a sense of urgency in his voice. The fact that he couldn’t stay quiet proved that Giwoo was shaken. Maru smiled as though it was nothing much. His objective was not to end all conversations with him; it was to disarm him.

“Nothing, I was just a little curious. I was also wondering if it was fun.”

“I thought you weren’t interested. In fact, you looked like you despised that sort of thing. You even warned me not to do it, didn’t you?”

“Yeah, I did. But I realized recently that what you are doing might not be entirely so bad after all.”

“What do you mean by that?”

He still had not let his guard down. Giwoo was so absorbed in the word ‘play’. He was probably thinking of thousands of excuses in his mind to argue.

The human brain was actually very simplistic and could not do multiple things at once. In the case of a lie that required a high level of mental power, it would weaken the defenses of other elements once a person became absorbed in defending that lie. Maru was planning to make use of that.

“There’s someone I really don’t like. But I’m not in a situation where I can blatantly point him out. Just then, I thought about the play you were doing. It dawned on me that teasing some idiotic adults isn’t such a bad thing after all.”

“Really?”

While Giwoo was showing a positive reaction, his wariness increased by a level. Even if Maru asked him to let him in on these plays, Giwoo would never allow it. Maru could obviously tell that Giwoo was trying to cut himself off from everything related to the play. It also meant that there was a gap in his defenses now.

“He’s an old dude, and I really can’t like him. Do you have a grandfather at home? You should know how annoying elderly people can be.”

“I do have a grandfather, but I never thought of him that way. My grandfather is on a whole different level.”

Giwoo, who was preparing to defend the wordplay, ended up advocating his grandfather in a very strong tone. It sounded like it was beyond respect and more like admiration. If Maru asked him about his family history on a normal occasion, he would never leak any information due to suspicion, but he was so absorbed in defending the word ‘play’ that he ended up blurting it out so easily.

“Is your grandfather that amazing?”

“He’s the perfect man.”

Usually, the word ‘perfect’ wasn’t usually used to describe a person, not to mention ‘the’ perfect man. The fact that Kang Giwoo described him as such would mean that this grandfather of his was not an ordinary man.

“There’s a limit to how perfect old people could be.”

“Watch your words. Grandfather is in a whole different league from normal people.”

“Is he that amazing? I don’t think so. Are you sure you aren’t mistaken?”

The wariness and tension disappeared, replaced by the hostility that rose. Maru felt like the ‘grandfather’ keyword could be used against Giwoo pretty well.

“He’s the chairman of YM, yet you call that not amazing?”

After speaking with a proud face, Giwoo soon shut his mouth. Maru nodded. The man this little devil treats like a god, huh.

“He is an amazing person, huh. Okay, I get it.”

“Don’t go telling people. I don’t want things to become noisy.”

“Okay, okay.”

The people who should know about it probably know him already. The manager-level personnel probably got notified from those above them. Maru also remembered the distributor of the film that Kang Giwoo was going to play the role of the main character in was a subsidiary of YM. He sighed. This was a fruit that he could not pick and eat. He had a god to deal with, so he had no energy to deal with a chaebol’s grandson.

“Anyway, talk to you later,” Maru said with a smile.

Chapter 725

Going through the door, Hong Janghae took off his shoes and arranged them tidily. He had a glance at the darkroom before turning on the lights. He undid his tie and stood in front of the refrigerator. He saw three yellow sticky notes on it.

I won’t be here until the weekend, I’ve prepared side dishes so eat them as you wish, contact me via text message if possible.

Those were the messages left behind by his wife. He took off the sticky notes and put them in the trash. He opened the refrigerator. He saw containers of side dishes with labels on them. His wife had prepared the side dishes according to each day. He took out the braised tofu, stir-fried nuts, and the chicken breast salad. While he warmed up the braised tofu in the microwave, he took off his shirt. The noise from the microwave filled the room, putting him at ease.

“A meeting accompanied by my wife? I’ll call you back after I look into it.”

He hung up the call he got from his friend and got ready to eat. He first drank the stamina drink that his wife prepared for him before eating the heated food. When eating, Janghae always focused on the food. He didn’t turn the TV on or fiddle with his phone while eating. After he finished eating, he washed the dishes. He then shook off the water from his hands and sent his wife a text: Can you make some time next week?

He got a reply soon: Wednesday and Saturday. Janghae called his friend and told him that he could do Saturday. His wife was a woman of few words. Instead of words, she was a woman of action. Janghae liked that part of her. While they did not trust each other, they provided each other with what they needed. She wished to use the system of marriage to her benefit, and the same went for Janghae.

For the image of a family that society wanted, they also promised to have two children before they got married. Two regardless of gender. His wife splendidly fulfilled her role as a mother, but she did not stop working either. Janghae thought that there wasn’t a problem with it as long as she didn’t make a mistake while doing both of them, and his wife did everything perfectly. Janghae also did all the things that he had to do as a husband and as the breadwinner of the household; he trained himself to stay fit and satisfy his wife sexually, and he did not forget to buy gifts on commemorative days and anniversaries. She also did her best to stay slim. After all, maintaining an appearance that wouldn’t make them look shameful as a couple in public was important. After marriage, both Janghae and his wife still had other lovers in their respective workplaces, but they never fought over something like that. In fact, they even introduced each other to young lovers. His wife always brought him women that suited his tastes. Janghae also gifted her with young men in order to pay her back. It was a much healthier and more desirable relationship than those that relied on uncertain things like love. Their views on education also matched, and there was no discord there either. Though, they were surprised when Geunseok left the house.

In any case, his wife was a good woman and still proved herself to be useful. As long as she continued to be earnest, Janghae would continue to like her. The opposite was true as well.

He sat on the sofa and had a look at the reports that the team leaders submitted. The schedules of the various actors and musicians under Soul Entertainment were written in detail in them. The documents on his left were about the music streaming service ‘Music Soul’, that just finished the open beta and had been fully commercialized. The high number of users showed a drastic decrease ever since the platform became a paid subscription. It seemed that they didn’t like paying for music. It was a natural reaction since the internet was filled with illegal tracks.

There was no problem since this was all expected. Janghae stroked his chin. The only thing that could win against something that was free of charge was convenience. The advantage of being able to listen to the latest songs without much effort for just a few thousand won should be a very welcome thing for the people in their 20s and 30s, who consumed a lot of culture.

The slogan that Music Soul put forward was ‘trend leader’. That term started appearing on internet banners already. Music Soul, a step ahead. Rather than appealing to people’s sense of justice to use legal, paid services, telling them that using the platform would make them trendy would stimulate purchases more. Once he managed to open their wallets once, the hurdle would become a lot lower when renewing the subscriptions. A fee that was less than 5,000 won was stronger than any form of advertisement.

If it successfully takes root in the market, Music Soul would become a bigshot in the music market. Now that the CD market was on the decline, he had to make use of the advantages of the forerunner as much as possible.

After organizing the documents related to Music Soul, he looked at the reports for other departments. Currently, Soul’s signature actor could be called Lee Hyuk, while their signature singer was The Five. In Lee Hyuk’s case, he had to admit that he got lucky. He tried to go over to join JA Production after his contract expired with his previous agency, but that didn’t work out. Although he definitely once was a popular actor, he rarely had any activities for the past few years and other unfortunate events like how the premature ending of the drama he participated in was leading to his decline in value as an actor. Janghae managed to bring him in for a cheap contract deposit thanks to all those elements. Immediately after that, Lee Hyuk was cast in a movie directed by director Park Joongjin, and that ended up doing extremely well. He was in his mid-thirties, his prime as an actor, and his success at this time made him an actor called by many places.

However, Janghae did not have Lee Hyuk do any work. In his opinion, the success of a film was unrelated to the actor. It was purely up to the director. If he rowed the boat just because there was water, he might end up in the middle of nowhere, so he had to be careful. Sometimes, opportunity was like a storm that would capsize the ship when it got caught up in it. As he had suppressed Lee Hyuk’s rebellious personality, he did not resist that much. In fact, he looked even a little relieved. Janghae liked how he knew his own position. He was someone who gave rewards to docile sheep after all.

The Five wasn’t doing bad either. Perhaps thanks to appealing to the public’s sympathy with the problem of the slave contract, the fans stayed loyal. Although he only had three of the five members, as the remaining two still belonged to the previous agency, they were still allowed to use the team name ‘The Five’, which meant that there were no big problems. He was also working below the waters to get the other two to join his company, so they should be able to go back to their five-man team soon.

“I should slowly start pulling out from this one now.”

The reason The Five was able to rise so rapidly was thanks to the help of many rich ladies. Daughters of big chaebols, as well as female presidents, were The Five’s patrons. It wasn’t just women who sold their bodies. In fact, while there was less demand, the money involved with men doing the same work was much larger. On the day members of The Five satisfied a rich lady, public TV stations broadcasted The Five’s signature song by playing them during entertainment programs. They would appear in the golden slots for music programs, and they even had a program named after them. Janghae found out through managing the agency that stars were creatures that grew on money. The entertainment industry wasn’t that different from the logistics business that he was originally handling. The forerunner monopolized it all.

The problem was that The Five had become relatively big now.

Janghae came to know Lee Miyoon before he became the president of Soul. He went to meet her after hearing that she had a vast connection in the industry. He knew with one glance that she was the same type of person as him. Perhaps because she too was someone who desperately tried everything to climb higher, their business talks went smoothly. It was then that he found out about The Five. Back then, Janghae made a proposal. There were many people who would be in trouble if the sexual service matter became controversial, so they should cover it up with another incident. That was how they made an issue out of the unfair contract, sowing disharmony between The Five and their agency. That was just before the male idol sexual service controversy burst out. After that, some newbie journalists tried to stick their nose into that matter again, but society soon became calm because there were no follow-up articles. There was no reason to dig into it, and The Five’s sexual service matter disappeared back into the memories of people, and Janghae managed to bring them in. He also managed to bring them in cheaply to the point that it was no different from a slave contract.

The problem was that the rich ladies were starting to look for The Five again. Now that they were beginning to lose attention from the public again, they seemed to want to play around with those young men again. Janghae did not think negatively about those services. He was of the mind that it was a good thing to make use of their puny bodies if it meant that he could win a big contract. If The Five was doing badly, he would have sent them to do those services without hesitation, but right now, the value of idols was through the roof since they were becoming huge hits in Japan. Since they had become expensive, there was a need to adjust their price, but thanks to a middleman, it became a lot harder to calculate the benefits and losses. Lee Miyoon, that old hag, was up to shady business in the middle.

She was indebted to him too. Janghae found Lee Miyoon incredibly annoying when she reached out to him for help while not knowing what she was doing. She tried to manipulate The Five as she wished while hinting to him that she had a lot of connections in the political and financial world. Janghae disliked that. He was supposed to be the owner of The Five, yet it was her who tried to use that right as she wished to.

If he could, he wished to stuff her in a bag and beat her up. A beating was the only way to tame a foolish woman who thought that the power she gained by opening her legs was hers. He thought about hiring some mercenaries to bring her here quietly, but he left that for another day since she was hard to deal with.

His hands felt itchy. At times like this, he thought about Geunseok. He remembered how the boy looked at him with eyes stricken with fear. It felt good to beat him up, but unfortunately, Geunsoo took him away.

Janghae despised the incompetent but cherished the capable. When he saw Geunsoo escape the castle he built and become successful independently, he felt really proud as a father. It was to the point that he could stand the boy’s hostile gaze.

Just as he was reminiscing about that sensation he got from his hand, he got a call. Not from his business phone, but from his personal one. He reached out and opened his phone.

“Junior director Kim, it’s been a while. But what’s up today? Calling at this hour.”

-Junior director Hong. No wait, I guess you’re president Hong, now, eh?

He could hear a laugh over the phone. Junior director Kim wasn’t someone who would call without reason, so he decided to wait.

-There’s someone who wishes to meet you.

“Me? At this hour?”

Janghae looked at the clock on the wall. It was past 9 in the evening. Junior director Kim was not a rude person. He wasn’t incompetent either. If he wanted to see him at this hour without any prior notifications, it meant that it was that important. Above all, there weren’t many people who he would use polite speech like ‘who wishes to see you’ to refer to.

-Come to Sanggye-dong.

“Is it the chairman’s call?”

-Yes. You have to come to the chairman’s mansion.

“Junior director Kim, I’m asking just in case, but am I losing my position?”

-If it was like that, I wouldn’t have called you beforehand. Come as soon as possible.

“I will.”

Janghae put his shirt back on and put on his tie. He put his shoes on and brushed them off with a shoe brush. He stood in front of the mirror, checked his clothes, and went to his car and turned it on. On his way to Sanggye-dong, he thought about whether he did anything wrong, but fortunately, there was none.

He arrived at the chairman’s mansion, which was located on a hill that looked down on Sanggye-dong. He was guided by a driver waiting for him to park his car underground before going round to the front door. He checked his clothes again before stepping forward.

He passed the wide living room and arrived in front of the study. Junior director Kim was waiting for him there. After exchanging gazes, junior director Kim knocked on the door.

He was just getting ready to go in when the door suddenly opened. The chairman, who had a build that was better than most people despite the fact that he was in his seventies, came out holding his hands behind his back. Janghae bowed towards the chairman. This man was the legend who succeeded a small trading company that was YM and raised it to the super conglomerate of today.

“You’ve come.”

“Yes, chairman.”

“How about food?”

“I haven’t eaten yet.”

“What did you do until now? Geez. Junior director Kim, let’s eat together after a long time.”

Junior director Kim replied ‘yes’ before standing next to the chairman.

“Little Hong.”

“Yes.”

“Did you like bossam?”

“I do.”

“Then let’s go with that,” said the chairman.

Chapter 726

The chairman was a man of power. It was hard to find a man with as much power as him in the country. After all, the reality was that those who had quite an influence in the political field were completely docile in front of him. There was a rumor about how he was the mental support of the current Korean president, but the truth was only known to the two of them.

“Little Hong.”

“Yes, chairman.”

“How is it going these days?”

“I’m doing everything without a problem. I will definitely make the most out of this opportunity you gave me.”

“You know, I have always hated those clowns. They show up on television to sing and dance. They’re practically no different from circus troupes, but the people like them too much. If we were in the Joseon era, people would treat them as nothing more than street fools, so I despised seeing them act like the world was theirs just because they gained a little popularity.”

“You’re entirely right, sir.”

“Until a few years ago, I never changed my mind. I felt like my blood was rushing to my head when they introduced themselves as ‘public figures’. Who are they to call themselves that? They would lose their jobs if businessmen didn’t give them ads. No matter how much the public sucks up to them, who is it that feeds them? It’s us, businessmen.”

“You’re entirely correct.”

Junior director Kim commented every time the chairman finished his thought. The chairman laughed every single time. Janghae just nodded without saying anything.

“But recently, I changed my mind. Before, we were in an era where a business could sell products based on their brand value alone, but it’s not like that these days. I don’t know what these idols are, but I felt really absurd when I received a quarterly report. The public moved when we used those minstrels in our adverts. It was flabbergasting. Little Hong, what is the main product of YM Living?”

“Based on market monopoly, it’s toothpaste. I heard that we were past 70%.”

“You’re quite knowledgeable even though you have taken your hands off logistics.”

“Whether it’s the child company or the parent company, I’m trying my best to know everything related to YM.”

“Yes, Little Hong. That’s how people should be. The lazy ones will get abandoned.”

The chairman lifted his glass and put it against his mouth. Janghae and junior director Kim also drank along with him. This soju, which was created by a master brewer of Andong soju specifically for the sake of the chairman, was on a completely different level from the factory-made distilled soju that was sold in markets. Of course, the alcohol content was completely different as well. Even Janghae, who had a strong tolerance for alcohol, felt heat rushing up from his throat on his second glass.

“It’s a market worth 170 billion won, and it’s YM who controls most of it. Toothpaste was the main item when I succeeded the company. It’s something that has a lot of memories for me.”

The chairman chuckled after remembering the old times.

“The distance my friend and I traveled in order to sell toothpaste back then should be enough to travel around the Earth at least once. It’s nearly impossible for latecomers to increase their market share. But when I did it to the death, I did manage to do it. I had to suck up to bank-men to increase clients and then find out the logistics by sucking up to those clients. I had a hard time raising it. I can say that toothpaste is the core of YM.”

“Of course, of course,” junior director Kim said.

“Toothpaste is my pride. That’s why I’m usually lenient when it comes to anything else, but when our market share of toothpaste fell, I flipped over the household item marketing department. Little Hong, maybe you managed to maintain your position because you’re in logistics.”

“I was lucky,” Janghae said as he lowered his head.

“While it is a petty dream, it was my dream to go past 70% market share in toothpaste. I thought that it was a monumental event to completely get a hold of the market that YM has sprung up on. I even danced in joy when it first went past 60%. No matter what I did though, I could never reach that 70%. No matter how good the ingredients we use to make them, it takes time for people to spread the word. When we first made the toothpaste for toddlers, I thought that we would go past that 70%, but even back then, we weren’t able to do so.”

Janghae was reminded of the toothpaste ad where a popular animation character appeared and sang a song.

“I wanted to use an actor too. However, I was told they can’t do it even if I give them the money because it doesn’t fit their image. It was absurd. Those clowns dare to refuse money? I thought that the world was being crazy.”

“Everyone’s too full of themselves. We must return to a time where they come and go at the beck and call of businessmen.”

Junior director Kim spoke like an automatic answering machine. Janghae thought that it was an ability of his. Flattering wasn’t something that anyone could do.

“But it happened. We’re past 70% just because we used an idol actor. We did a survey about it as well. Why do you buy YM products? Do you know what the answer was?”

“I have no clue, sir,” said junior director Kim.

“I guess a lot of them must have bought it thanks to the actor.”

Should he say he knew or act ignorant? Janghae had debated between the two options before replying. Junior director Kim was in charge of the flattering character, so there didn’t seem to be a need for him to do the same.

“Yes, that’s it. The majority of them said that they bought it after seeing the face of the actor holding that toothpaste rather than considering things like effectiveness or ingredients used. It was totally absurd. A product was not being evaluated as a product. I found it absurd that the trivial reason of ‘a celebrity using that thing’ raised its value more than its improvement in function. But what can I do about it? It’s the solid hard truth. It means that the world has changed.”

The chairman wiped his mouth with some napkins.

“Back in my day, we were treated like adults the moment we entered high school. Even if we smoked with the adults, we might get slapped on the back of the head, but we didn’t get our cigarettes taken away. In fact, the adults even told us that we’re at the age where we should learn to drink. There were many people who started taking care of their families, and there are also those that started working. But these days, the young ones can never leave their parents until they’re twenty or even twenty-five. So what does that make them in their middle and high school days? Practically toddlers. They act like crybabies telling their parents they want this or that. They have no sense of responsibility but are a lot more greedy.”

When the chairman spoke with a hint of anger, junior director Kim respectfully lifted up the soju bottle.

“Chairman, there’s no way the young ones these days understand the harsh reality of the world, is there?”

“Of course they don’t.”

“It’s all because of the efforts and the generosity of people like you that made the world a better place, and as a result, they can live the life they are living now, but they don’t know that.”

“You’re right, junior director Kim. Kids these days are all whiny. They don’t even know what we went through in the past. They don’t know that the things they take for granted are my achievements and the results of my business. They don’t know, so they don’t know how to be grateful either. They call us chaebols and poke the hell out of us on a whim, but what would happen if we disappeared from this country?”

“It’ll be doomed in a blink of an eye. If the YM Group falls, Korea will become a developing, no, poor country in an instant. But chairman, it’s not like everyone on this land is an ignorant fool. I’ve had a look at the public opinion, but there are many youths who think that businesses are the future and the lifeline of this country. So do not worry too much.”

Junior director Kim would very much succeed with his flattery alone. He was a complete smooth-talker. Of course, if that was all he had, he would have lost his position a long time ago. The chairman does not have incompetent people by his side after all.

“Anyway, ever since then, I have had to accept that those clowns have some abilities. Little Hong, I knew that you longed to go to logistics, but I couldn’t let just anyone take over the helm of a new business. The times have changed, so I should step in line as well.”

“I will raise it well and meet your expectations, chairman.”

“I don’t think there will be a problem if it’s you. I don’t put the people I trust in vague positions. I either have them right next to me or send them really far away. Junior director Kim, this guy, he’s very good at flattery. He knows how to make me feel pleased. Meanwhile, Little Hong, you don’t know how to fawn over people.”

“If you so wish, I will do that.”

“That’s no fun. What I want to say is that the two of you have different uses. Junior director Kim, this fella, he’s quite good when it comes to consolidating the internal atmosphere, but he’s not charismatic enough to lead a new business.”

“You’re right, sir.”

Junior director Kim never stopped his honey-coated tongue no matter what the chairman said. The chairman faintly smiled.

“Little Hong, honestly speaking, you don’t have that much luck with relations. You’re very good at coming up with new things, but you lack when it comes to consoling those around you.”

“I think so too.”

“Soul, try raising it well. I’ve given the word, so if you ever get stuck while trying to handle money, you can contact my line. Try reaching out to everyone that’s doing well these days. I’ve been told that SC and DK are also making plans below the waters, so watch out and do not fall behind.”

“Yes, sir.”

“Also, there’s someone I’d like you to look out for.”

“What?”

Janghae put down his chopsticks and looked at the chairman. This was the first time the chairman was asking him to do something. The monarch that ruled a kingdom always gave orders instead of asking for requests or expressing things in an indirect fashion.

“I’m talking about my grandson. He’s doing his activities in the entertainment world without revealing his background, but the world isn’t that easy, is it?”

“You must be talking about Mr. Kang Giwoo, sir?”

“Yes, yes. He’s a smart kid. He doesn’t take after his mother; he takes after me. He’s a boy worth raising.”

“Weren’t you going to call him into the company soon?”

“That was the plan. It’s a pity for a man to waste his life doing clown stuff. But he has big ambitions. Apparently, in America, the words of a celebrity may decide the senator of a state or whatnot. The new generation, was it? Anyway, the things that that little one does are quite cute. As a grandfather, I can’t just sit by doing nothing.”

“Should I bring him over to Soul?”

“Take him in and watch him well. Also, teach him how the world works. Your style should fit him better than junior director Kim’s.”

“I will do so.”

“Of course, don’t tell him that I was involved in it. Although he hasn’t matured, he’s a man. so it should hurt his pride.”

“If that’s the case, I might be a little rough on him.”

“I will let it slide to a certain extent. It’s a good thing to grow up strong, but don’t be too hard.”

The chairman smiled pleasantly. As this was the first thing that the chairman ‘asked’ him to do, he couldn’t make a mistake. Janghae pushed all the reports to the back of his mind and engraved the name ‘Kang Giwoo’.

“And also, while you’re here.”

The chairman stood up. Junior director Kim quickly pushed back his chair and tried to stand up, but the chairman gestured to him to stay seated. The chairman left for a while before returning with two boxes. Janghae could tell with one look that those boxes contained watches.

“Here, take one.”

Janghae lowered his head as he accepted the box. He saw a brand-name logo in the corner.

“Open it and put it on so I can see if it fits you or not. I’d be rather embarrassed if I bought you something weird.”

Janghae felt uneasy the moment he looked at the logo. He barely held back from groaning when he opened the box. Inside was a watch that cost hundreds of millions of won. That wasn’t the bad part. The problem was that Janghae had put dibs on this watch to buy it at the end of the year.

He looked at junior director Kim. He was also a little stiff but soon regained his smile. It seemed that he got the watch he wanted as well.

The watches they wanted - Janghae never told the chairman that he wanted this watch. He didn’t tell anyone about it, yet, the chairman found out and prepared one for him.

“I shall do my best,” Janghae said as he put on the watch.

“Yes, try your best.”

The chairman put on a faint smile and told them to leave. Jangahae stood up from his seat and took a deep bow before leaving through the door. Junior director Kim followed him out.

“He’s a scary man,” said junior director Kim.

“I’ll be leaving now.”

“Yeah, see you later. Let’s have a drink just by ourselves next time.”

“Yes.”

Janghae gave the driver that junior director Kim called over his car keys. On his way home, he rubbed the watch several times. He felt like it was a handcuff instead of a watch.

“I guess it’s better than nothing.”

There was only a paper-thin difference between trust and suspicion. For now, this was proof that he had the trust of the chairman, so now it was time for him to prove his worth. He would have to move busily if he didn’t want this watch to be his retirement gift.

Chapter 727

“Sora, let’s go to the noraebang together after school.”

“Can’t. I have an interview after school today.”

“An interview?”

Sora waved at her clueless friends before leaving the classroom. Two days ago, she received a call. A movie magazine named ‘Movie Sound’ wanted to do an interview. She was drowsy when she got the call, so she was in a daze for a while. When she got herself together, she thought that it was a prank call. If the journalist did not explain clearly, she would have pressed the end call button and gone to the land of dreams.

“Maru-seonbae.”

She opened the door to 3rd-year electrical engineering class 2. The seniors sitting at their desks all turned their heads around and looked at her. Sora smiled awkwardly at the teacher who was standing at the front before closing the door. They hadn’t finished their homeroom yet. She was waiting outside while looking at the time when the front door opened along with the last greeting. The teacher in charge of the acting club told her to be careful. Sora apologized.

“Why were you in such a hurry?”

“Because there’s an interview!”

“There are 20 minutes left.”

“We should go there early.”

“You’re way too excited.”

“I can’t help it. It’s an interview, you know? An interview with a famous magazine too. When else would I get a chance like this in my life? Well, you might not feel much because you show up on TV every weekend, but that’s not the same for me.”

“Yes, yes.”

Sora dragged the grumbling Maru by the arm. ‘Movie Sound’ was a long-time movie magazine that filled up one wall of the film production club. She couldn’t help but be excited since she got an interview from such a major magazine.

“Quickly.”

She urged Maru, who was changing his shoes leisurely, and then left the school gates and crossed the road. They crossed the city park and a pedestrian overpass, before reaching a commercial district. After seeing the coffee shop, the place they were appointed to meet, Sora told Maru to come quickly before opening the door.

“There are 10 minutes left.”

“You shouldn’t have too high hopes, you know?”

“Why?”

“It’s just a student interview, there’s nothing amazing about it.”

“I heard it’ll fill up 3 whole pages.”

“3 pages?”

Maru made a confused expression. Sora also maintained her calm before she heard the length, but when the journalist told her that she’d take up 3 whole pages including a photo, she couldn’t stay still due to excitement. She had seen the magazines in the clubroom, so she knew how much 3 pages were worth.

“Should we order something?”

“Do it when the journalist comes.”

“Seonbae, what time is it now?”

“Check over there,” Maru replied back before taking out his notepad from his pocket.

Sora was curious about what was in it but did not ask. His eyes were really scary when he looked at that notepad. She felt like she would get cut if she touched him.

Sora grew up hearing that she was quick-witted. Just like what others said about her, she was talented at reading other people’s moods. She was complimented a lot by adults for knowing when to approach and when to leave them alone. Her intuition told her that this was the time to leave him alone.

Maru kept flipping over the pages before returning to the first page. He wrote something with a pen before flipping again. He kept going through that process. Although she was sitting at the same table as him, she felt like he was really distant.

His notepad returned to his pocket when the journalist came. The female journalist, who had on a pair of catchy white glasses, asked them what they wanted to drink before she sat down.

“Kiwi juice for me.”

“Cappuccino.”

The woman ordered the drinks before returning. She smiled and said that she enjoyed the film.

“You watched our film?”

“Yes. It was really well-made.”

The female journalist took out a notepad and a device that looked like a voice recorder.

“Can I have a look at this?”

“The voice recorder? Sure.”

Sora turned on the voice recorder and tried recording. When she played it back, she heard a clear voice from the device. It finally felt real to her that she was doing an interview. While the woman got ready to do the interview, Maru brought over the drinks.

“Shall we have some drinks for now?”

“Yes.”

She drank a sip of the juice as she observed the woman. She was a fashionable person with catchy accessories. She was wearing a white bracelet to match her white glasses and was wearing a trench coat for the autumn season.

“Shall we have a light talk first? Don’t be too conscious of the fact that you’re doing an interview and just think of it as chatting with a girl older than you. It tends to make things a lot easier.”

“Yes.”

“First up, are you two a couple?” the woman asked while locking her hands.

Sora smiled as soon as she heard that question.

“Do we look like one?”

“You two do suit each other.”

“No, he’s just a seonbae.”

“How unfortunate. If you two were dating, there would be a lot more to write for the interview. When did you start taking interest in film?”

“If it’s watching, I liked it since I was young, but I only thought about creating one for the first time when I was in my 3rd year of middle school.”

“Was there a trigger of some sorts?”

“I watched a movie on TV and it was terribly boring. That’s when I thought that I could make something better than that. Now, I’ve come to understand how hard it was to create even that. Shooting is a really hard process, huh.”

“You realized a lot in just one year. Oh, you are in your first year, right?”

“Yes.”

“What kind of genre interested you the most? Documentary-style that touches on controversial topics like ‘Classroom’ which you did?”

“No, I originally liked action movies. I mean, hot action has that taste.”

“Really? Then I guess you must have been rather disappointed when you were creating your piece this time. There was a genre you wanted to do after all.”

“Not necessarily. When I made synopses, I did make some of them with action in mind, but when I actually thought about enacting them in reality, I hit a limit pretty fast. Action movies aren’t something you can shoot in a day or two either. It was then that I came across a piece of news.”

“So you got your motif from there huh? A bullying accident?”

“Yes. I thought about doing a refreshing revenge story, but that usually doesn’t happen in real life. That’s when I thought about showing bullying for what it is.”

The journalist nodded. She was drinking coffee with one hand when she suddenly made an expression that looked like she had remembered something she had forgotten.

“Oh right, I haven’t told you my name yet, have I?”

She took out a business card from her wallet and pushed it forward. Sora accepted the business card. ‘Movie Sound, Koo Yura’ was written on it.

“A movie critic, who was one of the judges for the festival, praised it for the structure of the plot. A drama writer did the same.”

“Really?”

“Apparently, they liked how it showed everything for what it is so indifferently. They said that you’re bound to use different techniques if you were greedy to show off, but you focused on the story instead.”

“Actually, the scenario I first came up with is really different from the one we used for the movie.”

“What do you mean by that?”

Sora looked at Maru, who was just quietly drinking coffee next to her, before speaking,

“I think I need to clear this up first. Maru-seonbae originally didn’t have any intentions of shooting with us. Meanwhile, I was of the opinion that nobody else would do except him.”

“Was there a problem?”

“He was of the opinion that the scenario is too incomplete and thus will not participate. Honestly speaking, I was a little angry back then. He just disrespected my scenario after all.”

Journalist Koo Yura looked at Maru. Maru just shrugged.

“But that turned out to be a good thing. If he didn’t point out the problems back then, the final product would look a lot different from how it is now. I thought about it again after getting an earful from him. What am I trying to show through this film; where am I going to put my focus? That’s how the edited version of ‘Classroom’ came to be.”

“Sounds like there were a lot of ups and downs.”

“Yes.”

“I don’t think there’s a film in this world that goes smoothly from beginning to end. There are many big titles that start crashing midway. The crux of the issue is how to get up from that crash and how to clean it up.”

“I think so too.”

Sora spoke with excitement. The journalist induced her to say everything she wanted. She kept asking questions so that she didn’t stop talking, and Sora was impressed by how she induced her to keep speaking. She felt that not just anyone could become a journalist for a major magazine.

“Our boy here is a little quiet,” journalist Koo Yura talked to Maru this time.

“I don’t think it’s my turn yet. Also, I believe that it’s only proper for the director to do the talking.”

“From what Sora said, it sounds like you participated in the production instead of just the acting. Am I wrong?”

“I just said what anyone else could say from the side. There will always be busybodies in whatever you do. There are things that you can see from the sidelines that you can’t see it while doing it yourself.”

“How humble of you.”

Journalist Koo fiddled with the pen between her fingers.

“Since we’re at it, I do want to hear something from you too, Maru.”

“Yes, go ahead.”

“Maru, you are an actor who has shown your face on public TV programs, right?”

“Well, I’d be rather embarrassed to call myself an actor with the things I have done.”

“If you’re earning money at your age, you can be considered an actor. There aren’t many people who can win a fixed role in a series while they’re still in high school. Moreover, I heard that you were starting another mini-series soon, right? No wait, have you begun shooting already?”

So she dug into him already. Sora thought that they came across a good journalist. She was worried that they might end up talking about just trivial stuff without getting into the important details but seeing that journalist Koo had done her research put her at ease.

“The shoot began, yes.”

“How’s the atmosphere there?”

“There are times when it’s good, and there are times when it’s bad.”

“How about the people that shoot with you? Do they treat you well?”

“There are times when they treat me well, and there are times when they don’t.”

Sora looked at Maru. All he gave were vague answers. Even journalist Koo tilted her head since he looked like he was dodging the questions. He looked like he was in a bad mood before, so was this related to that?

“In your shoot for ‘New Semester’……”

“Miss.”

Before journalist Koo could finish her words, Maru interrupted. Sora felt nervous. The smile on Maru-seonbae’s face looked frosty.

“As far as I know, this interview is supposed to be about the youth film festival. Am I wrong?”

“That’s right.”

“Then I see no relation to my dramas.”

“But the people who read the magazine want to know more about the interviewees, so it’s fine to say what you’re up to right now.”

“If it’s like that, then just go with ‘I’m shooting a drama and preparing for one as well’. This girl is supposed to be the main character, so I don’t think there’s a need to talk about me in so much detail. Don’t you think so too?”

“That’s true, but I still think this much is fine.”

“Yes, this much is fine. If it’s just this much.”

Sora looked at Maru and journalist Koo alternately. There seemed to be a mental war between the two. But why?

“Fine. Shall we go back to talking about the film then? Based on what Sora said, it sounds like you didn’t have any intentions of proactively participating in the film.”

“I did try to proactively participate in the film.”

“That’s not what I heard from her.”

“I’m not sure from what perspective you’re asking, but from mine, ‘proactively’ doing something is doing something properly. The scenario that Sora showed me back then was unpolished. That’s why I said I will participate if the scenario becomes better.”

“Really? Then can I ask you one more thing? Leaving aside Sora, why did you participate in the film festival?”

“Someone I know told me that there was something called the youth film festival that began this year, and they told me that some people at my school are preparing for it. That’s how I met her.”

“So you didn’t participate in it on your own accord, but because of someone else’s advice? So another person’s advice played a bigger role in making you participate?”

Sora felt like journalist Koo’s question was loaded. Just then, Maru audibly laughed before replying,

“Of course not. Are you going to quit your company if I ‘advised’ you to quit? Advice is just advice. It’s me who makes the decision. I did it because I wanted to. I’m rather confused because you’re being roundabout for such an obvious thing.”

Maru had spoken as he wiped the lip of his cup with a finger.

Chapter 728

“Journalist, I didn’t say anything wrong, did I?”

“Well, you didn’t, I was just a little curious. You should be busy with drama shoots and all sorts of other things, but you’re investing your time into a school club, not to mention a club that you aren’t even in.”

“So you even know that I belong to the acting club, huh.”

“It’s natural to find that out as an interviewer. You could also say that it’s minimum courtesy.”

“I’m surprised that you found out so much about me when I’m not worth anything much.”

Sora wanted to interrupt midway, but she couldn’t say anything as there was a thick wall around the two of them. She wondered why such a wall was made. Why did Maru look like he was hostile, and why did the journalist keep asking roundabout questions? Everything was a question to her.

“In any case, you found out that the youth film festival was taking place through another person and was advised to participate, right?”

“Yes, I guess that’s true.”

“Who was it that advised you to do so?”

“Well, I want to know why you are so curious about who that person is, journalist.”

Journalist Koo wiped her lower lip with her pinky. The red lipstick got smudged onto her finger. To Sora, it looked like blood.

“Maru, is it me or does it sound like you hate me?”

“Of course I don’t. I want to answer your questions as earnestly as possible. It’s just that I want to talk about me, Sora and the film festival, but you keep asking about my private life which made me feel uneasy. You know that it’s rare for students like us to appear in a magazine. I just wanted to make as much out of this opportunity as I can.”

“You make it sound like I’m asking strange questions.”

“They aren’t strange, but if it sounded like that, then I don’t really have anything to tell you.”

Sora laughed and drank her cold kiwi juice. While it was the other two holding a conversation, she felt like it was her who was being burned out. She felt like she was placed in between two growling fighting dogs.

She lowered her phone beneath the table and moved her fingers. Sending texts without looking was something that any high school girl in South Korea was capable of doing.

Maru’s phone started ringing.

“Oh, please excuse me.”

While Maru opened his phone to check his text, Sora looked at the journalist and made a faint smile. The journalist smiled back at her. The needle-sharp atmosphere became loose in an instant which made it look like the mind war between the two hadn’t occurred at all.

“Let’s continue,” Maru said.

You aren’t angry, right? - that was the text she sent him and Maru used his actions to answer her. He was smiling, but his eyes had turned frosty. Sora thought about the expression Maru showed when he first read her scenario. It was extremely similar to his face right now. He was clearly displeased with this situation.

“If I happened to hurt your feelings, I apologize. It’s entirely my responsibility if the interview does not go smoothly, so tell me if you are dissatisfied with anything.”

“There’s nothing like that. Like I said before, I just want you to talk more about Sora and the film festival rather than me. Since it’s a movie magazine, you should focus the interview on future film people.”

Sora looked at Maru, who lightly patted her on the shoulder. She felt two things simultaneously. The reliability of a senior who was looking out for a junior, as well as the sneakiness of a senior that dodged a difficult topic.

Journalist Koo nodded once before switching the topic. Everything that occurred after that was about the film festival. For example, they would talk about what happened at the award ceremony. When she heard that the mayor had left halfway through the ceremony, journalist Koo truly became angry. At least, that’s how it looked to Sora’s eyes.

“Before we get to the most important question about your feelings about receiving the grand prize, did you expect to get it?”

The atmosphere of the interview became warm. Sora forgot about the warfare between Maru and journalist Koo and spoke joyfully,

“No, I didn’t. Of course, I did think that we’d get one prize at least, but I didn’t think it would be the grand prize.”

“So you were confident in winning a prize anyway?”

“Yes. We had a hard time shooting it, and the result was good too. The camera I got from a graduate really helped out a lot. The quality was really good.”

“For me personally, I think that camera work was great. Quality is something that you can solve with a better camera but focusing and angling isn’t something that a good camera can improve. It only improves through trial and error.”

“You’re right. The seonbae that was in charge of the camera really worked hard. I nagged him to reshoot many times over. Oh, Maru-seonbae over here also worked hard. I just had to give instructions and watch the video later, but the two seonbaes had to move constantly.”

“A director’s job is to bring out the best of each part. Being too labor-intensive is also a problem.”

Journalist Koo stopped the voice recorder once and turned it on again. She also wrote something down on her notepad. It seemed like she was organizing the main points so that she would have an easier time summarizing later.

“In the eyes of a director, how is Han Maru as an actor?”

Sora replied without hesitation,

“He’s the best you can get. Honestly, the acting for the main character in Classroom is pretty hard. It’s static, and the details in the emotional expression are important, so anyone else wouldn’t have been the same.”

“So only Maru could do it?”

“Of course. I didn’t ask him to do it for no reason.”

“That’s a lot of trust you have there. Maru said he found out about you through someone else, so then how did you find out about him? Did you know him before that?”

Sora shook her head.

“We didn’t know each other. I just knew him one-sidedly. I found out that he is acting through TV first. After that, I went to the acting club to check the real deal. I would have been disappointed if reality was different from looking through a screen, but he wasn’t like that. I chose him as the main character the moment I saw him.”

“What were you going to do if he refused?”

“Well, I’m not sure. I don’t assume that something’s not going to work when I do things. If I’m going to do it, make it work. That’s how I roll.”

“That sounds passionate. It’s a kind of power that is hard to see in kids these days. Are you going to place more interest in film in the future and go down that route?”

“I’m not sure yet. I really want to do it, but I have to think about realistic problems. I don’t want to be starving.”

“Your words now should make many nameless directors sad. I hope you can challenge it though. With your senses, you should be able to keep producing good results.”

“Thank you. I’ll try hard whenever I have it hard.”

“That would be an honor for me. Don’t forget about me if you become successful.”

“Yes. If I ever become successful it will be thanks to you, journalist Koo Yura. I’ll tell everyone about it.”

The interview progressed smoothly. They talked about a lot of things, so there should be plenty of content. She was slightly nervous since this was her first interview, but she didn’t freeze up, perhaps thanks to journalist Koo’s smooth progressing skills.

“Then shall I ask a few things to Maru to wrap things up? I think I heard enough about the director.”

“Yes! Talk a lot about seonbae in the interview as well. It’s just my prediction, but he’ll become big in the future.”

She sighed in relief before finishing off the juice. That war from before won’t happen again, right? She watched journalist Koo’s mouth in relief.

“What did you find the hardest throughout shooting this movie?”

“I have to say the heat. I was sweaty, and there was a scene where I had to keep walking under the sun, so it was a little hard.”

“Did you make a lot of NGs?”

“Well, I don’t know. I’m not sure what our director thinks about this, but I usually don’t make NGs.”

Sora quickly added that there weren’t many NGs.

“You are very talented to put out such a good act with few NGs. Even I could see that there were lots of acts that required difficult emotional expressions. I think you have what people call talent, seeing as how you can digest all that without much of a problem.”

Journalist Koo Yura put the cup against her mouth and said in passing,

“Then should I call JA Production amazing for seeing through to that talent? Anyway, they’re amazing.”

Sora looked at Maru. He didn’t say anything.

“Since we’re at it, how’s JA Production these days? There are a lot of hot actors there, right? So will you become one of the future superstars too after all?”

Journalist Koo asked Maru with a gentle smile. Sora agreed with her. It seemed like she was going to write good things about him in the interview.

“I wouldn’t be so sure about that.”

“Why? JA is an amazing place, isn’t it? You can have more confidence.”

“I’m just a bottom-of-the-rung. I don’t even get that much help. Though, I’ll probably receive help if I become a little more useful.”

She couldn’t understand his actions at all. Sora wanted to scold him and tell him to be more gentle. The reason she did not say it out loud was because she was afraid of what would happen if she actually said those words out loud. Today, this seonbae made a lot of scary expressions.

Journalist Koo, who was fidgeting with her pen, suddenly made a ‘hmm’ sound. She seemed angry in a different sense to Maru-seonbae.

“There was a journalist related to JA among the judges. Did you know that?”

Sora stared at journalist Koo when she heard this rather sudden topic. The gentle face she had until now had disappeared, and now she had the eyes of a predator. Sora tensed her toes. The atmosphere didn’t seem good. She realized that she should refrain from talking for the time being. On top of that, her instincts screamed at her to watch out for her future actions.

“No.”

Unlike journalist Koo who hurled blocks of ice at him, Maru looked indifferent. In fact, he even yawned. He looked completely different from the stiff log from five minutes ago and that made him look like a completely different person. Journalist Koo tapped the table with her pen in a nervous manner.

“I didn’t ask with any intentions. I was just mentioning.”

“Yes, I know that. I was just thinking that it was a really useless question as well.”

“A useless question, you say. That makes me feel hurt.”

“If I hurt you, allow me to apologize. We were talking about something completely unrelated to the interview that I thought I was talking to someone who wasn’t from a movie magazine. You didn’t create this place to do something as lowly as trying to dig up some gossip, right?”

Gossip - that easy-to-understand word made Sora glare at journalist Koo.

“I don’t understand what you’re saying.”

“If an interviewer doesn’t know what kind of stance she should take and doesn’t understand what the interviewee is saying, then I can say these about such an interview - a waste of time and a powerless interview from an incompetent interviewer.”

Journalist Koo smiled brightly. She put down her pen and picked up the camera.

“Should we take a photo?”

* * *

“This fucker really a kid?”

Koo Yura pushed her cigarette to the corner of her lips. Anger rushed to the top of her head. She was driving back to her company, but she couldn’t hold back, so she parked on the side of the road and cursed.

-Journalist Koo.

“Yes.”

-I think you forgot who’s on the other side of the phone.

Koo Yura threw away her cigarette and bit her lower lip. She was very angry, but it wasn’t to the point that even her sense of crisis had been paralyzed.

“Sorry. I was so angry that he slipped out like an eel that I ended up being rude to you, president.”

-I like you, journalist Koo. You’re a woman, but you have the coverage power, connections, and writing skills. That’s why I left it to you to do it, but you just had me reevaluate you. I didn’t know you couldn’t even deal with a rat like him and had to do a boring interview.

“I’m sorry. But you should understand if you listened to it. He’s not an ordinary guy. Usually, boys around his age would say everything if they get praised a little, but he cut off my route from the very beginning as though he knew the plan from the start. He’s very skilled too. He didn’t do it just once or twice. Someone had to have given him a pre-interview and even censored the questions beforehand. That’s not something a kid like him can do.”

-I get that too. He’s careful to not say anything that has a double meaning. He’s like a skilled politician in that area.

“There should have been a consultant. Are you sure he didn’t find out about our info beforehand, president Hong?”

-I’ll look into that. For now, write the interview as you took it. We were done in this time, so don’t try anything dirty.

“Yes, I have my pride as a journalist too. The interview will be a proper one.”

-Okay, thanks for your work. See you in a hotel next time.

“Okay. Oh, president Hong. Thanks for the tea.”

-Nah. I treat my people well.

Koo Yura quietly hung up.

Chapter 729

Sora looked in front of her. Maru was cutting up a hamburger steak with his fork. He was using the side of the fork so it was being crushed. There was a knife right next to the hot stone plate, but he didn’t even look at it.

“Don’t you feel uncomfortable doing that?” Sora asked as she pointed at the knife with a fork in her hand.

“This is easier for me.”

He used his fork to cut it until the end. He strangely seemed like her father when it came to being stubborn in the weirdest ways. Even though her mother gave her father a specialized knife to cut raw chestnuts, he was always adamant on using a fruit knife to do it. He looked like a child when he smiled while boasting the smooth-looking chestnut.

“A knife should be much easier to use though.”

“Don’t you ever nag Ando like that. Ando might run away from you.”

“Ando-seonbae probably uses a knife though.”

She used her fork to pick up a piece of cut meat and put it in her mouth. The hot meat juice flowed down between her teeth. Eating delicious food was a joyous thing.

“Anyway, why did you act like that during the interview?” she asked after emptying her plate.

“What do you mean?”

“Of course I’m talking about your attitude. I also noticed that she had other intentions at the end. But I didn’t notice anything before that, yet you acted cold to her from the moment the interview started. Did you hear bad rumors about her beforehand or something?”

“No, that was the first time I came into contact with her today.”

Maru sipped some water.

“Then why did you act like that?”

“A man’s intuition?”

“You’re kidding.”

“I’m half serious though.”

“Then what’s the other half? I’m asking because I’m really curious. That journalist looked really angry, but she smiled in the end. It was probably because of that last question. Just what was that?”

Maru acted uncooperative from the start of the interview. She would understand if Maru was some psychopath, but he wasn’t, which made it stranger that he was avoiding the point of the questions and giving vague answers the whole time. If journalist Koo Yura didn’t mention the relationship between JA Production and the journalist that participated as a judge, Sora would have scolded Maru for giving nonsensical answers.

Maru pulled out a napkin and wiped his mouth.

“I wouldn’t say this if it was anyone else, but you’re related to this, so I guess you should know about it. There’s one person among the judges related to my agency. Well, from another perspective, there might be more than one?”

Sora was about to ask ‘what about it?’ but then realized the severity of the situation. She realized what journalist Koo Yura’s intentions were by asking that question, and why Maru was acting on edge the whole time.

“So we got the grand prize because you were…”

“The journalist’s intention was to make us think that way. Even you, who’s directly involved in it, thinks that way. What would other people think when they saw it?”

“They would think that there is some form of cheating going on.”

Maru nodded.

“Seonbae, tell me the truth. Is it just like she is suspecting, and this grand prize we got is related to you?”

“What are you going to do if I say yes?”

Sora tensed her eyes.

“I’m going to call the city hall right now and tell them that there was something wrong with the results.”

Sora didn’t plan to stay still when she found out. She wasn’t doing it for the sake of justice; it was for the sake of her pride. She couldn’t care less about a prize that she got through someone else’s name value.

Maru smiled.

“It’s that journalist’s intention to make us act like that. Don’t get excited. You did win that prize with your skill.”

“Really?”

“I mean, think about it. There are six total judges. There’s only one journalist related to JA. Do you think he would have the authority to choose who gets the grand prize as he wished?”

“That’s true. Then why did that journalist ask something like that?”

“I’m not sure about the details, but it must have been at the request of someone who does not like JA.”

Maru stood up. Sora also got her wallet and walked over to the counter. She paid with her card before leaving the store.

“Thanks. It was even more delicious because the food was free.”

“But are you sure this is enough for casting you?”

“I am.”

Sora took Maru to the fruit juice store right next door. While they waited for their order, they continued talking about what they were talking about earlier.

“There’s something I haven’t heard from you yet. How did you immediately notice that the journalist approached us with bad intentions?”

“I was actually bothered by the fact that a famous movie magazine wanted to interview us in the first place.”

“Why? We got the grand prize, so an interview doesn’t sound that far-fetched.”

A store employee handed them their fruit juice in plastic cups. Sora gave the strawberry juice to Maru.

“I’ll have to answer your questions if I drink this, right?”

“I’m going to ask even if you don’t drink it. You know I can’t hold back my curiosities.”

She looked at Maru, who clearly seemed bothered. Maru took a sip of the strawberry juice before speaking,

“This is the first time the film festival took place. And it was on a city level too. Do you remember how the mayor acted that day?”

“Do you mean how he visited midway and disappeared after a few words?”

“Yes. If it was an important event, there’s no way the mayor would act like that. Although it is called the first film festival, it’s uncertain whether there’ll be a second one. It might be a one-shot event.”

“So?”

“I’m saying that it’s not a competition that’s weighty enough for a famous magazine to talk about it. It has no power, and the money invested in it was minimal too. You can see just how half-assed it was from seeing how there was a whole two months of delay because they were lacking manpower.”

“Yes.”

“Is it really an incredible feat to win a grand prize for an event that was obviously held in a hurry? To the point that it’s worth a three-page long interview? The youth acting festival is much bigger in scale compared to the film festival this time, but there wasn’t a single time when a major magazine interviewed their winners. Only someone from the local newspaper will take a photo and write a few lines. That would then go on the internet, and no actual news would be released on paper.”

“That’s true, but didn’t you go too far by suspecting her just based on that?”

“Her questions were obviously suspicious. When she was addressing you, she earnestly asked you about the film festival, but when she talked to me, she suddenly talked about dramas. That much is understandable. It’s not weird to ask me for a status update. However, don’t you think it’s strange for her to keep digging into that? The way she flattered me also made me suspicious.”

“That’s true. She did ask you some questions that were far from the point.”

“I would understand if the interviewer was unskilled, but it doesn’t make sense for someone who is meticulous enough to do some background digging to keep asking strange questions. I can only conclude that she intended to do that from the start. If she wasn’t there to play around with the interview, it meant that she had ulterior motives, so I naturally chose to dodge her questions.”

Sora nodded. Looking back, journalist Koo had sharp eyes whenever she asked something to Maru. She had a different presence about her when she was asking questions related to JA, and when she was asking questions about the film festival. She didn’t notice it back then, but she realized the difference after hearing Maru’s words.

“Then what was that? She came to us for an interview because you’re in JA? Not because of the grand prize?”

Maru shook his head.

“That’s not entirely it. What I’m saying is only an assumption and a prediction on my part. Their editing team might have taken interest in future film people and asked journalist Koo to get coverage. If someone asked her to do a personal favor midway, it would lead to our current situation. Since they aren’t a magazine that can write just anything, the head editor should have given permission beforehand. I can say with confidence that the magazine agency took interest in this matter.”

“If you say it like that, I don’t know which is the truth. It feels iffy.”

“The truth is this: you splendidly managed to finish the film, and the grand prize certificate is hanging on the wall of the film production club.”

“And I have the prize money.”

“And that too.”

Sora puffed up one cheek. She understood it vaguely, but she still had one more question.

“But if journalist Koo is suspecting of shady, behind-the-back deals, isn’t it better for her to go ask that journalist directly? I mean that journalist who is supposedly related to JA.”

Maru replied while scratching his eyebrows,

“It must have been difficult to face another journalist just like her. Also, shady dealings are things that journalists belonging to the social department should handle, right? It’s not something a journalist who only interviews related personnel can investigate easily. If Journalist Koo was requested by someone to do something that would eventually tarnish JA’s reputation, she probably thought that she should deal with immature students rather than a quick-witted journalist.”

“That sounds like a drama or something.”

“Not really. You know in classrooms, people separate into factions and talk to each other cheerfully but also talk bad behind their backs.”

“There are girls who do that, but I’m not one of them! I would talk bad in front of them!”

Maru laughed.

“Yeah, if you’re going to talk bad about people, you might as well do it right in front of them. Anyway, they gossip about unproven facts and giggle about it, don’t they? This is the same thing but on an adult level. If there’s a difference, it’s that verbal rumors gain ground through text and that emotional fights become a fight of money. There are a lot of similarities in student societies and adult societies. It’s just a matter of how you package it. The kids do it openly but adults hide it well. That’s why kids have an easier time reconciling - they know what each other is thinking. With adults, we don’t know what each other is thinking, so we become even more suspicious.”

“You’re still a kid too, so why are you using ‘we’ when talking about adults?”

“I’ve lived two more years than you, so treat me like an adult.”

Sora drank the juice and chewed on chunks of ice. She thought that this was the last drink of its kind for the year. The wind was getting chilly. It was about time to say goodbye to cold drinks.

“But you know?”

“Hm?”

“We did get the grand prize with our skill right?”

She accepted it, but it still nagged her like when she turned off the lights just before leaving the house.

“Just think about it normally. Do you think an agency would try rigging a film festival that doesn’t even go on TV? I wouldn’t do that. I would promote another actor if I have the time to do that.”

Don’t you think so too? - Maru asked her.

Sora smiled, responding ‘that’s true’.

“Now that I look at you, you’re quite pitiful. It sounds like your agency doesn’t care for you that much.”

“They’ll probably give me help if I become bigger.”

Sora looked at Maru who was smiling bitterly and shook off her doubt completely.

* * *

“So it was like that after all.”

-I thought that it wouldn’t leak out, but I seemed to have been mistaken.

“From the way she mentioned JA directly, she sounded like she had a source that she could confide in. I’m not sure if it was her individual action or whether the editing office gave her that instruction, but it seems pretty clear that someone who doesn’t like you had a hand in this.”

-You can’t say that for sure.

Maru kicked off the ground to push the swing he was on more.

“Then they wanted to put the blame on me? I’m just a kid who’s not worth that much.”

-You never know what will happen. If there’s something I learned while working in this area, it’s that humans are very incredibly petty. I said this before, right? You’re too clear when drawing the line. Though, from what I hear these days, you seemed to have gotten softer. Still, it’s not strange to say that there are people who find you an eyesore.

“If you say it like that, there are quite a lot of people that come to mind.”

-You’re still young, so why are you creating enemies already?

“We can’t be sure of anything yet. Honestly speaking, you have a hundred times more enemies than I do, don’t you?”

He could hear a laugh over the phone.

“For now, I didn’t mention anything about that. I also explained it to the girl that came with me, so there shouldn’t be a problem.”

-Tell her that she won it through skill. She’s at the age where dreams should drive her to grow up. There’s no need to show her the reality.

“Yes, that’s what I told her. But I didn’t know you were so considerate of me.”

-Why? Do you not like it because I’m meddling with you?

“No, there’s no one who would refuse help. I’m just thankful that you are taking interest in an ordinary actor like me.”

-I can’t have you be ordinary. I have a reputation to keep up. For now, catch up to Sooil in name value. I’ll be able to give you proper support then.

“Understood.”

-As for the journalist, I’ll look into it myself, so don’t mind yourself with her.

After staying silent for a while, Junmin laughed.

-I thought this the first time I met you, but you’re way too mature for your age. You sound completely natural talking like this. Why don’t you live a younger life? Think more about hopes and dreams.

“I’m only in my 3rd year of high school. If I become any younger, I might as well be babbling like a baby.”

After listening to the president telling him to get some rest, Maru hung up after waiting for a while. Maru pressed some buttons on his phone and brought up a photo. It was a photo of the film production club holding the grand prize.

“The truth isn’t important.”

Rather than the harsh truth, the convenient truth was much better.

Maru got off the swing and walked towards the bus stop.

Chapter 730

If there was a rock-paper-scissors match where winning would win 1,000 won and losing meant nothing, everyone would want to do it. If winning meant 10,000 won and losing meant losing 1,000 won, most people would still probably do it. The risks were low and the chances of winning were high. Then, increasing the scale a little, what if winning meant 100,000 won and losing meant losing 10,000 won? People would start hesitating. What if it was 1 million for a win and losing 500,000 for a loss? Those who had deep pockets might try, but the number of participants would decrease significantly.

Maru took his finger off the call button. This was a gamble that staked the very purpose of his life, no, something even more fundamental than that. If he succeeded, he would gain mental stability and the willpower to forge ahead, but if he failed, he would lose all motivation to move forward and would collapse on the spot. Stopping would be fortunate. He might end up regressing. Everything might come to an end.

Maru wished for her success and stared at the name ‘Han Gaeul’, which he saved on his phone, before closing the phone. The masked man referred to ‘her’ several times. He even gave a hint as to who ‘she’ was: the woman you’ll love forever. Only one person came to mind when Maru thought of that. If Gaeul was the reason his life was being repeated, things would get complicated. It meant that the life of Han Maru was centered around Han Gaeul.

The Han Marus that died until now all married Gaeul without fail. The probability of marrying the same woman in numerous different lives with infinitely many variables was probably around the same as tossing coins and making a tower by lining them up vertically. No matter how much the memory-reset Han Maru tried, it would be impossible to always win over the heart of an individual. Although his life was being repeated as though he was on a hamster wheel, he heard through the masked man that the quality and the structure of the hamster wheel had changed every single time.

Was it a cruel coincidence? Or was something like fate at play? Perhaps the condition for him to revive was to meet Han Gaeul.

“Fine, let’s say that I revive like that.”

Maru looked at the luminescent stickers on the ceiling. If she was the cause of these revivals, then why did her memories not carry over? Why did the requester have her memories turn into a blank sheet, while the benefitter got one lifetime’s worth of memories?

What puzzled him above all was the identity of the woman in the white suit. The masked man referred to three ‘people’ as ‘her’ or ‘she’. The woman in a white suit, the rabbit, and the ‘woman you’ll love forever’. If these three were the same individual, the woman in the white suit would equal Han Gaeul based on circumstantial evidence.

Everything would be solved if he could meet the woman in a white suit. Maru laughed in vain. The masked man did not say a word about the things that were important. The woman in the white suit might also shut her mouth if he tried to approach the truth.

Whenever he looked at the woman in a suit, he felt that her beauty transcended humanity, but he was also given a familiar feeling if he looked closer. If that woman’s identity was Han Gaeul, that would also explain why he had a sense of déjà vu.

Maru went out to the kitchen and took out some coffee milk and chocolate from the fridge. It was time to supply his hardworking brain with some nutrition. Perhaps he would get some creative ideas if he greased the folds of his brain with some sugar.

“I want some too.”

Bada had come out of her room and spoken. Maru was sure that she had sensors that could detect snacks.

“Why are you at home?”

“Today is the school’s founding day. Why? You feel jealous because your sister is on break?”

“I didn’t say anything.”

“You’re taking a rest by using the excuse of work too.”

“I’m going to be leaving soon.”

“Really? So you are busy.”

“Would you like to go in my stead?”

“What celebrities are there?”

“None that you know of. Probably.”

“Then forget it. I’ll just watch TV at home. Rather than that, why don’t you give me some of that thing in your hands?”

Maru snapped the chocolate in half and gave it to his sister. Bada put the chocolate in her mouth.

“You don’t like chocolate that much. What’s up with you today?”

“It’s not my mouth that wants it. It’s my head.”

“Your head? Are you sick?”

“I wish I was sick instead. That's a much simpler problem.”

Bada tilted her head before turning around and telling him to get some sleep if he was feeling tired. Maru turned on the TV and sat down on the sofa. It would be great if he could narrow down his hypothesis, but he didn’t have a single piece of concrete information and the number of variables kept increasing.

“If you’re inside, why don’t you answer me?” Maru questioned inwardly.

The masked man, his sole helper, had started a silent protest a while ago. It wasn’t that he disappeared. He still existed inside him and kept giving him help when it came to acting-related things. If there was a change, it was that personal conversations came to a stop. At this time, Maru was unaware whether the masked man was willingly shutting his mouth or whether he was forced to do so.

The reporter on the TV screen was making a happy expression as she ate a piece of freshly-made rice cake. The trivial happiness of eating delicious food seemed so far away from him. He was walking on top of a thin sheet of ice that might break at any moment. No matter how careful he was, if one wrong step broke that sheet of ice, all that would await him was the freezing cold water. He could neither return nor stop right now. The only thing he could do was to keep walking ahead while putting all his senses on their edge with the mindset of gambling.

After continuously changing the channel with the remote in his hand, Maru checked the time and turned the TV off. He put some clothes on and picked up the bag he put the script in before leaving the house.

“I told you to come out when I call you.”

“I came out ahead of time to cool my head a little.”

Byungchan unlocked the doors, telling him to get in quickly. Having gotten in the car, Maru uttered a short sigh. The season was now one where the heated air from the car felt welcome.

“You look tired. I heard you almost collapsed on set a while ago.”

“How did you know?”

“I have my ways.”

“I didn’t tell you about it because I thought you’d worry. The doctor said it wasn’t anything much either.”

Byungchan nodded.

“Yes, it’s you we’re talking about, so I’m sure you can take care of yourself, but please tell me about it. There are things that we should take care of at the company level.”

“Okay. I was too short-minded there. I will call you next time.”

It was true that he didn’t report properly because he felt chaotic organizing the thoughts that flooded his mind.

“Take this and drink it.”

When the car stopped in front of a traffic light, Byungchan gave him a pouch. From how there was a picture of a deer on the front, it seemed to be some sort of medicinal tonic.

“You see that in the back? It’s a gift from the president. There’s yours as well as some for your family. You said you had a sister right? Apparently, he also gave you Clarity Tonic or something that apparently helps when studying.”

“Looks like I must give him a call to thank him.”

“He looks after his own people.”

“Yes, that’s true.”

He tore open the vinyl pouch and drank it in one gulp. It tasted similar to oriental flu medicine that was sold on the streets. It seemed that the taste would be similar if the medicines used were for general purpose use.

“You should have one too.”

“Shall I?”

Byungchan didn’t refuse. It was probably him who needed medicine the most. As he had experience working as a manager, Maru knew the hardships that came along with it.

“I think I feel energetic now.”

“You should look after yourself too. I feel like you’ve become thinner even though you got a promotion.”

“It’s true that I just have to look after you and Sooil now, but it doesn’t mean I have less work. We just got a new member, so I’m teaching him, but he’s shy around strangers. I’m realizing how hard it is to teach other people.”

“A shy manager huh. He must have a hard time.”

“Yeah. Although he said he’s going to do his best, he’ll probably change his mind once he gets shouted at by a producer or an assistant director. Heck, I’m nervous even now that he might quit. We’re lacking manpower here, you know?”

“You must be having a hard time, but what can you do? You got promoted to a position with more responsibilities, so you should accept the risks associated with it.”

“I like how I got a pay raise, but I don’t know if I’m really benefitting or not because the stress was increased as well.”

Byungchan twitched his nose and smiled.

“But I’m glad to see you and Sooil doing well. These days, I barely scrape by seeing you two.”

“I’ll do my best so that you can earn a lot of incentives. If I do even better, I’ll buy you a car.”

“Thanks for your words. But you know, I have a good memory when it comes to things like that.”

“Sure. If I do become successful, you should look into what car you want to buy. I’ll make sure you sign the deal.”

They arrived near the shooting location. Maru told him to stop the car.

“Today, Sooil has a shoot in the countryside, so I don’t think I can pick you up afterwards.”

“Alright. Take care. Watch out at night.”

“Yeah, you too. Also, I’ll deliver the medicine to your house. I was originally planning to call you and have you carry it back to your house before departing, but I completely forgot about it.”

“I’ll call my sister about it.”

Maru closed the car door. Today was Saturday morning. He couldn’t make any time no matter how much he adjusted his schedule, so he took the day off school. He judged that his work was more important than his studies, so he had no hesitation. His attendance record also wouldn’t have a gap if the agency sent an official document to the school.

The streets were still calm. Things would only start to heat up with music and street performances after sunset. He walked down the streets that didn’t have a distinction between pavement and the road before entering the alleyway that led to the shooting location. The commercial street gave him a different sensation during the day than at night. The worn-out and rusty buildings added to the deserted feeling of the street. The streets looked spooky at night and had traces of humans, but with everything revealed under the sunlight, the street looked more like a shantytown. Maru wouldn’t find it strange even if a bulldozer razed everything down tomorrow.

People were gathered a vague distance away from both the residential area and the old commercial buildings. They were at the orange pojang-macha that had flapped its wings under the sun.

“You’re here.”

Producer Jayeon waved at him.

“I saw that the streets looked haunted during the day.”

“That’s why I like it even more. If I get the camera to shoot it from this angle, it gives off the feeling that it’s the endpoint of life.”

Maru looked at the buildings that looked like they were about to collapse from where Jayeon was standing. He could understand what she meant by ‘end point’. The buildings that had their steel beams exposed looked like the mound of a grave made from concrete.

“Maru, I heard you collapsed?” Ganghwan said after suddenly appearing behind him and putting his arm around Maru’s shoulders.

“Is someone going around spreading the word? I’m pretty sure I’m not that famous.”

“I was drinking with the president and you came up. Hey, kid, you can’t afford to run out of stamina so early on. Even I don’t have a history of collapsing and I’m reaching my mid-thirties.”

“Looks like I collapsed in your stead so that you don’t.”

“That sounds commendable. Did you get the tonic?”

“Yes, I got it through Byungchan-hyung.”

“I told the president to give you some. Be grateful.”

“Who paid for it?”

“Of course, big brother president did. I’m in no position to buy other people tonics. I’m already low on money because I used up all my savings to visit Russia.”

“But you should be able to save up again quickly, can’t you?”

“Hey, it’s people like Geunsoo who can save up quickly. No wait, maybe it’s Miss Suyeon.”

“You still call her Miss Suyeon? You dropped the polite speech with her, didn’t you?”

“For some reason, I wanted to call her with an honorific. You know how I feel right?”

“Haha, I do. I really do.”

“But there really isn’t anything wrong with you, right?”

“If there was, I would have gotten the doctor to diagnose it and then give the company the diagnosis, so they pay for the medical fees. Unfortunately, I’m so healthy that I can’t even get vitamins.”

“Yeah, yeah. I thought it shouldn’t be anything much when I heard you collapsed.”

“Why?”

“Because people who have less humane beauty live the longest.”

Ganghwan walked over to the pojang-macha after slapping him on the shoulders. Maru laughed in vain before he took out his script.

“Seonbae.”

He raised his head when he saw the shadow cover his script. He saw Yuna smiling.

“You’re here early.”

“The traffic was good.”

“Same for me. I came here in my mom’s car, and we didn’t get caught at a traffic light even once. It was so congested at night too.”

Yuna brought a chair and sat next to him. Maru quietly stared at her.

“Seonbae, what is it?”

“Yuna.”

“Yes?”

“We’ll be great friends, right?”

“Friends? We’re friends right now.”

“Yes, just like now.”

Yuna faintly smiled as she blinked. Maru took his eyes off her and looked at his script.

Chapter 731

Yuna grabbed the end of the page with her fingertips and repeated her line as she flipped back and forth. She practiced several times, but she couldn’t get the line to stick.

“I like things the way they are, I just like things the way they are.”

She slightly modified the lines as she repeated them. Although the priority was to digest the lines on the script perfectly, she could edit them slightly if she felt her tongue not being able to cope with them. She couldn’t change the lines outright, but she could change the minor details. Producer Jayeon said that the writer might have written words that aren’t actually spoken even while consciously trying to write speech in written form.

“We’re going to the next scene. Please move the camera.”

The staff in front of the pojang-macha started moving. Yuna also grabbed the script in her hands and stood up. It was her turn now. Although she had become used to it, she still found it hard to breathe within the shooting set for some reason. She wondered when she would feel comfortable. After opening her mouth to take a deep breath in, she spat it out all at once, intending to bring out more energy. Her bangs waved when she breathed out. After touching up her hair, she walked over to the assistant director. Maru was standing next to him.

“I’ll do the rehearsal. Go adjust the schedule for the background actors,” Jayeon came over and said.

The assistant director turned on his phone and stepped aside.

“It feels quite different to shoot when the sun is still up, doesn’t it?”

“Yes. It feels completely different from shooting at night,” Yuna said as she looked around her.

Whether it was the busy staff, the people that came to watch, the cables strewn across the floor, or the heat from the lights, there was nothing different from night shoots, but she strangely found the set to be filled with vitality.

“This is why people need to work during the day and sleep at night. Everyone looks so much healthier when they work during the day. At night, they all act like zombies.”

Jayeon clapped and gestured for her to come. Yuna glanced at Maru before standing in front of Jayeon.

“We’re going to shoot you two running after turning that corner.”

Yuna nodded. This was a scene that was in the script as well. This was the scene where Park Haejoon and Yoon Jihae ran towards the pojang-macha, which was like their secret little hideout, after they got a lot closer. Having arrived at the pojang-macha first, Jihae would tease Haejoon for it, and Haejoon would buy her udon because he lost the race.

She grinned for a while after reading that part of the script. This sweet scene was when the confession happened. They check their own feelings and tell each other they like the other at the same time. She became a little heated. It was like there was a sweet scent in the air. Although this was a shoot and the confession was a part of the drama, she liked the feeling of being able to whisper love with Maru-seonbae.

“Yuna, did something good happen today?”

“Eh? N-no, not really.”

She straightened up her expression quickly, afraid that Jayeon might find out what she was thinking. She could feel the things that made her heart race sinking down below her consciousness. I must not show it in the shoot, especially in front of seonbae - work and personal lives had to be separate.

“If anything good happened to you, don’t just keep it to yourself and tell me about it. I’m busy editing these days, so I have no fun in life.”

After sighing, producer Jayeon walked to the end of the alleyway. The producer, who was hidden behind the corner, shouted at them to watch closely before running out. She ran past Yuna and arrived at the pojang-macha. Seeing her tap down on the stainless steel table, Yuna applauded. Producer Jayeon was fast enough for her to believe that she was a sprinter, and her running posture was really pretty.

“That’s how you run. You see those rails?”

“Yes.”

“The camera will follow and shoot you from the side. Yuna will be in front of the camera, while Maru will run behind you. I mean, Yuna has better looks than Maru does, right?”

Maru chuckled, saying that he was going to consider getting plastic surgery. Yuna waved her hand in the air and said that he looked okay.

“So I’m just okay, huh. Not cool or anything.”

“That’s…”

Maru, whose right eye was twitching as he said those words, soon loosened up his expression, saying that it was a joke. Yuna smiled and tried to grab his arm, but Maru pulled away right at the end, so she swiped empty air. Feeling embarrassed, Yuna retracted her arm as though nothing had happened.

“I’ll say this beforehand, but I scheduled the shoot early in the morning on purpose for this scene. You two are going to have to run to your deaths today.”

Jayeon made a suspicious smile. After the rails were installed, the camera was placed on them. One staff member repeatedly slid the camera across the rail to shoot.

“We’re ready.”

The assistant director’s signal came. Jayeon pushed her on the back, telling her good luck. Yuna re-tied her shoelaces tightly before turning the corner and standing in front of the wall. She put her wireless microphone on and got ready to run.

“Yuna will run out first, and then Maru after that. Watch out not to fall down, but don’t run too slowly.”

The assistant director said into the walkie-talkie that they were ready. Yuna turned her head around to see Maru.

“Are you confident at running?” Maru asked.

Yuna did not respond. Instead, she decided to show him. She liked using her body to the point that she would jump around in excitement on days when there were physical tests during gym class. She also had confidence in her running skills.

“Get ready.”

The assistant director pointed three fingers up. Seeing the fingers fold one by one, she stepped out quickly at the last one. She ran with the intention of leaving seonbae behind in the dust. The camera that slid across the rails entered her eyes. She ran like she was sprinting and touched down on the pojang-macha’s table. While it was a short distance, her breathing was haggard because she held her breath while running.

“You’re quite good.”

Yuna looked at Maru as she calmed down her breathing.

“Seonbae, you’re a good runner.”

“I’m pretty good when it comes to using my body.”

“I was planning to run really fast and surprise you, but I guess I failed.”

After pushing out the hot breath at the tip of her tongue, she stood upright. She dashed with the intention of finishing this shoot on the first take. As she ran with all her might, she expected the outcome to be pretty good.

“Let’s do that once again.”

Jayeon asked for a re-shoot without giving any feedback. Yuna thought that it was plausible and returned to her original spot.

“We might have to keep running like the director said, so control your stamina.”

“Yes.”

Yuna exercised her ankles. Maybe she didn’t like how she swung her arms, or maybe her expression was strange. She started imagining a scene where she and Maru would run playfully. A smile crept onto her face, and her body felt light. She felt that she should be able to get a good reaction if she dissolved that ticklish feeling into her act.

No! - Yuna pinched her waist. She vowed not to harbor personal feelings while working. No, it wasn’t just while working. As long as Maru-seonbae and Gaeul-seonbae were dating, she could not think about bad things. She kept imagining that dream-like scene that made her keep smiling, but it would be rude to the two seonbaes if she showed them that. Yuna did not want to become a bad girl that wanted to steal another’s love. Yes, she had to hide it for now.

She ran with all her might like she was running on the school track. When she arrived at the pojang-macha and straightened her waist, she heard the cut sound.

“Okay.”

Was it enough with just two shoots? While she was running out of breath, her skin was still soft and smooth without any sweat. She was slightly worried when Jayeon told her that they were going to run to their deaths, but from how the okay sign fell after just two runs, she seemed to have said it as a joke.

“Put away the rails!” Jayeon shouted.

Yuna touched her hair that drooped down in front of her and was about to prepare for the next scene.

“There’s no need to redo the setting. You’re going to run again. We just need to fix your makeup.”

“That wasn’t it?”

“We’re just starting.”

The shooting car, which had been waiting on one side, started to move. The car with the camera in the back stopped on the road she just ran on. Jayeon got on it.

“Actors! In your positions!”

Yuna breathed out faintly and returned to the corner.

“We got a side view last time, right? We’re going to get a front view this time. The side view doesn’t show a lot of the facial expression, but it’ll all be revealed when shot from the front, so you’re going to have to watch out,” said the assistant director.

“Also, you’re probably going to have to run quite a lot until we get a good cut since the director pulled the shooting schedule early saying that she wanted to put a lot of effort into the running scene. If you take it lightly because of the short distance, you’re going to have a hard time. Run with the intention to end it as soon as possible. It might feel easy at first because you’re full of energy, but it’ll affect your expression later if you start losing stamina.”

Yuna twisted her body as she listened to the assistant director’s words. She didn’t know that she was going to be shot from the front. Her hair would all go disheveled, and her expression would look weird. Yuna imagined how strange her expression would look.

“Get yourself together, and get ready to run,” Maru said, standing next to her.

Yuna pressed down on her disheveled hair slightly. Although it would soon become disheveled again, she wanted to look pretty even if it was for the first moment she appeared on the camera.

“Get ready! Three, two, one, cue!”

Jayeon’s voice could be heard. Yuna turned around the corner with a smile on her face. She saw the shooting car in front of her. Yuna ran with the intention of catching up to that car. Only after dashing about 50 meters in this commercial district was she able to come to a stop. This was her third sprint already. She was sweating down her back.

“One more time. Don’t look downwards unless you want to show the audience your head.”

“Yes.”

Having returned to their original position, Yuna drank a sip of water. She started to feel that she might actually not have enough energy.

“Are you okay, seonbae?”

“I’m doing okay. How about you?”

“I’m okay too.”

“It’s good to focus on the running and all, but be conscious of the fact that you need to act while running.”

“Yes.”

The shoot continued. Four times, five times, six times. After shouting cut cheerfully for some time, Jayeon started looking at the screen with suspicious eyes after a while.

“Let’s take a break. We still have an hour of leeway.”

Yuna sat down on the spot upon hearing the word’ break’. She didn’t have the energy to walk towards the chair which was only a small distance away from her. The total distance she moved was about 600 meters. Even though the weather was pretty chilly, she was all sweaty. It was unexpectedly quite hard to run while smiling. She had to be conscious of the camera, of the distance between her and the shooting car, and she also couldn’t forget about interacting with Maru, who was following from the back. If running was all she did, she wouldn’t be this tired.

“An actress can’t sit on the floor like that. Here.”

“Thank you.”

She sat down on the chair that Maru brought her. Her knees trembled.

“You’re hardworking.”

“Eh? Ah, yes. I have to be.”

“But Yuna, working hard and working well are definitely different.”

Yuna sealed her lips and looked at Maru. While his voice was soft, he was scolding her. She wiped the sweat on her neck with the back of her hand and faintly smiled.

“I will do well.”

“How?”

“Eh?”

“I was wondering how you are going to do well.”

“That’s…”

She was at a loss for words. She couldn’t think of anything to tell him when he asked for a concrete plan. Yuna was about to smile awkwardly but decided not to. From the way things looked, this wasn’t the time to be smiling.

“You remember what the director said about how you should be conscious of what’s beyond the camera? I understand that it’s hard to act while running. Heck, I can’t do it that well either. But when she doesn’t give you any directions between each cut, it means that her directions haven’t changed. The director chose you for a reason. You must prove to her that her eyes weren’t wrong when choosing you.”

Yuna slowly nodded. Today, seonbae’s presence had changed quite a lot. It was quite a peculiar feeling to feel someone she knew feel unfamiliar to her. He wasn’t waiting for her and being generous to her; he was telling her to see the problem with her eyes and solve it. While it was a reasonable reprimand, Yuna felt rather sad.

As she was thinking that, Yuna saw that Maru was quietly looking into her eyes. His deep eyes seemed to penetrate through her surface and read her mind. Maru took his eyes off her and sighed faintly.

“Give me your hand.”

Yuna put her hand out obediently. Maru grabbed her hand gently.

“You aren’t running forward by yourself. This feeling, the feeling of running together. We might be apart, but you still have to feel like you are leading me while grabbing my hand. The reason you’re looking back from time to time is not because you are trying to discern if you’re going to win or lose; it is to see if the one following you is still following closely. The reason you want to arrive first is not because you want to prove your superiority in physique. It must be to portray it as an advantage; as something to boast about to the person running behind you.”

Seonbae let go of her hand. The words were engraved into her ears. The details of the feelings she had forgotten about momentarily because she was running seemed to all come back to her.

“I think I know what to do. I really do.”

“Actors can only be true to their emotions. Lying will become obvious soon.”

“What?”

“Use what you can for now. You should at least finish work.”

Maru cut out all the details, but Yuna soon realized what Maru was talking about.

“Seonbae.”

“Get ready.”

There were things she wanted to ask him, but she nodded for now.

Chapter 732

“Good, cut! That was a good run.”

Seventeen times. Only after she ran the distance of 50 meters seventeen times repeatedly did the cut finally end. She found it hard to even sit down and calm her breathing. She wanted to lie down.

“Good job.”

Maru handed her a bottle of water. She was going to say ‘you too’ back to him, but she couldn’t say it because someone from the staff approached her and covered her shoulders with a blanket.

“It’s pretty chilly today, so you have to watch out for your body temperature.”

“Yes, unni,” she said to the staff member with a smile.

At first, she found it awkward that someone was looking after her even though she didn’t ask for it, but she became used to it after experiencing it a couple of times.

“Kim Yuna, Han Maru.”

Producer Jayeon called out to them. Yuna stood in front of the monitor. The footage they shot just now came up on the screen. The way she smiled brightly while running didn’t look awkward at all. When she saw how she glanced back from time to time to look at Maru, she even felt a little proud.

“Both of you, remember this feeling and take it to the next act. If we want to show the change in the cold and indifferent Yoon Jihae and the rather insensitive Park Haejoon in a short time, we must not miss trivial details like this. I’m going to have to dissolve two couples and one man’s worth of story in four episodes, so we don’t have that much leeway, understand?”

“Yes.”

“Cool off and fix your makeup. We’re going to continue right away. We actually have a lot of time left because it ended earlier than I expected, but we can’t have you putting down those emotions.”

Yuna left her face up to the makeup director[1]. She closed her eyes and when she opened them again, she saw that Maru was sitting next to her. The way he was reading his script while getting his makeup touched up made him look like a stereotypical pro. She thought about doing it herself and opened the script she placed next to her and lowered her gaze.

“Yuna, raise your head a little.”

She quickly said yes and took her eyes off the script. She tried to read the script, but she couldn’t stay still due to the makeup director. Can you open your eyes? Turn your head a little? Smile a little? She finished getting her makeup done after changing the position of her head as well as her expression according to the makeup director’s words.

“You go take care of that side. I’ll take care of this place.”

The person putting makeup on Maru grabbed their makeup tools and walked over to where the background actors were upon hearing the words of the makeup director. Yuna looked at Maru, who had been getting his makeup done while reading his script quietly for a while. He still had his eyes fixed on the script and muttered his lines from time to time. The makeup director took out some concealer. It seemed that she was going to cover up the blemishes on Maru’s chin.

Yuna thought that the makeup director would tell him to raise his head. After squeezing out the concealer from the tube onto her pinky, the makeup director kneeled down. She lowered her eye level and applied the concealer on his chin and cheeks before telling Maru that it was done.

“Thank you for your work.”

“I think we should leave the skin tone like this.”

“Yes, it’s not too catchy. I like it. Should we leave his hair like this?”

“It’s fine unless the director has something to say. It would instead be strange if it was too near after he supposedly ran with all his might in the scene right before. The character he’s playing doesn’t use any wax, so it’s fine to leave it slightly disheveled like that.”

“Okay.”

The two college students standing behind the makeup director tied the makeup tools. Yuna heard that they were here to gain experience. Yuna looked at the makeup director who explained her ways to the students behind her. Both Maru and herself were reading the script, so why was it that she didn’t say anything to seonbae? She met eyes with the makeup director, who was talking with a student. Yuna quickly lowered her head.

“You look like you’re dissatisfied.”

The makeup director approached her. Yuna quickly explained that it wasn’t like that.

“Then why were you looking at me like that? I’m a shy person, so I wouldn’t be able to get any sleep at night if someone looked at me like that.”

Yuna hesitated before starting to explain the reason,

“I was reading my script, yet you told me to lift my head, right?”

Hearing that, the makeup director seemed to have understood and nodded.

“So you felt it was unjust because I told you to move while I let Maru be?”

“No! It’s not like that. I was just curious about what was different between me and him.”

“I have one job. It is to put on makeup so that the actor’s charm is maximized. When I ask you to move your head, it is a justified request, right?”

“Yes.”

“This ahjumma, you know, I judge a person’s style after looking at them. There are people who will move if I tell them to, and there are people who won’t. It would be much easier to put makeup on someone who obediently follows my instructions, right?”

“Then did you think that seonbae won’t listen to your…”

“That’s not it.”

The makeup director interjected and looked at Maru, who was sitting a good distance away.

“Just like how my job is to put makeup on people, an actor’s job is to act. While I’m doing makeup work, if we consider the importance, of course I believe that acting practice takes priority. There are many people who can put on makeup, but there’s only one actor who can do the act. That’s why I tend to respect actors when they are focusing. If it’s something I can do by just taking a step further, then I will gladly do that. That’s the attitude of a person who gets paid to put on makeup. It’s also the proper way to treat a pro.”

The proper way to treat a pro. Yuna closed her lips when she heard those words. She immediately understood what that meant.

“If I have to go through an overhaul, I would of course tell him to put his script down and lift his head, but if it’s just this much, I should not interrupt him if possible. Tell me if you don’t like my ways. I’ll fix it.”

“No, I’ll do better from now on.”

“Yes, you can also do that.”

She couldn’t retort at all.

Yuna faintly sighed before sitting next to Maru.

“Seonbae.”

“Yeah?” Maru replied without taking his eyes off the script.

Yuna found him slightly hateful for not budging.

“How can I become a pro?”

“You’re a pro even now. You’re getting money from someone else’s pocket. That should be enough to be called a pro.”

“But there are differences.”

“Differences?”

“I want to act like you, seonbae. You know you’re the reason I started taking interest in acting, right?”

“You told me about it last time.”

“How can you act like that, seonbae? If it was the others, they’ve practiced more than me and are older than me, so I can understand, but…”

“I’m actually much older than I look.”

Maru glanced at her before looking at his script again. Yuna felt the corner of her lips twitching. It was because she heard from the makeup director that she wasn’t like a pro, but more than that, the words she heard from Maru during the running scene became vivid again and made her tremble.

“Seonbae, are you uncomfortable with me?”

Use what you can - Maru told her these words just an hour ago. The moment she heard those words, Yuna understood the implied meaning behind them. Adding his actions of putting distance between them since morning, there was nothing more to think about. Maru probably wanted to tell her to get rid of unnecessary emotions.

“It’s not that.”

“You told me, didn’t you? That people’s emotions don’t go away so easily and that you understand me. You also told me that I can treat you comfortably until I calm down my emotions.”

Maru closed his script. The ice-clear eyes looked at her. Yuna swallowed a groan. He had the same eyes as her mother two years ago on the anniversary of her father’s death. Back then, her mother hugged her and Bitna and said this: Mom will definitely protect both of you.

“Yuna, you can insult me for being inconsistent. The words I said that day was a mistake on my part. It’s not that I didn’t mean it. I just changed my mind.”

“Then…”

“I’ll say this clearly. It still doesn’t matter whether you like me or not. I will not mind it in the future either. If you gain anything by harboring those emotions; if you can sublimate those emotions into something related to acting, it would be okay, but if you can’t, I can tell you that you’d be better off if you put an end to those emotions as soon as possible.”

“I know, I know it too. I know that I can’t like you. But you know what? When you acted like nothing was wrong when you told me that you couldn’t contact Gaeul-unni, I ended up misunderstanding. I thought that I may have a chance.”

“It’s my fault.”

It was a clean apology. It felt like the counter employee quickly apologizing for a payment mistake. It sounded so detached. She felt dazed. For a brief moment, she even thought that she was hated. Perhaps he found her annoying for being so persistent.

The relationship between her and seonbae going wrong? She didn’t even want to imagine it. Leaving aside not liking her, she didn’t want to be hated. Yuna shook her head.

“No, I put that in a strange way.”

When she glanced at Maru’s face, she saw that it was frighteningly indifferent. She even got the feeling that talking to a wall might be a better idea. Did something happen to him over the past few days? It felt like someone completely different had taken the form of Han Maru and was standing in front of her.

At that moment, Maru lowered his frighteningly frosty gaze before lifting his gaze up again. A kind set of eyes had replaced it. It was the eyes of the seonbae who lent an ear and a shoulder to cry on to a person he met for the first time.

“Sorry for being so indecisive. Sorry for not acting like an adult. Sorry for not being clear to you.”

“Stop apologizing to me. You did nothing wrong.”

Yuna lowered her head with her fists clenched. It was the first time. Maru understood and accepted the worries that she couldn’t even tell her mother about. She was touched by his words that soothed her wounds, and she gained the courage to face acting head on. The reason she got selected in this drama and could act in it was all thanks to Maru as well. Her mentor and her first love kept apologizing to her. Yuna felt a big sense of fear. She was afraid that they would separate for good just like this and that everything might come to an end between them. She felt like she wouldn’t be able to hold back her tears if they became like friends who said hi to each other but no more.

The reason she held back from crying loudly and clinging to him was because of the word ‘pro’ that the makeup director mentioned. She couldn’t inconvenience everyone here. She didn’t want to make the foolish mistake of ruining everything because she was swayed by her personal emotions. She was determined to smile and say that she was okay, but her lips twitched endlessly and she couldn’t do as she wanted to. Stop beating so hard heart - Yuna clenched her eyes shut.

She quietly breathed out. She had to show that she was okay.

“Uhm, seonbae.”

When she opened her eyes, Maru was no longer in front of her. She found Maru looking at her from some distance away. Yuna blinked. She understood everything. This distance, this physical distance seemed to be representing the distance between their hearts.

She suddenly laughed. It was too easy. Even though she felt heart-shatteringly painful, even though she felt so agonized that her head was about to burst, she could control her emotions. Maru, who was watching her, gave her a nod before turning around without regrets.

Haa - Yuna sighed out. A tingling sensation climbed up from her toes. The moment the brain-shaking tremors died down, Yuna felt that her first love had come to a complete close.

“Seonbae, I’ll be off to the bathroom for a bit,” she said, her eyes clear.

Maru quietly took out some tissues for her. Yuna pouted but still accepted them. Her footsteps towards the bathroom became faster and faster. By the time she reached the building with the bathroom in it, she was almost running - Ah, today’s a day filled with running. Yuna abruptly opened the door and slammed it shut. She turned on the tap to full power and sat on the toilet after putting the cover down. Then she cried. She thought while crying: what do I tell the makeup director?

“This is what being a pro is about, huh?”

Goddammit - she cried again after seeing the makeup on the tissue. A moment later, she laughed. She repeatedly switched between laughing and crying several times before standing in front of the mirror. Although her face didn’t look terrible because the makeup was thin, there were definitely places that had to be fixed up.

“Let’s do this, Kim Yuna. Tell’em who’s boss.”

She calmed down her expression before returning to the shooting location. It seemed that they were almost ready to shoot as some of the staff started restricting people from coming inside.

“You’re here?” Maru said.

“Yes, I’m here.”

Yuna replied firmly, to the point that it even surprised her. Her heart felt heavy, yet refreshed.

“Can you do it?”

“Of course.”

“Then please take care of me from now on.”

Maru reached his hand out. Yuna stared at that hand for a while before making a scissor shape with her fingers.

Scissor and paper; after looking at the two hands for a while, Maru smiled and retracted his hand.

“Please take care of me, seonbae.”

Yuna said as she pulled her hand away.

[1] Here, the ‘director’ doesn’t mean that she’s related to the filming. She’s the director (or ‘headmistress’ in British English) of a makeup school that she runs.

Chapter 733

Wednesday, 23rd of November, 2005. Maru left his house while listening to the goodbye of the news presenter. The bag that would usually contain his script was filled with chocolates and yeot[1]. In his hands were insulated water bottles that contained warm barley tea.

“Yeah, I’m on my way there.”

He got on the bus as he picked up the call he got from a junior. Although it was the same morning bus, the composition of the people inside was a little different today. There was a student muttering something while looking at the notes in his hands, a girl clasping her hands as though she was praying, as well as a student who was reading a textbook without holding the handle on the ceiling. The bus filled with students proceeded very slowly as though the driver had no intention of stepping on the brakes. The road leading to Suwon station, which would usually be crowded with cars during rush hour, was empty like the red light district during early dawn on a Tuesday.

Maru pressed the bell. The beep made some of the students flinch and look outside the window. On the day of the CSAT[2], all students would become meerkats. They left the bus and walked towards their designated school. The weather was so cold that wearing a thick jacket wasn’t enough. He could hear the news presenter’s comment: today will be the coldest day of the year yet.

“Seonbae.”

Aram waved her hand. There wasn’t a flashy blow-up balloon in front of the newly opened restaurant. A parent, who was rolling a Buddhist rosary in her hands, looked at them for a moment before starting to pray again.

“Today’s really cold.”

“It’s the cold wave.”

Maru looked at a desk in front of the school gates. This was a desk that was used in the acting club. Behind was a flagpole that they used during a play, and on it, was a flag that when opened read ‘Park Daemyung, Kang Dowook, Pass and get into Seoul University.’ Around that line were small lines of encouragement. This was the work of the juniors at the acting club.

“Seonbae, you’re here.”

Jiyoon appeared with her nose bright red.

“You’re really devoted.”

Maru poured some of the barley tea for Jiyoon and Aram. Only after grabbing the warm paper cup in her hands did Jiyoon look better.

“Where’s Bangjoo?”

“The convenience store. He went to buy some food.”

“You guys didn’t eat anything?”

“Yes. Somehow, things turned out like that,” Aram said as she tapped on her stomach.

Maru put his bag down on the desk. On the other side of the gates were students wearing uniforms of another school, holding a basket. It seemed like they were also juniors who had come to cheer for their seniors.

“Why aren’t you taking CSATs, seonbae?”

“Because I don’t have to.”

“But Dowook-seonbae is taking it.”

“For him, you won’t know what will happen in the future. Even if he succeeds his family business, it’ll be better if he could go to a good college if possible.”

Maru wiped under his nose. He felt like the weather had gotten colder even though the sun went up.

“Gah, it’s so cold!”

Bangjoo appeared with a plastic bag in hand. Maru waved at him.

“Ah, right. I forgot yours, seonbae.”

“I’m fine. You guys can eat. I had breakfast.”

“We can’t do that. Have half of mine.”

Bangjoo split the hoppang[3] in half and gave half to him. When Maru thanked him for it, he found Aram and Jiyoon each giving him a half as well. Maru smiled and told them to eat.

Bangjoo sat down next to him.

“You don’t come to school after CSATs, right?”

“It’ll be a month of employment experience[4], so no.”

“Can’t you come?”

“What kind of terrible thing are you talking about?”

“Come to school and practice with us.”

“Why don’t you let us go already?”

Maru looked at his watch. It was just past 7:30. It was around this time that cars and taxis started flocking in front of the school. Students who got off with their parents held each other’s hands until the front of the school before going inside.

“Good luck Irim High! Seonbae-nim, good luck on the tests and get great scores!”

The students outside started cheering loudly. The 3 years, no, 12 years of education[5] will be evaluated on this single day. It was the peak of unreasonability, but there was no way to go against the sturdy system. Maru looked at the backs of all the students that went inside and prayed that they gained just as much as they had prepared. Not more, not less.

“Hey, tuna.”

Maru called out to a classmate of his that appeared in front of the school. This boy came alone and had a vague smile on his face. He took out some of the chocolate and yeot from his bag and gave it to him.

“Good luck.”

“Yeah, thanks.”

Maru prayed again. He hoped that the god that gave him the big middle finger was kind to the people around him. He hoped that that boy got more than he prepared for the exam. Arms could only bend inwards, and it was the greed of humans to wish for those closest to them to do better than complete strangers. He handed out yeot, chocolate, and warm tea to everyone he knew.

“Seonbae-nim! Good luck!”

Bangjoo’s cheering was a freebie. He had a voice equivalent to ten people outside. Maru’s friends, who were encouraged by a junior they’d never seen before, seemed rather taken aback, but they all waved their hands above their head with smiles as though they found it a relief that someone was cheering for them.

“Do you think that helped?” Bangjoo asked.

“More than enough,” Maru replied.

It was 7:48, and the cheers and prayers became even louder. Just then, an unexpected person showed up.

“Why are you here, oppa?”

Bada appeared wearing a yellowish-brown scarf. The juniors sitting next to him all fell silent at the same time. Maru rested his chin on his hands and spoke,

“Why do you think I’m here?”

His sister had armed herself from top to bottom with fashionable clothing and makeup. It was to the point that Maru would have a hard time recognizing her if he came across her in a crowded place. Bada did not hold back her awkwardness. Maru saw a sense of embarrassment hiding behind her expression. He looked at the paper bag in her hands. Inside was a scarf and a hand-written letter. Of course, both yellowish-brown.

“Don’t look.”

“Unfortunately, I don’t have the talent to unsee what I’ve seen.”

Bada’s lips twitched and she rolled her eyes at him before exclaiming out in surprise. She probably read the big banner of encouragement.

“Dowook will be here in a little bit so wait.”

Bada nodded obediently. Maru went over to his juniors and told them that she was his sister. Bada approached the three of them with a gentle smile on her face.

“Hello there. I’m his sister.”

“Dowook’s gf, by the way,” Maru added.

He got hit on the back of his head as the price for that. He rubbed his aching head and looked at Bada before turning to look at the juniors. Their faces were colored with shock.

“What?”

“So there is a person who can hit you on the back of the head,” Aram said.

Jiyoon quickly nodded. Bangjoo looked at Bada in displeasure but turned his head away when they met eyes.

“She is your sister alright. Her eyes are just…”

Maru smacked Bangjoo on the neck with a hand-knife gesture.

“It’s cold. Drink some of this.”

He gave her some barley tea. Bada accepted it without a fuss and drank it. During that opportunity, he looked inside the paper bag once more. Next to the rolled up scarf was a small insulated lunchbox.

“I was wondering what you were up to in the kitchen last night.”

“Mind your own business.”

“I’ve never got something like that even though we live under the same roof, yet Dowook gets one, huh.”

He expected Bada to grumble, but unexpectedly, she just hesitated and didn’t say anything. She seemed rather embarrassed. Maru had the urge to tease her more, but he decided not to since his sister might use the insulated lunchbox as a weapon if she lost her reason.

“Uhm.”

Bangjoo raised his finger. A blue 1t truck was approaching. It was the vehicle that helped them out during the national acting competition. The truck stopped in front of them. The first one to get off was Daemyung. Following him, Kang Soojin and Kang Dowook both got off the truck.

“You’re having a hard time thanks to these two,” Maru said.

Soojin shook her head with a smile.

“Oh! It’s that unni I saw at the hospital. Am I right? Do you remember me?”

“Ah, you were Maru’s sister, right?”

“Yes.”

“It’s nice to see you here. Your name was Bada, was it? I’m not sure if I remember properly. It was two years ago.”

“You’re right, I am Bada.”

Bada smiled as she looked at Soojin. During the winter of his first year, when he got crushed under the burning set, Soojin came over to visit him in the hospital and Bada happened to be there. Bada had a really good memory if she could remember a brief meeting that happened 2 years ago.

After exchanging greetings with Soojin, Bada smiled at Dowook standing behind her. Maru felt chills run down his spine the moment he saw that. That was beyond hypocrisy. The epitome of acting lay here.

“But why are you here?”

“He’s my brother. But you two look like you know each other?”

Soojin pushed Dowook’s shoulders and brought him in front of her. Bada widened her eyes in a fluster.

“Ah, uhm the thing is…”

Just as Bada was about to start talking in an alien tongue, Dowook, who stood in front of her, grabbed her hand.

“She’s my girlfriend.”

Maru resented his hands for not taking out his phone quickly enough. The expressions the three people made were masterpieces that he had to send down to the later generations as an heirloom. Soojin became even more flustered than Bada.

Maru called out to Daemyung, who was dazing out next to them.

“And here’s the person who’s going to take care of you.”

Having discovered Jiyoon, Daemyung walked over stiffly. Even though they’d been dating for more than a year now, the two still became shy in front of other people. Maru looked at the two couples in front of him before turning his eyes to Aram and Bangjoo.

“Why don’t you two start dating as well?”

“With Bangjoo? I’d rather live with a bear.”

“Seonbae-nim, you crossed the line there.”

The two juniors seemed triggered. Maru poured some barley tea and handed it out to everyone.

“Alright, you can whisper your love when you feel down after taking the tests. I can’t bear to keep watching.”

Dowook smirked and downed the barley tea in one gulp.

“I’m going to guess all the answers and then sleep[6].”

“Since you’re taking it anyway, you should solve them seriously. This is why people from wealthy households are no good.”

Maru slapped Dowook’s back and wished him good luck. Dowook crossed the gates after taking the bag that Bada handed him. Daemyung also stood in front of the gates with the gifts that Jiyoon prepared for him.

“Now, you, though, need to do really well on the tests.”

“That puts a lot of pressure on me.”

“Don’t feel pressured by just that. CSATs are nothing compared to learning what production is like. Just take it slow and think of it as stepping through a door. You should do well so that you can take some money out of our president’s pockets.”

Daemyung smiled, saying ‘yes’. Maru massaged his shoulders.

“Good luck.”

“Yeah.”

The juniors, who were waiting at the back, waved the banners they wrote.

“Good luck!”

Dowook, who was waiting inside, took Daemyung and walked inside the building. Maru stood in front of the gates and looked at the two.

“This is how a parent must feel, huh.”

“It’s not like you had any kids,” Bada said.

Maru faintly smiled.

“Oh, I guess you didn’t know, but I had a cute daughter.”

“What are you on about now?”

Bada waved at Dowook, who walked inside the building. Even Dowook, who was awkward when it came to expressing his feelings, couldn’t ignore her, so he created a heart with his arms above his head.

“What the.”

This time, he wasn’t late. On his phone screen was Dowook in that terrible posture, but it was a smiling Dowook.

“Are you okay, oppa?” Bada asked suddenly.

“With what?”

“With not taking the tests.”

“I don’t need to.”

“You’re really okay, right?”

“I have my hands full as it is. I don’t have any time to take tests.”

“Well, if it’s like that, then I guess it’s good. I was slightly worried that you might be depressed, but I guess I did that for nothing.”

“You just worry about yourself. There are only two years left.”

“I know that too, you know?”

After grumbling, Bada spoke in a small voice,

“But still, you worked hard.”

Maru turned around to look at Bada. She shrugged before walking over to Soojin. There was a gentle smile on her face as though she was interacting with her mother-in-law.

“Seonbae, let’s go get breakfast!” Bangjoo said while rubbing under his nose.

Maru faintly smiled and said, ‘let’s go.’

[1] Traditional Korean candy. Wikipedia for more details.

[2] Every year, the day of the CSAT (College Scholastic Ability Test: basically college entrance exams) is considered a holiday, well, except for the examinees. People don’t work, or the work hours start late; students don’t go to school on this day; and heck, even planes don’t fly at certain hours. Also, this day becomes magically cold every single time. It’s like a whole 5 degrees centigrade colder than the day before. Examinees are assigned to go to a different high school, not their own schools to prevent cheating, to take their tests. This is why the next line mentions ‘designated high schools’.

Also, on this day, you’d see news like ‘a policeman took an examinee to their exam venue’ and stuff like that. EVERYONE looks out for examinees on this day.

[3] White bun with hot bean paste inside. Wikipedia for more details

[4] Not entirely sure what this is, but since Woosung High is an engineering-focused high school, it’s likely that there’s a school program where students can experience what the field is like. It should be something similar to an internship.

[5] 6 years of elementary school + 3 years of middle school + 3 years of high school

[6] CSAT questions are multiple-choice questions because it makes it a lot easier, and fairer to check the answers for more than 500 thousand people that took the tests this (2005) year. That is why there’s mention of ‘guessing’.

There are also people who don’t take the exams seriously, even though it costs money to participate (like Dowook here) because: 1. They do so in order to set a lower average for others by getting a low score (the results are relatively graded). People that do this usually do so because they already have a secure future, or have guaranteed entrance into a college already; 2. There were various perks(?) that you could get if you visited some businesses with your exam card after the tests. For example, a gym or a swimming pool might have a discount for examinees; 3. They just live without thinking (I’ve personally seen people like this). Though, for number 2, it’s my personal experience (I took the test in 2014), so I can’t say whether or not the same things existed back in 2005.

Chapter 734

“Don’t get nervous. If you get stuck, apparently, it’s better to move on to the next question and come back to it later. Don’t mismark the answers when you finish the questions. Don’t leave the marking until the end of each exam and remember to do it from time to time.”

“Seonbae, you look more serious than we do.”

The colleagues of the acting club giggled in front of the school gates. It was 7:50. It was about time to go inside.

Gaeul grabbed the hands of the graduates that came to cheer her on. It wasn’t just the seniors that graduated last year. Those that graduated two years ago could be seen in front of the school gates as well.

“Good luck with your exams. I’m sure you’ll do well.”

Gaeul nodded as she listened to last year’s club president’s words. Although the weather was cold, her palms were sweaty. This exam would change her whole future. She hoped and prayed that the friends that she had spent the last three years with do well on the tests.

“Seonbae-nim, we’ll go in now.”

“CSATs are nothing, so don’t be too nervous. Honestly speaking, it’s easier than doing a play. If you take the test with that mindset, I’m sure you’ll get the grades you want.”

Leaving behind the encouragement of the seniors, she walked inside. Even though she only took a single step inwards, it felt like the air had changed. The stifling and heavy air filled the school campus.

“I’m going to go drinking right after this.”

One of her friends, who had brought beer to the school field trip, fired herself up saying that she was going to go to a bar right after the tests. The joke that came just as she was about to feel nervous relaxed her tension.

“Yeah, let’s try going, whether we get caught or not.”

“Since we’re going, we should be celebrating.”

Gaeul calmed down her breathing and walked down the corridor. She was assigned to a different classroom from her friends. Before she entered class 3, she had a hug with the friends that went to class 2. Good luck; you too - they each wished other luck, then she entered the classroom and sat down. The cold sensation of the wooden chair pierced through her body. Her mind cleared up in an instant and it finally felt real that she was taking the CSATs.

She calmed her breathing and took out her revision notes. The department of theater at Chung-a university, which she was aiming for, decided their entrants by basing 50% on the CSATs and 50% on a practical exam in the A sector[1]. No matter how high her practical exam results were, she would not be able to pass if her CSAT results were bad. Considering that the department of theater did not accept any pre-enroll students, it was likely that the CSAT results would decide everything. She practiced acting at the agency while studying Korean, social studies, and English during her free time[2]. As for math, she planned to just answer the questions she could and forget about answering the difficult ones.

The scores of the students that enrolled last year were: 98 points for Korean, 67 for math, 60 for social studies[3], and 73 for English. During her mock exams, she got higher than the criteria scores for last year. As long as she did just as well as that, she wouldn’t have a problem with the CSATs.

It was 8:10. The entry time for the examinees was up. Students wearing earbuds started studying with their revision notes. There were 30 minutes until the start. Feeling the tension in the air through her skin, she started studying when her phone started vibrating. She had forgotten to turn it to silent. Gaeul quickly opened her phone.

-I know you told me not to contact you, but forgive me since today’s an important day. Good luck. I’m sure you’ll get in.

She stared at the screen for a whole minute in a daze. She could practically hear Maru’s voice. She had to look at her revision notes beneath the phone, but she couldn’t move her eyes away. She hesitated a little before putting her fingers on the keypad.

-Is that what’s important right now? You can send a text any time. But to take that test that will happen in 30 minutes, you’ll have to wait 1 whole year. You never know what will happen to you in that year.

The rabbit had spoken. Gaeul settled her mind. She was about to turn it on silent, but she instead turned it completely off.

Maru had given up on going to college. Although he was the one who said that they should enroll at Chung-a university together, the situation had changed. He started walking down the path of an actor properly. The field was calling him, so college was nothing. Gaeul was surprised at Maru’s unstoppable progress. Even without a college background, he would definitely be able to succeed as an actor.

She was still far from being a match for him. Gaeul looked at herself. She did not have the courage to give up on college. Although she managed to smoothly sign a contract with an agency, she had no work yet. It was natural. It was a reckless decision to use an actual high school girl to play a high school girl in a field where people in their mid-twenties or even their early thirties, played such roles.

Gaeul also tried to give up on enrolling in a college and tried to take various auditions, but she changed her mind after hearing Gyeonmi’s advice. The connections tied to the major college theater departments couldn’t be looked down upon. As she wasn’t confident in her skills, Gaeul decided to look at the future.

She also dreamed of going to the same college as Maru, becoming a campus couple, and enjoying college life while taking the same lectures as him, but that was already out of reach. Maru had skipped college and stepped into society. Although Maru was always ahead of her, he felt even more distant now.

-That’s why you need to work even harder. How long are you going to keep feeling unconfident? You must pass the tests, hone your skills, and become acknowledged by those around you. You can meet Maru at that time. You didn’t cut contact with Maru with a half-assed mindset, did you? You have to do it when you have to. If you adhere to a strong resolve, there is bound to be a reward for it.

The rabbit was entirely right. Gaeul decided to forget about immediate happiness for the distant future. If she met Maru and spent time with him right now, she might feel happy, but she would definitely regret it if she watched as the gap between them widened. She did not want to feel the regret of not having been able to try harder.

Yes, this was for both of their sakes. Gaeul pushed her phone deep into the depths of the desk drawer.

* * *

“Seonbae, we’ll be off now. You’re coming to school tomorrow, right?”

“Tomorrow, yeah.”

“Then see you tomorrow. Bada, you too!”

Aram and Bangjoo got on the bus. Maru took Bada, who was whining about the cold, to the bus stop that was across the road.

“DNA is amazing. Soojin-unni and Dowook-oppa are both pretty and handsome.”

“That’s a pity. The Han family is kinda far off from beauty.”

“Of course not. It’s fine because I take after mom. It’s just you who has a scary look.”

“Father will feel disappointed to hear that.”

The bus arrived. The empty bus once again made him realize that today was the day of the CSATs.

“Did you two fight?”

He heard that voice behind him. Maru turned his head around. Bada was talking to him while looking outside the window.

“I said, did you two fight?”

Maru did not answer. He immediately realized what she was talking about, but he did not know what to tell her. Did they fight? Or were they fine? Maru was unable to find out the truth behind this small farewell.

“Did you do something wrong?”

“No.”

“Then did unni make a mistake?”

“No.”

“Then what is it? Isn’t Gaeul-unni taking her CSATs today?”

“She is. She’s probably staring at the test papers real intensely right now.”

Maru opened his phone again. It was 9:30, yet he hadn’t gotten a text yet. Did she not read it? Or could she not read it? While he was wondering about the possibility of ‘could’ vs ‘did’, he folded his phone and his thoughts completely stopped.

“Should we order Jjajang-myeon for lunch?”

“Why are you talking about something else? What’s really going on? Is it serious?”

“I’m not sure.”

“You aren’t acting like yourself. What’s up with you? You don’t know the reason, and you sound like you don’t want to know about it either.”

Maru faintly smiled. He knew the reason, and he going crazy because he was dying to find out, but he wasn’t in a situation where he could approach the matter so carelessly. His life, which had repeated for perhaps dozens, and maybe even hundreds of times, had always gone past the point of ‘marriage with Gaeul’. The result always ended in destruction. In order to several that ring of life that ended and began anew every time he died, he had to do something about this situation that even the masked man had no clue about.

Since this was the turning point of his life - well, several lives - he could not act carelessly. When he thought about how meeting Gaeul and asking her why she put some distance between them might trigger his life to return ‘back on track’, he couldn’t decide so easily even if he wanted to ask her everything.

Perhaps this was the first time they walked their own separate paths in their numerous lifetimes. If they kept walking down the path set in front of them, he would have enrolled in Chung-a university and their relationship would deepen until their eventual marriage. He might have arrived at a crossroads because he chose a different option during the process of losing and regaining his memories or while his personality underwent a change.

To sum up the current situation with the help of Occam’s razor, the conclusion was that he wanted two things: One was to end these goddamned reincarnations, and the other was to get connected to Gaeul.

He also thought about giving up on Gaeul. There was a huge urge within him since there might be a different ending awaiting him if he turned his heart away from her now that she was putting some distance from him. However, it was impossible to give up. Despite the fact that he realized that he was trapped in this endless, horrific cycle, his heart deeply longed for her. Whether it was due to the feeling of love that stemmed from one lifetime’s love or deep emotions that resulted from an endless number of lives, he did not know, but he felt like he wouldn’t be able to stop the human Han Maru from being attracted to her as long as he was alive.

If she truly told him that she did not like him, he might be able to give up at that time. A corner of his heart wanted such an end.

“Anyway, don’t break up half-assedly and resolve it properly. I like Gaeul-unni quite a lot.”

“Yeah, alright.”

“Don’t just answer me. Well, I’m sure you’ll take care of it on your own.”

Maru looked outside as he uttered a slow breath. The pale streets looked especially chilly today.

* * *

“How was it?”

“I think I did Korean well. How about you guys?”

“I found it hard.”

“Me too.”

Gaeul briefly talked to her friends before preparing for the next test. She had a good feeling about Korean, the first subject. She did not get stuck reading any of the text, and she solved the questions with confidence. She didn’t get stuck on any of the questions, so she could probably look forward to a good score.

She felt nervous because she was studying alongside her acting practice, but Gaeul was confident that she could make it. She was revising using her notes when she remembered the phone that she handed in before the start of the test. Phones and other electronic devices were collected for the purpose of preventing cheating.

Would he perhaps feel sad that she didn’t reply? Gaeul wrote down the name ‘Han Maru’ in the corner of her notes. She felt really apologetic since it was her who told him that she wanted to have some distance, and now, she didn’t even reply to his encouraging text. It was likely that Maru felt disappointed.

-There you go, getting distracted again. I told you this is not the time for that. You can meet a man anytime you want. But right now, you’re at the crossroad of your life. Romantic relationships are good and all, but are they more important than your life? Are you going to marry Maru? You’re not, are you? There’s no guarantee that he will protect you for life. Of course, he might have told you that he wanted to get married to you, but do you think he thought that for real? You should remember that Maru loved to joke around with you.

The rabbit always popped out whenever she thought about Maru.

“Recently, I feel like you don’t like Maru that much.”

-Me?

“You don’t?”

The rabbit didn’t say anything. Gaeul waited for the rabbit to speak before shaking her head. Just as the rabbit said, this wasn’t the time to be doing this. She had to revise for one more minute to increase her math scores. Although she had half-given up, it would be great if she got one extra point.

-He’s not the only man in this world. It’s just you who feels like he’s special because it’s your first romantic relationship. With more experience, you should be able to find out that there are many more men who are better than him out there.

“What do you know? Who are you really? I get that you’re giving me all this advice for my sake, but why are you really doing this?”

-I’m not important. What’s important is you right now. You live your life. Don’t do things that you might regret later.

“Yeah, I shouldn’t.”

Gaeul gripped her pen. Time was ticking. It would be no use to regret later. People only lived once after all.

-Yes, now, there is only one life.

The rabbit quietly spoke.

[1] College applications are divided into two major methods. One is the ‘official enroll’ (정시 Jeong-si), and the other is the ‘pre-enroll’ (수시 Soo-si), those who have gained an entrance in the pre-enroll are not eligible to apply for the official enroll (people who have passed are also those that flunk their tests on purpose). The official enroll is further divided into three ‘sectors’, A, B and C. An applicant can apply for two universities in each sector. The criteria that these universities put out on each sector might be different. The general rule of thumb is to be ‘conservative’ on the A and B sectors, and ‘just go for it’ in the C sector (the C sector tends to have a big reserve list)

[2] CSAT is largely divided into five subjects: Korean (this includes literature, non-literature and grammar), Mathematics, English (these are worth 100 points each), and two ‘research’ subjects, worth 50 points each, for a combined total of 400 points. The two ‘research’ subjects are social/humanities subjects if your high school major is humanities, and science subjects if your high school major is sciences, and job knowledge subject if you’re someone like Maru and is from an employment-focused high school. From 2017 onwards though, Korean history became mandatory for both majors, bringing the total to 450 points. After the five (six from 2017) major subjects, they could then choose to take extra subjects for their specific enrollment requirements like a 2nd foreign language/hanja.

[3] Combined scores for both social/humanities subjects.

Chapter 735

“Seonbae, do you think I should have stretched my line a little more?”

“It was okay. The director didn’t say anything about it, so I think it should be okay.”

“But what did you think about it?”

“I think it would have been better if you paused a little. It suits your character more.”

Yuna nodded. Today was November 28th, and the mini-series drama shooting was nearing its end. Without any additional shoots, the 30th would be the final day of the shoot. From what she heard, everything up to episode three had been edited and was ready to be aired.

“We’ll do that again after shooting from this angle.”

Maru looked at Jayeon, who stood alongside the camera director. Her hair, which draped down beneath the beanie, had lost its vitality, and the duck-fur coat that she had been wearing since the last shoot had been worn out to the point that it looked better-suited to be in the trash. The closer December 4th, the day the first episode aired, came, the more haggard the producer became.

“I wonder if the director is going to sleep in the editing room again today.”

“The producer’s stuff is already in the 3rd editing room. She’ll probably keep editing until the day of the first episode. Park-noona from the editing room will die of exhaustion.”

He overheard the assistant director and the staff talking.

“The director must have it hard.”

“This is the first drama under her name after all. She probably wants everything to be perfect. Her personality also plays a role in that.”

Maru put his script down and walked over to the window. Today was the last scene he shot with Yuna. The background actors filled the empty seats one by one. People who were waiting while staring at their phones in school uniforms got into a proper posture upon hearing the assistant director’s shout.

“Let’s finish it well. This is the last rehearsal with the two of you.”

Jayeon started the rehearsal. She told them the emotions, movements, and expressions that she wanted. It had been two months since they started working together. Maru could predict what style Jayeon wanted even without her saying anything.

The first one to shoot was Yuna. She, who was sitting in a daze amidst the students that were leaving class after school, quietly walked over to the window. Maru nodded when he saw her fidget with the 2,000-won couple ring.

The positive effect of Yuna’s change of heart was that her thoughts became deep. She still maintained her method of exploding out with her emotions, but she was beginning to gain control over that. Ever since he regained his memories, Maru planned on not accepting Yuna’s coquettish way of acting, but Yuna herself was already trying to fix that. He couldn’t just ignore a girl who was trying, so Maru also gave her advice from time to time. Of course, he never mentioned anything deep that would touch on the depths of her acting. He only gave her small directions.

“Cut. That felt good.”

Yuna muttered her lines while the camera switched places. The camera director stood where the window could be seen. After the director gave the signal, Yuna started acting.

The student couple that was attracted to each other due to their unique charms, would say their goodbyes today. Yoon Jihae, who loved Park Haejoon’s ordinariness, believed that she too could become ordinary and would strive towards it, while Park Haejoon, who liked her for her strong attitude, tried to become like her. They tried their best because they liked each other but that same attitude made them end up getting bored of each other.

After touching the couple ring, Yuna slowly took off the ring from her finger.

“Yuna, you’re on a roll today. Let’s get a shot of your hand and go straight to the next one. Your condition is really good, so continue just like that.”

Jayeon rejoiced like a little child. It seemed that she felt happy because she got a good picture and more time to edit.

They shot Yuna taking off the ring four times. As Yoon Jihae’s feelings had to be transmitted through her fingers, Jayeon’s request was very picky. They only shot four times since Yuna was good. Maru watched through the director’s monitor during the shoot, and the shaking of her hand, which was neither too excessive nor too weak, was worthy of praise.

“Yuna’s emotions are in a good state, so let’s get Maru’s shoulder in the scene.”

Maru stood in front of Yuna. She smiled faintly after redoing her top button.

“The director is complimenting you a lot.”

“I thought I’d get an earful throughout the whole shoot but there comes a day like this.”

“Since you’re doing so well, you should do so until the end and send her home early.”

“I’ll try my best.”

Along with a clap, the standby sign fell. Maru quietly looked at Yuna. Although he would say his lines, it was Yuna’s face that was on camera right now. His role was to lead her act so that she did not get stuck midway or make a mistake.

“I’m very confident in expressing my loss.”

“There’s a bone in your words.”

“Yes, I’m telling you about it.”

“I feel like I’m the bad one, but I guess it doesn’t matter for today, huh.”

At the same time he said those words, the cue sign rang out in the classroom. Yuna controlled her emotions perfectly to the point that Maru could not feel a trace of the smile that was there just now. From the day he told her to quit chasing him, Yuna’s acting skills became visibly better and a lot more stable. He was inwardly worried that she might not be able to control her emotions, but thankfully, he was worried for nothing. Perhaps he was thinking that she was a crybaby who could not hide her emotions and needed his help for everything. Yuna was a child who could stand up by herself.

“Here.”

Yuna handed him the ring. Maru made a bitter smile.

“What’s this?”

“You know what it is.”

“What is it?”

“I’m saying we should stop. Let’s… let’s be friends. I think that will be for the better.”

“Why so sudde… it’s not sudden, is it?”

“You know it too.”

Maru grabbed the ring. Park Haejoon hated himself for being ordinary. The cold and proud Yoon Jihae, who appeared in front of him, was more than just a role model. The feelings of admiration developed into romantic feelings, but since it was her personality, not her person, that he admired, the changes in emotions happened just as easily.

Maru quietly looked down at the ring in his hands before turning around.

“Okay! Uhm, you should bring some tissue,” Jayeon said.

Maru turned his head around when he heard the word ‘tissue’. Yuna was wiping her tears off while laughing. Maru did not say anything. Whether she became emotional due to her acting, or whether she cried because she projected herself into the character’s breakup, he did not know. He neither had the reason nor the audacity to ask.

He pulled out some tissues and gave them to Yuna.

“I suddenly felt like crying. Wait a moment.”

She turned around while breathing out in a flustered manner before regaining her smile in about a minute. Producer Jayeon approached her saying that it was okay, and that other actors were like this from time to time as well.

“I’m sorry.”

Yuna bowed towards the staff around her in apology. There was absolutely no one who looked at her in a bad manner.

“Okay, we’ll flip around.”

The camera switched places. Now, it was Yuna’s shoulders on the screen.

“I startled you, didn’t I?”

“No, I wasn’t that surprised.”

“Really? Well, I guess you’d be like that, seonbae.”

Maru faintly smiled.

“Don’t you want to know why I’m crying?”

“Do you want me to?”

After thinking for a while, Yuna quietly shook her head.

“Ah, I think there’s not a shred of regret in me now. I feel refreshed.”

She raised her hands to her eye level and quietly shouted ‘fighting’. Maru wondered who that was directed at.

“I’ll buy you something nice once we finish.”

“What got into you?”

“It’s just a cowardly tactic of trying to pay back the sense of guilt.”

Yuan tapped on her lips and spoke,

“Then I don’t want it. You need to suffer a little.”

“You’re playing the villainess role now?”

“I wish.”

A sigh mixed with thick regret could be heard.

“Get ready. Three, two, one!”

A time that was an act for one, and a time to clear feelings for the other, flowed by.

* * *

“Thank you for your work.”

“You too.”

Maru picked up his bag. The staff put away the equipment and got ready to move. They had a night shoot at the pojang-macha again today. Today was the day when ‘Choi Jihoon’, played by Byungjae, and ‘Kang Haeyeon’, played by Mira, were connected again. One side broke up, while the other got connected. Between them was the writer character, Ganghwan, who couldn’t sell any of his work.

“Get some good rest and see you early morning tomorrow. The remaining days will be on a tight schedule, so don’t catch a cold, you two. Be careful on your way back.”

Maru and Yuna left the school while being seen out by Jayeon.

“I guess that marks the end of the scenes with you now, seonbae.”

“We’ll be done if we don’t have any additional shoots.”

“How do you feel, seonbae? You feel refreshed now that you don’t have to act with this pain-in-the-ass junior, don’t you?”

“If you said that in order to make me feel bad, then I have to say that it’s pretty effective.”

“That was exactly my intention, so I’m satisfied.”

Yuna walked right next to him.

“Your mother didn’t come today?”

“Bitna has a shoot. You don’t know that she was cast in a morning drama, do you?”

“Is that true?”

“Yes. She’s also the daughter of the main character. Apparently, she shows up a lot. I’m wondering if she might become the child actor of the country.”

“If it’s Bitna, she might actually become one.”

“I think so too. Bitna is good after all.”

They stopped in front of a traffic light that was red. On the other side of the road was the staircase down to the train station.

“Seonbae.”

“Yeah?”

“What is it that you like about Gaeul-seonbae?”

He turned around and looked at Yuna straight in the face before speaking,

“Literally everything.”

“So my unrequited love was hopeless from the beginning, huh.”

The signal changed. Yuna stepped on just the white lines, saying that stepping on the black ones will make her die. Maru stepped only on the black ones.

“Do you still not contact her these days?”

“Yeah, I’m don’t.”

Yuna looked at the ground. Maru knew that Yuna was a bright kid, but he did not have a cheerful personality. She had to be feeling tired from trying to liven up the mood both back at the shooting set and now.

“It’s not because of you, so you don’t need to worry about it.”

“Was it written on my face?”

“You’re quite easy to read.”

They walked down the stairs. Until they arrived at the train platform, Yuna did not say a word.

Maru could hear the train break the silence and come into the station. He saw the train push out the air along with vibrations.

“Should I go tell her about it?”

She looked like a frightened hamster. Maru could imagine just how worried she must have been before uttering that sentence.

“You don’t have to. You didn’t do anything wrong.”

“Then why…”

“It’s me. I’m the one hesitating.”

The door to the train opened. Maru waved at the dazed Yuna to get on.

“There are times when things just don’t go the way you expect them to, right? That’s what’s happening to me right now.”

“Is there anything I can do to help?”

“I’m sorry, but you probably won’t be able to help with anything. I’m not saying this because I find you unreliable. It’s just that the problem I have is a little peculiar.”

Maru scratched his eyebrows.

“If you want to help, then treat Gaeul well. She still comes to school, right?”

“Yes. She’s been coming to the club ever since the CSATs ended. She teaches us more passionately than ever before, and she is preparing for her act as well.”

“If she’s doing well, that’s fine.”

“That’s good enough then.”

“That’s enough? What about you?”

“I’m living without any problems like this, so that’s that.”

“Are you really okay?”

“Looks like I really don’t look good huh, making you worried like this.”

Maru tapped on Yuna’s shoulder before looking forward. Having entered a tunnel, the train quickly rushed through the darkness. The light inside the tunnels flashed through the windows before disappearing. Maru thought that that was just like the current situation he was in. He was rushing through the darkness with only a few clues. He couldn’t even predict where the next stop would be.

“Uhm, seonbae.”

“Yeah?”

“I’m not sure what it is, but I’m sure it will go well. I mean it.”

“Yeah, thanks. I hope it goes well too. Whether it’s the drama, my relationship, or…”

…My life.

Maru closed his eyes as he thought about Gaeul’s humming song.

Chapter 736

His hands moved before his eyes opened. He grabbed the phone by his head and took two breaths. Ring - the alarm rang. He probed out for the button on his phone due to his blurry vision. Today was the last day of November. The early morning air was cold even indoors.

He washed his face lightly and put on his jersey.

“You leaving?”

“Yes, father.”

“It’s cold outside. You should wear warm clothes.”

“I am. You’re going down today again, aren’t you?”

“Yes. Look after your mother and your sister while I’m gone.”

“I’ll try to look after my sister, but I don’t think I need to look out for Mrs. Lee. She’s very reliable.”

“That’s true.”

“There’s medicinal tonic in the vegetable compartment in the fridge. You should have one and take some for when you go down.”

Maru put on his trainers and left the house. The outside air seeped into his clothes. The air was frosty. He felt like he could produce a crispy sound if he breathed in deeply and bit the air.

He exercised before walking down the stairs. He walked along the hiking course up the mountain before doing some vocal exercises. He took it slow so that the muscles in his neck and his vocal cords had plenty of time to warm up. He did some more exercises until he started sweating before returning to his house. His father had left, and his sister was eating breakfast.

“Good for you, not going to school.”

“You also won’t be going to school once you do your CSATs, so don’t feel jealous.”

Bada, who saw the time, stuffed the rest of the food in her mouth and quickly left the house. She wouldn’t have to worry if she woke up just 10 minutes earlier, but if she could do that, she wouldn’t be Han Bada.

Maru took a shower and sat at the table.

“I put some money for living expenses in your account,” he said as he scooped some doenjang soup.

“I told you you should save it for yourself.”

“I’m saving up plenty for myself, so don’t worry. If you don’t need it, then you should save up for when Bada gets married.”

“There’s a long time left until Bada gets married.”

“Who knows? She might end up getting married early.”

He finished eating and put the bowls in the sink. His mother, who was washing the dishes, suddenly spoke out to him,

“I’m thinking of working again.”

“Is your wrist and waist fully healed?”

“They healed ages ago. I’ve had enough of playing around as well. I don’t have anywhere to go now, so I should look for a side job. Your mom is still pretty young to be playing around, don’t you think?”

“As long as you’re okay, I have no qualms about it. But don’t do anything dangerous. Not being injured is the same as saving money.”

His mother shook off the water from the bowls and laughed.

“Do you know?”

“Know what?”

“You’ve been using formal speech for a while.”

“It’s about time I reached that age. Do you find it awkward?”

His mother shook her head.

Maru brewed some coffee and sat on the sofa. As he went to an employment-focused high school, he had to start looking for a job during the month after the CSATs, but there were rarely any students who actually started working at factories or looking for employment. Most of them just got proof of work through their acquaintances or family members and handed that to the school. Thanks to that, there was practically a long holiday until the graduation ceremony in February.

His mother left the house, saying that she was going to visit the neighbors. Maru watched the news for a while before picking up his script. He lowered the TV volume and put a voice recorder on the table. He checked to see that the record button was pressed before coughing slightly.

“Did I do something wrong? Do you think I should have said something else back then?”

He spoke without putting any emotions in. He checked to see if there were any awkward parts when speaking and kept reading the parts he had to memorize today.

After saying the last line, he stopped the recorder and played it back. He focused his attention on the voice that was flowing out. Since the voice didn’t contain any emotional ups and downs, the transmittance was key. He checked for any pronunciation errors and checked the lines on the script. Maru focused on his tongue movements when he pronounced a silent t and recorded it again from the beginning.

The human body was made up of muscles that people could voluntarily move and those that moved involuntarily. The muscles that worked outside of his consciousness for homeostasis like his heart could be strengthened through exercise but could not be controlled. Actors had to do their best to use every single muscle other than those that worked to keep sustaining life.

Among them, the mouth and the neck were two parts that could not be left alone. Just like how a stewardess would try to smile while biting a pen to create a charming smile, actors had to hone their muscles endlessly in order to create various facial expressions.

Maru read the lines again while being conscious of the structure of his mouth. The sound changed according to how his breath scratched the ceiling of his mouth. The recorder that was recording his voice was a useful tool that allowed him to judge his practice objectively. Listening to his voice directly and listening to it through a voice recorder were completely different. Actors had to place more importance on their voices that could be heard through a machine.

Click.

He pressed the stop button. The emotions he could feel from the recorded line were satisfactory.

He looked at the clock. It was 3 p.m. It was about time for him to leave. He put the script he placed on the table inside his bag before leaving the house. He got on a bus to Suwon station and then got onto a train headed for Seoul. As Byungchan was busy looking after Sooil, who had recently started a historical drama in the countryside, he wasn’t able to get a ride for the time being.

Inside the train, he read a book. Since his occupation was one where he consumed his emotions, a time to recharge those spent emotions was an important process as well. He was reading Gwak Joon’s latest work until he arrived at his destination. He left the station and grabbed a taxi.

“Yoo-un market, please.”

The taxi driver glanced at him before asking if he took the CSAT exams.

“No, I didn’t take mine.”

“Why?”

“Because I don’t plan to go to college.”

“I see you must have your circumstances.”

The taxi driver clicked his tongue and said that he didn’t need the extra 300 won change before giving Maru back the note. Maru smiled and closed the door.

“I wonder if it’s going to start snowing soon.”

He looked up at the sky, and it looked pretty dim. The sky was filled with dark clouds and seemed like it was about to start snowing at any moment. He also saw on the news that there was a high chance of snow in the capital region.

“I hope the first snow falls.”

That was the first thing he heard when he arrived at the shooting set. Producer Jayeon was the one who said those words while looking up at the sky.

“The first snow already fell in Daegwan-ryeong.”

“A snow that falls in another place is unrelated to me. The snow that falls on my head is the first snow.”

He learned something new today. Maru squinted and looked up at the sky. He felt like something white like snow had just fallen.

“Don’t forget to wrap up the camera and watch out for the cables. We don’t want any wire stripping in this weather.”

The camera team seemed rather busy. They were putting on protective clothing in preparation for the cold and the snow. The lights team was also tuning their equipment in preparation for the potential snow.

“It would definitely look good if it snows,” Ganghwan said, approaching him.

Maru nodded. Since this was a scene where the two characters held a quiet conversation in the pojang-macha, it would look great with some snow. The white steam from the food would also look much better.

“I heard that you decided not to go to college,” Ganghwan said while offering him a hot pack.

It was one of those that warmed up the more you shook it. He accepted the pack and replied,

“I’ll see what happens and then go to one if they invite me.”

“Don’t you have to become famous for that?”

“You sure do.”

“You sure are getting ahead of yourself.”

“They say being ambitious is good.”

“Boys be ambitious?”

Ganghwan made a suspicious smile and closed his mouth. Just then, Maru saw a piece of white fur falling in front of his eyes. He reflexively reached his hand out. The fur that fell on his palm melted into nothing. It was snow, not fur.

“It’s snowing! Watch out so that it doesn’t get into any of the equipment.”

“Get the clothes! Put all the leather ones back into the car!”

“Get out the oil heaters.”

Voices could be heard from everywhere. Amidst the chaos, Jayeon reached out to the sky and shouted ‘yes’ in an excited voice. Some of the staff glared at her before going back to their work while sighing.

“There there, get to standby quickly! Let’s get the snow in the background!”

Snow started falling. It wasn’t the kind that would pile up. It was the light kind that people would feel fine with getting hit with; the kind that could be expressed as elegant.

“The director is overjoyed.”

“She sure is.”

He took off his coat and changed into the school uniform behind the car. When he returned with the hot pack - the one that Ganghwan gave him - in his pocket, they were ready to shoot. The speed of the veteran staff made him click his tongue.

“It’s your last shoot today, Maru, isn’t it?”

“Yes.”

Jayeon patted his shoulders.

“Since you did well until now, let’s finish off on a good note too. Same to you, actor Yang.”

“I get it. Get going with the rehearsal already.”

Jayeon pointed at the camera and spoke,

“We’re going to move the camera as little as possible, and we won’t separate the scene into many cuts either. We’re just going to shoot you two like a picture in a gallery, so do your best acting. This angle entirely depends on the actors.”

“That puts a lot of pressure on me.”

Maru smiled faintly.

“That’s what I want you to feel. I know what kind of synergy you two can bring, that’s why I did it. The camera director also said that this picture would look the best.”

“Yeah, if the director wants you to do it, then you just have to do it.”

Ganghwan brushed up his hair once. Steam started rising from the pot of fish cakes. Ganghwan crouched and adjusted the valve. The broth that boiled like boiling magma calmed down and seemed like the tranquil sea. There was enough steam to make the pojang-macha look moody.

Jayeon looked around the pojang-macha once and nodded before walking away in satisfaction.

“It’s been a while since we did anything with the two of us.”

“Yeah. Yuna isn’t here either.”

“It’s snowing too. Looks like today’s gonna be good. Let’s get something satisfactory for our director, yeah?”

“I just follow your lead, hyung-nim. Please lead me well. I’ll follow you.”

Ganghwan smiled nonchalantly before stretching his arms out. When he lowered his arm with a groan, he was no longer Yang Ganghwan; he had become the affectionate owner of the pojang-macha, Lee Jaewoo, who was also a writer who had hit a block. Maru exclaimed every time he saw Ganghwan’s method acting that switched his character in an instant.

Maru also lightly shook his head and calmed down his emotions. The more absorbed in acting he was, the clearer his mind became, which made his calculations quicker as well. It was impossible to become the character in this state. The only thing he could do was to meticulously analyze the character and cover that analysis with the skin of Han Maru.

“If you’re ready, let’s start!” Jayeon shouted.

Following that, the familiar cue sign fell from the director.

“You’re alone today,” Ganghwan said indifferently as he shook the moisture off the noodles.

No, he was ‘Lee Jaewoo’. Maru picked up an egg from the basket in front of him. The character he played, Park Haejoon, was not someone who reached out for other people’s items so easily. Ordinary politeness and a bit of introvertedness was his identity, but he had changed after meeting Yoon Jihae. The audience would feel a discrepancy if he showed a drastic change, so he had to keep reaching out to the audience with trivial actions like these.

“It just so happened.”

He thought about Yuna, Yoon Jihae’s face. He lined up the emotions that rushed up within him and observed them. It was time to see which one suited this situation the most, as well as which one he could use to match Ganghwan’s acting.

“Did you two get into a fight?”

“No. We didn’t fight, we decided to be just friends.”

“Just friends, you say.”

“Ahjussi.”

“What?”

“Do you have a lover as well?”

“I did.”

“How about now?”

“I don’t have one.”

“Why did you break up?”

“Because my future looked uncertain.”

“That’s a clear answer.”

“As you get older, you start despising things that are vague. Do you want some fishcakes?”

“I only have 1,000 won.”

“It’s a freebie.”

“Then I’ll gladly take it.”

Silence fell as agreed upon beforehand. Maru rolled the egg on the table before taking out a ring from his pocket.

“Couple ring?”

“How did you know?”

“I saw you two wearing one together. Did she give it to you?”

“Yes, she did.”

“I see.”

“Uhm, ahjussi.”

“What?”

“Do you think I did something wrong?”

As he fidgeted with the ring, the udon bowl was placed in front of him.

“If you don’t know, then I’m sure you did something wrong.”

Maru picked up his chopsticks and put some udon in his mouth. There was one emotion that popped out from the line. He judged that it was the right one, so he let that emotion take over. The moment the noodles touched his lips, his chin shook. He lowered his head as he swallowed the noodles. He could see the camera lens flash at the perimeter of his vision. He felt conscious about it but did not get hung up on it. This was the basics of camera acting.

Chapter 737

Jayeon looked at the monitor while covering her mouth. This was the last cut, and it needed tears in the act. She was blessed with luck as there was snow, so she wouldn’t ask for anything else if the act was good.

The two actors were captured in the angle. The faint steam that rose up from the bowl was tickling Maru’s face, and Ganghwan, who was indifferently cleaning his cooking tools, was showing his affectionate side by giving Maru glances from time to time.

Although there was not a single well-known actor or even a beautiful spectacle for that matter, Jayeon had confidence in this drama. This drama would definitely be the talk of the people. The basis of her confidence was the two people acting right now. Ha Byungjae, Choi Mira, Kim Yuna. While these three showed their skills to their fullest extent, they paled in comparison to the two people in front of her. Ganghwan’s act had reached a state of perfection when he was still a college student, and now it had reached a stage of maturity and was just before establishing his own brand. As for Maru, he didn’t lose out to any of the adult actors despite his young age, and he even stood out from time to time.

A good man who himself was an unfortunate writer with an uncertain future, but also someone who could not ignore other people’s pains; and a student who changed his personality in pursuit of the girl he liked, but resultantly ended up crossing paths with her. The characters that had formed over the course of four episodes were now rushing towards their own endings.

Maru lowered his head as though he was about to stick his nose into the udon bowl. What Jayeon had in mind was to do a master shot with everyone and everything in it first before getting a close-up of Maru’s sad face. She judged that it would be hard to capture the details of his emotions with the side angle that they were shooting now.

“I think this might be better,” she said in a small voice.

Although she couldn’t clearly make out Maru’s facial features because the camera shot from far away, it was surprisingly incredibly clear that Maru was crying in sadness. The two hands that clutched the udon bowl; the trainers that stuck to the ground before being lifted off slightly; the shrunk shoulders; the breath that was mixed with the steam from the udon; and last but not least, the intermittent crying noises. The crying noise was not that big. In fact, it was barely audible to the point that it might as well be have been drowned out by the other sounds. The crying sound was mixed with the wind, which would disappear during the post-processing. It was the cry of a boy who could not cry out loud.

Ganghwan, who was sitting on the other side, opened the steamer. This wasn’t in the script. Jayeon kept watching. When actors got into the flow of acting, they started doing things that were above and beyond what the script could tell.

He took out some soondae from the steamer and put it in a bowl. He put it down next to Maru, who was crying silently, and started chopping up radishes to put into the fish cake container. It was the consolation method of a man who was awkward at expressing his emotions. The pojang-macha he started in order to avoid the problems of reality ironically ended up being a place for him to console other people. It befitted the character ‘Lee Jaewoo’ that Ganghwan interpreted, who felt more pain when it came to other people’s pain than his own hardships.

Jayeon looked at Maru again. Until now, the emotions followed through quite well. She wondered how he was going to react to the improvisation of the soondae. Jayeon would feel satisfied even if he burst out laughing due to the absurdity of the situation. After all, everything just looked too good until now.

She got ready to shout cut. Now that she got her hands on some good footage, it was a good idea to cut off their emotions now and consult with the actors about changing the next part. The word ‘cut’ climbed up to the back of her tongue.

After staying silent for a while, Maru started moving. He swallowed the noodles that were about to fall through his teeth. It seemed that the two actors still had something they wanted to do.

He stared at the soondae for a while before raising his head. His face, which couldn’t be seen clearly until now as he was looking down, was revealed. Above the neck that had veins all over it from trying to hold back his voice, was a face filled with complex emotions. He sniffed before wiping his tears with his sleeve. He spat out a deep breath and Jayeon could feel a heart-thumping something from his actions.

“I only have 1,000 won.”

He repeated what he said before, but his expression looked different. He forced himself to smile. The boy who felt embarrassed about crying in front of a man who was much older than him looked young and immature at most, even if he wanted to look like nothing had happened. He looked like he was about to return to the times before he tried to change himself to imitate the girl he liked.

Although the bitter breakup was still there, it didn't hurt. Jayeon started contemplating as she watched the act of the two that went one step beyond the breakup of youths that she wanted to picture originally. If she decided to keep the improvised bit at the end, the story between the student couple would turn from a cup of black coffee into bittersweet dark chocolate.

“Cut!” Jayeon shouted loudly before walking over to the two people.

“Let me ask you something, hyung. What do you think love is?”

“What the hell is this about all of a sudden?”

“Just tell me. Do you think love is closer to a cup of black coffee or a bar of dark chocolate?”

“I’m not sure what this is about, but I’ll go with dark chocolate. I could never bring myself to like coffee.”

“What about you, Maru?”

Jayeon looked at Maru. Maru faintly smiled, his eyes still red.

“I also don’t like things that are only bitter.”

“Good. That’s fine.”

“Should I get ready for the next cut?”

“No, you’re done.”

“Eh?”

“I said you’re done. There’s no more shoot for you.”

Maru stood up in a daze.

“Hyung. Boil some more water and make another bowl of udon. Also, chop up some more soondae. We need to get a close-up shot of those. No wait, both of you, just follow me. I’ll show you what we got just now. Tell me if you don’t like any of it. Hey, little one! Boil some water and set up the bowls, will you?”

Jayeon felt agitated. She came up with everything for the drama, including the plot and the script, and the drama followed along until the last moment, but there was now a scene that didn’t go according to her intentions. A cut that was not of her intentions, that was what excited her. Perhaps it was the creator’s duality to want the world they built to be sturdy yet also want something or someone to go beyond their expectations.

While she worked as an assistant director in the drama department, she got to know that different producers had different traits in the way they produced. There were directors who minimized their communications with the actors and perfectly implemented the world they wanted, while other people would proactively reach out to the actors in an attempt to create a better picture. What Jayeon ultimately aimed to become someone who directed everything so perfectly that no one would be able to give suggestions to her, but that was clearly impossible right now. Her understanding of videography was shallower than the camera director, and she couldn’t say that she had a deeper understanding of acting than the actors. Her world was still incomplete. That was why, when someone stepped out of her picture, Jayeon chose to ask a question.

The camera director approached her as well when she gestured to him. After checking that their eyes were fixed on the monitor, she played back the footage. No one said anything until the end.

“Director Yoo, didn’t I do a good job?” said the camera director with a smile.

Jayeon raised her thumbs up in response. She then turned around to look at the two actors.

“If you don’t like it, I’ll just shoot again. If you like it, then we should just go with that,” Maru said.

“Are you going to air that completely? I think that was more than a minute. Can you air that much in a drama without changing cuts? I’m asking because I don’t know,” Ganghwan asked.

Jayeon just replied ‘it’s a mini-series’.

“Then there we have the answer. If you like it, director, then you should just push on with it. It’s not me who gets in trouble if it does bad.”

Ganghwan walked over to the pojang-macha with a refreshing laugh. Maru also shrugged before following suit. Jayeon’s lips curved. Those answers helped her make up her mind.

“Senior, get the surrounding scenery. Can you do it while it’s still snowing? I need everything with that lamp post at the center.”

“I can do that. I just need to change the lens.”

“Please take care of that. Also, I need a shot from a bird’s-eye view. Please take an overview shot from the roof of that building.”

“I heard you called for a jimmy jib in the afternoon, though?”

“That’s for a zoom-out shot from the top of the pojang-macha.”

“So you did end up using it. I was wondering when you were going to use it since you were saving up so much of the budget.”

“I should save up when I can. It’s all outsourced after all. Or would you like to do it instead?”

“I don’t have a jimmy jib. You can borrow it from the entertainment program side. I heard they have one there.”

“Sure, if they are willing to lend it to us.”

Jayeon clapped and shouted.

“Let’s eat for now!”

* * *

The end of the shoot came much earlier than he expected. Maru opened the lunchbox in a daze. The scene he thought would take several cuts ended with just one. Although going home early was a present that was always welcome, it was way too early today.

“If you don’t have anything to do, you should just cheer from the sidelines,” Ganghwan said as he sat next to him.

“I’m rather puzzled because it ended so early.”

“You’re blessed.”

“You’re going back to the studio after shooting here, right?”

“I think I’m going to have to shoot until early tomorrow. This goes against the contract. I liked it when I got paid by the day, but going past midnight happens way too frequently. When I’m rehearsing for a play, I would start packing up once the sun falls, but there’s nothing like that here.”

“That’s why they say TV work is hard. The actors can go home once they’re done with the shoot, but those people have to clean up afterwards.”

“You’re right. They work even harder than us.”

He stuffed the cold food in his mouth. It was warm when he got it, but it cooled down quickly because of the snowy weather.

“You were good.”

“What?”

“I mean your acting. There’s nothing more pleasing than someone accepting my act like that, and you were really good too.”

“I did wonder a little when I saw that soondae next to me. Should I eat it? Should I leave it? Should I continue even though it wasn’t in the script? Should I stop?”

“You did pretty well.”

“Please tell me next time. I still lack the skill to keep up with spontaneous changes like that.”

“You did plenty well though. Anyway, it was worth teaching you.”

“Yes, it was worth learning.”

Slurp~

He drank the miso soup from the plastic container. It was still warm.

“You’re still managing your throat well, right?”

“I never ceased to.”

“That’s good then. If you keep up with the basics, I’m happy with that.”

Well done - Ganghwan patted his shoulder before standing up. He finished his lunch box in that short time period.

“Don’t go home first. This hyung-nim is gonna have a hard time, so it’s not right for the little brother to rest easy.”

“Now that makes me want to go home even more.”

“What a mean guy. I hope you fall over while going home.”

“So you’re saying it doesn’t matter what happens to me now that the shoot is over?”

“Of course. Divine retribution will fall on a guy who ditches the actor that he worked with.”

“If it’s divine retribution, I’m receiving one right now.”

“How?”

“I’m going home early.”

“Why don’t you give that retribution to me?”

Ganghwan waved his hand and walked away. Maru finished his food before standing up. The character he went to many lengths to analyze would close his eyes today. He wondered how he would show up on TV, as well as what kind of reactions the people would have.

“Thanks for your work.”

Maru thanked the actors and the staff who were getting ready to shoot again for one last time.

Chapter 738

“General manager Park, it’s been a while.”

“Director Kim, you look good these days.”

“Not at all. I’m tired to death.”

“Aren’t you going to start shooting a film soon?”

“It’s usually harder before the shoot. You know it too, don’t you? It’s a pain in the ass to flesh out the project.”

Director Kim Chiho sat down after shaking hands with general manager Park.

“It’s cold outside, isn’t it?”

“Don’t even start. I drove my car here, and it was so damn slippery. The snow that fell yesterday froze up. You should be careful when you drive too.”

“It’s not me who should be careful; it’s the chauffeur. Here, have some of this. It’ll warm you up.”

It was sake contained in a white ceramic pot. General manager Park put a sake glass in a square box made of hinoki wood[1] and poured the sake so that it overflowed from the glass. Kim Chiho picked up the glass along with the box and brought it in front of him.

“First, drink from the glass and then you should drink what has pooled up in the wooden frame. It tastes great when there’s a scent of cypress in it.”

Chiho lifted up the glass, that was wet on the surface due to the alcohol, and gulped it down at once. The smell of the heated alcohol as well as the heat from drinking it rushed down his throat. It was sweet, but his throat hurt as the alcohol content was pretty high.

“When are you starting the shoot?”

“I already rented a set of buildings in Gapyeong, and I’m going to start as soon as the renovations are done. Even if I use computer graphics for the building collapsing scene, I can’t use CG for all of the explosion scenes as well. Actually doing it is much better. That’s why I’m putting a lot of effort into safety so that we don’t get any injuries. Safety is important after all.”

“Of course it is. You’ll be in big trouble if people get injured. The young master will be there too after all.”

Chiho nodded.

“How was he? I heard you did an audition.”

“I did it out of formality, but he was unexpectedly good. I thought he would be a complete newbie, so it put me at ease knowing that he’s actually pretty good.”

“The chairman will disown his own family if they’re incompetent. He’s exerting some of his power because the young master is pretty decent.”

“Yes, I’m sure that’s the case.”

General manager Park took out a box from his bag.

“Also, take this.”

“What’s this?”

“It’s a gift for you, from the chairman himself. Do you remember how he said that your arm looked a little desolate last time?”

Chiho recalled his meeting with the chairman two months ago. Actually, it wasn’t much of a ‘meeting’ since the only thing he did was enter his office, greet him, and leave. The chairman, who was drinking quietly, waved at him to leave as though he was done seeing his face, so Chiho lowered his gaze as he walked backwards. He did hear the chairman mention something about how his hand looked rather empty.

“Take it. My arm is starting to hurt.”

“There’s no need to go this far…”

“Hey, fella, you should take it when you’re given the chance. Even without this, the budget for the film is mostly from us, the YM group, isn’t it? It’s the chairman’s money anyway, so giving you an extra gift doesn’t change things in the grand scheme of things.”

Now that he heard that, he felt like it was true. Chiho carefully accepted the box.

“What are you doing? Open it, I want to have a look at it as well.”

“Shall I?”

Although he felt rather iffy before he received it, he was excited now that it was actually in his hands. It was a gift from YM’s chairman himself, so there would be little chance of him getting into trouble for this. Now that he was confident that he could take the gift safely, he felt bliss rising up from his fingers as he opened the package.

“Whew, director Kim. Are you sure you can go around wearing that?” general manager Park said while clapping in exclamation.

Chiho picked up the watch that was placed on the blackish-brown velvet pad. On the face of the watch was a simple logo that started with P. He gulped subconsciously.

“Put it on.”

“I’m afraid that I might get it dirty.”

Although he said those words, his hands were already reaching out for the watch strap. He took off the crappy electronic watch he was wearing and put on the new watch. Even though the only thing that changed about him was the watch, he felt like his class had risen by several levels.

“Director Kim, it looks good on you, eh?”

“I wonder if it’s okay to walk around wearing this…”

“The chairman gave it to you. You should wear it. If you’re so hesitant about it, then you should make the film a great hit and then wear it proudly.”

“I should do that. I would feel much better if I put it on after putting all of my efforts into the film.”

He took off the watch and put it back in the box. As for the old electronic watch that protected his wrist for many years, he put it in his pocket. He felt iffy now that he thought about putting it on again.

“I’m not telling you to support him openly. The chairman doesn’t want that either. It’ll be fine as long as you become a foothold for him to rise up. You understand?”

“Of course. I gave Mr. Kang Giwoo a good character and good scenes so that he will become successful in the future, so don’t worry about it.”

“Yes. I guess I should leave it to you. Oh, you should drink the pooled sake. Since you opened the gift and all, let’s toast in hopes of a great hit.”

He raised the hinoki cup. They toasted lightly before he emptied the contents in his mouth. Even as he drank, his eyes were fixed on the watch box placed on the table. The sensation of the leather that wrapped around his wrist for a brief time was still vivid to him.

“You seemed to have taken quite a liking to it, huh?”

“Eh? Ah, yes. I mean, when would I get to wear a watch like this? I can’t help but be drawn to it.”

“I’ve never received such a gift either. I guess it means that the chairman just has that much hope for you.”

“I’m touched.”

“Who knows? He might bestow you another gift if you are successful with this movie and the young master receives more attention from the people.”

He waved his hand in denial, saying that he didn’t think that it would go that far, but inside, he was high up on the moon.

He thought back to when he first met general manager Park. Chiho just laughed when he asked him if he had any intentions of doing a film that was on a bigger scale. In this industry, scale meant money, and he was not a director that was well-known enough to receive such a big investment. Although he did have a scenario for a disaster film that he made before, it had long been locked up inside a drawer somewhere because of financial problems.

“Let’s just cast one good child actor. If you do that, the investment problem will be fixed.”

That led to the current situation. At first, he felt like he accepted an unjust deal, and he couldn’t sleep at night because he felt like he had sold his soul as a man of film, but that only lasted a week. After the promised support and investment became a reality, he became so busy that sleeping was no longer a concern. He was introduced to a famous camera outsourcing team that was known for being hard to get into contact with, and he managed to form a team with a sound director who was known for being incredibly good at picking up ambient sounds.

After he formed what he thought to be a team of his dreams, he was then introduced to actors who he always wanted to work with. He liked Lee Hyuk from Soul Entertainment, who regained the spotlight last year as an actor, but above all, he couldn’t help but clap when he heard that Ahn Joohyun was the main heroine. When he heard that she accepted because she found the scenario good, Chiho felt like he had the world to himself. Proud actors and actresses didn’t move based on money after all. It was entirely up to the scenario to move such people.

“Good luck.”

General manager Park’s words woke him up from his thoughts.

“I will do well. This is the opportunity of a lifetime after all.”

“I like that attitude of yours. Also, did you finish casting the actors? I did hear that you finished casting the main ones.”

“The important roles are all settled. We already adjusted the schedule, and as I told you before, we’ll crank in once the building gets renovated.”

“There won’t be a problem with any of the actors right? I saw on the news before that a film became controversial after one of the actors got caught while illegally gambling. And it was a supporting character too. This work concerns our young master, so both you and I will get into trouble if something goes wrong. You have to watch out.”

“I’ve asked reliable people to do the casting, so you don’t need to worry.”

Chiho remembered the many actors that he saw during the audition. There was a girl that caught his eyes among the mediocre bunch. The moment he saw her act, he felt that Choi Gyeonmi’s eyes were still as sharp as ever. He admired her for managing to find such good talents every single time.

“Something interesting?” general manager Park asked after seeing him smile.

“I found a really good one during the audition.”

“Is it an important role?”

“It’s going to be a minor one, but I guess you could call it important since it will ignite the mood before the main scene.”

“Looks like luck is with you. You have all the support you want, and you even like the actors who came for the audition.”

“I can’t deny that.”

“Is it a man? Or a woman?”

“It’s a girl, she’s in high school.”

“She must be cute then.”

“Well, she does look cute, but you wouldn’t think that once you watch her act. She plays a character that gets squashed under the debris, but her eyes and screams. Man, she wasn’t ordinary.”

“The extras have to do well for our young master to shine.”

“Of course. The film would look less complete if there’s a hole in it. Only after the foundational work is done properly can the main actors play on top of it.”

Han Gaeul, was it? Chiho thought about the girl who heaved out a heavy breath after finishing her act. She would become big as long as she found the right opportunity.

“Well then, I think we’re done with talking about work, so let’s eat comfortably.”

“Oh, please go ahead,” Chiho said as he picked up his chopsticks.

* * *

“Oh, seonbae.”

Maru gave a plastic bag to Aram, who looked at him in puzzlement.

“What is this?”

“Some food for everyone. How’s practice?”

“We’re just about to start. Watch us while you’re here.”

“What about Daemyung?”

“He’s fallen ill. That seonbae, he’s big, but he’s actually pretty weak.”

“It’s you who’s way too healthy.”

Maru looked at Aram, who was wearing a half-sleeve shirt. It was December too.

“It’s fine since I’ll be sweating once I start running.”

“If I was your junior, I would’ve quit the acting club already. I can imagine the pains they would have to go through.”

He opened the door and went inside. He saw first-year students strewn across the floor, panting heavily. They were probably practicing in preparation for the national competition in winter.

“What brings you here?” Miso asked from the chair.

She was covering her lower body with a blanket.

“I had nothing to do.”

“Did you finish your shoot?”

“That finished last week. I did leave my house because I felt itchy staying at home all the time, but I didn’t find anywhere suitable to go. So I ended up coming to school.”

“Don’t you think that sounds way too tragic for someone of your age?”

“True. Anyway, is your body okay?”

“Apparently, nothing really changes much just because I’m pregnant. Maybe it’s because I’m only a month in,” Miso said, stroking her stomach.

“Be careful now. They say prenatal education is very important. You should use good words and refrain from getting angry.”

“Now that you said those words, I think I’m starting to get pissed.”

“I told you, it’s not good for prenatal education.”

Maru sat next to Miso. As soon as Aram returned, the members of the acting club started stretching again while groaning. Aram trained them even more harshly than Miso did.

“You guys picked a great club president.”

“She’s a devil too.”

“I wonder what you meant by ‘too’. It feels like I’m one of them.”

“Of course not. You’re just imagining it. Oh, what did you go with for the prenatal name?”

“Snowball[2].”

Miso chuckled after saying those words.

“It’s the dad’s work. My naming sense isn’t like that.”

“Why? I quite like Snowball. Snowball, I hope you grow up a lot and become a good person like teacher Taesik, okay?”

“Oho, so I’m not a good person?”

“The baby’s listening.”

Maru opened the bag and took out a gift packaged in wrapping paper.

“What’s this?”

“I came here to give you this. It’s shoes for a baby. It’s a color that suits both boys and girls.”

After accepting the gift, Miso patted Maru on the head.

“Thanks. I’ll use it well.”

“Please tell him or her that it’s a gift from Maru-ahjussi and that he’s expecting a gift in return.”

Maru picked up his bag and stood up.

“Then I’ll leave now.”

“You should watch the practice while you’re here.”

“Actually, I have somewhere I need to go. I only came here since it was on the way.”

Maru said a word of encouragement to the others before leaving the hall.

[1] Japanese cypress.

[2] I have no idea how to translate this. 쑥쑥이 is a written movement description (like onomatopoeia but not quite), for growing up.

Chapter 739

“The first episode airs today, didn’t it?”

“Yes.”

“How do you think it’ll do?”

“The late-night drama that airs at the same time on another channel is quite popular, so I don’t expect much. Of course, it’d be great if it does well.”

Maru crumpled the empty paper cup and stood up.

“I heard about the prenatal name. Snowball, huh. Pretty good, I must say.”

“My wife didn’t seem to like it though.”

“I’m sure she’s just not showing it even though she likes it. Thanks for the hot chocolate. Please bring me out to drink next time. I can legally drink now.”

“Yes, let’s do that.”

Maru said goodbye to Taesik before walking over to the container behind the school. He felt like it was yesterday when he wrote ‘Acting club warehouse’ with white paint, yet he could already see that it had yellowed and was beginning to scratch off. He tried pulling on the firmly locked padlock. He could hear a heavy metal sound. While it was very rusty, there didn’t seem to be a problem with its function.

“It’s still pretty useful.”

Thinking that he would probably never see it again, Maru tapped on the outer wall of the container before leaving the school. When he looked back at the school after crossing the road, he saw that it was shrouded in darkness. The only places where the lights were on were the gym on the left, the 1st floor where the faculty office was, and the 5th-floor hall. He felt like he could hear the faint sounds of the acting club practicing their lines.

He took out a scarf from his bag and put it around his neck. The wind was fierce. It was cold enough for there to be a warning from the government. He stomped his legs at the bus stop as he waited for the bus.

“Honey, it’s cold, put this on.”

“I’m fine though.”

“Put it on anyway. You catch colds often. You should watch out when you can.”

A man who seemed to be in college was putting a scarf around a woman. The man’s nose had turned red, but he was smiling as though it was nothing. Marriage, child, and couple. Maru smiled bitterly. What was he supposed to wish for in a world where what’s natural was no longer so?

The bus arrived. He got in and stood in front of the back door.

“Yes, hun. I’m going back.”

“Darling, listen to me. I had a really hard time today.”

“Alright, watch out on your way back. I’ll be going back first with Jisoo.”

He heard the usual sounds of people telling their lovers what happened during the day, venting their frustration, and just talking about trivial stuff. Maru took out his phone and put it down many times. Ever since he got a reply text from when it was the CSAT exams, she hadn’t contacted him once. I’ll do well - that was the last text she sent him.

“Are you still unable to speak?”

Maru called out to the masked man living within him. Ever since he regained his memories, the masked man stopped speaking. The silence of his only ally dramatically increased his fatigue. When he was acting, he could interact with the masked man, but it was impossible to converse like before. Maru thought that the day the masked man broke his silence would be the day of his death. It was just an assumption, but he was probably correct.

When he got off the bus, he got a text message. It was from Yuna. He messaged her that he was departing right now. He got onto the train headed for Sindorim. It would only take 50 minutes for him to get there, so he had plenty of time. He stood so that he wouldn’t easily lose balance and opened a novel. This was the only time his brain got to rest due to all the problems of the real world that he could not solve. It was a thriller novel that was written from the perspective of a person captured by a bunch of delusional patients, but he did not feel any agitation at all. Perhaps it was because he was in an even more fantasy-like situation.

When he read about half, he arrived at Sindorim station. He stepped onto the platform amidst the crowd. He watched the people struggling to get on[1] before stepping onto the stairs.

“Uhm, I’ve arrived at Sindorim station, where should I go now?”

-Once you leave through the 5th exit, you should find a convenience store across the road. There’s a bank to its right, and if you follow that road, you should be able to see the sign of the restaurant.

“Okay, got it.”

He hung up the call with Ganghwan and started walking. He looked at the buildings lined up along the road until he found the restaurant. He pushed the glass door and went inside. His ears, which had frozen stiff under the weather, melted instantly.

He took the elevator to the 7th floor. He walked past a couple of drunk people, went inside, and saw a bronze statue of an elderly man covered in red. He wondered what the chicken colonel was doing here, covered in red. The people walking by also seemed to have found it interesting and some of them even took photos.

He opened the door to the restaurant and went inside. The first thing that caught his eyes was the u-shaped bar. The people sitting at the bar seemed to be in their early 30s on average. Above the bar were large TVs on each side. Each of them had a different program showing. Although it looked like some jazz would suit the scene, the sound that filled the restaurant was people’s chatter mixed with the TV noises.

Maru looked around. There were tables blocked by screens on each side of the u-shaped bar, and he saw Ganghwan sitting by the window to the right.

“You’re here.”

The first one to welcome him was Jayeon. Maru took off his bag and sat down.

“Are Byungjae-hyung and Mira-noona not here yet?”

“They can’t come because of work or something. I don’t know those guys anymore. Those guys, I told them we should watch the first episode together, and they just ignored me. The shoot is over for them, so we don’t have any business together, huh? They don’t need me anymore, huh?”

Jayeon sighed while resting her chin on her hands.

“I think you’re drunk already.”

“I’m drunk on the indifference of other people. Isn’t it romantic for the producer and the actor to watch the first episode together?”

“I think they’re avoiding you because you bullied them during the afterparty.”

He thought back to Jayeon, who had held on to Mira and Byungjae throughout the whole afterparty. She kept making them drink saying that she was exhausted, and those two probably didn’t attend today because they pushed themselves too far that day.

“We’re really going to go until the end today. Today’s Fire Friday, so don’t think about pulling out. I don’t have any work tomorrow either. But where’s Yuna? Why don’t I see her?”

Just as Jayeon took out her phone, Maru saw Yuna hurry over from the entrance of the restaurant.

“I was almost disappointed in you thinking that you weren’t coming. Yuna, come next to unni and sit down.”

Jayeon opened her arms wide to welcome Yuna. If Maru had to pick two people that had gotten really close during the two months of shooting, he would choose Jayeon and Yuna.

“I actually got lost on my way here. Was I late by a lot?”

“No. You’re forgiven for coming. Yuna, you’re incomparably better than kids like Byungjae and Mira.”

Jayeon giggled as she hugged Yuna. Maru quietly asked Ganghwan, who sat next to him.

“I don’t see any empty bottles, where were you guys drinking?”

“We already emptied 2 bottles in the pojang-macha right in front of this place.”

“Aren’t you going in the wrong order? From a pojang-macha to a bar…”

“Don’t ask me that. I’m just a casualty too. Looks like she really did receive a lot of stress. She started acting like an unrestrained pony after the editing finished, and it made even me tired.”

“Making you tired huh, that speaks a lot. I think I should run if I want to survive.”

“One of us will have to take the gun. You be sick, I’ll take you home.”

“No. Why don’t you suddenly fall down saying that you have acute appendicitis? I’ll carry you to the hospital.”

Maru turned his head around at the tapping noise. It was the sound of Jayeon slapping down on a table.

“What are you two on about?”

“We were just discussing what to eat,” Maru quickly came up with an excuse.

One wrong step and Jayeon would feed him drinks immediately.

“Let’s fill ourselves for now, shall we?”

They each ordered what they wanted to eat.

“Also, bring us beer and two sodas.”

After the waiter walked away, Jayeon stretched her arms out and spoke,

“I wish I could have Maru drink, but the year hasn’t passed yet, so I guess it’s not happening.”

“Phew.”

“Instead, you can drink mixes.”

“What?”

“I’m telling you to mix it with your soda so that people won’t find out.”

“I thought it was you who went on about not allowing minors to drink…”

“That’s when I was shooting. Now that everything’s over, I have nothing to hold back. Of course, Yuna’s still a baby, so let’s not drink alcohol, okay?”

She sounded like a drunk old man. It would be fortunate if she did not suddenly go over to the next table and started ranting.

“Anyway, I’m fortunate that it ended safely,” Yuna said.

Maru nodded. The shoot ended without any big accidents. They even had the luck of snow during the last shoot. It would be great if that luck continued and influenced the viewing rates.

“Enjoy your food.”

Various drinking snacks and food were placed on the table. They talked about various episodes that happened during the shoot. As most of them were practically drunk during the afterparty, they didn’t have any time to talk properly.

“I actually felt rather uneasy when we first started off, but now that I think about it, I don’t think anyone else would’ve worked.”

“You’re just sounding weak at this point. You said you had to make it work when you started shooting.”

“Hyung, the ship is bound to capsize if the captain is uneasy. Even if I feel uneasy, I have to rein it in and take command. Isn’t that right?”

Maru agreed, saying ‘that’s right’.

“Anyways, you two, weren’t you two going out?” Jayeon asked as she hung her arm around Yuna.

Yuna, who was eating some omurice, froze on the spot.

“You two looked to be on pretty good terms.”

“We decided to be good friends,” Maru said.

Yuna quickly nodded in agreement.

“What the? Looks like Maru rejected you.”

“No way.”

“Really? Am I wrong then? I definitely thought that you were dating.”

“Maru-seonbae has a girlfriend already,” Yuna said with a straight back.

She gave off the feeling of knowing what was going on and was clearly stating that she did not want to talk about this anymore. Jayeon glanced at Yuna for a while before changing the topic. She wasn’t someone who would pry into what people did not want to talk about. While she was easy-going, she definitely kept her manners.

“If I think about how that dog kept delaying the shoot, it still makes me angry.”

Jayeon kept the conversation going. Yuna also joined the conversation as though she wanted to shake off what they were talking about before. While the two women excitedly chatted, Maru quietly poured some soda into his cup and drank.

“Oh, it’s about to start.”

Just as everyone was laughing about the time they got an NG due to a laugh, Jayeon had looked at her watch and then spoke. Maru also checked the time. It was 10:58.

“I’ll go tell them to change the channel.”

Maru stood up and walked over to the counter. He had the TV facing them change the channel to YBS. The documentary that aired at 10 on Friday was still on.

“I wonder if we got a lot of ads,” Maru said as he sat down.

“Don’t ask,” Jayeon said indifferently. Businesses who could put ads into a mini-series either had money left over or were those that had little to no money.

Yuna, who was sitting on the other side, started tapping on her phone.

“What are you doing?” Maru asked.

Yuna stopped and chuckled.

“I’m texting my friends to watch it since it’s going to start soon. It might affect the viewing rate.”

He probably didn’t need to tell the innocent girl that the viewing rates were investigated a different way. Maru put his spoon in his mouth and looked at the TV. The documentary finished, the and ads started.

“I’m nervous,” Jayeon said.

Ganghwan also looked at the screen with a serious face since this was the first work he did outside of the theater.

“There won’t be any hiccups, right?”

“If there is, it’s your fault now, Han Maru.”

Maru just shrugged.

Chapter 740

From some moment onwards, everyone’s eyes were fixed on the TV. The hands that kept moving the forks and glasses now stayed on top of tables and knees neatly. Maru understood why Jayeon chose this place. It was a bar, yet it was not noisy. He could hear the sounds of the TV clearly. Although the sounds of conversations interfered, it wasn’t bad to the point that it bothered him. It was like a jazz bar, but the TV replaced the jazz.

“It’s starting,” Jayeon said.

Starting - this was a magical word. Maru felt that the sounds around him were blocked off completely in one moment. His ears became a precise machine and just accepted the sounds from the TV speaker. After the last ad ended, the program logo in the top right corner of the screen disappeared. Then, the YBS program song came out alongside a notice that this was rated R15 before it disappeared.

Maru turned around to the TV. He crossed his legs and picked up the glass full of soda.

A dark night; a plane flew past the crescent moon sky. The camera chased the plane which was blinking its crash-prevention lights before slowly moving down to the bottom. It portrayed the back of a man who was walking up a hill. In the man’s left hand was a black plastic bag.

“It’s on, it’s on,” Jayeon said as she tapped on Ganghwan.

Ganghwan told her to calm down a little and quietly looked at the screen.

Ganghwan, who was singing ‘Sanoramyeon’ by Deul-gukhwa[1] as he climbed the hill, suddenly braced himself against the wall on his right and started retching. Usually, dramas would only play the sound or shoot from afar, but Ganghwan’s cringing face was zoomed in on. From how he looked like he was going to vomit at any moment and how his saliva dropped out from the corner of his mouth, he looked so vivid that people might misunderstand him and think that he had heavily drunk some booze before the shoot.

“Ah, what the hell.”

“Urgh, it’s getting me too.”

The people at their neighboring tables started grumbling.

“Director Yoo, see that? I told you it was way too graphic.”

“It’s not me, it’s every other drama that’s been too clean these days. Hyung, I told you that it’s about time for the paradigm to shift. How long do you think they can keep up the pretty act? We should wrap things up and start to follow America and England. Look at their dramas. They portray life as it is. Sex, murder, surgery - they don’t even blur it out like we do…”

“Fine. What am I supposed to say to you…”

Maru put out his hand holding the glass. Ganghwan sighed before toasting with him.

Ganghwan entered a worn-out room and leaned against the wall before falling down. The camera showed the mumbling Ganghwan for a while before showing the prizes hung up on the wall. Various literature prizes with the name ‘Lee Jaewoo’ could be seen on screen.

The camera slowly fell back and eventually shot Ganghwan, who sat still in the room. The scene started to turn dark, and subtitles floated up on the screen with the effect of a submerged object emerging from the water; Pojang-macha.

“That’s a good start.”

“Of course it is. The start is the drama’s face. I felt like my head was cracking because I couldn’t think of a suitable song, but then I thought of Deul-gukhwa’s songs. Their lyrics[2] suit the drama as well. I thought there was nothing better.”

“You’re right, it suits the drama perfectly.”

The quiet background music as well as the faint sigh showed clearly the nature of this drama. The people sitting on the other side of the screens started watching the TV one by one. What is it? What’s going on? - it wasn’t that they were interested; it was more that they were just watching it since it was on.

The title disappeared and the screen switched. This was the scene where Ganghwan was eating by himself late in the morning. He took out some eggs from the refrigerator and cooked some bean sprout soup.

“Look at his movements. You can see the finesse from having lived alone for a long time. I’m sure the old ladies watching this must be thinking that he must have been single for a long time,” Jayeon said.

Hearing that, Yuna chuckled.

“I hope I can use that skills for a fair lady as soon as possible,” Ganghwan complained.

“Hyung, you’re destined to be single for life. Or you can marry acting.”

“It feels terrible hearing that from you.”

The four of them laughed before looking at the screen again.

After finishing his meal, Gangwhan sat at his desk. Tick, tock, tick, tock - the sound of the second hand of the clock started becoming louder, and the number of Ganghwan’s sighs increased in correspondence. He placed his hand on the keyboard erasing everything, then he typed something before he deleted everything again - this happened for quite a while until Ganghwan’s wide-open eyes entered the scene.

-I’m gonna die at this rate for sure.

Behind Ganghwan, who stood up from his chair in a slow fashion, the dark sky could be seen. He, who had been sitting down in front of a computer for an entire day without even getting washed, finally washed his hair and face before changing his clothes. He left his house with a coolbox in each hand and headed to an old market in his car.

“That looks much more gloomy than I thought it would.”

There was a scene where the outside scenery was shot from inside the car, and the buildings in the marketplace were so spooky that they might as well be straight out of a horror movie.

“We intentionally turned all the lights off and made it look as dark as possible so that only the contours could be seen. Finding that place was the core of this drama. Without that, this whole thing wouldn’t feel right,” Jayeon said.

The car, which was driving past a narrow alleyway relying on its headlights, eventually came to a stop. The lights that shone on the gloomy streets were turned off, and Ganghwan started walking in the darkness with the coolboxes in hand. Slosh, slosh - just as the sounds of stepping on wet asphalt were quietly spread out, a dot of light appeared on the screen.

The moment he saw that single street lamp that shone in the darkness, Maru subconsciously smiled. Ganghwan started building the pojang-macha under the street lamp which was the alpha and the omega of this drama. He unfolded the various parts and put up the vinyl roofing. He finished building the exterior of the pojang-macha in a short time before starting to prepare his food. Sounds that felt like it should be coming from the kitchen could be heard in the middle of the dark street. Yuna stood up slightly and looked around. Her eyes were filled with joy.

“Everyone’s looking at the TV.”

Hearing her words, Jayeon also stood up slightly. She made an embarrassed yet proud expression and poured some beer into her glass until it was full.

“Usually, there’s bound to be a reaction as long as there’s sympathy.”

As Jayeon said those words with a sip of her beer, a middle-aged man appeared on the TV. He was a middle-aged veteran actor who agreed to do a cameo appearance, and he was well-known in morning dramas. Usually, he appeared as the chairman or an executive of a super company, but today, he had become a tired salaryman, whining in this pojang-macha.

-Gosh, I should quit that company while I still can.[3]

-Don’t say that and drink some of this. Today’s broth turned out really good.

-You should know that I’m not handing in my letter of resignation only because I can come here. You know that, right? So you have to keep working for a long time. If this place disappears, it means the end for me as well.

The middle-aged actor got a bowl of udon and ate some of it with his chopsticks. The slurping of noodles - the sound that provoked appetite - blatantly spread out through the speakers.

“Do you know what kind of pain I went through to get this sound effect from the sound director?” Jayeon said with pride.

The middle-aged actor’s refreshing act of eating combined with the stomach-provoking sound gave the drama a charm that enchanted the viewers to watch it in a daze.

“Let’s order some noodles,” Maru said.

He had more appetite now. The nerves inside his brain that were handling primitive desires were screaming at him to put some noodles in his mouth. He called a waiter and ordered some budae-jjigae and some additional ramyun noodles.

“Excuse me.”

Someone from the next table over called out to the waiter just as he turned around. Maru poked his head out slightly.

“Are there any noodles among the drinking snacks?”

“There are some jjigaes on the menu, and you can add ramyun noodles. You can also order some udon noodles in oden soup.”

“Then please give us some oden soup and udon noodles.”

Yuna was also watching that scene, and she nodded with a satisfactory smile. She looked like she had succeeded at winning a big contract.

The orders didn’t stop there. The customers that were watching the TV started ordering noodles in many different forms. Just like how yawns were contagious, it seemed people’s desire for noodles was also very infectious. It could be called a miracle caused by the middle-aged actor finishing a bowl of udon with crude movements.

The waiter disappeared with the order papers. A moment later, all the TVs installed in the restaurant had their channels switched to YBS. The one holding the remotes was the owner of this place, standing behind the counter. It seemed like he had intuitively realized that this was his opportunity to get some sales.

People called out for waiters from everywhere. Sounds of noodles slurping could be heard from three directions.

“There’s a comic called ‘Gourmet’, by the artist Heo Youngman, you know? Don’t you think that would do really well if it got a drama adaptation?” Ganghwan said faintly.

“Hyung, that’s not how it works. The technique I used in that part is food porn. It’s the effect of using sharp colors and stimulating sounds. I know that my drama can look dry at times. That’s why I chose food to make people’s eyes stay. I mean, who in the world hates eating? Eating scenes with different foods will appear in every episode. Eating, life, and love. I was worried at first, but I think people will talk about it if I look at their reactions. The start might be food, but at the end, it’ll be remembered for the story. Just you watch.”

Jayeon sat upright. Maru looked at the waiters and waitresses busily walking around handing food. Was this the power of the media as well? It was rather interesting that a drama could make people cook some ramyun late at night.

The udon-eating scene ended quite a while ago, but the noodle-slurping sounds could still be heard inside the restaurant. People focused on the TVs while drinking and eating the food they just ordered, Maru being one of them. There were similarities between the spicy jjigae and the drama protagonist, who hit a wall in life. Spiciness was something that was hard to get used to at first, but there would be a new world waiting after that hurdle was passed. As Maru knew what kind of happy ending was waiting for the protagonist, he could enjoy the drama while eating the food.

“Hey, it’s you two now.”

The pojang-macha scene ended, and the scene switched to a school.

Yuna watched the screen nervously with her hands clasped.

“Are you nervous?” Jayeon asked.

“Yes. What if I look strange?”

“If you look strange, that’s my fault for not editing properly, so don’t worry about it.”

After scanning the corridor, the camera showed the entirety of the classroom. Amidst the students going home after school ended was Yuna, who had a stiff expression on her face. The sunlight hit her cheeks and cast a long shadow on the desk. Her face, submerged in the shadow, contained anguish that didn’t look like it belonged to a high school student.

“Man, you made a lot of NGs when you did this.”

“I’m really sorry for what happened back then,” Yuna apologized to Jayeon.

That scene took them about 3 hours to shoot. The shoot unexpectedly dragged out because the acting was hard: she had to dissolve her stifled mind into her dim eyes and expression.

“I wasn’t there back then, but I heard that director Yoo was really harsh.”

Ganghwan pointed at the TV with his chin.

“Yuna even cried once,” Maru said as he recalled Yuna sniffing by herself by the window in the corridor.

Jayeon’s will was that there was no compromising since this was her first appearance, and Yuna became nervous due to the repeated shoots until she eventually ended up crying.

“Yuna, you can swear at me. This unni was really greedy back then.”

“Not at all. In fact, I’m glad that it looks good as a result.”

The cold image that covered the cute face of Kim Yuna showed that she was definitely not a half-assed actress. This had to be the result of Jayeon’s determination.

“Oh, it’s seonbae,” Yuna said.

Unlike the deep impression that Yuna left behind, the ‘Park Haejoon’ that Maru played had so little presence that he might be thought of as an extra if he wasn’t in the center of the scene.

“Look at him dazing out. He’s so good at acting,” Jayeon said with a smile.

That day, the director only wanted one thing out of each actor. She wanted Yuna to be as strong as possible, while Maru, had to be as faint as possible. Maru listened to her requests fully. He opened his eyes faintly in order to hide his eyes that might give off the impression of sharpness, and he even changed his lips somewhat to make him look like a clumsy person.

“It’s very different from when you played that murderer. Your acting is really amazing, seonbae.”

Hearing Yuna’s words, Maru scratched his eyebrows. Being told that in the face really was rather embarrassing.

[1] This is a protest song, written in the 1960s, and became popular in the 1980s. ‘Sanoramyeon’ is a modified way/dialect of saying ‘salda-bomyeon’, meaning ‘In life’. Meanwhile ‘Deul-gukhwa’, the band that sang a version in the 80s, means ‘wild chrysanthemum flower’.

[2] Here’s a translation of the song. There are various versions of this song, and this one is the version mentioned in the novel. (/ indicates phrase break)

V1. In life, you will eventually see a bright day / Even on gloomy days, does the sun not rise when the night passes? / Being a blue youth is an advantage, so / (chorus translated below)

V2. Even if you sleep in a leaking, cramped room / Is it not joyous with a fair lover? / As long as there are nights you can whisper / (chorus translated below)

V3. (same as V1)

Chorus. Don’t act petty and open your chest wide / For the sun will rise tomorrow, the sun will rise tomorrow.

[3] This was when, in Korea, having one job usually meant that you’d work for that business until you retire (or the company goes out of business.). Nowadays, that kind of awareness has mostly fallen apart, especially among the newer generations. This was why ‘quitting a company’ usually meant bad news back then.

Chapter 741

He had not been able to watch TV ever since he first shot something that would go on public TV. Watching his own face on the TV was unexpectedly very embarrassing. Even though he knew that he should be monitoring himself, he was overwhelmed with embarrassment when he stood in front of the TV, as though people were looking at him naked.

It took quite a lot of time for him to get adjusted to the embarrassment. His aim to fix his mistakes erased his embarrassments. Showing others that he was terrible at acting was something even more shameful than watching his own acts after all.

Maru calmly watched his own act. Erasing a person’s nature when acting might look simple at first, but the lack of personality that Jayeon requested of him was a little special, making it a little tricky to act out. A person who’s extremely normal yet also someone who one couldn’t help but be attracted to - these were the words he heard from Jayeon during the shoot. To him, that sounded similar to ‘a yellow apple’, or a ‘red banana’, or ‘chocolate that tastes like fish’.

After trial and error, he discussed the character with Jayeon and changed the abstract concept into a few keywords. As this was her first work, Jayeon wanted to fit in all the keywords she wanted, but she soon realized that it was a mistake on her part and focused on removing them. In that process, the character became a lot clearer.

-Yoon Jihae.

This was the first scene where he talked to the ‘Yoon Jihae’ that Yuna played. This cut took an abnormally large number of cuts because of Yuna’s habit of smiling when she met eyes with him. As a last resort, they started the shoot after Yuna pinched herself on the thigh, and that managed to get an okay because her expression looked unexpectedly decent.

“It really hurt back then, you know?” Yuna said with a chuckle.

She could only laugh now because it was something that happened in the past, but back then, she kept sighing because she couldn’t control her emotions properly.

-What?

Yuna replied with a cold gaze. Her character looked stable. Putting too much effort into acting would make it look off like they were wearing clothes that didn’t suit them, but Yuna had none of that.

Yuna, who was watching TV from the other side, was half-dazed. Whether she felt curious about her own figure on the screen, or she was just recalling the events that happened back then, Maru did not know. However, her slightly curved lips expressed her excitement.

“You guys had it easy. If you shot in a classroom, there must have been a heater. I thought I was freezing to death because I kept shooting outside,” Ganghwan grumbled, as his main stages were the cramped room and the pojang-macha.

The shoot started in October and lasted until early December when it started snowing. As Ganghwan appeared in most of the outside scenes, he always had hot packs with him. Even while saying that he was not in a good financial situation, he always bought enough hot packs for everyone to use.

“I think if we combined the money you spent on all those hot packs, we might have been able to put a couple more oil heaters in the scene.”

“Oh, those? I nagged the president for them. Where would I have the money?”

Maru imagined Junmin giving him the money with a bitter smile.

“How sweet.”

The two people on the screen looked at each other with the sunset through the windows as the background. Maru liked that scene. This scene, where two people who had nothing in common other than the fact that they were in the same class, was something that seemed plausible yet not that common; a fantasy, so to speak. Fantasy in the real world. Perhaps that was what Jayeon wanted.

“Honestly speaking, I didn’t have high hopes. But you two did really well,” Jayeon said as she looked at the TV.

“Man, that disappoints me. I think I tried pretty hard too.”

When Ganghwan said that in a small voice, Jayeon glanced at him before speaking,

“Because you’re supposed to do well. Had you not done well, I would have showered you with a barrage of cuss words.”

“Don’t call me to do a drama next time. Hey, I might as well put your number in my spam folder.”

“Go ahead. I’ll visit your company and call you out myself.”

Ganghwan said that was no good and put down his phone, saying that he didn’t want that. While the two exchanged jokes, the drama switched over to the kiss scene between Byungjae and Mira. Maru thought that it was a rather bold editing decision to switch over to a deep kiss scene between two lovers from a sweet romantic scene between students.

“I should have played that role,” Ganghwan said.

Yuna looked at Ganghwan, her mouth slightly agape. Her eyes had widened as well. Seeing her expression, Jayeon picked up the menu next to her and swung it at Ganghwan.

“You are such a perv! Don’t say that in front of our pure Yuna. Yuna, block your ears. You shouldn’t listen to words like that.”

“Is love something perverted? Is kissing perverted? I thought it was you who said that the Korean drama scene should be more liberal like the western ones.”

“I’m talking about work, while you are just full of indecency. This is why people should find a partner when they’re old enough so that they can gain some peace of mind. Hyung, you are going to become a flasher at this rate. Do you want me to introduce you to someone?”

“One of your friends? Oh please, I’m not going to put myself into hell. Also, I’m quite popular, you know? There are people who recognize me in Daehak-ro and ask for an autograph. Why are you looking down on me so much?”

“Like hell you do. Such a popular guy isn’t even dating and doesn’t have a partner for marriage?”

“I would get married soon if I had the financial leisure, but I don’t have any money saved up. There’s no way a woman would want to marry a poor actor, is there?”

Seeing the two quarrel, Maru drank some of his soda before quietly speaking,

“Since you’re at it, why don’t you two start going out? I’ve been watching you two, and it doesn’t look like you two have zero feelings for each other. You’re at ease with each other, get along well, and even look like friends. I think you two are perfect to marry each other.”

He said that as a joke, but their reactions weren’t what he expected. Jayeon, who had been shouting until now, had turned silent in an instant, while Ganghwan, who was exaggerating his actions, clasped his hands quietly.

It turned quiet in an instant. Maru looked at the two people alternately before scooping some food from the jjigae.

“If you two ever start a good relationship, buy me a suit.”

Hearing his words, the two people made stiff smiles. He thought he did enough; it looked like things would go awry if he went any further.

“I also think the two of you really suit each other.”

Yuna threw a bomb in a nonchalant manner. Being caught up in the explosion, the two people just poured some beer and started drinking. They looked like they wouldn’t speak a word until alcohol got the better of them.

“You are pretty strong at times, you know that?”

“What?”

“Nah, forget I said anything.”

The deep kiss scene was over. The lovers, who were drinking beer and eating dumplings in front of a convenience store, implied that they were an old couple to the audience. Maru rested his chin on his palms as he looked at Mira and Byungjae on the screen. He drank like that with Gaeul before they got married. When he had a deep pocket, he would buy frozen chicken and boiled pork with snacks or ramyun that was discounted. It was enjoyable to drink with her.

“Are they doing that kiss for real?” Yuna said those words after throwing a bomb at Ganghwan and Jayeon.

Maru put his lips on the glass and quietly looked at Yuna. Those words probably didn’t go through a filter in her brain. As proof, she was startled immediately after saying those words as though a block of ice touched her back.

“No, wait, I didn’t mean to say that.”

“Why are you so surprised? Also, you saw how it looked. It was shot up close. If that was fake, I have to say it’s a win for Korean CG.”

“R-right?”

“You know, you are quite perverted yourself.”

“Me? No, I’m not.”

“They say a strong rejection is an affirmation.”

“Seonbae!”

Yuna pouted when he teased her. Maru just laughed it over. He wanted to maintain a good colleague relationship with Yuna. Although the future was uncertain, he felt like Yuna would become well-known as an actress from how she was enthusiastic about everything she did, and from how she tried to fix her mistakes. What Maru wanted for her was to throw away the ‘once unrequited love’ title on him in her mind by herself.

“They’re all having good reactions.”

Maru looked over Yuna’s shoulders. The customers at the next table over were focusing on the drama. Other tables were the same. Ever since all three TVs started airing ‘Pojang-macha’, the customers would focus on the drama even after chatting for a while.

“I hope the viewing rates are good.”

“Me too.”

Anyone would want the work they appeared in to do well. He hoped that it would receive good reviews, and beyond that, influence him positively. Maru faintly smiled as he watched the drama.

* * *

She untied the towel around her head. She wrapped her still-wet hair with the towel and squeezed it together. Ever since she heard that using a rough-textured towel to shake off the water from her hair would damage her hair, she started using this method. Once it dried a little, she would use an electric fan or the hairdryer in cold mode. The things she didn’t think about much before had turned into things she should be concerned about.

Gaeul took her hands off her hair and picked up the remote. She raised the volume and focused on the screen. The school field could be seen, followed by the figures of Maru and Yuna. This was the scene where they were walking towards the school gates with an awkward distance between the two.

Yuna was being chased by time, while Maru was following her footsteps, and they looked well-coordinated as though they had been practicing together for a long time. The scene also looked much more vivid as though a different camera was used for this scene.

Gaeul hugged her knees. The two of them looked so good together. She thought that the two of them suited each other. She also had the desire of ‘what if I was in that position instead?’

“Yuna’s pretty good.”

She looked different from when she was practicing at school. Yuna always lacked something despite trying her best in everything she did, but in the drama, she dissolved into the character so well that it was hard to find a flaw in her. There was no need to mention Maru. From a roaring psychopath murderer to a completely normal student, he showed a vast range of acting, yet he looked stable every time.

-You can also be like that.

Gaeul smiled when she heard the rabbit’s words from her heart. If it was before, she would think ‘could I really?’, but it was different now. She could feel that she was improving. Gyeonmi, who was always scolding her, was complimenting her instead, so there was no need to doubt that. She was steadily heading towards her goal.

“Thanks for the help. I wouldn’t have been able to do it without you.”

The rabbit didn’t reply, seeming embarrassed from hearing such words. Only after a long while, did she say ‘don’t thank me’ in a faint voice.

“Of course I should thank you.”

-There’s no need for that. Rather than that, why don’t you move around if you have the time for this? Flexibility decreases at a frightening rate with age, you know?

“Alright. After I watch this.”

-You can see Maru’s face later whenever you want. Let’s focus on work for now, yeah?

The Maru on the screen was mumbling in front of Yuna. He was even good at looking clumsy. Gaeul nodded once before turning off the TV.

-The two of them really suit each other, right?

“Yeah.”

-You know? Don’t you think they’re dating right now?

“What are you saying?”

-Nothing, just saying. That’s how love between kids goes.

Gaeul frowned. The rabbit no longer said anything after that. She looked at the TV screen that had been turned off. She remembered Maru, who was smiling as he looked at Yuna’s back figure.

Chapter 742

Choi Haesoo nervously nibbled on her pen. Teeth marks could be seen on the blunt end.

“You must be tired, right?” Park Hoon said, sitting on the other side.

“You must be even more tired since you just finished a shoot, producer. I’m fine. Rather than that, this ‘Park Gwangsoo’ character, I think we should make him a little more daring.”

“Park Gwangsoo, huh. Do you think that would be better?”

“It’s a romantic thriller. I think a supporting character can be a little more extreme.”

“For example?”

“This scene where he’s waiting for Chaeyeon in the alley. I think we should make him a little more gloomy. Park Gwangsoo is a dandy character, right? We should give him a little twist and show a little lunacy. For example, gifting a doll with a red thread around the neck or a pair of dolls connected with handcuffs.”

“So you’re saying that Park Gwangsoo will appear all of a sudden with a smile on his face and gift a strange doll, am I right?”

“Yes.”

“Sounds good.”

“Then I’ll try fixing that part up a little. What do you think of the other parts?”

After flipping through the pages, Park Hoon smiled, seemingly satisfied.

“It’s so good that it makes me wonder if this really is your first time writing a scenario for a drama. There’s nothing for me to say.”

“Stop putting me on a pedestal and tell me if you don’t like any of the parts. This is also my first attempt, so there are a lot of parts that I’m lacking. It really is different from a novel. There are the directions to consider, and I have to consider that it’s going to be adapted into a video.”

“That’s the hardest part. A writer I know of even decides how much time is allocated to each scene. She writes every single cut with a specific duration in mind. That’s no longer a script; it’s just an instruction manual.”

“I have a lot to learn.”

“You’re doing plenty well, so don’t worry too much. I’ll help you as much as possible.”

After saying those words, Park Hoon took out his phone.

“Please, give me a sec.”

His phone made a sound.

“What are you looking at?”

“The debut piece of a junior of mine is airing for the first time today. I wanted to watch it from the beginning, but this meeting is more important.”

“Is it a drama?”

“Yes, she’s the first female producer of the YBS drama department. She’s so strong-headed that even the seniors don’t want to go against her.”

“I’m not sure about the details, but I heard that it’s really hard to see female producers in the drama department, am I right?”

“It is. Not to mention the work environment, there are many people among the staff who are rough around the edges, so it’s hard to have everyone harmonize. But this girl is literally a female general, so people follow her well. Even I have to watch two episodes in advance to not get an earful from her.”

Haesoo raised her head slightly. She was slightly concerned by the title of ‘first female producer in the drama department’. Park Hoon put the phone in the middle.

“It’s a late-night mini-series, and she used a pojang-macha as the subject. I’m not sure if that’s a good idea or not, but she sounded pretty confident, so I should watch at least.”

As she was looking at the phone, a familiar boy appeared. Haesoo said ‘excuse me’ and put her face closer to the screen. It was definitely Maru acting inside that small screen.

“What is it?”

“I just saw someone I know.”

“Who?”

“Here, the one in a daze. He’s called Han Maru and…”

Just as she said up to those words, she was reminded of the drama that Park Hoon was shooting.

“You know him, don’t you?”

“Of course, I see him every week. But how do you know him?”

“He’s on good terms with my daughter. That’s how I know him.”

“Really? That’s a coincidence. Do you remember how I told you there was a person I want to use as a supporting character?”

She recalled the words Park Hoon said when they started fleshing out the drama. He told her that there was a boy that could perfectly act out the character that she was thinking of. Haesoo looked at Maru, who was acting inside the screen, and spoke,

“That was Maru?”

“Yes. There’s no one better than him around his age. His skills are one thing, but he also has a really good atmosphere around him. He has good comprehension, and it’s easy to get along with him when working with him. That was why I was planning to cast him for this one.”

“I see. Were you planning on having him play the role of ‘Lee Minsung’?”

“That was the plan. What do you think, writer? I was originally going to talk to you about the cast after we finished editing the scripts up to episode four, but since we’re at it, I might as well ask.”

“Lee Minsung, huh. Lee Minsung.”

Lee Minsung was a college student with a twisted view of romantic relationships. Haesoo thought about a prankster when she came up with Minsung. Someone who was very popular thanks to his talents but was incredibly sharp when it came to his views on love.

“Well, I actually wanted a more round image. So that the inner nature stands out when it’s revealed.”

“Maru might look cold at first glance, but he’s someone who can do gentle acts as long as you ask him to.”

“I know how well he does. I even wrote something after I watched Twilight Struggles. What I want though, is not some light violence like that of a street thug; I want something heavy - or even cruel - to the point that people who see him get stricken with fear and wouldn’t be able to even think about resisting.”

Park Hoon opened his laptop.

“Have you watched a drama called ‘The Witness’?”

“I’ve heard about it.”

“Maru is in that drama as well. That drama is the reason I set my eyes on him.”

Park Hoon turned the laptop to the side and pressed enter to play the video. After pressing some arrow keys to skip back and forth, he let go. A boy was sitting face to face with the popular actress Ahn Joohyun in a room that looked like an interrogation room.

It took around ten seconds for Haejoo to realize that the boy was Maru. He gave off such a different impression. It was hard to come up with a relation to Maru after seeing that sharp, nay, violent-looking, face. The Maru that showed her daughter a gentle smile overlapped with the Maru in the video. They really didn’t look alike at all.

A moment later, a violent act began. He began smashing his head against the metallic table to the point that it made her worry that he might get injured. Ahn Joohyun rushed to him and grabbed him by the hair. Maru screamed as his eyes rolled backwards, struggling for life. No, rather than ‘screaming’, ‘roaring’ seemed to suit him better. His eyes were bloodshot and were full of killing intent. It was such a cruel scene that it made her hold her breath.

“What do you think?”

“I knew he was good, but I never guessed he could give off such a feeling.”

“I think that he will be able to digest a nonchalant act all the way to a violent murderer. Just look at this drama. He looks nothing like the murderer I just showed you. He looks like nothing but a clumsy student. Yet, he doesn’t look awkward. I think that he’s a good actor whose image does not stick to him.”

Haesoo nodded. She just watched a tempting act. There was no reason to object.

“Looks like I should keep Maru in mind when I write the next episode. It’ll become much easier to flesh out the character.”

“Sure, go ahead.”

“But you have to cast him, okay? It’ll be troublesome if he doesn’t end up joining us even though I wrote something with him in mind.”

“Of course, I was about to talk him into it anyway. We got the main scenario, and the script for the first two episodes, so it doesn’t matter even if we proceed with it now.”

“Since we’re at it, what are you planning to do about the other actors?”

“I wish to listen to your decisions as much as possible, but it’s quite difficult to use a top-tier actor for a new writer’s drama. We have to think about the budget as well as our circumstances. Well, if the scenario is good, you’d find actors who are willing to get lower pay but honestly speaking, that’s quite rare.”

That was something she was expecting, so she wasn’t that disappointed. This was her first-ever drama. It was the change of the novelist Choi Haejoo, who had been living off of novels, essays, and magazine articles, to the drama writer Choi Haejoo. It would instead be strange to expect a big investment in a little chickling like her. She was planning to do her best within the environment she was given.

“I actually don’t know any actors, so I’ll leave you to do the casting, producer.”

“But you should still see the main actors. The thing about dramas is that it feels different when it’s in script form and when it’s actually acted out.”

“Then please come up with a schedule and tell me about it later.”

“Yes. I’ll do that.”

Haejoo looked at the clock. It was 11:40. The meeting ended late at night once again. This café, which was open until 1 a.m., had now become something like her secret hideout.

“Thanks for your work today.”

“Don’t mention it. It’s you who’s doing the work, producer. It must be quite a hassle to lead a beginner like me, isn’t it?”

“You’re doing plenty well, so don’t think like that. Also, we have a reliable ally. If it comes down to it, we can always call for an SOS.”

A reliable ally. Haejoo thought about Lee Hanmi, who should be dazing out in front of a monitor right now. She, a veteran scenario writer, helped her out a lot with completing this scenario. She encountered much less hassle thanks to a junior who was famous.

“Then I’ll see you next time. Please keep up the good work until then,” Park Hoon said as he stood up.

“I’ll try my best.”

Haesoo also stood up with her bag.

* * *

She powered on her laptop as she listened to the drama’s ending song. She opened an internet browser and entered a café that she usually visited. It was a café that mainly talked about ladies’ fashion for people in their 20s. She moved the mouse cursor and clicked on the free bulletin board.

-Did anyone watch the late-night drama that just ended?

As for the content, she only put a single dot. Five minutes after she posted that, there were no comments to be seen. It seemed like no one had watched since late-night YBS dramas weren’t that popular. She found it quite a pity. She wanted to chat about the drama because she found it quite decent, but the internet was tranquil.

She refreshed the page a few times before browsing through the funny stories section. She browsed for about 30 minutes and thought that she should go to sleep when she found a red dot on her status bar. It was a notification that a comment was added to her post. She quickly clicked on it. There was a comment at the bottom.

-I watched it too. I had nothing else to watch, and it turned out to be pretty decent.

She found a colleague. She quickly tapped away with her fingers. The vivid colors, the food that made her drool, as well as the ordinary love story that she felt like she could relate with. She added a comment that it was quite refreshing to see a drama that talked about something more relatable than the Cinderella stories that usually aired around this time.

The other person agreed with her. The two of them got along pretty well. She started adding comments while fidgeting with her toes. Then, she found another person commenting on her post. One person, then two, then three… more and more people joined the conversation.

Some of them asked if that drama was really interesting. The woman typed without hesitation: You must watch it.

The moment she noticed that other people were getting slow at posting their replies, she realized that this was over. Usually, posts like this burn up for an incredibly short time before cooling down. She clicked on the free bulletin board for one last time, thinking that she should turn it off.

“What the, there’s quite a lot of people.”

The entire bulletin board was filled with people talking about that drama. Half of them were talking about how they ordered some food while watching the drama, while the other half said that they chuckled as it reminded them of their first love. She looked at the clock. Although she had to sleep in order to go to work tomorrow, she found it a pity to close the laptop now. She remembered the high school boy that shyly confessed at the end of the first episode. A ticklish sensation made her want to talk about it even more.

She decided to open a chat room. It was 12:20. 27 ladies without sleep started chatting.

Chapter 743

“When does the holiday start?”

“The 29th.”

“That’s still far away. This is so boring.”

“What can we do about it? There’s no choice.”

Bada looked at the calendar. The number 29 felt so distant. She wondered when she could escape this classroom where even her breath turned white from the cold. Although they did turn the heater on, that was only during class. The classroom in the morning was practically a refrigerator.

“Bada, what are you going to do over the winter holidays?”

“Go traveling with my boyfriend.”

“Really?”

“I’m definitely going to go this time.”

“To where?”

“We’ll go skiing. I saved the money that I was going to use to buy our oppas’ album for traveling. We’re going to decide on a date as soon as the holidays begin.”

“Good for you. I would go somewhere too if I had a boyfriend.”

Her friend sighed.

“Bada, Bada!”

Suddenly, another friend of hers opened the door and rushed over to her. A wave of cold air rushed towards her. Bada grabbed that girl’s hand, asking if it was cold. She was shaking slightly.

“What is it? Why are you in a rush?”

“Did you watch the drama yesterday?”

“Drama? What drama?”

“The one your brother appears in.”

“The one my brother appears in? New Semester is on Saturdays, isn’t it?”

“I’m not talking about that one. Didn’t you watch this one?”

Her friend opened her phone. Bada saw Maru, making a dazed expression inside that fuzzy photo.

“Oh? That is him.”

“Right? I almost forgot to do my homework because I was watching this. It was really fun.”

“Why didn’t I know about it?”

Bada took out her phone and texted her brother: Oppa, did you shoot a drama? A reply came back quickly since he was just fooling around at home: Y. She didn’t expect a lot from him, but wasn’t just a single letter ‘Y’ a little too simple?

“Then why didn’t you tell me about it, goddammit. What a funny guy.”

Bada imagined that Maru was yawning right now.

“Is it him?”

“Yeah, I think so.”

“Didn’t you know about it?”

“He doesn’t tell me stuff like this. He actually gets quite embarrassed. Anyway, how was it? Let’s set aside the drama since you said it was good. How was my brother’s acting?”

“Yesterday was the first episode, and he was just normal.”

Her friend looked around before pointing at a boy reading a comic book.

“He was just like that. You know, those ordinary people.”

“I guess that’s the kind of role he plays. Didn’t he look awkward?”

“Not at all. Also, there’s a girl he’s paired with, and she was a bit cute. I wanna pinch her cheeks.”

“A pair? A girl then?”

Bada tapped on her lips. She thought about how he made a strange expression on the bus during the day of the CSATs. She thought that he got into a fight with his girlfriend. She stood up and went over to the computer installed at the teacher’s seat. Her friends followed her.

“What’s the title?”

“Pojang-macha.”

She typed on the keyboard and searched the drama on the web. A short introduction of the drama came up along with a poster. The viewing rate was 2.4%. She clicked on the list of actors.

“It’s her, this one.”

Her friend pointed at the monitor. Kim Yuna; just as her friend said, the girl looked quite cute. This seemed to be her debut piece as the only thing that came up when she searched for her name was a politician with the same name.

“My brother appears as a couple with her in the drama?”

“Yeah. From the looks of it, I think he’s going to confess today and start going out with her. They said it was only 4 episodes long, so it shouldn’t take that long.”

Bada looked at Yuna’s face before shaking her head. She was probably overthinking when she thought that he fought with Gaeul-unni over this girl. She knew that her brother wasn’t such a prick.

“Give me the mouse for a sec.”

Her friend placed her hand on the hand that was holding the mouse. She scrolled down before clicking one of the search results which opened in a new window. There was a short review along with some pictures from the drama.

“The drama looks like it’ll do well.”

“Why do you say that?”

“Because of this café[1] I’m showing you. I use my sister’s account to browse it from time to time. I can look up places that sell cosmetics at a cheap price. You see that number up there? 400 thousand is the number of members here. The dramas that get posted here as interesting usually do well. The drama that aired on KBS last time didn’t do that well at first, but it spread around once someone here said that it was really fun.”

“Really?”

Bada told her friend to show some comments. She logged in before opening the comment section. There were about 100 comments, and they were all written during the night. They were posted less than 10 minutes after the drama ended.

“A drama that makes you hungry? What does that mean?” Bada asked.

“You’ll see if you watch it. I was going crazy too. You know how I don’t eat ramyun because I’m on a diet, right?”

“I know. You didn’t budge when we placed some ramyun in front of you as a test.”

“Yet I ended up cooking ramyun in the middle of the night yesterday.”

Bada became shocked and touched her friend on the cheeks. They definitely felt a little swollen.

“Really? I thought you were never going to eat it.”

“But watching that made me go crazy. You know that cooking program I always watch at six in the evening, right?”

“The thing you always watch on your phone before self-study classes after school?”

“Yeah. I can usually hold back even after watching that, but not this one. Just the color of it is different. It’s an evil drama. I can feel their intention to feed the viewers food.”

“What the, is this drama related to food? And cooking and stuff?”

“Well, no. For now… it’s a romance drama, I guess?”

“Your answer sounds kinda vague.”

“You’ll see when you watch. It’s kinda hard to explain in words.”

“Really?”

Bada said ‘hmm’ as she looked at the hundred-something comments.

* * *

“Senior, here, have some coffee.”

Park Hoon accepted the paper cup given to him by a junior producer.

“Did you watch Jayeon’s piece yesterday?”

“I joined halfway through. I had some work to do, so I didn’t watch it properly.”

“I’m sure she’ll ask you about it. Looks like you’re gonna get an earful today.”

“I was just wondering how to run away too.”

Just as he pressed the button for the elevator,

“The two of you! Wait!”

He saw Jayeon take off her ID card from her neck and run over. Park Hoon exchanged gazes with his junior and kept smashing the elevator button. 2… 1… Along with a clear ring, the door opened.

“Seonbae!”

He waved at Jayeon, who was scanning her ID card at the entry barrier before pressing the ‘close’ button. He saw Jayeon panting as she approached them.

“She’s gonna get you anyway. If you’re gonna get beaten up, you might as well do it early.”

“I’m going to run away until lunch at least. If that doesn’t work, I’ll just hide in the president’s office.”

The elevator opened again. He turned around the corner as he sipped on the coffee he was holding. At that moment, the door to the emergency staircase opened and Jayeon ran out from it. She, with ragged hair, looked like she was out for blood.

“Senior, allow me to take my leave first.”

The junior ran away, telling him to pay back for the grace of the coffee. Park Hoon approached Jayeon with twitching lips.

“Looks like you’re looking after your health these days, Jayeon. You’re even taking the staircase. Stamina is definitely important in this work. Good job.”

“Stop the nonsense. Why did you run away from me?”

“Run away? Oh please. I pressed the ‘open’ button, but the doors closed by themselves. Do you think I wanted to run away? If I did, I wouldn’t be here.”

“Do you mean that?”

“Of course. Here, have some morning coffee. You should calm down a little as well.”

Jayeon narrowed her eyes and accepted the cup.

“You should watch your eyes. Oh, and also, the drama looked pretty decent. You got me enraptured throughout the whole thing.”

“Senior Park.”

“Yeah?”

“Did you even watch it? I can’t really believe you. I mean, you’re busy these days with something, aren’t you? You can be honest with me. You didn’t watch it, did you?”

He couldn’t let that smile fool him. That was a trap; a trap that would make him suffer for the rest of the day. He had to gloss over this to gain peace for the day.

“Of course I did! It’s your debut piece after all. I mean, everyone at the company must have watched it. Also, there are all those things I taught you. I have the duty to check them, don’t I? I watched everything from beginning to end, so stop suspecting me.”

He ignored the frosty eyes as much as possible as he kept walking. He had to be careful if he didn’t want to get bitten by the bulldog.

“How was the opening?”

“It was good.”

“What about the text font? I had a hard time choosing one.”

“That was good too.”

“There’s nothing else you want to say to me?”

“I could feel Yoo Jayeon’s sense of aesthetics. It was pretty good, you know?”

Jayeon crumpled the paper cup in her hand. Park Hoon felt like the crushed cup was his own body. It became even harder now to tell her that he only started watching halfway through. As Jayeon’s eyes became sharper and sharper, a savior appeared.

“Chief!”

He waved his hand at the chief producer in delight and approached him. He finally found a good excuse to escape from Jayeon’s clutches.

“Ah, yes. Hoon! Good morning.”

“Chief!”

“I said good morning!”

Park Hoon clearly saw that the chief producer’s eyes fell on Jayeon for a moment before looking away. The chief producer was also running away from her.

“Senior Park.”

“Yeah?”

“How was the story?”

He couldn’t breathe anymore. Last night, his brain had mostly given up on working after talking with writer Choi Haesoo. He only watched the drama intermittently while talking about Maru, so there was no way the story remained inside his head. Uhm, err, the thing is – he stalled for time while saying those words.

Just then, he saw the newest member running over with the viewing rate sheet. The daily workflow of the drama department started with checking the viewing rate sheet in front of the president’s room. Park Hoon hurriedly lifted his finger.

“Oh, your viewing rate sheet is out. You should check yours now.”

“Ah, right. I too now have concrete evidence.”

Jayeon clasped her hands and walked over to the sheet. Park Hoon sighed in relief. Jayeon, who was checking the viewing rate sheet, quickly waved at him to come.

“What is it?”

“It’s 2.4%. This isn’t wrong, is it?”

“What? It’s 2.4%?”

Park Hoon exclaimed before taking a look at it himself. The viewing rate was on par with when the YBS late-night series was a fixed show.

“That’s pretty good.”

“I was expecting more like 0.7%. Man, how many times more is that?”

“Wow, Yoo Jayeon. You’re on a roll.”

The producers of the department all came around and gave a word or two. Jayeon took out her phone and took a photo.

“See? I told you I’d do it.”

Jayeon cheered. 2.4%. The producers of the dramas that aired during the golden hours might snort at this number, but it was more than decent for a late-night drama, especially one that had been halted for a long time and was only used as a filler.

“Watch today. I’ll make it past 3%.”

“Hey, hey. 3% is taking it a little too far. RBS, with their bigshot casts, can only manage 4%.”

“They’ve fallen for mannerisms, haven’t they? People don’t like mini-series without a sense of refreshingness. Just watch, I’ll prove that to you tonight.”

Jayeon seemed pretty confident. Park Hoon retreated after telling her that it was going to do well. He was almost bitten by a fighting dog, but thankfully, luck was with him today. As he was about to go to his seat in relief, Jayeon caught up to him.

“But seonbae, wasn’t the jump shot a little too long?”

“Hm?”

“I mean the jump shot in the latter half. I put about 15 seconds of it with some background music, but now that I think about it, that might have been a little boring. It might even be a little too abrupt. What did you think of it?”

Park Hoon sighed as he looked at Jayeon’s stubborn eyes. It seems like it was going to be a painful day today.

[1] Basically an internet community/forum.

Chapter 744

“Do you think 2.4% is a good result?”

Maru poured some of the broth into a paper cup and put it down in front of Daemyung.

“It’s lower than the programs airing on the other channels in the same time slot. I don’t think it’s something to be joyous about.”

“That’s such a pity. I enjoyed it a lot. Though, mom said she didn’t like it that much.”

“What did she say?”

“She said it was too bland. She likes provocative stories. Can I eat another one?”

“Sure, go ahead.”

Daemyung grabbed another skewer in joy.

The first episode aired without a hitch. The people at the bar yesterday all applauded when they heard the drama’s ending song. Jayeon sighed in relief, perhaps because she was nervous as the person in charge of the drama. After the drama ended, Jayeon and Ganghwan, who originally looked like they were going to drink until they passed out, finished their Friday with just two more bottles of beer. Jayeon had to go to work, and Ganghwan had practice.

“What are you up to these days?”

Having received a question, Daemyung started chewing quickly. A fishcake skewer disappeared into his stomach.

“I’m commuting to the library.”

“The library?”

“I’m going to study basic production skills. There were too many things I don’t know yet. Also, I have to write a script as well, so I think I’m wracking my brain even more than when I was at school.”

“You kept writing that.”

“Of course. We decided to shoot it in the Winter. There’s not long left. I think I can finish it by next week at the earliest. I’ll show it to you once I’m done.”

“You sound confident.”

Daemyung rubbed under his nose and smiled.

“You bet.”

“Now that makes me nervous since you sound so confident. You didn’t write down something I can’t do, did you? It has to be doable in real life, okay? Think about the costs too.”

“Don’t worry about that. All I need is a single room. Maru, did you watch Shining?”

“You mean the film? I did when I was studying acting. Is the one you’re writing similar to that?”

Daemyung nodded energetically.

“I said it before, but you played that murderer in The Witness, didn’t you? Both Sora and I think that a psychopath’s image suits you a lot.”

“I’ll take that as a compliment for now.”

“It is a compliment. When Sora first said that we should write a script together, we already had a genre in mind. Horror, mystery. Not the kind of horror like ghosts; it’s the cruelty of humankind, as well as their violence. I wanted to create something along those lines.”

“If it’s possible, I’d like you to add erotica into the genre.”

“E-erotica?”

Daemyung’s eyes looked up before coming down again.

“Sh-should I try?”

Maru pulled out another fish cake skewer and gave it to Daemyung.

“Forget it, just eat.”

“Maru, what are you up to these days? Is there an audition you’re getting ready for?”

“Nah. I only go out on weekends to shoot New Semester, and I’m mostly at home otherwise. I’m running out of time watching the dramas and films I have to watch for studying. Gosh, why are there so many things to watch?”

An actor’s way of studying was ultimately related to the trend of the era. After going through all the so-called ‘classics’, they would have to watch the things that reflected the current era. While learning the trends and the skills that were popular in the current era, the actors would have to go back to the classics to add depth to their acts. An actor was a kind of profession where one could not improve if they stayed in one era.

“Being an actor isn’t easy, huh.”

“I mean, what is?”

“Right?”

The lady gave them a bowl full of soondae. It was quite a lot considering it was supposed to be 1 person’s portion. Maybe she took a liking to Daemyung since he ate so happily.

“When do the CSAT results come out?”

Daemyung flinched as he skewered a piece of steamed pig lung with a toothpick.

“On December 7th, so the day after tomorrow.”

“Didn’t you tell me that you did well? Why do you look so awful?”

“I think I will only barely make it since I compare my scores[1] to the results.”

“Even though it’s philosophy?”

“It was unexpectedly quite high.”

“What are you going to do if you don’t make it?”

Daemyung became gloomy in an instant. This feeble fella shook his head as though he didn’t even want to imagine what life would be like if he didn’t make the cut, but he still stuffed his mouth with food. If his obsession with food would only apply to other areas as well, Daemyung would probably be able to return from the middle of a jungle even if he didn’t have anything with him.

“I’m definitely not going to study for another year,” Daemyung said.

He was filled with resolve. If not for the bits of food around his mouth, he would have looked pretty serious.

“You’re not going to go to college?”

“It’d be good if I can go, but I don’t want to waste a year.”

“Think about it carefully. It might be a year now, but that year may decide the next five or ten years. People don’t sell their cows to send their children to college for nothing. There are definitely cases where going to the ivory tower will change people’s lives. I mean, college students have an especially large number of opportunities they can take. There are things their departments provide them with, and you will form connections with professors as well. There are many people among writers and producers who have degrees in philosophy, so it will be much easier to talk to them if you have one of your own.”

“You’re making me scared here. I was determined not to go if I didn’t make it.”

“I’m just telling you to think about it. It’d be great if you get admitted into the college of your choice, but didn’t you just tell me that it was quite close? You should think about it beforehand. Have you thought about lowering your goals?”

“Philosophy in Hanho university. That’s probably the lowest my parents would allow.”

“Well, they gave you permission to go to such a department, so your parents will be devastated if they found out that you were aiming for a lower college.”

Daemyung blew some wind over the broth to cool it.

“Maru, do you think college is absolutely necessary?”

“If you can go, you might as well do it. While the times treat college degrees more and more like scrap paper, there are times when that scrap paper is something required. Well, there are many people who say they are fine without a degree, but many companies don’t even accept anyone who didn’t go to a 4-year curriculum university. If you just look at the successful cases, anyone would be able to become Bill Gates. Normally though, people have a higher chance of failing than succeeding, don’t you think?”

“Then why did you give up?”

“Because I can go anytime I want, and it doesn’t really matter even if I don’t go. If I was unsure, I would also have prepared for CSATs. But now, I feel pretty confident. I’ve given up on it after calculating the benefits and losses, so I don’t have a problem. If you are giving up on your own accord, it should be fine, but if you’re saying that you want to go, but you just don’t want to waste another year, that sounds like you’re running away from reality.”

“This reminds me of a career consultation session I had with a teacher.”

Daemyung’s shoulders drooped down.

“I want to go too, but there’s the affordability to think about. If I pass now, president Lee Junmin will support me with tuition, but if I have to wait another year, that would no longer be the case. My parents only allowed me to major in philosophy because the tuition was free. If that doesn’t happen, getting admitted next year won’t do any good either. Honestly, I know myself the most. I don’t have the confidence to study hard while earning money for tuition. I don’t have that great of a concentration skill.”

“So you want to go, right?”

“Of course I do. How many people don’t want to go to college? But I can’t be a kid forever, can I? It’s not like the thing I’m trying to do is going to earn me money immediately. That’s why I thought about it. If I don’t get admitted into the college of my choice this time, I’m planning to work. I’ll save up for about three years and do the things I want to do then. Oh, wait. I have to do my military service too. I guess it’ll be better for me to work for two years and then go to the military?”

Daemyung laughed in vain. He put down the toothpick in his hand. The soondae cooled down.

“Anyway, I had a great three years with you, so I have no regrets. Above all, I’m glad that I met you, Maru. Without you, I would have sat in the corner of the classroom like I did in middle school, right?”

“You were bound to change. Even without me, you would have done fine by yourself. I just became a trigger of sorts.”

“That trigger is very important, though. Now that the CSATs are over, I feel like 3 years passed by in a flash. During our first year, it felt like time was never passing when we stayed at school until 11 to practice, yet here we are, just before graduation. Everyone is bound to go through the same process at one point, but I feel rather awkward. I feel like it would’ve been better if I went to school for another year.”

“Once you go to college and go to mixers, you will never think like that again.”

“How can I go to mixers when I have Jiyoon?”

“Usually, those who open their eyes to love late are usually the scariest. Just like you.”

“Not me.”

Maru smiled faintly as he looked at Daemyung, who tensed his eyes. He had seen a few couples that started dating in high school and went all the way to marriage. Those people broke up 9 out of 10 times, but the ones that continued to have a good relationship until the end usually had a happy marriage. Although they would have fewer expectations for marriage because they would have seen everything about each other already, there would be just as little disappointment, making it possible to have a stable married life.

“Yeah, get married, alright. Get married and have a child that looks just like you.”

“I hope that happens.”

“I’m scared that you aren’t denying it.”

Maru dipped some soondae in some salt and then put it in his mouth.

“Even if you don’t make it, you should study and take the tests in a year if you have any intentions of going to college. I’ll pay for your tuition. Usually, trying to save up to do something later in life doesn’t do any good. Do you think people don’t want to do that? People think ‘I’ll do this after working for a few years’ all the time, but they end up becoming managers in their companies. Usually, once you start postponing your dreams, you’re bound to keep postponing them. Dreams are the most insignificant things after all. Your priorities will be delayed without end.”

Daemyung coughed dryly while eating.

“Y-you’re saying you’ll pay for my tuition? What do you mean?”

“It’s just as I said. I want to invest in you. If you get admitted this time, you get the president to pay for it, and if you don’t make it, you should study a year or two more and go to the college you want. I’ll pay for everything. But if you go to college and get a scholarship, half of it is mine.”

“I can’t do that. How could I possibly do that?”

“Why not? I’m willing.”

“College isn’t cheap.”

“I said it’s an investment. I personally think that the brand of Park Daemyung has a bright future. Even if I consider the opportunity costs and the money I would end up investing, I don’t think it’s a loss for me.”

“Are you serious?”

“Do you want me to write official documents for you?”

Maru put down the toothpick and shook his hand.

“Try. I thought you wanted to go to college. I thought you have something you want to do. Try them all out. Don’t worry about the money. If necessary, I’ll go meet your parents and explain everything.”

Maru took out some money from his wallet and handed it to the owner lady.

“If you’re done eating, let’s go. Dowook and Dojin are waiting in the PC-bang.”

He left the pojang-macha first and started walking. Daemyung followed suit.

“This entire conversation is pointless if you get admitted, so don’t think too deeply.”

“I’m a little dazed right now. There’s no way you’re saying that as a joke, but that means that you’re serious, so it makes me wonder why you are going so far.”

“I’m not saying that I’m going to take responsibility for your life. It’s just college. I can take care of that much with the money I have.”

“What if I fail the next year’s exams? You’d just be wasting money.”

“So are you going to fail?”

“No!”

“Then I don’t see a problem.”

Maru shrugged. A few dozen million won. It was definitely not a small amount of money. Heck, it might decide the life and death of someone. If Daemyung was someone who was all talk and did not put in the effort, he would not have proposed such a thing. He had the will to study and had a high probability of success. That was why he reached out to him. When he said that he believed in the brand of Park Daemyung, he wasn’t lying. Maru had a premonition when he read the novel that Daemyung wrote. This fellow had the talent to write good stories. Although he said he wanted to be a producer, even if he didn’t go down that specific route, he looked like he had the potential to become a good novelist or a drama writer. That was obvious from the fact that writer Lee Hanmi, who everyone from the TV stations wanted to take, looked out so much for him. There were writers Ahn Pilhyun, Bae Chulho, and Gwak Joon as well. They all talked about how Daemyung had talent.

He wanted to make a bet. He was willing to gamble on the stock known as Park Daemyung.

“If you become successful, write something and give it to me. You know, right? This is all for my sake.”

“Maru…”

“Well, think about it when the results are out first. This is all meaningless if you get admitted.”

Maru slapped Daemyung’s back.

[1] The CSAT results are announced at a certain time, but examinees are allowed to take a ‘card’ with them after the exam where they put their answers on. (Remember, it’s multiple choice, so it’s not that hard to mark) The answer sheets are usually posted on the internet hours after the tests, so they can check their scores early.

Chapter 745

“Thank you for the interview. I had an easy time because you were so good at talking.”

“No, the interview was easy thanks to your fluent words, journalist Kim.”

“I’m glad that’s was the case. Oh, I heard that you’re starting another film soon.”

“I just signed the contract two days ago. News sure does travel fast.”

“Well, I come across a lot of gossip. Someone of your caliber, actor Choi, will always be on my radar. Who knows? Maybe you’re going to be a character in a 10 million seller again.”

“I’m only a support character; how much influence could I possibly have? It’s thanks to the other actors that it was possible.”

“But I still hear rumors in Chungmuro that casting you guarantees at least 5 million views. You’re a guaranteed check in the support actor industry, apparently. Anyway, I hope you do well in this one too.”

“Will I be able to meet you again if I do well?”

“For me, I’ll go wherever and whenever you call me, so call me when you have time.”

Kim Dongwook asked for a handshake first. Actor Choi slightly shook his hands before standing up. See you next time - actor Choi left after leaving those words.

Dongwook sat down and organized the contents of the interview. He played back the voice recorder and transcribed it into his notes. There were many actors who refused interviews with voice recorders these days, but this middle-aged actor accepted it with a smile. He seemed pretty confident, as expected of an actor known for his good deeds.

“I guess that’s about done.”

After clearing up his interview notes, he opened his laptop. Due to the nature of interviews, the impression he had during the interview would often become faint with time, so he wrote up the interview article on the spot if it was possible. He would probably go home and fix a few mistakes, but the majority would be completed here.

He ordered another cup of coffee. As the cup of coffee started to show its bottom and his fingers started feeling heavy, Dongwook took his hands off the laptop. He looked at the title ‘The Hidden Guarantee’ before nodding. This was enough. He could finish it up at home.

He rotated his right wrist round and round because it was sore as he took out his phone from his pocket with his left hand. After seeing that there were no texts, he checked the schedule. It was time to write that.

Dongwook opened up a document file. It was an article that was uploaded on the internet not too long ago. It was rather bland as an article, so it had a low view count and wasn’t even monetized. Usually, he wouldn’t give a second glance at such an article. Young film-people who have made the Seoul Youth Film Festival shine - that was the title.

He put his hand on his trackpad and opened up a new document to the side. He also opened up some email attachments he got in the morning. It was the data about the mini-series drama on YBS, ‘Pojang-macha’, as well as community reactions.

“It has an especially good review from people in their 20s.”

People in their twenties, especially the ladies, had a big reaction. The fact that it was ladies in their 20s and 30s, who were loved by advertisers, was great news. Dongwook also watched Pojang-macha. He watched it in a comfortable position on the sofa after taking a shower, but he could only remember the opening and the ending. He ended up dozing off midway.

The large communities where men made up the majority didn’t mention the drama that much. The cafés where young people were active sometimes mentioned the drama along with the word ‘fresh’, but it didn’t become much of a topic in the upper age group communities, like car clubs and hiking clubs. Although it was mentioned from time to time, the majority of the opinion was negative, like boring or ordinary.

If he wrote down what he felt in his article, it would probably be something along the lines of ‘extremely ordinary pojang-macha’, but since he was being paid to write, there was a need for him to add some spices.

Dongwook’s eyes moved. He scanned his materials and old articles before fixing his eyes on the new document. He clenched his fist hard enough that he could hear a cracking sound before putting his hands on the keyboard.

“Pojang-macha, the drama that stimulated the hearts of women.”

President Lee Junmin told him to watch out for some things while writing articles. One, a provoking, stimulating title was no good. Two, write based on facts. These ‘facts’ that the president spoke of were usually materials sent to him by the company. The community response data was also included. Dongwook knew that there was a shady truth behind these ‘facts’. The Youth Film Festival article he wrote before also had a truth that could not be revealed to the public. The revealed fact was that the judges agreed to give Maru and his school the prize, and the truth that three of the six judges were related to JA was something that could not be revealed. The president asked him to write facts that would hide the truth, and Dongwook accepted that. The compensation was an office-tel and a much higher salary. His cheap journalism was sold at an expensive price.

He wrote about half of the article and started putting line breaks. He read it out loud in a small voice before reading it in a small voice again. He checked if it was fluid when reading from the first sentence to the last before stretching his arms out.

“Well, that should do.”

He wrote some things about Maru while introducing the drama. The paragraph that began with ‘the boy that won the Youth Film Festival that occurred last month’, would now be read by people who have searched the word ‘pojang-macha’.

As he was a young actor who had to build up his foundation, the president looked like he was in no hurry. He was probably aiming for a steady build up of image rather than a strong punch from the beginning. As for the article about Yang Ganghwan, he had already finished it and sent it to the company. Once the president read through it and gave it the okay, it would be distributed through various channels, and the internet news agencies that received money from JA would copy the article and edit it a little before redistributing the article. In two days, an article of unknown origins about an actor would be scattered throughout the various corners of the internet.

Just as he turned off his laptop and was about to stand up, his phone started ringing. The ringtone was the same for every one of his contacts, but that bell sounded ominous to him for some reason. Dongwook narrowed one eye and opened the phone. Choi Miyeon, Sharon. That was a call he didn’t want to pick up. He knew what this foolish junior was going to say without having to think about it. Journalism, which he had sold for cheap, was something she still possessed.

After he kept staring at it for a long time, the bell stopped. Did she tire herself out? - he wondered as he stood up with a sigh.

“You should pick up your call, shouldn’t you?”

Choi Miyeon was right in front of him. Dongwook flinched. He almost dropped his expensive laptop.

“Why are you here?”

“This is a famous café isn’t it? It’s where a lot of interviews happen.”

“Huh? I didn’t know that.”

“That’s not what’s important. What is, is Lee Hyuk.”

“I’m having none of this.”

Dongwook blocked his ears. For the past year, he had helped Miyeon out. He pitied the junior who wanted to walk into a pit of lava covered in fuel, so he reached out to her, but that only lasted until October.

“Why don’t you give up now? If you can’t find out after all that effort, it’s heaven’s decree telling you not to dig further into it. Or maybe, it never happened in the first place. You were chasing nothing.”

“How can you say it’s nothing after seeing all that evidence?”

“Let’s be straight here. It’s not ‘all that evidence’, it’s very little. You should be ashamed.”

Dongwook tried to stand up with his laptop in hand.

“I see a tail now.”

“Miyeon.”

“I mean it.”

“Choi Miyeon. That tail is in the end, a lizard’s tail. If you grab it, it’ll fall off. You should start looking into articles that suit your magazine. It’s been a year, no wait, it’s been two years already, hasn’t it? You did enough. Unless you want the Journalist Award or something, you should stop here. You need to make a living, don’t you? Aren’t you past 30? You should think about marriage.”

He wondered how he should convince this stubborn junior. Miyeon’s persistence was incredible. Ever since she became a blind believer of Capaism, this junior kept digging into Lee Miyoon without resting like she was something like a perpetual motion machine. What started it off was an actress’ unjust framing. Miyeon felt sympathy for that person and kept chasing down the culprits in secret in order to find out the truth. She spent the past 2 years like that. Dongwook did not know whether what moved her was a sense of justice, the public good, or journalism. How she was able to give up her reality for the sake of her dogma was beyond his comprehension.

“I did it for 2 years, so I might as well do another. Middle school lasts 3 years and high school also lasts 3 years, don’t they?”

“What kind of nonsensical logic is that?”

“We’re not in a field where logic plays a role, you know?”

Dongwook clutched his hair.

“So what? What did Lee Hyuk do? Before that, we are talking about the actor Lee Hyuk, right?”

“Yes, the actor Lee Hyuk.”

“Weren’t you digging Lee Miyoon?”

“She leaks absolutely nothing. There are only rumors about her and nothing concrete. I think she’s been cautious ever since The Five became an issue. I tailed her for about a week three months ago, but I got nothing from her.”

“You tailed her? Why don’t you switch your job to a private detective instead? You know, those people who take photos of husbands who are cheating on their wives.”

“I actually looked into that, but there’s the possibility of backlash there, so I stopped.”

“You, girl, stop at nothing, don’t you? Did you not contact me for a while because you were doing those things?”

“If I want to catch people who mock the law, I should avoid the law too. I didn’t break any laws though, I promise.”

“Good for you. I should have stopped you back then in that pojang-macha. My deepest regret in life is agreeing to help you. Gosh, I was crazy back then.”

“You can’t take back what you already started. Anyway, back to Lee Hyuk.”

“Fine, let’s hear it. What about him?”

“I was digging into Lee Miyoon, and I found out something interesting.”

“What is it?”

“Rich young masters partying with ladies.”

“That’s really something for the social department to handle. Since you quit the TV station and entered a magazine company, you should learn how to take care.”

“Have you ever seen public TV attacking chaebols? It’s the ones that decide to attack them that leave.”

“That for political journalists, while you’re a women’s magazine journalist.”

“Still, I’m a journalist.”

He couldn’t get through to this junior of his. Dongwook took out a cigarette from his pocket and put it in his mouth before frowning when he was reminded of the fact that they were inside a café. He snapped the cigarette in half and wrapped it in some napkins.

“So what? Rich young masters are partying. How’s that a problem? Did they do drugs or something?”

“Who knows? They might have.”

“That sounds like the most useless thing I’ve heard. So, what did you actually find out? Did Lee Hyuk play with the ladies along with those rich young masters? And that’s somehow related to Lee Miyoon?”

“No, there was nothing like that. From what I’ve looked into until now, Lee Miyoon and Lee Hyuk don’t have any relations. There might be a connection, though, and it might be that I just don’t know anything about it.”

“Then what? Where does Lee Hyuk appear in all this?”

“Where does Lee Hyuk belong to now?”

“Soul, of course.”

“Do you remember that Soul’s president, Hong Janghae, had a behind-the-curtains deal with Lee Miyoon when he brought The Five?”

“That’s just an assumption though. Do you have any evidence? You don’t, do you? Then that’s just gossip.”

“But it’s true, circumstantially.”

“You should know that circumstantial evidence means nothing.”

“Alright. Then I’ll only talk about the facts now. Lee Hyuk entered Soul, who might or might not have done a shady deal. Although he was kinda part of nowhere since his contract with JA didn’t go through, he wasn’t someone who would enter a new company, especially not under Hong Janghae, who never worked in the entertainment industry before.”

“Maybe the contract terms were good.”

“You know who Soul’s parent company is, right?”

“Who doesn’t? It’s YM, isn’t it?”

“Do you know who the grandson of the leader of YM is?”

“Why would I? I don’t see the need to know since I’m not related to such a person.”

“Kang Giwoo.”

“Kang Giwoo?”

“You know that there’s a big disaster movie that’s starting soon, right?”

Dongwook probed his memories.

“Ah, right. Kang Giwoo. I finally remember him. You’re talking about the kid who plays the lead male in New Semester, right?”

“Yes.”

“He’s the grandson of YM’s chairman?”

“That’s right. Also, that boy’s relationship with Lee Hyuk is kinda interesting.”

“What is it?”

“Master-slave relationship.”

“What?”

“What I discovered is not the relationship between Lee Miyoon and Lee Hyuk; I discovered the relationship between Lee Hyuk and Kang Giwoo. Furthermore, one of the women partying with Kang Giwoo is related to Lee Miyoon.”

“So you’re basing things on gossip again.”

“I can be sure of my source.”

“Your source is a rotten one.”

“If I dig into Kang Giwoo and Lee Hyuk and get in touch with that woman, who’s the source of the money, I might be able to grab Lee Miyoon’s tail. That would explain the reason why she can sweep something as big as sexual service under the rug.”

“So YM is behind all this? The chairman’s grandson and perhaps Lee Miyoon herself is mixed in this?”

“Hong Janghae might be the core. You’ve seen what he’s like. He’s like a snake.”

Dongwook smiled and put his laptop inside his bag. He then took out a 10,000 won note from his wallet and handed it to Miyeon.

“Seonbae?”

“Okay, that’s enough. I’ll pretend I never heard it. I’m already not sure about digging into Lee Miyoon the individual, but now you’re also bringing YM into this? I have enough money to buy a house now. Life is long. I don’t want to suck on my thumb for my entire life.”

“But you should bring justice!”

“Give it to a dog for all I care.”

“Where’s your journalism?”

“Outside Earth’s atmosphere.”

“What about the things you said in the pojang-macha that day?”

“I’ve long since sold my soul.”

“Senior!”

“Stop calling me. I’m really not going to do it this time. Absolutely not.”

Dongwook shook his head and left.

Chapter 746

“Look here and here. There are a lot of articles, aren’t there?”

Bada was boasting as though it was her own achievement. Maru took the mouse from her. He moved around the cursor and clicked on the next page. More than half of the café articles related to the search term ‘pojang-macha’ were related to the drama. There was a mix of compliments and disappointments, but what was important was that the drama was being talked about. Negative interest was still better than no interest. It was the viewing rate of the drama that decided a drama’s value after all. If it becomes an issue, the number of people watching it would increase, resulting in an increase in viewing rates. Whether the drama was artistically worth any value was something that was going to be evaluated later.

“Did a lot of your friends watch the second episode?”

“Well, my close friends have watched it at least. Do you know how much I talked about it? If you had just told me about it beforehand, the first episode would have gotten a higher viewing rate too.”

“Fine, I’ll tell you from now on. So then, most of your class has watched it?”

“No, most of the girls did, but a lot of the boys didn’t watch it saying that the first episode was boring. The ones who enjoyed the first episode watched the second episode. The boys in my class lack too much emotion to understand the emotions of the drama. That’s probably why they didn’t watch it.”

“You even know whether they lack emotion or not?”

“I mean, seeing them is enough. I had a look at the comic books they were reading, and they were terrible. They fight during a soccer match, they fight at school, they fight everywhere. Even though they can’t fight, they really like fighting comics.”

Bada, whose nose was twitching, placed her hands on her keyboard as though she remembered something. The search term was short: Han Maru. She pressed enter and the website listed a bunch of cafés.

“Look at this.”

Bada’s finger pointed at the monitor. At the end of her finger was a link that led to ‘Han Maru fan café’. Maru chuckled.

“Did you make it?”

“Are you crazy? I don’t have time for stuff like this. Anyway, yo, Han Maru, you even got a fan café now, huh? Maybe you’re going to become a star at this rate.”

Maru clicked on the café. There were photos on the main banner of the front page. It was a couple of screenshots from ‘The Witness’ and ‘Pojang-macha’ put next to each other. It was just two pictures of different resolutions stuck side to side. Overlapping in the middle were the words ‘Han Maru Fan Café’ written in yellow.

“Heck, I can do better than this. They should have created it better. It looks like an elementary schooler did it,” Bada said as she looked at the screen.

“I appreciate the effort. But hey, this feels rather interesting. There are people who recognize me, huh.”

“Look at how many members there are.”

“There’s five.”

“One of them is me, so that makes 4.”

“You signed up for it?”

“I did. I was curious what they had in mind when creating something like this. But there wasn’t anything much. I think it was just created.”

“So it’s a café that’s bound to be abandoned soon.”

“Why don’t you write a greeting since you’re here? It’s your fan café.”

“There’s no one to see it though.”

“Still, you should do it.”

“Nah, it’s a bother.”

“Hey, Han Maru. Don’t you have to communicate with your fans if you’re an actor? It might be crude, but they still made you a fan café. These four must be your fans.”

Bada urged him to write. Maru turned around to look at Bada’s expression. If he looked into her eyes, he might be able to read what she was thinking, but Maru just sighed and looked at the screen. It was a power he gained as compensation for his cursed life. He didn’t know what would happen if he used it on other people recklessly. He might end up falling into the repeated cycles of life again. He decided to look into the minds of those that were worth it.

“I’ll post a greeting at least.”

Maru logged in before trying to post something on the café. When he clicked the ‘new post’ button, he was greeted by a message that said he didn’t have access.

“You should sign up for the café.”

“So I have to sign up for Han Maru’s fan café despite being Han Maru, huh.”

“Stop whining and just write it already.”

He clicked on the ‘sign up’ button. As for his nickname in the café, he went with Han Maru. Unlike the crude-looking main page, the sign-up process was very picky. He had to write the titles of the dramas the two photos on the main banner were from, and he had to write the name of the character he played in New Semester.

“How can people sign up like this?”

“If they’re Han Maru’s fans, they should put in the effort of looking them up.”

After signing up, he left behind a post on the main page: Hello, I’m Han Maru. He put that as the title before saying ‘thank you’ in the content.

“That’s it?” Bada said, seemingly dissatisfied.

Maru took his hands off the keyboard and looked at Bada. From the way she was speaking, it looked like she wasn’t completely uninvolved in the making.

“Do you know the person who made this café?”

“No.”

Bada’s eyes looked at 1 o’clock before coming down again. Her upper lip twitched. This was a habit Bada had when she lied. Though, she herself didn’t seem to realize it.

“Anyway, put some more effort into it. They’re your fans.”

“I get it, so go thank the creator of the café for me.”

“I said I don’t know her.”

“Her? So it’s someone close? Maybe someone from your class?”

As soon as he probed her out, Bada sealed her lips and left the room. Maru wondered when she was going to fix her personality of escaping when she couldn’t say anything. She would probably slap Dowook in the face with a ‘You don’t know anything about me, oppa!’ before coming back home. Maru sent a text to Dowook.

-You have it hard.

As expected of a new café, the posts weren’t categorized besides the announcement that was at the top. He clicked on it and had a look at it.

-This is a café to cheer for the actor Han Maru. Please get along.

He laughed. It looked just like an announcement for a café that was made on a whim. He wondered how long this would last. He thought that lasting a month would be considered a long time.

“But still, I’m thankful that people are recognizing me now.”

There was something that was heard frequently during interviews with actors: It’s all thanks to the encouragement from the fans. It might be something that they habitually talked about, but even to such actors, the first meeting with their fans must have been filled with excitement. It was a miracle to see people unconditionally like someone after all.

Just as he was about to close the window, Maru put a comment under the main announcement. Although large-scale cafés blocked normal users from putting comments in the announcements, the owner of this café clearly seemed inexperienced and forgot to do such a thing. He also clicked the announcement noticeboard just in case, and it turned out that normal members could write on it as well.

-Thank you. I will do my best in the future as well. Also, I don’t think it’s a good idea to leave the announcement noticeboard open. If you see this, please lock it.

He left that comment before closing the window. He turned off the PC before lying down on his bed with a book. It was an ordinary weekday afternoon, and he didn’t have a shoot. It was the perfect time to read a book.

* * *

“Did you see that? He left a post. Yes, I told him about it. But you’re quite weird. What do you like so much about Han Maru that you even created a café for him? Do you want me to let you meet him? I think it should be fine if it’s just a greeting. What? You don’t? Why?”

Bada hung up after listening to her classmate’s words until the end.

“Being too close would decrease that mystery. I guess she’s right.”

Her friend said that there was a lot to enjoy precisely because there was a sense of distance. She said that meeting him would be best left for later since becoming close to him would increase the familiarity and decrease the interest. When Bada asked when she wanted to meet him, she said the official fan meetup. An official fan meetup. Bada wondered if such a day would even come. No matter how she thought about it, she couldn’t imagine it. Han Maru, an official fan meetup?

Bada buried her face in a pillow and laughed. When she imagined it, she couldn’t help but laugh. If there ever came a day he did a fan meetup, she decided to laugh at him from the front lines.

After laughing for a while, she thought about what her friend said. The things she said before they hung up were things that Bada sympathized with: I like the feeling that he’s an actor only I know of. Bada also liked TTO when they just made their debut and weren’t that popular. She felt like she was hogging a jewel to herself, and when her friends first found out about TTO, she even felt proud. She felt a little disappointed and dissatisfied seeing girls crying out ‘oppa’ when they were all looking down on them before, but she also felt happy that a star she liked was gaining popularity.

Bada imagined getting to know TTO in person. Indeed, she would definitely be extremely happy at first, but she would soon realize that a star on TV was definitely different in their private lives. Perhaps her friend’s attitude of appreciating a star from a distance was the right attitude for a fan.

She threw her pillow to the side and turned on the PC. She quickly browsed around and entered the café that her friend created. Her brother also left behind a comment under the main announcement.

“It’s really crudely made. Well, it’s not that surprising since she doesn’t know anything about running cafés.”

After staring at the monitor for a while, Bada pressed the ‘new post’ button. Since there was a café and all, she felt like her friend would be disappointed if all there was was a greeting from her brother. She looked for some photos of her brother in a play on her PC and uploaded them. They were photos that Gaeul-unni had sent her before.

-Actor Han Maru is a great playactor too.

After writing that, she felt like it was a title that gave her the shivers, but she clenched her teeth and put her cursor on the main content. Just as she was about to write the first letter, she got a call from Dowook.

* * *

Kang Dowook put down his phone and laughed.

“There are a lot of crazy people in the world. A Han Maru fan club?”

He had a headache as soon as he saw the two photos crudely joined together and the words ‘Han Maru fan café’ in the middle. So Maru had also seen this, huh. From what he knew of Maru, he probably wanted to ignore it but was then nagged by Bada to write something. Just as he had expected, he saw a post from Maru as well. He had written a greeting that looked like it was from an official document or something.

“You should be acting cute at a time like this.”

He clicked his tongue. Just as he was about to close the window, the rather empty-looking noticeboard caught his eyes. Dowook sighed and clicked on the ‘new post’ button. Maru might be a cold-minded guy, but he might be disappointed if there wasn’t a single post in his own fan café. Or maybe even embarrassed.

Just as he was browsing through the photos on his computer, he heard a knock on his door. There was only one person in his house that knocked on his door.

“Noona? What is it?”

“I was going to tell you to eat some fruits. What are you doing?”

“Nothing.”

Soojin entered with a bowl of fruit. Dowook smiled awkwardly. While the misunderstanding he had towards her had dissolved completely, he still didn’t know what to say to her when they met face to face.

Just as she was about to leave after putting down the bowl, she looked at the monitor.

“Han Maru fan café?”

“It’s nothing.”

He tried to close the window in a hurry, but his sister prevented him.

“Maru had a fan café?”

“It was just made, apparently.”

“Really?”

“There’s nothing in it. It’s not like that guy’s even famous. That was why I was going to post something on it, no wait, that’s not it.”

“You’re kind, Dowook. You know how to look out for your friends.”

Dowook was about to deny it, but he shut his mouth seeing his sister smile faintly.

“What’s the URL for this place?”

“You just have to type Han Maru in the search bar.”

“Looks like I must join as well.”

“Don’t bother. I think it’s going to disappear soon.”

“You never know. Also, there’s something I want to write down as well. Oh, I should tell this to my daycare kids.”

“Daycare?”

“The place Maru went with me to do doll plays when he was in his first year. He still comes around from time to time these days. I’m sure they’ll love it if I tell them about it. They really like Maru after all.”

“That dude was still doing that?”

“Maru is the type to take responsibility until the end.”

His sister pushed the fruit bowl over to his side to urge him to eat before leaving. Dowook looked at the fork that had a cute cat character on it and chuckled.

* * *

“A Han Maru fan café?”

Dojin laughed. Iseul, who was next to him, looked at him in wonder.

“Alright, I’ll go have a look when I go home. But still, who made something like that? Alright, see you over the weekend. Bye.”

“Who was it?” Iseul asked as she let go of the straw.

“Dowook.”

“What’s this about Han Maru’s fan café?”

“Just what it sounds like. It’s a fan café for Han Maru. Apparently, there’s one on the internet.”

“Really? I guess Maru is famous now.”

“Apparently, there’s only a single-digit number of members.”

“Then I should sign up and increase that count.”

“I’m going to post a funny photo of him as soon as I sign up. I have some on my phone.”

“You’re such a bad guy.”

“That’s what being friends is about.”

“There was a PC-bang right nearby. Should we go now?”

Dojin nodded and stood up. Iseul finished up the rest of her coffee in one go.

Chapter 747

“There really is one.”

Aram giggled and clicked on the ‘sign up’ button. Just as she had found out from the text message she received from Jiyoon ten minutes ago, she indeed found a Han Maru fan café. There were a whopping 40 members here. When she had a look at the date it was made, she saw that it was made just yesterday. Forty people had found this café and signed up for it in just one day.

Unlike the looks of the café, which looked very crude, the entry questions made her puzzled. She only managed to sign up after looking up the answers on the internet before she could sign up. While she was signing up, the number of members increased by 10. While 50 people might look like a small number, it felt like a lot to her when she thought of a classroom full of students.

There were three noticeboards: Announcements, greetings, and a free bulletin board. When she entered the greetings section, she saw a whole page filled with greetings. The first post was posted by an account with the ID ‘Han Maru’, which was kinda funny. Was Han Maru the creator of this café?

She clicked on it and read what it was about.

“Wait, this seems like the real Maru-seonbae.”

He didn’t make it right? She tried imagining Maru being the one to create this café and writing the first post. She laughed exactly one second later. That was impossible.

She rested her chin on her hands and had a look at the greetings. Although their IDs were all different, there were some posts where she could guess who wrote them. Jiyoon said she heard about it from Daemyung, so the entirety of the acting club probably knew about it. The people other than them who had also heard about this café should have joined as well. It was a Han Maru fan café after all. Aram looked forward to what kind of face Maru would make when she talked to him about it tomorrow. The people who joined this café must probably feel the same. While he looked like someone who would stay calm even if he fell into a pit of snakes, he was someone who got embarrassed easily when it came to things about himself.

Aram also left a simple greeting post. She filled half of her post with ‘lol’s and ‘lmao’s. She wanted to call Maru to check his reaction immediately, but she decided to hold back since it would be funnier to talk to him about it in person.

There were also about 30 posts on the free bulletin board. She clicked on the first post. There was a photo of him from the acting competition. Was it someone from the acting club? She clicked on the post and read it.

“Wow, who’s this?”

The contents of the post made her feel embarrassed when it wasn’t even about herself. ‘Handsome actor’, ‘Great actor’, ‘Charisma of the play’, etc. A queasy feeling like one she would get if she had bitten a chunk of raw butter spread around to her bones. This was clearly aimed as a prank on Maru. Aram decided that this person was not someone from the acting club. Even Dowook-seonbae had never played a serious prank on Maru-seonbae. She wondered who had the guts to post something like this.

She had a look at the ID. It was ‘TTO Love Bada’. Bada; only after she said the name with her mouth did she realize the identity of the poster. It was his sister. Aram thought about Maru’s sister who she saw on the day of the CSAT. She was a prankster girl, similar to herself.

Perhaps thanks to the influence of the first post, the following posts were all things that would make Maru embarrassed. Photos that were taken when he was on stage, photos taken during shoots, and even ones that were taken during personal occasions.

A competitive spirit surged within Aram. Although she found Maru scary when he got seriously angry, she couldn’t miss this opportunity. She scrolled through all the photos she took of the acting club that was saved on her blog and picked some photos where Maru had a funny look. She picked a photo after much effort as though she was picking clothes. It was a photo of him curled up into a ball under a blanket in the corner of the hall.

“Our cute Han Maru seonbae-nim. No, wait, that will make it obvious that I’m a junior, so…”

Aram tried to calm down her curling lips as she typed.

* * *

“It’s cold. Come in quickly.”

Ahn Joohyun turned on the heater as soon as she entered the room. As expected of December, it was getting cold by the day. The weather forecast said that it was going to snow tonight, so she shivered just thinking about how she had to do a shoot outside.

“I’ll get dinner ready. You can get washed first.”

Her brother, Bangjoo, stood in front of the sink. Joohyun sat in a chair, with the backrest in front of her.

“Are you not going to wash up? You must be tired.”

“I’ll just look around for a while before washing.”

“There’s nothing to look around at. Should we go with kimchi-jjigae or doenjang-jjigae?”

“We got some ham a while back. How about budae-jjigae?”

“Alright.”

Bangjoo opened the cabinet above the sink and took out some ham. Joohyun opened the refrigerator and brought Bangjoo some sausages that they bought a few days ago. Bangjoo washed the cutting board and started chopping up the ham. Joohyun watched him from behind.

“I think being a cook suits you better than an actor.”

“I don’t find cooking that fun.”

“Don’t say that and try learning. I’m sure it’s much more rewarding than being an actor.”

“Do you think that will work on me when you’re an actress yourself? If you’re gonna say nonsense, then just go get washed up and lie down for a bit. I’ll call you once it’s ready.”

Joohyun pretended to zip up her lips. While her little brother looked like a reckless kid who was unstoppable, she knew that he had a delicate side to him. Once, she mistook him for an adult and was unable to look after him. If not for Maru’s help, Joohyun would have only looked at his mature side and would not have been able to discover his hidden wounds.

“Should I help you?”

“You don’t even know how to handle a knife. Just keep watching.”

“This noona needs to learn cooking to marry someone, you know?”

“You? Get married? I feel bad for the man.”

“Hey, Ahn Bangjoo. It seems like you forgot who your sister is; I’m titled the goddess on the streets, you know? You saw back at the mall, right? Girls your age all rushed towards me screaming ‘unni, you’re so pretty’.”

“A goddess can have such a foul mouth? Also, that’s because they don’t know the true you. I still don’t get what people like about such a weird freak.”

“Just know that my popularity will never decline no matter what you do.”

Bangjoo chopped up the sausages into large chunks and put them into some boiling water before asking,

“So, you have a boyfriend?”

“What if I do?”

“So you don’t.”

“My little brother. What makes you think that your sister doesn’t have a man? It’s all because I’m busy looking after you. Do you now understand my feelings a little?”

“Stop spouting nonsense and get some rest. I thought you were leaving early in the morning again.”

Bangjoo looked at her worriedly. Joohyun smiled and nodded. The reason that their mother, who was on Jeju island, stayed there without too much worry was probably thanks to this reliable son. If her tomboy daughter said that she wanted to live alone at such an age, she would probably have stopped her at all costs.

Just as she was about to stand up, Bangjoo’s phone vibrated.

“I think you got a text.”

“You can have a look. My hands are covered in oil right now.”

Joohyun opened his phone. It was a text from a person called Aram. After reading it, she brought a laptop to the table.

“I told you to get some sleep. Why did you bring a laptop?”

“Apparently, there’s a Han Maru fan café.”

“Fan café?”

Joohyun searched for Han Maru. There were quite a lot of news articles. After scanning the article titles and the internet news agencies that posted them, Joohyun immediately realized that this was the work of president Lee Junmin. So this boy was getting his name known little by little. It seemed that JA was planning to put wings on Maru. If Junmin started working on it, Maru would definitely get his name known, slowly but steadily. Among the actors affiliated with JA, there weren’t any stars who became big in an instant. They were all people who rose up the ranks little by little. This was especially the case with Hong Geunsoo and Yang Ganghwan, who she presumed would become his masterpieces. Now, she could hear their names quite frequently in the industry. Joohyun believed that their reputations would spread out across the whole country quite soon.

She clicked on the ‘cafés’ tab. Indeed, there was a Han Maru fan café. There were 100 members. Joohyun thought back to the day when she first got her fan club. It was back when PC to PC communication was done through landlines, so the only thing they could do was chat with people in a private chat room, but that was quite fun. Things like fan cafés only started forming after the 2000s. She distanced herself from the internet for a long time as she took a break from work after ‘Spring Calendar’, and she found out that a fan café had formed. She thought that there wouldn’t be that many members just like the landline communication days, so when she realized that there were nearly 5,000 members, she was given a lot of encouragement. Right now, there were about 40,000 people.

“Should I post?”

“What post?”

Bangjoo approached after washing his hands.

“For now, I can be considered a fan of Maru, so it’s fine if I leave behind a post. Bangjoo, do you have that photo you took when you played a minor actor in a film?”

“Yes, it’s in my room.”

“Bring one where we took a photo together with Maru.”

After scanning the café once, Bangjoo left and brought a photo without saying much. Joohyun put her face next to the photo.

“Come here.”

“Me too?”

“He’s your senior, so you should cheer for him.”

“That’s true.”

Bangjoo listened quite well when it came to matters related to Maru. It probably meant that he trusted and relied on him that much. After taking a photo with her phone, she transferred it over to the laptop. Joohyun posted the photo immediately and wrote a post.

“He’s a junior I cherish. Please look after him and cheer for him a lot.”

She read what she wrote out loud and put a period at the end before clicking on the ‘post’ button. A moment later, a new post was posted in the café.

* * *

Dongwook deleted 10 text messages without even reading them. They were all from Miyeon. Although he had vowed not to help her, he kept feeling uneasy. He could easily picture himself giving up in the face of this persistence and digging into the huge company that was YM.

“Absolutely not.”

He couldn’t kick away his stable livelihood. Dongwook threw his phone away from him. Only after moving away the item that gave him the witch’s whisper could he sigh in relief.

He made a cup of stick coffee and sat at the desk he put next to the window. The sunset, which he could never see in that damp, cramped semi-basement room could be seen. A stable life was much more important than journalism.

He opened the laptop and opened the messenger. As soon as he opened it, he got a text from Miyeon. He immediately changed his status to ‘away’. It was scary how quick she was to send a message.

-Hyung-nim, this is pretty interesting.

He got a message from a junior he had known for quite a long time. This guy worked for an internet news agency. The message that the junior sent had a website url. He copied the URL and pasted it into his address bar.

He was greeted by an internet news website riddle with popup ads. He mechanically clicked on the ‘x’ button in the corner to close them all. Only after removing the popup that blocked the news article could he see the content.

“What’s this?”

He saw some familiar faces. There was a photo of Han Maru and a photo of Ahn Joohyun holding a photo of Han Maru. There was someone else next to Joohyun, but they were blurred out. The content of the article was quite simple. Ahn Joohyun, cheering for the new actor Han Maru - that was it. It was a crudely written article with all sorts of clickbaity words, just like the platform it was written on.

-Isn’t he the guy you said would do well in the future?

Dongwook stroked his chin as he looked at the message from his junior. It was one of the thousands of trashy articles that only wasted internet traffic, but he found it a waste to let go of this source.

“I think it’ll have quite a good reaction if I go about it on the side of humor.”

Dongwook immediately pulled up Lee Junmin’s chat in the messenger. He always needed permission from the president when writing something about an actor belonging to JA. Lee Junmin’s direction to create an undefeated myth probably included managing little articles like these. He wrote a basic outline and sent it to the president.

A moment later, he got a reply,

-Try it out.

Dongwook notified his junior that he would buy him food tomorrow.

Chapter 748

There was a time when the media was a symbol of resistance. In an era where all text written in ink was censored, there were people who wrote articles while putting their hearts on display. The stories of the journalists who wrote the word ‘independence’ with the souls of their people were always passed down like myths. Follow their example. Do not forget their achievements.

The times had changed. The legends were now forgotten. While the media regained its free speech, it soon restrained itself. Once, by rulership, now by money. There were still many who walked towards the truth while staking their livelihood. The problem was that those who departed never returned. If the National Security Agency once snapped their pens with force, the journalists who tried to approach now had their pens snapped by money. An era where spiderwebs would form in their throats.

Either starve to death while trying to speak the truth, or live a plentiful life while trying to write just the visible truth. Dongwook chose the latter and had no regrets.

“Get yourself together, Choi Miyeon.”

He sent Miyeon a text telling her to sleep before looking at his laptop.

After reviewing his own article about Ahn Joohyun and Han Maru, he put the last period before shaking his hands. The rest was up to the netizens. The internet was full of people looking for fun and funny things. Dongwook personally called them ‘freeloading laborers’.

These freeloading laborers sometimes posted stuff that wasn’t related to them. On the day a celebrity’s controversy appeared, their value would shine. Despite the fact that no one told them to do such a thing nor did they earn anything from doing so, these freeloading laborers got themselves excited over issues and carried the news to various community sites. Some of them even used their own free time to spread the word. The things they went crazy for weren’t just controversial issues. It was whatever that interested them. If there was something they could spend their free time on, they would appear whenever and wherever.

Not too long ago, there was an incident where a photo became a big issue on a humor website. The photo was spread out to various other communities thanks to the free labor of these freeloading laborers, and as a result, the person in the photo ended up shooting a commercial for a famous burger franchise. How much money would it cost to hire professionals to add issues to such a photo? Probably an enormous sum.

Moving their interest towards fun. This was what normal journalists minded about the most these days. Dongwook sent his junior a message. He asked him to write a post about the related content in the community he was active in.

-That’s not too difficult. But hyung-nim, I want to do an interview with Miss Kim Suyeon. Can’t you make it work? Let me borrow the power of a JA journalist.

So it turns out treating him to food wasn’t enough. Dongwook replied that he would think about it after seeing the results.

* * *

It seemed as though the word ‘chilly’ shouldn’t be used for a while. Gaeul shrank her shoulders. She could feel cold air seeping into her scarf. The evening in Seoul during a frost wave was nose-tingling cold.

Gaeul put a footprint in the snow piled up on the side of the pedestrian road. The snow that had piled up for two days seemed like it didn’t want to melt anytime soon. She was reminded of the news that winter service vehicles were short in supply.

“Is that the place?”

She saw a barbecue restaurant in the distance. She peeked inside from the front of the store before opening the door. There were people sitting inside.

“Do you have company?” asked a lady who approached her.

“Uhm, I heard there was a get-together here.”

“So you’re a reserved customer. Go on up to the 2nd floor.”

She walked towards the direction the lady pointed at. She climbed the wooden stairs. The second floor had a magnificent view thanks to the large windows.

“Gaeul-seonbae, over here!”

“Gaeul, over here!”

Gaeul walked over while undoing her scarf. This was the last get-together she was attending as a member of the acting club. Although there would be another get-together after the national acting competition is over, there were many people who wouldn’t be able to attend because of personal circumstances, so today was practically the last day the members of the acting club could get together as a whole.

“It’s freezing outside, isn’t it?”

“Yeah, it’s really cold.”

Choi Seol, who set down her position as the president as of yesterday, quickly offered Gaeul a seat next to her. Gaeul took off her coat and sat down.

“Well then! Actress Han Gaeul is here, so let’s have a toast!” Choi Seol shouted while lifting her cup.

Gaeul also raised her empty cup above her head. Although they looked like they were drinking, it was all just soda.

“Thanks a lot for following this shitty president. Especially you 2nd years. I know you guys hated me a lot because I swore and got annoyed at you.”

Choi Seol’s face looked serious, but her lips curled into a curve.

“You’re the ones in 3rd year now, aren’t you? You should know what it’s like to be here. Only now would you know why I said all the things I did. Especially you, Youngsoo! Why did you say you’ll be the president? It’s disgustingly difficult, you know?”

The members of the acting club all laughed. Youngsoo, who succeeded the position of the president, laughed awkwardly. Gaeul laughed from the bottom of her heart; she hadn’t done that in a long time.

“I was just joking. Now, we only have one stage left. Do that well. I am going to enjoy a fancy college life! I’m going to get a boyfriend during the orientation, so just you wait.”

As soon as she said those words, people started denying her everywhere.

“I don’t think you’ll ever get a boyfriend though, Choi-seonbae.”

“I bet my hand that Choi-seonbae will never get a boyfriend.”

“I think the apocalypse is more likely.”

The juniors would never be able to go against the usual Choi Seol, but they were able to do so now thanks to the fact that this was their last get-together. Choi Seol also laughed and returned their words.

“Anyway, you worked hard, two years for the 2nd years, and one year for the 1st years. We got a card from school today, so let’s eat and drink to our heart’s content!”

Choi Seol took out a white credit card. It was the omnipotent card that only appeared during get-together occasions. Bells started ringing at various tables as though they had been waiting for it. The waiter, who came up with the order cards, busily accepted orders from them.

“Gaeul, when are you going to start shooting the film?”

“February 24th is what is on the schedule, but I can’t be sure. I’m only a minor character, so I have to go when they call for me.”

“I know you entered an agency, but you are shooting a film after all, huh. I’ve known you since my first year. I knew you were going to succeed.”

“We weren’t that close during our first year, were we?” Gaeul said while pouting.

Choi Seol made a sad face. Her other friend, who sat opposite them, spoke,

“I’ve seen the info on the internet, but I heard that Lee Hyuk and Ahn Joohyun are in it, right?”

“Seriously?”

Choi Seol’s eyes widened. Their gazes were focused on Gaeul.

“Yes, those two are in this film.”

“I guess you will meet them during the shoot, right?”

“I don’t think I’ll meet them. I didn’t look at the full script, so I can’t be sure of this, but it’s likely that I only have one scene. If the actors don’t come during that scene, I guess I won’t see them.”

“If you do, please get me their autographs. Especially Ahn Joohyun. Lee Hyuk is actually meh.”

“Me too, me too!”

Gaeul replied ‘if I can’. Just then, the food came up from the first floor. The moment the side dishes and the pork ribs came up, the second floor became quiet. The meat was distributed across the tables before red-hot charcoal was placed on each table.

“Eat to your hearts’ content. I’ve given you a lot.”

Hearing the lady’s words, Choi Seol placed some meat on the grill. Along with a sizzling sound, the second floor became bustling with noise in an instant. I’ll grill it, that’s not how you do it, hey it’s getting burnt; all sorts of cheerful noises could be heard.

“Oh yeah, everyone got their scores, right? Did you check?” Gaeul asked as she placed a piece of meat on her plate.

Today was the 10th of December, the day the results were announced. Choi Seol, who was eating a big piece of wrap, as well as her colleagues who took the exams all fell silent. Gaeul made a puzzled expression. When they went through their tests together on the night they took the CSATs, they all said that they got the scores they wanted.

“Gaeul, how did you do?”

“Me? I got the same scores as my grading.”

“Then you’re in the clear?”

“Probably.”

“Really? That’s good.”

Their serious expressions did not disappear. Gaeul started becoming worried. Did one of them mark the answers wrong or something?

“Hey, did something not go right?” she asked cautiously.

Was it a mistake on her part to think that they did decently after hearing that they said they got the scores they wanted when they graded themselves?

Choi Seol, who had a sad expression on her face, shook some lettuce to get rid of the water and put a piece of meat on it. She put some stir-fried beansprouts, pickled radish, and sliced garlic before putting the big wrap in her mouth. The others also ate expressionlessly.

Gaeul quietly watched them for a while before sighing.

“What the, are you toying with me?”

After maintaining an expressionless face for a while, they all laughed out loud.

“Hey, did you see Gaeul panic?”

“We all got the scores we were expecting. Seol got 10 points above what she expected, so she’s in the safe.”

“Although we didn’t all get to go to Seoul University, I think we should be able to get into the places we were aiming for,” Choi Seol said as she wiped her lips.

“You were aiming for the department of theater at Choong-a university, right?”

“Yeah.”

“It’s 100% official enroll, so you should be able to get in, right?”

“I’ll have to see what the actual requirements are like, but I don’t think I have to worry according to the grade table that my cram school put out.”

“That’s good. Then you’ll be a campus couple for sure, right?” Choi Seol said while poking her on the side.

For a moment, Gaeul was unable to maintain her expression.

“What is it? Did something happen with your boyfriend? I heard you two were going to go to Choong-a university together.”

Perhaps because they had been friends for three years, Choi Seol and the others noticed what was on her mind immediately and asked.

“He didn’t take the CSATs.”

“Did he pass the pre-enroll?”

“No, he decided not to go to college. He’s probably busy with work right now. He can always go to college later, but the things he’s doing right now are things he will never be able to do if he doesn’t do them now.”

“But isn’t life as an actor pretty hard if you don’t major in theater?”

“He should be fine. He has the skills after all. He’s already playing a main character in a drama. He’s completely different from me. There’s a huge chasm between us.”

“Really? I thought that you two would go to the same college for sure and have a sweet life together.”

Gaeul smiled.

“I should practice a little more. I should practice more and chase him. If I do, then we should be able to meet in the field, not at college. I’m planning to focus on work until then. I think that’ll be better for both of us.”

“Looks like you thought quite seriously about this. Well, if you’ve made up your mind, I guess it should be fine. It’s not like you’re going to be far away.”

“We don’t have any time to play around right now. There are classes I need to take, and I have to do the shoots too.”

“Han Gaeul, you’re an adult now, huh? Is that what it means to earn money?”

Choi Seol put down her chopsticks. She looked at the grill in a daze for a while before speaking,

“Since we’re on the topic of dating, I heard you broke up, Youngmi.”

Gaeul looked at Youngmi. She remembered how Youngmi said that they would hit 1,000 days soon.

“You broke up?” Gaeul asked again.

Youngmi put some meat on her plate with an indifferent expression.

“Yeah, we broke up.”

“Why? You were good together.”

“We met for too long.”

“Did something bad happen?”

“It’s not like that. We just became good friends. I’ve spent three years with him, so we just saw that we weren’t fit for each other in some parts. It was fun to play together, but it became somewhat boring to keep being lovers. We just met up on a weekend, watched a movie together, and talked about breaking up. We’re going to different colleges as well.”

“Are you okay?”

Gaeul pulled out some napkins, worried that Youngmi might cry, since she cried quite often.

“I thought I would cry a lot, you know? But in fact, I feel refreshed. It might have been frustrating if we broke up in a bad way, but we talked to each other about it. Honestly, if you graduate high school, you graduate from your relationships as well. Heecheol, Jooyoung, Jinho, and Haemi all broke up.”

“All of them?”

“We’re going to college, aren’t we? We’re going to be apart anyway. There are some who are saying that they didn’t break up, but I’ve seen them with other people,” Youngmi said as she put some meat in her mouth.

“I’m saying this because it’s just us girls here; Gaeul, did you sleep with him?”

“N-no.”

“Then I guess you guys will get fed up soon too. We slept and we’re still breaking up.”

“You guys slept?”

“Yeah, at the beginning of this year. Things just happened.”

Gaeul looked at Choi Seol. Choi Seol looked like her soul had left her. Youngmi, who was known for being naïve, turned out to be the quickest among them.

“Gaeul, honestly speaking, I think you should break up right now. Your boyfriend is a celebrity, isn’t he? I’m not sure about now, but if he becomes popular, you’ll have less and less time to meet with him. Do you meet him these days?”

“No, I haven’t been contacting him.”

“Did he ever call you? Ever since you cut contact with him?”

“No.”

“Well, I guess his feelings left you too. I’m not saying this to hurt you; that’s just how love goes between people our age, right?”

Youngmi looked around, seemingly asking for agreement. However, everyone was shocked by the fact that Youngmi had slept with her boyfriend.

“You really slept?” Choi Seol asked again.

“Why are you asking that again? It’s embarrassing. Just eat.”

“Talk about it in detail. I want to hear about it.”

“Me too.”

The table heated up with a hot story. Gaeul fidgeted with her phone as she looked at her friends who lowered their voices.

Chapter 749

In the end, that’s all you amount to.

Her fingers, digging into the fold of her phone, came to a sudden halt. Gaeul felt a faint heat rising from her heart. The emotions of the rabbit were coming through to her.

-If you weren’t by his side, you would have called Maru a long time ago. You would have spent meaningless time with him over the phone in order to earn just a tiny bit of consolation; to tragically confirm that you are still the one next to him. Is that all your resolve amounts to? Or what is it? Are you saying that you’re in the clear because you managed to win a minor role in a film? Is that all your self-confidence amounts to? If that’s how you’re going to do things, you might as well stop. Just meet Maru comfortably again. You might end up comparing yourself to him and become dejected again, but what can you do about it? That’s just the girl you are. Hey, why don’t you give your body to him at this opportunity? Just tie the knot. If you think that you can’t be acknowledged as an actress, as a human being, just buy him with your body. I mean, it’s not like it’s bad?

“You’re going too far there,” Gaeul said.

The rabbit always cherished her like a real big sister, but she was always quite a vicious talker when it came to matters related to Maru. It was good that she reminded her of her resolve whenever she waved, but today, she clearly went too far.

-I’m telling you to do things properly if you don’t want to listen to stuff like this from me.

Her words were pretty sharp. Gaeul sighed and took her hands off her phone.

-But it is quite strange. You did tell him not to contact you, but I’m surprised that you’re not suspicious since he hasn’t given you a single call.

“Suspicious of what?”

-I mean, isn’t that how it is? For you, you can hold yourself back because I’m next to you and holding you back whenever you have the urge, but that’s not the case for Maru, is it? If he really likes you and wants to see you, I’m sure he would have gone against the promise and given you a call.

“I’m sure Maru understands how I feel.”

-Really? If it was me, I would have gone to that person’s house and asked for the reason if someone I love told me not to contact them. That is what love is after all.

No – she wasn’t able to retort properly. In a corner of her heart, a part of her was agreeing with the rabbit’s words. While acting, there were times when she felt frustrated because things didn’t go the way she wanted to. It would’ve been better if I stretched my arms a little further; it would have been better if I loosened my shoulders a little; it would’ve been better if my eyebrows shook a little more clearly. It wasn’t just her body that didn’t move according to her will. There were times when her heart expressed emotions regardless of her thoughts. Right now, it was the same. It was ‘her heart’, yet she couldn’t follow as ‘her heart’ wished. Maybe the heart was even harder to control than the body. Gaeul bit her lips.

“Let’s have a candid talk[1]!”

Those words could be heard from a table where the juniors were. Gaeul blew away her bitter thoughts. She didn’t want to ruin this occasion to joyously wrap up the year because of her personal matters. She exercised her facial muscles on purpose and put on a smile so that everyone else could continue having an enjoyable time.

“We don’t want to do it though.”

“But you guys did it when you were in second-year seonbaes. We’re now in second year, so we’re doing one too.”

“That’s right! Even if you leave, you have to leave after getting an earful from us.”

Choi Seol made a troubled expression. It was her who had led the 2nd year students harshly for the past year. If they had a candid talk, the 2nd years, who should have grinded their swords until now, would rush her. As a sinner, Choi Seol tried to make them do another game, but the 2nd year students did not relent.

“First-year students, don’t you want to do it too?”

“Yes! We’d love to.”

“It’s our last get-together anyway, so let’s finish it off with a blast, shall we? Please? Choi Seol seonbae-nim. The people are on our side. Stop struggling and just allow it.”

The 2nd-year students asked for a candid talk with the 1st-year students’ support. Gaeul thought about this time last year. Before the winter holidays started, they also had a candid talk with the then 3rd-year students. What they liked, what they regretted, and what they did not want to forget. It was time to talk about those.

“Fine then! Let’s do it. But instead, we’re doing it in reverse, okay? Us third years are the youngest, the second years are in the middle, and the first years are the seonbaes, okay?”

“Of course. Hey, hey. You first-years, you don’t have to hold back, okay?”

The candid talk began with permission from former president Choi Seol and the current president Youngsoo. They could commit a rebellion right now, but the juniors weren’t able to speak properly. The first one to speak was Youngsoo.

“Choi Seol!” Youngsoo stood up abruptly.

Choi Seol’s lips twitched but still spoke,

“Yes, seonbae.”

“Don’t you act like that when you go to college. You’re too rough for being a girl.”

“Of course, I’m going to do well when I go to college.”

“Also, don’t hit others as a joke. You might take it as a joke, but it really hurts for me, you know? You’re really strong. Keep that in mind.”

“Yes, I’m a little strong. And my arms are thick too.”

Gaeul chuckled while covering her mouth. She would probably get to see veins popping out on Choi Seol’s neck.

“Lastly, Choi Seol. Do you have a boyfriend?”

“No.”

Youngsoo, who had been acting boldly until now, suddenly looked shy. The 2nd year boys sitting around him tapped him and told him to go for it. Feeling the serious atmosphere, everyone stopped laughing and looked at him.

“Choi Seol! I liked you, did you know that?”

A moment later, applause could be heard. Amidst the loud cheers was a shout telling them to kiss.

Choi Seol raised her hand to stop them and spoke,

“Seonbae-nim, I’m sorry to tell you this, but you aren’t my type. Also, you’re in your third year now, so just study hard.”

When Choi Seol rejected him so firmly while crossing her arms, Youngsoo sat down with a gloomy expression. The 2nd year boys burst out into laughter.

“Why did you do that? It’s not that bad to date a high school student as a college girl,” said the friend sitting next to Choi Seol.

Choi Seol shook her head.

“With him? No way. I don’t feel like he’s a man at all. He’s just a cute brother.”

Her friends nodded, saying that it was understandable.

“The second-year students went first, so next should be someone from the first year.”

Among the tense first-year students, one of them, who was known to be bold, abruptly stood up from his seat.

“Hey, isn’t practicing until 12 a little too long? Let’s reduce it a little. Especially you, Youngsoo. You don’t have any right to tell Seol anything. At least she looks after us. All you can do is nag.”

“Yes, yes. I’ll do my best to serve.”

“Hey, you sound defiant? You aren’t going to tell me something after this ends, are you? I’ll have faith that you aren’t so petty, Youngsoo.”

“Of course. I don’t dare say anything to the 1st year seniors. I’ll try to reduce practice in the future. Let’s do it until 11:59.”

The 1st-year student sat down, looking like he was doomed. Following that, other 1st-year students grabbed their spoons (that acted as a microphone) and spoke out what was on their minds. The majority of their complaints were directed towards the 2nd-year students rather than the 3rd-year students, and it was probably because they had more interaction with each other as consecutive grades. Gaeul watched everyone as she ate some vegetable wraps. She had her blast last year, but now that she was in her 3rd-year, she had nothing to say.

The noisy candid talk eventually arrived near the end.

“Han Gaeul!”

Gaeul, who was picking up a slice of garlic with her chopsticks, raised her hand when she heard the voice. Yuna, who had tied her hair up into a bun above her head, was holding a spoon upside down.

“First, congrats on getting good results on the CSATs!”

Gaeul put down her chopsticks and spoke,

“Thank you.”

“Also, when you bought me strawberry milk and consoled me that time, thank you a lot.”

The 1st-year students booed her, telling her to stop the good stories. Gaeul faintly smiled and looked at Yuna. Ever since Yuna confessed what was on her mind, she thought about maintaining a good relationship with her as a senior and a junior, but when she came to, they had become quite distant. There were times when they talked to each other and talked about acting, but even during those times, Gaeul felt a wall when talking to her. That wall wasn’t something put up by Yuna; it was something by herself. The wall that she thought would break soon, became taller and sturdier. Now, the wall had become so tall that she couldn’t see Yuna’s expression truthfully even if she tip-toed. She found herself pathetic for putting a distance between them when it was her who told her that she understood and that it was something that could happen. The more pathetic she felt about herself, the more distant they became.

“Not at all,” Gaeul said.

After taking a deep breath. Yuna looked around.

“That’s it for Han Gaeul. From now on, I have something personal to tell everyone in the acting club. There was a boy I really liked.”

The 1st-year juniors suddenly cheered at the sudden confession. Gaeul clutched her aching heart and looked at Yuna.

“There are probably a lot of people who like Yuna among the first years.”

“It’s not just the first years. I’m pretty sure many people from the second- and third-years got rejected by her too.”

Her friends started speaking among themselves. Just as they said, Yuna was quite popular. She gave off a docile impression and had a cute face. Not only that, she had experience working as a main character in a drama, so it was natural for her to be a target of adoration.

Gaeul felt her throat burning. She sipped some water and watched the silent Yuna. They made eye contact as though she had been waiting for it.

“But I was rejected cleanly. I really liked him, but I can’t even think about him anymore. That was how thorough it was.”

The boys went into an uproar.

“Who was it? Who rejected Yuna?”

“Let’s be honest here, everyone. Who was it? Who rejected Yuna?”

They naturally thought that the person Yuna liked was someone in the acting club. Only Gaeul knew that Yuna was talking about Maru. She wondered what Yuna wanted to say.

After gulping down some cold water, Yuna continued to speak in a shaky voice,

“So you two can meet. I want you two to meet. I might have interrupted you, but I was nothing. I’m someone who you don’t even need to be concerned about, so don’t worry about anything. He only looks at you. Okay? Hey! Thanks, sorry, and I admire you. You can hate me, but I want to maintain a good relationship with you, can I?”

After saying those words, Yuna sat down. Gaeul saw her wiping the corner of her eyes with the back of her hand. Gaeul sighed shakily.

“What was that? What did Yuna just say?”

“Don’t you get it? There’s a love triangle in the acting club. Yuna liked a boy, but that boy had a girlfriend already. That’s why she’s apologizing in public.”

“Is that how it is? What’s up with that. Yuna looks so docile. That was unexpected.”

“I’m pretty sure she didn’t know he had a girlfriend. That’s why she cried so much while apologizing. The girl in question might not believe it if they talked about it personally, so that’s why she might have said it here. Anyway, she’s really brave alright. I would be too embarrassed to say something like that in public,” Youngmi said while shaking her head.

Choi Seol agreed with her and stood up.

“There there! I’m not sure who it is that Yuna feels sorry, is thankful to, and admires, but I hope you two can talk it out later. It doesn’t look like Yuna was pretending. Also, Im Yuna!”

“Y-yes!” Yuna replied while sobbing.

“This is supposed to be a candid talk, not a confession!”

“I’m sorry!”

“As punishment, you have to sing a song.”

“What?”

“I’m saying that you have to sing a song. You brought the whole mood down. Doesn’t everyone agree? But, I’ll sing with you. No wait, all third years, stand up! Let’s be Yuna’s back dancers.”

Choi Seol stepped in to liven up the mood. The 3rd year students clapped and brought Yuna away from the table. Yuna’s eyes had turned red, but she soon smiled and put a spoon inside a glass soda bottle.

“Hey, Han Gaeul. Come on up,” Choi Seol called Gaeul. Gaeul sat down and looked at Yuna. Yuna was waiting silently.

Gaeul took a deep breath before standing up. Although she felt complex and dizzy, she didn’t want to be the bad girl when her junior had the courage to confess.

“I can’t let my junior do that alone. I’ll sing first.”

Gaeul grabbed the soda bottle that Yuna was holding.

“As expected of Han Gaeul. So? What are you going to sing?” Choi Seol asked while opening her phone.

Gaeul snorted before speaking,

“Cho PD[2]’s Friend.”

[1] This is ‘Yaja time(야자 타임)’ in Korean, where basically, the senior/junior relationship is switched around.

[2] Referring to the Korean singer, Cho Yong-pil. Here’s the song on youtube

Chapter 750

“Those of you who want to go to the noraebang in separate groups, don’t get in trouble, those of you going home, watch out on your way home.”

“Yes!”

“There’s still one more competition, so don’t be too loose. We’re only going to play around today and then start practicing tomorrow. There’s not even a month left until January.”

Choi Seol clapped above her head once.

“Well, then. Let’s do one last fighting and then break up. Myunghwa high acting club, fighting!”

“Fighting!”

A hundred or so people shouted at the same time. The passersby glanced at them before walking past. People who had formed separate groups went to nearby noraebangs and PC bangs.

“Gaeul, we’re going to go to a board game café; do you want to come?”

“Sorry, I’m a little tired today.”

Choi Seol, who would usually pull on her arms to get her to go together with her, nodded her head obediently today.

“Alright, then go home and get some rest. You didn’t look good back there. I’m not sure what it’s about, but if you have anything you’re worried about, you can always call me up and talk to me about it. This unni has a lot of time. If it’s about your boyfriend though, don’t call me. I don’t have much experience when it comes to dating.”

“Don’t have much? You mean none at all. Gaeul, if it’s about love problems, call me. I’m better than Seol when it comes to that.”

Choi Seol approached her and locked her fingers around Gaeul’s before shaking them. Her other friends also approached, grabbed her hands and shook them up and down, and left after telling her to give them a call. The group of students in front of the restaurant scattered in an instant.

Gaeul uttered out a short breath. Her breath turned white and disappeared with a white trail. Just as she was about to put her scarf on, she saw Yuna about 10 meters away from her. Yuna said goodbye to her friends and left the group. She seemed to be going home. Gaeul clutched the scarf and walked over to Yuna. On her way, she made eye contact with her. Yuna flinched and took a step back but did not run away. For some reason, she felt grateful that Yuna waited for her.

“You aren’t going with your friends?”

“Yes. I felt a little tired.”

“Really? Me too. Which direction are you going?”

“I’m going this way. What about you, seonbae?”

“I’m going that way too. Uh, hey, wanna walk for a bit?”

Yuna nodded after a bit of hesitation. Gaeul was reminded of what her friend said; that it was incredible of Yuna to confess such a thing. From how frightened she looked right now, Gaeul could hardly imagine that she was the same bold girl during the candid talk. It must have been that difficult to say those words.

“You must be cold.”

Gaeul undid her scarf and stood in front of Yuna. Yuna said she was okay, but Gaeul quietly put the scarf around her.

“It’s warm, isn’t it?”

“Yes, it is.”

“Apparently, it’s going to get colder tomorrow. You should be prepared when you come to school.”

“Yes.”

Gaeul stepped back first. She had a mountain load of things to say, but she couldn’t speak so easily. She tried rolling the words that wanted to escape inside her mouth. They walked silently for a while until they stopped due to a traffic light. A truck loaded with logs passed in front of them with a heavy sound. Her ears became numb momentarily, and her head became empty. The piles of words disappeared, and what remained behind was just one sentence.

“It’s not because of you that I’m not meeting Maru.”

She saw Yuna’s small body stiffen up. Gaeul turned around halfway to face Yuna. She saw confusion in her two eyes. The junior she had to console in the distant past was standing right there. Yuna had placed her two hands in front of her stomach. Gaeul grabbed those hands. Yuna’s hands were shaking and sweaty. It was extremely chilly. Gaeul faintly smiled after seeing the stiff Yuna.

“I mean it. It’s not because of you.”

The lights changed. People started crossing the road. After glancing at the people passing by, she looked at Yuna. Yuna seemed to be organizing her thoughts and she spoke after a while,

“Then why aren’t you meeting?”

“Because of my intentions. I’m not seeing him right now because I don’t want to see him.”

“You?”

“Yes. Didn’t you hear from Maru?”

“I did hear a little bit about it, but I didn’t think that would actually be the reason.”

Yuna sniffed. Whether it was because of the cold or because she was crying, Gaeul did not know. Gaeul took out some tissues from her bag and wiped below Yuna’s nose. Yuna, who had been frozen stiff, soon came to herself and took the tissues, saying that she would wipe herself.

“How was Maru during the shoot?”

“Maru-seonbae?”

“Yes. Was he good?”

Yuna gave her glances intermittently. It seemed like she didn’t know how to answer this question.

“I just want you to give it to me straight. Tell me what you felt.”

“Maru-seonbae was… really great. He sometimes explained to me in kind if I got stuck on something. Gently and in detail. Oh, he changed recently, so he’s no longer kind towards me, but I definitely got the feeling that he was guiding me. I felt like… he was helping me just as much as I put in the effort.”

“That sounds like him. He doesn’t make that many mistakes, does he?”

“He doesn’t. There are rarely any NG scenes when it comes to his shots. Even if they do another shoot, it’s because the director wants to do the shoot repeatedly for a better cut.”

Yuna’s expression eased up a little. It seemed that her nervousness had subsided.

“His acting is one thing, but there’s no one that looks after the other cast as much as him. Especially when it comes to the background actors. We only shot with them one day, but he looked like he became close to them and even contacts them from time to time. The staff really likes Maru too. The camera director especially takes good care of him and…”

Yuna, who was talking without stop, suddenly widened her eyes and became silent.

“I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be. You’re making me feel sorry instead. Anyway, Maru is doing well during the shoots without making mistakes, right?”

“Yes. He’s incredible. I always end up making mistakes because of nervousness, but he always finishes things in one go. I sometimes feel envious of him, and I sometimes find him curious. We aren’t that far apart in age, but the difference in experience is too clear. Even if I resolve to do better, I sometimes feel uneasy when looking at him because the gap between us is too big.”

Unease. Gaeul deeply sympathized with this word. It was the word that summed up the reason she couldn’t meet Maru.

“Me too. I always feel that Maru is amazing when I keep watching him.”

The lights changed once again. Gaeul grabbed Yuna’s hand and crossed the road.

“Two years ago, Maru and I studied under teacher Ganghwan. You know who teacher Yang Ganghwan is, right? You shot the drama with him this time.”

“Senior Ganghwan? Yes, I do.”

“He’s good, isn’t he?”

“Don’t even start. Maru-seonbae is good, but I can only say that senior Ganghwan is on a completely different level. I can only exclaim when I watch him. He always says that he’s embarrassed because he’s not good at acting in front of a camera, but if that’s how it is, I might as well be disqualified.”

“Right. His acts are really amazing. It’s especially the case when you see his vivid acts on stage. We- that is, Maru and I- studied under such a teacher. There were many people. People who were considered good at acting from various schools were in that place. Even there, Maru stood out above others. He was the only one who got extra teachings from the teacher after all. At first, everyone misunderstood. They thought that the teacher was biased towards him. But after time passed, everyone knew. It wasn’t that the teacher was biased, it was that the level of acting that Maru was on was a different level from us.”

Gaeul scraped the snow on the bonnet of a car and squashed it into a ball. Then, she pretended to throw it at Yuna and hit the tree next to her. Yuna flinched and glanced at her before making a snowball herself.

“Are you going to throw that?”

“N-no.”

Yuna became startled and dusted her hands. Gaeul thought this for a long time: Yuna was a really good girl. She was honest with her emotions and had the courage to speak in uncomfortable situations.

Gaeul suddenly wondered what kind of person she was to Maru. Considering how he could act indifferent to a girl like that, did it mean that he liked Gaeul a lot? Or did he not place that much meaning in romantic relationships? She remembered how Maru habitually talked about marriage sometimes as a joke and sometimes seriously. She wondered how serious he was when he said those words as well as how much of it was just a joke.

“Since you were honest with me, I’ll be honest with you as well. I said that I was okay in front of you, but I actually felt jealous. I was scared. I even had the thought that I was being a nuisance to you two.”

“No, absolutely not. Maru-seonbae thinks about you a lot to the point that he asks me how you’re doing.”

“Really?”

Gaeul sighed. Maru had faith in her. He was waiting. Even though she was wavering, he kept the promise they made.

“Now that I heard that from you, I think I really have the conviction now.”

“Then are you going to meet again?”

“No, I’m not going to see him after all. As selfish as I might sound, I think that might be better for me.”

“Why? Why do you have to do that?”

“Because I’m the bad one. Because I’m insufficient. Because I lack self-confidence. If I meet him now, I will definitely find it enjoyable, and I will also be happy. But I have the dream to stand on the same stage as Maru one day. Honestly speaking, I don’t think I’m good enough as I am now. Like what you said, Maru keeps making progress. I want to lash out at myself. I was always consoled by Maru until now, so I think I got complacent and got used to that kind of lifestyle. I want to stand in front of Maru more boldly. I want to embrace him, who actually has more tears than you think, but I don’t think I can do that as I am now.”

Gaeul heaved out a deep breath. Yuna looked at her, at a loss on what to do.

“If you still like Maru, you can flirt with him.”

“What?”

“That’s what Maru told me before. He told me it was fine to date other people. He said that he wasn’t worried because he’s the most charming person and has the confidence to make me fall for him again. I’m going to do the same thing. If I have that kind of confidence, I don’t think I need to be worried like this in the first place.”

Yuna looked dazed. Gaeul laughed out loud when she saw her expression.

“Seonbae, you’re okay, right?”

“Do I look strange?”

“N-no, it’s not like that, but…”

“Anyway, sorry for making you suffer. I’m also sorry for making you say the things that I had to say. Also, thanks for bringing up the courage to speak about it to me.”

Gaeul grabbed Yuna’s hand again.

“It’s cold, let’s go.”

Yuna didn’t say anything for a while as though she felt complex. Yuna only spoke again when they arrived at the bus stop,

“Seonbae, are you really not going to meet Maru-seonbae?”

“Yep. Until I can accept myself.”

“I’ll be cheering for you.”

“No, don’t. Rather than that, did you really give up on Maru?”

“Eh? Ah, yes. Maru-seonbae said it clearly to me.”

“But that’s what Maru thinks.”

“Seonbae.”

Just then, the bus that Yuna was going to ride arrived. Yuna undid the scarf and spoke,

“Honestly, I can’t understand a word you’re saying now.”

“I’m not surprised. I don’t understand how I feel either.”

“Uhm, seonbae. If you say things like that, I might end up liking him again.”

“You can. Just bear in mind that it’s highly probable that I’ll snatch him back later.”

“Are you serious?”

“Let me just call it Han Maru’s dating method. I’m not sure if it’s going to work or not though.”

The bus opened and Yuna got on. Before the door closed, Yuna hurriedly asked.

“I can keep calling you in the future, right?”

“Anytime. I’ll even pick up during the middle of the night.”

Yuna smiled at the last moment, though, she still looked puzzled.

Gaeul looked up at the sky.

The snow was falling again.

“For a while…”

The figure of Maru smiling briefly appeared in her head before disappearing.

Gaeul put on her scarf.

The wind was no longer chilly.

Chapter 751
Sequence 1

“Dammit, this won’t leave behind a scar, will it?”

Yoon Hyungseok touched the cut on his chin as he looked into the mirror. An old razor ended up making a cut on his skin. He wiped away shaving foam with warm water and checked again. It was a sharp cut, so it looked like it would heal soon. That was good.

He shook the water off his razor and left the bathroom. ‘Zeck’ was crouching under the sunlight coming through the whole-wall window. He was posing in a ‘baking bread’ pose, and his yellowish-brown fur was really similar to a piece of baked bread. Hyungseok approached him and patted him from the head to the tail. Zeck cried in a pleasant manner and stood up before walking away proudly.

“You up?” asked a woman as she picked Zeck up.

She, wearing shorts and a black bra, was opening the door to the refrigerator like it was her own house.

“I dislike women who touch items in other people’s houses.”

“How petty,” the woman replied as she took out some milk from the fridge before pouring some into a glass.

“Do you live alone, oppa?”

“That’s why I could bring you here. Rather than that, why don’t you put something on?”

“We’ve seen everything about each other already. Now that I look at you, you have quite a naïve side to you. You were like a beast last night too.”

“That was because I was drunk.”

“That excuse bores me the most.”

The woman tickled Zeck’s chin. Hyungseok clicked his tongue. This guy scratched and bit his master despite him feeding him all the time, yet he was like an angel in a woman’s arms. Where was he hiding those sharp claws?

“I need to go now.”

“Do you work too? I thought you were totally unemployed from how you were rocking like mad last night at the nightclub.”

“Unemployed? Oh please, I’m going to become big later.”

“Big? The thing I saw last night wasn’t that big.”

The woman’s eyes headed down. Hyungseok twisted his body a little with an awkward expression. The blatant gaze prickled him a little.

“Is it up?”

“No, it isn’t. Anyway, you can either leave with me after breakfast, or you can go first.”

“I’m fine with this.”

The woman finished the milk and entered the bathroom. The sound of the shower continued on for a while before she came out while drying her hair.

“You’re really neat alright. I thought I was in a motel or something. No wait, motels aren’t this clean either. Do you have an obsession or something?”

“I just like things tidy.”

“You really like that word, huh. Yet such a guy brought a girl for a one-nighter?”

“That’s that and this is this. But hey, you’re acting totally different from last night. Were you just pretending?”

“How can people live with just one personality? You were obviously into cute and docile girls, so I put up an act for a bit.”

“Put up an act? You’re like a child in front of an adult.”

“What do you mean by that?”

Hyungseok just shook his head and waved his hand. The woman didn’t seem to intend on prying either and just threw the wet towel on the ground before entering the room.

“No wonder. Her skills were extraordinary.”

Hyungseok sighed as he remembered last night. Zeck came by his feet and scratched his foot. Hyungseok frowned and lifted Zeck up.

“Hey, you’re taking revenge because I neutered you, aren’t you?”

After staring holes into Zeck for a while, he put him down on the sofa. Zeck got ready to sleep again with a yawn as though he was satisfied after bullying his master. Hyungseok sometimes thought that Zeck was a human behind a cat mask. He was way too cunning.

“Hey, this place is pretty good. How much does it cost per month?” the woman asked after putting her clothes on.

“And why do you ask that?”

“Because I need to graduate college and move out. What’s the deposit like for this place?”

“It’s definitely not a place a college graduate can afford.”

“Didn’t you say you were twenty-five? Aren’t you still in college if you did your military service?”

“I never went to college. Also, do you think a poor college student can afford a place like this?”

“What the, you’re secretly boasting that you’re quite capable, huh? Do you have a girlfriend?”

“Stop asking. You’re bothering me in the morning.”

“It’s good to get to know each other. Anyway, I’m going to leave now. I put my number in your phone, so contact me from time to time. I’ll play with you.”

“Forget it, girlie. You might suck the life out of me if I play with you a second time.”

The woman opened the door and left. Hyungseok cleaned up the towel on the floor and cooked some breakfast: chicken breasts and a handful of cereal. He also gave Zeck some cat food when he purred for food.

“That’s all you get. You seem to be gaining weight recently.”

As soon as he said those words, a front paw flew into his face. This guy definitely understood human language.

After finishing his meal, he started cleaning. He cleaned twice a day, and it was an important ritual he had to do every day. Hyungseok found this time very important since he could organize his thoughts.

He looked around his house, which had become clean, before smiling in satisfaction.

“Bro’s going out, so watch the house, okay?”

He glared at Zeck, who did not reply, before leaving. As soon as he got on the elevator, he started missing the air conditioning. The heat was vile.

He got into his car and started it. The first thing he did was to turn the air conditioner on. It was 11 a.m. Hyungseok tuned the radio frequency to KBS and increased the volume.

-Today’s way too hot for a drowsy afternoon, is it not, everyone? For some reason, even the wind that’s blowing through the window feels hot. I wish to gift you all a breeze of cool air. Hello, I’m Han Gaeul, and I’m your host for Movie Stroll.

“Good voice.”

Hyungseok changed gears and drove off. He grabbed the wheel with one hand and put his smartphone next to his ear with the other.

“Hey, I’m on my way there. Where are you? In front of Renait in the 1st district? Alright. The others? I’ll pick you up and then think about it. Okay, wait there.”

He drove towards the first district of Anyang. His friend was waiting in front of a famous hair shop, Renait. He stopped the car on the other side and sounded the horn. His friend waved his hand and crossed the road.

“The weather is crazy,” that was the first thing his friend said after getting on.

“It is crazy alright. But hey, it’s been ages since we saw each other, yet it feels like I saw you yesterday.”

“We’ve seen each other enough for two years, that’s why. Hey, got anything to drink?”

“Since it’s hot and all, why don’t you go buy something? There’s a convenience store right there.”

“Dammit, you were always good at making people run errands. What do you want?”

“Coffee; buy me a sweet one.”

His friend got out again. Hyungseok called his other friends who should be waiting.

“Hey, I met Gitae. Where are you? You’ll be in Anyang soon?… Alright, we’ll be waiting so call me up when you get here. Gitae, you, Youngjin, and I just need to pick up sergeant Han… Alright, see you there.”

His friend that went to buy drinks returned and gave him a coffee.

“Who was that?”

“Beomsoo. He’ll be arriving at Anyang station soon.”

“That dude has it the hardest. He said he lives in Ulsan, right?”

“Yeah. He arrived at Suwon last night and slept there. He’s coming right now.”

“That sounds like a pain.”

“That’s why I don’t plan to collect money from him. Everyone else is living in Gyeonggi-do or Seoul, but he’s the only one from Ulsan[1]. Such a pitiful guy.”

“At least he’s coming. I’m touched. It has been, what, a year since we were discharged?”

“It’s been about that long. What are you up to these days?”

“College.”

“Ah, right. You’re only twenty-three, aren’t you? Hey, call me hyung while I still feel good. You know this bro’s twenty-five right?”

“Bullshit. Once a colleague, forever a colleague, don’t you know that?”

“Damn this guy.”

“If you didn’t want that, you should’ve come to the military early, Mr. Hyungseok. Eh?”

“You’re getting way ahead of yourself.”

Gitae giggled and opened his drink.

“Okay, so I’m in college. What are you up to? Are you still doing your business?”

“No, I quit a while ago. The business a friend of mine and I raised together was taken care of entirely by him while I was in the military.”

“I heard you made some good money selling clothes. Why did you quit such a good thing?”

“Because I found something I want to do. I have the money, so don’t you think it’s about time I do the thing I want?”

“Good for you. Meanwhile, here I am worried about employment even though I’m not in the graduating year. But hey, is selling clothes online even profitable?”

“It’s already a red ocean there. It’s been taken over by large companies now. Don’t get tempted to waste your money by ads that tell you that you can make a quick buck. This bro knows everything about it.”

“Looks like I should just shut up and focus on studying.”

“That’s right, you should focus on studying. Twenty-three is the perfect age for studying.”

Hyungseok turned on the radio again. With perfect timing, the ads were ending.

-August 2nd, 2011. Let me read some messages from people who have their birthday today. The music is BGM from a film I like. The first one is from Miss Ahn Jeonghee. Hello, Gaeul-unni, I’m an examinee student in my 3rd year of high school. I became a fan of yours after I chanced upon your program while studying. Uhm, I’m really grateful that you became a fan, but isn’t 11 a.m. time for you to be studying, Miss Ahn Jeonghee? You’ll get scolded by your teacher. Turn off the radio right now and focus on class. Also, you’re an exam student, you can’t do this. Please listen to my radio once CSATs are over. Oh yes, you said it was your birthday today, wasn’t it? Then let me send you a set of red ginseng extracts to help with your studies. Happy birthday and I hope you can cheer up with these.

“Isn’t her voice good?” Hyungseok said.

Gitae just said that it was meh and fidgeted with his smartphone. He was giggling while messaging someone, and it didn’t look like he was talking with a dude.

“Your girlfriend?”

“No, not yet. She’s a new student in my department.”

“Is she pretty?”

“She’s cute.”

“You were worried about employment and all, but hey, you seem to be having a good life.”

“Money isn’t all you need to live in this world. You need other things too. Hey, isn’t that Beomsoo over there?”

“That’s him alright. His face is so dark.”

Hyungseok got out of the car and waved his hand. Beomsoo, who was looking around, grinned and came over.

“He has that same smile alright.”

“He smiled when the seniors picked on us. Hey, Beomsoo! Run!”

Beomsoo crossed the road in a flash and got in the car.

“Long time no see. It must have been hard taking the train all the way here.”

“Nah. Where’s Youngjin?”

“I’m going to have to pick him up now. He’s in Suwon, so it won’t take that long.”

Gitae, who was in the passenger seat, gave Beomsoo something to drink. After drinking a sip of water, Beomsoo spoke,

“Where’s Sergeant Han?”

“We’re gonna have to pick him up as well. Man, I wanna see him, our direct senior.”

“Hey, do you have anyone other than Sergeant Han that you keep in touch with?”

“I don’t. How about you, Gitae?”

Gitae shook his head. Hyungseok rolled his phone around in his hand and spoke,

“Right, that reminds me. Beomsoo, this guy, he cried the day Sergeant Han got discharged.”

“Hey, I wasn’t the only one. Gitae probably cried too.”

Gitae snorted and said that he didn’t. Hyungseok probed his memories. He saw Gitae with teary eyes next to Beomsoo who was crying. Gitae was a proud guy, so he would probably deny it until the end if he said the truth, so he decided to stay quiet.

“I wonder what he’s doing.”

“I heard he was doing plays in Daehak-ro before he got enlisted. Maybe he’s still doing that.”

“Maybe. I’ve called him and talked to him about stuff, but I didn’t ask what he was up to. It’s been a year since we last saw each other.”

Listening to the conversation between Beomsoo and Gitae, Hyungseok frowned.

“Hey, I’m also the same age as Sergeant Han. Why do you give him the big brother treatment but not me?”

“Because he’s different. He’s a class above us too.”

“Forget class. If you’re going to give him the big brother treatment, you have to call me hyung as well.”

“Hey, Yoon Hyungseok. Can you go up to him and say that you wanna be friends with him? If you do, we’ll gladly call you hyung,” said Gitae indifferently. Hyungseok hesitated for a moment before shaking his head.

“Forget it. Why would I want the big brother treatment from you guys? It’s not like you’re anything special.”

“Fucker, you’re wimping out, aren’t you?”

“Who’s wimping out!”

“You are wimping out. Han-hyung is a good person, but he was scary when he got angry.”

Those words reminded Hyungseok of what happened 3 years ago; back when he was all smiling after having finished boot camp. The day he was assigned to his station was freaky even when he thought about it now.

“For now, we’ll go pick up Youngjin.”

Hyungseok trembled and started the car.

[1] Ulsan is in the South end of South Korea, while Seoul and Gyeonggido are relatively North.

KTLChamber's Thoughts

You did come to the right place, and I have translated the right chapter… You've been reading <Life, Once Again!>… As indicated by the name Han Gaeul…… We just got a time skip from 2006 to 2011. They're using smartphones now…

Remember how I said I would be in translation hell? Well, it's military jargon… And there's more fun things I may or may not share with you in the coming chapters. Heck, there sure is more military jargon incoming. That's for sure.

So, this chapter then.

1. "Discharged"

No, they aren't technically 'discharged' in the sense that they are 'relieved of their military duties'. They've actually been 'transferred' to the reserve forces, and would have to attend reserve forces training once~twice a year for eight years. Only then you would be truly 'discharged' in the sense that you would be relieved of your duties. After that, you'd be considered 'civil defense force' (who are classified as civilians in a state of war), until you're 40. I'm just talking about soldiers. Officers and NCOs(Non-commissioned officers) have different service periods. I (Chamber) got 'discharged' in 2020, but I haven't done my reserve forces training because of the pandemic… lol. It keeps getting cancelled.

2. "Sergeant"

The Korean military differentiates military forces into three broad categories: 1. Soldiers, 2. Non-commissioned officers, and 3. Officers (there's also the warrant officer class… but let's leave it out for now.) This should also be the case in the US military, but here's where things are different:

The soldiers are divided into FOUR ranks (excluding recruits), not three: 1. Private, 2. Private First Class, 3. Corporal, and 4. Sergeant.

So Sergeant (or the term that translates into Sergeant) is a soldier in Korea, not an NCO. And soldiers are discharged as 'Sergeants' (if they didn't get demoted or something)

Staff Sergeant, Sergeant First Class, Master Sergeant and Sergeant Major are the four NCO ranks in Korea.

Also, rank names are the same across Army, Navy, Air force and Marines. English(American) rank names are hella confusing……

Editor's Note:

If you think this is whiplash, dw because some of the old characters reappear in a few chapters.

Chapter 752
Sequence 1

“Hey, let’s keep in touch when we leave.”

“Yeah. Boot camps friends forever.”

Yoon Hyungseok felt his eyes feel hot.

He gave up on going to college and jumped into the apparel sales business. Unlike his initial plan of getting a small store in Hongdae, his friend and he started an internet sales business. As he was quite confident in his face and figure, he also acted as the fitting model. He created the site, and thanks to his friend’s experience with marketing, he gained quite a lot of profit in just one year.

He would wake up at early dawn, get some clothes from Dongdae-mun, take photos, package clothes, and pick up customer inquiry calls for the whole day, but he didn’t feel that exhausted since he felt proud that he was building up his foundation. When the business gained stability, and he even expanded his warehouse and hired employees, he got his draft notice. Hyungseok chose to enter the military service without hesitation. Until the day he was drafted, he thought that military service was nothing compared to selling clothes. He only thought about playing boy scout for two years and about how to continue his clothes business.

The impression he had of the military broke on the first day.

“You are not here to play around!”

Why was it so scary when that came from someone younger than him? It wasn’t just that either.

“Get out of your Civies.”

When he stood in a daze because he didn’t know what that meant, the instructor shouted at him to change his clothes. When the other recruits next to him started taking off their clothes, they got shouted at again.

“Do you think this is society? Get changed right now!”

Hyungseok never had difficulties changing his clothes in his 22 years of life. It was probably the same for the other recruits as well. However, during that moment, everyone wasted time changing clothes as though they had all become idiots. The one standing opposite him put the pants on front-side back, and the one next to him wore his top inside out. He felt like he had become an idiot.

To sum up his bootcamp life in one word, it would be ‘horrible’.

The steaming weather gifted him with a sticky and terrible heat. As Hyungseok was quite picky when it came to where he slept, he felt like he was going to die because he couldn’t sleep for two days, but on his third day, he fell asleep like a log. Humans adapted to extreme environments in order to survive.

The colleague who grumbled about the terrible food at the boot camp on the first day was given the nickname of ‘shit glutton’ on the day the fifth week ended. His colleagues laughed at the guy, saying that he would probably eat out of the food waste.

Another one, who was chubby when he entered, suffered from constipation during his first week, then on the last day, he became a man who went to the toilet earlier than anyone. Not to mention that he had lost a lot of weight.

Hyungseok had also experienced some changes. He thought that he would never be able to fall asleep on a hard surface but found himself dozing off in the middle of a dust cloud, and he usually never slept before 2 a.m. because of his business but found himself under a spell that magically closed his eyes at 10.

Thinking about how he was going to be separated from his colleagues with whom he had spent five weeks training and eating, he really felt disappointed. This was especially true for his colleague who he went to the same religious service with; alternating between the Catholic church, the Buddhist temple, and the Protestant church, to get choco pie[1] from all of them. He felt like he would become life-long buddies with this guy.

“We will be able to make calls on our first vacation after getting stationed, so let’s call each other then. This is my phone number.”

“This is mine.”

He exchanged numbers with his colleagues. Hyungseok promised to meet them on their 100-day vacation[2] as he got on the vehicle leaving the Nonsan bootcamp[3]. Hugging his duffel bag, he was slightly uneasy that he was being separated from the rest of his colleagues, but thanks to his confidence from having endured 5 weeks of hellish training, he didn’t feel that nervous. He thought that his station wouldn’t be more difficult than the bootcamp.

“Line up. Don’t chitchat inside the train, okay?”

He got on the train under the guidance of a kind-looking staff[4]. Quite a lot of people were on that train[5]. Although it had been a little more than a month, the outside scenery felt foreign. While he was imagining what kind of place he was stationed, he arrived at Cheongnyangni station. Having gotten off at the station, Hyungseok got on a military bus without getting any time to rest.

“Choonsik, let’s’a go.”

Three Vs stacked on top of each other was the mark of a master sergeant he saw quite frequently in games. A total of five people got on the military bus. He didn’t know any of them, so he didn’t say anything to them. One of them got off mid-way before the bus departed again. Hyungseok saw a sign that said ‘Welcome to Pocheon’. Pocheon. He was reminded of rice wine and grilled ribs[6].

“Boys, ge’off.”

The roads were well paved, and the military base was rather close to a nearby town. The first impression wasn’t that bad. The building he saw in the distance was also quite clean unlike the one at the bootcamp. The air was good too, and the staff in charge of leading them here didn’t look bad either. Maybe he got a good lottery.

“So, three of you are artillerymen for the brigade HQ, and you are 322’s HQ[7].”

The three people assigned to the artillery brigade’s HQ entered the building right next to the drill grounds. It was a worn-out building that was only 2 stories tall. Hyungseok inwardly sighed. For some reason, he felt like the personality of the people in that base would be directly proportional to how worn out it was.

“You follow me.”

He followed the master sergeant who had his hands grasped behind his back. The place the master sergeant walked to was a newly built building. Hyungseok inwardly cheered. He had the vague hope that his military life would be much more comfortable than the three before him.

“First sergeant, this one’s for HQ.”

“Thank you.”

Hyungseok entered the administration office. Only the man titled ‘first sergeant’ was inside this strangely quiet room, his legs crossed.

“Name.”

“Private! Yoon Hyungseok!”

“Nice voice. I’m in charge of the supplies here, so let’s get along.”

“Yes, sir!”

“Want some coffee?”

The first sergeant patted him on the shoulder before leaving. When he peeked out, he saw a vending machine right in front of the administration office. Hyungseok received the coffee the first sergeant gave him with both of his hands. He was treated so well and was even given some fragrant coffee. He felt like his lips were going to curve upwards.

“Aight, Hyungseok, you hurt anywhere?”

“No, sir!”

“Where do you live?”

“I live in Anyang, sir.”

“Anyang, huh. Nice place. What did you do before you got drafted?”

“I sold clothes.”

“No college?”

“No, sir.”

“You’re quite smart. Yeah, it’s much better to focus on other things if you don’t feel like you can keep up with studying. Let’s see. Looks like you’ll be assigned to signals. Everyone around here is a good guy, so you won’t have trouble in your military life. You saw the building right? It’s clean and neat. You just need to stay here comfortably for 2 years before getting discharged.”

“Yes, sir!”

“How lively. I’m sure you’ll do well.”

Hyungseok sipped some coffee. The pressure given to him by the word ‘station’ completely disappeared. This building was considered new compared to the building he lived in at his bootcamp, and the staff seemed so nice as well. He felt like he could spend the next two years comfortably. He was once again reminded of the 3 people who were dragged to the tattered building. They were so pitiful.

“Looks like people should be returning from work. Sit here and watch TV for a while.”

As soon as those words ended, Hyungseok immediately turned his head to the TV. Actually, he was dying to watch it, but he held it in because he felt like he would get chewed if he watched without permission. Although it was a news channel, he found it so interesting because it had been a month since he last watched anything. He blankly watched the TV for a while.

He heard footsteps getting louder. It wasn’t just one or two people. Hyungseok took his eyes off the TV and sat upright. As soon as he ‘postured’ himself, people walked by in front of the door to the administration office. He could smell grass and mud. There was also a sour smell that he never smelled before, even back at bootcamp.

“Oh hey? We got a new guy.”

“Where’s he assigned?”

“Is he transport?”

“Surely he’s not, senior. He’s admin no matter how you look at him.”

“Hey, he’s in geodesy[8]. I can tell.”

“He’s in signals, so mind your own business.”

He felt like a piece of meat in the butchery. Prickly gazes stayed on his back for a long time before disappearing. Hyungseok gulped. The warm air of the administration office instantly turned chilly. He gulped in order to clear his throat. He had to be overthinking. He recalled how the first sergeant said that everyone here was a good person.

“Oh, you’re here? Hello, I’m the company commander.”

A man with the lieutenant mark entered the administration office. Hyungseok abruptly stood up, getting ready to salute, but he sat down again when the lieutenant waved at him to sit.

“Hm, you’ve talked to the first sergeant, right?”

“Yes, I have.”

“Then that’s fine. Let’s say we did the talk with the commander. You hurt anywhere?”

“No, sir!”

That was the question he received the most today: You hurt? Did people look after the soldiers’ health?

“Okay then. I hope we can get along. Oh, you’ll be in signals.”

The company commander disappeared through the door leading to the commander’s office on the other side of the administration office. Just as he was thinking that the commander was a rather jolly man, another person entered, wearing a white tank-top and navy pants. The man said ‘sergeant’ as he entered the office, and the rest of his words were so murmury and fast that he couldn’t understand a thing. He seemed to be saying ‘Sergeant OO, came for business’.

“You new?”

“Yes!”

“Ah, okay. You’re new.”

For a moment, Hyungseok felt a chill run down his back. The man’s scanning gaze was scary.

“Announcement.”

The man left the office and shouted. When he did, shouts could be heard from all around. A man came out of the room right in front of the administration office and shouted ‘ready for announcement!’. Signals, Geodesy, Transport, such names could be heard as well.

“Good job on the maintenance work today. There will be extra snacks tonight, so get one guy from each room to come to the office. Also, signals, come get your new guy.”

As soon as the man said those words, a man who had slightly scary-looking eyes came into the office.

“Private Han Maru has come to the administration office for business.”

“Oh, our dear Super A-tier is here? This guy’s your junior. Take him with you.”

“Yes, sir. Let’s go.”

Private Han Maru has finished business and will return - this man, named Han Maru, said such at the entrance before turning around. Hyungseok quickly followed him with the duffel bag.

Han Maru entered a room that said ‘wireless comms’. The room was very clean, unlike the worn-out one he used at the bootcamp. The lockers were also made of metal, not wood.

Just then, the people he did not notice because of the good facilities entered his eyes. Starting with the three people lying down on either side of the TV, there was a person who was sitting upright in the place right next to him. He felt his knees shake. He finally realized how foolish it was to think that this couldn’t be harder than the bootcamp.

“Hey, shit. You’re fucked. You’ll be fucked if you can’t do better than Han Maru.”

“Hey, that’s going too far. It’s hard to do better than our Super A-tier Maru. Hey, private first classes, go undo his duffel bag for him.”

“Yes!”

He felt like he was looking at a well-lubricated machine. It felt as though a word from the person lying down next to the TV moved everyone else in the room.

“Hey, new guy.”

“Yeah?”

Hyungseok unknowingly uttered those words in a daze. At that moment, Hyungseok realized what it meant for the world to be frozen stiff. Even his heart skipped a beat.

“Yeah? YEAAAH?”

“Duude, let me see you after your chick period[9] is over.”

The only thing Hyungseok could do was blink. If someone didn’t tap him from the side, he would probably have forgotten to breathe. Hyungseok looked at the man that tapped his flank. Han Maru - that name was engraved into his head.

“I’m sorry!”

He shouted, but he felt that it was too late.

“Private first classes, are you going to take all day to undo his duffel bag? Are you not gonna eat?”

“Sorry!”

“Let’s be quick, alright? Wired, you can go eat first. Sarge Choi, I’ll feed them first.”

“Alright.”

“Are you going to PX[10], sarge?”

“I heard it’s fried croakers tonight. I’d rather eat choco pie than eat that shit.”

“Maybe I should go to the PX too with sarge Choi.”

“You buying?”

“Forget it. You’re gonna be leaving soon, and you’re a total miser. Boys, let’s go.”

Hyungseok thought that the two people talking comfortably with each other lived in a different world. It felt like the status difference between him and those two was akin to that of a serf and a noble.

The sergeant that passed next to him pushed his shoulders. Hyungseok immediately made way. The sergeant snorted once before shaking his head. After the wired comms people left, Han Maru came over and spoke in a small voice,

“Say your name and position if a senior taps you.”

“Ah, yes.”

“Leave out the ‘ah’.”

“…Yes.”

“Make your voice as loud as possible. Just remember that for now.”

Hyungseok gulped.

[1] Every Sunday, bootcamp soldiers are (practically) required to attend a religious service. The Korean military currently acknowledges four main religions, 3 of which mentioned previously, and 1 of them is Won-buddhism. Attending one religion’s service for the first time, they would give you choco pie as a first-time gift. The variety has increased over the years though, and you get more than just that depending on where your bootcamp is.

[2] Also called ‘New Recruit Consolation vacation’. It’s called 100-day vacation because it happens around 100 days after ENLISTING (not after getting stationed). Again, this has mostly changed in the recent years, and soldiers are able to dynamically adjust and reschedule their vacations according to their and their base’s schedule.

[3]The largest bootcamp base in Korea. Nearly 70% of all Korean recruits are trained here.

[4] A non-soldier. Includes both NCOs and officers.

[5] A train specifically assigned to carry soldiers away from bootcamp to various parts of the country.

[6] Rice wine is a specialty of Pocheon, while grilled ribs became popular in the 70s as food for soldiers and their visitors on their outing.

[7] In this specific case, this brigade has several artillery battalions under its command, one of them being “322”. 322’s “HQ” means the “HQ” Company within that battalion.

[8] The field of measuring the Earth accurately.

[9] A week or two of adaptation period for newly assigned recruits, where they aren’t assigned to any duties including night shifts.

[10] Stands for Post eXchange. Basically, a military convenience store.

KTLChamber's Thoughts

Author's notes

The environment in the military base might not match the times. This is after I've been discharged, so I don't really know how it changed since then. So I hope you can be understanding even if there's a discrepancy between the atmosphere in the military base and the times.

__________________

Adding to the author's notes… this is 10 years before I (Chamber) was in the military. So don't expect me to get things right either, lol.

Remember how I said it's translation hell? Guess what? There's ten footnotes in this chapter.

I'm sure I didn't capture the essence of the Korean military properly. Heck, I only know the Korean military and not the US one, and I don't know the US army slang either. I'm pretty sure though that the cultures are different.

Careers then, huh.

"Signals" is referring to communication. It includes wired and wireless communications during states of war, as well as normal network communication during ordinary times, including internet and intranet. Apparently, that's what it's called according to research.

Transportation… I don't need to explain, do I? Oh, car maintenance personnel fall under this category in small scale bases, like battalions.

Geodesy… is the field of measuring the Earth accurately. Soldiers of this field have to accurately determine their position according to the distance they travel and the direction they travel, using a map. And some analog distance-measuring equipment, without the use of a GPS. Yes, this is mostly replaced by electronic equipment which is like a thousand times more accurate than humans, and there is the GPS. But this field still exists in case of EMPs messing with all the equipment. So these guys are practically useless during ordinary times. There's nothing to measure in a time of peace, because you're stationed in one place all the time. Usually, these guys do the various menial work around the base. Like standing sentry, mowing grass, manging warehouses… How do I know this? Because I was one myself :P

According to my knowledge…… there are only two artillery brigades located in Pocheon… and that number 322… If my assumptions are correct, the base that Maru is serving in corresponds to the base that I used to serve as well. My knowledge of the history of my own station corresponds to what is shown in the novel, as well as the equipment and style of training used in it (which will appear later). EVERYTHING sounds SCARILY SIMILAR to my experiences. What a coincidence is that! If the author also based his novel on his own experiences… he might be a distant ancestor in the base I used to serve in. I used to serve in the HQ company too! Though, as I said before, I was assigned to Geodesy, and not Signals.

Also, if you haven't noticed already, Koreans LOVE calling people by their titles.

Editor's Note:

Kinda annoyed that we got 2 long chapters just purely as set up for the new characters meeting Maru, but hopefully it gets better.

Chapter 753
Sequence 1

“Hey, Hyungseok, this guy’s your colleague.”

Hyungseok looked at the man standing in front of the corporal. The first thing he saw was the cap with a flat visor. Under the visor were eyes that awkwardly looked around the room. Hyungseok instantly realized that he was a comrade in the same position as him.

He spent the first day with his breath abated. He couldn’t sleep during the night when a senior told him that he would kill him if he snored. The sudden appearance of a colleague that appeared after the first night was a ray of light to him. The clumsy-looking expression and the eyes that couldn’t stay in one place. Just the fact that there was one more person who hadn’t adjusted to this desolate environment gave him a sense of relief.

“Joonsoo, you came here two days earlier than him, so teach him the basics.”

“Yes, sir!”

His voice was energetic. Hyungseok followed Joonsoo and climbed down to the first floor of the building with his boots. He turned around to the left, went behind the building, and saw some people smoking. A man who was holding a shovel between his arm and his flank while smoking suddenly saluted. Hyungseok looked behind him. There was no way that salute was directed at him, so he wondered if there was a staff behind him.

When he looked behind, he saw no one there. Hyungseok turned his head to the front. The man who saluted giggled as though he found something extremely interesting. Hyungseok thought that the man saluted him to tease him.

“Corporal Park Jinjoo, may we clean our boots here?” asked Joonsoo.

A man was named Jinjoo[1]…… Hyungseok stared at Jinjoo and his group who left after saying that they could before crouching down.

“I thought I didn’t have any colleagues. How fortunate.”

Joonsoo smiled with a big grin. Hyungseok also smiled.

“I came here just yesterday, so I was also worried because I didn’t see any colleagues.”

“In our base, we count colleagues by the month[2], so as long as other people enter by the end of this month, it’ll mean that they’ll be our colleagues as well. For now, you and I are the only colleagues in Signals, but if we expand to other platoons like Geodesy and transport, there’s about 9.”

“There are seven more?”

“Yeah. I’ll introduce them to you later. Even if you’re in different platoons, you can drop the honorifics if they’re colleagues. Also, everything to the left of the administration office is, us, HQ and to the right is Alfa company. People from different companies are practically ahjussi, so you can just call them that. Don’t end up saluting them or something. Right now, you might not be able to differentiate them because you don’t know everyone’s faces, but it should be easy for you to know who belongs where.”

“I see. Oh, I heard yesterday that I must learn who everyone in the company is. Is that true?”

“Yep. You have to learn the faces of all the seniors and know who’s your colleague.”

“How many people are there in our company?”

“Around sixty?”

“When am I going to learn them all?”

“It doesn’t take that long. There’s a guy called Han Maru among our direct seniors, right? He learned them all in just two days.”

Han Maru, this name came up again. Hyungseok heard this name many times yesterday. The thing he heard the most was ‘just do as well as Han Maru’.

“Did this Han Maru do well?”

“You bet. That dude didn’t seem like a new recruit. He seemed like a veteran. Thanks to that, the seniors really like Han Maru even though it’s only been a month since he came here. He’s really good after all.”

While listening, Hyungseok perked his head up and looked around like a meerkat. He knew that they would get in trouble if the seniors found out that they were addressing their senior with something like ‘that dude’ or simply by name.

“Anyway, isn’t the wired comms squad leader kinda shitty?”

“Who’s the wired comms squad leader?”

“The one who’s ridiculously tall. His name is Kim Soonyeol.”

Hyungseok recalled the man who took the wired comms squad to dinner. He remembered how that person bumped his shoulder on his way out. That dude was really cocky.

“He definitely doesn’t have a good first impression.”

“Right? He’s not good. Also, there’s Yang Byungjo! He’s the boss of wireless, and he looks like a frigging toad. You know who I mean, right?”

Hyungseok realized who Joonsoo was referring to as soon as he heard the word ‘toad’. It was the person who chewed the privates and private first classes during roll call. Hyungseok was also very tense back then, so he listened to that person carefully.

“I remember him.”

“Isn’t he really ugly?”

“No, well…”

“Hey, it’s only the two of us here, so there’s no need to hold back. This is just how the military works. When you’re with a colleague, you should be at ease, and in front of seniors, you do what they say. Alright?”

“Is that how it is?”

“That’s right. Also, there’s a really funny guy among the private first classes…”

After that, Joonsoo’s backtalk about the Signals platoon continued for a long time.

* * *

Hyunseok sat down upright in front of the cleaning shed. He had to wear a yellow epaulet for a week, and Han Maru told him that he would be exempt from work and cleaning during that time. He was reading a booklet about basic military rules and information regarding the base, and it soon became 5 p.m. The platoon members who had gone out for base maintenance returned smelling like grass and dirt.

“Man, new guy has it good. He doesn’t even do work.”

“Fuck, I wanna be a private too.”

The seniors who returned to the room all commented. Hyungseok felt like he was in the middle of the arctic. He stood up and thanked them for their work repeatedly.

“Get changed, and let’s get food at half-past five. Also, Hyungseok.”

“Private Lee Hyungseok!”

“Did you watch the house well?”

“Yes!”

“Did you read the things they gave you to read?”

“Yes, I have!”

“Alright, that’s how you’re gonna spend the rest of the week. If you don’t know anything, you can ask the privates and private first classes. Don’t foolishly talk to a corporal.”

“Yes!”

“Nice answer at least. Joochul.”

The man sitting to Hyungseok’s left replied,

“Private first class Lee Joochul!”

“Teach him artillery numbers and the countersign, as well as the army songs. Well then, we should hold an introduction for the new recruit, right?”

An introduction? Hyungseok looked at the members of the platoon chuckling. If it was an introduction, he had one yesterday. He felt uneasy. The eyes of the platoon all looked at him. Those gazes increased his anxiety even further. Come in, said the wireless comms squad leader.

The firmly shut door opened and Joonsoo appeared. Hyungseok wondered if Joonsoo didn’t get an introduction. Just then, Joonsoo rolled forward before standing in front of the wireless comms squad leader. The two were close enough that their breaths would reach each other.

When he witnessed that scene, Hyungseok was reminded of a post that he enjoyed reading from a community for funny stuff. The story was about a super high ranking senior deceiving a new recruit that just got stationed. It only took moments for his predictions to become a reality and for his anxiety to turn into fright.

Joonsoo went behind the squad leader before jumping onto his back.

“Private Lim Joonsoo! I’m a private, so I’m gonna fool around all day!”

Hyungseok was unable to say anything. A corporal walked towards an empty locker and flipped the name tag, which was flipped front-side back before. Sergeant Lim Joonsoo. Joonsoo put on a discharge cap with the visor that had been bent practically into a circle[3].

“Hyungseok, this is the Soonyeol with a terrible personality. He’s the wired comms squad leader. Soonyeol, Hyungseok said that you didn’t leave a good impression.”

“Fuck it. Do you want me to act like how I look?” Soonyeol said while frowning.

“And our cutie Byungjo! Byungjo, Hyungseok said you look like a toad.”

“Is that so? Yoon Hyungseok. I hope you can get along with a toad.”

The conversation that occurred after that did not enter Hyungseok’s ears. His mind was filled with the wish for the apocalypse to come tomorrow.

* * *

“I’ll bring Hyungseok and clean our boots.”

Maru pointed his chin outside. Hyungseok looked at the seniors before picking up his boots and going to the back of the building. Was he going to get scolded? Or maybe even beaten? Today was just the worst. Ever since he realized that he was deceived by a sergeant, he was greeted with displeased gazes from the corporals and sergeants as well as sharp words that pricked him. He couldn’t remember how many times he heard the word ‘brain’ today. He felt like there had to be a substance in the military air that lowered people’s intelligence. Even he could tell that it was a really flawed prank now that he looked back at it, yet he was deceived like a complete fool. He found himself despicable for letting his guard down.

“They didn’t do that out of malicious intent, so don’t let it get you,” Maru said as he scrubbed his boots.

No malicious intent. Hyungseok couldn’t believe that. The entire platoon was filled with people born or created from malicious intent. Everyone was out to get him, so it didn’t make sense that they didn’t do it out of malice.

“You don’t believe me?”

“I-I do!”

“Of course, there are lunatics who are crazy enough to commit murder in this world, so I can’t say that there aren’t any crazy people, but there are rarely any people who truly wish for your doom when you’re supposed to be living with them for the foreseeable future. You might feel like the world is ending and that the seniors are like grim reapers, but that will only last for a brief time. This is a place where people live, not other things. You’re bound to adjust in a few days.”

These were the first affectionate words he heard after entering the Signals platoon. Hyungseok almost opened up his heart but became tense again after remembering what the sergeant did to him.

“That’s it. That’s the attitude. For the time being, you should be nervous and listen carefully when the seniors tell you something. You’ll receive a lot of stress. It’ll be quite hard too. Don’t even start mentioning annoyance. But do it anyway. Do what they tell you to do. If you keep doing the things you’re ordered to do and calmly do them, you can change the traditions you don’t like once you become a senior.”

“Once I become a senior?”

“I’m telling you to do that if you have the will to do so when there are four bricks[4] on your head[5]. Even if you think things are unjust, nothing changes. Why? Because they went through the same thing. All of them got sworn at, so they would hardly want to change that for the better at this point. If you don’t like this treatment and want to treat the new recruits better, then you change it after you become a senior. Sacrifice isn’t something you force others to do; it is something you do yourself.”

Hyungseok nodded subconsciously as he looked at Maru from the side. That was easy to understand. Was it a rumor that the direct senior was the scariest? He got a feeling that this person was kinder than anyone and acted for his junior’s best interests.

“Also, two more things. If you think ‘is it okay to do this?’, then it isn’t. If you think ‘should I do this?’, then you should. You gotta learn to differentiate between these two. Above all, if you think you should be the one to do something, then the first thing you should do is step out. If you get caught by the seniors looking around foolishly at the back, they will start bullying you with real malice. Until you take off the chick epaulet[6], they’ll just be teasing you. That’s how they probe you out: what kind of person is our new recruit? Alright?”

“Yes.”

Hyungseok dusted off the toes of his boots with a brush. This senior was giving him golden advice. He regained his calm and smiled.

“But I’m glad that you’re treating me well, private Han Maru. I thought no one was on my side in this platoon…”

Maru, who was next to him, picked up his boots and stood up. Hyungseok looked up at him.

“Hyungseok, the reason I’m telling you all this is not because I’m kind nor because I’ve taken a liking to you. It’s because if you get chewed by the seniors, I’ll get smashed[7].”

Maru’s eyes turned scary. Hyungseok understood what Maru meant before when he said something about how the seniors held no malice. Those eyes were what malice was.

“If you make a mistake among the things I taught you and you get chewed by the seniors, consequently giving me damage as well, I will take my time to teach you why the military is shitty, why the clock in the ministry of defense turns backwards, and above all, how shitty this guy named Han Maru can act, so I hope you can keep that in mind. Let’s not make mistakes among the things I taught you, alright?”

“Y-yes. I-I will not make a mistake.”

“Alright. I have faith that you will do well, Hyungseok.”

“Yes!”

Hyungseok abruptly stood up with his boots. The chewing from the platoon members was cute in comparison. The demon lord of fear was right next to him. Maru turned around after taking the first step on the staircase and spoke,

“I’m in a terrible psychological state right now because I’ve recently lost the person that was my raison d’être. So I hope we can keep things peaceful. That should be better for you too.”

“I will do my best!”

Hyungseok shouted, raising his chin so that he could see the moon above.

* * *

“Sarge Han left behind such a deep impression when I first talked to him.”

“You think you’re the only one? It was like that for me too.”

“Me too.”

“If I think about it now, Sarge Han was even scarier than four-stars when I was a private.”

“Heck, four-stars are nothing. I mean, we never saw one.”

“Right, but Sarge Han was right next to us.”

Hyungseok trembled as he turned the wheel.

[1] Jinjoo means pearl, and is usually a girl’s name.

[2] In the Korean military, people use honorifics to ‘seniors’ who might even be in the same rank, depending on how ‘colleagues’ are separated. This is different for each base, one base might separate it by the month (like what it’s shown here), but quarterly separation, bi-yearly separation and even yearly separation are possible. In the case of the last one, you’d see your colleague get discharged almost a year ahead of you if you’re unlucky.

[3] Discharge cap: When someone is about to get discharged, a platoon would collect some money and gift that person a ‘discharge gift’, usually a cap (either the cap they were supplied with, or a new one bought from military-related stores) with the names of the members of the platoon (or squad) stitched on it. This ‘tradition’ has mostly discontinued around 2019 as it was considered ‘extortion’.

‘Visor bent into a circle’: Apparently, having the visor ‘bent’ makes you look cooler, but the high-ranking soldiers would obviously disallow low-ranking soldiers like privates from bending their visors to make it look cool (they would think it’s audacious). This is why there is a mention of Joonsoo having a ‘perfectly flat visor’ on his cap at the beginning of the chapter. Again, this was discontinued when the military uniform changed and the cap was changed into a beret. The beret was again replaced in favor of caps completely in late 2020, because berets weren’t suited for work.

[4] Soldier rank insignia: private[-], private first class [=], corporal [≡], and sergeant [≣]. Maru is referring to the straight line as ‘bricks’.

[5] The ranks were velcroed on the cap so that it makes switching the insignia upon promotion easier.

[6] New recruits with yellow epaulets were called ‘chicks’ because of the color, and their position.

[7] ‘Direct seniors’ are practically responsible for their direct juniors, including their education and attitude. If the direct junior does something wrong, the direct senior will be held responsible for not having taught the junior properly.

KTLChamber's Thoughts

Author's notes

I've only loved and endared my juniors and only heard those things through rumors. I mean, how could you do something like that because a new private just joined?

Right?

__________

"I’m in a terrible psychological state right now because I’ve recently lost the person that was my raison d’être"

(ᕵ﹏ᕴ)

Editor's Note:

Man, I know I was part of #teambreakup but I didn't expect it to hit this hard.

Chapter 754
Sequence 1

“The guy who said he’ll come soon is always the latest.”

“Hey, this isn’t the first time Youngjin was late. He’s the dude who overslept on the day of his enlistment.”

“When I think about how we got chewed the next day because of that guy, I still grit my teeth. That was the first time I couldn’t wake someone up by shaking him.”

“If Youngjin had a terrible personality, I would not have befriended him. But he’s a good guy.”

“Yeah. He got up quite quickly once he got smashed once, so there were no problems after that.”

Listening to Beomsoo and Gitae’s words, Hyungseok felt like he had returned to when he was a private. It had already been a year since he got discharged, but his memories were still vivid. Although he could laugh and chat about it because memories are bound to be beautified, he couldn’t have been more scared back then.

“But hey, we managed to get through the private period without accidents, right?” Hyungseok said as he put down his smartphone.

Gitae, who was in the passenger seat, agreed and smiled in relief.

“It’s because Sarge Han covered us a lot, but we were pretty decent as well. Us July recruits were all quite good.”

“There you go again, beautifying your memories. Don’t you remember how you got your ass chewed because you couldn’t memorize artillery numbers or the wireless communication jargon? You had to keep memorizing them in the corner until the evening roll call.”

“Then what about you? You got a barrage of insults because you couldn’t memorize the military songs.”

Gitae and Beomsoo still nitpicked each other.

“How can you not have changed after a year? Idiots,” Hyungseok said.

As soon as he said those words, Gitae and Beomsoo kindly replied at the same time with ‘bullshit’.

“Hey, since we’re all inside a car like this, doesn’t it remind you of when we were in the Signals box truck?”

“Right. The four of us often ate boiled ramyun[1] together.”

“Do you remember when we first became private first classes? We went to the PX for the first time by ourselves to buy some ramyun and then ate it next to the box truck.”

“That was awesome.”

Hyungseok remembered back to that day.

“It was Sarge Han who treated us that day, wasn’t it?”

* * *

The Signals box truck was the resting place of the Signals platoon as well as a symbol of seniority. Privates couldn’t come anywhere near the box truck unless they were doing their duty or it was during a training mission. The only thing Hyungseok and his colleagues could do was glance at their seniors slowly walking over towards the box truck with boiled ramyun in their hands.

“We finally get to come here.”

Hyungseok put down the lot of frozen food he bought in front of the box truck. Until just last week, he and his colleagues weren’t able to use the PX as they were merely privates[2]. If they wanted to go, they would only be able to do so in company with a private first class or when they went as a platoon. When he first heard of the rule that privates weren’t able to use the PX by themselves, he gritted his teeth at the unfairness of the military, but it didn’t feel like anything now. It was because he had become a first private class and also because he got used to the unfairness. He experienced for himself how foolish it was to look for fairness and justice in the military. The only law in the military was time, aka seniority.

“Good work doing nocturnal specialties last night,” Maru said, appearing last with a bag full of food.

“It was you who did all the work, private first class Han Maru. Give those to me.”

His colleagues, Gitae, Beomsoo, and Youngjin received the plastic bag from Maru. Hyungseok lowered the foothold that was used to get in the box truck and put the food they bought from the PX in it. Hyungseok finally felt that the fact that he had become a private first class had sunk in when he could eat in an open space like this and not at the PX, where all the seniors would be giving him unpleasant stares.

“It’s pretty cold out here.”

“I told you we should eat at the PX.”

“But we became private first classes, so we should visit the box truck at least once. Private first class Han Maru, thank you for the food.”

“Yeah, go on and eat. You guys are gonna have to use a lot of energy from now on. I was always frustrated that I was the only private first class because of the shitty assignment, so I’m expecting a lot from you.”

“I’m good at using the shovel, y’know?”

Hyungseok ate some steaming ramyun while giggling. It was as tasty as the ramyun he ate after his night shift. He recalled what Maru said before: you can only endure the military because you get access to more and more as you spend more time. It couldn’t be more true.

“Private first class Han Maru,” said Beomsoo, who opened a drink and handed it over to Maru.

“What?”

“What did you do outside?”

“I’m curious about that too,” Hyungseok interrupted.

While they spent the past 6 months together, he didn’t know anything much about Maru. When he was a new recruit, he didn’t dare to even talk to him because Maru engraved his presence as the scariest senior, and ever since he adapted, he didn’t have the time to ask what Maru did in society as he was so busy with military work. If they were assigned to shifts together, they would be able to talk to each other about a lot of things for two hours, but privates and private first classes were never assigned to shifts together. Not only that, Maru was always called out to various places, so they rarely got a chance to talk to him. Maru was the same age as him, but he felt so distant.

“I did plays.”

“Plays, you say?”

That was an answer he didn’t expect. Hyungseok’s colleagues were all college students. In the Signals platoon, there was no one other than Hyungseok who wasn’t a college student. He naturally assumed that Maru was a college student as well, but it turned out that he did plays.

“Were you famous?” Gitae asked.

Maru had a faint smile that was not so much like a smile.

“I guess?”

Hyungseok had never watched a play in his entire life, but he knew through the media how hard a play actor’s life was. They would be fortunate if they received any pay, and he heard that most of them did part-time jobs to continue their passion. Was it because he lived a hard life that he didn’t make mistakes when talking to other people and was good at everything despite them being the same age?

“Hyungseok, you said that you sold clothes, right?”

“Yes. I thought that I should jump into society early rather than rot in college for four years, so I started a business with a friend of mine.”

“Did it go well?”

“I would say yes. My friend is still running it.”

“You set on a nice path. Earning money quickly is good. The rest of you said that you were in college right? Now that you’re private first class, you can get a light extension[3] with permission from the squad leader to study, so you should do some studying before your brain solidifies. If you don’t do anything for two years, you will really brick your brains.”

Hyungseok’s colleagues all nodded. If that was from the other seniors who could only yap about without doing anything, they would only pretend to listen and ignore it entirely, but Maru had earned their faith, so they all seemed to engrave it into their minds.

Just then, Youngjin, who was watching Maru quietly from the side, spoke,

“Private first class Han Maru, did you appear on TV before?”

“Why do you ask?”

“N-nothing. I must have been mistaken.”

“Don’t wimp. I did.”

Youngjin’s expression brightened.

“It was on a late-night drama on YBS, right?”

“Yeah, it was.”

“I knew it. I thought of that as soon as you said you did acting. My sister really liked that drama.”

“So it’s almost been three years since I shot that drama.”

Hyungseok looked at Maru’s face. He thought that Maru was an actor who only acted on a small stage, but he turned out to be someone who showed his face on public TV.

“Private first class Han Maru, may I ask you a question?” Gitae asked while picking up his chopsticks.

Hyungseok felt uneasy. Gitae was a good fellow who he would love to befriend if they were outside, but there were times when he wanted to give him a solid smack. Hyungseok always watched his mouth because whenever he asked a question that got on the nerves of the seniors, he was scolded as well for being a colleague. He was going to kick his calf to stop him from speaking if he was going to say something weird.

“Gitae, I said this before, but if you just watch your mouth, you wouldn’t need to worry about getting chewed on until you become a corporal,” Maru said first.

Gitae flinched and put his hand down.

“Since you’re at it, let me hear it.”

“Are you not going to chew me for it?”

“Punk, fine. I won’t chew you for it.”

“…Why did you switch to plays when you were on TV? Aren’t plays crappier?”

“Crappier, huh. Well, I guess ordinary people would normally think that. Anyway, hey, watch your choice of words. What the heck is ‘crappier’? You’re gonna get killed by corporal Choi Taejin.”

“I’ll fix it.”

Maru sipped some of the drink in his hand before speaking,

“The drama did well. It got good viewing rates. It was only four episodes long, but we held a celebration because the last episode got 7%.”

“It’s good considering it’s a late-night series. Also, that result was achieved with practically nameless actors. I did interviews and I was given offers to play child roles in other mini-series. I think they were Iron era and Flaming lady.”

“Weren’t both of those dramas huge hits?” Hyungseok asked.

He didn’t watch those dramas since he was busy setting up his business two years ago, but he did hear the news that they were hugely popular. He heard that women in their twenties couldn’t start a conversation without watching Flaming lady.

“Did you appear in those as well?”

“No, I refused.”

“Why did you?” Gitae asked in a nitpicking tone.

When Maru gave him a stare, he shrank back like a scolded dog.

“Gitae, you should really fix that habit of yours.”

“Yes, I’m sorry.”

“It’s fine if you do that while you’re with me, but don’t do that in front of the seniors. You are private first classes now, so you’ll get chewed really hard. Also, I refused back then because I didn’t have any energy to concentrate on something. I was facing a really important decision in life; I was hung up on that.”

“And what was that?” Gitae asked carefully.

That night, Hyungseok saw Maru smiling bitterly for the first time. The senior who always answered everything perfectly like an encyclopedia gazed at a distant mountain for the first time. If he couldn’t talk to Maru usually because he was frightening when he pointed out mistakes, he couldn’t talk to the current Maru because he looked like he carried all the burdens of the world. He could feel that the weight on Maru’s shoulders was definitely not something that could be shared.

“Giving up on a person,” Maru said after a long time.

“Giving up on a person?”

Hyungseok subconsciously questioned back, but the question just dissipated into the air in vain. Maru only faintly smiled. It was his way of expressing that he wasn’t going to reply. After that, they talked about other things and Maru’s silence thinned out, but Hyungseok couldn’t forget Maru’s face that had a sad smile on while talking about giving up.

After they ate, they put all the trash into plastic bags. His colleagues went back to the barracks first with the trash. Hyungseok checked one last time if there was any trash that they missed. If the box truck was dirty, the seniors would nag them during the evening roll call.

When he stood upright, he saw Maru with a cigarette in his mouth as he sat down on the box truck. Hyungseok was puzzled. Maru never smoked. He was the type of guy who would give the cigarettes he was given to others.

“Do you want me to light you up?” Hyungseok asked as he took out a lighter from his pocket.

“No, I’m not gonna smoke. I used to smoke like mad before, but I didn’t smoke once this time. Since I’m maintaining a streak, I might as well do it until the end.”

His words sounded quite strange. The ‘before’ and ‘this time’ he used were used quite awkwardly. Was he so deeply worried about something that he couldn’t speak properly?

“If meeting has a high probability of causing a problem, it should be better not to meet, right? For both my and that person’s sake.”

Maru’s words sounded like he needed an answer. Hyungseok couldn’t do anything but keep blinking. He couldn’t follow the conversation at all. However, Maru seemed to dearly wish for an answer, yet also want to deny the question at the same time. A detached smile hung on Maru’s face as though he wanted to quit everything like he was at the end of his life. Not that he had ever seen such a person.

“Are you okay?” Hyungseok asked.

“No, I’m not,” Maru replied.

Yet, the smile was still on his face.

* * *

“You should really show up on time,” Hyungseok said to Youngjin, who got in the back seat.

Youngjin, who had his hair dyed purple, made a foolish smile. That smile looked just like the smile he showed when he did his discharge ceremony a year ago.

“Where’s Maru-hyung?” Youngjin asked.

“We’re gonna have to meet him now. Hey, Gitae, get in the back seat.”

“Right, I can’t let Sarge Han get in a cramped space like that.”

Gitae got out from the passenger seat and got in the back seat.

“Well then, let us four stinky men go to Daehak-ro together.”

Hyungseok stepped on the gas pedal.

[1] Hot water poured into ramyun in its packaging. Not cup noodles.

[2] The PX is actually open to all soldiers, including privates, but the seniors would forbid them from going because it’s too ‘audacious’ of them. This tradition has mostly been abandoned

[3] The sleeping schedule in the military starts at 10, but people who request a ‘light extension’ can get an extra hour or two of non-sleep for the sake of studying.

KTLChamber's Thoughts

I told you… feels… the feels…… The FEELS…… THE FEEEEEEEEEEEELSSSSSSSS!

Editor's Note:

Ladies and gentlemen, I think we are going to be in for a roller coaster of emotion.

Chapter 755
Sequence 1

“New guy, watch him well. There’s no one in the battalion, heck, the entire brigade who can install a 992[1] faster than him,” Hyungseok said to the private who had been here for less than a week.

The way the new recruit sat upright so tensely and had a nervous expression reminded him of when he was a private, making him laugh.

“Corporal Yoon Hyungseok, we got mastar[2].”

“Aren’t there any other flavors?”

“Corporal Park Taein told me that this was it.”

“Damn the Supply department. I know there’s more in the warehouse. Anyway, thanks.”

The private first class holding a box of canned drinks walked over to the other platoon members. Hyungseok gave his drink to the private next to him.

“You can have it.”

“Thank you.”

He saw the private holding still while grabbing the can with both hands. This guy had just adapted to the air in the base, so he should be acting carefully about everything he did. As Hyungseok had to sleep while wearing a gas mask after coughing once, Hyungseok could understand how he felt. The military drove people to become introverted, passive, and inefficient fast. The reason why the higher-ranking soldiers looked slow was not because they had become lazy but because they were enlightened on the aesthetics of efficiency.

“Did they begin?” Youngjin asked as he undid the belt on his military gear.

Hyungseok shook his head and looked forward. On the drill grounds were various military supplies from various battalions. Centered around the TPQ-37 radar, which looked like it wouldn’t have a dent even if a bus crashed into it at 140km per hour, there was various communications equipment, and next to it were bags containing the building set for the 992 mast antenna. Next to those bags were people representing the Signals platoon from each battalion, waiting for the start sign while exercising.

“Do you think anyone can win against Corporal Han?”

“A dude from Charlie said they got a devil at installing 992s.”

“A devil? Can a devil win against corporal Han?”

“I wouldn’t know.”

“What became of the bet? I was planning to bet some as well.”

Hyungseok took out a military notepad. It was one of the basic supplies, but no one actually used it. Hyungseok used it as a betting ledger.

“All the ahjussi from alfa bet on corporal Han. Hey, does this bet have any meaning?”

Hyungseok slid his finger down the ledger. It looked like people would win about 100 won if Han Maru won. He would usually take a portion of the wins as a tip, but it looked like he wouldn’t be able to do that with this bet.

“It ain’t looking good.”

Hyungseok put the notepad inside his pocket.

Today was the second day of the brigade’s field tactical training. While it might sound grand at a glance, it was no different from ordinary specialty training. If there was one difference, it was that there was a match of specialties against other battalions within the brigade. Transport versus transport, administration versus administration, geodesy versus geodesy. Even soldiers who were unenthusiastic about training fired themselves up when they were up against other battalions.

Signals was no different. Not only that, it wasn’t just their pride on the line today.

“Corporal Han, we believe in you. Please bestow us with pork belly,” Gitae said as he came back after finishing his shift. The task the signals competitors were given was to install a 10-meter tall giant antenna alone. It wasn’t just the soldiers that made a bet on this match. Hyungseok gained intel that the signals officers from the battalions and the brigade had bet money on this. The platoon that won would have a barbecue party.

“New guy. You haven’t tried installing a 992 yet, have you?”

“Private Kim Dohoon! No, I have not!”

“That tall thing over there is a 992. Do you think you can put that up by yourself?”

“I-I don’t think I can.”

“Punk. You’re supposed to answer ‘yes I can’ at a time like this, okay?”

“Yes, corporal!”

“There will come a time when you have to install it by yourself later anyway. Watch how corporal Han does today and learn. He’ll show you what it means to be a god at your specialty,” Hyungseok said as he looked at the 992 antenna that they installed last night.

The antenna, which had six metal pikes extruding in different directions at the top like lightning rods, was taller than a person when standing upright, and the support pillar, more commonly known as the mast, was taller than an ordinary tree. When it stood upright, it was like a palm tree with all of its leaves stripped, and since there was no way such a tall structure could stand by itself, the building kit included robes and pegs to fix it in place so that it didn’t fall down in the wind.

The representatives of each battalion, standing in a line on the drill grounds, were tasked with carrying, unpacking, and installing all the equipment, which weighed several dozen kilograms in total. It was fortunate that it was summer since there were no difficulties with anchoring pegs into the ground as the ground wasn’t frozen. Anchoring large stake-like pegs into the ground in the middle of winter was an excruciating thing.

“It’s beginning,” Youngjin said.

The officer with a stopwatch stood in front of the signals soldiers and shouted ‘ready’. The soldiers got ready to rush forward. At the start signal, people carried their 992 building kits to their designated locations.

“That’s right!”

The first one to arrive at his designated location with the equipment was Maru. He opened the kit bag and started throwing the installation materials inside to various places. He placed the pegs, the ropes, and even the base of the antenna in their precise locations before picking up a hammer. The hammer landed precisely on top of the peg that he had fixed in place with his boots. He was doing that while the signals soldiers from other battalions were still organizing their kits.

“I still don’t understand. How is corporal Han so strong?”

“I don’t know. You saw him last time, right? When he climbed a frigging mountain with two generators in each hand while carrying a roll of cables on his back. Back then, I almost called corporal Han Maru God. How many kilograms is that? The generators were full of oil too.”

“It was the peak during base maintenance. While we were struggling to carry one sandbag, he was carrying two on each shoulder.”

“He isn’t human. He doesn’t look that bulky compared to me.”

“I heard he did some boxing. Do you think it’s because of that?”

“It’s not that. It’s because his bones are thick. He was born with a worker’s body. That’s not something working out can get you.”

While he was talking to his colleagues, Maru had fixed the antenna support on the ground and was starting to pull the mast up. It was telescopically structured so that it could be pulled out like radio antennas. The difference was that unlike radio antennas, which were pulled out from the tip, it was pushed up from the bottom. Hyungseok clicked his tongue as he looked at the mast that practically sprouted into the air. Although the 992 antenna was something that people could install alone with some proficiency, not anyone could raise one that quickly. The people from other battalions started murmuring. There were people who were just starting to connect the antenna rods together, but Maru had already installed the antennas on the mast and was raising it up.

“What the hell is he?”

“I’m sure he must have greased the mast at least. How is it possible to raise it so smoothly?”

He could understand the feelings of the signals soldier from the neighboring battalion. Hyungseok also felt the same when he saw Maru installing an antenna for the first time; is he freaking human?

While others were busy raising the masts, Maru finished up his cable management. He gathered the scattered tools into one neat pile and shouted ‘finished’. The signals soldiers from other battalions looked pitiful as they were installing their antennas.

“We’re gonna get pork belly once we finish the training exercise,” Hyungseok said as he clenched his fist.

* * *

“Did anyone manage to break Sarge Han’s record?” Hyungseok asked as he stopped the car.

Gitae, who was on his smartphone at the back, shook his head.

“Not a single one. Whether it’s 992, RLI[3], or even making a trip with a reel of cables, there’s no one who broke his records.”

“Sarge Han should have gotten into sports, not acting. If he was in Taeneung[4] right now, I’m sure he must have won a medal in the Olympics by now.”

“Yeah, that’s for sure.”

Hyungseok was reminded of when Maru leisurely hammered anchor pegs into the frozen ground during sub-zero training. Maru managed to anchor a peg into the ground with two or three hits of the hammer while three private first classes couldn’t anchor one. That matter became a legend among the platoon for a while.

“Thinking about it now, Sarge Han was way too good.”

“Yeah, he was way too good. If he actually stayed in the military, he might have become a warrant officer as a technician quickly.”

“He would have done well regardless of what he did. Even the staff listened to him.”

“He was the first sergeant’s man.”

“The first sergeant always asked ‘hey, where’s Han Maru?’ whenever it was maintenance season.”

Han Maru was always called out by the first sergeant when he became a corporal. People jokingly said that the HQ company’s work would come to a halt without Han Maru.

“He said he only did acting outside, so how’s he so good at work? It’s still a mystery to me.”

“Me too. People might think of him as a master of manual labor. The matters we took a couple of hours to finish with Sarge Han took more than an entire day with others.”

“His proficiency with his specialty is one thing, but he was truly a god of work.”

God of work, that was one of Maru’s nicknames.

“Do you think the pet house we made is still there?”

“It should be if no one tore it down.”

Hyungseok recalled the two cats that had become fat like pigs. Just then, the smartphone on his thigh started ringing. The caller was someone he had been waiting for.

“Sarge Han, where are you? We’re in Daehak-ro right now.”

-Sorry about that. There was a change of order in the events.

“What do you mean by that?”

-I need to do my play now.

“What? Is this how you’re treating us even though it’s been a year?”

-I’m not saying that I won’t meet you. I’m saying that you’ll have to wait about an hour. You can go look around Daehak-ro or something. There should be many people doing street performances since the weather is good, so there should be nothing better than those to kill time.

“You want four stinky men to walk around Daehak-ro on a Saturday afternoon? Are you picking a fight with me?”

-Go to a PC-bang or something then. I’ll go pick you up once I’m done.

“Why would we go to the PC-bang?”

When Hyungseok grumbled, Gitae, who was sitting in the back, asked,

“What is it?”

“Han Maru, this guy, is going to start his play right now.”

“Hand it to me for a sec.”

He gave the phone over to Gitae.

“Yes, hyung, it’s me, Gitae. Are you doing your play right now? Then we’ll go watch you. Where is it? Do we need to buy the tickets there? Oh, you’re going to tell them for us? Okay.”

After replying with a few yeses, Gitae hung up.

“You want us to watch a play?” Hyungseok said as he got his phone back.

“I’ve never watched one before. Also, I want to know what kind of play Sarge Han does. And hey, Hyungseok, didn’t you say you were preparing to be an actor? It’s good to watch things like this.”

“Hey, do you think an actor for a play is the same as an actor for a film? They’re completely different.”

“Your words sound like you’re a bigshot actor when you aren’t. Shut up and let’s get off. I know the location now, so we should just go there.”

Beomsoo, who had been listening this whole time, spoke as well,

“Goddammit. Four stinky men are going to watch another stinky man. And a play at that too. What a time we live in.”

“My words exactly.”

Hyungseok got out of the car while laughing in vain. Han Maru’s acting, huh. Now that he heard about it, he did feel a little curious. As someone who also wished to become an actor, it shouldn’t be that bad to watch a senior’s acting.

“Let’s go boys,” he said as he took the lead.

[1] AS-992K. Mast antenna for long-range communication. Frequently used in training.

[2] A brand of canned fruit drinks supplied to the South Korean military.

[3] A radar dish antenna for wireless communication. Not sure what it stands for.

[4] Taeneung has a large sports complex for Olympic athletes.

KTLChamber's Thoughts

Nothing to comment in this chapter

Editor's Note:

Just let us get to the meeting already.

Chapter 756
Sequence 1

“He said it was at the Arts Theater in front of Hyehwa station’s fourth exit, so…”

Hyunseok’s sentence trailed off as he looked at the building in front of him. Scaffolding that was usually seen in construction zones surrounded the entire building.

“What the heck? Why is there a bunch of scaffolding here?” Beomsoo said.

Hyungseok looked it up on the internet.

“Apparently, it’s a design choice.”

The internet kindly explained that it was designed that way and that it wasn’t actually under maintenance or anything. Hyungseok tilted his head and looked at the building. The design was something he couldn’t understand with his sense of aesthetics.

“Are you sure they just couldn’t be bothered to take them down after they were done?”

“There’s no way that’s true, no matter how sloppy they are. It should be some weird aesthetic sense that we don’t know of. Let’s go inside for now.”

Unlike the exterior, which was considered ugly by Hyungseok’s standards, the interior was neat. To the left was a café decorated with black walls. The ceiling tiles were taken out, revealing the pipes and electrical lines inside, giving a cold yet simplistic image. Inside were people in their 20s and 30s who enjoyed art, sitting with coffee in their hands. On top of their tables were theater tickets. There was a sign that said that there was a discount on coffee for people showing their tickets.

“This is not the kind of place I thought it would be,” Youngjin said.

“What kind of place did you imagine?”

“I watched a play in a theater with my girlfriend not too long ago, and that place was really cramped. The chairs were all squished together, and it looked like it couldn’t even hold 100 people, but this place is huge. My girlfriend said that the theaters in Daehak-ro are all small, so I thought the place Maru-hyung would be performing at would be small as well.”

After looking around the café, they walked to the customer service center. The tickets were sold there as well.

“Hey, why are there so many girls?”

“I wouldn’t know.”

Hyungseok looked at the ladies who were walking around or sitting on the red metal chairs in pairs. They were holding coffee in one hand and a pamphlet in the other and were checking the time expectantly. Couples could be spotted occasionally as well, but the number was small.

“I think we’re the only men-men group.”

“You mean men-men-men-men group. It’s a hell party.”

“I’m ashamed, so let’s sit apart.”

“That’s what I wanted to say.”

Although they said those words, they all sat next to each other. Hyungseok could feel his heels lifting. He could see more than a hundred people walking past the information desk at a glance. From the time, it seemed like the people waiting in the lobby right now had all bought theater tickets for the play that was going to be held in the 3rd floor large theater. That theater was a large one with more than 500 seats. There were many people in the audience, and Han Maru would be performing in front of them. Even though he wasn’t related to this play at all, he could feel himself getting fired up.

“It looks like Maru-hyung is doing well, right?”

“Just look at the size of this building. Do you think they would let anyone perform here?”

“Man, the rental fees must be expensive.”

His colleagues all commented.

“So Sarge Han was serious when he said that before?” Hyungseok uttered.

His colleagues asked what he meant, puzzled.

“During our last tactical training.”

* * *

“It’s freezing,” Hyungseok said as he opened the cargo of the box truck.

It was April. While it might be Spring outside, here in Pochen, it was still snowing. Although hints of greenery could be glimpsed from time to time, the overwhelming majority was still hidden by white. Hyungseok was even a little worried that it might start snowing.

He blew warm air into his hands and looked down the hill. The observation battalion set up camp in the clearing halfway up the mountain. The military green-colored tent installed on top of the white snowy plains seemed like a blemish on a white paper. It was even more eye-catching due to the meaningless camo sheets. They were practically advertising that their forces were right there.

Until just last year, the battalion tactical training was just training for show. They would roughly camouflage themselves, roughly check the equipment, and roughly make rounds around their barracks before roughly returning. The change of such training to an ‘FM[1]’ training that even involved the communications vehicle was thanks to the new battalion commander’s ambitions. Hyungseok couldn’t care about ‘strong army’ or whatnot, but the commander, who wanted to spread his wings of promotion, was like a disaster to the soldiers below him.

“Let’s just put up the antenna quickly and communicate. You’ll only be able to get some rest that way. If we stay here, we’re all gonna freeze to death. Hey, Cheonsoo.”

“Private first class Kim Cheonsoo!”

“Watch out when you install the antenna and call me when you feel strange. Okay? Don’t break a peg or something while trying to show off your strength.”

“Yes!”

Hyungseok watched the junior installing the antenna. The junior looked pretty decent when he swung his hammer while panting. The appearance of a reliable junior was a blessing.

“Sergeant Yoon Hyungseok! Do we raise the mast all the way up?”

“No! Don’t raise the last bit. We already talked to the guys from Alfa, so you just have to line it up properly. You guys, look at this rock over here. If we install a 992 right next to this place, we’ll get a signal, so remember it and install it here next year as well. Of course, I won’t be here since I would be discharged. You guys are gonna be in trouble if you don’t remember.”

After checking that the antenna was installed stably, Hyungseok entered the box truck in order to communicate with the Alfa company. Inside the cramped box truck were four sergeants curled up into balls like puppies shivering in the cold.

“Sarge Han, you should just go to the staff tent. I’m sure you can have it easy since you’re being doted on by the first sergeant.”

“I saw him with the supply officer. It’s obvious that they would nag me to play chess with them. Why would I go?”

“You should. What are you doing in the box truck when you’re supposed to be leaving for your final vacation soon? This vehicle is designed for only four people. You should be considerate of your juniors.”

“Should I tell the company commander that the sergeants are all holed up in here?” Maru said, picking up his helmet.

Hyungseok quickly grabbed Maru’s arm.

“Sarge, you must be joking. Why don’t you sit back down?”

“Dammit, it’s so lonely not having any colleagues. My juniors are trying to one-up me now that they became sergeants. You guys forgot the things I did for you when you were privates, didn’t you? This must be why people must watch out for people.”

Hearing Maru grumble, Gitae quickly opened a hot pack and stuffed it into Maru’s pocket.

“You know how much we cherish you, hyung. Don’t do that. Take this and let it go.”

“I’m not someone who moves on bribery.”

“There you go again. Sarge Han, we aren’t strangers, are we?”

Beomsoo and Youngjin also shook some hot packs and stuffed them into Maru’s pocket. Maru smiled, as though he had no choice.

“No one’s sick, right?” Maru asked.

Hyungseok replied while undoing his simplified military vest.

“Yes. The prick that retired halfway through the march came back from the medical tent, and he looks okay now. Damn that guy. He was clearly trying to ditch training.”

“You should probe him out before you chew him. It’s really frustrating if you get chewed when you’re actually hurt.”

“I told Sunghyuk that already. The ones in power should be the ones to uphold discipline. I mean, I’m past that stage now, aren’t I?”

“At times like this, I sometimes think that the clock at the ministry of defense is actually ticking properly. I mean, Hyungseok, you’re already a sergeant. The same goes for the rest of you as well,” Maru said, pointing at the sergeant insignia on their chest pocket.

Hyungseok tapped on his own shoulder.

“And I got this as a bonus as well. Honestly speaking, you should’ve been the squad leader. Everyone follows you more as well.”

“Forget it. I received enough vacations as it is. Also, squad leaders are best avoided. Thanks to that, I reached the end of my service period in peace.”

“Yes. That’s why I got the green epaulet[2] as your junior. So that you can have it easy.”

“You get one extra vacation day for that, so deal with it.”

“It’s so hard these days because the new guys that join are all idiots. One day isn’t enough.”

“Think back to when you just joined.”

“Stop talking about old times. It’s making me feel embarrassed.”

Hyungseok grabbed the walkie-talkie.

“One-two-three-four-five-six-seven-eight-nine-zero. Anyone waiting on this network? This is dude next door. How is the reception?”

-Reception 33, good.

“Roger that. Over and out.”

After checking communication, he put down the walkie-talkie. Hyungseok looked at Maru, who had his legs stretched out and resting on the wireless communication device.

“It’s so weird. Sarge Han is going on his last vacation.”

“You guys are bound to go as well. We’re only a month apart, so it won’t even take that long.”

“How many days is Sarge Han going? Didn’t he get a lot of extra vacation?”

“I think he did.”

“From what I know, he got one from haircutting, posters, one-liners[3]…”

Hyungseok sighed while trying to count the number of days Maru was leaving as his final vacation. The other sergeants barely accumulated one month of holiday by including their corporal regular vacations, while Maru was getting over a month on his last leave based on extra holidays alone. While the staff members gave him a lot as well, it was still incredible for him to get all those vacation days. It wasn’t that Hyungseok was dissatisfied. In fact, he thought that Maru deserved more.

“It’s gonna be quite empty once Sarge Han leaves,” Gitae said.

Gitae was strictly scolded by Maru when he was a new recruit because of his mistakes, but after that, he became very close to Maru. Their other colleagues should all be the same. He was their direct senior, but he acted like their friend at times and like a father at others.

Hyungseok took out a sausage from his magazine pouch and put it in his mouth.

“Uhm, Sarge Han. Keep talking about the story from yesterday. Did you break up with your girlfriend?” Gitae asked.

They were talking just between sergeants yesterday, and Maru’s history came up. Maru usually didn’t talk about his own stories, but he talked about it yesterday. Perhaps his worries had been resolved, or perhaps he had become emotional because he was approaching his last leave. While they didn’t get to hear anything in detail, they heard that Maru chose to come to the military to physically distance himself from the girl he loved.

“You don’t have to tell the other person that you should break up to break up. It just disappears naturally with the flow of time.”

“It looks to me like you’re still in love with her. Why are you trying to break up?”

“Well, I don’t know the reason either anymore. It’s just, I can be sure that this state is better for both me and her. From the way nothing has happened yet, I mean.”

“Sarge Han, you’re so clear cut when it comes to other things, but you’re so vague when it comes to things like this.”

“Don’t pry too much. You’re gonna get punished if you hurt a guy before his last leave.”

Gitae said okay and closed his eyes. The transmission device turned on, and a slight hiss filled the silence. Hyungseok gulped down the sausage in his mouth.

“Sarge Han. What are you going to do once you leave? Are you going to keep doing those plays?”

“Plays? Yeah. I will. I don’t have anything to distract me for the time being, so that’s the only place I could consume my energy.”

“I hope it goes well. Call me if you have it hard. I can give you food and a place to sleep.”

Maru flattened his cap and put it on top of his eyes. The visor blocked his face, but his lips could be seen. His lips were raised upwards.

“I may look like this, but I’m actually blessed by god. In a year, I should have settled down and become quite famous.”

“Isn’t your dream a little too big?”

“If you still remember me after a year, you can see how I’m doing then.”

“I’ve never seen people do well after making guarantees so easily, but I think you should be able to do it, Sarge Han. Alright, I’ll see you a year after getting discharged. If you’re doing really well like you say you will, you treat me, but otherwise, I’ll treat you.”

Hearing that, his colleagues all chimed in.

“Let me in as well.”

“Isn’t a year too fast? Sarge Han, are you sure about this?”

“Yeah. A year is pretty short, you know?”

As soon as they said those words, Maru lifted his cap a little. His slightly narrow eyes were smiling.

“Just think of what you want to eat.”

* * *

“Ribeye beef steak[4],” Hyungseok said.

Next to him, his colleagues all nodded at once. Looking down from the 2nd floor, the theater was larger than an ordinary cinema theater. The audience seats were all filled as well. Sarge Han was acting in front of all these people?

Hyungseok looked at the audience who was waiting excitedly.

[1] Stands for field manual. Here, it means that they’re following every single training instruction without ‘roughly’ doing things.

[2] Signifies squad leader. Squad leaders get an extra day of vacation depending on how long they serve as one. This is different according to each base though.

[3] The military gives the soldiers extra days of vacation on top of the regular vacations upon promotion, for doing various tasks or winning various competitions. Hair cutting is one of the tasks, while posters and one-liners are competitions. The one-liners are basically statements (usually related to cyber security) which is picked every month and distributed to all the bases in the country

[4] One of the most expensive foods people tend to think of that’s not too overboard.

KTLChamber's Thoughts

Translation is too much work these days…

An hour of work magically doubles

Editor's Note:

Looks like Maru is still famous. I'm so excited to see Maru again.

Chapter 757
Sequence 1

Before the lights even illuminated the darkened stage, sounds could be heard first. Hyungseok felt like he was in the middle of a pedestrian crossing as car horns could be heard from time to time. The lights only turned on after the sounds settled down.

Two tables were placed on either side of the stage. There was a slightly raised stage at the back where another table was, and on each side of that were sliding doors. There was red cloth on the ceiling, and golden threads were embroidered on it like a rainbow. On the sidewall was a store sign that said ‘Azure Dragon Pavilion’, and below that was the menu. Jjajang-myeon, Jjam-ppong, tangsuyuk, kkanpunggi, etc[1].

Just as he was starting to feel puzzled by how there was no one on the desolate stage, the sound of the roller shutter rolling up could be heard. It was followed by the sound of lights being switched on. The lights on the stage then turned on, dyeing the stage red.

“Geez, those cars are so damn loud.”

A man wearing white chef clothing appeared from the side. Hyungseok smiled. The one who was staring towards the front while fixing his chef hat was none other than Maru.

“It won’t show, will it?”

Maru peeked outside through the invisible door. People’s murmurs could be heard from the speakers. After looking around outside while groaning a little, Maru dusted his chef clothes and left through the exit on the right. There was a sign that said ‘kitchen’.

“Owner, I’m here.”

A woman wearing a deep orange Chinese dress appeared on stage. Maru peeked out from the kitchen and told her to get ready. While the waitress was cleaning the tables, the bell chimed.

“Welcome to Azure Dragon Pavilion. Please, allow me to guide you.”

Two guests sat at the table on the left. They were holding large sports duffel bags. When the waitress gave them an order sheet and turned around, the two men started looking around in unease. The stage darkened, and the table the two men were sitting at was given the highlight.

“Hey, you really wanna rob this place?”

“Didn’t you hear? The owner of this place has bars of gold inside the kitchen.”

“Bars of gold? Are you serious?”

“Yes, I am serious. There’s a bunch of gold in a safe that’s as large as this bag.”

“But that’s just a rumor.”

“It’s only called a rumor. Do you think I came here without even validating it?”

“It’s real then?”

“Trust me. If we do this, we can start our lives anew and take our hands off the dirty business. You can go back to your house with your face held proud.”

“Lives, anew.”

The two men uttered in resolution and nodded. At the same time, the lights turned on again. The two people sitting at the table slowly reached out to their sports duffel bags. The moment they tried to open the zipper, the bell chimed again. The two men exchanged gazes and took their hands off their bags.

“Welcome.”

The waitress greeted another pair of customers. This time, they seemed to be husband and wife. The married couple, who seemed to be in their early thirties, were carrying hiking bags on their backs. After looking around, the husband looked at the table where the two men were and clicked his tongue.

“Allow me to guide you.”

The waitress pointed to the table on the right. The man and woman awkwardly walked over and sat down. When the waitress put down some cups on the table and gave the menu to the woman, the woman became startled and flinched back.

“M-ma’am?”

“Sorry about that, my wife gets startled easily.”

When the waitress turned around after putting on an awkward smile, the lights once again dimmed, putting a spotlight on the table on the right.

“I told you to be careful.”

“Sorry honey. I was too nervous.”

“I know, I’m nervous as well. But what can we do? We should endure it. It’s just this once. As long as we get through this, everything will be over.”

“But is there really gold in a place like this?”

“I’m certain. I got that intel from a colleague of mine.”

“What do we do about the other customers? I’m scared because they’re two men.”

“We should look for an opportunity. They’re ordinary customers anyway. We have a gas-powered gun, so we can subdue them if it comes down to it. Honey, you practiced how to use it, right?”

“I did. Aim and shoot.”

“Good. Aim for their faces. It’ll be okay as long as you do that.”

“What if we get caught?”

“Why would we get caught? This isn’t the bank or anything; it’s an ordinary restaurant. We just have to stay calm. We’ll take them out in an instant and begin our new life with bars of gold. You and I will live together in a splendid place where we can be happy together.”

His wife looked touched after listening to his words. The woman’s klutz attitude was quite eye-catching. Hyungseok chuckled at the black comedy. The laughter of the audience could be heard faintly.

The lights changed, and the waitress and the men at the other table started doing their work again. The two men looked around while reaching out to their sports duffel bags, and the married couple, who were looking at that duo, were taking out their gas powered guns while gulping. It was a moment before chaos. Just then, the waitress walked between the tables with some food. The four people, who had come in pursuit of gold, all took deep breaths. While the sense of tension continued on, the bell chimed once again. This time, the customer was wearing a police uniform. With his appearance, the four people who were getting ready to rob gold all stuffed their noses into their plates.

The two men and the couple raised their hands in confusion.

“This tastes…”

“Absolutely terrible.”

The people sitting at the two tables glanced at each other before giving the other party awkward smiles. Meanwhile, the waitress approached the policeman.

“W-welcome. Are you by yourself?”

“Yes. I’d like to order jjam-ppong-bap please.”

“Ah, okay.”

The waitress, who was taking orders proficiently until now, suddenly started stuttering and returned to the counter while swaying. The moment the waitress placed her hands on the counter, the lights all switched off, and a spotlight shone down on her.

“No wait, why is there a police at this hour? How is it possible? According to my investigations, there was zero chance that a police officer would appear at this hour. I will be in danger if I don’t rob the gold bars by tonight and leave this place. What do I do?”

The waitress muttered to herself while shaking her feet. Even the waitress turned out to be a robber. Hyungseok’s gaze naturally headed towards the policeman. As though they had seen through the psychology of the audience, the spotlight fell on top of the police officer this time.

“Why are there so many people at this hour? I went through the pain of buying a uniform. No one should be suspecting me right? I was acting natural, so it should be fine. Still, there are a lot of people; I should think about what I should do while I eat.”

The policeman grabbed the cup of water with shaky hands. The water ended up overflowing due to his shaking, and the policeman flinched at the sensation of the cold water and let go of the cup. The stainless steel cup fell on the ground, and at the same time, clanging noises came out of the speakers on the side.

At the noise, everyone in the store became startled. The two men who were holding their duffel bags in their arms threw them away like they were trash, and the wife who was holding a gas-powered gun started hyperventilating and fell down. The waitress opened her mouth wide and stuffed her fist into it before biting it down, and the policeman crouched on the ground, wiping the spilt water with his clothes.

“Why is it so noisy?”

Maru peeked outside from the kitchen. The people who were acting out of panic all returned to their places as though nothing had happened. Maru, who looked around the restaurant for a bit of time, discovered the police officer and turned around, startled.

“Father in heaven, please bring me salvation.”

Maru drew a cross on his chest and started praying. The stage darkened again. Maru, who received the light by himself, kneeled down.

“God, I may have killed the owner of this place out of greed, but it has already happened, has it not? The living should continue to live. Please let me go until I find the safe with the gold bars. Please? I will present a lot of offerings. I will also bury the corpse in the fridge somewhere good. Can you please turn a blind eye just this once?”

The lights all turned on during his prayer. The waitress tapped on Maru’s shoulder as he was still kneeling.

“Owner? What are you doing?”

“O-oh, it’s nothing. Anyway, how’s work?”

“It’s my second day, but I think I’m getting the hang of it.”

“Th-that’s good.”

“But, uhm, owner.”

“Yeah?”

“Can I go inside the kitchen? I have always been interested in Chinese-style kitchens.”

Maru freaked out and waved his hand.

“No! Absolutely not!”

“Absolutely not?”

“The kitchen is a sacred place! It’s also very dangerous. What’s more, inside the fridge is a cor…”

“Cor?”

“Anyway, you focus on your work for now. You must never look inside the kitchen. If you do, I will fire you immediately, so keep that in mind!”

Maru was expressing that he had done something bad with all of his body. The waitress started shaking her legs even more after the owner’s words.

“I should quickly…”

“Rob this place…”

“How should I…”

“Get rid of them?”

The people inside the store each spoke their line and uttered their worries. Just then, smoke started coming out of the kitchen with a loud popping noise. The people inside the store were shocked as though it was their own houses that were set on fire. They all flocked towards the kitchen.

“Is there a fire?”

“No!”

“We should take out everything inside.”

“Don’t ever call 119[2].”

“Let’s go in for now.”

With the waitress at the helm, everyone rushed into the kitchen. The stage turned dark, and silhouettes could be seen moving around busily in the darkness. A new stage set was brought in from the exits on either side. A fridge, the sink, various food ingredients and cooking tools. The stage was changed into a kitchen.

When the lights were turned on again, what entered Hyungseok’s eyes was the burnt black wall, the ripped open refrigerator, and the person lying down in front of it.

The waitress pushed the policeman’s back.

“Th-there’s a person over there. Is he dead?”

“D-don’t push! I can’t touch stuff like that!”

“But you’re a police officer!”

“F-forget the notion that all policemen are good at things like this!”

The husband, who had been watching the incident from the back, quietly spoke,

“Isn’t that a corpse?”

“A corpse?”

The waitress called out to Maru who was clutching his head next to the sink.

“Owner, who is that person? Why is he in the kitchen?”

“U-uhm……”

“He looks frozen too. Did he fall out of that freezer?”

Maru, who was panting heavily as though he had been sprinting until just moments ago, quickly changed his eyes and spoke quietly,

“M-maybe he’s a thief?”

* * *

Hyungseok spoke as he clapped,

“The play’s pretty decent. It was more interesting than a movie.”

“Yeah.”

Gitae had stood up to applaud. The story of robbers gathered in the restaurant continued going down the unexpected path. Although there were cliché plot twists at times, the comedic handling of events didn’t make any part boring. The acting of the actors moving across the stage also added to the charm. By the end of the play, Hyungseok found himself liking these evil criminals. If it was reality, he would never befriend such people, but these cute fictional robbers were characters with their own charms.

“Hey, Maru-hyung’s pretty popular.”

There was a photoshoot event after the play, and many female fans took photos with him. Many people gave him presents and bouquets as well. Other actors were taking photos while holding the gifts they were given, but Maru couldn’t hold all of them and had to put them down to take photos.

“He sure keeps his word alright. He said he would become successful after getting discharged, and he definitely seems popular.”

“Should I get Sarge Han to introduce me to a girl? I like that person who played the waitress.”

“Do you even have a conscience? You want to date someone like that with your face?”

“You never know. Anyway, he’s really cool. I didn’t know I would be absorbed until the end.”

Hyungseok agreed with those words. Unlike in films, the audience could make eye contact with the actors on stage. Although it would only be for a brief moment, that short eye contact would transfer a wave of emotions. At that time, Hyungseok felt like he was the one standing on stage.

After the photoshoot, Maru stepped forward.

“Thank you for watching the play, The Suspicious Azure Dragon Pavilion. We will not forget the love you have shown us. Also, I hope you can continue to support us, Blue Sky, in the future. We will return with even better performances. Thank you for your support,” Maru said while bowing.

Hyungseok applauded once again. While everyone applauded passionately, a woman sitting next to him stood up. Hyungseok gave her a glance. Although he couldn’t see her properly because she was wearing a baseball hat and a pair of thick glasses, he could tell that she was a beauty.

“Congratulations.”

Hyungseok tilted his head when he heard the voice. That voice sounded quite familiar. He tried to have another look at the woman again, but she had already left.

[1] Popular menus in Korean-style Chinese restaurants. Respectively, black soybean noodles, spicy seafood noodles, sweet-n-sour fried pork, and fried chicken with sauce.

[2] Korean 911

KTLChamber's Thoughts

What happened between you two? T_T

Editor's Note:

I can sense the feels train. Oh no.

Chapter 758
Sequence 2

-Noona, where did you go? I asked the writer and she said you left as soon as the live broadcast ended. I’m in front of the KBS building.

“I left first because I had something to do. I don’t have any schedule today anyway, do I?”

-You don’t. But where did you go? I was planning to bring you to the company and pick Mr. Yongjin up.

“I’m fine, so you can go over to him.”

-Okay. I’ll call you when it’s time for the next schedule. Thanks for your work today.

“Yeah, you too.”

Gaeul spat out a short breath and loosened her hand. She hadn’t made a visit to Daehak-ro in a while, but nothing had changed here. The vitality of youth filled the streets, and the artistic beauty grabbed people’s attention. The occasional street stalls were selling hot dogs or waffles, which were the specialties of Daehak-ro, and the people passing by all bought something from the stalls as though they were enchanted. The people walking on the streets were filled with leisure. Sometimes, people were hurrying as though they mistook the starting times, but even they had a hint of joy. Although the weather was hot, the streets of Daehak-ro did not get tired out. It felt like the heat was a driving force.

Gaeul opened the camera app and took photos around her. It wasn’t that there was a specific building or a person she wanted to take photos of. She just wanted to record the fact that she was here.

“Isn’t she Han Gaeul?”

“No way. I’m sure it’s someone who looks like her.”

“I think it’s her. Try talking to her.”

“I said she’s not.”

Gaeul heard other people talking about her. She took a couple more photos before blatantly walking over to the two women. The two women, who were arguing in whispers to each other about how she is or isn’t Han Gaeul eventually turned around, saying that she wasn’t.

After the two left, Gaeul pressed her cap down even more. She also tied her hair. When her wavy hair was tied, it became messy like a brush, but she didn’t care. This ‘messy’ looking side of hers would erase the ‘Actress Han Gaeul’ impression. The horn-rimmed glasses also played a role in that. The thick frames blurred her impression on others.

What made celebrities look like one was their confident attitude, their clothing, and makeup. Through a few experiences, Gaeul found out that people would not recognize her if she put on comfortable clothing, erased her makeup, and walked while looking at the ground. Though, some quick-witted people still approached her and asked her about it.

“Err, you are Han Gaeul, right?”

Gaeul nodded to the man right in front of her. The man knew respect and had apologized first for interrupting her before asking for a photo. Gaeul gladly accepted. There was probably no one among celebrities who would act coldly towards a fan who was being considerate.

“I’m listening to the radio. I also enjoyed the drama.”

“Thank you.”

“I wish you luck with your work.”

After shaking hands with her, the man turned around with a faint smile. He called someone while walking away cheerfully; he was probably boasting to his friends. Hey, I just saw Han Gaeul - or something along those lines.

Sometimes, she would get caught and a fan would demand a photo and an autograph. Whenever that happened, she would only think of one thing: what did she need to do in order to not catch people’s attention? Through trial and error she found out that sunglasses or masks that covered her face would instead stimulate people’s imaginations and attract attention to herself, and based on that, she found a shabby-looking baseball cap and a pair of black rims for glasses frames. People weren’t able to detect if someone was an actress if that person looked similar to them.

“One hotdog please.”

She paid money and picked up a hotdog wrapped in oil paper. She was thinking about how she needed to add an extra 30 minutes to the treadmill today. Calories had to be a unit of flavor. While tasting the strong flavor of the sauce in her mouth, she returned to her car. She got into her small car and ate the hotdog in a daze. In front of her, she saw a couple walking with tickets in their hands. The woman was holding some cotton candy as well. She handed the cotton candy to the man to eat. After seeing the couple playing around, Gaeul stuffed the rest of the hotdog in her mouth. The sauce seemed to have lumped up at the end as an intense salty flavor assaulted her tongue at once.

Before she started her car, she picked up her phone first. She long-pressed two and waited. A name appeared on the screen, indicating that she was calling someone: Myunghwa High, Choi Seol.

“Where are you?”

-Of course I’m at home. I can’t go outside and play around on a golden weekend like this.

“Then should I go over?”

-Don’t come empty-handed and bring a lot of things. It’s punishment for not visiting my house when I moved. Oh, and no toilet rolls or cooking oil. I have lots of those.

“Why don’t you just tell me what you need? I can just buy that.”

-Then, a fridge?

“You can’t be serious.”

-Let me benefit from having a celebrity friend.

“Then I’ll really buy a brand new one, okay?”

Gaeul said that there was a department store not far from her.

-Please take it as a joke. Girl, you don’t know how scary money is after you earned so much. Just a five-pack ramyun, beer, and some snacks should do. Oh! And some cat food, expensive bands if possible.

“Oh right. You were raising a cat, weren’t you?”

Gaeul put her phone between her cheek and shoulder and started the car. She searched for a nearby mall and drove off.

“I’ll buy them before I go.”

-I’ll be waiting. Woofie, say hi to unni~

She could hear an annoyed cat growling from the other side. Perhaps the cat was expressing her resistance towards the owner for having received a name that denied her very species. Gaeul organized the list of items she had to buy as she drove toward the mall.

She turned on the music and opened the window. The hot air soon cooled down when she started driving fast. She untied her hair and brushed it with her hand. The mix of music and wind created a chaotic noise. It was just like how her heart was right now.

Her head, which had maintained its calm until now, brought the scene she had seen just a while ago in front of her eyes. The stage that Maru was standing on overlapped with the scenery of the street. Maru, who walked around on the stage with his comedic act, seemed like his acting had reached perfection instead of just being proficient. He was the axis of the stage. He was at the center of the well-structured acting of the actors.

She couldn’t believe that that was the acting skill of an actor who was only 25. The audience’s gaze was glued to his fingertips, and every word from his mouth made them smile.

Maru didn’t seem to be bringing bliss to just the audience; he was bringing it to the actors on stage as well. Any actor would have felt impatient from seeing that stage. There was a sense of excitement that just couldn’t be satiated as a viewer.

Gaeul stopped thinking. If she let her thoughts run amok, her memories would go beyond the stage and arrive 3 years ago around this time of the year. That day was pretty hot as well, though, her tears were hotter than the weather that day. Let’s stop now - the voice that was still vivid after all this time stuck around her whole body.

“I enjoyed the performance. Congratulations, Han Maru.”

Those small words dissipated into the wind. She wanted to say that to his face, but she ended up quietly leaving the theater. It wasn’t because of the shame of a woman who was notified of the breakup first. It also wasn’t because she was worried that she might look like she had regrets. It was because Maru looked closer than she thought. There was no sense of psychological distance. She felt like they would become friends again like before if she talked to him. That sense of kinship was what made Gaeul flinch back like she had touched fire. It felt like doing so would return her to the past; a time when they were smiling and laughing together and reaffirming each other of their love was something natural.

She parked her car in the parking lot. Just as she was about to get out of her car without hesitation, she saw her face in the rearview mirror. She immediately put on her cap and her glasses. She had to hide traces of the actress Han Gaeul.

Expecting to look like an ordinary salary woman in her twenties buying groceries, she entered the mall. She was wondering what kind of items she should before a visit to someone else’s house, but she eventually picked up everything that caught her eyes, with the exception of toilet rolls and cooking oil.

She had bought some food ingredients to spend a good Saturday night as well as some gifts before going up to the 3rd floor. In the corner of the floor, where household electronics were being sold, there was a place that sold pet items. There were dogs and cats sleeping on the other side of the plastic wall. When she walked over, they perked up their ears and scratched the wall.

Maybe I should raise one - such a thought passed by in her mind. She stared at them for a long while with her face against the wall but eventually shook her head. She was already raising one. She was raising a coy rabbit that didn’t need food. A rabbit that she could see anywhere if she so wished.

She bought some pet food according to the employee’s recommendations. The pet food was even more expensive than human food. She thought about Seol’s cat, which had three spots on her forehead, wondering if she would like it.

She put the items in a box and loaded them in the back seat of her car before leaving the mall. She sped up towards Oksu-dong where Seol had moved to.

“I’ve arrived in front of your house.”

-If you’re here, you should come up. Why did you call me?

“I bought too much. Come down.”

-I told you to hold back. Oh well, I guess it’s a good thing. Wait a sec, I’ll be right there.

She put down two boxes in front of her car and waited. A moment later, Choi Seol pushed open the glass entrance to the apartment and came out.

“You bought a lot.”

“A certain someone told me to bring stuff.”

“That’s my Gaeul, so obedient. Anyway, let’s go inside. It’s hot out here.”

Until the sign inside the elevator reached 13, Choi Seol had continually been chatting. Gaeul chuckled, thinking that the tomboy Seol had become chatty tomboy Seol after starting to work. Three months ago, Seol consulted her about a guy she had a crush on in the same workplace. Unlike her resolve to become a campus couple that she mentioned during high school graduation, Seol ended up living a rather plain college life before graduating. This girl, who said that men only saw her as a friend and that she would never become hung up on love again, ended up talking about love as soon as she got a job. Gaeul kindly offered her some advice. It was good to get close, but it was a big problem for the other person to think of her as a member of the same sex. Seol boldly said that she would be clear this time. Right now though, she had become best buddies with that person. What was even more saddening was that Seol ended up introducing that man to another girl. Ever since then, she said something about becoming a prim girl, but from the looks of her today, Gaeul instantly realized that wasn’t going to happen.

“I almost splashed coffee in his face.”

The story about how she talked bad about her team leader ended with the opening of the front door. Gaeul found a cat observing her the moment she entered the house.

“Woofie has grown a lot.”

“She’s a total mistress right now. Come on in.”

She took her shoes off and went inside. The living room was pretty large for one person to be living by herself. There was no furniture either, making it look even roomier.

“Isn’t it too desolate in here?”

“You know I hate things looking messy. What would you like to drink? Coffee? Juice?”

“How about this?”

Gaeul took out a pack of canned beer from the box. Choi Seol snapped her fingers and said ‘great’.

“Sit down for a while. I’ll get some snacks ready. You can play with Woofie in the meantime.”

“Would she play with me?”

“She’s not shy around strangers, so try reaching your hand out to her.”

Gaeul took out some of the cat food she bought and put it in her hand before reaching out to the cat. The cat, which was watching in front of the bedroom, yawned and turned around. I’m not interested, so go away - she seemed to be saying.

“She’s a proud one.”

“She’s a proud one alright.”

Choi Seol soon came to the living room. She brought canned snails and canned fruits. Seeing the two cans on a tray, Gaeul sighed.

“What is it?”

“Gee, you and I are just…”

Gaeul took out the snacks she bought from the mall. They were canned snails and canned fruits.

“Let’s just order some food after we eat them.”

Choi Seol arrived at a clear conclusion and then smirked with a can of beer in her hands. Gaeul looked at the canned beer in her hands with anxiety. The slight movement of her hands as well as that look in her eyes - she could tell what Seol was up to.

“Don’t shake it. This is your own house.”

“I can just clean it up later.”

Her friend, who had pent-up work stress, started shaking the can like mad saying that she would only calm down with an explosion. Gaeul had no choice but to say the words that would paralyze her actions entirely.

“You won’t get a boyfriend like that.”

Tap - the can fell out of her hands.

Chapter 759
Sequence 2

The cat purred in her lap. The black fabric of her pants had turned into the colorful color of cat fur. She did hear that this cat moulted a lot, but she didn’t know it would be this bad

“She’s a total fur generator, not a cat,” Choi Seol said while putting down an empty beer can next to her.

Gaeul tickled the cat on the head with her finger. She could feel the round shape of the skull. When she stroked her finger down the neck and to the butt, the cat stood up. She walked into the room before turning around. Your scratching skills are not up to stuff, her face seemed to say.

“Why don’t you tell me about it now?”

Choi Seol put a thick grin on her face. Gaeul understood what she was talking about immediately.

“There really isn’t anything.”

“Is this how you’re going to act? I’m tight-lipped. I definitely won’t tell other people about it.”

“I said there’s nothing to talk about.”

“No way. How can you say that not a single secretive something happened in the entertainment industry?”

“It’s the same people. Do you think people fall for each other whenever they see each other?”

“There’s definitely a lot of pretty men and women. Above all, a lot of men would be pursuing someone like you, Gaeul.”

“Aren’t you overestimating me?”

“That’s why I prepared something today.”

Choi Seol turned the TV on. Last week’s TV show was showing. Choi Seol put down the remote and after she touched her phone a few times, the TV screen changed into her phone screen.

“I looked for a clip as soon as I saw the live show.”

She looked up the video with the quick typing skills she had gained in high school and pointed at the TV with her chin. There was a video of an actor in an interview.

-If there’s an actress you want to act with, who would you pick?

-I would like to act with Miss Han Gaeul. I fell for the acting that she showed in ‘Flaming Lady’.

-Then since you’re at it, why don’t you give her a video letter!

-Uhm, Miss Gaeul. If we can, I’d love to act with you in the future. Or, I can just follow your schedule. It’d be an honor if you contact me personally but…

The actor scratched his head and asked if he was being too honest, making the atmosphere a lot more gentle. Choi Seol stopped the video.

“Tell me honestly. Did you meet this guy or not?”

A persistent gaze was glued on her. Choi Seol looked like she would never let her go if she didn’t reply. If the answer wasn’t to her liking, she probably wouldn’t change topics either. Gaeul looked at the piles of beer cans. They had drunk 6 cans between the two of them already. If she didn’t put an end to this, the number of cans would only increase.

“Yeah, I met him.”

She decided to be honest. Choi Seol pushed the beer she was about to open to one side. Having found prey that was more enticing than alcohol, beer lost any charm. Choi Seol showed the will to listen to every single detail with a clear mind. She poured some cold water into a bowl and drank it.

“Good, tell me about it.”

Choi Seol’s eyes became clear. Gaeul remembered back to the school trip six years ago. She looked and acted the same as back then when she pressed her to talk about the guy she was dating while hugging a pillow. The difference was that there was no pillow this time and that her cheeks were flushed red due to the alcohol.

“We didn’t meet each other independently. I was just called out by the director, and I saw him there as well.”

“Are you sure it was a coincidence and not a scheme? In order to see you?”

“Even if I say no, you won’t believe me, will you?”

“It’s a lot more interesting that way, exciting too.”

“Whatever. Anyway, we met there and had a conversation. It wasn’t a crowded place, so it took quite some time to relax. He might have said that on TV, but he’s actually a lot more gentle in real life. He seemed shy too.”

“Really? So not a sly one, huh.”

“He’s not. The way he speaks is really quiet, so he wasn’t bad as a conversation partner. No, in fact, it was pretty good. We shared a hobby too.”

“Hobby?”

“Going driving. Apparently, he likes driving his car without a destination. Then, he would come back home and rest once he was tired. He has a lot of similarities to me.”

“You’re right. You also rest at home a lot. Oh, that reminds me. When was it again? I think it was after you finished your drama. I went over to your house and it scared the heck out of me. I was wondering if I entered a pigsty instead of a house.”

“Hey, it wasn’t that bad. It was just a little messy because I just moved in. It was clean when you made another visit.”

“That’s because I cleaned it for you. Anyway, what happened after that?”

“That’s it. Hey, haven't you been reading too many romance novels recently? You should stop watching dramas too. If every man and woman fell in love at first sight, then the novels and dramas you like would not sell. It’s because that doesn’t happen that that plot is made into movies, novels, and dramas.”

“Don’t break the mood. Are you sure nothing happened? I mean, he sure looks interested in you.”

Gaeul pushed away Choi Seol’s face as she was too close. After being pushed away by the forehead, Seol shook her head and approached her again. She was persistent like a detective that was convinced that there was a secret. Gaeul sighed out a warm breath. The detective won.

“Yeah, there was! There was one, okay!”

She gave up and told the truth. She stretched her arms out and lay back. The back of her head was caught on the tip of the sofa. When she loosened the tension in her stomach, her head brushed past the surface of the sofa and reached the floor.

“What? What’s this?”

Choi Seol immediately lay next to her. She put her arms around her knees and rolled sideways like a roly-poly toy. She looked like a child wanting a toy. The detective, whose eyes were on fire in order to seek the truth, had become endlessly gentle in front of the culprit who had confessed. Gaeul looked at the ceiling and probed around the floor with her hand. A pack of almonds that she bought as dry snacks entered her hand. The salty almond that entered her mouth tasted like the same almond she ate that night.

“I was about to go home after the director called me out, but he called out to me. He asked me if I was okay with drinking a little more.”

“He’s a playboy, not actually a shy guy?”

“It didn’t look like it. He looked like he had mustered up the courage. He looked a little pitiful too. He didn’t seem like a strange guy, so I said yes.”

“So? Where did you go?”

“A bar that he’s a regular at. It was a quiet place, and the privacy seemed good. We talked over a drink about various things.”

“What various things?”

“You know, just this and that. From work to everyday life. It wasn’t that awkward. He didn’t ask anything in detail either. It was like a light drinking session between friends.”

“Don’t tell me that’s it? My nose tells me that there’s something more to this. Tell me, tell me now.”

Gaeul turned her head to the right. She saw Seol, seeking an answer. Her nose was twitching.

“He asked for my number, and if we could eat together next time.”

“So? Did you give it to him?”

“No.”

“Why!”

Choi Seol abruptly sat up. She looked disappointed and flabbergasted as though she found a zero missing from her salary cheque. Gaeul also sat up. That man had good manners. They had a lot in common as well. The speed they drank at was decent, and his skills in leading a conversation weren’t bad. There was no need to talk about his looks since he was an actor. He was above average in every aspect. There was no reason to refuse his request anywhere. Perhaps she should have given him her number, telling him that they should eat out some time. She could remember the man’s embarrassed smile as she politely apologized.

“I wanted to focus on work for a while.”

“Can’t you work while you are dating?”

“Actresses are all about image.”

“Hey, this is 2011. There are many people who publicly claim that they’re dating. We no longer live in a world where people are socially ostracized when there’s a dating scandal.”

“On the surface, true. But you need to have a look at the letters that arrive at the agency whenever there’s a scandal. Not only that, think about all the things that come up on social networks. I definitely need to be careful about that since I have a job that shows my face to other people.”

“If you say so. I find it a pity.”

“Why do you find it a pity when it’s about me?”

“Because I want vicarious satisfaction. I think I’m hopeless in this life. All the guys I like only see me as a friend. Should I just strip and assault them?”

Choi Seol blinked creepily while licking her lips. This girl was in critical condition. Her disease was lack of affection. Gaeul advised her friend not to step onto the path of a criminal. Her hand gestures were way too indecent and realistic to treat her words as a joke. Her hand movements looked like she was going to strip a man from top to bottom.

“I thought you wanted to live like a woman.”

“It’s because I can’t do that that I’m in this state.”

“Also, stop with your hands. You look like a pervert.”

“You wanna know what a pervert will do to you?”

Gaeul giggled and stood up. She needed more booze. Not one that had warmed up because it was left outside; she wanted a cool, refreshing one with droplets forming on the surface They switched places. They let the trash become the owners of the living room and sat at the table in the kitchen.

“But hey, what were you doing for an hour? You said you’d come right after you finished your radio.”

As she was embracing the chill of freshly taken-out beer, she received that question from Seol. That question took away her senses to the point that she could no longer tell if the beer in her hands was cold or hot anymore. Gaeul rolled her eyes around. She turned her eyes away from Seol and scanned the fridge, the cabinet, then the sink.

“Something’s up, huh?”

Why was it that acting, which was her source of income, became useless in front of her friend? She stopped trying to put on an act that even a child wouldn’t be fooled by. Perhaps a part of her wanted Seol to understand.

“I went to see a play.”

“A play? In that short time?”

“I only entered halfway. I didn’t watch it properly.”

“If you wanted to watch something, you should’ve told me about it. It would’ve been great if we watched it together.”

“Well, the thing I wanted to see wasn’t the play itself. No wait, I guess I wasn’t exactly watching for the person either.”

“What do you mean?”

“Seol, do you remember Han Maru?”

Choi Seol’s eyes looked up for a moment before coming back down again. She made a puzzled expression for a while because of the unfamiliar name but eventually exclaimed out loud in realization.

“Your ex-boyfriend?”

“So you remember him.”

“You went to see him? Why?”

“There wasn’t a special reason. I just happened to hear that it was his last performance. I wanted to congratulate him, without any special intentions.”

“So, did you tell him?”

Gaeul lifted the can of beer and shook her head. Choi Seol chuckled as though she knew that was going to be the case. After gulping down some beer, Choi Seol suddenly made a surprised expression.

“Don’t tell me you still have feelings for him?”

“Do you want me to be honest?”

“Gaeul, Han Gaeul. That’s no good. I feel really anxious now. Did you forget what happened? You came over to my house and cried the whole day.”

“I did do that.”

“Think about it carefully. Do you still have feelings for him?”

Gaeul shook her head.

“No, I don’t. But when I saw him, I felt strange. We haven’t contacted each other for three years, and I haven’t heard his voice either, but when I looked at him, I just felt relaxed. That’s why I left without even saying hello. I felt like it would be strange to go meet him.”

“Well done. You shouldn’t go meet a guy who dumped you. Not only that, you’re a popular actress. There’s nothing to be disappointed about. Forget your old feelings. Don’t ever look back at him, okay?”

“Okay. Also, it’s not like I felt anything special. I just felt relaxed. You know, like meeting an old friend after a long time. Right, it was comfort rather than love.”

“What the heck is up with that cheesy line? That’s supposed to be a line said between a married couple, so forget about it. You need to meet a better man. I’m sure that Han Maru or whatever is regretting you know? The girl he dumped is doing so well right now. Good, let’s go meet this Han Maru and laugh at him.”

“There you go again. Just drink.”

Just as Gaeul lifted her beer to toast, her phone rang. She got a call. She picked up the phone from the floor and flipped it around. She saw the caller's name. It was producer Park Hoon.

Chapter 760
Sequence 2

Hyungseok was walking in the desert. Whenever he took a step, his foot sank into the ground. When he tried to take out the foot by putting strength into his other foot, that foot would then sink knee-deep into the ground. When he came to himself, he found himself sunken until his thighs. He groaned and twisted his body from side to side. He couldn’t budge as though a giant hand was tightly grabbing onto his legs. Just as he started having a hard time breathing and thoughts about the afterlife, he suddenly wondered why he was in the middle of the desert.

He felt like he was surfacing from deep within the water, he opened his eyes. He collected his senses and looked around. He was lying down on one bed alongside Gitae, Beomsoo, and Youngjin. Pushing aside Beomsoo’s feet and Gitae’s body, which were the things that made him have a hard time breathing, he got off the bed. Four grown men were sleeping on one bed, so it was natural for him to have a nightmare. For some reason, he felt like he could smell the military. The stench of the military blanket tickled his nose.

“You up?”

When he opened the door and walked outside, he saw Maru in the kitchen. The large TV in the living room was yapping by itself. Tomorrow’s weather will be warmer than today and…

“Where is this place?”

“Of course, it’s my house.”

The sound of glass being scratched reverberated in his head. He barely managed to squint open his eyes and look at the clock on the wall: 6:20. The sun was setting outside the window.

“So I had about an hour or two of sleep, huh.”

Hyungseok sat down in the living room. After meeting up with Maru in the theater, they went to drink immediately. Before they even asked each other how they were doing, they opened a bottle of soju and poured it into beer glasses. The last things he remembered were his friends pouring vodka into their glasses, Maru taking out his credit card, and his phone clock which said it was 4 p.m.

“Sheesh, you can’t even drink that much, yet you had to order all that.”

Hyungseok grabbed the cup that Maru handed him. Now that he had collected himself, he felt a wave of strong thirst. He felt like fire was burning in the corners of his throat. He drank the lukewarm water in the cup in an instant. After drinking, he saw Maru, looking completely fine.

“You drank with us too, didn’t you?”

His head rewound the time back to 4 hours ago. It was when they were drunk but not out of it. Bottles of alcohol piled up behind the boiling soup pot, and they were replacing their stomach acid with alcohol while crying for seconds. Hyungseok clearly remembered the number of green bottles in front of Maru. While the four of them were chatting noisily and eating food, Maru quietly emptied glass after glass. He didn’t know exactly how much, but he was confident that Maru drank the most out of the five of them.

Hyungseok looked at Maru like he was looking at a fantastic creature.

“What?”

“Nothing. Rather than that, what happened?”

“Don’t you get it? You guys all passed out while drinking. I expected it when I saw you guys mixing soda into vodka because you found vodka bitter. If you were going to do that, why did you bother drinking vodka at all? You should just drink Yakult instead. What about the others?”

“They should be wandering in the desert right about now.”

“Desert?”

Something like that, Hyungseok said while waving his hand. The air conditioner here was the model that was on recent TV ads, the television was a large, curved screen one, and the leather sofa was clearly a brand name one as well. The balcony had a glass table and there was a view of the Han river. An apartment with three rooms and a good view. The salesman living inside Hyungseok’s head finished his calculations quickly.

“You’re well-off. Is it monthly rent?”

“That’s what you want to know?”

“Sure. I always wanted to live in a house like this if I ever became successful as an actor. Looks like you earn a lot of money even through plays, huh?”

“If plays were enough to earn tons of money, do you think actors would have switched to dramas or films? Play actors don’t earn that much.”

“Then how did you buy this place? I’m not an expert in real estate, but this place is definitely on the higher end.”

“I don’t know the cost since my company provided it for me. As you say, I heard that it’s pricey.”

“Company? You had an agency?”

“Didn’t I tell you? I’m in JA Production.”

Hyungseok looked at Maru in surprise. If he didn’t hear wrong, he heard ‘JA Production’ just now. It was a small agency with super bigshot actors who could hit at least 8 million views if they shot a film. That was the place that anyone aspiring to become a film actor would give a second look at. Hyungseok was no different. Although he was merely a beginner who had just started off, he had set JA as his final destination.

“Seriously? You’re in JA Production?”

“Why? Can’t I be?”

“You can, but it sure is a big blow to me. I never imagined it. Did you take an audition after you got discharged?”

"I was there before I was in the military. Now that you mention it, it's been pretty long."

“Then why didn’t you tell me about it?”

“Because I had no reason to say it. It’s not like being in JA would change my military life. In fact, I would get bombarded with annoying questions.”

He was reasonable, yet Hyungseok felt disgruntled for some reason. He even felt slightly betrayed. The colleague he had spent two years with suddenly felt like a foreigner from a distant land.

“I’m disappointed. You should’ve told us about it.”

“Why didn’t you ask?”

“We would’ve if we knew anything. I just thought that you went to Daehak-ro after appearing on TV a little.”

“Would anything have changed if you knew I was in JA?”

Hyungseok fell silent. He had already learned that he couldn’t win against this man with words in the military. Hyungseok, who lost before he even picked a fight, sighed awkwardly and changed the channel on the TV. An old western movie was airing. It was a movie that started with a former CIA agent falling into danger. He had watched it several times, yet he enjoyed it in a daze every time he watched it.

“I also want to shoot a film like that.”

“Looks like you weren’t kidding when you said you were receiving acting lessons,” said Maru, walking over.

“I handed the business over to my friend entirely, and I’m learning these days. I even heard that I’m pretty good at the academy. I’m a promising student, you know?”

“Usually, academies don’t talk bad about their students. It’d be troublesome if they quit.”

“Why are you so pessimistic? You should watch my acting. Only after will you know that the teachers at the academy aren’t saying nonsense.”

“Go on then. I’ll have a look,” Maru said while tilting his mug.

The bitter fragrance of coffee wafted out. Hyungseok smiled and waved his hand. Acting in the living room of someone else’s house wasn’t something he wanted to do. Maru, who he expected to say that he was just joking and then switch the topic, kept staring at him as though to urge him. Hyungseok made an awkward smile again. The corner of his lips trembled for some reason.

“You really want me to do it?”

“You said you were serious about it, didn’t you? I’m no one amazing, but I can still subjectively evaluate your acting. When I learned acting, listening to other people’s critiques was common. You’re not going to act in front of a mirror forever, are you? If you want to become an actor, then just consider it a practice run since you’re going to eventually have to act in front of people.”

“Here? Right now?”

“If you don’t want to, then you don’t have to. I’m not forcing you or anything.”

Maru slowly turned his eyes to the TV. Hyungseok also rested his chin and focused on the TV. The character in the film was wailing while holding a photo of his dead wife. He watched the act for a while before looking at Maru.

It was true that he was receiving good evaluations at the academy. The teacher that taught him confidently told him that he would eventually become good enough to debut if he kept practicing. Hyungseok studied acting not only through the assignments he was given but through things he did during his own time as well. He did so in order to catch up since he started late. When he started his clothes sales business, he did the same thing. He split up his time into tiny bits and didn’t waste any in order to catch up to others. Hyungseok had the desire to live better off than other people. To walk ahead of others, he knew that he had to put a lot of effort as well as give up on some things. The thing he sacrificed while starting his clothes sales business was sleep. He also distanced himself from drinking, as well as the friends he drank with every weekend before he started working. He put as much time as he possibly could into his business. The result was a successful business.

“What?” Maru asked, seemingly having felt his gaze.

Hyungseok looked back on what kind of life he had been living ever since he decided to start acting. He made the decision to become an actor before his last vacation in the military. It was an impulsive decision, but the friend that he ran the clothes sales business with encouraged him. He spent the last night in the military planning what to do after getting discharged. Before he was enlisted, he would often get nosebleeds because of the lack of sleep. He reminded himself of that time, when he had a hard time but managed to obtain success and obtained confidence that he would be able to become successful in a short time if he put his time into practicing. He registered at an academy and started practicing. He had never missed a lesson in the past year. His acting should have improved from the day he got discharged. A difference though, was that he wasn’t as desperate as he was when he ran his clothes sales business. That was something he was sure of. He met up with friends he hadn’t called in a long time on weekends to have drinks and enjoyed his time with the ladies he met at the nightclub. Whenever he had to go to the academy, he put everything down and focused wholeheartedly on acting practice and even studied more when he returned home, but on weekends and on days he didn’t have lessons, he had his private time. That was because he came to the judgment that he was doing sufficiently.

In acting, there was no visual proof of achievements like sales numbers and income taxes. Even after investing all that time, the only thing he could rely on was his senses to judge whether he improved or not. The only measure he had, his acting teacher, repeatedly told him that he was improving. That was the reason he wasn’t feeling anxious despite being leisurely. That was the reason he felt like he could be at leisure.

He believed that he put enough effort into becoming better than others. As something abstract, he found acting easier than business where numbers proved everything.

“Should I do it?”

Hyungseok believed that it was time to get evaluated. He came to the conclusion that having an interim check through Maru was a good idea to see if his calculations were right or not. He had the confidence. He also had leisure but wasn’t playing around. If acting had a score sheet with things that could be displayed as a number, he would have practiced to the death in order to raise those scores, but as judgment was a subjective thing, he believed that investing too much was a waste.

“Did you suddenly have a change of mind?”

“I just thought that it’s not a bad idea to get evaluated by an actor belonging to JA. Who knows? We might eat out of the same pot in the future.”

“Maybe. So, what are you going to show me?”

“That movie. I practiced a lot while watching that movie.”

“This movie’s good. I watched it several times. What about your character?”

“The main character of course.”

Hyungseok refined his emotions. He reminded himself of the main character who cried miserably while holding a photo of his wife. It was something he followed many times over while playing the video. The tone of voice, the expression, and even the breaks in the line were clearly engraved in his head.

He kneeled and looked at the imaginary photo in his hand which triggered his crying emotions. The tip of his nose tingled and his tear glands started doing their job. Feeling tears flowing down his cheeks, Hyungseok said the line: Ohhh, no, no.

He did find it a little embarrassing to act in front of a friend he hadn’t met in a year - someone who also happened to be an actor who was working in the field - but he found his acting satisfactory. The emotions were definitely up there when he was practicing as well.

“Good. You were literally Flipps just now.”

Maru applauded while mentioning the actor’s name. Hyungseok felt proud. At the same time, he came to the decision that acting was a lot easier than running a business. Although he might change it depending on the occasion, he came to the decision that maintaining the status quo on the amount of practice he did now should be enough to allow him to pass an audition not too far in the future.

That was all Maru had to say about the act. Maru just sipped on coffee and looked at the TV again. Hyungseok was satisfied with his achievements, but he was also rather disappointed that there was no detailed evaluation. Maybe acting was extremely subjective and even professional actors had nothing to say. That had to be how it is; it had to be what he was thinking, but he wanted to check one thing.

“Can you show me as well?” Hyungseok said while pointing at the TV.

KTLChamber's Thoughts

<u>Author's notes</u>

The comment section is becoming hot! Whew!

I'm reading them joyfully.

It really is good when there's a lot of people.

--------------------

You know, with how this author has been writing until now, making everyone around Maru except Maru famous (Gaeul, and that guy from the street performance)… Hyungseok might get famous before Maru too… who knows… Heck, for all we know, Bangjoo, Jiseok and Yoojin might have become superstars already.

Editor's Note:

Maru is semifamous, but yes I want to see the rest of the characters again. Mainly Suyeon. I wanna see if she and Geunsoo got hitched.

Chapter 761
Sequence 2

“You want me to show you?” Maru replied dryly.

His indifferent voice made him seem like he was asking if there was really a need to do so. This was Maru’s conversation style that Hyungseok had frequently experienced in the military. This person did not like being roundabout. When there was a need to, he would add all sorts of detail so that the person he was talking to wouldn’t realize it.

“Don’t say that. Listen to this junior’s request.”

“It’s been ages since we got discharged. Why are you conveniently making yourself the junior? Also, weren’t you intending for us to be friends?”

“Ah, hyung, please.”

Hyung was a calling style that he automatically blurted out when he asked for something from other people. The sound of the revolver cylinder turning could be heard. This was the scene where the main character in the film resolved to take revenge and rolled the empty cylinder. The depressing music as well as the figure of the main character planning his murder expressionlessly was the epitome of what Hyungseok aimed to do as an actor. The popped veins on his temple and his calm touches of the revolver. Seeing the actor contain two extreme sides of emotion in one body. Hyungseok was able to carve out a specific form of his dream.

Being told that he was similar to the actor he admired was closer to a compliment, but he couldn’t entirely be happy. ‘You were literally Flipps just now’ would have different meanings according to the interpretation. He felt proud when he heard it but after seeing Maru turn his interest elsewhere immediately, he was convinced that his act lacked something.

“I don’t feel that confident though. I’m not talented enough to do something I haven’t practiced.”

“Sarge Han, when I saw you in the military, you were definitely on the talented side. You did the things you were shown in just one try. Do you know how much we were chewed because of you? Everyone always asked us why we can’t be like you.”

“Well, that’s because I did those a few times already.”

“You did them already?”

Maru tilted the cup again. After emptying the coffee in the cup, Maru twisted his neck and stood up.

“There won’t be that many differences. I guess I should do the scene you showed me, yeah?”

“Sounds good.”

Maru started twisting his ankles, then his knees, hips, waist, and neck. After shaking his entire body up and down on the spot, Maru looked down at his body and muttered in a small voice: that should do.

“What did you do?”

“A little warm-up. Acting is something you do with your body, so I should warm myself up. A stiff body would only produce stiff acting.”

Hyungseok looked back on his own acting. He got into the emotions with a stiff body after having just woken up. He did not feel the need to do stretches since it didn’t require a lot of movement, and the scene was something that just used his face. In the first place, it wasn’t an official stage, and he was just practicing in front of a friend. He did not see the necessity to go through the proper procedures like he was doing business.

Maru stretched his arm slowly, just like how a wolf would groom its fur after waking up. An unknown sense of tension made Hyunseok sit up. He twitched his toes, which still had a tinge of sleep, and straightened his back before shaking off any sensation of the bed. He felt like he had to do so.

“Is there a video on the internet?”

“Wait a minute.”

He hurriedly ran inside the room. He put his hand among the three people who were still rolling on the ground. He found his phone under the blanket. He looked up the video and showed it to Maru once he got back. Maru put the phone in one hand and watched the video indifferently before throwing the phone away saying that he had seen enough.

“Your act will probably be more similar than mine.”

Maru, who was breathing in long, thin intervals slowly sat down on the floor. His act had already begun. His two knees touched the ground. His torso, which swayed as though it was about to fall at any moment, eventually curled up into a circle. There were intermittent breathing noises.

Hyungseok came down from the sofa. In order to see Maru’s expression, he had to lower his eyes as Maru was kneeling and curled up.

The hands were clasped like he was praying had turned pale. His head kept lowering until it reached the floor. The two hands, which were above his head now, were shaking. The pale hands had turned red. They clasped onto each other like they were going to break each other.

The cry of a beast escaped the crack between his lips. The depressingly low voice sounded like a requiem. His cry burst out at once as though he was fainting and did not last long. His sadness was faint like charcoal remains after a burn. It felt like a touch would rekindle the spark within and engulf everything around him. The sadness and rage did not get released to the outside and just imploded inwardly.

Hyungseok started worrying that Maru would start to have a hard time breathing. He almost ended up asking if he was okay.

Maru calmed his breathing and stood up. Hyungseok watched his face closely. He looked like a completely different man after his act. You were literally Flipps just now - he remembered those words. It was him who imitated the act of the main character of the film. He had watched that scene several times over and analyzed the characteristics each time after all. Asking professional critics for an opinion wouldn’t result in much difference.

Meanwhile, the act that Maru showed had zero similarities to the scene in the film. From his posture, his expression, and even the line, everything was different. Yet, the feeling it gave off was similar. One side exploded, while the other side imploded, but the total quantity of rage felt the same.

“It shouldn’t feel that similar. This is just how I interpreted that scene.”

“Interpreted that scene?”

Maru walked to the kitchen with the empty coffee cup before stopping. Hyungseok wanted an answer. Maru turned around and scratched around his eyebrows.

“A person who does the same act as Flipps will never be able to win Flipps’s role. That’s the only advice I can give you. You figure out the rest.”

The moment he heard those words, an exclamation broke through his lips. His contentedness from being satisfied with his current act shattered into smithereens and made that sound. It was natural. It was something he bore in mind when he ran his clothes sales business. There could not be two same brands in the same world.

A sense of urgency poked its head up within him. This was the moment when he realized that the things he did until now weren’t at all useless but not particularly great either. He started feeling like he was running out of time. The sense of tension he felt when he woke up early morning every single day with his eyes red, and the feelings of pity for the time that was being wasted, started filling his body again. The stress that made his heart race, as well as the sense of frustration from having a mountain load of work smashed his consciousness. A sense of excitement overwhelmed him. The moment he felt a sense of pleasant anxiety that heightened his whole body, Hyungseok rushed into the room he slept in. He put on the clothes that were strewn across the ground and walked towards the door.

“You leaving?” Maru asked while washing his hands at the sink.

Hyungseok replied while grabbing the doorknob,

“I don’t have time to be doing this. I realized what I should be doing.”

He stuffed his foot into his shoe. His plans for the future snapped into existence like fireworks inside his head. He felt like when he first went to an amusement park as a toddler. He was afraid of the unfamiliar place, but the parade and various attractions excited him. He felt the same right now. He wanted to do many different things. He decided to cancel all the appointments he scheduled for the weekend.

“You haven’t met them in a year. They’ll be disappointed if you leave like this.”

Hyunseok had opened the door halfway when he heard those words and then closed the door again. Because of his excitement, he had briefly forgotten about his friends fainted inside the room. He took his shoes off and sat on the sofa. The fanfare ringing inside his mind had eventually quietened down, but the heat of passion from wanting to act spread to various corners of his body. He also felt a sense of regret. He realized that this past year, which he originally thought that he had lived sufficiently earnestly, was filled with endless gaps. Those gaps were things he couldn’t see before. The holes he didn’t see before because he had fallen for the misconception that he was preparing earnestly, could now be seen thanks to watching Maru’s act. He felt bitter about the time he wasted until now, but he was not a foolish man who would waste even more time by having regrets. A mistake is an obstacle, but it is also a foothold - this was the line that his friend put at the top of his computer monitor. Hyungseok liked this line as well.

“You seem serious. A little desperate now too. If you do anything with that kind of attitude, you won’t stay at the bottom at least,” Maru said those words as he walked past.

To Hyungseok, that was the best kind of encouragement he could get.

It took another hour for the rest to wake up. What Maru placed in front of them when they crawled out into the living room was soju.

“Let’s drink slowly, yeah?”

Hyungseok looked at the gamja-tang that was boiling. He never knew that Maru was going to ask to drink again. Gitae, who was wailing and vomiting by the toilet, shook his head in fright and stepped back.

“Hyung, you should stop drinking now.”

“I had to cancel two weekend appointments in order to see you guys. I met you, so I can’t disappoint you when it comes to food. Don’t refuse and just drink. If you don’t like soju, I have some wine over there too. Also, some vodka if you want it. Just tell me.”

Perhaps the reason Maru stopped him from leaving was not because the others would feel disappointed but because Maru wanted some people to drink with. The way he quietly poured soju into glasses reminded them of the evil private first class Han Maru from the old times. Empty this, while I am still telling you in a good way[1].

“I’ve been getting kinda lonely these days, so it’s good to have you over. Since you’re here, stay for around three days. I can provide you with infinite booze and snacks.”

Maru pushed the glasses with his fingers. Hyungseok looked at the waving soju in the glass in front of him. He felt like there was a stranded ship on top of the waving soju. The ship was about to capsize with the four of them on board. If he drank, he would die, but if he left it alone, he would be left between two deadly cliffs. Hyungseok quietly raised his hand.

“Hyung, I think I should go practice after all,” he voiced his opinion with difficulty.

“Leave after you drink.”

His opinion was lightly ignored.

“What’s up with you? Did you get possessed by a ghost that hasn’t had enough booze or something? Why are you drinking so much?”

“I usually don’t drink that much, but you guys were the ones who started it. People around me refrain from drinking with me these days, so I’m getting my wish fulfilled thanks to you guys.”

“Of course they would refrain. You’re a freaking whale when it comes to drinking. Half of your fridge is filled with booze, isn’t it?”

“I’m not an alcoholic. I just drink like this from time to time. What are you doing? You’re not thinking about waiting until it evaporates, right?”

Maru raised his glass. He kept talking about toasting, and they couldn’t just keep ignoring him.

“I’m reminded of the general manager where I was an intern at.”

Youngjin emptied the glass in one go while frowning.

“Console this old man who lives by himself. Here, drink!”

Maru shook the empty glass above his head with a bright smile on his face.

* * *

“We’re leaving.”

Hyungseok trembled while looking at the empty soju bottles that had been lined up like a fence before turning around. Maru, who was holding the door open, waved at them to have a safe trip home. On the elevator down, his colleagues all commented as though they were confessing their sins: I’m never coming here again; Even if we do meet, I’m gonna meet him outside; I’d rather go back to the military than come here again.

When they left the elevator on the first floor, Hyungseok realized that he had left behind his wallet.

“Hey, I only brought my phone. I’ll be right back.”

“Hurry up.”

He took the elevator back up. Just as he was about to press the bell in front of the door, he instead grabbed the doorknob and turned it. It was unlocked, just as he had expected.

Maru was sitting down on the balcony. He was watching something on the laptop on the table. Hyungseok entered the bedroom and picked up his wallet before walking over to the balcony. The thing Maru was watching was the drama titled ‘Flaming Lady’. It was the drama that became hugely popular before he entered the military and also the one that Maru said he decided not to participate in.

Just as he was about to open the balcony and say goodbye, Hyungseok stopped when he heard the faint sound. Maru had the expression of the happiest man alive while looking at the face of the girl on the screen. He did not want to break that mood. Hyungseok wondered as he closed the door: Was he a fan of that actress?

[1] There used to be a ‘tradition’ to make new recruits drunk when they get stationed. Nowadays, it’s mostly considered bullying and is no longer present.

Chapter 762
Sequence 2

When he looked down at the empty coffee cup, Park Hoon realized that it was time to stand up. It wasn’t like staring at the monitor in the café would give him any good ideas. He picked up the laptop bag and left. The moment he left, he missed the café. The air was more than just hot. It stabbed into his skin.

He staggered back to his house. Today was a holiday that was such a pity to waste. He wanted to go hiking, go fishing, or do anything to take a break, but the work given to him seemed to be laughing at him for daring to try to rest on a weekend. It would be less frustrating if it was company work instead.

“How is it?”

His wife urged him to give her the results. Park Hoon despaired at the environment of his household where he couldn’t even form a labor union as he sat down on the sofa.

“It’s not bad, I think.”

“Not bad, huh. So it’s not good either?”

“You always take it that way.”

“Then tell me properly. Was it interesting?”

Interesting, splendid, touching. These three were magical words that would give him freedom on weekends. If he turned a blind eye and praised his wife’s writing, everything would be good, but his mouth betrayed his thoughts and talked about useless things.

“Personally, I would have second thoughts if I had to pay money to read it. Maybe it’s because I’m personally not fond of the genre, but I wouldn’t buy it.”

He instantly regretted saying those words, but the train had left; pandora’s box had been opened. Park Hoon wanted to stitch his mouth shut if possible. Having kicked away a comfortable weekend’s rest, Park Hoon ended up lying down on the sofa. He could already expect what he was going to hear next: then how about this?; What if I change it this way?; Did you like this part?

“Looks like I should stop for the day. I need to get some rest too,” said his wife who was sitting at the computer desk in the living room.

Hearing that, he suddenly woke up as though cold water had been poured over his face. Yoo Jayeon, who was number one in the drama department in YBS, had declared defeat first. This was a rare sight. The path that lead to traveling on a weekend, which was about to close its gates, had been opened again. His heart had already packed some kimbap and was on its way to the hiking trail. He felt like the refreshing smell of the moist forest on Mount Hwaak was already tickling his nose.

“Well thought. Creating content requires breaks. You can’t do it by pushing yourself.”

“You’re right, oppa. I should get some rest. I feel burnt out too.”

“How about hiking? I went to Mount Hwaak last time, and it was really good there. A writer I know said that she goes there whenever she hits a wall while writing. I think she said something about how the refreshing air of the mountain clears her head or something.”

He tried conning his wife with facts mixed with lies. If she didn’t want to go, that was fine as well. The mountain was something he could only embrace fully when he hiked by himself.

“Hiking?”

She seemed not so into it. For producers, who stayed up night after night like it was nothing, saving energy was a requirement, and it was natural for them to not want to waste energy by doing something like hiking.

“You’re tired, aren’t you? Then have a break at home.”

“What about you, oppa?”

“Me? I’ll go for some fresh air. Just for a little bit.”

“Don’t say that; let’s watch a movie together at home. I just bought a DVD the other day. You’re going to like it too. It’s a romance movie.”

“No, there’s no real need to watch together is th…”

His wife was already connecting the cable to the TV. Park Hoon nervously watched his wife as she ripped open the packaging of the DVD joyfully. What would happen if he said to her ‘honey, I’ll go hiking’ when she looked like a little bird flapping her wings in excitement while imagining watching a romance movie together with her husband? At first, she would probably try to coax him into it. The moment he mentioned it again, the little bird would become an eagle that soars in the skies and attacks with her claws, which she had trimmed for work but were still slightly long nonetheless. The whole time she would be mentioning the duty of the husband in society to spend the weekend with his wife.

Park Hoon looked at the wedding photo in the living room. His wife in the photo, Yoo Jayeon, was beautiful. He himself, who was on one knee next to her giving her a ring, was handsome. When he mentioned that he was dating Jayeon, who was like a fighting rooster, to the producers of the drama department, the entire YBS building flipped upside down. When he handed out wedding invitations, his senior producers asked him if he needed serious advice. They said things like ‘you can’t give up on life so easily’, ‘tell me if there’s anything you need’, or ‘it can’t be helped if she’s pregnant’.

If he looked back in retrospect and asked why he got married, he honestly wouldn’t be able to answer. Was it because he took her around a lot when they worked? Or was it because she found him an easy man? They somehow ended up being comfortable around each other, and when he came to, he was meeting her parents. They got married half a year after dating, so when the people around them said that they were too hasty in getting married, they weren’t entirely wrong.

His marriage life was just as he had expected. The tomboy genes didn’t go anywhere just because she got married. In the beginning, they quarreled quite a lot. As they were both people who could say anything about each other, they never avoided a fight by feigning good smiles. Once, they even fought about which direction to put their toothbrushes in. This person was a woman that didn’t fit him from A to Z.

Two years passed like that. The fact that they didn’t suit each other from A to Z hadn’t changed, but what had changed was that if they fought ten times, he would lose ten out of ten times. Fighting each other fiercely like fighting dogs in an arena became a thing of the old. Park Hoon chose to become a docile puppy who would lie on its back and act cute. He was still the unrelenting producer who did not know compromise at the TV station, but he became a gentle puppy who let his wife take the leash. Why did it become like this? He did not know. He only vaguely predicted that his subconscious judgment to not continue the cold war with Yoo Jayeon, who had braved the women's taboo zone that was the drama department by herself, created such an environment.

Mount Hwaak became distant. The game console, which had become a DVD player for this moment, gobbled up a disk and started producing motor sounds. Once the movie began, his path to Mount Hwaak would be blocked off completely. Seeing the DVD precursor screen, Park Hoon thought back to two months ago when his wife said that she was going to write a book. To him, he heard that as: she was going to enjoy a gentle hobby, so he urged her to do so and even cheered her on for it. Back then, he didn’t know that he would be in charge of the research and even the editing. If he knew, he would have stopped her. He would have told her that not anyone could just write.

He desperately needed an exit. Spending the weekend lying down on a sofa at home wasn’t bad, but his consciousness, which was already at the foot of Mount Hwaak, was screaming at him to escape his house. It was when his wife brought some snacks in a wooden bowl that the phone in his hand started ringing.

-I’d like to eat the dinner that you said you’d treat me to tonight.

Park Hoon spoke as calmly as possible while reading the text. It would be troublesome if his wife found out that there was a party going on within him to congratulate his escape.

“Maru says he wants to meet me.”

“Maru? You mean Han Maru?”

“Yeah. I told him I’d treat him out some time.”

“So you’re leaving now?”

His wife looked at the clock from the corner of her eyes. He cut in before she could say ‘it’s still early’.

“We have a lot to talk about. You know me, honey. You know I want to shoot a drama with him. We couldn’t do that four years ago, so I should shoot one with him this time.”

“Really?”

He silently stared at his wife rummaging through the snacks. He was inwardly nervous that she would say that she wanted to go with him.

“Don’t drink too much. Just because you aren’t working, if you come back late because of drinking, well, you’ll see what will happen.”

“I’ll come back early of course. You should get some rest too, honey. You have to go to a shoot tomorrow.”

He embraced her shoulders and pulled her in before kissing her on the forehead. He found his wife so lovely for obediently waiting at home.

“Buy some milk on your way home. We ran out.”

“I can buy two.”

Three wasn’t a problem either.

* * *

“The outside air sure is good.”

“Did something happen?”

“You’ll see once you get married. You should definitely get married. It’s something filled with happiness.”

Park Hoon parked his car at the barbecue restaurant’s parking lot before walking inside the store. They were guided by an employee to a room on the inside.

“Hey, you look like you’ve grown.”

“I’ve grown a bit in the military, though, I still haven’t hit 180.”

“You were pitch black when you got discharged, but you’ve whitened up like an actor now. The dermatologist seems to be doing a good job, eh?”

“Well, I’ll have to thank the head manager at the company for forcing me to go to the dermatologist. Money sure is good.”

Park Hoon’s memory still contained the young Maru that was in high school. He was a child who did not show any of the challenging or daring attitudes that his peers would have. The child that looked ‘experienced’ had become a young man. Though, he still had those coldly sunken eyes that he couldn’t see through.

“I heard you did your last performance.”

“Yes. It went well, thanks to you.”

“Don’t thank me. I didn’t do anything.”

“Is the thing you’re preparing as the director going well?”

“I’m participating in the production crew, so I think I’ll only be able to do my own thing at the end of the year. Well, the preparations are going smoothly, so there’s no problem with that.”

“What’s the genre this time?”

“What else? It’s a drama that the ladies would like. If I want to raise my value before I quit and become a freelancer, I have to make big hits, so I ended up going down that route. Looks like it became a habit after I gained some popularity.”

“At times like those, you come back to yourself if you get smashed hard.”

“Gee, why don’t you pray for my doom instead? Let’s order something for now.”

“I have a classy taste now, so I might end up drilling a hole in your credit card if I make the orders. You’re gonna get an earful from director Jayeon too. Are you okay with that?”

He wanted to shout ‘I’m that woman’s husband’ in a confident voice, but his voice couldn’t help but become lower when he thought about his wife appearing in front of his face with his credit card bills. Hold back a little - she would say.

The pork ribs they ordered came out. Maru picked up the tongs and put the meat on the grill. Only after seeing the sizzling meat did he realize that he had skipped breakfast and lunch today. He realized that the stress given to him by his superior at home was quite serious.

“Are you really not going to have a child?” Maru asked as he ate a spoonful of the doenjang soup.

Park Hoon licked his lips. A child; it was a word that he used to not like, but these days, that word gave him a kick in the heart.

“I’m not sure whether I want one or not.”

“You should. Having a child is the entire point of marriage.”

“But I can’t have a child by myself. I need to think about Jayeon too. It’d be weird to tell her that we should have a child when she still wants to work.”

“That’s true, director Jayeon is a workaholic.”

“She sure is.”

He poured some beer into the glass. He didn’t dare order soju because of what his wife said.

“What are you going to do? It’s been a year.”

“I don’t know. If anyone calls for me, I do want to go back to dramas. Plays are fun, but it’s the TV that makes money. Blue Sky also has a lot of applicants because I became pretty well-known. Though, the problem is that they don’t have any money to accept more members. But that’s something they need to solve by themselves.”

“You should’ve joined us when we did ‘Flaming Lady’. If you did, you would’ve become a national star rather than the Daehak-ro star.”

“Instead, I got my discharge certificate.”

“Since we’re at it, let me ask. Why didn’t you do it back then? I still don’t understand. The director wanted you, yet you refused that and went back to doing plays. Didn’t I tell you several times that there’s a character I based on you?”

“I can only apologize. I really wanted to do it when you gave me the offer. I really did, but the circumstances weren’t right.”

“Well, I’m asking what those circumstances were.”

Maru only smiled to gloss over everything. Park Hoon lost his motivation to ask any further questions. Usually, Maru became firmer than concrete when he smiled like that.

“But still, you got a star from that drama.”

“Han Gaeul, the girl you recommended? She did become a star.”

Park Hoon thought back to the winter four years ago as he sipped some beer.

KTLChamber's Thoughts

So Maru recommended Gaeul for 'Flaming Lady' that made her a star and he didn't join himself? And Bunbun (probably) doesn't know this? (If she did, I doubt their relationship would be like this right now)

WHY AUTHOR! WHY YOU GOTTA MAKE ME CRY LIKE THIS… T_T

For people confused about timelines, here it goes:

Maru died and became high school 1st year, which is 2004.

That makes Maru's third year of high school 2006.

Flaming lady is presumably shot in 2007 (because it's after graduation)

Summer 2008, Maru goes to military.

Summer 2010, Maru gets discharged.

Summer 2011, we're here now.

I think that's how it is……

Editor's Note:

I do find it a bit of a shame that Jayeon and Ganghwan didn't get together but this pairing is still very cute. Park Hoon whipped bad. I will take this fluff.

Chapter 763
Sequence 2

Park Hoon remembered that day had pretty good weather for winter. December of 2007, they had finished casting the main actors for ‘Flaming Lady’, had gotten a slot in the TV timeline, and only had the shoot left. The drama was going unhindered without any obstructions like an express train from preparations, to casting, and even time allocation. The reason the train stopped abruptly was due to the refusal of a support actor.

“I will not do it.”

It wasn’t ‘I can’t do it’. Maru was clearly expressing his refusal. It wasn’t an attempt to raise his own value nor was he showing any signs of doing that. Park Hoon put a cigarette in his mouth before reminding himself that he was inside a café. He had gotten so confused that he forgot where he was. He didn’t have a problem casting a main actor who he expected to have a hard time casting. That was the power of Choi Haesoo’s script. Park Hoon expected success when all the actors he gave the scenario to gave him a call back. Successfully casting popular actors directly led to more funding from the company. The TV station’s president, who said he wasn’t sure about the success of this drama, inserted his drama into a good slot with the help of the scheduling producer. The only thing left was to drive smoothly towards the destination, but a speed bump suddenly appeared mid way; a speed bump that was high and sturdy.

“Why?” Park Hoon asked as though he was screaming.

He couldn’t think of anything else to say other than ‘why’. He was trying to insert this guy into the YBS mini-series with guaranteed views; he was saying that he would let this guy eat out of the same pot as the popular actors, so he wanted to know why he was refusing it.

“Is it because you got another schedule? It is possible since New Semester is over.”

“I don’t have any dramas to do for the foreseeable future.”

“Then what is it? A film?”

“I don’t have that either.”

“Then why?”

After going round and round, it came back to ‘why’. He wasn’t cast in another drama or a film. He didn’t become a college student, so he wasn’t studying either. He was twenty, an age where it was natural to challenge various things and fail. He didn’t understand why Maru was refusing this drama, which was like a path to success laid out for him.

“I’m planning to study more about basic acting. On a play stage.”

To him, that sounded more absurd than ‘I’m going to be hiking the Himalayas tomorrow’. In fact, if Maru said he was going to the Himalayas, he would be less confused right now. Going back to doing plays? And the objective is to study?

“You can study while doing the drama. No, you aren’t at a stage where you should be learning the basics anymore. You’ve already proved yourself in Pojang-macha that aired this time last year. New Semester was the same. Not only that, while you didn’t make yourself known through the dramas you shot before, you always received good evaluations. Both I and my senior producers remember the impressive acting you showed us. The reason I’m offering you this role is because you have that foundation. You’re doing plenty well. What you need right now isn’t the basics, it’s depth. And depth is something you gain from experience.”

Park Hoon thought that the situation was going pretty strangely. For a producer to be persuading the actor, the actor had to be a popular one. He never imagined that he would be playing power games with an actor who had just entered the drama scene. He decided to become calm. He believed that Maru was not genuinely refusing this offer. He had faith that Maru would eventually accept if he kept advising him, and he thought that there was a different reason he was doing this now.

“I’m sorry.”

The moment he saw Maru lower his head and say those words, Park Hoon had to admit that he was clearly wrong. Those eyes weren’t those belonging to a man who could be negotiated with. Those unshaking pupils were proof of his firm decision. Park Hoon intuitively felt that Maru would refuse even if he promised he would be the main actor.

Park Hoon gulped the cooled coffee in one go and went over to the counter to ask for a cup of cold water. He had never considered Maru refusing this offer. He believed that it was as easy as scooping out a fish from a fish tank, but it turned out to be more difficult than catching a yellowtail fish in the vast seas barehanded. He sat down and drank a sip of cold water again before looking at Maru’s eyes. Forget yellowtail, this boy was a shark.

“You really don’t have any intentions of doing this, huh.”

“Yes. I really appreciate you offering this role to me. If you want to use me again in the future, I will set aside everything and participate.”

“You have quite the confidence huh. Do you know how I feel right now? I feel like I proposed to the woman I promised my life to but had my cheek slapped instead. Didn’t I tell you that I want to shoot my next piece with you throughout the whole of New Semester?”

“You did.”

“Then why did you suddenly change your mind? I usually don’t say this because it’s embarrassing, but I have a really good hunch about this piece. The scenario has proved itself already. All the actors who received the script, and I’m talking about those picky ones, gave the okay sign in just one go. Some even said that they were willing to lower their pays. You’re just kicking away the opportunity to appear in such a drama. You know that?”

I know - Maru replied without hesitation. There wasn’t a shred of doubt in his words. Park Hoon found him despicable even. He took out the script for the 1st episode.

“Have a look.”

“It’s okay.”

“I won’t force you to do it. Just have a look.”

Maru politely accepted the script with both hands. He slowly turned over the pages as though he was appreciating a bowl of rice that was just cooked. The more Park Hoon looked at him, the more pity he felt. That script had a role that was based on the human known as Han Maru. If Maru said he didn’t want to do it, he would have no choice but to give it to someone else. A custom suit would become nothing more than a mass-produced one.

“It’s good. I really mean it.”

Park Hoon saw that thing known as desire appearing in Maru’s eyes. That was an expression of emotion that would never happen if he did not like the drama. Perhaps it wasn’t all over right now.

“That’s precisely why I think that someone else has to do it. I don’t think I can focus on work right now.”

Maru, who had only expressed his refusal until now, finally mentioned a reason for the first time, as vague as it might be.

“If it’s something I can help with, I can help you as much as I can. Is it money?”

“I’ve earned enough to make a living.”

“I know I shouldn’t be saying this, but is it because a member of your family has become ill and…”

“Both of my parents are healthy. If it was about that, I would have told you about it. The reason I’m not doing the drama is because of personal emotions. It’s not that there’s an inevitable reason for it.”

“Emotions?”

“Yes. You might say that doing work might make things okay, and I agree with that to some extent, but this time, I don’t think that’s plausible. I need time to collect myself. Studying acting is just on the side. It’s not anything grand, so I found it awkward to tell you about it.”

“Yes, now that I heard what you said, I feel like getting angry. You have the audacity to kick away such a good opp…”

Park Hoon stopped midway and drank some water. He had already stuffed the script on the table into his bag.

“I’m no one to direct your life. I’m not sure about anyone else, but if it’s you, you’ll definitely do well by yourself. If you made such a decision, you must have a clear reason for doing so.”

“Thank you for understanding.”

“I’m not understanding anything. I’m just letting it be. Honestly, I want to nag you right now. I want to tell you about how good this opportunity is for a whole day. I’m the producer here, so you must know how tragic it is for me to have such thoughts towards a support actor.”

“If you ever need me for later work, then I will definitely participate.”

“You’re deplorable for having the confidence to reject me now yet also telling me that there will be a next time. At the same time, I find myself foolish for thinking that I will definitely use you next time.”

Park Hoon got ready to stand up. As the casting didn’t happen, there was no need for him to continue being here.

“Uhm, director,” Maru spoke just as he was about to stand up.

Park Hoon looked at Maru expectantly. Maybe he had a change of heart? Was he going to do this after all?

“I know I’m shameless for saying this, but may I recommend an actor?”

“Recommend?”

Park Hoon sat back down again, thinking about how serious he was when he read the script.

“Have you watched the movie ‘Building’ that was released this fall?”

“That disaster movie?”

“Yes.”

“Movies that get more than 10 million views, I have to watch, even if it’s for work.”

“Do you remember a girl who played the role of a high school girl there? She gets crushed under the debris and dies.”

“Oh, you mean the girl that appears with a big dog?”

There was no need to probe his memories. She was an actress who left a deep impression on him after all. When he watched that scene, the first thing he thought was that it must have been hard to shoot a scene with an animal, and the second was about who that girl was to be able to express the reality of being crushed to death so vividly. After watching it, he forgot about it due to being busy with drama work, but when he heard Maru talk about it, that memory became vivid again in an instant.

“Don’t you think she suits the obsessive girl that appears at the beginning of the drama? Of course, you don’t need to think about it if you have someone for that role already but seeing that you were here to offer me a place in the lineup, I was wondering if some of the supporting and minor roles are open.”

“You’re right. We’ve only procured the main roles because of the advertising. The casting is still in progress. Though, it will probably be finished.”

“Have you cast someone for that role already?”

Park Hoon leaned back on the backrest. A new actor who rejected his own cast but was recommending someone else, huh.

“No. I did get a list through some connections, but nothing is set in stone yet.”

“She will definitely digest this role well.”

“Do you know her?”

“I do know her. Of course, I’m not telling you that you have to use her. I’m only telling you that a girl like her exists.”

“She’s not bad. It’s true that I’ve taken note of her. Though, I forgot about her due to work.”

“If you’re okay with time, you should have a look at her. You will definitely not feel disappointed. She’s a good one after all.”

If it was an absurd request, he would have refused, but the girl in that movie definitely possessed the skills worth meeting.

“If you do meet her, I hope you don’t talk about me to her.”

“Why that all of a sudden?”

“Please.”

Please, without mentioning the reason huh. Park Hoon accepted his request.

“But you owe me for this, okay? You can’t change your words later. I’m not saying that I will definitely use her, but I will have a look at her for sure. But in turn, you have to work with me later, okay? After you deal with whatever emotions of yours.”

At that time, Maru deeply nodded and thanked him. A sense of satisfaction that couldn’t be seen when he asked him to take up a role could be seen on that face. He was curious about the relationship between the two, but he didn’t ask. He promised after all.

It was a week later when he met the girl, found out the girl’s name was Han Gaeul, and that she was the daughter of the writer Choi Haesoo who wrote the scenario for the drama. During this time, he had not mentioned Maru’s name even once.

“Director, the meat is getting burnt.”

Maru grabbed some pieces of meat and put them on a plate. The expression he had at the café four years ago overlapped with his smiling face right now.

“Since you’re coming back to dramas, I can assume that you have resolved that reason of yours, correct?”

“Yes, to some extent. I think I’m at the point where I don’t have to run away anymore.”

“You’re not going to reply if I ask from what, are you?”

“Director, your glass is empty.”

Maru raised the beer bottle and switched the topic. He looked like he had zero intentions of replying.

“Hey, what was your relationship with Han Gaeul? Why did you recommend her?”

“She’s just a friend. I wanted to see a friend of mine doing well.”

“Did you know that the writer for ‘Flaming Lady’ was Gaeul’s mom?”

“No, at least not back then. I found out later. I’m sure the writer must have been overjoyed when you recommended Gaeul to her.”

“Like hell she was. She instead convinced me to think about it rationally. If she’s someone who would be joyous because she got to use her daughter, she wouldn't be able to write something like that. She’s a woman who can make jokes, but she’s firm when it comes to certain things.”

“That, I have to agree.”

Park Hoon glanced at Maru while drinking beer. From the way he talked, he looked like he knew her well. That was the attitude of someone who had experienced such a thing to death.

“Let’s toast.”

Park Hoon raised his glass.

“To the arrogant new actor.”

Chapter 764
Sequence 3

He saw light in the distance. He looked down at his feet. On either side of the narrow path was darkness, splashing about. He felt like he would disappear without a trace if he fell into it. He looked back. The path he took was faintly glowing. There were two options ahead of him. He could either walk towards that intense light, or go back the path he came from.

Just as he was about to take a step towards the light, Maru put down his half-lifted left foot again. This was a dream he constantly had before he got enlisted. He always realized that it was a dream at the same point. He always came to himself in the middle of the narrow path where he could only walk forward or go back.

Light was the symbol of happiness. He would be able to endure anything as long as he could jump into that light.

Maru slowly looked down and looked at the path that led to the light. The intense light made him unable to see the end. He had no way of knowing what was there; whether there was a path, darkness, or nothing at all.

He ran towards the light several times. He tried walking, running, and even crawling. He even tried swimming in the darkness, but it always ended with him waking up from the dream. He had never once reached the light. The light turned from something he wanted to possess to a target he could feel satisfied with just looking.

Maru neither returned nor went forward. He just sat down on the spot and watched the warmly-lit light source in the distance. The darkness splashing on either side of the path slowly crept up onto it. The darkness quickly spread towards his neck after it touched his body just like a droplet of ink falling on a piece of paper. This darkness possessed neither warmth nor coldness and was a cleaner that erased everything. Life and death held no meaning there. The darkness crept up his chin, covered his lips, and colored his cheeks. When all of his senses disappeared, Maru tensed his eyes and looked at the light. He captured the light with his eyes that were being erased. I am still here.

He took a deep breath like someone who had been underwater for a while. He saw a chest heaving up and down through his vision. He stroked down his face and stood up. His entire body was sticky from sweat.

Maru got off the bed and went to the bathroom. He took a shower and brewed some coffee in the kitchen. He checked his social network on his phone while sitting on the sofa with a cup of coffee in hand. There were new posts cheering for his last performance. He emptied the coffee and changed his clothes. He put on a t-shirt and a pair of pants, both of which his fans gave to him as a gift. He got in his car and headed towards Mapo.

“You done yet?” he asked as he opened the door to the convenience store.

Daemyung, who was organizing the triangular rice balls, shook his head.

“I have to organize all of this.”

Maru took out some milk and fizzy drinks from the box by his foot.

“I have to display them over there, right?”

“I’ll do it.”

“You take care of that.”

He pulled forward the milk which had a shorter expiration date and inserted the new milk at the back. Just as he started cleaning up the other products in a similar fashion, the door to the convenience store opened. Daemyung said ‘welcome’ and returned to the counter. A tired-looking woman asked for a pack of cigarettes. Following that, another customer came in. It was 8 a.m. The convenience store was crowded like a full train. Maru finished organizing stuff before sitting on the chair outside the convenience store. The influx of people disappeared soon like the rain. Daemyung came out of the convenience store with empty boxes in each hand.

“It’s a war every morning.”

“It’s a good thing if the business is going well.”

“The problem is that your wages don’t increase just because the business goes well.”

“The owner still looks out for me quite a lot.”

As soon as he put out the empty cardboard boxes, an elderly lady appeared with a hand wagon. The elderly man who was pushing a bike on the other side of the road clicked his tongue and turned around. Maru saw a girl yawning as she walked past the elderly lady. The girl looked at the convenience store sign, took a deep breath, and started running. After running about 20 meters, the girl opened the door in a hurry and shouted: Oppa, I’m sorry for being late.

“It’s okay.”

Daemyung’s voice could be heard through the creaking glass door. Maru looked up at the sky and sighed. Why did his gentle nature not change a bit? Daemyung left after taking off his convenience store jacket, having passed over the work to her.

“She’ll be late every time if you don’t say anything to her.”

“I’m sure she must have her reasons. Also, it’s hard waking up every morning.”

The person in question was okay, so there was no need to nag him about it. Instead, Maru stared at the woman standing at the counter. She seemed surprised to see him together with Daemyung. She must inwardly be wondering if they knew each other? A girl who tried to deceive people by pretending right in front of her workplace should also know how to use her head. She would probably not be late starting next time.

“Let’s go, we should go eat.”

He took Daemyung to the nearby gukbap restaurant. Daemyung seemed to have adjusted to the late-night convenience store shift that he began doing as soon as the college holidays started. He almost looked like he was going to die when Maru met him on the third day after he started work.

“It takes quite a lot of money to live by yourself, doesn’t it?”

“Yeah, a lot more than I thought I would. I never knew that shampoo, toothpaste, and toothbrushes are so expensive. Everything, from drinking to eating, needs money.”

“You should’ve stayed at home. Why did you dive into pain nose first?”

“True. I regret leaving the house. Though, I can only live by myself because the president is paying tuition. If not for that, I would have had to stay at home. The tuition is quite a lot after all.”

“Why don’t you ask for living expenses too then?”

“Nah. I have to start earning my own money once I graduate.”

“Or just borrow from me. You would never take it for free though.”

“I’ll leave that as a last resort.”

Daemyung poured the rice into the soup and started scooping it up.

“You look pretty okay now. At first, you couldn’t even eat anything properly after your shift.”

“Looks like I adapted. I don’t feel that tired now either. Though, I still fall asleep the moment I go back home and get washed.”

Daemyung opened the bag next to him with his spoon still in his mouth. He took out a notebook.

“Here.”

Maru grabbed the notebook. The reason Daemyung took up a night shift at the convenience store when he usually did day shifts at places like factories and restaurants was this notebook. When he opened the notebook, Daemyung’s gaze headed to it after having been glued to the gukbap all this time.

“You just keep eating.”

Maru held the notebook with one hand and flipped the page. Daemyung was gobbling down the gukbap in a hurry from what he glimpsed over the notebook. He looked like he was nervous and couldn’t find the leisure to eat.

“How is it?” he carefully asked when Maru closed the notebook.

His eyes, red from staying up all night, contained expectation and nervousness.

“It’s good as long as the shoot goes properly.”

Maru returned the note to him. Daemyung made a sound that sounded like a sigh mixed with a groan.

“I passed the first test, so that leaves the 2nd.”

“Right, there was a picky one. I wonder if she is at work right now.”

“Probably? I should text her for now. I was so concerned about this during work. Looks like I’ll be able to sleep easy now.”

“Are you going to start if she says she wants to shoot?”

“If you’re okay with the schedule.”

“I just did my last performance, so I have plenty of time. I’ll be busy if I get work though.”

“I’ll try to schedule it as soon as possible.”

“Alright.”

He let Daemyung in his car. During the 10 minute trip to his house, Daemyung dozed off in the passenger seat.

“Yo, dude, go sleep inside.”

Daemyung got off while staggering and waved goodbye at him. Maru told him to go inside before turning his car around. Today, there was one more place he had to go.

“Can you wrap it for me? It’s for a gift.”

“What kind of gift wrap would you like?”

“I’d like something a two-year-old girl would like.”

He had bought a dollhouse from the toys section at the mall. He put the gift-wrapped toy on the passenger seat.

“I’m on my way there. You’re at home, right?”

He made a call when he arrived at Suwon station. There was a girl who was wailing and a mother who was consoling her. The doting voice of the father was mixed in as well.

He parked his car in the parking lot of the apartment. He picked up the gift in one hand and got on the elevator. He really hoped that she would like it. He would probably feel hurt if the little lady with a picky sense of aesthetics ended up disliking it.

“I’m here.”

As soon as he pressed the bell, the door opened. Taesik was standing behind the fence that was installed to prevent dogs from getting out.

“I’m not inconveniencing you by coming on a weekend, am I?”

“I thought you were never going to come because you didn’t come no matter how many times we told you. Honey, Maru’s here.”

Taesik shouted inside. The first to show a reaction were two chihuahuas. Maru patted the head of the chihuahua that propped himself up using the fence.

“This is a gift for Sol. I’m not sure if she would like it though.”

“Why did you bring such a thing? You shouldn’t have.”

“Aren’t your hands a little too quick to receive it when you’re saying those words?”

Maru went over the fence and walked into the living room. The floor was covered with soft mattresses for kids, and the wallpaper next to the main door was full of crayon marks. Clearly, a tomboy was living in this house.

“You’re here?”

Miso walked into the living room, holding Sol in her hands. Maru put his hands out the moment he saw her.

“Can I have a hug?”

“You mean me?”

“That sounds terrifying. I mean Sol.”

Miso handed Sol over, telling him to be careful. The child’s eyes had tear marks as though she fell asleep after crying.

“She’s grown a lot in the past half a year.”

“She surprises me a lot too. When I wake up from sleep and see her, I always find myself surprised to see that she grew so much. Anyway, what’s that?” Miso asked as she pointed at the gift.

“A gift for Sol. It’s a dollhouse, and I was told that a two-year-old is fine to play with it. If she was awake, I would have loved to emphasize that it was uncle who bought it for her.”

“She should wake up soon. Then, she’ll probably start throwing a tantrum since she is hungry. Anyway, thanks for the gift. I did tell you that you can come empty-handed, but I was going to chase you out if you really did.”

“I had a hunch that would be the case. How do you feel these days? You said you weren’t feeling good during the last performance.”

“Apparently, it’s stress-induced gastritis. Looks like standing on stage after a long time took a toll on me.”

“Not as much as me though, right? I had to suffer under you. I never thought I would be acting under you after I graduated high school, so imagine what I felt when I met you in Blue Sky. What a life, eh?”

“Hey, would you like to put Sol down for a moment?”

“Hell no. I will only be safe if I take Sol hostage. Teacher Taesik, I’ll take care of Sol until I leave.”

“That’s outside my jurisdiction unfortunately.”

Taesik looked at Miso through the corner of his eyes. He seemed to be indicating that she was the decision-maker in this household. Miso sat down on the sofa and spoke,

“How about breakfast?”

“I just had one with Daemyung.”

“Has Daemyung lost some weight these days?”

“Nope, he’s the same as ever.”

“I told him to lose some weight, but he just won’t listen. I wonder if he would listen if I go and beat him up a little.”

Miso frowned in dissatisfaction. Maru whispered to Sol in a small voice.

“Sol, you can’t take after your mother, okay? You have to take after the gentle nature of teacher Taesik.”

“I can hear you.”

“I want you to listen. If you haven’t eaten, let’s go out. I’ll treat you.”

Maru felt Sol twitch halfway through his words. Sol then slowly opened her eyes. Maru smiled so that the child wasn’t surprised, however, Sol immediately burst into tears. He tried making all sorts of funny faces, but it was to no avail. Only after getting into her mother’s embrace did she stop crying and look around.

“I’m pretty popular with the girls too.”

“Dear Sol looks at the heart of people.”

“Then I can understand why she’s crying.”

Maru opened the packaging of the toy he brought in front of Sol. She immediately showed a reaction and took out the dollhouse. She soon hid behind her mother as she was quite shy, but when he pretended to play with the dolls, she approached him again.

“You should find a partner quickly and get married. You’re a total sucker for playing with children.”

“I’d love to if I have a partner.”

“How about Yoonjoo from the troupe? I think she was interested in you.”

“Yoonjoo is a little sister.”

“How about Jiwon? It’s been a while since she hasn’t had a boyfriend.”

“She’s a big sister.”

“Forget it, what am I even saying. You’re the guy who rejects everyone who likes you. You know? You’re going to live alone for the rest of your life if you keep acting like that.”

“That doesn’t sound half bad either.”

Maru grabbed Sol’s hand and shook it from side to side.

“Sol, would you like to marry uncle after you grow up?”

As soon as he said those words, he got a loud smash on his back. Along with a low thud, pain spread from his back. Sol, who was watching him in a daze, started giggling.

“Honey, let’s leave for now,” Miso said.

Chapter 765
Sequence 3

Sol ate the bossam[1] with her small mouth. Despite her mother repeatedly telling her to chew before eating more, she reached out for more meat before she even swallowed what was in her mouth. She kept saying ‘more, more’ intermittently. Her pronunciation of other words often became smudged, but ‘more’ was very clear. There didn’t seem to be a parent who could win against that.

“She eats way too much. She was born quite hefty too.”

“It’s a blessing for a child her age to eat well. But is it fine to feed her kimchi?”

“Just the washed ones. I heard that feeding kids sweet or salty stuff can get them bad habits. Sol, grab your spoon.”

Even Miso, who was always fiercely scolding the members of the play on stage with a script, was an endlessly kind mother in front of her daughter Sol. Maru wondered what the new guy would say after seeing this when he ended up crying after being scolded by Miso. He might tell her not to put on an act and act unjustified.

“I’ll pay.”

“You’re semi-unemployed; you don’t have any money. The toy was more than enough.”

Maru was putting out his card, but he had to put it back in his wallet when he saw the fierce glare. Now that Sol was in her father’s arms, Miso was not a mother; she was the vicious director of Blue Sky.

“Since we’re out, we should take a stroll with Sol.”

Taesik grabbed Sol’s hand and started walking. Maru and Miso walked behind him at a distance.

“She doesn’t cry that much.”

“Sure she doesn’t. She’s not crying now because she cried enough in the morning. Also, she just ate. She’ll cry again when she gets hungry.”

“She eats well and cries well. She must be healthy.”

Sol, who was walking by herself, suddenly leaned towards the side. Taesik had let go of her for a moment. Maru only noticed that Miso had moved when she took about two steps ahead. She was that fast. Taesik grabbed the falling Sol with both of his hands and lifted her into the air. Sol, who was raised to her father’s chest level, waved her hands and feet around in the air and smiled pleasantly. Daddy will give you an airplane - Taesik nonchalantly said. Miso slapped him on the back, and Taesik looked back at Miso, completely clueless about what he had just done.

“Be careful. You made her fall over like that last time.”

“It’s fine for a child to fall over.”

“Are you going to take responsibility if it leaves a scar?”

“Okay, okay. I was in the wrong. Sol, daddy’s sorry, okay?”

Taesik raised the white flag before there was even a fight. Sol, who had almost inadvertently become the cause of marital problems, just cluelessly raised her arms into the air, wanting to go higher. That bold personality of hers was just like her mother. The grumbling mother, the gentle father, and the child that walked between the two of them.

The figure of the three people made Maru take out an old photo from a cabinet in the depths of his memories. The daughter was giggling while smelling her father’s socks, and the husband was waving around the socks in the air. There was also the wife who took out her phone saying she had to take a photo. His daughter was a grateful child who grew up without many problems, and his wife was a reassuring person who told her husband to get some rest after he quit his company. Was Gaeul around that age too? He wondered about that.

“This is why I can’t let that guy take care of her.”

Miso did a sermon about scars for Taesik before returning.

“What a harmonious family, other than the fact that the mother is a little scary.”

“Why don’t I become scary for real today?” Miso said while pulling up her sleeves.

The faces of the members of Blue Sky, who had been beaten by those thin arms of hers, flashed in front of his face. Maru waved his hand in the air in a flurry. He didn’t want to get hit, even as a joke.

“You’re quitting the troupe?” Miso asked when Taesik became a little more distant.

“Yes. It’s too tiring, I can’t keep up.”

“Are you going to continue if I make it less tiring?”

“No. It’s about time I go back to the screen and the TV. My dream is to earn tons of money with commercials and play around for the rest of my life. You know, like senior Joohyun.”

“If that was the case, you shouldn’t have kicked away the opportunities given to you before you went to the military.”

“I must have not known what was right because I was young back then.”

“Like hell you didn’t. It was because of your escapist life.”

Maru felt like a small needle had been poked between his ribs. Miso snorted as though she wasn’t gonna be fooled.

“It’s our 8th year, isn’t it? I first saw you when you were in your first year of high school. I was wondering what was going on back then. I first thought you were intentionally moving to the side of being bullied because you couldn’t adapt to school, but you ended up acting fine after taking the blame from everyone. I thought you were amazing. I mean, it’s not easy for a young boy to endure being falsely blamed, is it? I got to find out more about you and found out that you are much more peculiar than I thought. While you were peculiar though, you were still acting within common sense. But your actions after graduation were completely outside both my common sense as well as what I knew about Han Maru’s action patterns. Why did you abandon such a great opportunity and laugh your life out in the play scene where no one recognizes you instead? It didn’t seem like you were waiting for the right time, and it didn’t look like you were preparing something either. An exiled aristocrat might look like that. You know, they pretend to care about everything in the world but don’t do anything about it. Or maybe, you weren’t able to do that.”

“You should’ve told me if it was obvious so that I could put up a better pretense.”

“You’re the type of guy who does things well by yourself, so I thought that you were doing something I didn’t know about. It was when you announced that you were going to the military that I realized that you weren’t doing anything like that. Other people are going so far to delay their military service as much as possible, but you enlisted as soon as you got the notification. That convinced me that you were running away.”

“There’s no better place of exile than the military after all. There’s no one who knows me, and I don’t know anyone there either. Two years, honestly, it was good. I almost ended up staying there[2].”

“Why didn’t you? You wasted another year after leaving. That’s so unlike you.”

“There are times when people just want to stray off. Still, it’s a good thing since I cleared myself up.”

“For someone who cleared himself up, you didn’t look that good, you know? Rather than looking like you cleared yourself up, you look like you just pushed it into a corner.”

Maru smiled; It was an escapist smile. Miso wasn’t someone he could fool or win against since she was comparing clues and facts about him like a lawyer. It would be much wiser to stay silent. Maybe her time bearing a child, giving birth, and raising her might have broadened her horizons. When he avoided the sharp question, Miso also switched the topic as though she had no intentions of pursuing this matter.

“Did you get any offers? I didn’t hear anything from senior.”

The senior that Miso talked about was probably president Lee Junmin.

“Not yet. As you said, I’m splendidly semi-unemployed.”

“For a person like that, you look pretty confident. You look like you know that you’ll get work soon.”

“I have confidence in my skills after all. I have blind faith that advertisers would notice me and give me offers.”

“Does senior count as one of those advertisers?”

“I’m not entirely sure about that. From how he hasn’t abandoned me yet, I think he intends to make use of me, but I can’t be sure if he likes me when I escaped to the military instead of listening to his words. I should try begging, I guess.”

“You don’t need to be worried about that since he would have cut you off a long time ago if you weren’t needed. He didn’t tell you to pull out of the apartment, did he?”

“Fortunately, not yet.”

“Then I guess he must be watching. Just like you said, he might give you some work in due time.”

“I should go find my own prey before he does. I should reassure him that I’m still intact. Only then will I be able to sleep easy in that apartment.”

“That place is pretty expensive. There’s the Han river view, and the redevelopment just finished. If I wanted to buy a place there with my own money…”

After writing some numbers with her index finger on her palm, Miso frowned, saying that it was absurdly high. There was no better word than ‘absurd’ to describe the price of that place. He was living in such a place. He was practically bringing the company losses by just living.

“You should definitely find work soon if you want to keep living there.”

“That’s the plan. Since we’re at it, are there any auditions I can take?”

“There are a few at the academy, but they’ve been assigned already. We have to give them things like that since they’re paying expensive tuition, or they will quit soon.”

“I was planning to get some free info, but that didn’t go well.”

“Hey, why are you even asking when you know it already?”

“I’m just that desperate.”

“Geez, I’ve never seen someone desperate make a face like you. Tell me honestly. Do you really not have anything? If you really don’t have anything to do, then just help out at Blue Sky. I can list you as a member and give you living expenses.”

“If you have money to give me, you should increase the wage for the new guys. At this rate, they might earn a million and a half per year.”

“You get paid as much as you work around here. How many do you think would want a fixed pay when they’re working as an actor? They’re getting paid a million and a half right now, but they’re doing it with the resolve to earn 150 million per performance in the future.”

“Man, the passion pay[3] hasn’t changed at all since before.”

“If you don’t like that, then you can pay their wage. I’m also in charge of distributing, so I feel gosh darn sorry every single time.”

“It’s better than nothing. From what I hear, there seems to be quite a lot of people who didn’t get their pay after the theater troupe went bust.”

“It’s not just one or two for sure. If you include the overwhelming majority who chose to stay silent because they knew there was no point arguing, the number is going to be enormous. It’s not just the theaters. The situation with the RBS drama that ended a while ago seemed to be pretty serious too. The main actors all received their money, but the minor actors and staff didn’t get any pay starting March.”

“What a dirty place.”

“Yet you and I are making a living in such a place. Get yourself together. You’re twenty-five now. It’s good to wander around a little, but I’d like to remind you that the opportunity to gain experience is decreasing.”

“I’ll keep that in mind.”

He stopped wandering around after he enlisted. He just needed some time to check how much he could endure, and by endure, he was referring to meeting her, who could be the start of this cycle of reincarnation, and to loving her. It was impossible to deny her, hate her, and treat her like she was completely meaningless, but it became possible for him to package himself with lies and show it to others. Maru was planning to meet Gaeul in a while. As an old friend; as a colleague who cheered for each other. There would be no love there. She probably wouldn’t feel that either. Her affection might have cooled off when he declared his break up a long time ago. There was no guarantee that doing so would break the cycle of reincarnation, but he had to be open to possibilities and experiment. He had to do anything in order to sever this curse of living the same time over and over again.

“Thanks for the food today.”

“You’re leaving?”

“Yes. Since I was treated, I might as well take the rest of the day off.”

“Enjoy your unemployed life while you can. Once you start getting busy, you won’t be able to.”

“That’s why I was planning to find the people I haven’t seen for a while when I have the time. I have a full schedule tomorrow too.”

“Don’t just have others treat you. You should learn more about the market.”

“Yes.”

“The door to Blue Sky is always open, so you can come back any time. Or you can come to Film. The director might hire you if I ask.”

“I’ll think about it if I don’t have any work at all. Of course, I’m never going back to Blue Sky. I don’t think I can ever work under you again.”

“Only I will use someone like you.”

While they were conversing, Maru heard his phone ringing. He took out his phone from his pocket.

“It’s Sooil.”

“A popular actor wants to find an unemployed guy, huh.”

“True. Looks like I should latch onto him. I’ll leave now after saying goodbye to teacher. I’ll come back next time with another gift for Sol.”

“Alright, watch out on your way back.”

“Don’t forget to tell her that it was uncle Maru who bought her that dollhouse. I don’t want to get the cold shoulder from her later.”

“I’ll think about it.”

Maru approached Taesik and Sol and said goodbye.

“Let’s have a drink with just the two of us next time.”

“Yes, teacher.”

“I don’t know what kind of problems you had, but I believe that you’ll do well. You’ve been doing well until now after all.”

“I have to if I don’t want to go bankrupt. Sol, uncle’s leaving, okay? Say hi when we meet next time.”

He grabbed the tiny hand and shook it before returning to his car.

[1] Boiled pork, usually pork belly.

[2] As in, applying for staff personnel. Both NCOs and Officers are possible.

[3] You get paid with ‘passion’ instead of real money.

KTLChamber's Thoughts

So Sooil has gotten popular…

Miso banter always good…

…

T_T

Editor's Note:

Damn, Maru was an open book when it came to Miso. I like that all of the old charas are getting brought back in. Story prob gonna revolve around JA + Big bad hong + giwoo/another antagonist(?) now.

Chapter 766
Sequence 3

It was 2 p.m. by the time he returned home. He took out the maesil-cheong[1] extract that he put in the corner of his dressing room and stripped the black vinyl cover and opened the lid. After blowing away the sour smell from the fermentation, he dipped a wooden chopstick into the contents and put it in his mouth. There was a strong sense of sweetness followed by a faint sourness. That was the taste he wanted. He took the bottle of muesli-cheong and honey-dipped ginger.

The car that moved around busily headed into Seoul. He turned his car into the familiar alley. As he was driving up the hill slowly with the window open, Maru heard a familiar sound. Woof woof, it was Dalgu, who had become old, barking. He took the maesil-cheong and the ginger and got out of the car. Behind Dalgu’s children, who were wagging their tails at the entrance, was Dalgu, who looked docile now.

“I see, you’re old huh.”

He opened the front gate. When the rusty iron door creaked open, the pups returned to their mother. Maru patted Dalgu, who yawned with her belly on the ground, on the head before standing in front of the main door.

“Elder, it’s me, Maru.”

He shouted while knocking on the door. A moment later, he heard a voice telling him to come in. He opened the door and went in. The smell of doenjang across the whole house as well as the furniture that was getting on in age along with the elder; the laundry that was in the middle of the living room as well as the books placed around here and there. It was just as he remembered from when he visited right after getting discharged. If there was a difference, it was that there were dog houses in red, yellow, and green on the way to the bedroom.

“They got houses.”

There were even nameplates on them. Dal-il, Dal-i, Dal-sam[2]. They were the names of Dalgu’s pups whose names didn’t have a shred of thought put into them. Were they really called that?

“Ganghwan brought them as a gift. Though, they aren’t much use since they rarely use them.”

He understood when he heard that they were Ganghwan’s work. The elder came out to the living room with a pot. Maru placed the food he brought on the table.

“What’s that?”

“Some maesil-cheong and some honey-dipped ginger. For the maesil, you can mix it with hot water whenever you have a bad stomach, and as for the ginger, you can just have them as a snack. I made them myself instead of buying them from the store. They’re precious.”

Maru took out one of the pieces of ginger with chopsticks.

“Here, have a taste. It tastes awesome.”

“You’re overreacting.”

The elder put the piece in his mouth with a smile. After chewing on it, his eyebrows twitched.

“Are you sure you were the one who did it?”

“I actually did. I received the knowledge from my mother, but I did everything from picking the ingredients to making the whole thing. How is it? Not bad, eh?”

“It suits my tastes perfectly.”

“Don’t give it to the drunkards that visit your house and eat them by yourself.”

“Those drunkards must be disappointed, but I guess I can’t help it. The one who gifted it to me doesn’t want them to go to other people.”

Maru took the pot that the elder was holding. It was boiling braised black beans. He picked up the long pair of wooden chopsticks right next to the stove and stirred them so that nothing stuck together.

“The one who will wed you will have an easy time. You can do everything by yourself.”

“My plan is to do the household chores. In this era, the man doesn’t really have to be the breadwinner. I will look after the house, do the laundry, look after the kids, and make the meals. I’d love to meet a competent wife and have an easy life.”

“Then first, you must meet someone to be your wife.”

“As much as I’d love to, there’s no one around me who likes me. Looks like I don’t have any charm.”

He put the braised black beans to one side and left the kitchen. The elder was sitting on the sofa with the three pups that came in from outside.

“I did hear that she gave birth, but I never imagined it was to three of them.”

“It’s so hectic around here thanks to these ones. They’re so familiar around people like their mother. Every night, they would come to me and lick me. These little ones have such good stamina. They never run out of energy after running around all day.”

“As expected of Dalgu’s pups. But isn’t it good to have some bustle around here?”

The elder merely replied by tickling the puppies on the necks.

“How was the trip to Europe?”

“I realized how much of a pain it is to leave the house. But there were a lot of things to see.”

“There are people willing to take you on trips lined up, so you should take their offer.”

“I’m wondering if I have enough energy for that. It’s hard for an old man to move around.”

“I know you’re still energetic. Since we’re at it, what do you think about going on a trip with me? I will do my best. Though, you’ll have to walk quite a lot because I don’t have a lot of money.”

“You’re trying to kill me, aren’t you? Usually, people grow up when they go to the military, but you’ve gotten more sly.”

“Maybe it’s because I left a lot of things there. I feel so light that I might fly off somewhere.”

Maru started folding the laundry neatly and piled it in front of the sofa. He felt at ease as though he had made a visit to his own grandfather. He visited around the time it would become awkward to visit again, so he felt like this place was his own house. He even felt like he should place his set of cutlery and toothbrush here. Everyone who visits this place might feel like that though.

“It’s as you say. It seems you have left a lot of things there. Is it just me who thinks that you’ve left behind some things you shouldn’t have as well?”

Maru smiled and stood up with the folded laundry. The elder shouldn’t have miraculous powers that looked into the minds of others. After all, God was petty and did not scatter his powers anywhere. Was it the power of experience that allowed him to see through other people’s hearts despite not having magical powers? Or did he show it on his face without knowing?

He thought about it while putting the laundry in the drawers. About the things he shouldn’t have left behind. A dark corner in the drawer seemed to be whispering to him: you didn’t leave them behind, you are pretending that you have left them behind. You’re pretending to have left behind Han Gaeul.

“Sure.”

He pushed the drawers shut. He still missed and longed for her, but he had already entered a path of no return. In her memories, the one known as Han Maru might have become a ‘wretch’ after ending their relationship with a simple ‘let’s break up’. In fact, that was too good of a treatment for someone who had fallen silent after a one-sided announcement.

“Am I even a wretch in her heart?”

If he was a wretch, it would mean that he still remained in a corner of her memories. If she had ripped out Han Maru from her memories like ripping out a page from a note, he would become nothing more than a ‘passerby A’ in her life. A wretch was better than a passerby, wasn’t it? He was planning to meet her in a while. He looked forward to, and at the same time, worried about the expression she would show. He would feel hurt if she greeted him nicely, but he would also be hurt if she looked at him with contempt as well. The consequences of meeting her were that he was bound to end up with depression and self-loathing, no matter how it turned out.

“Should I bring some drinks?”

“I was wondering when you were going to say that.”

The drunkards that visited this place, aka, Junmin, Ganghwan, Geunsoo, and Sooil, all left behind traces under the sink, in the cupboard, and in the fridge. The drink that one had to wait 2 years after ordering in order to get was tragically contained under the sink. The bottles of drinks that were lined up next to it were all quite valuable as well, but they were nothing more than deadweights in this house. The elder’s preference was always soju.

In the cupboard were dry drinking snacks from all over the globe. A cursory glance would be equivalent to a trip around the world. He took out two of them at random. As these were all snacks that passed the quality test of the picky drunkards that visited this place, there was no real need to hesitate. He took out some budae-jjigae[3] that could be made easily from the fridge and boiled them before putting them on the table.

“Here, have a drink.”

He accepted a glass from the elder and took the bottle from him. After toasting with the elder lightly, he emptied the drink in one go.

“If you’re going to cry, tell me beforehand. Don’t just go crying without warning like you did last time. I may look like I’m experienced with most things in the world, but I’m bound to panic if a young man past twenty suddenly starts wailing on the spot.”

“Elder, that was already three years ago.”

“I’m saying it because you look exactly like how you looked back then. Don’t you think you should give me some time to prepare? I’d have to give you some tissues if you start crying again.”

“Please forget that time. I was not right in my mind because it was right before enlisting.”

“Oh please, something other than the military was the problem. Try fooling someone else. It’s not like I’ve only seen you for a day or two.”

“This is why I can’t even lie in front of you, elder. I had the confidence that no one else would find out, but you keep seeing right through me.”

“Weren’t you practically flaunting your sadness in front of me?”

Maru smiled and said that that might be the case. The drunken sensation spread through his blood vessels. Outside, he didn’t get drunk no matter how many bottles he drank, but he got drunk after just a few glasses in front of the elder. The fact that he didn’t have to put on an intricate mask, and that he could act spoiled in front of the elder disarmed all of his defenses. This place was the reed forest; the only place where he could shout that the King’s ears were donkey ears.

“Elder. Do you remember a story I told you about before? That I was forty-five in a dream?”

“I do.”

“You told me this back then: I should try hitting the world as a reality and not look at it as scenery. You were entirely right. When I tried it, things went easier than I was worried about. I no longer have any fears about not being able to act. It doesn’t matter if I become poor as well. I can be satisfied as long as I can continue acting in my life. However, I realized that there were things in this world that you just simply can’t clash against.”

“If you can’t clash against it, you can only avoid it.”

“That must be how it is, right?”

“From the looks of you, you don’t seem to like that decision. You said you had a girl you liked, didn’t you?”

“Yes, I did.”

“Did you break up?”

“I told her that we should break up when I was a complete idiot without anything good about myself. That was three years ago. That’s how I ended up acting spoiled in front of you. That’s the reason this fully grown-up man wailed in front of you.”

“What is the reason that this girl became something you could not clash against?”

“Would you believe me if I said that the heavens have decreed so?”

The elder sighed before drinking. He neither mocked nor nagged him for being so vague.

“If there’s a clear reason you can’t, then you should forget about it.”

“I think so too.”

“But thinking that and carrying it out is different. I don’t know what your circumstances are, but I hope you don’t make decisions that you would regret. Usually, choosing something you know you would regret because you had no other choice doesn't end up that well.”

“What if both choices end up with regret?” Maru asked as he put down the glass.

“For problems you can’t do anything about, there are only decisions that you can’t do anything about. If everything went the way you expected it to, you can’t call that life.”

The elder raised the bottle.

“I’m sorry I can’t give you a useful answer.”

“You were much more helpful than those plausible-sounding lies. I guess the only answer to a problem you don’t have a choice for is a decision you don’t have a choice about. I’m sure I’ll end up regretting it, but if that one regret is enough to end it, I will be satisfied with it. It’s better than tasting regret repeatedly.”

Maru propped up the glass. He already had the answer: to not enter a deep relationship with her. He just wanted conviction. He wanted to know if this was the right choice or not. He would only find out the result of this choice on the day he dies. If his life ends, he would have been right. If it was repeated…

“If you made the wrong choice and regret it to the point you feel like crying again, you can come over and cry again. You can do that as much as you want while I’m alive.”

“Oh, please, elder. That was my last cry. There will only be happy things in the future.”

He had lost something he couldn’t afford to lose. A person who no longer had anything to lose should not possess any sadness. Maru smiled and grabbed the glass. From how he found smiling not so difficult, it seemed humans were bound to adapt after all; to a life with her; to him without her.

“The pain won’t last forever.”

Those were the elder’s words.

[1] Green plum juice concentrate.

[2] Respectively, Dal-one, Dal-two, Dal-three. Dalgoo also happens to be Dal-nine.

[3] Korean army soup.

KTLChamber's Thoughts

"For problems you can’t do anything about, there are only decisions that you can’t do anything about."

(The only answer to a problem you don’t have a choice to is a decision you don’t have a choice about)

"If everything went the way you expected it to, you can’t call that life."

So many golden words here.

You can't blame me for crying. ToT

Also, I can't remember if Dalgoo was Dalgoo or Dalgu. Editor will probably change it :P

Editor's Note:

The pain. T_T. Honestly, I think the elder ranks so high in my favorite character ranking. Man is spitting out life lessons like it's nothing.

Also, it was Dalgu lul

Chapter 767
Sequence 3

Sooil came around when they had emptied a bottle of soju. Dalgoo, who had been docile until now, wagged her tail and welcomed Sooil. Perhaps even dogs recognized a handsome man. Dalgoo strolled around Sooil, biting his leg sleeves in a playful manner.

“Sir, I’m here.”

“Alright, come on in. Thanks for coming all the way here in this hot weather.”

“Don’t mention it.”

Maru waved his hand to greet him. He got a call when he was about to part with Miso, and when Sooil told him that they should meet up, they scheduled a meeting in the elder’s home. Sooil’s head touched the bug net that went across above the door.

“Man, tall guys are definitely different. Your head can reach that thing?”

“There you go again, even though we just met.”

“I’m just envious. My growth spurt fizzled out in high school and I haven’t grown a single centimeter, but someone has reached a whopping 187cm. Elder, I look better than someone who’s huge like him, don’t I?”

“Sooil looks much better to the eyes. You’re asking the obvious.”

“Elder, my maesil and honey-dipped ginger are crying. Please side with me here.”

Sooil entered the kitchen with paper bags in both of his hands and started putting away the things he brought under the sink, in the cupboard, and in the fridge. Maru also stood up and went over to him.

“You brought a lot.”

“I can’t come empty-handed when I’m coming to the elder’s house. Oh, put that in the fridge for me.”

Maru put the ginseng extract in the vegetable cabin in the fridge. Ginseng extract was added to the never ending list of healthy foods.

“Elder, you’re gonna have to skip your meals and eat these only if you want to finish them.”

“Take some when you leave. Also, Sooil, you didn’t bring more, did you?”

Oh, of course not - said Sooil before taking out the ginseng extract from the fridge. After organizing the things, he picked up a soju glass from the kitchen and returned to the table.

“You should have some as well.”

The elder poured some soju for Sooil. The talk with the elder, which was interrupted halfway through the story about his trip to Europe, resumed again. A glass during the plains that he saw on the train, another glass while talking about the focaccia he ate in a restaurant he didn’t know the name of, a glass over talking about some wine he drank at a famous château. When the elder started talking about coming back to the lodging and lying down, empty soju bottles had filled the table.

“We should stop drinking. The doctor said I should restrain myself.”

“I’ll go lay out the futon.”

Maru went into the bedroom and laid out the futon. After entering the room, the elder slowly kneeled down before sitting down on the floor.

“You’re visiting the hospital right? I heard that looking after arthritis early is the best way to recover.”

“I’m going to the hospital lest you nag me. Still, it’s rather fortunate. I didn’t get injured anywhere big, and it’s just a slight pain in the knees. At my age, it’s not strange to find a body part that’s broken beyond healing.”

“There you go saying things like that again. You should shoot another piece once you have had enough rest.”

“I wonder if I even have the energy to do one.”

“I’ll carry you to the shooting set on my back if I have to, so don’t worry about your energy. Then I’ll turn off the lights.”

Maru turned off the lights after hearing the elder say to him that he should stay longer. He quietly closed the door so that it didn’t make a sound. He also closed the metallic fence so that Dalgoo’s pups couldn’t scratch the door. Dalgoo’s pups lingered around as though they were bothered by the absence of their owner, but Dalgoo came by and took them to their house. The old dog seemed to know how important their old owner’s rest was.

“I heard that you’ve finished your last performance. We should toast, right?”

“It’s been ages. Also, if you wanted to congratulate me, you should’ve come yourself. If you came by, we would have sold several times the tickets that were actually sold.”

Maru grumbled as he extended his empty glass out.

“I’ll definitely make the time to visit.”

“You’re all talk. This is why handsome guys are no good. You only make lies with your handsome faces.”

“Why does it come to that again? Also, you know that I have an earnest and good image in public.”

Sooil’s signature dimple smile appeared. Maru saw that smile numerous times on TV. Starting with the movie that he shot with Geunsoo, he became known as the blue chip of Chungmuro and soon became well known through films and various TV programs. A new person was added to maestro Junmin’s list of new recruit excavations. He made his presence known through frequent appearances, and thanks to his discreet good deeds, acting skills, and even his handsome and tall figure, it didn’t take long for him to turn from a blue chip to a star. He was popular but lacked presence before, but that was solved in one go as well.

“If I keep lying without getting found out, that’s no different from the truth. I saw the photo that was shot at the charity bazaar. Anyone would think that you’re a good guy.”

“That’s my specialty after all. There’s probably no one better than me who can act the part of a good civilian, you know?”

“There is one more in my head.”

“Who?”

“Kang Giwoo.”

Sooil, who was bringing his glass closer to his mouth, suddenly smiled faintly. He looked as though he was saying ‘he’s as good as me’.

“How long are you going to be an actor?”

“Until I die.”

“Why don’t you just stop and inherit your chaebol grandfather’s wealth. There’s you and there’s Kang Giwoo too. You guys have super rich grandfathers. I don’t get why you’re trying to take over the acting industry as well. Ordinary citizens like me have it frustrating, you know?”

“It’s been a long time since I met anyone from the side. At most, I just say hi to my parents over the phone from time to time.”

“Oh my god. I can’t believe you chose to become an actor and ditch being super rich. Not only that, you were even successful! Is there even a god? If it’s so unfair, what is the point of living?”

“I’m just that well-off, what can you do about it?”

“This is the kind of stuff I should shoot and post on youtube. Title: Pure-man Yoo Sooil actually turns out to be a total cocky bastard.”

“I’m sorry, but I don’t do this anywhere. No one would believe it even if you do.”

Sooil chuckled and waved the bottle of soju. During high school, he loathed himself for doing good deeds and being polite without actually meaning it, but now, he became able to just joke about it. It felt like the things he did out of a sense of duty became a habit and one with him and had settled as an element of him. Sooil would probably continue to do good deeds even if other people wanted him to stop, whether or not it was out of his own will or not. He probably realized that life was too long to give meaning to every one of his actions. This was how adults usually came to be.

“I wonder how long we can sit here and chat like this,” Sooil said with a flushed face.

“Why are you already talking about something you should be talking about in your later years in life? Did something happen?”

“Nah, I was just thinking that the elder has gotten quite old, and that just felt rather sad to me.”

“He’s still healthy. Stop talking about unlucky things.”

“He should be. I would be really disappointed if I could no longer come here.”

“That’s why you should come here often and say hello. He smiles a lot if a handsome guy acts cute in front of him.”

“Rather than me, I think you should be the one to visit more often, you know? He likes you more than me.”

“Are you a kid? You already have everything. You’ll be punished if you even want to take the love other people get from their elders. You should make do with what you already have. Leave being doted on by the elder to me.”

“Yeah, you can have that.”

Sooil clutched his forehead and leaned back on the sofa. Maru poured some cold water into a glass and gave it to him. The way he undid a few top buttons and gulped down the water was like it was a scene straight out of a fashion magazine. No wonder women were all over him.

Sooil, who had been sighing, raised his phone up high and took photos. He seemed like he was going to post it on his social media.

“Han Maru, come over for a sec.”

“Why?”

“You should make your face known.”

“If it’s like that, then gladly.”

The moment Sooil posted a photo on the social network, people on the internet started taking an interest. The number of likes and comments increased by the second. Sooil said that he wanted to show something interesting to him and turned on the alarm function for the social media app. His phone started vibrating like it was going to explode along with endless alarm noises. Sooil turned off the alarm quickly. He looked at the door to the bedroom where the elder was and sighed in relief.

“You're full of bullshit.”

Maru took Sooil’s phone away and checked the social media post. A hundred comments appeared in that short moment. He could indirectly experience the popularity of a young star who was active on social media.

“I put a hashtag Han Maru on there, so people should be looking you up.”

“I hope they search me a lot and get to know me. I’d love to do that commercial thing.”

“Why did you have to go to the military back then? Even the president, who doesn’t usually interfere, kicked himself out of his office when he heard you were going to the military. I saw his expression back then, and he looked like he would be less surprised to see an alien suddenly appearing in front of him.”

“I should slave away and repay my gratitude. I finished the play I was doing, so I should aim for the TV again.”

The girl he only thought of as someone he should be responsible for was doing extremely well, so there was no need to worry about her. As long as he took care of himself, this life would go on without any problems.

“You’re leaving Daehak-ro?”

“If anyone’s looking for me, I should run over in a heartbeat and if not, I should look for one. I should get something if I work away as a cheap minor role for a while.”

“I guess there’s no need to worry about you then.”

Sooil turned his hand around while looking at the phone. Maru looked at the phone screen that was facing him.

“The president wants to see you. Looks like he wants you to prepare yourself since you’ve been resting for a long time.”

“When did he find out?”

“I think Miso-noona reported that you were leaving Blue Sky.”

“Gee, that noo-nim had to blurt everything out without holding back. She can’t keep secrets. What would I be able to talk about in front of her in the future?”

“Sorry to tell you this, but I also texted him as well. I found you despicable for trying to act like someone unemployed when you have the skill.”

Maru found it scary that a guy who could make such a smirk was the symbol of kindness in the media. This was why the image-making business was not something anyone did. Maru grabbed his phone which he placed on the ground. He got a text from Junmin: If you’re drunk, sober up, I’m going over. The heavyweight was coming.

“He wants us to sober up.”

“Then I guess I should.”

Sooil staggered up before going over to the fridge and opening it. Maru also crawled over and looked inside. There were various hangover drinks filling the place. The preferences of the drunkards that visited this place also took a corner. He took out some deeply brewed oriental raisin water. This was something that Junmin had placed here.

“He won’t say something because we drank some of this, right?”

“Then we should just put some water in it after drinking it.”

Maru opened the bottle.

KTLChamber's Thoughts

Giwoo is still in business…

Apparently 헛개수 is 'oriental raising water' according to some google search…

Basically, the fruits and treebark(?) of this tree (Hovenia Dulcis/Oriental raisin tree) is brewed into tea?

Editor's Note:

The cast is gathering once again. I like how both Sooil and Miso exposed him instantly.

Chapter 768
Sequence 3

“Looks like I should go.”

Junmin stood up while putting on his top hat. Park Sunggoo, who sat opposite him, put down his fork.

“What is it?”

“The prodigal son has gotten himself together, so I should make a visit.”

“Who is it to make Lee Junmin skip a meal when he places so much importance on having meals on time?”

“Han Maru. Do you remember him?”

“I do. He’s a smart kid after all. I get calls from him from time to time, and recently, I got a call from him after he got discharged.”

“So he might act dumb, but he still contacts everyone he should.”

“According to his words, he can’t lose a connection to someone in the legal field. He told that to me straight.”

“He knows your personality. You’ve taken a liking to him, haven’t you?”

“Do you think I’m someone who would pick up unnecessary calls?”

After wiping his mouth with a napkin, Sunggoo also stood up.

“You’re standing up too?”

“I don’t have a hobby of eating by myself in a place like this. Rather than that, it’s fortunate that you didn’t call Kang Seoyeon. If you said you’re leaving in the middle of a meal when she was here, I wouldn’t have been able to bear the consequences.”

“That makes me feel chilly just by thinking about it. She would have lectured me about my lack of sociability using all sorts of incomprehensible psychology jargon.”

“Seoyeon loves to bully you after all.”

They paid for their meals before leaving. Junmin went out to the streets and was about to reach his hand out to grab a taxi when a black sedan honked its horn and stopped in front of him. It was Sunggoo’s car.

“Let me see that guy’s face after all this while too. I’m curious as to how that smartypants grew up.”

“I’m going to senior Yoon’s house right now.”

“That’s even better. I should say hello to him as well. Hop in.”

He got in the car and closed the door. A photo of his friend and his daughter swayed under the rearview mirror.

“Did Minjeong return to Korea from Europe?”

“She did, but I’m not so sure she will stay. She’s one mischievous lady who loves going outside, so she might leave soon.”

“You have it difficult, supporting your daughter’s lifestyle while working hard.”

“At least I’m still a father. I’m much better than a certain man in his fifties who has parties with some dogs at home. Don’t you think it’s about time you finish playing house with your dogs?”

“Maybe it’s because I’ve been living for so long with them, but I find it awkward to find people at home now. Maybe I’m destined to grow old and die like this.”

“I’m kinda scared because you might have named one of those numerous dogs Jung Haejoo.”

“I think there was one.”

Sunggoo clicked his tongue and shook his head. For the past 20 years, this fellow had praised marriage endlessly and still put blind faith in the greatness of marriage. It was an open secret that Kang Seoyeon was behind his actions by lecturing about how marriage is the salvation of this world.

“Poor Seoyeon. At her age, it wouldn’t have been strange for her to have married five times, but she’s getting old by herself because she fell for a certain twisted person.”

“If you’re pitying Seoyeon so much, you can have her as your second.”

“Excuse me, president Lee Junmin. You shouldn’t say something like that in front of a lawyer. I think you’re forgetting who’s the attorney of the JA business.”

“It’s because you know that I’m only saying it as a joke.”

Junmin opened the window. A heat that could not be cooled off by the AC alone kept circling around in his head. It must be some sort of disorder for him to become emotional from just hearing the name Jung Haejoo. Junmin wished for that disorder to be with him until his death. It was proof that he still remembered her after all.

“The YM family is becoming noisy these days,” Sunggoo said as he turned the wheel to the right.

“What happened?”

“The chairman, who looked like a man of steel, has fallen from the mainline of work, and there has been a lot of noise ever since his son took over his role. The power structure is quite solid, but they do have a lot of subsidiaries after all. The people who would become falling leaves if people with shares shake the tree will probably play it safe, but the ones who already earned enough aren’t afraid of that. A problem was also raised with circular investment when it’s supposed to be glossed over.”

“Whether it’s SC, DK, or YM, I don’t think I’ve made any of them my enemies, so I don’t think I would care as long as they maintain their familial power.”

“For JA Production, sure. But the shift in shares in YM is a little bit interesting. Though, that only applies to me.”

“Shift in shares?”

“The YM Living shares that the chairman held are going over to something interesting. They’re shifting the shares in order to reform the ruling structure, and it’s Logistics that’s buying all the shares in Living at a cheap price.”

“Logistics you say…”

“The shares held by Logistics, which the first son has a tight rule over, have increased while changing the investment structure, and now, YM’s circular investment will be centered around Logistics. What I want to say is that it’s not a simple shift in axis. Apparently, there will be a big investment in one of the thick branches of Logistics.”

“Now I get why you’re talking about YM. It’s Soul Entertainment, isn’t it?”

“It’s the place where the grandson of the chairman is. They also possess the biggest music streaming site in the country. I heard that there’s not a single place that is not submissive to them in the music industry. An unknown singer can be made into a shooting star just by giving them a small promotion and putting them on the front page.”

“They approached a few of us too. Their condition was 11:0[1], on top of contract cancellation fees as well as taxes to take one of my own.”

“He’s on the offense, alright.”

Junmin closed the window. His head cooled down due to talking about work.

“I did meet him once a long time ago. He was a white-collar man back then, but somehow, he ended up working in this field.”

“You met Hong Janghae? And way before too?”

“Geunsoo. You’ve met him a few times too, haven’t you?”

“Geunsoo… Hong Geunsoo. Don’t tell me he’s the father?”

“He is. And he’s no ordinary man. I haven’t seen him since he switched jobs, but just his business skills make me impressed. The fact that he monopolized the music market first was really big. If I was raising idols, I would have gone to see him several times.”

“I just thought he was a gentle-looking man when I met him before.”

“From what Geunsoo told me, his nice-looking impression isn’t all there is to him. I can’t tell you the details, but he’s definitely not someone I would share a drink with.”

“If you are saying such a thing, I guess his character must be rock-bottom. You’re someone who would accept a drink from your archenemies after all.”

Junmin thought about the figure of Hong Janghae which had been completed with the help of what Geunsoo told him. When they first met, he thought that he was a typical father who was opposed to his son going down a rocky path. It was when he talked to Geunsoo that he found out that he wasn’t. While Geunsoo just described him as a ‘strict father’, he intuitively realized that there was more to him than just that after seeing him mention his father’s name with viciousness in his eyes. From how Geunsoo hid everything about his father when he was usually open about anything, Junmin was sure that the father was far from being decent.

“Whether it’s the previous chairman of YM or the new succeeding one, I think their faith in Hong Janghae is very immense. You can just see that from how he’s the one taking care of the chairman’s grandson.”

“I don’t care what they’re up to. I just have to take care of my own people. I will have to meet him if they keep bothering my people, but he’s not that stupid, so I’m sure he’ll stop soon.”

The car arrived at Moonjoong’s house. He saw Maru’s car right in front of the front gate. Behind that was Sooil’s car.

“It’s been a while since I came here. I wonder if the senior still remembers me.”

“I’m sure he remembers you as ‘Junmin’s friend little Park who can drink a little’ or something along those lines. Let’s go in for now.”

He opened the door. The two people watching TV on the sofa both stood up, welcoming them in. In front of them was a table set up for drinking.

“Did you already have a drink?”

“Yes, the first round is over already. But what brings you here, lawyer Park?”

Maru stood in front of Sunggoo.

“Well, things just happened. You’ve become quite manly.”

“It’s been four years. I should have gone to find you way before.”

“A call is more than enough. I was in Europe too after all. Rather than that, I never imagined the actor my daughter really likes would be here.”

Sunggoo reached his hand out to Sooil.

“Should I call you Yoo Sooil or Lee Jaeho?”

“I’m not sure if the Lee family still considers me as a member anymore. I didn’t know I would see you here.”

“You should show up at my house once in a while. And meet my daughter while you’re at it. When you were young, you were always following me, calling me ahjussi, but now that you’re grown up, you don’t even show any interest in me, huh. Is that how it is now that you are successful?”

“No way.”

Sooil led them to the drinking table in front of the sofa. Maru, who was standing afar, asked in a small voice,

“So lawyer Park and Sooil turned out to know each other.”

Junmin said that they were pretty close.

“Is senior asleep?”

“Yes. He was drinking until just a while ago, and he went to his room to sleep after feeling tired.”

“Looks like I should say hello tomorrow morning.”

Junmin took off his top hat and put it on the ground. As soon as he put it down, Dalgoo’s pups ran over and bit on the hat’s shade. This was the fourth time already, so Junmin gave up on it. He just threw the hat so that they could play with it.

“Allow me to pour you a drink. First, lawyer Park.”

“Are you okay with pouring one for me before your president?”

Sunggoo reached his glass out with a smile.

“I know the president has a wide heart.”

“That’s right, rather than the owner of a company who’s half out of business, you should look good to lawyer Park who still visits the Supreme Court and the high court like his own house.”

“My words exactly.”

Maru joked around before pouring the drink into Sunggoo’s glass. Maru had become a lot cheesier ever since he came back from the military. His calculative and rational analytic skills were the same as ever, but his expressions and speech had become a lot more flexible as though he had some leisure now. He looked like someone who was happy to have put down his burdens.

Junmin also grabbed his glass.

“Let’s have a light drink first.”

He quenched his thirst with some soju. The liquor that brushed the back of his tongue while he swallowed was very sweet. The guy who said he would go to the military looking like a totally defeated soldier was making jokes with a leisurely attitude, so he felt energetic to see that. Maru was someone who always caught his nerves. Considering his value alone, he was way below Sooil in terms of worth since a long time ago, but the strange sense of expectation that he would do something big one day made Junmin keep him by his side. It was probably when he accepted the 300 million won deal that his expectations started growing.

He was neither dragged by nor suppressed by money. He was free from the gravity of money but was hung up on something else. Junmin saw that as a shackle. Though, it might have been something important to Maru.

Ever since he got discharged, Maru had become a balloon. At first, he was rather weirded out since the man who looked like an anchor at the bottom of the ocean had turned into someone that would fly away in a breeze, but he soon found out that his nature hadn’t changed. The thing that dragged him down must have disappeared. Or, Maru had decided to leave that behind.

“We should talk about work,” Junmin said as soon as he put down the glass.

“President, this is just the first glass.”

“There’s no better time to talk about work than the first glass.”

He saw Sooil slowly backing away, but he decided not to mind for today. His objective was the ever-grinning Maru in front of him.

“You had enough rest, haven't you?” Junmin said.

[1] Meaning the ones who will go to Soul will get paid 10% more than when they were in JA.

KTLChamber's Thoughts

I don't know why but this part:

[As soon as he put it down, Dalgoo’s pups ran over and bit on the hat’s shade. This was the fourth time already, so Junmin gave up on it. He just threw the hat so that they could play with it.]

made me laugh so much.

Editor's Note:

Maru is returning to the screens wooo. Can he finally be famous now.

Chapter 769
Sequence 4

“I’m sorry, but you can’t come too far forward. Please maintain a distance.”

“Hey, back off!”

A burly staff member said those words as he blocked the fans.

Kwon Jeonga looked at the obsessive fan who reached her arms out under the armpits of the staff to ask for a handshake before sighing. Considering the reputation of the actor she was going to interview today, there would be an uproar if she made a mistake during the interview. She recalled how she mispronounced the name of an idol due to a mistake, and that ended up going on TV without being edited out. She received murder threats from a group of unidentified people.

“It must be hard doing an interview in a place like this all the time.”

Jeonga ended up smiling at the person who spoke to her in a low voice with his head lowered. She fixed her eyes on the gentle-looking eyes under the thick eyebrows. She wondered if it was really okay for a man’s eyes to look so gentle.

“Mr. Giwoo, we’re on standby. We’re going to walk slowly, and as for your eyes, you can look anywhere you’re comfortable with.”

“Okay. Please take care of me, everyone.”

The fans around all started screeching when they heard Kang Giwoo’s deep baritone voice. Jeonga also almost screamed out ‘oppa’ while raising the cue sheet up high. This man was two years younger than her, but heck, a handsome guy was always an oppa.

“Ready, cue!”

At the producer’s cue sign, she looked at the camera. She had seven years of experience in doing street interviews. She was planning to use all her know-how today.

“Hello, everyone! This is Kwon Jeonga from Roadview. I’m sure you all must be annoyed because it’s hot both outdoors and indoors, right? Allow me to introduce to you an actor who will blow away all those annoyances. The man who makes people refreshed just by being looked at; the man stepping the boundaries of film and drama like it’s his own house! Please welcome, Mr. Kang Giwoo!”

Along with the applause from the audience, Giwoo’s greeting began.

“Hello. This is Kang Giwoo, who wants to become a good actor. Nice to meet you, everyone.”

Giwoo greeted the camera before turning around to kowtow before the fans behind him. This wasn’t agreed upon beforehand, so Jeonga looked at the producer for further signs. The producer in question gestured at her to continue with satisfaction.

“Mr. Giwoo. Do you know how much we wanted to see you? We’ve asked you to come to Roadview several times until now. Why did you come just now?”

“I also wanted to come because I enjoy watching Roadview, but I was too busy. And I mean it.”

“Well, I guess it’s true that you’ve been busy. You were in two films and two drama series just last year, weren’t you?”

“That was a really busy year. I don’t think I’ve ever been so busy in my life. While it was a great opportunity for me to grow as an actor, I also wanted to rest.”

Giwoo smoothly answered her. As expected of the number 1 actor who reporters found it easy to interview. Compared to the actors who always answered in short phrases, Giwoo was a master of interviews as well as a saving grace for reporters. Asking him one thing would get ten answered back, so there was a lot of fun in asking questions.

They walked towards the restaurant they had predetermined. On the way there, they also had a talk with the fans. Jeonga wanted to bring an obsessive girl in front of Giwoo, but she ended up doing the talk with a docile-looking girl due to the producer’s signal. Giwoo gave the girl a light hug as a goodbye gift. Jeonga felt a little envious as she looked at the girl who was drowning in happiness, wondering what it felt like.

They walked inside the restaurant. While proceeding with the interview, asking him about recent events, the program writer wrote a new question on a sketchbook and lifted it up. It was a simple question that they didn’t need to ask for approval beforehand.

“In your opinion, what is the piece that made the current actor Kang Giwoo?”

“Well, all the pieces I’ve done until now possess important meaning to me, so I can’t exactly choose one.”

“But people are bound to have things that are called their turning points in life, right? I think you should have something like that too.”

Giwoo stroked his chin. His fingers slid across the slightly grown beard, and Jeonga now knew how a man could look sexy. Giwoo, who groaned in a cute manner, opened his eyes and spoke,

“Have you ever seen the works I’ve appeared in?”

“Of course. I haven’t said it yet, but I’m a fan of yours too.”

“Then why don’t you choose one for me, Miss Jeonga?”

“Me?”

As she was thinking about how to answer that, the producer paused the shoot. Giwoo’s face had become sweaty. Makeup artists soon came around. She saw the new writer rush over to the store employee. It was probably due to the air conditioner. It was quite cool when they just entered the restaurant, but it had become hot while they didn’t know it. Only then did Jeonga realize that the air conditioner on the ceiling was silent. It seemed to have stopped.

“It’s quite hot, isn’t it?” Giwoo said. He held out a bottle of water while his makeup was being fixed.

Jeonga accepted the water bottle.

“This is more than enough. It’s not like we’re shooting outside after all.”

“That’s true, it’s better than the festival you ran before. I think it was two years ago? In Seoul plaza.”

Jeonga went through her memories. She remembered how she was left with proceeding a festival under the blazing sun. It only showed up for a brief moment on TV, but she had worked there for a whole four hours. The vicious heat suddenly became vivid, and at the same time, she felt thankful to Giwoo who talked about an event that even she had forgotten about.

“I do remember that. But how do you know about it?”

“I saw a glimpse of you before. Also, I looked it up again because I have an interview with Roadview today. We can only talk to each other if we have some basic knowledge of each other.”

The producer said that they would resume the shoot. Jeonga inwardly exclaimed as she watched Giwoo sit up with a clear smile on his face. While it was a natural thing for the reporter to investigate the actor they were interviewing as preparatory work, the opposite wasn’t true. Even if Giwoo’s considerations were just out of formality, she was surprised that he had prepared something at all.

She collected herself after being in awe, before continuing with the interview.

“If I could be so bold as to choose a piece that made you mature as an actor, I would like to pick ‘Building’. You’ve made yourself known through ‘New Semester’ before that, but I think Building was the movie that left the deepest impression on the audience.”

“Building is also a very meaningful work for me. But when I first heard that I would be in it, I was very worried. Not only was it a disaster movie, but the scale was also quite big as well. On top of that, it pressured me when I found out that senior Lee Hyuk and senior Ahn Joohyun were going to be acting with me. They are splendid actors after all. I couldn’t sleep at night back then because I thought I would get in trouble if I didn’t do well.”

“The first time is hard for anyone. Despite those worries though, you managed to splendidly decorate the cinemas. There were no acting skill controversies, and in fact, you were highly praised as it was the birth of a new worthy actor.”

Giwoo scratched the back of his head and smiled in embarrassment. This was an image of a boy that was discovered in the midst of a grown man. Jeonga saw the eyes of the writers sitting next to the producer sparkle. It was absolute allegiance. Jeonga thought that she probably had the same eyes as them.

“It’s quite embarrassing. It’s only thanks to the scenario and the acting of the seniors that my lack of skill wasn’t pronounced. I was lucky.”

“You’re being way too humble. Tell me honestly. Don’t you think you did well?”

Giwoo hesitated for a while before replying ‘I just said heck it but then did well’. This guy possessed a sense of humor as well. He knew when to dive and went to surface. The producer looked satisfied as well.

“How did you feel when you found out that you were an actor of 10 million tickets?”

“You might think that it’s an obvious answer, but it felt like a dream. Of course, I’m sure that the senior actors and the skills of the directors were the main driving forces of those 10 million tickets, but I dare say I greased the train that was rushing towards the 10 million mark. I was happy. Actually, after the movie got released, I watched it three times in secret. Among those 10 million, three of them were from me.”

“Did you watch it by yourself?”

“Yes. When I did, I really regretted it. I thought I could do better. I think it was back then that I resolved that I should try harder so that I would regret less while watching my own work. Though, I still find many things lacking if I have a look at the footage that gets shot.”

“I’m sure no one can find fault in your acting skills, Mr. Giwoo. Actor Choi Jaewoo once mentioned that you were a promising youth actor. Do you know that?”

“I did. I’m not gonna lie. I jumped on the spot when I found out that a senior I respect said something like that about me.”

“Uhmm, I’m sorry for asking, but can you think of what happened back then and reenact it for us?”

Giwoo smiled awkwardly before standing up and jumping on the spot. He was quite tall, so he looked like his head was about to bump into the ceiling. This man was not hypocritical, he definitely had a pure side to him- Jeonga thought such as she told him that he had done enough when he covered his face in embarrassment. She then continued the interview.

“Oh, here comes a question filled with the writers’ ulterior motives. Are you perhaps dating anyone right now?”

“I really wish I was.”

“Are you sure you aren’t meeting someone in secret while saying those words?”

“In fact, I would love it if that was the case. It’s another wish of mine to meet someone good and live a happy life, but maybe because the acting side went so well, I don’t have any talent on the romantic side.”

“Then here comes a sudden question! I, Kang Giwoo, have received a confession from an actress, yes or no!”

Giwoo waved his hand and looked around.

“I wish that was the case, but it never happened. It looks like I’m not that charming as a man.”

“Now, that’s an answer I can’t believe. Mr. Giwoo, are you sure we won’t find you through a dating scandal later?”

“If I ever find someone I like, I would love to reveal it on Roadview first. I can promise you that.”

“You know that what you said was caught by the camera, right? If you are ever in a good relationship later, you must tell us about it, okay?”

“Of course.”

The interview progressed smoothly. There weren’t many questions left.

“Since we talked about your past works, we can’t not talk about your upcoming drama. ‘Doctor’, what is this drama about?”

“I can’t tell you a lot of things because we haven’t started the shoot yet, but I can assure you that it’s a passionate story regarding passionate actors.”

“From the rumors, I heard that you were going to be showing a good chemistry with Miss Han Gaeul.”

“I met Gaeul when we were doing ‘Building’. We are friends with acting skills that are on par with each other. But ‘chemistry’ doesn’t really fit the context here. She doesn’t see me as a man.”

“Oh, did Miss Han Gaeul appear in Building as well?”

“Yes, she showed really good acting. I heard that even the director back then stood up to applause. She had a short role, but her role left a deep impression, so I learned a lot as well.”

“I see. So the meeting from 5 years ago is continuing through this drama.”

“That’s how it is.”

“Do you know that YBS has also scheduled a medical drama, just like ‘Doctor’?”

“Yes. I have heard. From how their shooting schedule is similar, it seems likely that we’ll be aired at around the same time.”

“Are you confident?”

“I’m not sure. The only thing I can do is do my best in my position. The results are for the viewers to judge. Well, I do hope that our drama does better. I don’t like losing that much.”

“You have a competitive spirit after all?”

“People who know me call me obsessive. Actually, there aren’t that many people who want to lose in this world, are there?”

“That’s true. Since you’re doing it, it’s natural to want good results.”

As the designated drama promotion time was done, it was time to wrap things up. Jeonga asked the last official question on the questions sheet,

“What is acting to you, actor Kang Giwoo?”

“Half of my life.”

“Thank you for watching, that was actor Kang Giwoo.”

Jeonga applauded and said her finishing commentary.

KTLChamber's Thoughts

Whyyyyyyy……

Why do you make us go through this, author……

Editor's Note:

'Do you know that YBS has also scheduled a medical drama, just like ‘Doctor’?' I HOPE MARU IS PART OF THIS DRAMA. I AM MANIFESTING IT. But damn, another drama with Gaeul. I hope author doesn't pull the shit where she gets with Giwoo (seems unlikely tho)

Chapter 770
Sequence 4

“Thank you for your work.”

“It must have been hot. Thank you for your work. It’s about time it gets a little cooler too.”

“You don’t say.”

The manager came over to Giwoo, who was waiting outside the store while looking after his fans. Jeonga looked at her watch and watched them. This man showed her what manners were until the moment the interview ended. Although many people thought that young actors would act polite, in Jeonga’s experience, that wasn’t necessarily the case. If they were just young, then maybe, but people like Giwoo, who had achieved success at such a young age, would show a hint of arrogance. Hitting on her after the camera turned off was on the cute side. There was an actor who pointed at a fan standing behind him and asked the staff to remove the ugly girl. That actor usually had the ‘young master’ image, but Jeonga was still flabbergasted by that image. Although the interview with that person ended on a smiling note, she would sign into that actor’s anti-fan café. Regarding this area, Giwoo was exceptional in both skill and attitude among his peers. Not only that, his background as well. She wondered who the modern version of a prince on a white horse would choose as his woman. Jeonga briefly imagined what it would be like if it was her.

“I’ll say goodbye to the producer.”

“Ah, okay.”

He even went to the producer, who was outsourced for this single program, and did a handshake. Producers would sometimes be treated like invisible people, but Giwoo even said goodbye to the staff he met along the way. It felt like a polite attitude was engraved into his body rather than him being hypocritical. This man was perfect from his toes to his soul.

“I have an appointment I must attend, so allow me to take my leave. Thank you for the interview. I had it easy thanks to your help.”

“It puts me at ease to hear those words. See you next time, whether it’s an interview or a get-together.”

Jeonga lightly shook hands with Giwoo. He got in a car with the manager and opened the window to wave at the fans. A flock of high school girls followed the car that drove away.

“Miss Jeonga, good job.”

“You too, producer. Are you going to the next shoot?”

“Don’t even mention it. I’m going to have to go to Haenam[1]. Apparently, someone peculiar lives there, and morning TV programs love those kinds of people. I have to do things like that to feed my kids. Miss Jeonga, you’re going home, aren’t you?”

“Yeah, since I’m done with work here. It’s been a while since work ended early.”

“It’s thanks to that fellow Kang Giwoo. I couldn’t find anything worth scrapping while the camera was rolling. The editing is going to be easy.”

“Looks like Mr. Kang put in some effort so that you can have it easy, producer. He’s a good man, isn’t he?”

“Miss Jeonga, you interested in him? You rarely show any interest after an interview.”

“He’s charming. He looks after people and he smiles at people. Who would say no to him?”

“He’s a good guy alright. It must not be easy to maintain an upright attitude as a new actor for so long.”

“That must be his nature. Someone who was born gentle.”

“Maybe.”

The producer turned around to his crew, who were putting away the equipment.

“Miss Jeonga, you should go. I need to wrap things up here.”

“Yes, producer. Thank you for your work today.”

Jeonga undid her watch and stretched her arms out.

* * *

“Hyung, turn the volume down a little.”

“Okay.”

Manager Kim reached for the volume dial but had to turn the wheel abruptly due to a tow truck that cut into the lane. The tow truck honked its horn repeatedly as it switched from the first lane to the fourth lane. Fucking bastard - he cursed. He calmed his heart down and took his foot off the brakes.

“Giwoo, are you okay?”

“Yes.”

“Sorry about that, some lunatic just cut in front of me.”

Ever since he saw a tow truck that drove in the opposite lane during the middle of the night, he couldn’t consider the drivers of tow trucks human. They must either have two lives or have a screw or two loose in their heads. Even though a crash would mean they would die as well, those tow truck drivers didn’t seem to know such a simple fact. He suppressed his disgust towards tow trucks as he kept driving. If this was his personal car, he would have caught up to the tow truck and shouted at the guy but not only was this his company car, Giwoo was riding on it as well. If there was trouble in the drama schedule because of a traffic accident, who would take responsibility for that? Manager Kim tried to calculate how much he would have to compensate for Giwoo’s loss of time before giving up.

He heard a sound behind him. It was Giwoo, who had snapped his book close. The heavy sound from the hard-cover book snapping shut got on his nerves. Manager Kim looked at Giwoo’s expression. He was smiling, yet not smiling.

“The volume.”

Manager Kim felt stifled as though he just got stung by a bee in the middle of his throat. He quickly turned the volume down. He had forgotten about it due to the tow truck cutting in. It should have been around 10 minutes since Giwoo mentioned it. He had not listened to Giwoo’s words for ten whole minutes.

“Hyung.”

“…Yes.”

“Mind your own business, okay? You’re not usually like this.”

“Sorry. That tow truck suddenly cut in…”

“I know, you reacted well to that. Even I thought that the truck was moving around dangerously. But you know? I told you to turn down the volume, and that was about ten minutes ago. Avoiding the tow truck is good. I saw it as well. It’ll become a very big accident if you crashed into it while trying to turn down the volume. But you are done with that. The tow truck left, and your hands became free again. Was it so hard to reach out to the volume dial again?”

“I was so out of it. I’m really sorry.”

“Don’t keep apologizing. You make me look like the bad guy here. I’m just saying that we should each do what we should. I never treated you badly over the past six months, have I? I really want to continue riding the car that you’re driving. You are good with work, and you don’t get on my nerves. I would love to have someone who works well by my side. I hope you understand how I feel.”

“I will watch out from now on.”

“You should. Or else, I would have no choice but to look for another manager.”

Manager Kim nodded heavily. Six times. That was the number of times Giwoo had switched out his manager over the six months before him. Among the managers, it was called the two-out system. Watch out - the moment a manager hears these words for the second time, they would be relieved of their exclusive manager duties.

Giwoo was known for not bothering his managers. He would frequently do the things that managers had to do as well. All the managers before him shared the opinion that Giwoo was respecting them for their work. Their treatment was good, and his attitude was good as well. Yet such a person did not hesitate for a single moment when switching out a person in a job.

What manager Kim felt after being put in charge of Giwoo was that Giwoo was a good man. The rumors were true. He did not treat people strictly, and he watched out for the managers, even for trivial things. However, the chill in his eyes as well as the lack of emotions in his words that he showed from time to time made him couldn’t help but wonder if Giwoo really was a good person when he considered those two things.

Manager Kim looked at the rearview mirror and smiled. He made eye contact with Giwoo. It didn’t matter if he was a good man or not. What was important was for him to do his best to not get fired from his position. The position of Giwoo’s manager was worth it.

“But hyung.”

“Yeah?”

“Didn’t I tell you on your first day? That you should look forward when you drive. Especially when I’m on my phone.”

The next day, manager Kim had to hand his job over to the next manager. He was notified that he was to take care of another idol. Giwoo hadn’t contacted him at all.

* * *

There were sounds of classical music. Giwoo woke up from bed. He could hear the door closing. The cleaning lady this time had good comprehension. She turned on the music at just the right time and left his house without making so much as a single footstep sound.

He came out to the living room and had a look at his stuff. The cleaning lady hadn’t even gone near the things that he told her not to touch. The slight layer of dust was proof of her loyalty. An obedient dog had to be rewarded. He took out two bills from his wallet and put them under the clay doll next to the TV. She had cleaned both what could be seen and what could not be seen. This cleaning lady seemed good enough that he didn’t have to concern himself with her for a while. A dog that realized that it could eat delicious food after working would not become lazy after all.

He sat on the sofa and picked up a script. As it was the script for a medical drama, it was filled with medical jargon. He muttered the medical terms that he couldn’t get used to pronouncing as he walked around the living room. The fact that he chose a medical drama as his comeback work was a challenge for him. He had already proven himself with romantic historical dramas, so he had to show people that he could digest modern dramas as well. The producer in charge of this drama was skilled, and the writer, while she was just an old-ass woman, was also a frequent hitter. He was sure that this piece would consolidate his brand value as Kang Giwoo.

“Don’t treat interns like tools! You might see us as little chicks, but I came here after doing all my studies. I may not have cut up as many people, but…”

After saying the line in a passionate manner, Giwoo looked up at the clock. It was 1 p.m. He quenched his thirst with some water before going to the gym in front of his house. He did warm-ups with the trainer before going on the treadmill. He was planning to run until his lungs felt like bursting at multiple intervals. As he was thinking of doing an action film for his next piece, there was a need to raise his stamina right now.

“Set your posture straight and manage your breathing. Your torso is leaning forward too much. Watch out.”

The trainer, who could be called one of the best in the country, was also a long-time partner of Giwoo’s. Giwoo thought that the best needed to be treated with the best things. The car he presented to the trainer should be in the parking lot of the gym right now. A treatment that fits one’s skill. That was the motivation that made the gears of society turn the right way.

“Okay, that’s enough. But hey, are you planning to do a marathon or something?”

“If necessary. Do you think I should? I think it’ll be a good experience.”

“You’re quite hardworking alright. Other actors don’t even visit the gym on their break periods.”

“I should come frequently if I want to manage myself. I hate my body falling out of shape. It feels rather despairing if things don’t go the way I expect them to.”

His clothes were drenched in sweat. He felt like his lungs were going to burst before they felt like they shrank up. Fatigue overwhelmed his entire body, but the sense of achievement was even bigger. He had to achieve what he needed to. Giwoo lived the past 25 years like that and would continue to do so. Everything within his eyes moved according to his will and according to order. His body and his mind were not exempt from those rules either. He was always perfect and always clean. The pleasure that a delicately-structured life gave him was higher than any drug.

He spat out a long breath and was planning to switch to doing weights. Just then, a man wearing a hood walked on top of the treadmill while rotating his wrists. Giwoo wiped the sweat on his forehead and walked towards the man. He spoke to the man, who was speeding up the treadmill,

“It’s been a while since I saw you at this hour.”

“You were here?”

“I was.”

The man took off his hood. Han Maru, with a scruffy beard, was smiling.

[1] The South-western corner of South Korea.

KTLChamber's Thoughts

With how many managers Giwoo switched out, I'm surprised there hasn't been rumors about his personality yet in the industry. Maybe it's the power of money.

Editor's Note:

Ok, so I was right. This latter half of the novel seems to be a combo between Giwoo vs Maru + Maru & Gaeul reunion.

Chapter 771
Sequence 4

Even though he should be doing weights right now, Giwoo told the trainer that he would be running alongside his friend for a little and went back on the treadmill.

“Didn’t you just finish running? You’re full of sweat.”

“I was going to run for a little more.”

“You don’t have any weight to lose. Why even bother?”

“This is about raising my stamina. It has nothing to do with my weight.”

“Is that how it is? That’s amazing, actor Kang. Maybe I’ll see you doing a triathlon later.”

“If the opportunity arises, I do want to do it.”

He put the speed at 10km/h and started running. He checked Maru’s speed. It was 9km/h. He put down his finger from the speed-up button.

“Anyway, it’s been a while since I saw you at this hour. You rarely visit during the afternoon.”

“My dream was to be unemployed my entire life, but I got work to do. I thought that training early in the morning wasn’t going to be enough, so I just changed slots. Calisthenics is good and all, but there’s nothing better than using machines to form a good body figure.”

After saying those words, Maru turned up the speed by one level. Giwoo put his hood on again and started breathing heavily. After maintaining that speed for about 30 seconds, he raised the speed by another level: 11km/h. His heart, which had calmed down, started pumping rapidly again. When his cooled body started warming up, the fatigue he had forgotten temporarily started seeping out of his muscles again. His soles felt burning hot, but Giwoo kept running without showing it.

“You’re good at running,” Maru said.

This is nothing - Giwoo replied as he upped the speed by two more levels. There was heat coming off of his legs as they brushed past each other. His thighs warned him to take a rest. He looked at Maru through the corner of his eyes. Although his face couldn’t be seen through the hood, from the way he had stable breathing, he looked leisurely. Was he not planning to increase the speed? Just as he thought about going down, he saw Maru tapping on the button rapidly. He started running at 15 km/h.

“You going down?” Maru uttered those words.

Giwoo deeply pressed the increase button. After setting the speed to 15km/h, he grabbed the hems of his top and wiped the sweat off his face. He felt like there were bags of sand attached to his feet. His heart and lungs were protesting due to the excessive load.

Giwoo ran for 30 more minutes before coming down from the treadmill. He sat down on a bench and started panting heavily. His knees were shaking. He smacked his knees and thighs. This body was a pathetic one that could not live up to his willpower. He came down first because he couldn’t run that much. The fact that he was already fatigued was no excuse. Losing to someone was a terrible thing in itself, but losing to that guy leisurely jogging on the treadmill right now was something beyond terrible.

“Looks like treadmills don’t suit me. It doesn’t feel like I’m running,” Han Maru said those words as he came down from the treadmill after running 20 more minutes.

Giwoo offered him a bottle of protein shake. The guy accepted the bottle and took a sip.

“Is it chocolate milk? It’s pretty good.”

“It's a supplement drink. Protein and vitamins and whatnot.”

“Is it fine for me to drink it?”

“It doesn’t matter. It’s not something that needs a specific constitution or anything like that.”

“Well, there’s no way it’s a bad thing when you’re the one drinking it. But hey, you’re in really good shape. Just how much did you work out?” Maru asked as he returned the bottle.

“If it’s just keeping in shape, I kept it up for a long time. You should tell me about it if you need it. I’ll have some good trainers look after you.”

“I’m still semi-unemployed right now, so I don’t need something that grand.”

“Don’t worry about money. Money’s all I have right now. I can do that much. We’re friends after all.”

“Having rich friends is good huh.”

“How about it? Want to get a consultation with a trainer?”

“Nah, it’s fine. It’s not like I’ll be going to a bodybuilding competition or something. I’m just doing this in order to keep in shape, so I don’t need any personal training. Rather than that, give me some of that. It was pretty good.”

“What, the drink?”

“Yeah. If it’s something that you’re having, it must be organic or premium or something like that. Let me have some too.”

“I’ll give you every flavor you need.”

The guy stared at him as though he wanted one right now. Giwoo received some supplements from the counter.

“I get to eat something like this thanks to having a good friend, huh. Thanks.”

Maru lined up the bottles of supplements under the bench and started giggling. Looking at the smile on his face, Giwoo recalled the chilly eyes that he showed a long time ago. Those eyes, which reminded him of his grandfather, stopped him from speaking and restricted his heart. The eyes that were reminiscent of a beast’s vertically slit pupils were deeply engraved into his retina, and ever since then, his heart started racing by itself whenever he saw this guy. His sense of shame told him to trample on the guy, but a sense of wariness and fear that eclipsed his shame made him unable to speak. Above all, this guy knew his secret. He couldn’t help but be restless whenever he thought that this guy would start threatening him with the ‘play’. Although he didn’t leave anything behind that would lead to him, he felt like this guy was more than capable of creating previously non-existent evidence and driving him into a corner. There was a time when he changed his attitude and tried to be friends with him, but Giwoo didn’t take it the slightest bit seriously. He treated it as a cheap tactic of betraying after putting down his guard.

It was three years ago when he realized that the beast had died. It was 2008 when he was busy due to his acting skills which received a spotlight after ‘Building’ became popular. Back then, he got a message from Ahn Yeseul and Park Jichan that the members of ‘New Semester’ should meet up. Although he had no reason to refuse, the name ‘Han Maru’ got on his nerves. He hesitated due to the unease that something might happen if they met again, but the moment he saw his reflection in the mirror, he agreed to go to the meetup. He couldn’t forgive himself for looking like a defeated soldier. The master of not just his own life, but everything in his environment, was crumpled tragically. He had a hard time accepting that. The moment he opened the door to the meetup place, Giwoo looked for Maru. He recalled the shame he received two years before. He thought that he had changed and was plenty capable of winning against a beast. When he made eye contact with Maru, who was quietly drinking at the corner of a table, Giwoo couldn’t help but laugh in vain. There was no need to get ready to fight. The guy’s eyes were dead. He had the same eyes as those who screamed and begged for forgiveness while kneeling down in front of his grandfather. They were the eyes of someone who had given up as well as the eyes of someone who had lost the will to flee.

For a moment, he became curious. What happened to Han Maru in the past two years that had changed the chilly eyes of the 19 year-old Han Maru into ones with such murky darkness in them?

“I’m going to the military next week.”

The guy who had never shown his face in the drama industry after New Semester chose his next destination to be the military. Giwoo told him to watch out and filled the guy’s glass full of booze. It was the booze that represented his farewell to his lacking self that had been enveloped in fear all by himself. It was also his way of mocking the beast that had died.

After that, he had no opportunities to hear the name Han Maru for a while. He came across the name again after two years. The guy, who had a sly smile on his face with a tanned face, had changed once again. Although he was smiling, Giwoo was unable to read anything from his smile. Neither hostility nor goodwill. He couldn’t help but feel like he was facing an intricately-made doll.

Ever since he realized that they went to the same gym, he saw the guy’s face from time to time, but Maru had changed again during that short time. When he just got discharged, he looked like a doll without emotions, but right now, he once again showed that nonchalant attitude from when he was in his 3rd year of high school.

Giwoo looked at Maru who was looking at the instructions on the back of the supplement packaging. This guy had become a human that wasn’t even worth his attention now. The acting charisma that he showed during ‘Apgu’ should have disappeared due to the long break, and the bone-chilling gaze that reminded him of his grandfather was gone without a trace as well. Talking to him was a waste of life since he had become another one of the people who looked like ants from the top of a skyscraper.

“I wonder if strawberry flavor tastes good.”

“It was pretty good in my opinion.”

“If it suits picky taste buds like yours, then I’m sure it’ll fit me. How much does this cost per bottle? Isn’t it expensive?”

“I’m giving it to you so don’t think about the cost. If you need more, you can tell me about it.”

“You’re giving me more? I know shame, I can’t receive more.”

Giwoo wondered as they spoke. Even though it was clearly a waste, why was it that this man kept getting on his nerves? He was now living a completely different life from Maru. Whether it was their careers as actors or their backgrounds, the two were incomparable. While he was under the spotlight, rolling in a bed made of money, this guy would keep doing minor and supporting roles and live on chump change. This guy was merely trash that had to be cleaned out of his sight, and all he had to do was to sweep the trash with his feet, but his senses, which were beyond the realm of his head, kept shouting at him to be wary of him.

The reason he felt a meaningless competitive spirit towards him, and the reason he was so kind to him was the identity of this guy known as Han Maru was so mysterious for not getting out of his sight. The beast he saw during their 3rd year of high school had died. He had experienced for himself countless times in the past year that this man was just like a meaningless reed that just swayed in the wind. Strictly speaking, this guy had completely become an ordinary ‘just so-so guy’. He thought something every time; that he would shake his hand like chasing away a fly and get rid of this guy from his life. Also, it was always Giwoo himself that became wary.

“Perhaps we’ll become competitors this time,” Maru said.

Giwoo slowly looked into his eyes. He didn’t look like he was joking. The word ‘competitor’ was laughable in his opinion, but his mouth was already asking a question back,

“Competitor?”

“I heard you were doing that KBS medical drama.”

“Yeah.”

“I’m in YBS. You know that we’re doing a medical drama too right? Around the same time slot.”

Giwoo felt a lump of something unpleasant squirming inside his throat.

“You’re shooting a drama?”

“I wanted to keep playing around, but I couldn’t. The president keeps pushing my back telling me that I should be earning money. Even wild beast cubs would start hunting in due time, so it kinda felt wrong of me to keep playing around as a human being.”

Maru stood up with the supplements in hand.

“There should be a press meeting today; you should look it up on the internet. Though, I probably won’t show up because I’m just a nobody.”

“Didn’t you give up on doing dramas?”

“Me? Did I ever tell you something like that?”

“You didn’t, but from the way you acted, it didn’t look like you were ever going to return to the TV scene.”

“I might have come off like that, I guess.”

Maru winked as he smiled. That smile increased Giwoo’s displeasure index.

“I also want to live an easy life. I no longer need to analyze carefully before I do something.”

“Really? Congratulations. I don’t know what role you’re playing but do your best. I’m sure you’ll become well-known in no time with your skills.”

“Kang Giwoo, you’re a great guy after all. You’re encouraging me like this, on top of giving me supplements.”

“It’s nothing.”

“You’re a big-hearted man. No wonder you’re popular with the ladies.”

He was no beast. But those eyes weren’t those that belonged to someone who had given up. Although he was still dead, he looked like he was going to move. Giwoo was suddenly reminded of the expression: ‘a sociable corpse’. Or maybe, a smiling zombie.

“But if you want an easy life, I can always introduce you to a good place. Something much more stable than just acting.”

A sense of indescribable crisis made his mouth move. He felt like he could not afford to let this guy into the field that was known as acting.

“Really? Are you putting me in YM?”

“If you want.”

The guy, who looked like he was going to accept it in a heartbeat, suddenly shrugged his shoulders.

“I’m really thankful for the offer, but old dogs can’t learn new tricks, so I should just keep acting; whether it’s for the quiet fellow that lives with me or for those meaningless memories.”

Thanks for the supplements - Maru hummed as he walked. Giwoo almost stopped him. He realized that he had been too emotional. That feeling was just a feeling. What could a corpse do after it escaped to the military when it was supposed to spread its wings out wide? Even if he returned, his life would end at the bottom of the ladder.

“But I think I heard that hum somewhere before.”

Giwoo stared at Maru’s back which was getting distant.

KTLChamber's Thoughts

Lol. I can't help but feel like Maru played Giwoo on top of his hand.

Editor's Note:

Chad Maru toying with Giwoo. I hope Maru's drama dominates; he is prob gonna be a supporting role so he can be the next Joohyun. Giwoo seems to have pretty good intuition.

Chapter 772
Sequence 4

What is the probability of an opportunity that once escaped your hands landing in your hands again? Maru thought that it would be lower than what people commonly thought of as ‘extremely low’. It probably had around the same chances of a leaf on the ground suddenly flying up due to a gust of wind and landing on the same spot again.

When he let go of the opportunity in his hands, he had no regrets. He knew that it was an opportunity that wouldn’t return to him again, but he choose to have more time to look after himself rather than becoming successful through that opportunity. He tried his best to find his reason for living in the military and had become quite successful. He couldn’t gouge out Han Gaeul from his life entirely, but he managed to put some distance. His effort to become just an ‘acquaintance’ from being in a close relationship and to make her accept that Han Maru was not a part of her life was quite successful. He was now able to imagine a life without her.

Although he was empty-handed, he felt refreshed. The crux of his life, which had been swaying until now, had been set upright again. The gap that was his purpose in life remained empty after becoming vacant due to removing her from his life, but he gained the strength to proceed forward. He realized that he could still breathe in a life without a purpose. As he had talent, he managed to return to the field of acting quite soon, but he thought that he would never encounter a proper opportunity until he became 30. However, he had forgotten; there was a person who was willing to move the leaf that flew up due to a gust of win back to its original spot.

“You should earn your rent at least.”

Junmin’s words echoed in his ears. They were the words of a father that was worried for his unemployed son.

Maru put down his script. Thanks to Junmin’s introduction, he managed to land a drama supporting role without an audition. Although he didn’t appear that much per episode, he played someone who would release the dramatic tension and appeared every now and then. Unlike the characters he played until now, the role he was going to play was a frivolous guy who made others feel uneasy. He would jump around with coffee for his seniors and fall down, try to hit on a colleague but then get kicked in the knee, and causes a ruckus saying that he wants to hold a party. It was the prankster character who was hateful yet someone who people couldn’t help but look out for.

He picked up an empty cup and ran around the living room. He tried stepping the wrong way, tried stepping on his foot, and tried falling down quickly but then thought that it wasn’t right and fell down on his side. He rushed around for a while before looking at the mirror. A twenty-five-year-old kid, who was happy beyond comparison, was sweating. When he looked at his own expression during acting, he couldn’t help but admit that he had been swallowed up by acting ages ago. The ghost of Daehak-ro only smiled when he was acting.

He washed himself up and got ready to leave. There was half an hour until his appointment. Before he pressed the call button, he got a call at a precise time which made him wonder if the person on the other side was watching the clock before making the call.

-Hyung-nim, you’re coming, right?

“I just put my trainers on. You’re as spot on as ever.”

-That’s the only thing I’m good at. I just woke my brother up and am on the way there. I think I might be a little late.

“Okay. He’s a famous actor and all. It’s fine even if you take it slow, so watch out while driving.”

-Yes, hyung-nim. See you later.

He left his house and grabbed a taxi. He arrived at the bar near Yeoui-naru station, where they promised to meet up at, and ordered some food beforehand. He ordered the things that had an extra zero on the price tag at the very end of the menu. They were precious items that he could only choose when he was being treated by someone else, or when it was on the company card.

“Sorry, I’m late.”

“You’re not late. I’ve only been here for five minutes. But where’s the one paying for all this?”

“He’s in the toilet. Anyway, it’s been a long time, hyung-nim.”

“Yeah, long time no see.”

Maru shook hands with Lee Haewon.

“You’re having a hard time. You have to do everything from A to Z to be a manager for that guy, don’t you?”

“I’ve been doing it since middle school, so it’s not that difficult. Though, it’s quite a pain when he gets all naggy about not wanting to do it.”

“Whenever that happens, smack him on the back of the head. You are definitely qualified to do so.”

Just as they opened the lid to the drinks, Lee Heewon came in. Maru waved his hand along with the bottle.

“You’re not a good person either. We were just talking behind your back and you just had to come in.”

“Talking behind my back?”

Heewon looked at Haewon. Haewon looked away and fidgeted.

“Stop overworking your brother. 3 years is enough, isn’t it?”

“The day Haewon quits as my manager is the day I quit my acting career. But hey, you look like you’ve gained some weight in the past year.”

“I’ve had good food and good sleep. The role I was playing in the play was also a rather chubby one, so I gained some weight. Thanks to that, I feel like I've been dying for the past month.”

“Losing weight? I hate that too. I wonder why there aren’t any roles that require a fat man. Sleeping and eating, sleeping and eating. That sounds like a dream.”

“Hey, imagine getting fat with your face. Who would let you play the main character?”

“My face is better than yours. You look way too dry. I at least hear that I’m cute quite often.”

Heewon lost his posture as soon as he sat down. Putting a squid down on a chair might look like that. Haewon nagged him to sit upright.

“I was totally surprised when I saw your face during the get-together.”

Haewon mentioned something that happened a while ago. It was a small get-together with the director, the writer, and the important actors. Maru also sat in the very corner.

“I also didn’t know you two would be there either. I just happened to show up at the last minute without any information.”

“When did you decide to participate in the drama?”

“Well, it’s kinda funny for me to say this since I was given the role, but I don’t know when my role was decided either. It was the president’s power after all.”

“I see. Anyway, I’m happy for you. When I heard that you were going to the military after not hearing news of you for a long while, I honestly thought that you were going to leave the industry. I was worried and slightly disappointed too.”

“Back then, I wasn’t entirely right in my mind.”

“And now you are?”

“I’m not an idiot who would reject an opportunity that landed in my hands for the second time. So I should do it to the death. If I don’t do what I get paid for, I feel like I might really become an unemployed man.”

Heewon spoke as he put a large piece of peach in his mouth,

“Being unemployed is the best. My dream is to become a rich unemployed man.”

“Hey, didn’t you save up quite a lot of money?”

“I did, for the past 4 years. I bought a building as well.”

“Owning a building at 25, huh. You won’t have a problem living the rest of your life even if you quit right now.”

“I want to do that too, but a certain someone keeps nagging me about how humans have to do labor.”

Heewon glanced at Haewon.

“Why are you using me as an excuse? I’m of the opinion that you can quit right now if you want to quit. But instead, I would lose my job and live every single day in despair.”

“See that? He keeps lashing out at me like this. How can I quit? This guy changed after he tasted what money was. No wait, he’s been writing the accounting book since he was young, so he hasn’t entirely changed. He just became more tenacious.”

“What are you saying? I’m always on your side.”

Heewon looked for drinks saying that he wouldn’t be able to win with words, but Haewon told him that he could only have three glasses. When he grumbled that he couldn’t drink or eat how much he wanted, Haewon just told him that he could do so as long as he could exercise to compensate for the part he ate. Heewon looked at the glass hesitantly for a while before putting his hands under the table. That sloth found more joy in not doing anything than the joy of eating.

“You two haven’t changed at all.”

“What do you mean we haven’t changed? You don’t know how frivolous this guy became.”

Heewon protested like someone who received an unjust sentence. His voice sounded like he was really wronged. Haewon just smiled, saying that such a thing never happened. In Maru’s eyes, that was a business smile that he could rate 15 points out of 10. The innocent brother that wished for his bigger brother’s well-being above anyone else, had now become a tow truck that dragged his brother to the field of labor when the brother’s wish was to play around for all his life.

Heewon, who was grumbling by himself, reached out for the drink bottle before sighing and pouring water into his glass instead. Unlike the protest on his face, he was listening to his little brother’s words to the tee. Maru thought that the creation of the actor Lee Heewon was more thanks to Haewon’s management rather than Heewon’s natural talent at acting.

“Let me go to the toilet for a bit.”

Heewon, who ate like he had been starving for a few days, got up.

“Isn’t he supposed to be on a diet?”

“He just has to quit his snacks. He doesn’t eat proper food and always looks for snacks. That’s the problem.”

“I wonder if he can get married.”

“If I ever meet my sister-in-law-to-be, I am going to grab her hands and thank her. I would also tell her not to abandon him.”

Maru grabbed the drink bottle before letting go and pouring soda in Haewon’s glass instead.

“It must have been a while since you drank.”

“I drank on my high school graduation day and never after that. I thought that I would definitely regret it if I become unable to do something when I absolutely have to, so I thought that I might as well not drink in the first place.”

“How can you brothers be so different?”

“Maybe because we’re not related by blood.”

“Blood isn’t important. The fact that you are brothers is. But hey, did you give up on college entirely? Heewon told me when we met a year ago. You apparently passed into Seoul University but didn’t get admitted.”

Haewon, who looked like he wouldn’t flinch no matter what he heard, trembled for the first time today, to the point that he almost misplaced his glass on the table.

“Did he say something like that?”

“When you weren’t here. Do you remember how he started wailing after drinking back then?”

“I kinda found it suspicious because he kept apologizing to me, but I guess he knew.”

“You should’ve gone to college. The title of Seoul University isn’t like a business card you see thrown around a lot.”

“It was an important period for him. Of course, it was an important period for me as well. I don’t regret it. Prestigious colleges are nothing compared to my family members doing well. Also, I’m not someone who makes losses. I know that him doing well means me doing well; that having a famous brother is much better than going to Seoul University. That’s why I gave up.”

“Haewon.”

“Yes?”

“When you lie, you should look in the other person’s eyes. Only then would you sound believable. Who would be fooled if you look uneasy like that?”

Haewon brushed his bangs with his hand and spoke,

“My brother did.”

“He’s just pretending. He’s damn good at acting after all.”

“That might be true.”

“You should rip a lot off him in the future. Get about half of what he owns and do what you want with it. Being a late college student is good but being a store owner is good as well.”

“I like being my brother’s manager. About this, I’m not lying.”

Maru nodded.

“Uhm, hyung-nim. Can I also ask you a question?”

“What is it?”

“Why did you break up with Gaeul-noona?”

“This is unexpected. Do you like gossip?”

“No, I’m just purely curious. Back then, Gaeul-noona looked like she was half out of it. I only found out later that you two broke up. It was to the point that even my brother, who rarely gets worried about others, came to me for consultation about her.”

“Haewon, do you have a girlfriend?”

“No, I don’t have one right now.”

“So you had one before?”

“Yes.”

“Why did you break up?”

“Things happened and…”

“That’s the same with me too. Things just happened and we just happened to break up. There is no grand reason for it.”

“Well, I guess that must be true.”

“Do you still see Han Gaeul these days?”

“Yes. The president loves to hold meetups with the people at the company. Even if it’s not for that, Gaeul-noona calls from time to time, so we see each other quite a lot. Though, most of the time, I’d be listening to her worries.”

“So you became famous as a consultant. I guess it’s not surprising since you’re looking after Heewon.”

Maru spun the drink in his glass. Why was it that that name kept popping out in unexpected places when he tried so hard to become distant? Was the force of attraction that the curse of reincarnation applied to him still forcing him closer to her? Even after distancing himself so much?

“Anyway, did this dude drown in the toilet or something? Why isn’t he coming back?”

“I’ll go have a look. I found him sleeping on the toilet during the last get-together before.”

“Bring him back quickly.”

He emptied the alcohol while looking at Heewon getting up from his seat. When the door closed and he heard footsteps becoming distant, he barely muttered in a quiet voice,

“So, does Gaeul look okay now? Does she look hurt anywhere? Doesn’t she cry?”

After saying those words, he waved his hand in the air in a flurry so that no traces of his question remained.

Chapter 773
Sequence 4

She put the boiling pot of doenjang soup on the table. She also put the tofu which was being braised in a gochujang-based sauce onto a plate. Rice made from soaked rice as well as hand-made food. Cooking had become a luxury that she could only do when she had the time. She took a photo of the well-made food on the table and sent it to her mother. She didn’t get a reply back as it seemed that her mother was still working.

She put on a youtube video on her laptop and picked up her spoon. The woman on the monitor was eating fried chicken with a happy face. Foods made by frying in oil started a process inside her head. She tasted them in her imagination before eating the rice and doenjang soup. The rice was half-cooked and the soup was bland. The price of challenging cooking when she was just a beginner was quite big. She had no choice but to put the rice in the microwave and cook a fried egg. She wanted to put some salt or soy sauce into the doenjang soup, but from her experience, adding something would always make the outcome worse. She had to prevent the catastrophe of the edible becoming inedible.

She put the fried egg on top of the rice that had become caked all over and put some sesame seeds and sesame oil. With some simple ingredients, she created food that didn’t lose out to food at a three-star Michelin restaurant. Gaeul put the fried egg and rice in her mouth while thinking that it was fried chicken. When she ate about half of the rice, she suddenly found herself feeling quite curious as to why she knew the recipe for this in the first place. She did eat it a few times during primary school when her mother made it for her, but she never ate it after that. A quarter-spoon of soy sauce, a little more sesame oil than that, and as many sesame seeds as she wanted. She couldn’t remember the source of the recipe that she could remember like she did a mathematical formula. She tilted her head before continuing to move her spoon. Who cares? If it’s good, then that was all that she needed.

She washed the dishes that she had emptied. The woman on the laptop started boiling some ramyun as though she wasn’t satisfied with just the fried chicken. She was so thin despite eating all that. Gaeul found herself admiring that woman due to all the exercise she must be doing after shooting that video.

She washed the dishes that had soap bubbles on them and did some squats. The late-night snacks that she ate with the excuse that she should keep herself energized and as a last guilty pleasure before she started her piece had turned into assassins, hiding in various corners of her body. Thanks to the diet she did to the death, she didn’t gain any weight, but she couldn’t feel at ease as she felt like she had lost a lot of stamina. The TV screen was a ruthless device that put people on their sides after all.

She picked up her phone when she heard the Kakaotalk notification bell. There was a photo of her mother smiling joyfully with jjajang-myun, jjampong, and tangsuyuk in the background. That’s how you wanna play this, Mrs. Choi Haesoo, huh? - Gaeul sent her a text along with an angry emoji after thinking that.

-Your daughter is trying desperately to lose weight here. You’re going too far.

-I thought you should fill the stomach of your heart. This mother will eat the portion that you can’t eat.

-You’re eating without doing any work again? I heard that people have a hard time writing when they’re full.

-Clearly not me. I can write perfectly even when I’m full.

Her mother sent a photo of a pig’s foot after that.

-How’s the air in Haenam?

-It’s good. We should come together next time. The air’s good and the sea is pretty.

-I want to go too. Maybe I should go traveling with you, mom, after I do this drama.

-I’ll look forward to it. Let me feel what it’s like to have a successful daughter.

-But you earn more than me. You should be the one treating me.

A cute mascot character with hearts for eyes kept appearing on her phone. After looking at the photo of her mother for a while, Gaeul walked over to a shelf and took out a book. It was the script of ‘Flaming Lady’ made into a hardcover. The story of the drama that changed the life of her mother, writer Choi Haesoo, in its entirety was inside this book. When she was in her 3rd year of high school, her mother was writing a script for a drama while keeping it secret from her, the daughter. She found out that her mother was writing a drama script instead of a romance novel through producer Park Hoon. Producer Park Hoon called her out of nowhere and offered her an audition. She also got a call from her agency as well. Gaeul took the audition, and she passed on the spot. It was a week later that she found out that it was her mother who wrote the script for the drama.

Gaeul slowly flipped over the pages. Whenever she flipped each page, she could remember each part vividly. Acting as a girl that resolved to take revenge was quite tricky. Without the practice she did with the ‘rabbit’, she would have given up midway. The rabbit became her exclusive teacher and taught her the A to Z of acting. Whenever she thought about the things the rabbit said and put them into action, she started escaping her shell. When she finished the scene where she became an adult actor and got off the drama, Gaeul received attention from the public for the first time. The amount of attention she received was on a completely different level than when she played her role in ‘Building’. There was no end to the list of interviews that her manager told her about, and the list of magazine shoots would only make the list longer. Also, she was given the happy dilemma of having to choose between scripts that came from various places. It was also back then that she found out that the people that liked her had created a fan café for her.

‘Flaming Lady’ was a precious drama that changed both her and her mother’s lives. The actress Han Gaeul was only able to become big thanks to this drama. Gaeul read the book until the last page before closing the book. What would have happened if the role in this drama went to someone else? She would probably have a very different-looking acting career than now. That call from producer Park Hoon practically created the current her. Had she not received the call, had producer Park Hoon not chosen her…

Just as the book was about to be placed right on the shelf, it stopped midway. Her thoughts also couldn’t proceed forward as though they got stuck on something. Why did producer Park Hoon contact her? She was so absorbed in practicing back then due to the sudden opportunity that she had no time to think about it. Producer Park Hoon said in passing that he was impressed with her acting in ‘Building’, but how many producers would actually bother looking up the contact number of a nameless actress to cast? While she might be overthinking things, it kept tugging on her mind like the slight skin peel right next to the fingernail on her index finger. Based on her mother’s personality, there was no way that it was her who recommended her. In truth, her mother never mentioned anything about having a daughter in the acting industry.

She pushed the book back in with force. Just then, her phone which she left on the sofa started ringing, begging for attention. She picked up the phone after checking the caller’s name on the screen.

“What’s up? You’re calling me first.”

-I’m calling because I have something to tell you. What are you doing right now?

“What else? I’m just at home. I’m on a diet because of the shoot. How about you?”

-I’m eating dinner.

“What happened during dinner for you to be calling me?” she asked as she sat down on the sofa.

-Let me ask you something.

“What is it?”

-Did you break up with Han Maru in a bad way?

Gaeul took the phone off her ear. The ear and cheek that touched the phone suddenly felt scalding hot. The name of an awkward person popped out from the person she didn’t expect would mention at an unexpected hour. How should she reply to this? Should she honestly say that she was rejected? It then dawned on her that she didn’t have to answer such a question in the first place. She wetted her lips a little and asked back,

“What are you talking about so suddenly?”

-I’m with Maru right now. We met because we’re going to be shooting a drama together.

“I see. So Maru is in that drama.”

-You didn’t know?

“We haven’t been keeping in touch.”

-Is that so? Alright then. I went to the bathroom, and I called you because you suddenly came to mind. If you were doing well together, I was thinking maybe we should eat together.

“What’s up with you? Lee Heewon being considerate? Is the world going to end?”

-You can’t blame me for it. I was reminded of you when I looked at Maru’s face. I’m only saying this now, but you looked seriously bad back then. You were working like mad. Well, you did like working before that, but back then, you looked like you were crazy for work. When you took a break, you stayed dead still to the point that it made me worry.

“That happened a long time ago. I’m surprised you still remember.”

-This is what’s good about having colleagues in the same workplace. Anyway, get some rest. Sorry I called you.

She hurriedly called out to Heewon in an urgent voice as he was about to hang up.

“Did Maru perhaps talk about me?”

-No.

No - this answer felt rather refreshing and yet disappointing at the same time. She thought that she didn’t have any residual emotions left after three years had passed, but whether it was now or back when she visited the theater, it seemed as though she still had some unresolved residue.

Back when they just broke up, she had a hard time. It was her who told him that they should put some distance, and she knew that it was her who provided the reason for the breakup, but actually breaking up stirred up her heart violently despite knowing that it was her fault.

A year before they broke up, while she was shooting ‘Flaming Lady’, she tried to approach Maru first, but back then, Maru was the one who told her that they should keep their distance. The distance never shrank and like that, they broke up 3 years ago. In the place she was informed of the breakup, she would have accepted it with ease of mind if he told her that he was fed up, that he started to hate her, or things like that, but instead, Maru notified her of the breakup along with an apology. Gaeul only grasped empty air after seeing the firm resolution in his eyes which told her that he was not going to tell her the reason no matter what. She thought that she should contact him and have a proper talk with him after calming down a little, but as though he predicted her actions, Maru went to his military service the next day. Although she wrote letters, the only reply was a simple line telling her to ‘do her best’. There was no indication of a ‘relationship’ anywhere in the exchange.

-Han Gaeul?

Gaeul gripped her phone.

“Lee Heewon, I’m sorry, but you gotta run an errand for me.”

-What is it?

“Go ask Maru if I can go right now.”

-Ask Maru?

“Yes. Please ask him that.”

-Okay, alright. I’ll ask him and give you a call.

“Please.”

Gaeul put down her phone and went into the bathroom. She washed her face and hair. It would be too late if she started getting prepared after hearing a confirmation. Playing a character with short hair was quite helpful at a time like this. She looked at her phone while drying her hair. There was no reply yet, even though around 10 minutes had passed.

She was dusting water droplets off her hair when she made eye contact with herself through the mirror. Gaeul chuckled. She wondered what she was doing. It would have been a lot easier if she talked to him back at the theater. It felt like Maru didn’t feel distant and that the gentle him was was still there, resulting in her boomeranging back to him. In the end, it was fate that they had to meet at least once.

She got a call. She was surprised at her reaction speed in picking it up.

“What did Maru say?”

She froze up immediately after asking. The faint breathing sounds didn’t belong to Heewon. The owner of the voice that she still remembered after all these years, spoke,

-Come. Let me see you.

It was Han Maru.

Chapter 774
Sequence 4

Gaeul touched the part of her face that touched her phone. She felt as though she felt his breath. Maru’s voice hadn’t changed at all. It neither became higher nor lower. The only thing she could feel in the word ‘come’ was a sense of welcome. She thought about what sense of welcome that was; as a friend? Or as a former lover?

She dried her hair with the hairdryer and chucked the towel into the laundry basket. A bottle of facial essence caught her eyes, but she lacked time. She sat in front of the makeup desk and moved around busily. She had to admit it. She was in a hurry right now.

She put on her clothes and got in her car. She started driving towards the place that Heewon told her about. She felt like she had ignored some traffic lights on her way there, but she couldn’t remember clearly. Only when she parked in front of the restaurant did she realize that she had been speeding. Before she got off, she saw the reflection of her lips through the rearview mirror. It looked paler than usual. She hurriedly took out some lipstick and applied it to her lips. This time, it looked too thick. She sighed and got out of the car. She realized that nothing she did would satisfy her.

She could feel her heartbeat from her soles as she stepped on the stairs. She felt as though her entire body had become one giant heart. She felt a little dizzy as the blood vessels throughout her body sent all the blood to her head. She even became worried that she might look a little too red right now.

She opened the door and went inside. The restaurant was pretty quiet. Recalling that they were in a room towards the inside, she started moving. Some of the customers who were drinking seemed to have noticed who she was, but they didn’t follow her. She lowered her head a little and entered the corridor where there were doors placed throughout. After checking through the small window on the door, she found Heewon and Haewon. She looked over to the other side. She saw Maru, with a cup in hand.

“You called for me and didn’t even come out to get me?” she said as she went inside.

She felt more nervous than when she first started playing the role of a lead character in a drama. She tried her best not to look nervous. She curled up her toes and sat next to Maru.

“It’s been a long time,” Maru said.

“True, it has,” she replied as she looked into his eyes.

She was nervous to the point that her neck became tense when she made eye contact with him, but she soon felt okay. The ballooning sense of nervousness that she had when she arrived at the restaurant had popped and disappeared all at once.

“How have you been doing?” Gaeul asked.

Maru crossed his arms as though in deep thought before slowly replying ‘so-so’.

“Sorry for calling you out so suddenly, Gaeul-noona.”

There was a different perpetrator, but it was Haewon who apologized instead.

“I was just about to eat, so it’s fine. It’s boring to eat by myself. Did you order everything?”

“We only ate a little so that we could eat with you when you come. Oh, here’s the menu. You can order what you want. Today, it’s on my brother.”

“Looking at the menu, I see that all the expensive stuff has been ordered already.”

Gaeul looked at the food on the table. They were all the expensive foods at the bottom of the menu.

“Someone’s treating me, so I might as well get something expensive,” Maru said.

Gaeul only ordered a bowl of salmon salad.

“Here.”

She reached out for the chopsticks in front of her. When she tried to grab it, Maru pulled back one of the chopsticks. What entered her hand was a small wooden stick that had lost its pair.

“It’s been a while, hasn’t it?” Maru said as he waved the other chopstick around.

Gaeul felt like time was going backwards when she looked at him smiling like a child. He would often give her just one single chopstick like a child and then act like she should try stealing the other one from him in an unknown restaurant, in a bunsik restaurant, and even an expensive-looking restaurant. When he did, she would grumble but still play along. Sometimes, she would sometimes hit him. Gaeul reached out for the chopstick in joy as though she had found her graduation album covered in dust. Maru would pull back again in a prankster manner, and she would complain…

The chopstick that should not be within her reach entered her hand so easily. He did not pull back the chopstick. He put it on his palm and started talking to Heewon as though nothing had happened. Gaeul gathered the two chopsticks together and put them down. Good memories were probably called ‘good’ because they were meaningless. The ‘he’ and ‘she’ who played around in the past had become a different ‘he’ and ‘she’ with the passage of time. What did she expect? She was such a fool.

They chatted as they ate. The man next to her got on her nerves like a gas stove she had forgotten to turn off at home, but she didn’t show it on her face. When they made eye contact, she made a clueless smile and looked at him for about 2 seconds before turning to look at the brothers on the other side or at the food. I don’t feel anything either, she wanted to express that with her body.

“I’ll go make a call for a minute.”

Haewon took out his phone and stood up. He looked cautious as though he was about to call someone high up.

“I’m off to the bathroom. Maybe it’s the food, but it keeps gurgling in my stomach.”

Even Heewon left.

Gaeul put the salmon salad she ordered in her mouth. The salmon was mushy and the dressing was sour. It didn’t fit her tastes. Although the salad wasn’t to her taste, she kept stuffing it down her throat, begging for Heewon or Haewon to come back.

“Aren’t you eating too much?”

Just as she was reaching out to the beef tataki, she had to stop. Gaeul looked next to her. Maru’s face, which she proactively tried to push outside her vision, could be seen clearly. Her lips fell apart slightly before sticking again. She stayed still, not knowing what to do, before realizing that she had to do something and so spoke whatever was on her mind,

“I’m going to put on some weight.”

“What a tremendous amount of confidence you have. I’m dying here trying to lose weight. I gained some weight because I went on an eating spree.”

“I see. I didn’t know because I wasn’t that interested.”

The part of her ego that wanted to cut off this conversation generated some unnecessary words. She had no talent to unspill the spilt milk. She just placidly moved her chopsticks. Should I just stand up and leave right now? Would it be strange to put a phone against my ear when it didn’t ring? Why am I so uneasy right now? She had all kinds of thoughts.

“It’s been three years, hasn’t it?”

“It has been three years.”

“I did plays after getting discharged in Daehak-ro. I became pretty popular, and the tickets sold well too.”

“Really? You should’ve told me about it. I should have gone to watch you.”

She knew the plot of the story and all the characters in it, but she put up a pretense of cluelessness. For a brief instant, she wondered what kind of expression he would put on if she told him that she made a visit on the last day of his performance, but she didn’t put it into words.

“I watched the drama you were in in the military. It was pretty good. You even received a prize, didn’t you?”

“Yes. The rookie actor award.”

“How was it?”

“It was good. It’s something that I can only get once in my acting career. I was grateful.”

“Man, it’s pretty amazing. Someone who used to do plays like me is so far ahead of me. Not only are you on TV, you even got a prize. I should do my best to catch up.”

“Catch up to what?”

Gaeul snapped the chopsticks down on the table. Maru, who was leaning on the desk with his hands locked, glanced at her once before looking up at the ceiling.

“It’s the duty of an actor to chase the actors they admire. I should do my best to become like you or Heewon.”

“Do your best? At this point?”

Her words kept containing thorns. She couldn’t calm down. He was in Daehak-ro in the year leading up to his military service. Although he said that he wanted to consolidate his foundation, to Gaeul’s eyes, he was wasting time not doing anything back then. Even when she asked why, he did not reply. Around that time, she started the shoot for ‘Flaming Lady’, and Maru practically cut off all contact. The only news she got of him was the day before he went to his military service; the news being the breakup announcement.

“I have an advantage since I went to the military early. I just need to keep going forward now. I got an opportunity too.”

“So what, that’s why you went to the military without telling me anything? Because of that meager advantage?”

“Hey, the military is nothing much. Also, I just told you that we should break up the day before, so how am I supposed to tell you that I’m going to the military right after that?”

“Nothing much? Going to the military for two years is ‘nothing much’ to you?”

“Why are you so angry? It’s all in the past.”

Maru smiled as though he was clueless. Gaeul could feel the lump in her head cool down in an instant. Having turned into a block of ice from a lump of fire, her feelings that were boiling with rage, disappointment, and longing decreased to the extreme lows.

“Let me ask you something since it’s all in the past. Why did we break up?”

“I think it was just a natural order of things. We each needed some time to think, but that time just became longer than necessary.”

“Is it because I stayed distant from you?”

“No, it’s not like that.”

“Then what? If it’s not that, why did you not look at me again when I approached you again?”

“Just like you had your own reasons for staying distant from me, I probably had my reasons as well. I don’t remember the reason anymore though. Maybe I was just immature.”

“Immature? Han Maru was?”

“We were both children. Maybe that’s why we broke up: because we were kids.”

“Can’t you… can’t you just tell me that you got fed up with me?”

She felt incredibly calm. She didn’t know where all the fear she had before she asked had gone. Like she was right now, she felt like she could calmly walk into a lion's cage in a zoo. Gaeul wanted to know what Maru was feeling. More so than the reason they broke up; more so than the reason why he didn’t reply when he was in the military; and more so than the reason he didn’t look for her after getting discharged, she wanted to know what Maru felt when he announced the breakup.

Maru wordlessly gave her a napkin. She didn’t know what that meant until she looked down. A teardrop fell onto her hand. Only then did Gaeul realize that she was crying and that she was clasping her hands so tightly that her veins had popped out on both of her hands. Her head felt clear was because the heated emotions escaped through her tears. She tried to grab the napkin with shaking hands, but she couldn’t do as she wished.

It was then that Maru’s hand approached her face.

Maru’s head slowly touched her face.

“You haven’t changed; your tears react faster than your words.”

Maru put the napkin on the table.

“What kind of answer do you want from me?”

“The reason we really broke up.”

“If God told me not to meet you, would you believe it?”

“Just tell me you got fed up with me instead.”

“Let’s stop. You’re going to cry again.”

“Tell me you broke up with me because you got fed up with me. Or tell me you got another girl instead. Tell me, SOMETHING… so that I can accept… so that I can hate you… so that I can no longer think of you.”

Maru smiled awkwardly and scratched around his eyes. His smile was gentle yet iron-hard. He opened up possibilities but did not tell her the truth.

“You’re not telling me anything.”

“…Because I don’t have anything to tell you.”

“I see. That’s how it is. That’s what happened.”

Gaeul picked up the napkin that Maru put down and wiped her tears. She wiped her lips with the wetness until all the red on her lips was wiped away.

“Thanks for the food today.”

“Heewon’s the one buying, so tell him.”

“True, I should do that. I’m leaving.”

“Alright.”

“I’ll greet you warmly when we meet next time.”

“I’ll reply warmly too.”

“Goodbye.”

“Goodbye,” Maru said as he turned his face away.

Gaeul pulled on the doorknob with all of her might.

Chapter 775
Sequence 4

The door slammed shut. It was the sound that severed the space physically as well as the sound that snapped the thin thread of emotions he had barely maintained until now. Maru pressed down on his knees to suppress his urge to follow her.

The meeting was not that shocking. She brought herself from three years ago right to this place as though the three years hadn’t passed at all. It felt as though the separation of space and time didn’t mean anything between them. He kept glancing at her like he was some thief. The forehead that symbolized her bold personality, the nose that represented her signature pride, the philtrum that was a symbol of her stubbornness, and lastly the lips that whispered loveliness. He was enraptured by every single line that was on her face. The urge to have her and steal her for himself kept pushing his back. Had he not recalled the regret that would come as a result of his decision, he would have reached out to her, both verbally and physically.

Only after controlling his impulse by giving her the chopstick obediently could he look her in the eyes. The reason he called her here was to put an end to the relationship he wasn’t able to finish properly three years ago.

Using the ability that he gained by returning to the past was something dangerous, but he could only resolve their relationship cleanly by finding out what she thought within her and then deriving an answer from that. Maru wished to be her long-time friend. He wished to become someone who would listen to her worries, congratulate her on her wedding, and give her cute gifts when she conceives a child. As long as he looked inside her heart and found out what she thought about the man known as ‘Han Maru’, it would be easy for him to straighten out this twisted relationship and lead it in the direction he wanted. Just this last once - he believed that with this, he would be able to untangle everything.

Maru poured some soju into his cup used for drinking water and gulped it down all at once. The alcohol, which was supposed to heat everything up as it went down the throat, disappeared without giving him any feelings. Only the bitter scent of alcohol lingered around his mouth.

“Why couldn’t I see it? No, was it good that I didn’t see it?”

He didn’t tell her to come out of impulse. In fact, he made the resolution of his lifetime. He even decided to use his ability that he could not afford to use, yet he wasn’t able to see anything. No matter how much he looked into her tearful eyes, he couldn’t see what she thought of Han Maru. It wasn’t that his ability had disappeared. Before she arrived, he tested his ability on a passerby. He bumped into that person on purpose and looked into his eyes. A speech bubble appeared above the top of his head, saying ‘why is this guy staring at me like this?’

Before he found out that she was the reason for the cycle of lives, he tried using that ability on her. Back then, the ability definitely worked on her. He could clearly see what she thought of him. There was only one case when the speech bubble didn’t appear - if the person he was looking in the eyes was thinking about absolutely nothing related to him.

Maru tapped on his knees. There was no way she had no thoughts. In fact, she would have probably felt so hectic that a storm would have been brewing within her. After all, she was so absorbed in her thoughts that she didn’t realize that she was crying.

The moment he saw her crying, Maru’s thought process also came to a screeching halt. The ability he had so much faith in didn’t activate, and she, who he thought would act cold, had kept the feelings from three years ago as though she just woke up from cryosleep. It was hard to endure the incoming wave of emotions. He believed that he had cleanly wrapped things up after listening to the elder’s words, but he soon realized how laughable and imperfect the resolve he had made was.

He had to cut her off, he had to end it here, he had to wrap everything up here - he endlessly thought such to himself, but his hands were already reaching out to her ears. He wiped her tears and moved his hand according to the curvature of her face. It was a near miracle that he had held back the impulse to use his finger to brush away the tears from her face and touch her lips. He could taste blood from his clenched teeth.

He had sent her off several times in his imagination. He pictured her marriage, her children, and the man that would be with her. A perfect life that she would have without him in the equation.

In the dream he had countless times, he was sitting in the darkness, looking towards the light. The light was her, and he himself had given up on approaching that light and just waited until he disappeared as he sat down on the spot humbly. He believed that he would feel satisfied with just watching. Now that he met her today; however, he realized just how foolish he was. There couldn’t be a relationship where he could just keep watching her from the side. He was no saint. He was no ascetic who had transcended material and carnal desires. He was just an ordinary person who wanted to sit when he was standing and lie down when he was sitting. If he kept her by his side as a friend, he would eventually end up closing that distance, reach out to her, and eventually have her, regardless of who was by her side.

The moment he once again became cognizant of the fact that he could not have her by his side, his head generated countless words that would make her find him disgusting and contemptuous. The formula that would provide the answer to turn two friends into complete strangers gave a strangely detailed method. It was as though he had prepared all this beforehand.

He uttered words that shook her heart. It was a desperate act. He had to quench the fire burning within him in order to talk to her calmly. He had to hold himself back from reaching out to her and hold his mind back from flying over to where she was. He once again reminded himself that the relationship between the two was nothing. He eventually saw her tears dry and her emotions dry as well.

Maru felt as though his soul was plucked out of his body and dumped into a space of darkness without a speck of light. He felt like the floor beneath him was going to collapse at any moment. The ego that had climbed up to his throat screamed at him to hold her. Maru killed that ego using whatever methods possible.

Just like how she wanted to know the reason for their breakup, Maru wished for her to not be curious about anything. He wished for her to detest him just as much as she wanted the reason for their breakup to be clear. He wished for her to slap him on the cheek, for her to insult him outright, or pour water over him like drama clichés.

She just left after saying goodbye. Maru prayed. He prayed that she would hold him in contempt; that she would despise him; and going forward, treat him as though he was nothing much.

Heewon and Haewon returned to the room. The two asked where Gaeul went in confusion. She left first - he explained simply.

“I’ll go get a breather.”

It was hot outside the restaurant. He only realized that it was the middle of summer after leaving the restaurant. His body suddenly swayed and his sense of direction disappeared. He sat on the bench in front of the restaurant. The conversations of the passersby felt like the buzzing of a hive of bees. It was a sound that messed up his head. He blocked his ears and curled up. He felt separated from the rest of the world. What was he supposed to live for in a situation where even hope disappeared from Pandora’s box?

Her life would no longer contain Han Maru anywhere. Maru had never pictured such a scene. He might have yielded the place of the lover, but he had never thought about a life without her.

So I’m such a weak person - Maru calmed his breathing. It was the worst choice, and yet it was the best choice as well. This was the only method he could choose in order to end this cycle of reincarnation. As this cycle always ended with him marrying her, things would definitely be different this time. If this didn’t change anything, he was planning to become the serial killer of the century in his next life. Perhaps he would fall into hell if he did.

The suffocating breathing became smooth again. His mind had half-died, but his body was desiring life. In the end, people just kept living on like this: by compromising and despairing. He could already picture himself locking himself up in his room once he heard about her wedding in the future, but what could he do? He was alive and had to keep living on.

Just as he was about to raise his gaze, a white trainer entered his eyes. The thin ankle, as well as the well-shaped calf, allowed him to tell who they belonged to without raising his head. Maru froze up and stayed still. He didn’t have the courage to look up. In the end, the woman in front of him crouched down. He made eye contact with her. Maru hurriedly looked down.

“You said you didn’t have a reason, so why are you putting on such an expression?”

“I don’t know.”

“You said you had nothing to say to me, so why are you so agonized?”

“Well, I don’t really know either.”

“Look at me in the eyes when you say that.”

“I don’t have anything to tell you even if I do look.”

A pair of cold hands touched his two cheeks. Maru was forced to lift his head. Han Gaeul, drenched in sweat, was in front of him.

“I ran a lap around the area because I felt so upset. I just couldn’t understand. I tried to understand why you did that. But I still don’t understand. I thought that I was very well aware of the man known as Han Maru, but I must have been wrong. I don’t know anything, absolutely nothing.”

Her eyes sucked in everything. Maru tried to turn his head away because he felt like she could draw out the true feelings that he had locked up deep inside his heart. However, Gaeul’s hands were strong. Indeed, she was strong before she became the mother of a child. She was a woman who propped him up from behind whenever he was about to collapse.

“Let me ask you just one thing. Do you like me? Or hate me?”

Maru was unable to reply. He felt as though he would confess his deep love if he spoke right now, which would put the word ‘like’ to shame.

“Alright, you’re planning on staying silent until the end, huh? Do you remember what you told me before? ‘It doesn’t matter even if you meet another man. I will make you love me again’.”

She recited his words in a meaningful way.

“I actually lied. I went to your last performance. I saw you on stage as well. I was planning on saying hello, but I just left. Do you know why? It was because you felt so close to me. It felt like breaking up was nothing. You dumped me, but if I keep liking you, it would hurt my pride, wouldn’t it? No, this is a lie too. I was afraid that you might not like me. I was scared of confirming that I held no meaning to you. Let me ask you again. Do you love me?”

“Don’t do this. Everything’s over between us.”

“Answer my question. Do you love me or not?”

“I don’t. I don’t like you. Done now?”

“Yes, I’m done now.”

Gaeul stood up. Was she going to leave now? He raised his head slowly. He could see Gaeul’s face faintly smiling.

“I found out for the first time today that there are times you can’t lie.”

Gaeul kissed her palm. Then, she put her palm against Maru’s forehead.

“Look forward to it. I will make you say that you like me with your lips again. Phew, that makes me feel refreshed. I’m going now. I’m leaving for real, okay?”

“Han Gaeul.”

He tried calling out to her, but she walked away without looking back. Maru raised his hand and caressed his forehead. A faint red substance rubbed off his forehead.

It was a night that was mixed with despair and glee. It was a hot night.

Chapter 776
Sequence 5

“Hey, over there. Come here for a sec.”

Yoon Hyungseok pointed at himself and asked ‘me?’ The leader gestured for him to come without asking questions.

“Do you have something to do after this?”

“After this?”

“If you have some time, I was going to have you do some other character. I’ll pay you the wage.”

“What role is it? Does he have a line?”

The leader scanned him from top to bottom.

“Hey, are you interested in this area?”

“My dream is to become an actor. I came here to get some experience today so that I can see what it’s actually like at the scene.”

“Good. Come over when I call for you later. It’ll be a thug role, and you’ll have to undergo some makeup. There aren’t many lines, but you have to cringe a little.”

“If I can get on camera, I’ll do anything. Where should I wait?”

“Go sit over there. I’ll call you as soon as things are taken care of. Yoon Hyungseok, right? And your number is this?”

“Yes, that’s me.”

Hyungseok sat on a chair placed in the corner of the set.

“Aren’t you going?”

A man who played the role of a patient with him came over and asked.

“I was told to stay behind.”

“That’s great. The leader seems to like you before. Then do your best.”

The man said goodbye before leaving. Hyungseok took off the patient outfit. When he just arrived at the shooting set and received a patient outfit, he was excited because of the unfamiliar scenery, but when the shoot lasted for about five hours, it felt like nothing as though it was his own neighborhood. He did see famous actors from afar, but that only lasted a brief instant. The background actor part-timers couldn’t even get near the noble actors. The leader roared at them to not ask for autographs or photos without their permission.

“Damn, I should become as successful as possible.”

Ever since he received a shock after seeing Maru’s acting, Hyungseok had fixed his life plans. He stopped going to the acting school that he went to like he was receiving compulsory education and looked for jobs on the scene. He did this in order to learn what it’s like at the scene and what could not be learned from textbooks. The simplest method to get onto the scene was the background actor part-time job. As soon as he registered himself in the association, he got a call, and Hyungseok ended up going all over the country because he landed himself a job in a historical drama. Unlike his expectations of being able to watch the acting of the actors from up close, Hyungseok had to stand guard in front of the palace gates while wearing thick padded clothes. Although he had tried all sorts of harsh part-time jobs, this was the first time he felt like he was actually going to die. If he could watch the acting of the actors, he would at least have felt a little good about it.

After failing his first attempt, Hyungseok looked into part-time jobs excluding historical dramas. It wasn’t as though he was short on money, so he didn’t have a problem with choosing. After that, he had done a few more background actor jobs, but every single time, he was just a passerby 1. He couldn’t easily find an opportunity to watch the acting of the good actors for real.

It was around that time that he first got a job in a proper set. It looked like a warehouse from the outside, but inside was a splendid-looking hospital set. The role he played was also a patient, so he thought that he may be able to watch the actors playing the doctor. His expectations were betrayed without fail. The only thing he did for the past 5 hours was walking around the corridor with ringer solution attached to his body. Over there, come here, over there, go there, there, stop.

“You there, come over here.”

He followed the leader to the back of the set. He saw a sign that said ‘makeup room’. The scenery behind the door was nothing like what a ‘makeup room’ would look like. There were clothes strewn everywhere, piles of empty bowls, and even leftover food. This looked more like a living room than a makeup room.

“You have to get your makeup done here.”

“Yes.”

The leader picked up a call as he left the makeup room. Hyungseok followed the woman’s instructions to close his eyes.

“Change your top into this.”

“Right here?”

“Where else? Should I close your eyes for you then?”

She seemed annoyed and told him to do it fast. Hyungseok changed his clothes. It was a peculiar experience to change in front of a woman that looked at him like he was some object. As soon as he sat down on the chair, the makeup room opened again and another woman came in. One of them took care of his face and hair, while the other one got close to his flank. The perfectly fine shirt turned red. It was ripped with some scissors, rubbed, and even slightly burnt with a lighter.

“Don’t touch the makeup, and your clothes too for that matter.”

Hyungseok left the makeup room and took a photo of himself with his phone. The left part of his face was covered with blood. He was about to touch his hair caked in blood but stopped when he recalled the warning.

“Emergency patients, please gather round.”

The leader gestured at him to go over. The patients gathered in front of the counter. It seemed that a large-scaled accident had occurred within the drama. There was a patient that joined them a little later than other people, and he had a long wound on his thigh. It was the special makeup room. Hyungseok was put off by the fat and the bones.

Listening to the explanation of the assistant director, they each moved to their places. Hyungseok played the role of a patient who was being carried into the emergency room on a stretcher. Just as the leader said, he didn’t have any lines. The only thing the assistant director told him to do was groan.

“But don’t make the sound too big. You have all seen what patients look like in dramas right? You just have to cringe and act like you’re hurt. You’ll be lying down most of the time, so it’ll be quite comfortable. Since you’re comfortable, please do your best.”

The assistant director ran over to another team of patients. Hyungseok greeted the background actors who played the role of the 119 agents.

“I’m a little heavy.”

“It’s fine. We can lift palanquins, this is nothing.”

The assistant director, who was explaining the line of movement while pushing the portable bed, returned to them.

“The stretcher should turn left at the entrance and come here. This is a scene where all the patients are coming in at once, so watch out to not get into an accident. As long as you do this scene well, you’ll be lying down for most of the time just like I said before, so you’ll have to suffer just a little.”

The assistant director was the busiest on the shooting set. When the rowdy atmosphere died down a little, the director and the actors appeared. Hyungseok lifted his head a little. Here came the lead actors who he couldn’t see a wink of for the past 5 hours. The actors and the director were right in front of him. Wearing white gowns and surgery uniforms, the actors definitely looked different from the rest. Their appearances alone screamed ‘I’m an actor’.

The first person he saw was Kang Giwoo, who was talking to the director seriously. When the media portrayed him as a sculpture-like handsome man, Hyungseok just scoffed, but now that he actually met him in person, he felt like that description didn’t do enough justice. Hyungseok could understand what it meant for a person’s face to shine. Even though they were the same age, one was a top star, while the other one was a background actor. He thought to himself that he must not waste any time.

“Okay, director. I’ll do that for now.”

Even his voice was cool. There were rumors that he was the grandson of a chaebol, and if that was true, it seemed that God had made a mistake. A person must at least have one flaw, no? Behind him, a background actress playing the role of a nurse was staring at Kang Giwoo. Her eyes looked loose, and it looked like she had fallen for him at first sight. Well, it wasn’t surprising with his face and his popularity.

“Gaeul, you’ll take over the stretcher from here. Also, patient, when Gaeul says something, just say ‘yes’ and act like you’re in pain, okay?”

Han Gaeul nodded at the director’s explanation. Hyungseok recalled Maru as soon as he saw her face. From the way he was smiling in satisfaction while looking at the screen, it was clear that he was a big fan of hers. Maybe he would kowtow to him if he got an autograph from her.

“Patient, okay?”

“Yes, got it.”

“It’ll be troublesome if you daze out during the real shoot.”

The rehearsal began. The emergency responders started walking towards the entrance of the set while carrying the stretcher. Hyungseok tried to balance himself on the shaking stretcher. As they weren’t professionals, the two people carrying the stretcher weren’t in sync, so he felt like he would be flipped over if he just stayed still. As soon as he passed the entrance of the hospital, the camera followed him.

“Interns! What are you doing, staying still like that!”

A middle-aged actor shouted as though it was the real shoot. At the same time, Han Gaeul rushed over to the stretcher. From the conversation that was occurring, Hyungseok found out that he was a patient found in a capsized bus.

“His blood pressure and heart rate are normal, but he’s having a hard time breathing because of the pressure applied to his chest.”

The emergency responder said his line proficiently. It seemed that his experience with this part-time job was above the others. Han Gaeul approached and spoke to him,

“Sir, is the pain here?”

“Yes.”

He groaned and replied in a daze just like he was instructed to.

“Doctor Choi! I think we need to take a chest shot of this patient!”

After Han Gaeul went away, another actor in a doctor’s gown approached him. The actors moved around like they were dancing even in this cramped space. Hyungseok watched all that happen from the bed. He could feel pressure from just the rehearsal. The mood of the chaotic emergency unit immediately turned into a quiet shooting set with a clap from the director.

“We’ll do the shoot right away. Remember your movement lines, and make it look urgent.”

Having returned to the entrance, Hyungseok sat up a little. He looked at the actors who were saying their lines while looking at each other. The actors became doctors as though a magic spell was cast after the director’s cue and they moved around the corridor. Even though they knew that a bunch of emergency patients would be arriving at the unit, they were laughing and joking around. They felt like true pros. Details that couldn’t be seen from just the screen were hidden throughout the scene. Even in places where the camera didn’t reach, their acting did not miss a beat. Hyungseok captured everything with his eyes. This was the kind of scene he wanted to see by coming to the scene like this. Though, the only problem was that he wasn’t able to listen to their voices since he was so far away.

“Doctor! We’ve got incoming patients! It’s from a capsized bus.”

Hyungseok lay down and calmed his breath. It was time for him to play his part.

KTLChamber's Thoughts

Looks like Hyungseok is here to stay.

Editor's Note:

I wonder what role this guy is going to play in the big picture. Just a sidekick? Maybe the bridge between Maru and Gaeul.

BTW if you were curious, ringer solution is what they put in IV bags to restore blood volume.

Chapter 777
Sequence 5

A wall had formed between the signature white tiles of the hospital and the rough flooring of the warehouse. This was the first time he felt the fourth wall from up close. Hyungseok glimpsed at the urgently shouting Han Gaeul before taking a glance at the staff who were looking at the actors from outside the set. He could see over fifty people in the group of staff at a glance, but he could not hear a breathing sound from them. The actors, who had been joking around just 3 minutes ago, had turned into doctors and nurses who were doing their best to give the patients emergency treatment while walking around the emergency unit everywhere. The staff also maintained their tension as they did their work. Actors did what actors had to do, and the staff did the same. Watching the two entirely separate workspaces fit each other like two neighboring puzzle pieces to complete this scene gave him a sense of surprise. Although this feeling would disappear due to simple labor once NGs started flying everywhere, this first shot felt very special. Hyungseok watched the actors that moved according to the lines that the director showed them during the rehearsal and he too became immersed in his own acting. He wanted to become a seriously urgent patient rather than one that didn’t look hurt. He recalled that he should not go overboard as well as Maru’s words that he had to do ‘his own act’.

“Hey, intern! Aren’t you going to get yourself together? You were all high and mighty because you graduated in first place. How can you turn stiff in the emergency unit!”

“I’m sorry.”

“If we send a person to the ICU when we could have taken care of them in the ER, are you going to take responsibility for that? Is it your job to make the patients worse?”

“I’ll get myself together.”

“You’d better do that if you want to look the patients in the face later. Check the patient’s abdomen and tell doctor Choi. Don’t space out this time, punk. Got it?”

Hyungseok could see Giwoo clenching his hand after hearing the middle-aged actor’s scolding. From the looks of things, it seemed like he was getting scolded as he was the lowest rank here, and since he was dazing out. Hyungseok looked at the middle-aged actor’s back as he left the emergency room. He didn’t know the name of that actor. He didn’t know how this would look in real life, but in his opinion, that middle-aged actor was the one who bestowed a sense of realism to this place. If Giwoo, the main character, was emphasized on the TV screen, it would probably be thanks to the middle-aged actor who set up everything for him.

The shoot paused for a moment. Circular rails were installed around Giwoo, who was standing in the middle of the emergency room, and a camera was placed on top of it. The camera slowly turned and shot Giwoo. While the camera moved around, Giwoo looked around the ER as though he was resolving himself.

“Giwoo. You’re doing well, but it’s a little too clear where you’re looking. You’re looking here, then there, then here again. I can clearly tell where you’re looking, so it doesn’t look that good.”

“I’ll try to make it as soft as possible.”

“Alright, let’s leave that to when we do the shoot.”

The shoot resumed. As the scene was mostly composed of actions without difficult lines, Hyungseok thought that it was going to end quite soon, but there was an unexpectedly large number of NGs. Sometimes, it was Giwoo who made a mistake, and other times, a staff member got caught on camera which made them have to reshoot. This was the first time that the smooth shoot hit a wall. It seemed that a still and gentle scene was more difficult to Kang GIwoo than moving around busily and shouting medical jargon.

“Director, I think he’s nervous.”

Just as the atmosphere of the set was freezing up like it was dunked into an ice bath, Han Gaeul spoke while laughing. Kang Giwoo, standing in front of the camera, replied to her with an ‘is that so?’ Following that, the director jokingly told him to loosen up a little. They took a small break. Hyungseok, who was outside the center of the shoot, inwardly applauded Han Gaeul for the precise timing of her words. From the way the director was opening his mouth, the director also seemed to have realized that it was about time for a refresh, but Han Gaeul was a step ahead of him. The taut atmosphere loosened up a lot.

The following shoot was smooth. Kang Giwoo showed the arrogance of the top seat intern as well as the shame of an intern who made a mistake, and next to him, Han Gaeul expressed an intern with great companionship. Hyungseok’s gaze was fixed on Han Gaeul from one point onwards. Just like the middle-aged man who imbued a breath of life into this artificially created ER, she was also breathing life into this inorganic object that was the set. She was running around to the point that the nametag around her neck was flying everywhere, and it was truly like she was a real intern in the ER, not an actress. It was to the point that what caught Hyungseok’s eyes were not her pretty face but her hands as she looked after the patients. When he looked at her and then at the new actor next to her, the dream broke and Hyungseok could feel that this was a set. It wasn’t that the new actor was bad at acting. The serious eyes, the urgent hands that reached out to the patients - it looked very neat, but when he watched him, he could realize that this was a shoot. What was so different about them? Hyungseok believed that identifying that difference was the path to improving his own acting skill.

“Okay. Let’s stop here for today.”

The background actors, who were, like him, lying down on the bed, groaned as they stood up. ‘Staying still’ was unexpectedly something quite hard. Hyungseok also straightened out his stiff back. He could hear snapping noises continuously. The ones that left the shoot first were the ones that came last. Hyungseok looked at Kang Giwoo, who thanked everyone for their work as he left, and realized why popular actors were popular. Who would hate people that were polite in this hierarchical society?

“Erase your makeup and get changed.”

Background actors flocked to the bathroom. People gathered around a man with special makeup on and took a photo together. Just as he put up a v with his fingers while putting his face against the wound, Hyungseok heard someone shout ‘let’s wrap things up quickly’ from afar.

He erased his makeup and changed into the clothes he came in. The lights in the set were also being turned off one by one. After leader did his roll call, he was about to get onto the bus back to Seoul. At that moment, he saw Han Gaeul giving out autographs to people in front of her van. Hyungseok also rushed over. After taking a photo with a staff member, Han Gaeul looked at him.

“Oh, you’re the patient who was next to me back then, right?”

“Yes. I’m surprised you remember me.”

“I remember you because you were good at acting. You looked like you were really in pain.”

“Was my acting that decent?”

“It was good. I don’t flatter people, so you can believe me.”

Han Gaeul held a pen in one hand and a phone in the other. A photo or an autograph; she seemed to be asking which one he wanted.

“Can I take both? The photo is going to be for me, and I’m going to give the autograph to someone else.”

“We worked together, so that’s nothing. But you’re going to give the autograph to someone else? I don’t think my autograph is that valuable.”

“I have a fan who’s a friend of yours, Miss Han Gaeul. I didn’t hear it from the person himself, but I saw him grinning in satisfaction when he watched your acting before.”

“Really? Then I guess I must do it. I’m acting thanks to the fans as well.”

Hyungseok raised his phone up high. When he awkwardly stood next to her, Han Gaeul said that he could come closer. After taking a photo, he took a look at the result. Even though they were standing side by side, the difference in their head size was quite big. He thought that actresses sure were different.

“What’s the name of the person receiving the autograph?”

“Before that, I don’t have paper with me right now, so can I come back after going to the bus?”

“That’s okay. I have some paper in the car. Though it’s nothing that good.”

Han Gaeul opened the door of her van and took out some paper that was a little larger than his palm. It was laminated as well.

“Sorry, I haven’t even prepared even though I came to get an autograph.”

“Don’t say that. What’s the name of this person?”

“It’s Han Maru. It’ll be even better if you can write that you wish him luck with his work. I’m the same age as him, but I’ve learned a lot from him. So I hope he does well in what he does.”

Hyunseok thought about how Maru would rejoice after receiving the autograph before lifting his head after seeing that Han Gaeul’s hands had stopped. Her widened eyes were looking directly at him. Hyungseok flinched and looked around; was there a fire behind him or something? He looked at the progression of staff who were pulling out before looking forward again. He saw Han Gaeul still looking at him while frozen stiff.

“What’s the name again?”

“My name? I’m Yoon Hyungseok.”

“No, I meant the person getting the autograph.”

“Han Maru. A pretty weird name, right? I thought of popsicles when I first heard his name in the military.”

Her leisurely face turned into that of an urgent one. Hyungseok didn’t flinch anymore; he was panicking now. He was worried that she had a sickness or something. He gave a glance to the manager. He had his face buried in the phone as though he was playing a phone game.

“Is there a problem?”

“No, it’s not like that.”

“If you don’t feel fine, you don’t have to do it. I must have taken too much of your time.”

“No, it’s not that. I was just a little startled.”

“What?”

He wanted to ask what made her startled, but he decided not to, thinking that he would be too nosy. Her expression went through a series of panic, a little unease, then a little confusion, and finally a strange sense of joy. Looking at the change in her expressions from up close, Hyungseok was reminded of fireworks. Hyungseok could feel the back of his ears burning up. He had forgotten for a while, but Han Gaeul was a beauty, and she was his type.

Perhaps this encounter in this drama might lead them into a romantic relationship in the future - he thought such but the delusion didn’t last more than 3 seconds. The sense of realism he had built up while running a clothes sales business had folded the wings of delusion before they could span out. If life went as one dreamed, he would have become the president of a company as large as SC right now.

“What does this Han Maru do for work?”

“What? Work?”

“Rather than wishing him well for what he does, I think it’ll be better to write what that is clearly.”

When he looked at Han Gaeul saying those words, he was reminded of a documentary he watched in the military, where a white fox played around with a rabbit while hunting it. The smile in her eyes felt like feelings beyond just goodwill towards a stranger. This woman, was she always such a prankster?

“He does acting. He’s quite a popular actor in Daehak-ro. I watched his play once, and it was full of people.”

“So he has the same occupation as me. Alright.”

Han Maru was just a play-actor, but Han Gaeul seemed strangely overjoyed by it. Han Gaeul put a pen against the paper. She quickly moved her hand and completed the autograph.

“Wait a sec.”

She curled up her lips before kissing the corner of the sign paper.

“That friend of yours must like it if I do this, right?”

“Of course, I’m sure he will be overjoyed to death.”

“Please give it to him, and I said please.”

“Of course, I will. Thanks for the autograph. I wish you luck in your activities.”

“You too, Mr. Hyungseok.”

She got in her van and left.

“She remembered my name.”

The wings of delusion that had folded up started squirming again. Hyungseok got on the bus with the signed paper. He sat down and checked what she wrote on it.

-Mr. Han Maru, I hope I see you on the same stage as me.

“A popular actress is cheering for him. He must feel great.”

Hyungseok looked at the hickey in the corner before quickly covering it up. He found his lips protruding out.

“Yoon Hyungseok, you can’t do that. That’s inhumane.”

He put the sign paper in the bag.

Chapter 778
Sequence 5

“Sarge Han, it’s me, open the door,” Hyungseok said into the interphone.

Maru replied that the door was open. He opened the door and went inside. The desolate-looking living room had not changed. There were only simple pieces of furniture and some books placed throughout. It was when he took his shoes off and took a step inside that he found something that was different. There was a sound of something scratching against wood before a dog popped out into the living room. The dog that came over to his feet with its tail rotating around like a propeller started rubbing its body against him as though it had missed human interaction for a long time. He was slightly confused but still reached out his hand. As he was patting the dog’s round head, he saw more dogs rushing out. One, two, three… there were four dogs in total. He wasn’t that well-versed in dogs, so he didn’t know what species they were, but he knew the one that rushed over to him first: Border Collie. He recalled having seen on TV that they were smart dogs. These dogs ranged from tiny ones the size of his forearm to large ones that would be taller than him when they stood up.

“What’s up with all the dogs?”

Hyungseok looked at Maru, who was sitting on a chair in the living room. He was eating with dark patches under his eyes as though he was a salaryman who had stayed up for three nights.

“Unrejectable guests.”

“Guests?”

“My president’s dogs. Things happened and I’ve been taking care of them.”

Hyungseok threw his bag on the sofa and started playing around with the dogs after sitting down. There was one that bit his pants and shook its head, one that sat on his lap, as well as one that was chasing its own tail on the spot round and round. When he tickled the chin of the dog that was sitting obediently in front of him, he saw that his pants were now covered in fur. In less than five minutes, the black pants had turned into fur pants. Maru, who was eating lifelessly, stood up and walked into a room before coming back out again with tools in both hands. He came back out with a hairbrush and a tape cleaner, also known as a sticky mop.

Here - Maru said as he handed him the brush and the sticky mop. He accepted it for now. He couldn’t exactly reject something from a man who looked like he was about to collapse at any moment.

“Please take care.”

Of what, he didn’t need to ask to know. Maru staggered over to the dining table and picked up his spoon. Hyungseok could already picture what happened in this house for the past few days. The tireless dogs must have dashed around everywhere, scattering fur, and Maru would have chased after them in shock. Han Maru was known for his cleanliness even in the military. There was no way he could have accepted dog fur scattered across his house.

“I’m surprised you’re still alive. You should have been at war with fur the whole day, right?”

“Rather than a war, it was a one-sided massacre, and I was on the losing end.”

Woof - one dog proudly boasted its voice. It was a large one with a lot of white fur, and it seemed to be saying that it was the general responsible for that massacre. Having heard the brave cry of the general, Maru sighed.

“I should have asked about the meaning behind his ominous smile when he left the dogs to me. I’m to blame for accepting.”

“It’s not like you can reject. But these ones are so cute, it must be worth living with them. What’s the species of this one?” Hyungseok asked as he pointed at the large dog that kept raising its front feet and attacking him.

The eyes that were large enough to capture the entire scenery of the living room were full of mischief. This thing was asking for a hug with its huge body, and the amount of attention it wanted was seriously no joke.

“Samoyed.”

“Samoyed? What a cool name. It’s cute too. The large snout makes it look like a wolf. Does it howl?”

He grabbed the flesh on its stomach and shook it from side to side. The dog opened its mouth wide as though it felt good.

“It’s a cute and proud fur generator. It makes as much fur as its own body size, and honestly, I can’t understand how that works. Even after all that fur fell out, it still gives out fur. I wonder if all the food it ate went to its fur.”

Listening to Maru’s grumbles, Hyungseok stroked the samoyed with a brush. Even though he just stroked the dog from head to toe once, a bunch of fur fell out. He wondered if that was it and tried brushing again. A bunch of fur fell out again, making him worried that the dog might be balding. In just two brush strokes, he became afraid of brushing it again. Maybe this thing was shedding its fur just like snakes shedding their skin.

“I guess not just anyone can raise big dogs, huh.”

“Brush them while you’re still here. That one’s quite obedient in your hands. It keeps biting me when it’s in my arms, so I can’t even brush it properly.”

“I was wondering why you sounded so delightful when I called you. So you needed someone to look after them?”

“If I get work from someone else, the best thing to do is to hand it over to someone else. I’ll listen to one thing that you ask from me. Please take the dogs out for a stroll. I’ll clean my house in the meantime.”

Hyungseok took the dogs outside. When he walked to the Han river with two large dogs and two small dogs, he was at the center of attention. The popularity of the samoyed was unparalleled. Children and adults alike approached him and asked if he could touch the dog.

“They’re not my dogs. They might look docile, but they might bite you, so I don’t think you can touch them.”

He had to treat them preciously since they were JA Production president’s dogs. He was led, and sometimes dragged, by the dogs for around two hours before they managed to return to the house. Although he had confidence in his stamina, it definitely wasn’t comparable to the four energetic dogs. As soon as he opened the door, he lay down on the sofa. The dogs didn’t seem satisfied with the stroll and dashed around tirelessly. In fact, the stroll seemed to have stimulated their wild nature within, and they ran around even more energetically than before.

Hyungseok looked at Maru standing there in a daze with a duster in one hand. The dogs that jumped around while smiling were a stark contrast to the sighing Maru. It looked like a scene out of a sitcom.

“Why did you bother cleaning? You knew it was going to be like this.”

“For the ease of my heart.”

Maru closed all the doors. Hyungseok could see a sense of tenacity from the fact that even though he might have given up on the living room, he could not give up on the other rooms. He put on an apron that had fabric on the front and started brushing them. He seemed like a housewife looking after mischievous children.

“Mr. Han Maru, I’m sure you will be loved by your wife when you get married.”

“If you have the energy to talk, come and brush them with me. They’re in their molting season, so I must keep brushing them.”

“I brushed them so much before, do I have to do it again?”

“Don’t underestimate the amount of dog fur.”

Maru’s words contained a sense of tragic beauty. So he has been fighting desperately - Hyungseok thought as he put the border collie on his lap and picked up a brush. He wordlessly brushed its fur before remembering the reason he came here.

“Oh yeah, I came here to give you a present. Why am I working?”

“Brushing them is already a present. You don’t have to give me the present you brought, so just brush those guys well. My president is quite picky when it comes to all things, but he’s unforgiving when it comes to dogs.”

“Looks like your president loves dogs.”

“Rather than the dogs themselves, I’m sure it’s because of a certain someone he’s reminded of.”

“A certain someone?”

“Something like that. Don’t stop brushing. They’re more valuable than us.”

Hyungseok pulled out the patch of white hair stuck in the brush and put it on the side as he spoke,

“Hey, which celebrity, women I mean, do you like the most?”

“I don’t have one.”

“Don’t give me that. How about Lee Younghwa? The symbol of sexiness.”

“Nah.”

“How about Lim Jungyeon?”

“Not really.”

“How about Kim Suyeon?”

“Oh, she’s the worst.”

“Why is Kim Suyeon the worst? That noonim is pure, daring, innocent, and even intellectual. She’s one of my ideal women.”

“I can admit that she’s daring and intellectual, but calling her pure and innocent is an insult to those words.”

“Hey, do you have something against her?”

“Stop asking and keep brushing. I’m going to pull out all of their hair since you’re here.”

Maru’s eyes had flipped. The samoyed kept biting the hand that brushed it without knowing what its temporary owner was going through. After watching the confrontation between the desperate man and the mischievous dog, Hyungseok spoke again,

“Then how about Han Gaeul?”

Maru, who always answered immediately until now, stayed silent for the first time. His actions turned unnatural like a robot that had encountered a calculation error. The samoyed on his lap twitched its nose. Brush me properly, its eyes seemed to say.

“Not bad.”

For an answer that took ages, it was a little too lukewarm. Hyungseok believed himself to be more well-versed in women than most people. When it came down to romantic relationships, he was knowledgeable enough to give other people consultations. Maru, who looked like the forever-reliable big brother from the time he was in the military, looked like a person of his age for the first time. Oh? Hyungseok put down the border collie and took out the autograph from his bag.

“Do you know what this is?”

“What is it?”

The autograph of the celebrity that’s not bad.”

Maru’s pupils widened. Hyungseok smiled at the obvious response. He didn’t know Maru would be so flustered.

“You met her?”

“I only met her. I also got an autograph from her. With your name on it, too.”

“My name?”

He gave him the autograph paper that had Han Gaeul’s hickey on it. Having received the autograph paper, Han Maru turned into a dinosaur that had just come across the ice age. He didn’t budge even when the samoyed bit his arm. Hyungseok thought that even if an earthquake occurred or the floor suddenly caved in, he would fall in that posture.

“Do you like her that much?”

“What did Han Gaeul say after hearing my name?”

“She asked what you did, saying that she can write a proper word of encouragement if she knew it. She’s such a kind woman. Not only is she pretty, she’s also pretty at heart.”

“So, did you tell her that I was acting?”

“I did. I even promoted you, saying that you were quite popular in Daehak-ro. There’s a reason why Han Gaeul wrote those words on it. ‘Let’s act on the same stage,’ isn’t that good?”

“So you told Han Gaeul that Han Maru is a fan, did you?”

“Yep. You were smiling so delightfully when you were watching that video before. Oh, was it someone other than Han Gaeul?”

After staring at the autograph for a long while, Maru spat out a sigh. He looked pretty serious.

“What is it? Did I do something wrong?”

“Nope, you did nothing wrong.”

“Then what is it? Did I go overboard?”

“It’s not like that. I just… I just thought that this God is pretty nasty.”

“God? What are you talking about all of a sudden?”

“There’s someone like that. A damned God.”

Maru, who was looking at the autograph like a vassal in the middle ages who was just given a poison pill to swallow, suddenly stood up from the spot. He inserted the autograph on the frame of his family photo behind the TV.

“The present… you like it, right?” He asked carefully.

“It’s a terrible present. And the best one.”

“Which one is right?”

“Both of them are right.”

Maru reached out for the autograph. He slowly stroked down on the autograph like he was touching a precious piece of pottery.

“Hyungseok.”

“What?”

“What do you think a person feels when they step off the cliff, knowing that it’s a cliff?”

“Why are you walking off a cliff? You shouldn’t be going in the first place.”

“Yeah, that’s a clear answer.”

Maru pulled out the autograph and flipped it around so that only the blank part could be seen.

“I received a present, so I must give you something in return.”

“That was nothing. Just give me some food.”

“Is food all you need?”

Hyungseok was about to reply again but stopped. He saw the seriousness in Maru’s eyes when he asked back. Perhaps this is what it would be like to see the genie of the lamp.

“I heard you were shooting a drama, right? Put me in there. Not something grand, just as a minor character or something. But hey, can I even ask for this?”

He thought that it wasn’t plausible at all. It was just something he said in order to break Maru’s poker face. Naturally, the answer should be a n…

“If you have confidence in your skills, I’ll try telling the producer about you. He’s someone I know. But that’s all I can do. The rest is up to you.”

He got an unexpected reply.

“R-really?”

“I don’t like joking around with things like this. Especially to a dude.”

Hyungseok threw away the brush and ran over to Maru before hugging him.

“Han Maru, no, hyung-nim! I’ll serve you well in the future.”

“Excuse me, stop bullshitting and keep brushing,” Maru said as he hit Hyungseok on the neck.

Chapter 779
Sequence 5

Luck is supposed to appear rather sudden, but he didn’t expect it to be this sudden. When he was asked ‘are you free right now?’ through the phone, he replied that he was free, and he was told to come to the café in the lobby of the YBS building. He complied without asking back any questions. He only became curious about the purpose after he hung up, but his hesitation didn’t last long. He put his clothes on and drove over to YBS.

“Over here.”

Maru was sitting inside the café at the TV station.

“Why’d you call me all the way here?”

“Why else? I’m here to give you your present.”

“Present?”

“There she comes.”

Maru waved his hand at someone. Hyungseok looked behind him. A woman wearing ripped jeans was walking over. The slightly angled short haircut went nicely with her intellectual-looking eyes. If he met her at a nightclub, he might have tried to hit on her.

The woman entered the café, and before she sat down, she asked Maru ‘is this him?’ Maru just nodded in response.

“Hello. I’m Yoo Jayeon.”

The woman put her hand out suddenly. He looked at her in a daze as he grabbed her hand. Unlike how fair she looked, her hands were pretty rough. If he grabbed her hand without looking at her face, he would be convinced that he was grabbing a man’s hand.

“I’m Yoon Hyungseok, but please excuse me, who might you be?”

He hadn’t heard anything, and he didn’t want to wait around for an introduction either.

“It seems you haven’t heard. Well, I’m sure you must have been in a hurry since I told him to tell you to come right away. I produce dramas for a living.”

Present and producing dramas - those two terms combined in his head. He instantly understood what this was about. He straightened up and looked back at Jayeon. This stylish-looking woman was the producer who would decide whether or not he appeared in a drama.

“Is your dream to become an actor?”

“Yes!”

“Don’t act so stiff, and don’t act nervous. Actually, it might be better if you look at me like you’re appraising me like you were doing before. Though, my husband might get angry if he saw you doing that.”

“I apologize. You were just my type. But you were married? You don’t look like it.”

“You’re good at flattering people, huh? I don’t like such people.”

“I’ll stay silent.”

Just exchanging a few words made him realize that he would not get anything in return if he tried to probe her out. He drank some water and waited for her judgment. Her round eyes centered in the middle of her eyes as though she was done appraising him.

“Your face is definitely the kind type. You must be popular with the ladies.”

“I don’t lose out wherever I go.”

“Since when did you start receiving acting lessons? High school? Middle school?”

“After I got discharged from the military. It’s been a little over a year now. Recently, I’ve stopped going to acting school and instead started looking for part-time jobs as a background actor. I thought I’d learn more at the scene.”

“Whether it’s your clothes or your watch, they look pretty expensive.”

“I ran my own business in the past.”

“You must have earned a lot of money then?”

“I’ve earned enough to be able to challenge myself in other fields without hesitation. But that doesn’t mean that I lack desperation.”

“I didn’t say anything. I’m just trying to find out what kind of person you are. I was wondering just who you were that Maru brought you to me.”

“I’ll do anything if you order me to do it.”

“You sound confident. You haven’t done anything particular, have you?”

“No, not yet.”

“Can I ask you to do a personal request?”

“Sure.”

“Can you stand up right now and shout hurray three times?”

Hyungseok saw Maru stroke down his face with his palm and nod. That meant one thing: do it right now.

He immediately got up from his seat and raised his hands above his head. Hurray, hurray, hurray - the people inside and outside the café all started looking at him. The gazes of the ones looking at him prickled him a little, but Hyungseok acted indifferent. Jayeon, who was looking at him with interest, gestured for him to sit down.

“Why did you do it?”

“Because you told me to.”

“Are you going to die if I tell you to die?”

“That’d be difficult since I only have one life, but I’ll gladly do something else.”

“You look smart, but you’re pure in some areas. Or maybe, there was a silent helper.”

She looked at Maru. Maru went over to the counter, saying that he’d order some coffee.

“I’ll say this beforehand, but I don’t use just anyone just because someone I know introduced them to me.”

“Of course, I would have it no other way.”

“You belong to that ‘just anyone’, Mr. Hyungseok.”

“If you would give me an opportunity, I’ll show you who I am.”

“Can you explain to me what I should see from a person who has never worked in this area before?”

“My potential of course. That’s the only thing I can hold out in front of you. Honestly speaking, I felt confident until a while ago. I thought that I was good at acting. I have both the face and the skills, so I had the confidence that I would do well, even if it’s not in the immediate future.”

“It’s been a while since I last saw someone who thinks so highly of himself.”

“I was just born that way; pride is all I have. But I realized that it’s not that easy. It dawned on me that my acting is just decent-looking counterfeit. That’s why I’m saying that the only thing I can show you is my potential.”

“Even if you tell me something so serious, there’s not much I can do for you. I’m not sure what Maru told you, but minor actors are still actors. If I give a call to Daehak-ro, there will be actors with several years of experience willing to come to play a minor role. Those people are proven actors that I can trust. When it comes to payment, I’ll pay a similar amount to them as I will do to you. Now then, who should I use?”

“I’d love it if you used me, but if that’s not possible, I hope you can watch me at least once. I believe that a current producer’s opinion should be enough for me to decide the direction of my acting career.”

“I hate grand requests like that. Why do I need to become a guidepost to you, Mr. Hyungseok? That’s so much pressure on me.”

“If you don’t like pressure, then you can just use me.”

Maru returned with the coffee. Hyungseok sipped some of the coffee that he was given. Although he was acting calm right now, he was inwardly feeling as nervous as when he was just assigned to his station in the military. Should he have given her a better greeting at first? Should he have talked more gently? Should he have acted more humble? The lucky chance came to him quite easily, but that didn’t mean he wanted to let go of it easily as well.

“Mr. Hyungseok, follow me.”

Jayeon stood up. He received a tag that said ‘visitor’ from the front desk and followed her inside. He took the elevator with her to the 3rd floor and entered an empty office.

“Well then, shall I have a look?”

Hyungseok opened the script that Jayeon gave him. He quickly found where Jayeon was referring and started reading. His armpits were on fire. He said the lines out loud thinking that he must not make a mistake.

“It doesn’t matter even if you do it while looking at the script.”

“I’ll memorize it.”

“As you wish.”

He might only have one opportunity to show himself. Only after he memorized it to the point that he could say the lines out loud with his eyes closed did he let go of the script. The role he was going to play was that of a thug. In this act, he would go rampant in the emergency room and get cornered by a doctor who didn’t get frightened by a fist right in front of his eyes. The doctor would talk back while looking straight at him and he would become docile. He had seen many scenes like this in dramas. Hyungseok decided to put his own colors on top of the base that he knew about. It would be impossible to create a completely original piece, but it should be enough to engrave his own initials on the counterfeit product.

“Where d’you think you’re lookin’at, huh?”

The next line was said by Jayeon.

“This is not a place where you can run rampant. If you’re injured, then show me the injury, and if you aren’t, then leave. This is a place that saves people’s lives.”

“How dare you tell me what’o do! This is the problem with educated people. They need a bea’in’ to get their shit t’gether.”

“If you feel like you’ll feel better after hitting me once, then go ahead. Hit me and then leave. Don’t make this place more chaotic than it already is.”

“You damn punk!”

When he raised his hand in the air, Jayeon told him to stop. Hyungseok stuck his tongue out and wet his lips. His lips had shriveled up in that short amount of time. The amount of tension was different from acting in front of an instructor to get advice. She stopped midway. Did this mean that she was dissatisfied with his act? He had a lot to show her, so he felt that it was a pity.

“This doesn’t suit you. You’ve never done acts like this, have you?”

“No, this is my first time.”

“That’s why experience is important for actors. You need to observe well and take what you learned out whenever you need to.”

“Then can I try another role?”

“You’re quite shameless.”

“There’s one thing I’ve learned during my sales business. It’s that putting up a thick face doesn’t cost money.”

“Anything else you learned?”

“That you can’t go wrong with trying.”

Jayeon looked towards Maru.

“Where did you find a guy like this?”

“If I was going to introduce anyone to you, producer, I can’t bring someone ordinary since you’d shower me with curses. So, how is he?”

“I like that he’s obedient. But he’s definitely not thug material. He has the guts, but he doesn’t look like he has a bad nature.”

“You make the decision. If you can make use of him, then use him. If not, then oh well.”

“You’re quite merciless for someone who brought him here.”

“You’re not someone who would use someone you can’t use.”

The two people’s words felt like the final verdict for him: you’re no good, leave. Hyungseok looked at the script on the table. Would he have done better if he was asked to do something else? When she said it didn’t suit him, that hurt him more than he thought.

“You seemed to have practiced your pronunciation a lot.”

He was given a question. Hyungseok got himself together and responded,

“I heard that my pronunciation becomes blurry if the lines are long, so I practiced.”

“What did you bite on to practice?”

“A chopstick. A wooden chopstick.”

“Didn’t that hurt?”

“I have to do it even if it hurts. I can’t become an actor who can’t speak.”

“But what a pity. The role you’re going to play barely has any lines.”

“The role I’m going to play?”

“The thug was already assigned to someone else, so I never planned on giving it to you in the first place. Not anyone can play thugs. The face is important. Someone with your face can only play a thug with an incredible level of acting skill.”

Jayeon stood up with the script.

“If you’re okay with being an image actor, then let’s work together. You may or may not have lines. You’ll be an actor hired to fill the background. If you do it, you’ll be wearing a doctor gown as an intern.”

“Then I’ll be appearing in the drama?”

“Were you planning not to? How else are you going to show up? Are you going to do it?”

“I will.”

“Try polishing that shameless tone of yours. I might use it depending on the situation.”

“Thank you.”

“Don’t thank me already. You never know what will happen on a drama set. I might be saying this now, but don’t come crying to me later if I don’t call you in the future. You come if the assistant director calls you, and if not, then you just have to wait for the next opportunity. Don’t resent me just because you didn’t make it.”

“I won’t.”

“If you do, I’ll kill you. As for your pay, you’ll be paid according to the rules of the TV station, so I’ll tell you the details once it’s decided that you’ll be in it. But you’re in a low grade, so you won’t get much. Don’t expect anything.”

“I don’t care about the money.”

“Oh, you said you earned enough money, huh. That’s good. I’ll call for you if we ever run out of budget, so wait for it.”

Jayeon left the office while picking up a call.

“Good for you.”

“This isn’t a dream, is it?”

“Just as the producer said, don’t have too high hopes. It might not work out.”

“But still, it means that I passed, didn’t I? I was worried that she might reject me instantly.”

Hyungseok opened his arms and rushed towards Maru. He never expected him to actually introduce him to a producer at a real TV station. Did he like Han Gaeul’s autograph that much? Maru turned around, dodged his arms, and then opened the door.

“If you make it, just treat me to food with the money you get.”

Chapter 780
Sequence 5

He opened the back doors of his car and took out the standing wreath that he put on its side. He wanted to gift one that was much taller than an average person, but he changed it to a smaller one when he heard that it was going to get messy. As for the congratulatory message, Bada was the one who thought of it: A gukbap restaurant run by a handsome man and a pretty woman.

“You’re here?”

Dojin, who was gliding across the hall with trays on each hand, pointed at an empty table with his chin, telling him to sit down.

“You look busy.”

“All the regulars from Suwon are here. I told them that they didn’t need to come since it was far too.”

“When else would they give you sales like this? Oh, where should I place the wreath?”

“You bought one? I told you not to.”

“I don’t want to get an earful from Iseul for being empty-handed. Heck, she even told me what size I should bring. I’ll put it in front of the store, okay?”

“Put it next to the entrance.”

The guy who told him that he shouldn’t have brought it even told him where to put it. Maru moved the wreath he placed next to his car next to the entrance. The gukbap restaurant that had four tables attached side to side had now turned into a restaurant with twenty tables. This was the result of a year of hard contemplation about whether to increase the rotation rate of the customers. Maru dusted his hands and looked at the JA building, which was right across the street. He inwardly sent his thanks to the building owner that solved the problem of the monthly rent – which was what Iseul was worried about – in one go. It was a very profitable business on his part since they got to rent the place for nearly half of the usual rent around this area for looking after his dogs for half a month. Though, he did get an earful that he wanted quite a lot for being a leech.

“You here, our savior?”

Iseul rushed out of the kitchen and grabbed his hand. Maru shook her hands off, saying that he felt creeped out.

“I’m not the savior. It’s the building owner.”

“I was introduced to your president through you, so you might as well be the savior. I wanted to move our restaurant to expand it, but I was worried because of the prices around the area. I never knew I would be able to rent such a good place at such a cheap price.”

Iseul told him to wait, saying that she would bring him an extra-large bowl of gukbap. Maru was originally worried about how well this gukbap restaurant – which was in Suwon for all its life – would do in Seoul, but it seemed to be doing okay seeing the crowd here. He probably wouldn’t have to worry about it going out of business as long as they managed to conquer the stomachs of the white-collar workers from the rows of buildings of finance and insurance companies.

“Don’t you think it’s about time you stop being a manservant and become a groom?” he asked Dojin who sat down opposite him while putting down the tray.

He had been helping out with her household business since he was in high school, so he had been doing this for six years, not counting his military service. He had become a splendid pillar that supported the gukbap restaurant from a clumsy part-timer, so the father- and mother-in-law-to-be shouldn’t have any problems either.

“Well, the thing is, I want to do that too, but the timing is a little… vague, you know.”

“What timing do you need between you two? You’ve already seen everything you need to know about each other.”

“That’s true, but I’m missing the important thing.”

“What important thing?”

“A proposal.”

“Buy a ring and ask her to marry you. Kneel down and sing a serenade. Oh, a hundred candles and a guitar are a must.”

“I’m sure Iseul will love that. I’d be surprised if she doesn’t push me over on the spot and run away.”

“I was just joking. Don’t think about it too hard, and don’t go overboard with the event and just go to, you know, a place you two go from time to time. Like a restaurant or the place you went to for your first date. Go to a place like that, set up the mood, and send her signs that you’re going to do a proposal. Iseul needs time to prepare too. After that, you give her the ring and ask her to marry you. That’s it.”

“Did you do it before? Why do you sound so knowledgeable?”

“I did it through acting. Isn’t Iseul waiting for you as well? If you waste your time working, she’ll get you for this later. The wedding is important, yes, but the process before that is important as well. If you don’t want her to nag you for life, then make sure you give her a proper proposal. One that Iseul would like. A ring is a must, though.”

“What the heck is up with your obsession with rings?”

“That’s how important symbolism is, my boy.”

Dojin looked behind him. Iseul was talking to the customers at one table. Dojin’s eyes as he looked at her exuded ‘I’m in love with her’ without holding back.

“I tried to.”

“What?”

“What else? I’m talking about the proposal.”

“If you did it, then you did it. What the heck is ‘you tried to’?”

“I had my plans too. Just like you said, I was planning on proposing to her in a special way in a place that both she and I knew about. I finished preparing and went to the restaurant with her. We had nice food, talked about this and that, and I brought up the topic of marriage in an indirect way. These days, getting married at twenty-five might be quite early, but as you know, we’ve been together for a pretty long time, right? Iseul’s mother also asked me when we were going to do the wedding, and her father told me that I don’t need to worry about housing when we went hiking together.”

“So all you need to do is stamp those documents.”

“Yes, like you said, I was going to propose to her officially, get her agreement, and get married next year, but I failed.”

“What do you mean you failed?”

Dojin looked around before speaking in a small voice.

“I’m not sure if I can call this a failure, but when I tried to propose to her after dinner, Iseul asked me first – don’t tell me you’re going to propose to me right now? – that’s what she told me.”

“So?”

“What else could I do when I already made all my preparations? I was going to go forward with it anyway. I’ve never seen Iseul panicking so much in my life. She suddenly said we should leave and left without me.”

“Hey, did you do something wrong? Like you slept with another woman or something?”

“Do you think I’m crazy? I’d never do something like that.”

“Then why did things go wrong like that?”

“I have a headache because I don’t know the answer to that.”

“When did you propose?”

“Two days ago.”

“Then maybe it’s because she was hectic with the store and all?”

“If it was like that, she would have told me about it. But she hasn’t said anything even until today. Even though she’s smiling like that.”

Dojin sighed. This didn’t seem to be something that should be taken lightly. The fact that she left despite knowing that he was going to propose meant that she must have had her reasons for doing so. With Iseul’s personality, there was no way she would allow it to be left hanging like that. Why would she feign ignorance despite knowing that Dojin was feeling frustrated? He knew that there was nothing to be gained by jumping into the relationship between a man and a woman, but these two were his friends. Moreover, the number of gukbap he ate until now would probably tally up to a consultation fee. There were plenty of reasons for him to intervene in this romantic drama. Though, he was very skeptical about how helpful he would be when he couldn’t even take care of his own life properly.

“So you feel like you’ve done nothing wrong, huh? If I hear words like cheating or two-timing later, I’m going to strangle you then.”

“If I did something like that, I’ll stick my nose into a puddle and drown.”

“Don’t die. It’s cruel to turn her into a widow before you even get married. Get going for now, there are customers coming.”

As soon as Dojin left with the tray, Iseul came over with the gukbap this time. The boiling gukbap soup had the same fragrance as the one he ate in Suwon.

“Try it. It shouldn’t have changed a single bit, you know?”

“I’d be disappointed if it did.”

He had to drink this white soup before he unleashed the sauce into it. He pushed his spoon in it and just as he was about to scoop a spoonful out, Iseul spoke,

“What did you talk about with Dojin?”

“Can I tell you after I eat? You told me to eat it.”

“You can eat it later, so just tell me. What did you two talk about?”

“About how the store is busy and that he’s happy that the interior design is good? You know, and stuff like how he hopes there will be a lot of customers in the future.”

“That’s it?”

“What else would he talk about with me?”

“The proposal.”

Maru felt lucky that he didn’t drop the spoon just like that. He put down the spoon while looking at Iseul. Iseul made secret glances at Dojin behind her just like Dojin did in her place just moments ago.

“Dojin tried to propose to me.”

“Good for you. Twenty-five is the perfect time to get married. And both of you are practically married, aren’t you? It’s already too late for both of you to find another partner.”

“I know. Of course I’m going to get married to him. If I tell my parents that I’m going to meet another man at this point, they’ll beat me to death.”

“Then I don’t see a problem. Did you get proposed to?”

“I didn’t. No, more like I couldn’t accept it.”

“What are you saying after all this time? You just said that you don’t have any other partner than Dojin. Don’t tell me there’s something going on with another man or something? The Kim Iseul I know isn’t like that.”

“Of course, it’s not that. I thought I was having a heart attack when he was getting ready to propose to me. I felt really good.”

“Then you should’ve accepted him.”

“I said I couldn’t.”

“Like I said, why?”

“Because I’m preparing one!”

She raised her voice before groaning and lowering it again. The customers around looked at her.

“You’re preparing one? You mean, a proposal?”

“Yes.”

Iseul took out her phone and showed him a video. It was a video of a woman who was the bride-to-be and her friends dancing in front of the husband-to-be. The flower bouquets, the candles laid out by the friends, and the clumsy yet passionate playing of an instrument. It ended with the woman kneeling in front of the man and proposing. Maru asked Iseul with a serious expression,

“You’re doing this?”

“Yeah.”

“This?”

“Yeah.”

“Oh my lord.”

“There’s no rule saying that the man must do the proposal. It was me who asked him out, so I’m going to do the proposal as well.”

“What kind of dogshit stubbornness is this? You should have just accepted him.”

“If I say no, then it’s a no.”

“Oh my lord. Why must I suffer between these two assholes? So what, you prepared a dance, a song, and even an instrument?”

“I even practiced it. If I accepted the proposal like that, what would that make me and my friends? Dowook, Daemyung, and even Jiyoon are helping me out.”

“You brought them in?”

“I wished I could bring you into this as well, but…”

Iseul blurred her words for the first time after speaking like she was rapping. Her effort to avoid this next topic showed through her eyes rolling everywhere as well as her lips. After hesitating, Iseul spoke as though she had no choice,

“I couldn’t bear to tell you. I felt like I would be touching where it hurts for you. Ever since you broke up, no, before you broke up, you became depressed when we talked about stuff like this. No, wait, you were a lump of depression even before that.”

“I was?”

“Yeah. You might not have acted like it, but it was obvious. It was the same when you came out to meet us during military vacation. I’m only saying this now because you look okay, but back then, I couldn’t bear to ask you to help. I thought that it wasn’t right for me as a friend to ask for help from someone who looks sick.”

“Did I look that feeble?”

“Feeble? No, you were in danger.”

“I thought I hid it pretty well.”

“It was obvious because you hid it. How long do you think we’ve known you? We know when you are being cold-headed and when you’re acting cold-headed.”

“I’m quite a bad guy huh. Is it my lack of acting skills?” he said with a smile.

He reached a point where he could talk about it with a smile after all. Iseul tapped on his shoulder, seemingly relieved.

“Anyway, the important thing is that I must be the one proposing. The date is this Sunday, but that means there are still five days. I feel sorry that Dojin looks uneasy all this time, but at the same time, he looks pretty cute.”

“So you’re going to wait without telling him?”

“Since it’s like this, I might as well. It’s kinda cute to see him pretend that he’s okay when he’s anxious inside.”

“Looks like he should be the one nagging you for your entire life, not the other way round. What a pitiful guy. I wonder how he ended up with a girl like this.”

Iseul twitched her nose.

“Don’t ever tell him that I’m preparing for this. And also, ease him up a little. Dojin tends to listen to your words easily. It’s cute to see him anxious, but teasing him too much doesn’t feel right.”

“Doesn’t feel right? All the things that are ‘right’ just died at this moment.”

“Enjoy the gukbap. Also, thanks for the wreath.”

Only then could Maru eat the gukbap.

“It’s all lukewarm now.”

“What did Iseul say?”

These two seemed to be on shifts or something. Maru stared at Dojin, who took Iseul’s seat, and hit him on the forehead with a spoon.

“What are you doing?”

“You deserve a beating. I’m goddamn envious, punk.”

“What? What did she tell you?”

“She told me nothing. Just know that you just have to wait still.”

“So you did hear something. What did Iseul say? Hey, tell me.”

“Why are you being so naggy? Go rub against your wifey, not a single dude like me.”

He put the sauce in and stirred it around. Dojin, who he thought would flap his mouth like a hummingbird flapping its wings, just kept silently looking at him.

“What?”

“Nothing, I was just thinking that you really are okay now. That’s good.”

Maru smiled faintly and shook his head. It seemed that he truly looked terrible for the past five years, from how everyone around him was worried about him without telling him.

“Wait a sec. I’ll bring you some boiled pork.”

“Hey, this is extra-large, so there’s plenty already.”

Dojin stood up without even listening to him. Seeing him shout for a large-sized boiled pork to the kitchen, Maru felt something surging inside him. He pulled out a tissue and wiped his forehead, before brushing the area around his eyes in secret. These irresponsible tears were probably the traces of age.

“Man, life isn’t so bad.”

KTLChamber's Thoughts

So then, we got a look at the Dojin x Iseul couple.

What other couples would you like to see post time-skip?

Daemyung x Jiyoon

Ando x Sora

Dowook x Bada

Geunsoo x Suyeon (?)

Any other couples that I haven't mentioned?

I'm pretty sure there's a couple in Blue Sky (the theater troupe, not the school club), who I don't remember the name of… Heck, I think they got hooked up before I started translating this series, lol

Editor's Note:

God damn so wholesome. I might have shed a tear with a big smile on my face as I was reading. Anyways, if you've been following my thoughts, you know who I want to see.

Chapter 781
Sequence 5

After the wave of customers left and the store became less crowded, Daemyung and Jiyoon came in.

“You’re here right on time. If you came 30 minutes ago, you wouldn’t have been able to sit.”

“Really?”

Daemyung sat in front of him. Dojin, who peeked out from the kitchen, told them to wait, saying that he’d bring food soon. Iseul brought some drinks and ricecakes.

“Congratulations, unni. The location is good, and the food is delicious, so I’m sure it’ll go better than it did at Suwon. I’ll tell the people at my company as well.”

“Thanks even if it’s just words. Jiyoon, you are my saving grace. But hey, Park Daemyung, did you go traveling with her during the summer holidays or not? I keep hearing that you abandoned this gentle girl in her room during breaks.”

“Unni!”

Jiyoon quickly raised her hand and blocked Iseul’s mouth. Daemyung smiled awkwardly and apologized.

“This is not something you should be sorry about, oppa. I was busy with work, and you were busy with your part-time work and writing, weren’t you? We can always go traveling later, so don’t mind it.”

“No, let’s go to a mountain stream before it reaches August. Didn’t you say you wanted to go to one last time?”

“I’m really okay.”

“No, I should have put more thought into you, I’m sorry.”

“D-don’t say things like that. I’m really satisfied with meeting each other on the weekends. I already feel sorry for trying to see you on the weekends when you have a part-time job.”

“Wh-why would you feel sorry? There’s nothing to feel sorry about. If it’s about being sorry, I’m even more sorry. I can’t even pay for the date, and I can’t even meet you that often. I can’t even take you somewhere.”

“No. In fact…”

A soda bottle made a bumping noise as it was placed on the table. It was Dojin, who had brought some gukbap on a tray. The two, who were apologizing and trying to find out who was more sorry than the other, became silent.

“How could you two not have changed at all? If you’re in your 7th year of dating already, you should be chewing each other’s weaknesses out. Yet here you are going ‘I love you, no I love you more.’ Hey, have you two ever gotten into a fight?”

Maru flipped over the cups and placed them in front of the two people as he spoke,

“I bet my real estate that they never fought.”

“But you don’t have any real estate.”

“That’s why I can bet on it. Also, stop being jealous of the couple in eternal love, and get them some food.”

“Who’s jealous? We’re in love much more than them…”

Dojin, who looked at Iseul while putting down the gukbap, made an expression like an examinee student who was facing an incomprehensible math formula. He looked like he still didn’t know why she didn’t accept the proposal. Iseul seemed to have decided to just keep on frustrating him and replied with an ‘I don’t know anything’ look on her face.

Maru, who was aware of the circumstances, looked at the two couples alternately before pouring some soda into his glass. He needed soju right now, not this. When Dojin left, Iseul started talking about the proposal. Daemyung and Jiyoon desperately waved their hands in the air, trying to stop the conversation.

“Han Maru’s okay now. I think he’s shaken it off,” Iseul said.

Maru smiled bitterly as he looked at Daemyung and Jiyoon. The two’s eyes contained pity like they saw a drenched dog in the rain. He once again realized how tragic he must have looked for the past 5 years. He thought that he had put up a good pretense, but it seemed that his close friends had already found out everything. It was proof that he was broken to the point that he couldn’t even control his own mood. Escaping to the military was a splendid choice.

“Just as Iseul said, I’ve regained my clarity, so don’t look at me like that. You’re making me depressed.”

After that came Jiyoon’s ‘parade’ of worries. She talked about things like how he looked like a different person after she heard that he broke up, how she was worried because he looked worse and worse every time they met, then about how he was getting conscripted, about how she was worried when he came out for a vacation and when she saw him after he got discharged.

“Heck, you might as well be worried about me eating food.”

“You looked just that bad back then, seonbae. But still, I’m glad to hear that you’re okay now. Now that I hear you saying that, I truly feel relieved because you look like you’re relaxed.”

“From now on, don’t worry about me, and focus more on the boyfriend next to you. It’d be strange to worry about a man unrelated to you when your boyfriend is right next to you.”

“How can you say that you are unrelated to me? Actually, it was oppa who was more worried about you; it was to the point that I was even a little jealous. On days when he looked at your face, he kept talking about what he should do to help you, and honestly, I found him a little hateful back then. We were on a date too.”

Jiyoon looked at Daemyung with a cute glare.

“Let’s stop the display of affection there. Please be considerate of me, a single man, sitting between two couples, okay?”

After having finished the war known as lunchtime, Dojin and Iseul also took off their aprons that said ‘Seonjeong Gukbap’ on it and joined them. They were on their second dish of the large-sized boiled pork, their first bottle of soju, and their third bottle of rice wine. The fact that he drove here was incapable of blocking the bowls of rice wine that were offered to him. If you get drunk, you can just sleep here – he just clicked his tongue at Iseul’s incredible solution and just drank. Jiyoon, who rarely drank usually, also grabbed a bowl as well, saying that she would drink a little. Jiyoon, who was drinking with the side dish of Daemyung’s worried gaze, kept on drinking, saying that the rice wine was to her tastes. Forget unpleasant, she looked more and more lively the more she drank.

“I thought Jiyoon couldn’t drink.”

“I thought she couldn’t drink because she doesn’t drink that often.”

Daemyung looked at her, saying that her drinking posture was adorable as well. This couple would probably find the other adorable even if the other was stealing money.

It was an hour later that Jiyoon suddenly collapsed after drinking like a whale. The accumulated alcohol seemed to have rushed her at once as her face turned pale for an instant before turning bright red. Iseul took her upstairs and had her lie down, but Jiyoon staggered back downstairs and stuck next to Daemyung. She rejected the offer to go and sleep. I’m going to stay here – she even turned her drunkenness into love.

“Jiyoon’s asleep.”

Such was the result of Daemyung babying her on his back.

“Bring her upstairs. I’ve laid out the blankets.”

After Jiyoon left, the four of them tried to continue their drinking, but that wasn’t going to happen.

“Oh, a new place?”

An army of people in neckties rushed in. The gukbap restaurant couple, who had been drinking sips from the get-go, welcomed the new customers and put on their aprons.

“Stop drinking and help us out a little.”

I didn’t even drink – Maru tried to deny their claims, but he ended up putting on an apron when Iseul acted like his injustice didn’t even matter. It only took an instant to become a part-timer from a guest who came over to congratulate them.

The 2nd wave was much more intense than the 1st wave. There was an endless stream of salarymen who had come to eat dinner. That was probably the magic of ‘special discount sale for opening’. Only after 7 could he escape the counter. He was busy to the point that he couldn’t even remember how many times he slashed the card on the card reader, nor how many times he had to return change.

“What would I have done without you two? We should look for a part-timer quickly.”

“You’re paying me for this right?”

“Extra large gukbap, large-sized boiled pork, and booze. Let’s make do with that, okay?”

That was merciless. He finally returned to his seat and sat down again. The boiled pork had turned cold, and the rice wine had turned lukewarm.

“Thanks for the work.”

“You too.”

He poured a bowl full of rice wine and drank it in one go. He realized what adults meant when said they could do without rice but not without rice wine. The rice wine seeped into his fatigued body and made him feel pleasant. It was a sense of satisfaction he could not get from drinking soju.

“Oh, right. Do you have time over the weekend?”

“This weekend?”

“Yes. It doesn’t matter if it’s a Saturday or a Sunday. Maybe you’re busy with a shoot?”

“That’s okay. The shoot starts next Tuesday. Anyway, what happens over the weekend?”

“Apparently, we finally have a proper storyboard from our director Kang.”

“Oh, it’s that. Looks like she took a liking to the script you managed to finish, huh?”

“Maybe. That was why we were planning to shoot over the weekend. Maybe to Gapyeong.”

“You’ve already scouted a place out?”

“We’re hiring an expensive actor, so we should prepare whenever we can. We’re planning to fit your schedule.”

“How about the almighty director Kang’s schedule?”

“She says she can just apply for a leave if she can’t do it over the weekend, so she’s okay whenever.”

“She can apply for leave whenever she wants? That’s really amazing.”

“Who says she isn’t?”

“But if it’s Gapyeong, shouldn’t we do it over two days? I don’t think you can finish it in just one day.”

“Then can you free up both a Saturday and a Sunday?”

“I don’t dare reject. It’s something I promised to do a long time ago too. I wonder if she lost her senses while working.”

“She told me she’s still studying and watching films whenever she has time these days. Apparently, she’s also in a circle related to film.”

“She’s proactive alright. I thought that she lost interest in this when I heard she got employed.”

“She’s a realistic girl after all. She said that she should pursue her dreams after she sets up a way out. Foolishly pursuing dreams is a no go.”

“That’s definitely true. Give her a call. We should go during the weekend to shoot. Then is Koo Ando coming as well?”

“He’s our camera director, so of course he’s coming.”

“I haven’t seen him since I got discharged. If he’s been to the military, I guess he’s still in college now, huh?”

“Apparently, he took a semester off and is working because of tuition.”

“Anywhere you go, it’s about money, huh.”

“That’s what life is about. Oh yeah, should I call her here right now? She should be done with work now.”

“If she’s in Seoul, then sure. Also, call Ando here as well.”

“Gimme a sec.”

Daemyung put his phone against his ear. The conversation that started with ‘Hey, Sora’ ended in less than a minute.

“She’ll bring Ando here as well.”

“She keeps dragging him around huh. At this point, it wouldn’t be strange for the two to start dating.”

“True. She said she’ll be here in less than 30 minutes, so…”

Daemyung stopped midway and looked towards the entrance. Before the chime of the bell even stopped, he heard murmurs. There were even screams mixed in. Well, more like screeches of joy. Maru turned around, wondering what was happening. He saw ladies pressing the shutter button on their phone cameras while raising them above their heads. Sorry, excuse me, coming through – a voice that asked for their consideration broke through their screeches.

“What is it?”

Just who were they trying to shoot to the point that they were blocking the entrance to someone else’s restaurant? The wall of people split and a man entered the restaurant. His hair was disheveled as though someone was pulling on it, and the white t-shirt had been stretched to below his waist level. Although he looked like a beggar right now, even that look had a vintage vibe when it came to him – Yoo Sooil. Only after a woman let go of his pants could Sooil come into the store. It seemed that his manager wasn’t here with him.

Maru turned his head away. A star surrounded by obsessive fans. If he acted like he knew him, he would probably get into something troublesome.

“Isn’t that Yoo Sooil? This is the first time I’m seeing him, and gosh, he’s tall. I didn’t know that he was so tall when I saw him on TV.”

“Stop staring at that log, and don’t mind him.”

“But he’s coming over here.”

“What?”

Maru slightly turned around again. Sooil was coming over while waving his hands. Fans were rushing into the store like little ducklings following their mother duck.

“Maru.”

He waved at him to go away, but he was already too late. Sooil sat down and spoke,

“The president told me to raise your sales a little.”

The alarm for the 3rd tsunami alert started ringing inside his head.

KTLChamber's Thoughts

So, we got a look at Daemyung X Jiyoon, while Sora and Ando aren't dating (yet?)……

The more I read this novel, the better I find it, (and translating it makes it even better because I can notice all the details), I feel like I wouldn't be able to go back to reading another novel lol.

Why isn't this in paperback…

Editor's Note:

I'd buy a paperback in a heartbeat. Also, is it just me or does anyone feel like Daemyung x Jiyoon is like a fake relationship? I don't particularly like it, but then again maybe it's cuz I'm a lonely soul.

Chapter 782
Sequence 5

“Thank you, please come again.”

The business line got attached to his mouth. His motions as he accepted people’s credit cards became natural, and his eyes became quick at looking at the bills. His head had already come up with actions he had to take depending on the situation. This customer wanted a cash receipt, this customer wanted two copies of the receipt, this customer wanted the change in stashes of 1,000 won. When a middle-aged man said he’d come again while grabbing a handful of mint candy from the counter, he almost told him that he didn’t need to.

“Hey, did you get a job here, seonbae?”

Sora, who arrived ten minutes ago, said that like a scientist who just found an interesting sample. Her eyes were full of the passion to research and analyze this special case. Maru looked over the cocky junior’s shoulders towards the interior of the store. The store, which was full to the point he could barely get through between the tables, finally had an empty table. This was also the moment the human storm that Sooil brought had ended. He subconsciously groaned when he found the island where he could take a rest. After the last customer left, Dojin closed the restaurant. He said that he couldn’t sell any more as he ran out of ingredients.

“Uhm, can I take a photo with you? I’d like to hang it up on the wall.”

“Of course. You’re Maru’s friends. Do you need an autograph?”

“That sounds good. Since you’re signing an autograph, I’d love it if you could write that you’re a regular here.”

Iseul used her business mind. Sooil smiled with Dojin and Iseul on either side. Ando was the one who took the photo.

Maru printed the account from the POS machine and compared it to the paper orders written by hand. There were no mistaken orders or miscalculations. They had sold 900 bowls of gukbap today alone. Combining that with the sales of boiled pork, alcoholic drinks, and takeouts, the sales amounted to 11 million won. He didn’t know what the profit margin was, but it sure seemed like it was enough for the gukbap restaurant couple to laugh about it.

“Hey, you knew Yoo Sooil?” Dojin asked, coming over.

“I do know him since we belong to the same company.”

“You two look pretty close for someone you just know.”

“I guess we are close then. The sales is 11 million won. How much is my pay?”

“You shouldn’t talk about money between friends.”

“I can always stop being friends with you for a brief moment, get paid, and then be friends with you again.”

“I’ll provide you with unlimited gukbap in the future, okay?”

“Please take care of me in the future, owner.”

“This isn’t even my own store. Don’t call me owner.”

Even though he was saying that, Dojin’s lips were twitching uncontrollably. He was probably imagining the pink-colored future. Maru handed him the sales for the day and asked him to check.

“If every day was like today, I’ll be rich in no time.”

“If you keep receiving as many customers as you did today, you’ll die of overwork.”

“Overworking sounds better than not earning anything. But man, the celebrity effect is real alright. So many people rushed in and ordered takeouts. Though, most of them just watched without doing anything.”

“He did hold a handshake event with the customers who bought takeouts. As a fan, they wouldn’t be able to hold back. I saw a customer order 5 different portions separately.”

“Mr. Yoo Sooil brought fortune to my store. I hope he comes around from time to time. No wait, you should bring him over. And make sure you let everyone know when you’re coming.”

“If you’re going to hire a broker, you need to pay fees, right?”

“0.5 percent of the sales on the day Yoo Sooil comes, deal?”

“No deal. You’re blind for money. Do you not have confidence in the gukbap of your in-laws? You need Yoo Sooil’s reputation?”

“If you put it like that, then I guess it goes against my conscience. Right, a good restaurant must use its food to compete. But still, bring him around from time to time. Or better yet, bring other actors. You see that wall over there?”

Dojin pointed at the empty white wall between the air conditioner and the menu board.

“Wouldn’t it look like those stores on TVs if I fill that wall with celebrity autographs and photos? It’ll help with the sales, and we’ll become well known amongst the people around.”

“Man, time is scary alright. You were just a delinquent when you were young, but now you’re a money-seeking delinquent.”

“Because I have a family now. I should earn a lot while I’m young and get prepared for my later years. I don’t want to make Iseul suffer. That goes for my future children as well. If it’s suffering, I alone am enough.”

For a brief moment, Dojin’s eyes turned into those of a father of three. I don’t care what kind of hardships I have to go through, so don’t let my family starve – Maru could feel a sense of desperation from him. Although he immediately returned to his mischievous self, the breadwinner that took place within him was probably there without a doubt. So you too, are changing; from a youth into a husband and then to a father.

“Hey, think about those things after you get married. You even failed your proposal, so talking about the future sounds kinda pointless, doesn’t it?”

“Yeah, why didn’t she accept my proposal?”

Dojin started pondering seriously again. If he told him that Iseul was preparing one herself, he would probably become all smiles and shake off his worries, but Maru decided to stay silent because he just got used as a part-timer despite being a friend. And just as Iseul said, it was kinda interesting to see him so anxious. Though, definitely not cute.

“You’re friends with Maru-seonbae?”

Sora’s finger pointed at Maru’s face. Whenever the finger moved up and down, Maru felt like an item on display. Maybe he should find it fortunate that she didn’t call him ‘that’.

“We’re close friends,” Sooil said.

“A business relationship,” Maru corrected him.

He took off the apron and put it on the table. Although his body wasn’t that fatigued thanks to the god-given stamina, he was mentally exhausted. He sat down on a chair and stretched his arms out. It had been hours since he last stretched his shoulders.

Iseul and Dojin went to the kitchen, saying that they should clean up, and the rest of the people gathered at one table. Jiyoon, who had fallen asleep, also returned with a tired-looking face. Having found Sooil, Jiyoon just blinked several times and asked if it was a dream.

“You said the president sent you here?”

“I came to the company because of a contract for a commercial and met the president. Things led to another and we ended up talking about this. He told me to go to the restaurant and increase their sales.”

“He’s quite considerate.”

“Everyone at the company knows that the president dotes on you.”

“He’s not doting on me. It’s a claim-obligation relationship. He sent you, the observer, to watch me, the slave, to make sure that I don’t fool around.”

After saying those words, Maru reached out for his cup of water. Only then did he realize that the people at the table were staring at him.

“What is it?”

“It just feels strange that you’re close to Mr. Sooil, seonbae. Maybe I should be saying that you two don’t suit each other at all,” Sora said with a disgruntled look.

“Sorry that I’m acquainted with a famous actor.”

“You don’t have to feel sorry. Anyway, you’re really handsome Mr. Sooil. There’s a halo around your face now that I am looking at your face in person.”

Sooil smiled awkwardly. Sora’s way of conversing, that is, not holding back, was probably enough to make an ascetic flustered.

“Why don’t we drink a round for now? When else would we get to drink with a famous actor? Here, I’m pouring it.”

Sora quickly poured as many glasses as there were heads at the table before raising a glass above her head.

“To the prosperity of the restaurant!”

“Cheers!”

“And also, may the movie I’m shooting this time go well enough so that I can quit my job!”

Maru stopped bringing his glass to his mouth and looked at Sora. Everyone froze up and looked at her, who was smiling. Sora emptied the glass in her mouth as though she didn’t care before slapping down the glass on the table.

“Mr. Sooil, you’re quite expensive, aren’t you?”

“Me?”

“Yes. You must be expensive, right? But you don’t receive any guarantees if you do things like friendship appearances right? You know, like cameos.”

“It differs according to the situation, but most of the time, I wouldn’t get paid.”

“Have you ever played a cameo?”

“A couple of times. I showed my face for a brief moment when a director I know did a piece.”

“Do you have any appointments this weekend? Or is it a secret?”

“I’ll be on break for a while. But why do you ask?”

“That’s perfect. This must be a god-sent opportunity.”

Sora took out a half-folded lump of paper from her bag. Maru knew what that paper was. It was the completed script that Daemyung showed him before.

“Won’t you shed some light on a salaryman and a student who are poor but have dreams?”

“It’s a script for a film?”

Sooil received the script.

“Yoo Sooil. That girl who sounds like she’s selling insurance is completely serious right now. If you take it as a joke and reply to her that you’ll think about it, she’ll lead you by the nose. Think carefully about what you’re going to say next,” Maru warned.

Sora, who sat next to Sooil, glared at him. Even Medusa would flinch back if glared at like that.

“I, Kang Sora, will be the one producing, and the script is created by Park Daemyung, who’s right here. The camera director is Koo Ando, who’s right here. The main character is Maru-seonbae for now, but if you wish, we can change it this instant.”

“That sounds tempting.”

“Right? I don’t think shooting an indie film like this is that bad for your career. Though, naturally, I wouldn’t be able to pay you anything. We’re all having a hard time getting by. Charity, volunteer work, or passion pay, or maybe, friendship, I hope you can make do with a combination of those four for your payment.”

Calling her words ‘evil’ would be a nice way of putting it. Maru signaled Sooil not to mind her when he saw that Sora’s shamelessness had reached the skies. However, Sooil looked more interested instead.

“If it’s a proper contract, there will be many problems with doing this, but if, like you say, I just do it for friendship, it shouldn’t matter that much.”

“That’s what I’m saying. The trend these days is for actors at the peak of their popularity to shoot low-budget films with directors who are known for their workmanship, right? You’ll be like that as well. Of course, I may lack the skills to get acknowledged for my work, but I can proudly say for sure that the script you’re looking at right now is an exceptional one. Though, it’s pretty weird for me to be proud of it when I’m not the one who wrote it.”

“You said you wrote this, Mr. Daemyung?”

Daemyung, who was quietly eating soondae opposite him, hurriedly nodded.

“If I appear in this piece, what role are you going to give me?”

“Eh? I-if you want, I’ll give you the main ch… no wait, I don’t think I can do that.”

“Don’t think about it too seriously; just tell me what you think. A script of this length should last about 15 minutes. There shouldn’t be that many characters, so I was wondering if I can even be in it.”

“There are only two people who are set in stone when it comes to roles. One is Maru, and the other is a fellow named Bangjoo. We were planning on getting people we know to play the remaining roles according to Maru’s schedule. You know, people from college or circles.”

“Really?”

“Right now, we’re doing this half as a hobby without any funds, so we can’t hire proper actors. If we want to recruit actors, we won’t be able to cope with the funds, and we don’t want that. That’s why we were just going to shoot for now with people who have time and with people who get along with us.”

“With people who get along. I like things like that. It’s just I can’t find many people who can get along with me.”

Sooil shrugged.

“I’m sure there must be tons of people who are willing to get along with you.”

“I’m always thankful towards those who unconditionally like me. But in human relationships, you’re bound to be attracted to people you can trust, right? In that sense, I wish to participate in this work as long as you two, the writer and the director, permit me. That fellow is one of the very few friends I can trust, so I’d like to help him. No, rather than helping him out, I’d like to do something with him.”

Everyone’s gazes flew towards Maru like sharp arrows. Maru looked at Sora and Daemyung’s faces alternately. Quickly tell him that you want him to join – both of them sent him silent gazes.

“Aren’t you busy?”

“I told you, I’m not.”

“Check your schedule just in case.”

“Don’t worry. Even if there is something, I can just adjust it.”

“You’re not getting a single penny, you know?”

“Sometimes, voluntary slave work can be fun.”

“Working with you puts too much pressure on us. You’re going to attract people again, aren’t you?”

“I just have to cover myself up and take it off during the shoot.”

“So you’re determined to do this, huh?”

“Yep.”

“Then do whatever you want. Kang Sora, Park Daemyung, make sure you squeeze every last inch out of him. Tell him what passion pay is.”

As soon as he gave them permission, Sora cheered. Daemyung and Jiyoon did the same. Ando was already taking a photo of Sooil’s face with his phone.

“Well then! Raise your glasses! To commemorate Mr. Sooil’s participation, cheers!”

Sora shouted delightfully.

KTLChamber's Thoughts

Kinda nice to see the old crew back together.

Now we just need Aram, Bangjoo, Dowook and Bada to return.

Editor's Note:

I would absolutely love to see a movie/drama made with the JA cast. Maru, Sooil, Suyeon, Miso, Ganghwan, Geunsoo, (am I missing anyone?).

Chapter 783
Sequence 5

He shook off Dojin, who was clinging to him and telling him to stay behind, and stood up. All of these people were severe alcoholics, so there didn’t seem to be any signs of it ending. Sooil, who started off by putting on a gentle face, had long since joined them and was dancing together. Dojin and Iseul, who had joined them after cleaning up the kitchen, said that they should drink until tomorrow morning as though they were planning on consuming all the alcohol in the store. Ever since Daemyung, who could drink just as much as him, started drinking, it became an occasion of who-can-drink-more.

He went outside and had a look at his watch. It was just past 10 p.m. He blew away the sweet scent of rice wine with a breath of air.

“You guys are going to have to clean up a corpse if I stayed in there. Gosh, I’m dying.”

“I can’t exactly stop them when they’re planning on drinking as much as they sold today.”

“True,” Ando said, following him out.

He put a cigarette in his mouth and looked for a lighter.

“I don’t have one on me.”

“Ah, right. You don’t smoke, do you?”

“When did you start smoking?”

“I learned to in the military. This is the only thing my direct senior taught me.”

“That’s a dang nice thing you were taught. You should quit if possible.”

“I will, once I finish this one.”

“That’s what all smokers say. ‘This is my last one.’”

After staring at the cigarette for a while, Ando snapped it in half and threw it on the ground.

“Well thought.”

“The first thing you’re giving me is a scolding after not having met in a long time. You haven’t changed.”

“I can give a scolding alright. I heard from Daemyung that you took a break from college and started doing a part-time job.”

“I was planning on getting employed as soon as possible and then start paying back my student loans, but that’s easy to say, not to do. I can easily graduate as long as I get enough credits, but removing the college student tag from me is a problem in itself. I want to work as an intern to get work experience, but the competition there is huge. While I’m a college student, I don’t have to worry about student loans, and I have various benefits, so I took a break to look for work while I do some part-time jobs, but I can’t seem to find any. It’s strange. There are definitely people who got jobs too.”

“You’re working hard.”

“Everyone around me is living like that, so I don’t usually feel anything, but coming to places like this does make me feel a little pathetic.”

Ando looked inside the door.

“I’m envious.”

“Of who?”

“Everyone. I’m envious of Sora and Jiyoon, who got themselves a job, and I’m envious of Daemyung, who doesn’t have to worry about student loans. I’m also envious of Dojin and Iseul, who have a store to run. I don’t even have to mention Sooil.”

“Am I on that list?”

“You are.”

“What an honor. Since you’re grumbling, tell me more about it. I can listen to you for free.”

“I don’t have anymore. That was it. I’m just envious. Nothing more, nothing less.”

Ando stared at the cigarette that he threw on the ground.

“You’re regretting that you threw it away, aren’t you?”

“Yeah, I’m really regretting it. That was my last one too. If I think about it now, smoking isn’t that bad. It’s a cheap psychologist. You know, you can relieve stress.”

“That’s the second most used excuse for people to not quit smoking.”

“Fine, I’ll quit. I’ll quit, alright.”

Maru took Ando to the convenience store nearby and bought some cold coffee. He sat down on a chair under the parasol and opened the coffee as he asked,

“Is it hard?”

“Nah. I don’t think that I’m living a pitiful life. Just like I said before, I’m just envious. Those famous people say that you should think positively and look up, but how can people live just by doing that? It’s stifling. Honestly, don’t you gain way more energy by looking at people doing worse than you?”

Maru nodded. Perhaps the motivation that the ant had while working towards a better tomorrow was the grasshopper. The vague hope and expectations that it would be able to live a better winter were probably what made it last the summer.

“If there’s one thing I’m worried about, it’s that I’m having a hard time taking care of myself yet someone likes me?”

“You mean Sora?”

“Yeah. At first, I was wondering where a girl like that popped out from when she joined the club, but things happened and here we are.”

“If you’ve been through that much together, I guess you would get close whether you want to or not. It’s not like you don’t have any feelings for her, right?”

“I do. It’s overflowing. I mean, Sora is not lacking anywhere, is she? She’s pretty, has a refreshing personality, and her actions are cute too.”

“I admit that she’s pretty, but I can’t accept that she has a refreshing personality. I think something got the better of you after being dragged around by her a lot, but that’s not ‘refreshing’ it’s ill-tempered. Also, cute? I’m sure the heat got the better of you and you miss-said ‘brute’ right? Or maybe you’ve been to Stockholm recently?”

“She looks good to me.”

“I can’t exactly say anything to that. So what?”

Ando put down the empty bottle. As he stared at the empty bottle, a couple passed by behind them. They asked each other what they should bring home as they entered the convenience store. Water, beer, instant rice, and cup ramyun.

“You know that Sora’s household is well-off, right?”

Ando has spoken again when the door closed.

“I do. We went to her house for our first film. If she still lives in that apartment, I guess the house prices must have risen by 200 million at least.”

“Her father works for a large company and her mother is a teacher.”

“You’re quite knowledgeable.”

“Sora told me about it last time. She told me everything that happened since her birth as though she wanted me to know who she was.”

“It was a confession.”

“Right?”

“What did you say?”

“I just said, I see. I also talked about myself a little. About how we barely got out of a semi-basement apartment, but we’re still living on a monthly rent; about how my father worked for a company but retired at an early age and is now frying chickens with my mother’s help. You know, a common story.”

“What did Sora say?”

“She said my parents must be splendid to raise me into who I am.”

Ando threw the empty bottle into the trash.

“Even the most dim-witted person would know what was happening, right? Sora naturally seemed to be waiting for something, and I didn’t have the courage to tell her what she wanted. Time passed and here we are, talking about it.”

“Did Sora not say anything about it after that?”

“No, but she does stare at me more blatantly from time to time.”

“Considering her personality, if she’s not saying anything, she must have realized that you’re getting ready to run away to a far place.”

“Probably.”

“Why don’t you tell it to her straight then? That you don’t have the leisure to date her. That your pride will make you suffer even if you dated her. That she should stop taking interest in a guy like you and look for someone better.”

Maru yawned. Ando’s mouth twitched just like a dog before it was about to bite, before just laughing it off.

“Maybe this is why I’m talking to you about this. So that I can hear something refreshing from you.”

“It’s your choice to do what you want, so I don’t plan on intervening, but if I am to give you a tip based on experience, it’s that the longer you delay your decision, the more pathetic it will become.”

“What would you do?”

“Don’t ask. I’m pathetic myself. If I was great enough to tell you something, I wouldn’t have run away in the first place either. I’ll instead talk about something I overheard. The situation isn’t entirely the same, but someone who had similar worries as you got this answer from an elder. That person was wondering if he should pursue his dreams or choose reality in order to take responsibility for his woman.”

“Is this about you?”

“It’s about a friend of mine. Anyway, the elder who heard that question gave him this answer: don’t look at the world as scenery; look at it as a reality. Is that woman so powerless and incompetent to the point that she won’t be able to cope if you don’t take responsibility for her? He realized this: Oh, I was being too arrogant, I was mistaken. Just as the elder said, he gave his girl a call. He asked her what she was going to do if he wasn’t able to take care of her financially. The woman’s answer was simple: I’ll earn the money, so you do the chores.”

Ando laughed out loud.

“You decide what you want to do with Sora. It’ll be fine as long as you don’t regret it. But hey, why are you worried about marriage when you aren’t even dating yet? I think it’s too early to start comparing households.”

“That’s just the kind of guy I am, I’m just worried. I’m worried about things in front of me, and I’m worried about things far away from me. Sora will snap out at me a lot if she dates someone like me, right?”

“She probed you out fully knowing that. If it’s her, she probably did all the calculations beforehand and judged that it’s doable.”

“Would I be trash if I keep feigning ignorance?”

“Usually whether you’re trash or not is decided by other people. What, does it pain you to think that Sora will treat you like trash?”

“No, in fact, I even think that will be better. If we were just friends, I wouldn’t have to think about my current position or student loans or things like that. If I meet her, I would just smile, knowing that she’s doing well, and if we lose touch, I’ll just start thinking, ‘oh there was a girl like her’ and sigh in relief.”

“And ultimately, you’ll weep in your own little room?”

“I wish I had a room under my name that I could weep in.”

“That’s true. Even if I cry, I would at least feel at ease if I do it in a house under my own name.”

“I dunno man. A romantic relationship suddenly feels like some freaky monster or something. Would I have told her to date me if I was in a better position?”

“What’s your definition of a better position?”

“A good job and a house under my own name?”

“In Korea, if you have your own house when you’re twenty-five, you’re one of two things: your parents are super rich or you’re Einstein. Oh, there’s one more case: Winning the lottery.”

“I know it’s just an excuse. Like you said, I’m doing this due to my inferiority complex. But the problem is, I know too well. I keep thinking about what comes next. I can clearly see that things will not go well once we start dating, so I feel like not starting at all is a better idea.”

“If you think that way, then I guess that’s for the better.”

“Just like you said, I should just tell her that I’m a celibate before I start looking pathetic.”

“There’s nothing more romantic than a self-made celibate, and nothing more depressing than celibacy forced on you. If you feel like you’re going to get depressed after telling her, you can make a call.”

“What, are you going to buy me booze or something?”

“No. I was saying you can call other people, not me.”

“What a prick.”

“Thanks for the compliment.”

He tapped on Ando’s shoulder and stood up. He wanted to go home like this when he thought about the mess that the store would have become, but there was no way those guys would forgive him if he did that, so he had to return obediently. Maru looked at Ando, who was walking next to him. It was sad that he had to look into the future at his age. The reason he could not tell him to just go for it was that there were youths who could do that as well as those that couldn’t afford to. Ando was definitely the latter. Who could insult him for being passive and afraid? If they wanted to, they would have to chuck him a hundred million won to say that to him.

“As someone who ran away before you, I can tell you that running away is futile in front of a person who’s chasing you. You know Sora better than me, so think about it carefully. Think about whether she’s a girl who would stop just because you told her to stop, or whether she’ll tell you to shut up and keep chasing you.”

“Would there be someone that would come to me even if I say no?”

“There is. At least one that I know of. Someone who’s reckless to the bone; someone who’s just that lovely and painful.”

“Hey, are you dating someone? Did you ever start dating after that? Or is it her ag…”

Maru smacked Ando’s flank as he was about to ask.

“Don’t think about me, and just worry about yourself. Over there, the problem of your life is waiting for you.”

Sora was waiting in front of the restaurant. She was standing crookedly with a crooked mouth, looking like a bomb that had complaints about this world; one that was at the end of its fuse and was about to blow up.

“Where are you going around at a time like this!”

Her voice was loud.

Chapter 784
Sequence 5

“Watch out on your way home. Remember to bring Jiyoon home safely.”

Daemyung and Jiyoon grabbed a taxi. He felt a little guilty for making the girl drink when she had work tomorrow, but after thinking about how they were the ones who rejected his dissuasion, he decided to stop feeling apologetic. As waking up with a hangover and then going to work with it was one of the core qualities of a person in society, Jiyoon should receive a lesson.

“Seonbae.”

Sora tapped on his flank and signaled that they should have a talk between just the two of them. They walked under a lamp post.

“What did you tell our shy guy?”

“Shy guy?”

Sora pointed at Ando, who had a cigarette in his mouth, with her chin. He said he was going to quit, but it seemed that he ended up buying a pack while he wasn’t looking.

“What could I have possibly told him? I just listened to what he had to say.”

“What did he say?”

“I have a duty to keep secrets, so I can’t tell you even if I want to.”

“You said something strange to him, didn’t you? Before we came here, he did look stiff, but it didn’t look like he was avoiding me, yet he’s blatantly avoiding my gaze now. Look at him. He’s giving glances over here from time to time, but he flounders like an uneasy dog when I meet eyes with him.”

“Hey, you can’t just compare someone to a dog…”

Sora’s eyes became sharp. Maru swallowed his words. There was no need to make this worse than it is now.

“Seonbae.”

“What?”

“Help me out a little.”

“With what?”

“You should have heard everything, right? Try persuading that shy guy to bring up some courage. Heck, there’s no need for that, just persuade him to say yes.”

“Why are you telling that to me? It’s very rude to bring a problem that you two have to solve to a third person.”

“Do you want me to show you what rude is?”

Sora glared at him and took a step closer. Maru immediately took a step back just in case that forehead of hers flew straight towards his chin.

“What the heck is up with my luck today? Did I do something that bad?” Maru said as he looked up at the sky.

Are you giving me a trial because I keep getting distracted from the path you set for me?

“Who are you saying that to?”

“Someone terrible who’s up there.”

“You’re Christian, seonbae?”

“Protestantism, Catholicism, Buddhism, Islam, Voodooism. I serve all gods.”

“Seonbae. You looked awful ever since you broke up with Gaeul-unni. You haven’t just lost it, right? Like maybe you’re going to mental counseling even though you might look okay on the surface.”

“Did you just realize that you’re asking for help from someone who should be in the mental ward? And about romantic problems on top of that?”

“Forget it and cooperate with me. Ever since he had a talk with you, the shy guy turned into a super shy guy. Get some of that kryptonite or whatever and erase that shy power of his or something.”

“If you know everything, then try being direct. I don’t think it’s something my intervention can solve.”

“Don’t you see that face on him? If I tell him now, he’ll cut all contact and run away.”

Ando, who was nervously looking over from the entrance of the store, looked like a debtor who had made up his mind to run away overnight. He looked like a simple ‘excuse me’ would startle him and make him start to run away. After all that talk about declaring celibacy, it seemed that he was either not ready yet or had his regrets. He was observing from a set distance.

“Koo Ando, he’s a decent guy. He’s moderately earnest and moderately kind. He also doesn’t have the guts to betray someone, but he has a useless amount of responsibility, so he’ll try to keep whatever promise he blurts out.”

“Try fanning him so he puts down that useless sense of responsibility. I’m not telling him to take responsibility for my life or anything, but he’s already worried about the distant future. I just want to date him. All I want is to be a little closer.”

“That’s just the kind of guy he is. You can’t call that bad. I mean, I have a similar personality to him if you think about it. Our thought processes are similar.”

“That’s why you should help him out. Honestly speaking, I want to get confessed to just like other people. It’s kinda funny to talk about what a man should do and what a woman should do, but there are things called commonly accepted practices. I grew up hearing stories like that too. I would smile, and he would approach me, tell me he loves me, and then grab my hand. But that oppa never did such a thing even once.”

Maru scratched his eyebrows and spoke,

“Why didn’t you try whining? That you’re a girl and want princess treatment.”

“Because I have a character. I did all the things I did until now, so it’d be strange to act cute after scrapping all of that, and even if I do, I can’t be sure he’ll look at me in a good light. I’m worried that acting feminine at this point might make him lose interest in me.”

“You’re good with words. Try saying that in front of him. There are times when a husband and a wife can’t get through to each other with a gaze even after living together for decades, so there’s no way a couple of rookies will get anywhere by venting their frustration on someone unrelated instead of actually talking to each other, is there?”

“What if I do that and Ando-oppa puts even more distance? He’s already acting like a frightened dog and is putting his distance from me even now, so what if my change in attitude actually triggers him to change his mind and actually leave? What if he starts thinking that a whiny girl is a nuisance… I would hate that. I wouldn’t be able to endure it.”

“Now I get why there was no progress between you two for the past few years. He’s one thing, but you’re a problem yourself.”

“How?”

“I’m saying that you’re scared as well.”

“Me? No way.”

“You can’t deny it.”

Sora pouted disgruntledly, but she didn’t say anything. She sighed and stomped on the floor. It was only when a bus drove off after honking that she loosened up her frustrated expression. Maru wanted to call Ando over. It was sort of a pity to watch Sora, who looked like a little girl who had made a mess of her mother’s makeup tools, by himself.

“Help me out, seonbae. I really don't know what I should do.”

“Hey, you can make expressions like that too, huh.”

“Seonbae, please!”

The people who were chatting in front of the restaurant asked them what they were up to. Sora told them to wait in a loud voice and glared at Maru. She looked like she was about to kick him in the chin if he didn’t answer right now.

“Are you going to help?”

“There’s nothing I can help you with.”

“Is this how you’re gonna be?”

“I’m saying there’s nothing I can help you with since there is nothing I can do.”

“Then what do I do? Should I keep waiting for his answer like this? While acting like a total tomboy?”

“If you want to change the situation, then you should change your tactics. You were the one who pushed yourself onto him until now, so try taking a step back now.”

“Seonbae, did you not hear what I just said? That shy guy will distance himself from me if I try to approach him like this. What do you think would happen if I actually put some distance? We’ll truly become just friends.”

“Have you tried?”

“What?”

“I’m asking if you’ve tried that awkward pushing and pulling.”

“How am I supposed to when I clearly know the result?”

“In your opinion, do you think Ando likes you?”

“It’s somewhat weird for me to say this, but one hundred percent. He’s only putting his distance because of his goddamn worries.”

“That’s why you should try taking a step away from him. Showing your weak side is a good option too. Don’t force a frightened guy to take action, and give him some room to decide. Give him enough distance so that he can make a choice for himself.”

“What if he disappears for real then?”

“Let’s clear things up a little. Do you want Koo Ando to like you, or do you like Koo Ando? If you have a clear answer to that, it doesn’t matter how Ando acts. If he approaches you, it’s a good thing, and if he tries to run away, you can just chase him. That’s what you specialize in, isn’t it? Dragging him around. If he gets frightened and starts running away, chase him down and get him.”

Sora looked down. She seemed to be in thought. After looking left and right, she lifted her head a little.

“Chase him down if he runs away, huh.”

“I know it’s a little late to ask, but what do you like about him?”

“Just like you said, he’s moderately earnest and moderately kind. Also, because he accepts my nature.”

“That’s true. That alone is enough for him to be respected. I mean, your personality isn’t exactly ordinary, is it?”

“I know that I’m not ordinary. But a girl is pushing herself onto him like this. A man with a dick should throw everything away and embrace her at least once, don’t you think?”

“What you said just now is sexual harassment.”

“What else should I call a dick but a dick? Should I call it cock then?”

Maru raised his hands and blocked his ears. A middle-aged man, who was passing by, looked at them with shocked eyes before hurrying away.

“Well, talking to you did clear things up a little. I was too unlike myself and worried too much. I should try everything out, and if that still doesn’t work, I just should cling onto him until the end of time.”

“I’ve been telling you since the beginning that there’s nothing I can help you out with, haven't I? It’s something that you two need to resolve between yourselves.”

“Thanks anyway. I’ll treat you to some food if things go well.”

“I hope that’s the case. There aren’t many men who can handle someone like you. But hey, why did both of you come to me about your worries? You’re putting me in a tight spot.”

“Well, that’s because you’ve changed a lot.”

“Me?”

“Didn’t you notice? I could tell the moment I saw you today. During high school, I thought that talking to you would not result in anything good, but it wasn’t like that today. How should I put this, even your eyes looked gentle? I mean, you listened to everything I had to say. That means that you’ve become that gentle.”

“I kinda feel like people around me notice the changes in me better than I do.”

“But of course. People can never truly see their own faces, right? A reflection in the mirror is, like the word, mirrored. The only one who can see their true face is the person next to them.”

Sora let out a breath upwards. Her bangs fluttered.

“I’ll settle things today and try doing that taking a step back thing.”

“Don’t devour him. It’s a crime for a wolf to assault a sheep.”

“Who’s the wolf and who’s the sheep?”

“People who know the answer to that are always the ones asking that question.”

Sora chuckled and stepped back.

“See you on the weekend. Make sure you prepare yourself. You know how picky I am when it comes to directing, right?”

“Sure I do.”

Sora turned around and shouted ‘Koo Ando’. Ando flinched and looked at her. Maru shook his head as he watched Ando being dragged away. He gave his condolences.

“Yoo Sooil, let’s go.”

Maru dragged the swaying Sooil and grabbed a taxi.

KTLChamber's Thoughts

Author's notes from January 2017 (Just the relevant part)

I got a private message cheering me on, and at the end, I was asked how long I am going to continue serializing this novel

Well, I'm not sure. I'm not someone who plans everything out to the point I already have a date in mind.

I can tell you for sure that we're nearing the end, but I don't know how long I'm going to continue writing

The ending scene I was picturing while writing the first chapter is definitely a happy ending, but I assumed that the main character would never become hugely successful in the process… but there are too many people telling me to make Maru successful, so I'm trying to make him do well. Thinking about it now, I guess he should be doing well. I mean, he's been doing this for years.

-----------------

This novel has 950 chapters on Kakaopage… but guess what! The raws I'm translating from ends at 1027 (I assume this is because the raws I received is the serialized version from Joara), which means the last chapter will probably be 1025 (there's an offset of two chapters because of announcement chapters)

But hey, that's just the 'official story'. There's like 250 chapters of side stories as well…

…

WHEN IS THIS GONNA END! Release me from this suffering, god dammit.

Editor's Note:

Let's see; 1025 - 785 = 240 -> 240 + 250 = 490 chaps from today -> 9/11/2023.

Looks like I'll be here even after I graduate college :)

Chapter 785
Sequence 5

“Why do you want to sleep here when you have a perfectly fine house?”

“This is what friends are for, isn’t it? Let me sleep over for the night.”

Sooil lay on the sofa, looking like he had no intentions of getting up. Maru barely woke him up by kicking him on the flank before sending him into the bathroom.

“It’s fine to not wash up for a day.”

“Not in my house you can’t.”

Maru could hear sighs from the bathroom. He seemed to be praying against the toilet as there was no sound of water.

“If you’re going to throw up, do it in the toilet.”

“Okay. But hey, were you always this naggy?”

“If you don’t want that, then you should grab a taxi now and go home. Stop smelling like booze too. I knew things would go like this ever since I saw you accept every drink that you got.”

“I didn’t know everyone would be good drinkers. Your friends are pretty amazing.”

“You’re amazing too for being sane amongst them.”

“Hey, do I need to get washed? It’s such a bother.”

“If you come out without getting washed, I’ll throw you out the door, so think carefully.”

“Yes, Mr. Cleanliness-Maru.”

While Sooil was getting washed, he put a t-shirt and a pair of shorts he prepared for guests in front of the bathroom door. These were something he had no choice but to prepare because of Ganghwan and Geunsoo barging in all the time. Whenever they drank outside, they always barged into his house saying that the 3rd round had to be done in Han Maru’s house, and when he acted like he wasn’t there, the two of them would go on a riot outside his door, so he had no choice. Such was the fate of a life of living in someone else’s house. Even when he changed the passcode for the door, the magical password ‘The president said’ made him rush towards the door.

“I’ll give you food, so don’t be in such a hurry.”

He went to the kitchen with a shiba-inu wagging its tail by his foot. This was a docile dog that he took in after the five conqueror dogs left the house. This one had a bad leg muscle from birth which gave it a problem walking, but it still ran around everywhere as though it didn’t matter. When the president asked him if he wanted to raise one, Maru responded ‘yes’ with too much ease. The moment he looked at those pitch-black eyes that had no doubt that he would take it away, he wasn’t able to refuse.

“Let’s live a good life together since we’re both wounded.”

He had not thought of the dog’s name yet. He would have to name it at some point, but he couldn’t think of a name he liked, so he just went with whatever. Hey, you, over there, and damn dog when it pissed under the table.

“Damn dog, you pissed here again. Why don’t you change even if I educate you? You should have understood if I taught you three times. It’s not here, your poop pad is over there, okay?”

It seemed to have noticed that it was being scolded as it lifted its head from the food bowl and made glimpses at him. It was practically human.

“If you’re lonely, then you should be dating.”

Maru turned his head around to face the bathroom. Sooil, who came out after washing, was looking at him like he was pathetic.

“And don’t get mad at a dog.”

“Hey, go bite him. If you bite him, I’ll forgive you even if you poop on the bed.”

He tapped on the shiba-inu’s buttocks. It ran over to Sooil, sat down, and tilted its head before rolling onto its back and panting. It was a symbol of submission and an act of cuteness.

“Hey, this guy seems to have taken a liking to me.”

“Then take that dog away. I don’t want a dog who doesn’t even recognize its master.”

He sent the dog to bite, yet it was acting cute instead. When the ancestors said that raising your children is of no use, they were probably basing it on their own experiences. With the dog in hand, Sooil went to the sofa in the living room. Seeing him play around with the dog as he would a baby, Maru could remember events of the distant past.

When he lifted up his chubby infant daughter, she would giggle but then start tearing up because of her dislike for the stubble beard. He would repeat that several times because he found her smiling and tearful expression cute, and his wife would scold him with a slap. He would then watch as his wife snatched their daughter away from him while saying ‘you’re so childish for being an adult’, and then proceed to hug both his wife and his daughter at the same time with a smile. When he did, his wife would grumble, saying that she was suffocating, but she would still stay still. The breath of his daughter and the breath of his wife would become a calm wave within his heart and take everything over. It was the most cozy place in the world. It was the most peaceful place in the world.

“Han Maru.”

He blinked when Sooil called out to him. The image of a warm family, that faintly appeared in front of his eyes like a layer of frost, disappeared, and he saw Sooil who was giving the dog back to him.

“It looks like the dog likes you more than me. It keeps reaching out to you.”

“Maybe it realized who’s giving it food.”

He took out some energy drinks from the fridge and tossed one to Sooil. Maru also got one for himself and sat on the sofa.

“Are you really going to come over the weekend?”

“I did promise.”

“If you did that because you were swept up by the mood, you can cancel it now. I’ll tell the others about it.”

“I made my decision after much thinking. The fact that I don’t have anything scheduled played a role too. Above all, though, I wanted to know what it feels like to shoot a low-budget film.”

“We only have one camera, a clumsy reflector, and a cheap microphone that’s attached to the camera. The rest is solved through manpower.”

“Sounds romantic. Do you eat cup ramyun for food as well?”

“Well, food is a different story. They find local specialty foods like it is nothing.”

“That sounds even better.”

“Are you sure you don’t need to consult the president about this through your manager? Even if it’s an appearance without a guarantee, you should be bound to several contracts.”

“I went through them all while drinking. They told me it’s fine if it’s a cameo thing. I also got that it’s fine to do whatever I want as long as it doesn’t interfere with my regular schedule.”

“Looks like they got lucky. They get to use a super expensive actor for free. You should be prepared. Kang Sora, that girl, she’s damn good at squeezing every last inch out of a person.”

“She did look quite strong-headed. Are the people I met today all your friends from high school?”

“Yeah. Somehow, things lead to another, and the friendship keeps going strong.”

Burying himself in the sofa, Sooil took out a phone and fidgeted with it. His eyes were half-closed as he looked into the screen.

“Sleep if you’re tired. I’m going to wake you up when I wake up early in the morning.”

“You have work tomorrow?”

“No, going out to exercise in the morning became a habit of mine. Though, the unemployed lifestyle will end next week.”

“What exercise?”

“Nothing much. It’s just a lap around the neighborhood and climbing the mountain to the top to do some vocal exercises and loosening up facial muscles.”

“Bring me with you. I want to do that after a long time too.”

“Can you even wake up in time?”

“Kick me if I don’t wake up.”

“If I shake you once and you don’t wake up, I’m gonna go alone. I don’t want the hassle of waking up a man in the morning.”

“I said this before, but when I look at you, you look like you’re lacking affection. Should I introduce you to someone?”

“Then what about you? Are you dating someone?”

“I did, until three months ago. Choi Injoo.”

“That Choi Injoo doesn’t happen to be the actress Choi Injoo, right?”

“That’s her.”

“That’s amazing, Mr. Yoo Sooi. Stars meeting stars, huh.”

“Working together can sprout emotions and then you start dating lightly.”

“So you were trying to boast. You’re making me jealous, so get to sleep already. Also, have the dog sleep next to you.”

“Get me a blanket.”

“Sure. The great actor Yoo Sooil wants a blanket. I dare not refuse.”

He brought out a thin blanket from his room and tossed it over.

“I’m turning off the lights. So just sleep.”

“Alright, good night.”

After setting the air conditioner to go off in two hours, he went inside his room.

Just then,

“Maru.”

“What?”

“I am your friend, right?”

“You still drunk? Why are you being so cheesy?”

“I was just curious. When I talked to your friends today, I felt really good. They are all honest and say whatever’s on their mind. Being able to talk like that is a good thing.”

“You probably thought that because you wanted to see it that way. The people you met today, they’re all people who are worried that what they’re thinking might be found out by other people. Sometimes they lie, and sometimes they feign ignorance. They aren’t that amazing, but they aren’t bad either. They’re just ordinary people.”

“Really? Then why do I like that sort of thing?”

“If you feel like whining, then do it to that whining creature next to you. That one is a god at listening.”

“How merciless. Your friend is depressed here. How can you go to sleep knowing that?”

“The world is only fun if there’s a friend like that, don’t you think?”

“True, you’re right. Having someone like you should spice up my boring life. The alcohol got the better of me and I called my father, but the first thing he told me was, ‘Did you finally get yourself together and think about returning to the company?’ I had nothing to tell him. Looks like the vice-chairman of a super company thinks that what I achieved is insignificant. I didn’t want his acknowledgement, but I wanted to hear him at least say I did well.”

After sighing, Sooil dragged his blanket over the top of his head before waving his hand.

“Go to sleep. I’m going to sleep as well. Turn off the lights for me.”

Maru turned off the lights in the living room.

“I’m saying this just in case, but if you’re going to cry, don’t cry into the pillow. I just finished washing that recently.”

“I’ll make sure I’ll drool on it too.”

Just as he was about to go inside, Maru sighed a little before speaking,

“You’re doing plenty well. Honestly, if it was me, I would actually succeed the owner position of SC or just live a comfortable life with the money given to me. I wouldn’t have thought about challenging myself like you did. From what I see, I feel like the place you found yourself is much better than the chairman position that you didn’t even work for.”

Sooil didn’t reply. Maru told him to sleep before entering his room and covering himself with the blanket. Not long after he closed his eyes, he heard his door opening.

“Maru.”

“What?”

“Can I sleep on the floor next to your bed? We should talk a little too.”

He lifted his head up to look at Sooil. He had a grin on his face as he was peeping inside the door. Maru threw a novel he placed by his head. Sooil dodged the book by closing the door before speaking in a laughing voice,

“I’m so glad that you’re my friend.”

Maru shook his head. His drunk habits just didn’t get fixed.

“Just go sleep!”

“Fine, I’ll sleep”

Even after that, Sooil knocked on his door at 10 minute intervals. Maru ripped his hair out and thought that he might as well abandon the Han surname if he let that guy in his house again.

“Han Maru, I’m bored. You asleep?”

This guy was persistent.

Chapter 786
Sequence 6

“Then let’s meet up there, I’m just setting off. Alright, be careful with the equipment.”

Maru hung up and checked the time. It was about the time that Hyungseok would arrive.

“Watch the house well.”

He waved at the shiba-inu that wagged its tail and left the house. He drove his car to Banpo-daero. He found Hyunseok walking around in front of the café they promised to meet at and had him get in the passenger seat.

“I told you I’d treat you to something good.”

“Instead of buying me food, do some work for me for one day instead. You don’t have anything to do on Sunday right? We’re going to be sleeping over.”

“I emptied everything until Tuesday. It’s my first drama shoot in my life, so I should watch out for my condition. Although I’ll be standing still most of the time, who knows? The producer might take a liking to me and keep using me. Anyway, thanks. Thanks to you, I got to show my face on public TV officially.”

“She said you might become a regular appearance. Try hard. Who knows? You might not stop at getting just a line, and will get a whole episode about your character as well.”

“I wouldn’t want things to go that far. I just wish I could talk to the main actors at least once in the drama.”

Stories of catching the director’s eyes while doing a part-time job in dramas and then joining the ranks of stars weren’t that entirely common, but it wasn’t purely something out of fiction either. Acting is said to be the fruit of effort, but talent definitely couldn’t be ignored, and actors who possessed a talent that could lightly surpass other people’s efforts were bound to exist. Hyungseok was a new actor who had less than a year of experience in acting, but from how he got chosen by producer Jayeon, who was known for being picky, he seemed to have potential. His good-looking appearance played a role as well.

“You said it was in Gapyeong, right?”

“Yeah. We’ll unpack near Yongchu Falls and start shooting immediately.”

“But what can I do, when I haven’t even practiced anything?”

“She won’t ask you to do something dynamic when you just received your script yesterday. Since I’m at it, have you read the script?”

“I skimmed through it about three to four times. It wasn’t that long, so there was no difficulty doing that. But I don’t think there’s a role I can play. The main character should be you, and the one getting caught up in the incident should be someone else too.”

“People can be used as props.”

“So, I’m gonna be used as a corpse?”

“Maybe, as a body double.”

“Will I get to put on special makeup? When I went to the drama shoot last time, the one Han Gaeul was in, I watched people putting on special makeup right next to me. It took so long.”

“Do you think we can do something like that when we’re a low-budget indie movie? When we arrive, everyone will take care of each other’s makeup and set up props. Our director isn’t someone who gives actors special treatment.”

“You said it was a girl, right? How does she look?”

Maru showed him a photo of Sora.

“She looks cute. She looks like she’ll act cute as well. She’s quite small too.”

“Once you meet her, you’ll probably take back what you just said. Also, don’t hit on her. She already has a man in her mind.”

“Hey, what do you take me for? I’m not a cheap man who gives out my number on a whim. There are many girls who approach me when I go to nightclubs even now, you know?”

“Sure, I’m envious.”

“Since we’re talking about it, do you want to come with me next week? I’ll help you so you can have an enjoyable night.”

“Maybe later. After I’m around forty-five.”

Maru drove to Gapyeong, the place they promised to meet up at. There were many people who came to play in the mountain streams as it was the weekend. He drove past the camping site at the foot of the stream and eventually found the cabin that Sora scouted out beforehand. He parked his car in the gravel-filled parking lot.

“Maru, look at that car.”

There was a foreign brand car at the entrance of the cabin. Hyungseok got out of the car and walked over to the foreign car.

“I set up a few objectives when I ran my business, and I never knew I’d get to see one of them here. Hey, someone who’s rich enough to drive this should go to a mansion, not a cabin, don’t you think? This car is well-known for practically throwing fuel on the floor.”

Maru checked the number on the car with smooth curves. It belonged to Sooil.

“So he came here before us.”

“Who are you talking about?”

“The owner of this car.”

“You know him? I thought this was an indie movie. The definition of indie movie that I know of doesn’t really fit people who drive cars like this, you know?”

“I don’t know how poor the people shooting indie movies are in your mind, but in indie movies shot by famous artistic directors, not people who are doing it as a hobby like us, there are three to four actors who drive cars like this one.”

“Really? But who’s the owner of this car? Our money lord?”

“Yoo Sooil.”

“Yoo Sooil? Who’s that?”

He left Hyungseok behind to think for himself and went into the cabin. He mentioned the name of the booker to the owner who came out to greet him, and the owner pointed towards the stairs, saying that his room was on the 2nd floor.

“Yoo Sooil! You mean that Yoo Sooil!”

Hyungseok shouted in surprise as he followed him inside. Instead of explaining, Maru opened the door and pointed inside. Sooil, who was reading the script while lying down on the floor, waved at him saying ‘you’re here?’ Hyungseok, who was jumping around while repeatedly saying ‘Yoo Sooil’, laughed as though he was flabbergasted.

“You’re early,” Maru said as he took off his shoes.

Sooil put down his script and sat up.

“I had nothing to do. I thought I’d fall asleep if I dazed out at home, so I came early. Who’s the person next to you?”

“He’s Yoon Hyungseok, and he’ll be helping out for the day. You’re the same age, so you don’t have to bother with formal speech, or you can just treat him stiffly like it’s business. Do whatever you want.”

Maru walked past the living room and looked at the rooms. There were three rooms in total. He determined that the ladies should use one room and the men use the remaining two. If that wasn’t enough, they could just sleep in the living room. He unpacked his luggage in the room that had a window facing the mountain. Hyunseok and Sooil seemed to have introduced themselves to each other as they were just conversing among themselves. It was mostly Hyungseok saying that he enjoyed watching the drama that Sooil was in while he was in the military and him praising Sooil for his fashion. He also asked for tips saying that he was participating in a drama as a minor actor for the first time.

As Sooil had learned social skills from a young age, he immediately grasped Hyungseok’s way of talking and guided the conversation forward. He was the textbook example of sociability. It was probably the kindness and refinement that he learned as the offspring of a super company acting subconsciously.

“You’re early. I thought everyone would come around 10 since I said the meetup was at 9.”

Sora, who pushed the door with her foot to look inside, shouted behind her, ‘Ando-oppa, bring the luggage.’ She came inside after taking off her trainers and looked around the rooms as though Sooil and Hyungseok didn’t even enter her eyes. Ando, who followed her inside, put down the luggage while wiping his sweat with the back of his hand. The camera bag, the laptop bag, the backpack on his bag, and even a pink carrier case. He was practically a porter. Maru told him that he worked hard and took out some cold water from the fridge for him.

“We’ll make this the ladies’ room.”

That was the room that had a view of the stream because the window was facing the entrance of the building. The mosquito net on the window didn’t have any holes either, so Maru was desirous of the room as well, but he thought that it’d be taken away from him in the end, so he grabbed the room on the other side.

“Who does the luggage in the other room belong to?”

“It’s mine. I thought you’d use that room, so I gave up on it early.”

“As expected of Maru-seonbae. You’re quite considerate when it comes to things like that. Oh, and who’s that next to you?”

Hyungseok, who was just referred to as ‘that’, introduced himself as Yoon Hyunseok with an embarrassed smile.

“So you’re Mr. Hyungseok. You’re a friend of Maru-seonbae, right?”

“Yes, I am.”

“Please work hard today. We were lacking manpower, so we’re glad to have you here. How’s your acting?”

“It’s decent?”

“Then that’s fine. You look sturdy too. You pass! I’m Kang Sora. I’m two years younger than you, so you don’t have to use formal speech or anything.”

“Alright, I’ll do that.”

“Looks like Maru-seonbae brought a good-looking friend. With Sooil-oppa here as well, it looks like we won’t be lacking anything in the visual part. Unfortunately, our main character, Mr. Han Maru, isn’t up to par.”

“Sorry for looking subpar.”

Maru leaned against the wall and sat down. As he had expected, Sora had gained control over all the men in this cabin like the strong girl she was. Daemyung and Jiyoon, who came a little later, ended up preparing food for everyone under her command as well.

“We won’t be able to eat anything after this until the shoot ends, so eat a lot. We have to digest all the scenes while the sun is still up if we want to go home in time tomorrow, so bear that in mind as well. Mr. protagonist, you’ve learned the script, right?”

“Why of course. I don’t dare do things half-assedly when it’s your orders.”

“Good. How about you, Sooil-oppa?”

“Perfect.”

“I like confidence like that. Well, then we’ll be going to the mountain behind the cabin after we eat. We’ll first check if anything has changed since last week when we came here to scout this place out and then set up the camera and the microphone before starting. You have spare clothes right? We’re going to have to get mud and blood on you.”

Maru raised his half-scooped spoon to Sora’s eye level and spoke,

“I thought we were going to do it after we ate.”

“Yes, please eat. But Sooil-oppa, can you say some lines? I’ll have to see what you’re like.”

It seemed she didn’t have any intentions of letting everyone eat in peace. They had to answer her questions throughout the meal.

The busy mealtime finished.

“Where are Bangjoo and Aram?” Maru asked as he washed the dishes.

Sora, who had her eyes fixed on the laptop screen, reached out to her phone without looking and replied,

“They said they’ll be here soon. We’re going to start the shoot when they arrive. We can’t afford to waste time after all. Ando-oppa, have a look at this.”

Maru wiped his hands on his pants and left through the door with the script in hand. He read the script while looking around the mountain, which was going to be the stage. Sora should have scouted places that suit each scene already, but there was nothing wrong with having a look to find more candidates. He walked up the path that led up the mountain from the cabin before turning around. The thick trees blocked off the cabin and the stream below. This was nature untainted by human hands. Maru checked the scene number with the pen he was holding in his mouth before taking a photo. He planned to show it to Sora later and ask for her opinion.

-Maru-seonbae, where are you? We’re going to go now.

“I’ll return.”

It seemed Aram and Bangjoo had arrived. Maru took a deep breath. The moist air wetted the tip of his nose. The trees rose tall and blocked off the sun, and there were leaves rotting on the floor. This place had a stench of mud and moist rotten leaves.

“It’s the perfect place to bury someone.”

Maru looked at the cover of the script before walking back toward the cabin.

KTLChamber's Thoughts

Plot twist. He's actually going to kill every single one and literally bury them in this mountain.

Editor's Note:

Huh, I guess both his career as a child actor and as an actual actor are starting with murder movies.

Chapter 787
Sequence 6

“Does the term ‘accidental murder’ even make sense?”

Those were Daemyung’s words from four months ago. He, who was in deep thought in the café, started jotting things down in his notebook that he always carried with him, and the next time they met, he said that he had the outline down.

“The plot is simple. A man who accidentally commits murder puts the body in a bag and climbs a mountain. The one inside the bag is his long-time friend, but he ended up killing him due to an emotional spike. The protagonist goes up the mountain and digs the ground to bury him. At that moment, the friend inside the bag suddenly spoke: Help me. When the main character looks inside the bag, he finds out that the friend he thought was dead is still breathing. He thinks that bringing him to the hospital will save him. As the main character apologizes and is about to take his friend out, it suddenly dawns on him: ah, my life is over if I take him to the hospital like this because I’d get arrested for attempted murder.”

Then, Daemyung finished his script last week.

“Like what you said, Maru-seonbae, this spot looks good. Nice job finding it.”

Sora put her hands on her waist and looked around. Maru put down the script and pointed out the spots he had thought of beforehand.

“Do you think this place is okay?”

“I like how gloomy it looks. There’s sunlight, but it’s still somewhat dark.”

“Then let’s start off things here.”

“Yeah, we should. Sooil-oppa, let’s get makeup done on you!”

While Jiyoon put makeup on Sooil, Maru looked around the clearing with Ando. As this clearing was quite far off from the main hiking route, there were lots of dried leaves. When he cleared some out with his hand, he saw tree roots tangled around above the ground.

“I’m supposed to be looking for a place to bury someone, so this place is no good, eh?”

“I don’t think it matters since you’re supposed to be on your way up. If I zoom in on the fallen leaves here, I think it’ll give a gloomy feeling overall which will fit the atmosphere. Let’s try shooting it.”

Maru walked over to the tree that Ando pointed at. Sunlight seeped through the trees and fell on his head.

“Isn’t it too bright here?”

“We shouldn’t be concerned about this much natural lighting. Try sitting down on the protruded root over there.”

Maru got down on one knee where Ando pointed at. He also put the sleeping bag next to him.

“How is it?”

“I think shooting upwards from below should be better than looking down from above. Wait a sec.”

Ando changed positions. After staring into that camera on the tripod for a long time, he detached the camera from the tripod and lowered himself with the camera in his hands. After moving left and right for a little, he spoke,

“Maru, stay still. Director Kang, come over here for a sec.”

Sora, who was with Sooil, ran over.

“What is it?”

“I want you to have a look at the angle and see if it fits the storyboard you are thinking of.”

“Let me have a look.”

Ando moved his arm to the side so that she could see the display of the camera.

“If you do that, I won’t be able to see properly. Stay still, I just need to get closer to you.”

Hearing the word ‘closer’, Ando flinched. When Sora moved right one step, Ando would move exactly in the same direction by one step. Maru dusted off the leaves that got on his knees and spoke,

“Stop your public display of affection and tell me how it is. Maybe it’s because I’m old, but I can feel the chills in my knees if I kneel in a cold place like this for a long time.”

“How could your knees start hurting so early?”

“Why don’t you try reaching my age first? You’re bound to feel the chills. Rather than that, how does it look? Do you think it’ll be good to shoot from there?”

“Wait a sec. Maru-seonbae, can you get into the mood with the tree as the background? You remember the scene where you hear a sound while trying to dig the ground, right?”

Maru nodded and grabbed the sleeping bag. After zipping it up, he kneeled in front of the tree that Sora pointed at.

“Jeongsoo, you alive? You’re still alive?”

He hurriedly unzipped the sleeping bag and looked inside. As this was not a shoot and just a camera test, he didn’t bring out the fullest extent of his emotions.

“Seonbae, that’s enough. We’ll do scene 3-2 right here. Maru-seonbae, you should try coming up with a movement line.”

Aram, who was right next to Sora, busily jotted things down. Maru looked at the clipboard that Aram was holding. She was noting down the surrounding scenery as well as Sora’s words in detail.

“You’re good.”

“I should be, if I don’t want to get an earful from the picky junior. Rather than that, it’s been ages since I last watched you act from up close. How should I put this… you’re pretty different from when you are on stage.”

“Don’t put me on a pedestal when I didn’t even do anything. But aren’t you busy with running the dojo on weekends? I’m grateful that you’re here, but I’m worried that I might have brought someone busy.”

“I asked another teacher to take care of the transport, so it doesn’t matter. These days, dojos are more for looking after children rather than actually training them, so it’s busier on weekdays.”

“That’s good then. Sora should be grateful too.”

“I think she thinks that using me is something natural, you know?”

Sora, who had climbed down quite a bit, shouted at them to come. Maru went down with Aram and stood next to Sora.

“Seonbae, can you try going up this path while dragging the sleeping bag? Ando-oppa, try shooting Maru-seonbae’s back figure from up there and then come down.”

He did as she said and climbed the hill. As this place was quite far off from the main hiking path, it wasn’t easy to climb the mountain while stepping backwards. When he climbed about five to six steps while avoiding the protruding rocks and roots, Maru ended up stumbling over. He slipped on a wet leaf.

“Seonbae, you okay?”

“My butt hurts a little, but otherwise, I’m okay. But I don’t think I can do this with an empty sleeping bag. I’m no expert in doing mimes, so it will definitely look awkward if I pretend that something light is heavy. The center of gravity is off too.”

“I also thought that while I watched you climbing up backwards. You are supposed to be dragging up a corpse, but your center of gravity was too forward, so it made the sleeping bag look light. And like you said, putting in plastic wouldn’t bring out the feel either.”

“Then someone just has to go inside. It’s simple, isn’t it?” Aram said while scripting.

Maru scratched his eyebrow and laughed. That was something that even Sora, who rarely held back her words, refrained from mentioning. Sora must have thought of the same thing as well but didn’t mention it because she was concerned about the safety of the person who would be going inside.

“Aram-unni, you see the terrain here, right? There are rocks, mud and roots. Even if you’re inside a sleeping bag, you might get seriously hurt if you’re dragged here. Also, you saw how Maru-seonbae almost fell over right? It’s quite steep here, so if he ends up letting go of the sleeping bag or something, it’ll probably roll down all the way here.”

“So that’s why you need someone who can flexibly protect their own body in a situation where movement is restricted. I can do it myself, but I think he’ll do better than me.”

Sora followed Aram’s finger. Maru did the same. They saw Bangjoo, who was guarding the lighting and portable generator that they rented.

“So Bangjoo-oppa was here. I thought of him as just a porter for the day, so I almost forgot. Bangjoo-oppa! Come here for a sec!”

Bangjoo pointed at his own face with his finger. When Sora gestured to him to come, he said ‘wait a sec’ in a deep voice and came over.

“Bangjoo-oppa, do you learn about rolling on the ground when you do stunts? I mean like rolling on the ground without getting hurt.”

“Safety precautions are lessons that they always teach you from the beginning. Why do you ask?”

Sora smiled and pointed at the sleeping bag. Bangjoo looked alternately between the sleeping bag and Sora before looking at Maru.

“Seonbae-nim, can you explain this to me?”

“To put it simply, you’re supposed to be going inside the bag. The one who came up with the idea is Aram, who’s right there.”

After listening to the explanation, Bangjoo ran over to the cabin after telling them to wait. It was quite slippery due to the wet leaves on the ground, but he stably climbed down the mountain without issue. When he returned, Bangjoo was holding various joint protection equipment as well as a set of spare clothes.

“I brought these just in case, and I guess it turned out to be a good thing. Let’s try this.”

Bangjoo put on the protective gear and snuggled inside the sleeping bag in no time. Maru crouched down in front of Bangjoo, who just had his head poking out.

“I’m not saying that you will roll down; I’m just telling you that you should be prepared for the worst case scenario. But are you really okay with this? It looks like it’ll hurt quite a bit if I drag you. I removed the rocks, but the ground here isn’t exactly flat.”

“Don’t you worry, seonbae-nim. I was completely fine when I got hit by lumber in the last film because it was cut up the wrong way. If I was going to get hurt because of a few rocks, I would have been hospitalized a long time ago. I was fine in the military when someone murder-tackled me, so don’t worry.”

Bangjoo got ready, telling him to try dragging him.

“I’ll try dragging slowly, so tell me as soon as you feel something is wrong.”

“Don’t worry.”

Maru grabbed the sleeping bag and dragged it backwards with all his might. When he was dragging an empty sleeping bag, he kept misstepping because his center of gravity wasn’t right, but now that he was dragging a heavy one, his posture didn’t break. His thigh muscles became taut, and he started sweating. Now that he actually felt the weight that he used to replace with a mime, through his hands, it became much easier to focus on his act instead. Since he was at it, he decided to get into the mood.

There was no better method than breathing that allowed him to express the sense of guilt of having committed murder as well as the anxiety that he might get found out. He intentionally took a deep breath. The breath that piled up in his body and a new breath crossed each other and created a stifling breathing sound. He watched out for his backward step and decided to fall down butt first if he felt like he was going to fall down. If he landed on his butt while holding the sleeping bag, Bangjoo who was inside the bag would be a lot safer, and it could also show the anxiety that the main character was feeling. After dragging the sleeping bag to where Ando was, he let go. The whole thing didn’t even take a minute, but the back of his neck was drenched with sweat.

“You okay in there?”

“It doesn’t hurt at all. But are you okay, seonbae-nim? I’m quite heavy.”

“My words exactly. You need to lose some weight.”

Maru wiped his sweat with the towel that Jiyoon handed him. Sora, who climbed up from below, had a look at the video that Ando shot and smiled. It seemed that she took a liking to the footage.

“Don’t you think I should be the one to go inside the bag?” Sooil said from the side.

Having finished makeup, his face had turned pale.

“Who’s going to take responsibility if you get hurt?”

“I won’t get that hurt.”

“The one inside the sleeping bag is someone who has learned to do that specifically, while you aren’t.”

“I just feel sorry.”

“If you do, then try getting him in something later. He’s someone who’s into action acting.”

“Really?”

“His acting skills shouldn’t be bad either. He has one of the greatest teachers by his side.”

“One of the greatest teachers?”

“Oh, I guess you didn’t hear what Sora said while Bangjoo introduced himself. He’s Joohyun-noonim’s little brother.”

“Ahn Bangjoo, Ahn Joohyun? You mean senior Joohyun?”

“Yes.”

“I remember. I heard about him from her a while ago. She said she has a brother who’s getting into acting. So that’s him.”

“He’s an earnest guy. Though, he’s quite frustrating since he never uses his sister’s name and wants his skills to do the talking even though using her name could easily land him in a minor role or something.”

“You say that he’s frustrating, but most of the time, people would say that he’s upright. I should go talk to him.”

Sooil approached Bangjoo. Maru grabbed the script he placed on top of his bag and sat on a root. The people here were all either working or were in college. They didn’t even have time to rehearse, and they had to do everything in just one day, so he was quite worried, but now that he actually was here, he felt like he was worried for nothing. While clumsy, everyone was doing well in their respective roles. What he had to do as an actor was to wrap things up cleanly so that they didn’t have to prolong their efforts in vain.

He had never committed murder, so he couldn’t perectly understand what a murderer would feel, but he knew very well the meaning of life as well as the complex emotions of vanity that comes from the losing of it. Although he couldn’t figure out the psychology of a murderer, he should be able to represent the feelings of the main character, who would get socially murdered upon being found out, if he calculated backwards from the moment of death.

As the important part of this act was the dramatic expression of the moment accidental murder becomes intentional murder, he had to analyze the psychology of the main character and dissolve himself into him. After accepting the air of the scene with a deep breath, he started reading down the script in a calm manner.

“Maru-seonbae! Let’s get your clothes and makeup done. We should start.”

“Alright.”

He put down the script and tensed his stomach before loosening it again. It was time to change from Han Maru into a character who felt chaotic about everything.

Chapter 788
Sequence 6

Maru relaxed his shoulders and let go of things one by one. First, the lines he was uttering, then the movement lines he pictured inside his mind several times, and then finally, the order of progression that he had planned out in detail. He also jerked his body as though to shake off some dust. Around the time the words were lingering in his mouth and the lingering motions at his fingertips and toe tips were shaken off, he slowly raised his eyelids. Leaves rotting in the shade; a plastic bag that flew past in the wind; rocks that would catch the feet of mountain climbers; deep pits; and finally the trees that surrounded the area – the visual information that he had forgotten about entered his eyes all at once. He forgot about his home, the path he took here, as well as the mountain cabin, and just took all that he saw as they were. He took a deep breath. The stench of wet leaves, the freshness of grass, as well as the unique scent of the mountains that refreshed his mind filled his head. He took slow breaths so that every inch of his body was filled with the air of the scene.

“Seonbae, are you ready?”

“Wait a sec.”

Maru climbed up and down the hill with quick steps. He ran up and walked down. When he ran back and forth the distance of around 30 meters about 20 times, his heart started pumping blood fast. He showed himself to Jiyoon and asked if he was sweating too much.

“I’ll wipe just a little.”

After wiping the sweat around his forehead and his eyes, he returned to position.

“I’m ready now.”

“How about you, Bangjoo-oppa?”

“I’m ready. You can zip me up now.”

Maru zipped the sleeping bag and told him to speak immediately if he felt pain. Bangjoo laughed, saying that he was going to be okay.

“Then I’ll start now.”

Aram stood in front of the camera with the slate. Maru waited for the signal while holding onto the sleeping bag. The slate was clapped, and Aram fell back.

“Action!”

Silence fell along with those words. Maru took a deep breath and took a large step backwards. He wasn’t dragging luggage; he was dragging up a corpse. The corpse was an ‘item’ that had a close relationship to the character’s life. It was akin to his life, and he could not afford to let go of it. Simultaneously, the item symbolized his cruelty and violence. It was an item that he could not embrace, and at the same time, one that he couldn’t just let go of. Even as he dragged the sleeping bag, Maru flinched and ran away as soon as he felt like the sleeping bag was too close to him, just as he would if he was chased by bees. By the time the rehearsed part ended, Maru suddenly felt his ankles sink. He didn’t slip on a wet leaf like he did during the rehearsal, but the whole ground was slightly indented. In this situation, where he was about to fall over, he put one hand on the ground and prevented the sleeping bag from falling with the other. The sleeping bag, which was dragged up in a straight line, suddenly turned diagonal. It was obviously an accident, but Sora did not shout cut. That was what Maru wanted. Although this wasn’t according to the storyboard, it was something within tolerance.

His wrist started aching. Maru did not hide his pain. Although he didn’t express it too much on his face, he let the audience know that he was hurt by rotating his wrist and looking at the injury. The things that happened between cuts were dramatic truths, so there was a need to be truthful in his reaction. If that method didn’t suit the film, then the director would just pick up the scalpel known as editing.

He dragged the sleeping bag up to the designated position. Although this was the part where his act was supposed to end, Sora’s mouth did not open. It was the director’s signal that changed an actor into a character in a film. Returning without orders from the director was something that must not happen. He grabbed the sleeping bag in one hand and kneeled down. He panted and looked at the sleeping bag placed in front of his knees. Inside it was a corpse; the corpse of his friend that he killed himself. Feeling a chill run down his back, he immediately lifted his head and looked around. The faces of his friends entered his eyes, but the filter of acting did not accept them as information. What the character that killed his close friend was looking for were the eyes of a third person. Mountain climbers, kids who liked climbing mountains, or locals who came to get vegetables. He prayed that coincidence doesn’t become the inevitable and prayed that he would get down the mountain safely despite the fact that he was a murderer who killed his friend as he looked for eyes again and again. He somehow knew the number of droplets of sweat on his forehead. He was so nervous that he felt like this entire area was a part of his body. He felt as though the thumping of the heart was rising from below the round. He felt like gloomy sounds were coming from around the area – at one moment, Maru realized that these feelings weren’t imaginary things that he created himself for the act; they were indeed real sounds. There was an ego that made his presence known within him. The masked man, his other self. The dramatic environment that his other self created played a big role in turning the imaginary into the truth. He didn’t have to pretend that he was listening to something he couldn’t hear; he was actually hearing something that he could indeed hear. The silent partner helped him out that way before erasing his presence again.

He thanked the one that would listen but not reply and continued his act. He stood up in a hurry and started dragging the sleeping bag again. Although he was already past the designated location, he just kept going forward since Sora did not give him the stop signal. Just as he clenched his teeth and started climbing again, he heard a cut sound from below.

“That’s enough, seonbae.”

Maru let go of the sleeping bag and unzipped it. Bangjoo sat up with a smile. It seemed that he wasn’t hurt.

“Sorry for falling down mid way. I checked several times, but it looks like I missed a spot,” he said to Sora.

She shook her head, saying that his apology wasn’t necessary.

“Are you kidding me, seonbae? If you apologize after doing so well, then it makes me look like a fool for giving the okay sign. But still, I thought that falling over mid way would look too cliché and thought about taking it out, but looking at how you did it, I was clearly wrong. Did you know that a vein popped up on your forehead when you stood up after falling down again? I was so nervous thinking that it might actually burst.”

“Looks like I strained myself too much. I do feel a little dizzy.”

“I was really going to shout cut, but I held back after seeing you continue your act. No, that’s not it. I just couldn’t tell where you were going with all this because you were completely different from the rehearsal. Did you practice that part beforehand? You really looked like you were fleeing after killing someone.”

“In my head, I killed dozens of times. I can’t kill someone for real.”

“You just gave me the chills. Also, I’m going to use this cut as it is. I don’t think it’ll be respectful of me to cut parts out.”

“Wouldn’t that become too long then?”

“You should have a look at the footage later. The sense of tension is unreal. It was a good thing that I rented a wireless microphone. Your breathing sounds were captured with so much detail.”

“Do you think it made up for the 20,000 won rental fee per day?”

“More than enough. We’ll clean your sweat a little and continue right away. If we finish our morning quota quickly, we can shoot more.”

“Don’t squeeze me out too much,” Maru said as he shook his wrists.

* * *

“Are you alive? Jeongsoo, you bastard, you still alive?”

Sooil looked at Maru, who looked touched as he looked at him. When he witnessed the moment the cruelty in his eyes turned into warmth, he felt like laughing in vain. Maru’s act was frighteningly candid. He couldn’t help but do his best in front of his candid act. He realized that they would be compared to each other the moment he put some leeway. He didn’t want their relationship to be the genuine versus the fake. They were actors before they were friends. Losing out in terms of acting was not something he wanted.

“Jinho.”

“Yes, Jeongsoo. It’s me, Jinho. Are you okay? Are you really okay?”

“Jinho.”

Sooil burned up in rage as he looked at the expression of the person that grabbed his face. The person that drove him to death was shamelessly climbing up a mountain, and not only that, he was climbing with a corpse in a sleeping bag. This drove him nuts. Frustration and rage as rough as the terrain here started sprouting up. How could he do this when they’ve been friends for a decade? His limp body started heating up. His stiff neck became taut, and all of his muscles got ready to sprout up. He even momentarily forgot that he was about to die. The ‘son of a bitch’ that rushed out of his throat was not in the script, but he couldn’t hold back from uttering those words.

Maru’s face, which looked apologetic as he clutched Sooil’s face, suddenly started stiffening up like a car that was braking suddenly. The retrospective look on his face as he regretted the mistake he committed against his close friend started disappearing along with his paling face. His eyes were clearly hesitating; hesitating on whether to save his friend’s life or save his own. The change from human affection to obsession towards life made Sooil’s stomach hurt.

Sooil felt death looming over him as he looked at the eyes that were becoming empty. He forgot that they were acting and accepted the surging wave of emotions without any filters.

“Don’t do it, Jinho. Don’t do it.”

The saliva in his mouth started bubbling. As the temperature of his words screaming ‘don’t do it’ started rising, the rage conversely turned cold. The moment he realized that the friend in front of him was turning from the person who ‘almost’ killed him into the person who ‘was definitely going to’ kill him, he started shaking. At the same time, he felt joyous. Becoming emotionally synchronized to a partnering actor was something incredibly exciting for actors. With the exception of monodramas, all acting was the art of ‘union’. Every time his own acting combined with the other person’s acting blurred the boundary between fiction and reality, Sooil thought that it was a good thing that he became an actor.

Maru was squeezing himself. His act was just that desperate. In order to pay back that acting in kind, there was a need for him to condense his emotions so that they didn’t start leaking. The presence of the onlookers became faint and eventually, only he and Maru were on this mountain. As death became clearer, the fear became more and more concrete. His breath only tickled the ceiling of his mouth and did not get pushed out.

“Please.”

“Jeongsoo.”

“Jinho, I won’t say anything. You know, don’t you? I will stay quiet no matter what happens. The hospital. Just bring me to the hospital. I’m really going to die, Jinho.”

“Sorry, Jeongsoo, I don’t want to get caught for attempted murder.”

“Son of a bitch, I’m not dead yet. I will never report you to the authorities.”

“How am I supposed to believe that?”

“We’re friends.”

“Sorry, Jeongsoo. I feel so complex now. Thinking is too hard for me.”

“Kim Jinho, you fucking bastard!”

Maru standing with a rock in his two hands, entered Sooil’s eyes. The stone fell on his head. Sooil shut his eyes. He felt like death overwhelmed him in an instant.

“Cut!”

His body, which had scrunched up, with even his fists curled up, turned loose in an instant. Sooil opened his eyes slowly. He saw Maru’s smiling face.

“Hey, someone might think that I’m really about to kill you.”

“You were planning to, until about half way through, weren’t you?”

“How quick-witted.”

Maru unzipped the sleeping bag for him. Sooil shivered even though it was the middle of summer.

“I think I need payment for this. This is way too hard.”

“You can consult our director for that. Here, grab my hand.”

He grabbed the hand that was offered to him and stood up.

Chapter 789
Sequence 6

“Drive very slowly when you come in.”

Maru stepped on the pedal slowly. He drove the car right up to where Ando was and turned the wheel to the right. As he listened to the sound of gravel being ground up, he stepped on the brakes and switched the gear to neutral.

“Is it okay now?”

He poked his head out the window. Sora was watching the footage that Ando just shot. From the way she was tapping on her chin with her index finger, she seemed dissatisfied. Thinking that he had to do it again, he rested his head on the headrest and got ready to back out. This was the third time or something. She, who gave the okay sign without a problem when he was acting, did not say a single word during the driving scene as though her mouth was locked up with two padlocks. Seonbae, is that all you can do? - her eyes requesting a re-shoot looked scary.

Putting an arm over the window, Sora spoke,

“We’ll go with this one.”

“It’s done now?”

“Yes. I felt this while we shot, but you don’t suit cars. You looked so cool when you were acting in the middle of the street, but you strangely look like a middle-aged man when I put you in a car. You look awkward even if you try to look cool.”

“Spare me since it’s not an important scene.”

“That was the plan. I’m going to use this as a jump cut, so if it doesn’t feel right, I can just cut off the beginning and end. We’ll go back to our lodging for now. Sooil-oppa must have fixed his make-up, so let’s bring him out.”

When they went back, he saw Sooil talking with Daemyung. Having wiped off the pale corpse-like makeup, he had returned to his celebrity self.

“Maru, come here for a sec.”

Daemyung waved at him.

“The lines here. I think we should change them a little.”

“Wait a sec.”

He opened his script and picked up a pen. This was the scene where he talked to Sooil, his friend in the film, over a drink. A trivial misunderstanding combined with the alcohol in their systems leads to a big fight and ultimately leads to murder. The main character ended up having to carry a sleeping bag.

“It’s this part. The part when you two talk after having a drink.”

“Yeah, what about it?”

“Sooil said he wants to ad-lib it. I heard what he said and indeed I think that would sound more natural.”

“Ad-lib it?”

Sooil pointed to a part of the script.

“I was wondering if we could try it according to the script first and then try ad-libbing. When else would we be able to improvise like this? I think it should be fine since this part through this part doesn’t have any relation to the general plot of the story.”

“If the writer of the script is fine with it, then sure. Director Kang, we have something to talk to you about.”

Maru called out to Sora. When he pointed out to her the range of the script that they were going to improvise, she said that it sounded fun and even ordered them to do it properly if they were going to.

“This part is a relaxed part, so you can play with it however you want. We should just shoot for about 30 minutes and extract about 30 seconds.”

After saying those words, Sora went over to Jiyoon, who was on her knees. It seemed she was going to check up on the clothes.

“We’re going to just do it without even deciding on a topic?” he said to Sooil.

It wasn’t a one-liner ad-lib. They were going to ad-lib the whole scene. If they started recklessly, they might look like two mutes.

“Don’t you think we should just talk about what we usually talk about? We can talk about the dog at your house or talk about girls. I think bringing up the money problem mentioned in the script slightly isn’t a bad idea either.”

“To do that, though, we need some booze.”

“Should we do it over a drink?”

“Sounds good.”

Sooil’s eyes headed to the fridge. There was a bunch of soju and beer that they bought for the afterparty. He took out a bottle of soju from the fridge. Sora looked towards them, asking what they were up to.

“We are taking props necessary for acting.”

“If you want empty bottles, we got them over there.”

“Empty ones are no good.”

“Don’t tell me you’re going to do it while drinking?”

“Don’t you think it’ll look better that way?”

“How are you going to act when you’re drunk?”

“He and I aren’t going to get drunk with just one bottle. We’re just setting up the mood. It’ll be even better if our cheeks get flushed red or something.”

“You’re not trying to have a drinking party with that as an excuse, are you?”

“I’m not that much of an alcoholic.”

While they set up the drinking table in the room, Maru heard that the shoot was ready outside. Bangjoo, Aram, and Jiyoon were sitting on benches outside the mountain cabin. There was a baeksuk that had an impressively big chicken, as well as some sliced watermelon pieces. The owner of the cabin, who was bringing out a lot of food on some food tray, spoke to Sora,

“Tell me if you need anything else. I’ll try to get them for you.”

“We’re grateful to you already. But we aren’t bothering you, are we?”

“It’s fine. It’s not like I have any reservations today. It was my dream to become a film person when I was young, so I couldn’t hold back from helping you young ones out. If you need any empty rooms on the first floor, just tell me. I’ll open them for you.”

“You’re the best, owner. After we shoot the film, we’ll stamp a large logo of the mountain cabin here since you helped us so much.”

The owner of the cabin, who had his white hair parted 2:8, said that there was no need but still pointed at the sign of the mountain cabin. He looked like he wanted that sign to be in the film. Seeing the owner’s half-serious, half-joking reaction, Maru smiled.

“Then do your best.”

The owner put down the food before going back to the managerial office with his hands locked behind his back.

“Everyone, I was originally going to do this more leisurely, but I don’t think we can. We need to shoot as much as possible and then do an additional shoot. For now, the four of you on the bench can talk amongst yourselves. I told you the setup, right? You are two couples who coincidentally met while you were traveling.”

Daemyung, who was checking the script next to Sora, sat down on the bench as well.

“So who and who are couples?” Aram asked as she raised her hand.

“Of course, it’s the Daemyung-Jiyoon couple and the Aram-Bangjoo couple. Those two are a real couple, so they can probably do fine. As for you two, just bring out the long friendship between you.”

“Me and her?”

Bangjoo said that he’d rather enter a sleeping bag and get thrown into the water. Seeing him freak out, Aram chuckled before speaking in a gentle tone,

“Don’t say that, my boyfriend~.”

“You picking up a fight?”

“Don’t say that to your girlfriend~.”

“Director, no, Sora. I don’t think I can do this.”

Bangjoo was stubborn, but Sora just told him to do it.

“Bangjoo, an actor can’t reject a role out of personal feelings,” Maru said a word to him as well.

Bangjoo nodded with an expression that looked like he had swallowed a piece of hard persimmon. As those two had a friendship beyond the opposite sex, it was quite normal to see Bangjoo freak out when he saw Aram acting cute. Maru patted Bangjoo's shoulders and wished him luck.

“Seonbae, that goes for me too. Right?”

“Of course. I wish you luck.”

Sora said that they should start the rehearsal and gathered everyone’s attention with a clap.

“Hyungseok-oppa. You go over to the bench while holding this and catch a glimpse of the two people getting off the car here. The camera will shoot over your shoulder.”

“I should just do it naturally, right?”

“Yes. There’s nothing difficult, so just do it naturally. You told me you learned acting, so I’ll trust you for now.”

Maru walked to the car with Sooil, who came down from the 2nd floor. He heard Sora’s voice from where the bench was. Her voice was like a sharp needle. Even though they were so far apart, he could hear her voice clearly.

“I feel like Sora is more suited to be on a construction site,” Sooil said as he opened the door to the passenger seat.

“Try saying that in front of her. I’m sure you will get to have a long talk with her.”

Maru got in the driver’s seat and waited for the director’s signal.

* * *

Hyungseok rubbed his hands together before picking up the tray. Although the temperature was reaching 30 degrees celsius, his hands strangely felt cold. His back and his butt were drenched with sweat, so he couldn’t believe what he was feeling.

“You ready? We need to shoot before the sun sets. Well then, standby! 6 dash one dash 2.”

Sora clapped the slate herself and shouted action. Hyungseok tried his best not to be conscious of the camera behind him. He took a step with the tray in his hands. He had to show the natural-looking steps of a part-timer at the mountain cabin giving food to the four people on the bench. He counted his steps as he stepped on the gravel. He stopped right next to the gravel he marked beforehand during the rehearsal and looked at the car that was parked. Maru and Sooil were opening the door and getting off.

“Cut.”

He didn’t know how to react to the cut sound, so he stayed still. He did the same when he was doing a part-time job as a background actor. Stay still no matter what the director says – such were the leader’s orders.

“Hyungseok-oppa.”

“Yeah?”

He was startled when a hand suddenly entered his view over his shoulder and turned around to her. Sora was looking at him with a corner of her lips down. It was a stereotypical expression of dissatisfaction.

“Was it strange?”

“It wasn’t that strange, but it’s way too precise that it’s vexing. You know that feeling right? Where you try to show off too much while trying to make it not look like acting, and it makes it look more like acting. Just relax. You’ve forcefully decreased your stepping distance since you tried to match what I told you, so you look like you’re ill or something. Try walking with confidence, and just stop right here, next to this stone so that we can catch you on camera. You have to be careful with walking anyway since you have food in your hands. Try bringing that out more.”

Sora even used examples to explain. He instantly understood what he had been doing wrong. The way she walked back after saying what she needed made her look like the assistant director he had seen while he was working. It was clear that she wasn’t the director because of picking lots.

“Also, you people on the bench! I can tell that you look clumsy! Watch yourselves. Try thinking about what you do when we talk amongst ourselves. Especially Aram-unni and Daemyung-oppa! You’re too eye-catching since you’re bringing your habits from doing plays, so tone it down a little.”

She finished her directions without hesitation and picked up the slate again. Hyungseok also returned to his starting position with the tray in hand. He exercised his legs a little and recalled the advice he was just given while also remembering his acting instructor’s words: fools can never become actors.

He blew the camera out of his consciousness and focused on the four guests in front of him. The movement line was important, but for now, getting into the scene was an even more urgent matter. He had to carry the food carefully before it cooled down.

“Action!”

The gravel, which got on his nerves more than the food on the tray, was pushed out of his eyes. He fixed his eyes on the food before lifting his head to look at the bench. There was no time to think about the car that had just parked. When he looked down after taking a few steps, he saw a faint outline of his cheeks as well as the gravel. It was too late to stop, so he took another step. He did it as naturally as possible.

He looked at the two people getting out of the car before starting to walk again. Until this part, it was just according to the rehearsal. Even he thought that he did pretty decently. Although all he did was walk with a tray, the change in the distribution of his consciousness made his movements a lot smoother, and it showed in his acting as well. The camera should have captured him as just an ‘ordinary part-timer’ as well.

Just as he was waiting for the cut sound with a satisfied smile, he heard a not-so-welcome sound.

“What the heck, why is a helicopter here?”

Chak-a-chak-a-chak-a – a helicopter was flying towards the mountain stream. It seemed to be a helicopter from a TV station that had come out to shoot people enjoying themselves in the mountain streams. Hyungseok put down the tray and went over to Sora.

“Wasn’t it good just now?”

“Yes, it was, but.”

“But?”

“I think we need to do that again because we picked up unnecessary noise. I’ll have to ask you to do it again.”

Hyungseok frowned and glared at the helicopter passing by. That was a really good act just now too.

“We’ll do that once more!” Sora shouted.

Chapter 790
Sequence 6

“Shoots aren’t easy alright,” Jiyoon said as she fixed Maru’s makeup.

As the schedule was tight, they couldn’t take any breaks. Once they finished one scene, they had to pack up their equipment in a hurry and move to the next place and check on the makeup and clothing before shooting again. If they shot according to the storyline, they would be less prone to changes of clothing or makeup, but as they had to finish everything within two short days, they kept skipping back and forth between scenes. As a result, they ended up switching back and forth between different clothes as well. Sora kept staring at the sky as the sun started setting while kicking her foot back and forth, and the nervousness in her kicking made Jiyoon’s hand move busily as well.

“Dramas are incredible. They shoot an hour-long episode in just one week. They don’t do it in just one location either.”

After checking his face in the mirror, Maru said that it was a bit too thick on his lips and asked her for some tissue.

“I’ll do it. I have to wipe just a little, right?”

She wiped it with some cotton pad and touched up his lips. The color spread out evenly. Although the makeup was thin to the point that the camera would barely pick it up, Maru was picky about this.

“Thanks.”

Maru stood up and Sooil sat down next.

“Sorry about what happened in the morning. I was too clumsy.”

As she didn’t learn special makeup techniques, it took quite a long time for her to put the makeup to make him look like a ‘dying person’ on Sooil. Sooil told her to take it slowly, saying that he was okay, but as Jiyoon ended up making everyone else wait, Jiyoon was quite nervous when she did her work.

“I said you don’t have to worry about it. If you guys were trying to do things in detail, you should have called professionals. Sora should have considered preparation time as well, so don’t get nervous and focus on the makeup. Honestly speaking, I thought you were massaging my face with a machine in the morning. Your hands were so shaky.”

“Am I like that right now?”

“No, you’re okay.”

Jiyoon sighed softly and picked up the makeup base. She slightly applied it on Sooil’s nose and chin and then spread it out evenly before finishing the tone with foundation. She thought this in the morning: Sooil’s skin didn’t feel like it belonged to a man. When she put makeup on Maru, she had to put in quite a bit of effort in order to cover up the wrinkles around his nose and forehead, as well as his pores and the freckles on his chin, but for Sooil, she just had to tone his skin down a little to make his contours a little more distinct. His skin was supple and soft. He probably went through a lot of management, but his innate skin was just that good as well. She even slightly felt a little jealous.

“Is something wrong?”

“N-no, I was just thinking that you have good skin.”

“I had some skin trouble before, but it became better after I switched out my makeup and cleansing foam. These days, men have to go through management. The resolution of TVs has gotten so good that not managing your skin will show up on TV.”

“It definitely does feel like that.”

She wanted to ask what the products he used on a regular basis were, but she swallowed it in, thinking that things might become awry. While Sooil acted like a gentleman, he also gave off a feeling that there was a thin membrane around him. He was someone who she could easily communicate with but hard to approach.

“Done.”

“Thanks for the job.”

Jiyoon put the cosmetics inside the plastic bag. As she was told that they were going outside again once the shoot inside the room was done, she had to prepare beforehand.

“Turn the lights on and bring the reflector here. There’s too much shadow on the actors’ faces.”

The preparations for the shoot were underway inside the room. Maru and Sooil, who had finished their makeup, were getting into their positions in the room. The position of the reflector changed according to Ando’s gesture. Jiyoon watched the whole preparation occur from the side. She thought that one camera was the only electronic device they needed, but it turned out that they needed more than she had originally expected. Not to mention large lights that were going to be used for the outside shoot, there was even a generator and a separate microphone. They were all rented. Renting them for two days cost more than 100 thousand won.

“Actually, paying wages is usually the largest expense, but we are exploiting labor. This, renting equipment was the most expensive, along with fuel costs. Oh, the lodging expenses as well.”

Those were Sora’s words in the morning.

“Sorry about this when you need to get some rest on the weekend.”

Jiyoon looked at Daemyung, who was standing beside her.

“I came here because I wanted to come, so there’s no need for you to feel sorry, oppa. I feel like I came here on a trip.”

“Let’s go traveling next week, wherever it is. Though I don’t have a car, so I can’t bring you somewhere far.”

Daemyung smiled awkwardly. He was really disappointed that they couldn’t meet frequently, and whenever he made that apologetic smile, Jiyoon once again felt that she was being loved. She was satisfied with just being with him, and yet he always tried to do more for her. How could she not love him?

“The two of you, quiet down,” Sora said as she put her index finger against her mouth.

The light was fixed in place and the shoot was about to begin. Jiyoon pinched Daemyung on the flank in a joking manner and looked at the two actors sitting on the floor. In front of the two was a bottle of soju, a bottle of beer, as well as some dried snacks. These were props for true ‘drunk’ acting. When she heard that they were going to act ‘while’ drunk instead of ‘acting’ drunk, she first treated it as a joke, but the two people opened up a bottle of soju and started drinking. They said strange things like acting while drunk would look more natural than acting drunk.

“You can’t get drunk, you two, okay?” Sora said as she pointed at the two actors with a rolled-up script.

She announced to them that she would not allow them to sleep if the shoot got delayed because they were drunk.

“Get ready”

Getting a signal from Sora, Aram held up the slate and stood in front of the camera. Jiyoon wanted to try clapping the slate once, but she didn’t say anything for fear of distracting them. After saying the scene number, the cut number, and the take number before falling back, Sora shouted ‘action.’

The two actors became limp at once. The way they leaned on the wall and barely breathed like they were invertebrates made them look like they were completely drunk. Their hands lifting their glasses looked unstable as though the glasses would slip out at any moment, and the way they loosened their jaws looked like they were drunk to the top of their heads. She suddenly had the thought that they might do well even if they didn’t drink. They didn’t open those bottles just because they wanted to drink, right?

“Hey, do you remember how I looked out for you in high school? Punk, I practically fed you throughout high school because you were dirt poor,” Sooil said while tapping on Maru’s cheek.

Maru snorted back at him.

“You call that looking out for me? You were just pitying me. Don’t you remember what you said to me every time you treated me to food? You asked me what my parents were doing that they can’t even feed their own son.”

“I said that because I was worried goddammit. So what, it’s not like I didn’t buy you food. Heck, I even paid for traveling expenses, didn’t I? Without me, you would have been a wimp throughout all of high school. Where else would you be able to find a friend like me? I taught you how to study, I treated you to food, and I brought you to a place like this.”

“Yeah, thanks. I’m fucking moved to tears, punk. But did you know? You’re doing that out of self-satisfaction. I’m not some idiot. Do you think I didn’t know? You just feel superior by helping me out, don’t you? Tell me honestly.”

“Punk. That’s not something you say to a friend.”

“Like hell you’re a friend.”

Thorns grew out in what started off as a joking conversation. Jiyoon bit on her thumbnails and watched the two actors. Just ten minutes ago, they were talking about a trip they went on together, how they were scolded together by the teacher, and about how one helped out the other in confessing to a girl, but the friendship between the two became colder. The distance between the two, which originally looked like they were going to toast at any moment, started widening. The change was gradual, but once they started talking about money, the distance widened dramatically. They came back from ad-libbing to the script.

“That was a little harsh, don’t you think?”

“What’d I do?”

“Hey. You’re supposed to be thanking me when I brought an unemployed guy like you to somewhere so good. Why are you acting so proud? Honestly, it’s because you had a friend like me that you can come to a place like this, you know? Without me, you would have become a dropout a long time ago. No wait, you still can’t get a job, so you’re practically a dropout even now.”

“Shut your trap before I start saying cuss words.”

“Cuss words? From you? Now you’re getting angry at my jokes?”

Jiyoon looked at the script in front of her as she listened to the conversation between the two. Even the lines that sounded like they were spat out spontaneously were precisely according to the script. Every little detail down to each little space and comma was on the script. Although they were speaking with heavy breaths and crooked lips, the words that hit her ears were crystal clear. She knew from high school how hard it was to say the lines exactly according to the script. She knew how tricky it was to get her words across.

She suddenly had the thought that perhaps Maru, who acted alongside her and the others on the 5th-floor hall a long time ago, might not have been able to bring out all of his skills. Jiyoon honestly didn’t have the confidence to receive those words that were filled with emotions. She had the thought that it was thanks to Sooil, an actor that could receive his words, being in front of him that he could bring out his full skills. Actor – that word echoed inside her head.

The air given off by the two people became more and more vicious, and they looked like they were going to break out into a fight at any moment. She was feeling nervous watching them even though she knew that they were just acting. Eventually, their emotions reached their peak and broke out of the frame of patience that bottled them up. Sooil kicked the soju glass with his foot. The soju inside the glass spilled everywhere, and the glass rolled over and hit the wall next to Ando, who was holding the camera. Neither the actors nor the camera director bat an eyelid.

“You’re a fucking beggar.”

Maru charged toward Sooil, who stood up and turned his back. Jiyoon was able to see Maru’s face from the front. His face, which she presumed would turn vicious, looked incredibly sad. He smashed down the soju glass at the fallen Sooil’s head. Jiyoon clenched her eyes shut. She forgot that this was a shoot. She was reminded of the cat that died because it was run over by a car a few days ago. A sense of disgust spread out from the top of her head all the way down to her toes like a flash of lightning.

“Cut!”

Only after listening to Sora’s shout could she open her eyes again. She saw Maru looking down at Sooil, still with those gloomy eyes. Sooil also did not budge under him. Just as she was thinking that something may have happened, both of them heaved a deep breath before standing up.

“That wasn’t bad, was it?”

“That was decent. But you should have hit closer. I could tell that you would miss.”

“If I did that, you would have a broken head.”

“If we get a good picture with a broken head, that sounds like profit to me.”

“The problem is that I would get two broken heads if you get one. Director, how was that?”

The vicious atmosphere dissipated in an instant. Jiyoon spat out the breath she was holding back. For a few seconds after the cut sound, the two should have still remained as the characters in the film. The disdain and rage in their emotions definitely remained after the cut sound. She recalled how actors frequently had mental consultations. She could understand why after looking at the two. It would instead be strange if they were normal when they could act like that.

“Gosh, this is going to be hard to edit. You two should have held back a little. You’re trying to kill me by doing so well, aren’t you?”

Sora groaned in joy. She seemed to have taken a liking to it. Jiyoon looked at the two in a daze for a while before collecting herself and approaching the two.

“I’ll fix your makeup a little.”

Jiyoon thought as she wiped the sweat on her forehead that it was perhaps a good thing that she let go of her dream to become an actress while she was still in high school. She didn’t have the confidence to do something like that.

“How was it?” Maru asked.

“You mean your acting?”

“Yes.”

“It was the best.”

Jiyoon put up her thumbs.

Chapter 791
Sequence 6

“I want to say that I’m doing this to gain experience, but I’m actually just trying various things out because I feel uneasy if I don’t do anything. Whether it’s actors or writers, it’s not like ‘experience’ will get you better treatment, so I’m even more uneasy. Of course, there might be people who might give me good treatment if I say I worked in this field for a long time, but if you ask me who I’ll choose if I had to choose between a young writer who had written a popular piece and a middle-aged writer who wrote so-so pieces, even I would lean towards the young writer. So how would the investors think about it? I would graduate in no time, and once I graduate, I would have to start looking for a way to live my life. I’m afraid because I chose writing as my career; the path to a livable wage with writing is quite narrow. It’s because I’m afraid that I’m struggling. I’m hoping that this short film will become a line in my experiences section on my resume.”

Bangjoo looked at Daemyung’s back and recalled what he said. Dreams always looked distant, but actually, they were often closer to reality than not. Everyone dreams of consolidating their foundations and proceeding on the path they seek, but they would often realize that their dreams were buried underneath the foundation they built up when they actually try reaching out to it.

“Living and doing what you want at the same time must be hard, right?”

Aram, who was eating pork belly at his side, rolled her eyes up and down. What the heck are you on about all of a sudden? – she seemed to say with her eyes.

“It’s Daemyung-hyung’s words. He seems worried. He keeps handing in applications to competitions, but he’s not even getting a critique back, so he must be uneasy.”

“I’m sure he must be worried. Living through writing isn’t easy, is it? Though, I’m sure it’s a different story for popular writers.”

“I even felt sorry for him when I heard his story. I honestly never worried about money. I mean, my sister paid for the living expenses and my education after all.”

“That’s right, you’re blessed. You have a top star as a member of your family. Oh, give me the ssamjang.”

Bangjoo picked up the ssamjang and put it in front of Aram.

“I probably would have also chosen to do something else if I wasn’t in a good financial situation. Maybe I would’ve become an ordinary salaryman or learned some skills since I like to use my body.”

“That’s what most people go through. But most of the time, if it’s truly something you want to do, you end up doing it. I also graduated from a two-year college and entered a small company as an accountant. I didn’t even enroll in a four-year program like my mom’s friend’s daughter, so I couldn’t even try out large companies. The only thing left on the list were small companies. I worked hard for the past two years. It was pretty okay. It wasn’t something I wanted to do, but after I had become close to them, I kinda felt like it was destined for me. I was getting a monthly salary, and they were even going to raise my pay next year, so I didn’t have a reason to quit either. I’ve liked sports since I was in middle school, so I always thought that I’d be teaching kids when I grow up, but earning a stable income is more important, isn’t it? That’s how it was until Christmas Eve last year. Just as I was going home after work, the general manager called out to me. I went back to the office and checked the announcement through the company intranet, and I had this thought – ah, I’m going to work as a sports teacher. That’s when I quit and started working with the dojo master I’m working with now,” Aram said as though it was nothing much.

“If I was you, I wouldn’t have been able to do all that.”

“I’m pretty sure that’s not true. This is a personal opinion of mine, but people are bound to do what they like. I do hear that people often end up just doing what they’re doing because of money, but don’t you think that they’ll quit if they find that it really doesn’t suit them? It’s because it suits them, before they can say that they’re compromising, that they continue doing it. If it was completely outside of what they wanted to do, they wouldn’t even think about staying. In the end, it’s about the degree of suitability. Either do something that suits you 100% like what I’m doing or do something that suits you about 80 to 90%. If it’s closer to 0%, I don’t think you can do it just because you have no choice. Most of the time, people shoot themselves out if they find that the place they are in is a pit of fire.”

Bangjoo nodded. He never realized that the girl who always looked like a brute was thinking of something like this.

“You really can’t judge a book by its cover, huh?”

“Somehow, that sounds like an insult to me.”

Aram raised a spoon. Bangjoo also raised his and got into a defensive position.

“Until when are you going to continue being archenemies, huh? You should get along already,” Maru said from the far table.

Bangjoo wanted to defend himself by saying that she started it, but he didn’t say anything because it might make him look petty.

Thanks to the smooth shooting progress, they were able to eat the pork belly, which they were going to eat tomorrow once all the shoots ended, earlier than they expected. Grilling meat while sitting on a bench where they could hear the mountain stream flowing down under the moonlight was a pretty emotional thing. Bangjoo, who grilled some meat on the cauldron lid provided by the cabin owner, handed the pieces out to various people before returning to his seat.

“Maru-seonbae definitely looks better now, right?” Aram said as she flipped over the pork belly being grilled.

“For sure. It must be like what Jiyoon said, and he resolved the romantic problem he was having.”

“It’s quite unexpected. Like you said, you can’t judge a book by its cover. Who knew that he would have received such a shock? I thought he would be far from the romanticist who would be hung up over their first love.”

Bangjoo ate a piece of meat and looked at Maru who was sitting on the other bench. From high school until now, they had continued their senior-junior relationship while meeting each other around a couple times a week to around once a month. Most of his classmates, who he thought he was close to, contacted him less and less, and he had lost news of most of his college friends ever since they went to the military, but this seonbae who was a year older than him still remained a close friend to him till this day. As they had known each other for a long time, Bangjoo thought that he knew what Maru was thinking to a certain extent. He at least believed that he would be able to notice what was on his mind even if he didn’t say anything. It was when Maru notified him that he was going to the military that he realized that his belief was merely a misconception. Maru’s eyes that day belonged to someone completely different.

“I’m sure a lot has happened to him. Perhaps he might be acting okay now too.”

“That person never brings up his own problems from his own mouth, so you might be right.”

Aram poured some soda and gave it to him. As they had the evening shoot left, alcoholic drinks were prohibited. Bangjoo raised the cup and toasted.

“Since we’re at it, let’s ask him directly.”

Aram, who emptied the drink as she would a glass of soju, abruptly stood up and walked over to where Maru was. She tapped Maru, who was eating, on the shoulder before pointing her head elsewhere. The way she acted totally looked like she was some street thug picking a fight. Bangjoo only replied with a blank smile when Maru looked at him with a questioning look.

“You want me to cook meat for you?” Maru asked as he crouched down in front of the cauldron lid.

“Do you think we would call you over for something like that? You’re supposed to be the main actor.”

Aram snatched away the tongs that Maru was about to pick up.

“Then I wonder why you called me here. The fact that you called me out here separately means that you are either planning to threaten me or do something shady.”

“I guess you can call it a threat. Maru-seonbae, let me say something blunt. When I had a look at your face last month, you looked like a rotten tangerine, to be honest. You know, that mushy feeling, right? You were smiling but not so smiling. I could see such an atmosphere from you.”

Bangjoo raised his head to look at the sky. He did feel uneasy when Aram said she’d ask and walked over to Maru. She wasn’t someone who would choose her words depending on the person, so he thought that she’d ask something blunt right off the bat. However, he had never realized that her choice of words would be that blunt. He feigned ignorance as though to signify that he was completely unrelated to this conversation, but Aram kindly pointed at his face and notified Maru that he was on her side.

“But when we looked at you today, you looked pretty okay. We were thinking that you got everything resolved just like what Jiyoon told us, but when we thought about it, you’re known for your outer appearance being entirely different from what you’re thinking.”

“That’s what I’m famous for?”

“Of course. So let me ask something. I heard that wounds gotten from people must be healed through people, right?”

“Yes.”

“Seonbae, so did you find someone to be in a relationship with? If that’s the case, I can understand how the gloominess about you disappeared.”

“Unfortunately, there’s no one I’m meeting right now.”

“Then what is it? Honestly, the reason you turned into a zombie is that you broke up with that unni, isn’t it?”

Bangjoo poked Aram with his elbow. There were questions that she should and shouldn’t ask, but she didn’t seem to know the boundary between the two at all. Aram glared back at him, seemingly asking what was so wrong. Bangjoo became speechless. For a moment, he wondered how she managed to work at a company for a whole two years. Maybe the people at the company were all ascetics?

Maru, who stayed still in a daze as though he had been hit on the chest, suddenly smiled.

“There have been times when people asked me in a roundabout way but never this direct. I guess it does hurt to get hit directly on the face, huh.”

“I’m of the mind that being half-assed is useless. So? What happened? I can’t say that I know you well, but I at least know that you aren’t someone who can smile after forgetting about a problem you haven’t resolved. You are a serious romanticist, and you were hurt because of your breakup with your first love, right? It doesn’t make sense for someone to have transcended all emotions in just one month when you’ve been suffering for years. That leaves just two options. Either you met someone good that you forgot about your first love, or…”

Aram’s eyes widened as she spoke. Bangjoo also had a hunch as he listened to her, so he looked at Maru’s expression. He squinted his eyes like he would do when reading some tiny words in the corner of the newspaper. He wanted to check if what he saw wasn’t wrong. Maru was expressing that he was ‘taken aback’ with his entire face. That was something pretty hard to see. He suspected that he was not looking properly, so he squinted his eyes and checked again. The mouth of the smooth-talker who wouldn’t lose to anyone was sealed into a line. The man who never averted his gaze was glimpsing downwards. Bangjoo felt like he could hear Maru’s eyes rolling. After scratching his eyebrows to the point that it made the onlookers itchy, Maru spoke after a long while,

“I’m taken aback.”

“I know even without you having to say it. In fact, I was surprised instead to see you act like that. What is it? Are you two back together again? For real?”

“No, it’s not like that.”

“Come on, it’s not ‘not like that’. What was that expression just now? You looked like a boy in puberty. I almost felt my heart flutter. Seonbae, seonbae!”

Maru stood up, saying that he’d talk about it if he became able to. He was clearly fleeing. Aram wasn’t someone who would miss that. If Aram didn’t do it, Bangjoo would have. Aram, who had ten years of Judo experience, grabbed Maru by the sleeve. Maru shook his arm up and down, but if that was enough to shake her loose, Aram wouldn’t have grabbed him in the first place.

“Seonbae, you should sometimes let your worries out to your juniors.”

“Why do you look so bright when you want to listen to my worries? I’ll tell you about it later. I don’t really have anything to tell you right now.”

“Then let me ask you just one thing. If you lie, I’m never going to let you go.”

“Alright. I won’t lie.”

“Are you meeting that unni again?”

“No.”

“But you still like her, don’t you? Something happened between you two even though you aren’t back together yet, right?”

While listening to her question, Maru looked behind Aram with a serious expression like he had just witnessed a traffic accident. Bangjoo subconsciously followed his gaze. Aram did the same. At that moment, Aram exclaimed. Maru managed to shake her off.

“You were going to ask one thing, weren’t you?”

“Is this how you’re going to be? Also, don’t start acting all of a sudden. I thought that something really happened.”

“Nothing happened. And that’s the same with me as well. You should just continue eating. We’re going to go out once the sun sets.”

Bangjoo looked at Maru walking back to his bench. Although it was for a brief moment, his shaking eyes and his crooked lips expressed his inner heart that he had hidden until now.

“Maru-seonbae might actually be pretty sentimental,” Aram said from the side.

Maybe - Bangjoo agreed.

Chapter 792
Sequence 6

“We’ll shoot the part where you walk all the way here and sit down.”

The shoot began with Ando holding the camera and coming towards them.

Hyungseok thought that the choice of location was incredibly good. It was 9 p.m. They managed to arrive at this apartment complex about two hours earlier than they originally planned. There was a six-lane road next to the apartment complex lined up along the Gapyeong river, but there wasn’t a single car on it. There were only families who came out to camp out to stave off the heat, as well as a group of people riding bicycles or using inline skates. According to Sora, cars were forbidden from passing through until the apartment complex on the other side of the river was completed; meaning, this was the perfect place to shoot.

“I ate so much pork belly, but I think I’ve digested it all. Maybe it’s because I was moving around busily.”

“Right. I also thought I ate quite a lot, but when I got out of the car, I couldn’t even remember what I had for dinner.”

“Don’t you have any snacks with you?”

“I don’t. I’m going to buy some after I finish this scene. I saw a convenience store on that road.”

While they chatted, they walked past the two actors who were walking in front of them. Hyungseok looked at Sora’s face as he left the sight of the camera. This thorough director did not allow for a single mistake and expressed it immediately whenever she found something that wasn’t to her liking. From how she wasn’t saying a single word with her eyes fixed on the laptop that was connected to the camera, this cut seemed to be to her liking. Aram, who was walking with him, held up her palm. After giving her a high five, he waited for the cut to end.

“Okay. We’ll continue the conversation scene after you sit on the bench here. Bangjoo-oppa, please turn on the generator. We need to set up the fill light.”

The shadow cast on the actors’ faces was controlled by the lighting. The two actors stood dead still like wax dolls as they accepted the light that was pouring on them from above and in front.

“I think that should do. Ando-oppa, put them in the frame. Let me have a look.”

Hyungseok checked the laptop screen from the back as well. It was much easier to make out the features on the actors’ faces than when the streetlight was the only source of light. When the camera settings were changed a little, the faces of the actors on screen became a little paler.

“I think the color temperature is okay like this. We’ll shoot like this once and shoot it again with a warmer tone.”

Hyungseok asked Sora if there was anything he had to do.

“Not now. We only need the two of them for now.”

“Then I’ll go to the convenience store over there for a bit. I think everyone’s getting hungry.”

“Oh, then I should give you my credit card.”

“Nah. I can buy snacks.”

“I can’t have you do that when you came here to help. I’m already sorry that I can’t pay you any wages.”

“I earned plenty. So don’t worry.”

“Then I’ll take you up on your offer. Actually, I was a little thirsty too.”

“I’ll take a special order for you then, director. Would you like coffee?”

“Yes. And a coffee for our camera director too. He likes the one with caramel in it,” Sora said as she looked at Ando who was sitting in front of the bench.

Hyungseok nodded. From his observations today, these two weren’t dating, but they were clearly not in a normal relationship either. Though, the problem seemed to be that they weren’t making any progress since the girl was on the active side while the man was passive.

“We’ll take a ten-minute break,” Sora said.

Hyungseok picked up his wallet and went to the convenience store. On the way, he suddenly heard someone running and turned around to see who it was, only to see Aram running towards him at a fast speed. Her running posture looked like a professional sprinter.

“Wait for me!”

They entered the convenience store and selected an assortment of bread and drinks. They also got some triangular rice balls and put them on the counter.

“You said you were preparing to become an actor too, didn’t you?” Aram asked as they left the convenience store.

“Yeah. I’m only in my first year though.”

“Are you close to Maru-seonbae?”

“Well, I at least think so, but I don’t know what Maru thinks about me. But we’ve been living together for two years, so I guess you can call us close?”

“Two years?”

“Military.”

“You were colleagues in the military?”

“Maru was one month senior.”

“Having him as a senior must have been tough. Maru-seonbae looks out for people a lot, but he also places a lot of importance on rules and order. Though, he does ignore them wholeheartedly when it is necessary.”

“In the beginning, it was tough for sure. He did everything perfectly like he had been to the military already, so he was practically an enemy to me and my colleagues. We always got chewed out for not doing as well as him, when he only came ahead of us by a month.”

“I can already picture that. Maru-seonbae doesn’t really show a weak side for sure.”

“It’s quite a mystery if I think about it. He never got scolded by the seniors for the entirety of two years. Forget weak, he looked like he was holding the answer sheet already. Every single one of his actions was the correct answer, so the seniors didn’t touch him. In fact, he got good treatment before he spent enough time.”

“Enough time, huh. It might be because I heard a lot about the military from my friends, but perhaps I should have gone to the military as well, as a female soldier. I think I’d do pretty well.”

“It’s kinda funny for me to say this when it’s our first time meeting today, but I think you’d do well too. You said you’re a teacher at a dojo, right?”

“I’m a teacher in name only. I’m more of a chauffeur. No wait, I guess I’m closer to a caretaker at a nursery?”

Aram took out a popsicle from the plastic bag and ripped the plastic packaging. The tip of the popsicle was covered in chocolate.

“Oppa.”

“Yeah?”

“I’m currently doing some background investigation right now. Get that?”

“Background investigation?”

Aram pointed at a bench in the distance with her finger. She was pointing at Maru and Sooil who were sitting down.

“Which one of those two?”

“Maru-seonbae, of course. What good would I get from investigating Sooil-oppa?”

“Investigating Maru?”

“I just became a little curious about something. Asking the person in question didn’t give me an answer, so I can only try going at it from the side. Of course, if it’s something you can’t answer, you don’t have to tell me. If you feel like you shouldn’t answer my question, then don’t talk about it. It’s simply a curiosity of mine after all.”

“Don’t you think there’s no need to dig into it if he doesn’t answer it himself?”

“No, Maru-seonbae is someone who draws clear lines. He’s someone who’ll clearly tell me to stop if he doesn’t want me to do it. The lukewarm reaction he’s showing me right now indicates that it’s not something that he’s that displeased about. Anyway, did Maru-seonbae mention anything about having a girlfriend when he was in the military?”

“Girlfriend?”

“Or maybe about someone he was getting along with? You know you talk about stuff like that in the military, don’t you?”

“Maru didn’t have a girlfriend. And as far as I know, there wasn’t a girl he was getting along with either. He didn’t have any interest in relationships. Once, I matched my vacation with him, and I told him that we should go play with some girls I got acquainted with while doing business, but he didn’t even pretend to listen to me. He’s a decent guy, so when he became a sergeant, both his seniors and juniors probed him to see if he wanted to be introduced to a girl, but he declined them all. That was why he even ended up joking that he might be gay…”

While saying those words, Hyungseok recalled Maru rejoicing after receiving Han Gaeul’s autograph. Though, his description of it, ‘the best and the worst’, was kinda confusing.

“What is it?”

“I just remembered that Maru has a celebrity he likes. If that’s the kind of girl he likes, I guess he has high standards. Maybe that’s why he declined all of our offers.”

“Celebrity? Who?”

“Han Gaeul. I saw her from up close when I went to work a part-time job, and she was definitely pretty alright. Looks like not anyone can become a celebrity. She’s down to Earth too. Maybe that’s the kind of girl Maru wants to meet.”

“Maru-seonbae said something like that? That he likes Han Gaeul?”

“He never actually said out loud but looking at the expression he made back then, I’m pretty confident that he likes her. I got an autograph from her for him. When Maru received that, he…”

“He?”

Saying that Maru introduced him to producer Yoo Jayeon wouldn’t result in anything good. Hyungseok smiled it off and continued speaking,

“He really liked it.”

“Really?”

“When I got the autograph from her, I told her that Maru is an actor in a theater. When I did, Han Gaeul even kindly wrote a comment on the autograph: Mr. Han Maru, I hope I see you on the same stage in the near future. She definitely knows how to make people pleased.”

“Aha, the same stage? That’s what Gaeul-unni said, huh?”

“She didn’t say it. She wrote it down. But hey, did you say Gaeul-unni? That makes it seem like you know her.”

“Something like that. Maru-seonbae, I knew it was like this. No wonder.”

“What is it?”

“I’m sorry, but it’s a secret for now.”

“You made me spit out everything.”

“I’ll tell you about it when I interrogate Maru-seonbae later and have him admit to his crimes. Maru-seonbae, he’s a total romanticist.”

Aram thanked him and slapped him on the back before walking away. Hyungseok cringed and straightened out his shoulders to move his back muscles. Her slap was way too spicy.

“Total romanticist?”

Hyungseok looked at Maru sitting on the bench underneath the street lamp. Maru? A romanticist? Where did she get that idea?

* * *

Maru sighed softly. Aram was just grinning in satisfaction right next to him without even telling him the reason.

“Just what the heck is it?”

“Nothing. I just like your acting so much. How can you look so good in a school uniform? I almost mistook you for an actual high school student. You’re good at acting, and you look pretty young too. You have a pretty blessed life.”

“This is the first time that someone told me I look young.”

“I heard that being in love makes people younger.”

Aram hopped away, saying that she had to clean up the props. Maru stroked his chin. What was that suspicious smile about?

“It’s only 1 a.m. We finished much earlier than I originally expected. We even got to shoot some of tomorrow’s portion as well. We should return to the cabin, rest till morning, and finish up once we wake up.”

“Can I get changed now?”

“Yes. Thanks for your work.”

Maru took off the school uniform. As the film started with a murder scene and ended with the two friends sharing a friendship in the past when they were students, a school uniform was a must. He liked the plot of starting from rock bottom and ending with reminiscing about the past. The message that the film had was nothing that amazing. It just expressed that murder could happen just as spontaneously as two people becoming friends, both violently and indifferently. Although he’d have to see the final product to be sure, Sora said that she wanted the whole film to last about 15 minutes. Since it wasn’t that long, the nuance of the whole film would change according to how she decided to do the edits.

“Thanks for your work.”

Maru handed Sooil a drink. It was one that Hyungseok bought from the convenience store.

“Nah. It was fun to act without holding back after a long time.”

“Aren’t you tired? I think that was a pretty hard schedule.”

“I once started at 3 a.m. and finished up at 3 a.m. the next day. Of course, back then, I wasn’t dragged around without a single moment to rest like I was today.”

“I’m sorry that we can’t give you good treatment when you’re an expensive actor.”

“If I wanted good treatment, I wouldn’t have come in the first place. It’s good: the people here, the atmosphere of the shoot, and even other things. It’s relaxing.”

“Those guys are now going to call you up from time to time and ask you to meet them, so don’t pick up their call if you find them a bother.”

“People as good as them are always welcome. Heck, I should tell them my address and have them come over. I like them a lot.”

“Oh?”

Maru emptied the drink in one go and stood up from the bench.

“Let’s clean up if you’re done drinking.”

“I thought you felt sorry that you couldn’t give me good treatment?”

“It’s just a figure of expression. Let’s carry the lights for now.”

Sooil laughed and stood up.

Chapter 793
Sequence 6

“Just like how you think you’re done with everything hard in this world after you finish your CSATs, it’s the same for the national exams as well. But you know well, don’t you? In front of you is the internship, residency, then fellowship. I know that you intern doctors have it hard. But, do you think any of that will alleviate once you become a specialist doctor? No, you’re going to have an even harder time then. How about fellowship? I’m sure you know well that those guys are just called around everywhere because there aren’t any spots open to become college professors.”

Senior Yoon made a sly smile and raised his glass. Despite knowing that it was only an act, he felt so spiteful that she didn’t want to look at him in the face.

“So please cooperate with me, interns. Especially those of you who are almost done with it. Don’t think about leaving. If you don’t make it to residency in the department you want, you’ll have to come back and then we’ll have an awkward time facing each other.”

“Yes!”

“Also, I’m saying this because it’s just because you interns here, but you know professor Choi Min, right? You don’t have to follow him just because he’s skilled. You know what I mean, right? I mean, that person is pretty, you know… Of course, I trust that I’m not the only one who thinks like that.”

Senior Yoon snapped his finger. Kang Giwoo, who sat next to her, raised his glass first, and the remaining actors followed suit like a wave. Gaeul looked around before raising the glass about halfway before putting it down again.

“Drink moderately. After that, those of you who’re going to go back to the hospital can return, and the ones going home can go home. I’ll be paying today.”

Saying those words, senior Yoon stood up.

“Cut! We’ll turn it around and do that again. And also, Sunghoon-hyungim. You don’t have soju in there, right? You look drunk already.”

“If you want to say that, give me the real deal. Since I’m acting drunk, I might as well do it drunk.”

“Don’t you remember that you broke your nose because you fell over after drinking last time? It still freaks me out to this day, you know?”

“How can you mention that in front of all these juniors? Are you trying to chew me out here?”

The director and senior Yoon gathered in front of the camera while laughing. Gaeul also stood up from her chair and had Mijoo take care of her face. She was the stylist that had been with her for the past two years and was someone that she cherished.

“Unni, your makeup looks so good today.”

“Maybe it’s because I had a good sleep?”

“Sleep is definitely good for the skin, huh. But poor unni. You’re going to shoot like mad once it goes on air, right?”

“Probably.”

“It’d be much more comfortable if they save up some episodes.”

“It’s not like they don’t want to do that. The schedule of the staff, the writer, and the actors. If you think about PPL on top of that, it can’t really be helped that it becomes busy later on. Oh, can you give me some water?”

Mijoo poured some water for her into a cup. Even though Gaeul told her that the plastic bottle was fine, she would always pour it into a cup. Mijoo was of the opinion that drinking from the bottle was unbefitting for an actress.

“Gaeul, your expression looked good,” senior Yoon commented as he passed by.

Gaeul lowered her head and thanked him. It felt very good to hear a compliment from a senior actor on the scene even if it was done in passing. Being told that she was good at acting made her feel more touched than being called pretty.

“Unni’s expressions are definitely good.”

Somehow, it was Mijoo who became proud. Gaeul looked at the script while the camera was being moved. When she looked at the pages filled with red writing on it, she suddenly recalled Maru. She started filling every corner of her script with words ever since she saw Maru’s script. That sense of fulfillment from analyzing and deriving a conclusion and then writing her own world of acting onto a piece of paper; she would probably not change this habit even in the future.

The shoot resumed. After the get-together scene with senior Yoon as the center finished, she was left alone with Giwoo. The eyes of the staff that surrounded them were filled with expectations. It was probably because of the director’s words saying that this was the ‘last scene’.

“Do you have anything to do after this?” Giwoo asked while the director was talking to the camera director.

Gaeul snatched a dried snack that was placed there as a prop and put it in her mouth. The savoriness and the crunchiness of the dried filefish filet made her smile. I should stay away from fried food – a late regret knocked on the door to her reason, but the dried fish had already crumbled apart and was going past her throat.

“I do have something to do after this. Going home and going to sleep.”

“I think it’ll be around 1 a.m. by the time we’re done, so why don’t we get something to eat, together? I know of a really good budae-jjigae restaurant nearby.”

“Where did you get the audacity to say that after seeing me eat half a sweet potato because of my weight?”

“Who was the one eating one of the snacks that were placed here as props?”

She quickly put down the dried sweet potato that she subconsciously picked up. Kang Giwoo was a really bad guy for giving her the irresistible temptation of budae-jjigae. She sighed and looked away.

“You don’t look like you gained any weight.”

“Why don’t you say that after seeing my face on TV? If I eat something salty late at night, you’ll see a completely different person tomorrow.”

“That’s a pity. That place is really good too. Looks like I’ll have to go by myself. Still, I’ll send you photos. If you want, videos are fine too.”

Seeing Giwoo smile, she recalled her uncle who grinned at her while snatching her snacks away when she was young. This was why ‘grown up’ men were even scarier. Gaeul snapped back at him, saying ‘eat all you want.’

“I was joking. I know of a place that sells low-salt seasonal vegetable salad. How about it? If you have time, let’s go together. Oh, you too, Miss Mijoo, Miss Haemi, and Mr. Chanwoo.”

Hearing his offer, Gaeul retracted her pouting lips.

“I do want to take you up on that offer, but I have a shoot tomorrow morning. I really have to go home and sleep.”

“I guess it can’t be helped then. Let’s have one next time.”

“Alright, next time.”

The assistant director gave the standby sign. Gaeul collected her emotions. She had to turn from the actress Han Gaeul into an ER intern. While the members of the staff left the camera angle, she uttered her lines out loud: I don’t like politics, I became a doctor to save people, I’m fed up.

“Get ready, action.”

After the director’s soft words, Gaeul started saying her lines. She had her hands placed on her knees and her face lowered a little.

“I became a doctor to save people.”

Giwoo replied to those words,

“Who didn’t? Everyone does that.”

“Listening to professor Kim, I don’t think that’s necessarily the case.”

“He probably wants to save people as much as we do. There’s no doctor who wishes for a death on the table.”

“Really? Then how can he be so shameless? You heard him. The patient died, but his skills increased. Yeah, he’s right, I know. A cardiothoracic surgeon cut up a person’s chest, so it is true that his skills increased. But is that something to talk about while smiling? Really?”

“Then should he do it while crying?”

“Customer, in.”

A sound could be heard. Along with the assistant director’s signal, people started walking past inside the store. Gaeul suppressed the frustration that climbed up to her throat. The more she became used to acting, the more she found herself synchronizing with the character she was playing. There were times when she couldn’t differentiate between the Han Gaeul of reality and the Lee Chaeyeon of the drama. Ever since the ‘rabbit’ appeared, her acting style changed into that of throwing herself into the depths of the character she was acting.

“You’re pretty cold-headed.”

“I’m not cold-headed. I’m just stating the truth. Also, I don’t find the professor that bad.”

“That’s unexpected. Weren’t you a doctor of justice either?”

“Both the professor’s idea of justice and my idea of justice are founded on the fact that we want to save the patient. Lee Chaeyeon, you are like that too, aren’t you?”

“That’s what I don’t get. In my eyes, the professor just looks like a scholar freak who only wants to inspect special, rare cases. Not only that, he’s a money-seeker too.”

“So? What mistakes did he make during operation? The bleeding of a patient with a chest fracture. Do you think you can stop that?”

Gaeul clenched her eyes shut. She pictured the operation table in her mind. Artificially made human organs reflected the lights above the table while looking like the real deal. She was aware that the people gathered there, the equipment, and even the situation was all just made up and were parts of the shoot, but her senses accepted them as reality and reinterpreted it before scattering it to the various corners of her mind. That sense of powerlessness since she couldn’t do anything but watch because she was just an observer and the jealousy and anger towards the professor all gathered in one spot.

“I probably couldn’t. There’s no way an intern can do what the head of the CS department couldn’t achieve. That’s why I’m even angrier.”

She curled up and clenched her teeth. Giwoo placed his hand on her shoulder and patted her.

“Cut. Okay, that was good.”

Listening to the director’s words, Gaeul sighed in order to shake off the emotions that ‘Lee Chaeyeon’ had. The boiling emotions died down in an instant. She was absorbed to the point that she couldn’t discern who she was when she was acting, but once she got out of that, she could recover surprisingly quickly. Your acting will mesmerize the people – she recalled the rabbit’s words.

“Looks like I shouldn’t be goofing around eating either,” Giwoo said.

“What do you mean?”

“Looking at you makes me feel like I still lack acting skills. Even though people don’t tell me I’m bad at acting, you know.”

“Why are you putting me on a pedestal all of a sudden? You’re known to be good at acting, you know? Director, Giwoo’s saying that he lacks acting skills.”

The director laughed, saying that Giwoo was so greedy.

“Stop your nonsense. How was my tone just now? I think I was a little too emotional.”

“Not at all. You were Lee Chaeyeon herself. You can see that from how the director gave the okay in one go, can’t you? You did well. You did really well.”

Giwoo gripped his hand into a fist and held it out. Gaeul also held out her fist and fist-bumped him.

“I still have a cut left to do, so I’ll go first.”

“Do your best, Mr. Kang Giwoo. I’m gonna leave.”

Gaeul said goodbye to the director and the other staff members. Once they finished shooting the fourth episode, the first episode would go on TV. She was worried about the viewing rate already. As this was her first time challenging a medical drama, she wanted it to have good results.

Just then, she saw Giwoo talking with the other actors. As the moodmaker, he always made other people laugh. She felt awkward about fist-bumping him at first, but by now, everyone at the shoot fist-bumped him whenever they came across him.

“I’ll leave first.”

She left the set and got in the car. While waiting for the manager to come back from the bathroom, she had a look at the internet news sites. There was quite a lot of news about the two medical dramas about to air. As the KBS medical drama started airing first, they talked about how it would be in the lead and the other would have to play catchup.

“I wonder if Maru started shooting,” Gaeul muttered to herself as she tapped on her phone screen.

KTLChamber's Thoughts

Medical jargon too hard…

BTW. CS dept = cardiothoracic surgery dept, not computer science or customer service. Lol

Editor's Note:

I wonder if Giwoo 'likes' Gaeul.

P.S: PPL = preferred product list (basically product placement ads)

Chapter 794
Sequence 7

When he came to himself, he was looking down at his palms. Not long later, he realized that it was a dream. He was standing in the middle of the straight path in that darkness as he often was. He saw light in the distance, and right behind that was the darkness that was large enough to swallow even the light. The dream that came to him whenever he was about to forget about it was leading to the same conclusion again today. Maru sat down and looked at the light. He looked at the light until the darkness covered the entirety of his body. From his toes to his shin, then his thigh, waist, elbow, chest, and neck. One by one, the twinkling of his senses lost their light. Darkness pervaded his vision. He opened his eyes wide until the very end, trying to grasp the light with his eyes. Eventually, the world disappeared, and the thought process that governed his senses was also swept away by the darkness. A world of nihility; a time that could not be sensed. From his experience, this existing yet not existing period of senselessness didn’t last long. He would soon wake up from his dream and take his head off the drenched pillow with a big sigh. That was how the dream always ended after all.

Perhaps he wasn’t even aware of whether his time here was long or short because he wasn’t conscious of anything – he suddenly had this thought. The back of his neck suddenly became hot. He was still inside the dream. The dream that ended with him opening his eyes after struggling in that mysterious space, kept going on. He was even conscious. Something hot spread throughout his whole body through his neck. The first thing that returned was his vision, then his sense of touch. The light that he believed he could never reach was right in front of him. Whether the light came to him, or he managed to approach the light, he did not know. He reflexively reached out to the light that he desired so much. There was no resistance. The hand was softly sucked into the light. It was the warmth that he expected. He longed to throw himself into the light immediately. He wished to depart from this frustrating darkness and be enveloped in that warmth.

“Someone’s happy ending is a bad ending for another. The story will not end without someone’s sacrifice.”

A voice sounded out from behind him. A rabbit was standing on top of the path severed by darkness.

“You’ve done well until now. Get some good rest.”

Maru hesitated between the light and the rabbit before taking his hands away from the light. The light became distant, and the surroundings were filled with darkness again.

“You’re Han Gaeul, aren’t you?”

The rabbit, which was looking around with its ears perked up, took out a pocket watch. She looked like she was in a panic as she kept checking the watch.

“You’re Han Gaeul, aren’t you?” he asked again.

The rabbit put the pocket watch away.

“You and I shouldn’t be able to talk.”

“And yet, here we are, talking to each other.”

“How?”

“That’s what I want to ask. Rather than that, from how you aren’t denying it, it looks like you really are Han Gaeul. The woman in the white suit that I met after I died is also you, isn’t it?”

“You remember that? No way. There’s just no way.”

The rabbit’s nose trembled minutely. The whiskers also shook. Maru took a step towards her. There was a thick layer of darkness, but he did not care. Even if he sank; even if he drowned, he would be satisfied as long as he could reach her, even for a moment.

“Don’t! You can’t come here. This won’t happen again. This time, we can change for sure. This time, we can see the end.”

The rabbit stepped back. The distance between them widened, but Maru did not mind. It was him who ran away first. This time, he would be the one approaching her. His feet sank into the darkness. He felt like his foot sank into a thick swamp. He couldn’t take his foot out, so he just kneeled on the spot. He could become knee-length closer to her; however, he still wasn’t close enough to reach her. He put his elbow on the ground. The moment he did so, thick darkness dragged him down. Seeing his left arm sinking down, he reached out his right arm with all of his might. His hand fell in front of the rabbit’s paw.

“The light is over there. Go there. Your actions were the right ones. Do as you were doing until now. You don’t need to look back. You have no reason to sink into this place. Just go forward. Please, I beg you,” the rabbit pleaded desperately.

Maru turned around to look behind him. The light was blinking as though it was gesturing for him to come. The light that he so wanted; the light that always coquettishly abandoned him, was waving at him, but Maru shook his head.

“Too much warmth isn’t my style. I need a little more coldness like you. If I go there, I will definitely feel good. I don’t know what it is, but the conclusion I always desired must be waiting in there. Perhaps it might mean the end of this endless cycle of reincarnation.”

“If you know it, then go. Please, I beg you.”

The rabbit started hopping on the spot. At that moment, the pocket watch she was holding fell down. Maru looked at the pocket watch with the lid open. There were no hands that indicated time. Only an unpleasant hour hand was ticking and drawing a circle. The darkness reached his chin. The rabbit trembled in anxiety and kept telling him to go to the light.

“What happens to you if I go there?”

“Don’t think about things like that and go. If you go there, everything will be resolved.”

“Does that ‘everything’ include you?”

The rabbit’s mouth curved up softly. She calmly picked up the pocket watch she dropped and spoke,

“Of course.”

Maru chuckled after hearing her answer.

“You told me, didn’t you? That I can’t lie. But hey, who would’ve known? They say husband and wife become similar to each other. I can tell that you’re lying.”

The moment he said those words, darkness pervaded him. Maru slowly opened his eyes. The air conditioner that he had set up a timer for before sleeping was spitting out cold air.

“That’s how it is, huh.”

Right before he was buried in darkness, Maru looked into her eyes. She was looking at her husband with a scolding look for not listening to her words. It was her earnest feelings without a shred of pretense. She tried to stay behind alone in the darkness.

While he took a shower, he did not think about anything. He just washed away his sweat and had a light breakfast before sitting down on the sofa. He was about to turn on his laptop, but he ended up going to get a notepad and a pen instead. He opened the last page of the notepad that was filled with hypotheses and deductions. He put a dot with the pen and started thinking.

He confirmed the existence of the rabbit. It was a big harvest to meet her, the one that he had always imagined meeting due to the conversations he had with the masked man. She also seemed to know everything that was going on. The shriek-like pleading explained everything.

‘You can’t come here’, ‘Go there’. There was no need to even think about what she said. The fact that she said ‘someone’s happy ending means a bad ending for another. It will not end without someone’s sacrifice’ also clearly explained the current state of things. If the masked man was another Han Maru that had broken off from ‘Han Maru’, the rabbit should be another Han Gaeul that had broken off from ‘Han Gaeul’. She had acquired an ego just like the masked man and was probably fed up with the endless cycle of reincarnation.

“Just like how I want the reincarnation to end, she must also want an ending to this story.”

The important bit was that she was the cause. She seemed to be aware of the method of ending this cycle and that the method was none other than sacrificing herself. She seemed to think that if they couldn’t have a happy ending together, one of them would have to fall into the abyss.

Unlike the masked man, it was likely that she was aware of not just the reason for this matter and the solution, but everything else as well. At the same time, it was likely that she wasn’t able to speak of the solution. What blocked her mouth must be that mysterious god with unknown intentions. That damned god.

“But don’t give me divine retribution. I lived a pretty sad life until now.”

Maru quietly stared at the things he wrote down. The first thing he had to find out was whether the current Han Gaeul was aware of the existence of the ‘rabbit’ or not. If the two were communicating, this situation would enter a new phase.

He picked up his phone and quickly tapped in the number that was engraved into his head, but Maru sighed and put his hand down. This wasn’t something he should be talking about over the phone, and above all, this required a careful approach. The masked man holed himself up in the room of silence just because he found out a facet of the truth. The rabbit, who held the solution, would likely be silenced as well. In the dream, she was shocked by the fact that they could converse at all. Talking might be a taboo that god set.

The rabbit said that things could finally change this time. The fact that the wheel of reincarnation that had turned dozens, or even hundreds of times, had been moved off-axis was probably related to finding out the truth. The ‘Han Maru’s that died in vain before weren’t aware that their lives were being repeated after all.

“So the turning point was the breakup with Gaeul after all?”

The ending that the rabbit wanted was probably for Han Maru and Han Gaeul to end their relationship not as a married couple but as strangers. That was the same thing that he thought, and he even put it into practice. He was still keeping it up. However, the rabbit said something awry: ‘Sacrifice’ and ‘remain behind’.

“The most important condition in order for Han Maru’s life to repeat.”

Maru bitterly looked at his own writing. For ‘LIFE’ to come about, the precondition was ‘DEATH’. Someone’s happy ending means another’s bad ending. Someone’s life means someone’s death. The marital ties that kept connecting them despite the numerous repeated lives. There was only one conclusion he could derive from that.

“Screw that.”

Maru closed his notepad and stood up. It was time to go to the shoot.

* * *

The first thing she saw when she opened her eyes was Mijoo’s face. She reached her hand out to Mijoo, who was dozing off.

“Unni, Gaeul-unni!”

“Gosh, you’re startling me. Why are you so surprised?”

“How could I not be? You collapsed, you know?”

“Me?”

“Yes. I told you that you need to eat food on time. When I found you collapsed, I thought I was going to have a heart attack.”

“I see.”

She remembered going back home after the shoot and leaving the bathroom after washing her face. From how anything after that was pitch black, it seemed that she had collapsed in front of the bathroom. Gaeul grabbed Mijoo’s hand and smiled.

“Thanks for saving my life. You can even do emergency treatment and not just makeup, huh? I’m proud of you.”

“This isn’t something to laugh about! Sheesh, you made me worried, you know?”

“I’m okay, aren’t I? But why did you go to my house? You were going to come late because the shoot is in the afternoon, weren’t you?” Gaeul asked as she looked at the clock on her phone.

It was 11 a.m. Mijoo originally planned to come at 4 p.m. with the manager.

“Because I felt iffy.”

“Iffy?”

“I had a dream about some man that kept shouting at me. The man that kept shouting at me was pitch black from top to bottom, and suddenly I became worried about you, unni.”

“What the heck is that? Also, why would you worry about me when a man is shouting?”

“I don’t know. The man kept shouting something like he was crying, and I felt like he was calling out your name. I can’t remember properly because it was a dream. I can only remember that the man was really desperate.”

“That’s why you came to my house?”

“I tried calling you first. You’re a light sleeper, unni, so you usually pick up right away. But you didn’t pick up my call. I tried ten minutes later, but you still didn’t pick up. I found it strange, so I made a visit. I opened the door and found you collapsed on the floor while the TV was on. It still makes my heart thump if I think about it now.”

Gaeul thanked the tearful Mijoo again. It would have been pretty dangerous if she was abandoned in a collapsed state for long.

“But you don’t really believe in stuff like dreams, don’t you?”

“That’s what I find strange as well. Usually, I would have just treated it as a weird dream and gone back to sleep, but the man in the dream was pretty strange. He was pitch black and scary, but he didn’t feel like someone bad. If I think about it now, I think he was crying too.”

“What a strange dream.”

“It’s a strange dream, but it saved you, unni, so it’s better than a dud. Oh, we shouldn’t be like this. I’ll go call a doctor. From what I heard, I found you early, so there were no big problems, but you should still get checked up. Wait a minute.”

Mijoo shouted ‘doctor’ as she stood up.

Chapter 795
Sequence 7

“Don’t walk around anywhere and stay here. Also, switch your phones to silent mode. The director is sensitive to things like that. If your bell rings during the shoot, consider your time here over. You can take photos, but you’ll be in big trouble if you upload any photos that contain crucial information about the piece on the internet, okay?”

After a staff member uttered words like a barrage, he went somewhere. Hyungseok switched his phone to silent mode as instructed for now.

“Didn’t I see you at KBS last time?”

“Yes. I was wondering that too. You were that emergency agent, weren’t you?”

Hyungseok exchanged greetings with a man he knew from before. It was the guy he talked to throughout the whole break in the last shoot.

“You’re an emergency agent this time too, huh?”

“But I still have some lines to do: The patient is from a three-way collision. It looks like a simple abrasion, but the patient is expressing abdominal pain.”

The man smoothly said his line before smiling. Hyungseok put up his thumb.

“On the other hand, you’re wearing a doctor’s gown today?”

“After a bit of up and downs, I managed to join the drama.”

“Really? What role are you playing?”

“I would love to play a role with a proper name, but unfortunately, I’m just an intern who’s still the whole time. I don’t have any lines, but I’m still rather fortunate since I will be appearing in many scenes.”

“Someone I know started like that and ended up becoming an actor. Try continuing and who knows? The producer may give you a line. I’ve been doing this for quite a long time, and I saw quite a lot of events like that. They pick out the decent ones and give them some lines. I’m one such case too.”

“If you ever become big like that, then teach me how too. I’m still learning right now.”

At the entrance of the set, there was a voice looking for the emergency agent. The man told him that he’d see him later before running over. From the look of things, it seemed that the shoot was going to begin soon. Hyungseok pulled on his doctor’s gown. His name tag on his left chest collided with the pen inside the pocket and made sounds. There was a time when he was young that he wished to become a doctor, and he never imagined that he’d become one like this. He was smiling in satisfaction while checking on his clothes when someone placed a hand on his shoulder. It was Maru.

“You sure do look good in that doctor gown since you’re so tall.”

Maru showed his own sleeve, saying that it was a little too long for him.

“You just arrived? I was looking for you as soon as I arrived but didn’t see you. I had to walk around awkwardly, you know?”

As he wasn’t participating as a background actor, he was waiting by himself in an awkward fashion, but after a while, he couldn’t help but join in with the background actors. It was fortunate that there was someone he knew. Otherwise, he would have been standing in the corner of the set by himself. Although he wasn’t the type to be shy around strangers, he became nervous whenever he was at a set. The fact that he was in the same space as real actors made him very nervous. Not only that, the director would be there as well.

“You aren’t a kid. You should’ve just greeted anyone who seemed like a superior.”

“Do you think I don’t know that? But there’s something called the atmosphere. If I walk around like I don’t belong here and someone tells me off, I’d be in big trouble, you know? That’s why I stayed still.”

Ever since he saw a minor actor greet the producer at the previous set and get an earful from him, Hyungseok decided to stay quiet until he grasped the nature of everyone present. It wasn’t a joke when people said that half of the industry was filled with sensitive people, while the other half was even more sensitive people.

“Is that the script for this episode?” he asked as he pointed at the script that said ‘Doctors’.

This was the first time he saw a script that was actually used during shoots from up close. The name of the writer and the director were written underneath the title.

“Wanna have a look?”

“Can I?”

Maru handed him the script. He received it with both hands and flipped over to the first page. The appearing characters, lines, and instructions were separated into boxes. Among the numerous mentions of the main characters was the word ‘interns’. Interns circling around the main character, interns running towards the emergency unit, interns being scolded in the office.

“So that’s me.”

It wasn’t like he had any lines to say in the script, but the fact that he was in the script at all made him proud. That was perhaps because he wasn’t doing this as a part-time job as he had signed an official contract with the TV station. His pay per episode could definitely not be called a lot, and how many episodes he will appear in wasn’t set in stone, but what was important was that he made an official debut on public TV. As he had taken his first step, he would be able to come back here not as a minor actor but as a supporting actor or even the lead actor in the future.

“This is your role, right?”

Hyungseok pointed at the role that said ‘Doctor Choi.’

“Yeah, I’m doctor Choi.”

“You have quite a few lines. Are you a comedic character?”

“I’m probably the character that’s there because the audience would be stifled if they had to keep watching medical stuff and political stuff just because it’s a medical drama.”

“But I don’t think it suits you. Han Maru and comedy. These two don’t fit together.”

“I believe myself to be quite humorous, though.”

“You? If I look back at my two years of military service, then definitely not. You’re actually more suited to be the senior who gets involved in bribery or a stuck-up goody-two-shoes civilian. If it’s regarding comedy, I’m more suited for it instead. I even look the part.”

“Looks like I should show you my comedic skits. Watch well. I might get scouted by comedy programs later.”

“Like hell you will.”

He skimmed through the script for the first episode on the spot. From the first episode alone, it didn’t look any different from the medical dramas that aired on TV until now. He could already imagine what the meeting of a surgeon – skilled but uninterested in politics – and a doctor with many different tricks would bring about in the future from the first episode alone.

“Hey, isn’t it pretty similar to the one they’re doing at KBS?”

“Probably.”

“Like this, the latecomer will be at too much of a disadvantage. I know this from running a business, and if the store next to me releases a new, similar lineup to ours before we do, our sales will drop by half you know? If you want to catch up, you need to do one of two things. Either sell the products at a discount or use a really good model.”

“Well, the really good model you’re talking about is coming from there.”

There was a man scratching his head while yawning in the place Maru pointed at with his chin. When he had a closer look, he found that it was the actor Lee Heewon. He looked very shabby and nothing like how a main character of a drama should be. He didn’t look that bad, but his unmotivated face as well as his crooked posture made him look uncool. It was to the point that it made him wonder if an actor could be like that.

“He feels so different. He looked really cool when I saw him in a movie.”

Hyungseok had gotten his hands on all of the movies that Heewon appeared in and played them back several times. He even watched the law movie that was released last year five times over the course of three days.

Heewon, who played the role of a man who had his life ruined because of a false accusation, showed what it meant to be at the depths of desperation through his act. He could still vividly picture the scene where his innocence was proven 7 years later and he could leave the prison. That scene where Heewon screamed towards the door of the prison with dazed eyes was beyond freaky, it was unsettling. He had been too absorbed in Heewon’s act.

“Actors just have to be good at acting. What they’re like usually should be up to them.”

“That’s true but that’s also not. If I was a fan and a girl, I would have started crying already. He always looks so sharp in movies. Why does he look so much like a slob up close?”

Thinking about how Heewon, who looked like he was going to fall down and sleep at any moment, was the one who showed such a freaky act in a movie, he felt amazed and yet simultaneously scammed. He even wondered if Heewon’s face underwent a CG facelift in the movies he watched. Just as he was imagining useless things, Heewon looked at him and waved. He wondered if he was staring too intensely or if Heewon was doing that out of fan service. He waved his hand because he couldn’t just stay still after being waved at, but that was when he realized that something was wrong. The one Heewon was looking at was not him. It was next to him.

“Hey, Han Maru.”

Although he was called out, Maru just continued skimming through the script. Although Hyungseok said that there were a lot of lines, it was just more than he expected and was not something that needed a long time of analysis. While Maru was wrestling with lines that weren't enough to fill up even half a page of A4, Heewon continued waving as he came over.

Hyungseok stood in between the approaching Heewon and Maru, who still wasn’t lifting his head up, before taking a step back. Many people followed Heewon with their eyes. It was to be expected since the main actor had just arrived. The bombardment of eyes also fell on Maru, but Maru’s mind seemed to be holed up inside a bunker or something, and he didn’t budge at all. In the end, Hyungseok moved. He reached out and tapped on Maru’s arm hard.

“What?”

Seeing Maru ask what was happening, Hyungseok looked around; he was indirectly telling Maru to have a look around before asking questions.

“You’re here?”

Maru just greeted Heewon like it was nothing.

“I am.”

Heewon also yawned as he replied. When Heewon stopped, the stylists adhered to him again. They touched up his hair, did his makeup, and put on a watch for him. Hyungseok looked at the two people focusing on their own stuff. On one side was the actor that everyone had their eyes on, and on the other side was just a minor actor. It was curious that the two knew each other at all, but looking at their attitudes was even more surprising.

“Take good care of me today.”

“There’s nothing for me to do to take good care of you. You’re the main actor.”

“That’s how you’re gonna be? I’m actually kinda looking forward to this, you know? We never acted together apart from that time we did it as a practice during high school. It’ll definitely be fun, right?”

“Well, I wouldn’t be too sure about that. I don’t have many lines.”

“Should I beg the director to give you some more lines? No wait, I gotta do that to the writer, huh.”

“Why are you being so generous today? Where’s Haewon?”

“I’m free today. He caught a cold, so he’s resting at home.”

“No wonder you look so happy. So you’re enjoying your freedom right now?”

“It’s so good to have no one nag at me. I’m going to go to the PC bang after the shoot today. I’m going to order ramyun, a burger, and even grilled squid legs and stay up the night. Screw diets.”

“You’re going to get beaten up by Haewon like that.”

“He might act like that, but he doesn’t do something as atrocious as hitting his brother.”

“Well, I think he will.”

Maru pointed a finger and Heewon’s eyes followed it. There was a man with a mask walking onto the set. Seeing him, Heewon groaned and took a step back.

“Hello, Maru-hyung.”

“I heard you caught a cold. You should’ve stayed at home.”

“I wanted to, but I had a bad dream. Where’s my brother?”

“He went there as soon as he saw you. He told me that he’s going to go to a PC bang and eat ramyun once he’s done.”

“Thank you for the intel. This is why I can’t take a good rest. The guy who will gain weight as soon as he eats something keeps wanting to eat. When I look at him, he doesn’t look like he likes food that much, but he keeps eating. It’s not like he’s some boy in puberty either.”

“You have it hard.”

The man with a mask seemed close to Maru. Hyungseok looked at the man walking towards Heewon before asking,

“Who’s he? The manager?”

“The little brother, the manager, and someone who is like a mother.”

“What the heck is that?”

“He’s the guy who created the actor Lee Heewon. Looks like there won’t be any trouble during the shoot today. As long as Haewon is around, that guy will do his job,” Maru said as he closed the script.

Chapter 796
Sequence 7

To Heewon, acting was something forced upon him. It wasn’t something he started because he liked, but he found his talent in it, so he started focusing on acting according to the generally accepted opinion that a special talent can resolve living expense problems. He was quite uneasy since he had never focused on anything for an extended period of time, but he didn’t give up on it, believing in his little brother’s words that he could do it. After all, his brother was never wrong. When he started learning the basics after entering an agency, Heewon realized that his talent was something beyond special.

“You will become a one-of-a-kind actor.”

Those were the words of Choi Gyeonmi, his instructor. Under Choi Gyeonmi, Heewon focused on differentiating and expressing the color of emotions that only he could see within him. Borrowing Gyeonmi’s words, that was the process of bringing out the world hidden within him behind a shell. He alternated between the boredom and ecstasy given to him by learning until one day, Gyeonmi gave him a script for a drama, saying that it was time for him to do something. Ever since then, his only wish had been to live in his house without leaving for a month. His schedule was just that tight.

He couldn’t remember how many times he planned to runaway. He even prepared a car without his brother’s knowledge and almost made his escape, but whenever he attempted, he recalled his brother’s dead-still face as he slept. His brother worked several times more and slept half as much.

“I’m going to go to the military.”

For the first time, he went against his brother. The part below his brother’s eyes had turned dark, but he kept trying to persuade him that going to the military would have a severe impact on his career. Heewon wondered if he had gotten any sleep or had any food. Whenever he asked, Haewon always replied that he was okay and that he slept more than his brother, but his face betrayed his answer every single time.

“If you go to the military right now, everything you’ve done until now might go up in flames. You have gained a reputation and you are an actor whose skills were acknowledged, but I don’t think it’s enough to withstand a two-year gap. Why do you want to go to the military in the first place?”

“To take a break. Both me and you.”

“Hyung.”

“Let’s take a break! Please! Do what you want for two years, get some sleep, and eat some food. I’m saying you should stop wiping my ass and do what you want. I don’t care what it is. I’ve earned quite a lot of money. You know that, don’t you? You can use it all. I can always just earn more.”

His brother, who said they should talk the next day, ended up going to the hospital because of a cold. Due to fatigue, stress, and malnutrition, his brother was practically a general hospital himself. When he habitually said that he was okay, he actually wasn’t. He had never sniffled even once when they slept in that cold basement room, so this just went to show how arduous his manager life had been for the past three years.

His brother had even put aside going to Seoul University in order to work as his manager. He was also stubborn to the point that he didn’t look out for his own body while working as a manager. Heewon had to semi-forcefully have Haewon rest, and the conclusion he arrived at was the military. Saying that he’ll look for a new manager wasn’t something he could say to his brother who had abandoned the most important period of his life for the bigger brother’s sake. If they were going to work, they were going to work together, and when they stopped, they would stop together as well. Even Haewon wouldn’t be able to interfere with his military service despite being determined to follow him to the depths of hell, and during that period, he would spend meaningful time, whether it was taking a break or doing what he wanted to do. It was a pretty decent method that he came up with in his narrow mind.

“Why did you come?”

“Because I could move pretty well.”

Heewon shook his head as he looked at his little brother with a mask on. His brother, who had barely returned home after being hospitalized for days, did not listen to his words to take a rest and ended up coming to the shooting set. The ‘Lee Heewon rule’, which stated that catching a cold should put a stop to everything, didn’t apply to his brother.

“Like that, the cold will become the flu.”

“That’s not likely, so don’t worry. Rather than that, Maru-hyung told me that you’re going to go to the PC bang and eat ramyun once you’re done here.”

“He said that already? How’s his mouth so light when we’re supposed to be friends?”

“It’s not that his mouth is light. He’s looking out for you. You always swell up when you eat, so why do you keep trying to eat?”

“Well, people want to do the things they’re told not to do.”

Haewon frowned before coughing dryly. Heewon quickly handed him a bottle of water and scolded him, which was unlike usual as it would usually be the other way round. After taking a sip and a breather, his brother spoke,

“You even told the president, huh? That you’re going to the military. You were always so slow when it came to other things, but you just have to be quick with this matter.”

“I do things when I set my mind to it. I’m going to enlist after the drama is over.”

“Is it because of me?”

“Yes, it’s because of you. You just won’t listen to me when I tell you to rest, so I have no choice but to take a rest myself. I’ll have to go to the military once I’m thirty anyway, so I might as well go early. Looking at Maru, I feel like going earlier might be the better choice.”

“I’ll quit being your manager. Is that enough?”

“No. I don’t want that either. I thought about it. Would I be doing this job if not for you? If you quit, I’m going to quit as well and go to the countryside to farm or something. I have enough money for that after all.”

“You’re going to farm?”

“I can do it if I set my mind to it. I can just plant seeds and pick the fruits when it’s all grown. Easy.”

“It’s clear from just listening to you that you will never be able to do it.”

His brother sat down next to him, taking slow breaths without talking. Heewon also did not speak first. His brother was probably clearing up his mind right now. He was a smart kid, and so would be able to come up with a wise, correct decision.

The staff within the set started running around. Their business signified that the shoot was about to begin. Producer Jayeon was shouting within the set. Once the shouts died down, the standby sign should probably fall.

“Looks like there’s no helping it. You usually don’t like to do anything, but you’re stubborn and you’ll never relent once you’re set on something.”

“Me? I’m like a reed compared to you.”

“Leaving that aside, now that I think about it, I think I pushed myself too. Perhaps my desire to make you succeed contained my disappointment regarding the things I gave up on. Maybe that was why I was even more persistent even though I knew that I was ruining my body in the process.”

“Yes, so take some rest. And do the things you wanted to do. You said you wanted to go traveling, didn’t you? How about Hawaii? Or Japan? Even Jeju islands fine since it’s close.”

“That’s good, but I thought of an even better method. As you said, there’s probably no one else but me who can control you.”

“I’m not some robot that needs controlling. It is just that if you aren’t my manager, my plans of fleeing will just have a higher chance of succeeding.”

“Not only that, I also don’t want to stop being your manager. While I did say I gave up on many things, strictly speaking, I chose to become your manager because helping you is more fun and profitable for me. It’s definitely quite hard to bring someone as stubborn as you to various places, but I think it’s quite suited for me.”

“So take a two-year break and do…”

“Joint enlistment.”

Heewon blinked several times. Joint enlistment was a program where two people would be able to enlist into the same boot camp and get assigned to the same service base. Haewon’s mention of that would mean none other than going to the military alongside him and spending two years in the same space, but it also meant that the hellish nagging would follow him for another two years.

“I didn’t mean that. I was telling you to take a two-year break while I’m not here.”

“Compared to what I’m doing right now as your manager, the military is practically a vacation for me. Don’t worry about me.”

“That’s not what I’m saying. Listen to me. I’m going to the military and-”

“So am I.”

“No. I’m saying we should spend the two years apart.”

“That’s just terribly inefficient. We should take a two-year break simultaneously and return to work together. Now that I think about it, I don’t think going to the military is a bad idea. As long as you leave a deep enough impression on the audience through this drama, it might even bring about a good reaction from them. There are many people who are getting in trouble because of military service, aren’t there? But here, there’s an actor who goes to the military on his own accord when everyone else is delaying it until they’re 30? This can even make the news. I should talk to some journalists about it. I think we can also fool the enlistment date by a day. Then, the articles would go something like this: Lee Heewon’s silent enlistment; His distinct choice.”

“I think you’ve been staying too close to the president. No wait, your words just now sounded like Han Maru’s.”

Heewon told him to reconsider, but his brother didn’t seem to have any will to relent. He immediately looked up joint enlistment on his phone and even put in a query on the military’s website.

“Hyung, let’s leave behind a really deep impression through this drama. Maru-hyung is here too. I’m sure it’ll go well. I mean, Maru-hyung’s acting is exceptional, isn’t it? He’ll definitely support the drama well. You’ll be shooting the best drama before you enlist. Good, that's splendid news material. I’ll go talk to Maru-hyung for a bit.”

“H-hey! Haewon, Lee Haewon!”

Heewon desperately called out to his little brother, but he rushed over to where Maru was without even listening. Now, it looked like he had to suffer for two years more from super close range under his scolding.

“Should I just keep working?”

His regret was a little too late.

* * *

“It is better to go to the military as early as possible. But why do you look like you’re going to die?” Maru asked as he grabbed Heewon’s shoulder.

Heewon looked like his soul had left him. He chuckled like he had lost it, muttering that he hated his brother.

“Stop your nonsense. The director’s coming. She seems to be looking for you, so go on.”

“If I fail this drama, I wouldn’t be able to leave behind an impression, and I think I would be able to reconsider going to the military.”

“Why don’t you pray for our doom instead?”

“You don’t know how I feel.”

Maru greeted Jayeon instead of Heewon, who kept sighing. Jayeon looked at Heewon, who had shriveled up, before asking in a small voice,

“What’s up with him?”

“He’s just a peculiar guy. Don’t worry about him. He’ll do well once he starts acting.”

“Well, for me, I don’t care as long as the outcome is good. Rather than that, my husband has been nagging me these days.”

“You mean producer Park Hoon?”

“Yes. He’s grumbling about how I got to work with you before he did. No matter how many times I tell him that you’re just a minor role and that you won’t appear that much, he keeps acting mad like he’s some kid. Hey, I heard you told him that you were definitely going to work with him but didn’t live up to that promise?”

“Yes, I did that. That’s why I promised him that I’d definitely do it the next time he calls for me.”

“He’s not a kid. Anyhow, I’m really tired from receiving that man’s grumbles all week. It’s partially your fault, so don’t you dare make any NGs. I’ll definitely nag you about it.”

“I have full faith that director Yoo Jayeon isn’t someone who would let her personal feelings get in the way of work. You’re known to be very fair.”

“You’d at least look cute if you didn’t retort like that. Seeing how your mouth hasn’t changed, it puts me at ease to see that you’re just like how you were five years ago. Err, lord main actor, this humble producer has come, so can you please say hello?”

Heewon stood up powerlessly.

“Let’s do this. This is the first shoot.”

Jayeon grabbed Heewon by the arm and walked towards the set. Maru smiled at Heewon, who waved his arms around in a flurry as though he was asking for help, while waving at him.

“Standby!”

Chapter 797
Sequence 7

“You just have to come in, look left and right once, and then rush over there. Also, doctors, follow the rushing man with your eyes, and then Heewon, you come forward. There will be nurses going back and forth behind you, so make sure you check your lines and don’t overlap. Don’t collide with each other.”

“Yes.”

“Also, intern actors. Just relax a little. You think you can go on TV like that? You have to act like you’re tired, not dazed. Get yourselves together.”

Hyungseok pulled on his collar and heaved out a short sigh. It was finally his first appearance. While the main actors talked with the director, he frowned and straightened his mouth repeatedly in order to make his face look like it was full of life. There were two other actors playing interns apart from himself. The director promised that one of them who ‘looks good on screen’ would be given lines. The sudden appearance of an appetizing bait made Hyungseok look at the faces of the other two. Both of their eyes lit up as though they were dogs who had been starving for days. It looked as though they were ready to do anything in order to catch the director’s eyes once they began the shoot. It seemed as though he had to show off himself if he didn’t want the other two to get ahead of him.

“I wonder what I should do in order to catch the director’s eyes?” he asked Maru, who was waiting next to him.

“You should show skillful acting of course.”

“Not something obvious like that.”

“Then what? Are you going to do a backflip or something? Try staying in line with what you should be doing. Director Yoo’s eyes for discerning people are frighteningly accurate. Don’t think about doing useless stuff and just focus on your role.”

“Of course I want to focus on my role. But all I’ll be doing is zoning out as an intern.”

“Didn’t the director tell you to express what is happening on your face after seeing the patient rushing in? She’s someone who pays attention to little details when she produces things. Also, she wants the actors to remember everything that she says. If you’re still thinking that all you have to do is zone out, I think those people will be the ones to take the lines.”

Maru pointed at the entrance and drew a line towards the exit of the emergency unit that the director had pointed out before. Did you even try moving your eyes along that line? – Maru seemed to be scolding him.

“Of course I should listen to teacher Maru’s words. Have a look and see if I’m not awkward.”

Hyungseok moved his eyes, looking at the imaginary patient rushing in.

“How was that?”

“You’re good at looking.”

“That’s it?”

“That’s all I can see after all. How am I supposed to evaluate just looking? I believe that chasing the patient with your eyes is different from moving along the line.”

“I was looking at the patient though. I’m right, aren’t I? The patient comes from there and rushes towards the counter.”

“If you say so, then I guess it must be true.”

“Why are you acting so cold-hearted? Give me some tips. I used to get told that I’m quite bad at improvising when I studied at the acting school, you know? Give some pointers to your junior.”

“You always call yourself junior in situations like these even though you don’t use any polite speech.”

Maru pointed at the entrance of the emergency unit.

“I’m not skilled enough to explain to anyone, so I’ll just show you how I would do it. First up, I create a story before an act starts, whatever it may be. For example, in the case of a patient rushing in, there is nothing like a back story mentioned in the script or the producer’s directions, but I still create my own imaginary story. Well then, the patient is rushing in from over there. Ready, cue.”

Maru’s attitude changed in an instant. He was sighing like he had just been scolded before slowly moving his eyes towards the entrance. He yawned as he moved his drowsy eyes slowly. Hyungseok looked at the place where Maru was looking. It felt as though someone was there at the counter even though there was no one there. After scanning the counter for a while, Maru turned around and stretched his arms out.

“Like that, I guess?”

“So there’s no need to be in a hurry, huh.”

“If the patient came in on a stretcher to the emergency unit, then you should be tense, but if a perfectly intact-looking man is walking over to the counter, there’s no real need to look at him with much interest. Dozens of patients would be coming each day, so don’t you think it’ll be too tiring if you have to concern yourself with every single visitor? Interns should already be tired from all the errands they have to run. Even if someone visits the ER with an anxious face, I, at least, would react like that since both my body and my mind would be tired. That’s the character I set up.”

“Conversely, if it’s a passionate doctor who loves not only the patient but their families as well, they would look at the patient and his family intently, right? Filled with worries.”

“Probably.”

“I like heroic figures, so I shall embrace everyone with my love.”

Just because there was no line didn’t mean that the characters didn’t have a personality. How are you going to react to the incoming patient? – the character’s personality would be settled according to the answer to that question, even if they didn’t have any lines. If all that was needed was for the intern doctors to look at the patients as they came in like what the director said, she might as well have a staff member put on a doctor’s gown and play that role instead. The fact that she was using an actor meant that she had some expectations. Either be a scarecrow who looks only in the direction she pointed at or become an actor who can think. The choice was obvious.

“I guess there are things you can learn even if you are an actor who doesn’t have much acting to do at all, huh. Hey, wasn’t that like a hip hop rhyme just now?”

“Why don’t you quit acting and switch to hip hop then? MC Hyungseok sounds good.”

“You can’t take a joke, can you?”

Hyungseok locked his fingers together and started thinking about a character that wasn’t too overboard but could still attract the director’s eyes.

“This is why I don’t give advice to smart people. They quickly learn and make it their own.”

That was Maru’s way of complimenting someone. Hyungseok knew that because they had spent two years together in the military.

“Please give me more advice in the future so that this old dog can learn new tricks. But hey, have a look at this. This time, it’ll be different.”

“If you think it’s different, then that’s fine. Even I would be able to tell that it’s different if you have thought about what you’re acting.”

“Don’t say that, and please have a look.”

Maru shook his head in vexation. In Hyungseok’s opinion, no instructor could match Maru when it came to acting or his advice. Maru kept looking away, saying that he didn’t want to, but he would probably listen if he pestered him. He might look cold-hearted on the surface, but looking after each person was his personality and his nature. Hyungseok knew that.

He practiced a few more times and was about to have Maru check it for him. Just then, he saw a woman walk over to the director with her hair tied. The rather large gown wasn’t able to hide her curves. Looking at the white curves, Hyungseok spoke,

“It’s Yoonseo. Man, she looks really pretty in real life. These days, I don’t think top-tier idols would lose out to actresses. Don’t you think so?”

“I guess she is pretty.”

Maru took his eyes off the script for a moment and uttered a line before looking down at his script again. Is it his concentration that is a marvel or his preference for women that was firm? – Hyungseok wondered before exclaiming and looking at Yoonseo who was smiling next to the director.

“Female idols always jump into dramas once they start doing well. It seems like dramas do make quite a bit of money, huh?”

“I wouldn’t know.”

“Look at her nose and lips. These days, even if you do undergo surgery, you have to do it discreetly like that. She’s totally my type.”

“If that’s the case, why don’t you go over and try talking to her? Stop mumbling next to me.”

“I’m only a bottom of the run actor. I don’t dare go there. Oh, you said you were close to Mr. Heewon, weren’t you? Can you set up a place with him and Yoonseo as well? I’ll treat you like my big brother for life.”

“I wonder what bad luck I had to meet someone like you in the military. Did I commit that many wrongs in my previous life?”

“You were so giddy when I got you Han Gaeul’s autograph, yet now you’re doing this to me?”

“That… I guess I’m grateful,” Maru said as his lips twitched.

From how Maru of all people was hesitating to speak, it probably meant that he felt really pleased. Han Gaeul over Yoonseo, huh. He really had a tight preference.

“If I catch the director’s eyes here, Yoonseo will look at me at least once, right? I’ll get her interest through my acting skills.”

“Now the crazy guy is talking nonsense huh. I’d like to remind you that you might get cut by the next episode.”

“Watch me. I’ll show you how a mayfly survives.”

“What, you’re going to do a backflip?”

“No, acting.”

* * *

“Over there! Did someone stick an iron rod in your eyes? Why are you so tense! Loosen up a little!”

“I’m sorry!”

Heewon giggled as he turned around. The man who introduced himself as Maru’s friend slapped his own cheeks, saying ‘get yourself together.’ He was an interesting person. Heewon took a liking to him, thinking that it wouldn’t be boring if someone like that was around.

“Where did you meet someone like that? I haven’t said hello properly, so introduce him to me later. He looks interesting.”

“Forget interesting. He’s overly confident and uselessly optimistic. He’s quite tiring. In some sense, he’s the complete opposite of you.”

“Would I be able to get some energy if I’m next to someone like that?”

“Your laziness is a curse from heaven, so you’ll never be able to fix it. Haewon is the only solution.”

Maru poked him on the back and pointed forward with his chin. The director was looking at him with her eyes open crookedly. You dare get distracted when an adult is speaking? – her eyes seemed to say. Heewon smiled awkwardly. Director Yoo Jayeon was a scary person, so there was a need to stay docile.

“Well then, let’s do that again.”

At the director’s signal, a man rushed in. The world of pure white turned colorful again. Heewon colored the face of the man in front of him, who he had never seen before, with the color of his close friends. That process didn’t take that long. Looking at the man colored in light pink, Heewon could act happy like he had met an old friend after a long time.

“Heewon, your expression looks good. Look a little more worried at that part.”

He changed his emotions according to the director’s words that entered his ears. To Heewon, this was easier than using clay to form a shape he wanted. Everyone else said it was hard. Talent was a thankful thing.

“Interns, move your eyes, yes. The man falls back. Heewon recognizes him. That’s it. A little more friendly and with a little more worry.”

The director’s words stopped. He could hear her voice but couldn’t comprehend her as though it was an alien tongue. His brother always told him to fix the habit of not listening to others once he was absorbed in something, but he couldn’t do what he couldn’t do. He just did what his body willed him to do and according to the directions from before. After a while, he could hear a ‘cut’ sound that snapped him back to reality.

“Okay! Yoonseo and Heewon, come over for a sec. We’ll do some monitoring.”

Heewon yawned. He felt like monitoring wasn’t necessary, but he still walked over since Haewon’s prickly gaze was on him. He didn’t want to get nagged after all.

“Both of you are doing well. Yoonseo’s doing good too.”

“I think I’m blending in well thanks to Heewon.”

“I guess that’s not entirely incorrect.”

“Director, you should say that I’m not at times like this.”

“I told you I can’t speak empty praises during the get-together.”

“I didn’t know it would be like this. Please give me more love. And you too, Heewon, look at me in a good light.”

Heewon nodded. He felt like he had talked to Yoonseo about various things during the get-together but nothing remained inside his mind. It wasn’t like he was disinterested in her since she was quite pretty, so it was quite strange.

“What?” Yoonseo asked, seemingly weirded out by his stare.

“A good person or a bad person. I was just wondering.”

“What do you mean by that?”

“Nothing. Forget about it.”

“You can’t ignore me, okay? You of all people should be on my side. Isn’t that right, director?”

Yoonseo smiled softly.

Chapter 798
Sequence 7

“A professor I know is in Daegu, and there are zero residents for GS[1] this year as well.”

“Weren’t there zero people last year as well?”

“There weren’t. I don’t think there were any the year before that either. I heard that the professors are taking turns doing night watches. At this rate, it looks like they’re going to have to get people from other cities.”

“Cardiothoracic surgery is pretty hard after all. But there are quite a few people applying for specialists in this hospital, right?”

“Senior Park, senior Choi, senior Kim, doctor Sooran, doctor Woongjin. That’s five people off the top of my head. That’s quite a lot.”

“I guess if you’re going to be sick, you'll have to be sick in Seoul too, huh.”

“The land here isn’t expensive for nothing. Right, I heard you were moving? Did you find a good place to rent?”

“I did. I could barely get that with my intern salary. I told the landlord I’d only be staying for a year, and he ended up ripping another 50,000 won for rent.”

“It’s not like you’re going to be going home from the break room anyway, so why did you even bother? Not only that, don’t you have to go to Boryeong[2] in two months?”

“Still, there’s nothing better than going home and having a good sleep once a week or even once every four days if you’re lucky.”

Heewon, who was smiling in satisfaction while sitting on a chair, pointed at the entrance with his chin. The script said ‘looking at’, but Yoonseo did not mind and followed along. In actuality, a free character like Heewon was more suited to pointing with his chin rather than looking.

“Interns have it good. You have enough time to chit chat.”

The disdainful gaze was scornful. Senior Yoo, who played the role of a resident, must have learned how to piss people off in the worst ways. In reality, he was a really kind actor, but whenever he was in a shoot, he was so good at acting that it made her wonder if he actually had split personalities.

“How many times did you stab the patient with a preset syringe that cause the patient to end up screaming? If you have time to fool around, I’d be grabbing each other’s arteries.”

“I’m sorry, senior,” Yoonseo replied.

The role she was playing was an intern doctor who couldn’t care less about charity and self-sacrifice. As the character she was playing was hung up on receiving good treatment from others, she acted cute with a hint of cunningness.

“And why aren’t you replying?”

Senior Yoo glared at Heewon. She found his eyes so curious for looking like they were about to pop out at any moment.

“Because I didn’t do anything wrong.”

“Oh, that’s your attitude?”

“I get that you hate me, senior, so just stop. You don’t want to waste your energy either, do you? I was just born with this nature, and I can’t fawn over people, so please just understand.”

Senior Yoo’s lips curled upwards, and the part below his eyes shook a little. Yoonseo intently watched senior Yoo’s acting. Although she was confident in her facial expression acting, she would probably find it hard to look as natural as senior Yoo. Though, if it was just about smiling, she had the confidence not to lose out to him. The amount of smiling practice that idols did was probably on par with stewardesses.

“Hey, are you going to keep behaving like that in front of your senior?”

“Yes. I think I am going to keep behaving like that in front of my seniors. The only time I fawn over others for no reason is when I collect blood from granny Chunhwa over there. That granny is really stubborn. If I don’t beg, she won’t let me put a needle in her, so I don’t have a choice but to fawn over her.”

“Hey, you!”

“Senior, I’ll be off first because I have a wound to dress. If you have anything more to tell me, please do it through text.”

Heewon jutted out his head like a turtle before slowly heading towards the door. Senior Yoo turned around abruptly to the point that his doctor gown fluttered, but Heewon twisted his body and escaped like a slippery eel. The way he said ‘I’m off’ while peeping from outside the door made him look just as scornful as senior Yoo. Although this was the case with all good actors, Heewon’s acts felt very realistic. He looked like he had become a real doctor instead of just acting as one.

Yoonseo slowly stood up and neatened out senior Yoo’s disheveled gown. She spoke as she straightened his collars,

“Senior, don’t get too angry with him. You know that’s just how he is. It’ll be your loss if you get angry.”

“How can you two colleagues be so different? I will never let someone who looks down on his seniors like that into the doctor’s office.”

“I’ll tell him off later. Don’t worry about it too much.”

Senior Yoo left, saying that he was fed up. Yoonseo chuckled after seeing him leave. It was her signature ‘kitty smile’. It was something that her fans titled for her, and they said that she looked cute yet rather precocious. She showed it to the director before, and she said that it would be good if she could use it when she was in character. She hoped that the smile she practiced in front of a mirror countless times would work.

“Okay. That was good, let’s do that again after we switch the camera angle.”

She gathered her slightly shaky lips together and shivered. Fortunately, there was no NG. She was so worried after hearing that her smile looked stiff in the previous cut. She felt good that she wasn’t wasting people’s time. She stretched her neck from side to side. Perhaps it was because this was her first drama, but she felt like she would spasm if she didn’t stretch out her neck and shoulder muscles every break. Her body wasn’t able to bring out its fullest potential in a foreign environment even after all that harsh choreography training.

“Director, wasn’t I strange?”

“Why? Do you want to look strange?” Jayeon replied as she crossed her arms.

“There’s no way that’s true.”

“Then why did you ask such a useless question? Acting is about confidence. You have to have the confidence that no one else but you can do your role. Especially if you’re a lead actor.”

“If it’s doing performances, I have the confidence that I’m the best, but this is a place I’ve never experienced before. I keep wondering if I’m doing okay, and I feel anxious.”

“You’re anxious about useless things. It was you who confidently declared to me that you can do anything during the get-together, wasn’t it?”

“That was because I was drunk back then and did it in a fit of anger.”

“Then bring back that fit of anger. You’re doing plenty well right now. I can’t imagine that this is your first time acting.”

“You aren’t complimenting me just to relieve me, are you?”

“Was it obvious?”

“Director, I’m really gonna cry.”

Jayeon patted her on the shoulders, telling her that there was nothing to worry about. Her hand gestures were just as hearty as her voice. It even hurt to the point that it made her wince. Yoonseo rubbed her own shoulders, which had become hot due to Jayeon’s hand, as she spoke,

“I’ll leave everything to you then, okay? You’re the one who brought me here, so you have to take responsibility until the end.”

“As long as you can do the basics, then sure. The writer seems to have taken a liking to you too, so practice acting just as much as you practiced dancing. Then, you’ll be able to leave behind a good impression as the actress Yoonseo.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

When she saluted, Jayeon also greeted back in military fashion. When she first heard about Jayeon and about how she had become the first female producer of the YBS drama department, which was known to be a taboo area for women, Yoonseo imagined a burly woman who would be able to wrestle with a sturdily-built man. This was why she was pretty surprised when she met her for real. Jayeon had such a slender body to the point that Yoonseo thought that she was a former idol. Not only that, she had gotten married as well. Yoonseo felt nervous when greeting her as she heard rumors that Jayeon’s personality was like a volcano, but she soon realized that the volcano didn’t erupt at just any time. After a few meetings, they had a get-together, and Yoonseo ended up falling for the female producer who managed to make a place for herself in her harsh work environment. She looked at her with respect for another person. She even secretly made Jayeon her role model.

“Just relax. Once the first episode goes on air, there will be many people talking about you on the internet. You know how things work around here. You were a popular idol after all.”

“I won’t be shaken because of a few harsh comments.”

“That’s the attitude. A cut I said okay to has no problems. It satisfied me after all.”

That was a reassuring answer. While the camera setting changed, Yoonseo sat down on a chair and took a break.

“We would’ve been in big trouble if we were shooting outside. Apparently, it’s 31 degrees out there,” Heewon said as he sat down next to her.

This man, who drooped down whenever the camera turned off, didn’t fail to meet her expectations and looked like he was melting on top of the chair. Yoonseo was surprised every single time when Heewon talked about himself because she didn’t know how lazy humans could become. Without his little brother Haewon, he would probably be able to laze around in his home for a whole year. For food, he could order deliveries, and for necessary items, he could use the internet.

“I’m really curious. How did you even study acting? You’re so lazy about everything.”

“I do things when I set my mind to it.”

“Lies. Tell me honestly. Haewon was watching you from the side, wasn’t he?”

“You know me too well.”

Heewon closed his eyes. This guy would probably start snoring if let alone for a minute. She wondered how many people in South Korea knew of his personality. From an interview she read before, it said that Heewon was rarely at home because he liked traveling. That interview filled with lies was probably something that his company ordered him to say in order to manage his image.

“Stop drooping down and have a look at my lines.”

“You were pretty good though. I don’t think it’s necessary.”

“I’m just worried. The director said I’m okay, but I keep finding myself lacking if I look at other people. I do have confidence, but confidence and skill aren’t related to each other. Since I’m doing it, I want to do it well. I don’t want to lose out to others.”

“You’re full of competitive spirit. Well, I guess that’s how you managed to endure such a harsh schedule. I was freaked out when I heard what you had to say about the lives that idols live. How can a human live like that? Ten hours of practice a day and practically no sleep? I would never be able to do it.”

“You can do it if you set your mind to it. Okay then, sit up and have a look at me. Look after your friend.”

Yoonseo grabbed Heewon by the shoulder and shook him. Heewon, who was half lying down on the top of his chair, groaned and sat up.

“I tell you this every time, but I won’t be of any help to you. I tried teaching you last time, and you didn’t understand me.”

“It’d be weird to understand something like that. How am I supposed to understand green something and yellow something? Can’t you just teach me ordinarily?”

“That’s the only thing I can tell you. That’s just how they look in my eyes, and that’s how I feel. I can’t describe green as being red, can I?”

“You’re really spiteful. I feel like that time when my singing teacher scolded me saying ‘you have to pull out your voice like this’, but I didn’t get it at all. I feel the same right now.”

“I can’t exactly teach anyone either. It’s not something I can teach either.”

“Fine, you’re a genius, okay? Good for you.”

“To me, you are even more amazing. It amazes me how the human body can move like that. If you look at it this way, it’s the same thing. You would probably understand how I feel if you try to teach me dancing, you know? Why can’t this guy understand such a simple thing? – that’s what you’d think.”

“I think I can relate.”

“If you really want someone to teach you, then ask him.”

“Him? Who?”

Heewon slowly raised a finger. There were men wearing white gowns inside the break room where the camera was being set up. They were minor actors for intern doctors.

“Which one?”

“The one who’s sitting down reading a script. He’s someone who acts in the complete opposite way to me. He even told me that he would sometimes let his instincts take over but fundamentally does everything based on calculation. If it’s about teaching, he’s a hundred times better than me.”

“Really?”

Yoonseo blinked and watched the man reading the script.

[1] General surgery

[2] About 140km away from Seoul

KTLChamber's Thoughts

Good, I was wrong about this Yoonseo girl.

Though, I guess it is about time we had another 'good' female character.

Editor's Note:

We either have a future fangirl or a future Chaerim. Or hopefully, we get a waifu for Heewon.

Chapter 799
Sequence 7

“You still have something to look at?”

Maru took his eyes off the script. Hyungseok was looking alternately between him and his script with a gaze mixed with expectation and anxiety. He looked like a child by the river who was wondering what would happen if he dipped his foot into the river.

“Are you a kid?” Maru said as he put down the script.

Hyungseok was someone smart as he led a successful business, but he was like a little kid with very little independence in a set. It was good that he chose conversation and asking questions as a way to adapt to this foreign environment, but he didn’t like the fact that the target was him.

“There’s a hill I could lean on, so it’d be a waste to be standing by myself. Anyway, what are you really looking at? You only have four lines in this scene, don’t you?”

“Whether it’s four lines or a hundred lines, it makes me feel uneasy if I don’t keep looking.”

“Uneasy? You?”

“What, I don’t have the right to be uneasy?”

“I didn’t say that. It was just unexpected to hear that from you. I mean, you’re good at acting, aren’t you? It’s just four lines, so I thought you’d just deal with it like it was nothing.”

Maru thought that it’d be great if he could just deal with it like it was nothing. He was always relaxed when he practiced his script. After all, practice was a process without any pressure and failure was tolerable. There was no one who would scold him because he messed up his breathing, words, and emotions during practice he was doing by himself. It was something that he spent his own time on and was something that was wholly his own responsibility. What made him uneasy was what came after practice. It was like that with plays as well. He was always nervous and uneasy during the waiting time before he started the real deal. Whenever he saw the members of the troupe running wild on stage, there was always a sense of unease blossoming within him, worrying about if he could do well amongst those people. As his thought process thought of the exclamations due to failure before the applause due to success, it was hard for him to be optimistic and calm his mind. He was already living a life riddled with imperfect elements, so it was hard for him to picture a hopeful result.

The script was the sole exit that allowed him to escape the pit of nervousness that existed between practice and the real performance. With the reason that he should consolidate the character to be conscious of the context of the situation and to bestow a sense of realism to the scene, he had written down numerous things in the corners of the script, but one thing he recently realized was that each of those actions was a way to escape the pressure given to him by the shoot. That identity of that sense of pressure was fear. The true identity behind the fear that seeped up between practice and the real performance was the gloomy reality embedded deeply in his life. No matter how much he practiced, this life was the ‘true reality’. The sense of powerlessness from the thought that he would not be able to go to the real performance. Even before he was conscious of the terrible reality of repeated lives, his body was trembling in fear between practice and the real performance due to the sense of powerlessness that had piled up in his body.

“When I first played a minor character in a movie, I only had one line.”

“The movie that you spoke about back then? Twilight Struggles, was it?”

Maru nodded.

“It was just one line, and there was nothing special about it. It was just a line said by a street thug after all. Also, I practiced that line at least a thousand times. I was uneasy. Before my desire to do well, there was a sense of pressure from the thought that I must not fail. That hasn’t changed even now.”

“A thousand times huh. I can’t possibly imagine.”

“I like efficiency. Whether it’s personal relationships or anything else. I feel that it is desirable to gain the most for minimum investment. But with acting, it doesn’t work that way. It is the epitome of overinvestment and inefficiency. Even I can tell that it’s absurd. I even wonder if there was a need for me to go so far. And whenever I thought that there was only one conclusion I arrived at: I am still lacking.”

The repeated lives were no different from a long period of practice. The only thing he could do as he waited for the curtain call that had yet to arrive was endless repetitive practice. He tried following the script and tried doing it in a different way. The only thing he could do was to practice over and over and arrive at the best result. The reason he was doing it, despite predicting that there would not be a dramatic end, was because everything would be over if he just gave up.

The moment he finished those words, the standby sign fell. Maru placed his script under the desk. The other interns also put on their gowns and waited. Heewon appeared with arrogant steps. Producer Jayeon was with him.

“It’s a break where you eat snacks. Everyone sit down in your designated places and relax without being conscious of the camera.”

After giving instructions to the interns, Jayeon called Heewon and Yoonseo and took them around. She seemed to be telling them the movement lines.

“Yoonseo, you speak from here and then turn around and sit down. Heewon, you lean to the side. Should we try lines? Maru can respond too.”

Yoonseo entered the break room and pulled on Heewon’s arm. Heewon, being dragged over, sat on the edge of the table, while Yoonseo sat down on a chair as she clutched her head.

“Stop going against the seniors for god’s sake. You won’t get anything good from fighting them.”

Maru spoke as he rested his chin on his hand,

“So you caused a ruckus again, huh. Who did you go against this time? Senior Choi? Senior Park?”

“Senior Park. That guy is already out to get this guy, and this guy keeps baiting him.”

“Lee Joosung, you should put a stop to it, you know? If you want to finish your internship life without trouble.”

Maru looked at Heewon before throwing a snack on the table at him. This wasn’t an action that was agreed upon beforehand, but he had the confidence that Heewon would respond. Indeed, Heewon caught the snack with his mouth. He put his hand into the doctor’s gown and grumbled.

“It’s just how I am. What am I supposed to do about it?”

“So you have no intentions of fixing yourself huh. If you’re going to keep fighting, I guess you need more energy. Here, take this.”

He threw another snack at him. This was an improvisation that he could do because he was aware of the director’s nature. Jayeon was the type of person who would welcome actors trying various things outside of the script.

Heewon caught the chocolate snack with his mouth again and pushed it into the corner of his mouth before starting to chew on it. Seeing him act so natural as though they had practiced this beforehand, Maru thought that he was a natural. They weren’t close enough to find out what each other was thinking through their eyes alone, but they were able to vaguely grasp what each other wanted in terms of acting. The moment Heewon’s eyes landed on the snacks, Maru was reminded of the character’s prankster nature, and Maru had the belief that he would eat it and start goofing around again if he threw one. Before he threw it, he put the snack between his fingers and flicked it slightly, and Heewon twitched his eyebrow as though he understood his intentions. The fact that the skit fit together when they had no practice beforehand probably meant that the process in which they put together their acting was similar. If there was a difference, it was that Heewon probably understood everything intuitively. While Maru went through the process of thinking about the director’s personality, the character’s nature, and ultimately the conclusion, Heewon would probably have arrived at the conclusion ‘catch the snack’ almost instantaneously. That was talent. It was Heewon’s world that Maru could never understand nor wanted to understand.

“Did you two put that together?” Jayeon asked.

Maru shook his head. He also added that there was no way a minor actor would have the time to talk to the main actor.

“Maru told me with his eyes. He and I are in a deep relationship where we can communicate like that.”

“Who’s in a deep relationship with who?”

“See that? We’re in a deep relationship, don’t you think?” Heewon grinned.

“Try doing that once the camera starts rolling. It was pretty decent. I knew putting you in would liven things up.”

“Don’t say that when I haven’t done anything. You know that putting me on a pedestal won’t get you anything good.”

“Did I say something? I only said the truth. Well then, let’s get prepared and start rolling.”

The director turned around. Maru snapped his finger and called Heewon.

“I’ll throw it just like last time, so catch it.”

“Sure.”

He grabbed the snack like last time and threw it at Heewon. Heewon caught it with his mouth proficiently before winking.

“Are you two close?” Yoonseo asked him.

Before Maru could say anything, Heewon spoke before him and said ahead of him and said, ‘we’re close’. Maru just shrugged. The person in question said they were close, so maybe?

“I see. Is your personality usually that bright? When I watched you just now, you seemed to be suited for the role.”

“An actor doesn’t become a murderer just because they play the role of one, right?”

“I guess that was a stupid question. Sorry about that. I really hate those comments too and yet I asked something similar. She wears sexy clothes, so she must be a slut; she looks like a prostitute from the way she smiles. I was fed up with those words too.”

Maru scratched his eyebrows. He was talking to Heewon just now, so his words weren’t exactly gentle.

“Not at all. I guess I put that in the wrong way too. I only act like that when I talk with him. As for my personality, it’s just ordinary. Doesn’t stand out but isn’t really flawed.”

“Oh, I see.”

While they were talking, Maru turned around to look behind him. Hyungseok was poking on his waist. Introduce me, now. The frown between his eyebrows was screaming that at him.

“The guy behind me says he’s a fan of yours.”

“Really? Thank you.”

Yoonseo said hello to Hyungseok. With that, the other interns also chimed in. Maru quietly stood up and took out the script that he placed below the desk.

“What happened between you and Gaeul last time?” Heewon asked as he pulled on the script.

Maru had been wondering why he wasn’t asking, but he didn’t know that he would ask now.

“Nothing.”

“Like hell it’s nothing. Obviously, something happened.”

“What’s something?”

“There really was nothing?”

“Even if there was something, I have no obligation to tell you.”

“You should at least say what happened to the person who set you two up. But I do get that you haven’t been in contact with her. You haven’t heard that Gaeul collapsed, have you?”

Maru let go of the script. Heewon’s hands jerked backwards, and the script flew into the air before falling back down. People stared at the two before turning around.

“What do you mean by that? Gaeul collapsed?”

“Apparently, there was no big problem. I think it was over-exhaustion or something.”

“Are you sure that she isn’t hurt?”

“From what I heard. If you’re so curious, you should give her a call. You have her number, don’t you?”

Heewon stared at him. Maru grabbed his phone tightly inside his pocket before letting go.

“It’s fine if she isn’t hurt.”

“You should give her a call at least. She would be sad if you don’t take interest in her when she’s hurt.”

It was right around the time he had that ominous dream. The rabbit that decided to remain behind by herself in the darkness as well as Gaeul who fell over – for it to be a coincidence, the timing tugged on his mind. Han Maru’s death signaled the start of a new life. What he could deduce from the rabbit’s words was the future that would arrive after Han Gaeul’s death. It was probably the end of the cycle of life. Maru clenched his teeth. He had not accepted all these new lives in order to accept such an outcome.

“Don’t make a scary expression and just try giving her a call. Or at least text her. You’re making me nervous. I don’t know a lot about Gaeul, but I know that she held a big meaning to you. Well, I’m sure you’ll get it sorted by yourself.”

Heewon told him to keep It a secret that he was the one to tell Maru the news if he was going to call Gaeul. The reason being that he didn’t want to get beaten up. Maru spoke as he picked up the script from the floor,

“Thanks.”

“If you appreciate it, help me out when I ditch Haewon later. His radar is easily turned off when you’re around. I wonder how he can trust you more than his own brother. It’s a sad thing.”

The assistant director announced that they were going to begin soon. Maru heaved a sigh before sitting down. Right now, it was time to focus on work.

Chapter 800
Sequence 7

She felt like her skull was ringing. She felt like someone had hit a large gong right in front of her. When one side subsided, the ringing on the other side became bigger. She even felt like she could make out the shape of her skull if she closed her eyes because of all of the chaotic reflections of those waves; this part is the top, this part is the back, and this part is the temple. She was reminded of when she rode a boat when the waves were rocky. She felt like she was floating in the air as she stepped onto the ground. An urge to vomit that could not be prevented by seasickness medicine and could only be resolved after she vomited everything out. She felt exactly like that right now.

She sat up and drank some water. Fragmented memories sparked in her splitting mind. They were things that she saw in her dream. In the darkness was a man intently staring at her. That man did not close his eyes until he was devoured by the darkness. The gaze made her heart thump. The moment she was about to wake up from the dream, she realized that the man’s eyes were not on her; they were on the small creature next to her. It was a small, feeble-looking rabbit.

“You were up?”

Gaeul smiled joyously as she looked at the face of the person coming in.

“Why did you come? Aren’t you busy?”

“How can this unni not visit you when you’ve collapsed? How do you feel?”

“I’m okay, apart from my headache. The doctor said that there’s no big trouble either. Apparently, it was malnutrition and fatigue.”

“I knew this would happen from the moment I heard that you were going on a diet without eating.”

“I’ve been doing it for a long time though. I didn’t think I was in this bad of a condition. Heck, I’m even more puzzled because I suddenly collapsed.”

“If there’s one thing that people get mistaken about easily, it’s that they think they know their own body. I’m sure your body must have given you signals beforehand. ‘Hey, owner? I think I’m going to collapse, so can you get some rest?’ You probably ignored that and continued working.”

“How am I supposed to make a living if I take a rest because my body is complaining?”

“I guess that’s the problem. Here. Oh, you don’t have to watch out for any specific food, right?”

Gaeul opened the white box. There was a chocolate cake in it. The color was thick, and the smell was sweet unlike the food given to her at the hospital.

“I wanted to eat something too.”

“You should have had your manager buy things for you.”

“I just thought it was etiquette to eat hospital food while I’m in the hospital.”

“If that’s the case, I’ll eat it.”

“Unni, if you bought it for me then it’s mine. Don’t even think about touching it.”

“Don’t wanna. Half of it is mine. Also, I didn’t buy it. I made it.”

Gaeul smiled and undid the wrap. She ripped open the plastic packaging for the plastic fork inside and gave it to Chaerim.

“Isn’t it busy at the store?”

“I’m someone who just collects the money, so I don’t have any reason to be. Though, sometimes I make coffee and sell stuff.”

“You’re an evil owner.”

“Try looking for an evil owner who pays 1,000 won above minimum wage before saying that. Here, have a taste. It’s the new cake that we’re going to sell.”

“My palate is pretty picky, you know?”

“I’m expecting a picky evaluation from you. Hand it to me. I’ll slice it up for you.”

Chaerim got the cake and started moving the knife delicately as though she was some master craftsman. Inside the thick cake was red syrup.

“Strawberries?”

“That and many other things. It’s a specialty menu.”

“Er, every specialty menu you thought of usually disappears from the menu.”

“Don’t you think I’ll hit a jackpot someday?”

“Please think about me, who’ll be eating it.”

“Stop complaining and eat it. This time, I’m confident.”

She put the slice of cake inside her mouth. Before she could even taste the sweet chocolate that touched the ceiling of her mouth, a sour taste kicked in. The identity of the red syrup was grapefruit. Gaeul put her lips together.

“How is it?” Chaerim asked, filled with expectation.

She put down the fork.

“It’s sour.”

“Sour?”

“Really sour.”

“That’s strange. The ratio should be right.”

“You didn’t try it?”

“I did, the ingredients, I mean.”

“You should have tried out the final product.”

“I didn’t touch it because I wanted to present it to you first. But that’s strange. I thought it’d be pretty good. I mean, red grapefruits have been gaining popularity these days. The combination of chocolate and red grapefruits. Don’t you think it’s marvelous?”

“There’s a marvelous saliva party occurring in my mouth right now. I think you put way too much syrup in it. The bread is not moist, it’s soggy. Here, have a taste.”

She sliced the end of the cake with her fork and gave it to Chaerim. This unni kept averting her gaze and refused to open her mouth. When she kept pushing it against her mouth, Chaerim ended up eating it. Her expression changed instantly – to that of someone who had swallowed about four to five lemons straight.

“But it’s pretty decent as a gift for a patient. I mean, sour things are good for patients, aren’t they?”

“I’m pretty sure dessert isn’t exactly the kind of thing you eat for health.”

Gaeul brought the cake placed on top of the mini-fridge over.

“But it’s a present, so I should keep eating it. Who knows? I might get attached to it if I keep eating.”

Chaerim, who was smiling next to her, turned on the TV. She watched the news for a little before changing the channel. She went through the regional TV channels and eventually stopped on a cable channel that regularly broadcasted entertainment shows. Gaeul looked at the screen as she ate the sour cake. A celebrity with mud all over her face was staring at the ground in the middle of a mudflat. From the way she was scattering salt, she seems to be catching razorfish. The subtitle said ‘Dayoon struggling with all of her life.’

Gaeul pressed on the fork with her lips. Although she didn’t say anything, her eyes couldn’t help but be attracted to Chaerim’s face.

“Why are you watching it so intently?”

“No reason, really.”

“I don’t think it’s nothing.”

Chaerim opened the fridge. She asked if she could drink a bottle of orange juice. Gaeul replied that she could drink two.

“That unni is doing pretty well these days. I guess it’s a good thing.”

“Do you still contact her?”

“For how careful you were looking at me, your questions are pretty blunt.”

“You’re the one who brought it up first.”

“There’s no one I’m in touch with among the members of ‘Blue’. At most, I just check if they’re alive or not through social media. Moreover, I’ve already retired and started running my own store, so I don’t have any point of contact with people in the media.”

“Don’t you want to go back?”

“I’m not sure. I’ve had a tough life since high school, so I don’t feel the desire yet. I would have kept doing it if my acting career went well, but that just went so-so.”

“There are many people around me telling me that they used to be your fans, you know?”

“I’ve seen journalists visiting my store. They apparently want to know how a retired idol from 3 years ago is doing. I feel grateful, but at the same time, it’s bothersome. Last time, there was a writer from a TV station asking me if I wanted to appear in a TV program.”

“What program was it?”

“It’s from a cable TV. I think it was ‘A Cup of Coffee’?”

“I know that one. It’s one of those where celebrities have an honest talk with the hosts.”

“To be precise, celebrities who lost their popularity.”

“If you return, I’m sure you won’t be treated like a celebrity who lost her popularity, you know? You aren’t even thirty, so you can’t exactly say that you lost your popularity.”

“It’s been three years already. Not only that, I just disappeared after my group disbanded besides briefly showing up as an actress. At this point, it’d be kinda funny to call myself an idol. It feels somewhat like a dream when I think about how I appeared on TV and sang and danced.”

“It’s somewhat strange for the star of our school to say that.”

“Isn’t Myunghwa High’s current star Han Gaeul?”

“I only succeeded you.”

Gaeul drank the orange juice that Chaerim poured for her. Perhaps thanks to the sourness of the cake, she found it very sweet. Chaerim pushed a bit of the cake into her mouth as she fixed her eyes on the TV. When Dayoon, who was on the TV, fell over on her butt, she chuckled before talking about old times with a longing look in her eyes.

“It’s strange. When we were a team, I couldn’t find that unni more scornful, but after all this time, I think I might be missing her.”

“Try calling her to see if you can meet up with her.”

“But if I see her, I’m pretty sure I’ll end up fighting with her again. You can only smile at bad memories if you leave them behind as memories. Bringing them up again might make both of us feel upset.”

“If you say so. But I still find it a pity.”

“That we aren’t getting back together?”

“No, that you retired. I definitely like a senior who makes delicious cakes like this for me, but I think it would’ve been even better if the senior was someone I could act together with.”

“You’re indirectly saying that my cake is terrible, aren’t you?”

“You have a twisted mindset. How did you come to that conclusion?”

She sliced a bit of the cake before putting it against Chaerim’s mouth. After initially declining, she eventually sighed and ate it.

“Why don’t you try?”

“I’m busy running the store.”

“I guess you should take a break from running the store then.”

“Isn’t it kinda funny to go back when I’m supposed to be retired?”

“From your expression just now, I think staying still will be even more funny. You’re someone who reached the top in that fiercely competitive idol world. You don’t know what will happen if you try acting with that kind of passion. There’s no one saying that you can’t become the second Lee Youngae[1].”

“You’ve clearly gone too far.”

But the second Lee Youngae sounds nice – she whispered to herself.

“Tell me if you have any thoughts about it. I’ll help.”

“Alright, I guess that’s what’s good about having a successful little junior. I’ll tell you if I do make my mind up. But instead, you have to give me proper support at that time, okay?”

“Don’t worry about it. I’ll support you so high that you might fall over.”

After giggling her heart out while covering her mouth, Chaerim wiped her mouth before shaking off the laughter.

“It’s pretty strange if you think about it. I thought I’d never become close to you.”

“Why is that?”

“Why? Because if my memories serve me right, we were romantic rivals. No wait, I never even got to the starting line, so I guess we never did become rivals. This makes me jealous.”

“When the heck did that happen? I don’t even remember.”

“I’ve never seen people who actually don’t remember with a face like that.”

Gaeul shrugged. It was just as she said. The memories of that day would probably remain behind forever if her memories weren’t erased outright. It was just like an old nail protruding out of the smooth wall; a memory that would remain behind no matter how many times the frame hanging on it had been switched out.

“Since we’re at it, are you going out with anyone these days?”

“Me?”

“Who else is in this ward but you?”

Chaerim smiled sneakily.

“I wonder why the people around me are so concerned about my romantic life.”

“From the way you speak, I think the ‘people around you’ that you speak of must be Choi Seol.”

“Yep. Only you and Seol are nosy about my love life.”

“Stop changing the topic and tell me about it. Such a pretty girl collapsed, but there’s not a hint of a man in sight. Are you still living that single life?”

“What are you talking about? There are many men who want to go out with me, you know?”

“What’s the point in that? You’re a total nun-in-training.”

“I do have one.”

“What?”

Chaerim blinked. She, who many people would believe to be a high school student if she put on fainter makeup and cut up her bangs a little, sat down on the bed as though even her heart had become that of a high school girl and gabbed onto her arm. Curiosity started filling her eyes. They were full of surprise and expectation as she asked,

“Who is it? The man you told me about back then?”

“No.”

“Then who? Someone I don’t know?”

“You know him pretty well.”

“I know him pretty well?”

“Yes. But I don’t think I should talk about it yet. He avoids me.”

“Who the heck is avoiding my cute little Gaeul’s romantic interest?”

Try guessing – Gaeul was about to say that when she picked up her phone. She got a text message. Looking at the number and the name on the screen, Gaeul bit her lower lip.

“Unni, wait a sec.”

Gaeul pressed on the screen with her thumb. Her fingertip was slightly shaking.

-Don’t push yourself.

It was an uncute text message.

“Who is it?”

“A green frog[2]. No, I guess he’s a green frog on a horse, huh.”

She subconsciously smiled.

[1] A real actress who became famous as the ‘most Korean-style beauty’ after the drama ‘Jewel in the Palace’ became a hit in Korea.

[2] Korean (as well as Chinese/Japanese) folklore, about a green frog, who always did the opposite of what his mother frog told him to do, and the mother frog told him to bury her in the river once she died, in hopes of having him bury her in the mountain. The green frog decided to really bury her in the river and mourn for her every day, protecting her grave so that it didn’t get washed away. Here’s a link to the full story.

KTLChamber's Thoughts

I looked everywhere for a suitable counterpart for the green frog, but the folklore seems to have plenty of translation, and nothing else doesn't really convey the 'I'm actually doing the opposite of my feelings' PLUS the 'I'm actually very worried' part justice.

On the other hand. Chaerim (that idol girl that fell in love with Maru back in high school) actually made a return! Author didn't forget about her!

Also, I believe Dayoon, the one who's on TV with mud on her face, is Kwon Dayoon, who sold her body to… that businessman guy, and became a huge hit after Park Joongjin's movie (the 'genius director' who also created Spring Calendar, and the one where Maru and Bangjoo appeared in it for about 10 seconds without a voice.) I may be wrong about this.

Editor's Note:

Oh????????

Chapter 801
Sequence 7

He threw the phone upwards. The phone spun around in the air like a saw blade before falling onto the bed. He reached his hand out and grabbed the phone before throwing it again. When he threw his phone about five to six times, he arrived at the conclusion that this wasn’t the right action. Although he wouldn’t usually waste time like this, he needed to for today. He sat on the edge of his bed and checked his text messages. There was a text that came in the afternoon.

-So, we’re starting with texting first?

Maru felt as though he could hear her tacky tone. Originally, he should not have sent her a message. He should have widened the distance and ended their relationship as complete strangers. However, the situation pushed him to send the text message. The rabbit that remained behind in the darkness must have been an indication of the death of Han Gaeul. At the same time as that, the Gaeul that lived in the current era collapsed. As it is said that God didn’t play dice games, it must have been fate that it happened. Even if it was just a coincidence, the fact that the two incidents overlapped with each other meant that it had to be intended. Who intended it, then? The rabbit? Or the bad guy controlling the marionette from behind?

That being pulled the uncontrollable and derailing train back onto the original track as though they didn’t like it. It was indeed out of his own free will that he sent Gaeul the text, but that was thanks to the fact that the very incident was caused by his own free will in the first place. He couldn’t help but feel like he was played here.

“What an unmerciful being.”

Maru looked up at the ceiling before taking a shower. He washed away the fatigue with water before returning to the sofa. He could feel the blood circulating quickly around his face due to the blood vessels being warmed up from the heat. It was good that his blood was moving quickly. Using his head meant that he needed a lot of blood and oxygen to pass through his head. He took a sip of coffee. There was no shoot until the day after tomorrow. There was plenty of time to think.

* * *

Gaeul distantly stared at her phone. It had been four hours since she sent a reply. Although she did not expect a reply immediately, she thought that he would at least do something before the day went past. The LEDs on the electronic clock indifferently kept on blinking as time rushed towards midnight.

She raised the volume of the TV. The ward looked a lot more desolate today. She wondered if she should have held back Chaerim from leaving since she did say that she wanted to stay for longer as she didn’t have anything to do. Chaerim’s laughter might have made this place less lonely. She kept changing the channel meaninglessly before finding a drama being broadcasted. It was ‘Flaming Lady’. Back then, she thought that she couldn’t have done better, but now that she looked back at it, there were many parts she found lacking. She thought that the fact that she could find flaws in her previous acting meant that she had improved. She pulled her knees together and hugged them with her arms before watching the drama. It was back then that the stock value of the actress Han Gaeul’s life kept showing red arrows. The acting she did in ‘Building’ made a good impression on the people in the industry, but it wasn’t enough to be known to the public. There might be many people who might exclaim while looking at the girl being crushed under building debris, but not many people would remember that after all.

-To me, you were everything. But that doesn’t seem like the case for you. Regardless, I still love you nonetheless. Look at me. I’m saying I love you. So you can’t abandon me.

As she was watching her past self saying those words with a vicious expression she turned her eyes to her phone. Her phone was ringing. She grabbed her phone with her right hand before clenching her eyes shut. Why was it that she was shaking so much when it was just a single phone call? She squinted her eyes open and checked it. Her nervous heart relaxed in an instant. It was director Park Hoon.

“Yes, director.”

-You don’t sound good. I heard the news. Are you not feeling well?

“No, it’s not like that.”

-No, you are. You were so out of energy when you first picked up the phone call.

“If I were to tell you the truth, there was a phone call I was waiting for.”

-So I’m not a welcome caller, huh.

“Honestly speaking, yes. I’m a little disappointed.”

-Is this the point where I’m supposed to feel sorry?

“You know I was just joking.”

-I do. That’s why I’m saying it. But if you’re sick, you should be sleeping. What are you doing?

“I was bored, so I was just watching TV. You know what they say: people can’t do the things they want to when they actually can do it. Now that I’m actually in a ward to rest, my mind is as clear as day. When I shot that drama with you before, my only wish was to sleep like a log at home.”

-I guess it was hard back then. I did make everyone suffer because of the additional episodes at almost the last moment. I feel sorry about it even now.

“Thanks to that though, I became successful, so I can’t really complain. Are you at a shoot right now?”

-No, I’m resting at home. I was watching TV and I found ‘Flaming Lady’. I was watching episode 15, and I was wondering how I even shot that. That was when I heard about you.

“You were watching too? I’m watching it right now as well.”

-How do you feel, watching your own acting?

“It’s good, but I think I’ll do better now.”

-From how you’re all confident, it looks like I don’t have to worry about your health.

“Yes, it’s not a big problem.”

Gaeul looked at herself fallen on asphalt due to a traffic accident. Just then, she recalled a question. It was the thought that came to her mind when she took out the script of ‘Flaming Lady’ from her shelf.

“Uhm, director.”

-Yeah.

“There’s something I want to ask.”

-Your voice sounds rather ominous. I decline any difficult questions.

“It shouldn’t be a difficult question. It’s about the past after all.”

-Really? What is it?

“Director. I know that it isn’t good to think like this as an actress, but I couldn’t help but be curious. Why did you cast me back then? It just made me wonder. I did appear in ‘Building’ as a minor actor, but I was practically nameless back then, so I found it curious that you assigned such an important role to a twenty-two-year-old new actress.”

-It’s all in the past. It was because the actress Han Gaeul’s acting was good.

“Is that really it?”

-Why, you don’t think so?

“No. If you’re saying that’s the case then I guess it must be true.”

-You’re saying that, but you don’t sound like you believe me at all. Just consider it as an unexpected opportunity that landed in front of a new actress. Of course, you were only cast because you had the acting skills to back it up.

“An unexpected opportunity?”

That was something she couldn’t just let pass. Gaeul reduced the TV volume.

“Was it my mom? She said she didn’t know about it back then.”

-Writer Choi Haesoo really knew nothing about it. I should have told you about it before, didn’t I? She was instead of the opinion that I should evaluate you thoroughly. Heck, you know her personality better than me, don’t you?

“That’s true. Mom isn’t the type of person who would ask something like that.”

-That’s how it is. I’ll hang up now, then. I can’t keep holding up a sick person.

Gaeul quickly spoke to the director who was trying to hang up,

“I would have let it pass if I didn’t know about it, but you should tell me after telling me all that. As you said, it’s all in the past. I want to know just what it was that made the unexpected opportunity fall in front of a new actress. If you found out about me coincidentally, you wouldn’t have expressed it like that.”

-Why are you so curious about that?

“Because that drama changed my life. Don’t you think that’s enough of a reason to make me curious? Back then, I was just so happy and busy, no, I did notice it, but I didn’t pay attention to it. I was busy taking care of the things in front of me. But after I took a breather, it kept tugging on my mind. I had received zero promotion, had no connections, and even my agency told me that I should start slowly with minor roles. But suddenly, I got an offer for a fixed role in a public TV drama.”

-This is a pain.

“You can’t tell me about it?”

-No, it’s not like that. I did promise, but if I think about it now, it wasn’t that big of a promise either.

“Sounds like it’s not something I should be left out of.”

-I would never do something like that in the first place. I may look like this, but I’m known for being quite stuck up at my job.

“Can’t you tell me about it?”

-From how I see it, that fellow must have asked me to keep it a secret in order not to scratch your pride, but it’s been a long time, so I guess it should be fine to tell you this much. Actually, I was originally going to get a few recommendations and then pick someone out for the role you played. Back then, I didn’t even know that the actress Han Gaeul existed. To be precise, I did know you through ‘Building’, but I had no intentions of putting you on that list. You were a nameless actress after all. That’s when I heard about you from one guy. He suggested that I do an audition because he knows of a good actress. That actress he was talking about was you. I recalled how you were like in ‘Building’, and I accepted his offer. The rest is as you know it. You played that role and became successful.

“Someone recommended me? Who?”

-It’s not anyone amazing. He should be the same age as you. He did say he knew you as well.

“Someone who’s the same age as me and knows me?”

After hesitating a little, the director spoke again,

-Do you know who Han Maru is?

KTLChamber's Thoughts

DUN DUN DUUUUUUUUUUUUN! (I'm sorry this chapter is short, I promise the

Chapter 802
Sequence 7

He was reminded of the statue of Lady Justice. How would she, someone who decides on the sentence by weighing the sins of the sinner on a balance and delivers punishment with her sword, evaluate this incident? Perhaps a man who is floundering across the numerous cycles of life and a woman who became the culprit without even knowing the reason might not even be a target of punishment. The two of them were both victims and were just innocent people suffering due to the wheels of fate. Maru wanted to ask if she didn’t have any thoughts about being merciful and sparing both. If she said both of them were sinners, he would say to her: try undoing that blindfold on your face first.

“What a pain.”

If he thought about things simply, he was supposed to welcome this situation since the cause of this incident is taking responsibility and is willing to receive punishment, but the problem was that it was Han Gaeul who was going to be on the gallows. Even if she did commit a sin, he would want to get her out of there no matter what he had to do, but she herself was walking towards the gallows herself.

“God or the rabbit?” Maru said as he looked at his own reflection on the powered-off TV.

The repeated lives must be a result of godly powers. Whether it was a punishment or a blessing, it did not change the fact that a supreme being had bestowed such an environment to an individual. The problem was the masked man and the rabbit, especially the latter. Just like how the masked man had split off from Han Maru’s repeated lives, the rabbit must be a double of Han Gaeul as well. Assuming that God is in control of everything would only lead him to the conclusion that everything he was worried about would be useless, so Maru thought of this as an event that even God had not expected or perhaps had expected but did not care about. If there was a problem, there had to be an event that caused that problem. Just like how fallen leaves are the result of the tree running out of its life span or a strong gust of wind. If Han Maru’s cycle of life is the problem, and the culprit is Han Gaeul, then what caused that problem in the first place?

A few hypotheses brushed past his mind. Maru picked the most old-fashioned reason out of them all: she did not want his death.

God, who usually doesn’t pay any heed to their believers’ prayers, happened to overhear a woman’s prayer when they just happened to be emotional: please save the man dying in front of me. Unlike usual, God listened to that prayer instead of paying no heed as usual, and as a result, the man was given the chance to live again. The problem was that the man didn’t live once more; he lived more than enough times.

Maru scanned what he wrote on his notepad. It was a very old-fashioned story, but it also clearly explained the situation. He could also accept that her double, the rabbit, wanted death. After all, she was someone with a great sense of responsibility. She was the type of woman who would gladly accept death if it was the solution. She was someone who braved the dangers of being electrocuted in order to save their daughter in the previous life. What couldn’t she do?

It was a fact that the rabbit was acting independently just like the masked man with a clear ego. If the rabbit wanted Han Gaeul’s death, there would be many more problems in the future. There were many methods in this era that could make a person a guest of the grim reaper. There was no need to go as far as getting struck by lightning or some kind of natural disaster. Just a slight push would give her a ticket to the afterlife; of course, without a return ticket.

“If she can exert physical influence, there should be no need for her to pray so desperately.”

If what the rabbit wanted was death, and if the rabbit was a being that could exert real influence like the 1990 film Ghost or Ghostbusters, there was no need to beg him, who was bound by the laws of physics. Just making Gaeul strangle herself slightly could end everything after all. However, the rabbit desperately begged him to head to the light in the dream.

The rabbit cannot exert influence in the real world – Maru wrote on the notepad. It was a hypothesis that was close to the truth and one that he wanted to believe as the truth. He did think that the rabbit may be able to exert real influence if certain conditions were met, but such assumptions didn’t help at all. It is true that people can die from lightning strikes, but not many people refrain from going out because of such a fact. He had to exclude the events with slim possibilities and combine the more likely ones to devise a course of action.

“What if Gaeul’s collapse was a destined event, and the rabbit only created a situation so that she was by herself at home?”

Just like how there was an observation that Han Maru never lived past the age of 45, Han Gaeul might have such special events that were repeated in the numerous lives. In their previous life as well, she threw herself at the phone charger on fire with a blanket in order to save their daughter. One misstep might have led to a terrible accident. If there is an observation that such an event occurs in her life at least once, the rabbit might know the essence of those observations. She might not be able to exert any physical influence, but she might be able to induce Gaeul to make dangerous decisions. If the rabbit tried to kill Gaeul in their previous lives, she would have given an order before the phone charger was set on fire: maybe it’s a good idea to wash the dishes.

“From how I died first in the previous life as well, the rabbit probably also became able to speak in this life, just like the masked man.”

The rabbit was Han Gaeul and simultaneously the woman in the white suit. This meant that the rabbit had observed Han Maru’s cycle of lives before the masked man gained awareness. He could probably assume that she remembered his first death to his last death. If one’s experience is what composited a human, then the rabbit was closer to the essence than the current living Gaeul. Though, that wasn’t even funny.

He was suddenly reminded of the moment when he first met the woman in the suit. He wondered what she felt when she looked at him back then. He shook his head. It was something beyond his imagination. If hell existed, that would be it.

“Yoo Bokja.”

Recalling back to the moment he came back to life, Maru reminded himself of the device that she came up with in order to fool him. She created an imaginary figure that didn’t even exist so that he wouldn’t be able to ignore the opportunity of a new life. In his previous life, he didn’t have a neighboring elderly lady who picked up scrap papers for a living. He was unsure of it when the memories of his previous life were blurring, but he could be sure about it now. Above all, Yoo Bokja was someone else’s name. It was the name of Gaeul’s grandmother who she followed more than her mother when she was young.

If she wanted to create a situation to induce him to choose to live another life, it would have been fine even if she came up with a completely different name. Actually, such devices weren’t even necessary. How many people would forgo the opportunity to live again? He was taken aback at first but was soon filled with gratitude and joy when the figure of Yoo Bokja was introduced.

“Perhaps it might have been a hint.”

God blocked the mouth of the masked man to prevent him from speaking. She must have been in the same situation. The fact that she chose the name Yoo Bokja might have been her way of giving a hint within a tolerable level. Her SOS help signal finally shone through in this life. This might be the first and last opportunity. It was highly likely that his memories were going to be erased once he died. After all, God was a merciless observer.

He sighed deeply as he pressed between his eyes. The conveyor belt of his thought factory seemed to have reached a limit. He needed to get some rest if he didn’t want the factory to shut down. He closed his eyes in order to cool down his burning head. Just then, his phone, which he placed on the table, started ringing. He clutched his head with his right hand and put his phone against his ear with the left.

“Han Maru speaking.”

-From how you picked up as soon as it rang, it seems like you didn’t check the name. I thought you weren’t going to pick up.

The conveyor belt that had stopped working made a mechanical sound before starting to roll again. The hypotheses, assumptions, and deductions were all cleared out and replaced by excuses and avoidance measures in order to get past this situation.

-Hello? The Han Maru I know doesn’t stay quiet after picking up a call.

“Sorry.”

-First up, thank you for being worried about me. It’s not like I pushed myself, but I ended up collapsing. I’m alright now, so don’t worry about me.

“That’s good.”

-It is. I’m asking just in case: do you have an idea as to why I called you?

“Not at all. Nothing comes to mind.”

-Yes, you shouldn’t. That’s only natural.

“I’ll also ask just in case: are you angry?”

-Me? Do you think I’m angry?

“No, I must have misspoke.”

-No, you were right. Yes, I am angry. I am so angry that I want to drive over to where you are. I want to look at your face and scream at you. But regretfully, I don’t know where you live. I found it frustrating that I don’t know where you are.

“What is it?”

-What is it, you ask? Fine, I’ll give you a hint. I had a call with director Park Hoon just now.

“And?”

-Nothing comes to mind?

Maru rubbed his eyebrows and sighed. Something did come to his mind the moment Park Hoon’s name was mentioned, but he could not say it first.

“No.”

-You really are… Fine, alright. I’ll hang up if you don’t have anything to tell me.

After checking that the call had ended, Maru called Park Hoon. Park Hoon picked up as though he had been waiting for the call.

“Director. Did you talk to Gaeul about me? About the casting, I mean.”

-It was in the past, and Gaeul became successful through it, so I thought that there wouldn't be a big problem even if I told her about it, but after listening to her voice and yours, it seems I was wrong, huh. I’m sorry. I thought you asked me not to mention it to her because I thought you were worried about her pride, but I must have been wrong.

“Not at all. I did make it sound like that, so it’s not surprising for you to have thought that. This is my fault. I should have made things clear to you.”

-Is there a problem between you two?

“I don’t know either.”

-What if I call Gaeul and tell her that it’s a misunderstanding?

“From her personality, she’ll nag you about it, so don’t say anything. Sorry for calling you this late into the night.”

-Tell me if there’s a problem because of this. I’ll try to make an excuse.

“Not at all. This is something I should take care of myself, so don’t worry about it. Have a good night.”

Maru smiled bitterly as he looked at his phone. If their relationship worsened as a result of this then he should be joyous since it was all according to his plan, but now that he found out that the rabbit wanted her death, he couldn’t exactly let things be either.

For now, he gave her a call. The signal sound continued for a long time. A moment later, a voice could be heard. The number you have just called is either unavailable or…

It was one of her habits to choose to sleep when she became uncontrollably angry. Perhaps she had buried her face in a pillow and was waiting for sleep to overcome her. He took his finger off the call button before placing his phone on the dining table.

“You don’t help me even once,” he said as he looked out the window.

He turned on the TV and took out some beer from the fridge. It was about time he stopped thinking and got some rest. He watched a drama in a daze. Just then, his phone started ringing again. He lay on the sofa and stared at the phone ringing in a daze. His whole body had given up on working. He had no energy to wake up. A moment later, the phone became docile again.

He emptied the last bit of beer before changing the channel. He felt bitter thinking about what Gaeul must have felt when she made that call. He wondered what he should do once the sun rose. Give her a call and tell her the circumstances? Or just stay still? As he was pondering between the two unacceptable options, he turned his head around. Someone knocked on his door. He wondered if he heard wrong, but he heard thudding sounds again.

He placed the empty can of beer on the floor before walking to the door. In the brief period that he walked towards the door, there was a knock again. The person outside seemed to be very urgent. There was no way there was a package at this hour. Who is it? – he said as he opened the door. Immediately after that, he had an ominous feeling. However, it was too late, just like always.

“So you open the door without a hitch, huh?”

He scanned her, who was standing outside, from top to bottom. Her pants were patient clothes, while her top was a hoodie.

“Open. The. Door.”

It was an order, and Maru could only obey.

KTLChamber's Thoughts

Lol, after I translated this chapter, I feel like I might have chosen the wrong time to do the double chapter event xD

Editor’s Note:

I highly ***highly*** suggest waiting for the next 4 chaps to be released. Chamber warned me but I didn’t listen and thus regretted it. Regretted it a lot :’)

Chapter 803
Sequence 7

“In life, there will come a time when you hesitate. Those moments will probably come quite a lot, and whenever they come, there is a choice to be made. You can also not choose and just run away or ignore them, but from your mother’s experience, those decisions you ran away from or ignored will be placed in front of your eyes again eventually. At that time, it will be much heavier and much more complex. Decision-making is a difficult thing. Because it is difficult, you have to do it. The majority of decisions can be resolved through pondering, but if you’re faced with a choice that you cannot decide on no matter how hard you think about it, then shake off all the worries you had until then. Clear your mind and ask yourself what you want in a state where you aren’t thinking about anything. Your circumstances, relationships, and rules – leave those aside and focus on what you truly want. No matter how difficult of a choice it is, you will be able to reduce it down to that. Though, of course, you can’t go against the law.”

Those were her mother’s words. Gaeul ruminated on those words as she lay on the hospital bed. A world-flipping headache struck her head, and a feeling of betrayal or perhaps scorn squirmed within her stomach. Her whole body heated up as though she had gotten a high fever, but the breath that escaped her mouth was surprisingly cold. Director Park Hoon’s words echoed in her mind again: the one that recommended you is a fellow named Han Maru.

Gaeul stood up from her bed and looked outside the window. Although it was past midnight, it was still pretty bright outside. What came to her mind as she looked at the lit up houses outside was that it wasn’t that late to make a visit. She ignored her surging emotions as well as her reason that was on a rampage and grabbed her phone. What is it that she wanted? There was no need to even think about it.

She found a friend who would give her the answer from her contacts list. She pressed the call button and waited.

-Yes?

“Let me ask you one thing.”

-Why do you sound so scary?

“Han Maru’s address. Do you know it?”

-Why do you want that all of a sudden?

Heewon was replying to her in a flustered voice. Usually, she would calmly explain the situation and ask for help. The reason she broke up with Maru, then the luck that befell her, as well as the fact that Han Maru was the cause of that fortune; she would have explained all of those – and perhaps get some consolation midway – and then finally get the address, but now that she had stopped thinking, there was no such thing as leisure within her. The ever forward-looking nature of racehorses was all that she was right now.

“Answer me. Do you know or not?”

-I don’t.

“Then that’s fine.”

-Wait, is the address all you need?

“Yes.”

-You aren’t going to buy a knife and stab him or something, right? I don’t want to become an assistive criminal for a murder.

“I’ll see how it goes.”

-Haewon should know it. I’ll give you a text.

“Thanks.”

-Go easy on him, whatever it is.

“Don’t tell Maru I’m going.”

-That doesn’t sound fair though. I should give him some time at least. Considering Han Maru’s personality, he would probably not run away. Also, beating a person who’s wearing protective equipment feels better than beating a defenseless one.

“Alright, then do what you want. I’m going to depart now.”

She put on the hoodie that she wore when she walked around the hospital before leaving. After telling the nurse that she was going to leave for a little, she got into her car and drove out of the hospital parking lot. While tapping her finger nervously with her hands placed on the wheel, she got a text. She inputted the address into the GPS navigation system and drove off. It wasn’t that far.

She got out of the car and checked the apartment number before getting on the elevator without hesitation. She pressed the floor number before waiting. While the elevator started rising along with some vibrations, she woke up her brain that had been dormant until now. She had to think about her first line at least before talking to him.

She stood in front of the door and placed her finger on top of the bell. Although she had rushed here immediately after getting the call, she strangely could not exert any strength into her finger. This 1 cm was more difficult to traverse than the kilometers of progress she made until now.

Gaeul calmed her breathing. She wanted to act rationally. I’ll first greet him, and then go inside and listen to what he has to say. He must have his excuses after all. What is the intention behind his recommendation before they broke up as well as what is the reason that he hid the fact – she was determined to find that out.

She took her hand off the bell and knocked on the front door with her hands clenched into a fist. It was easier to bang on the door than to press the bell. She took a deep breath and banged on the door again. Her sensitive ears caught the sounds of someone grabbing the handle on the other side. She felt like he was behind this door. Let’s not get angry, let’s be cold-headed – she recalled what she prepared as a greeting

The door opened about halfway. She noticed the sound of the TV that escaped the door first, followed by his tired-looking face. Although it had only been a brief moment, Gaeul realized that he had stiffened up from being startled.

“So you open the door without a hitch, huh?”

Something that was different from what she had in mind escaped her lips instead. As she had expected, she felt angry the moment she looked at him. He was standing there in a daze while grabbing onto the door. He kept staring at her like a child who had lost his parents.

“Open. The. Door.”

She kindly told him his next course of action. He nodded and opened the door. Gaeul took off her slippers and walked inside. A shiba-inu with a wide, flat face popped out from the kitchen. It wagged its tail as though it had no intention of being wary of her at all.

“Are you raising it?”

“Yeah.”

“I thought the sense of responsibility to raise a pet was too much for you.”

“I had some leeway, so I ended up raising one.”

“The leeway that came after breaking up with me?”

She decided to scrap her plan of putting her words in a nice way. The moment she crossed the doorway, she decided to become a soldier. Not a general who just gives commands from far away from the battlefield, but a soldier who actually fiercely fights against enemies.

Maru rubbed his eyebrows. It seemed that his old habit had not disappeared. Whenever he was at a loss for words or was in deep thought, he always scratched his eyebrows instead of replying.

“This place looks good. You live in a nice place, huh.”

“I’m freeloading though.”

“You can even see the Han River. This place must be expensive.”

She lifted up the dog and put it in her arms before opening the veranda. The night air of September cooled down her heated head. She regained enough rationale to speak reasonably.

“From the way you look, I see that you’ve heard what this is about from director Park Hoon.”

“Uhm, Gaeul.”

“Shush. If you interrupt me now, even I don’t know what I’ll end up doing, so just listen. Heewon told me that knives were no good.”

“Knives are no good. Did Heewon tell you my address?”

“Haewon did. Don’t think about saying something to him. I forced it out of him.”

“I didn’t plan to.”

“That’s good.”

“Rather than that, how do you feel?”

“I haven’t even started and yet you’re trying to change the subject already.”

“That wasn’t my intention. But don’t you think you should drink a little if you want to have a talk? Of course, if you don’t want that, I’ll just kneel down right here and listen to you.”

Maru tried to get on his knees. She sighed. The heat that had risen to the top of her head climbed down to her throat level thanks to his actions as well as the night wind.

“What do you have that I can drink?”

She decided to take a step back in order to take two steps forward. She put down the dog. It hopped its way over to Maru as though it was overjoyed to have a guest over.

“An alcoholic barley drink, an alcoholic grape juice, alcoholic water, et cetera.”

“What about just water?”

“If you want, then sure.”

“I’ll have a beer then.”

Maru brought some canned beer. She accepted the beer and sat on the sofa. There were empty cans on top of the cabinet next to the sofa. It seemed that he had been drinking by himself.

“Should I kneel? Or should I sit next to you?”

“Which do you find easier?”

“Kneeling.”

“Then sit next to me.”

Maru sat down next to her. The sofa cushion sunk down according to his body weight, and her body became closer to his.

“Let’s confirm the facts first. Are director Park Hoon’s words true? Did you recommend me?”

“Rather than recommending you, it was more like introducing you. I only told him that a girl like you exists.”

“Really? Then one more thing. The director told me about it. He went there to cast you.”

He flinched just as he was about to bring the beer to his mouth. The fact that he visibly reacted when he was good at hiding his emotions meant that he was considerably flustered.

“You heard about that as well?”

“Yes, I have. Like what you said, I can understand that you introduced me. Back then, we were out of touch, but we were technically still going out. But you know? I just can’t wrap my head around how you rejected your cast. Not only that, you recommended – no, sorry, – introduced me.”

“The thing is.”

He opened his lips with a forced smile but was unable to continue his words. She asked the next question,

“You rejected the cast and returned to Daehak-ro, and I couldn’t hear any news about you. When we met after a long time, you told me this: let’s break up. Then you went to the military. I felt confused back then, but listening to this story now makes me double confused. You had an opportunity. You had the skills, so you would definitely have become successful if you grabbed that opportunity. So why didn’t you do it? Why did you go to the military like you were fleeing?”

She grabbed the beer with both of her hands. The coldness seeped into her palms.

“Things just happened.”

“Things happened? Don’t you think what I heard is too absurd to just put it as ‘things happened’?”

“Back then, I was immature. I didn’t know what I had to do.”

“The almighty Han Maru was immature and didn’t know what to do?”

She smiled and looked into his eyes. He always looked into the person’s eyes when he had a conversation. She had a glimpse at his world through his eyes, and the opposite must be true as well. Make eye contact when having a conversation. Right now, his eyes were camera lenses that couldn’t find focus. He was looking, but he was also not looking.

“Is it because of me?”

She took out the question that she wanted yet did not want to ask.

“It’s definitely not like that.”

Maru strongly denied it. It was a firm attitude never seen before from him, but she instantly recognized his anxiety and sadness.

She took her hands off the beer. She touched his cheek with a palm that had become numb from the chill.

“What are you so afraid of?”

“I…”

He tried to turn his head away as he blurred off. She shook her head. Don’t avoid my eyes – she calmly muttered.

“This is not something I can say.”

“Really?”

“I know what you want to say. But don’t misunderstand. Things just happened to overlap. The reason I recommended you wasn’t anything special. Your name just popped up in my mind.”

“Mr. Han Maru. Why is it that your logic feels so weak today? Is it because it’s a bad time? So then, why did you ask him to keep it a secret? Because it might hurt my pride?”

“Yes.”

“No. In my opinion, that feels like a setup to break up as painfully as possible.”

“It’s not like that.”

“It is me who kept a distance from you first. It was a foolish thing. I was swayed by the foolish words that I need to keep a distance from you in order to keep my pride. But it didn’t take long for me to find out that the pride I managed to protect by avoiding you is merely a castle built on top of sand.”

“You are a strong woman who doesn’t get swayed by anyone.”

“No, I’m not like that. Even now, I’m so uneasy that my hands are shaking like this.”

She moved her hand slowly and pressed her index finger to his lips.

“Your actions, the events that happened before, and the expression you have on your face today; let me ask you one more thing.”

“What about my right to stay silent?”

“You will have to answer me. Did you ever hate me?”

“The fact that I broke up with you is my answer.”

“Tell me properly. Was there ever a time you didn’t love me?”

“It’s been three years. And it’s been five years since we were apart. It’s definitely not a short time.”

“The more you make excuses like that, the more concrete my convictions become. If it’s not, then just tell me so. Have you ever forgotten about me?”

“Han Gaeul.”

“I haven’t. Not even once. Not even for a moment.”

Maru slowly turned his head away. She closed her lips and sighed softly. Just then, a piece of paper stuck in the corner of a family photo frame entered her eyes. It was a familiar autograph. Maru seemed to have found that autograph as well.

“I think there’s evidence there that denies all your answers. What do you think?”

He closed his eyes as though he had given up and sighed. He seemed defenseless. She listed to her instincts. He needed punishment. The start was a kiss, and the end, was well, up to him.

KTLChamber's Thoughts

Ooooooh, steamy.

I think I read a comment not too long ago about how 'the doggo is just filler'. I did reply that 'usually, these kind of trivial plots tend to become important later on', and voila.

Junmin forces doggo on Maru -> As a result Maru ends up raising a shiba-inu -> This chapter (Gaeul asks why he's raising a dog -> Maru replies because he had some leeway -> Gaeul snaps back saying 'so you have some leeway because you dumped me')

The plot in this novel is simply incredible. I'm amazed.

Editor's Note:

The next few chapters are so incredibly good.

Chapter 804
Sequence 7

(WARNING: NSFW)

Before her lips touched his, he pulled his head back. He was spitefully agile. The warmth in her lips scattered without being transferred. He was making an expression like that of a frightened child.

“What are you so afraid of?”

He seemed to have a lot to say but had no intention of saying anything. His sealed lips would probably not budge through normal methods.

“Are you really not going to say anything?”

Alright – she said before taking her hand off his cheek. He stroked down his cheek with his palm and stood up. Even though the night was breezy enough that there was no need for air conditioning, his forehead was drenched with sweat.

“I don’t know why you are doing this, but it’s a misunderstanding. I just put the autograph there in hopes that you’d do well. Not as a lover but as a friend.”

The words that came out of his lips, as she had expected, sounded like excuses. His voice tone was all over the place, and his eyes moved around chaotically like a fly with just one wing. He, who liked using gestures while speaking, had his hands clenched into fists and stuck to his thighs. This meant that he was really nervous. Just what was driving him to a corner? What was the reason that the man who seemed like he could enjoy a holiday in the middle of a storm was so flustered? She couldn’t even imagine.

He started uttering various things as though there would be big trouble if he stayed silent. He was probably trying to buy time, but she didn’t plan to miss this opportunity. If left alone, this man would probably collect himself soon and come up with sturdy logic in order to put this situation to rest. She had to dig deep while his eyes were chaotic, and his hands were stuck to his pants. Gaeul did not say anything and just opened a can of beer before holding it out to Maru. He, who kept explaining the events of the past five years, blinked before looking at the can of beer.

“Alright. I get it, so let’s drink a little. I need to cool down first, too.”

“Yes, good idea.”

The moment he stopped speaking and grabbed the beer with a heave of a sigh, Gaeul grabbed the defenseless man by the collar and pulled him towards her. Honestly, she didn’t have the confidence to win against him in words. He was the guy who had used his words to resolve most things since he was young. Fighting on his turf with a weapon that he specialized in was practically declaring her loss. If she wanted to win, she had to drag him down from his favorite field; to a world where words were unnecessary.

A thud sounded in Gaeul’s ears. Whether that was the sound from the can of beer that dropped down or from their foreheads colliding, she did not know. The attempt was good, but it did not go like in the movies. Her forehead stung. The beer sprouted out after the can fell on the ground and wet her feet. It was cold and slippery. Her hands were still grabbing him by the collar. She realized that her grip strength was pretty strong. Her eyes caught Maru’s pupils which had gone beyond the realm of being flustered and into the realm of incomprehension. She instantly knew that he was completely defenseless and couldn’t put up a resistance. Her body was quicker to act than her thoughts. A second failure was intolerable.

Their lips met. He soon started resisting, but Gaeul did not let go. She felt that they would go past the point of no return if she pulled away right now. Their lips interlocked with each other. His firmly sealed lips resisted until the last moment, but the gates to the castle were eventually opened. The warmth that she could not transmit before was now transferred from mouth to mouth. This was a world where conversations were unnecessary. This was the scene from a silent movie. He placed his hand on her shoulder. She could feel a pushing force. She felt his desire to talk this out with words. She didn’t plan on listening to him.

She ran out of breath. Her head felt dizzy. A tingle ran down her back. There was a flash of lightning whenever all of her senses concentrated in her lips, touched something, and then rubbed against it. The hand on her shoulder eventually lost strength. The enemy general had raised a white flag. The stiff castle gates that had to be forced open had turned into a marshmallow. Only now could she feel his breath. It was close; it was hot; it was blurry.

She slowly pulled her lips away. She wanted to take a step back in order to have a good look at his face, but the floor was slippery, making her lose balance. He grabbed her by the waist. For some reason, Gaeul felt a chuckle escaping her.

“The beer is slippery.”

When she sat up properly again, her nerves were focused on his hand on her waist. It seemed that the nerves which had been running amok in her lips had gone to her waist.

“Do you still not have anything to say?”

“You really are.”

“Are what?”

“A woman who’s wasted on me.”

She could see his pupils, which had been shut firmly like prison doors, loosening up. The emotions that had been hidden until now flowed out onto his face in one moment. He, who was daring since their first meeting; who was smiling as he gave his first kiss; who was stifling his cry at the cinema, was right in front of her. Gaeul raised her hand to touch Maru’s eyes. She touched his nose, his cheeks, and his lips. It was all him.

“Should we wipe this for now?”

She faintly nodded. She felt like she could let go of Maru for now. Maru brought a rag and some tissues from the kitchen and wiped the beer on the floor. Gaeul helped him as she prevented the dog from approaching and licking the beer. Maru brought a towel from the bathroom.

“Your feet.”

“I’ll do it.”

She tried to take the towel from him, but he shook his head. Having no choice, she sat down on the sofa. For some reason, she felt like he had stolen the lead from her. The towel was damp. It seemed that he had soaked it with water. He wiped her right foot, which had beer on it, before looking up at her silently, his face having turned from an attorney driven into a corner into that of a prosecutor who had gotten clear evidence. She pressed her lips together and tried to pull her right foot away, but he did not let go.

“The time is past midnight; a woman has intruded into a single man’s house; the woman that gave the man a kiss. Defendant, your excuses will no longer work.”

He put his lips against her foot. She faintly screamed before pulling her foot away. Her entire body felt ticklish to the point it gave her chills.

“What are you doing?”

She demanded an answer, but his lips stayed quiet. He slowly approached her and placed his hand on her shoulder. She flinched and fell down in the direction of his push.

Her heart, which was supposed to be in her chest, felt as though it had moved right next to her ears. Her thumping heart was working so hard that it wouldn’t be strange if she died because of an overdose of blood. Maru climbed onto the sofa slowly. She averted her gaze away from his downward gaze and looked at the dog. She didn’t have the confidence to look in front of her. She did expect it. She even predicted that things would eventually come down to this. However, a mental simulation was completely different from the real deal. A part of her desired this, yet a frightened part of her definitely also existed. The floundering heart that he had let go of seemed to have come to her. What would happen if she said ‘only a kiss is allowed’ in this situation? The fear of the one who had lost control started numbing her entire body. It was a strange thing. A part of her definitely desired this.

The moment Maru’s hand clutched her, she moaned and closed her eyes. She tried to act calm, but she couldn’t help her body from trembling. It might be okay if the next action came quickly.

She didn’t know how much time had passed. Nothing happened. She carefully opened her eyes. What she saw was him, smiling brightly.

“Why did you let me do it when you were going to be this frightened?”

“Who’s frightened?”

“Just like how you can see through my lies, I can also see through your lies. You were almost about to cry.”

He hugged her gently and sat her up. A sense of relief and disappointment perked their heads up at the same time within her.

“Don’t you need to go back to the hospital?”

“I was going to be discharged tomorrow anyway.”

“Then spend the night here.”

“Han Maru.”

“Tomorrow. I’ll tell you everything I can tomorrow. But there aren’t that many things that I can tell you.”

Go get washed – Maru added that before turning on the lights in the bathroom. Gaeul nodded before walking into the bathroom. She closed the door and looked at the mirror. Her face had turned beet-red. Her neck and back were drenched with sweat. The nervousness, the expectation, and the fear she felt during that short moment created this outcome. Knock knock – he knocked on the door. She was naked, so she opened the door about halfway.

“Here’s a toothbrush, a towel, and some change of clothes. I don’t have any underwear, so I got shorts.”

“Thanks.”

“You should wash with warm water so that you don’t catch a cold. A sick girl came all the way here in patient clothes. Geez, you’re quite something.”

“Whose fault do you think it is?”

She closed the door and started washing herself. Although it was an unfamiliar shower, she did not feel any sense of rejection from it. In fact, she even started humming. She wiped herself with a towel and brushed the mirror, which had fogged up. She checked herself with the mirror.

“Is this okay?”

The fact that she hadn’t put on any makeup started tugging her mind. She wrapped her hair with the towel before leaving. He had prepared a hairdryer and some cosmetics. She crouched down in front of the bathroom and started drying her hair. The more her hair dried, the more embarrassed she felt. The anger that consumed her before she barged in had disappeared in an instant, and it seemed that her courage was flushed down with it. Her eyes headed towards the veranda. There were clothes hanging there. Boxers were fluttering in the wind. The first thing she did when she came to his house was move to the veranda, so why didn’t she see it back then?

“What about your schedule?”

“I don’t have any. Someone else is taking over the radio for now.”

“Then I guess you should get a good rest. There’s a bed in the bedroom.”

Maru was laying out a duvet on the sofa.

“You’re sleeping there?”

“Then should we sleep together in the bedroom?”

He grinned sneakily. She had completely entered his playground. Now, there was no way for her to win against him. She entered the room. There was a faint smell of mint as though he had just sprayed some Febreze. She carefully pulled up the duvet and lay on the bed. The smell of mint became faint and an unfamiliar scent entered her nose. She had never smelled it before, but she felt relieved the moment she smelled it. It felt cozy as though she had been living in this house for a long time.

“Are you asleep?” he asked from outside.

She pulled the duvet up to her chin and replied,

“No.”

“There are many things I want to tell you but can’t.”

“I know. I don’t understand, but I feel like I somewhat know now.”

“Get some good rest for now. Let’s talk face-to-face tomorrow.”

“Alright.”

She stayed silent for a little before asking again,

“Uhm, I want to hear an answer to my question from before.”

There was no reply. Did he return to the sofa? – she sighed a little, when,

“I loved you from the beginning. I loved you when you weren’t in front of me, I loved you when I hated you, and I loved you when I wanted to forget about you. See you tomorrow.”

She pushed the duvet away. She got off the bed and pushed off the ground with all of her might to approach the door before turning the doorknob and pulling it open. He was standing in front of the door. There was no more hesitation. The fear was still there, but a feeling much larger than that had consumed her. She assaulted him with her lips and hugged him by the neck. His hands touched her waist before pulling up her top and reaching inside. The hand that freely roamed about her body seemed to know what part about her was sensitive and which places made her pleased.

“Don’t you need some sleep?”

“It’s already too late.”

“You’re sick too.”

“I don’t care.”

“You’re still afraid though.”

“Then relieve me of my fears.”

“Sorry about everything.”

“No. Tell me something else.”

“I love you.”

“I wanted to hear those words for so long. So… dearly.”

The hands that touched her body were cold yet warm. His hands slowly awoke all the senses in her body. Her body became sharp like a needle before melting like ice cream. Sparks would go off whenever his lips touched her neck. He put his lips against her neck, breasts, and stomach as though he was engraving into her that she was his. She lay on the bed and grabbed his hair slightly. After kissing deeply on her stomach, he raised his head. She smiled in embarrassment and looked into his eyes. She could see his world in its entirety.

“Kiss me.”

She accepted his whole body weight. Heat arose wherever his skin met hers. Their bodies were clamped together with a force even stronger than the one attracting their lips. She locked her fingers behind his neck. She would not let go. Ever.

“Don’t worry. I will not let you go. No matter how bad things are,” he said.

For some reason, those words sounded uneasy, but when she brushed against his body, the worries dissolved into nothing. Reason had no room here. Their bodies were honest, and the conversation of their bodies was just about to begin. The night was going to be too short to tell each other everything.

A gasping breath escaped through her teeth.

KTLChamber's Thoughts

You expected steam to begin right after the

Chapter 805
Sequence 7

(WARNING: NSFW)

Her limp, curved body hardened and straightened out as it became stirred. She gasped for breath with her mouth slightly open. His back, in her embrace, was wide. She stroked the minute muscles that started from his shoulder with her finger. Her hand strode down the cavity created down his spine, down to his waist. She pinched a bit of the skin whenever she felt a big thumping pain from her lower stomach.

She felt a pleasing sense of pressure between the bed and his body. He moved neither too fast nor too slow. Her body, which had scrunched up due to nervousness, started opening up. She pushed her arms between his armpits and hugged him. She felt at ease as though her body had been shaped in the first place to take this form.

Whenever he heaved a breath out and pushed against her, she had to hold back the moans that rose up from the depths of her body. It started off with pain, but as his eyes stroked her heart and his hand stroked her body, the sensation turned into something beyond simple pain and lewd.

His hands stroked her body without stopping. Sometimes, he conquered hills like a veteran hiker, and sometimes he became an expert rock climber and freely moved between the valleys. When his right hand touched her lower right rib, she was reminded of a bible verse; the verse about how Eve was created from Adam’s rib. She intermingled with his body perfectly as though she had been a part of him originally. From some time onwards, she could no longer differentiate between the smell of his skin and the sound of his heart from her own. Wherever his body went, her body did the same. When he pushed, she was pushed, when he pulled, she was pulled.

She had this thought: this man must know her body better than anyone else. The sense of embarrassment was pushed out of her mind a long time ago. Her body honestly focused on the parts that he touched and reacted to his touches. Her passive attitude started changing. She locked her hands behind his back and slowly pulled. The lips that fell apart for a brief moment touched each other again and was followed by an exchange of breaths. His lips were slightly dry. When their lips pieced together, she licked his upper lip with her tongue. He, who was moving proactively, slowly turned around to the side. His chest touched her back. He hugged him from behind on the bed for a while to catch his breath before moving his hands again.

Gaeul looked at the mood light scattering faint orange light on top of the bedside table before closing her eyes. Maru’s breath waving towards her from behind tickled her ears. Maru’s hands were slowly stroking her thighs. His gestures were soft as though he was babying an infant who had just woken up. The threads of nervousness that had snapped apart became connected again and made her body sensitive. This was definitely not a time for resting. His slow and gentle hands left behind flowers of heat in their wake. It would put her at ease to look at his eyes, but he was behind her back. In a place where vision was blocked off, the sensitivity of her sense of touch increased severalfold. It didn’t take that long for the ticklish sensation in her thighs to spread throughout her entire body. Her stable breath started becoming agitated again. She wanted to turn around, look into his eyes, assault his lips, and free herself so that he could do whatever he wanted with her. The moment such thoughts entered her mind, the sense of embarrassment that had been pushed out pushed its way back in again. She felt like she wouldn't be able to look at his eyes right now. It was then that his hand crawled between her thighs. It was as though he knew everything.

A minute sense of shame as well as a hair-raising pleasure, came to her at once. Moans escaped through her sealed lips. Her thighs tensed up as though she was doing a full sprint. She twisted her body in an attempt to curl up her body, but his left arm did not let go of her. She locked her fingers together and tensed her toes. He put his body against her. The hands were merely the forerunners. He dug between her thighs and replaced his hands without any pain.

When he moved, a slight pain jolted through her lower body, but it did not feel unpleasant at all. When she thought about how the pain proved that she was connected with him, she even somewhat welcomed it. She felt a little embarrassed in this position where she couldn’t see his face, but she had no complaints as she could feel his body warmth even more. She unlocked her hands and placed them on his thighs. The thighs were sturdy. The slightly twitching sensation in sync with his breath was even a little cute. She felt that she had gotten used to this now that she had gotten more leisure to think. She couldn’t act embarrassed now, so she thought that she should try her best to make the most out of this time.

The orange mood lighting, the gray closet, the shirts and pants hung on the chair, the cologne on the makeup table, as well as the blinking electronic clock in the wooden case were reflected on her pupils. His breath became hotter, and her own body heated up along with it as well. She wanted to see his face. She wanted to know what kind of expression was on his face right now. Would his eyes be open or closed? Would he be struggling to exert his strength, or smiling like a veteran? Whichever it was, she wanted to kiss him. She wanted to tell him that she was so happy, so pleased with her own lips. She regained her center of gravity and turned her head around. The first thing she saw was hair. She tried to reach out backwards and touch his cheek. Just then, she realized that she couldn’t see his face.

Gaeul flinched and opened her eyes. Light was seeping in through the curtain. She blankly stared up at the ceiling. She soon regained her senses.

“It was a dream.”

However, her fatigued body as well as Maru’s body odor told her that what happened last night was indeed real. She pulled the duvet up over her head. She couldn’t believe that she was doing that in her dream. If Maru knew, he would tease her about it for days. Light seeped in through the duvet that covered her eyes. Under the brightly lit up duvet, she looked down at her own body. She was naked without a single piece of clothing. She had never been so thankful that she had been exercising to maintain her figure. She rolled her eyes up and down before touching between her thighs with her hands. The sensation of last night vividly came back to her. She soon started clutching her hair and screaming faintly. She just remembered that she would have to see Maru’s face. The fact that she was about to see his face right now was overwhelmingly more embarrassing than when they had been in intimate contact. After thinking about what to say, she stopped struggling on the spot and looked next to her. Maru wasn’t there.

“Han Maru?”

She covered her body with the duvet and sat up.

“Maru?”

She didn’t get a reply. She looked at the clock on top of the drawers. It was 6:40 in the morning. She would usually never wake up even when it was past 11 on days without shoots, so it was pretty curious that she opened her eyes so early, but this wasn’t the time to be concerned about her early awakening. She put on the shorts and t-shirt at the foot of the bed before leaving the room. There was no one in the chilly living room. She didn’t realize this when he was here, but it looked pretty desolate. There wasn't that much furniture, and all the furniture that was there was all gray. She suddenly found it incredibly chilling that she was alone in this big space.

She opened the door to the bathroom, wishing that Maru was there. She checked the dressing room, wishing that he was there smiling at her. He was not here.

“He didn’t say a single thing.”

Perhaps he left early in the morning because of a shoot. She was well aware that there were no distinctions between night and day for actors. She sat on the sofa. She looked at the black screen of the TV without turning it on. The sunlight entered the living room, bringing about a warm color, but it still looked rather bitter in her eyes. The shiba-inu with a limping leg walked out. She hugged the dog. The dog struggled in her arms before becoming docile.

“I shouldn’t feel disappointed in a person who has left to work, right? I’m not a kid. Right?”

She tickled the dog’s head. It narrowed its eyes and panted as though it felt good. She played with the dog for a while before placing it down. The dog’s body was warm but it was nothing compared to the heat from Maru’s body. She looked around the living room before standing up from the sofa. Ever since she became conscious of the fact that she was in another person’s house, she couldn’t stay still.

She returned to the room and grabbed her phone. She pressed the home button in order to call Maru, but the power didn’t turn on. Only then did she realize that there was only 5% battery left when she ran out from the hospital. There were no landline phones in sight either. Not only that, the phone charger was incompatible as well. There was no way of contacting him in this technological era. For the first time, she didn’t like her phone’s brand.

Gaeul came out to the kitchen with a memo and a pen placed on top of the drawers. She sat down at the table and stared at the yellow-colored memo. Surprisingly, she couldn’t think of what to write. In the first memo, she wrote ‘Greetings’ before crumpling it and putting it in her pocket. In the second memo, she only put a black dot. ‘Thank you for having me over’ sounded absurd, ‘Call me’ sounded somewhat iffy, and she didn’t like ‘where are you?’ because it made her feel like a kid.

After a long contemplation, she wrote down ‘I really love you’. She found it pitiful that her vocabulary had been reduced to such a state. She put the memo on the fridge and took out the patient clothes that she had put inside the laundry basket. Just then, she could hear the electronic door lock unlock before the door opened. Gaeul blinked several times as she looked at the door with the clothes in her arms.

“You’re leaving?”

“Didn’t you go to work?”

“I don’t have any work today. Even if there was, I would have postponed it. You’re here after all.”

Maru entered the room as he wiped his sweat with the towel hanging on the shoe rack. It seemed that he went out for a morning exercise. She stared at him as he passed by her and grabbed the water bottle on top of the table. She liked how he drank water. She liked how he smiled at her.

“You were too passionate last night,” he said with a smile.

She threw the clothes in her arms at him. Maru snatched the clothes lightly and immediately laid them out neatly on the table before folding them up.

“I’m quite good at housework.”

“Your mouth is really a source of trouble.”

Maru shrugged before looking at the refrigerator. He seemed to have found the memo on it and reached out. Gaeul shouted ‘wait’ and tried to snatch the memo from his hands.

“I really love you.”

He read the memo out loud in an embarrassing voice. She blocked her ears. She wanted to find a hole to hole herself up in.

“I just wrote it.”

“I’m just reading it too. I really love you.”

“Shut up, give it to me!”

“But it’s meant for me. I’ll keep it as the family heirloom. I really love you.”

Gaeul approached him and reached out for the memo. The memo that she thought she would not be able to reach had entered her hands way too easily. Good – the moment she let her guard down, he let go of the memo and put an arm around her waist.

“Wh-what are you doing?”

“Round two?”

“You’re really…”

His lips covered hers. She was not able to utter the words that came up to her throat. Her eyes closed subconsciously. The heat from last night and the tingling jolt that her body remembered became vivid again.

“I’ll cook you something once I get washed. Wait a bit,” he said as he took his arm off her waist.

She licked her lips before nodding. She hated herself for being disarmed with just a kiss, but she soon justified herself, telling herself that it couldn't be helped.

She sat at the table and listened. She could hear water being sprayed out of the showerhead. Following that, she could hear a familiar hum. She swung her feet back and forth and hummed along, feeling that the song was extremely familiar.

KTLChamber's Thoughts

Okay… That was actually my first time translating NSFW. Lulz

Editor's Note:

¬‿¬ ¬‿¬ ¬‿¬ ¬‿¬ ¬‿¬ ¬‿¬

It's about time they got back together. So cute

Chapter 806
Sequence 7

When she came out of the bathroom with her hair wrapped in a towel, the smell of doenjang-guk tickled her nose. The smell was quite fainter than what her mother made. On the table were side dishes neatly placed in individual bowls. Kimchi, stir-fried garlic stalk, bean sprouts, and finally stir-fried anchovies. She picked up a shiny-looking piece of almond and put it in her mouth.

“Did you fry this with honey?”

“I put it in honey and oligosaccharide and then fried it.”

“It’s good. I should try this at home.”

“I have some left, so you can take it.”

“Then I want the stir-fried garlic stalks and kimchi as well.”

“Fine, take them all.”

Maru, who was tasting the soup in front of the pot, smiled in satisfaction before turning off the stove.

“Where’s the rice? I’ll get it ready.”

“The rice cooker is right next to the microwave.”

The rice cooker was next to the door leading to the veranda which was next to the kitchen. She picked up the rice scooper and opened the lid.

“It’s multi-grain rice.”

“That’s what’s good for health, so yeah.”

“You’re quite attentive when it comes to things like this.”

She scooped some rice and put it in a bowl.

“Is this much okay for you?” she asked as she held out the rice bowl in front of him.

He replied that it was enough. Gaeul scooped enough rice to fill half her bowl before closing the lid of the rice cooker. She was hungry and felt like she would be able to eat triple the amount, but she held back in consideration of the regret that she would have once she ate that much.

She placed the cutlery on the table before sitting down. It had been a very long time since she ate together with someone else in the morning when she didn’t have a shoot. Not only that, the rice was just cooked. The savory smell of just-cooked multi-grain rice stimulated her appetite.

“Are you not done yet?”

“I’m done. You must be hungry.”

Maru put down the pot on the table.

“Try it. I think you’ll like it.”

“I’m quite a picky eater you know?”

Gaeul emphasized once again that she was a gourmet as she picked up a piece of mushroom floating on the top and ate it. The texture was just right; it was not mushy from overcooking nor stiff from undercooking. Thanks to the small amount of doenjang put in the soup, the flavor of the mushroom was quite strong as well. She felt that a thick soup was her preference, but this was good as well.

“It’s good.”

“Of course it is. Who do you think cooked it?”

“Did you learn cooking or something?”

“I did. For a long time.”

He sat down and picked up a spoon. Gaeul looked at Maru putting some rice in his mouth. Everything that happened since last night felt like a dream. She felt as though this enjoyable breakfast would scatter like a mirage once she blinked.

“I’m not going anywhere, so keep eating,” he said.

Hearing him affirm that this was not a dream, she smiled and nodded. They didn’t talk much while they ate. At most, they talked about food. After devouring all the food on the table, they talked about what they ate recently. There were many things she wanted to say and hear, but she judged that now was not the right time. He probably felt the same.

After they finished breakfast and she started washing the dishes, he opened the curtain as well as all the windows. He also put the blanket he placed on the sofa back into the bedroom and also used some tape to clean up the dog fur. He looked natural and proficient as though this was his usual pattern; he did not look like he was doing this because he had a guest over.

“I realized this when I woke up, but this place is cleaner than mine. Don’t men live a dirtier life?”

“That’s a very wrong bias you have there. Don’t you know that cleaning is a man’s dream?”

She shrugged.

“I’m about to make some coffee.”

“There are coffee capsules in the kitchen cupboard. You can choose what you want.”

“How about you?”

“I’ll gladly drink anything you make.”

Gaeul opened the cupboard which had a gray sheet covering it. There were many neatly arranged bottles. She was reminded of when she stayed at a hotel. This looked similar to the cans of beer that were arranged so that the labels could be seen from the front. She stared at the lined-up bottles for a while before turning two of the bottles the other way round.

“That’s better.”

She took out two coffee capsules and started making coffee. She grabbed the mugs with coffee in them and approached Maru, who was on the sofa.

“Black? Or latte?”

“Black.”

“Then here’s your latte.”

He cringed before accepting the mug. A suitably filled stomach, the soft sofa, and a cup of coffee to top it off. There was nothing more she could wish for. She savored the bitter taste of coffee as she looked at the clock. The second hand was indifferently circling around inside the black, circular clock. Tick, tock, tick, tock – the sound was quiet to the point that the ticking could be heard. Gaeul did not want to break the silence. She put her lips together and sipped the coffee as though to wet her lips, wishing that the intentional silence lasted a long time.

“It’s quiet,” he said.

“True,” she replied.

When she was behind the wheel last night, she wanted to know what happened to him during the past five years as well as what exactly happened as they broke up. She wanted to ask why he rejected that public TV drama series, whether it was pity or consideration that he introduced her to the director as though he was yielding his spot, as well as what kind of thoughts were in his mind when he announced his military service as soon as he broke up. There were numerous things she wanted to ask, but right now, she didn’t want to listen to anything. They had a time when conversation wasn’t necessary. She understood what he meant without talking. He must have had inevitable circumstances. He should have tried to resolve them in the easiest manner possible, which must have consequently ended up in the two breaking up. She resented him but at the same time, pitied him. The desire to nitpick his past wrongdoings disappeared when she ate the doenjang-guk in the morning.

“I should have held onto you. I’m sorry that I wasn’t able to.”

She detached her lips from the mug and looked at him. He was the kind of man who would keep what he said. It seemed that he didn’t forget about the promise that they should talk about everything tomorrow. It’s okay – she couldn’t say those words. Strictly speaking, she was the reason for all this. This all started because she kept a distance from him in order to maintain that puny pride of hers.

“How were you supposed to grab a person who was running away with all her might? Maru, you don’t have to be sorry. It was me who asked you to keep a distance. I knew it, but I still felt angry. I’m a terrible woman, aren’t I?”

“You aren’t.”

“If you can’t talk about it, then you don’t have to. We just have to leave the past as it is and start living the present fully.”

She grabbed Maru’s hand. Looking at his agonizing expression, she felt her heart ache.

“We are okay now, aren’t we?”

She waited for his answer. He sighed deeply before speaking,

“Before we talk about what’s ahead of us, there’s something I must confirm with you first. You should not be able to understand what I’m about to tell you. In fact, I think that it’s natural that you won’t believe it. It’s that absurd after all.”

He, who always mentioned the certain, talked about the uncertain for the first time. She felt a sense of ominousness much bigger than when he announced his breakup was coming towards her. It was to the point that she didn’t want to listen. His expression and the shaking of his hands; both of those expressed the weight of his coming words. Perhaps she should tell him not to say it. Perhaps she should persuade him to look forward and not mention the past. She shut her mouth and looked into his eyes. The result of running away was the five years of breakup they just experienced. One mistake was enough. No matter how unpleasant it was, she was willing to listen as long as she was grabbing onto his hand like this.

“Tell me. I’m ready to listen.”

She grabbed his hand tightly, with the resolve to never let go. His lips opened. His upper lip started shaking up and down. She closed her eyes slightly. She was afraid of what he was about to say. Just then, something soft touched her forehead. She opened her eyes faintly. He, who had kissed her on the forehead, was smiling as he took steps back.

“How cute.”

“What the heck?”

“What do you mean what the heck? I just tried acting heavy.”

“I thought you had something to tell me.”

“I do. I was just about to tell you that a famous actress was about to have a party with a nameless actor this weekend.”

“That’s it?”

“What else did you expect?”

He reached out his hand. He stroked her cheeks and spoke,

“I’ll put this simply. Just like how you distanced yourself from me because of your pride, I also did something reckless because I was worried. The plan was to leave behind the woman who would not look at me and then go to her in a cool fashion after military service,” he said with his eyes strained.

“That’s it?”

“What else can there be? I cried like hell after I broke up with you. You won’t know how much I cried. But I’d already applied to the military, so I couldn’t turn back. I thought about how immature I was in the military, you know?”

She had a close look at his face. He didn’t seem like he was lying.

“It’d sound cool if I had a story like I had a time limit to my life or something, but unfortunately, I don’t have anything. It was just the immature romance of an immature man.”

“Then why did you reject the drama?”

“I really wanted to check my own acting. As you know, I did quite a lot of things before that, didn’t I? I kept feeling that my foundation was lacking the more I did it. I thought that I should hone it before it becomes a fixed habit. I’ve never regretted my time in Daehak-ro.”

She recalled Maru’s performance that she saw last time. He definitely looked a lot more refined and honed. He wouldn’t have improved at all if he was simply wandering around, but he had definitely matured.

“Nothing much, isn’t it?”

“Yeah, it’s nothing much.”

She smiled and hugged him. A sense of iffiness in the corner of her heart was screaming for attention, but she decided to ignore it. No matter how mature Maru was back then, he was definitely a ‘kid’. Back then, they ‘both’ must have made the same mistakes.

“I’ll listen to you well from now on.”

“You have to, okay?”

“I promise.”

Feeling his hand patting her head, she heaved a slow breath out. The past no longer mattered. What was important was that she was in his arms.

“Thank you,” she said earnestly.

* * *

Maru sat at the table and looked at the refrigerator. The memo she wrote ‘I really love you’ was still on it. No matter how many times he looked at it, he couldn’t get tired of reading it.

“So after everything, it comes down to this, huh.”

He wanted to talk about the cycle of lives. He wanted to ask if she knew about the rabbit. The moment he took the risk of being treated like he was mentally ill and was about to speak, his vision turned pitch black. It was only an instant, but it felt like an eternity. He instantly realized what that was about. It was God’s warning. It was a strict order telling him that he must not speak of anything.

When he spoke of the excuse he had prepared beforehand, he did the act of his lifetime. It was an act that contained his entire soul that he had never shown even on stage. She might have a shred of suspicion left but would still have accepted nonetheless.

-If you die and lose all of these memories, you might be able to become happy again. Your misfortune is the misfortune stemming from knowledge.

The man, who had been silent for the past five years, had finally spoken. Maru did not reply. That was because the masked man’s words sounded blissful. Even if he repeatedly went back to the past, he would be able to live with her happily for eternity after all if he forgot about the fact that their lives were repeated. He would be able to smile even if his life ended at 45.

“It looks like I’m really crazy for her.”

-I know that feeling really well.

“I can’t leave her to die.”

-I’m sure that’s the case.

“It’s a damned thing.”

-Yes, it’s a damned thing indeed.

Maru stared at the memo stuck on the refrigerator for a long while. I really love you – were those eternal, immortal words a blessing or a curse? He closed his eyes and smiled foolishly.

KTLChamber's Thoughts

TT_TT

Editor's Note:

Man……… Why did the author have to plummet the good vibes with that ending……

Chapter 807
Sequence 7

-I was really surprised because you weren’t there at the hospital, you know?

“Sorry, mom. I had something urgent I had to do, so I left for a bit.”

-A bit is for a whole night?

“You know that your daughter’s capable, right?”

-It’s because I know that that I’m just giving you a call. Other moms would have nagged you about it for a whole day.

“Right. That’s why I like my mom.”

-How do you feel?

“Better than ever.”

-Have you eaten breakfast?

“Yes. I had a great one. How about you?”

-Just a sandwich.

“Is that enough?”

-It wasn’t, so I’m about to eat more. I’m going to go see you tomorrow, are you free?

“I have a shoot tomorrow. I’m okay if it’s the day after that.”

-I have a field study on that day, so I can’t make it.

“A famous writer needs to go do field studies?”

-I can’t exactly write about the world while sitting down, can I? How about the weekend? Let’s go on a date. It’s been such a long time since we went to the market.

Just as Gaeul was about to say okay, she grabbed her phone with her other hand and apologized.

“I have an appointment.”

-I wonder who the house girl got an appointment with. Is it Seol? Or Chaerim?

“Well, I wonder who.”

-If it’s a man, then introduce him to me. I want to have a look at his face too.

“I will, but you’ll probably be startled if you see him, you know?”

-Unless it’s Won Bin or Go Soo, I won’t be surprised.

“Your standards are way too high, mom.”

-If you know that, then bring home a splendid husband material. I’m hanging up then. The food is here.

“Enjoy your meal.”

Gaeul hung up and took out the side dish containers in the shopping bag. She felt reassured after seeing her refrigerator being filled with dishes. She felt like she would be able to recall this morning whenever she took a little bit out to eat. The cozy scenery, the sound of the bubbling pot, the faint smell of mint from the duvet – the string of thoughts dragged out and reached last night. She shook her head. The heat and the moans were still vivid. As her cheeks became flushed, the corners of her lips raised. Just as she was about to close the door, she took out a blue container before doing so.

She sat on the sofa and opened the container. She put a piece of sweetened almond in her mouth and chewed on it. A crunchy sound tickled her ears. From how he was good at making basic side dishes, perhaps she should make him a full-time housewife if they lived together. When she heard from other people how ‘men who can cook well’ looked sexy, she couldn’t understand them, but when she looked at his back in the morning, she subconsciously nodded. The back figure of a man holding a ladle was indeed sexy.

She giggled and nibbled on the almonds. Just then, she saw a white rabbit sitting on the empty sofa. She gave the rabbit a glance before focusing on the TV.

“So, you went there in the end.”

“I shouldn’t have?”

“I’ve been telling you since last night that you shouldn’t go. That you can’t go.”

“I didn’t hear you though.”

“That’s because you didn’t want to listen to me.”

She put down the container and looked straight at the rabbit. The rabbit she always had to close her eyes to see started popping up in reality every now and then. The citizen of the delusional world had a dissatisfactory expression on her face. Her whiskers were twitching, and her ears were raised up as though she was angry.

“Can’t you just congratulate me? I finally got to meet him.”

“I told you several times that it’s not the right time yet.”

“You said that five years ago; that I should go find him once I’m proud of myself.”

“You held back well until now.”

“That’s why I’m going to stop holding back.”

“You finally found a spot for yourself. You’re a rising star. You should know how dangerous your position is, don’t you? It only takes a moment for an actress to fall into the abyss because of a wrong image. Top-tier actresses, maybe they can endure it somewhat. They have fans as well as staff who are waiting for them. But you aren’t at that level yet, are you?”

“You’ve been telling me the same thing both five years ago and now.”

“I’m saying all this for your sake.”

She smiled. The rabbit always said the right things. She clearly divided things into what she had to do and what she should not do. Following her advice resulted in constant applause and a successful career. Not once did listening to the rabbit bring about a bad result. The rule for success, this was what the rabbit meant to her.

“I know. I know how much you think about me and about how much you cherish me. At first, I thought that you were a personality created by my delusion, but I found out something through talking to you. You are from outside of my thoughts. I don’t believe in gods or destinies or whatever, but I do believe that you exist; because you are in front of me. For some reason, you cherish me and help me. Ever since I met you, my acting improved day by day, and I was able to stand here. I’m really thankful for that. It’s thanks to you that I am where I am today.”

“I only wish for one thing: your happiness.”

“I know that you’re not lying. I can feel it. For some reason, I can tell when I look into your eyes: what you’re thinking and what kind of feelings you have. It’s like you’re someone I know really well. Sometimes, I feel like I am looking in the mirror. Just like I’m looking at my own self.”

The rabbit did not say anything. Gaeul brushed her hair that drooped down next to her eyes behind her ears. She knew that this day was going to come eventually: a day when she was going to go against the rabbit.

When it came to work, there was never any friction between her and the rabbit. Even when there were things she was suspicious about, the rabbit made her understand the situation through insight that felt as though she was from the future. However, there was one thing that was an exception: Maru.

When it came to him, the rabbit always said ‘no’ without listening to the circumstances; she said that meeting him was absolutely no good and that calling him was something hurtful. She told her that they would meet eventually and that she should just wait for now. No, she didn’t just tell her to wait, she forced her to just like a CEO of a company with authority over human resources giving orders to a new employee. Six years ago, the rabbit’s words sounded plausible. She believed that the rabbit was right in saying that there were many things to give up in order to chase him. When he announced the breakup, the rabbit even told her that it was a good thing. She said that Maru must have understood that they were keeping a distance in order to improve themselves and said that Maru was a bad person. You should forget about him; there must be someone better; you’re a splendid woman after all. She even felt consoled by those words. Such words were necessary in order to forget about the pain that ripped her heart. It was a year after they broke up that she collected herself. She realized that he was still there in a corner of her heart. She wanted to meet him. She wanted to go find him. It was the rabbit that prevented her from making that decision. She said that her acting career would be damaged if she went to him right now.

She was hesitant, but she felt that it wouldn’t matter if her popularity was something that would disappear by meeting him just once. As long as she heard what she couldn’t hear that day, it would be okay to give up many things.

“Would Maru be happy to see you right now? Don’t you think he’ll have an even harder time? I heard that there are accidents in the military caused by people who recently broke up. In severe cases, there are even people who commit suicide.”

That made her afraid. When she said that she was going to cancel her visit, the rabbit told her that she did well and that it was better to focus on work. For the first time back then, she felt something beyond suspicion; she felt something closer to malice. Perhaps the rabbit was using success as an excuse to not let her meet Maru instead of telling her that she shouldn’t be meeting Maru in order to become successful. She didn’t show it on the surface, but she started filtering the rabbit’s words from that day onwards. She listened to the things related to work, but whenever the rabbit went on about private matters, she started ignoring her. Residue started piling up in her heart. She felt that she was going to fight with the rabbit someday over this, and that happened to be today.

“Do you hate that I met Maru that much?”

“It’s not like I hate it. This isn’t something you should approach emotionally but as a business. I tell you this all the time, but for a young actress, having a man brings more losses than benefits.”

“Alright, then I choose losses.”

“What do you mean?”

“I became sure about it after I met him. I like working as an actress. I love this job. But I like Maru a little more. If the price of being with him is a hit to my career, then I think that’s a cheap price to pay.”

“So it comes down to that after all.”

“It’s me who wants to ask. Why are you so against me meeting Maru? I thought that perhaps you hate Maru, but that wasn’t it. I can tell when I look at you, just like how you know me, but I couldn’t tell no matter how much I thought about it. Above all, there’s a contradiction in your words. You always talked about love and romance when it came to men other than Maru. It was like you wanted me to date them. Back then, I felt suspicious, but I am sure now after looking at you. It’s not that meeting a man is a problem, it’s meeting Maru that’s a problem.”

“Think however you want. But don’t forget that I’m telling you all this for your sake.”

“I won’t. I’ll always be thankful. I’ll listen to your words deeply. But when it comes to Maru, I will no longer listen to you. I am going to meet him.”

“Did you know? Excessive love sometimes brings destruction.”

“Don’t you think that’s okay if you’re with the person you love?”

The rabbit’s whiskers twitched. She looked startled. Gaeul even pitied her for trying to persuade her otherwise. She reached her hands out. She wrapped the rabbit with her hands.

“Don’t worry. Everything will go well. Even if it doesn’t, I will never blame you for it. You’re my closest friend and a strict teacher.”

“Regrets are late no matter when it comes.”

“It’s fine even if I regret it.”

“You’re really stubborn.”

“That’s what’s good and bad, about me.”

The rabbit nodded in understanding. She seemed to have given up. Gaeul was curious about the reason she tried to prevent her from meeting Maru, but she didn’t plan to ask. It was all in the past after all.

“We can still be together in the future, right?”

“If you want, I will still keep helping you. But remember this: You must always be cautious with your decisions. And also, it’s not right to go outside common knowledge.”

“That’s a little too obvious.”

“You will have to keep that obvious thing in mind. Whenever it is, and regardless of the circumstances.”

The rabbit glanced at the side dish container.

“Almonds?”

“Yeah. I want to give you one, but you can’t eat it, can you?”

“I do like them, but my body is like this, so I can’t eat them. But almonds, huh. I see, it’s coming closer.”

What’s coming closer – she was about to ask when she got a phone call. It was Maru.

-Uhm, it just hit me after I sent you off, but.

“Mhm? What is it?”

-Are you okay with almonds? I thought you could eat them but then I remembered that they would make you ticklish, so you tend to avoid them.

“Right. Why did I forget about that? That’s strange.”

-Did you eat a lot?

“Yeah. But I’m okay. I ate some in the morning, so I should have been having symptoms by now. Maybe my constitution changed as I grew up?”

-Then okay. But just in case, don’t eat too much, okay?

“How kind. Did you call just for that?”

-Yeah.

“Alright. I was eating some just now, but I guess I should stop.”

Just as she closed the lid, she somehow recalled chocolate almonds. Following that, a scene where a child she had never seen before climbed up a chair and reached out to the cupboard flashed in her mind.

“Chocolate almonds.”

-What?

“No, nothing.”

She stood up with the container. She then hung up, telling Maru that they should call later. The scene that flashed in her mind became faint in an instant. It was a strange thing. Was that scene from a movie?

“So this time, it’s next time as well. Maybe we’ll be able to finish it next time?”

The rabbit left those words before disappearing. She ruminated on those incomprehensible words before shrugging. That fellow was rather unpredictable.

KTLChamber's Thoughts

If you don't remember, that 'little child' at the end is Han Gaeul, their daughter from the previous life.

What the hell…!?!?!? Gaeul's allergy to almonds, which was mentioned WAAAAAAY before, is somehow related to all this!? How many hints did you put in this novel, author. Dayum.

Editor's Note:

Does she lose her almond allergy as the timelines start to repeat or smth…… I am confused as to how the almond thing fits in.

Anyways, she is starting to remember their daughter and has started going against rabbit. Lore is depending.

Chapter 808
Sequence 8

“A dead patient will not come back to life. Crying for the dead body will not change anything. If you have time to do that, it’d be better to read one more page, watch one more video footage, or practice one more time so that you can save the patient on the table next time. Charity and devotion. Yes, those are the right words. However, I can be sure of this. A patient would want a capable doctor, not an upright one.”

Heewon curled up his fingers placed on the book. The page of the book produced a low ripping noise as it was pulled out. Yoonseo, who stood in front of him, made a gentle expression and approached Heewon before placing her hands on top of Heewon’s.

“You did your best. It was a TA[1] in the middle of the night, and there were fifteen patients. There are things you just can’t do anything about. We are interns. and we did everything we could. The fact that you couldn’t save him is not your responsibility.”

“Yes, you’re right. What’s important is that there’s no one to listen to my excuses. If I saved him, if I looked more carefully, he might have lived. If he lived, I would be able to apologize for being clumsy to him.”

Heewon collapsed. He grabbed the edge of the table and cried while gagging.

“Okay. Those were good emotions just now.”

At the director’s sign, Heewon, who looked like he was about to bury his face on the ground, just drooped down on the spot. Yoonseo chuckled and patted him on his back. The atmosphere of the set, which had become taut due to the two main character’s passionate acting, became loose in an instant. The space that was filled with the voices and breaths of the two people was taken over by the voices of the staff as well as the noises produced by various equipment.

Maru took off the gown stained in blood. It had been about five hours since they shot the ER which had turned urgent because of a large-scale traffic accident. The scenes where the main actors were required to show their emotions were done in a mere 40 minutes. 4 hours were spent shooting the crowd scene with many people. The shoot dragged out because many people were involved and that consequently made the movement just that complex. Ambulance stretchers endlessly streamed into the ER like a train, patients were groaning in pain, emergency agents were urgently briefing the situation, the family who had come in a heartbeat after hearing the news were crying, as well as the medical jargon from the doctors to top all that off. When the camera moved according to the rail, the actors started acting according to that movement. It was nearly a miracle that they managed to finish the cut in just four hours.

“Han Maru.”

Heewon approached him. The stylist and the makeup artist behind him gave him strong signals with their eyes. Please make this man docile – they seemed to say. Maru nodded towards the two staff members desperately looking at him before grabbing Heewon by the shoulder.

“I don’t know what this is about, but you should get your makeup fixed first. I think you’re going to be in the next scene.”

“I have something I want to ask.”

“I will answer you, so leave your face and body to the ones behind you for now.”

After pushing Heewon, he put down the gown he had taken off and gave it to the outfit management staff. She seemed out of it as she had to clean up all the patient clothes that the background actors left behind.

“Should I put this here?”

“Yes, thank you.”

“You must have a hard time.”

“It’s the usual stuff.”

On days when there was a crowd scene with many different outfits, there would always be a person greeting the visitors of the outfit team with an exhausted face. Most of the time, it was the lowest-ranking member or the one just above that. Wherever it was, it didn’t change the fact that the bottom of the rung were the first ones to die.

“It’s over!” Hyungseok shouted as he put down the gown that he had folded.

His face was filled with a smile. He might be happy that the shoot had just finished, but what constituted more to that was probably the fact that he was given his first line. Maru could still remember him shouting ‘I want jjajang, jjam-ppong, and tangsuyuk’ towards the camera as he ticked his fingers before turning around and putting on a blissful expression.

“I wonder if I’ll get a commercial from a Chinese-style restaurant.”

“That’s a great talent for delusions you have.”

“You never know what will happen. There are many people who make a living out of posting videos on the internet. This is a drama we’re talking about, and not only that, it’s public TV. Who knows? Someone who runs a Chinese-style restaurant around my area might recognize me and put my face on the menu. The pride of Yooam-dong: Yoon Hyungseok.”

“I can’t believe you have the celebrity complex already. I recommend you visit a psychologist as soon as possible.”

He returned to the scene after chatting with Hyungseok. He was just about to go home after saying goodbye to the director.

Just then,

“Hey, Han Maru!”

Heewon, who he had intentionally forgotten about, rushed over to him, all neatened up with a cool-looking hairstyle and a black shirt.

“You’re an actor alright. You have a great fit.”

“Why are you complimenting me? It’s making me feel uneasy. I’m not sure about anyone else, but if you say it, I feel iffy, you know?”

“Well, you know why. Look behind you.”

Heewon turned around. Maru tried to escape during that short moment, but Heewon caught up quickly.

“Am I a loan shark to you? Why are you running away from me?”

“Because it’s obvious what you’re going to ask.”

“How do you know what I’m going to ask?”

“Han Gaeul.”

“Correct!”

“See?”

“Tell me about it. Considering Gaeul’s personality, she should have gone to see you. What happened after that? It’s been three days already. Isn’t it about time you tell me?”

Maru wondered why this guy had so much interest in this matter when he was a lazy, passive dude. It just went to show how worried he was, but telling him everything that happened would be quite funny since this concerned a matter between a man and a woman as well as something that happened during the night.

“Fine. I won’t ask what happened that night. Just tell me this.”

“What?”

Heewon lowered his voice after looking around.

“You two are back together, right?”

“Do you want to know that so badly?”

“I do. Above all, I have the duty to check if any of my very few colleagues are doing well.”

“Since when did you get that duty?”

“It’s to stave off my boredom. Also, your expression tells me that things went well. Don’t you think you should acknowledge my contribution?”

“You only told her my address though.”

“All great things in the world start off with trivial things. It’s not me but my brother who knows your address, but let’s not mind the trivial details.”

It seemed that this sloth had made up his mind today. Maru stroked his eyebrows and spoke,

“Fine, it went well. Okay?”

Heewon nodded and applauded.

“This time, don’t break up and do well. Don’t make the people watching you suffer. You aren’t kids. It’s so childish.”

“I somehow feel really depressed hearing that from you.”

He told Heewon good luck with his work before going over to Jayeon.

“Thank you for your work.”

“You’re leaving?”

“I am. It’s not like I have anything to do here.”

“Do you want to be my conversation partner then?”

“Do I get paid for it?”

“No.”

“Then I’ll just leave. I should get washed up and sleep. I feel tired after standing up for the whole day.”

“You’re clearly overreacting as you’re so young. And sorry to disappoint you, but I think going home will come a little later.”

“Is there an additional scene I have to shoot?”

“No, but there’s someone who wants to talk to you.”

Maru followed Jayeon’s finger. Yoonseo greeted him with a nod and a faint smile. Maru also nodded back.

“Miss Yoonseo, you mean?”

“Yeah.”

“Why?”

“I don’t know either. She said she wanted to ask you something related to acting, but I don’t know what people really think on the inside. Go on. Don’t make our main actress wait.”

He said okay before approaching Yoonseo. She had also taken off the doctor’s gown and changed into a one-piece dress. It seemed that she was preparing for the dating scene outside the hospital which was going to happen next.

“I heard you had business with me.”

“Yes. Were you going home?”

“I was. I finished my part after all.”

“Sorry for holding you back.”

“It’s fine as long as it doesn’t take a long time.”

Maru waited for her to speak.

“It’s not anything amazing. I just wanted to thank you. I was able to gain a hint for today’s act after watching the movie you recommended to me.”

“You don’t have to thank me. Just tell senior Joohyun that you were deeply impressed by the movie when you meet her in the future.”

“You know senior Ahn Joohyun?”

“Somewhat. Senior Joohyun is really good when it comes to using minute changes in facial expression to create an atmosphere, so if you ever find yourself lacking, you should watch her other films for reference. I’m sure it’ll be as good of a study as Spring Calendar.”

“I will. I’ve watched all the recent dramas that she was featured in, but I’ve never thought about watching her old pieces. Spring Calendar was especially shocking. I even forgot that I had to learn from her and became immersed in it.”

“The synergy created by an amazing director and a good actress can be beyond imagination sometimes.”

Maru could see Hyungseok stomping his feet in the distance. His body was screaming ‘what are you doing with Yoonseo without me, who’s her fan?’ Things would get messy if he called him here, so he had to wrap things up.

“If you don’t have anything more to say, I’ll take my leave now.”

“Sorry for holding you back.”

He bowed before turning around.

Just then,

“Mr. Maru.”

“Yes?”

“It’s somewhat of a stretch to call it a repayment, but may I buy you a meal later?”

“Being treated to a meal is a luxury when the only thing I did is tell you the title of a movie. Just give me an autograph later so that I can give it to a fan who likes you.”

Yoonseo smiled and accepted. Maru walked over to Hyungseok, who quickly gestured to him to come.

“What the hell? What did you two do? What did you two talk about?”

“This bro went to her to get an autograph.”

“Really?”

“I thought you were a Yoonseo fan.”

“If she’s pretty, I’ll be a fan. So, what about the autograph? I was holding back from asking for one because we were in a shoot.”

“She’ll give one to me later.”

“I have a splendid friend alright. But what about a meal instead of an autograph? Drinking is even better.”

“Do you think you’d drink with someone like you if you were Yoonseo?”

“No, I would find it bothersome and just ignore it.”

“Well, there you have it. Let’s just go home.”

Maru put his arm around Hyungseok’s shoulders.

* * *

“Can I ask what you talked about?” Jayeon asked as she poked Yoonseo with her elbow.

She wondered what they talked about after Yoonseo went as far as to ask her to call him out separately.

“It wasn’t anything much. I was just recommended some reference material for acting. I was just going to thank him.”

“If it was like that, you should have just gone to him directly without coming to me.”

“I planned to, but I found it a little hard to talk to that person. I could talk to him easily when we were with other people too. That’s why I asked you. I’m strange, aren’t I?”

“Quite a bit. Do you have feelings for him?”

“Feelings? Oh no. This is no time to be thinking about that either.”

“But you’re at that age where you should be in love.”

“My agency will flip upside down if they find out. The clause forbidding me from having a relationship is gone now, but I’m still known as an idol, so I can’t have a boyfriend.”

“You have it hard.”

“It’s hard, but it’s just as worth it.”

“So, did you thank him? As someone who has been in this industry longer than you were, I can tell you that strange rumors might start circulating if you receive something and don’t do anything about it, you know?”

“I know that. That’s why I even told him I would treat him to a meal, but he rejected me instantly.”

“That must have scratched your pride quite a bit, huh?”

Yoonseo hesitated before speaking,

“Actually, it was pretty good. Honestly, I just said it out of formality. I almost ended up thanking him for rejecting me.”

“He’s a quick-witted one after all. He might have realized that you didn’t feel good about it.”

“Really?”

“He’s not ordinary, that kid. Try having a deep conversation with him later. He’s a really decent guy to have as a friend. You know how stingy I am with compliments, right?”

Jayeon checked the time before speaking again,

“Let’s get ready. We should go home before the sun rises.”

“I want to do that too.”

“If so, then bring out your best. I’ll give you okay signs as soon as possible.”

The marathon known as a drama started. At first, they might have it easy, but as the goal nears, they would have to resolve themselves to become semi-corpses. They needed to hold back on laughing and chatting time in order to prevent the disaster of shooting that day’s episode in the morning, so they had to get themselves together.

“Let’s begin.”

It was time to push on again.

[1] Traffic accident

KTLChamber's Thoughts

No Jayeon. Bad woman. You don't simply try to push Maru on anyone that's not Gaeul. xD

Editor's Note:

Jayeon should be pushing her towards Heewon not Maru lul.

Chapter 809
Sequence 8

“How about we drink some soju over the weekend?”

“As much as I want to drink with you, I have a prior engagement.”

“What engagement? Is it a woman? If it is, let me in too.”

“It’s not a place you can butt in.”

“Don’t tell me it’s Yoonseo? You aren’t going to a place like that without me, are you?”

Maru pushed Hyungseok, who was sitting on the passenger seat, with his arm. This fellow was quite consistent in how he spouted nonsense. Hyungseok got his bag before getting out of the car.

“Call me up if your engagement goes bust. I’ll be waiting.”

“Hey, you seem like you aren’t going out as much ever since you started taking this job seriously, huh? I don’t think you’re going to nightclubs either.”

“You can only play around for so long. I have played ever since I got discharged. I thought about it, but it looks like I’m the type of guy who would feel less tired the more I work. When I was running a business, I would have given anything to sleep for two more hours, but now that I actually live a leisurely life without any work, life isn’t as interesting. I want to work instead of playing around. I want to shoot throughout the night too.”

Hyungseok closed the door along with the words ‘see you next time.’ After returning home, Maru didn’t go to the bathroom and sat down on the sofa and made a phone call instead.

“Are you okay with taking a call right now?”

-Yeah. Sounds like work ended early today from how you’re calling me?

“I just came back after finishing.”

-Me too. I thought today’s shoot was going to be long, but it ended unexpectedly early. I think it’s thanks to the director being stricter than usual.

“Your first episode airs next Wednesday, doesn’t it?”

-Yeah. Yours is in two weeks, right?

“From how there isn’t any mention of extension of special episodes, we’ll probably start airing in two weeks. So you’re going to watch the first episode with the team?”

-Probably. There’s already an appointment too. Why, wanna come?

“Do you think someone like me has a place there? Not only that, although I’m a minor actor, I am supposed to be in a competing medical drama for the same time slot.”

-I think it should be fine since there’s no one who would recognize you?

“Wow, you can hurt someone so nonchalantly.”

-Who told you to give up on the drama and go to the military?

“There you go again. I should stop talking about this.”

Maru took out a can of beer from the refrigerator. Calling her after the shoot became a part of his normal life. It had only been three days since they got back together, but everything seemed natural as though they had been doing this for a very long time. It was true that he was calling her because he wanted to hear her voice, but he also pressed the call button out of a sense of duty because he wanted to check that she was safe and sound. Although he had hypothesized that the rabbit cannot exert physical influence, there was nothing wrong with being cautious.

-What are you drinking?

“Beer. It’s a habit of mine.”

-Don’t you think you should drink less?

“It’s just one can, and it’s a small one too. This much will actually help boost my health.”

-Says who?

“The news?”

-Are you sure?

“Probably.”

-I don’t want my future husband to be an alcoholic though.

“That future husband wants me to tell you that he’s strong with alcohol and that you don’t need to worry.”

He could hear her laugh over the phone. Wait – she said before putting down her phone. When she returned, he could hear the faint sound of a can opening over the phone.

-I should drink some too.

“You can’t. It hasn’t even been that long since you got discharged from the hospital.”

-You don’t sound persuasive at all. You drink every day.

She exclaimed, saying that it was good.

-Actually, it’s coke, not beer. It's zerocal too. Even then, I would regret it if I drank all of it, so I should leave some for tomorrow.

“So it’s a battle of weight huh. But are you really going to come to my house over the weekend?”

-Of course. I’m going to call some people over and play around to my heart’s content. If I go outside, I would have to be concerned about other people, and renting a party room seems like a bother. Your house was pretty big. Some food on the island table, and a can of beer in one hand. It makes me happy just by thinking about it.

“So you got a plan already, huh. Who are you calling?”

-Well, if you ask me that, no one really comes to mind. It’s tomorrow too.

He waited for her words as he put the beer against his mouth. She was probably jumping around like a little child prior to a field trip. Perhaps she had planned everything out except for the list of invitations. When it came to playing, she was pretty thorough.

-Since we’re at it, should we go invite someone?

“Go? At this hour?”

-Yeah. Do you have time right now?

Maru looked at the clock. It was just past 9 p.m. For actors, it wasn’t a big deal since they would often have their days and nights switched around, but for people who were working or focusing on their studies, it was time to rest.

“Don’t you think it’s quite rude to visit at this hour?”

-Don’t worry. The store should still be open.

“The store?”

-I’ll go over to your house. Wait a bit.

The call ended. Maru waited as he sipped on the rest of the beer. Not even 30 minutes later, he could hear a knock on the door. When he opened the door, he saw her, wearing a baggy t-shirt, pajama pants, and a cap.

“You’re supposed to be an actress, so don’t you think you need to think about the fan’s eyes?”

“If I do this, no one recognizes me.”

“I guess that’s true.”

“Why? Do I look ugly?”

“It’s definitely not something I would want to show others. Such a defenseless side of you.”

Maru hugged her and patted her back. Her life, his life, the repeated lives – he put those things aside for now and focused on feeling her warmth.

“It’s good,” she said.

Maru also replied ‘yeah’ in a small voice.

“Let’s go now. I’ll give you a ride.”

“Where are we going?”

“You’ll see when we go there. It’s someone you know too.”

He got in her car. The black mid-sized vehicle went on the road. She kept repeating that he should wait to see who it was before parking her car on the side of the high street of Banpo-dong. Her destination seemed to be a dessert café on the other side of the road.

“Are there many people inside?”

“I don’t see any.”

“Really?”

“Who’s there?”

“You’ll see once we get there.”

Maru got out of the car. She walked with her hands locked above her head and didn’t seem flustered even when a couple approached her from the front. She walked amongst the crowd with confidence that people wouldn’t recognize her. There was not a single person who looked back at her among the people who walked past. He found it puzzling. How could they not recognize her when she was so pretty?

They entered the café. A sweet scent that drowned the thick scent of coffee filled the store.

“Sorry, but we’re closed for the day,” said a woman wearing oven mitts.

The moment Maru heard that voice, he squinted and checked the face of the woman. A familiar set of facial features could be seen below the white cooking hat that pressed down on her hair so that it didn’t drape down. It was Chaerim.

“Unni, it’s me.”

“What, it was you? I didn’t recognize you because your eyes were covered by the cap.”

“It’s a pretty good disguise, isn’t it?”

“Yeah, I didn’t recognize you at all. Who’s the one next to you?”

“Unni, don’t you recognize him?”

She pointed at Maru with an exaggerated gesture as though she was a magician introducing the beauty next to her. He smiled awkwardly and took a step forward. Chaerim, who tilted her head, eventually widened her eyes. The eyes that contained surprise changed into puzzlement and ultimately into an unrefined rage.

“That’s the guy you’re meeting?”

“Yep.”

“He’s the green frog on a white horse?”

“Yep.”

“You need to talk with me. And you over there! You stay right where you are.”

Maybe it was a good thing that he wasn’t booted out of the store? Maru watched as Chaerim took Gaeul’s hands and went to the corner of the store. He could predict what they were talking about. Are you crazy?; why are you dating him again?; what do you like so much about the guy who dumped you?; he felt his neck straining from the occasional high-pitched, sharp voice. He even felt that it would be better if she said that straight to his face instead.

A long sigh followed. Chaerim brought Gaeul back like she was dragging a lost child to the lost child center.

“Hey, did you really get back together?”

“I told you, yes,” she replied.

Chaerin widened her eyes. Her already big eyes became even bigger.

“Han Gaeul, I didn’t ask you.”

Gaeul would not lose out to anyone when it comes to audacity, but it seemed that she wasn’t able to win against Chaerim’s frosty gaze. Maru gulped when the eyes of the two women landed on him. He felt like he was being given a pressure interview. One was urging him to speak, and the other was saying that she didn’t want to listen to it. He heaved a sigh before speaking,

“I don’t plan to let her go now.”

“Really?”

“Yes.”

“Can I trust you on that?”

“You can trust me on this.”

Chaerim twitched her lips before laughing in vain. That was her expression of this absurd situation as well as her way of showing that she was doing her best to understand.

“It’s been a long time,” Maru said.

He was worried whether she would actually reply, but fortunately, Chaerim reached out her hand.

“I swore I would hit you when I saw you again.”

“You can if you want.”

“Then can you clench your teeth?”

From how her small but solid-looking fist looked tense, she seemed pretty serious about it. If Gaeul didn’t intervene midway and told her to stop, she would probably have punched him for real.

“Unni.”

“Okay, fine. I really can’t do anything about you, can I?”

Chaerim took off the cooking hat and smiled.

“It’s been a long time, Han Maru.”

“I’ve been doing well other than the fact that your current and ex-girlfriend over there came crying to me all the time. Anyway, you definitely did change after you went to the military. You look even more vicious than before.”

“It’s better than looking docile.”

“That way of speaking hasn’t changed though.”

Chaerim locked the door. She also flipped the sign.

“Sit down for now. I need to finish up.”

“I’ll help.”

Gaeul followed Chaerim behind the counter. Maru docilely sat at a table. He even locked his hands together and neatly placed them on his knees. He felt like he had to.

“Hey, don’t stay still and mop the floor or something.”

“Of course, of course.”

Maru quickly got up and grabbed a mop. He mopped with the mindset that he would not leave a speck of dust behind. After a while, Chaerim took off her apron and came from behind the counter. It seemed that she had finished.

“Well then. Let’s have a listen, shall we? Just what happened between the two of you that made you two get back together after not contacting each other even once over these five years.”

She also added that she would shove him in the heated oven if it was nothing surprising. It gave Maru the chills since it didn’t sound like a joke at all. He looked at Gaeul once before starting to speak while thinking that he should speak slowly so that the oven had enough time to cool.

KTLChamber's Thoughts

Maru being helpless against Chaerim is pretty amusing to see, tbh.

Editor's Note:

Maru being helpless in general is pretty amusing.

Chapter 810
Sequence 8

“I wanted to tell you earlier than anyone else.”

“That’s why I’m first?”

Gaeul nodded. Chaerim squinted before smiling. She didn’t think that Chaerim’s anger died down. The fact that she smiled probably meant that she understood; she understood that there was no point in pressuring the foolish junior who had appeared with the man who had dumped her once.

“I get it. I want to know why you broke up and why you got together, and nitpick about a lot of things, but I’ll just stop here. To say one thing though, if I ever hear that you two are breaking up or whatnot again, don’t ever think about seeing me again. I’m serious.”

“That won’t happen.”

“Does that mean that you’re going to go all the way? To marriage even?”

“If possible.”

She wasn’t lying. If they were going to date again, they would have to think about their relationship beyond just lovers. Marriage, which Maru jokingly spoke about when they were young, had gotten close to reality.

“Maru, what about you?” Chaerim asked.

Maru replied that he was going to do whatever the bride wanted to do. It was quite embarrassing to hear the word ‘bride’ from him, but she didn’t hate it.

“Looks like both of you are serious about it. Right, you got together after being apart for so long, so you should get married. But still, it still puzzles me. I did realize that you got a man, but I never realized that it would be Han Maru. You two are tenacious alright.”

“I didn’t know that things would be like this until a few days ago. Maru kept avoiding me.”

“Oh my word, he avoided you?”

“Yep.”

“Hey, Han Maru. Don’t you play around with my little junior. I won’t forgive you.”

She locked arms with Chaerim and glared at Maru. Now that she got a reliable ally, she could give Maru a good nagging. He, who always boasted a slippery eel-like smooth talking ability when there were just the two of them, docilely admitted his sins. This was why having someone on her side was important.

“Unni, do you have some time tomorrow/”

“Tomorrow? I don’t have any special appointments other than coming to the store and having a look. Why do you ask?”

“We’re going to hold a cocktail party, and I was hoping you’d come. We’re going to have one at Maru’s house.”

“I’ll go. There’s no need to hold back when it’s drinking. But who else is coming?”

“For now, you’re the only one.”

“I thought you said it was tomorrow?”

“If things don’t work out, we can just drink with the three of us. You don’t like things being noisy, right?”

“That’s true. Han Maru, are you good at drinking?”

Maru just said ‘moderately.’ Gaeul was thinking differently as she had heard about him from Heewon. Before Maru went to the military, they emptied a whole day to drink, and apparently, Maru was calmly drinking while everyone else just collapsed. A strong drinker would apparently be an understatement, so Maru’s alcohol capacity was probably beyond imagination.

“A friend of mine told me that this guy’s a god at drinking. He won’t get drunk no matter how much he drinks.”

“That’s good. I’ll be fine for up to two bottles, so let’s drink all the way until the end tomorrow.”

She grabbed Chaerim’s hand before letting go.

“I’ll call you tomorrow.”

“Alright. Tell me how many people are coming so that I can bring some desserts.”

“Okay.”

Gaeul undid the lock on the front door and left the café. Maru came out a little late as he had to receive a smack on the back.

“It’s good to see you together. You two really suit each other.”

Chaerim waved at them, telling them to have a safe trip back before going back to the café. They got back to the car with the walnut pie that she gave them.

“She hasn’t changed, has she?”

“She’s the same as ever. She’s full of confidence and she doesn’t hold back. Though, I found out for the first time today that she has a strong hand. Seems like she quit all her media activities, huh?”

“I don’t think she intended to quit completely. I also plan to help her out if she says she wants to go back.”

“Tell me about it when she does. I don’t have much influence, but I’ll try looking into it as well. Rather, you two were still in touch, huh. Good for you.”

“I borrowed her shoulders a lot. She gave me a lot of consolation when I broke up with you. That’s why I wanted to tell her first. I startled you by bringing you here without telling you, didn’t I?”

Maru glanced at the café once and smiled faintly.

“A little.”

“Actually, I wanted to tell you, but I also wanted to see you a little taken aback. It’s childish revenge on my part. Not that I’m in the position to take revenge.”

“I’m thankful that you only went this far. But who else do we call? Just the three of us sounds good too.”

“Don’t you have anyone else to call?”

He pondered a little as though no one came to mind immediately before bringing up a name.

“How about Heewon? And Haewon too.”

“Right. We can call those two. But I wonder if they can make it.”

“They don’t have a shoot tomorrow, so they should be able to make it. The problem is, how do we lure out that sloth from his house?”

“We’ll first ask him, and if he says no, we can just have Haewon drag him over.”

“I guess Haewon’s the answer, huh.”

She folded three fingers down. Chaerim, Heewon, and Haewon. Although Chaerim wasn’t acquainted with the brothers, they were all good people, so there shouldn’t be a problem getting along.

“Oh, there’s one more person.”

She took out her phone. The last time she called her, that girl said that she didn’t have anything on Saturday. She probed her memories and pressed the call button.

-Yes, seonbae.

“Are you okay with taking a call right now?”

-Yes. I just finished my part-time work.

“Are there a lot of customers?”

-It’s Friday night, so yeah, there’s quite a lot. But it’s fine since there aren’t any unreasonable guests. How about you, seonbae? Are you in a shoot right now?

“No, I also finished.”

-The first episode is next Wednesday, right? I’ll make sure to watch it.

“Thanks.”

-But why did you call me? If it’s food, shall I go over to your house right now? The jokbal[1] we ate last week was good.

“The jokbal was definitely good. But I didn’t call you for that today. There’s something I wanted to tell you. Also, I wanted to invite you.”

-Invite me?

“To explain that first, we’re going to be holding a cocktail party tomorrow with some people we know. We’ll be drinking and eating the food we bring. Do you have an appointment tomorrow?”

-I’m going to eat out with my family tomorrow. Sorry.

“No, you don’t have to be. It’s me who called suddenly. Let’s leave the invitation aside for now.”

She cleared her throat before speaking,

“I got back together.”

-Sorry?

“With Maru.”

There wasn’t a response for a long time. Did she hang up? Gaeul checked the phone. It was still connected. Just as she was about to ask what was happening, she heard a faint breathing sound. The trembling breathing eventually turned into a crying sound.

-Seonbae, really?

“Yeah.”

-That’s good. Congratulations.

“Are you crying right now?”

-No. No, I mean, yes. I’m crying in the middle of the street right now. People are staring at me, but I’m going to cry anyway.

“Why are you the one crying?”

Her heart tightened. This girl had been just as worried as Chaerim-unni. It was thanks to this girl calling her first and asking if she was okay with a gentle voice that allowed her to win against the empty feelings and focus on work. She felt sorry for the girl, but when the girl congratulated her, her eyes soon turned red. Maru quietly gave her some tissues. She wiped the corners of her eyes.

“Don’t cry.”

-Seonbae, I’m glad. I’m, really, really glad.

“Are you going to keep crying? I feel like crying if you keep crying too.”

-Okay, wait a sec.

Gaeul could hear deep breathing over the phone. She imagined how the girl would be taking a deep breath in the middle of the street and it made her laugh.

-I’m okay now.

“Sheesh, you’re too quick to cry.”

-It’s fine to cry at times like this. It’s a good thing. But how did you two get back together? Did Maru-seonbae call you back?

“I put dibs on him first this time. He kept running away, so I grabbed him and tied him up.”

-It always bothered me when I met you. I wondered if you couldn’t forget about him. I also felt a guilty conscience whenever I did.

“I always told you that it’s not your fault, yet you’re at it again. Anyway, everything’s going well now.”

-Congratulations, seonbae. Congratulations on getting back together.

“Thanks. Since we’re at it, I’ll hand you over.”

-Eh? To whom?

Gaeul told her to wait before giving Maru her phone. Maru looked at her with an expression that asked who it was on the other side of the phone.

“Go on. I heard you were cruel and didn’t even talk to her once until now. It’s an extension of my revenge.”

Maru received the phone and cautiously put it against his ear. Hello? - he said. The moment he said ‘hello’ once again, his expression turned weird. He looked at her with a difficult expression before eventually regaining his smile. They had a conversation for a while and then it turned into an awkward silence before he spoke about what happened in a low voice until he eventually returned the phone to her.

“Looks like she’s doing well.”

She nodded as she picked up on the call.

“You were surprised, weren’t you?”

-Seonbae, you almost startled me witless. You’re so bad.

“I wanted to report to you too.”

-That was the first time I heard Maru-seonbae panic. I was panicking too, but not as much as him, it seems.

“I was watching from the side, and his expression was very interesting to look at.”

-I feel so refreshed right now. I feel like a decade, no, a century’s worth of indigestion was flushed down all at once. I finished crying. I’m going to have a good sleep tonight.

“You should. Oh right, what happened to the audition you took last time?”

-I haven’t heard back. I don’t know if I failed or not. I’m just going to forget about it if they don’t call me back in a week.

“I’m sure it will go well.”

This girl knew how to control her emotions. She would become a splendid actress as long as she could refine herself a little more.

-Uhm, seonbae.

“Yeah?”

-I’ll go tomorrow.

“But you said you had an appointment?”

-I’ll tell Bitna and mom that we should eat out next time. Such a good thing happened, so I can’t miss out. Eating out together as a family is important, but I want to see you and Maru-seonbae tomorrow. I want to see for myself that you two are together.

“I’ll be thankful if you do. Let’s have a blast tomorrow.”

-Okay.

“Okay, Yuna. I’ll call you back tomorrow. We’re gathering at Maru’s house, so we might go pick you up. Have a good rest at home. Don’t suddenly burst out crying on your way.”

-I said I finished crying. Have a good date, seonbae.

She hung up the call. What should have been a burden for Yuna was also resolved. Gaeul felt pity for her when she thought about how Yuna should have been worrying for the past five years.

“It wasn’t that awkward considering that I haven’t said hi in five years.”

“You get how rough you were when you cut off contact, right? You didn’t contact anyone else, not just me. When I look back at it now, I don’t think you told the news to anyone who knows me.”

“Back then, I wanted to be thorough.”

“Still, you went too far. If you see Yuna tomorrow, apologize to her first. She’s had a hard time until now. She was worried that we broke up because of her.”

“I did tell her that we didn’t, but I guess she couldn’t help herself from thinking that, huh.”

“She’s a good girl after all.”

She started up the car. It would be pretty fun to hang out with the six of them. They might call for more people depending on the situation, but she decided to invite just them for now.

“Let’s go home and eat this together. I’m not sure about anything else, but Chaerim-unni is good at making walnut pies.”

“What about after that?”

“Shall we watch a movie together?”

“And after that?”

“I’m not going to do anything.”

“Then I guess I should go to sleep too then.”

She smiled and poked his cheek.

[1] Pig’s foot

KTLChamber's Thoughts

Wait. why does it sound like a TERRIBLE idea to invite two girls that confessed to him? LET THERE BE CARNAGE

Editor's Note:

Terrible Idea for maybe Maru but for readers it's an amazing idea kek.

Chapter 811
Sequence 8

Maru met the rabbit in the middle of darkness. The darkness crept up his body to swallow him as it always did. Humans were animals of adaptation, and he now felt cozy here like it was the attic in the house in his homeland. He didn’t do anything much and kept staring at the rabbit. There was no way she jumped into his dream just to say hello, so she would probably say what she was here for if he waited long enough. When the darkness crept up his waist and reached his chest, the rabbit spoke,

“Are you happy?”

He smiled and nodded. There were many things he wanted to ask her: whether she was talking with the current, living Gaeul or not, if she was planning to drive herself to death again, why it had to be a rabbit of all things, and above all, how long she had been enduring this terrifyingly long period of time by herself. She might be more liberal than the masked man, but she probably wouldn’t be able to say any crucial information either.

“How about you?”

“I’m as always.”

“Shall we talk?”

“You know there aren’t many things I can tell you.”

“Not that. I was wondering if you were getting enough sleep, whether you are hurt anywhere, and whether your appetite has changed or not. You know, things like that.”

The darkness crept up to his neck. Soon, it would become difficult to even talk. The rabbit approached him. Her white body also started being stained black.

“Sorry,” the rabbit said.

“For what?”

“For everything; that I made you like this, that I made myself like that. Everything is my fault. I didn’t believe in god. I should have stayed that way. When god appeared before me, I should have denied him or her. I knew that there was no such thing as god, that there are no such things as miracles. I knew that everything going the way it should was for the best, but I ended up wishing for it. Please let him live; please let him live this once. I’ll do anything so that he can live. You can take my life, so please, just let me meet him once more.”

“Thanks to that, we met again.”

“And hell was let loose.”

“Hey, this is a hotel for hell, don’t you think?”

He wanted to reach out to her and put her in his arms, but the sensation in his body had already disappeared. She must have spent an unspeakable length of time with that small body of hers. She must have experienced things that he wouldn’t dare imagine before finally reaching here. Maru couldn’t say anything to her as it would devalue what she had done.

“Thanks for being next to me.”

He uttered those words before his mouth was covered in darkness. The darkness covered the rabbit’s eyes then his own.

Maru opened his eyes while listening to the alarm. In front of his eyes was her, who had fallen asleep. The corner of her lips had curved upwards as though she was having a good dream or something. He turned off his phone alarm and tried touching her lips. He wondered where the rabbit was right now. Inside her dream? Or by herself in a place where no one can find? After rolling around a little, she opened her eyes.

“Sorry, did I wake you up?”

When Maru took his hand off and spoke, she grabbed his hand and put it on her head as though she wanted him to pat her.

“Do you always wake up at this hour?”

“When I don’t have any work to do. It became a habit of mine.”

“You should get some more sleep.”

“I usually don’t feel sleepy once I wake up.”

As he patted her head, she grabbed his hand.

“Did you have a bad dream? You don’t look good.”

Hearing her question, he just replied with a smile. He pulled up the duvet to cover her shoulders and got out of the bed. He opened the drawers and was looking for pants and socks when he heard some rustling noise behind him. She was getting up as well.

“You should lie down some more.”

“I wanna go with you.”

“But you must be tired.”

“It’s okay. Where do you go for morning exercises?”

“Hangang park.”

She yawned and stood next to him. Two days ago, she brought some light clothes that she could wear. Some training clothes, a hoodie, some shorts, underwear, and socks. The third row of the dresser, which had been empty until now, became hers.

After getting clothed, they left the house. The moist air and the chilly weather signified that autumn was not far away.

“It’s been a really long time since I jogged outside like this instead of in a gym.”

After warming up lightly, she started running even though she didn’t know where to go. After running forward without stopping for a while, she turned around and returned.

“Where do we go?”

“Lady, please follow me.”

They switched places to the moonlit plaza under Banpo bridge. He ran slower than usual to keep in pace with her. There was no one who recognized her as she was wearing training clothes that didn’t reveal her figure as well as a cap. Sometimes, there were some people who would give her a long stare when they went past her, but when he gave them a glance back, everyone turned their heads away.

“You don’t have to glare at them so fiercely. You have a pretty vicious expression, so people will get scared if you glare at them, you know?” she said as she poked his arm from the side.

Usually, Maru would run for about an hour and go home, but she started getting tired after 30 minutes, so Maru stopped running.

“It’s hard to run after not running in the morning for so long.”

“Let’s go back. I’m hungry too.”

“I saw toast sandwiches being sold on the street. How about we get that?”

“I thought you were managing your diet?”

“I ran for half an hour, so it should be fine.”

“I don’t think so.”

She sealed her lips and shook her head. She dragged him, saying that it was fine to eat sugared toast since she ran so much in the morning. It was hard to hold her back. They returned home with toasts in their mouths.

“Shall we get washed together?” he playfully asked.

What he got in return was a gaze that looked like she had found a cockroach on the ceiling. I’m joking – he tried to laugh it off, but she glared at him, saying that it would be ‘over’ for him if he approached her. From how there was her phone in her hands, it looked as though she meant that he would be socially buried. Having no choice, he got washed obediently by himself. While she got washed, he prepared some coffee. Having breakfast and drinking coffee in front of the blacked-out TV screen had become a procedure of sorts. Something that she did when she visited Han Maru’s house.

While she was drinking, she suddenly smiled and put down the mug. It was a rather sudden smile, so he quietly stared at her.

“It just feels so natural. I mean, coming here, sleeping together, eating together, and resting like this.”

“Feeling natural is a good thing.”

“I think it would’ve been better if it became like this earlier. I feel like I wasted the previous 5 years. If we were together, we would have gone to the sea in the summer and gone skiing in the winter many times.”

“We can do it starting now. There’s plenty of time.”

“The fact that there’s plenty of time doesn’t mean that the past will come back to us.”

He reached out to her and wrapped his arm around her neck before pulling her over.

“Should we go to the beach? It’s the last week of September, but it still feels a little like summer.”

“As much as I want to, my schedule is filled with shoots. Next week, I’ll be going to Gwangju, Busan, and Daegu. I’m going to miss the set in Seoul.”

She sighed.

“My dear Gaeul, you must be having a hard time.”

“I should have a hard time while I still can. They say having any work to do at all is when you’re happiest. I should feel thankful.”

“You’re all grown up too. I guess a lot of time has passed.”

“I was grown up a long time ago.”

She pushed his chest and stood up.

“Let’s go shopping. I want to go to the Namdaemun market.”

“It must be crowded there since it’s Saturday.”

“I don’t care. It’s fun to walk around there. I think the glasses there fit my tastes too.”

“Then we should go. When are people coming over again?”

“I told them to come by five. Haewon said he was going to buy some ingredients and cook here.”

“Then we should go out. eat lunch in the market, and return with groceries. You put on your cap and sunglasses. We’re going to a place with many people.”

“Okay.”

She hummed as she went inside the room.

Ordinary times, as it were. It was a series of ordinary events: they would fight because of ordinary reasons, and then makeup ordinarily. Sometimes, miraculous events might happen, but everything would occur within the scope of common sense. He looked at the remaining coffee. What did he have to do in order to protect this ordinary life? The train was already rushing towards a set ending. The switch that changed lanes had been broken, and it was impossible to jump off as well. Did he have to pray to god after all? The rabbit told him that she should not have prayed. What did he have to do when god gave him a choice where her life was put in danger? He emptied the remaining coffee into his mouth. Even though it was sweet before, it tasted bitter now.

“I’m changed now.”

She stood in front of him while wearing a t-shirt with a cute rabbit on it. The sunlight that seeped in through the window scattered after hitting her hair. Maru reached out to her. She pulled him up, telling him to get up quickly.

“The answer is already set in stone.”

“What do you mean?”

“Just talking to myself. Should we go eat tteokbokki? I’m craving something spicy.”

“I’ve already eaten more than the carb quota for the day, but I guess today’s fine, right? We’re going to be drinking at night anyway.”

She pushed his back. He got his car keys and left the house.

* * *

“Haewon, was it?”

“Yes.”

“You’re good at cooking. Who did you learn from?”

“When I was young, I learned through books, but these days, I use the internet. There are a lot of blogs with good recipes. Do you want to taste this as well?”

On the sofa, Gaeul looked at Haewon and Chaerim, who were chatting in the kitchen. Having found the common topic of cooking, the two seemed to get along and were together the whole time.

“Hyung, stop eating. You’re going to eat them all.”

“But you’re giving this noona things to eat. Why are you nagging me?”

“Because you just don’t stop. And Chaerim-noona is just tasting it for me from the side.”

“Gosh, I can’t take this anymore.”

Even while grumbling, Heewon managed to take a rib to eat before turning around. When Heewon and Haewon just arrived, Chaerim and Yuna, who had arrived earlier, showed interest in Heewon, but their focus soon shifted to Haewon. Rather than Heewon, who lay down as soon as he got inside, they probably liked Haewon better as a conversation partner since he was good at cooking and acted kindly too.

“Maru-seonbae. Your house is really good.”

“Yuna, this is the third time you’re saying that.”

“I’m going to say it at least four times more.”

Yuna, who was sitting next to her, smiled while hugging the dog. Yuna, who had arrived first, started crying as soon as she saw Maru’s face. Gaeul also felt a tinge in her nose and hugged Yuan for a while. It was only when Chaerim arrived that Yuna stopped saying ‘I’m glad’ and calmed down a little.

“Unni, as a gift for you two getting back together, I’ll send you some movie tickets. I want to send you something more expensive, but I’m living off part-time jobs right now, so.”

“Forget it. You should use that money for yourself.”

“No, I’m going to give them to you.”

Yuna lifted the dog up and headed to the kitchen. Gaeul was at first worried that they might not get along, but the four of them became friends as soon as they met. It was good that they weren’t picky people.

“It’s good to be a little bustling.”

Maru sat down next to her. Haewon proudly told everyone to leave the cooking to him, so there was nothing else to prepare.

“I feel like everything’s finally the way it should be now. I’m glad that Yuna came.”

“You did well calling her. I feel relieved to see her too.”

“Don’t you ever act coldly to people like that again. And make sure to keep in touch.”

“Okay.”

“Of course, I won’t do that again either.”

She grabbed his hand and smiled. Just then, an ‘Oh!’ exclamation sounded from the kitchen. When she turned around, the four of them were all staring at them.

“Why don’t you have a deep kiss?”

Chaerim grabbed Yuna, who was next to her, before jutting her lips out. Yuna also played along. Gaeul burst into laughter when she saw that the two girls became close like sisters in just two hours.

“Stop minding us and get along, the four of you.”

“Alright. You two are the main characters for today, so get some good rest. Haewon, let’s finish things off.”

“Okay.”

The quiet kitchen became bustling again.

KTLChamber's Thoughts

Chapter 812
Sequence 8

“Rejecting ‘Flaming Lady’ was just absurd. Were you really sane back then? No, you weren’t sane back then, so that’s why you rejected something like that and fled to the military, leaving behind our poor Gaeul-unni. You’re such a bad guy.”

Yuna, whose cheeks were flushed red, stuck onto Gaeul like a cicada to a tree. Yuna said that she usually didn’t drink more than one glass because she would easily get drunk, but she declared that she would be drinking to her heart’s content today, and consequently, her mouth practically became an automatic door after an hour. Whether it was in the past or now, it didn’t change that the filter in her brain disappeared once she was drunk. Her address of Gaeul also changed from ‘seonbae’ to ‘unni.’

“Fine, I’m the condemnable sinner. I get it, so stop drinking. I can allow everything else but not cooking pancakes on the floor[1].”

“No. I’m going to cook a big one,” Yuna said as she grabbed Gaeul’s arm.

She looked like she was going to declare war with Gaeul as her weapon if he kept picking a fight with her. He hoped for Gaeul to stop her, but she was also glaring at him while grabbing Yuna’s hand tightly. You don’t dare touch my little sister – her eyes said.

“Looks like there’s no one on your side today.”

“Why don’t you come to mine?”

“Looking at the atmosphere, I think I will have to side with the ladies.”

“You’re good at knowing which side to join.”

“It’s a life technique of mine I learned while I took care of my brother. Should I give you another glass?”

Haewon shook a bottle of soju in one hand and a bottle of beer in the other. Even though this was supposed to be a cocktail party, the colorful drinks were dismissed just ten minutes in. It was beer and soju that replaced those colorful bottles.

“There are a lot of snacks, so I might as well.”

People, who were chatting wildly about ‘what is Han Maru’s fault?’ around the island table, started pairing up in twos as they continued their conversation. Maru tilted his glass and looked at Heewon and Chaerim. They were fighting about what life is an easier life. Heewon, who was a believer in laziness, and Chaerim, who was a believer in following rules, looked like their argument wasn’t going to end anytime soon. At that rate, they might even become attached to each other.

“The two of them look good together, don’t they?” Haewon said.

It seemed that he was paying close attention as well.

“Does Heewon not have a girl he’s dating?”

“I believe there are quite a few women who asked for his number, but he doesn’t care that much. He’s of the mind that he might be exhausted to death if he has to start caring about dating when he’s busy enough as it is with his schedule. But I think he’s getting along pretty well with Chaerim-noona. I’ve never seen him talk for so long even he was mad.”

“They say opposites attract.”

“Maybe he’ll change if he gets a lover. He’s someone with deep thinking. He has beliefs when he acts. I tend to think of him as someone who saves up energy for the necessary moment when he acts lazy like that. Though, sometimes he just comes to a complete stop once he goes overboard with that.”

“So you’re saying he’ll stop saving up energy if he gets a girlfriend and become more active?”

“He’s someone who does what he feels is necessary. Though, the threshold is high, and it’s hard to reach that stage. Above all, once he becomes a little more active, I’ll get more free time, so this is an important matter to me as well.”

“What are you going to do once you get some free time?”

“Until a few years ago, I really wanted to study, but ever since I got a taste of money, I’ve wanted to start my own business. For studying, I can just do it as a hobby.”

“There aren’t many people who consider studying a hobby in this country. So, what’s your business idea?”

“At the top of the list is an entertainment agency. I’ve been doing this for a long time, so I can make use of my experiences or the connections I’ve made. Our president also said she would help us work in this area, so I’m going to learn under her for the time being.”

“‘Hwan’ is a pretty big company, so I’m sure it will help a lot.”

“Will you sign a contract with me once I become independent? I’ll pay you a lot for the contract deposit.”

“For that, you need to go consult our JA president.”

“He’s a little too difficult to deal with. I met him last time, and I felt like he was reading everything I was thinking.”

“He must have done that with room to spare.”

Just as he put his glass against his mouth, the bell started ringing. Everyone’s conversations stopped for a moment. Maru put down the glass and stood up. He didn’t order any deliveries or packages, so he didn’t know who was at the door. He unlocked the door and opened it.

“So you’re here, thank goodness.”

Maru’s eyes twitched. Outside was Suyeon, holding a lot of things in both of her hands. He quickly pulled the door back in again, but Suyeon was faster than him. She poked her foot in between the door and the door frame and put on a victorious smile.

“That’s not happening.”

“What brings you here at this hour?”

“Don’t you understand already since I’m here at this hour? But it sounds noisy inside, unlike usual.”

“I have guests over.”

“Really? What happened to you? You always only had us as guests.”

Hearing the word ‘us’, Maru opened the door wide.

“Are the men here as well?”

“They’re on their way. But how long are you going to keep making me wait here? This is pretty heavy, you know?”

Maru picked up the paper bag that Suyeon was holding. Inside were cans of beer as well as various snacks.

“The ones you left behind are still here from last time.”

“It’s always good to have more for next time. But hey, looks like there are a lot of guests, huh? That’s a lot of shoes.”

Suyeon commented that as she took off her heels. For Geunsoo, Ganghwan, and Suyeon – this trio – this place was like a personal bar that they could visit whenever they felt like it. Most of the time, they would give a call before coming, but occasionally, they would just barge in in the middle of the night like this. These were also the days when they drank until they fell.

“Oh my word, look who’s this!” Suyeon shouted as she lifted her coat in one hand.

Everyone in the kitchen looked at Suyeon in surprise.

“I never thought I’d get to see Mr. Heewon here when I didn’t have any opportunity until now. Also, aren’t you Chaerim? From ‘Blue’ from before.”

Suyeon snuggled amidst the dazed people and grabbed their hands before shaking them. One of Suyeon’s advantages was that she didn’t look spiteful even if she didn’t put up any courtesy on her first meeting with others. Amidst the chaos, Suyeon smiled and greeted everyone until she looked at Gaeul.

“Miss Han Gaeul, right?”

“Yes.”

“We’ve seen each other before, right? In the hospital when Maru was injured. I had my doubts when I saw you on TV, but now I get it. You said you were his girlfriend back then too. Are you two still dating?”

Gaeul asked for help with her eyes. She seemed to be asking if it was okay to reveal it here.

“We’re dating,” Maru said after going to stand next to her.

“You didn’t tell me anything about it. I’m disappointed.”

“It hasn’t been that long since we got back together.”

“Is that how it is? Then is this occasion a celebratory one?”

“Something like that.”

“That’s good. Miss Gaeul, I can join, can’t I? Tell me about it. How good he is, and even better, you can tell me about his weaknesses.”

With Yuna, who was hesitating next to Gaeul, declaring that she was a fan of Suyeon, the kitchen started becoming noisy again. Suyeon joined in on the conversation like she was there from the beginning. Her social skills were fearsome. A list of names who were toppled by her verbal skills and smile flashed past his mind.

“Mr. Heewon, pour me a glass too.”

“Yes. Please allow me to pour you a drink.”

“You’re being way too stiff. Is it because I’m older than you?”

“No, I just think you’re a little scary.”

“That’s a bit of a strong joke for our first meeting, isn’t it?”

“I don’t joke around a lot.”

It seemed that Heewon, who looked at the world in a different way from the others, had seen through Suyeon’s true nature and acted politely but still maintained distance. It wasn’t that he was hostile, but it looked as though it would take quite a bit of time for the two to get close. As for Suyeon, she seemed to find even that quite interesting as she kept smiling. A snake had appeared amidst herbivores. Maru had to watch that snake so that she didn’t devour the others.

“Oh, the door’s open. Coming in.”

“Maru, hyung-nim’s here. We’re going to drink to the death toni… Huh? There are quite a lot of people here.”

Following those words, Geunsoo and Ganghwan came in. Ganghwan poked his head into the kitchen first and only Yuna responded with the word ’senior.’ When Geunsoo came in, everyone in this place stood up. Gaeul also looked at Geunsoo with surprise and admiration. Maru wanted to signal to her that he was jealous, but he also thought that it couldn’t be helped since a super actor was here.

The silence continued in the kitchen for a while. As for Suyeon, she had approached the others without any time to feel awkward, but Geunsoo had a confused expression on his face as he looked at the unfamiliar group of people.

“Let me clear things up for now. Hyung-nim, give that to me.”

Maru placed the luggage in front of the refrigerator before placing Geunsoo and Ganghwan in front of everyone.

“To your left is the actor Hong Geunsoo, as you all probably know. I won’t introduce what kind of pieces he has done since he has so many hits. The one next to him is actor Yang Ganghwan. He’s a super popular musical actor, and directors love him because having his name on the poster will mean that the tickets will sell out. That’s enough of an introduction, right?”

Maru started clapping first. The people in the kitchen started applauding as well. Following that, he introduced the people in the kitchen, who were standing there awkwardly. Actors Lee Heewon and Han Gaeul; ex-idol, now-café owner Lee Chaerim; and then Lee Haewon, who was Heewon’s little brother and mental support.

“How about me?”

Suyeon raised her hand. She even crossed her legs and looked at him expectantly.

“Don’t mind the person over there. She’s dangerous.”

“You’re being too harsh. I’m Kim Suyeon, an actress at the peak of beauty. Let’s have a great night tonight.”

Suyeon started shaking the can of beer on the floor. Only then did something click in Maru’s mind, but it was too late. Along with a screech, the canned beer burst. Beer foam colored the kitchen. Yuna, who was almost caught up in it, kept blinking in a daze.

“Is this what this place is supposed to be?”

Following that, Chaerim lifted her can as well. Maru freaked out and went to stop her, only to be stopped by Suyeon. The kitchen he had painstakingly cleaned, the kitchen wallpaper he had just attached last week, and the mat that he changed out to celebrate Gaeul’s return, were all covered in beer foam.

“This is karma from your last life,” Geunsoo said as he placed his hand on his shoulder.

Maru just chuckled in vain.

“Then me too!”

Yuna joined in as well. Two were manageable but three… Maru looked at the drenched floor and tried to hold back his intense urge to clean. Even if he cleaned now, Suyeon was the type of person who would say ‘oh, you cleaned it?’ and pour another batch. This must be the consequence of not greeting her properly when he opened the door. Suyeon winked at him. You should’ve welcomed me – she seemed to be saying.

“I’m not sure what is going on, but let’s join in, shall we?” Ganghwan said as he lifted up his glass.

[1] Vomiting (because vomit looks like pancake mix.)

KTLChamber's Thoughts

Maru's gonna be having nightmares tonight. xD

Editor's Note:

Suyeon truly never disappointed. Always so entertaining.

Chapter 813
Sequence 8

“I guess I can’t come over any time now, huh.”

Geunsoo went to the balcony with a can of beer. The way he brushed his hair backwards as he faced the wind reminded Maru of that beer ad. The production of that ad looked just like reality.

“I’m sure the director must have loved it when you shot that beer ad. Just shooting normally would have produced great results,” Maru said as he waved the beer in his hand.

Who would be able to hold back from putting some beer in their grocery basket after seeing a man with a great figure and a handsome face drinking beer at a restaurant with two of his top buttons undone? There were several versions as well: drinking at a restaurant, drinking at a noraebang, and drinking at a nightclub.

“Don’t even start. Just thinking about the amount of barley tea I drank back then makes me want to go to the bathroom even now. I repeatedly drank and spat it out, but I still ended up drinking a huge amount.”

“I’m fine with drinking an enormous amount, so I wish I could shoot an ad like that. Did you know? Whenever I try to watch something like youtube, the ad is always you dancing around while holding this beer. Where did you learn to dance like that? Your techniques were extraordinary.”

“The writer for the ad taught it to me. She said she used to be a regular at nightclubs and taught me various things, and boy was it hard. The one in the ad was just the one decent attempt out of hours of footage. Someone told me that I couldn’t be more terrible at dancing.”

“I guess the heavens are fair. They gave you everything but not dancing skills.”

Maru held out his can of beer. The cans made a clanging sound as they clashed. He took a sip of the beer before leaning against the rails. An ambulance was leaving the parking lot.

“Was there an accident?”

“I wonder too.”

“Didn’t Miss Gaeul collapse too? I didn’t see the news properly, so I’m not entirely sure about this.”

Geunsoo turned around to see inside.

“From her words, it wasn’t that there was a big problem with her body. Apparently, it’s just light fatigue. But then again, if she passed out from it, you can’t really call that ‘light.’”

“Looks like she’s down to Earth.”

“Down to Earth? She’s more like a general. She’s managing her body according to the prescription, so it should be fine in the future, but I am still worried.”

“I’m sure you are. Look after her from the side. If you look out for her, you will be able to avoid the worst scenario even if something happens.”

“That’s the plan. How about you, have you got any news?”

“News?”

“I was thinking that thirty-seven is a suitable age to get married.”

“Why don’t you say that after you introduce me to a good person?”

“There’s a good person over there, you know?”

Maru pointed at Suyeon, who was chatting among the other ladies. He didn’t know what they were talking about, but the ladies looked pretty serious as they listened to her.

“Shall I do it?”

“I was just joking though.”

“You know the story of Princess Pyeonggang and the idiot Ondal[1], right?”

“So you were actually moved because she kept wooing you?”

“There’s that too. There’s also the fact that I got attached to her since we hung out together for so long.”

“I don’t plan to stop you if that’s how you feel, but it sure feels strange.”

“I’m just saying that I’m open to the possibility. I’m not saying that I would share the same bed with her immediately. My feelings are one thing but hers are important too.”

“Well, I think that Suyeon-noona would be willing to write a registration of marriage the moment you tell her that.”

“You know better than me that she’s not someone like that. You know? Sometimes, it makes me wonder if there will ever be a man that Suyeon truly likes in the future.”

Geunsoo’s gaze towards Suyeon was rather complicated. Compassion for a wounded animal, pity for someone riddled with distrust, as well as admiration for the woman who kept her smile. Maru sipped on the beer. Geunsoo’s eyes looked like he was looking at someone that was between ‘a colleague from the same line of work’, ‘a close little sister’, and ‘a woman’.

“Relationships sure are incomprehensible, huh.”

“If I knew how they worked, I would be doing something else instead of acting.”

“Did Suyeon-noona ever tell you about her past?”

“About her first love, you mean?”

“If you know about that, I guess you must have heard everything.”

“I heard not too long ago. We’ve known each other for so long, but that was the first time I saw a facet of her that was hidden from the rest of the world.”

“Suyeon-noona must be serious then. You’re hesitant because you felt that too, aren’t you?”

“I can’t say no to that.”

“I will be rooting for you regardless of your decision.”

While they were talking, Suyeon turned around to look at the balcony as though she felt their gaze. Maru, who met eyes with her, smiled and waved back at her. Suyeon also raised her hand and waved before looking at Geunsoo and putting her hand down again with a faint smile.

“Is she shy? Or is she acting shy?”

“Well, she’s kind of a master in that area. What do you think?”

“I can’t tell either.”

Maru smiled and turned around. He could see the Hangang Park where lights were on. There were people on bicycles, and next to them were couples out for a walk. Geunsoo rested his chin on the hand holding the can.

“When I first got a bicycle, it had training wheels. It was my first time riding, so I didn’t mind it at all and had fun riding it. But then, I found out that the bikes that the neighborhood big brothers are riding don’t have any training wheels. They told me that training wheels were shameful.”

Geunsoo followed the group of bicycle riders riding in a line. Maru put his hand on the rails and listened to him.

“That day, I, along with a couple friends, went to the only bicycle store in town and had the training wheels removed. I can still vividly remember the feeling I had when I dragged my streamlined bicycle to the school field. I took the first step with the mind that I would show off my cool side to the big brothers of the neighborhood.”

“You must have put on a show and fell over.”

“Yeah, I fell over big time. The bike wasn’t the bike I knew of. It didn’t go forward like I expected it to, and it swayed all the time. Although many people have their fathers help them out the first time they ride a two-wheeled bike, I couldn’t expect that to happen even in my dreams due to our family circumstances, which you probably know already. Though, I might have helped my brother out if he wanted.”

“But you’re the type of guy who would do it by yourself even if your father says he wants to help you.”

“I’m not that stubborn. If he was willing to help, I would have let him.”

“From the things you did until now, definitely not. You weren’t nicknamed the lunatic for nothing. You single-handedly founded the acting club that other people weren’t willing to make, so riding a bike must be nothing.”

“That’s a nickname that Yang Miso forced on me. I’m actually quite an intellectual.”

“Lunacy and intellect are two separate things.”

“What else can I say? Anyway, I kept falling over for the entire day and thought: how can I ride the bike coolly without falling over? The next day, I went to the school field and got on the bike again. I was fully prepared to fall over for the whole day too.”

“And it ended up being a smooth ride?”

“Sure. The number of times I fell over had decreased considerably. That was the result of pedaling like hell since I thought that falling over is something natural. The experience I’ve learned then still lies at the core of my life to this day. It is fine to fall over, and it is fine to fail, as long as you have the will to go forward.”

Geunsoo told him to wait before leaving the balcony. When he returned, he was holding two cans of beer. Maru placed the empty cans on the ground. Grabbing the cold can of beer sobered him up in an instant.

“But sometimes, timing is more important than willpower. Falling over, and going forward all have their designated times. If you didn’t fall over when you had to and kept going forward, you wouldn’t have learned how to get up when you actually do fall over, and if you kept falling over without going forward, you would have either lost interest or been injured to the point that you lose the will power.”

“You think I fell over enough?”

“Five years is a seriously long period to be falling over. What’s fortunate is that you went to the military during that period. If you didn’t even do that and kept delaying it, I wouldn’t have said this: I would keep in touch with you as a good brother, but we will never meet each other as actors.”

“I’m always grateful to you. It’s thanks to your words that day on the roof that I chased the path of acting.”

“My words don’t have any power. Like I said that day, those who are going to do it are bound to do it. The people who have become phantoms of Daehak-ro were dragged there against their will. That includes me as well as the actors over there.”

“But still, it was a trigger.”

He opened the can and drank it in one go. Everything became clear now. The destination was death, and after death would come a new life and the start of a new, boring cycle, but he still chose that path. There were no regrets. Just seeing Gaeul’s smiling face made him feel satisfied. If men cannot go against god’s providence then they could only strive to find the best happiness within it. He wanted to proceed forward while striving to be with her. If there was one wish, it was for god to fall over and slip up.

“There are other things I wanted to tell you, but it looks like I don’t need to after seeing your expression.”

“Please say something when I live like a snob again.”

“I don’t think that will happen though?”

“You never know. What’s Geunseok up to recently?”

“An intern. He’s great at living in an organization. He’s also smart unlike me, so I think he’ll get employment as soon as he graduates.”

“He’s a clever one. I’m sure it must have made you feel relieved.”

“These days, I just leave him to his own devices, thinking that he can take care of himself now. What’s funny is that he talks about you from time to time. Though, he’s a guy with pride, so he never says that he feels sorry.”

“Looks like I should meet up with him one time.”

The people who left in groups to talk returned to the living room. They sat in a circle with an empty bottle in the middle. The spinning bottle eventually stopped and people’s eyes fell on the person that the bottleneck was pointing at. It seemed that they were playing truth or dare.

“They’re getting along. From the looks of it, I think they’ll meet up quite frequently.”

“I can’t stand getting my place dirty anymore.”

“Can you handle Ganghwan and Suyeon? If you block them, they’ll start crying and making a mess outside your door.”

“You must help me.”

“I’m sorry, but I like this place too.”

“Sheesh, you’re too harsh.”

“Why don’t you change the interior layout at this opportunity? You know, make it like a bar. I’ll pay for the expenses.”

“Why don’t you just buy a bar? You have the money.”

“I like this place.”

Geunsoo, who had a thick smile on his face, flicked his finger before going to the corner of the balcony. Maru gave the living room a glance before moving.

“You ate with Dongwook-hyung last time, right?”

“Yes.”

“Did you hear anything back then?”

“I’ve only heard him complain that he was getting overworked to death ever since he became editor-in-chief. There was nothing special though. Why do you ask?”

“He seemed to be smoking again. He had a pretty serious face too.”

“It’s been like three years since he quit though. He told me that he would never smoke again even if he dies.”

“I can understand smoking but his expression was way too grim. Even when I asked him what was happening, he didn’t say anything. I’m asking you this because you’re the only one he opens his heart to.”

“I’ll ask when I have the opportunity. But if he didn’t tell you anything about it, it might actually not be anything serious.”

“I hope that’s the case.”

When they ate together, Dongwook just complained like usual and didn’t look like he was hiding anything. Maru would have noticed if there were signs. Or maybe, he might have hidden it from Maru really well.

“What are you two doing over there? Come inside. We’re playing truth or dare,” Suyeon said as she opened the door to the balcony.

Maru went to the living room after picking up the empty cans.

[1] The story of a princess and a (presumed) beggar from 6th century Goguryeo. King Pyeongwon always threatened his daughter Pyeonggang that he would marry her to the idiot Ondal because of her crybaby nature (empty threats to fix her behavior). Little did he know, she actually runs away and did end up marrying Ondal and in fact, raised him to be one of the greatest generals of that time, until he eventually died in battle.

In this specific case though, the King(Suyeon) kept brainwashing threatening(wooing) the princess(Geunsoo) and the princess(Geunsoo) (might) end up marrying Ondal(Suyeon).

KTLChamber's Thoughts

More on that princess and the idiot story:

Ondal was called ‘beggar’ because historical accounts note his clothing and appearance as ‘being peculiar’ and ‘idiot’ because his pronunciation was ‘not good’, which led modern historians to hypothesize that he’s actually a Sogdian Prince (who were apparently surnamed ‘On’ when using the Chinese characters to write their names, but I have not found English resources that confirm this), but the nobles of Goguryeo from that time conspired against him so that history was written as such. Many historians believe this as it was quite unrealistic for a runaway princess to teach a presumed ‘idiot beggar’ and somehow turn him into one of the greatest generals of the kingdom, and as it would make much more sense if he actually turns out to be a Prince from another country.

Fun fact (or not?), I(Chamber) live very close to the place where 'General Ondal' was supposedly killed in battle, my neighborhood mountain has a statue of the general and the princess.

Gosh, that research took a long time.

Anyway.

"Truth and Dare" and "Suyeon" sound like two things that shouldn't coexist

Editor's Note:

There is hope for Suyeon x Geunsoo. LFGGGGGG

Chapter 814
Sequence 8

The first thing he did when he woke up from sleep was open the windows. The first thing that he saw was ‘Woofie’ biting and causing a mess with a roll of toilet paper. She was practically a rhythm gymnast with a ribbon. When they met eyes, the dog whimpered in a low voice before letting go of the roll from her mouth. Her eyes and gestures strongly claimed that she did nothing wrong. The toilet paper rolled until it hit an empty beer can. There were bowls with leftover food wrapped in plastic bags as well as empty glasses and empty cans lined up like an orchestra. If any music was played it would be a pathetic symphony, and the bottle of champagne that was standing up would be Tchaikovsky.

The culprits that caused this mess left during the night. Those who left were probably sleeping in satisfaction by now. Even Gaeul, who was going to stay with him, left at midnight after being contacted by her manager. She said that her schedule had changed.

“Hey, come here.”

He had Woofie sit down and placed the roll of toilet paper she was just playing with in front of him. She declared her innocence as she rolled her big eyes around, but when Maru stared at her, she rolled onto her back and started acting cute. It seemed that she had switched lanes after seeing that her right to stay silent didn’t work. Maru couldn’t exactly vent his anger on an animal he couldn't get through to. Maru showed her the toilet roll once again and told her not to bite on it. Whether the dog understood was a mystery though.

He opened the door to the balcony and started cleaning. After cleaning the living room and the kitchen that made his heart feel unsettled, he felt a lot more relieved. He sprayed Febreeze everywhere in his house while seriously considering a no-entry rule. As for breakfast, he just ate some cereal. Woofie changed her expression as soon as she heard cereal being poured and quickly approached Maru before wagging her tail. She was incredibly quick at times like this that it was to the point that it made Maru wonder whether she really had an injured leg.

“Yeah, you need to eat too, don’t you?”

Her name became ‘Woofie’ yesterday. When Chaerim asked what the dog’s name was, he replied that there wasn’t one yet, and suddenly, the game turned into a name-the-dog. As they were all drunk, they each came up with a name, but there was nothing suitable. James Bond, Dog Meat, Ssamjang, Nameless, Smartie; there was even a Han Maru among them. For about thirty minutes, everyone used ‘Han Maru.’ If Maru didn’t interrupt midway by telling them that it was absolutely not happening, the dog’s name would have become ‘Han Maru.’ After a bout of conversation, they decided on Woofie. They couldn’t care less at that point. For Maru, Woofie was much better than ‘Han Maru,’ and that was selected. He didn’t want to hear ‘Han Maru’s peeing’ whenever the dog did.

“They thought a lot about it, so don’t be too disappointed.”

Woofie didn’t even seem interested in what Maru was saying because she was too absorbed in eating. After petting her head once, Maru brewed some coffee. He enjoyed his leisure after embracing the peace that came to his house. It was a peaceful Sunday only allowed to an actor who had one official schedule. The film that featured Geunsoo was introduced in a movie critic program that played in the morning. While watching the host introduce the movie with great talking skills, he grabbed his phone. He remembered the conversation he had with Geunsoo yesterday. He looked for Dongwook’s name and pressed the call button. The signal didn’t last that long.

-Hello?

“Hyung-nim. It’s Maru.”

-A call from you on Sunday morning, huh. That’s a first.

“Sometimes, I should try to switch things up. Are you busy?”

-If I was busy on a Sunday, I wouldn’t be able to live. What are you doing?

“I just finished cleaning and was watching TV.”

-You’re too much of a clean freak for a guy living alone. Is it still as desolate as before? I mean, with a single sofa in the living room.

“There are a couple vases now. Though, they aren’t mine.”

-What do you mean they aren’t yours?

“It belongs to the one who warms my side.”

-Did you finally get a girl?

“Yes, I finally got one.”

-Congratulations. If you don’t want to grow old alone like me, you should date early and get married. If you have time later, introduce her to me.

“I think you saw her once at least.”

-Really?

“I’ll tell you the specifics when we meet up.”

-Does that mean you’re coming to see me?

“As long as you aren’t busy and have the time to hang out with a free young man like me.”

-I thought you just got a girlfriend. Why would you meet me on a golden Sunday like this?

“Because she’s busy with work. How about it? Let’s go fishing together after a long time. The last time we went fishing was when I just finished my military service, and we haven't gone since then, did we?”

-This is why I can’t help but like you. Shall we go to Daebudo[1]?

“I’ll bring the car, so lend me some gear.”

-I’ll give you the one I bought last time. I tamed it, so it should be easy to use.

“I’ll go over to your house after getting some ramyun and a portable stove.”

He loaded the luggage in his car and headed to Dongwook’s house. He saw Dongwook wearing a backpack in front of the apartment complex.

“I wanted to get a breather too. I was almost getting fed up with going by myself.”

“Is the celibacy you were praising so much finally coming to an end?”

“It’s just a figure of expression. If I get married, I won’t even be able to go fishing. Heck, I found my friends pitiful when they were dragged to theme parks and whatnot every weekend looking like zombies.”

When Dongwook got in the passenger seat, Maru could smell a faint scent of cigarettes. He didn’t say anything and just started the car. The car eventually left Gangnam expressway and entered Western Coast expressway.

“Are you smoking again?”

He brought up the topic. Dongwook, who was boasting about his fishing photo, brushed up his hair in an awkward fashion.

“Do I smell?”

“A little. You didn’t smoke at all after you quit.”

“Things happened. I tried not to smoke, but my mouth kept feeling itchy.”

“Did something happen?”

“Nothing much. I just missed smoking.”

Maru no longer brought up the topic of smoking until they arrived at Daebudo. The way he looked down at his hand before throwing his gaze outside the window made it look as though Dongwook was trying to hide the reason he started smoking again. Urging a person who was trying to hide the reason was practically asking them to keep it even more of a secret. He brought up the topic, so Dongwook would probably talk about it once he felt that it was necessary. If he kept his silence, they could just have a blast fishing together and return home.

“There’s quite a lot of people.”

He parked his car in the port of Heungseon-ri and got out. Dongwook, who was looking around, found a spot a little away from the port. There was a wave of salty smell from the sea. They opened their portable chairs and set up their fishing rods.

“I’m getting hungry. Let’s cook the ramyun.”

“We just sat down together. We should put a fish in the ramyun at least. I mean, we came all the way here.”

“Ramyun tastes the best when it’s cooked by itself.”

They cooked some ramyun as soon as they grabbed a spot. Although Maru said what he said, his stomach was craving more food as he only ate cereal for breakfast. He also cracked open two eggs that he had brought.

“Fishing is something you do just to eat ramyun.”

“I want to retort to that, but it’s good, so I can’t really say anything.”

They emptied the ramyun in a flash before sitting down again. Dongwook turned the radio on and looked into the distance. He would sometimes sigh as well, but smile whenever they met eyes. Two hours passed like that. Dongwook turned off the radio.

“Do you remember Choi Miyeon?”

“Choi Miyeon?”

Maru probed his memories. He was reminded of a journalist with whom he had an interview long ago. The moment he matched the face and the name, the things she said started appearing in his memories as well.

“Is she the journalist from Sharon?”

“Yes. I’m just asking in case, but did you hear anything from her?”

“About what, exactly?”

“Lee Miyoon. Miyeon said that she mentioned it to you once.”

“I did hear about it. It was a long time ago though.”

“How much did she tell you?”

“She told me that Lee Miyoon is suspected to be a broker who sets up prostitution.”

“So you know almost everything.”

“Did that become a problem? I thought that things were resolved well since I didn’t hear anything much after ‘The Five’ became an issue.”

“One of two things happen when an accident occurs: it’s gouged out, or it is covered up so that it couldn’t be seen.”

“So that one seems to be the well covered up case then.”

“It was covered up cleanly. Usually, common sense dictates that you shouldn’t touch something that was operated as cleanly as that. It was the doing of an expert. Even if you do poke around it, it would be hard to find a flaw, and even if you do find a flaw, it’s hard to make an issue out of it, so it just ends with a lot of suffering.”

“I see. Journalist Choi Miyeon dug into it, huh?”

“She did.”

After saying that, Dongwook waved his hand in the air as though to chase off a fly.

“No. This is nothing much, so forget about it.”

“If you say that it’s nothing much after telling me all that, I wouldn’t be able to sleep in peace.”

“It’s because you don’t need to know about it. Knowing won’t do you any good either. Above all, it’s not like you can do anything.”

Dongwook took out a cigarette and put it in his mouth. He lit it up and puffed it deeply.

“Hyung-nim.”

“Yeah?”

“You know? If It was before, I would have just ended on that note. It’s just as you said; if I can’t help you with it, I would think that there’s no need to hear about it. To put it bluntly, there’s nothing in it for me either.”

“So you should stay out of it.”

“But you know? I’ve currently given up on something big right now. You know that feeling, don’t you? When you face a really big problem, you tend to treat anything else as trivial. That’s how I feel right now.”

“What problems do you have when you just found a girlfriend and must be feeling good?”

Maru didn’t say anything and just stared at Dongwook. As he was once a journalist who ran among the front lines in order to reveal the truth and fight for the transparency of the media, he should be able to recognize the meaning behind Maru’s eyes. Dongwook rubbed the cigarette on the ground to put it out.

“I don’t know what it is, but I can tell you’re serious.”

“Tell me about it. Also, I’m not entirely irrelevant to this case. My girlfriend is working close to that person.”

“Is she an actress?”

“Yes. It’s Han Gaeul.”

“So that’s what you meant when you said that I must have seen her at least once. Well, first, congratulations.”

“Thank you.”

“But did Lee Miyoon approach Han Gaeul before?”

“No, in fact, they’re enemies. Apparently, it’s pretty famous that the two are at odds against each other.”

“That’s good. It would be hard for that hag to trample someone on Han Gaeul’s level. No, wait, it might be a different story if she sets her mind to it.”

Dongwook kept rubbing the cigarette on the ground as he continued,

“Miyeon found something new as she dug into Lee Miyoon’s back.”

“Something new?”

“Her connection to Soul or to be precise, Hong Janghae.”

“Soul is where the member that left ‘The Five’ joined, right?”

“Yes. I talked to Geunsoo about this in the past as well. I told him that Lee Miyoon was doing something shady. But I couldn’t tell him anything this time since Hong Janghae was involved in it as well. Even I couldn’t easily tell him that his father might be involved in bad business.”

“You should have. Geunsoo-hyung would gladly step in to help you.”

“He did say something similar before. He called his father ‘that man’ and told me that I should tell him if he’s ever up to no good and that he was willing to become bait.”

“That household is in a pretty complex situation.”

“And you know what the situation is?”

“Yes, by coincidence.”

“You’re involved in a lot of things huh. You won’t end up good if you keep sticking your nose into other people’s business.”

“I’ve already seen every bad thing there can be. I probably won’t be able to find anything worse.”

Maru wasn’t exactly lying since there was no one who lived more repeated lives than him. Dongwook just sighed.

“Do you know who the parent company of Soul is?”

“It’s YM Group.”

“Miyeon believed that Lee Miyoon’s connection reached all the way to YM through Hong Janghae.”

“Believed, you say. That means that she hadn’t found clear evidence.”

“Maybe she did.”

“Eh?”

Dongwook turned around to the fishing rod.

“Are you going to do more fishing?”

“We ate ramyun, so I think we did enough.”

“Then wanna go somewhere with me?”

“I’ll wrap this place up for now.”

Maru got the fishing rod, the stove, and the pot and returned to the car. Dongwook said that they should return to Seoul first.

[1] An island in Ansan. 50km away from Seoul.

KTLChamber's Thoughts

Pretty interesting how Maru's dog got the same name as Choi Seol's cat, lol.

Editor's Note:

This time the dog is actually a 'wolf' lmao.

Chapter 815
Sequence 8

“It’s that one,” Dongwook said as he pointed at the flower shop across from them.

Before they departed from Daebudo, Dongwook made a phone call somewhere. From the looks of it, he seemed to be calling Choi Miyeon. After that, he told Maru the address of this store, so it was probably safe to assume that Choi Miyeon was inside.

He got out of the car and entered the store. Choi Miyeon, who was cutting off branches with a pair of floral shears, greeted him warmly,

“Long time no see.”

“Yes. How have you been?”

She did not reply and turned around instead, saying that she was going to clean up. Did she not reply because the question was just a formal one? Or was she expressing that she had not been doing well? She put away the flower vase on the desk before bringing some tomato juice.

“Nice interior, by the way.”

“I put quite a lot of effort into it. My aim is not wholesale, so the atmosphere is pretty important.”

“Do you usually deal with flowers or vases usually given as presents?” Maru asked as he looked at the vases.

Most of them were cacti, which were considered easy to raise. There were a few herbs as well, and they seemed to be reserved for people as they had names in front of them.

“I’ll give you one as a present.”

“I’ll buy it. I have someone to give it to. Also, you don’t need to be so formal with me.”

Maru stood up with the glass cup. It didn’t look like she was going to spit out the things she experienced during the past five years. He looked around the store until she spoke,

“You want to hear about Lee Miyoon?” she asked after rubbing her glass for a long time.

Dongwook, who sat next to him, looked at her worriedly. He seemed like he knew how hard of a time she was going to have by talking about it.

“If you find it difficult then it is okay if you don’t. It’s not like there’s an immediate problem.”

“No, this is a good thing. I thought it was about time I spoke about it properly.”

To whom, it was probably Dongwook. Maru sat down. It was time to listen to why she, who was more eager to dig up the truth behind this matter than anyone, was running this flower store now.

“I should have told you about it before; I told you about how Lee Miyoon is acting as a broker for prostitution.”

“I remember.”

“I kept investigating that. There was a sense of duty in me as well, but it was more to do with how I couldn’t look away from the pain one person has experienced.”

She took her hands off the glass and sat up.

“Five years ago, I was having a deep talk with an actress who sold her body through Lee Miyoon. Let’s call her A for now. A was an actress in her forties at the time. A long time ago, when A was in her twenties, she gets into prostitution. She was threatened that she would not be able to debut if she didn’t accept, and although she tried to refuse, she ended up doing it due to pressure from people around her as well as verbal and physical violence. Back then, I was an idiot and asked why she didn’t report them to the police. A told me that she didn’t dare to report when she thought about what would happen to her afterwards, especially after she got involved in it. She was well aware that her acting career would be finished if she did report. Strictly speaking, she was the victim, but the fact that she involved herself in it seeking compensation haunted her a lot.”

“It’s hard. It might decide her life after all.”

Even if she was threatened into doing it, A must have known that there was an opportunity to wash herself of it, but the sense of guilt, because she chose to do something shady for compensation, must have sealed her mouth shut. The sense of shame must have restrained her from taking action as well. It wasn’t that she was foolish. It was the reaction of a normal person. It would instead be rather special if a person clashed head-on in order to win the thing they wanted.

“Despite doing such a thing, the role she was promised was not given to her, and although she played one of the lead roles in a drama after that, the reaction wasn’t that good. In the end, A retired and lived an ordinary life until she eventually got married and had a child. However, she soon got divorced and was living with her child until she eventually committed suicide five years ago due to hardships in life. I thought about a lot of things: Why did A’s life have to end so sadly like that?, where did the problem all start?, and above all, why did I not listen to her more back then?”

Maru had a look at her hands. Her interlocked hands had turned blue from gripping too hard.

“Do you remember that an actress’ prostitution matter was buried under the rug due to the commotion caused by The Five’s slave contract?”

“Yes, I remember. I also know that it disappeared without a sound.”

“A’s suicide pushed me forward. I couldn’t stay still, so I decided to take the deeply rooted problem of the entertainment industry into my own hands. Back then, I approached that young actress and asked many things, but I wasn’t able to hear the answer to most of the things. That girl was afraid of things becoming public, and above all, she had already come to a deal with the offenders. I couldn’t blame her. The things she experienced were too terrible for me to tell her that we should pull out this dirty problem by the roots. I didn’t dare ask for her help when she told me that she wanted to lay low. So I acted by myself. I invested all the time left after writing my articles for the magazine. Back then, I felt like I was something. I thought that it might be hard for now, but if I tell the truth to the world, it would be a small consolation to the ones who suffered and be the trigger to erase that evil cycle. It was meager heroism and journalism but they were the motivation that moved me.”

“It’s not meager at all. Generally, people flee when they’re faced with such a thing.”

“No, I’m a meager person. No, perhaps calling me ‘meager’ is an overstatement.”

She laughed self-mockingly. She reached out for the juice, saying that she needed something to drink. It was at that time that Maru noticed the thin scars on her wrist. Maru averted his eyes away and drank the juice. The position of those scars didn’t allow him to ask. After taking a deep breath, she continued to speak,

“I did achieve something. Perhaps it was luck, but I found out that there was some sort of a deal between Hong Janghae and Lee Miyoon. I also knew that the colossal company known as YM was involved in it.”

“Did you have physical evidence?”

“I did.”

She ‘did.’ Did that mean that she didn’t have it now? She paused just as she was about to speak before placing her hand on her chest and breathing heavily. Next to her, Dongwook told her to stop if it was too hard for her. Her peach-colored expression paled, just like her hands.

“Wait a sec.”

She went to the counter before taking out a long plastic container. It was a container with medicine in it, divided into weekdays. She took out some medicine and put them in her mouth before gulping down some water. She then breathed calmly before returning to her seat and sitting down. Her eyelids twitched minutely.

“Sorry. It’s stress-induced dyspnea. I’m also taking antidepressants.”

“If it’s too difficult for you, you can stop here.”

“No, I have to do it. I don’t think I’ll ever be able to talk about it again if I don’t do it today. Above all, Dongwook-seonbae has to listen to this until the end.”

Dongwook crossed his arms as though he understood and looked at her.

“I looked everywhere in order to find the connection between YM and Lee Miyoon. As with the victims of all cases, they are afraid of being exposed to the surface. Not only that, this was about prostitution. I knew that I would not have any hopes of winning against a big company, so I gathered information as carefully as possible. However, everything I got was circumstantial evidence or predictions. The women who secretly told me that they were involved in prostitution all cut off contact with me when I asked them if they can reveal their names and testify. I felt stuck. I was just thinking that I reached my limit when I was contacted.”

“Did that person say she would testify?”

Hearing Maru’s question, she nodded.

“It was that young girl who was swept under the rug five years ago thanks to ‘The Five.’ She called me and told me that she gained the courage to speak and that she wanted to take revenge against those people who tried to do as they wished with her. It felt like a dream. I finally felt like I found a path forward. She told me that she had a recording that she kept secret. She said that she recorded it during her call with Lee Miyoon five years ago. She said that she had it on her phone and told me that we should sue her first.”

“She’s pretty knowledgeable about what you were up to considering that she hadn’t contacted you for five years as well as the fact that you haven’t given up and were still investigating.”

Choi Miyeon faintly smiled. That smile seemed to disdain herself.

“It was my mistake as I was exhausted because of not being able to gain anything for five years. I’m supposed to be a journalist, but I only confirmed the source of the evidence, not the feelings of the person who had it.”

“When you said you had the evidence, does that mean that the recording existed?”

“Yes, it did exist. I wasn’t an idiot, so I checked for myself the next day. That was a year ago. I heard Lee Miyoon make threats before trying to coax her inside a café. It was definitely recorded on the phone. When I asked if I could get a copy on the spot, she said she was too afraid. She said that she couldn’t trust me fully. I was persuaded when she said that I might make her testify after I revealed that evidence. I could understand where she was coming from, and I was in a hurry as well, which was a problem. I should have confirmed everything before I started it.”

She bit her lips.

“Back then, I thought that we should cause a ripple first. There was no way to topple a sturdy castle in one go, so we decided to strike the surface of the moat first to see their reaction. I thought that if Lee Miyoon’s recording is exposed, Lee Miyoon herself would have to stand in public and that Hong Janghae or YM, who she had connections with, might help her out. I was under the dream that I would not only be able to take Lee Miyoon out but everyone above her as well if I managed to observe her and prove her connections with YM.”

“Did that actress cut off all contact at the most important moment?”

She nodded heavily.

“All of my hypotheses were grounded on the physical evidence in her possession. With that out of the equation, my articles were nothing more than speculations, and the result was pretty obvious. There wasn’t even a mention of my article. No one knew about that matter. However, I received a letter requiring my attendance very quickly. I got one lawsuit after another.”

“Does that mean that people other than Lee Miyoon sued you?”

“The magazine company I worked for as well as the businesses I did interviews with. The main reason for the lawsuits was that I wrote malicious articles in order to wrongfully harm perfectly fine businesses and a capable actress. The people who were helping me changed their attitudes in an instant. My social life came to a complete halt. The human known as Choi Miyeon, who was alive and fine until just yesterday, was socially buried, quickly and easily.”

Her lips trembled. She seemed like she was still buried underground; she was buried underneath the gloomy depths of society where even breathing was difficult.

KTLChamber's Thoughts

Welcome back to the dark parts of Life, Once Again!

Editor's Note:

The steady stream of fluff was too good to be true.

Chapter 816
Sequence 8

(WARNING: Self-Harm)

“I knew what lawsuits were like because there were people who were sued around me but experiencing it for myself was a completely different thing. Being asked to show up once throws a wrench in your lifestyle. But once or twice, it was endurable. It was because I kept getting asked to show up that I became both mentally and physically exhausted. I couldn’t delay my appearance forever, so I eventually had to go, and whenever I did, it was the same boring old investigation again. At first, I was firm. I didn’t have any physical evidence, but I had circumstantial evidence, so I believed that I would be able to change the heart of the investigators. Of course, it didn’t take long for me to realize that it was a vain dream.”

She used her right hand to slowly massage her left wrist down to her elbow. She looked as though she was consoling a stubborn child.

“People there are very knowledgeable about how to socially, physically, and mentally kill a person. They kept sending me lawsuits, each time under a different name so that they couldn't be classified together. Among them, there were things that ended on the investigator’s level but there were things I was fined for. That was the beginning. People started nitpicking the articles I wrote while I worked as a journalist. I was fired from my job and everyone I knew turned their backs on me, and there was no end to the lawsuits. I couldn’t go to anyone for help. They attacked me within the scope of the law after all.”

“Those people are meticulous.”

“I was blinded by my meager sense of justice. I was an individual while my opponent was a colossal business company with a huge law firm protecting them. No, it would probably have been the same if I fought Lee Miyoon as an individual. That woman’s background is huge after all. After that, I frequented the police station and frequently met with free attorneys. Every day was hell. I wished everything would come to an end, regardless of how it ended.”

She put out her left wrist. Those were the scars that Maru intentionally averted his gaze from. There was only one thing those thin horizontal lines signified.

“I didn’t even know I had depression. I thought it was because of stress that I kept waking up at night. It was the day after rain. The sky was really clear, I felt really refreshed, and it was also the day I gained the courage to pick up a razor. Regarding actress A, who I talked about earlier, I was wondering what kind of hardships must have driven her to give up on life and choose suicide, but I realized it wasn’t like that. Like in my case, it was way too impulsive. Slicing a line was hard, yet at the same time, it felt so charming. It was one of the methods of ending this whole thing. I was drunk on the feeling that I was choosing how I was living my life until the end and that I was not giving up.”

She put on a twisted smile. Maru felt that it was about time to stop her. Her words were driving herself into a corner.

“It’s okay if you don’t talk about it anymore.”

“No, hear me out until the end. Whether it’s you or Dongwook-seonbae, I don’t think I’ll be able to say it if not today. It’s difficult to even talk about it after all. That’s why I’m going to say what happened to me very clearly.”

She kept massaging her left arm. Just as her pain deepened as she continued to talk, Dongwook, who was listening from the side, was unable to keep his fingers still. He looked like he was in dire need of some cigarettes.

“But I found out that not anyone can just slit their wrists. Before I put it against my wrist, it felt like nothing, but the moment the blade touched me, I felt like I was flipped over. This is the result. I was neither able to go forward nor run away and was only left with this wound. I heard before that if you really want to die, you have to slit it vertically, not horizontally. I knew that yet I slit myself horizontally. I was hesitating until the very end.”

“You gained courage. The courage to keep on living.”

“Thanks for telling me that. Like that, a few months passed. The lawsuits disappeared as though they never happened. The people who were out to devour me before all suddenly started smiling at me and told me that it was all part of the experience. They probably thought that they tamed me. I had nothing left. I lost my job and my health. The money I had saved up had halved when I paid all those fines. When I saw the people I trusted turn their backs on me once, I lost all faith in humanity. I was really unable to do anything. I stayed at home by myself without even turning the lights on. I couldn’t die, and I couldn’t fight back properly. So what in the world could I do? I spent a week like that. After a period of despair came the period of acceptance, and after even that passed, I just gave up on everything. I had nothing to lose, so I might as well cause a scene – that thought suddenly came to me.”

She drank a sip of the juice. After taking a breather, she put on a vain smile and continued speaking,

“I was contacted by the actress who ran away. I know I shouldn’t say this, but I wanted to kill her. I couldn’t forgive the woman who deceived me and turned me into who I became. But you know what’s funny? I ended up negotiating with her and said that nothing happened between us. After settling the deal that we will not get involved in each other’s lives, I received this store. It was a strange thing. I thought about trying to make everything public with the power of the internet and just forget about it, but they approached me right at that time. I’m pathetic, aren’t I? In the end, I’m just the same as that girl.”

“Anyone would’ve done the same.”

Choi Miyeon heaved a deep sigh before looking at Dongwook. Dongwook was staring at the table while pressing on his forehead. It looked as though he was having a hard time meeting her eyes.

“Senior. Don’t you dare do it. You were right back then. That wasn’t something I should have challenged myself with my meager journalist spirit. It wasn’t something that anyone could do. It would’ve been better if I listened to you five years ago and gave up on it.”

She looked like she didn’t even have any energy to cry. She stood up, saying that she was done talking. After watching her trim a bouquet as though nothing had happened, Maru stood up.

“I’ll come again later to buy flowers. Please recommend a pretty one to me.”

“Alright. Come anytime. I’ll probably stay here. It’s not like I have anywhere to go now.”

Those words sounded sad. After leaving a short goodbye greeting, Maru left the store first. It was a complex thing. He even wanted to applaud those people for so cleanly using social infrastructure to trample on a person’s life. This didn’t seem to be the doing of Lee Miyoon, who tended to look down on people up front. Hong Janghae popped up in his mind. The face he only saw through magazines had a fishy smile on his face in his imagination. Was that person, who possessed the meticulousness of being indiscriminately violent to the second son he had perfect control over while not touching a single hair on the first son that had left, the perpetrator behind this incident?

Maru looked at the store sign. When the rat driven into a corner started showing signs of biting back, they immediately opened up a hole in the flawless siege for her to escape so that she had no choice but to leave through that opening even while shuddering in a sense of tragedy. Hong Janghae should know from experience that those who were snapped once would not be able to lift their heads up again, just like his son. If Hong Janghae was truly the perpetrator behind this incident, it went to show that he was an incredibly hard man to oppose indeed. Those with both political and financial power as well as the ability to abandon things at the right time will never show their tail after all.

Dongwook left the store about 10 minutes later. It seemed that there were things he had to talk about with his junior. He saw Choi Miyeon clasping her hands into a praying position and putting her face against her hands in front of the window.

He got into the car. Dongwook said that he was going to smoke before they departed.

“Looks like this is the first time you heard about it as well.”

“Yes. She didn’t say anything until now. The only thing I knew was that she attempted to commit suicide because of severe depression. I thought that digging YM’s back must have put her in that state, but she denied it until the end. It seems she was afraid that I would get myself involved.”

“Do you think she’s going to be okay? She still looks rather uneasy.”

“She has gotten okay now. Three months ago, she wasn’t even willing to see other people. I barely managed to see her too. The only solution is time, I guess. She’s also undergoing psychotherapy and medical treatment, so I believe she’s going to get well. I’ll look out for her, so the things that happened before will not occur again.”

Dongwook stuck his head out the window and spat out some smoke.

“If she got paid through the runaway actress then it would be hard to find any connections to Lee Miyoon or Hong Janghae too.”

“Right. If we can find that actress, I would look for a way, but she probably disappeared. Thinking about it now, I think that actress revealed herself on purpose. She probably struck a deal with Lee Miyoon or Hong Janghae or any other parties that I don’t know of and aimed for journalists that approached her or those who can’t keep secrets. She’s in charge of cutting off anyone so that that matter doesn’t get exposed to the public.”

“That’s true. The fact that she was aware of journalist Choi’s situation as well as the fact that she contacted her at the most crucial time all point towards that.”

“I should have stopped her more thoroughly. Journalists with a solid background are fully capable of protecting themselves even if they get deeply involved but individuals who leave the TV stations to work as freelance journalists for magazines can do nothing but become prey. I was too complacent. I underestimated her. I thought she’d take her hands off it once she realized that what she was dealing with was explosive. I didn’t think she’d look directly into it.”

“You can’t look into a person’s heart. Even if you tried to stop her, she probably would have gone as far as she did. She’s the kind of person who had to check for herself that she would reach a cliff.”

Dongwook threw the cigarette filter in his mouth out the window. After watching the store for a while, Dongwook reached inside his pocket and took out his pack of cigarettes and his lighter.

“Hey, can I feed your trash can?”

“Are you going to throw them away?”

“Yeah. My mouth doesn’t feel itchy anymore. I should throw away things I don’t need.”

“You aren’t going to try to investigate, are you?”

“I’m someone who writes on a chair for money. It’s been a long time since I used my own feet to go around looking for materials. Above all, I’m a self-preservationist, so I will never do something dangerous. Even if I was paid all the money in the world, I have the iron rule of not getting involved with dangerous stuff.”

Dongwook crushed the pack of cigarettes.

“Be careful.”

“I told you I’m not going to do anything.”

“I didn’t mean anything when I said that either.”

Dongwook fixed his gaze on the flower store and spoke,

“She was an annoyingly bold junior. She looked like she would be able to win against anything she experienced. But the Choi Miyeon I met three months ago wasn’t the one I knew. She tensed up at the sound of the glass hitting the table, and her shoulder shriveled up just by someone walking past her. She was someone who never stayed low in front of senior journalists… she was someone who would smile even while getting insults…”

Maru wasn’t able to say anything to Dongwoo, who stayed quiet with a faint smile on his face.

“Shall we go for a drink?”

“Yes. I think we should.”

Maru started the car.

KTLChamber's Thoughts

I remember a comment that said 'So the second part is about Maru vs Giwoo'

Well, to me, it looks like it's Maru & co vs the entire YM family.

Editor's Note:

I feel like this is enormous foreshadowing.

Chapter 817
Sequence 9

“Phew, I was almost late.”

“You should’ve headed out early,” Giwoo scolded her.

She was about to tell him about how her elevator suddenly stopped working just as she left her house, and how the credit card machine suddenly stopped working when she was refueling her car, but she just responded by drinking a glass of water instead. Today was the day the first episode aired, but things weren’t looking good. Everything was not going well since morning. Even though she had turned the alarm on, it did not ring. The whole grain bread that she had left out on her table to eat had turned bad overnight, and her hairdryer kept turning off as though it had bad contacts somewhere inside. Looking back at everything that happened until she got to this restaurant made her wonder if one of the three disasters of her life had struck. Although she did not believe in religion or any other deities for that matter, all these bad things happening made her pick up the newspaper, and the first thing she saw on it was ‘the three disasters of life.’

“Is something on your mind? You don’t look good,” Giwoo said as he filled her glass.

“It’s because I’m having a bad day. Usually, I don’t believe in things like fortune-telling, but what happened today made me seriously think about going to one.”

“Should I introduce you to someone who’s known to be accurate?”

“If it’s like this tomorrow too, then sure.”

The senior actors, the director, and the writer all arrived. The people seated around the table, eating lightly, all stood up and started applauding.

“Eat as much as you wish and have a great time. In two days, we’ll be starting the marathon again.”

The director raised his glass and shouted “Doctor’s Office, Fighting!” Gaeul also raised her voice. The main writer of ‘Doctor’s Office’ said that they would overtake the KBS crown. A round of applause was followed by the toasting of glass. It only started getting quiet around 10. People, who had been checking the time on their phones, all became quiet and looked at the large TV on one wall of the store. The first episode, which would be the deciding factor of the whole series, was going to air at any moment.

Gaeul put a dried squid leg in her mouth. This was her third drama already yet the excitement of the first episode never changed. With both ‘Flaming Lady’, in which she appeared as a minor character, and ‘Diary of Migrating to Seoul’, where she played her first lead role, she watched the first episode with a sense of nervousness and excitement. Both of them were Monday-Tuesday series, and both of them were far ahead of the programs that aired on other channels. In terms of archery, the difference was about 10 points to 3. The two dramas that she shot before all shot 10 points and ended without relenting the crown to any other series.

“I wish we are the ones to break that jinx,” Giwoo said in a small voice.

KBS mini-dramas had two large jinxes. One was that the ‘Monday-Tuesday series will always take the crown’ and the other one was that ‘Wednesday-Thursday series will come last no matter what.’ ‘Doctor’s office’ was scheduled to air in the Wednesday-Thursday slot. RBS was the one holding the crown of the Wednesday-Thursday series. KBS had never won against RBS when it came to this slot.

“I looked up the viewing rate of the last episode of ‘Man in the Dream,’ would you like to have a look?” Giwoo said as he turned his phone around.

Man in the Dream was the KBS Wednesday-Thursday drama that ended last week. Gaeul had a look at the screen. The viewing rate of the last episode was 4%. It was a good drama that started off in the 7% region, but it ended without being able to climb up. The drama was a cool one where the story, actors, and production quality were good too. Gaeul thought about the jinx of the KBS Wednesday-Thursday series again.

“Like what the writer said, I hope we can take the crown.”

“DId KBS ever take 1st place?”

“Yes, apparently. Ten years ago.”

“Ten years ago, huh.”

Gaeul bit the squid leg with her molars and pulled it out. She had heard multiple times that actors would never become big if they were concerned about viewing rates, but she couldn’t help but be concerned. No matter how well it was received, the drama would be considered to have flunked if that didn’t show some good stats. There were no actors who would want to be the leading roles of a flunked drama.

“It’s starting,” the director shouted.

Gaeul turned around to the TV. Due to the production environment of dramas, where time would be of the essence towards the end, it couldn’t be helped that the quality of a drama would fall down towards the end. In other words, if the viewers thought that the quality of the first episode was below their expectations, they would change the channel without giving it a second thought. Back in the days when they would have to wait until the rebroadcast if they didn’t have videotape recorders, many people would endure and watch the first episode, but these days, when they could rewatch the episode whenever they wanted, there were very few people who would patiently watch until the very end. If it was bad, they would change their channel within the first 10 or even 5 minutes. It wasn’t like they could plead with the audience to keep watching until the end. Since they put a lot of effort into it, the best method was to attract as much attention as possible in the beginning so that the channel wasn’t changed. She did her best for the best possible outcome. When she shot the last scene in the first episode, she pushed herself so hard that she wondered if she might fall ill. There was a sense of responsibility to show good acting, but she also had the desire to break the Wednesday-Thursday series jinx. There was nothing more desirable than that title as an actor. You can use that actor/actress to break that jinx – anyone would want that label on them.

The scenes she had repeated several times became a video and were projected on the TV screen. The rain was terrible that day, the airplane ruined the audio, there was a big problem with the shooting set – many events related to those scenes popped up in her mind.

“The quality’s good.”

“The director must have worked hard.”

Then came the scene where Giwoo started crying. This was the scene that also made Gaeul’s heart tighten when she watched from the side. As this was the middle part of the first episode, the director did not relent and kept shouting ‘cut’ and ‘action’ repeatedly in order to bring out the best quality. The good atmosphere at the set also gradually stiffened up due to the repeated NGs before the okay sign fell just as the mood was about to go bad. After that scene, Giwoo fell to the floor as though he was collapsing. He had been exhausted. Gaeul applauded him as an actress. There were some bad rumors circulating around the staff about Giwoo’s background, but those rumors disappeared with that act alone. An actor who possessed that amount of skill coming in through the back door was not even funny after all.

“Good, really good. I was even worried that Giwoo would slap me after that.”

“You went too far back then. I wasn’t crying because I’m acting; I was crying because I was really frustrated, you know?”

“Really?”

“Did you forget how much you scolded me back then? I even thought about fleeing, you know?”

“I did it because I knew our dear Giwoo would be able to do it. Here, have a drink.”

The director poured some drinks for Giwoo. The staff around them started raising their phones high and taking photos. Everyone had social network accounts these days, so they were probably taking photos for that. Giwoo got on top of a chair and raised his phone high. The staff and the actors all gathered into one group and made a V with their fingers.

“Let’s get back to watching. The climax has yet to come.”

The director refreshed the atmosphere before sitting down.

“Hey, this is pretty good.”

Giwoo showed her the photo he had just taken. Underneath the photo that was about to be uploaded to social media were the hashtags ‘#first_episode’, ‘#doctors_office’, ‘#watchit’.

“Han Gaeul, let’s take one together. I’ll upload it with this.”

“You go forward, so I can look smaller.”

“You are plenty small already, you’re way too greedy.”

Gaeul also took out her phone. When she uploaded the photo she took with Giwoo on Instagram, she immediately got responses. Half of them were cheering her on, and half of them were asking why she was taking a photo with Kang Giwoo. She had become resistant to malicious comments now and could just chuckle at them, but she did feel quite wronged that she was getting insulted for nothing much. She also added the ‘watchit’ tag. It would be great if the people who pressed like on Instagram went to the TVs after that. Just as she turned off her phone and was about to focus on the drama, a name flashed across her mind. Gaeul put her phone below the table and searched for #Hanmaru. There wasn’t an account page as though he didn’t have an account, but there were photos related to the hashtag. There were photos where he was smiling on a stage as well as photos where he was crying with fellow actors. When she saw the photo where he raised his arms into the air as though he had everything in the world, it made her smile. The Maru that she did not know of for the past five years was there. There were quite a lot of photos he took with the JA family: Hong Geunsoo, Yang Ganghwan, Kim Suyeon, and Yang Miso. Among these four, two of them were hugely popular stars, and the remaining two were also considered top-tier in their fields. There were quite a lot of photos he took with Ahn Joohyun as well.

Now that she thought about it, she hadn’t taken any photos with him. Gaeul pouted. There were so many photos he took with actresses that she wanted to give him a call immediately and grumble about it. Why didn’t you take one with me? – if she grumbled with nonsensical stuff like that, how would he react?

“Han Maru?” Giwoo questioned.

Gaeul turned her phone over.

“I wasn’t intending on peeking, I just happened to see. Do you know him?”

“Yeah. You got to know him during New Semester, didn’t you?”

“Rather than New Semester, we met in Apgu before that.”

“Really?”

Giwoo showed her his phone. It was a photo he took in the gym and Maru was next to him.

“You two go to the same gym?”

“I think it’s been about a year. I found out that we went to the same gym. We talk about acting and private stuff too. He’s a good friend.”

“You two are close, huh. I didn’t know that.”

“How did you get to know him?”

“Through acting, during high school.”

“Did you two go to the same school?”

“No. We got to know when the acting clubs interacted.”

“So you’re long-time friends huh.”

She didn’t bother correcting the word ‘friend’. Things might become awry if her relationship was revealed after all. While she did want to reveal her relationship to the public, she had to listen to Maru’s opinion as well as both of their agency’s opinions. As she was bound by contracts, she couldn’t act impulsively.

“Let’s eat together some time. It’d be fun with the three of us.”

Giwoo said that he would introduce them to a nabe restaurant that gourmets went crazy for.

“Sounds good, if we have time.”

Gaeul put her phone in her pocket and stopped looking at the photo. While they were talking, the first episode was already reaching its climax. The people who were talking while drinking all let go of everything from their hands and focused.

“It’s this spot right here.”

“We had a lot of trouble shooting this one. I hope people can become absorbed in it.”

“They will. Han Gaeul’s acting skill was incredible.”

“No way. Kang Giwoo’s acting was much better, you know?”

“My acting was pretty good.”

“Hey, you can’t just do that. You need to flatter me too!”

“I’ll do it after watching that.”

Giwoo pointed at the screen. Doctors in white gowns were flocking towards the doctor’s office. This was the scene where the conflict between the characters emphasized the tension in the drama. The camera scanned across Giwoo’s face and then to a senior actor’s. The background music changed just as it looked like a fight was going to break out. The OST started flowing out and the camera captured all of the doctors’ faces. Gaeul looked at herself standing on the left. She was satisfied with the expression she made. Following that, she felt relieved that she was satisfied with her own acting.

“Maybe I’m a little lacking here?” Giwoo said with a smile.

KTLChamber's Thoughts

>Giwoo showed her his phone. It was a photo he took in the gym and Maru was next to him.

Holy… this line freaked me out. Giwoo had already put Maru's photo on his phone before talking to her?

Why does this chapter sound so foreboding? From the beginning to the end?

Meanwhile in author's notes…… author was playing Pokemon Go, xD

Editor's Note:

I don't think there's any relation between the pic on Giwoo's phone and Gaeul. Giwoo had no idea Maru and Gaeul had any relationship before now. Prob just him putting up his facade and having pics of his 'friends'.

Chapter 818
Sequence 9

The first episode of Doctor’s Office ended with Giwoo’s intense gaze. Maru uncrossed his legs and got up from the sofa. To evaluate it, 'he wanted to go to the bathroom but couldn't because it was so immersive.' The first episode was just that well-made. The director distributed the emphasis throughout so well that the viewers wouldn't get distracted, and the writer showed the audience the spiderweb-like plot at the end of the first episode to threaten them to watch the next episode. Are you still not going to watch the next episode? — the writer's voice seemed to say. The faction war within the doctor's office and the large-scale traffic accident were tangled with each other like it was Jenga, and so, neither of them could be resolved easily, and it just went to show how skilled the writer was. After all, she was someone who was considered to have written a line in history through her suspense drama. Maru recalled how the writer said that she could not do without romance but would not make the romance boring. It interested him to see how she was going to write about love within the rapid political struggles in the hospital.

-Did you watch it?

When the teaser for episode 2 started airing, he got a call from Gaeul. He picked up the call and went to the kitchen.

“I did. I would be in big trouble otherwise after all.”

It was noisy over the phone. She said that she was going to watch the first episode, so she was probably at a bar or a restaurant. From the way he could hear cheers, it seemed that the staff was satisfied with the quality of the first episode. He brewed some ceylon tea and went back to the sofa.

-Shall I hear your review of it, then?

“First, if I have to score it, it would be 9 out of 10.”

-Why is it not 10?

“Because you show up too little.”

-That’s an extremely personal review.

“That’s how reviews are supposed to be.”

-So it’s 10 out of 10 if you exclude my screen time?

“Sure. It was really good. I wanted to go to the bathroom midway, but I even crossed my legs to hold myself back because I was so curious about what was going to happen next.”

-Really?

“You know I don’t lie.”

-Well, I can’t be sure about that.

At that moment, someone shouted at Gaeul, telling her to have a drink. Gaeul told that person to wait. It seemed that she was moving away from the drinking occasion.

-The camera director is really drunk right now. He started drinking before it even began. Geez, I knew he’d turn out like this.

“I’m sure he felt really good. The production quality was great after all.”

-I was really impressed too. Especially that scene in Cheonggyecheon. I didn’t realize when we were shooting it, but it looked really pretty on screen.

“The CG team must have worked really hard. It will take more than just a day or two to keep up that kind of quality.”

-They’ll have an even harder time near the end. That goes for us too.

“Dramas are more like live-action near the end. How are things over there? It definitely sounds pretty cheerful.”

-Everyone’s in an uproar. We might be optimistic, but we are even thinking about how we might take the crown for the Wednesday-Thursday series. The reactions are good on social media as well.

“That’s not surprising. The effort was clearly visible.”

He took a sip of the tea before bringing his laptop. He placed it on the table in front of his sofa and searched ‘Doctor’s Office’ on it. Doctor’s Office was first on the real-time search rankings provided by the web portal. There were many related articles on Twitter and Facebook as well. On large community sites where feedback was the quickest, a ‘meme room’ had already been created, and people were using a portion of the newly posted articles. Most of the used scenes was the one of Kang Giwoo walking down Cheonggyecheon and suddenly starting to weep. Both the story and the production was targeted at taking down women’s hearts, so the reactions were to be expected.

“The cafés are in a rave too, about how Doctor’s Office is so good.”

-Anything else?

“Kang Giwoo’s cool, pretty, he’s my man, I already wrote our marriage documents, et cetera.”

-A popular man sure is different alright.

“There are things about you too: ‘Han Gaeul is cute’, ‘she looks innocent unlike the ones she did before’, ‘her acting skills are good’.”

-You’re just reading the good ones, aren’t you?

“There are only good words about you.”

‘That slut’, ‘Terrible acting’, ‘She’s clearly tempting Giwoo’ – he didn’t even click on such comments. He lived in an era where even God received insults, and Marlon Brando would get mocked for terrible acting. Bad comments were best interpreted as a measure of interest. Among them, some devalued Gaeul with words that he could not even speak of, but he didn’t find any value in going against them. People were supposed to speak to people. He just pressed the ‘report foul language’ button provided by the web portal. If things became bad, her agency would step in. ‘Hwan’ was known for looking after its actors quite well.

-I can see that my acting is terrible.

“Did you look that up?”

-I should. This is a form of monitoring.

“Don’t worry too much about it. Your acting was clean. It was neither overboard nor lacking. It was just the way I like it.”

-Didn’t I look a little too out of energy?

“That’s a skill too. You didn’t look out of place and managed to dissolve in with the rest. You were comfortable to watch. I think you did everything that you can do through acting. The rest is up to the writer to portray your character. There’s a limit to how much you can make a bland character look good through acting.”

-What do you feel about my character then?

“For now, 7 out of 10.”

-That’s way too low. Can’t you give me more?

“Are you going to feel happy if I generously gave you 10 points?”

-No. If you say that, I’m going to hang up, go inside, and drink a whole lot.

“That’s why it’s a 7. It’s the highest point you can get with your own effort alone, so don’t feel so bad about it. Aren’t you getting more action starting in the next episode? From the looks of it, I could tell that there’s going to be a romantic plot between you and Giwoo.”

-It does look like that from looking at the script, but I’m not sure yet. Anyway, have you always known Giwoo? He told me before that you two were close friends who met in the gym all the time.

“He introduced me as a close friend?”

He smiled as he drank the cooled tea. If his relationship with Giwoo could be called ‘close friends’, he would be best friends with a stranger on the street or maybe even lifelong buddies. He probably didn’t tell Gaeul that they were close friends because he was scheming something. It was probably the bone-deep social facade he always put up.

-Why? Are you two actually on bad terms?

“We’re neither on good terms nor bad terms. Aren’t friends all like that?”

-He even told me that the three of us should eat out sometimes.

“Three? Including you?”

-Yes.

“Tell him to go ahead.”

-You sound pretty strange. Did you get into a fight with him? Or are you actually not close at all?

“We aren’t kids. We aren’t at the age where bad relationships can make or break a dining occasion. Above all, my very close friend Kang Giwoo has an amazing background, so knowing him won’t do me harm.”

-So you definitely don’t like him huh. Should I put some distance as well?

“You decide for yourself. You aren’t someone who would listen to other people’s words, are you? If you feel like he’s a good person then stay close to him, and if you don’t, then just put some distance. Oh, do act kind to him like a lover throughout this drama. It’s highly likely that you two will be put in a romantic plot, so it won’t be that good for you two to be on bad terms in reality, right?”

-How can you say that as my boyfriend?

“I should keep my public and private affairs separate.”

-Maybe I should do a deep kiss scene with him.

“That won’t be enough to cause me to become jealous. I know what comes after that after all.”

-I wonder if you know that you’re sounding more and more like a pervert?

“I have been a gentleman since I was born. How can you possibly call me a pervert?”

He could hear her giggle on the other side.

-Are you on Instagram?

“There’s no one to look at it. That thing is for popular people.”

-Try it out. Who knows? Your fans might make a visit and leave behind a comment.

“I was never able to bring myself to do something like that.”

-What about the fan café from before?

Hearing the word fan café, Maru recalled the memory from five years ago. He searched Han Maru on his laptop. When he went to the cafés section of the web portal, he saw that it was still there.

“I completely forgot about it; it’s still here.”

-You’re such a bad guy. That café was created when you were in high school, wasn’t it? You should have kept watch.

“I thought it would disappear soon. It looked like a friend of my sister made it for fun anyway.”

He clicked on the link to the café. He was greeted with a popup, saying that he was promoted to admin level. He had forgotten about this place for the past five years after visiting on the first day, so he felt like he had returned to the alleyways he always walked around during his childhood. There was a notification saying that there was a new post. Thinking that it was probably an ad, he went to the bulletin board. Unlike what he expected, it wasn’t an ad for an illegal gambling site. It was an article that announced that Han Maru, the subject of this café, was cast in the drama ‘Doctors’. He was surprised that there were still active people here. He had a look at all the poster IDs. There were about thirty active posters. They even called each other by nicknames as though they had met up once in real life. It seemed as though the café had turned into a social thing because the actor himself didn’t have that many activities even though this started off as a fan café.

“These people are having fun by themselves.”

-You should write them something.

“Should I?”

-Also, take some photos and upload them. You’re way too ignorant when it comes to things like that. Aside from showing your performance in public, I think such activities are important. I mean, it’s a connected era we live in.

“Alright. I’ll listen to your words.”

-Don’t forget to create Instagram.

“I don’t take photos that much though.”

-Get into a habit of taking them. Do you think other people take them because they don’t have anything better to do? They’re all trying to get close to their fans.

“I’ll make one and tell you the ID.”

-You should be able to find me if you look up Han Gaeul.

“You have a lot of viewers, don’t you?”

-About ten thousand followers, I guess? There aren’t many people from our country using that platform, so it’s quite small compared to Twitter, but my manager told me that I should take care of it since it should explode in popularity soon. She said something about how pictures are better than words.

“Ten thousand sounds like a lot already, but it’s going to increase? Damn.”

-There are artists who have hundreds of thousands to millions of followers overseas. I’ll probably get just as many once the people in our country start showing more interest in Instagram. Everyone has a smartphone nowadays after all.

He looked up Han Gaeul on Instagram. He saw photos that she just uploaded. Above the photo she took with members of the staff, he saw a photo that she took with Giwoo alone.

“I see you took a photo with Giwoo.”

-What? Finally feel jealous now?

“Are you going to stay away from him if I say I am?”

-If you want.

Maru smiled and closed the window. She was a wise woman who knew how to be considerate. Even without him having to tell her anything, she would probably never cross the line. If he was going to nitpick about every single man she encountered, he wouldn’t have whispered love into her ears in the first place. Just because obsession and control were elements of love, it was a foolish thing to actually enforce it upon someone.

“Don’t drink too much.”

-That’s the plan. I want to drink at ease only at home.

“Which home?”

-The home with the dog, I guess?

“I want to see you.”

-Me too. Should I just go right now?

“You should take care of your social life. If you disappear without a word when the director and the writer are present, your character might disappear in the next script you get.”

-If I become unemployed, I’ll just switch to being a housewife.

“Are you serious?”

-Maybe I will be in a few years, don’t you think? I should save up while I can if we want to live a cozy life.

“Then I’ll leave everything to you and go on full breakdown mode starting today, okay?”

-Try me. Housing costs will be split half-half, and the same goes for living expenses. I will not open the door for you if you don’t have any money, so it’s up to you.

“How merciless. But hey, can I take that as you are proposing to me?”

-Well, probably not? Proposing over the phone during the middle of a get-together sounds terrible even when I think about it.

“I’ll be waiting, so go for it when you’re ready to propose. I’m willing to accept it with a benevolent heart.”

-You sound very overconfident. Oh, I should hang up. They’re looking for me inside.

“Have fun.”

-Okay.

He put down his phone.

KTLChamber's Thoughts

Now that I look back, I wonder where Giwoo got the audacity to introduce himself as a close friend of Maru.

Editor's Note:

Honestly, I want more Giwoo. The little war between Giwoo and Maru is so fun to read.

Chapter 819
Sequence 9

-’Doctors’ will get better views than ‘Doctor’s Office’, right?

“We’ll have to see about that.”

-What do I do if it does bad?

“And why are you worried about that?”

-Because I’m one of the cast. I might be one of the minor ones, but I’ll still be on the screen. Moreover, I have a line too.

“You’ll see the results if you show up on TV next Wednesday, so just wait for it. You are not the one who’s going to write apologies if the viewing rates are low, so don’t overreact.”

-You don’t feel nervous at all since you shot a few dramas already, Mr. Han Maru?

“Bluntly speaking, I’m just a minor character. Rather than that, why did you call me? You didn’t call me just to complain, did you?”

There was no way that Hyungseok called just to chat early in the morning.

-You haven’t heard from Sora?

“Sora?”

-There’s no way she told me about it first, though.

Hyungseok seemed hesitant about whether he should talk about it or not. Just then, his front door started thudding. Not only did he get an uninvited call in the morning, but there was also an uninvited guest now as well.

“Seonbae! Open the door!”

Before he even opened the door, the guest outside revealed her identity. Maru hung up the call and opened the door. Sora, wearing a gray two-buttoned coat, was glaring up at him. Before he could ask why, she barged inside.

“This looks a lot more habitable than before. They say that being in love will change their environment and sure enough it seems to be true. Oh? There’s even a cactus. Are you raising it?”

“I’m not raising a cactus to eat it, so probably.”

“Woofie, noona’s here.”

“She’s a girl.”

“Then unni’s here.”

Woofie tried to get away from Sora while limping due to one of her legs; however, she soon got caught. Woofie would even react joyously to a thief entering the house, but from how she was rolling her eyes nervously, she seemed to remember that the woman who was holding her was a strange prankster. After all, she had to offer her cheeks until they became mushy paste the last time Sora made a visit. Even now, Sora was pulling on her cheeks and twisting them from side to side.

“Hyungseok called me just now, asking if I heard anything from you.”

“That’s what I’m here to tell you.”

“Err, it looks like you forgot, but there’s something called a phone, you know? Showing up to someone’s house like this unnoticed doesn’t seem to fit with the times.”

“Affection disappears because of those selfish products of civilization. If I have something to say, I will say it in person. It’s a warm expression of affection in the modern age. Isn’t that right Woofie?”

“What were you going to do if I wasn’t at home?”

“There’s no way you aren’t at home. You’re someone who cleans your house if you don’t have any appointments. If you weren’t here, I would have used that new product of civilization known as a phone but here you are,” Sora said as she grabbed Woofie’s front paw.

“So? Why are you here? Rather than that, don’t you have work? It’s Thursday morning.”

“I applied for a vacation. I had to use my vacation early when I originally planned to use it all at once in the winter. Rather than that, get changed quickly. I can’t have the main actor appear like that in front of the audience.”

“In front of the audience? What do you mean?”

“You didn’t know? There’s a GV[1] of our film today. It’ll première at 3 for 25 minutes, and after that, there are 40 minutes of GV.”

“And why haven’t I heard of this before?”

“Because I haven’t told you about it?”

Sora took out a leaflet from her bag and tossed it to him. It was a guide leaflet to the Ttukseom Indie Film Festival. When he opened it, he saw a film titled ‘Starting Point’ among the ‘short film’ lineup. Directed by Kang Sora, cast: Han Maru, Yoo Sooil. He hadn’t even heard that it was finished, yet he was being notified that it was ready to be released.

“I was going to send it to the Seoul Indie Film Festival, but I sent it here because I thought it would be more fun, and I got contacted saying that they want to promote this to the regular works from the competition. It would have been even better if it was promoted to the released works, but that’s for directors who have proven themselves, so I can’t really help it.”

“Regular works?”

“They’re saying that this would become a hot topic. I mean, Yoo Sooil is in it. There’s nothing better than this in order to attract interest to an indie film festival. It would be great if they could focus on the film itself, but well, I’m not too worried. This is the first step after all. Whether it’s for the film festival or us.”

Sora ran around the kitchen with Woofie held high. He looked at the outline of the film festival leaflet to see the works being featured. It was a new film festival that began this year, and it was sponsored by Seoul’s City Hall as well as some film distributors. As this was the first year, they would want to attract attention just like Sora said, and the name Yoo Sooil must have sounded tempting to them.

“How about Sooil?”

“I gave him a call, but he said he doesn’t think he’ll make it because of the schedule. He’s busy, so I can’t help it. Him being here would flip the festival upside down. What a pity.”

“If he comes, it won’t be a film festival anymore; it will become Yoo Sooil’s fan meetup. But hey, what were you going to do if I had something to do? Though, there are a lot of cases where directors participate in the GV by themselves.”

“I’ll say this again; there’s no way that could have happened. I can’t imagine you scheduling an appointment early in the morning. If it was work, then maybe.”

As much as he wanted to retort, Sora was probably aware of the schedule of a semi-unemployed man.

“What about the others?”

“Jiyoon-unni said she won’t make it because of work, and the others all said they would participate. But hey, why are you standing still? Go get changed.”

He changed his clothes because of the urging. When he came back out wearing a knitted shirt and a pair of jeans, Sora scanned him from top to bottom and nodded, saying that he didn’t look bad.

“Isn’t it a little too early considering that it starts at 3?”

It was just past 10. If the film festival occurred in Busan then it was understandable, but Ttukseom was in the middle of Seoul. It was 30 minutes by car from Banpo, where he lived.

“I took the day off, so it’s somewhat awkward for me to stay at home.”

“That’s why you barged in here? In order to kill time?”

“Do you think I’m such a free person? Woofie, your daddy really looks down on people, doesn’t he?”

Woofie, who was in Sora’s arms, seemed to have gotten exhausted after struggling as all of her four arms were drooping. He grabbed the dog by her neck and took her away from Sora before putting her down on the floor. He was supposed to be the owner, so he had to help her out at times like this. Sora looked at the running Woofie in pity. Maru wondered how much she wanted to hold her in order to be satisfied.

“Why don’t you raise one yourself?”

“A dog? I don’t want to. There are many things I have to look out for if I want to raise one. I’ll just be satisfied with doting on other people’s pets. Though, I might get one and dote it when I’m wholly able to take responsibility for one.”

Sora took a last glance at Woofie before putting her shoes on, saying that they should depart. He left his house after putting some dog food in the bowl. When he went down to the parking lot, Sora was waiting for him in front of his car.

“Chauffeur, start the car.”

“I’m a slave, aren’t I?”

“What was that?”

“Nothing.”

As soon as Sora got on the passenger seat, Sora started sniffing.

“I really have to give it to you for being clean. You wash your car pretty often, don’t you?”

“I do it whenever I don’t have anything to do.”

“So you do it every day? No wait, you started a drama, so, once every two days?”

“I’m not saying anything. So, where are we going?”

“I’ll type the address into your map.”

Sora inputted the address into the GPS map. It wasn’t that far away. He thought about asking what place it was before just starting his car. It was obvious that she wouldn’t answer even if he asked.

“Nice of you for not asking. You’ll see when we get there.”

He took a glance at Sora. She would be a great fortune-teller.

The car got stopped by a traffic light. A child, who was waiting by the pedestrian crossing, could be seen raising his hand up in the air as he crossed. Next to him, a woman who seemed to be his mother patted him on the head and grabbed his hand.

“Iseul-unni’s proposal was cool, wasn’t it?” Sora said, her eyes fixed on the mother-son duo on the crossing.

“I could tell that she prepared a lot. It was also fun watching Dojin being dumbfounded. He probably had it hard. I’m sure he must have been anxious because Iseul didn’t reply to his proposal.”

“Dojin-oppa looked like he was crying when she gave him a ring, right?”

“He himself would never admit it though.”

“I thought that proposals were cheesy and meaningless stuff, but it felt really good to watch them prepare and actually execute it. You only live once anyway, plus you’re preparing an event for your once-in-a-lifetime partner.”

“I heard that divorce rates are as high as 40% recently. And even worse when you’re talking about divorce rates in later years.”

“You just have to ruin everything, don’t you?”

“It’s because I’m starting to feel anxious. I see the destination in front of me.”

At the top of the glass wall were colorful letters that said ‘Party Supplies.’ Sora quickly told him to get off and dragged him inside. There was only one thing if she came to ‘Party Supplies’ after talking about proposals.

“Is this why you didn’t say anything?”

“It’s obvious that you won’t do it if I mentioned it, so why would I? Come quick. We’re already late.”

“So the almighty Kang Sora will hold an event and ask Koo Ando out?”

“It’s a total surprise, isn’t it? A surprise that no one expects.”

It would be a big surprise for sure. Maru was even worried that Ando might run away because he was too surprised. What would he do if an event was held for him and he was asked out when he said that dating is a luxury in his current situation? Unlike Sora, who always recklessly charged ahead without a plan, Ando was someone who would worry about things first. The two were on the extreme ends of each other, whether it was their personalities or action patterns, so it might bring about an opposite effect instead.

“Err, Sora. Have you heard that confession is not a challenge but an affirmation?”

“I’m not sure. Isn’t confession about guts, courage, and gambling?” Sora said as she opened the door to the party supplies store.

She went inside as though it wasn’t even worth mentioning.

“Did you make any progress in the past few weeks?”

“No, Ando-seonbae gets frightened stiff like a rat in front of a snake whenever I give him the slightest hint. Though, that’s fun in itself too.”

Sora looked at a heart-shaped candle and asked if it wasn’t pretty. He wanted to ask her to refrain if she was planning to lay them out on the floor.

“Childish things are good.”

“You should think about Ando’s feelings too.”

“If I keep doing that, I might as well become a granny. He keeps increasing his worries like a loan shark would with interest, so I can’t keep watching.”

“It’s because he has a cautious personality.”

“I know that. That’s his charm as well as his downside. How about this one? I think the balloon would look pretty nice.”

“Where are you going to put it?”

“Now, I wonder where.”

Seeing her smile like a devious fox, Maru was suddenly reminded of Woofie at home. To be precise, he was reminded of Woofie’s house. Sora’s gaze, looking around his house after barging inside in the morning, suddenly made him feel chills as though he just encountered a plot twist in a movie.

“It doesn’t happen to be our house, is it?”

“Seonbae, do you think I’m so shameless?”

“Right? You aren’t so shameless, right?”

“Of course. You can’t call that ‘our’ house. It’s ‘your’ house. I admit to people’s private properties. So I’m going to use your house for a little while.”

“What if I say no?”

“I saw that the space in front of your porch was really wide.”

“Absolutely not.”

“So inside it is, right? We don’t want to cause any inconvenience to the neighbors after all. You have really deep thinking after all. You even love your neighbors. How about this one? I think we need something colorful because your walls are all gray.”

Sora smiled as she picked up a large flag with characters on it like the flags of the world. She seemed like she was thinking about the afterparty, not the confession.

“Now then, I wonder what will look good.”

He shook his head seeing Sora’s expectant face.

[1] Guest visit. A little like a premiere where the director and the main cast may show up.

KTLChamber's Thoughts

Well played, Sora. Well played.

Editor's Note:

I feel like everyone takes advantage of Maru's place lmao.

Chapter 820
Sequence 9

They returned with the party supplies in the back seat. Sora did not speak a word while they returned. Her chatty self had completely disappeared, and she just looked outside the window like a hospital patient waiting for her diagnosis. Whenever he talked to her, she said that she’d surprise Ando with a bright smile on her face, but unlike her excited voice, her hands were neatly piled on top of her lap.

“How do you think we should decorate?” Sora said as she laid out the party supplies on the floor.

Maru sat down on the sofa and quietly stared at her. She was walking around the living room on tiptoes while carrying glittery ropes in each hand until she eventually turned her head his way.

“Help me out.”

“Don’t you have something to tell me before that?”

“What are you talking about? An apology for using your house without permission?”

“For that, I’ve semi-given up, so I don’t care. In the first place, this is not even my house, and there are many people who use this place as they wish. Above all, a friend wants to use my house, so it’s not like I want to stop you from doing it.”

“I never knew you thought of me as a friend. At most, I thought I’d be an annoying girl.”

“Looks like I should update my opinion to an annoying friend.”

“I don’t care. I don’t mind what opinions other people have of me. I only have one life to live, so I might as well live the way I want.”

“I don’t have to tell you that your eyes and mouth are saying totally separate things now, do I?”

Maru placed Woofie, who had come around to his feet, on top of his lap. Sora was no different from usual when she barged in in the morning, but she acted totally differently on their way back from the party supplies store. Her fatiguing high pride had become faint, and her words became washed out like a tea bag that had been brewed two times. While she sometimes acted impulsively, she was very meticulous when it came to important things from the planning to the result. So it was very unlike her to intrude on the place she wanted to confess in on the morning of that day. If she really had the intention of confessing, she would have taken out a tape measure and measured every little thing before going to the party supplies store and looking for the correct items, not scraping anything she saw.

“You never intended to do something like confessing in the first place, did you?”

“Why do you think that?”

“Because you’re someone who knows how to keep things to a moderate level.”

Maru took out the party supplies and laid them out on the floor one by one. A mirror ball for the ceiling, some balloons, small LED lamps, small pop-its used at birthday parties, as well as letter stickers for the wall. The heart-shaped candles that she picked up courageously as soon as she went inside the store were not included among these numerous supplies. Maru had also yet to hear anyone successfully confessing under a mirror ball with pop-its.

“It’ll be fun if I confess while popping these, won't it?”

Sora said those words as she grabbed the string on the end of one pop-it.

“I know you don’t even intend to.”

Maru pushed the items to one side. She did have the intentions to party, but probably not to confess. He became curious. This girl detested being roundabout more than anyone, yet she was hiding her feelings like this and feigning ignorance. Sora sat in a daze as she looked at the palm-sized teddy bear that the employee at the counter told her to take for 1,000 won. She didn’t even give Woofie a glance even when she came over.

“There’s a lot of time, do you want some coffee?”

There was no reply. Maru thought that she would drink if he made one for her, so he made two cups for now. He placed the coffee cup in front of Sora, who was kneeling down.

“Seonbae.”

“What?”

“You know? I’ve never encountered a situation where things didn’t go my way in my life. Even if the results were a little lacking, they always reached my expectations. I was born into a pretty well-off family, so I was never financially lacking either, and thanks to inheriting my parents’ smart head, I was satisfied academically as well. Did you know? I actually got a scholarship for my third year of high school and even got a partial scholarship for college. With my grades in middle school, I could go to one of the best academic high schools in the area, but I used my head a little. I got money and even went to a good college thanks to our high school. I even got great results on CSAT and got into the college of my choice, though I’m taking a break right now by going to my father’s workplace because I thought that would be for the better. Even I think that I did pretty well until now without falling over.”

“But suddenly, there’s something that doesn’t go the way you want?”

Sora nodded.

“People around me tell me all the time that I should be more considerate of others and that I should stop acting proud. Being humble is good, yes, I admit that, but I don’t want to live like that. If I am committing a huge crime or bringing huge harm to others, I obviously have to fix my attitude, but I’m not that bad. I want to be straightforward. I want to do what I want to do. I hate having to take hints from others’ moods and delay my work.”

“Considering your personality, I’m sure you won’t be able to stand something like that.”

“I admit that my personality is flawed. If someone disdains me, I sometimes feel so angry that I just recklessly go against them. I have to apologize if I turn out to be wrong, but if the other person ignores me, I would recklessly pick a fight with the first. I know that. That’s why I fought a lot with Bada during middle school, but I’m not that young anymore, so I will not do something as foolish as that.”

“Bada caused a ruckus at home back then.”

Maru was reminded of his sister, who suddenly got angry at him when he arrived at his house. Considering how the girl who made his sister cry became his junior and was now even working together with him, life was pretty unpredictable for sure.

“I may sound cocky, but I was able to do everything that I could. Just look at today. I was invited because my work was picked. I’m a director who only shot a film twice, and one got a prize while for the other one, I got an invitation. Shouldn’t I be proud of myself?”

“You should. Your achievements are very good even when considering that it’s beginner’s luck.”

“Right? But why… why can I not do anything about him? I know it’s strange to say I want to do something about him, but it’s so frustrating. It’s not like I’m choosing between many men or giving him vague hints that might make him misunderstand. It’s been a long time since we knew each other. We should start dating together lightheartedly. Is that something he has to worry about so much and put off for later? Someone might think that I’m trying to assault him.”

Sora looked dazed at first but the tips of her eyes started rising as though she was becoming angry.

“Did I tell him to buy a house or something? Or did I tell him to take responsibility for my whole life? I’m not even asking for his undying love nor am I telling him that I’m the only girl he should be with. I know it’s strange for me to say this, but I do hear that I am best buddies with other male friends, you know? I’m just that down to Earth and tomboyish. I don’t hate expressions like that. There are advantages when it comes to work, and I feel less awkward around others. But hey, I do wear skirts, you know? I am someone who goes crazy whenever I’m on my period, you know? I’m a girl whose heart would flutter if I hear something touching, you know?”

“I get it, so calm down a little. You’re going to spill the coffee.”

Sora picked up the cup in front of her before gulping down the coffee. It had to be still hot, but it seemed that she couldn’t feel the heat of the coffee because of the boiling anger inside her.

“I’m a proud girl.”

“I know. I know quite well.”

“But in front of him, I put away all my pride and anything else, just so that I could hear him say that he likes me, just so that he could grab my hand. But like this, he keeps putting distance instead. When I get frustrated and try to grab his hand, he gets startled and runs away. Hear this: the two of us watched a movie together, had a meal together, and then walked in the park; we talked about various things and, I tried to grab his hand naturally after seeing the sunset, but he suddenly turned serious and told me ‘I’m not exactly in the right position right now’. How does that even make sense!”

Sora opened the refrigerator and took out some water as though she was fuming inside. I’m gonna drink some – she said before opening the lid and jerking her head backwards. She shoved water down her throat and it made Maru worry that she might cough. After thumping down the water bottle on the table, she stomped towards Maru.

“Seonbae.”

“Yeah?”

“Am I that uncharming? Do I not look like a girl?”

“No, I wouldn’t say that’s true.”

“Right? I’m not exactly ugly, am I? Honestly speaking, I met a few guys who asked for my number on the streets, you know? I didn’t even give them a second glance. Really, I didn’t even give a handsome guy a single digit of my phone number.”

Sora pouted before putting on a crying expression. She looked frustrated like a child who had been told that she was smart since young but then encountered a problem she could not solve; someone who felt like she would make the people around her disappointed if she said she couldn't solve it and above all, could not accept the situation herself. Maru looked around before grabbing Woofie, who he made eye contact with. Woofie seemed to have felt her impending fate and started struggling, but it was to no avail. Maru gave Woofie to Sora, who looked dejected. He couldn’t exactly hug her himself, so he needed a replacement. She hugged Woofie and started crying even as she panted in frustration. She seemed to be unable to accept herself crying.

“I’m not crying.”

“I didn’t say anything.”

“Don’t tell anyone about it.”

“Like I said, I didn’t say anything.”

Maru turned around to look at the party supplies.

“You bought them for the afterparty, didn’t you?”

“Do you think I actually wanted to confess then? If I did, he might not look at me in the face anymore.”

“So, how am I supposed to interpret you telling me everything?”

“What else can it be? I want your help. You already noticed it back at the store, didn’t you?”

“I did notice it back then.”

“But you didn’t say a single word about it on our way back. You’re such a bad guy.”

“I was just wondering why a girl like you would do something like that to me. If you need love consultation, you can always go to someone else.”

“Why do you think I came to you? I thought about everything already. Jiyoon-unni told me that it was you who bridged the two together when something went on between the two of them and that you probably could provide me with a proper path. You gave me advice last time too.”

“I didn’t know people’s opinion about me was that good.”

“If you know now, then help me out.”

“Why don’t you go with the easiest choice and give up? Half of the world is men, you know?”

“Do you think I would be doing this if I could do that? That’s what I’m most frustrated about as well. I wonder why I like him so much that I’m suffering like this. I find myself the most pathetic. Why did I end up liking him of all people?”

“What about waiting a little more? Since you’ve been waiting so long already.”

“Why don’t you tell me to become a nun instead? Or should I shave my head and become a monk?”

Her eyes were glaring at him. Maru shut up. If he threw out another joke, she might as well start dancing with knives.

“My makeup became a mess.”

“There’s a mirror in the bedroom, so go fix it.”

“I didn’t bring any makeup because I was so hung up with other things.”

“There are some products in there. You can use the new ones, not the ones that are used.”

“Why do you have something like that in your house? Don’t tell me, does Gaeul unni actually live here? Did you two actually start living together after you started dating again?”

Sora widened her eyes. He didn’t want to explain, so he just told her to go. She staggered her way into the bedroom.

“There’s more time until 3 o’clock, so should I decorate?”

“Do what you want.”

Maru shrugged and picked up a decorative rope.

KTLChamber's Thoughts

O.o. This pains me.

Editor's Note:

Welp. Can't really blame either side.

Chapter 821
Sequence 9

Perhaps this was what it felt like to have unexpected fun. Maru felt rather proud as he looked at the decorative strings that he had hung up. Even in his previous life, he was someone far from being involved with events. He was the type to think that a meal was better than a flower that is bound to wither and that a pair of socks were better than a balloon that is bound to deflate. Although he scheduled date courses and even looked up places with good night scenery when he was in a relationship, he had never brought props and decorated his own place to set up a mood. Looking back, he was definitely not an interesting man. He once again thanked the woman who accepted a man who had never given her a bouquet.

It had been around 10 minutes since Sora went into the room, but it looked like she wasn’t going to come out anytime soon. She probably needed more time to get her thoughts together than to fix her makeup. He pretended to not hear her sniffling as he hung the mirror ball on the ceiling. When the mirror ball, which needed four battery cells to operate, was turned on, his living room became pretty colorful. Decorating his living room was pretty fun. He even put together the letters on the wall. ‘Congratz On Film Release’. It was a rather old-fashioned text. He didn’t have any talent in creating text for sure. Just as he was staring at the light emitted by the mirror ball with the lights turned off, he saw Sora leave the room and laugh immediately.

“What are you doing, seonbae?”

“What else? I’m testing out the stuff we bought.”

“You seemed to find it such a bother, but it looks like you actually like it, huh.”

“I didn’t know because I’ve never done stuff like this before, but it doesn’t feel half-bad. It’s pretty fun to see the mood change just because of a few lights. I’ve always wondered why they decorated places when people gather, and now I kinda get it.”

“You’ve never done something like this before? Don’t you do it when you call friends for a birthday party or something?”

“I don’t like things being messy. Also, it’s such a bother if I think about all the clean-up I have to do later.”

“I’m sure the people around you must have scoffed at you when you were a snot-nosed child. Why play with something like that?; So childish, why bother playing around when you’re going to have to clean up later – saying things like that. Did you even have toys when you were young?”

“I also had a time when I played innocently like a child. Though, I turned out like this right now.”

“Have you never held any events for Gaeul-unni? Even small ones?”

“I was just thinking about it, but no, I don’t think so.”

“Just what the heck are you planning to do on your anniversary?”

“I was going to eat together at my house like usual, sit down on this sofa, and talk over some coffee. If the weather’s good, we’d take a walk outside and watch a play together. If it’s raining, we’d put on a movie at home and drink over some beer, I guess?”

“I can’t say I’m well-versed in romantic relationships, but I know that I shouldn’t be doing it like you.”

“That’s why I plan to buy some flowers. Also, change out some lights while I am at it.”

Maru turned on the living room lights and turned off the switch of the mirror ball. Sora’s two eyes were revealed under the lights, and they were clean.

“Do you feel okay now?”

“Was I ever not okay?”

“I saw a woman who entered that room crying about 20 minutes ago, but it seems like she went somewhere because she’s busy.”

“If it’s about her, she said she had an appointment and left. You probably won’t be able to see her in the future. She’s a very busy woman.”

“That’s a pity. It’s quite rare to see her, so I wanted to take a photo with her.”

“What kind of terrible thing are you talking about?”

From the looks of her, it seemed that the emotional Sora that cried had hidden herself deep in her heart. Maru was worried that she might still be sobbing, but it turned out that he was worried for nothing. If she was still crying, he would have seriously considered running away. Also while calling Ando to come to his place.

“If it starts at 3, I think we should eat lunch before thinking about leaving.”

“I thought about this during high school as well; I think you’re quite thorough when it comes to getting your meals. You never skip your meals, do you?”

“That’s my only motivation in life. I have less energy whenever I miss a meal. What are you going to do about lunch?”

“What were you planning on eating?”

“For me, I was just going to eat what I have at home.”

“Then I guess all you need to do is to put out another set of cutlery.”

“You know, I’m afraid of those words the most. You must know how hard it is to put another set of cutlery on the table. There’s nothing more flabbergasting than that for housewives, you know?”

“You know how housewives feel?”

Sure I do – Maru inwardly replied. There was a time he took home a colleague he got close to while working as a driver. He texted ‘you just have to put three sets of cutlery on our table’ to her, and Maru had to get an earful that night. His wife, who was fuming to the top of her head, started preaching to him about how men of this nation must know the meaning of ‘putting another set of cutlery on the table.’ Ever since then, he never invited anyone to his house. Even if he had to, he resolved that he would make do with delivery food.

“Do you cook for yourself?”

Sora asked various things at the table: about how he tasted his food, what side dishes he made, as well as what kind of food men liked.

“Are you planning to make a lunchbox for Ando or something?”

“Ando-oppa left his parent’s house to live by himself. He doesn’t seem to be getting proper food because he’s busy finding a job and doing part-time jobs. If I make him some side dishes at least, he can make do with microwave rice.”

“You’re so devoted.”

“Whose fault do you think this is?”

“You’re saying it’s because of the advice I gave you?”

“Of course. You were the one who told me to try pushing and pulling back then. I tried, and it didn’t work. In fact, he keeps trying to run away. When I tried assaulting him just like you told me to, he would get all serious whenever I touch his hand. If there are some things I realized, it’s that pushing him away is definitely no good and that I should keep pulling. If I make him some side dishes, wouldn’t he be grateful whenever he eats at least?”

“I’m sure he feels plenty grateful even now.”

“Who? Ando-oppa, you mean?”

Maru nodded.

“Then the least he could do is to hold my hand.”

“Try understanding him. I’m sure he has a lot on his mind.”

“I have a lot on my mind too.”

“Yes, I’m sure you do.”

“Whose side are you on?”

“You want me to be on your side?”

“No but still.”

Maru set out some rice and side dishes on the table. Sora ate some seasoned vegetables and exclaimed.

“This is unexpectedly good.”

“I’ve been cooking by myself for ages. I’d be in trouble if it wasn’t good.”

“Do you think Ando-oppa likes this kind of thing too?”

“I’m pretty sure there are rarely any people in this country who would hate vegetables seasoned with sesame oil, you know? If you have ground pepper paste on top of that, then it’s game over.”

“Teach me how to make this later. No, wait. I should get permission from Gaeul-unni first because I’m going to be borrowing you for a bit.”

“Am I an object to you?”

He smiled as he ate. Sora did not speak a word during their meal. Maru did not speak either since the silence wasn’t too awkward. After they finished lunch, Sora started fiddling with her phone.

“She gave me permission.”

“I have to admit that the speed you work is fast.”

“I explained to her the situation briefly, and she gave me the okay immediately. She’s a really cool woman alright. She even cheered me on. How does it make sense that you haven’t given a girl like her some flowers even once? She’s so lovely!”

“I did give her a couple’s ring.”

“See? That’s why you’re no good. How can you compare a chunk of metal and a flower? Women might say that flowers are a waste of money and a pain to deal with, but they always like it when they receive them, you know?”

“So, why is someone who’s so knowledgeable about love still here and not chasing after Koo Ando?”

“You really have a knack for making people feel speechless. Geez.”

Maru had to hold her back from washing the dishes. She might think that he might be treating her like a guest, but he actually could not let someone not well-versed in housework wash the dishes. If she didn’t do a great job, it would be greasy, and he could not tolerate that.

“It’s not bad to eat and chat. Maybe Gaeul-unni doesn’t have a lot of complaints,” Sora said in a whiny voice.

She probably felt frustrated because she was blocked off by the wall of love after having her way throughout her whole life. The fact that she was the one who had to solve it probably bothered her even more.

“I can’t really call it customer care, but don’t think too much about it. You know that Ando’s the serious type.”

“He should be light-hearted at times.”

“Think about it in a good way. It just goes to show you how deeply he’s thinking about his relationship with you. There’s no one who thinks twice about using disposable gloves just once.”

“So I’m at least better than disposable gloves?”

“By about twice I guess.”

“You always have to ruin it at the very end.”

“I can only handle listening to other people’s worries by having fun like this.”

He finished washing the dishes and turned around. Sora was staring at him.

“What?”

“I did feel it when I met you before we shot the film, but I’m even more sure of it now. You really changed a lot, seonbae.”

“In a good way? Or in a bad way?”

“I don’t know if it’s a good thing or not, but I am sure that you became a kinder person. The sharp aura about you that you had during high school is much fainter now. You don’t have that ‘meh, it’s not related to me, so I’ll stay out of it’ vibe either.”

“That’s the power of love.”

Sora stroked her arms, saying that she got goosebumps hearing that. It may have sounded like a joke to her, but he wasn’t entirely wrong when he said that it was the power of love. He chose his lover and had to give up on a lot of things in turn. He accepted the restraint of the eternally looping lives, so listening to an immature junior’s love life was nothing. As he had gotten ahold of the one person who would be the love of his life whether it was in the past, the present, or the future, he had no qualms about interfering with other people’s matters. In fact, he wanted to interfere. Before, he always looked for a stable path and tried to walk down the path, but his objective right now was to escape his current path after all. If he kept causing small happenings, it might eventually cause something big, so he planned to not avoid the things he got involved in as much as possible. He was going to do everything while trying to protect Han Gaeul’s life so that the flap of a butterfly could eventually become a storm.

“Ando’s coming today, isn’t he?”

“Yes, he is.”

“Do you think you can look him in the face?”

“Of course. Do you think I’m a kid or something? I’m going to act totally normal, so don’t be surprised.”

“I hope you can do that. I don’t want to feel awkward just because you act needlessly awkward or close to him.”

“Like I said, I’m not a kid, you know?” Sora guaranteed while raising her chin in the air.

KTLChamber's Thoughts

Well, there goes the stock. Don't expect teasers for the foreseeable future.

Editor's Note:

I also have finals this week so uh don't expect edits either :)

Chapter 822
Sequence 9

Maru saw banners when he drove past Gangbyeon station. After engraving into his eyes the promotion text ‘Rediscovering Everyday Life’ for the Ttukseom Film Festival, he turned his car to the parking lot. The film festival was held in a movie theater near the station. It seemed to be held alongside commercial films, and there were many visitors who were looking at the souvenir stalls for the festival in a curious manner.

“There are about 20 minutes left, so let’s look around.”

The film started at 3, but there was a meeting 30 minutes before that. Maru was told that he was going to meet the host and preview the questions they were going to be asked prior to the event. Maru bought a ballpoint pen and a t-shirt. Apparently, the sales would go towards supporting the production of indie films. As he waited while looking at the leaflets, people started arriving. Daemyung, Bangjoo, and Aram were the ones to arrive first, and Ando and Hyungseok followed suit. They entered the theater.

“You must be director Kang Sora, right?”

Sora started talking to a woman wearing horn-rimmed glasses and eventually waved at him. Maru handed his leaflet to Hyungseok before walking over.

“First, you two should come on the stage once the film ‘Starting Point’ finishes airing. We can’t have any disturbance in the audience seats, so we placed you two in row A. Even if it’s a little uncomfortable, please be understanding.”

The woman who introduced herself as Shin Gyeongah continued speaking as she showed the question sheet,

“As a whole, the audience will be the one asking you questions, but I’m going to start things off by asking this question. It will depend on your talking skills, director, but there are times when it becomes too awkward because the audience is too quiet.”

“I guess it will be quite embarrassing if no one asks anything.”

“I’m just saying that it’s a possibility. People are interested in this to the point that the tickets sold out, so I probably don’t need to worry. Just take it easy. Think of it as talking to your friends. However, if you do encounter any sensitive questions that you cannot answer, please give me a signal; I’ll try to go to the next question.”

“I want to get questions that will trouble me. Obvious questions and obvious answers are boring.”

“I’m glad that you think that way. We’re thinking that we should do it for 30 minutes, and it can be 50 minutes max. There’s a film we’re airing after that, so we have to be thorough on time keeping.”

Shin Gyeongah gave him a question sheet while saying that he should think of answers beforehand. There were separate questions for the actor and the director. Shin Gyeongah left, saying that they should meet again after the film.

“Seonbae, are there any questions you don’t want to answer?”

“No.”

“I don’t have any either. Looks like this will go without a hitch.”

Sora, who was speaking while looking at the question sheet, suddenly turned left a little. She looked very unnatural.

“What is it?”

“What do you mean?”

“Why are you sneaking towards the left?”

“Me?”

Sora looked at him while staring at him as though to ask what he meant before turning to the right this time. She looked suspicious no matter how he looked at her. Maru turned around. Ando was right behind him. He was talking to Hyungseok, and he didn’t look like he minded what was going on here.

“Are you doing that because you don’t want to meet eyes with Koo Ando?”

“It’s not like that. Do you take me for a kid?”

She’s not a kid or so she claims. Maru took a large stride to the left. Sora, who was using his body as a shield, quickly switched places. She stood right in front of him and looked everywhere while looking like nothing had happened.

“You’re not a kid?”

Sora did not reply. A notice went up on an LED matrix display saying that the film was about to start. Sora quickly ran into the 6th screen room.

“Where’s Sora?” Ando asked.

Maru told him that she went inside first before going towards the 6th screen room. He sat down on seat A8 just as he was told beforehand. Next to him, Sora kept glancing backwards.

“Where’s Ando-oppa?”

“Row G.”

“That’s far.”

“Should I switch places with him?”

“No. Did I ask you to?”

“I just asked since you seem so anxious. Did you change tactics? Or do you suddenly feel embarrassed to see his face?”

“Hello? I’m completely fine, you know? I’m just being considerate of him because he might feel anxious if he meets eyes with me.”

“Who’s being considerate of who now?”

She didn’t even retort as though she didn’t have an excuse at this point. The way she didn’t speak a word and kept looking forward made it seem like she was going on a silent riot until the end of the film. Did she have a change of heart after being by herself in the bedroom? It didn’t look like she had decided to stop being a tomboy and become a prim and proper lady instead. Maru turned around to look at Ando sitting in a higher row. Ando jutted his head out as though he was asking if something was wrong. Maru mouthed ‘nothing’ back to him.

“Is Ando-oppa looking at me?”

“No, he’s fixed on the leaflet.”

Sora just locked her fingers together and fidgeted with her index fingers. She didn’t seem to like this situation. To Sora, who had solved all her life problems until now without getting stuck, Koo Ando must be a tough equation without a formula to solve it.

“It’s going to start soon. Calm down for now.”

“Alright, I should keep my private matters aside for now.”

The 6th screen room, which had been completely empty, was now filled with people. Maru felt rather grateful that the tickets sold out despite the fact that it was announced that Sooil won’t be participating in the GV. Sora was also quite dazed when she looked at the all 120 seats filled with people.

“I suddenly feel nervous.”

“Don’t slip up when you receive questions later. Ando’s watching.”

“I swear your mouth will be your downfall one day.”

After notifying the audience of the emergency exits, the room turned dark. Along with the sound of a motor turning, the screen masking began. When the aspect ratio was set, the video appeared on the screen. The words ‘Starting Point’ appeared in the middle of the screen in calligraphic writing. It felt quite different from viewing it on a monitor.

The film began with dragging a sleeping bag up the mountain. He was reminded of Bangjoo, who suffered in Sooil’s stead inside the sleeping bag. Thanks to him, the shoot became a lot easier. The moment he opened the sleeping bag after realizing that the friend he thought to be dead was still alive, the audience burst out groaning and exclaiming. It wasn’t surprising since a bloody Sooil appeared. The person sitting behind him whispered ‘what, is he already dead?’ in a worried voice.

The scene he shot with Sooil over several takes began. He, holding a sharp stone, was telling Sooil to die because it was too late, and Sooil, begging to spare him inside the sleeping bag, came out alternately on the screen. It was a pretty good scene even when he watched it again. Back then, he really had the impulse to kill him, and Sooil probably had the desire to live as well. The day they watched the finished product together, Sooil shook his head, saying that he almost ended up crying back then.

The moment he smashed down the stone towards the camera, the screen turned dark for a moment before switching to a different scene. It was the scene where the two of them drank together in a room. Maru carefully looked at the reactions of the audience. The switch of scenes could be considered unkind towards the audience. Some people in the audience tilted their heads in confusion because the bloody Sooil was suddenly talking like nothing had happened, but the majority seemed to have realized that time was pulled back and focused on the plot.

“Look at that redness on your face. People must think that it’s makeup, won’t they?” Sora said in a small voice.

Perhaps thanks to the fact that they had some soju before the shoot, the drunk acting turned out very nicely. It was then followed by quarreling with Sooil and smashing Sooil’s head with an empty bottle. The moment the empty bottle hit Sooil’s head, the screen turned dark again. This kind of switching was shown off before, so it probably didn’t confuse the audience anymore.

Two men wearing school uniforms were sitting under the street lamps. The orange-colored lights above their heads faintly spread out. The screen looked very pretty, as expected of the location which made Sora exclaim the moment she saw it. The combination of the street lights and the river was cool even when seen through a monitor, and it looked several times better now that it was on screen. From how Sora was smiling in satisfaction, she also seemed to like the final product.

Through an ordinary conversation between the two characters, it showed how the two became friends. The audience probably now understood that the two men had become friends due to a coincidence and were brought to ruin through a coincidental accident as well. At the same time, they must have understood that the slightly twisted beginning of their relationship was what inevitably lead to the murder as well.

The film ended with Maru looking at the sky in a tranced manner while holding a reddened stone in one hand. In the last scene, they used a borrowed light that was a similar color to street lamps. The color temperature was slightly different, but it was adjusted in post.

After the film ended, the lights turned back on again. Along with a round of applause, the doors at the front opened before some microphones came in. It was time for the GV.

KTLChamber's Thoughts

So then. Do you think the relationship between Sora and Ando actually go anywhere?

Editor's Note:

Honestly, I feel like the way these two will end up together is that they'll just cook the rice cuz they're drunk and Ando will take responsibility, being the guy he is.

Chapter 823
Sequence 9

After the microphones were set up, Shin Gyeongah said hello to the audience.

“I’m Shin Gyeongah, your host for today. I’ll be glad if you remember my name, but not many of you probably will, right? If anyone remembers my name at the end of the GV, I’ll buy them a drink.”

Shin Gyeongah refreshed the atmosphere after checking the microphones before giving a signal. Sora took a short breath before standing up. She looked at the large screen and went forward before turning around. A hundred pairs of eyes all looked at her. She liked getting attention from young and would smile when she got it, but now that she was facing hundreds of eyes, the muscles around her mouth stiffened up and did not move. When she barely managed to put on a smile, she thought that she was going to spasm. She took glances at Maru next to her. He was looking at the audience like a lively fish that had just jumped into the sea. It was probably the leisure of a man who had lived on the stage every day. She clasped her hands behind her and pinched the soft part between her thumb and her index finger with her fingernails. The sharp pain buried the sense of nervousness.

“Would you two please introduce yourselves?”

Sora put the microphone against her mouth and spoke,

“I’m Kang Sora, the producer of ‘Starting Point.’”

“Yes, that was director Kang Sora.”

“Hello. I am Han Maru, and I played Jinho in the film. I thought there would be a lot of empty seats today since the time is a little early, but seeing how it’s full just makes me think about how impactful Mr. Yoo Sooil’s help was. If possible, I would love to have called him here, but he’s a busy guy, so I wasn’t able to do that. I’d also love to have a life-size cutout of him next to me, but I refrained since I felt like I would look ugly. Aren’t I pretty decent without him here?”

Someone shouted ‘you’re good looking’ from the audience. Maru immediately ran over to the lady who said those words before giving her something from his pocket. It seemed to be a piece of chocolate.

“You were way too obvious, but that’s enough. Don’t forget to do it again in 10 minutes. You just have to say ‘you’re handsome’ in a really loud voice, okay? Here’s your compensation.”

His whispering voice was caught by the microphone. Seeing his reaction to her words, the lady who received the chocolate covered her face and stomped her feet. Sora saw that the awkward eyes of the audience were now focused on Maru. The couple that was looking forward with an indifferent gaze started smiling, and the four ladies at the left, who seemed to be friends, kept shouting ‘you’re handsome.’ Maru returned to his place while reacting to those words before saying ‘stop’ in a small voice. It seemed like a well-thought-out skit.

Sora wondered when he had the time to prepare something like this. She only told him that there was a GV today a few hours ago. Sora clicked her tongue when she looked at Maru exchanging looks with the people in the audience and sometimes even winking at them. She even wanted to pay him to learn that skill to liven up the mood and even react to that woman’s spontaneous shout.

Shin Gyeonah also seemed relieved to see the atmosphere a little loose as she put on a relaxed smile and continued with the program,

“Before we get questions from the audience, I’ll ask you a question since I’m personally curious. I heard that you haven’t received any specialized education related to video production, director. Am I right?”

“Yes. I am studying by myself; I have never taken lessons related to it or go to college for it. I do want to focus on it and study it one day, but for the time being, I’m doing it as a hobby.”

“I find that amazing. People who are interested in film production know how difficult it is. Isn’t it a little too difficult to enjoy it as a hobby?”

“There definitely are difficulties. The first one is money. With equipment, the cost of renting for a day or two isn’t that expensive but using professional actors is. That’s why I always strive to be an amateur and to leave it as something like a social activity. Actually, film production can be done on a single phone. Of course, the quality wouldn’t be that great, but don’t you think that that’s also a charm of indie film? The quality of a film doesn’t entirely come from great production skills.”

“I think so too. But isn’t there something surprising about this work?”

“You mean Mr. Yoo Sooil’s participation?”

Shin Gyeonah nodded. She also said beforehand that this would be the thing that the audience wanted to know about the most. Why did Yoo Sooil participate in the work of a nameless director? Not only that, he had to look like a corpse while doing so.

“If I had to cast him officially, I wouldn’t have been able to bear the costs. He is an expensive person after all.”

Sora realized that her mouth had gotten a lot more relaxed. The residual sense of tension in fact made her slightly excited. She no longer felt pricked by those gazes. In fact, she now had the leisure to make out their facial expressions.

“I met him due to a complete coincidence. It was an occasion to celebrate the opening of a restaurant. I happened to have the script with me, and I asked him to participate as a joke of sorts, but he actually gave the okay. Of course, I don’t think that’s the only reason he decided to participate.”

“Are there other reasons?”

“First, he is friends with Mr. Han Maru here. I mean, who would want to help if a complete stranger asked you for help? Also, the most important thing is that the script was good. I was in charge of the production, but the one who created the script, the backbone of our work, is writer Park Daemyung. He’s sitting over there.”

Sora pointed at Daemyung who was sitting in the middle. She wanted to boast that a writer who wrote such a good piece was right here. The people around him gave him glances and some even applauded. Daemyung seemed at a loss on what to do because of the sudden attention and just nodded at those people.

“I think that a good piece attracted a good actor. Mr. Yoo Sooil also decided on his participation after reading the script on the spot. If he didn’t like it, I’m sure he wouldn’t have decided to do it.”

“There are definitely actors who would lower their guarantees to work on something that they think is good.”

“For attractive works, I think it’s valuable just to participate in it. Money becomes secondary. Of course, I’m not saying that I’m a supporter of passion pay[1]. I’m saying that actors just get the impulse to want to do it. I also thought that I wanted to produce it when I heard the synopsis from the writer. I spent my weekends, work leaves, and even my own money to shoot it. It’d be great if the film gives me a profit but even without it, the shoot was fun. The other staff and actors probably felt the same as me.”

“How was it for you, Mr. Han Maru?”

Maru raised the microphone.

“Honestly speaking, things were so busy that I didn’t even have time to feel anything. We did the shoot of a 25-minute movie across just two days. However, there was a great sense of satisfaction when I heard the cut signal for the last scene: Ah, I’ve shot a great piece with great people. I was convinced that I created a proper story. There’s nothing better than that as an actor.”

Maru spoke in a slow manner after putting away his prankster attitude. His eyes were faintly smiling, his voice was quite low, and his calm gestures seemed to convey his genuine feelings. Just from his words, one could tell that he was truly satisfied and truly happy when the shoot was over. However, Sora had to hold herself back by biting on her lower lip as she listened to him. That guy couldn’t be any more shameless. He was speaking as though he was recreating each scene on the spot, and it was incredibly exaggerated.

Bangjoo’s dangerous role as Sooil’s double in that sleeping bag, a passionate director who did not tolerate a single mistake and repeatedly took cuts, the use of alcoholic drinks for the sake of acting – he wasn’t entirely wrong; however, Bangjoo was not in danger inside that sleeping bag, the reason she kept taking repeated shots was because they had time left over, and above all, those two drank because they wanted to, not for the sake of acting. If Maru worked in insurance marketing, he would probably be the agent of the month, no, the agent of the year. Maru finished his fleshed-out piece of drama by saying that it was a meaningful shoot.

“I can imagine what the set was like just from your words.”

“It became unforgettable memories.”

Sora glanced at him, who was showing with his whole body that he had gone back to those times. Maru slightly turned his head before winking. This guy was really shameless.

“Anyway, it’s time to talk to the audience about this film. Can you raise your hand if you have any questions?”

About ten or so people raised their hands. Some of them were picked and they asked questions. The questions were just like the expected questions they got before the film was screened. Sora answered the ones she could and gave Maru the microphones for the ones that he had to answer. This was a short film, and it wasn’t like the story contained a profound meaning or anything, so there weren’t a lot of questions about the content itself.

“Are you of the mind that there is no such thing as a coincidence, director?”

That was the only thing worth discussing. Sora looked at her watch. It had only been 20 minutes. It seemed that the audience didn’t have any questions for a nameless director and an unknown actor. While she had expected this, she was put in a tight spot because no one in the audience was willing to participate any longer. It didn’t look like she could expect anything from Maru’s talking skills either. He was signaling her that he wouldn’t be able to do any more good. Just as she thought that it wouldn’t be a bad idea to end it early, she saw someone enter through the entrance. Some people in the audience turned around when they heard the door opening. That was when it started. People started cheering in an instant. The wave of exclamations that started from the back soon reached the front seats. Everyone turned around and screeched.

“Sorry I’m late. I wanted to come earlier, but the thing I was doing ended a little late.”

Sora felt complex when she saw Sooil who stood there as though it was natural. He said he wouldn’t be able to make it because he was busy. Maru shook hands with him naturally. He didn’t look surprised at all. In fact, he knew that this was going to happen.

“Weren’t you supposed to be busy?”

“The guy standing next to you told me to come if possible. My previous schedule ended earlier than expected, so I came here to give you guys some face.”

Sooil got a microphone from Maru and said hello. The level of applause was on a completely different level from before. Everyone took out their phones and shot photos and videos. Sora felt a little disappointed that those people were leaning forward like they were in a concert after sitting down calmly all this while, but what else could she do? Yoo Sooil was here. Actors were definitely above directors.

The members of the audience, who had been quiet until now, raised their hands and started asking numerous questions. They asked questions unrelated to the film itself as though they suddenly became curious about everything. The GV turned into a fan meeting in an instant. She couldn’t say anything either because she was afraid that she might buy the ire of the audience if she tried to stop them. The entire cinema seemed to have heard the news of his arrival as people started peeking inside the 6th room. Even the staff, who were supposed to be blocking them, had come inside. In the end, Shin Gyeongah took over the microphone.

“I hope that was a meaningful time for the audience, the director, and the actors. We’ll end the GV for ‘Starting Point’ here. Those of you who want to take photos, please come forward.”

As soon as those words ended, a long line formed in front of Sooil. People even rushed in from the outside, causing the theater to become total chaos. Sora was swept up by the wave before barely managing to leave through the exit. She looked for Maru, who was with her, and found him next to Sooil. He was taking the phones of the audience and taking photos with them.

“He’s not going anywhere, so take your time. Oh, give me your phone.”

It wouldn’t be strange for him to get upset at the difference in treatment, but Maru smiled and volunteered to be the cameraman. Watching him from afar, Sora thought that he was really unpredictable.

[1] As explained before, this is when you’re doing something out of ‘passion’ and don’t actually get paid.

KTLChamber's Thoughts

Dunno why, but this chapter made me sad.

Editor's Note:

It's ok, we will see this scene <s>when</s> if Maru becomes famous. Or maybe I'm on copium.

Chapter 824
Sequence 9

People rushed over, held out their phones towards the actor standing in front of the screen, and kept hitting the shutter button. The artificial shutter noise even buried people’s voices. Amidst the ear-piercing noise, Daemyung looked at the screen that had turned white. 30 minutes ago, the story that he had written was brought to life on that screen. His thoughts became words, and his words became a video. Now that he actually showed it off in public, he couldn’t stay calm. From the moment the lights turned off, he clutched his hands as though to pray. He felt like he was sitting there without clothes on. After the film began, he was more concerned about the reactions of the audience than the screen itself. He felt a sense of guilt when he saw a guy two seats in front of him take out a phone and start playing games, but he sighed in relief when he saw the person to the right side exclaim and nod. When the film ended, he almost ended up going up to that person and thanking them.

“I’m so tired.”

“Why are you tired when all you did was watch a film?”

“Maybe it’s because I was too focused on everything besides the film.”

Aram had a look at Daemyung’s face before leaving, saying that she was going to buy some drinks. She didn’t forget to snatch Bangjoo by the arm as she left.

“Congratulations, writer. It’s your first successful piece.”

Sora had left the stage.

“Aren’t you supposed to be on stage?”

“Everyone’s taking photos with Sooil-oppa. I thought I’d be a nuisance if I stayed there. Maru-seonbae is taking photos for the audience with a smile.”

Maru was lining people up while joking around with them.

“If it had been me, I would’ve left because it would hurt my pride.”

“He’s not the type of guy to concern himself with that.”

“I wish he would. They’re both actors, aren’t they?”

Sora looked at the stage for a while before gesturing at him to leave behind a commemorative photo. They took a photo together with the people flocking in front of the screen as the background.

“It’s going to take quite a while if all of those people want to take photos.”

“Don’t you think it’ll take at least 30 minutes?”

“I think it’ll take more because word has already spread throughout the cinema. Although members of the staff are controlling them, it doesn’t seem like there will be an end in sight if he keeps staying here. I should go ask him when he’s going to leave. We should decide on the time to leave so that we can have the afterparty.”

“Afterparty?”

“We’re going to hold one in Maru-seonbae’s house. We already have everything ready, so all we need to do is to go and drink to our heart’s content. When is Jiyoon-seonbae getting off work?”

“Six at the earliest; seven if she’s late.”

“I guess we should just tell her to come after.”

It seemed that she had already come up with plans. Daemyung placed his two hands on the backrest before looking down at the stage. He could no longer remember the suffering he went through when he was looking down at a piece of blank paper with a pen in hand. Only a sense of accomplishment from having done something together with other people swept him away. It finally felt real to him that his first work had ended. He felt thankful for everything, whether it was the solitary time he had during writing or the shoot he did with everyone.

“Thanks for being in charge of the production. I wouldn’t have been able to make one like that.”

“But of course. Anyone else wouldn’t have done it as well as I have. But if the writing wasn’t good, I wouldn’t have been able to make such a good product. Good work, seonbae. If you write anything else good, please give it to me again. I’ll definitely make the time to shoot it. At that time, let’s try using expensive actors. I had a taste of the Yoo Sooil effect, and I don’t think I can make do with ordinary actors.”

Sora’s eyes were filled with greed as she looked at Sooil on the stage. She seemed to be planning a method to coax him again next time. Sooil would probably have a hard time because he just caught the eyes of a greedy producer. Daemyung said that such a thing wouldn’t happen but still hoped for her to come up with a good plan.

“Are you director Kang Sora?”

A man’s voice interrupted him while he was imagining shooting with multiple famous actors and Maru. Daemyung looked at the man standing in front of Sora. He was wearing gold-rimmed glasses without a lens, a Hawaiian shirt, and a pair of red slippers. Sora first said hello to the middle-aged man with an exotic sense of fashion.

“Yes. I am Kang Sora.”

“You look much younger than when I saw you from afar. Are you still in college?”

“I’m taking a break. I don’t really plan to go back, though. Anyway, what brings you to me?”

“I liked the film quite a lot, so I came to have a talk with the director. I didn’t have the courage to go up to you when you were at the front because of so many people, but thankfully, you came down like this.”

The man’s actions and words were quite cheerful. It probably wasn’t just his clothes that made him look younger than he actually was. Daemyung tried to step away in order to give them more space.

“Hold on. I heard the director introduce you as the writer. Are you the writer who wrote the script for the film?”

“Yes, I did write it.”

“Then let’s have a talk as well. I liked the production style, and I was also rather interested in the lines. Or do you have to attend to something else?”

“No, if it’s about this, we can talk about it any time,” Sora said.

This guest was rather unexpected since the attention of the entire audience was on the actor. Daemyung waited for the man to speak.

“First, allow me to ask the director. What is it that you expected from those two actors?”

“What I expected, huh. Honestly speaking, I wanted the acting skills and fame from Mr. Yoo Sooil and just acting skills from Mr. Han Maru. I mean, how many times would I be able to use actors like them in a low-budget film? Especially since neither I nor the writer has made a name for ourselves.”

“I guess you got that name value at least. You got so many people watching it.”

“He’s a guaranteed success ticket after all.”

“What was the hardest scene to shoot? From the way I see it, I think it should be the last scene, where they talk under the streetlamp.”

Sora clapped.

“That’s right. It was quite a still scene, so there was no room to use dramatic effects, and I had to rely entirely on the actors. I thought about splitting the cuts up into little bits and then editing them later but then I thought that changing the angle several times was no good, so I just faced the camera to their front and did a long take.”

“The actors must have worked hard then.”

“Had it been anyone else, the shoot might have taken longer. It was fortunate that the road didn’t have any cars. If there were people nearby and even cars, I would’ve given up on shooting in that place.”

“I also like how you can see the river behind the streetlamp. What kind of intent did you have by putting the river in?”

“Finding that location was a complete coincidence. In the storyboard, all we had was a streetlamp and a bench beneath it. It was a complete stroke of luck that we found that place. I really liked how the light from the streetlamp touched the dark surface of the river. That was probably the luckiest moment throughout this whole shoot.”

“That feeling of ecstasy when you find a good place to enhance your story is quite indescribable. I know.”

“My words exactly. You know your stuff. Do you have an interest in this field?”

“Not a lot. I just happened to get into it. If I may ask one more thing, what did you find the most disappointing while shooting with the two actors?”

“There was nothing I was disappointed about with regards to the two actors themselves. They are both exceptional after all. They might look lacking in other people’s eyes, but within my scope of work, they were utter perfection. If another pair of actors acted the same characters, they wouldn’t have looked as perfect.”

“Your faith in them is pretty high.”

“They are actors who chose to feature in the film I’m directing. Don’t you think it’s a bigger problem if the director doesn’t fully trust the actors?”

“Many directors tend to say that. Trust the actors and leave them to work by themselves. I think it’s right to an extent. Though, it goes against my ways.”

“Your ways? Are you also a film director?”

“I do it as a hobby of sorts. Though, I don’t know how long I’ll last.”

“You’re just like me then.”

“You’re still pretty young, so I’m sure you’ll create many great pieces in the future. I’ll look forward to it. It’s a great thing to find new pieces worth watching.”

The man reached his hand out and Sora grabbed it. There was a brief tug of war between them. Daemyung smiled awkwardly at the man who turned around to look at him this time. He didn’t have the confidence to speak as fluidly as Sora did. Even if this man asked about the writing, he doubted he could say more than a few words. When he was writing, he thought about all sorts of things to the point that he felt dizzy, but whenever the pen left his hand, his head entered a state of zero gravity. All the words would just start floating in the air and then disappear into nooks and crannies. It was impossible to find the right words and combine them to speak properly. There were no ingredients after all.

“Writer.”

“Yes.”

“You’re very good at writing vivid words. It was really good. I didn’t see many participating pieces with good dialogue this time. The beginning was the best among them all. Honestly speaking, the plot itself was rather bland. I’m not saying it in a bad way. I’m just saying that it’s been used quite a lot, and so it wouldn’t be easy to find something new from that kind of plot. Since it’s a short film, the things you could talk about had to be limited, too. From just the storyline, I thought that the film would be rather unchallenging and quite boring, but I changed my mind after watching it. The lines were alive, so it was good to both my ears and my eyes. There are times when people get greedy for the first line. They look for cool – but now dead – words. I was really satisfied because I couldn't see any of that at the beginning. I thought that it had to be the work of a veteran; I didn’t know you would be so young.”

Daemyung was at a loss for words because of the continued praise. His face felt quite hot because this man pointed out all the good points about his writing. It was true that he resolved to write lines that weren’t off-putting and didn’t end awkwardly, but he did not realize that he would get so much praise for it. He curled up his toes and thanked him. They then talked about the style of their writing as well as what books they usually read. As the questions weren’t related to the film itself, he was able to answer without a problem.

“It definitely is easier to write inside a quiet small room than a noisy place.”

“I think so too. I tried visiting a café once, and all the music and conversations around me distracted me to no end. After I checked that writing at home is the best for me, I tend to write at home most of the time.”

“It is interesting to watch young people talking and chatting in cafés, but it definitely isn’t the right place to write. But I do know of a really good cat café. You should try visiting it later. I’ll tell you about it. There’s no music and the visitors are all quiet, so it’s quite a good place to write. Though, the kitties that want to play with you can put you in a fix at times.”

The man nodded before taking a step back.

“The two of you look like great partners. The writer is good at writing and the director knows how to make the most out of their work. If you shoot a film again later, please tell me about it. I’ll definitely go watch it.”

Daemyung shook hands with the man. His lips kept curving upwards because of the unexpected compliments. If he didn’t hear that the plot was rather obvious, he might have been grinning from ear to ear right now. The man proceeded to explain his impressions of the film as a whole with various different facial expressions. Having gone through the man’s interpretation, the story sounded completely different. When he pointed out the things that were lacking, he couldn’t help but applaud. This man precisely pointed out the things that Daemyung himself had found after finishing the shoot but just buried in his heart because of the lack of time.

“You don’t have to listen to me so deeply. It’s just a personal thing. When it comes to creative work, the creator is the king. Even if people like me nitpick it all the time, you shouldn’t be shaken by it. It’s a different story if you’re doing a commercial film. but this is entirely yours. I hope you can continue to show me great works in the future.”

The man then turned around to look at the stage. Daemyung also turned around. The flood of people had subsided a little. They were finishing up the photo shoot session and wrapping things up.

“Now there’s finally some room. I should go talk to those people now.”

The man moved first, and Daemyung and Sora moved after him. Sooil, who was smiling while taking a photo with a lady for the last time, took a bow after looking at the man. Maru also acted like he knew the man. Both of the actors knew this man? The man stood in front of the two actors while dragging his slippers.

“We’ve met not too long ago, Mr. Sooil, and as for you, Mr. Maru, it’s been a long while.”

“Long time no see, director.”

Maru grabbed the man’s hand.

KTLChamber's Thoughts

We all know who he is, right?

Editor's Note:

One of the most interesting characters is back. LFG.

Chapter 825
Sequence 9

Sora was confused when the man in the Hawaiian shirt shook hands with Maru, then frowned when she heard the man’s name, and finally widened her eyes when she recalled the name of a certain director from her memories. Park Joongjin. He was the director of ‘Corporate’, a huge film that was released one year ago.

If he was not a different person with the same name, the man in front of her was a bigshot who had achieved the 10 million sales legend. He was also one of the judges for this Ttukseom Indie Film Festival.

“What brings you here?”

“I’m one of the judges. Did you not know?”

“I didn’t know at all. If I had, I would have said hello before and scored some points from you.”

“Maybe I should have told you about it so that I could have said hello beforehand. Actually, the scale of the festival is small plus we didn’t accept applicants for long, so I was quite worried that I may not be able to see a proper piece at all, but I was glad to see two familiar faces in the second film.”

Park Joongjin and Maru seemed to be on pretty close terms. She probed her memories, but there was no case where Maru participated in Park Joongjin’s film. At least, not one that was released in the past four years.

“I had a talk with the director already. She was quite interesting to talk to because she had clear ideas.”

Joongjin smiled at Sora. Sora used her hand to stroke her hair forward and smiled back. Had she known that he was director Park Joongjin, she would have clung to him earlier and asked him to talk some more or if he had anything more to say. She wanted to try and join their conversation, but she only licked her lips because director Park Joongjin never gave her a single glance. She waited for her opportunity to speak after he finished greeting Maru, and her chance finally came. Before Park Joongjin looked away, she spoke as though to interrupt him,

“I watched the movie you made last year five times at the cinema.”

“That’s a waste. Why did you do that? You could have just watched it once.”

“Because it was so refreshing. It was so refreshing that I even forgot about the hot weather. I was really surprised by how you completely hid the leaked documents at the last bit. It seemed like a textbook version of a commercial-oriented cliché.”

“So you caught my signal. That’s how commercial films are supposed to be made. I can’t do art with other people’s money.”

“You have the same thought as me. I believe that if you receive capital, you should create a film that is true to that capital. You have to pursue commercial success and apply your artistic senses in a way that the film’s value wouldn’t be degraded.”

“I see you already have the basics down. You would be able to create a good film if you meet a good investor.”

“Can’t you help me meet that good investor?”

“I’ll have to think about that. This piece was definitely interesting but that had more to do with the script and the skills of the actors than the direction itself. Once you get a grasp of what your capability is like, the people who have money will flock to you.”

“Or I’ll have to use my own money like you did, right?”

Joongjin nodded before putting his palm out. She stared at him because she didn’t know the meaning behind that gesture, so he asked for her phone,

“If it’s not too rude of me, I’d like to give you my number.”

“Really?”

Sora immediately placed her phone on his palm. There was no way she would get a call immediately but just receiving his number was meaningful. Sora took a step back after seeing the number saved on her phone. She had achieved everything she wanted. She had to leave while she could, otherwise, she would lose whatever good intentions she managed to invoke in him.

“Should we switch places if you’re going to talk some more? I’ll buy you two some coffee.”

“That’s good. It’s not something I can talk about while standing.”

Sora led the way after getting permission.

* * *

Sora put down the coffee and sat opposite them. It seemed that she wasn’t planning to leave unless told otherwise. Joongjin also didn’t seem uncomfortable with Sora being here as he didn’t say much.

“I heard through a contact of mine that you’re shooting a drama.”

“I was lucky enough to find a minor character to act as. Are you taking a break since you did a piece last year?”

“Since I had earned enough money, I was planning on eating good things and lazing around for a while, yet maybe it’s because I’ve gotten old, but boredom really got me. I heard that playing golf is a good way to pass time, but it didn’t suit me when I tried it, and as for fishing, it’s good when I catch something, but the waiting time is frustrating. The fellow that took me fishing told me that the waiting is the good part about fishing, but I didn’t find it that way. Do you like fishing, Mr. Maru?”

“I don’t go that often, but I do like it. Though, I’m more interested in the menial things, so I’m more focused on cooking ramyun than I am on fishing. The one who likes fishing is the one next to me, Sooil.”

Sooil started praising fishing saying that he’d fall in love with sea fishing if he tried it out.

“I’m the type to get seasick just by looking at a rocking boat, so sea fishing is definitely a no for me. Maybe I’m not suited to being active. I’m used to be a numbers guy since I was young, so I’m really bad when it comes to anything that uses the body.”

Joongjin pushed up his glasses with a smile before asking about their recent activities. Sooil said that he was going to shoot a film soon.

“I only have about two shoots a week and I’ll be at home otherwise.”

“You have nothing else?”

“I’d love to have something, but unfortunately, not yet.”

“Then why don’t you do a side job with me? You said you didn’t have any work, so I’m sure your president will give the okay.”

“A side job?”

Joongjin spoke after circling the coffee mug around his nose,

“Shall we do a piece together?”

* * *

Joongjin shook hands with a young man named Bangjoo. He heard that this young man had appeared as an extra when he shot his comeback commercial film a long time ago, and he remembered immediately. It was that cheerful boy next to Maru. He was quite interested in the boy because he said that he dreamed of becoming an action actor, which was quite rare in South Korea. Actors these days focused on expressions and emotions, not action. They considered action as one of the things that they should learn on the side, but this young man staked his life on action. Not only that, he was Joohyun’s little brother.

“Let’s meet again once you become a good actor.”

He said goodbye to the rest of the people before shaking hands with Maru for one last time. When this young man became silent without a single piece of news, he thought that a promising actor had turned his back on the entertainment industry because of life’s hardships. When he heard that he had gone to the military, he was even more sure that it was over. There were numerous actors who received attention with great acting but got buried under the sand in an instant. He wanted to use this man once if the opportunity arose since he was attracted by how he did not gamble with his acting skills, but as disappointed as he was, a snapped flower was useless. A flower bud nipped from the stem would rot after all.

He heard news of Maru again in Daehak-ro. Apparently, there was a strange actor who didn’t have any notable experience but had a great ticketing power. Maru, who stood on a play stage, proved his worth once again and expressed that he had not lost his senses. It was not the skills of an actor who had let go of everything. He made the audience enamored with his acting as though the two years of military service were not a blank period but a period to hone himself. That day, Joongjin was reminded of the words ‘a rotting herring is still a herring.’

However, that was it. There were numerous actors on his level in Daehak-ro. Maru’s acting was definitely worth watching and had attractive power, but Joongjin wanted something beyond that. He wasn’t shooting a ‘film’; he needed an actor for a ‘piece.’ If all he needed was monetary profit, he could just use obedient puppets, but if he was to do a piece that interested him, he needed actors who would reject the world built by the director or supplement it just as Haejoo did in the past.

There were a few actors that he really liked, but all of them were busy people. Not only that, it was hard to pay their price without getting any investment. He couldn’t do ‘art’ with other people’s money, so he had to look for low-cost actors. If that wasn’t possible, he was planning to do another commercial film. Maru, who stood on stage, was ‘usable’ but not in a state where he could work with him. He was just about to forget about him and leave him for the next time when he came across this film.

“I don’t know what happened.”

Joongjin turned on the radio and stepped on the gas pedal. The Maru on the screen had changed completely from the time he stood on stage. Joongjin saw true desperation in his eyes. The scar of hesitation that he couldn’t find when Maru was on stage could be seen from time to time. Leaving aside the acting, he must have experienced a big change himself. He couldn’t totally tell through the film, so he went looking for the man himself. After seeing his eyes, Joongjin consolidated his thoughts and decided that he wanted to do a piece with him. What stood there was not a puppet but a man. An interesting man who had become a lot firmer but simultaneously a lot more unstable. That was the kind of man he needed to do a piece with.

Joongjin raised the radio volume. A jazz song he didn’t know the name of was coming out of the speakers as though to tell him that the things that were about to happen were going to be interesting.

* * *

It was a sudden offer, but he accepted it without much hesitation. This was a shoot with director Park Joongjin. He would have to make time to do it even if he had other things, so it was unnecessary to show hesitation. On his way back, he thought about what meaning there was in leaving an earnest life when he was bound to die anyway, but his thoughts soon straightened. His life was going to be 45 years long at maximum. Rather than dying a miserable death on the side of the street, wouldn’t it be better to die in a luxurious house in Gangnam? Perhaps the whimsical god might allow him to live until the end of his life this time.

He returned home and fed Woofie. As he looked at the pouring dog feed, he was reminded of the film that Joongjin talked about. The director said that he was going to do what he wanted to do since it was not one that had a huge influx of capital. In fact, he even said that he was doing it as a hobby, so there was less pressure on him. He knew that the director had shot several experimental films in the past, and so he asked if it was like that this time as well. Those pieces failed to become popular and failed to be recognized for anything. The director told him that he was not doing it to spend money but for fun, and therefore, it wasn’t entirely experimental. It would probably be something similar to ‘Spring Calendar’ – he said that in a small voice as though he was revealing a secret.

“Woofie, I’m apparently a lead actor,” Maru said as he petted Woofie’s head.

KTLChamber's Thoughts

For the Nth time. Is he *finally* going to become famous this time?

Editor's Note:

I'm gonna wish for the opposite because every time I asked he didn't become famous :/

Chapter 826
Sequence 10

“He says he’s not doing it.”

Hong Janghae’s eyes twitched. Not doing it? That wasn’t the answer he wanted. Until just a while ago, that man said he would wait for the scenario to decide, so what made him refuse all of a sudden? He told the fellow sitting on the sofa to explain.

“He said that he liked the contract terms, but unfortunately, he had something he wanted to do. Apparently, he was going to shoot a movie or something.”

“What the hell does that mean? Are we not offering him the chance to shoot a movie?”

“He wanted to create a piece for himself without concerning himself with money.”

“Park Joongjin, wasn’t that guy obsessed with money?”

“Looking at his actions in the past five years after his comeback, he definitely isn’t someone who hates money. I checked to see if he got any other offers for work, but no, other production companies haven’t reached out to him. When I looked more into it, it seems like he really plans to shoot a movie out of his own pockets.”

“The money printing machine is suddenly talking about doing his own thing, huh.”

“I heard that he used to shoot some whimsical movies like this right after shooting commercial movies. I heard that the reason he picked up the megaphone five years ago was to refill his empty bank account.”

“He’s full of himself. This is why I don’t get close to those that are obsessed with art. They’re going to crawl back into this field once they run out of money, so why do they even bother straying?”

“Should I try to persuade him otherwise?”

“Probe him about two more times. If that doesn’t work, then hand it over to someone else. I do want Park Joongjin, but I’m not so hung up on him. Make a list for me. Find the ones who are decently capable and obsessed with money. I don’t want foolish ones that extend the shooting time to rip more human resources fees from me.”

“I’ll look into it.”

Janghae stroked his beard as he calmed himself down. Whenever a wrench was thrown into his flawless plan, an inexplicable vexation perked its head up from deep within him and flipped him over. He only managed to calm himself down after a deep breath as this was a trivial matter. Had he heard that a large-scale contract was called off, he would have picked up his baseball bat and gone to the ‘shed.’ He would have stuffed dogs into some bags and beat them up to relieve his anger. Sometimes, he missed that sensation and thought about going to the shed, but he was so busy these days that he didn’t have the leisure to go. It was quite unfortunate that he wasn’t able to visit the solace of his heart.

“Are things going well in regards to Garam production company?”

“Yes. For now, the loans have gone well. The employees of the production company have been asked to shut up as well. The president-in-name this time is doing quite a good job.”

“Put an end to it once it reaches a moderate point. We’re bound to get hurt if we try to make too much off of it.”

“The joint surety matter has been dealt with as well, so the trial should begin soon. He’ll probably get a year and a half. He doesn’t have good health nor is the company in a good financial condition, so he should be able to apply for a personal bankruptcy rescue procedure once he’s done with his sentence[1].”

“Redistribute the money as you see fit so that they don’t complain. Also, he’s going to jail for everyone else, so you have to feed his family at least.”

“I’ll make sure to handle it properly so that there will be no words about it later.”

“The movie scene isn’t like before. Distributors are also playing the role of production companies so there is no gap. Until just seven years ago, I was able to rip 10 billion won off of individual investors.”

“People are becoming smarter now. That kind of business won’t work anymore.”

“Is the fellow in charge from back then doing well?”

“He’s running a hotel in Taiwan. I just heard that he will come and see you once he comes to Korea in October.”

“It’s fine as long as he’s doing well; he doesn’t have to come see me. It doesn’t feel bad to know that a member of the family is doing well.”

Janghae looked at the YM Group’s motto on the wall: Honesty and Charity. As he sat down in this place every single day, he reminded himself not to become honest and not to become charitable. The fact that it was used as a motto meant that it was the ideal, and idealisms didn’t exist in real life. What didn’t exist had no value. Being obsessed with invaluable stuff was something that uneducated people did. If one under the classification of ‘social animals’ did not know how disgusting ‘honesty’ was, then they might as well remove the ‘social’ part and just become animals. This was why honest people were exploited. Only those that exploited the gaps in the law, the incompleteness of rules, and the dark sides of customary practices could be regarded as having perfectly adapted to society. Janghae was ready to treat capable people like a human and give them love. The person on the sofa, head manager Kim, was very ‘humane’ in that sense. Humans saved up, while animals spent. Just as society was before, it would continue to be so in the future.

“What’s that female journalist doing?”

“She’s living a quiet life in that flower shop. I’ve had some men watch her a few times, and I don’t think she’ll open her mouth. From how she’s continuing to receive psychotherapy, I think she’ll be quiet.”

“What a pity, that woman. It had been a while since I met a true journalist.”

“She was a pitiful woman who didn’t know how to use her pen properly. If she got her direction right, she would’ve been very successful.”

“That’s just how life is. There are no suspicious activities, right?”

“Yes. I think she has completely cut all ties with journalism.”

“That’s fine then. What can an isolated fellow do? Let’s let her go now.”

“Understood.”

“President Kang is opening up a store soon, so order some congratulatory flowers from that flower shop. We should raise the sales of the pitiful flower shop owner.”

“I’ll have it done.”

He liked people who put in effort but gritted his teeth in pity whenever he looked at people who made an effort in a strange direction. They were humans who didn’t even become animals and chose to become lesser than animals instead. He wanted to fix their foolishness himself, but it was a pity that he couldn’t do it. A few massages with a bat should solve the problem, so it was such a pity. That female journalist was a foolish human as well. Her observation skills to discern the important point of the incident as well as her proactivity in finding out was impressive, but her disadvantage was that she didn’t have any situational awareness. It was such a big disadvantage that all of her advantages were eclipsed by it. For those who had a taste of ink and had proud shoulders, he could figure out a way to deal with them after shaking them up a few times. For journalists that would glare at huge companies and pick a fight with the resolve to go to jail, the best thing was to avoid them. Those people were monsters who couldn’t be controlled through social means. The only way to stop them was to use a physical method, but that was too risky. Burning a whole house down to catch a few bugs wasn’t really an option, wasn’t it? On the other hand, there were journalists who would kneel down if their pens were broken and their social foundation was shaken. The female journalist belonged to this area. It wasn’t even that difficult. All he needed was a little paperwork. The good thing about living in a constitutional state was that a few sheets of paper could flip a living person’s life upside down several times. How efficient was that?

“Anything else to report?”

“I do have something to report about Junghwa Hotel.”

Janghae felt a headache as soon as he heard the words ‘Junghwa Hotel’. Junghwa Hotel was the playground of high-class ladies. It was the place where ladies from famed colossal companies held parties with good-looking boys, and Janghae became responsible for that work as he was put in charge of Soul. His job was to create a safety net so that those high-class ladies can play around without getting into trouble. Once, he tried visiting that party room. It was flabbergasting. A man who had half lost it because of drugs was shaking his nether region in front of ladies while those high-class ladies were giggling as they watched. The smell of cigarettes and booze was everywhere, and moans and bass-heavy songs never ceased. It was a place that made his hands itch. If he had a bat, he would have smashed the heads of everyone present.

“What is it now?”

“Lee Miyoon is holding an event, and she said she needs some new faces. She wants people desperate for sponsors.”

“That hag keeps getting on my nerves.”

“Should I tell her no?”

“If you do that I’m sure those above will nag me again. The chairman seems to look out for her quite a lot. I heard that those two meet pretty often. Have you checked that?”

“I’ve put people on them, but it’s hard to catch a tail. They seem to be using some people as well. Also, the chairman’s influence is quite big even though he has stepped down from the front lines.”

“Forget it then. Let’s not put our positions in jeopardy by getting on the chairman’s nerves. I think he’s already turning a blind eye to some things.”

“Then what should I do about Lee Miyoon’s matter?”

“Try looking into some from the trainees. I’m sure there are a lot of boys who are in difficult situations. I heard that they welcome sponsors like that these days, don’t they? Quite ambitious, I must say.”

“I’ll try to gather some of them who have tight mouths.”

Head manager Kim stood up, saying that he was done with his report. His way of work was as clean as ever and didn’t disappoint him. This was why he looked after him a lot. Just as he was about to leave, head manager Kim stopped and spoke,

“President.”

“Anything else?”

“It’s about Kang Giwoo.”

“What about him?”

“He’s been obedient for the past few years, but I think his prankster nature has kicked in again.”

“He was docile for a while. Why do you think he’s like that all of a sudden?”

“I don’t know either. I thought there would be no problems since he knows his own position and was acting obedient, but he seems to be stressed out recently as he’s contacting his old friends again.”

“How bad is the prank? If it’s on the level of breaking someone’s arm, I don’t think we should be mindful of it.”

“He didn’t cause any big problems that would make us worry. He’s not doing anything himself and is having other people do it, so it’s easy to take care of.”

“If it’s on a tolerable level then let him be. He’s grown up now, so I’m sure he won’t do something risky. He would probably be reminded of his grandfather’s face too.”

For Janghae, Kang Giwoo was a burden. The problem was that the burden was so expensive that he couldn’t handle it as he wanted to.

“Keep tabs on him and report to me once you find out why he started that thing again. It should be easier to deal with it if we know the reason.”

“Should I prioritize it?”

“He’s the son of the chairman, so it’d be good to find out about it quickly. I am in a position to look good to him for the time being.”

“Understood.”

After head manager Kim left, Janghae turned around the chair and looked outside. When he was assigned here from logistics, he thought that he was getting exiled, but it wasn’t like that. Soul was a new business line that received great attention from the former chairman. As long as he could consolidate his foundations here and prove his skills, he should be able to return to logistics. This was why he couldn’t miss the smallest mistakes. That was especially true when it came to the chairman’s grandson whom he cherished more than his own life.

“I wonder what irked him this time.”

Janghae pondered over it as he drank the orange juice in front of him.

[1] “Personal bankruptcy rescue procedure” (개인회생절차) is the procedure in which an individual debtor (not a business debtor) is legally rescued from his/her debts due to his potential to earn money in the future.

KTLChamber's Thoughts

I don't know what any of those legal jargon means, much less how they all tie together, so don't ask.

Anyway, Big Bad Hong and Giwoo doesn't seem to be on good terms, eh.

Also, way go to Maru, putting a wrench into Big Bad Hong's plans lol

Editor's Note:

Where would you guys rank the bad guys if they were ranked from most disliked to least disliked? For me, I think it would be something like: Miyoon > Janghae >>>> Giwoo.

Chapter 827
Sequence 10

Hyungseok made a visit. As Maru had told him that he would not open the door if he came empty-handed, he brought a large bottle of water in one hand and some dog food in the other. While Hyungseok, who came inside his house, played with the dog, Maru set up the drinking table. Two bags of snacks, some dried squid, and a beer pitcher.

“Hey, it’s starting.”

He raised the TV volume. The ad for the kimchi refrigerator ended and the screen switched to something else. An ambulance was rushing across the street. A child was crying in the middle of a fiery traffic accident site. Along with tense music, the car that the child was in started emitting smoke. The camera quickly scanned the scene where screams and groans were strewn all over the place and eventually focused on the child's dilated pupils. The fire was coming closer. The fuel that leaked out from the fuel port foreshadowed the worst possible event. Just then, there was a man who rushed across the fire and grabbed the door to the capsized car.

"There's the main character," Hyungseok said as he pointed at Lee Heewon.

Heewon dragged out the child from the car and started running with all his might. The car exploded as though it was just waiting for that to happen. Heewon's face was zoomed in on as he hugged the child tightly. He said 'I saved him' while gasping for breath and wiped his forehead with a hand covered in soot. That was when the camera started falling back. Heewon's figure became smaller as he lay next to the big fire until the scene was switched to the hospital.

"That's a big impact for a first scene. They even blew up a car. That must have cost a lot, right?"

"Even if it does, it's not a loss as long as they can retain viewers."

Maru took a sip of beer. There were a lot of talks before the drama even began. Many people wanted to know which one – 'Doctor's Office' or 'Doctors' – would take the crown for the Wednesday-Thursday drama series. The fact that their genre and not just the airing time were the same made many of the viewers want to compare the two. 'Doctor's Office', which started earlier, had 18% viewer ratings last week. It wouldn't be strange to call that a super hit. Today was the third episode of 'Doctor's Office'. If 'Doctors' could not one-up them, they would not be able to defeat the first comer and get pushed out of the competition. As many people watched dramas due to momentum, the one with more viewers today would get to laugh next week as well.

"I'll look at Doctor's Office for a bit."

Hyungseok changed channels. As though to fight off 'Doctors' which started off with a big boom, 'Doctor's Office' also showed many doctors in white gowns walking through the corridor under intense music. The story writer's ambition of wanting to lay bare the politics occurring within the hospital was complimented with great production, resulting in a great sense of tension. The narrow gaze of the founder of a foundation wanting to build a new facility as well as the gazes and expressions of the head of the hospital and the heads of various departments were caught on camera. They fidgeted with pens, sipped drinks, made creaking noises with their chairs, coughed lowly, etc. There were no lines, but the cuts that changed every second increased the immersion. Maru felt like he was sitting inside a conference room where he would be chewed on the moment he got distracted. The director seemed to be telling him that this was the reason he hired a veteran actor.

"You can't look down on experience, huh."

Hyungseok moved his face. He was imitating the expressions of all the people related to the hospital on the screen. Maru also paid close attention to their gazes and hand gestures, and he even imitated them at times. It might be awkward to imitate them at first, but if he got used to it, it would become a part of his skill set which he would then be able to use at any time. Considering that there were numerous people who paid money in order to do such acting, he couldn't miss this opportunity. As with all forms of studying, acting was also like a tower that was built from the bottom. Placing that one brick in front of him might not look like anything meaningful, but when the tower reached the top one day, he would know how important that single brick actually was. The twitch of the eye and the fickle movements of the hand were all bricks that he could take.

"This looks dangerous. Doctor's Office is actually quite fun too. I want Doctors to do well, but my tastes lean more towards Doctor's Office. How about you, Maru?"

"For now, I'm on the side of Doctors because of my affiliation."

"What if you leave aside your affiliation and think purely about the fun aspect?"

"I've been watching it, so I like Doctor's Office more. Political struggles fit the taste of old men like us too."

"I can't exactly deny it when you say we're old men."

"But the important fact is that it is usually the women of the household that possess the authority to change channels. There may be women who like political fights, but time has told us again and again that romance is vastly superior."

"Doctors is much better when it comes to romance."

Hyungseok changed the channel again. Unlike Doctor's Office, where a bunch of men were glaring at each other over the power of the hospital, Doctors showed the warmth of the doctors as they looked after the patients. The reason that people pointing fingers at daily dramas and calling them out for having implausible plots didn't affect the viewing rates was that there was an overwhelming majority that still wanted to see such a thing. Even with dramas related to specialists, there were many people who criticized the dramas for not doing surgeries or investigations that the jobs of the characters required them to do and just focused on romance instead. Regardless, there were many cases where viewing rates would increase instead. Totally implausible plot twists as well as sweet, polished love stories, had the incredible power to cover up the disadvantages of the piece itself. As the trend of dramas was changing, it wasn't entirely sure if that would be the case this time as well, but considering that the one acting was Heewon, there was a very high chance of success. That fellow knew what it meant to charm people out of their souls. As long as he managed to provoke the romantic feelings of women, the outcome of this competition of viewing rates was unpredictable.

"I'm on it!"

Hyungseok put down his glass and took a selfie with his camera. After smiling in satisfaction in front of the camera, Hyungseok suddenly frowned.

"Why do I suddenly look so dumb?"

"Because that's how you look."

"I stood there looking stupid like that? No way."

"Then you can conveniently think of it as CG. You actually did well, but someone who was jealous of you put computer graphics over your face."

"I can't believe my sharp eyes look like that on camera. Isn't the camera malfunctioning?"

Hyungseok tapped on the innocent screen and was grumbling until he shut up when Heewon and Yoonseo stared at each other affectionately.

"You know? Heewon isn't that good-looking. but he's strangely cool after you look at him for a while."

"Heewon is on the better-looking side."

"No. Honestly, Kang Giwoo is much better when it comes to looks. He's a total pretty boy."

"What do you think if you put the two of them side by side?"

"Based on photos, Kang Giwoo is the overwhelming victor, but from the way they act, I think Lee Heewon's going to win. The girls around me told me that Heewon can 'act' good-looking. He's a total slowpoke when you see a photo of him on the street, but his acting literally makes him the male version of the Venus statue, apparently."

"Slowpoke, huh. That suits him."

Maru sent Heewon an image with the word 'slowpoke' on it. He soon got a reply, saying that it was cute. Heewon was probably watching the drama at the get-together alongside other actors. Although the director said that they should drink together, Maru declined, saying that he had a prior engagement.

"But hey, why didn't you go to the get-together?"

"So that I can drink with you."

"Really? I'm touched. Honestly, if you said you were going by yourself, I would have called you and cried, asking if you went there to see Yoonseo without me."

"That's why I stayed behind at home. Also, it's much better to be at home if I want to compare Doctor's Office with Doctors. If I did that during the get-together, people will fling their cups at me."

"But if you get invited to the get-together next time, you should go. Of course, you'll have to take me with you."

Maru shook his head as he looked at Hyungseok who latched onto him.

* * *

Kang Giwoo kept changing channels as he looked at the real-time reactions. People these days had so many things to comment even while watching dramas. Even without watching the screen, he could figure out what was happening in the dramas just by looking at the comments on the internet. Someone did something, what OST was coming out, and even what food they were eating.

"That's so childish."

He chuckled as he watched 'Doctors'. No matter how he looked at it, it was an overwhelming victory for Doctor's Office. He could obviously see that they were trying to attract viewers with childish romance because they didn't have any strong points in the plot area. Is that even possible with Yoonseo, who's an idol? He had to admit that Lee Heewon was good at acting, but you need two hands to clap. No matter how good one side was, it would be meaningless if the receiver wasn't up to stuff. In that sense, Yoonseo was incomparable to Han Gaeul. A proven actress versus a starting idol actress. People were even saying that Lee Heewon was the only one doing this drama justice, so it was game over. Doctors was also pretty good overall thanks to the veteran actors who held their ground, but the viewers who disliked Yoonseo would leave bad comments whenever she appeared. There was a saying in the drama industry that rumors were scarier than promotion ads, and there were bad things being talked about her from the very beginning. He felt like he could hear the groans of the production staff who used an idol just because of her pretty face.

Just as he was about to switch the channel, thinking that there was nothing more to watch, a face that he wanted to trample on the most appeared on the screen. It was the scene where Han Maru joked around and walked among the doctors. He had a trivial role and didn't have any influence on the plot. He was in a pitiful situation overall. Compared to himself, who was always among the list of top male actors in their twenties, there was nothing good about him. Giwoo put his thumb between his teeth and started nibbling on it. Even though there was nothing notable about him, this guy kept getting on his nerves. He despised the fact that he subconsciously flinched whenever he came across this guy at the gym. Whenever he found himself wanting to get his acknowledgment even while trying to act boldly in front of him, he felt like vomiting. Han Maru, who had once driven him to a corner and whispered to him in a low voice, reminded him of his grandfather. The figure he saw back then still remained in Maru's face. Whenever he came across Maru, he could hear his grandfather's wrathful voice through Maru's face. You are no good against me – his face always seemed to say those words.

"Son of a bitch."

Whenever he saw that face, Giwoo felt as though the refined 'Kang Giwoo' that he created was collapsing. The only flaw to what was supposed to be a perfect man was him. He already felt frustrated whenever he saw that guy, so when he saw Han Gaeul stand up for him, he felt as though his guts were going to spill out from all the churning. He's incomparably better than me when it comes to acting – whenever he remembered Gaeul saying those words shyly, veins would pop up on his neck even now. He only managed to hold back from slapping Gaeul on the cheek thanks to his extreme patience. Why did that guy wound his pride every single time? He felt displeased.

"I should trample on maggots like him."

Giwoo picked up his phone. He had just heard something interesting from a friend of his. Apparently, there was a young person who was focusing on acting amidst a financially weak household, and that person was getting praised for acting skills from around, and he felt like he would feel a little better if he trampled on the guy. Giwoo called up his friend. He was just about to call him to drag that person down the stage discreetly so that there would be no consequences.

"I'll send you off one day too," Giwoo said in a small voice as he looked at Maru on the screen.

KTLChamber's Thoughts

I know what you're thinking. You're thinking that if Giwoo had actually slapped Gaeul, the consequences would've been huge

Editor's Note:

You know, with Maru's current 'Live his best life' mindset rn, if Giwoo actually slapped Gaeul, he would have gone to the ends of the Earth to destroy Giwoo.

Chapter 828
Sequence 10

That man walked along in the darkness. He would walk a few steps then turn around and stay still as though he was lost before moving again. It didn't seem like he had a destination. Even if he did, it was pitch-black darkness all around, making it impossible to have a sense of direction. She looked at the man walking around aimlessly before suddenly questioning why she was standing there. Why was she still in her place watching the man? She walked towards the man. When she took a step towards him, the man became just as distant. No matter how much she walked, the distance between the two didn't shrink. It was the same when the man was standing. Just like two same poles of the magnet, he was pushed away. She started running. The fact that she had completely forgotten about started crawling up from her heels. It was the fact that there was no one and nothing in this world apart from her. She wanted to approach him and talk to him. A sense of solitude pressed her down. The man must have felt the same. She wanted to tell him that he wasn't alone and gain a small sense of relief. Her legs trembled, her lungs shriveled up, and her heart raced. She thought that she would die if she kept running. She stood still and buried her face in the ground and gasped for her breath before looking ahead. The distance did not shrink at all. Even though they were so close, even though it seemed like just calling out with a simple 'hey' would reach him, she couldn't speak as though her mouth was sewn shut. The only way she could tell the man that she was here was to approach him. She was watching that little yet incredibly far distance while clutching her head due to dizziness from the lack of oxygen. She didn't notice anything because she was so out of it, but she felt as though the distance had shrunk a little. She couldn't be sure of this. After all, the eye wasn't a reliable measurement of distance.

There was only one thing she could do. It was to keep running. She stepped on the ground as she proceeded forward. The man became distant as though she was playing a game of unending tag, but she did not give up. When she felt like her heart was going to pop out of her mouth, she would take a rest on the spot and slap her shaking thighs before running again. She didn't know how many times she had repeated that, but she eventually became sure that the distance had definitely shrunk. The numerous questions in her mind when she started running had scattered like a group of pigeons being startled in the park. The only pigeon left in the park was the thought that she wanted to meet the man.

She eventually managed to reach the man. He was just an arm's length away from her. A warm sensation that was beyond simple joy, melted her whole body and enveloped her as she placed her hand on the man's shoulder. The darkness in the background suddenly rushed towards them like an angry beast. It devoured the man's legs like a leopard that had tasted blood and dragged him into the darkness. The darkness ate the man's arm before burying it within itself. Everything disappeared save for the man's eyes and mouth. The man was smiling, as though in relief.

Gaeul opened her eyes in shock. She felt pain from her stiff waist. It felt as though the thin duvet was pressing down on her like a big chunk of metal. Even though she had opened her eyes, she couldn't see in front of her and had a hard time breathing. Just as an uncontrollable cry was about to burst out of her mouth, she smelled something cozy. It was the smell of mint. Her stiff neck loosened up, allowing her to breathe once again. Gaeul sniffed with all her might. She could feel a warm, human smell. Her vision returned to normal. The faint light that seeped in through the curtains was shining down on Maru's face. Gaeul reached out to him and hugged his neck towards her. He, who was rolling around, opened his eyes. Just as he looked like he was about to ask what was happening, he looked into her eyes before silently hugging her. Under his gentle strokes that started from the top of her head, her muscles that were groaning due to being twisted became docile. Gaeul hugged him more tightly. It was a strange dream. She kept running towards that man. Her entire body hurt as though she had really run a whole marathon. There were minute twitches in her thighs, and the soles of her feet had become scalding hot. Only her upper body, where Maru's hand touched her, had escaped the vicious sense of fatigue and had regained stability. Maru hugged her for a while before carefully asking,

"Did you have a nightmare?"

"I don't know. I wonder what I should call such a dream."

"You must be tired from your shoot, looking at how you even dreamed about something."

"Maybe."

"Should we stay like this for a little longer?"

"Yeah, just a little longer."

He rhythmically patted her back. She was reminded of when she was young and was lying down at home instead of going to school because of a sickness. Her father sat by her head and hummed for her, saying that she would get better soon. When she heard that song, her trembling body as well as her constantly dizzy head, became okay.

"Do you remember my humming song?"

"I do."

"Can you sing it for me?"

"I'm not as good as you though. Are you okay with that?"

She nodded. Okay then – he added before starting to hum. The hand that touched her back was warm, and although the humming song was wrong in some parts, it was pleasing to hear. She could feel the remnants of the dream stuck on her body being peeled off. She closed her eyes. Darkness pervaded her again, but she wasn't afraid this time. That body warmth and the song protected her from the darkness this time.

When she opened her eyes again, Gaeul could see Maru staring at her.

"What time is it?"

"10 in the morning."

"When did I wake up?"

"6:30 I think?"

"You kept that up the whole time?"

"I couldn't wake you up because you were having such a good sleep. You were even drooling, you know?"

Hearing that she drooled, she quickly wiped her mouth. Contrary to her expectations of finding something wet, her mouth was dry. She found Maru smiling. She sighed. He stroked up her hair that flowed down her forehead. She could see Maru's face more clearly.

"We can stay like this a little longer, but I'm starting to feel hungry."

Gaeul touched the beard on Maru's face. She didn't want to get up due to the pleasant sensation that felt as though she was in a warm bath even though she was shivering right after that nightmare.

"Just ten more minutes."

"Alright."

Maru pulled up the duvet that had spilled down her shoulders.

"Did I sleep talk or something?"

"You did move around a little."

"Looks like I must have run pretty hard in real life too. I kept running in my dream until I became exhausted and almost collapsed."

"See? You've overworked yourself. You can just see that from how you were running inside a dream. Don't do anything for today and just get some good rest."

"Maybe I should. It was a dream, but I'm still exhausted and don't feel like moving."

Gaeul recalled the smile that the man put on his face the moment he disappeared into the darkness. As it left such a deep impression, that expression became vivid contrary to the rest of the contents of the dream that had become blurry. She looked at Maru. For some reason, that man's smile looked similar to Maru's.

"When I collapsed due to exhaustion, the one who saved me was my stylist. I was only okay because she found me collapsed in my house and reported me to the ambulance."

"That makes me want to thank her. Without that person, you would've been in big trouble."

"Probably. If I was left alone unconscious, something really bad might have happened to me. But what is curious is that I had an afternoon schedule that day, and she wasn't supposed to come over in the afternoon. She told me at the hospital that she came to my house due to a dream."

"A dream?"

Maru turned towards Gaeul and showed interest.

"Apparently, she saw a certain man in her dream. That man kept screaming inexplicable things to her, and she thought that it sounded like my name. According to her, that man was pitch black from top to bottom."

"What a peculiar dream."

"I saw someone similar in the dream I just had. Only the man and I were the ones in a place where you couldn't see anything, and I kept running towards the man. But I couldn't shrink the distance between myself and the man. No matter how much I ran, I was in the same place. Just as I was thinking about giving up, I felt like the distance had shrunk just a little bit. That's why I started running again. I don't even know how long I was running. Eventually, I finally grabbed that man. I wanted to see how he looked, but the man was suddenly dragged into darkness. What I saw just before I woke up was the man's seemingly relieved smile as well as his pitch-black body."

"Don't concern yourself too much. I'm sure it's not a meaningful dream."

"I think so too, but it is a little curious. I have a vague feeling that the man my stylist saw back then and the man I saw today are the same person."

If it was before she met the rabbit, she would've thought that what she heard from her stylist had remained in her subconscious, manifesting in her dream. However, she now knew that the world wasn't entirely composed of scientific logic. Because of the fact that the pitch-black man appeared twice and each time was related to her, she didn't think of that as a coincidence.

"Should we eat first?"

Gaeul stared at Maru, who gave her a kiss on the forehead before standing up. Why did it look like he was trying to run away?

"You should stay lying down. I'll call you once I'm done."

"I'll help you."

"It's okay. You can stay warm."

"I feel a lot better now. I'm sure nothing bad will happen even if I stand up."

Gaeul put on a t-shirt and got up from the bed. It was fortunate that she had the nightmare today. She felt shivers just thinking about what would have happened if she opened her eyes in that state by herself at home. Thanks to Maru's gentle caressing, she was able to fall back asleep and recover to her full condition.

"Thanks."

"For what?"

"For being next to me."

Maru smiled and shrugged.

KTLChamber's Thoughts

O.o

Editor's Note:

I love that they're together now. Just these little moments of them together are so cute.

Chapter 829
Sequence 10

"So, I win the bet, right?"

Gaeul declared her victory as she took her eyes off the monitor. The number on the screen announced her victory. Doctor's Office had a viewing rate of 18%, while Doctors had 13%. Just like the Wednesday viewing rates, Doctor's Office was ahead of Doctors on Thursday as well.

"This is why forerunners are scary."

"I think it'll be like this next week too."

"You don't know that. It'll only take an instant for the viewing rates to flip once rumors spread around."

"I don't think it'll happen though."

Gaeul smiled and embraced her victory. The way she pondered over what wish to make while resting her chin on her hands was quite cute, but on the other hand, he was also slightly worried that she might make an absurd request. Although the viewing rate bet was started as a joke before they fell asleep, Gaeul didn't look like she was going to end it as just a joke.

"Anyway, I won. I wonder what wish I should make."

"Please go easy on me. How about making some coffee?"

"It's a wish, so I can't waste it on something like that. Can I increase my wish to three?"

"I don't think even the Genie of the Lamp would allow that."

"Then I wonder what I should wish for. Now that I actually won, nothing really comes to mind."

"If you don't know, then you can always skip it."

"No. Can you make me some coffee now? Who knows? If you make me some coffee now, I might make an easy wish."

"In movies, people who say that usually never keep their promises."

"If you don't want to, then fine. Oh, suddenly I want some of that fish cake that is sold in Busan. You know, the famous shop that only sells there."

Maru immediately said that he would bring coffee before going to the kitchen. While he was putting the coffee capsule into the machine, Gaeul approached him. She sat at the table and kept tilting her head from side to side while wondering what wish she should make.

"Hey, are you going to keep that hanging up there?"

Gaeul pointed at the mirror ball. Although he had taken down all the other decorations after the film festival, he did not take down the mirror ball.

"It's quite fun if you turn it on with the lights off. Woofie likes it too."

"It must be fun to dance with that on, isn't it?"

"Try it later. I'll watch you."

"If I'm dancing, you're dancing with me."

Having accepted the coffee mug, she turned on the power for the mirror ball. When the shiny lights scattered, Woofie, who was crouching under the table, hopped out and started jumping around. Gaeul walked around the living room with the cup alongside the dog. Maru started playing some music with his phone. She glanced at him before putting the cup down on the table next to the sofa and walking around. She was just nodding her head repeatedly with a smile in embarrassment but then she started moving her upper body. Her hair waved around, brushing her neck and shoulders. As for her shoulders, they swayed up and down and sometimes from side to side according to the rhythm. The monotone living room, the fancy lights, the fast music, and a woman dancing to the music. Oh, and a dog jumping around. It was a rather funny combination. Maru secretly shot a video of her since she was dancing with her eyes closed. The music was cut off for a brief moment when he pressed the record button, but she didn't seem to mind and kept dancing. Only after dancing across two songs did Gaeul blink and walk over.

"Why are you just grinning? You should dance with me at a time like this."

"If that's your wish, then sure."

"You are so petty. If you keep doing that, I might as well actually send you to Busan. No wait, I heard that Japanese chocolates are really good."

"Have a look at this before you send me to Japan."

Maru showed her the video he took. The moment she saw her own figure raising her hands above her head and swinging her body, she immediately reached out for the phone. As Maru was expecting her to do that, he quickly hid it behind him.

"Give it to me."

"Is that your wish?"

"That's how you want to play this?"

"If I show Chaerim-noona this, she'll talk about it for at least two months, won't she?"

Gaeul said that it was her wish for him to hand over the phone. Maru obediently offered her his phone. She resumed the video and turned around. At the chorus of the song, she flinched before tapping on the video several times.

"I danced like that?"

"If I were to give you serious advice as your boyfriend, you should cover up your face when you dance in a place with a lot of people. If you just swing your shoulders a little, it looks cute, but once you raise your hand and start dancing properly…”

Maru recreated her dance. He opened his hand wide like a kindergarten learning how to dance to nursery rhymes, and he moved his waist and upper body like an unoiled machine. Although Gaeul would not lose out to gymnasts in terms of flexibility thanks to looking after her body from a young age, being able to dance well was a separate matter. She had an easy time digesting still movements, but adding rhythm on top of it would turn her actions into something that could be described as 'spectacular.' Maru danced awkwardly and covered his face with his palm.

"If you cover up your face like this, you'll feel less embarrassed."

"Why did no one ever tell me that I dance like this?"

"Because it's in human nature to keep watching what piques their interest."

She started throwing punches. He got hit on the arm, and it hurt quite a lot. An enraged punch flew at him again. He thought that he would actually get bruised if he got hit anymore, so he started dodging her for the time being. The mirror ball was sparkling above their heads as Gaeul chased him with both of her hands clenched into fists with Woofie chasing after them with her short legs. They went from the kitchen to the living room, then to the bedroom, then back to the kitchen.

Maru declared forfeit and raised his hands into the air. Then, his prankster nature kicked in, and he imitated her dance once again before getting hit properly this time. Maru approached her when she was gasping for breath before holding her.

"Let go of me."

"If I do, I think I'll get beaten up to death, so no."

"I'll bite you."

"If you do, then please do it on the neck."

With glaring eyes, she buried her face in his neck and bit hard enough for there to be marks left.

"This is pretty lewd. Can you do that one more time?"

"You are so hopeless, geez. You must be the weirdest pervert in the world."

"I wonder who it was that clung onto that pervert the whole night last night."

"Well, I wonder who."

"If you don't know, do you want to go check again?"

"Are you okay with that? You seemed to be having a hard time last night."

"Me? What are you talking about? I eat eels often so that I can save up stamina."

"That's strange. I don't think I saw such a man."

"This won't do. I was going to let you rest because I was worried that you'd feel exhausted."

He slowly put his face closer to her, who was staring at him from below. Gaeul's eyes slowly closed. Maru looked at her, who was waiting with her eyes closed, before lowering his head a little more and biting her neck, where a few strands of her hair could be seen. He could feel her twitch. Not to mention her face, he found every part of her adorable, whether it was her neck or the length that led to her shoulders. She was a piece of art that he wouldn't get fed up with even after staring at her for days in a row. A small art gallery that only he could appreciate.

"Wait a sec."

Maru loosened his hand. Her phone was ringing. As though to tell a dog to wait in front of food, Gaeul tapped on Maru's nose before picking up her phone on the sofa.

"Hello?"

While she made her call, Maru drank the cooled coffee. He wasn't bored for a single second when he was with Gaeul. No matter how splendid a movie is, it was bound to become boring after watching it hundreds of times, yet she felt new every single time. He even wished that he could live in this moment for eternity. She finished her call. Before he could even ask what that was about, the phone on the table started ringing. It was his this time.

"Pick it up."

Gaeul seemed to be aware of the caller. He picked up his phone and checked the caller ID. It was not a name he welcomed.

"Yo, Kang Giwoo is calling me of all people. What's up?"

-I was wondering if you had time today.

"Time? Well, I'll have to listen to what it's about."

-Let's eat out together.

"You and me?"

-The two of us will make it boring. I invited Han Gaeul as well. I told her that we should eat together later. I know of a really good stew restaurant. Let's have a talk, the three of us, over a meal.

"Did Gaeul give the okay?"

-She said she'd call me back, but she'd probably be okay with it. She's someone who's good at keeping her promises. Do you have time?

"Wait a sec, I'll be right back with you."

-Alright. We should really eat together. We'll talk about various things face to face. Honestly, we haven't even talked properly at the gym because both of us were busy working out. It's been years since we got to know each other, but we've never eaten together in private either. If you aren't busy, you should come and hang out.

"Alright. I'll get right back to you."

He hung up before looking at Gaeul.

"That call was Giwoo just now?"

"Yeah. I did promise him that we'd eat together, but I kept delaying it because I was busy. I was supposed to be treating him, yet I completely forgot."

"So, are you going to go?"

"I'd feel sorry if I delay it even more. Giwoo, that guy, he's pretty kind, so he won't show it, but I'm sure he must feel disappointed. Maru, how about you go with us? The restaurants Giwoo says are good are really good, so you won't regret it."

"I don't really care, but won't you be tired?"

"It's fine since it's in Seoul. I wanted to go outside with you, so this is a good opportunity. While I do like rolling around at home, we should definitely get some outside air with the weather like this."

"If you're okay, then I don't mind either."

"Alright then. We'll go. I'll text him."

"Then I should be calling him I guess."

Maru called Giwoo and told him that they should meet in the evening. Regardless of what his true nature was like, Giwoo was very meticulous when it came to maintaining his public image. The man known as Kang Giwoo was probably a 'guy with manners who smiles a lot' in Gaeul's mind. Not only that, she would glare at him if he told her to be wary of Kang Giwoo because she didn't know what that guy might be thinking. He didn't want to tell her that either.

If he was so worried then he could just watch over her from the side. The reason Kang Giwoo invited Gaeul was also a procedure to maintain a good public relationship and should not mean anything special. If he had other intentions, Gaeul would have noticed it first, and he wasn't stupid enough to try weird things at an occasion where the three of them were together, so it should be fine to just enjoy dinner in relief. While he wanted to spend the night just with her, she must have her personal social life too.

"So then, how should we continue that awkward cutoff there?"

"I wonder how."

She made a sneaky smile. Maru put his hand around Gaeul's waist. Before his hand even touched her waist, Gaeul's lips touched his first. The kiss tasted like coffee.

KTLChamber's Thoughts

Such a sweet chapter…… Ruined by that piece of shit.

So then. Do you think Giwoo would stay docile like Maru thinks? Or do you think he'd try something funny?

Editor's Note:

Damn, they're so god damn adorable.

Chapter 830
Sequence 10

"I got a bunch of fresh ones today. I'll give you some as a bonus, so don't you go around spreading rumors."

"Auntie, you didn't have to do so much. I feel sorry all the time because you give me so much."

"Don't worry about it. I'm giving them to you because you're such a good boy. My hubby will get jealous, but what can he do about it? Kang Giwoo likes our stew house and wants to come. Also, I'm really grateful that you upload things about my restaurant to uh, what was it again, Insta-whatever(?) every time you come around. Thanks to you, my sales have skyrocketed. I really want to feed you for free, but there's no way you'd accept that, young man Giwoo."

"Food tastes the best when it's paid for in full. I'd get punished if I earn free food off of people."

"You're such a sweet talker too. You can't blame me for liking you, young man. I'm telling all the visitors to the store to watch 'Doctor's Office'. All the people in this neighborhood watch Doctor's Office on Wednesdays and Thursdays, so the viewing rate should be good."

"It was really good this week, and it turns out that it was thanks to you, auntie. Thank you. I'll come here more often."

"Right right, you can be a regular in the future. But when is your company coming? The food won't taste good if it's cold, so I was planning on getting it ready once they come."

"They'll be here soon. I think you can bring out the food. Your food is still good when it's cooled down after all."

"Warm stew is best eaten when it's hot. I'll bring over the sashimi for now. As for the stew, I can boil it when they come."

Giwoo watched the auntie leave the room after telling him to wait a little before turning his eyes away. The tattered wallpaper he saw last time was still there. The changed prices on the menu were marked by crossing out the old prices with a sharpie and writing the new prices next to them. The beer ad poster was discolored, the electric fans were so dusty that he doubted they had been cleaned even once, and the TV was small and old, with the text all blurry. Nothing about this restaurant was to his liking. He wanted to immediately call for a contractor and have this place made over right now. Or maybe, it might be quicker to tear down the whole place and build it anew. In the main dining hall outside, day workers had come to a get-together. He saw them through the gap of the open door. Whenever he watched laborers pouring rice wine into their throats inside this tattered restaurant while shouting, he felt a sense of relief. He found himself really fortunate that he didn't live like a beggar in a dirty place like this one. People really had to look down and feel humble. Whenever he looked at people squirming for survival below him, he felt gratitude for the things in his possession.

"Have some of this before your group arrives. I just got them early this morning, and they're so fresh and tasty."

The owner said that it was a bonus just for him and gave him supposedly expensive raw abalones. Giwoo picked up a piece of thinly sliced abalone. He couldn't hold back his laughter when he saw the auntie speak as though she had given him something incredible when what she did was slice abalones into oblivion. The texture was what was good about them. How ignorant. He felt like he was watching a clown. They act like they know despite not knowing anything. He put the raw abalone inside his mouth and chewed it a couple times. Compared to the raw abalone prepared and given to him by a master chef last week, the thing inside his mouth was no different from food waste. He wanted to spit it back out, but he held back.

"Auntie, it's really good."

"Right? This is expensive stuff, so I don't give it to other regulars. I'm giving it just to you."

"Thank you."

Seeing the auntie stare at him, urging him to eat more, he ate some more of the abalone. It was hard to pretend to chew on the slices because they were really thin. He ate them all before putting the plate before the auntie. She, who should be taking the plate away and leaving, kept sitting by the door in anxiousness. Giwoo knew why she was acting like that. As expected of the auntie of 'Jeonho Restaurant', known for being proud. She was probably going to stay like that until he spoke about the matter she wanted to talk about first.

"Oh yes, how is your son's acting career coming along?"

The auntie spoke as though she had been waiting,

"Actually, that's what's been worrying me these days."

"What's wrong?"

"I'm not saying this because I'm his mother, Youngho really has the talent. He has a talent for acting. Moreover, he also wants to become an actor. A man should do something he wants to the fullest at least once in their life, right? Don't you think so too, young Giwoo?"

"You should at least do it once so that you don't leave behind regrets."

"I think so too. That's why I enrolled him in an acting school so that he can learn and sent him to college too, but."

The auntie sighed. Giwoo poured some water in a cup and gave it to her. The auntie seemed to be feeling frustrated as she tapped on her chest and drank some water. He almost ended up bursting out laughing after seeing her contorted face for a while. Oh, no - it was about to get more fun, so he wasn't going to spoil it now.

"But?"

"He entered some agency a little while ago, and apparently, they need some upfront money in order to do a good piece. Youngho doesn't know that yet. They only told me about it in secret. That's why I wanted to ask you if things like this are common. I know I shouldn't be asking you this, but you're the only one I know who can answer questions like this."

"Well, it's a sensitive topic."

"Please don't say that and tell me about it. If it means that my son will do well, I can give them that money."

"That's not a question I can answer for you."

"So it's like that after all, huh? This is about money, and you have your position to think about after all. Sorry, I asked you something I shouldn't have."

"Not at all. I'm sorry that I couldn't help you."

The auntie tapped on the floor while smiling cheerfully, telling him that it was okay. The shadow of anxiousness behind her smile said that it wasn't okay, though. Giwoo rubbed his hand and waited until the auntie turned around about halfway.

"Do you remember the money envelopes you gave to teachers in the past?"

"I do."

"Apparently, that's quite effective. Even students who have similar grades can have different student records, or one might get a recommendation."

The auntie blinked several times in confusion before smiling brightly and standing up.

"Young Giwoo, thank you."

"I've never said anything worth thanking."

"Right, right. You didn't say anything. I'm just thanking you. I'll give you an extra-large, no, an extra extra large stew for today, so you can look forward to it."

"Alright, I'll look forward to it."

The auntie left the room while dancing. Giwoo stood up and closed the door before blocking his mouth. That was close. He almost burst out laughing after seeing her smiling brightly. That auntie will probably prepare the money for the sake of her son. The start will be around 5 million won, and the cost will keep increasing, so the auntie will use all sorts of methods to prepare the money until it reaches an unmanageable state. He didn't know how much money she had saved up, but if she actually got a loan, she would be putting her restaurant in jeopardy. After all, the landlord's call to increase the rent will soon be heading her way after all. A laugh leaked out of his mouth when he thought about the despair she would feel after getting the call.

Giwoo called up his friend and told him that he had set things up and that he could begin. Youngho, who was praised a little for his acting skills, should be hearing about his mother wasting her money because of him. By the time he hears about it, the money she spent would be in the fraudster's hands, and the fraudster would no longer be seen anywhere. Those who fall for the temptation of using money to solve a problem are bound to keep spending foolishly without giving up. It would be fun if the auntie didn't betray his expectations and actually got a loan. Just imagining it made his stress go away.

"Right, this is how it should be."

It would be really fun if she moved according to his expectations like a chess piece. Giwoo wanted to see the contorted expression of the auntie in a few months, but this was the last time he was visiting this restaurant. He brought some people here because it was the perfect place to cosplay as an ordinary civilian, and it was about time he looked for a new restaurant. After all, it wasn't going to last long once the landlord, a friend of his, increased the deposit and the monthly rent. Moreover, the auntie would touch her savings in order to pay a fraudster, so this restaurant was as good as gone.

"You should have known your place. Who do you think you're discussing acting skills in front of?"

As the son was known to be quite dutiful, he would probably stop acting once his sole parent, his mother, collapses. Giwoo was so happy that he was in a position to toy with other people's lives as he wished to. Just as he felt good and wanted a drink, the guests arrived.

"You two came here together?"

Giwoo offered seats to Maru and Gaeul, who entered the restaurant.

"After I got your call, I called him up and said that we should go together since we're going. But hey, this place is pretty good. The people outside are saying that the stew is good too," Gaeul said as she took off her coat.

"I told you this place is good. What do you think, Maru? Isn't this place pretty good?"

"This is a restaurant, so I'll give my opinion after eating the food," Maru said as he looked around inside.

Giwoo poured some water for the two of them.

"It just occurred to me that we haven't eaten together even once. It's been years since we got to know each other too. It's a curious thing, isn't it?"

"I'm sure it was because we weren't close enough to eat together face to face."

Maru drank some water after saying those words. Gaeul tapped on Maru's arm, scolding him for always speaking like that. It seemed that she was taking it as a joke. It was definitely not, though. Giwoo thought that he should really deal with this guy somehow for the sake of his mental health. For the past five years when Han Maru couldn't be seen on TV, Giwoo lived without knowing stress. Even when he met him at the gym, he was sometimes taken aback by his eyes but could soon ignore him by consoling himself with the fact that Maru was a loser in life. However, ever since his face appeared on TV, especially when he found out that they were in competing dramas in the time slot, he had a hard time sleeping. He even had a dream once where he was pushed out by Maru in terms of popularity and had become a mere minor actor. That shitty dream kept getting on his mind. Maru overlapped with the figure from the past when he acted in his stead as a demonstration when shooting Apgu a long time ago. He could also picture his pathetic self that barely got a passing score from the producer by imitating his act. When he imitated Lee Hyuk's acting, he felt proud that he was improving, but when he imitated Maru's acting, he was full of shame.

What pissed him off the most was that he kept leaving the chess board despite being a chess piece. A chess piece that should go forward if told to and go back if told to was doing whatever it wanted and even ended up threatening the king. Giwoo wanted to rip him apart to death, if possible.

"You're gonna make me fall for you if you keep staring at me like that", Maru said.

Giwoo responded with a laugh. To him, Maru was a trial. Once he overcomes it, he would no longer have to wake up in the middle of the night because of a bad dream nor would he have to take antacids because of a bad stomach. His grandfather used to tell him that superior species would encounter trials in order to evolve. Giwoo was convinced that he would be able to overcome it. That was how the world was after all. Its very structure was formed so that the superior entities were protected. It was just like how the flight trajectory of a fly was hard to predict. This guy's movements were hard to predict, but that did not change the fact that he was insignificant. As long as he solved the problem where he felt his grandfather's presence from his face, he would be able to stomp on that guy like stepping on an insect. Though, at that time, he might ignore him because just being concerned might make him feel pathetic.

"Both of you are so good-looking, as expected of young Giwoo's friends. As for you, lady, I feel like I've seen you somewhere before too."

The auntie brought some food. Giwoo portioned the food out into some bowls and handed them to the two people. He was planning to see this guy as much as possible in the future. If he did, then he would gain immunity, and if lucky, even find a weakness.

"We should drink a little too, right?"

His way of dealing with a problem was to smash the problem apart as that was his grandfather's way. Today, he planned to have a look at the problem and figure out what he needed.

KTLChamber's Thoughts

Man. Giwoo's duplicity makes me wanna puke sometimes

Editor's Note:

You know, I kinda want Giwoo to hit on Gaeul so she can be the one to crush him. Giwoo's reaction to a girl crushing him would be interesting

Chapter 831
Sequence 10

How strange, Gaeul looked at the two men. For them to be friends who have known each other for years, there was too much distance between the two of them. From their words, they were close friends like no other, yet from the way they treated each other, they looked like they had met in a class reunion for the first time in twenty years. That is, the kind where they laugh with each other using their vague memories, ask about recent matters, and shake hands with each other. Her suspicion turned into conviction after they started conversing without looking at each other after having a drink. When one side talked, the other would respond and pretend to listen to the whole thing. The conversation was smooth, but there was no affection in their words. They looked as though they were reciting for an oral exam.

"Did you two fight?"

It was time for her to butt in. Heck, even talking to a wall might sound more affectionate than this.

"What are you talking about? As you see, we're so close."

Maru raised his soju glass. Giwoo also toasted him, saying that Maru was his best friend. Was this a battle of pride between two men? Or did these two have a reason to sit down smiling in this frosty atmosphere?

"Am I an idiot? Kang Giwoo, why did you call us if it's going to be like this? Han Maru, what's up with you? Tell me the reason, and don't make me uncomfortable. I would have stood up if the stew here was bad, but I've been holding back since it is good, you know? But I can't hold back anymore. If you two had a fight, you two will resolve things here, and if it's not like that, let's get up since we don't have a reason to see each other."

One was her boyfriend, and the other was a colleague she was working with for a drama. Both of them were important to her, so she could not accept that there was a mental war between these two. The two men, who had been pretending to be oblivious, only then looked at each other and spoke,

"Kang Giwoo. Shall we go get some air?"

"Alright. Also, Gaeul. I'm sure you're misunderstanding something as this is how we usually are."

The two men left with their arms around each other's shoulders.

"That's how you usually are?"

Did they take her for a fool? Gaeul poured some soju into the glass and emptied it into her mouth. If the two of them circled around each other in a lukewarm manner when they returned, she was planning on leaving. The men could settle the rest for all she could care. From the attitude the two were showing, they clearly seemed to have gotten into a fight. If there was something bad between the two of them to the point that they didn't even look at each other, there was no need for them to drink together in the first place.

"They're all adults. How childish."

She only hoped that their battle of pride would end quickly. Of course, by reconciling, that is.

* * *

"Lord chaebol, this is a drink of the ordinary folk. Would you like to try?"

"There's no distinction between chaebols and whatnot. I like that one too."

"Really? I thought you didn't drink stuff like this."

Giwoo received the Pocari Sweat that Maru handed him. He had not expected Gaeul to react like that. She actually didn't hold back and brought the topic up when that would inevitably make the situation go awry. Although he had known that she never held her words back from what he saw during the shoot, he didn't know that she was like this. The rumor that she went against Lee Miyoon sounded more credible now. Thinking about how she glared back at that old fox was actually quite interesting.

"Seems like something good's happening, smiling like that."

"Something good huh, there has been."

"Like what?"

"Like how the drama's doing well? I saw that you were on Doctors. You were really good at acting."

Though, his appearance was pitifully small, at around a minute for the entirety of the first two episodes. Giwoo sipped some of his drink and looked at Maru's eyes. Since this guy had a smart brain, he should have realized that Giwoo was being sarcastic. It would be great if he responded. He wished for Maru to become angry, but on the other hand, he wished for him to not fall to a cheap provocation like this one. After all, 'Han Maru' couldn't be such an easy guy.

"Not as much as you, though. I've seen all the episodes of Doctor's Office. Honestly speaking, it was more interesting than Doctors. From how the viewing rate is better, I'm sure the viewers are thinking the same."

"I'm sure there will be good reactions from Doctors soon. It's good after all."

"I sure hope so. It may be a minor role, but I still did participate in it. How's the atmosphere on your side?"

"It's the same as everywhere else really. We would meet up in the morning all fired up but become zombies by midnight. It's a lot better when Gaeul is around. I mean, she's a cheerful girl."

"You're right. Though, sometimes it's a problem because she's too cheerful."

Maru put down his plastic bottle. A couple that entered the convenience store gave them puzzled looks. Giwoo lowered his head. He did not want to be disturbed when the conversation was just about to become fun. The man from the couple took the woman inside when she was staring at the two.

"Popular actors must have it hard. You can't walk around in parks, can you."

"That's not entirely true. People don't recognize me if I dress up a little. People don't really care about what's going on around them. Before, there was a time I was concerned about how they would all recognize me, but now, I know that walking around the neighborhood is just fine."

He said the truth because he felt like Maru wouldn't even snort even if he boasted. Whether it was before or now, he could not see any greed in Han Maru. The first thing he learned from his grandfather was to read the greed on people's faces, but this guy didn't have any of that. It wasn't that he had no material desires and nor was he completely disinterested in financial success or fame, but for some reason, he wasn't obsessed with such things. That didn't mean that he was a complete ascetic either. Giwoo rolled his eyes in an attempt to read Maru's nature.

"The night air sure is good, isn't it?" Maru suddenly said.

What was he on about now? He was completely unpredictable, so Giwoo couldn't guess what words he would say next. He definitely wasn't the type to say that just because the weather was good.

"Why are you staring at me like that? You're putting pressure on me."

"Because I have nothing to ask. Oh yeah, what do we tell Gaeul? It's not like we fought."

"You and I have never fought each other and probably never will. We're strictly in a business relationship after all. You don't fight your business partner, you get along with them."

"Business?"

"What's wrong with it? I mean, we aren't exactly close enough to be classified as friends. But putting it as enemies is somewhat wrong too. We have to see each other's faces, but there's no reason to get close, and nor do we want to make enemies of each other. What's left then is a business relationship where we mutually benefit from each other."

Look at this guy. Giwoo clenched his teeth, and he could feel an aching pain from his molars. Who was he to define their relationship just like that? A slave could not define his relationship with his master. If Giwoo said that they were friends, they were friends, and if he said that they weren't, then they weren't. Maru had no right to decide that. Above all, he had been acting like this guy's friend the whole time, but he was the one to have denied it first. His lips started becoming twisted.

"How strange. I thought of you as a friend, Maru."

"That really is strange. Was there ever an opportunity for us to become friends? Of course, I guess I can be a friend of yours from your perspective. A friend that you work out with at the gym, a friend you talk to from time to time, a friend who knows a secret that you don't want to be exposed. The thing is, though, I have strict standards for picking friends. Giwoo, you get an above passing score for everything else but just one thing disqualifies you."

Giwoo wanted to grab this guy's head and chuck it in the recycling bin for speaking whatever he wished to. He couldn't even hear whatever he said after 'strict standards.' If there was a competition that scored participants based on how to piss people off, Han Maru would be the gold medalist. He didn't know about anything else, but Maru was definitely incredibly good at being cocky without knowing his place.

"You went a little too far."

"Sorry about that. I'm not exactly well-educated. I don't know if you know this; I graduated from an engineering high school because I don't have the smarts. I didn't go to college either. I did pick my words carefully, but it must have sounded awry to the young master of a chaebol family."

"I think you should stop talking about that chaebol thing. I'm not someone who judges people because of that."

"Giwoo, are you getting angry? It was just a joke. You're not the type to get angry from just this. I'm about to feel disappointed."

Fuming anger started climbing up his spine. Giwoo emptied the Pocari Sweat in one go. He didn't like that Maru talked back to him all the time and didn't like how he was being sarcastic, but above all, his very attitude that looked as though he read his mind was disgusting. The provocation he made before came back right at him. He would be making a fool of himself if he snapped out, yet if he laughed, he would lose. He gritted his teeth.

"I am a gold medalist material, aren't I?"

Just as he was wondering how to deal with this guy, those words entered his ears. He let go of the plastic bottle he was holding. The plastic bottle fell on the floor and spilled its contents.

"Why did you suddenly throw that away? You didn't even finish it. What a waste."

"Gold medalist? What do you mean by that all of a sudden?"

He suddenly panicked as though his secret was exposed. Maru mentioned the word gold medalist without context as though he had been looking into his mind.

"It suddenly occurred to me. Maybe it's because I watched the Olympics last night. Anyway, what made you so surprised?"

"It was quite curious when you said gold medalist so suddenly."

"I can be quite random at times. But were you the type to be shocked when you become curious? Giwoo, you had a cute side to you, huh?"

"Shocked? Who? I wish you could watch your words a little more too. So that the listener doesn't suddenly get taken aback."

"I might be random at times, but I do think about what I say. Oh, what field do you think I would be a gold medalist in? I think you'll know quite well."

It was those eyes. The eyes that looked like the pale moon looking over the entire world in the pitch-black night. They were the eyes of his grandfather that saw through everything he could think of. Giwoo could feel the back of his neck stiffen up. His fighting spirit and determination to grind that guy's face into pieces snapped apart, and an acquired submissive nature that told him to lay low started consuming him. It was a teeth-clattering sense of humiliation, but he couldn't budge his lips. Giwoo pinched the inside of his thighs strongly. A pain strong enough for him to scream woke his mind up from a state that was no different from a trained dog.

"Something like a discussion tournament, right?"

He barely spoke. A sense of unease that he may never be able to go against Han Maru if he dodged the topic now, pervaded him. Maru smiled and nodded.

"Kang Giwoo, let's get along in the future. You have a lot of things. Think of it as charity towards someone who lacks something and look after me, will you? We can't be friends, but we can be good business partners, right?"

Maru stood up first and added that he would explain things to Gaeul. Giwoo picked up the plastic bottle from the table and threw it on the ground before stomping on it.

"Son of a bitch."

Why was it that he became a frog in front of a snake when he looked at his eyes at the most decisive moment? He could feel insults rising inside him. He once again confirmed that he couldn't breathe the same air as him. He no longer had any thoughts of hiring some people who would do anything for money to deal with him. That wasn't enough to heal his wounded pride. He had to utterly annihilate the guy socially. He felt like he would only be relieved after seeing him become the modern version of a slave and crawl on the ground. He felt like he would no longer have nightmares only after hearing the words 'please spare me' from his mouth at least once.

"Fine, you don't have anything to lose, huh."

Giwoo uttered a short breath and calmed his expression. If that was what made him so confident, he could just give something to him. It would be quite a spectacle to see him once he pushes him off the cliff after giving him the things that would pain him if he lost them.

"Looks like I must give some things to that poor guy for charity."

KTLChamber's Thoughts

Pwned

Editor's Note:

Giwoo is really looking better and better as a character. So generous, he's making Maru famous for free.

Chapter 832
Sequence 10

Maru came back inside. Giwoo wasn’t with him. When she signaled to him asking where Kang Giwoo was, Maru said that he’d be back soon and sat down. Gaeul pinched Maru’s thighs and asked,

“What are you two doing when you’re grown-up adults? You’re making me feel bad.”

“Sorry.”

“Don’t ‘sorry’ me. Can’t you tell me what’s going on? Is it something I shouldn’t know about? Or is it so trivial that I don’t have to know about it?”

Maru said that he would tell her later and that they should eat for now. Gaeul looked into his eyes. He was born with the conditions to become a proficient liar, but he couldn’t lie in front of her, especially when she looked into his eyes. He would probably be able to manage his expression to the point of fooling everyone if he tried to, but he did not. Gaeul believed that his actions were a form of respect, belief, and love. Maru did not look away and even put his face closer to her so that she could take a closer look. Gaeul raised the white flag first when he came closer to her.

“You’re going to tell me after we eat, right? Alright then. I’ll play along until I put down my spoon.”

Not long later, Kang Giwoo entered. The two of them didn’t change compared to before. In fact, the awkward smiles, meaningless trivial talk, and silly gestures just increased. They looked like water and oil trying to force themselves to mix with each other.

“How is it? Our restaurant’s stew is pretty good, isn’t it?”

The owner lady came with some sikhye as dessert by the time they finished their meal. Gaeul pointed at the stew that had bottomed out and said that it was really good.

“This sikhye is something I made at home, so it’ll be really good. I don’t usually give it out to people, but I’m giving you bonuses since you’re friends of young Giwoo. Go on, have a drink.”

“Thank you, I’ll visit again next time.”

The owner lady put down the cups and looked at Giwoo before thanking him. Giwoo didn’t show any reaction as though he hadn’t heard it. Was she thanking him for visiting? The owner lady then left again saying that she would bring some rice cakes.

“Looks like she really likes you, Giwoo.”

“She’s a kind auntie, so she treats everyone like that.”

She didn’t think that was true. When the two of them left, the owner lady had visited the room once. She looked around and asked if young Giwoo wasn’t around, and once she found that he wasn’t here, she turned around without regrets. Back then, there was a tray in her hands as well; it was a tray containing sikhye. It was true that she treated her customers well, but she looked after Giwoo more. While she could understand her feelings of wanting to give a famous person something more for being her regular, the expression that she had when she saw that Giwoo wasn’t here definitely did not belong to someone who was simply here to give sikhye. She looked as dejected as though she was here to do business only to find out that the person she needed to do business with was absent.

“I thought I had seen you somewhere; you are Han Gaeul, aren’t you? Sorry for not recognizing you. You looked so energetic in the drama. Who would’ve known that you’re actually a very docile girl?”

The owner lady put down the tray with rice cakes in it before grabbing Gaeul’s hand.

“I give off less of that impression if I erase my makeup.”

“No, no. It must be because I’m slow-witted. You’re really pretty. I thought it was strange when you said you were young Giwoo’s friend, but you turned out to be Han Gaeul.”

The owner lady gave her a piece of A4 paper and a sharpie and asked her for an autograph. It seemed that she was going to add it to the wall of autographs right next to the store’s entrance. She wrote ‘I hope your business goes well’ before writing her name in the corner. When she did, she found a phone right in front of her face. They took a photo together as well. The owner lady said that the photo turned out good and that she could hang one on the wall. She then had a look at Maru. Although it was for a brief moment, Gaeul saw her eyes moving around busily.

“I’m just a sidekick. No one will recognize me even if you do take a photo.”

“You, young man, look like something yourself. I’m sure you’ll become a star soon. I have a good eye for people, so don’t worry about it. You will become famous through a good piece. Don’t you forget about this place just because you become famous later. I’ve remembered your face now. It’ll be great if I could hang your autograph right next to his lady’s.”

Although she said those words, the owner lady did not ask Maru for an autograph or a photo. Maru just shrugged. After she left, Giwoo spoke,

“She’s full of energy, isn’t she?”

“She’s interesting.”

Gaeul finished her meal by putting the rice cake in her mouth. If the atmosphere was good, she would have continued chatting with the remaining food as snacks, but the two men were still in a cold war. At a time like this, the best thing she could do was to stand up quickly.

“Thanks for the food today. I’ll treat you next time.”

“There’s a bar right nearby. You should drink a little more.”

“I’m a little tired. Today’s the only day I can rest in the entire week, so I should go sleep at home. Giwoo, don’t you have a schedule tomorrow as well?”

“I do have a photo shoot.”

“Then you should go back and get some rest too. And you too, Maru, right?”

She left first after giving them hints. At the entrance, the autograph was already hung up. It had even been laminated already. She thought that the owner lady was pretty fast. By the next time she came here, she would be among the famous celebrity autographs on the wall. The owner lady grabbed her and told her to visit again next time. While this might look offensive, she didn’t find the owner lady hateful because of her hearty laughter. She could understand it as well after considering that this was her effort to be better off.

“My son is trying hard to be an actor too. So take care of him if you see him.”

“Really?”

“I’m not saying this because he’s my son; he’s really good. He’ll rise as long as he finds the opportunity. I think that I just grabbed the opportunity too.”

The owner lady stared at Giwoo as she talked about opportunities. From her words and actions, it seemed that Giwoo had helped her out in some way. She now realized why she was so eager to look for Kang Giwoo. He was the kind of guy who could never pass by a person in need, so it seemed that he had given her some help after hearing that her son was an aspiring actor. Giwoo was known to help others a lot, so it was possible.

“What a pity. I wanted to have a drink with you too.”

“We can just meet again next time.”

Once you two make-up – these words came up to her throat, but she didn’t utter them. There was no reason to leave behind words of disappointment when they were dispersing. Giwoo told her that he would get her a chauffeur service, but she said it was okay and grabbed a taxi.

“How about you, Maru?”

“I brought my car, so I’m going to call a chauffeur. Alright, go on your way.”

“Okay. I had fun today, you two. See you next time.”

Gaeul sent a text message to Maru as she got in the taxi saying that she would be waiting at home. She saw the two men facing each other through the back window of the taxi.

“Just what is going on between them?”

Gaeul sighed softly.

* * *

“Thanks for the food today. This place is pretty good.”

“I’m glad that you enjoyed it. Let’s meet again some time; that way we can get closer. Who knows? If we keep seeing each other, maybe I’ll become a friend that meets your criteria.”

“As much as I’d love it if that was the case, that probably won’t ever happen, I think.”

Seeing Maru say that with a smile, Giwoo’s neck became tense. Giwoo looked around before taking a step closer to him.

“Do you dislike me that much?”

“Why are you doing this again? Then do you like me?”

“I’m trying my best to. You are bound to meet a lot of people in life, so it would be impossible to live a social life if you make enemies with everyone you don’t like.”

“That’s true. That’s why I’m putting in the effort too so that I can talk to you face to face like this.”

“Then tell me about it. What part of me do you not like about me so much? Is it because of the things I did in the past? Of course, back then, I was in the wrong. My thinking was short, and I was immature. It’s not that I want to justify myself, but I thought that was fine back then. As you said, I was raised in a sheltered environment as the young master of a chaebol family. But I grew up and have never done anything like that since then. What you told me helped me a lot back then. You know? I’m the type of person who believes that the people who say bitter things about me are my friends. That’s the reason I think of you as a friend.”

“That’s an honor for me. The almighty Kang Giwoo considers me a friend. But perhaps it’s because of my lowly status, or maybe it’s just because I’m twisted, but I don’t think I’ll ever be in a relationship that I call ‘friends’ with you. That’s why I said that we’re in a business relationship.”

“Can you perhaps tell me the reason why? You were the one who told me that I fulfill every criteria but one. I’m not sure if I should be saying this; it’s not because of your pride, is it?”

He wanted to know what this Han Maru was thinking on the inside. Ever since this guy found out, he never did anything that other people might nitpick with. Even if he did, there was no way it would get exposed, so he practically didn’t do anything. Asking anyone about Kang Giwoo’s image would always result in an answer that would go something like ‘a good person’ or ‘someone they want to get close to.’ He always maintained that clean image. He always treated other people with goodwill regardless of the occasion, and Giwoo managed to turn that goodwill into friendship or trust. There was only one person who saw through his mask before he took it off. It was his grandfather.

“I’m sorry to say this; there are three life lessons I’ve learned over the course of my life. One, people don’t change. Two, people can’t be fixed. And three, if you still have to trust an unreliable person despite that, you must be prepared to face losses. Not just any losses, big losses,” said Maru as he folded three fingers one by one.

Giwoo was unable to hide his lips twitching. This guy was practically doing this on purpose.

“You’re saying I haven’t changed?”

“There’s no way I would under evaluate you like that, is there? I’m sure you have changed splendidly. The problem is the direction though. I’ve heard that those who were caught red-handed while committing a crime think about how not to get caught while they repent. The fact that the public opinion about you has become good and clean must mean one of two things. Of course, I believe that you’re innocent and pure. It’s just me who can’t accept that because of how twisted I am. You understand that, right?”

“You have a talent for putting people in difficult positions. I wanted to be good friends with you.”

“Let’s start off in a good business relationship. That’s how relationships work when you’re an adult, don’t they? You get close through business first and then become privately close. Please understand this twisted me with a generous heart.”

Maru picked up his phone after tapping on his shoulder. It seemed that his chauffeur service was here.

“Let’s go through our act beforehand next time. This time, we were so awkward that Gaeul noticed it. I’ll watch out as well. See you next time.”

Maru got in his car and became distant. Giwoo laughed on the spot to the point that his shoulders were jerking. He felt like he was going to go mad if he didn’t laugh. He wanted to grab anyone off the street and beat them up.

“Come pick me up asap.”

He gave his manager a call. The manager’s subservient voice calmed his frustration down. Alright, Han Maru, let’s do this properly – Giwoo looked for the number of the writer of ‘Doctors.’

KTLChamber's Thoughts

Frigging roasted.

"The fact that the public opinion about you has become good and clean must mean one of two things. Of course, I believe that you’re innocent and pure."

So, what is the other 'one of two things?' lol

At this point, Giwoo's kinda cute(?) for trying to screw up Maru. He thinks that Maru's staking his life on 'Doctors', when he doesn't really care at all lol.

Editor's Note:

Honestly, Giwoo makes the story soooooo much more entertaining. Even though we all hate him, we have to give the author credit for making such a well-written villain. He is genuinely one of the most fleshed-out characters in this entire story.

Chapter 833
Sequence 10

When he opened the door, the first thing he saw was Gaeul standing there with her arms crossed. Go on, talk to me – she was standing there like a guard and didn’t look like she would make way if she wasn't given a plausible explanation. Maru took his shoes off and went inside before lifting her up while she was staring at him. Although she struggled, it was bearable. When he put her down on the sofa, she hurled herself at him immediately.

"You're not going to say anything?"

"I'm just having you listen comfortably, without standing up. I'm going to have some water, would you like some?"

Before he could even look at the kitchen, she quickly gave him some water in a cup. She poured a cup on the spot and gave it to him. It seemed that she was really curious. It wasn’t surprising. After all, they were visibly awkward with each other. If they didn't act like they were close at all, she might have urged them to become closer, but the two of them practically ignored each other as though they were meeting after a big fight, so Gaeul must have felt nervous as well.

"To get straight to the point, I am in a relationship where I can never become friends with Kang Giwoo even if I die and come back to life again. It doesn’t matter what he thinks of me. I don't have any intention of becoming close to him."

"Did you two get into a fight? You said you were friends."

"It's basically a form of courtesy when I call him a friend."

"Then why did you act close to each other back then?"

"Because while we may never become friends, we can't exactly become enemies either. There's you too. Though, it'll probably be difficult to pretend to be friends from today on."

"You were never friends in the first place?"

"Never."

He wasn't distancing himself from Kang Giwoo simply because he was an evil guy. In life, people were bound to come across situations where their benefit would lead to the misfortune of another. It was an inevitable choice, and even if that led to other people receiving damage, Maru would be able to understand it. After all, ordinary people would not choose to sacrifice themselves for the sake of others. If such a decision was placed in front of him, Maru would choose the option that benefited himself and the people around him. If his decision ended up damaging someone completely unrelated to him, he might feel sorry but would not hesitate in his decision because of that. If Kang Giwoo's environment allowed him no choice, and if that was what caused the incident, Maru would have looked at his circumstance and understood with that in mind. He would have emotionally criticized him, but that would not become a hindrance to forming a relationship with him.

However, not only was Kang Giwoo's decision against his choice, it wasn't even a desperate one either. It was simply for entertainment. To stave off his boredom, he stomped on the fingers of a man who lived off the wages he earned every day. He didn't even do it himself. He had someone else do it. It was unreasonable violence and meaningless suffering. Giwoo said that it was a mistake and that he had changed, but nowhere in his grand speech did he mention anything about being sorry nor about apologizing or repenting. Those long list of words were all ultimately just self-justification. The man who had been injured without a clue because of him had been erased from his speech. He was practically saying that stains could be washed away. Maru could feel relieved. He was worried that there might be a good side to Giwoo that even his abilities couldn't see through, but fortunately, Giwoo was pure evil just like before. He had grown up to be just the man he was going to be. Not in a good way; in a bad way.

"About the things I am going to start telling you now, I don't want you to believe all of it. Just take what you would. After all, when it comes to judging a person, your own experiences are much more important than other people's judgments."

Maru told her about the things with Giwoo in the past. She looked to be in disbelief when she heard that Giwoo ordered a so-called 'friend' to stomp on the fingers of a person completely on purpose.

"Is that true?"

"What I'm telling you now is the confirmed truth. There's a bit of my opinion mixed in there, but it is true that such a thing happened. I checked it myself."

"How can a person do that?"

"From his words, it was just an immature prank, and he says he's fixed his ways and is living a proper life, but I can't believe him. Of course, there is a possibility that he had really changed. He might actually have repented his wrongdoings and has resolved to live a proper life. However, what I saw from him was that he had changed for the worse."

"I can't believe that Kang Giwoo did something like that."

"Like I said, don't believe my words entirely. The Kang Giwoo in your mind might be closer to the truth."

She looked at her phone with a serious expression. She seemed to be thinking about whether to call him and ask. After fidgeting with her phone for a long time, Gaeul just sighed.

"I don't think I should call him and ask."

"Good thinking. Even if you call him and ask, nothing would change. Whether he admits to it or not, your conclusion will be that he's a good person right now."

"Giwoo was a really good guy at the shooting set."

"Then keep believing in that. You're going to be seeing him for a long time, so you can't treat him awkwardly."

"You made me feel iffy because you said that."

"That's why I was trying not to tell you. After all, it is you who would be in an uncomfortable position regardless of the outcome."

Maru poured some water for her, as she might be feeling thirsty. She emptied the cup in one go.

"The Kang Giwoo I saw was someone who didn't walk past a staff member in trouble and would help them out. He always arrived at the set first and greet everyone cheerfully. At get-togethers, he would liven up the mood even if it meant making fun of himself. There is probably no one among the set who hates him."

"That's how you should act too. Just like how you always have been."

"I want to do that, but I think I'll see Giwoo differently in the future. Like what you said, I'm going to be working with him, so I won't show it on the surface. There are many people who are staking their lives on the drama after all. I can't have my personal problems influence the shoot. However, I will definitely be wary of him if I have to meet him in private in the future."

"Even though Kang Giwoo might have changed for the better?"

"I believe in my eyes and my intuition, but I believe in your words just as much, Maru. No, in some sense, I sometimes rely on your words more than my own judgments. The Han Maru I've seen is definitely not a person who would talk about nonsense. Also, I think you're warning me by telling me all this after trying not to tell me until now."

Maru did not say anything as he looked back at her staring as she stared at him. Be careful of Giwoo, stay away from him; I actually hope you don't get involved with him at all – such words were all unnecessary. She knew what she had to do. She walked on a tightrope between reason and emotion and arrived at an answer that Maru wanted her to. When she said that he would not say nonsense, he felt thankful, but at the same time, heavy.

"I'll watch over Giwoo for a little longer."

"Go ahead."

"If I actually confirm that the actions he showed in front of other people is all just pretense and that he's a completely different person inside, I would go up and say something to him."

"Say what?"

"That he should not live his life like that."

"Call me when you do. I'd love to watch from the side."

"I'm very serious right now, you know? An actor I've been respecting quite a bit might actually be human trash. I have a kissing scene with him, you know? I'm already at a loss on how to set my emotions at that time."

"You can't help it. Work is work."

Gaeul stood up abruptly before glaring at him.

"Is that what you should be telling your girlfriend?"

"What can I do? You can't quit the drama midway."

"You're such a bad guy."

"Since it's like this, do you want to retire and become my wife? I will make you touch nothing harmful except water, laundry, and vacuum machines."

"You aren't proposing to me right now, are you?"

"I think it's something similar."

"For a moment, you looked like an even worse guy than Kang Giwoo."

She pouted, making her lips look like that of a bird. If he told her 'peck me,' he felt like he might not be able to see her for a while, so he held it in.

"Do you even plan on accepting if I do it properly?"

"Try doing it properly first. I can decide when the time comes."

"You know a friend of mine called Dojin, right? His girlfriend proposed to him while dancing, and man, she looked cool. The times we live in say that a man buying a wedding ring and proposing is old-fashioned. What do you think?"

"Not even worth considering."

"I thought you'd say that."

Maru put his arm around her shoulders. Although Gaeul resisted for a little bit, she eventually smiled and put her arm around his waist.

"You really can't see what people are thinking on the inside. I never knew that such a proper-looking man has a history like that."

"Everyone's like that."

"That sounds like you too have a secret that might get you in trouble if exposed, huh?"

"Not just one. I have about five."

"How about you tell me one? I'll forgive you for that crappy proposal if you do. You share a secret with me in exchange for giving you a chance. Don't you think it's a good deal?"

"Was my proposal that crappy?"

"Can you imagine what my mom would tell me if I tell her about it?"

"Mr. Han, I think you need to have a deep talk with me?"

Maru covered her lips with his. Just as he was about to start twisting her lips for fun, her hand on his waist suddenly pinched him.

"Don't you try to gloss this over."

"How strict."

"I have to be this strict if I want to live with you."

"But isn't it unfair for just me to reveal my secret? If it's about the proposal, I can just do it properly again next time."

"Fine. Then I'll tell you a secret too."

She took her hand off his waist and took a step back.

"I have a precious friend. But other people can't see her. I don't know if she's a ghost or a fairy. She's a cute little rabbit, and she always consoles me and says good things whenever I have a hard time. Though we fought recently and she disappeared."

After saying those words, she smiled and waved her hand in the air.

"Actually, forget that. I said something unnecessary. I can't exactly call it a secret when no one's going to believe it."

"I believe it though."

"Don't. I was just absentminded. How can there be something like a ghost or a fairy in this world? Not only that, she looks like a rabbit. I mean, ghosts come in white cloths, and fairies are supposed to look like Tinkerbell."

"It might be a rabbit. Small and cute but unrelenting when it comes to words and not wanting to lose. I'm sure she thinks about you a lot and cares for you. She must want you to become happy above everything."

Gaeul looked back at him, flabbergasted.

"How did you know?"

"Know what?"

When Maru pretended to be oblivious, she thought for a moment before chuckling as though she understood.

"You're thinking that the rabbit is like me, aren't you?"

"I said I believe she exists."

"You clearly don't. I just said it as a joke, so don't be so serious."

I know you're not lying – Maru replied inwardly.

"Then I guess I must tell you a secret of mine too."

"You're going to tell me?"

"That was the deal. It's an extremely important secret. Don't you go around telling anyone else."

He gestured to her to come closer. Her face became closer. Maru put his hands around his mouth and whispered into her ears.

"I loved you in my previous life and the life before that."

"What the heck is that."

"I'm serious. This is like revealing divine secrets. Even the best fortune tellers won't be able to tell you something like this."

She frowned before hurling herself at him, saying that she needed to hit that mouth of his. Maru told her to hit his lips with her own, and Gaeul attacked him with her lips after declining once.

KTLChamber's Thoughts

Absolutely adorable. I'm dead from vanilla overdose.

Editor's Note:

This novel is truly so much better with a romance aspect in it. So cute.

Chapter 834
Sequence 11

Lee Eunbin closed her laptop and stood up. Her back and butt were hurting because she had been sitting down for three hours without moving. She was used to the pain from her wrists and fingers but now that her back was causing a fuss, it was very distracting. She would have gotten treatment if it was her disks that had a problem, however, her back pain was not a problem of her physical body but her mind. She sat on the sofa and changed the TV channels before stopping on KBS. ‘Doctor’s Office’ episode four was being broadcasted again. When she watched for about ten minutes in a daze, a sharp tingle climbed up her back. ‘Doctor’s Office’ viewing rate 18%, ‘Doctors’ viewing rate 13% - the viewing rate that she tried so hard to forget came to her mind again.

Eunbin turned off the TV and returned to her laptop. This wasn’t the time to be dazing off. She did not want her piece to be forgotten because of a competing piece like this.

“I finally saw the light, so I can’t fall down here.”

‘Doctors’ was a piece that came to be after 3 years of waiting. She had completed the script a long time ago, and it was going to rot inside a cabinet somewhere without ever meeting production, but she managed to bring it to life at this opportunity. It would be great if she just got paid for her manuscript and waited for the completion of the drama since it was complete already, but due to the old-fashioned lines, mid-drama product placements, as well as overall plot changes, she was writing a new script as though she would from scratch.

If she could just scrap it all and rewrite a whole different story from scratch, she felt like she could start writing without blocks, but trying to twist the orientation of an already existing puzzle piece or creating one completely anew and fitting it in with the rest of the puzzle made her feel dizzy. That was why, when the new writer on her team said ‘the overall outline is there, so I guess it won’t be that hard to write,’ she hurled her laptop.

She pressed the keyboard a couple times before checking the time. It was 5 p.m. An hour had already passed even though she wasn’t on the next page. She was hungry but didn’t have the energy to move. As the drama was still in its early stages, she still had some leisure when writing, but it was obvious that her fingers and her head were going to get stiffer towards the end, so she had to create some leeway while she could. She didn’t want to write the script of the episode that was going to be shot on that day.

The cat she was raising lingered around the laptop. Her objective seemed to be the heated keyboard. Until just three months ago, she lived like an unemployed person with that cat, but now, she was unable to play with her for even an hour a day. It would be great if she could write a set amount per day like a certain senior she knew.

It was when she was tickling her cat on the chin while lamenting about herself that she suddenly got a phone call. It was likely a fellow writer was asking her to come outside. If she picked it up, she would not be able to refuse and end up going outside. Those unnis were cruel people who would barge into her own house if she didn't after all.

Since her work wasn't going well, she just gave up on it and picked her phone up, and looked at the name on it. When she checked the name, she picked the call up in haste.

-Hello, writer.

"Yes, hello."

She felt like she said that with a voice that was too thin, but she had already uttered those words. Eunbin knew that she could not see the person in the flesh, but she still started cleaning her desk. She gathered up the trash in front of her laptop and put the cat down on the ground.

-Are you okay with taking a call right now? I'm worried if I gave you a call when you are busy.

"It's not like that. I just woke up and was about to eat."

She originally didn't have any plan to eat, but her appetite got the better of her after hearing the voice on the other side. It would be great if he asked her out for a meal since he had called – such useless delusions spread out in her mind like a fog. She could only fantasize since she knew that it wasn't going to happen for real. Just as she got to the point where they were having wine together in the lounge of a skyscraper hotel, she heard a line that woke her up. She couldn't believe what she had just heard, so she asked back,

"You want to have a meal together?"

-Yes, if you're okay with it.

A fanfare went off in her head. It had been 15 years since she started off as a writer for an entertainment program and now she had become a drama writer. Was the wind of romance finally blowing on the thirty-five year-old her? She rolled her feet on the ground when she realized that she had gone too far and responded calmly,

"I'd love to."

-That's good. Then can you tell me your address? I'll go pick you up.

Eunbin reflexively told him her address. After finishing her call, questions like 'maybe I should have asked him to meet at a nearby café', 'why does he wants to see me all of a sudden', and 'what should I wear' came to her mind, but there was no time to hesitate.

"Kang Giwoo wants to see me. What can't I do?"

Eunbin asked for her purring cat to wish her luck before moving.

* * *

"You watched 'The Strong Fellas'? I was the main writer for that one. Though, I did leave after it was set on track."

"Did you perhaps leave around the tenth episode?"

"Yes, that sounds about right."

"I knew it. It became worse after that. I wished for the program to bring out more of the interaction between characters, but they kept making people do more games. I really enjoyed the banter between the people on it before, so I found it a little pitiful that they stuck to the schedule after some time. Maybe that's because you were out of it."

Eunbin waved her hand in the air, saying that that wasn't true, but she was grinning so hard that her lips were twitching. When Giwoo brought his car in front of her house, she felt really complex. At most, they only saw each other's faces once, but Kang Giwoo asked her out to eat together. However, her worries disappeared after entering the hotel restaurant. The meal that she thought was going to be awkward was so fun that she felt stupid for being worried. Giwoo's tastes were surprisingly like her own. Not only that, he said that he had watched all the programs that she had participated in. He might have looked that up on the internet before they met, but still, that was out of interest and consideration for her, wasn't it?

The food melted down without a trace in her mouth, and the conversation tickled her ears. Ever since she started writing the script for the drama, she felt really hurried whenever it was past 6 because of her stress, but today, she couldn't feel the time passing at all. She even felt like she was on holiday. She felt like she would get incredibly good character lines if she maintained her current mood.

"How about some wine? If that bothers with your work, then I'll order something else."

"Oh, no. Don't say that. Writers are inseparable from drinking alcohol."

"Then do you like drinking as well?"

"I don't enjoy it that much, but I don't refuse when I'm offered a drink. There are a lot of writers around me who are good at drinking, so hanging out with them made my capacity larger. Moreover, I did work as a writer for entertainment programs, so I had a lot of get-togethers here and there."

She stared at the red wine in the wine glass for a while before taking a sip. The chaebol rival of drama protagonists always drank like this – it felt like a dream that she had realized a desire that she had always written about. Of course, she frequented hotel restaurants when she worked on her writing, but it was the first time that such a handsome actor had brought her here in private.

"I really enjoyed 'Doctor's Office.' The characters there are so much like what I imagined mine to be, so I get jealous whenever I watch it. I always wanted to have you do an act like that in a different piece."

"I would have joined your side if I had gotten the scenario for 'Doctors' first. What a pity."

"Thank you, even if it's just words. But still, I'm sure you have it good. Doctor's Office is making more headlines than Doctors is. Thanks to that, my back hurts a lot these days."

"Your back?"

"I'm usually okay when I'm resting or before my work starts airing, but once the drama starts airing and the viewing rates are out, my back starts to hurt. It's especially worse when it loses out to another piece from the same time slot."

"Well, I'm sorry."

"You don't need to feel sorry. It's my fault for having terrible writing."

"Don't say that. Your drama is really interesting."

"What good is being interesting? I lost; that's what matters. Actually, when I do interviews, I say that I don't care about viewing rates and that I just do my own work, but I'm a person too; I also care about popularity. It's natural for me to want my own child to do better than other people's."

"Aren't you a being a little too honest?"

"Maybe it's because I had a drink. Don't you feel the same, Mr. Giwoo?"

Giwoo smiled and nodded.

"Actually, yeah. I also want the pieces I do to have good results. If the viewing rates are good and it becomes a hot topic, that will be another line on my career, so I do mind."

"See? It's normal for everyone to want to do well."

Eunbin ate the last piece of steak. Tomorrow, the third episode of Doctors as well as the fifth episode of Doctors Office would go live. The viewing rates would probably change according to what the searched term is during the night. Although many people say that writers consider their own piece to be the best, her self-confidence would hit rock bottom when the results actually come out. When she watched the first episode, she shouted 'yes' in joy, but she didn't know that she would actually lose. Eunbin, who was smiling bitterly, recalled that Giwoo was in front of her. She was actually drinking with the main cast of a competing drama. She felt a little more depressed, but she didn't show it on the surface. Right now, it was time to enjoy herself and forget about work. Just then,

"I know it might be rude of me to say this, but I'll tell you since I seem to get along with you, writer. There's one thing I felt disappointed about while watching Doctors."

"Was my writing terrible?"

"No. I really like the way you proceed with your plot. But due to the nature of dramas, you have no choice but to focus on the characters, right?"

"That's true. Doctor's Office is supposed to be a medical politics drama, whereas Doctors is a human drama. It's not surprising that the characters have a lot of influence over whether the drama does well or not."

"That's it. I was watching the drama, and I saw a character that was too good to be wasted after just being used once."

"Really? Who is it."

"The character who's called 'Bigfoot' among the interns. You know, the one who has the comedy role."

"Oh, that one."

"Have you perhaps looked at the actor who plays it?"

"I did. I felt really good because he acted just the way I pictured the character in the drama to be. He seemed to be acquainted with the producer as well. I haven't met him in person, but I did think that he had an incredible understanding of the character."

Giwoo rested his chin on his interlocked hands.

"I thought that that actor was really good at setting up the mood. I feel that the cheerful atmosphere from episode one was heavily influenced by him. But starting with episode two, the only role he had was just smiling."

"It can't be helped because of the distribution of roles."

"That's what I found rather disappointing. I'm sure you have a splendid eye for actors, but actors have a different eye for other actors. I was more absorbed in the scenes where that actor came out."

"Really?"

Eunbin thought about the minor actor that she didn't know the name of. She felt like the producer told her what kind of person he was when she was checking over the roles, but she forgot about it because it wasn't important. All she could remember was that his surname was Han.

"Should we get some ice cream as a dessert?"

"I love ice cream."

For a topic he talked about rather seriously, he switched topics too quickly, but Eunbin didn't think about it deeply. Giwoo must also have just mentioned it in passing. The talk went to about movies they recently watched, and Eunbin soon forgot about anything related to the drama.

KTLChamber's Thoughts

O.o

I wonder what Giwoo is planning by making Maru famous lol. Is it because the fall would just be that more satisfying? Maru won't fall without a fight though!

There's also Jayeon to whoop this woman's ass if she tries anything funny

Editor's Note:

This seems like such a trash plan. It's basically: Let's give him a million dollars and then after he tastes what money is like, we'll make him lose it. Like, what if u fail to make him lose it; all that effort would have been wasted and you literally helped them instead. Not to mention the fact that Giwoo has literally had a history of losing to this guy which literally made him scared of Maru.

Chapter 835
Sequence 11

She had a thought as she put her fingers inside the back of her heels: this isn’t a dream, right? She saw the cat on the desk raise her head before putting it down again. The t-shirt and the pajama pants she took off yesterday were flung on the sofa, and the empty convenience store lunch box was right underneath it. Her own living room, which she rarely cleaned, intersected with the hotel restaurant she was just in. Eunbin grabbed her phone. Only after seeing his number on her phone did she realize that the dinner they just had was indeed real. She had a talk with an actor she never contacted before over a nice dinner. He was a cool man just like the rumors said. She couldn’t be more excited when he said that they should meet again next time. It would be great if they could meet again.

“But this is probably where it ends.”

When she thought about Giwoo’s background, though, her romantic feelings all shriveled up. Although no one mentioned it, everyone in the industry knew that Giwoo was of the YM Group’s lineage. One time, there were rumors that he was given lucky opportunities because of his environment and rose to stardom too smoothly, but after some time, those words never appeared again. The skills that Giwoo showed must be part of the reason, but she also thought that there weren’t many people who had the audacity to actually go against the direct line of descent of the YM Group. She had heard that a few of the journalists who were trying to use that for a gossip article of sorts had all given up in the end.

“But mommy felt good, even for a brief moment. Though, it’s a pity that it’s a dream that can’t come true.”

After reporting to the cat about what happened over dinner, she sat down in front of her laptop. She was stuck on her writing before, but she was writing very smoothly now. The inspiration cells that were dying from all the overwork had all come back to life again after that blissful dinner. She wrote while also looking through the materials before asking the youngest writer for additional investigation. Although her drama was focused on the characters, since it was set in a hospital background, using genuine medical terms and having accurate information about diseases were important. She fixed her drama script according to the materials that the youngest writer sent her as well as her call with the neurosurgeon in charge of fact-checking her story. When she first wrote ‘Doctors’, she did it by herself without the support of the TV station, so she was stifled whenever she came across a point where she needed information, but ever since she was promised that her drama would be produced, she was given so much support that it was to the point that she could even live in front of a hospital. A drama where specialists appeared was not something a writer could write by themselves.

She was typing without stopping and eventually, she rotated her wrists and stood up from the spot. She had been working for two hours now. Usually, when she sat down for two hours, she would spend one of the two fidgeting around, but she actually ended up focusing for the whole two hours this time. Was this the Kang Giwoo effect? Although she could continue for more, she wanted to maintain her current condition. It was likely that she was going to stare at the screen like an idiot if she tried to squeeze herself, so it was time to get some rest.

She lay down on the sofa in comfort. She briefly thought about going to the sauna in front of her house, but she decided not to make any more leaves for today. As a professional shut-in, going outside three times a day was a difficult thing. She ripped open a bag of snacks and put it on the sofa before watching a foreign drama that was on air. It was a medical investigation drama that she had watched several times already, yet she became absorbed in watching it every single time she watched it. It was a drama that stimulated her desire to write her own.

After watching the drama for a while, Eunbin used her remote to go to the smart menu and then the rewatch section. She played back the first episode of Doctors that aired last week. Eunbin never rewatched her drama episodes after watching them for the first time because of the disappointment and regret that overwhelmed her after watching which would consequently ruin her day. As she had expected, the lines that the actors said picked her nerves from the start. She thought that it would have been better if she was wittier with the lines. It was especially regretful since producer Yoo Jayeon’s direction skills were flawless. Was the lack of views due to a problem with the writer after all? A guilty conscience perked its head inside her. Just then,

“So that’s him.”

She sat up and rested her chin on her hands before looking at the man on the screen. It was the actor that Giwoo had mentioned. She remembered his name on her way back to her house: Han Maru. This man was the reason that she was rewatching the drama. Despite the fact that the production was splendid and the actors were all well-known, her drama was losing to Doctor’s Office, so it was about time she changed up the story. She couldn’t change the overall topic or the general outline, but it was possible to insert episodes that might catch the viewers’ eyes. During the meeting with the producer, she was told that the results were satisfactory and that she could keep going like this, but she would have to seek change if she wanted to reverse this competition. After all, being ‘okay’ always contained a probability that it would go down from there. She did not want to ruin a piece that she had focused her efforts on.

Eunbin checked the acting of the lead actors and at the same time, had a closer look at the actor known as Han Maru. Just as Giwoo said, it was too much of a pity to just throw him away after using him once. According to the script, that character could be thrown away but now that she had a look at the final result, she felt like she could use him in another episode. It might be okay to use him within a scope that didn’t ruin the drama.

Eunbin returned to her desk. The times when writers faced the wall when writing was long gone. They had to learn to see the desires of the audience and reflect them in real-time. Since Doctor’s Office decided to go with a breathless political story, she had to go with a sweet mellow story in order to grab the viewers who had changed their channels away. She tensed her fingers on her keyboard. She just thought of a good story.

* * *

“Nice house. But oh, what’s this?”

Joongjin looked at the mirror ball on the ceiling with curiosity. Maru smiled awkwardly. When he explained that he put it up there because he liked it, Joongjin said that it was rather unexpected.

“I didn’t know you had preferences like that. Or is it that I am not following the young people’s trend these days?”

“It’s not a trend; it’s just due to my weird character. Would you like something to drink?”

“Do you have black coffee? I would like it cold if possible.”

“Please wait a moment.”

He brewed some coffee and gave it to Joongjin. Joongjin had the dog by his side as though he quite liked her.

“What a cute dog. I usually don’t like dogs that much, but this one’s pretty friendly. But the dog seems to have an injured leg?”

“I was told that she has had a bad leg since birth. She probably became used to it as she runs around quite well.”

Joongjin picked up a fake bone from the floor before asking if he could throw it. Maru pointed at the kitchen. When the bone drew an arc in the air, Woofie rushed to it like mad. It seemed that Joongjin wanted the dog to come back with it, but the dog wasn’t smart enough to return with what was in her mouth. Seeing her chew on the bone under the table, Joongjin smiled as though it was a pity.

“I could have told you about it in the café, but I wanted to have a look at where you live, Mr. Maru. There’s nothing more helpful than the house they live in when it comes to learning more about them.”

“If that was the case, I should have decorated my house a little. Change the curtains to a colorful one and even put out a carpet.”

As he lived minimalistically, there was nothing to look at. Joongjin picked up his mug and looked around the room. He asked if he could take a look around the bedroom, so Maru opened the door for him without hesitation.

“There seems to be a lady who lives with you?”

“She’s someone I will live with, not in the far future. But how did you know?”

“I saw that in the bathroom.”

There were two boxes of sanitary pads in front of the case for towels. Below that was a bottle of shampoo and bottles of hair treatment for women as well. Maru scratched his eyebrows and put the sanitary pads inside the case. Gaeul said that she was going to put them away, but it seemed that she had forgotten. Meanwhile, Joongjin looked around the dressing room before coming back to the living room.

“As I thought, you live quite a simple life.”

“I don’t like complex things. It’s much easier to live with just what you need.”

“Other than that sparkly thing on the ceiling, that is.”

“Let’s make that an exception.”

Joongjin sat on the sofa.

“It was like this before as well; you are still quite interesting, Mr. Maru. You seem old-fashioned, yet you sometimes have something unexpected about you. Do you remember the day we went to a restaurant together for the first time?”

“If you’re talking about the day you talked about how geniuses are useless, then I do.”

“That was six years ago already. Oh, how time flies. I’ve met several actors while working in this area. Among them, I liked them to the point that I wanted to work with them, but when I actually went to find them, they were long gone. This industry is hard to survive in even if you have the talent. In that case, you, Mr. Maru, have the skills but also have the luck to back it up.”

“I think so too. I mean, I’m still holding out when I kicked away the opportunity that came right to me.”

Maru sat down next to Joongjin and drank coffee. Joongjin did not say anything until he finished drinking. He just kept looking at the floor, the ceiling, and the veranda.

“If you want to work with me, there is something important I must tell you.”

“Please tell me. I’m good at matching other people’s requests.”

“Then for this time alone, you must abandon that tendency to do so. As you probably know from working with me, when I work with other people’s money on a movie, I start drawing a picture first. I put a picture inside my head and work towards it so that not a single thing is off the mark. Whether it’s the actors or the props, they all have to be in the place they have to be. Individual character and momentary sparks of inspiration are all unnecessary. I just have to fit everything else to the picture I have in my head. At times like that, I use anyone as an actor. I mean, literally anyone. The truth is that directing style and production skills can cover up most things as long as they have a little bit of acting skills. With someone like Mrs. Yang Miso, I can even use an ordinary person.”

“But it’s different when you work on your own piece?”

“It’s very different. The films I use my own money to shoot are for my own enjoyment. I start off by drawing a picture just like before, but when I actually work on it, I do it in a way that something completely different comes out at the end. For that, I need a person to smash my imaginations and my completed picture into pieces. I need an actor who would show me a more charming path than the path I created for myself.”

“You suddenly made me lose confidence.”

“It’s okay. You won’t betray my expectations.”

Maru responded with a smile.

“If it’s already set that I will not betray you, then it seems like my job is to break your image to pieces. So do I need to do a terrible job at acting?”

“That doesn’t sound bad either, but if you want an award, then I suggest you do your best.”

Joongjin smiled and put down his coffee.

KTLChamber's Thoughts

Please. It's about time…

Editor's Note:

Don't hope, I've learned many times that it only leads to disappointment.

Chapter 836
Sequence 11

"Well then, Mr. Maru, I'll talk to you again with the contract next time."

"I shall look forward to it."

After shaking hands lightly, Joongjin left through the door. As he said that Maru didn't need to see him out, Maru just saw him out until the elevator. Just before the doors closed, Joongjin spoke from inside,

"The indie film you shot last time, the reactions are quite good after it was released on the internet. Go look for it if you have the time. There are quite a lot of comments too."

Having returned home, Maru searched the Ttukseom Indie Film Festival on his laptop. The award-winning pieces from the competition lineup and a few of the general lineup were open to the public to watch. The number of views, comments, and the measure of popularity, the number of likes, was indicated next to the video clips. Among all the videos, 'Starting Point' towered over the rest in all the numbers. In terms of view counts, other videos had numbers around the hundreds whereas Starting Point was climbing past 10 thousand views.

He had a look at the comments. People who were clearly Yoo Sooil's fans were adding to the comment count. It was the support of fans for their actor. From time to time, he saw comments that complimented his acting skills, but the pages those comments were on were soon pushed behind to the later pages. After reading about three pages of comments, he closed the window. There were no insults. That was enough.

He sent a Katalk to Sora saying that the video was put up on the internet. He got a reply back immediately. Apparently, she knew about it because she was notified beforehand but had completely forgotten about it because she had something else to do.

-How are people's reactions?

-They're all praising Sooil's acting.

-I knew it. Nothing about you, seonbae?

-One every now and then.

-Should I go and manipulate the comments a little, asking them to acknowledge our good actor Han Maru?

-I won't refuse if you do. If you're doing it for free that is.

-I'm not doing it for free. 20,000 won per hour.

Twenty thousand, then I want to do it – Maru thought as he was about to turn off his laptop when he recalled a URL. He went to his fan café, which he had saved to his favorites. The front page had a large screen capture of his figure in the drama 'Doctors'. Although there weren't many people active, those few people were actively maintaining the café.

He went to the free posts section and left behind the URL to the movie. These fans had maintained the café when he left for the military without even saying a word. Just like what Gaeul said about how he had to cherish his fans, he had to communicate with them, even if it was late. Though, his form of 'communication' was just notifying them of recent updates. Still, it was probably better than staying silent the whole time.

"Thank you for your encouragement. I will do my best to repay you through acting."

He read the title of his post out loud. He decided on that title after thinking about it for quite a while. He tried being cute and even tried using the latest internet jargon, but in the end, he went back to the plain one because he didn't have the courage to post such a thing. With his mouth, he had the confidence to say all sorts of embarrassing things, but conveying his emotions through text was difficult for him if he wasn't doing it to someone close.

After seeing that his post went up, he powered off his laptop. 'Fans' still seemed to be a far-fetched thing from him. If someone approached him, saying that they were a fan, the first thing that would come to his mind would be doubt, thinking that there was no way it was true. Though, it wasn't like he had a signature to sign autographs with, either.

Just as he got up and was about to get ready to clean, he saw Gaeul's autograph. He stared at the autograph that was inserted in a corner of a photo frame before bringing a piece of A4 paper from his room and a pen. He sat on the floor and wrote 'Han Maru' in cursive handwriting in the corner. He was so terrible at writing that he couldn't tell what he wrote. He couldn't exactly call squiggly worms an autograph, so he wrote slowly with effort this time. He wrote like an elementary schooler just learning to write.

He repeated writing his name a few times before feeling a gaze and lifted his head. When he did, he saw Woofie looking at him like he was pathetic. She looked like she was saying 'gimme food if you have time to do that.' Maru crumpled up the paper and threw it in the trash.

"I know I won't ever have to write an autograph. I just practiced just in case," he muttered in embarrassment.

Woofie dragged her food plate over before putting it down in front of him. Her eyes still said 'forget that, just give me food.' Maybe this girl had the soul of a human that had reincarnated into the wrong animal? – he had this thought from time to time. He poured some dog food before sending Gaeul a text message saying that Starting Point was on the internet and that she should watch it if she has the time.

While Woofie ate with her nose stuck on her plate, he cleaned the living room. He used a duster to wipe the dust on top of the photo frame before suddenly thinking that it perhaps wasn't a bad idea to write 'housewife' on his resume. After all, when it came to laundry, cleaning, and cooking, he was beyond the realm of doing them as a hobby as he could be considered a professional. He imagined taking Gaeul's coat from her after she came back from a long day of shoot before stopping. He thought that it might actually happen. While it wasn't that bad, he wanted to be the breadwinner who fed his wife and family.

-I watched the film. Your acting was good. Maybe you're going to become famous at this rate.

Gaeul sent that message around the time he was done cleaning the bathroom. It seemed that she had some time to watch it because it was lunchtime. He asked her what the shoot was like and got a crying emoji as a reply. He could picture her face grumbling about how hard it was because there were so many scenes that she had to rouse her emotions for.

-I'll make you good food when you come. Do your best.

-Then should I go today?

-Aren't you shooting late into the night today?

-I'll go there afterwards. These days, your place is the first place that comes to my mind when I think about 'home'.

-Then I guess we should call it our home now. Do you have anything you want to eat? Don't make it too difficult though.

-Something delicious but low in calories.

-Such a thing doesn't exist in this world.

-Then something spicy. I'd love a glass of soju or two.

-I'll cook some seafood stew, so do your best at work.

-Alright. I'll put in my best efforts and go home.

Maru immediately grabbed a grocery bag and left his house. He couldn't exactly cook seafood stew with an empty refrigerator. He barely managed to tear Woofie off of him, who tried to go with him, before leaving his house. From how he could hear her scratching the front door, it looked as though he had to take her on a walk after this. Otherwise, it was pretty obvious that she would bother his sleep throughout the whole night.

* * *

Her heart had already picked up a spoon and was sitting in front of a pot of seafood stew. Gaeul kept recalling that Maru told her to look forward to it as she picked up her script.

Her life usually involved going home to the dark house and eating a handful of nuts and a few pieces of fruit from the refrigerator. When she was eating cold food at the table, she sometimes even felt depressed and just went straight to bed. When work was hard, she even sometimes cried a little. She thought that she was a woman who could enjoy solitude, but the loneliness that had piled up within her was not something that she could enjoy. A house where she lived alone with the food that she ate by herself; there were times when being by herself in an empty house couldn't be more enjoyable, but more often than not, she missed the days she lived with her mom, who would reply to even the trivial things she said. She consoled herself by thinking that the loneliness would disappear one day, and that 'one day' came around sooner than she had expected.

By this point, when she thought about 'home,' the first thing that came to her mind was the apartment that had gray walls and monochrome furniture in Banpo-dong rather than the apartment in Seocho-dong that she had spent weeks designing the interior. The thick smell of mint, the tapping of Woofie's feet on the wooden floor, and the funny man who always greeted her with the pink apron she gifted to him as a prank. Unlike the apartment in Seocho-dong, where the only sound she could hear was the hum from the refrigerator, she had no time to feel lonely in that place. Ever since 'home' changed from a 'fixed residence' to a 'place she wanted to go', Gaeul wished to go home more than any time before.

"You look to be in a good condition," Giwoo said as he sat next to her.

"I am. I had a great night's sleep."

"I want to have a great night's sleep too. These days, I can't sleep for some weird reason."

"I heard that sweetened tea is good for apnea."

"Really? Maybe I should try it sometime."

Ever since she heard what kind of person Giwoo was from Maru, Gaeul had never taken her observing eyes off of him. The result she had gained over the past few days was that Giwoo was a gentleman after all. He was kind, gentle, and smiled a lot. Did he change? Or was he hiding it? Maru told her to see and judge for herself, but to her, she felt an underlying warning to never trust Kang Giwoo from his words. While she didn't like being doubtful of people, his past actions were so terrible that she couldn't help but watch. Injuring someone else was beyond the scope of 'prank' that she could understand.

"It's gonna get cold pretty soon," Giwoo said.

"I think autumn is getting shorter. Same with Spring."

"I was hoping it would be less cold this Winter. I mean, it was freezing last year."

"Yeah."

Giwoo, who was chatting with her, was called by the producer and thus stood up. Gaeul put her script to one side and looked at Giwoo, who was talking in the distance. Even the producer, who was known to be picky, would smile in front of Giwoo. Were Giwoo's actions that earned everyone's goodwill all just an act? If it was, then the man known as Kang Giwoo may as well be the character of a horror novel. There was nothing scarier than that after all.

"Senior, what brings you here?"

The producer, who was talking to Giwoo, said that as he looked at the entrance of the set. Gaeul looked behind her. The busily moving staff all froze up in an instance before making way for someone. Lee Miyoon was walking in the middle of them. Gaeul stood up and bowed slightly to Miyoon. Miyoon, who had a large earring on, gave her a glance as she walked past. They made eye contact. Gaeul did not avoid her eyes and did not blink until she went past.

"Your trashy attitude hasn't changed," Miyoon said in a small voice that only Gaeul could hear.

Gaeul's eyes twitched. She was practically picking up a fight. If it was before, she would have fallen for the cheap provocation, but she had seen this woman's face for five years now.

"Senior, your earrings are really pretty today."

"Really?"

"Probably."

Miyoon clicked her tongue loudly as she walked past. Gaeul opened her script before sitting down on the spot.

KTLChamber's Thoughts

Me_irl:

>He tried being cute and even tried using the latest lnternet jargon, but in the end, he came back to the plain one because he didn't have the courage to post such a thing.

…I think it's about time i stopped browsing reddit

Editor's note:

Time to join twitter :D

Chapter 837
Sequence 11

Mijoo frowned the moment she saw Lee Miyoon enter the shooting set. That cruel old woman always treated Gaeul-unni badly. She had never walked past unni nicely even once. In places where there are many people, she would just give her a glare and walk by, but in places without people, she would pick a fight with unni without holding back. What’s up with your eye makeup?; What’s up with your hairstyle?; What is up with your clothes? Nitpicking her appearance was on the better side. Sometimes, she even told her off for things that couldn’t be seen. The words that Mijoo thought were the most absurd were ‘your energy in treating your senior is bad.’ Just what the heck was that ‘energy’? Whenever she heard that old woman’s nitpicking that didn’t even make sense, she sympathized with unni.

For the past two years, she worked as unni’s stylist, she had never seen that old hag say nice words to her. The queen of the set, who did not mind other people’s eyes at all, always walked around with her head held high and scolded unni. The members of the staff who were close to unni sympathized with her, but they would not dare go against the queen and always stayed silent. Mijoo also stayed obedient because of the rumors she had heard, but once, anger got the better of her, and she tried to pick a fight with her without holding back. That was when unni stopped her. Do not ever try to fight her – unni was rather scary when she stared right into her eyes as she said such words. Back then, she felt a little frustrated as well. After all, she was trying to stand up for her, and yet she got scolded instead. Only later did she find out that Miyoon didn’t like her and that she would not be able to set foot in the industry again, much less come back to the TV station had she picked a fight that day. The rumor that she had snatched the name tag of a staff member and then handed it in to the front desk to fire that person was definitely not an exaggeration.

“That hag doesn’t even get old.”

“I’m sure she must manage her appearance a ton. According to the rumors, she spends hundreds of millions every year going to a dermatologist. She literally put billions on her face, so it’d be pitiful if she didn’t look at least like that.”

“Not only that, I’m sure she ate so many insults that she might live a long life.”

The staff gathered around and commented. It seemed that these members had already experienced something bad because of her. As the only roles she played were main character’s mothers, kind neighborhood ladies, and gentle high-class ladies, she was known to the audience as an actress with a good personality. Mijoo realized just how scary image-making could be by looking at Miyoon.

“Miss Gaeul has it tough. Miss Mijoo, please take care of her.”

“Looks like I’m going to have a drink with her tonight. But heck, in the first place, why is she visiting a shooting set for a drama that she doesn’t even appear in?”

“Because that woman’s hobby is to make rounds through TV sets. It seems like she likes it when everyone looks up to her.”

She talked with the floor director who had been working for three years before giving him hints and staying silent. Someone from the lighting team was walking over from the other side. Although the general opinion of Miyoon was incredibly bad, it wasn’t that there was no one on her side. In fact, there were quite a lot of people who stood up for her. The best example of that would be the lighting director. The two of them got along so well that Miyoon sometimes called him her partner. Miyoon would find out if they talked behind her back with that person around, so they had to be careful.

“The producer must have it hard too. He has to walk on a tightrope between those people.”

“Isn’t the director close with Lee Miyoon?”

“He’s just giving her the superior treatment because he has no other choice. Being a director, he can’t just outright hate people, can he? Especially if that person is Lee Miyoon. Don’t you know that story from before? A newly recruited assistant director came to the drama department and called Lee Miyoon without having a clue and had to end up apologizing that day. I don’t know if it’s true or not, but I heard that he apparently even kneeled.”

“He had to apologize just for calling?”

“Apparently, it was because that new recruit called her ‘Mrs. Lee Miyoon,’ and being her, she told him to say that again. Feeling something strange, the assistant director said ‘senior,’ and he got called immediately.”

“What’s so wrong with ‘senior?’”

“It’s because he didn’t call her ‘madam.’ She flipped the whole drama department over saying that an immature idiot doesn’t even know how to work properly.”

“Senior or madam, same thing.”

“She just didn’t like the fact that she was called directly without going through the manager. Of course, that’s a mistake too, but denouncing people’s character like that just because of that is going too far.”

“It’s going too far, way too far, in fact. I wonder what ghosts are doing, not possessing people like her.”

“I don’t think ghosts can do anything about that woman.”

Even the most resentful ghosts might run away in the face of Lee Miyoon’s evil glare. Miyoon, who was talking to the producer, suddenly waved. The one who received her call was Giwoo.

“Doesn’t that woman look after Giwoo-oppa a lot?”

“She always likes ones that do well.”

“But unni is doing well too.”

“That’s because Miss Gaeul doesn’t relent. That old hag likes people who are on her level but would still give her a good level of respect. She would never give a second glance to young actors, no matter how respectful they act. In fact, they would get slapped if they tried talking to her.”

“Giwoo-oppa must have it hard too, going along with that woman’s antics.”

“Giwoo is a kind guy, so Lee Miyoon won’t say anything to him. She doesn’t touch good-looking men anyway.”

Miyoon suddenly burst out laughing as though she heard something funny before pinching Giwoo on the cheeks. Giwoo acted gently like a grandson in front of his grandmother. After letting Miyoon massage his cheeks for a long time, he barely managed to escape. Mijoo subconsciously sighed. Pitiful Giwoo-oppa.

“Does she even want to do that at her age? I mean, she’s going to be sixty in a couple years.”

She felt bad when she thought about Giwoo, who was smiling on the outside but would definitely not be feeling the same on the inside. How could two humans be so different? One side made everyone nervous and anxious just by appearing, while the other made people smile just by being there. It was a good thing that the two people neutralized each other. If the queen was here by herself, she would be walking on thin ice right now.

She was glaring at that hateful face when someone tapped on her shoulder. She thought that it was the floor director who was behind her and turned her head around, which almost made her scream. A woman wearing a stiff black leather jacket had a thin smile on while looking at her. She was Lee Miyoon’s stylist.

“You seem to have a lot of dissatisfaction towards the madam, huh?”

She saw the floor director hurriedly waving his arms in the air in unease behind the stylist. He was explaining the reason why he wasn’t able to tell her about this woman’s appearance beforehand. It seemed to be some grand reason but that wasn’t the important thing. The important thing was that the floor director wasn’t caught, while she was. She suddenly lost strength in her lower stomach. She had heard that the queen’s stylist hadn’t changed for the past fifteen years. The fact that she lasted 15 years under a woman who treated other people like dogs because of her whimsical needs must mean one of two things: her patience on the level of Buddha or Jesus, or she was the same kind as the queen. While she had never heard about the queen’s stylist, Mijoo intuitively thought that it was the latter. The way she looked down on other people and the smile that looked like she was having damn fun was way too similar to Lee Miyoon’s.

“Me?”

And thus began the thorough self-defense. It was obvious what would happen if she admitted to it. She had to play dumb and erase what she said with her mouth.

“Why are you suddenly pretending not to know? I heard everything. I wonder how absorbed you were in back-talking her that you didn’t even realize that someone was watching you from behind.”

The words that came out from those reddened lips felt like blades. Her skin felt prickled as though she had been cut.

“What did you hear?”

“This and that about the madam. You’re going too far, holding a person in so much contempt. Our madam is such a kind person.”

“I didn’t say anything.”

“Then are my ears weird? Should I get them checked out? I definitely heard it, but you said you didn’t say it.”

Her lips became dry. It seemed that this woman was out to kill. Mijoo actually felt frustrated as well. She only said the truth, but she was being nitpicked. That said, she couldn’t exactly tell this woman to go back to Lee Miyoon and tell her what she just heard. The size of her fear eclipsed her courage to fight back.

“You’re quite rude. Someone’s talking to you, but you’re just staring as though it’s none of your business. You’re making me the weird person.”

“Uhm, that’s not it.”

The queen’s stylist raised her hand to interrupt her. Those curved lips of hers signalled that she had enough of playing around.

“I should tell the madam myself.”

“What?”

“I may have heard wrong, but I heard it after all. The madam will make the judgment. Now that I think about it, you are Miss Han Gaeul’s stylist, aren’t you? How peculiar. The stylist of the rude actress that keeps talking bad about the gentle madam is talking bad about the madam too. It’s a little too weird to be a coincidence, don’t you think? I guess this is what you call ‘like actress, like stylist ’, right? I don’t really like saying this, but you’re quite ignorant.”

Mijoo abruptly raised her head while listening. She could tolerate everything else but not her looking down on unni.

“Excuse me, why are you talking like that? Fine, I was in the bad, but how is our unni involved in any of this?”

“Why are you getting angry all of a sudden? Did I say anything wrong?”

“Just because there’s a hole for your mouth doesn’t mean you can say anything you want.”

“A hole?”

“What else? Then is it blocked off? I can see that it’s wide open. Heck, I can even see some gold teeth in there. Those are hard to come by these days.”

The queen’s stylist, who had her mouth agape because of the absurdity she felt, twitched her nose and closed her mouth. Mijoo felt good for having one-upped her but became depressed again after realizing that the situation hadn’t improved at all. But still, she was not going to act like a defeated dog and lie down with her limbs in the air. Considering all the things she received from unni during the past two years, she would rather take the blame on herself. She did not want to sell unni off in order to escape this dilemma.

“They say you can get a glimpse of what the person is like by looking at the people working under them, and indeed, the stylist is such a snob.”

“Oh, so you work ‘under’ her? What times do you think we live in? My unni treats me like her equal.”

The stylist was at a loss for words again. The leisurely expression on her face had disappeared as well. She felt like a wall had appeared in front of her eyes. She was worried about the consequences, but she felt refreshed right now. It would be great if that woman grabbed her hair first. If it was a dog fight, she had confidence not to lose. She even sent a signal to fight, but the stylist took two steps back as though she had no intention to. It seemed that she was confident in letting her mouth do the fighting since she had the queen as the backer, but was afraid of actually clashing. Mijoo was drenched in a sense of victory when,

“I shall go speak to the madam.”

The stylist pulled out her sword. Mijoo lost her strength in her abdomen again. In the end, this was how it was going to be. Once Miyoon came around and said a word, she would not be able to speak a word back. The word ‘fired’ floated around in her head. It was a word that was very likely to become real. Now that she was actually driven into a corner, her pride and whatever didn’t matter anymore. She wanted to grab her and apologize to her but that woman walked away without even looking back. Mijoo clasped her hands. Her hands were drenched with sweat. Winning a battle gave her a short moment of joy, but winning the war was impossible. There was no one who could stop the queen once she came around.

“Noona.”

There was a person who blocked the stylist from going back to the queen. It was Kang Giwoo. For a brief moment, he really seemed like a prince on a white horse.

“Oh, Giwoo.”

“You should’ve come to see me if you were here.”

“I was just going back.”

“Really? Then let’s talk outside. The weather’s good. I had to go buy coffee anyway, for the madam.”

When Giwoo dragged her by the arm, the stylist’s ice-cold face soon turned warm. The stylist laughed while covering her mouth and walked outside first.

“I’ll handle this. Don’t worry.”

Giwoo said those words as he walked past Mijoo. Mijoo felt as though the world that suddenly turned upside down again was put back in the right position. The sharp pain in her lower stomach had waned as well. She couldn’t find Giwoo, who was waving his hand as he left, more reliable.

“That’s a relief. I thought something was going to happen.”

The floor director came around. Mijoo replied back with ‘you’re right’ before glaring at him.

“You should’ve told me if she was here.”

“Sorry. I was away for a bit because of a walkie-talkie message, and she came at that time.”

“You are such a meanie.”

“I’ll buy you something good next time. Let me go for today.”

Mijoo glared at him once more before looking at the entrance, hoping that nothing bad would happen.

KTLChamber's Thoughts

Gee. I know Giwoo is a scheming piece o' shit, but what now?

Editor's Note:

Welp. I wonder what Miyoon is here for.

Chapter 838
Sequence 11

If there was lint on clothes, it was natural to use scissors to cut them off or burn them with a lighter so that it wasn’t vexing to the eyes. People were the same. If people like lint were lingering around, they had to be dealt with. With lint, it would disappear over time through wind or other things, but people, on the other hand, would take root on the spot like they were fungi.

Miyoon always cleaned up lint at a suitable time through suitable methods. Sometimes, they resisted vigorously, but they were all dealt with in the end. The only one that wasn’t swept away and hadn’t disappeared of her own accord was Han Gaeul. Whether she was using that pretty face of hers to act cocky, or she had something to rely on, she did not know, but whenever she met her, she would look back at her with bold eyes. They were eyes filled with fighting spirit. Some of the lint sometimes glared back at her with their eyes, but they would always lower their eyes and act cute once she dealt with them. However, that girl held on. It was rather fun when she bared her teeth and growled back at her, but she was no ape and seemed to have learned how to fight as she did it more discreetly, which vexed her a lot.

“Director, wait a bit. I’ll go talk to actress Han.”

The producer made way, saying okay. She liked the producer because of his attitude. He wasn’t blindly faithful nor did he rudely go against her. She stood in front of Gaeul, who had her eyes glued to the script. She still wasn’t raising her head. Miyoon looked down at her without saying anything on purpose. She could see a shadow looming over the script, but the girl did not budge. She even looked forward to how long she was going to ignore her. Being rude could be a marvel after a certain point, and this girl was just like that. She held her hands behind her back in front of Gaeul, who was flipping over the pages quietly. She could feel the eyes of the actors and the staff in the distance. The little girl in front of her eyes was calm, but the onlookers were all anxious.

“Senior, why are you standing like that?”

The girl only pretended to say hello after reading all the way till the end. Miyoon put on a gentle smile.

“How absorbed were you that it was to the point that you didn’t notice a person right in front of you?”

“I tend to not be aware of my surroundings when I’m focusing on something, especially when I’m reading my script. I would probably not notice even if someone kidnapped me.”

“Maybe I should try kidnapping you once to see if you notice or not.”

“It’s just a figure of speech. I would actually notice if someone carried me away. But why were you watching me? Usually, you just look at me like you would a bug and walk by after leaving behind childish words.”

“I was wondering what you were so focused on. And it turned out to be a script huh? How curious. You’re so terrible at acting, but you hold onto your script for half a day. I think that’s too much of a waste of time.”

“I’m not good at acting, so I should try to look at the script hard. Since you mentioned that, I think I should read my script again. You don’t seem to have anything to say to me either.”

Those rude eyes turned to the script again. Miyoon looked at Gaeul’s head and recalled the car keys in her pocket. Perhaps this girl would become a little more obedient if she drove the key right in the center of that swirling hair and twisted it around. It would be quite fun to see her stand up like a machine and greet her politely. She clasped her hands and tapped on the back of her hands. If she wished to, she could destroy her right now. After all, there was no one flawless in this world. If there wasn’t a flaw, then she could just make one. The reason she left her alone until now was that she was curious about how long her kindling fighting spirit would last.

There was someone who stubbornly resisted going down among people who would crouch at the slightest hint. She was a rather peculiar doll of sorts. Not one that would respond statically when pressed but a broken one that knew how to glare and how to kindle her fighting spirit. Honestly, it was rather fun playing with her. The satisfaction would just be that much greater when subduing a girl that resisted her.

However, seeing the girl ignoring her up front, she couldn’t hold back her impulse to destroy her. She wanted to tell her that it was a big mistake if she thought that she could act so boldly because she was a popular actress. It was extremely easy to bury an actress with a scandal, especially if that actress is young.

“My, my, Gaeul. You’ve dulled. You know that you can’t treat me like that. You were doing well until a while ago, weren’t you? Picking a fight while taking hints. But today, you’re too reckless. Your eyes are so clear that they’re cocky. I liked those frozen fish eyes from before. Don’t you remember? I’m talking about three years ago. The girl who would bare her fangs at me suddenly became docile all of a sudden. She was really quite a spectacle because her eyes looked so sunken after crying or something. After that, you always had those eyes, but you’re very lively today. Did something good happen? A man perhaps? Well, it’s about time I guess.”

Hearing the word ‘man,’ Gaeul’s eyes twitched. The fire of fighting spirit in her eyes started burning. She was just probing her out without thinking, but it seemed that she was right on point. A man, huh. Gaeul soon calmed down and smiled at her, but Miyoon had already seen what she was thinking on the inside, so it didn’t matter.

“That’s right, you should at least score well when it comes to marriage. Your face is pretty decent after all. So, which one is it? Business people? Or maybe you got lucky and scored yourself a chaebol? I’m sure there are many people giving you their numbers in order to try meeting you. Is it perhaps someone I know?”

“Perhaps you know him too, senior.”

She thought that Gaeul would retort, saying that she knew nothing, but she instead just admitted it outright. Miyoon squinted her left eye. Was this girl playing a prank right now? Or did she give up and just tell her the truth? After much thinking, Miyoon came to the conclusion that the girl did not have a man. It was quite fishy since she fell for the provocation so easily. It was quite laughable for the girl who wouldn’t bat an eyelid at most stuff to jump at the mention of a man. It was probably an act that she was panicking. Her skills were improving, what a bitch.

“You should meet someone good too.”

“I’m hopeless for marriage now. It’s more fun living by myself.”

“That’s good.”

“Why is it good?”

“Because you’re having fun. Or did you perhaps interpret it in another way?”

“No, I was just asking. There’s no way you’d say that you’d be pitying the man who would live with me.”

“Of course. There’s no way living with the person you love is unfortunate.”

Miyoon laughed and pinched Gaeul’s cheeks. Gaeul laughed back at her while facing her. She raised her fingernails upright and pinched to the point that it would remain marks before letting go. There was a dent under her cheekbones. She wanted to make another one but decided to hold back since she couldn’t destroy her now.

“Oh, I think you should get your makeup redone.”

“I will.”

“And do your best when acting. Giwoo is doing his best to raise the viewing rate, so I would be saddened if you poured cold water over it. Okay?”

“Oh, I see you haven’t seen people’s comments about me. Try going on the internet. I’m known to be quite good at acting. If you can’t use a smartphone, I’d love to teach you how to.”

“I’m a new generation, so I know that much.”

“New generation? I guess that’s still good. You didn’t call yourself a Gen X.”

“How cute, geez. I wonder who looked after you as you’re so cocky.”

“Well, a lot of it’s thanks to you.”

Miyoon tapped Gaeul on the cheeks before turning around. She wondered what got wind of that docile girl so that the girl was acting so precocious. But still, it was quite fun to see her having raised her claws after such a long time. She imagined how that sharp voice would change when she was being suppressed. She wished for her to not beg while crying. It would be more like Han Gaeul to get crumpled into oblivion. She would be very disappointed if the girl suddenly turned subservient and apologized. That wasn’t the kind of thing she expected after toying with her until now.

“Gaeul, a person should be more like bamboo than a reed, right?”

She did not wait for an answer.

* * *

Gaeul brushed up her hair while looking at Miyoon leaving. Just as she said, she overreacted. She should have just exchanged a couple words and looked away like she normally did, but she ended up reacting sensitively because she mentioned a man as though she saw right through her. The old deceitful fox’s eyes were scary after all. When she touched her cheek, she felt that her skin had thankfully returned again.

“Gaeul, are you okay?” The producer had asked her cautiously after approaching her.

Gaeul nodded instead of replying. The producer was someone who reacted sensitively to his surroundings like a poikilotherm. He would enter a state of hibernation around Miyoon, who brought winter with her, and would look out for people if the weather warmed up again. Some people insulted him for being duplicit or being an opportunist, but Gaeul thought that it was just a way of survival for him. She was thankful that he didn’t talk bad about that woman with her.

“I’m sorry. I should have distracted her away from you.”

“It’s fine. This is not the first time it happened.”

“I’ll definitely help you out next time.”

She heard the same thing last time. Gaeul placed her script on her chair and stood up. The shooting set that had been paralyzed by the appearance of Miyoon started moving again. The shoot would probably resume soon. She looked around looking for Mijoo. She could swear she saw her standing by the entrance until just now. Did she go back to the car?

As she looked around the set, she caught sight of Mijoo. She was just coming inside. From how there was coffee in her hands, it seemed that she had been to the café inside the TV station.

“Unni, here.”

“I just wanted something to drink. Thanks.”

“I’m not the one buying. Giwoo-oppa did. Yours as well as one for all the staff.”

“Really?”

She saw Giwoo enter the set with a straw in his mouth. There was coffee in both of his hands.

“Unni, just now, I…”

Mijoo, who was speaking while in a fluster, suddenly became quiet. She also twisted her body. It was her habit when she was about to say something that she might get scolded for. Gaeul smiled and asked,

“What is it this time? Did you forget my outfit just like last time?”

“I never did that.”

“Then what? You did something wrong from how you’re twisting up your body like that. Is it serious?”

“No. It’s been solved already.”

“That’s good then.”

Mijoo switched topics as though she also deemed that she no longer needed to mention it.

“What did that old woman Lee Miyoon say to you?”

“Just the usual. But today, I was in the wrong too. I should have held back, but she irked me.”

“You did nothing wrong. Considering what she did to you, you’d be considered innocent even if you slap her.”

“Hey, a slap is still going too far.”

“It’s not going too far. You’re too kind for your own good. A woman like that must have her ass whooped. I would have picked a fight with her on the spot if I had a backer.”

Gaeul snatched Mijoo’s hand, which was clenched into a fist.

“Don’t you dare do that. I told you last time that she would definitely do the deed if she thinks that there would be no consequences. She is especially merciless against staff, so just don’t get yourself involved with her. If you just greet her well, there will be no problems.”

Mijoo smiled awkwardly before turning her eyes away like a child who was caught playing with fire in the night. Just as Gaeul was about to talk to her again, the producer called her saying that they were about to begin the rehearsal.

“Unni, I’ll go back to the car for a bit.”

She was suspicious of Mijoo for going back to the car but decided not to pry. She also said that the matter had already been dealt with. She wasn’t the type to lie, so there shouldn’t be anything to worry about.

“Okay then, let’s do our best today too,” the producer said.

KTLChamber's Thoughts

I suggest you hold off reading the

Chapter 839
Sequence 11

“Are these the ones?”

She checked the list of clothes and got out of the car. A clothing designer who was close to Gaeul-unni opened a new shop and sponsored some clothes. That person said that she would not sponsor anyone with her products, but she ended up sponsoring Gaeul-unni. She arrived back at the set with the clothes. Unni was standing in front of the counter wearing a white doctor’s gown. The neck exposed above the collars was elegant, the line of the clothes draping down her shoulders looked noble, and finally, she even had a touch of cuteness thanks to the slipper with a rabbit on it. Although her clothes were cheap ones that could be bought for 20,000 won at the local market, as Han Gaeul was the one wearing them, they didn’t look cheap at all. She may as well be having a photo shoot right now. Geez, who was the one who styled her? Such a good sense of clothing.

“Unni, your figure is so good.”

“When have I ever not been good?”

“You should try being humble if you get flattered like that. Is this how you’re gonna act since you have a boyfriend?”

“I’m cute even without being humble you know? Also, that has nothing to do with having a boyfriend.”

Unni smiled and checked the clothes that she brought.

“This one looks better, right?”

“I think so too. If you think about the season, the left one is better after all. Alright then, I’ll get this ready.”

“Please. Also, I’ll call the owner and visit myself, so don’t send back the clothes first.”

“You’re going yourself?”

“She looked out for me, so I should at least visit and say hello. I wasn’t able to go when the store opened.”

“Then should I buy something as a gift with Chanwoo-oppa?”

“Can you?”

“I wonder what will be good though. I don’t know her preferences. Should I just go with a small vase?”

“She hates cumbersome things. Also, I’m sure that she has a really clean interior, so I’m pretty sure there’s nowhere to place a vase. She likes drinking and eating, so I think I should buy some dry snacks that can be eaten with wine. You know about the jerky that they sell in the department store nearby, right?”

“I do. Alright, I’ll go with Chanwoo-oppa then. I’ll send you a photo before we buy it, so have a look at it to see if you like it or not.”

“Chanwoo is good at things like that, so ask Chanwoo. Buy two bottles of wine and four boxes of jerky.”

Mijoo nodded before turning around. She had to be quick before the shoot began. She picked up Chanwoo, who was talking to the managers of other actors on the set, before heading to the department store. She gift-packaged some jerky that she would never buy with her own salary and bought some wine with an employee’s recommendation. She kept thinking this while looking at the jerky packaged in a luxurious-looking container: How could dried meat be so expensive? Though, it was still cheaper than the red liquid next to it. She returned to the set with Chanwoo while eating the jerky they gave out as a sample. The fragrance filled her mouth as though it was trying to tell her that there was a reason for the cost.

“Unni, this is really good.”

She showed the jerky and the wine to unni. Unni took out a box of jerky from the shopping bag before waving it in front of her as though she should take it.

“I can eat it?”

“I told you two to buy more so that you two can have it. Take one to Chanwoo as well.”

“You’re such a good girl, unni. I’ll put the rest inside the car.”

When she brought it to Chanwoo, he liked it and said that he got some good snacks to drink over some soju. She put the luggage inside the car and was about to come out when the jerky caught her eyes. She wondered if she should eat just a little right now before opening the package. She put some pieces in her hand and returned to the set.

“What are you eating?”

Giwoo, who was holding a bottle of water, stopped as he walked by. Mijoo quickly picked up a piece of jerky and offered it to Giwoo.

“Mr. Giwoo, I bought this as a gift, and it’s really good.”

Giwoo blinked a little before telling her to raise her hand a little more. When she raised the hand holding the jerky, Giwoo put his mouth forward. Mijoo looked around before putting the jerky in his mouth. She never imagined that she would feed him like this. She felt embarrassed and yet happy.

“It’s good.”

“Right? Expensive things definitely are expensive.”

“But Miss Mijoo.”

“Yes?”

“I wasn’t intentionally trying to hear it, but you seem to call me Giwoo-oppa in front of other people.”

“Uh, the thing is…”

Mijoo smiled awkwardly. Although she got to see Giwoo almost every day ever since they started shooting Doctor’s Office, she had never talked to him in private. At most, she just greeted him as a sidekick of Gaeul-unni when they talked to each other. Although there was a time when they put their arms around each other’s shoulders during a get-together, that couldn’t exactly be called a conversation.

“I subconsciously did that because I wanted to stay close to you… If you don’t like it, I will never do that again.”

As actors had to meet many people, of which some would be some weird people, there were many who were wary of getting to know others. Such actors despised people who pretended to be close to them. Although she knew about it, Giwoo was such a kind man that she subconsciously called him ‘oppa’ in front of other people, and it seemed to be a mistake after all. Just as she was waiting while being prepared to hear something bitter,

“No, no, that’s not it at all. If I disliked you, I wouldn’t have helped you at all. In fact, I was just thinking that it’s a pity that we haven’t talked to each other even though it’s been quite a while since we got to know each other. Do you remember the get-together last time? We really enjoyed ourselves back then.”

“I do. You really brought up the mood back then, Mr. Giwoo.”

“That’s thanks to your responses, Miss Mijoo. About that, I’d like to stop calling you ‘miss’ and call you comfortably. Is that okay with you?”

Before she could even think about answering, her head was nodding by itself. How many people would refuse an offer from Kang Giwoo? Mijoo spoke after being inwardly relieved,

“Then I’ll call you Giwo-oppa from now.”

“And I’ll call you Mijoo.”

“I really do click with you.”

“Me too. I should have done this a long time ago. I was originally going to call you and Mr. Chanwoo back when I tried to eat with Gaeul. We would’ve become close a lot earlier if we met back then. But Gaeul seemed to be busy, so our appointment kept getting delayed.”

“Unni was a little busy for a while. The drama was one thing, but she also got a sudden flood of photo shoots and adverts.”

“Popular actresses never get to rest huh.”

“But that goes for you too.”

He looked so much more handsome from up close. Mijoo stared at Giwoo’s face for a while before recalling what just happened.

“Uhm, Oppa, thanks for covering me earlier. I should have thanked you properly but the shoot began.”

“That was nothing. Like I said before, things went well so that noona will probably not nitpick with you. She might be a little stiff, but she’s not that bad, so be a little understanding.”

It was because he was Kang Giwoo, that the frosty woman obediently took a step back. If it was anyone else, that person would have become a sacrificial lamb for Miyoon alongside her. Mijoo wasn’t stupid enough to tell the bad things about that stylist and Miyoon to Giwoo, who was smiling gently, so she just stayed quiet. Miyoon and her stylist were probably very kind people to Giwoo. Just like how unni who would act like an amazoness was endlessly kind to her.

“Since we’re talking about it, why don’t we have some stew after the shoot tonight? With you, Gaeul and Mr. Chanwoo.”

“I’d love to go. I really do, but Gaeul-unni has a prior appointment.”

“Does she have work right after the shoot?”

“It’s not work. She says a designer she knows opened a shop, so she’s making a visit.”

“Is it Lacquemant by any chance?”

“Yes, do you know about it too?”

“I just went there two days ago.”

“I see.”

“If you’re just visiting to say hello, it won’t take that long.”

“That’s true, but she has a personal appointment after that. I don’t think she can make it today. She said she’s going to drink with Maru-oppa.”

While ruminating about the schedule, she ended up talking about private matters as well. It was probably due to the fact that she lost her tension. She suddenly felt complex. Should she explain who Maru is? Or just play dumb and make excuses? She thought that telling Giwoo of all people a secret shouldn’t be a problem. As though to tell her that there was no need for her to think about such things, Giwoo spoke first,

“Maru? Do you mean Han Maru?”

“You know him too, oppa?”

“I do. We even worked together once. Just a while ago, the three of us, including Gaeul, had a drink together too. I’m a long-time friend of his.”

Her dizzy head suddenly became refreshed in an instant. If he knew him, and if they were long-time friends, there was no need to hide anything.

“So you three already knew each other. And here, I was thinking about how to explain it. Unni decided to meet Maru-oppa in the evening. So she won’t have the time.”

“I guess I can’t help it if she has a prior engagement. But that’s a little disappointing; they’re just drinking by themselves.”

Mijoo faintly smiled and spoke,

“What can we do? The couple wants to drink together. Even if you’re friends, you shouldn’t join an occasion like that.”

It wasn’t that long ago that she met Maru. Unni introduced him to her saying that there was someone who wanted to thank her. She was startled out of her wits when she heard that they were dating. She grabbed unni’s sleeves and asked if it was really true multiple times. She heard about a lot of things while drinking that day. It was also the day she got to know just how much faith unni placed in her. Unni, who was smiling while quietly looking at Maru, looked happier than anyone else in the world.

“Yeah, the couple wants to be together, so joining them is a terrible idea,” Giwoo said with a strangely joyful expression on his face.

Did something funny come to his mind? He even coughed awkwardly while covering his mouth before waving his hand in the air.

“Alright, then let’s leave the drinking to next time.”

“I’ll look forward to it. You’re treating us to something expensive, right?”

“Of course, I heard something interesting, so I can buy you anything.”

“Something interesting?”

Giwoo smiled once again. Something felt off, but seeing Giwoo smiling brightly like that made her pleased.

“Mijoo, can I ask you one thing?”

“What is it?”

“The conversation we had now, just keep it a secret from Gaeul. I don’t really care, but Gaeul might be sad if she finds out that you blurted out something private. No matter how close you are, you should keep what you should to yourself, right? I won’t tell Gaeul anything either.”

Giwoo turned around, saying ‘see you later.’ A kind-hearted man thought in a different way. He even solved what she was inwardly worried about.

“Oppa, I like sashimi.”

“Alright.”

Giwoo raised his thumb as though she could look forward to it.

KTLChamber's Thoughts

Told you.

Now Mijoo, I'll forgive you this once because you saved Gaeul once. No second chances though!

Also, Giwoo introducing himself as Maru's friend was a build-up for this, huh. Way to go, author. You got me there.

Editor's Note:

I wanted to say this a few chaps ago, but I held back. I really really don't like Mijoo. She's a naive loose cannon. Now because of her, Miyoon is gonna get some more info to ruin Gaeul with :/ Well, on the bright side, Giwoo having more info will make his fight with Maru way more entertaining.

Chapter 840
Sequence 11

They had a break just before the kiss scene. Gaeul put down her script and looked at Giwoo, who was talking to the camera director. She had been observing him for the past few days, but she wasn’t able to find anything suspicious about him. He was still as kind as ever when looking out for the staff and as serious as ever when he was acting. He should catch her eyes if he was scheming something, but he was clean all around. Maru said that he would never be able to become friends with him. Even though he said that there was a possibility that Giwo had changed for the better, he also said that his relationship with Giwoo would never change. From that, there seemed to be a reason. What could it be? Did Maru find a flaw in Giwoo that couldn’t be seen on the surface?

“I’m so nervous right now. You see me sweating?”

Kang Giwoo acted nervously in front of the producer. He also put on a smile like a young boy. Although she had come across many actors on sets, she had not come across a man who gave off such an innocent image. If it was before, she would have smiled while looking at Giwoo being nervous like a child, but perhaps thanks to her bias, she now observed his smile and actions very closely. Was it from the bottom of his heart? Or was he just putting on a show after calculating everything? She also considered the possibility that Giwoo had changed for the better, but for now, she placed more weight on the fact that he might have grown up to be the evil prankster that he was. The rumors about him as well as the things she heard all pointed to the fact that Giwoo was innocent, but her suspicion did not die down. This just went to show that she trusted Maru’s words that much. If time passed and her suspicions were completely resolved, she would explain the circumstances and apologize, but until then, she was planning on being wary of him.

“Don’t you two need a rehearsal?” the producer asked Gaeul.

Gaeul placed her hand on Giwoo’s shoulder and winked.

“Director, we don’t need things like that. We’ll finish the kiss scene in one go, so don’t you make a mistake.”

“If that’s the case, I’m good. Alright then. Let’s get started.”

Gaeul sat on the chair in the lounge in the hospital. This was the scene where she found out that the medical accident of the unni she knew in the story was actually a setup and she was having a hard time emotionally. It was then that Giwoo approaches her, hugs her, and proceeds to kiss her. It was a stereotypical romantic plot. As this scene also showed the reliance the man and the woman had for each other after having just been caught up in the dark political struggles of the hospital, the director emphasized its importance several times.

“We need to do this in one go, right?” Giwoo said, next to her.

“We do. Don’t you get embarrassed and just come straight at me. I’ll accept everything.”

“Alright, Miss Han Gaeul. You’re very reliable.”

The producer approached them after Giwoo tapped on her shoulders. The producer explained the movements they should take as well as the background behind their act. As one side was supposed to be crying, while the other was supposed to be agitated, the kiss scene had to be a dynamic one, so they had rehearsed several times beforehand.

“As you know, the heart-racing excitement of the first kiss is the best. If you keep repeating it, your emotions will dry up. The earnestness, the abstractness, the sweetness, and the excitement of the first kiss - let’s try getting all of that in one go. Also, Giwoo, you turn to the left, while Gaeul, you turn to the right. That will make the scene look the prettiest. We’ll make it as short as possible so that both of you don’t get emotionally exhausted, so let’s do this in one go.”

The producer stepped back. The camera was installed and the lights started emitting light. After giving a glance at the boom mic above her head, she exercised her lips and mouth by going ‘vrrrr’ with her lips. Just as the director said, she wanted to finish this in one go. Although she was an actress and this was supposed to be an act, it was still a kiss. When she had her first kiss scene, she grabbed a senior actress and asked if she didn’t have any personal feelings at all. That senior actress said that she was truly in love with the person in front of her at that very moment. That actress was married too.

Gaeul calmed down and got her emotions together. This wasn’t the right time to think about what kind of person Kang Giwoo was. It was time to fulfill her role in the drama and share love. She put the background in her eyes before dissolving herself into her character. The pain given to her by the truth poked at her heart. Her chest hurt, and she was in desperate need of someone who could caress that pain. She breathed slowly and grabbed onto that rope of emotions. Gaeul had completely become the character in the drama.

When she dug deeper and deeper into the character in the drama until she could no longer differentiate between her own emotions and the character’s emotions, she heard the cue sign. The lines in her head had seeped through her entire body instead of just being lines that were going to be uttered from her mouth. She said her lines as though she was looking back on something she had experienced.

She stood up from her seat and denied the reality that unni had died in vain. Her eyes became hot. Her throat tightened up, and it became hard for her to breathe. Giwoo, who came in after opening the door, grabbed her arm and told her to calm down. However, being told to calm down was too cruel of a measure when she just found out the truth. Her chest hurt. Her heart felt like it was being ripped to pieces. Her legs were shaking and it was hard for her to stay standing. She needed somewhere to lean on; she needed a refuge that would allow her to forget about this stifling reality temporarily. She leaned on the cabinet and curled up. Her body, which felt like a lump of fire, cooled down immediately. The reality that she could not handle shook her entire body.

Giwoo hugged her abruptly. Gaeul struggled in his arms before spitting out a trembling breath under his warmth and hugging him back. The wave of sadness spread throughout the body that she came into contact with. When the agitation that wreaked havoc inside her body became calm, she lost strength in her body. She left her entire body weight to Giwoo, who she was leaning against. At the same time, Giwoo’s face became closer. Their lips met and their breaths connected. She could see Giwoo’s semi-closed eyes. His pupils, which were centered, sneakily moved towards the left. He was avoiding her gaze.

The little bit of her consciousness that she had left behind clicked its tongue. She herself was putting everything into this character. She could not tolerate him moving his eyes away. No matter how embarrassed he was, no matter how much he didn’t like this, he had to put everything aside and put everything he had into this moment. She moved the hand she placed on his waist to his neck. At the same time, she pushed her lips even closer forward. Her entire body felt hot. It was a fire created by the woman who loved Giwoo as well as the actress who wanted to finish this in one shot. She could see Giwoo’s pupils being colored in panic. Gaeul sent her love and rebuke through her eyes – do it properly if you’re an actor.

Giwoo took half a step forward as though he had come to himself. Gaeul was satisfied with that. After all, if they were going to act out the lingering energy of a kiss, the emotional distance between them was supposed to shrink. After finishing that dynamic kiss, she slowly pulled her head back. Giwoo, who pulled back, moved his head forward again as though he was possessed. He seemed to have forgotten about the camera.

Gaeul naturally lowered her head so that Giwoo’s lips touched her forehead. The moment the long kiss ended, she took a step outside of the character. If she was still swept in her emotions, she would have put her lips against his as well. She put her forehead against Giwoo’s lips as though it was the first kiss before looking at Giwoo’s eyes. She could feel disappointment in his gaze. It seemed that he had been absorbed in his character as well.

Gaeul slowly took a step back before covering her lips with the back of her hand. She was surprised by the unexpected kiss, but at the same time, she made a relieved expression. As the peak of emotions of acting was past her, she was returning to Han Gaeul again. She had to finish the act before she completely left the character and it started looking disconcerted. She grabbed the lounge door and left. Although she had only gone past one wall, her heartbeat had returned to normal. The emotions that consumed her entire body soon disappeared like rainwater being drained. One of Gaeul’s sources of pride was that she had never met difficulties when tuning her emotions. Sometimes, she even thought that she had a problem with herself because she was too good at cleaning up her emotions. She could control her emotions freely as though she had been doing this job for a very long time.

She walked around the wall and looked at Giwoo, who was still in the lounge. The producer was waving his hand over his head. That was even bigger praise than ‘well done.’ Giwoo walked around the lounge aimlessly before sitting on the table. He was expressing his regret for his impulsive action and the lingering emotions without looking too flustered. No wonder people went crazy over Kang Giwoo. His acting was better than his appearance.

“Alright, we’re done!”

The director clapped twice before standing up. The staff, who had been holding their breaths until now, also became relaxed. Gaeul brushed up her hair before approaching Giwoo.

“Good work.”

“Uh, yeah.”

He seemed dazed. Gaeul was about to ask what was up with him but decided not to. It was probably because of the emotions he wasn’t able to wrap up properly.

“It was very good. Both of you come here. I don’t think you’ll want to do that again.”

Gaeul tapped Giwoo’s shoulder. Giwoo, who was in a daze, nodded and started walking.

* * *

Giwoo looked in the mirror. An idiot with his eyes half-open was looking back right at him. Only after wiping his eyes with cold water did the idiot disappear. He had done kiss scenes several times. If it was just a kiss without the scene, an uncountably many times. The only kiss he placed meaning in was the first kiss that he got from a noona he met at a family meeting when he was young. Starting from the next one, kissing was just like an ordinary procedure just before going to bed with someone. To get heated up by just rubbing his lips against someone else’s was ridiculous as he had experienced too many things. In one way, kisses were a light form of skin contact, perhaps even lighter than a handshake.

Giwoo recalled Gaeul in his arms. Up until the moment he hugged her, he was thinking about something else completely different. He was thinking about how to use the information he got from Mijoo to bully Han Maru. However, the moment he saw her eyes as her lips touched his, his head turned blank. She was bold and relentless. It was a completely different feeling from the other actresses that he had done kiss scenes with. The eyes that looked straight at him and that gaze that rebuked him to focus properly were charming. He was swayed by her, who was acting like she was in love with her entire body. Although he didn’t have the lead, he didn’t feel that bad. In fact, he felt so disappointed when their lips fell apart that he did something that wasn’t even in the script. He still had the lingering feelings of the moment they touched their lips together.

I want to keep hugging her – that impulse swept his entire body. Even though he knew that it was just an act, his heart was moved. Giwoo shook off the water from his hands. He regained his calm and put on his signature smile. It was a flawless one. It also meant that he had calmed down.

“Han Gaeul.”

There was a need to check one more time. Whether it was a mistake in emotions through coincidence or if he actually wanted to have her. Of course, someone like Han Gaeul wasn’t bad. Perhaps thanks to the kiss scene, he even felt that she wasn’t that lacking as his partner. So she was dating Han Maru, huh. The man in the mirror put on a twisted smile.

“Someone who has value needs to be next to someone who recognizes that value.”

He was going to make her his and just throw her away if it didn’t seem right. It might be rather interesting if Han Maru picked up what he threw away. For now, though, he decided to watch so that he could see whether she was someone he should embrace or just make use of.

KTLChamber's Thoughts

Oh man, that was such a rollercoaster that I don't know what to say about this chapter.

Do I need to put a warning on it? If yes, what do I put on it? NTR? It's not exactly that…

Reading this chapter felt like watching Frozen for the second time lol. (Love is an open door~~~)

Oh man, Giwoo, good luck attempting to take Gaeul away from Maru lol.

Editor's Note:

I like how the author wrote an entire chapter about how Gaeul couldn't wait to go home to Maru and then wrote this chapter as though he's laughing at Giwoo himself.

Chapter 841
Sequence 11

He used a spoon to have a taste of the spicy stew. If it was for his tastes, he would have to add more soy sauce, but he just turned off the stove like that. This was more in line with Gaeul’s tastes after all. He received a message saying that she was on her way after the shoot. He thought that he would only be able to see her around 1 a.m. It seemed that her shoot had ended quite early. He watched TV on the sofa before looking at the clock on the wall. It was 11:43 p.m.

“I’m here.”

Gaeul opened the door and came in. She hadn’t even removed her makeup. After barely taking off her trainers, she came into the living room with shopping bags in both of her hands.

“What are those?”

“I was visiting a clothes shop that just opened today. This is a hat I got as a souvenir, and this is wine and beef jerky that we’re going to eat.”

“They give you beef and jerky at a clothes shop?”

“No, I bought these myself to give as a present. I bought some more while I was at it. But hey, I’m so tired.”

Gaeul put her arms out. She seemed to want him to carry her. Maru brought her to the bathroom while she was whining.

“Alright, get washed up first. I’ll get the food ready.”

“Did you cook spicy stew?”

“I did, so get washed up. Be thorough when removing your makeup.”

While Gaeul got washed, he set up the dining table. He brought the portable table from the veranda and opened it in the middle of his living room before putting some newspaper on it. He then placed a portable stove, followed by a pot, before turning the stove on. By the time the spicy stew was on the verge of boiling again, Gaeul left the bathroom.

“What a good smell.”

She sat down in front of the table with a towel wrapped around her head. She picked up her spoon and had a taste of the steaming hot stew. From how her lips curved upwards, it seemed to fit her tastes.

“Maru, you’ll be a perfect housewife.”

Gaeul brought two wine glasses from the kitchen. She removed the cork of the wine that she bought as a gift and poured some into the glasses. Spicy stew and wine. They weren’t really a great pair, but Maru didn’t care since the one drinking with him was good. He drank a sip before ruminating on the taste before swallowing it.

“It’s quite sweet.”

He wanted to give a detailed description of the taste, even if he couldn’t be as good as a wine sommelier, but it was difficult after all. Although he tried focusing on the taste because she was the one who wanted to drink it, he couldn’t do what he couldn’t do after all.

“You honestly don’t get why people drink wine, do you?” Gaeul asked as she waved her wine glass in the air.

Maru nodded. That was because the sweetness of cheap wine was his impression of most wines. While the one he drank just now wasn’t unpleasantly sweet, his tongue was used to soju and caused a rejection to sweet liquor.

“It’s not bad, but I don’t think I’ll drink it that often.”

“But since you’re drinking it anyway, try being in the mood.”

Maru used his thumb and index finger to hold the glass by the neck while straightening out the other three. He raised the glass so that the semi-filled glass overlapped with her face and spoke,

“Here’s to looking at you, Mademoiselle. Is that what you want?”

“You were really cocky just now.”

“I thought you wanted me to be in the mood.”

“There’s a limit to being cheesy.”

She raised her glass as well. After toasting lightly, he drank a sip again. While they were talking, the spicy stew started boiling. After tasting the wine and the spicy stew alternately, she eventually said that it was no good and brought some soju from the fridge.

“It’s weird to eat something spicy with something sweet.”

“How about the glass?”

Gaeul emptied the wine in her glass in one go. She then raised it above her head and flicked it against her head before looking at him, expecting him to do the same. Maru also emptied his glass and flicked it against his head. Transparent soju replaced the wine glass that originally had the red grapevine in it.

“The pairing of the liquor and the food is important too, I guess.”

Those were Gaeul’s words right after she ate a piece of fish from the stew and drank some soju. Maru agreed wholeheartedly. That bitterness of soju and the spiciness of the stew went well together.

They talked about praising the pairing of spicy stew and soju before Maru asked about what happened today,

“How was the shoot?”

“Today? I just shot a kiss scene.”

She made a sneaky smile while eating some fish with some celery.

“And a deep one at that.”

“Kang Giwoo has it real fortunate today.”

“You jealous?”

“Of course I’m jealous.”

“Even though it’s work?”

“I’m only going as far as being jealous because it’s work.”

“I don’t think I’m going to be jealous even if you shoot a kiss scene, though.”

Gaeul teased him while pouting a little. Maru grabbed her lips that were protruding out.

“This is the mouth uttering nonsense, huh.”

Gaeul pulled her head back and smiled.

“What did you do today?”

“I had a very busy day today. First, I did some cleaning.”

“I don’t know who will wed you later, but whoever it is, she won’t have to worry about household cleaning at least. Why don’t you run a cleaning company once? Han Maru Cleaning corp. Making your dirty house shine again,” Gaeul said as she lifted Woofie, who was passing by.

The dog seemed startled and looked around with her eyes wide open, but she soon wagged her tail in relief as though she realized that the owner of the hands that picked her up was Gaeul.

“I’ll try if I don’t have anything to do in my later years. Anyway, today, I cleaned the kitchen and the bathroom before heading to the market.”

“Mr. Han Maru. What made you go to the market?”

Woofie’s front paw became a microphone. Maru grabbed the paw and replied,

“My superior wanted to drink spicy stew, so I went grocery shopping. She has a picky taste and notices if I cook her pre-made food, so I picked the ingredients myself and cooked it myself too.”

“Reporter Woofie here says that superior doesn’t have a picky palate.”

“That’s not true. I made seasoned seaweed last time and I got an earful about it being too salty. I put a lot of effort into that too.”

“Mr. Han Maru, your voice has become incredibly low right now. Are you mad by any chance?”

“As a housewife, my heart is torn whenever I hear my superior say that the food does not taste good. It’s beyond the level of being ‘mad.’”

Gaeul turned the dog around before looking at the dog.

“Reporter Woofie, I think this is my fault. Can you apologize in my stead?”

Gaeul waved the dog’s front paw up and down while lowering her head. How many men would not fall in love with her while looking at that? Maru chuckled and told her to put the dog down. The dog kept giving him hints that she was uncomfortable for a while now. As the owner, he couldn’t just ignore his dog’s pleas.

“I know. You don’t season the food that much because I like my food on the bland side. Thanks every time.”

“I’m grateful that you acknowledge it. My sister just grumbles at me after eating. What’s even more serious is that she can only cook two things with confidence.”

“What are those two?”

“One is ramyun.”

“Ramyun is a splendid dish. Do you know how hard it is to cook it properly?”

Gaeul stood on Bada’s side. For a brief moment, he could picture a certain woman scolding her husband while standing on her sister-in-law’s side as well as the image of a husband crying that there is no one on his side.

“Alright, let’s consider ramyun cooking. The second thing she’s confident in cooking is microwaved rice.”

“The timing is really important with microwaved rice, you know? A single second can change the taste.”

“What am I supposed to say to that? Geez, this is sad.”

Gaeul laughed out loud. It wasn’t even that funny though. He thought that he was missing something and observed her closely. After laughing her heart out, she calmed her breath and asked again,

“Right, what’s Bada doing these days?”

“College. She’s in various circles or whatnot too. I’m worried about what she’ll do after graduation already. Watching her makes my head hurt.”

“You should play around while you’re still a student. Now that I think about it, I haven’t graduated yet either. I haven’t been to school for the past three years too. I guess I can’t really complain even if I get expelled.”

“You were just that busy after all.”

“I know it’s too late to talk about it at this point in time, but Maru, don’t you regret not going to college? It’s not like I went to college properly either, but just being in Chung-a university’s theater department helped me out a lot. Even the seniors who are known to be scary on sets treat me kindly after knowing that I’m from the same college as them. There are many producers who are graduates of Chung-a university, so it helped me out quite a lot too.”

“It’s already in the past. Back then, I chose not to go because I thought that was for the best. I have no regrets.”

Gaeul spun the wine glass around.

“Sometimes, it makes me think. What if you went to Chung-a university with me back then? We wouldn’t be needlessly apart from each other, we would be able to create more memories, and we would be able to share more love.”

“But the result is that we’re still together in this place. I’m okay with that.”

“Yeah, I guess the present is what’s important. There’s a delicious spicy stew in front of me and the adorable Woofie right now.”

“How about me?”

Gaeul put her hand forward. Maru grabbed her hand and locked his fingers with her. It may be small, but it was a firm hand.

“You will be next to me in the future too, not just now. Hey, that was a little cheesy. I must be drunk.”

She laughed silently and let go of her hand. They had gone through two bottles of soju already. She drank more than her usual capacity. They shouldn’t have drank in wine glasses.

“You okay?”

“I’m fine, I’m fine. Isn’t that right, Woofie?”

Gaeul picked up the dog lying next to her again. He should have realized when she was grinning while holding the dog’s paw. He finally realized what he was missing.

“You should get to sleep. You’re drunk.”

“Really? I don’t have any plans for tomorrow.”

Tomorrow – she was definitely drunk when she said that word with a huge grin on her face. She would probably fall right down if he poked her from the side. He rescued Woofie from her arms and put the table away. She immediately lay down on the floor, curled up. This was one of her habits when she got drunk. Even in his previous life, she would lie down once she got drunk. When it was bad, she would grab onto anything next to her and not let go.

“Miss Han Gaeul, you should brush your teeth and go to sleep.”

“I can’t move.”

“Yes, you can.”

“Give me a piggyback.”

“Aren’t you giving me too many orders today?”

When he crouched down in order to piggyback her, she put her arms around his neck as though she had been waiting – from the front that is. Maru ended up having to lie down while being face-to-face. He had briefly forgotten that Gaeul’s physical strength was better than most unathletic men.

“Let’s stay like this for a while.”

Her voice soon faded out and her breathing turned rhythmical. What should he do? The rational answer was to get her washed and send her to bed, but the emotional answer was the better answer right now. He supported her head before pushing his arm below her. When he tapped on Gaeul’s back, who hugged him tighter, her breathing became a little more relaxed. Woofie looked around and came over before lying down around her head.

“This is enough.”

Maru brushed up her draping hair before giving a kiss on her forehead. Good food, a home he can relax in, the cute dog – though she bites from time to time –, and above all, the woman that was sleeping like a child. He might get punished if he wished for more. Actually, it might be okay since he was already being punished anyway.

The thought that he had to bring her to bed became faint. Maru eventually closed his eyes as well.

KTLChamber's Thoughts

So sweet I'm dead

Editor's Note:

This chapter was adorable. So much fluff.

Chapter 842
Sequence 11

It was an endless street with trees along the sides. There were no cars, the wind was blowing silently, trees were planted at regular intervals, and the pavement was flawless without a single crack anywhere that it was to the point that it was unpleasantly so. She tried numbering her steps. One, two, three… Even after a hundred, a thousand, and ten thousand, the scenery did not change. The faces of the ones coming towards her also started being repeated. A boy with cotton candy, a man dragging a bike, a granny dragging a hand wagon filled with cardboard, a man and a woman who seemed to be a couple, as well as a woman shouting at her phone.

At one point, Gaeul realized that everyone else was walking in the opposite direction of her. People were only walking towards her; no one was going the same way as her. She walked forward through the wave of people, praying that something would change, hoping that there was a flaw in this fixed scenery.

She wanted to turn around and walk in the same direction as everyone else, but the moment she turned around, the scenery was reversed. Wherever she turned, people always walked towards her from the other side. No one walked next to her. Even if she tried to grab the arm of a passerby, she would pass right through them like smoke. When she tried to talk to anyone, none of them replied.

She became alone in this crowd. A sense of freezing solitude followed suit. She stood still and looked at the people passing by. Their expressions were varied: smiling, crying, and angry. Gaeul suddenly felt that she didn’t exist in this world. She felt like she was flung outside the world.

“You said you’d do anything. Didn’t you expect this much?” the boy with the cotton candy said after he suddenly stopped.

His eyes looked to be rebuking her. Gaeul couldn’t understand. Didn’t expect what? Starting with the boy, people started criticizing her: Bear the weight of your decision; It is impossible to return; This is punishment.

“What did I do wrong?” she asked the people.

When she did, the people staring at her started walking past her again as though nothing had happened. The unchanging scenery began once again. She wondered how many times she had to repeat this in the future. She wanted to sit down on the spot. Those gazes were too much for her to bear. Maybe she would get swept away by those people if she stood still. Maybe she would be able to join those people and laugh and get angry just like normal. No matter how much time passed, those people just brushed past her. The only thing she gained was the knowledge that the world was unchanging and that she would always stay on the spot.

Eventually, she was no longer able to discern the faces of the people brushing past her, and the scenery also turned blurry. She was being isolated from the world and being ejected from it. The sensation of being ejected from the sensation of solitude was truly horrific.

“It’s okay.”

The blurring world regained its original form. She could start hearing the voices of the people walking past her. The strangely flawless pavement had cracks, the trees that all looked all the same as though they were copied and pasted started possessing character, and cars started driving on the road again. The people that were walking in just one direction like worker ants started walking in all sorts of different directions. The hamster wheel-like world was engulfed in brilliant chaos.

Gaeul looked at the man standing next to her. The man was pitch black. He held the world. He brought the world. Gaeul grabbed his hand and walked forward. The people who walked past her like ghosts before started recognizing her and made way for her with a smile.

“Who are you?”

The moment she threw out that question, Gaeul opened her eyes. It took quite a long time for her spirit to return to her body from floating between reality and her dream. In front of her eyes was Maru, who was breathing slowly. Only then did she realize that she was using his arm as a pillow. Swallowing down what was in her mouth, she stood up. It was 4 a.m. Someone was shouting outside. It seemed that there was trouble with parking.

She felt dazed. She felt like she just had an incredibly sad dream, but the only thing she could remember was the question she asked at the very end: Who are you?

“You woke up?”

Maru opened his eyes. He groaned as he was about to sit up while pushing himself against the floor.

“Your arm is numb, isn’t it?”

“No.”

“Yes, it is. It must have been hours. Give me your arm.”

She started carefully massaging Maru’s arm. At first, he trembled, but he soon smiled in satisfaction as the numbness went away.

“I was drunk, wasn’t I?”

“A little. How’s your head? Aren’t you dizzy?”

“Usually, I would have a horrible headache if I pass out after drinking, but right now, I’m strangely refreshed. Maybe it’s thanks to your arm pillow.”

“If that’s how it is, then I guess it was worth the effort.”

When her senses completely woke up from sleep, the cold assaulted her. It was to be expected since she had been lying down on the cold floor for hours even though it wasn’t mid-summer. When she started rubbing her own arms, Maru gave her a vest. They got a matching pair of these vests to wear at home.

“You should go and get some more sleep. It’s only 4 o’clock.”

“I don’t think I can sleep now.”

“Then let’s get something warm to drink.”

Maru put some water in the kettle. Gaeul sat at the dining table and watched his back. As the mood lights were the only thing on in the living room, he looked like he was wearing dark clothes.

“What are you staring at?” Maru asked as he put down a mug in front of her.

It was fragrant barley tea.

“I thought I’d seen it a lot.”

“What do you mean?”

Maru looked around. Instead of replying ‘you,’ Gaeul brought the mug to her mouth. Maybe she was still half-asleep. How would he react if she said ‘you look familiar’ to a person who she had been with for the entire day? Maru would probably tell her to go to sleep.

“It’s 10 past 4, and you don’t want to sleep. What now?”

“I don’t know.”

“It’ll be tiring if you don’t get enough sleep. Why don’t you go to bed and close your eyes after you drink that? You might feel okay now, but you’ll feel dazed in the morning.”

“Maybe.”

Although she lacked sleep ever since she started working, she didn’t want to close her eyes right now. She felt as though something rather repulsive would assault her if she did. When she drank the tea while fidgeting with her toes, he brought a duvet from the room.

“Come here. You can’t let your body cool.”

She placed her mug on the table in front of the sofa and sat down. Maru opened the duvet and covered her. Her chilly body became warm soon.

“I feel like I’m having a lot of dreams recently. I don’t remember what they’re about though. I never dreamt anything when I was young either.”

Maybe Maru was tired. Gaeul looked at Maru, who put his arm around her shoulder and pulled her closer. She could feel his body heat from the touch.

“You don’t have to concern yourself with dreams. You don’t have to worry about anything.”

She didn’t say what kind of dream she had, but Maru consoled her as though he knew everything. Gaeul leaned her head on his shoulder. She felt like she had returned home after a long trip and was letting the bed take care of her body as she became drunk on the relief of having returned home.

“Do you want to come over and say hi to my mom?” she asked in a soft voice.

“If you want.”

“You’ll get scolded. Mom was really disappointed too.”

“I should be. I did something wrong.”

“But now that I think about it, it was mostly my fault.”

“Then I guess we should get scolded together. I’ll give her my right cheek, so you give her your left.”

“Yeah. You said your mother and father are in Pohang, right?”

“Yeah. My father is managing that place more than before, so they found a residence there.”

“We should visit them.”

“Take your time.”

His hand that stroked her hair was so pleasing.

“Do you think you’re getting sleepy now?”

“Just a little more.”

“I wonder if my shoulder can last until then.”

“Try holding on for a little more.”

She curled herself up and leaned against him. She never acted this spoiled to anyone ever since her father passed away, yet she always wanted to rely on him if he was next to her. His embrace reminded her of a warm spring day. Even without doing anything, she felt satisfied as though she had everything in this world.

“What did mother-in-law like again?”

“It’s been a long time since I last heard you say that.”

“I told you. We’re going to get married. I’m not joking.”

She looked into his eyes.

“Actually, when you first brought that up, I had a feeling that things would come to this. I knew that it was a joke, and I knew that it was an event far into the future, but I still had a strange feeling that we would be tied together like this.”

Maru kissed her lightly on the forehead.

“Stop chatting and go to sleep. You have a precious body, so you should get into tip-top condition.”

He started tapping on her shoulder at regular intervals. It was a magical rhythm that made her fall asleep. It took away her feelings of not wanting to sleep and made her vision go hazy. She started yawning, and her eyelids felt heavy.

“Should we go to bed if you’re uncomfortable?” she asked, worried that his shoulder might hurt and that he might not get enough sleep looking after her.

Maru shook his head.

“It feels like we’re camping, so it’s good. Don’t worry about me and get some sleep.”

“Wake me up if it hurts.”

“If it’s your weight that hurts me, then that I guess is a joy too.”

“That line was rather embarrassing.”

“Less than what you said last night probably.”

Gaeul raised her head.

“What did I say last night?”

“You don’t remember?”

“I don’t.”

“Then you should forget about it.”

“Tell me quickly. What did I say?”

“Something that will make your hands and feet shrivel up. Should I say it back to you word for word? You might end up kicking the duvet in shame.”

“It’s that bad?”

“Do you want me to say it?”

“Forget it. If it’s not in my memories, then it’s not an embarrassing history.”

“If you say that, it makes me want to tell you.”

“Don’t.”

Maru chuckled before placing his chin on her head.

“I’ll keep it a secret, so let’s go to sleep. The sun is going to rise at this rate.”

“Because you said that, I don’t feel drowsy anymore.”

“It’s my fault?”

“Probably?”

Maru yawned before sticking close to her. Gaeul pulled her legs together and placed them on top of the sofa. Purple light was seeping through the curtains. It was a quiet, cozy, and warm time. She wished that this night would last a long time.

It was after she stared at the blackened TV screen for a while. She could hear that Maru’s breathing sound had become soft. When she turned around, she saw that Maru had fallen asleep. Gaeul pulled his arm around her shoulder so that he didn’t fall. As long as he held her, she would not have a bad dream. The drowsiness that she had forgotten about overwhelmed her again. Her consciousness left her starting from her toes. The last thing she felt before she fell asleep was a strong grip around her shoulder.

KTLChamber's Thoughts

Nothing to comment in this chapter.

Editor's Note:

Man, the bad vibes I am getting from this chapter are insane. Readers are definitely going to suffer. If this chapter doesn't scream foreshadowing and feel like the eye of an immense storm, we are reading different chapters.

Chapter 843
Sequence 12

Yoo Jayeon pressed the bell and waited for a bit. The sensitivity of the woman curling inside this place was even worse than an exam student, so she would hide in a corner like a snail going inside its shell if she touched her. After waiting for about five minutes, the door opened slowly. Eunbin greeted her in pajamas with a pair of really tired eyes.

“Come in.”

“Did you get some sleep?”

“No, I didn’t get any sleep because of a horrible stomach ache.”

“Did you check the viewing rates again?”

“I couldn’t help it. That’s the first thing I see when I open the internet. We lost this time as well. The production was really good, so it seems like my writing is terrible.”

“When are you going to stop depreciating yourself? Also, the drama is ultimately created by both of us, so it means that the production is terrible too.”

Jayeon pushed away the underwear strewn across the floor as she headed to the kitchen. The pizza box she saw when she came here last week was still placed under the dining table. It was fortunate that Eunbin washed the dishes in time though. If there was a pile of greasy plates in the sink then she might have gone back out without a second thought.

“Good thing I called. I came here just in case since your voice didn’t sound that good, and you were like this after all. I told you that you should stop eating convenience store lunch boxes and start eating proper food.”

“How can a writer with terrible viewing rates eat proper food? I should just go and die.”

“You’re saying that, but you are going to eat it if I cook you food, right?”

“The viewing rates might be bad, but I don’t want to die of starvation.”

“I’ll get you some food, so clean up your house a little. Don’t you feel sorry for this poor little thing?”

The cat came around to her feet and rubbed her face all over her legs. She looked as though she was saying ‘my caretaker is half crazy’ with her eyes. Jayeon opened the window and even the front door. It made her feel tragic that she had to clean another person’s house in the middle of the day, but she still moved busily in order to take care of the glass-like will of the writer who held the destiny of the drama.

She finished the cleaning by tossing out the food waste that she didn’t even want to imagine how long it had been there. It was rather fortunate that it was dirty only to the point that it was cleanable. It seemed that Eunbin hadn’t completely given up on being human. Though, with more time, it would have become a pigsty for sure.

“I do respect you as a pro for being so harsh on yourself, but you’re clearly taking things way too far. If you let go of your pen because you get sick, then it’ll be us who gets in trouble.”

“Okay.”

The side dishes that she made for her husband disappeared into Eunbin’s mouth. The woman, who was slow to act like she had lived her entire life, changed dramatically once she picked up a spoon and started eating away like a wrestler. It was good that Jayeon had brought a whole load of side dishes. Had she brought a handful of each, Eunbin might have finished them in one sitting.

“They’re delicious.”

“It’s good that you find them delicious.”

Eunbin seemed to have gained some energy as she did the dishes and brewed some coffee for Jayeon, though it was quite late.

“I told you, unni. All you have to do is just stop checking the viewing rates. If it’s bad, you fall into this state, and even if it’s good, you start worrying about how it might fall. Why do you do something that makes you stressed out no matter what you do?”

“Jayeon.”

“What?”

“Do you check the viewing rates or not if a list goes up in the production department?”

“I do.”

“Do you always feel good?”

“No.”

“Then why do you do it?”

“Because it’s work.”

“Then am I playing around?”

She didn’t have anything to retort to that. After all that was done and said, both of them lived lives that were dictated by viewing rates. They may talk big by saying that they were putting life into the drama or making art, but their emotions were bound to be swayed by viewing rates after all.

“The gap is even bigger than last week.”

“But it’s still a single-digit percentage point difference. Even Doctor’s Office hasn’t gone past twenty percent. It’s a number that we can catch up to. The ads are selling well too.”

“Just because the ads are doing well doesn’t mean that I would get paid for my manuscripts or that the viewing rates will get better.”

“At least it increases my reputation so stop frowning. You were so energetic when you were eating.”

“Why don’t you try reaching my age?”

“If someone heard that, they might think we’re ten years apart or something. You're thirty-five, and I’m thirty-three. We practically lived at the same time yet you’re always bragging about your age.”

“You’ll soon realize that those two years is an incredibly long time.”

“If that’s how you want to do things, I can’t help but bring up marriage.”

Eunbin, who was sipping on her coffee while resting her chin, suddenly started sniffing and looked down. It seemed that she had lost her will to fight.

“Fine, you have it good, getting married like that. I’m thirty-five but never brought a man into my house even once.”

“But you meet a lot outside.”

“Men I meet because of work aren’t men. They’re just characters. What a sad life is this? I’m sure I’ll become an old hag while typing away on the keyboard of a laptop with a cat in my arms. I should just get ready for my later years after saving up my manuscript fees.”

Eunbin buried her face in the table. She hadn’t changed at all since before. She was feeble by nature, but she was nearly national athlete-level when it came to being harsh on herself, so she would nearly self-destruct once she started working. As a result of that, she would become powerless and forget about everything but her manuscript.

“How many people do you think work as the writer of a mini-series at thirty-five? You know that there aren’t many skilled writers your age.”

Jayeon had to bring back her will to live before she became so depressed that it broke through the ground. After all, she didn’t come all the way here with side dishes in hand just to rebuke her. When she teased her and then flattered her discreetly, Eunbin would always regain her energy. As she was a writer that become Jayeon’s first friend after entering the TV station, she knew her personality quite well.

“What good is that? This is how my life will end.”

‘Young writer’ and ‘skilled writer’ were two terms that were emergency pills that always resuscitated Eunbin, who was drowning in viewing rates. Even when she was in despair about the lack of results, she would always come back to herself with a laugh when those two terms were brought up, but for some reason, it didn’t work today. There were still shadows on her face.

“Did something happen?” This time, she asked as a close friend, not as a producer to a writer.

“The fire lit in my heart simply won’t die out.”

“Hey, you’ve gotten strange since you’ve been living with texts for a long time. Just what happened?”

Eunbin refused to talk, sealing her lips like the gates of a warring castle. If it was someone else, Jayeon would’ve thought about coaxing them to talk, but she just watched without doing anything as it was Eunbin. This unni, who kept sighing while looking into the distance, was never able to hold herself back from talking. She would get into verbal arguments with paper, which couldn’t say a single word. Usually, writers who had to fight themselves were split into one of two types: those who refused to talk as they had gotten close to solitude and those who struggled to not break the silence as soon as they had the opportunity. Eunbin was clearly the latter. Although she was holding on with a face that looked like she was resolved to not talk, she would probably exhaust herself and speak soon.

“Actually, the thing is…”

Indeed, she didn’t betray her expectations. Jayeon just went along with her words so that she could continue talking. From now on, those lips would utter everything, including secrets that she shouldn’t talk about.

After listening for a while, one of Jayeon’s eyes twitched. She spoke,

“Kang Giwoo is lingering in front of your eyes? You think you’re lovesick?”

“Yeah.”

“Unni, you should act more like your age.”

“I thought you’d say that. I’m an idiot for telling you.”

“There’s no one who doesn’t know that Kang Giwoo acts kind to everyone. He literally does that to every single person.”

“Then why do you think he called in the evening to ask me out to dinner? Don’t you think that he has the hots for me? What’s the possibility that he likes me?”

“Unni, are you serious?”

“Do you think I am? I was just saying. But it’s true that his handsome face is lingering in front of my eyes. The reason I can still breathe despite the fact that the pressure from the viewing rates is making me sick is thanks to his handsome face.”

“Unni, you like anyone who looks handsome, don’t you?”

“I’ll be fine as long as it’s a man.”

“You really are sick, alright. But what do you mean by that? Kang Giwoo recommended an actor?”

“It wasn’t a strong recommendation. He just told me that I should make more use of an actor in passing. I didn’t think much of it when I was there, but when I watched the previous episodes of Doctors after I got home, I felt like he was right.”

“Which actor was that?”

“Bigfoot. Uh, what was his name again? I do remember his first name because it was rather peculiar, but I can’t remember his surname. Anyway, the actor known as Maru.”

“Han Maru.”

“Right, Han Maru. Since we’re talking about it, how is he? I didn’t see him during the read-through since he was just a minor actor. I think he’s pretty good when I see him acting the character I created, but that character is pretty one-dimensional, so I also think that anyone else could do that much. What kind of actor is he in the eyes of the director?”

Jayeon replied without a shred of hesitation,

“If I had the rights to casting then I would definitely give him a big role.”

Eunbin put down her mug and spoke,

“How long have we known each other?”

“You and me? If you count the time you were a writer for an entertainment program and I was a new recruit, then about nine years.”

“We’ve known each other for that long, but I’ve never seen you say that about someone with so much confidence. Is he someone you know personally?”

“He’s the main actor of my debut piece.”

“The boy from ‘Pojang-macha’? That’s him?”

“Yep.”

“How long ago was that? Six years?”

“About that much. Unni, you told me over the phone back then that the boy was good.”

“I did. So that’s him. Then you should’ve told me about it. If it was your recommendation, I would have thought about casting him too.”

“He suddenly disappeared to the military when he had to be going up. After he came out, he did see some popularity in Daehak-ro for about a year but honestly speaking, he was a little too unstable for me to use him. I do believe in his qualities, but leading a whole drama is a different story after all. That’s why I gave him a minor role to test him out, and he really was good after all. He has that spice to him. Even though his lines are short and his scenes are shorter than that, the set completely changes with him in the mix. I also found out that he is a long-time friend of Heewon too.”

“Kang Giwoo talked about him and now Lee Heewon? Isn’t he a jewel that’s too good to waste?”

“Maybe.”

“Looks like I should consider this properly.”

“What do you mean?”

“Creating a side story for that character. What do you think is the biggest problem with Doctors as the producer of it?”

“If I were to be honest, it’d be that there aren’t many elements to get attached to. I’m not saying that your story is terrible. It’s just that the topic is lighter compared to ‘Doctor’s Office’, and the progress is quite slow, so it just needs more time for the interactions between characters to come to life. I believe in the power of the characters you created. That’s why I don’t say anything during our script meeting.”

“It’s nothing new, but thanks for trusting me.”

“I’m trusting you because you’re doing well. If you were bad then I would be ruthless.”

“I know that. Anyway, like what you said, the fact that the progress is slow means that it’s not closely knitted together and there’s room to insert something in there. If we reduce shooting locations a little, it’s possible to put another character on the side.”

“Do you think that will help with the progression of the drama?”

“I’m not sure yet. But you said he’s an actor you can trust in, didn’t you? If there are good ingredients, you just can’t help but want to cook. If I do it and it does decently, then I can always add more.”

“And take him out if it’s no good?”

“The forums will decide that. Though, it’s all ultimately up to me.”

“Think about it, and tell me once you decide.”

There was no reason to hold her back when she was motivating herself to work.

“Before that, can I see him?”

“You mean Maru?”

“Yeah. Since I’m going to insert him anyway, I should tailor it to him. I should meet him and see what he’s like.”

“Should I call him here then?”

“Doesn’t he have a schedule?”

“He’s probably playing with his dog at home, I think?”

Jayeon picked up her phone.

KTLChamber's Thoughts

Still waiting for Maru to get famous.

Editor's Note:

Man, I do wish we got more Jayeon. Jayeon and Suyeon are just such good characters.

Chapter 844
Sequence 11

Beads of sweat formed on his forehead. It had been two hours since he started acting out the free topic of ‘anger.’ Maru picked up his phone which he placed in front of the TV and checked the video he had just taken. A man, who was ripping his neck out while crying without a sound, got on the ground and started shivering. He had expressed exhaustion after pouring all of his rage out, but he didn’t like the expression. Just like how there would always be moisture after pouring out all the water from a bowl, even if he was exhausted of his anger after all those actions, there would definitely be residue left behind. The act itself was pretty decent, but he wasn’t able to give that lingering sensation of rage right at the last bit. It would have been better if he showed that there were kindlings of rage within that ash and that it could come back at any moment.

Even as he washed his face, he was moving his facial muscles minutely. The more skilled an actor was, the better they used their minute muscles like how they would move their big muscles. Even if there was rage kindling within the ashes, it was no good if he couldn’t express it. The viewers read the muscular changes that are visible on the surface; they could not see through the emotions underneath it. Although many said that emotions could be conveyed through the eyes, that also was a combined impression of the facial muscles, the lips, as well as the general outline of the face itself. If people were just given a pair of eyes and were asked what their emotions were, not many people would be able to correctly guess what they would be.

He placed his phone in front of the TV again and stretched himself from his toes to his eyebrows. He ordered every single muscle that he could use to move to its maximum right under their limits. Just as he was about to start free-acting again after getting his emotions ready, his phone, which he had slanted against the TV, started vibrating and fell over.

“Yes, producer.”

The caller was Yoo Jayeon.

-Are you busy?

“No.”

-Are you at home?

“Yes.”

-Then can you come out for a bit?

“To where?”

-In Seoul. There’s someone who wants to meet you.

Nothing flashed in his mind after hearing her follow with the name ‘Lee Eunbin’ but he was sure that he had heard that name somewhere. Jayeon added that she was the writer of ‘Doctors.’ Only then did he remember the name that was embedded on the first page of his script.

“What would the writer want with me?”

-It’s for nothing special. She just wants to know what kind of person you are. If you aren’t too busy, I hope you can come over.

“Both the producer and the writer want me to come, so I don’t really have a choice, do I? I’ll get washed and go right away. Please message me the address.”

-Bring your script when you come.

He got an address through text. It wasn’t too far. He took a shower, put on his clothes, and left his house. He wondered what Jayeon meant by asking him to bring his script. While he was thinking about it, his car arrived at the destination. It was a newly built apartment complex.

“It’s Han Maru.”

The moment he pressed the bell and said his name, the door opened. Jayeon told him to come in while holding a black cat.

“Is this your house, director?”

“No, it’s the writer’s.”

He saw a woman waving her hand at the island dining table. She was writer Lee Eunbin, who showed up during the public rehearsal for Doctors. Maru knew her face through the internet.

“Hello.”

He said his greetings first while predicting the intentions these two had when calling him here. Eunbin motioned for him to sit down. She looked pretty different from how she looked on the internet. It was probably because of those dark spots beneath the eyes. It seemed that she was really tired.

“Sorry for calling you all of a sudden. I had her call you because I wanted to see you at least once.”

“It’s okay. I’m semi-unemployed anyway. If you had notified me beforehand, I would have brought some presents. I’m sorry that I’m empty-handed.”

“It doesn’t matter.”

Maru placed the script he brought on the table and sat down on a chair. The two women sat opposite him and were staring at him. He felt like he was at an interview.

“If I may ask, why was I called here?”

“It’s quite rude to probe you out when we called you while you were resting, so let me get straight to the point. I want to try giving a change to the character.”

“Character?”

“Yes. Your character, Mr. Han Maru,” Eunbin said as she pointed at the script.

“Oh, is it okay if I drop the honorifics? This would be fine if it was just the two of us, but Jayeon is here, so I think we need to sort things.”

“It’s okay to talk to me with ease, writer.”

“Writer sounds too distant. Just call me noona. Though, if you don’t like that, you can call me writer. Anyway, I’ll talk to you comfortably from now on. Is that okay?”

“Yes, noonim.”

Maru quickly changed his way of address. Someone who he would benefit from getting close to reached out to him first. There was no need to hold back here. Eunbin seemed to have taken a liking to the address of ‘noonim’ as she clapped with a bright smile.

“You’re a really refreshing guy alright. I need to meet a refreshing guy like this too.”

“Talk about guys later, and get to the point.”

Jayeon apologized in her stead, saying that that was just her personality. Maru responded, saying that it was okay.

“The reason I called you here today is to make a decision. That is, whether to create a story for the character Bigfoot or not.”

“Uhm, wasn’t next week supposed to be my last shoot?”

He was notified by the director that he would stop appearing around episode seven. Side characters disappearing during the progress of the plot was something that always happened.

“I originally planned to take you out, but I heard from Jayeon that you and Heewon’s chemistry is so good. I felt it while I watched the reruns, and indeed, the two of you seemed to have no distance between each other. But you didn’t give off much of an impression since it was so short.”

“When you say you’re creating a story, does that mean that you’re bringing the character back?”

“I haven’t decided on it yet; that’s why I called you here. These days, dramas are all about following the trend and feedback. It would be for the best if I can keep writing without feedback and still gain popularity but that has the disadvantage that things would be ruined for good once it falls, right? The trend these days is to maintain my pride as a writer but also pick and choose from other people’s best stories and use them in the plot. But it’s a different story when it comes to characters. A plot can be created just through text, but for a character, the role of the actor is very important. In my personal opinion, if you need one hundred parts to create a character, the writer can only supply about thirty: the character’s personality, history, and his actions. Those are important, but the one who expresses that is the actor after all. I feel somewhat sorry for saying this as someone who works in the industry, but there are actors who shine even in shitty dramas, right? That means that the actor can make up for the character that the writer has horribly created.”

Of course, if the plot goes crazy, the character would too – Eunbin added as she redid her hairband. Maru wholly agreed to the fact that an actor could make up for the deficiency of a character. From how there were actors who were given good opinions even as the whole piece fell apart, that definitely seemed true. If the writer’s fingertips decided the success and failure of the drama entirely, then directions and ranking actors would be completely unnecessary. However, the market definitely differentiated superstar producers and actors from the rest.

“Can I have a look at your script?” Eunbin asked while placing her hand on the script that Maru brought.

Maru nodded. Eunbin rested her chin on her hands and flipped the first page.

“You take quite a lot of notes, even though the character barely has any lines.”

“It’s a force of habit. I’m only at ease if the page is filled.”

“I understand you there. There’s nothing scarier than an empty background. This is the script for episode 7, so the one for the first episode must be even more pitch-black than this, huh.”

“I wrote stuff like crazy.”

“In your opinion, what kind of character is this Bigfoot?”

“It’s somewhat embarrassing to say this in front of the creator herself, but to me, I saw him as someone who enjoys everything he puts effort into. To put it in a bad way, he’s the kind of guy who would be willing to work for free.”

“Really? Why did you think that?”

“There’s a part where he’s portrayed as being really frugal, right? I didn’t have much else to work with, so I tried fleshing out that personality of his. He was raised in a good way despite being in a not-so-well-off household, and he thanks his family for having supported him with the expensive tuition of medical school. It might be a cliché character, but I thought there was nothing better than that for a sidekick. He became frugal because he’s always chased by money, but his innate nature is the type to laugh at the worst conditions given to him. That was my idea of the character. He wouldn’t be able to open his own clinic, so he would either have to become a professor or a paid doctor. To do that, he must have a lot of connections. Since he’s being shown as someone trying to get close to all sorts of doctors, I thought it was in line with his character.”

“Now that makes me feel sorry. Bigfoot was created in order to smooth out the conversation between interns, so I didn’t give him such details. Just like you said, he’s a shameless, frugal guy, but I didn’t think about the specifics at all.”

“That’s natural since it’s inefficient to get hung up over a character that doesn’t influence the overall plot that much.”

Eunbin went through the script once again.

“It makes me rather proud if I see actors who get attached to the characters. It’s especially the case if they have caught the things that I haven’t thought about. I was wondering what kind of person you are, and I really do think that it’s a good thing that I met you. Even though I’m a writer and work away from the set, it’ll definitely put me at ease to know that someone I can work well with is working with me.”

Eunbin smiled and returned the script.

“If it’s about acting skills, I’m sure you must have been checked multiple times on set, and above all, Jayeon can guarantee for you, so I guess I don’t need to worry. Do you have any plans on appearing more after episode seven?”

“I don’t think there’s an actor who can refuse that offer.”

Eunbin looked at Jayeon. She hinted that she had come to a resolution of sorts. Jayeon spoke as she placed her arms on the table,

“I don’t think there’s a need to worry about your pay since you get paid by the episode. I’ll have to see the script for myself, but you’re going to have to match your schedule with ours if you get a scene. Are you okay with time?”

“I’ll be okay until November at least. Even if it goes past that, I only have one thing, so there shouldn’t be a big problem.”

Director Park Joongjin didn’t give him a specific date, but he did say that the production would start by the end of November, so the shoot would probably come quite a bit after that. Though, nothing was set in stone since he hadn’t signed the contract yet. From the looks of it though, he seemed to have been cast.

“We can just reschedule at that time, so it doesn’t really matter. Even if the shoot becomes longer, it won’t take two days.”

“You’re putting me on TV, so I’ll have to make time to come even if I don’t.”

“You can work so well, so why did you go to the military and upset many people back then?”

“Back then, I thought that going to the military early was the best choice. Isn’t it quite an advantage, though? I don’t think there are many actors who finished their military service.”

“Like hell it’s an advantage. Unni, this is just how this guy is.”

Eunbin, who was watching, suddenly told them to wait before sitting in front of her laptop. She typed away for about ten minutes. Maru and Jayeon looked at her quietly. They even held back their breaths as much as possible in fear of disrupting her focus.

“I think we can go with this.”

Eunbin returned to the dining table while muttering to herself. This woman didn’t look ordinary either. She probably wasn’t like many others from how Jayeon was close to her.

“Now that I think about it, you’re the first man who came to my house. We can’t stay still like this!”

Eunbin suddenly went into a fuss and opened the refrigerator. Maru could get a glimpse of the soju bottles filling up the door.

“Do you drink?” Eunbin asked while holding a bottle by the neck.

“Somewhat.”

“You could call it fate that you came here, so let’s have a drink. Jayeon, you too. Don’t you tell me that you need to go back home. You’ll be a really bad woman if you leave behind a lonely old woman by herself. You know that, right?”

Eunbin put down soju glasses while smiling. She looked like she wouldn’t send anyone home unless they needed to attend a funeral or something. It was 2 p.m. Drinking during the day, huh.

“Then allow me to receive a glass.”

Naturally, he had no plans to refuse.

Chapter 845
Sequence 12

“Sounds like the writer took a good note of you. So, how does your role change?”

“Nothing’s set in stone yet. It seems like she has some things in her mind, but I’ll have to get the script to be sure.”

Gaeul put her chopsticks down and patted Maru on the shoulders as though he had done a good job.

“You don’t know what will happen. You might become famous if you receive good responses through the drama and make your name known through the movie. Who knows, you might even become more famous than me, you know?”

“That sounds good just thinking about it.”

Maru ate a spoonful of rice and thought back to the events that occurred yesterday. What was supposed to be a light drinking occasion ended up lasting quite a long time, and he was only able to leave writer Eunbin’s house after 9 p.m. As the participants were a writer, a producer, and an actor, the topic of conversation was naturally about dramas, and they discussed – more like argued – until the very last moment. As Jayeon and Eunbin had different preferences, he tried siding with both of them and ended up getting an earful about how he had no opinion. When he was asked what kind of genre he preferred, he replied romance, only to hear the extremely market-friendly answer that his face wasn’t up to par. When Jayeon said that he would play the role of a murderer really well, Eunbin burst out into laughter in agreement. As much as he wanted to retort, he did feel that coercive calls were much more suited to the reflection of his face that he saw through a hand mirror than performing serenades. Since that was the case, he imitated a famous murderer from a movie. Both of them burst out into laughter.

“What kind of person is writer Lee Eunbin? As for producer Jayeon, I’ve seen her quite often while working with producer Park Hoon, but I’ve never seen the writer. According to aunt Hanmi, she’s someone who writes the most humane stories among her juniors.”

“Humane stories, huh. I can’t judge because I only met her once, but I can definitely say that she’s peculiar.”

“Well, you can see that from how she wants to use actor Han Maru, can’t you?”

“Is that supposed to be a compliment or an insult?”

They put away the dishes and went to the sofa. Finishing up for the day while eating some snacks on the sofa became one of their routines. They finished up what they couldn’t finish talking about over dinner and confessed if they found anything disappointing about each other. The jerky that Gaeul bought fulfilled its purpose very well, quite a contrast to the wine that was being aged. The wine was going to be used for cooking in a while.

“These days, Giwoo wouldn’t talk to me. Usually, he would bring up something to talk about if we make eye contact.”

“So, do you feel disappointed about that?”

“Rather than disappointed, it makes me feel cautious. It makes me wonder if he realized that I’m viewing him with suspicion. It makes me feel sorry too. I know that I have nothing to be sorry about if what you said he did is true, but that’s just how I feel. We’re working together too.”

“Don’t give him too many hints about how you’re observing him. Also, according to what I know about Kang Giwoo’s personality, he would have asked directly without avoiding you – if you have anything to talk to him about.”

“You said you aren’t friends, but I feel like you know him more than me,” Gaeul said with a smile.

“Well, you don’t remember the birthday of a close friend, but you do have to remember your redemption date for your loan.”

“So you’re in a debt relationship with Giwoo?”

“You can call it that.”

“Who’s the one in debt?”

“I wonder.”

When he replied vaguely, she pouted as though it was no fun for her. Maru brought half a cookie in front of her mouth in order to appease her.

“Nothing happened with Lee Miyoon after that?”

Gaeul said that she got into a big fight with Lee Miyoon not too long ago. She said that she would usually gloss over it softly, but she snapped out that day because she heard something she couldn’t endure. Maru wanted to know what provoked her but didn’t ask as it didn’t look like she had any intentions of answering him.

“Fortunately, nothing. I thought she’d come over again and again and nag me, but she doesn’t come over these days. Whether she’s busy or got fed up with me, I don’t know, but it’s good for me since I was a little worried.”

“I’m sure you’ll be able to take care of yourself even if I don’t tell you to, but still, don’t get involved with that woman too much, whether it’s in a good way or in a bad way.”

“I don’t think I’ll ever coexist happily with her. Though, it might make me regret it later.”

“If you do want to fight her properly, then call me.”

“Why, you’ll fight with me?”

“No, I’ll have to call the ambulance. If you two get into a proper fight, that old hag will start bleeding, so I’ll have to have the ambulance on standby.”

“Hey, I’m not such a violent woman, you know?”

As soon as she said those words, a lightly clenched fist flew into Maru’s flank. Her words and actions were totally opposite to each other. When Maru pointed at his flank that just received a hit and looked at her with a ‘what’s this then?’ face, Gaeul just shrugged and stood up with the plate and the mugs.

“Watch out. She’s a more dangerous woman than you think. I can tell you to judge Kang Giwoo for yourself but not her. Honestly speaking, I wish you would relent a little in front of that woman. I’m not saying that you have to do as I say, but there would be nothing better if you two had an indifferent relationship. But, I know that Han Gaeul isn’t the type of woman who would do that, so the only thing I can do is to warn you.”

Gaeul, who was walking over to the kitchen, turned her head around and nodded heavily. As she worked in the same industry, she probably heard a rumor or two about Lee Miyoon as well.

“I’ll watch out.”

“Tell me if something happens.”

“Okay.”

Clack clack – Maru could hear her wash the dishes. He remembered back to Lee Miyoon’s eyes that looked down on her target. According to his experience, people with those kinds of eyes would never let go once they bit down on the neck of their prey. Unless it was a situation where she would see blood, she would leap without hesitation once she realized that she would be able to bully her target one-sidedly. From how she let go of Gaeul for the past five years, it seemed like she didn’t have any interest, but from the way she still picked a fight with her from time to time, it seemed like she must have finished her preparations to stomp her. It was at times like these that he found his ability rather disappointing. After all, there was no way for him to find out what ‘Lee Miyoon’ was thinking about ‘Han Gaeul.’ It would’ve been better if she bared her fangs at him. That woman was the type of person to desperately try to catch both rabbits if there were two in front of her, instead of giving up on the smaller one. So pissing her off from the side probably wouldn’t do him good either.

“Aren’t you sleeping?”

Gaeul was staring at him from in front of the door. Maru shrugged off his thoughts and stood up from the sofa.

“I will.”

* * *

“Allow me to borrow Mr. Han Maru.”

He did think that this man in front of him wanted something from him when he visited out of the blue, but he didn’t know that it would be Han Maru that he wanted. Junmin placed the teacup down just as he was about to take a sip.

“You seem to come to me to borrow a person every time you come, director Park. Last time, it was Miso, and this time, it’s Maru.”

“I’ve already checked his own will to participate. If it’s about payment, I am willing to pay up whatever you decide. Or is this not feasible?”

“I’m in fact rather grateful to you for using that runaway child. But from what I heard, you’ve apparently turned down an offer to be a director. If you’re going to use Maru, I think I should know what you’re shooting at least, don’t you think?”

“I heard that all rumors in the film industry end up in president Lee Junmin’s ears, and you already even know about how I turned down that offer. I’m planning to take a break from earning money and shoot as a hobby. I have a fat bank account, so it’s about time I wasted it.”

“That sounds like to me that director Park Joongjin is planning to put his mind to working on a piece. Am I correct?”

Joongjin nodded crookedly. He looked like he was going with the mood, even though he didn’t like it. If he wasn’t the president of an agency that had the actor he wanted, that guy would’ve turned around and left already.

“That is the case.”

“If it’s like that, then I can send him to you without a guarantee. You’re the almighty director Park after all.”

“Please don’t say something that’s not even on your mind. Write a suitable contract with decent pay instead.”

“Alright, that boy doesn’t have anything special, so he’s pretty cheap.”

“Then let’s end that matter there.”

Joongjin pressed down on his knees and stood up. Just as he turned around while undoing the top button of the flowery shirt he wore all four seasons, he stopped in front of a photo on the wall. Junmin smiled bitterly. It was a pretty old photo. It was the photo of Jung Haejoo and the troupe members. He and Joongjin were in it as well.

“That’s a photo I didn’t see the last time I was here. I believe there was a photo of a pup before the layout of the office changed.”

“I see you still have a good memory. I was browsing through some old records and found that photo, so I hung it up.”

“That’s a good photo of Haejoo.”

“Indeed.”

“Can I ask you one thing?”

Junmin took out a photocopy of the photo on the wall from his drawers. He even framed it beforehand. Back when he created this, he couldn’t understand why he was making such a thing, but it seemed like it was for this moment. When he pushed the frame towards him, Joongjin accepted the frame looking rather surprised.

“You scared me there. If you knew that this was going to happen and prepared this beforehand, I would have to believe you even if you say you can see the future.”

“It’s not like that. I too don’t know why I made this. But looking at your expression, I think I know why I made it.”

After staring at the photo for a long while, Joongjin said ‘thank you’ in a really small voice. That was something that Joongjin rarely said even as a formality, but that just now felt like it came from the bottom of his heart.

“I can’t really call it compensation, but I’ll shoot a great piece with Mr. Han Maru.”

“If you do, then I’d be grateful.”

Joongjin lowered his head and left the room. Junmin, who watched as he left, subconsciously called him to stop him.

“Haejoo’s grave. I saw that you visited her this year too.”

Joongjin turned around. He looked incredibly curious about his intentions on bringing up that topic now. There was a hint of hatred as well. Junmin thought that the two males who loved the same woman simultaneously would never reconcile and never even think about doing such a thing, but after seeing Joongjin smiling sadly and warmly after taking that photo, he felt like a fool for being on the edge. Joongjin seemed to have felt the same as his expression soon turned into a powerless smile.

“What do you think Haejoo would’ve said if she saw us like this?”

“I wonder. What do you think, director Park?”

“She’ll probably not notice anything and would then grab both our hands and say that we should go eat. She’s a woman who made me marvel at her while she was acting, but she was bad at taking hints.”

“I think so too.”

Junmin looked at the photo on the wall. Many things had changed. One woman died, one man chased after the mirage and ended up creating a firm nest for himself, while the other man left after forsaking everything as though he was fed up before he eventually returned. Nothing remained the same, but there was one thing that hadn’t changed from the scenery in the photo.

“We really took that photo far away from each other, huh.”

“I went to the corner because I didn’t want to stand next to you, president Lee.”

“I’m the same.”

Junmin looked at Joongjin who stood next to him. He still looked distant, but he felt like the distance had shrunk a little. Whether it was due to time or his heart had been weathered away, or whether he had matured, he didn’t know.

“If you have time next week, why don’t we go meet Haejoo together? I was planning on weeding that place since I haven’t done it this year.”

Joongjin did not reply. He only responded after a long while when head manager Kang notified them that there was a guest.

“Very well. I’ll go with you. I think it’s about time we finish talking about the things we have always delayed about.”

“We’re too old to keep delaying things like immature kids.”

Joongjin smiled and spoke,

“I’m younger than you, president Lee.”

“After fifty, everyone’s just getting old, so let’s just say that we’re in similar situations.”

“Fifty, huh. Thinking about my age, it does make me realize that I’ve hated you for quite a long time. By this point in time, it wouldn’t be strange to marry another woman and have a child.”

“We’re old enough to see grandchildren.”

“Both you and I have it tough because our hearts were taken away by an incredible woman.”

Joongjin looked down at his flower-patterned shirt and undid all the buttons and took it off. He looked like he didn’t need it anymore.

“See you next time.”

Junmin saw him off.

KTLChamber's Thoughts

LOA feels more and more like a piece of literature rather than a webnovel. I can practically hear my English teacher saying 'what does the flower-patterned shirt represent?' 'What does it mean when he takes it off? What does that represent?' I can only hope that I did enough justice in translating it.

Editor's Note:

Well, that's the charm of this novel. I like novels over webnovels because the former is a lot more interesting than the other cuz it makes you linger on a chapter as they have a lot more freedom with what they can write. As a book format, getting through the 600s would have been so much easier cuz you could flip through the pages to see the pay off/know that it gets better.

Anyways, the flower shirt is definitely because Joongjin can finally put down his grudge.

Chapter 846
Sequence 12

“Man, I wanna go to a shoot.”

“Then go to a shooting set.”

“I can only go if someone’s calling for me.”

“Then go somewhere else. Anywhere but here.”

“I don’t have anywhere to go. I’ve stopped going to nightclubs and bars, and the girls I’ve been in contact with are no longer contacting me after I ditched them a couple times. When I loitered around the warehouse of the friend who’s still running the clothes business, he told me that we should work together if I didn’t have anything to do, but I didn’t like that either. I was wandering around without anything to do, and I ended up here.”

Hyungseok tickled Woofie’s chin, who was lying down right next to him. He was a good guy who bought stuff for Woofie ever since their first meeting, and he had brought a load of things again today. Dog chew, a cushion, and even a ball for dogs to play around with which was apparently from Germany and incredibly hard to buy.

“Should I just live here? I can look after Woofie.”

“That was the most terrible thing I’ve heard all year. It’s been a long time since I got goosebumps on my arms,” Maru said, showing his arm.

He really had gotten goosebumps.

“Can’t you think of our friendship and tell me that we should live together even if it is a joke?”

“I’ve lived for quite a long time, and I know that words can sometimes jinx things.”

“You haven’t lived that long.”

“Well, longer than you at least.”

“What are you saying? We were born in the same year. Rather than that, how’s romantic business going?”

“I think it’ll go well as long as you stay quiet. I’m asking just in case; you didn’t tell anyone about it, right?”

“I’m not sure about anything else, but I have tight lips. Don’t worry.”

When he got Maru an autograph from Han Gaeul, he never knew in his dream that the two would start dating. Only after he found out that Maru had been dating her right up to his enlistment did he understand the sudden progress in their relationship.

“When is Miss Gaeul coming?”

“Why do you ask?”

“Because I want to see her?”

“What are you going to do by seeing her?”

“Getting an opportunity to talk to a star isn’t that common. I thought I was dreaming last time when we had a meal together. A meal with a celebrity huh.”

“If you have time to loiter around then let’s go do some work.”

“Work?”

“You can’t keep using up the money you’ve earned, right? You should do a short-term part-time job or something. You goin’ or not?”

“I am going. The owner of the house is leaving, so I can’t stay. But hey, your dialect sounds terrible.”

“I’m practicing.”

He left, following Maru. When he asked where they were going, Maru opened the door to his car and pointed at it. He got in the car without saying much. He experienced for himself that following Maru’s instructions usually ended benefitting him.

“That’s Miss Gaeul’s voice.”

Han Gaeul’s voice could be heard from the radio. From what she said, it seemed that the radio DJ was on leave and she was filling in. Maru raised the volume. Listening to the consultation corner, he looked outside the window and saw a TV station. It was YBS.

“Is there a shoot for Doctors today?”

“No.”

“Then why are we here?”

“I said we’re here for a part-time job. You know, the thing you did many times.”

The thing he did many times, huh. He saw a row of large coaches when he got out of the car in the car park and went to the front of the building. Maru walked without hesitation towards the bustling crowd that was carrying various equipment.

“You’re here.”

A man in his forties, who had a pair of sunglasses around his neck, welcomed Maru. Hyungseok stood next to him in a stiff manner. When he was just glancing around because he didn’t know who it was, a person who was passing by with a box called him ‘director.’ Hyungseok immediately neatened his hair and stood upright.

“Who’s the one next to you?”

“He’s called Yoon Hyungseok; he’ll be working with me today. He appeared as a minor character in Doctors too.”

“Really? If you’re the one who brought him here, then I guess I don’t have to worry about it. I’ll get to use a good actor for cheap after all. Get on coach 1; it should depart soon. I’ll tell the leader about you, so don’t worry about that.”

“Thank you.”

“Don’t thank me. Rather than that, it’s such a pity that I have to use you like this. I’ll get my own series once my wife’s series ends, so you have to keep your promise at that time, okay? Telling me that you’re occupied with something else won’t work on me anymore.”

“I’m doing part-time jobs right now because I don’t have any work to do, so there’s no way I’ll have work in the foreseeable future. As long as you call me, I’ll immediately heed your call and go shoot.”

“Who do you think it was that betrayed me after saying the same thing five years ago? Anyway, stay where I can see you, and don’t go anywhere I can’t. I can’t have you catching the eyes of another producer and become busy.”

As soon as the man Hyungseok presumed was the director left, he grabbed Maru and asked what was on his mind,

“Director? Is this a drama? Or a documentary? Or is it an entertainment program?”

“He’s producer Park Hoon from YBS’s drama department. He’s also producer Yoo Jayeon’s husband.”

Hyungseok clicked his fingers. He had heard the name during the get-together. It was the name that producer Jayeon called while holding onto her phone while drunk.

“You promised to work with him?”

“If there’s an opportunity, yes.”

“There are quite a lot of people looking for you, huh. Don’t abandon me, and take me with you all the time, okay?”

“I’ll see how you do.”

After getting on the bus, Hyungseok looked up producer Park Hoon. His name was mentioned as the producer of ‘Flaming Lady.’

“Didn’t Miss Gaeul say something about how you rejected the offer for Flaming Lady when she was drunk?”

“You remember weird stuff. I thought you didn’t remember anything because you were drunk.”

“I do remember some things. But that director is pretty amazing. People don’t usually offer new actors jobs, do they? Moreover, that new actor ended up rejecting without knowing what was good for him. He’s practically a saint for telling you that he wants to work with you again.”

“I’m just that good at acting after all.”

“You sounded really cocky just now. What’s even worse is that I actually have to admit it. Maru, take me with you even if you become famous.”

He grabbed Maru’s hand and shook it back and forth.

* * *

“Why did you bring me here?” Hyungseok wondered as he wiped the sweat from his forehead.

It was October. The air was filled with the smell of autumn, yet he was sweating buckets. That was the result of wearing a heavy piece of armor and a thick layer of cloth to protect his skin underneath. Just this morning, he put on a cardigan because it was pretty chilly, too.

“I thought you told me to bring you around when we got on the bus.”

“I never knew that it would be like this. Didn’t I tell you before that I almost passed out after playing a minor character in a historical drama? I never knew I’d be doing this again. Not only that, I’m even wearing armor.”

“When else do you think you’d get to be a general. Just hold it in and keep going. Hey, the beard looks nice on you too.”

Maru said that with a grin. Hyungseok drank out of a water bottle. This was his second bottle already. He put down the empty bottle and picked up a long sheathe. He could still vividly remember the staff telling him to treat it carefully as it was very easy to damage. He should have realized it back then. It was already too late by the time he accepted the sword and was dragged to the cosmetics van. A beard covered in adhesives was attached to his chin, and he was given some fake scars as well. He liked his look when he checked through the phone camera, but after spending three hours in that state under the blazing sun, he wanted to rip everything off, makeup or whatever. What was fortunate was that the sun was setting.

“But don’t people usually depart early in the morning when shooting a historical drama?”

“I’m sure they must have their circumstances. It did feel rushed too.”

After adjusting his helmet, Maru asked if he looked okay. Hyungseok nodded and raised his thumb.

“The lack of a refined look from your face makes you suited to that kind of makeup. Maru, I feel like you’ll really do well playing a butcher.”

“Am I not more like a thug than a butcher?”

“It’d be awesome if you spray rice wine once and start waving your sword everywhere.”

They waited inside the tent while talking about trivial stuff. After about 10 minutes, other minor characters who had their makeup fixed entered the tent. People who were refugees until just moments ago had turned into armored generals.

“Maru, good to see you here again.”

“Hyung, you look good in that too.”

The minor actors recognized Maru and approached him. Hyungseok felt this the moment he arrived at the set: Maru was rather close to the minor actors. Not to mention people he had got to know before, he even greeted the people he had seen for the first time. He also seemed rather familiar with the leader who was in charge of controlling the background actors. Hyungseok saw him go to the place where background actors were gathered and talk to them first. It didn’t even take ten minutes for Maru to approach them and blend in with them. The guy that called him hyung just now was someone Maru met for the first time today as well.

Thinking back, Maru was rather close to the minor actors and background actors during the shoot of ‘Doctors’ as well. He talked to them and listened to their stories seriously. There weren’t many actors who took interest in extras like Maru did, not among the people he knew at least.

“It gets cold at night, so let’s finish things off the first time,” Maru said to the others.

“It’s not about us not making mistakes. It’s about the actors not causing NGs.”

“He’s right. Just before, I had to stand in one spot for an hour because a certain someone kept causing an NG. Geez, I think I would do better than that.”

Maru just asked for understanding from the grumbling man, saying that it might have been out of nervousness.

“As I said before, this director hates people standing in a daze. Different directors have different styles, so there are directors who don’t really care about the acting of the actors in the background, but this director will catch everything, so he’ll cut things off if you relax just because you’re outside the frame. So watch yourselves. You know how tiring it gets when the leader gets naggy.”

“I hate the leader nagging me more than the director doing it.”

“I’ll get myself together just like you said.”

Hyungseok thought that Maru would do well as a director from how he explained everything. He felt this both when they were shooting a short film and when they were shooting the drama: having Maru around made acting a lot easier. When someone made a mistake, he would be the first one to suggest changes before the director did, and he was absolutely on point every single time. When Hyungseok was stuttering because he didn’t know what was wrong, he felt like he found his path forward whenever he heard Maru’s words. It also felt as though he gained more confidence if they acted together. He was pretty helpful in many ways.

“Still, this is way too tiring.”

Hyungseok lifted his shoulder armor slightly before letting go. He was sweating even though the sun was setting. Also, from what he heard, he was supposed to be running while wearing this. Hyungseok desperately prayed that the chasing scene of young generals was short.

KTLChamber's Thoughts

Maru following Moonjoong's footsteps……

Editor's Note:

I kinda miss reading about Maru's acting. Always the most immersive chapters.

Chapter 847
Sequence 12

“Here’s your lunch box.”

“Thanks.”

“But man, is it really okay for the weather to be this hot in the Fall? The smell of sweat won’t leave me.”

“Try staying like that for a little longer. You’ll be shivering soon enough. At that time, you’ll thank yourself for wearing such thick clothes. It’s much better than standing in front of the castle gates wearing only a piece of cloth in the middle of the night.”

“That’s true.”

Maru picked up his chopsticks and opened the lunch box. The jeyuk-bokkeum was seasoned too hard and the rice was dry, but since hunger was the best spice, he had no problem eating. He drank the miso soup without a single chunk of anything in it. Warmth returned to his body which had been cooling down from the night wind.

“I saw that the director was asking you to eat together.”

“This place is much more relaxing for me.”

He handed over a bottle of water to Mr. Choi, who asked for some water. The way they sat in a circle as they ate made them look like total beggars. Their faces were greasy from all the running, and their clothes were full of dirt because they had to fall over several times. A young guy looked next to him and giggled. Regardless of who it was, everyone told each other that they needed to wash up a little.

“The atmosphere at my last shooting set was frosty, so I’m glad that it’s much better today. It was so stifling with everyone staring down at their phones.”

“You say that, but you were dazing out until Maru talked to you.”

“Ahjussi, when did I daze out? I just had something to think about.”

“Little boy, you can’t lie in front of me. Hey, didn’t you see him dazing out a while back?”

“I did; he had his mouth wide open.”

“You guys are so harsh.”

Regardless of age, everyone enjoyed their talk. Maru liked this kind of scenery. This was the reason he went to visit the background actors and minor actors on sets. There were people who were simply doing this job for money, but quite a lot of them had the dream of becoming actors in a corner of their hearts. The fact that they shared a common dream brought vitality to their conversations. Listening to their words made him feel like the things that were being weathered away without him knowing were being polished again. Passion, effort, challenge – things like that. He thought back to how elder Moonjoong talked a lot with the background actors. He was probably influenced by that without knowing it.

“Maru, come here for a sec,” Park Hoon called from in the distance.

Maru put down the empty lunch box and walked over with fast steps.

“Can you play a dying role once?”

“By being stabbed?”

“No, by an arrow. You have to say a serious line in front of the castle gates and get hit by an arrow.”

“If I can get my face to show up in the drama, then I’d be grateful.”

“The line goes like this.”

After clearing his throat, Park Hoon puffed out his chest and shouted,

“You mongrels! I, Lee Junggyun, am here! Take my head this instant!”

His voice was so loud that the people around him flinched and stared at him. Park Hoon raised his index finger and poked his own chest before frowning and staggering.

“Something like that.”

“The name is Lee Junggyun?”

“Yeah. He achieves great feats during chaos, but he was branded a rebel after failing in politics, and instead of fleeing, he goes to the castle and chooses to commit suicide.”

“What a prideful man.”

“Try showing that prideful side of him. The assistant director should have told the makeup team about it, so you can go there.”

When Park Hoon grabbed his walkie-talkie and told everyone to prepare, Maru could hear the voice of the assistant director, “the shoot is beginning soon.”

“What did he say?” Hyungseok asked as he came over.

“He wanted me to die in a prideful manner.”

“What the heck does that mean?”

“Well, something like that. I’ll be away for a bit, so take care of yourself.”

“I’ve done this part-time job several times. I can take care of myself, so you just do your best with that dying role.”

Maru walked past the coach that the actors were resting in and arrived at the makeup van. Just as Park Hoon said, they had been notified beforehand, so he was able to sit down on a chair and get makeup done on him the moment he arrived. His hair was tied into a ball above his head, and he changed his costume to a makeshift military uniform. He also had a mustache put on him. After that, he moved to the castle gates. On top of the castle was a row of soldiers holding torches. He could see Park Hoon and the actors doing a rehearsal in front of the firmly shut gates.

“Come here.”

Park Hoon waved at him. As senior actors were gathered where he was, he ran over.

“He’s the one who’ll die.”

“Hello, everyone. I’m Han Maru.”

The actors who were well-known for doing historical dramas looked at the director’s face once before encouraging him.

“Looks like you’re up to stuff if director Park is introducing you to us, huh.”

“Senior, you should take note of him. He’s quite an item.”

“Quite an item? If you put it that way then I should introduce myself too.”

Maru looked at the actor who reached his hand out. He was Jung Goosik who played villain roles in not just historical dramas but urban dramas as well. Maru also referred to his acting quite a lot when he was studying historical dramas. The mid-baritone vocal tone as well as his precise pronunciations was a textbook acting style that by just imitating him, could allow anyone to do decently. Maru introduced himself once again as they shook hands.

“Hello there. I don’t know if you know me; I’m Jung Goosik,” said Goosik.

“I learned a lot by looking at your acting, senior.”

“Really? Then you should pay up if you received lessons.”

“I’ll buy you coffee later.”

“I like vending machine coffee better than Starbucks.”

“I’d love to treat you to the high-class, 400-won coffee.”

“This fella knows his stuff. Oh, I just ended up not using polite speech, but may I continue?”

“If you didn’t, I would be at a loss instead.”

Goosik laughed before waving his hand up and down.

“Hey, where do you belong to? Or are you by yourself, seeing as how you’re young?”

“Senior, he’s in a solid one.”

Park Hoon interrupted and said that Maru belonged to JA.

“Oh, you were one of Junmin-hyung’s boys. I believe Taeho is there too.”

“Yes, that is the case.”

“Looks like you really are quite an item, to borrow director Park’s words, eh? That hyung doesn’t take just anyone under his wing. That fellow I saw last time, uh, Yoo Sooil, that was it. He was quite good too.”

Goosik tapped him on the shoulders and wished him luck.

“Please stand by,” the assistant director shouted.

Goosik went to the top of the castle gates. It was he who shot the arrow. Maru looked at the jimmy jib moving along the castle walls. Goosik grandly said his line in between the lights that shone upon him from both sides. Maru could hear his voice clearly as though he was using a microphone.

Maru waited under the castle walls until Goosik’s act ended. When Goosik drew his bowstring, the camera setup changed.

“For now, we’ll start with the shouting. Then, we’ll have you spit blood and go to the next cut.”

After listening to Park Hoon’s explanation, Maru stood in front of the castle walls. Behind him were dozens of people standing in a semicircle. He made eye contact with the minor actors there. Some raised their fist above their heads; it seemed to be a gesture to urge him on.

Goosik was staring down at him from the top of the castle gates. Although he couldn’t see too clearly because of the dark, he felt like Goosik was smiling. He was one cheerful person.

“On standby. Three, two, one.”

Cue!

* * *

“You mongrels! I, Lee Junggyun, am here! Take my head this instant! Now!”

His voice was very crisp and clear. Jung Goosik looked at the junior shouting below. One of the reasons why young juniors had a hard time doing historical dramas was the unique speech of historical dramas that was different from the modern language. If it was a simple change of vocabulary, then it wouldn’t be a problem for actors, since their job was to look at scripts all day, but the problem was that the minute ups and downs in words were different from the modern tongue. At first glance, people would think that they would be able to do it after listening to it once, and the young actors could indeed say a word or two properly as they had learned acting, but when it came to long sentences, especially when they had to strain their stomach when saying it, the difficulty would become increasingly high and they weren’t able to cope. The listeners would find it awkward as well. The reason why young actors who were known for their decent acting skills didn’t flow into the historical drama scene was one, it was pretty hard and exhausting, but in most cases, it was the second reason: they weren’t able to digest the acting itself.

“Look at this guy.”

You have to bring out the tastefulness without exaggerating – that was one of many pieces of advice that Goosik managed to come up with after experiencing many historical dramas. As most historical speeches required a baritone-level voice, there were many occasions where the actor forced himself to squeeze out their voice, and in most of those cases, it sounded worse than a rooster being strangled when heard through the audio playback. Young fellows especially had a hard time finding their acting tone, but the fellow down there was already aware of what he should do to make his voice most charming, in a historical speech tone to boot.

His acting was good enough that they might as well go to the next cut immediately, but the director seemed dissatisfied and gave some directions himself. Seeing that, Goosik could immediately understand what kind of expectations the director had in this junior named Maru. If that young man didn’t show promise, he wouldn’t have thrown away an act on this level and requested him to do it again. Although many people said that the industry was like thin ice and that the shooting set ran on money, it didn’t change the fact that many people still looked out for the good ones. Actors knew best that acting was hard, so it was in their nature to give a piece of advice if they saw a hardworking person.

Goosik took out his phone and captured the young fellow shouting hard enough that his veins could be seen on his neck. At first, he was just going to take a photo, but he left behind a video as well. He could feel the energy from the screen as well. He liked actors like this one. One that screamed ‘I’m good’ just by watching.

“You mongrels! I, Lee Junggyun, am here! Take my head this instant! Now! Now!”

Goosik felt more and more fond of this young man the more he watched him scrape his voice from the bottom of his abdomen and spit it out in the forward direction. His voice didn’t scatter in the air powerlessly, and it clearly reached the top of the castle walls. He shouted at the general who stepped forward to maintain his last bit of pride.

“Your courage is admirable, so I shall spare you this once.”

The young man, who looked like he was ready to give up his life at any moment, suddenly said, “thank you, milord,” with a big grin on his face. When he watched the people around him laugh, another actor scolded him to stop his ridiculous improvisations.

“Why? He picked that up well.”

Goosik stroked his chin as he looked at Maru who was getting ready to be shot. From how he responded to his random words without being flustered, he seemed to have the reflexes as well. He could tell why director Park introduced him. He was amicable and was good at acting to boot.

“We’ll do that again!”

Goosik crossed his arms and watched the young fellow’s act.

KTLChamber's Thoughts

Twenty minutes before scheduled upload time. I made it safely.

People are taking note of Maru! Hopefully, we'll get somewhere this time.

On another note, here's author's notes from March 2017. It has nothing to do with the story, but I thought it was quite funny. So here it goes:

------

March 17th. The weather is fine.

Dear Diary.

I woke up early in the morning, cosplaying as a good boy. After all, I had to go to the library.

I washed my face and even my hair. After all, I had to go to the library.

I left my house after eating a banana. After all, I had to go to the library.

Microdust is bad outside. But it's fine. After all, I can go to the library.

I walked twenty minutes and arrived at the hill leading up to the library. It was so good to breathe in the fresh morning air and walk. Teehee!

But something feels off. There is not a single person climbing up the hill.

But it's fine. It's a weekday morning, so it might happen, and so I walk up the hill.

Indeed.

The sign on the front door said 'closed.'

Dammit.

Frustrated, I sit on the bench in front of the library and turn on my laptop.

An hour later, the laptop turns off. There's a lot of dust on the screen, and my throat feels sore too.

Dammit.

Hahaha.

I come back home.

It feels tragic.

But the library isn't closed on Saturday, so it should be fine.

I'm worried that there are only 14 laptop seats, but it should be fine.

Today's diary.

The end.

------

Chamber, translating other people's diaries since 2022. xD

Editor's Note:

Maru didn't even need Giwoo to become famous.

Chapter 848
Sequence 12

He could feel the sweat on the back of his neck. He barely got an okay sign, but the director did not give him any time to rest. As shooting throughout the night was usually paid by the hour, it seemed that the director was planning on using him to the fullest unless he fell over due to exhaustion. He quenched his thirst with the bottle of water that Hyungseok tossed at him and cleared his throat. The vocal exercises he did every morning brought him satisfactory results. He once again felt that while effort might be useless, it never betrayed him.

“Hold the arrow with your hand and once the shoot starts, pull it out and throw it to the side. We don’t want the fact that it doesn’t have an arrowhead to be caught on the camera. But don’t block the camera with your hand either. That would look unnatural,” Park Hoon said while giving him an arrow without an arrowhead.

He placed it on his left chest and practiced pulling it out several times. He had learned about how to do this when he was in the action school, so he soon got a passing score.

“That’s how you do it. Also, put some of this in your mouth.”

The staff member standing next to Park Hoon gave him some fake blood. When he put it in his mouth, he could taste something akin to hot chocolate. The staff member smiled at him, saying that it was safe to drink.

“Don’t spurt it out; leak it out instead. This is actually anatomically wrong, but it’s a cliché for dramas. You know what it’s like, right?”

Maru nodded. It was a scene he had seen several times in dramas and movies. It was a device that told the audience that the character was dying. He tried leaking some of the fake blood from his mouth.

“You can leak a little more than that. Swallow whatever’s left in your mouth. It’s not too good if you spill too much.”

He drank the fake blood in his mouth before putting some more in. The director and the staff returned to their positions. Above his head came the boom mic. After checking the lights installed on each side, he stood in his designated position.

The director, who had been checking through the monitor in the distance, gave a signal. Along with the assistant director’s shout, the shoot began. Maru did not act hastily. There was no need to react in real-time like he was on stage for a play. The editing would solve minor problems even if he started a little late. The moment he felt the words he was rolling in his mouth were ready to go out, he pulled out the arrow that he was holding against his left chest. He twisted it forcefully and pulled it out like pulling out a deeply rooted tree before throwing it on the ground. He didn’t forget to spill out some of the blood in his mouth.

He could feel the fake blood flow down his chin and drip onto the ground. He was told that he couldn’t be excessive, so he swallowed the rest. The sudden movement of his adam’s apple would make his act lose detail, so he pulled his chin inward as though he was swallowing his frustration before opening his eyes as wide as possible so that the movement of his adam’s apple would look natural.

“Disgusting bastards.”

What the director requested him to do was fall over after saying that line. Apparently, that process was entirely up to him. While he could do it the classic way and bend one knee to fall to the side slowly, he felt that holding on until the end would look better in order to express his unrelenting will. He tensed his eyes so much that they started to hurt before leaning his body forward. He had put padding and cloth over his knees before the shoot began so that it would only hurt just a little even if they collided with the frozen ground. If a rock he missed before broke his knee, then that was just his luck.

Both of his knees touched the ground with a thud. It actually hurt less than he expected. Inwardly feeling satisfied, he continued acting. He twisted his head and slowly fell over forward. He was tensing his waist and thighs, so it wasn’t that dangerous even though he was falling forward. If he failed at adjusting his speed and was about to kiss the ground, he could just use his hands.

His torso touched the ground. At the last moment, his feet were raised off the ground, adding more speed, which made his chin ache quite a bit, but it was still bearable. When he stayed dead still in order to finish this in one cue, the director gave the cut sign.

“Shall we do that once again?”

Maru raised his head while still lying down to look at the director who came over.

“And I was just thinking that I did pretty good.”

“What? You don’t want to do that again?”

“This actually hurts quite a lot. I hit my chin in the end too.”

“What, you’re injured?”

Park Hoon, who was smiling, suddenly turned serious and crouched down. He barely managed to tell him that it wasn’t anything serious when he was asked where he was hurt and if he needed treatment.

“Boy, you know what freaks me out the most during a shoot? It’s when a person gets injured. Damage to props can be made up for with money, but that can’t be done when it comes to people getting injured. Are you really okay? If that shook your skull, you should definitely go to the hospital.”

“It’s not that bad. I just got a scratch over here.”

He put his hand on his chin as he said those words, and it pricked quite a lot. When he took his finger off, he saw some blood. He realized instantly that it wasn’t fake blood.

“Looks like I overdid that.”

“No, I think I asked too much from you. It was a joke when I said we should do that again. Well done. Go get your chin disinfected and treated. If it leaves behind a scar, that would be such a loss to you. Moreover, since you belong to JA, I can’t handle the aftermath.”

Park Hoon returned to smiling again as though he was relieved that it wasn’t a big problem. Maru grabbed the director’s hand and stood up. Some members of the staff had also come around to watch.

“For now, wipe your chin with some water. We can’t have bacteria entering your cut.”

He followed the woman who did makeup on him into a coach. The woman took out some ointment and an adhesive bandage and told him to jut his chin out.

“I’ll do it. It’s not a big cut.”

“It’s on your chin, so leave it to me. It’s not like you can see it anyways. Raise your chin a little.”

He didn’t say no to that since she was willing. Just as she said, he didn’t have the ability to see his cut when it was on his chin.

“You are Han Maru, right?”

“Yes, do you know me?”

“I do. I watched all of your plays in Daehak-ro. You can call me an avid fan of sorts.”

“Really? Thank you.”

“Can you turn around this way?”

The woman applied the ointment before putting on the adhesive bandage.

“I don’t think it’ll leave behind a scar, but go to the hospital just in case. The face is the life of an actor after all.”

“If I have a cut or two, I won’t have to put on makeup if I play a delinquent role later, so it’s fine.”

“Men tend to say all sorts of weird stuff when they’re told to go to the hospital. Don’t regret it later and just go. There are cases where people don’t pass an audition because a scar throws them off.”

“Is that about you?”

“Was it obvious?”

“It just felt like it.”

The woman put away the first-aid kit and took out her phone.

“Can I take a photo?”

“With me?”

“Yes. When you were doing plays, you disappeared like a ghost after the photo time even when I wanted a photo. Wait a second, that makes me angry. Why were you in such a hurry? Do you know how disappointed I was when I tried to take a photo with you every single time?”

“Sorry about that. I wasn’t really in a state where I could look at my surroundings. I went back to the waiting room as soon as the play was finished.”

“It’s somewhat funny for me to say this, but you should look out for your fans a little more. There are more than you expect.”

“I’ll bear that in mind.”

He made a V with his fingers and took a photo with her. When he was doing plays back in Blue Sky, he was crazy for acting. He felt like he would collapse otherwise. When the other members of the troupe told him that he should take photos with the fans from time to time, he would go out briefly and take some photos, but otherwise, he went back to the waiting room and caught his breath. He had a hard time winning against the sense of vanity that overwhelmed him after a play.

“You aren’t going to ignore us in the future, right?”

“Yes. I’ve opened my eyes a little. Just tell me whenever you need it. I’ll give you an autograph or take a photo with you or whatever.”

“Then since we’re at it, can you give me an autograph as well? My friends are your fans too. We’re in the fan café too, and we’re pretty active.”

“My fan café?”

The woman nodded vigorously.

“The café’s founder is two years younger than me, and apparently, she has been your fan since high school.”

He knew who the fan café’s founder was. She was a friend of Bada. Although he had never seen her in person, Bada showed him her face on her graduation album.

“If I ever do something like a fan meetup, I’ll definitely invite all of you.”

“You have to keep your word. I’m going to post these on the café.”

“I’m not sure about anything else, but I’m good at keeping promises.”

The woman left first, wishing him luck with his future endeavors. Maru felt rather unreal because this was the first time he came across a fan. What came to his mind was that he actually had a fan after all. He felt grateful and asked for her name, but the woman refused, saying that a fan and an actor should stay distant. She even gave him advice that fandoms weren’t always helpful and that he should be more cautious. She seemed to be quite experienced in the fandom scene.

“Hey, I thought you were really dying after being hit by an arrow. We all exclaimed when you fell down, didn’t we?”

Hyungseok made a fuss the moment he went back. The background actors next to him also raised their thumbs, saying that he was the best.

“I wasn’t that good.”

“Yes, you were. We know best as third persons. That’s just how acting works. Also, hey, just take a compliment for what it is. I noticed this when I was in the military: the first thing you do is doubt when you receive a compliment. You make people awkward.”

“It just became a force of habit. I’ve seen too many people grinding their blades behind their back while smiling in the front.”

“But seriously, you didn’t happen to belong to some dangerous organization, right? Though, it does make me think that you might be able to pass off as part of one if you put on a dry face.”

“I’ve lived quite an upright life in this life, but who knows? I might have done something dangerous in my previous life.”

He had repeated many lives. Day worker, bus driver, actor, homeless man… there was the possibility that he belonged to a shady organization in a life that even the masked man did not remember. Though, it seemed unlikely seeing as how Gaeul was always next to him. However, it wasn’t like people could predict what was coming in life.

The reason he was able to naturally play the role of things he had never experienced might be due to the traces of life he lived that were engraved in his soul, not because of practice. The reason that he repeatedly lived more lives as an actor was probably because he was able to effectively use his piled up experiences of emotional expression.

“My junior.”

Jung Goosik appeared out of nowhere and put his arm around Maru’s shoulder.

“You fell over quite loudly back then. Aren’t you hurt?”

“I’m okay. It was just a small scratch.”

“You should watch out. It’s good that you’re willing to set your soul ablaze for acting, but you should look at the long run. There are many young ones who end up ruining themselves because they can’t hold back their recklessness while they’re young. But still, that was really good just now. It’s not easy for a young person to use their whole body like that.”

Goosik slapped him on the back before turning around. His slaps were actually quite spicy. While reaching out to his back that still ached, he watched at Goosik, who was walking over to the director.

“That man is the man who appears in dramas as villainous roles quite often, isn’t he?”

“He’s senior Jung Goosik.”

“So he’s senior Jung Goosik. I want to do well and catch his eyes too.”

“Should I tell the director that there’s someone here who’s ready to jump off the castle wall?”

“Hey, don’t you think I’m too young to die?”

Hyungseok turned a corner alongside the other background actors while crossing his arms, saying that he was cold. Maru stroked the adhesive bandage on his chin and looked at the scene. The shoot seemed to be in its last stages as he could see some of the staff packing up. Not long later, he could hear ‘thank you for your work’ from around the scene.

“Well then, those going to Seoul, please get on coach 6. For the ones who have a shoot tomorrow as well, we got you a place to sleep, so you can go there.”

Maru said his goodbyes to the background actors who still had further shoots and got in coach 6 with Hyungseok.

KTLChamber's Thoughts

Huh, it *does* look like we're getting somewhere.

Also, one of my favorite characters makes a return in the

Chapter 849
Sequence 12

“We can’t always tell you hopeful words. We’ll end up scarring the patient’s family if we give empty promises like ‘we’ll definitely save someone’. That’s why we always use the phrase ‘we’ll do our best’. Our best – you might think that it sounds irresponsible. You might think that we’re just asking you to not hold us responsible since we did our best and were just unlucky. But what I can tell you for sure is that we don’t say that we’ll do our best so easily. There are many doctors who have sacrificed what’s important to them for what they consider to be the best thing. That’s why they’re doctors, and that’s what makes them doctors.”

“Can I really trust him? Can I really trust that doctor?”

“You can.”

Gaeul hugged the tearful girl. She patted the girl who was wiping her eyes. She felt like crying herself, but she managed to hold herself back. Only if she showed a calm side would the child calm down after all.

“Cut. That was good.”

Along with the cut signal, Gaeul let go of the child she was tightly holding in her arms.

“Sorry about that. I hugged you too tightly, didn’t I?”

“Not at all, senior. I was out of it as well because I was so touched. Also, I think I stained your gown with my snot.”

“I can just wipe it off.”

This junior, who was just entering middle school, really looked like a doll as she was a former child model. She looked cute, and her peach fuzz was so soft that it made her want to pinch her cheek. The first time she saw the little girl was four days ago on the set, and she took a liking to her from the get-go. Not only was she very docile, she was skilled as well. When the camera was rolling, she was a pitiful and anxious girl who was about to lose her parents, but when it was turned off, she walked around with a bright smile on her face.

“Look at you two. You two are practically sisters who have been separated for years. I knew that Gaeul was good, but Nayoon, you’re pretty good too.”

“Not at all. It was just senior who led me so well.”

“Look at you, you speak so pretty too.”

When the director applauded, Nayoon smiled in embarrassment. The producer was known to encourage the staff and the actors a lot, but when it came to Nayoon, he was practically doting. Though, when it came to her, other people would also start off by complimenting her with a big grin on their faces.

Gaeul, who was having her makeup fixed, told her stylist to wait a moment. She saw Nayoon staring at her. This happened a few times before as well. She looked as though she had something to say, but when she asked what was up, Nayoon would shake her head, saying that it was nothing. It didn’t seem all that serious, so she didn’t pry too much into it.

“You don’t have anything to say today either?” Gaeul asked.

Nayoon nodded with a shy smile on her face.

“I wonder who you take after to be so cute.”

She pinched her cheek slightly before letting go. She had round eyes and thick lips that looked like it would take ages to apply lip balm on. Just then, she got the feeling that she had seen her face quite a lot before. When she observed her in detail, Nayoon waited in expectation. Just as she was about to remember someone that resembled her, a pleasant voice greeted Nayoon.

“Hello, Nayoon?”

It was Giwoo. Gaeul focused on the corner of her vision to have a look at Nayoon’s lips. It was two days ago that she found out about ‘this’. It occurred when these two people, who had their signature smiles, were greeting each other. Nayoon would slightly turn her face to the side and put on an uncomfortable smile. She wondered what it would be like now. The moment Giwoo walked past her after greeting her, Nayoon sighed slightly. It was the kind of sigh that people made when the tension left their body all at once.

Gaeul quickly looked away and pretended as if she didn’t see it. The reaction was so minute that she would not have noticed if she didn’t chance upon it two days ago. Was she doing that because she liked Giwoo so much? For that to be true though, her expression was too dark. Her face was stiff from tension without a hint of excitement in it.

“Uhm, Nayoon.”

“Yes?”

“No, it’s nothing. Let’s do our best with the next scene too.”

She wanted to ask what made her so uneasy, but she felt like that would put Nayoon in a tough spot. There was also the possibility that she was wrong. This little girl had a calm demeanor contrary to her young age, so she would send a signal for help if she needed it.

It became lunchtime. The director clapped and left the set. Food trucks and coffee trucks prepared by Kang Giwoo’s fan club were on standby. ‘Please take care of our Giwoo.’ , ‘Kang Giwoo, Doctor’s Office will be a big hit.’, ‘Viewing rate of Doctor’s office will hit 30%.’ and such signs could be seen on those trucks.

“How many times has it been now? We get to eat a lot thanks to our dear actor Kang. Thanks for the food, actor Kang.”

“Yes, senior. Please enjoy.”

“Senior Giwoo, thank you for the food.”

“Please eat to your heart’s content.”

Starting with the senior actor, everyone received a neatly packaged lunch box and a cup of coffee. Gaeul also got a box and a fruit juice before sitting on the bench in front of the set. The sun was quite warm today. It would be quite a waste to not eat outside on a day like this. Mijoo and Chanwoo left, saying that they were going to eat outside. She took a photo and sent it to Maru, saying that she was eating. She soon got a reply. He sent a photo of him wearing a suit alongside Hyungseok. It seemed like he was doing all the background actor part-time jobs at YBS. According to him, it was better than loitering around at home or something.

Around the time she finished about half the food, Nayoon walked over.

“Did you enjoy your lunch?”

“Yes, I did. How about you, senior?”

“Me too.”

She looked at Nayoon with a straw in her mouth. She still looked like she had something to say but was hesitating to say it. Did she want Gaeul to ask first?

“I just can’t hold it in anymore. I have to know today. You have something to say to me, don’t you?”

Nayoon spoke as she smiled shyly.

“Senior, you don’t know who I am, do you?”

What could that mean? Gaeul tilted her head.

“You’re Kim Nayoon.”

“Yes, that’s true.”

“Have we met before? If that’s the case, I’m so sorry. I really have a terrible memory, and I have a hard time remembering people.”

“It’s not like that. It’s natural for you to not recognize me. I asked just in case.”

Nayoon scratched her head.

“My real name is Kim Bitna, does that remind you of anything?”

“Kim Bitna?”

The moment she heard that name, Yuna’s face overlapped on top of Nayoon’s. She did think that she had seen her somewhere and it turned out to be like this.

“Are you Yuna’s sister?”

“Yes.”

“Oh my god, why didn’t you tell me?”

“I was just a little embarrassed. I heard about you from my sister. Of course, I like you quite a lot too.”

“I only saw photos of you when you were young from Yuna. Moreover, the name Bitna left such a deep impression in my mind that I never realized you could be Yuna’s sister. So that’s why Yuna told me to look forward to it whenever she talked about you. Yuna talked about you a lot too, about how you’re still quite active these days.”

Gaeul grabbed Nayoon’s hand and had her sit next to her.

“Now that I know, I feel like you two resemble each other even more. So Nayoon is just a stage name?”

“Yes. I was going to use my real name, but mom said it sounded too old-fashioned.”

“What’s wrong with it? It’s a pretty name.”

“I also thought that it wasn’t a big problem, but the president of the agency also said that there were a few actresses with that name and didn’t do well, so we changed it.”

“I guess there is that jinx. Then what should I call you?”

“Whatever you find comfortable, senior.”

“Then can I call you Bitna? I always called you Bitna while talking to Yuna, so I’m kinda used to saying that.”

“That’s good for me too. Everyone close to me calls me Bitna.”

“Alright, then call me unni. Senior sounds way too distant. Oh, right. You said you were going to come over with Yuna before but didn’t come, didn’t you? Do you know how dejected I was back then?”

“Sorry about that. I was too embarrassed when I thought I would meet you, senior. I also had work too.”

“Unni.”

When she emphasized that, Bitna nodded and replied, “unni,” in a small voice. She really looked like a doll from how she hesitated a little before finally speaking. When she came to, Gaeul found herself hugging the girl.

“I saw you now, so definitely come over with Yuna, okay?”

“Yes.”

“Is there anything you find difficult while shooting? I don’t have a great influence or anything, but I’ll help you with what I can.”

“It’s fine since everyone treats me nicely. I’m really happy to be working with good people.”

“Who do you take after to say such pretty words and act so mature? Bitna, do you want to be my sister? Or a daughter is fine too.”

Gaeul poked her on the cheek. Yuna often brought her up during their conversation. She mentioned that Bitna kept working and was preparing a drama as well, but she didn’t know that they would meet like this.

“Bitna, I’m sure you must become famous in no time. You’re good at acting and you’re pretty.”

“Not at all. There are many people better than me, especially at the acting school.”

“That might be the case, but you’re the best among the child actors I’ve seen. I almost ended up crying while acting with you just now. I could feel your emotions and… you see that my eyes are still red?”

“You’re much better than me, though. Thanks to you, I was able to act quite comfortably. I wouldn’t have been able to do that with other people.”

Bitna was so humble. She seemed much better than most adults. Bitna, who was speaking with a smile, suddenly turned her head around slightly. It was a change that she could catch because she was right in front of her.

“What is it?” Gaeul asked, maintaining a smile on her face so that Bitna didn’t panic.

Bitna blinked once before speaking,

“Uhm.”

“Tell me. I have tight lips. I will never tell anyone else about it if it's a secret.”

After a moment of hesitation, Bitna started speaking,

“The thing is, for some reason, I have a hard time talking to senior Kang Giwoo.”

“You find Giwoo difficult?”

“Yes.”

“Can I ask why?”

Bitna hesitated again. Was it hard for her to say? Gaeul looked around and made eye contact with Giwoo, who was talking to a staff member. Maybe Bitna was finding it hard to speak because they were in a place where Giwoo could see. She grabbed Bitna’s hand and walked to the back of the set.

“Unni, you’re close to senior Kang Giwoo, aren’t you?”

That seemed to be the reason for her hesitation. Gaeul believed that she had to be honest here.

“Honestly, I don’t really know nowadays, whether I’m close to him or not. So can you tell me?”

“The way senior Kang Giwoo smiles is scary. I don’t know why. This is the first time it has happened. I know that he’s a good person, but for some reason, I want to stay away from him.”

“You’re scared but you don’t know the reason, huh.”

Gaeul knelt down slightly to look at Bitna at eye-level. It had only been four days since she first saw her, but she had heard a lot about her from Yuna until now, especially about her personality. If Yuna was right about her sister, Bitna was definitely not someone who would hate other people without a reason, much less talk about it to other people.

“It’s natural for you not to believe me yet, Bitna. I feel like there’s something more to it than that, but I won’t urge you to tell me that right now. But once you judge that you can trust me, tell me at that time. Even if it’s not me, you should ask for help from someone you can trust.”

She might be wrong about this, but she said those words anyway. That put her at ease after all. She even wished for Bitna to say that she didn’t have a reason at all.

“Sorry, unni.”

She accepted. This meant that she knew something. Gaeul grabbed Bitna’s shoulders.

“Yes, it’s good to be cautious. I won’t tell anyone about what happened here, so don’t worry.”

Gaeul reached out to Bitna. Bitna grabbed her tighter than before.

KTLChamber's Thoughts

Gee, after reading this chap, I want to read further ahead.

…which I will! MUAHAHAHAHA

Editor's Note:

Man, I forgot that time skip = Bitna growing up. They grow up so fast these days… Anyways, I think Bitna gonna meet Maru and tell him her worries.

Chapter 850
Sequence 12

He found it strange. Why would she avoid her eyes? She was young, so she might feel shy when looking someone in the eyes, but from the minute tremors in the corner of her eyes, there seemed to be a different reason. Giwoo had seen numerous people avoiding his eyes like that. The executives that lowered their eyes in fear after being found out by his grandfather while pulling tricks looked like that. He wondered if he should ignore it, or if he should probe her out. It hadn’t reached the point of wanting to ask her everything, but it did tug at his mind. Everyone was looking at him with goodwill, but she stood out as she looked at him with wariness.

“Gaeul.”

Just as he was about to approach Bitna, who was by herself in the distance, he saw Gaeul, who appeared with coffee in hand. He put away his doubt about the brat and talked to Gaeul first. It was a trivial problem like a sore on his tongue, so he didn’t need to resolve it immediately.

“What is it?”

“I don’t think I’ve heard your answer to the question I asked yesterday.”

“Yesterday?”

“If you’re going to tell me that you forgot about it, then give me some time. I’ll go to the bathroom and wipe my tears for a bit.”

“I haven’t forgotten. I just didn’t get to talk to you about it because I was so caught up with the shoot. I’m grateful that you invited me, but I don’t think I can make it after all.”

“You have something to do that day?”

“I have a prior engagement. I think about this a lot recently, but I think I’ve gotten quite busy. Though, I’m still no match for you.”

“That’s such a pity. It is a good opportunity to taste some good wine.”

“Yeah, it is. Let’s go together next time.”

“Alright.”

Gaeul walked by while waving her script in the air. Giwoo relaxed the smile on his face and looked at her back. Did she hear something from Han Maru? Or did she actually have an appointment that day? If she heard about his past from Han Maru, she would probably hold him in contempt and avoid him, but there was nothing like that. She smiled back and responded just like before. For the past few days, he had watched her from a distance, but it didn’t look like she had a change of heart. If she heard something from Han Maru, she should have shown a reaction.

Thinking back, it was unlikely that Han Maru would tell his woman about the past and to ‘be careful of Kang Giwoo.’ Not only was there no evidence, it would also look shameful for him to just snitch like that. There was a possibility that Han Gaeul might become suspicious of him or even get fed up with him if he tried to taint the reputation of an actor in his prime, so he must have not mentioned it. Giwoo didn’t know how close the two were, but they shouldn’t have revealed everything to each other. After all, he was like that too.

He thought about it several times over, but the conclusion he reached was that Han Gaeul knew nothing after all. Even if she did, he could just feign ignorance and tell her that no such thing happened. If she came out strong about it, he could just borrow the power of law. After all, the reputation and relationships he had maintained for a long time would bury the flaws of his past. A near-nameless actor dating Han Gaeul versus an actor at his peak of popularity. It was obvious who the masses would side with.

Seeing Gaeul treat him like usual felt like a burden had been lifted off him. The brat’s strange attitude didn’t matter anymore.

“Mr. Seongho, I heard you are getting married. Congratulations. Please tell me the date. I might not be able to attend, but I can always send you congratulatory gifts.

“Miss Yoonah, the restaurant you recommended to me last time was really good. Thank you. I was able to have a good time with my parents thanks to you. I’m not saying this is compensation, but here are tickets to a musical. You said you fought with your boyfriend before, right? Try to make up with him with these. It’s a romantic comedy, so I’m sure you two will get back together again.

“Jongsoo, doing a part-time job is hard, isn’t it? But try to hold on for just a little more. I overheard the lighting director say the new recruit was skilled and that he wants to keep working with him; that’s about you. The director might be a little strict, but he definitely leads his people in the right direction, so try your best. I’ll try to talk about you too when I can.”

He crossed off the names on the list in his head as he spoke to people. It was rather annoying to have to walk around the set with his ears open, but it was something he couldn’t afford to do without. It was what allowed the current ‘Kang Giwoo’ to exist, after all. The important thing to do in order to achieve superiority in a relationship was to give material gifts and remember trivial things. As long as they were human, no one would hate what is given to them for free. The important thing here was to not act haughty about giving the gift, it was to express that they ‘deserve’ those gifts discreetly. While it might sound crude, it was quite effective. Ten compliments and one gift were enough to turn goodwill into friendship.

The more sturdy his reputation became, the farther Giwoo felt his path in front of him unfolded. There was not long left until he left the halo of his grandfather and would be able to stand on his own. He would be acknowledged as long as he achieved complete independence through his career as an actor.

Giwoo finished his relationship management by congratulating someone’s birthday and looked around to find Gaeul. He had been thinking this for the past few days while observing her: Han Gaeul was a decent woman the more he watched her. Giwoo even briefly imagined a future where he would call her his wife. He didn’t feel ashamed about it, so she passed the criteria. Women were better if they were obedient, but someone unrelenting like Han Gaeul wasn’t bad either. If her personality disturbed him, he could always fix it down the line. Giwoo knew just how he should handle women like that.

“I wonder what I should do.”

It was a possessive desire he had not felt in a long time, and what’s more, towards a woman. The fact that she was Han Maru’s woman was also a factor that he quite liked. He genuinely looked forward to what kind of expression Maru would put on if he was deprived of the thing that he thought was his.

“Giwoo, you know who Seonah is, right? She wants to meet you once. It’s not a serious meeting; she just wants to talk to you in private. Don’t overthink things, and give me some face here,” said a senior as he approached him.

Giwoo really held him in contempt after seeing him tap his shoulders like they were real friends when Giwoo only acted close to him a couple times. He wanted to grab his drooping ears and tell him to know his place, but he put on a kind smile instead.

“I’ll meet her if it’s your request, senior. But my schedule is jam-packed right now. Also, as far as I am aware, Miss Seonah is busy too nowadays.”

“The two of you can sort that out, just please meet her once. If it was anyone else, I would have rejected without batting an eyelid, but I thought that the two of you suited each other. You two are a match made in heaven.”

The senior gave him her number. Giwoo saved the number for now. A decently pretty woman wanted to meet him, so he could make some time for that, about a day or so. If she was someone who acted prim, then he would just split ways after having a meal with her, and if she was someone who played around, then he would take her to the hotel and relieve himself once. If she was an idiotic woman who was aiming for the mistress of YM, then he would toy with her before throwing her away. Having a lowly peasant join the royal family was unacceptable unless he liked her or something.

He scoffed at the senior who turned around feeling smug, before turning around to where Gaeul was again. She had been reading her script until just moments ago, but he couldn’t see her anymore. Giwoo clicked his tongue subconsciously. He had a strong feeling that he wasn’t able to do something worth his time because of something trivial.

“Han Gaeul.”

Giwoo clicked his tongue and started walking.

* * *

“Thank you for your work.”

Gaeul, who finished her worth of shoot today, immediately looked for Bitna. Bitna had also finished her shoot just now. It was 9 p.m. The director never failed to upkeep labor laws regarding minors.

“Did you finish too, unni?”

“My scenes were towards the beginning today, so I got off early. But I won’t be able to do this as much in the future. The shoot will last later and later into the night the closer it reaches the finish.”

“It must be hard.”

“It’s fine since it’s enjoyable. Bitna, are you taking the bus home?”

“No, mom said she’ll pick me up.”

“Right now?”

Just as Bitna was about to say something, she put her hand in her pocket. Her phone was vibrating. Please give me a second – she said before putting her phone against her ear. According to Yuna, she was apparently this polite from the time she was in elementary school. Imagining a little kid being all polite made her smile subconsciously.

“It looks like I’ll have to take the bus. Mom said she has something to do.”

“Really? Your house is near Banpo, right? If you’re living with Yuna.”

“Yes.”

“Then I’ll give you a ride.”

“No, it’s fine. It doesn’t take that long by bus.”

“It also doesn’t take long if you ride my car. I also have to go to Banpo anyway.”

“It’s really okay though.”

Gaeul reached her hand out to Bitna. Bitna smiled shyly and fidgeted until she eventually grabbed her hand.

“Thanks for listening to my request. I’m someone who will have it no other way once I get stubborn.”

“I was just worried that I might be bothering you.”

“I’m giving a cute little sister a ride, so why would it be a bother at all? Oh, I’ll ask you this: did you say you were going to take the bus because you wanted to go back by yourself?”

“No, it’s not like that. I just thought that you must be tired and that driving me home will make you even more tired.”

Gaeul shook the hand in hers vigorously.

“It’s not tiring at all, so let me give you a ride. Oh, right. Aren’t you hungry? You didn’t eat that much for dinner, so you must be, right?”

“A little.”

“Then let’s buy some sandwiches on our way back.”

She told her manager Chanwoo and her stylist Mijoo to go back home first before getting her car out of the parking lot. She picked up Bitna who was waiting at the entrance and drove towards Banpo-dong. They visited a shop midway and bought some sandwiches. She bought one for Maru as well.

“This is yours, Bitna, and this is mine.”

“Thank you.”

“Enjoy your food. And here, take this drink too.”

They talked about various things while eating the sandwich. As for the thing about Giwoo, she intentionally did not bring that topic up. Bitna would speak about it if she deemed necessary. If she didn’t, then they wouldn’t talk about it.

Just as they were about to get up after finishing the sandwich, Gaeul found Bitna staring at the sandwich she ordered as takeout.

“What, do you want more?”

“No, I’m full. But are you going to eat that too?”

“I have a big appetite, but it’s hard for me to finish this one too. I’m buying it for someone else.”

Bitna nodded in understanding. She got in the car and put the paper bag with the sandwich in the back seat.

“Put on your seatbelt.”

“Yes, I just did.”

“Then let’s go.”

Yuna’s house was registered on her GPS navigation program. She inputted the address and pressed the gas pedal. Bitna was on her phone, and she seemed to be texting someone.

“I just told mom that I’m going home in someone's car.”

“Right. You shouldn’t make your mother worried. When I was your age, I went everywhere without telling my mom, so I was scolded a lot.”

“My sister was like that too.”

“Yuna is quite similar to me. We have similar preferences too.”

From now on, she could say that they had similar tastes with a smile. It was such a happy thing that the fact that they liked the same man could become a good memory.

“Unni, I think you got a call.”

She heard some vibrations from the back seat. She recalled that she put her wallet and her phone in the paper bag while buying the sandwich.

“Bitna, I’m sorry, but can you take it out for me? I can’t let go of the wheel right now.”

“Okay, I will.”

Bitna turned around and took out the phone. Just as she was handing the phone to her, Bitna stared at the name on the screen. Then, she seemed to have recalled that it was not polite of her to do so and turned her head away in a cute manner.

“Sorry. The caller has the same name as someone I know.”

“Really? Who is it?”

“It says Han Maru.”

She got caught by a traffic light. Gaeul pressed the brakes and looked at Bitna. The Han Maru that Bitna knew of and the Han Maru that was calling was probably the same person. She recalled what happened a long time ago. Yuna asked her to introduce her to Maru, saying that her sister wanted to meet him. Later, though, she found out that Bitna wanting to meet him was just an excuse.

“He’s probably the Han Maru that you know of. You shot a drama together before too, haven’t you?”

“Is it really ahjussi?”

“Ahjussi?”

“No, senior, or well, should I call him oppa? I called him ahjussi when I was little, then oppa. My way of calling him changed quite a lot.”

The smart girl’s face was filled with question marks. Gaeul had fun watching her face. As she was smiling, the lights changed.

“Can you pick it up?”

“Me?”

“Tell him that you’re Kim Bitna and see how he reacts.”

Bitna hesitated a little before picking up the call with a nod.

“Hello? This is Kim Bitna.”

KTLChamber's Thoughts

I don't remember what Bitna called Maru during Apgu. I might have translated it as 'mister', and I might have translated it as 'ahjussi'. Editor can look that up for me. :P

Oh man. At this point, I just find Giwoo amusing. He's making all those (wrong) conclusions in his head and feels so smug about it. This is like Geunsh*t all over again.

Editor's Note:

Ajussi is right. Less work for me. Also wooo more Bitna and Maru scenes.

Chapter 851
Seuqence 12

-Hello? This is Kim Bitna.

“What?”

He definitely called Gaeul’s number, but someone totally different picked up. He thought he called the wrong number, so he took his phone off his ear and checked the name. The name ‘Han Gaeul’ was up on the screen.

-Sorry. This is indeed senior Han Gaeul’s phone.

The person on the other side seemed flustered as well, as her voice was quite shaky. She sounded quite young as well. Was Gaeul with a friend? He didn’t think it was her manager or her stylist. Just as he was about to ask the person on the other side to switch, he stopped. She just introduced herself as Kim Bitna. The name and the voice finally matched inside his head.

“Kim Bitna? Are you perhaps Yuna’s sister?”

-Yes. Do you remember me?

“I do. But why are you picking up Gaeul’s phone?”

-She’s driving right now.

Talk to Bitna for now – he could hear Gaeul’s voice over the phone. Following that was Bitna’s high-pitched voice that said ‘senior’ in a fluster. Maru could picture her being at a loss on what to say from just her voice.

“Have you been doing well?”

At times like these, it was better to talk to her first.

-Yes. But what should I call you? Should I call you senior Maru after all?

“You called me ahjussi the first time we met, so just keep calling me that.”

-I feel like the situation has changed since then.

“I was just joking. Call me what you want. You can call me senior if that’s comfortable for you, and oppa is fine too.”

-Then I’ll call you oppa. I also call senior Gaeul unni.

“That takes care of addresses. I didn’t expect you two to be together.”

-We met at the shoot for Doctor’s Office. I appear in it briefly.

“So you have continued working all this time. Did Gaeul treat you well?”

-Yes. She looked out for me a lot. Thanks to her, I had an easy time.

“If you have any difficulties, you should ask her for help without holding back.”

-I get plenty of help from her even now.

Whether then or now, her way of speaking was really mature. Maru could still imagine her when she was little, speaking the right words with her little mouth. She was a lot more grown-up than her sister.

“We haven’t met since we met with Yuna, have we?”

-Yes. That was the last time we saw each other.

“Man, time flies. That was already 6 years ago. Are you in middle school now?”

-I will be next year.

“It must be hard to work alongside school classes.”

-I’m doing this because I want to. Also, mom’s good at scheduling work for me, so I don’t think I’ll have a problem with school work. Things might change later, but for now, it looks okay.

“I’m sure you’ll be able to do both. But don’t push yourself too hard. Once you grow up a little more, you’ll be in an environment where you can work to your heart’s content. Before that though, spend more time with your friends and go to good places with your family. You’ve heard this many times already, haven’t you?”

-No. There aren’t that many people who say that to me. Everyone doesn’t say much because I can take care of myself. Even though I’m still young.

“At times like that, you can grab an adult next to you and throw a tantrum saying that it’s too hard. It’s one of the privileges you have when you’re at that age.”

-I can throw a tantrum?

“Of course. Good kids who take care of themselves are all the more okay to throw tantrums. A proper adult will look at what is troubling you and understand you. Like I said before, if you find anything difficult, tell it to Gaeul. The Gaeul I know is not a bad adult, so she’ll listen to you and sympathize with you.”

-She’s a good person after all.

“Yes, she’s a good person.”

Bitna, who became silent over the phone, eventually said that she’d hand the phone to Gaeul. Maru felt as though she had more to say, but he had no way of asking as the person in question had turned quiet. Gaeul picked up the phone.

“Are you driving Bitna home?”

-Yes. She said she lives in Banpo-dong too. So I was just driving her home on the way back.

“From what I remember, Bitna’s mother was always next to her.”

-It looks like she had something to do today. Bitna said she was going to take the bus home, but I had her get in my car.

“Well done. It’s late, so anyone would feel anxious to have a girl go home by herself at this hour. Even if it’s the city.”

-Exactly. Also, I bought a sandwich for you. A vegetable sandwich with avocados in it.

“I was just feeling hungry, so good.”

Gaeul said that it would be fantastic to eat it with half a can of beer but then suddenly turned quiet after saying ‘wait a moment.’ She seemed to have taken her phone off her ear as he could hear her talking with Bitna in a small voice. Thinking back, she was supposed to be driving. It seemed that she had put the phone down to drive.

-Hello?

The one who spoke was Bitna.

“Yes, Bitna.”

-We’ll go to your house right now, oppa.

“Here?”

-Yes.

* * *

Bitna hung up and put the phone down.

“He said I can come.”

She was quick to work, and even quicker to think. She wasn’t that mindful when she talked about the sandwich. She thought that Bitna would consider Maru and her as just friends without thinking that they had a relationship of a boy and a girl.

“Are you two dating?”

She almost dropped her phone when she said those unexpected words. She took her phone off her ears in a hurry and asked what she meant by that. Bitna said that she just speculated; she deduced that they were in a special relationship considering what she had heard from her sister, the way they talked over the phone, as well as her going over to his house with food late at night. She also said that she was convinced after seeing her reaction after listening to that question. Bitna soon looked down at her clasped hands before asking if she could go to Maru’s house cautiously. Gaeul said that she should ask the person in question first and soon received permission to go.

“Sorry I suddenly said I want to go.”

“No, it’s fine. It doesn’t matter to me at all. I was going there anyway. But Bitna, you heard about me and Maru from Yuna?”

“No, my sister never said anything in detail. She may be a chatterbox, but she’s not someone who carelessly talks about privacy,” Bitna said as she grabbed the seatbelt with her left hand.

“Unni was crying at home. I asked what was up, and she said that she still felt a little sorry for Gaeul-unni, but it had been resolved and that she was happy. Unni said that she liked someone she shouldn’t. Back then, I didn’t know what she meant by that. But I understood after seeing a call for you from Maru-oppa and your expression, Gaeul-unni. From what I remember, my sister had a very long first love. When she cried, her first love came to an end.”

By the time she finished those words, Bitna was holding onto the seatbelt with both of her hands.

“Bitna?”

“Gaeul-unni. Please don’t hate my sister.”

“Bitna, I’ve never hated Yuna. No, I guess I was jealous of her before, but definitely not now. She’s a precious friend and a sister of mine. I will never hate her.”

“Really?”

“Of course!”

“Even though she did something bad?”

Gaeul forgot because she was so good at logical deduction, but Bitna was still young. She seemed to know the complexity of people loving each other and breaking up but not the fact that the happenings that might happen throughout couldn’t simply be categorized into ‘good’ and ‘bad.’

“She didn’t do anything bad. Your sister just didn’t know anything.”

“Mom told me that the police wouldn’t be necessary if not knowing about it is an excuse for being innocent.”

“That’s a bit of a different problem, but still, Yuna just liked a person. Yes, if someone has sinned, it lies with Maru.”

“Maru-oppa? Why?”

How was she supposed to respond to that? The sin of being too charming? The sin of shaking a woman’s heart by being overly kind? Every one of those reasons was hard to say out loud. Just as she was wondering if she should just gloss things over, she saw Bitna smiling while covering her mouth. The moment she saw her expression, she thought that she had been one-upped.

“Bitna knows how to tease her unni, huh?”

“Sorry. I thought that my sister knew everything and still did that because she had something bad in her mind. But you said that she didn't, so it put me at ease. But seeing you flustered also made me want to know what would happen next.”

“Looks like I have to get myself together if I want to talk to you next time so that you don’t tease me.”

“I won’t do that from now on.”

“If you want to tease me, then do it any time. We’re close after all. Uh, we are close, right?”

“Are you going to be angry if I say no?”

“According to your answer, I’ll decide whether I’ll tickle you or not. You won’t be able to breathe once I start tickling you on the sides.”

“Then I’ll say we’re close. I’m really bad at handling people tickling me.”

“I feel like I’m getting duped here, but I’ll let you go this time.”

Bitna let go of her hands holding the seatbelt as though she felt relieved.

“Did you and Maru-oppa start dating when you were in high school?”

“How did you know that?”

“My sister liked Maru-oppa back then. It happened a long time ago, but I still remember it. She had me lie so that she could see Maru-oppa. She said that I wanted to see him.”

“She must have gotten Maru’s number through a certain senior at school.”

“And that was you?”

“Yes.”

The smart girl nodded as though she understood everything.

“But why do you want to go to Maru’s house so suddenly?”

“To throw a tantrum.”

“A tantrum?”

“I’ll tell you when we get there, about the things I couldn’t tell you during the day.”

KTLChamber's Thoughts

Short chappie, but I still like this chapter.

I am totally blown away by Bitna's deduction powers. She must have been a detective in her previous life.

Editor's Note:

I think that my favorite part of this chapter is that Bitna is reliant on Maru, who told her that it's ok to act her age. Rather than Gaeul who she is 'closer to', the moment she heard Maru telling her to be the little girl she is, she immediately trusted him.

Chapter 852
Sequence 12

The door opened and Gaeul came in. Bitna hesitated a little outside, but the moment she saw Woofie running towards her at the sound of the door lock opening, she took a big step inside.

“Hello.”

“It’s been a long time.”

“It has.”

She bowed with a smile, but her eyes were glued to Woofie walking around. Maru grabbed the dog by the scruff of her neck and put her down in front of Bitna. Bitna kept watching her without reaching out, but she eventually gave in and patted the dog on the head.

“It’s the first time I got to touch one like this.”

Woofie seemed to have taken a liking to Bitna’s cautious hand and stayed docile. She had grown up after all this time, but she was still very innocent.

“It’s a shiba-inu, isn’t it?”

“You’re knowledgeable.”

“I read about them in a book. They’re bright and cheerful and loyal towards their owners. They also have a great homing instinct and will return home easily. But the dog’s leg looks injured. Is it a congenital handicap?”

She was as knowledgeable as always as well. Put a blind in front of her and they would mistake her for a college student from the way she spoke. Her generosity was better than most adults too. While Bitna played around with Woofie, Maru heard the details from Gaeul.

“She deduced everything from just a few words. She’s really smart,” Gaeul said as she looked at Bitna in the living room.

“There’s no way such a smart kid wanted to see me without any reason, right?”

It was 10 p.m., quite late to knock on someone else’s door without reason.

“She said she wanted to throw a tantrum in front of you.”

“What do you think that means?”

“I do have an idea of what it might be about, but you better hear about it from the person herself. It’s a secret for now after all.”

Maru poured some grape juice into a cup and went to the living room. Bitna, who had been smiling while looking at the dog, immediately sat upright when she saw the cup. She seemed to be about to explain the reason she came here.

“Sorry, even though I didn’t come here to see the dog.”

“It’s fine. I can listen to your story any time you want. Did you tell your mother about this? It’s quite late, you know?”

“I told mom on the way here that I will eat with Gaeul-unni before going back.”

“Then that should be fine. Your mother won’t be worried, and it looks like you’ve doted on Woofie enough, so may I hear why you wanted to see me?”

Gaeul sat on the sofa as well and got ready to listen. What brought that child all the way here? And what wasn’t she able to tell Gaeul?

“First up, I want to ask you something, Maru-oppa. Back when we shot Apgu, do you remember the middle-aged man who had to go back early because of broken fingers? As far as I remember, you lied down next to him while playing the role of a corpse.”

“I do. His fingers swelled up, so he had to go to the hospital midway. But what about it?”

“That was the first time I felt that someone was scary. Mom used to tell me this from the time I was little: bad people never look like bad people. That was the day I found out what she meant by that too.”

Bitna put her hands together. She clasped her hands as though to calm down her nervous mind. If it was about Apgu, Maru still remembered that event clearly to this day. Kang Giwoo’s friend – his name was Lee Uljin – had stepped on a man’s fingers even though that man got by on payment he received every day. It was purely intentional, and he put his weight into it. The way he apologized after doing it made Maru accept that humans were innately born evil.

“That day, I was worried about the middle-aged man because he was sweating too much. I approached him and saw that his fingers were severely swollen. He said he was okay, but I thought that I shouldn’t let him be and tried to tell the others. But he said that I must absolutely not do that. I didn’t understand back then, but I know now. To him, the fact that there was an accident was more grave than the fact that he was hurt. He said I couldn’t say it, so I tried to find my own ways to help him. I first tried to give him some cold water and that was when I saw senior Kang Giwoo walking next to the bus.”

“Kang Giwoo?”

That wasn’t a name he wanted to hear. His name always brought problems.

“Back then, senior Giwoo looked like a really kind person. He always smiled at other people on sets and asked if I was okay, even though I was just a child actor. I thought that he would solve the problem in a way that the middle-aged man wouldn’t be uneasy. That’s why I followed him… and heard what he said over the phone. I know that listening to someone without permission was not good, so I tried to make my presence known, but his expression as he made the call was too scary. He was smiling, but I found his smile disgusting. I hid in surprise and ended up overhearing everything that he said over the phone. At first, I couldn’t hear it. There was some distance as well, but I was so startled. But then I heard him say this: How did you feel when you stepped on that man’s hand?’”

Bitna had difficulty talking. As it was definitely something that she would not want to tell other people, Maru understood how she felt. Maru told her to drink a little. After sipping some grape juice, Bitna continued talking,

“I thought I heard wrong. I thought he was not the type of person to say that, and there was some distance between us as well. After that, I observed senior Giwoo until the end of the shoot, and indeed, he treated everyone kindly. I believed that I was mistaken. It’s not good to doubt other people after all.”

Kang Giwoo was someone who managed himself meticulously from a young age. The young Bitna would not have seen him as a youth who would commit something so evil. Maru also needed several steps in order to see through him.

“Of course, you might not believe me. You might not believe that senior Kang Giwoo is someone who would do such evil things…”

“I believe you.”

“What?”

“I don’t doubt you at all. I believe everything you say, Bitna, so keep going, slowly.”

Bitna’s eyes trembled a little. She seemed curious. This wasn’t something that was easy to accept, or so she seemed to think. Maru did not say anything and looked at Bitna. He had no intentions of reading her mind, so no speech bubble appeared. There was no need to read anything from her as he fully trusted her. After organizing her thoughts, Bitna nodded and spoke,

“I forgot about that matter. I never had to meet him again after that. But then I met him again at the shoot this time. The terrifying expression and the horrible words he said came back to me, but I ignored as much of it as possible. It was something that happened in the past, and I believed that I was mistaken. But I still couldn’t help but be concerned about it. The impression of him in my memories was just that intense. I thought that avoiding him was not a solution and talked to him again. Just like before, he was a kind senior, and I was about to come to the conclusion that it was my mistake after all. It was then that I saw that scene.”

Bitna shriveled up as though she was feeling cold. Gaeul, who sat next to her, grabbed her hand.

“It’s fine to say it. We’ll both help you out as much as possible.”

Bitna spat out a short breath before continuing to speak,

“The unni with the short hair and the skull t-shirt is the one who styles you, Gaeul-unni, right? I saw you two together a lot. I don’t know her surname, but her given name is Mijoo.”

“Mijoo is indeed my stylist. What about her?”

“It was yesterday. I saw senior Kang Giwoo talk to your stylist. The two of them seemed really close. I didn’t mind it since senior Kang Giwoo normally treats everyone well, but then I saw his smile. It was the same smile he made when he asked over the phone how it felt to step on the man’s fingers. It was the same smile, but it looked different to me. Maybe it’s because I’ve seen him that way once.”

“So?” Gaeul asked cautiously.

“I felt uneasy. I kept remembering what happened back then; his disgusting smile as he spoke to the phone. I thought that there was a need to check. I knew that I shouldn’t overhear other people’s conversations, but when I came to, I was already listening in to their conversation from inside the closet. It wasn’t anything much. They talked about when the shoot was going to end, whether either of them had it hard, and when they should eat out together like they promised before. I was feeling ashamed of my wrongful delusions. Just as I decided to apologize after the stylist-unni left, the stylist-unni said that thanks to him, the stylist-unni managed to get out of trouble with Lee Miyoon. I didn’t know what that was about, but it seemed quite secretive. Senior Giwoo told her that it had been resolved and to not worry.”

Bitna stopped speaking and looked at Gaeul. Gaeul, who was listening calmly, also turned quite serious.

“Kang Giwoo helped her out after getting into trouble with Lee Miyoon?”

“Yes.”

Gaeul seemed to know something about it as well. Maru asked what happened.

“I told you a while ago, right? That something bad happened between me and Le… senior Lee Miyoon.”

Bitna was listening, so Gaeul addressed her as her senior. If they had enough time, he wanted to warn Bitna about why she had to be careful of Lee Miyoon, but listening to her was the priority.

“Right.”

“That day, Mijoo tried to tell me something while twisting up her body. She usually does that when she makes a big mistake, so I asked her what happened, but she said it was nothing bad and that it had been resolved already. From what Bitna said, it seems like Mijoo made a mistake in front of senior Lee’s stylist that day.”

“And Kang Giwoo covered up for her?”

“Probably. I’m not entirely sure though.”

Kang Giwoo might have helped her in order to show his good side like he usually did. That wasn’t a big problem. In fact, it was something to be grateful for if she received help. Maru turned around to look at Bitna. Her next words were what was important.

“Did something happen after that?”

“Senior Kang Giwoo told the stylist-unni this. I’ll say what he said word for word: ‘Don’t tell Gaeul, okay? If you tell her, it might not end with a scolding if you do, so don’t say it.’ His voice sounded kind, but it was a rebuking tone. The stylist unni also promised to never say it before turning around.”

“Mijoo said something like that?”

Gaeul started fidgeting with her phone. It seemed like she was about to call Mijoo at any moment. The reason she was holding back was probably since Bitna’s words hadn’t ended yet.

“After the stylist-unni left, I was going to leave the closet to apologize. But senior Kang Giwoo’s eyes looking at the stylist-unni… were too scary.”

KTLChamber's Thoughts

Gee, poor girl. I'm sorry you had to go through this, Bitna. T_T

Editor's Note:

Whew, Kang Giwoo better not touch Bitna or else……

Chapter 853
Sequence 12

Bitna seemed incredibly nervous as though she had gone back to that moment. Despite the fact that Gaeul was holding her hand from the side, she was clutching onto the carpet with the other hand. He wanted to console her and tell her that it was okay to rest a little before speaking, but Bitna clenched her eyes shut before opening them again. She seemed to be telling herself that she couldn’t stop here. She was young, but she was quite stubborn. That was probably why she could think about overhearing the viper-like Kang Giwoo’s conversation, even though it must have been really scary.

“I froze stiff. I couldn’t take a step outside the closet. It was the first time I experienced something like that. I wanted to turn around and run immediately. I want to pretend like I haven’t seen anything.”

“But you kept watching, didn’t you? With courage.”

“Actually, I was just too scared to move; it wasn’t that I was brave. One time I got almost bitten by a large dog, and it just felt like back then. I had the feeling that I would get bitten to death if I was found out. I held my breath and prayed that he would go away, but he didn’t go away and took out his phone. He spoke while looking in the direction the stylist-unni went in, and the contents of what he said were horrible. He was insulting the stylist unni that he had been treating with a smile until merely moments ago.”

“May I know what he said?”

Bitna looked hesitant, but she eventually closed her eyes and spoke. Her eyes were trembling. Maru could feel that her eyes were moving anxiously behind those eyelids. He could practically see all sorts of thoughts clashing within her head. Maru waited calmly. It was Bitna who was in the hardest position. He was planning to stop her if it looked like she was pushing herself. After around 10 seconds, Bitna spoke again,

“I’ll say what I heard back then: The stylist-unni was stupid and didn’t recognize you, it’s tiring to deal with someone like her, I told her off so she’ll do better next time. I toned that down quite a lot. He used words that I don’t dare speak with my mouth. I couldn’t believe it. The person who was talking about good things in front of the stylist-unni until mere moments ago had changed instantly and spoke like that. That was when I found out that I wasn’t wrong about him. That disgusting smile was still with him. No, it even looked cruel.”

“So that’s why you asked if I was close to Giwoo and said that you were scared.”

Bitna replied ‘yes’ in a small voice.

“I wanted to tell you about it back then, unni, but I couldn’t. All I had were the things I have seen and heard after all. Moreover, you looked really close to senior Giwoo on the set.”

“I understand you, but what I can tell you is that it’s only like that on the surface. I’m also trying my hardest to look close to Giwoo. I’ll tell you this since you told me first: I don’t see Giwoo in that good of a light either. I told you we aren’t that close during the day, right? I meant what I said.”

“Really?”

“Yes. It’s not just me, Maru here feels the same.”

Maru told Btina clearly while looking at her big blinking eyes: Kang Giwoo has less credibility to him than a stranger he would come across on the street; that him changing for the good was just as probable as Woofie learning the law and becoming a judge. When he emphasized the fact that he was beyond salvation, Bitna looked quite flustered.

“I have seen and heard for myself, but why did you two start doubting him?”

It was very like her to not chime in and ask back calmly. Maru explained that the one who stepped on the middle-aged man’s fingers during Apgu was a friend of Giwoo as well as the circumstances leading up to him finding out and the happenings after that.

“So something like that happened even after that. So he’s a very constant person.”

“In a bad way, that is.”

“I was really hesitant until I decided to talk about it. I was worried that people might not believe me and think that I was being weird instead.”

“You did really well, not telling anyone about it. If you said you’re just scared, then people might not think much about it since you’re quite young, but if you used real-world instances like that, then there definitely would be some people who would not look at you in a good light.”

“That’s what I thought as well.”

“But peeping on him was too reckless. If you got caught, you wouldn’t have been able to make an excuse. Considering his personality, Kang Giwoo would never let that go either. Don’t do anything reckless in the future. I’m sure you’ll take great care of yourself, but I’m just worried.”

“I know that I was careless. I’m reflecting on it too. I will never do that again.”

“Yes, it’s fine as long as you do that.”

Bitna seemed mentally pressured as she was breathing heavily to the point that her shoulders were heaving. She must have been very worried. She was talking bad about Kang Giwoo, who had built a good image for himself, so just as she said, it must have been hard to talk about it. She couldn’t guarantee how the situation would turn out if she did talk about it. Maru was proud that she brought up the courage to talk about it. However, there were a few things that he still couldn’t resolve. There were things he needed to know in order to analyze the situation clearly.

“Bitna.”

“Yes.”

“I now understand what you meant when you said that you were coming over to throw a tantrum. I’m also grateful that you told me about this. But there’s one thing I want to know. Why did you tell me all this? You were the one who told me just now that you doubted that anyone would believe you.”

He then looked at Gaeul. Bitna also looked at Gaeul.

“I get why you didn’t tell Gaeul about it. But you said that you found out that Gaeul and I were dating in the car right? Then I think you should’ve thought about it a little more.”

“That’s…”

Bitna hesitated while trailing off. Did he push her too hard so suddenly? Gaeul was also giving him hints, asking why he was so harsh on a girl. If it was any other girl, he wouldn’t have thought about it deeply. After all, children usually didn’t think about things that deeply when they acted. However, Bitna was someone who definitely knew her way around. She was capable of explaining difficult things in simple terms, and she even discerned who to talk to with her own standards.

“I’m not rebuking you. I trust you wholly. I was just curious. Why me? I must have faded out of your consciousness since we haven’t been in contact for years, so why did you talk to me about something so important? You don’t have to tell me if it’s too difficult for you.”

While Maru trusted her, it was important to get a full grasp of the situation. Why did she tell him something that she didn’t tell Gaeul? She even knew that talking about it risked a very dangerous outcome.

“For Gaeul-unni, I heard about her a lot from my sister. She called her a really kind senior at school. I also felt that during the shoots I had for the past few days that she really is a good person. But I couldn’t trust her and tell her about it. It’s not that I suspect her or hate her or anything. This is not her problem, it’s mine.”

“While I’m slightly disappointed, I think that’s only natural. There’s the matter with Kang Giwoo too. But you still are sure that she’s a good and kind unni, right?”

“Right now, she’s a good, kind, and trustable unni.”

Bitna then looked at Maru.

“And likewise, I was aware that you were a good person too, Maru-oppa. I believe in my sister’s eyes for people. I also knew that you were a good person after meeting you.”

She stopped there and smiled awkwardly. She looked up as though she found it difficult to speak.

“But honestly speaking, you didn’t feel that ‘kind’ to me. I knew that you were a good person from how you listened to my sister’s worries, understood her, and even advised her, but listening to you made me realize that you helped her because she didn’t cross the line; that you would never see her again if she went too far. I said all that but it’s still quite confusing. I’m not saying that you’re a bad person, oppa. You’re a really good person, just not entirely kind.”

“Are you saying that you remember the conversation Yuna and I had when the three of us went to the café that day?”

“Yes, I remember. I also remember that my sister cried a lot. Back then, I had this thought while looking at you listening to her words: You’re a good person but not entirely kind. But you definitely can be trusted. I didn’t say this before, but you went around looking for pain relief for the middle-aged man with injured fingers, didn’t you? That was when I felt that even though the middle-aged man told me not to tell it to anyone, he still asked you for help.”

After listening to her, Gaeul hugged Bitna’s shoulders and spoke,

“You have a good eye for people, Bitna. You’re right. Maru doesn’t really belong to the kind category of people. But if you’re talking about whether he can be trusted or not, I say that he can be trusted more than me.”

Maru placed his elbow on his knees and rested his chin on the back of his hand.

“This suddenly became a lot of pressure for me. Bitna, don’t trust me too much. Like you said, I’m not that kind.”

“But you said you wholly trusted me, didn’t you? That’s why I trust you as well. And that’s why I talked about it. If it weren’t for you today, I would have spoken about it to my sister first. Not my mom though, since she’ll make a big deal out of it. But when I thought about it, I thought that it would enter your ears even if I tell my sister. It also seemed like that after considering your relationship with Gaeul-unni.”

“Looks like I can’t lie in front of Bitna.”

Gaeul looked at Bitna and said that everything was okay now.

“Nothing will change immediately, but this unni was convinced after what you just said – convinced that Kang Giwoo is a really bad guy. I told you before, right? That I don’t really see Kang Giwoo in a good light. But it was kinda vague. That was why I kept watching him and maintained the status quo. But now I’m convinced.”

“What do I do now? I have to go to the shoot about three more times in the future. I feel like I’ll get scared if I see senior Kang Giwoo’s scary eyes.”

Kang Giwoo was an evil guy who did not hesitate to ruin other people’s bodies even when he was a student. How scared must she have been after seeing the bare face of the bone-deep evilness within him? Maru hinted to Gaeul that it was time for the unni to step in.

“Don’t worry. I’ll always be next to you during shoots. Tell me your schedule later. I’ll make sure I’ll go even on days I’m not in it.”

“But you’ll be tired if you do that.”

“It’s fine. Also, I’m one of the main cast. Our schedule will probably overlap all the time.”

Gaeul emphasized that it was not a nuisance for her. Bitna eventually accepted after repeated explanations. After getting that down, Gaeul immediately took her phone to her ear. This was the second problem they needed to solve.

“Bitna, do you want to play with Woofie for a little? Gaeul-unni looks like she’ll be on the phone.”

“Yes.”

Maru heard that pets were helpful when curing anxiety. There was nothing more soothing than warmth when it comes to consoling the heart after all. As she stroked Woofie on her lap, she looked much more at ease than when she was talking about Kang Giwoo.

Maru stood up with the empty cups. I’ll bring you something to drink – he said before giving a glance at Gaeul, who entered the bedroom.

She was waiting with a serious expression with her phone against her ear. From how she wasn’t saying anything, it seemed that her stylist wasn’t picking up.

“Looks like she’s out drinking with Chanwoo. I’ll leave her a message for now.”

“Okay, and also, please take care of Bitna. She might look okay now, but I’m sure she’s very nervous. You’ll be better for her for something like this than me.”

“Okay. Oh, can I call Yuna over?”

“Do what you want. This place is practically a private café anyway.”

Gaeul nodded and approached Bitna.

KTLChamber's Thoughts

Giwoo deserves death for doing that to Bitna. Pick up your pitchforks!

On a more serious note. It looks like more and more people will find out that Giwoo perhaps isn't the good guy. His façade is falling apart.

Editor's Note:

Man, before I thought that Giwoo was a fun character, but now after he did this to Bitna, I want him to fall hard, real hard. This is war.

Chapter 854
Sequence 12

“Bitna is at your house, Maru-seonbae? Okay, I’ll go there now.”

Yuna changed her clothes and left the house. Maru-seonbae’s house was not that far away, so she only had to pay the minimum taxi fare to get there. She wondered why Bitna went to his house. After pressing the bell, she waited for a little. Ta-tap ta-tap – she could hear Woofie’s footsteps inside.

“Unni.”

The one who opened the door was Bitna. Yuna gave her a hug the moment she saw her. She could feel her sister’s unease and sadness in her clear eyes. Bitna tugged on the hem of her clothes and said that she was okay.

“Yuna, you’re here.”

“Yes.”

“Sorry for calling you over at such a late hour.”

“Don’t mention it. But what is happening? Where is Gaeul-unni?”

Maru raised his finger to point at the bedroom. She let go of Bitna’s hand and peeked inside. Gaeul was fidgeting with the phone while sitting on the bed. She was biting her thumbnail. It had been a very long time since the last time she had seen her this nervous. She knocked on the slightly open door. Gaeul raised her head and welcomed her.

“When did you come?”

“Just now. I pressed the bell.”

“I see. I’m a little out of it right now, so I can’t hear anything around me.”

Even as she said so, Gaeul was checking her phone. It seemed like she shouldn’t interfere. She said she’d be in the living room and pulled on the door. She could see Gaeul frowning through the gap of the closing door. It seemed that she wasn’t getting an important call.

“She seemed really serious.”

“Something happened, and I think you should know about it.”

Maru looked at Bitna. He seemed to be looking for her agreement. So Gaeul was being serious because of something related to Bitna after all? She sat down on the sofa and heard everything from her. Yuna hugged Bitna again. How scary must it have been for her? She was a mature girl, but there was a frail side to her as well. She heard something that even most adults could not listen to in comfort, so it must have startled her a lot. She understood the reason Gaeul called her here. If she couldn’t be by her side at a time like this, she couldn’t call herself a big sister.

“For now, Gaeul has decided to stay with Bitna whenever she’s at the set. She can’t do anything about her meeting Kang Giwoo and acting, but she should be able to prevent the two of them from being alone together,” said Maru.

Yuna grabbed her sister’s hand and asked,

“Bitna, are you okay with that? You’re going to have to be with him.”

“I can’t help it. If I don’t work because I’m scared, I will do people harm. I’ll try holding back. Gaeul-unni said she’ll be by my side too.”

“Should I go as well?”

“You should go to school, unni. School is important.”

“I can take a few days off. In college, it’s okay to do that.”

“Really?”

“You’re more important to me than any classes. Please let me act like your sister.”

Bitna nodded. Even though she said that she didn’t need to come, her eyes were trembling. This little girl was incredibly good at holding back as she had been digesting a harsh schedule before she even entered elementary school. However, enduring the stress given to her by work and enduring her fear of a malicious man were completely different areas altogether. She would usually shake her hand and say that she was okay when it came to most things, yet she sought her help. That showed how frightened she was.

“But who is unni calling right now?”

“Her stylist. There’s something she must check, but it seems like the stylist isn’t picking up.”

“She didn’t look that good.”

“When she gets a call through, she will be able to get a grasp of the situation, so there shouldn’t be a problem. But hey, it’s 11 already.”

Maru grabbed his car keys that were placed on the shoe rack.

“Your mother will be worried if you’re any later, so I’ll drive you home for now.”

“It doesn’t take long to get home from here if I grab a taxi.”

“It doesn’t take long, so let me give you a ride.”

Maru put on his shoes. It seemed like it would be rude to refuse. She spoke to Bitna, who was staring at the dog on the sofa.

“Bitna, shall we go home?”

“I’ll say goodbye to Gaeul-unni.”

Bitna knocked on the bedroom door. Gaeul was staring holes into her phone on the bed.

“Unni, we’ll get going now.”

“Already?”

“It’s already 11. We should get going.”

“Sorry. I called you all the way here, but I wasn’t able to do anything for you. Let’s go eat something good with the three of us. At that time, Bitna should decide where we should go. I’ll bring you anywhere you want.”

Yuna also said goodbye before leaving the house. She did not let go of Bitna’s hand on their way down the elevator. After going to the parking lot, she had Bitna get in the car first. She hinted to Maru who stood in front of the driver’s seat.

“We shouldn’t tell our mother about this for now, right?”

“You should decide that with Bitna. If you think it’s necessary, then don’t hesitate to tell her, but if you don’t feel the need to do so immediately, then wait. But you’ll have to tell her eventually. It’ll be better for her that way.”

“That’s true.”

“Gaeul will look out for Bitna until she finishes her shoot for Doctor’s Office, and I’ll see what I can do as well so that Bitna can finish the shoot without worries.”

“The shoot will probably last until next week. I don’t know about the details, but I’ll stay by her side when she’s at a shoot. I’ve never seen Bitna that scared before. It’s making me uneasy.”

“She experienced this after seeing that when she was young. It must have been traumatic for her.”

“I still can’t believe it. Kang Giwoo, that person looked like a really good person when I read about him through media interviews. I even heard from my seniors who work in the industry that he was a good person too.”

“But Bitna doesn’t have a reason to lie to you, right? And neither do I.”

“Yes. That’s what’s even scarier. There’s nothing more dangerous than a person who can fool others easily. I’m so worried when I think that Bitna has to act in front of someone like that.”

“He won’t do anything strange if there are a lot of eyes around him, so don’t worry too much. Rather than that, look out for Bitna when you go back home. She might look okay on the surface, but she’s still young.”

“I will.”

She looked at Bitna while getting in the car. She was staring at her phone. Yuna looked through the window to see what she was looking at on her phone and found out that she was looking at the photos she took with the dog. Bitna seemed to have felt her gaze and raised her head. When they locked eyes, she raised her phone screen and showed it to her. It was a wordless request. This was the first time she ever made an expression like that as well.

“Uhm, Maru-seonbae.”

“Yeah?”

“About Woofie.”

“Woofie?”

“Can we take her home for just one day? Bitna seems to like her a lot. She always wanted to raise a dog, but mom was really strict when it came to pets. She always asked Bitna if she could take responsibility for it. She thinks deeply, so she always gave up knowing that mom asking such a question meant no.”

She probably held and petted a dog for the first time today. She was busy since she was little, so she didn’t have any time to go to pet shops either, and even when they did come across pet shops in department stores, she would only look at the dogs from afar. Bitna was the type to restrain herself so that she wouldn’t even feel disappointed when it came to things that she couldn’t have.

“Wait a bit.”

Maru went back to the apartment. Yuna told Bitna that she would get a surprise gift if she waited for a little. The girl who only smiled a little when receiving a doll as a birthday present grinned so brightly that her teeth could be seen. A while later, Maru came back with a blue dog cage and a paper bag.

“This is the dog bowl and some food. She has a good appetite, but she strangely won’t eat out of anything else but this one. I put a week’s worth of food in it.”

“I’ll give her back to you tomorrow.”

“You don’t have to. This girl seems to have taken a liking to Bitna as well. I’m sure she must like it better staying next to Bitna who dotes on her than a gloomy guy like me. If it’s just a week, your mother won’t say much about it as well. She’s usually docile even by herself, so you don’t have to worry about your furniture. Though, I can’t guarantee for sure what she might do after a change of environment.”

Maru opened the door and put the cage right next to Bitna. Bitna lowered herself and locked eyes with the dog. Yuna couldn’t believe that she liked the dog so much.

“Looks like we’ll have to talk to mom about this seriously. I’ll ask her if we can have two more members of the household because we can handle it.”

“If she ever does give you permission, then just tell me about it. I know someone who’s more than willing to have more people join as dog owners.”

“Does that person run a pet shop or something?”

“No, I’m talking about the president of my agency.”

President? Yuna blinked for a bit before getting in the car. Bitna had already taken the dog out of the cage and was playing around with her. The dog stayed on top of Yuna’s lap without barking. It seemed as though she knew that she had to stay still right now.

“She’s a quick-witted one,” Maru said while looking at the dog.

Yuna put on her seatbelt. She felt complex. She wondered if she had to tell their mother, or if she should just watch the situation for now. It was probably going to be Bitna who would decide that.

After the car departed, Yuna took out her phone and looked up Kang Giwoo. She even found his Instagram account and looked at his photos. Every single day, he uploaded photos he took with other actors, drama crews, and friends. He always had a big smile on his face. Even the comment section was clean. He was the definition of a star liked by everyone.

The moment she saw a photo of him praying while grabbing the hand of a leukemia patient, Yuna felt enraged. All of that was just for show and was fake. She despised people who smiled when in front and disdained people behind their backs. They were the kind of people she didn’t even want to associate herself with. She remembered saying that he was good at acting and had a good personality while watching Doctor’s Office too.

Yuna logged into her Instagram account and left behind a comment.

-People should live honestly.

She wanted to leave behind a barrage of insults, but she moderated herself. Not that he would ever see it. This comment she left behind would also probably get buried under the myriad of comments being added in real-time. She felt frustrated that the layers of the ‘good’ image that Kang Giwoo built up would protect him. She felt her admiration towards the industry and actors cooling down.

“There are 99 good people and only one bad person. You don’t have to feel so upset because of that one person,” Maru said while giving her a glance.

“I know. I do know about it, but I still think he went too far. There must be many people who aspire to be actors with him as a role model. Many of my peers think of him as a young, talented actor too. I wonder how disappointed they would be if they found out the truth about him.”

“You can’t do anything about it.”

“What if he keeps doing well like this? We don’t know what he’ll do behind everyone’s backs if he keeps up a good façade.”

“We don’t have anything we can do right now other than watching ourselves and avoiding him. It’s not like the media will do anything about it even if we expose him. The past is in the past, and there is no evidence either.”

When they got stopped by a traffic light. Yuna wrote down some words on her phone so that Bitna wouldn’t be able to see them and showed them to Maru.

-You don’t think that Kang Giwoo may have noticed Bitna overhearing him, right?

He nodded without a shred of hesitation. It made her relieved to see that he felt so confident.

“He’s the type of guy who would never let that be if he found out,” he said while narrowing his eyes.

He seemed to understand what Kang Giwoo was thinking better than anyone else.

KTLChamber's Thoughts

Fun fact, as you'll probably read

Chapter 855
Sequence 12

Neither Mijoo nor Chanwoo picked up their phones. They told her they were going to drink back when she was at the sandwich store, so they should be at the bar. Those two were the type who never cared about other things when they were drinking. It was her who said that they could do so too. Her manager, Chanwoo, would react to the sound of a text message even during his sleep if it was working hours, but on days like this when work ended early, he would be surprisingly ignorant of his phone. As for Mijoo, there was no way she would receive an urgent work call, so she would act on her own once work was over.

She had already texted them five times and made an innumerable number of calls. She wished for them to pick up when they went to the bathroom or something, but there had been no news for over 40 minutes. She left the bedroom and went out to the veranda. She could see Maru’s car leaving the parking lot. She was going to drive them back, but it seemed that Maru noticed and acted first.

She took out some cold water to soothe herself before calling again. The idol song that she had heard to death entered her ear once again. This was supposed to be a song she had heard for the first time today, but she could recite the lyrics already. Was she not going to pick up this time as well? She clutched her forehead and was about to press the hang-up button when another person picked up.

“Mijoo, why didn’t you pick up? Are you drunk?”

The instant while waiting for her answer felt like an incredibly long time. Was she drunk to the point that she couldn’t handle herself? She was about to speak to her in a slightly rebuking tone when,

-Gaeul, Mijoo left for a bit. It looks like she’s getting some fresh air.

“Kang Giwoo?”

-Yeah, it’s me.

“Why are you there?”

-Things happened. I was just about to go home after doing my last scene, but I got a call from Mijoo saying that she’s drinking with Mr. Chanwoo over here. I didn’t have anything to do so I came. I thought you’d be here, but you weren’t, huh.

“I went home early. Is Chanwoo next to you?”

-He is. Should I hand the phone over to him?

“Yeah, please.”

Mr. Chanwoo, take the phone – Kang Giwoo’s small voice could be heard.

-Hello?

“Chanwoo, it’s me, Gaeul.”

-So it’s our actress. I thought it was about work again.

“Are you drunk?”

-A little. Not that much. But what’s up? You don’t usually call us while we’re resting.

“I had something to ask. Is Mijoo drunk?”

-Yep, she was drinking without stopping today. Maybe it’s because Mr. Giwoo is here.

At that moment, Giwoo spoke with a laugh,

-Chanwoo, we decided to be friends.

-Right, right. Giwoo, we decided to be friends. Alright, wait a sec, I’ll finish up my call with my actress here. Oh, Gaeul, do you want to talk to Mijoo?

“She came back? I heard Giwoo say she just left.”

-She’s coming in right now. Anyway, this place is really good. Thanks to Giwoo, I got to come to a really high-class place like this. A single shrimp tempura in this Izakaya is a whopping 5,000 won. As for sushi, the minimum price is a hundred thousand. That’s crazy.

“Drink with moderation.”

-Alright, I’ll hand you to Mijoo now.

Mijoo picked up the phone.

-Unniiiii.

Her tongue was half-loose. Still, this was for the better. When she was really drunk, Mijoo would not be able to say anything and would just laugh. Right now, she could still talk.

“Mijoo, I have something to talk to you about.”

-Yes, unni. I love you too, unni. A lot.

“I’m being serious. Tell the other two that you need to make a call and go outside.”

-I just came back in though.

“Mijoo, I just told you that I’m serious, didn’t I? I hope you don’t make me say it twice.”

* * *

She felt like she dipped her feet into cold water. She sobered up instantly to the point that she felt like she had never drank at all. Mijoo retracted her hand that was reaching out for some snacks and stood up. Hearing Chanwoo ask where she was going, she said that she was going to be on the phone. To Giwoo, she just smiled. She walked with quick steps while loosening her arm that held the phone. While she walked down the stairs leading outside the building, Mijoo licked her lips several times.

Unni’s voice sounded very serious. Gaeul-unni was someone who never got angry. When she first met her at a field experience arranged by her styling school, she made so many mistakes that she clenched her eyes shut with the resolve to get rebuked, but unni patted her on the back telling her not to be too nervous. Even after they signed an official contract, her attitude did not change. She looked out for her wherever they went, and even when she made a big mistake, she only scolded her until she reflected on it. Ever since she found out how hard the life of a stylist is under an entertainer with a terrible personality, she resolved to do anything if it was her unni’s words. She didn’t want to get fired as she wanted to work with her for a long time.

Yet, such a person had a frighteningly heavy voice right now. This was not ordinary. Even when Chanwoo-oppa went to the wrong shooting set by mistake which made them end up being 3 hours late, unni blamed herself for her tardiness in front of her senior actors. Although she told him to be careful later, she was definitely not saying that emotionally. Right now, she was very emotional, and those emotions definitely weren’t positive.

As soon as Mijoo left the building, she put her phone against her ear.

“Hello?”

-Are you outside?

“Yes, unni.”

-Did you run? You sound out of breath.

“No, I didn’t run.”

She ran as hard as possible. She half-flew down the stairs. That was how serious unni’s voice was. A warning siren ran off inside her head.

“But unni, what is happening?”

She spoke in a formal tone subconsciously. They would usually talk like ‘hey, you’ when they were drunk, but she felt like she should kneel right now.

-Is Giwoo next to you?

“He’s not here. I’m by myself right now, save for some passersby.”

-You sure Giwoo is not next to you?

“Yes.”

-That’s fine then. Mijoo, let me ask you something. I hope you answer me honestly.

“Okay.”

-Are you hiding something from me?

That question stifled her. Her grip on the phone tightened. She started going over the mistakes she made in the past three months, starting from todays. She quickly narrowed down the mistakes that she hadn’t mentioned to her yet.

“Are you talking about how I tried on your clothes behind your back?”

-I know about that one. And I don’t care about that either.

“Then are you talking about how I was late last time?”

-Have I ever scolded you harshly for being late?

“No.”

-It’s something recent. I want to hear it from you before I have to ask.

Her lips went dry. She was sure that unni had become angry. No, it wasn’t on the level of being angry. Her intuition told her that their relationship might shatter depending on the answer she gave. Mijoo stomped her feet as she thought about what kind of mistake she made that made the kind unni enraged like this until she thought about what she said just now. Just a moment ago, unni asked to confirm if Giwoo was next to her. Among the myriad of mistakes she made, she remembered the one related to Kang Giwoo.

“Is it because I kept it a secret that I fought with Lee Miyoon’s stylist?”

-Are you sure that you fought with Lee Miyoon’s stylist?

She asked for confirmation yet again. Mijoo sighed for now. She now knew the problem, so she just had to explain.

“Sorry, unni. I thought you’d be worried, so I didn’t tell you about it. But you don’t have to worry that much. Giwoo-oppa handled it for me. He stopped that stylist from tattling to Lee Miyoon about it. So there’s no problem at all.”

-Mijoo. Hiding it from me will make me more worried instead. I don’t recall ever making your life hard just because you made a mistake.

“You never did. I know better than anyone how well you treat me.”

-Don’t ever hide things like that in the future, especially if it’s related to Lee Miyoon. You should’ve just gone to see me and ask for my help.

“Sorry. Giwoo-oppa helped me out before I could even tell you about it. He told me that he handled it well, so I decided to forget about it too. Unni, are you angry? I’m really sorry. I will never do that again.”

-Is that it? Nothing else happened?

“Yes, that’s it.”

She should have been honest back then without trying to gloss things over. It would’ve been much easier to get scolded a little since it had been resolved already. Because she had hidden it, she ended up upsetting her unni. No matter how hard she thought about it, it was her fault.

Mijoo waited for an answer in nervousness when she suddenly felt something off. This was a sensitive topic, so it was plausible that she had to take the call in a place without any people, but why did she ask if Giwoo wasn’t around? She even asked twice about it.

“Uhm, unni. Why did you ask if Giwoo-oppa was next to me?”

It wasn’t something that she had to hide from Giwoo-oppa. He knew about it after all.

-I can’t tell you the details, but Giwoo and I don't get along that well. To be precise, I don’t think well of Giwoo. That’s why I told you to leave. I wanted him to not listen to what we’re talking about.

“What? Weren’t you friends with Giwoo-oppa?”

-Until a while ago, we were. But not now. Giwoo seems to think of me as a friend, though. No, he might be suspecting me right now. The way we talk has changed recently.

“Unni, I don’t get what you are saying right now. Did you two get into a fight? If it’s like that, I’ll try to mediate between you two.”

-This is not something you can do anything about. I will never treat Giwoo wholeheartedly in the future.

“Just what happened? On the day I fought with Lee Miyoon’s stylist, Giwoo-oppa told me that you three were close enough to drink together.”

-Three?

“Yes, you, Giwoo-oppa, and Maru-oppa. These three.”

-Giwoo told you that? That the three of us are close?

“Yes. He even told me you were old friends. If he knows that you two are dating, I thought you’d be really close.”

-Wait.

Gaeul-unni spoke in urgency. She was practically shouting at this point. Mijoo was startled and grabbed her phone with both her hands.

“Unni, what is it?”

-What did you say just now? Giwoo knows that Maru and I are dating?

“Yes.”

-That can’t be true.

“But he does. I definitely…”

Mijoo stopped talking. Her mind went back to the day she fought with Lee Miyoon’s stylist. After she managed to escape that evil stylist and was heaving a sigh of relief, Giwoo approached her and they started talking. She thanked him again and they eventually talked about having a drink together. Mijoo focused. She had to remember this precisely. They tried to schedule a drinking occasion, but she told him that Gaeul-unni had a prior engagement, and when asked what it was, she told him that she was drinking with Maru. She was flustered because she uttered something private, but she was relieved to know that Giwoo knew Maru. After that, she ended up talking about it – that they shouldn’t interfere with the couple. It was her who spoke first.

“Unni, what do I do? I spoke about it first that you two are a couple.”

-What did Giwoo say after that?

“He looked like he knew about it. Now that I think about it though, it seemed a little strange. He was smiling brightly as though he was overjoyed. I just thought something good happened to him… so Giwoo-oppa didn’t know that the two of you were dating?”

-We haven’t told him. Also when he said that we’re old friends, that’s just his own interpretation. Maru has known him for a long time, but he told me that he has never treated Kang Giwoo as a friend.

“Unni, then I… what do I do, unni? I ended up telling him that you were dating without knowing that.”

She said they weren’t old friends and that they weren’t close at all. There was no way that unni would have lied, so it would mean that Giwoo, who was drinking with her, had been lying. Why though? She suddenly felt the chills. Extending this conversation would change the meaning of what Giwoo said after that. Unni might get angry so you should keep it a secret – was that a scheme to hide the fact that he had gotten to know a secret? Mijoo spoke about it immediately,

“Giwoo-oppa told me not to say it. He said I would get scolded if you found out I made a mistake and that there’s no need for me to talk about it since it was all taken care of. But now that I heard everything you said, it doesn’t feel like it was advice. Maybe…”

-He must have made you stay quiet because I might find out like this.

“Giwoo-oppa, no, Kang Giwoo, why does that man act like that? He acted like he knew everything.”

-Mijoo, you know I trust you, right?

“Yes, I trust you too, unni.”

-Then go up first and wrap up for the day. Forget about the conversation we just had, and don’t give him any hints. If Giwoo acts suspicious, then just pretend like you’re drunk, okay?

“Yes.”

-And bring Chanwoo out with you as well. After separating from Giwoo, give me a call again.

“Okay.”

Mijoo ended the call and looked at the entrance of the building. It looked like a golden castle when she first came here, but it felt like abandoned ruins right now.

KTLChamber's Thoughts

I thought it was strange… it turns out that I translated this chapter before I did the previous one. I was thinking "Hey, weren't they going to call Yuna over? Why isn't she here?"

Anyway, I'm sure many of you hated(?) Mijoo for blurting out privacies in a privacy-sensitive industry. Has your opinions changed after reading this chapter? I want to know how you think about Mijoo now!

Editor's Note:

Serves her right if she gets fired (she won't cuz Gaeul is too nice). Can't believe someone with lips this loose is working for Gaeul when she already understands that people can have enmity between one another that is hidden beneath a facade. Anyways, more and more people learning of Giwoo's facade.

Chapter 856
Sequence 12

She couldn’t let go of her phone. What Mijoo said reverberated in her mind. Kang Giwoo knew they were dating? She hadn’t expected that at all. Why did he not say anything despite knowing that? From how he stopped Mijoo from telling her about it, it meant that he was scheming something. Giwoo had been just watching her without a word recently, so maybe that was related to this. Her head hurt. It was likely that just as Maru didn’t have a good opinion of Giwoo, Giwoo did not have a good opinion of Maru. If he really was someone that did not hesitate to bully other people, then he must have tried to do something about Maru, and the fact that she was dating him would have been a great weapon. Had he decided to use it, he would have used it a long time ago. From how he was staying silent, did that mean he had another reason? Or was he waiting for the right time? It was likely that he was staying silent because that fact couldn’t damage Maru directly, but she couldn’t exactly feel relieved considering the things that Giwoo did until now.

The phone in her hands started vibrating. It was a call from Maru.

-I’m on my way back after getting them home. Have you called Mijoo?

“I just did. But there’s a problem.”

-What problem?

“She’s with Giwoo. It’s good that I called her immediately. If she kept staying next to him without knowing anything, she would have blurted out everything. But the bigger problem is that Giwoo knows you and I are dating.”

-Sounds like Mijoo told him.

“Kang Giwoo lied to her, saying that the three of us are all friends. Mijoo thought that he naturally knew that we were dating and told him about it.”

-And Giwoo must have acted like he naturally knew about it, yes?

“From her words, he was even smiling joyfully.”

-When was that?

“The day you and I drank wine.”

-Has Giwoo given you any hints since then?

“No.”

-Journalists haven’t come looking for you either, right?

“If they did, I would have told you about it.”

-So that means he’s keeping that to himself for now, huh. He’s probably staying quiet since revealing it will only harm you. It will also badly influence the drama if rumors spread around.

“I think so too. In fact, if he told anyone, it would be you.”

-He didn’t call me either. If he knew about it, he would definitely have brought it up with me, but from how there wasn’t a response at all until now, it looks like he has something else planned.

“I don’t care if Giwoo reveals it to the media. I can proudly admit it.”

-You’re at the prime of your career. Although it has become a lot better than before, there are many people who don’t sit well with an actress’s romantic relationship. If it gets exposed, there will be more demerits than benefits. I’m sure your agency won’t like it either.

“Things have gotten complicated. I was going to verify what I knew and was going to hear the truth from her, but Kang Giwoo is there too.”

-What did you tell Mijoo?

“For now, I told her to leave after wrapping things up. She may have made a mistake, but she’s still someone I cherish a lot. I can’t let her stay tied up with Giwoo. The same goes for Chanwoo.”

-Alright. I’ll call Mijoo.

“What for?”

-Insurance.

Maru told her not to worry about it and hung up. Although she wanted to rest, she couldn’t exactly relax in this situation. Gaeul grabbed her phone and went to the living room, hoping for some good news.

* * *

Maru quickly searched for a name on his contact list and gave that person a call.

“Noona, I need a favor.”

-What’s up? It’s not like you to use a word like favor, and to me of all people.

“I’m in a hurry, so can you help me out? If you can’t, then I’ll look for someone else.”

-I don’t know what it is, but sure.

“Where are you right now?”

-At a bar near your house. We were going to barge into your place out of habit but realized we couldn’t do that, so we’re sulking. By we, I mean me and the two men here.

“Then I’ll go pick you up.”

-Alright. I don’t know what it is, but the cute little boy sounds so urgent, so I don’t have a reason to refuse. I’ll be waiting.

Maru hung up and turned the wheel.

* * *

Mijoo kept staring at the mirror in the bathroom. Although she was told to wrap things up and leave while pretending nothing happened, that wasn’t as easy as it sounded.

“I can’t believe Giwoo-oppa lied to me.”

Thinking about how he lied without batting an eyelid made it difficult for her to face him. What kind of expression was she supposed to make while going back? She had to bring the drunk Chanwoo out, so this was definitely not something easy. She couldn’t explain what she just heard to him either. Mijoo slapped her mouth. Her mouth was the source of trouble. The fact that Gaeul told her that they were dating meant that she trusted her, but she ended up betraying that trust. No matter how ‘healthy’ of a relationship they had, the very fact that an actress was in a relationship might be fatal. She easily spoke about something she should never have. Even if she knelt in front of her and begged for forgiveness, she couldn’t be forgiven for it.

That was why she had to wrap this situation up properly. That was the least she could do. Whether her act was going to work in front of someone who could deceive everyone like breathing and was an actor to boot, was questionable, but she still had no choice. They had to escape this place. As long as Chanwoo did not say that they should stay for longer, it might end unexpectedly early.

She smiled naturally while looking at the mirror for one last time, though, whether it was truly ‘natural’, she wasn’t entirely sure. It had been three years since she started watching actors on sets. She probably wouldn’t get found out immediately.

She put on makeup again in order to create an excuse for leaving her seat for so long. She was planning to tell Giwoo that Gaeul had asked her about something related to the schedule if he did ask. She calculated that he wouldn’t pry too deep as it was about work. She hadn’t wracked her brain this much since she was in her third year of high school. After imagining a few possible situations, she left the bathroom. She took a deep breath and was about to walk to the door when she got another call. Mijoo flinched. She was already very tense, and the bell startled her. She checked the name of the caller on the phone. It was Maru.

“Yes, oppa.”

-I heard the gist of it from Gaeul.

She reflexively apologized.

-Apologizing can come later. Are you inside the store right now?

“No, I was thinking outside and was just about to go in.”

-Do you think you can act like nothing happened after you go in?

“I’ll try. I just have to go in and say that we should go home. Chanwoo-oppa might say that we should drink more, but I’ll try to make something out of it.”

-Don’t do that, and just drink like you were just doing.

“What?”

-You don’t have to try to leave, just keep drinking. But you can’t get too drunk, so drink in moderation. Also, I have a favor to ask.

“A favor?”

* * *

Kang Giwoo put down his glass and looked at his watch. Mijoo, who had left after getting a call from Gaeul, hadn’t returned for over 30 minutes. He checked the notification bar on her phone before he picked up the call and saw that there were a lot of messages and missed calls. If they were all from Han Gaeul, it meant that it was pretty urgent, and from the conversation with them, he found out that Gaeul would never call them regarding work once their work period was over. He became curious about the reason she called at this late hour. If it was any other woman, he wouldn’t be interested, but this was about Han Gaeul. Giwoo wanted to know about Gaeul in detail. He was personally interested, and she was also Han Maru’s woman after all.

Mijoo returned around the time Chanwoo said he was going to the bathroom after drinking like a whale. Her expression didn’t look too good.

“Giwoo-oppa, pour me a glass.”

Giwoo poured some drink into Mijoo’s glass. Mijoo then snatched the glass and put it straight against her mouth.

“What happened?”

“Something happened.”

She then proceeded to sigh as though she was blaming herself for something. She became like this after taking a call. What did she hear from Han Gaeul? He was really curious now. He wanted to grill her about what she just heard, but he took some leisure. It was very arduous and tiring to deal with a girl he didn’t like, and this bitch would probably stay silent if he acted ferociously right now.

“I’m a good listener too.”

This bitch probably didn’t know how expensive the smile she was seeing right now nor how blessed she was for drinking with Kang Giwoo. If his friends found out about this, they would all probably laugh at him, saying that they couldn’t believe that he drank with a girl like her. That was why Mijoo would have to tell him everything. He could bring out the patience to hang out with her for now, but if she kept staying silent without knowing her place, he was going to give her a punishment.

He locked eyes with Mijoo. She seemed to be hiding something. He was feeling itchy because of that mouth that didn’t tell him anything. He couldn’t shout at her either. Thinking that feeding her more alcohol would loosen her up a little, he poured some more for her. After drinking it, Mijoo sighed and spoke,

“It’s my fault.”

“What did you do?”

“It’s all my fault. So the thing is.”

Because of the alcohol, her words were slurry. He wanted to grab her shoulders and shake her, telling her, ‘how you feel is none of my fucking business, so just tell me what you talked about over the goddamn phone.’

“Gaeul-unni is so pitiful.”

“Gaeul is? Why?”

“So, the thing is, it goes like this. Han Maru, that bastard…”

After mumbling, Mijoo fell onto the table. Giwoo couldn’t make out what happened at all. Han Gaeul is pitiful and Han Maru is a bastard?

Chanwoo returned and spoke as he looked at Mijoo on the table,

“Looks like she’s completely drunk. Giwoo, this girl can’t even speak when she’s drunk. Her drunk behavior is really strange.”

Giwoo narrowed his eyes and looked at Mijoo. Just as he said, she seemed totally drunk. She was mumbling something, but he couldn’t make out a word she said. Thinking back to the words Mijoo said, he ate some snacks. About 20 minutes later, Mijoo raised her head again.

“Did I fall asleep?”

“You’re totally drunk, alright. Mijoo, I told you to drink in moderation.”

Chanwoo gave Mijoo some water. Giwoo asked after looking at her,

“Mijoo, what you said before.”

“What?”

“You don’t remember?”

Mijoo made a totally clueless expression. He took a closer look at the bitch’s expression. Something felt off. The girl who was drunk to the point of falling asleep looked strangely sober. When he looked into her eyes, she even looked away. Oh? Was this girl playing a joke with him?

In order to make other people’s acting habits his own, he needed to have good observing eyes. Giwoo could proudly say that he was better than anyone when it came to catching the minute changes within people. If he put his mind to it, it was only a matter of time until he found out what kind of things she was pulling off here.

“Er, Mijoo.”

Just as he was about to probe her out, Mijoo’s eyes looked over his shoulder. Giwoo looked around. A not-so-welcome face was walking across the store. It was Han Maru. Next to him was a woman with a black mask and a baseball cap. They looked pretty close.

Giwoo tried to look at Mijoo’s face again, but the bitch already planted her face on the table again. Just then, he remembered her saying that Han Maru was a bastard and that Han Gaeul was pitiful. The one who was walking with Maru just now was not Han Gaeul. Their body figures were different. Although he couldn’t make out her face because of the mask and the fact that it was dark in the store, he could be sure about that.

Giwoo took out his phone and called Gaeul.

-What?

He could feel anger from the voice over the phone. It also wasn’t like her to pick up the call with a ‘what.’ This was getting interesting. He held back from smiling and asked,

“I was having a drink with Mijoo and I suddenly thought about you. If you aren’t too busy, wanna come hang out?”

-Sorry, I don’t feel like it today. Thanks for calling, but see you later.

“Alright, no biggie. Have a good rest.”

Before he could finish the word ‘rest,’ Gaeul hung up. It wasn’t her usual way of ending a call in a cheerful tone. Something was happening, the key to which was probably with Han Maru, who just disappeared into the back of the store. He couldn’t care less about Mijoo now. She could sleep or do whatever she wanted.

Giwoo told Chanwoo that he would go to the bathroom and walked towards the direction Maru disappeared in. There were many couples drinking in places that were walled off by partitions. They didn’t give a glance even if anyone passed by. This was the reason Giwoo frequented this place. He would be worry-free from annoying flies here. That was why many celebrities frequented this place as well. Here, it was courtesy to not greet each other, even if they did know each other, unless they were extremely close.

After passing by a few partitions, Giwoo managed to find the face he wanted. He saw Han Maru with a big grin on his face.

KTLChamber's Thoughts

This is getting interesting

Editor's Note:

Please, please, please. I wanna see Suyeon and Maru flirting. Please. Idk what plot they're cooking up, but I want Suyeon to flirt with Maru to toy with him. Peak content.

Chapter 857
Sequence 12

He thought about calling out to him but then decided to watch the situation. He leaned against the wall while fidgeting with his phone. He couldn’t see the woman’s face because it was blocked by the partition, but he could definitely see Maru’s grinning face. This was the first time he had seen him grinning like that. Although they had been hanging out together since ‘New Semester,’ he had never seen that guy smile like that without a care in the world. He even clapped and responded to the woman’s words, though he didn’t hear what she said. Maru was clearly way too excited.

Giwoo tried connecting the lines in his head with Maru’s actions. A bad Han Maru, an angry Han Gaeul, and finally Maru smiling foolishly while looking at an unfamiliar woman. All of that combined allowed him to draw a picture. It was something so common that it wasn’t even that surprising. A man and a woman breaking up after getting fed up with each other. The reason Gaeul was angry was probably since she was dumped. It wasn’t that surprising that she was angry since she was an actress at the peak of popularity. The reason Mijoo said that it was her fault was probably since she did something between the two. Or maybe, she had an absurd misunderstanding like how it was her fault that the two broke up. That wasn’t really important right now though.

Actors dating each other was very common. It just wasn’t released to the media that often. Even if it was just an act, there was no way romantic feelings would not sprout when they whispered love and kissed each other for months. Sometimes, top stars and minor actors would date each other, but most of the time, that ended badly. It was natural as there was a gap in their league. This was why people should play with those in the same league. Getting involved with someone in a different league would frustrate both parties before it ultimately ended badly.

It was quite a pity. If the two were close, then the ecstasy of stealing her from him would have been multiple times bigger. This guy really wasn’t to his liking. Even if he tried to socially bury him, this guy had nothing to him that he could bury. He then tried to make him taste the sense of powerlessness from having his lover stolen, but he dumped her first. He was a frigging Bohemian. There was nothing that bound him, so there was no way to attack him. This guy was frustrating.

It was time to check on the situation. Giwoo pretended to be on a call and walked towards the two. Luckily, Maru noticed him first. Maru scanned him up and down with a displeased expression.

“Maru, what brings you here?”

Giwoo greeted him first so that he could not ignore him. That guy hinted to him to walk away, but Giwoo replied to that with a smile. Looking at him panicking slightly was very pleasing. This was his first time seeing Han Maru so flustered. It meant that he was really serious towards the woman in front of him. He turned around to the woman and asked for a handshake. Although she had taken her mask off, she still had her baseball cap deeply pressed down, so he couldn’t see her face. However, just from her jawline, he could tell that she was a considerable beauty. Han Maru, this lucky bastard, either had incredibly good talking skills or a very big thing between his legs.

“Hello.”

He greeted the woman. As he was here, he had to check her face. The woman scoffed and took off her cap. It was someone Giwoo knew well.

“Suyeon-noona?”

“Oh, it’s Giwoo. I thought it was one of those obsessive fans of mine. What brings you here?”

“I came here to drink with a couple people I know. How about you, noona?”

“Me? I’m here to have a drink with this guy as well. But you two look close?”

“We are. Aren’t we, Maru?”

Maru’s eyes twitched. His displeasure was apparent. It was so refreshing. He even wanted to capture that flustered expression on camera. It was a pity that he could not take his phone out.

“We’re friends.”

“Really? Giwoo, since you’re here, you should have a drink too, right?”

“Sure.”

Suyeon picked up a bottle. Giwoo accepted her pour with both of his hands on the glass. Han Maru was staring holes at him from the side. It seemed that he really didn’t like this.

“It’s been a long time since I got to drink with you, noona.”

“You had it so busy, that’s why. Also, you didn’t even call me once. We can only drink if we can talk to each other, duh.”

“That’s true. Looks like I was a little dumb.”

“Give me a call next time. I’m good at drinking.”

He rolled the fruit-scented liquor around his mouth for a while before swallowing it. He felt like he could get drunk pleasantly if he kept drinking here. There was no need for accompanying snacks. Han Maru’s displeased face was enough of a snack.

“You should have a drink too, noona.”

He picked up the bottle and tilted it. After receiving a glass, Suyeon drank it heartily in one go. Just like the rumors that said she was refreshing, she didn’t hold back while drinking. She even tapped down the glass and wiped her mouth with the back of her hand. If this was their first time meeting, he would’ve thought that this was the kind of person she was, but Giwoo knew Suyeon’s other face very well. If any other actress wanted to drink with him, he would not refuse, but if it was Kim Suyeon, he would look for excuses first. Her appearance wasn’t lacking compared to anyone, so it would be pleasant to drink while looking at her face, but still, he couldn’t afford to sit at the same table with a viper hiding its fang. Right now, it was fine since he was an uninvited guest.

“I know that you two belong to the same agency, but you two are pretty close after all, huh?”

He threw a question to probe out the atmosphere. Suyeon swirled the empty glass around as she spoke,

“I’ve known Maru for quite some time, so I guess you can call us close.”

“I want to go to JA too in the future. I hope you can say a word or two to the president for me. You too, Maru.”

“If Kang Giwoo is coming, I’m sure the president will welcome you with open arms. If your contract expires, you should think about it seriously. It’s good to become a part of the family, isn’t it?”

“I’ll really seriously consider it.”

“The president of Soul must be disappointed to hear that.”

“It’s fine, our president has a big heart.”

Maru tapped him with his elbow, hinting to him to leave. He couldn’t stand up already when he hadn’t found out anything yet. He wanted to see him act displeased for longer too.

“Maru. I called Gaeul just a while ago, and she sounded angry. She probably wouldn’t answer me even if I asked her why. Do you know anything? You two are close.”

Han Maru’s expression froze up in an instant. Rather than his stiff face, Giwoo chased his eyes. His lips were twitching in displeasure, and his eyes were giving glances at Suyeon. At this point, he was convinced.

“How would I know?”

Although he sounded like he was oblivious, it was child’s play in front of Giwoo, who knew everything.

“Also, stop talking about Han Gaeul. What are you doing, talking about someone that’s not here in front of someone else?” Maru whispered to him.

He almost burst out laughing. He even found this guy pitiful for trying to look good in front of a woman. Just what made him so worried about this guy until now? The beast-like eyes that he showed from time to time were gone without a trace. So even he wasn’t anything much if he got nervous.

Although he tried to stay seated, Maru called him out separately. Giwoo thought that this was about enough and followed him out. Maru started speaking where Suyeon’s eyes did not reach,

“What the heck do you want?”

“What’s this all of a sudden? I just said hi because I was glad to see someone I know here.”

“If that’s true, then just leave after saying hello. Don’t say anything unnecessary.”

“Anything unnecessary? Did I say something bad?”

Maru’s lips twitched, but he didn’t say anything. There was probably no way that he could say that he used to date Han Gaeul and that he was trying to look good in front of Kim Suyeon now. Giwoo decided to ask just to confirm,

“But hey, it looked good back there. Are things going well with Suyeon-noona?”

Maru shook his head, saying that it was nothing like that, but there was definitely a hint of a smile on his face. It was clear that this guy held Suyeon in his heart. He wondered how far he had progressed. Were they dating already? Or did he just dump Gaeul so that he could change ships?

“What are you two doing?”

Suyeon came over. Maru said that it was nothing and that they should go back.

“Go back first. I have something to talk about with Giwoo.”

Maru didn’t leave immediately and stuck around for a moment. He looked pathetic for being servile to Suyeon. There was nothing more tragic than a man being dominated by a woman, and yet this guy was the prime example of that. When Suyeon once again told him to go, Maru put on a foolish smile and turned around.

“I thought you were supposed to feign ignorance in this place even if you do find someone you know. Have the rules changed recently?”

Suyeon’s eyes were aglare unlike when she was at the table. This was her true form. She couldn’t be more duplicate than this. According to the rumors, there were at least ten producers that this woman had ensnared. It might be an exaggeration considering that she had never been caught up with bad rumors, but it was also likely that she was very good at cleaning up the aftermath. What he could say for sure was that he couldn’t afford to joke around with her. Giwoo did not see Suyeon as someone below him, whether it was in terms of popularity, appearance, or skill. Above all, he liked her for knowing how to use her head to manipulate other people. He had no plans on warring against someone of the same kind.

“That guy and I have some matters. But are you two dating?”

“No.”

“Then what?”

“You still don’t get what relationship we’re in after seeing how he acted?” Suyeon asked as she licked her lower lip.

It was indeed one of the stories he had in his mind. Maru had fallen for Suyeon and was seeking her love.

“I get what it is now.”

“If you do, then get going. I thought you had company. Let’s mind ourselves with only the people we should care about. As far as I know, you don’t like people disturbing your business either, do you?”

“I don’t, a lot.”

“There’s a good boy. You really are a good boy, unlike the rumors.”

“There are rumors about me?”

“On our side, a little.”

“You’re different from the rumors too, noona. I thought you only partnered with capable people.”

“Women like to be innocent at times. You should try it too, I mean being in innocent love. Don’t do things like drugs.”

“Don’t say something so dangerous. There’s no one in Korea who does drugs.”

“Right?”

“Of course.”

Suyeon placed her hand on Giwoo’s shoulder. She started stroking upward before her hand eventually reached his neck. She flicked his Adam's apple and spoke,

“Why don’t we have a drink together sometime? I don’t think we’ve ever drank just by ourselves.”

“I’d love to, but I’m a man with many fears.”

Suyeon chuckled and took her hand off.

“I don’t like you either. Let’s not get close to each other.”

“Sure. Oh, right. Good luck with Han Maru, with that innocent love or whatever.”

“I’m not sure yet. It might end before it even starts because of my lack of interest. You know, don’t you? Innocent things are quite boring.”

Suyeon turned around and waved her hand. From the way she spoke, it seemed that Han Maru was destined to get rejected. Perhaps this drinking occasion was his last. Thinking about how Han Maru would be looking forward to dating Suyeon, he burst out laughing. That guy had a terrible eye for women. He was acting cute in front of a viper who can very well swallow a man whole.

“Dumping Han Gaeul for Kim Suyeon, huh.”

Giwoo fidgeted with his phone. Gaeul’s face kept popping up in his mind. If he could meet her now, he would be able to score some points with her by consoling her. These days, he thought about her a lot more. He had to admit that this had gone beyond simple possessive desire. It probably started back then on the day they shot their first kiss. It was the day a fluffy emotion he had never felt before swept across his heart like a wave.

He put his phone inside his pocket. There was no need to hurry. There would be plenty more chances to see her in the future after all. Perhaps thanks to Han Gaeul, Han Maru left his interest. Seeing him act so submissive in front of Suyeon made him feel like being concerned about him was a waste of energy.

Before he went back, he had a glance at Han Maru who was looking at Suyeon, for one last time. His eyes were sparkling like a dog seeing food. Giwoo laughed in ridicule before turning around.

KTLChamber's Thoughts

Gee, it might have been satisfying to read that chapter, but it sure as heck wasn't fun translating it.

Editor's Note:

Man, I bet Suyeon was having the time of her life. Author should bring her back more.

Chapter 858
Sequence 12

Mijoo looked at the backlights of the car before sighing. Kang Giwoo, who had returned after leaving for a bit, immediately said that they should say goodbye. As it was what she wanted, she immediately said that they should do that. She had to hold Chanwoo back from going for a 2nd round.

“Mijoo, be careful on your way back home.”

“You too, oppa.”

Chanwoo grabbed a taxi and left. The situation that made her heart beat in nervousness had finally come to a closure. She didn’t want to experience that again, whether it was acting in front of an actor or nervously watching one while pretending to be asleep. She looked around before taking out her phone.

“He left.”

Maru appeared after she waited for a little after hanging up.

“Good work.”

“Not at all. Is everything okay now?”

“If you did everything I said, then that should have dealt with the problem for now. How did Giwoo look? Did he ask you anything in particular?”

“He looked very pleased after he returned from seeing you. He didn’t ask anything in particular either. He definitely didn’t look like he was suspicious of something. But I did as you told me to, so is everything really okay now? I didn’t say that much.”

Maru called her for a request, and she found out that his request was about acting. It was a request that made her dizzy. Leaving aside the fact that she wasn’t good at lying by nature, the fact that she had to put on an act in front of an actor stifled her. Fortunately, the act wasn’t that difficult, so she didn’t have a hard time doing it, which made her wonder: Han Maru is a bastard, Gaeul-unni is pitiful; could she really sort the situation out with just those two phrases?

“That should be enough. It should have convinced him to think that one of the scenarios in his mind is true. As for the rest, Giwoo should have put the pieces of the puzzle together in the way he wanted to.”

She understood a little.

“Did you immediately pretend to be drunk after saying that?”

“Yes. I fell flat on the table. You told me not to show him my face.”

“Good. I’m not sure about anything else, but he’s good at reading expressions, so if you kept talking to him while looking at him, he might have thought about something else.”

She felt relieved to know that everything had gone well. However, there were two problems that she couldn’t resolve yet: Why did Kang Giwoo lie to her, and why is Gaeul not looking at him in a good light?

“Mijoo.”

“Yes?”

She was startled as she was in deep thought. Maru was pointing at her phone.

“Give Gaeul a call. You should apologize to her first, don’t you think?”

“Oh, right.”

“Gaeul will tell you about the details. She might not, but don’t feel too bad about it.”

“This became a problem because I went off with my mouth, so it’s natural even if she doesn’t tell me anything. I feel so sorry for her. I feel like things have gotten out of hand because of me.”

“From how Giwoo went back quietly, there shouldn’t be a big problem. He should believe that I broke up with her.”

Maru walked to his car after telling her to be careful on her way back. There was a woman wearing a cap in his car. Mijoo didn’t know who she was, but she was waving at her. She awkwardly waved back at her. After seeing the car leave, Mijoo pressed the call button with her stiff fingers.

* * *

Kim Suyeon took out her earbuds from her ears. She saw Maru coming towards the car after talking with a woman in front of the building.

“Did things work out?”

“Yes. I think I put out the urgent fire for now.”

“You got yourself involved with a dangerous kid. Why is it Kang Giwoo of all people? You asked me about Lee Miyoon a little while ago, didn’t you? The people you ask about are all so terribly strong.”

“I’m finding out about them beforehand so that I can avoid them. Like you said, they’re all so terribly strong, so I’m going to lay low.”

“Laying low? And yet you just did that?”

“It was an emergency situation. I couldn’t help it.”

Suyeon smiled in resignation and shook her head. She did come over because she was tempted by Maru asking a favor but didn’t know that it involved making a fool out of someone. Moreover, it was Kang Giwoo of all people. Although she had heard about the details beforehand, it did scare her to see him up close. After all, he was the grandson of the tiger chairman who single-handedly built the colossus that was the current YM, although he had retired now. She would not see anything good if the fact that she ‘tampered with’ the young master of YM was exposed.

“What did you two talk about after I left?” Maru asked as he put on his seatbelt.

Her talking with Giwoo by themselves was not within the plan. It was an idea Suyeon came up with on the spot.

“Since we were fooling him, I nailed the coffin.”

“What did you tell him?”

“That I’m toying with you before throwing you away.”

“You didn’t need to go that far.”

“Why? I just made good use of my public image. Giwoo seemed to accept that. Looks like rumors about me are still widely spread in this industry. Well, I guess people do see me in a weird way if they know anything about me.”

“Sorry, and thank you.”

“Okay, you owe me one now.”

“Call me anytime if you need me.”

“Wait at all times. You don’t know when I’ll make use of you.”

“Please refrain from calling me in the middle of the night.”

“Why, because you need to spend a hot night with Gaeul?”

She winked at Maru, who chuckled. This guy would always hesitate to make a move unless he had a guarantee, yet he was like a bulldozer when it involved Han Gaeul. It was like that with Lee Miyoon, and it was like that now.

“Looks like you like her a lot.”

“Yes. I like her a lot.”

“Look at you, not holding back even a little. You’re creeping me out. Gaeul has it good, having a man who loves her so much by her side. I wonder why such a man doesn’t appear for me.”

“Are you even willing to love such a man back the same way?”

“If it’s Geunsoo-oppa, I won’t hesitate for a second and would throw my whole body and heart at him.”

“Try saying that to him. Maybe he’ll fall for it.”

“Don’t start giving me weird ideas; I can only do that so many times. It’s embarrassing to keep doing it. I was surprised myself, you know? I actually still know what shame is. These days, just seeing his face and drinking together sounds about just right. I was laughing together with him when we were drinking earlier today, and I thought that maybe this is what friendship is like between two people of the opposite sex. Oh yeah, speaking of that, I wonder what those two are up to.”

She tried texting. She asked if they were still drinking at the bar or if they went home. She got a text back immediately. Ganghwan left after drinking a couple more glasses, but Geunsoo was still there.

“Geunsoo-oppa is still drinking by himself.”

“You should go visit him.”

“Not today. If Ganghwan-oppa isn’t around, it gets awkward between us. When it’s the three of us, we’re like the three musketeers, but when it’s just me and Geunsoo-oppa, it’s like we’re both ascetics or something. These days, that got even worse, so I don’t even want to meet him without Ganghwan-oppa around.”

“That means he’s conscious of you.”

“I don’t think so.”

Suyeon said that as she looked at Maru’s face. Her unrequited love had been going on for years. At first, it began as a joke or a prank of sorts, but she eventually turned serious. She even regretted the fact that she started it off as a joke and wished that she had been serious since the beginning. The fact that she told him about her past was also because she wanted him to know how serious she was. It was selfish of her to do so, but she was a selfish woman after all.

“I’ll pay back the debt today.”

“I don’t plan to use it though.”

“It’s a really good opportunity. Are you still not going to use it?” Maru said as he grabbed the wheel.

He had a suspicious smile on his face. It was a smile that made her explode with curiosity. Suyeon told him to say it, saying that she would fall for his jokes.

“Geunsoo hyung-nim is thinking about you quite seriously, noona.”

“Don’t lie to me.”

“I heard it from the person himself. He didn’t want me to keep it a secret, and in fact, it looked like he wanted me to tell you.”

“Really?”

“I’d be real trash if I lied to you here.”

“But you were always trash.”

“If you put it that way, then I don’t really have anything to tell you, because it does seem like I’ve always been trash. Anyway, I’ll drive you to where Geunsoo hyung-nim is now. It’s the bar where I picked you up, right?”

The car departed. Suyeon fidgeted as she thought about what he said. There was no reason for Maru to lie. Did he turn into a statue when there were just the two of them not because he disliked it, but because he was conscious? She always interpreted his attitude the same way because she thought that there was no way he would like her. She thought that he didn’t even want to talk to her.

“Geunsoo-oppa really said that?”

“If he didn’t want to drink with you, he would have texted back that he was going home too. But, he said he’s by himself at the bar.”

“That’s true.”

“Weren’t you supposed to be max level when it comes to romance? Why didn’t you notice such a straightforward clue?”

“Because I never thought it was an option. To me, Geunsoo-oppa staying distant from me is on the same level as saying you’ll die if you don’t breathe.”

“Then why don’t you check if that rule still holds or not? You need to try holding your breath to see if you actually die or not.”

Suyeon thought about it for a moment before speaking,

“I’m not going after all.”

“Why?”

“I don’t have the confidence to see him after you said all that.”

“You said all sorts of things to Kang Giwoo, so why?”

“That’s because he’s the same type as me. Geunsoo-oppa is different. I’m too nervous. I can’t go.”

“Tonight may be the last chance you can seriously talk it out with each other.”

“You really are trash. If you say that, then I…”

Suyeon stopped speaking and closed her eyes. Maru asked what he should do. Today, the car seemed to be moving really fast, without giving her any time to think.

“I’ll ask first.”

Suyeon sent Geunsoo a text first, asking if it was okay for her to go if he was going to drink more. If it was like she expected, the reply should come in about 10 minutes, telling her that he left the bar a while ago. She inwardly wanted him to reply like that. After all, if they didn’t meet, her heart would stay safe.

She got a reply. It was almost auto-reply level of speed. She clenched her teeth and checked the text.

“Should I go to the bar?”

Suyeon closed her eyes and nodded.

* * *

Geunsoo came out of the bar and brought Suyeon inside. He had a look at Suyeon’s face before she went in, and she looked like a cow being dragged to slaughter. All sorts of fears and worries were being exuded from her eyes. People really were unpredictable. If their dream came true, then they would be suspicious first instead of rejoicing. In that sense, Maru thought that she was a lot like him.

“I’m going back now.”

He hung up the call from Gaeul and got in the car. Considering how rushed he was in dealing with this situation, the outcome was pretty clean. Scouting Suyeon was the best move he could make. She was the first one that came to his mind as she possessed the right image for this job.

Suyeon was right. It was something that trash would do. He was grateful to her for taking up on the job without complaining. He did not consider telling her what Geunsoo thought was settling the debt. After all, those two would have made progress even if he didn’t do anything. If there was an opportunity to help her out later, he was going to do it regardless of what it may be with a thick face.

“I should wrap things up now.”

Maru called Kang Giwoo. The signal went on for a long time before Giwoo picked up.

-Oh, Maru. What’s up? You called me first.

“Nothing. I just wanted to say nice meeting you today.”

-Me too.

Maru yawned in a small voice so that it didn’t go over the phone and waited. He observed a man walking past his car and smiled at a cat jumping in front of the car. Giwoo said what he expected him to.

-I hope it goes well for you. I’ll forget what I saw today, so don’t worry about that. I’m not sure you know, but there’s a rule to not say anything about what people saw there. So there’s no need to call me like this. Don’t worry about it and get to sleep.

“I didn’t worry at all. Alright, see you later.”

He hung up immediately. Maru was grateful that he reacted the way he thought he would. There was no need to worry now since Giwoo should be thinking that the scenario was going the way he wanted it to. This was why it was easy dealing with people who could use their heads. They would make predictions and judgements if they were given some minute clues. It was worth the effort to induce that young master to think like that.

Maru drove his car back to his apartment.

KTLChamber's Thoughts

I don't like the direction this is going, because Giwoo will obviously try to hit on Gaeul now.

Editor's Note:

Honestly, I don't think Maru thought that Giwoo could ever fall in love with someone. He prob assumed that Giwoo would just keep up appearances with Gaeul. Anyways, Suyeon is getting her happy ending. I can't wait for Suyeon x Geunsoo moments cuz they're adorable.

Chapter 859
Sequence 13

Having finished washing the dishes, Maru got in the car with the outfit he had prepared beforehand. It was 6 a.m. Usually, he only had a couple of scenes to shoot, so he was never called to the set early, but today, the assistant director told him to come early. He drove over to YBS and headed to the set which was about 2 km away from the TV station. He went inside and said hello to the members of the staff who were busy getting ready. Just then,

“You’re going up first today. Oh, this is your script. We just got it at 4 a.m. Looks like that unni has a lot of stress.”

The script didn’t even have a cover on it. Not to mention typos, there were even wrong names littered throughout the script as though to show how hurried the writer was when writing it. Jayeon told him to read it quickly before leaving. She seemed to be busy coming up with movement lines with the camera director. He went to the corner so that he didn’t disturb anyone and started reading the script.

“You’re early today.”

Heewon walked over with a yawn. His hair looked neat today like he had been to a hairstylist.

“I was called here.”

“Wasn’t your scene supposed to be this afternoon?”

“Apparently, there are extra scenes.”

Maru showed him the script. Heewon had a look at it.

“So we got extra scenes that weren’t there before, huh. And they’re centered around you too. That must be a pain for you. It’s not like you get paid more just because you shoot more.”

“Popular actors like you can think like that. To me, it’s a grateful opportunity.”

“Looks like quite a lot. Was that character originally going to be used like this?”

“Nah, I have someone to thank for this actually. It’s Kang Giwoo.”

“Kang Giwoo?”

“Well, something like that. Anyway, help me out during the shoot today so that I can leave an impression on the audience.”

“I’m sure you’ll do fine without me anyway. Let’s just finish it without an NG and go home to rest. If I’m shooting with you, I’m sure I can finish it early.”

Heewon looked around for a moment before pulling a chair over and sitting down on it.

“Aren’t you leaving?”

“I don’t have anything to do, and if I catch the director’s eyes, I’ll just get an earful. Moreover, that guy will leave me alone when I’m with you.”

‘That guy’ was coming.

“Hyung, didn’t you say you didn’t have any scenes today?”

“You know all sorts of stuff. I got an additional scene, so I came.”

“I see.”

Haewon took something out of his pocket. In his hand was chocolate. It was Heewon’s snack. Haewon always said that it was a method to console a child throwing a tantrum because they were tired, but people who heard him for the first time would just laugh it off thinking it was a joke. They would probably change their minds if they witnessed the miracle of a popular actor that was rolling on the ground because they were unwilling to work, standing up because of a mere piece of chocolate.

“Please take care of my brother today.”

“That’s for me to say to him. He’s a popular actor.”

He put the chocolate in his mouth and started reading the script. He repeated the lines so that they got stuck on his tongue – until the point he could picture the situation when he closed his eyes, and he could say his lines reflexively. He recited everything from the first line to the last line without rest. He then picked out the lines that he had a harder time saying and said them again. After checking that he could say his line mechanically, he woke Heewon up, who was dozing off to the side.

“If you don’t have anything to do, then practice with me.”

Heewon said he couldn’t be bothered, looking clearly annoyed. Maru handed him his script.

“But you’ll do fine by yourself.”

“Who told you to be next to me? If you practice with me, I won’t bother you anymore, so help me out a little.”

Heewon licked his lips and said, ‘just once.’ It seemed that he came to the judgment that delaying sleep for just one round was fine. Maybe he was helping out for the price of blocking his persistent little brother’s eyes.

Maru quickly finished his practice with Heewon. He tried reflecting on the emotions he thought would work well while practicing by himself, and it didn’t look bad. The writer described the character in detail, making it easier for him to express him. As Jayeon said, the writer was pretty skilled. The fact that she was the main writer of a mini-series drama in her mid-30s was proof that she was above the rest.

“That’s one practice done.”

“Then let’s start the second one, shall we?”

“I thought you only needed to do it once?”

“When did I say that? Since we started, practice with me until the shoot starts. Who knows? I might block Haewon for you later.”

“That’s tempting.”

Heewon became filled with vitality and picked up the script. Maru decided that it would be later that he told him that it was only lip service and that he would definitely side with Haewon if the two got into a fight. Heewon, who was just uttering the lines dryly before, now started participating in practice with emotion. Practice became a lot smoother with someone to interact emotionally.

It felt quite ecstatic to practice with a partner who could receive everything he threw at him. It felt like he was throwing random pieces of a 100-piece puzzle on the ground, but it fell into the right place every single time. Heewon even smoothly returned with a line when Maru threw at him an emotion that was completely out of place in the script. For a moment, Maru thought that Heewon would become a good professor in acting. Though, he himself would definitely deny it.

“Hey, are things working out well with Gaeul?” Heewon asked during practice.

“Why do you ask so suddenly?”

“Because I just found out a couple who had been dating for a year broke up yesterday. I was wondering if you two were doing well. Heck, the first people I thought about were you two after hearing that. It means that I was quite worried about you two.”

“Do you think we’ll break up again?”

“I heard people last a long time when they work things out after breaking up, so no.”

“Good. We’ll stay right next to each other for a long time so don’t you worry about it.”

“Please do.”

“Don’t worry about others and think about your own romance. What happened to the woman you met last time?”

“We split up after eating.”

“Why? You didn’t get along?”

“No. I thought about it seriously recently, and I don’t think I can get married. I imagined it, you know? Me getting married and having a family. But I couldn’t bring myself to imagine it. I have no confidence to be a good dad, and I feel like looking after kids is something impossible for me. Heck, before I am even a good dad, I don’t think I’ll be a good husband.”

“I know this is something that’s probably said to death, but you’re bound to do well if it comes down to it.”

“That’s not like you. You plan everything out in life, don’t you? Having a child at X years old, having your child enter Y elementary school, and what to do in your later years.”

“I’m not actually that calculative, you know?”

“So that’s why you poked Gaeul into a drama and ran to the military? Say something that makes more sense. Anyway, I’m going to live alone for life.”

“You’ll never say that if you see a woman you want to love for your whole life. People like you tend to get married early.”

“Me? I don’t think so.”

“People who say that always arrive at the goal early.”

I really don’t think so – Heewon shook his head and stood up before disappearing somewhere. The person who made Heewon flee walked over.

“We’re going to start right now, so you’re ready right? We can’t afford to have you not be ready.”

For a person who chucked the script at him early in the morning, she had a pretty bold attitude. Jayeon pointed at the set with her chin before turning around. She seemed to be saying, ‘you might as well quit if you aren’t this fast,’ with her back. Maru followed her with the script in hand. The reason he did vocal exercises every single day and practiced his emotions was precisely to catch sudden opportunities like this. To complain that he had too little time and that it was too unfair, there were too many aspiring actors in South Korea to actually do so.

“That’s more like it. That confident-looking face is looking real good right now.”

“That’s because I’m putting on an act that I’m confident.”

“That sounds good too. I know you’ll do well.”

“Your words give me the most pressure.”

“I am giving you pressure. This is a story that the writer created after calling you out separately. It’s a desperate struggle to increase the viewing rate. Ultimately, the only thing that remains is the viewing rate. You’re on the same ship, so you’ll have to work to death.”

“Do I get compensated if the ship sinks?”

“I’m fine since I’m employed at YBS.”

“So I’m the only one in danger, huh. I’ll do my best.”

“Show everyone that there’s an actor like you.”

Jayeon told him some simple movement lines and the emotions she sought in this scene. Maru compared the act he prepared beforehand and what the director wanted him to do and thought about which one was better. Jayeon sometimes took it a little easy and would be strong at other times to set the general atmosphere of the scene.

“You know it too, right? When you’re young, you even buy suffering. Until a while ago, these words earned the sympathy of everyone, but it’s being used a little differently.”

“Yes. I heard someone say that on TV a few days ago. Why do people have to buy suffering when they’re young? It’s not like being young is a crime.”

“The hot keyword these days is passion pay[1]. Words like that get reinterpreted accordingly. This scene is based on creating a common ground. Last-minute scripts aren’t always bad. You can keep up with trends like this. If I’m worried about something, it’s that this must not become a soap opera. No one likes forced tears, do they? Sympathy versus soap opera. Tears from sympathy make the viewers pick up their remote and increase the volume, while a soap opera would make them change the channel in annoyance instead.”

“If you put thrilling music in the background, it shouldn’t become a soap opera.”

“I don’t plan to let editing solve this. I’m going to leave this scene entirely in your hands. I’m going to not do my work and will let you do it instead, so try. This morning’s shoot was scheduled solely for this scene.”

“You’re putting me in a pickle here.”

“Would you like a cucumber instead?”

“Your pun skills have become good ever since you got married. Director Park Hoon laughs a lot when he hears you, doesn’t he?”

He probably even sheds tears from laughing so hard – Jayeon twitched her lips and went over to the monitor. Maru said hello to the camera director, who just picked up the camera and got into position.

“Okay, then. We’re starting.”

Jayeon put on her headset and moved her mouth. Please do well – he could tell what she was saying from a distance. I want to do well too – Maru scratched his eyebrows. It was just the right amount of tension and pressure. When dealing with a controversial topic of the times, delicate acting skills were necessary. The drama would become a mess if it felt like it just rode the flow of the times. The script dealt with the issue of the era in a not too exaggerated manner. It was a good choice for a side story. What was left was up to the skills of the actor and the producer. If this went well, it would be a fresh change to ‘Doctors’ that both the producer and the writer wanted, and if not, it would become their worst move that just wasted time. ‘Doctor’s Office’ had become a lot more fast-paced recently with their political struggles. Both the writer and the producer must be feeling a lot of pressure since they were trying to fill a portion of the drama with the story of a side character instead of a main character. Whether this would become a crouch that leads to a big leap, or it will end with comments saying that the writer has lost her way, he didn’t know. There might not be any mention of it at all. Maru thought that that would be the worst result. If they did something, they needed results, whether good or bad.

“Actors, get into positions. Camera.”

Maru closed his eyes and opened them after a deep breath at the cue sign.

[1] Passion pay is where you get paid with ‘passion’(aka work experience) instead of actual money.

KTLChamber's Thoughts

How many times did I explain passion pay again? I'm pretty sure I explained it differently every single time too lol.

Anyway, fingers crossed.

Editor's Note:

Time to blow up. Surely right.

Chapter 860
Sequence 13

Instant noodles and a triangular rice ball, that was her dinner. When she just got employed, she told her mother that she had grown up and that she didn’t need to worry anymore, but she didn’t know that it would turn out like this. Lee Eunhye swung the convenience store plastic bag around as she opened the door. Although she would be able to reduce her waste if she ate at the convenience store, she didn’t want to eat while being conscious of the gazes around her. She wanted to eat at least in leisure. It was 10 p.m. Her company held people back for no reason again today. Whether it was the company moving or expanding, it never seemed not busy since she got employed. Also, the company neither actually moved nor became bigger.

She turned the kettle on and took off her stockings. She could see a rip around the thigh. She noticed it two days ago, but it was covered up by her skirt, so she was able to wear it for a few days more. She took off the casual-style women’s suit, that she bought because someone told her that female employees look good in it, and washed her hands. She should have paid rent with the money to buy something like that.

The company that told its employees that they should dream together had not paid her for two months now. The aim of the company, to become a global business, was the dream of the company, not her own. Her dream was to get a decent salary so that she could live worry-free about rent, eat out from time to time, and give her parents some money regularly.

Her company said that they needed cooperation from the employees in order to achieve the company’s dream and pleaded with, no, coerced them every single day. The employees who went against them had their desks removed without a sound. A senior of hers who quit the company three months ago in search of his dream sent her a message a few days ago, asking if the company was doing okay now. At first, she thought that he was worried about her, but she found out the truth through someone else. That senior, who boldly kicked himself out the door, went traveling and rested for a month before jumping back into the workforce two months ago, did not manage to get a job. The reason he asked was that he might be able to return to the company. That was what made Eunhye stay at the company like her life depended on it.

She put some hot water into the instant noodles and microwaved the rice ball. Her mother probably thought that she was eating decent food. After all, she cooked every day before she became independent. She liked going grocery shopping as well. Now that she actually left the house to live by herself, and she had no salary, she realized that the cost of vegetables was akin to the cost of gold. It was an old saying that cooking for yourself is cheaper. These days, only people with decent salaries could cook for themselves. A single bell pepper cost 1,500 won, while a combo of a triangular rice ball, instant noodles, and a canned drink cost 1,700 won as an event. Every single penny was worth a lot to her, so she couldn’t afford the luxury of cooking her own side dishes. Above all, the effort and time that she would need to invest into doing that was a waste. Even if she did cook, it was obvious that it would just get stuck in the refrigerator for days, so buying food from the convenience store was convenient in many ways.

“Yeah, hi. It’s been a long time.”

As soon as she placed the instant noodles and the rice ball on the foldable table, she got a call. It was from a college friend. This girl went around telling everyone that she was preparing to become a civil servant.

“You want to go traveling together? Sorry, I don’t think I can make it this month. I want to go too, but you know how I am doing. If I don’t get a salary this month either, I really will have to look into getting a weekend job.”

The instant noodles were getting bloated. Her reason was telling her to hang up quickly and start eating, but her emotions were telling her to console her friend. The two fought intensely.

“What? You’re quitting goshiwon? If you say so, then no one can stop you, but it is a bit of a pity. You tried hard for two years.”

Her friend told her that it was simply too embarrassing to continue that life. She would press on if she had the confidence to pass in another year, but she didn’t. She was looking for a place to work and rejoiced, saying that she might be able to get into a big company if she got lucky. Eunhye wished her luck, but she was smiling bitterly. This girl had around the same GPA as her during college. She did graduate from a 4-year course, so she should be able to apply, but whether she would actually reach the interview stage was debatable. Eunhye had written numerous resumes during the recruitment season of the big companies, but she had only ever advanced into the interview phase once, which she eventually failed. She consoled herself by thinking that she should start at a mid-sized company and climb her way up, but that company was not paying her salary, so she did not have anything to tell her friend.

Her friend told her that she would take her on a resort vacation if she got employed and told her to just look forward to it. Eunhye could remember five to six such promises off the top of her head. If they got employed, if they left goshiwon, if they got a raise; until now, none of her friends fulfilled that promise, including herself.

She scooped out some noodles with her chopsticks and put them in her mouth. Her company clearly went too far by saying that they couldn’t serve her lunch because they didn’t get any ingredients for the company restaurant. Everything frustrated her at this point. Apparently, they were going to calculate dinner as 6,000 won and add it to their salary, but that salary was nowhere to be seen for two months. She only had the grit to stick with this company and get that money no matter what.

After slurping the instant noodles, Eunhye probed around the floor looking for a remote. It was 10 past 10, the time for a drama, the eternal friend of someone who eats alone. It was a good thing that she bought a big TV with her first salary. When she watched TV on a big screen, she could forget about her worries. It was a moderate form of escapism that was good for her mental health.

Her channel was fixed on KBS. On it was ‘Doctor’s Office,’ which was hugely popular recently. Eunhye liked romantic comedies, but she also liked thrilling political dramas. Usually, she would have immersed herself in the world inside the screen while munching on her rice ball. Today, however, the breathtaking plot made her stifled instead. She wanted to take a breather, but when she focused, she felt like she was choking. If her salary problem had been resolved, she would have ordered some fried chicken and watched it intensely, but right now, it just tired her out.

Besides that, the characters that fell into the depths of ruin because of a single mistake didn’t seem all that unfamiliar to her. They were side characters who were flicked outside the main ring because of one mistake after sailing smoothly. The main character would encounter crises but would do well in the end. The failures of the side characters would become a bridge that leads him to success, and their despair was a foothold for his improvement.

The triangular rice ball she was holding snapped in half and the top half fell onto the ground. It just had to be the part with the pork cutlet in it. She was about to pick it up to eat it but decided not to. She suddenly felt so tragic. The main character eventually avoided all the traps set by the hospital director and achieved victory in the political struggle within the hospital and held a celebratory party. It was such a desperate struggle, but the main character and his friends reached a happy ending without a single person dropping out midway.

Eunhye thought: ah, they are the main characters of life. They get rewarded for their hard efforts. The episode was a hopeful story where justice got served, but for some reason, it was hard to watch it today. Their lives were too distant from her own. Just as wide as the gap between the pork belly they were grilling and her snapped rice ball.

She switched the channel to YBS. ‘Doctors’ was also a drama that she watched. She usually watched ‘Doctor’s Office’ when it aired and downloaded ‘Doctors’ separately.

“Today must be a special day.”

A friend she hadn’t messaged in a long time sent her a message. She was asked what she was doing and replied that she was working at a company. Her friend then immediately asked what company it was. Eunhye waited for a little before writing that it was a mid-sized company. Mentioning the name of her company probably wouldn’t do any good after all.

-That’s good. I need to find employment too. I keep not making it, so I’m going to aim lower.

She didn’t know whether her friend needed consolation or not, but the message ended after a ‘see you next time.’ Eunhye sent a smiling dog emoji. The dog on the screen was smiling, but her own lips were probably not budging even a millimeter.

About half of her colleagues from college didn’t have jobs. They were all decent people too. They looked like they would soon find employment and find decent men or women to get married to, but most of them hit a block in the first step – finding employment. There was someone who managed to get into a big company, and that guy would always say sorry if he was asked to come to a get-together. Apparently, the general manager of his department practically lived on a mountain, so he was dragged to various mountains every weekend. He said that ‘social clubs’ within big companies were a business within a business that was beyond the level of college clubs. He even said that the connections made in those ‘social clubs’ would be reflected in his work life, so she could understand his feelings when climbing all sorts of mountains every single weekend. That guy liked the city more than the mountains, yet his profile picture made him look like a professional hiker.

“Everyone’s having hard lives.”

Eunhye lay down on the floor. She was in desperate need of some beer, but she couldn’t dream of something like that until she got her pay. If she didn’t get her payment next month, she would have to tell her mother about it and borrow some rent. Working part-time on weekends was a given.

Inside the drama, Yoonseo busily moved between the patients while fluttering her white gown. In the beginning, there were many comments ridiculing her for using her popularity to get the role, but those comments had disappeared without a trace now. Eunhye also thought that Yoonseo’s acting skill was good. Although there were times her pronunciation was off and she couldn’t hear what she was saying, she definitely wasn’t bad.

Lee Heewon approached Yoonseo, who was wiping her sweat. Eunhye liked that actor. She liked Kang Giwoo from ‘Doctor’s Office’, but she thought that Heewon was above him in terms of acting skill. The operating room scene he showed last week was so good that she replayed it three times. The way he collapsed on the spot due to exhaustion after finishing operating on the heart valves seemed to prove who was the best in terms of acting skills among actors in their twenties.

A date between Yoonseo and Heewon followed. She had a lot easier time watching this than ‘Doctor’s Office,’ but still, she couldn’t help but compare her own situation to them.

Maybe today was not a good day to watch dramas? It was when she was about to change her channel to a cable channel. The screen changed and an unfamiliar man appeared. The man was calling someone on the phone. Only after watching for a long time did she realize who that was. It was ‘Bigfoot’ who appeared throughout the drama from time to time.

-Mom, your son is a doctor. I have a lot of money. You did everything you had to do by raising me. So don’t worry about that and get some rest. Money? I should be sending that to you. Starting next month, I’ll be sending some your way, so look forward to it. Don’t send it all to me. If you have any money to send to me, then you should buy some good things to eat. Or you can go shopping.

Bigfoot was on the phone with a big smile. Eunhye lifted her finger that was about to change the channel. After finishing the call, Bigfoot’s phone was caught on camera. His remaining balance according to his banking app was 300 thousand won. Right above that was 3.6 million won, which was his salary, but it seemed that most of the money left his account in just one day.

“Well, he gets paid a lot.”

Eunhye smiled bitterly when she saw that number. She felt like 3.6 million was a decent wage no matter how hard his life was. Bigfoot’s empty bank account and her own empty bank account couldn’t be viewed the same way. Bigfoot was a doctor, while she was an employee of a company that didn’t even pay her.

Bigfoot got a call again as he sat at his desk.

-Yes, father. I just called her. She recognized me today and even told me she’d send some pocket money. It’d be good if every day was like today. Money? Don’t worry about it. I have what I need. There you go again. You two raised me. Of course, I can gather money easily. At that time, I’ll build you two a house. A house with a garden so that mom can walk around. I’m going down tomorrow. I can get off work after a long time. Alright, see you tomorrow.

It seemed that his mother who he had just called had dementia. Health is definitely more important than money – Eunhye thought as she sat up. It was just two simple monologues, but she wanted to focus on the drama. Perhaps it was because of Bigfoot’s shaky voice when he ended the call.

Someone opened the door to the room that Bigfoot was in. It was a middle-aged actor.

-Doctor Kim, come to work tomorrow.

-I’m off duty tomorrow.

-I know, but the shifts changed. Doctor Choi has something to do tomorrow.

-Uhm.

-Just change with her. You know whose daughter doctor Choi is. She has an appointment with the director, so what can I do about it? You should take her shift. This is all experience. Also, when I was around your age, we didn’t even get notified like this. We were called out while sleeping.

The man left after leaving a barrage of words.

KTLChamber's Thoughts

Now, I know what you're going to ask, but don't, cuz I don't know the reason either. (Labor laws, work culture, work reform and stuff like that may or may not have to do with politics too, which I am not going to mention here)

Editor's Note:

Work culture everywhere isn't good, but it's especially bad in Asian countries (i.e Korea/Japan/China). Also, considering I'm grading next year, this chapter scares me lol.

Chapter 861
Sequence 13

Eunhye’s lips twitched. Looking at the middle-aged actor reminded her of general manager Choi. General manager Choi habitually spoke as though it was natural for her to make sacrifices for the company. The same person who took other people’s sacrifices for the company as if it was natural hated charity activities the most, which were held every quarter. He proactively sought out other people’s devotion, yet he despised devoting anything himself. Suffering when you’re young will all come back to help you later, so just do it – this was one of his catchphrases.

The middle-aged actor on the screen was so similar to general manager Choi that she almost threw the remote control at the screen. One of the wishes on her bucket list was to spit on general manager Choi’s face when she quit. It wasn’t just her. Many employees at her company shared that goal.

Bigfoot, who was standing in the empty room, was captured by the camera for a long time. There was even some quiet background music. Eunhye looked at Bigfoot smiling in a silly manner, then at him fidgeting with his phone, before going back to his silly smile, in a total daze. That character definitely lived a better life than her, but there was something she could sympathize with. Bigfoot tapped on his forehead with his eyes closed for a while before making a phone call.

-Father, I’m so sorry. I was mistaken about my day off. I don’t think I can make it tomorrow. Sorry. Tell mom about it. No, actually, don’t talk about it. It might worsen her condition. The leaves have turned red around the neighborhood, haven't they? You should go watch them with mom. I heard that walking around the neighborhood you used to live in is pretty effective. I’ll send you some money for you two to eat some nice things, so don’t you worry about anything, father, and just go sightseeing with mom.

Bigfoot hung up the call and tapped on the screen. He seemed to be sending some money. Eunhye looked at the triangular rice ball on the table. It seemed that the non-main characters had it hard, whether here or there.

-Hey, Bigfoot.

Heewon entered the room.

-What brings you here to the hospital? Isn’t today your day off?

-I made a visit because I had something to check. But hey, I heard head doctor Kang tell me something strange. Apparently, you’re taking Choi Hyunjin’s shift tomorrow.

-Yeah, things happened.

-Don’t you need to go meet your mother? You’ve been looking forward to this for weeks. You told me that you were so excited to finally visit her.

-True. I just got a call too. She seems to be in a good condition and even recognized who I am. I asked her what she ate, what she saw, and if she didn’t feel any pain recently. I talked about a lot of things. It’s been such a long time.

-Is she not doing well?

-The time it takes for her to return to normal keeps getting longer. I even got a doctor’s license as her son, but it’s not really of any use. Maybe it’s because I’m an intern. I should at least earn a lot so that my father has it easier.

Bigfoot had a faint smile on his face as he stood up. He cleaned his messy desk and started piling up the files and paperwork.

-Let’s tell the head doctor about it again. If you don’t visit this week, you’ll have to be stuck in the hospital for two more weeks at least. You should visit her while she still recognizes you.

-Forget it. I’ll go next month.

-I’ll try persuading him as well. He might listen if you explain the situation to him.

-This is about Choi Hyunjin. You know how the head doctor is, don’t you? He’d do anything if it’s related to the director. Yeah, if I reason with him, then he might change me out. But you know what he’s like, don’t you? You know how he treats people who go against him.

-But this has nothing but losses for you.

-Thanks for saying that. It makes me feel so much better to know that you’re looking out for me. Don’t worry about me. My mom won’t get into big trouble for the time being.

Bigfoot tapped on Heewon’s arm with his fist and laughed. It was the laugh he showed in the drama from time to time. That silly laugh that the frugal Bigfoot always had. Bigfoot then waved at Heewon to return. Heewon put down some chocolate on the desk, cheering him on.

-Thanks.

Heewon left the room. The camera closed in on Bigfoot’s face as the door closed. The smile that was engraved onto his face like a mask became fainter. His eyes twitched and his lips trembled. His firmly shut lips twisted left and right. His Adam’s apple was shaking.

Eunhye rolled her lips inward. She felt a tinge in her nose. She never took interest in this actor because he always only appeared for a brief moment, but now that she got a closer look at him today, his acting skills were pretty incredible. The way he held himself back from crying due to frustration reminded her of her mother. Her own figure overlapped with his since she never made the time to visit her own mother with the excuse that she was busy.

Bigfoot uttered out a trembling breath and put the chocolate that Heewon left behind in his mouth. The smile that disappeared returned to his face.

-I should do my best. It’s all experience and a good thing, so I should do my best.

Recalling the words that the head doctor left behind, Bigfoot reached out to one of the files before stopping and looking upwards. The camera slowly pulled back. He spoke when his whole body was in the frame, standing behind two long desks – mom wanted to see me too.

Eunhye ripped two pieces of toilet roll and wiped her tears. The calm background music stopped and only Bigfoot’s vain laughter could be heard from the screen, but she still shed tears. Her throat tightened. She wanted to cry, even though it wasn’t that sad, even though it wasn’t that pitiful. She took a deep breath and spat it out again. Maybe it was because of her harsh reality or because the actor’s skills were so saddening that Eunhye had to fan herself with her hand because of the sudden tears. If Bigfoot’s expression stayed on the screen for just a little longer, she would have cried out loud.

The scene changed. It was a scene where doctor Choi left the hospital alongside the director. Behind doctor Choi cheerfully calling the director dad was Bigfoot, looking all tired. Heewon was next to him as well.

Eunhye thought that Heewon would say something. Since he was the main character who goes through everything in order to save people’s lives, she thought that he would resolve the situation. She thought that he would either stop the director’s path and tell him off or that he would say the circumstances to doctor Choi and change this sad situation. As she had expected, Heewon made a move. However, he wasn’t able to go forward. Bigfoot held him back. Bigfoot smiled as he always did and pointed at the vending machine, asking him to buy a drink. Heewon bought a drink and gave it to Bigfoot. Bigfoot thanked him before yawning and walking down the corridor.

Bigfoot’s silly smile as he walked with the drink in hand kept coming up in her mind. The scene changed and the drama turned into an intense operation room, but for some reason, she could still picture Bigfoot’s figure walking slowly towards the break room. Rather than being frustrated that he didn’t resolve the situation, she was frustrated because she could relate to Bigfoot having no choice but to act like that in such a situation. It was something that everyone who had lived a decent social life could sympathize with.

Miss Lee, make some time on the weekend – that single line from general manager Choi made her skip her family outing she scheduled on the weekend. It was unjust. It was a holiday, and she wasn’t called because of work either. She shouted in her mind dozens of times that she couldn’t do that, but what came out of her mouth was, ‘at what time should I come?’ In her imagination, she was always the bringer of justice, while general manager Choi was a meager human. Abide with the labor laws – she always said this to her superior in her imagination. However, when she actually worked, she had never said that even once nor did she see anyone say such a thing. When the employees gathered in the supplies room during break time, every single one of them said that this was unfair and that they would not let this slide, but once they were out of the break room, they parroted the same words like some kindergarteners saying ‘duck goes quack’. Yes, of course, I’ll do it; Leave it to me – Eunhye became one of those ducks.

Heewon inside the drama was cool. He stood up against injustice and did not hesitate to put his life on the line in order to save others. He did not bat an eyelid at the words that enticed him of success but cried when the child of a patient gave him candy as a token of appreciation for saving her mother. How could anyone hate such a character?

However, the person she could empathize with was Bigfoot, who had his day off taken away from him with a single word from his superior. He was a pathetic character who always had a silly smile on his face despite being tired, but he caught her eyes. Bigfoot was really ordinary. He didn’t have the role of a villain who would die grandly while fighting against someone from Kang Giwoo’s side from Doctor’s Office nor did he have some godly medical skills that saved people’s lives. Inside the drama where dramatic events occurred everywhere, Bigfoot was experiencing ordinary pain and ordinary worries. Political struggles within the hospital that involved dozens of billions of won and godly medical skills capable of smooth heart transplants; those things were in the realm of ‘comprehension,’ but Bigfoot was in the realm of ‘sympathy.’ She felt like she could speak to Bigfoot overnight while drinking some soju. Though, the 3.6 million won on his bank account was still envious.

Doctors ended with Heewon exchanging gazes with the anesthetist. Bigfoot no longer appeared. Was he going to appear tomorrow? Or was this it?

Eunhye wished for Bigfoot to do well. It wasn’t even a big dream. After all, it was just about visiting his mother. It would be great if the writer showed that such a trivial dream could come true. The program was then followed by a teaser of the next episode. Eunhye could see Bigfoot’s smiling face among the short clips. Did things go well for him?

The end was followed by a car ad. Eunhye stared at the car in a daze before standing up with the dusty rice ball and the container for the instant noodles.

KTLChamber's Thoughts

Author's putting waaaaay too much work into a side character lol. Maybe that's where Maru's personality comes from.

Editor's Note:

idk why I never registered it, but Eunhye is just some random civilian that likes watching dramas lmao. I thought she was a chara I didn't remember. Anyways, looks like viewing rates gonna shoot up cuz of Maru.

Chapter 862
Sequence 13

“Miss Lee, it’s about time you do your work right. Or what, are you saying that you don’t have to work properly at a company that doesn’t pay you properly?”

“General manager, I didn’t say anything like…”

“Miss Lee. An elder is talking to you. You know? Aren’t you a little too comfortable these days? Did I make your work life too easy? There is a limit to everything. How dare you talk back to your superiors like that? Yes, I may be wrong. If that’s the case, then you should wait until I finish talking before talking to me by starting with ‘general manager.’ Do I even need to explain this to you? You’re an adult now. You should get yourself together. Not only is your work improperly done, but you’re also immature when it comes to how to treat your elders. Miss Lee, I didn’t think you were like this.”

General manager Choi finished off by clicking his tongue. Lee Eunhye turned around with the coffee when she was gestured to return.

“Leave that here.”

“You told me you didn’t like coffee from coffee machines though.”

“There you go again. If I tell you to put it down, then you put it down. Is it so hard to self-improve in an age like this?”

Eunhye barely managed to calm down her shaking eyes and put down the coffee. This wasn’t even about work. She was getting an earful because she brought the ‘wrong’ coffee. A few days ago, she heard that he liked coffee brewed by coffee machines, but today, she got an earful because it was not from a coffee stick. He always talked about ‘self-improvement’ at the slightest opportunity, but it was likely that he didn’t even know what it meant.

She took a deep breath and sat down at her desk. She felt like she now knew why some people had stress-induced gastritis. They say that salarymen always have their letter of resignation with them from the moment they enter the company. Today, she also took out her letter of resignation from the drawer in her heart at least a dozen times. If she had the slightest bit of courage, if she had more money in her bank account, she would have handed it in.

“Eunhye, what did general manager Choi say?”

“Yelling because it’s not coffee stick coffee.”

“He’s bullshitting again. What era does he think we live in? How can he still make a female employee brew coffee for him? Also, didn’t he say he likes coffee machine coffee better? Is he whimsical, getting old, or what. Geez, he’s too much. Tell him to get his own coffee next time.”

“I want to do that, but what can I do? If I don’t, he bothers me the whole day.”

“This is dizzying. How did a man like that get promoted to general manager?”

“See how he acts when he’s with the president. He won’t be able to act like that even towards the savior of his life.”

Eunhye glared at general manager Choi and checked the order form they got from a business partner. As she moved her mouse and checked the numbers on the document, she couldn’t help but think about the coffee. So what if it was from a machine or a stick? If he had such a great tongue, he should have chosen to be a barista instead of bothering his employees at a desk job. As she typed on the keyboard in vexation, it soon reached lunchtime. General manager Choi, who never let the employees go home on time, told everyone to keep the time for lunch and stood up. Assistant manager Park, who was practically his lackey, soon followed him. Following them, a few more people left the office.

“General manager Choi left. Now I can get a breather. Why is he in such a bad mood today? Usually, he nitpicks after lunch.”

“From what I heard, he had a fight with his wife. Heck, even I would do that if I was her. Thinking about how I would have to make food for a man like that creeps me out. He’s gonna be like that at home too, isn’t he? Bring me water, bring me fruit, lay out the duvet. If he was a little older, he would probably yell at her to warm up the bath water.”

As soon as the general manager’s watchful eyes disappeared, the employees in the office gathered in front of the supplies room. Everyone seemed to be angry because of general manager Choi, who nitpicked with them since morning. Eunhye also expressed her frustration.

“Really, this company would have been a lot better without general manager Choi.”

“I wish he gets into a traffic accident and doesn't show up for a week.”

“Even if we talk like this, it won’t do any good. Let’s go out too. We’ll get an earful if we return later than general manager Choi.”

Six employees headed to the nearby budae-jjigae[1] restaurant. Before they went in, they had sent a scout in to see whether general manager Choi was in there. They left the company five minutes late intentionally so that they could avoid him.

They sat down and ordered some budae-jjigae. A year ago, lunchtime was only 30 minutes. Back then, they had to eat in a flash before going back to work. Right now, though, they could order some fruit juice from a café and take it back to the office.

“We really have to thank general manager Kang for this. If it wasn’t for him, lunchtime would only have been 30 minutes, right? That just sounds terrible.”

“Does anyone know what general manager Kang is doing now?”

“I don’t know. I haven’t contacted him ever since the company underwent a restructuring. But I’m sure he has a good job now since he has the skills and the personality. Geez, this is the problem with our company. They cut off all the competent employees because of a reform, and let a guy like general manager Choi be. What was the result of that? We didn’t get paid for two months. I really don’t see a future in our company.”

“It would’ve been great if general manager Kang was the one who remained instead of general manager Choi. Why did general manager Kang leave?”

An employee on the other side spoke softly after hearing that,

“Don’t go around telling anyone else and just keep this to yourselves. Actually, general manager Kang got on the president’s bad side. He’s a regular employee, so it’s legally hard to kick him out, right? So the president didn’t even give him work and just kept telling him to go to other parts of the country. You remember right? General manager Kang only showed up at the company for brief moments. Actually, those business trips didn’t have any reason either. From what I overheard, apparently, there was a time he went to Busan and did nothing.”

Eunhye nodded. She remembered that general manager Kang drove off with a tired expression. How disappointed must he have been? He did his best, but the outcome was that the company was forcing him to quit.

“This is a rumor, but I heard that it’s general manager Choi who helped boot him out. He told the president to do it.”

“I can see him doing that. He’s the worst.”

“General manager Kang is such a gentleman. He drew the line when it came to political struggles and looked after the employees under him. I’m pretty sure that’s why he was pushed off.”

Everyone at the table said a word about him. I will throw my letter of resignation at general manager Choi’s face when I do, I will spit at him, I will go to him now and nitpick with him – General manager Choi’s reputation was being ripped to pieces. Just then, an employee, who was looking at the entrance of the restaurant, tapped the table with a spoon and became silent. Eunhye knew what that meant. The other employees also became silent and put their spoons inside the already empty budae-jjigae pot.

“You were eating here?”

It was general manager Choi.

Eunhye clenched her eyes shut and opened them again. It just had to be her that he was talking to. She tried controlling her expression as much as possible and turned around.

“Ah, yes, general manager Choi. Have you had a good lunch?”

“I had some pork gukbap. Did you guys have budae-jjigae here?”

“Yes.”

“I was a regular at this place once. Back then, I didn’t get paid as much as I do now, so we only ordered three portions of budae-jjigae and just ordered extra rice. We didn’t have it as good as you.”

“I see.”

“You know, young ones these days don’t know how comfortable it has gotten for them. Whenever you turn on the TV, it says stuff like how young people have the right to pursue happiness, and that passion pay is no good and whatnot, but that’s all them being immature. If you don’t suffer when you’re young, then when will you? When you’re old like me? Of course not, you should try out challenges when you still have your youth, your health, and your spirit. When you fall over at that age, you can stand back up. But young ones these days go on about rights and what not, and all they care about is feeding themselves.”

General manager Choi put his hand out. Eunhye took the hint and poured some water into a cup before offering it to him. This guy was practically a politician asking for votes. She wondered if he was going to stop now. However, general manager Cho wiped his mouth and spoke again,

“The new recruit this time quit after just one week, right? Saying that he didn’t fit in with the company. It’s those people that go on the internet and write stuff like how it’s the society that’s the problem, and how they’re doing their best to work, but the businesses are exploiting them badly. That’s all nonsense. I wanna ask them if they really tried their utmost best. When I was your age, I really swore loyalty to the company. That’s why I got compensated like this. It’s because people think about themselves and don’t want to sacrifice themselves that they’re blaming others and society. It’s bad practice. You know that famous saying, right? Before you think about what the company can do for you, think about what you can do for the company. Right?”

Eunhye’s hairs stood on end. Her mouth itched. She wanted to yell at him: that great company, that same company that he swore loyalty to cannot even pay salaries now; why am I not getting any compensation for my hard work when I sweated hard according to that logic of yours.

Her shoulders jerked. She thought about just spitting it out. Just then, she locked eyes with general manager Choi. She felt like she was being stared at by a lion with a full stomach. It wasn’t going to attack because it was in a good mood but would not hesitate to rip her throat out if she did anything that angered it. The aggressiveness that filled her mind disappeared like ice on a summer day. It melted and evaporated in an instant.

“Of course, general manager. You’re right. We must do our best.”

“Right.”

“We have to do our best.”

The employees sitting at the table all followed suit. Eunhye was reminded of a tug of war. An absurd tug of war where general manager Choi, an adult, was up against the other employees, who were practically six-months-old toddlers. He had the whistle, and he would win in less than one second once the game began. They couldn’t think about resisting.

“I knew it. The people working at our company have a different mindset from those people. It’s a completely different place compared to others that are filled with people nagging about not getting their payment. I’ll pay for your food here, so take your time eating.”

Eunhye applauded while making a tragic smile. The other employees did the same. After general manager Choi left, they didn’t talk for a long time. The employee who said that she would throw insults at his face was just looking at the TV, and another one who said he would punch him in the face and pay his hospital fees just sipped some water.

“I wanted to say that too,” said the employee watching TV.

Eunhye turned around to look at the TV. It was a rebroadcast of the episode of ‘Doctors’ that aired yesterday. Lee Heewon was going against the head doctor ordering him to change the order of operation, saying that he’d operate on someone whose life was in more danger.

Perhaps it was because she had just acted submissive in front of general manager Choi that she felt bitter even though it was a refreshing scene. She wished she could talk like that too. Everyone seemed to be thinking the same thing as they chuckled and watched the TV. Following that, Bigfoot appeared. It was the scene that made her cry yesterday. Although she was watching it for the second time, the acting skill was so good that she was absorbed in it.

“He’s like us, isn’t he?” said one of the employees.

Eunhye quietly nodded.

“I watched that yesterday and I almost cried.”

“I actually did cry.”

“Me too.”

“Was everyone like that?” Eunhye asked the six people around the table.

One of the male employees said that he didn’t watch Doctors, another one said that he didn’t like it, and the remaining one said that he felt a tingle in his nose. The women said that they all pulled out tissues.

“Don’t you watch Doctor’s Office, senior Yoon?”

“Yesterday, I just didn’t feel like watching it. It was rather frustrating to watch people doing well when I’m not even getting paid. Eunhye, you watch Doctor’s Office too, don’t you?”

“I was the same. I just didn’t feel like watching it yesterday.”

“It’s a good thing that I watched Doctors yesterday. It wasn’t a refreshing story, but I felt consoled. Seeing people similar to me living like that made me feel relaxed for some reason. It wasn’t despairing. It just felt like he knew my pain. I mean, the one acting that character.”

“I felt like that too.”

The other two women said that they felt something similar. They said that the acting skill of the actor was incredible and that they couldn’t take their eyes off.

“But it did disappoint me a little. It’s still a drama, so I hope he does well.”

“We’ll see in today’s episode.”

“It’s just a gut feeling of mine, but I don’t think there will be a big reversal. Also, I feel like I'd be disappointed if there was something like that. Heck, I don’t get it.”

Eunhye understood that feeling. She wished for him to do well, but at the same time, felt like she would be disappointed if that actually happened. It was probably because they were so similar.

“Let’s go before general manager Choi nags us again.”

Eunhye stood up after sipping some water.

[1] “Korean army stew”

KTLChamber's Thoughts

Again, don't ask because I don't know the answer either……

Editor's Note:

Man, I wanna punch this guy too……

Chapter 863
Sequence 13

The clock at the company had to be out of battery. Either that, or there was something wrong with the mechanics. It felt like it had been ten hours since she came back after eating lunch, but it was still only 6. Eunhye looked at general manager Choi. The department’s closing hours were the same as the time when general manager stood Choi up. If general manager Choi kept his fat butt on the chair, then they would spend another day of meaningless overtime work, but if he picked up his jacket behind him, then they would be going home.

“Looks like we’ll be working overtime again today. Even though there’s nothing to do,” whispered the employee sitting opposite her.

The general manager clearly must like holding things back, whether it was their salary or the employees. General manager Choi moved. The people in the department raised their heads like meerkats.

“Let’s go home early today. Good job, you all.”

Six on the dot? Eunhye quickly cleaned up her desk. She had to leave the company as soon as possible. General manager Choi may come back and give her extra work if she loitered around any further. The other employees seemed to have thought the same and cleaned up instantly. The employees of other departments on the same floor gave them envious gazes. Today alone, she felt proud of general manager Choi.

“Eunhye, Hyunji is buying us drinks.”

Senior Yoon waved at her. She didn’t have a reason to refuse when she was getting treated. She wanted to say in a cool fashion that the youngest one shouldn’t be opening their wallets, but her own wallet was too sorrowfully thin for her to say anything like that. She followed Hyunji on the condition that she’d treat her ‘twice’ if she got her salary. Their first destination was the teppanyaki fried rice restaurant in front of the station, where the three of them went to quite often.

“My two unnis, I’ll treat you two to a full course today. First, let’s have some food, then go to a pojang-macha to get drunk, and finally, we’ll go to a noraebang. How is it, perfect, isn’t it?”

Her words alone were perfect. They talked about the secrets behind the closing hours while eating some seafood fried rice. Senior Yoon spoke first. Apparently, general manager Choi, who had a fight with his wife in the morning, miraculously made up with her just before closing time, so he ordered them to go home early because he felt good.

“How can he adjust the closing hours according to his mood?”

“It’s not like this is the first time; we just gotta deal with it.”

“Still, it’s good that we got off early today.”

Senior Yoon said that talking about him made the food taste bad and that they should go to the pojang-macha to roast him. Eunhye agreed. Snacks were better chewed over some drinks. After they had dinner, they went to a pojang-macha. It was ‘Mrs. Kim’s Pocha’ that they frequented.

“I still need some time until I can open, about two hours.”

Mrs Kim was just unloading the truck.

“Then let’s go to the noraebang first. Let’s try singing while still sober.”

We go anywhere our money lord wishes to go – senior Yoon said as she locked arms with Hyunji. Eunhye agreed. Soju would taste even better if they drank after running wild for a bit. As soon as they entered a booth, they selected ‘mal dalija’[1] as the song. They inserted general manager Choi’s name between the ‘shut up!’s[2]. It was a song that they always sang at get-togethers without general manager Choi. When they enjoyed themselves for some time, they found that an hour had already passed. The remaining time left on the machine was also close to zero. They were just about to wrap things up and leave, only to find out that the time had increased.

“We don’t really have any customers, so play around for some more.”

The owner of the store had been generous to them. Eunhye looked at senior Yoon and Hyunji alternately. Both of them looked like they had some energy left. They jumped around like crazy for another hour.

“This is the first time I’ve played around like this since college.”

“My throat hurts.”

“Sometimes, general manager Choi does help. I didn’t notice the flow of time when I was swearing at him while singing. Man, that was a good session.”

They headed back to the pojang-macha with messy hair. Mrs. Kim welcomed them after finishing her preparations. She even gave them some free eomuk-tang[3], thanking them for not going anywhere else. The company had general manager Choi, one of the worst humans out there, while the pojang-macha had the angelic Mrs. Kim. She felt like it was true that everything in life added up to zero in the end.

After they all drank a glass of soju each, she ate a piece of spicy roasted eel. She looked at Mrs. Kim as she chewed on it. Mrs. Kim was staring right at her phone.

“Mrs. Kim. What are you watching?”

“A drama. I found this rather good these days.”

Mrs. Kim showed her the drama. She was watching ‘Doctors’. Eunhye also took out her phone.

“Unni, let’s watch together.”

Hyunji, who was sitting on the other side, pulled her chair over and sat next to her. Senior Yoon did the same. Eunhye flipped the beer glass over and leaned the phone against it. There weren’t any other customers at the pojang-macha, so they raised the volume a little which made it possible to hear the lines they said. She focused on the screen while drinking some soju that Hyunji poured for her.

“Lee Heewon’s so good-looking.”

“I personally think Choi Changsoo looks more handsome. Lee Heewon looks dense.”

“The way he looks dense is a charming point.”

Senior Yoon and Hyunji both commented as they looked at Heewon standing in front of the operation table. The operation followed. It was a laparotomy and the internal organs looked pretty realistic. Hyunji said that she was creeped out and turned her head around for a bit. Though, on the other hand, senior Yoon liked it for being realistic. The surgery was performed successfully and everyone celebrated. A rival had dug a trap in order to put the genius-like Heewon in check, but he managed to overcome that without a hitch thanks to Yoonseo’s help.

“I thought she’d be terrible when she first came out, but she wasn’t actually that awkward.”

“Are you talking about Yoonseo?”

“Yeah. It is a little cringey when she shouts, but I think everything else is okay.”

“Right. I heard that singing and dancing isn’t everything that idols practice these days. Apparently there are some who solely focus on acting.”

“Someone like Yoonseo must own a building in Gangnam, right?”

“One? I’m pretty sure she has two or three.”

“I dreamed of becoming a singer when I was young too. Who knew I’d be drenched in a company lifestyle like this. Since we’re at it, what were your dreams when you were young, Hyunji and Eunhye?” Senior Yoon asked as she ate a piece of fish cake. Hyunji replied after wondering for a while,

“Me, I wanted to become a civil servant.”

“From when you were young?”

“Yes. I have wanted to become one since I was in middle school.”

“How old are you again, Hyunji?”

“I’m twenty-two this year. I lived a goshiwon lifestyle without going to college for just two years, and I thought I wouldn’t make it. I thought that I would be in big trouble if I didn’t collect myself and start working, so I got into this company… Who knew that my first salary would’ve been my last.”

“How unlucky. You just had to come here of all places.”

“I’ll still hold on for a bit since they said they’ll pay. Eunhye-unni, what was your dream?”

The two of them stared at her. The drama had switched to a scene where Heewon and Yoonseo were on a date in the park. Eunhye looked at the screen and spoke,

“When I was in elementary school, a pianist. But I found out how hard it is to earn a living by playing an instrument as soon as I entered middle school. Since then, I didn’t have a dream. I just thought I’d study and go to a good college and that I should find something I like. Well, the result of all that is drinking here. If you think about it, how many people do you think in Korea have a dream they live by? What do you think, senior Yoon?”

“Almost none. The first thing you learn when you enter first grade is the thought process that you’ll get praised by your parents if you get a higher score than the one sitting next to you. How is there any room for dreams in that? Look at Hyunji. She said her dream was to become a civil servant since she was middle school. She changed like this in just a few years, so I'm sure people younger than her have it even worse. I’m sure they study like their life depends on it, you know?”

Hyunji then trembled, saying that an elementary school boy living next to her had an even stricter life than hers.

“He goes back home at around 10p.m. most of the time, and whenever I ask, he says he’s coming back from cram school. Kids these days have it tough.”

“Just wait another twenty years. I’m sure elementary school kids will be talking to each other in English.”

“That sounds terrifying.”

Eunhye poured some drinks for the two people who were laughing in vain. She was originally going to watch the drama, but she couldn’t focus. If she was by herself, she would’ve immersed herself in it, but now that they were talking about what was actually going on in the world, the drama looked like too much of a fantasy. For a while, they talked about meaningless dreams as they drank. It was when she heard that voice that her attention was changed to her phone again. The two others also became quiet and watched the phone.

“Bigfoot’s here,” Eunhye said those two words before focusing again.

Bigfoot was facing Choi Hyunjin, the cause of his change in shift.

-I heard that the shifts changed because of me before.

-Yes.

-Is it true that your mother is unwell?

-Now, I wonder how you found out about that. It’s supposed to be a secret.

-Why didn’t you tell me? I wouldn’t have changed shifts if you told me that day.

-It’s already a thing of the past. It’s fine.

-I’m not fine. I feel like I became a bad person suddenly. Also, I heard from the head doctor that day that you didn’t have anything to do that day, so you could stand in for me.

-Yes, you don’t have any faults at all, so you don’t have to be sorry for me.

Bigfoot put on his unique sorrowful smile again. Choi Hyunjin’s eyes twitched.

-Don’t you feel unjust? If you do then just say it. If you’re a man then just say it out loud.

-What good is being manly in all this? Just change with me when you’re off duty one time. That’s fine.

-Don’t you have any guts? A member of your family is unwell, yet you can just gloss things over like that?

-So what if I don’t? I’m sure the daughter of the director must think that the world is limitlessly liberal, but the world as I see it definitely isn’t. I’m sure the head doctor is kind to you, but he’s nothing more than a fierce judge who has a hold of my intern performance sheet. I want to do well in front of him.

-Isn’t that just an excuse? Aren’t you just lacking courage? If it was me, I would have said it boldly. It’s my holiday after all.

-If it’s you, yes. If it’s you.

Bigfoot nodded before trying to walk past Choi Hyunji. Choi Hyunjin frowned in displeasure and blocked his way.

-Are you saying that I’m immature because I’m the director’s daughter or what?

-I never said you were immature. I was just saying that we were different.

-Just how are we different? I also put in the same effort as you and passed the national exams. Do you think I received benefits or something?

-You just have to make me feel tragic. I’m not sure what good it is for me to say any of this to you, but still, let me ask you something. Have you ever worked in order to study? Have you ever found yourself thinking that it’s such a waste of time to work when you can study?

Bigfoot’s expression was filled with endless sorrow. There was a sense of vanity in there as well. He probably found it absurd that he had to explain himself in this situation, and pitied himself for it. Choi Hyunjin wasn’t able to say anything.

“Was Choi Hyunjin always that good at acting?”

“No, she was dissed until just last week because she was terrible. I’m pretty sure many said that she was like a child playing around.”

“Then how is she so good today?”

“Right?”

“And she goes strangely well with Bigfoot.”

Just as the two said, Choi Hyunjin’s acting was first-rate. She was good at acting like a prideful high-class lady even though she was awkward until just last week.

Bigfoot shook his head. He shook off the thick and dark emotions that filled his face with a single breath and put on that signature clueless smile of his.

-I shouldn’t have said that. Don’t worry about it. I know that both you and I had it hard. Just change shifts with me one time, yeah?

After flicking his hair in a funny fashion, Bigfoot walked forward like a toy soldier. The camera showed Bigfoot’s figure walking away before shifting angles to Choi Hyunjin.

-Fine, you’re awesome, okay!

Choi Hyunjin shouted.

[1] A Korean-style punk rock released in 1996. It’s usually a song that’s sung at the very end to ‘blaze’ their remaining energy.

[2] ‘Shut up’ is in the lyrics of the song.

[3] Fish cake stew.

KTLChamber's Thoughts

The funny thing is, everyone other than Maru is referred to by their real names, but only Maru is called 'Bigfoot' the whole time.

Editor's Note:

Well, now that can change because people will realize his talent. Anyways, I like how Maru still has the talent to bring out the best in others.

Chapter 864
Sequence 13

Eunhye sighed softly. Bigfoot just glossed over the incident as though nothing happened. He did not get angry at Choi Hyunjin, nor did he go against the head doctor who dumped him with the shift and just disregarded him. His bright smile as he asked Choi Hyunjin to change shifts with him next time still lingered in front of her eyes. If it was so hard to go against the head doctor, why couldn’t he have said something to Choi Hyunjin? Not just vaguely, but outright and refreshingly.

“Looking at Choi Hyunjin reminds me of Ko Chansoo,” said senior Yoon.

Ko Chansoo was a famous figure in the company, as the guy who entered the company through the president’s back door. She had heard so many rumors about him that it was to the point that it hurt her ears. He would ignore his superiors like it was normal, and he would treat anyone who makes mistakes at work like trash.

“But Choi Hyunjin at least didn’t say any bad words. Ko Chansoo, on the other hand, is a total mess.”

“If you think like that, then I guess Ko Chansoo is more trash. I went looking for him last time because of work cooperation, and I’ve never been so disdained outright in my life. It’s so fortunate that I don’t work in the same department as him.”

“I have only heard rumors about him. Is he really that trash?” Hyunji asked as she drank a bit of the broth.

“General manager Choi is better compared to that prick. Do you remember the son of the professor with the glasses in the drama? He’s just like that. He has too much faith in his backer, that is, his father, and bullies people below him. In the drama, Choi Hyunjin and that professor’s son passed the national exams at least, right? But Ko Chansoo, that guy, all he has is his father’s backing. Even his college was some nameless backwater college, yet he already got promoted to manager even though the people who entered around the same time as him are all assistant managers. Who knows? Maybe he’ll get promoted again next year and become even more trashy.”

“Is it okay to be so openly biased like that?”

“What can we do? He’s the president’s son. Man, the people working in his department are so pitiful. Even the general manager takes hints from him. Apparently, the president really cherishes him because he was the son he and his wife got after much trouble. I’m pretty sure he’ll stand up for his son even if he murders someone, you know?”

“Having a man like that as your superior must be difficult. I’m so glad that he’s not in our department.”

“We should be. From what I heard, the atmosphere in that department depends on that guy’s mood for the day. It’d be better if he just played around all day without doing any work, but he nitpicks every single matter going on in that department, so it drives everyone else crazy. He nitpicks the mistakes of everyone else, but when he makes a mistake, he just acts boldly. Even if he makes a big mistake, the president is there to cover up for him, so he became that untouchable kind of guy.”

“He’s the same as Choi Hyunjin in that they’re untouchable. Whether it’s drama or in reality, why are people from good households all so cocky?”

Eunhye grabbed a glass and responded to that,

“That’s not entirely true. When I was in college, there was this guy who was known to be really kind in my major. He had a good attitude and was humble, so many people in our department looked out for him. He was a really good kid who tried to work things out with all of us if something happened, and it turned out that he was the grandson of a super company. He came to college in a Porsche, and it made me think that people with such upbringing can become good. Everything just depends on parental education, and it doesn’t really matter what kind of environment you were raised in. Well, I guess there was something different though.”

“Something different?”

Eunhye pointed at the phone with her finger while looking at Hyunji, who looked curious.

“Just like what the drama said just now, he had different eyes when looking at the world. It’s probably because he started off on a completely different point from me. He may have hung out with us quite a lot, but his conception of money was fundamentally different.”

“Well, I guess if you receive millions of won as pocket money since you’re young, you won’t really understand how much it is. Ah, talking about money reminded me of salary again. This is sad.”

For our salary – they shouted as they toasted.

“Ko Chansoo, that guy probably receives his salary, right?”

“Salary? His dad is the president for goodness sake. Also, it’s just bottom-rung employees like us that don’t get salaries. I heard that the higher-ups get theirs. I’m sure the same is true for general manager Choi.”

“That’s so dirty. It’s not like our salary amounts to a lot. I want to go to the president and say to him that it’s much better for the company for you lot to not get paid, instead of us, who only get paid chump change,” Hyunji said as she put down her glass, her cheeks flushed.

“Good! I’ll call the president and bring him to you tomorrow.”

“If you really do, then I’ll tell him not to live his life like that.”

Senior Yoon and Hyunji laughed as she looked at the two. They talked rather seriously about what kind of expression the president would make if they actually did so until they both turned quiet.

“How pointless.”

“You tell me. Do you think there’s anyone who talks back like they do in dramas? People like Lee Heewon, who can risk being chased out of the hospital to say what he needs to say are cool, but if he does get kicked out, that’s just the end for him, isn’t it? The employment pool for mid-sized companies like us is already so small that there are talks about how it’s difficult to get re-employed. A place like a hospital must be even worse since it’s usually people from the same universities, right?”

“You know, I’m thirty-two this year. I’ve switched companies three times in my 9 years of being a salarywoman, and never have I seen anyone who said a word about unjust company traditions. There were people who fought against their superiors from time to time, sure, but in just one month, that person’s seat just disappeared. Or you can do that as you chuck your letter of resignation.”

“Saying the right things will just make your superior make note of you, and if that happens, you will have a hard corporate life.”

“If like in dramas, you have colleagues who stand up for you and are willing to stand with you… it might be better, but you know what happened to assistant manager Park last year, don’t you, Eunhye? Ah, Hyunji wasn’t here back then.”

Eunhye emptied the soju into her mouth. The incident that was just as bitter as the soju that went down her throat was the assistant manager Park incident. He pointed out the disparities in rebates between companies and said that they should correct it, but that ended up getting him assigned to a branch in the countryside. Being the courageous man he was, assistant manager Park said that he would not yield to pressure, yet he ended up leaving the company. Eunhye remembered what happened back then clearly. The people who called him ‘hyung’ until merely days ago put distance from him. That was how he started getting ‘bullied.’ When work ended and everyone went home, they said words of encouragement, but at the company, they acted like total strangers. Eunhye was one of them. You’ll have a tough life if you stay close to assistant manager Park – these were words that general manager Choi said back then. That was the decisive blow. Assistant manager Park was treated like someone with a terrible infectious disease. No one approached him and no one talked to him.

“I wanted to live like a drama too, but that’s so hard,” said senior Yoon.

“Like Choi Hyunjin?” Hyunji asked as she looked at the drama.

“Choi Hyunjin’s good. Honestly, if you tell me to live like Lee Heewon, I can’t. He risks his own life to save others and always does the right things. Is that what a human can do? That’s in the realm of deities.”

“If you think about it, being a protagonist in a drama isn’t entirely that good. They always encounter big crises. Even if everything goes well in the future, I don’t want to suffer that much. I mean like jumping into the fire and taking on the challenge with the risks of failure.”

“If you act like Lee Heewon in real life, I’m pretty sure you’ll have your medical license deprived because of lawsuits and whatnot. You can get into debt too.”

Senior Yoon said that just imagining it sounded terrible. Eunhye had to agree. In ‘Doctors’, Lee Heewon was the literal avatar of self-sacrifice. Not only that, he also had the tendency to ignore procedures if it was in order to save a life. If that happened in real life, there would have been all sorts of problems.

“In that sense, isn’t Bigfoot a lot like us? He’s supposed to be a drama character, so things can work out well for him too, but that doesn’t happen,” Hyunji grumbled.

“Like just now. It would’ve been refreshing if he slapped Choi Hyunjin on the cheek and told her ‘you simply don’t know what reality is like!’ before walking past her.”

Eunhye picked up a piece of eel and gave it to Hyunji, who was pouting. Hyunji ate it in a flash.

“I also wanted that to happen, but then again, if that actually happened, I think it would have annoyed me. Didn’t you say the same to me during the day, senior Yoon?”

Senior Yoon nodded.

“He’s just like me. I have no choice but to smile regardless of what general manager Choi tells me to do, and even if people like Ko Chansoo get annoyed at me, I have to hold it in because he’s the son of the president. Still, the way Bigfoot phrased his words makes him look better than I am.”

Hyunji, who was munching on the eel while on her phone, suddenly turned her phone around and showed the two of them her screen.

“It’s a worker café that I usually visit, and they’re all talking about Doctors. Not only that, most of it’s about Bigfoot too. Everyone’s saying that they can sympathize with him.”

“How many corporate workers don’t sympathize with him after seeing him so tragic? How many people do you think want to act boldly but cannot? I’m sure everyone feels the same. That’s why we get strangely consoled by him.”

Eunhye spoke as she looked at senior Yoon, who was sighing endlessly,

“You’re drunk, senior, aren’t you?”

“Did I get too emotional? I may look like this, but I used to be a literary girl.”

“Uh, considering your age, calling you a girl is a little…”

“Lee Eunhye, don’t tease your seniors.”

Senior Yoon said that it was a punishment and poured her a glass full of soju. Eunhye accepted the drink in one go and wiped her mouth with the back of her hand.

“Still, I want Bigfoot to do well. I mean, it’s sad, isn’t it? To see people in the same shoes doing badly.”

Hyunji raised her glass, chanting ‘Bigfoot, fighting!.’ Eunhye, who was watching on the side, chimed in with her.

“But it’s quite curious, isn’t it? Usually, I forget about characters who appear briefly like that, but Bigfoot strangely remains in my mind,” said senior Yoon as she pointed at Bigfoot who briefly appeared in the corner before disappearing.

“Maybe it’s because he’s good at acting.”

“That’s the biggest reason for sure. You know what they say, calm acting like that is harder than bursting out with emotions.”

“If you think like that, actors must have it hard. People who are worse than them are playing main roles, but someone like that is on the level of an extra.”

“It’s an industry where popularity is everything. But who knows? I heard that many actors who are currently famous were nobodies back in the day. An actor who can show himself like that may become big very soon.”

Eunhye thought that she was right. He was an actor that attracted people’s eyes. His facial expressions were especially good. That delicate acting where he cried silently last night was still vivid in her mind. A lesser-known actor that only she knew – she raised a toast to Bigfoot, who was smiling amidst the other doctors.

“Let us both do well together.”

Bigfoot then said in the drama,

-This is just how everyone lives, isn’t it? I’m just like that too. I know that telling you to cheer up might be crossing the line here, but still, cheer up. Thanks for the drink.

That was how people lived. Life was just like that.

* * *

“Cut.”

Maru took off his doctor’s gown and stood up. His scene was over now. It was 1:10 in the afternoon. He came at 9 and waited three hours before shooting for one hour. Showing up briefly like this got him paid, so it was a very good business.

“Maru, wait a bit.”

The director stopped him. He put down his bag and went over to Jayeon.

“You’re leaving right now? Do you have something urgent to do?”

“I was going to go grocery shopping. I need to buy some rice.”

“So nothing urgent, huh? Then wait a bit.”

Just as Jayeon was about to say something, she picked up her phone. From how her voice became aggressive, it seemed that something had happened.

“Sorry, I’ll take care of this real quick.”

“Okay.”

The director hurriedly ran off somewhere. Maru said goodbye to the staff he made eye contact with before switching places. Jayeon, who said she’d be back soon, didn’t come back even after 10 minutes.

“Han Maru?”

Maru turned around. Choi Hyunjin, wearing a long coat, was approaching him, saying that she found the right person.

KTLChamber's Thoughts

That time "1:10 in the afternoon" right after * * * part… actually said 'a.m.' in the raws. (and in a typo) so I was really confused there…

It's an hour past midnight and he's going grocery shopping? What? After reading a little further, I came to the conclusion that it must have been during the day.

Anyway, finally. We got Maru back.

Editor's Note:

I was beginning to think that the author was dragging this on.

Chapter 865
Sequence 13

Maru stood up as he grabbed the cardigan on his lap. Choi Hyunjin, who was approaching him quickly, stopped about five steps away from him. She looked like she was about to ask for a handshake in a friendly manner, but she suddenly started smiling awkwardly. Maru was puzzled as well. Why would she approach him so amicably? Considering that the first time they met was a week ago during a shoot, she looked strangely kind to him.

“Uhm, you told me I can drop the honorifics with you, right?” Hyunjin asked.

The person who just called him by name and said something about how she found the ‘right person’ suddenly looked rather nervous. Maru smiled for now. Hyunjin would probably be at unease if he did not.

“You’re going to use polite speech with me again? You don’t have to. We said we’ll drop the honorifics last week.”

“But still, after I called you, it sounded somewhat awkward.”

“What’s there to be awkward about? A senior wants to drop the honorifics with a junior.”

“Right?”

Hyunjin approached him by another two steps.

“What are you doing here? Everyone else is going out to eat.”

“I was about to go home since I’m done with my shoot, but the director told me she wanted to talk to me, so I’m waiting for her. She said she’d be back soon, but she hasn’t been back for a while. I wonder what she’s doing.”

“If it’s the director you’re talking about, I saw her run towards the parking lot.”

“The parking lot?”

“She was in such a hurry that I didn’t even get to say goodbye.”

What could have happened for her to rush towards the parking lot? Hyunjin was worried that it may have been an accident.

“Please give me a moment.”

Maru turned around and picked up his phone. A call had come from Jayeon, who supposedly ran off in a hurry. Jayeon apologized for making him wait. There was an agitated voice mixed in the call. There was a woman who was getting angry. He could overhear something about parking and insurance, so it seemed that Hyunjin was right and there had been an accident.

“Director, did you get into an accident?”

-This ahjumma tried to run for it after crashing into my car, but thankfully, someone stopped her and called me. Madam! If you crashed into someone’s car, you should call the owner and talk about it first!

“You aren’t grabbing her by the hair or something, right? No matter how nonsensical the other party is, you can’t do that.”

It didn’t seem to be a major problem. The lady who crashed also seemed to be getting angry because of the shock. She seemed like she would apologize given enough time to calm down. There was a possibility that she would act entitled until the end, but once Jayeon’s eyes flipped and she started nitpicking, anyone would roll their tails between their legs.

“Come back once it’s all done. I’ll be waiting.”

-Would you like to eat something for now? You can eat something expensive. I’ll buy it for you.

“If that’s the case, I’ll be eating Hanwoo sirloin.”

-That’s taking things a little too far.

“So take care of it as soon as possible and come over.”

When he hung up, he saw Hyunjin staring at him.

“It’s the director, and she got into a little accident. No one’s hurt or anything; a lady tried to run for it after crashing into the director’s parked car.”

“Something like that happened to me before, and back then, someone really calm apologized to me and left me a contact number, so I managed to sort things out easily.”

“That’s the norm, but there are times where people try to gloss things over by getting angry. Do you have a shoot today?”

Hyunjin shook her head. She said that she had work near the TV station and was just visiting to say hello to the director.

“But she just walked past. It’s rather weird to go say hello now, so I’m going to go for today. Maru, are you going to keep waiting?”

“The director told me to eat something. I was just getting hungry, and I don’t have anything to do, so I’m going to stave off my hunger while waiting for her.”

“By yourself?”

“Yes, by myself.”

“If you don’t have anyone to eat with you, may I join you? I’ve also yet to have lunch. I’ll treat you.”

Hyunjin hesitantly waited after telling him that the gukbap restaurant in front of the TV station was good. She looked at him cautiously and looked like she would get hurt if he said he was going to eat alone.

“I didn’t do anything worth for you to treat me, so you don’t have to.”

“That’s true, but… nothing. Looks like I shouldn’t have said anything. It might be more comfortable for you to eat by yourself.”

“I’m not saying that I’ll eat by myself. I’m saying that we should pay for our own meals. Where’s this good gukbap restaurant you’re talking about?”

Hyunjin immediately brightened up and led the way. Maru thought about Woofie, who would be at the house. The dog’s expression as she wagged her tail while bringing a drool-drenched ball and asking him to throw it looked just like that. They left the set and crossed two roads. There was a gukbap restaurant in an alleyway that he usually did not use.

“Only people who know about this place come to this place. Whenever there’s a get-together around the TV station, I always come to this place to sober up. A senior told me about this place as well.”

The broth was boiling inside a cast iron pot. There were two items on the menu: Dried pollack gukbap and beansprout gukbap. Maru ordered beansprout gukbap. The gukbap came out before even five minutes had passed. He took a spoonful of the white broth and ate it. It was refreshing without any sort of smell.

“Pretty good, right?”

“I want to open a bottle of soju. I should be a regular in the future.”

“I guess it was worth introducing you to this place.”

After eating some more, he added some spicy paste, which was on the table. Hyunjin said that it was used instead of chili powder. The broth was still first-class after it had turned spicy. He was reminded of Gaeul, who said that she wanted to drink a refreshing broth. Whenever she had a heavy drink, she looked for something hot to drink as food the next day. She would probably love it if he took some home.

Maru was eating a spoonful of the gukbap when he saw that Hyunjin’s hands were completely still. She was stirring the gukbap with her spoon just a while ago. He was near his limits of playing dumb. She was expressing with her whole body that she wanted to say something.

“You have something to say, right?”

“No, that’s not entirely true.”

“Usually, people who say that do have something to say. You introduced me to such a nice restaurant, so if you have anything to say to me, please go ahead.”

He did somewhat expect this to happen when she asked to eat together. She was not the type of person who would naturally talk to people who she felt a sense of distance to. He had only seen her for the first time last week, but he could tell that much. After all, the only reason she decided to drop the honorifics was the director jokingly telling them to get closer.

“I just wanted to thank you.”

“Did I do anything that you needed to thank me for?”

While there was a bit of silence, Maru looked back on the events that occurred during the past week, but he didn’t remember doing anything that might have made her grateful to him.

“I was so grateful during the shoot. I was at a loss as to what to do with my emotions, but you guided me. I feel really sorry and grateful for that.”

“People can’t be perfect all the time. It was just that I was in a good condition that day while you weren’t.”

“Well, I wouldn’t be so sure of that. I don’t think I’ve ever been in a good condition,” she said as she looked down at the floor.

“Don’t be like that. You were good that day. I’m also terrible on bad days.”

“In my eyes, I don’t think there was ever a time you did badly. I watched you during the shoot from time to time. Although they were short scenes, you never made an NG. I was really curious and envious of you.”

“A minor character doesn’t have much to do. It’s because my lines were all simple.”

“Well, I don’t think I can do such a simple thing.”

Maru looked at Hyunjin as he put his spoon in his mouth. The reason she looked like she lacked energy was probably because of the articles. Among the numerous articles that talked about Doctors, the drama, some of them talked about Choi Hyunjin’s acting skill and how it was bad. The middle-aged actors showed their experience, while Lee Heewon was considered one of the best among actors in their twenties, and Yoonseo had managed to remove her label as an idol. The only shadow cast over the good evaluations of the main cast was Choi Hyunjin.

“I was praised for my acting on my 2nd year of debut, but now that it’s been ten years, I’m only hearing that my acting hasn’t changed.”

Hyunjin sighed while stirring the gukbap before eventually apologizing with a smile.

“I didn’t ask to eat with you just so I could complain about my own life, but I ended up doing it.”

“That’s understandable. If you are having a hard time, it’s good to grab just anyone and talk to them about it. I almost broke down while suffering by myself like a fool until just a while ago, but a thankful friend realized the state I was in first, so now I’m all good.”

“Thanks for telling me that. But that’s unexpected. Honestly, I thought you wouldn’t listen to things like this.”

“Why?”

“I dunno, just the atmosphere around you?”

Hyunjin’s eyes looked up.

“I do look rather expressionless. My sister tells me I look cocky, while people close to me take it a step further and tell me I’m cold-blooded. I even heard that I’d get the Academy Award if I just hold a knife if I’m supposed to be acting as a murderer.”

“It’s not that bad.”

“Thank you. Your words put me at ease. But if you leave that any longer, that thing will no longer be gukbap but porridge. There’s still more time, so you should eat even if you have anything more to say.”

Only then did Hyunjin start eating. Maru sent a text to the director saying that he was eating at this gukbap restaurant. Jayeon replied to him that she’d come after wrapping things up. From how she was still tied down in the parking lot, it seemed that her opponent wasn’t ordinary either. Maru put down his phone and watched Hyunjin eat for a while. If anyone asked him what ‘eating blessedly’ looked like, he would reply that it would be the woman in front of him. He locked eyes with Hyunjin who was placing a kkakdugi on top of her spoon.

“Am I too unlady-like while eating?”

“I didn’t say anything.”

“You seemed to be looking at me so curiously.”

He just smiled because that made him flinch inwardly. Hyunjin, who was chewing with all her energy, suddenly looked forward in a daze. Maru turned his head to see behind him. ‘Doctors’ was being rebroadcasted on the muted TV. It was the scene that they shot just last week. It was the scene where he was talking to Hyunjin in the corridor. The owner, who was looking at the screen with them, gave them a glance. When he met eyes with her, she winked at him. As her business was right in front of the TV station, she didn’t look at celebrities like they were rare animals.

“You look much better in real life than on a screen,” said the owner.

Maru smiled and told her that she was a beauty as well. He received good words, so he had to return them, even if he didn’t mean them.

“It was that time, when I felt grateful to you,” Hyunjin said.

Her eyes were on the TV, but what she seemed to be looking at was a week in the past.

“You can stop thanking me. Also, you were really good back then. The director shouted cut in excitement.”

“The thing is, I was dazed because I felt like my own acting wasn’t my own.”

Hyunjin put down her spoon.

KTLChamber's Thoughts

Where will this lead, I wonder.

Editor's Note:

Disciple? Maybe another new crush on Maru?

Chapter 866
Sequence 13

The shoot last week reminded her of when she first did a play in her college hall. A pleasant sensation of unease overwhelmed her throughout the entire time she was acting. It wasn’t an act that she was doing out of habit; it wasn’t an act where she followed rules; it was an act where she had no idea what was coming, just like when she acted without knowing about anything. Hyunji found even herself unfamiliar at that time, and she tasted what it meant to enjoy acting for the first time in a long while.

The fact that she didn’t change her acting style despite the criticism that it was too standard was first because of her pride, but there was also the fact that she did not know where to go from there. If she saw a crossroad, she would have chosen one path and gone ahead with it, but the only thing she saw was the vast plains. even if she wanted to take a step irresponsibly, her ‘ten years of experience’ always held her back. She was a thirty-year-old actress. If she slipped up when her charm as a lady reached its peak, her value as an actress would become like that of a fish that wasn’t sold in time. If she had spread her reputation through various good pieces, she would have tried running even if it was the empty plains and just hope that she would try to be better next time, but Hyunjin was an actress who prolonged her career through various minor roles. A close friend of the protagonist, the friend of a rival character, the woman the president had an affair with, a lesser-known protagonist. She had repeatedly told herself that this would be the last time, and that ended up lasting ten years. By the end of every year, Hyunjin thought that maybe she should have changed her acting style last year. Regret was always late, and she didn’t have anything to fall back on in order to break past her current acting style.

Straws might be worthless, but to someone who was grasping at straws, they were more important than anything. Hyunjin was afraid. If she tried changing herself and failed, the decade she had piled up would collapse on the spot. That journalist Kim, who must terribly despise her, always wrote articles whenever she did a drama. Choi Hyunjin, never changing regardless of what role she plays – she didn’t even want to retort to that. It was right after all.

That journalist Kim wrote an article as soon as the first episode of ‘Doctors’ aired. She even advertised on social media with the hashtags #choi_hyunjin #lookatthis. At this point, she even felt grateful for journalist Kim who kept writing about her, even though she had been picked as one of the top three ‘celebrities you know the face of but don’t know the name.’ What pained her more than journalist Kim’s insulting articles was the lack of comments. It meant that Choi Hyunjin as an actress didn’t even manage to become a consumable item.

Yoonseo, who had reached the top once with her dancing and singing, showed top-notch talent even during shoots. She didn’t even feel jealous of her. Her own position was way too pathetic to feel any kind of jealousy towards the female protagonist receiving the spotlight. Seeing Yoonseo being praised by seniors she had known for years made Hyunjin hide in a corner and cry to herself. You’re good at acting – the words she wanted to hear so much were given to a junior so easily.

Was she wearing clothes that did not suit her? Maybe she had talent in some other field but was doing this line of work anyway? If it was not for the shoot that happened a week ago, she would still be thinking about that.

Hyunjin looked at Maru, who looked like he would bury his nose into the gukbap bowl. The ‘thank you’s that she had uttered hundreds if not thousands of times in her line of work were fundamentally different from the thank you that she said to Maru. Although that shoot had only happened over two days, she grabbed a hold of the method to break through the ten years of mannerism. Even if she tried challenging herself now, it wouldn’t change anything dramatically anytime soon, but she would be able to say that it was the start of a change in the future. She found a path amidst the vast plains. Whether the path was the right one or one that led to an abyss, she did not know, but she gained the courage to move forward without fear.

Hyunjin opened her phone gallery. She had screenshotted an article that came up yesterday. It was that journalist Kim’s article. She was jumping on the spot as she was screenshotting the article. She even called her boyfriend in the middle of the night to brag about it.

“After yesterday’s episode ended, an article like this came up.”

She showed Maru the article. It had a title that made her excited even now: Actress Choi Hyujin, I applaud your challenge.

“I’m envious. You get articles like this written for you. So you brought me here to brag?”

“No. I really hate this journalist. She has been writing articles ever since my second drama. Choi Hyunjin’s deficient, lacking acting skills. Until a while ago, she even wrote that I had the same acting no matter what role I played. But she wrote this after yesterday’s episode. I couldn’t believe it. The critic that’s passionate about criticizing me complimented me for the first time.”

“That just goes to show that your acting was good, regardless of me.”

“You are involved in this. It felt really good to act with you.”

“Stop putting me on a pedestal. Hearing things like that makes me want to hide. Also, I may have coincidentally given you an opportunity, but it was your ability that managed to bring about change using that opportunity. Even if you give a child who never played soccer a ball, the only thing they can do is kick. It’s just like how only people who have simulated in their heads and practiced with an actual ball without anyone’s acknowledgment can eventually become professional players. Of course, there are exceptions. There might be some children who play like Ronaldo the first time they’re given a ball. People like Lee Heewon, I mean. He’s near the top on the list of people that make me jealous.”

“Heewon did seem rather different.”

“If you have time later, you should try discussing acting methodology with him. You’ll experience a thrilling sensation where the very concept of acting as you know it shatters into smithereens. I still don’t understand even now. How can there be color to emotions?”

Maru shook his head in resignation before eating the last bit of gukbap. Just as he said, Lee Heewon looked like a child from another world. They acted at the same shooting set with the same script, but that guy’s acting was fundamentally different. His sensory perception of the world was different, so it might have been a natural result. Hyunjin did not have a method to see emotions visually. However, Heewon said he could, not through facial expressions and hand gestures, but the emotions themselves. At first, she thought that he was saying nonsense, but she couldn’t help but accept it after seeing him act. It was unthinkable to think that his expressions and thought processes were from someone who had seen and felt the same thing as her. She was curious about who raised him as well. After all, someone who possessed a fundamentally different understanding of the world usually had a very different thought process before reaching a conclusion. Without leading him in the right direction, Lee Heewon would have shown acting that wouldn’t be understood by anyone. His acting was something that was polished from a special ‘something’ without letting it stay unique. He was the prime example of enchanting acting.

However, Hyunjin liked Maru’s acting better than Heewon’s uninterpretable, inimitable one. A genius’ method only made her gasp in wonder, but the method of a talented ordinary person was something she could chase after. To Hyunjin’s eyes, Maru was strangely experienced with everything, to the point that she couldn’t believe he was only twenty-five. Some might think that he’s a genius as well, but from how she saw it, Maru did not blossom all in an instant; he was nurtured and watered cautiously over a long period of time until he finally managed to blossom. She could be sure of it as she had been at a standstill for a long time. Looking at Maru made her feel that she too would reach his level if she did not give up and continued to hone her skills. That was where she gained the courage to run into the vast plains.

Maru’s act had a power that attracted people. He was the same as Heewon in that anyone watching would applaud him, but Maru’s act invoked her urge to take on challenges. Heewon’s acting made her reverent, but Maru’s acting made her want to stick to acting and fight passionately. Like fencing, whenever she stabbed, he stabbed back at a precise time as though he had been waiting. The exchange of attacks invoked her pure fighting spirit, which made her drunk on the moment. When she woke up, the act had ended. The racing of her heart she felt that day was as fast as when she first won a supporting character role. It had been a long time since she felt that the sound of ‘cut’ made her long for more.

“I hope you can continue to teach me a lot in the future, just like last week. I’m at the point where I look forward to going on sets.”

“There you go again. Even if you praise me like that, you won’t get anything from me. Also, I’m sure that my part is done. A minor character that was consumed that much means that the character has seen its use.”

“You can’t be too sure about that. You’ve seen the reactions, right?”

“That, I did.”

“These days, dramas react sensitively to viewer feedback, so the writer may change it. It’s especially the case here since the writer is young, so she wouldn’t feel any sense of rejection to reflecting the trend.”

“I’m not entirely sure about that. I’m just a bottom rung without any say in the matter.”

“I wish for your character to last a little longer. Honestly speaking, because only then will my character look better. It was just a short moment, but I can say with confidence that acting with you in the future will change me.”

“I’m glad to be of help. If you happen to become more famous in the future, then buy me a suit.”

“You might not believe me since it’s the intuition of an unpopular actress, but I believe that you’ll be in the center of attention in a little while. The eyes of the masses are sharp after all. A good actor is bound to get discovered.”

“You know that a good actor and a popular actor are similar but strictly different, right?”

“You want to become a popular actor instead?”

“Rather than someone who receives a good judgment, I want to become someone truly good. Being propped up by someone who works in the same industry will almost likely end up just as reputation. I want to become an actor who sells. Becoming a good actor comes second.”

“You’re right. In the end, only actors who sell can remain until the end and become good actors.”

“I hope you become an actress who sells too.”

“In my case, I am selling a lot. The problem is that I’m not being sold well. But now, I’ve gained the confidence to sell well too, thanks to you. So please stay at the set for a long time.”

“If possible, sure.”

Hyunjin felt refreshed. Ever since she had grown older and adapted to society, she had to watch her mouth, but today, she managed to say everything on her mind without going through a filter. It felt like talking about dreams when she was still a snot-nosed brat. She felt like there was mud all over her hands; mud that she played around with at the local playground, mud that could become anything.

“Senior, I didn’t mean to look, but I think you got a text message with a heart emoji in it.”

She had placed her phone in front of Maru to show him the article. Although she was supposed to be flustered, Hyunjin strangely felt okay.

“It’s my boyfriend. I bragged about it to him last night.”

“I won’t tell anyone.”

“I don’t care if you do. I’m an unpopular actress anyway, so there won’t be any scandals.”

Hyunjin smiled and sent a text.

“Seems the director still isn’t coming.”

“She texted me that she would take care of it soon, so I’m sure she’ll be here in due time.”

“It seems to be something important, so I better stay out of it. I said everything I wanted to tell you anyway.”

It was when Hyunjin was about to stand up after grabbing her purse. The door to the restaurant opened and director Jayeon came in.

“Oh? Hyunjin’s here too?”

“We happened to be eating together. I heard you had something to talk to Maru about, right? I’ll leave now.”

“You don’t have to be in such a hurry. It’s nothing secretive. No wait, it might be better to have you around I guess?” Jayeon said as she sat down.

KTLChamber's Thoughts

Maru, making other people famous since the beginning of his career.

Editor's Note:

Nice. Good for her. Hoping for more Maru acting scenes with her.

Translator interjection:

Lol, editor. What was that about a new crush?

Editor Response:

In hindsight, I should have realized that there's no longer a point in making someone else crush on Maru.

Chapter 867
Sequence 13

“You guys checked the viewing rates for episodes seven and eight, right?”

Both of them nodded at her question. Jayeon messaged the assistant director saying that she’d resume the shoot in twenty minutes before speaking again,

“The viewing rate for episode 9 of Doctor’s Office was 19%, and ours was 12%. There was almost no difference from last week, but it was a different story for yesterday’s episode. The viewing rate for episode 8 of Doctors was 15%, while episode 10 of Doctor’s Office was 15%. Ours increased, and theirs, although only a little, fell. Considering the margin of error, it’s not that big of a difference, but the fact that there was a change in viewing rate is something worth noting.”

“That must have put the writer at ease. I hope she gets a little better too,” Maru said.

He knew that Eunbin was suffering from stress-induced gastritis because of the viewing rate. After all, she talked all about it when she called him over to her house last time.

“I got a call this morning from her about that. She was very excited. The reason I wanted to see you was the call I had with her.”

Jayeon explained to Hyunjin that she was on close terms with the writer, Lee Eunbin.

“There was no change in the overall progression, and it’s not like a big event happened in the drama, but there was still a change in the viewing rate. We can only interpret that as something that has relations to your side story. The internet opinion seems to indicate so as well. That’s where you come in, and I hope you can help us. Hyunjin, if possible, you participate in it as well.”

“How can we help?” Hyunjin asked.

Maru seemed to have an idea as to how already.

“We’ll hold a discussion for ideas. I’m not forcing you to do it. It’s just that when I saw you two act a week ago, I think you two fit each other pretty well. Why don’t we bring that outside the drama?”

“An idea discussion? Are you talking about the plot of the drama?”

“The outlining structure of Doctors is already set in stone, so there’s almost nothing to touch. What I want is the side stories that can be fitted into the drama, not the plot itself; just like your stories in episodes 7 and 8. The story of you two was too good to just leave it as a one-off thing. It didn’t feel out of line with the drama either, and it didn’t harm the overall atmosphere. When I called her this morning, she told me that she wanted to talk about the story more, and she welcomed it.”

Eunbin was definitely a talented writer. She was only thirty-five, yet she managed to create a whole mini-series drama without an assistant writer after all. Given enough time, she would be able to create a story that lived up to everyone’s expectations. The problem was that they were already shooting and the episodes were being aired. As Doctors was something that Eunbin had created over several years, the problem of getting a last-minute script since she only had to fix the lines to fit the current trends did not exist, but to create side stories to insert in the middle of the main story, there was too little time. No matter how talented she was, it would be difficult for her to create a story that the viewers could accept and sympathize with in just a few days. Not only that, the shoot was already quite tight as Lee Heewon and Yoonseo had strict schedules. They had to create episodes as quickly as possible and deal with the side episodes while the main characters were away. Eunbin said that many heads were better than one when it came to creating a dense storyline in a short time, so Jayeon reduced the group down to these two – the actors who showed the characters’ inner selves the most. The writer also agreed that Maru should input his opinion.

“Unni, that is, writer Lee Eunbin prefers working alone, but she’s not adamant on it. She’s held idea meetings with me from time to time as well. But this time, I don’t think I’ll be enough to create a story. That’s why I need your help like last time, Maru. And you too, Hyunjin.”

Hyunjin replied immediately, saying that she would do it.

“I’m not so sure,” Maru said as he raised his glass.

She suddenly felt like she went over a speed bump while driving at 150km/h. Jayeon looked at Maru, her eyes full of questions about why he was so doubtful about this.

“Don’t you think it’ll be for the best to cut this story here? Of course, if the writer wants to do it, I will act with all of my effort.”

“I don’t see a reason not to do it. The reactions were good too.”

“Doing it once may look like a fresh attempt, but doing it twice may look overdone. Episodes 7 and 8 definitely did not affect the main story, but don’t you think it’s dangerous to talk about Bigfoot even in the next episode? It just means that you will have less time to allocate to the main story.”

“I’m the director; did you think I didn’t even think about that? Both I, and the writer, are bringing this up because we think that it’s worth a try. The reason we’re asking for your help without doing it by ourselves is the results from last time’s work were good. Also, like I said, you two have good acting chemistry and have a high understanding of the characters, so we want to do it more efficiently this time.”

“So you’re saying that you aren’t doing it just because the viewing rate was good and that you’ve planned to an extent and found that it was worth investing in, correct?”

“I hate doing things impulsively. Don’t you know that already? You know what kind of people I work with and what kind of environment I work the best in.”

Maru, who had an indifferent look on his face the entire time, smiled and nodded for the first time. Jayeon subconsciously sighed. She was reminded of her job interview for the TV station. Maru’s eyes looked similar to the interviewer who looked through her strong pretense and looked at her true self. She had known him for a few years now, so she had forgotten how picky the boy, no, the man in front of her was. No matter how hard she tried to tell him that there was good food in front of him, he would not believe it until he saw it with his own two eyes.

“Personally, I believe that it’s better to wrap things up here, but the writer, who has talent in writing unlike me, says she saw potential, so I should cooperate.”

“I thought that you’d easily cooperate, so you made me sweat a little. Anyway, since you promised you’ll help, I think we should get going right now. Maru’s well-known for not having anything to do. How about you, Hyunjin? If it’s okay with you, I’d like to get to it right now.”

“Right now?”

“Why? Do you have something to do?”

“No, not today. I was just a little surprised that you want to do it right now.”

“You know how important every single hour is towards the end of the drama. We have to take care of things while we still have some leeway in the schedule and can still make adjustments so that we have an easier time later. I’ll tell unni about it. We can probably go there right now.”

“There? You mean the noonim’s house, right?”

“Yeah. Oh, but before we go, can I ask you to do something for me?”

“What is it?”

“Order a gukbap for takeout for her. I’m sure she’s sitting on an empty stomach right now.”

“Alright. If she’s on an empty stomach, we should order dried pollack gukbap, so that she can eat heartily.”

Jayeon left the restaurant after asking them to take care of writer Eunbin.

* * *

“You know the writer?”

“As you heard before, I saw her once before at her house. Back then, she told me that she had a story to insert for episodes 7 and 8.”

He was particularly close to the director, and he was also acquainted with the writer. Hyunjin found Maru more and more curious as she found out more about him. A young actor who she wouldn’t even know the name of if she didn’t meet him through the drama actually turned out to be qualified of exchanging opinions with a veteran director and a writer. Although directors and writers listened to many people’s words and exchanged opinions with them in order to complete their pieces, the scope of those ‘many people’ was definitely not that wide. The fact that he was in the scope meant that his skills could be guaranteed. Maybe the attractive force that he showed while acting was actually effective on people with other jobs as well?

“Don’t the main cast get to listen to how the drama ends and a brief description of the characters?”

“Generally. We get an explanation beforehand especially if there’s something like a death scene, and all the more if there’s a sensitive or a controversial acting scene. It may involve the actor’s image after all.”

“Don’t you think the character’s image would be ruined if the story sidetracked too much? I’m sure you’ll do fine by yourself, but please give me a signal if you don’t think something’s right. I’ll pull back as well.”

“You’re satisfied with the ending in episode 8?”

“For me, yes. That was supposed to be talking about the ordinary pains of an ordinary person, no? It didn’t drag on for too long, and it was blunt. It was a genuine story without any sort of fantasy, so it felt good even as I acted. I had a vague expectation as to how the viewers would feel while watching as well. Honestly speaking, I predicted this kind of response.”

“You have good eyes for reading the trend, huh?”

“Aren’t you going to say that I’m boasting too much?”

“Maybe it’s because I was deeply impressed by your acting, but I think I can believe you. Honestly, I just enjoyed myself while acting. It had been ages since the last time I had fun while acting. Whether it was the viewing rate or the responses from the people, I didn’t think about any of it.”

“So you were immersed in yourself.”

“That’s probably it.”

“I really had fun back then as well. You received all the emotions I threw at you and returned just as much back to me. When there’s a good interaction, it is really fun when acting.”

“I felt like that too.”

Maru spoke as he turned the wheel,

“That’s why I’m even more cautious. We managed to put a good ending while it was still good. I fear that adding any more to that story will ruin that. I’m a minor actor, so a short burst of impact is crucial for me. If it ends like this, I can become the main character for just those two episodes, but if it continues and becomes awkward, then the image I’ve created will shatter.”

This person looked far into the distance. Hyunjin thought that what he said was plausible. After all, unlike her, Maru played a character that was quite far away from the main storyline. It might be more beneficial for him to leave the scene while everyone applauded him and had a good impression of him.

“If the story the writer tells me is not to my liking, I am going to object to it. Of course, if she wants to press on with it, I will have no choice but to shut up and do my part. I don’t have the right to refuse after all.”

“We’re going there to come up with ideas so that it doesn’t end awkwardly. Let’s do our best. It’s been years since I heard praises. I don’t want to ruin it either.”

The car entered a parking lot. It seemed that they had arrived at writer Lee Eunbin’s apartment.

KTLChamber's Thoughts

Nothing to comment in this chapter.

Editor's Note:

I like Hyujin so far. Seems like a very interesting character.

Chapter 868
Sequence 13

This was her second time visiting a writer’s house. Hyunjin was filled with expectations. What kind of lifestyle did the creator of the work she featured in live? The previous writer’s house she had been to was a cozy, yet elegant place. She was a female writer who had just reached forty, and she only had items that were necessary for living, saying that she strived to live a simple life. It was similar to the minimalist life that was the trend these days. The conversation she had in the space where the work was born was very meaningful. That writer broke her misconception that those who made a living off writing would be overly sensitive.

Writer Lee Eunbin’s drama always contained warm, humane affection. Her residence must be a cozy and warm-feeling place as well. Perhaps there might be cute dolls. She pressed the bell and waited for a while when a voice inside told them to come in. Maru pulled open the door.

“It’s messy but come inside.”

Writer Lee Eunbin greeted them, wearing a t-shirt that reached all the way to her knees. Hyunjin stopped in front of the porch. Even the shoe rack was a total mess. How could one high heel be on top of the shoe rack, while the other one was on the porch? There was a pair of striped slippers right next to a gray pair of sneakers, which god knows what color they used to be. Many of the shoes here looked like they belonged in the garbage. She slowly moved her eyes away from the slippers. She saw a box of pizza as well as other empty boxes of food. Beer cans, coffee cans, and even what seemed to be cat food cans took a portion of the floor area as well. The indoor bicycle in one corner of the living room had laundry hanging off it, and beneath that was a duvet. Hyunjin could not even begin to understand why a duvet would be in a place like that.

“Was it like this the last time you came here?” she asked Maru quietly.

“No. Back then, director Jayeon came first and did some cleaning, so it was rather clean. I did hear that she doesn’t do much cleaning if she’s busy, but I didn’t know that things were this bad.”

Maru scanned the living room with eyes that looked as though he was a soldier that had just heard news of defeat. He seemed to be muttering something, and she heard words like ‘this needs a big cleanup’ or something along those lines. Hyunjin took off her sneakers and went inside. Although the apartment looked messy as though it had been abandoned in the middle of the night, it strangely smelled rather fragrant. It seemed to be the power of the scented diffusers placed throughout. She could see deodorizers placed everywhere. So she was a writer who could handle visual messiness but not foul stenches?

“I heard from Jayeon. I’m Lee Eunbin. We met during the get-together, didn’t we?”

“Yes. Back then, I was so out of it that we didn’t get to talk much.”

“I left too early, didn’t I?”

Hyunjin just laughed it off. On the day of the first read-through, Eunbin didn’t seem to be in a good condition and left the get-together early, severely drunk.

“Would you like to have a talk first?” Maru said as he took off his jacket.

When Eunbin asked why, Maru quietly pointed at the empty pizza box. A cat, which was grooming her fur on top of the pizza box, slowly got up and moved away.

“I’m going to clean up a little.”

“It’s fine, you can leave it.”

“No, I’m not fine with it. I got a disease after I started living alone, so I start to feel anxious if I stay in a messy place.”

He didn’t sound like he was joking. When Eunbin said she’d help, Maru stopped her.

“You can get to discussing ideas for now. I’m sure that’s what’s more urgent. I’ll join you after I clean this place up just a little. Or if it’s anything important, you can just say it in a loud voice, and I’ll try to reply.”

Maru picked up the clothes littered across the floor. Eunbin swiftly picked up the underwear and put them away. Whether it was Maru who was cleaning with fire in his eyes, or Eunbin, who was watching him in contentment, Hyunjin could not understand either of them. In the past ten minutes, she came across two incomprehensible incidents. The world was a strange place.

“Then shall we begin by ourselves?”

“Yes.”

Eunbin brought some canned coffee. There was a box full of it right next to the fridge.

“I enjoyed watching your act. I was applauding because the atmosphere I saw was the atmosphere I wanted to see.”

“That was nothing. It was me who had fun enjoying acting because of the good lines. You’re an amazing writer.”

“It’s been a while since I heard a compliment like that. Jayeon always says it’s okay, but she never says it’s good. Not only that, she even secretly gives me pressure. She has zero respect towards an unni.”

“The director is a little strict. But that’s why the results are good.”

“Sometimes, it’s good to give praise, even if you don’t mean it, but she’s somewhat too realistic and detached from the world.”

“Sometimes, she does show such a side from time to time.”

When things didn’t go her way during shoots, Jayeon would scream like a madwoman. Even male producers known to be strict did not touch producer Jayeon once she flipped. Hyunjin saw Eunbin clap her hands as she agreed. It seemed that she quite liked this unintentional behind-the-back talk.

“Err, you are discussing things, right?” Maru asked, poking his head into the living room.

He was holding a cat by the scruff of its neck with one hand and a bag of trash in the other.

“Interaction is important when having a conversation. Things are going very well, so don’t you worry. I feel like I’ll get along with Miss Hyunjin here and get many good ideas.”

“If that’s the case, then I’m glad.”

Maru disappeared once again, saying that he would come back and participate soon. There was enough space to lie down in the living room now when there was barely enough to step foot before. His talent for cleaning was as good as his talent for acting.

“Maru, that kid is pretty strange too. Then again, how many people are normal among the people who get along with Jayeon, right?”

Aren’t you one of them, writer? – these words reached her front teeth, but Hyunjin just smiled and replied, ‘that’s true.’ A writer who created stories that contained human affections in a chaotic place that made people’s minds messy just by looking –that was her first impression of writer Eunbin.

“Shall I hear your story then?” Eunbin said as she placed her hands on her laptop.

“What story?”

She couldn’t think of anything when she was told to talk about a ‘story’ all of a sudden.

“Tell me about the ‘Yoomin’ that you acted, Miss Hyunjin.”

“Don’t you know that better than I do, writer?”

“No, I actually don’t know everything about all the characters. Of course, I know more than most other people know. I did create them after all. However, once that turns into a script and the script goes into the hands of the actor, those characters sometimes undergo a change, right?”

Eunbin looked like a completely different person as she spoke while tying her hair behind her back. She turned from a hysteric auntie who couldn’t get married and had terrible cleaning habits into a genius artist with a strange perk. Receiving a gaze full of expectation made it even more difficult to talk. Analyzing a character was something that all actors did. Just as Eunbin said, the writer would pass on the character to the actor in the form of a script, and the actor would repeatedly interpret and reinterpret the character based on the script they receive. In such a process, there would be cases where opinions that the original creator did not intend would appear and end up changing the nature of the character. The extent of that would vary according to how much the actor stays true to the script, or how they want to emphasize their own traits.

Hyunjin strived towards being faithful to the script. She placed importance in expressing the world that the writer created with minimum loss. This applied even when she first came across the character ‘Yoomin.’ When the director specifically requested her to do something differently, she would do so, but otherwise, she stuck to the script as much as possible.

“I acted Yoomin as truthfully to your description of her as possible. I pushed aside my own interpretation and stayed faithful to the script and the direction.”

“I felt that way too, until last week’s episode, that is. You expressed the text I wrote very truthfully to the point that it even surprised me. I was thankful for that, but it also sometimes frustrated me.”

“Was my acting skill that frustrating?”

“No, I’m not saying that your acting was frustrating. I meant that I was frustrated that I would be disappointed in my own writing. The actor has a complete understanding of the script, but the results still aren’t good. That means that the responsibility lies within the writer, doesn’t it? That was why I wanted actors like you to act on their own accord from time to time. That way, I would be able to escape the sense of guilt from the fact that my writing was what caused the bad results. It’s just a form of escapism for a terrible writer.”

Eunbin waved her hand in dismissal and laughed. She was really honest. Although it was a little burdensome, she didn’t feel uncomfortable with it. Hyunjin, who was smiling back at her, asked a question. There was something that tugged at her mind among what Eunbin said.

“You said until last week. Does that mean that you thought differently this week?”

“To my eyes, yes. Also, the viewers seem to have felt it as well. No matter how good a story is, if the actor that recreates the story is no fun, people do not rave about it. But there is already talk about episodes 7 and 8 circulating around, right? I know it’s somewhat wrong of me to say this since it’s like putting myself on a pedestal, but the first reason is that the story is good, and the second reason is that the actors provoked sympathy within people. If text could convey everything, dramas wouldn’t exist, would they?”

Eunbin emptied the coffee can in one go and brought another one. From her speed of drinking, it seemed that the box of canned coffee wouldn’t even last a week.

“Honestly, I’m not asking for amazing ideas. It’s my job to come up with things like that. What I want from you is inspiration. It might feel like I'm boasting again, but I really study a lot before I work. I already have the basis of a lot of stories inside me already. However, they’re in a messy state, so without a flash of inspiration, or in other words, a guide, I cannot take them out properly. Given enough time, I might be able to find it while probing my way through the dark, but we’re running short on time now. I want to listen to everything that you felt about Yoomin while you acted. It’s fine even if it’s trivial. It’ll be even better if it’s something you personally wondered about. I wouldn’t ask for more if you had anything that you thought should have changed. That’s what idea discussions are about. It’s like trying to find treasure amidst trinkets. To do that, we need trinkets first. Of course, I’m not saying that your thoughts are nothing more than trinkets. It’s just a figure of speech.”

“You’re saying that anything’s fine?”

If there was no fixed topic, she had a lot to say. She had been shooting for months after all. Eunbin narrowed her eyes before looking at Maru who was cleaning outside the living room.

“Honestly speaking, I want a huge quantity of ordered data like what Maru gave me, but only slightly weird people do things like that.”

“A huge quantity of ordered data?”

Hyunjin turned her laptop around and showed her the screen. She then opened up a word document with the title ‘Bigfoot,’ inside which was a huge quantity of text.

“It’s the past, present, and future of Bigfoot that even I never thought about. Would actors normally analyze a minor character who doesn’t even have that many lines to such an extent? I wouldn’t think so. This is closer to paranoia and obsession. And looking at him, he seems to be something of a clean freak too.”

The amount of detail about the character was surprisingly large. Like she said, it was a huge quantity of data. Hyunjin turned around to look at Maru. What the hell was the identity of the man who was currently wrestling with a cat?

“Do you have something like this?” Eunbin asked.

The answer was simple. Hyunjin shook her head vigorously. She wouldn’t even analyze a main character to such depths.

KTLChamber's Thoughts

Is this it? Is Maru finally going to be famous now? /s

Editor Note:

Hopefully.

Chapter 869
Sequence 13

"It's natural that you don't have anything like this. Even I don't do things like this. This isn't just a load of gibberish text, it's nearly the whole life of a person, so it must have taken a lot of time for him to make this."

Hyunjin asked if she could read it for a bit. Eunbin gave her permission. She pulled the laptop to her side and read the detailed background of Bigfoot that Maru had come up with. Not to mention trivial family history or growth, there was even an introduction to his personality and habits.

"That's a lot."

"It just shows Maru's personality. We talked about many things the previous time he visited my house. What I was impressed with the most about him was the way he dissolved himself into the character. Usually, actors say that they get assimilated with the character and get led by the character's emotions, right? It is to the point that some people even get mental diseases because of it. But in Maru's case, rather than falling for the character itself, he chooses to analyze the character meticulously and give the character an endless number of choices. Why did this character here act like this? What would have happened if that character did something else instead? Apparently, he keeps pondering questions like that even while acting. I still can't believe that you can split your mind into two and have one of them focus on acting while the other one observes, but he says he does that, so I can only believe him. Apparently, he has two minds or something."

"If that's possible, then it is quite amazing."

She had her hands full with acting, so it was impossible for her to check if she was doing well. She had her hands tied up by just expressing the character that entered her.

"Apparently, the reason he came up with every single detail like this is so he can smoothly come up with choices. I guess he can act like that because he has the effort to back it up. Of course, you were really good as well. Even I didn't know that the character known as Yoomin had such a charm."

"I feel like you're nagging me by saying that my acting was terrible until last week," Hyunjin said while squinting.

Eunbin smiled awkwardly, saying that that wasn't the case. As Hyunjin didn't bring up that topic to nitpick, she quickly said that it was a joke. She knew it herself. She felt firsthand that her acting had changed.

"Looks like that's enough chitchat, so let's get to the constructive things then, shall we? Anything's fine, so let us both dig into this Yoomin together. Maybe we'll come up with amazing ideas. First up, what kind of girl is the character known as Yoomin in your mind, Miss Hyunjin?"

Eunbin placed her hands on the laptop keyboard. Hyunjin was reminded of an investigator writing up reports of an incident. The gleaming eyes, the tense fingers – she knew she had to speak truthfully here without trying to justify herself.

"Honestly speaking, I thought that she was an uninteresting character when I first received the script."

"That makes my heart hurt, but sure. This kind of work cannot be done without empty formalities. Why did you think that Yoomin is an uninteresting character?"

"First up, she's the stereotypical villainess character. Not only that, she is one that turns to good. For me personally, it was too boring to see that instead of the character being someone who would try to drag down the protagonist to hell with her until the end, she is someone that changes for the better."

"To stand up for the character as the writer, I didn't really have a choice about Yoomin, as she plays a key role in solving a conflict. If everyone's evil, the incidents that occur cannot be resolved after all."

When Hyunjin looked at her without saying anything, Eunbin made a dejected expression and continued,

"I'm just making excuses. Like you said, Miss Hyunjin, she could have been more evil. As for resolving an incident, I can solve that by raising the skill of the protagonist. But I'm of the mind that characters have their limits, even if it's the main character. Not only that, I believe that all people have good in their hearts somewhere. Those ideologies of mine are reflected in my writing. In that sense, Yoomin is the ideal villainous character for me."

"Now that I think about it, there was a character similar to Yoomin in your previous work too, wasn't there?"

"You watched my other works? There are only a few short mini-series works at best."

"I found out on my way here. I searched your name in the car, and I happened to come across a title that I watched with interest before. Oh, did I phrase that too badly? Maybe I should have said that I was deeply impressed and it remained in my memory?"

"It's too late for that. But still, that's rather curious. I've never seen actors who have seen my mini-series works. Anyhow, as you said, the characters I write for each drama are pretty similar. That might come off as a drawback, but personally, I think it's an advantage. I'm of the mind that moving your feet everywhere when you can't even do one thing properly will bring you to ruin."

"I agree with that wholeheartedly. That's why I hear a lot that my acting doesn't change."

"That's a compliment. It's a good thing that your skills never rust."

"It's been a long time since I was flattered like that."

"You know? We seem to get along pretty well, don't we?"

When Eunbin smiled, a cat appeared out of nowhere and curled itself up on top of the laptop. Eunbin picked up the cat which seemed to think that the keyboard was her bed and placed it on her lap.

"I referred to this one a lot when I first came up with the character Yoomin."

"You mean your cat?"

"Yes. She never comes when I tell her to, but when I don't give her any attention, she would come over and act cute because she wants interest. She might look coquettish at a glance, but she yearns for affection. Isn't that similar to Yoomin?"

Hyunjin nodded as she looked at the cat going on top of the keyboard again. Like she said, in the drama, Yoomin turned hostile against Lee Heewon who intrudes in her property, but she would approach him instead when Heewon distanced himself from her. Such encounters eventually changed her and made her become one of Heewon's close aides.

"I don't think I'll have any more chances after this, but will Yoomin be single throughout the whole drama?"

"Probably, I think? There's too much of a temperament difference for her to hook up with the protagonist, and I don't want that to happen either."

"Like a real cat, I see."

After enjoying Eunbin's caressing, the cat left the table as though she had enough.

"I've always wanted to try acting as a character who loves wholeheartedly. But wait, does that even help?"

"Right now, anything's fine. Yoomin's wholehearted in a way, though, isn't she? Towards her own position."

"I want to love a person. It seems like writers and directors alike always think of someone thirsty for power when they see me. The roles I get offered are all similar too. Do you think the same, writer?"

Eunbin nodded.

"You don't actually look like you're thirsty for power. I'm sure it's because of the roles you've been playing until now. You were good at expressing those kinds of characters too."

"It makes me feel bitter because I feel like it's the same all the time. But I don't have the courage to change things up either. After all, I'm afraid of becoming an actress that doesn't sell."

"I'm also afraid of becoming a writer that doesn't sell. But still, your acting changed a lot last time. The character's nature hadn't changed at all, but the emotions became plentiful. I was surprised while I was watching. Until last week, you were just a stereotypical villainess, but this week, your character was really spiteful. It's not just abstract hate that formed because of the plot, but a result of the expression skills of the one acting. Thanks to that, the nature of the character was emphasized, and the story gained power."

"That was because I was really absorbed. Maru really has the power to lead other people's acting. It's to the point that I can't believe he's a junior of mine. Until now, I just progressively went through the same steps when I acted Yoomin, but when I was with Maru, I boldly ignored all the procedures and improvised on the spot, just like when I first started learning to act."

"Improvisations can only come about with enough foundation and experience. From what I hear, you seem to be thinking that it was entirely thanks to Maru, but I don't think that's true. It's because it was you that Yoomin stood out, Miss Hyunjin."

"You say something similar to Maru."

"Because that's the truth. In my eyes, I think you can have more confidence. I'm sure you won't like someone that's not an actor giving you advice, but I was convinced after watching the drama last night: Oh, this actress can definitely do more."

The bombardment of praises made her face flush. Hyunjin just smiled without saying anything. She couldn't remember the last time she had been complimented for her acting, and not only that, by the writer of the work she was appearing in.

"Do you think Yoomin should have more confidence?" Eunbin said as though talking to herself.

"Isn't she already full of confidence as she is? I think it reached the point of recklessness a little while ago."

"The authoritarianism that stems from the background that is her father is one of the things that support her. I felt like it would be okay to make her into a character who can stand on her own."

"Doesn't she become like that towards the end of the drama? From the look of things, it looks like she'll turn her back on her father."

"I'm saying that we should pull the trigger forward a little. From how her character changes thanks to the main protagonist, to her changing because of her contact with another character. Like you said, we should break her away from the stereotypical villainess character. We won't change her from a villainess to an angel; it'll be from a villainess to a loveable villainess. She'll lose more and more character towards the end, so even if we change her character now, the main plot will not be affected that much."

"That makes me feel bitter. So she's a character that's bound to be abandoned, huh?"

Eunbin avoided her gaze and said that they should change it starting now. Then, she seemed to have a flash of inspiration as she started typing.

"You're quite open to other people's opinions. You're quite liberal."

"You mean I don't have my own opinion?"

"Absolutely not."

"If started writing by myself from the very beginning, perhaps I may have become one of those writers filled with pride and doesn't listen to others. I do hear that I'm quite frustrating to get through when I'm quite reckless. But I started off as a writer for an entertainment program. When we held production discussions, I came up with absurd ideas, accepted some, and created games. That became a good experience for me. I managed to get myself a thin pair of ears, so I was able to go anywhere I wanted. That's why I'm saying that talking with you helps me a lot, Miss Hyunjin."

Eunbin pressed the enter key with her pinky finger before taking her hands off the keyboard. She didn't look completely satisfied, but she did look like she had solved a big problem.

"Any progress?"

Maru shook his hands and entered the kitchen. Hyunjin looked back at the living room. What was originally a mess became spotlessly clean. She wondered if this place was always so wide.

"Come sit down. I have a general idea on how to tie Bigfoot and Yoomin together to create a story."

KTLChamber's Thoughts

Yoomin X Bigfoot sounds like a terrible idea to me though. That just erases the sympathy element from the viewers.

Editor's Note:

Well, Maru did say that he'll veto any bad ideas so. <s>Also, Yeonsoo x Hyunjin is an option</s>

Chapter 870
Sequence 13

Maru picked up the cat roaming around his feet and sat down on a chair, the cat on his lap.

"You don't happen to be talking about a romantic relationship, are you?"

"Love is an emotion that transcends all of time. It's a strong source of pathos as well."

"Are you really going to go with such a plot?"

He neither had the thought nor the right to go against the writer if she set her mind on it, but if she was just thinking about it, he wanted to tell her to think again. The love between the daughter of an evil hospital director and a man who barely managed to become a doctor after much hardship was a typical Cinderella story. It was something that appeared a lot even today and would continue to appear even in the future. It wasn't bad. It was just that in his opinion, using such a story to connect Bigfoot and Yoomin inside Doctors was a bad way to go.

The viewers' responses would be obvious. If Bigfoot, who displayed the hardships of youth in the current era in a plain fashion, fell in love with a woman from a household of power within the drama, the viewers who sympathized with the 'ordinariness' of the character throughout episodes 7 and 8 would become frustrated at the key to everything – love.

"If you're going to ruin the drama, then go ahead – this is written all over your face right now. Of course, I'm not going to do it like that. I finally managed to incite sympathy from people, so I can't let love ruin all of it. Ordinary people will not feel like it's love; they will feel like it's filth instead."

"Then how are you going to do it?"

"Before I say it, how do you think it should go?"

"For me personally, I think it should end as it is."

"That's an opinion that pours cold water over the discussion, but fine. Why do you think that?"

"It's because Bigfoot has shown all of the character's value in episode 8. He has already conveyed the message that we understand the pains of the many 'Bigfoots' out there. I liked the fact that we didn't show them any hope, nor any consolation. I asked around after yesterday's episodes went live about their feelings. It was just as we intended it. The internet responses were the same. It felt like my story – that was the majority's opinion."

The requirement of a good story was a good ending. Bigfoot's story already fulfilled that criterion. There was no refreshing revenge or a hopeful tomorrow, but it still manage to dissolve the conclusion that people endured and still forged ahead into the story. It was a story that was good because it was not dramatic. It would be for the best to close the door right here while there were still some lingering feelings. If people reflected back on the scene someday because of those lingering feelings, they would naturally think of the actor known as Han Maru as well. He was in the perfect condition to leave behind a good impression.

"Not only that, people are also saying that the actors did a good job, so if we touched it recklessly, the good image we have formed might shatter, so it will be for the best to leave things here. Is this what you're saying?" Eunbin asked.

Maru stroked his hand down his face. Was there something written on his face? She really had a full grasp on what he was thinking. Jayeon referred to Eunbin as the master of describing character psychologies. In order to describe such things, she would have to have a good understanding of them. This female writer definitely had an unordinary pair of eyes for discerning what people thought.

"So you know. That's my honest opinion. All the clips that went on the internet were the scenes where Hyunjin-noona and I were acting. At least for episodes 7 and 8, we were the main characters. If you don't talk about Bigfoot anymore, I feel that it's going to get talked about a few more times among the viewers in the future. It was a splendid result for a consumable character, so I want to leave it as it is."

"But that means that you want to do another story if it's something that can be talked about among the viewers, right?"

"In theory, yes. My job is to act anything you write, so I'm going to do my best when playing my role regardless of what you write."

"Even while cursing me on the inside?"

"How could I possibly curse someone who's given me work? I'll just think it's a little pitiful."

"If you don't want it, then you don't have to do it, do you?"

"If I reject the script you write just because it's not to my liking, that will be the day my contract ends."

These days, it was the writers that sat on the thrones in the drama industry. Other than top-tier actors and producers, there was no one who could endure pressure from the writers. Just like how there were people who bought movie tickets just based on the director's name, there were many drama viewers who believed in the writer when watching a drama, even if they didn't entirely like the cast. A mere minor actor with a standard contract going against the writer who sat on the throne was a fantasy that wasn't even talked about in dramas.

"So in the end, it means that I have to write well, huh? If I want you two to keep liking me."

Eunbin brought some A4 paper and a pen from her room. She put the paper in the middle and wrote 'Yoomin' and 'Bigfoot' on each end of the paper.

"There is no such thing as a 'new' story in this world. It all comes down to how you recombine the existing stories. The story about you two managed to provoke the interest of the viewers. There was a reaction in the viewing rate, so we can't afford to miss it. But if we go with a love story, then just as Maru said, it would be worse than not doing it at all, but we can't go with a rival relationship either since the two characters can't be compared whether it's their talent, background or passion."

Maru nodded. They couldn't just make Bigfoot into a hero. There was already a hero played by Lee Heewon after all.

"But we can't keep leaving Bigfoot in reality. This is a drama after all. If we keep giving trials to the character, it's likely that the viewers would get fed up and leave first. There needs to be a catharsis. It doesn't need to be anything great. Bigfoot's charm is all about the small stories after all."

"What are you going to do with his relationship with Yoomin?"

"This occurred to me while talking to Miss Hyunjin: A loveable villainess. When inside a drama, even murderers can be sympathized with. We all know that the murderer's actions are wrong, but since we know that it's all imaginary, we can assimilate our emotions with them. Yoomin will no longer be changed by the main character and will remain evil until the end. But being 'evil' doesn't mean she crosses the line. She'll just desire everything that she can reach out to. Perhaps she might end up looking like an adolescent girl. The main character and Bigfoot are standing in her path to making everything her own. If she bites back at both the characters in the same way, it would be no fun, but if there's a difference in the way she treats the two people, her character will become really plentiful. A cute villainess who knows pity. It might be a good idea to portray the contrast between the main character running towards the ideal without stopping and Bigfoot, who conforms to reality through the character Yoomin as the standard."

What started off as an explanation quickly turned into muttering to herself. Eunbin's hands became busy. Words that portrayed her thoughts started filling the empty A4 paper. She clearly seemed to be the type of person who didn't notice her surroundings once she became absorbed in something. Even when Hyunjin called out to her, she did not reply. The cat just kept watching as though she had seen her owner act like that many times.

"Let's give her some room," Maru said to Hyunjin.

It was just as Jayeon said in the gukbap restaurant. She said that the writer would start going on by herself after a certain point; and that they should just leave her be if something like that happened. They left the kitchen and sat on the sofa in the living room. Eunbin kept writing with her pen, and with her other hand, she ruffled her hair. From the looks of it, it didn't look like she was going to finish anytime soon.

"Creating a story isn't easy, huh."

"You tell me. I think I can see how some writers get carried on an ambulance due to stomach cramps. I'm sure writer Eunbin must have it hard too."

"I guess that must be why she focuses like that once she gets a grasp of something. She will have to wander for a long time if she doesn't write while her Muse is still here. But still, she's really aggressive about it."

Eunbin stared holes into the paper as though her thoughts had reached a stop. She could be heard swearing from time to time as well. She sometimes even prayed to a certain being. It was like watching a monodrama.

"Do you think other writers are like that too?"

"Probably not. I'm sure she's a special case."

"You never know. Most writers work on their own in their studios. Maybe it's because they all swear and become aggressive like that, so they can't help but work alone."

"A friend of mine is the opposite though. He becomes so quiet that his existence becomes faint. Sometimes, it makes me think that he's sleeping."

"You have a writer among your friends?"

"An aspiring one. It's just my intuition, but he'll probably become famous. He promised to use me in his work if he does well. Maybe this is why connections are good."

"If it's a really good piece, then give me a spot as well."

"You'll naturally have to go through an audition, noona."

They conversed while waiting. When Eunbin came out from the kitchen, she stomped her way to the veranda and opened the door wide. The autumn wind made gushing noises as it intruded into the living room. The artificial fragrance that filled the room disappeared in an instant.

"I'm hungry. You said you brought dried pollack gukbap, right? Let's eat that. Miss Hyunjin, you should eat with me," Eunbin said as she turned around after looking outside in a daze.

Her face looked very calm compared to before. It seemed that she managed to bring things to a closure.

"Do you think you can write a good script?" Maru asked.

Eunbin told him to look forward to it without hesitation.

"I think Lee Heewon and Yoonseo will have to be tense. You know that sometimes, the supporting cast gets more attention than the main cast, right? There’s no rule stating that minor roles can’t do the same. If we can ride the flow well, things will get very interesting. The two of you need to treat me to something good if things go well, okay?” Eunbin said with confidence.

“If that happens, I’ll listen to your wish once.”

“Me too.”

When Maru and Hyunjin said those words, Eunbin widened her eyes and replied,

“You just need to introduce me to a man. Miss Hyunjin can introduce me to someone around my age, and Maru, someone younger than me. I don’t prefer older men.”

I’m not joking – Eunbin added seriously. Maru nodded. Just then, the cat on top of the table hopped over and pulled on Eunbin’s foot. The cat seemed to be asking her owner why she needed anyone else when she had her.

“Because you’re female,” Eunbin said.

Hyunjin covered her mouth and laughed.

“I’ll boil the soup for now. Both of you can stay seated. It’ll be somewhat plain with just the soup, so should I make some side dishes as well? If there are ingredients, I can make some.”

“You can cook too?”

“Well, if you live by yourself, you have no choice but to do it.”

“Maru, would you like to come to our house as a housemaid? This noona will give you a lot of money. Miss Hyunjin, don’t you think everyone should have a Han Maru at their house?”

Hyunjin agreed with her. Maru just shrugged at the two women and opened the fridge.

KTLChamber's Thoughts

Cute cat.

Editor's Note:

I just want Heewon and Maru to be in an emotional scene together so we can get another scene like the one with Joohyun and Maru.

Chapter 871
Sequence 13

“I never knew things would actually turn out like this,” Heewon said.

His eyes moved quickly as they skimmed through the script.

“She wrote like she was in a daze and ended up creating a full-blown story alright.”

Maru put down the script. The persistence of the master craftsman that would not tolerate her work being moderate as well as her pride as the trendsetter to go ahead of the flow of the trend was fully reflected in her writing. His domestic labor at Eunbin’s house two days ago was repaid in the form of good writing. If the plot was like this, he would more than welcome it. He would have to see the viewers' responses to be sure, but the contents of the script were something that the viewers who enjoyed episodes 7 and 8 would definitely welcome. Maybe even the people who were swayed by Bigfoot’s logic might be shaken. It may come off as an old-fashioned sermon from the older generation, but Eunbin’s writing skills did wonders to change that.

“I think it’ll be good as long as the acting can bring out the flavor. Try working things out with senior Hyunjin.”

“I will. I don’t want to kick away the food prepared for me.”

The staff who were waiting on the set started moving. It seemed that Yoonseo, the tardy girl, had arrived. She flashed past in front of his eyes while wearing a fancy outfit.

“She’s a real busy one alright. She’s probably so busy that even two bodies wouldn’t be enough.”

Heewon dusted his knees and stood up.

“It’s about time I get going too.”

“Good luck.”

“Thanks, I’ll be needing it. I can smell all-nighters coming up. You saw that the director came wearing a hoodie, right? She always puts that on when she stays up at night.”

Just as Heewon said, many people had to prepare to stay up the night on days when Jayeon came wearing a brown hoodie with the word ‘Dream’ printed on it. As the drama went past its midpoint, the shoot became more like a live event. This was the case even with a drama like ‘Doctors’ where the script had already been created beforehand. Edits in the script that reflected the current trends, as well as inserting scenes because of various advertisements, and schedule adjustments of various actors – all of these problems would pile up and would hasten everything towards the end.

“Looks like I’ll also be going home late if things go wrong.”

Maru checked the script once again. There were multiple different scenes in multiple locations. It seemed that they would have to move the shoot at least four times. His part might end up getting delayed, making him have to wait hours before shooting 30 minutes and then waiting hours again. After all, the order of scenes was decided first by the schedule of the main actors, then by the location. The circumstances of a minor actor weren’t even worth considering.

“Let’s go home together while breathing some fresh night air.”

Heewon left the place for makeup. While he said that Yoonseo was busy, Heewon was just as busy as well. Maru knew of three events that Heewon had to participate in just yesterday. He must have gone home in the middle of the night before waking up still in the middle of the night to come to the shoot. He could tell that the ‘live’ episodes had begun just by looking at the faces of the actors. Everyone seemed to have declared war against fatigue. Yoonseo, who disappeared into the waiting room, came back while repeatedly apologizing. From how she was wearing a fancy outfit when she came here, it seemed that she came here immediately after an event. It was probably one in the countryside as well. She probably came back to Seoul while sleeping in the van. When Heewon and Yoonseo finished preparing themselves, the actors who were waiting all gathered in one spot. Yoonseo kept bowing down towards a senior actor many years older than her. Thankfully, the senior actor was known to be rather gentle, so he consoled her instead. If it was a picky actor instead, the set might have been flipped upside down by now.

“Let’s begin quickly. We’ll need to speed up since we’re late.”

The shoot began after restricting access to the hospital’s main entrance. Although they used manmade sets for the ER unit, they couldn’t use a set for the huge entrance of the hospital. People started flocking when large cameras and shiny lights were installed. It was the staff who became busy. Despite knowing that there was a shoot, an elderly tried to cross in front of the camera and got into a quarrel with a staff member. Meanwhile, the actors calmly continued their act. The period of time between ‘cut’ and the next ‘shoot’ became shorter. They had less allowed time since the shoot started late, so the director was probably nervous as well.

“This has become a huge mess.”

It was Hyunjin. She said those words as she looked at the man who was shouting while asking why they blocked the entrance.

“You’re early. Wasn’t your part after lunch today?”

“I didn’t want to daze off at home, so I came. I also wanted to try going through the script with you too. But why’s the atmosphere like this?”

“Miss Yoonseo was late. They should’ve started shooting at 7, but it’s already 9. There are more visitors coming to the hospital as well. I think everyone’s sensitive because there especially seems to be a lot of people in the audience with loud voices today.”

As soon as he said those words, a motorbike came towards the hospital with loud engine noises. It passed right through before any of the staff could stop it. A man wearing a vest that said ‘quick delivery’ on it hurriedly entered the hospital. Hey! Do your work properly! – the assistant director shouted at the staff in charge of controlling vehicles.

“Looks like we won’t be laughing if we create an NG today.”

Hyunjin pointed at Jayeon who was sitting in front of the monitor. She took off her headphones in annoyance before standing up and calling for the assistant director with her finger. He could tell she was visibly angry even from a distance. Whenever Jayeon said something to the assistant director, Yoonseo’s face became dark as well.

“Senior, do you think we should go through the script together in the back?”

They couldn’t do anything to improve the shoot even if they watched. Practicing their scene and reducing their mistakes during the real run would be a more practical way of helping them out. They moved away from the people who were shooting videos with their phones above their heads.

“People are flocking.”

“It must be all over social media right now.”

Don’t take photos, don’t spread them around – despite the staff shouting until their voices became hoarse, news about the shoot was bound to spread through the internet.

A clearing next to the parking lot was rather empty. Maru sat on the bench. It was surprisingly quiet now that they were a little away from the set.

“Shall we begin right away?”

“Wait a bit. I’ll read it one more time.”

Hyunjin was someone who had the tendency to not look at the script during practice, while Maru was the opposite. Hyunjin read the script while moving her lips slightly and eventually said that she was ready.

“I’ll read the directives. Let’s go over everything once and then do it again without the directives. Let’s take it calmly for the first run. Are you okay with that?”

“Good.”

Maru fixed his eyes on the script. For the first read-through, he took things lightly. He read both the directives and the lines and inputted the detailed situation into his brain. Although many things would change once they actually started the shoot, having a clear picture would still allow him to react accordingly.

“Morning, in front of the hospital. Bigfoot sees Hyunjin while coming out of the entrance with a cup of coffee. His lips twitch in dissatisfaction after looking at her. He turns around. Hyunjin sees him. She calls out to Bigfoot, but Bigfoot keeps walking without stopping. Hyunjin follows him, feeling flabbergasted.”

Hyunjin said her line.

“Am I the only one who saw the other? Also, I called out to you.”

“I was too out of it because I’m so tired. What is it?”

“I thought about it and it just annoyed me. It’s like I’m in the wrong here, right? Even though I didn’t do anything wrong.”

“Indeed. You didn’t do anything wrong.”

“Then why do you look like that? You look like you stepped on shit because of me.”

“I do? I’m just tired. Don’t misunderstand.”

“I’m saying it because it doesn’t look like a misunderstanding. Also, I’m here to correct what you said before.”

“What I said before?”

“I’m sure that in your eyes, I look like a flower raised in a greenhouse, who was raised without any deficiencies. And that’s why you asked me if I ever worked in order to study, and you told me that you could have studied when you worked. Yes, you’re right. I’ve never been unable to study because of monetary problems. In fact, I was sent to good cram schools and received luxurious tutoring. But so what? It has been annoying me ever since then. Why do I have to be looked at like that by you? I was definitely born in a better environment than you. So, shouldn’t I use that to my advantage? Or what, did I have to give up my own rights and study just like you because there are people like you who have to work in order to study?”

“I didn’t say it like that.”

“Yes, you did. Back then, you looked pitiful, and I looked like a really bad girl. But I thought about it. Did the fact that I was born as the child of a wealthy class ever cause you harm? Is it a sin that we started off differently?”

Maru looked at Hyunjin through the corner of his eyes. She was bringing out her emotions now. She seemed to have forgotten that they should calmly do the read-through for the first run. Her cheeks were twitching.

“Don’t act like a victim. You couldn’t say a word to the head doctor, but you could talk to me like that. And what? Both you and I tried hard? Don’t try to be the good guy. Don’t justify yourself. If you were wronged, then go against it. You hid your tail between your legs because you have to take hints from above? That sounds like the most pathetic excuse I’ve ever heard. If you had no choice but to do that because you are weak, then sure, live like that forever. Get looked down on, and get everything deprived from you. You just hate people like me to console yourself, saying that you had no choice.”

Hyunjin finished her line while moving her arm diagonally as though to shake off something. After saying a long line, she took a deep breath as though she had just done a full sprint.

“Did I go overboard?”

“No, I liked it. I also like the way you spoke like a high-class lady speaking in a scolding tone.”

“I just found myself getting absorbed while I was speaking. I liked Bigfoot’s lines, but saying Yoomin’s lines made it feel different.”

“That’s just how much you were absorbed.”

“You’re making me blush.”

“Let’s continue. Since we’re at it, let’s continue right to the end and come back to it afterwards.”

“That sounds good. I’m going to stand up.”

“I’ll stand up as well. Should we go over some motions as well?”

“Just a little.”

Maru stood up with the script.

“Bigfoot finishes the coffee in his hand in one go. He crushes the paper cup and throws it away in annoyance. Hyunjin snorts as she looks at the paper cup, as though she found it petty. Bigfoot stares at Hyunjin and goes up to her. Hyunjin stays there without falling back.”

He gave Hyunjin a signal through his eyes. She turned around with her arms crossed and spoke,

“What? You still have something to say? Or are you going to make excuses again? But hey, I don’t think that you’re pitiful anymore. I don’t care what you think about me. I will not stand any damage to me, even if it was given to me by someone above me.”

KTLChamber's Thoughts

…I don't see how Yoomin's a 'loveable villainess' now…? Do you?

Editor’s Note:

Gotta give it time ig. Maybe Yoomin will do something cute.

Chapter 872
Sequence 13

Jayeon put the left side of her headphones on and didn’t put on the other. She wanted to hear the real voices of the two actors acting with their souls.

“I don’t care what you think about me. I will not stand any damage to me no matter what the circumstances, even if it was given to me by someone above me.”

Hyunjin’s eyes contained viciousness. It was an emotion that was transmitted through the screen. Jayeon prayed that no airplanes would fly by, that no onlookers would suddenly intrude, and that Hyunjin’s concentration didn’t waver. Her acting had reached its peak. At this point, what was important was to let her continue without breaking off. If someone interfered with her act, Jayeon would fold the portable chair she was sitting on and smash the person who did.

Hyunjin crossed her arms as though she wanted Bigfoot to talk. It felt as though sparks were coming off her creased forehead. The exaggerated feeling was actually quite good. The pride of a ‘noble’ lady who was raised without any deficiencies must be extraordinary after all.

Hyunjin’s eyes, which could be seen over Maru’s shoulders, looked scary. It was one of those eyes that looked like ‘they were going to gobble up the camera.’ She wanted to bring the producer who said that Hyunjin’s acting was bland right here and show him, and then ask if that still looked ‘bland’ to him.

Maru turned around after staring at Hyunjin for about 4 seconds. His face was caught on camera. The way he looked down at the floor may look like he was admitting his loss, but it could be seen that the seed of rage was sprouting within him. There was a lot of detail in his act. The muscles around his eyes twitched every time he took a step towards the camera. The anger of a human who was looked down upon was conflicting with the anguish of the social animal that told him that there was no good in fighting. It was just the kind of act Jayeon wanted. An act that stimulated the emotions—the abstract—through the means of actions—the concrete. Maru must have rehearsed dozens, or even perhaps hundreds of times, in his head for that short moment of turning around and walking away.

The two actors were acting well above their pay grade. If she couldn’t make use of this scene, she might as well take off her title of producer. She could already imagine herself cutting and editing the scenes with dark circles under her eyes in the editing room. It would be a very tiring, but still fun, process.

Hyunjin walked towards Maru, who was walking away. The camera slowly slid back on the rail. The staff members holding a reflector and a boom mic also moved accordingly. Thanks to the actors doing their utmost best, the staff also looked nervous. They probably knew from experience that there was a woman ready to nag them if they made a mistake. Jayeon bit on her thumb. She didn’t want mistakes to happen here.

Hyunjin walked past Maru and went in front of him. That was an idea that she came up with on the spot. Yoomin was supposed to be a character who hates to lose even at the most trivial things, so Hyunjin asked if she could go around Maru and stop him from the front instead of stopping him from behind. That was the first time Hyunjin ever voiced her own opinion. There was no producer who wouldn’t listen to her when she was speaking with eyes filled with conviction. The structure didn’t look that bad when she pictured it either. Now that she actually watched their act, it couldn’t be better.

Hyunjin walked past him and turned around. The camera didn’t catch the side of her face properly, but Jayeon did not stop the shoot. For the side image, they could just shoot again.

“You can’t retort now, can you?”

Hyunjin snapped at him. It was her declaration of victory. Maru pulled his chin inwards. Jayeon was reminded of a bomb with a fuse that was almost all burnt up.

This was the important part. Jayeon looked at the monitor with the mindset that she would not miss a pixel shift. Bigfoot was pitiful for handing in his day off at the orders of the head doctor. It was heartbreaking to see Bigfoot trying to hide his situation in fear of making his parents worry. Bigfoot represented the ‘weak’ of the era, and he always took a step back. Sharing that pain was the objective of episodes 7 and 8. The reactions were hot after those two episodes went live. Society was overflowing with people who waited for others to caress their pains. If the problem abundant in society was handled delicately and cautiously, the episodes wouldn’t have received as much attention. The reason for their success was that they showed the problem raw with just a little twist.

Since they received attention, it was time to add fuel to the fire and fan the flames. Maru said to Eunbin that he should step out while he was still receiving applause, but Jayeon thought that they couldn’t pull out when they’ve managed to garner applause from the masses. Since they shared the pain, what would have to come next? Normally, it would be a refreshing resolution to that pain. The law of the drama was to gouge out the source of the pain and lead the protagonist to the path of victory. However, Bigfoot was not the protagonist. Not only that, he was caught up in a paradox as well. If he managed to gain success, then the viewers would be dissatisfied. They would think that dramas were a fantasy after all, and that reality was still a shithole. That would be worse than not doing anything at all. An ordinary plot would become a poison pill instead. However, that didn’t mean that they could leave Bigfoot as a loser either. After all, dramas were supposed to be fantasy.

“Those who have slept in a bed since birth will think that sleeping on beds is natural. Such people will ask why people sleep on the floor when there’s a much more comfy bed,” Maru said.

The fires of rage that seemed like they would spread around like a wildfire originating from a spark falling on top of a dried branch suddenly disappeared without a trace. It looked like he transcended mortal desires, and also like he had given up. The face that was a mix of a smile and of a sad expression slowly regained its normal, calm demeanor.

“If you think so, then I don’t intend to fix your mindset at all. If you think I act like a victim and look like a loser in your eyes, then continue to think so. I can’t influence the world you see at all, nor do I even want to. I don’t want you to understand me. Last time, I just said what I said with the faintest hope that maybe I can get through to you, but this is what it comes down to in the end.”

“Are you saying I have to understand you?”

“No. You don’t need to. You just need to continue in that better environment, and I just need to continue to live in mine.”

“So in the end, I’m the bad girl, huh. A bad bitch who was born in a good environment but can’t even help other people out. Being born poor isn’t something to be proud of, is it? Nor is being born in a good environment a sin.”

“Nor is it something to be proud of either. I want to study without minding anything else as well. If I was in such an environment, I’m sure my parents wouldn’t have put aside their hospital fees just so that their son could study. But I wasn’t born like that. That’s why I should change the way I live in order to survive. You said you would have been able to tell the head doctor even if you were in a different situation, right? What happened to me is reality, and you’re only talking about ifs. Ifs are, in the end, just ifs.”

If Hyunjin was fire, Maru was ice. The hotter Hyunjin became, the colder Maru became. If they became heated together, then the act would have become a total mess, like a children’s choir where they just sing their own things without listening to the people around them. The two fit well with each other since the person who needed to become hot became hotter, while the one who needed to become cold became frosty. Jayeon clenched her hands and stared at the screen. The two people were moving towards the perfect curtain call.

“Ifs are just ifs in the end? After everything you said, it all comes back to self-justification.”

“If you see it that way, then sure. If you feel like that, then sure. I told you. I have no reason or intention to change you. You just live plentifully in that world of yours. If you want to tease the people who lack from time to time, then sure, go ahead and do that too. But please, don’t try to preach. You should’ve graduated from boasting about things that were inevitable back when you were in preschool.”

Hyunjin smiled as though she was overjoyed to death. She was not the same Hyunjin who looked awkward when she smiled like before. She looked spiteful, yet also attractive. It made Jayeon wonder what she was going to say next with that condescending gaze.

“You were really submissive to the head doctor, but you can talk so well in front of me, huh?”

“If you don’t like that, then you can just get ahold of the human resource control rights. Not that I would be here by the time you do.”

“So you actually are an opportunist, huh?”

“So you call people opportunists if they don’t submit to you, huh?”

Hey! – Hyunjin screeched. The background actors, who were walking by at their designated time, were startled and turned around to look. They truly looked surprised. Jayeon also flinched as she watched. She didn’t realize that Hyunjin would tremble to the point her hair was shaking. Maru, who was facing her, must have been shaken as well, but thankfully, he continued acting calmly. It would have been a pity if they stopped midway when they managed to get a good cut.

“Don’t scream like that, you're making me feel embarrassed.”

It was Bigfoot’s signature smile that he showed throughout the drama, but the meaning came off as a little different. Maru started walking towards the camera again. The smile of victory on his face faded away very quickly. His expression didn’t look any different from Hyunjin’s glaring expression behind him. Although he received that well, his face seemed to show that reality hadn’t changed. Bigfoot’s victory was only a brief one, while Yoomin’s background still stood firm.

The second camera took a close-up shot of Yoomin’s face. She looked really wronged, as indicated by her twisted lips. There was no retrospect or regret, and she only seemed to find herself pathetic for not breaking through Bigfoot’s logic.

“You think you’re the best, don’t you!”

After throwing a temper for a while, Hyunjin kicked the trash can in the middle of the corridor. The trash can fell down with a loud noise, and the trash inside rolled around. That was an action that she didn’t do during the rehearsal. Jayeon exchanged gazes with the camera director and did not shout cut. She wanted to watch for a bit more. She wanted to see the loveable villainess that Eunbin talked about; the character created by the script and completed by the actor. Hyunjin, who huffed while looking at the fallen trash can, eventually brushed her hair backwards and started picking up the trash. She even muttered ‘why did I’ in a mumbling fashion.

KTLChamber's Thoughts

I think I see the 'loveable villainess' a little now.

Editor's Note:

Man, I love these acting scenes with 'peanut gallery' thoughts. The thoughts of everyone else enhance the experience when it comes to SOL.

Chapter 873
Sequence 13

She got a text saying that her salary would be paid soon and that she shouldn’t worry. Seeing the vague word ‘soon’, she wanted to ask ‘when,’ but she did not have the courage to respond to a superior’s text. The employee group chat burst into an outrage. They all sent the text message they received and wrote all sorts of insults. If receiving swear words increased lifespan, then the president of Cheonho company would probably live until the day mankind went extinct. Eunhye was also about to chime in but stopped. She thought that the energy to even type was wasteful.

She turned off the notifications for the group chat. If she left them on, it was bound to be noisy throughout the whole night. She glanced at the chat that said that the president-swearing competition was going to be held at a bar on a certain date and that participation was mandatory before flipping the phone over. Drinking? She needed to save every last penny. She gathered her hair behind her and tied it with a rubber hair tie. She then took out a facial mask pack from the fridge and put it on her face. It was cold to the point that it made her shiver, but it soon became cool. It was a free facial pack from the cosmetics store in front of her house, which was holding a celebratory event for its opening. The most welcome word in this world was ‘free.’

Eunhye looked at the calendar on her table. There were only a few days left until the next payday. At this rate, it was likely that even her next paycheck was going to be tied to the company. The text message was proof of that. After all, they sent her a similar-sounding message last month when she didn’t get paid. Eunhye decided to help out at a store run by someone she knew on the weekend. It was fortunate for her that there was someone looking out for her. After all, it was hard to look for short-term part-time jobs on the weekend these days. 100,000 won for two days. The hourly wage was pretty decent too. The fact that she had to work all week was depressing, but it was much better than asking for help from her family. She did not want to call her mom and have ‘Mom, I’m sorry, but’ be the first thing she said after calling her.

She habitually clicked on her banking app and checked her balance. She knew that she would be notified through a text first if she ever got paid, but the meaningless hopes made her fingers move regardless. Under the apartment application deposit account was her paycheck account. 270,000 won. How much would she have left after paying her student loan and her phone bill? She even had two friends marry in November. One of them wasn’t that close, so she felt like 50,000 won would do, but she had been friends with the other one since high school, so she couldn’t afford to give just that. She wondered what people would say if she got a small loan just to give her friend some congratulatory money for marriage.

Eunhye took off her face mask and brought some puffed grain she placed on top of her microwave. She didn’t hesitate to grab them when she heard that a body-sized bag of them only cost 5,000 won. Tomorrow was the company’s founding day, so she wanted to play around, but considering her financial situation, playing around was a luxury. She put on the movie that she had downloaded beforehand and ate the puffed grain. She sometimes chewed on them vigorously and sometimes dissolved them in her saliva. Only after she ate enough to be fed up did she close the bag. She felt like her appetite was getting bigger and bigger the poorer she became. It wasn’t like she liked eating snacks either.

She picked up her phone to chat with a friend. During college, she had the confidence to talk for hours and hours about the spaghetti she ate during the day, but these days, she would be at a loss for words after just asking how they were doing. She called a few friends, but that didn’t even take one hour. The fact that she had nothing to say was one thing, but everyone was also busy as well, whether they were playing around, working, or fighting off their guilty conscience.

Maybe I should do a puzzle – she thought about the 500-piece puzzle that she didn’t even look at after buying it. She overturned the box in the middle of her cramped living room. The moment she did, she felt stifled. When on Earth was she going to finish this? She was about to gather them all up and put them inside the box again but then decided to be patient. She turned on the TV and focused on the pieces. The sound from the TV eventually became faint. When she was absorbed in it, she actually found doing the puzzle rather fun. It had a charm that made her forget about her worries.

It was when the little mermaid’s face and the witch’s legs were starting to take shape that her hands suddenly stopped. She couldn’t find the fitting piece. It seemed that she had run out of concentration. She could start hearing the sound from the TV again. Eunhye threw down the puzzle piece in her hand and sat on the sofa, thinking that she would probably never finish that 500-piece puzzle in her lifetime.

A drama was being played on TV. It was ‘Doctor’s Office.’ Eunhye quickly changed the channel. She had been thinking about watching ‘Doctors’ since Monday, but she had totally forgotten about it. Lee Heewon was lying down on a hospital bed. The last scene from last week was him rushing into the middle of a traffic accident, and it seemed that he had gotten into an accident himself. Lee Heewon consoled Yoonseo, who was watching him worriedly before turning her away. Following that, Choi Hyunjin came in.

-I knew this would happen. I told you you would be hospitalized if you kept running rampant like that without discretion, didn’t I?

Choi Hyunjin, who sat down with a condescending look, was carrying a basket full of fruits in her hand. When Lee Heewon asked if she was worried, Choi Hyunjin just snorted.

-I came here to tease the guy who doesn’t even know his place. Why don’t you stop now? How long are you going to play hero? Just bow down to my dad and become obedient. He says he will lead you, and you can only reject so many times.

-This is just how I am. I did that out of reflex.

-If you keep doing that, your life as a doctor might end as you know it. Right now, you only got small injuries, but luck will not always be on your side, will it? I’m sure you feel good about saving that child, but if the car was overturned, then both you and that kid would have died. If you die, then you can’t act like a hero anymore either.

-It’s fine. I’m still alive.

-The life in front of your eyes is important, yes, but haven’t you ever thought that you utilizing your skills to the fullest would save not one, but dozens or even hundreds of lives? The one life in front of your eyes versus hundreds that you will save in the future. Which one do you think is more important?

-I am going to save that one and the hundreds that come after.

-Yeah, I knew you’d say that. What am I supposed to say to someone who doesn’t listen to anyone? Good luck with that. I don’t know how long you can keep up with playing hero though.

Hearing Choi Hyunjin’s lines made her frustrated. Her logic was just like what her company claimed: If you endure your sacrifice right now, there shall be glory in the future. If there was one thing she realized on the day her paycheck had been delayed for two months, it was that the future was just the future. She didn’t have any money to eat in the immediate present, so talking about the future was just grasping at clouds.

She leaned on her sofa and clicked on the salaryman café that she often visited. Starting last week, the community burned with talking about ‘Doctors’ around this hour, and it was no different this time. People started talking about how Choi Hyunjin’s logic was nothing but theory. There were hundreds of likes on a post that said that her logic was like a politician that was not able to solve the immediate problem yet was giving promises about the future. Everyone seemed to feel the same in that they wanted a hero like Lee Heewon to help them.

There were some posts that stood on Choi Hyunjin’s side from time to time, but the comments to that were all criticisms. Eunhye also wrote a reply after seeing that person’s comment: It’s just the logic of those who have things. There was an overwhelming number of dislikes on that comment. Although the original poster was trying hard to counterargue, Eunhye couldn’t care less. She thought that there was nothing to stand up for when it came to Choi Hyunjin.

On a post that said ‘why are you getting so angry when it’s just a drama,’ the replies to that were all just ‘get a job.’ It was something that people wrote to the posters who couldn’t read the mood. Eunhye did the same as well. What were those people doing on the internet if they were going to live in reality? Even after that, there were many posts that broke the logic of ‘Yoomin’ that Choi Hyujin acted. It was hard to find any posts that stood up for her.

She took her eyes off the phone and looked at the TV again. Choi Hyunjin met with Bigfoot. Eunhye focused. Last week, when these two met, they created an episode that made her heart ache. She cheered for Bigfoot as she watched the plot. Meeting eyes with Choi Hyunjin at the entrance of the hospital, Bigfoot turned around to leave the place. Choi Hyunjin’s eyes twitched before she followed.

Eunhye pouted. These two weren’t going to start dating, right? If they did, then that would be the worst possible plot. If it was any other drama, she would think ‘oh well’, and just accept it, but she could not tolerate those two eventually forming a romantic relationship. He was a character that made her shed tears last week and a character that knew her pain. Wouldn’t it feel rather vain if he managed to get married to the daughter of a director of a university hospital? She didn’t want him to suddenly start acting like superman either like Lee Heewon.

When she took a glance at the community, everyone was writing similar things. Did they hit it off? Are they going to start going out? No way, if the writer has any brains, then it shouldn’t be like that, etc

The conversation between the two continued on. The argument was more heated than before. Choi Hyunjin would give him a blow, and Bigfoot would counterattack afterwards. When Choi Hyunjin snapped at him, she felt frustrated, but when Bigfoot logically refuted every single word of hers, she ended up applauding.

When Bigfoot turned around after the argument, Eunhye felt refreshed but bitter at the same time. It would’ve been good if he scolded her more. However, on the other hand, she felt like that was the correct way. If he snapped back too hard, then he might get into disadvantageous situations after all. She suddenly recalled a dream she had one day. In the dream, she was going against general manager Choi’s every word. Just that felt refreshing. It was a dream that made her small wish come true. In fact, the only kind of revenge she could take against general manager Choi was just that. Bigfoot probably did what he thought was his best method of revenge against Choi Hyunjin as well.

She had to live with her head lowered while not getting crushed. She was still squirming to struggle to live. Even a character in a drama was managing to struggle, too. Eunhye felt energetic for some reason. You can do it – she felt like she was encouraged, and it was not in a pressuring way. Not that she could actually go against general manager Choi though.

It was just then that a delightful noise came from her phone. It was the alarm that she had set. That sound only meant one thing. Eunhye quickly checked the message. It was a message from her bank, notifying her that money had been transferred into her account.

Ack! – she screeched before opening her banking app. Two months’ worth of salary was in her account now. Getting money at this late hour? She didn’t know how administration worked, but she couldn’t care about that right now. The group chat was filled with emojis. Cute bears were dancing around with stashes of cash. Eunhye put on her jacket and bought some beer and snacks from the convenience store in front of her house. When she came back to her house after boldly paying for everything with her credit card, she felt like she had everything.

Just as she was watching TV in happiness, she thought about what Choi Hyunjin said: Don’t act like a victim, be bold about it. It was strange. The words that she thought were absurd suddenly sounded rather persuasive. She went into the café again. She clicked on the post that stood up for Choi Hyunjin. They were still arguing. She calmly read the comments. Although she still felt incredibly frustrated, she understood her now. Thinking about it, Choi Hyunjin’s words were reasonable. It might be extremely utilitarian, but just as she said, if Lee Heewon could focus on surgeries, he would definitely save a lot more people.

The scene where she kicked a trash can and picked up the trash again was rather cute. Eunhye frowned when she watched that scene because of what she said to Bigfoot, but thinking back, Choi Hyunjin hadn’t directly harmed anyone. It was just that her opinion was stronger than others. If people were asked whose life they wanted to lead, then every single one would reply that they would want to live like Choi Hyujin. Eunhye was the same.

“Geez, I’m so fickle too.”

She went back to watching the drama after smiling at herself for being so fickle because of a single number on her bank account. She also wrote ‘Yoomin is actually pretty decent’ as a comment.

KTLChamber's Thoughts

Gee, I didn't realize we'd get this girl back. But I guess this will be the last time? (Since she got her paycheck and all)

Editor's Note:

Please let this be the last chapter. If we get peanut gallery, at least make it some of the old cast.

Chapter 874
Sequence 14

She rummaged through the files on top of the desk in a hurry before finding a patient profile with red tape attached to the corner. The moment she checked the signature of the doctor in charge, she almost froze up. Despite knowing that there was no one in the storage room, she still looked up and around. They say it is darkest under the lampshade, but she did not know that it would be hidden so boldly like this. Placing documents that could not be shredded in a place where every office worker in the hospital could visit was a rather bold move. She recalled professor Park’s mysterious gaze.

She laid out the documents on the floor and shone a flashlight down on them. These papers were undeniable evidence. With this, it would be possible to bring new wind to the doctor’s office. It was when she was taking photos while coming up with plans for the future that she suddenly heard footsteps. There were only two kinds of people who would come to the storage room at 1 a.m. It was either a security guard or someone looking for something in secret, just like her. She turned off the flashlight and gathered the documents before putting them in her arms. There was no way it was a security guard. Mister Park was on duty tonight. He was a guy who would only start moving at around 2, so there was no way he already made a move. The footsteps stopped in front of the storage room. It was when she felt enveloped in a disgust-filled tension that was like hundreds of ants crawling on her body that,

“Very very, good. Yes, very good.”

Gaeul blinked when she heard the voice that woke her up. The nervousness that stifled her body faded away. Her vision, which could only see documents and metal cabinets, became wider until she eventually saw the various lighting equipment and the faces of the staff. Right, she was in a shoot. She stood up. While she wiped her hands on her pants, the director came over.

“You’re becoming better every episode. Are you going to run away to the film industry?”

“I’m getting ready to run away at a moment’s notice. How was I? I don’t think I was that bad.”

“I told you you were very good. I can’t even begin to imagine how I should start editing that. I might as well use the whole scene just like that. Well done.”

“You tell me I’m good every single time, so I’m not sure if I’m actually doing well or not.”

“I always tell you that you’re good because you never did bad. You listened and did everything that I asked you to do. How am I supposed to have any complaints at all?”

The director turned around and told everyone that they should move. The lights were turned off and the staff started packing up the equipment.

“Good work, unni,” Mijoo said as she put a blanket on her.

She caught a cold while dazing out on the veranda because she heard that the night air in November was good. It wasn’t anything serious, and she only had a slight fever. Maybe she should’ve listened to Maru when he told her to come in. It made her worry that Maru, who stood next to her and lent her his shoulder, might have also caught a cold.

“How do you feel? Are you okay?”

“I don’t think you need to worry. The ginger tea you made for me seems to have helped me a lot.”

“I can make you ginger tea a hundred times if you wish, so just don’t get sick. Do you know how startled I was when I saw you coughing when going to the styling shop this morning? Well, I guess it was Chanwoo-oppa who was more surprised than me. I mean, he gets scolded if you get sick.”

“So don’t you go around telling anyone that I’m sick. No one will know about it as long as you stay quiet. It’s not that obvious, is it?”

“You saw how delighted the director was. Who would think that you’re sick? Maybe it’s an actor thing that they all change personalities when they start acting even if they’re sick. I should nurture my concentration like that too.”

While they removed the walls of the set and moved them, Gaeul let Mijoo style her face. While neatening up her skin tone, Mijoo stopped and spoke,

“Unni, put your lips out a little.”

“I don’t think my lips need anything.”

“You got a sponsored product, so you should change it all the time. Also, you know you need to wear that knitted sweater right? The knit was in a braid and looked like it would suit you. Though, I’m sure anything would look good on you.”

“Sometimes, I feel like you’re having more fun than me.”

“Because you doing well is the same as me doing well. You give me pocket money whenever you shoot an advertisement, so don’t you think I should pray that you will do well?”

She checked the pink lipstick spread on her lips through the mirror. The lipstick suited the character’s personality, so she saw no need to change it. The knitted sweater was the same. The looks emphasized cuteness and loveliness, and coincidentally, it was light pink as well.

“You know that our new actress got sponsored accessories and clothes thanks to you, right? The team leader has such good skills. I showed her some clothes that we got sponsored and she was so delighted. She’s such a cute girl.”

“Help her so that she can appear pretty on screen.”

It was rare for even actors of the same agency to become close. They usually heard news about other actors through managers or stylists like this. Gaeul put her hand between her neck and her sweater and took out her hair. Thinking about it, it was rather curious that the people of JA were all so close to each other. She smiled as she thought back to the day they drank together until the sun rose at Maru’s house.

“What are you thinking about? Is it about Maru-oppa?” Mijoo asked while tidying her messy hair.

She just replied that she remembered something interesting. It would be great if they could gather up like that and talk like that again.

“Unni.”

Mijoo called out in a small voice near her ears. Her voice contained wariness. Gaeul looked at Kang Giwoo walking over to her. When they made eye contact, he waved his hand and approached her without hesitation.

“Are you unwell? You don’t look that good.”

“It’s because of the lights.”

Gaeul pointed at the lights shining in the distance. Giwoo looked at the lights. Meanwhile, Gaeul signaled Mijoo to leave this place as this was going to get uncomfortable for her.

“Unni, I’ll go to the car for a bit. I have some clothes I forgot.”

“Okay, go ahead.”

Mijoo turned around at the entrance of the set. Gaeul smiled. Mijoo nodded slightly before leaving.

“I know it’s November, but it’s pretty chilly.”

“I heard that winter is going to be cold this year.”

Gaeul opened her script. It was something she usually did, so Giwoo would probably not be displeased with it either. He had been observing her like a wolf watching a herd of sheep until just a few weeks ago, but starting a while back, he talked to her whenever possible. To be precise, it was from the day after Maru said that the problem had been solved. He said that he followed Kang Giwoo, and after that, Giwoo approached her amicably like the first time they met and no longer raised his guard. She wondered what he was thinking. Kang Giwoo was someone who was pitch black down to his bones. At this point, she could not think of his smile as anything more than a method to enchant other people. Watching him smile right in front of her face was rather stressful too.

“A hot broth is the best on days like this.”

“That, I agree.”

“Then do you wanna go eat something together after the shoot?”

“As much as I want to, it looks like my shoot will end early today. You’ll probably be stuck here for longer, you know?”

It wasn’t necessary to express her displeasure when the opponent was acting amicably. Gaeul suitably mixed in jokes as she continued the conversation. Whether she liked it or not, they were destined to work together until the last episode of the drama. It wasn’t like she could just leave the drama midway for personal reasons when she was getting paid for it. It would be a different story if Giwoo was making a total mess or something, but picking a fight with him while he walked around the set with his smiling face would be a very reckless thing to do.

Gaeul took out her phone and sent Bitna a text message saying that she was with Giwoo and that Bitna should not approach. Today was Bitna’s last shoot, so she would no longer have to see Kang Giwoo after just a few hours. It was possible that they might meet at a different shoot in the future, but she wasn’t that worried because Bitna would have become much more mature by then.

“What a pity.”

“You can’t help it.”

“But there’s something every time I try to invite you. It’s rather disappointing.”

“What can I do about it? Popular actor Mr. Kang Giwoo is always busy. Also, you don’t have to eat with me, do you? You should find a good partner for yourself.”

“I think you’re a good partner too.”

Gaeul tightened her grip on her phone. She turned around to look at Giwoo. What could possibly be behind that innocent-looking smile of his? When she looked at him without a word, he made an even more mysterious expression and changed the topic.

“I saw that Doctors is getting better reviews by the day. I’m watching it with interest these days too. Didn’t you say you watch it as well, Gaeul?”

“I do. Just a little while I’m on the move though, as a form of study.”

“The other actors are good as well, but Maru’s character was really good. Last week’s episode caused an uproar on the internet. The writer’s good at writing and the actor managed to bring it out well.”

“Really? I don’t really pay attention to the internet that much.”

She earnestly watched every single episode, but she did not show it. She had to act like she had broken up with him after all. She put a bit of jealousy, envy, and disappointment in her eyes and words. Having to act after the shoot was over made her really exhausted.

“You’re a friend of his, so you should really look out for him. Someone with Maru’s skills will climb up very quickly. I heard that there are many people on the lookout for him as well. I heard through the team leader at my agency that he was going to shoot a film soon too. I hope Maru does well. The world will be good only when those with skill receive acknowledgment. Don’t you think so too?”

“That’s true.”

Was he probing her out at this point? Or was he convinced after hearing something from a certain someone and was just checking facts? She felt complex. Would she be able to fool a conman who fooled everyone with his smile? She always acted humble and said that she was ordinary no matter how much the people around her praised her acting skills, but for today, she really wanted her own skills to be quite high. After looking at the script without a word for a while, Giwoo stood up.

“Gaeul.”

“What?”

“Please give me some time. Let’s eat out together.”

Gaeul frowned as he looked at Giwoo walking towards the director. Was it a mistake? Just now, Giwoo’s eyes weren’t those directed at a colleague at work. Her woman’s intuition alarmed her. A man who was this obsessed with her clearly had other intentions. The problem was that she couldn’t tell if his intentions were genuine, or if they were just one of the ‘pranks and jokes’ that Maru talked about. Though, regardless of which one it was, it didn’t change the fact that it was unpleasant. Actually, it might be better if he realized that he was being played with and was trying to scheme against her instead. If he was actually feeling attracted to her as a member of the opposite sex…

Gaeul covered her mouth and nose with her palm. She was reminded of an alleyway with food waste littered everywhere.

“Unni, did something happen?” Mijoo asked worriedly after returning.

Gaeul said that it was nothing to relieve Mijoo. There was no need to spread the unease.

KTLChamber's Thoughts

As unpleasant as that chapter was. I was rather intrigued when Gaeul compared Giwoo to an alleyway littered with food waste.

Well, good luck Giwoo. I hope you get destroyed.

Editor's Note:

Lol. Giwoo gonna get destroyed.

Chapter 875
Sequence 14

Giwoo stood in the middle of the set. He exchanged gazes with the surrounding staff, and he was like a total human air freshener. People who flocked to his side all had relaxed expressions as though they smelled something fragrant. Even people who were working in a hurry gained leisure when they talked to him. Some even said that just talking to Giwoo made things work out. There were many people asking him for a handshake to get some of that ‘good energy’ as well. One of the local folklore superstitions had formed on the set because of him.

Gaeul rested her chin on her hands and watched Giwoo. The better his reputation became, the more he smiled and the more the shooting set felt like a thorny vinefield. It would be great if he was someone she could outright disdain. It would be better if he just acted like Lee Miyoon and gnarled at her. She thought about how to get along with the wolf in grandma’s pajamas that was walking around the set. Just then, she made eye contact with him. He smiled pleasantly. This was the third time already. At this point, it couldn’t be anything but that he was intentionally doing this. It wasn’t that she was mistaken, and it wasn’t that she was being too proud either. That guy definitely had an interest in her.

She had a headache. Her patience was not as deep as those department store service employees that could keep upholding their smiles. At times like these, she envied Maru’s indifferent expression. Someone like Maru would gladly hang his arm around his archenemy and play around in a theme park together. Maru was a Swiss army knife, while she was a kitchen knife. Maru knew how to fold his blade, but she had no choice but to let her blade out all the time. She might be able to endure to a certain extent, but she would eventually burst out, just like the time with Lee Miyoon.

She barely managed to smile and turned around. She had to put the nail in the coffin before things turned strange. If he tried to do anything strange, then she would just give him a shoulder throw, and if he tried to talk to her about it, she would just say that she had no room for relationships right now. Giwoo, who probably thought that she and Maru had broken up, would try to console her, but that was absolutely not happening.

Giwoo and Bitna’s acting began. Gaeul watched nervously. During the scene where Giwoo grabbed Bitna’s hands and started praying, Bitna kept causing NGs. As she usually didn’t make many mistakes, the director even had to carefully ask her what was wrong.

“Sorry, I’ll do it again.”

“Let’s take a ten-minute break. Bitna, you should take a breather as well. You don’t usually get nervous, but now that you are, you’re making me nervous as well. Is it something technically hard?”

“No, director, I’ll get myself together and do it properly.”

“I’m not trying to scold you, so don’t be so stiff. You’ve done well until now, so it should be fine as long as you can calm down a little before coming back to the shoot. I was like that before too. It was back when I first sat down in front of the monitor, and I suddenly dazed out after shooting so well. I couldn’t think about how to angle the shot, how to set the direction of the acting, nor what kind of things I should put on the screen. But after some much-needed rest, I could think about all of those things again. So don’t worry about it too much, Bitna. If you’re stuck on something, there are a lot of good seniors here, so you can ask around.”

Gaeul waited for the director’s words to end before approaching Bitna. The director was probably thinking that the air on the set had frozen her up. He probably had no idea even in his dreams that the one who made the young actress stiffen up was the actor smiling brightly right in front of her face.

“Do you want to go get some air with me?”

She left the set with Bitna after telling the director about it. She could feel Giwoo’s gaze hitting the back of her head, but she did not turn around. When she opened the door, the night air hit her face. Bitna heaved out a breath as though she had been holding it in this whole time. Gaeul waited for her to catch her breath. Bitna heaved heavy breaths, as though she was going to breathe in all the air around her small body, before raising her heels and putting them down again.

“Bitna, are you okay?”

“I’m okay.”

“I feel like you’re saying that you’re okay out of habit. Are you really okay? I saw that you were having a hard time shooting with Giwoo.”

“I might be having a hard time, but I can’t help it. I tried not to think about it, but I still kept causing NGs. The fact that I’m causing delays in the shoot makes it even harder for me.”

“Anyone causes NGs. Even the great seniors sometimes laugh for dozens of minutes once they burst out laughing. It’s incredible that a middle schooler continued to shoot without a single mistake until now. No one will blame you. Just take it slow.”

“I will.”

“Right. If you just finish the shoot today, you will never have to see Kang Giwoo again unless your schedule overlaps again, so just hold on for a little more. Rather than that, I’m sorry I can’t help you with anything besides cheering you on. I really wish I could take that guy away from you, but I can’t.”

Bitna covered her mouth and laughed.

“Unni, you can’t do that. You’ll get in trouble.”

“Right?”

“Yes. Acting is my thing, so I’ll try my best. I feel better thanks to you.”

“When things don’t work out, going outside and taking a breather does help out a lot. Just like what the director said, there are many good people around, so you can ask to your heart’s content. I’m sure people will be delighted if you ask them for help, Bitna.”

Gaeul placed her hands on Bitna’s shoulders and massaged them. The shoot must be fatiguing for her. After all, she had to act with someone filled with malice. No matter how mature she was as a child, the mental pressure must be taxing on her.

“Should we go see Woofie after the shoot today?”

“Really?”

Bitna became infinitely bright in front of Woofie. Whenever she talked about dogs, her eyes that saw through what adults were thinking would disappear and be replaced by innocent ones. Yuna even told her that they were going to start raising a puppy soon. She also added that it was still a secret from Bitna. Perhaps she might even cry from happiness if she sees the small guest at her house.

They came back from the quiet outside to the set filled with various noises. Bitna’s expression became indifferent again. Did she calm down now? Or was even that a façade to hide her nervousness? Gaeul made eye contact with Bitna, who was under the lights. Bitna winked at her as though saying that there was no need to worry at all.

The shoot resumed. As though to prove that the wink was not a bluff, Bitna digested all the following scenes without a single NG. She did not get afraid even as she faced Giwoo. Gaeul thought that she should really learn a lesson from the young actress. She could endure it so smoothly, so Gaeul herself couldn’t just run out of patience and start going against Giwoo.

“Bitna’s really good,” Giwoo came over and said to her after his act.

“She is. She’ll probably be even more popular than us once she grows up.”

“I guess I should try to look good in front of her now.”

Giwoo drank some water from a plastic bottle as he sat down next to her. They were changing the position of the camera right now. Gaeul pulled up some webtoons on her phone. While she didn’t read them that often, she needed an excuse to avoid talking to him right now.

“Look at this. It’s an article about Maru that I haven’t seen before. There are quite a lot of them too,” GIwoo said as he pointed at his phone.

Gaeul just indifferently replied, “I see.”

“Have a look. A friend of ours is doing well, so you should cheer for him.”

“Not interested.”

She had already read all of those articles yesterday morning. She even shook Maru awake to tell him to take a look even though Maru said there was no need. Maru just chuckled, saying that she was even more elated than the person in question.

“Did you two get into a fight? You’re always in a bad mood whenever I talk about Maru.”

“I just want to focus on work while I’m at work. Also, he’s someone who’d do well by himself, so there’s no need to look out for him either.”

Giwoo put his phone inside his pocket. Every single action of his felt like the action of a hunter setting up a trap. He currently believed that she had broken up with Maru, but he would definitely suspect something if he found anything strange. She had to watch what she had to say.

“Uhm, about the thing I talked to you about before.”

“What thing?” Gaeul replied as she crossed her legs.

While she was pretending to not take any interest, every single one of her senses of perception with the exception of her vision was focusing on Giwoo’s actions.

“That puts me in a tight spot. Did I do anything wrong? Why do I feel like I’m being hated?”

“What is it now? Just tell me if you have anything to say.”

“Then I’ll tell you again. Let’s eat out together sometime, just the two of us. I have kept talking about it for a while, yet we never found the time, have we? Let’s just decide on a date and time today to meet up on a day when we’re both free and have time.”

Gaeul took her eyes off her phone. Her intuition turned into conviction. Giwoo was not hiding his emotions. This was a man inviting a woman out.

“That’s confusing me. I don’t think you’re just inviting me out to a meal.”

“We aren’t kids. I wouldn’t have even brought it up if we were going to go our ways after eating. So when is good for you?”

“Sorry, but do you think I’ll eat out with you?”

“Honestly, I don’t feel that confident, but I do know that you won’t just coldly refuse right off the bat.”

While he acted embarrassed, his eyes contained the resolve of a dictator. He was the type of man to commit tyranny if he did not get the answer he wanted, secretly and discreetly. Gaeul looked straight into Giwoo’s eyes and spoke,

“No.”

It might have been better to be roundabout. She could have held back her words just as they were about to leave her mouth. But she was born as a fighter woman. What could she do about that? The daughter of the writer Choi Haesoo graduated from pretending to be kind when she graduated from her high school. She realized through Yuna that acting coy when talking to someone was nothing more than making a fool out of the opponent. If she told Maru about it, he would probably tell her that she should have been much more flexible about it, but he would then tell her that she did well.

Giwoo did not say anything. He kept blinking as though he never thought that he would get a ‘no’ straight in the face. Gaeul saw a crack appearing on the smiling prince. What wriggled under that thick surface layer was a disgusting selfish rage that she couldn’t even bear to look at. However, Giwoo was a pro as well. The crack disappeared in an instant and he returned to being a human air freshener. He became cheerful, warm, and delightful.

“Did I do something wrong?”

“No, you didn’t. I just don’t want to. I want to focus on the drama, and a romantic relationship is something much too distant for me.”

“If you think that, then I guess I can’t help it.”

The ‘I guess I can’t help it’ came as a warning. Gaeul smiled and turned around. She had been going against Lee Miyoon for too long to feel anything from this amount of pressure.

“See you around.”

Giwoo left those words before hurriedly leaving the place. This was rather uncommon. He was someone who always waited for other people’s responses before moving after all. From how he practically ran away, it seemed that he was really fuming inside.

“Kang Giwoo, I would say no even if I die,” Gaeul said in a small voice to Giwoo’s back as he headed towards the lights.

KTLChamber's Thoughts

Gee, things are getting unnerving, but still, just as interesting.

Editor's Note:

L + ratio

Chapter 876
Sequence 14

As soon as she finished the shoot, she said goodbye to the director and the staff before leaving the set. Giwoo only stared at her and did not call out to her.

“Good work. You two can go home first. I’ll go back by myself.”

Chanwoo left in the van saying that he would go back to the company, while Mijoo went home in a taxi. It was 7 p.m. She went to the cafe at the TV station where Bitna was waiting for her. She saw Bitna drinking juice in the corner. She carefully approached her and tapped on her back. Startled, Bitna turned around.

"You've waited for a long time, haven't you?"

"No, not at all. Did you wrap up the shoot well?"

"I thought you'd be waiting, so I quickly finished things off and ran here. I was so focused that I only caused two NGs before finishing everything off. You're hungry, aren't you?"

"A little."

"Let's go. I'm sure Maru and Yuna are waiting."

She called a taxi and went to a place near Maru's apartment. The taxi driver glanced at her through the rearview mirror and, when she paid for the fare, he told her that he felt like he had seen her. He asked if she appeared on TV. When she replied that she did a little acting, he widened his eyes, asking if she was Han Gaeul from Doctor's Office.

"Can I have an autograph? I really like that drama."

Gaeul gave him an autograph on the memo pad that he held out. The taxi driver became happy, saying that he would put it up for display and boast about it.

"Good luck!"

The taxi driver opened the window and waved his hand outside the window. Hearing the energetic encouragement, Bitna, who was next to her, laughed out loud. Gaeul inwardly thanked the driver as the taxi became distant. After all, thanks to him, Bitna got a good laugh. After her last shoot, she barely managed to smile when she said goodbye to Giwoo, it was as though she was a child who was incredibly sick. To other people, it may have looked like that she was apologetic for causing so many NGs or that she was disappointed that it was the last shoot already, but to Gaeul, she looked like she was trying her best to hold back her fears.

"You've gone through so much."

Gaeul hooked arms with Bitna as they walked.

"Next time, I hope I can look at him straight in the face. I wish I could become that strong."

"I'm sure you will. You overcame him today too, didn't you? Next time, you'll be able to scoff at him, so don't worry about it."

"It'd be great if it comes to that. But isn't it a problem if the first thing I do after meeting him is scoff at him?"

"It's fine, he's a bad guy after all."

They took the elevator up and stood in front of the entrance. The door was slightly open. A savory smell wafted out from the gap. Gaeul looked at Bitna's face. Her eyes were filled with expectation. Rather than the food, it seemed that Woofie's footsteps excited her more. Gaeul opened the door and went inside. Woofie, who was playing around with a ball, raised her head before walking over to Bitna, moving her uncomfortable leg in a cheerful fashion.

While Bitna hugged the dog at the entrance, Gaeul took off her shoes and headed to the kitchen.

"You're here?"

"Unni, you're here?"

Maru and Yuna both spoke at the same time. There were various foods on the table. Not to mention her favorite seafood stew, there was the fried chicken that Yuna liked, as well as sandwiches that Bitna ate all the time.

"I wanted to make them myself, but I didn't have much time, so I had most of them delivered or used pre-cooked ones."

"Other people eat like that."

"But the combination is a little strange, isn't it? I tried to prepare everyone's favorites, but it turned out like this."

"They'll all be the same once they go in the stomach. We can just eat the seafood stew with the rice as a meal and eat the rest later as drinking snacks."

Maru said that he would bring a table so they could eat together in the living room and headed to the veranda. Gaeul took off her jacket and stood next to Yuna, who was putting food onto the plates.

"You were surprised when we asked if you could come over so suddenly, weren't you?"

"A little. Fortunately, my shift ended early today, so I could come."

"Isn't it hard to do a part-time job alongside college?"

"I'm doing it because I want to. Mom said she would support me whenever I have it hard, but I don't want to rely on her as much as possible. I want to make acting my main source of income, but I have a long way to go."

"Didn't you say you passed round two of an audition last time? Once you show your face on a screen, people will notice your charm soon enough and reach out to you. Once that happens, you'll become so busy and will be more tired than you are now, you know?"

"Like you, unni?"

Gaeul jutted her chin out and said, 'maybe.' Yuna laughed. Like all aspiring actors, Yuna was experiencing a series of challenges and failures. If she was someone with a weak ego, she would have felt excruciating when she saw her younger sister progressing without much of a slump, but Yuna instead used Bitna as her objective and was putting in the effort. She had a strong desire for achievement and knew how to use trials as motivations, so she would eventually become a good actress. She only needed a little luck. If it was possible, Gaeul herself wanted to become that very 'luck.'

She chopped up the sandwiches into bite-size pieces and put them on a rectangular plate. In the living room, Maru was wiping the table that he brought from the veranda. Bitna was standing next to him, and it looked like she was asking if there was anything she could do to help. Maru shook his head and pointed at the kitchen. Bitna, hugging the dog in her arms, walked over to the kitchen, saying that she would help.

"Then can you take Woofie out for a walk? Just ten minutes. Food is almost done."

Thinking about what Bitna might like, she thought about going on a walk. Just as she had expected, Bitna immediately looked for a leash, some tissue, and a plastic bag.

"I'll be back in 10 minutes! I'm off."

Bitna left the house with Woofie.

"How was Bitna at the shoot today? She seemed to be having difficulties when she was leaving the house in the morning," Yuna said.

From how she asked as soon as Bitna left, it seemed that she was inwardly very worried. Gaeul explained everything so that Yuna could be at ease; about how Bitna boldly endured even after seeing Giwoo, and how she had finished up her scenes splendidly. She did not talk about how Bitna made a lot of mistakes in the scene where Giwoo grabbed her hands to pray. Yuna would be worried if she heard about it.

"Did you decide to tell your mother about it?"

"No, Bitna said she was okay. If she was being stubborn, I was going to tell her on my own, but I talked it over with Bitna and thought that we didn't need to say it for the time being."

"She's not someone who would act strong. If she's okay with it, then I'm sure she's really okay."

"If I think about it, telling mom about it is a little risky too. Mom dotes on Bitna a terrible lot. If she finds out about this, she will use all the methods at her disposal to get to the bottom of this matter. That would turn her relationship with many people quite awkward, so I feel like staying quiet is better for now."

"I don't think it's a bad idea to talk about it when Bitna can take responsibility for herself. Though, she does look like she can take care of herself even now."

They moved the plates to the table placed in the living room. When Gaeul checked the time, she realized that it had been twenty minutes since Bitna left. Bitna had never been late to a shoot because of her strict time management, so it seemed that taking Woofie out to walk was something so enjoyable that she lost track of time.

"Should I give her a call?" Yuna asked as she took out her phone.

"Wait a little more. We can always warm up the seafood stew later," Maru stopped her.

Gaeul also thought that it was better to let her be. If taking a dog out to walk could relieve all her stress from the shoot, she was willing to wait as long as she needed. When another ten minutes passed, Yuna stood up with her phone in hand, smiling awkwardly.

"We can't have her come back too late, so I'll call her now. It's almost 8."

Yuna went out to the veranda. Gaeul spoke, her eyes fixed on Yuna who was making a call,

"I hope it's a misunderstanding, but I think Giwoo has other feelings for me."

She thought about hiding it but felt that it was better to talk about this beforehand when it comes to things like this. There was no need to become a female protagonist of a drama who suffered by herself.

"Giwoo, that guy, definitely has good eyes."

"Right?" Gaeul responded with a smile.

It was an unpleasant thing for sure, but talking about it with Maru felt like it was nothing much. She even felt pathetic for being so worried during the shoot.

"He asked me out to eat together, just the two of us. He has been asking me out for a while, but I haven't given him a reply. Today, though, he asked as though he was determined to make it happen."

"Do you want me to guess what you said back to him?"

"Go on. What did I say to him?"

"I'm sure you outright told him no, even while knowing that you shouldn't answer like that."

Gaeul's lips twitched. She didn't like the fact that there was nothing wrong with that response. Sometimes, it made her wonder if the man in front of her could read minds.

"You should've accepted him, saying that you would if there's an opportunity while smiling gently."

"Do you really want me to do that?"

"No, I was happy to hear that you rejected him outright. Also, Han Gaeul is someone who does that. You aren't the type to drag things out, are you?"

This man knew her too well after all. Gaeul told her Giwoo's every action without leaving a single thing out: the way he kept staring at her without rest, as well as trying to read her thoughts while talking about Han Maru.

"He's a cautious guy. He was probing you out by talking like that."

"That's just how he lived his whole life. The same goes with his smile, which is like a callus at this point. But it looks like it was quite shocking to be rejected right in the face. For a moment, he couldn't keep up his calm expression. It was for a brief instant, but I managed to see what was inside. The first thing that came to me was pity for Bitna who must have seen such a thing from up close. It was hideous. He didn't feel like a human."

"If he's a proper human, he would not have called other people to harm others."

"I hope this piece ends quickly. It's pressuring me that I keep having to see his face."

"Is there anything I can help you with?" Maru asked seriously.

Gaeul placed her hand where she could feel his slightly bearded chin and his cheek.

"You're asking even though you know that I have to be the one to endure this."

Maru nodded and placed his hand on top of hers. The prickly sensation of his beard tickled her palm. Just as she just thought that his lips looked rather thick, she heard the door to the veranda open. It stopped midway.

Gaeul took her hand off Maru's face and looked at the veranda. Yuna was rolling her eyes around before slowly turning around. There was an awkward silence.

"Bitna said she's coming, but do you want me to have her come later?" Yuna asked, looking incredibly intrigued.

KTLChamber's Thoughts

Bitna: (Anya grin)

Editor's Note:

Honestly, Maru is probably enjoying Gaeul's expression. He isn't the type to be phased lol.

Chapter 877
Sequence 14

“Next time, I’ll make some food. I can’t have you treat me all the time. I’m not that good, but it should taste decent if I try my best.”

“Alright, Yuna. I’ll look forward to it. Go back home safely, Bitna.”

Bitna hugged the dog and said goodbye. They decided to let Bitna take care of Woofie for two days. Last time, Woofie stayed there without any signs of unease. It seemed that she had taken a liking to Bitna’s house. After seeing the elevator close, they returned to the house. Thanks to Yuna, who said that she would clean up before going home, the living room and the kitchen were clean.

“Should we open another can of beer?”

“Sounds good,” Gaeul said as she sat down on the sofa.

Maru took out two cans of beer from the fridge. That single bottle of beer they drank while eating sandwiches was a little lacking. He also took out a handful of almonds and put them on a plate. Nuts were the best beer snack to eat after a meal.

“I would not be having this trouble if I could just reveal everything,” Gaeul said as she opened the can of beer.

She smiled when she heard the fizz coming out as she opened the can.

“Every job that lives off of popularity is like that. Even if you do want to reveal everything, you’re bound by a contract, so you can’t do that either, and even if you could, it will still be a problem. Depending on your fans, there will be all sorts of unspeakable comments. I’m sure there will be many people cheering you on, but those kinds of comments are less eye-catching.”

“Should we just announce our marriage at this point?”

“I’m sure it’ll be quite interesting if the parents of both households get notified of their children’s wedding through the news first.”

“If you say it like that, it makes me really want to do it.”

Gaeul’s eyes became playful. Maru wanted to go along with that prank as well; they should just reveal everything without caring about the future.

“You know better than me that you can’t do that.”

Yet, his mouth stopped everything. Starting from when she was cast as one of the main characters in Flaming Lady, she hit yet another home run with her role as one of the main cast in Doctor’s Office. She was practically driving on a highway. What she needed to look out for were small extrusions. Even the most trivial things that look like they wouldn’t be a problem might cause a huge accident for a person who was charging forward after all.

“Don’t you want to become more successful as an actor? The Han Gaeul I know isn’t someone who would want to rest midway.”

“At times like this, you should just say ‘if you want to, then I’ll do as you say.’”

“It’s obvious that you won’t like it if I do, so why would I?”

“How do you know without doing it?”

“Fine, then if you want to do it, then go ahead. I’ll call the journalists.”

“I planned to until about just 3 seconds ago, but I changed my mind.”

“See? You toyed with my loyalty.”

Maru held out the canned beer. She lightly toasted him.

“Your next shoot is early morning on the day after tomorrow, isn’t it?”

“Yeah. I’m going to be next to Kang Giwoo the whole day. It’s making me exhausted just by thinking about it.”

He wrapped his arm around her as she leaned against his shoulder. There was no one who could help her right now. It was a war where she could not reveal any of her weapons and could only let her wits do the fighting. It would be great if she could make allies who could fight with her, but Kang Giwoo was incredible at making the people around him his ally. Even if she exposed Giwoo’s identity, no one would probably believe it.

“I can’t do anything but cheer you on.”

“That’s enough.”

“Considering Giwoo’s personality, he won’t talk to you so easily. He was rejected outright after all. But he won’t give up. He’ll look for an opportunity and call out to you if he finds it right. He has a strong desire to handle people as he wishes to.”

“What if I keep rejecting him?”

“If he’s a man with common sense, he should give up and fall back, but that guy said goodbye to common sense when he was young. The scope of ‘common sense’ in his mind should be very different from ours. If you keep not listening to him, he’ll definitely do something. But, he won’t do something openly. He’s actually quite a coward and is afraid of being exposed. He hysterically despises making mistakes too. It’s probably his grandfather’s influence.”

“Grandfather? Did you hear something from him?”

Not hear, I snuck a peek – Maru erased those words in his mouth with a smile and sipped on the beer. What stood behind Kang Giwoo was the thick shadow of YM Group’s chairman. That guy used his grandfather as his standard for everything, and he probably set his grandfather as the ideal perfection that he should strive to achieve. Maru could tell what kind of man his grandfather was without even looking. Erasing the immature side of Kang Giwoo and making him more vicious would probably make him a lot like the head of the YM Group. Though, the more accurate title would be the ex-chairman, since he supposedly retired.

“You should watch out for him when he’s staying still. It’s proof that he’s trying to pull some strings behind your back.”

“I hate those things the most. I just want him to come at me straight. At least I can fight back openly.”

“Don’t just try to fight him, and try to listen to him to an extent, even if you don’t fully listen. Be more generous.”

“I’ll try my best.”

Seeing her smile while saying those words, Maru once again realized that she had zero intentions of reacting flexibly. She was someone who never relented. He was worried about that side of her, but also adored her for it.

“We should stop talking about Kang Giwoo. It’s not like we’ll get an answer even if we think about it, and he might avoid me first, right? If he does, I’ll be able to relax easily.”

She seemed to have finished her beer already as she put down the can. When he asked if she wanted another one, she thought about it before waving her hand in dismissal.

“How do you feel, being in the center of attention these days?”

“That’s a quick change in topic.”

“I’ve been asking since morning, but you kept changing the subject all the time. So don’t change it now and tell me about it. There have been several articles, and the internet is in an uproar about it.”

“It’s not me that they’re in an uproar for, it is for the content of the drama. Anyone else acting the same character would have brought about the same reaction.”

“Have you heard that being too humble is worse than being arrogant? Do I have to recite to you the comments I read to you in the morning?”

Gaeul took out her phone. Maru quickly snatched her phone away. Being haunted about it in the morning was more than enough.

“I’m insanely happy that I’ve received attention. I would have no regrets if I could become a popular actor through this incident. All good?”

“You’re good at putting on a thick face, but you are strangely embarrassed when it comes to receiving compliments about yourself.”

“It’s just because I’m not used to it.”

“Then you should get used to it at this opportunity. I found this really memorable comment in the morning. Actor Han Maru’s acting skills are not ordinary. Maybe he’ll become a blue chip in the film industry in a little while? His acting was short, yet intense. He had something that shook the emotions of people. This is what acting is supposed to be. The actor known as Han Maru has…”

Maru was reminded of a cat, one that was staring at a ceramic plate placed on the edge of the table. The little demons who clearly enjoyed their owners flinching while tapping on such plates and Gaeul who uttered those embarrassing comments seemed structurally identical. When he tried to stand up from the sofa, Gaeul pulled him back down. She even began whispering the comments into his ear. Maru felt like all his hairs stood on end. When it came to other people’s compliments about him, he could not get used to it at all.

“This is so fun.”

Just when did she memorize all those comments? While looking at her smile in satisfaction, Gaeul sighed.

“There are many people looking forward to it. Do your best.”

“Unfortunately, my shoot ended as of yesterday.”

“Why? The responses were so good.”

“Actually, it was supposed to end last week, but as you said, the responses were good, so the writer wrote an extra episode. Ending it here is just right. It’s good to receive good responses by using a character that reflects the current times, but if all the attention goes that way, we’ll be putting our priorities in the wrong places. Although not mainstream yet, there are already opinions that we’re wasting time doing useless stuff. The writer is pretty smart too, and she knows when to take her hands off it.”

“I guess it is a good idea to end it while it’s still unique. But still, what a pity. I always wanted to see my boyfriend doing well.”

Maru drank the rest of the beer and looked at Gaeul.

“I got a call for an entertainment program.”

Gaeul suddenly sat up.

“From where?”

“From ‘Chatterbox.’”

“The one that airs on Friday night?”

“Yes. My manager told me today. He said I should prepare for it because I’m going on it whether I like it or not.”

“Of course you have to go. That program has decent viewing rates, you know? I’ve also watched it quite a lot whenever there were good guests. But what’s the theme this time? If it’s Chatterbox you’re talking about, then the guests all have something in common, don’t they?”

“People who suddenly became popular, or so I heard. I don’t think I’m that popular though.”

“It seems like you don’t get it since you’re at home all the time, but if you go out to the streets right now, the soundtrack from Doctors can be heard frequently, and many people are talking about Bigfoot. That’s what’s stressing our director as well. I mean, the viewing rates are on par now.”

Gaeul tapped him with her fists, saying that it was a little sad that Doctors caught up in terms of viewing rate. Doctors had been losing in terms of viewing rate compared to Doctor’s Office, but this week, they both hit 14% and became equal. Not to mention Jayeon, even Eunbin rejoiced, saying that she could get some good sleep now. The fact that the piece he participated in was doing well was something to rejoice about, but considering that the achievements of his partner were going down, he couldn’t just be outright happy about it. Gaeul probably felt the same.

“Everyone’s talking about how the score will be reversed next week, but I don’t really know whether I should be happy or be sad about it. Should I be happy since my boyfriend’s work is doing well? Or should I be crying because my own piece is doing bad?”

“That’s why you should’ve done your best.”

“You’re picking a fight with me because I teased you, aren’t you?”

“Was it obvious?”

Gaeul, who glared at him, suddenly stood up and went inside the bedroom as though she recalled something. When he asked what she was up to, she told him to wait for a little. A moment later, Gaeul came back out again with two tall bottles of lotion.

“Here.”

“What’s this for?”

“You’re going to an entertainment show. You should practice.”

“They don’t use microphones like this. It’s all wireless.”

“It’s just to get into the mood. Quickly.”

He grabbed it since she was so adamant about it. This was why he tried not to talk about it. He could clearly picture her getting more excited than he was for it and urging him to prepare.

“Popular actor Han Maru has come to our studio today. Please welcome him with a round of applause.”

Her commentary was smooth. He looked up previous episodes of Chatterbox when he heard that he was cast, and the main host introduced the guests in such a way.

“You’re good.”

“I told you. I watch that program. Chatterbox is merciless when it comes to editing, and they cut out everything if they don’t find it fun. You should get yourself together and react to everything and talk interestingly. Otherwise, you’ll be staring at the camera for hours before leaving.”

“But still, there’s no need to go this far to practice…”

“You don’t get that entertainment shows and dramas are completely different. If you heard about how I got traumatized during my first entertainment show appearance two years ago, you’ll want to practice right away, you know?”

“Oh, back when you went on ‘Happy Day’ and the only thing that showed up was your smiling face?”

“You saw that?”

“I did.”

“Why?”

“How am I supposed to answer that? It’s just because I wanted to watch.”

“So why? That’s a dark history of mine. My agency told me that I should never go to entertainment programs after that. That was also the first time my president sighed while looking at me. Thinking about it still makes me dejected even now.”

“It’s that bad?”

“It’s no joke. Don’t think about entertainment shows too lightly. Some people have bad habits too. They would treat famous actors with respect, but if they aren’t, most people become sacrificial lambs by the mouths of the comedians. You need to get yourself together. Otherwise, you’ll become like me.”

Seeing her sigh in regret, it seemed that the wound she received back then still remained. Maru patted her shoulder. Entertainment shows and dramas were definitely two separate realms.

“But I do have some confidence though. I don’t really lose to anyone when it comes to letting my mouth do the work.”

“Fine, you’re awesome.”

“It’s just the truth.”

“I hope you just smile when you’re on and get edited out.”

Gaeul flailed her arms and legs like a grumpy child. Maru grabbed her arm.

“Do your best. You know that all of this is an opportunity for you. Since you started late, you should grab onto it properly.”

“I’m not that old.”

“You could’ve started ages ago, but you didn’t do it, so you are late. I feel like it’ll be my fault if you don’t do well, so you have to, okay?”

Seeing her worry about it seriously, Maru couldn’t help but nod at her. When he did, Gaeul spoke as though she had been waiting for him to do just that,

“Then we’ll practice okay?”

It seemed that he had been fooled after all.

KTLChamber's Thoughts

I think it's here. Maru's finally getting attention!

Editor's Note:

You know, I've been thinking about a plot that could be good for doctors, so I'm kinda sad that Maru's part is ending here. Anyway, if you're curious I'll type it below.

So my whole idea revolved around wanting Maru and Heewon to have an emotion-filled scene together, so if it doesn't make sense, just know I didn't put that much thought into it lol.

Anyways, Heewon tried to play hero for Bigfoot, but it ended up backfiring and causing negative consequences for Bigfoot, so Maru starts to ignore him, hoping he'll stop getting involved, and they confront each other when Heewon stops him.

This goes into a whole argument about how Heewon just thinks about ideals and how his playing Hero should just be limited to saving lives, cuz when it comes to others, Heewon is totally ignorant of their situations and is just blinded by trying to do a 'good' deed. This leads to Maru saying the emotion-filled line of "Not everyone wants to be saved" before walking off.

This scenario ticks off the box of 1) Bigfoot being a realist and having real problems 2) brings Heewon into reality for a bit which ties both the modern aspect they go for with Bigfoot and his Hero persona 3) Gives good reason to keep Bigfoot in the drama OR a perfect exit for his character.

I thought about adding stuff about how Bigfoot is in desperate need of money so that's why he's been laying low, but I decided it was bad cuz no signs of it earlier.

Chapter 878
Sequence 14

The breath he inhaled was cold. Maru opened his eyes and looked for his phone with his hand. It was 8 a.m. He had turned off the alarm that was set to ring at 6 every morning. Gaeul had very sensitive ears, so she tended to open her eyes after a single beep. She was always stubborn about following him out to jog even if she was tired. She said that she liked running with him. While breathing the fresh early morning air while exercising together was definitely tempting, what she needed today was not getting her heart rate up and sweating, but sleeping without a care in the world. Today was one of the rare days when she could sleep in after all.

He slowly put down the duvet so that Gaeul didn’t wake up. When he sat up, he saw that she had flung away the duvet and was lying on her side. It was one of her sleeping habits. Even during the winter, she would often leave half of her body out in the open and end up sniffling in the morning. He grabbed the duvet and covered her. She seemed to like the warmth of the duvet as she curled up and buried her face in the duvet.

He pulled the blind curtains tight to block off all the light before leaving the room. He opened the refrigerator and drank a sip of cold green tea before opening the cupboard to take out the dog food he had portioned out into a plastic bowl. Only then did he realize that the girl who would usually be hopping around at his feet wanting food was not here this morning. He put the dog food back in the cupboard. Habits were scary things.

He turned on the heater and sat in the living room to watch last week’s episode of ‘Chatterbox.’ There were five fixed people in the cast, and the guests would change every week. Just like its name, the program was mainly a talk show. The order of progression began with talking about the guests’ latest news, then the stories that the guests prepared, then followed by the questions from the viewers. Sometimes, there would be a simple game or a display of skills.

-Save Love for the Farewell, sung by Yoo Chaejin.

Last week, the guests were sports stars. A young athlete who won the gold medal in fencing sang a song with a shaky voice. She wasn’t that good, but it was good to see her do her best. The responses from the internet were good as well, saying that she was cute for having a flaw to her. She wasn’t that good at talking either, so the conversation would cut off awkwardly whenever one of the hosts asked her a question, but her answers were genuine and the program didn’t feel like it was too loose.

Meanwhile, in contrast to the fencing athlete, the archery athlete had good skills to show off and was good at talking, but he didn’t have that much screen time. The excessive interruptions and his way of speaking that undermined others made it so that his portions were mostly edited out. The comments under most of the clips of that episode that went online mostly talked about his bad way of speaking as well.

Dongwook once said that the internet masses were like a cheap buffet, and there was nothing to eat when looked at from up close. He also added that eating something was better than starving to death. The internet opinion couldn’t be entirely trusted, but nor could it be entirely ignored. If the masses were criticizing someone, there would be a reason to have a close look at it.

Keeping in mind the difference between the fencing athlete and the archery athlete, Maru played the episode before that. He skipped past the opening commentary and the display of skills at 4x speed, and he focused mainly on the stories that the guests had prepared. In particular, what kind of talk would get a response from the main hosts and would make the story section longer.

He also had a close look at the subtitles when people spoke. Subtitles had long since become a device to portray the minds of the producer and the program writer. Before, a member of the staff appearing on TV would be a production accident, but now, even they were treated like a part of the program. There were cases where some producers, directors, and writers were more famous than most celebrities. The era had changed from one where the staff members would meticulously hide themselves and put subtitles that explained the situation on the screen, to one where they actively expressed their own opinions, so observing the subtitles closely was equivalent to reading the mind of the one behind the program.

The phone he placed on the sofa started vibrating. When he picked up, he heard Byungchan’s voice.

-You up?

“Yes, hyung. But what made you call me so early in the morning?”

-I totally forgot to tell you about something last night. Check your email. There should be a list of questions the writer of Chatterbox sent to you beforehand. Have a look at it and send it over to me. I had a look first, and there were no strong questions. I think it’ll be okay to allow them to ask everything.

“They don’t know anything about me, so they can’t ask strong questions. I’ve never gotten into trouble either. I’ll check on it and give you a message. Also, are you driving right now?”

-Yes. I’m driving Sooil to his shoot. It’s tiring to grab the wheel after all this time.

“What happened for you to be driving yourself?”

-I can’t help it. Our company is composed of a small group of elites, including the managers. There’s Taeho hyung-nim, Geunsoo-hyung, Ganghwan-hyung, Miss Suyeon, and Sooil. All the people below me have things to do, so I’ve gone back to being road manager for now.

“If you feel tired, you can have Sooil drive for you.”

-I’ll pass on that since my life will be doomed if something happens. Oh wait, Sooil wants to talk to you.

He heard a rustling sound. Maru looked at the TV screen and changed it to 4x speed. The greetings of the hosts went by in a flash.

-Did you practice?

Sooil had spoken all of a sudden. Gaeul’s excited voice last night overlapped with his.

“Did you two set this up or what?”

-What are you talking about?

“Nothing. Even if you didn’t mention that, I’m watching the previous episodes and getting ready for it. I do have some confidence in talking, but talking interestingly is something different.”

-Don’t get pressured by other people and do your best, not that you’re the type to receive pressure from others. But you might end up dazing out if you sit in front of the camera for hours.

“I heard that all night yesterday from Gaeul: I have to get myself together, I can’t zone out, I have to smile if I don’t have anything to say, et cetera. I can still feel her words echoing in my ears.”

-I guess there’s nothing to worry about with your queen beside you. If you feel like it’s not going well during the shoot, you can use my name. I pick up my phone quite a lot.

“You know I will if you tell me to, right?”

-Do it. I’ll pick up as long as I’m not in a shoot. But I’d like to remind you that I might stand out if you do and you might get pushed to the back.

“Sure, sure. You’re hugely popular. Is your shoot in the countryside?”

-Countryside… I guess you can call it that.

“Where?”

-Germany. It’s for a photo shoot, a commercial, and a drama. I’ve got tons of work in front of me right now.

“That explains why the team leader is driving you. Bring back presents when you come back. You know, stuff like schweinshaxe or salami.”

-Those things can’t be imported, so just make do with chocolate. Also, schweinshaxe is similar to Korean jokbal, so you can get that instead.

“What are friends for? You should smuggle some in for me.”

-I don’t want to be an actor who gets into controversy while trying to smuggle pig’s foot. Oh, I’m at the airport now. Good luck with the shoot, and call me if the atmosphere turns frosty. Also, the indie film we shot last time is on the cover of a movie magazine. If you don’t have anything to talk about, talk about that or something. It might not be interesting, but you have to do something.

“It’s me who’s supposed to be going on the show, but it’s everyone else who’s worried. I’ll do fine by myself, so just focus on going to Germany.”

The phone switched over to Byungchan again, and he told him to send a message after checking the email before hanging up. Maru checked his email on his phone. Just as Byungchan said, there weren’t any questions he would have a hard time answering. Since the theme was people who ‘suddenly became popular’, the writers of the program probably didn’t have enough time to research. There was a request to write things that the guests wanted the hosts to bring up, but Maru left it blank before writing up the replies. He could just come up with things on the spot depending on the atmosphere of the set.

The door to the bedroom opened. Gaeul walked out while yawning. Her bangs were draping down like octopus tentacles. When he picked up the teacup in front of him, Gaeul nodded. They didn’t need to talk to each other in the morning to communicate. Gaeul sat down where he used to sit. Maru boiled some water in the kitchen and brewed some barley tea for her. She sipped the tea with the teacup bowled in her hands.

“Did you study hard?”

“Enough not to stutter.”

“When did you say the shoot was?”

“Next wednesday.”

“So I’ll only be able to see it in December. Do well so that you don’t get edited out.”

“I think I heard that a dozen times yesterday.”

“Listen anyway.”

Maru shrugged and resumed the video that he had paused.

* * *

Choi Younghoon sighed the moment he heard of the theme for the episode. ‘Chatterbox’ was a program that was heavily dependent on the guests. It was a fundamental problem that couldn’t be fixed due to its nature as a talk show. If it was a show that was shot outside, they could have ordinary citizens participate in the show or expect laughs from unexpected environmental variables, but entertainment shows that happened indoors were solely dependent on the skills of the hosts and the guests for laughs. For the main hosts, there had been no changes in members for the past four years, so the only thing they could say at this point was the number of spoons they had at home. Thus, they had to rely on the guests to do the talking. The problem was that the theme this time was ‘people who suddenly became popular.’

What an unstable-sounding theme was that? He could already picture the guests staring holes at the camera and answering with single words due to turning stiff. This was something that he had experienced before. When the program underwent a change, a new producer who came to Chatterbox ambitiously scouted an ordinary citizen who became popular through a user created video. That producer then left the entertainment department for the documentary department.

The air time was an hour and 10 minutes. As for the shooting time, that mostly depended on the guests, but the average was about 5 hours. For five hours, about 9 people would have to sit in a set with three sides walled off, facing dozens of staff members, several cameras, as well as writers who would give instructions without rest. They would have to talk in front of such people for five whole hours to create a one-hour episode. Even the most veteran entertainers would find it hard to control their pace and end up just nodding towards the end of the shoot without saying anything, much less rookies who just started receiving attention.

The job of the hosts was to make the guests keep talking so that the atmosphere didn’t become loose. Younghoon prayed that the guests this time weren’t Buddha statues. There was nothing more terrifying than people who did nothing but smile on talk shows.

“Hyung-nim, looks like you’ll be trying hard today.”

A junior who hosted Chatterbox with him entered the waiting room. This guy was someone who used to be an athlete before becoming famous as an entertainer. He knew what questions to ask the guests at appropriate times, so hosting the show with him made things a lot easier.

“Looks like you’ll be having a hard time as well.”

“I just hope they don’t freak out. As long as they don’t freak out, we can cover the rest. I saw that all of them were actors, so thankfully, they won’t mumble.”

“You never know. Don’t you remember that actress from before? The audio engineer asked if the microphone was broken half way through the shoot. Her voice was so small.”

“Right, there was that woman.”

“If we get someone like her, forget the shoot becoming longer, we might not be able to salvage much from it. We’re already losing a lot of views because of what YBS started recently.”

“The trend is to do away with static talk shows now. These days, singing is the trend. I heard that this program is getting axed during the restructuring, and they will be starting an audition show or something.”

“Every single one of them is about singing. This is the problem with South Korea. If someone does well, everyone else follows suit. Since we’re at it, let me tell you now that singing auditions will become a boom but then soon die down. There will be another trend to take over.”

“But still, you have somewhere to go, hyung-nim. Tell me honestly, you got an offer already, haven’t you?”

Younghoon tapped on his junior’s shoulder and told him that he would bring him if he did go to another program.

“Looks like our guests are here today. I’ll go have a look at them.”

The junior stood up.

KTLChamber's Thoughts

Gaeul: This is my boyfriend Maru, and his boyfriend Sooil.

Editor's Note:

A buy 1 get 1 free deal for Gaeul. What a steal.

Chapter 879
Sequence 14

“There’s no job more genuine than acting. No amount of trickery will allow you to hide your skills. So you have to keep putting in an effort. I’m sure you’ve heard this many times before, but that’s the only way you can grow as an actor. What’s unfortunate is that actors who put in just as much effort don’t get their fair share of opportunities. It is a heartbreaking thing that good actors suffer from hardships in life.”

Park Hamin always thought of these words whenever she felt chaotic. She also thought about the face of the man who said those words to her whenever she reminded herself of those words; the face of Kang Giwoo who said each and every word with emphasis without looking away from her. She started off as an idol but failed without being able to have a proper debut, and so ‘Soul Entertainment’ was no different from her savior. They helped her lessen her guilty conscience and supported her so that she could proceed as an actress. She also got to meet Giwoo. Right now, she was even feeling glad that she had not become successful as an idol.

“Stay here before the shoot begins,” said a staff member while opening the door to the waiting room.

There were three people aside from her in the waiting room. One woman and two men. Hamin looked at the man sitting opposite her in detail. That man was Han Maru.

“This feels awkward,” said a man sitting by the door.

They introduced themselves briefly when they first gathered in the waiting room, but she had forgotten his name. She only remembered that his surname was Yoo. The woman sitting next to the mirror was surnamed Choi. She had heard that both of them had received attention for the film or dramas that they did. She and Han Maru were the same.

“That’s true. I never knew there would come a day when I would get to appear in an entertainment show. I really didn’t expect much.”

It was Miss Choi who had spoken. She had come wearing a one-piece dress with a deep v-neck. Hamin recalled the black blouse that her stylist showed her. She thought that maybe that would’ve been better since her collarbone would be shown if she undid the top button. She felt like she was losing in terms of outfit. Although actors spoke through skill and not body figures, today, it was not a drama but an entertainment show. She saw Mr. Yoo’s gaze land on Miss Choi’s cleavage before moving away. From his sly smile, it seemed that he wasn’t a man that she should associate herself with. Miss Choi was a problem as well. She could do her top button, but she did not, so she was practically asking for attention.

However, there was a man who was much worse than Mr. Yoo who peeked at other people’s breasts. Hamin looked at Han Maru.

-Maru was a good friend. We’ve been in the acting world together since we were young. But it looks like he doesn’t think of me as a friend. I really wasn’t going to tell this to anyone, but the fact that Maru received attention in Doctors is because I talked about him with the writer of Doctors. I told her to have a close look at Han Maru because he’s really good. There is nothing better than a friend doing well, so I even went so far while risking being seen as rude, and yet…

Giwoo stopped talking there, apologizing while saying that he shouldn’t have said anything. That was the first time Hamin had seen Giwoo smile so bitterly. She could instantly tell how much Giwoo cherished Maru as a friend.

She locked eyes with Maru. Hamin was inwardly startled, but she didn’t show it and looked away. He looked just like the type to disappoint the kind and generous Giwoo. Even his eyes were far from ordinary. Giwoo must’ve been hurt since he was a man who had such malicious-looking eyes. Giwoo didn’t say the specifics, but she could deduce everything through his speech and expression. Giwoo was betrayed by the man sitting in front of her. How hurt must he have been when he was backstabbed by a person he trusted? The fact that he hurriedly walked away after telling her all that might have been to hide his tears. Thinking about how Giwoo would be silently suffering, she began fuming inside. In order for good people, for people who put in the effort to receive good treatment, men like him must fix their attitude first.

“Do you have something to say to me?” Maru called out to her.

“No.”

She shook like a fool. When she thought that he was a man with a pitch-black nature, her lips trembled subconsciously. She inwardly counted numbers to calm herself down. She couldn’t step down here. She had two objectives for coming to this talk show today. One was to express her charm as Park Hamin that she wasn’t able to fully express in ‘Doctor’s Office’, and the other was to deal a blow to Maru, who was surely one of the most evil men in the world. She would take revenge for Giwoo fairly and squarely through her skills in this talk show. If Giwoo found out that she was having such thoughts, he would tell her to stop and that she must not do such a thing, but she wasn’t as kind as Giwoo. Giwoo was the type to accept a man even if he was struck a blow, but for her, she had to pay back her debts.

“It’s quite awkward here after all. You’re all nervous, aren’t you?”

Jay entered as he opened the door. Hamin smiled and greeted him. Whenever she was having a hard time because she failed to debut as an idol, she could smile again when watching the programs with Jay in them. He was an athlete, but he quit due to an accident and returned to the TV as an entertainer and became hugely successful. Looking at his life allowed her to gain some energy.

“Have you talked to each other? It’ll be really hard to speak if you go into the studio in a stiff atmosphere.”

He was a proficient TV personality indeed. When Jay talked to Miss Choi and Mr. Yoo, the silent waiting room became lively in an instant.

“I’ve observed you a lot when I watched Doctor’s Office, Miss Park Hamin. Your acting is one thing, but you also have a great smile. Looking at you makes me feel energetic.”

“Really? I’ve never heard anyone say that to me before.”

“You’ll hear it a lot in the future. If you’d allow me to boast a little, you know that there are many actors who’ve gained momentum after appearing in Chatterbox, right? That might be you, Miss Park Hamin. Of course, the same goes for the rest of you as well.”

Mr. Yoo and Miss Choi waved their hands in dismissal, saying that it was too early for them. Hamin looked at Han Maru’s reaction. He was listening indifferently like he was listening to a lecture in college. People should react to other people if they try to liven up the mood, so she thought that he was a self-centered person to the bone from his lack of reaction. He might even be selfish.

“You are Mr. Han Maru, right?”

“Yes, I am.”

“I might be hated by Miss Hamin who’s competing with you on the same time slot, but honestly, I was deeply impressed by the latest episode of Doctors. I really don’t use the word ‘impressed’ a lot, but I couldn’t find a better word to describe this episode. I experienced those kinds of things when I was still an athlete. The lineup was decided on seniority, not skill. I thought about those days while watching the drama, and it made me angry, so I applauded at the end when you got a bit of revenge. The character you played was Bigfoot, right? I could feel your experience when you talked to the director’s daughter in Thursday’s episode. You’re so amazing despite being so young.”

“I was just lucky. The writer was good at writing. Also, if it’s about being amazing, you’re even more amazing. You received the greatest prizes at both RBS and YBS last year as a male host. Receiving two such prizes at the same time is more amazing than someone like me. Thanks to you, I’ve been enjoying Chatterbox as well.”

Jay took interest in Maru’s words.

“We haven’t started the show yet, so let’s be honest. Have you really watched Chatterbox that much? You can be honest while we’re still here.”

“I can’t say I’m an avid watcher, but I’ve seen a fair amount.”

“If you put it like that, I will have to check on you. May I ask you a question?”

“Of course.”

“Since you said you watched a fair amount, you must have seen last month’s episodes, right?”

“That I did. Starting from the first week, the themes were big eaters, big drinkers, sisters, and then peculiar hobbies, right?”

Maru said the order of the shows without even being asked to. Since Jay was just about to ask, he applauded instead.

“Well, it looks like there’s no need to check at all. Even I get the order of episodes mixed up at times, but if you can remember all that, you can be considered an avid watcher.”

“The episode where you came out wearing a bow tie and blew out a candle by blowing through your nose was so interesting that it made me look up the previous episodes and watch them as well.”

“That happened quite early on. I remember that candle incident. I remember burning a few of my nose hairs.”

“I thought that would be the case.”

The two of them got along as though they were long-time friends. The person who didn’t speak a word when he came to the waiting room moved his mouth like a machine when in front of the host. It was suspicious that he was actually an avid watcher of Chatterbox, and that pretentious-looking smile was even more suspicious. She only found it pitiful that Jay, an entertainer she liked, was being fooled by Maru’s tongue.

“Are there any other watchers of Chatterbox?”

Mr. Yoo and Miss Choi replied with dry smiles. Hamin also stayed quiet. She had seen other programs that Jay appeared in, but she had not watched Chatterbox. She had come across it while switching channels, but she found talk shows boring and soon lost interest.

“Looks like I should try harder. But since you’re here, please do watch the episode you are all in. If you have a people meter at home, then that’s all the more reason to watch it. Please raise our views a little.”

It wouldn’t be strange if the situation became awkward, but thanks to Jay’s fluent talking skills, the mood became lively again.

“You just have to do this during the show as well. Also, Mr. Maru, once we’re in the shoot, can I ask you the same question as well? That kind of memorization skill can be interesting from time to time.”

“Anytime you want.”

“Then I’ll ask you. Get some rest for now. We’ll begin soon.”

Jay left and closed the door. Mr. Yoo and Miss Choi took out their phones at the same time. Although she couldn’t see their screens, they seemed to be investigating Chatterbox. Hamin’s fingers itched, but she held back. Shows were supposed to be done honestly. Investigating lightly wouldn’t make them cool at all. Maru also took out his phone. Hamin stood up and checked his phone while pretending to look in the mirror. The texts that quickly scrolled up were all about Chatterbox. Looking at the text that looked like exam revision materials, she felt absurd and angry at the same time. It was a lie that he was an avid watcher after all. He was full of pretense.

“I believe that TV shows should be candid.”

She found him so spiteful that she ended up blurting what was on her mind. Miss Choi and Mr. Yoo all stared at her. Hamin curled up her toes. It must have looked very strange. She felt so embarrassed that she couldn’t look them in the face.

“I was just talking to myself. Sorry.”

She apologized before she got misunderstood. Mr. Yoo looked at her before shaking his head and going back to his phone. He must be thinking that she was a peculiar woman. Miss Choi definitely seemed to think that she was but an immature girl. She was a minor character in a drama, but she came here to be a main character, but it seemed that she had screwed up from the beginning. There was a need to reorganize herself. She would be able to receive acknowledgement as long as she did what she did properly without minding what kind of cheating other people did. Both her agency and Giwoo said that to her after all.

“You’re right, TV shows should be candid,” Maru said just as she was about to sit back down.

To her, that sounded like mockery. It also seemed like he was picking a fight with her. Hamin resolved that she would show her true value during the real deal. The stories she had prepared were interesting and fun without having to exaggerate or use petty tricks. It would be hard to receive attention by just reciting some info related to the show.

KTLChamber's Thoughts

Prediction time. This Hamin girl. Would she find out the truth about Giwoo (or get an inkling about it)? Or will she stay a dumb villainess?

Editor's Note:

My prediction is that she's gonna get edited out and get destroyed by Maru. Also, she may or may not confront the Jay guy about Maru, and Jay will tell her that they don't actually care about lies or truth and only entertainment or smth.

Chapter 880
Sequence 14

“Hyung-nim, they look slightly nervous, but they didn’t freeze up. I think it’ll be fine as long as we can set them up well once the shoot begins. Also, the fellow named Han Maru knows the theme of some of our previous episodes, so if we give him that question, we should be able to get some decent footage.”

The junior had returned after scouting out the waiting room. Younghoon was grateful for Jay, who prepared for the shoot every time. His earnestness from his athlete days still remained.

“Who do you think has the best mouth?”

“I can’t be entirely sure since I’ve only said hello, but I think the one named Yoo Jihyuk will do well as long as we give him a slight push. There was energy in his eyes. He was the one who proactively asked questions after exchanging greetings with me. As for the girl named Choi Jeonghee, I’m not entirely sure. Even if I talk to her, she just smiles back at me. As for Park Hamin, she’s very positive, so I think she’ll liven up the show.”

“What about the kid who you said knows about the program?”

“He’s the type to react. He won’t say anything first, but he’ll react well once others talk about things. But this is all just a first impression, so I’m probably wrong about every one of them.”

“How long do you think I’ve been working with you? I’m asking you because your intuition tends to be spot on. Let’s have some hope for that Yoo kid for now. We’re already running low on views, so producer Kang is getting wrinkles. We should make him hold a get-together in happiness.”

“I wish that could happen. The others aren’t here yet, are they?”

“They called me just now and told me that they’re on the way. Leaving aside Taeksoo since he’s coming from another job, I think Hyuktae, that kid, slept in after drinking late into the night.”

“He did just barely get one day to rest after going on a tour in Japan.”

“If he was going to rest, then he should’ve just slept obediently.”

“He lived a busy life when he was supposed to be playing around, so I’m sure he’s just doing all that now. TTO isn’t TTO for nothing. They’ve been a top-tier idol group for ten years now, so I’m sure he wants to play around freely whenever he has the chance.”

“You have such a good nature, being considerate of things like that. No wonder everyone comes to you to whine.”

“Hyungnim, you lead everyone strictly like the father, while I softly support everyone from the back like a mother. Isn’t that how our duo works? Oh, I got some pear concentrate that my wife made for me. Would you like some?”

“Why bother asking? Give some to me.”

The pear concentrate that had been boiled with honey was fulfilling from just a sip. Jay brought this pear concentrate on the first day they shot together. After seeing that he didn’t act that stiff in front of him, who was known to have a terrible personality in the industry, he thought that Jay would become successful. If he had to pick one thing he did well in the past ten-plus years in the TV industry, it was to snatch Jay and put him by his side. Thanks to that, he had become a lot more flexible that it was to the point that a new writer could talk to him.

“I’m so damn tired.”

Producer Kang opened the door to the waiting room, and Jay poured some pear concentrate and gave it to him.

“Thanks for the drink.”

“You came here to get that, producer Kang, didn’t you?” Younghoon nagged.

“You’re always out to nag me whenever you see me, hyung.”

“Hey, I’m saying that for you to laugh. You always frown like something’s going to go bad which makes me all worried.”

“It’s because the higher-ups all come to me to nag. I thought I was going to get past the fall restructuring without trouble, but YBS stole all our views thanks to a new program. It’s driving me crazy. Whenever I hold a meeting with the writers, they always ask me if I have more budget or if there are any big figures we can invite, so it’s driving me nuts.”

“Like hell they’ll assign a lot of budget to a program that’s nothing but talking inside a studio.”

“My words exactly. Should we quit using the set and start running outside? How about a running talk show where you have a talk show while running?”

“The day you do it is the day I quit. Think about my belly fat and my age.”

“Why? Someone in KBS is running around all over the country even when he’s nearing his fifties. And in RBS, an elderly is sleeping in tents outside.”

“That hyung can do that because he was born with strong bones, but I have a feeble heart despite how I look.”

“Feeble? After all that roasting of our new recruits in your early years? Man, our bro Younghoon has gotten soft.”

“I am talking to you like this because I’ve become soft like a lamb. So? Why are you here anyway?”

“I just had something to talk to you two alone about.”

Producer Kang took off his glasses and started wiping them. It was a habit of his to wipe his glasses before announcing good news.

“It might be just a brief sparkle, but we should be able to get some decent viewing rates this time. We got a call scheduled with Lee Hyuk and Kwon Dayoon. They’ll be backing Park Hamin up.”

Lee Hyuk and Kwon Dayoon were two actors who were notorious for not showing up in variety shows. Kwon Dayoon appeared in various shows during her idol days, but she hardly showed up on TV ever since she switched careers to being an actress, and Lee Hyuk also no longer did any TV activities after becoming hugely popular through ‘Those Guys.’ They were both cards that they could play to attract interest from viewers.

“This must be the first time those two are appearing at the same time after Those Guys. Now that I think about it, both of them gained popularity after that movie, didn’t they?” Jay said.

“Director Park Joongjin is an amazing guy. He used that single movie a few years back to make them both into icons of the era. Lee Hyuk also overcame his slump after that movie, while Kwon Dayoon escaped her terrible acting. But why are those two backing up Park Hamin?”

“Because the three of them - Park Hamin, Lee Hyuk, and Kwon Dayoon - are all from Soul,” replied producer Kang.

Younghoon had also heard about Soul being the single biggest influential company in the music industry. They were large to the point that getting on their bad side would make it hard for anyone to become popular through acting. He knew that they did acting management on the side but did not know that they possessed bigshots like Lee Hyuk and Kwon Dayoon.

“Aren’t you a little too much in the dark after living in this industry for so many years? Dongha, Kim Soomin, Ahn Chaejeong, Koo Gwangseop and Kang Giwoo all belong to Soul. Moreover, Soul’s parent company is YM. It’s known as the company that has the full support of a big conglomerate.”

“I know that much. But to me, that sounds like Park Hamin is quite a promising talent, huh? The agency is giving her so much support.”

The fact that two bigshot actors who rarely showed up in the media were appearing to support a new actor meant quite a lot.

“From how she’s in Doctor’s Office alongside Kang Giwoo, I’m pretty sure that she's definitely a rookie who has the support of her company. Honestly, she wasn’t on the list when I first looked for people, but Soul gave us a call first. They wanted us to take Park Hamin and said that Lee Hyuk and Kwon Dayoon can appear if it’s through a call.”

“So Park Hamin is just a sidekick so that we can hear those two’s voices?”

“Don’t call her a sidekick. I’m sure Miss Park Hamin has a charm of her own.”

“I know you, producer Kang, and I’m pretty sure you would never have accepted that Park Hamin kid if not for Lee Hyuk and Kwon Dayoon.”

“There you go again, making me the bad guy. Anyway, I’m just telling the two of you. We’ll get some footage if we can capture Park Hamin being startled. If you get the call through, drag it on as much as possible and get whatever you can out of them. They are actors who the public has great interest in, so if we create a teaser based on that and release articles, we’ll be able to grab viewing rates.”

“Looks like Park Hamin’s face will be everywhere in this episode. You’re going to edit centered around her, aren’t you?”

“I’m not that much of a money grubber. Though, I might add her smiling face from time to time.”

“Tell me honestly. You received money from Soul, didn’t you?”

“Geez, there’s nothing you just won’t say, is there? Even if I did, I’m not so disloyal that I would just keep it all to myself. I’ll make sure to get enough for you and our dear Jay over here, so don’t worry.”

“You know I have an iron rule of not receiving shady money, right?”

Jay also smiled, saying that he’d only receive money that can be put in the bank.

“Don’t say that and accept what you’re given.”

The producer left. Although he said all that, he wasn’t someone who would actually get paid money behind their backs. It was precisely because he knew that that he could joke about it.

“I’m here.”

The waiting room opened suddenly. Hyuktae, who had his hair dyed in an emerald-green color, sighed and sat down on the sofa.

“Go easy on the door. How many times do I have to tell you this?”

“Sorry, hyung-nim. But I don’t think I can fix this. I’m actually quite well-known for slamming open doors.”

“That’s one weird perk to get well-known for. So, you sober now?”

“No matter how much I look down on shoots, I do everything seriously. I’m completely fine.”

“That’s good, I guess. Jay, give this guy some pear concentrate too. He needs something to get past the hangover.”

Jay disliked being called by his real name even in private places. He even said that he was seriously considering changing his name. Hyuktae received a cup politely with both of his hands. He may act immaturely despite nearing his thirties, but etiquette was buried in him. There was a reason why he managed to maintain peak popularity after all these years.

“Miss Hamin was real cute,” Hyuktae said as he wiped his mouth.

It seemed that he had been to the guest’s waiting room.

“She’ll be our main guest for today, so pay attention.”

“Why is she the main? Is something going on?”

“You’ll see once the shoot begins.”

Not long later, Taeksoo arrived as well. Younghoon told both of them off for being late, but neither of them even pretended to listen. Younghoon also didn’t nag them because he seriously wanted them to reflect on it. It was just that when the four of them gathered together like this, they would each have their own role, and his role was to be picky about everything others said and did. He couldn’t just laugh and smile together with them for five years if it was for the sole sake of money. All three of them were his precious juniors and little brothers.

“I was on my way in, and it looks like there’s a shoot. There are loads of people, including some famous actors.”

“You didn’t see their face?”

“I would cause an uproar if I do go there. Hyung-nim, don’t you know how popular I am?”

He kicked towards Hyuktae, who was being all sneaky. He was careful to not actually hit him.

“I heard that you sold out all tickets to all performances, right? Isn’t Tokyo Dome a huge place?” Jay said.

Hyuktae created a big semi-circle with both of his arms.

“It’s ridiculously large. When I first went there, I wondered if I was actually performing in such a place. Though, I’m quite used to it by now.”

“A global kid surely is different, huh.”

As they were listening to Hyuktae’s story, the main writer of the program intruded and said that the preparations were done. There were bags under her eyes, and it seemed that she too was receiving a lot of stress just like producer Kang, because of the viewing rates.

“Let’s do our best today. We should give producer Kang something to boast about.”

Younghoon patted other people’s backs as he left the waiting room. When he arrived at the studio and sat down, the guests followed in. Younghoon stood up from the spot and greeted each and every one of them. Just as Jay said, Yoo Jihyuk was a person to note. Choi Jeonghee would make a perfect pretty decoration.

“I’m Park Hamin. Please take care of me.”

“Alright. Let’s do our best today.”

He had a close look at Hamin as well. The success and failure of this episode relied on this fellow. It would be great if she was close to Lee Hyuk or Kwon Dayoon, or even better, both of them. He shook hands with her and looked at the next person. It was Han Maru, who apparently knew the previous episodes.

“I’m Han Maru.”

“Let’s do our best together.”

“Please take care of me.”

Younghoon looked at the four people walking out of the studio again. Putting the show aside, the one he liked the most was Han Maru. While the other three were busy looking around the studio, he alone was looking at the people. The moment he made eye contact with him, he felt that today’s shoot would go well. Usually, his intuition was quite accurate.

“Please get ready.”

Younghoon sat down in the center seat of the semi-circular table. It was his seat that he had maintained for years. He drank a bit of the drink that came in as a PPL ad and closed his eyes. The shoot was about to begin.

KTLChamber's Thoughts

It'd be funny if Maru got a support call from director Park Joongjin, the very person who made Kwon Dayoon and Lee Hyuk famous in the first place. And right after those two call the studio to support Hamin. That'd be roasting Hamin as well as the two callers lol.

Mini spoiler alert: The

Chapter 881
Sequence 14

There were many cameras. She had heard about this, but seeing it for real made her dizzy.

“Think of it as talking to some close friends. I’m sure you don’t know where to look because there are more cameras than you’re used to seeing at drama shoots, but you don’t have to be conscious of the cameras at all. You’re more conscious of the actor you’re acting with when doing dramas instead of the camera, right? It’s the same here. Most entertainment shows are scripted to a certain extent, so you just need to do the shoot like you’re doing a rather lax drama. Also, it’s fine to make mistakes. It can all be edited out in post and the producer will bring out what’s best.”

That was what the writer said before they came to the studio. Would she really be able to talk in front of the camera comfortably? Hamin’s fingers fidgeted right against her thighs. The desire to do well and the worry that she must not make a mistake clashed against each other, making her feel dizzy.

“We’ll shoot the opening now. Three, two, one.”

A staff member clapped the slate and fell back, which was then followed by Younghoon speaking from the middle seat.

“Yes, this is Chatterbox.”

Such a simple greeting was how Chatterbox always opened. Following that, the hosts talked among themselves for a bit. Jay asked what happened during the past week, and Hyutkae and Taeksoo would reply to that. Younghoon listened to them from the side and grumbled about the things they did. None of them looked at the script placed on the table. It was improvised, but there was no gap at all. She thought that they were indeed pros after watching them continue the conversation for 10 minutes.

“Let’s stop our chatter here, and allow me to introduce you to the guests who have come to Chatterbox today. To describe our guests today, I dare say that they are like me.”

“Do they have foul mouths?”

“Or maybe get a lot of bad comments on the internet?”

Hyuktae and Taeksoo both made a jab. Younghoon didn’t bat an eyelid and just continued speaking. Hamin chuckled when she saw the theater-like scene.

“They are scene stealers. They, like me, aren’t mainstream but are actors who are great at attracting people’s attention. I guess there’s also the fact that they’ve been gaining a lot of attention recently. Now allow me to introduce to you our guests for the day. Please welcome, actors Yoo Jihyuk, Choi Jeonghee, Park Hamin, and Han Maru.”

The four of them went in while receiving the applause of the hosts. The hosts stood up and walked over to one side of the semicircular table. Hamin sat down on the seat that the writer had pointed out beforehand.

“How did you feel when you heard that the theme was ‘people who suddenly became popular?’”

As soon as she sat down, she received a question. Hamin spoke without getting flustered,

“It didn’t really feel real to me that I had become popular, but I was happy to be invited to Chatterbox because it made me feel like I was a little popular now.”

“If we were as popular as before, you would be correct, but as you know, our viewing rates aren’t that good lately. The ones who really become popular would either go to Happy Day or This is Camping.”

“Really?”

She smiled and wrapped up the question. This was not something she had been told about beforehand, but she didn’t feel that nervous about it as she had prepared herself for it. She had often heard that she was the type to do well on stage, and it seemed that it was true for entertainment shows as well.

“I’m sure the rest of you feel the same. Actually, the reason we called you here today is so that we can get some of that energy from you. We will receive the energy of the people who suddenly became popular and our show will become popular too! Or so the main writer told me as they talked about what today's theme was. A terrible idea for a theme, don’t you think?”

Everyone laughed as though it was mentioned beforehand. It was easy to figure out when to laugh when watching Younghoon’s gestures. He might act vile, but he was a kind guide. Hamin decided to observe Younghoon closely to have a look at how the show went.

“This is an official corner of Chatterbox. You introduce yourselves. Those who want to make it long, make it long. Those who want to make it short, make it short. We’ll start without giving you any time to think. First, Mr. Yoo Jihyuk.”

Although he said that, it was announced beforehand, and she had also seen it on one of the previous episodes, so she had prepared beforehand. Yoojihyuk turned around to look at the camera and greeted in a polite manner.

“I want to be remembered as a good actor. I am Yoo Jihyuk, an actor who has always dreamed of acting. Nice to meet you all.”

The hosts all applauded. Hamin also clapped as well. Following that, Taeksoo pointed at Choi Jeonghee and asked her to introduce herself.

“Hello. I'm so nervous because it’s my first time on an entertainment show. I may look strange, but I hope you can take a good look at me. Also, is it okay to introduce myself with a dance?”

Before any of the hosts told her to stand up, Choi Jeonghee leaned forward to stand up. She was very bold. She should have known that her cleavage would be emphasized if she leaned forward like that. Choi Jeonghee walked in front of the table. Hamin stared at her back before remembering that there was a monitor that showed the camera footage from the front camera and looked there. Choi Jeonghee bit her lips slightly and winked. When a popular girl idol song flowed out, she jerked her shoulders before showing a very refined dance. Whenever she flicked her body, her black one-piece dress fluttered as well. Hamin felt her mouth go dry. This girl was completely different from how she was in the waiting room. It wasn’t just her outfit that she had carefully chosen.

When the song ended, Choi Jeonghee neatly folded her hands together and took a bow. Yoo Jihyuk rejoiced even more than the hosts did. Hamin had thought this when he had a peek at her cleavage, and it seemed that this man was really helpless in front of pretty women.

“As expected of a scene stealer. Your skills in attracting other people’s attention are incredible.”

“I thought you were really from an idol group. Miss Jeonghee, how long have you been practicing that?”

As there was some good action, questions followed up as well. Unlike Yoo Jihyuk, who only did a greeting, Choi Jeonghee answered questions for several minutes. Was she coming on strong from the get-go? Hamin did not know how to dance or sing. She could sing, but it was at most a quiet ballad, and while she could dance, anything fancy was out of her league.

“That must put a lot of pressure on Miss Hamin. I want to give you some time to prepare, but the official corners of Chatterbox will not give you any time. Well then, Miss Hamin!”

“Hello. I’m Park Hamin, an actress who wants to try being the main character of a drama one day. The person in front of me did such a splendid self-introduction and left me with nothing. What should I do?”

She felt like it was a rather decent improvisation. The hosts reacted immediately. It was just as Jay said – the hosts would react to them as long as they didn’t stiffen up.

“Miss Hamin. Do you have any special skills that you’d like to show us? If you’re saving it for later in the show, you might get edited out, so now’s your chance.”

“Err, I can mimic a woodpecker.”

“That’s a little too classic, but it has been a while since we’ve seen one. Would you like to show us once you’re ready?”

Hamin cleared her throat and did an impression of a woodpecker that she had practiced by herself many times. She started off well and sang a clear note, but she eventually lost strength in her voice and started coughing.

“Sorry about that. Can I do it again?”

“Unfortunately, Chatterbox doesn’t give second chances. But you were still cute, so I’ll give you a passing score.”

“Thank you.”

Hyuktae made a heart with his two hands. With this, she didn’t do as well as Choi Jeonghee, but it wasn’t a bad start. Just as she was thinking about a funny episode to talk about later in relief,

“Everyone, you don’t know how cute I am, do you?”

She heard a song next to her. It was the ‘Princess song’ that was trending these days. She was startled and looked next to her. Han Maru had placed his hands on his cheeks and was shyly singing the princess song. There was no accompanying soundtrack, and he was even doing the dance routine as well. Even the hosts, who were sitting on the other side, looked like they were watching an incomprehensible creature before eventually showing their unique responses. Younghoon nagged him for doing something like that from the get-go, while Jay sang along, saying that he was doing well. Hyuktae and Taeksoo kept just clapping in a daze.

Hamin also zoned out before smiling because she felt like she had to do something. She never imagined that he had prepared something like that. Just watching him made her feel like she wanted to disappear, so how would he feel? He was a scary man after all. That was on a whole new level even compared to Choi Jeonghee’s ‘TV show attitude.’ He looked like he was going to sell his soul in order to attract popularity.

The song changed midway. Han Maru stood up and looked ever so serious. He locked his hands behind his back like a stern King and continued singing the princess song in a low pitch with a big frown on his face. He was looking towards the staff while singing, but his voice was loud like it was being amplified. She didn’t know about anything else, but she had to admit that his voice was good. She exclaimed subconsciously when she heard the thick voice enter her ears.

The childish as heck princess song suddenly felt tragic like a scene from The Phantom of the Opera. Han Maru walked around the studio like it was his stage and sang towards the camera. The sense of tragedy in his actions and expressions made it feel like he was holding a musical.

“Why am I so cute?”

Though, the lines were all like that, so the disparity was unnerving. It still made her strangely want to keep watching it. The chorus “I’m the cutest in the world” sounded like “To be or not to be, that is the question” from Hamlet. The overwhelming detail in his facial expression acting made it so that the lyrics did not feel awkward.

“Bravo!”

Younghoon, who grumbled at first, stood up from his seat. The other hosts also did not hesitate to praise him while putting their thumbs up. They talked about how this was the first time someone left such a deep impact in the history of Chatterbox.

“This fella. He’s full of wack. Oh hey, are you going to get dragged to the communication commission if I use that word, producer Kang?”

“I’ll take care of that, so don’t worry about it. More than that, Mr. Han Maru. We were totally taken aback. Do you see the camera directors all taken aback? It was good but notify us beforehand next time. Anyway, it was the best.”

From how the producer cut in, it seemed that this part was going to be edited out. Hamin drank a sip of the water placed in front of her. As frustrated as she was, he was both funny and cool. The fact that he chose a trending song and did not simply stop at singing and included acting in his performance – everything was good. How long had he been preparing that? It was only a brief performance, but she could tell for sure that he was not someone who was bad at acting. He made what might be a cringy performance a good one through his acting. His attractive powers were so great that she had forgotten that this was a show.

Hamin looked at Maru, who was chatting with the hosts. This made him even more spiteful. Why did he betray a person’s earnest feelings despite possessing such skills? From Giwoo’s words, Maru was someone who did not know how to pay back his graces. He had enough skills to have a fair showdown through acting, so why did he act like that?

Just then, her thoughts were caught by a speedbump. What did Han Maru do to Giwoo-oppa again?

“I asked this back in the waiting room, but do you have something to say to me?”

“No, nothing. It’s nothing,” Hamin replied hastily.

She was in such deep thought that she didn’t realize that they locked eyes. Thinking back, Giwoo didn’t tell her what exactly happened between them. He fell silent before she did.

“Okay, we’ll start again,” said the producer.

Hamin stopped worrying about it. Just going by the mood Giwoo had that day, it was clear that Han Maru had done something very wrong to Giwoo. Though now, it felt slightly iffy that she didn’t know exactly what it was.

“Looks like everyone who came here today has geared up. Especially you, Mr. Han Maru, I thought you were staking your life today.”

The program resumed with Younghoon’s speech.

KTLChamber's Thoughts

The 'Princess song' mentioned in this chapter, doesn't actually seem to exist, but you can refer to the Gwiyomi song for a similar style of song. Though, I can't possibly imagine how that can become a tragic song like 'The Phantom of the Opera' mentioned in this chapter……

Editor's Note:

Before reading Chamber's note, I was thinking of the ageyo song that went viral a few years back.

Chapter 882
Sequence 14

“This fellow’s wack. Anyway, Mr. Maru. You’ll have a hard time later if you put too much strength into the beginning. You’ll be raising our expectations of you which will make you unable to react to most things.”

“I’d be getting a lot just by making myself known on my first entertainment show.”

“Are you saying that you’re already satisfied then?”

“No, I’m saying that I achieved my primary objective. But that won’t get edited out right? If it does, I might cry at home.”

“You’re already worried about being edited out, huh? Geez, the truth about entertainment shows has gotten too widespread. Even normal viewers know that editing is king. Of course, being an actor, I’m sure you know more than most people. Jay, isn’t that right?”

Younghoon suddenly directed a question towards Jay while talking to Maru. Jay, who was drinking some water, suddenly started coughing.

“Younghoon-hyung, please don’t ask me any questions while I’m drinking. I cough every time, and I might end up going to the hospital for it.”

“You should focus then. Mr. Maru here is talking.”

“You mean you’re talking. Sheesh, you’re quite something when it comes to making others suffer.”

Hamin kept watching as Younghoon and Jay bantered. It was hard to find the right time to cut in. She had been advised several times that she must not become part of the audience, but now that she was actually in the shoot, she realized just how hard it was to cut into a conversation. In dramas, the timings were already predetermined by the script. She thought that she would be able to speak easily as long as she was on the lookout for an opportunity, even if it was an entertainment show as it too followed a script to an extent, but unlike what she originally expected, she could not budge her lips. On top of that, the shock she received from the opening performance still remained within her. Thanks to Maru, who grasped the atmosphere in his hands, both Mr. Yoo and Miss Choi also remained smiling just like her.

“There’s something I was notified of beforehand. Miss Hamin, I heard that, despite your small build, you are known to be quite a drinker. How much can you drink?” Younghoon tossed her a question.

He seemed to be redistributing the attention that had been gathered on Maru. Thanks to that, she could be relieved a little.

“I can’t drink that much.”

“Why don’t you tell us? How many bottles of soju can you drink?”

“When I’m in a good condition, about three bottles.”

“Three bottles? Over how long?”

“Uh, the thing is, I drank while watching movies by myself, so it’s probably around 4 hours. I watched two.”

“You drank by yourself while watching movies? You’re a young woman. Why do you sound so tragic?”

She finally felt like she could talk about the story she had brought. Hamin thought back to that day and prepared herself to talk about it.

“I originally started off as an idol. I remained as a trainee for quite a long time as well. I was supposed to be a part of a girl band, so I practiced instruments a lot, but ultimately, I never got to go on stage properly. The president, who told me that everything will go well, suddenly cut off all contact, and the girls who practiced with me all looked for other agencies or started looking for other jobs after telling me that they no longer had any intention to stay in the entertainment industry. I can still remember it clearly. I bought soju and some snacks from the supermarket in front of my house, and I drank while watching movies. It was quite stifling.”

“The president ran off?”

“I’m sure he must have had his reasons. But it would’ve been good if he told us something at least,” she said with a smile.

It was something she could smile about as it was a thing of the past, and since this was supposed to be a show, it was all the more reason for her to stay smiling.

“What a bad person. I thought those kinds of people disappeared recently, but it looks like they still exist. Miss Hamin. Since we’re at it, you should give a message to that president you talked about.”

“Right here?”

“The greatest revenge is to become successful. You might have slipped up as an idol, but you received attention as an actress. Say something to the president who might be watching from somewhere,” Younghoon said as he pointed at the front camera.

Hamin turned around to look at the camera. This was her chance to get the screen to herself. There was no time to hesitate.

“President, are you staying healthy? I don’t know why you did that back then, but don’t scam innocent young people in the future. You’ll get punished for it. I mean it.”

“How soft. I’m sure you’re thinking about saying something else in your heart.”

Taeksoo urged her. She couldn’t swear since she was on TV, but something on the level of ‘punk’ might be fine. If she went overboard, the producer would just edit it out, so there was no need to worry about it.

“Hey, you punk! Get a life!”

Since she was at it, she shouted with all her might. Younghoon was delighted, saying that that’s how it’s done. Seeing the hosts respond positively to her actions, she felt she had done something good. It was always the first time that was difficult. Now that she actually uttered it out loud, she felt much more confident.

“But if you were originally preparing to become an idol, doesn’t that mean that you can sing and dance as well? Or maybe not so much dancing since you said it was supposed to be a band.”

“I have terrible reflexes. I was also not the main vocalist, so I’m not that good.”

“But those who practiced are different. Let’s have a look at what you can do later.”

It was already agreed upon beforehand that she would sing. Younghoon probably said what was on the script. Hamin pretended to pull back but eventually agreed to it. The song she prepared was a ballad that wasn’t too high-pitched, so it wasn’t that difficult. Other than the intro, the shoot was currently going smoothly so far.

Younghoon then asked Mr. Yoo and Miss Choi how much they could drink. From how he was asking the same question, it was likely that the boring answers would get edited out. Mr. Yoo’s and Miss Choi’s stories were ordinary. Both of them just said that they were good drinkers, but that was it. They had no story. Hamin believed that her story was the best.

“Actually, the reason I asked you how much you can drink is because of Mr. Maru over here. Our writers picked up an amazing fact.”

Taeksoo handed over a question sheet. The hosts looked at the question sheet and started exclaiming. If this is true, then it’s simply incredible – Younghoon said in a small voice. Just what was on it that made them exclaim like that? Hamin looked at Maru through the corner of her eyes and perked up her ears.

“Let’s check these first. This is really unexpected. Is it true that you’re long-time drinking friends with Sir Yoon Moonjoong?”

“I’m not sure how you found that out, but yes. You’re right. I drink quite frequently with the elder.”

Maru replied with his eyes wide open as though he was truly surprised. For a moment, Hamin wondered who Yoon Moonjoong was before recalling the face of a great senior actor. Younghoon, who had been listening, suddenly cut in,

“About senior Yoon, I’m not sure about anything else, but I know he’s picky as heck when it comes to finding drinking partners.”

“I was lucky that the elder sees me in a good light. I met him for the first time while I was in high school. He said I looked polite and smart, so maybe that’s why.”

“Mr. Maru. You know you’re boasting about your youth, right?”

“Me? I only told you the truth though.”

“I’ve never seen a good guy who can boast so naturally.”

“Well, I have my way with being bad too.”

Maru didn’t seem awkward at all while talking to Younghoon. It was as though he had prepared for it. Younghoon laughed. He was probably excited because instead of getting single-word answers, he was getting entire stories. Hamin also prepared herself so that she could talk just as smoothly.

“Looking here, you two appeared together in the film Twilight Struggles, right? The senior appeared as the lead character, while you were a minor character. I watched this in the cinema, and it was quite a shocker. If I’m not wrong, it’s a story about a father’s murder of his own sons, right?”

“Yes, that’s right. It was a film that contained a slight social critic vibe. I watched the elder act right in front of my eyes, and it gave me goosebumps. He was truly scary.”

“It was scary when I saw it through a screen too. I can only imagine how bad it was to watch him from up close. How was it? I believe that must have been your first film too.”

“I only appeared for a brief moment, but it’s definitely a precious piece for me. The elder told me that there was a role that I’m suited to and told me to take the challenge, and I managed to win that role through an audition. It also became an opportunity for me to reform my mindset towards acting.”

“So you two share no ordinary relationship. You said that was back in high school?”

“Yes, that was when I was in my 2nd year of high school.”

“If that senior looked after you from such a young age, it must mean that he must have valued your skills highly.”

“Rather than skills, I think he just liked me because of how I acted.”

“No, no. I can’t say I’m very close to him, but he’s not someone who would suggest to someone to take a role just because he dotes on someone.”

“You want to butt in everywhere, huh, hyung? Are you sure you know senior Yoon?”

Jay told him to stop pretending like he was close, which made Younghoon cough awkwardly and get some drinks. While the two hosts continued with their banter, Hyuktae continued asking the questions,

“Our writer got confirmation from Sir Yoon Moonjoong himself. Allow me to mimic him for a second: ‘I’ve never seen a young man who can drink better than that boy Maru.’ So, being us, we investigated a little, and someone unexpected gave us some info. There are a few famous drinkers in the industry, and one of them is a member of my group: Sungjae-hyung.”

“Sungjae-hyung?”

Maru acted like he was acquainted with him. Hamin stayed silent and observed the situation. She found it absurd that Maru had bigshot connections like Yoon Moonjoong and Ahn Sungjae. One was the giant of the acting industry, while the other was from a top-tier idol group.

“It turns out you’re quite close to Sungjae-hyung, huh? When he found out that you’re coming to Chatterbox, he even said that he was willing to help.”

“We received acting lessons together. Even after that, we met up quite frequently to talk to each other.”

“How did you get to know him? Did you meet him for the first time at those lessons?”

“My sister is a fan of TTO. I said hello to him to get an autograph, and that’s how we met. After that, various things happened and we got close.”

Hyuktae nodded.

“Sungjae-hyung is no joke if he decides to set his mind to drink. You know about it, Jay-hyung, right?”

“I do. I don’t think I’ve seen a better drinker than Sungjae around me. He can drink five bottles in one sitting.”

“Yet, that same Sungjae-hyung told me that he has never seen Han Maru get drunk. Usually, Sungjae-hyung is the type to help other people get home when drunk, not the other way round, right? But he told me that he often had Maru help him get home because he got drunk.”

“Don’t even start on that. Once he gets drunk, he will grab onto something and not let go, and there were more than a few times that I had trouble putting him away. Oh, is it somewhat wrong to use ‘putting away’ for a person?”

“No, I would describe it that way too. I know because I had the same experience a couple times.”

Hyuktae and Maru laughed while consoling each other for their hardships. Thanks to the continuous mention of bigshot figures, the hosts all shifted their attention to Maru. She thought that this would be the end of it, but no. The writer sitting in the front suddenly started writing something before giving it to Hyuktae. Hyuktae looked at the paper that the writer gave him and spoke,

“Please excuse us for a second. We’ll give someone a call. This person rarely ever appears on TV. Maybe this is his first appearance in a talk show, even if it’s just his voice.”

“Who is it?”

“You’ll find out soon.”

As Hyuktae talked about it, one of the staff members came in with a phone connected to a microphone.

“Producer Kang, who is it?” Younghoon asked the producer.

The atmosphere had gotten much freer while some setups were underway.

“Director Park Joongjin.”

“The film director?”

Hamin clearly heard what the two talked about from the side. The super director who would get 7 million views at least with every work was giving a call because of Han Maru?

“We’ll resume the shoot now.”

When a staff member clapped the slate, the shoot resumed as though nothing had happened. As they waited after putting the phone in the middle, the phone's connecting ringtone could be heard. The hosts all knew that they were expecting director Park Joongjin, but they all talked about who it might be. A man’s voice flowed out amidst the people’s attention.

-Hello?

“Ah, yes. Hello, director. This is Chatterbox of RBS, and I’m Hyuktae. We said hello once last time. Do you remember me?” Hyuktae said smoothly.

-I do remember you, Mr. Hyuktae. You’re good-looking, so I definitely remember you.

“You sound like someone told you to say that, but thank you anyway, director.”

When they heard a laugh, the hosts laughed as well, and so did the guests.

“Director, I’m sorry but could you introduce yourself to the audience?”

-Sure. I’m honored to appear on such a renowned entertainment show. I’m Park Joongjin, a run-of-the-mill film director.

KTLChamber's Thoughts

Frigging roasted, no, burnt to a crisp.

Editor's Note:

Oh man. This makes the other 2's calls useless now.

Chapter 883
Sequence 14

"Good work. You’re borrowing one of our boys, so you should do at least that much. Even if you say that you’re doing your piece and not someone else’s, it’s not bad to receive attention. Alright, let’s have a meal together sometime. I also have some things I want to ask about the film.”

Junmin hung up the call he got from Joongjin. Even though it must have been a bothersome request, he accepted it readily. He even sounded rather delighted.

Junmin put down his phone on the table. A bulldog lingered around his feet as though it wasn’t satisfied with the fact that he hadn’t played with it for a while. He picked up a ball and threw it out into the garden. The bulldog rushed towards the well-mowed grass, followed by several other dogs. Junmin quietly looked at the dogs who were all gunning for the ball. After a bout, the victor came back with the ball in its mouth. It was neither big nor strong, but it was smart. It snuck its snout in at the crucial time and snatched the ball away. Junmin gave a piece of dog gum to the dog who came back with the ball. Ultimately, only one dog could get the prize.

There were many actors with potential. Ultimately, the problem came down to whether he or she was given a place to blossom or not. Junmin had the confidence to scatter the seeds in fertile lands. It was entirely up to the seed which flower it would bloom, but he did well when it came to protecting it before it got trampled on.

The dogs that came late all got into a fuss wanting snacks. Junmin gave up and went to the kitchen to get more snacks. Sometimes, handling dogs was harder than handling people.

“Today, luck is on his side.”

When he heard that the shoot was around RBS, he was convinced that the goddess of luck stood behind Maru. The sister of that same goddess was going to visit the studio soon. He wasn’t the type to let his food get taken away because of cautiousness, so there was no need to worry about that. In fact, he was worried about the other guests who might get swept up in Maru’s pace and talking skills. If it was someone who knew how to find opportunities, they would be able to get a ride on Maru’s speech skills and have an easy time talking, but if there was someone who tried to win against him, they would have a tough time.

“Yes, sir. I’ll visit you soon.”

Junmin scanned the dogs who tired themselves out before standing up.

* * *

“We’ll resume the shoot.”

Younghoon let go of the straw in his mouth. The shoot, which he expected to be difficult, went quite smoothly thanks to an unexpected talent. The intuition he got from Han Maru before the shoot was not wrong. When he gave one, he would get two back, so there was no better guest than someone like this. He even knew when to butt in and when to leave. He stopped talking about stories that may sound boring, and he provided cover fire when it was time to add some vitality to the show.

Choi Jeonghee benefitted the most from him. She watched the guests with a seductive smile and seemed to have realized who the main character was today. When Maru spoke, she reacted and even asked him a few questions, to which Maru would reply delightfully, which made her shine in the process. The two shared a banter they didn’t agree to do beforehand, so the only thing he had to do was just applaud from the side.

“Maru, your connections are amazing.”

“Well, it’s all a coincidence.”

“Connections are the same as assets in this industry. I think that you’ll definitely rise to the top.”

“Having you tell me that feels like I’m already halfway there.”

After the conversation, Maru went to the other side of the table and sat down. During break time, Maru approached everyone first and discussed how he was going to call everyone. Younghoon also liked the fact that he did not hesitate to approach them and just treated them comfortably without much thinking. Although TV shows usually focused on skilled people even if they might be a little shy, it was natural for a proactive person like Maru to be more eye-catching. As for his skills, it was as good as proven since he was acknowledged by Yoon Moonjoong.

He also belonged to JA, which was known to be hard to get into, so it was better to see Maru as someone who was already on the path to success.

During the intro, Younghoon thought that he was just a rookie who just prepared one big impact and had no substance, but during the phone interview with Park Joongjin, he proved that his speaking skills were not ordinary. He asked both questions that the viewers might be curious about as well as questions to proceed on with the show, and Younghoon almost ended up blurting out ‘that’s my boy’ from the side. At the end of the interview, Park Joongjin said that he was going to start shooting a film soon and that he had selected Maru as the main character, along with the words that this was news that he had not announced anywhere else yet. He could still clearly remember producer Kang looking like he was overjoyed to death after the interview. As long as they could make the teaser well, increasing the viewing rate was going to be easy.

He read what the writer added to the script as he started the shoot. The promising talent Yoo Jihyuk, and the one they originally planned to push, Park Hamin, did not do anything after the phone interview as though they ran out of battery. It might be that they couldn’t do anything. After all, the talk was centered around Maru. Distributing screentime was the host’s job, so he was looking for opportunities, but if the people in question lacked enthusiasm, he couldn’t hand over the microphone to them. To feed someone, that someone had to have their mouth open.

“I think I should talk about it here: Why did I become popular? The four of you received just as much attention as the lead characters from your respective dramas, right?”

“Hyuktae, you’re making it obvious that you’re reading from a script. Even if it’s written like that, you should say it in your own words.”

“Just wait a second. I’ll change it into my own words soon enough.”

“Just send me an email when you decide to do so.”

The boy who was too stiff to even read the script five years ago was now capable of retorting back. It meant that time had definitely passed. Younghoon stayed silent so that Hyuktae could proceed with the show.

“Mr. Yoo Jihyuk. You received good responses as an evil torture expert in the movie Heaven’s Decree. I watched it and even I thought you were a psycho. How are you actually? Do you really have an obsession with details or things like that in reality?”

Hyuktae also seemed worried about Yoo Jihyuk’s lack of appearance, since he was inducing him to answer.

“Yes. I do have such a side to me.”

“Do you have any fun episodes where you ran into trouble because of your personality that you would like to share with us? For example, not being able to sleep because of a single thing that’s out of line.”

“You make the most terrible examples, sheesh.”

Younghoon chimed in a little. Hyuktae told him to stay still. Younghoon twitched his lips and leaned back on the chair. The younger member retorting to an older member was something that always worked on the viewers. The only thing remaining now was for Yoo Jihyuk to package his episode well.

“Well, nothing of the sort happened to me.”

It was no good. Younghoon hinted at the other hosts. Yoo Jihyuk had lost all his cheerful attitude from the beginning and was now no different from a teddy bear that parroted the same words when pressed. Even without getting attention, he should have reminded himself that this was a TV show and that he should try his best to liven up the mood, but Yoo Jihyuk acted like a lost child. He acted like he didn’t know what to do. Like this, there was no way to help him. Although producer Kang would probably tell him that he could relax, if he stiffened up on the inside, it would be hard to get any fun out of him no matter how many times they knocked on his door from the outside. This was a common mistake made by rookies on TV, so it wasn’t even that surprising. The only thing they could hope for from him at this point was for him to applaud well.

Hyuktae talked to Yoo Jihyuk a few more times for his screen time, but all the answers were things that were hard to use for TV. Hyuktae also forfeited after seeing that it was just an ordinary conversation without any interesting or emotional elements.

“Miss Hamin. You passionately played as a terminal patient in Doctor’s Office, right? Do you remember that you even went on the search term rankings back then?”

“The atmosphere was good at the shoot, but I didn’t think that it would be reviewed so well.”

“It was hard back then, right? Your eyes were bloodshot, you know?”

“I didn’t realize that. I just tried my utmost best, and it felt like my eyes were going to burst. I thought about taking a break midway and doing it again, but I was worried that my emotions might get out of line, so I just forgot about it and did my best.”

Park Hamin replied with vitality when Hyuktae gave her a chance. It meant that she still had the energy to receive what she was given. Responding like Park Hamin would allow the hosts to liven up the mood. Hyuktae was someone who made tens of thousands of people jump out of their seats. With enough preparation, he could turn anyone into a main character.

Park Hamin calmly continued her talk. It wasn’t anything laugh-inducing, but it wasn’t bad either since it showed her truthfulness. While listening to Hamin, the writer gave Younghoon a signal. it seemed that she judged that this was the right time to refresh things.

“Miss Hamin. I think you should pick up that call.”

“Eh?”

She seemed completely clueless. Younghoon received a phone from a staff member.

“Hello? Mr. Lee Hyuk. Can you hear me?”

-Yes. I hear you.

Hearing the name ‘Lee Hyuk’, the staff rejoiced. Although their voices didn’t get picked up by the microphone, the guests could see that the staff were rejoicing. Park Hamin also put some strength into her eyes. He didn’t know what happened to her, but she looked like she had realized that this was her opportunity to create a flow favorable for her.

-Miss Park Hamin is a junior I cherish a lot. I realized that she was someone really passionate about acting the first time I met her.

As expected of an actor who had been in this industry for a long time, Lee Hyuk followed up the interview fluently.

“Hello, senior.”

-Yes, Miss Hamin. How are you doing?

“I’m not sure. I’m very nervous.”

-Don’t get too embarrassed and do your best.

Younghoon quickly cut in after seeing Park Hamin act embarrassed.

“You two sound pretty distant. Are you sure you’re close?”

-Of course.

“Then call each other comfortably like you would in private.”

-Shall we, Hamin?

After being called out to, Hamin shyly replied ‘Yes, oppa.’ Hyuktae and Taeksoo jumped in at the chance like hyenas, saying that Hamin probably fancied Lee Hyuk.

-If that really is true, then I’m grateful. I’ve been single for too long.

Lee Hyuk fluidly responded to that. Park Hamin also did not miss the opportunity and told him that they should have a meal together sometime. Going any further and there might be viewers that might be uncomfortable watching, so Younghoon hinted at the juniors. Taeksoo and Hyuktae both noticed him and changed the topic.

The call with Lee Hyuk was not that long. In the first place, it wasn’t a phone call that they were planning to do for long. The guest was Park Hamin after all. Park Hamin smartly talked about episodes she had with Lee Hyuk to gain the upper hand in the conversation. There were some funny stories as well. She talked about the secretive stories of a top star that the viewers might be interested in without crossing the line. It was no surprise that her agency looked out for her a lot. Who would want to leave someone like her alone when she could pick up the hints and follow up? With a little push, Park Hamin spoke fluently like she had gained wings.

“Is that true?”

“It absolutely is.”

Younghoon looked at Maru who sneakily spoke to Park Hamin from time to time. This guy was incredibly good at reading the flow. He did not try to change the flow from going over to Park Hamin and instead rode on it while increasing his opportunities to speak. He was practically a veteran. It was hard to think that this was his first entertainment show. Park Hamin, who seemed to be competing against Maru before also changed her posture to face Maru since the timing of his responses was almost artistic. It was to the point that the hosts didn’t have to talk a lot in order to proceed with the show. Choi Jeonghee, who was ousted a little, also participated in the conversation proactively once Maru tossed her a question. Yoo Jihyuk still stayed a sitting duck.

There was no helping it. There were 8 people in this show talking. It would be great if everyone could give the audience something to laugh about with equal distribution, but TV shows weren’t so easy. He only got to say a few words because of the hosts’ considerations.

While Park Hamin kept taking the lead, Younghoon saw the youngest writer suddenly leave her seat. When she came back, she ran up to the producer in an instant. Her busy movements caught the eyes of the guests as well. Park Hamin stopped talking for a little. Then, the source of the busy staff peeked into the studio. Younghoon inwardly shouted ‘awesome’ and stood up.

“Oh my god, aren’t you Ahn Joohyun?”

KTLChamber's Thoughts

Did you guess who the 'sister of the goddess of luck' was?

Also, didn't realize that Junmin and Joongjin were that close now…

Editor's Note:

Wow. Maru is actually gonna boom. All these stacked people coming to support him.

Chapter 884
Sequence 14

Her hobby was to read fashion magazines ever since she was young. Her mom used to say that it was funny how a little toddler who didn't know how to read was fascinated with magazines. Perhaps she had admired that world even when she was too young to know about anything. Even when she entered middle school and became a trainee idol, she always carried around magazines. Just like how a faithful believer always carried around a Bible in their bag, she also read magazines of successful entertainers over and over again as a believer would their bible.

Then one day, a friend of hers, who said her dream was to become an actress, gave her a magazine containing an interview with an actress, saying that she was her role model. Hamin was fascinated by that page. That was none other than Ahn Joohyun. For the first time, Hamin went traveling with her friend to see an actress. Indeed, it was traveling. She went all the way to Busan on a day she didn't have practice. Looking from afar, Ahn Joohyun looked like she came straight out of the magazine. There may be actresses who were prettier than her, but she was convinced that there was no one as charming as her. Only after she ran up to her did she see the manager block her way. Just as she was about to give up thinking that getting an autograph was out of the question, a hand suddenly appeared in front of her.

"I don't have any paper with me right now, so do you want it on your clothes? If I do it on your hand it'll get erased."

She was wearing one of her favorite shirts, but there was no reason to hesitate. She immediately turned around and let Joohyun write on her back. The sliding sensation of the pen felt like a dream. Her friend, who was with her back then, also rejoiced.

"Still, you can't just rush in like that next time. You might get into an accident."

The Joohyun who slapped her back and told her to go her way had appeared in front of her eyes once again after a long time. She had not changed at all as though she had leaped through space and time from ten years ago to this studio. In fact, she became even cooler. Hamin almost leaped out of her seat and ran towards her, just like she did back in Busan.

The shoot came to a complete halt. Joohyun peeked in and asked if she was interrupting with a bright smile. Producer Kang welcomed her with his hands in the air.

"Oh no, what interruption. We were just about to get some rest as well."

"It's been a while, director."

"It has, and it's so nice to see you. What brings you here?"

"I just had a shoot nearby. I was about to go home after it, but I heard that Chatterbox was being shot, so I made a visit."

"You should visit more often. I'd always welcome you. Since you're here, why don't you join the shoot for a little? We'll give you a seat."

Hamin thought that it was half a joke. She was sure that the producer wanted to invite Joohyun as a guest, but it was nearly impossible to scout a top-tier actor without any agreement beforehand. Producer Kang was someone who knew that.

"Shall I? I can do it if it's just for a little."

She did not hear wrong. Hamin looked at Joohyun walking over to the guest seats. She was an actress who was known for her refreshing personality, but Hamin didn't know that she was someone who could decide to feature in a show arbitrarily on the spot. It was something impossible for a new actor to even think about doing. It was only possible for top-tier actors who could change the rules of a company on a whim. Producer Kang, who stood there in a daze, suddenly moved around everywhere like he was stepping on lava.

"I'm Ahn Joohyun. Hello, everyone."

Her idol was standing right in front of her. Her mind blanked. She could not remember where she was, or what she was doing, and focused all of her brain cells on the figure in front of her.

"Unni, I mean, senior. Do you perhaps remember me?"

After she asked, she realized what an absurd question that was. After seeing Joohyun wait without a hint of displeasure despite how taken aback she must be, Hamin quickly changed her question.

"It's natural for you not to remember. I saw you in Busan ten years ago."

"Busan ten years ago? Sorry about that. It's been too long. Did we meet because of work?"

"No, I was just a trainee back then, and I went to Busan to see you. When I saw you for the first time, I felt so delighted that I reflexively ran over to you, and I even got an autograph from you on the back of my shirt."

While explaining, Hamin realized that this wasn't the time to be doing that. She realized that talking about something that happened 10 years ago and hoping that she would remember was being too greedy of her. Taking her time away because of some private matters was not polite as well. Memories were better off as memories.

"Were there perhaps two of you? If I remember correctly, there were two high school, no, middle school girls. Anyway, two girls suddenly ran over to me and asked me for an autograph. That I remember clearly. I probably signed their shirts. One on the back, and one on the stomach."

Joohyun rubbed her fingertips as she tried to remember. Hamin couldn't believe it. Her idol remembered meeting her.

"Yes! The girl who you signed on the back was me. I was a fan of yours from back then."

"Really? Nice to meet you like this."

"Me too."

She quickly grabbed the hand that Joohyun reached out. When she played a minor character in a drama and received attention from the public, it didn't feel all that real to her. She even slightly doubted the fact that she was an actress even when Chatterbox reached out to her. But now, she could be sure. She had become an actress. She could call Ahn Joohyun her senior without issue.

It felt as though God was saying that luck was on her side today. Just getting a call from Lee Hyuk, who she was close enough to forgo the honorifics but not contact personally, was lucky enough already, but now Ahn Joohyun, whom she had admired most of her life, came to visit the studio as well. Not only that, she even said that she was willing to join the shoot. She did not know what would happen for the remainder of the shoot, but she even had the confidence that she would be at the center.

Just as she was about to call out to her again, she discovered that Joohyun was looking past her shoulders.

Joohyun walked past her. Hamin only mouthed her words and turned around. There were still many things that she wanted to talk about, but she had no choice but to lower her raised hand. She couldn't grab her.

Was she going to greet Han Maru now? Joohyun looked at him for a while before finally speaking,

"How's it going?"

She sounded very intimate.

"What brings you here?"

"Didn't you just hear all that? I came here because I heard that Chatterbox was being recorded. You're doing your first TV show, so I can't just pass by. I might be able to see something interesting."

"You probably won't get to see much. I'm actually doing quite well."

"I'm sure you are. Director, you're going to start shooting from the entrance shot, right? It'll be strange if I'm suddenly sitting down here."

Producer Kang, who was next to her, nodded.

"But hey, you seem to be acquainted with Mr. Han Maru."

"He's a junior I cherish and one I feel grateful for. I have a debt to him, so I'm going to pay him back a little today."

"Miss Joohyun owes a debt?"

Joohyun stood up and walked towards the back of the studio as though she had no intention of resolving producer Kang's curiosity. It was where the camera would have an easier time shooting. She seemed to have already realized how to make herself look good during her entrance. Outside the view of the camera, Joohyun was putting on her wireless mic. The producer and the writers talked to the hosts. They were probably discussing how to proceed with the show.

Hamin looked at Joohyun before looking at Maru again. Just what was this guy? Just going by what happened between him and Giwoo, he was someone who betrayed other people's trust and was someone who would egotistically take care of himself. However, the best entertainers and actors in the industry were looking out for him. It was a strange thing. To consider them all as idiots, their reputations were too incredible.

Above all, she was shocked by how Ahn Joohyun acted quite close to him. There was no way an actress who was bold enough to wage war against the media would stand up for a less-than-decent human. Not only that, she was indebted? Everyone was acknowledging Maru's skills and character. Even Choi Younghoon, who met Maru for the first time today, said that Maru was a 'decent guy.' He may look like he said whatever he wanted to, but he would become very polite once the cameras were off, yet out of the four guests, he only treated Maru comfortably. It meant that he wanted to get close to Maru regardless of business.

During the three-hour shoot, Hamin kept observing Maru. The cheesy yet novel way of introducing himself during the opening, his reactions and talking skills during the talk, as well as the encouragement from many famous people; everything was pointing to the fact that Han Maru was a decent person with skills. There was nothing bad about him. It wasn't that he derogated anyone in order to raise himself to a pedestal either. He was powerful when he was talking and humorous when he tossed the words to another person. Even without the support from many famous people, he would have probably gained the spotlight. She had to admit, he was above her in every single aspect.

Hamin imagined what would have happened without the phone interview with Lee Hyuk. The atmosphere wouldn't have changed, and she would not have been able to attract any interest.

"I'm not such a bad guy," Maru said.

The out-of-context words made her heart sink. It seemed that he had discovered her staring at him strangely. Looking back, she was indeed too conscious of him.

"It's not that…”

She was about to make an excuse, but she stayed quiet. She did not want to lie. It was a foolish thing to change what was on her mind in order to escape a momentary crisis.

"Since it's come down to this, I'll tell you. Actually, I've heard bad things about you, Mr. Han Maru. I can't tell you who told me, but that person…”

"Kang Giwoo, right?"

At this point, it was scary. She involuntarily had to stay silent twice in a row now. It was a good thing that the camera wasn't rolling. There was a problem with Joohyun's microphone, which delayed the shoot.

"I don't have anything to tell you. People's words weigh differently according to how much credibility you give them. Even if I stand up for myself here, it won't sound good in your ears, Miss Hamin. Of course, I don't think that you're foolish enough to be swayed by just one person's words. And, it's all the more reason I don't need to stand up for myself."

He put it nicely, but in the end, what he meant was this: I don't believe you're an idiot who believes in nothing but that man's words. Hamin's eyes twitched. Kang Giwoo was a good man. The words he told her whenever she had a hard time energized her a lot.

"Giwoo prefers to say the truth while omitting one thing rather than outright lying proficiently. Think carefully about what he said about me. If he blatantly lied to you, you would have noticed it on the spot, but if he left you to deduce it, you should be able to find out what is happening."

Seeing Maru smile, Hamin thought about what Giwoo said: about how Maru and he were friends, about how he talked to the drama writer without Maru knowing, and finally, vaguely ending the conversation while talking like Maru had done something wrong. Hamin frowned. Indeed, Giwoo did not say it properly. He just shut his mouth with a bitter expression. Everything else was her own deduction. She believed that no words were necessary. Anyone would predict a bad outcome if someone turned around with an expression like that.

"We're ready. Let's begin now."

Hamin looked in front of her. Neither Maru, Joohyun, nor any of the hosts entered her eyes. That one doubt made all of her senses distant. Did something bad happen between Giwoo and Maru? Or did Giwoo induce her to think that way? No matter how hard she thought about it, she could not arrive at a conclusion. Hamin looked next to her. She saw Maru talking to Joohyun. If there was one thing that she could be sure of amidst the uncertainties, it was that Maru was someone who didn't need Giwoo's support. He was a ship with a smooth sail or a bird with its wings spanned.

"Something feels off if you think about it, right?" Maru said while tapping on the table.

KTLChamber's Thoughts

Yet another person has escaped Giwoo's crutches.

…or has she?

Editor’s Note:

I wonder if Maru contacted Joohyun after he got over his whole dilemma.

Chapter 885
Sequence 14

When he learned that Moonjoong was on the phone for an interview, he didn't think much about it. He just thought that the elder was looking out for him. When Hyuktae, one of the hosts, mentioned Sungjae while asking questions, he just believed that he was lucky. However when even Kim Suyeon's name was mentioned, Maru realized that this 'coincidence' was all designed. The first person that came to mind who might have given the information to the staff beforehand was Byungchan, but that guy wasn't someone who would plan things so meticulously.

"Did you have a call with the president?" Maru asked Joohyun.

"Not really a call, but I did receive a text during my shoot. He told me that Chatterbox was being shot in the building next to me and that you are one of the guests. It seems like your president looks out for you a lot since he texted me."

"That sounds like a lot of pressure on me. If I screw up the show, I might even get called by him."

"I came all the way to support you, so if you don't benefit at all, then you are worth a scolding."

"Are you okay with the president now? I have always thought that you hated our president."

"Did I look like I hated him? Well, I guess that's not such a surprise. We stayed distant from each other when we needed to talk to each other. If I think about it, I was the source of the misunderstanding. I'll tell you the details after the shoot. I think it's fine if you know," Joohyun finished her words there.

"Sorry about that. I had bad stomach cramps."

Younghoon returned from the bathroom. The staff members also returned to their positions and got ready for the shoot.

"We'll resume the shoot."

After the producer's words, the slate clapping could be heard. Younghoon picked up the question sheet slightly and spoke,

"Unfortunately, Miss Ahn Joohyun, who made a surprise visit to our show today, has to go because of her schedule."

"Sorry about that. I'd love to stay here for the whole day, but I have things to do."

"Then why don't you join our show some other time? If you promise, we'll give you a solo seat without any other guests."

"Will you really?"

"I can't make promises, but the director of our entertainment department can. Director, it's about time you use the saved-up money."

Maru applauded from the side in response. There was one additional thing necessary to 'respond' to someone's words on a TV show. It was to do it properly. The studio was not that different from a theater stage. Small voices and movements were no different from being rude.

"It's such a pity to send you off already, so can I ask for something?"

"I'll hear you out first."

"I heard that you and Mr. Maru over here have acted together in a drama once, right? I didn't know about it, but one of our writers showed me a video just now. It was incredible. You looked like you were about to kill someone and bury the corpse in a mountain or something."

"Oh, you're talking about The Witness."

Joohyun was surprised, asking where they had found something like that, but the writer had revealed everything to her beforehand. Even Younghoon's commentary about it was predetermined to a certain extent. Scripting was as important for general TV shows as much as it was for dramas. It was definitely a difficult thing to rely on the reflexes of the hosts all the time for the show.

"I'd like to see that scene here. Originally, we were going to ask Mr. Maru to show his acting by himself, but since you're here, you should do it together."

"I've never acted on a TV show before. In fact, I don't even show up in TV shows that much."

Joohyun declined it once. This wasn't scripted. Younghoon chuckled before acting cute with that burly build of his. He even made a nasal voice. Joohyun laughed out loud.

"Miss Joohyun. You laughed, so you better do it. I don't do comedy like this anywhere, you know?"

"Alright. But even if you didn't do it, I was going to do it anyway."

"You should've told me beforehand. I don't do this that often."

"I'm sure there will be gifs floating online now."

Joohyun stood up and hinted to Maru. Maru said he was not good around strangers and that he couldn't do it, but he eventually stood in front of the main table, as though he couldn't help it.

"Oh, but we need a desk. We need to be facing each other."

"There's a splendid table right here, so you can use it however you wish."

Hearing Jay's words, the hosts all stood up and moved over to the guests' side. Maru faced Joohyun with the hosts' table between them.

"It is a little embarrassing to do it so suddenly."

"Hey, I don't even have any lines and I have to shout like crazy. You're better off than me."

"Why did I project myself to this suffering…”

"Since you're here, please do your best. You said you owe me. Though, I don't remember anything like that."

"I'm paying everything off with this, so remember it. You ready?"

"I'm always ready."

"So I just have to do it?"

Joohyun placed her hands on the table and took a deep breath. The OST from The Witness flowed out into the studio. It was one of the soundtracks that came out a lot during urgent situations. Behind Joohyun, the faces of the hosts and the guests could be seen. Their expressions were varied. Expectation, jealousy, indifference. Maru also placed his hands on the table. This was no different from any other stage. The audience in a theater looked at him with similar gazes. There was only one thing he had to do, and it was to make their eyes stay with his acting.

"Don't do it too roughly. There will be trouble if you bleed like you did back then."

"And I was praying that I would bleed."

"You're taking this as an opportunity?"

"Sure I am. Someone great is supporting me, so I should receive it well."

He didn't have the luxury to refuse when he was being fed. 'You could've started ages ago' – When Gaeul mentioned those words, he just smiled it off, but he was actually quite conscious of it. It wasn't that his repeated lives took away his desires. Just because his life was going to be reset didn't mean that he became an extreme skeptic. Maru wanted to live fiercely. Gaeul was a strong woman who did not need his support. Now that there was no need to pursue financial benefits for her sake, what Maru desired the most was a stage which he could throw himself into. Ironically, such stages were always tied to capital. Rather than dying in a deserted alley acting by himself, he wanted to act in front of the world. In order to do that though, there was a need to raise his value. He had to give the production companies the notion that putting this actor in a set that was made practically of money was a good idea.

Joohyun flicked her eyebrows once. It was her signal telling him to get ready because she was going to start acting. It was also a form of encouragement to receive her act. Maru nodded. After sending off the express train to success that was Flaming Lady, he finally got this chance. This strand of opportunity, which started off from the drama Doctors, was something that he could not afford to let go of. Even if he became sick after being fed too much, he had to receive all of it and let out everything he had. This show might become a foothold to that after all.

"Open your eyes," Joohyun said.

* * *

How did things come to this? Hamin looked in front of her. Joohyun was in the driver's seat, and Han Maru was sitting next to her. A pop song she didn't know the name of resounded inside the car.

She thought back to what happened an hour ago. There was a get-together scheduled after the shoot. The participants were the cast, the producer, and the writers. It was a great opportunity to make new connections. Just as she was about to say that she was definitely going to go, Han Maru apologized and pulled out.

"I'd love to go, but I have a prior engagement. I might not be attending today, so I will definitely treat you all out next time."

Younghoon said that it was a pity and sent Maru off after a handshake. Hamin looked at him going towards the parking lot before leaving the group as well.

"I also have something to do. I'm so sorry everyone."

While she was walking towards the parking lot after leaving the group, Hamin regretted it a lot. She felt like she had wasted an opportunity to become close to those people. However, to just laugh and eat together with those people, what Maru said to her tugged her mind too much. She felt like she would have a hole in her stomach if she didn't tie up the ends properly. So, she followed Maru. She lingered around the parking lot filled with cars looking for Maru. Only after she climbed up to the third floor did she find Maru leaning next to a pillar. She called out to him and approach him. When she got closer, she found a person behind the pillar. It was Ahn Joohyun. Hamin looked at Maru and the surroundings alternately before freezing up on the spot. She thought that Maru would naturally be by himself, but someone unexpected appeared in front of her.

"Miss Hamin?"

"Yes?"

"Do you have business with him?"

"No, uh."

She couldn't explain the reason she came looking for Maru, and since she couldn't explain, she would look suspicious. Hamin was not so proficient at smiling things off in such situations and avoiding the topic. She eyed Maru looking for help, but he looked away as though it was not related to him. He even smiled, not knowing how she felt.

"So you do have something to talk to him about. Then do you want to go eat together?"

Hamin sighed. She thought that she had to reply 'no' to that question, but she ended up nodding at the strange hope that she might be able to eat with Joohyun. The result was that she was sitting in the back seat awkwardly like this.

"Miss Hamin. How was my acting back then?" Joohyun suddenly asked a question while humming along with the pop song.

Hamin sat up stiffly. She felt like she had to reply with her utmost effort.

"It was the best."

"There are no cameras here, so you can just tell me honestly. I can only learn if I receive criticisms too."

"I mean it when I said it was the best. I was just watching from the side, yet it made me shake in nervousness. It was the ideal acting that I've always imagined about."

She wasn't lying. The reenactment of The Witness that she saw at the studio was freakishly good. Hamin did not even breathe until Joohyun and Maru's skit ended. Joohyun bared her teeth like a murderer herself in order to interrogate a crazed killer, and it felt like she showed what charisma was. When she grabbed Maru by the hair and smashed him down on the table, she honestly thought that it was a mistake. It was just that realistic. She even worried that Maru might have been injured.

"I've ridden along with the flow again today," Maru said from the side.

Hamin moved her gaze, which was on Joohyun's face, to Maru this time. This guy was surprising as well. The way he growled while his face was smashed against the table made him look like a crazed dog. The violence and cruelty could be seen in his eyes, and he felt like he would rush out and bite the throat of a human if he was not on a leash. The question sheet the hosts placed on the table fell on his body. The whole thing was so dynamic that the producer and the writer almost interrupted halfway. It wasn't surprising that the production staff were surprised. They probably didn't know that the two would go so far.

When the act ended, both the hosts and the guests forgot to applaud. Only after the soundtrack flowing through the speakers came to an end did they awkwardly praise the two.

It was so stunning that they took another break just ten minutes after they resumed. Everyone was in a daze. When she came to, the first thing Hamin felt was displeasure; as though she had seen a real interrogation scene, and as though she had seen a real killer. The other guests had similar expressions, so they probably felt similar things.

"But hey, did I butt in between you two? If it's like that, then tell me quickly. I'll get out of your way quickly."

"No! Absolutely, definitely not!" Hamin replied while waving her hands in the air in a flurry.

She didn't want to get misunderstood by her idol. Maru also replied that it wasn't like that.

"Then I guess we can take our time eating. Miss Hamin. What would you like to eat? This must be fate, so we'll go with whatever you like."

Things were going in a weird direction, but Hamin subconsciously said 'cream pasta.' After blurting those words out, she slapped down on her own lips.

KTLChamber's Thoughts

Looks like this new Hamin girl might stay relevant for a while

Editor's Note:

Inside spy?

Chapter 886
Sequence 14

“Um, am I really allowed to join you two?”

“What are you even saying at this point? Come on in.”

Joohyun handed her car keys to the valet parking agent and entered the restaurant first. Hamin watched as the rear lights of the car disappeared into the left side of the building. She ended up following all the way here, but she thought that perhaps just going inside like this was really being shameless.

“What are you doing? Not going in?”

Maru stopped just as he was about to go in.

“I somehow came all the way here, but I feel that this isn’t an occasion I should join. Also, I only called out to you because I had something to hear from you, not interrupt you two like this.”

Joohyun, who had left first saying that she had a prior engagement, actually turned out to be waiting for Maru. They didn’t look like they had an intimate relationship, but it was clear that they were close enough to meet up in private. It would be uncomfortable if an uninvited guest suddenly joined them when they met up to eat after a long time. If she was to return, she had to do it now. If she followed the two of them inside and ended up making the atmosphere awkward, her best day would turn into the worst.

“There’s nothing you can interrupt, so just come in already. Joohyun-noonim is the kind of person to mean what she says. She’s definitely not the kind of great person who would smile and do something that she doesn’t want to do, so don’t worry about that. In fact, if you decide to go now, you’ll get an earful from her, you know? Also, she looked like she wanted to talk to you. A person who was once her fan has grown up into an actress and appeared before her after all. If you really wish to leave, then I won’t hold you back. We can talk about Kang Giwoo over the phone. Well, it’s not like I have anything to tell you, but if you ask questions, I can answer them.”

Maru gestured towards the door with his chin. Hamin fidgeted her toes inside her heels before walking up the stairs. Finding out what happened between Maru and Giwoo was important, but above that, she did not want to miss the opportunity to talk to Ahn Joohyun on a private occasion. There was a load of stuff that she didn’t talk about during the show.

“First, let me apologize. I suspected you after just listening to one side of the story.”

“It’s fine since it hasn’t caused me any harm. You answered me well without ignoring me during the show too. We were quite good partners back there, don’t you think?”

“Yes, that’s true.”

Maybe it was because of the competitive spirit that was telling her not to lose against Maru that made her proactively talk back to every word he said. She planned to suppress him using her talking skills. Though, as time passed, she joined the flow rather than suppressing him and they became like a team.

They were guided to the 2nd floor by a waiter. Right in front of the stairs was a bar-like eating space. Two pairs of young couples were sitting side by side. The night scenery could be seen behind the whole-glass wall. The lights emitted by various buildings turned the big panes of glass into stained glasses.

“The lighthouses of overnight shifts, I see,” Maru said.

The rather emotional-looking scenery suddenly felt tragic. Hamin’s lips twitched. It wasn’t that she wanted him to get into the mood, but she definitely didn’t want him to break other people’s moods as well. Lighthouses of overnight shifts?

“What were you two up to that you were so late?” Joohyun said as soon as they opened the door and went inside.

Joohyun was no different from a model as she sat down comfortably on a chair with her coat off. She wanted to take a photo with her. It was an opportunity she did not want to miss as a fan since she was young. She fidgeted with her phone as she sat down. While taking glimpses at her, she met eyes with her.

“Miss Hamin. You’ve been giving me a lot of glances for a while, but I’m not such a strange person. The media likes to show me as a rough person, but they’re all just false reports.”

“They aren’t really false,” Maru said as he tilted his cup.

The way they exchanged jokes made them look like they were very close. She was once again worried that she might have interrupted an occasion she should not be joining.

“You can be at ease. I invited you out to eat because I wanted to talk to you, Miss Hamin. I’m personally grateful too, about you not forgetting what happened 10 years ago and telling me about it, as well as the fact that you made me such memories. Whether it’s how you look or what you said back then, they’re all so vague now, but I do remember two girls screeching while running towards me.”

“We weren’t screeching.”

“Even though I remember two girls shouting ‘unni’ in really loud voices as they ran across the sandy beach?”

“We did shout because we felt delighted, but it wasn’t on the level of a screech.”

“Really?”

“No… Probably.”

She faintly recalled that the people around looked at them with surprise. Hamin scrubbed the table for no reason. It felt dream-like to talk to her face-to-face like this, but remembering what she did in the past made her embarrassed.

“Why did you want to see me so much when you were so young? I’m not entirely sure, but if I remember correctly, you told me that you came all the way to Busan from Seoul.”

“Yes, we did go to Busan from Seoul.”

“It must not be easy going all the way to Busan when you’re just a middle school student. Did you really come just to see me?”

“That friend of mine has a good driver. Moreover, she told me she would pay the travel expenses and told me to go with her. She was quite well-off, you see. Monetary problems are the biggest roadblock when you’re young, but that had been taken care of, so there was no reason for me not to go.”

The awkward silence lifted. Hamin became excited as she talked. She talked about the fact that she found out about Ahn Joohyun’s schedule through the mom of her friend, the fact that she had a sleepless night with the train ticket in her hand, the fact that she asked around everywhere in order to find Ahn Joohyun in Busan, and finally, the fact that she screeched after seeing her.

“See? You did screech,” Joohyun interrupted.

Hamin smiled awkwardly. Joohyun listened to everything she said joyfully without looking bored. Seeing her express that she was interested with her whole body made her even more excited which made her talk about how happy she was back then. She even mentioned how they laughed and chatted throughout the whole night at a hotel with the signed shirts.

“I’ll ask just in case, but do you still have that shirt with you?”

“I have it at home. It’s too small for me now, but I am keeping it.”

“Can’t you give it to me?”

“Absolutely not.”

“Even though I signed it for you?”

“I heard that taking away what you’ve given away is a bad thing to do.”

“Then let’s exchange it. I’ll sign this coat and give it to you, so give me that shirt. I also want to own an item that contains memories like that. It’ll make me feel better if I can look at it from time to time and remind myself that there were two young girls who came to see me.”

Joohyun grabbed her coat, telling her not to hesitate. She really looked like she would take out a pen if she wasn’t stopped. Hamin felt complex. Joohyun laid out the coat on the table. The brand logo that she knew had one more zero than what she expected, entered her eyes. She reflexively raised her hand.

“You can’t sign an expensive coat like that.”

“Then I’ll give you the coat without signing it, so can you give me the shirt?”

“No. I won’t give you the shirt. It’s mine.”

“Miss Hamin. You are quite a stubborn person unlike what I saw during the show.”

She felt that the conversation was heading in a weird direction, but she became weirdly obsessed with protecting her shirt after seeing Joohyun’s serious eyes. That shirt was a treasure that contained her memories. She managed to get a sign from an actress she admired on her first trip with a friend of hers.

“You’ll receive retribution if you toy around with a young person like that,” Maru said from the side.

He kept drinking the appetizer tea, saying that it was good. When he raised the teapot, Joohyun made a soft smile and pushed out her cup. She also hung the coat back on the coat hanger. Hamin realized that she had been toyed with.

“You should also have a drink and calm down. It’s a habit of hers to probe people out and play pranks on them.”

“It wasn’t a prank though. I really want that shirt,” Joohyun said while giving Maru a glare.

Hamin received the tea for now. She was just feeling thirsty from all the talking.

“She did something similar to me when I was in high school. She’s a strange person who asks a kid about what acting philosophy he has, so don’t worry about it too much.”

“Did you ever see me ask that to other people? I only asked because there was a kid in front of me who I didn’t know what he was thinking. Usually, I just chat delightfully like I’m doing with Miss Hamin here.”

“It may be delightful for you, but it makes the listener feel complex because they can’t tell whether you’re joking or being serious. I mean, look at her. She looked good before she came here.”

“She looks the same. Miss Hamin. Did I make you uncomfortable?”

Hamin shook her head. She was rather flustered, but it was fun regardless. She could talk to Joohyun like a friend despite the fact that this was practically her first time meeting her. If her friend heard about this, she would be very surprised, and she might even get angry for not calling her over.

“Uhm, can you take a photo with me?”

Maybe it was because of the nice talk that allowed her to gain the courage to speak. Though, she wouldn’t be able to do anything if she said no.

“You were giving me glances just to say that?”

“No… actually, yes. May I?”

“In fact, I would have asked for it if you didn’t. It’s not every day you get to meet a fan like this. Han Maru, what are you doing? Get her phone.”

Maru put out his hand while sipping tea. Hamin quickly placed her phone in his hand and went next to Joohyun. She stood modestly and created a v with her fingers.

“Come closer. It’s a celebratory occasion.”

“Can I?”

“You have a cute side to you, huh? You don’t have to ask for my permission for everything. You’re someone I invited out to eat because I wanted to.”

Joohyun hooked arms with her and smiled brightly. Maru, who was standing on the other side, raised the phone to eye-level.

“Here it goes. Three-two-one.”

There was no pause between his words at all. As soon as he said those words, he shot a photo and lowered his phone. Hamin subconsciously raised her voice,

“Do it properly!”

Only after she said it did she regret it. She felt like she snapped out too sharply. Joohyun, who hooked arms with her, laughed to the point that it echoed inside the room.

“Yes, that’s the voice I remember. Maru, do it properly, will you? Go up on a chair and get a good angle.”

“You called me here to have me do this, didn’t you?”

“You just realized? Go on up. I have to look pretty in the picture with Miss Hamin.”

Maru scratched his eyebrows and went up on a chair. Hamin took a photo with Joohyun with their cheeks almost touching each other. The moment she took the photo, she had the vague premonition that everything would go well this year.

“Can I send the photo to the friend that was with me back then?”

“Of course, you should do that. But do you still keep in touch? A 10-year friendship sounds amazing.”

“Yes. She’s also an actress. Unlike me, she’s been practicing acting since she was young.”

“Then I might know her, huh?”

“I heard that she met you in a press conference? Or something like that.”

“That’s quite a fate too. Tell me about her too.”

Just as she was about to send the photo to her friend, the door opened and a server came in with a cart full of food.

“Let’s talk about the rest over some food. If you don’t want to, I am more than willing to hear you out while eating by myself, so keep on talking. Oh, you know that pasta doesn’t taste good once it gets bloated, right?” Maru said while pointing at the plates.

KTLChamber's Thoughts

This 'friend' of Hamin's. She appears rather frequently, don't you think?

Hint 1: It's a character that has appeared before. What a small world, eh?

Hint 2: She met Joohyun at a press conference? Hmmm.

Hint 2 is a dead giveaway, but I wonder how many of you remember her.

Any ideas?

Editor's Note:

If it is who I think it is, the readers' opinions of her were very divided. There's another clue but that's a dead giveaway, so I'll say that she hasn't shown up yet. Ofc I could be wrong.

Chapter 887
Sequence 14

“I know it’s a little too late to ask, but what business did you have with Maru, Miss Hamin? You looked really urgent.”

Hamin put down the pasta she wrapped around her fork. It was a question that she wished wasn’t asked. She didn’t know what to say to it.

“Looks like I asked a difficult question. Sorry, I was just a little curious.”

Joohyun smiled while rinsing her mouth with some water. Hamin looked at Maru, who was next to her. Maru, who was dipping a slice of baguette into a gambas al ajillo, received the gaze and shrugged as though he was completely clueless.

“Should I give you two some space after all?” Joohyun asked.

“No, you don’t have to.”

“It bothers me that you two are exchanging glances like that. It makes me feel like I’m interrupting something.”

“It’s really nothing like that. Right, Mr. Maru?”

She did not want to put Joohyun in discomfort. She was a person that Hamin was grateful to for inviting her out to a meal and listening to her stories. She couldn’t bear to push out the host when she butted in midway.

“I told you. You shouldn’t get swept up by the atmosphere. She’s acting like that because you keep reacting to her, Miss Hamin,” Maru said as he lifted the oil-soaked baguette. Hamin looked at Joohyun’s face. She looked wronged. She looked like she had been scammed after signing a loophole-filled contract.

“Don’t look away and keep staring at her,” Maru said just as she was about to take her eyes off.

Hamin kept her eyes fixed on Joohyun, feeling like she was doing something wrong. Not long later, Joohyun frowned.

“Are you really not going to tell me even though I went so far as to do this? I would have revealed it because it bothered me so much.”

Joohyun grumbled and put a piece of steak in her mouth. She was a lot more liberal and prone to acting as she pleased than she had originally thought. Hamin had momentarily forgotten that she was the kind of person to swear at the media and that she liked her because of it.

“She’s the type of person to think that holding back because of the mood is making a loss,” Maru said.

At this point, she found herself pathetic for being so nervous about the matter with Kang Giwoo. Was it a matter she had to hide from Joohyun? In fact, it felt like it would be better to reveal everything and get her opinion on it. Since she was close to Maru, she would keep this matter a secret as well. Hamin turned around to face Maru.

“I’d like to continue talking about what we talked about at the studio, is that alright with you?”

“I believe I said that I told you everything back then.”

“It’s because something doesn’t sit right with me.”

Hamin got ready to speak and looked at Joohyun.

“I will not say anything I heard here outside. If what is said here gets around outside and you receive harm because of it, I will take full responsibility. I will not talk about it, but if such a thing happens, I will take responsibility even if it’s not me.”

“I believe you, and this is nothing that great, so there’s no need to call it a secret. Maybe I’m just misunderstanding all of this.”

A misunderstanding – she wished for it to be like that. Giwoo wasn’t simply a friend. Giwoo was the actor who had the closest relationship to her agency, Soul. If Giwoo indeed intentionally vaguely ended his words so that she could come to the wrong conclusion with malicious intentions, how was she supposed to face him in the future? Just being worried about it felt stifling. It would be great if he could remain the grateful friend who helped her out during her time of need.

“What do you want to know about that person?”

Maru spoke first. He did not say Giwoo and instead referred to him as ‘that person.’ She thought that he was being considerate. Hamin decided to do the same.

“First, what I know is that that person is an incredibly good friend. I’m not saying this just vaguely. That person encouraged me a lot when I had a hard time. I said during the shoot that I started off as an idol but failed. Just as I was feeling despair, the agency reached out to me, suggesting that I should switch to being an actor instead of staying as an idol.”

“You said your agency is Soul, right, Miss Hamin?” Joohyun asked.

She replied ‘yes’ to that.

“I met that person there. That person gave me courage when I was exhausted. Thanks to that, I was able to gain energy.”

“And that person spoke badly about me, or to be precise, induced you to think that way. Am I right?”

Maru was right on point. This was definitely something she had to set straight.

“That person told me that he mentioned your name to the writer of ‘Doctors’ so that you could do well. Is this true?”

“It is. I heard from the writer herself. Though, I have an idea as to why he did such a thing.”

“If it’s true that he did that, then that person did it for your sake, right, Mr. Maru?”

“If you look at the results, then yes.”

Hamin tensed her eyes.

“Then don’t you think what you said back at the studio is a little too off? You told me that becoming suspicious after just listening to one side of the story is nothing good, right? But now that we checked, that person has not lied at all. In fact, he helped.”

“That’s a feasible suspicion. It’s also natural for you to believe that person you’ve known for a long time instead of me who you met for the first time today. Honestly speaking, I don’t really care how you see me, as long as it doesn’t directly harm me. If harming someone in one’s imagination is illegal, the entire Korean peninsula won’t be big enough to imprison all the criminals. However, I will give you some help to clear your mind since you seem to believe that this is such a serious problem that it is to the point that it made you come all the way here.”

Maru wiped his mouth with a napkin. All of his actions exuded leisure. The way he responded calmly made her suspicious instead. The president of her former agency, who had gone missing, also had a nice, gentle first impression. Joohyun was watching, no longer having that smiling expression on her face.

“First up, what is it that you want, Miss Hamin?”

“What I want?”

“I’m sure there’s something you want. You didn’t come to me without a goal.”

“First, I want to set things straight. There are two things I am sure of. One is that that person talked to the writer about you, and the other one is that he described you poorly in front of me.”

“To be precise, he didn’t describe me poorly, but made you think like that, correct?”

“Yes.”

“There’s a simple solution to this. You know his number, right?”

“I do.”

“Then call him and ask him yourself. That’s the most surefire method. It would be a meaningless act if I were not here with you, but it is a different story if I’m here listening with you. Just promise me one thing. If he asks how I did, then tell him that I did terribly. Also, tell him that you did great and so I wasn’t able to say a word.”

“Would I find out something if I say that?”

“Yes. There’s a bit of a lie mixed in, but just think of it as a checking process, or you can consider it as repayment for suspecting me for no reason. I’m telling you this beforehand because you look like you dislike deceiving people.”

Just as he said, this didn’t feel right to her. She would be suspecting a friend of hers after all. There was the option to put an end to the situation here and accept the conclusion that she made for herself, but she felt like she would regret it if she left it hanging like this. Thinking about how she ended up after trusting the missing president’s words, this was something she ought not to delay.

“One more thing. If things go well, I’m sure things will become awry for you. If you don’t have confidence in your skills in feigning innocence, you might as well stop here. After all, it’s completely fine for you to think of me as a bad guy.”

“Isn’t it uncomfortable to receive suspicion from another person without a reason?”

“I told you. I don’t care as long as I don’t receive direct harm. What I am a little worried about is what would happen to you if you keep associating yourself with that person, but honestly, that’s none of my business.”

“Putting it like that makes me want to check even more.”

Hamin took out her phone. Once she made a call, Joohyun would find out that the person they were talking about was Giwoo, but it should be fine. She had given a promise that she would not expose any of this outside this place. She changed her phone to speaker mode and made the call.

-Hamin. Did you finish the shoot?

“Yeah. Thanks to you, it went without a hitch.”

-It’s not thanks to me. It’s because you prepared well. Wasn’t it hard?

“It was okay.”

Maru stared at her. Hamin licked her lower lip with her tongue and spoke,

“People said I did well too.”

-That’s good.

“Also, you know Han Maru, right?”

-Yeah.

“I didn’t do it because I heard such things about him from you, but I somehow ended up blocking him from speaking. It was his first TV show appearance, but he wasn’t able to do anything. After the shoot, he even glared at me.”

-Really?

“You had a hard time because of him, didn’t you? I received a lot of help from you when I had a hard time. It’s not really a repayment, but I wanted to tell you. He did terribly.”

-Er, Hamin.

“Yeah?”

-I don’t understand what you’re talking about. Why did you do such a thing to Maru? I should have told you that I am on good terms with Maru.

Giwoo’s voice contained panic. Hamin looked at Maru, who was right in front of her. Maru just put his hand out in front as a gesture for her to continue.

“You told me right before the shoot, didn’t you?”

-Tell you what?

“You didn’t say what exactly, but you put on a difficult expression because of Han Maru. You even fled the place without finishing your words.”

-That was just because I suddenly remembered something urgent. But Hamin, was Han Maru that helpless? Did he look angry? I’m asking because I’m worried.

Hamin didn’t know what to say. Then what was with that bitter smile and pained look in his eyes that he showed while talking about Maru that day?

-Hamin?

“Sorry. It looks like I misunderstood.”

-Yes, you misunderstood. I am on great terms with Maru. You didn’t happen to tell Maru that you acted aggressively because of me, right? I trust that you aren’t such a hasty person.

Hamin shut her mouth. The missing president’s speech tone overlapped with Kang Giwoo’s voice. Maru drew his hand across his neck. He seemed to be asking her to finish the call.

“Sorry for calling when you must be busy. I’ll hang up now.”

-Alright. Good work.

Hamin pressed the end call button. This was the result she wanted: that she was misunderstanding. She should be feeling refreshed, but she felt a headache instead. It was because Giwoo pulled out while saying that everything was entirely her fault. Not only that, he even tried to check on Maru’s state discreetly. He even sounded joyous when he asked if Maru was angry. She looked at the black screen on her phone. Was it over now?

“How quick.”

Maru’s phone rang. He put it in speaker mode as well and placed it down on the table.

“What is it?”

Maru replied aggressively, as though he wasn’t feeling good. Giwoo’s voice could be heard.

-Maru, are you okay? I heard from Miss Hamin that you weren’t able to focus on the shoot because of her. I felt sorry for it, so I called you about it. Actually, Hamin, that girl, is a little slow-witted. She trusts what other people say easily, so there seems to be a misunderstanding.

She had to hold herself back from laughing because of the absurdity. ‘Miss Hamin’, he said. Maru pulled out two napkins.

-Maru? Can you hear me? What’s wrong with this…

Hamin wanted to tell him that the Han Maru he was looking for was waving napkins around in the air like he was dancing.

“Bingo,” Maru said softly.

KTLChamber's Thoughts

She escaped his crutches! Now suffering awaits her…… Poor Hamin

Editor's Note:

Welp

Chapter 888
Sequence 14

“Sorry, my phone was not working for a second. I get what you mean so later.”

-If you’re angry because the shoot didn’t go well, I’ll apologize in her stead.

“It’s not even your fault. Also, the shoot went well. It looks like you’re misunderstanding something. It went so well that I couldn’t think of it as my first ever TV show. I didn’t know that I would do so well. Though, there is the fact that I’ve received help from many places.”

-Really?

“Yes, I’m telling you. I actually got along with Miss Hamin quite well, so the shoot ended quite delightfully. I’m not sure what made you worry about me, but don’t waste your energy on useless things. We aren’t close enough to do things like that. It’s about time we stop asking each other how we’re doing, don’t you think? We’re worse than strangers.”

-What got you so mad now? Aren’t we close friends? Oh yeah, are things going well with senior Suyeon? You two seemed to be in a good mood from what I saw last time.

Hamin immediately recalled Kim Suyeon when she heard the name ‘senior Suyeon.’ During the shoot, there was a phone interview with Suyeon as well. It was just her instinct, so there was a chance that she was wrong, but her instinct was on the more accurate side. Were he and Suyeon not just close but actually lovers? She wanted to pretend like she didn’t hear it because it was a very private matter, but Giwoo’s voice was way too loud.

Maybe he was fine with his romantic relationships being exposed? Or maybe he was expressing that there was no special relationship between them? Maru kept waving around the napkins in his hands and continued the talk,

“I don’t know what you’re talking about. Did you see me that day?”

-Right, that was a private room, wasn’t it? I’m sorry if I annoyed you. There’s no way I mentioned it to get on your nerves, right? It was just a mistake, so please understand.

“So these days, you can smack a person and be forgiven if it’s a mistake?”

His voice was sharp to the point that it made her face prickle. Maru spoke as though he was incredibly angry, even though he was waving around napkins in the air. His face was smiling, but his voice was growling like he was about to wrestle with an opponent. Incomprehensible things were unfolding right in front of her. Why was it that Maru was pretending to be angry? And why was it that Giwoo’s voice contained more and more hints of laughter the more intense Maru’s false anger became? And also, why did Joohyun look like she was in disbelief, with her eyes twitching and everything? Everything about this brought up questions that she wanted to know the answers to.

-Let’s have a drink together some time, with Gaeul too.

“Not happening. If you wanna drink, then drink by yourself. Play a video or something. I heard that drinking alone these days isn’t as pitiful as before.”

-Don’t say that and…

Before Giwoo’s words even ended, Maru pressed the end call button. Hamin had a lot to ask. Just as she was about to ask one of the questions floating in her mind…

“You’re going out with Kim Suyeon?” Joohyun abruptly stood up from her chair and asked.

She approached Maru without hesitation. She crossed her arms and looked down at Maru, and she looked like she would not hesitate to use violence depending on his answer. Hamin swallowed the question floating around in her mouth. Joohyun’s eyes were too scary for her to speak right now.

“A man and a woman can date, yes. I hate that woman so much, but it’s between you two, so let’s say that it can happen. But what about Gaeul? You’re real trash if you make such a good girl cry like that.”

What was this now? She found out two secrets that she didn’t want to know about. She even wanted to leave the room. She felt like she would get to hear all sorts of things if she kept staying here. She had the confidence to keep secrets since she wasn’t the type to spout sensitive topics, but there would be nothing good for her to know about another person’s sensitive romantic history. She felt uncomfortable, but her head still decided to organize the situations in her head. Maru was dating a person named Gaeul, and he was two-timing her with Kim Suyeon? Or did he wrap things up with her and was dating Kim Suyeon anew? Seeing Joohyun’s response, it was likely that he was two-timing.

The situation suddenly turned dynamic like it was a morning drama. Was she supposed to stay still in a corner without saying anything? Just as she felt rather embarrassed and started fidgeting with her fork, she recalled a woman, an actress, who both Joohyun and Giwoo were acquainted with and went by that name. Coincidentally, that actress was shooting the same drama as Giwoo and Hamin herself. It wouldn’t be strange for Joohyun to know about her if she was an actress too. The pieces suddenly fell into the right positions. Hamin subconsciously blurted out,

“Are you perhaps talking about the actress Han Gaeul?”

The one who showed a response was Joohyun. She denied it immediately as though she just remembered that Hamin was here. To Hamin though, that sounded like ‘yes.’

“Is this a confession room? Sensitive topics are flying around everywhere.”

Maru scratched his eyebrows and sighed. Hamin had to become awkward without even any time to admire her own deduction skills.

“I’m sure you aren’t the type of person to blurt other people’s stories out like the absurd guy we just called, right?”

“I’ll pretend like I never heard it. I’ll even forget about what I just said.”

“You can’t pretend like you never heard it when you did hear it. Just don’t talk about it anywhere. I’m not asking your conscience for this request. If what you heard here somehow ends up in Kang Giwoo’s ears or rumors about it spread around, I will make you very uncomfortable with all the means at my disposal. I’m not joking. I hope that such a thing doesn’t happen, I truly do. If what you heard here ends up getting spread outside, a person very important to me might get into trouble. I am quite tolerant when it comes to malice that’s directed at me, but I cannot stand any form of malice towards my person.”

For a brief moment, she was reminded of the Maru that she saw during the shoot. He had the eyes of the murderer that he acted. At the same time, he had the eyes of someone who was desperately trying to protect something. He was reminiscent of a guard dog that would neither bark nor bite unless one approached the fences. If she tried putting her hand between the fences even as a joke, she would definitely get bitten.

“I will absolutely not say it anywhere,” she said in resolve.

She didn’t have any intentions of telling others about this in the first place, but she felt like there was a need to establish some trust by expressing herself loud and clear so that she didn’t get bitten by him and could get along with him in peace.

“We’re both in a position where getting exposed means trouble, so let us both be careful. First, noonim, do you think I’m crazy enough to break up with Gaeul? It’s nothing like that. I replied like that during the call just now because of some circumstances.”

Maru gave Hamin a glance while mentioning ‘circumstances.’ He meant that he would tell her the details later because Hamin was here. Hamin wished for him to do that. Her heart couldn’t tolerate any more of Maru’s secrets.

“Fine. I’ll trust you for now. But does Gaeul know about this?”

“Yes. I’ll explain it to you later.”

“You’ll have to explain it properly.”

“I don’t dare lie to you. Also, Miss Hamin, since it came down to this, allow me to tell you something. You should only involve yourself with Kang Giwoo for business needs. He might be treating you nicely now, but he will mercilessly cut you off with a smile if things go wrong. I’m sure you understand a little after that call just now.”

Maru pointed at his phone. She was once again reminded of Giwoo’s voice. Not even a minute after she ended her call with him, he called Maru and exposed everything while probing him. That was definitely not nice. Giwoo’s ever-so-nice first impression started crumbling.

“Kang Giwoo, huh. I’ve never seen him after meeting him during the shoot for the movie ‘Building,’ but he’s known to be quite a gentleman, isn’t he? Now that I think about it, Gaeul was there too,” Joohyun said.

“He’s a mood maker. He treats people nicely too.”

“They say you can never know what someone is thinking, and I can see that rumors can’t be trusted after all. I can see how worthless he is from what you showed me just now. Miss Hamin. People can lie and change their words in life, right? I mean, I’ve lived like that too. It’s actually quite hard to speak what’s on your mind. But someone who knows manners would not change their words on a whim just like that because of a phone call. I’ve experienced much dirtier things than what you can probably imagine, and the people who stand at the center of such matters change their words every second for the sole sake of their convenience.”

Hamin nodded. He turned what she clearly remembered into a simple ‘misunderstanding’ and did not hesitate to call the related person just to mock him. She could not interpret this in a good way at all. Even the most optimistic person would swear if they were put in the center of this scenario.

“But what you said to her just now was going overboard. You sounded like a typical villain,” Joohyun said while pressing Maru's forehead with her index finger.

Maru replied as though he only did what was natural,

“You know that I’m human trash. Miss Hamin. You know that likes repel, right? The reason I despise Kang Giwoo so much is because he’s also human trash. You should respond well and squeeze out the recyclable bits before throwing him away. That’s the most beneficial relationship with him.”

“I’ll put those words to memory.”

“Don’t forget what I said too. I was definitely not joking.”

“I’ll also remember that as well. I don’t want to be in an uncomfortable position either. But now, the things I told him and the things you told him are completely different.”

She told Giwoo that she had given Maru a blow during the shoot, while in reality, the two of them got along so well that they talked to each other a lot throughout the show. If Giwoo watched the show and called after that, she would not know how to respond.

“Just tell him that you told him that because you wanted to look good in front of him. Princes like being lifted onto a pedestal. Giwoo probably thinks that it’s natural for you to treat him like that. As long as you can respond to that well, there won’t be a big problem. He’s probably feeling smug right now thinking that he’s given me a blow,” Maru said.

Hamin committed those words to memory. She thought that she could make use of it later. Just what was the relationship between the two? To consider them as enemies, Giwoo sounded too nice. Maru played along with him to a certain extent as well.

“Er, can I ask one more thing?”

“What is it?”

“Are you really dating Miss Han Gaeul?”

“Yes. You heard everything, so I guess there’s nothing to hide anymore. But why are you curious about that?”

“Because a friend of mine is really close to Miss Gaeul. I’m not entirely sure because I only heard a few things from her, but I heard that she was too busy to meet up with her nowadays.”

“Someone close to Gaeul? Who is it? I think I might know her too.”

“It’s Yoojin. Lee Yoojin.”

Maru exclaimed ‘ah’ the moment he heard the name.

KTLChamber's Thoughts

Did anyone guess correctly that it was Yoojin? She met Joohyun in the press conference for 'Twilight Struggles', and in fact, played Joohyun's daughter in the movie if I remember correctly.

That reminds me, where's Jiseok? (The cheerful guy with heart problems)

Editor's Note:

I wonder if Yoojin is still an actor. My guess is that she became a hairstylist like her mom, cuz of all the self-confidence issues she had before.

Chapter 889
Sequence 14

“Then I’ll be leaving now.”

“Watch out on your way home. Respond well if Giwoo ever calls you.”

“I will. Er, senior.”

Joohyun told Hamin, who looked at her after saying goodbye to Maru, that it was okay to call her any time.

“Thank you.”

“You’re welcome. I’ve taken a liking to you. I’ll drop the honorifics with you next time. A sister-like relationship is better than a senior-junior relationship. See you next time.”

Hamin stiffly replied ‘yes’ like a shy teenage girl. The taxi that had been called stopped in front of the restaurant. Joohyun gave her a 50 thousand won bill despite her adamant refusal before sending her home. She was someone who would feel uncomfortable sending a junior of hers off without anything. Hamin opened the window and said that she’d treat her out next time.

“What a good girl. It’s nice to see someone like that.”

“Noonim. You look out for your juniors quite a lot. You even give them taxi fares.”

“Only then does it put me at ease. I became popular suddenly without any period in the dark, so I don’t know what a rookie’s pains are like, but I’ve seen some quite a lot.”

“You’re secretly even bragging, huh?”

“I wonder if you know the hypothesis that all languages in the world came to be in order to brag.”

“I think I might have heard of something like that before. But are you going to give me money when I go home as well? If possible, I’d like two 50 thousand won bills. I’m a junior of yours too, but if I remember correctly, you’ve never given me taxi fares before.”

“But you earn a decent amount.”

“What about when I was back in high school?”

“It’s a bad thing to keep bringing up the past.”

Joohyun pointed at the café in front of the restaurant. They still had things to talk about.

“Aren’t there too many people there?”

“And what about it?”

Joohyun pushed the door open instead of Maru who was hesitant. She knew what Maru was worried about. When the door attached to the bell started ringing, the people sitting near the door gave her a glance. It was probably a reflexive action. Most people turned their focus back to their own coffee and the people they were with, but a group of girls sitting at the table left of the door did not take their eyes off her. Joohyun winked at them and walked inside. Maru was still outside.

“What are you doing?”

Joohyun waved at Maru. Only then did he walk through the door with an awkward smile.

“You’re different from the actors I know of. Those people prefer places without a crowd.”

“I’m sure that’s just what’s more comfortable for them, and this is just what’s more comfortable for me. If you think about it, having a strong impression isn’t all that bad.”

Joohyun stood in front of the counter. After ordering, she received an alarm token.

“Uhm, you’re Joohyun-unni, right?”

It was the group of college girls. Two of them remained at the table, while three of them came to her. In their hands were pieces of A4 paper that they clearly intended to use for their assignments. She took a step closer to them, as they were too nervous to come any closer.

“I am.”

Even after listening to her answer, the three of them hesitated. After a few seconds of exchanging gazes, the one in the center held out the piece of A4.

“Unni, I’m really sorry, but can you give me an autograph?”

“If possible, a photo too.”

“Me too.”

When one of them spoke, the other ones followed suit. The two others who were watching them from the table had also approached.

“We’ll be bothering the others if we’re too loud, so let’s take a photo at your place. But you can’t interrupt me while I talk, okay?”

“We won’t disturb you even if we die.”

“You don’t have to die. Are you going to take one together?”

She sat down and gave the students an autograph each. While she took photos, she could see Maru walk over to the counter with the alarm token.

“Good luck with studying.”

Leaving behind the girls who shouted ‘we love you unni,’ she walked over to the table in the corner of the café. Maru was drinking some coffee through a straw.

“Are you done with your fan service?”

“For now.”

She sat down and grabbed her cup. The girls were quite obedient. They didn’t even glance her way as though to keep their promise to not disturb her. They were quite cute.

“Care to finish what you were talking about before?”

She had to hear the story of Kang Giwoo, Han Gaeul, and Han Maru that he could only vaguely talk about when Hamin was present. Two of the three were her cherished juniors, and the other one was an actor whom she had a good impression of. She had to find out the details of the situation so that she could respond accordingly in the future.

“It’s a bit of a long story. I’ve been tangled up with him since high school in a bad way.”

Maru bit on his straw hard as he talked about Kang Giwoo. It seemed that he despised him quite a lot. According to what Joohyun knew, Maru was the type to smile the more he hated or was displeased with a person. Not making enemies was like a life philosophy for him after all. If he went against that philosophy and expressed his clear hostility, it meant that his anger was considerable. Perhaps it might be better to call it hatred.

Maru sipped on his coffee for quite a while as though he was organizing their history until he started talking, starting with the words ‘that guy.’ Joohyun listened earnestly and focused on Maru’s expression. It was a long story that a person who wasn’t good at talking would have a hard time explaining, yet Maru quietly talked about everything without stopping. His first impression, the cruel deeds that Kang Giwoo made his ‘friend’ do, and the way he called such cruel actions ‘pranks.’ Just from that, she knew he wasn’t a man to be associated with. She even jumped up on the spot when she heard what a young girl named Bitna had to go through. How scary must it have been for such a little girl? If Kang Giwoo was in front of her, she would have grabbed him by the collar.

“That’s why Suyeon-noona listened to my request. It was better for us to make him have the misconception that Gaeul and I broke up.”

“So Kim Suyeon can do something kind for once, huh.”

She felt chills go down her back when she thought about how Kang Giwoo might have done something to Gaeul as he was the type to treat other people like objects. Thankfully, things didn’t seem to go awfully wrong thanks to Maru’s good responses.

“Then why do you look like that? You’ve solved the case, haven’t you?”

Maru smiled bitterly after she said those words.

“It’s just that something unthinkable has happened. Noonim, are you the type of person to notice if a man has feelings for you?”

“Most of the time. But isn’t that the same for you? You can discern if a man is simply being kind or if he has other feelings after a couple of meetings.”

“How about asking someone out for a meal in private despite having been rejected once already?”

“That’s obvious. One hundred percent.”

“And therein lies the problem.”

“That’s the problem?”

Joohyun was about to sip some coffee when she realized what that meant. She felt like cockroaches were suddenly crawling in front of her. Not one, but dozens of them.

“Kang Giwoo that fucker likes Gaeul?”

Her voice became a pitch higher. Maru became startled and gestured to her to calm down. Joohyun let out a breath while pushing her lower lip forward. The café felt warm when she came in, but now it felt hot. She was fuming inside.

“What did Gaeul say?”

“Obviously, she told me she would handle it. Even if I want to help her, I don’t really have a way. I mean, as you probably know, the easiest way is to admit that we’re dating, right?”

“That’s the surefire method.”

“Once he realizes that he’s been toyed with, I can imagine what kind of things he might do. He’ll probably start by leaking the news to entertainment journalists. Gaeul can become a good actress. She’s a good actress now, but she can definitely become someone who can play on a larger stage. You must know how fatal a scandal, no, a clear truth like that is to a girl like that. People aren’t as opposed to dating as they were before, but you can only find less than a handful of people admitting their relationship. Everyone’s being cautious so that they don't get chewed by the blind public’s teeth.”

Joohyun bought a cold drink from the counter and gulped it down in one go. She couldn’t tell him to announce it openly without being so frustrated about it. Maru’s worries were things that all actors went through. Entertainers talked about love more passionately than anyone else, but ironically, they were also restricted from love more than anyone else. Entertainers who are at a suitable age for marriage might be able to get married while receiving the cheers of their fans, but for celebrities who were still growing while receiving the love of the younger generation, romantic relationships usually became a flaw. Entertainment agencies that started off as idol management agencies still put ‘no romantic relationships’ in their contracts. The fact that such a thing was explicitly stated in contracts was proof that romantic relationships were detrimental to earning money.

“I’m worried about Gaeul now.”

“She tells me she’s okay every day, and I have no choice but to keep watching her without being able to do anything, so I’m getting stressed out. I trust that she’ll respond well, but worrying is another matter altogether. She’s not a stranger to me.”

“Maybe we should’ve gone for a drink instead of coffee.”

She could feel how frustrated Maru was. She didn’t have a way to help either. She could go with her usual personality and give Kang Giwoo an insult the moment she met him, but Maru would probably not want that. It’d be rather strange to insult him rather suddenly.

“Just give her some encouragement when you see her later.”

“Encouragement? I’ll bring her around to some good places so that she can get some energy.”

“Thank you. Now that I got that off my mind, I do feel a little refreshed.”

“If something like that happened, you should’ve called me out way before and asked me to take you out to drink. I would’ve taken you out even if it meant putting off my schedule.”

“That’s exactly the reason I didn’t tell you about it. Also, you know I’m not the type of person who does that.”

“I know. I know that you don’t like talking about a matter that you can’t resolve by just talking about it. But what do I do about this prick Kang Giwoo? I can’t exactly beat him up.”

“You know what they say. You avoid shit because it’s dirty. Just don’t get yourself involved with him. It'll be a pain if the smell gets on you.”

“If you see shit on the side of the road, you should clean it up.”

Actors were those that only met during work unless they became personally close. She had never seen Kang Giwoo in private after shooting the movie ‘Building.’ She thought that he was a polite junior who could respect his seniors, but he turned out to be arrogant trash who waved around his sword everywhere. From how he controlled others behind their backs, he was more like the secret mastermind.

“Oh, I was right. It is Ahn Joohyun.”

Joohyun turned around. A couple was putting a phone out to her with their arms locked.

“Hey, take a photo for us.”

“I’m sorry, but I don’t feel like it right now. Sorry.”

The man stepped up, dissatisfied that his girlfriend was rejected.

“Taking a photo isn’t such a hard thing to do. Also, why are you being so gnarly? Your attitude towards fans is terrible.”

Her temple felt like it was thumping. Joohyun stood up on the spot. She could hear Maru say something. He was probably trying to stop her. If she were feeling good, she would have taken photos with the rude couple that claimed to be her fans, but not now.

“Give me the phone.”

The man smiled victoriously. Joohyun raised the phone and took a photo of the couple. The couple froze on the spot as they were just about to approach her.

“I took a photo of you, so done now?”

“Are you kidding me?”

“That’s a little rude. Do you think I’m kidding? Am I your personal clown or something? How dare you shove your phone right at my face from the get-go!”

She expressed about a quarter of the anger she got from Kang Giwoo. The couple freaked out from just that. The man stuttered incomprehensibly as though he had no idea that a celebrity would shout at his face. The woman also paled.

“Got something to say to me?”

The man glared at her as though he was trying to save his pride before leaving the café. Left behind, the woman also followed suit. She felt a little more clear-headed now. Maybe she should snap out at Kang Giwoo if she met him after all? The guests around started applauding. The girls who were watching from afar shouted that she was cool.

“Noonim, you shouldn’t vent your anger on the wrong people,” Maru said with a smile.

KTLChamber's Thoughts

This chapter shows what I like about the novel. It feels so realisitc. It feels like it might actually be happening somewhere.

Editor's Note:

That dude can get destroyed <s></s>lol. People think they're kings because they are the 'fans'. Makes them so cocky because they think they can destroy a celebrity's image easily.

Chapter 890
Sequence 14

“Let me catch that guy once, and I’ll make him cry until he can’t anymore. He sounds like someone who thinks he can look down on anything just because he’s the grandson of the head of a big business company, but I should let him know that the world isn’t so easy.”

“Don’t get too angry.”

“I’m getting angry in your stead.”

“I’m really grateful for that, but I don’t want to see you getting involved with him. If it was anyone else, I would have just smiled it off, but you’re someone who would really take action, just like what you did to that couple just now.”

Ahn Joohyun was definitely not all talk. If she said that she was going to do it, she was the type of person to forge ahead no matter what anyone said to her. She was the epitome of being decisive. She was someone who recklessly went against problems despite experiencing dangerous things in the past, so even if her opponent was Kang Giwoo, she would probably not hold back.

“I’m sure I don’t look reliable to you, but please let him be this time just this once.”

“You are reliable. It’s just that what he did is so awful. I really just want to grab him and ask why he did so. Just what is in his head that made him act like that? Does he not have any sense of ethics or morals?”

“I’m sure he does. It must be that the boundaries of his ethics and morals are strangely narrow. He’s probably more obedient and kind to his family, you know?”

“No way. I’m sure his family just let him be despite knowing what he’s doing. Otherwise, would he have grown up so twisted? YM’s very controversial, you know? One of their subsidiaries treats its employees like slaves. I’m sure he grew up twisted because he grew up under the owner of such a company.”

“I’m pretty sure that’s not the entire reason. There are decent people among sons of chaebol families. They don’t simply just smile pretentiously in front of people. Though, that one is a little cocky because he’s too perfect,” he said as he recalled Sooil.

It was likely that the environment was a big factor in Kang Giwoo’s twisted personality, but that was not enough to indulge him. Above all, he enjoyed harming other people.

“I won’t tell you to forgive him with a big heart. It’s just, the next time you see him, just get involved with him for business only and ignore him for everything else. Please, you’re making me worried because you’re saying you’ll hit him.”

“I know how to handle myself. Do you think I’d really beat him up or something?”

“I said it before that I’m worried because you’ll really do what you say. You won’t do it, right?”

Joohyun smiled bitterly. It was her reply that she would not do it. He could now rest at ease now that he got a clear answer. Now, Kang Giwoo wouldn’t suddenly get his collar grabbed all of a sudden.

“In return, tell me if something happens. I’m involved in this now. And reach out to me anytime you need help. If something happens and I find out about it while you’re hiding it, I’m going to go find you before I find Kang Giwoo.”

“What are you going to do after finding me?”

“If you’re so curious, you can hide it until that time. Oh, by the way, I despise getting betrayed by the ones I trusted the most. Above. Everything. Else.”

Joohyun patted him on the shoulders in encouragement before turning around. Maru felt thankful that she became worried and angry like it was her own matter. It would be understandable if she took a step back and pretended like she was never a part of this, but she even rolled up her sleeves and said that she would help. He should be feeling glad that he gained a reliable ally, but Maru had no intention of dragging her into this dogfight. The more he cherished a person, the further away he had to place that person. For Gaeul, it couldn’t be helped since she was the person who was caught up in this mess, but Joohyun would be fine as long as she didn’t touch Giwoo.

Kang Giwoo wasn’t simply a little child who liked playing cruel pranks. He was someone who was very well-versed in using authoritative power, knew exactly what sociability was, and was a schemer who did not hesitate to stab a person in the weak point. Right now, he could still go against him since he was an immature one, but since he was growing up under the protection of the head of a big conglomerate, he would soon grow up to be an excellent strategist. Once that smart guy started finding out just what exactly was in his hands, Maru would no longer be able to face him. Once that day comes, he would probably have to wave white flags in both of his hands and beg for forgiveness.

Just as Joohyun was about to depart in her car after getting her car from the valet parking agent, the brake lights turned on. She got out of her car and came over to him with two 50 thousand won bills.

“I’m going now.”

He didn’t have the opportunity to say that he was joking. Joohyun got back in her car and left. He laughed. He resolved for a moment to become a senior like that but then gave up on it. It was impossible. He might be able to give people money, but he could never become a senior who other people could be comfortable around like her. Maru fidgeted with the bills in his hands before grabbing a taxi.

“Banpo Je-in town please.”

He got in the taxi and called Gaeul. The signal lasted a long time. Was she in a shoot right now? He moved the phone away from his ear to end the call.

-Hello?

“You don’t have to pick up if you’re in a shoot.”

-No, I just finished a scene. I did it in a single take. I sometimes marvel at my own skills.

“Looks like today’s the day of bragging.”

-What do you mean?

“I’ll tell you the details at home. How was today? Nothing happened?”

-Giwoo hitting on me once is on the side of ‘nothing much’, so I guess nothing much happened today?

Maru opened the window slightly. The near-winter air seeped in through the gap.

“Should I prepare some beer for stress relief?”

-Sounds good to me.

“I’ll get it ready then. Tell me if it feels like you’re going to be late.”

-I think it’ll end before midnight today. Rather than that, how was it on your side? Tell me your first impressions after going on a TV show.

“I think I did that once already.”

-But now it’s after the shoot. I believe that it’s different now.

“Can’t I say that it’s the same?”

-Nope. You better tell me now. If you stay silent, something interesting is going to happen at home.

Maru smiled and spoke,

“I was really nervous before the shoot, but thankfully, I was at ease because a lot of people helped me. Personally, I don’t think it was that bad considering that it was my first time.”

-People helped you?

“I received unexpected help. It turns out there are a lot of people looking out for me.”

-You’re a blessed man.

“Not really.”

-But I don’t believe it when you say that you were nervous.

“I’m also a man with a heart. I’m bound to be nervous about the things I do for the first time.”

-I don’t think you were nervous during your first kiss. Maybe it’s because you already had another partner in mind?

“Wow, I’m having a hard time following your twist in topics. It’s suddenly about first kisses now.”

-Maybe it’s because I just shot a kiss scene. When I shot it, I brainwashed myself into thinking that I was kissing a dog, but it still leaves a bad taste. I feel a little sorry for dogs too. At least dogs are cute, aren’t they? Kang Giwoo doesn’t have a cute side to him at all.

“You sounded a little angry when you picked up the phone, and now I get why. Did he hit on you during the shoot?”

-If he did, do you think I would’ve let him be? I would have snapped out at him to do it properly. He was so spiteful and did all the acting properly. He separates his public and private matters. He’s a scary guy. It just means that such a fine-looking man did such atrocious things behind people’s back, doesn’t it? I get startled several times a day. How can he do something like that with a smile on his face?

“If you want to vent your frustration, now’s your chance. A very good listener is on the other side of the phone.”

-While I do want to do that, I’ll stop now. Nothing good would come out of infecting other people with my annoyance. In return, though, you have to drink with me joyfully.

“I’ll show you what I did during the show. It had pretty good responses.”

-You prepared something like that?

“I needed a solo shot for something. Let me just tell you that I put my soul into my self-introduction. You can watch the rest at home.”

-I’ll be looking forward to it a lot.

“Don’t get too high hopes. You might be disappointed.”

-Unfortunately for you, I’m already filled with expectations. Don’t you dare do it half-assedly. I’ll compare it when the episode airs and get back to you for it.

Maru stroked his throat. If he wanted to do it properly, then he had to exercise his throat right now. If he could make her smile and relieve her stress with a funny act, then it wasn’t a bad deal at all. While waiting for her who told him ‘just a moment’, he danced lightly and muttered the princess song.

“Are you a preschool teacher? I heard a lot of men are doing it these days,” asked the taxi driver.

He laughed saying that his daughter was looking after toddlers at preschool.

“I’m not exactly a preschool teacher.”

“So you are an elementary school teacher.”

“I don’t really teach anyone.”

“Then why are you doing something like…”

I’m doing it to show my girlfriend – he could not say those words. The taxi driver looked at him with confusion, muttering that he didn’t look like he had a child. A strange sense of silence gave off an uncomfortable atmosphere.

-Sorry, I need to go to the shoot now.

“Go on. Let’s talk about the rest at home.”

-Alright. See you later.

“Good luck with work.”

Maru looked outside the window. The taxi driver’s gaze on him that was reflected in the rearview mirror was too prickly.

Hey, don’t glare too much. We’re both getting old, aren’t we? You must have acted cute in front of your wife when you were young, right? – these were words he couldn’t say out loud.

KTLChamber's Thoughts

Now, I don't know how to feel about comparing kissing Kang Giwoo to kissing a dog.

I was like, "okay…… okay?…… okay!?!? you WHAT?"

Editor's Note

I feel like Maru could have gotten out of it easily by saying it was for his princess.

Chapter 891
Sequence 14

“Listening to you, it sounds like Miss Hamin must have a lot of worries too. Kang Giwoo is always the problem huh? It’d be great if he could just stay still.”

That guy seemed like he was enjoying toying with others using vague words. Or, that was the only way he could form relationships with others. At this point, whether genuineness and conscience existed inside him was debatable.

“I told her not to show any signs, so there shouldn’t be any problems for a while. I don’t think she’s naïve enough to be fooled twice.”

“We should create a social circle later; a group of people who are acting in front of Kang Giwoo. Who knows, there might be a lot more people like us.”

“The way he acts is actually filled with holes, so that’s a possibility. I’m sure if such people exist, they are just staying still because like us, many things would go awry if they made enemies with him.”

“This is why public image is important. I want to give him a big blow, but I can’t.”

“Geez, you’re saying the exact same thing Joohyun-noonim did.”

The cold can of beer touched her forehead. Gaeul shivered slightly as she received the can. Maru was sitting on the floor, leaning against the sofa. He said everything went smoothly, but it must have been exhausting for him to talk for hours in an environment that was different from a drama shoot. From the sofa, she massaged the back of Maru’s neck. It was stiffened up like a nervous person. She pulled Maru towards her when he groaned and tried to pull away.

“Stay still. You’re an adult, yet you can’t even endure that?”

“You’re just way too spicy with your hands.”

Hearing the word spicy, she exerted even more force. Maru shut up. He seemed to have realized that talking wouldn’t do him any good here.

“Miss Hamin found out that we are dating. When I talked to her, things just inevitably flowed to talking about that.”

“I’ll try to reach out to her first when I meet her later.”

“Also, she says she’s a friend of Yoojin.”

“Yoojin? You mean Lee Yoojin?”

Gaeul took her hands off Maru’s shoulders.

“You still keep in touch? I’ve never seen her since high school.”

“Of course you didn’t. You didn’t keep in touch with anyone around me ever since you graduated, like some kind of monk who became detached from the world.”

“Did I now?”

“You did. Just look at Chaerim-unni.”

Gaeul brought her phone from the bedroom. She opened her photo gallery and pulled up a photo she took with Yoojin. It was from May of this year, when she came back to Korea for a little while.

“She’s gotten a lot prettier, hasn’t she?”

“She hasn’t changed at all. She still looks nosy and like she would peek at other people kissing.”

“When was that?”

Gaeul thought back to what happened on Christmas a long time ago. After a stage, she received a matching ring and a bottle of perfume from Maru as a present. It remained as an intense memory in her mind that still made her heart flutter when she thought about it to this day.

“It was a rather bold first kiss, wasn’t it?” Maru said as he jutted out his lips.

Gaeul pushed away those lips with her palm. She only wanted to remember that she had received his heartfelt gift. Pulling Maru down and kissing him was something really daring even when she thought about it now. Back then, she must have had an abnormal amount of courage to go skydiving without batting an eyelid. Would she have given him a kiss if he gave her presents and confessed like that but it was another boy? Definitely not.

She pulled the cheeks of the grinning Maru. He seemed to have found a point to tease her about. While it was true that it was one of her cherished memories, she was going to have a hard time sleeping because of the embarrassment at this rate.

“What does she, who has witnessed our first kiss alongside mother-in-law, doing right now?” Maru asked as he swiped over the photos.

He was looking at photos that they took together in Seoul during the ten days she came to Korea. Gaeul spoke as she looked at the photo they took while eating an annoyingly spicy tteokbokki,

“She’s in Japan now.”

“Traveling?”

“No, because of work. It’s been about two years. These are the photos we took at the beginning of the year. It’s almost been half a year since I haven’t seen her. We were both busy, so we haven’t been messaging each other that much either. Maybe it’s because of that, that we stay up all night chatting every time we meet each other. It was the same when we took these photos too.”

“Is she acting in Japan then? From what Miss Hamin said, she seems to be continuing her acting career.”

“She is. She’s continuing to shoot many pieces in collaboration with some college circles there too. But you know how meticulous she is. She says she has to prepare in case she doesn’t succeed as an actress, so she’s working under her mother. You remember that Yoojin’s mother runs a hair shop in Cheongdam, right?”

“I do remember that fancy hair shop. Joohyun-noonim said that she wanted to meet Yoojin. Apparently, she and Miss Hamin went to Busan to meet her during middle school. They must have been young, so it’s quite incredible. I’m sure she didn’t even imagine that she would be working together with a young girl who went to get an autograph from her.”

“Yoojin was her daughter in Twilight Struggles, wasn’t she?”

“Yeah. She liked it a lot back then too.”

“She was the actress that Yoojin admired. So I’m sure she liked it a lot.”

Gaeul gestured to Maru to come closer. She put her face against his and took a photo.

“Why are you taking a photo all of a sudden?”

“I feel like I should report this. She was my number one conversation partner back when I broke up with you. We talked trash about you for days. I forgot about her because I hadn’t messaged her for a while. It’s almost November, so she’s coming back home soon. I was thinking that I should tell her when she comes, but since I remembered, I might as well report to her now.”

“Considering Yoojin’s personality, I think my safety is at risk here.”

“If she says she wants to hit you, then just endure it. You deserve it.”

“I can’t even defend myself, huh.”

After taking a few photos, she sent one that looked good and one that looked funny through the messenger. To Gaeul, Yoojin was someone that provoked her competitive spirit. They competed for the same spot during the amateur acting class but she lost, and even after they turned 20 and they started going down the path of acting, Yoojin was a step ahead of her. Right now, she had gotten famous first, but she believed that Yoojin would follow her sooner or later. She knew this because they had been running side by side while looking towards the same objective. Ever since she left for Japan, they talked a lot less than before, but no matter how long she didn’t talk to her, she felt as close and friendly to her as ever. This would not change even in ten years, or in twenty years. She wasn’t simply a friend; she was a competitor she had been fighting with for a long time.

“If she’s working under her mother, is she doing hair-related stuff?” Maru asked.

She shook her head and showed him some photos that Yoojin sent her before. The photos contained a large concert stage and photos taken backstage.

“Yoojin’s mother actually runs a lot of businesses. When we were young, she was already involved in investing in film production. Did you know that TTO is doing concerts in Japan right now?”

“TTO? I saw one of the members during the shoot today. He apparently came back to Korea after doing all the concerts.”

“Once they’re done with the group concert, they hold individual concerts as well. They’re hugely popular in Japan after all. Yoojin’s in charge of their concert outfits. She’s not doing everything by herself, though, she’s just one of the team. From what she says, she’s the one leading everything, but I don’t know if that’s true or not.”

“So that’s why she’s staying in Japan.”

“It’s not just TTO. A lot of the idol bands who go to Japan seem to leave their styling to that team. I’m sure it’s a result of her mother’s great business skills. I heard she launched a premium hair shop in Aoyama, and apparently, the reservations are 4 months long. The shop she’s running in Cheongdam is still doing great too. You’ve seen senior Joohyun when I took you to that hair shop in high school, right? Apparently, she has been going there ever since that time. I go there from time to time too.”

“I do remember. She looked like she would be quick on the calculator.”

“Putting it like that makes it feel strange. She’s a good person.”

Just as she smiled back at Maru, Yoojin replied. It was an emoticon of a cute dinosaur breathing fire and stomping on the ground. She spent ten of those in a row. It meant that she was extremely angry and would punish her if she did not explain things properly.

-It’s been about two months since we got together.

She got a reply as soon as she sent it.

-Don’t you have any pride!? After all that crying because of him!

-Sorry. But both of us had a misunderstanding. A lot of it was my fault.

-Shut up. I’ll see you when I go back to Korea. Both of you are so dead. Also, tell Han Maru this.

Gaeul read the latter part of Yoojin’s text.

“What did she say?”

“Yoojin wants me to tell you this: you damn prick. You cut off contact and escaped to the military, yet now you reached out to me saying that you’re living a sweet life? I’ll kill you when I see you.”

“I don’t think her mouth was so rough before. No wait, was it?”

“We should kneel and beg for her forgiveness once she comes.”

Gaeul sent her a message again, asking when she was coming.

-As soon as possible. I need to see if this is true or not with my own eyes.

-Sorry.

-Then don’t do things that make you feel sorry. Tell me honestly. Are you seeing him because of sympathy or something?

-Absolutely not.

-Then you like him? You love him?

Gaeul looked at the side of Maru’s face through her peripheral vision and moved her fingers.

-Yeah. A lot.

-Then fine. Just, you have to compensate for all the time I consoled you. You’re going to have to play around me this time when I go back to Korea, alright?

-Don’t worry about it. I’ll leave my schedule empty as much as possible.

-Geez, you’re a popular actress, so I can’t take you around all day either. Anyway, I’ll talk to you when I get back.

* * *

Lee Yoojin put down her phone. It was absolutely absurd. Han Gaeul was someone who bawled her eyes out after looking like her soul had packed up its stuff and left her body on the day after Han Maru went to the military. For a while after that, she acted like she was going to die soon. She even felt worried that she had to leave Gaeul behind and go to Japan. She felt relieved whenever they met in Korea and saw that she was becoming better. But now, that girl was meeting the very man who made her suffer through all that.

“What a tenacious bunch.”

Yoojin picked up her phone again. Gaeul and Maru could be seen in the photo, and Gaeul was smiling in delight. It was that clear smile that she saw for the last time when in high school six years ago. It was a smile that made her hold back from asking if she was crazy. She couldn’t say anything when she looked so happy. Although, she felt a little relieved because it felt like the soul that had left her had finally returned because her partner was finally by her side.

Still, it was unforgivable. She decided to bully the two of them as a price for making her suffer all this time seemingly for nothing. It seemed that beer was a must on her trip to Korea this time.

“Yoojin, you inside?”

“Yes. I’m here.”

“Come down and say hello. We have an important guest.”

Yoojin dressed up. The fact that her mother had invited a guest to the house in Tokyo meant that the guest was truly important. She met most of her guests in her shop. She went down the stairs and saw the guest sitting on the sofa.

“Hello. My name is Lee Yoojin.”

“She’s my daughter.”

Her mother’s voice could be heard from the kitchen. The guest sitting on the sofa stood up. His neat hairstyle and artistic fit of the suit were quite impressive. Was this what they call a middle-aged charm?

“As I heard, you are one lively lady. I’m Hong Janghae. Nice to meet you.”

KTLChamber's Thoughts

Uh oh. That's definitely not a welcome name.

Editor's Note:

Uh oh. Please say Yoojin won't join Soul. I like Yoojin.

Chapter 892
Crank Up 1

“I’ll be going outside then, so that you two can have a talk.”

Park Okhwa apologized to her daughter who left the house after greeting the guest.

“A lot has happened recently. It’s been a while since she got to rest, so she must have been sleeping.”

“She does look tired.”

Okhwa offered Janghae some tea. It was Japanese matcha. Looking down at the slightly foaming tea, Janghae lifted up the cup and put it against his mouth.

“It’s bitter and yet savory.”

“I brought it from Hoshino. I’ve been tasting a lot of traditional tea I could give out to customers at the shop, and this one was the most suitable for Korean people’s tastes. It’s moderately bitter, so it’s easy to drink, and it’s a brand-name product, so it satisfies the vain desires of my customers. As you know, the main customers of our shop have a slightly different perception of money.”

“Looks like I must not leave it unfinished.”

“If you’d like, I’ll give you some as a gift.”

Okhwa drank some tea as well. Beauty and styling techniques definitely had their limits. Even the most well-known stylists had no special skills when observed closely. There might be a difference in speed or the talent of touching the hair, but after a certain level, the difference was trivial. Winning against the competition required putting effort into things that weren’t just techniques with the hand. Okhwa realized this twenty years ago. The shop she opened in Cheongdam-dong was the start of that. She didn’t create a shop that just touched someone’s hair; she raised the entire person. While many of her competitors who believed that hair stylist shops simply needed to focus on doing the hair well started closing down, she managed to increase the number of her stores. One thing she realized while managing those shops was that there were unexpectedly a large number of people who wanted to spend their money in ingenious ways.

“I heard that you are going to open a shop in Ginza soon.”

“How did you know?”

“Just some rumors here and there.”

“You must have a lot of ears, president.”

“The nature of my work requires me to be sensitive to rumors, so I can’t help but put a lot of ears everywhere. In any case, congratulations. I have heard that yours is the first brand to have opened a shop in that field in this country, director. No, should I be calling you president now?”

“Just call me director. I’ve been using that title my whole life, so being raised in status to president or whatnot is not of interest to me.”

“Understood.”

Janghae put down the cup. As for his teacup, it was empty.

“Looks like we should get straight to business. I’m here to talk about the hotel in Omotesando.”

“I thought it would be about that. There’s nothing else that might bring you to me after all. I have heard about it too. The situation seems complex.”

Janghae nodded and reached into his inner pocket. What came out was a cuboid case, and it seemed to be an electronic cigarette. It seemed he had done it out of habit as he put it back inside his pocket.

“It is okay to vape. Vaping doesn’t smell that much, does it?”

“Thank you. I had quit smoking for a while, but ever since I got this as a present, I started smoking out of habit. Especially when it’s a matter that’s hard to deal with.”

Janghae turned on the electronic cigarette and waited. Okhwa spoke as she looked at the blinking LED on it,

“I apologize from the bottom of my heart. It is rare for one of ours to cause trouble. I wonder how things turned out like that.”

“From what I hear, she needed some quick money. It seems she has gotten involved with private gambling organizations. Apparently she persuaded the man who was in charge of delivery that she would marry him if he helped her out this time.”

“What a typical and boring story. So the middle man and that girl are trying to pull off a joke with the photo she took?”

“That’s how it is.”

“Did you get her?”

“I’ve sent my men out to search for her. They’ll be looking around places she might go to, and we’ve also got her close contacts, so it won’t take long.”

“What a pain. I didn’t know she would do something reckless like that. And to you too, I can’t begin to imagine how to apologize to you.”

She felt a headache. He was a guest when they were on good terms, but he would become a very annoying enemy if their relationship went bad. Her customer this time was an old man nearing his seventies, so he valued his pride a lot, but if a photo of him rolling around in bed with a woman in her twenties was exposed to the media, then he would very likely cause a ruckus while foaming at his wrinkled mouth.

“Did you get them?” Janghae said as he picked up his phone.

From how he leaned back as though he could sigh in relief, it seemed that the daring runaway couple were caught.

“Take their phones away immediately and check if they uploaded anything on the internet. You can take the man to your office and explain to him so that he can understand, and as for the woman…”

Janghae gave her a look. Okhwa asked if she could take the phone for a moment. Janghae spoke a few words to the people on the other side of the phone before giving her the phone.

“Hello? Is this Mari?”

-Unni.

“Just what were you doing? You aren’t the type of girl who would do this.”

-I’m sorry, unni. It looks like I had gone crazy for a minute. Oppa told me that we just needed to do it this once. I’m sorry. I won’t ever do it again.

“Mari. You know how much I cherished you. You possessed a large sum of money that other people your age couldn’t possibly have. Did you graduate from a good college? Do you have a great background? You have neither, and the only thing you could trust in was your decent-looking face and your body. Why can’t you understand that? I told you, didn’t I? Don’t try to use your brain in cunning ways. I told you that keeping secrets is the number one priority when it comes to our jobs. Did you think that all the money was yours after taking on chaebols all this time? Did you think that the money in your hands was small?”

-Unni, I’m sorry. I will never do it again.

“Mari, you don’t have to be sorry. The ship has sailed, and there’s no turning back. How old are you this year again? Twenty-five?”

Mari replied ‘yes’ in a small voice.

“What can a twenty-five-year-old do without a degree? In the end, you’ll go back to being a call girl again. But do you think you can sell your body in Korea after getting three to four million won per session all this time? Probably not, I think. Mari, I always told you, didn’t I? That we are high-class, premium products.”

-Unni.

“Snatch a good man and get married. That’s the only method you have now. You don’t have the persistence or the ambition, and you don’t even have the right mindset, so that’s the only way out for you.”

Okhwa turned off the phone. Janghae was putting his electronic cigarette inside the case after turning it off.

“Fortunately, things worked out. It would have been a pain if this dragged on.”

“It is a result of taking action early. Nothing seems to have been uploaded on the internet, so it seems like there will be no further trouble.”

“I’m glad that you took care of it well, president.”

“It looks like you must give them a warning. I get that letting them walk around freely is easier to control, but as things have gotten to this point, I’ll have to ask you to be more mindful about it.”

There was no room for excuses. Janghae was the one who created the bridge for her to take charge of VIPs’ trips to Japan. Only livestock would return grace with harm. Okhwa did not want to be one.

“I’ll tell the head manager about it. I’ll also check them again when I bring them to Japan.”

“Anyone can make mistakes, and that includes me. What’s important is to not repeat them. You’re someone I trust, director, so I will not worry about this again. Let’s close the case here on our end this time as well.”

“I’m grateful for your words.”

Okhwa brought out a tea set gift. It was something she had prepared when Janghae had contacted her.

“It’s the matcha you drank before.”

“I appreciate it.”

“Don’t drink it too fast. It is quite thick.”

Okhwa did not explain that there was something other than tea inside the packaging. Janghae did not say anything either even though he must have known that he wasn’t just getting matcha tea. Okhwa liked Janghae for this. He was neat and clean in the way he worked. She sighed in relief after hearing briefly about the customers that would visit next month as well as a list of people to manage. Things had ended. Janghae also smiled comfortably and ate a senbei that she had brought with the tea before.

“I heard that your eldest son is starting another movie. It must be good to have a son that many people want. I saw that my child too seemed to have talent in that area and brought her around a lot when she was young, but it seems like not anyone can become stars.”

“I don’t boast about my children because it makes me look foolish, but I do feel rather proud when I hear about them. Geunsoo, that boy. I knew he had it in him.”

“He must take after you a lot, from how he’s on his path to success.”

“His skills are one thing, but I believe that there was a lot of luck involved as well. As you know, becoming a popular actor doesn’t happen through skills alone.”

“It’ll be great if he can join his father’s agency. How long is your eldest child planning to stay in JA?”

“He’s very independent, so he will probably try not to come into my wing. It’s a bit of a pity, but I intend to be content watching him grow.”

“What a reassuring son. I’m envious. Is your second son also preparing to do something in that area?”

“No, my second son has talent in studying, so he went to Soohan university.”

“Your eldest son is a famed actor, while your son goes to a prestigious university. I want to boast about my child as well, but you’re children are too great that I can’t.”

“Your daughter seemed like she could splendidly take care of herself from what I saw before.”

“I still need to watch out for her. These days, we get into fights a lot. She was very obedient when she was young, too. How is it for you, president? Are you getting along well with your children?”

Janghae brightened up as though he felt good just thinking about his sons.

“Both I and their mother weren’t able to look after them a lot because of work. Maybe because of that, there was a chasm between us by the time they matured. It’s all because of my shortcomings. I wasn’t even able to fight them. We were just indifferent to each other. But I thought that it wasn’t good like this, so I tried to reach out to them and understand them first. Things got resolved rather easily. My boys accepted me as though they were waiting for it as well. Right now, they are my best drinking buddies, whether it’s the eldest one or the second one. Sometimes, they act so close that it’s a bother.”

Janghae laughed as he stroked his hair.

“Sounds great. I’d love to talk it out with my daughter.”

“It’s the first time that’s difficult. Once you get through to her, parents and children will become like friends. That’s just how things work.”

“I hope it’s like that.”

After conversing for a while, Janghae checked his watch.

“Looks like you have business to attend to.”

“I’d love to stay here and talk about my boys with you, director, but yes, I do have something to do. Thanks for the tea today. I’ll give you a call once the matters in Korea are settled.”

Janghae stopped as he was standing up with the tea set.

“Should I just let the girl known as Mari be? We’ll take care of the man, but the young lady worked under you.”

“If it’s possible, can you just let her go? I’ll reach out to her later.”

“That young lady must be blessed to meet a good person like you.”

“Just as you said, president, anyone can make mistakes. She must have learned her lesson, so she will listen to my words now. It’s such a pity to let go of someone like Mari. There are a lot of customers who look for her.”

“Then we won’t touch her for the time being.”

“Thank you.”

Okhwa saw Janghae out and closed the door. There were many things she had to take care of in a short time. The first thing was to contact the head manager and reeducate the girls.

“Head manager Oh? Have everyone gather up.”

KTLChamber's Thoughts

Jeeeeeeeeeeesus Christ. Janghae smiling and laughing about his sons gave me the creeps.

Editor's Note:

Man, I hope she doesn't know that Janghae is scum. I would hate it if Yoojin found out her mom was also scum.

Chapter 893
Crank Up 1

Choi Miyeon found an unfamiliar man standing in front of her store. He loitered around in front of the store before sticking his face against the door and looking inside. She couldn’t easily approach him. She stood at the bus stop in front of her store, pretending to wait for a bus as she watched the store. The man called someone on his phone. She felt like she was going to start sweating coldly. She thought that everything was over since it had been quiet for a while, but was it going to start all over again? Was he a detective? Or a person related to Lee Miyoon and Hong Janghae? Her lower stomach started aching. She felt like she was going to vomit if anyone tapped her slightly. She forced down her unease and anxiety and watched the man in front of her store. She was so focused that she didn’t even realize a bus had come. The driver had opened the door and stared at her. Are you not getting in? – he asked with his eyes.

“Sorry.”

The driver rubbed his nose and closed the door. The bus went off, leaving behind a cloud of dust. Miyeon took out her phone. She needed help. She checked the names in her contacts lists, but eventually, she clenched her teeth and let her hand loose. There was no one to ask for help. She had painfully realized that the police were on the side of the wealthy, and she did not want to cause her family any worry. Other than her family and the authorities, there was no one left. The friends she had made during her journalist career all distanced themselves from her while giving her glares. A thirty-five-year-old workaholic woman had only a handful of friends not made through work, and even those people all had families or children, so she did not want to inconvenience them. Above all, those people couldn’t give her any practical help.

There was one name that caught her eyes. He would come at a moment’s notice if he called him now. She found it hard to call him precisely because of that. Her finger swayed on top of the name ‘Kim Dongwook’ before she folded her finger.

Then, her phone started ringing. She shivered like she had seen a horror scene during a horror movie. The people standing at the bus stop gave her strange stares. Miyeon shrank her shoulders and left the bus stop before picking up the call.

“Hello?”

-Uhm, am I speaking to the owner of the flower shop? I’m in front of the shop, but the door is locked. It says the opening hours start at 9. Are you perhaps on holiday today?

Miyeon looked at the man in front of the store. He was on his phone. She felt her energy drain. It was just a customer who had come early.

“I’m on my way. I’m basically there.”

She hung up and started walking. The man discovered Miyeon and lowered his head.

“So you were right nearby.”

“I was just about to arrive. Let me open the door.”

She unlocked the padlock on top of the door and entered the passcode on the electronic door lock.

“Come on in.”

She felt sorry. She had doubted a customer who had come to look at flowers. The man looked around.

“There are a lot of small flowers. They look great to give as presents.”

“Yes. The vases on this shelf here are usually sold as visiting gifts. The big vases below are usually bought for verandas. If you want any specific size or shape, then you can tell me about it. I put a lot of thought into interior design at my shop.”

“Did you create all of these small vases by hand?” The man had asked as he looked at the pink aloe in the pink vase.

“Yes. Many customers look for those. Since it’s a cactus, it’s easier to look after. It’s small and cute too. The gold-tooth aloe and the short-leaf aloe next to the one you’re looking at have slightly different shapes, so you should choose what you like after considering that.”

“They’re all quite nice. What do you think about these bright colors?”

“The pastel-tone vases, you mean? Many people do prefer that.”

“We were looking for gifts, and we decided to hand out cacti this size with a small saying printed on it. Can I order in large quantities?”

Miyeon smiled and said yes.

“Can I do about a thousand?”

“A thousand? Of those mini vases?”

“Yes. I don’t need them all at once. For now, I’m thinking about two hundred per month.”

“If it’s like that, I can do it. A thousand all at once is a bit too difficult for me since I run this shop by myself.”

Imagining herself being busy making new vases, Miyeon realized that humans were so simple-minded. Just ten minutes ago, she was hyperventilating because of her anxiousness, but now she was smiling because of the stable sales. The fact that she could feel happy probably meant that she was doing a lot better.

“What kind of cacti would you like?”

“It’s fine for you to decide. It’s also fine if you just use the remaining inventory.”

“Eh?”

“Just make whatever you want. You can also switch up the vase colors, or just make them with whatever inventory you have left.”

“That’s good for me, but the company must want something specific. It might become a problem later.”

“It’s fine. I run the company. The president said something, so who would say no?”

“I see.”

Miyeon took a memo on the whiteboard she hung up on the wall. When it came to the important stuff, she would become nervous if she didn’t write it down immediately. It was something she gained because of her career.

“I’ll pay for them all in bulk.”

“It’s fine even if you pay monthly though.”

“Paying in advance will put your mind at ease, and I can forget about it too. Please tell me your bank account number.”

Miyeon told him her bank account number. The man sent her the money on the spot using a banking app on his phone.

“Tell me your corporate registration number. I’ll issue a cash receipt.”

“It’s fine. You don’t have to. Just write a hand-written receipt that I can give to the finance department. My finance department is quite picky even when the president is spending, so I have to be sure about proving where I spend my money.”

“But you can only get your tax deducted if you get a proper receipt for it. It’s not a small sum of money.”

“Getting that amount deducted won’t even leave behind a mark. You can handle it however you want. Rather than that, as senior said, they seem perfect for gifts.”

Miyeon, who was hesitating in front of the terminal, stared at the man when the man mentioned the word ‘senior.’ The man’s mouth, which had been moving non-stop ever since he had come inside the store, stopped for the first time. He awkwardly rubbed his nose and switched the topic, saying that a vase looked pretty.

“Uhm, did you come here on someone’s introduction?”

“Eh? No, not really. I just saw it on a blog somewhere that this place was good.”

“You mentioned a senior just now, didn’t you?”

“I must have made a mistake while thinking about something else.”

The man clearly seemed like he was making up lies. Miyeon asked him for his bank account number.

“Why do you need my bank account number?”

“I’ll reimburse you.”

“Please, why are you doing this?”

“I have my own circumstances. I cannot accept this money until you tell me who that senior is.”

“I’m no one suspicious. I’ll even give you my business card. How could you back down on a good business deal like this?”

Being able to handle a thousand items as she wished was certainly a good condition. The speed at which she would have to work was also suitable as she would not have to overexert herself. It was a deal that she would regret if she missed it, but she could not proceed with it now that she had heard a suspicious word.

“Okay. He told me to keep it a secret, but I guess I can’t help it. I’m acquainted with senior Dongwook. We met recently and talked about some things. It was during that talk that he asked how possible it would be for me to make a deal with this store. I told him I’d decide after seeing the items, so I came here myself. No matter how close he is to me, I can’t accept flawed items. But now that I had a look at them. They seem perfect to hand out as gifts, and the price didn’t seem so bad, so that’s why I’m trying to make a deal with you. I came here because of an introduction, so I can’t really ask for a discount for paying in cash, and I thought I should make it a good deal for you.”

The man stroked his hair with his palm, asking her not to cancel the deal now that she found out who he was.

“Honestly, this was the first time he asked me something so cautiously, so I came here because I was surprised. That man is the kind of person to ask outright, not the kind of great man who would take caution. I tried not to talk about it because I thought there were some circumstances behind it, not because of some other suspicious reason. Well, I believe I have explained myself enough, so I’ll be taking my leave.”

“Um.”

She tried to call out to the man who left, but the man left after asking her to take care of the items. Miyeon spat out the stuffy breath stuck in her throat and sat down.

“I made him worry.”

She felt thankful and sorry at the same time. Miyeon grabbed her phone and called Dongwook.

* * *

“Geez, why did that guy act suspicious and put me in a difficult position.”

-I just must have been too suspecting. Thank you, senior, for looking out for me.

“Nah. I only mentioned it because I remembered. It’s nothing amazing, so you don’t have to keep it to heart.”

-Thanks to you, I can make a living.

“What has gotten into the almighty Choi Miyeon? You should be a little more confident. You sold your items because they were good.”

Dongwook threw away the cigarette he took out to smoke. Hearing his junior’s voice filled with vitality made him quit thinking about smoking.

“How’s business going? Is it hard since it’s winter?”

-It’s doing a little worse than spring for sure. But I didn’t receive that much damage because I don’t just deal with flowers. These days, air plants are selling well, so it’s fine.

“That’s good. I’ll introduce people I know to your shop, so accept them without worries. If you’re so uncomfortable with it, you can pay me rebates. How about 10%? That doesn’t sound bad.”

-I’ll think about it.

He could hear a chuckle on the other side. This would be unthinkable just a few short months ago. Dongwook leaned against the car and spoke,

“You’ve become a lot better. You’re still going to the hospital, right?”

-I am. I don’t go as often, and I don’t take as much medicine either.

“Looks like you’ll cheer up soon. It’s about time you revived.”

-Even if I do revive, I’ll just be a lady at the flower shop. I can’t go back to that world.

“Don’t even think about coming. You look good there. Maybe you finally found your dream job.”

-That’s a good thing to say to someone who’s been in the media for over a decade.

“Looks like you really feel better since you’re grumbling and all. Just buy me some drinks later.”

He scratched his tire with the heel of his sneaker. They didn’t talk about anything for a while. He stared at the white cigarette that he had thrown on the ground.

-Senior, I’m asking just in case, but you aren’t still investigating that, right?

“That? What’s that?”

-Hong Janghae, Lee Miyoon

“I told you many times already. I’m at the peak of self-preservation. Did you already forget that I rejected you several times when you asked me? I don’t want to say this, but I took my hands off it after seeing what happened to you. I don’t even want to think about it now.”

-Good. Forget about that thing. It’s better that way. They were enemies I shouldn’t have gone against. It would be great if I listened to your words before.

“There you go again, thinking about bad things. Don’t worry about that and just focus on running your shop. You should do your best if you want to keep running it. Earn a lot of money. Money is the best.”

-I’m saving up even if you didn’t tell me. I’m going to pay back the man who gave me this shop.

“Pay back? Don’t. That shop is a speck of dust compared to what you went through. Just accept it. You shouldn’t consider cleanliness when it comes to money. Even if a dirty man gives you money, it’s clean money, okay?”

Just as Dongwook spoke with a smile, someone caught his eyes.

“Alright then, good luck with your shop. I’ll visit you again.”

-Okay. Don’t ever get involved with that matter.

“There you go again. I prioritize my safety above everything else.”

After hanging up the call, Dongwook picked up the cigarette he threw on the floor and put it in his mouth. In front of his eyes, a woman with a short haircut was walking past him with a bag of groceries. Dongwook pushed the cigarette to the end of his lips and muttered,

“I hope this Mari is that Mari.”

KTLChamber's Thoughts

……Shocking revelation everyone. LOA *only* has a hundred-something chapters left. (Excluding side stories)

Editor's Note:

Damn. only a hundred smth chaps left to edit. Crazy

Chapter 894
Crank Up 1

“Unni, your eyeshadow got a bit smudged. Wait a sec.”

Gaeul closed her eyes and waited. It was a scene where many people were running down the corridor, and the director seemed dissatisfied and was increasing the number of cuts.

“Unni, would you like some water?”

“I was just about to ask. Do you have anything cold?”

“I do. Look at you sweating despite it being winter. Looks like the director has set his mind on it today. The reversal in viewing rates really hits big, huh.”

She drank some cold water given to her by Mijoo. Doctor’s Office ended up yielding its first place to Doctors. The staff members of Doctor’s Office whispered to one another that it was the rebellion of the side characters. Doctors received a strange amount of attention starting episode 8, caught up to Doctor’s Office at a steady rate, and ultimately passed it.

“Lift the reflector properly,” the director shouted.

From what she heard, it seemed that he had gotten an earful from the head producer. Apparently, he was laughed at by a fellow producer he was discreetly competing with, in the department. He usually preferred using gentle words of consolation even when someone made a mistake instead of chiding them, but today, he was properly getting angry. It seemed that he had a very high-stress level. Gaeul also did her best not to create NGs and focused especially harder than before. After all, the more delayed the shoot became, the tighter the schedule would become, and the stricter the director’s voice would be.

“I watched Chatterbox yesterday. Maru-oppa was pretty amazing, yeah? Even my friends are talking about it. I told my friends that someone I know is going to be on it.”

“Well done. But what did your friends say exactly?”

“Apparently, he’s so cute because he’s weirdly cute. He looks cold at a glance, but he looks interesting.”

“Cold?”

“Yes.”

“Popularity sure works wonders. If it was before, people would have said that he gives people a bad impression.”

“Maru-oppa does have quite a cute face if he smiles. Though, he is a bit menacing when he glares. Chatterbox has gotten more viewing rates than usual, so I’m sure your boyfriend will become popular now.”

“I wish that would happen.”

Mijoo, who was smiling, suddenly turned rigid.

“Kang Giwoo’s coming.”

Mijoo organized the cosmetics and left the place. Gaeul had told her to leave the place naturally once she caught sight of Giwoo. In cases where she couldn't help it, she just told her to stay smiling.

“It’s not cold at all today.”

“I’ve been running since morning, so there was no time to feel cold. I can’t even feel that it’s winter.”

They say you get used to smelling disgusting things, and indeed, it had gotten a lot easier to talk to Giwoo. It was much better compared to before when she had to put her mind into acting every time she faced him.

“So I kept thinking about it, and I think I’ve done something wrong after all. If not, I just can’t understand why you’re acting cold towards me.”

She felt that what was coming had finally come. Last time, when Kang Giwoo invited her out to a meal, she had hammered the final nail in the coffin, saying that she had no leisure to date anyone right now. After that, he did not talk to her for a while, but his gaze became a lot more persistent. She held out well until now with minimum conversations because she had to act with him, but it seemed like this was the end of that. Gaeul reminded herself that she had to respond calmly before speaking,

“I told you. I want to focus on acting for now. I’m not saying that I hate you or that you made some mistake that made me want to distance myself from you. I’m saying that I want to invest more time into myself.”

“Then alright. I know better than anyone that your desire for achievement is strong.”

Her lips twitched. You know me well? – she almost urged him to recite all the things he knew about her. If she hadn’t remembered Maru’s obedient smile when she parted her lips halfway, she would have caused a ruckus in the set. She couldn’t just shout at him and regret it later.

“It’s as you say. I’m a lump of self-improvement, so I don’t plan to do anything else for the time being. So let us each focus on the piece we’re doing. The director’s already on edge since we got overtaken.”

“I was surprised after seeing the viewing rate chart last time. I thought that we would be in the lead even though they caught up, but it was reversed. Maru is amazing after all, isn’t he? He was the start of it all. He’s getting more spotlight than the lead characters. He seems busy with interview requests and all.”

“You seem quite knowledgeable on what Maru is up to recently.”

This guy was way too cautious. Despite ‘knowing’ that they had broken up, it seemed that he had not excluded the possibility that they were still dating, from how he kept bringing up Maru every time they talked. Gaeul responded with indifference. After all, not many people would be interested in talking to a wall.

“I saw Maru on Chatterbox last night. He was good in TV shows too. I’m sure the entertainment program producers will want him now.”

Gaeul also watched Chatterbox yesterday, alongside Maru in the living room. The ‘insane’ self-introduction that Maru showed her on the day he recorded the show came out on TV without a single edit, alongside funny subtitles and sound effects. It was something she greatly enjoyed watching, but she couldn’t express that in front of Giwoo.

“I didn’t watch it because I was sleeping. It’s not a program I enjoy watching anyway.”

“I have always wanted to know, did you two get into a fight? These days, you two don’t seem to be talking to each other.”

“I could say the opposite to you. You always seem to be talking about Maru recently. It’s like you’re Maru’s newsletter.”

She retorted because it felt like there would be no end to this if she just kept listening. It was something that would make Giwoo’s eyes flip with all the hostility he had towards Maru. Just as she expected, Giwoo smiled. It wasn’t the relaxing smile that he made out of habit. It was a defense mechanism that hid his discomfort. Now that she had experienced it from up close, she could tell the difference easily. She understood what Maru said when he talked about how Kang Giwoo was still too immature. Gaeul could easily see the errors that normal people would not find if they look at him with goodwill.

“I just want you two to make up,” Giwoo said.

He seemed to have gotten himself together in that short while, and the uncomfortable smile had disappeared.

“We never fought in the first place. We’re just both busy and don’t contact each other that much. Also, I have no reason to monitor each and every single one of his TV shows. It’s fine as long as we know that we’re doing well, isn’t it?”

“If you say so.”

“Done talking now?”

“I said everything I came here to say. So, I’m thinking if there’s anything else I should talk about. Also, I’m wondering if eating with me without any ulterior motives is such a hindrance to you.”

“It’s because you act like that that I have no choice but to act like this. It’d be a pain for both of us if we got awkward. If you need someone to date, why don’t you look for someone else? I’m sure you have a lot of women in your contacts.”

“I don’t have anyone I contact in private. I’m quite awkward when it comes to things like that. Do you know what made me flustered the most? It was when someone called me a playboy.”

“You aren’t?”

“You are seeing me like one too? Is that why you’re distancing yourself from me?”

“No, I said this many times already, but I just think that now’s not the right time to be in love. You might think differently, but love is something you can do anytime. But as for my career, it will be over for me if I don’t get as much as I can now.”

“Isn’t it tiring to just keep working?”

“It is. I mean, what isn’t tiring work in this world? I’m just doing it because I enjoy it to the point that it doesn’t matter if it’s tiring.”

“I understand you.”

Giwoo nodded, seemingly in agreement. He was being obnoxiously persistent today. Was he getting the misconception that she was just pushing him back and not actually rejecting him? Or was he a pervert who gained joy from being excluded? Regardless of which, it was a pain in the head that he wasn’t leaving and was sticking around. She stood up and changed spots. The rest was becoming long because the camera was being put onto a different rail. She left the hospital because she didn’t like the stuffy air. She saw people who had come to watch the set. It was natural for people to be here since there were bright lights on at 9 in the evening.

“Gaeul-noona! I love you!”

A bunch of loud shouts could be heard. It was a bunch of high school boys. Gaeul waved his hand. The bunch of boys, who were taking photos of her and creating heart shapes in the air, suddenly stopped and looked to the left. She had a bad hunch about it. Just as she had expected, Giwoo was approaching. When she tried to leave because she didn’t want to get involved, Giwoo blocked her way.

“You should give them a little fan service.”

She subconsciously frowned. Did he set his mind on it today? She seriously considered if she should tell him to get lost and wondered if that would wake him up a little. Just then, Giwoo grabbed her wrist and raised it in the air. She was about to shake him off when she caught sight of the people who were taking photos. She forced herself to smile and waved her hand. Journalists had latched onto the drama because of the falling viewing rates. If she gave them any more sights, they would use their blabbermouths even more.

“Tell me if you want to fight with me. I like fighting,” she whispered to Giwoo in a small voice.

Only then did he let go of her hand and apologize. She rubbed her wrist as she returned to the hospital. She was originally going to get some fresh air, but she ruined her mood instead.

“I didn’t know you’d hate it so much. I’m sorry.”

“Are you a kid? Or what, were you annoyed that things didn’t go your way? I told you, didn’t I? I want to focus on work right now.”

“I just wanted to show our fans something good.”

“If it was like that, then you could just wave your hand. Or at least, tell me about it in advance. If you think that you can grab my hand without permission, then you’d better fix your thinking. I’m telling you, there will not be a next time.”

She wanted to vent her anger, but she held back because it might impact the shoot. This guy was truly more annoying than Lee Miyoon. Seeing him smile with a pretense of goodwill, she might as well have an easier time fighting it out with Lee Miyoon.

“Gaeul, are you upset?” Giwoo approached her and asked.

Gaeul did not want to reply. She desperately wanted to go home. She wanted to hug Woofie and lie down on the sofa without thinking about anything. She wanted to hear Maru’s humming.

“I’m sorry. It looks like I was too immature. I made a mistake because I’ve never truly liked someone before.”

She suddenly felt like a pair of cold hands touched her. She felt a chill running down her back. Gaeul looked at Giwoo. He, who she thought would look nervous or apologetic, was instead looking at her with sharp eyes. There was a smile that she had never seen before on his mouth. It was a smile that made her guard go up the moment she saw it. Gaeul intuitively realized that Giwoo was seeing her as a ‘toy.’ He had been watching from the side cautiously for months and must have finally made the decision today. That would also explain why he was being so persistent. What she found the most detestable was that the affection Giwoo showed seemed genuine. What could be more freaky than that man loving her?

“I’m sorry, but I will not harbor romantic feelings for you.”

“I know. But you never know what will happen when it comes to love.”

“That’s not true, I think. Most of the time, love is clear-cut. It’s so clear in fact, that you can’t possibly be wrong.”

“Maybe. But I still don’t want to give up. You still have a lot that you don’t know about me.”

“Just because I get to know something I didn’t doesn’t mean that my feelings towards you would change.”

“But that means that there is a possibility for change. I understand. I respect your decisions. And I did go too overboard. Let me apologize.”

He was a spiteful guy. He actually pulled out at the most decisive moment. If he was just a little more persistent about it, she would have walled him off properly so that he would never be able to talk to her in private again.

“But seeing you annoyed looks fresh and new. I like it.”

Giwoo walked past her. Her jaws felt tired. It was probably because she did not get to say what she wanted to say. Would she be able to get through the shoot properly? She clutched her aching mind when she saw the face of a woman that wasn’t too welcome in the distance.

“What a day.”

Gaeul looked at Lee Miyoon, who entered the hospital while hanging her coat on her arm. It would be great if she could just walk past like she didn’t see her. Maybe it was because she looked for God, who she usually didn’t look for, that made Miyoon, who was walking forward boldly, suddenly turn her head. They locked eyes. God, Buddha, whoever, isn’t this too harsh? – Gaeul smiled brightly and nodded.

KTLChamber's Thoughts

Geez, I hate these creepy chapters the most.

Editor's Note:

"She suddenly felt like a pair of cold hands touched her"

For a second, I thought Giwoo actually touched her. I was about to be livid.

Chapter 895
Crank Up 1

Wrinkles were bound to increase with age. She rather liked the small wrinkles at the end of her eyes that resembled snowflakes, and laugh lines were one of her charms. Wrinkles on her neck looked hideous, but she could understand as it was a result of time. Lee Miyoon touched her forehead. She could feel the crease of her forehead on her fingertips. She pushed her finger straight up. She could feel multiple wrinkles that stretched out like rivers. In her prime, she was called the ‘forehead beauty.’ When she first heard such a thing, she felt really taken aback, but she eventually took a liking to that name. The smooth forehead was her symbol. Even now that she was nearing her seventies, she did not have a single wrinkle on her forehead. After all these years, it had turned into her pride. Lee Miyoon’s forehead had to be smoother than the young ones.

“You’re here, madam.”

One of the staff members working at the TV station bowed 90 degrees and greeted her. She was a young woman. Her fingers stroking her forehead suddenly trembled. The forehead of the young one in front of her caught her eyes. She could feel her wrinkles deepen.

“Can you put away your ugly face?”

That staff member quickly made way. She tensed her stomach, pulled her chin and started walking. She gave a glance at the people watching the set before entering the hospital. She felt extremely displeased. She rolled her eyes around looking for the bathroom. When she found it, she went inside the bathroom and stood in front of the mirror. A thin snake was crawling on her forehead. Miyoon took out her BB cream from her bag and applied it on her forehead. The tube of BB cream that she had bought merely days before had become thin. She applied the BB cream along her wrinkles before throwing the tube on the floor. Applying cosmetics on top of her crumpled pride was a fruitless endeavor.

“Hong Janghae that bastard.”

It was already too late by the time she became suspicious. Hong Janghae had already finished his preparations to change ship. She should not have ignored Hong Janghae’s brief smile six months ago. That was when this started. Valleys of wrinkles started forming on the pride that was her forehead. They were at odds with each other, but she thought that they were business partners who would not betray each other. She believed that they could not afford to betray each other as they held each other’s weaknesses. Oh how wrong she was in her judgment of Hong Janghae.

She washed her hands and took out her phone. She had sent dozens of text messages to Hong Janghae without a reply. It seemed that the other party decided to thoroughly ignore her. She raised her forehead. Anger fumed inside her. She could not stay still. She had to show that Lee Miyoon wasn’t such an easy woman. She was gnashing her teeth while looking at her phone before suddenly becoming extremely shocked and immediately loosening her forehead. The BB cream had clumped up into a white line along her wrinkle. Miyoon screamed at the mirror. The scream seemed to be loud enough to reach outside the bathroom as a staff member peeked inside. She seemed surprised.

“Fuck off.”

She did not want to say more than two words. The staff member paled and turned around. She was aware that the more complicated a situation was, the calmer she should be, but she was out of her mind because she had been hit too strongly on the back of her head. A week ago, when she had just found out about the change in situation, she almost passed out. It had taken a week just to get herself together and start taking action. She thoroughly felt that she had gotten old.

It was ten years ago when she started trafficking people together with Hong Janghae. Before he became the president of Soul, they only saw each other from time to time as managerial positions, but ever since he settled in Soul, they started talking deeper about their business. What consolidated their mutually beneficial relationship was when he prevented The Five’s prostitution scandal that almost got exposed to the media six years ago. He turned the public’s attention on the ‘actress prostitution scandal,’ and brought in the idol band, who had relations to high-level mistresses, effectively stopping it from becoming an issue. Seeing Hong Janghae’s way of doing business, she thought that they weren’t compatible as fellow humans but were good as business partners. Never could she imagine that the result of that would be her losing all of the powers she had.

Hong Janghae had opened up a new business route. He had attracted all the people under her management in the country behind the curtains and gave them to a new business partner he made in Japan. It was someone she knew as well. The shop owner of a famous stylist shop in Cheongdam-dong. She should have realized it when that woman flew around from people to people like a tweety bird.

The middleman that she had been working with for years had notified her of their resignation just a week ago. The hunting dog that returned with good items with some good feed had gone to a new owner who gave them better feed. She lost all her contacts overnight. It made her laugh due to the absurdity. This was way too clean of a job. The president of a small business owner that called her ‘madam’ just until a little while ago actually moved his entire business to Japan. The good-looking kids that she had under her wings had all cut contact as well. Had she known that this was going to happen beforehand, she would have gotten the numbers of all the trainees who introduced her to all of them. She never knew that having her middle man take care of the communication out of fear of getting caught would lead to such a problem.

She had lost all of her limbs. The castle that she had built while rolling around in the dirt that was the entertainment industry, dabbing her hands into all sorts of dirty business, had all collapsed overnight. The bigger problem was that she could no longer contact anyone high up, whether it was that member of the city council who preferred busty ones, that business owner who always wanted a good suck, or that politician who said that the taste of a girl around his granddaughter’s age was better than those around his daughter’s age. None of them picked up her call. It wasn’t just trainees that she had connected those men and women to. She had stacked bills of 50,000 won in drink boxes and handed some to them discreetly on multiple occasions.

Miyoon liked controlling people. She felt proud of her life when she looked at people moving as she willed. The money that she gained secondarily, as well as the sense of power that she could smell right next to them was good as well. She was fine with giving up the money since she had earned more than enough, but she could not give up on the hierarchy that she had rummaged through as she wished to until now. That was her lifeblood. She gave her body and soul in order to create that business route. What was stolen was not just people and money. She was robbed of Lee Miyoon herself. It was utterly unacceptable.

“Head prosecutor.”

She finally reached someone. She had only reached this person after several attempts. The head prosecutor coughed dryly.

-I was expecting another call. Madam Lee, I’d like you to stop calling me now.

“Head prosecutor. You can’t do this. You’ll be in trouble if you do this to me.”

-What are you on about? Trouble? What an unpleasant word. Madam Lee, no, Ms. Lee Miyoon. Do you even know who you’re talking to right now?

Miyoon fell silent. She had briefly lost her reason because of her fuming anger.

“I apologize. Excuse my rudeness. But head prosecutor, you know why I’ve called you.”

-I have nothing to say on that matter. I hope you don’t call me for personal reasons in the future. We will not be seeing each other.

“Is it because of Hong Janghae, that man?”

-Geez, you should already know what happened. Since things have reached this state, you might as well humbly accept everything. Don’t get reckless and bring yourself misfortune. I’ll help you once considering our relationship until now. Just make do with that. Now, if you’d please excuse me.

It seemed that Hong Janghae had thoroughly played his hands. One of her VIPs, the head prosecutor, had clearly drawn the line. The other customers should have similar reactions, and that was probably why they weren’t picking up her calls.

She couldn’t just let this slide. Hong Janghae was the one who would rejoice the most if she just humbly accepted everything like what the head prosecutor said. It was time to show him how tenacious she had been to climb up all the way here from her moldy semi-basement house.

Miyoon took a deep breath and neatened her hair. She had lost her first move, so she could not afford to hesitate. It was impossible to duke it out with Hong Janghae, so she had to go above that line. That was the reason for her visit to the set today. The bridge was here. The one who was connected to the chairman who sat in a place that oversaw the entirety of Korea.

She was just crossing the hospital when a detestable face caught her eyes. It was Han Gaeul. It was that pigeon-like bitch who did not know fear. Usually, she would talk to her as a refresher, but she was rather busy today.

“Not doing anything today, huh?” Han Gaeul said as soon as she tried to go past her.

The muscles around her eyes squirmed. She turned around and glared at Han Gaeul.

“Finally got something to say?”

“Just how do you never change, girlie?”

“Thanks to you, senior, I became someone who can hold my ground. But hey, you look like you’re in trouble. Your face is seriously no joke.”

She ended up showing her wrinkle to the last one she wanted to show them to. She felt like she had been stabbed. Hong Janghae, the head prosecutor, the rest of the customers, as well as all of her subordinates - the stress that she had received during the past week suddenly smashed her head all at once. She couldn’t stay still. She felt like she had to chide this girl no matter how busy she was. She might die of anger if she just let this pass by. She swung her hand with all the impulses that occurred within her body gathered in her hand. She would feel better if a crisp slap tickled her ears.

“You’re gonna hit me?”

The hand that had slapped the cheeks of dozens, if not hundreds, was caught in midair. Miyoon groaned in pain. Why was that feeble-looking arm so strong? Miyoon tried to shake her hand off with all her might, but Han Gaeul did not let her go. Her hand felt like it was going to break.

“Let me go! It hurts! I said it hurts!”

Only after she screamed did she realize that there were many eyes around. She looked so terrible right now that it was to the point that she had to mind other people’s gazes. Not only was her hand caught by a junior decades younger than her, she even whined like a little child.

“You’re quite strange today. You don’t have any power in your hand either.”

She could see the producer rushing over as though he heard the scream. Han Gaeul politely bowed to her before turning around. She gnashed her teeth to the point that her golden tooth was getting stripped.

“Madam, what brings you here?”

“You!”

She was about to chide the shocked director but decided to hold back.

“It’s nothing, so just go about your business.”

“What has Gaeul done wrong to you ag…”

“I said it’s nothing!”

“Yes, madam. I was wrong. Please calm down.”

“Forget that. Where’s Giwoo? He’s in the shoot today, right?”

“Giwoo? Yes, he’s inside. Shall I call him over?”

“I’ll go there myself.”

She glared at the staff members who were watching. Only then did they avert their gazes. Only the bold outsourced members were laughing. She engraved them into her memory so that she could later tell them that their unwitty mouths would be the downfall of their main source of income.

She looked at her wrist while walking. A handprint – red and blue – had remained on her wrist. The squished flesh did not spring back up in a short time. It meant that she had gotten old.

So without my subordinates and my guests, all my customers, only this wrinkly skin and useless acting skills are all I have? – she came to herself. It was terrifying just thinking about it.

“Madam.”

Giwoo greeted her with a smile. It was the smile of an angel. Her guide to heaven was here. Through him, she could reach the man at the apex of power who could squish a mere Hong Janghae with a finger.

“Yes, Giwoo. How is the shoot going?”

“Not bad. But what brings you here?”

“The thing is, I have something to ask of you.”

“Please speak comfortably. I’ll listen to anything you have to say.”

It was her lifeline; one that shone in gold. No matter how greedy Hong Janghae was, he would have to cough out everything he ate with one word from YM’s chairman. She was acquainted with the chairman as well. If she explained everything, he would probably give a word to Hong Janghae, his subordinate, as a token of consideration of their relationship until now.

“I have something I need to talk about urgently with the chairman.”

“Are you talking about my grandfather?”

“Yes. It’s something extremely urgent.”

She grabbed his hand. She had to get a clear answer here. Giwoo, who looked at the floor as though in hesitation, slowly turned his head around. Miyoon followed his eyes. Han Gaeul was approaching.

“That damned bitch can’t read the mood.”

She glared at Han Gaeul, who walked past, before looking at Giwoo again. Giwoo was smiling.

“Thinking about it now, you always hated our Gaeul.”

“She is one bad bitch. You should watch out as well. She’s one thieving fox. Rather than that, can you listen to my request?”

“Yes. I’ll ask grandfather about it.”

She sighed in relief. Just as she was about to thank him, Giwoo let go of her hand first. Then, he dusted his hand off as though he had got some dirt on it. She had to be mistaken. Miyoon pulled her awkward hand back to her waist.

KTLChamber's Thoughts

Miyoon is going down, but Yoojin might be in trouble…

Editor's Note:

Man, my worst fear came to pass. I was hoping in the back of my mind that Yoojin's mom wasn't trash, but this chapter just confirmed it. sigh

Chapter 896
Crank Up 1

The queen of the set was waiting nervously. Gaeul stared at Miyoon. Miyoon had never not made herself public. Regardless of which set she went to, she would sit down on the chair that the producer would provide for her and would watch the shoot with one of her legs on top of the other, taking a big spot in the middle as if she enjoyed seeing the staff members being displeased with her. Unless she entered the camera angle or something, there was no one who could stop her or express any complaint.

Miyoon, who stood in a corner of the hospital, stared at Giwoo endlessly. It had been an hour already. Even the staff seemed to find her rather curious for standing still without a word for a long time as they were whispering to each other. Truly, what has gotten into that woman that was making her stay still?

“Okay. Prepare to pull out.”

The scenes they needed to shoot at the hospital were done. She could see Lee Miyoon moving among the busily moving staff. Her target seemed to be Kang Giwoo. The two of them spoke for a long time. It was a rather common scene to see her talk to Giwoo with a smile whenever she came to the set, but her expression was rather different today. Even from afar, she could feel Lee Miyoon’s sense of urgency. The two were a duo that got on her nerves. Kang Giwoo and Lee Miyoon - both of them were those that threw their morals into the trash. When Giwoo called somewhere with his phone, Miyoon’s expression turned visibly brighter. As if they were conscious of the attention of those around, they walked out of the hospital. She wanted to follow them out. She wanted to know what kind of schemes they were concocting to be rest assured on her way home.

“Gaeul, wait a little.”

The producer called out to her. Gaeul had to turn around. She walked over to the producer and looked behind. She could no longer see the two of them.

* * *

“Grandfather wants you to come to his house.”

Miyoon spat out the breath she had been holding back. A way forward had been granted to her. Since the issue of meeting the chairman had been resolved, she had confidence in taking care of the rest.

“Giwoo, thank you so much.”

“I don’t know what this is about, but please, take care of this well. Also, you’d better set off quickly. He does not like sudden appointments, so you’ll be in trouble if you’re late.”

“Of course. It’s an appointment with the chairman, so I dare not be late. Giwoo, I will pay you back for this later.”

“Don’t mention it. We should help each other out in this world.”

Miyoon grabbed Giwoo’s hand before turning around. She had to hurry. She told the manager waiting at the van the location. The van darted off.

“Be as fast as possible. If we’re late, both you and I are dead.”

She organized her thoughts as she looked at the whizzing outside scenery. She couldn’t show her tears to appeal to the chairman. In front of a merchant, emotions were worth less than a single coin. She had to prove her worth. She would report to the chairman about what kind of profits he would stand to gain when she regained her subordinates that Hong Janghae had taken from her through malicious methods. Since that old man despised wasting time, she had to persuade him with just the main points. The van jerked up and down. The manager was looking through the rearview mirror in fright. It seemed that he had made a mistake at a speed bump while trying to speed up.

“Forget it. Just make sure you’re not late.”

She could see the manager being relieved. There was probably no need to tell him that he had just been fired. They entered a neighborhood where the tall walls were reminiscent of old castles. Whenever they turned around a corner, cars costing hundreds of millions of won were lined up on the side of the hill. This was a place where people who controlled this country since its militaristic days through their pens, money, and politics. When the van went past the house of the president of a news agency, she could see a wall painted blue. That was the place where the owner of the YM Group resided. She had been here a couple times before, but it made her shrink back every time.

“Go back down and wait. Don’t block traffic here.”

After sending off her manager, she stood in front of the metallic door. The chairman’s name was engraved on the old nameplate. Miyoon touched the crease on her forehead once before pressing the bell.

“It’s Lee Miyoon. I have an appointment with the chairman.”

* * *

While looking through some documents, Hong Janghae’s eyes moved to his phone on the left. The lights were blinking, as he had turned it on silent. Usually, there was no one who would call him at this hour on his personal phone, not his business phone. He reached out and grabbed his phone. The moment he saw the name on the screen, he put down the papers and picked up the call.

“Yes, chairman.”

-Little Hong. Are you busy?

“Not at all.”

-Where are you right now?

“I’m still at the office.”

-You should come to my house for a bit. There is something you need to resolve.

“I’ll depart immediately.”

-Take your time. Don’t run into accidents.

Janghae told the head manager outside that he would be leaving for a little. It was rare for the chairman to call someone without warning, especially when calling someone to his house. The light turned from orange to red, but he did not take his foot off the gas pedal. He couldn’t really take his time just because he was told to. He shrank the distance in one go before arriving in front of the bluish-white wall. He saw the door to the garage open slowly. It seemed that the security team had seen him through the security cameras. He parked his car in the garage connected to the garden. He walked past the pond that had a golden koi fish in it before standing in front of the main door.

The secretary opened the door for him. Exchanging short greetings with the chairman’s closest confidante, he walked inside.

“The chairman is in the study. There is another guest.”

“Is it junior director Kim?”

“No, it is Miss Lee Miyoon.”

“Lee Miyoon? Okay.”

He rubbed the watch that the chairman had gifted him and stood in front of the door to the study. The secretary knocked on the door, opened it, and stepped back.

“I apologize for being late, chairman.”

He could see the chairman reading a book at the table and Lee Miyoon who was sitting in the chair in front of him. Miyoon rubbed her forehead before placing her hand on top of her knees.

“You’re not late. I can see that you came here right after I called you. You’ll run into an accident if you do that, so take your time next time.”

“I will.”

“Sit down first,” the chairman said while flipping over the page.

Janghae sat on the chair next to Miyoon.

“The two of you talk to each other for a bit. I’ll talk once I’m done reading this. You two both know your stuff, so I believe you’ll sort this out quickly.”

The chairman put some earbuds in his ears. The book in his hand was Don Quixote.

“You were quite reckless this time,” he said to Miyoon.

She chose the wrong person to drag into this. It seemed that her last resort was the chairman since all of her subordinates had been lost, but this woman didn’t seem to know who the chairman was at all.

“Who told you to touch my food bowl?”

“How unsightly. Are there owners of food bowls in this world? The food bowl goes to whoever has the most smarts. It seems you didn’t think it through that far since you’re a woman who only knows how to make young kids sell their bodies.”

“And you’re just like a man who stole others’ achievements through your tongue alone. Put the net I released back the way it was while I am still telling you nicely.”

“And why should I? Those people walked over to me on their own accord because they didn’t want to work under a certain incompetent woman.”

“Hong Janghae. Don’t look down on people. You might get hurt.”

Miyoon frowned. Janghae pointed at her wrinkly forehead.

“Your already unsightly face has become even more hideous. You don’t even have any more value as an actress. How are you going to live with a face like that? Smoothen up a little. Don’t make others pity you.”

Miyoon raised her hand. Janghae also put his cheek forward in provocation.

“There, there. You aren’t children.”

Janghae turned around to look at the president. The chairman closed the book after taking his earphones off.

“Little Hong.”

“Yes, chairman.”

“When was it that I tasked you with human business again?”

“It was twenty years ago, chairman.”

“So it has already been that long. I miss those days. You were a daring salaryman in your thirties back then. I was a little younger too. Miyoon.”

Lee Miyoon sat up straight and replied, ‘yes.’

“You did work pretty well. People from businesses liked the kids you selected for them. For chairman Park, that fellow, he would start off without even checking if he knew you were the one who picked. I’m not sure about anything else, but your choices were definitely exquisite.”

“I shall do better in the future. I wish to provide you support even from afar, chairman.”

“Support is good. You never made any mistakes until now either.”

“Then…”

Miyoon stared at the chairman, expecting a hopeful answer. The chairman inserted the book, Don Quixote, back into the shelf and spoke,

“Good work.”

“What?”

“I said good work. Didn’t you come all the way here to have me say that?”

“I instead…”

“Leave everything else to Little Hong now. Though, from the way I see it, there is nothing to leave to him anymore, but there might be something that he has missed. Little Hong. Is there anything else I should mind about?”

Janghae slowly clenched the fists he placed on his knees and replied.

“Not at all, chairman. I will cooperate with actress Lee and deal with the rest.”

“Right. Both of you have gotten old enough, haven’t you? Don’t fight dirty like dogs and end it cleanly. Miyoon, you should take your hands off this matter and focus on your acting career. Also, I’ll send you a token of gratitude through someone in a while so wait for that. I’m not such a cruel man. Little Hong, isn’t that right?”

“I am only living like this thanks to your boundless graces. I’m sure actress Lee is the same.”

Lee Miyoon picked the wrong person to ask for a request. In fact, the outcome would not be set in stone had she chosen to go with a dogfight instead. After all, there were people who would give up money out of emotions after all. Things were over the moment Lee MIyoon brought this matter to the chairman. The chairman detested waste, but he utterly despised incompetence. By bringing what she could not solve to the chairman, she practically shot herself in the foot.

“Chairman.”

Miyoon desperately called out to the chairman. Janghae saw the chairman lick his lips while blinking his eyes. The chairman made such an expression the day junior director Park’s head was smashed by a baseball bat. He seemed to be wondering how to deal with a human who could not accept what was given to her and was instead dragging it on and on.

“I shall do better in the future. There were people who accepted the items because of my face alone. If I take my hands off this matter, they will turn their backs as well.”

Lee Miyoon stood up. Janghae covered his mouth and sighed. It was rather boring to watch someone dig their own grave.

“I see. So there are people who accepted the deal in consideration of you, Miyoon. Am I correct?”

The chairman nodded with a smile.

“Little Hong.”

“Yes.”

“Just deal with Japan for now. Miyoon says she can do well.”

“Understood. I shall restore all the men below.”

“Yes, family members shouldn’t go against each other. Looks like I was out of it for a moment. Miyoon, is that okay with you?”

Miyoon kneeled on the ground, seemingly touched.

“Thank you, Chairman. I will strive to do even better in the future.”

“This isn’t some Yakuza or anything. You shouldn’t be kneeling down as an adult woman. Stand up. We’re both getting old, so I’m sure your joints are getting bad. Little Hong, hold her up.”

Janghae grabbed Miyoon by the arm. Miyoon glared at him before shaking off his arm and standing up with her own strength.

“Miyoon still knows how to persuade people. The report you gave me was clean and well done too. Right, if you’re so desperate, I’ll leave you to it. Miyoon, you can get going now. Little Hong, stay behind a little,” said the chairman.

KTLChamber's Thoughts

Can we have Maru back please author? T_T

Editor's Note:

Interestingly, the book the YM chairman is reading, Don Quixote, inspired the word quixotic which is used to mean the impractical pursuit of idealistic goals, aka Lee Miyoon.

Chapter 897
Crank Up 1

“The world sure has gotten good. Women and children can raise their voices. What a twisted world we live in. They’re gravely mistaken. If it was before, she wouldn’t have dared to make any noise. Little Hong. Am I too old-fashioned?”

“Not at all, chairman. Actress Lee is just someone who does not know her position.”

“And yet, such a person came to my study, briefed me about her abilities, and even tried to persuade me while talking about all sorts of things. I wonder how I should describe that?”

“I was insufficient in my handling of her. I’m very sorry, chairman.”

“No. Little Hong, you did well. You handled it too well that her eyes flipped. Next time, don’t take away every last dreg from her hands. There’s that famous idiom too: A cornered rat will bite a cat.”

The chairman gave him a book. It was a hardcover wrapped in velvet. He dusted the dust off it with a brush before inserting it in its place. After cleaning and putting away about twenty books, the chairman spoke again,

“How is the woman in Japan?”

“She’s quick to calculate. She also knows just enough greed.”

“Not a woman who would reach out for the food she shouldn’t eat?”

“She’s very good at discerning her own position. I tried shaking her with a few of my men, and there were no responses. In fact, she even came to me and told me that there is someone who harbors ill will.”

“Women just need to know how to eat what men give them after all. Chairman Choi and chairman Son will go to Japan soon, alongside some prosecutors and lawyers who have connections to judge Choi. Their flights are all different, but schedule a nice trip to Japan for them.”

The chairman directly mentioning their names meant that the priority of these people was high. He now had to focus on Japan even if he had to delay some work for Soul.

“How’s Giwoo these days?”

“He’s doing well without causing trouble. The prankster nature of his has faded a lot, so there aren’t any problems.”

“How about women?”

“According to head manager Kim’s report, he is not in any deep relationship.”

“A man must meet multiple women so that he knows how to discern devious foxes. Don’t get involved too deeply and just tell me if there’s a girl he’s meeting for a long time.”

“I will.”

“Also, Park Joongjin, was it? That director who’s pretty good. Did the film he was going to do with my grandson fall apart in the end?”

The hand that was dusting a book stopped on the spot. The chairman was on a ladder, looking at the books on the shelves on the 2nd floor. Should he tell him properly that Kang Giwoo did not live up to the director’s expectations? Or should he say it in a nice, roundabout way?

“Little Hong. I want to see you for a long time.”

“Director Park found a new actor. His contract with us ended before it even started,” Janghae immediately stopped thinking and just replied.

“That means that that director fellow dumped my grandson because of his lack of skills?”

“Yes, that is the case.”

The chairman clicked his tongue. Janghae looked at the Sci-Fi novel that fell on the ground with a thud. The weight would’ve been enough to cause a bump or a concussion at worst if it fell on someone’s head.

“Little Hong. You do not need to think fast in front of me. You are only allowed to use your head when I tell you to. Otherwise, you just need to speak the truth as is.”

“I made a mistake.”

“Right, little Hong. That is what I like about you. Other people start making excuses if they talk about how things didn’t go well. I know and see everything, yet they bring up all sorts of excuses to shift the blame. How pathetic did I look to them that made them blatantly lie in front of me? Oh, put that one on my desk. I’ll read it again.”

Janghae put the Sci-Fi novel on the desk, the bottom perfectly parallel to the edge of the desk.

“Is Giwoo, that boy, bad at acting?”

“He’s known as the best among his peers. The directors I’ve met look at him in a good light as well. There are many offers I have rejected to work with director Park Joongjin. Now that things didn’t go well, I plan to take one of those.”

“In any case, that director Park is the best one right now, correct?”

“Yes. His ticketing powers are undeniable.”

“Maybe it was because there was not enough money. Why don’t you try raising the price?”

“I tripled the original contract, but he still refused.”

“What an upright fellow. Just the style I like, hating money, that is. Can’t we do this again? This grandpa wants to give his grandson a good gift.”

“I apologize.”

“From how you’re apologizing without a shred of hesitation, it seems truly difficult, eh?”

“He’s known as an oddball even in the industry. The director told me this: he has earned enough money, so he wants to do his own work.”

“His own work, hm. Does that mean he’s fed up with commercial films? This is why those art people are so unpredictable. They act weirdly even though they know that art still comes down to money in the end.”

The secretary came in with some medicine. The chairman came down the ladder and gestured to the ladder with his chin. Janghae folded the ladder and gave it to the secretary.

“This medicine is what makes me feel old. When I was young, I never put anything like this near my mouth when I was young because I didn’t want to lose against those pharmacists, but now I have a body that can’t do without. Little Hong, you’ll be sixty soon. You should look after your body then. Don’t suffer in your later years like me.”

“I have been doing exercises, and my wife has been handing me healthy foods as well.”

“Little Hong, you met one great woman. I usually don’t acknowledge women, but that little one is an exception. It wouldn’t be a disservice to call her a general.”

“That’s why I got married to her. We didn’t want to drag down each other’s lives.”

The secretary left with the tray and the ladder. The chairman sighed slowly and sat down.

“I keep getting more worried about my grandson with each day I get closer to my death. For my sons, they can just live off the foundation I have built, but Giwoo, that boy, he’s left my little garden and is creating his own world. He’s such a naive boy that I worry he can do well.”

“I will watch over him from the side.”

“You’re the reason I’m at ease. Giwoo seems to listen to your words too. I felt good since everything seemed to be going well, but that film is making me feel iffy. Do you perhaps know who the actor is that’s working with the director? I mean the actor who replaced my boy Giwoo.”

“I do. His name is Han Maru, and he’s the same age as Giwoo.”

“The same age? He lost to a peer? Now that’s making me feel shameful. So this Maru kid, he seems to be the best among the young ones? I mean, from the way this best director chose him instead of my boy.”

“For skills, I have not watched him too closely, so I do not know, but in terms of recognition, he cannot be compared to Giwoo.”

“Is he just that famous?”

“It’s the opposite. I have looked into it while investigating this matter with director Park Joongjin, and at best, he appeared in a few movies as a minor character, and in dramas too, he has only played minor characters until now. There was a drama that he played a lead role in during his school years, but that was a short series. Compared to Giwoo, his career can be considered shallow at best.”

The chairman nodded while listening to him and slowly stroked the desk.

“And yet the director took that kid instead. Are those two close? From how I see it, he has nothing better than Giwoo.”

“I will look into it.”

The chairman waved his head in dismissal.

“I’m not so shameless to ask a busy man to investigate such things. I’ll look into it personally if he keeps getting on my mind, so you can forget about him.”

“Yes, sir.”

The chairman looked down at his phone after putting on his magnifying glasses. Janghae waited standing up without a word.

“JA, so it’s where that fellow, Junmin, is.”

“Yes. Lee Junmin is president of that company.”

“Yes, yes. That makes more sense. The fact that the kid is under his wing means that he has long proven his worth. Now that I think about it, isn’t your son here as well? If I remember correctly, his name is…”

“Hong Geunsoo, sir.”

“It is him. Didn’t he shoot a commercial for our subsidiary company?”

“He has.”

“You must be feeling jealous now, eh? Your son is playing around somewhere else without being under his father. You should’ve beaten moderately. You kept beating them to death, so one of them became an empty shell with none of what makes him a man intact, while the other one became uncontrollable and escaped your fences.”

Janghae lowered his head slightly. His family history he had not exposed anywhere flowed out of the chairman’s mouth. He didn’t even try to think about who he heard that from. The chairman probably had his ears everywhere after all. What made him unnerved was that he had exposed his weakness. The fact that he was unable to control his sons would probably look extremely dissatisfactory to the chairman who valued control over everything else.

“You know, you should beat people so that they cling to you. If you beat them mercilessly like you did, they will run away like their life depends on it. You should show them some affection by beating them up moderately. Or else, just beat them up with the intent to kill. Only then will they not be able to resist.”

“I was insufficient.”

“How can a man be perfect in everything? You were born with a talent for work, so you must be lacking fortune in that area. This Geunsoo, he has completely escaped your crutches, so you won’t be able to do anything about him, but try coaxing the little one and bring him back. When you get old, you’ll feel lonely, and seeing your son will be your only solace.”

The chairman, who was speaking while looking at his phone, picked up the landline at the end of his desk.

“Secretary Kim. Send some calls around and tell them to go along with actress Lee if they get a call from her. Also, send in a call to the boys who caused some messes in the redevelopment district last time. Oh, lordie, don’t use such a scary word like gear. People may misunderstand that I’m telling you to kill a man. Alright, go about your work.”

The chairman hung up on the call. That was how Lee Miyoon’s future was decided. Janghae dearly wished that his name would not be put in that spot one day.

“Little Hong. When it comes to the most dirty work, you should not have other people do it. Only those who know how to soil their hands know how to go up. You get what I mean?”

“Yes.”

The chairman made a benevolent smile. He felt like he could take a breather.

“Looks like I should give Junmin a call. My grandson is doing fine with his own powers, but I should still try to give him a little push. As you know, my grandson is not one of those naggy ones like the kids these days. I want to tell those that blame the world or society that they should learn from my Giwoo. He splendidly became independent without anything in his hands.”

“You’re entirely right, sir.”

The chairman put his earphone against his ears and spoke,

“Little Hong, you can get going. Thanks for coming over today.”

“I’ll take my leave.”

Janghae walked backwards out of the study and pulled the door shut. He heard a voice call out “Junmin” as he shut the door.

KTLChamber's Thoughts

…Junmin will probably stop the chairman sabotaging Maru's success right? Right………?

Editor's Note:

Man, I hope Junmin doesn't yield. Would seem very bullshit to get blue balled near the very end. Also, this chap made me feel shitty bleh.

Chapter 898
Crank Up 1

“Then I’ll schedule a flight to China in three days and…”

“Head manager Kang, wait a sec.”

Junmin picked up his phone. He felt a headache the moment he saw the name of the caller. This old man definitely wasn’t the kind of man to call just to see how he was doing.

“I’ll stay outside. Call me when you’re done.”

Head manager Kang stood up after cleaning up. Junmin picked up the call after seeing the door close.

-Junmin, it is me.

“It has been a long time, chairman. I should have called you first.”

-It’s fine. Everyone in the country knows you’re busy.

“How is your health? Last time, you seemed to have been coughing a lot at the start of winter.”

-I’m eating the medicine you sent me. Thanks to that, I think I’ll last this winter pretty well.

“That sounds like great news. You should live for a long time and lead the economy.”

-I’ve long since become an old man in the attic. The young’uns will lead the economy now. How are you doing?

“For me, I’m just getting by every day while looking after my own kids.”

-You’re going to China in a few days?

“Yes. You seem to be taking great interest in Japan too, these days. It looks like you’re going to go to Japan along with a few acquaintances.”

There was a period of silence after they each talked about their recent matters. The old man’s intelligence powers were incredible. He had only set up plans for now, yet even the routes he was going to take had been estimated by this old man already.

-Whether it’s then or now, you seem to know about my own kids more than I do.

“Not as much as you, sir.”

-It’s such a pity, you know? YM would have spanned its wings even more if you had run a subsidiary under me. You’re probably the only one who rejected my offer.

“It wasn’t easy for me either. The leader of a colossal company reached his hand out to me directly. But I don’t have the capability to run a company of that scale. It already hurts my back to maintain a small agency.”

-If it hurts your back, you can’t call that small.

Junmin stood up and walked to the window. That day, he was inside a building where he could look down at the night scenery as well. The chairman reached out to him, and Junmin refused him. The chairman, who looked down at his hand indifferently, seemed like a lion crouching in front of prey. Would he dart forward and grab him by the neck? Or would he let him go? That day, Junmin found out for sure what kind of man the chairman was.

“So, why have you called me?”

-It’s nothing that amazing. I just had some things I was curious about.

“Please speak.”

-There’s a boy named Han Maru under you, right?

Junmin replied yes while frowning at the same time. Maru’s name came out of the chairman, but they had completely no relation to each other.

-Is it true that that kid is shooting a film with director Park Joongjin?

“At the earliest, the shoot will start in the middle of this month.”

-I hoped that that wasn’t the case.

“Is there a problem?”

-Junmin, may I ask a favor?

“Please speak.”

-I’d like to hear you accept it first. Am I being too greedy?

“I’m sure you must know me as much as I do you, so I will not comment on that matter.”

-You never changed. You were like this back then too. That was why I wanted you even more.

“Please speak about the matter first. I will listen to you if it’s possible.”

-The film that that kid is shooting. Can you cancel it?

“This is the first time I’ve heard that you’re dipping your hands into the film industry, so why are you trying to cancel his work?”

-This is not about business. This is just an old grandpa trying to do something for his grandson.

The pieces of the puzzle that he was trying to put together in his head came together in an instant. There was indeed a connection between Maru and the chairman. Kang Giwoo. Did that immature brat ask the chairman for this?

-In case you ask, this is something I’m doing on my own. I just want to gift my grandson something without him knowing.

“I see.”

-So how about it? Of course, I’m not telling you to do this for free. We’re going to do a commercial for our insurance company, so how’s an actor from your side for two years, fixed contract? I’m sure anyone under you must have enough recognition for that. I’d personally like Hong Geunsoo though. It can satisfy a subordinate of mine.

A two-year contract with YM insurance was a contract that would involve hundreds of millions of won. It would help with gaining recognition as well. It was definitely not a losing deal for giving up a movie that wasn’t even shot yet.

“I apologize, but it will be difficult.”

-Even though I’m asking you like this?

“Yes, what can’t be done can’t be done.”

-What a cruel fella. Do you have malice against me? I don’t think I treated you badly.

“Who am I to have any malice towards you? I just don’t want to take away Maru’s work.”

-Why? Is the money insufficient? Since I’m getting a gift, I want it to be the best. I’m rather greedy for director Park that fellow, since he’s known to be the best these days. How about two commercials?

“That’s indeed a rather shocking deal. However, I cannot do it.”

-You seem to be looking out for that kid a lot?

“I look out for all the people under me. They trust me, so I should repay their trust.”

-This is a difficult matter. I really want to pair that director with Giwoo. A good movie needs a good actor, doesn’t it? I’m not too knowledgeable, but I think my boy Giwoo will be better than that kid known as Han Maru.

Junmin spoke as he placed his hand on the window,

“In my eyes, Maru looks slightly better.”

-Isn’t he just a kid who has no noteworthy appearances?

“That’s precisely what he’s going to do now. Park Joongjin is an oddball, but he’s undoubtedly a genius. Maru’s not ordinary either. The two of them creating a piece together will definitely be an interesting sight to see.”

How would the chairman respond to this? Junmin placed his hand that wasn’t holding his phone on the landline. Depending on the situation, he may have to move busily. He had to prepare if the chairman decided to sabotage things outright. He did not like getting dealt a blow while sitting still.

-You’re so protective of him. Why? Did you see that great light from that kid as well? The beautiful light that you always boasted about?

The context of the conversation changed at once. Junmin could not understand what the chairman was saying to him. The chairman preferred to refrain from using abstract expressions as much as possible when talking about business. He loved numericized information, so Junmin never believed that he would use the word ‘light’ with something like this.

“Light? I’m not sure what you mean.”

-Are you mocking me? You don’t remember that? That day, you talked to me about this in that building.

“I do remember. We talked about various business proposals.”

-You should have told me something while you refused my proposal.

“The words I said as I refused you?”

Junmin probed his memories. The scene of the building unfolded in front of his eyes. The colorful night scenery, the strangely quiet hall, the smell of unfinished food, the glaringly sharp gaze of the chairman - everything was vivid, but he could not remember what he said to the chairman at the last moment. He could only remember himself leaving the building after that meal. It was as if someone had scooped out that portion of his memories as he couldn’t remember any of it.

-Seeing you stay quiet, it seems like you really don’t remember? How can you young fellow be like this? I wonder if you’re getting dementia earlier than me. Or maybe your meeting with me was so insignificant to you that it’s not worth remembering for you. In either case, it doesn’t feel that pleasant. Is it because you’ve received psychotherapy for a long time?

He was attacked every time he exchanged words. Junmin looked at his reflection in the window and smiled.

“Perhaps. I clearly remember having a meal with you and leaving the building afterwards, but I do not remember my last words to you.”

-You should watch out. The brain is something that you can’t touch once it starts going down. Hey, even I’m reading books at this age because I’m afraid of dementia. I heard that it’s good at preventing it, so I keep reading them.

“Maybe I should too.”

-Since it came down to this, it looks like I should spell it out for you. I mean, when else would I be able to act proud in front of you? That day, you told me this: I have a special pair of eyes for people. Then I asked what it was. Then you gave an incredulous answer. You said you could see how far that person would grow if you see that person. You supposedly saw light around a person’s ears and could judge a person based on that. You looked completely serious as you said those words too. It was to the point that I even wondered if I should turn to shamanism too. That was the first and last time I believed such absurd words in my life. For other fortune tellers, they only talk grandly, but they show nothing. But you were different. After that, you befriended all sorts of big figures as if you really could see a person’s future. The secretary head of state has connections to you, doesn’t he? Even the president, who would at least listen to every word I say, has ties with you too. This is why I can neither have you nor throw you out. I think it will endanger my own roots just to oust you.

Junmin felt confused even as he listened to the chairman’s words. He had no recollection of it at all. Seeing a person’s future by looking at their ears? He couldn’t believe that he himself had mentioned such supernatural abilities. He was someone who loved proven facts as much as the chairman did.

-Why? You still don’t remember?

“Looks like there’s a problem with my head after all. I have no recollection of saying those words at all.”

-Looks like you don’t want to talk about it, rather than you not having a memory of it. Had I taken you more seriously back then and had you stay behind even by force, YM should have become even bigger than it is now. No, YM isn’t the problem. I could have become president. Seeing what became of the people you met, it doesn’t sound impossible.

“I don’t have such great powers.”

-Don’t you, now? A man that only handled some screws on a construction site created a venture company and now became a man who overrules the construction panel world. Surprisingly, it was you who mediated the investment. You took around the guy that was at the bottom seat of the congress, and now he has become the leader of the majority faction. It’s not just one or two people that came out this successful, is it? For a person who’s running an agency in the entertainment industry, your connections are simply unbelievable. Your authority and your positions - they're all created through your eyes that see people.

“Your imagination must have gotten very good ever since you started reading those books. If you don’t have anything more to say, I’d like to hang up.”

-Sure. I don’t want to quarrel with you either. I’ll just call director Park Joongjin and negotiate with him. This is just how much I love my grandson.

The chairman hung up. Junmin put down his phone on the desk. The chairman wasn’t someone who was so free that he would make stuff up to make a fool out of him. Did that mean that he really said such words in the past? He suddenly recalled the files that he saw before; the file that contained the resumes of the people he scouted during the early days of the agency. He picked out people who didn’t have any qualities of a star at all and turned them into stars. For him right now, the actions he took back then were completely incomprehensible.

“The past, huh.”

Junmin thought back to when he first met Maru, the bold kid who talked about 2 billion won without batting an eyelid. He could remember the reason he decided to bring that boy under his wing in detail. He pulled his memories a little more forward. It was when he first met Suyeon. Likewise, he liked the unyielding look in her eyes, as well as her charming skills for other people, which was the reason he brought her in. Everyone had a reason he could accept.

“As for Geunsoo and Ganghwan…”

Junmin touched his lips. He couldn’t remember what made him bring those two under his wing with so much confidence. He only had a vague impression in his head, an absurd conviction that the two would definitely become stars.

Junmin went to his desk and pulled out a book. It seemed like he needed to do some reading.

KTLChamber's Thoughts

Man, this chairman dude is stopping at nothing to sabotage Maru's path to success. He's getting the director involved now…

Editor's Note:

Well, luckily Joongjin isn't the type of person to yield.

Chapter 899
Crank Up 1

“Looks like you’re quite busy these days. I never see you at the office.”

Dongwook smiled as he fidgeted with the notepad he placed on top of the table.

“As you know, president, I was born under a bad star. Even if I stay seated in the office, it just feels like I’m hinting at the others to do work. These days, I can get work done wherever I want to as long as I have a laptop, so I take it outside.”

“I see. Anyway, we got the food now, so let’s talk while we eat.”

Junmin had approached him out of the blue and said that they should eat together. Dongwook was curious about what he wanted to talk about, but the president did not talk about much at all. He just asked the customary stuff like how the new notepadists were, and if there were any problems with the magazine every once in a while. He scratched the bottom of the pot with his spoon to eat the last bit and then wiped his mouth. The president also finished his meal and rinsed his mouth with some water.

“The food here is pretty decent.”

“The locals around the area recommended this place. It’s quite cheap too.”

“I should come more often. I got to know a good place thanks to you.”

“Are you going to get coffee? The vending machine coffee here is pretty decent.”

He bought two coffees from the vending machine inside the restaurant. He placed the paper cup in front of the president, who was waiting for him.

“You’ll have to be fully prepared if you want to touch the lion’s tail,” Junmin said as he swirled the coffee in his hand.

He said those words without any context, but Dongwook understood what he was saying. He had been as cautious as possible while taking action, but it seemed that he had caught the president’s radar.

“I’m not trying to set the tail on fire. I’m going to catch some of the fleas that leech off it. Not that I’m doing it myself.”

“That man, Hong Janghae, isn’t someone that you can look down on, not to mention the chairman who’s above him. I’m sorry about what happened to Miss Choi Miyeon, but in a certain sense, she was asking for trouble. You must know that too.”

“I do. I also don’t know why I’m trying to dip my feet into this shithole. Heck, pouring oil over my body and jumping into a fire sounds less dangerous than this, and I know I should very well stop what I’m doing, but my arms and legs are moving as they wish. It’s been a long time since I’ve been enveloped in useless compassion and a sense of justice.”

“Looks like you’re past the point where you can be persuaded with words. If someone under me gets caught in weird trouble, I’ll be having a hard time too.”

Dongwook felt a bitter taste in his mouth. He thought about the letter of resignation that he had stashed under his desk at his office.

“Even if I do cause trouble, I’ll make sure no harm comes here. I’m going to resign the moment I see signs of trouble. Better yet, would you like it now? If that’s better for you, I’ll do that.”

“Do you have anything to do once you leave?”

“There should be something. I’m not going to have spiders cast webs over my mouth. I only know how to do this line of work, so I should be able to feed myself if I work as an outsider notepadist or something.”

“Was I wrong in my assessment? Editor-in-chief Kim, no, notepadist Kim, I didn’t think you were this reckless when I first met you.”

“I also don’t get why I’m acting like this. I should just turn a blind eye and a deaf ear to it once. But even if I close my eyes and cover my ears, I can still see and hear things; the figure and voice of a girl who foolishly tried to have a showdown with the world with truth and facts.”

“There’s nothing more arduous than fighting with the truth in hand.”

“Exactly. Only the most foolish idiots do that. And I’m about to join their ranks. I’ve already written my letter of resignation, so you just have to put your stamp on it.”

He stood up with the notepad in hand. There probably weren’t any employers who would stand up for an employee that was clearly about to run into trouble. He had to quit while he was still getting hints. If possible, he wanted to get fired and get unemployment benefits, but considering what the president had done for him until now, he wasn’t shameless enough to do that.

“When are you pulling out of your apartment?”

“As soon as I get another room.”

Pursuing the clues that Choi Miyeon had let go of meant tailing Lee Miyoon, Hong Janghae, and by extension, the YM Group. It was only natural for him to be kicked out of the apartment that the company had provided for him.

“Do take care of yourself. Your junior has gotten to that state as a consequence of lingering around the shadow. But you aren’t stopping there, you’re planning to step into the shadow and get to the real body of this, aren’t you? I can tell from your eyes. You would not have those eyes if you were planning to stop after setting fire on the tail.”

“I won’t get buried alive if I try to take care of myself, I think. Since we live in the era we live in, I’m going to be going around in streets with a lot of dashcams. Though, I guess I will be helpless if they just run me over with a car.”

“I guess there’s no helping that.”

The president stood up and paid for the meal.

“I’ll pay for the meal this time. You can pay next time.”

“Sure.”

Dongwook left the restaurant with the half-empty cup of coffee in his hand. He never realized that he would willingly walk out of the job that he resolved to stay in for the rest of his working life even if there was a knife against his neck. It felt like just yesterday when he nagged Miyeon about all those things.

The president walked past him. Dongwook looked at his back and put a cigarette in his mouth. There was a lot to do. He had to look at the articles of the juniors who had been promoted to an office job and also had to have someone else prepare to succeed his work. He also had to pass down the connections he made to a smart guy. If he received terrible treatment here, he would have left after wreaking havoc, but Junmin treated him so nicely that he even felt sorry for it.

“Maru will be starting a movie soon.”

Dongwook put down his lighter just as he was about to light his cigarette. The president stood in front of him and reached his hand out. He stared at the hand for a long while, not knowing what his intention was.

“Can I borrow a cigarette from you to smoke?”

“I seem to recall you having quit a long time ago.”

“I have to smoke if there’s something causing me to.”

He took out a cigarette and placed it in the president’s hand. He lit it up for him and put the fire against his as well.

“I told the others to have the articles uploaded at a suitable time. They’ll start writing once they get info from that side.”

“This is not about that. You take care of the work side just fine.”

“Then…?”

“Lee Miyoon has been semi-ousted,” the president said before he could take a puff.

Dongwook put the cigarette between his fingers. The topic had jumped from Maru’s movie to a completely different topic, but it didn’t matter. If it was anything related to Lee Miyoon, he would gladly pay money to know about it, so he asked,

“What do you mean? She must have been on the same ship as Hong Janghae.”

“That Hong Janghae has changed ships. Whether there was a fight between the two, or it was an order from the chairman, I do not know.”

By chairman, he probably meant the chairman of the YM Group. Dongwook thought about Hong Janghae’s recent course of action. The fact that he had ousted Lee Miyoon meant that he probably had another partner in Japan.

“Actually, I’ve been trying to approach a woman who came off of Hong Janghae, but if it is like this, I should try looking into Lee Miyoon as well. If she really got thrown out, we might be able to join hands.”

“The enemy of your enemy is your friend. This stood true across all ages.”

“I’ll make use of the information you gave me. You’re quite generous to someone who’s caused you nothing but trouble.”

The president puffed the cigarette twice. He swallowed the smoke and coughed dryly before throwing the cigarette on the ground and stepping on it with the back of his shoe.

“Why does it feel so strong to smoke after all this time?”

“You did well to quit. People like me get their energy through this, but you have many other things apart from this. Please look after your health.”

“I will. Anyway, watch out. Take care, whatever you do, and don’t rush it, because you’ll be hurt if you do. Though, I’m sure you don’t need me to tell you this.”

The president patted him on the shoulder. Dongwook put out the cigarette. He got some new info, so he had to organize all he had and come up with an efficient route. He was just about to say goodbye for one last time when the president took something out of his pocket. He tossed over the item in his hand. It was some keys. They were attached to one keyring, and one was a car key, while the other seemed to be a house key.

“What’s this?”

“I can’t afford to let a spark jump onto my tree, but I can’t let my person jump into a pit of fire without bare minimum protection. That’s an apartment I got under a name that belongs to someone who has no relation to the company at all. The same goes for the car. You should use that until you’re done. It won’t be that cramped. In fact, it might be rather empty since it’s 60 pyeong[1]. I’ll also give you someone who can run around to get info. Of course, don’t tell anyone outside. Only the two of us know about this.”

“President.”

“I’m going to process your resignation tomorrow. For the editing work, have someone else under you take care of that, so focus on that. You just need to finish things up cleanly and return. I can’t help it if that becomes difficult, but you’ll get a good apartment and a good car, so it shouldn’t be a bad deal.”

He hadn’t expected this. He thought that the president would naturally pull out since this was about touching the shameful parts of YM.

The president continued,

“To finish off what I was saying before, Maru will be starting a movie soon. But things have changed for the worse. The chairman desires something that’s in my domain. I want to walk parallel to the chairman without ever touching him, but he cast the bridge first, so I have no choice but to step over him. I want to act proud for once. It seems like the chairman doesn’t understand why I’m dedicating everything in my life to raising actors.”

He didn’t understand the specifics, but it seemed clear that the president was going to support him on this.

“Of course, I will not step up to the front. I’m putting all of this in your hands, and you just have to update me on whether you can give YM’s chairman a good gift or not.”

“I’ll try to prepare a big gift.”

“That sounds great for me.”

The chairman left in his car. Dongwook put the keys in his pocket. The first thing he had to check was Lee Miyoon’s recent state. If she, who was at the center of the prostitution scandal 6 years ago, had been thrown away and was angry over it, he might be able to make use of her. There was no one better than her when it came to driving a knife through Hong Janghae’s back.

Dongwook got in his car and called Lee Miyoon’s agency. He got an interview scheduled with her. The title of editor-in-chief of a famous magazine was quite convenient at a time like this.

-We’ll get back to you shortly.

Dongwook hung up before starting the car. He drove to the address that the president had texted him. It was an apartment located in Banpo. He was familiar with this area. He was just five minutes away from where Maru lived by foot. Somehow, he suddenly had the thought that all these buildings, from which the Han river was visible, might belong to president Lee Junmin. If it was anyone else, he might have just thought of it as a delusion, but it was definitely possible for the president. He put the key in the door lock and turned it around.

“It is rather empty for sure.”

There was only a single computer in the middle of the insanely large living room. Dongwook laughed and rotated his wrists. This workspace was very much to his liking.

[1] 200 sqm

Chapter 900
Crank Up 2

The sun was resting on the reeds of Suncheon bay. Maru placed his hands on the fence and looked at the setting sun, the reeds below it, as well as the people moving slowly on the boat.

“I come here whenever I have a headache. Looking at the reeds swaying in the wind without any resistance, I can feel my head clearing up.”

“I think I can feel what that’s like.”

He followed behind Park Joongjin. They crossed a wooden bridge that was built there as a part of a hiking course. People took photos with the reeds on both sides as the background. Maru also took some photos of the browned reeds and sent them to Gaeul, alongside the message that they should come here together in the future.

“What kind of acting do you want to do, Mr. Maru?” Joongjin asked as he stopped.

They had gone off the main course and were in a place where there wasn’t much human presence. Only Suncheon bay and the reeds could be seen.

“I have the hardest time when I’m asked questions like this. I’ve never really thought about it. I’ve always tried to fulfill the role I’m given to the best of my abilities.”

“There are actors like that. It’s not that they don’t have an objective or a goal, they just don’t have it for a specific type of acting. Then what is your goal as an actor?”

“The first is to earn a lot of money, and the second is recognition. I want to hear something like ‘I can’t imagine anyone other than Han Maru playing that role.’”

“The second goal might perhaps be harder than getting an award. There aren’t many actors who hear that even now.”

“That’s why I set a realistic goal as my first one and an unrealistic one as my second.”

“So you have the confidence to earn a lot of money.”

“I’m not sure about anything else, but I seem to be rather lucky when it comes to money and relationships. As long as I don’t screw up badly, I think money won’t be a problem.”

“I can’t deny that. Looking at your acting, it definitely isn’t something that will make you starve. Even if you don’t get selected as lead characters because your charms aren’t enough, you will definitely become a good-selling supporting character.”

“Having you say that makes me feel a lot more relieved. Do I just need to focus on acting without worries now?”

“Don’t trust me too much. I sometimes screw up because I don’t know what’s in front of me. I did make a huge blunder once in the past too.”

Joongjin checked the time before saying that they should go to a nearby restaurant. They entered a kal-guksu[1] restaurant, which was the first restaurant they saw after leaving the reed field. The restaurant was bustling with people who had come to watch the reeds before winter came around. They wanted to get a room, but upon hearing that a minimum of 8 people was required to get a private room, they sat at a table in a corner. They ordered some kal-guksu and some buckwheat jeon[2].

“I was convinced after seeing the indie film you shot this time. You are an actor who knows how to handle violence. You are cruel and merciless, and yet, still possess a sense of restrained beauty, and it’s not too overboard. That’s why I want to see it. The Mr. Maru after everything has been mercilessly pulled out of you.”

Just as he was about to reply, the kal-guksu was served. From how it didn’t even take five minutes for the food to arrive, it seemed that the noodles were boiled beforehand, and the broth was just poured right before it was served. Joongjin said that they should eat first. He ate some with chopsticks. Before he could even chew the slipper noodles, he could smell something bad from the broth.

“If I knew it was going to be like this, I would have looked up some good places around the area.”

It seemed that Joongjin didn’t like it either. The buckwheat jeon that was served afterwards was also grainy. The taste was worse than simple wheat & gochujang-based jeon.

“I looked it up before coming, and this place seems to be a famous restaurant based on a blog post.”

Maru showed him his phone screen. This restaurant turned out to be one that had the ‘good restaurant’ title. Joongjin clicked his tongue.

“Ads are causing trouble everywhere. Before, you could gain some good-quality information from the internet, but ever since the ad companies entered the scene after seeing that they can make money off it, everything has become terrible.”

Joongjin raised his hand before telling the server to take the kal-guksu away. The employee panicked and asked,

“Uhm, what is your reason for doing this?”

“This smells way too bad, and I can’t bring myself to eat it. Take the jeon away too. Also, if possible, tell the cook in the kitchen that he or she needs to take better care of the food if you have the money to give to blogs. I’m not telling the owner something bad. I’m just dissatisfied with whoever cooked this thing.”

The server disappeared into the kitchen after taking the food away on a tray. Maru had known about the director’s peculiar personality, but this was the first time he saw that he was picky with food. Maru was on the side that he should get his fill at least even if it didn’t taste that good, but the director was different.

“Director, shall I look for another restaurant nearby? We do have to eat after all.”

Since they had returned the food, there was no reason to stay seated. Joongjin shook his head. He waited, wondering what this was about. Joongjin called another employee who was walking by his side.

“Please get us two bowls of kal-guksu and a buckwheat jeon.”

“Please wait. It’ll be out soon.”

The director ordered the exact same things again. The employee picked up the order paper. He was just about to note it down with a ballpoint pen before stopping. It was probably because he found that two bowls of kal-guksu and a buckwheat jeon had been ordered already.

“Sir, did you perhaps not get the food you ordered?”

Maru stayed quiet because he didn’t know how to answer. The reply came from the director.

“We did.”

“Then why…”

“It’s not like there’s a problem, so please give the order. Two bowls of kal-guksu and a buckwheat jeon.”

“Okay.”

The employee walked to the kitchen after writing down the order. Not long later, the bowls of kal-guksu and buckwheat jeon came out. Maru picked up his chopsticks and looked at Joongjin.

“Are you not going to eat?”

“I’m curious as to what you’re up to, director.”

“Eat it for now. They might have made a mistake with the last order, which made it strange.”

Maru moved his chopsticks. The noodles and broth betrayed his remote hope that it would be better. It was no different from the first one he got. The noodles were slippery on the outside and undercooked on the inside, and the broth had a bad smell. The director also ate a little bit and pushed the bowl to the side. At this point, Maru wanted to go to the kitchen and tell the people there that there is an extremely picky customer and so they should create a proper one.

At least the buckwheat jeon was better than before. The mix seemed to have been done properly this time, and it wasn’t as grainy as it was before. The director also ate the jeon without much fuss. Maru could imagine what Joongjin was going to say next. Conveniently, there was a server walking by. It was the lady that took their first order.

Maru knew that the server who had received their order was consciously not approaching this area. She even went to the table next to them to refill some cubed radish kimchi but did not give them a glance. Joongjin stopped the server as she was about to return with the side dish plates. For a moment, the server looked like she was about to cry. What is it now? – her eyes seemed to say.

“Please give us two bowls of kal-guksu. And take this to the kitchen. if possible, to whoever made this.”

“Again?”

“Yes, again.”

“Uhm, please don’t do this…”

“No, I want to do this. If it’s too much of a bother going to the kitchen, give me the tray, I’ll go myself.”

“What?”

“I said give it to me. I’ll have a look at the one who made this and talk to them about it.”

“That’s a little…”

The server seemed restless. She seemed strangely bothered about this. At first, Maru thought that she was having a hard time listening to his request, but from the looks of it, it seemed like she was thinking of it as her own business. It was probably related to Joongjin calling out to this specific server in particular out of the many servers here. From the looks of it, she seemed related to the owner of this store and was not just working as a server here. Perhaps the one making the noodles inside was her husband.

“Sir, if the food was strange, you don’t have to pay for it, so please cancel your order,” said the server.

A mere server would not be able to meddle in monetary affairs. Either she was the owner, the wife of one, or a close relative or acquaintance.

“I’m not shameless enough not to pay after eating food. I’ll pay for everything, so bring us two bowls of kal-guksu. We have plenty of time.”

Any ordinary person would have backed off at this point, but Joongjin even crossed his legs, looking like he would not budge unless he got the bowls of kal-guksu. The server, who seemed restless, eventually took away the bowls and went to the kitchen. Even though Joongjin spoke in a small voice, they attracted a lot of attention with all the things they did. Everyone here must have been forcing themselves to eat the tasteless kal-guksu. They were probably putting up with it, thinking that they didn’t want to ruin their traveling mood; that all tourist attraction restaurants were like this; and because they didn’t want to get into a fight. Maru turned around slightly. The gazes of the women who were staring at them intensely like they were cheering for a soccer team were immensely pressuring for him. They seemed to want Joongjin to give a blow to the owner of the restaurant selling such terrible food.

“Director. Are you going to order another two if the same kal-guksu is served again?”

“What do you think I’ll do, Mr. Maru?”

“You’ll probably order once again.”

“You already learned how to read my mind. It seems like this will be a very enjoyable shoot this time indeed. It was worth coming all the way to Suncheon. The director and the actor are of one mind.”

“I’ve been wanting to leave ever since we got told we didn’t have to pay though.”

“Then I guess we still lack understanding of each other. Great. I do not plan to create a film with a puppet, so let’s have some time to learn about each other.”

“So you’re going to order kal-guksu again?”

“Since we’ve come all the way to South Jeolla province, we might as well raise the sales here. Let’s make them sell so many that they can raise a building in Gangnam.”

Maru crossed his arms. The one in front of him was no human, it was a wall made of solid steel. The magical chant to make the door appear was a properly made kal-guksu. Rumors seemed to have spread that there was a strange customer among the servers as all the ladies working here looked at them. It would have been easier for them to deal with if the customer said that they weren’t going to pay, but it was a pain for them when someone like the director keep asking them to bring him food.

“I hope we can get some kal-guksu quickly. I had two bowls, but I’m still hungry.”

Maru laughed as he heard the director’s words. How would the kitchen respond to this? If the owner had a terrible personality, he or she would come out and start ranting at them, and if it was a shameless owner, they would keep getting served terrible kal-guksu. The only thing he could do was to give up and watch. It wasn’t going to be easy to change the mind of a genius who had become fixated on something.

“Director.”

“What is it?”

“I participated in ‘Those Guys’ for two days, back when you were shooting that.”

“So it has already been seven years since then. The idea you came up with back then was very much to my liking. Perhaps you had taken a spot in my head ever since that time.”

“Thanks for looking at me in such a good light. But what surprised me during those two days was that there was a very small number of takes other than the important action scenes. Most of the time, you only took one take per cut.”

“I do that for most of the commercial movies I shoot. Since I’m shooting them to earn money, I place value on efficiency. That was why I needed Miss Yang Miso’s help back then. I would lock the actors who try to do some acting awkwardly into a frame and let the story do the job. It’s just like advertising through blogs. The taste doesn’t matter, as long as there’s the opinion that it’s good. Putting it like that, it makes me feel a little sorry for ordering the kal-guksu again, but double standards I guess.”

“That’s true. This is what I really wanted to ask, so is the film you’re shooting this time also…”

“No,” Joongjin interrupted him before he could finish.

Maru inwardly sighed in relief. He now realized what Joongjin meant by learning about each other.

“From your expression, you seemed to have pictured what it would be like to work with me. I only take into account efficiency for commercial films. You need to shoot quickly if you want to minimize human resources costs. But for my ‘piece,’ that doesn’t matter. The only important thing when it comes to doing my piece is self-satisfaction. And I mean, self-satisfaction.”

The director emphasized it twice. Maru looked at the tray that the server brought. There were two bowls of kal-guksu in it. His future seemed the same as those bowls of kal-guksu.

“Please bring it again. Two bowls of kal-guksu,” said Joongjin.

To Maru, that sounded like ‘let’s shoot that scene again.’

[1] Knife-cut noodle soup with usually seafood or chicken. Wikipedia for more details.

[2] The jeon mentioned in this chapter is a Korean-style pancake, unlike the western style one.

KTLChamber's Thoughts

900

Editor's Note:

Maru rarely ever gets NGs so I would if he will get a lot from Joongjin.

Chapter 901
Crank Up 2

The kal-guksu race that seemed to drag out thanks to Joongjin’s stubbornness and the owner’s shamelessness seemed like it was going to be ending soon. Maru looked at the two women receiving autographs from Joongjin. They were women who had been staring for quite a while. The women came over when the fourth round of kal-guksu came around. They tilted their heads before asking the director if he was Park Joongjin. Then, the lady who put down the food in front of them looked around before taking the bowl back into the kitchen. Joongjin told her to just put it down, but the lady just smiled awkwardly.

“Please take a photo with us.”

A woman who introduced herself as a movie fanatic hooked arms with Joongjin. Her friend, wearing a white t-shirt, also stood next to him. Maru accepted the phone from them before the one in purple told him to. Behind the two women creating Vs with their hands, he saw a man peeking out from the kitchen. He seemed to be the owner or the cook of this place.

“Director, when are you shooting your next movie? I’m waiting.”

“I’ll start shooting soon.”

“Really? Can you tell me who you’re shooting with? An internet café I frequently visit said that you’re doing it with Kang Giwoo.”

“I think I’ll do one with Mr. Giwoo later. For this piece, I’m going to do it with this fellow here.”

Many pairs of eyes suddenly looked at him. Maru put on an awkward smile. He thought that the director would gloss it over, not introduce him directly. The ladies in purple and white t-shirts quickly scanned him. They seemed to be discerning if he was a famous actor, a new one, or just a joke.

“Chatterbox!”

The one in white clapped in realization and shouted. The one in purple asked her to elaborate.

“You know, that entertainment show. That corny guy.”

Corny. That word went straight past his eardrums and shook his very brain. He wanted to leave the director here and leave this place immediately. Back when he was recording the show, he had the sense of duty to get attention on himself and the desperation to not miss that opportunity, so he threw his whole body into the show. He felt proud at the end of the shoot, nay, even when he reached home and reported it proudly to Gaeul. That sense of satisfaction dissolved like cotton candy in water on the day the episode aired. It was a new method of torture to watch himself singing surrounded by loud music and large subtitles. Gaeul played back the clip whenever she was bored. Maru wanted God to have given him the ability to delete clips instead of the ability to read other people’s minds.

Even the purple t-shirt woman recognized him. Inside his head, recognition and face – these two words clashed violently. Sometimes, he missed his nearly fifty-year-old self.

“I’m sorry, customer. There seems to have been a mistake with the order.”

The man who was watching from the kitchen came around. The man’s expression had been changing ever since he had seen Joongjin give out autographs. He was originally planning to drag this fight out, but when it looked like the director was a famous person, he seemed to have admitted his loss. Maru thought that things would go better now.

“The mistake was with the kal-guksu, not the order. I think you’re mistaken.”

Maru lowered his head and scratched his eyebrows. Did the director not like dramatic stuff like coming to a harmonious ending at the very end? It seemed that even the owner seemed flustered as he was originally intending to lower himself. He probably expected that there would be a harmonious ending with both sides admitting that there had been a mistake.

“Since you’re here, please take our order. That person over there took away our kal-guksu. It seems like there was a mistake there.”

“Uhm, mister, it’s not like that. The thing is…”

“I know it’s not like that, so bring us the kal-guksu.”

The kal-guksu race, which he thought was over, had begun again. Maru pulled his chair out slightly and looked around inside the restaurant. The customers in this wide space had all put down their spoons and were looking towards them. They seemed like they weren’t going to miss this fight. Watching fire burning from across the river was the most fun thing after all. He could see what the owner was thinking without having to bother peeking into his heart.

“You’re the one who came out on Chatterbox, aren’t you?”

“You’re Bigfoot from Doctors.”

More and more people started recognizing him. There were even people who looked him up and showed him to other people who didn’t know him. People started gathering. The owner was glaring at him. Why are you famous too? – his eyes seemed to say.

“Uhm, sir, it looks like I’ve made a mistake due to being busy.”

The way he called Joongjin turned from mister to Sir. The owner spoke in a begging tone, saying that he would bring proper kal-guksu.

“So ours wasn’t even proper kal-guksu, huh.”

“He’s discriminating.”

The people who were docile when apart no longer held back when they gathered. The owner, who had received heavy bashing, waved his hands around in the air while explaining circumstances no one here wanted to even know about before saying that he would make them again. The lady who received the order at first repeatedly apologized while bowing.

“He didn’t do that with bad intentions.”

“I’m fine as long as I can eat good kal-guksu.”

The lady ran off to the kitchen as soon as the director said those words. The kal-guksu incident had died down, but there was a different problem now. It was the people who had gathered around. Maru was smiling back at everyone while saying ‘yes, yes’ like a politician during an election when he heard a snippet of a song that made his entire body flinch.

“Can you do this once?”

It was a girl who looked like she was in high school. She held her phone out, and on the screen was his own face, with the big subtitles that said ‘I’m the crazy guy around here.’

“This?”

“Yes.”

“Here?”

“Yes!”

He couldn’t dare to teach this little girl that people could spit on smiling faces if they were cornered to a wall. The eyes of a robber demanding money would be less scary than this. This student, who was just playing back a video, was asking him to do what was in the video without a shred of malice, however, with the sole purpose of watching something interesting, she became too strong of an opponent. Maru rolled his eyes around. When he did, he saw another student who had the same video playing back on her phone. Was this a new endemic? An endemic where people had to play videos on their phones? One person after another started playing back the video. Maru thought that smartphones had to be a gift from the devil.

“Mr. Maru. You did something like this before? I was just doing the interview back then, so I didn’t know the atmosphere was like this.”

The director, who Maru thought was an ally, was now kindly explaining the situation to the people around: you can look up ‘Han Maru princess song.’ Maru recalled a famous line from a comedian: laughs bring people together. You were right, goddammit.

“Our actor Han over here does not know shame. But why aren’t you doing it? Oh, it must be because there is no applause.”

“Uhm, director.”

Maru tried calling out in a soft voice, but it was to no avail. The applause spread around in an instant. Just moments ago, he could have finished it off with a few words while smiling, but now, it looked like he had to go up on the table and take his top off or something.

“Please watch the movie when it comes out later.”

Maru took off his shoes and climbed up onto his chair. The people around him pointed their phones at him.

“He won’t be able to do this if he becomes more famous,” Joongjin said.

Funnily enough, it sounded persuasive.

“Please don’t spread it on the internet and just keep it to yourselves. I can already feel my lifespan decreasing whenever I watch Chatterbox. If this goes around, I might end up crying.”

He started enjoying it after all these camera lenses were pointed at him. He would regret it dearly afterwards, but for now, he felt rather joyous. Perhaps he had an innate talent to show off if he was given the stage for it. He pushed aside the forty-five-year-old man smiling calmly. This was time to sing ludicrously cutely. He spoke while leaving the shame to the depths of the heart of his future self.

“You know.”

* * *

“This is a blunder. I never knew you had such a side to you. Should I do away with all the violence and go with a cute little high school boy story for the movie instead? A high school boy aspiring to become an idol.”

Maru skipped past the speed bump right in front of him without slowing down. The car jerked once. Joongjin grabbed the handle on top of the window and became silent.

“Or how about playing a high school girl who has her body switched with a boy’s?”

The silence broke in just 10 minutes. Even if Jung Haejoo didn’t exist, the relationship between president Lee Junmin and the director must have ended badly. The love fight between two men that Ahn Joohyun told him about was probably just one of the reasons. The director’s teasing skills were at the very top out of all the people in Maru’s life. His title of oddball probably didn’t come from the way he worked.

“Director.”

“Yes?”

“You see that wall over there, right? Don’t you think we can directly go to heaven without pain if I crash into it at 160 kilometers an hour? A liberal paradise where no smartphones exist.”

“You have a great talent for making jokes sound real.”

“Should I experiment with it? I do have something I can count on.”

Even if he crashed and died, he would likely just start over from his first year of high school. If he goes back in time, he would decide not to go to Chatterbox, ever. The director, who was laughing to the point of crying, said that he would stop and let go of the handle.

“It’s been a long time since I had a laugh like that. Thinking about how I’ll be working with you makes me overjoyed already. When I talked to you six years ago at the restaurant, you were fun because you were rather old-fashioned, but I was convinced that you weren’t the type to be funny. I never knew you could make people laugh so much.”

“If you keep talking about it, I’ll mess up my acting.”

“I’m not worried about that part at all. I know that you would never do your work carelessly. You can bet on it. Oh, by the way, even president Lee Junmin doesn’t make bets with me.”

“Then it looks like I shouldn’t either.”

“I don’t usually take bets that I’ll lose.”

The GPS navigation system announced their arrival. They were in a mountainside village in Jinju, South Gyeongsang province. Gu-op-myeon. It was a place he had never heard of before.

“It’s about time.”

“What are we doing here?”

“We’ve emptied our minds in Suncheon Bay, so it’s time to fill it up again. This is the place you must watch. This is where the movie started after all.”

Joongjin got out of the car. Maru followed the man holding a light baton in front of him and parked his car in the parking lot. A long line of cars filled the parking lot. Even though this place was no special tourist attraction, there were quite a lot of people.

As soon as he left the parking lot, he heard dogs barking in the distance. It wasn’t one. The sounds were loud, sharp, thick, and ferocious. The growling got louder as though they were competing. Maru saw a gagged dog being dragged somewhere. He realized the moment he saw it. That dog wasn’t raised to be petted by people.

“Shall we go?”

Joongjin took the lead. It was a steep slope. Behind the wall that looked like it was going to cave in at any moment, there was a house that was more like a shack. This was a neighborhood without many people living in it. Men holding light batons started joining one by one. They walked across the neighborhood in a single line as though it was a military march. The procession stopped in front of a wide clearing that had been shaved down from the mountain. The sounds of barking dogs could be heard like thunder. The gagged dog he saw before was taken right next to him. Someone said that Gwang-chun seemed to be in a good condition.

“Have some rice wine, people.”

A woman with a toilet roll hanging off her neck was walking around with bowls and rice wine. Behind her was a metal net that had been installed as a round fence. It was too narrow to call it a cage. It was just enough to fit two fierce dogs in.

KTLChamber's Thoughts

That escalated, and de-escalated quickly… What rollercoster of a chapter.

Editor's Note:

Uh oh. Joongjin beats dogs too?

Chapter 902
Crank Up 2

(Warning: animal abuse)

A bowl of rice wine cost 10,000 won. The woman, who earned 50,000 won with a bottle of rice wine that cost 1,500 won, ran off somewhere before coming back with another bottle and continuing with her sales.

“Do you want to drink some?” Joongjin asked.

“Even if I do, I don’t want to pay that much. Let’s drink together once the match ends.”

“Not a bad idea.”

The sun started setting. When the shadows on the ground started getting longer, the lights installed around the dogfighting arena started scattering light. People even started some fires in metal barrels as well. Despite the crude facilities, there was most of the necessary stuff: a chair where they could sit down, food and drinks, warm fires. A van slowly approached the dogfighting arena. The owner got out and opened the back door. A reddish-black Pit Bull Terrier agilely jumped off. It looked around without shirking away despite the numerous eyes on it and walked towards the arena with the owner.

That’s ma boi Thunder – said a man drinking carton soju. The dog seemed to be famous in this dogfighting arena.

“Director, I’m asking just in case, but this place is illegal, right?”

“Dogfighting itself isn’t illegal.”

That was something he didn’t know. Dogfighting was actually not illegal.

“But it’s not legal either. There’s no law that can punish them. If someone files a complaint, the police would arrive and make these people scatter, but they would not be punished. Dogs cannot voice their opinions, and legally, they’re considered possessions.”

While Joongjin explained, another Pit Bull entered the arena. This one had an extremely short ear. The short-ear and the reddish-black one entered the same cage. The two of them scanned each other before starting to growl at the same time. If their owners did not pull them back by the leash, one of them would’ve seen blood already.

A man holding a green light baton stood in front of the metal cage.

“A’ight, everybody. The first match will be a small one. On my right is the blue corner, and on my left is the red corner. The next match will be the same, so remember that folks. Our coinlady will walk around and ask which side you’re betting, and I hope yer use yer intuition well. The winners will get carton soju and some dried squid to enjoy the show. Coinlady?”

The woman selling rice wine started walking around with blue and red colored sticks.

“I’ll go with red.”

Joongjin received a red stick. It turned out to be a red-painted chopstick. Maru just said that he was with Joongjin.

“This is jus’ appetizer, so no pressure.”

“Then I’ll go with blue.”

“Don’t ya lose it.”

‘Miss Coinlady’ walked around the dogfighting arena. Everyone now held a stick in their hands. Maru looked at the blue stick in his hand.

“Dogfighting might not be illegal, but adding gambling to it is definitely illegal, isn’t it?”

“That’s true.”

“So we’re sitting in the middle of something illegal?”

“Pray that we don’t get caught.”

Joongjin waved the red stick in the air. He seemed to be enjoying himself. Maru wondered if he would still be smiling if the police arrived.

The man with the green light baton spoke,

“Everybody got one? For a smooth process, take out yer cash before the next match. And dun yer ferget ter pay our Coinlady some tips. It’ll be boring to drag things out, so we’ll start with a match between these boys. The one missing an ear is Martie. His last match was his first one, and the boy got frighted and the match ended after getting his ear ripped. So he got some education before comin’. Thunder over here used to be king o’er in Gwangju. He’ll start appearing more startin’ next week, so we prepared an event match fer y’all.”

The man with the green light baton waved his hand in the air and stepped back, and then the owners of the dogs let go of their leash at the same time. The fight began without any signs. The dog that used to be king in Gwangju immediately proved how he had become champion. Thunder bit his teeth into Martie’s snout and started shaking his head violently. The dog missing an ear now became a dog that was also missing half its nose. At the sight of blood, the dog owners immediately grabbed the leashes. Thunder’s loud shouts spread across the area, as though to declare that he was the new king in this place. Martie leaned against the wall and started breathing heavily, tail pointing towards Thunder.

The man with the green baton curtly declared the results. Coinlady started moving again. Joongjin waved the carton soju and smiled. It seemed that he wasn’t joking when he said he was good at taking bets.

There was a little commotion in the originally quiet dogfighting arena. People started talking after drinking some soju from their cartons. Maru could see why they were so passionate about it. The violence that unfurled in front of his eyes contained indiscriminate brutality that couldn’t be seen in MMA. There was also the addition of the secrecy of illegal business as well as the excitement of gambling, so it wasn’t surprising that they were crazy. Animal lovers would faint at the very sight of this, but clearly, there were no animal lovers here. Even if some of them raised dogs at home, they would differentiate the dogs they have at home and the dogs here in their minds.

While Thunder proudly returned to his van, Martie’s owner struggled to pull on the leash. He had to pull out the dog that had no intention of leaving the cage. The dog, which clearly seemed like it had something wrong somewhere, was dragged against the ground as it left the cage. There were dotted lines of blood in its wake.

“Have a good look at the ecology of this area. The positions of each person, the jobs they do, as well as what happens to the dogs.”

Maru looked at the dog being dragged away. He could see the dog’s face as the light fixture above it swayed up and down. The dog licked its own dangling flesh before jumping around. The owner pulled hard on the leash. The dog fell snout first and seemed to have difficulty walking as it lay on its side panting. The pitifully inflated stomach shrank like a deflated balloon before returning to normal again.

“This is definitely not a place I can take a liking to.”

“People have their differences. Do you raise a dog?”

“Yes. I do have one at home, who just won’t listen to me.”

Joongjin nodded. Maru looked at the dog disappearing into the darkness. As much as he pitied it, he did not think that he should step up to help. It would be a different story if that dog was his Woofie at home, but that was ‘Martie.’

“Since we’re done with the event, let’s start the real deal. Let’s start off light with 200[1]. The money you bet will go ‘round to those who win except fer a small operation fee, so those of yer who pride in looking at dogs might be able ter win big.”

Cries could be heard from a distance. It seemed to be a dog that was preparing for the next match. Joongjin, who was chewing on a straw, looked around before standing up.

“Shall we get moving then?”

“Where are we going?”

“We had a look at the general atmosphere, so it’s about time we go to the place you need to go to.”

Joongjin approached the man with the green baton. He spoke with the man for a little before returning.

“Come wi’ me.”

A man holding a yellow baton pointed away from the arena and started walking. They walked about 300 meters away from the arena, where there was a vinyl greenhouse. It was riddled with holes, and dogs barking could be heard from the inside. They approached the greenhouse. The moist smell from the mountain became faint. What replaced it was a foul stench. Maru covered his nose and mouth with his hand. The smell became many times worse when the door to the greenhouse was opened.

“Look around. Lil’ boy. Show these people ‘round.”

The man with the yellow baton left the greenhouse. The man called ‘little boy’ stood in front of them. He was wearing a black jumper, a white mask, and a black beanie. As for his age, he seemed to be in his early to mid-twenties.

“Don’t get too close. They’ll start going crazy if they get stimulated,” the man grumbled as he turned around.

What is there to look at in a dog cage? – Maru looked at the dogs as he heard those words. They were all Pit Bulls. Were they all the same dogs because of the fun of gambling? The dog to his left was growling while bearing its teeth. The one on his right was just staring at him calmly. There were about twenty such dogs here.

“God, you shitty dog. Shut up.”

The man poked the cage inside the greenhouse with a long rod. The tip was quite sharp. It had turned black as well, seemingly from blood. The dog moved around, trying to dodge the sharp rod. It did not stop barking even as it moved.

“Damn son of a bitch doesn’t know who he’s dealing with.”

The man went to the oil heater in the middle of the greenhouse. He picked up the kettle on top of it before returning to the cage. Maru cringed one eye. The boiling hot water fell on top of the dog. The dog who had its skin cooked couldn’t even scream as it got stuck in a corner and started trembling.

“Am I supposed to be looking at that person? Or the dogs?”

“You’re a person, so you should look at one. That person shouldn’t have been like that from the beginning. I’m sure he must have been afraid of and pitied the dogs. But then, he got numb to it. I’m sure you must know how frightening numbness can make a human. But there’s a difference between knowing it and seeing it for yourself, and that’s the reason we’re here. There’s a calm lunacy that cannot be pictured with imagination alone.”

Calm lunacy. Maru observed the man’s actions. He did not care about the onlookers when he was dealing with the dogs. He would shout at them and would kick them if that didn’t work, then when that didn’t work either, he picked up his rod, and the ultimate method was pouring boiling water. Looking closely, he never touched the face and the legs. Whether it was the rod or the hot water, he aimed for the back and the rear.

Maru approached the man. From up close, the man looked even younger than he originally thought. Perhaps he was even younger than Maru.

“You look like you’re in charge of all the dogs here, am I right?”

“Well, yeah. Hey, shit dog. Stay still.”

Even as they spoke, the man kicked a dog that was sticking too close to the cage. Maru took out his wallet from his pocket. He could feel the man’s eyes quickly scanning his wallet. He took out a few ten thousand won notes.

“What are you? You don’t seem to be detectives.”

“I just wanted to ask a few questions. And not compensating you for it didn’t seem right.”

“I can’t answer anything strange.”

Even as he replied, he snatched the money away.

“Why do you do this job? Do you enjoy it?”

“Does this look fun to you? This place stinks like hell, and those shitty dogs keep barking all day. Do you think sitting here for hours is any fun?”

“Then why are you doing this job?”

“Of course because I get fucking paid. You ask some damn obvious questions. What do you do for a living?”

“I recall it was me who gave you the money. Am I obliged to reply to you?”

“No, you aren’t, fuck. But hey, Stop glaring. You’re damn scary. If you have a problem with the way I talk, then tell me about it beforehand. I don’t want to cause problems. But are you perhaps one of the seniors from another area? Are you here to scout out the area?”

“No, it’s not that. How did you feel when you first did this job? On the day you first met these dogs.”

The man scanned him from top to bottom, seemingly trying to grasp the intention behind his question. But soon, he replied as though he couldn’t be bothered.

“It was shit at first. These shitty dogs are those that can kill humans if let loose. You don’t know how well untrained wild dogs can kill humans, do you? God damn, they’re fucking brutal. I’m supposedly training and overseeing them, so of course it’s fucking scary. I couldn’t do anything at first. But when I kept going, I realized that these shits freak out if I scare them. Since then, well, it became what you see now. If they don’t listen, I kick’em. I still need to watch out though, cuz I can’t kick them anywhere I want. If something goes wrong with them, my money will go with them. Fucking dogs, and yet they’re fricking expensive.”

The man wiped under his nose with his work gloves covered in soot. There was no sense of disparity between his smile and the same figure pouring boiling water on a dog. This man didn’t have a serious ethical problem, despise dogs, or was threatened to do his work. He was just doing it because it was work.

Maru knew this, but he had gotten confirmation of it, so it was worth interviewing him. Maru scanned the dogs barking. He captured the eyes of the dogs that would soon be thrown into the craze of men.

“I think we can leave now,” Maru said to Joongjin, who was waiting behind him.

[1] As in, 200,000 won. Think 200 USD

KTLChamber's Thoughts

Non-standard speech isn't exactly my forte… Forgive me if it sounds weird.

But god, that was disturbing

Editor's Note:

What does the author have against the dogs……

Chapter 903
Crank Up 2

Maru took a few photos on the way out. The man in charge of managing the dog cages looked at him with weird eyes.

“You really aren’t a detective, right? You can’t surprise me later by telling me that you’re the cops. People these days are so evil and many people would smile in the front but stab through the back. Of course, I’m not saying that you’re one of those people.”

“That won’t happen, so don’t worry,” Joongjin said in his stead.

The foul stench didn’t end even after they left the greenhouse. The smell felt like it wouldn’t go away even after a shower. That man would probably continue to kick, stab, and pour hot water on those dogs amidst that stench, as a faithful laborer working to earn money.

“Don’t you sometimes think that the world might have been a healthier place than it is now if violence was legal and was something that can be traded for money?”

Joongjin seemed to be talking about people’s secret imaginations. Perhaps something like wishing bad luck to fall on other people without actually saying it: from wishing that someone would fall over, to terrible curses that wished for other people’s death by car crashes. Maru just replied that he didn’t know.

“It is already a tough world we live in, so getting hit just because you don’t have money sounds even more depressing.”

“That’s nothing new though. There are people who beat their subordinates with bats as punishment. If they’re going to hit and be hit, you might as well cleanly make the trade with money. The price will differ according to the wound. It will give a new meaning to the phrase ‘using your body to pay.’”

“Is there a person you want to do that to, director?”

“You mean a person I want to beat up or kill legally?”

“Yes.”

“There were a few, but there is only one person I want to beat up to death with my own hands.”

“It’s not the president by any chance, is it?”

“My relationship with him has never reached such a terrible state before. We’ve cleared up our grudges a little too recently. Thinking about it, it’s thanks to you that I had an opportunity to talk to that person. Thank you.”

“It’s rather strange to be thanked when I haven’t done anything.”

They walked down a road filled with gravel. Cheers broke through the barking from the greenhouse. It seemed that a match had ended. Maru could vaguely see a dog being dragged out of the cage in the distance. Like the first match, it was dragged on the ground like it was dead. The owner with the leash walked towards the greenhouse. The dog that was being dragged like luggage stood up again while trembling like a newborn calf. It was doing its best to hold on with its exhausted body, desperately expressing that it did not want to go back to the greenhouse.

“If dogs ever gain intelligence, I’m sure humans will be the first ones to be hunted.”

“True.”

The dog owner walked past them. The dog, which had the courage of a fighting dog stripped away along with its flesh, fell down in front of the greenhouse. The dog stood with its four legs planted on the ground and had to be forcefully dragged by the dog owner. Maru stood on the spot and watched the dog. The dog was also looking at him with sparkly eyes. It was also foaming at its panting mouth.

“That’s quite a desperate struggle.”

The dog owner shouted at the greenhouse. The door opened and the man from before walked out. In his hand was the sharp rod as though he was already aware of what he was going to be dealing with. The dog barked loudly after seeing the man. It was not a bark of wariness. It was a cry of desperation.

“Director.”

“Can I get paid a bit of my guarantee in advance? Or just lend me some money for one hour.”

“What are you going to use it for?”

“I watched a TV show that dogs can get lonely and need friends.”

Joongjin opened his wallet without hesitation. He took out a stash of 50,000 won bills and handed it to him. Maru lowered his head as he received the money. There was probably more than 2 million won. He folded the stack of cash in half and walked towards the dog owner and the young man.

“You haven’t left yet,” said the young man as he raised the rod above his head.

The dog owner asked who the two were.

“How much is that dog?”

“Why do you want it?”

“Because I met his eyes. How much?”

The dog owner and the young man exchanged looks.

“Pitbulls are an expensive breed. You’ll be surprised if you hear the price.”

Maru took out his phone to look up the price of dogs and showed it to the dog owner.

“It has become quite convenient these days.”

The dog owner sniffed before calling someone.

“Yeah, it’s me. There’s someone who wants to buy a dog here. The one I just dragged here. From the looks of it, he doesn’t seem like he belongs to that side. Well, even if he is, it doesn’t matter that much, does it?”

As they were running an illegal gambling den, it seemed that they didn’t deal with the dogs so easily. The call lasted for a few minutes. Maru looked at the dog rolling its eyes around the dog owner’s feet. It looked at the sharp rod anxiously before looking for a road that didn’t have a human presence.

“Just take it. Grab the leash tightly. It’ll run if you’re too loose.”

The dog owner gave him the leash. Just as he said, the taut tension could be felt from the leash. A moment of distraction, and the dog would run off to the mountains.

“Do you really not need any money?”

“Mr. Choi told me to just give it to you when I told him that you’re with Sir Park. I was worried that you might be part of some animal rights activist group which got me scared. But why did you want this one? It ain’t fit for dogfighting since the first thing it looks for is a way to run. Also, hey, I think I’ve seen you somewhere.”

“I do have a rather common face.”

“That’s true.”

The dog owner talked all on his own before eventually walking towards the cages with a ‘not my business’ attitude. Maru saw him nodding towards Joongjin on the way. Maru tried pulling on the leash. The dog, which had its stomach on the ground, did not budge at all.

“You knew the president? I didn’t know that and acted rude. I’m so sorry.”

The young man hid the rod behind him and started smiling. His eyes were fixed on the stack of cash in Maru’s left hand. Maru handed the cash to the young man.

“You’re giving it to me?”

“I will, but let me ask you to do one thing. I’m not sure if you’ll keep it, but don’t pour hot water on those dogs while you don’t run out. If possible, don’t poke them either.”

“You, big brother, liked dogs, huh? You should’ve told me earlier. I’ll look after them well in the future.”

The man bowed towards him before walking back into the greenhouse. Maru could hear him kick the dog cages the moment he went in. He didn’t mind since he didn’t have a shred of expectation. Instead, he looked at the dog crouching down in front of him. This fellow was within his reach. He reached his hand out slightly. The dog growled at him before trying to bite him. Maru opened his hand and pressed its nose before grabbing it by the snout. He could feel a sticky, warm mass. It was a bloody piece of flesh. He reached his hand under the struggling dog’s stomach before lifting it up. At first, the dog struggled desperately, but when Maru turned its snout around and stared into its eyes, it soon became docile.

“I’ll pay you back the money once we return to the city. Or if you tell me your bank account number, I’ll send it to you directly.”

“No need at all. Let’s just consider it a fun trip with Mr. Maru. I may look like this, but I’ve earned quite a lot of money. The president of the production company gave me a strong guarantee because he didn’t know the movie would hit 10 million views.”

“Even so…”

“If you don’t like that, then just consider it an investment. An investment in an actor that I have high hopes for. From what I saw today, that couple million won doesn’t seem like a waste at all, and it makes me happy. But why did you decide to bring that dog specifically? There are a lot of dogs inside.”

“Because I locked eyes with it. It was asking me to save it, and I ended up looking directly, so I had no choice. The ones inside are pitiful as well, but I don’t have the leisure to look after all of them. Also, I’m not a charity worker.”

“Perhaps you didn’t need to come and see this place. You’re closer to the character I’m thinking of than I thought.”

“That doesn’t sound like a good meaning to me.”

“I’m telling you that you’re extremely humane.”

They walked to the parking lot with the dog. On their way down, Maru found a man with his eyes glued to the main road. He seemed to be watching out for any police that might show up. Maru let the dog loose on the back seat. He also loosened the leash which was tightly wrapped around the neck. The dog also seemed to have understood that it wasn’t being locked up or beaten up, and it stayed docile below the seat. It was quite quick-witted since it was raised in an environment where it was constantly kicked around.

“Is it because of minimum conscience that you gave him the money?”

“You can call it that.”

“How about you report to the police then?”

“From the looks of it, you seem to be acquainted with the person up there.”

“I guess we know each other. I know all sorts of people after all.”

“Then it’s fine.”

Before Maru started the car, he looked at the dogfighting arena colored in orange. He had not yet heard about the theme of the film from Joongjin, but he could already picture how it would turn out in his head. A plain lunacy – Joongjin’s mise-en-scène would probably charge straight to that phrase.

“I haven’t gotten an answer before, so can you elaborate?” Maru asked when the car got on the main road.

Joongjin turned and asked what he was talking about.

“The one you wanted to beat up with your own hands. I’m curious about who it is.”

“Oh, that? She’s an ordinary housewife. She’s a woman with a son, a great single mother who has divorced her husband and has raised her son by herself until now.”

“Then why would you…”

“Because she made a single mistake. She grabbed the driving wheel after drinking. It was a rainy day, too. The roads must have been unclear due to the weather, and she even drunk-drove, so how good could her judgments possibly be? The car she drove ignored the speed limit and ended up crashing into a person that appeared in front of it. So strongly that there was no time to help the victim. She was the one who did it. I’m sure you know what story this is.”

After that, Joongjin no longer spoke. His ever-cheerful mouth had finally quit working for the first time.

“That woman should not have drank. At least on that day.”

Joongjin said those words after about an hour. He started talking cheerfully again as though he had shaken off all the gloomy feelings. Maru laughed from time to time to go along with him. The sound of the wind hitting the car, the sound of the engine, the sound of Joongjin’s laugh, the sound of the dog whimpering. The car was more noisy and bustling than ever, but for some reason, it even felt quieter than dead silence.

“Should we donate some of the profits to animal protection groups?”

“Doesn’t sound bad.”

“Then let’s do that. I’m sure the better you do your acting, the better the lives of dogs will get. Then do your best.”

“Me doing my best won’t be enough for that, will it?”

“It probably will, I think.”

Joongjin’s words contained a hint of conviction that his way of production would not fail.

“Then let me explain the outline, shall I?”

Maru pressed the gas pedal as he listened in.

KTLChamber's Thoughts

New doggo friend for Woofie.

Editor's Note:

If they call it Barkie…………

Chapter 904
Crank Up 2

(Warning: more animal abuse.)

The breathing of dogs could be heard from the man’s residence. The high and low panting noise, the sound of legs dragging, the sound of scraping the cage. The man had to stand up whenever he heard a thudding noise of bone and metal hitting each other. There was only one thing he had to do with the long rod. It was to push back the dogs that were bashing their heads against the cage after having gone crazy. It would be big trouble if they ended up breaking their heads open and going limp or something. Whenever he raised the rod, the dogs gnashed their teeth and fell back. There were no exceptions. The stronger ones would glare their pitch-black eyes at him for days and get ready for a fight, but after tasting a few stabs from the rod, they would loosen their legs and roll up their tail. Whether it was men or dogs, there was no winning against violence. After preventing suicide, he had to feed them. They would only not go into a frenzy if they were given a path to escape. The rod would be useless against those that had given up on their lives, so he had to prevent that before it reached such a state.

There were those that were bashing into the cage again today. The man grumbled and stood up before looking for his rod. He had sharpened the rod with a planing tool a few days ago. A stab should shut them up and make them more docile. He opened the door and the dog cage door right next to it. A foul stench of rotting dung and piss wafted about. There was a woman with a dragon tattoo who got into the dog cage wanting to see the dogs up close, but she ended up leaving the cage while vomiting.

The struggling dogs became docile. Even these dogs had heads and could differentiate when they could act up and when they couldn’t. The only ones that couldn’t, were those that rampaged around like they had rabies. He stood in front of the cage to the left. He knew it would be this one. It was a new one that came in two days ago. It was the last pup birthed by the breeding dog. Apparently, it almost died the moment it was born from being bitten to death by its mother. Perhaps because the first sensation it felt since its birth was its mother’s teeth, it bit everything in its sight. He heard that the trainer who managed breeding dogs and fighting dogs alike had given up training this one, which was the first time in his life. As dogfighting was a form of business, there would be great losses if a product was damaged. The dogs should moderately bite each other and stop once the opponent dog lowers their tail, but this one apparently ripped apart its opponent with its canine teeth without caring whether the opposing dog admitted defeat or not. Supposedly, in the last fight, this one had before coming to this place, it had bitten the opposing dog’s mouth, resulting in that dog’s guts spilling out. The president, who loved people with a screw loose in their head, bought this guy over with a surplus sum of money.

The man spoke softly: shut up and stay still. That one didn’t even care. It kept crashing into the cage. It seemed to want to know whether its skull would break first, or if the metal would dent.

It was time for the rod. The dog was the president’s favorite, but that didn’t matter. Even a dog that the president was head over heels for had to be docile in front of the rod. Of course, he didn’t plan on killing it or heavily injuring it. If he did, the president himself would pick up a rod of his own. The man did not want to live the rest of his life limping.

He pushed the rod against the dog’s head. Even without teaching them anything, dogs knew how foolish it was to crash their heads into a sharp object. Even dogs who had never tasted the rod would yelp and turn around if he did this.

But this one was different.

The man cursed and pulled the rod back. Had he been a moment too late, the dog would have become one-eyed. This one lacked too much fear. It seemed as though it had forgotten what being hurt meant and what pain was. It was time for a more effective method than the rod. He brought boiling water. Even the most vicious dogs who bite their owners would turn into the most docile dogs in the world in front of water that could literally cook their flesh. When he lifted up the kettle that had a burnt bottom, the dogs inside waited with bated breaths. The man enjoyed the silence brought by the boiling water before clicking his tongue at the thudding sound that he could still hear. That one was probably rampaging around because it didn’t know to fear the boiling water.

He stood in front of the cage and tilted the kettle slightly. Steam rose from the beak first, followed by boiling hot water. It flowed down in one constant streak and touched the dog’s waist. The dog jumped up and fell back. Even pouring water required quite a bit of technique. At first, he was unable to control it properly, and a portion of fur ended up falling off of the dog. Even some puss came out from the cooked flesh later too. Now, he no longer made such mistakes. The man boasted that he could pour water more delicately than anyone in the country.

The dog that snapped back even in the face of the rod finally put its chin on the ground. It lowered its butt and placed its two front paws in front. The unrelenting dog had finally accepted the rules of this place. The man predicted that this one would function properly as a dogfighting dog from the next match. A dog that would bite moderately and gain victory.

The man returned to his residence. He lay down on his bed with the stench of dogs still on him. He could no longer hear the dogs’ breaths. He could finally get some quiet sleep.

* * *

It had been thirty minutes. Maru didn’t budge from the sofa. He sat still with his eyes closed as though he was meditating. Without the occasional twitch of his eyebrows, the roughening of his breath, and his upper lip rolling upwards to the point that his canine teeth could be seen, she might have mistaken him for sleeping.

She wanted to go to the bathroom, wanted to open the fridge, and wanted to boil some water in the coffee pot, but she just watched Maru quietly because she didn’t want to disturb his focus.

“Shh.”

Woofie hopped over. She would walk over to Maru with her bowl every morning, but she seemed to have felt that something was serious today and came over to her instead. She wanted to lift her up and place her on her lap, but there was a prior visitor today.

Gaeul grabbed the paw of the Pit Bull trying to scratch its cone. When Maru returned home in the middle of the night a week ago, he was holding this dog. Gaeul covered her mouth and groaned the moment she saw him. There was blood all over Maru’s clothes. She subconsciously reached out to her phone to call 119, but Maru stopped her. The blood didn’t belong to Maru, it belonged to the dog. The dog had a serious wound on its face. There was another one on its left leg. Its flesh had been pushed to one side as though a saw blade had ripped its leg. Maru said that the dog belonged to a dogfighting arena. Thinking that getting the dog treated was more important than finding out what happened, they took it to a nearby veterinary hospital. The vet there asked if the dog got hit by a motorbike. The skin on its stomach was mangled as though it had been dragged across concrete. Fortunately, the vet also said that there would be no problems with some suturing and good treatment.

“He’s Woofie’s friend. I’m not sure if he’ll adapt though,” Maru said as he brought the dog home after treatment.

Only then did she hear what had transpired. Apparently, he went to a dog fighting arena because of matters related to director Park Joongjin’s film and met this dog there. After listening to everything, Gaeul rubbed the Pit Bull’s chin, saying that he did the right thing. She also added that Woofie would be glad to have a friend. It was Woofie who soothed the Pit Bull’s wanderlust. The two of them approached each other, smelled each other, and licked each other’s wounds the moment they saw each other. The Pit Bull licked Woofie’s limping leg, while Woofie licked the Pit Bull’s wound. Gaeul was glad to see that, but one thing came to her mind. Maru mentioned a dogfighting arena. Fighting wasn’t something that can be done with just one. From what she vaguely remembered from watching the news, dozens of such dogs would be raised in one such area. She asked Maru, who was watching the dogs stuck to each other affectionately. What happened to the other dogs? Maru did not answer. Gaeul knew that, as they shared a lot of things, they needed to be even more careful around each other. She hadn’t heard the details, but she could understand vaguely. That was why she decided not to ask anymore.

The Pit Bull kept trying to scratch its cone as though its wound was itchy. Gaeul tapped on its nose and frowned. It may look menacing at first, but it was quite docile and acted quite cute. It broke her heart to think that such a dog was growling and fighting other dogs in a dogfighting arena.

“You were up?”

Maru opened his eyes. It had been forty minutes since she started watching. Gaeul looked at the clock. It was going past 8:10 in the morning.

“I thought I shouldn’t disturb you.”

“I didn’t mind. Wasn’t it boring?”

“It was good because it was rather interesting to watch you. You were cute when you were frowning too. So what was that about?”

“I tried refining the character in my head, so I can get a grasp on what his feelings are.”

“I thought it would be something like that. Your head has been filled with the film you’re shooting ever since you brought this one home, hasn’t it?”

“It’s a film I’m making with a good director.”

“And it’s your first lead role too. Are you excited?”

“How can I not be?”

Maru approached her and kissed her lightly on the forehead. Gaeul placed the Pit Bull on her lap on the floor. Woofie and the Pit Bull walked under the table side by side.

“We should get eating, and feed these ones too.”

He opened the fridge, while Gaeul headed straight to the bathroom. When she came back out, Maru asked,

“Were you holding back?”

“No.”

“I think you were.”

“Just ignore things like this. You just had to ask.”

“Okay.”

“Rather than that, did you think about that one’s name? I’m worried since it’ll be like Woofie all over again, and he won’t have a name for a while.”

“You make one for him. I think my naming sense is terrible.”

“He’s supposed to be a parent, but he’s such a terrible one, isn’t that right?” she said to the Pit Bull staring at her from under the table.

“You’re not going to name your child in the future either, are you?”

Maru, who was holding a pot, said something. Due to the running water, she couldn’t hear him properly. She approached him and asked what he said.

“I’ve already made the prettiest name in the world for someone. You won’t know how glad that person was about it.”

“You said you never had pets before. Who did you name?”

Maru smiled and just replied, “a small child.” Gaeul frowned. Her woman’s intuition was ringing alarms. This was not about an animal. It was about a person, a woman at that.

“What the heck? So you gave a splendid nickname to another woman?”

“My first love is you though?” Maru put his face close to hers and said.

His eyes did not contain a shred of lies. At the same time, the eyes felt somewhat sorrowful.

“Sit down. I’ll bring the food soon.”

Gaeul no longer pried. This felt like something she shouldn’t ask.

“Is there anything I can help you with?”

“No.”

Gaeul nodded. She did not want to talk about something that he did not want to talk about. If it was something necessary to talk about in their relationship, he would have talked about it. Gaeul rested her chin on her hands and watched Maru’s back. Actually, it didn’t matter even if he was lying to her in some way. What was important was that she had trust in him.

“So, did you think of a name for this one?”

“Should I go with doenjang-jjigae?”

“Let’s… not talk about it,” Gaeul replied with a smile.

KTLChamber's Thoughts

This…… THIS is the kind of slice of life I want. Though, considering the nature of this novel, this will likely be very short…

Editor's Note:

After the last 3 chaps, this one is very welcome.

Chapter 905
Crank Up 2

“Still, it’s good that he’s adapting,” Gaeul said as she looked at the two dogs stuck to each other like glue.

There had been no accidents for the past week. The Pit Bull had to fight because of people’s selfish desires. She wouldn’t be able to blame it even if he bared its fangs according to his instincts, but thankfully, it didn’t cause any trouble. In fact, it even felt like the Pit Bull was losing against Woofie. Even now, it didn’t shirk away from Woofie’s slight bite on its front paw, wanting to play with it. Perhaps it might have discerned the hierarchy here in that short time for the sake of survival; that it should not cause harm to the pitifully weak dog in front of it. From how it was taking glances at Maru and her from time to time, the prediction didn’t seem too far off the mark.

“Woofie, don’t bully him. He’s sick.”

She scolded Woofie, as she kept bothering the Pit Bull’s cone. As Woofie was extremely quick-witted, she soon stopped.

“I feel like she listens to you more than she does to me.”

“Didn’t you know? Her owner had changed a long time ago.”

“So even the dog knows that I’m servile to you, huh? What a pitiful life.”

“You aren’t that servile to me.”

She handed the empty bowl of snacks to Maru who was standing up with the empty mug.

“So, when does your shoot begin?”

Maru replied after reaching the kitchen sink,

“Originally, it was early November.”

“But the thirtieth is right around the corner?”

“It seems like the camera team and acoustics team that the director wants have been delayed. That’s why we’re starting late too. This will change depending on the situation, but I think it’ll be mid-December at the earliest?”

“That’s right around the time I receive my paid vacation.”

This week was the last week of shooting Doctor’s Office, next week would be the final episode and the after party, and the week after that would be when she leaves the country. Gaeul thought about her schedule in her head.

“Philippines was it?”

“Yeah. I already have a headache because of that. I wish I had two bodies.”

Although Doctors had once caught up and even reversed the viewing rate, it had been flipped again after the recent episodes. The refreshing reversal episode of Kang Giwoo after the revelation of the true villain behind the curtain must have enraptured the viewers. Thanks to this, she was in the middle of a literal flood of commercials, photo shoots, and interview requests. This was compounded with the fact that the final episode was coming. She couldn’t just do whatever she wanted either, as all these requests came through someone she knew, and there were also some of them which had been agreed upon beforehand. Having no choice, she was digesting her recent schedule while having to reduce her sleep. It was also the reason she was staying at home without doing anything on days like today when she had a full break after nearly two weeks. She had to save up any energy to go around in order to digest the near triathlon level of schedules starting early tomorrow.

“You should earn a lot while you still can.”

Maru returned from the kitchen and massaged her back. He was really good at massaging the sore parts without her having to tell him.

“I would have some leisure if I didn’t go on that vacation. Oh, press a bit harder on that part.”

Her shoulders felt refreshed as though cold water was poured on them. Maru would probably be successful even if his occupation was a massager.

“I saw on the news before that some actors don’t go on those paid vacations because they’re too busy. Why don’t you pull out as well? It’s somewhat funny to exhaust yourself just to go on a vacation.”

“I want to do that too, but I can’t really do that. Paid vacation is ultimately an extension of business after all. Not only that, the production company and the TV station are both paying for the trip, so it is rather unsettling to pull out.”

“Would you be hated if you pull out?”

“If that was it, then I would have pulled out. But they told me that the budget might be shaved off if the main actors are not going and maybe even canceled outright if many of them don’t go. The senior actors all have busy schedules but have decided to go for the sake of the staff who worked hard.”

“I can feel the great will of those higher-ups at the TV station wishing to squeeze every last drop from you. Journalists will write articles about the paid vacation, and that will naturally lead to more publicity.”

“Exactly. Also, we managed to gain this much after being vocal. At first, they told us that the supporting actors, managers, and stylists won’t get their plane tickets paid for, so we, the main actors, and the writer said that we wouldn’t go either if that were the case, and then they changed their minds. The director discreetly took our side as well. From what I heard, they already sold out all the ad spots, sold overseas licensing rights, and earned a lot of money. They’re so petty.”

Before, Gaeul couldn’t understand why some celebrities were embarrassed to go on holiday, but now she could sympathize. It was supposed to be a paid vacation thanking everyone for their work, but things would be really awry if some had their plane tickets paid for while others didn’t. She could understand that overseas travel was expensive, but she didn’t like grading people until the end and differentiating them. There was a senior actor who did not participate in afterparties after hearing about the paid vacation. He was barely persuaded in the end, but if things didn’t go well, only the staff might be there at the afterparty.

“Aren’t you hearing anything about vacation on your side? Usually, people start talking about it 3 to 4 weeks before the last episode airs.”

“Nothing yet. From what you said though, it might be better off not going. How is it? Feel refreshed yet?”

Gaeul waved her arm and said that she was refreshed, thanking him.

“Since you’re going, have a good rest.”

“I will. I think I will be able to if I could push Kang Giwoo to one side.”

“Looks like you’ll have many things to watch out for during this vacation.”

“Still, it’s a good thing that he has been staying quiet ever since I came out strong last time. Rather, it’s the old woman that I’m more concerned about these days.”

“The old woman? Lee Miyoon?”

Gaeul nodded.

“Is she picking a fight with you again?”

“No, I’d rather she did. It’s even more suspicious because she’s not saying anything to me.”

“Maybe she finally realized that the girl known as Han Gaeul will not fall down no matter how much she tries?”

“If that was the case, then I would be celebrating. But it doesn’t feel like that. I met her yesterday during the shoot, but she just glared at me once before walking past. Normally, when we make eye contact like that, she would nag me about the way I open my eyes, how I don’t greet her properly, followed by how terrible my acting is, but she just went on her way as though she was chased by something. I even had to follow where that woman was going with my eyes, to see if she wasn’t possessed by a ghost or something.”

“So the one who always picks a fight with you has started to ignore you recently, right?”

“Unpleasantly so. At this point, it’s making me worried. She might be preparing a big one after leaving me alone for a while.”

“Or maybe she became so busy that she doesn’t have time to dawdle with you. Anyway, it’s a good thing that she’s not picking a fight with you. Or what, did you get affectionate after all those interactions? You feel bitter because the one who bullied you has suddenly stopped?”

“You really need a beating.”

She raised her index finger and poked Maru’s flank relentlessly. There was no hate-turned-affection at all, but there was her intuition that she had developed for years. She could tell what was on Lee Miyoon’s mind better than most people. Recently, Lee Miyoon was very strange. It should have been her joy to trot around everywhere on the shooting set with her head held proud, but for the past few days, she looked frantic as though she had left her stove on back at home. Leaving aside everything, her acting was something that even Gaeul had to acknowledge, but yesterday, Lee Miyoon made 10 NGs in a row. That was the first time such a thing happened. Even the director paused the shoot.

“Don’t think too deeply about it. Just think that a wicked woman has finally gotten her retribution.”

Gaeul spoke as she recalled Lee Miyoon shaking her legs while holding her phone anxiously,

“I’d be so glad if that was the case.”

* * *

“What do you mean by that?”

Lee Miyoon barely held back from throwing her phone in anger.

-Old woman, it’s over so stop calling me. You’re way too naggy.

“Hey, you little son of a…”

-Did I come out of your stomach or what? Don’t call me a son. You know, I have a really patient personality to have endured all your curses for over a decade. Had it been anyone else, you’d have a few sashimi knives stuck through your stomach.

“Where the fuck are you?! WHERE?!”

-If I tell you, then what? You’ll come here? This is Japan. Come if you want. But old woman, keep this in mind. Five to six tourists go missing in Japan every year. You’d better bring your will when you come here. Once you’re deemed missing, I’ll personally deliver that letter to your family in about five years. No wait, maybe your family will be the most delighted after hearing your demise? I mean, you have a lot of money saved up, don’t you?

“Who do you think you’re talking to, you fucking bastard of…”

Lee Miyoon clenched her teeth and looked at the staff member who appeared in front of her. He was a clumsy-looking man. When she glared at him, he bowed before immediately going away.

“Head manager Park, calm down and listen to me.”

-It is you who needs calming down, not me.

“Haven’t you heard from the chairman? To put everything back into place?”

-You silly woman. Are you asking because you really don’t know?

“What do you mean?”

-How do you think I came to Japan to work in the first place? The setup here is all done thanks to our new president Hong.

“As I said, the chairman himself told Hong Janghae that prick to stop.”

-You really can’t get this through your thick head, huh? Well, I guess that’s not surprising considering you’ve lost everything. I was also out of my mind when my business rights were ripped off from me by a guy I trusted. I could see why people would daze out like an idiot. You’re exactly like that right now, old woman. Think about it. Do you think president Hong really has the guts to do this by himself? No, absolutely not. Listen to me carefully. You were abandoned. You were a lost cause the moment you went against your owner for more feed when you’re just a hunting dog. You should’ve held back a little. Or maybe have a smarter head.

“HEY!”

The call ended. Lee Miyoon collapsed on the spot. She could not contact any of her business partners or any of her customers. The people who had called her saying that they got a call from the chairman and that she should feel at ease had all broken contact in an instant. During the ten days she waited smugly like a military officer who was given commanding rights, Hong Janghae had finished off everything. What she received from the chairman was not some commanding rights. It was poison.

“Lee Miyoon won’t go down that easily, you know? I am not going down like this.”

She pushed herself off the ground. Drink the poison and die? Not happening. That would just fulfill the desire of someone else. Lee Miyoon calmed down her breathing and returned to the set.

KTLChamber's Thoughts

Btw, all this time, I've been assuming the Pit Bull's sex. I'm not sure if it's male or female. I just assumed male cuz dog fighting……

Editor's Note:

I have a bad feeling about Gaeul's trip.

Chapter 906
Crank Up 2

Lee Miyoon walked past like a pedestrian crossing the road on blinking green lights. She was walking so fast that there was a small gust of wind when she passed by. Gaeul turned around to look at Miyoon walking in the distance. Why would she come here? She had no appearances today. The staff made way for her as she was exuding chilliness from all over her body. Everyone was wary of her. Today, Lee Miyoon looked like she shouldn’t be touched. Gaeul also stayed quiet after seeing Miyoon’s blizzard eyes. She looked like she would stab someone without hesitation if there was a knife in her hands.

“What the heck is up with that woman? Is she angry because her makeup didn’t turn out well? For that to be true though, she looks way too vicious,” Mijoo came around and said.

“If possible, don’t go anywhere near her. She looks really dangerous today.”

“It’s scary, so I think I might run. Unni, you have two types of clothing today. But hey, I saw that your flank was getting a little bigger. Maybe you gained weight because you ate love?”

“I’ll exercise and lose weight. I’m already concerned about it without needing you to tell me, so don’t tell me off too much.”

“I’m not telling you off. I’m envious.”

Mijoo walked away, saying that she would come back with a necklace. Gaeul picked up the script and stood in front of the hospital’s counter.

“Miss Gaeul, are you feeling okay today? Madam Lee has come to the shoot.”

“Today, she just walked by without doing anything. From the look on her face, it seems like something happened to her.”

“Her eyes were totally cold, weren’t they?”

“She’s someone who puts many people in difficult positions just by being here, and she’s even worse today. Did the director go looking for her?”

“I think he met her already. He looked really bad. Madam Lee didn’t say anything to the director before, but it seems like that wasn’t the case today.”

A supporting actress that she chatted with flicked her eyelids once and closed her mouth. Lee Miyoon, who had been away from the set, suddenly appeared. She was attached right next to Kang Giwoo.

“Mr. Giwoo must have it hard, having to get along with her.”

“I’m sure he’ll do fine by himself. He’s everyone’s Giwoo.”

This scene was something that Gaeul had already witnessed before. Kang Giwoo would step aside with a difficult expression, but Lee Miyoon would block his way. Gaeul closely observed the two. The two were talking like that last time as well, so she thought that perhaps the matter back then hadn’t been resolved yet.

“I only heard about this too, and apparently, madam Lee has run into something bad. There are many people who saw her shout into her phone in the bathroom.”

“You don’t know what it’s about, do you?”

The supporting actress nodded, saying that she also didn’t know because she heard it from someone else as well.

“Regardless of what it is, I just wish she didn’t bring it to work. Many people have a difficult time when she’s around. I’d rather have her just nag me like she always does. Doing the shoot in a mood like this is going to be terrible.”

“Looks like you don’t fear her, Miss Gaeul. Honestly, I thought something big might happen when I first saw the two of you fight. I was surprised again when I heard that your relationship was like that from way before.”

“I got used to hearing curses from her.”

“I hope I can be as bold as you are, Miss Gaeul.”

“Don’t be. Sometimes, I hate myself for it. I can just laugh it off, but I keep making a big deal out of it. I’m lacking sociability.”

“Don’t say that. You’re someone I really want as a friend. You’re bold, snappy and you even care about the people around y…”

The supporting actress stopped speaking. Her eyes were filled with fright as she looked over her shoulder. Gaeul could tell who was behind her without even looking.

“Hey, you. Did you just talk behind my back?” Lee Miyoon inquired as she placed her hand on the counter.

Gaeul could see the supporting actress’ lips trembling. Lee Miyoon was the type to send people out on a whim. Gaeul cut in before she could utter any nonsense.

“She was talking with me about interesting recent movies. We absolutely weren’t talking about you.”

She refined those words to make them sound as nice as possible. She didn’t want to fight Miyoon. She learned not to fight people whose eyes were loose. She expected her to step back since she was acting servile, but today, it seemed that Miyoon couldn’t care less about any consequences.

“Was I asking you?”

Miyoon snorted in disdain and pointed her finger at the supporting actress. The supporting actress came out from behind the counter and stood in front of Miyoon, her hands neatly folded together in front of her.

“Young ones these days are so rude. They dare to openly talk behind their senior’s backs.”

“Madam, it wasn’t…”

“See? I just said one thing, yet she tries to say a hundred back to me. Look at her trying to win against me, huh?”

“No, madam. I’m sorry.”

“If your skills are so pathetic that you’re playing roles like that, then don’t think about talking bad behind others’ backs and start practicing. You’re so shit because all you do is chit-chat without even practicing. If I were you, I would be too embarrassed to even speak on the set. If you don’t have any willpower, then just quit. Don’t make people who try hard lose energy.”

The supporting actress lowered her head. Gaeul clenched her hand right next to her pants. Miyoon was speaking while looking at Gaeul herself, as though the supporting actress was getting an earful because of her. If she fell for her taunt, the supporting actress may get into even more trouble, so she had to hold back. She had to get the dirt on herself. After uttering a barrage of words, Lee Miyoon caught her breath. Usually, she would step back after this, since she had achieved her objective of rebuking someone.

“But I feel like it’s going to get uncomfortable for me if I keep seeing your face. What should I do?”

The supporting actress’ face turned pale. It seemed like she had no intentions of letting her go. Gaeul stood in between Miyoon and the supporting actress.

“It looks like you have a lot to talk about with me, so stop venting your frustration on the wrong person, senior.”

Only then did Miyoon put on a satisfactory smile.

“Are you siding with her right now? Two rude fools are doubly doing bullshit.”

“I don’t see who’s the rude one here. The person behind me, you know? She told me that your acting is really good and that she looks up to you. But hearing that, it made me flabbergasted. What’s so great about your acting?”

The supporting actress pulled on her arm. Gaeul signaled her that she was okay and faced Miyoon.

“You picked the wrong day today. You don’t know what kind of mood I am in, do you?”

“I do. That’s why I’m saying all this to you. Are you not a pro, senior? Are you saying you’re proud to bring your private emotions into work?”

“Your little foul mouth is getting worse by the day.”

“While you, senior, seem to be getting pettier by the day. Why don’t you learn to look after your juniors a little? How long are you going to live as that unrelenting general?”

“Shut your trap.”

“I will, so please, do the same.”

Lee Miyoon turned around with an absurd laugh. Gaeul looked around. Due to the commotion, many people, including staff and actors alike, had gathered around. Maybe she became concerned after seeing that many eyes had gathered. It would be fortunate if things ended here. As for the supporting actress, she was just a way to pick a fight with her, so that woman wouldn’t pick on her later. Gaeul also turned around. She saw the supporting actress looking uneasy.

“Don’t worry. That woman picked a fight with you just to say something to me.”

“Are you really okay?”

“This is not the first or second time she’s done this to me. It looked a little dangerous today, but it seems like it won’t be any different from usual.”

Just as she finished off her words with a smile, she could see the supporting actress’ eyes becoming wider. The onlookers also uttered ‘huh?’ in astonishment, so feeling uneasy, she turned around about halfway when something hit her left cheek and chin. It took a few seconds for her to realize that she had been hit. She moved her eyes, which were looking at the ceiling, back down to look at Lee Miyoon. She saw a bag in her hands. Did she just get hit by that?

“Miss Gaeul!” the supporting actress shouted.

Gaeul raised her hand and caressed her chin and cheek. It was warm. A sense of pain rushed in a bit later. More than the impact, a sharp sensation as though she was cut by something spread out from her chin. She looked at her hand. There was something red. Blood?

“Unni!”

Mijoo ran over. She looked like she was about to cry. Her hands were shaking in worry for her face, and she looked so worried that it made Gaeul worry for her.

“It’s not a big wound so it’s fine. Do you have a mirror?”

She asked Mijoo, who said that they should go to the bathroom, and checked her face in the mirror on the spot. There was a thin red line reaching all the way to her ear from her chin. The sound didn’t seem too serious. It seemed like she got a cut from a metallic ornament on the corner of the handbag.

“Are you crazy?” Mijoo shouted at Lee Miyoon.

Gaeul grabbed Mijoo’s shoulder and pulled her back. There was no need to reignite a fight that had already ended. The staff came around as well. They were in a fuss, asking if she had to go to the hospital or not. Gaeul asked for a bottle of fresh water and a makeup cotton sheet. She soaked the cotton with the water and wiped her wound. It seemed like it would heal cleanly as long as she applied medicine and treated it well so that there wouldn’t be any infections.

She wiped the blood on her hand and looked at Lee Miyoon. It seemed as though she had returned to her senses a little as she was looking towards her.

“Satisfied?”

“You.”

“You don’t seem to be in a great condition today, so why don’t you go back?”

Lee Miyoon definitely seemed strange today. She was usually like a dictator, yes, but she wasn’t foolish enough to cause an injury on an actor’s face. It was good that the thing in her hand was a handbag. If she was holding scissors or something, she would have really swung that around. So this was why she was told not to fight with someone with their eyes loose. She felt sorry when she thought about how Maru would be worried.

Even the director, who was usually servile towards Lee Miyoon, frowned as though he couldn’t hold back as the person in charge.

“Madam, apologize to Gaeul. You clearly went too far.”

“Director, it’s fine. It’s not a big wound. Rather than that, let’s start the shoot. It’s getting late.”

“Go to the hospital first. Before that, I’m not doing the shoot.”

“I’m fine though.”

“But I’m not. If you want me to write apologies in bulk, then you can stay. If you have any pity for me at all, then go to the hospital. Miss Saebyeol, please go with her.”

The director had the supporting actress tag along. He seemed to be looking out for her. It seemed like his intention was to send the people involved to the hospital first and then clean up the aftermath. Gaeul decided to listen.

“Then I’ll be back quickly.”

“Miss Gaeul, wait for me.”

Gaeul left the set with the supporting actress.

KTLChamber's Thoughts

Prepare to face Maru's wrath, bitch.

Editor's Note:

This b****

Chapter 907
Crank Up 2

It was probably around the time he was ten. He brought a transforming pencil case that he got as a gift from his grandfather. He had more than enough toys, but the pencil case he got from his grandfather was special. Just as he was boasting it off to the other kids in class, that kid put her hand out. She was an especially tall girl. She, the leader of the kids who ‘played around’ in class, snatched the pencil case away from him and touched all over it, toying with it. He asked for it back, but that was of no use. She tossed the pencil case in the air for fun, and when she received it, the arm of the robot broke and fell on the floor. A gift he personally got from his grandfather had become distorted into a weird shape. The head had snapped backwards and did not return to its normal place, while the chest, which had a cool symbol on it, had been dented inwards. His pencils and eraser fell out of the pencil case like guts.

“I was just playing a joke. You’re not upset, are you?”

That was what the girl said. He immediately realized that she did it on purpose. Was it because he won the class president election? Or was it because he didn’t go to her party? Or maybe, was it because he refused when she asked him out to play? All of them had reasons. He didn’t want to do the class president election, but he got voted for it and ended up being elected, he was sick on her birthday, and he had already made plans to go rollerblading with his friends when she asked him out to play. No matter how hard he thought about it, he did nothing wrong. He kept thinking about what he did wrong as he picked up the pencils from the floor. He put the eraser in last and picked up the no-longer-transformable pencil case. Only then did he realize that he was crying.

“Hey, hey! Kang Giwoo’s crying. He’s crying because his pencil case was broken! He’s a crybaby!”

He could see the girl’s fingertips. She was laughing her heart out as though she had watched a funny scene from a cartoon.

The ear-piercing giggle, the razor-sharp fingertips, the gaze from above, and finally, the broken pencil case.

“You’re a boy, but you’re so petty just because of a broken pencil case.”

The pieces of the puzzle spinning around all scattered and gathered together. He used the girl’s voice as the adhesive to piece the puzzles together into a solid, unshaken thought. Giwoo realized that his tears had stopped. He put the pencil case on his desk and stood in front of the girl who was still laughing.

“Right, you were just playing around, weren’t you?”

He made a refreshing smile. A month later, that girl no longer came to school. Apparently, the girls he was close to had bullied her. When the homeroom teacher said that she transferred to another school due to family circumstances, Giwoo thought: he was just playing a joke, a small joke.

“Are you crazy?”

Kang Giwoo blinked. The event from ten years ago was reflected in his eyes before disappearing. Gaeul’s stylist shouting, Gaeul stopping her, and the director interrupting - his floating sense of reality returned to his body. Giwoo stroked his chin. Gaeul’s fair skin started bleeding. Even though it was perfectly reasonable that her stylist was shouting, Gaeul just checked her wound in the mirror and calmly washed it off. An aura that overwhelmed the crowd had seeped out of her entire body, just like a scene from a beautiful movie.

The broken pencil case from a long time ago overlapped with Gaeul for a brief moment, but it no longer did. The cool pencil case went into the trash after it was broken, but Gaeul had not lost her elegance. The one fact that she was not broken echoed in his head. He looked at Gaeul boldly walking out of the set. His heart pounded more than when he got the pencil case from his grandfather. She was an item that he desired so much. A lover, a companion, a wife, a friend for a lifetime - those were the kinds of labels he wanted to put on her. He smiled subconsciously. Ever since he had started shooting Doctor’s Office, he had not bedded anyone. Giwoo wanted to applaud himself for making such a decision. Compared to Gaeul, every other woman was classless. The only one that suited him, who had to have the highest class by his side, was Han Gaeul.

Giwoo looked at Lee Miyoon. The inflated desires and pleasure he got while thinking about Gaeul were extinguished instantly. The handbag that Lee Miyoon was holding entered his eyes. This woman wounded her with that cheap thing. That woman dared to create a flaw on an item that even the owner just let be. Had he been slightly close to Gaeul, he would have pushed Lee Miyoon away. A good opportunity to score some points with her had been lost.

Hearing the words ‘back to work’, the staff scattered and checked on the equipment. The noisy set became quiet with three words from the director. The director stared at Lee Miyoon for a long time before turning around, as though he would not sit this one by. Giwoo met eyes with Lee Miyoon who was glaring around everywhere while swallowing her frustration.

“Giwoo, Giwoo.”

And she went off again. Giwoo left the set, slowly so that Miyoon could catch up with him. Miyoon also followed him out without causing a fuss. On his way out, a staff member he came across told him to watch out. It was funny, because the one who should watch out was the old woman behind him, not him.

“Why did you do that?”

“You should’ve seen that bitch’s eyes. Those terrible eyes that look down on people. Did you see her glare at me just because she got hurt a little? She’s a vicious bitch.”

The word ‘bitch’ really got on his mind. Lee Miyoon should have already been notified that her era of leeching power to rise had been finished. It was not good for her to think that he would still treat her as an elder like before. If she had any wits, she should be getting on her knees, but she kept nagging him to give a call to his grandfather. He didn’t like that.

“I must meet the chairman once again. I think something’s gone wrong. I’m sure someone tampered with something in the middle. I need to meet the chairman alone and set this straight.”

“Set what straight?”

“My position, my power. My everything.”

“I see.”

Giwoo nodded and switched places to somewhere less crowded. He went to the back of the warehouse for the set. As it was under construction, no one would come other than construction workers during the day. He walked slowly and observed if there was anyone nearby. Fortunately, there was no one.

“Looks like you’re in a tight spot, senior.”

“It’s not that. There’s a slight misunderstanding. Everything will go back to normal as long as you can arrange a meeting for me with the chairman. So Giwoo, allow me to meet the chairman one more time.”

“That’s different from what I know. From what I hear, everyone under you has all left.”

Lee Miyoon’s face contorted. She seemed to be curious about how he knew.

“You might not know, but grandfather tells me a lot of things. He explained to me the other side of power ever since I matured, saying that I must know these things. One of the most impressive things to me was the parasites that leech power.”

At first, he tried to let her off with nice words. Had Lee Miyoon not hurt Gaeul’s cheek with her handbag, he would have grabbed her hands and cheered her up. However, this old hag touched something that she shouldn’t have. He almost ruined that fair line.

“What are you talking about?”

“I’m talking about you, senior. Grandfather told me in deep detail about those parasites. There are supposedly many different parasites, and they each leech off power in different ways. But funnily enough, all parasites eventually fall under one misconception and drive themselves into doom; the misconception that their power stems from them.”

Giwoo took a step toward Lee Miyoon.

“You should’ve lived off the moss that the shade made. Why were you dissatisfied with just that and end up thinking that you were the one who created the shade? Did you really think that the connections you invested decades into making were truly yours? Think about it carefully. What did you use when you first had them work for you? It was money, wasn’t it? Do you think there’s anyone who would stay next to you for the person you are when it’s so ugly? It’s all about money. In the end, those people are bound to move to a person who pays them more.”

“Kang Giwoo, what are you…”

“And the people you stayed close to. Those people are in positions where they create power. The reason they stayed close to you temporarily was not that they trusted you, but that they trusted the name of my grandfather who backed you. You should have known that when you started off, but as I see it, it seems like you too have fallen under the misconception that it was your own name after you became old.”

Giwoo grabbed the handbag that Miyoon was holding.

“Since you must have known the position you’re in now, let me tell you one last thing. I dare you to come to my set one more time and cause a commotion. At that time, I’ll make you end not just your broker life, but your actress life as well. You should retire cleanly, don’t you think? You don’t want to go missing from the screen while others point fingers at you, do you?”

Lee Miyoon’s cheeks trembled. She seemed to be gnashing her teeth, enduring her anger. Giwoo raised his hand slowly and tapped on Miyoon’s wrinkled forehead.

“I am warning you in consideration of our relationship until now. I usually don’t do warnings. So just quietly focus on acting work in the future, okay? If you try pulling off something funny for the sake of revenge, you’ll find yourself at the depths of life. I’ve seen it many times; about what happens to those who pointed their knives at grandfather. Personally, there were times when I thought that they might be better off biting their tongues off and dying.”

Giwoo dusted his hands before turning around.

“You should return for the day. I’m sure you’ll be ashamed once our Gaeul returns.”

After all that was said and done, Lee Miyoon was called the ‘national mother’ among the viewers. He wanted to break a bone somewhere, but there was no reason to create a controversy. The only thing that an old woman could do after all her limbs were cut off was to just act.

“You said that back then too, our Gaeul.”

It was when he took about two steps. Lee Miyoon said those words.

“What about it?”

“Are you doing this to me because I bullied Han Gaeul?”

“Do you think so? You really have gotten dull. Even I, who doesn’t know the details, can clearly see that you’ve been abandoned because you were doing things in vain. Well, I did add a couple things when you asked me to meet grandfather that day.”

“What did you tell him?”

“Why do you even want to know? It’s all over now. Since we’re at it, don’t touch our Gaeul. You know that precious stones are supposed to be handled carefully with gloves, right? If your dirty hands touched her and she got dirt on her or something, I feel like my heart is going to break.”

Lee Miyoon threw her handbag on the ground. Her eyes had been flipped about halfway.

“You don’t know what kind of person I am, do you?”

“I do. A pathetic human who can’t even secure her own food bowl.”

“Whether it’s you or Hong Janghae, it looks like the chairman has decided to dry me to death, huh? Fine, then. That’s how you’re playing this game. I won’t go down alone.”

Giwoo smiled and looked at Miyoon.

“Think about it. Think about the face of the people you’ve been dealing with. Do you think you can win in a legal fight against the people whose job is to deal with the law? Or fight financially against a company? Or politics? I’m saying this for your own good. You know I’m serious, right?”

The gasping woman soon drooped her shoulders. She nodded a few times like her soul had left her before collapsing on the spot. Giwoo turned around as he engraved that figure into his eyes. This woman who had lost her will to fight was not worth worrying about now.

KTLChamber's Thoughts

Gosh, that was a chapter I didn't want to read…

Editor's Note:

For as much as Giwoo says he likes her, he sure treats Gaeul like a 'thing'

Chapter 908
Crank Up 2

She suddenly felt like she had gotten old. She no longer had the confidence to defeat those who shook her while scoffing at them. It was like that now too. The moment she heard those words from a man all too young, blood rushed to her head and she lost strength in her legs. If it was before, she would have grabbed his head or tackled him down.

Lee Miyoon hugged her handbag. Was the chairman really behind this? She was extremely angry when she had a call with head manager Park, but she had a sliver of hope, thinking that there must have been some kind of mistake, that it would be all okay if she met up with him and talked to him. However, she got shot down by Kang Giwoo. What the chairman gave her was truly poison.

If it was Hong Janghae’s independent action, she would have room to attack, but if that was done by the chairman, she really couldn’t do anything. She could bring a few people down with her to their graves if she used the ledger, but that would put her in the grave as well. It would be meaningless if she didn’t survive. She would not put filth on herself just so that she could go down with a few people.

Miyoon neatened her messy hair. She also dusted her clothes. While looking dirt poor, she would only be able to come up with poor ideas. She slowly walked a lap around the opening behind the set, where no one came by. Would she die as the ‘national mother’ following the chairman’s words to live obediently as an actress? Or should she die as ‘madam Lee’ who smoked alongside the authoritative figures of the country and talked about politics? Madam Lee was better than the actress. The occupation known as actor was too meager. She did not want to meet her end in a petty world where the roles actors could play would become limited when they were old regardless of skill.

After walking for a while, Miyoon looked at the tall building in the distance. No matter how hard she thought about it, going against the chairman was suicide. She had to regain her authority without going against the chairman. The chairman would acknowledge her if she managed to take down Hong Janghae with her own skills. After all, that man judged people based on their achievements.

The people she commanded had all left her, and the people who backed her up had also cut all contact. She had returned to how she was 30 years ago when she jumped into a pile of garbage with nothing but her own body.

Getting an earful from Kang Giwoo helped her in a way. The overflowing anger instead helped her calm down. She felt like she could do anything as long as it did not go against the chairman. She felt like she could even bury someone alive right now.

She returned to the set. The staff that met eyes with her frowned outright. Something unimaginable had happened in front of her eyes, but she could understand. This was reality. Now that the only thing she had left was her shell as an actress, she wasn’t able to do anything to a single staff member. If she set her mind to removing this nuisance from her vision, she might be able to do it, but now that even the station’s president did not pick up her calls, she could not make a big deal out of it.

“Senior, please return for the day.”

The director stopped her. Miyoon barely managed to curl up her lips.

“I’m not that foolish, so get out of my way for a moment.”

The director walked next to her, as though to tell her that he would be watching her actions. Miyoon walked up to Han Gaeul, who was staring right at her in the distance.

“So you visited the hospital?”

“Thanks to you. I guess that was the first time ever since I fell over.”

“I’m sorry about that before. I was out of my mind for a moment. It hurt, didn’t it?”

“Not really. Everyone goes through this at least once, right? Not that I ever imagined a senior would do this to me on a set of all places. Is your handbag okay? You always told me that I had a thick face, so I was worried that I might have damaged your leather handbag.”

“It’s fine. It didn’t seem that tough. Tell me how much you had to pay at the hospital later. I’ll pay for it.”

“Even if you didn’t worry about it, I was going to give you the receipt anyway. I heard from someone I know that setting monetary problems should be done properly.”

“That’s good. I’m asking just in case, but you’re not going to make a big deal out of this, right? The Han Gaeul I know is not a junior who would cause trouble like that.”

“So you’re calling me a junior for things like this, huh? Don’t worry. I don’t want to ruin a drama that’s just about to finish because of some random scandal. But please, bear this in mind: Don’t come to the set when you don’t have a scene in the future. I’m not sure about anyone else, but I’ll find it extremely displeasing. It’s a cheap price to pay for injuring someone’s face, don’t you think?”

“I will.”

“You will have to. Otherwise, even I can’t be sure what I might do. It wouldn’t be fun if two actors working on the same drama got into a scandal because of some violence, right?”

Gaeul smiled. She wished to spit at that face and sneer at her, but she did not have the energy to. She just told her good luck before turning around. She walked towards the dark exit where the lights had been turned off before turning around. Kang Giwoo was looking at her with sharp eyes. Lee Miyoon smiled and waved at him. While that boy made her guts twist in anger, he was still the grandson that the chairman doted on so much. However, she would soon tell him that a woman’s obsession would multiply with age.

* * *

“Why are you so persistent? I’ll report you to the police.”

“Go ahead if you want to. I’ll just stay there for a few days. But keep this in mind: Even if I come back out, I’m going to come looking for you again. In my prime, I used to be called Mr. Persistent. Also, I’m sure reporting me will get you into trouble too.”

The woman scanned him from top to bottom before turning around. Dongwook snatched the plastic bags that the woman was holding.

“You really don’t come out of your house once you hole up, huh? I know it’s heavy, so let me carry it for you.”

“Please, just go. I don’t have anything to tell you.”

“Excuse me, missy. I’ve been in this field for 20 years. I may not be able to smell good things, but I’m incredibly good at catching stinky things. Of course, not that I’m saying that you’re stinky, miss Mari.”

“My name is not Mari.”

“Yes, it is.”

Mari’s eyes twitched as she got ready to shout, but she eventually stayed quiet. A couple walked over from the other side. Mari could not take her eyes off them. Dongwook talked to her.

“The man who came with you from Japan, don’t you want to find him? You seem to like him a lot.”

“Who likes who now?”

“You’re obviously in love. I’ll have to hear the details from you, but I do have a bit of information. I know why you quit your work in Japan and came over here.”

“What are you really?”

“I’ve been telling you for over a week now. I’m an ex-journalist. At the risk of sounding like a broken record, I’d like to tell you that I want to help you.”

“If you are really a journalist, then I really can’t tell you anything. How am I supposed to tell anything to trash?”

“Trash, huh? Right, I’m trash. However, unlike the incompetent trash, I don’t suck out the sweet juice and then spit things out. You can see from how I came to find you. I’m pretty good at investigating. Room 301, right?”

Dongwook carried the bags as he got on the stairs. He put down the plastic bags in front of room 301 and dusted his hands. Mari, who followed him here, sighed and opened the latch to the door lock.

“You should get going now. I really don’t have anything to tell you.”

“Then I’ll come back tomorrow. I saw that all you bought today was instant noodles, snacks, and drinks. Are you eating properly? In the short term, it might be okay for you to eat like that, but if you keep that up, you’ll ruin your body. I know it must have taken a lot of effort to groom your body like that, so it’s such a waste.”

Mari, who was looking at Dongwook in displeasure, touched her wrists discreetly. Dongwook did not miss that small gesture of hers. This was the first time she reacted to his words. This was a contrast to the ‘I don’t know, go away, be quiet’ responses that he got until now.

“It’s true that I want to help you, miss Mari. If I didn’t, then I wouldn’t have kept coming like this. Heck, to put it bluntly, have you seen anyone just return obediently? Even after they found out where you live? I’m just waiting until you’re ready to talk. But you should spend your time looking after your body. Your life’s not over yet. I’m sure you’ve had a meticulous self-management scheme until now. You should keep that up.”

“I know that you’re thinking of me as a dirty woman who sold her body as her job.”

“What relation is there between me thinking that you’re dirty and you actually being dirty? I’m not going to express any opinions about your occupation. Heck, look at me, I’m one of those trash journalists. Who am I to say anything about anyone? Don’t you think?”

Mari smiled. It was a self-loathing smile that did not express any of her true emotions, but to Dongwook, that looked like a fanfare.

“Smiling makes you look much better.”

“Are you always so reckless?”

“I’m like this because I’m in a similar situation you’re in. I have a junior who just won’t listen to my words that I still cherish, but that girl got caught up with a case. It is closely related to Hong Janghae. I’m sure you know that name too, Miss Mari.”

“I do. I may not know who was superficially in charge, but I do have to know the name of my true boss to talk to people.”

Mari quickly entered the passcode on the door. After an electronic ringtone, she pulled on the door. Dongwook put his hands in front of him and waited quietly. Mari turned around after putting her bags inside. Her hand was on the doorknob.

“You should look after your health. These days, good instant rice can be gotten easily. Tomorrow’s a weekend, so I’ll come back on Monday. Don’t try to go missing on me. I found you with difficulty. I’m sure you don’t want things to end like this too, right?”

Mari gave him a glance before closing the door. There was a reaction, but was today a failure as well? The door shut closed with a thud. Dongwook looked at the iron door with the gray paint on it while putting a cigarette in his mouth. There was nowhere else for her to go, so she would be staying here for a while. He had the person assigned to him from Lee Junmin wait in front of her house so that he would be able to catch her tail if she decided to leave in the middle of the night. He reached into his pocket looking for a lighter. He could touch a hidden lighter underneath the crumpled receipt. He took it out along with the receipt, but the lighter caught onto his trouser and left his hand. Just as he sighed while looking at the lighter strewn on the floor with the receipt, the firmly shut door opened.

“Hey, you know how to cook?”

“I do, I’m good. I’ve been living by myself for twenty years, so you can count me on it.”

“Then come inside and cook for me. We can talk a little too.”

“Of course, let’s do that. We’ll eat and talk a bit too.”

“But can you really help me?”

“Looks like you haven’t been listening to a word I told you in the past week. I told you that we should strive to achieve a good result by helping each other. Well, then, please excuse my intrusion.”

“Come in. It’s a bit messy inside.”

Dongwook sighed and went inside.

KTLChamber's Thoughts

Go Dongwook. Bring karma upon down that b*tch and the young master.

Editor's Note:

Why are Maru and Mari's names so similar…… Author ran out of ideas for names :(

Chapter 909
Crank Up 2

Mari’s story was long. She talked about herself and her past: what kind of student she was, what kind of household she was raised in, as well as how she felt when she started working as a prostitute. He carefully listened to the story he wasn’t the least curious about while nodding and sometimes responding to her. He could not afford to have her stop talking after he finally got her to talk.

Mari was just like the stereotypical prostitute women Dongwook had met a few times before. Due to circumstances, she could not do anything about, she ended up finding shelter at a prostitute business and started earning money. He buried deep his meaningless question about whether there was truly nothing she could do. Instead, he asked a few questions to change the direction of the conversation that he barely got started.

“So that’s how you met that man. I’m sure you must have relied on each other a lot.”

“I was foolish. He was a really good man, but I didn’t realize anything until I was in this state. He helped me adapt in Japan, and I was foolish enough not to notice.”

“Was he a decent man?”

“If I look back, he shouldn’t have met someone like me. If it wasn’t for me, he wouldn’t have run into any trouble either. We were short on money at that time, so we ended up making a big mistake.”

“As far as I know, you two became like this because you tried to bring something to Korea.”

“It was a photo.”

“A photo?”

Mari hesitated for a bit before replying that it was a photo of her lying in a bed with an old man.

“He was one of our customers. We didn’t accept just anyone. Unlike when we were working in Korea, we had a set schedule when we were working in Japan. As long as we could keep that schedule, we were free to do whatever we wanted to do in the meantime. That didn’t mean that we were playing around all the time. We learned a lot of things. Before every customer came, we would learn about that person’s preferences, hobbies, what movies they recently watched, and what their interests are.”

“So you were something like high-class prostitutes?”

“I guess you can call it that. Thinking about it now, I did have something like pride for my job. We didn’t simply just sell our bodies, we even exchanged high-class conversations. Though, it’s all bullshit.”

“So you didn’t know what your customers actually did for a living?”

“We don’t talk about it properly, but having a conversation gives you a general idea. A businessman, a man who writes, an extremely powerful man. Honestly, an ordinary person is hard pressed to know their faces unless they are famous politicians or bigshots in an industry. Above all, the people we call ‘royal family’ were catered to by the unnis above me, so it was hard to see their faces.”

Mari puffed a cigarette. Dongwook also took this opportunity to smoke.

“What happened to the photo?”

“It was taken. Phones, email accounts, everything.”

“You don’t have any backups, do you?”

“I gave them everything, because I felt like they would really kill me if I didn’t. Oppa was getting beaten up right in front of my eyes, so I didn’t dare lie. They said that they would stuff us into a barrel of concrete and throw us into the sea if they found anything wrong later, so how am I supposed to think about anything else?”

“Well done. You might have gotten into big trouble if you had other thoughts. There’s nothing more important than life.”

“They were crazy. I’m sure they must’ve killed people before. Some people had strange accents, and it’s terrifying even when I think about it now. Some of them sounded like Korean-Chinese men, or just Chinese men.”

Dongwook nodded. Ever since this country declared war against crime, men who punched for a living mostly died out. In an ecosystem where the police had a full understanding of the local gangs, it was hard for those gangs to survive through violence. However, there were bound to be occasions where force was necessary, and the alternative that rose was foreigners who smuggled themselves in, especially, the Korean-Chinese people.

“You made a good decision by coming to Korea right away. We’re in a country where CCTVs are everywhere, so it’s hard to kill someone without anyone knowing.”

Killing itself was easy though, but he didn’t say it because it wasn’t necessary. Mari puffed out some smoke before rubbing the cigarette out. Her hands were shaking as she stuffed the cigarette butt into an empty can.

“I’m not sure how reliable I may sound, but I’m going to prioritize protecting your safety when I do this work. If you want, I can ask the police to provide you protection.”

“Mister, there were high-ranked policemen among the people I’ve faced. I can’t confirm this, but they definitely felt like that.”

“Of course, I don’t have any power at all, so I can’t protect you. But the person I know has great power.”

“Then that person with great power should do this himself. Why is he doing all this through you?”

“As you know, those higher-ups don’t move so easily. Above all, if they do move, they might run into difficulties, so people like me run the front lines. Even the most influential people are the same in the regard that they only have one body.”

Mari stroked up her hair before leaning against the wall. It seemed like she was feeling complex. It didn’t seem false when she said that she cared about her man. When she talked about her past, she didn’t say a word about her family, but she talked in pretty high detail about her boyfriend. Dongwook could easily tell that her words contained affection towards him.

“Whether it’s you, or that man, you should begin anew. You can’t live in hiding like this forever.”

“But there’s nothing I can do. I have nothing. No money, no photo, no information. The contact list of customers I had was taken away from me too.”

“Those are important, but what I really want is your help. As long as you are willing to help me, I can use my abilities to the fullest extent. Of course, we won’t be able to just get the results we want. Things might go down a weird path and turn out strange. However, I will do my utmost best as long as you are earnestly working with me.”

“And how do I trust that? You might be just probing me out, whether I’m keeping my secrets as I was warned or not.”

Dongwook put down the cigarette that he had finished smoking.

“You know full well that you have no one but me to trust. You probably don’t have many acquaintances and dare I say, family, in Korea. Only then will your work be smooth.”

Mari nodded faintly.

“In the end, it’s up to you to decide. I’m sorry to tell you this, but if you refuse until the bitter end, I can just go back. It will take some time. What I want is to dig into Hong Janghae, Lee Miyoon, and their contact in Japan, and give them a blow, and if possible, give a blow to the big boss of their group as well. Of course, this might be difficult. But I’ll definitely try my best to cut the tail off the lizard.”

“Just why are you working so hard for this? A sense of justice? Journalist spirit?”

“There you go again forgetting what I said. I told you. It’s for a junior I cherish. My motto in life is to live a docile life, but I can’t just turn a blind eye after she became like that.”

Mari pulled her knees towards her and spoke,

“It’s a girl?”

“Yes.”

“Do you like her?”

“I’m not entirely sure about that. She’s more boyish than any man out there.”

“So you do like her. Are you crazy? You’re investigating people who lock people up and beat them half to death just for a reason like that?”

“You mean just like how you’re talking with me for the sake of that man after you went through all those terrible things?”

Mari rubbed her face with both of her hands. She covered her face with her hand and stayed still for a while. Dongwook stayed silent so that she could make up her mind.

“Can you find him?”

Those were the words she said after a long time.

“I should be able to, as long as you are willing to help. If I’m to ask around, I do need to narrow down the region.”

“I’ll be safe, right?”

“You’ll be an important witness. There’s a reason for me to protect you at all costs.”

“I know I’m not in a position to ask for this, but if things go well, umm…”

Mari looked away. Dongwook noticed what she was going to say.

“I’m sure you’ll need some money to start anew. I can’t say how much right now, but you will be able to get your hands on a decent amount of money. My backer, who is also my client, is quite powerful and is watching this matter with interest.”

“But why is that powerful person helping out? You said it was a personal vendetta.”

“To cut it short, those people tried to touch a person under my client’s wing. That seems to have upset him.”

“They didn’t touch that person and just tried to, yet that client is responding this hard?”

“He’s someone with a strong attachment to people under his wing. I also find it fortunate that I work with him.”

Mari nodded after fidgeting. It was a sign of acceptance and a symbol of trust.

“Very well, Miss Mari. In order to gain your trust, I guess I must find your man first.”

“If you do, I’ll do anything. I’ll testify, even if it’s dangerous.”

“Okay. For now, you’ll have to go through your memories. How and where did you get caught after you came back to Korea, and where were you dragged to? Also, you have a photo of the man with you, right? I’m sure the dangerous photos have been confiscated.”

Mari took out a small passport photo and a photo she took with him in a park from her wallet. Dongwook took photos of them with his phone.

“Just in case, I’ll keep this photo with me.”

“Go ahead.”

“Then rest up for the day, is what I would say, but the faster we do this, the better, so starting now, tell me everything you encountered since you started working in Korea to when you were in Japan. That’s where I‘m going to start investigating. I’ll find your man and their weakness.”

“Okay.”

Dongwook returned to his car and brought back a voice recorder and his laptop. The sun had set, but there was still a lot to do.

* * *

“It’s a pity, but I guess I can’t help it. Then you should come and eat tomorrow.”

Maru closed the pot lid and put it in the refrigerator. He cooked dongtae-tang[1], but she said she couldn’t come, so he had no choice.

-I’m sorry, even though I said I wanted to eat it.

“Work is more important. Anyway, you don’t sound energetic. Did something happen today at the shoot?”

-The shoot? No, nothing happened.

“Are you sure? Why does it sound like you’re hiding something from me?”

-You’re being way too cautious. I’m completely fine, so don’t worry about me. Oh, I gotta go now, people are calling for me.

“Alright.”

It seemed like something had happened after all. The way she said she was ‘completely fine’ got on his nerves. Gaeul didn’t use that expression. I don’t feel tired, I’m not tired – she would usually say these lines. The only time she said she was completely fine with an energetic smile was when she was in hospital after collapsing. He thought about calling her again but decided not to. He might be overthinking, and even if something did happen, Gaeul should have her reasons to hide it.

“Mommy’s not coming today, you lot. You’re sleeping with me,” Maru said to the two dogs staring at him.

[1] Tang(soup) made with dongtae(frozen pollack)

KTLChamber's Thoughts

Hopefully, our journalist Mr. Kim can bring them down…

Editor's Note:

I wonder how Maru will find out.

Chapter 910
Crank Up 3

Maru grabbed the back of Woofie’s neck and dragged her to the side. She had her own food bowl, but she always wanted to eat out of the Pit Bull’s bowl. It wasn’t like she ate a lot either. She would stuff her mouth in the Pit Bull’s bowl and eat for a while before walking away. She didn’t look at the food in her bowl at all. As for the Pit Bull, it was only after Woofie went away that he slowly walk over to his bowl and continued eating. The funny thing was that upon seeing the PIt Bull eat, Woofie would come back again. The same thing was happening now. She was so greedy, like a certain someone.

When he let her go, Woofie immediately went back to eating out of the Pit Bull’s bowl, so he picked her up and went to the sofa. When Woofie was the only one here, she would never eat unless the food was in her bowl, but now that the Pit Bull was here, she looked like she wanted to set the hierarchy straight. When the Pit Bull first came here, the two of them created an emotional scene by licking each other’s wounds, but now that she had discovered that the Pit Bull wouldn’t strike back, she was being bossy. Only after Maru saw that the Pit Bull had finished eating did he let go of Woofie. She then walked right up next to the Pit Bull with her limping leg. She really was unpredictable.

Maru put away the dog bowls and turned off the lights. He also closed the curtains about halfway. It was 10 in the evening. He sat on the sofa and closed his eyes. He slowed his breathing and thought back to the day he went to the dogfighting arena: the chilly mountain air, the light sticks that guided him, the coinlady selling rice wine with a smile, two dogs slowly walking into a cramped cage, cheers from the audience, blood and flesh splattering, a road of gravel, the vinyl greenhouse, the nose-piercing foul stench, the sharp rod, the boiling water, the barks seeking help.

What director Park Joongjin wanted from him was plain lunacy. Putting aside calculative acting, it was probably necessary for him to become one with the character and express emotions that could not be calculated. Fundamentally, his method of acting consisted of meticulous investigation into the concept and then recreating the whole scene. The reason he was hung up on details was also for the sake of more delicate acting. Once he had a satisfactory amount of data in his head, he would recreate the set and the people inside and have the characters move according to his imagination. If he had a script, then he would base things off that, and without one, he would base everything on the basics of acting he had learned until now.

There was a man inside the greenhouse. There were dogs inside cages. The man walked around while holding a kettle of boiling water and poured it on the dogs little by little. What kind of emotions were he supposed to harbor while watching the dogs run amok? He had to think about Han Maru’s perspective, the character’s perspective, as well as the perspective of the audience who would watch his act. He may not be able to perfectly objectify himself, but he could create a rather plausible-sounding opinion. Perhaps it was thanks to the know-how that he had gained through his acting experience in this life, as well as many of his previous lives. Know-how that did not remain in his memory, but was engraved somewhere on his soul. Whenever the character moved and took action, Maru kept asking questions. He broke down the answers that came from those questions and reflected them into his acting.

The man in his mind had poured water on the dogs a few dozen times already. Maru kept watching and analyzing so that he would be able to respond to the most random requests given to him.

He stood a step away as an observer and kept writing down records. His brain was exceptional in providing long-term memory for things related to acting, so he didn’t need to write anything down. He just needed to narrow it down to a few big keywords on a note or the script. He now had dozens of opinions about the character. Maru stopped there. With more time, he would be able to produce more stories, but that wouldn’t be efficient. It was also difficult to objectify the depths of a character’s nature from a single scene.

He opened his eyes. It was 10:37. Maru tried acting out the image of the character he drew in his head. He brought an empty bottle of water from the kitchen to act as the kettle of boiling water. He walked round and round around the living room while holding it with his right hand. He thought about how and where to pour the water. He was aware that doing cruel things repetitively would make that person eventually become numb to it, but there should be differences in the degree of numbness. The hesitation at his fingertips would probably stem from those differences.

Maru mechanically repeatedly recreated the same situation and did the same actions. He dissolved the list of images that he created in his head and varied his acting slightly each time. As there were no lines, he was only conscious of the keywords ‘plain lunacy’ as he continued practicing. He sometimes walked boldly, sometimes hesitantly. As there was no correct answer, he just continued endlessly until he produced a satisfactory act.

Another hour had passed when he placed the water bottle on the floor. The two dogs were staring at him from the sofa. Owner, you sick? – their eyes seemed to ask.

Maru shook his hands lightly and walked circles around the living room again. He had more or less consolidated the man’s image. That was the result of being hung up on just one character during his rest. He had the confidence to look semi-decent even if he was to act now. However, director Park Joongjin was clearly not someone who would be satisfied with something semi-decent. Maru had seen that personality of his during the kal-guksu incident. He was the type of person to make him stay up all night with a smile.

It would be very difficult to get an okay sign from the director with just a character design that stemmed purely from calculations. A time where he had to leave behind a minimum amount of reason and become the character itself to express emotions would definitely come. Method acting. This was something that the masked man used to take care of. The masked man still shared this body and sometimes talked to him, but he wasn’t as active as before. Ever since he remembered the fact that the masked man was another Han Maru and had watched more than twenty repeated lives, the masked man’s lips became tight. It was probably because of that being called god that both Maru and the masked man cursed. The most he could get out of trying his best to talk to him was a trivial conversation. The masked man had also quit doing the dynamic acting that he enjoyed doing before.

-Even without me, you’ll do well by yourself, Mr. Maru.

“Rather than encouragement like that, I would like practical help.”

Maru voiced his complaint out loud at the masked man’s sudden call. He could hear the masked man laughing.

“You seem like you’re enjoying yourself.”

-Because I’m talking to Gaeul as much as I wish. Of course, I’m not talking about the Miss Gaeul that’s next to you.

“Is the rabbit doing well?”

-Yes, she is. She’s agonizing, but she’s still happy that you are next to her. But the thing is, it’s quite strange. The person Gaeul – let’s call her rabbit since it’s confusing – likes is you, Mr. Maru. And you are also me. So, it is perfectly natural for the rabbit to look at you sometimes with worry, sometimes with satisfaction, and at times, with disappointment. But why is it that I feel jealous when I see her like that? I am you and you are me.

“Because strictly speaking, you and I are different persons.”

-As you say, I’m closer to being the original. You can see that from just the amount of memories I have.

“I think it’s childish logic to decide on who the original is based on by the number of memories one has.”

-I thought you’d say that.

“Because I am you and you are me. Strictly speaking, we are different, but in any case, we do share a lot. Rather than that, what do you think? Do you think I’m closing in on the day of my death?”

-If I knew that, I would have told you already so that you can try changing that thing called fate.

“If possible, I don’t want to feel a lot of pain when I die. I definitely don’t want to get into a traffic accident.”

-Traffic accidents are terrible indeed.

The masked man’s voice disappeared. Maru looked at the dogs sitting on the sofa. They were looking at him, seemingly even more worried than before. It seemed that even the dogs found it strange that he was talking to thin air.

“Can’t you see ghosts or things like that?” he asked.

As a response, all he got was panting noises. Maru grabbed the water bottle on the floor. It was time to throw himself at the character that he had formed, however, he couldn’t do so immediately like his calculated acting. Erasing his sense of self and synchronizing with the character never went that well. It was especially slow since it wasn’t his area of expertise. He stuffed the rational observer self into the character. The eyes of the observer that never stopped analyzing, his third pair of eyes, were no longer there.

He dug into the depths of the character. There were a few obstacles in the way due to the lack of concrete traits, but he should be able to recreate the situation he saw in the greenhouse.

He walked around with the water bottle in hand. Where are the disobedient dogs? – he had to make those that didn’t listen learn what reality is. Whenever he poured hot water, the dogs scratched the ground and growled in pain before whining. Only then did he feel at ease. It would be annoying if the products kept being noisy. When would he be able to leave this dog cage? There was a limit to poking them with sharp rods. A dog that had never tasted the hot water started going crazy again. Maybe he should have studied like the goody-two-shoes in class when he was young? This job was hopeless since there was no future. But why were these shitty dogs so noisy today? Perhaps he should poke them on the stomach or something, or maybe pour hot water on their heads. It would be great for both parties if they stayed still, so why was it that they kept making me the bad guy? They needed a beating to become obedient after all.

Just as he took a step while snickering, he heard a sound that pulled him back to reality. Maru turned around. The Pit Bull had come down from the sofa. He had all four legs planted on the floor and didn’t move at all like a wax doll. Maru blinked a few times before taking a step towards the Pit Bull.

The Pit Bull shoved his head under the sofa. He started shaking violently and started barking. It was not the unrestrained kind of bark, but a bark that contained his will to suppress his instincts as much as possible. Woofie had come down the sofa following the Pit Bull and sneaked under the sofa. Maru sighed and went to the bathroom. He probably made all sorts of noises with his mouth while acting, and among them, he probably produced sounds that stimulated the fear within the Pit Bull. He was unrestrained with his emotions as well. It wasn’t surprising that the memories of violence at the dog cages came back to him as he had been exposed to unrestrained expressions of violence. Maru looked at the mirror. He could see a face that was frozen stiff. He washed his face with cold water and forced himself to smile. The foul stench all over his body and the sound of a boiling kettle that rang in his ear finally stopped. He wiped himself before leaving. The Pit Bull looked extremely wary against him. He carefully sat down in front of him and reached his hand out. The Pit Bull slowly put his snout against his hand while preparing to back off at any moment. When the Pit Bull was right in front of him, Maru sighed in relief and pulled the Pit Bull into his arms.

“Sorry, I should’ve been more careful.”

The Pit Bull in his arms barked softly as though in understanding.

KTLChamber's Thoughts

All the barking from the Pit Bull… I'm afraid Editor's fears are going to come true. (calling the Pit Bull Barkie)

Editor's Note:

Man, u can really tell that the Pit Bull has really bad ptsd.

Chapter 911
Crank Up 3

Only after petting for thirty more minutes did the Pit Bull’s stiff muscles start to relax. When he let go, the Pit Bull stared at Maru for a while before going next to Woofie under the table, aggressively looking at the water bottle as he did so. Maru picked up the water bottle and took out some dog gum from the cabinet. It was something that made Woofie stand up and move whenever Maru started the vacuum machine as she would just flop on the ground without budging otherwise. He couldn’t just give the Pit Bull one, so he placed one in front of Woofie as well. Not seemingly aware of the human’s cheap tactic of buying him off with snacks, the Pit Bull enjoyed the dog gum.

“Hello?”

He picked up his phone after watching the dogs enjoy the dog gum with it between both of their front paws. Hey – he heard a voice coming from the other side, and he felt like he could smell alcohol from the sound alone.

“Are you drunk?”

-No.

The immediate response made it clear that she was semi-drunk. Maru looked at the time. It was midnight. The three musketeers calling at this hour were very likely to become uninvited guests. Without the fence known as Han Gaeul, they would have barged in without even calling. Maru spoke to Suyeon, who was snickering like crazy,

“You should go home if you don’t want to be on the news tomorrow as a celebrity who was found sleeping on the street in the middle of winter.”

-I have two reassuring bodyguards so it’s fine.

They were the three musketeers after all. It seemed that Ganghwan and Guensoo were with her. Or maybe, forced to be with her.

“Don’t make other people suffer and go back home.”

-I want to do that too, but the two people next to me are very busy people. It’s been ages since we met up and drank like this.

Geunsoo’s voice sounded over Suyeon’s giggling words. He grumbled about how he couldn’t even drink because he had to drive. It seemed that there were two drunk people, not one. That was for the better as if Geunsoo was sane, he would probably get the other two home safely when they shout for more.

“You should go back home after getting something nice and warm. Don’t bother Geunsoo hyung-nim too much. Tell Ganghwan hyung-nim too that he should look after himself since he’ll be performing the day after tomorrow.”

Suyeon transmitted the message to Ganghwan. Ganghwan shouted something, but Maru couldn’t hear it that well. From the looks of it, he seemed to have said something like don’t worry.

-The two men are being so stingy. Before, we would go for three rounds minimum whenever we met up, but now they’re coming up with all sorts of excuses to not go. How can they leave behind such a beauty like me to drink alone? I’m the number one actress that men want to go traveling with, you know?

Despite being drunk, she kept boasting about herself.

“They say you shouldn’t do that to family members. Anyway, why did you call me?”

-They don’t like drinking anywhere else, but the two men said they’re okay drinking at your house.

“You know what the deal is already though. I don’t live by myself anymore. You know who’s at home.”

-The cutie sweetie pretty tender refreshing Gaeul who’s without a doubt wasted on you?

“Yes, that cutie sweetie whatever-you-just-said Gaeul is living with me so please mind your manners. I’d also love to drink with you and the two hyung-nims, but my cute Gaeul needs to rest after work. It’s my job to take care of the breadwinner when she gets home. You know what I mean, right?”

Drinking with the three musketeers was something that he would gladly do, but it would be a different story if the place was his house. Whenever he looked at the mess that had become of his house, he felt his heart breaking. It was especially worse whenever the three of them came to his house semi-drunk as his house would turn into something akin to a pigsty. The drunk Ganghwan would make a mess out of the bedsheets, while Suyeon took out everything inside the bathroom cabinet. It was good that Guensoo didn’t get drunk easily, but when he got drunk to the point he wouldn’t be able to recognize his parents, he would cook pancakes on the floor.

-Did Gaeul say she’s tired?

“She must be. You know how it is towards the end of the drama. It’s practically a live feed. She’s staying up all night and whatnot, so she’s totally hectic. So I want to let her rest quietly when she’s at home.”

-That’s so thoughtful of you, Maru. I guess I can’t help it then.

“Let’s drink next time. At that time, I’ll serve you well.”

-Next time, when?

“I guess some time in the future.”

Though, as long as the place was his house, it was closer to never. He stood up with his phone and opened the door to the bedroom. He quietly said ‘go back to sleep’ in a soft voice at the empty bed.

-Is Gaeul sleeping?

“She seems to have woken up, but she’s gone back to sleep. It looks like she heard me on the phone.”

-Looks like I woke her up. Tell her I’m sorry.

“It’s fine.”

-There’s no place better than your house to drink comfortably, what a pity. It’s peculiar, isn’t it? Whether it’s Ganghwan oppa’s place, Guensoo oppa’s place, or mine, it doesn’t feel the same as drinking at your house.

Grudges and complaints welled up inside him, but he held back and instead spat out a thin, long breath. Well of course it wouldn’t feel the same. Drinking at their places meant they would have to clean up afterward, while drinking here would mean they didn’t have to move a finger and could just go home. The charity work he had provided them until now had produced this terrible situation. He should have locked his door the first day the three musketeers barged in.

“You should come later.”

At this point, it wouldn’t be strange even if she gave up on coming after all the hints Maru gave her, but instead, Suyeon kept expressing that she wanted to come to his house. Her tenacity was on the level of synthetic rubber. Maru went to the veranda as he listened to Suyeon’s chatter. He saw a car come into the parking lot through the night air. Now that he thought about it, he remembered that he promised Gaeul to go traveling together. As she had a strict schedule and was exhausted physically, they went grocery shopping together when she had a day off to replace dates. Perhaps he should take her to a ski resort once she came back from her vacation.

The car made a lap around the parking lot. It seemed that it couldn’t find an open spot. Maru could see an empty spot in a corner to the right, but it was behind a truck, so it wouldn’t be easily spotted by the driver.

-Why don’t I see a spot?

Suyeon, who was praising seafood stew until mere moments ago, suddenly changed the topic. Maru followed the car that was driving laps around the parking lot. He suddenly felt a chill run down his back. It must be because of the cold night air. It couldn’t be, right?

-Isn’t that one right there right behind the truck?

His left cheek twitched. As soon as Suyeon said those words, the car slipped in right behind the truck. Maru grabbed the banister and narrowed his eyes. There was a reason his eyes were drawn to the car that entered the parking lot. It turned out that the car was a model that he saw quite a lot.

-Anyway, the seafood stew you cooked last time was so good that I just can’t go anywhere else. I’m not joking. I’m totally serious. On a night like this, we should drink some soju alongside seafood stew!

The car opened and a person got out. He couldn’t see because of the dark, but the silhouette was definitely that of the woman. The opening of the car door was precisely in rhythm with the last accented ‘stew’ syllable. He tried to deny reality, saying that there was just no way, but no matter how hard he thought, it was extremely improbable that the woman who just got out of the car was a different person from the person on the other side of the phone. The silhouette stood under a street lamp. The one looking up at the veranda with her phone against her ear was Suyeon after all. They made eye contact from dozens of meters away. Maru almost dropped his phone under the veranda.

-That’s you, isn’t it?

“No.”

-The one that just turned around and is turning off the lights is not you?

“I don’t know what you’re talking about. I turned off the lights a while ago and was getting ready to sleep for a while now.”

-Really?

“Yeah. Rather than that, you are going home, right?”

-Yes I am. I see the elevator in front of me. It’s building 204. What an affectionate number, 204.

“That’s a familiar number. You aren’t perhaps at my house, right? I don’t want to think that you are such shameless people, seniors.”

-Of course. We’re doing our best to respect your privacy. I’m the one who’s stopping the other two from trying to go to your house. As a woman, I should be the one to look out for Gaeul, right?

“Right? There’s no way you’re coming, right?”

-Of course. If Gaeul is resting at home, then I would never go there. Unless I got permission from her beforehand.

There were parts that she strongly emphasized. ‘If’ she was resting at home and ‘permission from her beforehand.’ Maru stared at the door. When he focused with his breath abated, he heard the elevator arriving at his floor. The Pit Bull and Woofie also looked at the door, proving that he didn’t hear wrong. He heard the doorbell. He checked the interphone. Suyeon’s face filled up the screen. She had a bright smile on her face, as though demanding him to open the door this instant.

-The mistress of the house told me that she wasn’t going to be at home today. Curious, isn’t it? You said Gaeul was home. Maybe she’s a clone?

Suyeon spoke directly into the interphone. She was practically a police officer with a search warrant. She looked like she would bust the door open if he didn’t open it for her. He obediently unlocked the door. The three musketeers were outside. Each of them was holding plastic bags that had supermarket logos.

“How dare you try to deceive us,” Suyeon said as she took off her high heels.

She seemed to have found the Pit Bull while coming in and stopped on the spot.

“So this is the one. I did see a photo that Gaeul sent me. He used to be in a dangerous place, right? Does he bite?”

“Watch out. He bites hard. You’ll bleed.”

“So he doesn’t bite.”

Suyeon approached the Pit Bull without hesitation and crouched in front of him. The actors who worked under president Lee Junmin all knew how to greet dogs. It was to reach their hand out so that the dog could smell them and then petting their heads softly after making the dog aware that they weren’t an enemy. Suyeon was the same. The Pit Bull was wary at first, but after seeing the owner being completely indifferent, he seemed to have finished checking and let Suyeon pet his head.

“How smart. Unlike the owner, that is.”

Guensoo and Ganghwan entered as well, saying that they were intruding just out of formality.

“I couldn’t forget about the seafood stew you cooked for us,” Ganghwan said.

“Me too, I craved that today. I couldn’t stop them. Sorry about that.”

Despite apologizing, Geunsoo showed off the seafood stew ingredients stuffed full in both of his hands. Maru covered his face with both of his hands and buried his head on the sofa.

“Mister! Cook us one quick,” Suyeon shouted.

Ganghwan and Geunsoo were already waiting in the kitchen. They said with their eyes: chef, what shall we do?

“There’s a good seafood restaurant right in front of my house.”

“We chose to come to this place over a hotel restaurant.”

Suyeon hugged the Pit Bull and sat on the sofa as though no further conversation was acceptable. A chuckle left his mouth. It was a chuckle that came out when he had the premonition of defeat.

“We’ll clean up before we go,” Geunsoo said.

He said those words last time as well and did not keep them. Where was the pot again? It was better to accept his fate obediently when resistance was futile. He found Gaeul rather coldhearted today for not coming home.

KTLChamber's Thoughts

Well played, all of you. Well played.

Editor's Note:

I love the three musketeers.

Chapter 912
Crank Up 3

Suyeon, who went out to the veranda to get some fresh air, had her head smacked against the banister for 10 minutes now. Thinking that she might freeze to death outside, he tried to bring her back in, but she persistently stayed outside, being stubborn. Having no choice, Maru brought her a blanket. After getting covered in the blanket, Suyeon then grumbled that it was close. He couldn’t understand her at all. He just let her be and closed the door to the veranda about halfway.

“Is she not coming in?” Geunsoo asked, his gaze glued to the veranda.

“She says she’s cold, but she doesn’t seem to have any intention of coming in. She just won’t be honest. Don’t take interest in her. She’s meticulous about self-management, so she’ll crawl back in once she feels like something’s going to go wrong with her body.”

Maru took out some fish and some cooked water celery from the fish stew and ate it. The three of them didn’t seem to have any intention of drinking until they passed out as the plastic bags they brought were full of food ingredients. A single bottle of soju and three cans of beer were the only alcoholic drinks they had over the last hour, just as a drink of sorts to go with the food.

“Let’s eat the sashimi.”

Ganghwan, who was having a staring contest with Woofie, abruptly stood up before opening the refrigerator. Maru put away the fish stew where the soup was starting to boil off and placed the sashimi in the middle. It was flatfish sashimi.

“Have you not eaten yet?”

“Originally, we were going to go separate ways after drinking, but then we talked about going to your place. As you said before, I have a performance to do in two days, and the two others also have their own things to do, so we can’t drink that much even if we want to. Instead, though, we can eat to our heart’s content.”

“And here I was really nervous thinking that I had to clean up after three drunkards again.”

“You can’t call your seniors drunkards.”

“If you don’t want that kind of treatment from your junior, then hold back a little in the future. You three can’t even drink that much, but all of you will always drink until you pass out whenever you’re at my place. Think about the hardships of the person who has to clean up after you every single time.”

“I’d get angry if I heard anyone else say that I was weak at drinking, but I can’t say anything to you. Since we’re at it, have you ever gotten drunk?”

Ganghwan asked for some ssamjang. Maru passed over the ssamjang and spoke,

“If I keep drinking, I’m bound to get drunk eventually.”

Ganghwan spoke after stuffing his mouth full of ssam,

“Geunsoo, have you ever seen him drunk?”

“Nope, not even once. I did pass out a few times in front of him though.”

“Then should we see Han Maru getting drunk today?”

The two of them looked at each other and grinned ominously. It seemed that they clicked due to all the time they’d spent together. Maru cut in before they tried anything weird,

“That’s all the alcohol for today. If you want to open anymore, please visit the next restaurant.”

“Owner, you’re being way too petty.”

Suyeon, who they forgot about, opened the door of the veranda. There was a blanket over her head. Maru wondered what she was going to say, but Suyeon just stayed still. He put down his chopsticks and spoke,

“If you don’t have anything to say, then close the door behind you. You’re getting cold air in. I don’t want to waste money on heating bills so early.”

“There are three men here, yet how can not a single one of you give me some interest? Can you call yourselves men despite that? Hey? Everywan~?”

Suyeon acted coy. The first to react was Ganghwan. He went to the bathroom, saying that he felt sick and needed to vomit. Maru also stood up. He pushed aside Suyeon, who was making inexplicable nasal noises with her cheeks puffed up, and closed the door to the veranda. He decided to turn a blind eye to Geunsoo, who was looking at her like she was cute.

“Woman, stop speaking nonsense and get some sashimi. We bought it because you wanted it. What the heck is everywan?” Ganghwan said while waving his chopsticks in the air after taking refuge in the bathroom for a while.

Suyeon put down the blanket.

“How desolate. Can’t you call me cute, even if it’s just words?”

Suyeon sat down and got her own pair of chopsticks. It seemed that she had sobered up outside due to all the cold air.

“If it was anywhere else, people would have come up to me and asked what kind of worries I had, but the men here are all fixed on the food. No wait, one of you was worried about the heating bill, weren’t you?”

The tip of a chopstick flew right at his face. Maru tilted his head and avoided the chopstick.

“So if you’re here to eat and drink, you should eat and drink. Why would you go outside in this weather and sulk?”

“I’m not sulking. It’s a woman’s strategy. I’m gloomy so please talk to me – didn’t you get that vibe from me?”

“Not at all.”

He was just about to grab the fin sashimi but Suyeon’s chopstick blocked his way. She quickly snatched the fin away and smiled in satisfaction. She was practically a little kid. Only after doing that a few more times did she put down her chopsticks. She chewed on the sashimi in her mouth and looked at him in dissatisfaction.

“She doesn’t act like this outside, does she?” he asked Ganghwan.

Ganghwan pressed his palms to the sides of his head and said that she was like a fiery fox.

“Why’d you even ask?”

“Just wondering. Geunsoo hyung-nim, you should eat.”

“I’m full.”

When Geunsoo refused, Suyeon immediately made a ssam and gave it to him. When she shoved the ssam against his mouth with a ‘ah~n’, Geunsoo looked at the two others before eating it. Maru felt like he was smashed on the back of the head. He looked at Ganghwan’s face. He also looked at the two in a daze before making a fist-sized ssam and shoving it towards Maru’s mouth. Maru asked as he looked at the ssam right in front of his nose,

“What’s this supposed to mean?”

“They’re doing it, so we should do it too.”

“Hyung-nim.”

“What?”

“Let’s not embarrass ourselves. Please eat.”

Ganghwan used to meet a woman who ran her own business through the introduction of someone he knew and was all smiles until recently saying that he may get married soon, but apparently, they broke up a few days ago. He achieved a mythical record of having all the seats sold out for a play he was performing at the Daehan theater, but it seemed that his romantic business wasn’t going so well. Maru had to stop Ganghwan from opening another bottle of soju.

“Maru, it really churns me up when those two act like that. The guy who didn’t give Suyeon a glance no matter how hard she clung to him is now acting like that. Heck, I wouldn’t feel this jealous if they were going out, but now it’s Suyeon who says that they shouldn’t be hasty. They’re practically making a fool out of me, who just broke up.”

Ganghwan shoved the ssam he made in his own mouth as he shit-talked about the other two. It took a few seconds for Maru to process what he just herald. Who said that they shouldn’t be hasty?

“So the two of you finally are a thing now?”

He tried to ignore Geunsoo’s sweet gaze towards Suyeon as much as possible, but now that he had heard something, he had to have his confirmation.

“Not yet. We’re just getting to know each other a little more. I have a lot of things I haven’t told him yet. You know what I mean, right?”

Suyeon smiled shyly. That looked so disconcerting, so Maru stood up a little and got away from Suyeon.

“Did you confess or something similar?” he asked Geunsoo.

Geunsoo responded with an awkward smile instead. It seemed that Geunsoo talked about it the day Suyeon helped Maru out with Kang Giwoo.

“I’m sure the two of you will sort things out by yourselves, but let me congratulate you first. But this feels quite weird, I mean, your positions have switched now. Noonim, why don’t you just go out with him? You always wanted to do that.”

“I just told you we need time to get to know each other.”

“If you keep doing that, Geunsoo hyung-nim might change his mind. I mean, how many splendid women do you think are around him? You should reel up the fish while it’s still on the line. If you keep doing tug of war, you’ll only lose your bait and miss the fish.”

Is that how it works? – Suyeon thought for a moment, but she eventually shook her head, saying that it wouldn’t be the case. Oh? She would usually respond to a joke just as fluidly or just gloss it over, but this time, she was a little flustered. This was the perfect opportunity to tease her. When else would he get an opportunity like this?

“Don’t be too harsh on her. I’m sure Suyeon has her own plans. As she said, it is true that we need time to get to know each other,” Geunsoo cut in.

Then he proceeded to child Suyeon, and watching them gave Maru goosebumps. Ganghwan had turned his head away for a while now.

“Right, you haven’t heard yet, have you?”

Suyeon, who was staring at Geunsoo, suddenly got startled and turned her head away. Maru could feel that it was a rather intentional change of topic, but he did not mention it. It was much better than seeing the two of them act lovey-dovey.

“About what?”

“We’re moving here.”

“What do you mean here?”

“Here is here.”

Suyeon used her index finger to point at the ceiling and the floor. Maru remembered that some moving trucks had been going in and out about two months ago. He was just thinking that the owners were having a hard time selling their apartments since no one moved in for a while but…

“When you say we, does that mean all three of you?”

Geunsoo and Suyeon nodded. Ganghwan sighed before speaking,

“I was originally looking to move elsewhere, but I just decided to come here. Unless it's a newlywed house, this place is much more comfortable.”

“So the three of you are all coming to the same building?”

“Yes,” Suyeon said after she winked.

“Why?”

He blurted that without thinking. Just why? He could already imagine what would happen once the three of them moved. It definitely wasn’t looking good. He could already picture a pitiful young man looking after his seniors and crying sorrowfully.

“We’ve been talking about it for a while. Our president said that it would be fun if we all live near each other. A few years ago, I scoffed at the idea, but recently, I changed my mind. I’m not sure about any others, but I definitely do feel like seeing members of JA around often will be quite fun. Actually, you had a lot of influence on this decision. You somewhat acted as the center point for all of us,” Suyeon said while tapping his shoulder.

Maru wanted to push against the table and fall down on the floor. The three musketeers moving to this apartment complex was equivalent to a natural disaster walking into his own bedroom. It was obvious that they would snoop around his house whenever they had a day off. Heck, they were barging into his house despite living in other parts of the city right now.

“Sooil is going to come too. He said he doesn’t want to live by himself in that huge apartment. Senior Taeho decided to stay in Incheon. He has a family to take care of after all.”

The comfort zone that was building 204 was about to turn into a residence of eccentric actors.

“Also, let me tell you something in advance. The president said that you’ll think about moving the moment you hear this news, but he wants to tell you that you shouldn’t even dream about it. He said forcing this on you is reasonable since he didn’t abandon you despite wasting five years.”

The president’s words made him speechless. Maru put a piece of sashimi in his mouth. He had dipped it in sauce, but it tasted like nothing.

“You must be lying, right?” he asked with a final shred of hope.

Suyeon smiled and replied with a no.

KTLChamber's Thoughts

Love it! This chapter has everything, from humor, to fluff, to plain slice of life. I'd love to see more of this.

Editor's Note:

This has got to be one of my favorite chapters in this entire novel. Suyeon x Geunsoo being canon is absolutely adorable. Plus, they're basically gonna be living next to one another. And with everyone near Maru, we are def seeing more of these drunkards.

Wait I just realized that if everyone gets married and still lives here, Geunsoo and Suyeon's child can be friends with Maru and Gaeul's child.

Chapter 913
Crank Up 3

When he came to, ‘Wednesday Nights’ was a thing. They had decided to meet up in this apartment every other Wednesday evening and play around to their heart’s content. If there was a small problem, it was that the owner of this apartment had no say in this. Though, seeing the three of them singing ‘Wednesday Nights’ so passionately, it didn’t seem like anything would work on them.

“I’ll clean up afterwards.”

“And cook.”

“Just trust this noona.”

They were no different from politicians right before an election. They were blurting out policies that they could not fulfill, not like they had any desire to fulfill them. Maru brought some omija tea to the three people sitting side by side on the sofa while patting their stomachs. The three were better off staying still rather than awkwardly trying to help. He put the pot he cooked the seafood stew in under some hot water while washing the rest. He thought about the reason he had to wash dishes at 2 a.m., but he couldn’t think of any plausible reasons. If there was one, it was that he had sinned for being born later than them.

“Aren’t you leaving?”

Maru pointed at the clock hung right above the TV. It would only take these people 30 minutes to get home if they took a taxi, yet they didn’t show any signs of leaving at all.

“Don’t worry, we won’t sleep here.”

“Did you book a nearby hotel or something?”

“We just told you, yet you forgot already? We’re moving here. The house above this one and the house below this one are both empty, so we can get some sleep there.”

“I had totally forgotten about that because the reality was too terrible.”

“Three great seniors are going to be living near you, and you call it a terrible reality? Not a blessing? You got yourself an environment that many other actors can only dream of. You should learn to be thankful,” Suyeon said while opening both of her hands.

Theater, film, drama. Having seniors who had made a name for themselves in each of those industries might be a fantastic environment for some. That ‘some’ did not include Han Maru, or so he desperately hoped. He didn’t want to be the modern version of a slave.

“How are the preparations for the film going?” Geunsoo asked.

“You’re doing a film?”

Ganghwan looked like this was the first time he heard about it. The same went for Suyeon. It seemed that only Geunsoo knew about it because he was close to the film industry, or maybe he heard from the president himself.

“I haven’t even prepared anything. I have yet to receive my script.”

“It’s a project where director Park Joongjin is in charge of both the production and creating the scenario. I’m sure he wants to produce a good result even if it takes some time. No date set on when you can receive the script?”

“He told me that he already edited the script once, but he also said that he needed to edit more ever since we went to Suncheon Bay together. I don’t think it will take that long.”

“Sounds like director Park cherishes you a lot. From what I hear, it is very rare for director Park to go experience hunting with an actor before he shoots.”

“Maybe he found me unreliable and wanted to teach me something.”

Geunsoo smiled, saying that Maru should be wrong.

“What’s the genre?”

“I guess you can call it the story of a man. To borrow the words of the director, it’s old-fashioned. A man who looks after dog cages encounters a change due to a certain event. I guess you can summarize it like that.”

“Everything becomes old-fashioned if reduced to one line. A growing conspiracy behind a police officer’s exposé, the lives of two men who loved one woman, what would happen if a person right before his death goes crazy - you can summarize the recently released titles like that, but the masterpieces and the bad pieces are separated according to how they unfold. Of course, since it’s director Park Joongjin’s work, it’ll be a masterpiece for sure.”

Ganghwan, who was listening, chimed in,

“How probable do you think the chance of a home-run hitter hitting another home-run is in the next round? Don’t think optimistically and try your utmost best. If you play the lead role of a film by a director who hits a home run every single round, the public’s arrow of blame will go to you if it doesn’t do well. Well, not that I’m that knowledgeable about the film industry. But it shouldn’t be that different from theater production, is it?”

“Even if you didn’t tell me that, I already have a mountainload of worries. Popularity is one thing, but the director’s personality is extraordinary too. I had a nightmare a few nights ago where I had to do a hundred takes for a single scene. The director kept indifferently clapping the slate in front of me, and when I woke up, I found that my shirt was drenched with cold sweat.”

The three of them on the sofa nodded all at once. It was probably a common fear among all people who acted for a living.

“Since we’re talking about this, why don’t you three pay up?”

“Pay up?”

“Show me your acting. It’s fine even if it’s just a gist.”

“We’re all expensive people, you know? Don’t you think a single pot of seafood stew is cheap?”

Suyeon crossed her arms. Maru knew that she wasn’t just bragging. It was true that they were expensive since they were all paid hundreds of millions to act.

“If you don’t want to, then I guess I can’t help it. But instead, I’ll lock the front door every Wednesday. I will not pick up any calls after 10 p.m. unless it’s related to work.”

“You’re coming out strong.”

Suyeon grabbed the hands of the men on either side of her and stood up. With this ‘Wednesday Nights’ was official. Maru was now in a position where he had to set up a drinking occasion every fortnight, but it was quite a cheap price to pay if he could get advice from these three. Though, they would still listen to his request even if he just asked.

Maru sat down on the sofa, from which the three seniors stood up. It felt rather weird. Three people, who were capable enough to be called ‘famed actors’, were standing in front of him. He was now in a position where he could instruct them to act, and from up close too.

“Looking at your eyes, it looks like the respect that had been hidden from you for years has come back to you. Geez, where can you find a junior like this? And the seniors too?”

Suyeon chuckled before asking him to elaborate. Maru described the dog cage he saw that day in as much detail as possible. He also showed them the photos he took so that the three actors could form a character in their heads.

“We just have to show you a general idea, right?”

Geunsoo walked towards the kitchen after looking at the photos. The boundary that connected the kitchen to the living room became a makeshift stage. It hadn’t even been two minutes since he finished explaining and showed them the photo, but it seemed that Guensoo had formed an outline of the character already. Maru sent the two dogs sitting underneath the dining table into his bedroom before saying that he could start.

“It is somewhat embarrassing to do it like this.”

Unlike his words though, his expressions changed in an instant. His eyes were filled with boredom. He scratched his belly like someone who just walked out of bed and slowly walked to the living room. His cloudy eyes looked around. He seemed to have entered the greenhouse. He yawned and grabbed the remote control, which was supposed to be the rod. He poked around indifferently, without the slightest bit of hesitation. For a moment, his eyes flashed with glee. With the eyes of someone who had found a bowl of leftover food after starving for days, he insistently stared at the TV stand and pushed the rod back and forth. Maru could picture a frantic dog yelping and falling on the ground. He could also see the rod that kept poking at the collapsed dog. Geunsoo moved his hands as though the movement of the rod had nothing to do with the dog’s death before eventually dusting his hands and standing up.

“Did you say I can’t kill the dog?”

“Yes, but it doesn’t matter. That was enough.”

Geunsoo sat down on the sofa, saying that he was done. Despite only a few lines of explanation and a few photos, he managed to come up with a plausible character in a very short period of time. It wasn’t that his acting was awkward either.

“When I see that oppa act, I sometimes feel that the world is so unfair,” Suyeon said.

To compare, Geunsoo was analogous to Lee Heewon. Questions shouldn’t be asked to him. He was the type of person to ask back with ‘how do you not understand’ when asked about something. He was prime evidence of the fact that a competent senior doesn’t always equal a senior who’s great at teaching. Maru just had to extract what he could from his act.

Following that, Suyeon showed her act. Her character was rather easily upset. She swore from the get go. ‘Fuck’ was nothing more than conjunction. Holding the rod, Suyeon swore a lot but did not use the rod so easily. In fact, she carefully reached out with the remote control with a fear-stricken expression. When she walked past the sofa, she got startled and even took a step back. People could not get used to doing everything – this seemed to be Suyeon’s idea. The character she showed went through a conflict at every moment. It was far from the plain lunacy that Maru wanted, but an interesting interpretation nonetheless. The startled expressions were something worth using as well. After all, constantly putting on a heavy expression didn’t mean good acting. He would probably be able to make use of it once he started the shoot later.

“The one after me will fulfill all the criteria, so I tried changing it up.”

‘The one after me’ that Suyeon talked about had fallen into thought behind her at the dining table. Geunsoo softly said that he might need more time. Ganghwan stood up when another ten minutes had passed. He didn’t say that he would begin. Maru could tell that he started acting the moment he stood up.

“Yeah, I told you. Right.”

He was on the phone as he walked towards the TV and picked up the rod. His eyes were fixed on the ceiling, his mouth was busy talking to his phone, and his hand was holding the rod. He was at the epitome of proficiency. He swung around the remote control, and every once in a while, he would give a glance down and stab hard with his hand. It was a move that subdued the dogs without any big movements. The topic over the phone was about money. It seemed like someone who borrowed money had not paid back in time. He then brought the water bottle they decided to use as the kettle before tilting it slightly. He was venting his anger on the dog. Maru rather liked the fact that he was pouring water indifferently while on the phone. It was a plot device that showed that the character had become so used to his job that he could do it alongside other tasks. After emptying the water bottle, Ganghwan scoffed before turning around. He looked like he had finished a small task.

“I hate improvisations like this the most. Even when I was learning.”

“It’s people like that who always grumble the most. I’m sure he’s doing it on purpose despite knowing that what he did was the best one,” Suyeon said with a frown.

Maru immediately grabbed Ganghwan and asked him questions. It was clear that both Geunsoo and Ganghwan were incredibly good at acting, but there were differences in their ability to teach. That was also why Ganghwan was in charge of teaching back at the amateur acting class.

“I’m not sure what that director wants from you, but rather than preparing something new, you better polish what you have been doing now. If I’m the director, that’s the kind of thing I’d be expecting from you. In my opinion, a good actor is not someone who suddenly shows something incredible one day, but someone who perfectly shows what he or she has refined over a course of a long time.”

“I think director Park wants that from me too.”

He threw a few more short questions and learned about how to create situations. Just then, he realized that he could no longer see Geunsoo and Suyeon. He tried opening the door to the bedroom. Suyeon was on the bed, and Geunsoo was on the floor. They each had a dog in their arms.

“Don’t those two know any shame?” Ganghwan said.

“You aren’t one to speak,” Maru retorted with a smile.

KTLChamber's Thoughts

Geunsoo! You should have slept on the bed too! Dang, what a missed opportunity (for Maru to take a photo of them and tease them for it the next day)

Editor's Note:

Considering how Suyeon is rn, I think she would have been the one to sleep on the floor.

Chapter 914
Crank Up 3

He got a text from Sora. Apparently, their work was invited to the short film festival in Chungmuro. She said she had to attend, but the actors did not have to. This director Kang was actually rather busy.

Maru finished cleaning by hanging the rag on the drying rack in the veranda. He felt refreshed after seeing the spotless kitchen and the living room. It was peace he had finally gained after driving out the three musketeers who stuck around till morning. He drank a cup of coffee and left the house with the two dogs who kept nagging him to take them on a walk. He could feel that December was right around the corner. He went to the local park after putting on his orange jumper. He walked a lap around the park while the dogs walked back and forth around him.

“Your voice doesn’t sound good. Did you not get good sleep?”

Maru picked up the phone while firmly grabbing onto the leashes. It was Gaeul. After coughing for a while, Gaeul spoke,

-I kicked the blanket away during the night because it was hot, and I think that’s gotten me sick.

“You should’ve been careful.”

-It’s fine since it’s nothing serious. I’ll get better with a cup of honey tea and some aspirin. Rather than that, how was yesterday?

“How do you think it was?”

-A fun party?

“It was hell on Earth.”

-They’re all good people. You should treat them well.

“If I treat them any better than this, my parents will be disappointed in me, you know? They’ll tell me I’m being filial to someone else.”

-Mr. Kind Han Maru, you aren’t mad at me, are you?

“If the door lock says you got the wrong passcode when you come home later, then you’re free to think whatever you want.”

He calmed Woofie from running off and walked towards a bench.

“Can I ask you where you are now?”

-I just got out of Mijoo’s house.

“Did things go well?”

-Yeah, somewhat.

Maru waited while petting the Pit Bull’s head so that Gaeul could continue talking.

-Uhm, you know?

“What?”

-You said that lying is sometimes necessary, right?

“I did.”

-I lied to you when I said nothing happened yesterday.

“I know. I had a gist. Is it a big problem?”

-No. I just didn’t want to make you worry. But I realized that you already noticed when I talked with you.

“We’ve known each other for years. There was a gap in the middle, but it’s easy to deduce the situation from the way you speak, just like how you saw through my lie.”

Maru tapped Woofie on the butt and stood up.

“It’s fine if it’s nothing big. So, when are you coming back home?”

-Well, if you promise me you won’t nag me and pry into it no matter what happens, I can go back right now.

“You know I’m known for not getting angry.”

-Are you sure?

“Yes.”

Woofie suddenly tried to dart off to the point that the leash became taut. He threw his gaze towards the place that Woofie was trying to go. He saw Gaeul waving her phone in the air. Maru smiled and walked over to her. When he got closer, he could see the white piece of cloth attached to her face. No matter how quickly the latest trends of fashion changed, there was no way attaching a piece of cloth to the face would be trendy. He started walking quickly. He reached his hand out to Gaeul, who was smiling awkwardly. The sensation of the gauze climbed up his fingertips unpleasantly and vividly.

“Did you get into an accident?” he shouted as he let go of the leash.

He was angry at her for smiling as though it was nothing.

“You promised to not get angry.”

Gaeul picked up the leash. Although he promised her not to get angry, it was a different story since she showed up with a gauze on her face. He asked her to elaborate, but she just grabbed his hand, saying that they should go back first. Since there were eyes around, he decided to listen to her first. Maru’s eyes were fixed to Gaeul’s face until the moment they returned to the apartment and opened the door. There was a gauze and an adhesive tape attached to her cheek and chin. It seemed that she wasn’t injured elsewhere.

“Home sweet home,” Gaeul said as she sat down on the sofa.

Maru turned on the air heater first.

“You promised you won’t get angry. How can you get angry the moment you see me?”

“I’m sorry, but I don’t feel like joking right now. Are you okay? Are you sure the injury is not big? Was it a traffic accident? Or did something happen at the set because of some props?”

“This is why I was originally planning to wait a week before coming so that it could heal. Geez, you’re so scary that I feel like I can’t say anything to you.”

Gaeul tossed her feet while on the sofa, saying that she should leave. He lost his energy in his shoulders. He said all those things, so he couldn’t afford to not keep them. He also pitied Gaeul, who was very wary of him despite smiling.

“Want something to drink?”

“Some honey tea would be nice.”

“Alright, get changed first.”

All sorts of things came to his mind while looking at the boiling kettle. If it was a small traffic accident, there was no need for her to hide it, since it was not like she did anything wrong. What could’ve happened? From the way she told him not to get angry, it meant that the cause of the injury was something that could get him angry. He gave her the mug when she came back out after changing her clothes.

“Thanks.”

After taking a sip of the honey tea, Gaeul let out a slow sigh.

“I won’t get angry so tell me what happened.”

“It wasn’t anything much. I guess I paid the price for ignoring your warning?”

“My warning?”

“You told me before that I shouldn’t get into a fight with someone whose eyes have gone mad, that such a person might do anything.”

“So it wasn’t an accident, and someone did that to you on purpose?”

“There you go again, becoming all tense.”

She told him not to frown with a smile and waited a few more seconds before speaking,

“I got scratched by a bag. I went to the hospital and they told me it wouldn’t leave behind a scar so I shouldn’t worry about it.”

“Whose bag was it?”

“The old woman who picks a fight with me all the time.”

“Lee Miyoon?”

She nodded once. He knew that there would be an accident one day, but he did not even dream that she would do something like this. He expected her not to do anything to famous actors and actresses since she was someone who detested having her reputation defamed.

“Remember how I said that she looked really nervous lately? It looks like she really has a problem. From how she even did this to me, maybe she’s pushed to the edge of a cliff.”

Following that, she emphasized again and again that she was okay and that there was no problem at all, but all of that didn’t enter his ears. It didn’t matter if Lee Miyoon had a terrible personality or did whatever dirty things without other people knowing. Gaeul had kept her distance from her and had never received damage. But a problem had occurred. That woman actually took action against the one person she must not. It didn’t matter what pushed Lee Miyoon to the edge or what kind of state she was in now. The only important thing was that Lee Miyoon inflicted a wound on Gaeul’s face.

He thought as he kept looking at Gaeul’s cheek. What methods did he have to pressure her? As he didn’t have any realistic power right now, the only method he could take was to use other people’s hands to deal with her instead. The faces of two people came to mind. One was president Lee Junmin and the other was lawyer Park Sunggoo. They were the people who could give him practical help. Even among the two, lawyer Park Sunggo was better. The president was someone he would not be able to move so easily, but he could have lawyer Park help him if he paid the required fees. If he gathered the people who had been oppressed by Lee Miyoon until now without having Gaeul stand up for herself and have them all sue her…

“Han Maru.”

He returned to reality after imagining writing names down on a petition. Gaeul was looking at him. Her eyes were like that of a mother that was chiding her child.

“I want to eat frozen polack soup. The one I couldn't eat yesterday.”

Her eyes soon turned into a soft curve. He could not say anything to those eyes, and to that smile.

“You know I always yield, right?”

“I do. I always boast to everyone that my boyfriend is such a gentle person. Please cook me some frozen pollack soup with that gentle heart, and don’t think about anything else. Do you need help?”

The anger that rose to the top of his head was all dispelled when she looked at him with affection. The person in question was being calm, so it would be rather funny if he, an outsider, got angry instead.

“It’s all done, so I just have to boil it.”

“Then I should wash the little ones’ feet while it’s warming up.”

Gaeul put down the mug as though all talk about Lee Miyoon should stop here, before standing up. Maru placed the empty cup at the sink and took out the frozen polack soup that he had put in the refrigerator. He could hear laughter in the bathroom, as well as a voice telling the dogs to stay still.

He put the pot on the stove and lit up the fire. Even a snot-nosed brat would understand the meaning of a wound on an actress’ face. Although she said that it was fortunate since there would not be a scar, things could have just as easily gone awry. Above all, the placement of the wound made him nervous. A slight change in the angle or the timing, and the wound might have gone right across her eye. Maru picked up his phone. Since Gaeul told her not to do it, he could not pressure Lee Miyoon publicly. But that didn’t mean that he was going to stay still while sucking on his thumb. One of the reasons society was functioning properly was that one law was being kept to a certain extent. Those who committed crime were punished accordingly.

He sent a text to Kim Dongwook. Although that man said that he would take his hands off anything related to Lee Miyoon and YM, but the eyes he saw on the day they met Choi Miyeon was definitely not that of someone who had given up.

Gaeul left the bathroom. Maru put his phone in his pocket and placed the frozen pollack soup on the dining table.

“What a good smell.”

“Have a good meal.”

“How about you?”

“I had a light meal in the morning.”

“I don’t want to eat by myself though.”

Gaeul stared at him. Maru took some rice out of the rice cooker.

“The wound will heal soon so don’t worry about it. It didn’t get caught by the camera either. BB creams are amazing these days.”

“What happened to Lee Miyoon?”

“What else? I dealt her a big blow. She kept snooping around when she didn’t have a shoot, but now she won’t be able to do that. I said I’d sue her if she came and threw a tantrum one more time. Do you know? I became a total hero at the shoot. I had to stop the staff from throwing me into the air.”

“It’s not surprising.”

“But I’m worried. I’ll be going on the paid vacation right? I’ll have to see her face when we have a joint schedule outside free time, but it’s a pain in the head already. It’s entirely her fault and I have done nothing wrong, but she’s a senior after all. I hope she just stays quiet like this, but I don’t think she’ll do that given her personality.”

“I guess her not going on that vacation will put many people at ease.”

“True, but she probably will, I think. She loves getting treated well.”

Gaeul said ‘who knows?’ before starting to eat. Maru also got some soup and drank it.

“You aren’t thinking about doing anything strange, are you?”

“Do what?”

“No, it’s nothing. Just don’t worry about what happened to me.”

“Alright,” Maru replied with a smile.

He thought about what she said just a while ago; that lying is sometimes necessary.

KTLChamber's Thoughts

Oh man, I'd love to read about Maru's fury. Please author, you know we want it!

Editor's Note:

Plz, angry and sarcastic Maru makes for such a good read. Also, it's so cute that she was planning to stay away for a week but she couldn't take being away from him after 1 day.

Chapter 915
Crank Up 3

"Madam, we'll do that again. Also, are you tired today?"

There was a thorn hidden in the polite question. Lee Miyoon frowned, but then just let loose. She didn't have any energy to get angry.

"Director Kim, why don't we take a 10-minute break?"

"Okay. You should get some fresh air too, madam."

Her pride was hurt. She had been making mistakes for 20 minutes straight in the same scene at the same line, so she had no excuses either. This was the first time such a thing happened. Her mind was in chaos, and she found it disgusting that she couldn't digest that easy act. Her stomach was hurting as though it was being squeezed as well. Whenever a pickling pain jolted her head, she was reminded of Hong Janghae. Unless she cut off the root of all trouble, she might as well die of stress.

She went to the rooftop and put a cigarette in her mouth. One disaster struck after another. The fact that she swung her bag at Han Gaeul's face also bothered her mind. Although that wrench said that she was okay, she might make use of this weakness at any time. She threw away the cigarette after puffing twice. The sparks at the end of the cigarette butt that was being extinguished without burning all the way looked just like herself. Lee Miyoon stomped on the cigarette butt with her heel and put it out. It was supposed to be her job to decorate her finale. She did not plan to walk out bitterly because of someone's whim.

She went down to the set while calming down her mind and body. Right now, she had to look after herself. Now that she lost her support, she could no longer be the topic of controversy, at least in acting. She walked past the staff members who gave her secret glances. It was still okay now. She could feel that her authority as an actress was still alive. She had to protect it while she still had it.

"Director Kim, let's start," she said like it was nothing.

Producer Kim sat down in front of the monitor and had everyone get back to their positions. Under the lead of the assistant director, the background actors walked past her eyes. Cue – signalled the director.

"Did president Choi order you to do this?"

The male actor sitting in front of her shook his head. He was a young boy that had decent acting skills. His face was also quite good-looking, so she took a liking to this kid.

"No, ma'am."

"Then how did that USB end up in Gyeongmi's hands?"

"I don't know either. I handed it to Park Joowon just as you ordered me to."

"This is troublesome. Joowon told me he doesn't know anything about this, and yet you tell me that you handed it to him. Consequentially though, Gyeongmi got her hands on the USB and President Choi benefitted from it, so one of you must be lying to me."

"I only acted as you ordered me to, ma'am."

He scattered a manly gaze as he spoke firmly. This kid would rise as long as he was given the right foothold. If it was before, she would have scheduled a meeting with him and dote on him, but the situation didn't look too good right now. Cut – Lee Miyoon loosened her strained eyes at that sound. If she made a mistake this time, she might have been disappointed with herself.

"Thank you for your work."

The kid who would usually leave the moment the shoot ended, spoke out to her this time. This was one of the rare pairs of respectful eyes in a situation where she was surrounded by enemies. She felt good for a moment.

"Yes, you too. And you're…”

"Yoo Jiseok, madam."

"Right, I'm sorry. I've been caught up with a lot of things these days, and I'm having trouble remembering names."

"No problem at all."

She liked his smile. She thought that he was a pretty decent kid when she met him during weekend drama shoots, but now that they acted together like this, she realized that his foundation was solid as well, not just his looks. Miyoon had a look at Jiseok's face in detail. Although he looked rather unfamiliar because of his hairstyle, she definitely saw that face before.

"Have I seen you before?"

"I played a supporting actor in a sitcom a few years ago. I was the friend of the grandson of the character you played."

When she heard that, she was reminded of a face. A kid who kept grinning nonstop. Ever since she warned him not to smile, he never showed his expression in front of her, so her impression of him had gotten faint over time.

"Oh, I remember. You grew up splendidly."

"Thank you."

"If we knew each other, you should have reached out to me before. I would have looked out for you."

"I'm happy just being able to watch your acting, as I can learn a lot from it. But today, you looked like you were having a bad day, so I talked to you because I was worried."

He was young, but the way he talked was quite nice. It felt comforting after dealing with people like Han Gaeul who would raise her claws at her like some kind of feline animal. This was the kind of treatment she deserved.

"Oh, thanks."

"Was I overly worried for nothing?"

"No, it's true that I've been having a bad day."

"I knew it. Madam, you should look after your health more. Only when people like you hold on and guide us will young people like me learn from you."

"I want to do that too."

She would be able to return to her livelihood as long as she chased out those pesky flies and regained everything that she had lost. She would only be able to get back to good acting once she was back in an environment where she no longer had to worry about just acting. She could see actors whispering among themselves as they walked by behind Jiseok. They weren't giving a single glance this way, but Miyoon could tell that her name was being talked about among them.

"How rude of them," Jiseok said.

He was also looking at the actors that just walked past.

"It must have been a mistake or an accident, but there are people who are talking as if you did that on purpose. Madam, don't worry about them. They're all just jealous."

Those words scratched her where it itched. She left the hostility-filled shooting set and walked outside, waving at Jiseok to follow her. After having her manager go buy some coffee, she gave one to Jiseok.

"Thank you."

"Don't thank me. I'm only grateful that right-minded people like you still exist today. Just as you said, it was a slight accident, but they blame everything on me. Heck, even Gaeul herself knows that it was an accident, but those who don't know anything are blabbing on about it, so it bothers me a lot."

"You should ignore those words. Doing anything else is more nutritional than listening to things like that."

"You're good, Jiseok."

He was a polite kid. Why had someone like him never entered her eyes before? Miyoon reached out and grabbed Jiseok's hand. His hand was quite masculine. His face still had a trace of when he was a child, but his hand definitely belonged to a rough man. She also tapped on his thigh. It was sturdy. When she tried grabbing it, she could feel a nice sense of tension in the muscles.

"Do you like working out?"

He only smiled awkwardly when asked that question. She also liked his docile attitude. She should definitely give him some support if things were good. While drinking coffee, Jiseok took out his phone.

"Excuse me, madam. I'll just go pick this up."

Jiseok talked over the phone a little bit away. During his call, he would often look over and smile at her, and it made her aching head refreshed.

"Sorry about that, but I think I need to get going."

"What a pity."

"Me too. I'd love to listen to your words a little more, but I have something to do."

Just as he was about to go back, Jiseok stopped on the spot.

"Madam, can you give me some advice as a senior in life?"

Miyoon gladly agreed. Jiseok thanked her before starting his story,

"It's somewhat awkward of me to say this, but my relationship with someone I knew for quite a long time went awry. To be precise, I was betrayed."

Miyoon clicked her tongue. She was also in such a situation.

"And?"

"I tried persuading that friend – let's call him A – that we should go back to the old days in consideration of our old friendship, but it didn't work. Money was one thing, but it concerns some people so it's quite a sensitive thing. I'd love to get this sorted out as soon as possible, but then, a person called B suddenly reached out to me. I found out that B also has things to sort out with A. B says I should grab his hand and sort the problem out with A, but I'm a little hesitant."

"What makes you hesitant?"

"Working with B wouldn't make me look cool, and if B turns his back on me, I think I'll be the only one getting in trouble."

"Do you think you'll get some progress on that problem of yours if you join hands with B?"

"Yes. B is quite persistent. He's good at work."

"Then there's no need to hesitate. What you're worried about is getting betrayed by B later on, right? Then if you get yourself prepared beforehand, you won't fall into a trap so easily. Meanwhile, you have to sort your problem out with B in order to get money or people back, right?"

"Yes, that's true."

"Then you should join hands with B first. You should watch out for B while you still work with him so that you can counterattack if you feel like he's going to attack you."

"So an enemy of an enemy is a friend, and I should join hands with him first, right?"

Miyoon nodded. If it was something that could be predicted beforehand, prevention was just as easy. The same could be said for what happened to her. Had she noticed Hong Janghae's schemes a little earlier, she wouldn't be in this situation.

"Thank you, I think I'll be able to sort this out."

"Alright. Don't make a dejected face just because you're facing a problem. You should smile since it will ruin that pretty face of yours."

Jiseok smiled and stood up. It had been quite a while since she talked to someone who she could get through to. It would have been great if everyone under her was like that too.

"So now, you don't say anything to me because of my smile."

Jiseok said those words before saying goodbye. Miyoon scoffed. It seemed that he was mad about what happened before. Even that looked cute though. She decided that she would meet him once things were sorted to an extent.

Miyoon put the empty coffee cup on the bench and stood up.

KTLChamber's Thoughts

So… Miyoon might actually be willing to join hands with Dongwook to bring Big Bad Hong down.

And author didn't actually forget about Jiseok.

Editor's Note:

Wonder if Jiseok was talking about a true story or if he was just acting cuz he was asked to by Maru.

Chapter 916
Crank Up 3

His lips trembled as a result of curling up his lips by force. His palms were sweaty as well. He felt like he had climbed on top of the railing of a high-rise building without any safety measures. Yoo Jiseok wiped his hands against his pants. He was worried that Miyoon might be suspicious of him, but thankfully, she didn’t notice anything. The excuse he came up with just in case she asked turned out to be unnecessary.

After seeing Miyoon walk off, he made a call.

“I thought my heart was going to fail.”

-Don’t you ever say that even as a joke. I’m not sure about anyone else, but when it comes to you, heart failure sounds too realistic.

“I wasn’t joking. It would’ve been an interesting sight if I fell over because of tachycardia.”

-Sorry I asked you to do something that’s bad for your heart.

“As long as you know. I listened to your request just because of Gaeul.”

-Don’t tell Gaeul any of this.

“Of course. She’ll cause a mess if she finds out.”

-Since your heart is fine and you’re alive, seems like things went well?

“I was really nervous. It’ll be a pain in the head if she starts suspecting me. For now, I told her what you told me to tell her.”

-How’s her reaction?

“She might be just saying it, but she said she’s willing to join hands with an enemy in order to get rid of the enemy in front of her. She says she wouldn’t need to worry about being betrayed if she’s careful.”

-That’s more than enough. The words she uttered will remain inside her head and influence her future course of action.

Jiseok returned to the bench that Miyoon left and sat down.

“She definitely looks like she’s being chased by something. Leaving her terrible personality aside, her acting skills were indisputable, but recently, she’s doing terribly. Just today, we had to take three breaks just because she kept making mistakes on the same scene continuously.”

-I don’t know the specifics, but it looks like a big portion of Lee Miyoon’s business had been stolen from her. Her mind is elsewhere, so there’s no way she could do well in acting.

“A business she’s involved in, huh? Are you talking about her porridge restaurant or her barbecue restaurant?”

-The other one. The one that only people in the know, know about.

“You mean selling people?”

Jiseok clicked his tongue. The bad rumors about Lee Miyoon were enough to make most people feel disgusted. Even Jiseok, who tended to believe in people’s good hearts, could not believe in Lee Miyoon.

-I’ll tell you more once I find out.

“It feels like it’s going to be a very gloomy story. Are you sure you want to tell me? What are you going to do if I tell other people about it?”

-If you’re the type of person to do that, you would have long lost your place in my contacts list.

“That makes me feel grateful. The social media star Han Maru is telling me that. I saw that you know? The one where you sang inside the restaurant. You were on top of your chair, acting all cute…”

The phone hung up there. Jiseok could almost hear an ‘f’ just as the call ended. He smiled and gave a call again.

“Don’t be so embarrassed. It’ll all come back to you as a promotion and will work in your favor. I went to Instagram and saw those hashtags. I think at least ten thousand people have seen it already since senior Joohyun shared it on her account. Thanks to that, I think many people are getting to know about it.”

-Do you know something called the right to be forgotten?

“The right to laugh is bigger than that. I also had a good night’s sleep after I watched that. It’s stress-relieving.”

-Fine, laugh all you want.

He could picture Maru’s indifferent-looking face. As much as he wanted to tease him more, he felt like his number would get erased off Maru’s contact list if he went any further, so he decided to hold back. There was something he needed to tell him too.

“I heard that Yoojin’s coming back to Korea on December 2nd.”

-That’s the day after tomorrow.

“Yep. She called me a few days ago and told me that she got in touch with you. It seems like she was quite frustrated that she didn’t know that you and Gaeul got back together.”

-Don’t tell me you bragged that you knew about it?

“Hey, I may love laughing, but there’s no way I would test my friendship in order to laugh, is there?”

-So you did brag. You sound like you’ve bragged about it to death.

“Yoojin told me that she’ll beat you and Gaeul half to death once she comes.”

-And you?

“I’m included too. I had fun talking about it, then I got hit with a counterattack right at the end. And anyway, we’re all doing pretty well huh? Gaeul is doing well all the way up there, while you and I keep doing actor work. Yoojin’s also working in her own way while continuing to try out as an actor.”

-It’s good that we aren’t doing nothing. You said you’re graduating next year?

“Just barely. I didn’t even go to the military that other people go to, yet I still haven’t graduated yet.”

-It’s not like you were doing other things, you were working, so it shouldn’t matter. Oh yeah, my mother told me to get your autograph. She’s enjoying your weekend dramas.

“I’m thankful that she’s looking at me in a good light even though I don’t appear that much.”

Jiseok checked the time. It was about time for him to return.

“Leave me a message if you need me for anything. I’ll listen to the specifics once I meet you in two days.”

-Thanks for listening to this difficult request. I’ll pour you some good drinks when we meet in two days.

“There you go again. You know I can’t drink. Just get some protectors ready. Yoojin seems like she’s going to hit hard.”

Jiseok hung up and stood up.

* * *

“She was probed out in passing, so it’s likely that it’s close to what she truly thinks. She should have been reminded of the situation she was in too,” Maru said to Dongwook as he put his phone down.

“It’ll be great if things go the way I think they will, but I should prepare just in case it doesn’t. She wouldn’t have gone that far in the first place if she was gullible.”

Dongwook stabbed the table with his pen.

“Now, we should be able to make some progress as long as we create a contact point with her.”

“We should find out what situation she’s in before that. If we don’t prepare ourselves, we might get used instead. It’ll be easy if Lee Miyoon helps us out. Even greater if she could testify alongside Mari.”

“Can that Mari person be trusted?”

“It doesn’t matter since our relationship is not maintained through trust. We’re only cooperating since we want something from each other. Anyway, I’ll get in touch with Lee Miyoon once I get a full grasp on her situation.”

“So the general picture looks like Hong Janghae screwed Lee Miyoon over, right?”

“It’s pretty much a given since Hong Janghae is in full charge of Japan. That will also explain why Lee Miyoon is acting frantic right now.”

“What’s your final objective? I’ll be satisfied as long as I can get rid of Lee Miyoon from my sight.”

“I’ll go as far as I can.”

“Are you going to continue keeping it a secret from Miyeon-noonim?”

“Why would I tell anything to an outsider? She’s managed to settle in her job, so I should let her continue living like that.”

“You might need her help later.”

“If things reach that point, I might as well take my hands off this matter. I’m not doing this because of some petty sense of justice. How about you, what are you going to do?”

Maru put down the glass of water he was just about to drink.

“I’ll go along with whatever you do. I’m going to run the moment I feel it’s dangerous though.”

“Then I’ll notify the president. I’m not sure about anyone else, but I don’t think lying is going to work on that man. If the president tells you to take your hands off, then you take your hands off.”

“He’ll understand since I won’t let it affect work. It’s not like I’m going to be doing the work myself. Rather than that, you should look out for yourself. You said Hong Janghae has people who kidnap people.”

“I’ve been doing this job for 20 years. I’ll be running the moment I smell anything fishy so don’t worry. You know what I say all the time. I’m the ultimate self-preservationist.”

Dongwook put away the notepad and the pen and stood up.

“So you focus on your work for now.”

“Okay.”

Dongwook left the café. Maru sat back down and organized his thoughts. He would have to wait to see the results, but he had a general grasp of the situation. The rabbit is the king of a mountain without a tiger. Although she had been using other people’s names in order to do her business, she had lost that business right, so that must have made her go crazy. If they could make use of her decreased reason, they might be able to easily procure physical evidence. It wouldn’t be easy since she had been betrayed once already, but people were bound to grab the opportunity given to them if they were desperate. It was also rather probable that she might take drastic action in order to regain her reputation as an actress, which had been damaged by attacking Gaeul, another actress.

The problem was with timing. If they could give Lee Miyoon what she wanted at the most important time, they might be able to easily exploit her.

While Dongwook worked hard to get the practical stuff done, he had to observe Lee Miyoon. Thankfully, he had no lack of eyes and ears on her. If he asked for help, he could easily get a grasp on Lee Miyoon’s situation.

“Rather than that.”

Maru quickly swiped his phone. The dance he did while half sane at the kal-guksu restaurant was going around on the internet. Just as Jiseok said, it was on Joohyun’s Instagram account as well. He had been getting text messages nonstop since yesterday, and every one of them talked about it. He didn’t realize that his friends would be the very people spreading it around on the internet.

He looked at himself on the screen in a daze before turning his phone off. He could see people giving him glances from another table. From the suits they were wearing, they seemed to be salarymen from a nearby company. He slowly looked away and stood up. He walked towards the counter with the two empty cups when he felt the back of his head itch. Just as he had imagined, a gaze was persistently following him; one moment, on the phone, then on his head the next.

Maru returned the cups to the counter and turned around. There were less than ten steps away from the door.

“Uhm.”

A woman blocked his way after another four steps. She looked at him in puzzlement before smiling. She seemed convinced.

“You are Han Maru, right?”

He never knew that she’d mention his name. He couldn’t say no, so he replied yes. The people in the café all started showing interest.

“Can I take a photo with you?”

“Of course.”

The moment he realized that he could not run away from this, his businessman mindset took over. The experience of smiling at an unpleasant business partner in his previous life shone through. He just had to take a photo and leave the store quickly.

“Senior! It’s him!”

The woman in front of him called out to the others elsewhere. They were just like her, salary women wearing suits. At the same time, he could hear other voices. He looks like a celebrity, I don’t know him, but should I take a photo with him, etc…

“Please take care of me in the future,” he said out of reflex.

Take care of him how… he did not know either.

KTLChamber's Thoughts

Telling Jiseok about Miyoon… with Yoojin in the same place. That doesn't sound like a good idea.

Editor's Note:

I called it. Maru starting to act.

Chapter 917
Crank Up 3

“Looks like you’re really busy.”

“Thanks to a certain senior who refused to reveal his name, I was able to work without getting any rest. Thank you, senior.”

“Nah, I didn’t do anything. It’s my junior who helped you by ordering flowers from you.”

Dongwook watched Choi Miyeon move a small cactus to a small vase. Smiles appeared from time to time on the face that always had a shade cast over it. He was reminded of the saying work makes worries go away.

“I’ll get going then.”

“Already?”

“I only visited because I had some business nearby. I checked that you’re doing well, so I should get going.”

“You should have lunch or something. The restaurant next door is really good.”

“Maybe next time. I have a lot of things to do right now.”

He stopped Miyeon from seeing him out and left the store. He could see Miyeon smiling behind the glass door. The fatigue from pulling an all-nighter disappeared in an instant.

“How did it go?”

He picked up his phone as he got in his car.

-We’re still asking around, but it’s hard to catch any clues. Some of the stores have CCTVs, so I think we might be able to find a clue if we look at the footage.

“I’ll go there right now. You’ll be reported to the police if you ask for CCTV video without any warrant.”

-I’ll send you the location by text. Then I’ll move to the next spot.

“Please.”

The self-proclaimed private investigators that president Lee Junmin introduced to him were investigating Incheon and towns within an hour of traveling distance. Mari and the man, who came to the country through Incheon airport, were caught while trying to take refuge in a shelter they arranged in Incheon, and then they were dragged around in a black van to a warehouse in the middle of a mountain. From there, Mari was released and she returned to Incheon, while the man went missing. He was searching for clues based on Mari’s testimony that she was carried in the van blindfolded for about an hour, but he had not found any concrete traces yet.

He moved to the address the private investigator had sent him. It was a store that might possibly have footage of the car that headed to the nameless mountain. It was a Chinese-style restaurant that took up the entirety of the first floor, and it had CCTVs looking towards the street. According to the private investigator, they were installed because accidents happened during parking.

He went inside the store. Even though it was Saturday afternoon, there were only two tables with customers. There were more employees than customers.

“Welcome. Are you here to eat?”

“Rather than eating, I’m here to see the owner.”

“The owner?”

The waitress scratched her eyebrows before poking her head into the kitchen. As it was an open-style kitchen, the inside could be seen, and the man standing in front of a wok responded to the waitress’ call.

“What is it?” said the man as he came out.

“Are you the owner of this restaurant?”

“Yes.”

“Oh, I’m this kind of person.”

He gave out the business card he used when he still worked for the TV station. The owner, who accepted the business card, looked at him and the business card alternately.

“If you’re here for a TV show, then forget about it. I don’t have any money to give you.”

“I’m not here to scout this place as a good restaurant. I work in a different field.”

The owner gave him back the business card.

“If it’s not for such a show, what business do you have?”

“Let me start off by telling you that it’s definitely not something that will bring you harm. Currently, I’m chasing down a big piece of news. I found evidence of a famous celebrity’s secret love.”

“A celebrity?”

“Yes, though, forgive me for not being able to tell you the details.”

The owner rubbed his nose and spoke,

“You’re saying that that celebrity visited my restaurant?”

“No, but the couple frequently had meetings in this area. What I want to ask of you is to have a look at the CCTV footage installed around the store. I won’t be asking anyone any questions, since that’ll annoy many people.”

A customer, who had finished eating, walked past. The owner took off his chef hat before sending that person out. Dongwook took a step back and had a look at the owner’s face. From how he didn’t refuse outright, it seemed like he was willing to show the CCTV footage; just not for free. Dongwook immediately talked about the thing that the owner wanted to know about.

“Of course, you’ll be giving me help, so I can’t ask you to do it for free. I get some money for work expenses, and I’ll give you 500,000 won. I’m sure it’s not much to you since you run such a big restaurant, but it’s quite a lot to me.”

“Well, I wasn’t really hoping for something like that.”

“I’m sure you didn’t. But please accept it as it’ll put both of us at ease. If the secret love scandal is confirmed, I’ll make sure that the show will leak information about this place. You know, right? These days, people on the internet find out the precise location of places that appear on TV with minimal clues. People will definitely take interest in your restaurant if a super popular celebrity used to hold secret meetings in front.”

That seemed to have dealt the finishing blow as the owner immediately opened the door leading inside from behind the counter. When he went inside, he found a computer right next to a shelf of food ingredients.

“Take your time looking.”

The owner left the small room while stuffing the 500,000 won in his pocket. Dongwook inserted the external hard drive on the computer. The owner even kindly helped him move the files to his external drive. He moved the video footage ten days before and after the day Mari came to Korea. These days, popular CCTV products required special security software in order to watch the footage, but this restaurant’s CCTVs were on the level of just high-resolution cameras. Thanks to that, there was no additional work necessary.

“Thank you for your help. If things go well, I’ll definitely visit this place with my colleagues in the future.”

The owner told him to contact him any time he needed help. That was the magic created by 500,000 won and the empty serving hall. There would never come a day when this restaurant would become a hot topic on the internet or a day when he would bring his colleagues here, but the owner wasn’t losing out since he got 500,000 won.

He drove his car back home. He turned on the PC placed in the middle of the living room and cooked some instant noodles. He immediately uploaded the CCTV video onto a cloud server so that the private investigators working for him could see it.

Dongwook played back two videos at the same time at double speed. He quickly looked around while slurping some noodles. He stopped and watched closely whenever he found a van that looked like the one Mari told him about. The first thing he noticed was that he could read the license plates. It was a pity that he wasn’t able to see inside the vehicles if the windows were tinted, but he was in no position to worry about that since he lacked information.

He did not take his eyes off the screen for a while. This was the first time he focused so hard since he was a probationary journalist. When he checked the time, he saw that it was 11 p.m. His back was screaming at him since he had been staying absolutely still for nearly six hours.

Just as he thought that he should go wash up after checking for ten more minutes, another van that resembled the one Mari talked about appeared on the screen. There was an accident in front of the store, so the van wasn’t able to move forward. A person got out of the van after staying still for about twenty seconds. When a skinny man opened the back door and stepped out, Dongwook stopped the playback. He could see legs tied up inside the car. The resolution was pretty good, so he was able to check the man’s face. At this point, he wanted to kiss the owner of that restaurant for using such high-resolution CCTV. He immediately called Mari.

“Miss Mari. Did the van stop any time when you were caught?”

-I don’t know. I was so scared that I wasn’t paying attention.

“I understand that it must be hard for you. But can you focus a little more?”

-I do remember it stopping a few times, but most of the time, it should have been traffic.

“There must be something else among those memories. If I say it myself, I might influence your memories, so you must remember it yourself. Think back carefully and just tell me that there wasn’t if you don’t remember anything.”

Not many people would be carrying a tied-up person inside a van in South Korea. Dongwook’s intuition told him that the van on the screen belonged to the culprit, but the information would lose value if he could not find any common points with the testifier’s memories. After staying silent for a while, Mari spoke,

-There was one thing that was different. It wasn’t long after a gang barged into the room and kidnapped me and oppa. The van suddenly stopped and the man next to me got off while swearing. I also heard something like ‘get out of the way’ or something. Then the man got back in again. I’m sure that’s what happened. I went through it slowly as you said and I remembered it.

Dongwook clicked his fingers and played back the video. Just as Mari said, the man got back in the van and the van departed again. The estimated movement route that the private investigators came up with turned out to be accurate.

“I think I found the vehicle. Your help was big in this one.”

-Then can you find oppa as well?

“We have both money and people, so we’ll investigate all hills and warehouses in a one-hour range from this place. I’ll also investigate the man that got caught on the camera. If things go well, we might be able to find him unexpectedly easily.”

-It only just came to me, but nothing bad must have happened to oppa, right?

“Kidnapping is a serious crime, but murder is even worse. Even though they are men who act before they think, they shouldn’t have taken any unnecessary risks. Your man shouldn’t be in danger of losing his life. He might be injured though.”

-Please, just find him.

“I’ll do my best.”

Dongwook hung up. While he consoled Mari with hopeful words, he could not exclude the worst possible scenario. Mari’s man did not have any relatives. There was no one who would report him as missing, so there was no way the police were going to move. Even if Mari reported herself, it was extremely improbable that a large-scale force would be dispatched for that case. As such, it was possible that he might have been dragged to an incinerator. Hired assassinations made the news these days. It wouldn’t be strange even if something bad happened.

He immediately shared this information with the private investigators. They would track down the van’s movements and the identity of the man from other sources. Dongwook immediately grabbed his phone and wrote a text message. He was in the middle of the legal and illegal, and now, he needed to rely on civil authority.

“Inspector, it’s me, Dongwook. Why don’t we have a drink after all this time? Oh no, I wouldn’t ask anything special from you, would I? If you just tell me one trivial thing, I’ll pay you back for my whole life. What was that? I have ten such debts to pay you already? Inspector, let’s meet up first. How about some tuna?”

Chapter 918
Crank Up 3

“Inspector, over here.”

Dongwook stood up and waved his hand. Inspector Choi smiled and waved back.

“I thought you had been looking good, but now you look haggard again. People might mistake you for one of my men in undercover missions. Men of age should think about what they wear.”

“You’re nagging me again right as we just met.”

“If you don’t want to hear my nagging, then you should get married already. Isn’t it boring for you to live by yourself after forty?”

“I don’t have any time to feel bored. I’m very busy these days.”

“Liking your work won’t last that long. Just wait until you get a little older. You’ll find that having a wife is better than not having one, even if she nags at you.”

He poured some sake for inspector Choi, who said he was thirsty. The omakase sushi that he had ordered beforehand came out just in time as well.

“You should eat something first. I’m sure you’re having a hard time catching criminals.”

“I wonder what you’re going to ask from me this time after this.”

“As I told you over the phone, when have I ever asked you to do something difficult?”

“That you haven’t.”

“So just relax and eat. We’re all doing this for a living.”

Saying that he was right, inspector Choi picked up his chopsticks. Dongwook ate a few pieces of sushi and spoke when the fried snapper head came out,

“You didn’t happen to come across a dead body of a man in his thirties around Incheon, did you?”

“What the heck are you talking about while eating? You’re making me lose my appetite.”

“Just asking.”

“How can you ‘just ask’ if someone died?”

Inspector Choi drank some sake before continuing,

“Well, I got nothing at least. My jurisdiction doesn’t cover all of Incheon though, so I’m not sure about other areas. Are you looking for an unidentified dead body?”

“No, I know who it is. I was asking just in case.”

“I wonder just what you’re digging into this time.”

Dongwook took out his phone and showed him the man caught on the CCTV.

“I’m looking for this man.”

“Did he run off with your money or something?”

“Would I have called you if it was something like that?”

Inspector Choi, who sucked on his teeth to pull out the piece of sushi, narrowed his eyes and put his face against the phone.

“To me, the one tied up behind that man catches my eyes more.”

As expected of an inspector from the violent crime section, he had good eyes. Inspector Choi put the phone down and looked at him. He looked like he wanted an explanation.

“The one I’m looking for is the man inside the van.”

“Tying that with how you asked about news of a dead body, did this man do something that might have killed him?”

“There are some circumstances.”

“If it’s a kidnapping, you should have filed a report. Catching guys like these is what we get paid to do.”

“As much as I want to, I can’t do that.”

Things would blow up out of proportion if he found out that this man was someone who connected prostitutes to high members of society. If things got out of hand and it was discovered that he was investigating him, Hong Janghae would cut off his ties without hesitation. Eliminating the surviving man and erasing any traces of evidence would be an easy job for them. Reaching the core of the YM group might be too greedy of him, but it didn’t look impossible to drag Hong Janghae down. Since he had started something that he shouldn’t have, he could not afford to end it moderately. His subtle wrath would only subside if he at least cut off their arms and legs.

“My experience is telling me that I shouldn’t dip my feet in this.”

“Of course, you shouldn’t participate in this. I just want to know who this man is. And if possible, get some info on this van.”

The inspector pouted his lips and tapped on the table for a while before asking if it was possible to take food out.

“They should package it for us.”

“Then wrap up some of the good ones for me, so I can bring it to my kid. He’s in his third year of high school, so he can get some energy to study.”

Inspector Choi pushed the phone towards him. Dongwook put his phone back inside his pocket.

“I know who he is,” said the inspector.

It turned out that was why he wanted to package the food.

“Who is it?”

“There’s a gang called the Lee Doosik Gang, and the underlings all scattered while fighting with another one. They were eventually absorbed by another group, and he used to be an action leader there. I’ve seen him a few times, so I do remember his face.”

Dongwook had found the right person for the job. Dongwook asked more about this action leader,

“Do you know what he’s doing now?”

“Ever since Doosik’s gang collapsed, he should have switched to loan shark business. But while he’s not a good guy, he’s not someone who would kill a man.”

“He should have accepted it if simple threats were all he had to do for money, right?”

“He’s crazy for money, so he should have accepted it if it’s just that. He even grumbled to me a couple times that he’s busy feeding his group.”

“Is there a way to contact this man?”

“So you can ask where the man in the van is?”

“If he likes money, I think I can get through to him.”

“Wait a little.”

Inspector Choi left the store. Dongwook waited while drinking some green tea. Not long later, inspector Choi returned.

“He’ll be here soon. Apparently, he’s nearby.”

Dongwook spent the remaining time listening to inspector Choi bragging about his children. Dongwook conditionally kept looking at the entrance from time to time, and it took 30 minutes for the action leader to show up. He was wearing the exact same clothes as the day he kidnapped Mari, as though he had walked straight out of the video.

“It’s been a while, hyung-nim.”

“When will you stop calling a civil servant hyung-nim?”

“Once a hyung-nim, forever a hyung-nim.”

The action leader took his eyes off inspector Choi. Dongwook stood up and reached his hand out to the action leader, who was looking down at him.

“I’m Kim Dongwook.”

“I heard over the phone. You have business with me.”

“It’s not something bad, so please sit down.”

Dongwook immediately took out his phone. When he showed the action leader the video from the CCTV, his face darkened. He also gave a glance to the exit.

“Calm down. This fellow didn’t call you here to catch you. Neither did I,” said inspector Choi.

This action leader seemed to trust inspector Choi a lot and turned back around to the table.

“The one I’m looking for is the man who was inside this van on this day.”

“Why him?”

“Let me ask beforehand: you didn’t kill him, did you?”

“Did you eat something wrong? Do you need meds?”

The action leader glared at him while grabbing a chopstick. If inspector Choi didn’t pat his back to relax, he might have been stabbed with it. Although he felt a chill, Dongwook did not take his eyes off the action leader either. He might have strayed off, but he also used to be a journalist for the local news. A chopstick wasn’t enough to snap the boldness he earned while facing those who killed people with words.

“You have pretty eyes. Relax. I was joking with ya.”

The action leader let go of the chopstick first. Dongwook also sighed in relief.

“I may be in a gang, mate, but I don’t wanna have to kill people. I’ll be honest with ya; I’ll be doomed if I kill a man in this tiny country, so why would I do that?”

“Okay. So the man is still alive.”

“We only scared him a little, he’s doing fine.”

“Can I ask who asked you to do that to him?”

“Mister, is there anyone who sends out such requests with their real name? We went through a middle man too. They told me they’ll give me some good business deals if I could take care of this. Though, it wasn’t that great since some Korean-Chinese[1] people were mixed in.”

“Then who brought this job to you?”

The action leader stayed quiet. He seemed unwilling to reveal it.

“Alright. If you can’t tell me, then I guess I can’t do anything. Instead, just tell me where you took the man. Of course, I’ll make sure that you receive no harm.”

The action leader looked at the inspector.

“Go on, tell him. Only then would you not get another line added to your criminal record for kidnapping. Well, it’ll be a good thing for me if I can get another achievement. But aren’t you going to be spending quite a lot of time if you go in this time?”

Hearing inspector Choi’s words, the action leader sighed.

“Really, don’t you get me caught up in this. I’m only saying it because I trust in you, hyung-nim.”

“Alright, alright.”

It seemed like no money was necessary. Thanks to inspector Choi, the action leader managed to speak.

“We brought him to Busan. He’s probably doing manual labor over there.”

“What’s the address?”

Dongwook wrote down the address that the action leader told him.

* * *

Maru received a text from Dongwook saying that he was going to Busan. He called Dongwook.

“Did you find him?”

-I’ll have to go and see. Things are going well, but whether the results are good is something I’ll have to wait and see.

“Watch out. Let me know if something happens.”

-If something happens, I’ll be calling the police, not you. Don’t worry about me and do your thing. I’ll do my thing as well.

“Alright.”

Maru hung up. Jiseok, who was in the passenger seat, twitched his eyes and asked,

“That’s one serious-sounding call.”

“It was perfectly harmonious though.”

“Like hell it was.”

“You watched too much drama. Maybe you see it that way since you play a corrupt role?”

“Is that how it is?”

Jiseok smiled blandly. Maru turned the wheel and changed lanes. It seemed like they would reach Incheon airport in twenty minutes.

“When did Yoojin say she got on the plane?”

“10:40. We’ll have to wait about 30 minutes when we arrive.”

“Aren’t we overreacting by going there a whole 30 minutes early?”

“Maru, if we’re late, you’ll be beaten up to death, not to mention me. How long had it been since you have not seen her?”

“At least five years.”

“You might see the reaper if you receive 5 years of resentment all at once, so brace yourself. You should’ve kept in touch.”

“True.”

He parked the car in the airport parking lot before going to the arrivals section. They checked the landing schedule and went to the gate where Yoojin would be arriving.

“I hope at least one person recognizes me,” Jiseok said.

Saying that, he raised his head up and looked around. It was as if he was trying to promote himself.

“Stay still.”

“You became a famous star with your cute dance, but that didn’t happen for me.”

He smacked the giggling Jiseok on his Adam's apple with the blade of his hand. Why was it that his cheekiness didn’t disappear with time? Although Jiseok’s aim in life was to enjoy every moment since it was unknown when things might go south, from how nothing happened to him until now, it looked like he would live a long life.

“That didn’t take long,” Jiseok said as he looked at the arrival schedule.

The airplane from Japan was landing at Incheon airport.

[1] Or “Joseon-jok”. People who migrated to China from the Korean peninsula in the 20th century. Strictly speaking, they’re classified as a minority race in China rather than South or North Korean.

KTLChamber's Thoughts

Oh man, things are getting interesting.

Editor's Note:

Jiseok x Yoojin anyone? Everyone else already got paired up.

Chapter 919
Crank Up 3

Yoojin arrived with just a backpack. It had been six years since he last saw her, but he recognized her immediately. The eyes beneath the baseball cap moved around busily. Jiseok waved his hand at Yoojin. Brightening up, Yoojin came over. Now they were about 10 meters apart, Yoojin suddenly stopped and took off her cap. Then she started charging at full speed.

Maru instinctively realized that he would be hospitalized for at least three weeks if he stayed still. He immediately dragged Jiseok by the shoulder and placed him in front of him. Yoojin, who was panting like a boar who had just found a potato field, stopped right in front of them.

"You look pretty good considering you cut off all contact all of a sudden."

"Thanks."

"And your shamelessness hasn't changed at all. Forget everything else, and give it to me straight. Are you dating Gaeul again?"

"I am."

"I'll warn you this time, but if you make her cry one more time, I'm going to go to your house even at the risk of being reported. I thought she was really going to die the day after you went to the military. You went even though you knew that things would turn out that way."

"I have no excuses."

Maru could only apologize. After scanning him from top to bottom, Yoojin sighed.

"It's somewhat strange for me to get angry since you two are happy together, so… anyway, you should do well this time. She might look strong usually, but things are beyond salvageable if she starts breaking down."

Yoojin, who patted her own chest in relief, glared at Jiseok this time. Her target seemed to have changed. Maru silently watched as Yoojin fired a barrage of words straight at him. Jiseok was looking at him for help, but he chose to maintain his silence. He didn't want to get caught up in the fire. After uttering all her grumbles and disappointed feelings, Yoojin put on her cap again.

"Is Gaeul in her shoot?"

"Today's the last shoot."

"Isn't the final episode in two days? That's a really tight schedule."

"It's a chronic disease of Korean dramas."

They got in the car. There was only one destination. Maru had no excuse to refuse Yoojin's strong demand to see how they were doing together. He parked the car in the parking lot.

"The view here sure is good. Han Maru, looks like you earned quite a lot of money during the time you cut off all contact."

"Allow me to prepare myself by telling how many times are you going to mention that I cut off all contact."

"Well, I'll see how you do."

From the way she was talking, it seemed that Han Maru was going to become Han Cut-off-all-contact today. He entered the apartment with some groceries that he bought on the way back. He was waiting after pressing the button for the elevator when he heard some footsteps coming down the stairs. A moment later, Suyeon came down wearing a training jersey.

"Your friends? One of you looks familiar."

"Out to exercise?"

"Yeah. I'm going to try and learn flying yoga."

Suyeon walked past him and waved her hand. Seeing her walk out the entrance, Yoojin spoke,

"Gosh, that startled me. I thought it was Kim Suyeon. That big sister has a great figure."

The elevator came down. Maru tapped Jiseok, who was staring at the entrance where Suyeon disappeared through.

"That wasn't senior Kim Suyeon, was it?" Jiseok asked.

Maru just said that she was a look-alike. Along with a bell that signaled their arrival, the elevator doors opened.

"Hyung-nim, what are you doing?"

Geunsoo was standing in front of his door, wearing sunglasses.

"Oh, you weren't home."

"Even I go out from time to time."

Geunsoo looked at Yoojin and Jiseok and lightly nodded his head as a greeting. The two of them whispered to each other and greeted back awkwardly.

"Can you lend me your vacuum cleaner? I don't have one right now because not all of my stuff has been delivered."

"Wait a sec, I'll be right back with it."

Maru opened the door and told his friends to come in. Geunsoo, who stepped off to the side, smiled at his friends as they entered the apartment.

"It's him, isn't it?"

"No, it isn't."

The two of them stared at the front door from the living room. Maru came back out with the vacuum cleaner.

"Just text me once you're done, and I'll go pick it up."

"I'm the one borrowing it, so I should return it myself."

"Okay then. But what's up with the sunglasses?"

"I got laser eye surgery recently. The doctor told me it's not absolutely necessary, but it's better to have one on. Does it not suit me? I think it is a little big for me since I grabbed whatever pair that I could find."

"I suddenly feel uncomfortable with you asking me something like that. You look good in anything with that face of yours so don't worry about it."

Geunsoo thanked him for the vacuum cleaner and went back upstairs. He was starting to feel worried. There would definitely be rumors if the three musketeers snooped around the neighborhood. If Yoo Sooil appeared on top of that, the entire apartment complex might be filled with extreme fans. The residences of famous actors becoming sightseeing spots after being revealed by the media wasn't something that happened once or twice. Once more and more people walked around, he would have a hard time living with Gaeul.

"That was Hong Geunsoo, wasn't it?"

"I said he isn't. He's not, is he?"

The two of them asked as soon as he came back in. Maru said that he wasn't. He just introduced him as a handsome unemployed man. When he asked them back how funny it would be if a famous man like Hong Geunsoo came downstairs just to borrow a vacuum cleaner, the two of them seemed accepting.

"That's true. From what I know, Hong Geunsoo lives in an office-tel in Gangnam. I watched it on TV before," Yoojin said as she organized the groceries.

She opened the fridge and the cupboards without hesitation as though she had been here several times before. She did everything without having to tell her what went where. Meanwhile, Jiseok wrestled with the dogs. It was his job to calm down the dogs asking him for a hug.

"When's Gaeul coming?"

"Today's the last shoot, so she'll come home after a get-together. They shot throughout the night last night, so they should finish things off early today. The get-together should be a simple one since there's a separate afterparty. She'll be back by 9 if she's early, I think."

"I should text her to come quickly."

Yoojin put down her phone after texting and brought some beer from the fridge.

"You want to start drinking already?" Jiseok said.

"We have a lot to talk about, so yes, we're drinking starting now. We won't drink enough to get drunk. Just enough to talk."

Yoojin put down the beer and the snacks on the floor.

"Now then, tell me what you've been doing all these years that you've been staying out of contact."

"It's not that interesting though, because I didn't do much."

"I'll listen to you even if it isn't interesting, so tell me. I'm curious about why you just disappeared without a sound. After that, we should discuss how shallow our friendship was."

"You're putting me in a difficult position before we even start."

"That's why I told you to drink. Jiseok, you come here too."

Jiseok sat down next to Yoojin with the Pit Bull in his arms. While he grumbled that he knew everything already, he was obediently following what Yoojin said. Maru grabbed a can of beer.

"So, should I start from the day I went to the military after breaking up?"

* * *

Gaeul looked at the man sitting next to her. This man, who succeeded his father and was sacrificed to the politics of the hospital, single-handedly fought against injustice. He was a foolish man who made losses against the strong because of his unrelenting attitude, and against the weak for giving away everything he had, but that was why she loved him even more.

"Isn't it cold?"

The man shook his head. Gaeul wrapped a blanket around the man's shoulders and grabbed his hand. The man's hands, which once conducted intricate surgeries to the point that they were called the hands of a machine, could now no longer hold a scalpel. It was the consequence of saving a child's life. An iron beam penetrated his hand, shattering his bones and snapping his nerves. Even as his career as a surgeon came to an end, the man checked the state of the child in his arms.

Gaeul wanted to become his hands. His war had just been shifted from one that was conducted on an operation table to the entirety of the hospital. There were still many patients as well as doctors who waited for his actions.

"The board director left the fate of doctor Kang to me," said the man.

"What are you going to do? Strip him of his gown?"

"No, his skills are too good to go to waste. There are places that need his skills. I'll put an eye on him so that he will not have any time to think about anything other than surgeries. Of course, if he doesn't accept my offer, then…”

"Then?"

The man looked at the old pine tree in the hospital park. It was something that his father had planted.

"Then I should persuade him until the end. So that he can save other people's lives; so that his medical skills are put to the right use."

Gaeul gripped his hand even tighter. He always acted like a fool. That was why she couldn't take her eyes off him. She tapped on his cheek as though to tickle him before kissing him. She placed her head against his shoulder and looked at the pine tree, one that had always been watching over them like a father.

"Cut! That was great!"

A voice echoed inside her ears. Gaeul took two deep breaths. That was how she returned to her original self after being a character. She immediately stood up. She did not forget to wipe her lips with the back of her hand either.

"Thanks for your work," said Giwoo, who was sitting next to her.

Gaeul faintly smiled at him before turning around. It was a blessing that all of her personal emotions disappeared once she started acting. It allowed her to whisper love and even kiss that horrific face. She wouldn't have been able to do it if she was sane.

"You worked really hard, unni."

Mijoo ran over and put a thick jacket on her. She warmed up her lips with some hot tea since they were cold from holding an ice cube in her mouth before.

"Gaeul, that last expression was really good. I was originally planning on demanding some more since it was the last episode, but you made me change my mind. It was really good."

"So only at the very end do I get to hear a big compliment from you, director."

"When did I ever not compliment you? I did it every time."

"I was joking with you. Thank you for your job too, director."

"I never want to do a medical drama again. It's too much of a pain."

"I know you'll do it if you get a good scenario."

"If there's something like that, then I will. I do have to make a living. You know that we're just having a light meal before splitting up, right? It's not good to go for 2nd and 3rd rounds since there's an afterparty."

"I agree. I want to go back home and rest."

"You're quite a home person too, huh? Did you hide a pot of honey at your home or something? Why are you so hung up on going home all the time?"

"Yes, in fact, I do have a pot of honey at home."

The director smiled at her and walked over to Kang Giwoo this time. She could hear his excited compliment all the way here. Everyone looked good because the last shoot was finished. She looked at the staff from right next to the heater. The cleanup process was quicker than ever. That was the energy created by the word 'final'.

"Everyone gather up! We'll take a photo."

Gaeul grabbed Mijoo's hand and walked to the old pine tree. The entire cast and staff of Doctor's Office gathered up. It came to her that this was really the last time.

KTLChamber's Thoughts

Finally. We should get less of Kang Shit-woo's persistence.

……right?

Editor's Note:

I need a break from shitwoo. Gimmie more SOL chaps.

Chapter 920
Crank Up 3

The get-together was held in a mackerel restaurant near the set. Gaeul walked around the first floor and talked to the various staff members. She felt touched when she heard that they wanted to work with her next time as well. She even thought that maybe she should have talked to them more often. There were many staff members who offered her drinks, but she mostly toasted back with empty cups or just juice. She couldn't afford to go back home drunk today as there were friends she would be drinking with all night at home.

After making rounds on the first floor, she went to the room on the 2nd floor where the main cast and the main production staff were staying. She could hear laughter from every room. The fact that they finished early was one thing, but Lee Miyoon's absence made the mood a lot softer.

"Gaeul, we should toast."

A great senior raised a bottle himself. She couldn't afford to refuse, so she raised her glass. Starting from the director to the assistant director, everyone received a glass full of soju. A drunk senior humorously celebrated the finale of Doctor's Office. Along with the word cheers, everyone raised their glasses up in the air. Gaeul only drank a sip before putting it back down.

"You don't seem to be doing well today?" Giwoo said.

Whether it was intended or a coincidence, Giwoo ended up sitting next to her.

"I'm just going to drink moderately today. There's a separate after party too."

Giwoo nodded. Ever since she clearly expressed her rejection, Giwoo did not persistently speak to her. It didn't seem like he had completely given up though, so she was always on alert. She didn't want a moment's mistake to end up in hooking up with him.

"Our blessed couple! The drama went so well thanks to the two of you."

When a senior started applauding, the others started applauding as well. Gaeul waved her hand in the air in denial before jokingly speaking,

"I'm not sure about all, but I think 2% of the viewing rate is thanks to me?"

"Of course it is thanks to you, Gaeul! And it's also thanks to Giwoo too. Since we're at it, we should have our couple do a love shot[1]."

She tried to refuse with a smile, but Giwoo cut in first. He gave her a glass. Everyone seemed excited because they just finished the last shoot. It would become awkward if she suddenly turned stern and refused. She picked up her glass and looked at Giwoo with an awkward smile that anyone in front of her would be able to tell was forced. Even though it might have hurt his pride, Giwoo smiled joyously. That smile made her insides churn. It felt like he was declaring that he would happily accept whatever she does. A sensation even more unpleasant than him talking to her enveloped her body.

"But I like Hyeyeon-unni more than Giwoo. Now I feel like she's my real sister just like during the drama."

Gaeul indifferently nodded towards Giwoo, who sat to her left, and turned around to her right to give the glass to Hyeyeon. Hyeyeon gladly picked up her glass. People laughed about it as well. After crossing their arms and drinking, she had a look at Kang Giwoo. His lips were twitching as though he couldn't stand being ignored so fully. She dusted her empty glass above her head[2] and stood up.

"I'd love to stay here for longer, but a friend of mine flew over from Japan today. I haven't seen her in quite a while so I'd like to get going now. I'll accept the rest of the drinks during the afterparty."

This was no coerced drinking occasion, nor were there any stuck-up seniors, so she was able to get out easily. She said goodbye to the director who told her to be careful on her way back before coming down from the 2nd floor. She left the restaurant after telling Mijoo and Chanwoo that she would be leaving first.

"Han Gaeul."

Kang Giwoo was standing behind her.

"What is it?"

"I was just curious about why you hated me so much."

"I don't like bringing up what I already said before."

"That you have no plans on dating someone?"

"Yes, so you do remember."

"I'm not saying that we should start dating right now. I've given up on that notion too. Allow me to truly apologize for not understanding how you felt before and forcing myself on you. I was too awkward in my expressions."

"If you know, then it's fine."

Gaeul waved at the taxi approaching from afar. It would've been great if it was an empty one, but unfortunately, it was occupied.

"What should I do? I just want to become a good friend of yours. Of course, if I had the opportunity, I'd love to try my best so that we can further our relationship into that of lovers."

"I feel like we're plenty good friends right now. We can shoot together on set without much friction and we eat together afterwards. That's the ideal definition of friends there to me."

"I want to shorten the distance more than that."

"Sorry to tell you, but I don't want to do that. If you want me to be honest with you, I hate this situation where I'm saying sorry to you out of formality all this time. The women you've met until now might have liked you for that, but that isn't the case for me. I held back because it might have influenced the shoot, but let me tell you clearly today: I don't have a shred of a mind to become lovers with you. And this will not change."

"Let me ask you again. Why do you hate me so much? I might sound cocky, but I'm not exactly a bad guy."

"Of course. Who in this world can tell you that you're a bad guy? You're a good guy. So please stop being persistent on a woman who has no interest in you and look for another one."

She waved her hand at the taxi going the opposite way. The taxi driver replied with a hand gesture, and she started walking towards a place where it was possible to do a U-turn.

"You should go back. See you at the afterparty."

She followed the taxi that made a U-turn and was driving towards her. Just a few moments ago, she got a text from Yoojin telling her to hurry. She had to go quickly if she didn't want to get bombarded with nagging from her friend armed with it.

"Talk to me for a sec."

When the taxi pulled up, Giwoo grabbed her wrist. Gaeul looked alternately at Giwoo's hand that grabbed her wrist and his face.

"What are you doing?"

"I hope you understand how serious I am."

"So forcefully holding back someone as she's about to leave is you being serious?"

"You never give me an opportunity, so I want to earn enough time to talk to you even if I have to do something like this."

"I said all I need to."

"Well, I haven't."

Giwoo tightened his grip. She could feel his tenacity to never let go through her wrist. Was it because of the drinking? Or was it because he thought that today was the last opportunity? She couldn't care less about the reason. There was only one answer.

"Why don't you let go when I'm still in a good mood?"

"Han Gaeul, I really…”

"I warned you."

She grabbed the wrist of Giwoo's hand that was holding onto her arm and pulled it downwards with all her might. Giwoo gasped and staggered when his center of balance was suddenly shifted forward. Gaeul used her left hand to strongly push the staggering Giwoo on the shoulder. He fell down on the spot just like that. Gaeul looked around. Just as she had checked before she made a move, there were no passersby. There was a smoking couple watching them from a distance, but they would not be able to think that some celebrities were causing a ruckus here.

"Young lady, aren't you going to come in?" said the taxi driver as he rolled down the passenger seat window.

His tone was not that of complaint, but of worry. His eyes were looking at Giwoo, who was sitting on his knee. Gaeul moved slightly in order to block the driver's eyes. He might have a terrible personality, but she could not afford a scandal. She did not want to be introduced as 'actress H' who got into a fight with Kang Giwoo in some gossip news outlet.

"Young lady, you okay?" the taxi driver asked as soon as she got in the taxi.

Gaeul pulled up her mask and looked at the driver.

"It's fine. I'm quite athletic."

"You should still watch out. A woman can't beat a man no matter how athletic she is once a man goes crazy. Are you sure you don't need to report him?"

"He's just a coworker, but he's drunk. I'm sure he'll apologize to me tomorrow."

"They say people's real ego comes out when they're drunk. Don't put people like that near you. I have a daughter who's also working, but a man like that is her superior, so she always complains to me whenever she goes to a get-together."

"There are always bad people who make many people tired."

The taxi driver agreed with her and drove off. She looked outside the window. She could see Giwoo becoming smaller and smaller. It was terrifying to see him staring straight at the tail of the taxi while standing straight up. She thought that she should tell her agency to watch out so that her work didn't coincide with Kang Giwoo's.

After nodding along to the driver boasting about his daughter, she found herself standing in front of the apartment complex.

"Be careful on your way home."

"Yes, I will," Gaeul said as she closed the door.

* * *

It was humiliating, yet for some reason, he was laughing. Giwoo looked at his wrist that Gaeul grabbed. He could feel an irresistible charm from her when she strongly resisted. He could understand why fishermen were so fixated on big fish. The long wait, the tug of war with the fish, the final desperate struggle. The sensation from the hands that only appeared at the very end of the long arduous process was not something that small fry could compare to. Gaeul was a woman overflowing with vitality just like a carp. When he grabbed her because it felt like she was an easy catch, she would flap her tail and escape him.

He couldn't begin to imagine how big the ecstasy would be when he caught her, and how big the satisfaction would be once he put her in a fish tank. However, he was almost getting fed up. Since he had enough of that sensation from his hand, it would be great if she obediently allowed herself to be caught by him. He acted warm because it seemed like she did not like being forceful, but she was even angrier instead.

What could've gone wrong? He didn't ask her out for a meal and just wanted to talk to her, yet she was so rejective of it. It was almost unnatural.

A man.

That word suddenly came to his mind. Did she find another man after getting rejected by Han Maru? Or was she fed up with men after getting rejected? It would be great if it was the latter. He did not want her to be one of those cheap women who switched men on short notice. That woman, who was proud yet filled with vitality and had a charming smile, had to remain the woman he wanted her to be.

"Did you send Gaeul off well?" asked a senior as soon as he returned.

"I safely grabbed her a taxi."

"Tell me honestly. You have the hots for Gaeul, don't you? Many people tend to get such feelings if they go through so much in dramas."

Giwoo scratched his neck a little and spoke,

"Was it obvious?"

The people around him soon showed interest. Some people laughed, saying that they knew it, while some people cheered for him because the two of them suited each other.

"I'm sure Gaeul feels something for you as well. She can't look at a person with eyes like that if she doesn't have any feelings for someone."

"Right. Gaeul's eyes when she looked at you when you were acting was really sweet. She really looked like she was in love."

They were words that made his ears pleased. As much as he wanted to hear more of it, he had to fall back here.

"Don't push her too hard since she might be flustered if she hears it."

"We aren't that dumb. But we'll try to fan the flames from the side. There's the afterparty too. You should try your best."

Giwoo smiled and nodded. People were creatures easily swept by the atmosphere, so it was likely that Gaeul might fall for him if other people pushed her that way. Maybe they might ride the flow to become close in one go. He felt joyful when he pictured Gaeul being drunk at the afterparty. How cute would it be if she acted cute with her cheeks flushed red? He emptied the glass in front of him in one go. He rather looked forward to this afterparty.

[1] When two people are paired up to drink. I've explained this before, and maybe the 'ten levels of love shot' might jolt your mind. Without any context, it's just hooking arms to drink.

[2] A sign to show that she finished drinking what she was given.

KTLChamber's Thoughts

Gosh darn it. It looks like Giwoo's crush(?) on Gaeul is the whole premise for the last 100 chapters…

Editor's Note:

Man……

Chapter 921
Crank Up 3

"I want to barge into the house above us," Yoojin said, looking at the ceiling.

She had been acting like that ever since she learned that the people living above and below Maru were indeed Hong Geunsoo and Kim Suyeon.

"Go on then. Tell him that you're from the house below."

"I'm just saying. I know how important privacy is. I'm just grumbling about it so don't mind me."

Yoojin sipped on the beer in her hand. Maru opened another bottle of beer and filled the empty glasses. As their objective wasn't to get drunk today, there were only six empty bottles despite having drunk for three hours.

"It's good to meet up and chat like this. I didn't get to do things like this in Japan," Yoojin said as she latched onto Gaeul.

Gaeul smiled and asked,

"From the photos you sent me though, you seemed to be getting along with your Japanese friends."

"They're good people, but I can't get truly down to Earth with them. Maybe it's because I befriended them through work. We do talk about our personal lives from time to time, but I found myself keeping a certain line. I'm sure they're doing the same."

"How long are you going to be staying in Japan?"

"I'm not sure. If I'm fed up with what I'm doing, I'd wrap up and come home, but it's pretty fun in its own way. Sometimes, it makes me think that quitting actor work might not be a bad idea."

Yoojin grinned and downed the beer that Maru just poured in one go. After exclaiming due to the fizziness, she put out her glass again.

"You're suddenly drinking too much. Slow down a little."

Maru only filled half the glass. Gaeul had told him beforehand how much Yoojin could drink. She was rather weak considering that she liked drinking. She would start grinning for no reason from four glasses of soju and would start talking by herself after one bottle. Any more than that and she might not have any recollection of it on the next day. He had to feed her moderately since it would be a pain to look after her once she loses herself.

"Your boyfriend is way too naggy. I just asked him for a glass of beer, but he wants me to slow down. Gaeul, just what do you like about him so much that you hooked back up with him again?"

"You know that's the third time you asked that, right?"

"Really?"

Yoojin stood up, her hair draping down. She staggered her way towards the bathroom, and anyone watching would be worried about her. Gaeul stood up and caught up with her to support her.

"She always does that even though she can't drink. She should just forget about drinking like me."

Jiseok clicked his tongue.

"There are people who need to drink in order to speak, so be a little more understanding. Not anyone can blab on about everything without the help of alcohol like you. Do you want more juice?"

Maru brought more grape juice for Jiseok, who nodded. After grabbing the juice bottle with a simple 'thanks', Jiseok yawned. It was past midnight, so Maru wondered if they should wrap up. He looked at the bathroom. Gaeul had pushed her body inside the half-open bathroom door.

"Yoojin, if you're going to throw up, drink some juice beforehand! It'll taste like grapes!"

Jiseok ran to the bathroom with the juice bottle. It was obvious that he would receive a backlash, but clearly, his innate prankster nature couldn't be fixed. A shout that made Woofie and the Pit Bull flinch escaped from the bathroom. After that, Yoojin said something for a long time. To sum it up, she was going to push Jiseok off the veranda.

"Is Yoojin okay?"

"Looks like she has a bad stomach."

"Wait a sec."

Maru poured some green plum extract into some warm water and gave it to Gaeul. Gaeul passed the cup inside the bathroom. The door was blocking his vision, but it seemed like Yoojin was drinking while crouching down.

"Let's put it away before she comes out and asks for more."

He cleaned up with Jiseok. He put away the plates, mopped the floor, and laid out futons in the living room. As the two ladies would be taking the bedroom, the men had to spend the night in the kitchen. He went inside the bedroom and cleaned up the bed before placing a small pillow. It was just high enough for Yoojin to fall and pass out.

"Han Maru."

When he came back out to the living room, he saw Jiseok waving at him from the veranda.

"How's everything going with Lee Miyoon? Was I helpful?"

"We don't know yet, since we haven't approached her. The one in charge of this case went to Busan. If things go well while he's there, he should be able to get to Lee Miyoon directly."

"So are you going to make this a scandal and put it on the news?"

"We aren't at a stage where we can say anything, but in order to catch something bigger than Lee Miyoon, we might have to sweep her under the rug. It'll depend on how that hyung-nim makes the deal."

"If it does erupt in a scandal, it will be quite huge. It might even be called an entertainment scandal to conceal political news, you know? Lee Miyoon is a super actress after all."

"A conspiracy to hide political news, huh… That might not be entirely wrong."

"What the hell? That sounds so ominous."

Maru smiled and patted Jiseok on the back. Jiseok no longer asked any questions either. It seemed that he had noticed that this was what he was allowed to know.

"It's nothing dangerous, right?"

"I'm only watching everything from the back, so it's fine for me. The problem is that hyung-nim. I'm worried too. Things might become really dangerous after all."

"Isn't it better to contact the police beforehand?"

"The thing is, it doesn't look like any legal procedures will solve this problem. That's why that hyung-nim is taking direct action, and why I am as well."

"I hope I only see movie-like plots at the theater. You know what I mean, right?"

Maru looked at Jiseok as he turned around after grabbing him on the shoulder. He was laughing and smiling while they drank, but it seemed that he was worried. He was grinning foolishly whenever he made eye contact with him while drinking, but that was probably his way of hiding his inner worries about his friend potentially getting into trouble.

"I'll ask you for help if something happens."

"Forget about it. I hate scary movies."

Jiseok walked over to the bathroom, asking if Yoojin had finished vomiting.

Perhaps thanks to the green plum extract, or perhaps thanks to her objective of beating up Jiseok, who infuriated her, calming her down, Yoojin came back out of the bathroom looking rather clean. The prankster Jiseok was able to return to the living room after being locked up on the veranda for about ten minutes.

"Where's the beer?"

"You're quite something to look for beer after going through that. I put it all away so go to sleep already."

"It's not even one o'clock yet, yet you want me to sleep? Hell no. Do you think I came to Korea for that? Gaeul, why don't we go to Hongdae right now? Apparently, the DJ-oppa at a new club is really good."

Yoojin was quite up-to-date with Korean clubs despite living in Japan. They had to console this little kid, who didn't want to sleep.

"I have ice cream. Do you want some?"

"Even though it's winter?"

"You don't want it?"

"No, give it to me."

Maru stabbed four spoons into an ice cream pot and placed it in the living room. Yoojin, who took out a spoon first, took a big scoop and ate it. Looking at her eyes turning into a curve made him relieved.

"I want to date a man who looks after me like this. Maru, isn't there anyone decent around you? Someone who's as caring as you but doesn't go missing like you."

"I recommend Yoo Jiseok. Having him by your side will bring you joy every single day."

"You mean every day will be hell. Who's ever going to date that chatterbox?"

Jiseok sucked on his spoon and replied that he didn't want her either, saying that he would look for a monkey to find love if they were ever left alone in a dying world. Yoojin's spoon flew at Jiseok's forehead. Along with a crisp sound, the spoon that hit the forehead fell down on the floor. The sound was so loud and clear that it made the four of them burst into laughter simultaneously. Jiseok laughing about how it hurt made the laughter even bigger.

"It's so good here. This place is really relaxing," Yoojin said as she lay on her side.

As she scanned the futon laid out on the floor, her eyes looked like they were filled with trouble in contrast to her words. It seemed like her eyes were saying what she couldn't say with her mouth. When Maru unintentionally focused on her, a speech bubble popped up above her head – Maru, I'm so frustrated.

"Did something happen?" Maru asked.

Since he found out, he couldn't just turn a blind eye to it. As most worries tend to be resolved just by listening, it would help her calm down if he created an atmosphere where she could talk.

"I don't think I showed it."

"It just felt like it."

"If I think about it now, you always felt like you could see into people's hearts."

Yoojin sat up. A lock known as hesitation firmly sealed her smiling lips. Maru exchanged gazes with Gaeul. They may be friends, but it could be that she was having a hard time talking about it in front of men. Gaeul grabbed Yoojin's hand and took her to the bedroom. From how she obediently followed, it seemed that she was going to talk about it.

"Was she looking to drink today for a reason? I was wondering if something might have happened since her face didn't look too well, but it looks like I was right," Jiseok said, looking at Yoojin with pity as she went to the bedroom.

"You noticed?"

"Somewhat. But I couldn't pinpoint anything like you did. What about you, did you hear anything? It's curious that you noticed it immediately."

"Well, it was a coincidence for me. Maybe I just had an easier time noticing it because it has been such a long time since we last met."

Jiseok nodded in understanding.

"But I wonder what happened that made that girl act like that. She should have revealed most things thanks to the alcohol, but the fact that she's hiding it even now feels like it's something serious."

"If it's something that she can tell us, I guess we can hear it through Gaeul too."

Jiseok lay down on the sofa.

"I hope it's nothing much."

"True."

Maru lay down on the floor as he replied. He could faintly hear the two people conversing inside the living room.

KTLChamber's Thoughts

Man, so many things I wanna know, but such a few chapters left

Editor's Note;

Oh man, is Yoojin fed up with acting?

Chapter 922
Crank Up 3

“What do you think about women who sell their bodies?”

What Yoojin brought up was totally unexpected. Gaeul was unable to speak easily. This was not a question that she could answer easily. All sorts of thoughts overlapped on top of Yoojin’s face. By selling their bodies, did she mean what Gaeul was thinking of? If so, why would she ask such a question? Was she suffering because of something that happened because of inevitable circumstances?

“Wait. You seem to have the misunderstanding that it’s about me, but it’s not.”

Yoojin stroked down her face, saying that she was sorry for saying that out of nowhere.

“Can you keep it a secret?”

“Unless you want me to, I will never tell another soul about it.”

“Thanks for saying that. Now, where should I start? I keep feeling like I’m going to cry. I never knew something like that would happen to me.”

“Did it happen to a friend of yours?”

“A friend? If it was a friend, I would have told her to snap out of it. It happened to someone much closer to me than that. No, rather than ‘happened’, ‘causing’ is the right word for it.”

Yoojin bit her thumb. That was a habit that Gaeul hadn’t seen after high school. From what she heard, Yoojin’s mother told her that it was ugly and that she should fix it, which she did, but from how her old habits were coming out subconsciously, it seemed that she was mentally driven into a corner. Gaeul gave her sufficient time so that she could organize her thoughts.

“You know what kind of person my mom is, right?”

“I’m not sure in what context you’re asking, but I do know that she’s an amazing person.”

“You’re right. She’s a really amazing person. Whether it’s business or forming connections, she has never tasted failure. She was my pride ever since I was young. You know how you feel out of place and even get bullied for being raised in a single-parent household, right? But nothing like that happened to me. I had a mother who could fill in the role of father. Not only that, she stayed close to my dad even after getting divorced and allowed me to meet him frequently. She was the perfect person. It even made me think that I would be able to live like her as long as I chased her back.”

Yoojin’s words were filled with deep regret. Gaeul thought about Yoojin and her mother whom she saw at their shop. Just as Yoojin said, she admired her mother. She would follow her mother’s words without suspicion, and even if she was scolded, she would grumble but would try to understand her, thinking that she had deep meanings. Gaeul thought that the relationship between the mother and daughter was cool, but on one hand, was worried that Yoojin might be too reliant on her mother’s words. She thought that Yoojin had safely graduated from her mother’s bosom after seeing that she no longer showed any hints of that, but now, it seemed like while she received a diploma, she still remained under the umbrella known as her parent.

“The fact that I dreamed of becoming an actor was also thanks to my mother. As she had connections to many celebrities, I was able to see many famous actors since I was young, and when I showed off my acting to them as a show of sorts, I heard that I was talented. It was fun doing it too. I was even more motivated when mom told me that I should do my best. Looking back now, I might have lived my life as my mother said from A to Z. It’s the same with the stylist work I’m doing now. It might look like I’m doing it because it suits me, but if I think about it carefully, mom definitely had an influence.”

Yoojin clenched her pants.

“I’m not saying that I hate it. I mean, I am doing well after I listened to my mother, aren’t I? I would definitely have come across failures if I tried to do something on my own. Mom was never wrong, and following mom’s words will make everything go smoothly was at the crux of my life until now, but…”

“Did something happen?”

Yoojin nodded heavily.

“I asked you, didn’t I? About what you think about women who sell their bodies. Personally, I don’t want to understand those people. Yes, I’m sure they must have their circumstances. I’m sure there are people who entered that business due to inevitable circumstances. If they were coerced to do it, then I would pity them. I can help them too. The problem… is that my mom is creating such women.”

Gaeul felt as though the room darkened in an instant. She quickly reached out and grabbed Yoojin’s hand. She felt like Yoojin was going to disappear like an extinguished flame if she didn’t.

“When I first found out, I couldn’t believe it. Mom was my hero in life. She was an iron woman who did not know failure. She might be stern and old-fashioned in certain aspects, but I thought that she would never do something evil. But I was wrong. There were numerous women under her. My mother is the procuress. I don’t know when it all started. I only found out about it recently.”

“Yoojin. Isn’t there some kind of misunderstanding? What if you are mistaken about things?”

“I wished that to be the case and investigated several times. From young, mom and I never entered each other’s room without permission. That continued all the way until now. That was mom’s rule, and I followed it. But ever since I found that out, I sneaked into her room. That was when I was convinced. There were records of trading people on her second phone like she was trading items. I had a look at her laptop as well. It was password-locked, but funnily enough, it was my birthday, you know? My hands were shaking when I unlocked it. There was a single folder on the desktop, and when I clicked on it, there were a bunch of photos under the name of ‘profiles’. Photos of girls around my age with their breasts out.”

Gaeul was unable to say anything. She couldn’t even say a word of consolation and could only hug Yoojin. Her head blanched. She could neither swear at Yoojin’s mother with her nor scold Yoojin for anything.

“When did you find out?”

“It’s been about three months.”

“You kept it a secret until now?”

“I couldn’t tell that to anyone. Every single day was horrific. I was disgusted that my mother did such things, but I wasn’t able to say anything. After some time passed, I became numb to it. I was disgusted at myself when I realized that. I hated myself for not being able to say anything despite knowing that mom was clearly in the wrong, and also for just smiling like an idiot. I resolved myself hundreds of times that I should talk to her seriously about it, but I never managed to. Mom is too big of an existence for me.”

Gaeul patted Yoojin’s back. She had never shown it until now. Even when they chatted over the messenger, and when she sent photos of her working, there was only a smile on her face. But it turned out that her smile was nothing more than decoration. Gaeul should have realized this when Yoojin emptied her glasses strangely quickly, despite knowing that she preferred to take things slow. Yoojin was drinking in order to force down the words that were encroaching her throat.

“I’ll help you. Ask me anything. I might not be able to help you much, but if you need my help, I will do my absolute best.”

After sobbing, Yoojin raised her head before smiling awkwardly. Yoojin looked so pitiful trying to say that she was okay.

“I thought you’d say something like that. But it’s fine. This isn’t something that anyone can do anything about. Above all, my mom will be harmed if you do something, right? I can’t do that. I can’t ruin the life she lived until now.”

“Yoojin.”

“I know that I’m wrong. I also want mom to take her hands off that business. But I don’t have the courage to tell her myself. But I can’t make other people go after her for it. Everything will just work normally as long as I stay oblivious, won’t it? I shouldn’t have gone to mom’s room that day. I only found out that day the reason mom never came into my room without my permission, and likewise, did not allow me to go to her room without permission. Sometimes, there are just things that you’re better off not knowing. Mom found that out when she was young.”

“Are you going to continue staying oblivious forever? You know you can’t do things like that. It’s only an excuse when you said that you became numb to it. You’re here crying while talking to me about it. Now might be the chance. The more you hide it, the harder it will be to talk about it later. You know well that secrets that are easy to break like eggs will turn into concrete later and that you won’t be able to do anything about it.”

“You’re a good girl after all. How good would it be if I were you? If I was, then the moment I saw those photos on her laptop, no, the moment I started having doubts, I would have talked to mom about it. But you see, I’m Lee Yoojin, not Han Gaeul. I know in my head what the correct answer is, but my body just won’t listen to me. I’m scared that she might turn her back on me after I talk to her about it. I’m more afraid of her becoming distant than her doing something illegal.”

How was Gaeul supposed to get through to someone with a different set of ideals? To Yoojin, the fence known as her mother might be taller than a castle. Gaeul almost told her that she was foolish, that it was her duty to right the wrongs, but she did not talk about it. Yoojin was a precious friend. Precisely because she cherished her, it was hard for her to say those words – which would be nothing but violence to her. She did not want to treat it like a small problem either since she had such a hard time talking about it. Gaeul knew the fear of becoming distant from someone. She tried projecting Maru and herself into Yoojin’s situation. If Maru was willingly doing something illegal, and their relationship might collapse if she pointed that out, would she be able to tell him that he should upkeep the law? Gaeul didn’t have the confidence to do so.

“You are thinking I’m foolish for acting like this, aren’t you?”

“No, I understand you. It just means that you cherish your mother that much.”

“I didn’t need to ask for help from anyone. It’s clear what I need to do. I’m simply afraid of the aftermath that will overwhelm me. I don’t want to lose my mom. Mom is a strong woman. She didn’t have a shred of hesitation when she got divorced from dad. I knew that her own path was the most important to her. The moment I tell her that she should reconsider, mom will probably tell me that it’s time that we went our separate ways. I wouldn’t be able to endure that.”

Yoojin stood up after wiping her eyes with her hand. She fanned her reddened face with her hand.

“I’m acting too shameful, aren’t I? It’s nothing worth crying about.”

“No, it’s not like that at all.”

“Sorry. I feel like I just made you worry. I was going to hold it in, but it just came to my mind when I felt relaxed. But still, it’s very refreshing now that I talked about it. I think I can hold it back in the future.”

“So, are you going to continue pretending to be oblivious?” Gaeul asked.

Yoojin did not answer.

KTLChamber's Thoughts

T_T

Editor's Note:

Man, I love this chapter. It genuinely feels like I'm reading about real human emotions. Yoojin who is too attached to her mother to act out against her, and Gaeul who would immediately act but realizes that people arent the same.

Chapter 923
Crank Up 3

“Are you okay with that? I’m honestly worried about you. I feel like you’ll suffer even more. No, I’m sure you will.”

“Sure I will. I thought I became numb to it, but I’m still bawling my eyes out over it.”

Yoojin sighed and sat on the bed. Her cute face had turned into a mess because of tears and worries. She knew clearly what she had to do, but the reality that she couldn’t do it was making her suffer.

“If it’s okay with you, why don’t you get the opinion of the two people outside? I’m sure both Maru and Jiseok will seriously listen to your words and think about it. Of course, if you don’t want to, I will not tell the two of them what I heard just now.”

What Yoojin needed was motivation and courage. As long as she was given the opportunity to straighten up and redefine this twisted relationship between parent and child, Yoojin should be able to do it well. It wasn’t like she didn’t know what the problem was after all.

Yoojin stared at the door for a while.

“Those two can be trusted. But no matter what I hear, I don’t think I’ll change my mind. It’s just so hard to think about a life without mom.”

Yoojin stood up after calming down. It seemed that she was willing to talk to them about it. Gaeul followed her out to the living room where she saw the two men sitting on the sofa without even turning on the TV. They were probably waiting for the conversation inside to end.

“Looking at you, it looks like I should be listening,” Jiseok said as he came down from the sofa.

Maru immediately turned on the kettle after noticing that Yoojin wasn’t looking good, saying that she should talk about it while drinking something warm. The sweet fragrance of hot chocolate spread inside the living room. Yoojin picked up the mug and drank carefully. Gaeul carefully watched her as she did so.

“Don’t stare at me too much. It’s too much for me.”

“I won’t, so tell me what happened.”

Yoojin faintly smiled at his words. After drinking a few more sips, Yoojin talked about what she said inside the bedroom. The expressions of the men turned more and more serious as the story progressed.

“That’s bad.”

Those were the first words that came out of Jiseok’s mouth as soon as the story ended. The two men weren’t able to easily give advice either. It was natural since it wasn’t something that a word of advice could resolve. It was Jiseok who broke the silence that felt incredibly long, despite being a short time. He talked to Yoojin to calm her down. Yoojin also replied obediently unlike usual, looking like she was organizing her thoughts.

Maru, who Gaeul expected to come up with a pinpoint resolution, was staying silent with an expression even more serious than Yoojin’s. He scratched his eyebrows and rubbed his mouth several times while Jiseok and Yoojin had a conversation. It didn’t feel like she could talk to him. She could only wait until those firmly sealed lips parted on their own, making her feel nervous. Perhaps, in a corner of her heart, she might have been expecting Maru to resolve this easily. The longer the silence became, the more realistic the severity of the issue felt. It wasn’t just a matter of a relationship between a parent and a child, it involved illegal dealings as well.

“Yoojin. Have you ever seen your mother meet a man named Hong Janghae? Or have you seen that name on a text or any of those profiles?” Maru asked.

Everyone had been staring at Maru for a few minutes now, so it finally felt like she could take a breather. But Hong Janghae? Unless it was a different man with the same name, that should be the name of Soul’s president. Why would that name pop up here?

“Hong Janghae?”

Yoojin’s eyes widened after tilting her head. Her expression gave away the answer already. Maru nodded before picking up his phone and standing up.

“Wait a sec. I need to check something.”

* * *

Dongwook, who was just about to step outside his room to smoke, was stopped by the phone loudly ringing on his desk. He grabbed his phone after putting a cigarette in his mouth. Maru was the one who called.

“What is it at this hour?”

-Were you sleeping?

“No, things didn’t work out that well, so I was dazing out in a motel. It sure is hard chasing after a man all the way in Busan. So what’s up?”

-There’s something I need to check. That Mari person. She was in Japan before she came to Korea, right?

“Yes. What about it?”

-Can I know the name of the person in charge of Miss Mari back then? They shouldn’t have let her roam around freely, so there must have been someone in charge.

Dongwook left the motel while dragging his slippers. The motel was in an urban area, so there were many people around even though it was late at night. He got past the cars coming into the motel and lit up his cigarette.

“That’s that damned Hong Janghae. And Lee Miyoon in Korea.”

-Don’t you think there must be someone who carried out Hong Janghae’s orders?

“If you’re talking about that, then yes. There’s a madam involved. In Korea, Lee Miyoon and Hong Janghae were nearly on equal footing, but in Japan, it felt like Hong Janghae had complete superiority.”

-Can I know who this madam was?

Dongwook puffed his cigarette deeply before throwing it away. The questions were turning more and more detailed.

“Did you catch a clue?”

-For now, please check on your side first. This is a sensitive topic, so I can’t really talk about it first.

“Alright. Wait a sec.”

After hanging up, Dongwook returned to the motel room and browsed through his notepad. It contained the information he got from Mari, and unfortunately, the madam’s name wasn’t there. It was only written as ‘madam’ as she was the middle woman. He gave a call to Mari. Even after a long time, she didn’t pick up. Had she fallen asleep already? Just as he was about to call Maru again after leaving a message, Mari’s name popped up on his screen.

-Mister?

“Miss Mari, I’m sorry. I called you because I had something to ask.”

-Not at all. But what do you mean something to ask?

“You told me that there’s a woman in Japan who played the role of the madam in Japan, right? The one you said got to know about in Korea and called unni.”

-Yes.

“What was her name?”

-We didn’t call each other by name. We just called her the big unni. We never revealed our names either. It was a world where it was natural to call even close co-workers by their nicknames. Of course, the madam-unni knew all of our real names.

“You don’t know her name, huh.”

Maru seemed to want confirmation of her identity. He definitely seemed to be onto something, too. Did he have to invest some time into identifying this madam?

-I don’t know her name, but I know what she does. I heard from an unni that she runs a hair shop when I worked in Korea. Of course, this might not be true. With the risks involved in the job, everyone refrains from revealing their identity.

“A hair shop, you say?”

-I heard that it’s a pretty famous hair shop in Cheongdam-dong.

“Thank you. I might be giving you a call later, so please stay up for a while.”

-Okay. Uhm, did you find oppa?

“Right now, I came down to Busan and even went to the labor office that he supposedly works in, but I couldn’t spot him. There’s the likelihood that he might go missing again if I asked around, so I returned for the time being. I’m planning to blend in with the people looking for work tomorrow.”

-Please find him. Also, tell him that I’m waiting for him.

“I’ll also tell him that you love him. Alright, anyway, stay up for a little while. I’ll call you back after checking something.”

Dongwook called Maru again.

-Did you confirm it with her?

“I did ask, but it’s not a field where people reveal their real names, so the middle woman was just called madam.”

-I see, so it’s like that after all.

“But it’s not like I had no results at all. Miss Mari told me that the woman called madam runs a famous hair shop in Cheongdom-dong. It might not be the truth, but it’s something I got from her.”

-Did she specifically say a hair shop in Cheongdam-dong?

“Yeah. From how you’re asking back, you seem to be onto something. Am I wrong?”

-I’ll contact you again in just a minute.

“I don’t know what it’s about, but be quick. I need to go out early in the morning.”

-Okay.

Dongwook threw himself on the bed with his phone in hand.

* * *

The puzzle pieces unpleasantly fell into all the right places. Maru rubbed his phone. It was as clear as day and looked like there was no need to check at all, but he couldn’t afford to not confirm with such a serious matter like this. He went to the veranda, leaving behind the three people staring at him. He looked up the hair shop that Yoojin’s mother ran. He screenshotted a photo of the introduction of the director and sent it to Dongwook via a messenger, asking him if this was that person.

A moment later, Dongwook texted him back.

-I showed it to Miss Mari, and yes, that’s her. This person is the madam who joined hands with Hong Janghae and is managing all the girls. But how did you know about this woman?

He got confirmation. Maru sent back a text telling him that he would talk about the details tomorrow. He put his arms against the banister with his phone in hand. The night wind was so cold that he could feel his body temperature dropping, yet the heat in his head did not cool down at all. Someone totally unexpected was involved in this. A middle woman, huh? The more progress he and Dongwook made in this matter, the tighter the death grip would become around Yoojin’s mother. Perhaps the quick-witted Hong Janghae might make Yoojin’s mother the scapegoat and escape. He was a devious man, so he might have finished his preparations already.

Maru turned around to look at the living room. He could see the three people staring holes through him through the window, especially Yoojin. He was in a situation where he should be asking her the details of the matter and asking her for help. The problem was whether Yoojin would cooperate or not. She was someone who couldn’t even imagine going against her mother, so how would she react after finding out the truth? She would probably call her mother immediately and tell her to stop because it was dangerous; that she should wrap up since a certain journalist was investigating her.

Yoojin’s mother had to be a stepping stone. If she slipped away like that, it would be difficult to reach Hong Janghae. It was even harder to let her go since she might be a witness that might have a point of contact with Lee Miyoon. Maru looked at Yoojin. He had to understand her psychology perfectly. Did she reveal what she was thinking purely because she wanted to lighten the load on her heart? Or was she hoping that someone would persuade her? If she had already made a decision to never betray her mother… then he might have to hide this matter.

Things were going in a really uninteresting direction. Maru bit his lips and went back inside.

KTLChamber's Thoughts

Poor Yoojin…

Editor's Note:

Man…… Looks like we going back to sadge times.

Chapter 924
Crank Up 3

“What was that call about?” Gaeul asked as she looked at Maru who sat down.

Maru was cautiously on a long phone call ever since he asked Yoojin about Hong Janghae. There was no way he randomly mentioned someone completely unrelated to this topic. She wondered what Maru said to whoever it was over the phone.

“Someone I know is investigating something, and he ran into a similar situation as this one so I asked just in case.”

“Something similar?”

“It’s a little complicated to explain. But it’s not a big deal.”

Gaeul felt a sense of disparity while looking at Maru smiling. He seemed to be hiding something important. Whether it was his expression, action, or the tone of his words, they were all calm and made it seem like nothing big was going on, but she was strangely concerned about them. Yoojin and Jiseok both nodded and took their attention away from him, but Gaeul narrowed her eyes and observed him. She locked eyes with him just as she was drinking. He was smiling nonchalantly. Seeing Maru ask her if there was anything she wanted to know, Gaeul intuitively realized that he was hiding something. Something that he could not say out loud.

“I’m going to keep watching mom. Who knows, she might quit tomorrow. I don’t think mom’s a foolish person. Right now, she’s involved in that kind of business for some reason, but I’m sure she knows it’s not an upright thing to do. I’m sure she’ll do well without me having to tell her about it.”

Meanwhile, Yoojin was talking about the conclusion she came down to in the bedroom once again. Not going against her mother was Yoojin’s ultimatum and plan. That would not change no matter who it was that tried to persuade her.

“Then I guess there’s no choice. It’s not like we can tell you to do something. If you decided to do that, then we have no choice but to watch what happens,” Maru replied.

“You think I’m pathetic, don’t you?”

“If you came to a decision, then you can’t call that pathetic. You came to that conclusion after thinking hard about it, didn’t you?”

“I know it’s empty words, but it’s still consoling to hear that.”

“That’s good. Oh, let me ask just in case: you will never change your mind, will you?”

“Probably not. I just can’t imagine myself going against my mother. I don’t think I can endure whether it’s going my separate way from mom because I said something to her or her looking at me like she can’t understand. I know it might look frustrating to you, but this is how I honestly feel.”

Maru concluded the conversation with a nod. He looked like he took his hands off this matter. On one hand, he looked like he respected Yoojin’s wishes, and on the other hand, he looked like he had given up early since it would not matter no matter what he would say. Gaeul fidgeted with her hand hidden under the blanket. That was just like Maru. He was not someone who would passionately persuade others to do something. Other than a few exceptions, his motto was that he should not get deeply involved with someone else’s life matters. Accepting and putting it aside was extremely natural for him. However, for some reason, it kept tugging on her heart. She felt like a fish bone was stuck in her throat. It would naturally disappear with time, but just like how the bone would express its presence the more she focused, Maru’s actions, words, and questions made her feel uncomfortable.

“Maru, wait.”

Gaeul stood up and pointed at the bedroom. Maru only blinked and did not stand up. Being the smart man he was, he seemed to have noticed what she would ask from him inside the bedroom already.

“Let’s talk a little,” she said with a little emphasis.

She entered the bedroom after telling Yoojin and Jiseok to talk for a while. Maru followed her in and closed the door.

“You know why I called you here, right?”

“Not at all – would you believe me if I said that?”

Gaeul gestured towards the bed with her chin. This didn’t look like it would take a short time and could be finished up while standing. She could hear the TV being turned on outside. They were probably watching TV since Yoojin’s matters had been resolved somewhat. Maru sat down next to her. She waited until he spoke first,

“I suddenly feel nervous like I’m at a job interview.”

“So you did something wrong?”

“Does it look like that?”

“What in the world are you thinking about? I did call you because I found it strange, but I don’t really know for sure.”

“Did I act unnatural?”

“No, you were perfectly Han Maru. The questions and your solutions were just like you. But something kept catching my eye, telling me that there was something more than just that. I’ll apologize if it’s actually nothing much. I might be overthinking things since this concerns Yoojin, but if it’s not like that, I hope you can tell me about it.”

“A woman’s intuition sure is amazing.”

Maru locked his hands and placed them on his lap. He started talking as he looked straight forward. Listening to the story that was not too long, Gaeul went from surprise to anger, before ultimately chiding Maru.

“You tried to reach Hong Janghae using Yoojin’s mother as a foothold?”

“I know how much Yoojin cherishes her mother, so she would probably tell her mother to stop first if she finds out about the danger. If Yoojin’s mother takes her hands off this business, Hong Janghae will also have no choice but to decrease his range of action, so there would be less chance of catching any clues about him.”

“If I didn’t ask you, would you have driven Yoojin’s mother into a corner after your preparation are done?”

“Our aim is Hong Janghae and his backer, so we won’t drive her back too harshly. We’ll probably ask for her cooperation. Though, we look for another method if things don't go that well.”

“What do you think would have happened to Yoojin if something bad happened to her mother? She’s someone who’s having a hard time just thinking about it. I’m sure someone like you could predict what would happen to her if she sees her mother collapsing in front of her very eyes.”

“Sometimes, things are just inevitable. I don’t really care what Yoojin’s mother does, but if someone I know is involved in it, then I should think about the severity of both sides.”

Maru’s eyes looked cold and dark – something that she had seen several times. They looked like they would steal the warmth of anything that fell in their path. It was heartbreaking. Thanks to Maru’s story, she was able to see that Lee Miyoon was on the line in the process of chasing Hong Janghae. Maru was helping journalist Kim Dongwook for her sake, even if the consequences may involve harming Yoojin’s mother.

“Yoojin is my friend.”

Maru replied that she was also his friend.

“I don’t want to see Yoojin suffering. I know that what Yoojin’s mother is doing is wrong. I sympathize with the fact that she should be stopped. That’s why I plan to persuade her slowly so that she can straighten out the wrongs herself. Only then will Yoojin be able to overcome the situation she’s in. She has to accept the situation and approach her mother with courage in order to straighten out her relationship with her mother. I believe that Yoojin will be able to graduate from her mother’s shadow in that process. And she has to.”

“You’re entirely right. I wish we could do it like that.”

“Then why are you waiting? I’ll try to persuade her as fast as possible.”

Maru sighed softly.

“I told you. This is being carried out by someone who has received suffering that’s incomparable to mine. I’m only helping out from the side too. If it was me, I would be able to wait if you told me to. Like you said, doing things your way will allow Yoojin to gain emotional stability. But I cannot outright tell that hyung-nim to wait.”

“Can’t you ask just once?”

After scratching his eyebrows, Maru started talking about the things he didn’t need to before; he talked about what happened to the person who investigated Hong Janghae’s back for the sake of an actress who was sacrificed in a prostitution incident, for the sake of justice, and for the sake of journalism. Gaeul was unable to close her mouth when she heard that such a person was socially eradicated, and that person even attempted to commit suicide.

“I can’t bear to tell that hyung-nim that we should just let Yoojin’s mother go just because she’s the mother of a friend of mine. That person is investigating this matter with half of his life on the line. The only thing I can tell someone like that is some information and to be careful.”

Funnily enough, a part of her agreed to Maru’s words. Wanting to look after Yoojin and empathy towards that female journalist was equal. Putting aside personal feelings, it was natural to help that journalist. Whether it was reason, justification, or justice, everything was on the journalist’s side. There was only one reason that Yoojin’s mother shouldn’t be hurt – it was because Yoojin would feel sad. Her reason whispered to her that that was nothing compared to the sorrow of someone who tried to end her own life under the pressure of power.

“But if you still want me to tell him, then I’ll try. I don’t know how he’ll act though.”

“How can I ask you to do it after listening to all this?”

“That was why I stayed quiet. There is only one conclusion, and it’ll be better if I’m the only bad guy.”

“You always did things like that.”

“I can’t help it.”

Maru was smiling, which was frustrating to her.

“You aren’t spending some sweet time in there, are you?” Just then, Jiseok’s shout could be heard.

It had been nearly 30 minutes since they entered the bedroom. Gaeul wiped her eyes with her palms, feeling like she would tear up if she didn’t do anything.

“The only thing I can do is to tell Yoojin carefully so that she can prepare. Of course, whether you tell her this or not is up to you.”

“You know I can’t say it to her, don’t you?”

“I wouldn’t know.”

Did she have to hide the truth from Yoojin and have her prepare for the shock just like Maru said? If things did go the way he explained, then many people, including Hong Janghae, would be punished under the law. Yoojin’s mother, who played the role of the procuress, would end up serving a sentence in prison, and Yoojin would blame herself for it. After all, she knew that she should have stopped her early on.

Gaeul felt complicated. This problem involved the family of a friend of hers and the thick resentment of a person. Those two couldn’t be separated cleanly, so she couldn’t see a clear solution to this. So this was why Maru chose to stay quiet.

“It would’ve been great if Yoojin’s mother didn’t do something like that in the first place.”

“You can’t revert something that has already happened.”

“I know. What has happened cannot be reverted nor changed.”

Gaeul stood up from the bed. In order to protect her friend, the only thing she could do was to help her from the side starting now so that she could maintain a firm will. It would be hard for the time being if she refreshed Yoojin of the fact that her mother might be arrested, but that would lessen the shock if it happens for real. Just as she was about to tell Maru that they should leave,

“Changed, huh,” Maru suddenly tapped on his knees with his index finger while muttering those words.

After tapping a few times, he stood up abruptly. Then he approached her and hugged her.

“If Muse does exist, then you would be one.”

“What is it?”

“I don’t know if it would work out or not, but thanks to you, I thought of an idea.”

Having backed off from her, Maru had a deeper smile than ever.

KTLChamber's Thoughts

Ooh, that's curious. What's Maru's idea to save both sides?

Editor's Note:

To be honest, I kinda don't want Yoojin's mom to escape punishment. I feel like that would 'too perfect' of an ending which would ruin the realism aspect of the novel.

Chapter 925
Crank Up 3

“What do you mean change?”

“It’s just like it sounds. As long as we change the person, we can solve it smoothly. Perhaps it’ll be even better.”

“Change the person? You said it’ll take a long time to persuade Yoojin, so that wasn’t an opinion. Heck, if a person can be changed with words, we wouldn’t have this problem in the first place.”

“Right. It’s difficult to persuade Yoojin. She will not be able to accept harming her mother or saying something to her. That’s why we’ll change the target. Instead of Yoojin’s mother, we’ll put Lee Miyoon in that spot as the middlewoman.”

“Change her to Lee Miyoon?”

Gaeul thought back to what she had just heard. If she wasn’t wrong, Lee Miyoon had already lost all support. The reason she lost her restraint and caused a ruckus recently was also because she had been thrown away. Switching Yoojin’s mother out with Lee Miyoon would be the same as returning her authority back to her, and Gaeul didn’t think that that was something that an outsider could do.

“If we fan Lee Miyoon’s desperation, we might see a way. It might not go the way we expect it to, but we should try to do something.”

It was unknown if it would work or not, but Gaeul felt relieved that Maru found a way. Due to that relief, her knees gave way after being tense all this time. Gaeul sat down on the bed. She was just catching her breath when she heard Yoojin’s laughter. It seemed that something funny appeared on TV, and she seemed to be laughing more exaggeratedly since she felt sorry for stiffening up the mood. It was great that Jiseok was there to follow up. Had she been left by herself, she might have started thinking about bad things, but Jiseok seemed to be consoling her quite well. The two of them always growled at each other every time they met, but they seemed to be more worried about each other than anyone else. Though, it didn’t seem like they would ever develop past the point of being friends.

There was a solution, and there was laughter. Perhaps thanks to feeling relaxed after being tense all this while, Gaeul felt the word ‘responsibility’ fill her head when she had been trying to ignore it all this time. Yoojin was a friend of hers, and she thought that it was natural for her to think that her friend should not suffer. Anyone would think like that after all. However, was it a good thing to just let Yoojin’s mother be free for a reason like that when she was involved in illegal trade? Maru said he would switch her out. If things go well, would that mean she would lose all charges against her?

Gaeul didn’t think that putting Yoojin’s mother on trial would make her relieved. It was simply a matter of conscience. Could she turn a blind eye to those crimes for the sake of lessening her friend’s pain? Did she even have the right to do so?

“Did your sense of justice come back to you after all this time?” Maru asked as he crouched down in front of her.

Gaeul shook her head before eventually replying that it did.

“If your plans go well, Yoojin’s mother will go scot-free, right?”

“If things go perfectly, it might be that way, but actually, I can’t say anything for sure. It’s true that she dipped her feet into this. If things really go well and all of the related personnel get investigated by the prosecutors, then she’ll become a prime witness or a defendant. Still, that’s a better option than being thoroughly investigated.”

“So even if things go well, there’s that possibility, huh.”

“This is all just a hypothesis. There’s the possibility that nothing might happen at all, and there’s also the possibility that she might get investigated. We don’t know what will happen tomorrow, much less what will come after that.”

Maru grabbed her hand and continued,

“Honestly speaking, I don’t really care about whether Yoojin’s mother gets sued or if she gets excluded from the case without a charge. Anyone can end up doing bad things in life. If they don’t get caught, that just means they are living an experienced life, and if they get caught, they’ll just get punished for it. If a child teases another in jealousy, they’ll get reprimanded. If you violate traffic signals just to go a little early, you’ll have to pay fines. If you deal with the sexual trafficking business, you’ll have to pay fines and serve sentences. If she did something that goes against the law in order to live a comfortable life in this world, then she must be prepared to get caught.”

“True, but…”

“Also, South Korean law is very lenient and it is normal to receive a smaller sentence than what you deserve for your trade. That’s why scams are everywhere. Yoojin’s mother is a talented businesswoman. She should not have dipped her hands into a business where she would make losses. She must have started that business because she judged that she would gain a lot of things even if she does get caught.”

It was a dilemma. The mind of the law-abiding citizen as well as her sympathy towards her friend clashed head-on. Her views on rights and wrongs directly contradicted her views on what she liked and what she didn’t. Gaeul pondered about which way was the best way out.

“What are you going to tell Yoojin?”

“I’m going to tell her to help her mother.”

“What do you mean help?”

“Help her mother take her hands off that business. If we change the nuance of our words a little, Yoojin should accept it, readily. She should not go against her mother and try to guide her back to the right path, but she should help out since her mother might be put in danger.”

“Are you going to tell her that right now?”

“No, we should just sleep for the night. I’m going to talk about it after I set up everything so that Lee Miyoon can fill the blank left by Yoojin’s mother taking her hands off the business.”

“That leaves me with one thing to do. I should help her so that she can power through no matter what happens.”

“Try talking about it starting tonight. If she can say that she cannot escape her mother’s shadow, then it shows that she knows what the problem is. Knowing the problem also means that she can fix that problem. As long as you let her understand that children are supposed to become independent from their parents, she should widen her vision.”

Gaeul nodded. She could picture what would happen in the future. In the middle of that was the figure of a mother and daughter living as usual after having escaped the case contrasting the figure of her friend in pain as she looked at her mother enveloped in trouble.

“Honestly, I thought I would be able to cool-headedly report any wrongdoings no matter who did it. I believe that's the shortest path to righting what’s wrong. But now that it’s actually about a friend of mine, I’m thinking about whether there’s an escape route first.”

“What can you do about it? That’s just how people work.”

Maru patted her back. Gaeul calmed her breathing and left the bedroom.

* * *

“I guess not everything gets resolved cleanly in this world like it does in cartoons. But still, this incident might work in Yoojin’s favor. It’s about time she takes off her momma’s girl badge.”

“If she looks like she’s in pain later, you should look after her a little. I saw that Yoojin smiles a lot when you’re the one talking.”

“That’s one hell of a difficult thing you’re asking me to do. Maru, you should pay money when you ask others to do something like that.”

Maru crossed his arms. After finishing off the warm honey tea he bought from the convenience store, the cold overwhelmed him once again. He didn’t plan on talking for long, so he only put on a cardigan before leaving. Had he known that it would be this cold, he would have put on a jumper instead.

“I wonder if the girls are sleeping now.”

Jiseok raised his head. He seemed to be counting the floors in the apartment. Maru turned around. The bedroom light was still on. It seemed that the ladies' talk was going to become deeper as well.

“But hey, it’s hard to time it right. That will only work if Lee Miyoon can fill in the vacancy right as Yoojin’s mother takes her hands off it, won’t it?”

“That’s why keeping up to date will be important. I’m sure Lee Miyoon wants to strike a blow on Hong Janghae. I think it might work if we tell her to bend her pride for the sake of revenge. After all, seeing how she’s acting lately, it looks like she places more importance on the power she lost to Hong Janghae than her own pride.”

“You’re right, that senior has become semi-crazy these days. There are rumors floating around that she might end up retiring as an actress soon.”

Maru threw the empty bottle in the trash. The plastic bottle hit the wall with a low thump before being tossed into the trash can.

“It’s a good thing instead. Hong Janghae is one thing, but I have business with Lee Miyoon. She might have been exempted from this case, but if we tie her in like this, she’ll get punished for sure.”

“You seem rather angry because of the scratch on Gaeul’s face.”

“Don’t even start. Gaeul appeared in front of me while calling me like it was no big deal, but she had a gauze attached to her face. I thought she got into an accident. But hey, who would’ve known that Lee Miyoon scratched her face with her bag?”

Jiseok crossed his arms.

“I heard from a friend of mine who was at the scene, and apparently, Gaeul was super serious that day. She got injured on her face, but she didn’t bat an eyelid and told senior Lee to obediently leave the set. Heck, she might have asked her to leave on the surface, but she basically told her to fuck off, right? Had it been anyone else, that person might have lowered themself to ask if there was nothing wrong with the bag, but in that situation, she just erupted. Apparently, she even said that she would sue her for assault if she didn’t leave. That friend of mine said he felt like it was stress relief. Thanks to that, Gaeul is being treated like a hero on the set for Doctor’s Office.”

A hero, huh? Maru laughed out loud. He originally wanted to find out the details of the incident through Mijoo, but Gaeul seemed to have warned her heavily as he was unable to find out about anything. He did expect her to have responded boldly, but he did not imagine that she would boldly warn her in front of everyone else.

“She’s like that, but she can’t say it firmly since Yoojin’s involved in this. If you think about it, both you and Gaeul are similar in that aspect. You two are both incredibly harsh on yourselves but very generous towards others.”

“Me?”

“You aren’t?”

“Probably not. You probably think that because you’re a friend of mine.”

Jiseok clapped twice in realization.

“That’s true. I should stay close to you in the future too. I might get blown to smithereens without knowing anything if things don’t work out with you,” Jiseok said with a smile.

He then pointed at the apartment. When Maru looked around, he saw that the light in the bedroom had been turned off. It seemed that the ladies had gone to sleep after finishing their talk.

“It’s cold. Let’s go back too.”

Maru followed Jiseok, who stood up first, back to the apartment.

KTLChamber's Thoughts

Sorry if all of that sounds obscure…… It sounds obscure to me too, and I don't really know what's happening either……

Editor's Note:

Sighhh. Ig Yoojin's mom gets a free pass

Chapter 926
Crank Up 3

When he wiped his snot, it became a layer of thin ice on the back of his hand before crumbling apart. It was so cold that insults were mixed with every white breath he breathed out. Dongwook approached the drum barrel where a small fire was lit up. As expected of the labor market which started off earlier than anywhere else, it was filled with people. Dongwook wasn’t new to this, so he didn’t look around awkwardly like a novice and put his hand between his crotch as he got some of the warmth from the fire.

Today was the fifth day already. Waking up early every morning according to the sound of the alarm felt terrible, but he had no choice in order to meet Mari’s man. He sniffled his snot that came out regardless of his will and had a look at the clock. According to some info that one of the private investigators found, Mari’s man was working in one of the labor markets in the Southern parts of Busan. He wished he could just search through everything, but if there were any watching eyes around the man, then his investigations until now would be for naught. He had already missed once too. The fact that he didn’t know what the man was thinking also tugged on his mind. Mari might be waiting for him dearly, but the man might have changed.

“God damn, it’s cold. If I had any money, I would’ve quit this job ages ago,” said a man wearing a black beanie.

Dongwook nodded. For him though, it would be Mari’s man that would make him quit this job. He had the desire to give that guy a big hug if he ever did find him. However, if he suffered a few more days under this freezing pain, he might slap the guy the moment he saw him.

Dongwook had another look at the photo of the man he got from Mari. He had seen him to death to the point that he would show up in his dreams, but he looked at the photo whenever he had the time. He didn’t even do this with his first love either.

“How’s it on your side?”

He got a call from a private investigator who was doing the same thing as him in another labor market. That private investigator had been waiting for two hours ever since 3 in the morning, but Dongwook was told in a tired voice that he did not find the man.

“You should get back inside and rest if you want to do the same thing again tomorrow.”

-You got anything? Even a feeling that something might happen?

“I’m not sure. My intuition seems to have frozen over as it won’t activate. Dammit, why couldn’t he go missing during warm springtime.”

-I’ll have another look around this place.

Dongwook hung up. It was good that he came to Busan following the information he got from the action leader, but the man’s following course of action was up in the air. He didn’t know whether the man felt a sense of danger to his safety, or was on orders, but when he arrived at Busan, the man had already switched to another office. That marked the start of searching through all the labor markets scattered throughout Busan. It was fortunate that he was able to narrow down the region to the Southern areas. Of course, on the off chance that there was something wrong with the information, some of the investigators were looking into the North, West, and East areas.

He suddenly became curious about the amount of money president Lee Junmin must be paying those people, but he soon dismissed the thought. He possessed an entire apartment ‘building’ with a view of the Han river. That alone was expensive enough that an ordinary salaryman could never hope to earn in a hundred lifetimes. He had heard a rumor that president Lee Junmin was a close confidante of the president of the country, and it probably was true.

Just then, a van came over with the high beams on. The people gathered in front of the drum barrel immediately scurried over to the van.

“Two for ductwork.”

Many of the people gathered raised their hands. There was no mention of pay or the place they would be working in, but people tried their best to get picked. A man holding a ledger scanned around before picking two men at the front. He gave them a 500 won coin each and told them to wait while drinking some coffee.

“Two for plasterwork.”

“Three for setting beams.”

“Five for menial work.”

After selling the work positions like an auction, the man left in the van with the ones he picked. The remaining people returned to the drum barrel. After that, something similar occurred many more times. The people who weren’t picked looked up at the sky towards the east. The labor market would end once the sun was up.

So today was a dud too, and he started feeling hungry. It seemed that he would have to visit various labor work offices after getting something to eat once the sun rose. He did wait for a little more since he heard that the man might show up while driving, but this might as well be finding Mr. Kim in the middle of Seoul…

Just as many people started leaving, thinking that there was no more for today, another van slowly entered the clearing. That was probably the last van. Dongwook also pulled his clothes tighter before approaching the van. A man in his middle forties got out of the van. From his hairstyle to his facial shape, he had zero similarities to Mari’s man, not that he had a need to look at that man since he was clearly in his forties.

With the final bit of his hope, he walked around to the front of the van. It was time to have a look at the one in the driver’s seat. A man who had a blue towel wrapped around his head was fidgeting with his phone with his head down. It was a feature phone. Dongwook slowly approached the driver’s seat. The man who had his head down seemed to have been bothered by the reflecting headlights and raised his head. He was quite handsome considering that he was just driving a van in a place like this. He was also Mari’s man that Dongwook had been looking for all this time.

Dongwook tapped on the window. The man looked around before scrolling the window down.

“Uhm, can you tell the leader on the other side to use me?”

“Mister, don’t do this and just raise your hand over there. I don’t have any power.”

“Now, now, don’t say that.”

Dongwook grinned and quickly scanned the man’s wrist. Mari said that she and her boyfriend made a matching bracelet. He found a bracelet around the man’s left arm. It was a bracelet made from braided pink threads. It was the same bracelet that Mari showed him. The fact that a man clad in black from top to bottom had a pink bracelet meant quite a lot.

When he took out a ten thousand won bill and gave it to the man, the man frowned and flicked his hand away. Dongwook intentionally hooked his finger into the bracelet the moment the man tried to do so, enough to break the bracelet if he tried hard enough.

“Hey! If this snapped off, I would have killed you.”

“Why are you so hung up on a cheap bracelet? You’re making me embarrassed.”

The man scrolled up his window, saying that he didn’t want to deal with a crazy man. Seeing his reaction, he seemed to cherish the bracelet quite a lot, meaning that he still had Mari in his heart.

“Finally, I’ll pick three men with quite a bit of experience.”

A voice could be heard from the other side of the van. It seemed that they were going to leave soon. Dongwook called Mari on his phone. She picked up immediately as she had been staying up all night just like him.

“I’ll give him the phone so talk to him. Tell him you love him, that you miss him, and that you want to see him, things like that.”

Dongwook tapped on the window again. The man glared at him. When he tapped a few more times with a pleading look, he sighed and scrolled the window down again. Dongwook handed the man the phone under a ten thousand won bill with a phone number written on it.

“You should pick up that phone.”

“What are you doing?”

“It’s the person you want to see. Don’t show it on your face.”

The man, who seemed suspicious of him, looked around in wariness before picking up the call. Soon, his eyes widened. His stiff expression softened up immediately. The man didn’t say anything; he only repeatedly said ‘yes, ‘yes’ with a teary voice. Dongwook reached his hand out. The man who was selecting people from the other side of the van was approaching. Mari’s boyfriend quickly handed him back the phone.

“What are you doing?” asked the middle-aged man.

Before Dongwook could reply, Mari’s boyfriend replied instead,

“This mister is giving me money so that I can refer him to you.”

The middle-aged man laughed before looking through his ledger.

“What can you do? We do have a welding job open.”

Dongwook waved his hand in the air in dismissal.

“I don’t want something like that. Can’t I get an easy job where I just clean some trash?”

“You seem to be a novice. Got laid off? You still seem young though. Don’t come to places like this and use your experiences to get a proper job. Once you start this job, you’ll never escape it.”

Dongwook nodded and turned around. Mari’s man was very quick-witted, so he should probably keep the number written on that bill. The only thing left now was to wait. Once he was done with his business, he would probably call Dongwook of his own accord. If he didn’t, well, that would indicate that he gave up on this.

“Miss Mari. Was that him?”

-Yes, it was. His voice sounds a little soft like he’s caught a cold, but that’s definitely him.

“Then I’ve done my part of the deal, right? I’ll wait for your boyfriend for a few days in Busan. If he calls me and we meet, I’ll bring him to you, and if he doesn’t, I’ll go back by myself. You know what that means, right?”

-Yes. I promised after all. I’ll help you regardless of what decision oppa makes.

Mari was filled with vitality from just calling him. Dongwook decided to give her another piece of hope.

“Your boyfriend was wearing that pink bracelet. He seems to be cherishing it.”

-Really?

“Yes. He probably didn’t forget about you. You should wait for a little.”

-I don’t know how to thank you for this.

“We’re just starting off, so save your thanks for later. I’ll hang up now. I need to get some rest. You should get some rest too, Miss Mari. You’ve done a good job.”

This trip to Busan felt like it would take forever, but it came to a closure after merely five days. The only thing left now was to wait a few days and wait for the man’s call. Dongwook looked at the van going off into the distance. It was very rare for a youngster to use a feature phone in an era like this. Should he think that there were still prying eyes around? Since there was a history of him being dragged by gangsters and even locked up, he probably couldn’t make a move so easily.

Dongwook notified the private investigators that the situation was closed for the time being. They were all just humans in the end, so they all rejoiced at the fact that they no longer had to deal with the freezing cold now. Those who had to go to Seoul left, while three of them decided to remain behind in Busan. If Mari’s boyfriend ever needed help, they would have to reach out to him after all.

He met a few roadblocks on the way, but ultimately, he was able to get his desired results. It would be great if everything else went like this. Dongwook recalled the conversation he had with Maru a few days ago. Maru suggested that they should reinstate Lee Miyoon, who was excluded from this case, back to the center of it. He wondered if it was possible, but after hearing Maru’s plans, it didn’t sound too bad. Cuffing Lee Miyoon was something very welcomed by him. Hong Janghae might have been the one who dragged his junior journalist to the edge of a cliff, but it was Lee Miyoon who pushed her off.

It was 4 minutes past 6. The dark skies started brightening up. The people gathered around the drum barrel started disappearing one after the other into the brightening skies. Dongwook joined that group. He finished his job, so he had to fill his stomach now.

KTLChamber's Thoughts

I don't even have any attachment to Mari or her boyfriend or even Dongwook for that matter… (maybe journalist Miyeon has my empathy), yet I still end up rooting for them……

Editor's Note:

This author is just really good at writing characters. P sure all the readers hated Hong Janghae and Giwoo when they first were revealed.

Chapter 927
Crank Up 4

When he opened his eyes to the tickling sensation on his cheek, he saw that ‘Bullie’ had approached him and was rubbing his nose against him. Usually, Bullie never climbed up onto the bed, despite being quite spoiled, so it was quite a wonder. He sat up, feeling fatigued. Bullie lightly jumped off the bed. He looked at the wall where sunlight shone and checked the time. It was 11 a.m. It turned out he had slept so deeply that he forgot about his morning exercise. It was not surprising that Bullie climbed up onto the bed to wake him up. He was probably checking if his owner was dead since he would always feed him in the morning.

When he went to the living room, Woofie rushed up to him in an instant. After pouring some dog feed for the dogs asking him for food, he picked up his phone. It was flooded with photos sent by Gaeul. After a photo of her dipping her feet into a strangely green-colored sea was a photo where tropical fruits were piled up like a tower. She sent him photos of where she was, what she was doing, and what she was doing every hour like a civil servant reporting to her higher-ups. Maru felt like he would be in big trouble if he didn’t reply after reading it. Looks good, looks fun, looks delicious – was what he was going to use as replies before he ultimately decided to add some emojis into it. He originally wanted to send a long piece of text, but he felt like he would look old, so he changed it to short sentences.

Seeing her smile like usual, it seemed that she rather liked her paid vacation. He was inwardly worried because there were two annoying people mixed in the group, but it seemed that he was worried for nothing. Though, he shouldn’t really be worried since she was someone who would reject anything that she didn’t like without batting an eyelid. Apparently, Lee Miyoon was holed up in the hotel and Kang Giwoo was also maintaining a certain distance, so it should become a paid vacation without many problems.

When he showed the two dogs the photos with Gaeul in them, they jumped around in joy. Maru captured the dogs on video and sent them to her. After looking at the photos, he stood up. He put away the dog bowls and had a light breakfast.

-Have you eaten lunch?

“I just ate. I woke up late, so it was more like a brunch.”

Byungchan had called him. He poured some water into a mug as he listened.

-The afterparty has been scheduled, so get ready for it.

“The afterparty? I’m invited?”

-Of course you are. We didn’t get any calls until now, so I was worried if I had to give them a call myself, but we got one now, albeit a little late. It’s in two days in Seoul, so don’t schedule anything for that time.

“I don’t have anything to do. But am I really allowed to go?”

-If you aren’t going, then who will? Don’t talk nonsense and wait at home. I’ll go pick you up.

“It’s right nearby, so I can drive there on my own.”

-I’m bored. Also, I got orders. You know that actor who got exposed to the media for going rampant after getting drunk recently, right? I’ve gotten orders to drive the actors around as much as possible. Heck, we’re on the lenient side. The agency next to us even put out a driving ban. Though, they’re an idol agency.

“Then I guess I should comfortably get you to drive me after all this time.”

-I’ll give you a comfy ride so you should wait at the styling shop the day after tomorrow. I have work in the morning, so I can’t give you a ride to the shop. There should be a stylist waiting for you there. You got some sponsored clothing too, so put that on.

“So someone has graciously sponsored me.”

-I’m not sure if this is true or not, but the owner of that business apparently saw your video.

“Of the drama? Or the film?”

-The cute dance.

Maru laughed in absurdity.

“I should really stake my life to erase that video or something. At this rate, I’ll be known as a comedic actor.”

-You’re gaining an image that you didn’t have before, so be grateful. I thought you’d become popular since your name came on the search rankings when Doctors was trendy, but it cooled down in an instant. That’s just the sorrow of an unpopular actor. It’s a good thing to get yourself known like this, so if people ask you to do it, then at least pretend to do it.

“If I can make myself known that way, then I guess I have no choice.”

Byungchan hung up, saying that they should meet in two days. Maru wanted to stay in the drama until the end, but the writer deemed that he should pull out while he still left behind a strong impression, and Maru agreed with her, so he didn’t feel too disappointed. Thanks to that, he had been controversial for quite a while and managed to go to a talk show.

He lifted up the half-filled mug. As there was nothing for him to prepare since there would be a stylist preparing the clothes for him, there was nothing for him to do. Usually, actors would be sent some photos of the options of clothing they would wear, so he just had to choose. Just as he was thinking about when he last cleaned the bathroom, his phone started ringing. His phone was working quite hard today.

“I always feel uneasy when our director Kang calls at this hour.”

-Did I ever make you feel uneasy, seonbae?

“If I had to list it, I think I can talk until 2 o’clock.”

-Ando-oppa says he has no complaints against me.

“You’re bound to lie and suck up if you’re held hostage. So hey, why did you call?”

-You’re at your house, right now, right?

“Why are you asking me about my location again? It’s making me uneasy. Aren’t you at work?”

-I took the day off. It’s the end of the year, so I’m having a blast using them all. Of course, I do have something to do too.

“Now I suddenly want to leave.”

-That means you’re at home now, huh? Stay right there.

Before he could reply to that, the call ended. Maru stared at his phone, which had turned silent, hoping that it would give him a solution, being the high-tech device it was, even though he knew that he had no other method but to wait obediently. The ring of the elevator quietly echoed in the living room. Being the meticulous person she was, director Kang made the call right at the entrance. So… she didn’t even consider the possibility that he wasn’t at home?

Knock knock - hearing the knocks against his door, he sighed bitterly before opening it. Sora was standing outside, wearing a semi-formal suit.

“There’s one more dog now?” Sora said as she looked at the Pit Bull — Bullie — watching from the distance.

“Yeah.”

“I heard that dogs get lonely too, and it’s better to have two of them instead of one.”

“That’s good info. You’re here just to tell me that, right?”

“No, I’m here to pick you up.”

“Me?”

“Yes.”

“To where?”

“To a fan meeting.”

Maru played back the short conversation they just had and spoke again,

“Fan meeting?”

“Yes.”

“Of who?”

“You.”

“Why?”

“Because you have fans? Keep asking if you want to ask foolish questions, but just remember, the more you delay things, the more likely you’ll end up participating in the fan meeting in that jersey you’re wearing.”

Maru became speechless. He was surprised at this young director’s skills to host a fan meeting for an actor without any name, and even more at her insensitivity to call on the day itself to check the schedule.

“What were you going to do if I had a schedule?”

“Of course, I checked that beforehand. I have a different driving force compared to other people, so it might look like I’m rushing things, but I’ve never ignored the process. I called the manager, no, wait, the head manager of whom I got a number before. Head manager Lee Byungchan.”

As soon as Sora’s words ended, a notification arrived on his phone. There was a message from Byunchan. The content wasn’t that long: ‘Miss Sora said she scheduled a fan meeting regarding the indie film. She’ll probably call you soon.’ Maru was pretty sure that even Byungchan didn’t know that ‘soon’ would be this fast.

“So you didn’t get notified yet. No wonder I felt like I wasn’t getting anywhere with you.”

“I just received it. Maybe it’s because I’ve been playing around for a long time, but my luck with work seems to be erupting right now. So, do we have to go right now?”

“You have enough time to change clothes. Put on some neat clothes. You do have some, right?”

Maru pointed at the small room he was using as a dressing room and went inside to get changed. He put on a long coat that he got as a gift before coming back out.

“I’m not sure about anything else, but you do look great in a suit.”

“Thanks for the compliment. So where are we going?”

“It’s not that far. It’s near Gangnam situation.”

On their way down the elevator, Maru heard how this fan meeting came to be. Apparently, it started at the Chungmuro Short Film Festival. She and the film were invited and she greeted the people there, and apparently, the responses were much hotter than she had expected. The atmosphere was so good that she ended up talking about the film in great excitement until they talked about the actors and then the fan meeting.

“The first one to bring up the fan meeting was the owner of a café. I obviously thought that it was going to be for Sooil-oppa, so I was going to turn it down, saying that it would be a little difficult, but that person talked about you. She said she would gladly arrange the location for us, so there was no reason to refuse. There were more than fifty who were willing to participate back then. Do you know what’s even better, though?”

“What is?”

“Most of them are women.”

“That’s nice to hear.”

“I should record that and send it to Gaeul-unni.”

They got in the car. Sora, who was behind the wheel, inputted the address on the GPS navigation device and drove off.

“It was quite unexpected. Quite a lot of people knew about you. What made me really happy was that there were some people who watched our work three times. She’s a blogger who frequently visits indie film festivals, and she apparently fell in love with it during the first screening, and she ended up watching it in Chungmuro this time, and back when it aired in Suwon.”

“I’m grateful.”

“There were many people who came after reading her blog during the invitation. There were some journalists for film magazines too. When I looked at them, the audience worked in many different fields, so I thought that there was no better form of promotion. That’s why I agreed to the fan meeting.”

“So the fan meeting was being set up while I didn’t know anything about it, huh?”

“That’s just how figureheads work. You just lend them your name, and things work out by themselves.”

Maru looked outside the window and rolled the word ‘figurehead’ inside his mouth. It had a pleasing tone. Wasn’t it a dream job where he would earn money just by pretending to work? Though, joint responsibility would be a problem.

“And there were quite a lot of people who said they became fans after watching Doctors. There was a lady who had a hard life because her salary was getting delayed that felt better through watching you. It seems like there were many people like her, who wanted others to sympathize with their pains.”

“I guess that’s just how tough the world is.”

“When I heard all that, I felt like I should do a comedy for the next film so that the viewers can watch without thinking about anything. You look like you’d be great at it too.”

“As long as you pay me money, I’ll do anything.”

“How can you talk about money between us?”

“It’s precisely because it’s between us that I should talk about money. If you want to use me without pay, then why don’t you become a famous director first.”

“Don’t come crying to me later asking for a role.”

“Say that after you’ve become famous.”

The car jolted once. Sora was smiling brightly after speeding right past a speed bump. Maru turned quiet, and then put on his seatbelt.

KTLChamber's Thoughts

What a coincidence. I'm also looking to do something like comedy once I'm done with LOA…

Editor's Note:

Hire me again plz thx. Also, author is very not creative with names. What is 'Bullie' LOL

Chapter 928
Crank Up 4

The car stopped because of a taxi that stopped in the middle of a crossroad while tailgating. Sora tapped on the wheel with her index finger.

“Don’t those men know that tailgating like that just to arrive a few minutes early will lead them decades early into the afterlife?”

“I guess they’re just telling the others to crash into them if they have the confidence.”

“Should I?”

“So you’re the one who bought a ticket to the afterlife. I want to go to the afterlife as late as possible, so please hold back.”

Sora puffed the air out of her cheeks and lifted her front bangs. If she didn’t have a horn, she would probably have gotten off and smashed her head into the taxi, telling the driver to drive properly. In terms of recklessness, even Gaeul wouldn’t be able to hold a candle to her. Personally, Maru wanted to have someone like her around him. After all, she would finish whatever job she was given by herself.

“Don’t you find it a waste of time to be driving for someone like me on a golden day like a day off?”

“Looking after you is one thing, but this will also be a part of my career. Also, even though I’m taking a day off, staying at home will be boring, and going on a one-day trip somewhere doesn’t really suit me, so it’s better to work even on a day off.”

“You’re a workaholic.”

“I’m not that bad. If I’m given money to play around, then sure, I’ll leave everything behind and go somewhere. But do I earn money by playing around? Or would I get experience from it? That’s one slogan that travel agencies use that I can’t understand. ‘Discovering my new self.’ Heck. Can you really find yourself just by spending ten days in Europe when you couldn’t do so for decades? If broadening your horizons was such an easy thing, who would go through the pains to study? They’ll just replace it with traveling.”

“If that was the shared opinion of people in their twenties, I guess half of the travel agencies in the country would’ve closed down. Those travel agencies must be grateful to the youths with dreams.”

“Do you have dreams about traveling too? Like, do you feel like you can change if you experience something overseas?”

Maru shook his head. As a traveler of a journey known as reincarnation that no other person would’ve experienced, he could say for sure. He may have experienced hundreds, if not thousands of lives, and yet he couldn’t change his mind about loving a woman. He could not agree with the statement that traveling once could change a fundamental part of him.

“But I do not disagree with the statement that it may become a trigger. There are people who say they have changed,” Maru said as he pointed forward at the moving car.

Sora started driving again and replied,

“I call that an error of success stories. Imitating successful people is a shortcut to ruin. It’s common advertising material too. They sell self-development books, essays, and lessons on life by stimulating the desire that they can do it too, just like those successful people.”

“What did you say you were doing at your work?”

“I’m in the promotion department.”

“I see why you’re saying that then.”

The GPS navigation device notified them that they were at their destination. After turning around a building where people were lined up outside, he saw a café that had been decorated like a holiday house. There were people on the 1st-floor terrace and the 2nd-floor balcony.

“I sent a text that we’d be arriving soon.”

When Sora opened the window and poked her head outside, the people at the café waved their hands and cheered. Maru checked his own face with the camera on his phone. His face felt hot already. He couldn’t afford to become a tomato with BB cream on… A fan meeting, which he never thought he would have in his life, was right in front of him. It was a nervousness incomparable to standing on a stage.

“Seonbae, don’t tell me you’re nervous?”

“Is it obvious?”

“Holy shit. I did think that something like this was going to happen when you introduced yourself last time on the stage, but you’re really weak at this stuff, huh? Don’t be nervous. It’s not like you’re gonna be eaten. All you have to do there is to smile calmly, say hello, and just talk. You finally got yourself something called a fandom, so you should display yourself properly.”

“Isn’t calling it a fandom an overstatement?”

“You know that girl idol band called Silhouette, right? They grew big enough to hold a concert by themselves. Even that began from a single video from one person before becoming a fan meeting that started from that. Right now, they perform in front of tens of thousands of people, but they only sang in front of four people during their first meeting, when they had seven members in their group. Seonbae, this might be a turning point for you too. Who knows? This small fan meeting might be a legendary fan meeting later?”

“Why don’t you try writing a novel if you ever quit your company? I’m sure you’ll learn really quickly if you learn from Daemyung.”

Sora parked the car in front of the café and he got off. He finally saw the big banner that he couldn’t see before because he was busy looking at the people. Pink hearts were embedded on either side and on top of that was a photo of him smiling. The slogan was simple: 'Actor Han Maru fan meetup.' If there was a ladder, he would have gone up and taken it off himself. The people walking by in front of the café looked at the banner as they walked past. He knew that it was lunchtime and there was no one who would care about that, but he couldn’t help but feel embarrassed.

“Fans of Han Maru sure are prepared. Seonbae, why don’t we take a photo in front of that?”

He shook off Sora, who was grabbing his arm, and went inside the café. He just wanted to run away to a place where he couldn’t see the banner as soon as possible. Though, he soon realized that looking at the banner was much better the moment he opened the door and looked at the people inside.

Deafening cheers erupted. He felt like a traveler who had first set foot on foreign land. Even though what was being spoken to him was Korean, the words just went straight out the other ear. Mr. Han Maru, Maru-oppa, our actor – they were titles that went through his ears in a flash. He stood dumbfounded for a few seconds before taking a bow.

“Hello. I’m Han Maru.”

He naturally clasped his hands together in front of his stomach. There was a sense of responsibility that suppressed his nervousness. These were people who had taken their time off to come see him, an insufficient actor. He couldn’t give them disappointment on their first meeting.

“Who did the banner outside? It was great,” Sora said as she followed inside.

Her question livened up the awkward atmosphere in an instant. A woman who had sunglasses on her head raised her hand. She said that she could easily make one because her business dealt with them.

“Thank you. But you photoshopped me too much. My skin is on the darker side.”

“You’ll get better if you look after your skin a little. Of course, I’m not saying that it’s bad as you are now.”

“Thank you, even if you don’t mean it. I’ll try my best to get it treated so that I look like the one outside.”

Maru proactively talked to his fans. He thanked every one of them for coming and got to know them. There were things he needed to know for the sake of a smooth conversation. His sense of shame faded out when he started talking to them. Sometimes, he didn’t know what to do when his fans stared at him without saying anything, but Sora came to save him whenever that happened.

There were only about thirty people in total, so everyone got close to each other soon. Although they belonged to a variety of different ages, occupations, and hobbies, they shared the common point that they were fans, so there was no awkwardness. Maru had assimilated with them and was talking with them. It became a talk show where both parties talked, instead of a one-sided lecture.

“I thought you were going to show up until the end in Doctors. It was such a pity that you disappeared midway.”

“Me too. Honestly, a part of me wanted you to hook up with the daughter of the director. I’m sure there might be people who would hate that kind of plot, but I empathized with the character so much that I wished he did well. But in the end, that character just got sent to another hospital.”

“Apparently, that’s what’s realistic. I asked my husband, and while there are people who become resident doctors in the hospital they spent their time in as interns, apparently, some people get sent to other hospitals if there’s friction between other members.”

“How was it for you? Didn’t you feel disappointed because you had to leave midway?”

Questions that the fans discussed among themselves came his way. Maru felt the gazes focusing on him and spoke,

“It’d be a lie to say that I didn’t feel disappointed. It was the first character I played that received so much attention. But it was better for the character to leave the story for the plot. I was told that the writer was torn about it as well, about whether it was the right thing to do to exclude him or not. You know what people say, right? People should leave while they’re still being applauded. I received good opinions, increased interest in the drama, and added an element of freshness to the story, so as a supporting character, I fulfilled my role. If the writer got greedy and invested more time into the character known as Bigfoot, I’m sure the result wouldn’t have been good. The drama has a time limit after all. Assigning valuable story time to a minor character instead of the main characters is getting priorities wrong, and if that happened, the central plot of the drama would have collapsed.”

Maru gave his honest opinion. People who liked things had sharp eyes. Rather than being polite and making roundabout comments, Maru talked about everything he could within his limitations. He wanted to do so too.

He thought that not many people would have any interest in the drama because they were fans of the indie film ‘Starting Point,’ but all the fans here seemed to have watched the drama as they nodded.

“Can I ask you one thing?”

As soon as he spoke, the fans urged him to say it regardless of what it was.

“Tell me honestly. Who here watched Doctor’s Office during the main run, and watch Doctors through a rerun or a download?”

More than half of the people here raised their hands as though they didn’t feel any shame about it. Maru laughed out loud. So viewing rates didn’t lie after all. All of a sudden, there was a discussion about why Doctor’s Office was more interesting. People in their twenties and thirties sided with Doctor’s Office. They were people who tended to get absorbed during watching, so their general opinion was that they didn’t mind the political stuff. The people who liked Doctors mostly did so because of the audio, and Maru agreed with them on the fact that it was easier to understand even after missing a few minutes.

“Next time, I’ll watch everything you’re on during the main run.”

“Me too.”

Maru scratched his head and spoke,

“I don’t know when I’ll shoot a drama again, so you might have to wait for a long time to see me.”

Maru thought that they would tell him that he should soon get another one as a form of encouragement, but the fans were ruthless. He even heard advice that it was hard for new actors to succeed these days, and he should do his utmost best. Maru clapped and said that that was right.

“I created a short video, and while I get that set up, our actor Han will brew each of you a cup of coffee,” Sora said as she pushed his back.

It seemed that there was something else she had set up beforehand. When he came to, he was wearing an apron.

“Uhm, can I take a photo of you? You look really cute in an apron,” said a girl who seemed to be in college.

When Maru accepted, all the fans sitting down stood up. Their hands were all holding phones and cameras that they took out god knows when. Maru even saw some camera lenses that cost as much as a second-hand car. They were indeed fans who prepared for the fan meeting during the film festival. Their preparations and drive were extraordinary.

“Let’s all shoot once each and then shoot a group photo!” Sora shouted.

To Maru’s ears though, that sounded like ‘here’s a mackerel for cheap.’ When else would he experience something like this? Thinking as such, Maru pulled his apron tight and walked towards the fans.

KTLChamber's Thoughts

Man, Sora is brutal about traveling lol.

Editor's Note:

To be fair, she's not totally wrong.

Chapter 929
Crank Up 4

He handed the last mug to the last fan. As this was his first time using a coffee machine, he was awkward at first, but thanks to the kind explanation from the café owner, he was able to do it with ease towards the end.

“Please become popular quickly so I can brag to my friends in the future that Han Maru made me coffee.”

“That doesn’t really depend on me. You know, don’t you? Everyone must give me lots of attention so that I can play a good role.”

Maru left the counter, also holding a mug in hand. He found out that it was pretty decent to drink. That was the power of recipes. Even rookies like him could make good coffee like this.

“Why don’t we take a group photo with the coffees?”

Sora struggled and moved the tables away. The fans also moved away the chairs to make space. One of the fans, who volunteered to be the photographer, took out her camera and stood at the front. It didn’t even take a few minutes for her to open up the tripod and set up the angle. She smelled like a pro, so Maru asked her in passing if she ran a photo studio. He was asking half as a joke, but the reply was a stunning yes. Apparently, she was running a photo studio that specializes in taking baby photos with her husband.

“Shouldn’t I pay you for this?” Sora asked as she took out her wallet.

The photographer reached her hand out as though she was waiting. The people watching started laughing. The photographer also smiled and took away her hand.

“I don’t plan to accept money for doing something I like. This is something that is part of my resolve as a fan. If you really want to pay me, actor Han should come to our studio and take a photo. We’ll put it on the main display.”

“I’ll make some time to go.”

“You promised, okay?”

After finishing the setup, the photographer joined the group. She raised a small remote control like a conductor’s baton and pointed at the camera. Maru raised his mug, and the fans followed suit.

“Doesn’t this feel too much like a company get-together occasion? It’s way too orderly.”

When someone said that, everyone burst into laughter. That was when the shutter could be heard. The photographer pressed it without any warning. People erupted in complaints everywhere, about how they had their eyes closed, had an ugly smile, or were covering their faces.

“This is much prettier than looking stiff.”

The photographer brought the camera over. Maru was the first one to see the photo on the screen. Not a single person was looking at the camera. They were all looking at each other and smiling joyfully. It was a very liberal photo, and also something that made him smile just by looking at it.

Instead of the front, the people’s gazes were focused on the woman wearing a pink blouse in the middle row towards the right. It was obvious where the source of the laughter came from.

“Look at this, I have my eyes closed.”

“Heck, that is still better than me. Look at me, my mouth is wide open.”

“I think I came out quite pretty. I had a hunch that something like this would happen, so I tensed up.”

The fans shared their opinions while looking at the photo. Maru thought that the fan meeting would proceed without a problem even if he disappeared. They got along so well that they would probably have fun without Han Maru at a ‘Han Maru fan meetup.’ He would be sweating profusely if people spoke intermittently in a stiff manner, but they thankfully got along with each other like long-time friends, which put him at ease.

“It’s a good thing that we did this, huh?” Sora remarked in a small voice from the side.

Maru nodded without hesitation. He felt that he would have regretted it if he didn’t do it. Just the fact that there were so many people cheering for him like this made him energized. Unless the acting was done for self-satisfaction, actors were bound to pursue the love of the audience. This moment would probably push his back in the future when he started to feel regret about becoming an actor or became exhausted; it was the motivation to allow him to think that he can do a little more.

“Actor Han! I have a wish for you.”

“As long as it’s not to reenact what I did in the talk show, then anything is fine.”

“How quick-witted. I was going to ask you to do that.”

“Please spare me. It’s been giving me nightmares ever since it spread around on the internet.”

“Then how about a song instead?”

When the fan that brought it up started to say ‘sing, sing’ in an urging manner, the other fans around followed suit. Just a minute ago, he was proud to see the fans unite, but now, he was slightly sad that there was not a single voice of opposition.

“Then I’ll try singing my favorite song. I’m not that good, so don’t expect too much.”

He used a straw as a microphone and started singing. Although he wasn’t even good enough to be called a good singer, it wasn’t unpleasant to the ears, perhaps thanks to the fact that he practiced his vocalization every day. His innate voice wasn’t too bad either. As singing was a part of acting, he didn’t feel that repulsed by it. After all, he had sung quite a few times on stages when things were delayed. He couldn’t exactly pull out when his job was to keep them interested.

He closed his eyes for a brief moment to remember the lyrics he couldn’t remember and opened them again. A familiar scenery folded out in front of him. Camera lenses gleamed instead of human eyes.

Maru continued singing as he started walking around. The cameras followed him, which made his prankster nature kick in and made him start running around everywhere. The cameras followed him busily. If Sora didn’t grab him by the arm midway, he would’ve tried going upstairs too.

“Now you’re enjoying it, huh?” Sora said.

He couldn’t deny that. Now that the pressure had lessened, his mouth and body became lighter. He was reminded of the joys of talking to strangers during the days he drove a bus.

As he moved around busily while singing, he was sweating by the end of it. He marveled at how professional singers and dancers could do their job for hours for a concert.

“Should we let actor Han rest a little and watch the video prepared? It’s a video prepared by Miss Yoon Youngseon.”

While he made another cup of coffee, Sora was installing a monitor on one of the café tables. It seemed that she intended to use the laptop for the speakers and have the video come out through the monitor. The fan who created the video inserted a USB stick on the laptop. Maru watched the monitor half with expectations and half with worries because he didn’t know what was in it.

“I’ll turn the lights off.”

The café owner pulled down the blinds and turned the lights off, and it became pretty dark. The fan controlled the laptop along with the words that she was going to start. The video window popped up, followed by some relaxing music. Was it something touching? He was weak to things like that.

‘Han Maru’ - The three characters that made up his name popped up on the screen. Along with some white noise, the play he did for the acting competition when he was in high school was played back. Maru leaned forward and watched the screen. He, as well as his friends from several years ago, were there. His memories told him that his acting was pretty decent, but now that he actually saw it, it was very awkward.

“Where did you get this?”

“Someone uploaded it to the fan café.”

He never knew that there were things like this in the fan café that he didn’t even visit that frequently. He felt grateful and apologetic at the same time. This wasn’t the only place that had the fans he had to look after. Although the fans wouldn’t know because of the low resolution, Maru felt like it was vivid as though he was there. This was a big gift for him. Although not everything that happened was good, it seemed to have become good memories, and he smiled the whole time. The following clips were from the movies and dramas that he shot. Some sound effects and subtitles were added throughout as well. Producers always told him that shooting was nothing compared to editing. Maru thanked the producer of this video once again. Not only did she find all sorts of clips to stick together, she also added all sorts of effects so that it wouldn’t look boring. It must not have been an easy job. Maru was thankful that she did it purely because she was a fan.

After the act that received good reviews in Doctors, a soundtrack that seemed to signal the end flowed out. Although he watched calmly the whole time, he was quite touched on the inside. There were many occurrences behind the acting that happened on the surface. The stories that the fans wouldn’t know about made his nose tingle. He was an adult, so he couldn’t just start crying on the spot. He pressed down on his palm to calm down his emotions. He could see himself smiling calmly.

“It’s not over yet.”

And just as he had expected, what replaced the emotional code at the end was his figure during the talk show. Even the things he did in the kal-guksu restaurant were mixed within. As though to show that her editing skills hadn’t been maxed out yet, the video displayed a splendid level of editing skills.

“I was wondering where that went.”

He had somewhat become immune to it and had mostly given up on it, so he was able to laugh with the others. He even got swept up in the mood and danced along with the video. Although he was overwhelmed with regret by the end of it, it was already a thing of the past.

After the commotion died down, Sora left the café, saying that she had something to prepare. Maru talked to the fans that looked at him.

“It looks like I’ve talked enough about myself, and above all, that video seems to have compressed my life into the whole thing, so I wish to hear about you all now. I don’t care what it is. If you have anything you want to tell me or want to discuss what you’re going to eat for dinner, talk to me about it. Heck, even talking about the global oil prices is fine.”

Chatting all at once was no pressure, but getting attention seemed to be a little too much for them as no fan spoke up easily. Just as he thought that he should talk about an episode that happened during a shoot, one of the women raised her hand.

“It’s nothing amazing, but I just want to say that you gave me a lot of energy through your acting.”

“Through my acting?”

The woman introduced herself. Her name was Eunhye, and she worked at a middle-sized company with a terrible salary.

“It was back when I couldn’t pay rent for two months and was having a hard time. As you know, it feels terrible when you have to pay utility bills and rent but you don’t have any money in hand. It wasn’t even my fault either as the company just wasn’t paying me, so it was frustrating. But in dramas, people who supposedly lead hard lives live in huge houses and ride expensive cars, even though the ones who really lead hard lives can’t even dream of such things. That was when I saw you in Doctors. Of course, there were many dramas that talked about the sorrows of young men and women, but your acting combined with the story made it look really genuine and consoling.”

After talking smoothly, the woman stuttered at the end, saying ‘I just felt like that.’ It seemed that she was flustered because she didn’t know what to say. Maru followed up so as to not put her in an awkward spot,

“I think that was the biggest compliment I received this year. There are no words more valuable than what you just said to an actor. I was consoled, I was able to laugh, I felt my heart ache — by looking at your acting. I’ll try my best to become an actor like that in the future as well, so as to not disappoint all of you here.”

Although his comment had been forged through business statements, there was no lie in his meaning. The fans applauded. When people started talking heatedly about Doctors again, Sora appeared with a huge box in her hand. When he asked, she answered that it was some hand cream and some sun cream packaged into neat boxes.

“You should hand them out, seonbae.”

“When did you get something like this prepared?”

“I ripped them off of Sooil-oppa. I asked if he could prepare some gifts for your fan meetup.”

“I guess I should thank him later.”

“Try calling him on video right now.”

“If I do, this place will turn into a Yoo Sooil fan meetup, you know? It’s my fan meeting, so it should be about me.”

“You know, you get jealous quite easily.”

“It’s because this is my first fan meetup. Satisfied?”

Maru smiled and took out the gifts from the box.

KTLChamber's Thoughts

Now then, author. I was rather bored in this chapter. Show me what this build up is for.

Editor's Note:

Oh hey Eunhye came back.

Chapter 930
Crank Up 4

“Thanks for looking out for me. People liked it. Thanks to you, I was able to keep some face.”

-I’m glad they liked it. I was worried that they wouldn’t since it was prepared in a hurry.

“Despite that, the packaging and the brand were quite high-class, though. I didn’t know that well, but one of the fans told me that the hand cream cost 30 thousand won, and the sun cream 50 thousand. I was surprised after hearing the price.”

-A friend of mine is doing his first fan meetup, so I can’t gift cheap things, can I? They say the feelings behind the gift are important, but the gift itself is important too. Above all, though, I had some money laying around.

“Sure you did. Since you were spending, why not prepare luxury bags or something?”

-There’s a limit to my wealth.

“Anyway, thanks. I’ll repay you with anything whenever I can.”

Sooil laughed in a small voice over the phone.

-Then just show up at my fan meetup in the future. I’ll let things equal out with just that.

“When are you doing it?”

-Soon, I think. As for the place, I think I’m going to rent the SC central hall. There’s dancing practice and singing practice scheduled starting next month, so it’ll be after that which will coincide with my debut anniversary.

“That’s a huge place you’re renting. How many people can it hold?”

-I’m not entirely sure, but there are at least 800 seats.

“800, huh? That’s on a completely different scale to mine. If you’re renting that place, the fans must be paying for tickets then.”

-Yeah.

Someone seemed to have called Sooil, as Sooil said ‘hold on’ away from the phone.

-I think I should hang up. The shoot is starting.

“Alright, do your best.”

-Okay. Anyway, congratulations on your first fan meetup. Hope you do well in the future too. Oh, yeah, by the way, I’m moving into that apartment next week too. Be sure to visit.

“So you’re coming too, huh.”

-You love it, don’t you?

“I love it to death. I’m going to push everyone to your side, so you take care of them. Bar Han Maru is closed the day after you move in.”

He chuckled mockingly at Sooil, who shouted no at him. Maru looked toward the back seat. There were about ten boxes of gifts left after handing them out to the fans.

“You prepared a lot without me knowing. Thanks. I got to be known as quite sensible thanks to you.”

Sora shrugged as she drove.

“The main character’s job is done as long as he shows up. Also, since it was me who planned this whole thing, I should be the one to have prepared it as well. I wouldn’t be able to forgive myself if I finished things off awkwardly. You worked hard too. People would’ve thought that you were cocky if you acted all lofty, but you brought yourself down a moderate amount and hung out with them. Maybe it’s because of that, but there’s a review already.”

Sora used her phone with one hand before handing it over to him. It was a blog that had a smiling baby as the background. He had a look at the fan meetup review that came up 10 minutes ago. There were photos from the beginning of the meetup to the end along with some text. This person seemed to have managed a blog for a long time, as the layout of text and photographs was good, and reading it was easy.

“It’s a blog with 40,000 visitors a day. She’s someone who usually posts things regarding childcare, but she sometimes uploads articles about her favorite actors. She’s skilled enough to post on magazines, and she wrote such a good post for you without any pay, so you lucked out.”

“Maybe I should thank her in the comments.”

“I don’t recommend that. Fans and actors should have a certain sense of distance between them. Meeting offline like this is fine since it has meaning and only happens once in a blue moon, but there are people who don’t think well of personal expressions of thanks from actors. Well, there are celebrities who interact with other netizens on the internet, but they’re only fine because of the image they have built up over a long time.”

“Somehow, you’re more knowledgeable than me.”

“I studied a little because of the team presentation. I’m also in the industry to a certain extent. Once you become a little more famous, you’ll probably get someone who’ll manage your social networks for you. The businesses that work with the advertising department of our company usually do a lot of marketing through famous celebrities, and most of the time, they have separate people who manage the accounts. The company is looking out for the reputation of its entertainer. Apparently, some posts even have to go through approval before being posted.”

“A successful celebrity is practically a small corporation themself.”

“That’s it. The money that person earns might not be that much, but there might be hundreds of millions of won revolving around that person, so it’s not surprising that their public image is regulated.”

The car stopped in front of a pedestrian crossing. When the pedestrian lights were flashing green, a couple ran over from afar. Sora watched the couple as they walked past the front of the car and went off to the other side.

“Work is going so smoothly, but why is there no progress in my romantic business?”

“If I could discern that and resolve it for you, I would’ve quit being an actor. I would’ve become a billionaire just by writing books related to love.”

“That’s true. It’d be much easier if mister Koo Ando quit his old-fashioned ways. There’s no law stating that a man should be the one earning money, is there? If the woman earns more, then the woman can just be the breadwinner.”

“It’s a peculiar problem that’s not entirely related to pride, so don’t be too harsh on him.”

“I know that, and that’s why I’m enduring. He told me he gave up on going back to college and that he would find a job, but whatever it is, I just wish he can finally get some leisure. Only then will I find an opening to exploit.”

Sora pressed the gas pedal as she grumbled. The car jerked up and down as though to represent her feelings. Looking at her like this, it seemed she was still a kid.

“Do you not have a date when Daemyung-oppa will finish his next scenario?”

“Well, I’m sure he has a lot on his mind. He saw potential through the work this time, but it didn’t lead to profit.”

“No matter how much I think about it, I think he should stop wanting to dip his hands into production and should just focus on writing. He has the talent for it, so he should make the most of it.”

“Considering Daemyung’s personality, he’ll probably focus everything on one thing. He might look wishy-washy at a glance, but he has a stubborn personality. The problem is that the stubbornness is focused on the production side.”

“He’ll probably change his mind if he gets acknowledged as a writer by writing something good, right?”

“It’s highly probable. As long as he is human, he can’t be free from the problems of living expenses. Personally, I’m like you and want him to focus on writing.”

“You should ask him indirectly later. For some reason, I sound like I’m nagging him if I ask.”

“Alright.”

The car stopped at the entrance to the apartment complex.

“If I can do as I wish, I would love to have you treat me, but I have a prior engagement with my parents.”

“That’s such a pity. I would’ve prepared you a feast.”

Sora frowned and scoffed, sarcastically agreeing with him.

“What should I do with the leftover gifts? Do you want them?”

“If I take them, they’ll probably rot in a corner of my room. How about you use them? Or you can give them to your business partners as gifts.”

“I’ll be thankful if I can take them. I’ll leave now; have a good rest. Thanks for today.”

“You too, have a safe drive home.”

After checking that Sora’s car had left the apartment complex, Maru went to his apartment. He patted the dogs that rushed to him the moment he opened the door before taking a shower. While he got washed up, he recalled the faces of the people he met during the fan meetup. He couldn’t remember them all, but some of those that gave him a deeper impression would probably remain in his mind until the day he retires as an actor.

He gave the dogs some food before turning on his laptop. He tried going to the Han Maru fan café that he had forgotten about for a while. He had added it to his favorites, but it had still been such a long time since he had last visited. The managerial members seemed to have undergone a change as the front banner changed. The sharp-feeling calligraphy on top of the photo was very eye-catching. Before, it was just a captured image from a video.

He saw a clearly managed banner and the post section under the front page that felt like it was designed by a professional. The OST for ‘Doctors’ flowed out of his laptop speakers as well. Maru hummed along with the song and clicked the latest post that came up on the ‘schedules’ section. It was about the fan meetup.

Maru could tell who the poster was in an instant. It was because there was a photo he took with that person. Her story was also rather peculiar and remained inside his head. She was the lady who worked at a middle-sized company with a terrible salary.

Unlike how she stuttered when she spoke, the writing was very smoothly written. Perhaps this was why earning the hearts of the fans was important. Leaving aside all the other reasons, it was very clear in an economic sense as well. They proactively promoted the actor they were fans of without taking payment. He hoped that he would continue to feel grateful whenever he saw posts like this. If he accepted the goodwill of the fans as a given, then he would probably be at the end of his career. Fans were more passionate than anyone else, but conversely, they could become colder than anyone else as well. The moment they realize that the actor they liked had changed, their passion towards the actor they respected would cool down in an instant. He hoped that he would always stay grateful for the small interest and cheers.

After reading the post, Maru added a comment. Blogs were extremely personal spaces, so like Sora said, he had to be careful when writing something, even if it was something small like an appreciation message. However, it should be fine to leave behind a message on his own fan café. He commented that it was fun to talk to her today and that he wanted to meet people he wasn’t able to meet today if there’s a next time.

Some people seemed to have set up notifications as other comments soon followed up. There were various comments ranging from those asking if he was really Han Maru, as well as those that said that he looks much better in real life.

Judging that he should leave behind a greeting message, he looked for the actor-specific section that the managing members had set up. A single post – the greeting he left behind before – was the only thing there. Maintaining a sense of distance was one thing, but he thought that he should express his goodwill towards the fans that had been with him since he was nameless.

He uploaded the photo he got sent via the messenger app and wrote a short review. Before he clicked the post button, he was reminded of a good idea. He leaned his phone against the sofa and took a video. He put his dogs in his arms next to him and took a bow, saying that he had fun.

He attached the video at the end of the post and uploaded the post. He didn’t know how many of them would watch it, but he wanted the fans that came today to see it at least.

He was scrolling down just a little to see what other posts there were when a number caught his eye. It was the number of café members. Was there an error? Maru narrowed his eyes and had a look again. No matter how hard he looked, there were 3,500 members.

The number of members had multiplied by dozens while he had lost interest. It might be tiny compared to fan cafés of idol bands with hundreds of thousands of members, but Maru was shocked. 3,500 might look like a simple number, but if that number of people stood before his eyes, he would be overwhelmed.

There were twenty comments on the post he had just written. Maru crossed his arms and looked at the laptop from some distance.

“So, I’m kinda major among the minor group?”

He laughed to himself after uttering some weird logic.

KTLChamber's Thoughts

Here we go, let's propel Maru to fame everyone!

Editor's Note:

I won't believe it until I read it.

Chapter 931
Crank Up 4

Try working things out with him — was there a time when these words got on her nerves so much? Gaeul picked up a mango with her fork and spoke,

“Giwoo is just a friend. There is nothing to work out with him.”

The senior sitting opposite her looked taken aback.

“I thought you two looked good together. I think many people do.”

“Please don’t do that. It might make things awkward for us.”

“Giwoo looks like he has feelings for you though.”

“I’m sure he’s joking around, and it doesn’t matter even if he’s not. Giwoo and I are just friends.”

“If you’re worried about rumors, then don’t. Kids these days date perfectly well in cars. It’s not like people apologize to death like before if they get caught for it either. You’re at an age where you should be dating, aren’t you? Someone like Giwoo is really decent too. Don’t put so much distance and try meeting him. Heck, he’s from a rich family too.”

The sweet mango tasted bitter. Gaeul put down her fork and wiped her mouth with some tissue. She had a hard time staying seated. She had come for a vacation, so there was no need to keep listening to something unpleasant.

“I’ll stand up first. You can go ahead and finish the rest.”

“Gaeul.”

Being a quick-witted senior, she probably immediately realized what her actions meant. She would probably no longer try to couple Giwoo and her together. If she still tried to indirectly probe her out about this, then she would tell her firmly that she didn’t have a shred of intention to do well with Giwoo.

Just why did this keep coming up? This was the third time she had heard about it already. Did Kang Giwoo ask them for help? She could laugh it over if it was said half as a joke and in passing, but she felt furious when she was directly asked about it like right now. She left the terrace and walked over to the beach. She walked past two foreigner couples and dipped her feet into the sea. If it was Korea, she would immediately take her feet out because of the cold, but here, it wasn’t that cold even though it was December. As the seawater brushed past her feet and drained away, her iffy feelings were washed away with it. Perhaps this was why people often looked for the sea when they felt complex.

She took out her earbuds and started listening to her favorite songs. She would get lonely if there wasn’t anyone around her, but sometimes, she would desperately long for solitude, especially on a day like today, when she heard something unpleasant in the morning of a perfectly good day.

That was why she snapped out when a hand tapped her shoulder. Not only that, the fact that the owner of that hand was Kang Giwoo was the worst possible thing that could happen in this place where the green seawater and the white sand were beautiful.

“This place is really good.”

Giwoo sat down next to her without asking. Gaeul pressed her earbuds with the intention to block her ears. She also raised the volume by around 10. She felt a little better when she heard the loud thumping of the bass guitar. At this point, she couldn’t be bothered to tell him off or even hint about it. It felt like a waste of energy to try and make him understand the simple concept of ‘I hate you.’

Kang Giwoo stopped talking as though he realized that his voice wouldn’t reach her no matter what he blabbed on about. It would be great if he just left like this since she didn’t want to yield this spot where the seawater washed up just the right amount. She flicked her finger on her knees and focused on the music. He should probably leave soon unless he had some weird fetish for talking to a wall.

Suddenly, something was placed on her hand that was tapping on her knee according to the rhythm. Gaeul opened her eyes and looked at Giwoo’s hand that covered hers. She looked at the side of his face. He was looking at the sea as though nothing happened. She didn’t feel angry. In fact, she felt indifferent, as though it was a piece of plastic that touched her hand. But, that didn’t mean that she wouldn’t take action. She didn’t know whether he got caught up in the mood or had gone half-crazy, but he would have to pay the price for doing something that he wouldn’t be able to bear the consequences of. She didn’t show any signs. It was he who made a shameless action without warning. She grabbed Giwoo’s index finger and snapped it backwards. Giwoo screamed as though it was totally unexpected. It seemed that he had no room to brag about his manliness. When she let go, Giwoo hurriedly checked his index finger.

“It won’t break with just that, but I’d love to tell you that it can break if you do what you did just one more time. Now I’m finally sure. There’s no value in talking to a beast that you can’t get through to.”

Giwoo stood up while rubbing his finger. He seemed to know some shame at least. She stared at him to see him leave. A strange smile crept onto his face from an expression of pain. Gaeul took out one of her earbuds and stood up.

“You sit here then. I’ll leave.”

“Are you responding like this because you got hurt by a man? If it’s like that, I can understand you. I should’ve been more careful.”

“I don’t know where you pull your bullshit out from.”

“From how I see it, I hit the bullseye.”

“Did you finally set your mind to it today?”

“It’s because you got dumped by Maru.”

She wondered when he was going to bring that up. She didn’t know whether it was because of his pride or because he was probing her, but he finally brought it up. It seemed like Kang Giwoo had set his mind to it today.

“It has nothing to do with you.”

“To my eyes, it’s not like that. I understand you. It’s true that Maru is a good friend of mine, but he lacks compared to you. Such a guy kicked you away, so it’s not surprising that you’re having a hard time. I’m sure you’re rejecting all advances from other people because of that.”

He seemed convinced. His ‘own world’ was disgustingly firm. She would love to tell him that he had been totally fooled, but she brought out her patience.

“Also, where did you hear something like that? That Maru and I were going out, and that we broke up. Not many people know about it.”

She decided to go along with him. It didn’t look like he was going to go away just because she kept rejecting him. Instead, she planned to ask him difficult questions.

“Mijoo told me.”

Giwoo obediently spilled everything. She thought he would be roundabout with his answer, so she asked while pretending to be taken aback.

“Mijoo?”

“I asked her because Mijoo seemed to be worried about you, and that came up. It seems like she tried not to interfere with your relationship that much since it’s a personal thing, but it seems like she had a problem with your relationship with him after all. After all, she did say it like she wanted my help. Of course, I might be wrong about all this.”

He had twisted the truth in an abstruse way. It was true that Mijoo had committed a mistake, but she had never asked for his help. She instantly understood Giwoo’s intentions. He was intending to ruin the relationship between her and Mijoo. He probably calculated that there would be an opening for him to exploit if she had fewer and fewer people to speak her heart to. The if-I’m-wrong-oh-well right at the end was the epitome of self-defense. This way, he would be able to escape the responsibility later. She could practically hear his head churning from all the way where she was. However, it seemed that Giwoo still hadn’t realized that he should look at the opponent before trying to write fiction. In this field, the man who was next to him when she woke up every morning was second to none. This man looked down on a woman who lived with such a man.

“I see.”

“I found out unintentionally, but honestly, I felt happy. It gave me an opportunity to approach you. I know that you were hurt because of Maru, and I want to help you heal it.”

“Yes, I perfectly understand what you’re trying to get at. Since you know about it, I don’t have a reason to hide it either. I am utterly disgusted by your actions. The way you tattletale other people’s mistakes is like a kindergartener, and any sort of friendship I felt towards you is instantly reduced to nothing.”

Giwoo visibly showed with his eyes that things weren’t going the way he expected. It seemed that he didn’t know how to react when his plans didn’t go the way he expected since everyone around him showed him goodwill, and he had never gotten caught doing something bad with that smart head of his. Gaeul felt that he was really like a little kid.

“If you want to grumble about something, then look for someone else.”

“Gaeul.”

“Also, if you’re spreading something funny to other people, you better stop, if you don’t want to be shamed. You know what I mean, right?”

Giwoo, who never stopped talking, fell silent for the first time. Gaeul thought that it was over now. The shoot was over, so there was no reason for her to hold back. It was fine even if this ruined their relationship. If she ever had to work with him again for a shoot, she would rather sleep at home without thinking about anything.

“Shamed?”

Giwoo, who spoke after a long time, made a dry smile and tilted his head, repeating the word ‘shamed.’

“I’m almost fed up now, Gaeul.”

“Fed up?”

“Don’t take things too far. There’s no loss for you in this. I get that your pride was hurt because you got rejected by a third-rate actor while dating him. So, I’m telling you that you should recover that pride next to me and reclaim your true worth. You know, people should hang out with others in their own league. You don’t realize that you’re in a pit of maggots. It’s not surprising. You were born like that. But I can lead you out of that place. Let’s be honest. Love? Sure, it’s important, but you aren’t going to rely on that for your entire life. In the end, the people next to you are nothing more than accessories.”

Giwoo had thrown away a little of the shell that covered him. This was much better. It would be much better on his conscience to advertise himself as total trash rather than forcefully wrapping that disgusting personality of his with something different.

“Kang Giwoo, you are a total lowlife, huh.”

“I know the true hearts of people. I’ve seen them countless times ever since I was young. People act proud, lofty, amazing, and as if they have a conscience. But in the end, it’s all just a temporary method that’s used to survive. They’re bound to take it off in front of the thing that they truly want. I’m sure you’re the same.”

“Can you not treat me like you? I feel like I’m going to vomit what I just ate.”

“The reason you’re doing this is ultimately to raise your value as a woman. How much more should I woo you? There’s a trend for decorations. Bear in mind that worth falls with time.”

“My worth as a woman, huh? I’ve heard something good today, so let me return with something else.”

Gaeul raised her middle finger.

“Fuck off.”

KTLChamber's Thoughts

Gee. Giwoo's gonna retaliate now, isn't he?

Editor's Note:

Let's just hope he retaliates when Maru is nearby.

Chapter 932
Crank Up 4

Choi Hoseon calmed her breathing in front of the door. There was nothing on her that the person on the other side of the door could nitpick about. She had chosen the most plain clothes from her luggage to wear and prepared some fruits according to the senior’s tastes. She also did not forget that the senior only drank brand-name carbonated water. She lightly knocked on the door before waiting. If she knocked again because there was no response from the other side, a pillow might get flung at her. It would be fortunate if it was a pillow too. If what entered her hands was an ashtray, that ashtray would fly right at her. Fortunately, there was a response asking who it was.

“Senior, it’s me, Hoseon. I prepared a light meal because you didn’t seem to have eaten breakfast.”

“Come in.”

Hoseon pushed open the door and went inside. She saw Lee Miyoon watching the sea from the balcony. She quickly scanned the room. A wine bottle with the cork missing was placed on the table and dirty wine glasses rolled on the floor. The duvet was unkempt and the carrier was still sealed. She first picked up the glass and placed it on the table before unpacking the food she brought.

“Senior, would you like some sandwiches? It was pretty decent with some fruit.”

She couldn’t use any assertive words. This senior was someone who would nitpick with speech. If she spoke without thinking, she would receive a sharp reprimand instead.

“Can you give me some water?”

Senior Lee just reached her hand backwards. Hoseon quickly poured some water and placed it in her hand. She chewed on the water like she would bread before finally standing up from the chair on the balcony.

“So you remember what I drink.”

“As a junior, it is natural for me to remember the preferences of a senior. As for the sandwich, there’s one with ham and one without. Which one would you like?”

“Give me the one with ham. I want something filling.”

Hoseon placed the sandwich on a small plate before giving it to senior Lee. After having a taste of the sandwich, senior Lee told her to sit next to her. That was her way of saying that they should eat together, and they were also the words that Hoseon had been waiting for.

“Is everyone else doing well?”

“I think they’re a little bored without you around, senior.”

“Damn girl. I can see that they’re overjoyed to not see me. But still, that makes me feel better. Would you like some wine?”

“I’ll pour some for you.”

She brought two wine glasses from on top of the fridge and poured some wine. As grape wine was sweet and sour, she would never even touch it usually, but she had to pretend to enjoy it since she had to look good in front of the senior. Other people would shun the idea of coming to meet this senior, but Hoseon thought differently. It was true that she wasn’t someone to befriend deeply, but this senior possessed power. She not only had influence over the producers and the writers, but she was also one of the rare few who could directly contact the head of the drama department. She was afraid of this senior and it wasn’t like she didn’t want to put some distance, but more than that, she wanted to become closer to her and become a cherished junior to acquire the wings known as ‘Lee Miyoon.’ Life started and ended with connections, did it not? Just like how the fruits of labor were sweet, she was bound to get some good stuff if she endured.

She listened and responded to senior Lee’s words like a doll that would clap at the flick of a switch. She even smiled and agreed with words that she inwardly didn’t agree with. It was only hard at the beginning, but after getting used to it, she could smile voluntarily. If their future could be promised just by listening to some grumbles of an elderly, anyone would do this.

“I’ll introduce you to a film director next time.”

“No, senior. That’s not why I’m doing this.”

“What do you mean you’re not? I can see it in your eyes. But heck, obvious girls like you are much better. At least much better than those who deceive until the very end and backstab at the end.”

Perhaps she was drunk, but senior Lee started lamenting about her own situation when she would usually never talk about herself. Was she conned or something? While Hoseon felt curious, she stayed quiet as though she had heard nothing. The change in her emotions was like a squall. One of this senior’s specialties was to retract her smile like nothing and suddenly start roasting people, no?

Senior Lee was patting her head saying that Hoseon was a good junior, but then she abruptly jumped up from her seat when she heard her phone. Hoseon had a glimpse of her eyes, and they were sharp to the point that they freaked her out. She had the same eyes as the day she slapped Han Gaeul’s cheek with her bag. Hoseon instinctively felt that she would not get anything good by staying here. She had been reading other people’s moods for 10 years and knew that this was the time to run away.

“Senior, I’ll be taking my leave now.”

Senior Lee just waved at her without even looking at her. That was probably her way of being considerate. It was also a warning that she would smash her if she said one more word. As she was closing the door, she heard a sharp screeching voice,

“So what, you’re saying you can’t do anything or what! I want that bitch in Japan and the men below me to…”

She wanted to listen some more, but she immediately closed the door. If she kept listening, perhaps a slap like Han Gaeul wouldn’t be the end of it. She started sweating profusely. As she had done all she could, she decided that she wouldn’t come anywhere near this place until the end of the trip.

Hoseon placed the empty plates on the cart in the corridor before leaving the hotel. She couldn’t see anyone from the drama team as it was free time until dinner. It seemed that everyone had formed groups and headed to nearby tourist spots. Just as she was wondering what she should do to kill time, she saw Gaeul walking over to the hotel.

Why was she upset? Hoseon recalled the conversation she had with Gaeul about an hour ago. She told her to work things out with Kang Giwoo, but Gaeul stood up from her seat as though she couldn’t be bothered to talk about it. That was Hoseon’s way of being considerate of her, but her response was lukewarm, which made her feel strange. Giwoo should be more than worthy of her, yet Gaeul was feeling that he wasn’t enough?

Kang Giwoo, who dressed up well and always had a kind smile on his face, was one of the hottest topics that would always come up when actresses gather. There were many who said that they fell for the gentle side that he showed during shoots. Many of the female staff were the same. It was just that since he was such a decent man, everyone thought that he must have a lover, and even if he didn’t, they would just admire him from afar because reaching out to him was too burdensome for them. He was the grandson of YM Group’s chairman after all. During the last get-together, Hoseon asked him what he thought of older women as dating partners as a joke. Giwoo said that he would love to have an older lover who would act cute for him. That ‘noona’ figure might not be Hoseon herself, but she still felt shaken.

“Gaeul, did something happen?”

“It’s nothing.”

“You don’t look good.”

“Maybe I stayed under the sun for too long. I should go inside and get some rest.”

She really didn’t look good, so Hoseon didn’t hold her back and told her to get some rest. Was she on her period or something? Ever since the hot fight with senior Lee, Gaeul received attention and love from the whole drama team, but Hoseon didn’t think that it was that good. It was true that senior Lee’s personality was flawed enough that she deserved a scolding, but she was a sniper after all. A great senior that no new actors would even dare look at. She might be feeling unjustified that she got hit on the cheek, but there was something called karma, so Gaeul must have done something wrong as well. Heck, even taking a hundred steps back, Hoseon could understand why she snapped at senior Lee, but she didn’t think well of the fact that Gaeul did not go to her later to make up with her. In the world of actors, hierarchy was pretty important.

The reason Korean people placed importance on class years in college and debut years in the entertainment industry was all to maintain a strict hierarchy. There were some actors that said that lining people up according to generations was a product of the past, but Hoseon believed that there were advantages and disadvantages. If there was no hierarchy, the bond between seniors and juniors wouldn’t be as strong, and the warm affectionate tradition of supporting the seniors and leading the juniors would disappear. There were both advantages and disadvantages to this tradition, so just dismissing it as something bad was childish.

In that sense, the fact that Gaeul did not apologize was definitely a mistake on her part. She might feel like she’s something because everyone raised her to a pedestal, but in the long term, this would act as a detriment to Gaeul. She wouldn’t be able to say anything to a junior much younger than her in the future because she had done the same. If she wants respect, she should know how to bend, but maybe because she got so popular at such a young age, it looked like she knew how to take care of herself, or maybe it was her innate personality.

Hoseon wanted to give her a scolding as a senior, but she honestly didn’t have any courage to say anything to her when she thought back to the scene when Gaeul went back against senior Lee. She could smile so coldly in front of senior Lee. She probably wouldn’t even scoff if Hoseon herself said anything to her.

“I want to be popular too.”

She subconsciously grumbled. Ultimately, she was just envious of Han Gaeul. That bold personality of hers, that soul-stirring acting skill, and a charming set of facial features to top it off – did God not consider ‘average’ when he made people? It was too unfair. What was she supposed to do with such a powerful girl right in front of her eyes? The only thing she felt was a sense of inferiority, and the only thing that decreased was her self-confidence.

While she had lived a decent career where some people would acknowledge her, she could only sigh whenever she tried comparing Han Gaeul to her in just one year. Hoseon was a lot older too and had debuted a lot earlier. Whether it was skill, appearance, personality, courage, or even the interest of men, Gaeul was superior in every way, so she probably felt like life was worth living. It would be great if Hoseon shared just a little bit of those.

She stopped thinking about such useless things and looked around the nearby stores. She desperately needed some sweet fruit juice. There was nothing better than fruit juice to soothe her iffy feelings.

Just as she was walking to a front store, she saw Kang Giwoo walking over while covering his hand with the other. If Han Gaeul was a regional rain, it was a huge typhoon this time. He looked like he had just heard that his family had gone bankrupt. Hoseon rushed over to Giwoo in a heartbeat. She was worried about him.

“Giwoo, what happened?”

Giwoo flinched and raised his head before making a gentle smile. How good was this boy? It was likely that his kind personality to not want to inconvenience others made him retract his worries.

“Senior.”

“Yeah?”

“Can you listen to me for a little?”

Hoseon watched as Giwoo approached her and just nodded ardently. She didn’t know the specifics, but the smell of perfume that tickled her nose was really good.

KTLChamber's Thoughts

This Hoseon woman is clearly a bigger opportunist than even Maru…… She's judging of others, which Maru isn't.

Editor's Note:

An opportunist is a very adapt description.

Chapter 933
Crank Up 4

He was so cheerful during the morning yet… Hoseon took Giwoo, who had thinned out in a mere few hours, to a nearby café. She had him sit down at one of the terrace tables and went to the counter. Recalling that he ate quite a bit of mango during his meals, she ordered a cup of mango juice. As there were many Korean tourists around this area, ordering wasn’t that hard. She stood in front of the counter and had a look at Giwoo on the terrace. As this neighborhood wasn’t known for being quick, it would take at least fifteen minutes for the drinks to come out. Should she wait here and go back with the drinks? Or wait with Giwoo? It was a funny worry to have, but Hoseon was totally serious. If Giwoo was smiling like usual, she would go back without hesitation and chat with him, but he looked depressed like he was hosting a funeral, making her unable to go back so easily. Ultimately, she waited 15 minutes in front of the counter. She walked around like an uneasy dog before picking up the drinks.

I even faced senior Lee. This much is nothing — she consoled herself and approached Giwoo.

“Here, drink some of this.”

“Thank you, senior.”

She thought she had her way with her conversation skills, but now that she actually had a depressed man in front of her, she could hardly talk. Not only that, she was even more cautious as the man was someone she felt attracted to. She didn’t want to say anything that might lessen his impression of her or make bold guesses. Kang Giwoo was someone she wanted to befriend as much as Lee Miyoon after all.

Unable to do anything, she emptied half of the mango juice. It was when she was almost getting tired of waiting for Giwoo to speak and had started worrying about what she had to say,

“Senior, I’m sorry. I know that staying quiet isn’t the answer to everything, but having you around me made me relax, so I just stayed still, even though I know it’ll trouble you.”

A droplet of early morning dew at the edge of a blade of grass — that was how feeble this fully grown man’s eyes looked. Hoseon reached her hand out subconsciously. His skin was as fair as a baby’s.

Only after the sensation of touch registered in her head did she realize what she did. He wasn’t a cat that she raised at home. When she became flustered and was about to take her hand off Giwoo’s face, Giwoo smiled brightly. Hoseon looked at his face in a daze. She felt like the heart-throbbing sensation of first love was coming back to her; a time when she liked someone so much that she could smile just from looking at that person’s face from afar was resurfacing.

“You’re a really good person, senior.”

“I’m not really…”

“Had it been anyone else, they would’ve stood up thinking that I was a bothersome guy, but you waited until the end for me to talk. I think you have a really deep heart.”

Her pride that had been suppressed while sucking up to senior Lee, as well as the confidence that had been shaved down in jealousy of Gaeul had been restored with a single word from Giwoo. She even momentarily forgot that she was supposed to be the one giving consolations here. She looked at Giwoo in a daze for a while before coming back to herself.

“I’m sure anyone would’ve done this. You do so much for all of us usually. It’d be nonsensical to not do this much. Also, it’s not like I did anything. All I did was listen.”

“I think that’s what’s important, just watching and listening from the side. It might sound easy at a first glance, but it’s really not. You’re a really good person, senior.”

Hoseon slowly averted her gaze. She felt like she would fall in love if she kept looking. She didn’t know that a weak-looking man could be so fatal. If there were no eyes around, she even wanted to give him a hug and pat him on the back, telling him not to worry because she would listen as much as needed.

Seemingly having recovered to some extent, Giwoo started to drink. Unlike his fair skin, the movement of his throat was very distinct, as though to boast its masculinity. There were times when actresses gathered together and jokingly talked about male actors who might unexpectedly be quite passionate in bed, and Giwoo was in the rankings. Just as she was fantasizing while looking at his neck, shoulders, and wrist, Giwoo smiled bitterly. It was a smile that made her unable to help but ask the reason behind it,

“Did something happen? I’ve been staying still because I might seem nosy, but it’s bothering me.”

“Looks like I can’t control my emotions that well. I’m being pathetic in front of you.”

“You’re only human. Also, what’s so good about seniors? It’s a senior’s job to listen to the worries of a junior at a time like this. Though, I’m sure I’m not that reliable.”

“You’re someone I can trust and rely on, senior.”

Hoseon curled up her toes when she heard that Giwoo seemed to be reliant on her a little. While she didn’t know the specifics, she would gladly dedicate a day if she could be of his help.

“It looks like the feeling of liking someone doesn’t really go the way I expect it to,” Giwoo said as he lowered his head.

So it was about love. Hoseon thought back to Gaeul, who looked like she was in a really low mood when they brushed by. Her intuition told her that something happened between these two.

“If you’re okay with me, then try talking to me about it.”

“Shall I?”

“I’m known for being tight-lipped. I’ll forget about it once we leave this place, so don’t worry.”

“I’m not worried about that. I know what kind of person you are after all. Also, it doesn’t matter even if it does spread around.”

Giwoo downed the mango juice in one go. Hoseon asked if he needed some liquor instead, as she felt that maybe this wasn’t something that should be talked about over some juice.

“I was just craving for some alcohol too. I’ll go order some.”

“No, you just wait. I’ll go order.”

She thought about going back with just two glasses of rum-based mojito, but she then also decided to bring a bottle of Bourbon whiskey. They drank without talking for a while. She drank the whisky and rinsed her mouth with the mojito and water. Meanwhile, Giwoo didn’t even touch the side snacks that she brought and kept drinking the whisky. Just as she was worried that he was going to get drunk while the sun was still up, Giwoo spoke.

“I’m sure everyone knows since I talked about it during the get-together, but I’m attracted to Gaeul.”

She indeed knew about it, but it didn’t feel that good to hear about it in person. She knew that Giwoo was a persimmon she could not reach and pick, but she always had vague hopes. Kang Giwoo and Han Gaeul - the two of them standing side by side definitely made a good picture. Meanwhile, she would perhaps be one of the little dwarves crying in the corner while listening to the love stories of a prince and a princess. Or perhaps the witch that hands the poisoned apple? In any case, it was true that she was just a side character. Even if she consoled Giwoo and listened to his stories, she wouldn’t even appear on the last page of the book. Sitting here was a useless endeavor, yet despite knowing that, she had a hard time leaving. After all, she was under the spotlight while she was here looking after Giwoo. She was being recorded on the main pages.

“You two really suit each other.”

Now that she actually thought that she was just a side character, she had an easier time talking. She thought that she might as well get the ‘grateful noona’ treatment after hooking the two up. Looking at things, it seemed that Giwoo had expressed his feelings to Gaeul, but Gaeul did not accept him. It would be fine as long as she cheered him on with the old adage that there is no tree that will not fall after enough swings of the ax.

“Is that so?”

“Yeah. So don’t feel so down and be more proactive about it. A woman’s heart isn’t always so fickle, but it’s bound to be shaken if the wind is strong. The saying ‘the brave gets the beauty’ isn’t entirely wrong. Giwoo, you’re a really good guy, so if you talk to her calmly about it, Gaeul will open her heart up to you.”

Did that make her seem like an expert in dating? Men had the tendency to resolve the situation by themselves if they were given a little conviction. He might be feeling down because he was rejected, but he should soon get back on his feet as long as she gave him a little push. That was how it was with the men that Hoseon had experienced.

Giwoo shook his head as though that wasn’t what he meant.

“Looks like I didn’t explain enough.”

“What do you mean?”

“I’m not the only one with feelings. Gaeul also showed interest in me. That’s why I brought it up during the get-together. Acting like that without even understanding what she feels is just shameful.”

That was true. Boldly bringing it up like that was only doable if both parties had implicitly agreed to it. This was especially true since their occupations were sensitive in regard to romance.

“Then there shouldn’t be any problems, are there?”

“What I like about Gaeul is her refreshing personality. She doesn’t act coy, nor does she put up any pretenses. I thought that if it was her, our love would last a long time like a friendship. But as I talked to her and got to know her, I started to realize that there’s a disparity between what I knew of her and her real self.”

Giwoo’s tongue had become semi-loose. He started grinning a lot too, and his head would bob up and down from time to time. It seemed that he was seriously drunk. She could tell since he was bringing up secrets so easily. Hoseon hesitated. Should she have him stop here and have him return? Or listen to the end and find out about the secrets of the two? The hesitation didn’t last long as Giwoo started talking,

“It was after she got hit on the cheek by senior Lee Miyoon. I was worried about her and talked to her about it. That was when I found out something strange. After all that’s happened, senior Lee Miyoon is still a senior, but she spoke as though she had done nothing wrong. That was when I started to lose interest in her. I had a look at her again after that. That was when I found out that Gaeul had been talking bad behind everyone’s back.”

“Talking bad?”

Hoseon pulled her chair in. She knew that it would be something like this. She always thought that that impolite junior would be talking crap behind everyone’s back. Some of the actresses she was close to had been talking about how ‘dishonest’ Han Gaeul was for a long time. It seemed clear that that deceitful fox had been talking behind everyone’s backs. No one caught anything from her, but she probably hid it meticulously.

“I can’t talk about this, but I’m only saying it because it’s you, senior.”

Giwoo sighed. He reeked of booze.

KTLChamber's Thoughts

Lol. That last big paragraph says a lot.

"Some of the actresses she was close to." You mean you just hang out with other people just like you.

"Talking crap behind *everyone*'s back." Who's she talking to if she's talking crap behind EVERYONE's back? Get that through your head b*tch.

Editor's Note:

On the bright side, Shitwoo won't chase after her anymore. Shitwoo once again a master at self-sabotage.

Chapter 934
Crank Up 4

It was not a misconception. The gazes she got last night, the whispers that practically asked her to listen, and the mockery that she could hear in the background – Gaeul looked at the actress who snatched the tongs and turned around. Even though she must have known that Gaeul had been waiting to use the tongs, that actress had no hesitation in her actions. She watched as the actress walked over to the fruit section with the buffet plate in her hand. Another actress, who had been talking to a staff member, looked her way. The moment they locked eyes, that actress immediately blinked several times as though she got dust in her eyes before looking away. The staff around her did the same. Even though she was quite a bit away from them, Gaeul could tell that those people were talking behind her back. She thought that she had been overly sensitive because of what happened with Kang Giwoo, but it seemed that she was wrong.

“Unni.”

Mijoo approached her. Her eyes as she looked around looked cautious. Gaeul headed to the dessert section following Mijoo, who dragged her by her sleeve.

“I might be wrong, but the atmosphere seems strange. What do you think, unni?”

“You probably aren’t wrong. Just yesterday, I thought I was overthinking, but now it looks like I was right. Senior Hoseon, senior Woonjeong, senior Minjeong, senior Jimin, and then Ajin - these five people have something against me for sure. There seems to be some among the production crew too.”

“Right? I knew something was strange. They suddenly started to talk badly about you. It’s not like they’re saying outright that they don’t like you, but they’re indirectly mocking you. Did something happen between you and them?”

“The problem is that we aren’t close enough for something to happen. I can’t understand the reason they are doing this all of a sudden.”

“Should I go and try to find out?”

That would be the most reassuring solution, but solving this through Mijoo had the possibility that it might make things more complex instead. Mijoo might get hated by the others too.

“You stay still for now. If someone talks to you about it, just respond accordingly.”

“I can’t do that. You know I have a firm personality. I’ll be angry if someone says anything strange to me.”

“Who am I to tell you to do anything… But anyway, just don’t oppose them so directly. You know how you should act if you want to work for a long time in this industry, right?”

Without firm popularity, a stylist should usually avoid getting involved with bad rumors amongst actors. Mijoo nodded, but she clearly looked disgruntled. It was a joyful thing that there was someone that would unconditionally be on her side. After telling Mijoo to return, Gaeul headed to the salad corner. She stood next to Hoseon, who was getting some kabocha pumpkin salad. Hoseon started sidestepping as though she didn’t expect her to come so close.

“Senior.”

Gaeul took a large stride. She wanted to ask from the front where she could see her face. She wanted to know why this woman had been laughing while giving her glimpses since last night and why she would avert her gaze when they met eyes if she had done nothing wrong. Hoseon froze on the spot while holding the salad spoon. The kabocha pumpkin salad fell from the spoon.

“I called out to you because I am convinced that I’m not mistaken. Senior, you’ve been talking about me since last night, haven’t you?”

“Me?”

“You can’t deny it. Even just now, you pointed at my table with your fork like you were pointing fingers, weren’t you?”

“No, I didn’t.”

“Then what were the things I saw?”

She was used to getting hated for no valid reason. It had been years since she suffered under the hands of Lee Miyoon. If she flipped out just because a few female seniors looked at her and whispered behind her back, she would’ve quit the entertainment industry a long time ago. The reason she asked Hoseon wasn’t that she intended to find trouble with her. Heck, she could hate her all she wants without any reason, so it wasn’t like Gaeul wanted to ask her to stop hating her. There was only one thing she wanted to know — where this cold treatment that arose without any precursors all started. If a senior who didn’t look at her in a good light usually gave her a displeased look even during the vacation, she would just accept it and ignore it. However, in just one day, some of the actress and staff members that she neither had a good nor a bad relationship with started giving her a cold glare as though they had all planned it beforehand, which made her curious. Why were they doing this all of a sudden?

A female staff walked over to Hoseon, who was hesitating. Then she hooked arms with Hoseon before taking her to the table. For the first time ever, Gaeul felt that there was a separate organization with great unity within the Doctor’s Office drama team. The gaze of the staff member that took Hoseon away landed on Gaeul’s face for a brief moment before leaving. It had been quite a long time since she felt something material from someone’s gaze. She wanted to grab her and ask her all about it, but she did not want to interrupt the other people who were enjoying the last day of the holiday. She should just meet the eight people with hostility against her in private.

“I knew you’d be like that.”

It was Lee Miyoon. The queen who had never shown her face throughout the entire vacation had finally come out on a stroll. Gaeul asked as she put some kabocha pumpkin salad on her plate.

“Can you elaborate a little, please? I’m stupid so I don’t understand what you mean.”

“Do you really not know?”

Lee Miyoon picked up a pair of tongs before pointing at some tables as though she was a conductor of an orchestra. They were the tables with the people who had been glaring at her since last night. If a person that was not directly involved in this situation could tell, it meant that their gazes were pretty blatant. The actress and the staff member that met eyes with Lee Miyoon quickly looked down at the floor. That was a drastically different reaction to when Gaeul looked at them. The actress who even sent mockery her way had obediently lowered her head. At this moment, she was envious of Lee Miyoon’s terrible personality and background.

“It’s been a common thing for ages. It’s been repeatedly happening for generations too. When I had pretty and supple skin and a fist-sized waist like you, things would be like this when I didn’t pay attention for just a moment.”

Lee Miyoon picked up a piece of roasted shrimp before asking if she wanted some. She looked especially in a good mood today. Gaeul held out her plate. Her opponent had hidden away her fangs and teeth and bothered to talk to her, so there was no need to pick a fight.

“It’s something that actors commonly experience if they don’t put their mind into managing their reputation. It’s fine to not, for run-of-the-mill dregs because they will never become big, but things like this happen to people like you, a perfect target of jealousy.”

“So you’re saying that those people are acting like that out of jealousy? That doesn’t sound that believable. It’s not like jealousy occurs all at once across multiple people.”

“Usually, yes. But what’s the thing that makes or breaks us? It’s rumors. You should handle yourself better. You were playing around with me, so what does it make me when you suffer from people like them? I hope you can protect my pride. Like I said before, I only have you around because you’re a toy I can play around with, and I don’t deal with crude toys.”

“So people hit their toys these days, huh.”

“You can tell me whatever you want today. I’m on a roll today. I think I can laugh even if I get slapped by you.”

“Since we’re on the topic, can I try hitting you? It’ll make me feel refreshed.”

“Sure, go ahead.”

Now that this woman, who had been holed up in her room with a serious face throughout the entire vacation, was all smiles and even held her cheek out, Gaeul felt her energy draining. She would only feel well if she fought against this woman while glaring at each other. She watched as Lee Miyoon put some food on her plate and remembered what Maru told her — that Lee Miyoon was in a fix because her business had been taken over by Yoojin’s mother who was in Japan. Now that she looked like she had finally gotten rid of her trouble, it probably meant that the problem had been resolved to a certain extent. It also meant that the things Maru was doing were progressing smoothly. So that woman was rejoicing because she could return to selling new actresses as prostitutes? At this point, the actresses and the staff that pointed fingers at her looked cute. Compared to Lee Miyoon, what they were doing was child’s play.

“Looks like something good happened to you, huh.”

“I’m on cloud nine today. The world looks different. It makes me realize just how important the things I was holding were.”

“I’m not sure what it is, but I hope you keep holding on to it.”

Because only then, will you receive your judgment — Gaeul smiled and placed a piece of dragon fruit on Lee Miyoon’s plate. Lee Miyoon looked at Gaeul’s face and the dragon fruit alternately before curling her lips.

“I’m feeling good, so I’ll look into it for you. For you to be swayed by those dregs, I’ve put too much effort into you. If you wanna be broken, you should be broken by me. The person Han Gaeul should cry in front of and ask for forgiveness from is me.”

“Would such a day even come?”

“Just wait. I’ll tell you just how amazing this unni was. Thanks for the dragon fruit, my cute little junior.”

Unni, coming from a woman nearing her seventies? Lee Miyoon walked over to where Hoseon was with her plate. Gaeul saw Hoseon and the other actresses quickly cleaning up when Lee Miyoon approached them. She watched as Lee Miyoon preached to those actresses in dissatisfaction. She never knew there would come a day when she would receive help from that woman. However, what would’ve happened if Lee Miyoon knew what she knew? Could she still smile if she found out that she was in a trap placed by Maru?

Gaeul turned around with a plate full of food. Kang Giwoo entered her eyes on her way back to the table where Mijoo was waiting. The smile that he would show her often was no longer there. He scanned her from top to bottom with cold eyes before turning his head around. Gaeul immediately realized where the rumors came from. It was also something that she could’ve noticed if she calmed down and carefully went over the pieces of the puzzle.

Gaeul clicked her finger to attract Giwoo’s gaze. Then she pointed at Hoseon, who was getting an earful from Lee Miyoon. A gentle smile crept onto Giwoo’s cold face. Gaeul could easily tell that the smile was there to hide his astonishment. She waved at him before turning around. The gaze that hit her back felt like knives. So he was a little kid who couldn’t do anything with his own power.

“Unni, what’s so funny?”

“I was wondering what would happen if an immature brat fought with a woman with a terrible personality, and it made me laugh.”

“What is that? A drama?”

“Something like that.”

Gaeul told Mijoo that they should eat and raised her fork. That was the last meal they had before the flight.

KTLChamber's Thoughts

Author's notes

<Mini theater>

Kang Giwoo: Don't you get it?

Han Maru: Get what?

Kang Giwoo: The one I want is……

Han Maru: (Cutting in) Shut up.

Kang Giwoo: I'm not finished yet.

Han Maru: (Looking away) No, shut up.

Kang Giwoo: (Tensing his eyes) It's not Han Gaeul I like. It's y……

<End of act 1>

?

??

???

!

---End of Author's notes

I just hope the downfall of Lee Miyoon will be exhilarating…

Editor's Note:

NGL, I wished the author did an april fool's chap with the plot in his notes. Seeing Maru cringe would be content.

Chapter 935
Crank Up 4

The salmon salad she had in her mouth couldn’t be more tasty. Ever since she regained her appetite, she regretted looking out at the sea from her room throughout the entire vacation. Had she gotten the news just one day earlier, she would’ve gone to a nearby famous restaurant and eaten classily. Lee Miyoon gathered the salad together in one spot and shoved it in her mouth by lifting up the plate. She couldn’t remember the last time she ate to her heart’s content. She ate not to survive but to savor the taste. She was already thinking about what she should eat once she returned to Korea.

She looked around while savoring the carbonated water in her mouth. The drama production staff and the actors were all paying attention to her like deer who came across a leopard in the middle of the grassland. Miyoon enjoyed those gazes; gazes of fear, wariness, and jealousy were all directed at her. They were signs that the human Lee Miyoon had not died yet. Miyoon looked at Kang Giwoo, who was sitting two tables across. He must be feeling extremely uncomfortable right now. After all, she had interrupted his scheme against Han Gaeul. While Han Gaeul was bad enough that she would chew on her to death, she was even more bothered by Kang Giwoo right now. She had been humiliated, so she had to return the favor. Although she couldn’t do anything directly with him being the grandson of the chairman, scattering dirt on his path should be fine.

Kang Giwoo stood up after moving his jaws around. Two of the female staff immediately walked up to him like they were his loyal guards. He went to the hotel lounge and met Han Gaeul, who was on the way. Kang Giwoo waved at her, but Han Gaeul didn’t even give him a glance. Miyoon covered her mouth and laughed. The pride of the grandson of the chairman was utterly crushed. Miyoon originally thought that he had chosen Han Gaeul as someone to play around with for a brief time, but from his actions until now and his current figure, he seemed to be pretty serious. Perhaps he was even considering her as a marriage partner. He seemed uneasy because the woman didn’t fall for him as he even used those around him. However, his methods were terrible. He seemed to be planning to lend Han Gaeul his shoulder once she ran into difficulties due to him spreading bad rumors around, but there was no way a girl like her would be shaken by rumors like that, was there?

“Senior.”

Hoseon and the actresses stood in a line with their hands neatly folded in front of them. Miyoon raised her glass and asked what.

“I just wanted to apologize to you again. It looks like we must have misunderstood something about Gaeul. We really didn’t have any intentions to talk bad about her.”

“You know you did that out of jealousy because she’s younger, more popular, and received acknowledgment from others.”

“It’s really not like that. Moreover, we didn’t know that you doted on her so much, and that's why we made a mistake.”

“Me, dote on her? So there comes a day when I hear that from someone, huh.”

Lee Miyoon put her glass down with a tap. The actresses lined up in front of her all flinched at once.

“Let me ask while I’m at it. Kang Giwoo is the one who ordered you to do it, right? No, wait, there’s no way he ordered you to do it. He must have said things that made you girls talk like that. I have to admit his skill is quite something when it comes to that.”

“It’s not like that at all.”

Hoseon denied it, even going as far as to wave her hands in the air. Miyoon flicked her finger. Hoseon flinched before walking in front of her. She flicked her finger again. Hoseon’s face was right in front of her.

“Are you playing with words with me? Or are you lying in front of me?”

Hoseon’s lips trembled. Miyoon saw emotions drain from Hoseon’s face. If she pushed her a little more, she might even turn blue and faint on the spot.

“Girlie, you should’ve acted more modestly. You put so much effort into me, didn’t you? You prepared my meals while the others were shivering in fear and notified me of the schedule. I’m someone who repays what I’m given, whether it’s grace or something else.”

“I will never do that again, senior.”

Being able to control other people at a whim like this gave her pleasure bigger than any form of entertainment. This was why power was a necessity, Miyoon spoke to the other actresses standing neatly,

“I get that you want to look good in front of Kang GIwoo. On the outside, he’s quite something after all. But think about it a little. Do you think you have any chances with the grandson of the YM Group? I’m sure it isn’t just sympathy towards him when you badmouth someone just based on his words. It’s because of your fantasies of ‘what if things go well with him.’ I’ll tell you this straight: it’s not happening. I’m sure you know best. So think about it. Should you continue following a pretty boy like that who has no substance? Or would you prefer me, who has real power in this industry?”

Actors with guts wouldn’t even be here. Those who were busy preparing what they needed to do for the sake of the future didn’t even have the time to be shaken by other people’s words. They should be busy fulfilling what they’re lacking. However, the actresses standing in front of her right now were cheap ones who would change their actions based on other people’s words. Just as people had their uses, trash like them had their uses as well.

“We’ll listen to your words from now on, senior,” Hoseon said as their representative.

It was a satisfactory answer. Miyoon gave them a simple order to put Kang Giwoo on the chopping table just as they did Han Gaeul until moments ago.

“Giwoo doesn’t have any flaws to ta…”

“Don’t you get why Kang Giwoo wanted you to badmouth that kid Gaeul? Do you really think Han Gaeul did something that deserves your insults? No, you don’t. You know it perfectly well. You just kept watching her, who was more popular than you, because there was nothing on her, and then Kang Giwoo’s push triggered you to joyfully start badmouthing her, didn’t it?”

Miyoon picked up her fork and pointed at Han Gaeul, who was sitting a little away from her.

“Kang Giwoo got rejected by that girl. That’s why he went to you all to complain. I’m sure his plan was to help her out and get some points from her once you badmouth her and attack her. I’m sure you all must have realized that but intentionally ignored it. That’s because it’ll hurt your pride if you admit it. It will feel like your worth as a woman is degraded. Heck, it’s clear to see from how there’s not a single boy who’s been talking bad about her since last night.”

The actresses did not say anything. Miyoon thought that there were no fools in this world. Most of the time, people just do not want to admit it and cause big trouble. The same was true for Miyoon herself.

“You girls should all spread around that Kang Giwoo started spreading bad rumors about Han Gaeul as a form of revenge. I need to ruin that polite image of his. I don’t care what he does, but he needs to be punished if he crosses the line.”

Threats were much stronger than any sweet words. The actresses should be expecting that they would receive big losses if they did not do what they were tasked with. Consequentially, Miyoon would be helping Han Gaeul, but she didn’t care. She was feeling merciful today.

When she went to the hotel lounge, Kang Giwoo blocked her path. It seemed that he had been waiting for the moment when there would be fewer eyes on them.

“Just what are you thinking?”

“What?”

“Senior Lee, I can’t have you do this to me. Why are you meddling in my business unnecessarily and ruining my plans? You’re putting me in a fix.”

“Seeing as how you’re showing your true nature just because you got kicked away by a girl, it makes me wonder if you’re really the grandson of the chairman. I guess this is why the chairman’s so overprotective of you?”

Kang Giwoo’s right foot flipped up and down. His sandal made flapping noises. Miyoon smiled when she saw him react so nervously.

“I must have been an idiot for clinging onto a brat like this even for a moment.”

“Senior Lee, you’ll regret this, you know?”

“Regret? And what are you going to do to me?”

“It looks like you must’ve forgotten that you will never reach grandfather unless you go through me.”

“There’s no way I’ll forget since that’s your only worth. But it’s fine now. I’ve found a way out.”

“I’m not sure what you’re trying to do, but you know that everything will be over for you the moment I put in a word with my grandfather, right? Regardless of what you’re preparing, you’ll be finished the moment grandfather rejects you,” Giwoo said as he stepped right up to her, making a smile befitting of his title, the ‘smiling prince.’

Other people watching from afar might think that they were a close senior and junior pair. Miyoon found the boy rather impressive for his efforts. She found it cute, and even a little pitiful.

“The fact that you’re the grandson of the chairman is a privilege greater than anything, but you must’ve forgotten one thing. You’re the one who told me that I should grasp where power comes from. That’s the only way someone leeching off power can live longer.”

“You seem to be mistaken about something as I’m the grandson of the YM Group’s leader, not some kind of parasite.”

“Giwoo, let me tell you one thing. While you were going to school without a clue in the world, I was seeing your grandfather and was the one working closest to him. While you grew up under the limitless love of the chairman, I kept passing through his tests and survived. You probably don’t know yet what it means for that person to give power to a woman when he extremely looks down on them. This time, I’ve committed a blunder and he lost sight of me, but I am well aware that there is no one who’s more sensitive to achievements than him. The chairman is someone who will pull someone to his side if he finds them useful even if that person tried to stab him in the back the day before. Conversely, he will more than willingly abandon his blood kin if he deems them useless. Giwoo, has the chairman ever told you that you will be inheriting the YM Group?”

Giwoo, who was armed with a firm smile, flinched backwards in an instant. Miyoon waved at him once as his face twitched before going back up to her room. The call she had been waiting for had just arrived.

“I was just about to call you. Looks like we have something in common, journalist Kim, eh?”

Miyoon sat down on the sofa and continued her call.

KTLChamber's Thoughts

Miyoon vs Giwoo. Now that's a battle I'd like to see, especially when both of them don't know that they're walking right into their doom.

Editor's Note:

I can't believe that I just enjoyed reading a chapter about Lee Miyoon.

Chapter 936
Crank Up 4

When he saw Hoseon take a step back and fidget with her fingers with an awkward smile on her face, he realized that the power balance had shifted. Giwoo was about to say something else before he stopped. Lee Miyoon might be someone she couldn’t go against. He couldn’t exactly tell her that Lee Miyoon was a tiger without fangs, so he had to finish their conversation here.

“Also, Giwoo, I’m telling this because I’m worried about you, but you should be careful when talking bad about others. I know who you are, so I believe that there must be some kind of circumstances, but other people might not think the same. You know what I’m saying, right?”

Things were going in a weird direction. The wenches that seemed like they would undress in front of him if he took them to bed had all changed their expressions and even reprimanded him. Seeing the women changing their attitudes in a mere hour, he realized that his grandfather’s words were right: women were to be controlled, not trusted. He truly felt that right now.

When he thought about how the good image he had maintained until now might fall apart, he felt frustrated. He was angry at Lee Miyoon, who butted in and ruined everything, but Han Gaeul was the source of the problem. Isn’t it a woman’s duty to respond in kind to a man’s wooing? They should obediently follow if a man was polite, yet she kept her head held up high and continued pushing him away.

Giwoo looked at the back of Han Gaeul’s figure as she went up to her room. She was a really good product, an item that he wanted to have even at the cost of some humiliation. Hundreds of millions of won wouldn’t be wasted if he could see those proud eyes being subservient in front of him. It would be great if they were in the feudal era where women were treated like assets. Sometimes, he hated the fact that he had to treat them like a person just because the era had changed when he could’ve easily got his hands on them. He wanted to bed her and rip apart her clothes immediately before looking at every nook and cranny.

Giwoo scratched the back of his lower teeth as he stopped his imagination. He had too many things to be doing that. He couldn’t taint the name of the YM Group just to get his hands on some woman. His pride didn’t allow that either. Perhaps he should change his methods? It seemed like he wasn’t getting through to her because he was only using words. Perhaps trying to treat Han Gaeul like a special person was the wrong approach. Maybe she would easily open up her heart if he gave her lots of gifts like he did with normal women.

Creatures known as women were simple in the end and were bound to be won over as long as he could create an environment where he could raise their pride and they received respect. There were rarely any women on whom that formula didn’t work. She may be acting coy right now, but she would usually fall for him anyway. After all, she fell for that pathetic Han Maru, did she not? Objectively speaking, he and Han Maru were worlds apart.

He laughed. He didn’t think about this. Han Gaeul just found him too burdensome. Only now did things fall into place. Gaeul must be aware that the reason Han Maru said goodbye to her was for Kim Suyeon. She had experienced the ultimate shame she could experience as a woman. She was approached by such a perfect man in such a situation, so it was no wonder that she was feeling wary.

Giwoo energetically stepped on the stairs. He saw Gaeul in front of her door. Wait – he shouted and she stopped after opening the door halfway.

“If you’re here to pick a fight, then you got the wrong door. Senior Lee did that of her own accord. Done?”

“I don’t care about that.”

“Then I see we have no business. I need to pack up, so I’m a little busy. Can you do it over text unless it’s something urgent?”

“Han Gaeul, go out with me.”

Gaeul opened the door and went inside as though she hadn’t heard anything. Giwoo put his fingers behind the door and pulled it open. Gaeul looked behind once before going to her bed and starting to pack up. She didn’t seem the least interested in what he was up to.

“I know what you’re thinking. I’m sure you must have had a hard time after you were kicked away by Han Maru. But you have no fault in that. You were just next to a lacking man for a brief moment. That doesn’t degrade your value as a woman. I don’t plan to find fault with it either.”

Gaeul took large strides towards him. Did she finally have something to talk about? Standing right in front of him, Gaeul crouched down. When he looked down, he saw a sock.

“If you’re done, then can you get out of the way? As you can see, my room is a mess, so I think I won’t make the morning plane if I don’t clean up quickly.”

Seeing her eyes without a speck of emotion, Giwoo subconsciously took a step back. Gaeul stuffed her sock into her carrier. He thought that he had to regain the upper hand in the conversation. Just as he thought about bringing up Kim Suyeon, there was someone who walked across the corridor to the room. It was Han Gaeul’s stylist, Mijoo. After seeing Giwoo from afar, Mijoo quickly walked over.

“Unni, I’m here. You aren’t done packing up yet, are you?”

Giwoo watched as Mijoo pushed her way into the room. Did she not have eyes? Or was she simply dumb? It seemed that he needed to spell out that they were in the middle of an important conversation.

“Mijoo, can you give us some room? I’m in the middle of an important conversation right now with Gaeul.”

“I need to quickly pack up. Just think I don’t exist and talk to her.”

“How can I think that you don’t exist when you’re here? I’m not playing around.”

His grip on the door tightened. Mijoo, who was standing boldly, started flinching and let go of the one-piece dress. Now that was a reaction he liked. There was no need to shout at a dog that obediently curled up its tail. He was waiting for Mijoo to leave when Gaeul, who was folding her clothes, approached him. Her hands slowly approached his. Just then, he remembered that his fingers were snapped backwards back on the beach. When he reflexively pulled his hand away, she smiled.

“Coward.”

Being pushed on the chest, Giwoo took several steps back. Gaeul put away her smile and closed the door. He tried to grab the door again, but he was startled by her pulling close the door without hesitation, so he let go. Had he continued grabbing onto it, his hand might have been squashed. A loud boom hit his ears. Forget squashed, he might have been crushed instead.

“Han Gaeul!”

He hit the door several times as he called out to her, but there was no reply. He saw a foreigner couple peeking their heads out from another door. Giwoo covered his face with his left hand and kept knocking on the door.

“I’m different from Han Maru. I’m different from the bastard who abandoned you for Kim Suyeon. I’m sure you’re scared right now. Maybe you’re disgusted at men. I understand that you are pushing me away. But if you talk to me just a little, you’ll find out that I’m different.”

She might feel embarrassed since Mijoo was next to her. She should have no choice but to open the door. He leaned against the wall and looked at the door. He had the conviction that she would soon open the door. However, there was no response even after five minutes.

“What are you doing?”

A voice that ticked him off hit his ears. Lee Miyoon told her manager, who was holding a carrier, to go down first. Giwoo simply ignored her. This was no time to be facing off against the old hag. Contrary to his expectations that she would go down, Lee Miyoon approached him instead.

“Are you actually waiting to meet the owner of this room? For what, to do a serenade or something?”

“Senior Lee, you won’t get any benefits by clashing with me so often.”

“I find it fun, so why not? Anyway, did you call the chairman? You should check if he has any intention of making you inherit the company.”

“I have no intention of inheriting the company. Of course, if I say that I will succeed him, grandfather will immediately start making me take business classes. Once that’s done, I’ll climb up the hierarchy step by step and receive the title of president. I jumped into this industry because I didn’t want to live a boring life like that. I wanted to show that I could be successful without the help of YM, and I succeeded to an extent.”

“This is why the thought process of young masters is interesting. Do you really think that you became successful through your own efforts? Then what was the endless amount of lobbying that I saw then?”

“That’s because those people sucked up to grandfather to look good in front of him. It’s not related to me.”

“Little boy, that’s what we call related. You are standing on a starting line prepared for you by those above you, yet you don’t even seem to realize that. I can now see how much the chairman doted on you when he raised you. Thanks to that, I’m convinced. To the chairman, you must be just a cute and precious grandson. And that’s about it. Gaeul? There’s a pitiful dog who wants attention over here, so why don’t you come out for a bit?” Lee Miyoon shouted at the door.

Just as he was about to grab Lee Miyoon, who mocked him before turning around, the door opened. It was Gaeul and Mijoo, who walked out with two carriers. There seemed to be no fluctuations in her emotions. Mijoo heard the story between Han Maru and Kim Suyeon, but she did not even frown. Did that mean that Mijoo knew that as well? Giwoo looked at Mijoo’s expression more than Gaeul’s. Yesterday, he had mixed in a lie while talking to Gaeul. He said that Mijoo told him everything. If Gaeul reprimanded Mijoo, Mijoo would’ve naturally said that it wasn’t her. In that process, the relationship between the two might worsen.

“Now you’re interested in my little sister?”

Gaeul grabbed Mijoo’s hand and walked away. They didn’t look like they fought. In fact, they looked even closer than before from the way they looked out for each other. Did she not scold Mijoo for exposing her relationship? Giwoo couldn’t understand with his head.

“Gaeul,” he hurriedly called out to her.

He was filled with hastiness. Why did nothing go the way he expected it to when it came to Han Gaeul? Something like this had never happened before. Gaeul sent Mijoo down first. After seeing that they were the only ones in the corridor, Giwoo slowly walked over to her. When he took about three to four steps, he heard a voice. It was a voice that didn’t just fill the entire corridor; it was a voice that also pushed him away.

“Seeing as how you’re obsessed, you look quite pitiful. You should visit a psychotherapist. I visited quite often when I had it hard. It’s quite helpful.”

“I’m obsessed?”

“You aren’t then?”

After throwing that question, Gaeul went downstairs. Giwoo tried to chase her, but he couldn’t lift his foot. Obsessed? He was? He felt like a mosquito was flying right above his head. It felt terrible. He couldn’t admit that. He was obsessed with a woman? The almighty Kang Giwoo was?

He consciously blinked. Whenever his eyelids closed and opened again, the world was cut off before continuing again. He stood in a daze like that before looking at his palm. They were drenched in sweat like he had just dipped them in water. He rubbed his hands several times. By the time the water on his hands disappeared, Giwoo uttered the words that suddenly came to his mind,

“When was my first love again?”

KTLChamber's Thoughts

Totally savage.

Editor's Note:

Got destroyed by Gaeul and Lee Miyoon

Chapter 937
Crank Up 5

“Good work. I guess we have to wait for Lee Miyoon to come back to Korea now.”

Maru thanked the stylist who gave him the coat with his eyes before leaving the store. Dongwook, who was eating on the other side of the phone, sighed slowly as he spoke,

-Things went well over the phone, but you never know. She might change her mind if she meets up with me.

“She’s a cautious woman, but she shouldn’t have the room to look around since she’s been driven against the edge of a cliff. If you emphasize that it’s a temporary alliance until you get Hong Janghae, you should be able to easily get her agreement.”

-She did seem quite willing. I can tell that she’s suspicious of me, but she still showed willingness to go through with this. It seems like she’s willing to take some damage as long as she can bring Hong Janghae down.

“I’m sure the fact that she can’t guarantee her actress life must have made her nervous. Is Miss Mari doing well?”

-For now, she’s resting in a place I prepared for her with her man. They seem to rely on each other quite a lot, and they didn’t look that unstable. They’re quite cooperative too.

“Once you give me the information, I’ll try to persuade the ‘madam’ in Japan. As long as we can get her to take her hands off it and place Lee Miyoon back in the equation, we should be able to proceed.”

-Looks like I’ll only be able to get some rest once I jail Hong Janghae and Lee Miyoon and whoever else is involved. I’ve also scouted some reliable junior journalists of mine. I’m sure you’ve heard of Lee Dongyeon before.

“You mean the one who keeps doing his thing despite being sued by SC once?”

-He lives on his toughness alone. This one’s the real deal. He will rush to any cases involving large business companies or politicians. Though, thanks to that, he got divorced and lives a poor life.

“Please introduce him to me later. I wish to get to know more about him.”

-If you get close to a guy like that, it’ll screw up your life. An ordinary man will get stabbed by the villain if they stay next to the apostle of justice.

Maru smiled and looked at his watch. It was about time for Byunchan to arrive. He stood by the road in front of the store before looking around. He saw Byungchan’s car held up by the traffic light.

“Hyung-nim, it looks like I must hang up now.”

-You said you had something to do. The afterparty?

“Yep. I’m in neat clothes too. I’m not sure if there are any journalists willing to take photos of me though.”

-Walk boldly. Isn’t your boldness the only thing you can boast about?

Dongwook then hung up saying that they should have another call tomorrow. Maru put his phone inside his coat before waving his hand. A black van slowed down and approached him.

“You look quite decent in neat clothes.”

He got on the van, listening to Byungchan’s compliment.

“What if no one recognizes me even though I’m wearing these clothes?”

“Don’t worry about that. One of our journalists is waiting too. When you go there, there should be someone who’s especially attentive to you. You should wave your hand.”

“That puts me at ease.”

The car started moving. Maru checked his hairstyle with his phone’s front-facing camera. Perhaps it was because of the light, but he thought he looked quite young when he looked at himself at the shop, but now that he saw himself in a dark environment, he looked older than his peers.

“Should I reveal my forehead a little more?”

“Let me see.”

When the van got stuck at a traffic light, Byunchan had a look at Maru’s face.

“I think it might be better to raise your hairline by just a little.”

He took out some hair wax to do his bangs before spraying his hair. It felt a little better with his eyebrows exposed. The GPS navigation device notified them that they had arrived at their destination. The parking lot for the galbi restaurant on the 2nd floor was filled with cars. Byungchan followed the guidance of the parking manager and parked inside.

“Looks like we managed to get here before the older members. There are quite a lot of actors who don’t want to go in before the juniors. They want to pick up the spoons earlier than anyone else[1], yet they always want to appear late, sheesh.”

He got out of the van, following Byungchan. He saw journalists waiting outside. As the weather wasn’t that cold considering that it was early December, everyone had light clothing.

“I feel nervous now.”

“What’s there to be nervous about when you just have to walk inside? It must be harder to stand on a stage or something.”

“For me, events like this give me more pressure.”

“You should get used to things like this if you want to be an actor for a long time. Go in now. If there’s a journalist who acts like they know you, then wave your hand at them. If you get photographed like that once, the other journalists will also think that you’re an actor and will start taking photos.”

After neatening his coat once, he was about to make his move. Just then, a white van drove past the journalists and entered the parking lot. Some of the journalists whispered to each other before raising their cameras. Maru knew who was inside. Indeed, the person inside was worthy of making the journalists fuss.

“Looks like I should go in right after that person. I feel like it’ll be less embarrassing too.”

“Whose car is that?”

As Byungchan asked, the door to that white van opened. Yoonseo, wearing jeans and a leather jacket, got out of the van. A girl, who was a popular idol, and a successful actress, was then greeted by a ceremony of shutter sounds and flashes from the journalists.

“Yoonseo, huh? Looks like you would’ve been in big trouble if you tried to go in before. They would’ve gone over there before any cameras shot you.”

“My words exactly.”

Wearing sneakers, she lightly walked past the journalists. Celebrities who were used to the photo line definitely had leisure when they walked, whether it was their demeanors or their expressions. Maru fidgeted with his hand. So, he had to walk in naturally like that? It was nothing much, but it made him very nervous that it bothered him.

Just as Yoonseo was about to walk past the journalists and head inside the restaurant, she stopped. Maru saw that her eyes were directed at him. When he looked around, he saw that the only other person around him was Byungchan. Yoonseo waved her hand and walked over.

“Why is Yoonseo coming here?”

“Why is she indeed?”

“Then I’ll back off now. You’re on your own.”

Byungchan returned to the van. Maru looked at the cameras that followed her wake. They seemed like sunflowers chasing the sun.

“What are you doing here?” Yoonseo asked.

“Getting ready to go inside.”

“Are you waiting for someone?”

“No.”

“Really?”

Yoonseo turned around. When she did, she had on an idol’s smile that seemed to show what ‘experience’ truly meant.

“Let’s go in together then. I was just feeling depressed because I got stood up.”

Yoonseo grabbed Maru’s arm and took a step backwards. Being dragged by that hand, Maru left the scope of the van. The moment he misstepped, camera flashes bombarded him from everywhere. He stood to the back left of Yoonseo and walked in front of the journalists. When they arrived at the end of the photo line, a microphone blocked their path. The symbol of YBS was on the microphone. There was a reporter holding out a wireless microphone and a cameraman holding a camera that had the label ‘The Entertainment Show Weekly.’ Yoonseo stopped and said hi to the reporter. The reporter was a woman he had seen many times on TV as well.

“Miss Yoonseo! Congratulations on the afterparty.”

“Thank you. You promised me you would come last time, and you actually did.”

“I have to work if I want to make a living.”

The two of them lightly joked with each other. The reporter asked if she could do a light interview. Yoonseo nodded and stood in front of the camera.

“What do you think the viewing rate is going to be tonight?”

“I wish it would hit 30%. I’m not sure many people know, but I made a pledge for hitting 30%.”

“Oh, I know about that. You’re giving out free hugs in Myeong-dong.”

“Yes. I want to hit 30% and try doing that.”

Maru walked out of the angle. He couldn’t exactly daze out behind her when she was having an interview.

“Miss Yoonseo. Who’s the one that came with you?”

The reporter’s eyes moved. She seemed happy that she got more interview material. For now, Maru smiled. He couldn’t afford to be on TV with a gloomy-looking face.

“You don’t know him? Mr. Maru here is quite famous, you know? From Chatterbox.”

Before Yoonseo even finished explaining, the reporter exclaimed in realization.

“So it was Mr. Han Maru. Your image in dramas, entertainment shows, and here are all different. I thought you were a completely different person.”

Haha — Maru could only laugh dryly. Yoonseo reached out before pulling him by the sleeves a little. Before he knew it, he was standing right next to Yoonseo in front of the camera.

“The performance he showed on the talk show was too funny so many people might remember him for that, but actually, he’s an actor who showed better concentration and acting skills compared to anyone else. Everyone started applauding when Bigfoot exited the drama.”

Yoonseo’s words were picked up by the reporter.

“I remember that. The viewing rate spiked up back then, and he even made it to the search term rankings. Mr. Han Maru, Miss Yoonseo is giving you so much praise, so you should pay her back. How was Miss Yoonseo during shoots?”

Maru lowered his head towards the wireless microphone before replying,

“She was an actress who put in a lot of effort. She has a lot of persistence as well. I’m sure everyone who watched the drama must know that her acting became better with every episode.”

“That sounds like someone wrote that line for you. Did Miss Yoonseo perhaps ask you to say that?”

“Was it obvious?”

Yoonseo smiled and waved her hand. The reporter seemed to be satisfied with her content and put her thumb in the air outside the camera angle.

“Miss Yoonseo, see you later, then. You too, Mr. Han Maru. Don’t ignore my greetings once you become famous.”

Maru sighed in relief as he entered the restaurant.

“I can’t say I’ve paid you back in full for your grace, but please shave it off a little,” Yoonseo said in front of the staircase.

Grace? When he made a puzzled face, Yoonseo explained,

“You recommended Senior Ahn Joohyun’s film to me. You may not think much of it, so you must’ve forgotten, but it really helped me out a lot.”

“Ah, I remember now. It’s not really something to call a grace.”

“What is grace? If I feel grateful, then it’s a grace. Also, you were good with the interview back there, you know? There’s no way you actually prepared for that.”

“I’m quite good at flattery and lies.”

Yoonseo laughed out loud, but then her laugh was overshadowed by a loud voice. It was producer Jayeon, who raised her hand in the air and shouted at them to come over. Yoon Hyungseok could be seen at the table next to hers.

“Let’s go. She’ll make us drink if we’re slow,” Maru said as he took off his coat.

[1] In Korea, it’s customary to wait for the elders to pick up their spoons before the younger members start to eat. Table manners of sorts.

Chapter 938
Crank Up 5

“Who are you to come in together with Miss Yoonseo?”

“What could possibly happen? I just met her in front of the restaurant.”

“You walked past the reporters with Miss Yoonseo?”

Maru nodded.

“Good for you, man. I wanted to walk in front of the reporters in a cool fashion too, alongside an actress.”

From listening to him, it seemed that Hyungseok had come here early along with the staff. Apparently, he wasn’t on the list of invitees for the afterparty, but producer Jayeon had called for him here, making him dress up before coming.

“Did any of the reporters recognize you?”

“A couple.”

“You’ve become famous, Han Maru. I wonder when I will reach your level.”

“Why don’t you set a higher target? If I’m considered famous, then what makes that guy who is coming in now?”

Maru pointed at Lee Heewon, who came in amidst the cheers of everyone present. It was the appearance of the main character that led the whole drama. The reporters raised their cameras and kept taking photos of him.

“Mr. Heewon is a god.”

“So you still call him a mister, huh.”

“It’s somewhat hard to drop the honorifics. He looks like a good man, but his aura is too strong, so I can’t find myself treating him comfortably.”

Haewon, who stood quietly before Heewon, waved at him. After acknowledging him, Haewon walked over.

“Maru-hyung, I heard the news. You’re working with director Park Joongjin right?”

“That’s how it is.”

“I’m glad to have you around. Please take good care.”

Of what – before he could even ask, Haewon was called away. He was dragged by the other managers to a corner of the restaurant. While Maru had his suspicions, it wasn’t anything urgent, so he decided to hold it in. The afterparty was an occasion where people would switch seats frequently. People would receive glasses of liquor here and there. It would be fine to ask Heewon about the details when they met.

He dipped his spoon into the boiling doenjang-jjigae. Although charcoal was burning with all of its might under the grill, there was no table with grilling meat. Ten minutes before the last episode of Doctors started airing, an older senior entered the restaurant. Along with welcoming applause, the sizzling of meat rang out like fanfare.

“So that place is the Olympus, huh.”

Hyunseok pointed at the table where the director, the writer, and the main actors were. They were placed in the middle of the restaurant, and their voices spread around to the entirety of the restaurant. The old senior praised everyone for their hard work until now, the director thanked the actors who had received her naggings, and the writer resolved that she would write a better story next time. Even though no one told them to, everyone held their breaths when a voice came out from the ‘Olympus.’ Even the sizzling of meat had halted as though a round of grilling was done. The various tables started talking by themselves again after the last episode of ‘Doctors’ started airing.

“I should’ve cried a little more right there.”

“My words exactly. Yoonseo, I’ll slap your back next time. I’m sure you’ll cry buckets.”

With the conversation between Yoonseo and the director acting as the trigger, people started talking; the staff with the staff, the actors with the actors, and managers with managers. Maru checked the TV from time to time as he ate some meat. Heewon, who had finished a dangerous surgical operation, collapsed outside the operating room, almost passing out, and Yoonseo rushed over to him and hugged him. The restaurant became quiet all at once. So this was that scene? From what he heard over the grapevine, the last kissing scene took over half a day to shoot. Apparently, the two actors would burst out laughing whenever they locked eyes, making it difficult to shoot. The two people exchanged gazes under the dim light. Their lips brushed past each other like a prank a few times before locking together like a pair of cogwheels. Cheers erupted from everywhere. Hyungseok booed, as though to prove that he was a passionate fan of Yoonseo.

It was a kiss scene that made him watch over them. The affectionate emotional acting of the two people soaked his heart not too strongly. People who watch that scene would probably want to do such a kiss or would want to receive one. Heewon and Yoonseo, who were sitting at the Olympus table, stood up from their seats and created hearts with their hands. Like the others, Maru sent the two actors and their lovely acting, a round of applause.

As the drama went past its climax and was heading towards the end, the atmosphere at the restaurant changed a lot as well. Whether it was the people who were drinking without stopping, those who kept chatting without any interest in the drama, or the people who were on their phones, they all turned their eyes to the TV hung on the ceiling.

The two protagonists had left the general hospital located in the middle of the city and opened their own medical clinic in a quiet town. The two people were so busy that they had no time to look at each other, and sometime later, the two sat side by side on the bench in front of the clinic under the sunset. Heewon, who was watching the occasional snowflakes fall down, said, ‘how good.’ Yoonseo responded with a ‘true.’ The man and woman sitting in front of an old medical clinic had finally found and attained their happiness amidst their misfortunes. They had overcome all the harsh trials and found their refuge; it was a very drama-like, and hence, dramatic, conclusion. Maru rather liked the writer’s boldness in letting the story flow by itself rather than adding fancy techniques. It was much better than throwing the whole title into the ditch under the pressure that it couldn’t be ordinary. Above all, he liked that it was a happy ending. If dramatic love and happiness couldn’t be seen in dramas, there would be no reason to watch them after all.

Along with the message thanking the audience for watching until now, the final OST decorated the ending. It was the cover song of the drama sung by Heewon and Yoonseo. Heewon’s part was pretty good, and it seemed that he had the talent for singing. No words needed to be said about Yoonseo.

“So this is the end, huh? I didn’t really participate that much, yet I still feel rather bittersweet. How about you?” Hyunseok asked as he filled Maru’s glass.

“I’m wondering who’ll earn the royalties if there’s profit from the background music, so I don’t feel anything that great.”

“Actually, I’m curious about that too.”

Maru chuckled before emptying the glass. This drama had placed another step in front of him for him to climb. He was slightly disappointed that he couldn’t act alongside Heewon more, but there was no helping it since the character he was assigned to didn’t have that much of a role in the first place. Popularity was one thing, but it was quite an enjoyable thing to act alongside an actor that provoked his soul. It was also something that he couldn’t experience easily even with money.

The ending credits started rolling. Usually, this would be the part for the teaser for the next episode, but today, the figures of the production staff could be seen: the camera director focusing in on the actors, the floor director taking light naps right next to some boxes of equipment, the director pulling her hair out, the sound director looking at the audio mixer with a grave expression. There was even a scene where the background and minor actors were receiving makeup, including Maru himself. There was also Bigfoot, wearing a baggy doctor’s gown and a pair of slippers, waving his hand at the camera. It made Maru smile. It was a character that brought him a lot of things, albeit having a short appearance. There were quite a lot of scenes where he was requested to do dynamic acting, so it was quite tricky too. It was a stroke of luck that he came across a character like this.

“Han Maru, you’re a new man.”

It was Choi Hyunjin. From what Maru heard before, she was supposedly unable to come today because of her schedule, but she was here. Maru pulled out a chair next to him and told her to sit. As they had greeted each other before, Hyunseok didn’t find things too awkward. Though, he would be overjoyed and wouldn’t act awkward if a woman came around anyway.

“Things ended earlier than I expected, so I quickly rushed over. I was talking over there, but then I saw you, so I came over.”

“Welcome. We were just two stinky men drinking together too. Would you like a drink?”

“I’d love to, but I brought my car, so I can’t.”

“Then have some soda instead.”

Maru poured her some of the fizzy drink. Hyunjin voiced out ‘cheers’ before gulping down the drink.

“I wanted to thank you at the afterparty no matter what.”

“There you go again. The reason you digested your role so well is your own skill, not my help.”

“I don’t think that’s true. Without you, I wouldn’t have had the opportunity to discuss ideas with the writer like that, and the character of the director’s daughter would’ve become boring too. Thanks to that though, I managed to score a cosmetics act this time for two years. It’s Vince.”

“Noona, if you scored something like that, you can’t just say thanks with words. You should give me something.”

“That’s why I’m here.”

Hyunjin took out an envelope from her bag. Maru only said it as a joke, so he was rather taken aback when a white envelope appeared in front of his eyes. Hyungseok quickly told him to take it.

“It’s a hotel restaurant ticket. It’s not a sponsored ticket, and I bought it myself. Call the number or go to their website to set the date and go with your girlfriend. If you don’t have one, you can go with Mr. Hyunseok over here. From what I believe though, I think you’re going to go with your girlfriend, so there shouldn’t be a problem, right?”

“Have I ever told you that I’m going out with someone?”

“Nope, it’s just intuition. Also, decent boys usually have partners.”

Hyunjin stood up, saying that they should meet later. Maru tried opening the envelope. A reservation ticket to a hotel restaurant known to be expensive in Seoul was inside.

“Isn’t this an invitation for a date?”

“That noona has a boyfriend already.”

“Really? What a pity. So who are you taking with you?”

“Who do you think?”

“If you go there with Miss Gaeul, there will be rumors about it everywhere.”

“So?”

“I’m appealing to you that there’s an extremely safe alternative right next to you. I’ve always wanted to go to this place. I know I said that I’ve saved up quite a bit of money, but the price of this place isn’t something you can easily make a decision about. Just a cup of coffee costs 50 thousand won. It’s an insane place, so I should eat it with another person’s money.”

“I’d rather put it in the charcoal here than go with you.”

Maru put the envelope inside his coat pocket. As Hyungseok said, it might be difficult to use it immediately, but they should be able to use it in the future.

After the drama ended, the people who were chatting and drinking loudly all started to wrap up. It seemed that those going for a second round were grouping up by themselves. Maru hung his coat around his arm and stood up. Hyunseok and a few other actors grabbed him, saying that they should drink some more, but he left the restaurant after telling them that he had matters to attend to.

Breathing in the chilly air, he checked the time. It was half an hour before midnight. He was about to press the power button on his phone to make a phone call when he received a text message. It was Gaeul. She had arrived and was waiting at home. He sent a reply that he’d be right back.

“Maru!”

When he looked behind him, Heewon, who was latched on to Haewon, was being dragged away. Maru smiled and wished Haewon luck with his brother.

“Maru, please take care of me!”

Heewon shouted those words before he was stuffed into the car. Only then was he reminded of the words that Haewon said before. He was about to approach and ask, but the car had already departed. It seemed that they were busy getting away from the reporters and journalists waiting. Maru looked at the car that departed before starting to walk. If it was important, he was bound to find out soon, so there was no need to worry about it so much.

“Hyung, I just left.”

Maru called Byungchan. It was time to go home.

KTLChamber's Thoughts

For some reason, Heewon being 'stuffed into' the car cracked me up.

Editor's Note:

I love the foreshadowing that Heewon is in the movie with Maru.

Chapter 939
Crank Up 5

“You were close to Yoonseo the idol?” Byungchan asked as soon as he got in the car.

Maru replied as he pulled the seatbelt,

“We’re at most acquainted with each other. We didn’t have that many scenes together during the shoot, so I didn’t get to talk to her that much.”

“Then she must be one kind person. I mean she practically took pity on a guy standing awkwardly. Thanks to that, you got to show up on the entertainment show weekly.”

“True.”

“How was the atmosphere inside? I would’ve gone in with you if I didn’t have work to do.”

“It was good. The last episode turned out to be good too. I could see their hardships. I think the viewing rate will be pretty good.”

“Is that coming from one of the cast? Or from a viewer?”

“I think it’s closer to the cast? I personally rather like fairytale-like endings where two people live happily ever after, but there are bound to be people who don’t like such clichés.”

“I guess the trend of dramas is changing lately. When crazy plots were everywhere, all daily dramas had crazy plots, but these days, the emotional factor is coming back. Mini-series dramas used to be all about smooth progress, but ever since KBS did a deep-dive on political crime stuff, it became the trend to give the stories a twist. In that sense, Doctor’s Office conformed to the needs of the audience.”

“The last episode of Doctor’s Office was good.”

“And you must have liked Miss Gaeul from that episode.”

“You don’t say.”

Byungchan said that there were hangover drinks in the back seat. When Maru turned around, he saw boxes of various drinks. Not to mention hangover drinks, there were energy drinks with lots of caffeine, vitamin drinks, digestive medicine drinks, and even fiber drinks.

“You still carry around so much with you these days?”

“It’s a force of habit. I would buy a lot of them and put them in the back seats back when I worked as a road manager. I had to say hello to many people after all. It’s just that I haven’t fixed that habit. These days, I stay a lot more at the office, so I don’t even have anywhere to hand those around.”

“Then should I take them? I can place them at home.”

“It’s the blood and sweat of a salaryman, but since it’s you, I’ll give it to you. Take a box with you.”

Maru picked up the box of vitamin drinks. Maru pointed at Gaeul printed on the box.

“She’s pretty, isn’t she?”

“Yeah, she is. Is she coming back tomorrow?”

“She’s at home already. She came back in the afternoon, and hung out with some people before coming back.”

“So there was a reason why you didn’t go for the second round.”

The car stopped in front of the apartment complex. Maru undid his seatbelt and spoke,

“Are you going home now?”

“I think I’ll have to go back to the office. I still have to take care of some things.”

“You’re working hard. Give me a call when you have some time. Let’s eat together after a long time.”

“Sounds good.”

Byungchan fidgeted with his phone. It seemed like he received a text message regarding work. Maru tried to get out quietly so that he did not disturb him.

Just then,

“Maru, have you heard anything from senior Dongwook recently?”

He poked his torso back in with one foot still outside.

“What about him?”

“He suddenly quit work and is no longer picking up my calls. The chief editor for our magazine has changed too. The president said in passing that he quit because of personal circumstances, but he quit work so suddenly and cut off all contact, so I’m worried about him.”

“He quit?”

“So you didn’t know about it either.”

He had a vague idea since Dongwook invested quite a lot of time into chasing Lee Miyoon and Hong Janghae, but it felt very different to hear about it in person. Just because president Lee Junmin gave him his support, it didn’t mean that quitting work was any less grave. Whether it was just a formality or not, he had left the workplace he used to be in and jumped into a matter that had an unclear outcome. Even if Lee Miyoon and Hong Janghae were punished later, Dongwook wouldn’t gain any monetary benefits from this. At most, it would be a sense of relief from being able to take revenge.

“I got through to him once before, and he seems to be resting. You know, he’s been overloaded with work quite a lot. It seems like he’ll take a full break and return later.”

“Really? I’m glad if that’s the case. I also want to throw my phone into the Han river and go missing.”

“Everyone’s like that.”

Maru closed the door. Before the car departed, Byungchan asked him to say hi to Gaeul. Maru waved at the car that was becoming distant before going to his house.

“I’m here.”

Gaeul was on the veranda. He walked over to her and gave her a light hug and a kiss.

“Who was it? You seemed to be close.”

“Byungchan-hyung.”

“Oh, it was your Mr. Byungchan? You should’ve brought him with you.”

“He has some work to do at the company. He’s a busy guy.”

Maru looked at Gaeul’s arm. There was a tint of bronze from the tanning.

“I’m a little sunburnt, aren’t I?”

“It looks nice on you. How was the vacation?”

“Unexpectedly good actually. The weather was warm, the sea was clear, and the fruits were really tasty. It’s totally different from the ones you eat in Korea, even if they’re the same types of fruit.”

“Which one was the most delicious?”

Like a squirrel spitting out all the seeds inside its cheeks at its home, Gaeul told him everything that happened during the vacation from start to end. She was so excited as she talked that it was to the point that it made Maru happy just by watching. Her voice was filled with joy whenever he responded to her words. He listened to her words over a can of beer. After talking for a while with a smile on her face, she stopped and rolled her finger around the lip of the beer can. Perhaps she remembered some bitter memories about the vacation she said was ‘unexpectedly good.’

“You must be tired. Should we head back inside?”

There was no need to bring up past memories if it was exhausting to do so.

“Things are going well, right?” Gaeul asked suddenly.

Although she left out all the context, Maru immediately realized what she was referring to.

“Yes, they are.”

“I knew it. I thought so when Lee Miyoon, who had been depressed ever since the start of the vacation, became overjoyed right before we came back. Something good must have happened to her. I don’t think she realized that it will ultimately be her own shackles.”

“I don’t think that’s true. She’s just treating it lightly since she probably thinks that the risk is worth taking. Or, maybe she had the confidence to suppress things even if something does happen once she regains her power.”

“That sounds reasonable. It felt rather strange watching her. It involves many people, so I can’t exactly feel happy about it. How is it going with Yoojin’s mother?”

“I’m going to contact Yoojin once I get some materials from senior Dongwook. She’ll probably persuade her mother to stop. I’m sure her mother will immediately quit once she realizes that things might get dangerous for her.”

“Is there anything I can do? I’m not unrelated to all this. If you need my help, tell me any time.”

“I might need your help when we persuade Yoojin. We should be able to win her over easily, but if that isn’t the case, we’ll need someone more persuasive than me.”

“We’re doing this for Yoojin’s sake, aren’t we? If it’s like that, I’ll gladly help.”

Gaeul sipped on the beer. She looked a little tired right now as though she spent all the energy she charged up during vacation talking. When he asked if she was sleepy, she shook her head.

“One more thing. I think the relationship between Lee Miyoon and Kang Giwoo has become bad. I didn’t hear the whole conversation because there was a door between us, but from the angry voices and the tone of their words, I can tell for sure that the relationship between them became sour. I ran into a little problem so I was in a fix, but Lee Miyoon even helped out. I found out later that her helping me was equivalent to harming Kang Giwoo. It looks like she hates Kang Giwoo to the point that she was even willing to make me benefit after hating me so much over the years.”

“How were those two before?”

“Don’t even start. The only one Lee Miyoon doted on during the shoot was Kang Giwoo. At one point, Kang GIwoo was even famous for having tamed Lee Miyoon. Though, she still acted terribly towards others.”

“Yet the relationship between the two soured, huh? The answer’s obvious then.”

“What is it?”

“It’s because you’re too pretty.”

“I can’t get used to your jokes now since it’s been a few days.”

“I’m not joking though.”

“Don’t say that. It’s making me feel iffy.”

Gaeul said that she should talk about it now that it was brought up and began to talk about what happened between her and Giwoo. So, he grabbed whose hand, and incited others to talk bad about who? By the time she finished, Maru was looking for his car keys. He felt like he had to give that guy a smack in the face and have a good talk with him.

“I don’t know anymore. I just thought it was a simple affection or greed, but I don’t think it’s at that level anymore.”

“There’s only one thing that comes to my mind after listening to that: Obsession.”

Gaeul faintly smiled after hearing that word.

“That’s what I told Giwoo as well; that he was obsessed with me. He looked quite shocked, as though he didn’t have an idea what his own feelings were until now.”

“Those with mental problems should visit a doctor. Will there be another occasion where you meet with Giwoo in the future?”

“No, not for the foreseeable future. Even if there is, I’m going to cancel it. I was originally not going to tell you about it since I know you’ll be worried, but I think that it’ll be better if you know about it.”

“Thanks for telling me about it.”

The timing of Lee Miyoon hitting Gaeul’s cheek and the relationship between the two going sour matched. Maru felt like he shouldn’t take this ‘obsession’ lightly. There was no one more dangerous than those who would commit crazy deeds out of madness.

His expression seemed to have frozen up while he was thinking as Gaeul told him to loosen up a little.

“Don’t worry too much since nothing much will happen if I watch out for it. Rather than that, how was the afterparty? I talked about mine, so let’s hear yours.”

Gaeul went over on her knees and placed her head on his shoulder. Feeling her warmth made the depressing emotions coursing through him disappear without a trace. Lee Miyoon, Kang Giwoo, Hong Janghae - those names were vaporized from his head. He felt like nothing would matter as long as she was by his side.

“There’s something that might invoke your jealousy.”

Maru started talking with a grin on his face. Looking at Gaeul, who was urging him to go on, he whispered in a small voice.

KTLChamber's Thoughts

With Giwoo's obsession… I'm afraid any plans she has in the future might be sabotaged by him.

Editor's Note:

At least Gaeul has Maru's protection again.

Chapter 940
Crank Up 5

Lee Miyoon looked at the journalist that walked through the door. Seemingly aware that numerous deals had been written in this Chinese-style restaurant, the journalist spoke as soon as he sat down,

“I never knew I’d come to the 3rd floor of this place.”

Miyoon did not reply and told the waiter who came in with the journalist to prepare the food. The waiter closed the door and left.

“You know, I’m the type of person who can’t eat if there’s something on my mind. That’s why I try to get my business sorted to a certain extent before eating. Won’t that be good for you as well, journalist Kim?”

“I’m grateful that you said those words. Actually, I also don’t enjoy eating while sitting on pins and needles.”

The journalist downed a cup of water in one go. Miyoon also drank some water. Ever since Hong Janghae stabbed her in the back, she couldn’t quench her thirst no matter how much she drank. That was because of the thirst of her soul that couldn’t be fulfilled by dealing with the desires of the flesh. That too, would no longer persist after today. It might not be resolved immediately, but she should be able to pour a bucket of water over her dried-up pride.

“As I told you before, my aim is Hong Janghae, and I need your help in order to catch him,” said the journalist.

She rather liked him for not dwelling in formalities.

“So the gist of it is that you want my help in return for you helping me return to my position, yes?”

“Yes, you go back to your position, and Hong Janghae to the abyss he must be punished in for his crimes. As I told you before, you might receive some harm in the process, but I believe that you can cope with it.”

“I know that. I’ve already seen blood, so I don’t believe I can wash my hands clean. I also can endure getting involved in rumors as long as I can bring that man down and return to my position. That is something I can easily handle as long as I return to where I was before.”

Miyoon had a close look at the journalist’s face. Kim Dongwook -she already investigated this man’s background through her connections. He used to be a TV journalist at a TV station until he left and became an internet journalist before he was elected by JA Production’s promotion department. Later, he became the editor-in-chief for a film magazine operating in JA’s capital.

“I heard you quit work.”

She threw a question to probe him out. Although they were going to join hands, it was ultimately a temporary alliance in the end. She had to see through how this man would act after kicking Hong Janghae out of the equation so that she could sleep easy at night.

“I can’t afford to have any hindrances. I told you, haven’t I? As long as I can destroy him, it does not matter if my life turns into shambles.”

“That junior journalist of yours attempted to commit suicide, right? I know it’s a sensitive topic, but I felt like knowing about it would further consolidate our relationship.”

The journalist pressed his eyes that twitched violently. Miyoon inwardly scoffed. Love was such a troublesome emotion. Just because a female journalist slit her wrist while trying to whistle-blow, this man threw his life away. While she found it pathetic, she could understand him. Having lived a long life, she had seen numerous times what would happen when a woman went crazy for a man, and when a man dedicated everything to a woman. Heck, even most of the murder cases that made the news were related to love affairs in some way.

“That’s something I don’t want to think about.”

“And Hong Janghae was the one who did that?”

“He used all sorts of means — legal, mind you — to drain a person’s blood. She perfectly fell for his trap, so there was no helping it.”

“That’s so unfortunate. That man, Hong Janghae, is quite vicious. While I have done some things that I can’t be upfront about with him, I know how to be tactful. I can’t believe he went so far when he could’ve just told her with words.”

“I couldn’t endure. I wish I could barge into his office with a club and beat him up, but I can’t afford to do that. Not that I can do it either. Just like how he bullied her with the law, I plan to do the same back to him.”

“You must’ve had a hard time. Pay him back through the law, you say. Yes, that’s right. Beating people up like a savage does not suit this era. We should be smart about it.”

“So please help me. I know that you also have a lot to pay back to him.”

Miyoon nodded. It was okay that a man blinded by vengeance was going on a rampage. It would be all the better for her as long as she could hitch a ride and reap the benefits. However, something did tug at her mind. It was indeed Hong Janghae’s doing that almost drove this man’s junior to death. He showed how cruel a man could be in a constitutional state by making the most use of his meticulous personality. The problem was ‘Lee Miyoon’, her own name. Miyoon knew about this junior journalist as well. She was like a moth to a fire, a foolish journalist who flew to the fire of truth despite knowing that it would burn her to death. It was Miyoon who tossed her a fake witness. She heard later that she experienced backlash while trying to go to court. If this man was crossing a dangerous bridge because of the resentment harbored by that female journalist, he should want to bring the blade to Miyoon’s throat as well.

“Did that junior not mention anything else? Like how there was someone other than Hong Janghae involved, for example. Around that time, I was still in business, so I might have given her trouble.”

At times like this, it was better to declare war. He was bound to be startled if he was probed first before he talked about what he had prepared beforehand. The journalist’s face suddenly crumpled. He didn’t look flustered because of the unexpected question though.

“Had I known that she had dug deep into the matter, I would’ve stopped her early on. No, I had a vague inkling that she was dipping her hands into something she shouldn’t. But I just ignored her, not realizing that that was the last moment I could save her.”

The journalist shook his head as he talked about his past.

“Sorry about that. I ended up saying something unnecessary because I recalled what happened back then. My junior knew that you were in that business back then. However, she told me that Hong Janghae was at the core of it all. She told me that she was going to chase Hong Janghae too. The next time I met her, she had broken down. Right now, she’s a lot better after having quit work and received psychotherapy, but she still finds it difficult to talk about what happened back then. It’s like she’s aphasic when it comes to that topic.”

“So the main culprit is Hong Janghae.”

“Yes. That’s why I’m trying to bring him down. It might be difficult just on my own, but it won’t be difficult as long as you can help me.”

Miyoon crossed her legs. So it wasn’t that he was entirely unaware. He knew that she had been involved in it. However, it seemed that the junior journalist of his had not told him everything. Well, it was indeed true that Hong Janghae was the one who ultimately strangled her. It was understandable that the arrow of fury was directed at him. She was relieved to know that they were in a mutually beneficial relationship without full trust. If the journalist tried to fawn over her with sweet words, she would not have believed him.

“I hope that junior of yours gets better soon.”

“She might feel better if she hears about Hong Janghae’s fall.”

“Very well. I shall lend you my hand in this matter. I also want to see Hong Janghae slip. So, where are we in the process?”

Just as the journalist was about to speak, there was a knock on the door followed by the waiter coming in. Miyoon smiled and pointed at the table. Since she confirmed that it would be okay to ride the same boat, it should be okay to listen to the rest while eating. In this matter, the person was more important than the method. Even as the food was getting prepared, the journalist did not look at the food even once. It was the stereotypical figure of someone in a hurry to do something.

The man obsessed with vengeance spoke as soon as the waiter left,

“I plan to persuade the middlewoman in Japan. Once that position becomes vacant, you need to step in.”

“If I can’t even sit on an empty seat, then I might as well die. If you can set things up, then I’ll do the rest. What comes after that?”

“For now, you must focus on returning to your position. If you can’t do that, we can’t topple the castle that is Hong Janghae.”

“Well, I guess it’ll be something like me opening the gates to the castle after going inside. Isn’t that right?”

“I guess it will ultimately come down to that. You must be prepared to protect yourself when the time comes.”

“Don’t worry about that. I have my plans.”

“This is obvious, but if you wash your mouth clean after returning to your position, I will not be able to guarantee what I’ll do.”

“Don’t worry about that. I know how to value connections. Also, you’ll probably find out soon that I despite Hong Janghae as much as that junior of yours does.”

“That’s good.”

Miyoon raised her chopsticks, saying that they should continue after eating.

* * *

“That junior of yours runs a flower shop, right?”

“Yes, a small one. She doesn’t have to face a lot of people, so she doesn’t seem mentally tired.”

“That’s good.”

The journalist bowed outside the car, asking her to take care of him in the future. Miyoon started the car and drove off to resolve the final element of worry. She found out where that female journalist worked through the editor-in-chief of the magazine company she worked for in the past. She drove according to the GPS navigation device. Not long later, she saw the flower shop. She parked her car on the side of the road and got out. She stood in front of the glass door as she looked at the cute-looking sign. She thought that she would be by herself, but there was a man. A customer? She placed her hand on the automatic door button and waited.

Just then, the man turned around. His face entered her eyes. She had seen him somewhere before. The man, who made eye contact with her through the glass, took a bow and greeted her. As soon as she received the bow, she recalled a name. Miyoon opened the door and went inside.

“Hello, senior.”

“Yeah, it’s been a long time. Your name is Han Maru, right?”

“So you remembered me. I never greeted you properly ever since I saw you once when I was young, “ Han Maru said as he put down the small vase in his hand.

KTLChamber's Thoughts

Han Maru to the rescue.

Editor's Note:

Whew, I was worried that Miyoon was gonna visit Miyeon.

Chapter 941
Crank Up 5

The title ‘senior’ sounded more pleasant than ‘madam’. Usually, it would seem really cocky for a junior around that age to call her senior, but when Maru said it, it really sounded friendly and amicable.

“Were you in high school when we first met?”

“Yes. I was just playing a minor character with insufficient skills, but you took good note of me and helped me a lot.”

“I didn’t take good note of you or anything. I only said you were good because you were good. Now you don’t look immature anymore, and you’re a fluffy grown adult now.”

“It has been some time. I’ve been to the military too.”

“I thought you’d rise soon since you weren’t like those other kids, but I didn’t see you around for some reason. So you went to the military, huh? It’s not bad to do it early.”

Miyoon moved her eyes to look behind Maru as she conversed. She looked at the woman looking her way from in front of the computer. The woman, who seemed feeble, definitely seemed like the female journalist she saw through a photo a long time ago. Just as Kim Dongwook said, it seemed that the woman had gone through a lot of suffering. She had become a completely changed person in the past few years. If Han Maru grew up with the accompaniment of time, the woman looked like she was eroded by it. Miyoon could instantly tell that Dongwook wasn’t exaggerating when he said that she slit her wrists. As he said, it seemed that she regained some stability thanks to psychotherapy, but a thick shadow still seemed to be looming over her. She would collapse at the touch of a hand.

“Owner, the flowers here are quite pretty. I plan to buy some as gifts. Would you recommend something to me?”

“As a gift?”

“Yes.”

Miyoon could tell that the woman was trying her best to stay calm; however, she flinched twice as she walked over to the display of vases from where the computer was, as though she couldn’t control her body properly. She looked bad to the point that Maru, who was watching, asked her if she was okay. Miyoon could see why Dongwook was sharpening his blade. What would’ve happened if Hong Janghae was here instead? It wouldn’t be strange if she passed out on the spot.

“Who do you plan to gift it to?” said the female journalist after having barely calmed down.

Miyoon said that she was going to present it to a woman she knew and that she was someone in her mid-30s.

“Lately, these colors sell out pretty quickly. You can also write something on the vase too. You can either get a sticker or draw it yourself, but there’s a cost difference between the two. Drawing it yourself will also need about three days for it to be ready.”

“Can I get it right away if I get a sticker?”

“Yes; as for the writing, you can either write it yourself or have me do it for you.”

“I’ll write it myself. As for the color, I like this light blue one. For the cactus, this one seems pretty.”

“If you’d like to get it wrapped up, you should write the note here. It’s tedious to open the packaging, stick the sticker and close it again.”

The female journalist became calmer the more she talked. Miyoon received a sticker and sat down at the table in the middle of the store. As she slowly wrote, she looked at the female journalist organizing the display. If she was filled with hostility, she would’ve shown a big reaction. There was some remnant heat, but it didn’t look like it would explode. She seemed to be avoiding getting involved as much as possible.

“The store’s really pretty.”

“Thank you.”

“Also, you know who I am, right? Not to boast, but I’d like to leave behind an autograph wishing for your success, but I thought it’d be pretty weird to do it if you don’t know me.”

“I know. You’re an actress.”

“Actually, I’ve gotten old now, so I was almost dejected because people didn’t recognize me. I’m grateful that you did. Let me pay for it now.”

She handed the woman her card. While she took care of the transaction, Miyoon put the final period on her comment. She took the sticker and put it on the vase. I hope your business is successful — it read.

“Here.”

After taking the credit card, she gave the female journalist the vase. The woman accepted the vase with two hands.

“It’s for you.”

“What?”

“It’s a gift for you. Place it where you can see it. I have good energy, so I’m sure your business will go well.”

The female journalist hesitated before eventually placing the vase in the display case next to the entrance. She didn’t put up any resistance and just let everything flow past her. She was probably so exhausted that revenge wasn’t even an option in her head. Kim Dongwook was probably brandishing his sword in her place. Since she checked that man’s objective with her two eyes, it was time to go to the next stage. It would be quite meddlesome if the woman brought out her desire for vengeance at the bottom of her heart for survival, but she had to take that much risk at least.

“Owner,” she called out at the door.

The female journalist, who was clasping her hands and staring at her, replied ‘yes’ in a small voice.

“Should I come again later? Or should I not?”

It was a simple question, but it took dozens of seconds for the female journalist to speak,

“I hope you don’t come.”

“Alright, okay, then. I guess it’ll be better for both of us if we don’t see each other. It’s true that I wish you success with this business. I believe that you’re more suited to handling flowers than holding a pen.”

The female journalist nodded heavily. It was her expression of her intent that she did not want to face the incident that drove her life against a corner ever again. Miyoon turned around, relieved. This woman was completely fear struck. If someone close to her told her that they would help her get revenge, she would likely stop that person. It was probably natural as she had to go through all those things. Kim Dongwook also said that he hadn’t told her anything about it while doing what he did. From this encounter, she judged that there were no lies in what Kim Dongwook said at the restaurant.

She opened the door and left the store. The night air was more refreshing than ever. She even had a premonition that things would go well in the future.

“Senior.”

Maru, who had been staying quiet during her conversation with the female journalist, followed her out. She had also thought this during their first encounter, but this young man truly was rather smart.

“I’m not sure whether you’ll like it or not, but here.”

The thing Han Maru held out was a tall cactus. It was something she paid close attention to when she entered the store because of its peculiar shape. This young man’s actions were quite cute. It was also rather interesting that he closed the distance without difficulty.

“Is it a gift?”

“Yes. If you don’t have anywhere to put it, then I’ll take it back.”

“My house is big. I have plenty of space for something like this.”

She placed the vase in the passenger seat. Today, everything seemed to be going well without hitting any blocks. She even received an unexpected gift from a young man.

“Do you know the owner here?”

“She used to be a journalist before. She’s also the one who gave my first interview. We’ve been out of touch for a long while until I was passing by this place and I happened to see her running this store. Ever since then, I’ve been coming here every so often.”

“This country is pretty small.”

“That’s true. I didn’t know that a journalist would become a florist.”

Maru’s eyes contained pity as he looked back at the store. He seemed to know a little about the circumstances of the woman.

“I know her a little too. Though, we can’t be called close.”

“I see. She’s doing a lot better than before. When I first came here, she was so wary towards strangers that I was worried if she could do business.”

“Looks like something happened?”

Han Maru put on a smile instead of giving a response, as though it was a difficult matter to talk about.

“I remember her being quite cheerful.”

“She was. But right now, she seems to prefer staying quietly in that place over going around. When I first saw her, she took interest in many things just like a journalist would, but right now, she’s satisfied with just focusing on the people that come to the store.”

Maru made an awkward expression as though he had said something he shouldn’t. Miyoon said that it was okay. In fact, she even felt grateful. She was able to confirm that the female journalist had holed herself up in her own little world from a third person. As she got in the car, she recalled the agency standing behind Maru.

“You belong to JA, right? Are you still there?”

“Yes. I’m still at that company.”

“Do you perhaps know about a journalist named Kim Dongwook?”

“I do. He used to be at our company.”

“I see.”

“What about it?”

“Nothing much. I happen to come across someone talking about that person. Since you said you know him, let me ask you: What kind of person is that journalist in your personal opinion?”

“A good person.”

“How about when it comes to work?”

“I’m not entirely sure, but I can say for sure that he won’t look back once he’s absorbed in something. He told me about the things he did back in his journalist days like it was some heroic story, but I could tell that those things aren’t something that an ordinary person can do with a sane mind. He’s an incredible person.”

“Really? Then I guess the rumors are false. Don’t worry about it. It’s commonplace to hear bad rumors about journalists in this field. Are you perhaps still in touch with him?”

“The thing is, I can’t get through to him these days. I came across him a while ago, and he seemed very busy. He seemed to be angry at something too. Maybe it’s because of that, but he doesn’t come to this store that often recently. He used to come here quite frequently too.”

“Are those two close?”

“I don’t know that much.”

Han Maru finished his words with a smile. Miyoon said okay and got in her car. She got a satisfactory result so she didn’t feel disappointed. This was an unfunny tragedy of a ruined woman and a man lamenting for not being ruined in her stead. She just had to dip her feet into the sad love story between the two people and bring Hong Janghae down. Whether the two journalists lived happily ever after or committed mutual suicide, she didn’t care.

“Have a safe trip back.”

Miyoon started the car as she looked at Han Maru’s reflection through the mirror. The vase that he gave her shook on the passenger seat. Now that she had a second look at it, there was a sticker on it. I hope all the things you do become successful — it was a vase that contained a quite cute wish. It was also a sign that removed her hesitation. She raised the volume of the radio by two levels. The loud boom of the music was quite welcoming today. It seemed that the heavens left her a way out, looking at how things were going well. As taking the first step was important, it wouldn’t be impossible to deal a blow to Hong Janghae as long as she stepped past the halfway point. She looked forward to the day Kim Dongwook contacted her again.

KTLChamber's Thoughts

I hope the downfall happens. It'll be incredibly cathartic for sure.

Editor's Note:

Hopefully, it will be as cathartic as Maru destroying the acting club in like chapter 51 (or something).

Chapter 942
Crank Up 5

He suddenly craved a cigarette. Maru twisted his dried-out lips. His head boiled like a furnace, and his throat felt prickly as though a beard was growing inside. He was confident in lying with a smile on his face since it was his specialty, but it drained him of energy since he was up against Lee Miyoon. He had inwardly shouted at her to leave several times. He only came back to the store after giving Lee Miyoon’s car one last glance after even the rear lights couldn’t be seen anymore. Choi Miyeon was sitting at the table, her head lowered and her hands clasped like she was praying.

“Did she leave?”

“Yes, she left.”

It was a short time that didn’t even last ten minutes, but it seemed to have been an eternity for Miyeon. She had shriveled up like a hydrangea flower that hadn’t been watered for days. Maru took out some water from the store’s fridge and gave some to Miyeon.

“I wonder why she came here so suddenly.”

“Indeed.”

“It probably wasn’t a coincidence. She looked like she knew I was here.”

Miyeon looked at the vase she placed in the display case next to the entrance. It was the vase that Lee Miyoon left as a present. Maru picked up the vase and placed it on the floor.

“Should I throw it away on my way home?”

“No. I should leave it here since that woman may come and look for it later. Also, the cactus would be wasted.”

Miyeon gulped down the water in one go. She was probably confused by Lee Miyoon’s presence which had appeared suddenly like a traffic accident. Maru closed his mouth. He couldn’t tell her that this was a foreseen event and that he had come here in order to prevent the worst-case scenario from happening.

“Are you okay?”

“I thought my heart would stop when she first came in, but I became better soon. It seems like time is really a cure for everything. I thought I’d pass out or charge at her upon seeing her, but I managed to hold back.”

“Well done. She’s someone who would enjoy it instead if you went against her. Ignoring her might be the best thing to do. She went back obediently today.”

“But why did she come looking for me so suddenly? We made no contact until now.”

Miyeon was in deep thought as she pressed between her eyes before turning her head around. She looked like she had noticed something. Maru asked if she had an idea without showing any ripples on his face.

“No, it’s nothing.”

Although she had long since put down her pen, she was a journalist who had once almost pushed him to a dangerous boundary. He couldn’t look down on her intuition, so he had to be careful, and he also had to watch his choice of words so that her intuition did not reach Dongwook. Things would only go smoothly if Miyeon stayed still. If she found out that Dongwook was heading toward a dangerous area like her in the past, she would probably stop it at all costs even if it meant that she had to reveal everything. Maru stayed next to her for around ten more minutes before picking up a vase to take home and standing up.

“I think you should close the shop early and get some rest.”

“I think I should.”

“I’ll place the vase you picked for me at home. Thanks for consulting me about various things today.”

“No need for that. Just come again later. I don’t know that much about interior design, but I can give you consultation when it comes to aesthetic plants.”

He put the vase inside a paper bag. He also received some fertilizer and some plastic ropes used to hang the vase on the ceiling before he left. Miyeon followed him out.

“Please go back inside. The air is chilly.”

“Uhm, Maru.”

“Yes?”

“There’s nothing going on with Dongwook seonbae, right?”

It seemed that she hadn’t put away her suspicion. Maru asked back with a questioning look rather than a smile,

“Something going on? There’s something going on with hyung-nim?”

There was nothing harder to face than a pair of eyes without any shaking. Miyeon’s eyes looked like crystals embedded deeply in the ground. They were crystals that would not shake no matter how much they were hit with a hammer from all sides.

The sudden appearance of Lee Miyoon, Han Maru’s late night visit asking for a consultation about interior design for around an hour, as well as Kim Dongwook who hadn’t contacted her even once for the past while — all these clues seemed to have allowed her to make her own conclusion.

Did he have to tell her the truth? Or lie to her until the end? If he avoided answering right now, the conviction she had in her heart would probably turn into the truth. Should he persuade her at this opportunity and have her participate in this matter? — that option was scrapped before he could even blink. If Miyeon could be with them on this, they would have never acted so discreetly in the first place. Above all, Dongwook would not want her to get involved in this matter. If a person who had already collapsed once becomes ruined again, attempted suicide probably won’t be the end of it.

What moved her, when she looked like she wouldn’t budge until she heard an answer, was a phone that rang inside the store. Miyeon turned around and walked over to her phone. Now that he had gained some time, he had to come up with an excuse so that there wouldn’t be any trouble.

“Senior?”

The word ‘senior’ popped out of Miyeon’s mouth when she picked up her phone. Was it Dongwook? That was great timing. Maru looked at Miyeon calmly. She, who had been prepared to interrogate him, walked around the store with her phone.

“Alright. Come around one time.”

After finishing her phone call, Miyeon let out a sigh and spoke,

“Did you know that he was preparing to start a business?”

The masters of excuses inside his head started working quickly. Maru smiled awkwardly and replied,

“Was that him just now?”

“Yes.”

“So I guess you must’ve heard then. I only found out a little while ago that he was preparing to start his own personal business. I only heard that he was incredibly busy. Actually, I wanted to tell you about it, but he told me to stay quiet because you might be worried.”

“So that’s what it is.”

“Looks like things have settled somewhat since he’s calling you. He said he’ll visit you later, didn’t he?”

Miyeon nodded.

“You’re more experienced than him when it comes to starting a business, so you should help him if he asks for help later. Anyway, thank you for today. I’ll go back now.”

“Have a safe trip home.”

After saying goodbye, Maru turned around. He heard the automatic door closing as he took his first step. Thanks to the suitable timing of the call, her suspicion was directed at something else. She would probably treat what happened today as a mere coincidence. He took out his phone to contact Dongwook, who helped him out at the golden time. Just then, a car parked on the side of the road while flashing its high beam. The intense light blinded him for a moment. He frowned and looked inside the car that came over. Dongwook was in the driver’s seat.

“No wonder your timing was so godly. You were watching us.”

“I rushed over as soon as I got a text from you. I couldn’t exactly stay still when she’s with Lee Miyoon.”

“Good. Thanks to you, I managed to get myself out of a predicament. She also seemed rather suspicious, but she seemed to have resolved her suspicions thanks to your call.”

He got in the passenger seat. He could smell the thick smoke of cigarettes. The whole box of air fresheners wasn’t able to do anything.

“How was Lee Miyoon?”

“She seemed to have come to probe her out. I was wondering if she would really come, and she really came.”

“Looks like it was a good thing that I listened to you and prepared for it. It would've been very difficult if Miyeon was by herself.”

Dongwook laid back against the backrest as though he was relieved. He was stroking down his face while laughing like a fool, and he looked tired like he had stayed up for days on end.

“How did things go with Lee MIyoon? Looks like it went well from the way she acted at the store.”

“We decided to join hands for the time being. She was convinced that an enemy of an enemy is a friend. I practiced a few times, but I was still nervous. Had I been a little more inexperienced as a journalist, she would’ve found out.”

“That’s why I told you to just tell her the truth. She’s been selling people for decades, and she would’ve instantly seen through you if you lied to her. I’m sure she was won over because it is true that you are moving because of revenge, and that you have noonim in your heart.”

“I don’t think it’s true when you say that she’s in my heart.”

“She isn’t?”

“If what you’re referring to is something like a deep bond between a man and a woman, then you’re wrong. The only feeling I have towards her is apologetic. Had I watched out a little more, she would not have had to go through that. If she resented me and cursed me, I would’ve retorted to her that it was her own fault, but she didn’t even do that.”

“I thought you’d confess your love once you’re done with this matter.”

“She’s not my ideal type. Also, I’m a celibate. I don’t even know how I feel, so it would be hell to live together with an even more complex creature than me.”

“Marriage has its funs.”

“How would you know when you didn’t even get married?”

“There are things you can know without doing it.”

“Thanks for that weird nonsense.”

Since they had pulled Lee Miyoon to their side, it meant that the foundation had been laid out. They probably wouldn’t go against each other until the roof was built. The only thing left was to create a place for Lee Miyoon to take.

“The thing I’ve talked about will be handled quite soon. There are rarely any people who would hold onto things while risking their life.”

“Do it as soon as possible. Lee Miyoon is probably urgent right now.”

“I will,” Maru said as he fidgeted with his phone.

KTLChamber's Thoughts

Quite a short chapter…

Editor's Note:

I miss fluff sighhhhh

Chapter 943
Crank Up 5

He bought some coffee from the convenience store in front of the apartment complex. Some warm coffee was a great companion that allowed him to last through the cold. He sat at the table under the parasol with the coffee in hand, then started counting the apartment floors in front of him. One, two, three… The lights were off. Gaeul had gone to Jeju island, so it would be a big problem if the lights were on. It was 9 p.m. Maru called Yoojin, who was in Japan, through the messenger app. It seemed that she was on her phone as she picked up immediately after the first ringtone.

-What got into you that would make you call me?

“Some business. You aren’t busy, are you?”

-I picked it up because I’m not busy, don’t you think?

“Are you resting?”

-Yeah. I’m just gazing at the ceiling while in bed.

“Good.”

Maru opened the canned coffee and wet his lips. The things he was about to say now would hurt Yoojin. She might even snap out at him, asking him how he could do such a thing as a friend.

“I have something to talk about regarding your mother.”

-Wait a sec.

He could hear the door close over the phone. A few seconds of silence passed. Maru waited with his hands in his pocket.

-Speak.

“First up, I hope you can keep in mind that I’m not doing this in order to report your mother to the authorities or anything like that.”

There was no response. That should have made her feel complex already. He wanted to wait, but his entire objective was to give Yoojin a sense of urgency. He did not give her any time to relay that information to her head and continued,

“Just like how you talked to me about something important regarding your mother, allow me to tell you something important as well. I’m not sure if this will happen soon or will take some time, but what I can tell you for sure is that the matters your mother is involved in will become a huge issue.”

-Issue? Are you saying that you’re going to rat out my mother to a journalist? You’re selling my mother?

“Not immediately. As I said before, I have no intentions of selling your mother out at all. In fact, I’m telling you this because I want to help. I want to take her hands off this matter before the danger arrives.”

-Danger?

“I can’t tell you the details. But I can tell you that it won’t end so easily. If things go as planned, your mother’s partner will not get off scot-free. The person behind the curtains will also cut off their tail.”

-Are you talking about Hong Janghae?

“My objective is not your mother, but Hong Janghae. A bridge is required to reach Hong Janghae, and your mother is currently playing the role of that bridge. As long as she stays in that position, it will be incredibly difficult for her to escape the fire. In fact, she might be blamed as the main culprit and get all the sins on her. This is prostitution involving high members of society. It will be very noisy once it goes public. Of course, it will probably not influence the mastermind behind it all, but the middlemen will likely all be cuffed. Even if she manages to escape punishment, she will not be able to prevent images of herself from being leaked to the public. Once that happens, she will not be able to maintain those shops that she’s running under her own name.”

-Hey, Han Maru!

Yoojin screeched. It was the right decision for her to close the door. If her screeching voice echoed inside the whole house, there might be hindrances involved in this matter, ones that should have been dealt with rationally. It was ultimately Yoojin’s mother that he had to settle this deal with, but it would become a lot easier to pull Yoojin to his side first.

“Don’t raise your voice. It’s nothing to get angry about.”

-How could I not? Do you even know what I was feeling when I talked about all that to you guys?

“Calm down and listen to me. That’s why I’ve been telling you that I’m not doing this with the intention of socially burying your mother, but to save her. How did you feel when you talked about that secret to us back then? Did you want to feel refreshed by taking out what was holed up within you? No, you didn’t. If that was the case, you would’ve shouted to the sky. You want to save your mother, don’t you? Before she strays off even further, you want to pull her out before it’s too late.”

Yoojin’s angry gasping calmed down rapidly. There were no falsities in her feelings towards her mother. How worried must have she been when someone she couldn’t oppose had chosen the wrong path? And how much would she have blamed herself? These two were the psychological dilemmas that Maru wanted to stimulate within her.

“I’m sure you suffered. It must have been hard. I’m sure there were many other things that you weren’t able to tell us back then. I can’t say that I understand how you felt back then, but I can sympathize with your pains. That’s why I’m trying to help. Because you’re a friend; because she's family to my friend.”

-I cannot go against my mother.

“I’m not telling you to go against her. Change your thinking. This is about helping your mother. It is definitely the wrong thing to get involved in bad matters. However, people can return to their original track through self-reflection. I’m sure your mother dipped her hands into dangerous business because she wanted power, but she has been pretty successful even without that, hasn’t she?” Maru said as he rested his chin on his palm and looked at a docile cat.

It was easy to add a bit of a lie when talking to someone who he could not see. If his relationship with Yoojin was just a little more distant, or if Gaeul would not be sad about it, he wouldn’t care if Yoojin’s mother set her course in life straight to doom. He was only doing this because it would be a lot easier to coax Yoojin’s mother out of the equation and because a few people would be relieved.

He was also sugar-coating when he said that people could change through self-reflection. While he did not deny the fact that people would change through hard efforts, he did not agree with the fact that those that stepped over the line of morals would change through effort. Anyone who had been educated moderately would know a ‘line’ to never cross. Yoojin’s mother crossed that line. Those who had committed a crime of their own will would only stay low when being suppressed through the law, and they would reach their hands into the darkness once the guard was a little lax. Even if this whole ordeal went well and she becomes distant from this whole matter, she would join hands without hesitation if a second Hong Janghae reached out to her.

-Right. My mother is doing plenty well even without having to get involved in that business. I still don’t understand why she decided to expand her business into such a terrible thing.

“Anyone can make a mistake. Your mother is not a perfect human being. Don’t you think so too? A human cannot be perfect.”

Yoojin softly echoed the words that even her mother cannot be perfect. Maru had to give her motivation. If he managed to persuade her that she could become a hero that helps her mother, Yoojin would make a move. After all, to Yoojin, her mother was a sun that she could not afford to have disappear or fall. She would reach the conclusion that she would have to talk to her mother in order to protect her.

-What should I do?

“For now, try persuading her on your own. Is she with you right now?”

-Yeah, she’s downstairs.

“Then go up to her and bring up the topic directly. Don’t talk about what I told you and ask her if she could take her hands off that business. If things go well, your mother might pull out with just that.”

-No, that will absolutely never happen. Mother listens to my requests quite well, but she will never relent when it comes to her own matters. Heck, I can’t even get her to let me change her pillow covers without permission. There’s no way she would stop doing that through my words alone.

“Still, go ahead and try. You should show her that her daughter is desperate so that we can take this to the next stage easily. It will soften the conversation between me and her after you tell her your own feelings rather than me suddenly bringing up the topic. If you fail to persuade her, then talk about me.”

-Okay. I’ll do it right now.

The phone hung up. Maru sipped the coffee that had turned cold. The cat that had been lingering around him looked like it was startled or had found out that the human in front of it would not give it a can of tuna, and had disappeared. Maru leaned back on the chair and looked at the cars coming inside the apartment complex. Over the sea in Japan, Yoojin was probably making the resolution of her life before barging into the living room. Maru only hoped that he would get a call back soon whether things went well or not.

He didn’t get a call back even after he finished the canned coffee. He went back inside the convenience store and bought another one. The part-timer, who he had gotten to know after seeing him for a few months, asked if it wasn’t cold outside.

“It’s bearable.”

He put the coffee against his cheek and sat down. He did not want to bring this matter home. If Yoojin’s mother was just like she was known to be, he would probably be able to get this dealt with before the end of the day.

A cat poked its head out from below the car parked in front of the store. Now that he thought about it, the cat probably appeared according to the chimes of the convenience store door. So it was planning to get some food in exchange for looking cute if it found some soft-hearted person. Maru went inside and asked if there was some cat food. The part-timer smiled and pointed at the cat outside.

“That one’s a player. The owner even places an order for cat food specifically for it. Pretty smart. It would keep meowing for food if it sees some in a human hand.”

“That’s much better than people. It doesn’t at least hide its intentions when approaching.”

Maru left the convenience store. Just as the part-timer said, the cat jumped out from below the car when he waved the cat food. This cat had completely learned how to get by in this forest of gray. He also took some photos for Gaeul, who was helpless against cats. There’s no free food in this world, so act as a model in exchange for the food — he thought.

He took photos without restraint. Just then, he got a call from Yoojin. There was no power in her voice.

-I screamed at my mother for the first time in my life. I’m still shaking.

“Well done. You should show her that you’re that desperate. So? What’s the conclusion?”

-She wants to hear things out. Mom wants to call you.

“Perfect. Good job.”

-You’re really pulling my mother out of this, right? You aren’t deceiving me, right?

“I don’t want to be hated by Gaeul.”

-That sounds reliable. If you said that it was for me, I would’ve been suspicious until the end.

“Then hand her the phone now. We should finish this off before the day ends.”

-Alright. Wait a minute.

Maru put his phone down on the table. The cat that was eating in front of him had disappeared, as though it had no more business with a human after having fulfilled its objective.

KTLChamber's Thoughts

It's funny how author's note is ranting about a fly… because I've been haunted by mosquitos for the past few days. Orz.

Man, cynical Maru at his finest.

Editor's Note:

Cynical Maru speaks the truth. People who cross that line willingly can never go back.

Chapter 944
Crank Up 5

Park Okhwa looked at the door that her daughter just left through. Her daughter was an obedient girl. She educated her that way. Her education started when she was still breastfeeding. She warned her daughter with her eyes when the little infant tried to bite. The young girl had yet to even take her first step, but ever since then, she would no longer use her teeth. Her early education showed during kindergarten as well. All of her teachers would say that there was no one more obedient than Yoojin. Even throughout puberty, she would grumble but never disappoint her. Okhwa believed that this was the ideal parent-child relationship. She would do diligence as a parent by focusing everything on raising her, while her daughter would fulfill her filial piety by respecting and following her parent.

Okhwa did not want her daughter to achieve success after many hardships. Was it necessary to choose a path of suffering when there was an obviously easy route? She alone was enough when it came to being disdained and looked down upon just because she was a woman. Her daughter just had to reap the benefits. She had given her daughter the know-how of life that she had learned. It might be rather authoritarian, but from how her daughter followed her without complaints, it definitely wasn’t wrong. As a result of all that, things did turn out quite well.

Okhwa pulled her lips with her fingers. She could still vividly picture her daughter shouting at her from right in front of her. She had never seen that before. It was sudden, unfamiliar, and above all, disconcerted. The change in her daughter that had arrived without warning pressured her heart and made her head dizzy. It was also shocking that her daughter knew about the ‘ladies.’ Since when did she know that? How did she know that? Okhwa had never let those women inside the house nor ever talk about them at her shop. She always proceeded with everything in this room quietly with Hong Janghae or his head manager. If her daughter found out, there was only one possible cause: she came to this room without permission.

She was puzzled even more by this, as her daughter had done something that was disallowed to her, than that she raised her voice. Yoojin was not that kind of girl. She was someone who was unable to do something like that. Her chaotic mind started stabilizing. The words that her daughter said started to be put in order. Cautiously asking about the truth, telling her to take her hands off because it’s dangerous, and lastly, the fact that a friend of hers was aware of this matter — that last one jolted her head. This was no time to be surprised by her daughter’s sudden actions. A stranger knew about this matter, which would not end with just an apology if it was exposed to the public.

Okhwa hurriedly went to the 2nd floor. Her daughter was sitting on the stairs with her arms hugging her knees. Okhwa hurriedly spoke,

“I need to call that friend of yours.”

Her daughter complied and put her phone against her ear. It seemed that she was calling that friend. Okhwa sat on the sofa in the living room and waited for her daughter to bring the phone. Did that fellow find out about the prostitution service through Yoojin? Or maybe it was from some other route? It would be okay if it was the former. It would mean that there was no source of leaks. If it came from somewhere else though, it would be a big problem. This was supposed to be a confidential matter that staked the lives of many.

“Mom.”

Yoojin gave her the phone, telling her that this was for her sake until the end. Okhwa ignored her words and put her ear against the phone. Right now, she was more concerned about this ‘friend’ of hers rather than the sudden change in her daughter.

“Who is this?” she asked right away.

She blatantly wanted to ask where the information was leaked, but she held back for now.

-It has been a long time, madam. My name is Han Maru. I wonder if you still remember me.

“Han Maru?”

When she probed her memories, she did recall a boy that looked rather aloof. Although she had heard about him through the people around her, she did not watch dramas these days and only remembered what he looked like when he was young.

“So it’s you. It’s been a long time.”

-How have you been?

“I’ve been doing well until moments ago, but I can’t be sure of that now. I’ve heard something rather absurd through my daughter. It made me flabbergasted.”

-So you’re feigning ignorance for the time being?

“I don’t understand what you’re trying to say. If you’re doing this because you trust what my daughter said to you out of a misunderstanding, this won’t be good for you. This old lady has a lot of acquaintances you see.”

-Of course this is how you would act. It’d be funny if you admitted it immediately. I’ll fall for your probing question then. This is not something I found out through Yoojin. You know what that means, right?

Her teeth clattered. This was what she was worried about. There was a possibility that he was lying, but from the confidence in his voice, it seemed that he was ready to back it up. Perhaps he even had concrete evidence.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about, but I’ll listen to you anyway. Forget the details. Go straight to the point.”

-I will. It’s not polite of me to take away the time of someone busy. Madam, please take your hands off what you’re doing. You’re doing more than enough by running those shops of yours. I don’t know what you receive in return for being a middlewoman, but if you keep holding onto that, you might lose everything that you have built up.

“Are you threatening me?”

-Did that sound like a threat? I am helping you so that you can avoid the impending catastrophe. The dam has been broken, and the water is overflowing, so you might end up getting swept by the tide if you keep watching.

“I will not get swayed by someone’s words. No matter how much you threaten me, I am firm and proud so I will not be scared. It’s funny to get scared because of something I never did. I’m sure you’re lying when you said you heard it from another sour…”

-Should I tell Mari that you said hi?

Okhwa felt the back of her neck stiffening up. She never imagined that that name would pop up right now. Her daughter only knew that she was involved in the business and not the details. Not only that, Mari was someone she had crossed off the list. Knowing Mari was not something to be taken lightly. It practically meant that he knew everything. There was no way he would say ‘Mari’ just by guessing.

She went inside her room, away from her daughter’s prying gaze. It was too early to admit to and reveal everything, but this was no time to be acting tough either.

“Mari? Who is that woman?”

-Sounds like she’s someone you know. I only said the name, yet you already decided that she’s a woman. I thought it must be a dog’s name when I first heard it.

She was being played. She was hectic right now because the problem came on top of the changes in her daughter. Had she maintained her calm, she would not have made such a mistake. Did Han Maru expect this when he told her daughter to talk to her first? She could vaguely recall the rather bold-looking eyes.

-Should I send you a photo or something? How about a photo of her with her boyfriend? Still, though, you went too far, locking up a person. I wonder what Yoojin would think if she found out. She must be plenty shocked as she is, but once she finds out that her mother tried to tamper with someone’s life…

“That was not me!”

Okhwa cut in midway. The moment Maru talked about Yoojin, she was given a big jolt. Only then did she realize that while she was afraid of being socially buried after being exposed for being a middlewoman for prostitution, she was even more terrified of her daughter Yoojin looking at her with complete contempt. She didn’t care about anyone else, but she had to be a perfect mother in front of her daughter. That was how she had lived until now.

-Indeed. It was not you who did it.

“What?”

-I said it’s not you. Only the one who is holding the knife at the very end will be labeled the culprit. If you clean your hands before that, who would even know that a woman known as Park Okhwa was involved? It hasn’t been that long since you started that business, right?

Han Maru seemed to know everything. Her body loosened. Any strength to resist was drained through her feet.

-You know it already, don’t you? Who will take the brunt of it if this is exposed to the public? Do you think the leaders of huge conglomerates and government officials will even go on the investigation list? Half a year ago, a photo revealed that the chairman of some company had an orgy party, but what happened after that? Did the stocks fall? Did the chairman abdicate from his position? No, it was just quietly buried. The same thing will happen this time as well. However, someone will have to stand on the execution ground in order to quell the fury of the masses. Like back then, only the broker will be the one to die. Do you want to let Yoojin see you like that? The figure of you sitting down in the interview room wearing prisoner clothes?

For a brief moment, she could imagine that. She had been to the prison a few times since there were some people among her acquaintances who were related to trouble. Whenever she looked at those people who were smiling like fools with lifeless faces, she always resolved to herself that she must not fail. She even felt that it was better to die than become like that.

“Why are you telling me all this?”

-I told you. I really want to save you.

“Who the heck are you? How did you know about this?”

-To tell you the truth, I’m nothing more than a meddlesome guy in this. There’s someone else who’s doing the real work. That person should contact you in a while. You should get the details from him. I only found out coincidentally that you were involved in this and said that I would try to persuade you. The mother of a friend of mine is about to run into big trouble, so I can’t exactly stay still.

It only took an instant for a goddamned guy to turn into a savior. The more she listened to him, the more she felt truly grateful. She thought that a catastrophe might have befallen her if her daughter wasn’t friends with this boy. Not long later, she came to herself with the thought that this might be a trap, but it was true that her anger had died down. She also had some vague hope.

“But how do I believe you? I believe that you know a lot about this matter, but when it comes to helping me, I can’t help but…”

-That’s why I told you that I’m just a meddlesome guy. I am going to go to that person and tell him that I’ve successfully persuaded you. Then, you should get contacted by him. You should decide for yourself at that time.

There were many things she wanted to ask, but Han Maru drew the line, saying that he should hang up here.

-I’m telling you this out of worry, but the moment our conversation is exposed anywhere else, you will become a kite with a snapped string. The man known as Hong Janghae is more than capable of doing that. The moment he realizes that he’s exposed to danger, he will immediately start tampering with the evidence or erasing them outright. Though, I’m sure you know that better than me without having to tell you since you’ve been working closely with him.

The phone then hung up. Okhwa put the phone down on the bed. Despite that she was exposed, there was a way out for her. While she said that she couldn’t trust him, she honestly felt like she would cling to whoever would call her tomorrow. Mari alone was enough to prove what she had done. She could picture herself praying that she would escape this safely.

“Mom?”

Her daughter put her head through the door. For some reason, her daughter looked really tall today. When did she grow up like that?

“Go back to your room for now.”

She wanted to get consolation, but the person doing it could not be her daughter. She had to keep the image of a perfect mother for life. Yoojin slowly closed the door. As the door closed, Okhwa could see her daughter sighing in relief, as though she was glad that her mother ordered her firmly like usual. Okhwa let out a deep sigh. She felt like she wasn’t going to get any sleep tonight.

KTLChamber's Thoughts

Yoojin: But mom… can I have my phone back?

Anyway. We got some more info about Yoojin's mother. Turns out she isn't quite the iron woman after all.

Editor's Note:

I hope no one forgives her for this lol. She is, in the end, still a criminal. Also I love it when Maru toys with people.

Chapter 945
Crank Up 5

“I think you can try contacting her tomorrow. I sized her up, and I don’t think things will go badly. She seemed urgent, and more than anything, scared. She dipped her hands into it for immediate benefits, but I’m sure she must be uneasy. Above all, I think she’s thinking about her daughter, unlike how she looks.”

-There are many vicious criminals who are endlessly warm towards their families. Rather than that, you actually dealt with the whole thing in less than an hour after you got separated from me. I thought it would take at least a few days.

“I find that delaying matters like these usually lead to trouble. It’s also a lot more comfortable for me to do them as fast as possible. Anyway, you should call her tomorrow.”

-I will. But hey, you were brought up to the surface. Is that okay with you?

“She’ll definitely keep quiet. She knows that her life is on the line. Also, I should help out a little.”

-Well, I’m thankful since it makes my job a lot easier, but still…

Dongwook trailed off as though he was worried. Maru sniffed before replying,

“Don’t worry. I’ll push your back when it comes to the really dangerous stuff. Don’t tell me that you’re disappointed in me later. That’s just the kind of guy I am.”

Maru hung up before returning to his home. He washed away the chill covering his body with a warm shower. While he got washed, he heard the two dogs jumping around in the kitchen. They probably wanted some food.

After giving them some food, he turned on the TV. Back when he lived by himself, he usually never watched TV, but ever since he started living with Gaeul, he started hating the silence in the living room. He brought a handful of nuts and a can of beer before sitting down on the sofa. He hadn’t drank by himself for a while. He happened to see Sooil holding some beer on a TV ad too. He flicked the can of beer in the air —For the smooth success of the project, cheers.

He watched a documentary talking about the dangers of obesity for a while before changing the channel. There was a program telling the news about the entertainment industry. He put down the remote control and focused on the screen. There were actors trying to promote the movies that were about to be released, talking about interesting, and sometimes dangerous episodes, they had during the shooting. They then finished it off by asking the audience for support. The screen switched back to the studio, and the main host was on camera.

-The next news comes from the actor Lee Heewon. We’ll hear the details from Miss Nayoung, who is at the scene. Miss Nayoung, I heard you’ve met Mr. Heewon, yes?

The scene changed again. A reporter wearing a denim overall skirt picked up the conversation.

-Hello everyone. Sorry for making you wait. I’ve finally met Mr. Lee Heewon. Let us get right to the interview of Mr. Lee Heewon, who has received a lot of popularity for his acting in the drama ‘Doctors.’ To the pojang-macha we go.

The dogs sat down below the sofa. They liked jumping around excitedly, but they liked watching TV just as much. Sometimes, Maru wondered if they were human when they danced along to a music program. While Maru petted their heads, the reporter went into the pojang-macha on the street. Heewon was sitting down in a cramped corner.

-Hello, Mr. Lee Heewon. It’s been a long while.

-Yes, I think it’s been quite long since I last did an interview.

-There are many people who want to see you. Why do you not do any interviews?

-I just like staying at home. I also don’t have the energy to do anything once I’m done acting. I only managed to show up since I finished the drama.

-You’re just like the rumors say. You said once before that you wish to stay at home and do nothing for a whole month, right? You should have some time since the drama is over. Are you really staying at home?

-That was the plan, but my little brother won’t let me be.

-Your brother is currently acting as your manager, right? It’s quite well-known among the fans. You two are known to be quite close.

-It’s because everyone doesn’t know his true self. He is so vicious and simply can’t see me resting for a single instant. Actually, I wanted to rest at home and not do this interview, but my brother forced me out.

-You say that, but you actually worry about your brother a lot, don’t you? Your post on instagram became quite a hot topic. You wrote that you were always grateful while uploading a photo of your brother sleeping.

-I’m always grateful to him since it’s thanks to him that I got into acting. It’s just, you know, just because I’m grateful to him doesn’t mean that he can’t be annoying sometimes. Haewon, please get some rest, so that I can get some rest too.

Heewon spoke while looking straight into the camera. That probably wasn’t on the script and came from his true heart. Maru watched the interview for a while over some beer before standing up. He made some food to eat tomorrow before cleaning his house that had been messed up by the dogs. When he came back to the living room after taking out the sock that Woofie had pushed underneath the bed, the interview was coming to an end. After having an on-the-spot fan meetup and giving them a hug, Heewon returned to the pojang-macha.

-I wish I could talk to you some more, but you have something to do, don’t you?

-I’ll get dragged around by my brother again. I really wish I can stay here a little longer and enjoy this bowl of udon.

The reporter covered her mouth with the questions sheet and laughed. Meanwhile, Heewon glanced outside the scene before stuffing his mouth with some udon. He was probably looking at Haewon. Maru could clearly see that Heewon was trying to eat some carbs with the interview as an excuse. He could already picture Heewon being scolded by Haewon after the shoot.

-Lastly, I must announce some unfortunate news. Mr. Heewon, I heard that you were going to get drafted soon?

Heewon put the bowl down and replied,

-Yes. I can’t tell you the specific time, but I’m getting drafted early next year. I already have a date.

-You’re twenty-five this year, aren’t you? You’re at the age where you should be focusing on work. Don’t you find it a little bit of a pity?

-Many people around me told me that. I should be focusing on work, I can’t miss this golden time, I should row while there’s still water - I don’t think they’re wrong. However, this is the right time for me. It’s the perfect time to go to the military. I’ve never done something seriously ever since I was young. I only focused on wasting my time as much as possible and acting was the first thing I put so much effort into. Though even that was something I started because I was pushed to do so because of a friend. Now, however, it’s my everything. I luckily managed to make a debut, and I received a lot of attention from the people and was told that I’m pretty good, but the way I see it, I’m still starting off and insufficient. I don’t think right now is my golden period. I believe that I should experience a little more of life and prepare to leap even further. That’s why I decided to get drafted. I thought I needed some time to show more things in my acting.

Heewon again spoke while looking straight into the camera. There was even a sense of desperation in his voice. He showed with his words and expression that the decision to get enlisted came after deep consideration and deep thought about his acting career. Anyone would cheer for him after seeing that.

Maru nodded while listening to his manly words before frowning. Something didn’t feel right. While he was caught off-guard by the graveness in his voice, Lee Heewon was not someone who would speak so logically. Instead, it was Haewon who was on the more logical side.

In the past, Heewon chose to get enlisted to get a break. He said his objective was to escape from the tight schedule, as well as Haewon who enforced that tight schedule upon both of them. Was he acting? If he said ‘I’m tired of work, so I’m taking a break’ while laughing like a fool at his last interview before getting enlisted, it would probably tarnish his reputation, so he may be using his acting skills to cover things up.

Having come up with a rather plausible-sounding deduction, Maru started laughing. He should probably be able to find out the truth if he gave the guy a call later.

-I heard that your brother is getting joint-drafted with you. Is that true?

-Yes.

For the first time in his fluid answers, Heewon gave a curt answer. Although it was for a brief moment, he couldn’t maintain his expression either. He frowned like a mosquito had landed on his ear. Although he proficiently smiled right after that, Maru could see how much he disliked that situation as he knew full well about Heewon’s nature.

“So it was acting.”

Maru sat down on the sofa and watched the rest of the interview. The reporter finished off as the OST for ‘Doctors’ started flowing out.

-I enjoyed the interview today. Thank you.

-Me too.

-Please come again once you get discharged.

-I will.

-Finally, you should tell something to our audience. There must be a lot of fans who will be disappointed to not see you for a long time.

Heewon turned around on his chair. He clasped his hands and put them on his lap.

-I was really happy that everyone cheered for me and gave me a lot of support when I’m very insufficient. Since this is the start, not the end, I will try my best to do even better in the future. Also, it’s not like you’ll stop seeing me immediately, so don’t feel too disappointed. To give you a little hint, I am doing one final piece before I get enlisted.

The reporter asked back in surprise,

-Really? Looking at the timing, it must be a film.

-Yes. But I’m not the lead character. I don’t have the time for that either. I’m just a cameo that will appear briefly, but this is something I’m doing with a really good director and someone I’ve always wanted to act with, so I’m planning to do my best.

-Even just as a cameo, I’m sure many of your fans will be happy to see you on screen.

-Don’t expect too much. I might not show up that much. In fact, I might be edited out.

-No way, that won’t happen, will it?

The camera backed off and captured the two of them at once. The reporter took a bow and finished off with a closing commentary, while Heewon waved both of his hands in the air. The main host came back on screen again. The segment ended with the main host saying that he would look forward to Mr. Lee Hewon’s last acting performance before getting enlisted. Maru watched with his arms crossed. He recalled the brothers saying something ominous during the afterparty: Please take care of me.

“No way, right?”

While his mouth denied it, his head whispered to him that it was probably right.

KTLChamber's Thoughts

Noooooo…… Maru will be overshadowed by Heewon's cameo presence… (like it happened with Sooil last time)

Editor's Note:

Considering Anh Joohyun shone despite being a minor character…… Things arent looking so good.

Chapter 946
Crank Up 6

“Okay, hyungnim. As long as Lee Miyoon does well, everyone can return to their original positions. What I’m worried about is that the chairman might choose not to use Lee Miyoon again.”

-That’s something Lee Miyoon is confident in, so we have to let her do it. If she can’t, we can only try attacking Hong Janghae with the evidence we have procured until now.

“We have a witness, but not clear evidence, so I don’t think that will be enough. Unless the procuress in Japan gives us evidence directly, then maybe, but she’ll likely focus on cleaning her hands off it, so she’ll likely erase all evidence that might be used against her.”

-Ultimately, it comes down to people. I’ve prepared as much as I could, so I should pray for the rest. Alright, good work. We’ll have to watch for a while, so you should focus on your work.

“You should get some rest too. If you have the time, you should visit journalist, no, owner Choi’s florist shop too.”

-I’m planning on not seeing her until I finish this. I think that will be better for both of us. Lee Miyoon might start suspecting if I start visiting her.

“That’s true.”

-I will call her though.

“Alright. I’ll visit you on the weekend. Let’s go over what we should tell the others in the future while eating.”

-Then see you on Sunday. Good luck with work. I’m hanging up now.

“See you.”

Dongwook hung up. It seemed that Park Okhwa decided to turn around. There was probably no one who would daze out in front of the tetrapods when they knew that a tsunami was coming. She should be starting to clean up her surroundings and creating a reasonable excuse to cut ties with Hong Janghae. Yoojin’s rebellion against her probably helped her make the decision as well. It was great that she was not a parent who treated her child like an auxiliary piece like Hong Janghae.

He took a shower and had a look at the time. It was 10 a.m, about time to leave. He put his coat on and consoled the two dogs that tried to follow him out before going down to the parking lot. When he got in his car and turned on the radio, Gaeul’s voice started coming out. There was no way it was a live radio from all the way on Jeju island, so it was probably a recording. A trot song started flowing out, along with the words that it was requested by a bus driver in his fifties. Maru hummed along and tapped along with the rhythm on the driving wheel. Not long after he went on the road, he saw the destination. It was a restaurant that specialized in a baby’s first birthday party. He parked the car in the underground parking lot and went up to the first floor lobby. He looked at the guidepost at the front desk and headed to the 2nd floor.

“You’re here?”

Director Park Joongjin greeted him. The hall was completely empty with only a ritual table in the middle. The pig’s head, the main character on the table, was grinning widely. At the head of the table was a sign that said ‘wishing for no accidents.’ Usually, it would read ‘wishing for fortune’ instead.[1]

“It doesn’t matter if the piece does well or not, you see,” said Joongjin as he pointed at the sign.

To Maru, it sounded more like ‘success is guaranteed anyway, so I hope no accidents happen.’

“What about the others?”

“They’ll come soon. This is a small-scale one, so there won’t be many people. I was originally not going to do this, but I felt like it would bring bad luck to the title.”

“I thought you were someone who didn’t believe in such superstition.”

“Luck is something I cannot control. If I can benefit a little by doing this, then it won’t be a bad thing.”

While he waited, some people started arriving. They were the actors, production staff members, as well as the writer.

“I’ve never taken up work after seeing just the name of the director in my entire life. If it wasn’t you, director Park, I wouldn’t work like this. Did any of the actors receive a script?” asked head manager Moon, who introduced himself as the producer.

Maru did not raise his hand and looked around. The other actors also stayed still as though they did not receive the script.

“The only thing you have heard is a couple of lines about the synopsis from the director, right? If it was any other director, people would’ve quit already and the project would’ve been scrapped because of failure to upkeep the contract and whatnot. Heck, if we were using investor money to shoot this film, the company would have sued the director a long time ago. But look at him. He’s using his own money for the production, his own men, and only people that trust him, so there’s not a single complaint in a situation like this. That was when it occurred to me: ah, if I don’t brace myself, this film might get demolished before the crank-in.”

Head manager Moon spoke with a chuckle,

“That’s why I brought you into the team, head manager Moon. I’m going to have you take care of things outside the shoot. I believe in you. Don’t overwork yourself.”

“Of course. That’s why I’m here. Anyway, please take care of me. I’m going to be acting as the supervisor for our director here.”

Head manager Moon made big gestures whenever he talked. His talking skills reminded Maru of an American stand-up comedian, and Maru watched him like he would a performance. After talking about how he almost fell to his death at the Grand Canyon, head manager Moon looked at the door and waved his hand. Maru turned his head around. The baggy hoodie and cargo pants with lots of pockets caught his eye. The woman, wearing a large pair of horn-rimmed glasses, took off her hood and greeted slowly.

“You haven’t started yet?”

“You’ve overslept again, haven’t you? You should reduce your sleep.”

“I get sleepy no matter how much I sleep, and if I reduce my sleep any further, I might as well go into a coffin. Hello everyone, I’m Park Jiseon. I’m supposed to be the assistant director, but I’m not sure. Director Park is so great, so I wonder if there’s anything for me to do. I just plan to fill the headcount at the shoot.”

Park Jiseon sniffed before sitting down. Maru had a close look at her face. It seemed like she was the same person after all. She was the director of the commercial for a telecommunications commercial that he shot with Sooil a long time ago. She looked just as tired as she did back then. The bags under her eyes remained unchanged too.

“Looks like all the important people are here. Let’s do the ritual and go for a meal.”

Joongjin stood in front of the table. The other people also stood up. Joongjin inserted some money into the pig’s nose and kowtowed before giving everyone a glass of liquor. Considering that he rented such a large hall, the ritual was rather simple.

“Shall we go?”

“You called all of us so early in the morning to do this? With people you’re seeing for the first time, no less?”

Head manager Moon clicked his tongue. Park Jiseon complained as well, saying that she had two hours less sleep than usual to come here. Other than the two though, none of the others said anything. It seemed that only these two were able to grumble in front of the director. Even the person who introduced herself as writer Jung looked at everyone nervously. Maru stood next to writer Jung. Writer Jung, who had been walking while looking at the ground, flinched before giving way. She seemed startled.

“Did I approach you too quietly?”

“No. I was just thinking about something else and suddenly felt someone next to me. I wasn’t startled. I mean it, really.”

Writer Jung kept emphasizing that she was not startled. While they stopped for a while, the other people all left the hall. The employees came in and started cleaning up the table as though it was agreed upon beforehand.

“Is the script finished?”

“I’m not sure.”

Writer Jung looked away. Her eyes were relatively big compared to her small stature, so her eye movements looked really flustered. Joongjin said that he was going to write the script himself and that it would be finished soon. This was why Maru paid attention to the woman who introduced herself as a writer when she showed up. Was she like a writing assistant and in charge of looking up materials?

“Did you write the script yourself?”

“To a certain extent.”

“How’s the story? Do you like it?”

Writer Jung frowned. She raised her head and spoke,

“You’re probing me out because the director isn’t telling you, aren’t you?”

“It’s not necessarily like that.”

Writer Jung turned around before rushing over to Joongjin, who was walking at the front. Maru could see her whispering something to him. She also pointed at Maru from time to time. She looked like an elementary school kid going to the teacher to rat people out. He could see Joongjin smile. Maru stopped and watched the two. After finishing the conversation, Joongjin walked to the exit, while writer Jung stomped her way back.

“The director told me to tell you that you shouldn’t be worried since he’ll tell you today.”

“Okay.”

Writer Jung looked back for a bit. The moment she saw Joongjin leave through the glass door, she raised her voice,

“Hey, you aren’t doubting our director, are you? He might look like he lives without a plan, but he’s actually very meticulous. There is a reason he’s not showing you the script and has gathered us only now.”

“I know. He’s not ordinary. I’m sure he must have his reasons.”

That didn’t seem to be the answer she was expecting as writer Jung couldn’t speak for a while. The hateful glare softened up eventually, and a faint smile was hung on her face.

“What, so you know how amazing he is? I thought you were looking down on him.”

Writer Jung reached out her hand, asking for a handshake. He grabbed the small hand and shook it up and down.

“Let’s work well together.”

“Yes.”

Peculiar people gathered up in one spot. Maru believed that he was the most ordinary among this bunch. If he did not brace himself, he might get swayed by these uniquely distinct people.

“You were Mr. Han Maru, right?”

“Yes.”

“You’re rather peculiar.”

“I am?”

“Leaving aside the others, weren’t you worried when you didn’t even get a script despite being the lead character? You really are rather unique.”

Writer Jung winked before walking towards the exit. Maru whispered in a small voice — not as much as you.

It seemed that peculiar people only attracted peculiar people?

“Come on. Everyone’s waiting outside.”

“Okay, coming.”

He followed writer Jung, who ran outside with her short legs.

[1] This is a Gosa(고사). A shamanistic ritual (usually) wishing for success. Some talismans that contain their wish are put in the mouth of the pig’s head mentioned below and the participants would kowtow towards that pig’s head. This is usually done prior to opening a business or in the face of a big project. It is a mostly deprecated custom, especially for the younger generation.

KTLChamber's Thoughts

Today's chapter was short, but difficult…… There were many instances where I didn't know how to translate… Geez, please go easy on me, author.

By the way, director Park Jiseon appears in chapter 413…… She's not new, lol.

Editor's Note:

I don't even remember her…… Here's a link to chapter 413 if you're curious.

Chapter 947
Crank Up 6

“Had I not restrained this man back then, the current director Park would not exist. You can say that I’m the savior of this man’s director title.”

“Fine, it’s all thanks to you, head manager Moon. Why don’t we say that I was born thanks to you too.”

Head manager Moon talked about Joongjin’s history before standing up to go to the bathroom. Some people also left, saying that they had to smoke. The heat from the grill had cooled down after the charcoal had been taken out, so it was about time to wrap up the get-together. Maru drank the soda he had poured into his soju glass before asking Joongjin,

“Is Heewon appearing as a cameo?”

“Yes. Did I not tell you that?”

“You didn’t. I heard it from the guy himself. He was talking all about it on TV.”

“I happened to get in contact with him and managed to pull him in. He said he’ll rest until his military service and not do anything public, but he accepted right away when I asked him if he wanted to shoot with you.”

“Rather than me, I’m sure he wanted to work with you, director.”

“That should be part of the reason, but if we compare the weight of the two, the fact that you’re in it must’ve played a bigger role. Rather than that though, Mr. Lee Heewon really does hate doing anything just like the rumors. I’m sure he must have been reached out to by many people since there are a few months until he gets enlisted, but I heard he turned them all down.”

“If you leave him by himself, he’ll spend years holed up at home. He’s a master at that. As long as someone plays with him a few times and eats out with him, I’m sure he won’t utter a word of complaint.”

Joongjin smiled as he ate some seasoned dried radish.

“I heard that you two were friends since high school.”

“Things happened and we became acquainted.”

“There are many such instances in the entertainment industry. They say birds of a feather flock together, and indeed there are many times when talented people already know each other. The only difference is that even if two people make their debut around the same time, usually, one or both people would not see the light of the day, but fortunately for you two, both of you seem to be doing well.”

“Compared to Heewon, I’m still far off.”

“You can’t help that. Mr. Heewon has been suppressing his laziness ever since his debut, doing piece after piece, while you, Mr. Maru, decided to go to the military for some unknown reason. If the two of you achieved similar results, that would’ve been strange instead.”

Joongjin had been closely examining a side dish plate while they were talking, and he suddenly called a waiter. When the waiter asked what was up, Joongjin picked up the plate.

“Sell this to me.”

The waiter asked again, probably thinking that he must have heard something wrong. Joongjin asked about the price of the plate. Maru stepped in to talk to the waiter who only repeatedly said ‘uhm’ and no clear answer.

“Is there a manager or the owner here?”

“Yes, he’s here.”

“Where is he?”

Maru went to the owner, who was taking care of the payments at the register, and asked if they could buy the plate. He explained to the owner, who looked at him like a weirdo since a customer suddenly asked him if he could buy a crudely-made plate, that a rather peculiar director desired the plate. The owner seemed to know about director Park Joongjin as he visited the table with a happy expression. The plate was exchanged for a single autograph from Joongjin. Meanwhile, Joongjin looked at the cleaned plate in detail and smiled in satisfaction.

“Do you like it that much?”

“I thought it was perfect as a prop. It’s the plate that will go on your table, Mr. Maru. Doesn’t it look great?”

Maru scratched his eyes. What was he supposed to feel from a plate that looked like it would cost two thousand won from a bulk seller? It looked like he would need a long time in order to understand the world that the director was looking at.

“Did writer Jung participate in writing the script?”

“She wrote a few of the scenes. She’s pretty incredible. I don’t know where she will take the plot. It’s difficult to use something that she wrote from scratch since there would be many parts to edit, but if she’s just in charge of a single facet of it, she’ll pour an incredible amount of energy into it and create an unimaginable story. The original draft I wrote was a salad without any dressing, but with that fellow’s story added into the mix, the salad gained taste and flavor.”

“She must be incredibly skilled.”

“Everyone’s a specialist in one field.”

People who left their seats returned one after another. Head manager Moon clicked his tongue as soon as he saw the plate in Joongjin’s hand, clearly aware of what transpired.

“Sheesh, he’s stubborn about the weirdest of things.”

“I also had a rough time eating with the director last time.”

Maru briefly talked about his experience in the kal-guksu restaurant in Suncheon, about how the director kept ordering again and again, and how, thanks to that, they managed to receive the eyes of everyone in the store. He didn’t mention a thing about how he stepped on a chair and sang a song.

“You have to risk that much if you want to go around with director Park. You people are all doomed now. When the director works on a commercial film, he sets everything like a machine and finishes the shoot without any waste, but he’s the complete opposite when he’s doing something he likes. The kal-guksu incident that Mr. Maru over here talked about will happen during the shoot as well. Stomach aches, esophagitis, and indigestion are pretty basic, and actors especially should scout out a decent hospital since you might get stress-induced gastric ulcers.” Head manager Moon said as he tensed his eyes.

You think this is a joke, right? You’ll see once we start — he added.

“Then let’s part ways now. As for the few that aren’t here, we can meet them during the shoot. Please take care of me for what might last a month to three months.”

Joongjin wrapped up the first get-together with that last comment. He did not speak a word about the film itself. Where was the shoot going to take place? How would it progress? What are the characters like? None of that was mentioned. While Maru felt like he was walking in the fog with his eyes covered, he did not feel uneasy. That was because of his infinite trust in the man known as Park Joongjin. He was a director that none other than Lee Junmin had acknowledged. He was someone that had the title of a genius, or a weirdo. It wouldn’t be too late to regret once he opened the contents. He did not have anything to do anyway.

“Uhm, Mr. Maru.”

He stopped as he was walking towards the parking lot. It was the actors who stopped him. When asked whether he would go for a 2nd round with all the actors, Maru put his car keys back in his pocket.

“We haven’t introduced ourselves properly because everything was centered around the director, right? I said before, but my name is Kim Gyungjin and I’m 30 this year.”

“I’m Park Yoojung. I’m also 30.”

Maru spoke as he looked at the two people,

“I’m Han Maru, and I’m twenty-five. The two of you, please drop the honorifics.”

The two people waved their hands in denial, saying that they couldn’t possibly do something like that on their first meeting, but when they went to the fried chicken restaurant to have a 2nd round of drinks, they soon dropped the honorifics.

“I hope we can do well like you, Maru.”

“I’m not that well-off.”

“If you already finished your military service at that age and caught the eyes of director Park, then all you have left is to go up. Not only that, the acting you showed in the drama was really good.”

Kim Gyungjin said that he was selected for this title after participating as an extra for a commercial film that director Park shot before. As for Park Yoojung, she apparently belonged to a theater troupe in Daehak-ro, but she left and was playing minor roles in various pieces until she got contacted by director Park a few days ago. Both of them were looking forward to this piece, thinking that this would be a turning point in their acting career.

“Also, I’ve never worked with the director before, but is he really strict like what head manager Moon said?” Park Yoojung asked as she put down the beer glass.

It seemed that she was concerned when head manager Moon said that they should prepare some medicine for stomach ulcers.

“He was like a machine when I did the commercial film. Honestly, it didn’t feel that pleasant. First of all, it didn’t feel like I was acting. I moved according to the director’s instructions from one to ten. If I didn’t do it as he said, then he simply won’t let it pass. He was just that picky. Actually, there were many people who cursed him behind his back. They said that even ordinary people who have zero experience in acting can do such a thing.”

Kim Gyungjin shivered as he said so. Maru said that he experienced something similar. He added that only people who the director has acknowledged would be allowed to voice their own opinions.

“But you can’t say that he’s completely blocked off. If you think carefully and give an opinion that might work, the director will listen to you.”

“That director listens to people’s opinions? When I did it, we were unable to utter a word. It seems like there’s a reason why the director cherishes you.”

Kim Gyungjin poured some soda into Maru’s glass, asking him to take care of him. As he told the two of them that he wouldn’t be drinking because he drove here, the two of them just gave him non-alcoholic drinks. He rather liked that.

“But the head manager said he’s different when he’s doing something that he likes. I also don’t know how he’ll act.”

“I can say for sure that it’ll be more tiring than when he does a commercial film. Honestly, if he takes the lead during the shoot, we can do the shoot without even thinking, but once the director starts asking for your opinions, it will be very hectic.”

Park Yoojung, who had been listening quietly until now, suddenly sighed. She said that she was worried.

“I have a really weak mind, you know? The two of you should help me if I look like I’m going to pass out. I want to finish the shoot safely,” said Park Yoojung dejectedly, as she rested her chin on her palms.

“Don’t worry. It won’t kill us, will it? Head manager Moon must have said all that to give us a scare. Maru, you also spiced up your story a little back then, didn’t you? To make it sound funny.”

Maru did not speak and just smiled. Director Park’s nature was not something that could be expressed in words. He was rather curious how the two would react if he told them how he visited an illegal dog-fighting arena after the kal-guksu restaurant, but he held back for the sake of teamwork. They would soon find out anyway; how persistent director Park Joongjin is.

“Let’s get along.”

Maru poured some beer for the two people.

KTLChamber's Thoughts

Nothing to comment in this chapter.

Editor's Note:

It's rare that Maru complements someone upon meeting them.

Chapter 948
Crank Up 6

Park Joongjin took off his coat after getting in the passenger seat. Head manager Moon started the car, and when he saw the flower-patterned shirt that Joongjin was wearing, he clicked his tongue.

“That’s one peculiar taste you’re stubborn about. Do you wear flower-patterned shirts in winter too?”

“It’s become sort of a habit. I find it surprising too. When I open the closet at home, I find a bunch of Hawaiian-style shirts.”

“It’s good that you’re living young, but you should really wear a neat suit when you’re at a press conference or something. You have the face of a neat middle-aged man, but you always wear a flower-patterned shirt. That’s why people label you as a weirdo.”

“As for you, head manager Moon, you are as naggy as ever.”

“Who other than me will give you any nagging? Everyone’s helpless against you since you might leave on the spot all of a sudden.”

There was probably no one who had a weird job history like Park Joongjin. He worked in finances, then ran his own restaurant, and now he was a film director. He also lived like a nomad in between his films. He would go overseas and use up all the money he earned before coming back and using his godly skills to shoot a film to earn money again. If it happened just once, everyone would think of it as a coincidence, but he had gotten over 5 million sales six times in a row. He was smart and had good senses enough to become a finance man and had good business skills to run a restaurant chain, but he wasn’t so obsessed over money, so it didn’t seem like he had a lot of money saved up. Not that he had any time to, since he must have been using it all up whenever he earned any.

“Are you going to go traveling again with your house as security? Also, you cut your connection with the president of that construction company, right?”

“I’m planning to settle down in Korea now. The grudges I harbored for a long time have been resolved somewhat, and as for that hyung-nim, I do contact him from time to time. He’s reliable whenever I have a hard time, and also, I rather like him. I like him because his attitude towards people is consistent.”

“Sometimes, it makes me scared when I see the people you hang out with. I’m worried that you might go to jail someday. There are many good people in the world, so why do you hang out with such dangerous people?”

“How tasteless and dry would the world be if everyone is like you, head manager Moon? It only has flavor because there are various people. I didn’t live a long life, but according to my experiences, people are just people. Give them a knife, and they’ll become a murderer, or give them a law book, and they’ll become a lawyer, that’s all. In the perspective of the world, even the dangerous-looking people turn out to be rather decent if you get to know them.”

“I’m on the more ordinary side, so I don’t even want to talk to people from that side of the world.”

“That’s definitely a safe way to live.”

Many people saw director Park as a rather peculiar content creator since he would often laugh like a fool, but actually, there was no one more dangerous than him. Even head manager Moon, who had known him for a long time, had frowned multiple times because of director Park’s insensitivity and cruelty. The people he hung out with were those of bad quality to the point that they sometimes made the news because of a bad incident. It made him doubt the humanity of director Park sometime. Though now, he didn’t mind it as much.

Director Park’s perspective on people was different from most people’s. Sometimes, he was incredibly insensitive to human relationships in that it seemed like he was treating them as an entirely different species, just like how humans would not concern themselves with how the relationships are between ants while looking at them crawling on the ground. Sometimes, he looked transcendental, while sometimes, he looked resigned, so head manager Moon decided to think simply — by just thinking that that’s just how this man was.

“Anyways, are you really okay with that fellow as the lead actor? There must be loads of actors who want to work with you, but you chose a guy like him.”

“How was he in your eyes, head manager Moon?”

“What’s there to look at? Honestly, I don’t really know. He doesn’t have a bad impression, but he seems rather faint compared to the popular ones these days.”

“Actors don’t really live off their looks.”

Head manager Moon replied to that with a smile,

“That’s true. I mean, there are loads of actors whose skills don’t live up to their appearances. What I’m saying is that there are many who have both. Not only that, he’s twenty-five, so he’s quite young if you’re expecting seasoned acting, and even if he’s an acting genius, his face doesn’t match up to the ones with real-life experience, does it? There’s a reason why all the actors who rule cinemas are in their 30s and 40s. The audience knows just how scary of a weapon experience is.”

“That’s precisely it,” Joongjin said.

Precisely it? Head manager Moon couldn’t understand. As the director mentioned Han Maru before the scouting stage, he looked into him on his own. Han Maru was an actor affiliated with JA, the agency that had a terrible relationship with director Park. As for his filmography, it wasn’t that bad. In fact, his filmography was on the good side. The first thing that entered his eyes was that he used to be in the theater field. Currently, nine out of ten main film stars had stepped up past Daehak-ro. It was true that he was an actor walking down a well-paved path, but what he found lacking was his experience. The 3-year gap concerned him. He showed the best possible start by playing a minor actor, in a film directed by a director with a huge name, alongside a legendary actor, followed by winning a fixed role in a public TV drama, clearly on the path to stardom, but thanks to the sudden military service, the flow was cut off. From his research, he even rejected a role in the hugely popular mini-series ‘Flaming Lady’ and went to the military.

The times had changed, and there were many instances where the actors would have to step in for promotion. With more and more contact, it meant that it had become a lot easier to be talked about among the people, and that meant that it had gotten just as easy to be badmouthed by people. He would probably not be able to endure the tempering of the masses with a mentality that made him reject a huge opportunity and go to the military. It didn’t take that long for head manager Moon to predict Maru’s career.

“What do you mean, precisely? I don’t get it. If he went to the military at a time when he should be wracking his mind about how to achieve success, then that means that he doesn’t have any desire or obsession for success. From my experience, those kinds of people never became big. Instead, I’ve seen many people who desperately strive towards success becoming big.”

“Like you said, straying away in the middle can be a flaw of his. But just watch. There’s no reason for him to not do well just because he strayed off once.”

“I’m saying that most of the time, they don’t.”

“I stray off a lot too. Heck, my entire life was never on the main path.”

“That’s because you’re different from the ordinary folk, director Park. Most of the time, people can’t guarantee their success even if they dig just one well.”

Head manager Moon turned the wheel and looked at director Park from the corner of his eyes.

“Are you saying that that fellow is just like you? Like one of those geniuses? Of course, you might hate being called that, but everyone looks at you like one anyway. Honestly, I don’t think you’re ordinary either. You suddenly shoot a hugely popular movie after self-studying film production while running a restaurant business. How do you explain that? It’s better for ordinary folk like us to call it talent and say that you’re a genius. If you demote your achievements as ‘nothing much’, then people like me, who have never even attempted that ‘nothing much’ will be suffocated to death.”

“You’re getting better with your words every single day, head manager Moon.”

“It’s what I live off of, so of course I’d get good. Rather than that, what is it? What is it that you find so special about Han Maru’s talent? He must have something that made you choose him over the other popular people at his age, right?”

Director Park raised his fingers and pointed at his eyes.

“What about your eyes?”

“You said just now, didn’t you? The audience knows the importance of experience.”

“Right. That’s why I said he’s too young.”

“Have you talked to him while looking at him in the eyes today?”

“Talk to him? Yes, I did. He’s an incredibly important person who will decide the success and failure of the film, so of course I did. He seems to be a polite kid. He’s quite amicable, and I can get through to him too. But that’s got nothing to do with acting skills, does it?”

Director Park shook his head.

“Someone of your caliber must be able to feel that Mr. Maru is different the next time you meet him. You’ll see it even more clearly once we start the shoot. Mr. Maru possesses a very unique set of eyes. At first glance, he looks like a selfish kid who only looks out for his own benefit, but if you look deeper into him, you’ll see the leisure of an elderly who’s observing everything with his hands held behind his back. He’s very passionate, yet very rational. It feels like you can see right through him, then you see that he’s completely clouded. It’s like he has experienced more lives than necessary.”

“That doesn’t sound that good to me.”

Head manager Moon’s eyes twitched. That just meant that he’s just a lukewarm actor, no? Someone that belongs to neither, and has no character — that’s how it sounded.

Director Park just smiled and looked outside the window.

“You’ll see when you see him later. He’s not entirely a young fellow at heart.”

“If you say so, then I have no reason to object to him. Not to mention, it’s not like you’ll change your mind just because of me. I just plan to support you with everything I have so that you can focus on the film. I don’t need anything. I just want something on par with Spring Calendar. Don’t go shooting something weird again.”

“The result is something that will appear in due time, so don’t worry.”

“Now that makes me more worried instead. Please, make it something that the ordinary masses can understand. You can’t be too artistic.”

“This time, it’s about people, so everyone will like it.”

“About people, huh.”

Head manager Moon chuckled as he pressed the gas pedal.

KTLChamber's Thoughts

Maru has weak mentality against someone that's not Gaeul? Now that's the funniest joke I've heard in a while.

Editor's Note:

Not going to hope that Maru's time to wow people has come. Always get it wrong :(

Chapter 949
Crank Up 6

He put down the kettlebell and wiped the sweat that rolled down his face. The trainer said that they would move on to the next workout after a 5-minute break.

“Is something on your mind lately?”

Kang Giwoo put down the towel and looked at the trainer.

“Something on my mind?”

“Your expression doesn’t look good when you’re concentrating today. Usually, you would be immersed in the exercise itself, but seeing your posture during your swings, it seems like your mind is elsewhere.”

Perhaps his emotions were subconsciously revealed. As this trainer had been training him for years, he probably noticed the minute changes easily.

“There’s a problem I can’t get around. I have to focus on the workout, but it’s not easy.”

“I’m sure you’ll do well by yourself since you’re meticulous at self-management, but please focus during training. There’s a risk of injury, and there’s also the matter of efficiency.”

“Okay, I’ll be more careful.”

He needed to listen to the trainer’s words carefully. It meant that his control over his emotions was shaking to the point that other people noticed it.

He drank some protein shake and looked at the woman exercising on top of a gym ball on the other side. The woman, who was on top of the gym ball, looked just like Han Gaeul. The fact that she was here in the premium room meant that she had quite a lot of money too. He met eyes with the woman exercising. She nodded at him with a smile as a greeting before focusing on her workouts again.

“Apparently, she’s a president at that age. She already earns billions of won every year thanks to a travel-related mobile app. If you have an interest in her, you should talk to her. I’m pretty sure she’s interested in you too,” said the trainer.

Giwoo watched the woman stretch his arms out like a bow with the gym ball in her arms as though to boast her body curves before shaking his head.

“I should sculpt my body first. The character I’ll be playing in the upcoming film is a muscular man. Maybe it’s because I’m young, but I get zero roles where my stomach isn’t ripped.”

“Ripped bodies look good. Also, that’s the mindset you should have. Let’s go over to the next workout.”

High-intensity workouts followed for the next 40 minutes. By the time he felt his arms and thighs shivering from the lack of energy, he was given another break. Stretching his muscles on top of a mattress was followed by receiving a massage from the trainer on the bench.

“Wait here for a bit. I’ll bring your schedule and your diet.”

The trainer left for a second. Giwoo sat down and did some simple yoga while waiting. Just then, he saw a pair of yellow trainers enter his eyes. When he raised his head, he saw the woman that was training with the gym ball a while ago.

“You’re okay with me talking to you rather suddenly, right?”

She seemed rather bold by her words. It wasn’t really surprising since her appearance was excellent. Giwoo stood up while looking at the woman’s eyes, which looked like she had never been rejected before. Seeing her from up close, she seemed to be the definition of meticulous self-management.

“I don’t hate it.”

“I thought you’d talk to me first. But are you cautious about it because you’re an actor?”

“There’s that too, but there are also ladies who come here solely to train. I usually hold back lest I bother them.”

“I’m also here just to train, but I see you in front of me, Mr. Giwoo. I came over since I never know when I’ll get a chance like this again. You’re on your break after the drama, right?”

“I’m not sure. I did finish the drama, but I’m not sure if I’m resting or not. I’m training my body like this since I feel uneasy not doing it.”

“But you look good enough though. You’re just my style too.”

The woman sat next to him. Giwoo saw the trainer walk over with a clear file behind the glass. Before he opened the door, the trainer shrugged once before turning around.

“I also want to get trained by him, but he’s fully booked.”

“He is quite good.”

“Can I receive training alongside you?” the woman said as she leaned forward.

She was someone well aware of what her charms were, and what kind of weapons she should use to fell a man. While her personality was to his liking, and she seemed decent enough to play around with, Giwoo drew the line there. He wasn’t feeling interested. Everything about her was good, but the eyes, nose, and lips that looked similar to Han Gaeul’s bothered him.

“That’s something I can’t accept.”

The woman was quick-witted. Okay — she answered before standing up. She didn’t even express any disappointment at the fact that she was rejected and just went back to her gym ball before continuing with her exercises. Even her confidence was just like Han Gaeul’s.

Giwoo sighed and stroked his hand down his face. Lately, he ended up comparing every woman he saw to Han Gaeul; he compared their faces, personalities, and voices. Whether it was better or worse compared to Han Gaeul, everything came down to one conclusion: that woman is not Han Gaeul. Ever since the vacation, he could not get excited no matter which woman he saw. Even when he did, his sense of self-guilt kicked in when he tried talking to them: You can’t have the real one, so you’re just looking for replacement counterfeits?

“The mood isn’t good here. Do you not like her?”

“She’s an okay person, but I plan to focus on my next work for now.”

“I’ll ask just in case, but you have someone you’re interested in, don’t you?”

“Do I look like it?”

“That’s just how we men are. We just don’t see any other women once we set our eyes on one. It’ll be a different story once you start dating her and see her bottom, though. Hey, who is it? Who is the woman that makes the almighty Giwoo think about other things during workouts?”

“I’ll tell you who she is if things work out.”

“I’m sure it will. Against someone like you, any girl would show interest as long as you treat them well.”

“I hope that’s the case.”

Giwoo talked about what was on his mind as the trainer could be trusted. Towards capable people, he acknowledged them and gave them suitable treatment. There was a reason why he paid the trainer separately to have him by his side.

“Even if it’s tiring, you should definitely work out at the hotel’s gym. Working out is about momentum, so you have to do it when you have to. I’m sure you’ll do well by yourself, but telling you is part of my job, so please look over it.”

“Okay.”

After working out, he received meal kits provided by the gym for the diet. He returned to his house and opened one of the vacuum-packed kits and put it in a bowl before sitting down in front of the TV. There was a memo stuck on the table left by the cleaning lady: I have gathered the broken pieces of the clock and put them next to the trash.

That was the table clock that he threw on the day he returned from the group vacation. He didn’t clean it for days and just let it be, and it seemed that the cleaning lady had cleared it up. On the day he returned, the word ‘obsession’ never left his mind. The word that came out of Han Gaeul’s mouth shook his entire body like a ship in the middle of the stormy seas. That was the first time he destroyed something needlessly. When he looked at the broken and shattered table clock, Giwoo once again felt that Han Gaeul did not mean a small amount to him; when she mentioned ‘obsession’, it was true to a certain extent.

He put down the salad that he was putting in his mouth before opening up Instagram on his phone. He took photos of the plate with the salad on it before uploading it. As soon as he uploaded it, he was given lots of hearts and comments.

Our actor is looking after his body; it looks tasty; you want to eat greasy stuff, don’t you?; et cetera. There were many ‘lols’ in the comments as well, but none of them made him laugh. He turned on the notifications that he usually had turned off. The sound that came out whenever there was a new comment sounded out endlessly. He could practically see his phone’s battery being depleted with his eyes.

People liked Kang Giwoo that it was to the point that they would go out of their way to write comments on a meaningless photo.

He turned off the notifications and had a look at the comments. He did not see Han Gaeul’s ID anywhere. He checked the IDs written in the English alphabet one by one before chuckling.

Kang Giwoo, what the heck are you doing?

He was about to throw his phone away but then decided to go to Han Gaeul’s account. He saw a photo uploaded by her. It was of some food from Jeju island with the scenery of Jeju island. He had heard that she went to Jeju island because of a shoot.

He looked at her smiling happily with a cup of coffee in her hand. He wanted to talk to her, face-to-face.

He looked for her number in his contact list which numbered over a thousand. It took quite a long time for him to press the call button. He felt even more nervous than when he was calling his grandfather after committing a mistake. The funny thing was that he didn’t hate this nervousness. He felt his heart pounding as he listened to the call connecting. He did not expect her to pick up. After all, she had never picked up since the vacation.

After the chorus of a famous song ended and was about to start over, he heard a voice notifying him that he was being directed to voice messages. Giwoo hung up. Fatigue assaulted him all of a sudden. He was stuck at home on a weekend. Lately, too many things he would usually consider unimaginable was happening to him. The fact that Han Gaeul was related to all of them made him faintly furious, yet happy at the same time. The face of the woman who shook him up and down was reflected in his eyes, while her voice rang out in his ears. His hands entered his pants. He imagined her moans that he had never heard before. What would it sound like? He could feel his unstoppable thirst getting bigger.

Obsession, obsession, obsession — he repeated to himself several times.

KTLChamber's Thoughts

Ew…… Really author? You made us read that?

Editor's Note:

Can we delete this chapter? All in favor should chant shitwoo 3 times.

Chapter 950
Crank Up 6

Gaeul deleted the missed calls from the list. He kept calling despite knowing that she wouldn’t pick up.

“Unni?”

Mijoo, who was eating with her, tilted her head with a questioning look. Gaeul just told her that she was suffering from spam texts.

“What kind of advertising texts do you usually get, unni? Lately, I’ve been getting so many loan texts. I’ve been having a hard time paying my loans back as it is already too.”

“Do you have a big debt? If the interest is high, I’ll let you borrow some money.”

“It’s not that bad. If I had it that bad, I would’ve told you about it already.”

“We won’t be working together for just a couple of years or something like that, so tell me if you have any financial problems. I can help you with that much.”

“I’m thankful for the words alone.”

Mijoo forked a shrimp before handing it over to her. Just as she was about to eat it after receiving it, she heard her shout ‘wait.’

“Say ah and wait for a moment. I’ll take a photo of you.”

“It’s okay. I’ve taken plenty during the day.”

“You’ll have to take a lot of pretty photos and upload them to get loved by your fans. I saw that your Instagram has increased by about 10 thousand followers. Maybe it’s thanks to the drama. The people around me are slowly starting to take interest in Instagram too. I’m sure it’ll become a mainstream social media soon. You should take care of it early.”

“In my opinion, I think you should start your own agency. Your business skills won’t just end at being a stylist.”

“If I open an agency, will I get to sign a contract with you?”

“I’ll sign if the contract is 100:0 and you take care of my taxes.”

“I’ll keep working as a stylist then.”

While Mijoo was smiling, she received a call and stood up. It seemed that there was a problem with the clothes she was going to wear during the photo shoot tomorrow.

“Unni, I’ll be leaving first. Take your time.”

“Is it bad?”

“No, it’s nothing serious. I just have to go and check.”

Mijoo left the restaurant. Gaeul ate the remaining food and looked at the sea. She came here because it had become popular on social media for having a great view, and indeed, it was not false. She never realized that the sea at Jeju island could be so pretty. The seawater seeped into the numerous rocks by the sea. When she looked at the seawater sparkling in a golden color thanks to the sunset, she even forgot about the taste of the food in her mouth. It was a scene she didn’t feel like she could get tired of seeing even if she had been looking for an entire day.

It was like this during the vacation as well, but whenever she looked at beautiful natural scenery, she always recalled Maru. What would he say if he was next to her? She wanted to come here with just the two of them with some honeyed pancakes and some coffee. It would be good to just watch the sea without doing anything.

As she was quietly watching the sea, she heard a commotion inside the restaurant. Gaeul intuitively felt that it was because of her. The source of the commotion was a bunch of women who were entering the restaurant while staring at her. She raised her head and looked around inside the store. Just as she expected, people were taking out their phones and taking photos of her. What was rather fortunate was that they only looked at her from afar and didn’t approach her.

Gaeul finished her meal and stood up. She had to leave quickly because it might inconvenience the owner of the restaurant if she stayed any further. She quickly left the restaurant before the customers enjoying the quiet started getting annoyed. She was worried that someone might stop her, but thankfully, it seemed that her fans knew etiquette and just waved their hands. Gaeul returned their greetings. She was always fond of fans who didn’t cross the line.

She put on the hood on her padded jacket and put on a mask. This was her first walk by herself ever since she came to Jeju island for a shoot. She looked around the various cute stores before stopping in front of a life-sized signboard in front of a café. She saw Lee Heewon holding some cosmetics. The life-sized signboard had nothing to do with the café, maybe the owner was a fan of his? As she found this intriguing, she took a photo of the signboard along with the café itself.

-What’s this?

Heewon replied immediately after she sent the photo. When she explained to him that it was a signboard in front of a café on Jeju island, she was sent a reply of a bunch of laughing emojis.

-Have I ever told you that I’ll be appearing as a cameo in the film Maru will be playing the main character in?

That was something she hadn’t heard before. Gaeul immediately called him and told him to elaborate.

-I was originally planning on not doing anything since I’m going to the military, but I got an offer from director Park Joongjin, asking if I had any interest in doing a film. I was about to refuse since the timing was a little awkward, but he said it was just a cameo. I was going to think about it since there won’t be any tight schedules. Haewon also told me that I should take him up on it since he’s a famous director. That’s when I remembered that Maru was working with that director. I asked him if Han Maru was the lead character and accepted as soon as he said that he was. I’ve always wanted to work with him.

Gaeul looked at the café signboard that was shaking due to the wind. The first thing she felt when she heard Heewon’s story was jealousy and disappointment. It was her who wanted to act together with Maru on the same stage more than anyone.

“When does the shoot begin?”

-I think it’ll start soon.

“What role are you playing?”

-I don’t know yet.

“You accepted without even knowing what role it is?”

-I don’t care what the role is.

If it was any other actor that said those words, Gaeul would have understood that as ‘I have the confidence to perfectly play whatever role that comes at me.’ However, Heewon was probably different. Despite his excellent skills, Heewon never showed any confidence in his acting skills. Since I’m doing it, I’ll do it — he would always say these words whenever he felt like it. Though, he was so good that it never became a problem.

“I want to do it too. I don’t care if it’s a small role,” she said lamentingly.

As this film was commercial art, it wasn’t like an actor could participate in it just because he or she wanted to, but if she could act together with the two of them, she wanted to participate in it, even if she was just a passing role.

-Should I tell the director about it?

If it was the usual, if she was rational, she would tell him not to take it seriously as it was just a joke. Yet, what came out of Gaeul’s mouth was ‘can you ask.’

-Since we’re at it, I’ll try calling him now.

The call ended there. She looked at her phone which had turned black before coming to herself. What did she just say? She asked something absurd. Even if that did work, selecting a piece to participate in was a very sensitive matter. It was even in the contract that she must consult the president first. She could just call him back immediately and tell him that it was okay, but for some strange reason, she couldn’t get herself to do so. It was an unstoppable impulse. Even though it was a slim chance, the small hope that things might work out well prevented her from calling Heewon.

She walked in circles in front of the café. Just then, she met eyes with a pair of customers leaving the café. The couple looked at her strangely as they walked past, but even then she couldn’t stay still. Heewon should have called him and already got an answer that it was impossible, but why was she not getting anything?

Five minutes passed. The Jeju night wind she never considered cold before suddenly felt chilly. She entered the café while gripping her phone.

“It’s quite chilly, isn’t it?”

A woman in her fifties greeted her warmly. She ordered a cup of warm cassia tea upon the recommendation of the owner who had a gentle impression. She sat down in a corner of the café and drank the tea. Although it had been 10 minutes already, her phone stayed quiet. She thought about calling him back first and fidgeted with her phone but then remembered that there was someone she had to call before that.

-Hello, this is president Yoo Ahyoung’s phone of Hwan Management.

“Did the president go somewhere?”

-Is this Miss Gaeul?

“Yes.”

-She just went to the bathroom for a little bit. Oh, she’s back. I’ll hand it over to her.

It’s Miss Gaeul — she heard a small voice over the phone.

-Yes, Gaeul. Is the shoot going well?

“I’m taking a break after finishing it.”

-I’m sorry I sent you everywhere after you came back from the team vacation. I want to let you rest, but there are many people looking for you. I’ve cut down on everything and left only places with good transportation and that one in Jeju island. You know how much I care for you, right?

“Hearing you say that, it seems like there are things for me to do after the Jeju island shoot.”

-How quick-witted. As expected of someone who’s been working with me for six years. Rather than that, why did you call me? You shouldn’t have called to complain about how hard your job is. If there was a problem Chanwoo would have called me first.

“There’s something I wanted to ask.”

-Ask away. I have plenty of time.

“Are you going to permit it if I shoot a film?”

-Did you get an offer?

“No, it’s nothing like that. I just wanted to ask what I should do if I want to participate in something without consulting you first.”

-Miss Han Gaeul, I believe that I told you that participation in a piece is a sensitive topic and everything must go through me first.

“I know. But what if, what if I tell you that I want to participate in something even if you are against it?”

-To be serious with you, I will not allow the value of the actress known as Han Gaeul to fall. There are some actors who can’t refuse the request of their acquaintances and participate in something strange before they fall out of popularity, but I will not let that happen. Did you get an offer like that? Did you get asked to participate in a piece that doesn’t have any worth?

“No, it’s not like that.”

Just as she was about to explain, her phone vibrated twice in short bursts. She had received a text.

Wait a moment — she said before taking her phone off her ear and checking the screen. She scrolled down the top menu bar and touched the text icon. She saw the text sent by Heewon. If you’re okay with playing a role that doesn’t have any significance, then you’re okay… There were a few more words after that, but none of them entered her eyes. She immediately spoke to the president,

“President, there’s something I want to do.”

-Now that makes me curious since this is the first time you said that. Just what is it? You have to tell me first for me to think about it.

“It’s director Park Joongjin’s piece. I won’t be playing a big role, but…”

Before she could even finish, president Ahyoung told her to do it. Her voice was so big that it made her startled.

-You should have mentioned the director’s name first! It’s already a well-known rumor that director Park is cooking up a piece. He said he won’t be taking any recommendations and that they’ll take care of the selection, so I gave up after Heewon’s contract.

“Then can I do this?”

-You have to do it. You’re really my fortune. You landed yourself a piece like that. But how did it happen? Did the director reach out to you?

“No. I asked through Heewon just now, just 10 minutes ago. Then, I received a reply that I can participate in it if I’m okay with a less significant role. I’ll have to ask to be sure though.”

-Heewon did? Looks like he did something good after all this time, looking after his members like that. Anyway, you should contact him right away. He’s well-known for being peculiar, so you should get a proper answer before he changes his mind. I’ll hang up now. Do it quickly!

The president, who was cautious in everything she did, just allowed her to do it after listening to Park Joongjin’s name. She probably had that much faith in his brand.

Gaeul tapped on her phone without hesitation.

“Heewon, can I get the director’s number?”

KTLChamber's Thoughts

FINALLY! IS OUR DREAM COMING TRUE?

Editor's Note:

Now cast the three musketeers pleaseeeeeee.

Chapter 951
Crank Up 6

She got a number through Heewon. She went back and forth between her messenger and her call screen while muttering the number in an attempt to memorize it before she realized that she could just tap on the number to call. Perhaps she was too nervous and it made her dumb. She cleared her throat and put her finger on top of the call button. While she heard through Heewon that the director wanted to work with her, she couldn’t be entirely sure until she heard the answer from the director himself.

She got a call before her finger touched the call button. It was the number she has just been trying to memorize by saying it out loud.

“Hello?”

-Is this Miss Han Gaeul’s number?

“Yes, it is.”

-Hello there. I’m Park Joongjin. You’ve heard through Mr. Lee Heewon, yes?

“I have.”

-You said you’re fine with playing a non-significant role, but are you really okay with that?

“Yes. As long as I can do it, I don’t care what role it is. It can be a customer at a café, or just a passerby.”

-So you’re determined to do it. Why is that? What are you going to do if it’s just a minor character that you can’t even use as a way of promoting yourself?

“I don’t care. I’ll be satisfied as long as I can work on the same thing as him.”

-Alright then. I’ll talk about the details with your president. We already met once with regard to the matters involving Mr. Lee Heewon, so it shouldn’t be a problem.

“Thank you.”

Just as director Park Joongjin said that he was about to hang up, he continued on to say that he would like to ask one more question,

-I was told that you were close friends with Mr. Lee Heewon since you were students, right?

“I got to know him when I entered the agency.”

-Do you perhaps have any friendship with Mr. Han Maru?

“Yes.”

-If it’s not too rude of me to ask, may I ask who you were referring to when you said ‘him’ before?

Only after hearing Joongjin’s words did she realize that she had misspoken. She hesitated because of the direct question.

-That’s okay. Whether it’s a target of competition or a target of romance, it shouldn’t hinder the work. However, what I must tell you right now is that I don’t know a whole lot about you, MIss Gaeul. We won’t meet in advance, and if we meet, it will be at the shoot, but if you don’t meet my standards, you will not be able to join the camera. I hope you can remember this.

“I’m not pathetic enough to ask you to shoot with me when I lack the skills, so please don’t worry about that. As you say, if I don’t meet your standards, I’ll quietly step aside.”

-I like your answer. Well, then, see you at the shoot. You should be able to get a schedule through your manager.

Gaeul spat out a short breath before putting down her phone. She neither knew the genre nor the role, but she was uncontrollably excited. She got to work with Maru on the same work after all. It would be rather disappointing if their schedules didn’t cross each other and she never got to see him during the shoot, but what was important was that they were working together for one film. If possible, she wanted to be in the same scene as him. If she could breathe in the same air and even interact with him, it would be even better.

“Thanks, I’m doing it.”

She called Heewon and reported what happened. Heewon congratulated her and Maru for their joint appearance as husband and wife and said that they should meet at the shoot. She then immediately contacted her president as well. As soon as the first signal tone finished, President Ahyoung picked up the call.

-Did it work?

“Yes, I’m doing it. But it won’t be any significant role, so don’t hope too much.”

-The fact that you’re acting under an exceptional director is an invaluable experience in itself. You’re also incredibly lucky to have grabbed onto that opportunity at a stage where you should be growing up. I know that you’re always doing your best, but put your mind and soul into this one this time especially. If you’re a passerby, then walk so elegantly that you overshadow the main cast, and if you have to stay still, emit an aura with your entire body so that you can capture the camera.

“If I do something like that, I’ll have to pack up and come home on the same day.”

-It’s just a figure of speech. You haven’t heard when the shoot begins, have you?

“I heard that the agency will be notified of it. At most, it’ll be a single scene, so one day should be all I need.”

-I heard the words that the crank-in will be soon, so I guess I should empty your schedule for the time being. There’s only a short advertisement shoot, so it shouldn’t be a problem. But hey, I just have to get asked whether you’re available for a shoot at times like this. They want answers quickly too.

“Don’t try to make me uneasy. Also, anything you get now means that the shoot will be in a few months, so it won’t overlap anyway, will it?”

-Now you don’t get flustered and talk back right away, huh? Before, you were quite awkward when it came to things other than acting. You aren’t going to fly away to a different agency at this rate, are you?

“Is that what you want?”

-If that’s your intention, please tell me beforehand. I’ll slit your stomach and take out all the golden eggs before sending you away.

“I don’t have any golden eggs to give you. Anyway, tell me if the director contacts you with anything. I’ll be on my phone.”

-I’ll tell everything to Chanwoo, so you can go nag him. Enjoy the winter seas of Jeju island. There’s a cosmetics commercial shoot in two days.

“Now I want to stay on Jeju island my whole life.”

-I’ll fly over myself and drag you away if you do.

Gaeul smiled and ended the call. Everything happened within just 30 minutes. Regardless of the form, she liked that she could work together with Maru on one work. She drank the cooled tea before fidgeting with her phone. Tell Maru about this or not? After a long time of consideration, she decided to hide it. If she was lucky enough to see Maru during the shoot, she thought that she should greet him nicely there. If she couldn’t, then, well, that was that and she would have to tell him about it.

“Mijoo, I’m going back now.”

The matters with the costumes team seemed to have been sorted out as Mijoo replied cheerfully. Gaeul left the café and walked to the hotel.

* * *

When he returned from grocery shopping, the first thing he saw was Gaeul unpacking in the living room. She came home two hours earlier than his estimate.

“Didn’t you say you were eating lunch before you came?”

“I was going to, but everyone seemed tired, so we just separated at the airport. Well, it’s better for me that way.”

“I guess it was a good thing that I went grocery shopping. The fridge is totally empty. You’re eating, right?”

“Yeah. I’m hungry.”

He put the grocery bags on the table and opened the fridge. While he was organizing the food ingredients he bought, Gaeul seemed to have finished unpacking and came over.

“I’ll help you.”

“You must be tired. Get some rest.”

“I’ve been resting since yesterday afternoon. The shoot ended early. I want to eat something spicy. What do we have?”

“Should I cook some kimchi-jjigae? I have some frozen kimchi in the fridge.”

“Sounds good.”

He took out some kimchi that he had stored in small chunks before putting it in water. It wasn’t a lot, so it looked like it would melt soon. Meanwhile, Gaeul took out some pork and ham and started cutting it.

“Are you sure you want all that?”

“Calculating calories is unnecessary during resting. It is only then that you can clench your teeth and go on a diet while working. If I can’t eat even at a time like this because of my weight, then I won’t be able to last.”

“I can already see you sighing because of your weight before your next shoot.”

“I’ll worry about it when the time comes. But do we have any broth?”

“Open the top cupboard. There’s a pack of bone broth. That one should do.”

With the two of them cooking, it took a short time to set up the table. They had already finished setting up the side dishes, and all that was left was to wait for the jjigae to boil. Gaeul, who left the kitchen, lay down on the sofa with the two dogs. The dogs seemed to be overjoyed from seeing their owner whom they hadn’t seen for days as they latched onto Gaeul like cicadas on a tree. It was much more comfortable with them being obedient when they would usually roam around him whenever it was time for food.

He put the boiling jjigae on the table. He had also prepared food for the dogs, so he just had to call them over.

“Something good happen?” Maru said to Gaeul who was staring at him.

Her eyes twitched. She looked like she was hesitating whether to speak or not, but she eventually shook her head.

“Something good did happen, but I don’t want to talk about it now.”

“That makes me curious. Can’t you give me a hint?”

“You’ll get it right if I give you a hint, so no.”

“Is it perhaps the lottery?”

“That’s the only thing you can think of, huh.”

Gaeul told him to forget about it and sat down. While setting the cutlery, he asked her again, but her tightly-sealed lips didn’t budge. At a time like this, he would have no choice but to wait. Perhaps she met an old friend on Jeju island or got a role she always wanted to do.

“You won’t get an answer even if you stare at me like that, so just eat.”

“When are you going to tell me?”

“Soon. It won’t take long.”

“If it’s something I have to be surprised about, please tell me beforehand. I’ll have to take calming pills.”

They ate while listening to her stories about what happened on Jeju island: the charming winter sea, the restaurant with the awesome scenery, as well as coffee that couldn’t be tasted in Seoul, and finally, the serene silence that made her calm.

“Although people say it’s gotten a lot more bustling than before, there are still many places where it’s quiet. The shooting location was one such place too. I can see why many of the seniors build a house on Jeju island and go spend their time there whenever they’re on a break.”

“Maybe I should have a look too. Is there anywhere that the two of us can live?”

“I already found a place I quite liked, and I even seriously considered if I should go to an estate agent. Let’s go together in Spring. If it isn’t sold by then, we’ll take it.”

“We’re looking for a house before we even stamp the marriage papers?”

“Aren’t we practically married even now?”

Gaeul lifted up Woofie who was wagging her tail beneath the chair. Maru said that she was right.

“You didn’t forget that we’re greeting each other’s parents before the end of the year, right?”

“It’s been haunting me. I can only imagine what mother-in-law will say to me once I see her.”

“You’re a bad guy who made her daughter cry, so you deserve some nagging.”

“Yes, of course. I’ve committed a grave sin.”

He smiled and picked up his spoon when Gaeul’s hand came over. Grabbing his wrist, she spoke in a soft voice,

“Maybe it’s too early to talk about this, but we should hold a small wedding, right?”

“Do as you wish. I’m okay with a grand-scale wedding or a small wedding.”

“Sounds like you’re making me prepare everything.”

“There you have it. I’ll just put on a tuxedo and stand next to you.”

Gaeul’s hand pinched his skin. Maru groaned softly before pulling his hand back. Gaeul glared at him before chuckling.

Chapter 952
Crank Up 6

Park Okhwa waited for Hong Janghae at a café near her shop. It had been nearly a year since she had come to Korea, but nothing had changed. Only a few signboards had changed. For some reason, she thought that maybe, nothing would change no matter how desperately she lived.

She put down the cup filled with water and massaged the back of her neck. Ever since she decided to take her hands off this matter, she could not get any deep sleep. That was because of her heartbeat which became loud enough to bother her whenever she tried to. She did not go to the hospital. She knew better than anyone else that it was not a matter of her body, but of her mind.

Still, yesterday, when she decided to put an end to this matter, she was able to fall asleep serenely like she was submerged underwater. If she couldn’t sleep then, then her eyes might be red right now.

“I’m sorry. My work caught my foot.”

Hong Janghae entered the café. Okhwa immediately noticed the change in treatment. When they were partners working together, he would look her in the eyes and greet her politely, but now, he just sat down after giving her a glance.

“Not at all. If anything, I should apologize for making a busy person come and go at my call.”

“I’m not as busy as someone who crossed the sea just for this. But if you haven’t eaten yet, there’s a nice restaurant nearby, so let us go there.”

“I have eaten already.”

“I see. Then should we order some tea first?”

“It’s okay. I feel sorry to keep holding you here.”

“Understood, then. I guess it’ll be better for both of us to deal with this as quickly as possible.”

Hong Janghae wiped his mouth with his palm. Okhwa tried organizing the words she was about to say in her mind. As they had talked about this already to a certain extent beforehand, this shouldn’t take long.

“Since you came all the way here, I see that you were speaking the truth. Well, I guess you wouldn’t have ridden a plane just for the fun of it.”

“I’m very sorry. You prepared a nice position for me, but I had to pull out.”

“May I ask why you suddenly had a change of heart?”

As they were both great talents of the mind, no awkward excuses would work. Okhwa gave the answer she had prepared beforehand,

“My daughter found out.”

“Oh no. That was unexpected. It’s rather unsettling too.”

“I’m a very greedy person as I didn’t plan to settle with just one shop. However, the moment I saw my girl snap out at me telling me to stop doing this, everything felt meaningless. You might think of it as a pathetic reason, but I can only say that no parent can win against their child.”

“This is rather troubling.”

Hong Janghae bought a bottle of carbonated water from the counter. He downed half of it in one go like he was drinking ordinary water before speaking.

“Did I see wrong? I didn’t think you’d pull out because of that kind of reason.”

“I want to be a parent who can stand boldly in front of their child. As for my greed, I can just put it aside for a little.”

“You know how much the monthly rent of your shop in Japan is, right?”

“I know. I won’t be able to last three months without your help, president. Even if I put in my own funds, I won’t be able to last a year.”

“That’s not the only thing, is it? You will have a hard time running the branches in Sapporo and Nagoya. Japan is publicly known as a kind country to foreigners, but when it comes to culture and business, they might as well be the Galápagos Islands. You wouldn’t be able to imagine how much effort it took for Korean businesses to infiltrate to that point. You can enjoy the fruits of all that labor with a small risk, yet you’re giving up? How about you reconsider? I quite liked you. Not to mention customer management, you were quick-witted so I could leave you with the Japan side of things.”

“I was thankful that you trusted me and pushed me forward. I will not forget this grace. If anything goes bad for you one day, president Hong, I’ll help you within the scope of my abilities. But continuing this job is not something I can do.”

Hong Janghae downed the remaining half of the carbonated water. Did his throat not hurt? He put down the glass bottle without a single change in expression. Along with it, he seemed to have swallowed his smile as well. With his lips in a straight line, he looked like a bank agent who had stayed up all night at a counter.

“I see persuading you won’t be possible. I didn’t realize. I didn’t know you cherished your daughter that much. From what I heard, you treated her like a doll, so I thought you were someone similar to me.”

“I’m sure you’ll realize a lot of things if you have an in-depth talk with your children, president Hong.”

“Well, I beg to differ. I haven’t lived so soft of a life to be shaken by little ones under me. Anyway, I understand. I will proceed with everything under the assumption that there will be no renegotiations between us. Please erase all of the data you have on your side. I’ll trust you since you aren’t foolish enough to play around with that kind of data.”

Could the word ‘trust’ sound any more terrifying than this? Hong Janghae probably finished all the preparations and must have destroyed any materials shared between them. Not only that, he must have prepared countermeasures for when something that must not be leaked was leaked. It might be classified into different stages of solutions, but in the end, everything would have been ‘done at Park Okhwa’s own discretion’ without any involvement on his part. There was no need to make matters worse, so Hong Janghae would probably stay still as long as she stayed quiet.

“I’m not courageous enough to jump down a cliff. I’ll deal with all the information cleanly. I’ve already incinerated the laptop I’ve been using.”

“I really like your work style. You should clean up your shop by the end of this month. You’ll get contacted immediately, so you should consult them. I’ll handle all the events we were about to do in collaboration, so you don’t need to worry about that.”

“I’m sorry for troubling you.”

“It’s okay. I’ve done this many times before. As for the various benefits you received through us, I’ll give you an invoice by this weekend. We were originally going to take care of that on our own, but since we decided to go separate ways, I have no choice but to receive payment.”

“I’ll pay you back immediately once you send the invoice.”

“If it’s hard to make cash right now, we can wait until May of next year. We’ve joined hands for a while, so I should give you that much consideration at least.”

“No. It should be something I can handle as long as I can sell off the shop in Busan. It’s a bit of a pity, but I should be clean with the money.”

“As you wish. I’m sure you’re more knowledgeable than me when it comes to the settlements.”

Hong Janghae stood up. She looked at him as he left with a small nod before leaning back on her chair. The gaze he sent her way at the last moment was something she had not received ever since she opened her own shop a long time ago. His eyes said ‘that’s just how women work.’ While she was inwardly a little furious, she soon calmed down. It was better this way.

With this, they had completely separated. As there was never any official documentation, it was easy to clean up the aftermath. She just had to return to Japan and spit out all the benefits she had received through Hong Janghae. She might have to cough up a little more as compensation, but she could be satisfied with that since she would be able to take her hands off without any trouble.

Okhwa looked outside the window. Hong Janghae got into his car and was about to leave. She took out her phone and immediately called,

“Journalist Kim, this is Park Okwa. I called you to tell you that everything is over now. Yes, nothing came up specifically. I’m sure they’ve been preparing the whole time. No, he didn’t ask me anything. It seems like he found my reason absurd, yet acceptable. As you said, maybe the men on that side are heavily influenced by the chairman and have a strong impression that women are no good. Anyway, with this, I believe I’ve done everything on my side. If nothing special happens, this call will be our last… Alright, got it.”

Just as she was about to hang up after hearing the journalist tell her that she did a good job, Okhwa added one last thing,

“Thank you for saving me. Now that I took a step back, it came to me just what kind of a dangerous matter I was dipping my hands into.”

-It is not me who saved you, but Maru. I think you should thank him.

“That’s true. I’ll call him later.”

-I hope you don’t get involved with this matter anymore and will just make the best use of your skills to run your shop.

“Even if I want to, it’ll be hard for me to do so in the future. I’m sure I’ve been blacklisted by them. Now, I should just protect my own little area and leave it for my daughter. Everything I’ve done was for her sake after all.”

-If you watch the news later, you’ll find out how valuable today’s decision is. I’ll take Hong Janghae down at least.

“I wish you luck.”

Okhwa hung up and erased journalist Kim Dongwook’s number from her phone, as well as all the texts she exchanged with him. She could just throw this phone away since the number was registered under some random person in Japan, but she planned to erase all evidence just in case. She did not want to even imagine getting involved with them in the future.

She ordered some coffee to calm her shaking down. She received it in a disposable cup before leaving. She felt like she should walk the streets of Seoul that hadn’t changed. She had a detailed look at the interior designs of various shops on the streets.

Once she closed down all of her shops in Japan and in Busan, her reputation might fall, but she had the confidence to restore that. For that though, she had to hone her senses.

As she was walking, she stopped in front of a store selling premium ginseng extracts. She saw the figure of Lee Miyoon holding a pack of ginseng extract with a gentle smile on her face on the LCD screen.

-You should elegantly forget about your age.

Okhwa looked at Lee Miyon in the ad. She smiled in relief when she looked at the woman who would cross the river of the netherworld in her stead. While she hadn’t heard any details, that woman’s life would fall into the gutter once Hong Janghae went down.

“I hope you regain your position. You have to go in my stead.”

Okhwa turned around. She had to go back to the hotel and explain everything to her daughter.

Chapter 953
Crank Up 6

She opened her eyes due to sensing a presence. In her hazy vision, she saw Maru opening the door with his jersey in hand. He pulled the door slowly so that it wouldn’t squeak before going outside. Gaeul looked at the closed door for a long while, thinking that she had to get up. She had opened her eyes, but she still felt like she was in a dream. She put away the duvet and sat up. When the cold air touched her skin, her drowsiness disappeared in an instant. She went out to the living room after making the bed. She had a look at the dogs sleeping underneath the sofa before turning around to look at the kitchen.

It was 6 a.m. There was still about half an hour before the sun would rise. Gaeul turned on the lights in the kitchen and started cooking. She referred to a blog for a meal recipe on her phone while preparing the ingredients. The menu was egg drop soup, stir-fried chives and shrimp, sliced radish spring rolls, and bulgogi. Sliced radish spring rolls were tedious to create, so she focused without getting distracted. While chopping up the vegetables, she checked the time. She had to start cooking the soup in time for Maru’s return from his morning jog.

She put the bulgogi she had marinated in secret from Maru on the pan before turning on the stove for the egg drop soup. Then, she rolled some vegetables in the sliced radish and put them on a plate. Due to all the noise, the dogs woke up from sleep. She made some time to give them some food.

At 7:20, she heard the door open. It was rather fascinating how he returned at the exact same time every single time. The door opened and Maru came in.

“How come you’re up so early?”

“I woke up early to make you breakfast.”

“Breakfast?”

Seeing Maru filled with expectation blew her fatigue away. After telling him to get washed, she set the dining table. She put the spring rolls in the middle and scooped up some egg drop soup. By the time she was scooping some rice, Maru returned to the kitchen with a towel in hand.

“You must have been busy. Spring rolls are tedious to make.”

“You know your stuff. I don’t make it that often either, so it was quite awkward making it. Still, they look pretty, don’t they?”

“You can sell these if you want. Looks like the soup is egg drop soup.”

Sitting down, Maru used a spoon to drink some soup. Gaeul quietly looked at his expression. Maru, who chewed on the chunks in the soup, raised his thumb in the air.

“It’s good.”

“How’s the flavor?”

“Perfect.”

“Eat as much as you want. You’ll have more energy for the shoot that way.”

“So that’s why you’re making me breakfast.”

“It’s my way of cheering you on, so just be grateful and do your best during the shoot. As you know, the first shoot is important. Not only that, you’re the lead character too.”

“Hearing that makes me feel like I’m going to choke.”

“If you’re going to choke, do it now instead of making a mistake during the shoot.”

Maru smiled and used his spoon. Today was the 21st of December, the day of the first shoot of the film that Maru was going to play the lead character. Why did it feel like she was more nervous than he was? Gaeul scooped out a large amount of bulgogi with her chopsticks and placed it on top of Maru’s rice bowl.

“Eat a lot.”

“This is too much though.”

“Don’t complain and eat. It’s winter, so you should have a fulfilling meal.”

He opened his mouth wide and moved his lower jaw left and right. He then used his spoon to scoop both the rice and the meat and shove it in his mouth. He actually ate it in one go. Gaeul poured some water into a cup before placing it down in front of him.

“I don’t think I’ll need lunch after this,” Maru said after swallowing what was in his mouth.

Around the time he finished eating, she made some coffee stick coffee. While coffee brewed with a machine was good, she liked the light coffee mix coffee better in the morning. Maru also said that he preferred to have something sweet in the mornings.

“Is Mr. Byungchan coming to pick you up?”

“Today, I’m going to drive myself. I’ll be staying there for a while.”

“So you’re going to spend New Years there?”

“I’ll have to make some time to come home. It’ll be my first New Year in this house.”

“You should think about the schedule too. If it looks too busy, you don’t have to come. You told me that the shoot is in Gwangju and Ulsan, didn’t you? It’ll be tiring to go back and forth between those places in Seoul, so you should stay there if it doesn’t look good.”

“I’m not so weak that I’d be out of energy after driving for a few hours, so don’t worry. Is there anything in your schedule today?”

Gaeul shook her head. Thanks to the fact that she had spent a tight schedule of shooting commercials and photo shoots after her return to the country, she was able to get a good rest for a while. She had already talked this out with the president too.

She thought about the date inside her head. January 3rd. That was the date of the shoot that director Park Joongjin allocated. Her plan was to go down to the shooting location where Maru was on the 31st and surprise him.

“You’ve been making a fishy smile a lot these days. What is it? I think it’s about time you tell me.”

He narrowed his eyes and stared at her. Gaeul just replied that it was nothing. She thought about telling him beforehand, but she held back, wanting to see Maru’s startled face.

They sat down on the sofa side by side and talked to each other. He said he had to leave by 9, so there wasn’t much time left.

“It’s about time I get going.”

Maru entered the bedroom. The only thing he came out with was a single backpack. His principle was that he would supply himself with what he needed on site. She was sure that men must think that they only needed their underwear when traveling.

He rubbed the cheeks of the dogs and said goodbye.

“Don’t cry while I’m not here and have fun.”

“Who’s saying that to who? Don’t feel lonely without me while you’re down there.”

Gaeul put her arms out. He crouched down just a little and snuggled into her arms. They had a light kiss. She could faintly smell the scent of the toothpaste they used at home.

“Right, there are frozen persimmons in the freezer, don’t forget to eat them.”

“Okay.”

“And there are sliced mangos in the lower compartment of the refrigerator. They’ll go soft if you leave them out for too long, so you should eat them too.”

“Old man, stop nagging and get going already.”

She pushed him away, thinking that he might even talk about cleaning if she let him talk. Maru walked out of the door while walking backwards. The dogs also barked softly towards Maru as he left.

“I cleaned the bathroom two days ago, so…”

Gaeul winked and closed the door. Maru became quiet while talking about cleaning.

“Don’t worry about the house and just worry about your own shoot, honey. Director Park Joongjin is known to be strict during shoots. Don’t get on his bad side, and get him to dote on you, okay?”

“What, should I act like a grandson showing off his talents?”

“That doesn’t sound bad.”

Gaeul waved her hand. The elevator arrived with a sharp ‘ding’ sound and Maru got on it. Gaeul stood in front of the door and watched him until the door closed.

“I’m off now,” he said just before the door closed.

Gaeul looked at the decreasing number on the elevator before returning to the house.

“You guys, are you okay with not seeing daddy for a while?”

When she talked to them, the dogs perked their ears up, but they soon ran to the bedroom as though it didn’t matter. If Maru caught wind of this, he would surely be disappointed. Gaeul turned on the TV and lay down on the sofa. She had been holding on until now, thinking that she was going to try all sorts of things once she was given a break, but now that she was actually given a break, the person she wanted to spend time with became busy. She couldn’t throw a tantrum asking him to play with her either, so she just watched the TV in a daze for a while before checking the time.

“Time sure flies.”

It was already nearing lunchtime. What would be good for lunch? She had so much fun when she was cooking breakfast, but now that she thought that she had to eat by herself, she felt drained of energy. Perhaps she should call Seol over, or go to Chaerim-unni’s store.

Just as she was wondering, the veranda curtain entered her eyes. The ivory-colored curtain drew her eyes over. While wondering why, she walked over. She saw that the tip of the curtain had been blackened. She tapped on her lips with her finger. Why was it that she saw that all of a sudden? The crooked placement of the cushion on the sofa, the dog fur flying everywhere as the dogs ran everywhere, the flier stuck next to the refrigerator, and the dust on top of the picture frame caught her mind. Usually, she would never notice such things when she lived by herself other than on days she decided to clean.

Perhaps she had been influenced by him. By the time she came to, she found herself holding a duster. It was the one that Maru always carried around with him to the point that he even called it his favorite item. Gaeul’s lips twitched, but she started cleaning.

* * *

“Yes, hyung-nim. I’m going down right now.”

-Did I make the mistake of calling you while you were driving?

Dongwook’s voice contained a hint of laughter. Maru realized that the matters related to Hong Janghae were going well.

“Sounds like things are going well, huh?”

-Mrs. Park Okhwa took her hands off, and it has been decided that Lee Miyoon will take her place. That woman’s not simple alright. She actually managed to push her butt onto the seat she was kicked off of.

“She’s a scary woman after all. But hey, I thought it would take some time, but it went quite quickly.”

-Everyone in the industry knows that YM’s former chairman places importance on skill. Lee Miyoon must have appealed herself strongly to the point that she managed to change his mind. Above all, it must have been quite a pressure to have a new face join them in a matter where security is crucial.

“According to Lee Miyoon, Hong Janghae was the one who pulled the strings to kick her out of the chairman’s eyes. If she has returned, not even Hong Janghae will be able to do anything to her easily this time.”

-She’s not gullible enough to have the same thing down to her twice. I decided to make my move once Lee Miyoon is done organizing herself and starts doing that business. She’s gnashing her teeth to strike Hong Janghae too.

“I’m sure she’s enthusiastic. She’s trying to deal with a traitor who stabbed her back.”

-I’ll have to think carefully about this. Striking Hong Janghae is something I can easily solve with Lee Miyoon’s help, but it might be tricky to attack Lee Miyoon this way. She already has experience getting kicked out, so she’ll leave no traces this time. I’m sure the materials I have right now are enough to prove her guilty, but it might be lacking to deal a big blow to her.

“I’m okay with just her name being mentioned. Once it becomes an article and spreads around among the public, many people will find out that the rumors about Lee Miyoon will be true. That alone will push her to quit the entertainment industry. Of course, you’re not fine with just that, right?”

-My objective is to have those two shits eat prison food, but if I have to give up on one, I’ll have to give up on Lee Miyoon.

“I’ll root for you regardless. My aim is for Lee Miyoon to disappear from the industry.”

Dongwook hung up after saying okay. Maru tossed his phone in the passenger seat. ‘That’ matter was going well, so he had to focus on ‘this’ matter. He grabbed the wheel and pressed the gas pedal further. There was an hour left until he arrived at Ulsan.

Chapter 954
Crank Up 7

Hong Janghae spat out the mint candy he had in his mouth. He looked for a trash can to throw the candy away, but he didn’t see any. He went into the apartment entrance with the wrapper holding it in hand. Building 106, apartment 1012; he got on the elevator and pressed the 10th floor before waiting. Just as the doors were about to close, he saw a woman wave at him by the entrance to wait. Janghae pressed the open button and waited.

“Thank you,” said the woman who pushed in a baby stroller.

Inside the stroller was a baby that looked just over a year old.

“Which floor are you going to?”

“The tenth floor.”

Janghae nodded before putting his finger on top of the close button.

“Is it a girl?”

“He’s my son, but many people mistake him for my daughter. I’m sure he’ll be handsome in the future.”

The elevator stopped. Janghae gestured to the woman to get off first. The woman lifted the stroller slightly and left the elevator. Janghae followed her out.

“Do you live here?” the woman asked, pointing at apartment 1012.

“My son does. He’s a cruel son who never visited his father ever since he left the house, so I came here myself.”

“I see. You must be happy to see your son again.”

“I plan to scold him to come home more often. I should tell him that showing his face is the easiest filial duty.”

“My child will also make me sad when he grows up, right?”

“That’s just how children are.”

The woman laughed. Janghae turned around and knocked on the door. Behind him, he saw the woman unlock the door to her apartment and open the door. When the plastic wheels hit the base of the door, the door to apartment 1012 opened. Janghae looked at his son, wearing a t-shirt and pajama pants. His son’s facial muscles all contracted at once like a squid shriveling up. He could instantly read the expression of fear on the young man’s face.

“Your son looks great…” said the woman behind him.

She was practically announcing that she had detected something strange by trailing off her voice at the end. Janghae just turned his head around. The woman shrank back and closed the door.

“You should go in.”

The woman quickly closed the door. Janghae looked at his son standing stiffly at the entrance. His son had paled and was faltering back.

“How terrible. You showed a terrible figure in front of other people.”

“F-father.”

“I have heard that your brother has left. It seems like he has left this place for you.”

Janghae went inside while wearing his shoes. He stood on the carpet in the living room and looked around. He quite liked the neat placement of furniture and minimalistic decorations. There was no visible dirt in sight as though it was cleaned often. He had a look at the room. Other than a movie poster, nothing caught his eye.

“Take that off and throw it away.”

He spoke, but his son did not move. Janghae stroked his chin and looked at his son. Now then, when would he move? After about ten seconds, his son started moving. The pain of harsh education engraved into his body seemed to have returned as he hurriedly took off the poster and threw it in the trash. Janghae also gave him the wrapper he had in his hand.

“Throw this away too.”

His stiff son started moving quickly. Janghae stopped him when he said that he was going to change.

“Forget it. I just came to see your face. At least it’s not too bad. I don’t have anything to do here. You truly are my son.”

If the house was in terrible condition, he would have rolled up his sleeves, but that seemed unnecessary.

“So, you were at the top of the class this semester too.”

His son looked puzzled at how he knew that, but he soon fixed his expression.

“Do your best so that you do not tarnish the name of this father of yours. I did not raise you moderately. If you look bad, then it will all look bad on my part, so beware of that.”

“Understood.”

Janghae placed his hand on top of his son’s head. Now, his son had grown up to the point that he had to look up to him, but the young man was trembling nonstop just from that small touch. It was satisfactory. He regained confidence that this one would never escape his grasp. He was different from the failure that was Hong Geunsoo. It was great that the elder brother had made a name for himself, but that one had no respect for his father, so it was useless. In contrast, the one in front of him right now would live as ‘Hong Janghae’s son’ until he entered the grave.

“A man should be bold. Is there a woman you’re dating?”

“There is.”

“If you’re just playing around, I will not mind who you meet, but if you’re serious, then tell me first. The household is a big factor at play.”

“I will.”

“Yes. I’m relieved to see that you’re doing well. I’ll leave now.”

He stopped his son from seeing him out and closed the door. He went down to the first floor and was walking over to his car when a black sedan suddenly turned and stopped him. It was Geunsoo who opened the door to the driver’s seat and rushed out.

“Why the fuck are you here?”

That was some violent language right off the bat. Janghae felt his hands feel itchy. It would be great if there was a baseball bat here. On the passenger seat was a paper bag with a supermarket logo.

“Geunseok is grown up now. Even if you don’t look out for him, he’ll do well by himself.”

“I am asking you. Why the fuck are you here?”

“I visit pretty often, but it seems you didn’t know. It looks like Geunseok didn’t tell you.”

“You didn’t dare touch him, did you?”

“People might misunderstand. I’m just checking if my son is doing well as a father.”

“So that’s why you beat him up so badly? Because you’re his father?”

“It was just a form of education. Unlike you, Geunseok needed guidance. Right now, he seems to be doing pretty well.”

Guensoo approached, seemingly having more things to talk about, but then turned around after looking at the apartment.

“If you don’t want to visit the police station often due to domestic violence, do not ever come here again. Don’t ruin the guy who finally stabilized.”

“What a way to talk to your father.”

Geunsoo got back in the car and parked the car in an empty spot. Janghae watched as Geunsoo entered the apartment before getting in his car. Recently, he was desperately feeling that not everything in the world was going as he had expected. One of them was the existence of Hong Geunsoo. Ever since he went under Lee Junmin’s wings, he had grown up so big that Janghae had no choice but to watch from afar. That boy never listened to him ever since he entered elementary school, so it was inevitable that he would escape his clutches, but he never imagined that the little boy would nest himself in a place that he would not be able to reach. He even took away his younger brother, who was obedient to Janghae.

It was truly a pity that the form of his family that had to be whole had broken apart. Even his wife expressed her complaint about this matter. He really wished to return it to as it was before, but that would be impossible as long as Hong Geunsoo was on the edge. He was the type to go against the natural order and report his father.

While looking up at the apartment, Janghae reached into his inner pocket. He took out his phone and checked the message. It was from the chairman’s secretary.

-The chairman asks you to visit him in two days along with Lee Miyoon.

Janghae smashed down the driving wheel. That woman actually regained her position. The chairman, who said he was going to consider it, just told him to make a visit alongside that woman, so it was already game over. This was something he had expected ever since he heard that Lee Miyoon kowtowed in front of the chairman like a mad woman.

The chairman was someone who would throw away people easily but would just as easily pick people up. This was especially true in this case, as he would not hesitate for a long time when using someone he had used before. Lee Miyoon was the first woman that made the chairman call someone a ‘talented woman’, despite the fact that he would always say that a hen crying would bring ruin to a household.

That woman was an annoyance in his eyes since she didn’t know her own capabilities and butted in. He had played his hand for a long time in order to take that lump of desire off of him and was fruitful in his endeavors. He thought that he had cut her off cleanly, but she returned all too easily.

Just then, he got a call. As soon as he saw the name of the caller, he calmed his breath and picked up the call.

“Yes, chairman.”

-Little Hong. You saw the text my secretary sent you, yes?

“I have.”

-You must know what that means, then?

“If I may, I dare predict that you plan to use Lee Miyoon again.”

-Yes, indeed. That woman was very interesting. As expected of someone who caught my eye once. It’s such a pity. Had she not been born a woman, I would have used her dearly.

“Chairman.”

-What?

“Can you entrust me with the business of welcoming customers? I will open the business in Japan once again.”

-Little Hong, this time, your mistake was big. If you wanted to weed the grass out, then you should’ve done it properly. Your eyes for choosing your woman were great, but it seems like your eyes for finding a business partner are lacking. Park Okhwa, was it? You tried to involve a foolish woman who desired something that she can’t even eat into this field. I never knew I’d use the word disappointed to you of all people.

“I’m sorry, chairman.”

-Try getting along with Lee Miyoon again. At least there was no noise when that woman was doing the job. I understand that you cut her off since she was aiming for your share, but she attacked back this time, so you should yield. That woman, Lee Miyoon, has already finished planning for her business in Japan. She has already finished the talks with the entertainment industry Yakuzas there too. I took your side for your sake last time, but this time, I can’t. My philosophy is to use people who are talented.

“…I’ll visit you with Lee Miyoon the day after tomorrow.”

-Yes, do come together.

After ending the call, he threw the phone into the back seat. How was he supposed to deal with that damned bitch? Janghae pressed between his eyes and started the car.

Chapter 955
Crank Up 7

Lee Miyoon put down her coffee mug. Bitterness, sourness, sweetness – those were the tastes she felt in her mouth. For a while, she felt like she was drinking plain water no matter what she ate, but today’s coffee was so fragrant and tasty that she could call it the best coffee of her life.

She took a breath of the freshly baked bread and checked her phone. There were thirty missed calls and hundreds of unread messages. They were the desperate cries for help from the traitors. The middlemen who betrayed her for Hong Janghae were begging her to take them again. The ones who moved to Japan seemed to have even looked up some words in the dictionary, as they begged for forgiveness while using words that they didn’t even use usually.

Miyoon read all the texts without missing a single character. She couldn’t get tired of reading them no matter how many she read. They probably thought that the offer given to them by Hong Janghae was golden and unshakable.

Miyoon ate the mocha bun that the waiter had given her and sent them replies. She told them that there are still some good spots in Seoul station and that they should better go there with some newspapers [1].

She turned her phone off and put it in her bag. She was no longer going to use this phone in the future. Instead, she turned on the power of the new phone she bought. Not long later, she got a call she was waiting for. She couldn’t be happier to see the name ‘Hong Janghae.’

“My, my, dear president. You never picked up when I called, but now you’re calling me of your own accord?”

-Of course I am. Congratulations on your return.

“Thank you. Thanks to you, I managed to experience the bottom rungs of life, and it was good. If not for you, when would I ever get to experience something like that? The sense of deprivation, despair, and depression. All those things made me resolve that I will never get pushed down from this position ever again. No matter what happens, no matter who it is that tries to push me.”

-I’ve been taught a lesson too. I resolved that I must never leave an opening again and that even a weed without any blade of grass will grow if not rooted out.

“I guess both of us learned a good lesson. We’re in the later years of our lives too.”

Miyoon ate the butter roll. The savoriness was enough to make her dizzy. Hong Janghae’s voice of defeat must have become a magical spice.

-I assume you’ve been notified, correct?

“What do you mean?”

-The notification to visit.

“Of course I have. It was great news that I am to make a visit with you, president. Honestly, I was a little worried too. The chairman disdains women after all. But I’m glad that things went well.”

-May I ask you something?

“About how I changed the chairman’s mind?”

Hong Janghae replied yes without hesitation. It must have damaged his pride to give in so easily, too. He was a scary man after all.

“Am I obliged to tell you that?”

-I’ll find out in a day or two anyway. I’ll make it that way. The chairman I know is not someone who will leave a job to others just because they bowed down. He’ll only call those that prove themselves. If you did something, actress Lee, it’ll soon enter my ears.

“I now know that you have ears everywhere, president, so I’ll give you this one. It’s nothing much anyway.”

-Nothing much, you say. So I just became a pathetic man who can’t even do that ‘nothing much.’

“Don’t underappreciate yourself so much. We are partners who will have to work together in the future, so if you’re dejected, it’ll put me in a bad mood.”

She planned to give him a solid stab in the back, so she was satisfied with just dealing him a blow for today. Miyoon asked the waiter for another cup of coffee before continuing with the call,

“What do you think the chairman had on his mind lately?”

-There are many things on the chairman’s mind, so I don’t dare guess.

“He’s someone who supports the economics of the country, so he has many things on his mind as you say, but there is one event that made him displeased lately. He is someone who possesses unparalleled power within this land, but he was frowning because of one event. Do you have an idea of what that might be?”

Hong Janghae did not speak. It seemed that he fell into thought. The longer his pondering became, the more interested Miyoon was. It was a really trivial matter. People might even question ‘it’s just that?’ when they heard it.

-Is it about Kang Giwoo? On the movie side?

Indeed, not just anyone could become the chairman’s close confidante. Since Hong Janghae gave the right answer, it was time to play along.

“So you know about it. The chairman seemed to find it disappointing that he was unable to push his grandson’s back. Against a business, everything might have gone smoothly with just a word from his mouth, but he was up against an individual after all. Not just anyone either. He was up against the oddball director who could directly ignore the secret request of a chaebol.”

-You managed to have Kang Giwoo cast in director Park Joongjin’s new work?

“Yes.”

-That’s not possible. The director said he would not change the lead actor no matter what I said. Just what did you…

“He did not change it. The lead character is indeed played by that young man named Han Maru. What I asked for from director Park Joongjin is to give Giwoo a role. He’s pretty stuck-up, so he would not change his decisions even if a knife was up against his throat, but he’s quite flexible when it comes to things that he hasn’t decided yet.”

She heard a vain chuckle on the other side of the phone. Miyoon decided to wait until Hong Janghae decided to speak. She found it enjoyable to wait when she imagined that he must be gnashing his teeth.

-Giwoo decided to play a supporting cast, not the main role?

“Yes.”

-What kind of magic did you cast? I simply cannot understand. When I mentioned director Park Joongjin’s new work to him, he said that he felt no need to do it if he didn’t play the lead role. He said he would rather get some rest if he had to play an insignificant role.

“I’m sure he did. There’s no way that son of a bitch would have wanted to play something small.”

Miyoon then asked that he ignored the ‘son of a bitch’ part in a small voice. Hong Janghae asked again about what she did.

“You’re shameless to ask a businessperson about their business secrets. To give you a hint as a commemoration for us working together again, the reason Giwoo decided he would participate is something trivial. It’s quite obvious too.”

The waiter brought some coffee. He left after explaining that the coffee was rather acidic. She put it against her nose and sniffed it. Hong Janghae said something, but it did not enter her ears.

“Then see you in two days.”

Hong Janghae calmed down quite soon and hung up after telling her that they should see each other next time. Seeing her phone screen, Miyoon smiled. So that was his final bit of pride, huh?

While drinking the freshly baked bread and coffee, Miyoon recalled what happened a few days ago. Ever since she found out what happened between the chairman and director Park Joongjin, Miyoon called everywhere in hopes of finding a breakthrough point. She had some ties to director Park Joongjin, so it wasn’t difficult to find out what the situation was like.

“Director, can you give a spot to Giwoo? It must not be a bad deal for you.”

“I’m sorry, but the lead character has been decided to be Mr. Maru. No matter who you bring, I do not plan to change my mind.”

That was a response she had expected. Miyoon immediately changed her tactic. In fact, she did not even expect the position of the lead character. The reason she asked was nothing more than a setup to procure a supporting character role. Director Park said that there was a role suited for Kang Giwoo. He said that he could go with someone else but would use Kang Giwoo if he so wishes.

Miyoon then immediately called Kang Giwoo. She explained the situation to him, who picked up the call in an unhappy voice. Of course, the response was a nicely put ‘fuck off.’ He especially showed a considerate amount of hostility towards Han Maru and declared that he had no intentions of participating in a film where he was the lead character.

Miyoon couldn’t give up. She had to provide the chairman with a gift outside of business matters so that she could secure her return. She had to console the heart of the grandfather who was unable to look after his grandson, and at the same time, have Kang Giwoo speak praises about her.

Just as she was wracking her brain over this, she caught wind of a precious piece of news. It was from the agency ‘Hwan’ saying that Han Gaeul had joined director Park Joongjin’s work. It was an insignificant role too. When Miyoon heard that, she cheered in joy. She finally found a key that was better than anything.

“Han Gaeul is participating in director Park Joongjin’s work, so how about it? Isn’t this an opportunity to redeem what happened during the vacation last time? You can meet officially too, so there’s no problem with that. I’m telling you this so that we can resolve the bad memories between us. Also, I feel that the two of you suit each other.”

What Giwoo showed during the vacation was not simple affection but clearly a deep obsession. As she had expected, Giwoo accepted the offer. Everything after that was smooth-sailing. She visited the chairman, bowed her head, talked to him about her business plans, and finally, gave him the small present that she had prepared. She told him that his grandson was appearing in the film that he wanted. It seemed that Kang Giwoo had notified him beforehand as he looked extremely satisfied.

“Miyoon, I didn’t know you could scratch me where it itches.”

Those words signified that everything had returned to its original place.

Miyoon drank the remaining coffee in one go. Only now did everything return to how it should be. The only thing left was to give Hong Janghae an unforgettable gift as payback for giving her a hard time. She had to prepare meticulously in order to cut out Hong Janghae with minimal damage. Once she made the bomb explode, the YM Group would shift the responsibility to a suitable person to wrap up the matter. It would be the chairman who chops Hong Janghae’s neck at the end.

If she managed to lay low when the blades of execution flew everywhere, she might be able to absorb Hong Janghae’s work as well.

“Have all the head managers gather. We need to get to work.”

It was time to get revenge.

[1] Here, she’s telling them to become beggars.

Chapter 956
Crank Up 7

“The mountain isn’t that tall. It’s pretty rough though,” said Kim Gyungjin.

Maru nodded. When they climbed up the gentle slope, they came across a path down. Even Park Yoojung, who was dearly worried when the director said that they were going to a mountain, sighed in relief and leaned against a tree. This was a mountain where they could look down to see the city center of Ulsan as well as the airport. This was the first place for the shoot, as well as the place they would come to many more times in the future.

“Team A should go up and set up, and the rest of us should standby,” said Park Jiseon, the assistant director.

She looked still pretty tired even though she had slept throughout the whole bus trip. When she, who had chronic fatigue, waved her hand in the air, the staff all started moving. Electrical lines and camera lines were lined up on the ground, and light fixtures were installed.

The director and the assistant director walked around with a file that seemed like a storyboard and talked to each other. From how they kept changing locations, it seemed that they didn’t exactly like this location.

Maru took off his gloves and unzipped his jumper. Although the mountain wasn’t tall, he was feeling hot after walking for 30 minutes. This wasn’t a properly maintained hiking route either, so he had to watch out when he walked. He could only marvel at the camera team and the lights team who had to carry the heavy equipment on their shoulders as they climbed up.

“At least this place has the mood.”

Gyungjin placed his hand on the tree that had been burnt black. It seemed to have been struck by lightning. As Maru observed the tree twisted to the left like a hunchback, the director and the assistant director walked over.

“I think this place looks better instead.”

“Really? I don’t like it because there is too much emphasis.”

“If you think so, then let’s look around a little more.”

Even director Park Joongjin, who never allowed any opinions from a staff member, seemed to listen to assistant director Park Jiseon’s words well. Though, he probably had her join the team in the first place because he had trust in her.

“I did hear that we’d be always on the scene, but I never knew we’d actually move before the preparation,” said Yoojung after the director left.

Director Park had nailed in the point that the actors would always be moving along with the rest of the team before the shoot began. Normally, the actors would be called from the waiting room after the equipment was set up, but director Park seemed to work differently.

“I’m actually more comfortable with this. I’m used to waiting at the set.”

Maru sat down on a chair that a staff member brought him. He didn’t know what kind of intentions director Park had when he wanted them to follow everything, but he had no plans of going against that. He probably did it because it was necessary.

“Me too, but I did get a supporting role, so I had some vague hopes that I’d be treated like the other actors.”

Yoojung faintly smiled. While they were waiting, they drank some warm water to look after their throats. As the weather was cold and dry, there was a risk that their voice might crack during acting if they didn’t watch out. Gyungjin and Yoojung also kept moving around so that they could enter the shoot whenever it started.

“I wonder when we’ll see the other actors.”

“True. There are at least 10 people with roles.”

It had been two days since he came down to Ulsan, but Gyungjin and Yoojung were the only actors on set. Considering the number of lines they each had, they were undoubtedly the main characters of the film, but as there were many other important roles in the plot, the appearance of other actors was a necessity. Considering that director Park wouldn't just use anyone, there was no way he would find one locally.

“They’ll come during the shoot. There’s no way he’ll make us disguise as three different people each.”

While Yoojung said that as a joke, Maru thought that it was a plausible option. When shooting a commercial film, director Park would meticulously aim for the desires of the masses and shoot something that’s close to the textbook, but when he was working towards something he wanted, there were numerous cases where he would challenge strange things. People didn’t say that he earned money through commercial films and spent it all when he was obsessed with his work for nothing.

“I don’t know about anything else, but I just wish it’s as good as ‘Spring Calendar.’ That was really shocking. It was a film that made me realize that you can stimulate someone’s emotions that way.”

“If it’s as you say, our film will probably make people displeased. Spring Calendar was the epitome of affection, but the film we’re shooting now is far from that.”

“If it goes properly, then maybe. People will subconsciously start swearing at the cinemas while watching it. Then they’ll suddenly feel pity. Looking at the script, it might look like a simple film, but the director is that person.”

Gyungjin pointed at director Park. If there was one thing the actors and the staff members participating in this project had in common, it was probably their faith. Director Park might go up a weird route, but not the wrong route — that kind of faith.

“Anyway, is it true that Lee Heewon’s coming here?”

Maru looked at Gyungjin’s eyes, which were fixed on him. Yoojun was also looking at him with deep interest. Ever since Heewon revealed that he was doing his last shoot before his enlistment in an interview on TV, there was a fire in entertainment-related websites for a while. What film is it? Where is it being shot? Who’s the director? Who’s the actor? Not long later, the information was revealed on the internet. He was supposedly appearing in director Park Joongjin’s work as a cameo. Maru believed that director Park did not put an embargo on that info. If he was concerned about security, he would not have exposed a single piece of info about the film to the media until the last day of the shoot. Maru didn’t know if that was done for the sake of getting promotion, or whether he just didn’t care, but thanks to that, everyone found out that Lee Heewon was appearing.

“You saw the news. I’m not sure when he’s coming, but he’ll be appearing as a cameo, so I’m sure he’ll appear soon.”

“But you know, when Heewon-oppa said that there was someone he wanted to act with, it’s you, Maru, right?” Yoojung asked as she pulled her chair.

Gyungjin looked at her in abhorrence and snapped out, asking ‘Oppa?’

“Everyone handsome is an oppa. Anyway, that friend is you, right?”

“I am a friend of his, but he tends to exaggerate a lot.”

“Whether he’s exaggerating or not, the fact that Heewon said that he wanted to act with you probably raised your value a lot. A lot of people around me also asked who you were. They nodded when I told them about ‘Doctors’ though.”

“I’m glad that my value has gone up. But still, I’m rather worried. I might be gobbled up by his peculiar acting skills. I’m the main character, but if everyone starts talking about the cameo, I might go into hiding out of depression.”

“I haven’t known you for long, nor do I know you well, but I know that you aren’t the type of person to do that.”

Maru shrugged. It was true that he unintentionally received more attention thanks to Heewon. He felt this the most when he visited his fan café. Leaving aside the increase in the number of members, the speed at which new posts came up was incredibly fast. There were even some advert posts. Though, he was pretty sure that it was just a flash of brilliance and would dim soon.

“Lee Heewon is one thing, but I’ve heard some other rumors too.”

Gyungjin crossed his arms. He refrained from speaking with a vague head gesture before speaking again,

“I’m not entirely sure, but I heard an actor with immense connections is coming here.”

“Connections? What do you mean?” Yoojung asked.

“I’ve heard about this from my uncle. He has a lot of connections in logistics, so he eats out with a lot of people, and one of them talked about movies. I think that person talked about it because I work in this field.”

“What was it about?”

“Apparently, a chairman’s grandson is appearing in director Park Joongjin’s piece, so the directors are looking for a way to cheer him on from the dark.”

“A chairman’s grandson?”

Maru thought of two people as soon as he heard those words. Sooil and Giwoo. If it was Sooil, he would welcome him with open arms, but if it was Kang Giwoo, it would be a massive headache. Without any need for hesitation, he immediately called Sooil. The signal lasted a long time, but he didn’t pick up. It was 8 a.m. If he didn’t have any schedule, he would probably be lying in bed right now.

“What is it? You look like it’s someone you know.”

Maru only nodded at Gyungjin’s inquiry. Perhaps he had to ask the director. That would be easier for him since he would be able to get an immediate answer.

“Actors, get ready,” the assistant director shouted.

From how the camera director had gotten into position, it seemed that they had found a background they liked. Maru put away his question for now. Nothing would change even if he found out anyway. Just that, once it was confirmed that Kang Giwoo was coming, he would have to prepare in accordance. If this wasn’t agreed upon beforehand, and he had suddenly made his decision to participate, it must mean that he was up to something after all.

“Geez, I’m suddenly nervous for some reason,” said Gyungjin as he took off his coat.

There were tattoos drawn on his arm under the blackish-brown shirt sleeve. As his role was a gangster, his styling was quite eye-catching. Yoojung also took off her trainers and put on a pair of high heels. When the stylish came over and fixed her makeup, her impression totally changed. Maru couldn’t believe that such an evil-looking woman was hiding behind the gentle-looking face.

“Do I look like I chew some gum?”

“By the pack, yes.”

Maru took off the beanie he was wearing. This was the first time he had cut off his hair so short after his military days. When the cold winter air brushed past his head that looked like the desolate winter mountains, he could feel a frosty chill.

“Maru, this way.”

He left his face to head manager Byun, who had the role of the team leader of the makeup team. She said that Maru could just call her ‘big sis,’ so Maru just called her that.

“You have quite a cute face from up close, but you look so vicious now after putting on makeup.”

“Please make me look gruffy to the point that even you’d think that you’re going too far.”

“Gangsters can look pretty too. Close your eyes.”

Just as he was about to close his eyes, he put his hand inside his pocket. He got a call from Sooil.

-Why’d you call so early in the morning?

“I’m sorry when you must be sleeping, but let me ask you something.”

-What is it?

“Are you appearing in our film?”

-You mean director Park Joongjin’s one?

“Yeah.”

-No. Even if I want to, I have something else I have to do. Why do you ask?

“Nothing. Get back to sleep.”

He apologized to the grumbling Sooil again before ending the call. If that rumor was true, then there was only one option now.

“Maru, relax. I’ll be scared if you suddenly make a face like that. It’s gruffy-looking makeup too,” said head manager Byun.

Maru relaxed his expression. He was subconsciously on the edge when he thought Kang Giwoo might come to this place. As many of the rumors of the entertainment industry were false rumors, it was likely that he wasn’t coming, but he had a feeling that his shitty face might appear in this place.

Chapter 957
Crank Up 7

‘Cheonho’ recalled when he first met ‘Gukji.’ The boss brought Gukji, saying that he’ll be in charge of the shed. What caught Cheonho’s eyes more than his inch-short hair were the blank eyes that he could not tell what they were looking at. He thought that the boss brought someone with a loose screw. During their introduction, Gukji left without even greeting him properly, and when Cheonho came back from some business in the city center, he came across Gukji looking at a dog lying down in front of a cage. He approached him and asked what he was doing. Gukji replied that he was watching to see if the dog was going to survive or die.

That was three days ago. Since then, Cheonho did not give Gukji any interest. With the previous guy in charge of the shed, Cheonho would often go to the city center and they would buy women together, but he didn’t even speak a word to Gukji. He instinctively realized that Gukji was someone who could never enter the boundary known as society. He had the skin of a human, but the one inside definitely was nothing close to one.

“Oppa, where’s Gukji?”

‘Maehwa’ was asking him as she swung the stockings with a hole in them. There was a gold bracelet he had never seen before on her wrist. She did say that she managed to find someone gullible about a week ago, and it seemed that she got it from that guy as a gift.

“Where else but the dog shed?”

“It’s because I don’t see him. But hey, you’re really on the edge whenever Gukji’s name comes up. Does he owe you money or something?”

“Didn’t you feel it the moment you see him? He’s someone you shouldn’t get associated with. I’ve seen a couple of guys with dead fish eyes like him, and every single one of them caused trouble. They would beat someone up without reason, or even stab someone.”

“Someone might mistake you for a civil servant. You’re used to beating people up too, aren’t you?”

“Rotten bitch, I only beat people up for a reason. That fucker might change suddenly and stab someone out of the blue.”

“Why are you so sensitive today? Anyway, alright. I’ll look for Gukji, so you set up tonight’s match. The head manager told me that some oldie who’ll rake in money will be coming today.”

Maehwa walked over to the dog shed while shaking her hips. Cheonho looked at Maehwa’s ass which swayed like a pendulum before picking up his phone.

“Yoonsoo, how’s Pocky doing today?”

* * *

Maehwa opened the door to the dog shed while pinching her nose. She had been in the dogfighting business for years while visiting various dogfighting arenas throughout the country, but she could never get used to the stench coming off of dog sheds. She was even used to old men sneaking their hands over to cop a feel of her chest too.

“Gukji, Gukji, this noona has a gift for you.”

The gleam of the ferocious dogs filled the pitch-black darkness of the dog shed. Maehwa kept calling out to Gukji from outside the shed. She did not want to enter. Getting showered with a foul stench was terrible after all. When she remembered how she had a hard time because the smell wouldn’t disappear no matter how much perfume she used, it was very difficult to set foot inside the dog shed.

Just where did he go? She sighed and was about to close the door to the shed. Just then, she saw something dark turn around at the end of the shed. She wouldn’t have seen it if her eyes hadn’t gotten adjusted to the dark. Maehwa used the flashlight feature on her phone and lit up the inside. The dogs, which had been growling in a low pitch, started growling at her all at once. One dog in a cage right next to her bit the cage bars with its teeth. Maehwa was startled and faltered back. Ever since she got bitten once, she would freeze stiff whenever she stood in front of a big dog. If it wasn’t for the money, she would’ve quit a long time ago.

She took two steps back from the entrance of the shed and raised her flashlight again. The light, which had diffused due to all the dog hair and dust in the air, reached a black object. It was Gukji. He was wearing pitch-black jeans and a pitch-black hoodie, so he couldn’t be seen easily.

“You should’ve answered me if you were here. You scared the heck out of me.”

Gukji stood up slowly and opened his eyes. Maehwa could not differentiate between the eyes of numerous ferocious dogs and Gukji’s eyes. She recalled what Cheonho said: that fucker might change suddenly and stab someone out of the blue. Maehwa faltered back again when she heard the screeching noise. The dog that was biting the iron cage bars with its teeth had bashed into the cage. Maehwa subconsciously covered the back of her neck. It was only then that the dog turned around from the edge of the cage.

“G-Gukji? Can you come out for a second?”

Guji slowly stood up and walked out of the dog shed. His body reeked of the foul stench from the dog shed. Maehwa covered her mouth and nose with her hand.

“Don’t tell me you’ve never gone to get washed ever since you came here, have you?”

Gukji did not reply. He only took off his hood and stared at her, as though to tell her that she should get to business already. Maehwa took out an envelope from her clutch bag.

“This is from the head manager. Apparently, you don’t have a bank account, right? Do you have a phone?”

She handed the envelope to him, but Gukji did not even move. Only after flicking the envelope once as a gesture to take it did he reach out. If he received it, he should check the contents inside, but Gukji just stuffed the envelope inside his jeans pocket.

“Aren’t you going to have a look at how much it is? What if I took some of it?”

“If you want to, then go ahead.”

Gukji pressed one side of his nose and blew his nose towards the ground. Maehwa took out some tissue from her bag.

“You should blow your nose here.”

After receiving the tissue, Gukji just stuffed it into his pocket again. Now that she thought about it, she never saw Gukji use any items. At best, she saw him use a spoon during mealtime, but he never fidgeted with his phone, put his earbuds on, or even took out his wallet. What could he be doing inside that dog shed clad in pitch-black clothes that would make him invisible at night?

“Is it over now?” Gukji asked.

Maehwa nodded. Gukji then put his hood on again and entered the dog shed. Was that smelly place his refuge? Maehwa fidgeted with her fingers on her bag before speaking,

“Isn’t it cold in there at night? There’s a gas stove in the container, so you should sleep there at night. Also, you should get washed too. If you get sick, it’ll all come back to haunt you. You should eat some more as…”

Gukji closed the door to the shed. The rusty metal created a creaky noise. Maehwa scratched the ceiling of her mouth with her tongue before spitting.

“Someone’s talking to him. What nerves.”

She could just ignore him, but he kept catching her eye. Was she overly concerned? It seemed that she was a truly foolish woman for showing concern for others after experiencing something that changed her entire life. Maehwa wiped her nose before turning around. The barking of the dogs slowly died down.

* * *

‘Gukji’ took out the envelope and the tissue from his pocket. He put the tissue down on the ground and bit the envelope with his lips. He then used a trowel to dig up a corner of the dog shed to take out a tin can. He opened the lid of the tin can, which was once his candy container. He put the envelope in his mouth into the tin can, on top of all the other envelopes. He wondered how many he collected now. He stared at the interior before closing the lid again. It didn’t matter how many envelopes he had collected. He only collected them since he heard that he should not lose them and that he should collect them.

He buried the tin can again and returned to his place. It was a place where he could watch over all the dogs in the shed. The dog in the cage to his right curled up and started gasping. Its eyes were stricken with fear. Gukji could not tell what people’s eyes were saying, but he could see what dogs’ eyes were saying: loyalty, love, jealousy, fear.

Gukji picked up the rod to his left and stood up. He walked around in front of the cages and looked into the eyes of the dogs. The dogs that locked eyes with him all put their snout against the ground and lowered their stomachs without exception. Three days ago, there were some that bared their fangs at him, but there were none now. Even the most resilient one waved the white flag yesterday. It probably had a hard time enduring the boiling water falling on its head.

He stood in front of the dog curled up inside the third cage to the right. That dog was the one which did not give any response from the first day he came here. Even when people came around, even when the door opened, and even when there was a commotion, that one just lay low on the ground as though it had become one with the floor. The only time it moved was when it ate and when it went out to fight.

Gukji looked at the dog that lay strewn across the floor of the cage. He didn’t remember how old he was, but every time he moved around to various dog sheds, he always came across dogs like this one. No matter which dog shed, there was always one that lived like it was dead. Gukji felt relieved when he looked at the eyes of such a dog that looked like it would not react no matter what stimulus it was given. Such dogs felt similar to him.

He brought a sleeping bag and lay in front of that one. How long would this one last? From his experience until now, dogs that were similar to him did not live for long. They lived like they had no attachment to life, and died just like that. They died while sleeping, while fighting, and even while eating.

Gukji pulled down his hood and closed his eyes. The night air was cold.

* * *

“Cut.”

Joongjin looked at Maru raising his head while lying on the ground. He shook his head at the young man who sought answers from him. Although the scene looked really good and the emotion was good as well, there was no striking feeling. Maru did not say anything and moved the sleeping bag to its original position before sitting against the wall. Joongjin stood up from the monitor and approached Maru.

“How do you feel?”

“I want to do it again if we have the time.”

“That’s the answer I want.”

Joongjin left behind the minimum number of people and told the others to go down. Only the directors of each part remained behind. He also told Gyungjin and Yoojung to go back and rest, but they kept their place as though they felt something as actors.

“Then let’s do that again.”

There was still some time left until sunrise.

Chapter 958
Crank Up 7

He had gotten so used to the air in the shed that it was to the point that he couldn’t even feel the damp air anymore. The same went for the piercing foul stench as well as the damp smell coming from the moist ground. Maru took off his hood. He could see the scenery outside the shed behind the fatigued face of the staff member standing next to the lights. The lights of central Ulsan were very vivid as though he could reach it if he reached his hand out. Although the mountain couldn’t be considered geographically isolated, he had to become a person locked up on an uninhabited island once he entered the shoot. Though, locked up wasn’t entirely a suitable word since the character voluntarily locks up his inner world from the outside.

He stroked down his face with his hand still covered in dirt. His entire body felt tired. If he was given the order to sleep, he might as well fall over on the spot and go to the land of dreams.

“Director, I’ll take a walk.”

Director Park also seemed to have noticed that a break was necessary and told the staff to take a rest. Maru put on his beanie and left the dog shed. It was 2:19 a.m. He put his phone in his bag and entered a dark mountain path away from the piercing lights of the city. He warmed his hands with the breath that seeped out of his mouth. The weather was cold enough for someone to freeze to death. Although the mountain wasn’t tall, the paths were rough so it wouldn’t be strange to find one or two people frozen to death after getting drunk the night before.

He sat down in front of a tree stripped of all leaves. In front of him was an abandoned grave. There was grass everywhere and some of the ground had caved in, so it was hard to realize that it was a grave without looking closely.

Maru had a close look at the grave. The ‘Gukji’ character that he was acting was akin to an abandoned grave on a remote mountain; a grave that no one visits, that no one remembers, that no one cares about. He might look like he went around without aim, but he always stayed in the same space that was the dog shed. To him, the dog shed was a cradle and also a grave. That didn’t mean that he had any affection towards the dog shed or any special feelings for the dogs. Although he was bound to a psychological and physical space, Gukji did not possess any elements of a person that was restrained to one place. That facet was what made the character known as Gukji quite simple yet difficult to act.

After the second half of the story, Gukji would encounter conflicts and be forced to make a change, but until then, Maru had to express a colorless, odorless character. However, that didn’t mean that director Park wanted a dry, characterless act. Maru did not plan to express the character like that either. He even thought back to the dilemma of acting: having to be dynamic yet static. Just looking at the characteristics, he was in a situation where he had to express a special character in a not special way. He had to grab the attention of the audience by plainly showing the character itself, but it was definitely not easy.

Maru opened the script that he brought. The script was delivered to him just before it was decided that he was to go to Ulsan. Even dramas that give their script at the last possible second give the script for the first and second episodes a month prior to the first shoot. Only after spending a lot of time analyzing the characters would an actor come up with countermeasures to last-minute scripts, but director Park skipped that step entirely. It seemed like he wanted to create a film on live TV.

Maru flipped back and forth through the script and had a look at the lines and directions. As he lacked the time to consolidate the character, it was ‘Han Maru’ that filled the gaps. He unintentionally brought out his habits and speech tones while acting. As this was no situation to make an excuse that he lacked the time, he had to make use of whatever time he had to think about it, in order to design a character that wasn’t riddled with holes.

“Apparently, it might start snowing by Christmas.”

It was director Park Joongjin. Maru stood up.

“I’m glad that there’s no scene where I have to roll around in dirt and snow.”

“If you want, then I can add one for you.”

“I just said I’m glad that there wasn’t any.”

Joongjin looked around before sitting down on the grave.

“That’s a grave you’re sitting on.”

“I know. The person inside must have withered to nothingness, so don’t worry and just sit down.”

Maru sat down in front of the grave. As he was aware of the existence of god, he could not desecrate a place where the dead were buried. Who knows? The owner of that grave might have been acknowledged for his good deeds and have become a god that overlooks the underworld.

“You’re doing well,” said director Park.

While it was some consolation, it did not give him any energy. He still could not find any clues for his acting.

“You must have thought at least once about why this lunatic director put you in a hard spot by giving you the script just before the shoot, right?”

“More than once, really. I’ve been thinking about something similar just before you came around. As for cursing you for being crazy, that was three days ago.”

Director Park’s laughter broke the tranquility of the forest.

“You’re doing much better than I anticipated. Actually, I was prepared to throw away about half a month of time. I estimated that it would take about that long for your nature to be reflected in the character. But actually, you were quicker than I expected. You were very precise and yet quick, just like you were editing on a computer. Looking at you in detail, it looks like you can turn emotions into blocks and insert and extricate them as you wish. Normally, people would have a hard time doing that.”

“I guess I’m closer to being mechanical than being human. Also, are you saying that you gave me the script late because you expected this to happen?”

“Of course. I told you during the indie film festival, did I not? You had the eyes I wanted. Even if you spent enough time consolidating the foundations of the character, I’m sure I would’ve been satisfied with it. You have exceptional talent when it comes to adding details to a character. However, I decided to be a little more greedy. Let’s take the character you were playing in the indie film as an example. How much of the human nature of the person known as Han Maru do you think was in that character?”

“Well, I haven’t really thought about that.”

“Don’t think too deeply and just give me an answer.”

“I believe there was more than half. Ultimately, it is me who turns it into acting. No matter how much I try to objectify and isolate the character, the process of objectification itself contains my own subjective actions, so there must be more than half of my nature in it.”

“I see.”

Director Park, who he thought would give his own answer, stayed quiet and looked down at the ground. He was looking with so much focus that Maru shifted his gaze as well. A tree root was protruding out. It had penetrated the grave. There was no tree around no matter how he looked, so he wondered where the root came from.

“The way I see it, there was less than half, or perhaps even less than a quarter. I’m not saying that it’s a bad thing. There’s no better quality for an actor than that. Who would say no to an actor who can perfectly play a necessary role at the required time? However, I thought that I wanted to see just Han Maru rather than the Gukji played by Han Maru. I had a look at all the pieces you’ve participated in until now. It was pretty interesting, to say the least. For an actor, they are bound to have an identity whether they like it or not. Even if they play a role that’s placed far away from their nature, that actor’s qualities are bound to be drawn out in their acting. They have a trait that they can’t erase no matter how much they try to, but for you, Mr. Maru, the presence of Han Maru was very faint throughout all the characters you played. The student drama, the short skit, the film, and even your latest mini-series. You played many roles that were very impressive, but rather than the actor known as Han Maru becoming well-known, your characters became more of an issue instead, no? People in the industry might look for you since they need to find useful people, but to the audience, the person known as Han Maru might not have left much of an impression. Though, of course, it is people like you who gain many die-hard fans.”

“Are you saying that my presence is faint?”

“Usefully faint, in fact. It’s only a matter of time until people recognize you anyway, so I’m not saying that there’s a problem.”

“That puts me at ease. I can’t afford to play sidekicks all my life.”

Director Park pointed at the root that protruded out of the ground.

“To use grave mounds as an analogy, your acting is like a perfect, polished grave, unlike this one. Your precision is something to marvel at. However, the acting I want from you this time is like this grave. A grave where roots are protruding out, an unpolished grave.”

“It’s quite weird to be compared to a grave.”

“I just happened to see it.”

Director Park stood up after dusting his pants.

“I want to see not you becoming a third person and watching over your own acting, but you dive into the acting yourself. It’s fine even if that doesn’t fit you. I believe that you’ll adapt to it quickly and do extremely well.”

“Can I ask why you’re so confident in me? This shoot might get dragged out endlessly. I might ruin it too.”

This wasn’t a film director Park was doing simply as a hobby. Many people who were expensive to hire were participating in this project. Maru was curious about director Park’s reason for having limitless trust in an actor when even now, as they were talking, money was being spent.

“Will you understand it if I say that it’s the same reason why president Lee Junmin pulled you under his wing?”

“The president?”

“I haven’t heard it from the person himself, but seeing you convinced me. You are similar to that person. Your method of acting is definitely different, but some inexplicable element reminds me of her.”

“Are you perhaps talking about Miss Jung Haejoo?”

“Yes. The perfect actress that I desired the most, as well as an actress that gave me endless disappointment because I was unable to do so. You are similar to her; especially in how there’s a strange amount of experience contained in your acting. It is like you two have lived a completely different era from me as actors, no, as a human beings. She was perfect like she had been acting for an unimaginable period of time.”

Director Park walked off, saying that they should return. Maru looked at the protruding root before turning around. Like she had been acting for an unimaginable period of time — an inextinguishable resonance blossomed from that line.

Chapter 959
Crank UP 7

Whenever his feet lifted off the ground, the words that director Park said reverberated in his mind: how much of the human nature of the person known as Han Maru do you think was in that character? As the character contained his subjective interpretations, he thought that a lot of his subjective elements would be reflected in the character, but from the director’s words, that didn’t necessarily seem to be the case. It was quite plausible when he thought about the way he acted. He dug into the depths of the depths and created a structure without any gaps. The method of constructing a character might contain the preferences of Han Maru, but the finished character seemed to have little traces of the builder.

Like what director Park said, it wasn’t a bad thing. He just wanted another facet. Maru thought about the masked man. That man went about acting in a completely different form from his. He didn’t take a step away from the character to compile the form of the character, and instead would throw in his entire soul and integrate with the character itself. It was an extreme form of method acting. When Maru let the masked man take over his body when acting, he could feel the emotions of the character itself after the acting was over and thus would need time to readjust. In contrast, if he stuck to his original acting method, he could perfectly extricate himself from the character at the call of the cut signal.

Director Park walked to the dog shed, saying that he should take his time. Maru stopped walking and softly called out to ‘him.’

“You aren’t sleeping, are you?”

He waited for a bit after calling. By the time he felt that the damp smell of the mountain had gotten thicker, the masked man responded,

-You know that you need to pay a bonus to have someone work late at night, right?

“I think it’s okay since we’re legally considered the same entity.”

-Let’s say that. We’re both Han Maru after all.

“You heard what director Park said, right?”

-I did. I can see that he’s a very exceptional analytic from how he points out the crucial points.

“Are you still unable to interfere with me?”

-To tell you the truth, it’s becoming hard to even talk to you like this. The great ones above us do not seem to like this special case. The subject that must be running in circles in the hamster wheel that is their laws has stopped the wheel to reflect on itself.

“How strict. A creature is desperately struggling for survival, so they should be merciful.”

-Perhaps even they are over-exhausted from work. Looking at the results alone, something outside their expectations had occurred, but they did not take immediate action. Perhaps even gods are like public workers.

“That’s fortunate for me since it means that they aren’t almighty.”

-Who knows? Even this kind of occurrence that lies outside their laws is within their standards. It might be something simple that they could solve with a flick of a finger.

“If you conclude like that, then I can’t do anything. That would mean that even this conversation we’re having right now is within their plans. Once I realize that it is meaningless to struggle to escape from these fetters, I should just hang myself, hoping that I would choose a better job in the next life.”

-I do not like to assert anything definitively, but I can bet my head that you will never give up on life.

“Your head is my head though.”

The wind seemed to become colder as something akin to dust started falling from the sky. A snowflake fell down gently on his hoodie before melting away.

“I was going to ask you for help, but I guess it’s not happening.”

-If it’s about acting, you shouldn’t need my help.

“It’s because this is a completely different method from mine. I have to throw myself into the character like the time I played the young killer, but this is your expertise. I’m not used to things like that.”

-It’s a simple problem really. People do not go on adventures if they have something they can rely on. How many people do you think would be willing to put in effort when they could pick sweet fruits without hard work? You just haven’t done so because you didn’t find it necessary. If you find it necessary, you’ll acquire that skill and display it faster than anyone else.

“And what’s your basis for that?”

-Do I need to mention it?

Maru smiled and shook his head. The basis was right in front of him. It was something that his ‘another self’ that he was talking to had already done.

“But if you think about it, you’ve polished that method of yours while observing dozens of lives. We may both be Han Marus, but the depths of our experiences are different. I’m in a position where I’m starting off with nothing.”

-So you’re going to tell director Park Joongjin that you can’t do it?

“I can’t do that.”

-As long as you are determined to do so, you will be able to do it, just as all the Han Marus before you once did. They may have lived different lives, but the Han Marus that dedicated their lives to acting had never slipped.

“Sounds like all the other careers ended up bad.”

-Didn’t you already see it in a dream? You saw salaryman Han Maru dying of overwork and estate agent Han Maru dying of heart failure while living homeless. There’s also the Han Maru that tried to whistle-blow and became a bus driver.

“If my life doesn’t end here and begins again, then please, whisper to him to become an actor again.”

-I’ll shout in his ears for sure, that he’ll be in for a lot of suffering if he does not become an actor. The best-case scenario would be me not having to do something like that, though. It will be to be thrown out of this endless track of life.

“I guess that’s your dearest wish.”

-It’s ironic, really. I’ve been living all of these lives, but I ultimately end up wishing for death. Though, I’m sure the current you wish to live on.

“I don’t know what to say, I mean, I can’t really cheer you on when you say you want to die, yet to tell you to keep living on feels like I’m cursing you.”

-I’m sure something will work out. It might not, though. Hey, tomorrow’s Christmas, eh? It looks like it’ll be a White Christmas just as director Park said.

“And I’ll be shooting while fighting against the cold on a mountain covered in white snow.”

-You must want to spend time with Miss Gaeul. You must be disappointed.

“I can’t help it if I want to put food on the table. I’m living an eternity in a strange manner, but if I don’t put food in my mouth, it’ll all come to an abrupt curtain call. Also, going somewhere with Gaeul is good and all, but she couldn’t even rest due to her schedule, so she should get some rest at a time like this. Gaeul should be at home. I wonder what miss rabbit is doing?”

-I don’t know either. She might be lying dormant inside Miss Gaeul, or she may have gone off somewhere. It became harder to meet her ever since the two of you reunited.

“That doesn’t seem like a good omen to me.”

-Perhaps there might not be long left until you and I can no longer talk to each other.

“That means that something might also be coming to an end.”

-And the beginning of something too.

“I should run so that I don’t end up back in that hamster wheel again. I finally grabbed a clue, so I can’t let it come to naught.”

-Now that’s what scares me the most.

He calmed his breath down and started running on the spot. If his body became stiff due to the cold, even his acting skills would be affected.

“I thought about this when I listened to director Park, that there might be others in a similar situation as us, right?”

-Most likely. I can’t say that all living humans experience something as peculiar as this, but if it can happen to some extremely ordinary person like us, then there might be quite many people in a cycle of repeated reincarnation into the same life. The difference is that they might think that it’s their first reincarnation until their very death. They will repeatedly live their first reincarnation for all eternity.

“Don’t you think that there is a chance that the people who reincarnate might influence others in the same situation just like how two different conveyor belts in a factory might end up influencing another?”

-I wouldn’t know. Not that I could tell you about it even if I did.

Maru rubbed his eyebrows. Director Park talked about Jung Haejoo in passing. He said that she possessed experience like she had lived a different life from others. Did that actress, who displayed exceptional skill, just possess good acting skill? Or did she compile that experience through special happenings? Perhaps thanks to the fact that he was living in the very middle of a miracle caused by god, he couldn’t take that lightly. The absurd traffic accident that happened to a genius actress. Just what lay beneath the surface of the woman who had to finish her life before her talent was known to the world?

“Did any of the Han Marus you saw end their own lives?”

-No, not a single time. Prior to the age of forty-five, you died through many different forms of accident, but you have never given up on your own life out of your own volition. The same goes for me.

“Hey. This just came to me, but there are a lot of geniuses who are short-lived, right? And among them, the ratio of suicide is pretty high.”

It was a possibility that came across his mind as the fish of thought swam through the sea of thinking. If there were other people who experienced near infinite lives of reincarnation, and they also received the petty grace of god and displayed exceptional talent in one field…

“Mr. Maru. I think we should start.”

It was the vice director. She was shouting while putting a heat pack against her cheek. Maru raised his hand, saying that he would be there soon. As he never actually formed a question, the masked man did not answer. Maru did not force it either. While he was curious, he didn’t want to listen to it.

“Let’s talk again sometime.”

-If you do not hear my voice even after calling out to me dearly, then just think of me as having gone on a journey.

“Now that makes me feel uneasy.”

-I feel uneasy too. This time, it has to be different, but if the same thing repeats again this time, I’ll end up giving up. I’ll be endlessly watching the autobiographical film in a world where time does not move, dearly wishing for death or an ending.

“Let us both do our best. It’d be great if we could talk to the rabbit that pulled the trigger of reincarnation, but that will be difficult, right?”

-Probably.

Maru nodded. It was about time he went back to the shoot. Just as he was about to move after saying goodbye, the masked man asked in a soft voice,

-Hey, can you still look into the hearts of people through their eyes these days?

Chapter 960
Crank Up 7

The lights turned off. A problem seemed to have occurred in the generator van parked in the middle of the mountain. The lighting team and the generator engineer quickly left.

“I can see it now. Our film is going to hit ten million in sales. Films that start off with problems always end up doing well,” jested head manager Moon.

He had arrived in order to ‘cheer everyone up’, but he had been here for more than five hours already. Head manager Moon looked after the staff members in charge of various chores, and worked more busily than anyone else. People in charge of production showed up on set to inspect, but it was very rare to see them take care of menial chores.

“How is it, Mr. Maru? Doable?” Head manager Moon asked as he sat next to him.

The dog shed was quite damp, so it would ruin his suit, yet he did not seem to mind. When Maru tried to give him a portable chair, he waved his hand in the air saying that he didn’t need it.

“Still doable for now. Though, I can see signs that things will get dragged out.”

“Working on something with that fellow, director Park, isn’t actually a joyful thing. It may depend on the person, but there were some people who got fed up with working with him and canceled the contract.”

“Looks like I’ll have to do well so that it doesn’t go that way.”

“I’ll be thankful if you do. It’s been a long time since I saw him so excited. He doesn’t even smile when he shoots movies, but today, I saw a smile on his face more often than not. It seems like he finds this fun.”

“I’m glad to hear that the director is enjoying himself.”

Maru then looked into head manager Moon’s eyes and asked,

“Head manager Moon.”

“Yes?”

“How did you honestly feel when you heard that I was playing the main character?”

Head manager Moon’s eyes quickly looked left and right. Maru could tell that he was organizing his words. He looked above his head. Nothing appeared. The speech bubble he was supposed to see had disappeared. Although he did not use it that many times since it might negatively influence his reincarnation as well as the people around him, he did use it whenever necessary. After all, it was easy to come up with countermeasures if he knew what the other party was thinking about him.

“I sometimes get that I’m unpleasantly honest, so are you okay with that?”

“That’s precisely what I want.”

“If I had the right of casting, I would’ve picked someone else other than you. If I had the power to remove someone, I would have removed you. That’s because I don’t know you that well. To an actor, fame is inseparable.”

“Looks like I would’ve been in big trouble if director Park wasn’t using his own money to create the film.”

“Don’t misunderstand me though. It’s not that I hate you. I just felt that there are a lot of better replacements. Of course, I do have faith. I have faith that you’ll prove to me that I was terribly wrong in my judgment.”

“I’ll try my best.”

“You can’t try your best, you have to be the best. This piece, I think, will be similar to ‘Spring Calendar.’ Director Park has a pattern. Even when he works on his own thing, he would sometimes create really strange pieces when he worked on them hastily. They are the pieces that not only the public, but even the critics fail to understand. Meanwhile, he was very easygoing when he shot ‘Spring Calendar.’ Of course, he was quite strict just like before at the beginning of the shoot, but one of the actors started giving opinions and the shooting speed slowed down considerably.”

“That actress must be senior Ahn Joohyun, right?”

“You know her?”

“I asked her for advice when I first participated in director Park’s works. She told me about it back then.”

Head manager Moon stroked down his neck. He inexplicably seemed impressed. Maru looked into his eyes again. There was no speech bubble this time either. Perhaps it had completely disappeared. The masked man seemed to have predicted this situation. He did not answer when Maru asked what this signified, but there was something that Maru was sure of. ‘Something’ was about to happen. The masked man gave him a hint without buying the ire of the gods.

“May I ask you something personal?”

“Please do.”

“I know it is wrong for me to ask you this, but I couldn’t help but be curious. The president Lee Junmin I know of isn’t someone who would take just anyone under his wing. Just look at all the people in JA. The S-tier actor of the film industry, Hong Guensoo, superstar Yang Ganghwan in the theater and musical fields, top-tier actress in the TV commercials field Kim Suyeon, and finally Yoo Sooil who many people say will be the next Hong Geunsoo. Mrs. Yang Miso is also a star not as an actress herself, but as someone who instructs them. These people put their names on JA’s website as their official artists. I have heard that there are five or six more actors being raised, but it must mean that they aren’t yet sufficient to go on the main page.”

“It is a little strange for me to be among them, huh?”

“To be blunt, it is quite peculiar. You might feel offended when you hear this. I also know that it isn’t right for me to say it. However, I want to check the details as the chief producer of this film. I want to know how you managed to join the Lee Junmin army, and what is so special about you.”

“I also sometimes wonder why such a gamble took place.”

Head manager Moon stared at him before nodding with a smile.

“Looks like I was a fool for asking you to show me what you can’t show me right now. I just asked because I found it peculiar. I also want to know more about you too.”

“If it’s like that, then ask away. There’s nothing to hide, nor is there a reason to. I also wish to become close to you, head manager Moon. I heard that many places look out for you. You supposedly have a hand in the creation of every blockbuster in Korea.”

“I guess I do like to stick my face into things.”

Head manager Moon locked his fingers and placed his hands above his thighs.

“Then let me shamelessly ask one more question. I found out that you signed the contract when you were in high school. It was during your first year too.”

“You know well.”

“Did you go take an audition?”

“No, I met the president directly and talked to him. Back then, Miso-noonim happened to be our acting teacher at the acting club of our school.”

“So Mrs. Yang Miso acted as a bridge. But it’s surprising to hear that president Lee Junmin was actually willing to meet you in person. There are dozens of rich people wanting to have a meal with him every single day, but you managed to meet him during high school and signed a contract.”

“I was lucky.”

“What kind of acting did you show the president? Did you prepare something special?”

“There was nothing like that. Actually, the first time we met, I was rather dismissive towards staking my life in acting, so I stood up without even talking to him properly. After that, I changed my mind and asked him to meet me again.”

“Did he meet you? He’s not that generous.”

“I’m sure he saw something in me. Or perhaps he just came over to watch how arrogant a high schooler can get. There, I asked him for some money in exchange for him holding my life hostage. Back then, I was more desperate for money than anything else.”

“When you were in your first year of high school?”

“Yes.”

Head manager Moon’s lips twitched. Maru wondered if he was going to mock him for it, but he looked around a little before straightening his lips.

“I thought I was supposed to be laughing, but from your eyes, it seems like you’re serious. You must’ve been really desperate.”

“To the adults, it might be the recklessness of a clueless brat, but I’m not someone who acts arrogant or hypocritical in front of money. The president must’ve realized that as well, so we proceeded.”

“Since we’re here, I want to ask about the contract deposit. Can you tell me about it? I won’t tell anyone else.”

Maru raised two fingers. Director Moon whistled.

“Twenty million won when you didn’t show him anything at that age, huh? You’re quite shameless, Mr. Maru.”

“It’s two billion.”

Head manager Moon, whose face would look like a smile even if he was expressionless, turned into that of indifference for the first time. His scanning eyes became even quicker. He seemed to think that he must have heard wrong.

“Two billion?”

“Yes.”

“You asked for two billion from president Lee Junmin when you were in your first year of high school?”

“Yes, two billion.”

“Didn’t the president just stand up and leave? Or perhaps throw what he was drinking at you?”

“He didn’t do that. We just talked about whether two billion was justifiable or not and negotiated.”

“How much?”

“Three hundred million. Though right now, we’ve signed an official contract so I have an additional source of income.”

Head manager Moon thought about that number in a daze before eventually slapping down on his knees while bursting out into laughter. The dark dog shed was filled with his laughter. Just then, the generator problem seemed to have been fixed as the lights started coming back on one by one.

“Mr. Maru. I’m not on your side unconditionally. Even if director Park wants to fire you, I will not stop him. Geez, I didn’t see I’d see something like you in my life. I’m sorry for calling you ‘something’, but I mean it in a good way so forgive me.”

“Thank you for thinking that I’m something.”

“If it’s okay with you, I’d like to be brothers with you. Though, I’ll be fifty in a few years so I’m more like your uncle.”

“Well, I’ll just call you big hyung-nim. Please, speak at ease with me.”

Head manager Moon reached his hand out. Maru grabbed his hand. Unlike his chubby figure, his hand was rather thin and rough. Maru could instantly tell that the life this man must have lived was not smooth. Maru liked such hands.

“Alright, let’s get along in the future. Tell me right away if you find anything uncomfortable.”

Head manager Moon stood up with a smile and walked out of the dog shed before turning around. He raised three fingers before seemingly mouthing ‘three hundred million’ without speaking. Maru smiled and nodded. Head manager Moon clapped three times and raised his thumb.

“Director Park, please look after our lead actor. He’s my little brother now.”

Director Park, who was standing at the entrance, just shrugged.

Chapter 961
Crank Up 7

“Let’s wrap things up here.”

People in the vicinity started groaning as soon as director Park said those words. It was 5 a.m. Maru pressed his temple as he stood up. His concentration didn’t wave despite it being so late at night, but he had been so on the edge that it was to the point that he could feel his stamina being shaved off. Director Park would shout cut the moment he loosened up for an instant. He couldn’t remember how many hours it took for the merciless director to be satisfied.

“I’ll announce tomorrow whether we’re meeting or not according to the weather, but if you don’t see any snow tomorrow, consider that there will be a shoot.”

The assistant director’s following words made people sigh. Maru could hear the staff members cleaning up the camera cables praying for snow in muttering voices. It was December 25th. It had been four days since they came to Ulsan, and it was also Christmas. The footsteps of the people moving around after packing up the equipment looked like they were stepping on mud. The dogs also lay down and yawned as though it wasn’t just the people who were tired.

Maru reached out and patted a dog on the head. If they caused a mess during the shoot, the shoot would’ve dragged out endlessly, but they were very docile. They barked when they had to, and stepped back when they had to. They were practically great actors. They proved why they were more expensive to hire than most actors.

“Actors, please go down and look after your bodies. Especially, you, Mr. Maru, watch out not to catch a cold.”

Maru received a heat pack given to him by the assistant director. He only had a hoodie on to bring out the best of his acting, so he was shivering by this point.

“Remember that all the people here will have nothing to do but suck on their thumbs if you fall ill.”

“Looks like I can never fall ill then. Thanks for your work.”

“You did all the work. Go down quickly before the snow becomes even thicker. Well, then, let’s pull out. We need to rest too.”

The assistant director, who was like a sloth during the shoot, was quicker than anyone during the pullout. Maru said goodbye to the staff cleaning up the scene before climbing down first. If he helped out and got ill while doing so, then he would be inconveniencing everyone. He washed up the moment he arrived at the hotel in the city. He sighed in relief as soon as the hot water touched his frozen body. He only tasted today what it meant to shoot director Park style. For the first three days, he pushed the staff and the actors just under their limits. It was good that the shoots were focused during night. In the later stages, he would more often have light naps at the end of the night and just before the morning, but for now, there was still some leeway.

When he got out after washing, it was 6. Cars started entering the hotel which had been staying quiet. They were construction vehicles. He looked at the tail of the ready-mix concrete vehicle before lying down. He felt hazy, but not sleepy. There was a train of thought that awakened his body from falling asleep. It was like a spark from a flintstone in complete darkness. It was instantaneous but also intense.

What did his disappearing ability signify? He intentionally ignored that thought and tried to sleep, but this thought grew off of the attempt to ignore it and became bigger and bigger. Now, it was big enough to drive sleep away.

“Han Maru, let’s sleep for now.”

He slapped his cheeks loudly. He would find himself in the afternoon without a wink of sleep if he was caught up in this riddle he could not find the answer to. He turned around in bed. He tried changing the height of the pillow and even putting on some relaxing music, but his mind did not seem to want to go off to dreamland, even though his body was drowsy and was unwilling to move.

Just as he was rolling around, he felt a vibration from under his pillow. When he took it out to check, he saw a text message from Gaeul. You up? – Maru called in response to that text.

-Are you doing your morning exercises during your shoot too?

“No. The shoot just finished and I was about to sleep, but I couldn't fall asleep.”

-So an all-nighter, huh? I’ll hang up. You must have a shoot later, so you should get to sleep quickly.

Maru stopped her from trying to end the call.

-Are you not getting any sleep because of nervousness?

“No, it’s not like that. There’s just something on my mind.”

-Then put that thought aside and get some sleep. If you’re pulling all-nighters at the beginning of the shoot, it must mean that the schedule is tight, so you should get some rest.

“Yeah, I definitely should sleep.”

Gaeul’s laughter could be heard. She scolded him for being a child.

“Sing me a lullaby.”

-Hello? How could you tell someone who just woke up to sing a lullaby?

“You know the song you hum all the time. I think I’ll be able to fall asleep if I listen to that.”

-Will that really make you sleep?

“I’ll have to see.”

-Geez.

Silence fell. Maru waited with his phone against his ear. Along with the rustle of the duvet, Gaeul cleared her throat, which told him that she was going to start.

* * *

She hummed the song while fidgeting with her toes. She was humming a song in bed as soon as she woke up, and she was singing for someone else too. While this had never happened in her life before, she didn’t feel displeased or annoyed. If the man over the phone could sleep comfortably with only a small effort on her part, she was willing to sing for hours on end. She swung her hand drooping down from the side of the bed and continued her humming.

Woofie woke up from sleep and rubbed her snout against her hand. Bullie also entered the bedroom. Perhaps the two dogs wanted to see their daddy as well.

“Woofie and Bullie are here, so why don’t you let them hear your voice?”

Gaeul reached her hand out and placed the phone between the two dogs. She waited for a few seconds, but Maru did not make any voice. She carefully put her phone against her face and asked,

“You asleep?”

There was no reply. Gaeul smiled and ended the call. Perhaps it was the pressure of playing his first protagonist in a film. He, who was never picky with places to sleep, grumbled because he couldn’t fall asleep. The thing that stopped him from falling asleep was also probably something about acting. He was second to none when it came to doing things he didn’t find necessary half-heartedly, but he would be a perfectionist in something he judged that he had to do.

Gaeul yawned before leaving the bed. After living with him, she started sharing his lifestyle. Other than when she fell asleep late at night due to a busy schedule, she would automatically open her eyes around seven when Maru would finish his morning jogs. She felt happy when she found herself becoming more and more like him. The more they shared with each other, the more solidarity she felt.

She cooked and ate some light breakfast before sitting down on the sofa. She was resting to her hearts’ content. Other than the end-of-year award ceremonies, she had no schedule to attend. This was thanks to the president’s consideration. Gaeul looked at the calendar on the table and checked the date. She had to attend the RBS acting award on the 30th and was planning to go down to Ulsan on the 31st. Maru would be surprised if she waited outside the hotel and surprised him. She smiled when she thought about how Maru would stare at her in a daze. She wondered what he would say to him. If he asked why she was here, she might just go back.

She finished cleaning just as Maru asked her to, and it was 10 a.m. She wondered if Maru was asleep. If she was next to him, she would grab his hand.

She was washing a dish rag when she suddenly thought about how long it would take to reach Ulsan if she departed now. If there weren’t two dogs always asking her to play, she would’ve gotten her wallet and left to drive.

Bitna was going to take care of Woofie. Bitna widened her eyes as she told her to leave Woofie to her since she would be staying at home all day as it was the winter holidays, and when Gaeul told her no as a joke, she immediately put on a crying face. Gaeul felt that she might really end up disappointed, so she asked her to take care of Woofie.

“Bullie, you stay with Chaerim-unni, okay?”

Gaeul touched Bullie’s head. Although Bullie was docile at home, he might act sensitively out of nervousness. As he was a Pit Bull and had lived in a dogfighting arena for most of his life, she couldn’t ask Bitna to take care of him, so she asked Chaerim instead. Bullie liked Chaerim a lot, so there were no worries there.

-You look happy.

She heard a voice from behind her. Gaeul turned around. The rabbit was curled up on the sofa.

“Long time no see.”

-Did you miss me?

“To be honest, I didn’t really think about you. I was too busy.”

-I saw.

The rabbit jumped off the sofa. Bullie’s snout pointed at the rabbit. His head moved around according to the rabbit’s movement. Maybe he could see the rabbit.

“I heard that dogs could see ghosts, and I see it must be true.”

-You once treated me like a delusion, and now I’m a ghost?

“Who cares what you are? It doesn’t change the fact that only I can see you, whether you’re a ghost or a product of my delusion. So what’s up? You look down.”

-You can tell that I’m down when I have a face like this?

“You have two eyes, one nose, and one mouth, just the same as a human. Also, I can tell your feelings when I look at you.”

-That sounds plausible.

The rabbit walked around inside the house. Gaeul put her hands behind her back and followed the rabbit. The rabbit was someone she couldn’t see through. She said that she would advise her to become happy, but some of her advice created deep regret. Things related to Maru were like that.

“I thought about what happened back in high school. Why did you induce me to distance myself from Maru? When you wanted my happiness the most?”

-There are no lies in my feelings.

The red pupils looked straight back at her. They were straight and firm eyes without a hint of lies. That confused her even more. Being together with the person she liked must be one of the happiness that she could enjoy, so why did the rabbit interfere with that?

-It’s a White Christmas.

The rabbit looked outside. The cars inside the block had become white mounds. Gaeul placed her hand on the window to the veranda. A chill that cleared her mind could be felt through her hand.

“Uhm.”

When she turned around, the rabbit was no more. Gaeul took her hand off. There was something she wanted to say. The rabbit’s snow-white fur lingered in her eyes.

Chapter 962
Crank Up 7

So vapes do not have any taste no matter what? — Team leader Won put the device he had in his mouth into its case. He paid no small amount for it, so he had ripped open the packaging with quite a lot of expectation. This was a week ago. He had tried three different e-liquids that came with the vape throughout the past week, but none of them could compare to a real cigarette. A non-smoker colleague of his laughed at him, saying that there is no real or fake smoking, but this was a serious problem for team leader Won. How was this smoking? It was more like a humidifier with artificial cigarette flavoring. The reason he couldn’t take his eyes off the convenience store right next to him was also because of smoking. He felt it would be great if he could smoke one right now.

Imagining putting a soft filter inside his lips and turning on the lighter, team leader Won licked his lips as he saw the man approaching from the distance. The source of the trouble was coming. He had an incredibly good nose and would point out the smells from smoking even after an hour. If it just ended with a scolding, then team leader Won would have just prepared for it and fulfilled his duties as a smoker, but that person wouldn’t end it with just words.

“The weather’s pretty chilly.”

“It really is. You should watch out to not catch a cold, head manager.”

“You should look after yourself, not me. Get on.”

Team leader Won inwardly sighed in relief as he grabbed the driving wheel. It seemed that he was in a good mood today. People who didn’t know called the man sitting behind him the Prince of Smiles. Apparently, he looked like he would laugh it off even if someone pointed fingers at him. To team leader Won’s ears though, it was the greatest joke of this era. It wasn’t just him, the numerous managers that went through him probably thought the same.

“Head manager.”

“Yes?”

“You should smoke before we depart.”

“Forget it. I vaped.”

Team leader Won took out the vape case he put in his pocket and waved it in the air. It was also to show that he bought something like this for him.

“But you don’t like it that much.”

The thing in Giwoo’s hand was a pack of cigarettes. It was also the one he liked to smoke usually. Team leader Won wasn’t able to accept it so readily. There were several bad rumors about Kang Giwoo circulating inside the company. It would instead be better if he outright bullied people. However, he only pressured and threatened that person discreetly to exhaustion, and ultimately made them quit the company or quit working entirely. Thanks to that, the departments that never directly worked with Kang Giwoo sometimes said that men’s jealousy can sometimes be scary, that they were badmouthing Giwoo out of envy, or how it was unsightly. It was a frustrating assumption, but if anyone retorted and it entered the ears of Kang Giwoo, then they might end up getting fired, so everyone just stayed quiet.

Team leader Won looked at Giwoo in detail before accepting the pack of cigarettes. He didn’t know what would happen if he refused, and more than that, he wanted to drive nicotine deep into his lungs.

“If you’re okay with it.”

He got off the van and lit a cigarette. He puffed a deep one. Although the flavor and smell was the thing he wanted, he didn’t feel any better. Maybe it was because Kang Giwoo was the one who gave it to him with a smile. He threw away the cigarette after puffing about halfway before stepping on it to extinguish it. He felt like Kang Giwoo was observing him intently behind the window, so he didn’t feel at ease either. He felt like he should just drive the guy to Ulsan and smoke in comfort.

“Shall we go?”

Giwoo nodded with a smile. Team leader Won wished that Giwoo didn’t whimsically start doing something bad. He wished that he would stay quiet until they arrived at Ulsan. Giwoo did not say anything and stared at his phone until they got on the highway. He was probably checking his Instagram. Recently, Giwoo had been overly absorbed in his phone. Was he really that concerned about people’s reactions? Team leader Won couldn’t tell.

“Head manager, do you have a dog?”

“Dog? I do have one. Though, my wife is the one who looks after it, and at most, I just take it on walks during the weekend.”

“Is it big?”

“No, it’s small. It’s a Shih Tzu. It’s pretty old. We brought it when we got married.”

“How does it feel to raise a dog?”

“It feels like raising one more child, one that’s more affectionate. There are times when I find that one cuter than my own daughter who just entered puberty.”

Giwoo asked something strange today. From what he knew, Giwoo didn’t have any interest in pets.

Giwoo nodded before looking into his phone for a while and asking what the dog on the screen was. He slightly turned around and checked the screen. There was one vicious-looking dog and one cute dog with round eyes.

“The cute brown one with round eyes is a Shiba Inu, and the vicious-looking one looks like a Pit Bull, but I’m not too sure.”

Team leader Won looked at the content beneath the dog photos: Sometimes disobedient, but still precious family. He also saw the ID of the poster. It said ‘Black Swan’ in English letters.

“The one you called Shiba Inu is pretty cute.”

After that, Giwoo continued to look at his phone while smiling. Perhaps he was feeling good because he was going to raise a dog? In any case, it was great that his smile wasn’t the evil kind.

“You’re going to raise a dog?”

“A girl I know raises dogs, so I also wanted to try raising one. I sometimes feel lonely since I live by myself. Also, if I raise one, I’ll have something to talk about with her.”

If team leader Won’s wife heard that, she would’ve snapped out, saying that he had the wrong intentions. She, who even attended pet owner meetings, would always say that getting a dog to act as a doll for loneliness was not just foolish, but a form of violence as well. Team leader Won agreed with her whenever he heard those words. He once talked about how pointless it was to fuss up over a dog when they were newlyweds, and she didn’t cook for him for days. Though now, he understood what she meant after spending over a dozen years together with a dog.

“What is it?”

“Nothing. I just wanted to tell you that you should buy one from a trusted place. There are places that lie about dog breeds.”

There was probably no need to talk about what kind of mindset a pet owner should have since that would be overstepping his boundaries. He did feel pity for the dog that would end up in his hands, but what could he do? That was just fate.

“Do you have to train them or something like that?”

“My wife is usually in charge of that, so I’m not entirely sure. But from looking at her, interaction seems more important than teaching. It might sound funny, but if you can get through to them, the dogs should act obedient.”

He just responded adequately and focused on driving. There should be no nitpicking since he responded well and didn’t do anything that might get on his nerves. Giwoo shouldn’t complain as long as he could bring him to Ulsan safely like this.

Just then, he changed lanes for a brief moment, avoiding a truck that suddenly tried to cut in, before returning to his original lane. Giwoo called out to him. Team leader Won looked in the rearview mirror. Did he perhaps not like the way the van moved? The car moved for a bit, but it was nothing worth complaining about.

“I was a bit rough, wasn’t I? A truck suddenly cut in, sorry.”

When in doubt, it was better to mention it first. Giwoo took his eyes off the phone in puzzlement.

“Nothing. Why did you call me?”

“Who proposed when you got married, head manager?”

What was this all of a sudden? Giwoo was acting very strange today. He asked about the personal history of a manager. This was something he never heard of. Team leader Won rolled his eyes and thought about what Giwoo was thinking, but he eventually gave up. Finding out what it was about wouldn’t change things anyway. He only answered as kindly as possible.

“I did. The man usually does it after all.”

“Did you prepare a ring?”

“Back then, I wasn’t that well-off, so I didn’t prepare a ring, but I proposed after taking her to a restaurant that’s more expensive than the usual kind. My wife isn’t the type to be hung up on those kinds of things either.”

“I guess it’s similar in that way then.”

He was about to ask what was so similar before swallowing his words. Giwoo was the last person he wanted to get involved with. He just had to reply to whatever he was asked.

“Did you two ever get into a fight?”

“Are there lovers who don’t fight? Everyone fights, then they warm up and fight again, and then get married.”

It was a rather obvious answer, but Giwoo’s reaction was rather strange. He looked strangely happy like he found a solution to a difficult problem. He even asked back, saying ‘that’s how it is after all, right?’

Team leader Won was pretty sure that he got rejected by a girl he liked. The strange thing was that he was probably more knowledgeable regarding women than most men around his age, yet still asked such obvious questions. Team leader Won couldn’t even grasp what this guy was on to. He himself had never heard that other people managed to get married without fighting even once. Two people who have lived completely different lives were getting married, so it would be strange if there wasn’t a quarrel between them. Giwoo should know that the best since he had met numerous women in his life.

“There can be a fight, but that doesn’t mean detest. It’s just a process of getting to know each other.”

This time, it wasn’t a question that desired an answer. Giwoo was just muttering to himself and convincing himself. Team leader Won won felt weirded out for some reason. Just looking at the young man smiling while on his phone gave him goosebumps. He intentionally no longer looked at the rearview mirror when he drove, dearly wishing for Giwoo to stay quiet.

Chapter 963
Crank up 3

He couldn’t remember when he fell asleep. Maru looked at the phone by his head. He vaguely remembered listening to Gaeul humming. It seemed that he passed out after humming along to the familiar tune. He clutched his hazy head and sat up. Although he was tired from the all-nighter, he felt a lot better. He checked the duration of the phone call. It turned out that he had been listening for twenty minutes. There was no way he hung up first, so it meant that Gaeul had been humming for him for twenty minutes straight.

Maru made a call, but Gaeul didn’t pick up, as though she was sleeping after eating lunch. He left behind a text message thanking her for last night since he didn’t want to wake her up.

He washed up lightly before checking the time. It was 1 p.m. Maru thought back to what the assistant director said before and looked outside. The sky was pretty clear considering it spat out a bunch of snow yesterday. He looked at the intermittent clouds before looking at the floor. It was a world of white. A man ran towards a vehicle parked in front of the hotel and Maru could tell from a glance that the man was annoyed.

He didn’t get any text on his phone. Perhaps the shoot was on hold today just as the assistant director said since it had snowed. Maru looked at the road, which the snowplow had already cleared. The hunger he had forgotten about came back to him. He got on the elevator, intending to eat some light breakfast at a convenience store.

“Mr. Maru.”

He met director Park Joongjin at the hotel lounge. When he approached him, he smelled a faint fragrance of coffee. It seemed that the coffee and scone from the café in the hotel was director Park’s lunch.

“Did you have a good sleep?”

“I practically passed out. It was 1 by the time I opened my eyes.”

“So you woke up just now. I presume you haven’t eaten then, have you?”

“I was going to get a rice ball and some milk outside. I haven’t found any decent places around.”

“This hotel does food. If you’re okay with it, then you should eat here.”

There was a counter where he pointed. The hotel provided various tea and coffee, alcoholic drinks, snacks, and even food. Maru had a cursory glance at the menu and ordered nakji[1] fried rice and a cup of mojito without rum.

“I forgot to give you my card. Actors’ food costs are included in the production costs.”

“Had I known earlier, I would have ordered steak instead.”

“You can order it now if you want.”

“I was just joking. I’m not that hungry either.”

He put a spoonful of the nakji fried rice that the hotel employee brought him into his mouth. He didn’t have any appetite, so he was originally planning to just fill his stomach, but by the time he emptied half of the bowl, he started seriously considering ordering steak. He went to the counter with the plates that the employees would take away for him if he left them. He ordered some scones and coffee from the employee who received the plates while thanking him. This time, he ordered with the card that director Park gave him. There was no reason to hold back from using it since it was in the production costs.

“There’s good news,” director Park said when he split the scone in half.

He waited while eating the scone.

“We can shoot today too. There isn’t a lot of snow at the dog shed, so it can be cleared out quickly. They also finished maintenance on the generator that was causing trouble yesterday early in the morning, so you should be able to focus today.”

Maru originally thought that they were going to take a break today from how there was snow piled outside and from how director Park was acting leisurely, but he turned out to be wrong. He dampened the dry scone with some coffee before swallowing. A part of him wanted to rest, but it wasn’t like he would shoot any less just because he postponed the shoot. It wouldn't be bad to shoot as much as possible in the early stages of the shoot when he was the most nervous and most concentrated.

“Looks like I should go back up and practice.”

“Don’t practice too much. If the character becomes too consolidated, you will have less room to appear. I believe that you’ll control it well, but my job as the director is to be naggy.”

“Then I’ll practice moderately.”

“Splendid. You can only fill something up if there’s a gap.”

The director then raised his coffee mug. Maru told him he would go back first and turned around.

“He’s supposedly coming soon.”

Director Park’s words suddenly flew at the back of his head. Who’s supposedly coming? Maru didn’t know what that meant and turned around to look at him. Just then, there was a commotion in the lobby, which had been quiet until now. He turned around to see the source of the commotion. He then realized what director Park was listening to. The ‘he’ was coming.

“Maru, it’s been a really long time.”

If anyone wanted to know the golden ratio smile, Maru would tell that person to learn from this man. Maru lightly grabbed the hand the man extended. He could feel strength from the hand. Smiling eyes and the hand that’s gripping with the intent to crush. Maru didn’t refuse and gripped back with enough strength that his veins bulged. Unless it was an Olympic athlete, Maru would never lose to someone in terms of physical strength. He did receive God’s blessing after all.

The tip of Kang Giwoo’s lips twitched like a fish that got caught. He seemed to be planning to loosen his grip and pull out, but Maru had no intentions of letting him go. A fight that he so wanted was given to him. He could feel bones being squeezed together in his hand. Giwoo’s lips were not just twitching, they were nearly at the level of convulsions.

“You’re early.”

Director Park stood up. Only then did Maru let go. Giwoo quickly hid his pale hand behind him.

“It was snowing, and I didn’t want to be late, so I came early.”

“Your shoot is tomorrow, but you’re quite passionate.”

“One of my intentions was to cheer for Maru. I also wanted to see how you shoot, director.”

“I see. I never knew you liked me so much, Mr. Giwoo. Had I known, I might have seriously considered it when some important people reached out to me. Many people have bothered me to use you as the lead character.”

Director Park blatantly mentioned the lobbying. It wouldn’t be strange if Giwoo was flustered, but he just smiled calmly and spoke,

“I was also surprised after I found that out. Rather than me, there are many people who go overboard to catch my grandfather’s attention. It is quite embarrassing to request something like that in a world where skill is everything.”

“Sounds like you didn’t know about it.”

“I want to be proud when it comes to acting. Above all, even if I managed to get a role through shameless requests, I am bound to lag behind and fall if I don’t have the skills to digest it, so it’s all useless. I believe that people will reach out to me first if I learn more and display my skills.”

His face beamed with confidence. If he was in an election, he should be able to win quite a number of votes based on that face alone. Maru inwardly applauded. Kang Giwoo could be considered a natural. If his improvisation was on that level, it was quite something.

“You sound as though you’ve prepared that line beforehand. You’re quite stuck up unlike what I heard from the rumors. I’m not saying that it’s a bad thing. It’s just different from the image of you I had in my mind.”

Giwoo grabbed director Park’s extended hand. While the two exchanged a handshake, the number of people in the lounge started increasing. When the visitors at the hotel who followed Giwoo from the lobby were convinced that it was indeed Kang Giwoo, they took out their phones first, and that attracted even more guests. The man who seemed to be Giwoo’s manager told them politely not to take photos, but they wouldn’t have taken out their phones if that was enough to deter them.

“Things have gotten rowdy here. Mr. Giwoo, you should go up first. We should talk later once you get some rest.”

“Okay. And also, thank you again, director. I’m happy to be working with you.”

“Don’t mention it. An actor of your caliber wants to play an extra if possible, so I have no reason to refuse. I can’t change out the lead role at this point, but if it’s just an extra, I can be flexible.”

So Kang Giwoo proactively revealed his intention to participate? Maru met eyes with Giwoo just as he lowered his head and turned around. He looked excited like a kid on the night before a picnic. Maru desperately needed his petty ability here, but no matter how much he tensed his eyes, no speech bubble appeared. While limited, the ability allowed him to look into the hearts of others, but now even that was impossible.

The Bible said that a thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy[2]. While Maru couldn't look into his heart, his intentions were dead obvious. However, what concerned Maru was that Kang Giwoo’s aim was unclear. There was no way he came all the way here to give him a gift, so it meant that he was up to something.

“See you later.”

Kang Giwoo got on the elevator after saying those words. Maru could see his smirk between the closing doors.

“I heard you two were friends, right?”

“How did it look? Did we look like friends?”

Director Park did not speak. Though, from his expression, he seemed to have a vague understanding already.

“I was going to send him back if you found him uncomfortable, but after seeing you act like how you did, I changed my mind. So Mr. Giwoo is someone who makes you uncomfortable. He has the talent to bring out a side of you that I did not see.”

“If you get close to him, you’ll find out more surprising things. He’s a very interesting fellow. Just as you said, there’s no one better than him when it comes to switching my emotions up. He’s very talented in rubbing people the wrong way.”

“It seems like he’s similar to me, then.”

Director Park left the lounge, saying that he looked forward to the afternoon shoot. Maru emptied the remaining coffee before taking out his phone. He didn’t have that much leisure to wait. He wanted to listen to that guy’s reason for coming.

“Shall we talk for a bit?” he said to Giwoo who picked up the call.

[1] Small octopus

[2] John 10:10

Chapter 964
Crank Up 7

He didn’t like the bed. When he sat down, the bed sunk in. Even the bed sheet was tucked awkwardly. It was clearly not the job of an expert and was most likely the work of a cheaply hired cleaner. Below the sofa was trash thrown away by the previous visitor. If he could see it by just lowering his eyes just a little, he couldn’t imagine what it would be like in the unseen areas. He wanted to call the counter and tell them how terrible this place was, but he did not pick up the phone. The actor Kang Giwoo did not nitpick over something like this.

The phone he placed on the table had been vibrating for a while now. The caller was Han Maru. He intentionally did not pick up after seeing the name, wanting the guy to be nervous for a little.

He got washed and checked his phone. There was one missed call and one text message, which told him to give him a call if he saw the message. Giwoo crossed his legs and sat at the edge of the bed. When he met Maru in the lobby, that guy did not look surprised. It seemed that he had heard from director Park. He gripped his hand and loosened it again, as it still felt sore. That guy was ridiculously strong. Giwoo only tried to taunt him lightly, but he thought that his bones were going to break. That guy must have not liked him poking his face into the piece that he was playing his first lead character in. Or perhaps it was because of that. Giwoo lay on the bed and tossed his phone around a little before calling Maru.

“You called, huh? Sorry. I went to wash right away so I didn’t check.”

-I’m sure you intentionally didn’t pick up after seeing it in the elevator, but you said it’s not like that, so I’m sure it isn’t.

“Why would I intentionally ignore your call? You’re a close friend.”

-Then as a close friend, let me ask you one question.

“Forget one, I can answer two if you want.”

-Why did you participate in this film? You must be busy, so I’m curious as to why you came all the way here, even if it means playing a background character.

It’s to check the relationship between you and Han Gaeul — Giwoo swallowed the words echoing in his mouth and gave the answer he prepared beforehand.

“I said it when I was on the first floor. I wanted to participate in director Park’s work. It’s not just me, any actor would love to have an opportunity like this.”

-For that to be true, your participation was rather sudden.

“Sudden, sure. If I was just a little late, I wouldn’t have been able to do it. It’s a pity that the roles were assigned already, but I guess I should be grateful that I can come to the shoot at all. Also, is it just me or is there a thorn in your words? You sound like I came here because of some other intentions and not just because I wanted to participate in the work of an exceptional director.”

-Did I sound like that? You gripped my hand so tightly when we just met, so I thought you had business with me.

“I was happy to see you so I didn’t notice.”

-I was also a little happy so I put in a little strength.

“How happy were you? It hurt my hand.”

-Not as much as you.

Giwoo felt this since their first encounter, that he would be at odds with this guy from a to z. The moment he first imitated this guy’s acting, the tenacious ties of fate were formed, and they reached all the way until now without being able to sever it. Sometimes, he would feel confident that he had polished himself without having to watch that guy’s acting, but when he looked back at the previous videos, he found new elements to steal. This guy was definitely different from Lee Hyuk. With Lee Hyuk, Giwoo would understand the mechanisms of acting from just seeing him a few times.

With Han Maru though, this guy’s method of acting, as well as his expression of characters, changed every single time. It was as though a different person was acting with the shell of Han Maru every single time, and he could not find any common ground between all of them. Whenever he displayed a new type of acting, Giwoo would replay the video recording numerous times to engrave it into his eyes and dissolve it into his body.

When Maru disappeared to the military, he thought that it was all over now. He believed that there was no more need to study him. However, Han Maru returned as though to fool his thoughts, showed up in a drama, and once again, displayed a completely different character from before. Giwoo felt a headache whenever he watched ‘Doctors.’ He had never encountered a target that was so difficult to imitate.

To Giwoo, Han Maru was a strange creature. They would’ve gone separate ways or become friends a long time ago if it was anyone else. However, his relationship with Han Maru had become neither, and it instead became its own region. He boldly took root as an ‘enemy.’ His eyes looked similar to Giwoo’s grandfather's; they both had a pair of eyes that were looking so far into the future that it was disturbing. He looked impermeable to everything, but he first showed his opening when he separated from Han Gaeul.

When Giwoo saw him hit on Kim Suyeon to start anew, Giwoo felt relieved, thinking that this guy was also just a male in the end.

However, he recently started suspecting the relationship between him and Kim Suyeon. He heard reliable information through a reliable source, and it was about how Kim Suyeon was dating a man. He naturally thought that it would be Han Maru, but a completely different name was mentioned. It was Hong Geunsoo. It was rather strange. Where did Han Maru go off to and where did Hong Geunsoo come in all of a sudden? Maybe there was nothing between Han Maru and Kim Suyeon after all? When he thought of that, he also thought of this: why did Han Maru have to go so far to lie that he even went as far as to recruit Kim Suyeon into it?

Giwoo did not underestimate that guy. In fact, he viewed that guy more highly than anyone else he had met until now. The conclusion he reached was very humiliating but also explained the situation. If Han Maru and Han Gaeul were still dating and only put on a show in order to prevent that news from leaking…

It was only a hypothesis, but there was considerable weight to it. It was also probably not a coincidence that Giwoo managed to witness his weak point that he had never managed to see before.

“When is that fellow coming?” Giwoo asked in passing.

Now then, how would that guy answer his question, which just mentioned ‘that fellow’?

-If you’re talking about Lee Heewon, then I don’t know. I didn’t know you were coming either.

“There’s another one besides Lee Heewon.”

-Besides Lee Heewon?

Giwoo perked his ears up, in order to catch any trivial changes. Maru asked back if anyone else was coming. He seemed completely oblivious. Was this an act as well?

“I must be mistaken. I forgot that that person was supposed to come here, but did not make it in the end. So, is that all you wanted to ask? You’re suddenly curious about why I’m here?”

-I don’t intend to say anything to an actor wanting to participate in a good piece. However, if you’re thinking about doing some unfunny pranks again, then you should best reconsider. There are many sensitive people with good hunches other than me here. If you try to do your old habit again, you’ll become very controversial in no time, so you better watch out.

“Why are you acting so scary? I really want to become friends with you, but you always push me away. I told you already didn’t I? That was just a deed of a friend of mine when I was immature. Of course, I’m not saying that I’m not in the wrong since it is wrong for me to just let him do it when I knew about it, but there’s no need to go that far, is there?”

-And you’re mature now?

Giwoo silently chuckled as he looked up at the ceiling. For now, Han Maru did not seem to know that Han Gaeul was coming here. If he did, then he would have tried to probe out what he meant when he mentioned ‘that fellow.’ From how he ignored that completely, Giwoo could tell that he had no other information.

Just as his tangled lump of thoughts was being loosened, it suddenly stopped. Assuming that Han Maru and Han Gaeul were still dating, there was no way they didn’t know about each other’s schedules. This was especially true if they cherished each other to the point that they wanted to continue their relationship even if it meant bringing Kim Suyeon to play along with their act.

Perhaps Giwoo was just imagining things. Perhaps Kim Suyeon just dumped the worthless Han Maru and switched to Hong Geunsoo. This hypothesis was well-grounded too. Although she had been quiet for a few years now, Kim Suyeon once switched out numerous men. However, the hunter living inside his head whispered to him that what was happening in front of him was just a trap. He needed conviction; conviction that the two didn’t scheme against him and conviction that they actually got separated.

“Anyways, is it going well with senior Suyeon?”

-We may be close, but we aren’t close enough to talk about each other’s romance, are we?

“I was just a little curious. The two of you suit each other, so try working things out with her.”

-Even if you don't worry, I’m getting along well.

“Really? Then that’s good.”

Just then, the private investigator he tagged Han Gaeul with sent him a message through the messenger app.

“Let’s talk about the rest later. We need to get close as fellow actors working in the same film.”

He hung up without listening to Han Maru’s words. When he suspected the relationship between Kim Suyeon and Han Maru, he immediately had someone tail Han Gaeul. He asked that person to regularly take photos of Han Gaeul and send them to him, but this was not the specified time. Perhaps there was an urgent inquiry.

He opened up the messenger. What the private investigator sent him was a short line of text and a few photos. Giwoo looked at the screen for a long while. Veins bulged on his temples. He felt like he was burning inside. He put down his phone and went to the bathroom. He needed some cold water. Without shivering-cold water, he would not be able to calm this anger down.

Chapter 965
Crank Up 7

Maru looked down at his phone. He made the call in order to probe the guy out, but he gained nothing. Although he said in front of director Park, that some board members pushed on with the contract in order to look good in front of the director, was it really true? Even if he really did not know what the important people did, Maru could not understand the reason why Giwoo decided to participate as an extra, not to mention so suddenly.

At Giwoo’s level, he would get to choose his own work. Unless it was a cameo appearance out of friendship, it was really strange that he came all the way down to Ulsan to play an extra, which wouldn’t even add a line to his career. Although Giwoo said that actors need to prove their skill and that their dream is to work with a good director, it was precisely because they were the correct words that he lacked credibility. Had it been any other actor, he would have applauded that kind of thinking, but for Kang Giwoo, it was a different story.

He rolled his phone in his hand before placing it on the bed. It would be great if all this was needless worry. Just as Kang Giwoo said, it was entirely possible that he came all the way down here simply to work with director Park. It was hard to exclude the possibility that he did not have any ulterior motives, and that this was all a product of coincidence. After all, even lunatics would find the right place to do crazy things. Even Kang Giwoo would not think about doing cruel crimes all the time.

No matter how much he thought about it, he could not discern the reason Kang Giwoo was here. To that guy, who knew that he broke up with Han Gaeul, ‘Han Maru’ must just be an eyesore of a man. It would be an overstatement to think that he came all the way here just to pick a fight. Kang Giwoo was not that free.

“Is there really nothing?” he said to himself as he lay down on the bed.

His thoughts also stopped working after trying out various hypotheses. He did feel that it was rather tragic to waste his precious break just because of a single Kang Giwoo.

Maru took out a bottle of water from the fridge. He opened the lid and put it in his mouth like he was refueling a car. Was Giwoo just a thief who snuck here without any specific purpose?

As he was looking at the water in the bottle decrease, he found himself choking. Maru took out the bottle from his mouth. There was one thing he pushed into the corner of his mind when he came up with his hypotheses because it was something he didn’t even want to imagine.

“Gaeul.”

-Oh, Maru.

Her voice was sunken. It seemed that she just woke up from a nap.

“Sorry for calling you when you’re sleeping.”

-No, I was about to get up anyway since the dogs are wanting to go on a stroll. Rather than that, how are you feeling? You were so tired in the morning that you fell asleep without telling me.

“I had a great sleep thanks to your humming. Uhm, Gaeul, I wanted to ask you something.”

-What is it?

“Have you met Kang Giwoo recently?”

-Kang Giwoo? No. He doesn’t even call me nowadays. He did call me when I was on Jeju island, but he gave up soon.

“Really?”

-What is this about?

“I just asked to check. I was wondering if he was staying put these days.”

-I’m not entirely sure, but it does look like he’s given up. I mean, he must have his pride too. I heard from Mijoo that he didn’t cause any trouble in any other shoots. He didn’t ask about me either.

“Really?”

-Why are you suddenly asking about Kang Giwoo? You’re making me suspicious.

“I’m just worried about you because I haven’t seen your face.”

-It hasn’t even been a week. Well, I guess I am so pretty that you must be worried about leaving me alone.

“Why am I the one feeling embarrassed?”

Listening to her confident voice, Maru looked outside the window. The world was still white other than the road where the snowplow had already passed by.

“It’s a White Christmas.”

-It would’ve been great if we stayed at home together. We could have taken out the dogs for a walk in the snow.

“Yeah.”

-You’re shooting outside, right?

“There’s a dog shed, that’s built from thin boards, but you can practically call it outside. In fact, it feels like it traps in the cold air once the sun sets. It’s like a large refrigerator.”

-Watch out for a cold. And look after your neck. I once hurt my throat during winter because I had to speak with some ice in my mouth, and it lasted a long time. You’re drinking warm water, right?

“That’s the one thing I keep doing, just as my wife told me.”

-'tis a relief, my husband.

She said she was going to hang up, saying that Woofie was urging her to take a walk. Maru told her to wear warm clothes before finishing the call. He did not tell her that Kang Giwoo came to the shoot. He didn’t want to make her worry.

Maybe because he was worried, but the air inside his room felt stifling. He opened the window. Although it only opened by about half a foot because of the safety mechanism, he could feel enough cold air rush in to cool his head. The thing he was worried about the most was Kang Giwoo seeing through their ‘act’ and taking action. If he realized that Han Maru and Kim Suyeon dating was just a show and that Maru and Gaeul were still dating, then he would definitely take action. He was definitely not the kind of guy who would take such a humiliation lying down.

From how he no longer called as often and didn’t say anything even after seeing Mijoo, it was possible that he was fed up with her. After all, it must be quite a challenge to keep waiting under a tree where fruit wouldn’t fall down.

After excluding all of the hypotheses, there was only one left. It was that Kang Giwoo participated in this shoot purely as an actor. It was unreliable, but he could not think of anything else.

-Actors are to be on standby at three.

He checked the text message and then the time. There was an hour left until the shoot. As the majority of the actors were staying in the hotel, an hour was more than enough preparation time. He got up from the bed and was about to start his character analysis out of habit before stopping after thinking about what director Park said. Ever since the last cut they shot at the end of dawn, Maru could vaguely understand what it was that the director wanted from him.

Ultimately, it came down to the ratio. How much of Han Maru was he going to add to the character? Naturally, he became more concerned about something else other than the character: what kind of human was he? It was a rather sudden philosophical question. It might be a problem with a simple answer, but to Maru, it was a tricky question that he could not answer so easily.

Even a person who lived one life would not easily be able to write an autobiography. Even at the age of twilight, there would be no end once they started to think about who or what they truly were. For Maru, he had lived not one, but several repeated lives. What could he define as ‘Han Maru’ in that repeated process? According to the masked man’s words, all the various different Han Marus were given different endings. There was only one person who was given the name Han Maru, but the results were very different, so it was hard to define what he was exactly. Just what could he call himself? He couldn’t point out the things that made him, so what he had to imbue into the character was vague. As for abstract feelings, they were everywhere. Among those, what was it that he had to objectify and add to the character?

As his personality was like a vine, which relied on each other to grow up, it was not easy to pull out just one of them. Yet, despite that, if he was asked to pick just one trait that could be considered the centerpiece, it was probably the tendency to avoid danger as much as possible.

‘Gukji’ was a character that was easily swayed by his surroundings. He did not respond sensitively to change and was always swept under those changes. Even when his family collapsed and he was abandoned, even when he worked as a boy who sold gums, even when he was swept up in all kinds of unjust matters, he did not even show any resistance and just kept on living. It might be something he had no choice about in order to survive, but it did not change the fact that he was an extremely passive person. Towards the end of the film, he would change into a more active person, but even that change was brought about by external factors, and he was just dragged by those elements. Wouldn’t it hurt the character Gukji if he was bestowed a tendency to avoid danger; wouldn’t that hurt the subjectivity of the character? It wouldn’t influence the character a lot since the character would ultimately follow the script, but it would surely change the overall atmosphere if all the minute changes piled up. Did director Park mean to say that he was going to allow and accept an attempt that might change the film?

It was impossible to change the direction of a train running on rails, but it was possible to change the speed. That was the role, as well as the rights of an actor. Director Park gave him the right to reform Gukji.

Maru got his jumper. It was about time to get to the scene after getting some makeup. He opened the door and came out. Gyungjin was walking on the other side.

“It’s begun again.”

“Yeah.”

“Right, have you seen Kang Giwoo?”

“Yes. I’ve seen him in the lobby.”

“I tried to see him too, but he’s apparently not leaving his room. I was going to say hi with Yoojung.”

“Maybe he’s tired.”

“Director Park Joongjin sure is something, huh? His name made a famous actor voluntarily play an extra and come all the way down here. From what I heard, he came here even though he doesn’t have any shoot today, just to watch. It looks like he’s a studious fellow just like the rumors. That must be why he managed to gain so much fame at his age, along with his skills.”

“True. I also wish I was popular.”

“Me too. Why is it so goddamn hard to leave a semi-basement house? I’m on the better side too, since I get paid by my theater troupe. If I didn’t, I would’ve quit ages ago.”

“Let us both do our best, hoping that this piece will give us wings.”

“I would have no other wish if that happened.”

Yoojung came out of her room just then and they went down to the first floor together. As not many people participated in the production of the film, there weren’t that many cars. Inside the vehicle that was used as a makeshift makeup room on set, the stylist manager had finished her preparations and was waiting.

“Your face is riddled with fatigue. Come on up. I’ll make you look pretty,” head manager Byun said with a smile, and then pointed at the entrance of the hotel.

“He’s a good-looking guy even from a distance, huh?”

Kang Giwoo was coming out.

Chapter 966
Crank Up 7

Sometimes, Maru could tell that something had changed with a single glance, and now was one such time. He watched Giwoo leave the hotel and noticed that he was different from when he saw him in the lobby an hour ago. It was something he couldn’t explain with words, something like a minute change in the air around him that Maru could sense with his sixth sense. Although he could just treat it as a mistake, Maru raised his guard. He might be unnecessarily wasting his energy, but that was much better than regretting this moment after something went wrong.

Gyungjin was the first one to mention that Kang Giwoo was here. Yoojung, who said that she was going to joyfully say hello, was only looking at him from afar. Leaving the hotel entrance, Giwoo walked over to the car. Thanks to his handsome appearance, people started recognizing him after he only took a few steps. The man who seemed to be his manager blocked people from approaching him.

“Hello, head manager. I never thought I’d see you here,” Giwoo greeted.

He seemed to be acquainted with head manager Byun.

“All of my people are in an uproar after they found out that you were coming. They all want to put makeup on you.”

“I’ll visit you later.”

“I’ll be thankful if you do. Are you participating in the shoot today? I haven’t heard anything.”

“My shoot is in a few days. Today, I’ll just tag along and see what it’s like at the shoot and how the director works.”

“You’re one passionate guy alright. Aren’t you too perfect? Take it easy. Don’t push yourself so far like you did in that drama and end up hospitalized.”

“It was my fault for not taking care of my stamina.”

Giwoo, who rubbed his nose, turned around to face Gyungjin and Yoojung. Maru observed Giwoo without saying anything. He had to find out why his alarm went off.

“I’m Kang Giwoo. I’ll be learning a lot from you for the next few days.”

“Learning from us, oh please. We are the ones who should be learning from you. I’m Kim Gyungjin. Nice to meet you.”

When Gyungjin shook hands with him, Yoojung also spoke,

“I’m Park Yoojung. I really enjoyed Doctor’s Office.”

He really knew how to form relationships and join the crew. It was easy for there to be an awkward silence after a greeting, but Kang Giwoo moderately distributed his words and induced the two people to speak. He truly showed why people had two ears. Who would hate such a person since he showed that he was listening? He practically seemed to be displaying the textbook example of image-making.

“Take good care of me today. I’ll follow you around and steal from you.”

The conversation was finally headed his way. Maru just adequately spoke with him. He used his prying eyes very actively while talking about trivial things like who he met while he was in Seoul and if that person ended up talking about him or whatnot. Seeing him from up close, Maru could really notice the change in the atmosphere. He was convinced that the alarm from his sixth sense was definitely not a malfunction. It also felt like Giwoo was trying his best to find something out from him. They were at odds with each other with their shields up.

“You two seem really close, eh?” Gyungjin said.

It wasn’t strange that Giwoo and Maru looked like that since they were talking a lot with smiles on their faces. Maru finished the rather dynamic greeting after asking him to take good care of him for a few days. Although he didn’t find out anything, he became more convinced. Something had happened in the hour that Giwoo was in his room. Or perhaps, he found out about something.

“We’re going now.”

He looked at Giwoo getting in his van before heading to the bus. It didn’t seem like he was going to cause trouble immediately. There were many watching eyes after all. If he did something, it would be right after the shoot, or when people scattered to take a break.

“You two are close, right?” asked Yoojung, who sat behind him.

A woman’s intuition, maybe? Or perhaps she had really good observation skills.

“Of course. You just saw us. We don’t meet that often, but he’s a friend I get along with.”

“I’m glad if that’s the case. To me, it seemed like you two were having a mind battle.”

Gyungjin, who was next to him, said that if it there was a strange sense of tension between the two, then it would be from the rivalry between men. Maru also agreed. It was a good expression to use as an excuse. If the ‘rivalry’ was replaced with enemies or an ill-fated relationship, then it would be true as well.

The bus stopped at the foot of the mountain. They walked up the mountain path, where snow hadn’t melted yet. The dog shed was still half-covered in snow, but the entrance had been cleared out. Staff members holding equipment walked past it.

“We’re going to start within 10 minutes so get ready.”

Maru got changed. He could smell the dog shed from the black hoodie. He purposely did not get it washed. Trivial things were important in order to synchronize with the character. He smudged the makeup to make his face look dirty before going into the dog shed. The dogs had also finished preparing and were waiting for the cue sign. He said hello to the dog manager who came with them before exchanging gazes with the dogs inside the cages. They seemed to welcome him as though they had learned about him throughout the past four days. The one on the left reminded him of Bullie at home. Abandoned dogs all had deep eyes, as though they would never again reveal what was inside them so easily.

To Gukji, dogs were like strands of grass intermittently growing on the side of the road. They gave him zero impressions, and he would feel no guilt even if he stepped on them or pulled them out. However, there was a dog that had special meaning to him. Gukji projected himself onto ‘such dogs’ whenever he saw them during his visits to various dog sheds. He would look at the dogs who had become numb to external stimuli and did nothing but breathe, and he would gain a sense of kinship and feel relief. Maru tickled the dog sitting to the left of him. It was the dog that interacted with Gukji in the story, so he had the dog smell him and would look at it in the eyes whenever he had the time. The acting of the person was important, but the acting of the dog was equally as important, so he was asking for a favor beforehand, telling it not to get mad and to follow along during the shoot.

“I think this one likes you now, Mr. Maru.”

“I was a little worried when I first met it, but now I’m relieved. It allows me to touch it.”

“Dogs with injuries don’t easily let others approach them, but it opened up its heart after you approached it with your heart for the past few days.”

“I have a dog similar to this one at home. It was one that used to be in a dog fighting arena, and at first, he was really wary of me. Only after a while did he realize that I wouldn’t hurt him and would treat him well.”

“Dogs are just as sensitive as people. Sometimes, they are even more delicate and will feel multiple things from simple hand gestures. When I see people who just think that dogs like to get touched, it makes me stifled.”

“It’s easy to think about it if you think about whether all people like their heads being patted.”

Maru used his finger to scratch the dog’s neck and waist. When he did, the dog would twist around from time to time, as though to tell him that it wanted to be scratched there more.

“Looks like you’re shooting with this one.”

Maru raised his head. Kang GIwoo was looking down with a heat pack in his hand.

“It’s good-looking.”

“A handsome dog for sure.”

“This place is pretty moody. I heard that the background is a dogfighting arena, huh?”

Maru nodded instead of replying. The Pit Bull, who was enjoying Maru’s scratches, raised its head and stiffly stared at Giwoo. Its nose twitched as though it was trying to remember the smell of the man who brought with him the chill. Giwoo, who was looking straight at the dog, made a smile and reached his hand out, his fingers pointing straight at the eyes of the dog.

Ruff — the Pit Bull reflexively jolted back and barked. Giwoo’s smiling face crumbled as though he was startled by the sudden bark, stepping back a few times. Maru put his hand under the dog’s neck and pulled the dog towards him as though to hug it. The dog’s taut back leg had already finished getting ready to jump at Giwoo. There would be an accident if he did not hold it back.

“It’s okay,” he said as he softly rubbed the dog’s chest area. The manager also came over and blocked the dog’s front. Seeing the familiar face, the dog seemed to have gotten relieved and relaxed.

“I should take it outside for a walk.”

The manager left with the Pit Bull. The staff, who also looked inside the dog shed at the barking sound, seemed to have realized that it was nothing much and returned to their work. Maru rubbed his fingertips. Although the dog had gotten ready to attack, its body was trembling. He could feel the fear from the dog that had chosen to attack in order to fight against the fear.

“You did that on purpose, didn’t you?” Kang Giwoo said after looking around a bit.

Maru dusted his hands and retorted,

“Did what?”

“You urged it to bite me, didn’t you?”

“Was that how you saw it? To my eyes, some idiot was poking his finger at the dog’s eyes like he was going to attack.”

“I’m not joking around.”

Giwoo creased his brows. Maru got up and stood right in front of him. His composure seemed to have been broken due to the sudden accident, and his eyes said a lot. Maru didn’t need the speech bubbles right now. Although he knew that Giwoo possessed hostility towards him, why was it that he was exploding out with it all of a sudden? Before throwing that question, he moved his hand towards Kang Giwoo’s eyes. Giwoo covered his face and flinched backwards so hard that it couldn’t be compared to when the dog tried to bite him.

“Now you see why the dog bared its teeth at you, right? Even you are so startled, so how startled must the dog have been?”

“What do you think you’re doing?”

“I’m kindly explaining to you that you should try being in the dog’s shoes. If you understand then just leave. Don’t stress out the dogs here.”

Maru could see Giwoo’s lips moving. Although there was no sound, he could definitely tell that it was a swear word. At this point, he felt curious. Just what happened in the one hour he was in the hotel room that made his gentleman mask break down completely and make him express his emotions without holding back?

“Got anything more to say?”

Giwoo looked like he would burst like an inflated balloon if he poked him just a little more. However, Kang Giwoo was no easy man. He took a deep breath before putting on a smile.

“Good luck with the shoot. I’ll be watching.”

Giwoo turned around while touching up his disheveled hair.

Chapter 967
Crank Up 8

‘Gukji’ looked at the dog that just rolled in. It literally ‘rolled’ inside. As dogfighting was also a form of business, the dogs would be pulled back if the fight looked like it was going to get bloody or if one side surrendered, but this time, an accident happened before they even got the chance to do anything. The dog that was tossed into the dog shed by the head manager kept gasping for air while sprawled on the ground.

“Have a look at it, and deal with it if it looks no good.”

The head manager left those words before leaving. Gukji sat down in front of the dog, crossed-legged. The dog, panting with difficulty with its tongue out on the ground, didn’t even flinch or move its eyes as though it didn’t have enough energy to stay on guard. It seemed to be wholeheartedly focusing on breathing. The blood that flowed out from the dog’s neck drenched the ground red. As the pool of blood became deeper, the lungs of the dog that quickly moved up and down started slowing down.

This was no good. Gukji stood up. He picked up the shovel, which rested against the wall. The puncture wound on the neck was one thing, but the dog was too old. Even left alone, it would’ve naturally met its death. It might last through the night while gasping for breath, but any signs of life would leave it by sunrise.

He looked down at the dog with the shovel in his hand. Maybe it had sensed what was about to happen. The sprawled dog pulled back its tongue and stood up after pulling together its shaky legs. It seemed to be saying with all of its body that it could still do more, that it was still not yet time to die.

Gukji tightened his grip on the shovel and raised it above his head. He could not hit the body. He had to strike right between the eyes, accurately and quickly so that he did not give the dog any chance to twist its body in surprise.

The sound wasn’t that loud. He could feel the dogs inside the cages perk their ears up and look over. Other than that one dog that had lost all interest in the world, every other dog was watching with wariness at the dog that was losing its life. Gukji loosened his arm and looked around at the dogs. The dogs all turned around when they met eyes with him. They seemed to be saying that they did not see anything.

He put on some cleaning gloves. Although he had lived for a long time inside the dog shed, he never once touched a dead one with his bare hands. Although he had no qualms touching a dog covered in blood and during the moments before death, once it died, he had a hard time touching it. He could only guess that he hated the ‘thing’ that did not budge despite being extremely hot.

He put the dog inside a plastic bag. The dead dog was heavier than normal. He left the dog shed with the shovel in his left hand and the plastic bag in the other. He moved along the mountain path covered in snow. The grave of the dogs wasn’t that far away.

Under the tree that had been snapped because of a lightning strike, Gukji put down the plastic bag and dug the ground. The shovel touched the frozen ground and created a loud noise. Clang, clang– he dug the ground while focusing like he was hammering a nail. Somewhere around here were five more dogs. If he was unlucky, he would strike a dog bone under the frozen ground. After digging enough to bury the plastic bag, sweat started forming on his head. Fortunately, he did not run into any dog bones while digging.

He pushed the plastic bag inside and looked down at the pit for a while. Whenever this moment came, he would involuntarily remember what happened in the past, whether he liked it or not.

What fun do you have in life? — this was a question that all six of the head managers before the current one asked him without fail. The second of them was a woman, and she would sometimes watch him bury the dog from the side. She sometimes watched when he struck the dog between the eyes with a shovel, or at times, a bat. When she saw that, she would always comment the same thing: so this is fun for you, huh?

He wiped his sweat with the back of his hand and filled the pit with the soil that he had dug up until the blue plastic bag was completely buried under the soil. When he returned to the dog shed, he saw Maehwa standing in front of the entrance.

“Where have you been?”

Gukji showed her the shovel. Maehwa nodded as though she understood. Maehwa reminded him of the second head manager. Whether it was her smile, the worry in her eyes as she grumbled, or her attempt to close the distance to him, she was similar to the second head manager.

“You’re sleeping in there even though it’s snowing this much?”

“Yes.”

“Isn’t it cold?”

“I don’t know.”

Perhaps because it was always cold, or because it was less cold than when he walked around in the snow barefooted when he was young, Gukji was rather numb to the cold. His body only signaled that it was cold when he found the dog similar to him completely dead. On such days, his sense of cold would reappear. This time too, he would probably feel the cold if ‘that dog’ died.

“The head manager told me to have a look at what you did to the dog.”

“I killed it and buried it.”

He showed her the shovel once again. The blood of the dog that splattered as its skull was smashed had stained the tip of the shovel, making it look like it was rusted. Maehwa’s eyes twitched and she stepped aside. Gukji walked inside the dog shed. He put the shovel against the wall and walked to the third cage from the right. It was a cage that would remain empty for a while until the head manager brought a new dog. Gukji pushed his body inside there. A faint sense of warmth welcomed him as though it was glad to have him here.

* * *

Maewha opened the door to the dog shed before frowning slightly. Gukji had crawled inside a cage where a dog should be. He lay down on the floor where dog excretions weren’t even cleaned. Maehwa watched while biting on her nails from the outside before eventually taking out her handkerchief. She sprayed some perfume onto the handkerchief before blocking her nose and mouth with it. She took a step inside, but the foul stench pierced through the handkerchief in an instant. It was a stench that had been created over years.

“You’re going to fall ill and die.”

Although it was wide for a dog, the cage was incredibly narrow for a person to stay inside. Gukji, who curled up his body and covered his face with his arm, looked very uncomfortable. She didn’t know why she was doing this in this place and wanted to leave as soon as possible because of the disgusting smell, but after seeing Gukji’s nose stuck to the floor where there must be a ton of bacteria, she couldn’t easily take that step out.

“You damn prick. You’re really going to die like that. No matter how uneducated you are, you must know what it feels like to be hurt. If you stay in a dirty place like that in this cold weather, even a healthy man would get pneumonia or the flu. Get up now.”

Gukji did not budge no matter how much she spoke. Maehwa felt like she was going to get angry. She wasn’t here to do charity work, so why was she even here? She could just ignore it and just turn around.

Her life fell into this shithole because of her nosiness. Had she not returned home worried about her mom who had returned after drinking, had she reported her dad who put his hand into her skirt, no, in the first place, if she could become someone who only cared about herself rather than others… She started feeling really bad. She felt like vomiting because of the smell.

Forget it, he could die for all I care — she turned around after taking the handkerchief off her mouth.

Just then,

“It’s cold.”

It was barely audible. However, those words also returned her feet, which had half-left the dog shed already, back inside.

“I told you to go inside and sleep if it’s cold.”

Maehwa tucked her handkerchief in her pocket.

* * *

Cheonho looked at Maehwa, who walked while supporting Gukji. He had told her many times not to approach him, yet… She was a rather unpredictable woman. She couldn’t be more proficient in ripping money off of married men, but she would be unable to pass by an elderly lady selling vegetables on the side of the street. At times like that, she would look like a rather innocent woman.

“Where are you going?”

“I can’t let him sleep inside there like that. The weather’s like this too.”

“I told you not to take care of that little fucker.”

Cheonho looked at Gukji, who looked drained of energy. He didn’t look this bad when he saw him in the morning, but he turned into an ICU patient in mere hours. Just as Maehwa said, it looked like they would have to take care of a corpse if they left him alone.

“When did this happen?”

“It happened so suddenly. He looked perfectly fine until just now, but he lay flat on the ground before getting to this state. Stop staring and come and help me. This guy’s heavier than he looks.”

“Why should I?”

“Are you really going to do this?”

“What’s it got to do with me whether that prick dies or not? Rather than that, I told you not to get involved with him. I mean, just look at him now. Look at his eyes. Are those eyes that are looking at someone who’s trying to help him? He’s not fucking human.”

“Are you going to deal with him if he dies? Also, the head manager told us to take care of him when he brought him here. What would he say if this guy died?”

Cheonho spat on the ground. As iffy as he felt, Maehwa was right. There was no ‘actual’ problem even if he died since he wouldn’t even be reported as dead, but if the head manager put the responsibility on him, it would be a pain to deal with. He didn’t want to get nagged at because of someone worse than a fly.

“I can just toss him in the room, right?”

“Why grumble when you’re going to do it anyway? I should take him to the room and wash him. This guy’s a lump of bacteria.”

“Don’t you have something like gloves? I don’t want to touch him like this.”

“Why don’t you have a look at me and say that again?”

Maehwa was lending Gukji her shoulder. The woman who hated dirty things had great endurance at a time like this. Cheonho took Gukji to the room with Maehwa. He tossed him below the bed after opening the door. Even though they had been in contact for very little, his outerwear smelled like rotten eggs. He felt like he wouldn’t be able to get the smell off even with washing, so he took it off and tossed it next to Gukji.

“I’ve done my job so you do the rest. I might as well slam the door shut and leave if someone says something to me because this guy died because he couldn’t take care of himself.”

“Bullshit, you aren’t daring enough to do that.”

Choenho raised his hand at Maehwa before putting it down. Getting into a fight with a woman was quite unsightly. Also, Maehwa’s foul language didn’t just come about a day or two ago. Before he left the room, he looked at Gukji, who had curled up. This was the first time he saw a guy he couldn’t get attached to. His intuition told him that this guy would cause big trouble once and that he should not get close to him.

“Don’t you spend too much time either. That fucker is a dangerous one.”

“There you go again. Are you so scared of someone who got sick because he couldn’t take care of himself?”

“Don’t regret it later and listen to my words, okay, missy?”

Cheonho turned around, his eyes twitching.

Chapter 968
Crank Up 8

“I think my expression isn’t that good.”

Gyungjin looked at himself on the monitor. Was there a way to display Cheonho’s emotions more expressively? The character would become immensely frosty against Gukji, but he wanted to show the contrast.

“Oppa, you look okay. I’m the one who looks strange,” said Yoojung, who was checking with him from the side.

She wished that ‘Maehwa’ would look a little more vulgar.

“You look passable. Don’t you think I’m the one who seems off in the scene?”

“Aren’t I the strange-looking one?”

They were each claiming that they were worse, which made him laugh. As they had been staying in the same place for a while, he felt close to Yoojung as though they were long-time friends. The same could be said for Maru. Once they were done with the shoot, they would go back to the hotel together, so they talked to each other longer. Whether they liked it or not, they were in an environment that pulled them closer.

“It just occurred to me, but we’re going to have to spend New Years together with the people here, right?” said Yoojung.

Gyungjin nodded without hesitation. It was probably going to be like that. When director Park first offered him this job, he added just one condition. It was to not accept any other appointments until the end of the shoot. This was an opportunity to participate in director Park’s film as a supporting cast, so what problem could there be? He wasn’t even that busy, so he could take half a year off if need be. Though, he didn’t know that he would have to stay here like this.

“It feels like we’re on a membership training[1], and yet it also feels like a prison.”

“If it goes well, it’ll feel like an MT, and if we start going down the bad route, it’ll become a prison. Hey, Maru. How were you in this scene?”

Maru, who was monitoring himself without a word, said that he was satisfied. Gyungjin sighed in relief. During the get-together, head manager Moon told them to be wary of director Park’s persistence, but now that they were actually at the shoot, there was a hidden element of danger. It was Han Maru.

Director Park only gave them the bigger frame and let the actors create the detail, just as he announced before the shoot. Between cuts, director Park would give out simple pointers, and the actors themselves would decide whether they should reshoot or go to the next cut. It was Maru who requested reshoots endlessly in that process. If he was just being needlessly greedy about acting and was wasting time, Gyungjin would’ve told him to stop it already, but Maru’s opinions were all plausible when he heard about them. If Han Maru found a scene acceptable, then director Park would also go to the next cut without a word.

“Let’s keep this one and do that once again, can we?”

“I don’t really mind. How about you, hyung?”

Gyungjin picked up the jacket he threw on the ground instead of replying. Just as Yoojung was feeling rather unsatisfied, he also wanted to try more. Like what Maru said, the cut was satisfactory enough that they could just move on to the next cut, but watching Maru’s acting made him feel greedy to take one more step.

At first, he thought he was being overly greedy. He thought that it was a step that looked like it was within reach, but was actually unreachable. However, the acting he did under director Park’s lead and alongside Maru definitely had something different from his usual performances. He didn’t just vaguely feel that he could do it, he could actually see the changes when he did. Every moment and every cut was better than the one before. Although it wasn’t always like that, they would more likely create a better picture if they exchanged opinions and did the shoot again.

When he did shoots at other places, those kinds of moments sometimes did come. It wasn’t arrogance. He would truly feel confident that he would be able to create a better picture if he tried just one more time. Here, however, that kind of feeling came very frequently. The thing that he couldn’t even glimpse a shadow of when he so longed for it, was infinitely merciful in the shoot for this film.

“Director, we’ll do that once again,” he said to director Park, who was watching them.

Director Park seemed to have predicted that answer as he started to point something out. He was very smooth and clear-cut about it.

“Although the basic of acting is to relax your strength, sometimes, there’s a need to tense up your shoulders. If that’s what you find lacking, Mr. Gyungjin, it shouldn’t be a bad thing to do it once again.”

The pointers he tossed in passing were of great help to Gyungjin. Director Park only gave suggestions, as though he meant to say that the decision was ultimately up to the actors, however, he was practically forcing them to do as he said because his advice was too good. That kind of forcefulness was always welcome.

They decided to restart the shoot from coming into the room. Maru, who stood in front of the entrance, loosened his entire body. He would just flop down on the ground if Gyungjin didn’t hold him upright, so he had to grab him tight. Roll the camera, sound speed, and then the slate.

“Cue.”

Director Park waved his hand. Gyungjin jumped into the character ‘Cheonho.’ He brought the smelly Gukji and tossed him onto the floor. When he did, Maehwa glared at him, as though to ask why he was being so rough.

“You should also just stop here and take your interest off of him. He’s someone who’ll definitely commit something bad. I’m telling you this because we’ve known each other for a while, so listen to me.”

He took off the jacket he was wearing and tossed it next to Gukji.

“Like hell this ill kid will do something like that. Why are you so scared?”

“Little missy. It’s been fifteen years since I’ve been getting into fights. Do you know what's most important if you want to use your fists to make a living? It’s to correctly determine if the guy in front of you is someone who will smack you with a fist or will stab you with a kitchen knife.”

“So, you’re saying this kid will swing a knife or something?”

“A knife will be the least of it.”

Although the lines were slightly changing, he felt considerably good. Director Park didn’t shout cut either. Gyungjin glared at Maru until the moment he left the room before opening the door and leaving. Inside, the two people continued their acting. Yoojung mumbled while looking at Maru sleeping like a dead log. She started showing why she said they should reshoot the scene. She continued her act while making use of the various props around her. She would wipe the floor with a wet rag, drag Maru over, and smile for a while before getting angry. In a cut that lasted less than 15 seconds, it displayed what kind of woman ‘Maehwa’ was. It was very cleanly organized.

Yoojung also left the angle. The only one left now was Maru, laying on the ground. He was placed in the center of the screen that the camera director was looking at. Although this cut did not contain any fancy techniques, the sheer stillness and the heavy atmosphere could be felt through the screen. It was a depth created by the camera director’s exceptional angling and Maru’s still acting of laying down like a patient.

Usually, the difficulty of acting would increase with the fewer changes there were in a scene and the longer it lasted, especially if the nature of the character had to be displayed in that process. Gyungjin tapped on his chin and looked at the Maru on the screen and the Maru laying on the floor. He became convinced about the reason why director Park was using Maru as the main cast after seeing this scene. Although he saw that Maru was good at acting from the very first shoot, he didn’t find anything special enough for him to be chosen as the lead character.

What could have shaken that director Park’s heart? It was probably that face. Director Park probably wanted that face, complex with all sorts of worries mixed amidst the tranquility. Someone without that face wouldn’t be able to become Gukji.

“Cut.”

Along with the cut sign, Maru jumped on his feet. He didn’t even take a breather and came over to have a look at the footage.

“It’s much better than before. I think the lines were better in this one too.”

“Looks like you’re all satisfied. But Mr. Gyungjin, if you keep throwing away the lines I wrote, I’ll feel disappointed.”

Director Park grinned. Gyungjin did not hide the corners of his lips twitching. It was the best kind of compliment possible. This was only possible because no one pointed out if someone changed the lines ad-lib. Director Park was the complete opposite of the rumors. Gyungjin couldn’t believe that director Park was mechanically precise and detailed, to the point that he would treat actors as props. It was clear that director Park’s ‘own’ pieces were very different from what he did for commercial movies.

He found Kang Giwoo among the staff members who were going over the equipment. Ever since he came down to Ulsan, he showed up at every shoot without fail. Just like his first impression, he was a very passionate fellow. He was also the textbook example of ‘goodness’, enthusiastic, kind, and not arrogant. However, Gyungjin also found out that there was something iffy about him. Although it happened only once, he saw Giwoo looking at Maru with a frosty gaze. Although it only happened for an instant, it was too striking and he couldn’t get it out of his memory. He didn’t know what that gaze entailed, but there was one thing he was sure about. It was that he would never look at a close friend like that.

“We’ll go to the next location.”

Gyungjin turned around. Anyone was bound to have a secret. He had no plans on digging deeper.

[1] It’s more like an outing, but I found no English alternatives. Even on wikipedia

Chapter 969
Crank Up 8

His molars ached. Suppressing his anger was incredibly difficult. If he had realized that holding back his rage would be so difficult, he would not have held back. He would’ve invaded that guy’s hotel room, smashed his head with the telephone, stuffed his mouth with the pillow, and strangled him. That would make him feel a lot better and would allow him to get some sleep.

“Let’s start again.”

Giwoo looked at Maru getting into position again after listening to director Park’s words. He clenched his teeth so hard whenever he saw that face. If he didn’t, he would’ve uttered all sorts of cuss words. That guy was despicable and sneaky. He wanted to bite that guy’s neck out along with the dog that he saw in the dog shed. Maru muttered to himself while leaning against the bed, as though recalling the past. How many deep conversations with Gaeul would he have had with that mouth of his? How far did he touch her with those hands of his? How much would those eyes of his have seen?

The photo he saw in the hotel room floated in front of his eyes. It had been five days already. Whether it was when he was eating or having a shower, that photo did not disappear from his vision like a sticker. It was so vivid that he felt like he would be able to paint it with his eyes closed. The photo that his investigator sent him contained a couple who were grabbing hands in front of an apartment. At first, he didn’t realize who they were. They were both wearing hoodies after all. In the next photo, he realized their identities, as well as how much detail modern cameras could capture. Those two walked into the same apartment building. From the photos sent to him at various hours, it wasn’t just a simple visit. They could practically be considered living together.

What hit him hard was when Kim Suyeon walked out of that apartment. Not only that, it was the three of them walking together. How many times would Han Maru have laughed at him from behind? How many times would that guy have looked down on him for having made guesses from the act that Kim Suyeon and he put on?

It was five days ago when he realized that extreme anger can result in a chill. He needed to find a way. A way to punish the two people for their crimes of spending sweet time together after making a fool out of someone. Just leaking it to the media was not enough. They were already living in one house. He could not be satisfied with just giving a blemish to a young actress. The wound he received was not on the same level as that. His love — the obsession that she mentioned — was not something that he could console with just that.

He watched Maru acting before turning around to look at director Park. He was looking at Maru with eyes that belonged to someone handling a precious item and yet his eyes were filled with glee. It wasn’t just the other actors. The staff was the same. Maru’s acting was captivating them. It was a truly detestable thing. Giwoo left the scene, pretending to pick up his phone. Being in the same place as that guy receiving respect was practically torture.

It was December 30th. He got an alarm notifying him that it was the birthday of a chaebol friend of his. As he had been in and out of his mind for the past few days because of the boiling rage, he didn’t even check the date properly. He sent a simple text message. Although he was told to attend the party, now was not the time for that. Getting drunk on alcohol and drugs was something he had to do after solving the problem.

He walked around the building while trekking on the snow that had yet to melt. He thought about dozens of ways to get revenge, but all of them seemed insignificant. He needed a method to make them shed tears of blood. It would be great if they regretted while recalling the past before throwing themselves into the Han river.

The sense of touch from his hand — the one grabbing his phone — because numb. It was because of the frosty winter wind. He blew warm air onto his frozen hand. Just then, he got a notification. Han Gaeul had uploaded a new post on Instagram. His eyes flipped. He was about to swipe away the message in anger, but he decided to check the photo. It was a photo where she was smiling with some snow in her hands. Her smile was as white as the snow. There was a small message as well, saying, ‘I’m attending an award ceremony tonight.’

The sense of displeasure pressing down on the back of his neck disappeared while he was looking at her smile. Giwoo swiped the screen up and down with his thumb and checked the photo. Then he raised his head. He could see his reflection in the window of a store that had closed down. He saw his own face with a pleasing smile.

He loosened the strength in his jaw that was clenching tightly. A sigh escaped his slightly open mouth. He realized something. Han Gaeul was his first, whether it was pushing him into the depths of hellfire or being able to disarm him in an instant. That was when the name Han Gaeul disappeared from his revenge scenario.

Giwoo wanted to see her in pain because of Giwoo himself, but not because of Han Maru. What would change even if he pushed them both off the cliff? They would grab each other’s hands and look at each other as they fell. He had to separate them. Everything had to come after that, whether it was to capture her, throw her away, or trample on her.

On his way down to Ulsan, his manager told him that there is no couple who does not fight. He looked back at the women he met until now. They did not fight him. They were docile, and sometimes even subservient. They might have sworn at him behind his back, but they never did something like going against his words or disagreeing with his opinions even once. Perhaps it was a natural outcome. That was the kind of woman he wanted, just like how he removed that girl who smiled all smug at him when he was crying over a broken pencil case.

With Han Gaeul, everything was new; it was a humiliating kind of new, a kind of new that made him want to take on the challenge. He did not want to give up on this symbolic meaning. He didn’t care about her purity. The man by her side at the end would be the winner. Memories would eventually disappear, and the real deal would be eternal.

He confirmed where he should be pointing his arrow of rage at. He removed Han Gaeul from his crosshair. Thinking back, there was no way she could’ve done something like deceiving him with that reckless personality of hers. It was obvious that she must’ve been under someone’s orders, and there was only one possible culprit. It was most definitely true that the two were in love right now. But was love eternal and undying? What was more volatile than love? With the right conditions, Han Gaeul’s love would also meet a turning point. If ‘Kang Giwoo’ was that turning point, it would be perfect.

He felt like his head had cleared. It was a simple situation where he had to remove just one thing. Moreover, the situation was quite decent as well. He had not approached Han Gaeul for a while now. He intentionally showed her that his interest in her had dropped. Even if something bad happened to Han Maru, it was not likely that he would buy her suspicion.

“That’s not right.”

He needed some more time. From Han Maru’s attitude, it was clear that he had not completely put aside the possibility. There was a need to put in some effort if he wanted to deceive the smart scammer. How about setting up the same trap that he created before? Giwoo quickly went through the list of women he knew in his mind. He thought of a few women who had very low self-confidence, were extremely obedient, and were highly reliant. Women who were pure and innocent enough to accept breaking up with just a word from him.

He quickly contacted them. Two of the three gave him a reply in less than 10 seconds. The other one soon sent him a reply as well. They were women who led him to the bed when he whispered love into their ears as a joke. They were tight-lipped and didn’t cause any trouble until now either. Though, there was also the fact that they were keeping each other’s secrets since they all had pretty high statuses.

They, who had grown up with a silver spoon in their mouths and grew up while seeing only the good things, were very far from the ‘arrogant and immature children of chaebols’ image. In fact, they were raised under strict patriarchy and education, making them very passive and innocent. It would be different for women who had jumped into the frontlines of business, but the ones who grew up under the protection of their households all had clear and innocent eyes like a newborn calf. In other words, they were perfect to use as hunting dogs which could be thrown away later. He called one of them.

“Yoonseon, it’s been a long time.”

* * *

The clear skies seemed to become darker until they soon started spewing snow. The shoot that began at 4 in the afternoon had to come to a close at 9.

“The weather wants us to rest, so we should. Get some good rest and see you again tomorrow,” director Park said as he looked at the sky.

Only head manager Moon, who was next to him, rolled his feet while worrying about the budget. After taking a shower, Maru raised the TV volume. Today was the 30th of December, meaning that the end-of-year awards for RBS was being held today. Celebrities on the red carpet appeared before the ceremony officially started. There were actors who wore creative clothing and some who wore formal attire.

-Please open the door.

It was a text from Yoojung. Maru opened the door. Gyungjin and Yoojung were standing outside holding plastic bags with the convenience store logo on them. He smiled in welcome, but his eyes scanned Kang Giwoo, who stood behind the two. He had predicted this somewhat. In fact, it was a good thing. It was much better to have him nearby where he could see him.

“Why did you buy so much?”

“At most, it’s some nuts, low-calorie fruits, and some beer, and low-calorie ones at that. Although we don’t need to watch out for our weights, we can’t be putting on weight between cuts,” Yoojung said, waving the plastic bag.

“I’m okay though since I don’t put on weight easily.”

As soon as he said those words, Yoojung gave him a slap. Maru rubbed his arm and looked at Giwoo who followed them in.

“It feels like it has been a really long time since I drank with you.”

“It really does.”

Giwoo picked up a beer can with a smile.

Chapter 970
Crank Up 8

“I’ve been there once before,” Gyungjin said as he looked at the screen, which had the RBS logo on it.

“To get an award?”

“I wish. I didn’t sit with the actors. I sat behind them. I watched while sipping on some drinks in an awkward space between the actors and the audience. I turned my head whenever the camera installed next to me moved, wishing I could appear even in passing.”

Yoojung, who was listening, said that Gyungjin looked terrible no matter the angle, as she crushed the empty can in her hand.

“Giwoo, you’ve sat there before, right?”

Maru opened his ears while his eyes were fixed on the screen. Gaeul briefly appeared on the camera that scanned the entire hall. She was wearing a navy-colored off-shoulder dress. It was the dress that she sent him a photo of, saying that she was going to wear it to the ceremony.

“I went there two years ago when I received the new actor award. I was so nervous back then.”

“Didn’t you receive a new actor award at the Baeksang awards before that?”

“Yes. Many people looked at me in a good light, and I was fortunate enough to get one.”

“You got a new actor award for both film and drama, so now you just have to get the lead actor award and the grand prize?”

“I’m still far from that. There are many seniors who are more amazing than me.”

“That means you will receive it someday, huh? When you say that it’s still far away.”

“I do long for it.”

Yoojung smiled and cheered for him, seemingly having taken a liking to Giwoo, who was not too arrogant. She said that he would definitely be able to get it if he gained more experience. The flow of the conversation was centered around Kang Giwoo. Maru only chimed in from time to time and didn’t actively participate in the conversation. He had no words to speak to get close to them, and as for getting information, he was getting enough already just by listening to what was being said. The two people should have realized over the past few days that he and Giwoo weren’t actually that close. If Giwoo was just returning to the hotel after participating in the shoot, Maru would’ve played along, but as Giwoo’s stay became longer, Maru changed his attitude. He was sure that the two people did not talk to him that often because they had already realized what was happening.

“I’ll be leaving for a bit.”

Giwoo left with his phone. When the door closed, Yoojung spoke,

“We were going to come by ourselves, but we ran into Giwoo. Are you perhaps uncomfortable?”

“What’s there to be uncomfortable about? You don’t need to worry about me.”

“Then hey, why did you say you were close friends with Giwoo when he first came here? If I look back at it now, I was right about you two.”

“I meant to say that it would be great if we were close. But you know, you come across those kinds of people in life, where you can be moderately close to that person, but you hesitate to talk about everything to them. For me, I think this much distance between Giwoo and me is just adequate.”

Yoojung placed an unopened beer can against her cheek. She seemed to like the chilling sensation under the heater.

“I’ve been watching, and I think Giwoo’s not being nice to you either, Maru. It might be just me, but I felt like Giwoo was glaring at you from time to time.”

“That’s probably not just you.”

Gyungjin chimed in. He pulled out a dried squid leg in his mouth and talked about what happened before. He apparently had a chance to look at Kang Giwoo during the shoot and saw that he was looking at Maru with a frosty gaze.

“Then I wasn’t mistaken huh? Why’s that? Did something happen between you and Giwoo?”

“What could there be between him and me? He must be disappointed since I kept putting distance between us when he was trying to act nice. He’s a sociable guy after all.”

He adequately defended Giwoo. Explaining to them that Giwoo was someone who raised a salmosa inside him was no different from telling them that he wanted to cut ties with them. After all, while he showed an unfamiliar side of himself, Kang Giwoo was still a gentleman on the outside.

Having become an adult, Kang Giwoo did not trample on people just for fun, so there wouldn’t be a problem even if the two of them got close to him. Above all, his target should be Maru, not anyone else.

“To my eyes, it was clearly beyond normal.”

“You said it was a rivalry when you first saw them though.”

“Back then, I didn’t see it properly. No matter how hard I think about it, his eyes aren’t normal. I might not be good at anything else, but I’m extremely good at finding out what people are doing behind other people’s backs. People I know can testify to this,” Gyungjin said, stroking his chin like a protagonist of an old detective movie.

While listening to the two, Maru became concerned about one thing. Kang Giwoo only failed to control his emotions in front of Han Gaeul and never revealed them to anyone else. It was definitely weird that he was being suspected by these two people in just five days. Maru was convinced that there was definitely an event that made him unable to control his expression. Five days ago, when Giwoo first came to Ulsan, something must’ve happened. What could it be? What could possibly break that smile on his face?

“I don’t usually say this, but can’t you tell me honestly? Something happened between you two, right?” Yoojung asked, her face looking like she could no longer hold back her curiosity.

Gyungjin, who held her back, saying that she shouldn’t ask stuff like that, also looked like he wanted Maru to talk about it, despite what he said. Revealing the secret was easy. The problem was what would come afterwards. Even if he exposed Giwoo’s true nature to these two, it was unlikely that these two would accept that. Things would be complex, and Giwoo, who would immediately realize the change in atmosphere, would definitely try to find out. There was no need to do something like that.

“We have to know each other for there to be something between us, don’t you think?”

The two of them became quiet, as though Maru sounded pretty reasonable. The award ceremony was also just starting, which was a perfect opportunity to change the topic. Maru turned around to look at the screen.

“I really like senior Choi Hojeong’s acting.”

Maru mentioned the actor who came up to the platform to emcee.

“That hyung-nim’s acting definitely is remarkable. Not only that, he looks after minor actors like me. One time, the food truck didn’t arrive in time, so all the actors and staff almost ended up having to eat at the convenience store, but he took out his credit card on the spot. I fell for him then and there. If I was a girl, I would’ve definitely hit on him.”

When Gyungjin finished speaking, Yoojung followed up,

“Senior Choi’s generosity is pretty well-known. He’s someone who went to the drama industry from the theaters, going through the film industry in the process. That’s why he sometimes visits Daehak-ro. Some members of our troupe know him, so he sometimes comes to watch, and his presence is no joke when he sits down in the audience seats. Whenever he comes to watch, we’ll go up to the stage totally tense, otherwise, we end up making a mistake. He’s not someone who would scold us for making a mistake, but we do want to look good in front of him.”

Both of them seemed to have erased Kang Giwoo from their heads. Whether they were consciously avoiding talking about it or lost interest, Maru did not know, but he was satisfied with just not talking about him. At the beginning of the ceremony, awards that depended on popularity votes were given out, such as the star award, the best couple award, the best dress award, and the like. When it was time to give the child actor award, Kim Suyeon came up, wearing a black dress.

“My beloved Suyeon~,” Gyungjin said in a small voice.

Yoojung put a snack in his mouth, telling him to wake up. Suyeon, who stood on stage, mentioned the heavy atmosphere at the ceremony and said that they should laugh a little. The camera started showing actors who were pretty old in age. As they were all giants in the industry, they did not act awkward at all and laughed like little kids. Thanks to that, the atmosphere seemed to have become a lot softer. Suyeon opened the envelope and called out the name written on the paper inside. It was Kim Bitna.

“I knew it. No matter how good the viewing rates are at the beginning of the year, they simply can’t win against dramas that did well at the end of the year. It looks like Doctor’s Office will swipe all the awards starting from the child actor award.”

It was just as Gyungjin said. There were many awards given out, and the majority of them were actors from Doctor’s Office. It was a drama that was so successful that there was even a paid vacation, so it was a predictable result.

“But hey, what’s Giwoo doing and not coming back?”

“I don’t know.”

“Seeing as how he left with his phone, he must be calling someone. For example, his girlfriend.”

Gyungjin pointed at the TV with his chin.

“But wouldn’t Giwoo receive an award too? He came all the way here to the shoot and missed out on the event.”

“He doesn’t even have a shoot, can’t he just go there?”

Yoojung also looked perplexed. If he was busy, then sure, but he didn’t have anything to do here at the moment, so it was rather puzzling that he missed the award ceremony. When a congratulatory performance ended and the award ceremony was about halfway through the second half, Giwoo returned to the room. From the cold air coming off of him, it seemed that he was outside.

“Why are you so late? Do you have a hidden girlfriend or something?” Gyungjin said with a sneaky smile.

Giwoo’s reply, though, erased the smile off his face.

“Yes. The call was longer than I expected.”

“What the, you actually came back from calling your girlfriend?”

Giwoo smiled and nodded. Maru turned around to have a look at Giwoo’s face. He was blatantly revealing everything. It was so obviously intentional that it actually couldn’t be considered intentional. Perhaps it was not info that he shouldn’t secretly leak out? While Giwoo did show some openings for the past few days, his meticulousness shouldn’t have disappeared.

Gyungjin and Yoojung showed interest. A popular actor blatantly revealed that he had a lover. It would be strange if they didn’t find it interesting.

“From how you’re telling us about it, you’re not going to keep it a secret from us, huh?”

“I believe in the people here. I don’t really plan to hide it either. Though, of course, I do not want it to be exposed to the media.”

“Can I ask who it is? Is she a celebrity just like you?”

Yoojung, who was on the bed, walked over to Giwoo on her knees. This time, Maru also looked at him and paid attention. He had to see what schemes this guy was up to. Just as Giwoo was about to speak, a name popped out from the TV.

-The best actress award of 2011 goes to… Miss Han Gaeul from Doctor’s Office. Congratulations.

Just then; just when Han Gaeul’s name flowed out of the speakers; just when Han Gaeul’s smile was shown on the TV, Maru saw. He saw the tips of Kang Giwoo’s lips soften up for a brief moment before returning to normal. Maru looked down slightly. He could feel Giwoo staring at him, but he did not mind.

Just that subconscious change in expression convinced Maru. This guy had not changed at all nor had he given up.

“My girlfriend, huh,” Giwoo said.

To Maru’s ears, it sounded like an awkward excuse at best.

Chapter 971
Crank Up 8

This was unexpected. Although she was on the list of nominees for the best actress award, she believed that she had no chance of actually getting it. She thought that she would only be able to get it after another couple of drama series since she already got the new actor award through Flaming Lady not too long ago.

Gaeul stood up while looking at her fellow actors who applauded her. She was taken aback. The stage was just a few steps away, but it felt really far away. After she walked in a daze, she found herself standing in front of the microphone. She couldn’t see the audience because of the intense lighting. However, she could faintly make out the banners from her fans cheering for her. She always thought that she would be rather calm when she stood up on the stage for an award. After all, it was like that when she received her new actress award.

“Uhm.”

She had to close her mouth as soon as she spoke. Her throat tightened in on itself, and she couldn’t speak. She felt like she was shooting an intense crying scene. She felt like tears would roll off her eyes if she relaxed just a little bit.

Calm down, it’s supposed to be a happy moment.

She heard a big round of applause. The cheers from her fans became louder. The emcee smiled and said that she needed more encouragement.

Gaeul tapped her lips with her palm. Whenever she caused NGs, she would tap her lips like this to get herself back together. The jolt of pain calmed her down.

No need to hurry, there’s plenty of time.

She could feel that the venue had quietened down. Her body had also gotten ready to speak.

“First of all, thank you for letting me receive this prize.”

She wet her lips before continuing,

“I never thought I’d receive it even in my dreams, so I’m still rather taken aback. But now that the trophy’s in my hands, it really feels real now. I’ve always wanted this award, and I’ve always desired it. It was my dream to receive an award in front of people ever since I started dreaming of becoming an actress. When I received the new actress award, I thought I achieved that dream, but hey, right now, I’m feeling just how big greed can get. Now I got this one, I want the one above it.”

The table where the actors for Doctor’s Office were sitting burst out into laughter. Senior Choi, who always welcomed her like her own father at the shoot, senior Park, who always encouraged everyone around him with his witty jokes when everyone was tired from overnight shoots, senior Yoo, who, despite being scary, always showed her the path an actor must walk, and finally, Yoohyuk, a colleague who always told her to hang in there, even though it must have been tough for him. She decided to ignore Lee Miyoon, who was smiling for some unknown reason.

“I thought I wouldn’t be shaking or crying if I received an award, but I’m barely holding myself back right now, even though I couldn’t get myself to cry no matter how hard I tried when I was acting.”

Gaeul raised her hand to wipe her eyes with the back of her hand. She found it funny that she was worried about the makeup being ruined even at that instant. She continued speaking with an ease of mind,

“I have a lot to say, but now that I’m here, I can’t get them out of my mouth. First of all, thank you to all the viewers at home who supported Doctor’s Office, and I want to say I love you to my mother, who might be working at home, or watching this right now. I want to say thanks to the director and the staff, who had been working hard for months, as well as my senior and junior actors, who I respect. Thanks to you all, I managed to get awarded this important prize.”

She took a step back and took a bow. She was just about to walk down while clutching her shaking heart, but then the microphone entered her eyes. She recalled that she had not said something. She hurriedly put her head in front of the microphone.

“Can I say one more thing?”

“You can say two or three more things. I’ve just been told that we have leftover time. Oh, in fact, they want you to drag for time as much as possible.”

Gaeul thanked the senior actor in charge of emceeing and cleared her throat. The shaking that she had forgotten about came back to her. Would he be watching? She hoped he was watching.

“Dad, if you’re watching from heaven, I became an actress who’s getting prizes. You should definitely boast about me to your friends up there since the little girl you took to Daehakro when she was little has gotten a prize. Also, I wish to say thank you to the precious friend of mine who always supports me.”

She had a hard time suppressing her impulse to change the ‘friend’ to ‘lover.’ If she didn’t think about the president’s face, who would be getting a flood of calls, or her mother, who would glare at her and nag her for getting Han Maru again, she would’ve been more than willing to do it.

She came down from the platform under people’s applause. She almost lost her strength and fell down on her way back, but thankfully, she managed to regain balance and sit down. As soon as she did, her fellow actors congratulated her. Some said that they knew she would win it, and some said that she was theirs (for their next work) and that others should get in line.

“I also got the prize at your age. Good times,” said Lee Miyoon.

The actors laughing on either side smiled awkwardly before turning around to look at the platform again. Gaeul placed the trophy on the table.

“You’re right. Good times.”

Lee Miyoon scoffed and turned around, as though she had no intentions of picking a fight on a day like this. Gaeul also stayed quiet. The award ceremony was short enough as it is with so many people to congratulate. There was no time to get into a quarrel.

“So who’s that friend of yours?” an actress, who also played a doctor, asked in a small voice, saying that he or she must be no small acquaintance if she went out of her way to mention that person.

“Who knows?”

“I want to ask you more about it, but I’ll hold back for today. If there’s a celebratory occasion in the future, then tell me about it first.”

“What celebratory occasion?”

“You know it. Don’t you dare say it’s a girl. It’s written all over your face.”

Gaeul rolled her tongue back in. Was it that obvious? She was so out of it and said what she said because Maru came to her mind, but it seemed that her expression gave it away.

“Would the journalists say something?”

“It’s not that obvious. It’s just a hunch that the people who have been watching you for a long time can get. But seeing you so nervous, you really do have a partner, huh.”

“I won’t sound believable even if I say no right now, right?”

“If you say it isn’t, then I’ll believe you for now. But introduce him to me later. As an elder sister, I’ll judge whether he’s suitable for you or not.”

The conversation ended with her tapping on Gaeul’s shoulders. Gaeul put her phone below the table. She quickly sent a text using her fingers and checked. She saw a few typos, but she sent it, instead of fixing it.

Only now was she released from the nervousness that filled her body. She arrested her back against the chair and loosened her strength from her knees. Did he see the text? Or was he in a shoot right now? Mijoo said that it was snowing outside, so perhaps the shoot would have ended in Ulsan, if it was snowing there as well.

Although the ceremony was in full swing, her mind had already started drifting towards Ulsan. Thinking about how she would meet Maru on New Year’s eve, in a place that Maru least expected to, made her look forward to it already. The phone in her hand vibrated. Gaeul pulled in her chin and looked down. She saw a text from Maru.

-Congratulations on the prize. You looked really nice in the dress. If I was with you, I would’ve cooked your favorite spicy fish stew, but I’m a little too far away. I’m done with the shoot and I’m resting. Call me when you have time later.

It seemed that it was snowing in Ulsan as well. Gaeul smiled and sent a reply.

-How was my speech?

The reply came soon.

-Old fashioned.

Her eyes twitched. Old fashioned, huh? She twitched her mouth and tapped on the screen. Just as she was about to press the send button, she got another text.

-I was joking. It was good. I was looking at you through the screen, but I could feel how truthful you were to the point that my nose felt a tingle. Anyway, who’s the friend you mentioned at the end?

-Do you really not know?

-I just wanted to hear it from the person herself. There are times when my guess can miss. I need to be sure about this.

-Of course it’s Mijoo who always helps me out.

-I knew it. I almost mistook it for me. That’s right, there’s no way it’s me.

Gaeul, who was holding back her laughter at the joking text, saw her face appear on the screen and quickly calmed down. When she smiled brightly towards the camera, she heard the cheers from the fans. After checking that the screen had switched to something else, she checked her phone.

-Thanks.

Those six letters made her nose tingle. A short encounter, a long time apart, and a new beginning for the two. She was sometimes happy, sometimes bored, and sometimes sad, and those feelings seemed to be contained in those six letters. She immediately wanted to go to Ulsan. She wanted to go see him. She wanted to go see him and tell him; she wanted to tell him that she was thankful too.

She wrote a long message with shaky fingers, but she eventually erased it. She didn’t want to say it through text. There were too many things that plain old text simply couldn’t convey. She wanted to be under that cold air, looking at his eyes, and feeling his breath when she whispered to him about it.

-See you after the shoot.

She put aside the words overflowing within her and sent a plain-sounding text. She kept wanting to stand up. When was the ceremony going to end? She wished for the grand prize to be announced quickly and for the ceremony to end so that she could go. She decided to leave the venue as fast as possible once people started applauding for the closure. There was no time to get changed. She would throw the trophy on the passenger seat, pull the dress up to her knees and step down on the gas pedal. She felt like the distant Ulsan was already in front of her eyes.

-Unni, you’re going to go right away, right?

It was a text from Mijoo. She had already told her beforehand that she would be going to Ulsan. She texted her back, asking her to take care of the aftermath. There wasn’t much to do since she already said that she would not be able to attend the afterparty.

Gaeul looked at the platform while gripping her phone. The grand prize was being awarded.

Chapter 972
Crank up 8

Han Gaeul’s cheeky smile was off-putting, but she could let that go for today. Miyoon thought back to the call she received right before the ceremony. Journalist Kim’s voice, as he conveyed to her that things were progressing successfully, sounded more excited than ever. It seemed like a man blinded by vengeance had regained his emotions after a long time. After consoling him, she ended the call. Was the target within reach? Miyoon once again consolidated her determination to prepare meticulously. The eruption of the scandal would deal YM a very significant blow. It wasn’t an issue that could root out the company as a whole, but it should change the names of a few important people. If she was swept up by the chaos, she would only become a scapegoat. She had to soar into the skies with wings known as the chairman while dealing with Hong Janghae who would try to drag her down with him. She needed to prepare meticulously if she didn’t want to get involved in gossip while also taking Hong Janghae’s vacant spot.

Her public ‘everyone’s mother’ image would display its effect in this commotion. Some media journals would say something about how she was the procuress, but her public image would prevent the rumors from expanding. The masses were infinitely generous when it came to what they were used to seeing after all. Even if there was some noise, it would at most be a drizzle as long as she managed to take care of herself well during that time. She quenched her thirst and looked at the platform with renewed comfort. She felt like the bright lights were shining down on her path ahead. Once everything returned… Miyoon looked at Gaeul who was looking below the table. Enjoy what might be your last award — there wasn’t long left until she would remove all that annoyed her.

* * *

He felt like a lump of lead appeared inside his head. Giwoo echoed Han Gaeul’s award speech in his mind. Not the beginning, but the end. The friend that supported her was undoubtedly this guy in front of him. As soon as he realized the secret signal between the two, his insides churned. The more he realized that Han Gaeul’s feelings were deep, the bigger his rage towards Han Maru became. It was just like how the reading light next to the bed kept bothering him. How refreshing would it be if only he could smash this guy on the back of the head with a metal reading light? Had Gyungjin and Yoojin been absent, he would have grabbed it and then thought about what he would do with it.

“It’s not easy to get the best actress award at that age,” Gyungjin said, seeing Han Gaeul who just flashed past the screen.

Giwoo felt like that was a compliment aimed at him. Han Gaeul was a decent woman after all. No, she wasn’t just decent. She was wasted on any other man. The place she should be sitting obediently had to be next to himself.

“It felt like she was talking about her boyfriend to me,” Yoojung said as she grabbed the canned beer.

She said that the one that Han Gaeul mentioned at the end might be her boyfriend.

“Sounds about right. She’s at that age after all. What would it feel like to date Han Gaeul? I wouldn’t be able to hold back if that pretty face was right in front of my eyes. My heart is pretty sensitive, so it can’t endure excessive shock. In that sense, you’re quite a relief. Forget making my heart race, you put my heart at ease as though I’m meditating.”

Gyungjin pointed at Yoojung’s face. Yoojung scoffed.

“Right back at you. Not only that, you know you look totally ugly because you’re next to Giwoo right now, right? You even smell, so can you please sit away from me?”

Giwoo looked at Yoojung who pulled him in. She was a vulgar woman. Borrowing the strength of alcohol, she was uttering whatever she wanted to. Han Gaeul was not like this. Even when she emphasized her words, she did not lose her elegance. He recalled how she said not to bother her while snapping his wrist. How beautiful would the tears shed by a strong woman be? Giwoo wanted to look at that very scene. He wanted to hold her hand and pull her up as she broke down.

“There you go again. At this point, are you sure you two don’t have any feelings for each other?” Maru said with a smile.

That guy… that guy was the one he had to remove. He had to make it so that that guy broke up with Han Gaeul for real, not as an act. To do that, there was a need to lower that guy’s wariness. While becoming friends with him was out of the question, it would only make his work a lot easier if that guy did not bother him.

“Giwoo’s in a relationship too. I’m envious. I also want to meet a good person soon.”

Gyungjin brought up the topic that they almost forgot about due to the award ceremony. For the first time, Giwoo felt appreciative of this man. He took the opportunity to turn his phone on and show a photo.

“Is this that girlfriend of yours you were talking about?” Yoojung asked as she looked at the screen.

“Yes. We’ve known each other for a long time, and I confessed recently. I thought we were just friends, but I found out that my feelings have changed. She also had feelings towards me, but she said she couldn’t confess, afraid that she might ruin our friendship.”

Giwoo looked at Yoon Seonah, the girl in the photo. Seonah was a quiet girl. Even during intercourse, she would not open her small lips. She didn’t have a lot of friends either, meaning that there was little room to get found out. He only called her and said that they should start over, and she burst out crying while thanking him. She was a suitable woman to show that he had no attachments to Han Gaeul.

Just then, he got a call. It was a call that he had instructed her to make beforehand. As for her number, he saved it as ‘My everything.’ Gyungjin and Yoojung, who were looking at the screen, quietly whistled. Giwoo picked up the call, mindful of Maru’s gaze. He had an ordinary conversation with her for about ten minutes. He also did not forget to control his voice level so that it was barely audible. Everything was for the sake of making that guy, who was indifferently watching the TV, take note. It was to tell him that he had a new partner. He felt that it was crude and even childish, but there was no method more direct and clear than this. That guy was someone with a lot of suspicions. He had the qualities of a conman, who would not believe anything other than what he could see. Rather than vague words, Giwoo had to show him evidence so that he could dissolve the big pile of suspicion within him.

“So sweet,” Yoojung said as soon as he put the phone down.

As he had expected, the two people were chiming in from the side. Looking back, most people showed innocent reactions like Yoojung and Gyungjin. Perhaps God had given him a trial so that he could enjoy an otherwise boring life. A life without speed bumps was bound to get boring after all. It was a game with a determined victor anyway. No matter how hard that guy struggled, it would ultimately change nothing. The world determined those that would wear the crown upon their birth. That was just how society worked.

“I want to have a long relationship with her.”

“You saying that you’re even thinking about marriage?” Yoojung asked as she put the remote control in front of his mouth like a mic.

Giwoo smiled awkwardly and moved his mouth close to the remote.

“If possible.”

“If you do have a wedding, when do you want to do it?”

“I wish I can do it within a year if possible.”

“Really? Isn’t getting married in your mid-twenties a bit too early these days? Not only that, you’ll be tied up with various matters once you get married, and it’ll affect your work.”

“My acting career is important, but if I imagine the time I can spend with her, I think I can take the risk. She’s too good for me. She always stays by my side and listens to me, and it’s thanks to her that I can laugh like this. With her, I don’t feel anxious or fatigued. She’s like my refuge.”

“That’s quite cheesy. Gyungjin, I didn’t know Giwoo was like this.”

Gyungjin nodded. How would Han Maru be responding to this right now? While he acted like he had no interest, Giwoo was sure that he was listening. Perhaps he might be feeling relieved right now. Perhaps he was thinking that the one hitting on Han Gaeul had finally found a partner. It would be for the best if he was.

“So the grand prize goes to ‘Your Eyes,’ huh?”

“Your Eyes did pretty well at the beginning of the year. They can’t just favor Doctor’s Office.”

The award ceremony was nearing its end. The beer they bought was also running out. Yoojung and Gyungjin said that they should go back and rest for tomorrow. They put the trash into a plastic bag and put it inside the trash can.

“Maru, have a good rest. We’re leaving now.”

“Have a good rest.”

He stepped out, following Yoojung, before turning around. He looked at Maru, who was looking at the TV from in front of the bed. What could be on his mind? That guy never revealed what he was thinking, so it was hard to tell. It would be great if there was an effect.

“Got something to say to me?”

Maru turned his head slightly. Yoojung, who was holding the door open, closed the door after saying that they should meet tomorrow. Giwoo locked his hands together and asked in passing.

“How is it going with senior Suyeon recently?”

“Why do you ask?”

“It just came to my mind when I saw you.”

“I don’t think I have anything to tell you. Whether it goes well or not, it’s got nothing to do with you.”

“That’s true. I just asked, hoping that things would work out for you. You two do suit each other.”

“Hearing you say that makes me feel like it won’t go well.”

“Don’t be so twisted. I know that you hate me. We don’t have the best relationship, but there’s no need to be at each other’s throats, is there? We might have to see each other often in the future.”

“If it’s business, I’m always ready to face you with a bright smile. My personal life is a different matter.”

Maru gestured to the door with his chin, telling him that he should leave if he had nothing to say.

“Yes. You need to rest too.”

Giwoo still couldn’t tell anything. It was very exhausting to battle it out with that guy in wits. If Han Gaeul wasn’t involved, he would have erased that guy already. Just as he was about to leave, Han Maru spoke,

“Treat your new girlfriend well.”

“Don’t worry. I’m always gentle.”

Click — the door closed.

Chapter 973
Crank Up 8

It was rather blatant. Maru recalled what Giwoo did as he sat on his bed. He was practically telling him to watch. The guy who suddenly left for a long period of time to ‘make a phone call’ suddenly came back and revealed that he had a girlfriend before continuing the call inside so obviously. Kang Giwoo said that it was no problem because he trusted the people there. A robber with a knife saying “I won’t threaten you with this” might be more believable than that. The eyes that looked at Gaeul on the screen did not belong to a man who had gotten himself a new girlfriend. While Maru couldn’t see his heart, he was convinced that Kang Giwoo hadn’t given up yet; that in fact, his obsession had become a sort of paranoia and was burning intensely within him.

To classify, Kang Giwoo was ‘socially strong.’ Whether he wanted to or not, his environment would not let him stay ‘weak.’ Anything he wished to have would have entered his hands, leading him to believe that ‘anything he wished for can be his’, a proposition that no ordinary person could dream of. The proposition should have been consolidated within him through numerous repetitions. If he had not experienced this incident, he would never have doubted the ‘truth’ that he experienced for himself.

Maru switched the channel to a home shopping channel. He lowered the volume as much as possible. The whisper-like noise helped him focus. From how the meticulous guy was in a hurry to the point of showing openings, it seemed that he was desperate due to something. A few hypotheses flashed past Maru’s head. He picked the worst of them all: Kang Giwoo was aware of the circumstances. His mention of Kim Suyeon should also have been a way of probing him.

When he called Gaeul, she said that nothing had changed around her and that Kang Giwoo seemed to have become docile as though he had lost interest. He was successful if that was an attempt to remove the suspicion on him. He said those words himself after all. The reason his attitude suddenly took a drastic change recently was probably that he must have recently realized that Maru and Gaeul had not broken up. The time should be five days ago, when he just arrived in Ulsan.

It seemed that he was really urgent, from how he managed to smile in front of Maru, who he must despise to the bone at this point, and boast about his ‘girlfriend’ over a drink. Maru walked over to the window. He slowly walked along the wall and recalled Kang Giwoo’s actions. If he realized that he had been deceived five days ago, what would he have done first? He must have looked for a way to get revenge. That guy did not have great patience. Like a predator in front of prey, he knew how to wait for a little, but he was physiologically unable to set up traps and wait for the prey to get caught like a proficient hunter. If Kang Giwoo was truly that proficient, he would not have expressed anything during these five days and returned to Seoul after participating in the shoot quietly. If that happened, Maru would also have dropped his suspicion. However, he was unable to stay calm. He ultimately reached a hand out to the prey lingering in front of him.

Why did he keep appealing that he had stopped taking interest in Han Gaeul? It must be a precursor to something. Just like according to Heinrich’s Law, the visible, small incidents were signs of a bigger impending event. Maru tapped on the wall in front of the bathroom with his index finger. Giwoo must have devised his plans. He had a reason to make a move. Since he had a reason to move, it meant that he could not overcome his urgency. Attempting to form a sense of distance so suddenly was for the sake of an alibi no matter how much he thought about it. A scheme to prove that he was unrelated to anything even if something did happen.

Maru looked into the bathroom mirror. If a thief who stole a pin would one day become a thief that steals an ox[1], what would become of a man who breaks people’s fingers for fun? He recalled Hong Janghae. That man was someone who could hold people in captivity and use violence without hesitation. And such a man was under the wings and took orders from YM’s chairman, who was Kang Giwoo’s bloodline. This meant that their relationship was like a retainer for a rich household and the heir to that household before they were president and actor in the same agency. If Kang Giwoo asks Hong Janghae for a ‘favor,’ how likely would it be for Hong Janghae to listen to that?

He felt chills on the back of his neck. When he tied the two people into this, he got a clear answer. It also explained Giwoo trying to form a distance. Maru had experienced numerous times throughout his life how dangerous the thought, ‘there’s no way he would go that far, is there?’ could be. Blind faith like that could kill.

It might be just a delusion on his part. He might be overreacting to this. Despite that, he had to put up countermeasures. Once something happened, he wouldn’t even have any time for regret. Just because his life was set to never go past the age of forty-five didn’t mean that his life up till then would be a smooth sail. Death from traffic accidents, overwork, disease… The masked man said that he never chose to commit suicide, but before that man took consciousness, a Han Maru somewhere might have chosen to commit suicide. Of course, the possibility of homicide couldn’t be ruled out either.

If attempted murder was too extreme, assault was definitely worth considering. He could easily create a scenario as well. A man proclaiming to be Han Gaeul’s extreme fan would attack him. Even if that man was caught by the police, they wouldn’t be able to do anything, and if he doesn’t get caught, it would still instill fear. Without three or four people assaulting him at once, if he wasn’t lynched in an alley somewhere, he had confidence in fighting. If Giwoo tried to solve it through violence, Maru could put up a counterattack. It would be great if it ended with that.

He washed his face with some cold water. In truth, he was most worried about Gaeul receiving harm. After all, while Gaeul’s slaps were strong, she wasn’t strong enough to win against an adult man. Perhaps that guy already had someone tag Gaeul. Considering the circumstances, it was more plausible to think that there was someone giving him information. Maru called Gaeul. The one you have called is currently unavailable and… — the girl who had her phone turned on even during the ceremony had her phone turned off for some reason. He felt uneasy and called Mijoo.

-Gaeul-unni? I took her home. She looked really tired. By now, she should have fallen asleep. Her phone? She used up her power bank as well, so it should have lost power by now. She doesn’t have any schedule, so she might not have turned it back on. Why do you ask?

Maru hung up, telling her that it was nothing much. He felt relieved when he heard that Mijoo checked on her. Thinking about it, there wasn’t anything that Giwoo could do immediately. No matter how impatient that guy was, he wasn’t foolish enough to make a move while knowing that it would put him in danger.

If he was cooking up a scheme behind Maru’s back, it would be much easier to strike him first. He thought that he should try shaking him up a little. Maru would be able to delay the impending series of events just by giving him a sense of warning. He left the room and ended up standing in front of that guy’s room before knocking on the door lightly. He knocked again because there was no response.

“Who?”

His face underwent a series of changes. He was unable to hide his momentary puzzlement before he put on a smile. It seemed that he did not expect Maru to make a visit immediately.

“What is it?”

“I thought about it carefully. As you said, we might not be close, but we shouldn’t be at each other’s throats. I thought about what we didn’t have enough of and about what ultimately got us into such a volatile relationship, and I concluded that we didn’t have enough conversations. Since it’s not too late, I thought we should have a talk.”

It was midnight, still too early to sleep. Maru quickly looked inside the room through the slightly open door. The duvet was strewn across the floor. He also saw the remote control with the battery cover removed. Sticky notes were sprayed across the floor as well like floor tiles. Seemingly having noticed his gaze, Giwoo hurriedly came out and closed the door.

“I was just practicing my new character.”

“Looks like that character’s emotions are quite intense.”

“A little. I like using my body in acting, so it’s quite messy inside.”

“Then should we go to the lounge? I saw that the bar is open until 4.”

“Right now?”

“The corridor isn’t the greatest place to have a talk. Or maybe that isn’t plausible because of your fans?”

After giving him a glance, Giwoo told him to wait before going inside. Maru leaned against the wall. Venting his anger as soon as he returned, huh? The messy room seemed to convey his heart. If he had devised a plan, he would not have responded like that. This might be a good opportunity. Talking while his head was in a mess might make him leak some important information against his will. This should be an opportunity to find out his true intentions and feelings.

Giwoo came back out wearing a jacket and a hat. He had good looks, so everyone would be able to tell that he was quite handsome, but it would be hard to match him with Kang Giwoo. They did not utter a word as they took the elevator together to go to the bar. Maru forced the uncomfortable silence on him. He should be feeling complex right now. After all, Maru visited so suddenly and said that they should have a talk.

“We can’t drink anything heavy because of the shoot.”

“Don’t you think a light cocktail will be okay?”

They ordered two glasses of a cocktail that wasn’t too high in alcohol content. They sat down on a sofa far away from the bar. Couples and families were enjoying the night at the hotel. Not long later, an employee approached them with two glasses. Maru spoke the moment the cocktail glasses touched the table,

“Gaeul’s dress was pretty.”

Grabbing the cocktail glass’ thin neck, Giwoo spoke,

“Yeah. It suited her.”

He responded quite adequately. While he was full of holes in front of his room, it seemed that he had calmed down considerably on their way down. As expected of the man who managed to draw a positive impression from everyone he worked with. The speed at which he put on his mask was incredibly quick.

“Are things going well with your girlfriend?”

“I never knew you had an interest in my girlfriend.”

“I am trying to start now. We need to get to know each other better to get closer, don’t you think?”

Giwoo’s fingers twitched as he held the glass. Maru quietly raised the glass.

[1] A Korean idiom which says that someone who commits a small bad deed would one day commit a big bad deed.

Chapter 974
Crank Up 8

“It’s twelve right now… So I should be there by 5?”

The estimated arrival time on the GPS navigation window was 4:40. She drank a sip of the lemon juice she bought in the convenience store. She also chewed on some gum. She had to drive for over five hours, so she had to brace herself. Right as she departed, she got a call from Mijoo saying that Maru was looking for her. Gaeul looked at her phone, which was turned off. She turned it off because she felt like she would be exposed for lying if she picked it up. What kind of expression would he make if he saw her? Her eyes gleamed in expectation.

* * *

He couldn’t read anything from this guy’s expression. Kang Giwoo drank a sip of the cocktail that the waiter served. When he saw Maru standing in front of his room, his thoughts came to a complete standstill for a moment. It was totally unexpected. Did he get caught? Or did this guy make a visit because of nervousness when he actually didn’t know anything? He wasn’t someone who would knock on his door without a reason. From how he came up with an absurd reason like ‘to get closer’, he seemed to want something.

“Can you show me a photo? I didn’t see it last time.”

Giwoo pulled up a photo on his phone. Maru looked at the screen and exclaimed in amazement.

“She’s pretty. How did you two meet?”

“We’ve known each other since we were young. We came across each other in a few meetings.”

“So you’ve known each other for a long time.”

“I said all this back in the room, but you didn’t hear it, huh?”

“I was too engrossed in the TV. I usually can’t focus on more than one thing at the same time.”

“There are people like that. They have great focus.”

It was a game of poker. It did not matter what card the opponent was holding. It was a battle of whether they could successfully bluff the other or not. Neither of them sat down here expecting credibility from the other. He had to discern the truth and the lies within the conversation, and then he had to induce this guy to say what he wanted while attacking and defending. Giwoo felt that this was a pretty unfair game. This guy had something to gain from him, but the opposite was not true. He already knew everything about this guy, whether it was the fact that the two of them were still dating or the fact that Kim Suyeon was colluding with them. This guy was probably going to be tenacious about this matter, whether Kang Giwoo had arrived at the truth or not.

“She’s different from the ones I’ve met until now.”

“In what aspect?”

“The things I couldn’t see because we were too close, entered my eyes when I changed my mind. The biggest difference between her and the other women I’ve met until now is that she truly understands me. Perhaps that was why I could never see her as a woman, and instead, only saw her as a friend of the same sex.”

“There’s no one as important as someone who understands you.”

“Exactly. Honestly, I pursued new things when I met women. I always dated women who had clear differences from the ones before. Some of them were picky, and some of them were docile.”

“So you met a lot, huh?”

“I’m telling you because it’s you. Since we’re doing what we’re doing, there are a lot of opportunities for us to meet. Of course, there are many actors who stay distant from the opposite sex, but I’m of the opinion that you should meet as many as possible.”

“And that’s how you realized? That this girl, who was close to you, cares so much about you?” Maru asked as he pointed at the phone.

He seemed to be attempting to find a discrepancy by prying into a hurriedly-created history scenario, but Giwoo wasn’t going to fall for it so easily. After he left Maru’s room and stayed under the cold wind, he had been thinking nonstop to create a detailed history.

“It’s not so much about care. It’s just that we both realized how relaxed we are around each other and how decent both of us are. Actually, she told me that she never thought about dating me either. We were extremely close friends, and ever since we were young, we’ve given each other consultations, and by consultations, most of it was about romance. Since it was like that, we both found out that we had very different views on romance, and thought that we’d never date each other, but you never know what can happen in life,” Giwoo said in a tired voice.

He had nothing to gain from Han Maru, but he had a lot to instill in him. It would be very difficult to fool this guy. At this point, he had to admit. This guy was more slippery than anything. That was why he had to proceed with this as slowly as possible, like getting someone drenched under a soft drizzle. He must be suspicious now because of how Giwoo visited his room, but with enough repeated action, he should be able to get the suspicion off.

“There are many times when you miss the good person right in front of you.”

Maru smiled. To a third person, it might look like two friends hanging out and chatting late at night over a drink. Giwoo also put on a smile. He was not going to give this guy any information.

For a while, they spent their time having meaningless conversations. Maru seemed to be aiming to make the mood softer and then take a sudden jab. Giwoo couldn’t let his guard down. He maintained tension inside and feigned luxury on the outside. Time was on his side. The reason this guy called him out so late at night must be because he must have sensed something. Han Maru would be the one getting urgent if they spent their time meaninglessly.

“Right. You know about it now, right? That I used to date Gaeul.”

Perhaps he had finally given up. He talked about Han Gaeul, who they briefly mentioned just as they sat down, but never mentioned ever since. Giwoo responded with an awkward smile.

“I found out by coincidence. If I think about it now, I can see why you reacted so sensitively. I would’ve done the same if the woman I was going out with was being hit on by a man. But it doesn’t matter now anymore, does it? You broke up.”

He put a piece of macadamia nut in his mouth. This guy was probably disappointed because of the lack of response. Giwoo leaned back against the sofa. He had no reason to be surprised regardless of what came out of this guy’s mouth. He knew everything. If he had to bluff, then he would have to tell the truth, but there was no way he would do that. It would be pretty fun to observe Han Maru being helpless over a drink.

“Right, we broke up now.”

“It’s such a pity. I personally thought that the two of you suited each other.”

“Really?”

“Your personalities are pretty compatible too. If I was more quick-witted, I would’ve created an occasion for you two.”

“I never knew you were so considerate.”

“I guess that’s why people say they need to get to know each other. The reason you misunderstand me is also because you don’t know me, and I might be in the same boat.”

The taste of the cocktail that entered his mouth was better than ever. He had brought the superiority of the conversation completely to his side. This guy stopped being indirect and started blatantly expressing what was on his mind. It was proof that the unease in his mind was growing. He was probably fuming inside because the person he called out to probe had zero response. It would be his victory the moment this guy’s poker face collapsed.

“You also had feelings for Gaeul, right?”

Giwoo pressed the ceiling of his mouth with his tongue. It was a question he was expecting, but now that he actually heard it, he felt his insides churning.

“So you haven’t heard because you broke up. I actually confessed to Gaeul.”

“Confessed?”

“Yeah. But if I look back at it now, I think I was a really bad guy. I was really awkward at expressing myself. I should’ve been gentler. I ended up getting misunderstood by her because I couldn’t express my feelings properly.”

“That’s such a pity. But, is it your hobby to get misunderstood by others?”

“I hold back when speaking, but sometimes, I’m just too honest. Maybe I lack sociability. I should have come up with white lies or been more flexible about the situation, but I just can’t seem to find myself doing that. It’s not good being always rigid.”

He chose words that should provoke Maru’s mind. He almost couldn’t hold himself back from the mockery he just heard, but it wasn’t unbearable. The unease he must be feeling should be the same.

“Gaeul’s pretty clear when it comes to saying what she likes and dislikes. She should’ve rejected it if she didn’t like it.”

“That’s true. That’s why I gave up too. She’s a good person, but we don’t suit each other. And now, I have someone I love more.”

“Really?”

Maru’s head tilted sideways. Giwoo clenched his hand under the table. It was that expression. That expression was the reason that topped all of the reasons he wanted to rip him apart.

“From what I heard, that wasn’t what happened.”

“From what you heard? What did you hear?”

“I heard about it from someone I know. When was it again? Apparently, you were totally done in by her while trying to forcefully hold her back. It was… back at the Doctor’s Office afterparty, right?”

His lips twitched. While he said ‘someone I know’, it had to be Han Gaeul. This guy was dead set on wanting to prove his superiority. It was such a weak provocation that Giwoo couldn’t help but laugh.

“It was a foolish mistake. I grabbed her hand without knowing because I wanted to talk to her. She wouldn’t hear me out even if I called out to her. It was entirely my fault. I shouldn’t have done that.”

After nodding, Maru took out his phone and apologized.

“It’s my manager. It seems like something just came up.”

“Is it something big?”

“Nah. It’s something simple.”

Maru put down his phone and grabbed the empty cocktail glass. It seemed that he was in a fix because he had gained nothing after trying to shake Giwoo. Giwoo thought that it was about time to get up. He had said everything he needed to. Whether this guy believed it or not didn’t matter. It was important to keep creating opportunities to deceive this guy. He would only go to the next stage once he was convinced that this guy had completely dropped his suspicion of him. As for what he could do, he was going to decide after going back to Seoul. Perhaps he should create a decisive event to pull Han Maru and Han Gaeul apart. If that was difficult, he would induce one side to give up on the other. He had many means to do that, whether it was wealth, violence, or manpower.

Just as he was about to say that they should go back and rest. Maru spoke as though saying something extremely trivial.

“Oh right. I forgot to tell you this. I’m actually still dating Gaeul.”

Chapter 975
Crank Up 8

His eyes were still, his chin was tense, his shoulders were loose, his fingers were relaxed as he grabbed the glass, and his legs were crossed in a leisurely manner. He was strangely unshaken. He was very leisurely and even made jokes. It didn’t look like he was thinking hard so that he could avoid this situation and instead wanted this to continue. While Kang Giwoo was humming along with the pop song in the lobby, Maru was convinced that this guy knew everything. Since his estimate had become a fact, he had to change his attitude.

How should he provoke him? A few questions went through his mind. If his aim was to just instill a sense of confusion in him, he would’ve chosen any random question. However, the situation called for him to not stop at just that. Maru had to shake him and make him lose his composure. Most importantly, he had to induce the guy to point the knife in the right direction: towards Han Maru, not Han Gaeul. There was one question that fit all of the criteria perfectly. It was more of a declaration than a question, but it was no different from a question since it would force his thought processes to a complete standstill and make him look for all sorts of answers, so it was practically a question.

Maru told the guy, who looked like he was standing up, that he was still dating Han Gaeul. After throwing that question, he looked at the guy’s face. He could not miss any minute changes, down to the shaking of his facial hair. If this still could not get any reaction from him, he would have to admit: he was being too delusional.

That guy’s eyes went up at first. His pupils were suddenly shaking like a small ship in the middle of the ocean. The chain reaction started from his back. His back had been hunched in a relaxed state but suddenly became taut. It was a signal. His calmness was breaking down all at once. It was probably just that shocking to him. After all, Maru wouldn’t have said this if he didn’t have the confidence that Kang Giwoo had seen through the lies.

“Dating, you say?”

“It came to me while we were talking. If we truly wanted to get close, there can’t be secrets. You seem surprised?”

Giwoo leaned forward, quite a difference from his laid-back posture while enjoying the conversation until now. The more intense his reaction was, the easier it became for Maru to say his next words. Giwoo was unable to continue speaking as though something unspeakable had happened. What he should be doing was smiling and asking about what happened and his relationship with Kim Suyeon, since it supposedly ‘has nothing to do with him,’ yet he completely froze on the spot. He knew the answer already, so he should have skipped the process of reacting naturally.

“Actually, I’ve been thinking a lot since I broke up with her.”

Maru started speaking. He did not want to give this guy any time to think. He had to strike before he gathered the messily scattered clues.

“You didn’t break up completely?”

“When we broke up, we thought it was over. As you said, we’ve known each other since high school, so we know each other too well. That became a mannerism of sorts and thus our relationship became quite monotone. Of course, it was mostly my fault. We haven’t changed at all, but I felt that we had changed.”

“So?”

“I realized not too long after we broke up just how important she is to me. But as a man, it goes against my pride to lower my head and apologize, right? That’s why I asked Suyeon-noona to create a situation that can stimulate Gaeul’s jealousy so I can apologize easily. If Gaeul had any feelings for me, I thought she would react in some way.”

He just added some details to an event that had already happened. Kang Giwoo was someone who saw him with Suyeon. If he just mentioned the main points, Giwoo himself would fill in the gaps in the logic.

“Actually, I made an appointment with Gaeul at that restaurant back then.”

“Wait.”

Giwoo waved his hand in the air messily and spoke,

“I thought that you broke up with Gaeul to hook up with senior Suyeon.”

“What the hell are you talking about? Who told you that?”

Giwoo became speechless. It was not a surprise. All the circumstantial evidence he had was at best, crude. Other than the fact that Han Maru and Han Gaeul were dating which Mijoo accidentally exposed, everything else he had was manipulated information and incomplete deductions. He couldn’t get an answer from the person in question, so it was natural for him to feel a discrepancy between the truth and the information he had. In the first place, if he knew everything perfectly, he wouldn’t be so startled by this act.

“You didn’t push her away first?”

“It’s not about who pushed the other. We just naturally became distant. It’s quite common, you know. We were doing perfectly well together, but suddenly, it just feels wrong. Then, our relationship just slowly deteriorated like sand being washed away from the shore. We contacted each other less, became distant, and by the time we graduated high school, we practically became friends. It was okay for a while. I even felt liberated. I was going to do various things and embrace my new life, but whenever I did, she just came to my mind. The time I spent with her came to me.”

Maru took his eyes off Giwoo and continued,

“But when I thought about it, it was all too childish. It felt wrong to use Suyeon-noona to probe Gaeul’s heart. And being caught by you was one of the reasons. After that, Gaeul and I just shared a quiet conversation. We asked how the other was doing and talked about whether it was the right decision to end it there. We talked for a long time, and we reached a conclusion.”

“That’s why you decided to start dating again?”

Maru nodded.

“Some things changed. First, we decided not to pay attention to each other so much. We realized that a suitable distance was important after we broke up. We also told each other what we found disappointing. We almost fought each other in that process, but after we said everything, we just laughed about it. It made me realize just how great words are. I thought we could get through to each other without words, but it wasn’t true. Rather than many conversations, what we needed was a truthful talk.”

“That’s great.”

He thought about whether he should mention the fact that he was living together with her or not, but he decided to hold back in the end. Giwoo most likely knew about it already, but there was no need to mention it first. After nodding for a while, Giwoo crossed his arms.

“It’s a little shocking. So you two were still dating when I approached Gaeul? And I made a fool out of myself without even knowing that?”

“I guess that’s how it turned out. Actually, Gaeul said that we should just reveal it, but I told her to wait. I never knew that you would be so serious. I feel like I unexpectedly did something sorry.”

He inserted words of provocation through his speech. He could feel the guy’s complexion pale.

“No. It’s a good thing instead. You two do suit each other.”

“Giwoo, you and that girl look like you suit each other too. She looks like a much better person than Gaeul in the photo. As you know, Gaeul has quite a temper.”

Giwoo made a dry smile. He probably thought that he was given a blow this time. He probably had a headache because Maru revealed information that was only worth something when hidden. He probably wanted to scream because of the agony. He might cause a mess again once he returns to his room. Though, it was already a mess from what he saw before they came down to the lounge.

Giwoo, who chattered without resting, started rubbing his thumb and index finger and fell silent. He looked like an artist who had fallen into thought. As for the piece he was working on, it might be titled ‘how to kill the guy in front of me.’ Maru could read rage from his calmly subdued eyes. It seemed that he couldn’t hold back at the fact that he had been given a big blow on top of being deceived until now. The more his rage became, the more relieved Maru felt. It would lessen the probability that he would harm Gaeul.

Whether it was fortunate or not, he had not given up on Gaeul yet. The possessive desire that leaked out from him was unpleasantly visible to Maru’s eyes. He was someone with a great possessive desire towards what he couldn’t have, so he probably shouldn’t easily try to destroy it. He would probably look for a way to remove the obstacles instead.

“Are we a little closer now?”

Maru stood up first. He had said everything he needed to. Any more conversation was worthless.

“It’s almost 1 a.m. We should go back and rest. We have a shoot early tomorrow.”

“Go back first. I’ll stay here for a little longer.”

Giwoo did not stand up. His eyes were fixed on the table as he waved his hand. Maru patted Giwoo on the shoulder before turning around. He walked across the lounge and stood in front of the elevator. He turned around to look at the guy, who was quite far from him now. Under the orange light, Giwoo locked his hands and placed them on his forehead as though he was praying.

“Amen.”

Maru pressed the elevator button.

Chapter 976
Crank Up 8

He opened the fridge and was about to take out a can of Red Bull before deciding not to. The empty can that poked out of the trash can caught his eye. If he drank any more, Red Bull might replace the blood in his blood vessels.

“Yes, please speak.”

Dongwook leaned against the fridge and picked up the call. It was 2 a.m. Lights would have been turned off even for overworking people, and it was time for people doing labor to be sleeping, but Dongwook’s work was not over. The same was true for the private investigator that he was calling. They were continuously exchanging information while tracking down the various suspects. The materials given to him by Park Okhwa and the information given to him by Lee Miyoon were becoming a sharp nail.

“Wait there and track the person down. Yes, I think we’re almost there. It might be a few days, or it might even be tomorrow. Let’s work just a little harder.”

He got a call from another private investigator as well. After a short conversation, he finished the call. He inputted the information he was getting in real-time and organized it. As he knew that his opponents were no small fry, he had to be on his edge. He took his hands off the keyboard and put a cigarette in his mouth. His brain was craving some caffeine. He desperately wanted to drink some Red Bull, but he made do with nicotine instead. He was rather ignorant when it came to health matters, yet even he ended up searching things about ‘problems related to overconsumption of energy drinks.’

He also only smoked about halfway before putting it out. The cloudy smoke rising into the air looked like a part of his soul. He could feel his body becoming exhausted. He was going to spend two months in Guam or Bali or someplace with good sunlight once he was done with this. He used the cold night air to get a hold of himself before realizing that it was New Year’s Eve. Today was the 31st of December, and it was going to be quite a busy night for him on the last day of the year.

He rubbed his eyes and looked at the photo on the wall. He put up a photo of YM’s chairman near the ceiling. Practices that stemmed from the chairman reached all sorts of places. They were all extremely evil deeds, but as long as these connections were solid, it would be hard to pin crimes on them. As such, he needed evidence solid enough that those connections wouldn’t have any effect; he needed evidence that would make an appeal an insult to the court itself.

The bell rang. Dongwook left the veranda open and walked to the door.

“The snow has finally calmed down.”

A man walked in, dusting his wet hair. A nail, no matter how sharp, would only become a toy in the hands of a child. The man in front of him was the person who would use the nail the right way.

“I’m sorry for calling you all the way here when you must be busy, lawyer Park.”

“It is me who insisted on coming, so you don’t have to be. Not only that, it was the request of a friend of mine too.”

Dongwook offered a seat to lawyer Park Sunggoo.

“Would you like a cup of warm coffee?”

“I won’t refuse that offer. It is a little too early to sleep too.”

Dongwook whipped up a coffee with a coffee stick and put it down in front of lawyer Park. He had gotten to know this person through the president, who told him that this person would be the one handling the problem. Although he knew that the two were close, he only recently found out that lawyer Park was a big shot. He willingly abandoned the route of becoming the head prosecutor of the Seoul branch, which was known to be the route to becoming the Prosecutor General, and instead became the head prosecutor of the high court, which was known to be practically an exile. Later, he became a lawyer for businesses. His name could be easily found on large cases related to foreign patents, and he was always at the head of the lawyer groups when chaebol families ran into problems. When he found all this out, Dongwook realized that not anyone could just become close friends with president Lee.

“How are things?”

“Things are going smoothly because there are two whistleblowers on the inside. The various flights, movement routes, and decisive photos we got from Japan shortened our work by a lot.”

“That’s good to hear.”

Lawyer Park emptied the coffee in one go and scanned the wall. He seemed to be looking at the faces of the culprits.

“What do you think is the most important when it comes to a brawl?” lawyer Park asked.

“Breaking your opponent’s nose.”

“You’re right. People don’t say that the first to strike will win for nothing. However, it is not a brawl we’re doing, instead, we’re fighting with the law, which can be infinitely hard for some but infinitely flexible for others. What do you think is the most important when you fight with the law?”

“I don’t know. While I’ve been working as a journalist, I’ve never had the chance to be close to the law.”

“It’s a target. A specific target. The most common mistake that a rookie prosecutor makes is to set the target of the lawsuit vaguely. We need to decide on a size that we can take down for sure. With that in mind, I’ll have to say this beforehand, but that person isn’t something you and I can take down no matter how hard we try.”

Lawyer Park’s finger was pointing at YM’s chairman. Dongwook smiled and nodded.

“It’s not a cataclysm I want. I don’t want social justice to be served or anything like that either. I’ll be satisfied as long as I can make some people realize that you shouldn’t touch people struggling to survive doing the right things.”

Dongwook pointed at Hong Janghae placed beneath YM’s chairman. He also pointed at Lee Miyoon as well.

“You’re quite firm.”

“Will it be hard?”

“What do you think? Do you think it’ll be hard?”

“Honestly, I don’t know. Preparations are going well, but I’m not sure if it’ll work or not. If it just ends as just an ‘occurrence’ then I don’t think I’ll be able to live in this country any longer.”

“It might end as just an occurrence. I know that better than anyone. This country is rotten down to the core. It’s so rotten that people like me receive money to hide those rotten parts. I earned quite a lot. Perhaps I’m no different from the ones you put up there.”

“But while you earn like a dog, you spend like a monk. I unintentionally found out that you are sponsoring an incurable disease foundation and even working as a free lawyer.”

“It’s self-consolation at best. It’s something like a self-suggestion, telling myself that I’ll be able to avoid hellfire only by doing good deeds.”

Lawyer Park stood up. He took off the photos of Hong Janghae and Lee Miyoon from the wall and placed them on the table.

“You’re quite lucky, journalist Kim.”

“What?”

“This is not something I should say to the lady who got caught up in the accident, but it is fortunate for her that you’re next to her. And for you, you’re fortunate that Lee Junmin’s next to you. It is nearly impossible for an ordinary person to oust a person under the protection of the chairman. Not only is it difficult to legally gather any evidence, even if you do, it’ll be hard to gather any prosecutors bold enough to attack YM. Even if some do, they might be pressured by their superiors to sink it down.”

Lawyer Park grabbed Hong Janghae’s photo before folding it in half. He pressed it down firmly along the crease before easily tearing it apart. Hong Janghae’s head was decapitated from the body and placed on the table.

“But it’s not impossible for me.”

Dongwook gulped. He suddenly felt that this man, who was nearing his sixties, was a giant. He felt just like president Lee.

“If we go for Hong Jangahe right away, things will become arduous and dragged out. You should always do your work the most efficient way.”

“Who are we striking if not him? Lee Miyoon?”

“A lizard’s tail isn’t cut off by the person that catches it. It’s cut off by the lizard itself. If we aim for Hong Janghae from the get-go, the lizard will try to struggle to live. It wasn’t caught yet, and it’s not in danger. That’s why we need to give him a tempting offer to cut it off himself so that we don’t have to go through bothersome matters.”

Hearing lawyer Park’s words, Dongwook looked at YM’s chairman’s face on the wall. Lawyer Park continued,

“It’s impossible to take him down, but we can go up to him. We just have to show him that we bite and we bite hard. In this industry, people prefer to deal with something before they get wounded.”

“Will the chairman extricate Hong Janghae first? I heard that Hong Janghae is his confidante.”

“Journalist Kim. There’s not a single finger among your ten fingers that doesn’t hurt when you bite. But if you have to cut off one of them, don’t you think people would choose to cut off their pinky finger?”

Lawyer Park asked him for the materials he had gathered until now. Dongwook showed him the files he organized on his laptop.

“Although all this evidence was acquired through illegal means, it’ll become effective once we toss it around some places. Even if it doesn’t have any effect in court, it’ll be more than enough to shake the media. YM’s chairman is a monster, a perfectionist, and above all, someone who loves the name of YM. He’s someone who’s obsessive over those matters, so this might go easier than we expect.”

“You’re saying he’ll make a compromise by extricating someone rather than taint the name of the company?”

“That’s the logic in this market. It’s similar to how your junior was caught up in this matter. It is easier to socially kill your junior rather than create a just business company according to your junior’s sense of justice; that’s why they simply chose that option.”

“I knew about it, but still, it comes off quite heavy.”

“That’s how it is in the world, isn’t it? There are unjust events happening everywhere. Horrible, unsightly cases occur several times every day. But you feel it’s okay. It’s not about you after all. People like me live in the crevices of such psychology. It’s a good world.”

The cold in the room was definitely not due to just the cold night air. Dongwook sighed in relief. After all, this man might have been the bane of his existence if he was an enemy.

“Rather than that, Maru gets caught up in matters like this quite frequently.”

“Maru, you say?”

“I helped him out with a similar matter before. Though, that one was child’s play compared to what we’re doing now. Oh, what is he up to lately? Since he has a foot in this matter, I should tell him about this.”

“He’s in Ulsan for a shoot.”

“So being the actor that he should be.”

“I’ll tell him tomorrow.”

Lawyer Park pulled his chin in and spoke,

“Then let us focus on our work as well.”

Dongwook nodded.

Chapter 977
Crank Up 8

When he came to, it was 2 a.m. Giwoo looked down at his hand. He had been clenching so hard that nail marks remained on his palms. He had the upper hand. Regardless of what Maru said, he just had to ignore it all and just wait for him to get impatient. He thought that it was a game that couldn’t be reversed by any means.

He emptied the cocktail that had turned completely transparent because the ice had melted. That guy actually came out with a strong move. He uttered a fact that he must not and turned the tables around. As the balance shifted to that guy’s side so rapidly, Giwoo was unable to get a chance to take action. He felt like he was swept up by a large tide. The only thing he could do was wait for the waves to calm down.

In the end, everything went and ended as that guy wanted. That guy probably had the expression of a victor when he stood up. This was how it always was. When Giwoo got involved with him, everything always went wrong. Even though he thought he had prepared for everything, that guy always managed to attack the right spots as though he was making a fool out of him. How much must that guy have behind his back? Giwoo’s legs started shaking. It was anger that he could not calm down. His defensive attitude had backfired instead. He should have forged ahead even if he was dealt a blow. He tried to make a fool out of that guy but was made a fool instead, which made him extremely angry. Now, that guy had no secret that he had to protect. He was free.

Giwoo quietly got up and got on the elevator. Before he opened the door with his key card, he looked at Maru’s room, which was across the corridor. He turned around to stand in front of that guy's door. He then grabbed the doorknob with all of his strength. He stood like that for a whole minute before letting go. If his reason did not whisper to him that the door would lock automatically, if the door was open, he would have walked straight inside. He would’ve gone in and grabbed whatever he could reach and smashed the head of the guy who must have fallen asleep by now.

The first thing he did when he returned to his room was to take out a book from his carrier. He placed the thick bible on his lap and ripped out page by page starting from the beginning. He focused completely on ripping, praying for his destructive tendencies to calm down.

When he ripped the 12th chapter of Numbers, he uttered a stifled sigh. He finally felt like he had regained the sanity that he had lost in the hotel lounge. He closed the bible and put it inside the carrier before putting the pieces of paper strewn across the floor in a plastic bag. He smiled when he looked at the plastic bag that was full of ripped bible pages. When was it that he was consumed by his public image? When he was young, he wasn’t so obsessed with the ‘goody two-shoes’ image. He would glare back at directors and sometimes whine. However, ever since he reached twenty and it became more commonplace for him to stand in front of the camera, he wrapped up the real Kang Giwoo and tossed him to some corner where no one would be able to see, to the point that it became a form of consolation to take it out from time to time.

Ironically, the only one who found the ego that he had hidden deep inside the shade and looked straight at it was Han Maru. Han Gaeul probably knew about it now, but it was very likely that Han Maru was the one who provided her with the clues about Kang Giwoo’s true self. That guy discovered everything he had been hiding as though he could see right through him. If he got to know that guy through some other opportunity, perhaps they would have become friends like no other, friends that could with their hearts. However, no such thing happened. Even if such an opportunity displayed itself, Giwoo would refuse. If the almighty God told him that he would listen to any wish Giwoo had, he would unhesitantly ask God to shove the soul of the person right across his room to a place deeper than hell.

He rubbed his face and got a hold of himself. Han Maru had declared war. By announcing the fact that he and Han Gaeul were dating, he managed to both attack and defend. The phone he had been fiddling around with during that time also got on his nerves. That guy was a cautious one, so he might have recorded the whole conversation. If something unfortunate happened to Han Maru, then there would be an investigation around his surroundings, and the voice recording would put Kang Giwoo as a prime suspect. Although he had used a smokescreen tactic that he was dating another girl, the forceful actions he took towards Han Gaeul would reduce the reliability of his statements. He was originally going to call for some men as soon as he returned to Seoul, but it seemed that he had to think again.

He put on some relaxing music. It was some classical piece he did not know the title of. Before he went to sleep, he had to wrap his mind up. How did he have to treat Han Maru now? What was he going to do when facing Han Gaeul who would be coming in a few days? By now, he should have transmitted the conversation they had in the lounge to Gaeul, that he had revealed that they were dating to Kang Giwoo and that she should act accordingly. Once those two started putting on a show for real, Giwoo would have no choice but to watch. There wouldn’t be any gaps to exploit after all.

He thought about methods to remove Han Maru, but he couldn’t think of anything adequate. Even if doing something required him to put a leg deep into a shithole, he would have done it immediately, but that guy would not let go, so Maru would definitely try to bring him down as well. No matter how big Giwoo’s desire was in wanting to monopolize Han Gaeul, it was not to the point that he was willing to give up the reputation he had formed until now. In this industry, even actors who had a firm path ahead of them would have to waste years if a scandal erupted. It did not matter who was in the wrong. Being controversial was bad in and of itself.

It would be for the best if that guy just rolled down the stairs and became half-crippled. If that happens, Han Gaeul should give up on him as well. No matter how much she loves him, she should not want to live the rest of her life with a disabled person after all. He was stuck in a dilemma. If he removed that guy with the risk that he might receive harm, then what would come after that? If he was to do it, he had to do it thoroughly. If he used some awkward tactics to make Han Maru step away, it was possible that Han Gaeul would approach him instead. There had to be a terrible incident that was beyond the scope of what Han Maru could handle so that she would give up on him willingly.

Giwoo would only get his opportunity by splitting the two up. At this rate, a standstill without progress or regress would last forever. He wanted to avoid that at all costs. Being in a standstill was the worst kind of punishment. Whether he succeeded or failed, change was a necessity. If he succeeded, then she would stay by his side, and if he failed, he would send the two of them off. As for where, Valhalla was a pretty good option. Both of them loved fighting after all.

The classical music came to a stop. It seemed that his phone had run out of battery. He inserted the charger and checked the time through the TV. It was almost 4 a.m. It seemed that he was not going to get any sleep tonight.

* * *

Gaeul’s phone was still off. Her business phone was on, but she did not pick that up. Though, it would be strange for her to do so since that phone was left in her car.

Maru placed his phone on the table. This was no urgent matter that required waking up a sleeping girl. There shouldn’t be any problems while Giwoo was still in Ulsan. He just had to give her a call tomorrow morning, telling her that he had revealed that they were dating and that they should talk about their future course of action.

When he spent time in a daze while walking around, he realized that it was already 4 o’clock. Considering the shoot he had to do tomorrow, he had to get some sleep. When he lay on the bed and closed his eyes, he recalled the face of the guy he saw in the lobby. The expression that he displayed at the end contained a hint of unwilling defeat. He was practically saying that he had a scheme in his mind. From how he was so shaken when he told him that they were dating, it seemed that he had to pay more attention to this matter in the future. That guy was definitely not the kind of great person to give up on his unrequited love. Now, he could no longer rule out Hong Janghae’s henchmen appearing in front of him.

“Yes, hyung-nim.”

Dongwoo had given him a call.

-I called you just in case, but you aren’t sleeping, huh?

“I was thinking about various things, and it’s already 4. What about you?”

-Me? I was doing various things.

“You’re working hard.”

-There seems to be an end to all this hard work. You know lawyer Park, right? President Lee’s friend.

“I do.”

-He’s next to me right now. He said he’s going to help out on this one.

“That’s great. He’s very reliable.”

Maru heard a voice asking for the phone in the background.

-Is this Maru?

“Yes, lawyer.”

-Now, you stay out of this. This is for your sake, but for the case to be clean, there have to be as few people involved as possible.

“Okay. I should listen to the expert.”

-I’ll update you on the case. Well, it’s something that’ll end soon, so you might see the results right away.

“Is it something simple?”

-It’ll probably be like that. The chairman on that side dislikes blemishes just as much as I do.

Dongwook got back on the phone again. Maru quickly threw a question,

“Are you going to be pressuring Hong Janghae right away?”

-We should be able to begin right away. We’re planning to do under-the-waters deals after exposing it a little.

“That’s one less worry on my shoulders.”

-Worry?

“It’s nothing much. Anyway, I’m glad that we have a reassuring ally on our side.”

-It has only been a couple of hours since the lawyer came to my house, but things are taking shape already. We might be able to give them prison food as a gift for New Years.

“That will be for the best. Still, though, be careful. They are willing to kidnap and confine people.”

-I’m being very careful even without you telling me. I told you everything I have to, so I’ll hang up now. Stop thinking about useless stuff and go to sleep. You have a shoot, so you should look after your health.

As soon as the call finished, sleep overwhelmed him. The thing he was most worried about was dealt with. With this, the worst scenario of Kang Giwoo dragging Hong Janghae into this case was no longer possible. Hong Janghae should have his hands tied facing lawyer Park.

No matter how vile Kang Giwoo was, he did not cross the line. The reason Maru was afraid of Hong Janghae was that he frequently stepped across the line like it was nothing. Now that Giwoo would not be able to get help from Hong Janghae, the danger level should have been lowered considerably.

Maru sighed in relief and closed his eyes.

Chapter 978
Crank up 8

He took out some fresh water from the refrigerator. He rearranged the rest of the water bottles so that there were no gaps in the space. Hong Janghae returned to his seat while drinking water and opened a file that his head manager gave him. It was something extremely personal that had nothing to do with the management agency business. When he received this file at midnight, Janghae intuitively realized that a wall appeared in front of his smooth road; it was a wall so big that he could neither walk around it nor overcome it.

The electronic clock on the wall notified him that it was past 4 a.m. Ever since he was promoted to this position, he had never stayed behind at the company until these hours. Janghae pressed his finger between his forehead. The information his head manager relayed to him should go into the ears of the chairman first. He didn’t know whether it would be in the morning or if it would take a few days, but it would undoubtedly reach his ears.

He stared at the blinking cursor. The photo underneath the mouse cursor showed the gravity of the situation. This wasn’t something he could suppress by himself. As the wheels of iron had started turning, it would only come to a stop once it crushed a person. His body was tied to the rails, and the iron wheels quickly approached him. The only one that could block the wheels was the chairman. From this alone, Janghae deemed that everything was over. The chairman was someone who prioritized the nameplate of the company over saving a subordinate.

It was his mistake. He should have told the chairman and borrowed his power when the man under Park Okhwa who worked in Busan disappeared. No, in the first place, he should’ve encased that man in concrete and tossed him into the West Sea. As that man was related to crimes, Janghae thought that he would stay low like someone who didn’t exist and eventually return to ordinary life once he was forgotten, but he pulled the trigger without fearing for his life.

It was always the bugs that became the problem. No matter how hard he tried to exterminate them, they would always crawl out from somewhere and haunt him. Janghae called Lee Miyoon again. Ever since he received the report, he had been sending call after call and text after text, but there was no response. She was probably smiling smugly right now while looking at the phone. He was once again redirected to voice messages. Janghae threw his phone at the wall. The landscape painting he bought for 4.5 million won was smashed, falling down on the floor with the phone.

His breathing became ragged. He felt like he just did a full sprint. He looked at the photo on the monitor in order to calm down his gasping breath. Mari was sitting with Park Okhwa’s underling, and on the opposite side was lawyer Park Sunggoo. This was taken at 11 at night yesterday. The head manager placed more importance in Park Okhwa’s lackey. He even laughed, saying that they finally found the rat. However, Janghae could not do the same. The moment he saw lawyer Park’s face in the photo, he realized that things had gone seriously wrong. Park Sunggoo was someone much harder to deal with than those government people and ministers and vice-ministers and whatnot who appeared on TV. Honestly, he was afraid. That man was someone who could wield the sword known as the law better than anyone else. He was someone who would use the law book as a weapon, so he was less scary than any street thug if you didn’t do anything wrong, but right now, that wasn’t the case for Janghae. That man was someone who was incredibly adept at digging out shady histories. Janghae knew this well because he had watched it happen several times. There was no running, only humble acceptance.

The moment he received the photo, he had lawyer Park tailed. What he found out as a result of that was the worst possible scenario. Lawyer Park entered journalist Kim Dongwook’s residence. Ever since that journalist quit the magazine company funded by JA, he had been staying low, so Janghae hadn’t even given him consideration, but it seemed that he had been grinding his knife ever since. Lawyer Park and journalist Kim - the one that tied them together was president Lee Junmin. There was no way president Lee Junmin did not know what the two were doing. Janghae could assume that president Lee was the one behind this.

Park Sunggoo was already tough enough to deal with, but there was president Lee involved this time as well. Before Janghae dipped his feet into the entertainment industry, he thought of president Lee Junmin as simply the CEO of a company that Geunsoo belonged to or a rather talented entrepreneur in the entertainment industry, but that was no longer the case. He knew just how far and wide president Lee Junmin’s capabilities reached. Even the chairman would take a step back in matters involving that man, so his business card had no effect in this game.

The only clues he was given were a photo and who that man was contacting, but Janghae could predict what was about to come from those alone. He didn’t know why lawyer Park was helping journalist Kim out, nor why president Lee was supporting them in this endeavor, but the results were as clear as day.

Janghae called Park Okhwa. This woman, who pulled out at an amazing time, should also be a clue. This was no time to put up pretenses. He called until she picked up. Around 10 minutes later, an angry Park Okhwa picked up the call.

-President Hong. What time do you think this is?

“Shut up and listen to me. I’ll check just one thing. Why did you quit the business?”

-I believe I have told you already. I want to be a parent who does not embarrass herself in front of her child.

“I found that girl Mari. She said something interesting. Also, do you still contact that journalist Kim of yours?”

Park Okhwa hung up. Janghae could sense a hint of panic in that instant of silence. He called again. Perhaps because of unease, she had not turned her phone off. Another five minutes passed.

-I do not understand what you’re saying at all.

Her voice had calmed down. It was hard to assume that she managed to calm down in 5 minutes just by herself. She was startled by just his probing question too.

“Did lawyer Park say that you’re in the okay? That you just have to deny everything put on you and you’ll be able to escape scot-free?”

-I don’t know why you’re calling at this hour and saying that, but I admit that I made a mistake. If I have to stand in court because of it, then so be it.

“You’ve suddenly become bold. Of course you are, you have an exceptional lawyer holding your back.”

-If you plan to threaten me any further, I will record this conversation.

“Feel free. I’ve already realized that my end is near. But you know, please remember this. No matter how hard lawyer Park tries to stand up for you, if I say that you’re an accomplice, then you will not be able to escape getting a sentence.”

Park Okhwa became quiet as though the unease she was suppressing surged again. Now was his only chance to ask,

“Let us make a deal. Regardless of what happens to me, I’ll testify that you were deceived by me to only provide a venue for it all.”

-And how do I trust you?

“You should know that this is no time to be looking for trust, right? It’s somewhat funny for you to say that since you’re the one who betrayed me first.”

Park Okhwa mumbled something, but Janghae didn’t listen to that and interrupted,

“Listen to me first. I won’t ask you for something like standing up for me in court.”

-Then what is it?

“I just want to know. What happened that made you start to help out journalist Kim so suddenly? Did you suddenly take pity on Mari? Did it hurt your conscience? Or did Park Sunggoo approach you first?”

Park Okhwa’s sighs could be heard over the phone. It seemed that she was torn. He once again told her that it couldn’t get any worse.

-The first one to approach me was someone else. That boy told me that something bad was about to happen to you and that I should best stay out of it.

“That boy?”

Her daughter had a friend name ‘Han Maru’ and she supposedly found journalist Kim through that boy, which made her take her hands off the business. Park Okhwa hung up, saying that he should keep up his end of the bargain since she did.

While it was a rather sudden name, it was also a name that came up from time to time. But this time around, that name had no relation to any parts of this incident. While both of them belonged to JA, there was no need or reason for a young actor to get involved in tracking down prostitution crime.

His brain cells, which were racking up looking for a way to survive, came to a complete halt. Journalist Kim, lawyer Park, president Lee — these three he could see getting involved, but why did that name come out of nowhere? If he was in a position to call Park Okhwa directly and tell her about the situation in order to persuade her, he should be considered deeply related to all this, not just an errand boy.

Why was that boy trying to oust him? No matter how hard he thought, he could not see why. It wasn’t like there was any point of contact between them, much less resentment. There was no way that boy was some actor-by-day, spy-by-night weirdo because of some stupid sense of justice.

Janghae felt frustrated. It was impossible to avoid his impending judgment. If he could escape overseas, then he would be able to prevent going to court physically, but he would rather die than abandon all the foundations of his life. Above all, he would be able to reduce his sentence to under three years if he kept appealing, so avoiding this was a stupid decision.

What he had to do now was to identify his main enemy. He had to give payback if he was struck. He would only be able to settle the debts if he memorized who did this to him and for what reason. As such, the name ‘Han Maru’ churned his insides. He could endure a stab if he knew it was coming, but being stabbed by a blind knife was unacceptable.

“What if.”

The target was a different person? — his thoughts reached there. Journalist Kim’s target should be Hong Janghae. He was probably desperate for revenge since his junior was almost driven to being crippled. Han Maru, though, had no such reason. If that were the case, his target might be someone else close to him. There was only one name that came to his mind. It was Lee Miyoon. They might perhaps have clashed as actors, or one of Han Maru’s acquaintances might have been caught up in that woman’s business.

He recalled what happened in the past, the incident where he had no choice but to release Geunseok, who was growing up under his love. He could recall that he had heard the name ‘Han Maru’ back then too. Perhaps that boy had been a rock under his feet for a long time.

The upcoming events unfolded in his head. The first thing he saw was divorce documents. His wife wanted an ideal household and an ideal husband. The chairman would probably tell him to shut up for the sake of the company, and he would have no choice but to comply. The moment he said that it was the intent of people above him, he would be by himself in both criminal and civil lawsuits.

His head started aching. He had been living half a century with the thought that he might get struck down one day, but he never knew that it would come in this form. While it was absurd, he wasn’t feeling unjustified to the point that he wanted to die. He had the confidence to crawl back up.

His phone started ringing. Janghae intuitively felt that it should be from lawyer Park.

Chapter 979
Crank Up 8

Lawyer Park Sunggoo - Janghae picked up the call after seeing the name on the phone. His ominous feeling never missed.

“This is Hong Janghae speaking.”

-This is Park Sunggoo. I’m not sure whether I should call this early or late, but well, sorry about calling you at this hour.

“Not at all. I was also waiting. I would’ve been worried instead if there wasn’t one.”

-That’s good. Thinking back, it’s been a long time. From what I remember, the last time I saw you was at an investment briefing.

“It was just one year ago. I wonder if you’re still doing okay. I should’ve called you first and asked you how you were doing.”

-Perhaps thanks to you, I’ve been doing well. How about you? You are still healthy, right?

“Yes. Thanks to you, I’ve been doing quite well.”

Janghae licked his lips. Exchanging formalities like this made him fume inside. He prayed that the call would end just like this, but lawyer Park’s indifferent words continued,

-I think keeping you on the phone will be rude of me, so I’ll get straight to the point. I believe you know the general outline already.

“I found out somehow. I did not want to see you face to face, lawyer, but it came down to this.”

-I know how that feels. There are times when you just have no choice in what you do in business.

Janghae turned around in the chair. He saw large buildings under the purple night sky. The lights that could be seen on intermittent floors started turning off one by one.

“Are you looking after journalist Kim?”

-That’s how it is.

“I see.”

-As you probably know already, the crime of instigation is very heavily punished. Mediating prostitution is also very heavily punished according to recent trends. You’ll be hard-pressed to escape. We have our hands on both the evidence and the testimony.

“I see. You really aren’t giving me any room, huh.”

-According to our original plan, we were going to talk to the chairman directly, but I felt like things could become a lot simpler after what happened just now. You seem to know everything already, and you sound ready to accept it.

“Is there no room for negotiation?”

-I’m not sure. I usually follow my client’s requests.

“Please hand the phone to journalist Kim. I’m sure he’s next to you.”

-I see you’ve looked into it yourself. Understood, please wait a little.

Lawyer Park’s small voice could be heard over the phone. He seemed to be instructing journalist Kim. Meanwhile, all the lights in the building opposite him were turned off. Janghae stroked his chin and waited for the call to switch.

-This is Kim Dongwook speaking.

“Well, hello there.”

-I don’t have any time for pleasantries.

“I understand you. The matter concerning journalist Choi was truly regrettable. Society is something that should support people like her.”

-If you plan to drag this out by irritating me, then I’d like to tell you that you were successful and can quit the call right now. But if it’s negotiation you want, I suggest you stay quiet. I’m not as cultured as lawyer Park next to me. The only thing I have is my teeth.

Janghae jerked his head back. He did not live like this until now to hear those kinds of words from a guy like him. It was lamentable that he had to bow his head to an ephemeral bug-like thing that he could squish with a finger.

“That wasn’t my intention. I just wanted to tell you that there are things that you simply can’t help but do. Journalist Choi tried to defame our company using unclear evidence. Of course, I’m not saying that her intentions were impure. I know better than anyone that she’s a splendid journalist who jumped in for the pure sake of bringing justice. However, we can’t just sit idly by as a company when we get sued for unjust reasons.”

-Is that all there is to your excuse?

“I am appealing to your common sense, journalist Kim. I’m sure you know this already, but those kinds of matters do not happen because of personal vendetta. It’s just a part of the whole system. I understand that you cherish journalist Choi and how that makes me look spiteful since I seem to be the cause of everything. However, you must know that ousting me won’t be the solution. Even if I fall out of this, someone else will just replace me. I’m saying that there will simply be another journalist Choi.”

-And, what is it that you want?

“I’m asking you to give me some room for improvement. I’m not saying that I’m innocent. I was in the wrong, to the point that I can’t even sleep due to regret. I’m repenting for my actions to the point that I’m even receiving consultations ever since that day.”

He wasn’t saying this purely to appeal to the other party’s goodwill. The opponent wasn’t someone who would be moved by such cheap appeals either. What he wanted was for journalist Kim’s sense of pride and desire for reputation to kick in, or perhaps, material desires.

Even leaders of labor unions turned their backs after standing at the forefront of ‘human rights’ when they were given hundreds of millions of won. The reason historical figures managed to leave their names in history was that they were heroes. They stuck to their decisions and determinations without flinching, and that was why they were admired and praised. Journalist Kim should be an ordinary person as well. While he came all the way here due to his desire for revenge for his junior who had a terrible thing done to her, now that the results were right in front of his eyes, he should have gotten the leisure to take a breather.

People were bound to think about the future when they were given room to breathe. What would remain after taking revenge for the junior? — Janghae wanted this thought to flash across the journalist’s mind. If there was a gap to exploit, he believed that he would survive no matter what. After all, everything in this world came down to wealth. The moment revenge and plausible compensation were weighed on the scale, Janghae could guarantee his safety.

“With lawyer Park on your side, cutting me out shouldn’t be that difficult. However, if you do that, you won’t change anything. I’ll stand in court, sure, and I’ll receive judgment, sure. But what’s most important comes after that. Journalist Kim. Why don’t you think a little more realistically?”

Janghae tapped on his desk with his index finger. The lights on the second highest floor of the building on the other side were turned on. It felt like the pitch-black city had become a little brighter.

The silence lasted for a long time. If there was a conflict, it meant that there was a chance of success. Humiliation was something he could endure. Compared to fighting in court, something going wrong there, and wasting time in prison, it was much better to lower his head.

-That’s enough for me.

“Enough, you say?”

-Your mouth sure is something, alright. Well, I guess that’s how you got into your position. I also like thinking realistically. Like you said, I might be able to get my hands on some sweet cash if I just overlook this matter.

“I’m not talking about just money. I’m saying that there will not be another person like journalist Choi ever ag…”

–Mr. Hong Janghae. Just wait obediently. I am convinced that seeing you acting frustrated is worth more than any amount of money. Try your best to defend yourself with that great business card and wealth of yours.

Fucking son of a… Journalist Kim said that he wasn’t going to switch. This man was like a fruit fly only seeking out sweet things. He was a stupid type who would not think about the aftermath as long as he could fulfill his goal.

-It seems like negotiations have fallen through.

“Please persuade him for me, lawyer Park. If he realizes that the world isn’t as easy as he thinks it is, he might change his mind.”

-Sorry, but I don’t think that’s happening. He’s very firm in his decision.

“My head shouldn’t be that valuable to you.”

-To me, maybe, but to journalist Kim, it might be more valuable than anything. In the first place, he started this off with the intention of dragging you down.

“That’s why I’m asking you. You know about it, don’t you? You know how easily those noble-looking people change their minds. I, Hong Janghae, am someone who remembers grace and definitely repays. If you can help me out a little here, I will help out whenever you need me.”

-As tempting as that offer is to me, I really don’t have a choice since my client is firm in his decision.

“You should know already that putting me in court will not change anything, don’t you?”

-I do, I know very well. But it can fulfill the desire of an individual.

“Lawyer Park.”

-I’m sorry to tell you this, but there is no room for negotiation. There is only one thing I can suggest to you. Admit it and receive your punishment.

“What are you going to do if I struggle?”

-Then we’ll go back to our original plan and tell the chairman. I’m sure you know what will happen after that more than I do. Either you admit your crimes in court and try to reduce your sentence, or you get ousted while trying to stay inside the circle and receive your sentence that way. I believe you’ll make a wise decision. As far as I know, the chairman isn’t someone who will dip his hands into the dirt in order to save a person under him. Especially if doing such a thing stakes the name of the company.

“I know, I know that very well. I’ve been serving him for decades. I know that frustratingly well.”

-If you need a lawyer, I can introduce you to a competent one.

Janghae lowered his head. The piercing headache disappeared. He no longer had any need to use his head. The results were right in front of his eyes. The only thing left was to rely on the chairman’s mercy and get arrested.

“How long of a sentence do you think I’ll get? I wish to know the opinion of a former prosecutor.”

-We’ll have to see to be sure. As former acquaintances, if there’s one piece of advice I’d give you, it’s that you should get a decent medical diagnosis. It’ll help during your sentence.

“I will.”

Janghae took a deep breath before speaking,

“But why are you helping journalist Kim? President Lee must have been involved since you two met, right?”

-To tell you one thing as compensation for making this a smooth work, what that fellow Junmin wants isn’t just revenge for journalist Kim. It seems like he got into a quarrel with the chairman. Well, that’s how it is. Just like how it’s the shrimp that receive the most damage in a battle between whales, you might have been caught up in a war of nerves between the two of them.

“Is that how it is? A quarrel between the chairman and president Lee, you say. That makes me speechless.”

-Isn’t that how social life is? Well then, hope you have a good rest.

The phone call ended. Janghae looked at his desktop monitor for a long while before typing something into the search bar — divorce documents.

Chapter 980
Crank Up 8

“It’s over now,” said lawyer Park as he put down the phone.

Dongwook looked at the messy desk. The days and nights he spent in order to catch Hong Janghae’s tail suddenly all felt meaningless. A phone call and a calm conversation without any shouting were all it took to lead the case to the finish line. He almost laughed in vain, thinking about all the effort he put in until now.

“Does it feel empty?”

“A little. Considering all the things that Hong Janghae did, I thought he wouldn’t step back so easily, but it ended like this.”

“He readily accepted because he knew that he wouldn’t have anything even if he struggled until the end. They’ll probably move faster than us. The easiest, and the quietest, way to deal with this is to have an internal audit. There will be an announcement in just one day, that the president of Soul Entertainment, a subsidiary of the YM Group, did illegal things using his position and the power of the company. YM will immediately ask the press to stop reporting on it. They won’t be able to block it completely, but the conservative media outlets will not talk about it. The progressive media will report on it, but that’ll be after he is punished by the company and is put in court, so this will likely become a personal problem. You know what comes next. With fewer mouths to talk about him, the rumors will die down soon, and Hong Janghae will spend a few years in prison before coming back out.”

“So you’re saying that Hong Janghae will talk to the chairman directly.”

“It would’ve been similar even if I was the one to call the chairman. The only difference is who takes the initiative: Hong Janghae or the chairman. Both of them are incredibly adept at gouging out rotten parts, so it might happen tomorrow.”

“So even the punishment is something they decide.”

Dongwook desperately craved a smoke. He was originally going to hold back because he was in front of lawyer Park, but he felt like he could no longer control himself. When he talked about it, lawyer Park took out cigarettes from his pocket. Dongwook stood in front of the recycling area in the apartment and put the cigarette in his mouth. Lawyer Park lit the cigarette up for him. Dongwook nodded before puffing. The tip of the cigarette glowed red.

“Now that I think about it, you must have called Hong Janghae on purpose, lawyer Park.”

Lawyer Park did not show any hesitation and acknowledged it.

“I can’t completely become at odds with him. It might feel strange, but this is also a form of debt. If president Hong was ousted under the lead of the chairman, then he’s utterly doomed. However, if president Hong reports this matter first and claims that he will put the matter to rest just by himself, he’ll at least be able to remain a loyal dog to the chairman. His sentence won’t be that long, so it’s likely that he’ll be reinstated to his position once he’s discharged. The chairman does not accept an incompetent man’s mistake, but he tends to overlook a competent man’s mistake as simply a form of experience.”

Lawyer Park threw the cigarette on the ground. The unfinished cigarette cooled down on top of the unmelted snow.

“I’m sure that’s not to your liking, journalist Kim.”

“Before I left the house, I even felt a little betrayed. You practically left him a way out. But when I think about it, it’s nothing to get angry about. It’s you who dealt the finishing blow after all. As you said, it has become somewhat strange, but it doesn’t change the fact that that man will abstain from work and go to court.”

“If you wish to finish him with your hands, you can do that right now. You can report to the media right away. YM will also take action, but the attention to the news will be on a completely different level. On top of that, if you tell the media about the testimony from the victims, there will be a party. Would you like to do that?”

Dongwook pushed the cigarette to the corner of his mount and puffed a deep one before throwing it away.

“No. I’m glad that you put on the brakes, lawyer. If I was by myself, I would’ve done that. Things would’ve blown up out of proportion, and I would have pushed forward until the end with the witnesses at the front. But I was mistaken. I didn’t start this work wanting some grand finish.”

“Your priority is to protect that junior of yours after all. I understood it when I looked at the materials you gathered until now. Actually, you had more than enough material to make a big deal out of it, yet you endured and gathered piece after piece. You did that so that you can end this ordeal in one go, right? Before the people involved start getting controversial.”

Dongwook nodded. The reason he put so much effort into the background investigation was to finish this case cleanly. If there was an unnecessary commotion, his junior might be put in a tight spot, when she had just barely recovered. While absorbed in work, he got caught up in the thought to execute Hong Janghae grandly, but he was able to get a hold of himself thanks to the lawyer’s mediation. He did not jump into the frosty winds for the sake of vengeance. He just started it with the feeling that he was taking over what she was doing. Revenge was just a side thing.

“I also like it because there’s something in it for me too,” said Lawyer Park with a smile.

While he was a good person now, he would be even more terrifying than Hong Janghae if they met at another crossroad. Dongwook reached his hand out, as a gesture asking the lawyer to go easy on him if such a thing ever happened.

“Thanks for your work.”

“I’m embarrassed because I didn’t do anything much.”

“Lending your name in this case was impactful enough. The reason Hong Janghae gave up so easily is thanks to your reputation too.”

The exhausting marathon had finally come to an end. Instead of the dynamic conclusion commonly seen in dramas, the result here was quite bland, but that didn’t matter. In fact, Dongwook felt that it was rather fortunate that the conclusion was ordinary. He would be able to return to everyday life easily. As they were shaking hands, lawyer Park exclaimed as though he forgot something,

“There’s something I still need to do. It’s Lee Miyoon.”

Dongwook faintly smiled. He was so torn over the giant enemy that was Hong Janghae that he had almost forgotten about his other objective.

“She’s an actress I used to like, but since things have gotten to this, I should take responsibility. What do you want to happen, journalist Kim?”

“I don’t want to see her on TV again.”

“That’s not too hard. The materials you’ve prepared should suffice. Instead, I’ll proceed with this case under my name. You did promise that you’ll be lenient since you get to oust Hong Janghae, but I never made such a promise, so that’s a different matter.”

“That’s true.”

“Let’s start when YM comes up with countermeasures. I’ll leak the case about Lee Miyoon while president Hong’s matter quietly spreads. Conservative media outlets will jump at the opportunity and will write about her. In the chairman’s eyes, Lee Miyoon is someone worse than president Hong, so as regrettable as it is, he should use her as a scapegoat. Even if Lee Miyoon begs for help, no one will help her. The power in her possession entirely stems from the chairman. She should disappear from TV soon enough. The prosecutors will try to refrain from touching president Hong since he’s a close confidante of the chairman, but Lee Miyoon is a different story. She’ll be swiftly dealt-with with the help of popular opinion. Her assets will be checked to see if they are gained through legal means. She might not be entirely sucking on her thumbs in her later years, but she won’t be enjoying a rich life like she is now.”

Lawyer Park checked his watch and continued,

“Would that junior of yours be satisfied with this?”

“Well, I’ll have to go visit her on the day the news comes out. Personally, I hope that she’s not too overjoyed nor too disappointed that the punishment is negligible. I just hope that she smiles after realizing that Lee Miyoon will never influence her life again.”

“You seem to really cherish that junior of yours, journalist Kim.”

“It’s all karma, really. Once I’m done with this, I’m going to stop contacting her. Even if we see each other, it’ll only bring up bad memories.”

Dongwook told lawyer Park that they should go back in. The night air just before sunrise was unpleasantly chilly. As they walked to the apartment entrance, lawyer Park spoke,

“Journalist Kim.”

“Yes.”

“Do you have anything to do once you’re done with this?”

“Not immediately, no. I’m not shameless enough to tell the president that I’ll go back to the company.”

“Then how about you work with me? Lawyers don’t exactly sit at their desks all day.”

When lawyer Park asked, Dongwook smiled and replied,

“I’d rather do manual labor.”

Lawyer Park laughed out loud and nodded.

Chapter 981
Crank Up 8

-Here comes our first story for the night. This is from Miss Choi Jinhae from Gyeonggi-do, who says: In our neighborhood, the first bus comes at 4:40 a.m, a little earlier than other places. — Oh, hey, it’s 4:40 when I’m reading this too. — The reason the first bus comes early is apparently for the sake of the elderly who wake up early and go up to the market. They would take the first bus one by one. Sometimes, the bus would stay at a stop for more than five minutes, but no one says anything about it. That’s the affection of this town.

Gaeul increased the radio volume a little. The icy snow hitting the car bonnet was pretty loud.

-What a heartwarming story. But I personally don’t like the word affection. In its purest meaning, it’s of course something to be welcomed, but the usage of that word in the current era makes me feel disgusted instead. Recently, there was an incident where a business owner hired many people for less than minimum wage for years before getting caught. In the interview, that business owner said that he did it because of affection and because they all felt like family. Affection can be a scary thing.

She ended up focusing on the radio, which she turned on in order to chase sleep away. She agreed with the emcee’s words somewhat. It was true that many people used ‘affection’ as an excuse for their deficiencies.

-Now that we’re at it, I think that we should honestly and seriously think about emotions such as affection and love. When someone asks us to do something too much for us while mentioning affection or love, we just smile it off, thinking that we may seem heartless if we refuse such a thing. At times like that, we should really take our time to think about it; we have to think about whether it’s actually something we can smile off or not. Most of the time, requests based on affection or love are unjust or unfair. The asker also knows that and that’s why they put forward sensitive emotions.

Gaeul thought that the DJ was right. It might be difficult at first, but a clear refusal would be beneficial for both parties.

-I got a text already: I agree with you to a certain extent, DJ Seok, but if you truly love each other, you should be able to endure. Well, that’s true. If you like or love someone, you should be able to endure a little bit of injustice. I’m not saying that those who think like that are wrong. However, you’re missing an important point. The emotional threshold varies from person to person. The listener who just sent this text right now may be able to endure it and smile it off, but that may not be true for your partner. People have the tendency to neglect the people they become close to. They would act carefully and politely in their first meeting, but as they become closer, they start acting however they want. That’s why I sometimes wonder whether I’ve done anything unpleasant to the person I’m talking to. I especially think a lot about this if it’s someone close to me. Call me cold, but I’m going to continue living this way.

After the DJ’s commentary, a song followed up. Those words left behind a lot of food for thought. Did you not neglect your close ones? Did you not coerce your lovers under the name of love?

By the time the song ended, she arrived in Ulsan. It was 5 a.m. At around 3, she suddenly had the urge to sleep, and thus she had a light nap after parking her car on the side of the highway, and perhaps thanks to that, she felt clear-headed. She drove to the hotel where Maru was staying. She originally decided to look for a hotel she could check in during the night but then decided to wait in the car. She sometimes had to wait over 8 hours in a van, so it shouldn’t be that difficult.

She parked her car at a paid parking lot near the hotel. She undid her seatbelt and pushed the backrest down. When she stretched her tired arms and legs, she subconsciously groaned. She turned her phone back on. She saw many missed calls, which were all from Maru. Even her business phone had Maru’s name on it. He shouldn’t be worried or mad that she didn’t pick up, right? — she set the alarm for 9 and closed her eyes, planning to call him calmly once she woke up, saying that she wasn’t able to pick up because she was too tired.

Gaeul breathed regularly for a while before sitting up. She couldn’t fall asleep. She opened the door and left the car. Rather than waiting for sleep which had no signs of coming, she decided to take a walk instead. She walked towards the hotel where Maru should be sleeping and bought a cup of coffee at a 24-hour café. Thanks to the combination of the cold wind and the caffeine, her drowsiness went away for a while.

What should she say when she sees him? — she chuckled by herself in front of the hotel. She had not pulled off a prank like this ever since middle school. She felt like she was secretly visiting a friend’s house and calling them out to play. She grabbed the cup with both of her hands and prayed for time to pass quickly as she kept walking down the road, when,

“Han Gaeul?”

She almost lost her grip on the cup when she heard the voice coming from behind. It was a familiar voice; it was a voice she didn’t want to hear in a place like this. She turned around to check. Kang Giwoo, looking tired, was in front of the hotel.

“Why are you here?”

Before confusion was able to take root, she felt furious first. Why was this guy here? She suddenly recalled Maru’s series of calls. Did he do that not to have a chat at the end of the day, but to tell her that Kang Giwoo was next to him? When she thought about it, calling three or four times in a row was something that Maru wouldn’t usually do. Had he known that she was coming down to Ulsan, it wouldn’t have ended with just three either.

Giwoo smiled welcomingly and climbed down the stairs.

“I’m here because I have a shoot.”

“A shoot?”

“Oh, you don’t know about it yet. I’m going to be participating in director Park Joongjin’s new work. I barely managed to squeeze in since I’ve always wanted to work with him.”

“You’re in director Park Joongjin’s piece?”

“I’m just a minor character who doesn’t have a lot of scenes. I wanted to play the lead or sub roles, but those had been decided already. Maru’s in this hotel too,” Giwoo said as he looked up at the hotel.

Gaeul’s lips twitched. Was it a pure coincidence that they met here? Considering that, it was quite unfortunate. It might have been better to wait in the car.

“What about you?”

“I’m also here because of the shoot.”

“Shoot? Are you also participating in director Park’s work?”

Giwoo took a step closer. Gaeul pulled her chin inwards and glanced at Giwoo who was approaching her, with the intent that she would not stay still if he came any closer.

“You don’t have to glare at me like that. It’s not like I did anything.”

Giwoo made a sour expression. He, who usually had meticulous control over his expressions, looked completely defenseless today. His attitude showed that he had no intentions of hiding his thoughts. It probably wasn’t just her who thought that he looked more dangerous than normal.

“You have a history. I don’t do this to just anyone.”

“I’m sorry about what happened back then.”

“And proper people don’t do things that they would have to apologize for multiple times.”

One of Giwoo’s eyes twitched. When she had a closer look, she found that his eyes were red. It seemed that he had barely any sleep, or perhaps, he could’ve been awake throughout the whole night.

“Gaeul, I don’t want to be preached to by you of all people. Can’t you just treat me nicely? You smile a lot. You talk to other people perfectly fine too. But why not me? Why are you so wary whenever you see me?”

“Do I really have to go through the trouble of saying it? If you’re really curious, you shouldn’t be here talking to me. Go back to your room and think about it while staring at a wall. Then you’ll easily find out why I’m doing this to you.”

“Han Gaeul. Don’t talk like that to me. I’m really tired today.”

Giwoo vexingly brushed his hair with his hand. He easily took another step towards her as though he had forgotten her warning. Gaeul frowned. This guy was reckless. She took a step back because she didn’t want to get involved with him. Did he forget that neither of them would be well off if they caused a commotion here? The scheming Kang Giwoo of usual would be better for a situation like this. At least that way, he would’ve kept his politeness.

“Why am I no good?”

“Kang Giwoo, don’t tell me you’re drunk?”

Was the redness in his eyes because he was drunk? Giwoo chuckled.

“Answer me. Why am I no good? Was grabbing your hand such a big crime?”

“If you’re drunk, then go to your room and sleep, or walk around the neighborhood and get yourself together. If you show yourself like this in front of other people, you’ll easily smash the good image you’ve built until now. You’re in such a terrible state that I have to tell you this.”

“Image, huh? Yeah, image is important. Because of that goddamned image, I had to smile at that prick multiple times. I thought my lips were going to be ripped apart, trying to smile in front of that fucker.”

“I have no intention of listening to your grumbles.”

Giwoo rubbed his forehead.

“What I’m saying is grumbling, but that prick Han Maru’s words are whispers of love?”

Gaeul subdued her expression and spoke,

“Why are you telling that to me? He and I are nothing now.”

He clearly wasn’t in the right state of mind. Did he forget that Han Maru and Han Gaeul had ‘broken’ up? Giwoo widened his eyes. Even the white of his eyes looked red as if they were on fire.

“Nothing?”

“Yes. You should know about it.”

“That you two broke up?”

Giwoo’s lips became viciously twisted. ‘Smiling furiously’ might be an apt description of such a face.

“So I’m nothing but a toy, just an interesting toy for the two of you. You broke up, huh, right, broke up.”

“What are you trying to get at?”

“If you’re saying this while knowing about it, then congratulations, you succeeded. This is the first time I felt like this ever since that time. I feel like I became truly stupid.”

After saying those words, Kang Giwoo laughed like a maniac. The sunken early morning air was shaken by it. Gaeul was thankful that there was no one around here. If there were people… she didn’t even want to think about it.

“If you’re going to do something crazy, do it by yourself. Don’t drag other people into it.”

Giwoo stopped laughing and stood up straight.

“Han Gaeul, if you truly broke up, can you give me another opportunity?”

“Opportunity?”

“I’ve never thought that it was embarrassing to say something like this, but it’s really difficult to say it to you. I like you. I love you. If you didn’t like my actions until now, I’ll apologize. Just once, give me a chance just once. The chance you gave to Han Maru. Just one more time.”

She didn’t even feel the need to speak. Gaeul glared at Giwoo before turning around.

“Han Maru told me that you two are still dating.”

Just as she was about to leave, Gaeul turned back around when she heard what he said. She felt like a block of ice had touched her skin. Giwoo had climbed up the stairs and was opening the hotel door. Gaeul could not take her eyes off the side of his face. His lips, pointing towards the ground, made him look like he was fed up with everything in the world.

Chapter 982
Crank Up 8

It wasn’t that it was noisy outside. It wasn’t that his alarm went off either. He just opened his eyes. If he had enough sleep, he would’ve woken up with a clear mind, but right now, he felt limp like his entire body was stuck on the bed. He turned his head around and looked at the window. Light was seeping in through the gaps of the blinds. He spat out a slow breath before sitting up. When he checked the time on his phone, he saw that it was 9. Ever since he came down to Ulsan, his sleeping schedule was no longer a schedule. It had also become a lot harder to do morning exercises.

He shook his head to shake his sleep off. The shoot was in the afternoon, so he set the alarm for 11, but his eyes opened by themselves. He slept well into the night, so he slept for about three to four hours. As he wasn’t the type to fall back asleep once he opened his eyes, he decided to move a little. It was much better to get some cold air rather than daze off in bed. He was about to get up, but he first picked up his phone again. There were missed calls and unread messages. Messenger notifications filled his notification bar. He was so out of it that he didn’t realize it earlier when he looked at it.

When he checked them, he saw that they were all from Gaeul. Perhaps she sent them as soon as she woke up, concerned that he reached out to her in the middle of the night. He was about to press the call button with a smile when something caught his eye. It was 5 a.m when she made the call. There was no way she woke up in the middle of the night just to make a call.

Just then, he got a call. Looking at the name ‘Han Gaeul’ in the middle of the screen, he pressed the call button.

-Maru.

Before he could ask her with a tired voice why she had called early in the morning, Gaeul had urgently spoken. It was a voice that chased out any lingering sleep in his body.

“Did something happen?”

-Can you come outside right now?

“I can, but did something really happen?”

When Gaeul said that they should meet and talk, he subconsciously nodded before recalling that he was in Ulsan. Before he could ask for the details, Gaeul asked him to come to the paid parking lot next to the hotel. It seemed that this wasn’t the right time to be asking. He immediately put on his jacket and left the hotel. When he turned left at the entrance and walked about two blocks away, he saw the paid parking lot. The parking lot was bustling with cars trying to come in for work. When he looked around, he saw a familiar car. He checked the license plate. It was Gaeul’s car.

He approached the car and opened the door to find Gaeul inside. However, with her expression, she showed that this was no time to be expressing his joy. Maru looked around before getting on.

“What brings you here?”

Gaeul opened her mouth slightly before closing it again. It seemed that she was organizing what she should say in her mind. Maru grabbed her uneasy-looking hand and told her that she could take it slow. A moment later, she started explaining.

After hearing everything, Maru couldn’t help but smile bitterly. He screwed up. He thought he had dealt with it well, but it caused a different problem elsewhere. Gaeul frowned, saying that it was all her fault.

“Why would it be your fault?”

“None of this would’ve happened if I didn’t come down.”

“If you didn’t come down, then we wouldn’t have had the chance to talk to each other face-to-face like this, so it’s not that much of a loss.”

Gaeul rested her head against the headrest. Her eyes were filled with regret as she looked upwards.

“I can’t forget the expression Giwoo showed at the end. That was different from before. He wasn’t getting angry and nor was he smiling in order to buy my goodwill. He looked like a child who had enough of playing around with a toy, and that keeps bothering me.”

“Gaeul, don’t worry about it too much. Him knowing won’t change anything much.”

“He’s someone who smashed a stranger’s fingers like it was nothing. Not only that, he had his friend do it. If that was what he could do in high school, I’m worried about what he could commit now. I don’t care if I get hurt, but when I think about how he might do something to you…”

Maru patted her on the back. The fact that the guy who always put on a mask when facing Gaeul had thrown away that mask was no simple matter. It might be a display that he had made his resolve.

“Sorry, if I had just picked up your call…”

“You don’t have to worry. It was bound to get found out someday. It just happened earlier than we expected. Also, even if Giwoo knows everything, he won’t be able to do anything to you or me.”

“He’s not the kind of guy who would step back obediently.”

“True, but nothing will happen regardless.”

Gaeul’s face was still filled with worry. It didn’t look like telling her not to worry was going to do anything. He needed something more than just words.

“Wait a sec.”

Maru still held onto Gaeul’s hand and picked up his phone. As soon as he picked up, he could hear Dongwook’s voice telling him to turn on the TV.

“I’m outside right now, so there’s no TV.”

-Then go on the internet on your phone. It’s probably in the headlines. I did expect them to be quick, but not this fast. It’s only been around six hours since we told Hong Janghae. Lawyer Park’s a heavyweight alright.

He ended the call there and opened the internet. In the web portal, he navigated to the news section. Gaeul asked silently with her eyes what happened. Maru scanned his phone. Just as Dongwook said, the news he had been waiting for was decorating the first page.

“Well, we’re done with one matter.”

“Done? What do you mean?”

Maru touched one of the articles and showed it to Gaeul. It was an article notifying the public of the crimes committed by the president of Soul Entertainment. The content of it though was different from what he expected. He thought that lawyer Park and Dongwook would burst out with the news, but it was instead the main YM Corp that exposed Hong Janghae. They even announced to the major media outlets that they felt responsible as the parent company and that they would make sure that such a thing would never happen again in the future. There was also some news about how they would deal with president Hong, a criminal, and the victims accordingly. Meanwhile, they completely drew the line between president Hong and the company and made it look like they had no involvement in it; they made it clear that it was simply the deviation of an individual and the parent company has nothing to do with it.

“This…”

“I think it got resolved quickly thanks to some help from someone I know. From how Yoojin’s mother isn’t being mentioned, I think she slipped out safely.”

Maru had a look at the remaining articles as well. From how media outlets from both sides of politics talked about it, it seemed that YM had decided to cut its tail. Hong Janghae would become the scapegoat and take the brunt of the fall.

“Now you really don’t have to worry about it. Actually, there was one thing that worried me. I thought that that guy would do something to you through someone else’s hands, without being able to hold back. To do that, he would have to use someone tight-lipped, and it’s likely that Hong Janghae is the one he’ll go to. But since the situation’s like this, he won’t be able to move so easily. He doesn’t take actions that risk harming himself. That’s why he has used those around him since way back. He’s someone with a lot of fears, actually.”

Gaeul, who had a tight grip around his hand, sighed faintly and loosened up. She experienced it for herself, so she probably knew what kind of guy Kang Giwoo was better than anyone.

“As you said, he always did something behind people’s backs and never did anything himself. It was the same with Mijoo.”

“He does various things under the threshold that wouldn’t harm him, but he shouldn’t be able to take drastic action. He knows that he has a lot to lose. He shouldn’t want to make a deal that would cause him a loss.”

“But still, we should be careful, right?”

“Just act as usual. That should be better. By now, Kang Giwoo should have seen the news too. He belongs to Soul after all. Perhaps he might have heard from the chairman himself to be careful to not taint the YM name. I’m sure the chairman knows how terrible his personality is.”

Only now did Gaeul smile with difficulty. Her widened eyes also returned to normal. She loosened up and leaned back against the door.

“What do I do? I suddenly feel sleepy.”

“Now that I think about it, did you drive all the way here right after the award ceremony?”

“Yeah. And I met Giwoo early in the morning, so I’ve been uneasy ever since then. I think all the sleep is coming back now.”

“Good work.”

“I’m not doing this again. Trying to surprise you once almost gave me a heart attack.”

Gaeul closed her eyes.

“Don’t sleep here. Let’s go to the room. You should sleep on the bed.”

“We can’t be spotted by others. I don’t want any more trouble. Or what, should we just date openly? I don’t think that’s bad.”

“Looks like you’re really tired. You need to look after your actress career, Miss Han Gaeul.”

“That’s true.”

“How sleepy are you?”

“I can fall asleep within five seconds.”

“Then get some shut-eye.”

“What about you?”

“I’ll also get some sleep next to you.”

“Don’t do that and go back to your room. You should look after your health. You’re the lead character of the film.”

“I’m looking after my health right now.”

Maru raised Gaeul’s hand that he was holding.

“I’m your charger?”

“Stop mumbling and go to sleep.”

“You should go back in a bit too. Don’t stay here.”

“I’ll take care of myself, so don’t say anything and get on that train to dreamland.”

Gaeul smiled and turned her head around. Not even a minute later, her breathing slowed down. After watching her sleeping face for a little bit, Maru turned to his phone again. Phone cameras were supposed to be used in situations like this.

Maru took off his jacket and put it on her. While he was taking it off, he let go of her hand for a bit and Gaeul flinched before probing around. And she said he should go back. It seemed like he wouldn’t be able to go back until she woke up.

Listening to her relaxed breathing, he looked at the internet. The fact that Hong Janghae abdicated from his position was a welcome piece of news, but what Maru really wanted to hear was his business partner being socially killed. What would happen to Lee Miyoon? He scrolled through the articles for a while before his eyes landed on the real-time popular search terms. The first place was ‘award ceremony’ and the second place was ‘Lee Miyoon.’ When he clicked on Lee Miyoon, he didn’t find a lot of articles. So why was it that she came up then? Maru looked at the social media posts instead of the news. That was where the rumors were circulating that the actress Lee Miyoon was the procuress.

“I guess it won’t take long.”

It was only a matter of time before major media outlets would talk about it. Maru marveled at lawyer Park’s working speed and put his phone down.

Chapter 983
Crank Up 9

The wrinkles on her forehead had faded away and even though she didn’t dye her hair, the number of white hairs started decreasing. She felt that her youth had returned. It was a sign that everything was returning to its rightful place. At least, she thought so until yesterday.

Lee Miyoon opened the back of her vibrating phone and took out the battery before throwing the battery on the ground. There was no way this was happening. This couldn’t be happening. The only one going down should be Hong Janghae. Even if there were rumors about her, it should’ve ended with just rumors. She didn’t expect concrete evidence to be floating around the internet, taking up search term rankings.

She looked for Kim Dongwook on her phone which she only used to call those she was close to. This was clearly a breach of contract. If he managed to oust Hong Janghae with the info she gave her, he should have stopped there. Why did he get someone unrelated involved in it? As soon as the first signal went through, Dongwook picked up the call.

“Journalist Kim!”

She was flabbergasted. She barely held her jaws from shaking and calmed her breathing.

-Actress Lee.

“What is happening? Why am I being talked about on the internet?”

-What a pity. I was going to just sneak by, but since it’s like this, well, good luck.

“Hey, journalist Kim! You can’t just say that to me!”

-I know. I can tell from how someone who likes face is screeching at me over the phone. But what can I do? The arrow has already left the bowstring.

“Why are you doing this to me? The one you wanted was just Hong Janghae. So why?”

-That’s where you misunderstood, actress Lee. Hong Janghae, as the one pulling all the strings, is someone I can’t stand, true. He stopped at nothing. But you see, in my eyes, you are no different from him.

“What did I ever do!”

Journalist Kim raised his voice just like she did.

-It’s you who set up a trap for my junior in the first place. I acted oblivious and ignorant in order to get information out of you, but you won’t know how terribly I resented you. Of course, if I can only put one of you in court, then I’ll choose Hong Janghae without hesitation, but I can take both of you there. So why wouldn’t I?

Miyoon had a jolt. She recalled that her doctor had told her to watch out for high blood pressure. She had to calm down and lead this conversation. If things fell apart here, everything would be truly over.

“Journalist Kim. Don’t you know that evidence acquired through illegal means is useless in court? A word from me and that evidence of yours will all become tampered evidence that you can’t use in court. I’m saying that I can save that very Hong Janghae you tried to remove!”

-Yes, I’m sure you can. If we were the ones who fought with the evidence we gathered, then we would’ve gotten into such a problem, or so I heard from a very competent lawyer. But what can you do? It’s not us who swung the sword; it’s YM. They directly acknowledged the case and put Hong Janghae on the guillotine. I see you didn’t check the articles properly because you were busy, huh?

Miyoon didn’t even have the energy to snap out when she heard the mocking tone. She hurriedly turned on the laptop. She clicked on the articles she only read the titles of in the morning. It was just as he said. YM was the ‘doer’. In other words, it meant that it was the chairman’s will to cut Hong Janghae out.

-You’re good at lining up in front of the right people. You should try your best this time too. But it won’t be easy. We’re going to leak all sorts of information we gathered for Hong Janghae. According to our competent lawyer, YM will supposedly use you very proactively in order to cover up the articles mentioning Hong Janghae. This is the last tip I’m telling you in consideration of our relationship until now, so use it wisely.

“Journalist Kim. Journalist Kim!”

The phone then went silent. Miyoon couldn’t see anything as though a black curtain fell in front of her eyes. Her eyes also became quiet as though she got on a really fast cable car. Her body swayed as though she could no longer discern directions anymore. Miyoon collapsed to the ground. She couldn’t feel anything below her left thigh as though her leg had disappeared. She grabbed the phone from the ground and pressed 119.

* * *

One leg, nay, at least two legs; Giwoo felt that he needed to crush at least both of that guy’s legs to feel satisfied. Killing that guy was too easy. There was no way the dead could feel any pain. If he wanted to make him feel the pain that eats away at his soul until his natural death, he first had to rob that guy of his occupation. In that sense, crushing his two legs was a rather suitable and efficient method.

He wondered what kind of method he should take. The obvious solution was a traffic accident, but that guy may end up dying. If he wanted to remove that guy’s two legs without killing him, then breaking his waist was the right method. He felt like stabbing him in the back, at the spine under the guise of a bump on the street was the best.

Giwoo had a look at the clock. It was morning, and he didn’t have a wink of sleep. He didn’t even realize how much time had passed because he was killing Han Maru dozens and hundreds of times in his head. Originally, he was planning to look for an opportunity while staying low, but he could no longer hold back. He decided that he would be able to endure even if he was included in the net of investigation as long as he could erase Han Maru immediately.

Now that he had devised a plan, it was time to put it into action. Giwoo knew the best man for this kind of job. That man said he should call him quietly if there ever came a day Giwoo needed him, and now was that time. Giwoo called his president.

-This is Hong Janghae speaking.

His voice was as powerful as it always was. Giwoo asked for help from the man he had the hardest time dealing with after his grandfather.

-Young master, no, Giwoo. Don’t think about it and stay low.

“Don’t think about it? You told me back then that I should reach out to you if I needed your help, didn’t you? Now is that time. If you can do this well, I’ll tell grandfather about…”

There was laughter over the phone. It was one hearty laugh. Hong Janghae, who always laughed calmly, sounded unimaginably vulgar today.

-I see you haven’t heard the news. You’ll probably get contacted soon. It’ll be best for you if you stay still without doing anything funny, so keep that in mind.

“President.”

-I’ll hang up now. I’m required to attend soon.

“We have to screw over that guy Han Maru!”

-Han Maru? Han Maru, you say. There’s no way a coincidence happens twice. I see that he aimed for this. I don’t know what exactly is happening, but don’t touch him. It looks like he’s not someone you can handle. Also, if you have the time, have a look at the internet.

The phone call ended there. Giwoo looked at his phone in a daze for a while before looking up some news. There was one thing that came to his mind when he heard Hong Janghae say that he was required to attend.

The headlines were all about the shameful crimes committed by the president of Soul Entertainment. Following that were rumors about Lee Miyoon being the procuress. Giwoo realized that Lee Miyoon was the scapegoat as soon as he saw the articles.

He instinctively cursed. That man was useless at the most crucial time. Giwoo bit on his nails before leaving behind a message in the group chat saying that he needed some help. He didn’t want to resort to using gangs, but he couldn’t stay still and do nothing. A friend of his that led a gang posted that he shouldn’t do anything funny and should stay still. Even the others who always caused trouble said the same thing. They told him that he should stay low until things died down.

Did all of them go crazy at the same time? — Giwoo immediately made a call. Then, he found out the reason he had to stay low.

-I also got a call from head manager Kim telling me that we shouldn’t cause any trouble for a while. It seems like your grandfather’s men have called everyone and said the same thing. Since it’s your grandfather who told us to stay still, then we should stay still.

Normally, he would’ve understood then and endured. His grandfather’s words were absolute after all. The situation was grave to the point that they had to cut out president Hong, so his grandfather made a natural choice. However, today, he could not keep his head down. He wanted to erase the man next to Han Gaeul as soon as possible. It was only then would his time next to her come.

“Grandfather.”

He made the call.

-I wonder why my grandson called this early in the morning.

“Help me out a little.”

-Help?

“Yes. Please remove a man from my eyes. You know I’ve never asked you to do something like this before, right?”

-Giwoo, a general should not act petty. I don’t know what it is, but now is the time to wait.

“Grandfather, I can’t wait right now. I’m going to go crazy if I don’t do something about that guy.”

-Sometimes, people like that appear in our lives. But Giwoo, it’s just a passing rain. You just have to wait under the tree and it’ll go past, so you should stay…

“If you won’t help me, then I’ll do it myself. It might become a little noisy, but the YM family can calm down a commotion like that. The YM you created is the best in South Korea after all.”

He spoke fearlessly. Even if he got caught by the police, he would not get a real sentence as long as he had the YM name. Perhaps it might even be turned into an accident instead. That was the power of YM after all.

-Giwoo.

“Yes?”

-This is my company, and my YM. It’s not a company I created for the likes of you to do however you wish. I’ll take naïvety any day of the week. You’re my cute grandson after all. But if you plan to taint the name of the company, then you better be prepared for it. At that time, I’ll personally put you behind bars. YM, who is not overprotective of the descendants of Chaebol. That’s not a bad scenario.

A chill flashed down his back. Only then did Giwoo realize what he said to who. He tried to apologize, but the call had already ended. Giwoo put down his phone and stuffed his head into the bed.

“Fuck, fuck, fuck.”

Everything was that guy Han Maru’s fault. That guy was the root of all problems and the root of all evil. Giwoo put his thumb in his mouth and bit strongly.

Chapter 984
Crank Up 9

She woke up at the sound of rustling. She lifted her heavy eyelids and looked next to her. Maru was smiling at her while on his phone.

“You up?”

She wanted to ask what time it was, but she couldn’t speak. The heater in the car had drained all of the moisture. It was only after she drank some water given to her by Maru that she could make a voice.

“You were here the whole time?”

“I can’t just leave you behind. It hasn’t been that long either.”

Gaeul sat up and had a look at the clock. It was 1 p.m. She thought she dozed off for only a moment, but hours had passed already.

“What about the shoot?”

“I need to get going soon. How are you doing? You were coughing while sleeping.”

“My back is a bit sore, but other than that, I’m fine.”

She twisted her waist left and right while sitting. There was a satisfying cracking noise.

“Did you book a hotel?”

“No, I looked for a hotel where you can check in during the night, but I didn’t find any. There’s a few around the airport, but that’s far away.”

“Should I look into it? You can’t keep staying in the car.”

“I can do that much. Rather than that, you should get going. You’re going to be late.”

Gaeul let go of Maru’s hand. She was usually picky with where she slept, but she was able to sleep without waking up, perhaps thanks to Maru’s presence. Though, she was still tired since it was a light sleep she had in the car.

“It’s cold outside, so put this on. Also, your eye makeup is smudged now. Your lips too.”

Maru left the car, telling her to give him a call if something ever happened. Gaeul checked her face through the rearview mirror. Her lipstick had spread to her cheeks, and her eye shadow had smudged, making her look gloomy. She sighed. Although they were close enough to wake up together on the same bed with bloated faces, she did not want to show him such a side of her. She quite liked the makeup since she had it done for the award ceremony, too. She took out some makeup cotton and cleansing oil to wipe off the smudged bits. If Maru didn’t tell her about this, she would’ve walked to the hotel lobby looking like that.

She put on the zip-up hoodie Maru left her and got out of the car. When she met Giwoo early in the morning, it was so cold that her teeth were clattering, but right now, she felt like she didn’t need to pull up the zipper. It was probably thanks to the sun melting the chill and her lessened worries melting her heart. Back when she met Giwoo, she had a terrible headache. If she had to spend the past few hours by herself, she probably would’ve gotten sick.

She walked to the hotel where Maru was supposed to be staying. People holding filming equipment were getting into various vehicles. It seemed that they were about to depart. She was watching quietly from the other side of the road and saw Maru coming out. He was moving alongside a man and a woman, presumably actors. Behind them, she saw Giwoo getting into his van. It was the usual Kang Giwoo with none of the frosty expressions he showed early in the morning.

Gaeul looked at Giwoo getting into the van with her head tilted. She could endure everything else, but she could not handle something bad happening to Maru. If something bad ‘happened’ to Maru, she would ‘do’ something just as bad in return.

Praying that Giwoo would stay still, she waved her hand at the small bus that Maru got in. In a few days, she would also be joining that crew. According to the director’s words, she only had a minor role and she might not have more than one scene, but still, she liked it because she would be able to shoot alongside Maru. Having Kang Giwoo nearby was not something she wanted, but she couldn’t help that. It wasn’t like she was in a position to voice her opinions either.

She went to a café and ordered some warm tea before looking up nearby hotels on a hotel aggregation app. She looked up a place where she could check in immediately and reserved a room. After finishing the tea, she went to that hotel. Her clear consciousness became dreamy soon, perhaps thanks to the warm tea. She received the key card given to her by an employee at the counter and went to her room. She flicked her high heels away and rushed straight into bed.

“That’s a lot better.”

She missed a comfy duvet. She thought about sleeping just like that, but she decided to take a shower. She wiped off her makeup and let her body lose to the warm water pouring out from the shower head. Usually, she would’ve hummed a song or something, but she didn’t have the energy to do that today. She wiped her body and put on a bathrobe. The last remaining bit of tension disappeared into the air along with her sigh.

-Unni!

She got a call before she lay in bed. Mijoo kept shouting ‘unni’ in an excited voice like it was her salary day.

“Mijoo, I’m really tired right now.”

-I know. I’m sure you must be tired since you drove all the way to Ulsan to see your sweetheart. But now’s not the time to be sleeping. There’s big news.

“Big news?”

-I knew a day like this would arrive. This is why people should lead a kind life.

Mijoo said that looking at the internet would be faster than her explaining. She got into a fuss about how Gaeul would have a great sleep if she saw it before sleeping.

While her eyelids were heavy, Gaeul used her phone to open up a browser. The first thing she saw when she saw the web portal was Lee Miyoon, which took up first place on the search term rankings. The second was procuress, while the third was prostitution in the entertainment industry.

Gaeul was rather taken aback. Maru had told her about this before, that Lee Miyoon would be punished. However, she did not know that Lee Miyoon would be at the center of attention so quickly. When she saw the articles about Hong Janghae, she was surprised, but when she looked at the ones about Lee Miyoon, she was shocked instead. It was probably because she had seen her face every single day at work for the past few months.

What she found out through the news was that the truth was graver than she had heard. The boy idol band ‘The Five,’ who became a hot topic in the entertainment industry a long time ago, was also brought to the table. From the amount of attention the mass media was paying to this, it didn’t look like a fire that would be put out anytime soon. The public was enraged at the other face of the actress once nicknamed the ‘national mother.’ The real-time social media responses provided by the web portals entered her eyes. If words could kill, Lee Miyoon would’ve died thousands of times already. Lee Miyoon’s agency did not take any action either. It seemed that they realized that this wasn’t something they could block.

Many things changed overnight. Gaeul felt refreshed, but at the same time, it didn’t feel real to her. Just yesterday, no, merely some several hours ago, she had been sitting at the same table as her. While she had faith that Maru would succeed, she was rather taken aback now that it actually happened. Actors she was close to sent her a barrage of text messages. Most of them said that they were happy to see Lee Miyoon getting punished. Some of her senior actors and producers texted her asking if it was her doing. They were those that had a close relationship with Lee Miyoon. While she didn’t feel like it was worth replying to them, she tapped on her screen to text them back:

I did not do it, but I applaud whoever did this.

After that, she did not get any more messages. They probably knew better than anyone that the situation didn’t allow them to stand up for her.

When she refreshed the page, there was another piece of news. It was that Lee Miyoon had collapsed and was transferred to a hospital. Was she pretending to be the CEO of a big business company with her acting skills? Or did she actually collapse? — Gaeul didn’t know for sure, but considering Lee Miyoon’s personality, it was likely that she fell without being able to overcome her anger. Since journalists should flock to the hospital, it wouldn’t take long for the truth to be out.

She wanted to watch the situation more, but she couldn’t win against her falling eyelids. Gaeul texted Maru to have fun at the shoot before putting her phone by her head.

* * *

“This looks pretty bad. Something like this isn’t on the level of rumors anymore,” said Kim Gyungjin as he put his phone in his pocket.

The shooting set, which was supposed to be busy preparing for the shoot, had come to a pause due to the untimely news. Some of them spoke their doubts about the situation, but those in the industry told them that the news was true, saying that Lee Miyoon’s infamy was an open secret in the industry.

“It’ll be noisy for a while,” Maru said as he put down his phone.

“Noisy won’t be the end of it. Honestly, everyone knew about the bad rumors around that senior. They just kept quiet because her background was too great. But hey, it’s kinda getting awkward to call her a senior now.”

Park Yoojung stroked her arms, saying that she had goosebumps. She also added that what Lee Miyoon did was unforgivable as a woman.

“I’m pretty sure this woman’s in several ongoing dramas. Looks like the writers for those are going to be in trouble.”

“Either her characters are killed or they migrate to a different country. This is totally shameful. This is why you shouldn’t commit crimes. You put people around you in a difficult spot too.”

Gyungjin and Yoojung clicked their tongues at the same time. As the symbolism contained by ‘Actress Lee Miyoon’ was great, the atmosphere at the shoot also became rather messy. Many people even called around to check if the news was true. Maru looked at Giwoo, who was standing next to the camera director. He was fidgeting with his phone with a worried face, just like everyone else.

While he was sure that Giwoo must have lost his composure during his encounter with Gaeul early in the morning, he wasn’t the type of guy to show it during work. Even if he felt terrible inside, he should not do anything that goes against the atmosphere.

He locked eyes with Giwoo for a moment. Usually, he would wave back with a smile, but today, he quietly turned away. Maru was sure that he had lost his composure. Since Hong Janghae was about to get arrested, he would have to do the deed himself, but that wasn’t so easy either, so he must be feeling rather uneasy.

Kang Giwoo never took direct action himself. At least, within the scope of Maru’s knowledge. He was good at toying with people with words, but how would he be when it comes to using the body? It shouldn’t be easy for him to dip his feet into the case himself and come face-to-face with his opponent. The sense of realism given to him by the distance should be considerable pressure on him. Without the sharp weapon known as Hong Janghae, Kang Giwoo was a pretty easy opponent to deal with.

“Giwoo looked sick today,” Yoojung said.

Gyungjin also agreed.

“Maybe he had a nightmare,” Maru said as he picked up his script.

Chapter 985
Crank Up 9

“People who will go, will go. Don’t you think you have to pay the price if you dipped your hands in something risky? It’s not like Ms. Lee Miyoon truly didn’t know that this was not going to happen. As for me, we said hello to each other at best, so I don’t feel anything. Yes, please take care of yourself.”

Calls came from various places in the morning. More than one or two people now had a hot potato in their hands. While those in high power were tranquil, people who got involved in prostitution through Lee Miyoon should be spending their time restless with their eyes glued to the news. Park Joongjin deleted the number of the construction company CEO whom he just received a call from. It was natural for him to erase the number since he would no longer need it.

“I’ve had enough talk, so let’s start the shoot. Whether Ms. Lee Miyoon gets cuffed or gets released without a charge has nothing to do with this place. You might be displeased if you are acquainted with her, but I can’t help it. To me, a single cut is more important than someone who might be a criminal.”

The staff and the actors who were on their phones calmed their expressions and returned to their positions. Joongjin smiled in satisfaction as he looked at the people moving around the scene without a word. The worth of elite members shone through in trivial situations like these.

“You look great.”

Joongjin approached Maru, who was waiting with his outfit changed. He looked tired due to the several nights of shooting, but this morning, he looked rather good.

“Something good happened.”

“Did you win the lottery?”

“Unfortunately, no, but I feel good to the point that it doesn’t matter.”

“I don’t know what it is, but I hope your energy lasts until late into the night.”

“Sounds like I won’t be going home early today either.”

“Isn’t the night air good in Ulsan?”

During the past week of filming, Joongjin reaffirmed several times that his decision was not wrong. Han Maru was the most optimal character. If he was aiming for the ‘best actor,’ there would’ve been many better options, but the only one that fits in the film like the final piece of a 100-piece puzzle was Han Maru. The sense of gloominess that could be expressed by his impression alone was something that Joongjin wanted.

“When does Giwoo appear?”

“Today. It’s a role that doesn’t really do anything, so there’s no need to use an actor like Mr. Giwoo, but there’s no reason for me to refuse when he’s voluntarily joining us. It’s just one scene, but it will be with you, so I’ll be looking forward to it. Two of the best actors of their age are in one scene.”

Maru smiled, saying that he was worried that the spotlight might get stolen. Joongjin told the others that they would be starting soon before approaching the other actors. He approached the background actors he picked locally and gave them detailed instructions. He could allow actors he acknowledged to ‘act,’ but he could not accept other people moving on their own. He instructed people on where they should be looking, the hand gestures they should be making, and even which direction their bodies should be facing, effectively normalizing their input in the shoot. What he wanted from them was to execute the instructions at the right time like a machine.

After a light rehearsal, he excluded two background actors who couldn’t understand his explanation. He also excluded an extra actor, whose dream was to become an actor. That man unnecessarily tried to add more things. Only those who were only in this for the money and had smart minds to remember what they were told remained on set.

“Once the shoot starts, you can do exactly as I told you. I don’t want anything from you, nor do I want anything more from you. Any questions?”

No one spoke. Joongjin instructed a staff member to get these people’s contact info. It would be quite efficient if he could bring them back for the crowd scene at the end.

“I’m planning to structure the scene like this. What do you think?”

“If you set it up, director Park, then I don’t need to say anything. One glance is enough for me to tell that it’s good.”

“We’ll change the rail positions a little and reshoot later.”

“Alright, then.”

After conversing with the camera director, he put on his headphones. The newest member of the production team left the camera angle after setting up the props. Although Joongjin didn’t order him to do it, the assistant director had the actors on standby. Joongjin smiled at the harmony of the orchestra that was the people he chose. This was the best environment. He selected the best of the best actors as well. If he shot something terrible with these members, it would be his fault.

“Standby.”

* * *

“I told you! There’s something up with that prick.”

Gyungjin kicked his way out of the door. Maru, who was in the corridor, calmly looked at his huffing face. He, who looked like he was about to burst out in a fit of rage, instead put some distance while rolling his eyes up and down.

“Did I do something wrong?” Maru asked.

At that moment, a look of conviction appeared in Gyungjin’s eyes. He closed the distance and put his elbow on Maru’s neck, pressing him against the wall. Maru felt his Adam’s apple being pressed and started gasping for breath. Maru struggled to get free, but it was to no avail.

“Tell me properly. You have killed a person before, haven’t you?”

Maru stayed quiet. He did remember something when he was asked that question, but he also remembered that it would be dangerous for him if it was ever known. However, he neither admitted nor denied it strongly. Honestly speaking, he didn’t care what happened. It would only change the place he was staying. Still, he did want to get free from the pain. Strangulation was pretty agonizing.

When he struggled more intensely, Yoojung popped out from inside the room. She grabbed Gyungjin’s arm and pulled him off. Maru fell to the ground, grasping his neck.

“Cut. We’ll keep this one and do that again,” the director’s voice could be heard.

Maru braced himself on the floor with both hands and coughed dryly a few times.

“I knew it. I’m putting in too much strength, aren’t I? I think I can loosen up a little.”

Gyungjin floundered in the air in nervousness.

“I’m okay.”

“You might be, but I’m not. I’m worried that you might get hurt at this rate. Raise your head a little.”

Maru showed his neck to Gyungjin. From the way his eyes widened, it seemed that the mark was pretty serious.

“It’s not red, it’s blue. Are you sure this isn’t a bruise?”

“I won’t get bruised with just that. It’s just pressed a little hard.”

Maru massaged his neck, where he was strangled. When they first shot this scene, Gyungjin only pretended to press his neck. Maru would pretend that he was being strangled when Gyungjin pushed him against the wall. It didn’t look bad, and director Park said that it was not bad. Maru said that they should try one more. ‘Not bad’ was not a passing score.

“The first one was good in my eyes though,” Yoojung said after leaving the room.

She seemed pretty worried because of the series of intense fights and asked if this wasn’t enough.

“Can we try just one more time? Your acting is really good, but mine is not.”

“If you say so, then I can’t really refute you, but I’m of the same opinion as Yoojung. We kept three cuts until now. We can use any of those three.”

“But the director didn’t use the word good.”

Maru looked at director Park, who was talking to the assistant director in front of the monitor. That man gave him an assignment on the first day. He wanted ‘Han Maru’s Gukji’ instead of the ‘perfect Gukji.’ The reason Maru started the action scene without prior rehearsal, and the reason he was getting hit for real without pretending to be hit were to make him express more varied emotions. As he had changed his acting methodology, his acting was awkward as though he was wearing clothes that didn’t fit him. It was a minute difference that other people didn’t notice, but as the person in question, Maru felt that it was as different as black is from white. Also, director Park had probably noticed as well. Maru could tell from how he hadn’t used the word ‘good’ yet.

“Hyung, I want you to put more strength. You found out that Gukji might actually be a murderer when you already didn’t have a good impression of him, so you should corner him with the intent to break a bone or something.”

“If I put any more strength than this, I won’t even think that it’s acting anymore. You struggled just now because you actually couldn’t breathe, didn’t you? If an actor does for real what he has to do through acting, how is that even an actor?”

“You’re entirely right, but please, I ask of you just this once. I need a physical shock if I want to change the way I’ve been doing things. A part of me subconsciously tries to take a step back to take an observer stance. That’s not the method director Park wants. I want the pain and emotions I’m feeling to be revealed as is through Gukji.”

“You put people in a difficult spot. You know how fragile the neck is, right? If you get injured there or something, then the shoot will be on hiatus indefinitely. Are you okay with that?”

“I’m not sure about other things, but I have a sturdy body.”

“Even the sturdiest bodies have a fragile part.”

Gyungjin smiled bitterly and stood up.

“Just this once. I’m going to use all my strength, but I’ll be the first one to release you if I feel something’s wrong. If the main actor is injured, how would I have the audacity to keep coming?”

“Don’t worry. I won’t get injured. Also, I might reflexively try to kick you or punch you.”

“I know. I should be prepared for that much. I got hit on the face before too.”

Gyungjin got a slap on the face during the third take. Maru retaliated instinctively because he was strangled to the point he couldn’t breathe. Maru massaged his neck one last time before returning to his position. Director Park gave a nod before giving them the cue sign. While it was the director who oversaw the whole shoot, it was the actors who decided when a cut started and ended. While it was a strange system, everyone got used to it after doing it for over a week.

Maru looked Gyungjin in the eyes before pulling his chin inward. Gyungjin, who flinched while grabbing the door handle, rushed to him immediately. Gyungjin was a man who listened to other people’s requests. Maru’s neck was pressed to the point that he was intuitively going to cough. Maru focused so as to not miss the emotions that started from the tip of his feet and pierced right through his head. He put aside the calculations for a moment and ignored all the formulae he had created for acting and acted based on the emotions he was feeling. When he started running out of breath as his neck was strangled, one emotion suppressed everything else and rose to the top of his head. His conscious whispered to him to ignore those emotions like usual and focus on acting, but Maru left his body in the hands of those emotions. He struggled like a man who sank deep into the sea before only the head was allowed to poke out. Tears, snot, and saliva leaked down his face. His rationale, which whispered that this wasn’t something that Gukji would show as he couldn’t care less about life, had become quiet. The only thing left was a man desperately trying to escape death.

Gyungjin loosened his strength. Maru collapsed to the side. While he felt chaotic inside his head, he was sure of one thing. This wasn’t just good, it was very good.

“Okay. Good,” director Park said as he took his headphones off.

Chapter 986
Crank Up 9

There was a fellow who always took one step further when viewing the scenery on top of the mountain. After an arduous hike, that man did not stop even at the summit and continued to take steps towards the peak of the summit. If there was a rock, then to the top of that rock, if there was a slight difference in elevation, then to that higher ground. Gyungjin once followed that friend to the end while hitting on his shaking legs and barely holding back from gasping. The two of them were merely 10 meters away from the rest of the group. From there, Gyungjin looked down at the scenery. The reward for enduring the extreme fatigue was nothing much. Whether it was ten meters away, or where he was, the scenery below the mountain was just the same. So, he asked why that person took things to the limit even though there was not that much difference. His friend replied: it’s impossible to see right below the cliff from the back and it would be a pity to miss it after climbing all the way where they were.

Maru, who was reading the script while sitting on the ground, was like that fellow. There were no actors who looked down on details, but conversely, there weren’t many actors who staked their lives on it. Details ultimately came down to the satisfaction of the actor, so it was pushed to the side after reaching a certain level. Some people said that focusing on the details may make them lose sight of the important things. However, Maru always strived to take another step forward from what already looked like a complete act. It might be considered inconveniencing others. He might be missing the bigger picture because of his focus on the details. If he did not improve with the repeated takes, Gyungjin would have stopped him, but for the past week, Maru proved time and time again that his requests weren’t simply out of his foolishness.

At this point, even Gyungjin felt greedy. From some time onwards, the standard of ‘this is okay’ had gone up by a lot. What he would have considered good before, he would look back at it again with confusion after working with Maru for a while. Could he really be satisfied with just this? When he asked himself that question, the answer was always ‘do it again.’ It wasn’t just him. Yoojung was probably thinking the same. After all, it was she who requested a retake more than anyone else today.

“Uhm, about this part. How about I exaggerate my actions a little and fall down?”

It was the scene where he came across Maru in the dog shed where the lights were out. The script said ‘faltering backwards in surprise.’

“Should we try? I think I’ll have to see it to be sure.”

Maru stood in the middle of the dog shed, saying that he would play along. Gyungjin stimulated ‘Cheonho’s emotions’ from within him. This was the scene where he saw ‘Gukji’ again after confirming that Gukji was a murderer. While Cheonho always lived by the fist, he never stabbed anyone. He was a character who was extremely cautious when doing anything that might be self-destructive. Among the characters appearing in the film, Cheonho was ironically the closest to a ‘law-abiding citizen.’ While he was in a gang, he had more faith in the boundaries of the law than anyone else. As such, ‘Gukji’ was like a wild animal to him. He would look down on Gukji, disdain him, and hold him in contempt, but what would he have done if the two came across each other in a space where the law could not protect him? Gyungjin believed that he wouldn’t just take a step or two backward; he would run away with gnashed teeth.

It was only a practice, but Maru didn’t take it lightly. Gyungjin would’ve felt thankful even if Maru just stood there without doing anything, but Maru acted as though the film was rolling. The drooping shoulders and focusless eyes were the symbols of Gukji. Gyungjin looked at the wild animal that might threaten his life and was startled out of his wits. He faltered backwards before misstepping and falling over shoulder first. A pretty big noise hit his ears, followed by a cold pain from his shoulders. He floundered his legs in the air for a little bit before standing up quickly and leaving the dog shed.

“That’s the gist of it,” he said as he dusted the dry grass on his clothes.

“I can definitely feel Cheonho’s fears. I like this one better. Let’s show it to the director and see what he has to say.”

“Help me out later. Doing it by myself is no good after all.”

The shoot was so fulfilling that it was a pity that time was passing by so quickly. This place was fundamentally different from the shoots of other films where more than half the time would be wasted while waiting. Everyone participating in the project was passionate and active. Even without being told to do anything, they were striving their best to create the best picture from their respective positions.

“If you think you’re ready, let’s continue with the shoot. We should go back to the hotel before 3 at least, don’t you think?” said director Park.

Those words probably meant ‘I’ll hold you here until 2:59.’ Although the continuous late-night shoots were exhausting his body, his mind was becoming sharper and sharper. The quality of his acting was also improving day after day. He could feel it himself, so the improvement must be pretty impressive.

“Now’s the scene where Giwoo appears, right?” he asked Maru, who was doing some light stretches after closing the script.

“Probably. Hiker 1 is Giwoo.”

Gyungjin nodded and rotated his wrists. Once the dog burying scene was done, he would be the one rolling in the dirt. He had to loosen up properly so that he wouldn’t get hurt while rolling on the ground.

* * *

Time passed by extremely slowly. He even wondered if it had come to a complete stop. He thought about it from early morning to now, when it was past lunchtime, but he did not come up with any good ideas. Was there really no method to cleanly get rid of Han Maru? If a friend of his introduced him to someone, or if president Hong played his hand, this would’ve been an easy matter. He clutched his aching head and his grandfather’s voice became vivid again. If he went against the orders to stay still, the only thing waiting for him would be a punishment. He felt stifled like he was sick, as well as chilly. It was bad to the point where it was excruciating having to smile back at the staff members coming to talk to him. He felt like there was a lump of lead inside his head. He could feel his body swaying.

“Are you unwell?”

Hearing the assistant director’s words, Giwoo said that he was okay. Leaving aside the matters related to Han Maru, he did not want to show his pathetic side when he was an actor to anyone. As this matter concerned his pride, he clenched his teeth and smiled back.

He got his outfit and talked to the background actors who would be working with him. The role he was playing was a hiker. The character would discover Gukji burying a dog and begin quarreling with him. It was such a simple role that he didn’t even have to look at the script properly. He did not come here to play something so trivial.

He thought back to Gaeul’s face which he saw early in the morning. He was supposed to feel outraged, but only pity welled inside him. If he calmed down back then, would his relationship with her have improved? He was so angry because of Han Maru that he ended up exposing what he was truly thinking.

“Come down here and…”

Director Park showed how he should act himself. He let the main actors take care of themselves, yet was giving him, Giwoo, a lesson. Maru, who was standing next to a pit that was dug out, entered his eyes.

“Understood?”

“Yes.”

Giwoo stepped heavily on the branch on the ground as he looked at the camera. Right now, he had to show his skills as a pro. He had to show Han Maru that he was inferior to him in every way and only managed to get a hold of Han Gaeul through sheer luck.

* * *

“Hey, what are you doing!”

Giwoo came over, throwing his backpack down. Maru quietly glanced at him while holding the shaft of his shovel. For a brief moment, the ‘Kang Giwoo’ smiling at Gaeul softly overlapped with him, but soon, it was replaced by an ordinary hiker. Maybe nothing bad would happen if he buried that guy here with the dog. Gukji’s feelings coincided with Maru’s, though it was a tad too extreme.

Maru slowly lowered his head and started shoveling again. He dug the dirt about twice.

“Oppa, isn’t that a dog?”

“Let’s just go. He looks like a strange guy.”

This time, director Park did not cut it off there. It seemed that the background actors this time passed director Park’s standards. Giwoo stomped his way over. Maru could feel Giwoo’s genuine feelings from the way he approached with the intent to fight. It was a perfectly legal opportunity to beat Maru up, so he did understand where he was coming from.

“It’s illegal to bury something like this, you know? Also, looking at the wounds on this dog, it doesn’t look like it was raised as a pet.”

“I just bury these things.”

“Are you fucking kidding me?”

Giwoo pushed his shoulders. Maru let go of his shovel and stepped back. According to the rehearsal, Giwoo would have to push him one more time before saying his line. Maru leaned his torso forwards right as Giwoo stepped closer to him. The background actors couldn’t be seen as they were behind Giwoo, and the camera was shooting Maru’s back. The only one seeing his face right now was Giwoo.

Maru gifted him with the most innocent smile he could make. If he played such a prank on an actor he got along with, there would be a burst of laughter, leading to a pause in the shoot and then a break, but Giwoo would bring out a completely different response. Maru was well aware of what was going on inside him better than anyone. His smile would be analyzed from multiple angles by Giwoo, and it was obvious what Giwoo would do. He was not so composed right now that he was able to receive mockery with just a laugh.

Any hint of ‘acting’ disappeared from Giwoo’s face. The hands that he pushed out contained his emotions. Maru left his body to follow the flow. For a brief moment, there was true violence. That meant one thing.

“Okay, good. I didn’t expect much, but that felt really good just now.”

Director Park clapped twice and shouted cut. It meant that he truly liked it. Maru dusted the dirt off his palms and spoke to Giwoo,

“Thanks to you, we got a good shot.”

Giwoo smiled and reached his hand out. Only Maru must have seen his firmly sealed lips trembling as he was the closest. Maru looked at Giwoo, who was being applauded by actors and staff alike. It was time for the well-used chess piece to leave. Maru raised his thumb towards Giwoo who was giving him glances.

Chapter 987
Crank Up 9

That push was a little too hard to consider it just pushing. She could tell that from afar, so she couldn’t possibly imagine what kind of impact Maru received as the one being pushed. Perhaps he was prepared to get injured, but to Yoojung, it felt like personal emotions unrelated to the shoot had intervened. Was there no possibility that the strange air between Maru and Giwoo was resolved?

“Aren’t you hurt?”

Yoojung approached Maru. Maru pulled his hand back while asking what was up. He seemed to want to hide it, but he was a step too late. She grabbed his wrist and pulled it out. His palms had gotten scratched. It wasn’t a big injury, but it looked like he needed treatment.

“I just need to get it washed and apply ointment on it. I don’t want to cause a big deal out of this.”

“Did Giwoo do that on purpose?”

Maru shook his head with a smile.

“Our acts just communicated too well. Also, I was unlucky and there was a rock I didn’t see where I fell.”

“Really?”

Was he making excuses, or was he telling the truth? At that moment, Giwoo came over.

“Are your hands okay?”

Seeing Giwoo ask that with a tone that contained guilt, it seemed that he didn’t do it on purpose. Thinking back, even if there was something between the two of them, neither of them was immature enough to vent it out during the shoot. She was probably mistaken because she saw Giwoo push Maru back with a scary glint in his eyes. After all, director Park even clapped in praise.

“I’ll get some adhesive bandages.”

Yoojung turned around from the two of them and went to look for a staff member. When she asked for some ointment and adhesive bandages, the staff asked if anyone was hurt, and she had to calm down from their panic and have them just get the items. Gyungjin, who she met on the way, also seemed to have taken the hint and asked if Maru was okay.

“It’s not a big injury. There shouldn’t be any problems.”

“That’s good then.”

Yoojung looked down at the adhesive bandages in her hand. As someone with better observation skills than anyone else here, there was no way that director Park didn’t notice this situation. From how he just quietly turned a blind eye to it, it seemed that it was an unfortunate accident after all. She brought the bandage and ointment to Maru.

“I could’ve gotten them myself.”

“I just had nothing else to do. My scene is still a few scenes away. Rather than that, that scene just now was really good.”

“It’s thanks to Giwoo.”

Maru plastered some adhesive bands on his palm that looked similar to his skin color and was barely noticeable. He didn’t seem to feel any pain as the way he clenched and opened his hand looked natural.

“You’ll have to fall over a few times more if we shoot from more angles. You should be careful this time. Watch out for any rocks and stones by your feet.”

“I will.”

Yoojung patted Maru on the back, with the intention to tell him that he should be careful and that he should do his best.

* * *

He knew it. He knew that that guy was provoking him. The moment he saw the mocking smile on that guy’s face, he realized that it was a trap that that guy set, but he did not fall back. Rather than running, it was better to play along with him. He would also be able to vent his frustration, so there was no loss for him. He pushed that guy’s shoulders as hard as possible, wishing that he fell backwards and broke a bone or something. He would be glared at for causing an accident at the shoot, but the image he had built up until now would cancel out most of it in no time.

That guy should have screamed and fallen over miserably, or at least, have a sprained wrist or something. It would be lovely to see him being frustrated for falling into his own trap, but that guy fell over gently without getting hurt as though this was all planned beforehand. It felt like pushing a rock. It was easy to see since that guy fell right in front of his nose. It only looked like a terrible fall, but there were no injuries at all. All it amounted to was a scratch on the palm.

What drove Giwoo even more crazy was director Park, who judged that the acting was good. That didn’t sound like a compliment, it sounded like a warning instead. I am watching you, so you better not go beyond that — that seemed to be the order. That I-saw-everything attitude churned Giwoo’s insides. They say birds of a feather flock together, and Giwoo could be sure that everyone around Han Maru was terrible, with the only exception being Gaeul.

“You’ve been working out alright,” Maru said after plastering the adhesive band on his palm.

To Giwoo, that sounded like ‘why didn’t you push harder?’

“Just a scratch on your palms, huh?”

“I thought I cleared all the rocks beforehand, but there was one, unfortunately. If it wasn’t for that, I wouldn’t have gotten injured.”

“Good for you, then. If you fell on something other than your palm, something terrible would have happened.”

“Like the back of my head, for example?”

Maru smiled while stroking the back of his head. Giwoo looked left and right before speaking softly,

“Rather than the head, the spine is better. The skull is too hard.”

“Aren’t you a little too different because people aren’t around?”

“I’m fed up with playing with words with you.”

“If it was like that, you should’ve told me beforehand. I should have faced you without pretenses too.”

“You can only run your mouth off now. You know the difference between you and me, right? As long as I will it, I can make both of you unable to continue acting anymore. You know that?”

“Classic threats are the most effective, I guess. That made me a little scared.”

He wanted to spit on Maru’s nonchalant face. He wanted to see this guy’s blood drain. How pleasing would it be if composure disappeared from his face?

“Just keep going on like that. I’ll let you know how dirty this country is.”

“And you can do that?”

“You seem to have forgotten who I am. I see that you’re under the misconception that you’re in the same position as me after I played along with you a few times, but I’m Kang Giwoo.”

“Sorry to tell you, but I’m not old enough to have forgotten your name. I know your name perfectly fine. I know that you’re a competent actor, and err, that you’re quite popular? Actually, I don’t know that much about you. I don’t want to know, and I don’t need to know either. If I didn’t come across you because of various things, I would’ve at most known that someone like you exists. And also, that’s the only information I’ll know about you even in the future.”

You don’t have a speck of influence on my life, or so he was declaring. They were words that made Giwoo’s neck stiff.

“You really think so?”

“I saw some interesting news this morning.”

That answer made him speechless. The ‘interesting news’ was firmly related to what president Hong said in the morning, that Maru wasn’t someone he could handle. They were words that he ignored back then, but now they showed up in front of him in the most tragic form possible.

“Don’t tell me you…”

He couldn’t finish the words. That was impossible. Who was president Hong? He was someone who lasted more than 20 years next to his grandfather, who would flick people away with a gesture of his hand. He wasn’t someone a nobody like this guy could do anything to.

“This is just my guess, but being the meticulous person the chairman is, I think he should have told you to stay still, no? He might not have said ‘you’ directly, but he should have given orders to the main positions of the company and various partners. He should’ve told them that YM had everyone’s attention thanks to Hong Janghae and that they should stay low without causing trouble.”

He spoke like he had heard from the side. It was so precise that Giwoo briefly wondered if there was a wiretap in his room. Han Maru probably knew the entire situation. The belief that he could do away with this guy as long as he willed it crumbled apart like thin ice. The guy that was within arm’s reach felt like he had become incredibly distant. It was totally unpredictable. What relationship did this guy have with president Hong, and how did he get involved in this incident?

“Just like you want to do something to me, I want to do something about you too. If I think about what you did to Gaeul, just talking to you face to face like this is agonizing for me. So I’ll tell you this hoping that we’ll never see each other again in the future. If you plan to cross the line, you better prepare a lot. Even if you do succeed, you’ll definitely regret it. Why? Because I am confident that I’ll appear in front of your eyes even if I die. I’m not joking. I mean it.”

Maru added that both of them should stop here for both of their benefits while pointing at his hand. Giwoo stayed quiet. The absurd words that he ‘had the confidence to show up after dying’ seemed to have stitched his mouth. Just like how Giwoo himself had thrown away his mask, that guy had given up on wearing his mask as well. The bare face he showed was beyond imagination. He still had the eyes that reminded Giwoo of his grandfather. In fact, he looked like an abandoned ferocious dog when he talked about Han Gaeul. It made a chill run down his back. If he was pushed off a cliff, he would turn around instantly and bite at the pusher’s sleeves. He probably had no intentions of going to heaven together, but if it was hell, he would probably gladly drag others with him.

Maru turned around and walked away. Giwoo strained his locked hands and held himself back so that he didn’t jump forward. In his mind, he had already picked up a rock and smashed that guy’s head. However, he couldn’t turn that imagination into reality. He didn’t fear losing what he had. Rather, he feared not being able to kill him completely. That guy had a great physique. He could tell from the push just now. Bare hands weren’t going to do anything. He needed tools. A knife was not enough. If it wasn’t something that could settle the deal, that guy would crawl over with tattered arms and legs and bite his neck. It would be great if there were guns, but it was very difficult to get hands on illegal guns in this country. Above all, it would enter his grandfather’s ears. He needed something that could be found in everyday life, could deal with that guy cleanly, and had to be room for extenuation.

“We’re continuing.”

The assistant director’s voice could be heard.

Chapter 988
Crank Up 9

“He’s here.”

Hearing head manager Kang’s words, Junmin nodded and stood up. The visitor today was too much of a bigshot to welcome while sitting down. He didn’t want to have a power struggle with him either. He stood in front of the elevator, and the door soon opened. The chairman came out with a smile.

“Had you given me a call, I would have visited your residence.”

“I’m not shameless enough to call someone busy to visit me. Secretary Kim.”

The man standing behind the chairman held out a box. Head manager Kang received it in his stead.

“It’s some red ginseng. I heard you like this stuff because you’re looking after your health lately.”

“I’m short on them all the time.”

“I’ve specifically ordered it from China, so I’m sure it’ll be good for your body. If it’s a dud, you can bring it back to me.”

“There’s no way there’s anything wrong with it when you prepared it yourself, chairman, is there? I’ll gladly take it.”

Head manager Kang took secretary Kim and left through the corridor to his left. As he had sent all the employees to the lower floors beforehand, the entire 8th floor was quiet. Junmin came back to his office, bringing the chairman with him.

“Little Hong has never disappointed me before,” the chairman said as he sat down.

“He’s only human, so he can make mistakes. Would you like some tea?”

“Anything from you, president Lee.”

Junmin poured some green tea powder into a teacup and poured hot water. The chairman received the steaming hot teacup and took a sip. He nodded, seemingly satisfied with it.

“Lawyer Park Sunggoo. I’ve never been on bad terms with that fella, but he’s been attacking me aggressively this time, as though something’s possessed him.”

“If he really tried to, he wouldn’t have made you use your hand. It seems like lawyer Park wanted to get close to you, chairman.”

“Is that how it is? Well, seeing as how he let us take care of the aftermath, I don’t think he resents me that much. Thanks to Lee Miyoon, it’s getting a lot less attention.”

“Then is the matter with president Hong resolved?” Junmin asked while looking at the chairman’s eyebrows, which had a thick gray color.

“I guess you can say that. Both wings of politics are snarling at us because of one incident, and I had a pretty difficult time shaking them off. This is why I wanted to do business with celebrities and the like. I put in way too much effort just to see some promotion effect. I should wrap everything up at this opportunity, just leaving behind the music distribution business.”

“That’s how you have risen to the top, isn’t it? You didn’t focus on just one thing and considered all possibilities open. That’s how the current YM was made.”

“It was definitely thanks to a challenging mindset that I managed to create the current company from merely selling toothbrushes. But right now, it’s hard to keep holding on to what’s mine. I don’t know why people keep suing us for patent violations. The legal team is helpless without being able to keep up defenses, so it’s putting me on the edge.”

“So you need lawyer Park for that.”

“That fellow is a true fighter, unlike those who show off. He’s someone who’ll bring me what I want. With this case and all, though, I don’t really know what that fellow’s planning.”

“If you reach your hand out yourself, I’m sure he’ll grab it without hesitation. Perhaps he’s waiting right now.”

The chairman grabbed the teacup and circled the contents around in the air. He blew on it hard to cool it off before emptying it.

“Let bygones be bygones with this.”

“I don’t dare harbor any resentment towards you, chairman.”

“You’re good with words. Well, fine. I was just thinking that I should do away with the sex business. Back in my day, it was natural for women to seek the embrace of men, and it was nothing that was considered a crime, but these days, women’s rights or whatnot are really annoying in the media. Also, there are many good girls you can buy with money, so there’s no merit in it either. Not only that, there are eyes everywhere, so many more are beginning to say that it’s better to just play golf instead.”

“There are indeed more eyes than before.”

“The times are changing, so I should follow along. There are many people who disappeared into history while trying to be the ones leading the change.”

The chairman smiled bitterly.

“Little Hong has learned a good lesson this time. I’m sure he’ll find it uncomfortable spending 3 months behind bars while he’s getting old with me, but as a man, it’s not a bad thing to go at least once.”

“Please look after him once he comes out. Men who stayed by your side as long as he did are rare, aren’t they?”

“If it was anyone else other than little Hong who got in the mouths of those journalists, do you think I would’ve even cared? I’ll just send them off. But little Hong is a bit of waste to throw away with just this. I still have a lot I want him to do. Rather than that, what are your plans for the new year? If you aren’t so busy, you should have a meal with my son.”

“Sounds like you’re planning to make him completely inherit the company?”

“I’m planning to enjoy the old man in the attic lifestyle. I only took off my title in name, but I’ve practically been doing the same thing for the past year. Chairman this, chairman that. I’m honestly quite fed up with it now. Also, at this rate, it’s likely that my son will end up as a boss in name only, so I should give him real power before it comes to that. He also needs to know who his most powerful enemy is if he wants to get a hold on power too.”

The chairman looked at him while twitching his eyes. Junmin erased every scheduled event for this week in his mind. He had a few prior appointments, but there was nothing more important than an occasion prepared by the chairman. Above all, he had to have a look at his opponent, just like the chairman said.

“I hope my son has shiny ears just like me.”

Junmin asked back as he grabbed his empty teacup,

“You said it last time too, didn’t you? That I was able to see the value of people by looking at their ears.”

“Are you planning to play dumb again? I don’t have dementia yet. I clearly remember what you said. When I heard it, at first I thought ears meant something symbolic, so it was rather absurd when I found out that you literally meant ears. But you really looked like you were seeing something from people’s ears, not lying to me.”

Junmin did not 100% trust his memories. He knew how flimsy memory could be. However, he truly wanted to deny this whole ‘ear’ matter. He wanted to say that he had no recollection of the matter, that something was wrong. The chairman was pushing his semi-white hair backwards. Junmin sighed silently.

“Honestly speaking, I truly don’t remember. Of course, you have no reason to lie to me either, chairman. Above all, you’re not the only one saying that to me. I asked the people around me about ears. Apparently, I’ve never gone into detail, but some people have recollection of me saying something like ‘I don’t look at hands for fortune telling; I look at ears.’”

“Aren’t you too young to be losing your memories? In the modern world, the 50s is still pretty young.”

“It’s a strange matter. I don’t have a single memory of it, but people around me are telling me the same thing.”

“Well, I’ve gone through the same thing. It was back in ‘97 when the company was unstable. My mind was unstable as well, and I couldn’t remember what I ate an hour ago. It’s nothing big to worry about. The fact that you forgot means that it’s nothing important. For the most important things, you usually can’t even forget about it even if you want to.”

The chairman stood up from his seat, telling him to eat the ginseng without forgetting. Junmin also stood up and opened the door for him. Head manager Kang and secretary Kim were waiting outside, and they moved towards the elevator.

“Call me whenever you’re ready for a meal out with your son. I’ll visit you.”

“You should tell me when you’re not busy. We’re the ones inviting you.”

The elevator arrived. The chairman took a step inside but then flinched.

“I almost forgot something important.”

“Is there something?”

“Han Maru. I’ve been asking around, and it seems like this kid is the source of this minor scuffle. Is he someone you cherish? I almost touched this guy while trying to give a gift to my grandson, but it seems like that has gotten on your nerves. But still, you put me in this situation just because of a kid. I’m quite saddened by this. I’m sure little Hong is feeling rather sad as well.”

“He’s an interesting one. It’s very intriguing to watch him.”

“Then you should’ve given him wings. Had I known that you were looking after that kid, I would’ve taken control.”

“He’s someone who does well by himself. Even if I give him wings, he’ll just take them off. I can’t push him forward, so I should at least prevent people from reaching out to drag him down.”

“It’s been a while since I saw you cherish someone like that. He must be quite good, eh?”

“I’m not sure. But when I watch him, I can’t just let him be. I have a strange sensation that I’m looking at my past self when I look at him, even though we have nothing in common.”

“To think you’d say something so lukewarm. It seems like you’ve gotten old after all.”

“I’ll be hitting sixty soon enough. I might be young by your standards, but I’m old enough to be called grandpa, don’t you think?”

“You should live young. Only with you around will I feel less bored.”

“It’s you who’s way too healthy.”

The chairman smiled and got on the elevator.

* * *

“Secretary Kim,” the chairman said as he looked at the number going down.

Yes – along with the answer, the elevator opened again.

“Call the one looking after Giwoo right now and tell him not to touch anything related to Han Maru. From the way president Lee spoke, it looks like he’s going to give the kid a big push. Also, tell Giwoo to not think about anything weird. From how he reached out to little Hong for help, I’m sure he’s up to something.”

“Understood, sir.”

The chairman clicked his tongue.

“Can’t believe he was angered by a simple obstacle. Is that all Giwoo amounts to? He can never stop being my cute grandson. I have great kids, but below them, it’s not as good. I can’t just tell them to have another child.”

“I’ll also tell Giwoo’s friends.”

“Yes. There’s no reason to be at odds with president Lee. No, in fact, I should give him some wings myself. Let’s use that guy as our model for our new smartphone. Our meal with president Lee should be a lot easier if I give him some face.”

“I’ll have it done.”

The chairman nodded and got in his car.

Chapter 989
Crank Up 9

-Next up, we have news that the actress Lee Miyoon is under investigation by the police for suspected allegations of being involved in mediating prostitution. Ms. Lee has supposedly approached new actors and actresses to have them engage in sexual acts with high-level individuals in society in return for promising a role in a specific title. Reporter Ahn Juri is on the scene.

Gaeul looked at the reporter standing in front of the hospital and raised the TV volume. Lee Miyoon had never failed to climb down from the real-time search rankings since New Years. Today was the 4th, and she was finally talked about on the mass media. Since the main news programs of each TV station were focusing on it, the news would reach even the generation who were distant from the internet. It was bound to get noisy for a while. The dark side of the ‘national mother’ was being revealed after all.

Last night, she got a call from her mother. As she had a foot in the entertainment industry, she should have heard rumors about Lee Miyoon and should have known what kind of relationship Gaeul had with that woman. Gaeul honestly told her that she was feeling relieved. Her mother consoled her, saying that she must have had a hard time until now.

Lee Miyoon, sitting down in a wheelchair with a haggard face, was captured on camera. Having found the camera, she boldly came forward and said that she had done nothing wrong and that this was all unjustified crime pinning. She glared at the camera, saying that the truth would be revealed soon. She was unyielding until the very end. It seemed that Lee Miyoon would never admit to anything of her own accord. She would probably claim innocence even as she was being cuffed and dragged to court. That was the kind of woman she was after all.

“She’s amazing in some ways,” Maru said, sitting on the bed.

He was holding a triangular rice ball he bought from the convenience store.

“She would earn sympathy points if she at least acted like she was truly repenting, but it seems like her pride doesn’t allow that.”

Gaeul received the plain yogurt that he tossed over. It had been five days since she drove during the night to come to Ulsan. During this time, she had all the rest she needed at the hotel. When she woke up, she would walk around the city of Ulsan without makeup on. She looked up some tourist attractions on the internet and went around, and before she knew it, she would find the sun setting. At night, she would go to the cinema and choose a movie to watch based on the poster alone. The sci-fi movie she saw yesterday was terrible, but the thriller she watched the night before was so good that she would love to watch it again. When she returned to the hotel, she would then wait while being on her phone, hoping for Maru to have finished the shoot early and contact her. When Maru came to the hotel in the middle of the night, they would sit by the window where they would see the city of Ulsan and talk about various things. They intentionally avoided talking about Hong Janghae, Lee Miyoon, and Kang Giwoo. They didn’t even have time to look at each other's smiles.

“Where should we go today?”

Gaeul thought about it when Maru asked that question. During the past four days, she had visited all the famous places. Kang Giwoo had also returned to Seoul, so she went around touring without hesitation, but looking back, she thought that she should have left a place to go with Maru. Perhaps she had been too excited because she hadn’t had this much rest in a while.

“Where should we go?”

Since it was like this, it was better to ask instead. Maru smiled and spoke,

“So it looks like you don’t have any more places to go after going around everywhere for the past four days, huh?”

“Was it written on my face?”

“It’s not written on your face, but it’s definitely written on the messenger. Just looking at all the photos you sent me, I can tell that you’ve been all over Ulsan,” Maru said as he showed her his phone.

Gaeul smiled awkwardly. More than half the time, she was telling him that they should come together next time when she uploaded the photos.

“If Ulsan is no good, we can go a little farther. We don’t have a shoot today.”

Gaeul lay on the bed and looked at the photos she took. While Maru said that it was okay to go a bit far, there was a shoot tomorrow morning. There was no need to push themselves. They could just go to one of the places she already went to.

“How about this place? I went there three days ago, and it’s quite relaxing. The snow is pretty too.”

Gaeul showed him a photo she took in Seoknam Temple. It was a place she liked since it wasn’t crowded even with a lot of tourists around. It was also perfect to have a talk on the pine tree road on the way to the temple.

“I heard that there are many people here.”

“They won’t recognize me if I put on a hat and a mask. It was like that when I went there before. Everyone’s focused on talking to the people they came with and have no interest in others. How about it?”

Maru had a look at the photo once and said that he liked it and that they should go.

“Let’s eat rice with thistles near the temple for dinner. It says ‘temple food’ on the sign, and it’s really savory.”

Maru should like it since he disliked salty food. They changed their clothes and left the hotel.

“You’re going to have to go back to your schedule tomorrow, huh?” Maru said as they got in the car.

Gaeul sighed, thinking about her schedule, which was jam-packed until the end of April.

“I took a week of rest, so I should work hard again. Once I’m done with the shoot tomorrow, I’ll have to go back to Seoul and get ready for a photo shoot.”

“Should we return to the hotel early in the evening? It might be better for you to get some rest.”

Gaeul shook her head.

“Rather than the room, I want to have a walk. I don’t care where. I just want to go on a walk. It’ll be hard to go traveling together after today.”

“That’s true. Then shall we go to the nearby sea after dinner? Not too far though.”

“Sounds great.”

Maru smiled and started the car.

* * *

“Man, she’s totally hot now that I see her in person,” Gyungjin said as he slapped down on Maru’s shoulders.

First, there was Kang Giwoo, and now it was Han Gaeul. There had been talks about it last night about how an actress who’s really hard to see these days because of her popularity was coming to the shoot just to play a minor character.

“Please take care of me.”

Han Gaeul bowed to everyone while standing next to director Park. She was an actress who was much prettier in real life than on screen. Her face was very three-dimensional, and the view of her from the side was especially great.

“Do you like her that much?”

Yoojung pressed down on his shoulders, telling him to stop overreacting.

“It looks like there is a god after all. I prayed to god to bring Miss Gaeul to come to the shoot when I was watching the end-of-year award ceremony. I think he didn’t even bother checking and just approved it.”

“Looks like you’ll need to serve director Park as a god from now on. It’s thanks to him that you got to see Miss Gaeul. But she gives off a totally different vibe from when she appears on the screen. It might be because all of the roles she played were intense, but I thought she would have a really strong look to her. But now that I see her today, she seems as docile as a baby.”

‘Docile as a baby’ was an expression that suited her well. Having just applied some BB cream, Han Gaeul was far from a woman gnashing her teeth after being betrayed or a doctor standing in front of an operating table with a cold face. She was an actress with a great atmosphere around her, totally different from those embarrassing girls who only rose up because of their appearances and it was shameful to even call them actresses.

Gyungjin placed his arm around Maru’s shoulder.

“You sure you’re close to Miss Gaeul?”

“We’re just friends.”

“That’s good enough. I heard that she’ll be going to Seoul right after the shoot today.”

“Probably. She’s a busy person.”

“Can you get her to have a meal with us before she goes? If you can, I’ll try to hook you up with someone.”

“Oh, I didn’t tell you yet, did I? I have someone I’m dating.”

“Really?”

“Yes.”

“Then I’ll treat you to a good one later, so set me up with Miss Gaeul. It’s not that I have any bad intentions. It’s just my wish to have a meal with her as a fan.”

Yoojung nearby also asked if she could join. Gyungjin said he didn’t care. He wouldn’t hesitate if they could develop into lovers like in dramas, but if life was so easy like that, he might as well have been born a chaebol in the first place. He truly wanted to just have a meal with her as a fan. He also wanted to hear about the epic battle with Lee Miyoon she had, of which there were rumors floating around.

“I’ll talk to her about it.”

“Thanks. It’s my greatest blessing to have gotten to know you in my life, Maru.”

“You’re giving me so much pressure. What are you going to do if it doesn’t work out?”

“Then it won’t be my greatest blessing, but it’ll still be a great blessing. Also, don’t forget to tell her that a handsome, promising thirty-year-old actor is waiting for her.”

“Should I tell her that exactly?”

“…Just tell her that an introverted fan wants to say hello.”

“I will.”

“But how is she really? Apparently, she’s scary to the point that other people can’t approach her when she fights with senior Lee Mi… no, that’s not right, that Lee Miyoon woman. Is it true?”

“She’s usually very cheerful and smiles a lot, but she doesn’t bend and usually goes to the end with people she clashes with. But in one aspect, she bottles up her feelings inside since she’s really shy about expressing herself.”

“In one aspect, you say?”

“That’s a little hard to explain. It’s just the kind of thing you get to see if you know her for a long time. It’s one of those things.”

“I get what you’re saying. In any case, she’s pretty ordinary, huh.”

“Yes. She’s an ordinarily good girl.”

Maru finished talking and looked at Han Gaeul in the distance. Gyungjin also looked at her, who was greeting the camera director before having a glimpse at Maru. He was blatantly looking at her with a satisfied look on his face. They say there’s no ‘friendship’ between a man and a woman, and it seemed that Maru had Han Gaeul in his heart as well. He was probably bitter about the fact that he could not take the relationship further. He could understand that.

“You can’t go confessing to her, okay? You’ll get in big trouble. You know what I mean, right?”

Gyungjin tapped Maru’s arm with a fist, gesturing for him to cheer up. If they were friends after knowing each other for a long time, the possibility of developing into lovers should be even slimmer than a man and a woman meeting for the first time.

“What do you mean?”

“I know how you feel. But you should be careful. I’ve known some people who have gotten into an awkward relationship after finding out that only one side has feelings for the other.”

Maru, who was watching him quietly, put on a smile.

“I told you, I have someone I’m dating.”

“I know, I know. So just treat that girlfriend of yours really well.”

“I am doing my best even if you didn’t tell me. She’s so busy, so I can’t really do much.”

“Your girlfriend is working already, huh?”

“I guess you can call it work. There’s a CEO, manager, and everything.”

It was a strange answer, but Gyungjin did not pry into it. It was rude to ask in-depth after all. He looked at his face through his phone camera. It was a pity about the beard he was currently sporting because of the role he was playing right now, but he looked pretty good.

“Now, the actors should say hello.”

Han Gaeul came over with director Park. Gyungjin smiled brightly and greeted.

Chapter 990
Crank Up 9

Director Park Joongjin was a peculiar man. Although calling someone ‘peculiar’ usually didn’t have good connotations, it was hard to find a suitable word other than ‘peculiar’ to describe him. Honestly speaking, it wasn’t just him. Everyone who flocked around him was the same. No, perhaps ‘special’ might be a fitting word instead. When she had a closer look, she could see people she had heard the names of. The assistant director, Park Jiseon, was someone well-regarded in the advertising industry. Just based on the fact that she had worked as a director for global adverts for colossal companies such as SC, YM, and DK, she was number one when it came to career experience. The camera director, director Choi, was someone many film directors thought to be the best. The lighting director, who had once worked for a commercial film overseas, as well as the sound director, who was known to change the quality of sound, were also included in the Park Joongjin brigade.

Gaeul could feel this as soon as she arrived on set. The people gathered here did so solely to create the ‘best film ever.’ Their belief in the centerpiece, director Park, must have played a role in that, but their desire to put a stroke in the history of the South Korean film industry must have also driven them to gather as well. The attitude that would be taken as a joke if this was a college film production club seemed like a certainty in this place.

In the center of it all was Maru.

Gaeul crossed her arms and looked at Maru. It had been 30 minutes since he started talking to director Park. Whether they were in a disagreement, or were talking in-depth and couldn’t arrive at a conclusion quickly, the two showed no signs of finishing their conversation. What was interesting was the attitude of the other staff. They were all finding other things to do as though the long conversations were normal, such as reading books or looking at their phones. Some of them were working, but they were the minority. The directors and leaders of each part seemed to not care about director Park not managing the scene.

They looked like puppies gathered in the middle of a vast plain without any fences, ignoring whatever the trainer said and digging into the ground, biting some toys, or going off to find food. They seemed impossible to control

“Shall we start now?”

That single line changed the entire atmosphere at the scene. Everyone, who looked like they had scattered without a sense of purpose, surprisingly quickly returned to their positions. Though, they still had the puppy-like feeling.

The assistant director gave out instructions. The background actors, who were getting ready, entered the last rehearsal. Gaeul looked at the liberal-looking staff and the mechanical-looking background actors and sensed a big disparity. Director Park bestowed liberty purely based on credit. He asked for opinions from the main actors or the staff. He respected their decisions and let them act based on them. It was different for the background actors. He did not allow them to flick a finger, so to speak. They were switched out the moment they couldn’t carry out their instructions. Two young men, who looked like they were friends and had come to make some quick cash, had left quite early on. Nobody held them back from leaving. The assistant director just looked for new background actors. They seemed to have contacted a lot of people beforehand, as new people were quickly brought in.

The shoot began. Gaeul stood behind director Park. Maru fell on his butt on a mountainous path that was damp from melted snow. This morning, she saw the news saying that the temperature was -7 degrees celsius. His pale face was probably not just from the makeup. She watched in worry for his health.

Maru hugged a can with shivering hands. Even his lips were trembling, making the onlooker feel chilly. This was the tenth take. He was rolling on cold ground before he had enough time to warm up, so he had to be spending a lot of stamina. She wondered how many times more he had to do this for him to be satisfied. Unless director Park found it satisfactory, Maru repeated the same cut multiple times. In fact, even if director Park liked it, he would repeat the shoot again, saying that he himself didn’t accept it yet. It felt like the shoot was going to prolong indefinitely. This was very different from the shoots for other films.

Maru hugged the can while laying down, fiercely glaring at the camera, before standing up while staggering. The way he dragged his stabbed legs down the mountain path with the money-filled can in his arms was something that made Gaeul gnash her teeth no matter how many times she saw it.

Twisted obsession, unvented lunacy, awkward love — Gaeul had seen the script for the first time at the shoot. The story of the movie was depressing from start to end. The protagonist, who had experienced murdering someone, kept bringing himself to his own destruction amidst his insensitivity and led those around him to a bad ending as well. Absolutely no one was able to escape that terrifying gravitation. Having suppressed his emotions forcefully all the time, the protagonist eventually ends up unable to feel anything, and the woman who pitied him died in vain with the false dream that she could change him. Meanwhile, the man who held him in contempt and tried to kill him was done in by his own extreme plan and became a half-cripple.

Maru, who came down the mountain path, collapsed and fell forward. Gaeul covered her mouth and kept watching. It was acting, yet not acting. In the break just a moment ago, Gaeul had seen clearly that his body had been scratched and bruised everywhere. Even though this was a scene that should use a replacement, Maru was stubborn until the end, saying that he had to be the one to do it.

Having fallen over, Maru raised his head. The crumpled bills inside the can scattered on the floor. Maru stood up and picked up just one ten thousand-won bill before walking again. The camera kept following Maru’s back as he walked down the mountain path. Maru endlessly walked towards the place with fewer trees and where he could see the faint light of the city.

“Cut.”

Director Park took off his headset and stood up. From the seventh take onwards, he had always been smiling. He had been satisfied for a long time. The only thing left was Maru’s own decision. Maru approached the monitor. He was pressing his left thigh with his finger. Was he hurt? She wanted to ask but now was not the time. This was an important moment for the director and the actor.

“We’re done. Let’s move on,” said the director.

It seemed that Maru had finally gotten a good picture this time. Gaeul rushed over to him in an instant. They had told the others that they had been close since young, so there was no need to hold back. Looking at him from up close, Maru wasn’t in a state where she could just laugh it off. The way he fell over in the last take seemed a little overboard, and indeed, he was bleeding from his knees.

“You should’ve held back.”

She felt worried. Maru just washed it with some water, saying that it was nothing much. Although acting without holding back was good, not getting hurt was more important.

“Let me see. Are you really okay?”

“It’s not the first or second time I’m falling over. It’ll heal if I spit on it.”

“Don’t put spit on it. Apply ointment properly. It might leave a scar.”

Just as Maru said, it didn’t seem like this happened just once or twice, as a staff member came over and handed him some ointment and an adhesive band.

“How was it?”

“How was what?”

“What else? My acting.”

“I would’ve been much more at ease if I didn’t see it. My heart jumped whenever I saw you fall. It’s a steep place, and you just had to fall forward. Did you think I would not be worried? If it was any other place, they would’ve placed mattresses and split the cuts even further. You are one thing, but the director’s quite amazing for letting you do what you did.”

Maru smiled without a word. Gaeul found his worry-free smile quite spiteful. She had been watching in nervousness, but the person in question was just chuckling. She touched his injured knee. Maru frowned in pain. She could clearly see that he was faking it.

“I thought it didn’t hurt?”

“If you press it hard like that, then of course it hurts.”

“I’ve known this since back when you shot New Semester, but aren’t you getting into too many situations where you fall over and get hurt?”

“I think that’s because my appearance isn’t exactly suited to wearing fancy clothes and chopping steak in a high-class restaurant. Rather than that, aren’t you cold? Today’s pretty chilly.”

“You think I’m cold when there’s someone rolling on the cold ground right in front of me? You should warm up. You might really get a cold.”

After putting a thick blanket around Maru’s shoulders, she brought him to the heater. She grabbed his wrist for a moment, and it was cold like she was grabbing an iron bar that had been freezing under the snow. She sighed in bitterness. She wished he could look after his body a little more.

“Miss Gaeul,” the director called.

Gaeul took off her coat and responded to him.

“The ground was frozen. Watch out not to fall over,” Maru said.

Gaeul nodded.

* * *

“Cut! Cut! Miss Gaeul, you okay?” the director shouted.

Maru barely held himself back from rushing over. Gaeul fell over while running, and she got on her feet immediately before apologizing to everyone gathered around her. As this was a scene where she was frightened after seeing a corpse and running away, her sense of urgency had to be revealed, but she should still be careful since it was a mountain. Maru put his hands in front of his lips as though praying.

“Who’s telling who to hold back…”

She ran like she was about to fall over with all her might, just for a single scene where her line entirely consisted of a single scream. She did fall over too. The girl who nagged him to be careful was running around dangerously, so it agonized Maru. Even the almighty director Park told her to be careful.

“That friend of yours is really no joke,” Yoojung said, approaching him from behind and giving him a cup of coffee.

“She’s quite bold. That’s why those around her worry about her. She’s gonna get injured at that rate.”

As soon as he said those words, Yoojung chuckled.

“Looks like you two are close alright. Miss Gaeul said the same thing about you, just with an even graver expression than you.”

“Did she?”

“I guarantee. She might have gone to the director if you fell over a few times more. But er…”

Yoojung shook her head and stopped speaking.

“What is it?”

“Nothing.”

“You know that your face says it’s not nothing, right?”

“I’ll ask just in case, but you two aren’t in a so-and-so relationship, right? That’s what my intuition is telling me.”

Yoojung glanced at Gaeul in the distance. She then waved her hand in the air in denial.

“Looks like I spoke for nothing. Maybe it’s about time I have to start dating. Every man and woman I see that have a good relationship looks like a couple to me.”

“How about Gyungjin-hyung? He also says that he feels lonely when we drink at night.”

“I’d rather live as a single for the rest of my life than date that guy. Hey, they’re getting ready again. I hope she doesn’t injure her throat while trying to scream.”

The director’s cue sign then fell.

Chapter 991
Crank Up 9

It looks difficult. That was what the lawyer said. Lee Miyoon looked for her pain medicine. Although her manager told her to eat one packet at a time, one packet was not nearly enough. She emptied the pills into her mouth and drank some water. How did it come to this? She wanted to leave this frustrating hospital ward, but she knew that she would be summoned the moment she leaves, so she couldn’t do that. The pain that struck her body was ironically her only saving grace.

“Yes, it’s me. Hello? Hello?”

Miyoon was about to throw her phone at the wall before barely managing to hold back. She had called all the important numbers saved in her phone book. There were two types of responses: one, they didn’t pick up, and two, they hung up after telling her not to call again.

“Damn those swines.”

Nothing went well. A supposedly competent lawyer she hired said that probation was going to be difficult the moment they met. She was about to retort, saying that he was nothing like ‘competent’ before deciding not to. It was hard to get a lawyer in the first place. That was because of the news that YM’s chairman and lawyer Park Sunggoo were involved in this case. If she chased out the only lawyer that was willing to help her out, the only option left would be to get a public defender. She had to avoid that at all costs.

She contacted some of her acquaintances who were judges and prosecutors, but their responses were cold as well. They swallowed whatever they were given, but they did not know how to cough up their own services. When she threatened them by saying that she would drag them down with her, they responded with a threat of their own, telling her to go ahead and try. One of the prosecutors even threatened her by saying that he would show her how close the bonds of prosecutors were. While she was frustrated to death, it was a foolish deed to fight them. After all, it was their job to prove the crime and to judge the crime. If she had power, it would be a different story, but now that she was stranded, she was afraid of the law more than any other time.

She put her fingers in her hair and clutched it lightly. Her hair, which had turned white from not being able to dye it, was pulled out like weeds. Miyoon screamed and shook her hand. It had been over ten days since she had not seen a mirror. Today was the 13th of January. The nightmare that began with New Years showed no signs of ending.

The phone she placed next to her pillow started ringing. Miyoon hurriedly picked up the phone, desperately hoping that someone took pity on her and was reaching out their helping hand.

-Actress Lee. How have you been doing?

“President Hong.”

She barely managed to speak. She had seen the news that president Hong was detained three days ago. It was very short; it was even shorter than the news that there was a traffic jam on some road somewhere. Now, people would no longer remember the prostitution case of an agency president. They would only remember the procuress crime that actress Lee Miyoon committed.

-The news is all over you. What a cruel world it is, don’t you think? It was just a few short weeks ago that you were renowned as a national treasure.

“It’s all because of you. You put me in this state. The chairman sold me out to cover you up! Do you even know that!”

-There, there, you’re making me feel sad. But the truth is like that, so I can’t really deny it. Thanks to you, it became quiet. Though, it’s a painful matter that I had to divorce my wife.

“Divorce? That’s it?”

-To someone riddled with failures like you, it might be ‘that’s it’ to you, but this means a lot to me. A flaw appeared on me for the first time. Serving a sentence, I can take as a consequence for something that’s of high return, but I can not with divorce. There is now a flaw to my clean human side of things. I’m extremely displeased about that.

“Bullshit. I won’t go down like this. I’ll go until the end. I’ll make sure that you cannot leave that place with ease. You got that?”

-Go ahead. Though, I’m not sure what you can do with what you have.

Her throat tightened. It suddenly became hard to breathe. The doctor’s words telling her to get absolute rest tickled her ears. The TV noises sounded distant.

-Also, I had someone I know do some tax investigations on you. You seemed to have earned quite a lot using the members of your family. You know? I keep to one principle. I return what I receive. I’ll make it so that you’ll wish that you’ll be detained like me.

The call ended there. Vain laughter escaped her mouth. Miyoon stood in front of the mirror in the bathroom and looked at her face. A granny with a terrible face was staring back at her with exhausted eyes.

Knock, knock — there was a knock on her door. Miyoon slowly looked towards the door. What was her manager doing outside? Did he forget that she told him to stop anyone from entering?

“Uhm, ma’am, you have a guest,” said the manager.

A guest? Miyoon clasped her shaking hands. The fact that her manager gave way meant that the visitor came with good intentions and was a very important person. Perhaps the chairman had changed his mind and was helping her out? She pulled the door open in joy.

“It’s been a long time, Miss Lee Miyoon.”

“Y-you…”

Miyoon couldn’t continue speaking. The one in front of her door was Choi Miyeon. Why would this journalist come here? Despite saying hello quite boldly, journalist Choi could not enter the room. Miyoon saw her hands shaking minutely. It was clear that she was struck with fear.

Just as she was about to speak to find out her intentions of visiting, a man with a neat hairdo, a charcoal-colored suit, and an expensive-looking watch guided journalist Choi into the ward. Miyoon couldn’t even think about stopping them. The moment she saw the man who greeted her with a faint smile, she instinctively realized that she should not utter a word.

“Please excuse me. I’m Park Sunggoo, a lawyer.”

The moment she heard that name, she felt her knees give up. This man was one of the main culprits that put her in this state. Which meant that… Her head turned to journalist Choi. She was standing there after placing the paper bag she brought on the cabinet.

It was hard to grasp what was happening. Why did Park Sunggoo bring that journalist here?

“It looks like I’m a bit late from my trip to the bathroom.”

The one that came in next was the chairman. Miyoon pushed journalist Choi aside and stood in front of the chairman. The chairman squinted at her. She kneeled immediately without even taking any time to think.

“Chairman, chairman. Please spare me this one time. I can’t go down like this. I can’t collapse like this.”

“Actress Lee, you have talent in putting people in a difficult spot. You should welcome your guests first. Journalist Choi is waiting over there.”

“J-journalist Choi, you say?”

“Stand up now.”

Miyoon hurriedly stood up. The marble floor pained her knees, but she had no room to show that on her face. Following Park Sunggoo, even the chairman showed up at the ward. This was not ordinary. Not only that, he called that bitch a guest.

“Miss Lee Miyoon,” journalist Choi called.

She had no idea what was happening.

“I hope you live like that for the rest of your life. Don’t ever become happy. Don’t even try to become happy. Just live like that, and pass on like that,” journalist Choi said with a shaky voice.

Her thought process, which had come to a halt due to her headache, had recovered instantly. Journalist Choi must have known that Lee Miyoon herself was the very cause that put her life in hell. Miyoon looked at the chairman and the lawyer from the corner of her eyes. She had completed her calculations. The one grabbing her lifeline right now was journalist Choi.

“Journalist Choi, no, Miss Choi Miyeon. I was in the wrong. I had no choice back then. I knew that you were a competent and upright journalist, but I couldn’t help you even though I wanted to.”

“And why couldn’t you?”

“I had inevitable circumstances. I’m a victim of this as well. I ended up putting you in hardship because of the inevitable logic of power. I’m deeply regretting that I deceived you back then even now. So please…”

Journalist Choi’s lips were glued together without a gap. Miyoon realized that her escape route had been blocked. Journalist Choi brought out a small vase from the paper bag she brought.

“Take it. I think it’s you who needs it now.”

Miyoon looked at the small vase. It was the vase she bought at journalist Choi’s flower shop. The writing that she wrote herself hit her eyes: I hope your business is successful. She felt like her bladder was being squeezed. It felt like every spinal bone was being twisted apart. Her hand started shaking. The vase she was holding fell on the ground, scattering dry soil across the marble floor.

“So this is inevitable too, right? The reason I’m in this state, and the reason you’re going to prison.”

Journalist Choi no longer trembled. Her voice also returned to that of the passionate journalist a few years ago. Miyoon collapsed to the ground. She could hear the chairman’s voice behind her.

“You should’ve lived a kind life.”

Tsk, tsk — the chairman’s tongue clicking sounded like handcuffs hitting each other. Journalist Choi nodded a little before trying to leave the ward. Miyoon walked over on her knees and grabbed her pants.

“Please, please just forgive me this once. Just once is enough. Please, think of it as saving this old woman, and give me mercy. You’re a kind journalist, aren’t you? Journalist Choi, journalist Choi. Please forgive me just this once. I’m the bad bitch. I’m trash. But people can change. If you let me go this once, I’ll live like a dead rat in the future. So please give me one more chance. Give me mercy this once,” Miyoon said as she looked up at journalist Choi.

Journalist Choi spoke as she looked at the corridor. Her eyes were not shaking even slightly.

“Why didn’t you give me that one chance six years ago? Then I wouldn’t have these scars.”

She showed her her wrist. Dozens of long and thin scars were drawn across her wrist. Miyoon couldn’t hold her back from leaving. She could not exert any strength into her fingers.

“Pay for your crimes, actress Lee.”

The chairman patted her on the shoulders with a smile.

Chapter 992
Crank Up 9

“Journalist Choi. I may not be directly involved in this, but someone related to me has committed something terrible to you, and I’m very sorry that you have received physical and mental damage because of that. If it’s okay with you, I’d like to give you some compensation.”

“I cannot accept that. I don’t even want to.”

“I understand you. I’m sure you don’t.”

The chairman retracted his hand. Journalist Choi stared at him with her mouth shut for a while before saying goodbye to lawyer Park and leaving.

“It looks like I have bought her ire. Do you think I look like trash too?”

“What kind of answer do you want?”

“Forget it. How does it even matter? It’s not like being cursed will lengthen my lifespan or shorten it. Rather than that, she’ll need a lot of money to live by herself as a woman. She doesn’t know how the world works.”

“I’m sure that’s the way she lives in the world.”

“It’s a hard way for sure. It should be about the time that she realizes that people like me are all over the world. I want her to realize that the only thing left at the end is your name and money.”

The chairman put his hand against his mouth and coughed lightly. He was supposed to be at home at this hour but had come to the hospital in this cold weather, so it was about time for his reward.

“Well, then. I’ve listened to your request, lawyer Park. Are you satisfied?”

“Yes. It’s enough to tell my client that things have wrapped up cleanly. I’m sure journalist Choi must be relieved a little.”

“Well, it’s not my business what happens to journalists Kim and Choi. The old Lee Miyoon in that ward is none of my business either. My sole interest is in you, lawyer Park. I hope you can answer me clearly now. Are you going to take up my job?”

“TEC is a picky company. People who had any fun facing them over international patent lawsuits are rare.”

The chairman’s nose twitched. One of those ‘rare’ people was lawyer Park. The fact that he came all the way here following a ‘wronged woman’, someone that could be found everywhere, and took the side of a ‘pathetic journalist’ to oust Lee Miyoon was all to get lawyer Park. Lawyer Park was one of the most important people in this era, where the logic of money reigned supreme. If he could bring this man to his boat, then this much effort was nothing. He only took a few hours off to fawn over someone. It didn’t take any of his money, nor did he have to spend any resources, so it was a profitable exchange.

“So, are you going to do it?”

“If I pull out now, I don’t think I’ll be able to open an office in South Korea, so I should. Please take care of me from now on, chairman.”

“Likewise. As for the legal team, you can create one as you see fit. You can cut people you want to and bring people you want to bring. Just one thing. Bring me results. I don’t care about the process.”

“Understood.”

It felt like an aching tooth had fallen out. Now, he felt like he could sleep at ease. He made his son inherit the company using roundabout stocks, and with this, he would be able to resolve the frustrating patent dispute. It was finally time to retire and enjoy the remainder of his life. He had lawyer Park ride in his car. He was planning to enjoy a drink in a restaurant he went to on important occasions.

“It’s not that I don’t have fortune with people, but when I look at that fellow president Lee, it makes me feel shameful.”

“Please don’t say that. What does that make me?”

“Since we’re at it, doesn’t president Lee have something like a weakness? Once I retreat from my position, my son will be the one facing him, but I’m not feeling good about that. It’s not that my son is a bad one, but he’s totally lacking compared to president Lee.”

“President Lee has a lot of weaknesses.”

“Why is it that I do not see any when he has a lot?”

“Well, I’m not sure.”

“How about Jung Haejoo?”

“If I were you, I will absolutely never mention that name in front of him.”

Lawyer Park had a smile on his face when he responded. To the chairman, it did not look like a smile. That was when he removed Jung Haejoo’s name from the list. He wanted to play a moderate power game, not play with swords at each other’s throats.

“Fine, fine. My son will figure something out by himself.”

“To my eyes, it looks like you’ll never be able to truly step down from your position in your life, chairman.”

“Do I look like I’m that greedy?”

“Yes. Also, you have the competence that befits your big desire. To your eyes, I’m sure everything doesn’t look right. That goes for president Lee as well. To my eyes, you and he are truly similar.”

“Damn sonny. Don’t say something so terrible.”

“You don’t sound persuasive when you say it with a smile like that.”

The chairman did not erase his smile off his face. In his life, the only person he had acknowledged was president Lee. Leaving aside background, ideals, education, wealth, and everything else, he wanted to face him as a pure human personality. Though, they didn’t really get along since they ended up clashing with each other in most situations.

“From what I heard from my secretary Kim, there was a youth called Han Maru at the center of this. I have heard that president Lee looks after that boy a lot. Thanks to that, I almost had to kneel to president Lee.”

“He’s getting a lot of attention.”

“I looked into him a little, and he seems a little special compared to others under his wings. It’s to the point that president Lee can toss hundreds of millions as contract deposit.”

“He’s been doing strange things like that for a long time. Lately, that boy was the last one.”

“Do you know about him as well?”

“Yes. No, well, it makes me cautious to say that I know him well. We can talk to each other well, but if you ask if we completely shared what is inside us, then I can answer no without a doubt.”

“Is he like a viper?”

“A viper is a bit too small. Let’s go with a lesser dragon.”

“Not worthy to become a true one?”

“That, I’m not so sure. But I can say for sure that he’s interesting to watch.”

“How interesting. You got my interest.”

“If you are interested, then you should see him. He’s in Seoul right now.”

“Really?”

The chairman took out his phone.

“What’s his number?”

* * *

“Are you not going in?”

“I hate stuff like this. It’s all good since things went well.”

“You’re saying that, so why did you buy that?”

Maru looked at the roll cake on the back seat. Dongwook smiled bitterly before waving his hand in the air, saying that he was going to eat it himself.

“Don’t say that and come. You should explain with your own mouth what happened. I’m sure she must be feeling complex right now.”

Maru looked at the flower shop across the road. Right now, Choi Miyeon should have arrived at the hospital where Lee Miyoon was hospitalized following lawyer Park. Perhaps they had met already. He could imagine what kind of conversation would take place. She took the vase with a stiff expression after all. He could see a glimpse of her determination to put an end to this long incident.

“She came earlier than I expected. Well, it’s true that she wouldn’t want to see that woman for a long time.”

Miyeon got out of a taxi. Dongwook fidgeted while putting a cigarette in his mouth.

“I’m leaving first. Don’t make things awkward and hop over quickly.”

“Hey! Take the cake with you!”

“You bring it.”

January 13th. Today was Miyeon’s birthday. While finding a suitable date within lawyer Park’s schedule, the date ended up coinciding. This afternoon, Lee Miyoon would be arrested. Is Miyeon seeing her before that woman wore prisoner clothes the greatest birthday gift? Or did it leave behind a vain satisfaction instead?

He stood behind Miyeon, who was opening the door. Miyeon sighed softly and smiled.

“I heard you were busy with the shoot.”

“I’m taking the day off. I’ll be sick if I shoot all week.”

Miyeon’s eyes headed to the car on the other side of the road.

“Is that man going to keep standing there?”

“Looks like he’s embarrassed that he brought a birthday present.”

“Tell him to do that in moderation and come in. It’s cold.”

“He’ll come soon.”

They entered the store. The inside was warm, as though the heater was on. Miyeon took off her coat and sat down before covering her face with both of her hands. Maru stood still until her sobbing ended.

“It’s nothing to cry about, too. I’m so emotional, aren’t I?”

“Are you okay?”

“Yeah. I’m okay. No, I’m not just okay. I feel refreshed. Lee Miyoon was a human after all that, you know? I never thought she’d be like that.”

“Anyone would be grasping at straws if they’re pushed to the edge of a cliff.”

“When I first heard it, I was angry. I told him so many times to not get involved in it because it’s dangerous, but he ended up doing all this without telling me a word about it, didn’t he?”

“Gifts are better when they’re surprises,” Maru said with a smile, but he lowered his gaze when Miyeon glared at him.

“I’m sorry.”

“It’s good that you know. I’m also glad that nothing happened.”

“Someone with a great background helped us out this time.”

“I’ve thanked lawyer Park several times over.”

“He’s a good man.”

“A good man, huh,” Miyeon echoed his words, her expression slightly stiff.

“The YM chairman came too.”

“The chairman?”

“The bigshot whose face I could barely see when I was a journalist was apologizing to me. I could tell it was just a formality. I could feel it. He made some sort of deal with lawyer Park. Lawyer Park is definitely a person I’m grateful to. However, I don’t think he’s a good person like you say. Well, that depends on the perspective, but at least from mine, it’s like that.”

“That sounds plausible.”

“It’s all over now, so I guess I don’t need to dwell on it. I will never get involved with those people after all. There’s no way the head of a colossal company and a top-class lawyer will come to a small flower shop like this, is there?”

“Of course. You should be doing business with ordinary folk like me.”

“Strictly speaking, you don’t belong to the ordinary. You fooled me like a fiddle. In some aspects, you’re more hateful than senior Kim. Everything had already begun when Lee Miyoon visited that day, didn’t it?”

“I guess that’s how it is.”

Miyeon placed her hand on the table and looked around the store slowly. Joy and resentment were reflected in her eyes as she scanned from floor to ceiling.

“Thanks.”

It was a small voice that he could barely hear. Maru just shrugged.

“Tell that to hyung-nim once he comes over. I didn’t do anything.”

“Forget it. I won’t say it twice. You tell him.”

“Don’t say that.”

Just then, Miyeon’s eyes widened. Maru turned around. He saw Dongwook with an awkward smile standing outside the store. In one hand was a roll cake. He quickly stood up and opened the door.

“Come inside quickly. It’s cold.”

“I’m going to leave right after I give her this.”

“You aren’t kids.”

He pushed Dongwook’s back and brought him in front of Miyeon. Miyeon glared at him. She signaled him to say whatever he needed to say. Maru walked to the side and watched the two. It was about time for the conversation to begin with Dongwook’s awkward greeting.

“Please have a talk. I just got a call.”

It was a number he didn’t know, but it was great timing. Maru went outside and closed the door before picking up his phone.

“Hello?”

A hoarse voice could be heard from the other side of the phone.

Chapter 993
Crank Up 9

Maru hung up and looked inside the shop. The awkward atmosphere looked like it was making even the plants dry to death. He opened the door and went inside.

“You should sing happy birthday.”

“We’re too old for that.”

Miyeon waved her hand in denial. Dongwook looked embarrassed as well.

“It’s better than staying still doing nothing. As the youngest one here, I’ll light the candles and wear the cone hat.”

He took out the roll cake and stuck the candles in. Miyeon, who said she didn’t want to do it, didn’t hold him back. As the roll cake was rather small, he only put three long candles. When he put on the conical hat, which was a freebie, the two people sitting opposite him laughed at the same time.

“I’ll act cute in front of you elderly, so please stop with the cold war, and let’s bring back the peace and harmony. I’ll light it up now.”

He lit up a matchstick and lit the candles. The two people awkwardly looked down at the cake. If Maru let them act as they pleased, they might watch until the cake became covered in candle wax. He clapped and sang happy birthday. The two people did not sing along.

“Uhm, I’m going to sing this again and again.”

When he started singing again, Dongwook followed along, albeit awkwardly. Now, it was Miyeon’s turn. She hesitated before looking away slightly and laughing awkwardly.

“I can’t win against you, sheesh.”

After the happy birthday song, Miyeon blew out the candles.

“Since we sang the stereotypical happy birthday song, I should ask you the age-old question too, right? What did you wish for?”

“I heard that saying it out loud is no good.”

Miyeon took out the smoking candles and continued speaking,

“I wished that only happy things will happen from now on. I don’t want to experience those terrible things again.”

“I’m sure it’ll come true. You should make a wish too, hyung-nim.”

Dongwook twitched his lips before speaking — eat well and be happy. Miyeon glared at him, saying that she didn’t feel a shred of truth from that.

“Geez, you sure want a lot. Have some of this already.”

Dongwook sliced the cake with a plastic knife. Miyeon stood up, saying that she would bring some plates.

“I’ll get going now.”

Maru also stood up.

“Why? You should have some.”

“I’d love to, but I have something to attend to. You should eat by yourselves. Hyung-nim worked really hard this time. You should treat him to something good.”

He bowed to Miyeon, who looked at him with a look asking him to stay. Dongwook didn’t hold him back. It seemed that he realized that Maru truly had something important to attend to.

“Give me a call if something happens.”

Dongwook said those words before leaving. Maru left the shop and grabbed a taxi. The invitation was something he couldn’t reject. It wasn’t forced or anything, but the inviter was so charming that he wanted to meet that man even if he had to break his prior engagement. Though, Miyeon might have freaked out if she heard the name of the host.

The taxi stopped in front of Bukchon traditional town. Maru looked at the building on the other side of the road. Three black sedans were waiting in front of the large gate. Men who looked like security guards looked around.

“I apologize, but the reservation is full.”

When he walked up to the gate, a man in a suit politely informed him of that fact. Maru mentioned the name of the person inside, namely, lawyer Park Sunggoo. The man in the suit put his hand on his earpiece. He seemed to be checking immediately and soon guided him inside. Maru walked on the well-crafted road.

“A guest has arrived.”

A sliding door covered in old paper opened. Lawyer Park was sitting down right in front of the door. Maru greeted lawyer Park with his eyes and bowed to the chairman who was on the other side of the table.

“Hello.”

“Yes, yes. Come in. I was worried that I called someone busy today.”

“Not at all.”

“Sit down first.”

He sat down next to lawyer Park. The food on the table was rather shabby. Some jeon, some sushi, and some japchae were everything.

“You should order some more if you want it.”

“It’s okay. The liquor will taste worse if there’s too much to eat.”

“You know your stuff despite being young.”

The chairman held out a ceramic kettle. Maru unflipped the ceramic glass in front of him and grabbed it with both of his hands.

“Here, have some. You should have some too, lawyer Park.”

The chairman poured liquor into the two glasses and put down the kettle. Maru looked at lawyer Park. He asked who should pick up that kettle with his eyes. Lawyer Park smiled and grabbed his glass. He meant for Maru to pour it.

“Allow me to pour you a glass as well.”

He pressed the lid of the kettle and tilted it forward. He filled the chairman’s glass about halfway before tilting the kettle back up.

“Weren’t you puzzled since I called you suddenly?”

“It was rather puzzling because it was unexpected.”

“I usually don’t make unscheduled appointments so suddenly, but you have piqued my interest, young Han. Let’s have a sip as a greeting for now.”

Maru turned his head around[1] and drank the liquor. The liquor in the clear ceramic was strong enough to burn. Anyone weak to alcohol would have spat it back out.

“You’re good.”

The chairman grinned. He pointed at the side dishes on the table and told him to eat without holding back. Maru picked up the pair of chopsticks in front of him and grabbed a pepper jeon. The degree of frying, the meaty fragrance, and even the flavor of the soy sauce he dipped it into was perfect. He, who was not a gourmet, could tell that, so the skills of the cook must be amazing.

“How is it?”

“It’s very good. Very different from what I’m used to eating.”

“It’d better be. How much do you think it costs here? But it’s still okay since they’re as good as they get paid. One of the other reasons I like this place is because they don’t try to put too much effort into decorating and just focus solely on the taste. Should we have another glass?”

“I’ll gladly accept it.”

Now that he had a closer look, the liquor was a brownish-orange color. It seemed to be a sort of grain wine. The primary scent was spicy, but it was soft as it was swallowed. Though, that didn’t change the fact that it was strong enough to make ordinary people lose their minds after just one or two glasses.

“What a drinker you are. People in my family are great in all aspects, but they’re weak in drinking. I don’t like that. Lawyer Park, how about another glass?”

“I’d love to, but I have to start working today, so I’ll stop here.”

“Right, right. I can’t offer wine to someone who’s about to do important work, especially since my own money is involved. What should I do then… There’s still a long time left.”

The chairman waved the kettle in the air. As someone who worked in business before, Maru naturally knew what that gesture meant. Maru quietly placed the glass in front of him and took the liquor.

“I was just going to see your face today, but I can’t stop here. A young man can drink so well, so I can’t pull out.”

Three glasses were exchanged in a blink of an eye. Even Maru, who had never gotten drunk in his new life, could feel his face become hot. The chairman, on the other hand, brightened up as though the liquor was some rejuvenation tonic. His alcohol capacity was absurd. The amount of alcohol he had to drink in order to build that super company must have built his alcohol tolerance to a ridiculous level. Or perhaps his absurd alcohol tolerance is the reason he was able to rise to that position.

“You got involved in such a matter because of your lover. You’re really like me when I was young. I was also blinded by love once.”

It seemed that the chairman already knew what kind of relationship he had with Gaeul. Well, it would be strange if the chairman didn’t know what Kang Giwoo already knew.

“Lee Miyoon, that woman just can’t handle it. She looked a little useful, but she was no good after all. No wonder she got caught in the trap that you and journalist Kim set so easily. Little Hong was a bit crude as well. Though, he’s an elite who never made a big slip, so I guess I should be understanding. He was always doing the stabbing and has never been the one being stabbed.”

“I apologize for having inconvenienced you, chairman.”

Maru sat up properly. When he did, the chairman waved his hand in the air in denial and raised his voice,

“Don’t. I’m absolutely not trying to blame you here. I’m not that petty to nitpick about some trouble they got into because of their own lack of competence. If anything, I’m evaluating you very highly because of that. I can already understand why president Lee likes you so much.”

“Thank you for your good words.”

The chairman smiled in satisfaction and emptied the glass in his mouth.

“You know my grandson too, eh?”

“Yes.”

“And you aren’t that close, I gather?”

“We aren’t.”

“That boy. He really doesn’t know who to befriend. I’ve always told him to get along with exceptional people and not some street thugs you can find anywhere, but he always has his runts around him. That’s what puts him at ease, because it covers up his flaws. The one who is supposed to be the true crane amongst cranes is practically chirping his greatness amidst crows. Though, I still let him be because what he does is cute.”

“I’m sure he’ll change once he experiences more of the world.”

“No, people do not change so easily. It’s one of my philosophies. That boy will ultimately gnaw away at the things I built up throughout his entire life. I’m not saying it’s a bad thing. I’ll be happy as long as he grows up healthily. It’s just a bit of a pity. If my grandson was a talent just like my son is, YM will last another fifty years at least.”

At that time, lawyer Park’s phone started ringing. From how he didn’t put it on silent or off, it looked like it was a call he had to take.

“Chairman, allow me to leave for a little. It seems like the work I’m taking over has arrived already.”

“Go on, go on. Don’t mind me. It’s me who should be mindful of you.”

Lawyer Park left the room. Maru calmed his breath and looked at the chairman. It seemed true when he said that he called him here just to see his face. If he had any other intentions, he would have mentioned it already. The chairman was not someone who would be considerate of other people’s circumstances.

“I have told my grandson not to be hung up over some woman. Another man’s woman, no less.”

“Thank you for your consideration.”

“You too. Don’t be so at odds with him and get along. He’s my ugly duckling, but he’s my bloodline after all.”

“I’ll keep my heart open. If that fellow doesn’t hate me anymore, we’ll naturally get closer.”

“Well, I guess it would be strange of me to ask for any more than that.”

The chairman dipped a jeon in some soy sauce.

“Have you drunk with president Lee?”

“Many times, sir.”

“How am I compared to him? Are you enjoying drinking with me? Or is drinking with president Lee more enjoyable?”

“Had I known you better, it would definitely have been enjoyable.”

The chairman slapped the table with hearty laughter.

“True. Drinking with someone you don’t know is the most terrible way to drink. In that sense, I am indebted to you, young Han, and I settle my debts quickly. Now I’m obliged to treat you to something good to drink.”

[1] Korean drinking etiquette when drinking in front of elders.

Chapter 994
Crank Up 9

“You don’t need to say that you’re obliged to do anything. I’ll visit you whenever you feel bored, just give me a call.”

“You really know how to scratch where it itches. There are many people who look spiteful despite their eloquent talking skills, but I like you because you aren’t like that. It’s a skill to make flattery sound good. I hate people who blatantly try to suck on my toes.”

The chairman pressed the bell on the table. Not long later, women wearing hanbok brought new dishes. The main dish, the steamed clams, was placed in the center, while multi-colored seaweed-like food filled the empty spaces. As for the drink, it was just a bottle of rice wine commonly found on the market.

“I was raised in Busan. I was born in Seoul but had to go down there during the war. Everything was chaotic because of the war, but men had to work even amidst the chaos. I sold instant bread[1] at an age where I should be going to school. I was told I had to pay half of my sales for borrowing the machine, but what could I do about that? I didn’t know how my father was doing since we got separated during the war, and my mother had fallen ill and collapsed. I got us a tattered room with whatever little money we had, but I had to do work in order to feed my little brothers. It wasn’t that uncommon back then. That was how everybody was like. It was an era where everyone had a snot-nosed younger sibling or children who would be dying if not for them working.”

Maru looked at the label on the rice wine. It was a made-in-Busan brand. This probably contained a lot of memories, as well as resentment, for the chairman.

“Then one day, I was offered the chance to buy the instant bread cooker. That was the first scam I experienced. That man was quite something. Actually, that man had borrowed the cooker from someone else. I was buying a borrowed item. Somewhat like tenant farmers leasing their land. That was when I realized.”

He poured the rice wine into the chairman’s glass. It was only appropriate to keep listening when an elderly was bringing up the past.

“I realized that having an item in my hand is not useful at all. While I got my hands on the bread cooker, the one who profited was the one who sold me the cooker. Of course, if I keep selling instant bread, I should be able to earn money. I should have been able to make a living. But that’s it. All I would ever get my hands on is money that I sell from selling instant bread. Do you know what I did next?”

“You must have lent it to someone else.”

“Yes. I lent it to someone else while I learned woodcraft from a craftsman. I got my hands on another cooker with the rental fee and the wages I earned and positioned it in the next town over. Like that, I eventually managed over thirty of those cookers. How is that? I must have become rich, right?”

“More than half of those thirty, or even all of them, might have gone missing or sold as scrap metal.”

The chairman swallowed the rice wine in an instant.

“Correct. If the first-ever scam I experienced was buying the bread cooker, this was my first-ever business failure. I was merely sixteen back then. Though, back then, sixteen was treated like an adult. I was satisfied seeing the cookers increasing day by day. For a few months, the borrowers gave me money. But after some time, everyone disappeared all at once as though they planned it behind my back. They took my cookers as well. It was frustrating. I searched everywhere and found the man who took my cookers. I grabbed him by the collar and demanded he cough up my cookers, but he said he didn’t have any because he sold everything. Then I demanded the money, and he said he used it all. I couldn’t go to anyone to vent my frustration, so I tried looking for the cookers myself. There I met the man who scammed me in the beginning. It was flabbergasting.”

“What did you do after that?”

“I grabbed him by the pants and followed him everywhere, telling him that I want to earn money like him.”

“Did that man tell you the method?”

“He did. He told me to chase the man, not the money. After that, when I did business, I thought about the man’s words from time to time. But nothing about it was right. That’s because people always betray. The one who stabs you in the back is always a person, while money is truthful the whole time. I changed my perspective. I erased what that man said from my mind entirely. I created my surroundings solely based on money, and my wealth increased rapidly. Money is the best, money is the measure of credibility, money is the only rule and order.”

The chairman clenched his right hand as he spoke with intensity. His trembling eyes then calmed down. He loosened his grip and his shoulders.

“But I was wrong. The one stabbing you in the back is a person, but the one blocking it is also a person. That made me wonder. Just what kind of people should I have by my side so that my business does not fall apart and can become a pillar that supports the history of this nation? Society treats me like I’m some kind of freak, but I’m not that monstrous. If anything, I’m very feeble. Before the financial crisis hit, I picked people based on my emotions. I even held very unconventional job interviews. I did not look at their origins or specs and solely picked people based on their nature. Do you know how much effort and money you need to verify someone’s personality?”

“It’s definitely more consuming than giving out standardized entrance tests.”

The chairman nodded.

“It was impossible to standardize anything, so I employed people myself, or had someone I could trust pick them. That procedure created dramatic losses both economically and time-wise, but I believed that that was what was best for the company. I promoted people based on other people’s evaluations of them, even if their skills were lacking. It was a really harmonious office. Everyone was like family. Although this expression is used in a different meaning now[2], it was really fun back then. Whenever there was something to congratulate, we would all congratulate that person with all our hearts, and we would cry together if something bad happened.”

Maru poured the rice wine into his glass. The chairman looked at the glass and spoke,

“Then the IMF crisis came. A family-like company, a company without lies, a company with affection.”

The chairman laughed in self-loathing and spoke after emptying his glass,

“That was my company. What do you think happened to it?”

“I do not know.”

“Of course you don’t. It’d be strange if you do. Men who called each other brothers called me in the middle of the night. It was back when I was not in the right mind because of all the debts I had to pay. I asked them what happened. They said the same thing, just changing out the subject and the object in the sentence. They made it roundabout, but it ultimately came down to one thing: don’t fire me, fire the other guy. The ones who laughed together had changed their attitudes when there were knives held in their throats. I’m sure that wasn’t their real intention. They probably asked me because it’s inevitable as the breadwinners of their respective houses. They thought that having someone else’s family suck on their thumbs in hunger is better than their own family no longer having a place to live.”

The chairman looked at him straight and asked,

“What would you have done? There’s a close colleague at your workplace, and one of the two of you will have to quit the company tomorrow. Will you ask your superiors to save your own butt? Or are you going to be loyal to your friend and just wait until orders come down?”

“If I can secure my own life with a phone call, then I’ll make that choice.”

“Even if that results in your close friend leaving the company?”

“I do not hesitate when it comes to things I cannot handle. I only do whatever I can. It’ll definitely be heartbreaking for that friend to resent me. However, if I can protect my family in compensation for being hurt, I’ll think that it’s a cheap price to pay.”

“What a coldblood.”

The chairman pouted his lower lip in dissatisfaction. Maru drank the rice wine without minding it. His relationship with the chairman was okay like this. He neither wanted to form a close relationship with him to the point where they would give everything for each other nor did he want to get on his bad side and affect his acting career. Someone who knows to adequately flatter, but that’s everything about him — that was enough.

“Well, I guess that’s just how everyone copes. Skills above nature, talent above personality. The company became a wolf’s den where one might be chased out the moment their wounds were exposed, but it became a lot firmer and sturdier. However, to this day, I remember that man’s words. Chase man, not money.”

The chairman waved at him to leave. It was rather sudden. Maru quietly stood up and said goodbye to the chairman. When he opened the door and walked outside, he saw lawyer Park standing there.

“You’re leaving?”

“Yes. The chairman told me to leave. It seems he doesn’t like me.”

“Alright, I see. Let’s have a meal sometime.”

“I’ll be taking my leave first.”

Maru said goodbye to lawyer Park before bowing towards the chairman once again through the opening of the door. The chairman wasn’t even looking at him.

* * *

“I’ll get going now.”

“Alright, I’m expecting good work from you. Do rest from time to time.”

Lawyer Park left the room. The chairman looked at the empty seat opposite him before calling for secretary Kim.

“Little Kim.”

“Yes, chairman.”

“If the prosecutors told you that they’ll harm your family if you do not tell them how I got my secret funds, what will you do?”

Secretary Kim did not hesitate to answer,

“I’ll have to apologize to you in advance, but I’ll tell them.”

“How spiteful. You should say that you’ll protect it with your life even if it’s just a lie.”

“If I was someone like that, you would have cast me away a long time ago.”

The chairman had secretary Kim sit down and poured some rice wine for him.

“The boy named Han Maru. He was quite bold. He flatters me but doesn’t cross the line. It’s like he doesn’t need my help.”

“I see you have taken a liking to him.”

The chairman curled up his lips slightly.

“He listened to this old man’s boring bedtime story, so I should give him a reward. Let’s give him some more on top of the advertisement I told you about before.”

“Yes, sir.”

The chairman recalled Han Maru’s answer and rested his chin on his hand.

“I don’t hate those willing to do anything to protect their family. In fact, they are the ones who brought me big benefits if they crossed the crisis in front of them. Pretenses are bound to break, so I like ones who gnash their teeth and try to protect their loved ones at all costs. That’s because they don’t chase money, they chase man.”

Secretary Kim lifted up the rice wine bottle. The chairman lightly grabbed his glass.

[1] Or 풀빵. It’s a flour-water mixture directly cooked in holed metal plates (something like takoyaki cooker plates).

[2] In recent years, Koreans calling a company ‘family-like’ is generally considered a bad thing, because employers try to coerce you to do certain things or do more work ‘for the sake of family.’

Chapter 995
Crank Up 9

“I am glad that he’s bringing work since he’s been fooling around, but…”

Junmin recalled secretary Kim, who politely said goodbye as he left. The reason that man – a close aide of the chairman – came to visit him was simple. It was about signing contracts for commercials. When he heard the name from secretary Kim’s mouth, Junmin stroked his hair backwards. He knew that the chairman had a private meeting with Maru. The chairman wasn’t someone who could hold back his curiosities, so it was natural. Contrary to Maru’s words, who said that he had just adequately had a conversation with him before leaving, it seemed that the chairman had taken quite a liking to him. Otherwise, there was no way he would let Han Maru take the commercial for the phone launching in February, as well as the one for a cosmetic product belonging to a popular line of products in China, Japan, and Thailand.

For the Q-series phones, YM often went as far as using videos created by college students, so that wasn’t really surprising, but cosmetics was a different story. As the model of the commercial influenced the sales of a product more than the performance of the item, using an actor without any popularity was definitely not in line with the chairman’s business philosophy of pursuing profit. No matter how much of a liking he took towards Maru, it shouldn’t have been possible to make him prioritize Maru over profits.

“President, I think you need to see this.”

Head manager Kang brought about four clear files the size of A4. Junmin looked at the covers of those files. He ended up chuckling in vain.

“These are all scenarios?”

“Yes. I don’t know what happened, but we suddenly got a bunch of them. Some of them even said that they’re willing to bypass the audition as long as we give them the okay.”

He looked at the names of the film production and drama production companies. They were all places that were influenced by YM’s capital. Two of them were quite tempting as well.

“Head manager Kang. Do you know when Nature Beauty’s launch show is held?”

“You’re talking about YM Living’s cosmetic brand, right? From what I know, it’s this winter.”

“Winter, you say.”

Junmin stroked his chin and leaned back on his chair. The problem seemed to be a lack of recognition of the actor, so were they planning to increase the actor’s popularity? If it was someone who didn’t have the skills or unique, attention-grabbing traits, then, even with YM’s support, it would be a short-lived success, but when it came to Maru, there was potential. Not just that, he would absolutely become a big issue.

Junmin believed in his eyes. Although the ‘ear-whatever’ that the people around him talked about was something he no longer saw, his insight was not bad considering how he had been maintaining JA until now. Also, he believed in the chairman’s eyes as well. It would be weird to doubt the eyes of the leader of a super company. This was a silent agreement from both sides that Han Maru was worth investing in.

“It’s rather rushed, but it’s also hard to refuse.”

Maru would refuse his helping hand. Unlike when he was in high school, he was no longer in a rush to do something, but his apologetic feelings towards the company should play a role in this as well. Leaving a five-year gap was definitely a loss for the company. That young man said that he would take care of himself.

Junmin looked at the papers placed in front of him. This was an achievement purely brought by Han Maru. He tapped on the papers with his fingers. It was a pity that Maru was going to take flight with wings given to him by the chairman as Junmin himself wanted to be the one to push his back.

“What are you going to do?” head manager Kang asked.

Junmin piled the documents together and handed them over to head manager Kang.

“Go through them. We’ll let the person in question decide.”

“These are too good to pass up.”

“I’ll persuade him so that he doesn’t. As disappointing as it is, he should row his boat when he can. We can’t just pass up on an opportunity that was given to us.”

“Understood.”

Twenty-six. He was quite young as an actor. The average age of male actors who were considered ‘s-tier’ in Chungmuro was thirty-nine. Meaning, it was impossible to win against the flow of time dissolved in one’s face no matter how good one’s acting may be. However, it wasn’t like simply getting older would make anyone a top actor. There was a procedure. The era when TV and the cinema screen were two different things was a thing of the past. This generation of top actors would be the last ones that would be able to talk about their harsh past. These days, drama stars would easily become movie stars. Above all, new actors appeared in droves. Wandering around theaters and miraculously showing up on screen was going to be a mythical story of the past. Promising youths were already going to movies after appearing on TV, and the opposite was true as well. Although the wall between movies and dramas still remained, it was only a matter of time before it was toppled. This was already true overseas, in the form of drama seasons and drama adaptations of movies. It was going to turn into a market where the same actors appeared over and over again.

Of course, there would be exceptions no matter the time. There were bound to be appearances of actors who rise to stardom even in a turbulent flow. However, what kind of company would wait for a genius that might or might not appear somewhere?

After head manager Kang left, a call came. Junmin checked the name and picked up the call.

-Have you been notified?

“Yes, chairman. It’s such a shocking offer that it puts me in a tight spot.”

-Like hell it does. I’m doing something so I should do at least that much. So, how is it? Are you going to accept?

“I have no reason to refuse since we’d be earning money. But I’ll have to listen to Maru’s opinion. Even the most tempting offer is useless if he doesn’t want to do it.”

-Of course, I presume you’ll persuade him?

Naturally. Although he had decided on that, he asked back anyway,

“What did you like about him so much? It’s been a very long time since I saw you support anyone like this.”

-I like how he did not flatter me and yet still observed how I looked. He’s not someone who’s too proud, but he did not abandon his pride like those sneaky ones. Above all…

The chairman stopped for a beat before continuing,

-It was fun talking to him. So much so that I want to call him over quietly to my house and drink with him quietly.

“I see.”

-Anyway, do accept our proposals as only then will we be able to bring him up to suit the name of YM. If I put him in a cosmetic commercial as he is now, the board directors will obviously nag at me and tell me that I’m senile. Although it’s launching in winter, we can delay it to next year depending on the situation, and engraving the name Han Maru into the ears of the public is an easy feat in a year. I’ve had a look at the works he appeared in. They were pretty good.

“You aren’t someone who’ll invest in something that wouldn’t work out. How is it? Do you think he’ll bring you benefits?”

-If I could predict that, why would I be staying at YM? I would’ve gunned for president.

“You didn’t turn down that position because it’s too boring?”

-What a good joke. Anyway, do tell him for me. Don’t make me a senile old man.

“Okay.”

Junmin hung up. He bought a cup of tea from the vending machine and left the company. The weather forecast said that it was going to start snowing in the afternoon, and it was right. Looking at the falling snow quietly, he took out his phone.

-Yes, president.

“You busy?”

-We just quit the shoot. The snow suddenly got worse.

“It just started snowing in Seoul. Looks like the snow’s coming from the South this year. How’s the shoot?”

-It’s progressing smoothly. Though, the director did grumble, saying that the weather forecast was only right at times like this.

“I guess even geniuses can’t win against the whims of God.”

A snowflake fell into his cup. It was pretty big.

When he didn’t say anything for a while, Maru spoke,

-Did something happen?

“Did something happen, huh? A lot of things happened.”

Junmin placed the cup on the banister of the stairs.

“For now, congratulations, your fortune with work just exploded.”

-My work fortune?

“I’ll have to talk about the details face to face, but for now, just know that many places are paying attention to you. Depending on the situation, you might have a full schedule until the end of the year.”

-There’s no way something like that will happen without reason, so did the chairman do something?

“Unlike what you thought, it seems that the chairman has taken quite a liking to you.”

-I felt like that drinking occasion was going to be the last one.

“The chairman is someone who talks to men who define the future of this country. If you could read everything off him, then YM would have collapsed a long time ago or would be in someone else’s hands.”

-That’s true.

“I want to know your thoughts first. Are you going to do it, or not?”

-This is rather sudden, so I’m a little taken aback. When you said that my schedule for the rest of the year might be full, it means that I have scenarios for some titles, right?

“There’s five in my hand right now, and who knows if there might be more. Also, you got an offer to be a model for a commercial.”

-I don’t think I have the right face to be a model.

“That depends on how you’re prepared. Above all, the chairman’s more knowledgeable than me when it comes to productization. I guess he found something that would work on the public in you.”

-Is it for an electric drill or something? Or some farm tools?

“Cosmetics.”

-I’m sorry?

The always calm man was so taken aback that he had to ask back. Junmin smiled and continued,

“Before I hear your thoughts, I’ll say mine. Do it. I had plans for you, but this is a much better opportunity than that. Of course, you might not like the chairman’s proposal. You were involved in not-so-good matters with him after all.”

-What happens if I say I won’t do it?

“Everything will go to naught, and you’ll get on his bad side. Of course, if that’s what you’re worried about, I can cover you, so don’t worry.”

There was no reply for a while. Snow piled up on the rims of the paper cup and on the inside. The snow was getting thicker. It seemed that Seoul would be covered in a blanket of white tonight.

-I guess I should grab an opportunity that’s given to me.

Maru finally said after the silence. Junmin nodded.

“Alright, got it. We’ll talk about the details in Seoul, then.”

He put the phone, which had become quiet, in his pocket.

Chapter 996
Crank Up 9

Snow had piled up so much that it made Maru worried that the sea in front of Ulsan was going to be covered in snow. The local news talked about it being the highest amount of snowfall in a decade. The main roads were clear to drive as the local authorities responded quickly, but less used roads were filled with snow, enough to make driving difficult. Maru got some coffee from the cafe in the hotel and came outside. Snowplows were moving around busily.

"It did say it was going to snow, but it snowed so quickly and in large amounts. Man, the weather is so whimsical this year," Gyungjin said, following him out.

"Looks like we won't be able to shoot anything with things like this."

"If we are going to do the scenes progressively, then the snow has to melt. If there's suddenly a large amount of snow in a new scene, the genre might as well be fantasy."

"I thought it was going smoothly, but the weather is pulling our leg."

"Yeah."

They couldn't really complain about it to the heavens either.

"See the news this morning?"

Gyungjin put a cigarette in his mouth. Maru left the front of the hotel and walked towards the smoking area near the parking lot. Gyungjin smiled, saying that smoking in the snow tasted rather special.

"The taste of military service?"

"Something similar to that. It would be blissful if I could take a puff while eating some ramyun once I'm done with my shift. Maru. Did you always not smoke?"

"I did smoke a long time ago."

"A long time ago at your age, isn't that high school then?"

Maru winked instead of responding. He couldn't exactly explain that it was in his life before his death.

"Lee Miyoon, you know. She's done for now."

"Are the results out?"

"Yep. I guess even popular actresses have a swift fall from grace. I heard that the number of visitors for her trial was massive. It just goes to show the amount of interest in the matter. The people who went there described what happened in so much detail that it felt like I was there too. Every crime pinned on her was acknowledged, so she's bound to go to prison."

"There's still the appeal process, so she'll probably do various things to reduce her sentence."

"The thing is, it looks like she won't make any appeals. She admitted to all the evidence that the prosecutors provided and acknowledged her sins, repeatedly apologizing."

"So she changed lanes to getting a reduced sentence by showing she's repenting, huh?"

"It looks like it. Even I, who has no knowledge of the law at all, could tell that there's no way out of it. But still, it's quite scary. They say there's no one who's the same on the inside as the outside, but how many people are so drastically different like Lee Miyoon? I was really happy to see her when I met her once before too."

"That's just life for you."

Gyungjin flicked the cigarette before putting it in the trash.

"It makes me nervous that you're so readily accepting that. Maybe you have a huge secret too?"

"Anyone has at least one huge secret."

"Actually, I didn't tell anyone about this, but there are some people who'll be doomed if I say a word. It's just loyalty to those people that are preventing me from saying anything."

"That loyalty, you should take it to the grave."

While smoking, quite a lot of snow had piled up on their shoulders. It seemed that the forecast was going to be wrong when it said that it was going to stop snowing in the evening. They went to the hotel entrance again and dusted off the snow on their hair and clothes. On the opposite side, a child came out and hopped like a rabbit in the snow. The child's mother told the child to stay still, but the child kept leaving footprints on the snow piled on the road.

"They're pretty just around that age," Gyungjin said while looking at the child.

"That's true, they're very pretty around that age."

Children acting immature didn't change whether they were five or fifteen, but around pre-school age, them saying 'daddy, daddy' would be enough to dissolve any kind of anger. They would be so cute that the parents would doubt if the child was really their own.

"Why do your eyes make you look like you have had at least two children?"

"I guess that's how well I'm planning for the future. Living a cozy life with a good wife and a cute child."

"You're way too young to plan something like that though. Twenty-five? No, you're twenty-six now, aren't you?"

"If it was before, I would have had kids."

"How is anything now similar to before? In your twenties, you're supposed to be enjoying life. There's a couple I know who got married in their early 20s and another couple that got married in their mid-20s, but do you know what they tell me whenever we meet?"

"What do they say?"

"They tell me that marriage is happy, and it's worth doing, but, as late as possible, and if possible, never."

"They may say that, but they're probably busy looking at their children doing cute things whenever they go home."

Gyungjin said that he was right with a nod.

"Since we're on the topic, wanna have a look?"

What Gyungjin showed him was a video he supposedly got from his friends of a breastfeeding infant and a baby who just learned to walk. The dad was carrying the infant on his back. When the dad jerked up and down saying 'peekaboo', the infant giggled. The child who just learned to walk was walking with a walking aid toy. He walked towards the mother clapping in encouragement and the dad snatched the child midway and put him in his arms. The child cried the moment that happened.

Maru had a look at Gyungjin's expression. Considering how he said something about getting married as late as possible, he looked like he considered the child adorable to death.

"But they also told me this too. You know how other people's children are so cute; it's not the same when you raise one yourself. There are many times where they feel hateful."

"Newborns put you on the edge. Every single breathing sound will make you teeter on the edge of life, and if the poop color is bad, then it'll make you worried sick for the rest of the day. If they wake up in the middle of the night and start crying, you hate it, but the child still makes you feel unease. Then when they start mumbling, you find it curious but feel like the world is collapsing once they start throwing tantrums with fluent speech. By the time they grow up to form their own opinion, they somehow feel distant and you start wondering about what acting like a father is. Then you hear people around you saying that you should act like friends and then resolve to get closer, but the gap between you and the child can't grow any longer."

Maru talked as though he was regretting the past. The figure of the child remaining in his memories made his heart stuffy just by remembering her. The child that still wasn't in this world yet might never get to see the light of day. There were definitely cases where he died in an accident before her birth. If such things as souls exist, what would happen to that child's soul, which wanes before it is even born? When he thought about it, he felt endlessly sorrowful and endless longing.

"Right now, you just sounded like you experienced that yourself. Do you perhaps have a hidden child? Is that the secret you can't tell me?"

"No way."

"You should really stop acting in everyday life. It'll confuse the people around you. I always have to stay in bed for a few hours once I do a scene with you. You know how many times I was slammed against the wall two days ago, right?"

"That was your death scene, so you put your effort into it. You were the one who said that we should do it again when everyone else said that we should stop there and move on."

"Is that what happened?"

Maru cautiously put the figure of his daughter 'Gaeul' that lingered in front of his eyes into the drawers of his memory, hoping that he would be able to see her in this life.

Gyungjin pointed at the sofa placed in the lounge, saying that they should have a talk if he didn't have anything else to do. Just as they were about to sit down, Maru's phone vibrated. Gyungjin's did also.

"Looks like our work was set out for us."

Gyungjin checked the message. Maru also had a look at his phone.

-We'll do a shoot tomorrow afternoon depending on the weather. We'll do the ending scene first.

It was a message from the assistant director.

"The weather's like this, so even the director will skip scenes, huh? The shoot for this title was definitely easier since it's shot progressively unlike other works."

"We got this much snow after all. From what I heard, the director apparently planned on creating the right environment at the beginning of February, even going as far as to use a snow machine if necessary, but the skies have created a free-of-charge set for us, so we might as well make use of it."

When Maru received the third edition of the script for the first time, the first thing he saw was the opening and the ending. He could remember the first line of the text without looking; Knee-deep snow. Considering the snow piled up right now, it should reach above the ankles, if not the knees. The ending began with Gukji walking through such snow. The camera would capture him going into the mountains while clutching the stab wound on his flank. After the head manager's dying voice fades out, the film would then rush towards the final scene without a single word like a soundless film.

"I won't be appearing on camera, but I'll go cheer you on. It's obviously going to be a tough shoot."

Gyungjin tapped him on the shoulder. As he said, it was going to be a difficult shoot. Maru always thought about an image before a shoot began. He thought about how things would unfold and what kind of picture they would create. For the ending scene though, he couldn't think of anything. It only felt vague. He would probably feel just as lost as when he did the first scene once he started the last scene.

"I guess I'll have to do it to the death then."

"I'll watch over you next to a warm heater."

"Then don't come. You'll make me feel terrible."

"It's just a figure of speech. Oh yeah, have you told Miss Gaeul yet?"

Gaeul said that she would definitely make another visit before the end of the shoot. It was out of formality more than anything else, but Gyungjin seemed to be looking forward to it.

"There's no way such a busy person will come again, is there?"

"It'd be great if she does. It was just for a single day, but the atmosphere was so good. Cheongho-hyung and the camera director had dad smiles the entire time."

"She's a ball of charm, so it's not surprising."

"Tell me honestly. You have an interest in her, don't you?"

"Is there anyone who doesn't?"

"Oh? Look at you. You're friends, huh? If it ever works out for you, please give me some help too. I'll be okay with anyone who's a friend of hers."

"You should look for someone close by. Not someone from afar."

"There just isn't anyone close by."

Gyungjin giggled before going up to his room, saying that he wanted to take a rest. Maru watched the people coming to the hotel in the lounge for a while. Many people came and went, but the ones that caught his eye were the parents holding the hands of their children. It was an affectionate scene he could never get tired of seeing.

Chapter 997
Crank Up 9

"Be careful not to slip over there! Shovel some of the snow here and move it over there! The snow on top of the tree is a little melted? Dammit! You should climb up there with a ladder and add some more!"

Loud shouts were hurled everywhere. As this was the final scene of the film, everyone was tense. Maru walked around the shooting location with his hat on. It was a slow slope. He touched the flower of snow on top of the naked tree. It crumbled apart with a crisp sound. This place was surprisingly similar to the scene described in the script. He was going to walk through here in a bit.

"I heard that it's going to snow again at six."

"No wonder the sky's so dark. I hope we can get it done before that."

The sky didn't seem satisfied and looked like it was going to spew more snow. The glimpse of the blue sky was swallowed up by the ash-colored cloud creeping in from the East. Maru checked the weather on his phone. The temperature was rather high considering that it had just snowed. If they were unlucky, they might get rained on instead of getting snow. If it rained in the world of perfect white, the snow would be washed away, and brown mud would be the one greeting them instead. Humans had no way of preserving a set that was created - and would be destroyed - by nature. They had to finish the shoot before 'something' started falling from the sky.

"Mr. Maru," director Park Joongjin called him.

Maru walked over to the place where the heater was spewing out heat.

"As you see, it's the perfect set with not much effort on our side. But if we walk around a few times, this perfection will fall apart. For today, I would like to minimize the number of takes."

"Okay. I heard it's going to snow again in the evening, so we better finish before that."

"Please. Also, I might interrupt a little today. It's the finale after all."

"Please go easy on me."

Maru started a rehearsal in his head while looking at the nature-perfected stage. He wanted to practice by moving, but the snow was so perfect. He would have no choice but to step on it during the rehearsal right before the shoot, but right now, imagination was enough.

After shooting all this time, his acting techniques stabilized. He refrained from systemizing his acting in detail and put in the effort to not miss the nervousness and freshness of the first try. Rather than sticking to the script to the tee, he changed it up a little depending on the emotions he felt. This was something only possible thanks to director Park's full support. Director Park said that it was important to dissolve in an element of the actor known as Han Maru, even if it took a little time.

Just as he was imagining himself walking through the almost knee-deep snow, he heard a welcome voice. Maru got away from the rather busy shooting location.

"It's been a long time."

-It hasn't been that long. Though, the year has changed.

It was the masked man. He, who had gone into hibernation after leaving behind suspicious words, had talked to him again.

"Thanks to you, I felt complicated for a while. All sorts of things came to my mind."

-Naturally. It's something rather absurd for an individual to comprehend. But don't worry about it too much. What's bound to arrive will arrive. It's not something that people can prevent.

"Like destiny?"

-Like fate.

Maru looked at the lights that just turned on and asked,

"Am I going to die soon?"

-Why would you think that?

"No particular reason. It just felt like that. It does feel a little vague though."

-Are you uneasy that things are going too well? That maybe this is the last supper?

The masked man did not laugh, even though he would usually say something like this with a laugh. Maru looked at the tree bark that fell on top of the white snow. The inside of the bark was full of white fungi.

"Did the previous Marus vaguely notice when their deaths were approaching?"

-Never. They mostly died suddenly after all. Actually, if I were to pick the most common cause of death at the age of forty-five, it's accidental death. Though, there was one time when he died while fighting cancer.

"How was I when I was fighting cancer? Can you tell me that too?"

Maru looked at his shoulder. The masked man had taken form and was sitting on it. He was the size of a small doll.

-It might be funny to put it like this, but he was happy. Certain death makes people tranquil. Of course, that might not be entirely true, but 'we' were like that. Once death took form and was placed in front of us, we did not step backwards, but forwards instead. That doesn't mean that we wished to die faster or give up on life. He fought cancer until the very last moment and tried to overcome it.

"How about his last?"

-He gave up on treating it and entered a hospice facility. Then he died not long later. It was 4 a.m., and it was a quiet finale.

"I see."

Maru was getting regular medical checkups. Right now, he was still very healthy. Although some sudden illnesses other than cancer might take his life away, he didn't feel like a disease would take his life away anytime soon. That just left accidental deaths.

-Deaths cannot be predicted. It can only be noticed when it's right in front of your nose. You'll realize once that moment comes, that struggle is futile. Above everything else, the providence of god will overwhelm your entire body.

"Do you know of a movie called Final Destination?"

-I do. I watched it several times through various different Han Marus.

"I found it unjust when the main character was unable to go against fate and died even after luckily avoiding his death. If the ending was set in stone, then why did god, who supposedly created humans, bestow us free will? There's no meaning in riding a train that's rushing straight towards the cliff. Whether you jump off or go to the control room and apply the brakes, you have to leave a possibility that's different from the ending to have any meaning."

-Don't you think that's the view of a human? Effort will change things; this might be a misconception that we believe is true.

Maru smiled.

"I decided to exclude that hypothesis. If nothing I do changes anything, then that's just too vain."

-Do you think this life will change something?

"It's small, but there was a change. The fact that you and I are talking like this is a first. Your beginnings will seem humble, so prosperous will your future be. The Maru after me might put an end to this long journey."

-Sounds like this life is no good.

"I haven't given up yet. It's just, I feel lighter as more time passes. Just like those entering a hospice facility. As you said, my ending might have been set in stone, and I might be rushing right towards it. But that's not the end, is it? This damned reincarnation will continue, and if this isn't the end, I can keep trying. If I do, then I might be able to find a gap. If He has any affection towards his creatures, then god will listen to my wish at least once."

-I hope it's like that.

"I'm sure you must be sick and tired too, of watching me all the time."

-It's okay, since I got to talk to you in this life as much as I want, and I even got to act with your body. I thought my greed, regrets, joys, sorrows, and emotions had all been vaporized, but it seemed I still had some within me. Maybe even after hundreds, or even more years, people are still people. Honestly, I feel a little agonized right now.

"Because of what?"

-Because I feel like I might see hope again, hope that I'll finally die.

"I'm struggling to live on, while you do your best to die. This effort might actually transcend destiny. It follows wherever I go."

The masked man laughed heartily. He climbed down from Maru's shoulder and walked on the snow. Maru followed him with his eyes.

"Mr. Maru!"

When he turned around to reply to the assistant director's call, he saw that the masked man had disappeared already. Maru quietly spoke in the direction of the path he took,

"Let us both do our best. Whether we die or live."

* * *

"Please look here. Yes, that's good. Don't make the logo of the product show up too much. Think that you're standing in the middle of a primordial forest with no human traces. Make it look like that the cleanliness of the beginning is concentrated in the cosmetics in your hand."

Gaeul sighed inwardly as she heard the director's words. She was doing one commercial after another. She never knew that she would become so busy. It seemed that her president wasn't just trying to give her a scare when she said that she was going to be busy.

She lifted up the frilly one-piece dress slightly and walked through the set barefoot. She imbued her imagination in this green-screened space to create a forest. The director's requests were rather abstract, and it was hard to grasp what they meant, but after repeating them a few times, she noticed the director's preferences.

"My dear unni, who raised you into such a pretty girl?"

"You want me to compliment you?"

Gaeul drank the lemon water that Mijoo gave her. She had gained some weight because she didn't hold back when eating at the end of the year and at the beginning of the new year. She had no choice but to live off of salad and a minimum amount of protein. Lemon water was like a small luxury for her. If she considered the calories, she had to drink normal water, but she felt like she would have no fun in her life if she had to give this up.

"The director's quite picky. I noticed when he explained the theme of the commercial that he's too in his own world."

"He's supposedly talented. We should believe in him."

Gaeul put some raw salad in her mouth. She felt like even some salt as seasoning would make this taste much better, even if she didn't have some special sauce or anything.

"You have a photo shoot next, so hold back until then."

"There's the greatest invention of the century called photoshop, so why don't they use that?"

"The photoshoot for that magazine is known for doing minimal photo editing. You've gained recognition just based on the fact that you were called there. You know that, right? They don't just call anyone, so starve a little more until your skinny fit looks pretty. Okay, unni?"

"I hate you the most out of them all."

"I'll treat you to some really good spaghetti after all of this. You know I canceled all of my other schedules and became your exclusive manager so that you don't become sensitive."

Mijoo, who was giggling, suddenly took out her phone as though she remembered something.

"Unni, have you seen this?"

What Mijoo showed her was a phone commercial with the YM Electronics logo on it. She saw Maru, happily making a phone call while wearing labor clothes in the middle of a construction site.

"I thought it was pretty weird when I first saw it, but it turns out it's pretty good. It feels really close to home. The responses are good too. But Maru-oppa doing commercials for the Q-series, huh? I guess you really never know what the future holds."

Gaeul smiled as she looked at the screen.

"He looks good."

"Gee, you two are stupidly into each other, alright."

"Let's admit it. That's on the level of good-looking."

"Whoa, looks like all the good-looking men in the world suddenly died. I admit that Maru-oppa's charming, but he's definitely not good-looking. These days, they call everyone good looking."

When Gaeul frowned and raised her hand, Mijoo quickly left the place.

"I'll go to the bathroom for a bit!"

She left the set. Gaeul watched her for a while before turning around. A rabbit standing on two legs was looking at her from the front of the green screen.

Chapter 998
Crank Up 9

Standing on two feet, the rabbit dusted her body with her front paws. A black tuxedo had covered her white body. In her right hand was a pocket watch. She approached Gaeul with elegant steps that made her seem like she was on the runway. Gaeul looked around. A bipedal rabbit was walking straight across the set, but no one gave her a glance. That was a spirit, a devil, or perhaps the manifestation of her subconscious that only she could see.

“It’s break time, right?” said the rabbit while looking at the pocket watch.

Gaeul felt like there was some kind of plan inside the pocket watch that the rabbit was looking at.

“Can I leave for a bit?”

The director, who was talking to the designer, told her to take as long as she wants. Gaeul grabbed her skirt, which dragged against the ground, and left through the back of the set. The rabbit walked ahead of her as though she knew this building well. When she followed her, they arrived at the end of the corridor on the 3rd floor. There was a vending machine, a water dispenser, and a long bench with ripped faux leather. There weren’t any people around. A few steps away was an office filled with people moving busily, yet this place was quiet as though there was an invisible wall around this place. Gaeul bought a cup of hot chocolate before she sat down. While she had to avoid sugary food, she felt like she needed something sweet right now.

“The one-piece dress looks good on you. A light sky blue color suits you after all,” said the rabbit.

Gaeul put down the cup she was about to drink from and looked at the rabbit. The rabbit usually got straight to the point instead of complimenting her. Complimenting her from the get-go like this was almost unprecedented.

“Thanks. You look good in a tuxedo too.”

“I guess black suits me better than white after all.”

The rabbit lifted the vest of the suit with her front paw. So she can grab with those round paws — such a thought briefly passed through her mind.

“I haven’t seen you in a while. What happened?” she asked while taking a sip of cocoa.

With some sugar in her system, she felt tired as though she entered a heated bathtub. A smile appeared on her face as well.

“I was wondering if you were doing well.”

“Where have you been? I thought you were always next to me.”

“I have my own circumstances too,” the rabbit said, her nose twitching.

The red eyes scanned the ceiling before looking back down again. Today, the rabbit was a little strange, actually, very strange from usual. She did not scold her like a teacher nor did she look at her like it was frustrating. In fact, she even felt like Choi Seol, who would often find her to complain about everyday life.

“Something happen?”

It felt hard not to ask. No matter how much she disliked the rabbit, it was the truth that she had gotten a lot of help from her. Other than matters related to Maru, the rabbit had always pointed her towards the right direction. She could do some consultations as payment for that. Though, she wondered how helpful she could be to this metaphysical being.

“Do you know about the story of a miser known as Scrooge?” the rabbit asked.

“I think you’ll be hard-pressed to find anyone that doesn’t.”

“What did you think when you read about it?”

“Why do you ask so suddenly?”

“Nothing much. I had a read as well after a long time, the novel that is.”

The rabbit continued on to say that she didn’t have to answer if she didn’t want to. Gaeul looked at the rabbit’s drooping ears before speaking,

“I liked that story. That’s why I read it many times over. I’ve looked for both the translations that are true to the original story and also the one that was adapted for children. Whenever I read it, I think that Scrooge was kind and loyal to just one person.”

“You mean his friend Marley?”

“Yeah. It’s in the novel. He named his company after his friend and didn’t change it even after seven years. That must be why Marley visited Scrooge on Christmas Eve and gave him a warning that he couldn’t be like him.”

“The ghosts of the past, the present, and the future.”

The rabbit looked at the pocket watch. Gaeul wanted to look at what the watch looked like, but the rabbit quickly stowed it away. She clearly didn’t want her to see it.

“You think that the ghosts are Scrooge himself, right?”

Gaeul widened her eyes at the rabbit’s question. This happened before as well. It was as though the rabbit could visit the depths of her heart whenever she wished to, accurately pointing out what she never said before. Well, her very existence was beyond the scope of common sense, so reading the mind must be nothing. Considering that the rabbit was the manifestation of her subconscious, it was natural that she knew about it too.

“Right. I believe that the ghosts aren’t some kind of fairies of time with special duties, but Scrooge himself. I don’t know about the author’s intentions, but I like it better that way. It just means that your destiny is something you have to change on your own.”

“Do you know what a time paradox is?”

“There’s the matter with Scrooge as well, but aren’t you treating me too much like a fool? I was quite good at studying, you know? Even without studying, that much is common knowledge.”

“Then isn’t it a little strange for there to be a Scrooge in the past, the present, and the future? If the future changes because of that, then where do those ghosts go? Leaving aside the past and the present, what about the ghost that represents Scrooge’s unfortunate future? If that ghost is Scrooge himself, what kind of ending does that ghost meet if Scrooge escapes his unfortunate future?”

She couldn’t figure out the intentions behind that question. She and the rabbit weren’t some book discussion club members. She had never dug into questions like this too deeply. The rabbit’s pocket watch kept ticking Gaeul off. She felt like the start of these questions lay in that device.

“What do you think?”

For the first time since their conversation started, the rabbit looked at her straight in the eyes. She couldn’t open her mouth so easily. The red eyes looked somewhat desperate.

“Well, honestly, I’m not sure. I just believed that the story had a happy ending and didn’t think about anything else. But if I had to think about it, wouldn’t everyone be happy? It’ll be quite complicated if you dig deeper into the matter of the time paradox, but I don’t want to think about that. I just want to enjoy it as a story and accept it like that.”

She had a look at the rabbit’s eyes, but she could not read any emotions from them, even whether she liked or disliked the answer. An awkward silence filled the corridor. Gaeul looked at the empty cup. The black powder, which had yet to dissolve in the water was stuck on the inside of the cup, signified that the warm hot chocolate was there just before.

What did the rabbit want to say? Did she want to say that she was the ghost from the future? That was contradictory. The rabbit tried to provoke her pride in order to separate her from Maru. In the novel, the ghost came to Scrooge in order to guide him out of his tragic ending and down the right path. Following this logic, it would mean that separating from Maru will be the path to escape the bad ending. Gaeul couldn’t accept that. She believed that spending time with a loved one is the best form of happiness, even if that meant fighting, and sometimes even crying because of that. Her life with Han Maru was the most terrifying ending equivalent to the bitter death that Scrooge was originally heading towards? What did the rabbit truly want? She couldn’t answer that question no matter how hard she thought about it.

“It’s time.”

The rabbit stood up. The pocket watch shattered into gold light and disappeared. She took out a pair of round glasses from somewhere as well.

“Alice in Wonderland?”

Glasses, pocket watch, rabbit, suit. Actually, Gaeul thought about Alice in Wonderland when the rabbit was wearing a suit. The rabbit gently climbed down the bench. Then, she started humming. It was a familiar, yet completely different song. Gaeul watched the rabbit in a daze. The rabbit cheerfully hopped around the vending machine on top of the marble tiles like she was in a musical before stopping right in front of her. Although it was an extremely short time, Gaeul felt excited as though she had watched a musical for the first time in her life. She wanted to stand up and give a round of applause. She clapped a few times. The rabbit proficiently bowed as though she was used to this kind of compliment. The fluorescent light in the corridor felt like it had changed into a spotlight instead.

The rabbit raised her head. Just as she was about to say that it was an amazing performance, the rabbit spoke first. Her tone was slower and calmer than any other time.

“I am a rabbit, the clumsy guide that ends up taking Alice to a land of wonders. That blissful world is truly dramatic. Everything comes true, and everything is dynamic. But everything is just a dream once you wake up. So Alice must never…”

The rabbit disappeared. Gaeul looked at the empty corridor. Not long later, people flocked over. She was asked if she was Han Gaeul. She left the place with a smile. What did the rabbit want to say at the end? It was an unsolvable mystery.

Chapter 999
Crank Up 9

“I’ve never shown the original edition to other people, but I wanted to show you this.”

Lee Junmin sat down at Park Joongjin’s gesture. It was three days ago that the director texted him to come to the studio in Seoul along with a greeting. It had been twenty years since they had known each other, but this was the first time he got a ‘greeting’ message from him. He realized that the deep gorge of emotions between them had become quite faint. The thick shadow of Jung Haejoo had finally become memories they could reminisce about instead of a taboo they could not mention.

Junmin looked at the tapes piled next to the monitor. There were numbers written on it in order.

“They’re beta tapes. Although we live in a world where even CDs are outdated and cloud storage is a thing, I feel like something’s missing without this thing.”

“I think I get what you mean.”

The man who introduced himself as the editing director left the scene. The one who grabbed the mouse was director Park.

“There’s still a long way to go for mixing and DI, but it won’t hinder us in watching the piece. No, perhaps it’ll be even better.”

Director Park clicked the mouse a few times. The closed door of the editing room opened and the editing director peeked in, saying that it was ready.

“Let’s go.”

They left the editing room and entered a room to the right. It was a small screening room. There were fifteen chairs. Light from a projector was reflected on the screen. Junmin sat down on a chair. Director Park had a short conversation with the editing director before turning off the lights in the screening room. The white noise from the speaker tickled his ears.

“It won’t be long. Let’s go eat lunch after we watch it. There’s a good galbi-tang restaurant nearby.”

As soon as director Park’s words ended, the film began. Junmin could tell from the explanations he heard beforehand that the thick white snow was the background for the grand finale of the film. Junmin crossed his legs and focused on the film. As he had read the script beforehand, he knew what it was about. The film did not talk about some grand topic. It was entirely focused on a single individual. What he was about to see would not contain any great story or visually overwhelming special effects. It was the story of a man who lived a tragic life and an unworthy death after all.

Junmin was curious about what he would gain through this short screening. He knew the plot of the film, but there was an insurmountable gap between video and text. He wanted to know how this finale without any of the stories that came before, would intrigue him. If it wasn’t for the name Park Joongjin, he would’ve thought that it was not worth watching.

The crude noises of the scene flowed out through the speakers. This was natural since director Park said that the mixing wasn’t complete yet. The camera showed the snow for a while before a change occurred. There appeared a man walking towards the horizon drawn in a white line. He had heard that the shoot was in the mountains, and the location of the camera was nigh artistic. He imagined a sea of snow for a brief moment.

Maru, who entered the frame, slowly walked. The camera captured him from a constant distance away. His flank, which he was grabbing, was zoomed in on. Red blood oozed out between his fingers. It was a clear contrast between white and red. The camera changed the angle. It was now looking down at him from the sky. The path that Maru took became a long line, dividing the screen in half. With Maru as the center, the snow had melted above him, revealing the green and brown color unique to mountains, and below him was still completely covered in white. Junmin felt stifled for some reason when he looked at the white. It felt like a space of nothingness, nihility, and meaninglessness.

Maru’s tenacious, yet faint breathing sound, combined with the rustling of the snow at his feet and the snapping of what might be branches or frozen mud… all sorts of sounds filled the scene, yet it felt deadly silent. Just turning off all the sound might be less stifling.

Maru, who was walking across the screen, fell on top of the world of white. He fell over sideways, and the camera looked down at him from above, as though it was the point of view of an omnipotent god looking down at a dying human that was no different from an ant. The distance to the character did not shrink. At this point in time, the main character’s face would be zoomed up on, or the scene would change, but the camera kept looking down upon Maru from the top as though it had forgotten its duty.

At the time Maru fell over, Junmin subconsciously let out a shallow breath. He felt like unwashable air would ruin his lungs if he inhaled deeply. The camera, which was endlessly far away from the character and watching the character objectively, made the viewer instead shrink the psychological distance between themself and the character. It was an uncomfortable way of production. He frowned while watching. He started desperately longing for some dramatic change, whether it be sound or a change in scene. The discomfort changed into unease, and just as it was about to reach the stage of displeasure, it changed cuts.

Junmin was dragged by the screen without being able to deal with the emotions that reverberated around his chest before coming up to his mouth. It was precise timing. The change occurred just at the right time. He breathed heavily. A complex mixture of unease and displeasure that had not been sublimed into curse words swirled around his entire body. If this was what the director intended, director Park had to be called a genius after all. He was unsettlingly well aware of the psychology of the audience. If he was off by a single beat, he would have made the audience leave, yet it was strangely right on time. The vexation towards the piece instead increased the concentration. However, this was a perfect win for production skills. There was nothing the actor did to contribute to this. Director Park probably didn’t invite him here for this. While this was a worthwhile reason, director Park said that it was just the beginning.

The camera that looked like it was watching down on a human from the perspective of god now shot him from the same height. Maru’s wounds and suffering that he had forgotten about had rushed in all at once. Maru’s acting skills were added on top of the ominous ending foreshadowed visually. He was slowly breathing before his wavering eyes suddenly gleamed. Junmin couldn’t tell what he was heading towards, but Maru had not given up on life. The hand that clutched his wound, the eyes that looked beyond the world of white, and ultimately, his twisted lips showed his obsession for life better than any words could.

He slowly stood up. There was still not a single word from him, or even a groan for that matter. It was still only the sound of the wind and breathing that endlessly raised the tension just like in the first cut. He started walking forward, but his walking was unstable as though he lacked strength. His body swayed left and right, barely making any progress as he relied on the swaying motion to proceed forward. Junmin could tell that his life would be over the moment he stopped to take a breather.

The camera moved along with Maru’s footsteps. It stopped when Maru stopped, and it moved when Maru took a step. It showed that the world was revolving around him. What was he looking for with his wide-open pupils? Junmin knew the ending, but he suddenly couldn’t remember it. It felt like a waste of energy to use a part of his brain to remember it. He had to focus his entirety on the screen. The results would be shown to him not too long later anyway.

Junmin crossed his arms. The screening room was not cold. In fact, it was on the warmer side. However, his body instinctively curled up as though he was enraptured by what was given to him visually and aurally. Tension akin to the moment just before the appearance of a murderer kept rising as though it was taking slow steps. When would it trail off?

The Maru on the screen stopped for a moment. He buried his head in the ground and took a deep breath. When he raised his head, his eyes were filled with more tenacity than ever. Was his near-blind gaze expressing his desire for life? Or was it aimed at something else? In either case, he was saying with his entire body that he could not die here. He felt like he would keep walking even if all of the blood left his body. It felt like even death would not stop his body from moving forward. It was definitely like that.

The scene suddenly changed. A dog had fallen over on the snowy field. The camera reflected the dog for about three seconds. That animal did not have a shred of breath in it and was definitely dead. Then, there was suddenly the sound of something falling. The camera captured it. His eyes, now looking at the sky with his arms wide open, did not contain anything. Junmin felt like he was looking at a completely different person. No, a ‘person’ was the wrong word to describe it. It looked like some ’thing’ that was becoming human, or perhaps, something that was not supposed to, becoming human. Snow landed on top of his face. He and the white snow were now the same. Until moments ago, he was the main character capturing the eyes of the audience through the camera, but now he was no different from the white snow. Snow continued to pile, as though it was trying to erase the slight flaw in it.

The video stopped there. Junmin leaned back on the chair. He was unable to speak for a few minutes, nor did he want to. He only spoke when the video on the screen had completely turned off,

“When will the post-processing be finished?”

“I’m torn because there’s not really anything much to touch. I want to release it by the end of the year, but we’ll have to see what happens. Though, not that I can decide on the distribution date.”

“How many times did it take Maru to complete that scene?”

Director Park raised his index finger.

“One. Once was all he needed.”

Junmin chuckled in vain.

“Do you remember what he said after he shot that scene?”

“I do, very clearly, in fact. He said, ‘director, I think it’s done.’ Yes, it was just as he said. That was ‘done.’”

Junmin looked at director Park before standing up.

“I think I can see why you showed me this first. He’s completely different but he reminded me of Haejoo. If Haejoo’s acting can be described as multicolored light, that is an act that leaves behind nothing. To compare, there are zero similarities in every aspect, but I could see after looking at his eyes at the end. At the opposite extremes, they are surprisingly similar.”

“Mr. Maru is a curious and interesting actor. I can still remember what happened when we shot that scene. I was watching through the monitor, but then I stood up to see him for myself. He was there, but I could not see him. I requested Mr. Maru to put his own colors in the acting, and the result was this. Colorlessness is a form of color in some perspectives. He showed a slightly different lunacy than what I was originally thinking, but right now, I’m even thinking that that was instead a good thing. It was the greatest decision in my life to cast Mr. Maru as the main character.”

Lights were turned on in the screening room. The editing director came in and said that it was time for lunch. Junmin left the screening room, following director Park. He looked at the gray screen for one last time before the door closed. He could not erase the feeling that Maru still lingered there.

“I am looking forward to people’s responses.”

Director Park was overjoyed. Junmin agreed. There should be no middle point. It would either be extreme praise or extreme criticism waiting for the actor known as Han Maru. And Junmin intuitively felt that no critic would complain against the actor and the director after seeing that.

Chapter 1000
Crank Up 10

Park Hoon closed the door to the president’s office and left. It was just as he heard from a fellow producer from the management team.

“Writer Seo, where are you right now? I need you to write the scripts for episodes 7 and 8. I got us a slot, but they’re also offering the slot to another team, so ours might not get the chance. If you don’t want that, produce the script for episodes 7 and 8 so that we can consolidate our position in this slot in the next meeting. Alright, I’ll be there in a minute.”

Park Hoon got on the elevator with his car keys. He drove over to writer Seo’s apartment, which was about 30 minutes away.

“Writer Seo Jihee. It’s me,” he said as he knocked on the door.

The door soon opened. Writer Seo looked tired as though she had just woken up.

“To me, 10 a.m. might as well be the middle of the night. You know that.”

“I do, but what can I do? We have a situation at hand.”

“That’s true.”

Writer Seo slapped her cheeks.

“Wakey wakey. It’s time to work.”

“I called a junior over too.”

Writer Seo was a plot writer who worked four years in variety entertainment, 2 years in radio, and 2 years in education. It was last year when Park Hoon got to know her. She approached him first, asking him to have a look at the script for a drama. Usually, writers would send in their work in competitions held by the various TV stations, but writer Seo said that it was nothing that great and that she just wanted to hear his personal impression. Park Hoon was originally going to refuse. There were dozens of aspiring writers sending him emails containing scripts of their ‘finest work’ every quarter. There might be some useful ones in there, but most of the time, they were nowhere near as useful, so he didn’t read them.

The reason he didn’t turn away the script was because of her dedication. It was a properly-drafted plan with a clipboard and even a cover page. The fact that he had some time off also played a big role in it. When she told him that he should just treat it like reading a book over some coffee, he went to the café, thinking that it was free coffee. There, Park Hoon was unable to leave the café even after work hours had begun. It was such a captivating story.

“I might be getting ahead of myself, but can I influence the casting of the characters?” writer Seo asked.

“I wonder what kind of bigshot you have in mind to say something like that.”

“I don’t want to use bigshots. I want actors who have real skill. Actors that aren’t famous.”

“Writer Seo, did you know? Many writers say the same thing as you do. But those words contradict themselves. The actors who have real skill are already popular. Although many people are critical of the blatant support of actors from agencies, it is the masses that evaluate them in the end. If they aren’t popular, it’s because there’s a reason.”

“But there must be actors who haven’t become popular because of the lack of opportunity. You won’t deny that, right?”

“Of course. I’m just stating something more general, based on my experiences as a producer.”

“I’m also saying this based on my experiences as a TV writer. There are definitely source stones that have yet to be excavated. I want to use those people.”

Park Hoon nodded and sat down.

“Good, that’s good. But everything can come when we have that slot. If the other team manages to snatch a big-shot actor at a cheap cost or bring a story that might entice the higher-ups, we’ll be the ones to be pushed out.”

Writer Seo, who was confident until now, sounded a little dejected as she spoke,

“How do you see it, producer? Will this survive until the end? Or will it get the ax midway?”

“I do not get hung up over something that won’t work out. I haven’t told you this so that you don’t get too excited, but when I first saw this script, I was reminded of ‘Flaming Lady.’ This title will become the hottest potato in the drama industry this year.”

“I feel uneasy now because you sound too confident.”

“Writer Seo, believe in your work to be the best. As a human, being humble is very important, but as a writer, humility isn’t all that necessary. If you don’t have faith that your own work is the best regardless of what anyone else says about it, you won’t be able to hold on.”

“But being overconfident is a problem too.”

“It’s much better than not having any. Writers who are overconfident in themselves last longer than those who can’t even do that. Why do you think that’s the case? It’s because the writer is also the first reader that reads the article. If you can’t even satisfy that first reader, and want to sell it, you’ll just be making many people tired.”

“Alright. I’ll try to brace myself.”

Writer Seo cleaned her messy table. She put down the books she borrowed for reference material on the floor and just placed a laptop and a notebook on the desk.

“Can we eat something before my junior comes here? I’m someone who can’t work when I'm hungry.”

“You did say you just woke up. Shall we order something?”

“Nah. Ramyun will do.”

“I did that before I got married. You should really eat a proper breakfast instead of ramyun. You’ll suffer when you get older.”

Writer Seo boiled some water and put some instant rice in the microwave.

“Oh, I met producer Jayeon a while back. She told me to tell her if you annoy me. She said she can nag you at home.”

“That woman really looks down on her husband.”

“Is the truth different? Maybe you have complete control over her?”

Park Hoon did not reply. Rather than tragic, he felt like he would be saddened if he said it. He was suddenly reminded of his wife telling him to buy some food waste plastic bags when coming home. He was inwardly relieved. If he returned empty-handed, he would have gotten an earful from Jayeon.

Write Seo was eating the ramyun but then gave him a glance. She stared at him before pulling the instant rice to her side, saying that she wasn’t going to give him any. This woman was not ordinary either.

“Hey.”

Writer Seo looked away.

“What is it?”

“If I sign an official contract, how much will I get paid? I tried to hold myself back from asking since it might make me look greedy, but I had to quit work, so I’m a little uneasy.”

“Why is it being greedy to ask how much you’re paid? It’s a natural question you have to ask. You’ll write the contract later, but you should think that you’ll get paid 5 mil per episode. You’re a new writer after all. Actually, there was another program that was supposed to take our slot, but the writer for that slot suddenly skyrocketed in price, so the higher-ups decided to let her go.”

“So my writing got picked because it’s cheap?”

“I will tell you that price was a factor. To the TV station, dramas are ultimately about the ads business. They will welcome any method to lower the price. Of course, we only decided to use a new writer because it’s a worthwhile story.”

“5 million huh.”

“Too small?”

“I saw on the news that famous writers get 50 million per episode.”

“Write three hugely popular series and you’ll join their ranks.”

“You make it sound easy. There are people who don’t even have one.”

“That’s what being a star writer is about.”

“I heard that there’s an exclusivity fee too.”

“Looks like you heard many things during your time as a program writer. Why? You want to make it big in one go?”

“I’m just asking. I want to know which is better, becoming a writer exclusive to one TV station and getting paid more, or just signing a contract for this specific title.”

“That’s for you to judge. If you write an exclusivity deal, you’ll get 500 million based on a 100-episode contract, so you’ll definitely have an easier life. But even if this title does really well, you’ll be writing at 5 million per episode even in the next piece. There are ups and downs to each side. But worry about the money later when you actually get the contract. We should focus on our work for now. Exclusivity contracts are something that the TV stations offer after some contemplation as well.”

“All sorts of thoughts come to mind when I see money running out in my bank account.”

Writer Seo smiled and ate the rest of the ramyun. Just then, someone knocked on the door. Writer Seo put down the chopsticks and went to the door. The door opened. Writer Seo’s junior, as well as the other creator of this piece, bowed as he came in.

“Hello.”

“Welcome, writer Park.”

Park Hoon greeted him with a smile. Writer Park smiled awkwardly, saying that he wasn’t accustomed to the title ‘writer.’

“What are you talking about? If you write, then you’re a writer. Rather than that, if writer Seo officially signs a contract, that means you’ll get a salary too.”

Writer Park waved his hand in the air in denial.

“I don’t wish for money. I just somehow ended up helping out. If it really becomes a drama, then that’s an important experience in itself, and they say you can’t buy experience with money, right?”

Park Hoon shook his head firmly.

“You can buy experience with money. Writer Park, you should receive your payment if you work. That’s how labor works. You can’t let your work become charity. You’ll have to learn how important it is to receive compensation. The moment you take a step back with a smile, you’ll be taken advantage of.”

Writer Seo, who was listening the whole time, spoke,

“Hey, you’re making me the bad one. I’ll take care of Daemyung myself, so don’t worry. Park Daemyung, work hard as an assistant writer. I’ll pay you a lot more than part-time jobs. Also, I’m saying this because of tax issues, but your company will be paying Daemyung his salary right? Of course, from my own salary.”

“We’ll make sure that you will pay less in taxes at the end of the year, writer Seo. Writer Park, hear that? You should write while getting paid. You never know. I know your dream is to become a director, but who knows? You might be more talented in plotting dramas.”

Writer Park fidgeted as though he was feeling embarrassed. He looked like someone other people would say that he’s big but not scary at all. Writer Park, who was putting down his bag after sitting down on the table, started laughing.

“Why are you laughing all of a sudden?”

“I was just reminded of a friend. What you told me just now, I heard from a friend a long time ago. He told me that the compensation for labor should not be some personal satisfaction but money.”

“I’m not sure who he is, but that person will never fall for a scam.”

“Yeah, I think so too.”

Park Hoon looked at the two writers on the table.

“Before we start the meeting, shall I hear if you have any actors in mind?”

Chapter 1001
Crank Up 10

He believed that nothing could change drastically overnight, yet he had to laugh in vain as he looked at his phone on the table. So things like this could happen. Ever since he shot the commercial for YM’s Q-series phone, he received numerous text messages. I saw this person while watching TV, and is it you? I saw someone that looks like you on a Youtube ad. Do your best from now on, etc.

The commercial for a super company that had a 72% market share had accessibility even greater than dramas. Not to mention newspapers, there were commercials before and after TV programs and prior to a film, as well as internet ad banners, to even various public transport ad banners; they could be seen everywhere. When he first saw the phone commercial on the screen door at a train station, he was in a daze for around 3 minutes. He originally thought that he wouldn’t think much of it, and boy he was wrong. He found himself taking a photo with the ad as the background before he knew it.

It was also the first time he went overseas to shoot a commercial. Germany, America, China, France, Japan — he thought he just had to smile while holding the product, but he ended up having to act out various roles according to some themes; in Korea, he was a youth laborer, in America, a young businessman who starts a food truck, and in Japan, a man crazy for scuba diving. It was a story aptly created to suit the slogan of ‘adventure and challenge’ that the phone commercial put out. He never realized that he would go traveling overseas with someone else’s money, not his own.

That was two months ago, but it was still vivid to him. He had just finished shooting in Ulsan, and right away, he was tied up shooting the commercial. He spent New Years very busily. He could still remember holding Gaeul’s hand at the turn of the new year like it was yesterday, but it was already April. He felt like it would be winter if he blinked if time kept speeding away like this.

It was around 2 in the afternoon when Byunchan pressed the bell. Maru hung the vacuum machine on the dock and opened the door. Byungchan was there, wearing a thin knitted shirt and a beige pair of pants. From his clothes, it looked like the weather had gotten a lot warmer.

“At this rate, I’m afraid summer’s just around the corner.”

“I heard that late spring chill is on the way. Have you eaten lunch?”

“I did, but I’m still hungry. I guess some bread from the convenience store isn’t going to cut it.”

“Should I cook some ramyun for you?”

“I can’t let our precious actor do chores. I’ll do the cooking so you have a look at that.”

Maru turned around to look at what Byungchan pointed at. It was an envelope, and he put his hand inside it. He took out the sheets of paper and put them on the dining table.

“There are so many?”

“Rejoice. You’re getting called from everywhere. Director Park gathered some of his acquaintances and showed them the unfinished film, and it seems like there are already words floating around that you have a strong character. The fact that you’re an actor backed by YM should also have a role in that.”

Byungchan poured hot water into some instant noodles and sat down.

“An actor backed by YM?”

“It’s been a long time since an actor was used for YM’s Q-series phones. Their business policy was to not use actors and go with something that’s more emotion-provoking, but you showed up, so everyone must be thinking that there’s something about you. That’s when director Park’s film came in and added fuel to the fire. Your name is already circulating among my acquaintances. Some writers have already expressed their willingness to meet you.”

“I guess you can really never know what life has in store for you.”

“That’s right.”

Byungchan raised his chopsticks and told him to look at the scenarios. There were titles of various genres. 6 films and 4 dramas. Three of them gave him the role of the protagonist, with an overwhelming amount of screen time.

“The ones I marked in red on the cover are those that expressed that they’ll use you without an audition as long as you consent to it.”

“Without an audition?”

“No audition is necessary for an already proven actor.”

“I shouldn’t be on that level though.”

“Your level isn’t something you decide. It’s what others decide for you. Of course, on the film side, everyone wishes to meet you and get a feel for themselves. The dramas are the ones willing to sign a contract as long as you give consent, since you’ve already been proven.”

“It’s rather unsettling.”

“This is just the start. There are directors with good achievements, but they aren’t the so-called ‘S-tier’ producers. You should do your utmost best so that you can get called by those people too.”

“I’m doing my utmost best right now.”

Maru quietly read the scenarios. The ones he was drawn to were roles that he had yet to play. He was focused on the charm of the character more so than the intrigue of the story.

“Based on the character, I think this one and this one will be fun.”

“I had a look at them too, and those two aren’t bad. The production companies are solid too. Though, for this one, the director’s previous work had terrible results, which is what bothers me.”

“It’d be strange to hit home runs consecutively.”

“That’s true. Leaving the character aside, what do you like in terms of story?”

Maru pushed forward a title with a pink cover. It was a film about a poorly performing insurance salesman and some insurance fraudsters trying to make big bucks. It started off as a comedy, but the flow of the film was rather interesting once a person died because of an accident.

“Crime is popular these days. More than half of the movies set to release at the end of the year are related to crime. This could be considered one of the mainstream ones at that.”

“What do you think, hyung?”

“That’s the one I wanted to recommend to you the most. I want to look at you act like an awkward salaryman. The character is similar in age to you too.”

“If I say I’ll go with this, will it happen?”

Byungchan raised the instant noodles container and drank the soup before speaking,

“Your intentions will be reflected as much as possible, but the final decision will be made with the president. Though later, you should be able to decide on what to do without the president’s input like Geunsoo-hyungnim and Ganghwan-hyungnim.”

Maru nodded. His decision would directly influence the profits of the company. While the preferences of an actor were important, suggesting what he does best should be just as important.

“I’ll tell the president about it. He’ll probably support your decision. He always says that you can take care of yourself.”

Byungchan asked if he wanted anything else.

“Can I choose more than one?”

“If the schedule can be adjusted, you can do all of the ones here. Of course, not that it’ll go like that. Actors are influenced by image consumption too, so we’ll have to narrow it down. The producers would not want a main character that appears frequently in other titles. The most important thing to a famous actor is rarity, aside from the obvious acting skill.”

Maru chose a drama and a film on top of the first film. One of them was from Byungchan’s recommendation. Byungchan put the scenarios back into the envelope.

“How do you feel receiving scenarios like this? All this time, you’ve been investigating audition dates and went to them to take the audition.”

“Honestly, I feel uneasy already. If I don’t get as many scenarios after this, it’ll mean that my value has fallen. I’m thinking that I shouldn’t make a mistake.”

Byungchan put the envelope in his bag and spoke,

“I’ll say this, not as your manager nor as an acquaintance of yours, but as a fan who likes movies. You’ll do well. I had a glimpse at the film you shot with director Park. It convinced me that you’ll go even further. The only thing I’m worried about is that you’ll consolidate a ‘dark and sinister role’ as your image, and such impressions can be scary. You know about actor Choi Younghwan, right?”

I do — Maru replied. He was the most beloved actor in the film industry and it was to the point that some people on the internet said that South Korean films were split into two: those that featured him and those that did not.

“You can see it from him. Regardless of what title he appears in, everyone thinks that he’s a good guy, even if he’s bloody with a knife in his hand. People will think that he must have some back story. The drama that came out recently used that image in reverse and created a really good villain. But it took him 30 years to play a villain. Apparently, he kept getting ‘good’ characters because that was the image he created. For an actor, having a consolidated image means that there’s less room for choice. Of course, it also means that they’ve become masters in that area.”

“Now that I think about it, there were no romances in there, right?” Maru asked as he looked at Byugnchan’s bag.

There was no heart-warming sweet love story. There was one scenario that had a love story as the basis, but even that was a sad one where a lover was betrayed by the other.

“It just shows that your acting has been consolidated into that image. It’ll become even worse once director Park’s film is released. You might only get murderer roles.”

“I’d like to avoid that. I can be pretty romantic, you know?”

“Sooil will take all the romantic ones in your stead, so don’t worry.”

“Geez, it’s always the pretty boys that are the problem. People like me feel wronged because of people like him.”

Maru smiled and stood up. He took out some apple juice and gave it to Byungchan. Byungchan checked the time on his watch before emptying the juice in one go.

“I should get going.”

“You’re busy.”

“Thanks to a certain someone. Also, you’re going to get a manager. This time, your exclusive one. From now on, that fellow will be the one talking to you. He’s also a year younger than you. I’ll bring him later so good luck.”

“A manager huh, that’s so much pressure on me.”

“Once you become busy with shoots and have to go around everywhere, you won’t be saying that anymore. Anyway, thanks for the food and drink. I’ll notify you once the title is decided. Get some good rest, and don’t become sick. Now, you should really look after your health. Becoming ill once means immense monetary losses.”

“I can’t become sick after hearing that.”

Just as he was about to see him out the door, his phone started ringing. Byungchan looked at Maru’s phone, which was on the table, and spoke,

“I’ll be leaving now. You should pick that up.”

“Have a safe trip back.”

He closed the door and grabbed his phone. On the screen was the name ‘Park Hoon.’ He sat down on the sofa and picked up the call.

“Hello?”

Chapter 1002
Crank Up 10

-You promised me before. You said you’ll do mine as an apology for rejecting Flaming Lady. Don’t you dare pull out now, saying that you don’t remember. I have a voice recording of what happened back then.

Park Hoon said those words before they could even say hello.

“You have a voice recording?”

-Let’s say I do. Geez, you seem to be having a great time. I flinched when I saw your face on a phone commercial. I thought it’d be pretty expensive to write a contract with you.

“I’m not that pricey just yet. The contract fee for the commercial wasn’t that much either.”

-Your face will be plastered on the Q-series commercial of all things, so the contract fee being little isn’t going to change anything. I can already hear your popularity growing. Anyway, how are you these days? Busy, right?

“When I was shooting the commercial, I was thinking that I might not last the year at this rate, but now I can take a breather. But it looks like the president doesn’t plan to let me rest.”

-You got offers?

“Can I brag a little? I think I’ll get more than 10.”

-I knew it. You haven’t stamped anything and set the schedule, have you?

“Nothing’s proceeded that far yet. I’m still at the stage where I’m talking about which one would be good.”

Park Hoon’s sighs could be heard over the phone.

-And there’s something you like?

“Yes. I picked about two.”

-That’s a pain. I can’t ask someone who just got work to push all that work aside.

“You’re saying that so I will push it aside, aren’t you?”

-I was talking to myself. Did you hear that?

Maru smiled and asked,

“Planning your next project?”

-Not just planning. I already got us a slot. Although I’m a little uneasy since the slot isn’t completely set in stone, if nothing goes wrong, we’re going to be airing in late autumn.

“That means that you already have a proposal, huh?”

-We’re already procuring locations for the shoot after getting the script, and there is about 8 episodes’ worth of script as well. It won’t be entirely pre-produced before airing, but we should be able to make about half of the episodes before it airs, so the quality can be guaranteed. The station will be giving us quite a lot of production fees as well.

“And I have a seat in that drama?”

-You do, of course.

Maru looked at Woofie and Bullie walking round and round chasing each other’s tails before speaking,

“Can I have a look at the scenario?”

Park Hoon did not reply. Just as he was about to check whether the call had ended, he heard a car horn sound.

-Phew, a bicycle suddenly cut in front of me so I was startled.

“You’re driving?”

-I just got in the car and departed. The destination is your house.

“You’re coming now?”

-You said you wanted the scenario, didn’t you?

“You can send it through email.”

-I just want to talk to you about some things while having a look at it. There’s also a guest too.

Before he could even ask who that guest was, Park Hoon hung up, saying that they should meet later. Maru looked down at his phone, which was no longer connected.

“Oh, does he know my address though?”

He browsed through his memories, but he found out that he had never told Park Hoon his address. Did he talk to the agency beforehand and find out that way? Maru thought about texting him the address before deciding not to. If there was a problem, he would probably call him first. He lifted the dogs playing around in the kitchen in each of his arms and took them to the smaller room. He needed to isolate the two little devils in order to clean the main bedroom.

It was when he was wiping the top of the closet with a wet wipe that the bell rang twice. Maru got down from the chair and opened the door. He saw Park Hoon and Daemyung standing behind him.

“I’m here too.”

Daemyung waved his hand with a smile. He didn’t expect to see these two together, so he even forgot to greet them as he just stared at them.

“Is there anyone inside? If it’s hard to talk inside, should we go to a nearby café?” Park Hoon asked.

Maru shook his head and welcomed the two inside.

“Looks like you got the address from Daemyung.”

“That’s right. I was really surprised to find out that the two of you were friends. It looks like this country is pretty small.”

Park Hoon sat down on the floor in the living room. Maru offered him the sofa to sit on, but he said he liked the floor better.

“You were quite surprised because we came here so suddenly, weren’t you?”

He went to the kitchen to get some drinks, and Daemyung followed him. Maru took out some juice from the refrigerator and asked,

“You knew the producer?”

“It hasn’t been that long since we got to know each other.”

Maru turned his head around to look at the living room. Park Hoon was calling someone. He heard him call out to a ‘writer Seo.’

“I told you before, right? That I was introduced to a writer working at a TV station through Joon-hyung.”

Maru did hear that Daemyung had met someone through Gwak Joon a few months ago. He was busy back then, so he hadn’t heard the details.

“That’s writer Seo Jihee. It turned out that she was my senior in college as well. At first, I was going to ask her about what happens in a TV program, but somehow, we ended up talking about novels. I had something I was working on, and she was the same. Apparently, she was a story writer for other programs, but she’s been aspiring to get into dramas, so she had written a lot of things.”

“So?”

“We talked a little and realized that we were pretty similar in what we aspire to create, whether it was the subject or the story itself. That was when writer Seo said she wanted to read the novel I wrote, and although it was slightly embarrassing, I showed it to her. She then showed me the script she was working on after reading mine, saying that she’ll help me however possible and asked if I could help with completing the script.”

Daemyung added that at first, he was going to refuse because of the pressure, but he accepted the position as an assistant writer when writer Seo urged him sincerely and said that she could pay him.

“You were acknowledged for your skills, huh.”

“I’m not sure about that yet. I’ll just offer a few suggestions during idea meetings and research materials in the meantime. It’s something I did before, so it’s not that hard.”

“Not anyone can do that. Anyway, congratulations. If this works out and goes on air, this will be your first piece, huh?”

“It doesn’t even have my name on it. Though, it will feel rather exciting if a piece that contains my writing and effort becomes a video,” Deamyung said with clear, upright eyes.

He was someone who was clear of the path he had to take. Maru wanted to cheer him on and support him even if he didn’t want it.

“But I was really surprised. The producer said to writer Seo that there’s an actor he really wanted to cast, but I never imagined that it would be you until he mentioned it.”

“It’s somewhat weird of me to say this with my own mouth, but I’m doing pretty well recently.”

Daemyung smiled and said that he watched the commercial. Maru brought the cups to the living room. Park Hoon finished his call and accepted the cup.

“Heard the gist of it from writer Park?”

“You call him writer Park, director?” he asked as he looked at Daemyung.

Daemyung was shivering and showing his rejection with his whole body. It seemed like Park Hoon was teasing Daemyung.

“I’m calling him that because that kind of reaction from him is pretty intriguing, but it’s also to give him the proper respect for his skills. I saw his writing. If he becomes a drama writer who can write scripts, I’d love to work on it.”

“You should get close to him now. Daemyung’s pretty skillful after all. Many writers said that he has a talent for writing.”

“As expected of writer Park. You’re amazing.”

When Park Hoon flattered him, Daemyung blocked his ears and took a step back. He looked like he was going to rush out of the house if he was teased anymore.

“You should read that for now. Writer Seo is practically a newbie in the drama industry who never wrote one before, but she had been living off of her writing for nearly a decade. She had made a lot of preparations too. I first thought that it would be some random self-consolation writing, but it was really good.”

Maru received the scenario. It was a 16-episode drama. He read the writing more seriously than ever. After flipping the last page, he let out a heavy breath.

“If I participate in this, what role would I be playing?”

“The role I marked in red.”

“I can’t say I’m knowledgeable when it comes to dramas, but I believe that there should be quite a lot of people wanting to play that role, especially if the producer is someone who has created multiple hits continuously.”

“We have yet to spread the scenario around. You’re the first actor to have a look at it. When I first looked at the writing, I had my dibs on you for that role. Of course, if you can’t do it, I’ll have to ask someone else.”

Park Hoon wrapped his chin with his palm and waited. Maru had one last look at the cover of the scenario before picking up his phone.

“Byungchan-hyung. There’s something I really want to do. Can you tell this to the president? Yes, yes, I’ll send it to you by email right away.”

After the call, Maru looked back and forth between Park Hoon and Daemyung.

“I want to do it too. I believe that it’s an incredibly charming role. But I can’t give you a clear answer here. I’m still just an ordinary salaryman who doesn’t have much trust, so I need the president’s approval. But I will make sure I’ll appeal for it strongly.”

“That’s enough for me. Also, I’m not that worried because I have confidence in the story. I’m sure president Lee Junmin will recognize its value.”

Park Hoon leaned on the sofa, saying that he was relieved. Maru looked at Daemyung, who was sitting next to him.

“You aren’t the producer, but I guess this is our first cooperation on a commercial product.”

“To be precise, it’s the second. I was one of the researchers in Apgu.”

“Right. It was fun during Apgu too, so I’m sure it’ll be fun this time too.”

“I’ll try to tell writer Seo to increase your screen time.”

“Looks like you’re the one I should be fawning over, not the director.”

Daemyung laughed out loud.

At this point, Maru was running on a smooth road without a single obstacle in sight. It even made him wonder if this was really okay.

Park Hoon said he’ll treat them to some meat to commemorate the deal coming together, albeit verbally. Maru replied that he would go and stood up, but it was then that he saw a small doll sitting down on the corner of the sofa. It was a doll wearing a red military uniform, reminiscent of British Royal Guards, and a mask.

“You should go on first. I’ll catch up to you once I clean some things here.”

He sent the two out first. The doll moved when the door closed.

“Shall we have a talk?”

What entered his ears was ‘Han Maru’s’ voice. Maru nodded.

Chapter 1003
Crank Up 10

"So, today's dress code is a royal guard?"

The masked man twirled around as though showing off the clothes he was wearing. Maru was reminded of a nutcracker doll. If there were a few rats beneath the sofa, it would be even more perfect.

"It's a trump card soldier. Doesn't the red heart look good on me?"

The masked man walked across the sofa towards him.

"You're becoming busier by the day, Mr. Maru."

"I'm grateful. How is it on your side? Anything happen?"

"Well, nothing has changed, just like before. I would observe you then be called to somewhere else."

"To where?"

"I don't know. Even if I do, I cannot tell you about it. I would black out like I'm in deep sleep before coming to myself. It's a hamster wheel life without any changes."

The masked man came down from the sofa. Maru looked down in front of him. He looked at the masked man, who reached his knee height.

"I assume you have something to talk about."

"There are a lot of things I want to talk about. I would need all the liquor in the world to talk about them, and then some."

"But you can't tell me."

"It's an excruciating matter having to stay silent about what you cannot say."

"And yet you still showed up. It means that there really is something."

The masked man shrugged.

"Do you feel happy?" he asked.

Maru nodded without hesitation.

"Can't be happier."

Maru locked his fingers to show that he was nervous. The masked man had been emitting bad omens ever since the shoot in Ulsan. There was not a word or an expression that signified such, but something more than just what could be gleamed at on the surface told him to look out for the oncoming danger.

"You know."

"Yes."

"How likely do you think it is to survive a falling plane?" Maru said as he looked at the painting on the wall.

It was a painting that Gaeul bought on Jeju island. The two ponies walking side by side made him feel at ease. He was only able to bring up that question with the help of that painting.

"Infinitesimally small, I would think. If there's no accident, there would be no place safer, but if something does happen, you'd be hard-pressed to survive. Unless, of course, the miracle of the Hudson River occurs."

"How about jumping off with a parachute before the accident happens?"

"If you knew exactly when the accident will happen, then you wouldn't have gotten on board in the first place. The fact that you got on means that you do not know what the future holds and that you do not have the time to get a parachute."

"How about never nearing a plane in my entire life?"

The masked man did not respond. He just looked down as he dropped money on the floor and walked around on top of the carpet. Maru saw two noses poking out of a room in the corner, sniffing towards the masked man. They wagged their tails like they had met their owner after a long separation.

"Mr. Maru."

The masked man stopped wandering and stood upright. He grabbed what would be the cheekbone part of the black and white clown mask and lifted it up slightly. Maru clenched his hands and looked at his face. A forty-five-year-old 'him' was looking at him with round eyes, which had some wrinkles around them. It would probably look like that if someone smiled after having spent years being expressionless. No, perhaps he was crying. That face blurred the boundaries between a smile and a cry.

He then spoke,

"You are already on board the plane."

Before the word 'plane' could finish, the masked man disappeared, just like a snowman disappearing overnight on a warm day. The toy-like mask that fell on the floor was the only thing telling him that his existence was not false, just like a wet spot that remained after a snowman melted. However, even that shattered into fine particles before disappearing.

The two dogs started barking. Their barks were very loud.

* * *

"Is he that tired?" Park Hoon muttered.

Daemyung instantly realized what he was talking about.

"I'm sure he is. From what I heard, he was really busy when he was shooting abroad."

"Well, I guess that can't be helped. He's not a top-tier actor or anything like that, so the producers must have prioritized getting work done over looking after his health. He only got to rest recently after being called around everywhere, so I guess it's natural that he's tired."

Maru acted like someone who hadn't slept for days at the restaurant. He dropped his chopsticks multiple times and even grabbed a heated iron pan with his bare hands. If he quickly took his hands off with a smile and said it was hot, then they wouldn't think much of the matter, but he took off his hands very slowly as though he couldn't feel his hands being roasted.

This was the second time they had seen Maru being so absent-minded. The first was when he suddenly declared that he would be enlisting. Nay, he looked even worse today. At least he was sane on the day he said he was going to the military.

"I'll visit Maru before going."

"Alright. Get him some beer and cheer him up."

Park Hoon left in his car while Daemyung headed to Maru's apartment. When they left the restaurant, Maru went to his house first, saying that he had a bit of a headache. Daemyung went up using the elevator and pressed the bell. Maru soon opened the door.

"Did you leave anything behind?"

Maru had regained his vitality. The depressing side he showed at the restaurant was completely gone. Daemyung slightly hid the beer he bought from the convenience store behind him. From the looks of it, it seemed that Maru needed some rest, rather than beer.

"It's nothing. I was just going to tell you to get some rest."

"What's that thing rustling behind you?"

"Oh, this? I was going to drink them by myself at home."

"Don't be like that. Come on in."

"Forget it. Get some rest. I'll go back now."

Maru, who opened the door like he was coming out, suddenly stopped. He put on a faint smile.

"Thanks for looking out for me. I was a bit too out of it at the restaurant, wasn't I?"

"Anyone can be like that if they're tired. I was also in a daze back when I was doing overtime after a nighttime shift at the convenience store since the owner didn't arrive. At times like that, sleep is the best medicine."

Daemyung took out a can of beer from the plastic bag and gave it to Maru.

"You should drink after you get some sleep."

"Thanks. Let's have a proper drink next time."

"Once you become free, sure."

Daemyung pushed Maru, who was at the door, back inside. He was worried, so he was glad that he looked okay now. He had gotten on the elevator and was waiting for the door to close when Maru's door opened again. Maru came out and waved at him. Daemyung smiled and waved back. The elevator slowly closed. Before it completely closed, he saw Maru's expression through the thin gap between the doors. Daemyung pressed the button for the 1st floor and tilted his head. His friend's expression looked bitter.

"I must be wrong."

* * *

Ever since that day, the 'rabbit's' presence had completely disappeared. She always got the feeling that she was watching from somewhere, even if she didn't talk to her, but now she had completely disappeared without a trace. Gaeul thought about the rabbit, who disappeared while talking about a fairy tale. What was she trying to say? Now that the person who could answer that question had hidden herself, there was no one to answer her.

Gaeul looked at the mirror in front of the building entrance. She shook off her sour expression and made a big smile. She didn't want to make the man waiting upstairs worry.

She typed in the door lock pin and went inside. A smell that put her at ease welcomed her. The dogs perked up their ears and rushed towards her. Gaeul kneeled down without even taking her shoes off and patted them.

"You're here?"

Maru peeked out from the kitchen.

"I came here as soon as possible since things ended earlier than I expected. What are you making?"

"Some side dishes. I found that the fridge is empty after not having looked after it for so long."

Gaeul tilted her head. There was no way that was true since Maru created a bunch of them a while ago. She stood in front of the refrigerator with the dogs that were latched onto her. She opened the door and looked inside, only to find out that there was still plenty there.

"There's still a lot left though?"

"That's not enough."

"I think we can last at least two weeks with this."

"I'm making them since I'm cooking anyway. You should eat them when you need to."

Gaeul sat down on a chair and spoke,

"What is this? You're speaking like you're going to go traveling without me."

"You didn't know? I'm going to be going a little far. I'm very busy you know?"

"This is how you're acting now that you're successful?"

Maru came up to her back and wrapped his hands around her waist and rested his chin on her shoulder. Maru was cooking some beans. The sweet and salty smell made her feel pleasant.

"Anything I could help with?"

"Can you chop up some cucumber after you're done washing? I'll make some cucumber kimchi."

"I'd be glad to."

Gaeul took out some underwear and casual clothes she wore at home before standing in front of the bathroom. She took off her jacket and put it in the laundry basket and was about to enter the bathroom but then headed to the kitchen again.

"Maru."

"Yeah?"

Maru's eyes were still on the beans.

"What you said before. Nothing's happening, right? Like actually moving far away."

She knew that it was a joke, but it strangely caught her mind. It was probably because he smiled without looking her in the eyes when he said such a thing. Maru, who was using a wooden ladle to stir the beans, turned his head around slightly and spoke,

"There's no way that's true."

Gaeul nodded and turned around. He still did not look her in the eyes, but it didn't seem to be a problem. After all, he didn't look away when cooking. Gaeul pulled on the doorknob to the bathroom.

Chapter 1004
Crank Up 10

Perhaps he had forgotten something important. Junmin had that notion as soon as he woke up. Leaving aside the ‘ears’ thing that people around him talked about, he felt like he had forgotten something very important, and also entirely. However, no matter how hard he rummaged through his historical field, he couldn’t find any clues. In fact, the more he looked it up, the more he found out that he was meticulous about everything he did except for the matter with ears.

“You did say something along those lines before, president. You said you’d know by just looking at people’s ears, just like how a talented fortune teller could tell the future by looking at someone’s face. You said it like that too.”

Head manager Kang said those words, so it was definitely true. Even though he himself, who supposedly said those words, had forgotten that completely, the people around him still remembered. Just why, though? He went to his psychotherapist friend after a long time for some consultation.

“Considering the mental stress you received back then, it’s not strange that it incurred some kind of memory loss. Miss Jung Haejoo was a truly precious person to you.”

When he heard those words, he looked back at the past again. In the few years following her death, he had been the busiest in his life. He looked for and picked out people with potential and helped out so that they could bring out their talents in another area. Everything that constituted ‘Lee Junmin’ was created back then, whether it was his connections to the political realm or his foothold in the entertainment industry. Jumin browsed not his business records, but his diary. He realized that there were many abstract expressions. He preferred not to write in this kind of way. He looked at the words that could contain multiple meanings. He soon noticed a commonality among them. When he expressed his opinions about someone he met for the first time, he expressed them as ‘good’ or ‘not good.’ He never evaluated people like this. He would write in detail about what kind of talent, specialties, personality, appearance, or preferences a person had. Differentiating them into ‘good’ and ‘not good’ seemed like the most useless evaluation ever.

Just what was he thinking back then? Junmin sighed. His memories may have weathered down, but there should be some traces, and yet, they had entirely disappeared as though they were weeded out to the roots.

He looked at Haejoo’s photo. She was the only woman he ever loved, and no such woman would appear in the future. He could say for sure that she was his everything, but she strangely felt distant for some reason. Perhaps the lost memories might be related to Haejoo, or at least, he had that vague thought. After looking at the photo for a long time, Junmin flipped the photo over. He stood up and cleaned his bed before getting washed. He changed his clothes and said goodbye to his dogs before leaving his house.

He spat out his impressions about the ‘disappeared memories’ echoing in his head with a single breath. For him to keep clinging to the past, there were too many family members to support on his shoulders. He just treated it as help from time and looked forward instead. Perhaps this was what being human was about.

“Yes, chairman.”

He got a call as soon as he grabbed the driving wheel. YM’s chairman greeted him with an excited voice.

-I’d like to invite that child over. I wonder if he has the time?

* * *

“Thank you for your work.”

Giwoo said goodbye to everyone he made eye contact with at the set before leaving. His taut lips were nearly twitching. He pressed the corner of his lips with his thumbs. The more time passed, the harder it became to smile, even though he could do such a thing reflexively without being conscious about it just a while ago.

“Giwoo, do you want to go home immediately?”

“You should go home first.”

He had the manager go home first and got in his car. He put on some music on his phone and tossed it on the passenger seat. After listening to about two tracks, he started the car. He drove on roads that weren’t jammed without thinking. The stifling sensation that felt like it blocked his chest hadn’t gone away ever since the beginning of the year. If he could vomit it out, he would have drunk straight bottles of tequila already. However, this wasn’t a problem that liquor could solve. It would probably remain behind like a lump of cancer until he removed the source of it.

He drove near a city park before putting on the brakes. He saw an advert for the Q-series phones on the side of a bus. It was a simple advert with just the phone and the product name, but Giwoo focused on Maru smiling brightly. His molars screamed. He hurriedly loosened his jaws. He even heard from the dentist that he should look after them.

How did it come to this? He agitatedly pressed the car horn. A couple sitting on the park bench looked over before moving away. He suddenly felt pathetic and took his hands off. A silly laugh leaked out of his mouth.

“Fuck, fuck this thing.”

His grandfather’s order was still in effect. Those who used to hang out with him together for their little ‘games’ no longer kept in touch after some time. When he reached out to them after some difficulty, the only response he got was that it would be difficult to call him in the future. His grandfather’s words, telling him to befriend great people, had started to influence his reality. His grandfather’s words weren’t some vain echoes that dissipated into thin air, they were no different from laws that had been revised and put into effect. The only ones that he could reach were those that had displayed their excellence in various fields or received acknowledgment from above. The important thing, however, was that those people were no fun. Whether they were actually kind or putting on a pretense, he did not know, but they weren’t interested in his games.

Even the other chaebol youngsters he used to party with had become difficult to meet. The Hong Janghae incident, despite being quietly muddled over in the eyes of the public, had become quite a hot topic in the industry, so everyone was restraining themselves. Of course, his grandfather probably had an influence on this as well.

It was a liberal isolation. He felt like he was abandoned by himself on an island full of attractions. Toys can last a day or two, but playing around with inorganic things that did not respond to anything was no fun. This boredom, vexation, and faint fury could only be calmed down by extricating that guy from his life or bringing the woman next to that man onto the island.

-Are you returning home?

“Why would you want to know that, secretary Kim?”

-Because that is one of my duties.

“Then do your best looking for me.”

-That puts me in a difficult spot. While I can do that, I would like to form a relationship built on trust with you.

“Trust? You? After you put me in a state no different from confinement?”

-You are freely continuing your activities as an actor, enjoying your leisure and even going on travels. How is anything a confinement? If you call that confinement, then I’d love to enjoy it for myself.

“I’m not playing jokes with you.”

-Then please tell me where you are now, and when you would be returning.

“You bastard, you really…”

Just then, there was a sharp metal noise, followed by a tongue clicking that expressed his disappointment. Giwoo felt his back stiffening up.

-Giwoo.

“Yes, grandfather.”

-I have never raised you to throw tantrums. Just how much more will you disappoint me before you’re satisfied?

“Not at all, grandfather. That was not my intention.”

-Is secretary Kim your friend? Or are you saying that you are challenging my authority? I should have told you to listen to secretary Kim.

“I’m sorry.”

There was a series of tongue-clicking noises.

-I wonder why it came to this. While you were impulsive, you weren’t the kind to be reckless without being able to hold back. Should I have let you roll in some mud? I let you do whatever you want because you weren’t fit to continue the company, and it seems you’re turning into an empty shell. There’s nothing you can really do by yourself. When you were young, you were quite cute with clear eyes at least.

“I’m sorry, grandfather. I’ll do it properly.”

There was a moment of silence. Giwoo clutched the driving wheel. Above everything else, the words ‘there’s nothing you can really do by yourself’ really poked at his heart. He felt like the image he had built up until now was denied. But he couldn’t retort. The one he was talking to was his grandfather; his skies and his god.

-Forget it, come to my house. We have a guest.

“Yes. I’ll go there immediately.”

He drove his car to his grandfather’s house. He ignored all the red lights and increased his speed. He no longer wanted to hear of his grandfather’s disappointment in him. What he had to do now was to arrive as fast as possible.

Giwoo handed his keys to the butler standing in front of the garage. He checked himself to see if anything was wrong on his clothes before walking inside.

He could hear his grandfather’s laughter on the second floor. That man was someone who never laughed so heartily even after hearing that a multi-billion won contract had been signed. Just who came over? He climbed the stairs in nervousness. Every time he took a step, his grandfather’s voice became clearer. The first thing he saw when he went up was his grandfather laughing while even using his hand gestures. His gaze moved to the left. He saw a man facing his grandfather.

A chill crept down his back. His bladder squeezed. He could tell who that was just by looking at his back. His grandfather hinted at him after laughing – you should say hello if you’re here. Giwoo barely took a step and stood next to ‘that guy.’ The person talking to his grandfather raised his head and spoke,

“You’re here?”

“Han Maru. Why are you…”

“The chairman invited me.”

“I see.”

Since his grandfather was involved, he could not say anything about it. The only thing he could do was to sit down with his mouth shut. His grandfather spoke as soon as he sat down,

“Why have you never realized that such a good fella was next to you all this time and not those runts.”

Good fella – he felt like he was going to bleed from his ears. He even wished that he was deaf instead. His hand under the table trembled. That guy just looked at him a couple times but didn’t say anything. Giwoo looked down at the food. He felt like he would punch Han Maru if he looked at him.

“Well then. Let’s eat first. We can’t let the food go cold,” his grandfather said.

Chapter 1005
Crank Up 10

“I’m not sure if the food is to your taste.”

The chairman’s housekeeper brought some tea and fruits. Maru looked at the red-colored tea in front of him before speaking,

“I haven’t had food this good in a while.”

“It was worth putting in the effort. I wouldn’t have had any face if the food was bad when I invited over a guest. You should eat those fruits too. And you too, Giwoo.”

Maru picked up the thin fruit fork. Lotus patterns were painted on the end, and in the middle was something like a diamond. It was probably not just something ‘like’ a diamond; it was likely a real one. The chairman despised counterfeits. He even said it in their conversation. Maru picked up a slice of sliced strawberry and put it in his mouth. It was the sweetest one he had in a while.

“So, you have known my son since high school?” the chairman asked.

Maru could see Giwoo’s hand flinch in front of him. He was probably walking on needles right now. After all, the chairman must be a literal ‘god’ to him.

“I didn’t know him that well back then, but I could tell that he was a good person from his first impression. His acting skills were exceptional, and he was kind to those around him. The staff back then really liked him.”

He couldn’t just say ‘your grandson is an unrecyclable piece of human trash.’ If it was a month ago, he would have said it. He wouldn’t have said it outright but indirectly so that the smart chairman would understand him. The reason he said something that wasn’t even in his heart was because the masked man’s last stance lingered in front of his eyes. The fact that he was already onboard the plane should mean that he was approaching his death. It was inevitable, and overcoming it in a frontal clash would be difficult as well. The only thing he could do was to be careful so that such a time would come as late as possible, such as by abiding by traffic laws, not going to dangerous places, and not making enemies. The best he could do right now was to repeat the extremely natural and simple things. He realized just how trifling human efforts were in front of a god.

Giwoo’s hand started moving again. He slowly put a piece of fruit in his mouth and started chewing. Maru could feel the chairman’s eyes looking at Giwoo. While he described Giwoo as a lacking grandson throughout their entire meal, they were blood kin after all. There was no finger that did not hurt when bitten, so the chairman must mean well for Giwoo. In that sense, this occasion clearly meant one thing. Maru didn’t know why, but the chairman truly looked at him with goodwill.

“I didn’t raise him up to be someone who causes shame wherever he goes.”

“You’re really strict with Giwoo, chairman. You must cherish him a lot.”

The chairman just laughed without a word in response. Maru could not tell how this conversation would sound to Giwoo. It might sound like he was making a fool out of him or that Han Maru must have finally admitted his loss and was being obedient. Maru wanted him to think the latter. He wanted this guy to cool down his meager vendetta and jealousy after seeing him act docile. Maru had a look at his expression while drinking tea. He couldn’t see any fluctuations at all. It was probably his will to not show an embarrassing side in front of his grandfather.

“You know, I believe that good friends are made through effort and that you two can become friends. Of course, you might have things you don’t like about each other. However, as you probably know, the world is mostly filled with those you don’t like. In fact, it will be incredibly hard to find anyone you get along with. You try matching with them. A good friend is someone you get to know in that process.”

“I’ll bear that in my mind, sir.”

The chairman left first, saying that the two of them should have a talk. The man called secretary Kim walked to the chairman and transmitted something to him before the two of them left the 2nd floor. The only ones left were himself and Giwoo.

“You actually came here because you were told to. I’m not sure if you are unafraid or reckless to achieve success or what,” Giwoo said while rummaging through the fruits with his fork.

He loosened his straightened shoulders and placed his arms on the table. It was as if he was demonstrating who was the owner of this house.

“Let’s get along. The chairman said it too.”

Maru put some mango in his mouth. It was so good that he didn’t want to leave any behind.

“Quite good tolerance you have there. I’m surprised you can eat in a place like this.”

“What’s there to be nervous about?”

“Well, I guess you never were the type to get nervous. Should I pack the rest of the fruit for you? You should take some to Gaeul at home. These are quite expensive you know?”

“I’ll just have them here. I have money to buy fruits.”

He emptied the plate clean with a slice of kiwi as the last. Maru put down the fork and looked at Giwoo.

“I’m sorry if I displeased you by coming here. I couldn’t reject the chairman’s invitation.”

Giwoo’s lips twitched. His eyes moved busily as though to observe the state of his enemy. Maru pulled over the plate he had pushed to the side and started eating the fruit on it.

“Grandfather sure is amazing. That high and mighty Han Maru is acting so docile. I never imagined this.”

“Just as he said, it’s all in the past, and what’s important is the future. Of course, we might not be able to live as close friends because it’s not what you want. But from today onwards, we will not be uncomfortable with each other.”

“And who says that? I want to be uncomfortable with you until the end.”

The fluorescent lights above the table were reflected off his eyes. He seemed agitated. Was he trying to suppress Maru now that he had the upper hand? They say a rabbit is King on a mountain without a tiger. Maru looked at the stairs. It was much better when the chairman was here. It was exhausting to quarrel with someone he couldn’t get through to.

“It must not be that fun to talk to a wall that doesn’t respond.”

“So you’re going to ignore me completely?”

“If you do something that will make me ignore you, then yes. But I will do my best to get along with you. It might be hard right now since there’s a bad bone between us, but time will probably help with that.”

“It disappoints me if that’s how you act. You stabbed my back and have been laughing at me with that bitch Han Gaeul all this time. You can’t be telling me this.”

“So what is it that you want then?”

“What do I want? Can you even listen to what I want?”

“If it’s possible.”

“Han Gaeul.”

Giwoo placed a strawberry on the tip of his tongue and put it in his mouth. Maru looked at his jaws moving up and down.

“Give me Han Gaeul, and I’ll get along with you.”

* * *

“That young man should be Giwoo’s only complex. Are you sure you want to leave them like that?”

Hearing secretary Kim’s words, the chairman raised his head to look at the ceiling. Two young men were facing off right now above the ceiling. Just as secretary Kim said, Maru was Giwoo’s shame. It didn’t need an in-depth investigation to find out that Maru did not fall for Giwoo’s antics. Giwoo probably despised Han Maru to the bone.

“Secretary Kim.”

“Yes, chairman.”

“You know the bowls we use at our house, right? The ones with blue orchid patterns on them.”

“They are the bowls you cherish the most, chairman.”

“The creator of that is a master craftsman in northern Chungcheong-do. When I first saw the bowls, I liked them so much that I went to find him. He was an interesting man. His words were quite vulgar too. I watched as the bowls were created. I could truly tell that it was a process that involved the soul.”

The chairman stroked the teacup with the pear extract in it. The teacup was also made by that master craftsman.

“That man asked me if I knew the secret to making good bowls. I said I didn’t. Then he showed me a bowl that he just made. It looked fine at a first glance, but he soon said that there was a trace of an air bubble at the bottom and threw it on the ground. Then, he said that to create good quality bowls, you just have to break the bad quality ones. If you keep breaking them, the only ones left are the good ones.”

The chairman recalled what happened back then and slapped the table.

“It was so clear to me. I could just apply that to people. You can’t use a bowl once it’s broken, but people can be broken multiple times. Those that can break again and again are bound to revive as a great man.”

“He might not last.”

The chairman nodded. That was plausible. Every human possessed the desire to improve themselves, but not many were able to fulfill that. The only ones who know the joy of enduring the pain of breaking would grab the opportunity to climb.

“What do you think, secretary Kim?”

“I only wish that Giwoo will live a life without trouble.”

“It’ll probably turn out like that. Even in my eyes, my grandson does not have what it takes to accept being broken. Still, though, you want to leave one last hope. If he could accept his faults and endure, then who knows? He is a man with my blood after all.”

The chairman looked at the ceiling again.

“So I’ll ask you to work a little hard for me. If you truly think that something urgent is about to happen, put the company name first above all else. You know what I mean, right?”

“Do you not mind even if something happens to Giwoo?”

The chairman pushed his chair back with his leg.

“He has to take care of himself. If he cannot take care of what he has caused, then he should receive a fitting punishment.”

Secretary Kim replied yes in a small voice. The chairman closed his eyes. How would Giwoo treat Maru, who was practically his shame? His attitude would set the future course of action.

“I really wish I could swap them out instead. If I could, I would’ve been less worried.”

The chairman waved at secretary Kim to leave. Secretary Kim quietly closed the door.

Chapter 1006
Crank Up 10

“Why, you don’t want to?”

The guy didn’t answer. Giwoo felt the boiling rage inside him calm down after a long time. This guy didn’t budge no matter what he did like a rock. Whenever he saw Maru like that, Giwoo felt like his own worth was plummeting endlessly and became furious. However, the silence at the table was different from the usual one. He could tell from the subdued expression on the guy’s face. He seemed a little angry. Seeing that reaction made him feel a little better. He wished for the guy to be more enraged, more stiff, and feel more hatred for him.

“You want Gaeul?”

“If you give up on her cleanly, then I’ll get along with you. I’ll tell grandfather that you’re a good friend. This should be a pretty good deal for you, isn’t it? A little-more-than-decent actress versus the practical owner of YM. You can’t compare them. It’s clear what you have to choose when you think about your future. There are women everywhere. You can give up on someone like Han Gaeul, can’t you?”

Giwoo smiled and closed his mouth. This guy would never give up. He could feel that. The two of them would mutually destroy themselves rather than break up. He couldn’t tell what bound the two of them together, but no external pressure would make them break up. That was why the only thing he could do was to make him enraged.

“Gaeul is pretty charming alright. I can see why you’re putting so much effort into her.”

Maru’s words broke the silence.

“Effort? Me?” Giwoo’s eyes twitched as he replied.

“Having a closer look at you, you’re quite pitiful. Like you said, women are everywhere. You must have experienced many women too. So why are you so obsessed with Gaeul?”

“Don’t speak nonsense and just answer me. Either you break up and maintain a good relationship with grandfather, or you two stay together and you throw away the YM background. You’ll have a pretty hard time continuing to be an actor. With a word from grandfather, the likes of you or Han Gaeul can be erased from TV in an instant.”

“Oh, indeed. The chairman’s words are amazing alright. I mean, I got to travel all around the world to shoot a commercial thanks to him. He’s really amazing.”

“If you know, then I think it’s about time you start crawling on the ground by yourself.”

“I’ve been lowering myself even if you didn’t tell me that.”

Maru picked up his teacup and took a sip. He said that the tea was good in a small voice.

“But it’s a little funny if you think about it. Why are you the one telling me that? I’ve been invited by the chairman today. Alright then, let’s say I break up with Gaeul. What’s in it for me?”

“You can’t even remember what I just told you. Grandfather told you, didn’t he? That we should be in a good relationship. Don’t you know what that means?”

“It means what it sounds like. Be in a good relationship.”

“No. Do you think grandfather called you and me here just to say something like that? He’s always gentle at first, just like he’s giving advice. But the people who know him, the people who know the chairman, know that it’s not advice, but an order he’s giving. The chairman just told you that you will be in a hard spot if you don’t get along with his grandson. You get what that means right?”

Giwoo pulled the chair forward. He wanted to get as close as possible to have a look at this guy’s face. He felt like he would be able to escape his head pains and insomnia if he could see this guy’s face collapsing into total depravity little by little.

“Is that how it is?”

“If you get it then choose. Either you bring with you a stable future, or you stop being an actor and start looking into doing something else. But you’ll have a hard time getting a job in any decent place. Though, without any specs, you’ll be hard-pressed to apply to any of them anyway. Even if you do pass the resume test, companies with decent names are under grandfather’s influence. Though, if you want to do part-time work at a convenience store, I won’t stop you.”

“I have saved up a decent amount of money, and Gaeul has saved up quite a lot, so we wouldn’t need to go that far. But we don’t need to give up on being actors for the time being. There’s me too, but Gaeul also likes acting a lot.”

Maru moved his body closer to the table as well. His chest was almost touching.

“But you know, there’s one thing I’d like to confirm,” he added as he touched his ears.

“What would you like to confirm then?”

“Let’s say the chairman’s words are not advice, but an order. Let’s say that we go a step further than that and go against his orders and bare our fangs at each other. When that happens, will it truly be me who gets punished?”

Giwoo’s jaws jolted as soon as he heard those words, but the word lingering in his mouth wasn’t spitted out. His laughter made him forget about what he was going to say. Giwoo slapped down on the table and laughed. That was the funniest thing he heard all year. The comedy movie he watched recently might as well be a tragedy compared to what Maru just said.

“You know what you’re saying right now, right?”

“I do, and that’s why I’m asking. Would the chairman really respond that way? And will his actions be upon me?”

“Is something wrong with your head?”

“If there was, I wouldn’t be sitting here. Stop asking the obvious and answer my question. Is the chairman you know someone who’d really do something like that?”

Giwoo kicked the table leg with his left foot. The teacup jolted before returning to its place.

“You’re making me incredibly displeased with the way you sound like you know my grandfather. Han Maru, you’re making a grave mistake. You seem to think that my grandfather cherishes you just because he gave you a few opportunities and met you a couple times, but don’t make me laugh. Of course, I’m sure he’s taken a liking to you to a certain extent since he gave you those chances. But compared to me, you are nothing. Grandfather was always like that to me. He even defined my personal relations. Although he became lenient after I got a little older, when I was young, every single one of my friends had to be evaluated by my grandfather. You’re just one of them. The moment I say I don’t like you, grandfather might get angry at me, but the outlet of his anger will be where you’re standing.”

It was a grave mistake on that guy’s part to think that his grandfather was on his side just because he laughed with him a few times. Giwoo had seen his grandfather mention ‘socially burying someone’ several times with a smile on his face. Maru nodded.

“Let’s say that’s the case. What are you planning to do once we break up? Can you even guarantee that Gaeul will go to you?”

“That’s not for you to worry about.”

“I just wanted to know. I want to know how you’re going to fill the void in her.”

“Han Maru. People are bound to be attracted to those near them. Especially if it’s a woman we’re talking about. Gaeul might be a little strong-headed, but she’s bound to need someone to rely on. She might look at me in a negative light for the time being, but she’ll know once she has some time.”

“She’ll know what, you mean?”

Giwoo locked his fingers and put them against his mouth. This guy displeased him until the very end. If he apologized and begged for forgiveness just once for bragging, he would have let him go. Yet, this guy’s steady eyes felt like searchlights. He acted like he did not know what compromise was whenever Han Gaeul was involved. He would bend in every other matter, but when she was included, he acted like death wouldn’t stop him. It was a really displeasing attitude. What irked him above everything else was that he was feeling jealous when he saw Maru act like that. He utterly despised the fact that feelings of fear and jealousy were rising within him against someone that was worse than him in every way.

“Forget it. It’s not like you intend to break up with her. Don’t resent me later. I gave you the opportunity.”

He had nothing more to say. He stood up with the intention of going down to the first floor.

“So it’s the chairman from the beginning to the end.”

He turned around. Maru was looking at the plates on the table.

“What do you mean by that?”

“What it sounds like.”

Maru stood up. Giwoo grabbed Maru’s shoulder as he walked past.

“Is that all you want to say? If we go out like this, we’ll have a very uncomfortable relationship.”

“It’s not like we were ever in a good one.”

“It’ll be too late for you to regret once you are outside. You’ll lose everything. If grandfather does not take any action, then I will. Will Han Gaeul stay by your side even after you’ve been thrown out of the entertainment industry? Do you think that a meager romantic relationship will last forever? You should seek benefits. A word from me to grandfather and you’ll get wings. You just have to get away from that woman. If you do, then I’ll forget about the bad behavior you showed me until now. Honestly speaking, I feel like we can become good friends. It doesn’t sound bad to have you by my side.”

“Wings given to me by the chairman, huh? That sounds tempting.”

“Right?”

Maru put his hand on his own shoulder. Giwoo looked at Maru who pushed away his hand and went downstairs.

“But you aren’t the chairman.”

“Han Maru!”

When Maru climbed downstairs, secretary Kim appeared. Giwoo stomped his way down the stairs while forcefully opening his hand from clenching in rage.

Chapter 1007
Crank Up 10

“I’d like to say goodbye to the chairman before leaving.”

Secretary Kim told him to wait and went behind the staircase. Maru had heard that the chairman’s study was there. Kang Giwoo, who came down after him, blocked his path.

“Don’t be arrogant. You think everything will go the way you think, right? But you’ll soon find out that the world isn’t that easy.”

“I know very well that the world isn’t easy.”

He faced death and was approaching yet another one. He was incredibly well aware of how unfair and unjust the world is.

“No, you don’t know. You have no idea how heavy the words of people on our side are. But you’ll see soon enough, and you’ll think then that you should’ve listened to Kang Giwoo’s words. Don’t expect Han Gaeul to stay by your side after you lose everything. People are very evil. That woman is also bound to look for someone standing on the same level as her.”

“I see what you’re saying, so I hope you can shut that mouth of yours now.”

Maru was convinced after meeting Kang Giwoo alongside the chairman. He could tell where this guy’s source of confidence came from, and why he wasn’t the slightest bit worried while doing things that were against the law. He may look like a sturdy tree with green leaves spread around everywhere, making it look like he would last thousands of years to come, but in actuality, his roots didn’t reach far into the ground; they just skimmed the surface. A tree with deep roots would stay up even if something happened to the soil around it. However, this guy was so weak that without the super soil that was the chairman to hold him up, he might as well fall with just a simple push. The reason he stayed up until now was that the chairman supported him well, and also because Giwoo strongly believed that the chairman would continue to do so.

In his few encounters with the chairman, Maru became sure of two things. One was that the chairman was hard to look into, and the second was that he was just as frightening as he was deep. Giwoo asked him if he thought that he had become close to the chairman just because the chairman laughed with him a couple times. Maru wanted to return those words right back to him — perhaps you’re the one who’s forgetting that.

The chairman wasn’t someone who bestowed affection unconditionally. At first, Maru thought that he would love his own bloodline unconditionally, but he saw that the way the chairman looked at Giwoo was definitely not gentle. They were eyes that were looking at a puppy acting cute. If the pup could bring back the ball obediently, he would feed it and pet it, but what would happen if the pup didn’t do that?

“You’re leaving already?”

The chairman left the study.

“I thought I’d be inconveniencing you by staying too long.”

The chairman chuckled. Secretary Kim left upon his orders.

“And the two of you had a talk?”

“Yes,” Maru replied first.

The chairman’s eyes were on Giwoo now.

“From the looks of it, I seemed to have stepped out of line. Maru, you must have been rather uncomfortable.”

“Not at all. Thank you for looking out for me. I was just narrow-minded and wasn’t able to keep up with Giwoo.”

“I guess that’s how it is at first.”

Maru replied with both of his hands clasped,

“I think it’ll be hard in the future too.”

“Is our Giwoo that bad?”

“He’s not bad. It’s just that the two of us just cannot get along.”

“Giwoo, how about you?”

Giwoo sighed in slight disappointment before speaking,

“Like you said, grandfather, I wanted to get along with him, but it looks like it’s going to be difficult after all. Maru just said that we cannot get along, but actually, I tried to get along with him. But he says he doesn’t want to. I guess it can’t be helped. It looks like even your words are nothing to this fellow.”

Maru semi-closed his eyes and looked at the chairman’s chin. It wasn’t his desire to fall out with the chairman. While president Lee said that he could put the chairman in check, it shouldn’t be enough to completely block him. If he truly fell out with the chairman, he would indeed encounter storms in his career in the entertainment industry, just as Kang Giwoo said. Coming up with a suitable lie to avoid this situation was also a method. Maru even rehearsed it in his head a few times before coming down the stairs. However, the moment he looked at the chairman’s face, he scrapped that plan. If he tried bluffing in front of someone who could see all of his cards, he might not just lose the chips on the table, but the chips inside his pocket as well.

There was only one solution then. He just had to show him everything and leave it up to him. Maru believed in the chairman’s deep eyes. He trusted that frightening personality. If the chairman was doting, then his life might be in danger, but what could he do? The weak never had a choice in the first place.

“What kind of suggestion did you make?” the chairman asked.

Maru did not answer. Giwoo also did not speak easily. The chairman asked once again about what kind of talks took place. Giwoo hurriedly replied when the same question was asked twice,

“It’s nothing much.”

“I’ll be the judge of that. Tell me.”

It seemed Giwoo didn’t have a way to prevent the colossal giant’s curiosity. Maru could practically hear the factory inside his head working busily. Maru gave him a glance, hinting that he would say it instead if it was too hard.

“There’s a girl who’s dating him. But I’ve liked her for quite a while. That was why I told him to give me an opportunity. It was nothing much.”

Giwoo laughed it off, as though it truly wasn’t anything much. The chairman nodded.

“Maru.”

“Yes.”

“Break up with that woman.”

As soon as the chairman’s words ended, Giwoo’s expression became brighter. Maru scratched the ceiling of his mouth with his tongue. So he was the doting grandfather after all? And to these two, relationships were something so light that they could break them up with just a word from their mouth?

“Why, you don’t want to?”

“Chairman. How should I answer this question?”

“It’s simple. I like fair trades. If I want to request something from someone, I should exchange it for something worth it. You felt that your publicity had gone up after shooting that commercial, right? That should have changed people’s treatment of you. If you don’t stop here and do more things in the future, what would it be like then? If you receive the support of both I and president Lee, you will soon climb to the apex, Maru. If you’re born as a man, you should reach the peak at least once. And once you’re at the top, you’ll see that your eyes have changed as well. Right now, the woman that might seem like your everything might seem meager when you’re up there. Of course, I admit that your talent is not ordinary. However, the world does not recognize talent. The ones that do are people like me. What do you think will happen if the top-tier actors are stuffed in a third-rate theater troupe in the middle of nowhere? Do you think the world will soon recognize their talent and bring that person back to the top? Absolutely not. Of course that won’t happen. A talent in the middle of the mud pit will at most end up shining brightly within that mud pit. If talent was truly the element of success in this era, this country wouldn’t be in this state.”

It was a tempting offer. Anyone would be swayed by it. A promised success in exchange for breaking up with the woman he was dating? If it wasn’t for Gaeul, he might have been shaken. It was that sweet after all. It would be a lie to say that he wasn’t greedy for it. However, the answer was already set in stone. There was no room for greed to butt in.

“I do not wish to buy your ire, chairman, but no matter how hard I think, I cannot think of a way to decline politely. I apologize.”

“Meaning, you decline my offer, yes?”

“Yes.”

“It might become difficult for you. There’s a limit to president Lee covering for you. That man’s quick to calculate as well. Once he deems that he’ll be overinvesting in order to protect you, he’ll soon give up.”

“At that time, I’ll just give up on acting and start driving a bus or something. I’m confident in that.”

“You can drive a bus?”

“Yes. I don’t have a license yet, but I can get one pretty quickly.”

“From an actor to a bus driver, huh? Won’t you feel disappointed?”

“I will, and I’ll struggle with my best effort. But if I still cannot continue my acting career despite that, then I’ll give up. There’s one thing I must hold on to even if it means I have to put down everything else.”

“You are strong-minded, but you don’t know your place. If a truck is rushing towards you, you should be thinking about avoiding it. If you crash head-on, what other outcome is there other than death?”

“I might be lucky enough to survive. Or, the truck driver might stop right in front of me.”

“Trucks have elevated seats, so they can’t easily see people right in front of them.”

“That’s why I’ll jump up to the best of my ability so that even a single strand of hair might catch their attention.”

The chairman did not speak. Maru just watched his mouth. It was hard to raise his head to look at his eyes. He could see Giwoo smiling on the side. They were blood kins after all, and the only thing left for him now was to brace himself so that he didn’t get smashed.

“I can’t hold back someone who’s unwilling.”

“Thank you for your hospitality until now.”

“Until now?”

Along with a rustling sound, secretary Kim appeared. There were paper bags in each of his hands. Maru quietly looked at the paper bags that secretary Kim held out to him before accepting them.

“It’s red ginseng. I had some too, and it’s really good. President Lee also seems to like it.”

Maru looked at the chairman with the paper bags in hand. He was neither smiling nor angry. He just plainly continued to speak,

“Your father works in Joojin Tech, correct? And he should be in the countryside right now.”

Maru nodded in response to the sudden question. He soon realized that it was rude of him and said ‘yes’ to confirm.

“Secretary Kim. Call that man.”

Secretary Kim, immediately took out the phone and used it. After a few lines of conversation, he gave the phone to the chairman.

“Director Baek. You know the one I mentioned before, right? Yes, that man. Ask for his opinion and call him to Seoul if he wants to, and if he says he’s okay over there, give him a managerial position. If there’s anything that’s inconveniencing his work life, then set it straight.”

The chairman gave the phone back to secretary Kim.

Chapter 1008
Crank Up 10

“You have a younger sister, correct? She’ll be given a scholarship through the foundation. It even includes everyday expenses on top of tuition, so it should be decent. Your sister moved out of home, yes?”

The reply, that said ‘yes’, came from secretary Kim instead. Maru didn’t even have any time to be surprised because he was analyzing what was happening. Leaving aside the sudden display of goodwill, it was rather strange to see the chairman be so knowledgeable about his background. After all, it was way too trivial for the head of a super company to care about.

“Information possesses the opposite attribute to water. This one rises to the top from the bottom. That’s why, staying at the top, I hear all sorts of things even if I stay still and even if I don’t want to. If there’s anything I want to know, then that’s just as easy. Are you displeased that I know about your family’s information?”

Only then did the chairman laugh in a low tone.

“Actually, it doesn’t matter even if you’re displeased. I’m doing this because I want to. I created this business so that I don’t have to be conscious about what other people are thinking about me. If you dislike what I’ve done for you, you’re free to return it whenever. It’ll displease me, but seeing as how you’re bold enough to reject my proposal right in my face, I guess you won’t care about something like that.”

“That’s not true at all.”

“Now it looks like you’re being conscious of me. Well, fine. Actually, there are loads of people in the world who are conscious of me. However, it’s hard to find anyone who goes against me. Merchants are bound to feel attracted to things that are rare. Of course, if that rare thing is being arrogant despite not having any worth, they’ll just toss it in the trash.”

The chairman took a step closer. His body was rather frail as though to say that even with a large amount of money, he could not win against time, but his eyes were as bright as the rising sun defeating the darkness of dawn. Maru could see why Giwoo served him like a god. Having someone like that nearby would make anyone feel fearful. If president Lee was the quiet ocean that swallowed up everything without a word, the chairman was a storm that boasted its existence to the world. Both of them were the same in regards to the fact that anyone caught in it would die, but gaining the support of the storm would make anyone feel reassured.

“Still, what a pity though. It feels like I was not competent enough. If it was any other time, a boy like you would have kneeled down and started begging,” said the chairman.

Maru could instantly tell that he didn’t mean it. The chairman was blatantly showing his emotions. He seemed to want Maru to feel relieved and respond naturally. A joke naturally had to be responded to with a joke,

“One more minute and I might be on my knees.”

“Maybe I should’ve waited a little more.”

The chairman reached his hand out. Maru put the paper bags down and grabbed the hand back.

“If you’re born as a man, you should aim for the top. However, if there’s something you must protect before that, then you must protect that first. How can someone who can’t even protect what’s in his hands reach the top? Guts, that’s what a man needs. Guts to never yield what he must protect no matter what tries to shake them up. I like those kinds of people. They might seem foolish, but they do their worth.”

Maru inwardly sighed in relief. The chairman let go.

“Do your best in the future. You have to become a big man and be a good face for our products.”

“I’ll do my best.”

“Since president Lee has high hopes for you, I shouldn’t be worried. But don’t take too long. Achievements are better the quicker you obtain them.”

The chairman turned to the side. Giwoo’s expression started stiffening up the moment secretary Kim appeared with the paper bags. Maru was busy paying attention to the chairman, so he didn’t keep watch, but currently, Giwoo was a sight to see. He looked like a human who had seen fire for the first time. He was surprised, curious, uneasy, and afraid.

“Giwoo.”

“Yes, grandfather.”

“I remember when you were young. You were a scaredy-cat, but not a coward. You might cry after fighting with your friends, but you didn’t criticize them. I didn’t really like that personality of yours. People like you are everywhere in this world after all. But I felt like it would be okay as long as I could put a fence around you. But then, one day, you changed. It was 17 years ago. I still remember it. You were in primary school. You told me that a girl broke an important pencil case. I was proud to see you not cry and talk to me clearly. I finally thought that you would achieve something. You immediately pulled the strings. Despite being young, you sneakily blew away your classmate. That in itself was good. But, you didn’t finish things off properly.”

Giwoo flinched backwards as though he was pushed by an invisible wall. The chairman frowned and clicked his tongue slightly.

“You should only cause an incident when you can take responsibility for it. It is nothing but a foolish thing to do if you put your hands in an area that you cannot control. That day, you should’ve told that girl straight to her face that you had her bullied because you didn’t like her; you should have told her that you were the one who made her transfer schools. You should have endured the consequent insults and anger and overcome them, but what you did was learn to hide. That was when I decided. I judged that the company, the path of a ruler, does not suit you. You’re someone who would run and hide the moment you have to take responsibility for something.”

“Grandfather.”

“I should have told you plenty of times. There are many more people in the world that you don’t get along with than those that you do. You can’t even bring someone like that to your side, so how can I expect you to do much more?”

“Grandfather, I…”

“From now on, you’re free to do anything by yourself. I won’t care what it is.”

“I was in the wrong, grandfather. I’ll try again.”

“Leave it. 25 years was plenty of time to watch you. You’re a child who cannot even break. Since you cannot break, you’ll have to live in the world that you have achieved thus far. I also had a look at the works that you played in. I could already feel a sense of mannerism from the titles alone. I’m not entirely knowledgeable about the entertainment industry, but I’m sure the same rule applies there that an item with no special value will not be sold.”

Maru stepped aside. Giwoo stood in front of the chairman.

“Grandfather, I will never disappoint you again.”

“Forget it. I no longer want anything from you. Just take care of yourself from now on. Also, I’ll make this clear just in case, but you won’t have a position in the company. Stake your life in that acting career.”

“What? That’s…”

“You didn’t expect there to be a seat for you, did you? Chances of that were chopped in half when you left after saying that you want to be an actor, and now that you showed your rock bottom like this, I no longer need to say anything. From what I have heard, it seems you have told your little runts that you’ll succeed one of the logistics lines after becoming successful as an actor and will become one of the pillars of this nation’s economy, yes? Well, I’m not too sure about that. I can’t be sure of anything that might happen after my death, but as long as I’m alive, such a thing will not happen.”

Giwoo tried to speak. He was probably desperate. If he could not stand up for himself here, it was all too clear that he would no longer be in the chairman’s interest. However, Giwoo shut his mouth after a nod from the chairman. The chairman stared at Giwoo for a long while. Giwoo’s eyes slowly moved down.

“Yes, that’s the kind of kid you are. Someone so weak that without your shield, you’re nothing but pathetic. Why are you afraid of being hurt? It’s fine for you to break down tragically at least once, or resist and go against the flow. You’re a man, but you don’t have the slightest bit of resistance in you.”

Hearing the chairman’s words, Giwoo raised his head back up. However, that was it. His mouth did not open. When the chairman locked his hands behind his back and stared at him, Giwoo moved his eyes down again.

“Secretary Kim, see the guest out for me. Maru, be careful on your way home.”

The chairman returned to the study. Maru stood on the porch with the paper bags. Before he left, he looked at Giwoo, crouching down on the stairs. He’s done for — those words reverberated in his mouth.

“Giwoo must know what the chairman wants. However, he’s not bold enough to carry that out. The chairman knows that as well, and that is why he no longer expects anything from him.”

Those words were from secretary Kim. Maru walked across the garden with the paper bags.

* * *

How would it have been if he was outright cursed instead? Giwoo looked at the mirror in a daze. His grandfather’s words had no ups or downs. He spoke as though all the emotions were removed from him. He didn’t have a shred of feelings for his grandson, nor any disappointment or resentment. It felt like he said ‘this is a flawed product, so take it out.’ That was it. That was all he amounted to.

Giwoo left the bathroom and picked up whatever caught his eye. It was a hair dryer. But just as he was about to throw it down on the floor with all of his might,

“Why are you afraid of being hurt?”

The voice held his hand back. Giwoo put the hair dryer down and went to the bathroom. He looked at the mirror again. He could see the smooth skin. The face he never felt was insufficient before somehow looked dissatisfying. What did he need?

Giwoo took off his clothes. He stood in front of the mirror naked. He grabbed the wall with both of his hands and put his forehead against the mirror. It was cold. He felt like his forehead would be glued to the mirror at any moment. He slowly took his head back. He was once again greeted with a face that looked incomplete. He took a deep breath and put strength into his neck before smashing his head into the mirror. Along with a loud crack sound, the edge of the mirror shattered. His face was reflected on a fragment that fell into the sink. He had a pretty decent expression on.

Bang, bang, bang.

He did not know how many times he smashed his head. When he came to himself, the sink was already glistening with blood. He put his hand against his forehead. It stung as though he was scorched by fire.

“You’re right, grandfather. Being hurt is a natural thing. And it’s also something that I must not avoid. I just had to do it with my own hands. With these… hands.”

Giwoo picked up a piece of broken shrapnel. He put the sharp edge against his cheek and pressed strongly. Screams uncontrollably escaped his mouth. Giwoo waited for a bit while covering his ripped cheeks. Curiously, he got used to the pain. It became bearable.

He checked his face with the mirror fragment that stabbed him.

“Now that looks more like a man. He’s more gutsy looking too.”

Giwoo threw away the broken mirror and covered his face with a towel.

Chapter 1009
Crank Up 10

“You don’t have to worry. It’s nothing dangerous. What did you decide to do? Are you going to keep staying there?”

-When I first came here, I really wanted to go back to Seoul, but now, I’m more comfortable here. Your mother gets along with the people around here too.

“Then you should do whatever you’re comfortable with. Bada and I don’t have a problem at all.”

-Well, you I can understand, so I was never that worried about you. I’m just a little worried about Bada.

“Mother looks after her twice a month, so it should be fine. Also, she seems to have opened her eyes to studying, and she really doesn’t do anything else.”

-It’s thanks to you.

“I didn’t do anything. Bada did everything herself. So don’t worry about us now and choose whatever puts you at ease.”

-I’ve been having a great time these days because of a great son. I only get by because I can boast about you. I show them the phone you gave me and say that my son shot a commercial for this, but everyone wouldn’t believe me. That’s when I opened up youtube on the spot and showed them.

“Father, you know how to use something like that?”

-Everyone does these days. Anyway, it really caused a commotion. General manager Choi asked me if I could let you meet his daughter once. Of course, I’m sure he was joking, though.

Maru sat on the sofa and spoke,

“Father, actually, I planned to make a visit last year, but I was so busy that I couldn’t make it.”

-Visit? What visit?

“I have someone I’m dating. And we’re dating seriously.”

-Really?

“I totally forgot about it because of all the things that are happening, but I’ll make some time soon and go visit you. So spread rumors that your son has a partner already.”

-A-alright. I’ll keep that in mind.

His father stuttered. It seemed that he was pretty flustered. Maru laughed and told him that she was a really good girl.

-Just bring her here. We’ll hold a feast for her. Does your mother know about it?

“Please tell her for me.”

I will — said his father. When Maru asked about his health, his hobbies, his drinking habits, and other little stuff like that, his father started laughing.

-You boy. I’m not at the age where I’ll make my son worried, so you should look after yourself. Ever since I came down here, my health has gotten a lot better instead. You should be looking after yourself since life in Seoul is going to be harsh. I saw in the news that the entertainment industry is quite cruel. The news is all over things like breach of contract, delaying payment, and whatnot. Don’t get involved in troublesome stuff, and if you do get involved in it, look for help. Don’t struggle by yourself. I can still be a hill you can lean on.

“I will. When I go down this time, let’s go fishing together.”

His father hung up with a laugh. It had been a week since Maru had met the chairman. The chairman proved to him that he kept what he said with his mouth. His father had belatedly gotten on the line to success, and a foundation under the YM Group gave Bada a scholarship. Bada rejoiced, saying that she was smart enough to get scholarships. Their mother, on the other hand, was worried, saying that there is no goodwill without reason, but when Maru explained the reason to her, she told him to stay right next to the chairman, saying that such a man was the scariest when he got angry.

He had a look at the clock on top of the TV. It was 8 p.m. It was almost time for Gaeul to come. Maru changed clothes. He put his shirt and tie on. There was once a time when he put on his tie every single day, but today it felt different. He checked for one last time in front of the mirror.

“You’re ready?” Gaeul said as soon as she came in.

“Should I put a protector on my stomach? I think I’m going to get beaten up badly.”

“My mom will hit your face if she does anything, so let’s just go. If you rotate your body on time, you won’t break any teeth.”

“Now that’s something I can’t laugh about. But are you really sure about this?”

Maru pointed at the present on the sofa. It was a laptop that had barely been released for a week. In his last life, he brought beef ribs when visiting her.

“I know my mom the best. She likes eating, but she’ll like it more if she’s given what she needs the most. She’s been saying she needs to change her laptop recently too.”

“Won’t she find it too burdensome?”

“My mom? No, I don’t think so. She’s someone who believes that gifts are more heartfelt the more expensive they are.”

That I remember — Maru laughed as he thought back to the past. They left the house and got in the car. He promised her that they would visit her before the end of the year, but the year had already passed. Both of them had a hard time making time in their schedule because they were both busy shooting dramas, films, and commercials. It was also Gaeul’s intent that there was no need to rush to the point that they had to readjust their schedules. Gaeul, who sat on the passenger seat, placed her hand on her chest and started breathing heavily.

“This is bad. I’m already nervous.”

“That’s not like you. If you’re nervous, what am I supposed to do?”

Maru shook his hands before he even started the car. He felt like he would feel less nervous if he was shooting an erotic scene instead. What was he supposed to do? He was the resentful man who once made her daughter suffer, and now he was going to visit her to tell her that they were dating with marriage in mind, and even living together. There was only one reaction that she could possibly show.

“I’ll go in first and put away all the knives.”

“And scissors too.”

“Okay.”

He started the car. The traffic lights of Seoul seemed to have become merciful today as he was rarely ever stopped. They arrived at the apartment in Suwon she used as an office about 20 minutes earlier than they expected. Maru parked the car in the parking lot and turned off the car. It was time for him to get off.

“Aren’t you getting off?” Gaeul asked.

She didn’t seem to want to get off either, as her hands were glued to her knees. She was probably scared as well. After all, her mother would probably shout at her for giving an enemy like him her heart and even bringing him here.

“Should we keep it a secret that we’re living together?”

“My mom’s very quick when it comes to things like that. We’ll be found out quickly if we lie. Above all, I don’t have the confidence to lie to her. Since I was young, she has always noticed everything when I tried to hide it.”

“She is extremely quick to catch on.”

“Let’s not talk about it first. If the mood looks good, we’ll just let her know about it, and if not, then we’ll just not mention it.”

Maru got out of the car with the laptop that was packaged prettily. There was no running. Forward was the only way now. They took the elevator up. Standing in front of the door, Maru started sweating. If it wasn’t for the rather chilly spring night air, Maru’s shirt might have gotten drenched.

“I’ll go in first.”

“Okay.”

Gaeul had told her mother earlier that she had a boyfriend she was dating and that she was going to bring him here today. Maru said that it might be better to tell her beforehand, but her decision was that suddenness was a better factor here.

“Mom, I’m here.”

Gaeul went in first. Maru could hear his mother-in-law’s voice through the slight opening of the door. His heart started racing as though he did a full sprint. He felt like his heart would jump out of his throat if he opened his mouth wide.

“Why are you here by yourself? Weren’t you coming with your boyfriend?”

“He’s outside.”

“Why did you make him stay outside when it’s so cold? Tell him to come in.”

“Err, he’s quite shy.”

“What kind of amazing thing has he prepared for him to be so shy? Or has he done something that might make him shy?”

His heart suddenly skipped. Maru realized for the first time that a thumping heart could come to an abrupt stop like that. Did she know that she was making a man suffocate with her jokes? He knew that he shouldn’t do it, but the word ‘escape’ flashed through his mind. It was such a charming word that he was almost tempted.

“Honey, come in,” Gaeul said.

Maru tightened his tie and lowered his head while holding the laptop with both of his hands. He stepped through the doorway feeling like a criminal. He saw the shoes laid out neatly. If he raised his head now, he would see his mother-in-law. He clenched his eyes shut before folding his waist in half.

“Hello, ma’am.”

He clenched his teeth hard and straightened his back. What he saw was the mother and daughter glued at their waists. Gaeul looked like she was about to cry. When he had a closer look, she was almost about to cry because of too much laughter. His gaze moved sideways. The same thing was happening to his mother-in-law as well. She was covering her mouth and just barely holding back her laughter. When was it again? There was a day when she was almost bursting out laughing like that. That was…

Just then, a cat slowly walked over. It was passing in front of the mother and daughter. Maru slowly looked down at the cat. The cat yawned before going back to the room again.

“You knew?” Maru asked.

Mother-in-law looked at Gaeul’s face once and nodded.

“There’s no way I wouldn’t know. The girl who lacked vitality started being full of smiles all of a sudden. Moreover, she doesn’t even go home that often. I visited to give her some food, but god it looked like a haunted house. That’s when I knew about it. She must be living somewhere else. I asked her and she immediately froze up. Then, game over.”

“Then today…”

“I urged her to bring you quickly if she was planning to. I now have the confidence to greet you with a smile. But.”

She took her hands off Gaeul and approached him. Maru straightened his back and pulled his chin inwards. He looked at his mother-in-law while feeling like a new recruit in the military who was seeing a general for the first time.

“Make her cry again, and you’ll regret it. Han Gaeul! That goes for you as well.”

Mother-in-law turned her head to look at her. She, who looked like it was none of her business, also froze stiff and barely managed to nod to tell her that such a thing would never happen again. Maru was about to suffocate because of the heavy silence when his mother-in-law spoke again,

“Well, that was all in the past, so I should stop here. Mr. Han.”

“Yes!”

“I’m glad to see you again like this.”

He thought back to the first time he saw his mother-in-law in this life. Maru grabbed the hand she held out with both of his hands.

“Thank you.”

“Also, Gaeul told me that you’re great at cooking. Well, you did bring her porridge and whatnot during high school. That’s why I didn’t prepare anything today.”

“I’m glad you didn’t. I should be the one cooking of course. The trend these days is for the guests to cook. You should just sit and relax, mother-in-law.”

Maru immediately took off his shoes.

“Mother-in-law?”

“I meant, ma’am.”

“Why? You should call me mother-in-law already. Don’t you two already share a bed together?”

Gaeul coughed awkwardly and grabbed her mother’s shoulders and dragged her back. Maru carefully went into the living room with the laptop firmly held against his chest. He finally remembered. When he went to get her permission for marriage, his mother-in-law laughed like that after saying no. She threw unexpected jokes at the most unexpected times.

“My dear son-in-law, would you like some help?”

“Not at all!” Maru shouted as he entered the kitchen.

Chapter 1010
Crank Up 10

Choi Haesoo looked at Maru holding the fruit knife. He was very proficient in using it. It might disappoint her daughter if she said this, but his cooking was better than hers as well. Even men who had lived by themselves for a long time wouldn’t become that good at cooking unless they paid special attention to it, so this meant that he was eating well.

“You usually prepare the meals, right?”

Her daughter waved her hands in the air in denial. Maru also said that Gaeul looked after him a lot, but they couldn’t deceive her.

“I can tell without looking. My girl Gaeul says she’s more comfortable ordering food than cooking when she lived alone. She likes home meals, but she hates to cook them. Such a bad girl, isn’t she? Maru, you must be having a hard time.”

“Hard time, oh, no. I’m thankful that she eats anything I made.”

Haesoo received an apple that Maru handed over. It was peeled prettily. She had a look at the place where the two were currently living together, and she saw that it was neatly organized, and above all, very clean. It wouldn’t be strange if it looked messy since they were raising two dogs, but there was none of the like. He showed her that he could take care of the household chores.

“It’s rather annoying to live with her, isn’t it? She has so much hair falling out. There was once a time when my daily routine was to pick up all the hair she failed to clean.”

“Mom, how long ago are you even talking about?”

Gaeul smiled awkwardly and tried to stop her. Haesoo gave her a glare. The little girl was trying her best because she was in front of her boyfriend. Haesoo took a bite of the apple.

“Have you decided on anything about marriage?”

Maru, who was peeling the apple, and Gaeul, who was putting away the peels, froze up at the same time. Haesoo did not mind that and asked once again, about when they were going to get married,

“Mom, we haven’t talked about that yet.”

“Considering that you’ve known each other since high school, it’s been almost ten years. If you cried after breaking up and now got back together, you should have at least the resolution or a plan to get married. I might be a parent who lets the child do whatever she wants, but when I think about you two, I really want to hear this straight. Gaeul is one thing, but Maru, you must have had a hard time too. The two of you aren’t exactly young anymore to not talk about marriage.”

They were grown up enough to come and greet her like this. It would be funny if they didn’t think about marriage at all. It wasn’t that she wanted to urge them to marry. Both of them were actors with a busy careers in front of them, and if they suddenly announce their marriage, it might throw a wrench in those careers. It was just that she wanted to know how serious they were, and how faithful they were to each other. She never wanted to see her daughter crying in the middle of the night again.

“I can tell you two things for sure,” Maru started speaking.

“One is that we don’t plan to get married immediately. This is something we decided on after taking into account both of our circumstances.”

Haesoo looked at Gaeul, with her intent asking if they had talked about this beforehand. Gaeul nodded.

“If you two have talked about it, then there’s no need for me to say anything. Regardless of your circumstances, you are both adults capable of choosing the right thing to do. What’s the second one?”

“We are definitely getting married.”

“I use the word ‘definitely’ only when it’s necessary when I write. It’s a scary word. You can’t get married immediately, but you’re definitely getting married. When is this ‘definitely’?”

“I have talked about this with Gaeul before, about when we should have our wedding. I originally didn’t ask it as a serious question, but it became a serious conversation that we talked about for over an hour. The conclusion we came to was that we both wanted to consolidate our foundations as actors. It’s not that our acting careers will end just because we get married, but there will be changes to a certain extent.”

“To a certain extent, you say.”

Maru smiled, as though he knew what she was going to ask.

“We have come to the conclusion that we should hold the wedding if we achieve one of two things. First, we decided on a date. If we turn thirty, we will stamp the marriage documents first.”

“So the deadline is thirty?”

Maru and Gaeul nodded at the same time.

“And what are those two achievements?”

Maru smiled awkwardly and stayed quiet. Gaeul spoke instead,

“This is something I decided on, so I’ll tell you. First is that we appear in the same piece as leading or supporting roles. I’ve always wanted to perform in the same piece as Maru. Not as a passing, minor role, but one where I can act with him.”

“I didn’t know my daughter had a romantic side to her. What’s the second one?”

“If Maru gets an award, I’m immediately going to tell everyone around that I’m getting married.”

“An award?”

It sounded like an absurd promise between two snotty-nosed brats, but it was nothing that she couldn’t understand. It was probably a necessary step for them to feel proud of themselves to each other. The two of them seemed to know the reality of marriage. If they said that they were going to hold the wedding against public outcry, she might have frowned.

“If the two of you decided on that, then that should be fine. You have talked to each other about it, and you must have accepted it.”

“Do you want me to get married as soon as possible?”

“With Maru as the partner, it’s not bad to get married early. I’ll be less worried as well.”

“What do you take your daughter for? I’m completely fine without him.”

“Yeah, yeah, sure you are. Mr. Han, I haven’t told you about how Gaeul was when you two broke up, have I?”

Gaeul walked over on her knees and quickly sat down next to her. Inheriting a certain trait from a certain someone, her glaring eyes were fierce. Haesoo covered her mouth and looked at Maru, who coughed.

“I understand the two of you, so you can get going. It must be uncomfortable doing this in someone else’s house.”

“Don’t say that. You’re making me sad, mom,” Gaeul said as she hooked arms with her.

“Ma’am, I’m also comfortable here,” Maru added.

Haesoo waved her hand in the air in denial. How many sons-in-law would be comfortable with their parents-in-law? No matter how comfortable he may be, they were ultimately strangers. She got their greeting and heard a serious story, so it was time to let them go.

“You’re going to curse me for being shameless if I try to hold you here, aren’t you?”

“Of course not.”

“Forget it, you should leave after some coffee. I want to get some rest.”

Haesoo turned on the TV, thinking that she should just let them go after drinking some coffee. She stopped Maru from getting up. She had him cook, so she should at least do the coffee.

“I only have instant coffee sticks. Are the two of you okay with that?”

“Yes, I love instant coffee.”

She boiled some water and poured the coffee mix into a cup. She poured the hot water into the cup and stirred it with a chopstick before adding some milk. She also took out some scones she had in the fridge and went back to the living room.

“Coffee made by mom is the best,” Gaeul said after taking a sip.

Haesoo changed channels. She didn’t want to talk while listening to news about lonely deaths.

-There was unfortunate news a while ago, wasn’t there? About how actor Kang Giwoo received big injuries on his face. Today, his agency said that a glass shelf fell on top of his face while he was moving some furniture. Fortunately, we have heard that he has gotten treatment and there’s no problem with him, but from how all of his schedules were canceled after that, it seems we can’t expect his return for a while.

-His fans must be worried. I’m really glad that it didn’t lead to a bigger accident. Mr. Kang Giwoo. I hope you get well soon and start working again.

Haesoo felt pity as she watched the news. It said that it was bad enough that he had to have surgery, so it should be hard for him to return to being an actor for a while. She hoped for the wound to heal well.

“Oh, my. What’s that? Gaeul, you might not be able to visit him, but definitely give him a call. Giwoo must be having a hard time.”

Gaeul did not say anything. Haesoo thought she’d say yes, but she was looking at the news with cold eyes. Maybe something happened?

“He deserves it,” Gaeul said as she changed the channel.

Maru also looked like he knew something. While Haesoo knew that her daughter was someone who clearly distinguished her likes and dislikes, she usually wouldn’t stiffen up and express it out loud. It was clear that there was a reason behind this. She thought about asking but decided to hold back, and just drank coffee. They were way past the age of when she had to scold them for fighting with a friend. They would have to resolve their own problems. She made eye contact with Maru for a brief moment. He lowered his head, as though to thank her for understanding. Haesoo was fine with just that.

The silence induced by the TV was broken by a bell. Following that there was a voice that said ‘you have a parcel.’ Gaeul stood up.

“I’ll get it.”

Haesoo looked at her daughter. Was there anything she was expecting? She didn’t order anything online, and it wasn’t a season where TV stations would be sending out gifts. Gaeul opened the door. Haesoo could see a vest with the post office’s mark on it.

“It’s a check card[1]. Park Myungjin, is this you?”

“Park Myungjin? There’s no one like that here. Mom, did you get a check card issued?” Gaeul asked as she turned around.

Haesoo stood up. She never applied for a check card, and above all, there was no one named Park Myungjin here.

“It looks like you got the wrong address.”

She stood in front of the postman instead of Gaeul. The man pushed down his ball cap and tilted his head. He tapped something on his terminal for a while before reciting the address.

“It’s not here. It should be the building opposite of the road. It’s separated into 1st and 2nd complexes.”

“Oh, you’re right. I’m sorry, it hasn’t been that long since I started working.”

“That’s fine.”

The man lowered his head to apologize before stepping away. Haesoo peeked out the door and looked at the man who scurried away.

“That man must be having a hard time too.”

Haesoo closed the door and came back.

* * *

The man used the staircase to come back to the first floor after pressing down his ball cap with the post office logo on it. He checked that there was no one in the guard's office and walked to the mailbox. He checked the floor and apartment number before taking out mail from the inside. It was from an insurance company. He put the envelope in his bag before leaving the apartment. He crossed the road and went into an alleyway next to the convenience store. There was nothing bad about being cautious. He looked around and got in a black sedan parked next to the road. He took off his cap and said to his client,

“I saw a man and a woman together. I also saw the woman call her mother.”

“Mom?”

The man took out the mail he got from the apartment and gave it to the client.

“It’s indeed Mrs. Choi Haesoo. She’s Miss Han Gaeul’s birth mother.”

“So the two of them are staying at Choi Haesoo’s house.”

“Yes.”

“A man and a woman well-dressed and visiting the mother’s parents. What do you think that means?”

The man did not reply. This client should be well aware of what that meant. When the two of them got out of the car, the man even got out with something that looked like a gift. There was only one thing that was pointing towards.

“They’re having a good time.”

The man quickly scanned the face of his client before throwing his gaze outside the window. The unwritten rule in this field was to never take interest in each other. The client would say what they want, and they would do what they were asked without questions. However, he was curious about this specific client’s circumstances.

“Good work.”

The client gave him some cash. The man checked the amount on the spot. He knew that the client would never tamper with the money, but it would be better for both of them to be sure.

“Please call again once there’s anything.”

The man got out and stuffed the post office vest and cap into his bag. The client then drove towards the apartment. From what he saw just before he got off, the client’s expression was quite grave. He had seen that kind of expression several times. Those were eyes that looked akin to someone who found out that their lover was cheating on them and those who found out the history of the one they were engaged to. The man clicked his tongue. People with eyes like that always caused problems. Above all, he reeked of booze, so there was bound to be a matter that would involve the police.

The man clicked his tongue when he thought about the stench of alcohol that he could smell whenever the client spoke. That guy had everything.

“A successful actor isn’t much.”

The man took out the money from the envelope and left the alley.

[1] Usually, packages would be left outside the door, but in the case of important mail such as credit cards, it would require the person involved to sign as a proof of receipt.

Chapter 1011
Crank Up 10

“Then we’ll take our leave now.”

“I won’t see you out so far. Be careful on your way home.”

Maru slightly bowed to his mother-in-law who saw him out before turning around. Only after he got on the elevator did the tension pressing him down disappear.

“Good work,” Gaeul said.

“Still, it’s good that she understands us. Honestly, if she didn’t know anything, I might have been kneeling today. When did she find out about it?”

“She found out at the beginning of the year. Just like she said, my house was too desolate. I was over at your house the whole time after all.”

“You totally had me fooled.”

“So, do you feel wronged?”

“A little, but I guess I should be fortunate that it ended with just this.”

“You know this is all thanks to my foresight, right? Had I told you beforehand, you would’ve told me that we should visit as soon as possible, and if we did, you would’ve come across my mom who would be angrier than she was today. That’s not something I want.”

“What did she say when you told her the truth?”

Gaeul’s eyes scanned the numbers on the elevator.

“She didn’t say anything much when I told her I was dating someone. She sighed when I told her it was you though, saying that she thought it’d be like that. Of course, she was really naggy as well.”

“Nagging is moderate. If I was your parent, I would’ve had a serious conversation with you and told you to get yourself together.”

Gaeul smiled and walked closer to him. Maru grabbed her hand. He had gotten over a big obstacle. He was at a loss on how to explain to her that they were living together without her approval, but things managed to pass on without much trouble. It was great that his mother-in-law was over this issue.

“When should we greet your father and mother?” Gaeul asked.

“I told them that we’ll be going soon. Tell me when you’re free. Let’s go then.”

“Then how about tomorrow?”

“Tomorrow?”

Gaeul nodded. Tomorrow, huh? Maru thought about the schedule for tomorrow. There was nothing in his schedule.

“I’m okay with it.”

“Wait a sec.”

Gaeul took out her phone and at the same time, the elevator arrived on the first floor. Maru lifted the hat on her jumper and put it on her. It would be troublesome if people recognized her after all. They walked to the car together while holding hands.

“Can you delay the skin care session I’m getting tomorrow? Yeah, that sounds good. I have something to do.”

Gaeul hung up.

“It’s better to do it all at once. It’s important too.”

“You don’t need to hurry though.”

“Still. Your father and mother might feel sad about it later.”

“You’re even worried about that?”

“Of course I am. I wanted to be a daughter-in-law who’s loved.”

Who would hate a woman who was already adorable by being herself, and even looked out for her surroundings? Maru thought that his parents would welcome her gladly. Perhaps they would thank her for taking their insufficient son.

“You should ask your parents if we can visit.”

Maru took out his phone when Gaeul urged with her eyes. He phoned his mother and waited a moment.

-I was told you have someone you’re dating?

It seemed that she had been notified already. Maru told her that they would go see her tomorrow. Since it was a Saturday, there shouldn’t be a problem with it.

-Alright, bring her here. Or wait, should we go to you instead?

“No, it’s fine. It won’t take long by car, so we’ll go there.”

-But how could you introduce her to us after all this time without any warning?

“Your son has a lot of secrets.”

-I’m glad to hear that you’re dating someone, but you really should’ve told me about it beforehand. Had I known, I would’ve made some food.

“Please don’t. We can meet outside.”

-That’s not good. Ask the lady what she likes. I’ll prepare that at least.

Maru smiled and transmitted the question asking what she liked. Gaeul hesitated a little before saying that she liked japchae.

“Then just prepare japchae. She says she likes that.”

-Is she next to you?

“Yes.”

-Then tell her that she doesn’t need to bring any presents tomorrow. Tell her that she just needs to be here and that she needs to eat good food.

“Okay. Don’t you prepare anything too much either, mother.”

-I’ll hold back.

Before he hung up, Gaeul said “I’ll see you tomorrow” in an excited voice. His mother said she had a beautiful voice.

“Mother says she likes your voice.”

“Maybe she’ll like me too.”

“She’ll probably shout in joy if she knows who you are. She always used to praise you for being pretty and good at acting.”

“Really? That puts me a little at ease.”

Gaeul then said as she opened the door to the passenger seat,

“Let’s go to the department store then. I should buy her a gift for tomorrow.”

“She says you can come empty-handed.”

“That doesn’t mean I can actually go empty-handed. What do your parents like?”

“They like meat. We should just bring top-grade Hanwoo beef.”

“Isn’t that too typical?”

“They dislike things that are too extraordinary.”

Maru got in the car and started it up. He was just about to get out of the parking lot when he saw a car approaching with high beams on. Maru frowned and turned the wheel. The car with the high beam went past them.

“That person doesn’t seem to realize that he has the high beams on.”

“Right.”

Maru had a look at the car that went past through the rearview mirror. Perhaps that person had gotten a driving license only recently. There was no dispute, so it seemed that it hadn’t been that long since that person started driving. Maru moved his gaze to the front and started driving the car.

* * *

Gaeul loaded the luggage into the car. They were some gifts to bring with her tomorrow and some food to put in their refrigerator. She was finally going to greet Maru’s parents tomorrow. Just thinking about it made her excited. Maru probably felt like this as well.

“Wait a sec.”

Gaeul stopped Maru from getting in the car. A commercial building opposite the parking lot entered her eyes. There was a shop that sold handmade ceramic bowls. She saw a couple looking around inside the store.

“Let’s visit that place.”

“Is there anything you want to buy?”

“It just feels wrong to go with just this gift set. Also, we need some teacups at home. I wonder if your mother likes cozy things.”

She dragged Maru, who said it was okay and left the parking lot. She was about to cross when a car slowly drove past her with the high beams on. Gaeul frowned and looked at the tail of the car. Today, there were a lot of cars that hurt her eyes.

“Isn’t it that car from before?” Maru said.

Gaeul thought that it shouldn’t be, considering it a coincidence. Maru also didn’t take it too seriously. They walked into the shop across the road. She saw that the items inside the store were a lot better than what she could glimpse from the outside. Not to mention big ceramic pots, there were many small decorative items as well. She saw a married couple where the woman was heavily pregnant and the man was holding her hand. Gaeul smiled and followed them for a while until she found a deep indigo teacup set.

“What do you think about this?”

“It looks good.”

“Do you think your mother will like them?”

“She prefers things that don’t break. But if you give it to her, she’ll probably receive them happily. But she really prefers using paper cups and doesn’t use teacups.”

“Then I should go with the normal cups. We can use the teacups at home.”

Gaeul picked up the same-colored cup that was next to it. It felt sturdier than the teacup. She hoped that Maru’s mother would like it. She asked the counter to package it as a gift. They put it in a plastic frame as well so that it didn’t break, and she liked the simple frame as well.

“Do you feel okay about it now?”

Maru smiled and grabbed her hand. Gaeul grabbed the paper bag with the other hand and left the store. It just turned from green to red. Gaeul stood at the edge of the pavement.

“It feels like a dream. I thought I would never meet you again, but we’re already greeting our parents,” Gaeul said in a small voice and tightened her hand around Maru’s.

Maru tilted his head and looked at her. Gaeul kissed his cheek softly. He then indifferently gave her the other cheek. Gaeul frowned and was just about to pinch his cheek, but just then, she noticed a car in the corner of her eye. It flashed the high beam before calming down. Gaeul frowned and had a closer look at the car. It felt like the car that she saw in the parking lot.

“What is it?” Maru asked.

Gaeul smiled and shook her head. There was no need to act so sensitively. The signal changed. Just as she walked forward, matching Maru’s steps, she saw the car that caught her eye earlier driving at an ominous speed. It was already too late by the time she thought that it was dangerous. The car, with the headlights off, was already in front of her nose. She didn’t even have the time to scream, much less budge a muscle, but she saw Maru’s smiling face. His smile looked transcendental as though he knew that this was going to happen beforehand.

He shook her hand off and pushed her out. Before she could fall backwards, the car smashed into Maru. A shocking noise hit her ears. The paper bag hit the floor. The cup she bought as a gift rolled on the ground. Gaeul looked at the pedestrian crossing with white and black stripes. What just happened?

Her head slowly turned around. Her body reacted before her mind did. Her mouth uttered a scream. She couldn’t care less about the graze on her thighs. She stood up immediately and looked for Maru. She could hear screams everywhere. She looked around and around, looking for traces of him. Was she dreaming? Perhaps she had dozed off in the passenger seat? Wouldn’t Maru caress her warmly once she wakes up?

Gaeul slapped her cheek. She got herself together. She held back her rough breathing and walked forward. Maru had fallen down under the place where the traffic lights were crossing. The car was facing the other way and had stopped.

“Call 119, quickly!” she shouted to the couple in front of her.

There was no time to use the phone. Gaeul approached Maru. Everything had turned red around his head. Even the asphalt had blood pooling on it. She couldn’t believe that such a thing had happened in such a short period of time.

“M-Maru.”

She was about to touch him but halted. She had heard about this scene numerous times while shooting a drama. It was dangerous to touch the patient at a time like this. She rubbed the tears that blocked her vision. This was no time to be crying.

Maru’s legs had been twisted in a strange direction. Gaeul caressed Maru’s cheeks with her shaky hands. What did she have to do at a time like this? What was it again?

“Miss, we called an ambulance so calm down,” people around her said.

Fortunately, people were taking control of the road. The car that hit Maru was still silent. Gaeul despised that person terribly, but she thought that she would be able to forgive that person as long as Maru was okay. As long as Maru was saved, she couldn’t care about anything else.

Just then, Maru opened his eyes. Gaeul barely held herself back from crying. She couldn’t let his emotions fluctuate. She had to make him keep his calm.

“Maru, wait for a little. The ambulance is coming.”

“Really?”

His voice was clear. She was vaguely convinced that he had a bad leg injury and there was no serious threat to his life. It would be bad otherwise. Gaeul put a handkerchief she got from someone against the side of his head. The bleeding on his head wasn’t that bad. It seemed that the blood on the ground came from his legs.

“Gaeul.”

“Yes. I’m here.”

“This is pretty painful.”

“Of course it is. But don’t worry. It’s nothing much. You’ll be fine after a few stitches and a couple injections.”

Maru chuckled softly.

“Don’t put on a serious face. Someone might be mistaken that I’m dying.”

Gaeul forced a smile on her face. The injury was so serious that she couldn’t bear to look, but Maru was clear-headed. He would be okay as long as the ambulance arrived on time. Gaeul reached out and grabbed his hand. It was still warm. There was no way such a warm person would die.

“Why are you crying?”

“I’m not crying.”

“Yes you are.”

“I’m not. I’m not crying so be quiet.”

“How cruel to an injured man.”

She raised her head. She could hear the siren. It was the sound she was the most glad to hear. She saw the ambulance coming through the row of cars. Gaeul thanked God, for saving Maru.

“Maru, the ambulance is here.”

“It’s here?”

“Yeah. Just wait a little more.”

“Uhm, Gaeul.”

“Yeah?”

“This isn’t your fault.”

Hearing that, she looked at Maru. He was closing his eyes with a smile. She felt like the blood flowing in her body had come to a complete halt. She felt stifled and her body started trembling. She kept calling out to Maru with her shaky jaws.

He still had a smile on his face.

Chapter 1012
Crank Up 10

Her legs sticking out of the futon felt cold. She wriggled her legs to straighten out the futon and curled up. Just like that, she struggled with sleep for about ten minutes before waking up. It was not easy to leave the blanket in the middle of winter.

She picked up Woofie, who immediately came over, and put her in her arms. The weight and temperature of the dog were transmitted to her. She yawned as she walked out to the living room. The sunlight was dividing the living room in half. She sat at the edge of the sofa where the sunlight just hit. It was quite warm, to the point that she didn’t need to turn on the boiler. She sat there in a daze for quite a while before turning on the TV. Weekend entertainment programs were being aired again. She watched the TV without thinking for a while before the dark corner of the living room caught her eye. It wasn’t that dark because of the seeping light, but it strangely ticked her off. She pushed the curtain to the end. The yellow light spread out even further, but that place was still a gloomy gray. She had a strange impulse to place a lamp there.

-The one who loses the game will not get lunch. Now then, get into your teams.

The people on TV got into a fight over food. Only then did she realize that it was time to eat lunch. She put on her indoor slippers and went to the kitchen. She took out some leftover kimbap from the fridge. She put some chives, egg, salt, and pepper in a bowl and started stirring it. The dogs reacted to the sound and came over.

“I’ll give you your food quickly.”

She put the stirred egg down and opened the cupboard. It seemed that she had to feed Woofie and Bullie first. If not, they would make whimpering sounds and keep staring at her. She poured an adequate amount of dog food into a bowl before putting it in front of the door to the bedroom. That was where the dogs ate. She watched the dogs without a word before pointing at the bowl and saying ‘eat.’ The two dogs, who had their stomachs on the ground, approached the food bowls. She petted the dogs once each before returning to the kitchen. She put some oil on a heated pan and put the kimbap drenched in the egg mixture. A joyful sizzling sound could be heard from the pan. She put grilled kimbap on a plate. Even cold kimbap would be as delicious as a new one if cooked like this.

She put her chopsticks in her mouth and looked at the clock. It was just past 1 p.m. It was about time. She texted on her phone: When are you coming?

She put a kimbap in her mouth and started chewing. Just then, she was reminded of the kimchi that her mother-in-law sent her. Some sour kimchi and kimbap fried in egg would be a fantastic combo. She put some kimchi on a cutting board and pressed down on it with a knife. Along with a crunchy slicing sound, the kimchi was sliced in half. The sound alone was tasty. She sliced it into bite-size pieces and put it in a container before putting the remainder in a separate bowl. She washed her hands and checked the time again. It was past the time that he would be here. She wiped up the water and tried calling. She was greeted by a simple phone call sound instead of a special ringtone. She put her phone against her ear and shoulder and picked up a tray with both of her hands. She put the tray on the living room table and grabbed her phone. The person she was calling had not yet picked up.

“It looks like your father is busy.”

She sat on the sofa. It was strange. That person never went against his promises or was late without contacting her first. He would’ve called if something happened. Perhaps he was so busy that he couldn’t even call? She looked at the kimbap on the plate. As she had re-cooked a once-cooled food, it would go bad if it cooled down again. She wanted to eat it with him when it was warm if possible.

She lay against the sofa and kept staring at the steaming kimbap. It was definitely a waste of energy to be worried about a fully grown man being late. She knew that as well. Soon enough, that person would open the door and come in, or call to say that he was going to be late. She put her hands between her thighs and curled up. It became a little cold. Perhaps she should turn on the boiler after all? She stood up from her seat and walked over to the thermostat. The gloomy space from before caught her eyes again. It was a shadow cast by the TV console. Why was it that that place kept catching her eye? She couldn’t tell. That place should always have been gray.

She crouched down and looked at the gray space. When she blinked, she found a small rabbit. It was that rabbit from before. She tried to call out to her in joy - Hello. However, the moment she made eye contact with the rabbit, she lost all her words. She forgot about what she was going to say. The rabbit just stared at her with its red eyes. She noticed that the rabbit’s eyes were on the front door. At the same time, the bell rang. She turned around. When she turned back again, the rabbit had disappeared. She felt like the rabbit had something to say.

“Coming,” she said as she walked to the door.

Was the flower she ordered here? She opened the door when she heard that it was a delivery. A man gave her a long cardboard box.

“Thank you.”

She received the box and closed the door. She cut open the tape with a box knife and opened the box. There, she saw a single chrysanthemum flower wrapped in white paper. She smiled and took out the flower. It was quite pretty. Just as she was looking at whether it was damaged in any way, a thought suddenly crossed her mind – why did I order a chrysanthemum flower again?

Crash – a loud noise that made her heart skip a beat could be heard outside the door. Startled, the flower in her hand fell on the ground. She calmed down and walked over to the porch. She unlocked the door and carefully opened it, wondering what must’ve happened for there to be such a loud sound.

She peeked outside the door. What caught her eyes was a pedestrian crossing with white and black stripes. Perhaps she was dreaming? She was supposed to see the front door to the opposite apartment, but she was seeing a pedestrian crossing instead. She looked around to see what was happening. She was in a world of pitch black with only the pedestrian crossing. It was a bad dream. She hoped that she woke up quickly.

Just then, she felt warmth from her right hand. When she raised her head, she found that person, with a smile telling her not to worry about anything. Her tension disappeared in an instant. She felt like she would be able to receive any nightmare gladly as long as she was next to this person.

He took his first step onto the crossing. She tried to walk next to him. However, her feet didn’t move. An indescribable nervousness and ominousness pressed down on her entire body. She called out to him, who was walking forward, saying that they should stop for a bit, nay, that they should find a different path altogether.

He then said,

“This is not your fault.”

Her memory wriggled. A fresh scream escaped through the crack of her lips. She grabbed his hand with both of her hands and fell on her butt. No, you can’t, stop, please, don’t go - she begged like a little child throwing a tantrum. However, he did not stop. Just like how a full-speed train would keep on going even after putting on the brakes, he kept walking forward. A vicious momentum pulled him forward. Just where did it begin? Just where did it all go wrong? Just how did it come to this?

He was hit by the car and was blown away. She helplessly watched as he fell. A feeling of powerlessness that stole away all the motivation in her body hit her. Her neck lost its strength and her head drooped down. The only thing that entered her eyes was the gray asphalt; it was a terrifying gray.

* * *

“You should go inside and get some rest. You don’t look good.”

She was startled and raised her head. Gaeul wasn’t able to say anything as she looked at Maru’s mother who caressed her shoulders as she spoke.

“No, I’m okay.”

Just when had she fallen asleep? Gaeul was about to stand up with her black skirt but fell back down again. Her vision turned blank.

“You’re making me uneasy.”

Gaeul clenched her teeth. Who was she getting consoled by? The person who should be feeling the saddest was right in front of her. She was unable to speak because of her guilt. Bada, who was next to her, supported her, asking her if she was okay. Gaeul stood up with the help of Bada. Just then, a photo appeared in her eyes. Seeing him create a warm smile like that, her knees trembled. The number of chrysanthemums in front of him had increased. It seemed more people had visited.

“Unni, get some rest. You’ve been up for two straight nights. You’ll really fall ill like this.”

She felt like she was inconveniencing everyone. She followed Bada into a rest area next to the funeral hall. It was a desolate place with just two chairs against the white wall. Bada pulled over a chair for her to sit on.

“Have you eaten anything? You haven’t, have you?”

“I don’t know. I don’t remember.”

She thought that she had no more tears to shed, but they started flowing again. Bada consoled her and hugged her. Bada’s chin against her shoulder was trembling. Gaeul hugged Bada and started crying. Tears containing the same wavelength of sadness poured out endlessly.

“Unni, wait a moment. I’ll bring you something.”

“I’m okay.”

“Don’t say that and eat something. You don’t look good. I’m sure oppa doesn’t want you to be sick.”

Bada left. She felt like her time had stopped on the crossing that day. She couldn’t tell how many days had passed, or how long she had been up for. It would be better if everything came to a stop here like how a movie can be paused and ended. However, time would flow regardless of the emotions of an individual. Gaeul hated that fact. He had come to a stop. She did not want to walk forward by herself. She wanted to be with him, wherever he was.

“Unni, take this.”

Bada brought some fruit, water, and her phone. A blue light was flickering at the top of her phone screen. It indicated that she had a missed call.

“You should get some sleep after eating.”

Bada left the resting area. Gaeul looked at the fruits for a while before moving her eyes to her phone. She moved her hands mechanically and opened the news section in a browser. She looked at the news at the top. Popular actor K’s drunk driving was the title. She clenched her jaws so hard that she felt like her molars were going to crack. Weak heart, first offense, taking into account usual behavior – all sorts of words that messed with her mind whizzed past. Her heart burned down. Gaeul placed her hand on her chest and clenched it. Rage burned the walls of her stomach. Uncontrollable anger invigorated her dulled senses. This was not the time to be here. She had to go find that son of a bitch.

“And what are you going to do once you’re there?”

She raised her head. A woman wearing a white suit was looking down at her.

Chapter 1013
Han Haneul

Gaeul felt hostility the moment she saw that face. It wasn’t that she was displeased because a stranger suddenly called out to her. Something that she could only explain as instinct made her bare her fangs at the woman.

“Do you know me?”

“I do, Miss Han Gaeul.”

“I’m sorry, but I’m not in the mood to talk right now.”

Before she could even finish, the woman approached her. They were close enough to feel each other’s breathing. Gaeul realized that the woman’s eyes were red.

“If you could turn back time, if you could do something like that, what would you do?”

What was this woman saying? It was exhausting to talk to her. She picked up her phone and stood up. She turned around to find the door to leave, but she didn’t see the door. All four sides were closed off.

“If you could return time to see Mr. Han Maru again, what would you do?”

Gaeul placed her hand on the wall as she listened to the woman’s words. It was not a dream. The wall disappeared. She turned around to look at the woman. The woman had a face that she could not read a shred of emotion from. A dream again? Would she find herself in the break room if she opened her eyes? When she thought about that, a smile formed on her lips. Did her subconscious desperately wishing for a miracle create an illusion like this?

“Miss Han Gaeul, what would you do?”

“Are you even asking that as a question?”

“Yes, it’s a question. If you could turn back time to bring Mr. Han Maru back to life again, will you do it?”

“Yes. Of course I will. I’ll do anything.”

“Is that so?”

“Do it. Turn back time or whatever and bring that person back to life. Can you? Not in a dream, but in reality? Can you return that person back to my side?”

She could only laugh. This dream was worse than a nightmare. Gaeul knew how terrible a possibility without hope could be. She wished to wake up from her dream and started breathing slowly.

“Please answer me seriously. Do you really want to do so?”

“Why, you need my soul or something? Then take it. Or what, do you need something else too?”

“No, that’s okay. It’s fine as long as I have your words of conviction. So you truly wish for that person to return.”

“Yes, I do. I wish for that to happen. I want that person to be not hurt. I want that person to be breathing again.”

The woman nodded.

“We always make the same choice, not knowing what kind of consequences it will bring. For now, okay. You may leave.”

The woman flicked her hand. The disappeared door appeared in front of her eyes. Gaeul felt confused. She couldn’t tell if it was a dream or reality. She pulled the door open. Bada was standing outside.

“Unni?”

Gaeul turned around. The woman was no longer there. She put her hand against her forehead and sighed. She had heard that lack of sleep induces decreased cognition and hallucinations, and it seemed to be true.

“I’ll go back now.”

“Don’t say that, and get some more rest.”

“I had plenty of rest. And also, I want to stay by Maru’s side.”

Gaeul went to the memorial altar with Bada. She saw Maru’s photo behind the large pile of chrysanthemums. This was no dream. It was the harsh reality.

* * *

The cremation ended. His body disappeared into the fire. He became a name that was no longer callable and went to a faraway place. It was impossible to recall his body while just looking at that small jar. How can a person fit inside that? — such a question floated around in her head. Maru’s ashes were buried under a small tree. His father, who had never shown any tears until the end of the funeral, started crying his heart out while clutching the ground to the point that his nails were ripped off. Gaeul did not dare cry. The density of their tears was different. Even the pain of having the majority of her body ripped off should be nothing compared to the sadness felt by family.

Gaeul stood in front of the door and inputted the pinlock. She typed in the passcode that was a combination of their birthdays. She heard the door unlock. As long as she turned the doorknob and pulled the door, the door would open. However, she could not. Objects that signified his absence would be placed inside the house. She was afraid to see those. She felt like everything would be truly over then.

She took several deep breaths before barely managing to open the door. She could not see the dogs that would usually rush over in excitement. Only then did she remember that Suyeon, who lived upstairs, had taken them. She took off her shoes and went inside. She had only been out for a few days. Only a few days, and yet it felt like someone else’s house.

Gaeul stood in the middle of the living room and looked around slowly. It looked like a well-crafted model house. It was decorated like it was being lived in by a person, but no one actually lived there. She went to the bedroom. The messy duvet felt like fossil. She felt like events that only occurred a few days ago had now become a thing of the distant past.

She opened the closet. Maru’s clothes were neatly lined up. Gaeul grabbed the sleeve of the coat that he used to wear a lot. She put it against her nose and took a whiff. The smell of naphthalene had long since erased all of his body odor. The concept of being ‘absent’ hit her head more intensely than any other time. Gaeul buried her face in the bedsheet. The cries that she suppressed in front of his family escaped through the cracks of her lips. No matter how much she cried, she was not able to feel better. In fact, it was painful as though she was being scratched by a hard nail.

When she came to herself and stood up, it was already past 10 at night. She couldn’t think about what she had to do in the future nor how she should live on. When she was looking at her face in the mirror, her phone vibrated. It was the president.

-For now, I’ve canceled all of your schedule for this week. I’ll hear the details later, so you should take care of yourself for now. But I can’t cancel the commercials scheduled next week. I don’t have a choice even if I may sound cruel to you. You’re a pro, aren’t you?”

A pro. Gaeul was about to reply that she didn’t want to be one. She didn’t want to do anything. She wanted to do absolutely nothing. If she did not see the photo that she took with Maru, she might have ended the call there.

“Can’t you postpone it a little more?”

-Okay. I’ll try my best. So get yourself together. Those that went have left, and the living should live on. Only then will the ones that have passed away feel at ease.”

“Can the dead feel at ease?”

-Don’t expect too much from a typical consolation. I know. I know that no words will be able to heal the loss of a loved one. That’s why I’m only doing the things I can do for you. I’ll try to delay it for two weeks. I can’t do any more than that.”

“Sorry for acting like a child.”

-Anyone becomes a child when they experience something for the first time. Get some rest.

Gaeul put her phone down and lay down on bed. The living should live on — these words reverberated in her mind. How could she? — such a thought crossed her mind, but she also felt tragic, feeling that she would end up living on anyway. She also recalled Maru’s last words: It’s not your fault. Did he realize that things would become like this? Did he say such things because the frail her would decide to do something foolish and dangerous?

“Why did it have to be you?”

If she took a step faster, the one hit by the car would not be Maru, but her. Gaeul stood up. The face she had forgotten about came to her mind again. Kang Giwoo. Gaeul had seen clearly that he had a big smirk on his face inside the car that hit Maru. It was absolutely intentional. However, the news was wrapping it up as a mistake. Exposing his true self and giving him social damage was meaningless. That was too lenient of a punishment.

Gaeul wiped her eyes. She had to meet him and hear his story. She had to listen to what that smirk meant.

“Are you going to kill him or something?”

The woman had appeared in front of her. Gaeul gasped and flinched back.

“How did you come in here?”

“That’s a trivial problem. Don’t mind that, and let’s go through the procedure.”

“What are you saying? What is this procedure?”

“Miss Han Gaeul. This is no dream. This is the strict truth. And I’m here to fulfill your dream.”

“My dream?”

“You told me, haven’t you? That you wanted to turn back time and bring Mr. Han Maru back to life. That you truly wanted to do so.”

Gaeul clenched her eyes shut before opening them again. The woman was still there. Did she finally go crazy? was she not able to differentiate between reality and illusion?

“You are not crazy, and this is no dream.”

“Are you telling me to believe you?”

“Don’t you think it’s better if it’s a dream instead? Mr. Han Maru might be alive if you wake up.”

“Watch your mouth.”

“Interesting. You think it’s an illusion, yet you’re quarreling with someone inside it. However, you should be feeling that this moment where I’m talking with you is nothing near a vain dream that would end when you wake up. Well, then. Let me ask you one final time. Say it with all your heart. Say it with desperation. What do you want to do?”

A laughter escaped her mouth. If this was not a dream, then what was it? Gaeul looked at the woman. The woman with burning red eyes smiled as though to urge her to answer.

“If that’s possible, then do it.”

“Won’t you regret it?”

“Regret it? I can take anything. No matter what the consequences, I will do it with a smile, if such a miracle can happen.”

“Good. I have your resolution, so let’s go through the procedure.”

Gaeul shook her head. She wanted this unfunny situation, this false dream, to end. However, no matter how much she shook her head, no matter how much she pinched her thighs, the woman in front of her did not disappear, even though she clearly felt the pain.

“I told you, haven’t I? This is as real as it can get. Well then, here we start once again. Can you tell me your name?”

“My name?”

She felt like she was stepping into a completely different place from the life she had lived until now. It was a sense of elevation that she could not explain clearly. A sense of expectation that it might actually come true broke through her hardened heart. How happy would she be if this woman’s words came true? She put aside the whispers of reason telling her that such a thing is not possible before replying,

“Han Gaeul.”

“That’s your stage name.”

“Ah, yes.”

She was about to speak again, but the woman spoke first,

“My name is Han Haneul. That’s a name you’re familiar with, isn’t it?”

Gaeul’s mouth was slightly agape. She was in a daze as though she was hit on the back of her head. She had a closer look at the woman’s face. At that moment she was able to know the truth behind her reflexive hostility from their first encounter. The woman looked similar to her. No, she didn’t just look similar. The woman was her.

“Isn’t that right, Miss Han Haneul?” the woman said as she reached her hand out.

She was smiling, but her smile was very bitter.

KTLChamber's Thoughts

DUN DUN DUNNNNNNNNNNNNN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Editor's Note:

There it is, the name drop after over 1k chapters.

---

After seeing two advance chapter readers asking and researching the significance of their names, allow me to explain.

Now, this is mostly a subjective interpretation on my(the translator's) part, so take it with a grain of salt.

1. The surname 'Han'

The word (not the surname) 'Han' has the meaning of 'resent, grief, sorrow,' just as SicaiiNPC mentions below.

However, there are many more different interpretations of 'Han' as well. It can mean 'one' (한 개) or even 'limit' (극한).

This does NOT mean, however, that Maru and Haneul's surname 'Han' signifies one of those meanings.

In fact, the surname 'Han' is a common surname in Korea, and I dare say that the author has no intentions by simply surnaming the two characters 'Han.'

It's like naming a character 'John Smith' and having that character's ancestry of running a smithy having a significance in the story.

2. The name 'Haneul'

'Haneul' means 'sky,' This by itself, might have no significance, but that changes when you bring 'Maru' into play.

The word 'Maru' in Korean, is commonly mistakenly taken as another word for 'sky,' which would mean that the two people have names that have the same meaning.

Which… would explain their fates? <- this is up to your interpretation. I will not have a say in this.

The 'sky' meaning of Maru, is actually a common misconception, as I said above, and actually does NOT mean 'sky'

The word 'Maru' is generally considered to have two meanings.

1. The 'floor' of a building

In this case, I do not believe there's a significance, which brings me to

2. The 'peak' of a mountain, tidal wave, roof, or even a 'mathematical' wave (like a sine wave)

Which could signify that the peak of a mountain can never reach the sky? Or they can never be connected? Again, this is up to your interpretation. I will not say anything.

Hope that helps.

Chapter 1014
Han Haneul

Spinach, radish, onions, spring onions, garlic, bell peppers — I indifferently looked at the ingredients I put in the shopping cart before putting the bell peppers back on the shelf. It cost around a thousand won around a week ago, but it had nearly doubled in a week. I had heard that vegetables were the price of gold every single year, but it had gotten worse this year.

“Ma’am, this is a brand new coffee product. Please have a taste before you go.”

A young woman offered her a small cup of coffee with a smile. She looked like a college student doing a part-time job. I quickly received it and drank it in one go. It was slightly sour and just to my taste.

“It’s good, isn’t it? They used cherry-picked coffee beans and a special type of brewing method, so it has a clean taste.”

“It does have a clean taste.”

“It’s on sale right now, so you can buy a pack for cheap. How about it?”

It was good, so I looked at the price tag as I threw the empty paper cup in the trash. Under the words ‘special discount’ was the red price tag of 40,000 won.

“It’s 40 thousand won?”

“It’s 70,000 won normally, but it’s on sale for 40,000. It’s definitely different from your usual coffee, so you won’t regret this investment. Also, it usually costs about 4,000 to 5,000 won to buy coffee in a café. If you think about that, this is a very reasonable price.”

“But 40,000 is still too much. I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be. If you have an opportunity next time, please buy it then.”

The young woman was very amicable, so I felt sorry. I pushed the cart towards the counter and looked back. A man who just tasted the coffee was putting two boxes in the cart. My fingers on the cart wriggled. It was good, but I wished it was cheaper. I glanced back a few times before giving up. 40,000 won was not some child’s play. Instant coffee sticks were more than enough. If I was ever in the mood, I could just buy some cheap coffee from a nearby café.

“Hello.”

I put the items on the counter as the cashier lady greeted me. Beeps sounded out whenever the POS device scanned the barcode. I watched the subtotal increase nervously like it was the taximeter increasing. Why was it that everything was increasing in price except for my husband’s salary? I desperately needed an explanation from a famous economist. Why was it that everything from housing prices, land prices, and even item prices were increasing, but not my husband’s salary?

“That will be fifty-two thousand, seven hundred won in total.”

Please give me a cash receipt, and here’s my membership card, oh, wait a second, I’ll give you a coupon — while apologizing, I gave her a coupon that I cut out from a coupon book. Hearing the lady telling me to wait, I put the items back in the cart again when a box of almond containers on the shelf caught my eye. It was Belgian chocolate, and it was 7,000 won per box. That palm-sized box was 7,000 won? Even though I thought it was expensive, I grabbed it and checked the back of it. I saw on TV a while ago about how to differentiate good chocolate and bad chocolate, and the description seemed to match the good chocolate.

“Oh, and give me this as well.”

I put the items in the cart into a cardboard box and taped it up. Then I put my hands below the box before lifting it. It was slightly heavy, but I could handle it. It would take 20 minutes to go home. I could save on transportation costs at the cost of my arms being a little numb, so it was a beneficial trade.

When I got back home, it was 4 p.m. I put away the ingredients and put the chocolate box in the top compartment of the refrigerator. After I folded up the laundry I had hung up in the veranda and finished sorting out the trash for recycling, it was time for my daughter to come home. I also got a text message saying that she would be coming soon. I took the elevator down to the front of the apartment. I could see a yellow kindergarten bus coming from afar.

“Hello, ma’am.”

The teacher got off and greeted me. Following that, my daughter got off.

“Gaeul. You should say ‘I’m home’ at a time like this, shouldn’t you?”

My daughter placed her hands on her stomach and bowed. I greeted her back. Maybe because she was my child, but she was too lovely and cute.

“Then we’ll take our leave now.”

“Be careful on the way back.”

The kindergarten bus left. I grabbed my daughter’s hand and walked down the pavement to the apartment.

“What did you do in kindergarten today?”

“I drew pictures.”

“What pictures?”

“Flower pictures.”

“What flowers did you draw?”

“Sunflowers and lilies.”

“Did you have fun, Gaeul?”

“Yeah, but Minji said it wasn’t pretty.”

“You didn’t fight with Minji again, did you?”

My daughter got along with all of her friends at kindergarten, except for Minji. She narrowed her eyes. She grumbled, saying ‘you don’t know anything, mommy.’ I had heard that kids were quick to grow up these days, and my daughter seemed to be no exception. I was worried that she might hit puberty as soon as she entered primary school.

“Gaeul, what did I tell you you have to do first when you come home?”

I pointed at the bathroom while looking at my daughter, who flung away her kindergarten bag and sat in front of the TV. After glancing at me for a bit, my daughter went to the bathroom to wash her hands. She was a really good girl other than a few times when she made me worried sick. The girl’s father always said that she got that from her mother, but from my point of view, it was definitely a paternal inheritance.

“Mom! I’m hungry.”

“Wait a bit.”

I boiled the soup and set up the table. I called for my daughter, who seemed like she was being sucked into the TV.

“Can you show me the picture you drew today?”

“Wait.”

It seemed I almost made a grave mistake of not asking. Gaeul grinned and brought the bag that she had flung away. With her little hands, she took out a rolled paper from her bag. When she opened it up, there were some flowers drawn in crayon.

“Good, right?”

“They really look like flowers. Draw mommy later too, okay?”

“When I have time.”

She swung her legs back and forth as she answered. While she said those words, I could tell she was going to be holding a crayon tonight. She might even tell me to stay still so that she could draw.

“Let’s draw daddy first when he comes home, okay?”

I decided to sacrifice the girl’s father to watch a drama in peace.

Sorry, honey. Today’s the day that the female lead finds out that she’s actually the biological daughter of her stepmother.

Seeing my daughter run to the sofa after the meal, I secretly took out the chocolate from the refrigerator. She might throw a tantrum wanting more if she sees the box, so I had to be careful. I peeled off the wrapping and took out just one ball-shaped chocolate. There were ten pieces for 7,000 won, which meant that each piece cost 700 won. It seemed quite cheap when I thought about it like that, but considering the cost of the box, it looked like a luxury item that I couldn’t buy very often.

“Han Gaeul.”

Her eyes were glued to the TV. I then asked who wants chocolate. The girl jumped up and rushed over.

“You have to brush your teeth later okay?”

“Yes!”

“You’re good at answering at times like this.”

Seeing my girl eat the chocolate with a happy face, the 7,000 won didn’t feel like a waste. I was glad I gave up on the coffee because I wouldn’t have been able to buy the chocolate if I did.

Rather than that, why isn’t my man coming back? — I thought as I looked at the clock. He said that he would come home early today. I was planning to watch a movie together over some beer, but did his schedule suddenly change?

An hour passed.

“Han Gaeul. Don’t play on the smartphone too much.”

I always became curious about what kids these days would do if they didn’t have a smartphone. I became quite wary ever since I heard that smartphone addiction was quite grave. If she didn’t listen after a few scoldings, I was planning to put a smartphone ban on the entire family. A child is supposed to take after their parents, so if we weren’t using it, the child wouldn’t have a complaint either.

As my thoughts reached there, I picked up the remote control when I got a call. It was from my husband. So there was something urgent after all? I picked up the call.

-There has been an accident, so I had no choice but to make a call using this phone. Do you happen to be Mr. Han Maru’s wife?

* * *

“Mom?”

I opened my eyes to my daughter’s voice. I had a splitting headache. I felt like I had a dream of our house from a long time ago.

“Let’s go home. It’s late.”

“Already?”

I got myself together and looked at the time. It was 8 p.m. I was supposed to take a quick nap, but I ended up sleeping for two hours.

“You should’ve gone home. You must be tired.”

“If I go home, who’ll take care of my mom?”

My daughter smiled and put down her bag. She was in her third year of high school, so she must be very busy. I felt sorry for her once again today. A burden to a child was the last thing I wanted to be as a parent.

“Dad, I’m here. How do you feel today?” my girl said as she grabbed my husband’s hand.

My husband’s arm which poked out of the duvet was even thinner than my daughter’s. Ten years had thinned out his body. My daughter massaged his fingers and spoke,

“I had a quiz today, and I got full points. Physics quizzes are known to be notoriously difficult, but I scored full points. Dad, your daughter must be really smart.”

After that, my daughter spoke for about 30 minutes. I had a hard time watching that scene. It wouldn’t have been strange if I got used to this since, after all, a decade was definitely not a short period of time. However, there were some things in this world that just weren't possible to get used to.

“Dad, I have exams next week, so I might not be able to come. Don’t be too disappointed.”

My daughter let my husband’s hand go. I lined up the duvet again to cover him.

“Uhm, mom.”

She hesitated before saying that it was nothing. I knew what she wanted to say.

“Do you want to go to a cram school?”

“No, it’s not that.”

“I have eyes too. Let’s talk about it in detail once we get home.”

“We don’t have any money for that.”

“Mom has saved up that much. You can go down first. I have something to talk about with the doctor.”

“Okay.”

My daughter faintly smiled. Ever since my husband became no longer able to do anything, she had matured. Sometimes, she cried so much that she almost blew the lid off of the house, but ever since that accident happened, she no longer cried. She seemed to know that she could not burden her mother. Until now, she had never asked me to do anything, not even asking me for any pocket money. It was stifling and sad, but I also found it relieving. It was just that cornered against the wall.

“Honey.”

I called out to him, who did not reply. He was now forty-five. My hopes of him waking up one day had gotten dull now. My thoughts started to wander as I massaged his frail body. Honey, should I go over to your side? But I couldn’t even attempt that. If I left too, who would look after Gaeul? I did not want to burden her with something so cruel. Having a vegetable father was cruel enough suffering for her.

“Honey, you should wake up and see your daughter all grown up. She has grown up to be really pretty, so wake up.”

I stroked my husband’s face before standing up. Just then, a nurse came in. She seemed to be here to check up on him. I greeted her with a nod and went to the doctor in charge. I had heard that he had something to say regarding physical therapy. I sat in front of him and was about to have a talk when a female doctor who seemed to be an intern urgently called out to him. I had an ominous feeling. I left his office and had a look at the corridor. The doctor in charge was running towards the ward my husband was in.

“No.”

I clutched my dizzy head and ran. It was a very short time. Not even ten minutes should have passed. The doctor, who activated the defibrillator, lowered his eyes and sighed. I could hear the doctor’s voice. The patient’s state was bad and whatever and whatnot.

I pushed the doctors aside and approached my husband. He looked no different from usual. He had been in this state for 10 years.

“Ma’am.”

“My husband is not dead.”

“Ma’am.”

“He’s always been like this. So he can’t be dead.”

I knew I was speaking nonsense. My mouth was rejecting reality, but my head was already accepting it. Despite that, I could not let go. I felt like everything would be truly over if I let go of his hand. I felt like a cloth would cover his face and indicate that he was truly dead.

“Mrs. Han Haneul.”

Someone called out to me. It was only then that I realized that the people around me had frozen up like plastic dolls. It gave me the shivers.

“Can we have a talk?”

I looked at the only human that was talking to me. He was dressed like a typical grim reaper.

“I heard that retro is the trend these days. Suits are quite out of fashion.”

“What are you?”

“As you can see, I’m the grim reaper. Please take my business card.”

It was a white business card. The name was Min Yoonsoo. The moment I saw his name, the business card disappeared.

“Mrs. Han Haneul, don’t you want to live your life again?”

Chapter 1015
Han Haneul

It was not an auditory or a visual hallucination, and it was even more so, not a dream. I could tell the moment I looked into the man’s eyes. Just as I could tell that it is raining when I look at raindrops falling or that it’s snowing when snowflakes are falling, it was just so natural that I could not describe it any more clearly.

I did not believe in god. When I was young, I believed in an existence that transcends cognition, but ever since my husband fell into a deep sleep, I no longer credited such existences. If there was a god, or any similar beings existed in this world, he, or she, or they, would not have left my good husband to stay like that for ten whole years. If there was a god, I believed that he would be one of those devils that disregard the law.

However, I could no longer deny god. The man in front of me was proof that god existed.

“You should have realized the moment you saw me that you have not gone crazy or are dreaming.”

I nodded. I felt like an invisible, humongous eye was staring at me for a while. It was probably watching from the moment I gave birth, nay, even before that, when very life began. A wordless observer, I believed that to be god.

“What does it mean to live life again?”

I didn’t even want to know what the duty of this self-proclaimed grim reaper was, nor what the intentions of god were. There was just one thing; I was curious about the definition of ‘living life again,’ as well as whether it could be a method to bring my husband back to life.

The man’s finger pointed at my husband lying on the bed. At that moment, my vision blanched before returning to normal. Along with a slight dizziness, I knew exactly what happened. I had a glimpse at my husband’s life. I watched, like a movie, the time he spent before I met him. My heart ached. He was a warm man. He was a man that did not deserve to spend ten years in bed like that.

“I will give Mr. Han Maru a new life.”

“A new life?”

“Yes, a new life.”

I immediately approached the man and grabbed his hand.

“Do it. Whatever it is, it should be better than lying down like that.”

The man shook me off.

“People truly never change. I can never see where their noble sacrificial spirit comes from. You must have realized as well, that nothing is free in this world.”

“I don’t care what it is. Even if it’s my life, so be it.”

“My higher-ups don’t really like that simple kind of trade. The reason my higher-ups chose you and gave you an opportunity is not that you’re lucky, nor is it because they are giving you grace because of their gentle nature. This is a game. My higher-ups enjoy watching people living desperate lives. People like you, for example. Those who never give up and cling on until the very end.”

“And what must I do?”

“It’s nothing that amazing. You just need to live again. First, I will revert that dead person’s life backwards. That will be the starting point. And you just need to enjoy life. That’s all.”

She thought that the condition would be much more dangerous than giving up on her own life, but she realized that there was nothing bad for her when she heard about it. She just needed to go back to the past and enjoy life. There was no reason to hesitate. She quickly asked him to make him come back to life.

“You don’t have to be in such a hurry. We will proceed with things after verbally confirming one’s will. Whether in this world or your world, a confirmation process is quite important to salarymen like me.”

The man gave her a white piece of paper. The paper had nothing written on it.

“Allow me to explain. Mr. Han Maru will return with his memories preserved. Of course, information that can dramatically change his quality of life will be removed. He will not know what kind of stocks will rise nor what regions will skyrocket in land prices. Additionally, acts that aim to strike rich in one go will also be limited. If he does stocks, he will most likely lose money, and if he buys land, prices will most likely decrease. The lottery is no good either. Mr. Han Maru will be made aware of this fact, so there won’t be any problems.”

“My husband does not like gambling.”

“That puts me at ease then. Going back to the past, Mr. Han Maru will be given a few benefits. Depending on how he uses it, he will be able to put himself in an advantageous position in this competitive society. Of course, he will not be given abilities of the supernatural kind, though he might be physically a little stronger than other people, or will have good memorization skills.”

“He’s someone who can use small advantages to his benefit, so he’ll live a comfortable life. That’s good.”

The man closed his mouth and nodded.

“You only seem to be thinking about your husband.”

“That’s the most important thing to me right now. Are you done now?”

“Just a little more. Going back to the past, Mr. Han Maru will be given a choice; whether to live the same life as before or live a different one. He might become an ordinary salary man like he is now, or he might become an owner of a decent company. Nothing is set in stone for his new life. You know what this means, correct?”

“It means things might be different from now.”

I closed my eyes and looked at my husband.

“Indeed. It is entirely up to him whether he looks for you again or lives a new life with another person. Mrs. Han Haneul, are you okay with that?”

“If that can make him live again, it doesn’t matter.”

I didn’t mean that I was okay with breaking up. I had faith that he would look for me again.

“So you have trust in him; You trust that he’ll come to you if he has his memories intact. But you never know. Going back to the past, he might ignore you and live a new life with another woman.”

“I would be extremely sad if he does, but that’s still better than him dying here right now. He’ll be living. It might be agonizing, but I should be happier than if he’s not here.”

“You’re firm, I see.”

“Are we done now?”

“I am done explaining what will happen to Mr. Han Maru. Next, I will explain the karma that will be bestowed onto you.”

“Karma… you say?”

My lips parted heavily. I heard that word often, but it was only today that I realized how heavy that word was. I calmed my nervous heart and asked what this karma was about.

“I should have told you at the beginning of our conversation. Nothing is free in this world. The world operates on a very simple law. Price and reward. The reward is that Mr. Han Maru is given a new life. A miracle that no human can achieve will be given to him. So, there must be a suitable price as well.”

“What is it that I must pay?”

“It’s simple. You’ll simply observe. You’ll watch Ms. Han Haneul’s life.”

“My own life?”

“Yes. From now on, you must become an observer.”

“Does that mean that I’m not allowed to act subjectively when I go back to the past?”

“No, to be precise, you will not be able to do anything other than watch. Though, after some time, you might be able to exchange a few words.”

The man clapped. I felt a sense of elevation, and even in reality, I was starting to float in the air. I looked down. On the bed was my husband, around him were doctors, and then there was me grabbing his hand. The word ‘astral projection’ crossed my mind.

“Now, we’ll go back to the beginning.”

Time flowed in reverse. Just like fallen dominoes standing back up again, all occurrences were returning to naught. I clenched my eyes shut feeling an intense headache before opening my eyes. I saw myself underneath me. It was when I was in high school. It was such a long time ago that I shouldn’t be able to remember it, but it was as clear as what happened just yesterday. It was the day a close friend of mine suggested that I join the acting club. I had just told her that I was more interested in skating than acting and that I planned to join the skating club.

“This is what it means to observe. You will not be able to interfere in this life.”

“Uhm, isn’t that me over there?”

I pointed at myself, looking outside the classroom at my desk. Then who was the girl living and breathing over there?

“That is you, Ms. Han Haneul.”

“Then what about me?”

“You’re Ms. Han Haneul too. You two were just separated. Essentially, you are the same, but you have become two separate entities. You will now watch the life of Han Haneul living her life down there, just like watching a movie.”

The man clapped twice. The world unfurled underneath my feet and changed rapidly. I could see time flowing. I graduated from school, met my husband, and fell in love with him again. I married him, had a child, and we formed a harmonious family just like before. Then, there was another accident. This time, it was a fire. The fire swallowed my husband whole. My daughter and I managed to survive. The moment the tragic accident happened, time reversed again. It was now back to when my husband and I were in high school.

Tears were flowing down my eyes. A torrent of emotions shook my entire body. The experiences had by ‘another me’ underneath my feet crept into my body. I lost my husband twice. It took a long time for my throes of sorrow to stop.

“How does it feel to witness the death of your loved one twice?”

The man asked me with a truly oblivious expression. I stood up, pressing my shaking knees.

“Are you telling me to keep watching my husband die? How is this an opportunity? Isn’t it a punishment instead, if I’m supposed to keep witnessing such a terrible thing?”

“This concerns the revival of a dead person. If you can make that come true with just a little ache in the heart, then it’s a cheap price to pay. Also, my higher-ups don’t wish for you to keep suffering. They have prepared an exit in this hamster wheel. As I told you before, this is a game. There are rules, and there are victory conditions. If the two of you achieve victory, the game will end there. The two of you will win against death and achieve a happy ending where you can love each other again,” the man said with a bright smile.

Chapter 1016
Han Haneul

"This is a game without a bad ending. The higher-ups have bestowed mercy upon you as I'm sure you must be sad about your husband's death. However, you can keep continuing the challenge. Now, how beautiful is that? As long as you can endure a little pain, you can start your lives over."

I threw my gaze to my lower right. I could see my husband during high school. He was running towards a soccer ball. Even as my heart was torn asunder, I felt okay when I looked at him. A game without a bad ending. A game I can challenge continuously as long as I can keep enduring the pain.

"Will he and I really be happy if we win the game?"

"Happiness comes in many forms, so I cannot tell you that for sure, but he will not lie in bed for ten years and meet his demise."

"Good, I will do it. What is the condition for this victory?"

The man smiled and shook his head.

"That, I cannot tell you."

"You cannot tell me? What do you mean by that?"

"Ms. Han Haneul, I have told you that there are prices to be paid for a reward, right? And going against the laws of this world to revive a man near death is breaking one of the most important rules. High risk, high return, you call it? If the people of this world wanted to pick a fruit from the tree, they have to take the risks that come with it."

I was thinking about folk tales; that while it might be dangerous, I would be able to achieve happiness as long as I can endure this endurable pain, even while knowing the risks. What the man was telling me was that this was not such a trivial tale.

"You told me in the beginning, didn't you? That staking lives is too simple of a trade."

"It seems you are finally seeing reality for what it is. This is definitely an opportunity for you. I can tell you for certainty that this is the miracle that many people dearly wish for. However, miracles aren't so easily achieved. If they were, then people wouldn't call them 'miracles.' Even the mighty saints of lore have disregarded their bodies in order to achieve miracles, no? If an ordinary housewife such as you want to cause a miracle, you have to do something that my higher-ups would be satisfied with."

"Are those higher-ups of yours really the gods I know? Are they really the gods that take pity on humans?"

"How am I supposed to know what their intentions are? It's just that, if they did not pity you, they would not have provided you with an opportunity like this in the first place. They would throw you in the pits of fire, or just erase you outright. Oh, 'pits of fire' is just a figure of expression on my part. It's up to you to decide whether it exists or not."

I pondered, however, the answer was already there. There was no way I would change my answer just because I thought more about it. Even if I suffered the pain of my flesh being torn asunder, or my bones being crushed, it would be better than sending off my husband in vain.

"To continue explaining about the victory conditions, you will not be able to know the condition until this game is over. The one to realize it will be your husband. Mr. Han Maru."

"My husband?"

"Yes. Also, the game might be quite prolonged, but it is destined to end."

"And that is a happy ending, you're saying."

"Yes, at least from my experience, everyone was relieved when they finished the game. Everyone was glad that the game was over. There you have it, a happy ending."

"There must have been a lot other than me, huh?"

"Indeed. There were too many to count. Among those numerous people, not one has failed to finish the game."

I nodded and asked a few questions,

"My husband died in the fire just now, didn't he?"

"Yes. Mr. Han Maru has died twice in total."

"And if he manages to die after fulfilling those victory conditions, he'll return to his high school days."

"Precisely. There are no exceptions. If he cannot fulfill the condition, he'll return to the starting point. It is a literal game."

"Then does that mean my husband will start a new life being conscious of the fact that he has died twice?"

The man smiled.

"This is the first time someone I'm in charge of has asked me that. Everyone's too excited and doesn't approach the problem cautiously. To answer your question, Mr. Han Maru will return to the past with his memories before his death intact. However, that only applies to the life just before his reincarnation. Currently, the memories of living as a vegetable have disappeared from Mr. Han Maru's mind. He has died in a fire and he is encountering his first reincarnation."

"And you're saying that the 'first time' will repeat indefinitely?"

"Yes, that is the case."

"And he must look for the victory conditions in that process."

"To be precise, rather than finding it, it will be announced. Some exceptional people find it themselves and take it into their own hands, but usually, the higher-ups send a signal. You can get bored of games if it's too long after all. If they want to see the ending, the higher-ups will tell your husband the conditions of victory. In any case, you just have to keep in mind that this game will ultimately be over."

My husband was smart. He also had the boldness to not lose his calm in the face of a difficult trial. He would be able to do well. I believe in him.

"So you are willing to do it," said the man.

I nodded.

"Then allow me to tell you one last thing. There is nothing you have to do while this world progresses. You just need to keep on watching. However, once Mr. Han Maru dies, you will have something to do."

"And what's that?"

"You must act as a guide. Then you must ask for his intention to participate in the game. You just have to do these two things."

The man clapped three times. The scenery changed. It was a dense forest. A young woman and a man in his early thirties were talking in a pine forest. The woman was explaining to the man about the reincarnation. The man understood and eventually, a ray of light enveloped the man.

"You understand, correct?"

I replied yes. Knowledge flooded my head. I just had to guide my husband to accept the reincarnation naturally once he dies. At that time, my outer appearance would change so that he would not recognize me.

"You also realize who it is you have to ask for their participation, correct?"

Hearing the man's question, I looked down below me. I would have to ask 'Han Haneul', who would be me, yet not me in the future; I would have to ask her whether she will decide to bring my husband back to life, or just give up and accept reality.

"If that me below me does not wish to bring my husband back to life, what happens to the game?"

"It ends there. However, that will not happen. Not a single person has refused the proposal of the higher-ups."

"What if it does happen?"

"Ms. Han Haneul. Do you take yourself to be so clever? Do you believe yourself to be one of those special people who do not stay within the boundary but pioneer new fields? There are no 'ifs' in my standard. Everyone is desperate and loves their counterparts more than anyone else. That's why they don't give up."

"That's true."

"Any other questions?"

"You said my husband will live a new life every time, right?"

"Yes."

"Then he must have the choice of not getting married to me?"

"That is the case."

"If that happens…”

"The two of you will just enjoy your lives. That consequentially means that a dead person has been brought back to life, so isn't that a happy ending for you? If you dislike him meeting and living with another woman, then you just have to end it here. Mr. Han Maru will die as a vegetable, and you will live on with your young daughter. Should I put everything that happened until now to naught?"

"No. Maybe that's for the best. Perhaps he met misfortune because he met me. If he can be happy, then I'm satisfied with that."

"Then I ask you to give me an official signature. This is a necessary step for procedures."

The man gave me the blank paper that he showed me at the beginning. He said that the contract would be formed if I put my hand on the paper. I opened my palms and put one on top of the paper. Just before my palm touched the paper, I spoke,

"The me down there will not retain her memories, right?"

"Everyone except Mr. Han Maru will not retain their memories. They will simply return to the past."

"That's quite amazing, reverting the time of so many people just for the sake of one person."

"I'm sure it's nothing much to my higher-ups, whether it's solving a puzzle, or unsolving it and solving it again."

"What happens after the game ends?"

"Everything will just return to as it is. I will explain when the time comes."

I pressed the paper with my palm deeply as though to leave a handprint, with a deep breath.

"All of the procedures are complete now. Now then, shall we start?"

The man clapped. When the forty-nine claps ended, the halted world started moving again.

Chapter 1017
Han Haneul

The figurative expression of 'the world beneath my feet' happened literally, but it didn't feel strange. It was extremely natural as though I had this perspective since birth. I looked for the other 'Han Haneul.' Movement was easy. The moment I wished for it, I was there. It was the room I used when I was young. Memories started coming back to me. I felt like I found my high school graduation album that I had forgotten about. The Han Haneul lying on the bed stood up. She was a me that was totally different from me. I thought I'd feel a sense of disparity when looking at her, but I actually didn't feel anything much. Maybe it was because what was about to unfold was a game.

Mom was in the living room. I stood next to her. I called out to her and even touched her, but mom didn't seem to feel it. As the grim reaper had said, it seemed that I could not do anything but watch. I looked at my mother who didn't have a single wrinkle on her face. She looked similar to me after I gave birth.

Han Haneul left the room, rubbing her drowsy eyes. Get washed and eat if you don't want to be late — mom said. I stood in front of the boiling soup. It was some spicy kimchi jjigae. The taste and smell that was in my memories came back to me. I wanted to sniff and have a smell. I wanted to take a spoonful and put it in my mouth. However, I couldn't do anything. It was in front of me, yet I could not feel anything. It was like a world beyond a screen. I was practically in a virtual reality. The world without taste or smell was very desolate.

"Mom, I might be a little late today."

"You shouldn't stay out late."

After Han Haneul left, mom made some coffee and sat on the sofa. I also sat down next to her. Why did I not talk with her a little more when I was young? I had a ton of things to ask, such as how to pick the right fruit, how to clean bad stains, how to console a child throwing a tantrum, and how to win in a quarrel against my husband.

"Mom, don't follow dad so quickly this time," I muttered to my mother, who wouldn't be able to listen.

If life went as is, mom would depart from this world in five years. Pancreatic cancer would come like a silent killer and take her life. I spoke to mom as I covered my face — Get regular checkups; don't skip them just because it's bothersome, please.

I no longer had the sensation of tears flowing down my face or my breath being stifled, but I was definitely crying. I was separated from this world, but I was still human. That was the truth.

"I should do the laundry."

I muttered as I looked at my mother stand up — may this life change.

* * *

The desire to sleep, eat, and have sex - I could not feel any of them. While the world underneath my feet was slowly but definitely changing, I slowly became a rock on the side of the road. On the first day of the game, everything was new. My husband came back to life, my mother was healthy, and I was young. I was happy just watching them. I could cancel out the sense of powerlessness from not being able to do anything by watching them, who possessed infinite potential. However, as a day passed, then two, then three, then a month, then half a year, then a year, even happiness started becoming numb.

"I'm going out for a bit."

Han Haneul left. She had planned to watch a movie with her friends. I reflexively followed suit. I watched as they ate food, and I watched as they cried. They chatted for about an hour at a cafe before separating. I no longer leaped through space. I thought back to what happened when I was young and took one step after another. That was my only joy. That was the only way I could experience the flow of time.

Every midnight, the lights went off at home. I would wander around in the darkness before leaving the apartment. Ever since I forgot how to sleep, the night became a period of time where I struggled with loneliness. I walked through the streets aimlessly. However, I could not get far from Han Haneul. I would feel less powerlessness if I could travel overseas or something, but I could only move around in the physical distance between Han Haneul and my young husband.

I walked and arrived at my husband's house. He was pondering seriously with a notepad in front of him. He seemed to be still contemplating over the reincarnation. I believed in him. I believed that he would end this game soon.

* * *

It was the first encounter. She met my husband at a meet-up during their 2nd year of college. They met as company colleagues in the last life, but this time, it was different. Mom was alive as well. Pancreatic cancer did not grow within her. Evidence that life had changed was everywhere. I felt happy after a long time. I neither had a heartbeat nor any body temperature so I did not know whether this was true happiness or not, but I would definitely feel happy if something like this happened.

"The coffee will be on me."

Han Haneul seemed to have taken a liking to my husband. I peeked inside her heart. Well, the contradiction of peeking into my own heart was rather ridiculous. Eventually, though, I felt complicated because I could no longer member how I laughed.

She liked my husband's awkward smile. I was the same. Well, we are the same person, so we are bound to like the same things. I did not pry too deep into her heart. Even if I did, there was nothing I could do other than watch.

The two met every weekend after that and decided to start dating in the second month. After their date, I followed my husband who went home after separating from Han Haneul. I wanted to ask him why he chose me again when he could have met up with a different woman; why he asked his friend to introduce him to me.

Having come back, my husband shouted hurray and lay on the bed. I crossed my arms and watched from the side. My husband said — Haneul is pretty whenever I look.

"My beauty won't go anywhere, you know?" I whispered into his ears, not that he would be able to hear it.

* * *

A child was born. The two of them named her Gaeul. Han Gaeul. It was a name I could not get fed up with calling no matter how many times I called. My husband seemed to find it a pity that he wasn't able to play with her a lot and never left her side. I looked at my daughter, wrapped in fabric. She was the same child as the one I gave birth to. It felt strange. A sense of disparity I did not feel when I looked at my other self suddenly assaulted me. How long am I supposed to keep watching? I closed my eyes and calmed my senses, which were on the edge. This was the first life. There was no need to hurry.

* * *

My husband got cancer. It was pancreatic cancer. Perhaps it was a cursed twist of fate? Amidst the cancer treatment, my husband thinned out visibly by the day. Time, which flowed quickly under my insensitivity screeched down to the speed of a snail starting from that moment. One second became eons. Watching him getting treated was no different from hell. There was absolutely nothing I could do for him. I could neither cry for him nor grab his hand. This was the first time I felt so terrible.

I begged god. Please cure my husband. First a vegetable, then a fire outbreak, and now cancer. It was too cruel. He might lose memories of his past life if he reincarnates, but that wouldn't change the fact that he writhed in pain until he died. He might not remember, but I did. As long as there was someone to remember, it would be an unerasable truth.

Please spare my husband.

* * *

Medical devices started beeping out alarms. 8 months into the treatment, my husband's body seemed to have reached its limit. The eyes of the doctor who walked over to the bed looked tranquil. He looked as though he knew this was about to happen.

"Contact his guardian."

The doctor declared his death. The nurse wrote it down. I left the hospital. Han Haneul was going to come soon. Not even twenty minutes later, a sedan came into the hospital parking lot. It looked like it was about to crash into the door. I watched her as she rushed over with red eyes. Yes, that was how I used to cry as well.

I sat on the ground. The sky was dark. No, perhaps my eyes had been blinded. I blocked my ears; so that I could pretend I did not hear the sound of my husband breathing, which no longer existed, as well as to not hear the sound of 'me' crying. The night was long. The crying was longer.

* * *

"I'll do it. As long as I can bring him back to life."

Han Haneul didn't even listen until the end. Was I such a reckless person? Just as the grim reaper guaranteed, the other me decided to reincarnate. I explained what I heard from the grim reaper and got a contract. When I turned around after the procedure, the grim reaper was in front of me.

"Well done. You can do it by yourself now in the future, right?"

I nodded. The grim reaper received the contract with the palm print and put it in his pocket.

"Time to meet your husband then."

I followed him without a word before looking at a mirror. A lump of light was how I looked right now. This was the form I took in front of Han Haneul.

"Uhm, can I change my appearance?"

"You can. However, neither Mr. Han Maru nor Ms. Han Haneul will be able to recognize you."

"I can even display a little bit of my former appearance?"

"If that's your wish."

The grim reaper clapped.

* * *

I felt excited after a long time. I chose an outfit like a little girl. What would look good? I thought about it for a long time before choosing a white suit. I liked rabbits. I liked white rabbits. I like the rabbit from Alice in Wonderland. I liked the rabbit that guided people to a land of wonders. I wanted to lead my husband to that world as well; to a world where no one cries, and no one is hurt.

"Mr. Han Maru?"

I greeted my husband, who seemed rather taken aback. He did not recognize me. My face had changed considerably. It might look like this if the face of Han Haneul was taken to the extreme limits of beauty. It was similar, but it was impossible to get the name 'Han Haneul' from this face. Precisely because it looked similar, it was hard to differentiate.

"Am I dead?" he asked.

I wanted to shout to him: that I am Han Haneul, that I am his wife. However, the moment I even thought about such a thing, darkness clouded my vision. The 'higher-ups' mentioned by the grim reaper had taken measures. I was not able to say a word about it.

"Yes. Mr. Han Maru, you have died."

"I see."

"But your life is not over yet."

I approached my husband. I was able to touch him in this world, where life and death crossed. I grabbed his hand and spoke,

"Mr. Han Maru. Would you like to live your life once again?"

Chapter 1018
Han Haneul

My husband’s fourth life began. Having returned to his high school days, he was greeted by a new life with the memories of only the life just before this one. I thought back to the brief meeting I had with him. I had a small hope that he might recognize me even if my face had changed, but just as the grim reaper had said, there was no hint that he recognized me. Despite that, I was happy to talk to him. I was able to make a voice, which I had forgotten about for decades. Honestly, it was surprising as well. My own voice sounded like someone else’s. It even reminded me of when I recorded my own voice on tape and played it back.

Having passed away due to cancer in his previous life, he started looking after his health from a young age. Even during high school, he stayed away from oily foods and only ate healthy foods. His friends even said that he had an elderly text. He told his friends that they should eat healthily when they were young so that they wouldn’t suffer later in life. I thought as I listened to the ordinary, yet not-so-ordinary conversation — how many times will this repeat?

2 years passed since the new life began. I ended up forgetting about boredom. I just endlessly stared at the constant stream of indiscriminate information being given to me. My husband looked for Han Haneul in his third year of high school. Haneul did not welcome him, who approached her with an awkward smile. However, as one meeting became two, then three, the two of them became friends. I could already picture their future. The two would definitely get married.

I looked at the two people lying on the same bed. I desperately wanted to fall into a deep sleep. However, sleep never arrived. A world of strange temperature between the soft mattress and warm duvet, where one leg out would feel cold, but the body under would be hot; now, ‘sleep’ had become a faint word that only reminded me of a dictionary definition.

Gaeul was born again. Her wavy hair had not changed. Every day was safe and ordinary until she managed to utter her first words and stand up on her two feet. I endured every day by watching the little girl sleeping between him and her.

The change came suddenly. Twenty-nine. My husband departed from the world, leaving behind a two-year-old child. It was a traffic accident. A freight truck driver was driving half-asleep and drove into my husband’s sedan. The bumper was crumpled like a piece of paper. I watched the car give off smoke with a vain feeling. It was a game that would begin again if I pressed the reset button. I started to feel afraid of the future. It wasn’t because of the pain my husband would be experiencing but nor was it because of the unease that I did not know when the game would end.

I started worrying and was afraid of whether I would still be able to remain a person by the end of this game.

* * *

I started writing a diary. It was a gift left behind by the grim reaper, who said that he was being assigned somewhere else. It was a sense of touch I had not felt in a long time. They were a set of a pencil that never ran out and a notepad with infinite pages. I wrote the date on the top before scribbling it out with the pencil. I realized that writing the date was meaningless. I instead wrote another number: 6. I closed the notepad and looked in front of me. My husband, who had his eyes closed, was standing up. I approached him and talked to him.

“Mr. Han Maru?”

He responded.

“Am I dead?”

Another life was about to begin.

* * *

87. I wrote without thinking but then was startled like I touched a hot pan. Nay, I no longer remembered what it felt like to touch a hot object, so it would be more accurate to say that I was just startled.

“Eight-seven.”

I read the number out loud. It was a voice I could only make when my husband had died. I was only able to be conscious of my ‘self’ in the boundary between life and death. Having been given a new life, my husband closed his eyes, touched and appreciative. The eighty-seventh life would be waiting for him. The world at my feet started flowing in reverse. My husband’s body, which died a sudden death, returned to his younger days. I quietly watched him as he opened his eyes. I wrote down the first actions he took as soon as he opened his eyes. I had nothing else to do, so I wrote down the trivial thoughts as well. I had a wrist that would not hurt no matter how much I used it.

* * *

295. No, was it 296? I flipped over to the page before. It was neither 295 nor 296. It was the 294th life. I scribbled it out and wrote it again. ‘294.’ My husband opened his eyes. Having woken up in bed, he touched his body with glee. After seeing that it was not a dream, he cried tears and thanked a god of a nameless origin. I wrote ‘Type A’ on the notepad. Type A was where he cried after waking up, Type B was where he laughed endlessly, Type C was where he rushed to the bathroom to check his face, and Type D was where he checked the faces of his sleeping parents in the master bedroom. Other than that, there were various other types of reactions, but the ABCD types took the majority.

I did not need to predict what my husband’s next actions were going to be. It was looking for ‘Han Haneul.’ It would be usually split into whether he would go find her during high school or during college, but he would definitely find Han Haneul. In the 294 repeated lives, not once did he not look for Han Haneul. Just like how a person could not live without breathing, my husband desperately looked for Han Haneul. I looked at the encounter between the two that happened yet again and realized that this was nothing like destiny. This was karma. The two were tied by a truly tenacious string and could never escape it.

“Hi?”

My husband talked to Han Haneul. The boring life was about to repeat.

* * *

698. I could no longer remember what mom’s name was. Han Haneul kept calling her ‘mom’ after all. The people around called her ‘Haneul’s mom.’ What was her name again? I stared at the living room in a daze before finding a book tied up by a blue ribbon. By Choi Haesoo, right, mom’s name was Choi Haesoo. It wasn’t that I was getting dementia. There were no elements that could cause dementia in my body. I just became ignorant of everything. If I focused, I might have remembered. However, I did not do so. I neither had the need nor the purpose to do so. Without Han Haneul underneath me, my own name would have disappeared beyond my consciousness as well.

I opened my notepad. My husband was dying. I wrote down the cause of death and when his breath ended. I was slowly becoming a highly performant writing stencil.

* * *

1928. Type A. Han Haneul Type C. Daughter has curly hair. Husband employed in a decent company. Salary 2.5 million won a month. Han Haneul starts a side job, pay is.8 million per month. Livelihood is not bad. Daughter gets a prize in an elementary school drawing competition. She seems to have talent in art. Age 39. Slipped to death.

* * *

4824. Type C. Type B. Daughter is healthy. Cause of death is a traffic accident. There seem to be a lot of traffic accidents.

* * *

5429.

My husband keeps failing to get employed in a big company. Maybe dying and starting over is a better option.

* * *

6700.

Am I human?

* * *

7420.

* * *

7421.

* * *

7422.

I want to die.

* * *

I opened my notepad after a long time. The last number I wrote was 7422. I could not estimate how much time had passed since then. I did not want to either.

The words ‘I want to die’ entered my eyes. It didn’t give me any feelings at all. Neither hope nor despair, or any emotions for that matter, was left in me.

“It has become time. It is time to switch things up. Go on and try things within the acceptable range.”

They were words from a grim reaper I hadn’t seen before. I had a vague feeling. Before the grim reaper appeared, the ‘higher-ups’ notified me. I spoke to my husband with a face that was a little closer to ‘Han Haneul’s.’ I could see the puzzlement on his face, but nothing changed. The higher-ups were inducing me to give him hints in a way that my husband would absolutely not notice it. I didn’t care. I knew that doing something was meaningless. Just like a machine that just moves accordingly in tandem with the changes in the system, I just did what I did.

Even so, it was quite fun using my head after a long time. I made him open his eyes in a place we used to date a lot, and I also used a lot of words I used when we whispered love when I explained the reincarnation. I did not have the slightest bit of hope. This was also just a little side fun.

“Do your best in your new life.”

I ended my meeting with him with the same comment. The hamster wheel life was beginning again without a single crack. I was about to get ready to observe as I looked at the world below me. Something remained in the place my husband left. It was the first change that occurred in the thousands, no, tens of thousands of cycles of life. I could see ‘that’ seeping into my husband who became a high school student.

Something was about to change.

* * *

‘That’ was my husband. At first, it was like a meaningless silhouette like a reflection of the moon on the surface of the water, but it slowly started to gain ego. On the 230th reincarnation after that came into existence, that became an equal ego to my husband. It was Han Maru that came from Han Maru.

I wanted to try talking to him.

Chapter 1019
Han Haneul

It was the 350th time since ‘it’ started watching the reincarnations like me. I felt a sense of kinship. That, or should I say ‘he’ from now on, was just like me. He was in a position where he would endlessly watch this meaningless world. He did not believe in the world where I was, nor the world at my feet. I started watching him after watching my husband and Han Haneul for a while. He kept calling out to my husband, repeating words that would never reach him.

I thought he was foolish as I watched his endless efforts. It was like trying to start a fire on top of water. It was like wishing for fish to fall from the sky. I had watched my husband for a time that could not be counted. I tried talking to him multiple times but never had I gotten an answer. The only time I could talk to him was when he died and I guided him to the next. How much longer would ‘he’, who split off from my husband, repeat such meaningless action? Maybe he’ll give up by the time he gives up counting like me.

* * *

The 400th reincarnation with him began. At the same time, ‘he’ put on a mask. Why did he put on something like that when there was no one to show? I watched as my husband’s life continued and at the same time, watched the masked he. He was still calling out to my husband. It couldn’t be called a conversation as it was akin to talking to a wall. I named him ‘Han Maru’ from a certain time onwards. Just like I differentiated the person at my feet ‘Han Haneul’ separate from me, I classified him as a different person from my husband.

Han Maru kept calling out while watching my husband’s life. It seemed he wasn’t tired of it. Perhaps it was a way he found to forget the solitude. I also talked to myself a lot until about the 1000th reincarnation. I felt like I would go crazy if I didn’t do so.

It was when my husband died and I was moving to prepare the procedures. I made eye contact with the Han Maru protecting my dead husband’s side. I thought it was a coincidence. He was definitely not among the living but nor was he given a duty by god, like I was. I was suddenly curious. If this game ends one day, what would happen to that Han Maru?

* * *

His 408th reincarnation. Han Maru started tracking my position with his eyes. It was not a coincidence. He was cognizant of me. It was a sensation I truly hadn’t felt in a long time. A life where another person exists. Just knowing that there was someone other than me made the emotions known as happiness return to me. Honestly, even if it was a serial killer with dozens of murders, I would feel happy. That was just how lonely I am. I approached Han Maru, who was watching my husband. I tried calling him on the boundary between life and death.

“Is that a person over there?”

I was given a reply.

* * *

Han Maru’s 409th reincarnation. I talked to Han Maru for a long time. Our conversation only ended when my husband was about to reach his death and go back to the past again. I prepared the 410th reincarnation. Han Maru watched as I sought agreement from Han Haneul and returned my husband to the past. It seemed that my husband could not see Han Maru.

“So you have repeated this all this time,” Han Maru said.

He did not want me to treat him like my husband. He seemed to be Han Maru, yet he wanted to be a separate entity from Han Maru. I could only imagine that it was a sensitive situation related to the original. Before I was swept away by the sense of powerlessness, I also thought a lot when I looked at the Han Haneul living below me. Just who is the ‘real’ one?

“Wasn’t it hard?”

“Everything’s relative. In a world where there’s nothing to compare, the concept of hardship disappears. I just became a being that’s no different from air. I just exist here, to the point where I am about to forget why I began this in the first place.”

“That sounds sad.”

“Sad is a word I haven’t heard in a long time. But still, I’m glad to have someone to talk to. If it weren’t for you, I would truly have become a non-living being.”

He smiled and fixed his mask. He, who was Han Maru, yet not Han Maru. I, who was Han Haneul, yet not Han Haneul. The thought that we were a pair of twisted people flashed through my head.

“It’s strange for me to say this, but you really are the prettiest when you smile, Miss Haneul. You’re pretty when you don’t have an expression, but my preferences vote for the smiling side.”

Hearing his words, I touched my lips. I was smiling. When was the last time I smiled? Rather than that, when was the last time I heard someone else call my name? I did not look down at the world for the first time since this game began. I did not mind how the world below me unfolded and solely looked at the Han Maru in front of my eyes.

“You’re someone who always puts me in difficulty.”

I cried. I was happy, sad, and angry. The emotions that had disappeared a long time ago all poked their heads up. I didn’t know how long I had cried. There was a hand that carefully grabbed mine.

“I’m sorry you had to go through this because of me,” Han Maru said as he looked at my husband studying in the world below.

I shook my head. This was a path I chose to take.

“But don’t worry. I feel like it’s going to end soon,” Han Maru said.

“What do you mean, feels like it’s going to end?”

“There was one question I had ever since I gained consciousness. Why did I fall off from Mr. Han Maru? They say there’s a reason for everything. There’s a reason you’re experiencing this too. Not until long ago, I was pondering in order to find that reason. Then I found the answer. No, they told me the answer.”

They. I immediately thought about the higher-ups that the grim reaper told me about. Han Maru took off his mask. He looked alternately at my husband and Han Haneul with a warm smile on his face.

“I am a bell, used to wake someone up from a long dream.”

“Dream?”

“You told me, didn’t you? That the game is bound to end. That will be my role.”

His words were incomprehensible. I grabbed him and urged him to tell me more. At that moment, the world turned black. I realized that the will of the higher-ups had blocked any progress of this conversation. The black curtain lifted. Han Maru put on his mask and spoke,

“Anyway, you don’t need to worry anymore. This will probably be the last time.”

Han Maru returned by my husband’s side. I watched the last time as I looked at the two.

* * *

My husband died as always. I received confirmation from Han Haneul and guided my husband to this world. It was the beach we visited a lot. I put on a clean white shirt and waited for him to wake up.

“You’re awake. I was just about to wake you up.”

“This is…”

“You’ll know where you are in a second. Just think.”

My husband spoke,

“So I died.”

“Yes, you did.”

“Are you an angel?”

“Sort of. Some call me an angel, others the grim reaper. Titles aren’t very important though. What I’m about to say now is.”

I walked forward to the parasol in the middle of the sandy beach.

“Please, sit.”

“Oh, okay,” he said as he sat down.

“Mr. Han, you died precisely on October 3rd, 11:23:14. Do you remember how you died?”

“Yes.”

The words I repeated tens of thousands of times occurred once again. This time, I gave him my grandmother’s name as a hint. Yoo Bokja. I also mixed in a small lie so that he wouldn’t be able to remember the memories of his previous life. The higher-ups did not permit telling him the truth.

After the explanation ended, I sent my husband off. Then I looked at Han Maru, who was by my side. Last time, he told me that this would be the last.

“You’ll see soon.”

I fixed my eyes on him, who was following my husband. I thought back to the words that the grim reaper told me a long time ago: that my husband will find out the victory conditions, and that was why, this game would definitely end in one form or another. Han Maru said that he was a bell. Was that related to the conditions that the grim reaper told me about?

My husband’s life began again. It was no different from before. He entered the acting club. It was a pattern that happened frequently. He would probably become an actor. He might just become a nameless actor, or he might become a top star. Actually, the conclusion wasn’t that important, life would just repeat itself anyway.

Then I saw. The impossible turned into the possible. Han Maru and my husband were talking. He managed to interrupt my husband’s life. It was unbelievable. He must be in the same state as me.

He sometimes lent my husband help and sometimes cooperated in order to guide him down the right path. It wasn’t a proactive interference, and my husband didn’t even notice, but as someone watching from above, I could tell. Han Maru… the masked man’s actions and words were driving my husband towards a certain choice.

Chapter 1020
Han Haneul

I paid attention to the masked man's actions. The words he said kept tugging on my mind. This will probably be the last time? What would that mean? The world kept flowing on without the slightest hint of a change. My husband and Han Haneul met just like before and fell in love. They even had a child. There was no change that signified an end.

Eventually, the accident happened. My husband died in a car crash. No, this time it wasn't an accident; it was murder resulting from resentment. This had not happened before. The thousands or tens of thousands of deaths took different forms every time, but not once was it a homicide.

I looked at the man who was laughing like a madman while driving. I knew his name. He was an actor named Kang Giwoo. It was natural that they would be in a bad relationship since their first meeting was a bad one, but I did not know that my husband would die because of him. The masked man's words brushed past my head again: this will probably be the last time.

After seeing my husband's body disappear into a pile of ash, I approached Han Haneul. It was just before I was about to ask the questions I asked numerous times and hear the already set answer.

The world started flowing in reverse. I panicked. I had not yet asked Han Haneul for her opinion nor had I guided my husband. The world suddenly started returning to the starting point on its own.

"This was really the last time."

The masked man was standing next to me. I needed an explanation. The frame of common sense was breaking yet again. This world should not be one that moves without procedures.

"So he's here already. You should hear from him," the masked man said as he looked behind them.

The grim reaper was there.

"Ms. Han Haneul. Long time no see."

I spoke as I ignored the grim reaper's words, saying that I did not do anything, yet the world is returning to its starting point.

"The time has come. It's time to end this game."

The grim reaper gave me a piece of white paper. It was the confirmation paper that he received from me when I first decided to start this game.

"Nineteen thousand, nine hundred and ninety-nine times. Mr. Han Maru has gained enlightenment in his cycle of reincarnation, so it is time to return to the original time. The price of foolish greed to bring back the dead to the living has been paid by the time you have spent, Ms. Han Haneul, so you need not worry."

"Foolish greed?"

I was suddenly dazed. The grim reaper gave me a piece of paper, telling me to take it. I lightly grabbed it. When I did so, information flowed into my head. I was startled and let the paper go. The paper that fell down burned up in red fire and disappeared.

"That's it?"

"Yes. This is the end."

"This is the victory condition?"

"You must know by now. There's no need to confirm it with me. Everything you just found out is a part of this game."

I grabbed the grim reaper's sleeves. My fingers froze up like they were about to fall off. It was painful, which I hadn't felt in a long time.

"You lied to me. You said this game has no bad ending."

"I have not lied in my status as an envoy. Also, what came out of my mouth was the will of those above. So please, if you'd like to complain, do it to them."

The grim reaper's body blurred before appearing a step away. I collapsed. This couldn't happen. I did not spend all this time in order to meet an ending like this.

"Ms. Han Haneul. This is absolutely not a bad ending. You will keep living on. Not only that, everything you've experienced will disappear from your memories, so you should be at ease. Watching twenty-thousand reincarnations will just be a dream. If you forget, there is no pain."

"A dream?"

I chuckled in vain and looked at the world below. My husband returned to the situation just before the reincarnation. He was just about to die in a traffic accident while driving a bus. The world was halted there.

"If this goes on… my husband will die at Kang Giwoo's hands."

"Indeed."

"I have endured all this time in order to prevent his death."

"I am aware. Watching twenty thousand human lifetimes is a pretty long time even for us. I know very well how long it is."

"And now you're telling me that I have to watch my husband's death?"

"That is just nature's course. And, you must know by now. Mr. Han Maru decided to die right before he was hit by the car. He realized the victory condition of this game."

The grim reaper put on a thick smile and looked at my husband sitting on the bus driver's seat.

"Honestly, I was pleasantly surprised. Not one person in my charge has reached this conclusion. Even if they do, it's not easy to give up one's own life. But, that person has died in your stead without a shred of hesitation."

"No, something must be wrong with this."

"Not at all. You should have seen it as well. You should have seen his smile right before the crash happened. And you must have also seen that if Mr. Han Maru did not get into an accident and was safe, he would have chosen to commit suicide not long later."

I thought I had become a tree. A numb human tree that could neither display emotions nor sympathize with others. However, the moment I heard the grim reaper's words, frustration welled up in me just like during the time I was living.

"I will not let him die. Even if this is the way to end the game."

"I thought you'd say that. If someone gains enlightenment just like Mr. Han Maru, this always happens. A noble scene where a family member or a lover will gladly give up their own life for the other."

I clasped my hands. The moment I grabbed the paper given to me by the grim reaper, I realized everything. Gods were truly fair beings. The moment I stepped into this game in order to bring back my vegetable husband to life, God proceeded everything under one absolute rule: price and compensation; and also that, the value of one life is one life.

It was possible to bring back the dead. It was not impossible to bring back my husband to life. It just needed one life.

"You always told me. You said that if my husband and I go on separate paths, we would both survive."

"Yes, I did say that. However, you must know by now. In the nineteen thousand nine hundred and ninety-nine lives, have the two of them ever met some other person and gotten married?"

I shook my head. My husband had never given his heart to a woman other than Han Haneul.

"Why do you think the higher-ups gave you two an opportunity? It's because they saw through you. The two of you are so close that it is not possible to describe the relationship with the word 'special.' You two are bound by fate stronger than the ties of blood. Even if you repeat another ten thousand times, the two of you will not part. In the end, death will arrive. That death will take away the life of Mr. Han Maru, who should have died originally. If that happens, this game will go on without end. That's why Mr. Han Maru has chosen death. He has not realized it perfectly, but it's not far off. He's someone who's had a glimpse at the providence by himself. If that man explains to him just a little more, he'll be sure that ending his own life is the only exit out of this game, as well as the formula for victory."

"Stop with your bullshit. Do you think I'll just keep watching?"

"Of course, you must do something. God always gives you a choice. They are truly merciful."

The grim reaper looked below.

"You must have understood that one life is necessary to bring one to life. In our case, we are left with two choices. Either Mr. Han Maru dies, like he was supposed to, or you die."

"I will not let anyone die."

The grim reaper nodded.

"The one I was in charge of just before you said the same thing. You must know her name, it's Jung Haejoo. That person also tried her best in order to bring back her loved one over and over again. However, it was ultimately impossible to change fate. Instead, she chose to give up her own life in order to let the dead Mr. Lee Junmin come back to life. She was someone with great spirituality, unprecedented, in fact. The one who was supposed to realize the condition of victory was the person being reincarnated, but the contractor realized it first and chose to commit suicide. Thanks to that, the person who got to live is living a great life in the world of the living under the grace of god."

"What happened to the woman who committed suicide?"

"She disappeared. She was deprived of even the opportunity for salvation in the six paths. She was erased."

I clenched my teeth.

"I will not turn out like that."

"That's a very positive view you have there. While I like such attitude, this unfortunately will be the last opportunity."

The grim reaper clapped. The world that returned to the past just before the accident started moving again.

"Mr. Han Maru will soon die. Once that happens, you just have to seek approval from the other you down there and bring Mr. Han Maru back to life. After that, Mr. Han Maru's life will continue just as you saw before. The two of them will meet in high school and will both walk the path of an actor. You two will part ways in the middle, but you will meet again and ultimately, be killed by the person known as Kang Giwoo over there. If you keep watching, this will be the progress of his life."

"What can I do?"

"You can try to smash a rock with an egg. I shall give you the chance to experience why it is impossible to go against a predetermined fate."

The grim reaper clapped forty-nine times.

"From now on, you will be able to talk to Ms. Han Haneul down there, just like Mr. Han Maru over there with the mask on. However, you cannot expose any of the information you gained here. If you say everything, Ms. Han Haneul will easily choose to commit suicide. That goes against the flow. That's why you should try to persuade Miss Han Haneul with only the things you're allowed to say. Try to lead her to the best ending."

"You're not lying when you say that the two of them will live on if the two are not tied in a relationship, right?"

"Of course it's the truth. However, I'm not sure if that will be possible. The higher-ups have a mean side to them as they place fruits that seem like they're within reach, but rarely anyone reaches there."

"Things will not go according to your will."

"It's not my will. It's God's."

The grim reaper smiled and turned around.

"Don't forget. This is the last time. As Mr. Han Maru has realized already, there must be an ending. Either he dies in a car crash, he chooses to part, or he chooses to commit suicide, there are these three choices. I wish you luck."

The grim reaper disappeared. Following that, Maru died in a crash while driving a bus. I glared at Han Haneul who was just getting the news of his death. I was determined not to send him off in vain like this.

Chapter 1021
Han Haneul

Our last life began. I approached the depressed Han Haneul in the same outfit as before and the way she was surprised and stuttered was the same as well. Just as the grim reaper said, this life had a set repertoire, meaning, it was a train on rails. Unless someone switched the direction of the rails, my husband would ultimately die, being hit by Kang Giwoo in a car. The results were predetermined, and I can’t do anything but watch? I wasn’t going to accept that.

I guided my deceased husband. I tried my best to give him hints, but my mouth did not move as I wanted it to. I said the exact same things as I did before and sent him away. The world started moving again. This was no time to stay downtrodden. I immediately looked for the masked man. He said that he would play the role of a wake-up bell and that my husband would reach the choice of committing suicide through him. If I could persuade him to stop that, I should be able to derail the train that was rushing towards despair.

“I will do my best, but it’ll probably be difficult. Both you and I are far from things like free will. We have our own egos, but we cannot escape what is given to us. I also do not wish for Mr. Han Maru’s death. There’s no one who wishes for their own death. However, there’s one conclusion I wish to avoid even more than that. If that happens, I will proactively offer Mr. Han Maru the choice to commit suicide.”

“I do not want that kind of conclusion.”

“I know. I know better than anyone else. Likewise, you must know how I feel.”

“You’re a cruel man.”

“I’m sorry. But I do not have the confidence to accept a world where you, Haneul, die. I’m a coward after all.”

The masked man took off his mask. Tears fell from the corner of his eyes. I grabbed his hand.

“I won’t let anyone die. Whether it’s you, or the two people down there. I will not give up on the conclusion where everyone becomes happy.”

“Yes. That sounds like Han Haneul.”

After a strong hug, the masked man departed for the world below. He talked to my husband by his side just like the last life. The world looked like it was heading from 12 o’clock to 12 o’clock again, not allowing a single change.

I immediately approached Han Haneul. I started doing things I hadn’t done until now. I kept talking to her. I had already realized that it was meaningless in the hundreds, thousands, tens of thousands of repetitions, but there was nothing else I could do. The world where my husband and Han Haneul lived was cut off from where I was.

I felt rushed. The concept of time I had forgotten about became extremely sensitive as it hit my head. Every single passing second felt like a waste. I had to do something, it couldn’t end like this.

A few months passed as I went between my husband and Han Haneul and talked to them. Nothing changed. If I kept watching, fate would walk towards the predetermined future. I had to stop it, no matter what I had to do. Han Haneul, get yourself together. Do something, anything.

-Is it really a bad thing for things to end like this?

I heard a voice from somewhere. I immediately realized who the voice was from. It was the hateful god. I shouted in the air,

“Is it fun to toy with people like this? Are you still a god after that?”

-People are truly unfair. I do not wish for anything from you. However, you always desire things from me. Your own safety, the happiness of your family, the stability of society, the peace of your nation. I have never repressed you. In fact, I gave you freedom. However, it was always you who have given up the freedom to create classes to pursue benefits. All the while, using the absurd reason that it is ‘my will.’

“Yeah, I’m sure you must feel unjust. But that’s not my problem. I don’t even want to talk about something grandiose like that. I just want to say that I’m not your toy. If everything is determined according to your intent, then why did you have me do something like that? Was it fun watching me walk towards a pitfall step by step?”

-I have only given you an opportunity because you wanted one. Must I do more?

“Yes. I will have you do more. Allow me to participate in this game as well. I mean, isn’t it funny if you think about it? The person doing the gambling can’t even sit at the table or do anything but watch. You can’t call that a participant. That’s a spectator.”

-You really do not want to lose a word.

“Well, you must know best. Aren’t you the creator? If you don’t like my personality, then do something about it with that godly power of yours. No wait, you are omnipotent and omniscient, so you must have known about this beforehand too, right? That I would go against you like this, and that I would complain to you like this. Now, what should I do? Should I kneel down and beg? Should I desperately plead to you to take my life instead of my husband’s?”

I clenched my teeth and went against him. I could feel my dry well of emotions filling up again. If the so-called god was in front of my face, I would have punched him.

-If I knew all of that, what game would be fun? If I know the outcome before the cards are even handed out, then the very act of splitting the cards will not be necessary. It’s true that I know more than you do, and can do more than you can, but I’m not omnipotent or omniscient. That’s why it’s fun to watch you. You sometimes do things outside of my expectations. Also, I wish for those things to happen. If the absolute majority just give up midway and let their body float down the flow of the river, people such as you, who grab a rock and resist the current, are an extreme minority. I like the minority. They are precious. When I look at people like you, who prove their own worth, I sometimes do things like this.

The moment god’s voice stopped, I realized that I could now interfere with the world below. It was permission given to me by god. It was not an extreme ability that could break the game just like the masked man, but it was plenty of power to escape the predetermined ending.

-Destiny is something you pioneer on your own. I like these words a lot. However, you must remember that there is a duality to famous sayings. If you keep pursuing the ideal, reality will drag you down. Compromise is inevitable.

God left. No, ‘left’ wasn’t the right word. He should be everywhere after all. I engraved the word ‘compromise’ in my head and approached my husband. We finally got to talk after an extremely long time, but I could not say a lot of things. Showing my emotions was no good either. I could not give him a sense of discrepancy.

I lied to my husband. I told him that the world was split off with his death, that his wife and daughter were still living in the world in which he died, and that they had no financial difficulties thanks to insurance. I showed him that his love still existed, albeit in a different world. I tried to make him hesitate over Han Haneul, even if it was just a little.

However, that was useless. My husband’s heart did not change. Above all, the device set by god made everything meaningless. His memories slowly faded away. He would lose his memories starting from the moment of his death, and eventually, he would no longer remember anything about his previous life. Those lost memories included the conversations he had with me. My husband, who possessed the caution and inflexibility of a forty-five-year-old man and suspected everything in the world, would soon turn into a man no different from his peers.

I was really running out of time. He had already met Han Haneul, so I had no choice but to break them up. That was for the best. I appeared in front of my husband again. This time, as a fortune teller with tarot cards. I gave him ‘The Fool’ card. It was the card that contained the masked man’s figure. Ignorance and a new challenge - I put my own feelings into the card that possessed those two meanings. He would gain enlightenment in this life. He would come to realize that the reincarnations had been repeated numerous times and that only an extreme method would allow him to escape it. My husband would gladly give up on his own life for the sake of Han Haneul. However, what if the moment of enlightenment is pulled forward, when they’re both young and not dating deeply yet? He might choose the option of not meeting her instead of giving up on his own life. That was what I wanted from him as well. I wanted to end this game where neither of us dies.

I also asked for the masked man’s cooperation. He said that he would help, but he also said that it was impossible to stray a long way from the predetermined path. He was not as liberal as I was. I appeared in my husband’s dream with him. I took the form of a rabbit that I liked the most. I stimulated his mind, gave him hints to deduce the truth, and tried my best so that this game ended with no one getting hurt.

And there were results.

Chapter 1022
Han Haneul

It was an amazing change. My husband came to me. It was for a brief moment in the realm of the subconscious, but he managed to cross an unsurpassable wall and came to me. Just like when he gently held my hand when I was giving birth, he wrapped his hands around my rabbit form and told me that he would save me this time. The warmth that my time took away from me was returned to me by him. I felt a little relieved as I saw him smile at me, telling me to feel at ease. Yes, I started this game because I had faith in that person.

But even that lasted for only an instant. My husband's memories were slowly being erased. Starting from the memories of when he was forty-five, things started disappearing one by one. Even the enlightenment that he barely managed to gain seemed to become faint in the face of blurring memories. He, who desperately struggled to not lose his memories, eventually even forgot that he was even losing memories. God's doings were merciless. It did not leave behind a single possibility. Just how much more cruel could this be?

There was nothing I could do for him. The masked man was the same. He guided my husband to reach enlightenment and successfully finished his duty. He had done everything he could.

"Is this how it ends? Is this how empty this is going to be?"

The masked man, who became my conversation partner, approached my husband, saying that he would make one last gamble. Gamble; it was a word that my husband and the masked man, i.e. Han Maru, stayed away from the most. However, it seemed that gambling was the only way out of this hopeless situation.

The masked man and my husband conversed. My husband had long since forgotten that he had died at forty-five and that he had even gotten married. He also failed to recall that the masked man was another Han Maru. The longer the conversation continued, the thicker the despair became. At this rate, my husband would return to being an ordinary high school student, and Han Haneul would inevitably be his marriage partner. So, even the last life was just a meaningless struggle within the net cast by God?

Just as every last strand of hope was being snapped off, I saw the world below stop. The masked man also seemed to have felt it and was very surprised. It was my husband who put a stop to the world that was following the flow. A crack appeared in the domain of time that harbored God's intent. It was a force so insignificant that it could not change the giant flow, however, it was enough to return an individual's memories.

My husband's memories, scattered like shattered glass on the floor, started flowing into his head. That was definitely a miracle, the very thing that God told me about that even he could not predict. My husband had finally sparked a fire of counterattack with his tenacity.

My hopes rose. My husband did not miss a clue and continued to deduce the mystery. He would soon find out where the reincarnation all started. He might not reach the clear truth, but he should be able to grasp a vague outline. Eventually, he managed to reach one conclusion: there may be multiple variables, but the biggest one should be meeting Han Haneul.

The story started going in the direction I wanted. However, I could not yet feel at ease. Having regained his memories, my husband started loving Han Haneul even more than before. It was likely that he would choose to get married even while knowing that the reincarnation would never end.

It was time for me to move. I approached Han Haneul and whispered to her: that she should put some distance between herself and Han Maru. At first, she didn't even listen. That was natural. Han Haneul loved him just as he did her.

I cooked up some words. I knew Han Haneul better than anyone else. I did not tell her to just put some distance between them. I told her that they should have some time on their own. My words also touched on Han Haneul's pride. Han Haneul was feeling rather disappointed in herself as she watched him consolidate his foundations as an actor. I stimulated her desire to stand at the same height as her loved one. My words that they should each have some time for the development of both should have sounded tempting to her.

Eventually, Han Haneul told my husband that they should keep some distance for a while. I watched my husband's response. It would all be for naught if he actively refuted her words. Fortunately, he listened to Han Haneul's opinion. It was his way of respect for her, as well as an attempt to cut off the cycle.

It was here that I realized that my husband was thinking about parting.

The two of them became distant after graduating high school. Han Haneul was still arduously studying, imagining the day she would meet him again, while my husband fought against agony in his attempt to shake off the memories he had with her. I clenched my teeth as I watched him. For the sake of his loved one, he had to part from her.

It took a long time for my husband to tell her about breaking up. It was when Han Haneul was riding on the path of success thanks to a drama. He notified her of the breakup while also telling her that he was entering the military. It might have been a sudden parting for Han Haneul, but as someone who watched from above, I knew how agonized he was until he mustered up the courage to break up.

While Han Haneul spent night after night crying, my husband honed his mind in the military. I desperately prayed that he did not choose to commit something extreme. Even as I prayed, I realized that it was meaningless when I thought about God's voice, but there was nothing else I could do.

Time passed by. Han Haneul consolidated her position as an actress, while my husband also got discharged after collecting his mind. Any contact between the two had disappeared. My husband did not intentionally contact Han Haneul, and Han Haneul was unable to press the numbers because of her regret and apologetic feelings.

It was finally a future where the two of them did not get connected. The world didn't change drastically, but the fate of a man did. I believed that the two of them would walk their separate paths.

Han Haneul would meet an unknown man, fall in love, have a baby, and become old like that. Perhaps she would become against marriage. Even then, she should forget him.

I looked at my husband. Having finished a passionate act on stage, he looked rather empty as he walked down the stage. He had made the right choice. It might be difficult for him, but he should be able to see that the correct answer was to live on without meeting me the day he reaches forty-six. I hoped that he would forget about Han Haneul and meet a better person.

However, fate wasn't so easy.

"Let me ask you just one thing. Do you like me? Or hate me?"

Han Haneul said those words. Then, she left a deep kiss mark on her palm and imprinted it on his forehead. I was shocked. The world that had escaped its predetermined conclusion had returned to its original track. Not only that, it was at the hands of Han Haneul too.

My husband decided to be with Han Haneul, even if that meant falling into an eternity of reincarnations. He came to the conclusion that spending time with the woman he loves was more precious than the pain of his soul being ripped apart. It was a touching moment, yet also a moment that drove me into the pits of despair. The gravity known as fate was dragging the two of them down to the depths of hell with more strength than at any other time. It felt like the conclusion of the two of them parting had disappeared completely.

It was around that time that Kang Giwoo entered my eyes. I usually didn't care about him, but I had no choice but to glare at him now. Fate was predetermined. The car that Kang Giwoo was driving would head towards my husband. No one could stop that.

Now, Han Haneul didn't even listen to me. My husband told me that he would save me, but I knew that it was impossible. This life had already happened before, and this life was different from the other reincarnations. It was the last time. There were no more opportunities. My husband would die, and I would lose my memories and live as the Han Haneul down there, until the end of my life in the world of sorrow where my husband had died in a car crash.

The world flowed on as if it didn't care for the frustration in my heart. Numerous events created a deep gorge between Kang Giwoo and my husband. Everything was repeated. Ultimately, nothing had changed.

Before the accident happened, my husband realized how to end this game. He started thinking about death. It was the worst. That thought had taken root, so everything was over. Now, as long as Kang Giwoo appeared in a car, he would choose to not dodge. He would push Han Haneul aside and allow his body to get into the accident, accepting that it was his fate.

I watched my husband and Han Haneul with empty eyes. The two of them were leaving my mom's studio. Today was the day my husband would get involved in a car crash.

The masked man came to my side. He gently held my hand. I sobbed as I looked at him. He must have had it hard, just as much as my husband, or perhaps even more. He kept watching with the memories intact after all. He was in a similar situation to me.

"This is no good. I can't end it like this."

I hugged him. I didn't want to send him away. The moment my husband died in a car crash, this world will end. My husband in reality would die, and the masked man would be erased. I did not want to live by myself in a world where nothing remained behind.

"If you don't have any chips when gambling, you should be bluffing."

He took off the mask. At the same time, God's voice could be heard,

-Is there anything you want to say?

"You are someone who places importance on rules."

-I don't take them lightly for sure.

"In a moment, the Han Maru down there will die."

-Yes, that will happen.

He scratched his eyebrows. It was a habit that I hadn't seen him do for a long time.

"I think that's a little unfair."

-Unfair?

"I did not participate in this game of my own will. I just somehow ended up joining this game. And I'm an independent being from the person living down there. Also, I'm the result of the continued pains of an individual, not the result of a contract like Ms. Han Haneul over here. Isn't that right?"

God's laughter could be heard.

-That's definitely true.

"That laughter must mean that you know what I'm about to say, right?"

-I am not omnipotent nor omniscient, but I'm quite good. Also, I have waited for this moment to arrive, for someone that appeared outside of my cognition to say something beyond my expectations.

"But you already foresaw this."

-That halved the fun, but it doesn't matter. I enjoyed it more than enough.

He stood in front of me and spoke,

"Price and compensation. The value of life is one life. God, can you save the life of the man dying below with my own?"

Chapter 1023
Han Haneul

I was unable to say anything. What was this man saying? He wants to save his own life in exchange for his own?

-I have foreseen this ever since your consciousness had taken root. You must have thought about it endlessly, about the reason, the value, the purpose of your existence. You are a fully-fledged human. You know joy, and you know sadness. You must also know the fear that death will bring you. Yet, you still used your own life as a betting chip, and that must be for your physical body below. You have judged that making Han Maru down there live is more beneficial for you. Truly, a calculative answer.

"As you say, I'm afraid of dying. However, I am destined to end once the Han Maru down there meets his death."

-You may also live on as a soul for eternity in this place.

"You should already know that that is an even more terrifying punishment. No matter how hard I thought, there was only one answer. The physical body, with which you can feel the density of life, is very important. Rather than I, who will wander for all eternity without aim as a soul, I feel that Han Maru down there is closer to the essence, as someone with a physical body. If a dummy could sacrifice himself for the original, it's not a bad deal."

-You might be the most similar to the Han Maru who experienced his first death a long time ago. The man dying down there might be an empty shell instead. Isn't it a waste to just disappear like this?

I looked at him, who stayed quiet. He nodded as though to ruminate on God's question before putting on a faint smile.

"I cannot embrace the one I love. I cannot go traveling with the child that will be born. It is also impossible for me to earn money for the sake of my family. However, that fellow down there can do all that, as he has a physical body. Rather than the uniqueness of the psyche, the existence of the bones and flesh is more important. And also, I'm okay since I have faith that the person down there will do well. I believe in the man named Han Maru."

-I understand. I accept your request.

The moment their conversation ended, I interrupted. I looked at him right next to me and spoke,

"Do you even know what you're saying right now?"

"I understand perfectly."

"No, you don't understand at all. If you die here, it'll be over. There will be no next time. You will disappear for good."

"That might be for the better."

He approached me, his expression tranquil. It felt like the sense of pain I had forgotten about had come back to me. My head ached, and my breath was stifled. Whether it was my husband down there or the man over here, they were both Han Maru. I wanted to grab this man's collars, who spoke so easily as though he was spitting out what he had calculated. I wanted to tell him not to give up, that there will be another way.

"This is for the best," he said as though he read my heart.

I felt perplexed. My husband will supposedly live on if he gives up on his life. God allowed that, so it will probably come true. Then was everything okay now? Should I be happy since ultimately, he would survive?

He hugged me gently.

"Once this is over, you will lose all memories. You remember the promise that your memories will be erased, right? You'll forget about the lonely and cruel time you spent here, and you can live on in that world. You can meet Maru, fall in love, sometimes quarrel, and get married and meet the lovely Gaeul with her round eyes again."

"What about you then?"

"Well, I'll just be forgotten. Someone who is never remembered becomes someone who never existed in the first place. I guess I should be thankful that people forget."

"I can't do that."

"Just having you say that to me is plenty of a reward for me. We must end this damned game here. If we cannot end it while we still can, the only thing that will remain is regret."

I struggled and tried to escape his embrace. This wasn't the kind of ending I wanted. However, he did not let go. I could feel his resolution through his body. It was his firm will to seek death. God spoke,

-There's a famous saying that goes: you must listen to people until the end. This goes for us as well.

He, who was waiting for his death, asked what that meant.

-I will let Han Maru who will die in this life survive. But do you remember the rules I set for this game? There are only three ways to end this game: Han Maru's suicide, Han Haneul's suicide, or lastly, the two of them living their own lives without getting bound together. If I want to let Han Maru live on as you wish, we must continue this game. Those are the rules after all.

He, who was embracing me strongly, suddenly lost all power. I turned around to look at the place God's voice was coming from. It was the empty blue sky, but God was definitely there.

"Are you really a God? Why are you so filled with malice?"

-I'd like to ask back a question instead. Why must God be good? Why do you people try to judge me using the standard of good you have come up with? The good you created, the morals, laws… Haven't I told you that those were all created for your own convenience? What you should have done is ask me first: what is God's definition of good? Then, I would have responded as such: that the foundation of good is keeping promises. I cannot end the game after having bent the rules. If Han Maru is returned to life, the last game will continue. I guess you can say it like this. Using up your own life allowed him to gain another opportunity.

I was reminded of an innocent child pulling out the leg of an insect with a smile on their face. Was God like that child? Someone who pursues enjoyment of the situation without any malice? It might be hell for the insect, but it must be a fresh experience for the child ripping off their leg.

-I respect your decisions. Either you end the game here and live your respective lies, or you get another opportunity with your life as the price.

"Opportunity? What opportunity? You want us to play this repetitive game again?"

-Don't you all say, never say never? You might finally be able to arrive at a conclusion where you two are not bound. It might be related to probability after all. If you think about the failures you have made until now, things might go well this time.

"You are a terrible god," I shouted to God.

God replied instantly. His voice was without any ups and downs, but it sounded like mockery to me.

-Do you know what everyone thinks when they participate in a gamble? They know that people have lost their money, their livelihood, and even their lives, but they all think that they are different from the others. I will not fail, I will be able to stop even if I lose a little bit. When I first gave you the opportunity, you thought the same. You thought that you'll be different, that your husband will be different. It is very unjust of you to blame me just because you did not get your desired result.

"Are you trying to say that it's my fault? That my decision was wrong from the beginning?"

-You cannot call it wrong. You just pursued the victory that only an extreme minority can achieve. I cherish the humans who put in effort. However, just because I cherish them doesn't mean I can give them special treatment, does it?

"Let me ask you one thing. How many people have achieved a happy ending?"

-Please, define your happy ending.

"A life where both of them live on ordinarily."

-If you're talking about living on while forgetting about one another, then it's not small. One in a hundred?

"How about the probability of finishing your life with your loved one?"

-There have been a few if I have to count.

The words 'a few' made my vision blank. How many humans have lived and died under God? Probably more than the grains of sand on a beach. And yet, there have been a 'few'. Didn't that mean infinitely close to zero?

-Has it finally hit you that you may not be the protagonist? But what can you do about it? The game has begun, and a game that has begun must meet an end.

"Do you enjoy yourself more as the agony I feel increases?"

-Please, don't make me out to be so evil. I love you all. Just as you put all your efforts into those around you, I also feel affection for you all. If I hated you and wanted to be away from you, you would not have been created in the first place. The fact that you were made means that there was love involved. Of course, I'm not saying that I created you. I was involved to an extent though.

I stopped talking with God and looked at the man standing next to me. He was glaring at the world below ever since he heard God's words that the game would not be over even if Han Maru lived on. He didn't look like he gave up or was despairing. He was probably thinking about the way to escape this game even now.

I looked at my husband and Han Haneul standing in front of the traffic lights. Not too far away was the car that Kang Giwoo was on. Once the world began moving, the car would crash straight into my husband. There would be a sharp scream, followed by blood filling the crevices of the rough surface of the asphalt.

It was an inevitable future. Even if my husband was brought back to life, unless this game was over, it would happen again. I looked at the one next to me, who was still contemplating. He offered a suggestion, and God accepted. I also grabbed his hand and that was how this game began. God was a merchant and a gambler who loved compromises.

I thought of a solution. I did not know if this was the right answer. It might be a foolish deed. But, it should be better than doing nothing.

Just then, I heard God's laughter.

-Go on. I am ready to listen.

It seemed that God had already foreseen this. I smiled at the man who was looking at me with unease. He grabbed my hand. He must have instinctively felt what I was about to do. It wasn't surprising. We were a married couple who had been together for a time too long to measure. I grabbed his right hand with both of my hands. Then I raised my head up to God.

"You said you can bring Han Maru to life with this person's life, didn't you?"

-I did.

"Then what about me? What is my life worth?"

-Just as much.

God laughed, his laughter not dying down. The laughter mixed in his words sounded freaky.

-Tell me. What is it that you want?

"I want to end this game."

-I know. Everyone was like that. What's important is this: what will you substitute with your own life?

"Is it insufficient to end this game?"

-The value of one life is one life. The game is a separate matter. The man next to you saved the life of Han Maru down there with his own life. It's an exchange of equal values. I'm more than ready to accept this kind of negotiation. However, wanting to end this game in exchange for your life does not fit in accordance with the rules.

"I see."

I knew that already. I only mentioned it just in case.

-Now tell me what you were going to tell me. I am waiting.

God truly knew everything. Just as I was about to say what was on my mind, he grabbed my hand strongly. I was dragged by his strength to look at him.

"What are you trying to say?"

He looked at me nervously. He was worrying about me even when he had put his own life on the line. I couldn't hate him. I wanted to be with him forever. I stroked his cheek.

"Let us get some rest. Both you and I have lived for too long. Looking back at things now, I can't even be called a human anymore. Did you know? When I was watching your, no, my husband's life down there, I sometimes thought that one life was no good and that he'd be better off starting over after dying. The scary thing is that that came to my mind without any feeling of rejection at all. I have become numb to both death and life."

"You can't help it."

"Yes, I can't help it. So I want to just rest now."

"Your memories will be erased once this game ends. You can regain your freedom."

"Even if I do, it will be a world without you. I don't have any interest in a world without Han Maru. Above all, even if my memories get erased, it doesn't mean that what happened will disappear as well. You said that it will disappear along with memories, but I think differently."

"Honey, don't do this."

I grabbed his head, as he shook his head, and slowly pulled him towards me. It was a light kiss. It felt like the sensation of my first kiss, which I could barely even remember, was coming back to me.

"You're so ignorant of me. Why do you keep wanting to go somewhere by yourself? You have to go with me. Even if you say you're fed up with me, you have no choice. That's how I'll have it."

I hinted to him with my eyes just as he was about to speak again: leave it to me. He closed his mouth. I thanked him and faced God again.

"You said the value of one life is one life, right?"

-Yes, I did.

"If it's possible to bring one to life in exchange for a life, is the opposite possible?"

-It is. However, I'll have to check it through, if I think it is unjust.

"It shouldn't be an unjust offer. No one's getting hurt."

My eyes went dark. God was appearing. The darkness that dragged down my husband as he searched for me in his dreams pervaded the surroundings. The man next to me had disappeared as well. I realized that this was a space that belonged to neither life nor death.

A black rabbit appeared in front of my eyes, wearing a tuxedo and a hat, and holding a pocket watch. He hopped towards me. I instantly realized that it was God.

"Are you mocking me?"

-Of course not. I only changed form since I will be leading you into a land of wonders as well, and I thought that this wasn't bad, just like why you appeared in front of your husband in this form.

The pitch-black rabbit twitched its nose and continued speaking. I calmed my agitation. I was fed up with being toyed with God's pranks.

-Then please continue, about the value of your one life.

I nodded.

"There is something I wish to take away in exchange for my life."

-And what may that be?

"You must know it already.”

-The predetermined future is not the determined future. It is only determined when you say it through your mouth. So tell me. Tell me your proposal.

“In exchange for my life…”

I thought about my husband’s face. He would come back from the company all exhausted and would sit on the sofa, but when our daughter stumbled her way to him, he would smile. I recalled his face, shyly giving me the house document, saying that it’ll be the house we’ll live in in the future. I recalled his face all red as he offered me the wedding ring, asking me to marry him. I recalled his face, shyly asking me to go out with him a long time before that.

“I want you to erase Han Haneul from my husband’s memories. I want to take my own name away in exchange for my life. That is my proposal.”

-Let me summarize. You wish to take away — in other words, erase — the name Han Haneul inside Han Maru’s memories in exchange for your life. And in exchange for the man’s life, the life of the living Han Maru will be brought back.

Yes, I replied.

“Then the game will begin again, right?”

-Yes, it will.

“And I will disappear from that person’s memories.”

-Yes.

“Then nothing will happen between the two of them.”

-That’s how it will go.

“What happens to the game?”

-It’s the happy ending you wished for.

I looked into the rabbit’s pitch-black eyes.

“You are a terrible God.”

-I hear that a lot.

The darkness was lifted. The silent world with halted time was under my feet again. I looked at my right hand. I was holding hands with him. Even as God severed me from the world, I was connected to him.

“It’s all over now,” I said with a smile.

He was crying. He was crying out loud like a child. I hugged his neck. I wanted to cry, but I didn’t know how to cry. He seemed to be crying my share as well.

“You should have lived on,” he said.

“I’m too afraid to do so by myself. So stay by my side.”

I wiped his tears with my hand. It was hot enough to burn. I looked behind me. God, in the figure of a rabbit, was watching us.

“What happens to us now?”

-If there’s a beginning, there’s an end.

“I at least hope we go to a world where we don’t have to be sad anymore. No, I guess we won’t be able to feel anything, will we?”

-That is what it means to disappear.

I breathed out slowly. As long as his warmth was with me, I wasn’t afraid of disappearing.

-You should say goodbye for one last time.

I raised my head up to look at him.

“If there’s a next time, let us be strangers.”

He replied,

“If such a day comes, I will look for you again. You will tell me that I’m foolish. But I can’t help it. People just want to have good things by their side.”

I smiled and hugged him strongly.

I will also participate in that foolish deed.

-I’m not such a cruel God. I will keep my promise that this is the last time. The game is over. Han Maru’s reincarnations are over as well. There will be no memories of reincarnation, including anything about Han Haneul. Everything will become a dream. He’ll just become an ordinary youth.

God’s voice faded away. Darkness pervaded. I opened my eyes at the last moment. However, I couldn’t see anything. That was fine. I could still feel with my whole body that I was embracing him.

“I want to eat the doenjang-jjigae you cooked for me,” he said.

“Go grocery shopping once you wake up. I’ll cook for you,” I said.

Then everything disappeared.

Chapter 1024
Life, Once Again! + Afterword

It was an awful dream where he died in a car crash. Han Maru got out of bed and went to the living room. He put some water in the kettle. As soon as the water started boiling, the cat, which was lying on the bed, walked over. Maru petted its head. When the cat first came to this house, it was wary against him and hid behind the sofa all the time, but now, it had become close to him to the point that it would follow him if he called out to it. His friends called it a dog-cat.

He put a corn silk teabag in a mug and poured some hot water. The fragrance was quite good. He sat on the sofa with the cat by his side. He also turned on the TV. He watched the TV in a daze for a while before chuckling. The dream was quite vivid. Usually, the majority of the dream would vaporize a minute after waking up, leaving behind a faint impression, but this time, he could remember it to the point that he could make it into a book.

"Me, an actor, pfft."

It was absurd. He never wanted to be an actor, nor dreamt of it, but he was an actor in his dream. Not only that, he was a promising actor just about to achieve success.

Maru sipped on his tea for a while before putting down the cup and standing up. He glanced at the cat staring at him before warming up his throat and speaking. What he said was a line from a play from his dream. It was so vivid that he could remember it word for word. He recited the lines like he was giving a speech before chuckling. He never learned any of this, but he could say it without missing a beat. It was quite interesting.

"Reincarnation itself is unbelievable."

A life that repeats dozens of times? It seemed that the time slip film he had seen a few days ago had influenced his subconscious. Everybody wanted to reincarnate, but the reincarnation he saw in his dream was no different from punishment. Repeating a life hundreds, or even more times without even being aware of it? That sounded terrifying.

"Hey, Ricebun, do you do things like reincarnation too? I heard that cats have nine lives."

He lifted the cat up in the air. The docile cat suddenly struggled and left his arms. It liked his petting, but it would always walk away if he didn't do what it liked. Maru did not leave the sofa for a while. It was because of his dream. The dream left behind such big lingering feelings.

He looked at the clock. Although it was the weekend, he didn't have any appointments or anything to do. He needed to go jogging, but the dream lingering in front of his eyes tugged at his mind. He sat down at the dining table with a notebook and a pen that he didn't even use that much after buying it. He wrote the first paragraph of the dream on the first page, about the things that happened immediately after being reincarnated into a high school student. He was a man who struggled to live every day under the agony of unease about the future. He quite liked it. He would've done the same.

The reason the dream felt so real was probably that the characters in it were based on people in real life. He saw a bunch of people he knew. Daemyung, who he still kept in touch with until this day, appeared in it as well. In the dream, Daemyung became an aspiring writer. This guy would probably tilt his head in confusion if he heard this since he was working at a shipyard. Dowook and Dojin appeared as well. However, he couldn't exactly call them friends, since he hadn't kept in touch after high school.

"Me knowing Kim Suyeon's secret is a bit too far-fetched. It's also funny to think that I'm like brothers with Yang Ganghwan and Hong Geunsoo."

They were popular actors in reality, so they probably appeared as popular actors in his dream as well. That was probably the extent of his imagination. Ultimately, dreams were also just a twist on reality. He was a little happy that he was confessed to by a girl named Yuna. He would've accepted if such a cute girl confessed to him. However, that girl shouldn't exist in reality. His preferences were probably reflected in the dream after all. Chaerim was an actual idol, so he wasn't that impressed.

As he was writing like he was reflecting on a Go match, his hand stopped. Maru let go of his pen and crossed his arms.

"Who is this she?"

She. Maru looked at the 'she' written at the end of what he wrote. She was a very important figure. All of the principles behind his actions after he reincarnated were based on her. The reason he also chose acting was to find her, and the reason he was worried about the future was because of his life with her.

But the most important question, 'who' she was, was something he could not answer, whether it was her name, her appearance, or her preferences. Even though he must have talked to her numerous times and shared both the joys and sorrows, there was a mosaic over her face. Even though he could remember everyone else clearly enough to sketch their faces.

He tapped the pen on the notebook before looking at the TV. A drama featuring Ahn Joohyun was airing again. He chuckled once again. He was quite close to her too.

Maru shook his head and stood up. It was all a dream anyway. It was strangely vivid in his memory, but it would ultimately disappear. It was weird to hold onto it. Just as he closed the pen lid and the book, the word 'she' pierced his eyes. He chuckled once again.

"Yeah, it's not like I have anything better to do."

If he told any of his friends about this, they might tell him that he was delusional. They might even tell him to please start dating someone. However, Maru had no intentions of dating anyone. He didn't even dream about getting married. He liked living by himself. Whenever he was bored, he would even go around telling people that not getting married would become a trend soon. It wasn't that he physiologically disliked women. Just like in the dream, he would feel happy and excited if he was confessed to and would stop scrolling and scroll back if he found a photo of a pretty celebrity on the internet. However, for some strange reason, he never had the impulse to start dating anyone seriously. He was probably afraid of taking responsibility. It was a tough world to live in, even by oneself, after all. He was probably subconsciously feeling a huge burden from the fact that he would have to accept another, completely different, person's life and be with them.

Yet, for some reason, he couldn't take his eyes off the word 'she.' It was strange that he was so concerned about this person who was shrouded in darkness and he couldn't even see. Perhaps it was because the dream felt so realistic.

He thought about her for a long time. However, the more he thought, the more mysterious she became. Maru slapped his cheeks and closed the notebook. Rather than minding about useless things, it was better to go do some exercise.

He changed into a jersey and left his house. The weekend weather in June was perfect for a jog. He put earbuds in his ears and started running in the park near Han river. Just as he sped up after running past a couple who was walking their dog, Maru heaved deep breaths and stopped running. People sitting on the bench on the opposite side entered his eyes. They were a couple of girls, seemingly a college student and a middle school student. They were talking while drinking. They were probably good sisters. The reason he thought ‘sisters’ out of all the other relationships there could be was because of his dream. They were people he saw in his dream. They were unrealistically identical. Yuna and Bitna.

Maru took out his earphones from his ears. This was the time to be rational. This didn’t make any sense. Just because girls he saw in his dream appeared in front of his eyes doesn’t mean that he could just go up to them and talk to them like he was close. That would be crazy. This must be a product of coincidence, or that phenomenon called déjà vu. Some kind of neurological error must have occurred. He just had to ignore this and resume running. The normal thing to do in this situation was to turn on the music again, calm his breathing, and walk away.

However, his knees were already pointing toward the sisters. Maru walked over to that side and inwardly shouted: Are you crazy? What are you going to do there? While reason and his physical body struggled to gain control, he already arrived in front of them. Yuna, no, the college girl stared at him. She looked wary. That was natural. A heavily-breathing man was staring at him.

“What is it?” the college girl asked.

Maru was unable to say anything. Something crazy like ‘you look like someone I saw in my dream’ was hard to say. The college girl immediately responded. She grabbed the hand of the girl next to her and stood up. Maru made way for them. It looked like they would call the police on him if he blocked them.

“Unni?”

“Let’s go, Bitna.”

Their voices hit his ears. Maru turned around and spoke subconsciously,

“Do you happen to be named Yuna?”

“Who are you?” the college girl said.

Maru felt even more chaotic. He apologized before turning around. It was unbelievable. This was way too surprising for it to be a coincidence. He shook off their stares and entered a public bathroom. Maru saw that his face had become pale.

He washed his face with some cold water. He had a splitting headache. ‘She’ - that word became a nail and poked his brain. Maru clutched his head with both of his hands. A middle-aged man nearby even asked him if he was okay.

“I’m okay.”

The pain didn’t last long. It disappeared like a lie. He calmed his breathing and left. The college girl had disappeared. Maru immediately returned home. Something was strange. For everything to be a coincidence, the accuracy was freaky. Not only did they have the same looks, but they also had the same names too.

Maru took out his phone and looked up ‘Twilight Struggles’. In his dream, he even appeared in it, but in reality, he had only vaguely heard the title. He didn’t know what it was about, nor who was acting in it. He looked up the information on the internet.

“No way.”

From the main cast to the content of the movie, everything was identical to what he saw in his dream, except for the fact that he wasn’t in it. Did God give him a prophecy? Feeling excitement and fright at the same time, he looked up the dramas this time. He pressed the search button, and a moment later, the page changed.

Maru let out a chuckle. He couldn’t find it. He suddenly lost all strength. Now that he thought about it, he was unable to confirm whether the college girl was ‘Yuna’ or not. He might have been overreacting at the name ‘Bitna’. While it was clear, it was ultimately still a dream. A person’s face had two eyes, one nose, and one mouth, so he might have overwritten the face he saw in his dreams in reality. He was no kid, and yet he committed such a shameful deed because of his delusional excitement. He felt sorry for the college student who must have been startled.

Maru opened the notebook. He ripped out the part he wrote ‘she’ and threw it in the trash. The dream would disappear after about a day anyway. As proof of that, his dream was becoming faint. His brain had finally started to function properly.

She? A girlfriend? He said with a sigh and went to the bathroom.

* * *

“Haneul, good work today. Have a safe trip home.”

“Yes, manager.”

Han Haneul opened the door and left the café. It had been a month since she started working a part-time job, and she had gotten used to it now. She took a sip of the strawberry juice that she was given and took out her phone. She opened the banking app that she placed in the middle of her phone screen. She took a step and inputted her passcode. The cute bank mascot appeared on the screen for a brief moment before disappearing. She quickly checked the remaining balance.

“Looks like I’ll be doing part-time jobs the whole holiday.”

She was planning on working part-time for three months. She was already given a promise that her shifts would move to the weekends once the new semester began. If she thought about her student loans, she couldn’t idle around even if it was the holidays. She wanted to go traveling as well, but she didn’t want to say sorry to her future self.

The sun was pleasant today. Perhaps she was feeling better because her remaining balance had increased a little. She looked at the juice that had decreased by about half in pity before stopping in front of a clothing store. There was a big banner saying ‘clearance sale.’ She approached a clothes hanger in front of the store while looking at the paper that said ‘no card accepted, no returns accepted.’ Clothes that were out of season were hung up pitifully. Still, they were worth browsing through since they were cheap. Perhaps she might find a treasure too.

Just as she was browsing through the clothes, a man walked past her. He was a man who had a black hoodie on. He didn’t have any attractive features, but she was strangely drawn to him.

“Don’t touch the clothes too much,” said the store lady.

Haneul bowed to her and got away from the hanger. She had already lost all interest in the clothes. Her mind was filled with the man walking in front of her.

Were the winds of love finally blowing? Haneul had never taken interest in men throughout college, no, even before that. During high school, when her friends stayed up the night talking about their love stories, Haneul just chimed along and didn’t say anything. She was given a few offers for group mixers, but she always refused. Now that she was in her 3rd year, her personality was widely known and no one invited her to things like that anymore. She wasn’t doing any extracurricular activities, nor did she participate in any events, so she had never met any man, but even if she did, there was no way she would take an interest. That was the kind of girl she was after all.

Haneul turned around slightly. The man walking in front of her suddenly stopped in front of an elderly woman selling pumpkins. The man smiled and bought the pumpkins. For some reason, the scene was pleasing to look at. Haneul kept following the man. Midway, she was wondering what she was up to, but her steps never stopped.

The man stopped in the middle of the street. He was next to a lamp post with posters about musicals. The man looked at the poster in a daze. Perhaps he had a relation to the musical. Usually, she would have turned around and left at this point. No, in the first place, she would not have done something like following a stranger. She wondered what led her here.

As she was staring at him, the man turned around. Thanks to that, they made eye contact. She was staring at him so intensely that she couldn’t deny that she wasn’t looking at him. Now, she had to turn her eyes away after coughing awkwardly. However, her neck did not move. It was hard to avoid that man’s gaze. To be precise, she didn’t want to avoid his eyes.

The man also did not turn his eyes away. As though there would be big trouble if he did so, or he froze on the spot, the man also looked straight at Haneul.

Cars went by. People walked by. A cool breeze visited before leaving, and some music from some store tickled her ears. It was an ordinary street, a mundane everyday life without anything special. However, something changed the moment the man entered her eyes.

Haneul blinked. There was a black rabbit right in front of her. Before she could even question why such a thing would be here, the rabbit disappeared. It just vanished like magic. Then, a voice echoed in her ears,

“You two are tied in a fate stronger than any other and it gives me joy to watch you.”

Haneul was startled and blocked her ears before taking her hands off. Was she hearing things? Meanwhile, the man approached her.

“Are you okay?”

“Eh? Oh. Yes.”

The man did not say anything. Like that, 10 seconds passed. The man spoke again,

“Well, then.”

The man walked past her. What was that? What was that long exchange of gazes? What was that voice? And what was this stifling sensation? She turned around. The man was walking with his eyes glued to the ground.

Haneul had a feeling that he would turn around and grab her. Just like how it happened hundreds, thousands, and tens of thousands of times. It was strange. She should have met him for the first time today.

While she was thinking, the man became even more distant. Haneul sighed. Perhaps she was tired. While she was taking deep breaths, the man disappeared from her eyes completely. Get yourself together, Han Haneul. It seemed that she was not like herself for a bit. She turned around towards her house. She thought she should hum to change things up a little.

She took one step and started humming. One step, another step. She walked for quite a bit before looking down at her hand. It felt empty. Her hand was supposed to be tightly holding onto something. Something warm and gentle.

Her body was already running by the time she realized. She was running in the direction the man disappeared in with all of her might. While running, her phone dropped from her pocket. The phone slid on the floor and the LCD cracked. She even saw a passerby pick it up. She could just go and receive it from him, but she went forward instead.

“Miss!”

She ignored the passerby’s call and ran. She would miss him if she delayed any longer. She turned around at the alleyway. She saw the man climbing a low hill. Haneul ran. She suppressed her heavy breathing and decreased her distance from him. This time, I’ll be the one, not you.

She reached out. She grabbed the man’s hand. The man was startled and turned around. Only then was Haneul able to smile.

“Is there something?” the man asked.

Haneul nodded. There was something. There had to be something. There were countless things between him and her.

“Han Maru,” Haneul said.

The man’s eyes widened. It was due to surprise rather than warm feelings.

“Do you know me?”

“I do.”

“What?”

“I know you all too well. That’s why I’m going to start first this time. You always reached out to me first.”

“What are you…”

“Don’t you get it? Then let me tell you.”

Haneul pulled him in by the neck. The familiar sensation and smell came over her. She put her lips against his lightly. It was a signal that signified the beginning. Not the start of another end, but a true, new beginning.

After a short kiss, she took a step back.

“Do you get it now?” Haneul asked.

Instead of responding, he put his lips against hers. The second kiss was neither short nor long. The man lowered his head and whispered,

“I get that my life has finally begun,” said the man.

Haneul grabbed his hand with a smile. His hand was still warm.

-Fin

KTLChamber's Thoughts

Author's afterword

(Translator’s note: Some of what’s written below concerns when the author serialized this series in Joara way back in the day (2014-2017). I’m not too knowledgeable about this either, but I will use the notation T/N to explain when I can)

I finally finished my novel where I wanted to talk about everything I wanted to.It took a long time. An extremely long time.

I’ve announced more than a dozen times that I’m writing however I want, and even put it in a notice post, so I’m grateful towards the readers who followed me all the way here despite that.

Once the ending goes up, there might be people grumbling about what kind of ending it is, and some might congratulate me for finishing it. They are all grateful people.

* * *

< Life, Once Again! > is something I started to write thinking that I should point at every single character the camera and the mic. That was why, I never planned to release it as a book, nor even go premium. The reason I refused to go against everyone’s wishes, is because I can only write it here. It’s because I have so many things to write. When I was talking to my editor before, I said this too. That I could’ve chopped out 500 chapters. No, I could have chopped out 800 chapters and still have a complete story. If I cut out building another character; their psychology, and the events that occur due to it, the story would just be about Han Maru, the protagonist. But I did not start out this writing to write that kind of story. Thanks to that, I’ve announced numerous times through the author's thoughts section and the notices – that this is just that kind of writing.

If I wanted to write about the success story of Han Maru, then I would’ve made him debut around chapter 10. By chapter 50, he would’ve shot a great film, and become a famous star by chapter 100. Then, I would see how things go and shoot a few more films before ending the story there. But that’s no fun for me. I wasn’t going to write a compact story like my previous work (T/N: < Human face mask >: Mature novel with 108 chapters), and since I was writing in Noblesse (T/N: Basically a free-for-all writing section in the Korean platform Joara), so I decided to write however I want. I was greatly blessed to be able to profit off of it. It’s thanks to you all.

It’s a kind of writing I can never write in a pay-per-chapter based system, and a book that might have an early rushed ending after being forced to quit after the 4th volume. It was something I wrote here only because I could write here. Maru and her, I really enjoyed myself as I wrote the story of the two. If I didn’t, I wouldn't have been able to do it. Of course, I can’t deny the fact that the series also took care of my rent. It was fun, and it even took care of my living expenses? It was the cherry on top of the cake.

I’m sure many of you wanted Maru’s success story. I’m sure those people are left disappointed. (Of course, in my point of view, Maru was very successful. Extremely successful, in fact. No wait, in the first place, he’s a guy who had his success set in stone) But what can I do? That’s just the kind of writing that I started writing. Give me more Maru, less side characters, make him successful, do this, do that, oh, and there was a lot of ‘kill Kang Giwoo’ recently too.

To tell you the truth here, none of what you said in the comments probably happened. You readers cursing me and leaving is something that’s inevitable for me. I do not have the foolish thought that I will satisfy everyone that reads this writing. I’m just grateful to those that have similar preferences to me and read it.

There were many people who left behind curses in the comments and even dm’ed me about complaints. I read through every single one of them and erased it from memory. I know as well. I feel the same when I read other novels. I just don’t bother to express it because I’m at the peak of laziness, but I swear at a lot of other authors too. That’s why I don’t really retort (unless there’s an obvious error), and just ignore it.

I believe that the readers are entitled to do so. Grab a bite, taste it, and rip it apart. I said it multiple times before. I welcome respectful quarrels. But none of them have affected my writing so far. In fact, comments like ‘I had whatever food today and it was really good’ affects me even more. I might end up subconsciously feeding the character that food.

Thanks for sticking with a writer who won’t listen to feedback at all until now. I love you all.

I have written the ending I’ve been thinking about all this time, and I’m very satisfied with it.

Once again, I thank everyone who has hung out with me this far and complete my afterword here.

I should really shorten my next writing. I’ve written something I want to my heart’s content, and it sure is quite exhausting.

To finish things off, I’ll write what has been my top announcement for years.

I know how to enroll into a prestigious university.

I know how to become a lawyer.

I know how to become a doctor.

The same goes for every one of you as well.

However, not many people do end up achieving those things, even though they know how to.

Isn’t that life?

Isn’t that what life is about?

I’m always happy when reading comments. Meeting someone different from me is a journey in itself.

* * *

Finished novels: Human Face mask.

And now.

Life, Once Again!

Thank you all.

There you have it. That's the end of the main story. How do you feel? I personally feel rather bittersweet, but more bitter than sweet. (< Angel Beats! > vibe, anyone?)

Why? Because of the side characters of course.

We never got to see how Ando and Sora turned out, and it seems that Daemyung and Jiyoon never became a couple in this timeline. Which makes me worried, since considering Maru's scope of relationships in this new timeline (i.e. Daemyung being the only friend he's still in touch with), for all we know, Dojin x Iseul pairing, Miso x Taesik pairing, and even Geunsoo X Suyeon pairing (am I missing anyone? Heewon x Chaerim maybe?) might have changed, or disappeared outright since in the previous life, Maru was quite influential in getting them together.

I mean, you can't expect me to not feel disappointed after all that effort author put into the side characters now, can you…?

Heck, there's acting too. After all those great acting scenes, it seems like Maru's no longer an actor?

Well, that was my impression of the main stories. I have been told that "everything will be made up for in the side stories", so who knows? Maybe hold on for a little before giving negative reviews…?

Hope I see you there!

Editor's Note:

Welp. Gave me Your Name vibes honestly. I hope God keeps his promise and makes this the final reincarnation. If you have been following my thoughts through this novel, you'll know that I am a great enjoyed of fluff, so this ending is quite a disappointment. It is a 'happy' ending per se, but I am extremely disappointed in the fact that I never got to see Suyeon X Geunsoo. Oh well. Thanks to everyone who read up to this point. I hope the side stories have fluff. Oh yea, I NEVER GOT TO SEE MARU BECOME FAMOUS. I ACTUALLY JINXED MYSELF.

After Story 1

-It’s a dream? No. This is reality. The clear hard truth. Don’t turn your head away. Don’t ignore it. You haven’t gone crazy. Listen to me. You are someone who traveled through time…

A character in a drama was uttering the line with a serious face. Just then, someone pressed the doorbell. He reduced the volume and went to the front door.

“You have a package,” someone said outside.

When he opened the door, he saw the delivery man with an exhausted face.

“It’s quite hot, isn’t it?” he said. It was June, and the heat was at an all-time high.

The delivery man just chuckled. He accepted the package and told the delivery man to wait. He went to the fridge and took out some cold drinks.

“Have some of this.”

“Thank you.” He closed the door and returned inside before putting the box on the table. He opened the box to find books, packaged in vinyl wrap. Three books, one essay, and one fiction. He looked at the titles.

“‘Habits of Those Who Succeed’, ‘Is Life Really a Marathon?’, ‘Miracle Created By Rules’, I bought these things, huh.” He thought about returning them but decided to leave them be for now. They should be fine to read as a pass-time. The essay and the novel were to his liking too.

The three books went straight to the shelf without even having their packaging open, while he placed the essay and the novel below the table.

‘Ricebun,’ full of curiosity, slowly walked over and slapped down on the book. When there was no response, the proud cat lost interest and turned around.

He increased the TV volume again and started cleaning. This house really wasn’t to his liking. All sorts of miscellaneous items were making his eyes spin. He decided that he would throw all of them away. The famous sayings plastered on the wall got on his nerves especially badly. Looking back at the memories of this life, ‘he’ only had a brief look at those sayings when he put them up on the wall and never actually looked at them after that. Yet, he still put up one line after another. Perhaps this was what it meant to say ‘I can’t understand myself.’

He also took off the lacy pink curtain that couldn’t even block out the sunlight. He couldn’t stand this at all. He then stuffed the curtain into a plastic bag and left the house to look for the old clothes collection box in the apartment complex. Thankfully, curtains were being taken as well.

Having dealt with the curtain, he immediately then went on to catch a bus. His destination was the local large-scale market.

“May I have a look at blinds in a gray color?”

“Please come this way.”

He walked past the couple that seemed to be buying furniture for their newlywed house and followed the employee. After seeing a few types of curtains, he chose one. He liked both the price and the color of it. He put the curtain in the cart and then headed to the grocery section on the 1st floor. He put the things he needed in the cart when it suddenly dawned on him that he didn’t exactly have that much money.

In this life, he was an extremely ordinary college student. Nothing special, nothing bad, just ordinary. He returned a few of the ingredients he put in the cart back on the shelf and looked for cheap food ingredients.

He managed to get what he needed at the discount corner. The messy room was one thing, but his thin wallet was an assignment he had to solve as well.

He returned to his house and gave Ricebun some food before continuing to clean. He gathered up all the fancy-looking decorative items and put them in a box. He couldn’t imagine why ‘he’ had bought so many sparkly marbles.

After finishing cleaning, he found four large boxes taking up a corner of his living room. He was going to sell them at a local bazaar or just hand them out through the apartment management office. If there was still some left after that, well, to the recycling they would go.

“Now it looks like someone’s been living here.” He was satisfied as he looked at the clean living room, kitchen and bedroom. He really wanted to change the freaky-looking wallpapers, but he decided to postpone it since it would take a lot of effort.

He then finally cleaned the bathroom. Hair treatment products that he had bought and hadn’t even used once were laying there pitifully, many of which were past their expiry date. Well, that just meant another trash bag.

After going through his entire house, the sun had set. Just as he thought he should have some ramyun for dinner, he got a call.

“How is it over there?” he asked on the phone.

-Don’t even start. I can’t believe that this is my room. No, well, I can understand it. It was me who did it after all. But it’s nowhere close to my preferences. Funny, isn’t it?

“I’m the same. I had a busy day taking everything down today.”

-Take a photo and send it to me.

He took a photo of the immaculate living room and kitchen and sent it to her.

-Didn’t you clean too much? The dolls were cute and okay.

“I know they’re cute, but they’re an eyesore in my eyes right now.”

-That looks totally desolate. Are you going to live with a single table in the living room again?

“I want to put a sofa here like before, but my economic status isn’t that good. I went grocery shopping, and who knew I would look at price tags again.”

-Haha, I was the same. I inadvertently visited a café on the way home and flinched, you know? There’s still a sense of discrepancy between the memories of the previous life and this life. It’s not confusing me though.

“Is your headache okay now?”

-Yep. All good.

He walked over to the veranda. A family inside a car was leaving the parking lot, as though they were going on a picnic to get away from the tropical night heat.

“How about you move in here?”

-I thought about that too, but I think I should live by myself for a while. I need to clean some things, and above all, I need some time to redefine myself.

“I guess you do. But still, it’s a bit of a pity.”

-Do you want to live with me that much?

“Yeah.”

She did not reply. Only after a long time did she laugh and speak again,

-You’re putting me in a tight spot here if you’re so direct.

“We barely managed to meet. I want to be with you even if it’s just a little. I don’t know what made God make us meet again, but I don’t want to part from you a second time now that we met.”

-I’m the same.

He stayed quiet and focused all of his senses on his ear. He could hear her faint breathing sound. Just like she was right next to him, she continued the pleasant silence for a while before starting to hum. It was a song he dearly missed. She spoke,

-Maru.

“Yes?”

-It won’t repeat again… right?

They were heavy words. He looked up at the sky and spoke, “Even if God does play tricks on us again, it will not change anything. I will look for you again, and you will look for me again. That’s all.”

-That puts me at ease.

She hung up after telling him to have a good dinner. He sat at the table and took out his notepad. Then, he wrote down what happened today, as well as all the conversations he had with her, down to the minor details.

He put down the pen and looked at the notepad for a while. He could see the writing that he wrote without stopping. Things like God’s power acting on him to prevent him from writing did not happen. He wrote other things, like the things he saw in his thousands and tens of thousands of reincarnations, which areas will skyrocket in land prices, which stock was good, and what the popular form of business was at this time. Likewise, he could write them down without being forced to stop.

“Not that any of these seem helpful.”

One of the companies considered a blue-chip stock in this life was actually caught for accounting fraud in his previous life, stopping all exchanges.

Perhaps because all the repeated lives were finally over, the surrounding environment had changed considerably. The various information inside his head didn’t seem like it was going to be useful.

Land prices were limited, so he could predict a few regions that might rise in price, but he didn’t have money in hand, so he couldn’t invest in any. He couldn’t get a loan as a college student to buy land, and even if that was possible, there was no telling that the land he bought would rise in price. Perhaps he should avoid products with large price fluctuations? He scratched his eyebrows.

He would buy lottery tickets if he could remember the numbers, but there was no way he would remember such a thing. Ever since realized that his life was being repeated, he wasn’t able to concern himself with such things because he had to solve the problem at hand.

After contemplating, he turned on his laptop. The world had changed in various ways, but there were many things that overlapped with his previous world. One of them was the entertainment industry. The events there were generally going in the same way as his previous life. Hong Geunsoo, Yang Ganghwan, and Kim Suyeon were affiliated with JA Production, which was run by president Lee Junmin. The three of them had already proven their skills in film, theater, and drama respectively, and they had become blue chips. He could also find the elder’s name on JA Production’s website: Yoon Moonjoong. He stared at that name for a long while before opening a web portal.

He could find Lee Heewon’s name as well. He still seemed to be a new actor as there were no articles that caught his eye. If he had the same acting skills as the previous life, he would soon attract the eyes of the public and become popular.

On the other hand, Ahn Joohyun was living a different life from their previous life. First, she didn’t have the title of the Queen of Commercials. However, thanks to having done numerous pieces without taking a break, she was accepted as one of the best actresses in the industry. From how she didn’t go through a period where she gathered money like crazy, this seemed to indicate that the coerced sexual service incident, which had shaken her life, had not happened.

Things seemed to be going similarly to the previous life, but the mainstream had taken a completely different form. The more he looked through the articles, the more he realized that the times had completely changed.

He looked for other people as well. As for Chaerim, she seemed to have chosen a completely different occupation as she didn’t show up even when he searched. The girl idol band ‘Blue’ didn’t exist either. One of the best idol groups in South Korea wasn’t even born in this era. She was very close to Gaeul, no, Haneul, so Maru wondered how it was in this life.

He looked at the screen filled up with articles about idols before moving his cursor again. During his few searches, he had already realized that the world he knew was already of the past and that the important thing was to maintain the relationships he had and develop them.

Looking back at memories and looking up names were meaningless. It would be ruminating on things that ‘did not happen’ in this life. He had to leave the past as things of the past. The chain of emotions from various incidents had all lost its meaning as well, so he had to shake everything off and focus on this life.

Despite knowing that, he still looked up two names:

Lee Miyoon

And

Kang Giwoo.

He put his chin on his hand and tried to cool off his rage as much as possible while looking up articles with their names. Just like in their previous life, Lee Miyoon was loved by the public as the godmother of the entertainment industry and as a mother figure of the whole population. Kang Giwoo was also receiving a lot of spotlight as a new actor with exceptional skills and splendid looks.

He looked at the bottom right corner of the monitor. June 2008. He realized that he was twenty-two and had just gotten discharged from the military.

He scratched his eyebrows and looked at the screen for a while before turning off the laptop. That was it. He had to stop looking up people from the past. He knew them, but they did not know him. The wrath, the disgust, the rage… everything was just an empty illusion.

He closed his eyes and blew away the things of the past inside his mind along with a deep sigh. He probably wouldn’t be able to erase them so easily. It wasn’t like they were easily forgettable things either. However, the clear truth was that he would have to greet them with a smile if he had to meet them again in this life.

“Not that I would ever meet them.”

He spoke to himself in order to shake off the iffy feelings in his heart. The cat, which was sleeping on top of the chair, flinched and looked at him. Has my master finally gone crazy now? — was the expression on its face.

He smiled and tickled the cat’s head. He liked dogs, but cats weren’t so bad either. The only downside was that they didn’t fawn, but he couldn’t expect much from a proud fellow.

June 17th. He brought a pen and put a mark on the calendar. He didn’t usually celebrate big occasions, but today was something he had to record and remember.

It was the day his ‘first life’ began, after having escaped the repetitions after all.

After Story 2

After eating a late dinner, he took out a can of beer from the fridge. This was the only luxury expense he liked about ‘him.’ Walking past the cat that looked at him strangely, he walked onto the veranda. It was blazing hot during the day, but now that the sun had set, it was just sweltering hot. Taking a sip of the beer, he ate some of the dried anchovies that came along with it. Thanks to the refreshing beer, there was a smile on his face.

“Now, what do I do about college…,” he muttered as he looked at the apartment complex on the other side. Now that he had finished cleaning his house, it was time to plan the future.

The Han Maru of this life walked on the path that most people walked on, not too fast, nor too slow. He just studied moderately and struggled with textbooks during exam season, and as a result of that, he managed to enroll in Daesan university near Seoul. His major was economics. It wasn’t that he had a grand dream of becoming an economics expert, he just looked for whatever college he could go to with his scores, and that ended up being economics.

He placed the can on his forehead. Just thinking about it made him have a headache. To scold himself for going to college without aim, such a lifestyle was too widespread within the country. Everyone lived like that, so he just went with it. It was nothing to be guilty about.

However, as the ‘old’ Han Maru, who had a massive amount of experience in society, he could comprehend it, but not sympathize with it. He should’ve seriously thought about enrolling in college if he was of the right mind — he cursed his former self lightly.

The twenty-two-year-old Han Maru living in 2008, after finishing the first semester of his sophomore year, thought that he couldn’t handle it anymore and went to military service as though to run away from it, and was now currently discharged.

He pressed his temples again when he thought about the story of an ordinary youth. The more he looked back on the memories of this life, the thicker his troubles became. Heck, his troubles might be as thick as a thousand-year-old tree by the end of this. One trouble came out after another like sausages.

What about Haneul then?

He thought about her, who should be living in a place he did not know. She was probably in a similar situation. She was probably having a big headache about her own problems, and not about her relationships.

He looked behind him when he heard the sound of scratching the window. The cat was scratching the veranda window on its two legs. Was it asking to be let outside? — He soon remembered the memories of this life. Ricebun often did that for no reason, so he just had to ignore it. He waved at the cat. Just as he remembered, the cat seemed to soon lose interest in scratching the window and turned around and went into the room.

He had yet to sort out the drawers of memories. The memories of numerous Han Marus were all tangled up together. Not only that, they were all vocal in their opinion and tried to take root in the center position. Numerous Han Marus would start talking at the same time when they see something similar to what they experienced before.

You should do it like this here, no like that here. You guys stay quiet, no, you stay quiet.

It wasn’t that they were actually chattering like that, but it felt so chaotic that they might as well be. The reason Haneul said that she needed time to redefine herself was also because of such reasons.

Thankfully, there was a subjective personality, so it wouldn’t take that long, but until then, he would have to use his head consciously. It would be quite troublesome if he blurted out nonsense after all.

He put down the remaining half of the beer on the veranda and leaned on the railing. It was the same scenery and the same life. The Han Maru of yesterday wouldn’t have done something like standing on the veranda and looking outside. Everything was the complete same, yet entirely different. Since it was different, he would have to change many things.

As apologetic as he felt towards his past self for putting in the effort to enroll in college, going to college was a waste. The memories of this life kept stimulating his emotions to make him remember his college friends, and the dream life that was the campus life, but they did not work against the extremely ascetic Han Marus who had experienced more than enough of society. It would be a different story if it was a prestigious university, but the title of Daesan university was unnecessary. He might have also had second thoughts if the major was good, but economics was definitely a no-go.

So, having decided to quit college, he tapped on the railing with his fist. There was an enormous amount of experience in his head. He had experienced all sorts of jobs. Learning skills shouldn’t take a long time since his brain remembered the know-how. He could even think of a few jobs that he could start immediately without any training.

After comparing a few jobs, he stopped thinking. The existence of God, which he tried so hard to ignore, came to his mind again. While he told her to not be worried to put her at ease, those words were more directed at himself.

Were the reincarnations truly over now? How did they meet again when they supposedly lost their memories and were going to live as strangers?

She said that she heard God’s voice saying that the two were tied in a fate stronger than any other and that it gave him joy to watch them.

God’s whims created this situation. Before he was happy, he couldn’t help but be worried. What if the whimsical God started his games again? Of course, he knew that God wouldn’t act like he wished to so easily. God was fair. Haneul was trapped in an infinite lifecycle for desiring life from death; from nothing to something. The same went for him as well, and the bigger the desire, the greater the price God made them pay.

Then what about this life? He and she, who were supposed to have forgotten about the past and the future, and were supposed to become complete strangers, were allowed to meet. Nay, to accept God’s words as is, the reason they met was thanks to a fate even more tenacious than God’s expectations.

It didn’t make sense for God to not know, since he was all-knowing and all-powerful, so the more suitable interpretation was that he just gave a small present to the two people who found a hole out of the eons of life. Though, this too was just an optimistic interpretation on his part.

“You might have forgotten, but you have properly paid the price. If someone died, then someone must live. Of course, as you expected, the fact that you regained your memories is a small present on my part. I might be whimsical, but I’m not cruel. This life belongs to you, so please feel at ease and enjoy. Shouldn’t you enjoy this last time?”

It was the cat that suddenly spoke fluently.

He wasn’t surprised. He had experienced too many things to be surprised.

“You two have died. That’s why you have gained this life. Since it’s a life that you gained through sacrifice, I hope you can be happier than anyone else. That will be more interesting for me to watch as well.” Having finished talking, the cat got startled and looked around. After snarling at the empty air, the cat hid underneath the chair at the dining table.

As he was staring at the cat, he got a call. It was from Haneul.

-Maru, did he find you too?

“If you’re talking about God, then he came here.”

There were no words for a while. The words God left behind reverberated in his ears. Life gained through sacrifice. He almost forgot. No, perhaps he might have been looking away from it. Another Han Maru and Han Haneul who had experienced extremely long lives had died. Just as God said, the price was paid. The masked man and the rabbit. This life came to be upon their lives.

-I am the one who killed me, but I don’t know how to accept this.

“Yeah. Someone must have ended it, and ultimately, it was likely the one who created the trouble has solved it too. The two that disappeared are you and me, but at the same time, they felt like two completely different people.”

-The Han Maru and Han Haneul that stemmed from us, do you think those two really died?

“That’s the price for our lives.”

-Saving your own life for sacrificing yourself. It’s so contradictory.

“Don’t think too deeply about it. Let’s end it after apologizing and thanking them tonight. It’s all over now.”

-Yeah, that’s probably the right thing to do. I should mourn by myself tonight.

Haneul seemed to have switched places as he could hear faux leather being squashed. She seemed to have sat down on the sofa.

-Did a doll speak on your side as well?

“A doll?”

-At my house, a rabbit doll I placed next to the bed was the one speaking. I was cleaning, and it suddenly tapped me.

“That should have been quite a sight. Here, it was a cat.”

-Really? That would’ve gone viral if you took a video of it.

“I didn’t think about that.”

Even a forced smile was fine. Maru smiled in order to wash away the complex feelings in his heart. Haneul also participated.

-That’s the biggest worry out of the way.

“Yeah. That’s right.”

-Tonight, I’m going to sleep early without thinking about anything. I have so many things to think about so I was originally going to stay up the night, but I don’t think today’s the right day. How about you?

“I’m going to decide on one thing before getting some rest.”

-What is it? Something important?

“A serious decision about what color to change the childish wallpaper to.”

-Please not gray this time. Honestly, it was too gloomy when we lived together in the last life. You really liked blue in the one before. You even liked light blue when Gaeul was around, didn’t you?

“I don’t remember that clearly. Right now, I like monotone.”

-There are dozens of preferences I can remember about you. You were a little cuter when you were a middle-aged man with a bulging belly.

“You too, honey. Don’t you remember plastering the whole house white because you liked it? You were all for black before too.”

-I don’t remember.

“There were thousands of Miss Han Haneuls who spoke like that, yet why does it change so much?”

-Maybe that’s just how I am. Just like how you are stuck up about the strangest of things, dear.

While talking, Haneul stifled her laughter.

-But hey, we keep changing the way we address each other. You, honey, dear. I’m barely holding myself back from calling you Gaeul’s dad.

“I might become a dad soon, so you can be at ease with that.”

-Says who? I’m going to meet Gaeul, but that time’s definitely not now. I want to raise my child without insufficiency. We should meet her after we earn a lot of money.

“There we go again with the ahjumma talk. Hello, Miss Han Haneul, don’t forget that you’re a college student. This is our first and also our last life. You can be more at ease.”

-You say that, but weren’t you thinking about the future too?

Maru could only stay silent since that was all true.

-But as you say, we should have some more leisure. With that, I want to sleep for the night. I don’t have any more energy to think either.

“Alright, get some good rest.”

-You should get washed and sleep as well. Don’t forget to adjust the height of your pillow. Don’t keep the AC on just because it’s hot. And remember to throw out the food waste on t…

Maru told her good night and quickly hung up.

With his phone in hand, he looked at the apartments, whose lights were being turned off one by one. He burst into laughter. He picked up the can he placed on the floor and emptied it in one go. Perhaps because the worries that burdened his heart had been resolved, he wanted to enjoy himself a little more today.

He took out another can of beer from the fridge. The chill he could feel through his fingers made him smile. Seemingly concerned about the master laughing like a fool, the cat walked over.

He picked up the cat, which was about to escape, and went out to the veranda. After wavering its front paws around in the air in a struggle, it became docile again after the night air brushed past its face. It seemed to have taken a liking to the wind.

“It’s good, isn’t it?” he asked the cat, knowing that he wouldn’t get an answer. The cat let out a small ‘meow’ in response, or perhaps it was a coincidence.

With the cat in his arms, he sat on the chair on the veranda. He drank beer as he looked at the apartments being shrouded in darkness.

The trivial things clearly told him that his life had begun anew.

After Story 3

It was 9 a.m. Even though he had set the alarm for six, he had never heard the alarm. He felt this when he was tossing in his bed without being able to sleep until 2, but it seemed that it would take at least a month to fix the lifestyle patterns engraved into this body.

Like many youths after their military service, the Han Maru of yesterday was also spending his time just making plans and not carrying any of them out. Getting fully adjusted to society by the end of summer vacation, and then studying for TOEIC and reviewing his major subjects was a grand plan that he devised, but it had become scrapped less than a week later.

The early morning wake up had disappeared without a trace after drinking throughout the night with his friends on the fourth day, and the firm determination to study had collapsed in the face of the new game console he bought.

Just like the famous sayings plastered on the wall, Han Maru's plans were scrapped into the depths of his memories after they didn't bear any fruit, much less a sweet one. It couldn't be helped. If he could do everything he planned, then he wouldn't be human.

He woke up his stiff body. He had forgotten to look at his own bodily state yesterday because he was busy calling Haneul and going over his memories.

His arms were sloppy and his belly was round. He didn't have a big thigh because he liked cycling, but it wasn't as if it streamline either. This was all thanks to having eaten instant foods during his later days in the military instead of doing foot volleyball and table tennis which he liked so much. Usually, people would create their bodies towards the end of their service, but looking back at the memories of that time, it seemed that he was ‘planning’ to go to the gym once he was discharged.

Of course, that never happened. He never went anywhere close to a gym.

“My man, why did you do that…” He lamented as he looked in the mirror.

The memories of being an actor were still fresh, so the untrained body was rather uncomfortable. It wasn’t like his body figure earned him money, so it wouldn’t matter even if he lived like this, but the habits that controlled his body in the life before kept telling him that this kind of body was unacceptable.

The first thing he did after washing his face and leaving the bathroom was toss the cigarettes into the trash. He had memories of dying because of lung cancer before, so he didn’t dare to smoke. He was planning to decrease alcohol consumption as well. No more drinking to the point of getting drunk.

He finished cleaning his house, which he didn’t the day before. As for the game console and the game CDs, he organized them in a box. He was planning to sell them as second-hand goods.

That one’s really fun though.

The Maru of this life signaled him to not sell it, but he lightly ignored it. It wasn’t that playing games was bad, but a game console was a luxury in the current environment. It wasn’t that his family was rich, and he had also gotten a student loan under his name, so spending hundreds of thousands of won for a hobby was something he should refrain from doing. If he felt bored, he could go to the public library or the public park, which were free throughout the year.

He left his house with the trash bag. After throwing it out, he went to the apartment management office. When he asked if there was a local bazaar, he was told that there was one every 15th and 30th of each month. The items that filled a corner of his living room flashed past in his head.

“Thank you for telling me.”

Having returned home, he fed the cat and called up Haneul.

-Wait a sec, I’m working.

He heard her talking to a customer over the phone. Now that he thought about it, she did say that she was working at a café. After telling her to call him back once she was free, he put his phone down. He had miraculously regained his life, but he was not as free as before.

Once a top star, his girlfriend was now making coffee at a café, and he was planning to drop out of college. There was no house under their name, nor a nice car, nor a thick bank account, but that didn’t matter at all. Those were all minor inconveniences that could be solved with some time, so there were no problems.

He wasn’t someone who made guarantees so easily, but he had the confidence to lead a better life economically than the immature Han Maru of this life. She was probably the same. A path filled with fear was one that was filled with uncertainty. As someone who had walked down numerous paths, the immediate difficulties he was facing only felt like a foothold for a better tomorrow.

Definitely, things had changed. The actor Han Maru of the previous life would have only thought about recovering the economic status regardless of the means, but right now, he could think about it with more leeway. It was a kind of leisure that was gained after the variety of experiences were combined in his mind. It was like a skilled chess player looking at many moves into the future.

-Come to the clubroom today.

When he picked up the call he got, the person on the other side left those words and hung up. He was a senior from his college club. He had enrolled in the photography club even though the only camera he had at home was the one on his phone. The club was a mix of two teams, one of which was a team that planned photography sessions and moved around busily, and the other was a team of people who just kept drinking all day in the name of a club. Maru was involved in the latter.

He stroked his face. The Han Maru of this life really did things that weren’t to his liking.

He also remembered the reason he joined the club. He was just going along with his friend, even though that friend had escaped somewhere else.

He must have felt a sense of guilt several times when he went drinking after paying millions of won just to go to college, so it was just frustrating that the regret only lasted a brief time as he ended up showing his face in the club again. If possible, he wanted to become the masked man and curse at his previous self a whole lot.

-There was suddenly a rush of customers. Why did you call?

She called as though she managed to find some time.

“There’s something I want to consult you about.”

-What is it?

“I’m going to drop out of college.”

-I thought you’d say that. You said you just got discharged from the military right?

“It’s been a month. No matter how hard I think about it, there’s no merit in continuing to go to college.”

-How are you going to explain this to your parents? They’ll be worried if their son suddenly says he’ll drop out of college.

“Thankfully, my parents are liberal in this life as well. I’m free to make a decision, but I’ll also have to take responsibility for it. It should be fine if I explain to them the circumstances. My mother might actually like it.”

-You never know. You don’t really have anything to do immediately, so parents these days will be worried if you suddenly say you’ll stop.

“Do you think it’ll be better for me to finish college then?”

-No. If you made a decision, then that must be what’s right for you. Just make sure you don’t make your parents worry. You know how parents feel, don’t you?

“I do. I really do.”

-Do you remember? The day Gaeul seriously said she didn’t want to go to school?

“That happened a few times, huh.”

-I think about thirty times according to my memory.

“I felt like the world was going to end every time.”

-Your parents must feel the same. They might be worried that their son might not want to get the proper education he deserves because they aren’t well off. They’re good people after all.

“You’re right.”

-Why don’t you keep dropping out a secret for the time being? It’s not like you’re going to play around. If you create a foundation, they might feel at ease.

“They say listening to your wife is the best thing you can do, so I’ll do that. How’s the work at the café? Isn’t it hard to make your own coffee after your manager made it for you every single time?”

-Hello, mister, I’ve worked at a restaurant hundreds of times. This is nothing compared to removing the oil stains on a grill.

“Where did you say the café was? I’ll visit on my way.”

-I’ll send you the location. But where are you going?

“College. I’m going to apply to drop out. If I need to consult a professor, then I just plan to get expelled.”

-No hesitation, huh?

“I don’t have time for that. Send me the address. Let’s eat dinner together.”

He left with his bag. What would his peers say if he said he was dropping out? They would be quite surprised since they were drinking happily just a few days ago.

He went to Yongsan station on line 1, which was as crowded as ever even on the weekend. It wasn’t that far to the college from the station, about seven stops by bus. When he got off the bus, he could see the college entrance in the distance. He looked back on his memories to go to the economics office.

“Oh, you’re dropping out? These days, you don’t have to make a visit, and you can do it on the internet. If you don’t have any tuition to get back, you just don’t have to come anymore. You’ll be expelled automatically,” the teaching assistant explained.

He left the office after a short visit. The ivory tower he entered with time and money could be left very easily.

After leaving the building, he scanned the building up and down. It was a place filled with his memories, so he had to look at it at least one last time.

He drank water he bought at a convenience store and went to the clubroom building. Once he was done saying goodbye to the members of the club, he would never come here again.

“Hey, Hanmal, you’re here?”

Hanmal. That was a nickname he got from his clubroom. He smiled and scanned the people in the room.

“Looks like you still haven’t gotten adjusted to society after getting discharged. Our new members probably don’t know, but he’s Han Maru, and he went to the military even though he’s in his second year. He’s a pitiful returning student, so don’t bully him and treat him well. Hanmal, what are you doing? You should say hello to our new ones,” said the senior. Maru didn’t like this guy because he disdained others in the most indirect way, but he couldn't put distance between them as he was a central figure in the club, so Maru got along with him with a smile. He could feel the memories and the emotions.

“Look at him dazing out. Juniors, he’s like that because he’s embarrassed so don’t misunderstand him. The dude’s pretty dense even after he went to the military. What are you going to do about your personal relations without me?”

“About those personal relations, I’m here to wrap them up.”

“Huh?”

“I’m dropping out. The reason I came here today is that I remembered a photo I left here before I went to the military. I’ll just take that and go. As for the MT, you can go by yourselves.”

The only faces he knew here were the senior that looked down on him and a girl he wasn’t close to, so he just finished his words there. Honestly, there was not a single person he wanted to stay close to in the clubroom.

The previous Maru might consider them lifelong friends bound by alcohol, but in the eyes of the current him, all of those relationships were shallow and would disappear after half a year. He was a calculative man, so he figured out whether he should stay close to a person or not, whether he liked it or not.

He grabbed the album and looked for the photo. It was a photo he took in the Gangwon province before he drowned in booze. It wasn’t a great photo and it didn’t contain anything special, but he wanted to keep it because it was his first time doing it.

“Hey, Han Maru,” the senior called. “What do you think you’re doing?”

“Don’t mind me and just keep doing what you were doing. I’ll take my leave now.” He grabbed the doorknob after checking to see if there was anything else he had to take with him. The eyes of the dozens of people in the clubroom coldly stared at him. Maru smiled at them before leaving.

“Hey, what kind of bad attitude is this?” the senior followed him out. He was someone with a lot of pride, so it seemed that he couldn’t take being ignored.

Maru thought that he would refrain from acting out since people were looking, but he seemed to have underestimated his pettiness.

“Senior, you should go inside and continue.”

“Your words are quite offensive, you know?”

“I’ll apologize if that was the case. But I’m not even a student here anymore, so don’t mind me.”

“You punk. You don’t have any manners. I looked after you so much, so why’s your attitude like that?”

“Just take it as who I really am. Also, please send me the 300 thousand won I lent you to my account soon.”

“Are you doing this because of the money? Do you think your personal relations are finished just because you drop out? Punk, I didn’t see you like that, but you’re quite petty.”

“Yes, that’s right. So please send the money as soon as possible.”

“It’s not that I don’t have the money, but I won’t give it to you because I don’t like how you’re acting.”

“It’ll be better for both of us if you send the money. I would consider it charity if I was well off, but in this life, my wallet is quite fragile.”

“What are you saying?”

“I won’t say anything much. Send it by the end of the week.”

“Bullshit.”

The senior snorted and went back to the clubroom. Maru watched the door slam shut before turning around.

After Story 4

The college central library didn't have any empty seats as though playing around during the holidays was a thing that only happened in other countries. He slowly looked around. The memories he had when he was a freshman still remained here and there. This was a place that ignited his youth. Perhaps to lessen the guilt of playing around, whenever he met up with his friends, they went to the library. They would browse through the core materials of the semester and their assignment while sighing, and they would always end up going to a bar near the university.

His hot-blooded youth had lost its aim because of all the drinking sessions, but he didn't want to reject everything and consider them useless. After all, they were places that contained the time of the youthful Han Maru.

He went up to the 3rd floor. There was an ownerless bag and a laptop in the corner seat. This was the same as 2 years ago. There was a rumor that sitting on that seat would make someone good at memorizing, so everyone was out to take that seat. He walked past the self-study desks that were lined up together and went to the materials room, where newspapers were collected.

He looked at a newspaper from 5 years ago. He compared his memories and what was recorded to get a firmer grasp of the current era.

With politics, the structure was more or less the same as in his previous life, and the same could be said for economics as well. There were probably numerous differences if he tried to go into detail, but those things weren't necessary for an individual.

"Katalk came out 2 years early, huh? Smartphones have been pulled forward too. Should I buy some of the related stocks?"

He organized his memories as he read the articles. He had to set a standard for this life so that there were no conflicts between the memories.

As an immature college student, Han Maru's memories only contained simple information. It was up to the previous Han Maru to classify that information into good and bad with all the memories he had of his previous lives.

Memories were bound to be forgotten if not remembered regularly anyway. Just like how regularly used tools were placed within reach, if he could organize the information in order of necessity, that should redefine Han Maru as a single individual.

He put the newspaper back in the storage and left the materials room. He felt that he had seen enough of what he wanted. Since he had finished taking a trip down memory lane, he would probably never come to this place again. He took out the student ID he had in his wallet and folded it in half before throwing it away.

-I heard Sanghoon-hyung tell me that you're dropping out.

He got a message from a college friend.

-Are you really quitting?

He only replied with a short 'yes.' This person was a friend he only said hi to at most, so it didn't seem like the conversation would last long.

Just as he had expected, the conversation ended after the typical advice of 'make a wise choice' from the other party.

Perhaps since Sanghoon was so angry that he didn't receive proper respect from a college underclassman, he seemed to have spread around how terrible Han Maru is as a person.

-Hey, are you really going to drop out? Did something happen at your house?

-Punk. You still have a senior-junior relationship with him.

-Oppa, what is it?

-Are you out of your mind?

The group chat was lit on fire. Half of them expressed consolation and worry, while the remaining half were criticizing and picking a fight.

Among these people, he only kept in touch with two people. The others may as well be strangers. Even though their relationship was that shallow, people seemed to have hopped onto the bandwagon and started throwing harsh words.

The closer they were to Sanghoon, the harsher their words were. As such, all the upperclassmen said that he was in the wrong. Sanghoon seemed to have a talent for politics despite being young. Maru smiled and looked at the screen.

Sanghoon appeared in the group chat and spoke as though to stand up for him.

Don't criticize him too much, you're making me embarrassed. Maybe he was so sensitive that he had to drop out — Looking at what he wrote alone might make him seem to be a very generous upperclassman.

Maru's peers, who also worried about him, stopped after they felt the change in the mood. They probably didn't want to get on this person's bad side.

Besides just one. Moontae stood up for him, saying that it must be a misunderstanding. Moontae was someone Maru got to know during college orientation, and he was also a peculiar fellow who visited the corporal Maru in the military when Moontae himself was enjoying his last military vacation.

Maru thought that they weren't especially close since they never really got to talk to each other after the first semester of freshman year, but he changed his mind after seeing Moontae visit him.

-Thanks for looking out for me. I'll take care of myself, so don't worry too much. You might be in a fix if you get targeted by the upperclassmen, so don't say anything in the group chat.

Maru sent a direct message to Moontae. He prevented the grateful fellow who stood up for him from getting attacked from all sides before opening up the group chat again. The flow of the chat had become a lot rougher than before. Even a senior from the department, who Maru had never met, had been invited.

When one of the seniors wrote a long message about the bad attitude of the junior, many people chimed in. There were many who chimed in at the opportunity to blame people.

There was now a miniature society created in the palm-sized chat room. Maru had seen this so many times that he wasn't even surprised. College chat rooms were cute even. Company group chats were like treading on thin ice, where every single period at the end of a sentence had to be written with caution. Compared to that, students were a lot more humane since they directly held people in contempt.

-I don't know why you're all talking about me like this, but since you're all here, let me say something as well. I don't know what I did that made you displeased, but if you can be specific about it, then I'll apologize to you politely. Also, Mr. Sanghoon, you can say whatever you want about me, but please send that 300 thousand won you borrowed from me. I have faith that you didn't put up this show just because you don't want to pay me back.

He raised the angry upperclassmen who had gotten angry for a reason he didn't know on a pedestal and tossed in the reason this whole thing happened.

The people who were burning a witch on top of the hay that was made of text messages soon changed their attitudes. In the first place, they were blabbing without bothering to look at the situation and just chimed in on whatever Sanghoon said. It was easy to shift the blame.

-Seonbae, you did that because of money?

-Sanghoon, it's money again?

-Han Maru's not the type of guy to do that without reason.

-He's pretty good, isn't he? He shows up to drink quite a lot.

Maru was exhausted to death when it came to company politics. He had experienced the nervousness of having to line up behind a good person hundreds, if not thousands of times. Flipping over a game that wasn't even created properly only needed a few words.

-Who borrowed money from who?

When the major voice changed, Sanghoon decided to counterattack. He was pretty cunning, and he was quick to respond as well. He probably calculated that he just had to get over this situation and the conversation would end there.

The unfortunate thing was that this was not the late 80s. Maru opened a banking app and took a screenshot of his recent transfers. It seemed that Sanghoon had forgotten that he got the money through a bank transfer instead of cash in his excitement.

Maru was originally going to post just that, but to put the nail in the coffin, he also downloaded an order of payment to finish it off cleanly. He posted both the bank transfer history and the order of payment on the group chat.

-If you don't transfer the money, I'll write this one up. I'll pay the fees for this one. If you'd like to object, then please go ahead.

After that, the group chat suddenly came to a halt. Nobody wrote anything, but nobody left either. They were probably waiting to see what was going to happen as if they were watching someone else's house burning down in a fire.

Not even five minutes later, Maru got a call from Sanghoon.

-Hey, punk. Just because an upperclassman said something, you had to go so far?

"I like convenience. Rather than bothering to quarrel, let's have the law take care of it since that's a lot cleaner. Isn't that good?"

"Crazy bastard. Fine, I'll give it to you. I just have to give it to you, don't I?"

"You're giving me the 300 thousand won that you borrowed from me, right?"

-Yeah!

"By the way, I recorded this conversation. I can issue an order of payment just from the bank transfer history, but it's more reassuring if I have confirmation. If you play dumb later, you'll experience something good. Getting mail from the court is a good experience in life, isn't it?"

-You're fucking crazy.

Then the call ended.

Back in the folding phone days, there would be a satisfying snap to top it all off. The advances in technology sometimes left behind such disappointments.

He called Moontae,

"Do you have any time? I'd like to treat you out while I'm still in college."

-I have part-time work.

"Then call me whenever you have time. Also, I'm sorry for not looking out for you even though you came to visit me during the military."

-I don't care about that. Rather than that, is everything okay now?

"Yeah."

-That's fine then.

His short and indifferent answers were what was charming about him.

The immature Han Maru looked for other drinking friends while leaving behind this one huh? He really didn’t have a good eye for people – he clicked his tongue at his former self.

He left through the college entrance and got on the bus. He said one last goodbye to the university as it became distant.

Some people seemed to have heard the news that he was dropping out and raised a big commotion. He just sent them the words that he had plenty of methods to survive, and that they needn’t be worried.

To some people’s eyes, this might seem like a reckless decision, however, unemployment rates of college graduates were rising every year. If there was one inevitable truth in his repeated lives, it was that youth unemployment rates never decreased.

It was a masterpiece of both the society and the population, so it had never changed even once. As such, he had to enter the market while others were hung up on getting the titles of good universities.

Large companies were out of the question though. In the first place, those companies didn’t accept any undergraduates. He thought about applying to become a civil servant, but he didn’t really like that option.

Based on his previous lives, the moment he joined an organization, the nuts and bolts that made up his body would creak and cause accidents. It wasn’t just because of God toying around that he had to die before the age of forty-five.

His innate nature, his personality that was created through his experiences in society, just wasn’t suited to hierarchical relationships.

Of course, he had the confidence to do it well. After all, he had once won the position of the youngest general manager position after all.

However, he could bring out his traits even better in other occupations, so there was no need to join a company.

Transportation was the first occupation he wondered if he should do. In the case of the transportation of goods, there were no problems in earning profits once he opened various routes.

The problem was the initial investment. He had memories of getting scammed out of truck payments, so it was hard to get into it. He would have to work for a transportation company and then start working as a freelancer.

He sent her a message, about what she thought about driving freight trucks. The reply came back soon.

-Absolutely not. I respect you, but I will absolutely not accept that. You’ll be semi-forced to stay away from home, and I don’t like that. You should know how difficult it is to drive trucks. You would wake up every morning like a zombie and come back every night like a zombie. You expect me to keep watching that? I don’t want to tell Gaeul that her father is in Busan every single time either.

He was rejected right off the bat. He had a hunch that things would turn out like this.

Maru scratched his eyebrows and erased transportation of goods from his options.

Construction sites, ship construction, and cleaning high-rise buildings also came to mind.

In the case of high-rise buildings, he would not have to worry about losing his job once it was decided which building he had to clean, so he would be able to gain a stable profit.

“There’s a lot of work I can do.”

There was no need to be stubborn about wearing a tie. Whatever he did, it wouldn’t change the fact that it would be taxing on his mind and body.

Compensation for his work hours was the only thing he had to consider. He could just look at his quality of life once he had prepared his house.

He leaned his head against the window. He really had to consult his wife about the specifics.

After Story 5

A café street huh? Maru had a look at all the cafés on the opposite side of the bookstore. Every first-floor stores in the many buildings right next to one another were cafés. They were so densely populated that it made him worry about their sales.

-It’s “Jane”.

She sent him the name of the café through the messenger. It was a rather large one that took up two floors.

Maru went inside. The store was crowded with people taking refuge from the heat. It turned out that his worries about sales were unnecessary. When he followed the line at the counter, he found Haneul who was greeting customers with a smile. She seemed to be busy and did not notice that he had come in.

He lined up and observed the various coffee beans on display. The customers left the queue one by one after ordering, and he eventually met her.

“One iced black coffee please.”

“You’re going to drink inside, right?”

“I was going to take it out, but should I?”

She smiled and told him to wait a moment. Taking the order token given to him by another employee, he went up to the 2nd floor. There were no seats on the 1st floor. He found a seat by the window where the music was pretty loud. He watched a small staring contest between some old ladies chatting and a student trying to study when his order token started vibrating.

“Here’s your coffee. Enjoy.”

Haneul was cleaning the tables with a rag. He grabbed the coffee given to him by another employee and went upstairs. After he took one or two sips of the bitter coffee, she came up to the 2nd floor.

“You look busy.”

She, who was wiping the tables with her rag, shrugged. “Today’s actually one of the better days. Yesterday, there was a heat warning, so the store was so crowded that it was hard to walk. How’s the coffee?”

“It’s good.”

“Who do you think made it?”

“A pretty employee perhaps.”

Her eyes became wide. She looked around and scanned him from top to bottom before speaking,

“I’ll tell Donghoon just that, that there’s a male customer who likes him.”

“Don’t forget to tell him that I’m open to the idea of liberal gender.”

She smiled softly before going down after saying that she’d be back soon.

He looked at the coffee swirling around in the glass. Thinking that this Donghoon was pretty good at making coffee, he took out a book while enjoying the drink. There was a pretty good collection of books considering that they were placed for customers. He skimmed through a recently-released novel.

-You still alive?

That was Park Daemyung. He still used text messages when everyone else used online messengers, whether out of spite or plain lack of proficiency. Maru replied to him that he was still alive.

-Here, everyone’s collapsing because of the heat.

He chuckled as he looked at the text. Just like the previous life, he kept in touch with Daemyung and they were good friends. There were a couple other friends he was close to since high school, but the acting club was not among them. He did not join the acting club in high school in this life in the first place. Their point of contact had disappeared, and along with it, his relationships. His former relationships were now just friends in memory.

He called Daemyung. He wanted to hear his voice instead of texting him.

“You at work?”

-No, I’m taking a break.

“How’s working at the dockyard?”

Daemyung went to the southern coast, saying that he was working on installing a ship dock. That was a year ago. At first, he was an assistant and got paid 100 thousand won per day. He said that it was pretty hard but a decent job, and he ended up working until now, saying that he wanted to make it his profession.

-Well, the thing is, I think I might have to go back up after summer.

“Did something happen?”

-Our whole team got disbanded. I almost managed to get promoted to main worker, but that didn’t happen either. The big brothers I was working with are looking for other contract work, but there’s no one looking for labor because there are no projects. Those on the system side are being taken as experienced workers, but… Nah, forget it. I shouldn’t be talking about this to you, it’s gloomy. How are you doing after returning to college?

Whether it was this life or the one before, Daemyung always put others before himself.

“I dropped out.”

-What? Dropped out?

Daemyung was startled and his voice rose. Maru took his phone away from his ears and looked at the screen for a while. Daemyung’s voice was gushing out of the phone in anger.

-Why? You’re already in the second semester of your second year. When you were grumbling about it to me, you said you weren’t serious. But what? You suddenly quit?

“That’s how it is.”

-Don’t give me that. Does your mother know about this? She must have been really against it.

Now that he thought about it, they were close to the point that Maru brought Daemyung home a couple of times to eat and sleep. Unlike in the previous life, Daemung had also never gotten bullied, so he had a pretty good reputation as a reliable guy among his friends.

“She doesn’t know yet. I haven’t told her about it.”

-You dropped out without even consulting your parents? I know that you’re immature, but how could you drop out without even talking to your parents about it? Isn’t your rent being paid by your parents too? You threw a tantrum saying that you wanted to live by yourself since you’re in college.

Maru looked up at the ceiling and sighed. Just as Daemyung said, he was an immature college student until yesterday. He was a reckless young man who wanted to do everything he wanted to do under the sole guise of being a college student. Whether it was before he enlisted or after he was discharged, his parents paid for his rent. Just because of the ridiculous reason that he was a college student.

“That hurts.”

-You haven’t handed in the application yet, right? If you did, then it should take time for it to be processed, so take it back right now. For now, consult your parents and decide after that. No, I’ll hear what you have to say first. You told me on the day you got discharged. You said you’ve turned a new leaf and will study and get academic scholarships.

“That I did.”

-Then why?

Maru looked outside. He could see cars and people moving according to the traffic lights. He then moved his gaze to the coffee cup.

“I was walking down the wrong path, so I’m trying to set it straight.”

-And that’s the reason you’re dropping out?

“I can’t drive in reverse when going forward might not be enough.”

-You didn’t get involved in multi-level marketing or something, have you?

“I’m planning to dip my hands in it if I have the opportunity.”

-Don’t joke with me. You’re saying you’re going to give up on college life because of some abstract things like that? What are you going to do about your tuition?

“I guess I’ll just have to treat it as having learned a life lesson with 10 million won.”

-Don’t be like that and try a little harder. You were pretty smart, weren’t you? You hung out with me throughout high school, but you were always above average.

“Isn’t it funny to call slightly above average good?”

-You were better than me at least. You got into a college you wanted to go to too. I heard that companies don’t accept people who don’t have a graduation certificate, so think again.

“If you are so knowledgeable about college degrees, why did you jump into employment?”

-That’s because I have no interest in studying. As you know, I’m pretty large. The heavens just decreed that I should work a job taxing my body, so there’s no need to waste money studying.

“And yet when you got drunk, you talked about how you wanted to try to go to college?”

-You’re on about that again? I just meant I want to know what it is like to live a campus lifestyle. Someone like me obviously isn’t going to study.

“People like you are much better than those mindless idiots going to lectures like zombies. Colleges aren’t anything much unless it’s a prestigious one.”

-Are you drunk? You always praised your college.

“You might find it ridiculous if I say this, but just consider me as a different man since yesterday. I’m not joking. I’m pretty serious.”

-You didn’t get into trouble, did you?

“Why does it go there?”

-Because you’re saying something strange all of a sudden. Honestly, you rarely talk about serious stuff with me. We’re good friends, but we rarely talk about what we think deep inside.

“I’m going to do so now. I’m moving one of my worries to you. Why, do you hate me?”

-Like hell I do.

“Anyway, thanks for the heartfelt advice. But I’m not going to retract dropping out. If you come up and see me face to face, you’ll see that I didn’t say all these things on impulse. I’m really a changed man like the characters you see in movies.”

-You’re being really strange right now. You’re talking like a completely different person too. You always swore at the end of every single line, but now you’re such a good talker.

“The Han Maru you didn’t know was always like that.”

-The you I don’t know?

Maru sipped some coffee before speaking,

“Would you believe me if I gained memories of my previous life?”

-Were you some amazing guy in the Chosun era or something?

“You always talk about the distant past when I talk about previous lives. Just think that I’ve lived the same life over and over again like a hamster in a hamster wheel. With every new life, one lifetime’s memories are erased, but I got all those memories back now.”

-I want to ask if you’ve been dreaming, but you don’t seem like you’re kidding, so I can’t really say anything. Anyway, you’re saying something big happened that you’re feeling like that, right? Some kind of big shock that changed your attitude towards life.

Maru told him the truth, but even then Daemyung twisted his meaning, so he couldn’t help it. Well, who in the world would believe him? Anyone who believes his words might need psychotherapy.

“Anyway, it’s like that. I definitely didn’t decide to drop out because of an impulsive decision.”

-If you say so, then sure. But I can’t agree to not telling your parents about it.

“You’re entirely right. But if I tell my mother that I’m quitting right now, she’ll say the same thing. Even if I convince her, she might not accept it or feel disappointed. So I was planning to tell her about it after I get some results.”

-So the conclusion is that you’re going to earn money?

“Yes. I’m going to earn money. Just enough so I can get by.”

-Don’t tell me something absurd like you will do a part-time job. You can do part-time jobs alongside studying.

“I can see how little faith you had in me. I’m sure I must have looked like a kid and also pathetic.”

-Not entirely.

“If you say so. I find myself pathetic. Well, in any case, I’m going to produce visible results. With that, I’m sure my parents will understand why I’m quitting studying.”

-You sound like you already decided on what to do?

“For that, I’m going to have to consult my wife.”

-Wife? Do you have a girlfriend?

“I’ll introduce her to you once you come up. She’s a woman very close to me.”

-I really don’t get it. First, you’re saying you’re dropping out of college, and now you’re telling me you have a girlfriend. You do seem like you’ve changed. Alright, let’s talk face-to-face. I’m planning to go up during the weekend.

“It’s hot, so be careful. Let’s have a good talk.”

-We saw each other just a few months ago.

“I feel like I haven’t seen you in a long time.”

Daemyung smiled and hung up.

“Who were you calling for such a long time?”

He turned around to see Haneul.

“It’s Daemyung. Is your shift over?”

“Of course not. I just came up because it was quite free.”

She glanced at the coffee cup before snatching it away. She took big gulps before putting the empty cup down on the table.

“Some caffeine in the system really is effective.”

“Do the workers here drink their customer’s drinks?”

“Do you want a refill then?”

She looked at the watch.

“I need to work about one more hour. Isn’t it boring to wait?”

“I’ll wait while reading,” he said as he showed her the book cover.

She nodded and turned around.

It was when she was walking towards the trash can with a bunch of disposable cups that she turned around. “Oh, right. I have something to consult about too.”

“What is it?”

Her nose twitched. She showed this expression when she had some difficulties.

“I apparently have a boyfriend.”

After Story 6

His eyes stopped on the third paragraph of the novel. It described a scene where lovers who had broken up managed to meet up in an unfamiliar place due to a complete coincidence. The novel delicately described the process of their cooled emotions being reignited again. The two of them walked around together like they were close friends going on traveling. Eventually, their feelings of love sprouted again and the two characters kissed.

He closed the book, recalling what she said.

-I apparently have a boyfriend.

He crossed his arms and thought about various things before chuckling. So this could happen too.

He knew that this was nothing to be jealous or angry about, but he couldn’t help but be conscious of it. Despite having experienced all sorts of things, a family feud was not one.

There shouldn’t be any problems since they probably did not date each other with the intention of getting married, so Maru cleared up his thoughts and uncrossed his arms. He seemed to have tensed up subconsciously as he found that his hands were pretty sore. Even after all those lives, it seemed rather difficult to transcend emotions.

“Sorry for making you wait.” Haneul came up to the 2nd floor.

Instead of the café uniform, she was wearing a light green polo shirt and white shorts. She untied her hair and sat down.

“Why are you looking at me like that?” she asked with a smile.

“Probably because you look good, don’t you think?” He received a disposable cup that Haneul gave him. It was a cup of iced tea with a lot of ice cubes.

“Where should we get dinner?” she asked.

“Any place you wanna recommend nearby? Let’s go there.”

“There’s a really nice spicy chicken feet restaurant about five minutes away from here.”

“In this heat?”

“Fight fire with fire. Also, you know I like chicken feet.”

“I do. You always looked for chicken feet until the last month of pregnancy. It’s fortunate that there are places that sell them even throughout the night. Otherwise, I don’t think I would have any hair left,” he said as he grabbed a handful of hair.

“It’s peculiar, isn’t it? Many things have changed across our numerous repeated lives, but I’ve never stopped looking for chicken feet during pregnancy. Maybe Gaeul liked them more than I did?”

“Don’t shift the blame to the child. Gaeul can’t handle spicy stuff, just like I can’t.”

“There were times she was good with it. She took after me too.”

After talking, she flicked off the dew that had formed on the outside of the cup. “I want to see Gaeul.”

“Should we hold a wedding immediately?”

“You know well that we can’t do that, honey.”

He grabbed Haneul’s hand again. “We can see her again. Gaeul must want to see you too. She always followed her mother after all.”

“She liked her father a lot too. You only became distant because you were busy and didn’t show up a lot at home. Now that I think about it, you never really stayed close to Gaeul, huh?”

“That’s just how life is. There’s also the fact that I wasn’t able to consider her feelings too.”

“This time, let’s do various things as a family. We’ll go traveling together or do weekend farm stays. I was the happiest when I saw Gaeul act close to her father. We’ve lived so many lives, but it’s a pity that we never got to do that many times.”

“I’ll stay right next to Gaeul that it will be to the point that you might get jealous, so don’t worry about that.”

One of her eyes twitched before she grabbed Maru’s nose and twisted it. He pretended to be hurt and backed off.

“Right, I should finish talking about what I was saying before.” She sighed. This seemed to be about her boyfriend.

“Did you date for a long time?” he asked while sipping the iced tea.

“About six months? But our relationship is pretty strange.”

“How?”

“First, this is my first romantic relationship. Of course, I’m talking about the me before I regained my memories. But maybe because of that, I was pretty reliant on that boy. I was quite passive too.”

“That’s how most people’s first relationship is.”

“But the degree is pretty serious. I would feel uneasy if I can’t contact him, and I would worry that I might screw something up which would cause us to break up. I didn’t want to get hurt, so I just kept matching him while we were dating. The problem is that the boy’s side is the same.”

“It’s like that both ways?”

“Yeah. It’s a very cautious relationship. In some ways, it’s quite cute, but it’s rather unsettling because both of them feel uneasy about each other. We never got into a quarrel, but nor have we ever expressed our passionate love either. I guess both were hesitant. If one side loved the other a lot and didn’t get paid back, it would hurt after all.”

Maru could understand what this was about. She was worried about the boy’s side.

He expressed his opinion on this matter, “Don’t you think it’s better to break up firmly precisely because it’s like that? I think it’ll be better than dragging things out. He might be hurt, but the cleaner the cut, the less likely it is to leave a scar.”

She put on a confused expression. It seemed that he missed the mark.

“Aren’t you worried about the boy?”

“I am. I also have the memories of this life too, as well as the emotions. But the most important thing to me right now is the man named Han Maru and my own life. I’m sorry for him, but the six-month relationship is nothing compared to what we’ve experienced. The problem is his personality. He has some impulsive tendencies and is also quite tenacious.”

Maru let out a small ‘oh’ sound and nodded. She was worried about what would happen after they broke up. From her story, Maru imagined a rather quiet man, but it seemed that the actual person was different.

“We’re both rather cautious around each other, but his possessive desires are pretty strong. The previous me seemed to have interpreted that as love, but in my eyes, it’s definitely not. He might not display such a tendency on the outside that much, but I could read that from him from time to time. The previous me seemed to be conscious of that and became a lot more cautious around him too.”

“To put it extremely, you’re saying he has stalker tendencies?”

“Well, that shouldn’t be true, but I don’t think the process of breaking up will be a smooth one. Also, if possible, I want to break up so that he isn’t hurt. Breaking up will be painful, but minimizing that pain is the last bit of courtesy I can show him.”

In any case, this was what she experienced in this life. It wasn’t something she could just put to one side like the interpersonal relations of previous lives.

“As you say, it’s better to do this as cleanly as possible.” She put on a resolute face.

“What are you going to do?”

“I’m going to meet him today.”

She took out her phone and flinched before looking at him. “Should we just have dinner together instead? There’s a lot I want to talk about.”

He shook his head. “Let’s resolve what might become a problem as soon as possible. That’ll be better for that fellow too. Since it’s like this, why don’t you call him to somewhere nearby? I’ll be watching from a distance in case something happens.”

“I can take care of it on my own.”

“You said he has a possessive side to him. How can I stay still after hearing that? But it’s not that I don’t understand him. Miss Han Haneul is very attractive after all.”

Haneul frowned.

“Did you do something wrong? Did you stash away money somewhere?”

“Please don’t denounce my pure feelings like that. Also, I know better than anyone how sensitive your nose is. I still remember eating bananas for breakfast for four days straight after I stashed away my bonus salary. Heck, not just bananas, sometimes it was curry, cereal, oh and that’s right, chicken broth soup. That one appeared a lot.”

“So carry yourself well this time. Don’t make me the bad housewife nagging her husband.”

She smiled and then started using her phone. She seemed to be sending a message to her boyfriend.

“This is rather strange. It turns out my wife is in an illicit relationship.”

“Don’t say something so freaky. You really sound like an old man. When you’re young, please act young.” She pressed Maru’s cheeks with her finger.

A few minutes later, she stood up. She was going to leave since she decided on the place of the meeting. They left the café. The sun had set, but the heat did not go down.

It’s pretty hot — she said as she reached out her hand. Maru grabbed it.

As they were walking while looking around at the stalls, she stopped at one. It seemed that something attracted her eyes. What she grabbed among the numerous accessories was a thin ring.

“How is it?” she asked as she held out her hand with the ring on it. He replied that it suited her.

“Give me your hand.”

“You want me to do it too?”

“Then am I going to do it by myself? Give it to me.”

He spoke as he looked at the ring around his ring finger,

“I was going to get you a good one though.”

“You can do that later. For now, this suits you more. It’s cute, isn’t it?”

“That’s right, Haneul’s at the age where she likes cute things now, isn’t she?”

“I’ll take that as a compliment.” She smiled.

After they left the stall, they soon arrived at the book café where Haneul arranged a meeting with the other party. He sat down a bit away from Haneul.

Around 20 minutes later, a man came into the café. His hair was well-toned, and he was wearing bright clothes. The man, who gave off a refreshing impression, sat in front of her. The two of them conversed for a while.

Maru watched them while quenching his thirst with some juice. The atmosphere had not changed from the beginning when the man came in and greeted her to now. They neither looked overly happy nor did things go overly awry. It seemed very peaceful. Rather than a couple that dated for six months, they looked like a boy and a girl who met for the first time. He could instantly see what she meant by ‘cautious’. So, things were going well? It was rather funny that he had to keep watching this strange situation.

When he drank about half of the juice, the man stood up. Just as he thought that things were over, he saw the man walk out while rubbing the corner of his eyes with the back of his hand.

She walked over.

“Is it me? I think he left while crying.”

“I don’t know either.” Haneul sat down looking dejected.

“So, did the talk go well?”

“Well, I think we talked for more than enough, but I don’t know about him. I was careful not to hurt him as much as possible since it was his first love, but the main point of it was me asking to break up.”

“He didn’t seem like the impulsive type to me.”

“It looks like he didn’t get his thoughts together because it was too sudden. Maybe he cried because the feelings he had to express burst out all at once. It’s his first love, and he’s clumsy when it comes to displaying his emotions.”

“So, you pity him?”

“Until a few days ago, I was fixated on him just like he was to me. Those feelings are telling me that I shouldn’t ignore her. She’s a part of me too after all. Have you never felt like that?”

“I’m in a similar situation, but they all calmed down soon enough. I’m sure you’ll be like that too. We can’t accept everything. We have to retain what we have to and forget the rest.”

“Right?”

He then said to her, who had a faint smile,

“How about some spicy chicken feet to commemorate the end of your first love?”

“Give me one with a lot of spicy peppers in it.”

“I’m not that good with spicy food though.”

“You can do it. You’re going to eat with me, right?”

She was looking at him with the most innocent pair of eyes. Maru wondered how many men could refuse that. He left the book café with her.

This was just a small event that they experienced at the beginning of their new lives. They were bound to run into problems a lot more serious than this in life. However, he didn’t feel worried. As long as she was by his side, those trials would be nothing more than a little dynamic game for him. Overcoming hardships together was a rather joyful experience.

“Why are you laughing so much today?” she asked.

He responded simply, “Because I feel good.”

She pouted before smiling. They hooked arms and walked on the street together. She sometimes dragged him to a clothes shop like a little child and sometimes looked at children walking with their families like a mother. He captured every single moment of that with his eyes.

For some reason, every passing second felt like a waste. However, he did not have the foolish thought that he wanted this moment to last forever. After all, he realized that the wish to hold onto time is the first step into the abyss. He just thanked this moment and enjoyed it to the fullest.

After Story 7

Haneul opened her eyes when she felt something touch her face. The rabbit doll she had placed by her head before sleeping was staring at her. It seemed that she knocked it over in her sleep. She twisted her tired body around before sitting up. When she got down from the bed, she gave the rabbit doll a solid smack on the head.

She opened the door to the veranda. Looking around, she saw her laundry basket full of clothes. She separated them by color and put them in the washing machine. The old washing machine started operating with a clunk.

She tied up her hair above her head and took out some baggy clothes to wear. She had to go to war with some old grime and dirt from the corners of her house. While she was not a clean freak, this place was so terrible that she couldn’t bear to watch. She was even disappointed in her former self. While not as thorough as Maru, she put in the effort to clean the places she could reach and see.

Just then, she heard the washing machine asking for fabric softener.

Maybe it was because of all her efforts, but her house became a lot better than before. She did work hard until she was sweating, so she expected this much. She turned the AC on and went to the bathroom.

While showering, she found a tattoo behind her flank. She remembered the moment she saw it. It was a tattoo she got due to peer pressure when she went traveling with her friends. The tattoo, shaped like a Mobius strip, represented eternal friendship.

She chuckled. Actually, the former her disliked tattoos. Not only was she afraid, she felt repelled by drawing a symbol on her body that could not be erased later. However, she couldn’t say no when everyone else was leaning towards doing it. The results of that were left on her body.

She rubbed the protruding skin. Her former self might have disliked it, but the current her liked it, so it did not matter. She also had a small tattoo on her shoulder when she was an actress, and she frequently had hennas.

After wiping her body, she had lunch. For lunch, she had milk, which was two days past its expiry date, and some cereal, as well as some yogurt in a large container, which she felt she would never finish.

The food inside her fridge was just as frustrating as her dirty house. It seemed that she had bought various things to go on a diet, but the composition of those foods was hard to accept as a housewife. It was no wonder that she felt powerless when she woke up in the morning. Her dogma was that eating proper food was the best.

She probed her memories. She would very often throw away the side dishes that her mother made for her, and she rarely cooked for herself. Her main source of nutrition was dairy, and even then, she rarely ate it. On the contrary, she really liked starchy food, and she would control her calories by starving the next day if she ate high-calorie foods at night.

She stopped thinking. She felt like she would have a headache if she kept thinking. She emptied her plate first and took out the yogurt from the fridge. As it was cheap, there were three whole containers. She would never finish them before they went bad.

She knocked on her neighbor’s door with the yogurt. “Hello, I’m your neighbor. I have something to give you.”

A moment later, the door opened. Her neighbor was someone she would awkwardly greet if they made eye contact, but otherwise, they would pretend not to know each other at all. It seemed that her neighbor never imagined that she would knock on her door, as the housewife who opened the door kept blinking in surprise.

“Hello?” Haneul greeted first.

“Oh, hello.”

“You see, I bought a little too much yogurt on my last grocery shopping trip. It’s too much for me to eat by myself, so I was wondering if you would like some. There’s a bit until the expiry date, so you can put it in the fridge.” She handed the dumbfounded woman the yogurt container. “Or do you perhaps not like things like these?”

“Oh no. We’d love it. My child likes it too.”

“That’s a relief.”

The woman who stood in a daze after receiving the container told her to wait for a moment before going inside.

Haneul waited with a smile. She could feel the ‘affection between neighborhood wives’ vibe from this exchange.

“We made this fresh kimchi last night, and you should have some.”

“Oh my, these cabbages look so pretty. I really like them. These are spring cabbages, right?” She took out a piece of fresh kimchi from the plastic container and put it in her mouth. It was plain and not too salty, perfect for the dining table.

“You’re really a good cook.”

“You flatter me.”

“I think you can run a shop with this alone.”

“Well, I do hear that I’m pretty good at cooking.”

They laughed together for a while. Haneul looked at the woman and spoke cautiously, “I’ve been too cold until now despite being neighbors, wasn’t I? It looks like I was too focused on myself because I lived alone. We live in the same building, so I should have greeted you at least.”

“Oh, don’t mention it. These days, everyone lives like you, miss. In fact, you’ll be hard-pressed to find anyone who has a close relationship with their neighbors.”

“And so, if it’s okay with you, can I call you unni? I was feeling bored because I didn’t find anyone I could prattle with.”

“You know a word like prattle? I told my daughter about it, and none of her friends seem to know.”

“My mother’s from the south. So I know.”

“I see. My hometown’s in the south too.”

“Ooh. Then… can I call you unni?”

The housewife tilted her head before slapping her shoulder and speaking, “Right, right! I actually didn’t like that we were so awkward too. We met a lot of times, but you always avoided my eyes.”

“Yeah, I did. It’s much better now that we’re talking to each other like this.”

“Right, right. Oh, you are in college, right?”

“Yes.”

“Looks like I’ve misunderstood you until now. You looked really shy and you seemed like you would run away if I talked to you, so it was quite awkward. But now that we’re talking, you’re actually really nice.”

“Looks like I was a little on the edge because I started living by myself after living with my parents.”

“That can happen. It’s not easy living alone. Oh, look at me. Why don’t you come inside and have coffee with me?”

“You’re offering? I’d love to.”

Haneul returned to her house first and placed the fresh kimchi container in the fridge. Then, she picked up a packet of snacks on the table and went back to her neighbor’s house.

“You shouldn’t have brought that. You should eat that when you’re by yourself.”

“Snacks are a must for coffee.”

“You’re actually very bold. Looks like I was wrong about the shy girl image.”

“I can be bold at times.”

After conversing for about thirty minutes, she went back to her house. She was glad that she could get along with her neighbor. They even made an appointment to eat lunch together in the cheonggukjang restaurant near the market.

She opened the washing machine, which had finished spin-drying, and hung the laundry to dry. Whether it was her house or the people around her, she was planning to change them all starting with the trivial things.

If she toppled the things that formed her former self, everything would probably return to its place.

“Yeah, mom. Yeah, I had food. How about you? Oh, you had doenjang-jjigae. I was just talking to the unni next door and I’m finishing up some cleaning. She’s a good person, so don’t worry. Rather than that, I’ll go visit you on the weekend. Why, you ask? Of course, to steal food. I’ll snatch some side dishes, okay? Oh, the one you gave me last time? I finished them all already. Your cooking skills are great after all.”

Her mother, who was rather taken aback, hung up after saying that they should see each other over the weekend. She seemed rather weirded out by the fact that her daughter was acting friendlier than usual.

Haneul’s lips twitched. She was so good at smiling in front of her friends, so she couldn’t understand why she was always so annoyed in front of her mother. It was time to show her that the immature daughter had graduated.

She placed a yoga mat on the floor and lay down. It was time to organize her thoughts. Her memories were like pieces of a puzzle, so unless she actively put them in the right places, it was hard to see their meaning.

First up, she recalled the people close to her. There were no major problems with her family. While she was a grumpy kid, she never got into big trouble. In the first place, her former self was not bold enough to cause any accidents. She was extremely conscious of those around her. Heck, maybe it was fortunate that she was able to get annoyed in front of her family. If she couldn’t even do that, she might be on antidepressants already.

As for her boyfriend, that was sorted out, so she just skipped past it.

What remained were her friends. This was unexpectedly a big deal. Well, she did get along with them, but her position among them was someone who went with whatever the others said. She was well-rounded, so she could join the group without much trouble.

The problem was that she couldn’t say no. One consequence of that was the tattoo. She was a ‘yes girl’ who always accepted what others said.

Quarreling, fighting, and checking what lines they shouldn’t cross is one of the processes of becoming friends, but the past her just nodded continuously until she was absorbed into the group without being able to show them what region of her they could not intrude.

She picked up her phone. She checked the group chat with all of her friends in it. Among the trivial conversations were things that caught her eyes:

-I think Haneul can do that.

-Haneul’s good at that.

-Right, Haneul?

She flicked through the chat and had a look at chat logs in the past. She saw a conversation she had with her friends when they went traveling two weeks ago on the weekend. Not to mention buying tickets for the train and lodging, she also investigated what places they could look around and where they should go sightseeing. That was what always happened.

Of course, it wasn’t like that from the beginning. It was just the constant “I’ll do it”s and the lack of “I don’t want to” that put her in this state.

Haneul looked back at the things that happened. Before she became a ‘yes girl’, some of her friends asked worriedly: are you okay? Are you not pushing yourself? Are you sure you want to do it?

She wasn’t brave enough to reply honestly to those questions. Ultimately, doing things for others became momentum, and as someone who wasn’t forceful enough to escape the law of momentum, she just gave up. She was dragged around and put to a stop whenever others pushed her.

“I guess that makes it easy in some sense.”

Haneul put down her phone. Her relationships would fall apart if she suddenly changed her attitude. That wasn’t something she wanted. Just because all of her memories had returned didn’t mean that her current friends would become strangers. She just now had things that were much more important, but she still wanted to cherish the friendship that continued from high school.

She had to approach this carefully, like climbing the stairs one step at a time. The ones who cherish Han Haneul would understand her change and welcome it, and if they just treated her as some gullible girl until now, she could deal with them all at once, so it wasn’t that bad.

What she realized in her numerous lives was that it was very hard to create or meet a close friend that lasted a long time. If her friends whom she had known for years turned out to be treating her like a tool, then it would be better for both parties to take separate paths.

She lightly stretched her body and finished her thoughts. The habits she made as an actress in the previous life still remained in her. Dazing out was good, but stimulating her muscles in her spare time was much more comfortable for her.

Just as she calmed down her breathing and was about to call Maru, the name of her ex-boyfriend appeared on her phone. Maybe he was trying to say what he wasn’t able to say yesterday? She picked up the call while calming down the sense of pity in her heart.

-Let’s meet right now.

“Right now?”

-Is now not a good time?

“No, it’s okay. I don’t have a shift today.”

-I’ll wait for you in front of the cinema. The one we always went to.

“Alright.” She took her phone off her ear. She put on her clothes and then sent a message to Maru as she went out. She didn’t want there to be any misunderstandings, so she told him everything.

-I’ll go as well.

She was about to tell him to not, but then just told him to come. If she was in his shoes, she would’ve said the same. Not because she didn’t trust him, but because she was worried about him. Maru was probably worried because she told him that the boy had impulsive tendencies.

She put on her shoes and left her house.

After Story 8

She met the boy in front of the cinema. He was wearing a dress shirt and had tidy hair just like always. She once told him that he looked good in a dress shirt, and ever since then, he would wear a dress shirt often on their dates.

“Should we watch the movie first?” he said. The previous Haneul would have stayed silent and followed him. She might even have asked him which movie he wanted to watch, and what they should eat.

However, the person standing here was no longer the Han Haneul of the past. Her appearance might be the same, but her composition basically was that of another person.

“No, we said we should talk, so let’s talk.”

He licked his lips before smiling. She could see that his hands, which he awkwardly pulled back, had movie tickets in them. This was to be expected. After all, she always just followed him like his shadow. Sometimes, she would say what she wanted, but that very rarely happened. It was always the boy leading her and making decisions.

“Shall we go over there?” She pointed at the café on the second floor.

He replied ‘yes’ with a very confused expression.

Whatever the outcome, they were still lovers. They had gotten to know each other for the past six months, and he must have realized how passive she was. It was natural for him to be flustered because of the sudden change in her personality.

She looked behind her before she climbed the stairs. Maru was standing in the makeshift plaza between the high-rise buildings. He waved at her as soon as they made eye contact, as though to tell her that she shouldn’t be worried no matter what happens.

They went into the café. It was the boy who always led her inside, but today, she was at the front. She walked up to the counter and had a look at the menu. The boy usually liked to drink cappuccino.

“You’re okay with a cappuccino, right?”

“Yeah.”

“One cappuccino and one black coffee, please. Both cold.” She gave the employee her card to pay. At that moment, she could see the boy hurriedly opening his wallet behind her.

As they were a couple who were always cautious around each other, they always paid for their own food, even if it was something cheap.

“I’ll buy it this time,” she said.

He did not put back the money inside his wallet. He could probably guess what it meant for the unspoken rule to break, which would also explain his stubbornness.

“You don’t have to pay me. We’re no longer in that relationship. This is coffee I’m buying you as a friend.” She got the card back from the employee and sat down right in front of the counter.

The boy looked flustered. From the time they met till now, everything was so different, which probably made him uneasy. She neither talked to him nor showed interest in him. She just waited for him to sit down. Eventually, he squeezed the bills in his hand like used tissues and placed them on the table. He roughly pulled the chair back and sat down. He was emotional. She could feel that from every single one of his gestures. He was feeling urgent now since the well-fitted cogwheel-like relationship was suddenly creaking.

Like what she told Maru, this boy was very cautious. He had the tendency to go along with whatever others were going with, within the limits of his tolerance. However, the moment someone went outside of that tolerance, he would start acting prickly. Whether that was a method to defend himself or a mechanism to poke others, she had not found out fully yet. After all, the past her did not date her partner while minding things like that.

“I believe we were doing pretty well together,” he broke the silence.

“It might have just looked like that from the surface. Didn’t you feel it as well? Neither of us is willing to go past the fences that the other has put up. We do not try to see what’s beyond the wall around the other’s heart. We know that it would lead to being hurt.”

“That’s not a bad thing though.”

“You’re right. Some may think that, but I think differently. We prioritized our own pains rather than the pains of our partners, didn’t we? We didn’t want to get hurt, so we distanced ourselves from each other. We acted for the sake of ourselves, and not our partners. If that was just a form of consideration for strangers, then there would be no problem. No, in fact, that kind of attitude is the right one. However, I don’t think it’s the right one in the case of lovers.”

“We never talked about this before. We never quarreled and we enjoyed ourselves together.”

“Quarreling ultimately is just a fight for territory. That’s why we never needed to fight in the first place. We never tried to get into each other’s comfort zones. We were overly cautious. There might be lovers out there who continue that kind of relationship, but I don’t think it’s the right one for me. To be exact, I hate it. I want to understand my partner’s pains. I want to go deep inside their comfort zones and see what’s in there.”

“That’ll make both parties tired. You understood that, didn’t you? You said that it was the right thing to do.”

She saw that he had clenched his hand. His excitement could be seen on his cheeks, and his upper body was leaning forward more than before. He looked akin to a beast that went on a hunt.

She saw Maru, who was sitting on the other side, move his feet out from beneath the table. He seemed to be preparing to act at a moment’s notice.

She signaled Maru: it’s okay, this boy isn’t that foolish.

There was a reason she met him despite knowing that he was impulsive and had a tenacious part about him. She could talk to him at least. If he was a thug who would swing his fist the moment he gets angry, she wouldn’t even have come here. Nay, she would have reported him the moment she regained her memories.

The reason she didn’t do that was that while he might raise his voice and use violent words, she still had faith that she could reason with him.

“There’s nothing better than some cold coffee to cool your anger.” She went to the counter and received the coffee.

Having lost the right timing to snap out, he just stared at her with his lips firmly sealed.

“Drink,” she said as she put the cups down.

He didn’t even look at the coffee. He only seemed to be thinking about righting this conversation that had gone very differently from his expectations.

Let’s continue our conversation — he seemed to say with his eyes.

“I said drink,” she said again. If she was telling him nicely the first time, then she said it like she was sick and tired the second time.

His eyes lost their aim. The rage that he should have been released was probably hitting the ceiling of his mouth, and his head was probably busy processing this situation. With nothing going the way he expected, confusion must be piling on top of the rage.

She took her eyes off him and drank the coffee. He, who looked at her in vain, eventually grabbed the cup. His torso, which was leaning forward as though to attack, was now hunched like a new company recruit being dragged in front of his superiors. His energetic eyes had loosened up, making him look dull.

She could predict to an extent what he must be thinking inside: this isn’t right, this isn’t right.

“We were definitely in a romantic relationship. The biggest reason such a relationship could be achieved was that you and I were similar. If it’s her, she wouldn’t hurt me, if it’s him, he wouldn’t cross the fence around my heart. What bound us together was the false belief that our relationship would continue and that we would never meet each other like we are walking in parallel.

“…Why are you doing this all of a sudden?”

She leaned back against the chair. It was an obvious question, and also something hard to answer. Would he even believe her if she told him the truth? She thought about it for a moment, but the answer was already set in stone. “It’s because I changed. That’s all.”

“What do you mean? What changed? I don’t understand. We weren’t like this before.”

“I’m sorry, but I’m not expecting you to understand. I’m just explaining my own situation.”

He let out a breath over his shoulder. His agitation, which had waned off a little, was being reignited.

“I don’t accept this. We can’t break up like this. This can’t happen.”

“Why?” She took out the word she had been saving up. It was the simplest, yet the most powerful word.

It wasn’t that she was trying to make fun of him. She just needed an answer in order to dissolve this relationship. Not an answer that others gave him, but one he came up with himself.

“That’s…” He hesitated. He was probably at a loss. Stating a reason why they could not break up was as difficult as solving a difficult math equation.

“You might feel like something is wrong and you might not understand, but I gave you a reason why we can’t continue to be together. Of course, you don’t need to answer me. Whatever you say, I don’t plan to take back our breakup.”

“I’ll do better.”

“No, don’t do that. It’s not your fault that we’re breaking up. I don’t really like to say this but… just think that we broke up because I’m a bad girl. It’s true to a certain extent too. It’s me who pulled the trigger.”

“Can’t we just stay like before? Without you, I…”

She raised her finger to stop him from talking. “You must know what those words mean. Even if you don’t, you would know what kind of response you’re expecting from me. It’s a threat that looks calm on the surface. We are similar, and we both know that we’re afraid of being hurt and abandoned.” She drank some coffee and continued, “Before, I wasn’t able to reject you if you used those words. In fact, I welcomed it. Oh, he needs me. I’m very important to this person. But was I really? You can’t easily say that you can’t live without someone else. The current me knows how cruel and terrifying the meaning of those words are.”

He was not able to say anything. His eyes were becoming red, just like how he cried yesterday. If he was a little more violent, he might not have won against his anger and used his hand. His shy personality and his strong self-defense psychology were restraining him from acting.

“You would huff your anger like that, and I would pretend that I didn’t see it. Do you remember? On the day you tried to kiss me out of the blue, I inadvertently stepped back due to surprise, and you were dazed because you felt rejected and snapped out. Seeing that, I smiled like I made a mistake, afraid that I might be abandoned, while you just laughed it off as an accident. That meant that we were over. From that moment onwards, we were worse off than strangers. It’s entirely my fault that I dragged that pitiful relationship until now.” She looked him straight in the eyes and spoke, “I’m saying what I should have said that day. I believe you have understood that now.”

It wasn’t like any more conversation would improve things. She stood up and left the store. He hurriedly followed her. He grabbed Haneul’s shoulder and stopped her.

“Stop. I don’t have anything more to tell you. Even if I do, I would be repeating myself again.”

“Let’s start over. I’ll do what you say.”

“You didn’t understand a single thing I said, did you?”

Just as she was about to walk away after taking his hand off, he snatched her wrist. He was puffing and his eyes were bloodshot.

Did his sense of restraint finally reach its limit? Or was this because there weren’t many eyes around?

She didn’t think for long. She twisted his wrist backwards and pushed him away before pulling his shin with her foot. He fell down sideways, without being able to keep his balance.

In that instant, all blood drained from his face. Having been met with strong resistance, he seemed to have lost his spirit. She looked at the boy who was looking up at her from the ground. The sense of shame and anger was very faint. Instead, he was filled with the desire to grab her, like a child throwing a tantrum in front of his mother after she took away food from right in front of his eyes.

“You really are a kid, huh.”

She crouched down to meet him at eye level.

“Our first love is over. We might not have been in a good relationship, but I’m sure you have learned something from it. So if you ever start again, do better next time.”

She smiled and straightened his shirt collar. She then went down the stairs.

After Story 9

When Maru left the café with the disposable cup, he was greeted by the sight of the man who was chasing Haneul’s back with a dumbfounded look. The man’s lips moved without producing any word a few times as though he wanted to say something.

He quietly stared at the side of the man’s face. If the man was agitated and showed any signs of rushing towards her, he was planning to stick out his leg and make him fall. If the fallen man glared at him, he would just have to tell him sorry with the gentlest smile he could muster.

His worries were for naught, however, as the man did not get agitated, nor rush toward her. He just walked to the entrance on the other side, still in a daze. Maru could hear him say ‘this isn’t right’ as he walked out.

Maru knew from this moment that the situation was over. The man seemed to have lost his will to quarrel or throw a tantrum. Maru wondered what Haneul said to him.

After seeing the man disappear, he walked over to Haneul. She was waiting in front of a spiraling fountain.

“What did you tell the kid?” he asked as he approached.

“Not much. Why do you ask?”

“He looked like he saw a ghost. He just trodded away with a pale face, and it made me want to pity him. Why didn’t you go easy on him?”

“Should I have given him a chance then?” Haneul smiled.

He laughed awkwardly. He had ticked her off by asking.

“I helped him so that he can finish his awkward first love cleanly. If it was before I regained my memories, we probably would’ve dated for a long time, even while knowing that something is wrong. Then the lid of the pot would eventually build up steam and boom!” She raised her fist above her head and opened it. “No, that might be a better outcome. There’s a possibility that we might have continued to drag things on without being able to end it. It would’ve developed into the worst possible relationship. It was a relationship where one of us, no, both of us would end up wounded.”

He stood next to her. “So it’s a good thing that you finished things off cleanly here, huh.”

“It’s the last gift I gave to my ex-boyfriend. Also hey, don’t you think you were staring at me a little too blatantly? I almost burst out laughing at the café.”

“You should’ve. If you did, that boy would’ve found out and things would have progressed into a love triangle drama.”

“Should I have done that? I guess we need a booster in our relationship too, huh.”

“You make my thoughts freeze whenever you retaliate to my jokes like that.”

“Why? Who do you think said things like this all the time? I got it all from you. Aren’t terrible jokes your specialty, Gaeul’s dad?”

“Me? My humor is one that makes the ladies smile, one that is sometimes philosophical and can be ruminated about over and over ag… Honey, you can’t leave me here like this.”

He hurriedly chased after Haneul, who proudly left. He grabbed her hand tightly and walked side by side.

“Now that I think about it, didn’t you have a girlfriend?”

“Before I went to the military, there was someone from the same year that I had a pretty good relationship with, but she switched majors when I got back. Before that, as you know, I was in an engineering high school, so I was playing soccer all day. There are a couple of girls in the entire electronics engineering class, so how was I supposed to date anyone?”

“I got confessed to a few times though.”

“Sounds like you were popular.”

She tilted her head and fell into thought before smiling. “No, it looks like they took me lightly. During high school, I was even more introverted than now which must have produced a strange charm and made them think that they could succeed.”

“Are you boasting to me about how good your looks are?”

“Where would my looks go? During high school, I was chubbier than this, so I was quite cute. If I went back with the memories I have now, I would’ve become the queen of Myunghwa High.”

“Old lady, you watched too many dramas. No wait, maybe you did too many dramas?”

“Why? You think I can’t?”

He imagined it for a second. If she, who was more cunning than any thousand-year devious foxes, became a student again… she might actually be able to enjoy high school life while being served by everyone around her.

“That gave me the chills. You actually might be able to.”

“I was wondering why you looked like that. You actually thought about it?” She frowned. She slapped him on the back, saying that he was mischievous. Others might think that it’s a small joke being played between a pair of lovers, but her slap was spicier than most other males’. It truly hurt.

“It looks like your super strength hasn’t changed in this life either huh,” he said as he hunched his back.

The problem with her ex-boyfriend would probably never surface again. He could tell as he was a male as well. The eyes the boy showed told him that he had completely lost his fighting spirit. It was extremely rare for an animal who had gone into submission to bare its fangs again.

“It’s a bit early for dinner, so should we go watch a movie together or something?” Maru asked as he looked at the cinema opposite them.

“There’s a place I need to go.” She led the way. He didn’t ask where.

When they walked past the row of commercial buildings, her steps came to a stop. It was a supermarket.

“Instead of eating outside, let’s go grocery shopping and eat at home. We should manage our expenses from now on, just in case.”

That was a great idea. He wanted food cooked by Haneul too. Thinking about the coziness of a home meal, they went into the supermarket.

“The girl bought three whole containers of yogurt, you know? And they were 1 liter each. She should be eating proper food, but she’s going to college and doing part-time jobs while eating things like that, so it’s not strange that she doesn’t have any energy.”

Throughout the entire shopping trip, she told him about how irresponsibly her past self lived and how impulsive she was when it came to spending money. He also told her that there was a game console that he packed up at home.

“I wonder how much it would cost second-hand,” she wondered.

“I think about 400 thousand if you include the game titles.”

“400 thousand huh? I can’t grasp how much that is because my sense of money is all screwed up right now. We spent that much on a whim when we were well-off, but when we weren’t doing well, that kind of expenditure was something that would make us flinch, even if we bought it with a six-month plan,” she said, comparing the prices of different packages of bean sprouts.

This was something that occurred because the spectrum of their lives was extremely wide. Both Maru and Haneul had a variety of experiences from the bottom of society to the peak. Just the number of different jobs they did professionally amounted to hundreds, and as for their monthly income, it would range from below 100 thousand won to hundreds of millions of won. Although they were setting a base point according to this life, it would still take a few days to adapt completely.

“How much is your rent again?” Maru asked.

“250 thousand. The deposit is 20 million, so I got it pretty cheap.”

“A two-room apartment, right?”

“Yeah. How about you?”

“I’m about the same. 300 thousand and 10 million for deposit.”

“If we want to reduce our monthly expenses, living together is definitely a better option.”

“You should do as you see fit. You said you need more time, so you can decide when you’re done with that.”

She checked the expiry date on a carton of milk before turning her head around. “Hun, there’s something we forgot. We don’t have anything to say to our parents.”

“That’s true.”

They couldn’t exactly live together in secret. If they did, and their respective parents found out during their visit to give their children some food, chaos would ensue. No matter how liberal a parent might be, there was no way they would allow their child to live together with their lovers without even talking to them about it. He might be a forty-five-year-old man on the inside, but his appearance was definitely in his early 20s. His parents were paying for his rent, so he couldn’t help but be careful.

She, who continued walking after putting the milk in the cart, chuckled. “This is fun. We can think about trivial matters like this.”

“That’s true.”

A trail of carts went past her. The employees pushing the carts from the back and pulling the cart from the front asked them to give room.

“Should I quit college as well?” she asked.

“I’m quitting because I was going there without a proper aim, but didn’t you have a vision?”

“How many people around our age do you think have a vision in the first place? I’m like you. The only difference is that I am interested in baking, and I chose something similar?”

“If you want to, then you should keep going. They say there’s a best age for learning.”

“I know, but ever since my memories returned, I’ve lost interest in what I’m learning in college. It makes me think that I might be better off earning money instead.”

Was that why she was staring at the employee pushing the cart trail? He grabbed the cart that Haneul was pushing.

“It’s a man’s job to earn money.”

“Get on with the times. Also, there were more times we both earned money instead of you earning alone.”

“I’m saying that there’s no need to think about the far future right now. If there’s anything you want to do, then you should do that first.”

“You were the one who was so focused on earning money. How could you say that to me? Also, we both know how important money is, especially when Gaeul was sick. Whenever I think of those numerous moments, I feel like my heart is stopping. I can clearly remember when she was hurt more than when I was hurt.”

Her lips sealed into a straight line. He looked at her clenched hands. How could he not know how she felt? When he took the small child to the hospital and sighed in relief, he would then remember his remaining bank balance. He couldn’t begin to describe the tragic feelings he had then. Just the fact that he had placed the health of his child and money on the same scale made him stifled. At such times, he would recall the foolish times he spent in his youth, and she must know the sense of deprivation from that as well.

“Gaeul is naturally a very important child. However, you’re just as important to me as her. You told me, didn’t you? We are bound to meet our daughter one day, but that now is not the time. We will do well. We will be able to raise Gaeul in an environment that doesn’t lose to any other time. So let’s not think about too many things now. If you chase the things you want, I’m sure it’ll bring good results.”

“You know better than anyone that life isn’t so easy.”

“I do. That’s why I won’t fail. That goes for you as well. If the almighty Han Haneul slips up, how would anyone succeed? Don’t you think so?”

Maru could see strength leaving the hands tightly wrapped around the cart handle. He gently rubbed his palm against her hand after putting his arm around her shoulder, so that she could feel his warmth. Although he said that he knew everything, he could not predict what would happen in this life.

It would not be easy to win against the unease stemming from that. Precisely because of that, he was grateful that she was by his side. She was someone who supported him just by being next to him.

“We will do well.” He softly kissed her on the forehead.

“So let’s decide on the most important thing, our dinner menu. I want something spicy.”

A smile came to her stiff face.

“How about seafood stew?”

“Sounds lovely.”

He grabbed her hand and swung it back and forth like a child. Haneul told him to stop in a small voice before shaking her arm even more widely in excitement.

“I’m glad you’re here,” she said.

“I’m the same,” he replied.

After Story 10

She opened her eyes when she felt her left elbow touch something while moving. There was a head underneath her chin. She quietly looked at the spiraling hair before raising her finger. She moved her finger according to that spiral before tapping Maru on the head once and leaving the bed. He didn’t budge, as though he was pretty tired, even though he would’ve opened his eyes early in the morning to go out on a morning jog if it was the previous life.

She put her hand below the duvet. She could feel his chubby stomach. He groaned and turned around.

“Get some more sleep,” she whispered before leaving the room. It finally felt like her home. It put her at ease that someone who should be here was here.

She went to open the veranda door for ventilation before closing it again. A wave of heat wafted over, and it was hot enough to make her sweat during that brief moment. She turned on the AC since people’s lives were more important than electricity bills. She also opened the door to the bedroom. Maru, who was in bed, still pulled the duvet over his body as though he didn’t know how hot it was.

She thought about waking him up to eat breakfast together before stopping. Cooking food just for herself was boring, so she ate a banana and some yogurt. She turned on the TV and watched the morning drama before washing the dishes that she didn’t wash after cooking seafood stew yesterday.

Her head turned automatically when she heard the lines from the drama. Last time, it was a couple of siblings who had parted when they were young, and now it was half-brothers with the same mother. No way — she cursed how improbable that was, but that was also the charm of morning dramas. She could easily deduce the context without looking at the screen, so it was perfect for a housewife.

After washing the dishes, she brewed some coffee. She started focusing on the drama for real. The chairman of a large cosmetics company fell over in a heart attack, and suddenly, a woman claiming to be in an affair with the chairman suddenly appeared and started turning the whole household into a huge mess.

Even variety TV shows were more docile compared to this. There was an incident every other minute.

She put down her cup and watched the drama before standing up when the chairman’s lover came out. The woman in the drama said a line. She interpreted the line she heard in the drama and uttered it, “The chairman prepared it for me, I say!”

Characteristic of morning dramas, the actress’ actions were rather muted. Haneul put in some action though. She acted by herself in front of the TV as though she was shooting a monodrama.

Then she stopped. She stood in a daze until the drama was almost over. Something left her grasp. It was a sensation that lifted her heels and made her lips twitch. She knew what this emotion was; it was one that shook her body before disappearing.

It was the desire of the actress Han Haneul, no, Han Gaeul.

She slapped her cheeks lightly with her palms and then smiled brightly and stretched her arms out as though nothing happened.

That’s right, it’s all in the past. It’s completely over.

She switched channels. Putting on the news instead of the drama made her calm down. Her senses wavering in the past had now completely settled down in reality. She was an ordinary twenty-two-year-old college girl, not an actress anymore.

She put on her earbuds and turned on some music in order to clear up her head. The newscaster’s voice could be heard intermittently through the lyrics. She waved her body lightly according to the beat. When she listened to a few songs, she felt refreshed as though she just woke up in the morning.

She checked the time. It was 10 now.

“Honey, Gaeul’s dad. Why don’t you wake up now?” she said toward the bedroom. The lump of duvet inside wriggled before turning still again.

“What time is it?”

“Past ten.”

“Already?”

He, who was tossing around between the bed and the duvet, slowly held out his hand. Haneul grabbed his hand and pulled it. He, who was obediently being dragged up by her like a potato being dragged out of the ground, suddenly smiled before pulling her with strength.

She put strength into her right foot and held still. “Why don’t you stop your nonsense and get up?”

She pinched his arm. He suddenly made a fuss, saying that it hurt.

“Are you going to sleep more?” she asked. If he was really tired, she was planning to let him sleep longer.

“There’s something I want to talk about. Come next to me for a sec.” He made room next to him on the bed. For serious-sounding words, his face was filled with mischief.

She looked at him for a while before sitting down on the bed, like she was unable to win against him. He pulled her shoulders. She lay down and they ultimately ended up in the same position as when she woke up in the morning.

“It feels like it’s been a really long time. My memories are vivid, but feeling it with my body is something else,” he whispered into her ear. It was ticklish, but she wanted to keep letting him do it.

She couldn’t help it, they had not given up on each other across the innumerable number of opportunities and an extremely long time. They were long past being bored of each other. In fact, it felt new every single time. Although she thought she knew everything about him, parts of him that she didn’t know kept catching her eye. Every part of him was lovely.

His hands wrapped around her neck. Due to her young, sensitive body, her body heated up quite soon. Before she could even say that they should eat breakfast, he entered her. Well, breakfast can come later, right?

At that moment, her phone, which she placed on the cabinet next to the bed, started vibrating. He looked at her, signaling her not to take it. She wanted to do the same, but the vibrations did not stop.

She picked up the phone. “Hello?”

-My girl. You don’t have a shift today, do you?

It was her mother.

“Yeah, I don’t have any work on the weekends. Have you had breakfast, mom?”

-I have. Are you at home right now?

“Yeah.”

-Mom will be there soon so let’s have lunch together. You said you’d come on the weekend, but I thought it’d be better to visit you instead. I’ll give you side dishes and make some more.

“Okay. It’s hot, so take your time.” She put down her phone.

Maru, who was lying on her lap, sat up. “Mother-in-law’s coming?”

“Yeah. She says she’s bringing some side dishes.”

“Looks like I should wash my face then.”

“And your hair too. No matter how comfortable you are around my mom, you know that you have to be respectful, right?”

“Now that I think about it, I was always quite close to her.”

“Thanks to that, I had a hard time because no one was on my side.”

She slapped Maru’s buttcheek as he got up from the bed. While he went to the bathroom, she cleaned up the duvet. It was a pity that things ended when it was getting good, but they had plenty of time.

It was when she tapped on the pillow to puff it back up again, “Honey!”

Everything felt so natural and obvious that she forgot. He seemed to be the same as he rushed out of the bathroom. There was shaving foam around his chin that dripped down.

“Is she coming now?”

“Yes!”

“I can’t say hello to her now, can I?”

“Can you even call that a question?”

Even though they were clearly a married couple, and they had even seen their kid numerous times, they couldn’t tell their respective parents about it right now. The reality of it was quite ridiculous but also rather troubling considering that her mother would come at any moment.

Her mother in this life was an upright woman. Not only that, they lived near each other. It was less than ten stops away by bus. Considering her personality, it was likely that she called on her way out of her house.

He quickly rushed into the bathroom. Meanwhile, Haneul collected Maru’s clothes and placed them in front of the bathroom. As for the male hygiene products they bought during their shopping yesterday, she gathered them all up and slapped them beneath the closet.

If she, as the daughter, was liberal and cheerful and had experienced introducing her boyfriend to her mother before, she would’ve tried to introduce him but…

“No, wait. Han Haneul, get yourself together.”

If she went to visit the twenty-two-year-old Gaeul to give her some food, and a random man came out with a smile, Haneul would immediately take out the umbrella from the umbrella stand and call her crazy. Even the most liberal parents would not be able to endure that. That was the same for her calm mother.

“Hun, I’ll go outside for now. Mom will be here by bus.”

She changed clothes and left the house. Although the sun was scorching, she couldn’t feel the heat. Her mind was solely focused on the bus stop. Just then, a bus came by the bus stop in front of the residential area. No, it can’t be.

“Why are you out here?”

It can’t be my ass. She smiled and approached her mother. She came with food in both hands.

“Of course I’m here to pick you up. But why did you bring so much?”

“This is the first time my girl said she misses home food, so I put in some effort.”

The cold daughter had called her first and acted cute, so she was probably overjoyed. As someone who raised a daughter of her own, she could understand that feeling. However, the timing wasn’t good. With every single step they took, she felt a clock ticking in her head.

He should’ve left by now, right? They won’t meet at the door, right? He’s not at home, right? — she had forgotten to bring her phone because she was in such a hurry. She decided to drag out the time for as long as possible.

“Mom, should we eat some meat today? Let’s buy some pork belly at the butcher’s.”

“I knew you’d say that, so mom brought some jeyuk-bokkeum.”

“I-I also want to eat japchae too.”

“What a coincidence, I brought some japchae too.”

She was infallible. She uneasily walked up to her side.

“Haneul,” her mother said, her voice quite serious.

“Yeah?”

“There aren’t any problems, are there?”

Her mother tried to hide her seriousness with an innocent smile, but Haneul could instantly tell how worried she was.

She stopped walking. Was it that bad? It seemed that giving her an affectionate call as a daughter who had left the house worried her. She could see why her mother hurriedly visited in the morning.

She smiled and hooked arms with her, “Mom, I was such a bad girl, wasn’t I?”

“What are you saying?” Her mother made an awkward expression.

“I’ll do better from now on. I won’t act spoiled anymore either. I’ve changed. I’m going to go traveling with you, and also chat with you. I won’t do it if you don’t want to though.”

“I’d love to.”

Her mother’s eyes moved around busily as though trying to read her true intentions. Haneul did not avoid her eyes. They looked at each other for a while. Her mother’s slightly wrinkled eyes curved into a smile.

“You’ve grown, my girl.”

She probably couldn’t understand everything, but she must have at least realized that what her daughter said was not a lie. She must have seen her daughter’s eyes tens of thousands of times while changing her diapers alone, so she would’ve seen what Haneul’s eyes were saying, just like how Haneul also did so when she looked at Gaeul.

The relationship she wanted to straighten out the most had recovered to an extent. She rejoiced from the depths of her heart and walked with her mother.

It was when they arrived in front of the house she was living in. Maru, donning a deep-pressed hat, rushed out of the entrance. She inwardly sighed in relief. In any case, it was great that they didn’t come across each other.

“Haneul.”

“What?”

“That boy just now. You don’t know him, do you?”

“I don’t.”

“He lowered his head like some kind of criminal when he met eyes with me.”

Her mother turned around. She looked at Maru’s back as she disappeared into the distance.

“Mom might be overly worried, but you should be careful when you walk around at night. This place is too dark. Should I file a complaint to install some lights?”

“You’re being too paranoid.”

Sorry mom, that boy just now is your son-in-law — she smiled awkwardly and opened the door. Her mother went inside and had a look at the living room first.

“You’re quite clean.”

“Of course I am.”

Her mother’s gaze suddenly stopped. She followed her eyes.

An empty bottle of soju and four cans of beer. She had forgotten to throw them out after washing the dishes.

“L-let’s put this inside the fridge first.”

Her mother pretended to be oblivious. She smiled awkwardly and clenched her fist before loosening it again.

After Story 11

She watched TV for a while before looking at the clock. The hour hand was already nearing 8. When she opened the curtain slightly, she saw that a thick purple atmosphere was enveloping the residential area. She didn’t know that it had become so late already.

“It’s late,” said her mother, who was looking outside just like her.

“Mom, do you want to sleep over for the night?” Haneul asked her.

“I can’t. Your dad will be lonely.”

“Well, I guess he really can’t do without you.”

Her mom stood up and started scanning the living room and the fridge. She really was overly worried. Even after having looked at them all day, she looked at them one last time before going back.

“I’ll eat and clean up well, so don’t worry.”

“Who says I’m worried? I was just curious.”

“Should I take you to the bus stop?”

“Forget it. It’s just around the corner.”

While her mother put on her shoes, she went to her room and got her wallet. She took out five ten-thousand won bills and folded them twice before hiding them in her hand.

“Mom.” She grabbed her mother’s hand and handed her the money.

“This is my first pocket money for you.”

“You don’t have to give me this. You should use it for yourself.” Her mother stubbornly refused.

She knew words wouldn’t work, so she pushed her mother’s back out the door. “Then think of it as money for the side dishes.”

“I said you should use it for yourself.”

“I’m earning more than enough through my part-time work, so don’t worry about me and get something nice to eat with dad. Dad likes bulgogi. There’s a new bulgogi restaurant in front of the station that opened recently. You should go there together.”

“Geez, girl.”

She waved her hand at her mother, who awkwardly held the money. Her mother put on a complex expression, but she could definitely see her smile as she turned around. She could tell what her mother must be feeling: gratitude towards her child, who looked out for her even though she thought she didn’t do anything for her, as well as apologetic.

“Mom, you know I love you, right?”

Her mother, who was walking down the stairs, nodded without a word.

I’ll tell dad about it separately — she added.

After closing the door and turning around, she fanned herself with her hand. Her face felt hot. Whether she had matured or not, saying I love you to someone was rather embarrassing, even though she said such words out of habit when she was young.

She cleaned up the living room and called Maru.

-How’s mother-in-law?

“She went home.”

-Did she say anything?

“She flinched after seeing the soju bottle. She must’ve imagined her daughter holed up in her room drinking booze.”

-She must’ve thought that you’re a drunkard.

“Maybe. Anyway, it’s a relief that we didn’t get caught.”

-I really should go say hello to her in a while. It’s not like we’ve sinned, so it’s funny to be so nervous.

“I’ll try bringing it up later, so you should show your face at that time. We need to be natural about it.”

-You’re good at things like that. And also…

He trailed off immediately. This was rare. She sat down on the sofa and listened closely. Her husband, who was usually clear-cut about doing things, was hesitant. This indicated that what was about to come was considerably important. She nervously waited.

-I should’ve asked this before, but things were so hectic that I only got to ask now.

“What is it?”

-Honey, do you want to do acting again?

A sense of silence turned around and looked at her. She sealed her lips. It seemed that her husband had seen her saying the lines from the drama in the morning. She could hear his faint breathing over the phone.

“You heard that in the morning?”

-I was drowsy, but yes.

“I just did it out of boredom. There’s no big meaning to it.”

-Are you sure?

“The memories of the previous life are the most vivid to me. How much acting do you think I did? Do you think I would want to do that again? It’s just that my habits as an actress is still in me, so I did it out of reflex.” She chuckled.

-If you say so, then I don’t have anything to say about it either.

“Why are you being so serious all of a sudden? Mr. Han Maru, I get what you’re worried about, so I won’t say anything much. You know what I want to say too, right?”

-Alright, okay.

After chatting for a while, she hung up. She pulled one of her knees up and watched a newly-released mini-series drama.

“I know. I know it too,” she whispered.

Maru told her to do what she wanted to do, but that was more easily said than done. What she wanted to do, and what she did well. The two were different things, and becoming successful in it was an entirely different matter.

If she said she wanted to become an actress, her husband would not hesitate to support her. He would not think for long about which jobs to choose and start earning money, and that money would then be spent on her. They had lived tens of thousands of lives together, so she could easily deduce that much.

That was something she didn’t like. If one person chased a dream in the sky, then the other would naturally become a ladder. Maru encouraged her, saying that he would be successful in whatever he did, but she knew — and he must know too — that it would not be the case. She couldn’t leave without regrets, like a bulldozer, just because she had experienced everything there is to life. In fact, she felt even more cautious precisely because this was the last time.

This was also the reason that she was worried about Gaeul, who hadn’t even been born yet. She had lived as a mother for too long. She was painfully aware of the hardships of welcoming a baby without a proper foundation. As someone who had experienced both a plentiful and a poor environment, she would definitely choose the former if given the choice.

She couldn’t help it. Such was the desire and trait of a social animal. If both parents sought their dreams and slipped up, then all that remained would be hardships.

Moreover, if the dream was acting, then it would take time to slip up. Actors weren’t born in a day. That industry was one where even the most famous child actors would disappear without a sound once they become adults.

Had she not come across the drama ‘Flaming Lady’ in her previous life and had not built her acting during high school before that, then her dream of becoming an actress would have rotted away like a seed in asphalt, not able to take root.

Above all, there was the ‘rabbit’ in the previous life. The rabbit was the most exceptional consultant when it came to acting. The rabbit was Han Haneul, yet not Han Haneul. The delicate feelings the rabbit possessed had been completely erased.

The background of her mother being a writer, the fact that she had been interested in acting and doing related activities from a young age, as well as the opportunities that were the rabbit and Flaming Lady. Every single one of those elements came together to give birth to the ‘actress Han Gaeul’. Not only that, the contributions of the talented CEO of her agency could not be ignored.

Compared to that, how was this life? She stood in front of the mirror. Her face, which was no different from that of the previous life, was reflected in the mirror. However, looking at the details, the two faces had to be called completely different.

She tried smiling. The tips of her lips did not go up as much as she expected them to. Then, she tried frowning. She creased her forehead and narrowed her eyes. She changed expressions a few times before chuckling in vain. If it was the previous life, her acting instructor would have slapped her.

She was a twenty-two-year-old college student, who had lived a life totally unrelated to acting. Her body and face were completely untrained. Adding to that, she was extremely shy and passive in this life. She rarely actively expressed herself with her full emotions. Her facial muscles had stiffened, giving her a dull impression, and her body was too skinny because of an unbalanced diet.

Actors required muscles to express what they were trying to do. Actors with good air around them, actors with good acting; all of those elements were created by precise muscular control. Actors who had trained constantly were able to transmit emotions to the viewers behind the camera lens just with their eyes, even if their words weren’t enough. That kind of acting wasn’t something that could be made in a day or two. It required a body that followed every single intent down to the detail, understanding of emotions, and the mechanisms behind displaying such emotions. That was just the basics. The basics would create an actor, and proficiency would create ‘actors with a good air’.

She left the mirror. She knew the road there, so given enough time, she had the confidence to return her face back to that time. However, she did not know what awaited her at the end of all that training.

That uncertainty was what she was afraid of. Pursuing an invisible path after removing all the elements of success wasn’t chasing a dream. It was closer to using her life as gambling chips to receive cards while praying that she would get a blackjack. She wanted to become an ordinary parent rather than a gambler. Her husband must be thinking the same, and that was probably why he told her to pursue her dream.

Even if you become a gambler, I’ll work to death so that our house does not sway — this was how he sounded to her. Using her husband, who would be working tirelessly with their daughter on his back, as a foothold was horrifying. Maru was her husband, not a safety net. Transmit the consequences of failure to him? How could something be more absurd than that?

She fidgeted with her phone. Just like how she was attached to being an actress, the same must be true for her husband. She held herself back from calling him, afraid that she might say the same thing to him: do it if you want to, I’ll take responsibility.

Dreams come in many different forms, she thought as she watched the drama. She just had to do something that she did well that also had a high probability of success.

Let’s just enjoy what I like as a hobby. That was the conclusion she came to and thus tried to switch the channel, but for some reason, her finger did not move. The movements of the actors on the screen kept catching her eye.

For one moment, she found herself standing in the middle of the screen.

Her perspective changed again. She was in the middle of a set, and she could see the camera in front of her, as well as the production crew monitoring her in the distance. She herself was looking at the script for a while before chatting with the actors who talked to her. Faintly, she could hear the director shout cue and cut.

She closed her eyes. Her imagination, nay, her delusions scattered.

“Han Haneul, get yourself together.”

She had to forget about this sweet dream. If she slipped up after trying her hand at being an actor with the memories of her previous life as the basis, there would be no next time.

She decided to just focus on what she could do now. First, she had to think about whether to continue going to college or not. Would she be able to make a living off of baking? Considering her own skills and the products of her work until now, she didn’t think she had the talent to be a baker. The world of gourmet was an unknown territory that she had not visited even in her previous life.

Considering the cost and time until graduation, was it really worth investing in? She kept asking questions. If she stopped college now, what would she do?

“So it comes down to a personal business after all?”

She had experience running internet shopping malls. She also had experience earning big money by selling clothes when she was young. Although most areas were becoming red oceans, there were still plenty of opportunities to take advantage of. If she picked up the successful cases and tried her hand with a small sum of money, then the risks of losing money would be low as well.

As for marketing, she knew that more than well enough. Beads crafting classes and selling DIY kits weren’t so bad either. These had fewer risks of inventory management as well. If she rented a small office and started a hobby class and did it alongside running a blog and making online videos…

She stopped for a moment and lay back.

“The New Actress award goes to… Han Gaeul from Flaming Lady. Congratulations,” she muttered as she looked at the ceiling. That moment felt like a distant past.

After Story 12

“Over here.”

Maru waved at his friend who just came inside and was looking around. Park Daemyung came over, walking through the smoke in the air.

“Is this place popular? There’s a lot of people here.”

Having not seen him for a long time, Daemyung’s face had become quite burnt. The heat this year was quite bad, and Maru could tell just how hard Daemyung’s work must have been.

“Let’s order something for now. You haven’t had dinner yet, have you?”

They ordered two portions of pig skin, one bottle of soju, some rice, and some doenjang-guk.

“Please give us the rice and the soup first,” Maru said to the waiter who received the order. The waiter curtly replied yes.

“You took the train up here?”

“Yeah. The train is a lot more comfortable than taking a bus. But were the seats in the KTX[1] always so narrow?”

“It’s definitely narrower than the older trains. You should drink some water. You look like you’re hot.”

Daemyung picked up the cup and gulped down the water. The way his shoulders jerked as he drank made him look like a bear.

“Easy, you might cough.”

Daemyung smiled awkwardly when Maru said those words without much thinking. Thanks to his innocent-looking smile and his large size, he was pretty popular throughout school as well. This Park Daemyung was pretty different from the one in his previous life. Though, his innocent personality hadn’t changed.

“Any progress on work?” Maru asked as he handed him the cutlery. Last time he called, Daemyung said he was in a tight spot because his team was disbanded.

“I just quit. I was told to move out of the apartment I was using as my lodging. I’ll stay in Suwon for a while before looking into it again, or look for a different line of work altogether.”

“Is the economy that bad?”

“You tell me. Before, people said that there was no way the shipbuilding industry in Korea would fall, but looking at how things are going now, that doesn’t seem entirely right. It’s okay for the time being, but it might get into serious trouble in a couple years. A crane driver I know said he was going to quit and was going to look for another line of work.” Daemyung shook his head from side to side as though this whole ordeal was a pain.

Maru probed his memories. Even in his previous lives, the shipbuilding industry frequently fell. There were a few worlds where they continued to be successful, but most of the time, most companies there went bankrupt.

“You’re going back to your parent’s house?”

“For just a few days. I’ll look for a house and leave as soon as possible. Mom told me to stay at home, but it’s kinda embarrassing to stay at home at this age.”

“You’re only twenty-two. At this age, most people will stay at their parent’s house. You’re the exception. You went to the military as soon as you graduated high school and started working. Other people just get pocket money from their parents like a baby kangaroo or just do some part-time jobs.”

“You know I’m not in that kind of environment.”

The waiter brought the rice and the soup. He pushed the bubbling doenjang-guk over to Daemyung.

“Let’s eat the pig skin over some soju, and eat this first.”

Daemyung wiped his hands with a wet towel and picked up his spoon. He took a big spoonful of rice and shoved it in his mouth before chewing on it.

Seeing that, Maru felt like they were back in their high school days. He was in the same class as Daemyung, but he only got to talk to him for the first time at the cafeteria to get lunch. This guy got a mountain load of rice on his tray and practically gulped it down like he was going to a fight.

There, Maru inadvertently asked if he didn’t eat breakfast. Daemyung responded with a nod as if it was natural. After that, Maru kept talking to him because of his roughness and affectionate-looking side to him. That was when he found out that Daemyung was raised in a single-parent household, by his mother.

He really liked Daemyung, who could talk about what could be an iffy family history so plainly.

“I should really go meet your mother soon. Does she still like cold bean soup noodles?”

“She loves them. Now that we’re on the topic, mom talks about you from time to time. She asks me what Maru is doing.”

“Since we’re talking about her, I should go visit her next week. I’d better go when you’re still around.”

“Do as you see fit.”

Daemyung downed a bowl of rice in that instant. His appetite seemed to have grown stronger. Maru stopped him from ordering another bowl.

“We’ll go for a second round so don’t fill your stomach yet.”

Over some crispy roasted pig skin and soju, Maru and Daemyung talked. Most of the time, Daemyung would talk and he would just chime in.

“Something must really have happened to you, huh,” Daemyung said.

“What do you mean?”

“You’re listening to me without a word. Usually, by this time, you’d be the one excitedly talking.”

“Listening is more interesting than using your mouth.”

“There’s the matter of you dropping out as well, and now you’re acting like this. Did you gain enlightenment in the time I haven’t seen you? You know, like some kind of fantasy novel.”

He really was an avid novel reader. Maru just shrugged. He had already told this guy that he had regained the memories of his previous lives, but he didn’t choose to believe it, so there was no helping it.

“Right, you should introduce me to your girlfriend,” Daemyung said, his face bright red. He still wasn’t good with alcohol.

“I’ll introduce her to you soon enough. Would you like to see her face first?”

“Is she pretty?”

“There’s no one else like her.”

Maru showed her photo on his phone. After looking at her for a while, Daemyung narrowed his eyes and spoke.

“You said you were going to college to study, and here you are with a girlfriend. Is she from the same university?”

“No.”

“Then how did you two meet?”

“It was destiny.”

“Good for you. And your destiny.”

She’s pretty alright — Daemyung muttered before returning the phone.

“You said you’re taking a break for a while, didn’t you? Would you like me to introduce someone to you?” He filled Daemyung’s glass.

“Not now. Once I start working again, I’ll be busy without time to do anything. I’ll look for one once I have time.”

“If you keep doing that, your youth will disappear.”

“I don’t care. If I can sell my youth to gain financial stability, then I’d love to do it.” Daemyung’s face had turned volcano red after just three glasses. From his prolonged exhaling and giggling speech, it seemed that he was really drunk.

Maru wondered if he got better at drinking while working on shipbuilding, but it turned out that he became weaker instead.

“Is it hard these days?” He put cooked pig skin on Daemyung’s plate.

“What’s hard for me? It’s my mom who has it hard. She’s working as a cashier, but that’s not easy, you know? She has to be standing all day, so it’s taxing on her body, and it’s also exhausting once some self-entitled customers come around. You know, don’t you? My mom has never taken a break. I wish I could just tell her to watch her favorite dramas at home, but I’m not capable of that.”

“Still, it’s fortunate that she has a son like you.”

“Like hell it is. It would only be fortunate if I went to a prestigious university with a full scholarship and then to a big company after graduation so she can rest easy. Look at me now. I’ve worked for over a year, but I was fired overnight because there was no work for me.”

“You haven’t changed your habit where you start grumbling once you’re drunk.”

“I can only say this because you’re here. You know I’m always grateful for that, right?”

“You’re creeping me out, so stop. Let’s switch places.”

“We’re going to drink some more?”

“Like hell I’d take you drinking. You’re quite something for reaching that state after three glasses of soju with a body build like that. Let’s just eat some gamja-tang. You need to eat some more to feel satisfied, don’t you?”

They went to the gamja-tang restaurant right across the street and ordered a small pot of gamja-tang with extra topping. They ate without talking and finished the entire pot in less than 30 minutes.

“I’m going to the bathroom.”

Coming back from the bathroom, Daemyung was no longer slack-jawed as though the drunkenness had gone away a little.

“You get drunk and get sober quickly. Does that mean your liver is good or bad?”

“I would be a doctor if I knew that. Though, for some strange reason, it does feel like I get drunk a lot quicker when I drink with you.”

Daemyung took out his wallet. Maru told him to put it away and went to the counter with the order receipt.

“Hey, take the card.”

“I’m buying to congratulate you for quitting work, so just take it obediently.”

Maru received the receipt and left the store. Daemyung, who followed him out, looked at him with an inexplicable look.

“I can’t believe that you bought two meals for me.”

“Congratulations. You experienced something new today.”

They quenched their thirst with the vending machine coffee from the restaurant. It was moderately sweet and suited his palate. Daemyung, who couldn’t tolerate hot food, blew on the cup for a while before downing the cooled coffee in one go.

“Hey.”

When he turned around, Maru found Daemyung crumpling the paper cup. He seemed to have something to say.

“What?”

“I think I said my part. So don’t you have anything to say?”

“Something to say?”

“If you don’t have anything then forget it. That’s just how it felt to me. You look like you’re worried about something, but kept changing the topic. You didn’t tell me why you dropped out or what you’re going to do in the future. If you did that because you don’t find me reliable, then I guess I can’t help it. Actually, it’s not like telling me will do anything good.”

Maru stared at his friend. The Han Maru that Daemyung knew was now buried under vast amounts of experience and could no longer be found. Maru’s expression, gestures, and even though processes have changed from the past, so it must’ve been difficult to read him, but for some curious reason, Daemyung managed to see through him.

“I look like I’m worried?”

“No, you don’t. It’s just a vague premonition of mine.”

“What the heck is that?”

“I don’t know. Anyway, if you don’t have anything, then forget it. Just take it as me saying some nonsense.”

Daemyung, who walked ahead, looked shy. Maru spoke as he looked at Daemyung’s reliable-looking back, “Daemyung, what do you think is more important? Dreams or reality?”

“Dreams versus reality? If I had to pick one, it would be reality.”

“Right?”

“Why do you ask? You feel iffy now that you actually dropped out and are now looking for a dream?”

“I didn’t drop out to find a dream. I dropped out to be faithful to reality. As you said, now is a lot more important than the vague future.”

“Right, now is important.” Daemyung took a few steps before continuing, “But if you aren’t cornered against a wall, then it might be okay to rush towards your dreams at least once. Well, I would have. Don’t you think it’s more fun because you feel like it won’t work out?”

“You say that, but you keep working.”

“Because that’s my responsibility. I can’t throw my responsibilities away just for a dream. That’s why I plan to try once I’m done taking responsibility somewhat.”

“Try what?”

“What else? Writing, of course. Actually, I’m writing from time to time. I tried uploading it to online platforms too. But the responses weren’t that good.”

“You had time for that?”

“I made some. I thought I didn’t have any time for that, but when I tried to make some, well, I could. Time is really weird. You feel like you don’t have any, but if you squeeze it, you end up with more.”

“If it doesn’t work out, you’ll only be throwing away your time. Isn’t that a waste?”

“Well, if I slept more or looked for another part-time job, I would’ve definitely gained benefits, and in the long term, it would amount to quite a lot. But I didn’t do that. Why you ask? Because I made that time so that I can write. If I were trying to do something else, I would probably never have created that little free time. It might sound strange to you, but that’s how I felt. Those times only appeared before my eyes because I strongly desired them. I simply found it and made use of it.”

After saying that, Daemyung blinked a few times. Then, he slapped his cheeks. “It looks like I’m drunk alright. I’ve been uttering all sorts of nonsense. You’re smarter than me, so I’m sure you’ll do well by yourself. I don’t know what it is, but your choice will not be wrong. You’re smart after all.”

“You know you’re the only one who says I’m smart, right?”

“Am I?”

Maru chuckled and looked at Daemyung who walked ahead.

Time appeared, he found it and made use of it. He ruminated on those words. His frame of thought, which had hardened and he thought would never change, seemed to be creaking. It was a pleasant omen of destruction.

He took out his phone and sent her a message.

-I want to do acting. How about you? Don’t think about other things, and just think about the answer to that question and reply to me.

[1] Korea Train eXpress, bullet train.

After Story 13

“What are you doing?” Daemyung, who was walking ahead, stared at him.

“As you said, I’m planning to make some time for my own dreams.” He put his phone in his pocket.

“So there’s something you want to do, right? And that’s why you decided to drop out.”

“There’s a mountain load of stuff I want to do. But for those, rather than wanting to do them, they are things I had to do. Things I don’t have a choice about doing.” He walked past Daemyung.

Daemyung walked to his side.

“Daemyung, have you ever played Monopoly?”

“Is there anyone who hasn’t played it? Of course I have.”

“What would you do if life was like Monopoly?”

“Like how?”

“You can see everything from the starting point to the final destination at a glance. You can see everything in the middle as well. You can also control the dice somewhat, and you can go where you want if you play carefully.”

Daemyung twinged his nose before rubbing his nose with his thumb.

“Of course, I’d aim for profit. Isn’t that how the game works? Or you can roll the dice again and again until you reach the most expensive one right at the end.”

It was an obvious answer.

While not perfect, if someone was aware of the general outline of the impending life and could change the direction to an extent, choosing something beneficial was something natural to do and also a necessity.

Daemyung continued, “But if it’s Monopoly, there are chance cards in the middle too, right? There is the jail too, and properties like landmarks. If I could really live my life like Monopoly, I would procure a minimum amount of property and aim for the chance cards.”

“As expected of a dreamer. What are you going to do if you pick a card and it says ‘go to jail’?”

“What else, go to jail of course.”

“And?”

“And go for the chance again. There’s only one ‘go to jail’ card, isn’t there? Next time, I’ll be able to buy houses for my property.”

“What if something strange appears again?”

“It’s okay. I already have the land to live off of. I won’t be reckless enough to sell those off. Whether I go to jail or to the beginning, if I have a minimum amount of properties to live off of, I’ll go for the chance. If I found out that my life is Monopoly, how could I possibly ignore the chance cards?” Daemyung spoke in excitement before putting on a faint smile. “But life is not Monopoly, is it? At least, I don’t see the chance cards in my eyes right now. If I really saw a card that has a high success rate, then I would grab it without hesitation. I don’t care if that turns out to be a dud. Right now, I have so little that a dud is okay for me. It’s like that at our age. What’s scary is not a dud, but not being able to do anything. There are times when I get envious of even a dud.”

Maru remembered his high school graduation. It was the day he found out that Daemyung had given up on going to college and was going to the military in a week. On that day, this fellow had the same smile as the one he was putting on now. Now, Maru could tell that it was the smile this little child put on as he collected himself after having no choice but to give up.

Maru put his hand on Daemyung’s shoulder. His body had gotten a lot harder than before, which indicated the hardships he experienced until now.

“You’ll become a great novelist.”

“I don’t want to be a great novelist. I want to be a well-earning one.”

Maru patted his friend’s shoulder, feeling both grateful and apologetic.

* * *

The message she received in the middle of the night put a halt to her thought process. She looked at the sentence and dissected it over and over again. No matter how much she looked at it, it didn’t feel like there was any other meaning to it, which confused her even more.

“I want to do acting.”

She read the word ever so cautiously and delicately like a Japanese chef using an expensive fish for sashimi. The simple words did not contain simple meanings.

She put down her phone. The business plan she had in her head became a mess. Just seeing the word ‘acting’ made acting fill the majority of her head. It was an influence so great that it surprised her.

She needed to have a conversation with him. This wasn’t something she could decide over the phone. Her husband had told her not to think much, but how could she possibly do that? Weren’t they in a situation where they had to think about every single possibility and then some?

She sent him a message: Let’s meet up and talk.

She got a response not long later: I’m going now.

She looked at the time, feeling hasty, which she hadn’t felt in a long time. It was hard for her to stay still as though she had just heard that he had gotten into an accident. She stood up from the sofa and walked around in the living room. She went out to the veranda and returned to the living room several times.

Just then, she heard the front door open. She rushed to the front door.

“Gosh, that startled me,” her husband said as he opened the door.

His blushed cheeks provoked her eyes, and the smell of oil provoked her nose. It seemed he had some drinks with Daemyung. If he said those words out of being drunk, then she was planning to give him a slap on the back.

“Are you drunk?”

“No. As it turns out, I’m a really strong drinker in this life too.” Maru came inside.

She grabbed his hand and led him to the sofa. Maru was surprised, but he soon obediently followed.

“That message just now. What do you mean by that?”

“It’s just as you saw.”

“You want to do acting?”

“Yes.”

He seemed serious. She had to try hard to suppress the emotions that surged from the bottom of her feet. She couldn’t tell whether it was joy or anger.

She raised her hand to stop the conversation for a moment. She needed some time to think. She didn’t need long. She had already expected this after all.

“Good. If you want to do so, honey, then go ahead. I’m sure you’ll do well. Don’t worry about the money, I’ll do something about it.”

I want to do it too — she couldn’t say those words out loud. If one of them jumped into the sea that was their dream, the other had to be the lighthouse. If both of them jumped into the sea and got swept away by the waves, then they would never make it back to the shore.

“What about you?”

That question contained all sorts of meanings. She tried hard to feign calmness.

“I told you. I don’t have any interest in it. So don’t worry about me and do what you want. I’ll show you what it means to be the queen of support.”

It was only hard to bring up the topic, so when she actually did, she could say the rest without a problem. Having finished her words, she felt her lips stiffen. She was smiling before she knew it. It was camouflage in order to hide her feelings.

Her husband looked at the empty sofa, seemingly indicating to her to sit. She shook her head. She wanted to put some distance right now. She felt like she would get found out if they met their eyes on the same level.

“Honey. We know a lot of things, don’t we?” he said. “We’ve spent an immeasurably long time together. And we’ve seen the end together too. While the forms of life we have spent vary, that isn’t entirely true. You and I must know how great the words ‘people are the same wherever you go’ truly are.” He grabbed her wrist. It was such a gentle pull that it was hard to resist.

Ultimately, she sat down next to her husband. They were now looking at each other on eye level. This time, his hands reached her lips. The smile she forced on her face sank again at his gentle touch. She put on the expression that she should be having; one that was of unease and disappointment.

“You and I must be thinking the same thing: the previous life only came to be because of a series of miracles and an accumulation of chance. The environment was given to us from a young age, and even luck followed us, which allowed us to reach that kind of position. We can’t deny that. It’s the strict truth. Comparing the previous life to this one, there are many differences.”

He frowned before smiling like a clown. It was the same action she took in front of the mirror by herself.

“I can’t get myself to display the expressions I want. My body’s in terrible shape too. I’m sure the same must be true for you. I’m sure you’re thinking that this is different from the past and that we must look at reality. That’s why I gave up too. I believed that it was the right decision. I believed that we should walk on a stable path for our own sake since this is our last.”

We – this word should contain more than just the two people.

Han Gaeul.

When they thought about the child with lovely eyes, they would just realize how absurd it is to pursue their dreams so irresponsibly.

“And?” she asked. She had to know what kind of conclusion he, who had the same thought process as her, had arrived at.

“I just thought that it might be our misconception. Not a misconception that stems from ignorance, but one that stems from knowledge. We know what various paths have in store for us and we know what is going to happen in the future, so we believed that it is our duty to meticulously prepare for it. But then, it came to me. Should we really be perfect? No, can we be perfect?”

Maru’s grip became stronger. He looked at the clock and spoke, “Gaeul is precious. I haven’t stopped thinking that she should be raised in a good environment. But, you are just as precious as her. And I’m the same. We know the result. We know that we’ll definitely meet Gaeul. We also know that limits our options.”

“I… don’t want to give Gaeul an insufficient environment.”

“Me neither.”

“Our child might be in difficulty if we don’t make realistic decisions.”

“Maybe.”

“And you’re still saying you want to act? And you’re telling me to try as well?”

He nodded.

“That’s irresponsible. That’s not the best for our child.”

“You’re a good mother. You will love Gaeul more than anyone else once she’s born. I might even be jealous. But are you really okay with that?”

“Okay with what?”

“Actress Han Haneul, no, actress Han Gaeul. Can you really give up on that life?”

“I can do anything for the sake of my child. You’re the same.”

“Yes. We can do anything. That’s what parents are.”

“Then…”

Maru’s hand was placed on her lap. He slowly pressed down.

“Honey. You’re Han Haneul right now. You’re not yet Gaeul’s mother and not yet a housewife; you are but a twenty-two-year-old Han Haneul. You’re a youth who has so many things to do and so many things you want to do.”

Strength left her agitated body. Her husband poked the part that she was intentionally looking away from. She stayed quiet.

“We both know. We both know how lovely Gaeul is. However, the one here right now is Han Haneul who dreams of becoming an actress.”

“…It’s too late.”

“I thought so too. I even scolded myself, wondering what could I possibly do with these terrible muscles, body, and emotions. But I was wrong. Daemyung told me that he’s envious of even a dud. Being able to try is something precious in and of itself. Honey, don’t you think we were looking too far?”

She bit her lower lip. Her hands started shaking. The feelings, her emotions that she tried so hard to find, flowed out through the cracks. She could stop them if she tried to, but she let them be.

“Won’t Gaeul resent us?”

“I’m not saying that we should give up on everything else and stake our lives on acting. We’ll have to do it in parallel. We might be late in buying a house, but if that could buy Han Haneul’s happiness, then I won’t regret it.”

“What about Han Maru’s happiness then?”

“Of course I’ll pursue it. Honey, let’s not color our love with sacrifices. If we keep living like that, I’m afraid that I might shift the blame on Gaeul one day. I don’t want to have to tell her that we gave up on our dreams for her sake.” He smiled and finished his words, “Above all, my daughter is quite generous. I’m sure she must understand some small deviation of her parents.”

Hearing those words, she teared up, but couldn’t help but laugh.

After Story 14

She left her house. She could hear hymnals from the church on the other side of the street. She checked the time. She had told her mother that she’d visit at noon, but she left early because she didn’t want to wait in a daze at home. It was 10 a.m. Her father, who would go hiking every Sunday, should be waiting at home today.

She got on the bus. As she looked at the commercial buildings passing by, she organized what she wanted to say. Her parents would probably be worried about their daughter since she was doing something she never did in her life.

She got off the bus and walked on the familiar path. She could see an old house next to the playground. She had been living there until just a while ago.

“Mom, I’m home.” She inputted the unchanged pin lock and opened the door. Her father, wearing a tank top, told her ‘you’re here’ with a shy smile on his face.

“It feels like a really long time since I saw you.”

“It has been a long time.”

Her father seemed to be shy upon seeing his daughter act so amicable as he walked over to the TV. He only gave her sidelong glances from a distance.

“Where’s mom?”

“She’s gone to church, and she’ll be home soon.”

“So morning service. Dad, have you eaten breakfast~?”

Her father frowned and looked at her. He seemed disturbed by his daughter’s cute speech. He was probably feeling weirded out since his daughter had as much cuteness as politicians had honesty. However, she had no plans on stopping. This was her first step to becoming a daughter who was close to her father.

“I had some.”

“What did you have?”

“There were some injeolmi and sikhye so I had those.”

The conversation was cut off. While the atmosphere was awkward, she was used to this. She took a step towards the space that people would usually stay out of due to psychology.

“Dad, aren’t you curious about what I ate?”

“What did you eat?”

“I hadn’t had anything yet. I live by myself so it’s kinda hard to eat breakfast on time.”

“You’re grown up now. You should take care of breakfast by yourself.” Her father looked like he had something to say, but he started walking over to the kitchen instead.

She followed right behind him like a little duckling following its mother. Her father flinched and walked half a step faster. His widened eyes seemed to be wondering what got into her.

“You’re going to make some for me?” she asked.

“You don’t like injeolmi, do you?”

“I love them. I rarely get to eat them in the first place.”

Her father tilted his head but still opened the fridge and took out some injeolmi and sikhye. He put them on a plate and tossed them in the microwave. He crouched and scanned the buttons on the microwave.

“Two minutes should be enough.”

Her father nodded and pressed some buttons.

“Dad.”

“What?”

“Do you remember when I was in elementary school? You came with me to school sports day and got first place in the race.”

“When the heck was that?”

“You were really cool back then, you know? I nagged you to get first, and you went in, saying you’ll definitely get it.”

“You’re remembering some weird stuff.”

She looked at her father’s expression. While he responded blandly, the corners of his lips were lifted. He seemed slightly proud.

Ring! The microwave indicated that it had done its job.

“I’ll take it out.” She went to the table in front of the TV with the plate. This table had been in the house since she was a snot-nosed child. She would climb up on it, draw on it, and jump on it. She greeted an old member of the house with her eyes and put the plate on top of it.

“Would you like to eat some too?”

“Forget it. Rather than that, didn’t you say you have something to talk about?”

“I’ll talk about it when mom’s home.”

“Is it important?”

“It is. And you might be angry if you hear about it, dad.”

Her father no longer asked. He was raised in a strict patriarchal household and had become the breadwinner of a family, and he looked authoritative and indifferent at a glance. That was why, before she regained her memories, she just decided that he was ignorant when it came to her. With a twisted and narrow vision, the past her believed that that was the truth.

However, she had seen plenty as she grew up. Her father was always careful when talking to her, afraid that he might hurt his delicate daughter, and would smile while looking at small animals, as well as when he commemorated various occasions.

Even though she had seen his warm side more than anyone else, she just took the negative side of him and changed his impression. The reason was simple. She was uncomfortable with her family and had to look for an excuse to stay away from them, and she just concluded that her parents were the bad ones since she herself couldn’t be. It was a ridiculous situation created by her pathetic self-protection mechanism.

“Dad.”

“What?”

“You know what?”

“What?”

“That I love you a whole lot.”

Her father responded even more dynamically than when she said it to her mother. He kept rubbing his chin shyly alongside awkward coughs, not knowing where to look. Although they would not be able to go back to the days when her father gave her a ride on his shoulders, she at least wanted to be closer to him than before.

Of course, if he didn’t want that, she would keep her distance. If the girl’s cold attitude, which lasted a ruthless amount of time, left behind an irrecoverable scar, then she was planning to stay a polite daughter.

What broke the silence was her mother who came back from church. She stood up and greeted her mother.

“I thought you were coming at noon.”

“I came early. I could talk to dad and all.”

“How about breakfast?”

“Dad made some for me. The injeolmi was good.” She dragged her mother by the hand and had her sit next to her father while she herself sat with her back against the table. Her parents exchanged gazes.

“There’s something I want to talk about. Before I start, I hope you understand that I have thought deeply about this, and I have made my resolution to never be shaken.”

“What is it?” Her mother looked anxious.

“I plan to quit college.”

The two of them both seemed dazed. They seemed like they couldn’t understand the words that came out of their daughter’s mouth.

It was her mother who spoke first, “What do you mean by that so suddenly?”

“It’s not sudden. I’ve been thinking for a long time: the things I want to do, the things I can do, the things I do well. I thought it was too late, but someone told me that it wasn’t. That’s why I plan to try doing the things I want to do.”

“You said you liked baking bread. Isn’t that why you chose confectionery as your major?”

“It might sound strange, but I’m different from back then.”

“But you tried so hard to get into college. You’ll graduate soon too. Why don’t you just…”

“It’s not that I don’t find it a waste. Including my living expenses, there's over 20 million won in my student loans. But if I keep going to college, that will increase even more, so I plan to stop here.”

“Haneul.”

“I know what you want to say, mom. I would’ve tried to stop myself if I were in your shoes as well. How ridiculous is it to drop out of college in the junior year? All that time and money were invested in it, but I’m going to quit. Even if it was me, I would’ve said not to do it. But mom, I want to walk on the proper path before it’s too late.”

“I… your mother doesn’t get it. Why are you doing this all of a sudden? Did something happen? Your attitude towards me changed recently too.”

“I didn’t get caught up in an accident or something. I just matured.”

Her mother collapsed her hands. She seemed to be seeking an answer from God in heaven. Haneul wanted to tell her that God isn’t as kind as her mother makes him out to be.

“So back then is back then, and now is now?” her father spoke. He was no longer the shy father who looked away from his daughter. “Then you’ll come to us later again and say that you want to try something else then, right? And that you want to give up again.”

“Do you think I’ll do that, dad?”

“I don’t know. But it’s true that you don’t sound believable.”

“I’m sure I don’t sound believable. But I still hope you can trust me.”

“What does my trust have to do with your choice?”

“Because you’re my dad. I want to be acknowledged by you. I won’t tell you to cheer for me. I won’t come complaining to you either because it’s hard. I’m not going to resent you later for not stopping me. I just hope you can watch over me. I just hope you can see how well your daughter can forge ahead.”

“If I say I disagree, are you going to retract dropping out?”

“No. I said I had something to tell you, but that didn’t mean that I needed to discuss it with you.”

“So it’s a one-sided announcement?”

“Yeah. I’m sorry for being a rude daughter.”

Her father let out a long sigh. Her mother just looked at her father. Usually, it was her mother who decided on household matters, but in cases like these, her father had the decision rights.

“I was planning to take care of your student loans once you graduate. However, if you plan to drop out midway, that debt will be solely yours. Are you okay with that?”

“It might sound ridiculous of me to say this, but I think that 20 million is an amount I can deal with in a short amount of time.”

“So you’re confident.”

“I didn’t come all the way here just to tell you something irresponsible.”

“So what are you going to do?”

“My ultimate goal is to be an actress.”

“A-an actress?”

Even her father, who had a stern atmosphere about him, seemed rather flustered as his eyes twitched. As for her mother, she kept uttering ‘oh lord, oh lord’.

“You’re not a kid now, yet you want to be an actress so suddenly?”

“It’s not so sudden. I’ve held this thought for a very, very long time. Of course, I plan to prepare a backup plan so that I don’t starve to death.”

“Did you get an offer? Like from an agency?”

“No, I have to start from rock bottom.”

After glaring at her for a while, her father loosened the tension in his eyes.

“Honey, let’s just let her do what she wants. She doesn’t look like she’ll listen to whatever we say. Do you remember when she was young? She would never let go of her favorite doll, and she looks the same right now. She’ll throw a tantrum if we try to take it away from her.”

Her father raised the white flag. Her mother seemed to have a lot to say, but she just said ‘do it’ as though she was going to hold back for now.

“I wanted to tell you about it. I could hide it from you, but I felt like we’d truly become distant if I did.”

She grabbed her parent’s hands with her own.

“I’ve changed a lot more than you think. You’ll probably be startled if you look inside me, you know? So just watch me for a while even if I don’t look reliable. I’ll show you what a cool life your daughter will live.”

Her mother stood up from the sofa and went to the bedroom. She looked at her own hand that her mother had let go of.

“When you got into college, she told everyone around about it. She liked it more than anyone. She said you might be a cold daughter but are good at studying and have dexterous hands.”

“She must be sad that she doesn’t have anything to boast about anymore.”

“If you know about it, then take care of yourself. I don’t have anything to say to you. You said you’ll do it, so I can only watch.”

“If you feel like I’m not doing that well, then give me some encouragement.”

“Forget it. You’re not a cute daughter at all so I don’t see a reason why.”

“Huh? Did you just grumble about me, dad?”

Her father glanced at her in dissatisfaction before pushing her away.

“Go look after your mother. Go act cute and fawn over her. I’ve never seen any children do well after making their parents suffer.”

She stood up and went to the bedroom. She opened the door and took one step inside, but before she went in, she looked at her father, who was sitting in the living room. He was looking at the family photo on the wall before smiling. It was the smile she saw a lot back in the day when she walked around hand in hand with her father.

* * *

-Done reporting.

Maru shook his head as he looked at the message he got from Haneul. Her decisiveness was really something.

I can’t stay still either — he muttered as he looked at the laptop screen.

As he was scanning the list of short-term part-time jobs, he found the one he wanted. Background acting job. It was time to take the first step up the stairs.

After Story 15

He barely managed to open his eyes at the sound of the alarm. He looked at his phone with sleepy eyes before standing up. It was 5 a.m. The sun wasn’t even up. He walked to the bathroom with faltering steps. He could see terrible dark patches under his eyes.

How much time did he have to invest in order to change this living pattern? Maru lamented at the thought of his own body adapting to sleeping late at night and waking up at noon as he washed his face. He put on the suit he took out yesterday and put a set of casual clothes in a bag before leaving his house. He was planning to have breakfast at the train station.

He walked under the air of early dawn and got on the bus. Everyone was looking outside in a daze. It didn’t seem to be just him who felt that the shaking of the coach was like the shaking of a cradle, as many of them had their eyes closed.

The coach arrived at Suwon station. He bought some toast in front of the station and caught a train. From his estimations, he judged that he would have 20 minutes left by the time he arrived at Yeoido station.

The purple skies became faint. He could see the sun rising in the distance above the Han river.

He pushed himself out of the crowd and left the train. The coach was waiting for him in front of Yeouido station. On the coach’s windscreen was a paper with ‘Hallim Arts’ on it.

“Part-time job?” said a man yawning in front of the coach.

“Yes.”

“Name.”

“Han Maru.”

He looked at the list in his hands before gesturing to Maru to get on. When he got on the coach, he could see others who had arrived beforehand. He took a seat at the back. Not long later, the outside became bustling.

Three girls looking to be in college stood in front of the leader while giggling. They seemed to be friends who came to do this part-time job together. The picky-looking leader had a warm smile on his face.

“First, we’ll shoot in Gapyeong, and if it goes overtime, I’ll tell you about it at that time, so keep that in mind. Also, the log book will be written at the scene.”

The coach departed after the leader finished speaking. Maru took out his earphones and put them in his ears. He had done this job to the death, so he didn’t feel excited or anything. He chose to do this despite that to see what the scene was like.

Depending on the method of the shoot, it was likely that he would never get anywhere near the main actors, but if he was lucky, he would be able to see actors acting right by his side.

His first aim was to reawaken his senses while breathing the air of the scene. He had more than enough theory, but his body was lacking. It was important to digest little by little starting with the trivial things. If he reduced the sense of disparity between his knowledge and his senses, he would not stray off the path of becoming an actor.

The coach arrived at the Gapyeong service area. He got off the coach and bought some chocolate and drinks before returning.

“What should I do if I get to see Lee Dongjoon up close?”

“We should look for an opportunity to ask for an autograph.”

“They said we aren’t allowed to do things like that. Don’t do anything that might get you into trouble and appreciate him with your eyes.”

The quiet coach became bustling with the conversation between college girls. The other people started talking to the people sitting next to them.

“Everyone here? We’re departing now.”

The coach drove for about an hour more from the service area and stopped in front of a white villa. There were various vehicles from TV stations parked nearby. It seemed that the villa was the shooting location.

Maru got off the coach and wrote down his name on the logbook and gave it to the leader.

“Once the shoot begins, you’ll have to follow orders. Wherever you go, you must report beforehand. If the shoot gets delayed because of a background actor, the atmosphere will become really bad, so bear that in mind. There’s nothing difficult so you just need to follow my words.” The leader raised his finger, gesturing to everyone to rest where he pointed at. It was a large tree.

Maru put his hand on his forehead and raised his head. The sun was scorching and looked like it would penetrate sunscreen with ease. This wasn’t weather that mere leaves could do anything about.

“Gosh, I’m dying,” grumbled a man in his 30s as he walked over.

Even the college girls, who were chatting without end inside the coach where the AC was on, became quiet as though they felt that something was wrong. Maru just looked at the frowning college girls before walking over to the tree. Well, welcome to the hellish world of terrible part-time jobs.

“Uhm, have you done this work before?” One of the college girls came over and spoke to Maru as he stood under the tree. Maru looked around. As everyone had terrible faces, it seemed that she chose to talk to him, who seemed to be around the same age as her.

“Yes, a couple times.”

“We aren’t going to keep waiting here, are we?” She seemed to be in disbelief about how people could just abandon others under the sun like this.

Maru replied to her, “If we don’t get any instructions, we’ll keep waiting here.”

“Here? But there’s the coach…” As soon as she finished talking, the coach left.

The college girls followed the leaving coach with their eyes filled with sadness.

“Coaches need to keep driving if they want to earn money for their fuel. It’s relatively cool under the shade, so you should stay next to the tree. If you keep standing under the sun, you’ll get heat stroke.”

Maru took out a fan from his bag. He was more than used to waiting indefinitely. The leader would probably call for them if he just waited while fanning himself.

He put his earphones on and played back a file that he had recorded. The voices of the best actors and actresses of the time flowed out through his earphones. He listened to their voices and thought about the actors’ faces. He tried expressing the faces of the actors that he reinterpreted in his own image. Repeated practice was a necessity if he wanted to move his facial muscles in detail. He would put on a very angry expression and sometimes laugh like a fool. Even if other people looked at him strangely, he had no choice. He had to make the most out of his free time in order to catch up to the current actors.

Just then, someone tapped on his shoulder. He opened his eyes and took his earphones out.

“Are you practicing acting?” A man had called out to him. He had distinct facial features.

“Yes.”

“Are you an aspiring actor?”

“Yes, I am. I’m trying to become one.”

“I see. Nice to meet you. I also dream of becoming an actor.”

The man, who introduced himself as Lee Junghyuk, gave him some chewing gum and sat next to him. Maru could tell that he was amicable through a short conversation.

“Is theater your major?” Junghyuk asked.

“No, I don’t belong to an acting-related department.”

“Well, I guess college isn’t that important in acting. There are a few among the actors I admire who haven’t graduated college.”

“But it’s good to study if you have the chance. Connections can’t be ignored either. You’re in the major, right?”

“Yes.” Junghyuk smiled shyly.

“Come over here!” the leader shouted from a distance.

Maru signaled Junghyuk and stood up. He followed the leader to the building behind the villa, where there were several tables in a modern-looking space decorated in grayish-white. From the cutlery and wine glasses, this looked like it was supposed to be a restaurant.

“The two of you over there,” the leader called out to Junghyuk and a woman in her early twenties. The woman, who had her hair neatly combed back, was quite a beauty.

“The two of you can act like a couple at this table, and the rest of you come this way.” After assigning seats depending on people’s height, clothing, and appearance, the leader headed off somewhere.

Maru was sitting in the middle of the restaurant. From the looks of the lighting layout, he would be at the edge of the screen.

An actor appeared among the busily moving staff members. He was easily distinguishable even from a distance. Perhaps he was the Lee Dongjoon that Maru heard about on the coach.

“Hey, hey. It’s Lee Dongjoon!”

“Where?” From the commotion from the college girls, that seemed to be the case.

While the main actor and the producer checked the movement lines, the leader walked around the tables and gave out extra instructions, such as: talk like lovers, act like friends, never look at the actors, don’t get nervous.

Maru looked at the woman sitting in front of him. The woman, wearing a white one-piece dress, didn’t seem used to the atmosphere at the shoot. Or maybe, she didn’t like the stiff-looking man sitting in front of her. In any case, she hadn’t said anything and was just rolling her eyes around everywhere.

They were instructed by the leader to act like lovers, so he couldn’t let this continue. He clenched his hand into a fist and tapped on the table. Having successfully attracted the woman’s attention, he spoke in a small voice, “Are you nervous? Or are you uncomfortable with me?”

“Huh? Oh, no, it’s nothing. I could see the camera so it kept getting on my mind.”

“Is this the first time you’re doing this work?”

“Yes. I watch a lot of TV and thought that I wanted to try doing this at least once, but it’s quite hard, whether it’s waiting or sitting in a daze in a place with many people.”

“It’s a bit stupid, isn’t it? You don’t know why you have to waste your time like this, and it’s annoying.”

The woman blinked a few times before replying ‘yes’ with a smile.

“Once the shoot begins, the camera will point at us for a brief while, and if you keep looking awkward like this, the leader might swear at you.”

“Really? He did look scary.”

“So let us get prepared for that. There’s no need for grandiose acting. The director behind the camera over there doesn’t even want that from us anyways.”

“True.”

The woman’s stiff shoulders became lower as though she had relaxed somewhat. It was a good sign.

“The food has been delicately plated, so you can’t touch it.”

The staff placed food on the table as though the shoot was about to begin. They were mostly decorative, so Maru didn’t think about eating.

“I want to try this.” The woman pointed at the steak in front of her.

“Have you not had breakfast?” he asked.

“I woke up early in the morning, and I didn’t really think about eating. I was thinking about getting something to eat at the service area, but I just skipped it, so now I’m hungry.”

“Would you like something sweet?”

“What?”

Maru took out a chocolate from his pocket and gave it to her. “Don’t chew on it and melt it with your tongue. I’m pretty sure it won’t happen, but you might get lines.”

The woman ate the chocolate without hesitation.

As she was eating the chocolate, Maru saw the staff get out of the scene. The shoot was about to begin.

“Well then. Let us start off joyfully.” A young, energetic producer clapped and sat in front of the monitor.

The shoot started off with a cut where the main actor entered the restaurant. The camera moved and so did the staff members holding the cables attached to it.

“It’d be better off thinking that there’s no one over there.” Maru raised his fork. The woman, who was subconsciously looking toward the actor, got herself together and turned her eyes around.

“It’s quite awkward to face each other like this, isn’t it?”

“Yeah. But is it okay to be like this? Won’t they hear our voices?”

“This much is fine. That furry microphone over there will only catch the actors’ voices. The leader wanted us to act like a couple, so we should just keep talking like this. Directors who pay attention to the background will be nitty gritty about people in the background too.”

“You’re knowledgeable.”

“It’s a part-time job. You get used to it if you do it many times.”

Cut — he heard a voice. The actors were returning to the entrance.

“Is it over?”

“No, it’s just the beginning. Also, we’ll see soon if the shoot will end early today or if we’ll have to get overtime pay.”

He slightly turned around and looked at the actors as well as the lighting. Familiarity and unfamiliarity coexisted in this space.

He took a deep breath before exhaling. It was the air of the shoot that he dearly missed.

After Story 16

“How much more servile are you going to be? You really have changed. The Choi Jihoon I knew used to put employees and family members over money.”

“I can’t help it! I didn’t change because I wanted to. Do you think I wanted to become servile? I want to be upright too. I want to act according to my ideals too. But you know better than anyone that business doesn’t always go the way you expect.”

“I know. I know that well. That’s why I staked my future on the person named Choi Jihoon. But it looks like my faith has been shattered.”

“Miss Jihye, please listen to me first.”

The actress pushed back the chair and stood up before leaving the frame. Left alone, the male actor stood up and looked around before sitting down again while clutching his face.

“Cut,” shouted the director.

Maru turned his head around to the front. He kept his head turned in the direction of the actors, so his neck was feeling sore.

“That should be the last one, right?” said the woman sitting in front of him. She seemed really bored. She seemed totally different from how excited she was to see real actors for the first time.

“We just have to pray that the director doesn’t say that they should try again.”

“I thought they were all similar, but I guess the director thinks otherwise.”

“There are many people who stake their lives on detail.”

The actors standing in front of the monitor walked over to the director. At the same time, the assistant director shouted, “We’ll go to the next location.”

The long restaurant scene was finally over. Maru checked the time. It was 1 p.m. It was lunchtime, so they cut off at a suitable time. He raised his hand above his head and pulled his head to the left to stretch his neck. He also massaged his stiff shoulders before standing up.

“We don’t have any time, so let’s get moving.” The staff members started packing the equipment.

The background actors followed the leader outside the restaurant.

“You have an hour for lunch, and you must come here after you take a break. There will be problems if anyone’s late, so watch out for each other. Let’s not inconvenience other people by not keeping an eye on the time. Okay?”

They were thrown out to the heat of summer again.

Maru hid under the tree shade with the lunch box that the staff members handed out. Streaks of sunlight landed on top of the plastic cover. He already missed the AC in the restaurant.

He opened the packaging and stuffed his mouth with food. His untrained body already started complaining about fatigue, even though all he had been doing was sitting still for a few hours. It seemed like the first step to regaining his stamina was to remove the excess fat created by microwaved foods and alcohol.

“It might have been boring, but the inside was definitely a lot better.” The woman he had been facing for hours came over to him. She carefully asked if she could eat with him.

“Sit down. If you can handle a few ants, this isn’t a bad spot.”

They talked over their meal. A more personal conversation where they exchanged information like names went by. Her name was Park Minyoung, and she was twenty-four. She worked at a small company as an accountant after graduating from a two-year college course before quitting. She supposedly found out about this job while looking for fresh experiences such as traveling.

“I thought we talked a lot before, but when I looked back, I didn’t even ask for your name. Maybe I was too nervous.”

“It’s fine since you know now.”

“But the name Maru isn’t that common, is it?”

“I’m sure it’s less common than Chulsoo. Is it strange?”

“No, I think it has a unique character.”

“A unique character usually means strange.” Maru joked before eating the last side dish.

When he looked around, he saw people eating in various groups. Even for people who had never known each other, they were together for hours, so it wasn’t strange that people got close.

“I feel it’s strange to call you Mr. Han, so can I drop the honorifics with you?” Minyoung asked when he came back after throwing away the trash. Whether it was the man named Junghyuk he saw in the morning or the woman in front of him, they were really sociable. Or maybe they were really bad with loneliness.

Maru took out his hand from his pocket. He also let go of his earphones, which he was originally going to take out. “Go ahead.”

Minyoung sighed in relief. “I thought you’d say no. That’s a relief.”

“You were worried about things like that? You seemed extroverted enough to chat with total strangers in the middle of the street.”

“I try to look the part. Having a bold personality makes social life a little easier than being introverted.”

“That’s true.”

“I think I didn’t hear your answer before; did you say you were in college?”

“Well, not anymore. I dropped out.”

“Why?”

“Various reasons, I guess?”

MInyoung nodded in understanding. She looked like she didn’t want things to become awry.

He smiled. “I dropped out to become an actor.”

When he expressed that he wasn’t trying to put up a wall between them, Minyoung became visibly brighter. She was someone with plentiful facial expressions. If that was intentional on her part, he wanted to applaud her for it. If it was natural, then he was jealous.

That was the kind of facial movement that he aimed for; he wanted the movement of muscles that left a deeper and more intense impression than any number of words.

“An actor, huh? That’s neat. I haven’t even thought about it.”

“You said you wanted to experience various things, didn’t you? You should put an actress on that list as well. It’s not like anyone will nag you for putting it on your bucket list.”

“I have a hard time standing in front of people in general. I told you before, right? That I try to look extroverted. If necessary, I have the confidence to do things like presentations, but acting is completely different from doing presentations. Presentations only last a brief moment, while acting is continuous. When I think about how I have to do acting in front of so many people, it makes me uncomfortable.” Minyoung frowned as though she woke up with a terrible hangover in the morning. Her expression was truly vivid. If she had a hangover drink in her hands right now, then that would be a commercial in and of itself.

“Then what is it that you want to do? Maybe there’s a job you’re aiming for?”

“A job at a big company that gives me my salary without late payments, but doesn’t nitpick with how I work?”

“That’s not an ordinary dream you have there. Why don’t you aim to become the president of the country instead? I think that will be a lot easier.”

“I guess my dream is a little difficult.” Minyoung smiled softly.

Truly, Maru was desirous of that face of hers. She had a face that could be used in many different scenarios, so with enough acting skills, she would be perfect as supporting character material, if not leading roles. This was something he noticed with his numerous experiences living as an actor, so he probably wasn’t wrong.

“Let’s meet up,” the leader said, clicking his fingers.

Minyoung stood up first, saying that they should go. Maru stood up and dusted away the ants that climbed on his pants. The ants that fell off struggled before hiding in the ground. The talent of ants to climb was only useful when climbing trees that had sap in them. If they lost their direction and ended up climbing a lamppost or something, they would either starve or fall to their death. Talent that has not met its right use was as pitiful as an ant that was climbing a lamp post.

“But you never know what the world has in store, so you should try it out when you still have the time. If you have the effort to fix your introverted personality, then I’m sure you can do anything you want,” he said as he walked past Minyoung.

Whether it was because he took a step back and decided to return, or because his memories had returned and he had some leisure, he did not know, but for some reason, he no longer felt off-putted by giving advice to other people.

If it was in the previous life, he would remember the words that silence is golden and not utter a word.

“Should I?” Minyoung smiled.

He no longer said anything. He said what he needed to, and it was up to her to decide. It was probably categorized as meaningless in her head and probably disappeared into the depths of her memories. In the first place, what he said could be commonly heard in everyday life, so it was natural that she took it lightly.

In a world where giving advice had become synonymous with being nosy, it would be nonsensical for her to accept advice from a total stranger she met for the first time today.

“Those of you with training jerseys, take them out,” said the leader. After scanning the clothes of those present, the leader separated people just like what happened at the restaurant. A healthy-looking couple walking past the actors, a couple sitting on the bench, and a couple sitting on a mat on the grass.

“The two of you just have to walk with your arms hooked like a warm couple, can you do that?”

“This isn’t my first rodeo, so don’t worry about it.”

With the middle-aged couple laughing warmly with their arms hooked like a true married couple, the assignment of roles ended. As for Maru, he was assigned to the role of a runner, who started running from the opposite side of the actors and ran past them.

“Leader Kim.” The assistant director ran over. The leader urged the background actors to hurry up.

The women who had their hair tied in the restaurant had untied their hair, and the women who had their hair loose changed their hair shapes with hair bands or pins. While they were trying their best not to look the same, the director suddenly came over.

“You and you, go over there.” The director, who was gentle towards the actors, waved his fingers in the air.

Maru moved quickly as he took this as natural, but as for the people doing this job for the first time, they were taken aback and hesitated.

“Geez! Go quickly.” The director urged them, and the background actors moved.

There were some directors who treated background actors gently, but more directors treated them like props than not. There were many who even extorted the background actors intending to make the most out of the money they spent since those people were just hired contractors.

“You stand out too much. Swap with him, and this one too.”

Unlike the restaurant scene, in which the background actors were still, many of them were moving now, and even crossed paths with the main actors, so the director assigned the positions of the background actors himself. The leader was the one moving the people when the director just waved his fingers around.

“Hello, director.”

“Oh, you’re here. It’s hot today, isn’t it?”

“Very.”

She seemed to be an actress who came late. The director, who looked like a military officer glaring at the soldiers, made a warm smile and went elsewhere with the actress. One of the background actors swore after looking at that. The college girls were gossiping as well.

“You should remember what the director said and move accordingly. There’s nothing difficult, so please do it well,” said the assistant director with a fatigued face before walking away.

“I can see why my seniors say that doing this work twice or three times is more than enough.” Junghyuk had approached him while Maru was unaware. “I should just stop doing this after seeing what the atmosphere is like just once. I don’t think I can learn anything from where I am now either.”

“But if you look closely, there are some things you can steal from them. You can see how shitty the position of the assistant director is, and how cheap people are treated,” Maru said.

Junghyuk laughed out loud before quickly covering his mouth.

“There are other things you can gain aside from that. Though, that depends on the individual.”

“What do you gain from this then?”

“I gain the atmosphere of the shoot. An atmosphere I can look back to and remember how it felt.”

“Have you ever done a shoot before?”

Maru replied with a smile to Junghyuk’s question.

“Get ready!” The assistant director’s voice could be heard from a distance.

Maru walked past the puzzled Junghyuk and went to the position he was assigned to by the director. In the distance, he saw actors standing next to shiny reflectors.

They were only a few dozen steps away, but it was still quite a long distance for now. He calmed down the sense of urgency rising inside his heart. Rather than focusing on success, he should be focusing on enjoying himself right now.

“Stand by!”

He started running on the spot just like the leader told him to.

After Story 17

There were days when he would feel dizzy like he had a fever, and that day was today. The trivial things on the screen, such as props, the background, and the extras would catch his eyes for some reason. He would console himself, saying that the actors were doing well, and the composition was good, but he would still end up saying harsh words. He knew that it was no time to be stubborn and that he didn’t have the time to do so, but once he started, he could no longer control himself.

“If your feet hurt, then say it! Or do it properly!” director Lee Jihoon shouted as he jumped up from his seat. He was directing his words at the background actors running behind the actors.

After shouting, he scratched the back of his head. On any other day, he would not have made a fuss about it. However, for some reason, they were unsightly, and he couldn’t bear to keep looking at them.

“I mean, am I asking you to do something difficult? Just run. What am I supposed to tell you when you look like you never ran before?”

A man and a woman with decent-looking faces apologized, looking afraid.

Jihoon clicked his tongue and sat down. His anger was aimed at the background actors, who weren’t up to par, but also at himself for not being able to control himself. He knew in his head that shouting at people wouldn’t get him anywhere. The extras would just become even more nervous and act even more strangely, and he would get frustrated even more.

You’re good with everything, but you have a problem with snapping out like crazy every once in a while — these were the words of a junior producer of his that he was close to. He knew that he had to fix his personality, but whenever that day came around, he would go on a rampage without him knowing as though someone else’s brain had taken over his.

“My, my, director. I wonder what kind of good picture you’re trying to create today, hm?” said senior Choi, who was preparing for the next scene. This person was one of the people Jihoon was very close to.

Jihoon sighed. “I know I shouldn’t be like this, but they keep ticking me off.”

“Take it easy on them. I know you’ll go and apologize to them once you’re done with the shoot.”

“Hyung, this isn’t the first time you have seen me like this, is it? I would’ve fixed it a long time ago if I could. On days like this, nothing I do works. I have to vent it out first, or I’ll die.”

“You’re such a bad guy.”

Jihoon waved his hand at senior Choi in dismissal before signaling the assistant director. The assistant director shouted standby in a loud voice. The actors in the distance got ready to run. Jihoon gave a hand signal. The camera started moving along the rails, and the actors started running at a constant pace. The two actors showed him satisfactory acting. Even as they ran, their pronunciation wasn’t mangled, and their expressions were just what he instructed them to do as well.

Just when everything was going well, the background actors entered the frame. The man and the woman with decent faces were running past the actors.

“Cut!” Jihoon shouted in reflex. He was so angry that he could feel his blood vessels thumping. He tried to calm down to no avail.

“I’m sorry,” said the woman first.

He was about to shout ‘okay’ in a good mood, but the extra misstepped and faltered. Jihoon got up from the front of the monitor and stood in front of the woman who looked scared.

“You can’t even run properly?”

“No, it’s not that.”

“God, dear me…”

There was an insult at the tip of his tongue. Senior Choi’s advice to go easy on them barely made him hold onto his reason.

“I’m only being nice to you since you’re a part-timer. If you were an actor, I would’ve sworn at you already. If you’re here to earn money, then do it properly. Did I ask you to display emotions? Did I ask you to fly in the sky? I just asked you to run, and you couldn’t even do that properly and almost fell over? I mean, you could do that if you wanted to when you were outside the camera frame. What are you doing faltering as soon as you enter the screen? Are you trying to screw me over? Every single person here is wasting their time because of you.”

He knew that this was nothing to be so harsh about, but he couldn’t stop. He vented all of his negative emotions on the extra.

The woman lowered her head. The leader, who had been watching, came over and spoke with a smile, “Director, should I swap her out for someone else?”

“Forget it. I was using her because she had a decent face, but I’ll just do without her. Anyway, are you accepting any random person for the job? This is something people get paid to do, so you should at least bring people who are reasonable.”

“Kids these days are all like that. It’s because they think this is an easy job and think that they should have fun. You should be lenient and let them go this time.”

Jihoon pressed above his eyes with his palm and returned to the monitor. He felt dizzy. The blade of words he wielded against the background actors was attacking him — Are you out of your mind? This isn’t something to get mad at them about.

“Should we take a break?” the assistant director came over and asked. Jihoon shook his head. This wasn’t something that taking a break would resolve. He had to get the scenes done quickly and finish the shoot.

He looked at the two background actors who left the scene after getting an earful from the leader. He had to remember their faces since he had to go apologize to them later.

As he seriously considered getting psychotherapy, he resumed the shoot. Maybe because of the lack of background actors running past the center of the frame, the screen looked a lot more empty now. He wanted to fill it with something else, even though he felt that using anybody else would not change anything. He stopped thinking about it and asked the camera director to shoot from up close.

Jihoon focused on the screen. He fixed his eyes on the actor. He tried to ignore everything around them as much as possible, whether it was the elderly couple on the bench, the faint figure of lovers, as well as the annoyingly distinct blue mat. He would obviously become emotional if he became concerned with them.

It was just as he was about to finish the cut, thinking that he might as well think that there was nothing in the frame other than the actors when he spotted a gray t-shirt that entered the camera angle before leaving. That person was an extra that he simply ignored because he couldn’t find anything wrong with them, even though he had gotten sensitive and would not forgive any flaws.

Jihoon took his eyes off the monitor and checked that person in real life. He was a passerby who would jog from the other side of the actors and run past. He looked so natural that he didn’t seem like he was assigned to a role.

Jihoon was unable to spot that man even as he snapped out at the background actors. If he did not remove the man and woman behind the actors, he might not have spotted him until the very end of the shoot.

The man, who jogged past the actors, kept running like he was going to leave the set before stopping. He didn’t let go of his role just because he was outside the camera frame.

That man knows what he’s doing — this was the first thing that came to Jihoon’s mind. He called out to the man with the gray t-shirt.

“Don’t stand there and go there. Run past the actors from behind and keep running. You saw what those two people were doing before, right?”

The man did not ask questions or stand there in puzzlement and just went to his newly assigned location. Jihoon liked that. Today, he treated all the background actors as a thorn in his eyes, but that fellow made him keep his calm just like the main actors.

He told the camera director to compose the shot like before and went back to the monitor. He didn’t have the assistant director give the signal and spoke into the walkie-talkie himself.

Cue. Along with that sound, people started moving. It turned out just as he imagined. The actors were good from the beginning, so he wasn’t dissatisfied with them. He looked at the background actor who followed them.

Even though Jihoon didn’t even ask, that man kept his distance when the actors were talking and quickly rushed past when the actors took some time to breathe. He didn’t scatter the focus that was on the actors and just left after leaving behind a sense of realism.

Jihoon felt good as though he was cured of a sickness. His sensitivity also became a lot duller and he started looking at other background actors in a good light as well.

“We’re done,” he said, refreshed. He had the assistant director take care of the cleanup and walked over to the background actors.

“I’m sorry about what happened before. I snapped out at someone totally innocent. I know I shouldn’t be doing this, but I couldn’t control myself. Just think of it as a crazy man going crazy, and don’t take what I said to heart.”

“It must be the heat. That’s what made everyone sensitive.”

When a middle-aged man stepped in, the awkward atmosphere was somewhat relieved. Jihoon repeatedly apologized and had the youngest writer buy ice cream for all the background actors.

“Young man,” Jihoon called out to the man in the gray shirt.

“Yes.”

“Let me ask you two questions. Do you have social phobia?”

“No.”

“Do you feel nervous in front of people and stutter?”

“I don’t.”

“Good.”

Jihoon scanned the gray t-shirt man from top to bottom. His height was just decent, and his face didn’t look bad either. He was somewhere in the middle between good-looking and ordinary, which made it even better.

“What’s your name?”

“It’s Han Maru, sir.”

“That’s a nice unique name. I’ll tell the leader about this later, so keep waiting. It’s nothing difficult, but you will have to say a few lines. You’ll get to see the actors up close too. Not bad, is it?”

“I’d love to.”

“Good. Then see you later.”

Jihoon would never propose something like this to a background actor usually since they were ultimately akin to background props. Having an extra do any lines, no matter how short, might delay the entire schedule after all. Acting was something that was more difficult the simpler it was.

It would be a different story if the leader recommended someone to him, but reaching out to someone like this as the director rarely happened.

“Leader. That young man in the gray t-shirt over there. I heard his name is Han Maru, and I’m going to give him a role later, so don’t send him home.”

“Got it.”

Jihoon sighed in relief and turned around. Thanks to the young man in the gray t-shirt, his head became a lot clearer.

This had never happened before. Whenever the background actors ticked him off, he would always spit out cuss words and end the shoot early, but he felt like he would be able to reach the number of desired cuts today.

They packed their equipment and moved over to Namyangju. The office set had been renovated just as he had requested before.

After greeting the arts director, he looked around the set.

“How is it? This is the meeting room.”

“It’s good. It was way too luxurious before, but now it looks office-like without any unnecessary stuff, so I like it.”

“Our drama is known to be quite plain. I tried going along with that theme.”

“You’re the best, director Jang.”

Jihoon walked around the set with the actors and explained the next cut. As a director, this moment was a lot more important than when the camera was rolling. Without proper interaction with the actors, he would only get crappy footage if he turned on the camera.

After explaining, he was browsing through the script when he spotted the gray t-shirt young man waiting while wearing a suit. His name was Han Maru, huh. Jihoon flicked his finger and called for Maru.

“There’s nothing difficult. You just have to pretend you’re looking at this file and call out the name of the character in waiting. Mr. Park Haechul, Mr. Choi Areum, please go inside. That’s it. Easy, right?”

Maru looked behind him. He scanned the set that was constructed like an office corridor before replying yes. The way he put the file between his arm and body made him look flawless. He neither looked excited nor nervous.

“Have you participated in shoots before?”

“This is my first time. Uhm yeah, this is my first.”

For some reason, Maru repeated himself. He even smiled a little.

“Anyway, please.”

“I’ll do my best.”

He looked strangely reliable, to the point that Jihoon didn’t even think about asking him to try it out once. His senses as the director judged that he would do well.

“Go on then.”

Jihoon looked at Maru, who stood in front of the rows of chairs at the end of the office. Just as he expected, he looked so in line with everything else that he might as well have been cast beforehand.

After Story 18

“You’re here.” Jihoon stood up while drinking a coffee handed to him by the youngest member of the production crew. The staff members around him also greeted Bae Jungwoon, who approached him. Bae Jungwoon was an old actor who would rarely move before being given a call, and yet he came over himself.

“The weather could really kill.”

“It is scorching.”

Jungwoon looked around. A quick-witted props management crew member quickly brought over a portable chair. Jungwoon sat down as though it was only the right thing to do and put his hand out. Jihoon told the youngest member of the production crew to bring some coffee.

“It’s goddamn tiring.”

“I heard you’ve been fishing. Anything good?”

“Only small fry. Choi Daesik, that guy boasted about how I will get big fish as long as I throw the float, and that was the result. Man, that guy is a total liar.”

Choi Daesik and Bae Jungwoon. These two were known to be very close in the industry, and they always went out to the sea when they had spare time. The problem was that they would even depart to the sea even on days before the shoot. It wasn’t entirely feasible to harshly scold two actors past their sixties, but they couldn’t entirely sit still either. Ultimately, the youngest members of the crew had to take the brunt and call the managers of the two actors the whole day.

“Director Lee, you should really stop calling. My manager’s phone might catch fire.”

“Our little guy is quite enthusiastic at work. I’ll tell him to go slow.”

“Yeah. It’s not like I don’t come to the shoot. If you keep nagging me, it makes me look like the bad guy.”

But you’re only coming because we’re calling you — Jihoon swallowed those words along with his coffee.

“My scene today ends quickly, right?”

“Of course. I’ll make sure that there are no problems with your schedule.”

“At least you’re really good at assigning time slots. There’s this young guy in MBS who doesn’t get a single thing I say to him. I told him I can’t move early in the morning and that I’ll be tired late in the evening, so the schedule should be around noon, but he always calls out me late at night. That young guy is a total prick.”

“You should be generous. Those who don’t have much experience just have it hectic because they get chased by the people above and below them. If they get more experience, they’ll find out who they need to look after.”

Jihoon was now used to listening to the grumbles of the old actor. After sharing a few more words about fishing, which he wasn’t even interested in, he looked at the cue sheet. The shoot was supposed to begin 15 minutes later, but Jihoon called the assistant director and had everyone get ready. Rather than talking to an old actor here, he would rather wrestle with the monitor.

The staff members who were spread across the set as they rested, started moving again. It was pitiful to see them since they looked like they'd fall over on the spot if nudged, but he had no choice. The shooting environment was so terrible that it might as well be hell.

Back when he first made his debut, he had the ambition to change the unfair labor environment in the industry. However, as he worked on various sets, he soon realized how absurd that dream was. He couldn’t change it, so he could only adapt. Not too long ago, he saw an article about a staff member collapsing due to heat stroke, but the only thing that happened was that the higher-ups sent a notification to be careful, and nothing else. The only path of survival was to get rest whenever they could.

“Let’s finish it quickly and go home instead of the public bath[1],” Jihoon said in a loud voice. The best thing he could do for the staff as the director was to reduce the shooting time as much as possible. That, or drag it out indefinitely so that they could get the money to go to the public bath instead.

After getting touched up by the costume staff, Jungwoon entered the interview room. Minor actors wearing suits sat next to Jungwoon. As Jungwoon looked around the set, he fixed his tie and sat down, leaning back on the chair. His arrogant attitude had totally disappeared, and a classy atmosphere pervaded the air around him, making him look like an important figure in the company.

Jihoon clicked his fingers. After all that was said and done, it was undeniable that Bae Jungwoon was a good actor. There was a reason that he kept getting cast even though he was late all the time.

“When you’re in front of senior Bae, don’t laugh like an idiot if you make a mistake. Apologize first and have a look at his response. It’s okay if he nags you in a joking tone, but if he stares at you without saying anything, then you should really get a hold of yourself. Everyone here has heard at least once that senior Bae terribly dislikes the shoot getting dragged out, right?”

“Is it really that bad when he gets angry?” One of the main actors was cautiously looking at senior Bae.

“Once he snaps out, then he’ll be uncontrollable, so you should do well. Of course, that won’t happen unless it gets really dragged out, so don’t worry too much. Also, this scene is the most important one out of all the scenes we’re shooting today, so be aware of that.”

This was a very important scene in the drama. It was the scene where the two main characters, whose charming point was that they were ordinary citizens, would undergo a change for the first time. They would have to express that they were being reborn as elites of the company well so that they could keep the viewers attracted to the drama.

He walked to the corridor with the two main actors. He had them sit down on the chair and do a rehearsal. He emphasized to them multiple times what they had to express. The actors were young but smart, so they soon understood what he wanted and showed him the acting he wanted.

“Very good. You should do just that in front of senior Bae. Mr. Junho, Ms. Ahyoung, you got that?”

After listening to the two actors, he returned to the monitor. Only after he sat down did a role he had entirely forgotten about cross his mind. He saw Han Maru standing obediently at the end of the corridor. For some reason, he had blind faith in this young man to do well.

He wouldn’t freeze up in front of the actors, right? When he glanced at Maru, he saw that Maru was only looking straight ahead of him, and not showing any interest in the actors in front of him or stiffening up in nervousness. Despite saying that this was his first time, his attitude was filled with leisure. Whether that was his innate nature, or he had experience standing on other types of stages, it seemed that Jihoon didn’t have to worry about him.

After talking to the camera director and the recording engineer, he started the shoot. Along with the assistant director’s signal, the two actors walked over from the edge of the corridor. He liked the speed of the camera that followed the actors from the back. The slight shaking of their shoulders showed their nervousness quite well.

‘Young actors aren’t as good at acting’ became a thing of old. Since the quantity of information people had access to was different, there were many young actors who had incredibly good acting skills. All four actors playing leading characters were in their mid-20s, but none of them looked awkward.

Of course, they were lacking compared to the veteran actors in Chungmuro, but the money to cast those people was a magnitude higher.

“Okay, let’s do that again, but with the camera doing a knee-shot this time.”

After shooting a few more times from the back, he went over to the next cut. There were many times when the takes he thought were good at the scene turned out to be flawed when seen in the editing room. As such, he had to shoot as many takes as possible while time allowed it.

These days, video was all about editing techniques anyway. Even the most terrible footage could be created into a decent piece if edited well.

The two actors sat on chairs in front of the interview room. The camera shot their faces from a diagonal angle. Their faces contained a suitable mix of anticipation towards success and unease toward failure. Jihoon did wish they could express more, but he decided to go with it for now, since it wasn’t too bad. He could just instruct them again on this later once he was done shooting.

“Let’s go.”

Action, cue, go, let’s go. His signals changed according to his mood at the time. When the two actors reached the peak of tension, the interview room opened.

The eyes of the extra at the corner of the screen were a lot better than he expected. The extra spoke, in a very businesslike manner with a little bit of fatigue, “Mr. Park Haechul, Ms. Choi Areum, you can go inside.”

After saying that, he opened the door for them. Maru’s gaze was fixed on the interviewer inside the room. Even as the actors walked past him, his gaze did not waver. That was not an act that Jihoon had instructed beforehand. But at the same time, it was an act that he wanted to see.

In the final product, he was originally intending to insert a special sound effect of chairs squeaking. As for the other environmental noise, he was going to just put some white noise captured by the camera to express a near-dead-still silence.

Since this cut was going to be filled with silence, the expressions of the actors mattered a lot, but a mere extra made it quite good. He almost gave a cut sign in just one go. If the door to the interview room didn’t squeak, he would’ve gone to the next cut.

The props team and the arts team rushed out at once. Junho and Ahyoung, who were walking past the door, got startled and stepped back. Maru, who was holding the door, also put some distance.

“What is it?”

“The flooring came off here. We can fix this quickly.”

Jihoon clicked his tongue. It was such a pity since it was so good. Thankfully, the fix was done quickly as though it wasn’t a big problem. The assistant director tried pulling the door strongly.

“Director, I think it’s good now.”

“Then let’s do that again.”

The actors sat down on the chairs once more. Jihoon looked at Jungwoon, who was sitting in the interview room. That old man would probably cause a fuss if the shoot was repeated and he had to start waiting for longer.

“Cue!” Jihoon looked at the monitor.

The actors calmed down and started acting. He could see their cheeks stiffen up as they entered an unfamiliar space. Their acting was better than before. When the assistant director gave a signal, the extra opened the door and left. That extra did the same act again which made Jihoon feel like he was watching a rewound tape of what happened before.

His tone of voice, his eyes scanning the various items and the actors, and his posture as he opened the door were no different from the first take. It showed him that what he did wasn’t a fluke. This guy was smart. He probably kept designing what he had to do in his head during breaks. There was no way he could’ve acted like that otherwise.

Even though the actors were going inside the interview room, Jihoon’s eyes were fixed on the background. Only after that extra closed the door and stepped back did he get a hold of himself and look at the actors standing in front of the interviewer.

This was peculiar. It wasn’t some kind of great acting, nor was the extra good-looking enough to grab his attention, yet, he still managed to grab his eyes. No, at this point, it was better to say that he was mesmerized.

He looked at the staff members behind him. They were all looking at the monitor indifferently. He nodded; that was something he only caught because he was conscious of it. The extra managed to fulfill his job without stealing the gaze that must land on the actors.

“We’re done. Let’s go to the next location.”

The progress was so smooth that he couldn’t believe it was ‘that day’ when he would snap out at background actors like mad. It was all thanks to that extra in the corner of his eyes. He was a perfect prop placed in the perfect spot.

If he could bring that fellow with him in his pocket, he felt like he would never need any psychotherapy again. While he knew that it was an absurd notion, he still thought like that. That young man was like emergency medicine. When he looked at him, his anger would calm down and he would smile.

Now he had something he had to ask if he had the time. He wanted to ask that young man how long he was going to do this part-time job. If he planned to do it for a while, then he was planning to get his contact info, so that he could call him whenever the props ticked him off.

No, if possible, it wouldn’t be bad to keep calling him. He had an ordinary appearance, so he wouldn’t look too repetitive as long as he changed his clothes.

Han Maru. Jihoon committed that unique name to memory.

[1] Some public baths have a facility called jjimjilbang, where they can sleep overnight

After Story 19

Maru straightened his shoulders and left the set partition. His shoulders were aching as he had stayed shriveled up for so long. He grabbed a staff member passing in front of him. It was the props manager that gave him a file.

“Where should I put this?”

“You can give it to me. The clothes were yours, right?”

“Yes, they’re mine.”

After receiving the file, the staff member quickly left. When they moved to the indoor set, the props people became very busy.

Maru turned around and looked at the interview room. The lights from above were shining down on the actors. As though it was an important scene, the rehearsal lasted for a long time. He wanted to just have a look at the atmosphere and get some pay, but he was lucky enough to appear on the screen. The line he said in front of the camera after all this time deeply resonated and knocked on his heart. He almost ended up staring at the camera in a daze. Despite knowing that the camera wasn’t pointing at him, he felt greedy; he wanted to stand in the center of it all.

“Mr. Maru.” Junghyuk waved at him. He had been wearing a bitter expression on his face ever since the director snapped out at him in Gapyeong, but now he was smiling as though he had gotten over it.

Next to him was a woman in office clothes. It didn’t take long for Maru to recognize who she was. It was the woman who got an earful from the director during the jogging scene.

“You got a line. I’m envious,” Junghyuk said.

“Having an ordinary appearance helps out at a time like this. I have a perfect face that can be placed in the background.”

“What are you saying? It doesn’t matter how you look. The director chose you because you were doing well. Didn’t he say anything else?”

“Nothing much. Anyways, I don’t see others around.”

“Other than a few people, everyone went home. It looks like the shoot will end here today.”

As the part-time work was outsourced, their pay would be transferred today or at the latest, in three days. Maru would be able to resolve the rent for this month if he got back the money he lent his college senior and got the payment from this job.

He could last this month like that, but what about next month? Continuing the background actor job was inefficient. What he needed now was to do a predetermined amount of hours of labor to produce a stable income. Naturally, the background actor part-time job was not an option due to its irregular schedule.

He thought about other part-time jobs that college students often did, but those didn’t yield enough money. He had to have money in order for the scale weighing dreams and reality to stay balanced. He did not have a shred of resolution to suck on his thumb to continue acting with the so-called ‘hunger fuels motivation.’

Ultimately, it would come down to chance whether he succeeded or failed, but the progress of reaching that result had to be extremely smooth. His bank balance would equal his health and willpower. He had to have solid supplies to have a long-term battle.

“It’s interesting. The same guy who got annoyed at me is all smiles right now,” the woman said as she looked at the director. She did not hide her vexation, which was not surprising.

It was natural for her to hate the director, since he snapped out at her, who almost fell over while running, despite her not being an actress.

“Doesn’t he have anything to say now?” the woman asked him. She seemed to want to share their frustration.

“He seems okay now.”

“Really? I don’t know why I have to be insulted like that in a part-time job I tried out for fun. It still makes me mad.”

“Don’t mind it too much. He said it before too, didn’t he? That you shouldn’t mind him because a crazy guy said crazy things. It’s a job that comes with a lot of stress, so maybe he’s got that personality because of that.”

“I guess anyone would go out of their mind if they have to shoot under the scorching sun like that for days in a row.” The woman faintly smiled.

They moved places. The few background actors still left were waiting at the rest area near the entrance. From how there weren’t any additional announcements, it seemed that things would end like this.

“Anyone going home separately?” asked the leader as he came in.

Two men raised their hands. They seemed to live near Namyangju.

“Those going home separately should go, and your payment will be transferred tomorrow at noon, so check that. Oh, there’s no one who didn’t write in the log, right? If you didn’t write your name on it, you won’t get paid, so tell me now.”

There was no one who didn’t write. The leader left, telling them to wait a bit. People started packing up their stuff. As this job required them to carry around clothes and even shoes, everyone had heavy bags. Maru went to the bathroom to change into casual clothes.

“I saw you acting,” Minyoung spoke to him.

She seemed to be one of the interviewees, as she was wearing a clean gray suit.

“The director told me to try.”

“Wasn’t it unnerving? I was just sitting among all those people, but it still made me nervous.”

“It made me feel less nervous when I thought about how it isn’t me being shot.”

“I think I’d still shake a lot if there’s a camera right in front of me. Oh, you’ve seen Lee Junho and Lee Ahyoung up close, right?”

“Yes. I have.”

“How were they? I was too far away from the actors when we were outside and inside, so I haven’t gotten a close look at them.”

“They really are different in real life. Their heads are really small, and their proportions are great. Above all, their skin is totally different from ordinary people.”

“I want to look at them from up close too. I’m not sure about anyone else, but I really like Ahyoung. She’s around the same age as me, but she’s freakishly good at acting. It’s like she was born to be an actress.”

“I think you can do it too, if you try.”

Minyoung took out the smile she showed in Gapyeong again. It was a smile of politeness, and also a sign of refusal.

“I told you. I only managed to get to this point after trying really hard to look extroverted. How could I possibly do something that will make me smile or cry in front of so many people?”

“You never know.”

“What part about me did you see that makes you say that anyways? I thought you were joking during the day, but I don’t think you’re joking right now.”

“Your expressions,” he replied curtly.

Minyoung’s lips twitched. Following her lips, her facial muscles from her cheeks all the way to her eyebrows displayed significant movements.

“I’ve never heard that before. You’re teasing me, aren’t you?”

“I’m not sociable enough to tease someone I met for the first time this morning. I’m just telling you my honest opinion. It’s not that I know a lot about actors, but don’t you think a sponge is better than a wooden log? I think there’s no better material than a face that can move so flexibly.”

Maru picked up his messenger bag. He nodded to Minyoung, who stood still, and walked to the set.

“Han Maru,” someone called his name. When he turned around, he saw the leader moving around and shouting names.

Maru looked at him, wondering what was happening. Having made eye contact, the leader quickly rushed over.

“Where are you going?”

“I’m done here, so I’m going home.”

“Who’s done here? Aren’t you going to earn money? You have more to shoot.”

“You said we were done before…”

“That applies to other people. You, and also you.” After looking around, he pointed at Minyoung and Junghyuk. “The three of you have more to shoot, so stay behind.”

After saying what he wanted, the leader went elsewhere, putting his phone against his ear. Maru looked at the two people standing not too far away. Like him, the two of them had gotten ready to go home.

“Looks like we’ll be getting night shift pay.” He smiled and returned to the rest area. He put down his bag and pulled a chair over before sitting on it.

Minyoung and Junghyuk also sat next to him. While the two of them introduced themselves to one another, he called Haneul.

-Yes, sweetie.

“Today’s really hot.”

-We’re at a shaved ice store right now. It’s hot by the sea too. The wind feels like it has been heated.

“You should walk around when the sun goes down and it becomes a little cooler.”

-We really should.

Haneul had gone to Jeongdongjin with mother-in-law. It was a consolation trip to soothe mother-in-law who must have been mentally shocked after she declared she was dropping out of college.

“How’s your mother?”

-She’s overjoyed. She still looked mad back when I told her I booked the train tickets, but she’s all smiles now. I was worried since it was my first trip with her as mother and daughter, but it’s great that mom’s enjoying it.

“You should take a lot of photos and send them to your father as well. According to statistics, he really liked it when you did.”

-I’ve already taken a bunch and sent them to him. He’s really expressing his good mood right now.

“Looks like both of them have gentle natures in this life.”

-I’m glad that they are. But when I look back, I don’t think we were ever in a bad relationship. It was just always me who forgot to look after them. We’ve repeated so many lives, but there wasn’t a big change. In this sense, I guess fate is quite scary.

“This is really the last time, so you should look after them more.”

-I’ll take care of my own parents, so why don’t you go act cute to your own? You’re hiding the fact that you’ve dropped out, and if you don’t contact them frequently, that’s being unfilial.

“Yes, ma’am. I’ll take care.”

She hung up, saying that the shaved ice was out. Not long later, he got a photo of her and her mother smiling brightly with the shaved ice between them. She was no longer the daughter that made her parents worry, but an amicable one they didn’t have to worry about.

Maru looked at her in the photo for a long while. Although her smile wasn’t polished, it looked prettier to him than anyone else’s in the world. Her expression might look stiff now, but the charm that lay below it was extraordinary. She would one day polish and train herself to express all of her charms, and he would be there to capture it before anyone else.

Seeing the smile that captivated the men of South Korea, thousands, if not tens of thousands of times first was a privilege that only he could enjoy.

“Your girlfriend?” Junghyuk spoke.

He nodded and put his phone in his pocket.

“Your eyes are practically dripping sugar right now,” Minyoung added.

The two of them seemed to have decided to drop the honorifics already as they smiled at each other. Maru and Junghyuk decided to do the same.

Minyoung and Junghyuk were twenty-four, and he was twenty-two. Naturally, the two became noona and hyung.

“I’ll have to agree with Maru. Your expressions are really vivid.”

What Maru brought up before was the topic: Minyoung was trying out new things, so how about an actress?

Minyoung waved her hand in the air in dismissal.

“Forget it. I’m satisfied with doing this once. The two of you said you wanted to become actors, right? You two should try hard. Personally though, I think Junghyuk has more potential.”

“I guess he really does look the part.”

When they chatted, they ended up exchanging contact info as well. Junghyuk urged that they should do so, saying that this was a form of fate. Before he knew it, a group chat had formed as well.

“I’ll put up a pinned message. If you ever become successful, don’t ignore others and treat them to food. This is a very important message, okay?” Junghyuk emphasized.

That was a message he really wanted to upkeep. If he was successful, a meal was nothing. He could borrow a hotel buffet for an entire week.

“You should have dinner.” A staff member opened the door to the rest area. It was 6 p.m. They left the set.

Despite it being the evening, the sun was still above their heads, and the ground was still boiling. The staff were walking like zombies with the lunchboxes in hand. They seemed to need more sleep than food.

After receiving the lunchboxes, he went to a shade behind the building. Despite everyone’s fatigue, laughter could still be heard throughout since it was mealtime.

Junghyuk and Minyoung also followed him after getting theirs. The lunchbox was the same as what they ate for lunch, with the only different menu being the soup and a single side dish.

Just as he was about to split the braised mackerel in half and eat it, he saw an elderly man in a suit looking around before approaching where he sat. He was the actor who was inside the interview room. He couldn’t remember the name. He was a veteran actor he knew the face of, but not the name.

Maybe he had some business in the parking lot. Maru looked away from him and picked up his chopsticks.

However, he could not eat. The elderly man stopped right in front of him.

“It’s you, isn’t it?” said the elderly man.

After Story 20

The question was out of the blue. It was difficult to even discern who ‘you’ was in ‘it’s you isn’t it?’. He didn’t seem to be referring to Junghyuk and Minyoung who were sitting on either side of him, so Maru put down his chopsticks. The elderly actor was staring holes at him, so there was only one ‘you’ he could be referring to.

“What is it?”

It was hard to discern what the elderly actor’s expression meant. He seemed to be pissed, annoyed, and yet somewhat joyous as well.

“You don’t know me?”

He couldn’t even tell what those series of questions were meant to ask. Perhaps Maru made a mistake during the shoot? Just as he was about to apologize out of habit,

“I guess you don’t. Everyone’s like that. They know my face, but not my name. I used to be pretty famous, you know?” The elderly actor joined them like it was natural.

Junghyuk and Minyoung scooched sideways to put some distance from the elderly actor. As a result, Maru ended up facing the elderly man face to face.

“The one calling out names in front of the interview room. That was you, wasn’t it?”

Only then did he realize what ‘it’s you’ meant.

“Yes, that was me.”

“You seem totally different from when I saw you back then. I thought you’d be all skinny, but you’re actually quite decent with your shoulders straight like this,” said the elderly actor while staring at his face. “You were giving glances at me during the shoot, weren’t you? I asked the director about it, and he told me he didn’t ask you to do it. So you tried that out on the spot?”

“I tried it because I thought it would look better.”

Perhaps he was ticked off by the fact that a background actor without any role did awkward acting? It was something to apologize about if he made an actor uncomfortable.

“If I’ve made a mistake in any way…”

“No, no. I did think that you were daring, but I don’t think you’ve made a mistake at all. If you were half-assed about it, I would’ve shouted on the spot to remove that punk. But you blended in quite well. You had the opportunity, so you wouldn’t be a man if you didn’t display your skills.” The elderly actor took out a cigarette.

Maru put his hands inside his pocket subconsciously before remembering that he threw away all of his cigarettes.

“You weren’t going to light me up?”

“I forgot I quit smoking.”

“You quit something good like this? You’re quite tenacious for a young’un. Just smoke. The lifespan of man is up to the heavens. One of the seniors I know drank heavy liquor every day and smoked two packets, but he passed away after living all the life he could. Meanwhile, a dude who exercised every day to live a long life went earlier than me due to liver cancer.”

The elderly actor looked at Junghyuk, seemingly asking for a cigarette.

“I don’t have one either.”

He then looked towards Minyoung before making a ‘tsk’ noise and shouting to the back.

“Oi! Bring the lighter over.”

A man Maru thought was his manager ran over with an empty can and a lighter. The elderly actor thanked him with a grin on his face.

“I don’t have to ask you young’uns for permission to smoke, do I?” Saying that, he puffed a deep one. As for the smoke, he turned his head away and spat it out towards a place without people. Though, that didn’t mean that the smoke didn’t stay and the smell didn’t exist.

“You might be wondering why some random old guy came over. I don’t plan to stay for long, so don’t worry. I may look like this but I’m pretty busy.”

The elderly actor stuffed the cigarette that had become ashes in no time into the can.

“Have you done this work a lot?”

“Today’s my first day.”

“First? You’re doing this for money?”

“Money is one thing, but I wanted to have a look at the atmosphere at the shoot.”

“Right. You shouldn’t be here just for the money. You want to become an actor?”

“If possible.”

“Now that you had a look, what do you think? Does it look easy?”

“I’ll have to try to see.”

“Right, you have to do it yourself. You can’t tell just by looking.” The elderly man stood up while shaking the can. Maru also stood up.

“I’m just a nosy guy. I can’t stand still when something catches my eye. I don’t care what it is. You can aim for money or fame. Just don’t throw away the thought of becoming an actor.”

The elderly actor gave him the can, seemingly asking him to throw it away for him. Maru received the can.

“I’ve approached a few people like this during shoots. Do you know what happened to them?”

“I don’t know,” Maru responded as he shook his head.

The staff members eating dinner started gathering towards the set. The elderly actor looked towards the staff and said, “I don’t know either. I’m no stalker, so how am I supposed to know what happened to them? But you know, I don’t have to stalk them to know how a few of them turned out. How, you ask? How could I not know when they’re acting alongside me? Acting is really strange. There are times you prepare to death and it still looks crappy, and there are times when you just give up on it but get results beyond your imagination. It seems like it’s impossible to predict. But when you keep trying it out, you change your mind. The ones who really clench their teeth and give their all manage to climb. Acting is a long-term fight. It might not look any different, but once you taste it, you feel the difference. The degree in taste depends on how long it has been cured.”

The manager who gave him the lighter came over again. He said in a small voice that the shoot would resume in 10 minutes. The elderly replied in understanding.

“Anyway, the point is this: if you’ve prepared a lot, then do it until the end. I don’t know if it will go well or not though.”

It was rather random, crude, and at a glance, disdainful to an extent, but it was strictly encouragement. It was also the essence of experience and a whip he was giving to a nameless junior of the next generation. The affection displayed for him by this nosy senior made Maru smile.

“Thank you, sir.”

“Don’t call me sir. I’m going to live a young life, so you should go stick that stinky title to doctors or something.”

“Then I’ll call you senior.”

“Yes, that’s better. But don’t feel disappointed just because I don’t recognize you later. You don’t know my name either, do you? I don’t know you as well. Also, I’ve told this to many people. Anyway, if you do well and we shoot a good piece together, reach out to me. I’m always up to drinking with a junior. Or we could go fishing together.”

Just as he was about to turn around, he turned back around to Maru again and patted Maru twice strongly on the shoulders. Tap tap— the palms that hit his body were more direct and intense than any verbal message when it came to consolidating his will to become an actor.

“He’s actor Bae Jungwoon,” Minyoung said as soon as he left. It was only now that Maru found out about his name.

“The way he acts in dramas is no different from real life. I saw him play similar roles on TV. Maybe it’s because he has a similar personality in real life. But Maru, you might really be able to become an actor. A field senior has cheered for you.” Minyoung got all excited before getting disappointed about not being able to take a photo.

Maru followed senior Bae walking away with his eyes. He was a humble man who wasn’t stuck up about formalities. There might be people who might be uncomfortable with such an attitude, but Maru believed that displaying it on the surface was much better than hiding it.

“I should’ve heard something like that too. Looks like I’m still far from ready. Maru, if you ever become successful, you should call me to play a role in whatever you’re doing,” said Junghyuk. His words were semi-serious and semi-joking.

“If I ever become successful, I’ll ask the director for a role,” Maru received the banter lightly. If he tried to awkwardly console Junghyuk’s semi-serious words, they would both become uncomfortable around each other.

Just as senior Bae said, no one knew what the future held. Just because he got some encouragement didn’t mean that he would absolutely succeed, and just because Junghyuk didn’t receive it didn’t mean that he would absolutely fail to make it. It was just mental relief.

“Junghyuk. I’m sure you’ll do well. I have good eyes. Oh yeah, do we have to keep waiting?”

Cheered on by Minyoung, Junghyuk laughed comfortably, telling her to stop praising him. It didn’t seem to be a lie when she said that she tried hard to look extroverted. She was incredibly good at reading the atmosphere and changed the atmosphere suitably.

“I want to ask too.”

The staff were returning to the set to prepare, but meanwhile, the leader didn’t give them any instructions. It seemed that the scenes didn’t need any background actors.

“There are many cases where we’d go home just like this. Even actors are not exempt from this, and we’re only part-time workers,” Junghyuk said.

“Even actors just go home?” Minyoung asked as she put trash in the trash bag. Maru also helped with cleaning.

“Not to mention just going home, there are times when they’re called back after being sent home. Once, I went to a drama shooting set thanks to a professor of mine, and I saw a lead actor being sent home after doing nothing but waiting for 4 hours because the shoot was canceled. The shoot is mainly focused around lead actors, but if things go wrong and the shoot gets dragged out endlessly, forget lead roles and whatnot, everyone’s gotta wait.”

“I don’t think being an actor is a good job now. Also, I was shocked when I shot outside during the day. Just how many times were they going to shoot that jogging scene? It was the same lines and the same people, but I think they shot at least ten times.”

“The people and the lines are the same, but the composition is different. You saw the camera move right? When you watch dramas, they change the angles so that the audience can get immersed more easily. If the composition is similar, there are times when two cameras are used simultaneously, but when it comes to full shots and high and low angles, they have to change the positioning of the camera itself, so they have no choice but to repeat it,” Junghyuk lightly explained.

“That’s so much pain. Wait, then do people have to repeat crying acting like that as well?”

“That will depend on the director, but if the cut is separated into multiple angles… then it will be a repetition of crying and stopping.”

“I can see why actors use eye drops now. When I heard that actors use eye drops, I thought that they were being unprofessional, but if you have to do that multiple times… heck, even the most depressed person would run out of tears.” Minyoung frowned before looking at Maru. “No matter how much I think about it, I don’t think I can become an actor. You two can try hard by yourselves. I’ll be satisfied with just watching TV.”

They threw away the trash and waited outside. Not long later, the leader appeared with a big frown on his face.

“Let’s end it here today. There are taxis around the area, so you can go home on those. Your fares will be paid for, so you don’t have any problems, right?”

The leader was called and went back to the set as soon as he finished his words.

“What the. We were told to wait, and all we did was eat dinner and that’s it?”

“I told you it’s common.”

They returned to the rest area at the set. Maru changed his clothes and got his luggage again. Minyoung called for a taxi and said that they should go together.

“I’m tired even though I didn’t do anything. Waiting while doing nothing is pretty hard too, huh.”

“But it’s over now, so just hold on until you get home,” he said.

Just as he was about to leave the set through the parking lot, he got a call from an unknown number. When he received it, he heard the leader speak in an urgent voice,

-Where are you?

“I left. I’m about to go home.”

-Oho, no you didn’t. Didn’t I tell you to wait?

“You did not.”

The leader smacked his lips. He seemed to be annoyed slightly, but he seemed to remember that he never told Maru to wait and moved on to the main topic,

-The director asked me for your number so I told him. He told me he wants you if you ever want to do drama work again through this line. You’re going to do it, right?

“Well, I’m not sure.”

-You’re not?

“I don’t know what will happen, but I don’t plan to do any more for the foreseeable future.”

He had no reason to keep clinging to a job without a stable income. He also checked that his senses were still there, so there was no reason to continue doing it either. Experiencing the scene for himself was something he had to keep doing in the future, but he would do so through other means than part-time jobs.

-Gosh, this is bad. Alright, I’ll keep that in mind.

Maru took his phone off his ear. Junghyuk asked what it was about.

“Nothing much. It seems like the leader misunderstood something.”

Minyoung, who was walking ahead, waved her hand, telling them to hurry. Maru saw a black taxi waiting in the distance. It sure came early.

“Yoido station please,” Minyoung said after getting in the taxi.

Maru looked at the set becoming further away before letting out a deep breath. For some reason, he felt like smiling.

After Story 21

"He's not doing it?"

-Yes. Well, he seemed to be looking for another job.

"Alright, I'll keep that in mind for now."

He shouldn't have been wrong. Lee Jihoon pondered as he put his phone inside his pocket,

Han Maru, that fellow, whom he had already learned the name of, should be studying to become an actor. Otherwise, it couldn't explain the concentration or expression skills he showed at the scene.

"Or does he know that being an extra brings no benefits?"

If he was smart, then he should know that doing background acting once or twice should be more than enough experience.

It wasn't like the opportunity to see lead actors up close was common, and it wasn't that he would be given various other acting opportunities, so just doing it once or twice to gain experience was the right decision.

Jihoon rolled up the cue sheet and tapped it on the back of his neck. It should be okay for the time being, but 'that day' was bound to arrive; it was the day where every prop and every extra in the monitor would pierce his eyes and fuel his anger.

He needed Han Maru, the special medicine, to safely pass that day. He would receive less than half of the stress he was receiving now if he could have that human medicine by his side to soothe his rampaging mind.

"Director. The preparations are ready."

Jihoon put Han Maru in a corner of his brain for now. He was going to think about it after finishing the shoot.

* * *

"Manager, I plan to stop after this month."

"After this month? Weren't you going to move your shift to the weekend and keep doing it?"

"That was the plan, but something came up. I don't think I can keep doing a part-time job."

"Really? That's a pity. There are quite a few customers who come to see you, Haneul."

"Thank you for putting me on a pedestal."

"I'm not. It's the truth. Anyway, alright. I'll take it that you'll be working until the end of this month. If you change your mind later or have some time once you're done with your matters, then come back. I'll prepare a spot for you. The owner liked you too because you were good at work, especially in the past few weeks. He said that you were looking better and better."

While they were talking, some customers arrived.

The manager told her to go home and went to the counter. Haneul changed out of her uniform and left.

"I'll be leaving first."

"Good job today."

She pushed the door open and left the café. She had applied to drop out, and she wrapped up her part-time work.

She felt slightly sorry because she was toppling the tower that the previous Han Haneul built over her lifespan, but there was no helping it. Her frame of mind had changed. The same, yet a completely different person was going to live on from now.

The distorted familial relationships had been resolved. The trip she went on with her mother played a big role in it. She would send casual text messages and calls, and she managed to regain an ordinary family.

She had taken care of an urgent business, so what was left now was to fix her environment. As long as she had decided to become an actress, she couldn't dawdle around. Dropping out of college and wrapping up her part-time job was the first step toward that.

"Hello, president. This is Han Haneul, and I called you a few days ago. Do you remember me? I was planning to visit you today. Yes, okay."

She went to the express bus terminal. Buying a ticket to Asan, she went to the waiting area. After drinking a sip of water, she called around again.

Yes, president. Hello. This is Han Haneul, and I called you a few days ago — she called a few owners of other factories until she arrived in Asan. Not a single one of them wanted to meet her.

It was a response she expected, so she didn't feel regret or anything. In fact, the owner of the factory in Asan was peculiar for meeting her.

She arrived at the factory in Asan. It wasn't that large. She walked past the storage warehouse to head to the office.

"Hello." An old couple with flocks of gray hair greeted her.

From their wrinkles and skin, they seemed to be in their late 40s to early 50s. They would look younger if they dyed their hair black.

When she greeted back, the wife offered her a seat.

"Thank you for allowing me to take some of your time."

"We're thankful instead. You came all the way here."

The husband was the one who picked up her call, but now that she met them in person, it was the wife who was talking to her. The husband just kept watching as though what his wife was doing was all correct.

Baek Homin, Park Youngsoo. She recalled the names of the two people.

"You must be busy, so I'll get straight to the point. My main point is just as I notified you through email."

"Yes, I've read it. It felt rather peculiar since we've never received emails like that before."

"You must have thought it was laughable, didn't you?"

"I thought you were a young person with guts, but I never looked down on you. If we did, we wouldn't have seen you either. But now I'm worried instead. What can you do with a factory that's almost out of business?"

It was just as mistress Park said. From the exterior of the factory to the office, there wasn't a speck of vitality in it. They probably decided to listen to a college girl's proposal because they were in such a situation. To her, this was an opportunity of a lifetime.

"You haven't shut down your business yet, so there's plenty of room. I believe that we have potential."

"If it goes well, then we don't have any complaints. We were having a hard time clearing inventory as it is and were about to wrap things up. Shall we hear your story then?"

She took out a laptop and placed it on the table.

"I've had a look at the website you were running. It seemed to be very old."

"It is pretty old since we made it back when we were making sesame oil. Rather than that, I haven't seen that in a long time. We didn't even look at it recently since we had zero orders through the site." Mistress Park bitterly looked at the screen.

President Baek, who was watching, stood up. "You two should continue talking. I'll go smoking for a bit."

He left after finishing his words.

"My husband has been quite stressed out lately. He thought that this was a promising business and even looked into aroma oil imports and signed a contract, but we haven't been getting any sales. Ever since it became hard to maintain our warehouse, he's been leaving all the business to me. He used to be full of confidence too," said Mistress Park as she clasped her hands. She added that it was such a pity about his drooping shoulders.

"I'm sure the business will thrive again. I can only earn something if the business goes well, so it'll be a headache if it doesn't."

"You sound like just what I imagined through your email. It's not reckless confidence that is typically seen from those around your age. I feel the experience from you. How peculiar."

"You have great eyes. I'm quite experienced indeed."

Mistress Park smiled. Haneul continued to explain. "First up, the website is a problem. A screen filled with text isn't that visibly good. Moreover, the banner is outdated too. Not to mention all the broken text throughout. Of course, I presume you knew this already."

"To an extent. But even if the website does function, the business wasn't going well, so we practically gave up on it."

"Aromatherapy has just begun gaining popularity. It was mentioned before, but due to our culture of placing more importance on eating and drinking therapies instead of scented ones, it just hasn't gained interest yet. It's a business that not only the cosmetics industry but also individual enterprises are entering."

"We've seen it talked about on TV, but there are no businesses that order from small companies like us. Even if there's a boom in popularity, they'll instead buy popular products from famous cosmetics companies."

"Ordinarily, yes, but there are quite a lot of customers who prefer uniqueness. Also, we are going to start pushing one keyword alongside 'well-being.'"

"You mean 'natural', the one in your email?"

"Yes."

"I didn't find it all that attractive though."

"Environmentally-friendly products increase the purchasing power quite considerably. The products you're importing from Germany have already been clinically proven to not cause any allergies, right? Moreover, it's been extracted through distillation."

"Most oils are extracted through distillation, so I don't think it's anything to emphasize about."

"Marketing is about emphasizing what sounds obvious as not so obvious. Also, we'll add a bit of misconception on top of it. When you think of 'chemicals' you think that it might be bad for your body, but when you think of 'natural oils' you think it's good for your body. Even though in truth, those that haven't been refined to suit our body are all poison, whether natural or chemical."

Mistress Park nodded.

"We're going to keep promoting the increase in the quality of life our customers can get by using the products, to customers who like uniqueness. A custom-blended oil created domestically. We can't sell the imported oil directly and need to process it further if we want to open the wallets of the consumers. This is the easiest method to differentiate ourselves from other businesses too. With the current trend, there will be a lot of businesses that create and blend oils themselves. We have to corner a spot in the industry before it turns into a red ocean."

"We don't have any knowledge about oil blending," said Mistress Park.

"I can solve that for you, as well as the website and advertising. Like I wrote in the email, I didn't propose this to you thinking that I should just recklessly try it out. I've come to offer you a method so that I can gain a stable income."

She closed the laptop and looked into Mistress Park's eyes.

"I can't guarantee that we'll definitely be successful. Even if you refuse, I can understand it."

Mistress Park walked to a wall in the office. There was a bottle with a ribbon wrapped around it. It was a bottle of sesame oil.

"If we wrap everything up now, we'll be able to do something about our later years. However, my husband and I don't want to live a boring life for the rest of our lives. If we did, we wouldn't have quit the company we worked for. Let's do it. I like your boldness quite a lot, Miss Haneul."

"Really?"

"Yes. Just like in the email, we'll receive consulting from you and pay for the products. It's not that big of a deal for us since we are doing it with items we were about to throw away."

"For the website design, I'll draft up a couple and show it to you. As for the advertisement, I'll shoot one myself and use various video platforms and blogs to spread them around. Oh, I hope you can look into manufacturers to create the containers for the blended oil."

"Don't worry about that. We know a few. Just tell me the shape. I'm sure the younger generation is more knowledgeable about what they prefer."

"I'll proceed with the rest after consulting with you."

"Alright then."

Haneul put her laptop inside her bag.

"I know it's somewhat awkward of me to bring this up on our first meeting, but…”

"Revenue share, I see. You're really quite bold. But I don't hate you. Shares, huh? I'll have to see the sales to be sure, but for now, I think you should take a percentage cut from the profit."

"If you're thinking like that, then I have no problems with it either. I guess showing results do come first. We can talk about how much you're willing to give me once we look at the sales later."

After setting their next appointment, Haneul stood up from her seat.

"I'll try to bring my husband to the next meeting."

"Okay."

"Also, have you done this business a lot? From your age, it can't be right, but you seem so proficient."

"Maybe my desperation to make this successful shone through? You have to become successful so that I can become successful."

Mistress Park smiled. Haneul shook hands with her.

"I hope I can gain something from the young businesswoman and that things go well."

"If this business goes well and what I'm doing separately goes well too, you might be able to reap some of the profits."

"What is it?"

"A very efficient advertisement."

She said goodbye to Mistress Park, who looked puzzled, before leaving. She made eye contact with President Baek who was standing in front of the warehouse. President Baek nodded at her before returning to the office.

Haneul looked at the entire factory and took a photo. This place would become her support. If things went well, she would be able to get her face known as the advertising model for the product.

The order was slightly off, but her ultimate goal was the title of an actress. She would never become an actor who performed in Marronnier park, always feeling hungry. While her husband said that they should focus on their dreams without worries, she had a hard time committing to that due to her personality.

Her husband was also probably setting up insurance even though he said they should focus on their dreams without worries.

“In this life, you might become an actor and a full-time housewife.” She smiled and turned around.

After Story 22

Haneul opened her eyes at the shaking. She was planning to get just a bit of shut-eye, but it had been an hour already. The bus was driving down a familiar road. She saw Suwon station outside the window. She brushed her eyes upwards to drive away the sleepiness.

The meeting with the aroma oils business went quite well, contrary to her expectations. For the sake of the mistress who listened to a bold college girl without looking down on her, as well as for her own sake, she wanted to make this successful.

The bus stopped. She got her bag and got off. A man and a woman rushed past her, excitedly dragging a carrier bag. She followed them with her eyes, and at the end, she saw a massive banner. What decorated the face of Suwon station was a health drink advertised by a popular actor. A man wearing a suit and a neat smile was looking forward with a drink in one hand.

Drinking this will change your day, or so the ad seemed to be whispering. That was the target that her blended oils should aim for. She had to emphasize that consuming the product would make the customer special.

In the past, she was a smart woman famous in the marketing industry. She was going to make the most use of her experience working in an industry where overtime work was everyone’s friend, and cuss words were like emergency medicine.

Of course, there was a clear limit to how far she could take it. The only things the twenty-two-year-old Han Haneul had were a face with an awkward smile, a body that lacked health, and a wallet that made her worry about next month’s rent. It was impossible to create an ad made with a massive budget. As such, she had to play her cards smartly.

As she walked, she looked into cameras that could take videos for internet formats. As it was a decisive factor in making the advertisements vibrant, she allocated a large portion of the budget. She also bought a microphone as internal mics wouldn’t cut it. When she added a relatively decent directional mic, she sighed at the sheer amount.

“Should we just join houses?” she said in the middle of the street. If she combined residences with Maru, she would be able to save up on various costs, not to mention monthly rent. Despite saying that she needed some time to redefine herself, all she could think about was saving money now that she was running short of it.

After thinking for a while, she started walking again. It was a little early to combine. Also, she decided not to be so hasty. She put her phone in her bag. She felt like staring at the small screen for a long time would make her feel stuffy.

It had only been a month. In the month after regaining her memories, she had changed a lot of things. While gaining speed was a good thing, overspeeding and falling over at a speed bump would mean even more losses.

She got on the city bus and returned to her house. She quickly erased her makeup and started drafting an email to the owners of the factory in Asan. She wrote down her sincere gratitude for not ignoring her and even joining hands with her, alongside sending them with some future plans.

She turned the music on and had dinner. Her dinner was some chicken breast she bought for cheap and in bulk online and some last-minute sales of sweet potatoes on the street. There were also some strange-shaped bananas that were on sale for 1,000 won a basket.

She put a mat in the living room and started exercising. As her body was so stiff, it couldn’t even get the basic moves of Pilates down. Despite having moved for 10 minutes, she was already sweating. This body was truly terrible.

The instructor in the video went on to the next move, but she was heaving deep breaths as she put her stomach on the ground.

“When I was in my prime… Geez!”

Who could she blame? It was her own karma. She calmed down her breathing and started moving again.

It’s not my body that hurts, it’s my mind. This much is nothing. Feeling like I’ll die is proof that I can do more — she uttered words that she said out of habit during exercise sessions and kept putting more strength into her arms and legs. There was still a long way to go if she wanted to regain the flexibility and muscular strength.

It was about an hour later when she fell down after wrestling with her body which didn’t listen to her. She was fixing her squat position while soothing her stiff hip joint until she couldn’t handle anymore and fell down.

She flung her arms on the ground like a frog on a dissection table. Beads of sweat dripped down her cheeks. The instructor in the video told her that they should meet again next time. Haneul bitterly raised her hand and waved it. Good work, some instructor from the internet I don’t know the name of.

“Yes, sweetie.”

She crawled over to her phone which was ringing some distance away and picked it up.

-Why do you sound like you’re dying?

“I feel like I’m dying.”

-What were you up to?

“Exercise.”

-I understood that instantly.

“I can feel it now that I’m actually trying to exercise. This body really isn’t mine. No, wait, it is mine. Anyway, I think I’ll need a lot of time if I want to regain my body from before.”

-It’s impossible to change a body that you have abandoned for 22 years into its top shape overnight. But you will get used to it if you keep doing it. Memories are quite curious. It looks like the body follows the memories.

She drank some cold water while listening to her husband. She felt like she could live again with some moisture in her body.

“How was it at the shoot?”

-The director treated me like a decent prop. I’m definitely not at a satisfactory level, but I could control my body to an extent. I think getting a feel is really important.

“What’s your impression of standing in front of a camera?”

-Good. I can’t begin to describe it.

He spoke like an innocent child.

Bright lights, sparkly reflectors, large cameras on cranes, and a microphone hanging from the air. Murmuring staff, the snapping slate, and the moment of silence that comes with the cue sign.

She could vividly remember all of it like she was in the scene herself.

“That’s good.”

-What was that?

“I’m glad that we didn’t give up on being actors. As you said, I would’ve deeply regretted it later if I let go of my dream to become an actress. I might have deceived myself, thinking that I have no regrets. The path we are walking on might be a little difficult, but it’ll be fun, right?”

-It might be very difficult. But as you say, it will be fun like no other. Ah, right, didn’t you say you had something to do today?

“I did, and it went well. I’ll tell you what it is later. Little surprises are necessary from time to time, right?”

-Don’t surprise me too much. It’s bad for the heart.

Just as she was about to hang up, she remembered something. She spoke as she placed her hand on her aching waist,

“Hun, have you visited home yet?”

-Home?

“Your parents’ house.”

-I plan to do so soon.

“Go tomorrow. How can you be so ignorant?”

-I’m not ignorant. I’m extremely ordinary, and so I don’t really have to go and say hello.

“Don’t give me that and go meet them tomorrow. You know better than anyone how parents feel, but at times like this, you always…”

-Alright, alright. I’ll go tomorrow.

“Don’t forget to bring your mother’s favorite food. I don’t know anything right now, so I’ll leave that to you.”

-Alright, I’ll do as you say. But hey, I think you’re being too meddlesome when we haven’t even gotten married yet. What do you think, Miss Han Haneul?

“Do you want me to nag you? Is that what you want?”

-Of course not. You’re misunderstanding. I’m sure you must be tired, so you should get some sleep.

Her husband groaned. She would have pinched his waist if he was here.

After listening to her husband’s nonchalant laughter, she spoke again, “I should see your sister too. How is she in this life? Are you getting along with her?”

-Typical brother and sister. You know, the relationship where you are okay as long as you know they’re alive.

“That’s good. There were a lot of times when you were like enemies.”

-That’s right. Enemies like no other.

“Treat her well. You’re an adult. Don’t act immature and fight with her again.”

-You know that the older you get, the more proud you become, right?

“If you keep talking like that, I’ll give you a beating.”

-Geez, watch out what you say, will you? I need to give your lips a rebuke.

“How are you going to do that?”

-Well, I’ll get to the details on the bed.

“I heard someone tell me that family members shouldn’t do that with each other.”

She smiled and whispered to him good night. After hanging up, she put her phone on the table. She put away the mat she put in the living room and was just about to go to the bathroom when she heard a notification alarm. It was a message from Maru.

-I found a few auditions. There are some that are competitive and some that aren’t. You should have a look at them and apply if you want to.

The message even included links.

She sat down on a chair and had a look at them. As this was an audition released to the public, there weren’t any significant roles. The most numerous type was an audition for a commercial, followed by film, then dramas. She picked a few she took a liking to and took note of them.

While it was unlikely that she would pass any of them, she could never know what life had in store. She had seen numerous cases where small events opened the doors to opportunities. If a chance presented itself, she would not let go so easily.

Haneul put her phone down and went to the bathroom. She wanted to wash herself with some warm water before her body cooled down.

* * *

He realized in front of the supermarket how inattentive he was as a son. After contemplating for a while, he picked yellow melons. They were in season, and according to the data from his previous lives, his mother very often liked yellow melons. He could remember her buying yellow melons a few times in this life as well, so it should be fine.

With the black plastic bag with the yellow melons in it, he entered the residential area. When he went to where his feet led him, he found himself in front of a building. He went up to the 3rd floor and inputted the pin code before opening the door.

“Gosh, that startled me. I was wondering who it was.” Her mother peeked out from the kitchen with rubber gloves on.

Maru smiled and took off his shoes. “What are you doing?”

“What could I be doing? We ran out of kimchi, so I’m making some spicy radish salad. Though, summer radishes aren’t so good.”

“Should I buy some meat then, to go with it?”

“You want to eat meat?”

“No, I don’t really want to eat anything, but we used to eat a lot of boiled pork when you made things with radish.”

“That’s because you always nagged me for it.”

“Me? No way.” Maru put the plastic bag on the table.

Her mother, who had her hands in a big metal bowl, asked, “What’s that?”

“Yellow melons. It’s your favorite, isn’t it?”

“What’s gotten into you? You’re buying fruits.”

“It’s just a small token of filial piety.”

He picked up a strand of red radish and put it in his mouth. When he chewed on it, his mother stared at him. “Is it salty?”

“No, it’s just right. Your skills haven’t rusted at all.”

“It won’t go anywhere. Also, grab that kimchi container on top of the fridge for me.”

His mother put the spicy radish salad in the kimchi container and closed the lid with a satisfactory expression. After she took off the rubber gloves and put them in the bowl, she gave him a glance.

“I heard that children would only do something they don’t usually do when they get in trouble. So what is it? If you’re about to make me mad, then tell me now. Don’t take your time.”

“Why is my credibility so low in this house? It’s not like I go around causing trouble.”

“You do every once in a while. What, you ran out of money?”

“Do you take me for a loan shark? Coming here to get money? I just came to see your face, mom. And also to check if the house hasn’t collapsed yet.”

His mother chuckled. While he was not a son with a lot of filial piety, he was pretty cute. Even if he acted amicable, his mother only grumbled about being creeped out but did not find it unfamiliar.

“What’s Bada doing?”

“What’s up with you? Looking for your sister like that?”

“I was thinking I should see her after all this time.”

He probed back to his memories of this life.

“Should she be in cram school right now?”

“I’m not sure… if she went to cram school or somewhere else.”

“What’s with that answer? Did something happen?”

His mother looked diagonally down before raising her head. She spoke with a complex expression, “Your sister, how should I put this… she revealed her colors.”

“Revealed her colors?”

“She wants to become an actress.”

Her mother finished her words with a flabbergasted laugh.

After Story 23

Maru grabbed the backrest of his chair. If he hadn’t heard wrong, his mother mentioned the word ‘actress’ just now.

Bada and actress, these two seemed completely unrelated like math and soccer. Had she ever shown interest in the entertainment industry? He looked back at his memories, but it was to no avail. He lacked information.

The Han Maru of this life had zero interest in his sister to the point that he didn’t know the name of her high school.

“She had such a dream?”

“I don’t know. She mentioned it out of the blue.”

“When was that?”

“It’s been a couple months. I thought she casually said it like when she grumbles about bad food, but she looked serious.”

“Does father know about this?”

“He does.”

“What did he say?”

“What could he say? He told her to try her hardest since she’s doing it. Whether it’s me or your father, we both want you to live doing what you want as long as you don’t get in trouble.”

After lamenting about it, his mother raised her head. “But isn’t an actress a little out of the blue? I never knew in my wildest imaginations that she had such thoughts.”

“You didn’t know about it, so who could’ve possibly known? Then she must have given up going to college, right?”

“She’s putting it off to the side for now. She says she’s going to apply to acting schools and try to go to a college known for their theater department.”

“I wonder if she knows if all the famous acting schools are in Seoul.”

“I’m sure everything good is in Seoul, schools, good restaurants, academies. If your father didn’t do something strange, saying he wanted to run his own business ten years ago, I would have bought stocks and we would’ve moved to Seoul.”

“Don’t you think it’s about time you stopped saying that? You’ve been using it for ages.”

“Don’t side with your father. You should side with your mom at a time like this, okay?”

“Ah, right.”

He washed and peeled the yellow melons before cutting them into slices and putting them on a plate. His mother watched him and said, “After living by yourself, you’ve become better at using a knife.”

“It’s not just the knife. I’ll cook you some soup in the future. I’m really good.”

“You’re all grown up now. You looked immature even after you got discharged from the military, but now you look fully grown up.”

He sat down face to face with his mother. He forked a slice of yellow melon and gave it to her. They chatted about cheap and good yellow melons before talking about Bada again.

“I wouldn’t be so worried if she focused on one thing. She’s a little like me in her stubbornness, but she also tends to give up easily if she tumbles over.”

His mother seemed to be dissatisfied with her daughter’s resolution. While she always said she wished for them to do what they wanted to do, she wasn’t someone who irresponsibly disregarded her children. Their mother was someone who always made them return to the right track if they strayed. She must truly be worried about Bada’s future.

“Not anyone can become an actor, can they? They get into controversies because of the smallest things, and they don’t even get proper sleep. Bada is a big sleeper, isn’t she? And her personality is something too. She’s someone who used to get into fights with those above her age, so I’m worried if she can endure the eyes of the people.”

“You’re already worried about what will happen after she becomes an actress?” he asked with a laugh.

“You never know.”

“What are you going to do if she says she is serious and wants you to pay for her acting school tuition?”

“I’ll think about it depending on the cost. If she wants to do it, I can’t let her not do it.”

“You’re way too kind, mom.”

“That’s why I married your dad.”

“I was wondering why you weren’t saying that.”

His mother laughed and stood up with the empty plate.

“You should have dinner before you go.”

“I plan to. When’s father coming back?”

“Your dad went to Jinjoo. He’s busy procuring facilities as the director-on-site or something.”

“I should give him a call then.”

“Yeah, you should. That’s your duty as a child. Your dad doesn’t show it much, but you know he’s an emotional person, right? I was watching a documentary with him, and I heard something strange behind me. I turned around to see that he was crying.”

“Mom, you should bury that in a corner of your heart so that father can be a proud father.”

“A man’s pride is told by his financial power and skills. You remember that.”

“You’re a mom alright, your nagging skills increase by the day.”

Just as he was watching the back figure of his mother washing the dishes, he heard the front door being opened.

“She really can’t come at the right time,” his mother said. The door opened and Bada came in.

She frowned as soon as she met eyes with him. “Why are you here?”

“I’m visiting to report my survival.”

“Since when did you do that?”

Bada took off her hat and came inside before lying down on the floor with a groan. He sliced some yellow melons and gave them to Bada.

“What’s this?”

“You’ve never seen yellow melons before?”

“I’m asking why you are doing something you’ve never done before.”

Bada looked at the plate with grave wariness and suspicion.

Maru clicked his fingers. “My arm hurts. Take it already.”

Only then did she accept the plate. She looked at the yellow melon like a stray cat poking at a trash bag before picking up the fork.

“You want to be an actress, huh?” He asked as he sat on the sofa.

Bada squinted and looked at him. Her eyes looked at his face before looking at their mother.

“Mind your own business. I’m going to do well by myself.”

“You looked into acting schools?”

“What’s up with you today? I told you to mind your own business.”

“I bought the yellow melons. Aren’t they good? They must be sweet. And it’s free which makes it even more delicious.”

Bada’s lips twisted.

Ever since he entered high school, he had never talked in depth with his sister. He didn’t know anything about her; who she was close to, what she liked or what her hobbies were. They lived under the same roof but didn’t have a shred of intimacy. It wasn’t because of a specific incident or something. They just both gave up on getting to know more about each other.

Is there a need to show interest when we’re going to see each other for a long time? — starting off with that, it didn’t take long before they became completely disinterested in each other.

“I’m going to start looking into it now,” Bada said, as though it was to repay him for the yellow melon.

The previous Maru would have ended the conversation here. No, he wouldn’t have asked any questions in the first place. All he would’ve done was give her a glance when she enters the house.

“If you’re aiming for a college theater department, you should be aiming for an entrance exam that places importance on practical tests, right?”

Bada squinted, a hint asking him why he wanted to know something like that, and why he knew something like that. Maru only responded with a smile.

His sister seemed to be creeped out by her brother who was smiling, even more so than finding a cricket in the middle of the night, as she frowned.

“I just want to talk. I don’t plan to mock you, nor do I plan to educate you. I’m just purely curious.”

Right now, they acted like strangers when they met outside, but when they were young, they would often walk around the neighborhood while holding hands. Bada would be playing among Maru’s friends. She would be an observer and watch them the whole day. It shouldn’t be that they hated each other. They just became distant to the point they didn’t want to talk about what they were thinking.

When he waited calmly, Bada spoke again,

“I’m thinking about college as well, but I’m planning to audition to get into an agency.”

“That’s not bad. Any place you have in mind?”

“Would you know if I say one?”

“I can listen, even if I don’t know.”

Just then, their mother left, saying that she was going to buy something for dinner.

Bada didn’t say anything for a long time. She seemed to feel awkward due to the silence and turned on the TV. She switched the channels for a while.

“There’s a place called Sai Actors and they are holding an audition soon. It’s a bit peculiar in that they’ll go around the whole country holding auditions like some kind of idol group. There are no conditions for applying, and you can apply online and get tested offline if you pass that.”

“Is it famous?”

“It’s not a big place. But there are many veteran actors. I want to try it out. I know it’s absurd to think that I’ll pass in one go, so I’ll just treat it as experience.”

She was quite knowledgeable, from the schedule to the actors in the agency. Her cautious and sincere tone of words indicated that she didn’t mean this as a joke. This was the first time he saw Bada so serious in this life.

“And you’re preparing?”

“Little by little. It’ll be a minute of free acting and no props allowed, so I’m thinking about how to do it…”

Bada spoke quietly for a while before turning quiet. She seemed to have realized that she was getting into quite the detail.

“A minute is pretty long. It must be pretty hard if it’s your first time,” he said. He knew the pressure of the first audition, and the hardships that came with it, so he could tell how she felt.

His sister’s sealed lips became slack in an instant.

“How do you know that?”

“Because I’ve heard things around. But rather than that, have you tried acting in front of other people?”

“No.”

Bada obediently replied, but then frowned as though she was dissatisfied. She seemed to be wondering if the black-haired animal in front of her was really her brother. She probably found everything unfamiliar and strange. The fact that they were talking face to face like this, not to mention seriously was extremely odd.

He stood up from the sofa and sat in front of Bada after bringing a chair from the dining table.

“Do it.”

“What?”

“I said do what you’re going to do at the audition as practice. Even if you do it a hundred times in front of a mirror, you should’ve realized that it doesn’t really help that much. If you’ve really prepared, that is.”

“Wh-why should I?”

“Don’t stutter. If you stutter in front of a judge, that itself will deduct points. If a beginner doesn’t even have the guts, no one will take you seriously.”

Bada shook her head, saying that she didn’t want to. She said that she had practiced enough and that she didn’t have to do it here to do well.

“If you can really do well, then you shouldn’t have a problem showing it here. I’m not saying that you should fill up the whole minute. Just show me what you have.”

“I said no. Why are you like this all of a sudden?”

“Let me ask you one thing. If you can’t act now, do you think you can act on the day of the audition like magic?”

Bada, who retorted his every word like tossing a ball back in tennis, suddenly became silent. One of the traits that he knew about her was that she didn’t lie in order to get herself out of predicaments. Just like his mother said, she was someone with the guts to get into fights with girls older than her. She found it shameful to lie in order to get out of a predicament.

“I just have to do it well on the day of the audition. I can do that.”

“You should know very well that what you said doesn’t make sense.”

“Why are you obsessed all of a sudden? Are you sick? Why are you doing this to me? You weren’t like this before.”

“I’m trying to do what I wasn’t doing before. Also, do you know what you look like when you overreact like this? You look like you have no confidence.”

“That’s not true.”

“It seems like it to me.”

“I said it isn’t.”

“It isn’t?”

“It isn’t.”

“Then you shouldn’t have a problem doing it. If you practiced enough, that is.”

“You’re being absurd. Fine, I’ll do it.”

When he poked her pride, he got a response.

After Story 24

Bada stood up. She then raised her head up high and started running on the spot, seemingly to loosen up a little.

Maru leaned against the backrest and looked at his sister with lazy eyes. It would be like this in the audition as well, especially in public auditions with a lot of applicants, as the judges’ fatigue would be at an all-time high. He knew this from numerous experiences as a judge himself.

He drained any energy from his eyes like he was watching a boring movie.

I will not respond no matter what kind of amazing thing you show me — was his attitude as he waited for his sister to start acting.

It didn’t even take a minute for Bada’s confidence to collapse. Had it been a stranger, she would’ve started acting immediately. She was stiff and creaking because she was acting in front of someone she knew.

Bada started acting. She seemed to have gotten into a fight with someone. She quarreled with an invisible opponent and stopped right as she was about to raise her voice.

She was visibly flustered. She was probably panicking because she couldn’t do as well as she wanted.

“Today’s really hot.”

Their mother had returned. Maru took his eyes off the still-shocked Bada and returned the chair to the dining table.

“What were you doing?”

His mother seemed confused since he brought a chair to the living room when it was supposed to be in the kitchen. Maru said that it was nothing. His mother didn’t pry either, as though she was used to seeing him doing useless things.

“I’m going to get some sleep.” Bada went to her room.

His mother was about to say something to her, but he stopped her.

“She looks tired. Just let her be.”

“You’re old enough to look after your sister, huh?”

“Well, I’m old enough, sure,” Maru said as he looked at the door to Bada’s room, which was firmly shut.

His mother said that she should make the most of her son’s visit and took out all the dishes and plates from the cupboard, reorganizing everything from scratch.

After cleaning and organizing, it was time to eat dinner.

“Take out the marinated bulgogi from the fridge.”

Dinner was bulgogi. While his mother cooked rice in the rice cooker, he chopped some onions and mushrooms.

“Do we have any spicy peppers here?”

“There are some in the freezer. You want to put it in the bulgogi?”

“Yeah.”

The rice cooker started making noise, and a savory smell spread around the kitchen. Maru put the ingredients in the frying pan and stir-fried them for a while before handing it to his mother.

“I’ll go wake Bada up.”

He stood in front of the door and knocked. He knocked again when there wasn’t a response as he could hear a presence inside. He opened the door slightly.

“Why aren’t you responding when you aren’t sleeping?”

“I don’t know.”

His sister was laying flat on the bed, with the blanket all the way up to her head. Maru pictured her huffing and puffing in frustration before crying a little.

“You should eat.”

“I’m not going to eat.”

“Even though it’s bulgogi?”

“Forget it, I’m not having any.”

She sounded like she couldn’t be bothered to do anything. He peeked out the door and looked at the table. There were three bowls of rice on the table.

“It’s natural that you can’t do it. Not being able to do it is the norm. If someone who just started acting can do it so nonchalantly, then that person must be a natural. There aren’t many people who can do that.”

Bada didn’t respond at all. He spoke a few more words to his sister, who was squirming under the blanket.

“What’s important is that you tried. Whether you did it well or not, you tried. There are many people who can’t even do that. There are loads of people who freeze up when they’re asked to do it. So don’t feel down. There’s no reason to feel like that.”

He then closed the door.

“What about Bada?”

“I think she’ll eat later.”

“She should eat together since you’re here.”

“We ate separately more than we’ve eaten together.”

Just as he picked up his spoon, the door to Bada’s room opened. Wearing a t-shirt with a stretched-out neck and pajama pants, Bada walked over and sat down at the table. Maru smiled as he watched that.

“You always made jeyuk-bokkeum when only I’m here. Your son is more important to you than your daughter, isn’t it, mom?” Bada grumbled as she picked up her chopsticks.

Their mother raised the spoon she was using to eat and hit Bada’s head with it.

“I bought it because I wanted to eat it. Okay?”

“Mom! Don’t hit with a spoon. It’s dirty.”

“Your t-shirt is even dirtier. Why won’t you let me wash it?”

“This is clean, you know?”

“Then this spoon is clean too.”

The two of them nagged at each other about their hygiene before eating the bulgogi without a word. The table banter hadn’t changed.

If Maru’s father was here, he would’ve focused on eating the bulgogi while the mother and daughter were busy fighting. He was someone who knew when he would benefit after all.

“You two are the same,” he said to the two.

After dinner, Maru stood in front of the sink in order to wash the dishes.

“I’ll do the dishes, so go buy some ziplock bags. I was looking for some so I could pack you some food, but I didn’t see any. Go buy some milk and eggs while you’re there. And also, a big beer.”

Saying that, his mother opened her wallet. He waved his hand in the air, saying that he didn’t need the money. As his mother ran the finances of the house, she didn’t offer twice. Instead, she asked him to buy even more things: ziplock bags, milk, eggs, beer, some meat for soup, and a few snacks.

“Han Bada. Why don’t you come with me for grocery shopping if you don’t have anything to do?”

His mother scoffed, saying that she would never do something like that. Bada went to her room without a word.

“I think she’ll go?” he said. A moment later, Bada changed her shirt and came back out again.

She looked at him as though telling him to hurry before putting on her slippers and leaving the house.

“What’s gotten into her?”

“Maybe she’s really bored. I’m going now.”

He left his house with the grocery bag in hand. Bada was walking ahead while looking at her phone. Maru walked faster and stood next to Bada.

“I’ve seen many people get hurt while walking looking at that.”

Bada glanced at him before turning off the screen.

They walked for a while without talking. Bada seemed to have something to say, but she did not speak. Maru decided to wait rather than urge her.

After walking for a while, they saw a bunch of children laughing and running around in the neighborhood playground. They seemed to be heading to the nearby PC bang. These days, kids preferred the mouse and keyboard over slides and swings.

It was when Maru was looking at the kids becoming distant,

“Was I that strange before?”

She seemed to be referring to her acting, which she stopped midway.

“It wasn’t strange. It was just purely bad.”

Bada’s slightly drooping eyes became taunt again as though they were about to reach her temples. She seemed like she was about to snap out at any moment.

Maru did not avoid her gaze. He looked straight back at her as though to have a staring contest. His sister’s angry eyes slowly sank back down again. A mixture of regret and disappointment was reflected in her eyes.

“Was I that bad?”

“You stopped midway. If you’ve decided to act out something, then do it until the end. You have to continue even if your head blanks out midway and you can’t think of anything. That’s what practice is for. Just like how you would reflexively pull back your hand if you touch hot water, it’s not bad to have a mechanical side to you if it’s your first audition. The sensation of finishing the act you’ve prepared is pretty important.”

Bada suddenly stopped. She glanced at him with eyes full of suspicion.

“What the hell?”

“What?”

“That doesn’t sound like you heard it from people around you. You sound like you’ve experienced it yourself?”

“Is that how it sounded?”

Maru did not resolve her curiosities and started walking. Bada quickly caught up after the distance widened.

“It’s strange.”

“What’s strange.”

“You, everything. Did you hurt your head? Why do you look like you’re a different person?”

“Do you wish for something to be wrong with my head? You’re my only sibling, but you’re being way too cruel.”

“That’s clearly not what I mean. But look. Have we ever talked to each other like this? No. Consultation? That’s just absurd, but…”

After smacking her lips, Bada swallowed her words without speaking them. She seemed weirded out to death. Her steps quickened. She walked ahead as though to racewalk.

“Wait for me.”

He ran lightly. As soon as they left the residential area, they saw a large mall.

Bada pushed the cart while exuding a ‘don’t talk to me’ aura. Even when they were young, Bada was always in charge of pushing the cart in the family. Maru could remember her huffing and puffing whenever one of them tried to take it away from her.

He first looked for items his mother ordered. As they walked past the meat corner and the instant-foods corner, Bada picked up an item and put it in the cart. It was fried chicken.

“If you want to become an actress, you should watch out for your weight.”

“You’re even nagging me.”

Bada glared at him as though she had enough of it, but she did not return the chicken. After paying for the items, they left the mall. His sister picked up the paper bucket with the chicken in it. She looked like she wasn’t going to touch anything else.

With bags in each hand, Maru quickly followed Bada, who walked ahead.

“Eat that and practice hard.”

“Gosh, you.”

“You said you wanted to become an actress. It doesn’t sound like you said that as a form of escape so try hard. Practice in front of the mirror and show it to mom. At first, you might feel awkward and not able to do it properly, but you’ll get used to it. Once you get used to it, you should be able to tell what kind of acting you were doing objectively.”

Bada didn’t say anything, but she didn’t express her dissatisfaction either. She walked side by side with him and listened to him.

“As for acting schools, you should do some research. It’s good to find good acting schools, but it should be more important to find acting schools that you should never go to. There should be internet communities for aspiring entertainers around so refer to those. You should watch out for the tuition fees, but the places with good instructors are pretty costly. That’s for you to decide, so I can’t help you much with that. But since mother said she will support you…”

“Mother?”

She was weirdly fixated on something strange after listening obediently for a while.

Maru turned his head away and continued, “If you keep going for a while, you should be able to see how you should polish yourself. Well, if you pass the audition for an agency that you talked about, the agency will teach you about this themselves, so I wouldn’t need to worry, but that’s not likely.”

“You never know. I might pass.”

“I don’t think so.”

Bada’s lips twitched before she sighed. “Oppa.”

“What?”

“You’re really weird right now.”

“Get used to it. I’m going to be like this in the future. I want to talk about various things with you, and if you want, listen to your worries. I’m sure you don’t find me that reliable, but you never know, so if you get stuck on something, tell me about it.”

“I’m getting goosebumps.”

“Turn that into acting that gives other people goosebumps. You’ll get good scores that way.”

Bada stared at him for a while before smiling for the first time today. Though, it was more of a flabbergasted smile rather than a happy one.

“Even if my future looks bleak, I’m never going to you for consultation. I’ll be creeped out and won’t be able to stand it.”

“Do what you want. It’s not like I really want to help you either.”

Maru bumped Bada’s shoulder before walking ahead.

Bada immediately shouted ‘hey’ before running up to him.

Until they arrived, she neither walked ahead nor behind and stayed by his side. It was just like the old days, when they ran to the dalgona seller, hand in hand.

After Story 25

The long message he received in the morning could be summed up into two sentences: Don’t live your life like that, and you will also get hurt one day. It was something that his club senior had sent him while paying back the 300 thousand won. That senior used all sorts of fancy words in order to sound sarcastic and smart at the same time.

He was touched and sent a reply – Good luck with life. Sarcasm was best done short, rather than long. After blocking that messenger ID, he erased the number from his contacts. He would probably be nicknamed an impolite junior for a long time, but he couldn’t care less. College was now far from what he considered his life.

After cleaning his house and examining his work, he left the house. He had quite a tight schedule today as he had to visit various places around Seoul. Inside the train, he checked the profiles that he had prepared. His neat-looking photo ID was glued well, and below it was his introduction, which thankfully didn’t have any mistakes.

As he had done nothing as an actor, his filmography was completely empty. It was a profile without any nutrition. He knew that it wouldn’t work, but he had to sow the seeds anyway. A farmer can’t expect to reap anything without scattering the seeds first after all.

He visited various production companies and agencies in Seoul. As he had expected, he was unable to see anyone related to the industry. The only thing that accepted the profiles of nameless actors and actresses was the profile box in front of the front door. There were a bunch of profiles, all carefully crafted by various people, inside the plastic box.

He was used to this scenery. It was a process he always went through in the lives he chose to be an actor. He placed his own profile, which was inside a cheap, plastic clear file, on top of the others.

He came across two women in their mid-20s in front of the building entrance. He instantly realized that they were also actors who came here to send in their profiles. Like how hikers would greet each other in the mountains out of a sense of kinship, he also greeted the youths in front of him.

The women nodded after being greeted and headed to the stairs. While there wasn’t a word exchanged, it was a large amount of consolation. Just the fact that there were others walking the same path, was an encouragement and a blessing.

One, two, three places. He walked around everywhere and sent in his profiles. At the fourth company, he was able to meet someone in charge. He handed his profile to the manager who came down to empty the box and put out a new one. While putting his profile in a hard plastic box and handing it to a person was ultimately the same, it sure felt different.

“Please take good care of me.”

He knew how easily these words would escape the manager’s ears and disappear into thin air, but he couldn’t help but say it. After all, the Han Maru of this life had nothing to boast about just yet.

He came across other youths on his way out. The piles of profiles in their bags signified that they were of the same kin. He greeted them with his eyes just like before and walked past.

As he was walking on a road where production companies were right next to each other, he was able to see many youths wandering around with their profiles. He stopped and watched them for a while before chuckling — you’re in that group too, don’t be mistaken.

He got a hold of himself and started moving again. He still had eleven more places to go. All he had was time anyway. As he walked, he would practice his lines, and when he arrived at one, he would put in his profile. Wherever he went, the profile boxes were full. Even the salvation army donation buckets at their peak would be less full than them.

He visited a convenience store to buy a bottle of water and started walking again. He tried changing his walking methods and even the way he swung his arms. He had to have a perfect understanding of his body so that he could respond to whatever role he was given.

While he had lived a perfectly fine life for the past 22 years, there was a need to redefine his entire body in order to become an actor. It wasn’t an easy feat to control the parts of his body that moved due to his subconscious to his consciousness. In some sense, it was even more difficult than training his body with exercise. He felt disoriented as though the limbs he had been using his entire life were suddenly gone and he had a new person’s limbs. He needed some more time in order to use his body with more detail.

His phone in his pocket vibrated. He got a text message. It wasn't spam, but in fact, he would like it if it was spam instead, since it was an announcement of failure. However, it was a good thing that he was contacted quickly. There were many places that did not send out any notifications despite the fact that application dates for their auditions were over, with no response meaning failing.

While he knew that, he couldn’t help but hold a tiny amount of hope regardless. It was a form of human psychology that he couldn’t fix even after living for a long time.

When he dropped off almost all of his profiles, he saw that it was past 2. Maru went to a nearby bean sprout gukbap restaurant. Being able to eat a whole meal for 3,000 won was one of the miracles that were still left in this era, not to mention, there were side dishes as well. He put the white rice into the soup and took a spoonful. It was the taste of 3,000 won. He was chewing the diced radish kimchi when he heard some sound from the TV.

When he turned around, he saw a TV hung up on the wall at the end. An old lady in the restaurant was changing channels with the remote.

“Unni, have you seen this?”

Another old lady from the kitchen came out. After dusting off her apron, the kitchen lady said that she hadn’t seen it and told her to raise the volume.

Maru looked at the screen with his spoon in his mouth. It was a drama that he could understand everything about even without knowing what happened before and what would happen after.

The one with the paternity confirmation should be the mother-in-law, and the one crying should be the evil daughter-in-law. Just her makeup indicated that she was a villainess, with thick eyebrows and makeup that emphasized her eyes.

For about five minutes, cheeks were slapped, pottery was shattered, and the husband burst into tears.

"Welcome."

The lady who was focusing on the TV put down her remote when she heard the door open. The people that came in here were the youths he came across on the streets.

Maru picked up the bowl and drank the remaining soup. After paying for the meal and getting changed, the lady changed the channel again. He could hear her grumble,

"I really have to wonder why every drama is the same these days. It's so bad that it can't get worse."

I wish I can show my face in that bad drama – he inwardly smiled before leaving the restaurant. He handed in his profile at the last production company before heading to a nearby PC-bang. He sat down and checked his email.

From the 11th of August to the 23rd, about half of the emails he sent were unread. As a minor actor, just the act of making himself known by another party was hard.

He moved his mouse to check another email. Some of the places gave him a reply. As for the few commercial film auditions, he failed to make them all.

As commercial films had a completely different number of applicants, he didn't even expect that much. Even in his numerous lives, there were hundreds if not thousands of people sending in their profiles if there was a public audition for a commercial film.

Even if the assistant director screens them primarily, there would still be hundreds. If Maru wanted to enter those hundreds, he would have to have a fitting face for a role or have verified skills.

From the commercials side, there were a few emails saying that they'll check his profile. There were also a few emails that wanted to meet face-to-face.

With commercials, while they were one-offs, it was just as accessible to the public as commercial films. If he managed to meet a good commercial and make his face known as a support character, it would be a very good indicator to describe who Han Maru was.

As he was reading the very office-like titles, he found a mail that caught his eye: [To actor Han Maru]. He clicked on the title.

-Hello. My name is Lee Yoonseok, a sophomore at Hohun university. I am reaching out to you after seeing your post in the internet café 'Together with Actors.' If it's okay with you, can you listen to my story? I am an aspiring director who dreams of joining the film industry, and I'm preparing to shoot a movie with a few friends who share the same dream.

He was very cautious in introducing himself. Maru could practically picture the cautiousness of the person as they typed.

He read the email line by line. While it was pretty long, the point was pretty simple: he wanted to shoot a film, but does not have any monetary leeway.

-We will not be able to pay you much. It might be less than 500 thousand won. Considering the shooting period in my mind, it might be equal to or even less than minimum wage. Despite my shame, I'd like to ask regardless. Would you be willing to help us?

He took his hands off the mouse and leaned back on the chair. A bunch of youths taking on a challenge. While it was so cliché, he quite liked it.

However, that didn't mean that he could join them so recklessly. Looking back at his previous lives, he found that most of these meetings were a waste of time.

The combination of immaturity and insufficiency usually produced an awkward result. The biggest problem was that there was nothing to learn from those mistakes. He was not so inept to learn anything from the challenge of first-timers.

"But just in case."

He wrote a positive reply because of two reasons.

One was that there were times when a director without any proficiency caused good incidents, and the second was that he had a lot of time. Rather than how much he would be paid specifically, he wanted to meet them and listen to what the film would be about.

After sending the email, he was about to close it and look around various agency websites. He got a response to the email he sent 10 minutes ago. There was a thank you and a phone number written in it. This fellow seemed to be quite impatient.

Maru checked the time before calling.

-Hello?

A man, whose childishness could still be heard from his voice, picked up.

"Is this director Lee Yoonseok?"

There was no response. Instead, Maru heard small voices. What do I do, it's here, guys, et cetera. Maru once again called out, "Hello?"

-Yes!

"Am I talking to director Lee Yoonseok?"

-Yes, that's me. Are you Mr. Han Maru?

"Yes. You sent your email so fast that I just decided to call you."

-I was in a meeting with the others when I received a notification. My word, thank you so much for responding.

He was someone who got excited easily. Maru corrected the young director's words. "You shouldn't be thanking me just yet. We should meet up and talk. I don't care if we have to talk over the phone though."

-We'd definitely like to meet you. We didn't get a feel for who you are from just a photo. Is that not okay with you?

"I'm okay with it. Let's decide on the most important thing once we meet up: whether to continue working or go separate ways after just greeting."

-Yes. Yes, of course. Then what time are you available? We are okay with any time.

"If you're okay with any time, how about tonight? Oh, before that, where are you right now?"

-We're in Seoul.

Maru put his phone between his ear and his shoulder before typing on the keyboard. When he searched Hohun university, he saw that it was a university in Jongno.

"Hohun University is in Jongno, huh? Are you there right now?"

-Yes. We're all here.

"Then I'll call you later. If we do meet though, I think it'll be past seven. Is that okay with you?"

-It's okay even if you want to meet us after midnight. Please come.

The college student was pretty energetic. His supposed friends around him also chimed in. Even through the phone, he liked the energy he felt from them.

"Okay. I have an audition in the afternoon, so I'll contact you after that."

-Really? I hope it goes well. Call me after you pass.

Maru received an energetic encouragement as he hung up.

After Story 26

He could see the world cup stadium from the bus as he leaned his head against the window. There seemed to be some kind of event as there was a crowd of people in front.

Maru pressed the stop button when the bus drove further and he could no longer see the stadium. As soon as he got off, the heat of August enveloped him. The terrible heat that started in June showed no signs of ending.

He took out his phone after taking shade in the shadow of a building. He checked the audition venue and started walking again. Not too far away from the bus stop, he entered a building that was about ten-something stories tall. He waited for the elevator which was on floor 8 before deciding to take the stairs. When he arrived on the 8th floor, the audition venue, he saw people waiting in front of the elevator.

“Please get ready.”

He heard a voice inside the glass door. He peeked inside. There was a small waiting room past the glass door and inside there was another door. He could hear a dog barking and a voice that tried to console the dog from that inner door.

Maru stated his name to the employee in the waiting room. After checking the list, the employee told him to wait. As the space was quite limited, it seemed that the audition was held on a first-come, first-served basis.

“I don’t think you can do it. Thank you for coming.”

“Thank you, sir.”

A man left with a bitter smile on his face. There was a bunch of dog fur on his black clothes. The woman who went in after that also came back out to the waiting room not long later. Like the man before, she was covered in golden dog fur.

“Mr. Han Maru,” the employee called his name.

He went inside the room connected to the small waiting room. He saw today’s main character under the lights installed on either side. With golden fur, eyes full of purity, and a wagging tail that looked like it was about to fly off at any moment, the Golden Retriever kept running around as though it was showing off its stamina.

“Would you like to come here for a second?”

Introductions were unnecessary. Maru was instructed by the man he presumed was the director and stood in front of the lights.

“Miss.”

The woman wrestling with the Golden Retriever came to Maru with the leash in hand.

“Can you stay still for a second with the leash? Not a single person had been able to do that until now,” the director said while pressing his forehead.

The dog owner smiled in embarrassment and shame. It seemed that both the dog owner and the director were having a hard time because the main character of the commercial, the dog, was acting whimsically.

Maru held the leash and stood still. The dog started to jump from side to side. It seemed to find the sense of resistance on its neck rather pleasing as it pulled it over and over. The overwhelmingly big eyes were telling him: hello, mister, what should we play today?

The director’s request was to stay still. If Maru got dragged around by this playful little thing, he would fail the audition. Maru took half a step forward and slightly blocked off the dog’s eyes with his hand. When the dog tried to move its head and look at him again, he did not show any response and just moved his hand to block its eyes again. When he did that a few more times, the dog sat down. Its wagging tail drooped down like it was affected by the heat.

“Is this good enough?” he asked the director.

He had raised all sorts of animals, big, medium, and small, and he had even worked with them on several occasions. He even had experience in an entertainment show related to dogs where he learned how to train them. While he didn’t have a lot of professional knowledge, he knew how to calm down the dogs.

The golden furry kid looked at him in dissatisfaction, as though to ask why he wasn’t playing with it.

“It’s calm now,” the director said as though he could finally take a breather.

The dog owner also clapped. She also added that the dog was usually docile.

“Do you have a dog at home?”

“Not now, but I used to raise a lot. What should I do?” he asked.

The director told him to stay still and brought a camera.

“We’re going to take a few photos to use as a profile.”

“Is this posture good enough?”

“For now, that’s okay. Let’s try changing things up after taking some.”

Maru straightened his back and stood next to the dog. He could see the obedient dog perk its ears up.

Are we finally playing together? — it seemed to be expressing its anticipation.

“What’s the dog’s name?” Maru asked the dog owner.

“Collie,” the dog owner responded.

He pressed down Collie’s butt, which had puffed up like a balloon about to burst. The smart dog seemed to have realized what Maru wanted so while it complained, it didn’t jump around again.

The director put down the camera. He seemed to be checking the photos he took.

Maru pulled Collie’s leash lightly and immediately got a response. Collie stood up and rushed towards him. Maru ran around the studio while being careful not to tangle up the leash. If Collie used its body weight to push him, Maru also moderately pushed back. The dog listened to his orders to wait, so he needed to give the reward of playing. Collie would listen to him while this simple contract was maintained.

“Can I have a treat?”

The dog owner quickly gave him some dog treats.

“The previous applicants had a hard time taming him so there was no time to use treats.”

“One playful fellow I see.”

“A bit of a prankster. Usually, he’s quite docile and obedient, but it looks like the unfamiliar space is getting to him after all.”

“Getting excited is better than being uneasy.”

Maru put the dog treats inside his pocket. The treats were supposed to be compensation. He could not hand one to the dog without reason.

“Er,” the director spoke.

Maru realized what he was about to say and responded, “Han Maru, sir.”

“Yes, Mr. Han Maru. For now, it looks really good, and you fit the image too. Let’s take a few more photos in different positions.”

“What position would you like?”

“Try exchanging looks with the dog. Affectionately and warmly.”

Maru let go of the leash and grabbed Collie’s cheeks with both of his hands. When he twisted it lightly like tickling it, Collie’s tail spun around like a propeller. It seemed to like it. He bent down a little lower and looked at the dog at eye level. Collie did not freeze up and instead looked at him as though it wanted to see him more.

“Yes, good.”

He could hear continuous shutter sounds. After that, they changed positions a few more times before taking photos. They sometimes lay down together, and he used Collie as a pillow. When he was asked to nibble on the dog’s ears, Maru looked at the dog owner.

“It’s something this kid is used to, so it should be fine.”

Just as the dog owner said, Collie stayed still. Maru patted the dog’s head and gave it some of the treats that he received. Collie ate them all in a flash and rushed towards him, asking for more.

“Mr. Han Maru. That’s it for now. Thanks for coming.”

“Yes, thank you.”

Maru said goodbye to the dog owner as well before leaving the studio. While the mood was good, he couldn’t tell whether he passed or not, he could only wait. He brushed off the dog fur on his body as he left the building.

The next audition was also in Mapo-gu. It was an audition to pick a minor actor for a low-budget film. When he saw the post on the internet café, he saw that the view count was past 700.

A male actor with a standard body figure and was between 170 and 180 cm in height.

That was the only condition in the post, so every single male actor that visited the café should have applied for it. Contrary to this thought that he would never be able to pass the resume round, he was contacted to come to the offline audition. It was an opportunity he had to grab.

Before going to the audition, he changed his clothes in a bathroom at a shopping mall. He wasn’t notified of the dress code, so he went with a casual-style suit.

Clothes were the only forms of promotion for minor actors who had a hard time getting themselves known. When Maru was also a judge, he would remember the applicants through their clothing and appearance, even if he couldn’t remember their names.

When he arrived at the building where the audition was going to be held, he visited the bathroom again and checked his attire. He also loosened up his expression. While his facial muscles weren’t to his liking, it was much better than in June, when he just regained his memories.

He got on the elevator with men in their 20s and 30s, who clearly seemed to be here for the audition.

“Applicants, please check your names here and receive your name tags. Check your orders as well.”

The air changed as soon as he got off the elevator. Minor actors with name tags filled the corridor. They were all practicing while looking at the ceiling or the floor to get immersed. Maru knew that he had to calm down, but it was hard to suppress his excitement.

Perhaps this was how fish felt when meeting water after being dried out on land. A pleasant sense of heat spread around his body. He got a good feeling. He felt like he would be able to show a satisfactory act right now.

“Han Maru, Han Maru… I’m sorry but you’re not on the list.”

“Can you please check again? I got a text message too.”

Hearing the employee’s words that took away the heat in his body in an instant, he inquired again. The woman looked at the list for a while before calling for another person. A man in his 40s and wearing glasses came over and apologized to Maru.

“I’m sorry. There was a mistake in the process and some people not on the list seemed to have been notified.”

“So I won’t be able to take the audition then.”

The man nodded firmly. He didn’t leave any room for doubt.

Maru did not major in theater, did not belong to an agency, or had any decent pieces that he participated in, so he did find it a little suspicious that he passed the screening round. Still, he thought that he had gotten lucky and tried to grab the opportunity, but this was how it turned out.

“I’m sorry about this.”

The man handed him 20 thousand won for transportation. Maru received the money and left the building. While he was disappointed, it was nothing to feel attached to. He experienced too many accidents and events that dragged him down to be disappointed by something like this. Today, he could be satisfied by just having a peek at the tenacity of minor actors.

Moreover, the auditions weren’t over yet. Maru called director Lee Yoonseok. Today’s last audition was a place for the director to judge an actor but also for the actor to judge the director. While the director sounded pretty humble in the email, he might be different in real life.

If Maru was far from the actor they wanted, this contract would fall through.

“Director, I plan to visit you right now. Are you okay with that?”

-Yes. I’ll see you at the main gate. If you give me a call once you arrive, I’ll go pick you up right away.

Maru took the bus to Hohun university in Jongno. He got off the bus stop and followed the signs for about ten minutes where he saw the university gates.

He made a call in front of a toast store. He could see a man in an indigo shirt right in front of him pick up his phone.

“Are you perhaps wearing an indigo shirt?”

-Yes. Do you see me?

Lee Yoonseok waved his hand in the air. Maru hung up and approached Yoonseok.

“Hello.”

Seeing his face, Yoonseok kept staring at Maru, with no signs of greeting back. When Maru smiled and greeted again, only then did he respond to the handshake.

“Sorry about that. You were so similar to the image I had in mind. I thought you would look a little different in real life, but now that I saw you here, I’m convinced. You’re the man for the job.”

“Thank you for saying that.”

“For now, let’s go to where the rest of our members are. They’re in an empty lecture room. Everyone’s waiting for you.”

“Then we should go quickly.”

Yoonseok, who was turning around, suddenly told him to wait before running into the toast store. As he was ordering in front of the store, he shouted to Maru.

“Mr. Actor! Which one would you like?”

There was no need to refuse since he was getting treated. He asked him to get the same thing as him before waiting.

A moment later, Yoonseok brought a large plastic bag.

“This is our dinner. We’d love to treat you to some beef and have a long talk, but our pockets aren’t deep enough.”

“As long as we can have our fill, it’s fine. Let’s go. I’m sure everyone’s waiting.”

Yoonseok nodded and took the lead.

After Story 27

While it was the holidays, there were many people on campus. One of them was a musician playing the guitar in front of a crowd after setting up an amp. The students passing by started gathering one by one. The musician’s greetings pierced through the air. It was a familiar university scenery. Had he not regained his memories, he would also be enjoying the campus life.

“Over here.” Yoonseok pointed at the building in front of them. They entered and went to the 2nd floor. Around halfway through the dark corridor was a lecture room with its lights on. Yoonseok’s footsteps headed there.

“Our actor is here,” Yoonseok said as he opened the door. There were three students in the lecture room. Including Yoonseok, there were three men and one woman.

“Welcome.”

“This way.”

Maru sat down after being overwhelmed by the ceremonious greeting.

“We were all worried that you wouldn’t come.”

Yoonseok put the plastic bag down on a desk. The students looked inside the bag and checked the items they ordered before splitting the toasts.

“I get that you’re hungry, but you should hear the actor’s introduction. No wait, we should introduce ourselves first.”

Hearing Yoonseok’s words, everyone put down their toast.

“It’s okay. You can do it while eating. I was getting hungry too.”

Maru reached out for the remaining toast. He couldn’t believe that a single toast sandwich was all they were eating when they were at an age where they should be eating a lot. If he had deep pockets, he would’ve treated them out so that they could have their fill.

“You haven’t had dinner yet, have you?” asked a man sitting on the other side.

Maru responded that this was his dinner just like the rest of them as he peeled the packaging.

“I’m sorry. We’re saving up as much as possible, so we usually eat toast for dinner. Or we just go to the student cafeteria and have ramyun.”

“Is it because of the production costs?”

“Yes. We thought we could somehow get by if we got together, but it turned out like this since everything is about money. We plan to save up and use it for the shoot.”

“If you take into account the equipment rental fees, transportation costs, acoustics, editing, food, and various props, it should amount to quite a lot. If you have to take into account your labor costs, it would be in the millions.”

“Right. If we used external helpers we would be in debt.”

The man glanced at Yoonseok. Everyone stopped eating when they heard ‘external helper.’ It seemed that the most sensitive topic had come up before they could even introduce themselves.

Maru also thought that this was better than delaying it as much as possible, so he spoke up. “It will seem a little cold to talk about money before we even introduce each other, but since things are heading that way, should we clear that up first?”

“As long as you’re okay with it.”

“Seeing as how you’re saying that you’re short on money instead of talking about the piece itself, can I take it that you are confident in your work?”

“I’m sure the contents would look ridiculous to a critic, but I’m at least satisfied with it.”

“Very well. Then let’s talk about the estimated shooting time and the minimum guarantee.”

Maru took a big bite out of the toast. The students exchanged looks. They seemed to be deciding on who should be the one to speak, and ultimately it was Yoonseok.

“According to various internet communities, we’ve found out that 50 thousand won is suitable for a new actor in their 20s, per shoot.”

“I see.”

“And we’re considering 10 shoots.”

Maru raised his hand to stop the conversation.

“This is a short film, right?”

“Yes.”

“10 shoots for a short film, huh? How long do you plan the film to be?”

“Around 20 minutes.”

“Do you plan to switch locations a lot?”

“No. We’re limited on places.”

“Then 10 is a little too much unless you plan to shoot an hour a day.”

“Really? I overestimated the budget a little.”

“Unless you’re the type to shoot as much as possible and then go all out on the post-processing, you should be able to do it within 4 shoots. If your content is properly ready, it might even take less.”

The students all nodded at the same time. This felt like he was teaching a bunch of elementary school students about addition and subtraction. They were all focused on the product, the ‘film,’ and seemed like they thought the most important ‘production’ was secondary.

It was understandable that they were not knowledgeable about the details because this was their first time, but that was nothing to be proud of.

“Is there anyone majoring in theater here? Regardless of production or acting.”

No one responded. Even the director, Yoonseok, just smiled awkwardly. Despite no one asking, people started introducing their majors one by one.

Two computer sciences, one chemistry, and two design.

“May I ask the reason you’re planning to create a short film?” Maru asked Yoonseok.

“To show other people, of course.”

“What other people? Family and friends?”

“No, we plan to hand it to a film festival.”

“Then that will make things complicated. I like people who challenge themselves to shoot a short film in a difficult environment, but I don’t like people who just recklessly tried to shoot one without thinking. Actually, if the work is good, I would not have made an issue about the guarantee, no matter how small. Participating in good work is something helpful to me and something I’m grateful for just being able to do it. But when I listen to your words now, director, I honestly find it rather uneasy. I even feel like the work might be pathetic to the point that there should be no other reason for you to talk about the guarantee first.”

He didn’t care that a bunch of non-theater majors was coming together to create a film. In fact, he wanted to praise them for it. However, if they were planning to get it judged and not save it for themselves, nothing they did until now was praiseworthy.

Films for submissions weren’t for those playing around. Was saving up money on their meals to increase the budget the only thing there was to production? Everyone did that. Everyone experienced such things when they entered the arduous world of creation.

The important thing was realistic planning and meticulous preparations in order to realize that plan. A film with the aim of being submitted to a film festival had to be especially mindful of the pre-production. If he had to estimate the most basic thing, the number of shoots, what would it be like for other aspects?

Maru knew very well the result of films shot shoddily. Either it would fall apart halfway or produce a terrible result. There was no need to go with a bunch of newbies who only had motivation. Without the basics down, their desire would only result in meaningless labor.

He didn't come here in order to earn chump change. He came here to find potential. He expected a ground-breaking story unable to be found in the commercial world due to all sorts of reasons. If he wanted to earn chump change, he would've just continued doing background actor jobs.

"It looks like I need to listen to the story first before the guarantee. I talked about the money first because you all seemed sensitive to it, but now I'm worried about the piece itself. Director, you should know too that this isn't a one-sided audition, right? Just as you are evaluating me, I will also be evaluating you. If you think that I'm not qualified to judge you, then we don't need to drag this out any longer. What will you do?"

Yoonseok looked at his friends with a complicated gaze, as though he didn't expect Maru to respond so coldly.

"For now, explain to him what the film is about. I don't think that you've written a bad story," said the woman, who hadn't spoken until now.

Yoonseok took out a purple clear file from his bag.

"This is the content." Yoonseok added after handing the file to him, "Also, it might seem awkward, but I don't plan to shoot a film recklessly."

Maru nodded and received the file. On the left side was a column of boxes with illustrations of the composition of the cut, and next to it was the method. They were mostly well-explained instead of using professional jargon. There were also some self-questions and answers.

There were directors who preferred a clean outline, and those who preferred ones that contained every single thought, so Maru didn't take issue with the format.

"There are several scenes that require night shoots. Can you do this? Without natural lighting, you would absolutely need lights, and if you want to reveal the faces of the characters like this, you'll need at least three of them. Can you handle them with just these members? Above all, do any of you know how to install lights?"

Yoonseok became speechless at just one question.

The main character walks out of the faint lights and shows his face.

That was easy to say, but to shoot, it would require professional lighting knowledge.

There was even a piece of common advice about this when making short films: don't shoot outside at night. Natural lighting was hard enough to handle, so there were many short films shot under fluorescent lights.

"If this was a film you want to share with the people you know, then low-quality videos are okay. But if you're thinking about submission, then you can't do this. I'm asking just in case, but you aren't planning to shoot this on 16mm film, are you?"

"I thought about it, but we changed it to digital. Rolls of film are too expensive."

"Good. HDVs produce good results these days."

Maru glanced at Yoonseok, who shrank back, before looking at the content outline again. He thought that he would keep making issues if he thought about the shooting methods.

For now, he decided to evaluate based on the story alone. He pictured the character the director made and read the story.

"How is it?"

Maru took his eyes off the outline.

There were multiple bold scenes that wouldn't be possible without the help of equipment, multiple cuts that made him wonder how they were going to take care of the acoustics, and backgrounds that made him suspect if they really scouted such places.

As a producer, not an actor, he would fold this outline in half if he read this. He would have said that he would need more realistic alternatives, whether financially or just plain feasibly.

However, he was an actor who had to dissolve into the production, not take care of the production from the outside. And from the perspective of an actor, there were many points that he liked about the world Yoonseok made.

"Going by the story alone, it's quite good. I want to do it."

"Really?"

"But you've clearly let your imagination run wild. Not about the story, but about the shooting process. If you want to shoot like what's written here, you might have to get private loans."

"R-really?"

"Imaginative cuts. While they're good, you'll need a lot of money in order to do it, just like that person said before. Take this introductory cut for example. If you want to do this, you'll have to install rails and do a dolly shot, but can you handle that?" Maru asked as he looked at the man sitting on the other side.

"If I move while holding the camera as still as possible…”

"No matter what you do, the video will be terrible like it was shot by someone with shaky hands. I can guarantee that."

Yoonseok became dejected. Maru looked at the director who was honest about his feelings before speaking,

"So please fix it. I like the story itself. I want to do this role. However, not like this. If you don't want to pay a team of experts hundreds of thousands of won per day, then you must come up with a more realistic cut composition."

"A realistic cut composition…”

Yoonseok repeated his words with a dazed face.

After Story 28

Maru looked at the students sitting in front of him. They were all overcoming the heavy silence in their own ways. Some made dissatisfied expressions, while some looked down in acceptance.

His eyes landed on the content outline again. He could imagine what happened. Yoonseok should have come up with the story, and they all should have designed the cut together. He could be sure about this because there were different styles of handwriting throughout the content outline.

They should have tried adding various imaginative compositions that they came across in various forms of media until felt satisfied with it, not taking into account how many dozens or hundreds of people were necessary to shoot that one scene.

“Everything moving is money. If you aren’t doing this as a hobby and want results, then you should have been very meticulous at a stage where you don’t need a lot of money. There is no cost to contemplation and imagination, so you must do those things a lot starting now. If you want, I’ll help you to an extent.”

The content of the film was good, to the point Maru felt that it was worth investing his time in. While the videographic beauty might be lacking, there should be some responses if they could get their message across. Of course, it was even more likely that it would get buried without anyone watching it.

“So what do you think? Do you think it’s possible?” Maru asked.

“I’ve heard you say that the story is good, so I can’t give up on it. I’ll try to fix it.”

“Good. Normally, actors shouldn’t interfere like this, but I said a few things because I liked the story. I have no intention of mocking you, so please don’t take it to heart.”

“No, in fact, I’m glad that you were honest. You sound trustworthy. I really want to do this with you.”

Just as Yoonseok reached out his hand, the woman in the room interrupted, “You told us before, right? This is a place where both parties evaluate each other.”

Meaning, since Maru had finished evaluating them, it was time for them to evaluate him.

As Maru was the one who said those words, he nodded.

“Can we have a look at your acting?”

“Jiseon,” Yoonseok tried to hold the woman back.

Maru committed the name Jiseon to memory. She was doing what the director was supposed to do. She probably played a big role in getting this awkward film production crew all the way to this point.

“What act do you want specifically? I haven’t received anything beforehand, so I haven’t prepared anything, but if there’s a style of acting you wish to see, I’ll try to comply as much as possible.”

Jiseon looked at Yoonseok. There seemed to be a problem.

“It wasn’t in the mail? About what kind of act we wanted?”

“There wasn’t. The email was pretty long, but all it had was the circumstances you were in. That’s why I’m here to see myself.”

Jiseon’s eyes became even sharper. Yoonseok laughed awkwardly and avoided Jiseon’s gaze.

“I’m sorry. We should've been clear about it in the email, but I guess we lacked preparation. We can’t ask you to show us anything now. We didn’t even specify what we wanted, so it’s rather ridiculous to have you do it right here, isn’t it?” Jiseon kept apologizing after that.

“While I might not be able to show you any complete acting, I can show you to a certain extent. I quite liked this script. Other actors definitely will too, so I feel I’ll only feel at ease if I could appeal to you about myself.”

“What we want is this scene from the script. Can you do it even though you just arrived and saw it for the first time?”

Jiseon pointed at a scene.

“I want to do it, as long as everyone’s okay with it.”

“You sound confident. Just as you said, we are all amateurs. No, we are even underqualified to be called that. However, we don’t plan to do this half-heartedly. We might be being overly greedy, but we want to do this properly. You know what I mean, right?”

“If I plan to do it half-heartedly, I might as well prepare myself fully and do it properly next time. Is that what you’re saying?”

“Yes, and I believe that it’s the right thing to do.”

One of the men, who had been listening until now, said, “I don’t think that it’s a bad idea to watch him now. He made time to come all the way here, and he says he wants to do it. Just as Jiseon said, it might be good to have him prepare and show us everything he has, but I think it’s okay to see what he can do now since he says he can do it. It’s not like either side has anything to lose. If how he acts doesn’t conform to what we want, then we can just ask him to change some things on the spot. What do other people think?”

“We don’t have to see a complete version. Moreover, we were the ones who made a mistake.”

Those were the opinions of two men.

Jiseon looked at Yoonseok, as though to indicate that the final decision was up to him.

“I want to see it. I wish to see how my character will act and move even for a moment.”

“Says our director.”

The students stood up and pushed the desks in the lecture room to the back. A small stage was created in front of the lecture podium.

Maru stood in the middle with the content outline in hand. The eyes of the students sitting in a semicircle were quite piercing. They seemed to be observing every little detail to see what kind of actor he would be and how suitable he would be for the film they were going to create.

“Which cut should I do?”

As soon as Maru spoke, opinions started being tossed around among the students.

We have to see the monologue, we have to see the conversation scene. We have to see the ending…

It was Yoonseok who made the decision this time as well.

“There’s a scene where he talks to a friend in the lecture room. I want to see that.”

“Is it scene 8?”

“Yes.”

“Okay, let me read the lines for a little.”

Maru inputted the illustrations, lines, and annotations that the director wrote into his head. As he had read the story, he knew what the character was. If he was given time to analyze in-depth, he might be able to bring out a clear personality, but he decided to just express the information that was given to him without going in depth.

He kept moving his lips and muttered the lines inside his mouth. When he felt like he had gotten used to saying them, he exerted some voice and uttered it out loud. He could see the students sitting in front of him flinch, but he didn’t mind. He focused entirely on the lines and the emotions.

“I need one person to receive my lines,” Maru said as he put down the content outline. He needed a partner because this was a conversation scene.

“Jiseon, you do it. It’s a girl’s role.”

“Me?”

Jiseon hesitated. Even with her personality, it seemed that acting was difficult for her.

“You just need to read the lines, so take it easy.”

“I’m worried I might interrupt you.”

“It’s okay. I’ll take care of my own emotions. That’s an actor’s job.”

“If you say so, then I won’t feel any pressure. I’ll just read it like reading a textbook, so don’t complain to me later.”

Maru handed the script to Jiseon. He already had the lines down anyway. He calmed his breathing and shook his hands and feet lightly.

The scene in question was inside a lecture room. He was in a lecture room right now, so it was a lot easier for him to get into the mood. He relaxed his body as much as possible so that he could produce the powerless voice that the director wanted.

He recalled the situation the main character was in and slowly closed his eyes before opening them again. He softened his lips and looked at Jiseon in front of him.

He was ready. He just needed to wait for her to start.

“Lee Jiseon, what are you doing?”

“Ah, okay. I’ll start now.”

Jiseon fixed her eyes on the script and spoke,

“Jungho, you’re really okay, right?”

Jungho. He embraced the ringing sensation given to him by that name.

Not Maru, but Jungho; not soldier 1, or thug 1 but Jungho.

It was a sense of exhilaration he hadn’t felt for a long time as an actor. Being called by the role he was assigned to was always an exciting moment.

Jungho, Jungho.

He cut that name into pieces and embedded them throughout his body.

“Me? I’m doing okay. There’s no reason for me to not be doing okay.”

He tasted an exhilarating sense of liberation like he was exhaling after holding his breath for a long time when he said his first line.

Jiseon, who was looking at the script, raised her head. They made eye contact. He could see her eyes tremble.

“Are you eating on time?”

“I am.”

“Really?”

“Yeah.”

The lines brushed past the tip of his tongue. Before his thoughts could come into play, his body created the words and pushed them out. While it was rather plain acting without any analysis, it felt pretty good.

He wished he could speed up a little; he wanted to urge Jiseon to speak faster. His heart was getting excited. He wanted to go to the next cut as soon as possible, before this lingering sensation from the lines disappeared.

“Jungho.”

“Why do you keep calling me?”

“You’re really okay, right?”

Okay, she said.

Maru, nay, Jungho was truly okay. He knew that he was not normal, so that meant he was okay. He approached his friend, who was worried about him. There was a need to give her conviction: I am abnormal, but not for the reason you should be worried about, so pretend that you didn’t see me. Don’t try to fix my cherished abnormality.

He reached out and pressed down on the script that Jiseon was holding. Her eyes, which were looking at the script, headed upwards. Her chin was raised, and he could see her neck.

He slowly rolled his eyes, looking past her neck, then nose, and to the eyes. His eyes glinted angrily as if it was a warning.

“I’m okay, so don’t mind me.”

* * *

Jiseon brushed her neck with her palm. She felt like the sense of chill creeping up her neck was calming down thanks to the warmth from her hand.

It was just a few lines. She just uttered the lines in the script without putting any emotions at all, yet from one moment onwards, she was enveloped in an extremely displeasing emotion.

It happened when she looked into his eyes. The man in front of her was acting, and she was fully aware that he was acting based on their request.

Despite that, it still felt iffy.

“Then I will see you next time.”

She met eyes with Maru again, as he said goodbye and shook hands with Yoonseok.

It had been about 10 minutes since the act ended, but her body still felt shriveled up. She put her hand on her neck again. It was itchy as though someone scratched it.

“He was good. It had really good vibes,” Yoonseok said. Jaejoon and Moonho agreed.

“Hey, Lee Jiseon. Why have you been spacing out for a while now?”

Jiseon took her hand off her neck and looked at Yoonseok.

“That person.”

“That person?”

“I mean the actor, Han Maru.”

“Yeah, what about him?”

“Maybe he really has a psychological disorder?”

“What’s gotten into you this time?”

“Not that. Didn’t you see that? His acting, I mean. Maybe he’s really mentally deranged like the main character? His eyes creeped me out. I thought he was going to attack me for real, not as an act.”

When she recalled those eyes, she felt chills down her back again. The atmosphere around him was totally different to the point that it made her wonder if he really was the same person as the guy who criticized every element in the film.

“If you felt that, then that’s awesome.”

“It’s not awesome. He’s strange.”

“Hey, quit it. You’re freaking me out. If you were planning to tease me, you were very successful so you can stop it now.”

Yoonseok laughed and tapped her on the shoulder.

Jiseon was angry now. He would never have said that if he didn’t watch from the side and looked at Maru’s eyes directly.

An aspiring actor, who hasn’t debuted yet and was around the same age as them, produced such a realistic-looking act?

“He might really be a strange person.”

It was no wonder she thought like that.

Jiseon looked at the script in her hand. She opened the part they acted out before. She could see the memos she and her friends wrote down in a messy fashion.

Protective desire, destructive impulse, and awareness of the abnormality.

“If he’s not a strange person… we might have joined hands with an absurdly good new actor.”

Jiseon shivered again, recalling the act from before. She tossed the script to Yoonseok and turned around.

It was mid-summer, but she wanted to drink something warm.

After Story 29

"Isn't Haneul acting strange recently?" Jiyu asked as she looked at her friend sitting next to her.

"What do you mean?"

"She's been so quiet. It's about time she starts saying she wants to go traveling together."

"Maybe she's planning to go with her boyfriend."

"So you haven't heard yet, huh? Those two broke up."

Jiyu pulled back her hand, which was getting nail art done by the shop unni. A wave of purple flowed on top of her fingernails. It was a nail art that made her feel good just by looking at it.

"They broke up? Then I guess Haneul was dumped huh? I knew that would happen. She's too timid, and yet she gets jealous and obsessive easily, so it's not strange that the boy gave up on her," said her friend.

Jiyu corrected her. "The man didn't dump her, she dumped him. I saw Haneul's boyfriend a few days ago when I met up with our high school friends, and he asked me what Haneul was up to lately. I was wondering what happened so I asked…”

She couldn't help but chuckle when she thought about what Haneul's ex-boyfriend said.

Her friend urged her to speak quickly.

"She apparently dumped him after having become a totally different person."

"A different person?"

"I haven't heard the details. He wouldn't tell me. But from what I saw, it didn't seem like one of those iffy breakups. In fact, it looked like the boyfriend's side still had attachments."

"That Han Haneul dumped a boy? Was she ever daring enough to do that?"

"That's why I'm saying it's strange. She doesn't contact us at all lately too."

"Now that I think about it, you're right. She gets really uneasy if she doesn't hang out with us, so she used to send texts and calls frequently."

The unni at the nail art shop said that she was done and took her hands off.

Jiyu spoke to her friend as she looked at her pretty fingernails, "Since we're at it, shall we go see her?"

"Shall we? Haneul worked in a café nearby, right?"

"She should be working today as well. She said she was going to work weekend shifts once the holidays were up. Let's go to the café. We can get some coffee that she buys for us."

"Our kind Haneul will buy us cake too, right?"

"Of course. Her friends are going to meet her, so she should at least buy us cake."

After applying sunscreen to her hands, they left the shop. On their way to the café, they also set up a schedule for a trip. They planned to go to Busan on a train. They looked into famous fish cake shops, bakeries, and good restaurants. There was no need to worry about travel expenses as the 'kind' Haneul would take care of the transportation and living costs after all.

"She quit?"

"Yes. Haneul-noona quit after June. It's already been two months."

"Oh, okay."

They were greeted by unexpected news when they went to the café expecting ice-cold coffee and sweet chocolate mousse cake.

Haneul quit her part-time job? This was as puzzling as her dumping her boyfriend.

Haneul, who treated her friends like her masters, always lacked money. Moreover, she lived by herself, so they thought she would never quit her part-time job.

"Did she get another part-time job?" Jiyu's friend tilted her head.

"She said she would never quit since cafés pay her well. She even said that this one was near her house."

"It's a part-time job. Maybe she got a new, better one. Let's try calling her for now."

Jiyu took out her phone. She looked for Han Haneul's number and pressed the call button.

-Hello?

"Hey, did you quit working at the café?"

-Oh, it's Jiyu. Yeah, I quit.

"You should've told me."

-Why? Do I have a reason to tell you something like that?

Jiyu felt so flabbergasted and was about to retort, before realizing that she didn't have anything to say. After all, there was no obligation to report that she quit a part-time job to a friend.

However, the 'kind' Haneul would have reported to them about everything. She would have said the reason she was quitting as well as when and that that they should call her first if they wanted to see her.

That was Haneul's usual attitude towards them, not asking why.

"We came here to see you, but you weren't here so we left with nothing."

Haneul's unprecedented retort got on her nerves. They went to look for her in this heat, but she wasn't there. Shouldn't she be apologizing first?

She felt like there was something wrong with her thought process, but Jiyu didn't mind. After all, the usual Han Haneul would have apologized; the 'Yes Girl' Han Haneul should have responded like that.

-Why did you leave with nothing? You should've gotten some coffee since it's hot and all.

"But you aren't here."

-Does that have anything to do with you not being able to drink coffee?

"That's not it!"

She almost snapped out and shouted. She just barely managed to hold herself back after realizing that she was in the middle of the street.

Her friend looked at her with a questioning look, but she was so flabbergasted that she didn't even have room to explain.

-If it's hot and doesn't feel good, then go to the café and drink some cold coffee or something. You'll feel better if you receive some air conditioning.

"How can you be like that?"

-How can I be like what? People might misunderstand that I might be in the wrong. If you called to vent your frustration, then do it somewhere else and call me back later. If you have something to tell me, then do it now.

Jiyu recalled when she got into a traffic accident with a motorbike when she was young. She couldn't think about anything because of the pain that shook her entire body.

Right now, it wasn't pain, but shock that stiffened up her neck.

What the heck? Why was she like this?

-Kim Jiyu. Do you have something to say? Or not?

"I-I heard you broke up with your boyfriend."

-Yeah, I did.

"Why didn't you tell us that?"

-This conversation isn't going anywhere. Let me ask you again: do I have a reason to tell you any of that? Before that, did you even care?

"Of course! We're friends."

-If you were curious, why didn't you ask first? You could've asked me in passing. I would've told you if you did. Right?

"That's…”

She suddenly had this thought: Is the person on the other side really Han Haneul? She was way too different. The only thing that was the same about her was her voice. Not to mention her style of speech, even the stress behind her words was not the Han Haneul of before.

She used to be a girl who poked her head around if they planned to go traveling by themselves and always did what they told her to do. She had zero self-confidence and could only breathe by being next to others.

Was this really her?

-I do feel somewhat grateful that you hung out with me. Without you, I wouldn't have been able to do anything. But now, I don't have any of those feelings left. I've been waiting for the past two months for any of you to ask me how I was doing, even in passing, even if it was just a single meaningless emoji. Heck, even a game invite would've been fine. But no one looked for me.

Jiyu felt like there was a wall in front of her. A sturdy wall she could neither break through nor overcome.

Just what happened to Haneul? Back in June, when they last contacted each other, she wasn't like this. Back then, she was their 'Yes Girl' and 'Kind' Han Haneul, who listened to everything they asked her to do and everything that they didn't ask her to do.

-Had I gotten a single thing from you, I would've done my best to maintain our relationship. I would have called you all in order to set our twisted relationship straight and spent quite a lot of time doing so. We've been together for too long of a time to just let you all go. We have memories together. But now, I feel like it's all useless. I feel like my old friends are just meaningless.

"Uhm… Haneul, the thing is."

-And then you call me for this, annoyed that you couldn't get coffee off me. I wanted to hold onto this cheap friendship. You were my only friends after all. But now you're cutting off that last bit of regret in me.

That was the end of the call. There was no goodbye, even though Haneul was someone who waited for the other party to hang up.

"Hey? What's going on?" her friend spoke.

"What do you mean?"

"You seem like you were hit on your head. Did Haneul say something?"

Jiyu didn't know how to express her frustration and puzzlement. Should she say that Haneul has changed? Should she insult her by saying that she has become a total bitch?

"We didn't say anything."

She couldn't say it. She recalled Haneul's dry voice again. The victim of this relationship was clear. Haneul was always on the side of being exploited.

It wasn't like this from the beginning. There was a time when everyone hung out together. However, they started giving up on persuading Haneul, who always acted so servile, and became no longer uncomfortable getting treated by her. They did not force themselves to find the problem in their relationship. They just accepted that that was Haneul's way of living.

"Hey. Has Haneul ever got angry at us?"

"Her? Angry? I don't think that will happen for the rest of our lives." Her friend chuckled.

"What should we do if she does get angry at us?"

"Who's she to get angry at us? What's so good about her?"

"I'm just talking about what if."

"Tell her to get angry if she wants to. We're fine without her, but she isn't. She doesn't have any friends other than us, does she? Moreover, she even broke up with her boyfriend, so she'll be clinging to us even more."

"Right?"

Jiyu stopped thinking there. She had gotten her nails done prettily, so she didn't want to keep feeling iffy. Just as Haneul said, even if they were in the wrong, they didn't have anything to lose. If she wanted to turn her back on them, she could do so for all they cared.

"Hey, let's go visit that place."

Her friend dragged her by the hand. They arrived at a cosmetics shop. It was a brand shop that targeted students with low-cost products, and it was pretty popular because of the good price-to-value ratio. They went inside and looked around.

"Jiyu, take a look at this."

There was an aroma product right next to a soothing product. Jiyu put her nose closer to the stick on the diffuser. She smelled something pleasant that blew away all the stuffy smell of summer.

"This one's all the rage because it was in a drama recently. Kim Suyeon Aroma. I'm sure it's not the same thing though."

"Kim Suyeon's products are really expensive though. But this one's really good considering the price."

"Right? Jiyu, this one smells really good too."

An employee approached them when she was smelling the fragrance that her friend recommended.

"Both of you are in college, right?"

"Yes," Jiyu responded.

“Many college students have gotten into aroma therapy recently, thanks to its relaxation and pleasant sleep effects. Air fresheners are too strong and they disappear after a while, but aroma oils like this are good because they stay for a long time.”

“Right. That’s why I don’t use air fresheners that much. It sounds too artificial,” Jiyu said as she picked up a small bottle. There was aroma oil contained in a small, brown, bulb-shaped bottle.

“This line of products is the one we have signed an agreement on. It’s not a brand that we produce ourselves, but we decided to go with them because they have great feedback.”

“The bottle is really cute.”

“It’s becoming popular among the ladies that come to our store without a single word. The product itself was actually out for a long time, but recently, the fragrance became really good after they changed their blending methods. The bottle is cute, and the cost is consumer-friendly, so they’re great gifts too.”

“Can I have a sample?”

“Of course.”

The employee dipped a towel in the oil before waving it. First, there was a smoky coffee fragrance followed by something sweet that she was used to smelling but could not pinpoint what it exactly was. The peculiar scent gave her a sense of rejection, but she felt okay after a while.

“It’s quite experimental, isn’t it?”

“Yes, it’s quite peculiar. I don’t dislike it.”

“Some people say it’s a daring kind of smell. These days, people say that fragrance design is important in interior design. Don’t you think this is good?”

Jiyu nodded and grabbed a few bottles of oil. She felt good when she thought about the scent that would spread in her house. Her heart, iffy from Han Haneul’s remarks, calmed down again.

She went to the counter to buy it. The employee gave her a small paper card. The card had the image of a hairpin and a URL of some kind. The brand name written on the bottle was on the card as well: Friendly Aroma.

The URL was written right below it. Find out more uses – it also added.

“Let’s try visiting. I want to see if there’s a massage method,” her friend said as she looked at the card.

After Story 30

She was dragged to a PC-bang by her friend. She was envisioning a noisy, smelly, and uselessly gloomy atmosphere, but the entrance told her otherwise. It was better than most cafés.

Her friend got them a couple's seat.

"These café-like PC-bangs have been popping up lately. They're good if you want to just stay for a bit," her friend said.

"Stay for a bit my ass. Like hell a gamer like you will just stay for a bit. But still, it's pretty good. It doesn't smell like cigarettes. The one in our neighborhood has a separate smoking area, but it still stinks."

"Those outdated PC-bang will all go out of business soon. There are clean places like this, so who will prefer to go there? This one's on me, so let's get some drinks too."

Jiyu checked her Cyworld as she drank the carbonated lemon water that the part-timer delivered to her. She wrote a post before having a look at her visitors. She noticed that her visitors had dropped from some time onwards. One of her friends, who visited a lot, had also not visited in a long time. The only character she could see on the sidebar was her own avatar.

"You still use Cy?"

"Yeah."

"Everyone else quit already. They can use their phones to chat, and blogs are better if you want to decorate it."

"Still, it's a good memory. I can still reach out to some people with this."

Jiyu scanned her friend list before stopping her mouse cursor on top of a friend's name.

Han Haneul.

Haneul's frosty voice, which she had forgotten about, came back to her vividly. Before she could think about anything, she ended up clicking on that name. The web page changed, and Haneul's mini homepage could be seen.

Haneul was someone who decorated her Cyworld homepage better than anyone else. She would buy all the new cosmetic items as though to boast and always use the latest music tracks. Her sidebar would be filled with various things, and her theme was fancy.

Yet now, Haneul's page had turned very simple. There was only one girl avatar in the middle. There were a couple of flowers blooming around the smiling avatar, and on the bottom right corner was the words 'Friendly Aroma.'

"Friendly Aroma?"

She read it out loud before hurriedly taking out the card she got from the cosmetics store before. They were written in the same font. Friendly Aroma, why would this be on Haneul's page?

When she checked Haneul's visitors' page, she could see many people who had dropped in a word of hello, most of whom were female.

It smells so good. Please tell me when there's a new one. The blog definitely makes it a lot easier to communicate, et cetera.

"What are you looking at?"

"Haneul's page?"

"She quit Cy too? It looks empty."

"It doesn't look like she quit."

"Then she went for the cool theme after dumping her boyfriend? What a peculiar girl. I've known her for years, but I can never figure out what she's thinking."

Ignoring her friend's words, Jiyu looked at the URL written at the top of the page. It was the same URL on the card. She moved her cursor to the address bar at the top and quickly started typing.

She was greeted by a blog, the same blog that many people started doing after quitting Cyworld. At the top was a girl smelling an oil with her eyes closed.

It took her a long while to recognize that she was Han Haneul, who had been with her since high school.

"She's pretty. Who's she?" her friend asked.

"Han Haneul."

"What?"

"She's Haneul."

Her friend, who was playing a rhythm game, suddenly turned around her chair. Jiyu stared at the monitor with her friend. Was this really Han Haneul? Her makeup style had changed, but it was definitely her after they had a closer look.

The Haneul they remembered had a pretty facial shape but could not make the most use of it. She was strangely fixated on losing weight and so looked skinny, and her eyes were always looking downward, which made her look gloomy.

But such a girl changed like this?

Rather than the blog articles, she had to look for more photos. Jiyu quickly scrolled to look at the main menu of the blog. Under the usage methods of various oils was a category dubbed 'daily.' When she clicked on it, a bunch of thumbnails popped up. They were mostly photos of products, food, and of Haneul.

"What the heck?" her friend said. Jiyu wanted to ask that instead.

It wasn't just her makeup that had changed. Even her style of clothing had undergone a complete makeover. She would usually wear a skirt that reached her knees, or denim pants, but she was wearing a bright-colored one-piece dress in today's picture. It wasn't just that. Leather jackets, sleeveless shirts, an H-shaped skirt to emphasize her hip line, glasses that she never wore before, as well as all sorts of accessories.

"Is this really Han Haneul?" Her friend clicked on other photos in disbelief.

Who was this girl on the screen who was looking at the camera with a natural smile? Feeling the sense of confidence being exuded through the monitor, Jiyu couldn't help but tilt her head. Haneul wasn't like this when they met in June. It didn't make sense that a person changed in just two months.

There were more than a thousand daily visitors to the blog. The YouTube video that had the usage methods of the aroma oil all had nearly 50,000 views.

-It's important to dilute it. While it's extracted from plant ingredients, it's not good for your skin to apply it directly without diluting it first. You also can't use it if you have sensitive skin. If you bought it with the intent to use it as a massage oil and not for the fragrance, then you should try lightly dipping a small bit on your wrist and the back of your ears to check the sensitivity.

Haneul quietly explained about the usage as she held the aroma oil in her hand. Her voice was surprising as well. It was definitely the same voice as the one in her memories, but it felt totally different. The sense of confidence she felt from the photos could be heard in her voice as well. A type of bold, yet friendly tone.

Her eyes were curved into a pleasant smile, her pupils were glistening, her cheeks were filled with vitality, and her lips were emphasized as though she applied something. Her facial features remained the same, but she looked like a totally different person. Above all, she was full of vitality. She was no longer the Han Haneul who would look like a patient in a hospital with just a change of clothes.

The comments were full of compliments: unni, you're so pretty, I used one of your oils and it gave me good sleep, it's good to use when I bathe my feet.

The friend that lacked so much presence that she might as well be a shadow had turned into a main character under the spotlight on the screen.

"It's the one we bought, right?" Her friend took out the aroma oil.

The blog didn't seem like just a review of the products. She seemed more deeply related than that. When she dug a little more, she found a post saying that Haneul talked to the owners a lot during the development.

Jiyu looked at the brown bulb-shaped bottle. It turned out that this was made by Haneul.

"Hey, hey! Let's call Haneul again. This girl, she became so successful but didn't mention a word to us. How disloyal."

Her friend urged her to make a call. Jiyu could not take out her phone.

"What are you doing? If you aren't going to do it, then I will."

"Hey, wait."

"What?"

"Don't do it. I don't think it's a good idea."

"Kim Jiyu. What's up with you? You were strange when you called Haneul before, so something happened, didn't it?"

"No, it's not that."

"Did Haneul perhaps tell you something? Did she tell you not to call her anymore because she's successful now?" her friend said in a joking tone, clearly feeling that there was no way Han Haneul would say such a thing.

Jiyu did not respond. Calling Haneul would be a lot faster than explaining.

Her friend called Haneul.

"Hey, Han Haneul! How could you do this to me without a word? I went to the cosmetics shop just now and found an oil that's advertised by you. You should've told us if you were involved in something like this. How could you not tell your friends?"

It didn't take that long for her smile to disappear. First was anger, then embarrassment, and finally, silence. Jiyu knew what her friend's series of changes signified.

It wasn't a coincidence. Haneul had definitely changed. Not just in appearance, but all the way deep down.

"Was she like this before too?" her friend asked. Jiyu nodded.

They weren't able to say anything for a long time. Time passed by meaninglessly. The Haneul on the screen was talking about her life in a quiet voice. Jiyu quickly scrolled down because she felt like she was watching a drama.

"What was that?"

Her friend spoke after a long time, sounding like she found a penguin in a desert. She kept looking at Haneul's blog.

Jiyu tapped on her shoulder. "Stop looking. It's not helpful at all."

"True, but… what was that really? Is she really the same person I know?"

"There's no need to mind. We weren't that close in the first place. Just ignore her."

She drank the carbonated water, which had just become lemon water after the fizz was gone, in one gulp. She felt annoyed deep down. The fact that there was a clear reason behind her annoyance got on her nerves even more.

She was supposed to be like a sidekick. She was supposed to be nothing without them.

"Should we call up the others and play around?" her friend said as she closed the page.

"Should we?"

"Then I'll contact the others. Everyone should be at home since it's the holidays."

Usually, they would think about whether to call Haneul or not before ultimately calling her out of compassion, but today, it was a different story.

After texting for a while, her friend frowned. "Yeonjoo says she can't make it."

"What is it now?"

"I don't know. She won't answer me."

Jiyu looked at the group chat as well. This was a chat room they had made back in high school to talk to friends.

Out of the seven in the room, five said they were coming. The two that weren't responding were Haneul and Yeonjoo.

"Should I mention it here as well?" her friend said, typing something on her screen.

Haneul, you're coming, right? – was what she wrote.

"Why bother?"

"I'm just curious. Also, she's a bitch now, but she's still a friend."

She didn't become a bitch. She just got a hold of herself.

Jiyu wasn't able to utter words in the back of her throat. Saying it would mean admitting her mistakes. Her reason had already discerned who was in the right and who was in the wrong, but her heart had not yet moved. That was why she wanted to ignore it. She wanted to act like the girl named Haneul never existed in the first place.

"But why did Yeonjoo ignore me? She also usually joins us with glee."

Hearing that, Jiyu felt a sense of unease. Within the group, Yeonjoo was the one who always asked for Haneul's opinion until the end. She always asked Haneul if there was anything else she wanted to do, and now, she was staying silent just like Haneul.

"Huh? She says she's coming." Her friend showed her phone to her.

Haneul had said that she was coming. There was also another line after that. Yeonjoo will be coming too.

"Are those two together?"

Haneul the shadow and Yeonjoo the applauder seemed to have gotten together.

"We decided to meet up in the bar in Hongdae we always went to. Jiyu, are you listening?"

"Yeah. I am. Oh, it's for dinner, right?"

"Of course. It's our usual route. Drinking, singing, then going on a walk."

"I'll go home and change my clothes then."

"Why?"

"No reason. You should too."

"Me?"

Her friend was confused, but she eventually accepted as though having noticed something.

After Story 31

After leaving the PC-bang, Jiyu separated from her friend. There were about four hours until the appointed time. She went home and opened her closet. She took out a two-piece dress that she had packaged in plastic wrap so that it wouldn’t get dusty. She would usually never wear something like this on an occasion with friends, but she had to today. She kept recalling Han Haneul’s smiling face, filled with vitality. Before she could talk about who was right and wrong, she did not want to lose out. Her pride did not allow that. The center of this group was always her after all.

She even redid her makeup and got ready. She only put in this kind of effort when she was being introduced to a man.

After getting a call from her friend, she left her house. She went to Hongdae and entered the bar she always went to. She could feel the men sitting near the entrance giving her glances. From the way they looked at her for quite a while, today’s makeup and styling were her best choice ever.

“What the heck? You went full out, huh?”

“You didn’t double-time us, did you?”

Her friends said a word each. Jiyu waved her hand in the air in denial.

They had some beer and talked for a while.

“Haneul and Yeonjoo are going to be a little late.”

“That’s rare. They always come first.”

Jiyu kept giving glances at the entrance of the bar as she listened to her friends. She consoled herself by thinking that there was no need to mind, but it was no use. She kept thinking about when Haneul would be coming, and how she would be dressed.

“This is on the house; it’s from the owner.”

A pretty neat-looking waiter left a gorgonzola pizza on their table. As they were regulars who visited frequently ever since this bar opened business, they were acquainted with the owner.

“He’s pretty cute.”

“I don’t like his style.”

“Sure you don’t. That’s why you dated that bandit-looking boyfriend of yours.”

As they were laughing and chatting, a friend sitting opposite her looked at the entrance with a strange gaze. Jiyu also turned around. Two women were coming in as they pushed their waving hair behind their shoulders. One of them was Yeonjoo. So, that made the other one Haneul?

“Sorry we’re late. We had some work to do,” Haneul said hello and sat down.

The table became quiet as though they had never been chatting and laughing at all. Everyone was busy exchanging gazes with each other. It was no wonder. Haneul’s impression had totally changed after all. The disparity was even more dramatic than looking at her photos. She looked like a totally different person.

Whether it was the way she naturally crossed her legs, her straightened back and shoulders, or the slightly raised chin, her very sitting position had changed.

“We’re lacking glasses.” Haneul raised her hand.

A waiter walking by came over.

“Please give us two more glasses. Also, can we have two more wet wipes?”

“Yes, please wait just a moment.”

Haneul thanked him with a smile.

“So, how’s everyone doing?” Haneul asked her friends. Everyone’s eyes were on her.

Jiyu also looked at Haneul in a daze before collecting herself. She didn’t call her here just to admire the changed Han Haneul.

“I’ve been doing well. How about you?”

“I’ve been having a busy time doing all sorts of things. But hey, Jiyu. You’ve put effort into your appearance today. You’re so pretty.” Haneul blinked her two large eyes.

Jiyu almost thanked her in a daze. Her eyes were just that attention-grabbing and bewitching. She couldn’t believe that they were the same cloudy eyes she saw two months ago.

“Miji, you did your hair, huh? It looks good on you. Did you finally find the hair shop of your life?”

“Y-yeah. The director I met this time really looks out for me.”

“That’s good. I liked your previous hairstyle too, but the current one suits you much more.”

“Really?” Miji grinned.

The girl who would disdain Haneul every once in a while was now acting like a docile puppy. If it was just a while ago, they would have ignored Haneul’s words even if she said such a thing, not that she ever would.

Jiyu thought that this was the time to change the topic. However, Haneul’s words were faster.

“Haera, did you solve the issue with your scholarship?”

“Yeah. I talked to a professor about it and resolved it.”

“Then are you going to get support?”

“Yeah. I was really worried about it for a while, but now I’m at ease.”

“That’s great. Now I guess you don’t have to worry about it. Haera, you were always smart, so you could’ve aimed for a full scholarship. I just think you were unlucky this time.”

“No way. I’m not that good.”

“Why do you say that? Is there anyone else here who gets a scholarship apart from you? I’m sure you’ll get it next time. If you do, I’ll buy you food to celebrate.”

Haneul exchanged words with each person while looking into their eyes. While she spoke, not a single other person said a thing. They just kept staring at Haneul’s lips, which were especially red today and so bewitching.

Bewitching my ass, Jiyu quickly fixed her thinking. This was peculiar. When she looked at Haneul’s smile, the sense of hostility within her disappeared without a trace. Instead, she was gripped with the desire to talk to her even more. She was originally planning to lead the atmosphere and ask her about the cosmetics in a rebuking tone, but not a single thing went her way. It felt like she was participating in Han Haneul’s talk show as a guest.

Her friends would chat with Haneul whenever she gave them the chance and then become quiet after their turn was up. There was no end to the conversation. Everything went smoothly like a delicately designed spring watch.

While her glass was emptied and refilled, Jiyu wasn’t able to say a single thing. The two-piece dress that she put so much effort into wearing wasn’t even brought to topic. Instead, Haneul’s clothes became the hot issue.

“It’s a cheap off-brand. I had to go to Busan once and I found some clothes to my liking at an underground shopping center, so I bought them there.”

“That blouse looks pretty expensive.”

“Oh, this? It only cost me 20,000 won. And the pants, 10 thousand. Brand-name clothes are definitely good, but the trend these days is to emphasize your own style. Brand-name clothes have such a strong identity, so it’s easy to look weird once you start mixing and matching, but for these kinds of clothes, there’s also the advantage that they’re plain enough to be mixed and matched without difficulty.” Haneul stood up.

Her pants wrapped around her long legs, and her loose-fit khaki blouse with the top button undone and the neck right above it created an inexplicable sense of harmony. If Haneul didn’t mention the price, she would’ve thought that this was taken straight off a display case somewhere.

“She’s a total model, isn’t she?” Yeonjoo said, looking proud.

Jiyu suddenly felt like the two-piece dress she was wearing was stuffy. She felt embarrassed about the clothes she boasted about. She lost her confidence and her shoulders drooped. Meanwhile, Haneul walked around the table like a little mischievous girl. She didn’t feel like showing off at all. She seemed to have precisely discerned the atmosphere and played along with it.

This was strange. No matter how much her appearance and attitude changed, Han Haneul was always Han Haneul, the girl who always circled around them. The girls here should not be accepting of the fact that she was becoming their center, but no one stopped her. In fact, they seemed to give room for her and were waiting for her to speak to them.

Something fundamental seemed to have changed. Jiyu even felt that she was a totally different person pretending to be Han Haneul, to the point that she was reminded of the word doppelgänger from fantasy. It was an absurd situation, something that couldn’t be explained with logic.

The girl who had no charms about her, the girl who they thought it was a miracle she found a boyfriend at all, could change so much?

“Hey, can you still drink?” Haneul raised her hand in the air and waved.

The neat-looking waiter from before quickly rushed over. Jiyu could tell in an instant that he wasn’t trying to be kind to do well in his job but to look good in front of the girl in front of him.

“Can we have some draft beer and a bottle of soju?”

Receiving the order, the part-timer didn’t go back to the counter right away and circled around Haneul before walking off.

Jiyu put her knees together and sealed her lips. This was a terribly uncomfortable occasion for her. Jungyeon, who called Haneul before, seemed to feel the same as she was just rummaging through the salad.

“Jiyu, are you uncomfortable somewhere?” Haneul asked. The gazes of her friends, who were all fixed on Haneul, naturally came over to her.

Why was it that she was suddenly feeling like she was doing her first presentation in college? The eyes of the friends she had been with for years felt so unfamiliar like she met them in an unfamiliar lecture room. She had to say that it was nothing much and that they should just keep drinking, but she found it hard to do so.

“No, nothing,” she barely uttered. She lacked any kind of lead in this conversation at all.

Changing the topic was out of reach, and even just refreshing the atmosphere was impossible for her. Jiyu even found Haneul scary when she looked at her worriedly. She never thought that things would play out like this when she left her house. Her friends were supposed to snap out at Haneul and say that they were disappointed. They looked angry after all. She was planning to step up and mediate if Haneul made things heavy. She just thought she had to decide whether to accept Haneul or push her away in that process, but the conversation went in a completely different direction from what she expected.

She walked over proudly and enraptured all of their hearts before starting to lead everything, whether it was conversations, ordering, or what to do next. That was supposed to be Jiyu’s job. That was supposed to be her position.

However, she was deprived of it. No, Haneul took it away so naturally to the point that it was shameful to call it ‘deprived,’ without a single conflict or dispute.

“So you dropped out of college?”

Every conversation started revolving around Han Haneul. They eventually talked about how she produced aroma oils and was in charge of promoting it.

The friend started looking at their phones. After seeing Haneul’s complete change, they treated Haneul in a more friendly manner than ever. They were becoming tightly-knitted, to the point where Jiyu had no room to go in at all. Whether it was talking about a good restaurant, the conflict she had with her boyfriend, or her new nail art, everything Jiyu said seemed insignificant compared to what Haneul said.

“But how did you start doing things like that? You never had any knowledge in that regard,” Jungeyon interrupted, as though intending to steal the spotlight that was focused on Haneul.

“I was lucky.”

“Luck? It’s curious that someone who was learning baking suddenly started working with a cosmetics company. There’s that change of style too. Oh yeah, didn’t you break up with your boyfriend as well? You know, the one that was a little older.”

“Jungyeon, there’s no need to be so roundabout in saying gold digger.”

Jungyeon was flustered instead when the counter was so strong.

Haneul then continued to say things about how she started this job and what she prepared. By the time she finished, Jungyeon was no longer able to even rummage through the salad.

Haneul poured some beer and soju into her glass. She covered the lip of the glass with some tissue and turned it 360 degrees once before placing the wet tissue in front of Jungyeon.

“Throwing this is usually the way to go, but that will make cleaning harder.”

After that, Haneul gulped down her glass in one go. The girl who used to sip on a single glass of soju was now drinking beer bombs by the glass.

“I’ll stop drinking here for today. I’m going to leave now. What will you do, Yeonjoo?”

“I’ll go with you.”

The two of them stood up with their bags.

“I really feel relieved that you all haven’t changed. Well, this isn’t so bad. Let’s meet up every once in a while and talk about meaningless stuff. I think that’s the best for our relationship.”

Haneul was turning around, but she suddenly went to Jungyeon as though she forgot something.

“And also, Jungyeon. You better watch your mouth next time. I’m quite persistent and petty. I’ll look over it for today to celebrate making things even, but if you say something like that next time…” Haneul grabbed Jungyeon’s cheek and slightly pulled on it instead of finishing her words.

Jungyeon grabbed her cheek like she had been slapped.

“How cute,” Haneul said as she tapped on Jungyeon’s head.

Jiyu exchanged gazes with Haneul, who left the store. Haneul smiled without a word and that was the end. Jiyu looked at the tissue soaked in alcohol that Haneul left behind.

That’s all you amount to me — Haneul seemed to be whispering to her.

After Story 32

She neither felt satisfied nor disappointed. She realized that things would turn out like this when she saw the text in the group chat. There was only one thing she was worried about, and it was Yeonjoo.

“I’m okay with leaving like this, but what about you? Didn’t I just make your relationship with them bad?” Haneul asked Yeonjoo.

It had been two months since her memories returned. While she was busily spending those two months with production and marketing, there was only one person who asked how she was doing: Yeonjoo.

She made some time to meet with her, and they talked about many things. Yeonjoo was a kind girl. She was someone who tried to give the timid Haneul a choice until the very end.

Haneul said to her that she would feel like a totally different person because many things changed. Yeonjoo then responded in relief that things were going well.

“As you said back there, it doesn’t change the fact that we can meet every now and then. We always went to places together, but that didn’t mean that I felt a sense of belonging, nor is there anyone among them that I’m extremely close to. Still, it was quite fun. I never knew that they would make faces like that after seeing you.” Yeonjoo chuckled as she covered her mouth, looking refreshed. “But don’t hate them too much. Don’t take what Jungyeon said to heart either. You know how careless they are.”

“You think I’d keep something like that to heart?”

Yeonjoo stared at her for a while before shaking her head. “No. You’re not that kind of girl anymore. But still, I can’t get used to it. I’ve been by your side for over a month and was watching you, but you still feel unfamiliar to me. I wonder several times if you are really the Han Haneul I know.”

“If I have to confess, I actually am not Han Haneul.”

“What are you then?”

“A ten-thousand-year-old viper from the mountains.”

“A viper who has shape-shifted into a human? I didn’t know that.” Yeonjoo crossed her arms and stifled her laughter.

As they were walking around the commercial buildings, they found a cosmetics store.

Yeonjoo stopped walking. “It’s quite mysterious. It hasn’t even been that long since we contacted each other, but the aroma oils you’ve developed are already on the shelves.”

“There are only a few stores in the capital. At most, about twenty shops? I had it easier because we were aiming for the low-cost market. Those people must have felt bad selling a whole separate product line.”

“When did you study something like that? It makes me wonder every single time.”

“I told you. I’m a ten-thousand-year-old viper.”

Haneul took Yeonjoo into a shop. It was a luxury brand. An employee approached them with a smile.

She went to the shelves with aromatherapy products and had a look at the products on display.

“That one’s really popular among ladies in their twenties recently. It’s famous for being Kim Suyeon’s aroma product.”

Kim Suyeon’s photo was hung up where the employee was pointing at. That enchanting smile seemed to whisper that the owner of the fragrance was you. People who look at the photo and try it out would probably end up buying it. While the price was on the more expensive side, it was just an advantage for consumers looking for high-end products.

The employee then left, telling them to have a look around.

“The price is steep alright. It’s several times more expensive than ours,” Yeonjoo said as she looked around the bottle.

“The target consumer for this brand is the opposite of our target consumer. In fact, I wish this brand keeps going for that high-end line. If they try to push themselves into the low-cost line, our slice of the pie would be reduced after all.”

“That probably won’t happen though. This shop is known for never putting any products on sale even if it means going out of business.”

“True.”

“You had a look, right? Let’s go then.” Yeonjoo pulled on her arm.

Haneul said that there was something she must buy and went to the serum and eye cream shelf.

An employee approached her and showed her a few trial products. She applied it on the back of her hand to test it out and had a look at the ingredients on the back.

Skin lotion, serum, essence, ampule, cream.

She knew that the categorization of the products was simply for marketing purposes and that there wouldn’t be a drastic change in her skin. The skin was ultimately intended to defend against external intrusions, and it would be a problem if there was an immediate effect from any cosmetics.

As such, she would at most get all-in-one products or skin lotions if she was to choose one to use herself. However, the various cosmetics that the employee was holding were not for herself.

“It’s 317 thousand won in total. How would you like your payment done?”

“One-time payment, please. Also, I’m buying it as a gift, so please wrap it up for me.”

“Okay.”

While the gifts were being packaged, Yeonjoo was looking at the lipsticks on display. There seemed to be a color she took a liking to as she looked at one specific one for a long time before she eventually put it down.

“Here.”

She left with the paper bag with the gift-wrapped cosmetics.

“Are you going to test cosmetics too?” Yeonjoo asked.

Haneul gave the bag to her, who looked curious.

“Take it.”

“Huh?”

“It’s a gift, and also a bribe so that you will continue to work with me in the future.”

Yeonjoo helped her a lot in designing the website as well as when she was shooting videos. Thanks to her, who could proficiently use the effects program, she was able to proceed with other types of work. If she had to do it by herself, she wouldn’t be as successful as she was now.

“Really?”

Seeing Yeonjoo hesitant, Haneul grabbed her hand and put the bag in it.

“I picked this based on your skin tone and sensitivity, so I’m sure it’ll suit you. Also, let’s go clothes shopping the day after tomorrow. If you want to act as a product model, it’ll be better if you start looking after yourself starting now.”

“Me? Weren’t you going to keep doing it?”

“I am going to do it, but it’ll be you who shows up more frequently. I told you before.”

“I thought you were joking. I thought I’d only help you out from the side.”

“You have a face that easily attracts people’s goodwill, so you aren’t lacking as a model. Also, we have already checked the consumer responses. Among our loyal customers who visit the blog and watch our videos, none of them have rejection towards you. I’ve already told the president. It’s also something I decided on the second day we met.”

She grabbed the dazed Yeonjoo and dragged her, feeling like she would stand there until sunrise if she was left there alone.

“Of course, I respect your opinion. If you don’t want to, then I’m going to treat it like none of this happened. I’ll make it so that you can keep working on the video production side.”

“I…”

Yeonjoo clutched the paper bag with both of her hands. There was a glimpse of the desire to challenge in her confused eyes.

Haneul asked her again, whether she was going to do it or not.

Yeonjoo responded, “I want to do it if I can. But won’t there be problems? I’m not as pretty as you, and I don’t feel confident.”

“Not at all. You’re plenty charming. Do you think I’m just being courteous to you? I will never give someone hope using something that’s hopeless. I’m only proposing this to you because I am convinced that it will work.”

“It makes me feel uneasy instead because you sound so confident.”

“Then to change it up a little, I’ll say that you are a little lacking but I can help you with the rest. Would you like to do it now?”

“Hey! You can’t say that.”

Yeonjoo hesitated for a while before pulling her chin inwards as though she made a decision. She said that she would do it.

“Good, but as a result, you’ll become a lot busier than you are now. For a while, you’ll have to do both shooting and editing. I’ll help you out fully with the camera test. I’ll also have a look at what angle looks the best for you. I’m going to do this properly from beginning to end so that you can become the main face of ‘Friendly Aroma.’”

“Then what about you? You’re just going to do the business side of things?”

“No. Once the foundation of the business is solidly set in stone, I’m going to start decreasing my domain. That doesn’t mean that I’m pulling out entirely, though, so don’t worry about it. I just need some leeway to do what I truly want. I’m just building the base for that.”

“Do what you truly want?”

Haneul responded without hesitation that it was to be an actress.

“You’re going to be an actress? You’re going to abandon this successful business?”

“By the end of the year, the payment for the factory will be settled, and we’ll procure more distribution routes. The almost non-existent internet orders and deliveries will be normalized. Once that happens, I’ll be able to get the desired income I want. I’m okay with that. I just want enough money so that I don’t lose my foundation.”

“This might go really well and thus we might need you even more. There are many businesses who showed interest because you’re the model.”

“I told you, I’m not taking my hands off entirely. I’m just going to decrease my appearance so that I can do it while I focus on my acting work.”

Thanks to jumping onto the trend, they were able to launch a cosmetics brand in only two months. The indirect promotions through her blog and YouTube were also going well. Once the website for ‘Friendly Aroma’ was up, they would start selling more than they were now. It would take more time to turn into a stable income, but it wasn’t that far off.

As Yeonjoo said, if she focused on the business, she would be able to grow the business more, but what she wanted to be was not a competent businesswoman, but an actress.

“So please take care of me from now on.”

Haneul pushed Yeonjoo’s back slightly and walked forward. Yeonjoo walked up next to her. She stayed silent for a while before chuckling. “This feels like a dream. Without you, I would be doing part-time jobs or freelance work to earn tuition before going back to college next year, but I got to do something professional like this. I still flinch every time I wake up in the morning, you know? Wondering if everything was just a delusion of mine.”

“You can save the retrospects for when you’re old. We still have a long way to go. Once we get more responses from the consumers, it’ll be hard to give feedback like this. I’ll have to tell the president to create a customer service team. You’ll get a role and have people under you.”

“Me? I’m only a college student.”

“Who’s only a college student? You’re already an executive-level staff in a middle-sized business with proven potential to grow. The president treats you like one too.”

“I feel like I’ve become important now. I’m a little scared too. I feel like I’ll slip up.”

“We did not expand the business forcefully. We started off with leftover inventory in the warehouse, and we can keep importing products from Germany, so we don’t have to worry about logistics. We have no reports of side effects from the users either. As long as we don’t screw up big time on marketing, we’ll keep consolidating our foundation. There’s no need to worry about slipping up.”

After she spoke, Yeonjoo asked back with a grave face,

“Maybe I should be applying to drop out rather than taking a year off?”

“That’s your choice. If you feel like this work suits you and want to keep doing it, then I’ll recommend that you wrap things up.”

“Hey. I’ve already received two semesters’ tuition, so what’s all this ‘suits you’ and whatnot? Of course I’ll keep doing it.” Yeonjoo grinned. Haneul liked her honest reply.

There was one thing she realized in her lives, and it was that there was no one as dangerous as people who had no desire for money. Whether in a good way or bad way, that person was bound to cause issues. The people that businesses wanted were those who moderately chased after money and could dictate money from time to time.

In that sense, Yeonjoo scored full points.

“But hey, I think the current you can jump into acting work right now. Why did you start this business?”

“As I said before, I need a baseline. I don’t believe that ‘artists are better when they’re hungry’ bullshit. I know how dangerous and scary that can be. Also, if there’s one more reason…”

She thought about Maru, who should be busy preparing for a shoot.

“There’s someone I might need to take care of. Of course, with that person’s talents, it probably won’t happen, but there’s always the what if.”

“That person? What’s this? Now that I think about it, Jungyeon said you dumped your boyfriend, didn’t you?”

Yeonjoo, who liked lewd stories more than anyone else, had a gleam in her eye and moved her face right next to her. Haneul said that she was creeped out and pushed her away.

“I’ll introduce him to you later. He should be busy right now.”

“Alright. Then let me ask this one thing: Is he good-looking?”

“Hm, I’m not sure about what others think, but he’s perfect for my preferences.”

She then smiled.

After Story 33

His forehead wrinkled into a frown when he heard the notification sound. Maru took off the rubber gloves and had a look at this phone.

Lee Yoonseok — the moment he saw that name, he craved some thick coffee.

He touched the screen and read the message that Yoonseok sent. For the past five days, he and Yoonseok exchanged texts like they were a couple that just formed. The quantity was so much that it might as well be a short novel.

On the first day, he didn't mind it that much. He just thought that a curious film creator was asking a bunch of questions at once in one day.

The various messages related to film production began at 9 in the morning and only ended at 8 in the evening.

As the PC version of the messenger had not yet been made, he had to look at that small screen and move his thumbs.

It was hard work, but still, it was okay. He would gladly spend a day satiating the curiosities of a young producer.

However, had he known that such a thing would continue for five days straight, he would not have said that he would help as much as possible.

"Director. Let's just meet up."

He ultimately just gave him a call instead.

-No, I can't ask you to do such a thing.

"My eyes are sore from looking at my phone all day. I'm okay with any time, so let's meet up."

-If that's the case, I'll visit you with the fixed script.

"You fixed it already?"

-Yes.

After replying confidently, Yoonseok hurriedly shouted at him to wait. Maru could hear a faint yawn on the other side. Now that he thought about it, Yoonseok's voice was sunken.

"You sound tired."

-Yes, I couldn't get much sleep, so I keep yawning. I'm sorry about that.

"You couldn't get much sleep?"

-Oh, it's not that I couldn't sleep, but I'm just lacking sleep since I've been fixing the script all night.

"Until what time did you work on it?"

-Seven.

Wasn't that closer to morning than night? Just as he was about to admire his passion, there was something that came to his mind. Maru looked at the clock.

"You didn't sleep like that for the past five days, have you?" he asked.

Yoonseok only laughed awkwardly in response. It turned out that the sense of tenacity in his words was from his nature. He was someone who put aside all the other desires once he was fixated on one thing, an avatar of stubbornness completely contrary to his innocent-looking face. He was the type to stay up all night even when he was forced to lie in bed.

"You're going to come even if I tell you that you should sleep tonight and we should meet tomorrow, right?"

-I can't wait.

"I thought so. Where shall we meet? Shall I go to Hohun university?"

-No, I should be going to you instead. You said you live in Suwon, right? I wonder if there's a good place nearby.

"Before that, how long do you estimate we'll be talking? I'm not sure about other people, but I feel like I have to ask you that question."

-I'll try to make it as short as possible, but…

His words had zero, heck, negative credibility. It was clear that an hour or two won't cut it. It would be a hassle to move around between various cafés, and above all, Maru didn't want to talk for a long time in a noisy place.

"Would you like to come to my house?"

-Can I?

"Please do. Let's discuss everything from A to Z today. But you'll have to have a general idea first. I'm only helping you in regard to things related to the shoot, not the story. If you ask me if the story is good or not, that will put me in a difficult spot."

-Don't worry about that. I'm not bold enough to let someone else take care of my child.

Maru said that they should meet up in Suwon Station before hanging up. The director was still rather clumsy, but he was not wavering. He did not just ask all sorts of meaningless questions out of passion; he clearly asked for help with a clear direction in mind.

He had the desire to do it, a clear objective, and a tenacious personality. How was Maru supposed to not respond to that passion?

After meeting up with the director at Suwon station, Maru saw that he was a lot more haggard than five days ago when they first met. His body was proof that he indeed barely had any sleep for the past five days due to fixing the script.

Seeing the director smile blankly, Maru seriously pondered whether he should be stuffing this guy into the bedroom first or not.

"Let's finish it quickly before a certain someone ends up dying."

"I'm okay."

"You sure don't look okay to me. But hey, youth is good alright. You didn't pass out at least."

"You're young too, aren't you? Wait, now that I think about it, I haven't asked for your age."

"Our first meeting was quite a jumbled mess, so we skipped a lot of things. I'm twenty-two."

"I'm twenty-one."

"I know. You did say you were in your sophomore year of college."

They took a taxi to Maru's house. Maru bought some caffeinated drinks from the convenience store on the way and put them down on the table when he got home. He ended up buying ten hearing that the director couldn't do without it.

"You look like you have something to say."

Yoonseok had been on edge throughout the whole taxi trip."

"Erm, actor Han."

"Yes."

"Should I drop the honorific with you? Or should I just keep going like this?"

"You were worried about that this entire time?"

"I think it's an important problem."

"Do as you wish."

"Then can I call you hyung? I'm usually good with stuff like this, but this is the first time I met an actor as a director. If there's something like an industry rule, I think I should follow that too."

"There is no such rule. People are the same wherever they go. You can do what you want. You're the director with the advantageous position after all."

"Then I'll call you hyung."

"Alright, I'll also treat you comfortably. But once we start shooting, my speaking tone might change. It'll be a mix of formal and informal speech; it's just a habit of mine, so don't take it to heart."

"Okay. Whew, I can finally ask you freely. Actually, when I called you 'actor Han,' it was hard to ask you something. Now that you're hyung, I can ask you to my heart's content."

"To your heart's content?"

The various messages they exchanged in the past five days flashed across Maru's mind. If that wasn't 'to his heart's content', then how bad would that be? Maru felt a sense of belated regret that maybe he shouldn't have agreed to this.

He looked at the caffeine drinks on the table. Ten looked like a lot before, but now it looked insufficient.

"Hyung, this is the most urgent part." Yoonseok took out the script with an innocent smile on his face.

Maru muttered to the cat being wary of the unfamiliar guest from the bedroom — go bite him and shut his mouth.

"What was that?"

"Huh? No, nothing."

The young actor tapped the place next to him, gesturing to him to sit. Maru sat down next to Yoonseok with the feeling of a criminal walking the last mile. The caffeine drink in his hand was his last saving grace.

* * *

Zombie. Yes, these must be zombies — Jiseon decided after looking at the two floundering creatures in front of her.

They had bags around their eyes, were uttering something unintelligible, and their bodies were flailing around aimlessly. What else could anyone call these other than 'zombie'?

"What were you two up to?"

It was three days ago when she received Yoonseok's message. He was elated to visit actor Han Maru's house. After that, the last message she received was that he dropped the formalities with the actor before she lost all contact.

When she met the two after three days, they had become zombies.

"A satisfying conversation?"

"An experiment to see if words could become a motive for murder."

Yoonseok responded with a big grin, while Maru barely responded with his face planted on the desk.

She could figure out what happened. The human woodpecker just smashed the skull of a perfectly normal man with words. This was something that those in the club had already experienced at least once.

Jiseon looked at the two people alternately. These two had become quite close as though they had a fulfilling conversation for the past three days. They didn't drop the formalities in just words, but their attitude as well.

"Can I drop the honorifics with you as well?" Jiseon spoke first. She was feeling bothered about calling him 'actor Han' anyway. Since they were working together, she wanted to do away with that.

"Miss Jiseon, was it?"

"Yes."

"Are you the type to be talkative?"

"Compared to this guy, I might as well be meditating silently."

Maru then spoke with a smile, "Alright, Jiseon. Please take care of me. Can I ask you a favor in celebration? Please get this guy off me. And if you can, duct tape his mouth too."

"Are you okay with tape? This guy would end up learning telepathy if he can't use his mouth."

"True."

"Oppa, Can I ask you one thing?"

"If it's not long, then anything."

"I might be being impolite, but I'm really curious. Have you ever received mental consultation?"

"I haven't, but I think I need one now. I think I'm hearing a ringing in my ears." Maru raised his head. While he responded as a joke, he seemed to be asking what her intentions were in asking that question.

"Your acting was too realistic. It gave me the chills. Your eyes when you looked at me even made me feel that I was in danger."

"That's the best kind of compliment for an actor. Thanks."

"So it really was acting. Can all actors do that kind of thing?"

"I think all actors who have put enough effort can?"

When Yoonseok was about to speak, Maru held his mouth shut. Jiseon looked at that and chuckled.

So he was the type to change completely once he began acting. The acting she saw through the screen was totally different from what she experienced herself. It allowed her to realize just how much professionalism actors needed.

At the same time, she thought that she was lucky. The actor in front of her was someone who could clutch the audience's feelings just through a short practice. While Maru said that actors who have put enough effort could do it, how many actors in their twenties could do that?

She only had hopes that the actor was decent, but it turned out the actor was far above their expectations, so it could be said that they were lucky.

"Hi."

Jiwon came in through the door. She was an unni who said that she'd gladly help out when they said that they were shooting a film.

Her role was the main character's deceased girlfriend. She would only appear at the very beginning of the film and intermittently throughout the duration.

"Noona, you're here."

"Of course I am. The director is calling for me, so how could I not?"

Yoonseok introduced Maru and Jiwon to each other.

"You look tired. Yoonseok gave you so much trouble, didn't he?"

"Sounds like there are many victims here."

"I had it better off, since I'm only helping out a little bit, and I can run away if I don't want to do it. Jiseon has it the hardest."

Jiseon replaced Yoonseok to explain the schedule for the day to the two actors.

"She doesn’t appear that many times, but she’s still the most important person to the protagonist in the story. The story will only be persuasive if the emotional description between the two people goes well. That’s why we plan to see what it feels like when the two of you are together.”

Yoonseok took out a digital camera and stood in front of the two actors as though he was never tired at all. As professional video equipment cost money with every rent, cheap cameras and phones replaced them during rehearsals.

“This is so sudden. It’s always like this.” Jiwon grumbled but still got into position. She sat down upright and looked straight ahead as though she was taking a photo for her passport.

Maru sat next to her.

“Is this okay?” Jiwon asked.

Jiseon looked at Yoonseok. He was quite still as he looked at the camera screen as though he didn’t like it. He would be jumping all over in excitement if he liked it.

“I don’t get anything just by watching like this.” He put down the camera.

Jiseon was the same. The camera test didn’t seem to just work with shooting a still photo. Maybe acting was necessary.

“Noona, would you like to do the thing we rehearsed last time with Maru-hyung?”

“Looking face to face? I’m a little embarrassed.”

Yoonseok explained the scene to Maru. Maru soon nodded, as though he already had the script in his mind. The two actors faced each other.

Actually, there was nothing special about this ‘act’. First of all, there were no lines. Maru would be just looking at Jiwon with longing, and Jiwon just had to respond with expressionlessness.

“Start!”

With an awkward signal, the acting began. And just a few seconds later, Jiseon found a serious problem. Yoonseok frowned as well, probably feeling the same as her.

It was a still cut where everything consisted of just looking. Despite that, there was an indescribable sense of disparity. To put it simply, one side looked like reality, while the other side looked like a cardboard cutout.

“This is bad,” Yoonseok muttered. Jiseon agreed with him.

It looked strange because one of them was miles better than the other. This was a problem they didn’t expect.

After Story 34

He wasn't someone who could be blunt about what he said, especially if it was something that would make the other party displeased. This was also the reason he wasn't able to reply to Jiwon's innocent question.

"Uhm, noona." Yoonseok put the camera down.

Jiwon stared at him. If he kept hesitating, Jiseon would probably explain in his stead. After all, she was a very considerate person. However, this was something he had to say. It was his responsibility as a director.

"What is it?"

"It was really good when we practiced it by ourselves. I'm not lying. But seeing you and Maru-hyung on camera…”

"It's bad?"

"Yes."

"To the point you can't bear to watch it?"

Yoonseok pulled his chin inwards instead of replying. He didn't know it would be this bad. This wasn't a scene that had any dynamic lines or complex actions. It was a scene where they just had to look at each other. He thought that they wouldn't have any trouble in this scene given Maru's acting skills, but now that they actually checked it through the camera, it was unbearably bad.

Just exchanging gazes was this bad, so how would it be if they exchanged lines? He couldn't possibly imagine.

"So I really can't do it. I didn't learn professionally after all."

"I'm so sorry."

"Don't be. I'm fine either way."

Jiwon walked over and asked him to show her the video. Yoonseok played back the video that he shot for about a minute. After watching for about 30 seconds, Jiwon turned off the screen, saying that she didn't need to watch anymore.

"I find it strange too. But was my expression this bad?"

"No, that's not it. You feel similar to when you were shooting before, but…”

Yoonseok glanced at Maru. He believed that someone on Jiwon's level wouldn't have a problem. This was his first work, and he didn't get anyone's support, so he was grateful to her instead.

When he tried having one of the production crew do the same scene with her, he believed that Jiwon was the perfect person for the deceased girlfriend role.

However, now that they put her with Maru, he couldn't help but catch her downsides. There weren't many scenes, but the character was important for portraying the main character's feelings, so they couldn't do with a half-hearted character.

"Since it's like this, don't you think we should use a professional actor like Mr. Maru over here? Even I find myself awkward, so what would other people think?" Jiwon said.

It was a valid opinion. Since the two of them didn't suit each other, they just had to find someone that did. The problem was that it was very difficult to find an actor for the job.

"Why don't you teach her a little bit, hyung?" Yoonseok asked with difficulty. Considering the environment they were in, this was the most realistic option.

As long as Maru agreed, there was no better method than this. Yoonseok looked downwards. It was the best option considering the convenience of the shoot, but the actor would not benefit in any way.

They brought him here asking him to act for them, and now he was supposed to teach someone else? That was ridiculous.

"You know that you shouldn't be saying such a thing, right?" Maru said. He was rebuking him softly.

Yoonseok looked Maru in the eyes with his mouth shut.

"I'm sorry, I said something wrong."

"As long as you know. I'm sure you considered the other options as well. It's not like I don't know the situation here, so I don't plan to say anything about it. Erm, Miss Jiwon, I'm not that good at teaching, but would you like to learn a couple things?"

Maru agreed. Yoonseok looked at Jiwon in relief.

"That's a bit…”

Jiwon didn't finish her words, as though she couldn't accept. As Yoonseok was thinking that she was of course going to accept, it took a lot of time for him to ask why.

"When you guys first asked me for help, I told you that I can't invest so much time into it. Also, if you're going to do it professionally like this, I want to help in some other way rather than as an actress. Honestly, it's too much for me."

Jiwon seemed to have changed her mind after seeing the video she shot with Maru. They couldn't exactly ask her to do it now. After all, she was only helping out her cute juniors and not getting a single penny. They couldn't force her to do what she did not want to.

"Call me if you need my help in other things, but I don't think acting is for me."

As always, Jiwon left after an energetic goodbye. Before she left, she asked Maru to take care of the others.

"What now?" he subconsciously uttered.

There was no actor that would answer them even if they post something on internet communities. They had sent dozens of emails after seeing posts written by actors, but Maru was the only one who responded. They couldn't imagine how long it would take to find an actress.

"It was harder precisely because there were no lines," Jiseon said.

Yoonseok fidgeted and kept thinking. They needed to find a way.

"Jiseon, would you like to try acting?"

"I'm sorry, but absolutely not."

He got a response he was expecting. Jiseon was also interested in production, not acting.

Some of his acquaintances came to mind. He tried calling some of the people who showed interest.

"Oh, okay. I see."

He called three people, but not a single one of them gave him a positive reply. This was bad. Their insufficient preparation was holding them back again.

They put too much focus on the main character that they hadn't thought about this scenario. Yoonseok posted an article on the internet community for now. He copy and pasted his last one and changed it to finding an actress instead of a male actor.

Jiseon also gave a few people a call, but she shook her head as though she didn't get any results.

"Hyung. I think it'll take some time. I'm sorry."

"It's not easy to find people, especially if it's something being made by a few college students who aren't even majors."

Maru's rational analysis poked his heart. He was entirely right. In the case of famous Art Universities, some famous actors would try to join them.

However, not only did Hohun University not have a department related to drama or film, the producers were only little chicklings, so it was natural that they received little interest.

Even if he was an actor, he would not try to join a production crew that looked Ike they were doing it as a hobby and would have chosen to go with a more professional team instead.

"Director Lee." A voice pulled him out of his thoughts. It was Maru, who was taking out his phone.

"If you're okay with it, I'd like to recommend an actress."

Yoonseok stood up and approached Maru. "I'm unconditionally okay with it. If it's someone you know, there's no need to hesitate."

"What are you going to do if you get disappointed later?"

"We don't have anyone now, so how could I possibly feel disappointed? I'd welcome anyone."

"I'll call her for now. It might not work out though, since she seems busy these days."

Maru put his phone against his ear and left the lecture room. Yoonseok clasped his hands and prayed for that person to come. He even thought to himself that he would start going to church if she did.

"It's been 10 minutes since we uploaded it, but we got zero views. Even the post that came up after ours got 50 views too," Jiseon said as she looked at the laptop screen.

"It'll be for the best if Maru-hyung could bring someone."

"Don't keep relying on him and think about what you can do. He said it might not work out. Should I ask the stuco president? She likes doing various things."

"Let's try for now. I'll call other people as well and ask if there's a girl around them who want to try being an actress."

"Don't forget to tell them that it's not an extra they'll be doing, and they'll need to learn acting to an extent. There might be people who might find it too much just like Jiwon-unni."

"I thought everything was going smoothly, but we got held down in the most unexpected place."

Yoonseok went through his contacts list and chat rooms and narrowed down the people he decided to reach out to. Just then, Maru opened the door and came in.

"She said she'll do it. But she has her own schedule, and she can only do it if you can go with hers. Are you okay with that?"

"Of course, we can match hers. But will you be okay, Maru-hyung? Don't you have auditions and whatnot to attend?"

"I'm okay as well. If it's with her, it'll be even better since the shooting time will be dramatically lessened. She said she has time now, so I told her to come here. She needs to see the director at least."

"O, lord Han Maru. I thank thee. I'll treat you really well from now on." He wanted to shout hurray.

They took down the article they uploaded earlier. The number of views never changed from zero until the end.

"Is the person coming a friend of yours, Maru-oppa?" Jiseon asked.

"A long-time friend for sure." Maru's expression became softer than ever.

Yoonseok bought some coffee for the actress that was about to come. He also bought two cookies. This was going to be his first meeting, so he couldn't just give her water from the water dispenser. As for the cost, it came from his own bank account and not the production fee. This whole incident happened because of his lack of proficiency as the supervisor after all.

"Gee, you aren't giving me coffee since I'm a caught fish, huh."

"I'll treat you to some really thick coffee later, so let me go this once. I really don't have any money with me right now. But I got the cookie for you."

He put down the cold coffee on a desk and waited. She said she was going to arrive in 20 minutes, so she should be arriving soon.

He decided to welcome anyone that came. He was in no position to be picky here. He decided to use that person even if she didn't fit the image he had in his mind.

"She says she's here. I'll go pick her up." Maru stood up.

Yoonseok looked at the half-open lecture room door in nervousness.

"I hope she has a bright impression. That's the role we have in our mind." Jiseon seemed slightly worried as she kept walking around without being able to sit down.

Yoonseok looked at the script. Acting came before the image. It would be great if he could get both the image and the acting down, but as Maru said, this was time to be realistic. If he was too ambitious, he would not be able to shoot a single film until graduation.

"They're here," Jiseon whispered.

Yoonseok took his eyes off the script. He saw someone enter through the door, but he forgot that he had to greet that person and kept watching blankly. He experienced for himself that a person could become stupefied if someone exceeded their expectations.

"Holy shit," Jiseon uttered; it was something that she usually did not say. The actress' appearance instantly made his picky friend accept her.

A simple description like 'pretty' didn't suit her. She had the air around her.

"I feel sad because I'm suddenly the sidekick now," Maru said as he followed in.

Yoonseok snapped back to reality and spoke, "H-hello! My name is Lee Yoonseok. Please take good care of me."

"You feel different from what I heard from Maru. I thought you'd be a little scarier. Anyway, nice to meet you. I'm Han Haneul. I came here hearing that you need a minor actor. Whatever role it is, I'll try my best to digest it." Haneul sat down.

Maru leaned against the chalkboard. "Director Lee. What are you doing? You should be asking her questions," Maru said.

Yoonseok stuttered, "It's a role that has almost no lines, so are you okay with it?"

"I don't care."

"The pay's a little low too."

"I heard about that from Maru. It doesn't matter if you can't pay me at all. This is more of a friendship appearance of sorts."

"Then would you like to have a look at the script? I'd love to have you do it, but it might not be to your liking."

"That probably won't happen. It's a script that Maru has seen and accepted."

It was a short conversation, but Yoonseok could instantly tell how much faith Haneul had in Maru. Haneul skimmed through the script in an instant and smiled.

"Interesting. It's hard to pass up an opportunity like this. I'll do it as well. No, please let me do it."

Our father thou art in heaven. I'll go to church this weekend – Yoonseok inwardly cheered.

After Story 35

Jiseon stood in front of the two people holding the camera. The Maru and Haneul on screen felt different from when she was looking at them with her naked eyes. Maybe they got into their emotions already.

Yoonseok, who was looking at the same screen, spoke, "The camera's ready. You can start whenever."

Maru said that they should do a camera test since she was here, and as a result, they were doing a short shoot.

Like Maru, Haneul had a close look at the script before saying that she was ready. It was incredible how they could start acting on the spot like ready-made food. How much training and studying would it require to respond so confidently like that?

"We'll start once you give us the cue sign, director," Haneul said.

"Okay. Then three, two, one. Cue."

Maru and Jiwon looked very awkward on the screen like two puzzle pieces that didn't fit together when they shot thirty minutes ago with the same camera. Maru's eyes looked good, but Jiwon, his counterpart, looked lacking in comparison.

However, right now, the two people on camera looked like a perfect match. It was a scene without a single line, but Jiseon could already feel that the two were like interlocking cogwheels.

Maru's eyes as he looked at his dead girlfriend were complexity itself. Longing and sadness made up the majority, but the occasional glimpse of satisfaction and joy seemed to express the chaotic feelings the main character was having.

Then there was Haneul. Her eyes were like the abyss, sucking in everything. There wasn't a hint of emotion. They were the eyes of a dead person. Hers were incomparable to Jiwon's awkward eyes.

They were the eyes that the script and the production crew wanted: a wall in the form of a human and a graveyard of emotions. The wave of emotions that Maru poured out collapsed instantly in front of the wall that was Haneul. Maru's eyes, desperately longing for the echo that would never return, became a tad deeper. The sense of longing turned into thick despair.

Jiseon suddenly had the thought that actors back when films didn't have sound, must have acted like this.

Maru's expression became like a dam just before release. The vortex of emotions inside him was just about to find an outlet. Haneul, who was facing him, stayed dead still and looked at Maru like a well-made prop.

Maru's expression became stiff, then distorted, before it expanded and finally lost energy. He looked at Haneul with dry eyes like all moisture within him had dried up. Then he slowly closed his eyes. The piercing tower of emotions was toppled.

Having opened his eyes again, Maru staggered as he stood up like a man who had lost half his soul. He then walked out of the frame.

Just like that, for about ten seconds, Jiseon looked at the screen, which only had Haneul left. What woke her up was an engine revving noise passing by outside the window.

Jiseon tapped Yoonseok with her elbow.

"C-cut. Good. I think it's good. Yes, it's good," Yoonseok repeated several times in a daze.

"I wonder if it came out to your liking, director. It's been a while since I got into the mood when acting."

When Haneul, who looked like a dead person, spoke again, she regained vitality in an instant. So she put on that kind of act with a face filled with so much life? Jiseon felt sweaty in her palms. They could actually write the first lines on these two people's filmographies with their work.

While she participated in this project with a completely different motivation, now, she kept thinking that she would have to do her best in order to produce a good film.

If they managed to flop this work with two actors that seemed to be in a totally different league than their peers, then it would be entirely the fault of the production crew.

"How was it?" Maru asked. The corners of his eyes were trembling, probably as aftermath left by the torrent of emotions.

"It was so good that we can probably use this as it is. No, I'm even wondering if it's possible to shoot a better one than this."

He seemed very excited, which Jiseon could understand. Yoonseok was the person who put the most effort into producing the film. And it was her who joined in because she couldn't let him be.

"Can I see how it turned out?" Haneul asked.

Jiseon quickly played back the video she just took and handed her the camera. Maru and Haneul started checking the video with their shoulders close enough to touch. When Jiseon saw the two people exchange gazes, sometimes smile at each other, and sometimes complain, she was convinced that these two people's relationship couldn't be expressed by 'just friends.' They were either dating or in the stage just before that.

Jiseon's lips twitched. A piece of melodrama unfolded in her head. A boy and a girl pursuing the same dream, emotions that started deepening from friendship, a cliché yet inseparable ending of thick love… She couldn't help but look at Yoonseok.

She started helping out with production expecting a melodrama with this clueless dimwit, but what awaited her was not a melodrama but a human documentary.

She took a sip of water. Since it came down to this, she decided to create a masterpiece. Dating could come later.

"I think I went overboard."

"This is fine."

"No it isn't. Look here. Don't you think I should be holding back a little?"

The two actors put down the camera and started talking. Jiseon originally planned to say that it was flawless and perfect, but it seemed that it wasn't the case for the people in question.

A conversation so serious that it was difficult to join them was exchanged between the two.

"The conclusion is that both you and I are still clumsy in using our muscles. We need to practice more," Haneul said in dissatisfaction.

Jiseon took back the camera and checked the video again. No matter how she watched it, the acting gave a great sense of immersion. Was there any flaw at all?

She watched the video until the two perfectionists finished their conversation. She talked to Yoonseok about what kind of composition they should use during the real shoot. It wasn't a bad idea to shoot the scene on the bed just like the script said, but looking at the video they took today, where both of them were sitting down, it was actually pretty good.

Yoonseok started writing things down in the corner of the script. He seemed to have gotten inspired as he didn't stop for a long while. She stared at Yoonseok for a while before noticing that a shadow had loomed over her. The actors had finished their talk and had approached her.

"Did the two of you come up with this composition," Haneul asked as she looked at the script.

"No, most of it was made by Yoonseok, I mean, the director. The others and I only gave a few opinions."

That seemed to be her only question as Haneul stepped back with a nod. When Jiseon looked at her from up close, Haneul's skin was out of this world. She even wanted to ask her how she managed her skin.

"Then when are we shooting? I'll have to know so that I can match it."

When Haneul said so, Maru interrupted, "What are you doing to be so busy?"

"A few things. I'll tell you about it once there are results, so wait obediently."

Haneul was like a mother consoling a child, and Maru just laughed in jest. Truly, it seemed that the relationship between these two people wasn't ordinary.

Yoonseok took out his phone. He seemed to be checking what dates he could shoot on.

"We removed almost all the night scenes, so we plan to shoot before noon most of the time. Also, the place we plan to shoot is crowded on weekends, so I'm planning to go on a weekday. As long as the two conditions are met, I plan to match the two of your schedules as much as possible, actors."

"Then I'll readjust my schedule and tell you about it later. Also, you seemed to have dropped the formalities with Maru, so can I do that as well? That seems like a better option considering what will happen at the shoot."

"Sure. Then I'll call you Haneul-noona. Or would you like senior instead?"

"I'm fine either way, so call me with the one you prefer."

Yoonseok put on an idiotic smile. Jiseon felt her toes tensing up. She purposely snatched the script in front of Yoonseok away roughly.

"Can I call you Unni too?"

Haneul glanced at Yoonseok before smiling. She seemed to have understood everything.

"I should get going for now. I barely made time for this."

As they didn't have anything else to do, everyone left the lecture room together. While going to the main entrance, Jiseon quietly spoke to Haneul,

"Uhm, unni."

"Yeah?"

"You aren't just friends with Maru-oppa, are you?"

"Why do you ask? You thought you had to make sure because of Yoonseok?"

The words hit the bullseye. Jiseon looked at the two men walking ahead of them.

"It's quite obvious, isn't it?"

"If I could feel it on my first day of meeting you, then probably?"

"But then, why doesn't he get it?"

"I'm not sure." Haneul only smiled.

* * *

Maru glanced at the two women following them before speaking to Yoonseok, "It looks like Jiseon is interested in you, am I wrong?"

"That's… er…”

Yoonseok just smiled bitterly in response. He didn't speak a word while they passed the main square and the library and only did so when they were near the entrance.

"I think she's a good friend for now. A grateful friend who helps me in production."

Maru did not ask anything else. This wasn't something he should meddle into. The two of them would sort their relationship out in due time. Considering their personality, Jiseon would be the one to talk about it first, while Yoonseok would be the one to decide.

"It won't become a problem, so don't worry."

"I didn't say anything. I'm just saying you should do your best in both film production and youth business."

"How about you then?"

"Me? I'm not just good, I'm on the level of maturity."

"You sound like a total player."

"I can remember the eyes of numerous ladies who made eye contact with me."

"Now that I think about it, you're a little crazy."

As they had been living together for three days and talked to each other to death, they were at the point where they weren't awkward when joking around with each other.

Maru liked being in a brother-like relationship more than one where they put distance. Oftentimes, it produced better results.

"Haneul-noona must be so popular in her university. She must be the top in her department in terms of looks."

"Not just her department. If things work out, she'll be playing on a national level," Maru responded with a smile.

He wasn't exactly lying. There were only a handful of lifetimes where she wasn't popular as an actress.

"Anyway, you saved me big this time. We got good actors now, so all that's left is to display good directions. I'll do my best so that the two of you aren't disappointed."

"Alright. Do your best. Even better if you produce the best results."

They arrived at the bus stop in front of the campus. Yoonseok and Jiseon left first, saying that they had something to buy.

Haneul, who waved her hands at the two people, came over to him. "I was a little surprised at first about why you would want to participate in a work involving a bunch of college kids. Moreover, they aren't even in the relevant department."

"You can see why now that you had a look at the script, right?"

"Yeah. I was reminded of a few people. The closest person in style would be… director Baek Seok. He looks a little unripe, but in terms of innovation, he seems even better."

"I feel the same. Before I read the script, they were a team with insufficient preparations, so I was planning not to do it, but I changed my mind after I read it. This is worth investing in. It’s a one-shot story, so it might get buried without getting recognized, but the shooting time will be just as short, so there’s no pressure. It’s chump change, but I can also earn some money as an actor too.”

“Still, my hubby’s being generous, huh? You would’ve only thought about the practicality and cut it off.”

“I couldn’t help it back then. But now, I don’t need to hurry. I already have the most important person in front of me after all. It’s thanks to you that I have some leisure in my heart.” Maru grabbed her hand.

She asked if they should go on a walk.

“Didn’t you have something to do?”

“I do, but it’s less important than taking a walk with my man. Well, if you don’t want to, I’ll be leaving.”

“Who said they don’t want to walk with you? Bring that guy here. I’ll beat some sense into him.”

“You totally sounded like an old man just now.”

“I’m an old man of course. Do you take me for some young man?”

“Live young, old man.”

“Fine, ma’am.”

She grabbed his hand and walked forward. Maru followed her like he was being dragged.

After Story 36

He stopped running at the entrance of the park. When he took off the training clothes stuck to his body, it was quite cool. After heaving a heavy breath, he finished cooling himself down by doing some stretches. He took out his phone from his armband and checked the time: 58 minutes 20 seconds. His body was finally like a decent man’s. Maru headed home with the training jacket in his hand.

Going inside his house, he prepared some food for the cat first before going into the bathroom. He checked his body figure through the mirror. He had lost some weight, but the asymmetry in his shoulders and waist still remained. It seemed that he would need some more time in order to set his skeletal structure back.

He straightened his back, feeling like he was pulling his neck out, and pulled his shoulder bones down. His chin was pulled inward and his shoulder was straightened. Straightening his posture was something he had to maintain from a young age, but now that he was trying to get back to it after his body had become all stiff, there were all sorts of things he found uncomfortable. However, he had no choice but to put his mind to it since he was starting again late.

He left the bathroom after taking a shower. He had a light breakfast and was taking out the strands of cat hair stuck on the sofa when the laptop he placed on the table lit up. He got a notification that he received an email. He put his finger on the touchpad and checked the email.

-We’re Blue Star.

It wasn’t spam mail. Blue Star was the company he auditioned for last time. He recalled the playful Golden Retriever as he looked at the contents. He took his time reading the few lines in the email. When his eyes reached the final period, the cat walked over and rubbed herself at his feet.

Maru picked up the quadrupedal fur generator and spoke, “Looks like you’ll be able to get some expensive food this time.”

He put down the struggling cat and picked up his phone. He typed in the phone number written in the email.

“Hello. This is Han Maru. I’m calling you after getting your email.”

* * *

He took out a stripe-patterned dress shirt from his wardrobe and put it on. He then reached out for his perfume out of habit before stopping. Today, he was meeting a fellow with a sensitive nose, so he also went with a lotion that didn’t have a strong scent. He put on his watch before leaving.

A delivery truck for a large grocery mall drove past the front of his house. Extra Special Sale for the first week of September — Maru thought of some things that he needed to buy as he walked to the bus stop.

“Then I’ll think that the 13th will be the date of the first shoot. You’re not fixing the script anymore?”

-I can’t be sure of that until I see you at the shoot, but I plan to stop here for now. I now know that it won’t get any better by staring at it after all. Oh, right, hyung, you said you were shooting a commercial today, right?

“Yeah. I just left my house.”

-You said it’s a public service advertisement, so are you going to be on TV?

“I heard it was for the internet, about 3 months of exposure. I heard it could be aired on regional television, but the specifics are for the marketing department to decide, so I wouldn’t know.”

Yoonseok hung up after wishing him good luck. He seemed rather excited as though he produced some good results.

Like most directors working on their first piece, Yoonseok was grinding his time and effort into making it. However, a lot of time and effort didn’t always produce good results. Though, that was something Maru would only be able to tell on the first day of the shoot when he would look at the final script. Did Yoonseok’s passion dissipate into thin air, or would it have dissolved into the script?

When he arrived at Yeouido Park, his appointed place, he saw a shooting team that was getting ready. He approached the director he saw during the audition and said hello.

“Mr. Han. Welcome.”

He lightly shook hands with the director.

“We’re going to start the shoot as soon as we’re ready, so go play with him for a while. He’s even more energetic than when he was in the studio, so you’ll have to get used to that.”

The director pointed at the Golden Retriever with a smile. Collie was his name, from what Maru could remember.

Maru walked over to the dog owner. The owner, who was being dragged around by Collie, greeted him warmly.

“He seems to have taken a liking to the park.”

“Tell me about it. This is the first time I’ve seen him jump around like this. I told him to stay still, but he’ll stay still only for a little bit before running again. Collie, hey, Collie!”

Even when the owner pulled on the leash, Collie didn’t mind and ran over all the grass. Its round eyes were filled with mischief. It clearly seemed like it wouldn’t be satisfied until it stepped on all the patches of grass in the park.

Maru approached Collie. As expected of a breed known for being gentle and amicable, Collie wasn’t wary of him.

“We met last time. I wonder if you remember me?” He said as he tickled Collie’s chin.

Collie walked circles around him while sniffing with its wet nose. It seemed to be observing this newfound toy.

“He’s still young, isn’t he?” he asked the dog owner.

“He’s three this year. I heard that dogs become a lot more docile after three years, but this one just couldn’t sit still ever since this kid was a pup.”

“So he’s one curious boy.”

Maru showed Collie that he was talking to Colli’s owner.

Golden Retrievers, while they looked rather gentle, were not cowards. Not only that, they were very loyal. Maru had to show that he was very close to the owner in order to prevent any unforeseen accidents.

“Can I hold the leash?”

“Sure.” The dog owner gave him the leash.

Maru grabbed it and started walking with the owner. He pulled gently whenever the dog tried to rush ahead so that it wasn’t hurt. After a few tries, the smart dog seemed to have discerned his scope of freedom and started walking slowly.

“My, Collie’s being obedient.”

“He’s smart. If you tell him sternly, he’ll understand.”

Maru asked the dog owner about Collie, mostly about what it hated than liked. The dog was very patient and would usually put up with mistakes committed by the owner, but in a special environment that was the shoot, it was probable that Colile would bare his canines without accepting mistakes. Maru had to know Collie in depth for the smooth progress of the shoot.

“He doesn’t care what you do to him when he’s in a good mood, but you shouldn’t touch his legs when he’s sensitive, especially his left back leg.”

While he was talking to the dog owner, the preparations for the shoot were finished. This one-day shoot was going to be shot throughout various places in this Yeouido park.

Maru had his makeup fixed by the makeup team.

“We should go with the clothes you’re wearing now. They look good.”

Having finished preparing, Maru walked over to the bronze statue of King Sejong.

“Mr. Han. You’ll be running around a lot today.”

“Running around is my specialty.”

Ever since it became September, the sun wasn’t as scorching anymore. There was an occasional cool breeze as well, so Maru had no qualms with running.

The director told him how he should move.

“Running around is important, but you should watch out for your expression. You’ll have to be smiling, but it can’t look too forced. Just don’t mind the camera and run around to your heart’s content.”

He stood in front of the statue with Collie. He had run around numerous times while acting. Running alongside a golden fur generator was in fact on the easier side. It was definitely a lot easier than having to do an act of running away from a murderer with a limping leg.

“We’ll start now.”

The director gave him the cue sign. Maru exchanged gazes with Collie once before running forward. Collie followed right up to him as though it had been waiting. His ears were flapping joyfully.

“Good. Let’s do that one more time.”

Maru returned to the bronze statue again with the huffing Collie. Collie had already finished preparing to run again, as though running was the most joyful thing in the world. His butt was jerking up and down. Fortunately, there was no sign of stress.

“Thanks to you, I’m having an easy time,” Maru said to Collie.

As though it understand that compliment, Collie responded with a short ‘woof.’

“Now then, run!” the director shouted.

* * *

Director Choi checked the time. It was only 2 in the afternoon. He did think that the shoot would finish early since the theme was so clearly set, but not this fast.

“Yes, that’s enough.”

He even shot extra footage. He was actually satisfied with the first shoot, but he repeated it about three times just in case. After all, video footage would sometimes look fine on the scene but turn terrible once they were viewed in the editing room.

He checked the video that he took across all of Yeouido park. The composition was great as though it came straight out of the storyboard. It didn’t look like he needed to do any post-processing here, especially with the cut where Maru and the dog were looking at each other — that one could just be used as its own poster. Maru’s eyes looked really good. He looked like he was deeply interacting with the dog. The two pairs of eyes intersected almost at an artistic angle.

While they finished all the scenes that Maru had to do, he found it a pity to end the shoot here. The dog was still in great condition, and above all, the model was doing way more than he expected. Maru looked so natural that he couldn’t believe that Maru was just an aspiring actor.

‘Naturally’ — There was probably no instruction given out besides that word. That was just how hard it was to loosen up. Being able to express ‘naturalness’ in a shoot, which was the epitome of fabrication, meant that the actor had the basics down. Director Choi thought that it was a luxury to expect such a thing from an aspiring actor, but Maru was so perfect in what he was asked to do that it was to the point that he didn’t have to give out any detailed orders.

“Mr. Han. We’ll do one more cut.”

This was a scene where he would have to cry while hugging the dog. An entirely new storyboard started forming in director Choi’s head. The advertiser probably wouldn’t make an issue with an additional scene like this. After all, it wouldn’t disrupt the flow of the advertisement. Even if it did, there was no problem either. He could just scrap it. However, director Choi was convinced that this young actor’s face would make the message of the advertisement a lot clearer.

He explained that this wasn’t in the schedule and then started explaining the directionality of the acting. Maru asked a few questions. They were questions that could only be asked if he had a good understanding of the concept.

“Rather than just purely sad, the joy of returning should be the focus.”

“Okay.”

They switched places to under a tree. He had the dog lie down with Maru in the camera. The dog sat still as though he was tired after running around all morning. That was good since this scene didn’t need energy.

“Tell me once you’re ready.”

Why was it that he was getting this sense of expectation from an actor who never worked on something before? He did not think that this would be a waste of time at all. He was more and more convinced that this would be even better than the existing storyboard. His conviction became even firmer when he saw Maru place the dog’s head on his shoulder and hug the dog. His eyes looked sad. They were filled with longing. An actor who was running around with energy for hours on end had suddenly changed his mood in an instant.

Was he an actor hidden away by some agency preparing his debut? Or was he just a natural talent? Director Choi looked at the monitor with his breath abated. There was a faint smile on the expression submerged in sadness. Maru started saying words that he wasn’t ordered to do, but he sounded so natural. They were words filled with endless worry and affection.

Director Choi did not shout cut.

As though having felt the actor’s emotions, the dog also looked at Maru with pitiful eyes.

Then, a moment he didn’t expect, arrived out of nowhere. The dog started rubbing his face against the actor’s cheek like it was caressing a newborn pup. Then it started licking the actor’s cheeks carefully, as though to console him.

When the emotions that started from sadness turned into relief and joy, director Choi shouted cut.

This, this was it.

This was something way beyond his original plan.

After Story 37

He calmed down Collie after running around again and took a photo. He took a closeup shot with that innocent-looking face and sent it to Haneul. She liked dogs as much as he did. She even talked about how they should raise a dog in a house with a garden.

A dusty garden table with a dog and a child running around. Despite having experienced it a few times, he couldn’t help but long for that.

“Your pay will be transferred next month. And also, take this.”

The agency’s head manager gave him two business cards. One of them was his. The other one said Choi Younghoon on a black background.

“Director Choi told me to give it to you, saying he forgot. He said he’ll see you around if his hunch isn’t wrong.”

Maru put away the business cards in his wallet.

“Good job today.” The head manager turned around.

Cars with camera equipment started leaving Yeouido park one by one. The sounds of car exhaust becoming distant notified him that his work was done. Maru also packed his bag and left the park.

As it was rush hour, the train station was cramped. After he barely got on the train, he looked out the window. He could see a row of apartments along the Han river bank. It was a scenery that people who commuted to Yeouido for work would see every day.

He wondered how much money he would need to get into those rows of gray dominoes right now. His sense of money that had adjusted to reality started screaming. It told him that it might be a pie in the sky for this life.

1.5 million won — that was the pay he would receive for the advertisement, and it was an amount that would allow him to not have to worry about rent for a while.

He leaned against one of the bars and started browsing through internet communities. A rather well-known production company put up an announcement to recruit a minor actor. It had only been two hours, but there were thousands of views already, meaning, all the actors that browsed through the community had seen it.

He put the date on a memo app and looked at the next article.

-This stop is Suwon station. The doors are on your…

He quickly moved close to the door when he heard that announcement. He was swept by the crowd as he got off at the station. Maru put his phone down and watched their backs. It was hard to earn money as an actor. Perhaps the 1.5 million won he would be getting next month might be the last income he got from acting this year. That was just the life of a minor actor: studying acting alongside working part-time jobs, then taking on challenges only to be broken again.

He did need a stable source of income. Although he was putting it off due to all the auditions popping up recently, he slowly had to start looking for one, just like how Haneul was preparing something. The thing that maintained the balance between his dream and reality was none other than money.

He cleared his thoughts as he walked down the stairs.

Just three months. He decided to focus on auditions until just the end of the year. He decided to look for work at the turn of the year, if possible as a technician. It wasn’t that he was in a hurry. He already talked to Haneul about taking it slow.

They were only twenty-two this year. There was more than a decade until they were ripe as actors. They could take it slow. If he really couldn’t see any hope, he could just get technical licenses and make a living that way.

“The start is not bad,” he consoled himself.

The only thing he had was a body drenched in alcohol and cigarettes, but he managed to produce results already. He just had to keep trying and see how long this ‘veteran newbie’ would last.

He straightened his posture and started walking, imagining that an invisible camera was shooting down on him from above.

* * *

Choi Younghoon looked at the screen with his editor. “How is it?”

“It’s good. But we already explained the storyboard to the advertiser. It’s likely that he won’t like it if we suddenly suggest changing it…,” said the editor.

As this was a business that required tens of millions of won, the advertiser’s words were king since it was their capital. There were many people involved, not to mention money, so the norm was to create a good storyboard and explain it to the advertiser beforehand.

In a situation where they already notified the advertiser of what they were going to make, it wouldn’t be strange if the advertiser did not like any changes at this point.

“But don’t you think we can at least bring it up if it’s this good?”

“That’s true. It’s not doing the advertisement any disservice and it looks even better. If we can get confirmation, it shouldn’t look bad to edit it like this.”

Usually, the next thing to do would be to edit after every shoot was done, but they had to get confirmation since the cut was changed.

As Younghoon had expected, the video was good. The affection in the eyes of the dog and the model looked good. It felt like a waste to throw this away.

“If you’re going to take the video to the advertiser, should I put it on a USB for you?”

“Erase all the audio and export just the video. It’s still messy because we haven’t cleaned it.”

The most important duty of an advertisement director was to listen to the requests of the advertiser and carry them out to their full extent, but sometimes, there were times when he wanted to bring out his creative desires. Today was one such day. Younghoon looked at the model and the dog in the video and smiled.

“President, you have a guest,” said the team leader as he opened the door to the editing room.

Before he could ask who it was, he saw the man standing in the waiting room. It was the advertiser who had asked him to create the public service advertisement this time.

“What brings you here?” He walked to him first and greeted him.

“I had something to do around here and made a visit since I thought about this place. And also to watch whether you were doing your job.”

“There you go again. You’ll make my heart flinch if you say that.”

Younghoon first offered the man a seat. The man took off the flat cap that he always wore and sat down. To Younghoon, this advertiser was rather special. He was a man that he was close to, yet could not treat indifferently.

He took out some black tea from the fridge and offered it to the man.

“I hear you went to the shoot today?”

“Yes. It went well.”

“Looks like Collie was obedient, considering that he’s all smiles.”

“Thanks to the model, we had an easier time. It was a godsend that he could deal with dogs.”

“Really?”

Younghoon looked at the editing room and spoke, “Since you’re here, hyung-nim, no, president, I’d like to propose something. Please give me some of your time.”

“You, to me? If you’re planning to ask for more time, then don’t even think about it.”

“I’ve known you for years. You know I won’t do something like that.”

“Then what. You want me to have a look at this new kid you found?”

“That’s not called a proposal. I just changed the storyboard a little while doing the shoot today. He looked so good that I’m thinking about inserting additional scenes.”

“I liked the storyboard you sent me because it wasn’t cluttered.”

“Would you like to have a look first? I was planning to go find you with it anyway. I planned to meet your demands as much as possible, but this fellow is just too good to miss.”

“If you say so, then I guess I’ll have to take a look.”

Younghoon took the guest to the editing room. He opened the edited video.

While he called it ‘edited,’ it was just slicing and attaching the cuts according to the storyboard and adding the background music. Despite that, the video looked pretty decent.

“Let’s talk again after we watch this.” He played the video. Along with some calming music, Maru came up on the screen, running around with Collie in Yeouido station.

While the shoot was a hard one that involved over two hours of combined running time, the young model did not show a single sign of fatigue in front of the camera.

Younghoon looked at the eyes of the advertiser. The man was looking at the screen without taking his eyes off it. It meant that he had semi-succeeded already. This person was someone cold-hearted and would not show a shred of interest in something that he deemed wrong.

“And this is the additional part.”

A video that was taken in a calmer light started being played. The model’s acting continued, neither too bold nor too restrained. The way he looked at the dog and caressed it stimulated the emotions of the viewer.

When the model thanked the dog for returning in a whispering tone, the dog also seemed to respond and rubbed the model’s cheek and licked it.

Back when he shot it, he thought that it was a coincidence; he thought that the dog only responded at the right time due to complete chance. He changed his mind after playing it back a few times while editing. It was the model’s delicate acting that stimulated the dog’s emotions. It was an interaction between two species that could not communicate.

“Dogs really give affection to people without wanting anything, don’t they?” Younghoon said as he looked at the video that stopped. There was infinite love that dogs gave contained in that shortcut. It was a cut that fell in line with the intent of the advertisement. It was too much of a waste to throw it away.

“Where are you going to add this?”

“Right before the cut where the actor starts narrating. I think it’ll be a lot more impactful than our original plan, what do you think?”

“You want to add this, correct?”

“Yes. I like this one.”

Would this picky person allow it? The guest spoke again after looking at the screen for a while with his arms crossed,

“Not bad. I think we can change it.”

“Okay, then I’ll go with this.”

“But where did you get someone like that? He’s young, but he’s pretty proficient in handling his emotions.”

“I’m curious about that too. He hasn’t done anything until now, but the way he acts is full of leisure. He understands what he’s asked to do and displays it immediately. At first, I picked him based on the air around him alone. We can let the editing take care of the insufficiencies in acting after all. But when I actually shot with him, he was so good that we didn’t need to reshoot anything. It was unexpected.”

“He’s young, but he has talent.”

The guest stood up from his seat and put on the flat cap he was holding in his hand. “I’ll leave now. Since things look like they’re going well, I’ll just have a look at the final product without looking at any of the other updates.”

“You’re leaving already? You should eat with me. There’s a restaurant with good rice wine I know nearby.”

“You know I’m looking out for my health. I don’t plan to drink for a while.”

“You’re quitting smoking too?”

“No, I can’t do that. You should watch out for your health as well. Don’t regret it after you’re fifty like I am.”

“There aren’t many people as fit as you at that age, president. Don’t just look out for your health and drink with your juniors.”

“Should I tell your wife you said that?”

“There you go again. Fine, I was in the wrong.”

Younghoon opened the door himself and saw him out to the elevator. He waited until the elevator closed even when the guest told him to go back before returning to his office.

“He’s the advertiser? Didn’t you say he was some president in a dog lover’s association?” the editor approached him and asked, looking quite surprised.

“He is the president of an association. It’s the only other title he has aside from being the CEO of his company.”

“He sure feels different from up close alright. He has that heavy charisma to him.”

“He’s a senior I’m quite close to, but it’s always difficult to handle him when it comes to work. He’s such a perfectionist after all.”

“Yet such a person accepted the new proposal. That must mean that he likes it, right?”

“Yeah. Thanks to that, I can sigh in relief.”

The editor looked at the entrance and spoke, “If I asked him for Kim Suyeon’s autograph, he would have looked at me like I’m crazy, right?”

“He might have unexpectedly told you to visit him when you have the time to take it. He’s quite generous when it comes to things other than work.”

Younghoon already knew that the editor was actress Kim Suyeon’s loyal fan. He even heard that this guy was one of the initial members of her fan club. Thanks to that, Younghoon watched every drama with Kim Suyeon in it while working with him.

“You should’ve told me beforehand. Then I would’ve asked about it.”

“Try again next time.”

“It’d be rude to call him now, right?”

“Do you even know his number?”

“How would I know president Lee Junmin’s phone number? If you could act as the bridge between us, I’ll treat you to some beef at the end of the month.”

“You’re so devoted. Calling him is going a little too far, so I’ll try talking to him about it next time I meet him.”

“You promised.”

“You’re still young even though you’re thirty.”

Just as they were laughing together, the door opened again.

It was Lee Junmin. Did he perhaps leave something behind? Just as Younghoon was about to speak…

“About him.”

“You mean that model?”

“Yes.”

Junmin took out a notepad from his pocket.

“What did you say his name was again?”

After Story 38

“Wait.” Haneul put down the camera and approached Yeonjoo.

Yeonjoo, who was explaining the effects of the product with the product in her hands, put down the bottle with an awkward smile. She seemed to know what she was doing wrong.

“Was I doing that again?” she said. Haneul patted her dejected friend on the shoulder.

“It’s like that for everyone at first. It’s especially hard for advertisements of this type, where instantaneous responses are important.”

“I tried to imitate you as much as possible, but it’s hard. I get confused as to whether I should keep looking at the camera or talk as I look at the product. I can’t even remember the simple script you wrote for me. Maybe this isn’t suited for me?”

“Of course it’s not suited to you. It feels awkward to wear new clothes at first, doesn’t it? It’s the same here. The start is hard. However, once you keep trying, you’ll find your own tricks and gain confidence until you’re eventually comfortable in front of the camera. I’m planning to support you until then. So there’s no need to feel worried at all. Didn’t I tell you that some awkwardness is acceptable? This is not a professional TV show. This is ultimately just a simple product review from an ordinary person who has used the product.”

“You know what’s strange? It feels really easy if you say it like that.”

“If you feel that it’s easy, then it will become easy in due time.”

After giving Yeonjoo some time to drink some water, they started the shoot again. The core of this advertisement was for Yeonjoo to use the product with high offline sales and express her honest opinion.

Her review was going to be written on the product page and not the blog. As they brought back the website, which almost died, it was time to make it active again, and Yeonjoo was the start.

Yeonjoo, who found talking to the air rather difficult, eventually managed to find her own tone through repeated shoots. She even sometimes said things that weren’t in the script. She was learning how to talk to a target she couldn’t see with her eyes.

“Personally, I didn’t like this one’s scent that much, but when I changed the diffusion method, it felt okay.”

Haneul excluded professional jargon as much as possible and had Yeonjoo express her opinions as simply as possible. This easy-to-approach video would become the bridge that connects the product to the consumers.

“Okay. Yeonjoo, come and have a look.”

She showed the video she just shot to Yeonjoo. She forcefully grabbed her, who was trying to walk away in embarrassment.

“You’re going to have to get used to this. If there’s any part you don’t like, you’ll have to tell me. This is not a video we made to keep between ourselves, but something we made in order to appeal to consumers.”

“Everything feels awkward.”

“Then should we reshoot everything?”

“Gosh! Alright, wait a sec. I’ll do something about the goosebumps on my arms first.”

This is work, focus Kim Yeonjoo — Yeonjoo rebuked herself and focused on the screen.

While her friend checked the video, Haneul looked at the blog. Ever since the products went on sale in offline stores, the number of daily visitors was increasing by the day. The fact that aromatherapy was introduced as an effective therapy for insomnia in the news a few days ago probably helped in gaining new visitors.

The flow of the trend was going just as she expected. It shouldn’t be long until low-cost aroma oil brands would be created in batches. They had to take root before that happened.

“I’ll stop here for the day. I’ll upload the video on a personal account, so you can have a look at it when you get home. Watch it and write down three things you want to change. This is my first homework for you.”

“Will I keep getting homework in the future?”

“If the student becomes proficient enough, then there wouldn’t be a need for one, will there?”

“It was just a few days ago that I dropped out of college and rejoiced that I was freed from assignments, but now a friend is giving me assignments. Fine, professor Han. I’ll analyze it in depth and get an A.” Yeonjoo got her bag and left the studio.

Looking around the studio with the lights still on, Haneul raised her phone. She had rented the studio for the whole weekend, so she had to use it as much as possible.

“Hey, where are you?”

Picking up the phone, Maru said that he would be here soon. Haneul looked at her watch. It was almost 7 p.m. Her husband really was punctual. He was someone who was never late to appointments even in the previous life.

While there were Han Marus of various personalities, there wasn’t a single one that was tardy. She had the absurd thought that maybe one of the elements that made up his soul was a clock.

Just then, her phone rang. Her husband had called her, saying that he had arrived nearby.

“Over here.”

She left the building and looked for Maru. He was looking around at the pedestrian crossing on the other side, and when he noticed, he walked over while waving his hand. There was a paper bag in his hand. She looked at the label and saw that it was a porridge brand.

“You haven’t had dinner yet, right?”

“I haven’t, but what porridge is it?”

“Pumpkin porridge.”

“I like sweet bean porridge better though.”

“But I like pumpkin.”

Poking Maru, who was smiling like a child, on the side, they entered the building together. Arriving at the studio, he looked around inside and spoke, “I wonder what honey is doing in a place like this. Did you actually create your own studio?”

“I rented this one. We’re shooting here every weekend. I want to create a studio for myself, but we don’t have that budget yet.”

“What kind of shoot is it?”

“I’ll explain everything today, so let’s eat first now. I’m hungry since I haven’t had breakfast because of the shoot.”

“You should’ve eaten.”

“You know me. Eating anything will show up on my face.”

“So what if it does? You’re pretty however you are.”

“Even if you flatter me, you won’t get anything.”

Haneul smiled and took out the plastic container with the porridge. Opening the warm lid, she found a reddish-brown porridge inside, not an orange one. It was sweet bean porridge.

“Didn’t you say it was pumpkin?”

“I know you love sweet bean, so I wouldn’t dare buy pumpkin for you. Give it to me.” Maru poured the porridge into a disposable bowl.

She took a spoonful of the sweet bean porridge with potato balls floating on it and put it in her mouth. A faint sweetness seeped into her body. The fatigue she felt during the day disappeared in an instant.

“You should have some of the side dishes too. Would you like some extra potato balls?”

She immediately held out her bowl. One’s appetite was something that was bearable when put away, but once provoked, it had the power to push aside all reason.

She kept eating the porridge without a word before raising her head. Her husband was staring at her. While it was a gaze she was used to, she felt embarrassed for some reason. If she had the appearance of an old woman, she would’ve told him to just keep eating, but right now, they were twenty-two in physical age.

Even a mature mind would change how it would accept its surroundings in a young body.

“What are you doing? Eat.”

“I was wondering if this was what it means to feel full without eating.”

Her face heated up all the way to her ears when she heard the embarrassing words. Ever since their memories returned, she had received several such jokes, but she was never as shaken as she was today. When she thought about why, she finally started noticing the things that changed about him.

Her husband’s impression and body had changed. He had been changing progressively over the past three months, and it was a face she was used to seeing, so she didn’t realize. The faint lighting also played a role in changing his impression.

“You lost a lot of weight, huh?” she said in a grumbling tone in order to hide her embarrassment.

When they first met and just regained their memories, Maru was chubby even on his chin. That was cute in its own way, but seeing his sharpened jawline like this made her think that this was better.

The rather indifferent expression had also softened up a lot. This was especially the case with his eyes. He seemed to have been conscious about it, as his eyes now looked a lot softer.

This wasn’t anything new, but she still realized something. His appearance wasn’t jaw-droppingly handsome or anything, but taking feature by feature, every little detail was perfect to her preferences.

Even his body had become a lot more streamlined. The various eye-catching muscles were pleasing to her eyes.

The refreshing smell around him instead of the smell of cigarettes was also good.

Her husband had removed all the elements that would be portrayed in a negative light.

“Why are you staring at me like that? Is there something on my face?” Maru asked as he touched his cheeks.

She was about to reply no but then remembered how sneaky he was. She put her chin on her palms and spoke in a gentle voice.

“I was looking at you because you were so cool, sweetie.”

Her husband, who never became flustered, suddenly exaggeratedly moved around and laughed awkwardly. He told her to stop, and she could see a blush on her man’s face even under the darkened lights.

That was when she realized: Oh, this man isn’t any different from me.

He also had the emotions of a twenty-two-year-old young man.

She looked at her hand. It was a fair hand without a single wrinkle. They were at an age where everything visual was calculated into charm. It was something they could only enjoy at this moment.

“Do you remember back when we first dated? You told me that my hands were pretty. It wasn’t even that big of a compliment, but it was really pleasing to hear.”

“That’s some unnecessary detail you’re remembering.”

“I know you remember it too.”

She reached out and touched his chin. She slowly moved her hand up to touch his cheeks and eventually stroked his eyelids and eyebrows with her thumb.

“I’ve seen you for so long. Why is it that you never bore me?”

“Because I try my best to not look boring. You told me this before, that we should put more effort into ourselves precisely because we are married, that we should try to look charming to each other.”

“I said that?” She smiled and took her hand off. She wanted to give him a kiss but then remembered that there was porridge on her lips.

A deep kiss should better be done in bed, not here.

“There’s something I have to show you.” Haneul opened her laptop and showed him everything that she had been preparing for the past three months: the offline store, the website, the blog…

After looking at the screen seriously for a while, he spoke, “You know how I feel right now?”

“I don’t.”

“I feel sorry because of all the things you did. I was planning on focusing on auditions until the end of the year, but you already managed to achieve these things.”

“Don’t say that. Why would you be sorry? This only happened because the trends turned out well. If it didn’t go well, I was planning to do part-time jobs until the end of the year and get ready for acting.”

He put on a complex expression. She could tell how he felt. If he was in her shoes, she would also have expressed her apologetic feelings to Maru. One person was striving toward their dream, so they would feel sorry if the other was busy preparing for their livelihood.

“Should I start working first after all?”

“You see, this is why I kept it a secret from you. I didn’t start this work just to earn money. I’m doing it because it’s also an opportunity to make myself known.”

She tickled Maru’s sides. Only then did he laugh. Even though the times had changed and so did the recognition of gender roles, Maru kept thinking that it was his job as the head of the household to become the support of the family. However, she did not want to scold him by saying that it was an old-fashioned patriarchal ideology.

He was always like that. He voluntarily did the hardest things himself but never asserted his authority. He was a gentle husband and a splendid father.

When he failed at his business, and when he was fired from his work, he did not cause a fuss or shift the blame to the family. He silently looked for another job. She had seen him do so countless times. He was someone who would tell her to get some rest if she rummaged through some job offer flyers to help out with the household.

“Sometimes, it’s not bad if I could feed Gaeul’s dad myself, you know?” She smiled.

Maru, who kept looking at her, started laughing out loud. After laughing for a long time, he spoke, “Yeah. I like that. Let me have an easy life with my wifey’s support.”

“Don’t get ahead of yourself too early though. You know well that a business is something that could flop at the smallest event.”

“Well, I think that anything you do would be hugely successful. It puts me at ease. If I don’t become successful as an actor, I might as well be a delivery man for this place. If that ever happens, please take care of me, president.”

“Yeah, not happening.”

She wiped her mouth and called Maru. She didn’t call him to the studio just to eat dinner together, so they had to get work done now.

After Story 39

"I think that's enough."

"Wait a sec. We'll try a few more."

"There's still more?"

"Of course. I've prepared twenty sets."

Maru turned his head to look at the clothes hanger. His wife would only let him go in satisfaction after he tried out all of the clothes hung on it.

"Let's go with this for the suit. Classic charcoal is the way to go for beginners. Straighten up a little. It's ready-made, but it should fit you."

They had lived with each other for centuries. His wife was as knowledgeable about his own body figure as he was.

He put on the white shirt and buttoned it up. Behind him, Haneul put his jacket on him.

"The shoulder width is right and I've left some leeway for the chest. That's the norm after all."

"You mean there's a suit that fits just right?"

Haneul pointed at a suit on the hanger. It was a blue-colored set. Below that was a pair of dress shoes and a pair of casual shoes.

"Turn your head around a little."

He turned his head as Haneul said. She, who was looking from the front, seemed to have taken a liking to his clothing and told him to stand under the lights.

"I wanted to do this earlier, but I didn't have the time. Also, since we're doing it, I wanted to do it properly. You haven't shot your profile picture yet, have you?"

"I shot something like a passport photo and used that for my profile."

"I'm surprised you managed to get auditions with that."

She told him to pose. Maru posed without hesitation. He was used to taking profile photos after all.

Ordinarily, brightly, depressingly — he shot many different shots so that he could use them when applying for different roles.

"Don't sit too close to the edge."

"Isn't this better?"

"It's terrible." His wife was quite firm when it came to evaluation.

He changed clothes, then shot photos, changed clothes, and shot photos again. He repeated that many times over.

"If you manage to meet a good photographer later, you should do a reshoot then," she said as she looked into the camera.

"This is enough," Maru replied, taking off his hoodie.

They had shot for two hours without rest. He looked at the monitor and picked out the B-cuts and threw them away.

"This one looks the best. If the agencies don't have a specific photo they want, this should be fine for the main. What do you think, sweetie?"

"If you're fine with it, then I have no qualms with it either. You have more accurate eyes than anyone."

Haneul sent him the photos by email. Meanwhile, Maru organized the clothes on the floor. He folded them according to their folds and hung them on the hanger.

"You borrowed this one, right?" He had a look at the brands as he cleaned up. These were considered quite a high-end line among the ready-made ones. They were about 600 thousand won per set at least. Considering their financial situation, he was blessed to have even tried it on.

"The president introduced me to someone he knows. Thanks to that, I was able to borrow it without any cost." Haneul put the clothes other than the suits in a paper bag.

"These are your gifts. They suited you when you tried them on."

"Thanks."

"You should repay me later. Personally, I like high heels."

"But of course."

He could only be thankful that Haneul looking out for him.

"You should shoot your profile pictures too."

"I shot mine when I took photos for product advertisements. It's not that I'm not preparing to become an actress. I've taken some auditions too. None of them reached out to me though."

"The production companies don't have any eyes, missing someone like you."

"True."

After cleaning up the studio, they left. They went grocery shopping together before heading to Haneul's house.

They talked as they walked on the streets with the street lamps on; about the short film, business, and marriage.

"There are a lot of things we have to do," she said.

"We're just starting off. We should take care of them one by one."

"I hope it goes well."

"It will." Maru grabbed Haneul's hand.

* * *

It was at 6 am when he got contacted. Maru put down his jersey and looked at his phone.

-Mr. Han Maru, can you work today?

It was the leader from Hallim Arts. He did register on that platform, so he got a text a few days ago as well. Back then, it was a group message, reaching out to anyone that could work on the 11th of September. He didn't reply, thinking that working as a background actor once was enough.

But today, he got another text, not a group message, but a personal one.

He put on his jersey and left. He went down the stairs and sent a reply: he couldn't make it. The first shoot for the short film was in two days. He wanted to spend more time analyzing the character.

Character analysis was something he found himself lacking the more he did it. He had to cling to it until the last minute.

Just as he arrived at the entrance of the park, he got a call this time. It was the leader this time as well.

The first thing he felt was suspicion. Even if no one could make it, they usually wouldn't reach out to him like this.

He picked up the call first.

"Yes, leader."

-Uhm, Mr. Han. Can you really not make it today?

"Sorry. Please look for someone else."

-No one else will do. I, no, director Lee Jihoon needs you.

"The director?"

The one looking for him was not the leader, but the director. Just as he was about to ask back in wonder, the leader told him to wait and hung up.

As he was wondering if he should fix his phone on his armband and start running or wait, he got a phone call.

It was a number he didn't know, but he instinctively thought that it must be from director Lee Jihoon.

-Mr. Han Maru. I'm Lee Jihoon, I wonder if you remember me?

"I do, director."

-That's good. The reason I'm calling you is because I want you to come.

"Is there a specific reason you need me? If it's a background actor you want, you can just use other people."

-Normally, I would do that. It's true that it's not a big problem if I use other people too. But not today. No, actually, it started yesterday. I had a vague hunch that it would happen, and it really came to me today. Today's that day.

"That day?"

Director Lee Jihoon explained in an urgent voice, about how he would sometimes be haunted by malignant stress and that he would find everything bothersome except actors.

-It might not sound like anything much, but it's pretty serious. I'm even getting consultations, but it's not something that I can fix in a short time. I have to digest 15 scenes today too because things got delayed, but at this rate, I wouldn't even be able to do 8. These are important scenes, so I can't have the assistant director do them for me either.

"And you're saying that your symptoms will calm down if I go there?"

-Not just calm down. You're a living tranquilizer. I knew it instantly when I saw you that day. I usually don't make requests like this, but you know that TV media is a battle of time. I have to shoot these in outside sets, so I can't do it unless there's another weather like today. That's why I need to get these done today, but I need you here with me.

"Even if you say that, I just got contacted."

-How long will it take you to come to Anyang?

He lived in Suwon, so it didn't take that long to get to Anyang.

-It's near the Anyang sports complex. If it's not too far, I hope you can come.

"Well, I can get there in an hour."

-Can't you do anything about it? From what I saw, you seem to be preparing to join the industry. It might be short, but there's a shot with only you in it. I know it must not be an enticing offer for you, but can't you just help me out this once? I'm so desperate that I'm calling you at this hour.

The director sounded like he was about to cry. He seemed to be unable to control his emotions. Maru knew how stressful a director could feel. They had to mediate between writers, actors, and various problems of reality, from the beginning to the end of the drama.

Maru looked at the park in front of him. It was slowly waking up from being submerged under the purple light of dawn.

He unzipped his jersey and turned around.

"Alright. I'll head off now. Send me the address."

-I'll give you the transportation fee and even a lot of payment, so get a taxi. We're starting the first shoot at 8.

He then immediately got a text. It contained the address, as well as what clothes to bring.

Three casual clothes, and two suits, if possible. It also said that he could come without anything if he didn't have them and that he should come as soon as possible.

Having arrived back home, he walked past the cat that was staring at him and entered his room. He put the clothes Haneul gave him in a bag and put a suit in as well. He also put in a pair of dress shoes and sneakers as well before leaving his house, only to return again. He forgot to feed his cat.

"Watch the house," he said to the cat before leaving the house.

* * *

"You're here!" Jihoon walked up to him with large strides the moment he saw Maru show up wearing a cross-body bag. He probably wouldn't be as excited even if he met his first love.

He grabbed his hands and shook them up and down. It felt like the stabbing pain in his temple that he felt since last night had died down in an instant.

"Are you feeling okay?"

"I'm all cured after seeing you. Curious, isn't it? This never happened to me before."

He first told him to get some rest. He had someone from the crew give him a chair as well. He also had him sit down next to the production crew instead of the background actors.

"He's here?" the assistant director said as he looked at Maru.

"If he didn't come, things would've gone really bad today. I'm already on a tight schedule, and my head is in a mess."

"What can you do? A friend of mine also received mental care because of neurogenic stomach pains, but he didn't get cured for a long time. You're better off compared to him since you say that man puts you at ease."

"Honestly. Was he my soulmate in my past life? Why is someone who has no relationship with me so soothing?"

"I'm sure you just like him that much. Should I have the actors on standby?"

"Yeah. Let's get this done quickly. We have a few hard scenes today, so we must allocate time well. You know that, right?"

"What do I know? I'm just doing everything you tell me. Anyway, I'll have everyone get ready."

After seeing the assistant director walk towards the youngest member of the crew, he turned his head around. He saw Maru looking at something while on the chair.

He didn't remember giving him a script, so maybe it was a book? He picked up a canned coffee and walked over to Maru.

"Here."

"Thank you."

"Don't thank me. I should be thanking you. But hey, did someone give you the drama script?"

"No, this is something I brought with me."

When he had a look, he saw a storyboard. There wasn't a single word of professional jargon on it either. From the format though, it seemed like a film.

"Graduation piece?"

"Not really. A bunch of college students, who aren't even majors, are shooting a short film, and I'm participating in it."

"Looks like I've made someone busy make some time. Your schedule didn't overlap, did it?"

"It's okay since the first shoot is in two days."

"That's good. I almost became a bad guy."

After a short conversation, he turned around. He gave Maru some glances from time to time as he prepared for the shoot. The way he looked at his script without being distracted in this messy shooting location made him look like a veteran actor.

The production crew was right next to him, so it wouldn't be strange if he got curious and observed them, but he didn't give them a single glance as though he was used to them.

"He's an interesting guy."

"What?" the camera director next to him asked. Jihoon pointed at Maru.

"Oh, I was wondering who it was, so it's that fellow from last time. It's the guy you called separately, isn't he?"

"You remember him too?"

"I do. I thought he was pretty good when I shot him. He was in the middle of the camera, but the way he loosened up made me think he's a promising talent. But are my memories wrong? He gives off a different impression from last time."

"I was just thinking that too. He seems to have lost some weight as well."

"So he can manage himself. Well, I guess all youngsters are really good at managing themselves. It's becoming harder and harder to become an actor."

Jihoon took his eyes off Maru. The actors, who were called, were entering the open-air set.

After Story 40

A fixed key light scattered light onto the actress' face. The actress, who was walking back and forth on the terrace of the cabin, hurriedly took out her phone.

"What happened?"

Outside what the camera could see, the partnering actor put his phone against his ear and responded to her act. Maru could see the responding actor put emotions into his words so that the actress' emotions didn't fall out of line.

"No, it's not me! Please don't do this. Let's have a talk first. Hello? Team leader Choi? Team leader Choi!"

The actress looked around with her eyes out of focus before throwing her phone with a scream. She flipped the chair around on the terrace and pushed the table before falling to the ground. Her eyes, which were out of focus, suddenly sparked.

She walked on her knees to grab her phone that had fallen on the ground. Her nervousness was conveyed through how she dropped the phone.

Her face turned malicious.

"Head manager Park, go find team leader Choi right now. No, forget about that bitch and look for team leader Choi first! Find him and take the CCTV footage away from him. How, you ask? Do whatever it takes! Once that falls into Hanbyul's hands, both you and I are done for. So if you don't want to die, then go get that stuff, even if you have to kill team leader Choi!"

The veins popping out on her neck did not disappear at all. The actress gulped as though to swallow her fury and then stood up from her seat, straightening out her clothes. She put the chair upright and straightened the table. She calmed down and put away her anger.

The actress regained her intellectual image in a few moments. She tapped on her chest as though to console herself before turning around.

"Cut."

The director shouted cut when the actress entered the cabin again. The actress, who had a chilly fury in her eyes, fell down on the spot. It was probably physically taxing because she violently let out so much emotion.

Maru looked at the staff members darting up towards her. There were two or three members taking care of just one actress.

While she had her makeup and hair fixed, the props team repositioned the table and the chair.

The director approached her and walked on the terrace with her. They seemed to be revising the scene.

After the actress had some water and regained her composure, the shot began again. It was a hard scene, where she had to keep shouting. It was exhausting enough that most actors without a lot of stamina would have given up already.

Maru had a look at the actress' acting. He quite liked her way of putting on expressions and producing her voice. She had no trouble expressing fury. She was good enough that he would show her as the prime example to actors who didn't know how to express anger and just simply raised their voices.

The position of the camera switched. While the setting was being done again, people started flocking to the boom mic.

"Now, start murmuring."

When the assistant director gave out instructions, people started literally murmuring. The people seemed to have been told what to say beforehand, as they uttered words like 'oh my', 'look at that', 'look at her' and the like from multiple people. This was a common technique used in dramas that didn't have a lot of time for any kind of post-recording in the recording room.

The shoot resumed. The actress did not let go of her tension until the end.

Maru kept moving his facial muscles while looking at the actress. He also tried becoming head manager Park to converse with her in his mind.

The shoot which lasted nearly two hours ended after getting an insertion shot.

"We're going to move right away," shouted the assistant director. The staff members, drenched in exhaustion, started moving around busily.

Maru took out his phone and searched for the title of the drama that was being shot. He could find the date of the last episode with the information provided by the web portal. It was this Saturday.

Today was Wednesday, so considering that this was a Friday-Saturday drama, then there were about two days left for the shoot. He could guess what the atmosphere would be like at the shoot for the remaining two days.

"Hurry up." The director urged the staff members with a big yawn. He was probably very tired since he slept just enough not to die, which was probably the same for the other members of the crew. Maru could see why the director practically begged him through the phone.

When they arrived at the set in Namyangju, the sun was already setting. When the coach entered a parking lot, groans started erupting inside, which was only filled with breathing noises for a while.

The staff members got off like zombies. Maru was also mixed among them as he got off. If there was a young aspiring director looking at this scene, they would probably be flabbergasted.

The production crew with exhausted eyes walked into the set with their respective luggage. People walking towards the entrance of hell after their deaths might have more vitality than they did.

"This is how it was, yeah." Maru entered the set while reminding himself of the terrible reality of last-minute shoots. He was instructed to get changed into a suit.

The props team gave the background actors a microphone each with the logo of the TV station on it.

"Please use them carefully. Some of them are actually still in use."

The staff that gave out props left. It was then followed by a call from the leader.

Every background actor walked onto a set with the lights on. Rows of two-people desks were lined up in a pretty big meeting room. Maru could see laptops, paper cups, and disposable plastic cups.

On the giant TV at the front was a presentation that had 'Development Plans for Gwangchang City' on it. That was the imaginary city that was the background of the drama. From the composition of the set, it seemed that this was a press conference.

"Mr. Han Maru," the director called for him. When Maru walked over, he gave him a script.

"You see this, right? You just have to be journalist 1. I'll leave this to you just like last time, so please do well for me."

Maru had a look at the script. This was a press meeting where journalists asked a congressman about a scandal that he was involved in. There was an instruction for him to 'pick up a call midway' as though he was going to receive information that he didn't know already.

The background actors sat down in their seats. The actors started coming into the press room as well. Among them was actor Bae Jungwoon. The old gentleman who had his white hair combed back in a neat style started joking around with the junior actors as soon as he came in. The atmosphere at the set became quite a lot brighter once he threw a few jokes around.

"Clean up the cables. What's that below the desk over there? Put it away."

The preparations for the shoot were finishing up. Maru hid the script he was looking at under the laptop. Just as the staff told him to, he put up a word processor on the screen and waited.

The director and the actors did their rehearsal. After that, the director raised his finger to point at Maru before he went over to the monitor. Bae Jungwoon, who was next to the director, nodded. It seemed he was being notified about who the journalist was that would ask him the question.

Maru, who made eye contact with him, stood up and greeted him. Jungwoon, who frowned and tilted his head, faintly smiled and waved his hand. He seemed to have recalled that they exchanged a few words in the shoot last time.

Next to the camera fixture, the camera director signaled that he was ready.

"Please speak loudly when you say your lines, and well, we'll start now." The shoot began along with the cue sign.

Jungwoon started explaining the problems in the city and the improvements that would be made in the future with a deep voice. His gentle gestures and amicable smile would make him look like a fair and just governor to those who did not know the story of the drama. Even then, however, there was a hint of arrogance when he looked at the journalists from time to time.

It was a charming way to act out a villainous role. He was showing a prime example of what it meant to pretend to be good.

The director shouted cut. They took the full shot, so now they had to reshoot it from various different angles and sizes.

The cameras moved. The lights also changed as well.

"You're him, aren't you?"

There was no context at all, but Maru had no problems understanding that. He greeted Jungwoon again, who approached him.

"I probably told you before, but my memories aren't that good. But you, young man, I remember. Did you lose some weight?"

"I lost a lot of fat."

"Being agile is definitely better than being slow. I heard from director Lee. You're the human cure, aren't you?"

"Well, I seem to be."

Jungwoon slapped him on the shoulder and told him to try his best. From how he kept talking to young actors, he seemed to be quite caring of others despite his stingy tone of speech.

The camera was finished being adjusted while Maru waited in his seat. The camera was right in front of him, facing directly at him. The director did mention to him that there was a scene with just him in it, so Maru wondered if this was it.

"Well then, you just have to pick up the phone once you get the signal. Once you're ready, then…”

Cue.

As he was typing and looking forward at the same time, he saw a staff member to the right of his vision signaling him.

Maru took out his phone from his pocket and picked up the call.

"Okay, I'll check right now."

He put his phone down and grabbed his mouse. He didn’t receive any instructions, which made him think that they’ll probably shoot an insert shot later.

In a short period of time, he created a character. He pictured the order of expressing different emotions based on logic and continued acting. He thought about the time it would take to open up a browser and then the email as he moved the mouse. He quickly scanned the empty word document with a blinking cursor from the top to the middle.

He then leaned forward and looked at the screen again. He reached out to the right of the desk for his phone. He raised his head and looked at the congressman who was doing a presentation.

“Congressman.” He carefully raised his hand.

Although this was a matter that was handed down to him by his superiors, his target was a congressman who was gaining fame. It was not easy to ask him questions. The fact that he would be in trouble if he got on this man’s bad side flashed in his mind. However, he could not stay silent. It was his job to ask questions.

After waiting about two more breaths, he spoke again, “I’m sorry to ask you something like this in the middle, but do you happen to know Mr. Choi Donggi from Damhwa Constructions?”

Jungwoon, who was outside the screen, responded to his question — Damhwa Constructions, Choi Donggi, nope, doesn’t ring a bell.

Maru looked outside the monitor for a while before speaking again,

“I have just been notified that Mr. Choi Donggi has reported you for attempted murder.”

Maru gulped as he looked at Jungwoon’s widened eyes. At the same time, the assistant director gave the signal. The other background actors in their seats took out their phones. The press meeting room became chaotic in an instant.

Jungwoon, who was outside the frame, crossed his arms and nodded, as though to compliment Maru that his acting was pretty decent.

“Okay! We’ll flip around and do the scene where all of you enter the conference room.”

It ended in one go without any trouble. Thanks to senior Bae’s response, it was a lot easier. While the actors got ready, a camera approached him. A staff member also came over and put up a document on the screen. It was the email he got from the virtual TV media. There was a brief mention of the congressman being reported.

“Put your hands on the mouse and the keyboard.”

The camera took a shot of him and then went away to the entrance of the conference room.

The leader walked around and emphasized that they could absolutely not touch the props placed in front of them, mentioning that it would be a flaw if the positions changed.

“That was clean,” the director told him in passing.

The happiest person when the director had a happy face was naturally the actor. Maru smiled and leaned against the chair. Considering that he was a young journalist, he placed more weight on hesitating rather than acting boldly. The director didn’t cut him off midway as though it was the right interpretation.

“There are seven scenes left. Let’s hold on a little longer.”

The set was still bright, but the moon should be hanging high outside right now. While the assistant director consoled the exhausted staff members, the director exchanged words with the camera director.

The scene looked definitely messy, but there was definitely some form of order within.

Maru took out the script for his short film. He had to focus on getting into the character prior to the first shoot, just like how the drama production crew was moving towards perfecting the drama.

“So mind your own business,” he said his line in the bustling press room.

After Story 41

Some black dots appeared in and out of his vision. He pressed between his brows. His blurry vision became a tad clearer.

What time was it again? When he looked at his phone, he saw that it was 1 a.m.

He gulped down the coffee that had turned lukewarm. What allowed him to keep his eyes open right now was not willpower or stamina; it was the power of caffeine.

After giving a cue sign, Jihoon honed his mind again and looked at the monitor. He calmed down his nerves which had become taut from fatigue and had a look at the actors doing their work.

An actor who entered the office carefully put down a document on a desk. The moment the actor turned around and left, Jihoon felt a sense of liberation and shouted cut.

“It’s done,” he said, his energy being drained out along with his words.

The assistant director signaled the end with a clap. The three-month-long marathon was finally over. Of course, there was still the editing process left after this, but he decided not to think about that for now.

“Thank you for your work.”

“Good job, everyone.”

As this was the last shoot, even actors who didn’t have a scene to shoot visited the set. Everyone smiled and consoled each other for their efforts until now.

“Send everyone home. Let’s leave the cleanup for tomorrow.”

The assistant director relayed the message to various teams. In a normal company, everyone would stop working and go home the moment the ‘big boss’ said so, but in the TV media, each team had its own ‘big bosses.’ This was especially the case with the camera team and the lighting team, ever since outsourcing those teams became the norm, meaning they didn’t even belong to the TV station.

As such, even if he told people to clean up later and go home quickly, the finishing time would vary between teams according to their circumstances.

“Senior, come this way. We’re taking a photo.”

He followed the assistant director. There were a bunch of people gathered outside the set. Jihoon stood in the corner before being dragged by the actors to the center.

“Say cheese.”

When he looked at the camera that was facing him, reality finally hit him: his fourth work was finally coming to an end. Whenever he started working on a project, he would immediately think that he shouldn’t have done it. The weather didn’t help him, the responses weren’t that good, his superiors would nag him, and the ones under him would turn into semi-zombies.

Even after deciding never to work on a mini-series ever again, he would find himself designing a plot for his new work the moment he edited the final episode and handed it over to the broadcasting department.

“Thank you all for your work until now,” he said before taking the photo. People behind him laughed, saying that the director still had work to do.

People that had to leave left, while those who had to remain remained behind. The afterparty was on Saturday, the day the last episode aired.

The viewing rates were pretty good, so the advertisement rates seemed to be pretty high as everyone including the production crew got paid holidays. Although it was a cheap one to South East Asia, it was still better than nothing. They decided to depart the day after the afterparty.

“You’re going back to the office right away, right, senior?”

“I will. If I go home now, I don’t think I’ll wake up tomorrow. I’ll go sleep at the office and go to the editing room once I wake up. I should be in the editing room for the last episode, shouldn’t I?”

As this was a mini-series shoot that was practically no different from live TV, there were times when even going to the editing room was hard. As such, the editing script written by the scriptor usually acted as the director’s words during editing. Jihoon called for the scripter, whose eyes had turned red.

“Rahee, your eyes are going to catch fire.”

“Don’t talk about it. I’m not standing here with the right mind right now. I wonder why it’s so hard to work with you.”

“Don’t give me so much flack. I have it hard too.”

Having turned thirty-two, Rahee was a freelance scripter that worked with him starting from his second work. He looked at the editing script organized by Rahee and pictured the editing directions in his head.

Just then, he saw the background actors leaving the set. Maru, who was in that group, caught his eye. Jihoon handed the editing script to the assistant director and approached Maru.

“I almost forgot about him.”

He signaled the leader with his eyes and stopped Maru. The leader left with the background actors. Jihoon took out a check from his wallet.

“Thanks for coming today. Thanks to you, I was able to finish it off without a hitch.”

“I’m embarrassed since you said something like that when I didn’t do anything.”

“Don’t say that. It was thanks to you that I stayed sane throughout the whole day. I also managed to gain some time because I could finish the press meeting scene quickly. You were pretty good back there, you know?”

“Thank you.”

There was a script in his hand, supposedly a script for a short film. Jihoon scanned Maru from top to bottom. This man had a sense of leisure which he showed during the shoot, clean acting, and a decent body figure. He also had a pretty good-looking face. It was an appearance that could handle most types of roles.

“Hey, are you interested in an audition?”

“An audition?”

“If you don’t have any plans, I hope you can meet a junior of mine. That one just started a mini-series recently and is looking for a new face. You know, you did something for me, so I should do something for you, right? I’m not sure if you’ll make it or not, but I think I can give you the opportunity at least.”

He wouldn’t have brought this up if it was anyone else with less-than-optimal skills.

“How about it?”

“I have no reason to refuse. I’ll definitely do it.”

“I like your attitude.”

Jihoon handed him the check.

“I’ll text him. It’s a mini-series that’s about to start, so role assignments might be finished already.”

“Okay.”

“Go on then. Let’s meet again if we can next time.”

A good actor was a necessity to create a good piece. That was why Jihoon tried to give a lot of things to actors who showed promise.

There was one thing just as important as money in the film-video industry: connections. If the pay was the same and the work was around the same level, then an actor would lean towards working with the one that had another actor they were closer to.

Jihoon used this psychology to become close with a few actors. They were those that would listen to his request first and would not mind the quality of the work itself.

Jihoon looked at Maru, who was getting on the coach, before yawning. No one would know how big that young man would become in the industry. He might try for a few years and get employed at some company, or he might reach the top with unprecedented force.

If he became an actor so big that it was hard to reach out to him, the conversation they had today would work better than any hundreds of millions of won in payment. Well, that was if such a day ever arrived.

“Well then. Let’s finish up and go home too,” he shouted to the remaining people.

He was finally saying goodbye to this goddamn set for a while.

* * *

Getting off the bus, he blocked his mouth with his hand. His jaws slacked subconsciously and air escaped through his hand. He didn’t have a good night’s sleep. This hadn’t happened for a long time: he actually fell asleep while reading the script and woke up after reciting the lines in his dream.

He was tired but didn’t feel unpleasant. This was a good omen. When he had bad sleep before his first shoot, that work would often perform pretty well. He had already concluded that this would become a successful piece since it was immersive enough for him to see it even in his dreams.

“Hyung!”

Yoonseok was in front of the toast store. It seemed that the production crew was having toast sandwiches for breakfast today as well.

Since this was the first shoot, Maru thought that they should be eating to their heart’s content. Maru pulled on his shoulder strap and walked towards Yoonseok.

“Are you sure you aren’t going to pass out because of hunger during the shoot?”

“It’s okay. I’m armed with the spirit of hunger. Rather than that, how’s your condition? The actor’s stamina is much more important than the director’s.”

“Couldn’t be better off.”

“That’s fine then. As long as you’re doing well, nothing else is a problem.”

“Where’s everyone else?”

“Waiting in a lecture room.”

Yoonseok took the lead after taking a plastic bag from the store lady.

“I marked the calendar with a highlighter and looked at it every day, anticipating when the 13th was going to come. But hey, do you know that today’s Friday the 13th? There must be something fateful about this, right?”

“Our film isn’t exactly a bright one, so we’ll probably get some help from the energy of Friday the 13th.”

“Exactly. I feel really good today.”

He walked to the lecture room with the excited director. Aside from Moonho, Jaejoon, and Jiseon, who were on the production team, there were about ten other people.

“Those are my friends. They are wonderful friends who make do with toast sandwiches as payment.”

Now he knew who all those sandwiches were for. He greeted the students who made eye contact with him. Awkward smiles were exchanged. Maru could hear things like ‘he’s the actor?’ from them.

“This is our actor, Mr. Han Maru. He’s gonna make it big one day, so better get your autographs now,” Yoonseok said, seemingly attempting to lighten up the mood.

Maru joined in. As he wasn’t a professional actor, the shoot had to be done in a comfortable environment rather than a tense one.

“Please take good care of me. If this work goes well and our director wins a prize, he said he’ll treat everyone here big time. So please do your best.”

With “Yoonseok, I like galbi” as the start, the students all said a word each.

Yoonseok explained the synopsis while eating the sandwich. He calmly explained to them what the story was about, what their roles were in the shoot, as well as what they should refrain from doing.

Even the students that were joking around started paying attention to him seriously once Yoonseok started explaining.

“Hyung, we’re planning to start now. Is that okay with you?”

Moonho was taking out a camera: Paltech SD-108. It was a pretty decent model. Many young actors produced films with that camera. Though, given more time, there would come an age where short films were created through smartphones.

After finishing the camera test, he sat down at the place Yoonseok told him to. It was the corner seat in the lecture room.

“Should I go like this?”

Jaejoon twisted the lights installed on the tripod before taking his hands off. Moonho signaled him that it was okay. There were reflectors on hand as well. From how the microphone attached to the camera even had a wind muff, they had all the basic equipment for the shoot down.

Maru felt quite burdened when he thought about how the production crew must have eaten sandwiches for many meals in order to rent all this equipment. Even after experiencing hundreds of thousands of shoots, he would probably never be able to get rid of this heavy feeling.

“Okay, we’ll start the first scene now,” Yoonseok said as he looked at the camera screen. The students who were chatting also stopped talking and looked at books or put on their earbuds just as the director instructed them to.

After looking around at the scenery in the lecture room, a sense of resolve appeared on his face. He seemed to have taken a liking to the background.

Maru took a deep breath. All that was left now was acting. He placed his hand on the desk and stared holes at the fingernail on his thumb. It was time to transmit the words of ‘Lee Jungho’ through Han Maru’s voice.

A paranoid speech pattern; an obsession that the person was aware of, yet could not abandon; and a collapsing mind. He felt relaxed, but at the same time, extremely sensitive.

The sounds that entered his ears slowly started stimulating his brain. He bit the tip of his tongue in order to hold back the onslaught of neurosis. Still, he did not remove his gaze from his thumb.

The minute angles in his fingernail, the wrinkles, the protruding little peel at the corner of his fingers. He pulled on the white peel with his other hand gently.

Along with a sharp pain, the sound of something ripping was transmitted to his head directly.

It was then he heard words like ‘take whatever whatever… ’

And then.

“Action.”

After Story 42

What is today’s date again? I tried to remember as I clutched my forehead. Wednesday? Thursday? Or was it Friday? The thick fog inside my head showed no signs of dissipation. I bent my thumb and stuck it in my mouth before biting on it; only then did the fog disappear. Today was Monday.

“Should we get some food at the convenience store?”

“Let’s go to Dolsook’s and get some jeyuk-bokkeum.”

The students sitting in the lecture room packed their belongings and left one by one.

Oh, it’s lunch. I had lost my sense of time from some time onwards. I just didn’t need it anymore. Time is a luxury to someone abandoned on an uninhabited island. It was fine as long as it was possible to discern between night and day, between time to act and time to sleep.

No, actually, even that distinction was unnecessary. For me, the distinction between dream and reality had blurred a long time ago.

I picked up the writing stencils and my textbook on the desk. I had not opened the textbook throughout the whole lecture. I just carried it around out of habit.

Indeed, this body was simply held captive by the gravity created by the house and the college, and it was impossible to escape. Not that I want to either.

“Lee Jungho.”

That was my name, but it felt unfamiliar to me.

There was someone who called me by that name to the death until just a while ago.

Jungho, hey, Jungho — that girl called my name over and over again.

Lee Jungho, Lee Jungho.

I could smell something sweet from her mouth when she said my name. It was a sweetness that was like the smell of violet; I was fated to be enraptured by it. It was a sweetness that made me proud of my name.

“Hey.”

A fog appeared in my mind. My ears became numb.

What is it that’s in front of my eyes?

Round face, black earrings, a baggy t-shirt, and washed jeans.

I walked around in the fog for a while before finally remembering a name. It was a name that had no significance.

I said as I picked up the bag I hung on the chair, “What?”

“You okay?”

“What?”

“Don’t give me that.”

I stared at the ‘insignificant name’ hesitating before me before putting on my bag. I knew the reason she called me, as well as the reason she was putting on such an expression.

Yeah, she’s a good person, but so what?

“It’s a pity about what happened to Mijin, but you can’t hold onto her forever.”

Mijin. The moment I heard that name, I recalled the funeral. In the middle of the parade of black clothes, in that place filled with cries of sorrow, Mijin was smiling. She was the only one wearing color and the only one with a bright smile on her face.

I approached Mijin with a flower in my hand. Mijin, who was taxidermied by time, did not call my name. She only showed that violet-colored smile.

Back then, I was thinking of one thing: Ah, I want to be taxidermied in that same time slot; ah, I want to live in that cramped photo along with you.

I clutched the desk. My neck dangled like my neckbone was broken. My forehead fell towards the desk. The instant of pain cleared my head.

When did it become like this? I couldn’t even count how many days had passed since she died. It felt like yesterday, but it also felt like a month ago, or even a few years.

I bashed my head again, hoping that the fog cleared up.

I could feel gazes on me. Everyone was looking at me.

Among those many eyes, Mijin’s was absent.

The world turned white. Everything lost significance.

Should I go with sleeping drugs, or should I just slit my wrist? Jumping off a tall building would inconvenience many people, so should I just jump into the Han river instead?

How great would it be if there is a switch on the body? A switch that could allow me to just let go of all control over this body just like flicking on and off a light switch?

I was unable to overcome the overwhelming sense of powerlessness.

The murmurs became distant. I wish I could disappear like this.

My senses dulled and my mind sunk deep into the sea, tied onto a block of lead.

That was when I saw her. She was standing at the door to the lecture room.

It was Mijin.

I hurriedly pulled my mind back up. My vision spun for a second as though I had surfaced too quickly after diving and my bones ached, but I couldn’t care less. I tensed my grip on the desk and pulled myself up.

Mijin was looking at me expressionlessly. My chin trembled endlessly. The sound created by my teeth clattering removed the fog slightly.

Color started appearing in my monotone world. I uttered her name with trembling lips.

“Mijin.”

While I called her name, Mijin just stood there by the door.

I didn’t need anything like logical thinking. What mattered was that she was in front of my eyes. I felt like I could finally breathe after being stifled this whole time. It felt like I woke up from a terrible nightmare.

There was no way Mijin died. Everything was a dream, whether it was how I called Mijin out in the middle of the night, whether that fucker was at the driving wheel while drunk, or whether Mijin was laying on the ground until her body turned cold.

It had to be a dream. Mijin was looking at me right now.

I pushed the desk aside and walked to the door. I want to give Mijin a hug. I wanted to tell her to call my name with those lips of hers.

When I arrived at the door, I had to look around for a long time. Mijin disappeared. Mijin, who was ‘here’ until just one moment ago, had disappeared.

I grabbed onto the door sill and peeked out the door. The corridor was empty. There was not a single human silhouette.

The fog assaulted me again. It was thicker than at any other time.

I blocked all the orifices on my head with my hands.

Mijin, oh, Mijin… my body swayed.

My back hit the wall. I collapsed just like that. A nightmare assaulted me.

* * *

It felt like he had watched an accident. If he wasn’t holding the camera, he would probably stand there dazed. Everyone in the lecture room looked at Maru, who was sitting down in front of the door. There were looks of shock and some looks of worry.

Despite never having been taught acting, their eyes were realistic and natural. No, they were probably not acting. They were emotions purely drawn out by the actor Han Maru’s skills.

He could guarantee that his friends had forgotten that this was a shoot. Maru’s acting just had that much power to draw them in.

Ever since he gave the cue sign, Maru’s expression had changed. Back then, he felt a sense of disparity. After all, Maru had been joking with him until just 10 minutes ago. However, the moment the first line escaped Maru’s mouth, the person standing there was no longer Han Maru but Lee Jungho. The character that Yoonseok had only pictured in his imagination had appeared in reality.

It was chilling.

The eyes looked like what he wanted, the actions looked like what he wanted, and the voice sounded like what he wanted. The voice was definitely from the same person, but the texture was different. It felt like the voice lacked some of the core components that made up a human.

Yoonseok was enraptured by the act that made him seem like he would disappear at any moment.

Before the shoot, Maru said this: he should shout cut if he didn’t think it was right and boldly demand things out of him.

Demand what though? How was he supposed to give any opinions on that? Maru’s acting had changed the atmosphere from the very beginning, but it spread another wave of shock when he looked at the deceased Mijin. That was the first time Yoonseok realized that it was possible to act through the eyes. It felt like someone was really standing at the door of the lecture room, which was totally empty.

When his friends turned their heads following Maru’s gaze, Yoonseok felt a chill go down his back. The act displayed by actor Han was captivating everyone. They were drawn not into the world inside a script, but into the world of reality.

When Maru walked towards the door while staggering, some of his friends even spoke out in worry: Isn’t he going to fall like that? What’s up with him? Those words, that contained nervousness, were not words that were prepared beforehand.

That didn’t mean though, that his friends were proficient enough in acting to improvise on the spot. It was just pure worry that they felt when they looked at Maru, nay, at Lee Jungho.

Yoonseok turned the camera around from Maru to shoot his friends sitting around the lecture room. Maru could probably display the same act again even if they reshoot the scene, but this would probably be the one and only time he could see his friends make such vivid expressions. It was a judgment that stemmed from instinct.

The extras who didn’t know that they were being shot were looking at Maru, forgetting that this was a shoot, nervous and worried that something might happen. They were probably wondering what Maru’s next action would be.

“That’s enough,” Yoonseok said. He gave the camera to Moonho and walked over to Maru.

Maru, who was sitting against the wall in the lecture room, took his hand off his face. He blankly looked at the floor for a while before standing up after calming down his breath.

“Hyung, you’re okay, right?”

Despite knowing that he was acting, Yoonseok couldn’t help but feel worried. From up close, Maru looked so pale that it made him wonder if he was really ill. How could someone’s impression change so dramatically in such a short period of time?

“This is a fun character, and at the same time, it’s hard. Well, that wasn’t bad considering that it’s been a long time since I last concentrated. Though, I think I did go a little overboard.”

“Overboard?”

“I’m just talking about my standards. So, how did you feel? Was it decent enough?”

“Forget decent. Look at them.” Yoonseok pointed at his friends, who were still dazed. “They’re still out of it. I was also watching you blankly and barely managed to turn the camera around.”

“That’s not something a director should be saying. Get a hold of yourself.”

“Alright, I will.”

He then walked over to Moonho with Maru, who was massaging his cheeks slightly. He showed Maru the video he took just now. This was supposed to be a master shot to capture everything at once, but it looked so good that he might as well use it like this in the final product without any editing.

“For this scene where Jungho sees Mijin and falls down at the door, I’m going to climb a ladder with the camera and shoot it from above. You’re going to have to get into the act once again, so are you okay with that? Or should I just use this one?”

“Try shooting both and comparing them. The director’s skills only truly shine during editing. Also, don’t ask me. Demand things from me. My role is to show the act that you want. There’s no director more unattractive than one without confidence.”

“Okay, I’ll remember that.”

Like Maru said, he had to get himself together. He could tell from just one take that he had the finest ingredient in his hands. It was up to him as the director when it came to whether he would turn the finest ingredient into the finest dish, or something that was more suited for the trash bag instead.

“I’ll do the beginning scene once more, when that person reaches out to me,” Maru said.

“That looked good though.”

“I want to try changing it up a little. You look and decide. It won’t take long anyway.” Maru approached Nayoung. It was her who talked to Maru in the first little bit.

Yoonseok asked her for the job because while she had not learned any acting, she was not introverted, and she actually did better than he originally expected. The two of them talked to each other. Maru seemed to be asking her to do something.

Yoonseok prepared for the second take. He now had some more leisure because he had experience. This time, he was going to analyze the whole screen, not to mention Maru’s acting. What was also important was to find out what Maru’s preferred direction of acting is.

“Once you’re ready,” Yoonseok shouted. There was a faint sense of heat in his hand grabbing the camera tripod.

What kind of acting would he show this time? He was captivated by expectation.

After Story 43

Immersion was akin to twisting wet laundry to dry it. At first, water would easily be squeezed out, but as time goes on, it would be harder and harder to see water. It was like twisting the already suitably dry laundry expecting more water. It was definitely not something to do with a smile.

Maru drank some water. His tension, which was like a taut rubber band, had now loosened. As it had been a long time since he got into character, he found himself exhausted rather quickly. Although his mental prowess had been honed endlessly, his body had not been trained enough to endure that extreme concentration.

He wasn’t worried though. This was just the process of going down a path that he had already walked before. He was thankful that he wasn’t walking down a path filled with fear and fatigue stemming from uncertainty.

After the shoot, they switched places and went outside. The new place was in front of a lake that clearly looked like it only had dead fish. From what he could hear, it seemed that the students even called it lye, saying that if they drained it, there might be some skeletons down below.

“I heard that this place is going to be emptied next year and made into a tennis court. It’s great that we can shoot the film before that. There’s no other place that’s as gloomy as here,” Yoonseok said.

Besides the lake were a university building and two benches with the paint falling off. This place clearly wasn’t managed.

DO NOT ENTER THE LAKE — even the no-entry barrier and sign had rusted.

“It’s killer at night. It’s like an urban legend.”

“Yeah, I can see that.” Maru sat down on the bench. He did not dust it off. Lee Jungho wouldn’t have the leisure to do something like that.

It was not his method to get into the character once the camera started rolling. He wasn’t that good.

Whenever his juniors asked ‘You’re amazing, senior. How can you get into your character so quickly?’, he only had one answer for them: I am like a turtle as I cannot do it quickly, so I simply prepare before the race starts.

Students were gathered on one side. They were the ones who were with him in the lecture room. Even though they didn’t have any more shoots, they did not scatter and instead followed them.

“They want to keep watching you act. But I’d better send them away, right?”

“I’d be thankful if they stay. Tell them to take photos of me and promote me. Who knows? It might be helpful.”

“I was just worried that they might bother you when acting.”

“If I can’t act just because a few people are watching me, I might as well not be an actor.”

Maru took out some money from his wallet.

“Go and buy some snacks with this. They’re friends who are helping you out, so you can’t just let them be like that, can you?”

“I’ll buy it.”

“Accept this while my offer still stands.”

Jiseon left in Yoonseok’s stead, telling Yoonseok that the director should focus on the shoot. He and Yoonseok analyzed the scene together. Maru originally tried to push his ideas with confidence, but Yoonseok kept asking questions, and as he knew the worries of a beginner, he did not hold back on giving advice.

“Is there a style of acting you want me to do?”

“This is a monologue while looking at an illusion of Mijin, so I want it to feel stiflingly sad, so much so that it looks overboard. Only then will it display how important Mijin was to Jungho.”

Maru pushed his fingers into his hair and softly scratched his head. “And?”

“Let’s speak again after I see how it goes. I don’t think I’ll have anything to say though.”

“Tell me immediately if I don’t live up to your standards. If I leave the frame created by the director, it’ll look terrible during editing no matter how good it looks now.”

“Don’t worry. That won’t happen. Besides everything else, your acting is much above my expectations. I’m not worried about you being insufficient. I’m worried that I might have too many options.”

“You’re quite proficient in handling actors. Actors will like it if you tell them that.”

“I mean it. Anyway, I thought it’d feel embarrassing to say something like this, but it turns out I can say it normally.”

“That just goes to show how passionate you are about this work. A parent can go to any lengths for their child to do well. There’s a reason why directors start shouting when they start shooting. It’s a struggle to create a masterpiece. Though, there are times where it goes overboard and creates an adverse effect instead.”

“Then I guess I should do my best not to be like that.”

“To my eyes, you don’t look like the type of person who’d rebuke people. You’re someone who would stay quiet and just reshoot multiple times over. Sometimes, directors like that are even scarier. They won’t let go of actors during the shoot. They’re like leeches.”

Yoonseok, who was turning around, suddenly spoke,

“Are you sure this is your first piece, hyung? No matter how I think about it, I don’t think you’re a beginner.”

“I’m only saying plausible-sounding things. So don’t take it to heart. It might be dogshit philosophy.”

He opened the script. He read the things that he had written down without any blank spaces. Writing down his thoughts on the script with a pen became something like a rule. He would probably not be able to act with a clean script. He had even indexed each page with stickers, depending on the emotions felt by the character.

Glee, hatred, anger, sorrow, vanity, longing; he categorized similar emotions into similar colors so that he could refer to them later. Even if it was some other piece, he would probably never change his way of handling scripts.

“Oppa, wait a second.” Jiseon approached him. She was currently acting as the assistant director, as well as being in charge of costumes, makeup, and the scripter, pretty much all the important roles. At this point, it was more likely that Jiseon collapsed from fatigue before Yoonseok did.

“We’ll fix your makeup again, and also your hair. It’s been pressed down because of sweat. Also, you need to pull down your sleeves a little more. You didn’t roll it up that far in the lecture room.”

“Thanks for telling me that.” Maru unrolled his sleeves a little.

Jiseon was watching out so that there weren’t any mistakes in the props or the like.

“Haneul-unni is coming tomorrow, right? She said she wasn’t available on weekends, but I guess that got resolved?”

“It looks like she handed her work to her coworker. She said she could do a Saturday so I scheduled it right away.”

Jiseon told him to raise his head. She looked at his face for a while before nodding in satisfaction. “It’s done now.”

Maru handed her the script he was looking at. He could see that the camera was almost finished being installed. The shoot should begin soon.

He clasped his hands and looked at the ground as he muttered his lines. He kept reminding himself of his lines until the lines were glued to his mouth.

Just like everything, acting had an order as well. The first thing was to learn the script that contained the director’s intent to the fullest. Bringing out the uniqueness of an actor came after that. Displaying one’s skills without being able to show what the director wants was like good-looking inedible fruit.

“We’re ready now,” Yoonseok said.

Maru pressed between his eyes before eyeing the director.

“Scene 4-1. Take 1.”

The acrylic plate that was being used as a substitute slate was removed from the camera.

Maru lowered his head for a moment before raising it again. He looked at the lake in front of him to calm his nervousness. His ears picked up the director’s words. It was a signal telling him to put Han Maru away and take out Lee Jungho.

“Mijin.” He looked at a point in mid-air. It was a spot he had decided on before he started acting.

Mijin was there. The lover he so missed, the girl whose body had turned cold and buried underground had appeared before him. He knew. While he was dazed in the lecture room, he was not a mental patient. He wasn’t crazy enough to believe that a dead person had come back to life.

Death was the end. Mijin’s body, having entered the dirt, would slowly be decomposed by various microbes, and her body would be infested with all sorts of insect larvae before leaving behind only her bones. His knowledge was not lenient enough to allow the revival of a human whose vital activities had stopped. He knew the clear truth: what was in front of him was the crystallization of his fantasies and delusions.

So what? He ran anyway. He stood up from the bench and ran. Although he tripped midway, he raised his head. Mijin would disappear again if he missed her. He tried his best not to feel the pain, afraid that the illusion would break while his brain analyzed the pain from his body.

Fortunately, Mijin was still there. He staggered his way over and reached out to her. His hand slashed through empty air. Despite that, Mijin was still there. He couldn’t touch her or feel her, but he didn’t care. He could be satisfied with just looking at her.

“Mijin.” A burst of laughter escaped him.

He sat down cross-legged. When he did, Mijin sat down with him. His dry breath circulated around in his chest before leaving his mouth. After spitting out a dry breath, he spoke, “Hey, Jung Mijin. Did you come here because you wanted to see me?”

Mijin did not respond. That was natural, as she was just an empty illusion created by his cerebral cortex. She could not speak or smile, no different from a doll. Nay, a doll could be touched, so she was something even worse than a doll?

“You died, you know? Stupid girl. Why did you come out that day? How could you come out just because I called you? You should’ve told me that it was late and that we should meet tomorrow. Hey, stupid. Why did you come out without a word that day, huh?”

It was a grumble and also a confession. He had not told Mijin’s parents the truth about how he called her that day. He told them that they made an appointment beforehand. It was an escapist excuse. He just told them that he had no direct relationship with her death.

“Jung Mijin. Should I go there as well? I mean, you really hate being lonely. It’s not like I have a lot of friends either. Even if I die, who’ll be sad for me? How about it, huh? It’s okay, isn’t it?”

From some moment onwards, he was crying. He started trembling uncontrollably starting from his chin and that spread through his shoulders and then to his hands. He stifled his cry with his hands. His body curled up and leaned forward.

“Mijin. Goddammit, Jung Mijin. Say something. Please.”

He probed out amidst his blurry vision. Mijin had disappeared and was no longer there. He could see the lake in front of him. Perhaps he could be a little closer to her if he crawled in there? — he stroked down his face, which had become messy with tears and drool, and crawled towards the lake.

He had a strong impulse: just one step, just one step into the dark water would make him comfortable.

Just as he reached the no-entry sign, someone rushed over and held him back. He struggled. This was probably the last time that he, a coward since birth, had gained the courage to do something. If he turned around here, he would never be able to meet Mijin again.

He tried to pull himself out but it was to no avail. His body soon regained his rationale. His mind had also judged the situation. The heat died down in an instant.

Being dragged away, he stared at the lake. Mijin was staring at him with an expressionless face. To him, however, it looked like she was resenting him.

“Cut! Cut! Cut!”

Maru calmed down his breathing, which had gotten excited, and looked at the people that were on him. The one with glasses had his glasses fall off, and the other guy’s shirt had become crumpled.

“Sorry. I went overboard, didn’t I?”

“N-no. It’s okay.”

The man with glasses stepped away from him. Hey, that guy’s no joke — he said to the other guy.

Maru’s sensitive nerves picked up that small sound.

“Hyung.” Yoonseok came over.

Maru clutched his head, which felt dizzy because of all the shouting, and looked at the director.

“I think you’re crazy.” The director smiled and dusted him off.

After Story 44

When I opened my eyes, I could see her. Even if I closed my eyes and opened them again, she did not disappear. She intruded deep into my everyday life and looked natural as though she was always there.

I emptied my plate and stood in front of the sink. Even as I washed the dishes, Mijin stood next to me.

“Do you remember when you first came here? You opened the fridge wanting to make me something, but I didn’t have anything. We didn’t have any choice but to buy some beer and snacks from the convenience store. If I had known, I would’ve gone grocery shopping beforehand. In the end, I didn’t get to eat anything you made for me.”

I shook the water off the plates and put it in the cupboard. I then made some coffee in the mug that Mijin gave me as a gift.

“Would you like some?” I asked her, who couldn’t do anything but look. I did not wait for an answer. Instead, I made some coffee in another mug that looked the exact same.

I picked up the two mugs in each hand and sat down on the bed. I put one on the bedside table. White vapor rose from the lips of the mug. Mijin liked to stand still with her lips on top of the steaming mug, saying that it made her relax. I also tried putting my lips on the mug. The faint heat spread around my mouth. The vapor that touched my skin before disappearing felt like Mijin’s touch.

I looked at Mijin, who was about five steps away from me as I drank coffee. I must be going crazy.

I emptied the mug in my hand. As for the coffee on the table, I just drained it down the sink. I picked up my phone and took a photo of Mijin several times.

What was captured in the photo was the empty sight of the minimalist room.

“Yes, mom. I’m okay. You don’t have to worry about me. Okay, I’ll visit during the winter holidays. I do want to visit you before that, but I have so many assignments to do. Father is doing well, right? How about grandma? Yes, okay. Also, don’t bother sending me money. I don’t even use that much. Okay, see you then.”

I looked at the phone whose screen had turned pitch black before tossing it on my bed. Mom, your son actually isn’t doing well.

I looked at Mijin with my head against the wall. She had an expressionless face as though she didn’t have a shred of emotion left. What was it that I wanted to see from her? What was it that she wanted to show me?

Time passed. I don’t know if it flowed or not, but the date on my phone had changed so there must have been some change in time.

Today too, Mijin was standing not too far away and not too close to me. I ate, made coffee, and bathed in the coffee vapor.

“Do you remember the professor for the romantic psychology class? You know, the one who said he’d give us C or below if we didn’t get into a boy-girl pair. He did that again this time. Everyone grumbled, but they still looked around like it was some kind of espionage movie, looking for a decent guy or a girl no matter what. He also said that those from the same department could not team up, so it was a total mess. Do you know why I’m bringing this up? I’m just boasting. Three cute girls asked for my number, telling me that I should pair up with them if I don’t have anyone.”

I was speaking like I was broadcasting for the radio. It was a one-sided transmission of information without any interaction. It was a bitter broadcast that would not get a single fan letter no matter how I waited.

That was fine though. As long as this quiet listener was right in front of my eyes, this broadcast would not end.

* * *

Maru showed the process of the intense emotions calming down and then becoming numb in a plain fashion. Yoonseok was no longer surprised by Maru’s acting. If he had time to do that, he thought and thought more: Isn’t there a method to amplify the charm of the actor and the story even more?

He no longer thought that Maru’s acting was perfect and that one shot was enough. Ever since the sun set and they switched places to this one-room apartment, he looked at the screen in even more detail. He revised the designs and changed the composition. Once he got the cut that he thought of beforehand, he tried out directions that naturally came to his mind. This was only possible thanks to the actor who kept up his good work without any NGs.

“I want you to try acting totally brightly this time.”

“That’s not in the script.”

“It’s not. I like that one just now, but I do want to get another one.”

“I also wanted to try that out. I don’t think it’s a bad idea to broaden the amplitude of emotional changes.”

It must be a blessing to work with an actor he could exchange opinions with. Even he, as an amateur, could feel that, so how would it be in the world of professionals? If a director and an actor were at odds against each other in a field where time and capital were lacking, shooting would no longer be a blessing but torture instead.

“Let me have a look at the screen.”

He looked at the camera with Maru. Taking into account that the shoot happened over two days, he proceeded the shoot according to the flow of emotions as much as possible. He also prescouted the shooting location so that the actor could get into acting more comfortably. As the film was mostly monologues, Maru’s condition was the most important.

“Is this the feeling you wanted?”

“Yeah. Up until this point, it’s really good. I’ll have to see tomorrow about the scenes with Haneul-noona in it, but I don’t have any qualms with your acting.”

“You don’t have to worry about Haneul. If anything, she’s more meticulous than me. Oh, here, the outline of my face is slightly blurry. Did you intend that?”

“What I wanted was for you to look faint like a silhouette, but I don’t think I can make that work with the lighting equipment we have. I’ll try making it work during post-processing, but if it doesn’t work out, I’ll just go with this.”

“It’s hard to play with light.”

“Yeah. I didn’t know it was this hard. But it gives off the feeling I want, so it’s okay. The mise-en-scène is still being maintained. Rather than that, hyung, I’m going to close up as much as possible right here…” Yoonseok trailed off because he couldn’t think of the word.

Was it so hard to transmit his intent clearly and precisely? The image was in his head, but the process of changing it into words kept running into a hiccup. When he hesitated, Maru spoke,

“You can speak in detail. If we work together for a long time, we might be able to understand each other with just a few words, but this is our first. Moreover, this is your first ever work. You don’t need to use grand words. It’s hard to change the abstract into something direct and easy to understand. Only a master could easily explain such things. You just start by explaining the image in your head from beginning to end. That might be easier for you.”

It was advice that really helped him out. Yoonseok gestured to the staff and sat down. He took out a mechanical pencil and wrote down everything in his mind. Once he wrote it down, it became somewhat easier to explain. He looked at the things he wrote down and spoke to Maru.

“It might be hard, but I want you to show two facets at once. 70% happiness from being able to see Mijin and 30% anguish from not being able to meet her. That ratio will change as it goes toward the end. The anguish disappears completely and what remains is only glee, just like how it’s written on the script.”

“Ambivalent expression huh? I’ll try to do it. I’m going to try switching it up a few times. You just choose what feels right to you. I’ll use that as the standard.”

“Also, when you put your face against the mug, look at the mug for a longer time and look at Mijin only briefly.”

“Got it.”

He kept thinking of things that he wanted from Maru.

Yoonseok felt that the film was becoming more and more complete.

The actors got into their positions. From one moment onwards, the staff started moving as though they could tell where Mijin was from what Maru was looking at. They were doing their best not to break the flow.

“What are you doing?”

Just as he was shooting Maru struggling in anguish by himself, a lady in her sixties poked her face in after knocking. She introduced herself as the landlady and spoke with a sour expression that the house below called because of the noise.

“We’re sorry.” Yoonseok immediately apologized. He had forgotten because he was too focused. It was past 10 in the evening, and this place was a one-room apartment building with very thin walls.

Moonho stepped up and explained. When Moonho, who lived here, explained, the lady loosened up a little.

“I get what you’re up to, young people, but take it easy. You aren’t the only people here.”

“I’m sorry. We’re done with the noisy part, so we’ll be quiet from now on.”

“So who’s the actor? Someone famous?”

Maru stepped up. The lady’s eyes twitched. After mentioning that he wasn’t a celebrity she knew, he turned around. Before she left, she warned again that the student might have to pull out if they made a ruckus again.

“Moonho, sorry about that. You got into trouble because of us.”

“Forget it. Won’t these become memories later? She might say those words, but she’s actually quite nice. She gave me kimchi last time. She won’t throw me out.”

The shoot stopped for a while. They looked at each other quietly and focused on their ears. Only after they confirmed that the lady’s footsteps had disappeared were they able to resume shooting.

“This is a nice experience for a low-budget film,” Maru said.

Everyone laughed. Yoonseok turned off the fluorescent lights and turned on the lights they brought. The dynamic part was over, so they didn’t have to worry about making noise.

There was a small incident, but Maru’s expression did not waver. He covered his face with Lee Jungho’s expression just like what happened before the shoot was interrupted.

How much did he analyze and practice? The amazement lasted only an instant, and he started focusing. He was planning not to turn off the camera until deep into the night.

* * *

After shooting until late into the night, they slept at Moonho’s house. While she refused, the bed ended up going to Jiseon, and the men slept on the floor.

When she opened her eyes, the apartment looked like the morning after college drinking night. She sat in a daze for a while before getting herself together. She shook everyone to wake them up and washed her face. She didn’t even have any time to put makeup on, so she just applied lotion and pressed a hat on.

“Haneul-unni’s on campus. I’ll go pick her up.”

The appointment was at 1 in the afternoon, but Haneul gave her a call early in the morning.

It took twenty minutes to go to the campus by foot. She held her hat tight so that it didn’t get blown away and ran at full speed. When she looked for Haneul at the entrance, she found that people’s eyes were fixed on one place, especially the men. It was a spot by the tree in front of the entrance. Haneul was standing there.

She looked at Haneul, who was wearing a light violet-colored one-piece dress and white shoes. She looked like she was here for a photo shoot. The air about her was different. She enraptured every passerby with her face and body figure. Moreover, her faint smile was the cherry on top. Jiseon felt this when they met in the lecture room, but Haneul’s proportions were insane.

How could her calves be so thin while wearing loafers? She approached her while thinking that.

“Unni.”

“Oh, Jiseon.”

“You were supposed to be here at one.”

“I just came early so I can help out. Where’s everyone else?”

“They’re in a one-room apartment that belongs to a friend of mine. We shot there yesterday.”

“So everyone slept there huh? Did Maru snore?”

“Huh? Oh, no, he didn’t.”

“That’s good. If he snored, none of you would have gotten any sleep.”

* * *

That happened at 9 in the morning. And now, it was 1 p.m. Jiseon looked behind her.

Were there always so many people on campus? The students walking by all stopped and watched. The cause was obvious.

“There’s even more.” Jiseon chuckled in absurdity. Rumors seemed to have spread and people kept flocking. At this point, there were too many people for Yoonseok to handle.

“Is it because of Haneul-noona?” Yoonseok whispered.

“One hundred percent certainly,” Jiseon replied as she looked at Haneul standing alongside Maru.

After Story 45

It was a series of scenes without any lines. He set Mijin to be a character that does not express any emotions.

In the first place, she couldn't be called a 'character'. The Mijin in the story was nothing but an illusion that Jungho saw.

There would be no crossing the barrier between life and death like in the film 'Ghost', nor would there be any resentful ghosts making a ruckus like in 'The Exorcist.'

Mijin's role was to simply stand there like a tree.

In the beginning, he used a different storyline progression. He intended to insert flashbacks of Jungho and Mijin being happy together and tried to change the atmosphere of the film by bestowing Mijin emotions halfway through the story.

However, he removed all those scenes when he revised the storyboard. He set it so that memories of Mijin only appeared through Lee Jungho so that the words Jungho uttered would form the human known as Mijin. As such, Mijin had to be beautiful. The only Mijin Jungho could see should be the one in his memories, without any objectivity at all. She was supposed to be a woman completely made from Jungho's delusions.

There wasn't any information that told what kind of person Mijin was in the film. He excluded all of them. He also removed any photos. Jungho's words and illusions were everything there was to Mijin.

Yoonseok looked at the two actors sitting on the bench through the camera. The two of them were maintaining a distance that was not too close to be that of lovers', nor too far that they looked like strangers.

He pulled the camera back as much as possible so that the two characters looked small.

Tree leaves started being colored in autumn, while the buildings stayed gray, and the two characters placed in the middle… the scene looked lonely.

Yoonseok maintained that state for about one minute. The thirty or so onlookers also watched the shoot quietly.

Just then, he could hear a crow cawing. He shouted cut when he heard the sound that broke the silence.

It was a pretty yet vain picture. The two of them sufficiently carried out the awkward and difficult requests made by the director.

Yoonseok put down the camera and approached the two. "That felt really good just now. Let's keep going like this."

"Was the distance okay?"

"I can't say a word about it."

Yoonseok immediately moved the camera. He explained the movement lines to the actors and walked with them. Although the scenes would mostly be still shots, he was planning to use handheld shooting in parts where Jungho's emotions were emphasized. For this, he bought a camera gimbal as well.

"Should I walk at this pace?" Haneul asked. Yoonseok just said that she just had to keep pace with Maru.

"I'll leave this to you, hyung. I'll capture your interpretation of what Jungho would feel as he walks down this street. I think the actor is more important here."

"That's a lot of pressure you're giving me." Maru smiled, not looking pressured at all. In fact, he looked like he was enjoying the fact that he got something to think about.

He felt like he got to learn the Han Maru manual a little more.

"Haneul-unni said she came here looking as pretty as possible just as you said. No wait, I think she said something about college level?" Jiseon suddenly said as she looked at the actors from a distance. Her voice was filled with both jealousy and pure envy.

Jiseon usually didn't make that kind of expression, so he looked at her quietly.

Jiseon asked what was up.

"No, nothing."

Yoonseok looked at Haneul. She was smiling right now, but she would be emotionless like the statue of Agrippa once the shoot began.

Her face was a stark contrast to the one-piece dress that had the color of innocence. Just as Maru told him not to worry, Haneul's acting was flawless.

"I don't think it will be strange even if Haneul-unni makes her debut soon. I've seen celebrities in real life a few times, but I think she's better off than some of them."

"Real appearance is one thing, but she's just as good on camera too."

Yoonseok zoomed in with the camera to capture Maru and Haneul's faces. The two of them were talking seriously without a smile on their faces.

It turned from a youthful melodrama to an espionage movie. Just taking a video of the two of them looked like a masterpiece.

"They look good together. Based on appearances alone, I thought Maru-oppa was not as good, but now that I look at them in one picture like this, it's a different story."

"They look like two interlocking pieces of a puzzle, don't they?"

"Yeah."

The two actors walking around the lake gave signs. It seemed they were ready. Jiseon asked the onlookers to be quiet. As this was a scene that would be edited into a montage later, it wouldn't matter even if there was some noise, but it might interrupt the actors.

After the shoot at the lake, they moved around to various places on campus. After every single cut, the number of onlookers increased. It became harder and harder to keep them in check. As they were coming from all sides, people started entering the frame where only the two actors were supposed to be.

In the end, all of the production crew stepped in. They paused the shoot and asked the students for their understanding.

"Excuse me, I'm sorry. Please move back a little."

"Please back off a little."

They moved around busily, but there wasn't much effect.

Yoonseok wondered if they should give up on shooting in front of the library.

"Everyone! Can you just give us five minutes?"

A loud voice suddenly came from behind. The ringing was quite loud as though someone was using a microphone attached to an amplifier. When he turned around, he saw Maru halfway up the stairs shouting with his hands in a cone shape around his mouth.

"We only need a little bit. I hope you can go to your right, to my left side."

It wasn't an annoyingly loud voice, but a sound that touched the hearts of people and stimulated them to move.

People were drawn by the deep, polite voice and moved to the right all at once. They even told others off if someone was separated, maintaining order by themselves.

"Thank you." Maru bowed deeply.

There were a lot of people and the space was rather open, so his voice should have disappeared, but Maru's voice was stable as it entered people's ears as though he was using a directional speaker.

Yoonseok felt this when Maru was shouting in the one-room apartment, but actor Han Maru's biggest advantage must be his voice.

If his expressions were worthy of 100 points, then his voice, which stimulated the sensory nerves, would be 120.

Yoonseok quickly held the camera up. He had to take an overall shot before things became messy again. He sent Jiseon to the entrance of the library and started the shoot immediately.

Maru slowly climbed down the stairs with Haneul two steps behind him.

"Done."

He got a satisfactory shot. He wanted to shoot more, but he couldn't with the crowd flocking. Although he had gotten permission to shoot within the university premises, he didn't have the right to block students from passing.

After cleaning up the area, they moved to the school cafeteria.

"Now that we actually tried shooting, each and every cut is pure labor, huh," Jiseon said. Yoonseok deeply agreed with her.

Some of the cuts would only appear for about 2 seconds in the final piece. Yet, they had to invest 30 minutes for that.

It was good that he revised the storyboard a lot due to realistic problems. If he went with the original one, a week wouldn't be enough, not to mention two days.

"If I think about it now, doing night scenes is really impossible huh," Yoonseok said to Jiseon.

Even with natural lighting, it was hard to get the lighting right. If they shot at night, then they would have trouble capturing the actors' faces.

The cafeteria, the street, in front of the department office, some empty lecture rooms, some corridors, the university back gates… and finally, he turned on the camera in the basketball court in front of the club building.

"The sun's falling! Quickly!"

At this point, it was a fight of time. After six o'clock, the sun started setting. He wanted to capture the border between night and day, so he had to hurry.

He used lights and reflectors to the fullest extent. As the amount of sunlight decreased, using the lights became a lot harder.

He decreased the luminosity to control the texture of light captured by the camera. He could see some deficiencies, but he couldn't help it. This was not something that could be fixed technologically.

"We'll shoot here and then the last outside scene."

After capturing Maru and Haneul being submerged under the sunset, he quickly took out the gimbals.

He connected the camera to the gimbal and did a test shoot. He even tried running with it, and it didn't shake to the point that it looked unbearable.

After checking what made just the right amount of shaking, he called Maru.

"Try running like you're jogging lightly. I'll be running next to you."

"Careful. If you fall backward while looking at the screen, you'll break a bone."

"I don't care as long as I can get a good shot."

He decided to shake the frame a little to express the fluctuation in emotions. He was worried because he wasn't using professional equipment, but he decided to have faith in the actor's expressions for now.

The whole crew moved to the entrance of the campus. There were still many onlookers.

"You can start running whenever you're ready. The camera's rolling."

After taking a breath, Maru started running. Yoonseok ran up to him and looked at the screen. The crying-yet-not-crying face appeared on the screen. It looked sorrowful and pitiful.

Based on his face alone, it was not a face that contained any kind of sadness or longing, but Maru depicted depression on his face really well.

Laughter due to the feeling of giving up burst out from time to time.

The melody of sadness soon turned into a serenade of glee. Within that glee were endurance and forfeit. The man who decided to love his illusion then started running at full speed.

Yoonseok tried to hold back his breathing as much as possible while keeping up with Maru before eventually stopping. He soon fixed his posture and shot Maru who was becoming more and more distant before he eventually became a dot and disappeared.

He checked the footage with Maru after he returned. Both of them said that they should reshoot almost simultaneously.

They ran and ran again. Yoonseok's breathing became more ragged.

Maru, who ran with him, no, ran a lot more than him, looked very calm with only a few droplets of sweat on his face.

Like that, they shot eight times. The shoot only ended when the skies turned purple and the actor's face could barely be seen.

"This is it," he uttered as soon as he checked the video.

It couldn't get better than this. Maru's face, on which the curtain of the night draped over, was the most ideal face that he was depicting in his head.

He wanted to lie down and rest, but there was no time for that. He got his equipment and went to the one-room apartment. He received encouragement from his friends on the way.

After going to the apartment, they shot many many times. As they had finished most of the dynamic scenes yesterday, it didn't take that long.

The smooth progress only had a hiccup when the two actors lay on the same bed. For some reason, laughter escaped once, and everyone started laughing like it was contagious.

"Don't laugh, sheesh!" Haneul said as she smacked Maru's back.

Having no choice, they took a 10-minute break before shooting again. Yoonseok barely held himself back from laughing and captured the two.

"This is the last one."

For the last bit, there was no need to look at the screen. Maru got up close to the microphone attached to the camera. This one was recording a narration.

Yoonseok originally thought about renting a recording studio, but Maru said that this was enough. The staff gathered around Maru like he was a campfire.

They looked at Maru with the script in front of him like they were holding a ritual or something.

Maru took a deep breath. "I loved her, and I still love her. She has no words, but I love her still. I look at her amidst the unease that she may disappear one day. I find her, whom I cannot see, and I look at her."

The voice seemed to have fingers as it gripped each and every word. It was a monologue that ended in an empty tone.

Yoonseok thought of the tranquil sea. The distant oceans had large waves, but it looked very cozy over here.

The wave slowly approached. Maru said his last line before the waves could flip everything over.

"I want to live a life of craziness, if that is the condition for love."

After Story 46

-I didn’t make it.

That was a message from Bada. Maru felt like he could almost hear the grumbling in her voice. He was about to send her a reply saying ‘good work’ but erased it. Instead, he asked when her next one was.

-I dunno. I’ll have to look into it a little more.

That was the end of the report. It wasn’t like his sister was someone who would report to him about every single detail. He didn’t ask in detail either.

Not making it was only natural. There should be people who had been preparing ever since they were in primary school, so it was nearly impossible for his sister to pass an audition after preparing for just a few months. It would be a different story if she had some kind of charm that made up for the lack of proficiency, but otherwise, she would be pushed around here and there, and if she managed to hold on at the stage where she starts thinking ‘maybe this isn’t the thing for me?’ Bada should become an actor.

At that point, she should look back in retrospect at whether it was a product she wanted to become or an artist.

“I heard that ‘Infiltration’ just got released.”

“Let’s go watch it. Anything with Jang Hyunsoo in it is good.”

“Rather than Jang Hyunsoo, I want to see Kim Jihye.”

“Kim Jihye’s acting is awesome too.”

The students next to him in the bus talked about some movies before getting off the bus. He could see a movie theater outside the window. Domestic movies created with the dream of hitting a jackpot jumped into the war of screens yet again today.

Maru thought of the young director working with him. Yoonseok had turned silent three days ago, which probably indicated that he didn’t even have any time or energy to send any texts.

Ultimately, a film was the art of editing. He would have to keep musing and pondering about what cuts to keep and what to throw away amidst the videos that he took over the course of two days. There was no room for a third person to butt in in that process. It was entirely the director’s job.

In the beginning, he was picturing that the film would run for about 20 minutes, but halfway through, he changed his mind and the running time was now about 10 minutes. That change in decision should make his musings more difficult and a lot deeper. Thinking about how Yoonseok should be putting together pieces of a fragmented puzzle, Maru couldn’t help but laugh. That would be quite a challenge.

-This stop is Star Plaza. Next stop…

He pulled his shoulder strap and stood at the exit of the bus. A child standing next to him kept shaking his mother’s arm and pointed at the TV station.

Maru got off and turned right at the shopping mall. He saw the TV station at the end of the long park. Promotions about its signature entertainment program were plastered on the wall. Next to the left leg of the statue of a super famous celebrity that everyone knew was the entrance to RBS. Maru looked at the blue dollarbird logo of the TV station as he walked inside. Some students who seemed to be here on field research were being guided inside.

He bought some coffee in the lounge. There were about 40 minutes until the appointed time. He looked at the drama posters placed throughout as he walked before stopping in front of a sign that said ‘under construction.’ It was a brand store that was supposed to open next year. It mentioned that it was going to sell merchandise based on dramas and entertainment programs.

That was a place he was familiar with. His own merch would often be here. There was once a controversy about him because figurines of him were sold that didn’t look like him at all. Along with an apology, the production of it stopped, but later, it was traded at a premium. Even now, he found that rather ridiculous.

He thought about his previous life and had a look at the programs being aired. There were things that he had never seen before, and some of them were things he had seen frequently in his previous life. Since he was at it, he also looked up dramas produced by RBS. However, the ones called masterpieces in his previous life had all drank in defeat. Even a drama that was called a masterpiece in every single life was evaluated as a terrible piece and was shunned by the masses. He had a look at the members involved. Half of them were people he knew, and half of them, he knew nothing about.

“This is why I can’t gamble.”

God was rather nasty. Despite his plentiful experiences and knowledge, not a single thing was set in stone, so he had to be cautious in his decisions. Statistics based on his previous lives should be helpful, but not that much. They were just previous lives now.

Maru threw the empty paper cup in the trash. It was almost time for the appointment. He went to the bathroom to rinse his mouth and check over his clothes again. Then he read the text message that director Lee Jihoon sent him.

Thursday, 1st floor of RBS. Producer Cha Myungjoon.

He came out to the lounge and waited. Not long later, he got a call.

-Is this Mr. Han Maru I’m talking to?

“Yes. That’s me.”

-Where are you right now?

“I’m in front of the café in the lounge.”

-Oh, I see you.

Maru saw a man in a dress shirt approach him. The employee ID card around his neck swayed side to side. He looked to be in his mid-thirties. From his clean clothing and styled hair, it indicated that he had not started the shoot yet.

Director Cha approached and reached his hand out. “I’m Cha Myungjoon.”

Maru shook hands. “I’m Han Maru, sir.”

“You’re a lot younger than what senior told me. How old are you?”

“I’m twenty-two.”

“You’re at a good age. I’m thirty-five. I’m sorry I asked your age right off the bat. I’ve seen so many actors with young-looking faces, so I often end up asking. How long did it take for you to come?”

“About an hour.”

“Did you drive your car? If you did, then I’ll give you a parking ticket.”

“I’d be in trouble if I drove at this age. I took the bus.”

Director Cha smiled and told him to follow. They walked past the information desk and got on the elevator. It was staff-only.

“Senior doesn’t really recommend others. In fact, he’s someone who usually hates things like that. But not too long ago, he told me that you’re worth meeting. I’m not sure about anyone else, but I thought that I wouldn’t lose out even if I listened to his offer.”

The elevator stopped on the 4th floor.

“Let’s go.”

Director Cha greeted another employee passing by before continuing, “Have you appeared in any other works before?”

“I shot a short film.”

“Really? Anything on the TV broadcasting side?”

“None.”

“Do you belong to a theater troupe, or perhaps an acting school?”

“I’m by myself for now.”

“I see. Do you know how drama castings work, Mr. Han?”

“Roughly.”

“Tell me.”

“Once the scripts for episodes 1 and 2 are finalized, the director and the writer first pick out actors they prefer. If the contract with said actors goes through, they attach those actors to the profile and look for the rest of the lead actors. Once the lead actors are decided, they either look for supporting cast members from officially casted actors from the TV station, get recommendations from acquaintances, or send a request to acting schools. The casting director then has a look at the people who apply. Or, they could just go bold and hold a public audition. I think that’s about the gist of it.”

Director Cha nodded. “You know quite well. Then you must know that the opportunity given to you isn’t that common.”

“I do. That’s why I plan to grab it.”

“I like that confidence. I hope you can grab it. That way, senior will get some face.”

Director Cha stood in front of the door. It was a room with walls made of glass so that the inside could be seen. Inside were three men and two women standing there with nervous expressions.

“Don’t you think the world runs on connections if skills and image are on a similar level? The people inside also came here through other lines of recommendations. It’s a private audition, so to speak. It’s a level higher than public auditions where you have to compete against hundreds or even thousands of people, so try your best.”

Director Cha opened the door and went inside. Maru also followed him in. People’s gazes fell on him for a moment before scattering. The scattered gazes then gathered on director Cha’s face.

“Thank you everyone for coming. Have some of this while you wait. I’ll bring the script.” Director Cha left.

Maru grabbed the drink on the table.

“You are not going to drink?” Maru said to the people who were right up against the wall like they were being punished. Most of them said that they didn’t need it.

A woman then came over and snatched a bottle. She spat out a deep, shaking breath before opening the bottle and downing the drink in one gulp.

“Don’t get nervous, don’t get nervous…,” the woman muttered before standing against the wall again.

Maru had a look at the participants as he drank. He observed the men more closely than the women. They were the people he had to compete against. Out of three of them, one of them was good-looking and his proportions were right as well.

Maru looked at that person. There was a point where an exceptional appearance had an adverse effect, and it was in auditions for supporting characters and minor characters. Unless one of the lead characters was a model or a young, handsome actor, that man would not make it today.

The other two men had different atmospheres about them as well. One felt rough, and one felt neat. Although in the case of lead and supporting characters, their image would be decided ahead of plan, but in the case of minor actors, there were cases where the role was changed to fit the actor. Unless it was a totally different image, what decided the casting was ultimately connections.

If there was a niece or a nephew of a chief producer in this place, then that person would be selected. If the son or daughter of the president was here, then it would be that person.

Maru looked at the handsome-looking fellow.

Is it you? — he inwardly chuckled as he thought about such things.

“Gee, I’m sweating because I ran.” Director Cha returned. In his hands were some A4 papers.

“Take these for now.”

A sheet of paper was placed on his palms. Despite being a thin paper that would be blown away if he blew on it, the weight was considerable.

An audition was truly an audition. No matter how many times he experienced it, he couldn’t help but feel nervous at a time like this.

“I’m sure you all came here without knowing what the drama is. That’s good though. We’ll be able to see how you improvise. First, allow me to tell you that we’re planning to pick one man and one woman. Of course, I’m not saying that we’ll give you those roles. If we think that you’re the right person, we’ll pick you right away, but even if that doesn’t happen, we may be able to use you for other roles, so do your best.”

Director Cha sat down. He looked at the camera screen and adjusted the settings for a while.

Meanwhile, Maru had a look at the script.

Officer Park Uijung. It was a role with a name.

If it was a character that would be tossed aside after one episode, then he wouldn’t have a name in the script.

Reading just a few lines, Maru could tell that it was a character who acted quite audacious. As he looked at the lines he exchanged with his senior officer, his eyes fell on the bottom of the paper.

(Looking at the chasing Taesoo in fear)

That direction caught his attention.

“For the men, as you can see, it’s quite an interesting character. And also, it’s a character that must die well. I can’t guarantee since the entire picture isn’t out yet, but from my gut feeling, it should be a character that receives quite a lot of attention. There are a lot of young men who want this role other than you. If you do well here, then you’ll get that role, otherwise, I’ll try putting you in other roles. If none of the roles fit you, then as unfortunate as it is, we’ll have to try again next time.”

It was a character that often appeared in detective dramas: a bright and optimistic new guy who gets sacrificed to the killer; it was a cliché, so to speak, that was used to trigger other events. Just as the director said, it was a character that should be funny but died properly when supposed to.

“Read for about 10 minutes. We’ll start after that. We have quite a bit of time today,” said director Cha as he looked at his time on his phone.

After Story 47

Maru leaned against the wall and looked at the script. He was given 10 minutes. While there was a script, it was closer to improvisation.

First, he excluded all emotions and read the lines. He looked in detail at what was happening, what emotions were being felt, and what event was going on. He analyzed all the information given through text and then read through it with emotion.

He intentionally shook his body in scenes where he was being mischievous, and he flinched backward in the scene where he was being chased by a killer.

Script reading was something that displayed the uniqueness of actors. He didn't find it satisfactory to say lines while standing still and frowning while looking at the script.

"Senior Kim likes two sticks of instant coffee in one cup, and as for our dear detective Choi, I put all of my love into one stick."

He winked as he said his line and even twisted his body slightly. He moved various parts of his body until he felt like the right feeling seeped in. He decided on the directionality of the cut and read the lines out loud until he could recite them subconsciously.

The other participants, who were swallowing their voices, started speaking out loud as well. They seemed to have belatedly realized that this was no time to be thinking about inconveniencing other people.

Maru decided to use a very slightly higher tone than usual for the beginning scene. It wouldn't strain his neck and it wouldn't sound off either.

Now that he had the beginning down, it was time to do the later part.

Maru started hopping on the spot, intending to shake off the mischief from his body. The scene where he threw around trivial jokes and the scene where he was driven to a corner by a killer and died was an assortment that could allow the judges to see two extremes of emotional acting.

Maru also used to ask audition participants to show a laughing act and a crying act. He did so in order to see whether the actor was capable of handling various emotions.

He stuffed himself into the corner and sat down. He couldn't just scream in the air so suddenly. He had to shout after a suitable consideration. From the text, the 'officer Park' he was acting did not go out to the field alone. He separated from his senior in the process of chasing down the killer and was murdered as a result of that. Even in his script, he looked for 'senior Kang'.

What would officer Park's feelings be like? He should still have a shred of relief remaining in the hope that his ally nearby would come soon. There should also be an attitude of 'there's no way I'd die, is there?' somewhere as well. Perhaps there was even a little bit of confidence that he had cornered the killer as well.

According to what was given to him, officer Park was a cheerful man who could laugh despite being nagged by his seniors. He might be a character who might bring out courage in the face of trial.

Now it was time for him to decide. Would officer Park get struck with fear from the start? Or would it be after he shouts?

He decided that the character would be stricken with fear after calling out to 'senior Kang.'

"Senior Kang! Senior Kang!"

If the script indicated that he should be stricken with fear when he said so, Maru would've followed it to the tee. However, the script only mentioned the situation and wrote down the lines. There was not even an ellipsis that could indicate some kind of intent from the writer. It might be an incomplete script, or it might be intentional on director Cha's part. Whatever the case may be, the script placed importance on the decision of the actor who received it.

He shouted in confidence. He had finally caught the killer. Senior Kang was nearby, so there was no problem. He even had the confidence to stall for time if the killer decided to attack. He took a step feeling like a cat who had caught a mouse.

Just then, the killer took out a knife. He flinched and looked around. This was a warehouse at the end of a dark alley. His sides were blocked off. There were only two choices: forward or backward.

Senior Kang wasn't here, and a sharp knife had entered his pupils. Something throbbed below his stomach. It was the fear that he had forgotten about until now. He suddenly recalled the obvious fact that people would die if they get stabbed.

"Senior Kang! Senior!" He took a step back.

The fear that had taken root in his stomach spread around his whole body in an instant. The muscles on the inside of his thighs became stiff, and his knees felt stiff as though he had walked up a skyscraper on foot. He had only chased after the killer with the sole thought that he would be able to arrest the killer as long as he caught up.

Fatigue assaulted him at once. He probed his own body, but he didn't have any weapons on hand. He had found the suspect while he was out to lunch after all.

Where are the reinforcements? Where's senior Kang? Wait, wasn't that guy faster than me at running?

The distance was shrinking. At this point, the knife looked bigger than the killer's face.

Facing off against an opponent armed with a knife was a shortcut to being KIA — he recalled senior Kang's joke.

Death. This man in front of him had already committed murder. He should not have any hesitations. He would approach and stab the stomach like putting a knife through a fish.

The sense of duty that he had to stop the killer was slashed apart by the blade. He only thought about escaping; about surviving. He moved sideways like a crab before stepping on something. He only realized as he fell over that it was a bottle.

No, No — he turned his body around with all of his energy. He put his hand on the ground to push himself up before slipping.

His body was being strange. His limbs were not listening to him like the first time he was learning military marches.

A sudden thought struck him: I'm showing my back to the criminal. He didn't have the courage to look back. Where should the criminal be? Right behind him? Or did he run away thinking that it was an opportunity?

There was silence. His rough breathing replaced all the noise in the world.

He turned around, very slowly. The killer was looking down at him, his clenched hand trembling.

He knew as soon as he saw that. The killer was trembling because of uncontrollable excitement.

The knife drew a straight line and stabbed into his stomach.

A knife that climbed up his chest was stuck in his throat. The sound that was supposed to escape through his mouth ended up escaping through his stomach.

He gasped and clutched his stomach. He cried before he could scream. He couldn't do anything else but that.

The moment he tried to tense his throat in order to shout, a mind-boggling pain climbed up his nerves.

It was just one strike. That one attack snapped all the nerves in his body.

He curled up to tense the muscles as much as possible and gasped like a dog. His breath circulated in his lungs. His mind was flashing in and out, and he lost his energy to flounder.

He took his hands off his stomach and calmed his breathing.

Maybe he went too far? Because he drove the character to the extreme, his actions were synchronized with the character. It wasn't a bad feeling, but there was a need to fix the way he turned around and crawled away.

It would be a lot easier if the way he died was specified. He didn't even have that, so he had to imagine the last moment.

He had experienced being stabbed so he knew where it hurt the most. Heck, not to mention being stabbed, he tried jumping off a roof, died from cancer, and even got crashed into by a car.

He knew better than anyone the methodology to express pain. What could be more realistic than actual experience?

He crossed his legs and started at the script. Just then, he realized that the shadows of the other participants that he could see on the floor were not moving at all. He raised his head. He made eye contact with the other participants.

Maru smiled awkwardly.

"That's enough, Mr. Maru. You can stop here," Director Cha said. The camera lens was directed at him. Maybe it was shooting him doing practice?

"It's not really organized since I was just practicing. I'd like to try that again."

"No. That's just the atmosphere I wanted to see. Let's have a look at the other things later."

He couldn't complain to a director who told him that it was enough. If it was over, then it was over.

"I mean to say that you're so good that I don't need to see anymore. Please don't misunderstand."

"Okay."

"Then let's start with the person to the far left. Don't be nervous."

The man in question replied curtly and stepped forward. Maru leaned against the wall and crossed his arms.

* * *

Seungah retracted her gaze and looked at the camera. Director Cha gave her the signal.

“It’s not like there’s a clear solution. Even in this era, where people are giving up on many things just to make a living, it’s not like there’s a method other than trying hard. If I was destined to make my life better by winning a lottery, then I might as well have won it already. But that’s not what happened, so I can only work to death.”

She smiled with all of her might to show that she was okay. She also showed that she wasn’t a girl who would collapse from just this.

“Isn’t it easier to blame society rather than admitting your own deficiency?” director Cha responded to her words.

Seunah said ‘maybe’ before continuing, “Sometimes, I want to blame society. But realistically speaking, there’s nothing to gain from doing so. It’s not like just feeling a little better will make my rented apartment my own, and it’s not like my salary will rise either. It might sound like I’m obsessed with money, but what can you do about it? There’s nothing as honest as money among the things I saw.”

She almost hesitated midway because she couldn’t remember the words. Fortunately, her tongue did the work for her and uttered the lines. Muttering the lines for about 10 minutes was quite effective. She also maintained her emotions until the end without wavering.

She felt like she did better than the girl before her. She then changed the atmosphere a little and acted out the next scene. She didn’t make any mistakes this time either.

“You’re good,” said director Cha. He said those words to all applicants.

He did not have any specific requests or tell them anything he found disappointing. You’re good, you’ve done well — these were the only things he said.

Her mouth felt dry. She drank the remaining drink and looked to the left, looking at the only man who managed to bring out more than three words from the director. He was also the man who brought back the nervousness she had forgotten about. She didn’t know his surname, but his name seemed to be Maru? That’s what director Cha called him so it should be about right.

She recalled back to 40 minutes ago when they just started practicing after getting the script. Up until that point, she wasn’t nervous at all. Her teacher told her that she didn’t need to worry because she would be picked without a doubt, and she had the confidence as well. She had already tried acting as several minor characters with lines in other dramas as well.

However, the moment she saw that man move and say his lines, she felt a sense of wariness. At first, she thought that he was being an annoyance, like a new trainee who just shrieked but can’t even act properly, but when his emotions heightened and color started appearing in his acting, her thoughts changed entirely. That man had voiced just enough, and that voice had the power to make the imaginary into reality.

She would absolutely get picked thanks to her connections? She looked at the woman next to her. If that woman was as good as the man who was practicing officer Park right now, then she would lose the role. That was how good the man’s acting was. His skills in bringing the world inside the script into reality were something else.

Actually, it was rather embarrassing to act so naturally in front of people she had seen for the first time. That was why she muttered in a small voice, even if it meant muffling her words. She changed her mind when she saw the man acting with his whole body. That was when the audition venue turned noisy. One person managed to change everyone’s attitude.

“Let’s stop here for today. Please wait just a bit.” Director Cha left the room.

Seungah stood on tiptoes before coming down to shake off the residue from her acting. The atmosphere in the room became calm again, bringing about an awkward silence. She looked around the empty room for a while before approaching the man.

“You were really good back there.”

She tried talking to him.

After Story 48

“I was a bit loud, wasn’t I?”

“Uhm, just a little?”

Seungah immediately laughed after saying those words.

“I was joking. You weren’t loud. Still, it was rather peculiar. The auditions I’ve been to until now were mostly person by person, and even when in groups like this, we usually stayed quiet before acting.”

“I got into the wrong habit so I can’t get a feel of things if I read quietly. That’s why it’s quite messy when I practice.”

“So what? There’s no one who’d ask an actor to practice quietly.”

Seungah sat next to the man, intending to chat with him until director Cha came back. She wanted to know how much experience he had, what acting school he went to, and what kind of practice he did. From what she saw, this man’s acting skills were extraordinary. While there might be various standards to judge acting, she believed that the power to draw in the viewer was the most important.

The man managed to attract the eyes of everyone present. Was it talent? Or was it a product of effort? She wanted to know.

“This is our first meeting, right?”

“I don’t remember meeting you anywhere, so probably.”

“That’s strange. If you’re this good, it shouldn’t be strange to have run into you at some other audition.”

“This is my first drama audition.”

“Really? So you’re in a theater troupe, huh.”

While rare in recent years, she had heard that there were people who joined theater troupes at a young age to learn acting. They would start by cleaning the theater, then selling tickets, then playing minor roles, then leading roles. Now that she looked at it, she felt like she could see the experience on his face. Though, that might be just because she had seen his immersive acting.

“I don’t belong to a theater troupe.”

“Oh, a college student then. You’re doted on by your professors, aren’t you?”

The man smiled with his nose twitching. He seemed to be saying no. She clicked her fingers. Now there was only one option.

“You’re gaining experience and entering a college later, right? I’ve seen some people do that in acting schools. There are many field actors who join theater departments after debuting too. Which acting school is it? If it’s in Gangnam, it wouldn’t be strange if we ran into each other before.”

While there were many people who tried to become one, a very extreme minority succeeded in the actor market. As such, the ones who were pretty good in acting schools would be quite famous.

She had never heard the name Maru before. Maybe he was learning in an acting school that wasn’t in Gangnam.

“I’ve never been to an acting school either.”

She missed again. At this point, she couldn’t back out. She rummaged through her mind to ask questions to narrow down the answer.

Oh, there was one more. She thought about the easiest method to become an actor in the recent era. She was so focused on the occupation of actors that she had forgotten. There was one job that could easily acquire the title of actor despite not being an actor.

“You’re preparing to be an idol, right?”

The man wasn’t that good-looking to remind her of an idol. But, he didn’t look too bad either. If she had to pick, his face looked like he was the ‘main vocalist’? He should be the type to win over the stage with his talent rather than his looks.

“Twenty-two is a little too late to be an idol these days. Also, I don’t think a face like this would work. Look at the people who appear on TV these days. They are all people who might slap actors in the face in terms of appearance, so if someone like me is among them, I’ll just look bad.”

She thought as she listened to the man’s words: He wasn’t an idol trainee either? He wasn’t acting learning in college either, wasn’t affiliated with a theater troupe, and didn’t have experience going to an acting school.

There shouldn’t be zero cases like that. There were bound to be people who recklessly charged head-on wherever they were.

If the man showed terrible acting, then she would’ve just stopped thinking about it. Seungah looked the man straight in the face and asked,

“Then where did you learn acting?”

The man, who had been answering her smoothly until now, hesitated this time. His eyes were headed to the ceiling. It was just as she was thinking that it was rather strange since her question wasn’t something difficult,

“From here and there.”

“Where is here and there?”

He might think of her as a persistent woman, but she was purely curious. It was genuine curiosity. Just what did he learn from to possess so much absorptive power at a similar age to her?

“Dramas and movies. YouTube videos also helped out.”

“You’re saying that’s how you practiced acting?”

“I could see the best instructors right in front of me. Is there any other way to see such realistic acting from famous actors that anyone would know?”

“You’re not wrong, but…”

She felt like she just heard ‘I studied mainly from textbooks and went to Harvard.’ There was no logical flaw in that. After all, the media that the best actors in the era did their best in were dramas and films. It was a method to look at the essence of acting up close, so it was not wrong to say that they were the best instructors.

Still, that didn’t feel right. Her lips twitched.

“That’s it?”

She had a hunch. The man’s rolling eyes told her that he was hiding a secret. Perhaps he was taking an amazing acting class that he wanted to hide?

“Actually, I have memories of my previous lives. I have memories of being an actor, so I benefited from that.”

She blinked a few times before chuckling.

“Fine. I’ll stop asking.”

“It’s true.”

“Oh yeah, sure.”

The man ended up throwing out a joke since she kept asking despite him telling her the truth.

“Oh, right. We don’t know each other’s names yet. If things work out, we might be working together. I’m Choi Seungah. I heard the director call you Mr. Maru before.”

“I’m Han Maru.”

“That’s a good stage name. Maru, it sticks to the mouth.”

“It’s my real name.”

“Really?”

“Yes.”

Seungah looked at Maru, who was scratching his cheeks. This man was outside her expectations in every part. It was interesting. He didn’t gloat at the compliments, and he didn’t act too humble either. She liked that as well.

“I’m twenty-two as well, so since we’re at it, should we drop the honorifics?”

“Okay. Being more comfortable should be better.”

Just then, director Cha returned to the room.

“Sorry to make you wait. Someone was looking for me, so it took a little longer than expected. Let me get this out the way first, but you all showed good acting. You all have unique traits, so I’m sure you’ll become good actors in the future. As for the roles, you’ll be contacted in three days at the earliest, or a week at the latest. Thank you all for coming.”

After saying those words, director Cha put his phone against his ear and left the room. Seungah placed the script in her hand on the table. She felt quite good about the audition, so it shouldn’t be that bad to have some hopes.

She returned the way she arrived and headed to the lounge on the 1st floor. On the elevator down, the participants exchanged greetings. Good work, see you next time, and the like.

Amidst the scattering participants, she looked for Maru.

“Hey, Han Maru!”

Maru stopped in front of the rotating door.

“Do you have an appointment?”

“No.”

“Then let’s kill some time together. I don’t have anything to do either.”

She couldn’t just send off this interesting fellow who supposedly learned acting through the TV. She also wanted to have a talk with someone around the same age who took the same audition as well. The fact that he was someone unfamiliar to her was also rather good. She felt like she could talk about some stories that she couldn’t be open about with her friends.

“I won’t take too much time.”

He didn’t answer, so she added that. Maru nodded and left through the door. Seungah also left the building.

“Aren’t you hungry?”

Seungah pointed at the food trucks lined up on the road in front of the TV station; There was fresh fruit juice, coffee, paninis, and steaks. She couldn’t just pass them by.

“Let’s buy something and go to the nearby park. The weather’s good too.”

After negotiation, they decided to buy paninis. She waved her hands in dismissal at Maru who was taking out some money from his wallet.

“I’m the one who asked you to hang out with me, so why are you paying?”

She handed the food truck owner some money and ordered two cheese-bulgogi paninis, not forgetting to act cute and ask for some extras.

Coffee was a must with some hot panini. They bought some coffee from the next truck over. Maru paid for the coffee. She said she would pay for it, but he did not put the money back in his wallet.

“I said I’ll buy it for you.”

“Earning food from someone without reason usually ends in something bad from my experience.”

“How stingy.”

She found the rather upright part about him rather cute. They went to the city park. They took a seat on the bench under a tree. Sunlight scattered through various leaves fell on her hands. The breeze was cool and the sun wasn’t so hot. It was the perfect weather for a picnic.

“So you’re in a college theater department?” Maru asked. It seemed that he was pretty hungry as he had finished half of his panini in that short time.

When she looked at the halved panini, Maru said that it had been a long time since he ate something like this because he was on a diet.

“I was preparing to get into college, but I decided to put it off. I met my instructor at that time.”

“Instructor?”

“My acting teacher who helped me make the most important choice in my life. I was studying acting in order to get into college, but I changed course after meeting my instructor. I was cast in a drama too. I didn’t appear that much, but it became a major turning point in my life.”

“Oh, you’re a senior with at least 3 years of experience then, huh?”

“To be precise, I’m in my 4th year. Of course, I didn’t appear in anything after that. Instead, I shot a few commercials though.”

“So you were a star.”

Maru joked around with an indifferent expression. Seungah put her mouth on her straw. When she made her debut as a supporting character, she thought that she would grow up to be successful just like many other star child actors. She had heard many times that it was difficult to become an actor, but she believed that she wasn’t related to that. Only after two years did she admit that she had a long way to go.

“How was it in your eyes?” Seungah asked as she looked at the tip of a tree branch. It was a question she never asked her acquaintances.

“What do you mean?”

“What else could it be? I mean my acting. How did it look to you? Do you think I have promise as an actor?”

“If I don’t say you aren’t good, then does that make you not good?”

“Maybe.”

“Then I’ll say you show promise. You have plenty of the potential to be an actress.”

“That’s quite the flattery. Tell me more realistically. I’m asking you because you don’t have to be conscious of my responses. I don’t say these things to people around me. I end up interpreting their answer in a negative way whether they encourage me or criticize me.”

“There’s a reason you bought me this alright. I shouldn’t have bought the coffee. The cost of this kind of consultation is pretty steep.”

Maru crumpled the packaging paper and put it on his right.

“Strictly speaking, anyone can become an actor. That elderly man over there, and that kid over there can do it even. If you’re asking if you can become an actor that sells well, then I cannot answer that. Only God can answer that. No, I’m pretty sure God will find it puzzling too.”

He leaned forward and drank some of the coffee.

“But if you still need something objective, then I didn’t dislike your acting. That’s a pretty important thing. You look like you’ve been diligently learning. I like how you didn’t try to show too much at once. If there’s something lacking, then it’s your hand gestures. I’m not sure if you know this, but your hand gestures are awkward. You looked like you didn’t know what to do with your hands. In my case, that happens when my thoughts are divided. I have to say my lines, hold my expression, and think about what’s coming next. The moment your head becomes complex, it will show up through your body.”

Seungah slowly turned around. It was similar to what her instructor told her: You forget how to use your body if you lose focus, fix it. The instructor told her that she had to move her body intentionally to bring the subconscious into the consciousness.

“You’re… sharp.”

Was it a coincidence? Or was it so awkward that a beginner could catch it? Whatever the case may be, the advice was rather unsettling.

Half of her wanted consolation, while the other half wanted a strict rebuke, but Maru’s words patted her mood.

“Whatever it is, it takes time. Don’t give up becoming an actress midway. If you keep doing it, you’ll find that you’ve become an actress,” Maru said with a smile.

After Story 49

If you keep doing it, you’ll find that you’ve become an actress.

They were words that gently pushed her on. They were also words that told her that her efforts until now had not been in vain.

She had heard similar encouragement from other people a few times, but this was the first time she felt relieved. For some reason, she felt like tearing up.

Seungah fanned herself with her hands to blow away the heat, along with her urge to cry.

"Would you like some more of this?" Seungah offered him half of the panini. She felt like she would start crying if they stayed silent like this. Crying in front of a man she had met for the first time today was something she felt like she must not do.

"They say it's zero calories if you enjoy it."

She handed the panini directly into Maru's hands. She even smiled slightly. The twinging sensation in her nose died down.

Seungah wiped her eyes while pretending to yawn. When she was young, she was quick to cry. Even during middle school, she would sometimes cry in secret from her friends while reading a short novella in the textbook.

She felt like she was being too childish and thus started holding back her tears from some time onwards. When she kept doing it, it became momentum.

She thought that it was a good thing. It was better than bursting out crying all of a sudden.

She looked at the sky while drinking the rest of the coffee.

She had forgotten. The tears she shed in her immaturity consoled her quite a lot. She took a deep breath before spitting it out. She felt more refreshed than ever.

"I'm going to become a good actress. No one can stop me," she said with a grin and looked at Maru.

Maru told her with some food in his mouth, which caused a muffled voice, to do her best.

"Hey, did you really just practice while watching TV?"

"Do you want another answer?"

"If there is, sure. If you know how to improve your acting in a short period of time, then don't keep it to yourself and tell me."

"Do you think such a method really exists?"

Seungah shook her head. "Probably not."

"There you have it. There's no other method than learning step by step just like studying. That's why it's hard."

"Should I call you a prodigy for doing such a thing so well by yourself?"

"There are loads of people better than me at acting. What prodigy."

Maru stood up with the empty cup and the wrapping paper.

"From how you're going back to something we talked about before, I think it's about time to go home."

"Already? But you said you don't have anything to do today. Let's talk some more as fellow auditioners."

"I don't have an appointment, but I do have things to do."

"Things to do? Like what?"

"What do you think it is?" Maru threw the trash into the bin.

Seungah looked at Maru for a while before standing up. She received the answer through his eyes. What else could it be? Practice, of course.

She thought about her lesson room. She pictured herself practicing in front of the mirror. She felt like she could achieve a satisfactory act without hiccups today.

"Feel better now?"

Seungah stopped for a moment and looked at Maru who walked ahead. He looked like he knew every single complex thought in her mind. His mind was pretty sharp and in a way, similar to her instructor's.

"Yeah. I feel very good."

She took a step as she responded. Her footsteps were as cheerful as the weather.

* * *

Cha Myungjoon left the seat to his junior and left the TV station with his cardigan, wallet, and the SD card with the audition footage in it.

"Sir. I'm outside,” Myungjoon said politely into his phone. Not to mention actors, this man was a great senior respected by the absolute majority in the industry, so he couldn’t help but change his tone.

-Wait a little. I’ll be there soon too.

Not long later, he found an elderly man walking over with bags in each hand. Myungjoon lightly rushed over to the elderly.

“Sir.”

“Have you waited for a long time?”

“No, I just had some business to attend to as well.”

“That’s good. Here, take this.”

Myungjoon took the bags from him. They were quite weighty. Through the gaps in the bag, he saw glistening glass bottles. They contained green plum extract which this elder always made around this season of the year.

“The green plum harvest was good this year as well. Share them with the people at the office.”

“Did you make them yourself this time as well?”

“I hand-picked the prettiest ones.”

“They are so precious, and yet you give them to us every time.”

“No, they’re not. Anyway, is president Park here?”

“He’s not here today. He went to Daejeon because of business.”

“Then you give this to president Park later, director Cha. But hey, you should have younger people below you for errands like this, don’t you?”

“I don’t dare brag in front of you. Call me anytime. Also, there’s a rumor that receiving green plum extracts from you is a symbol of luck. Why do you think I’m here?”

“I’d be happy if you think so.”

The elderly man dusted his hands and laughed. Myungjoon looked at the facial features under the white hair in admiration. The term ‘old gentleman’ was probably made for this man. Each and every wrinkle contained coolness. He acted as an evil politician with that heavy, yet gentle-looking face of his to get two awards last year.

Despite being over seventy, he was a field actor who still displayed passionate acting.

His speech at the ceremony invoked a hot response from the internet.

My respectable juniors, how long are you going to give this old man this award? Please take it away. Obtain it for yourself. I’m sure you can do it.

It was a stroke of fortune that he was able to work with such a man for his work this time.

“Where are you going?”

“I should go home now and walk the pups. Oh, right. How are the preparations going? This is the director’s debut drama and the writer’s debut piece too. There’s also not a lot of outsourcing as well, so I’m sure your superiors are giving you a bad eye.”

“Even if you didn’t tell me that, my mouth feels dry all day and my teeth hurt. This is my first piece that I’ve been looking forward to this whole time, but I never knew it would be such a hassle.”

“Dramas are all about directions. You should finish all the headache-inducing things before the shoot. I’m sure you know better than me, but you won’t have any time to use your head once the shoot begins.”

“Of course, I know very well. That’s why I’m doing as much as I can so that I won’t run into trouble. I’d be in great trouble if I misstep with you on board, sir.”

“Well, I don’t really care if you misstep or not since I get paid by the TV station.”

The great senior smiled. Myungjoon knew that it was a joke in order to relieve the tension.

“You said you had business to do, right? I almost held back a busy man.”

“It’s not that urgent. I just have something I want to consult writer Kang about. We held an audition today for some minor roles with quite a bit of significance. I don’t really have great eyes yet, so I’m going to make the decision after discussing it with writer Kang.”

“That’s good. A drama is bound to fail if the writer and the director start fighting over something. But they can’t yield too much to each other either. Try setting a suitable line. This is your debut piece, so you can be a little greedy.”

“I’ll do as much as my stamina allows me to.”

“Of course, you should. If you ever want to complain to someone, then give me a call. This old man will listen to everything since I’m bored and have nothing to do.”

He bowed deeply to the senior who left. Each and every word of his was golden. It was advice that came from experience.

Myungjoon returned to his office and put down the green plum extract. People soon flocked over. Everyone brought over their water bottles upon hearing the news of the old man’s green plum extract.

“I’m sure he’ll become hugely successful with this alone even if he quits acting.”

“With that nature of his, he’s bound to succeed in whatever he does. He would earn millions of won per lecture if he ever holds one, but he teaches salarymen classes for free. I would never be able to do that.”

“He can do that because he’s someone who loves acting. Anyway, the green plum extract is amazing this year as well. The ones they sell in markets are too sweet, but his extract has a deep flavor. Yoon Moonjoong Green Plum Extract. I think this is a great business item.”

“Hey, hey. Don’t take too much. This is a precious bottle made by a great senior. Let’s not take too much.”

Myungjoon also poured some of the green plum extract into his insulated water bottle and then poured some water as well. The sweet and sour scent that rose up indicated to him that an awesome green plum tea had been made.

“Don’t drink it all and leave some behind for others,” Myungjoon said to the seniors and juniors surrounding the green plum extract before he left. Now he had to meet writer Kang. He drove his car and headed to writer Kang’s house.

* * *

They couldn’t look happier. Kang Hyojung looked at the chicken in the cages on TV. If they were the ordinary kind where they could only stick their heads out from a very small cramped space to eat, then she wouldn't have been so envious.

She was envious because the chicken could freely roam around in a wide cage and cry and eat whenever they wanted to.

“Yeah, that’s happiness, alright.”

It had been eight years since she decided to become a writer. It was already 8 years ago when she received her first lesson at the drama writer’s association. Since then, many things have happened.

She rejoiced after winning her first spot in a documentary and then spent every day like she was in hell when she was a support writer for a drama.

As a result of enduring until now, she was now finally able to air a drama under her own name. She was happy. Her dream had come true.

However, hell unfolded the moment her dreams met reality. She had to edit her script after the item was decided, after she interviewed someone in the field, and after she came up with ideas.

It was something that she wrote, but curiously, it became more and more unfamiliar to her as time passed.

She watched TV for a long while, escaping from reality, before giving her vibrating phone a glance. Was there a person that would call her at this time? Honestly, she didn’t want to pick up. If the vibration stopped midway, she would’ve kept watching TV without minding it. She put her phone, which kept ringing, against her ear. She didn’t even see who it was.

“Hello?”

-Writer, it’s me.

She sat up the moment she heard the voice. It was producer Cha Myungjoon. Why would he call now? Did her allotment in the schedule turn into naught? Or did he not like something? Was she supposed to change episode one entirely?

All sorts of ‘what ifs’ floated around in her head.

-Writer?

“Ah, yes, director. Please speak.”

-Are you unwell? You cannot be unwell. There are three months left now. It will be the first episode in three months, so I can’t have you get sick at this point.

From the look of things, it seemed like the project wasn’t turned over. People were peculiar creatures. Just 10 minutes ago, she hated everything and wanted to quit, but now, she was worried that the production of her drama might not happen. She collected herself and spoke,

“Of course. I’ll be healthy. I’m healthy now too. But why have you called?”

-You told me last time. You said you had a minor character that you were hesitating over how to create. I held an audition this time. I think it’ll help you in writing if you see these actors, so I’m on my way to you right now.

“R-right now?”

-Yes. We agreed that we’ll decide on everything together. We decided to hit a jackpot on our first piece, so we should work our best. Are you outside at the moment?

“No, I’m at home right now.”

-If it’s not okay with you at your home, should we meet at a nearby café?

Hyojung looked around her living room. It wasn’t that dirty. She and director Cha wrote a plan last time in this place as well. She wasn’t at an age where she was uncomfortable about bringing a man to her house either.

“No, please, come.”

-Okay then.

Character, huh? Hyojung scratched her head and stood up.

After Story 50

“You’ve been to the studio, haven’t you?” producer Cha asked as he picked up the teacup. Hyojung nodded as she sat down on the sofa.

“I went there a few days ago.”

“How was it?”

“Good. It was almost good enough to live in.”

“You’ll be living there once the program goes on air. You’re someone who works better outside your home.”

“I think that’s what will happen too.”

The studio prepared by the Tv station was filled with a few pieces of furniture, and the walls had gray wallpaper, creating a relaxing atmosphere. She had tested bringing her laptop there to write, and she felt like she could write smoothly without distractions or stopping.

“I think you’ll have one assistant writer. I tried to get two, but the people handling the budget were quite petty.”

“You can’t help it. I also had to write a separate contract from the main writer when I worked as an assistant. But still, at least I get one. That’s better than none.”

“If you have someone in mind later, then tell me. I’ll sign the contract with that person. As for the payment, it’ll be about 800 thousand.”

“800 huh?”

Hyojung wrapped her hand around her teacup.

“How strange. I got paid 400 when I worked as an assistant writer. I got paid that and had to commute to the writer’s house to bring her child home, clean the house, and even go grocery shopping. Back then, I thought that I would most definitely pay my assistant writers a full salary and have them only do things related to writing. But now that I actually saw the manuscript fee contract, I can’t do as I wish.”

3 million won per episode. The money that she would earn from the 16-episode miniseries was definitely not small. It was insignificant compared to star writers who broke records with everything they wrote and talked about selling licensing to Japan, but it was a night and day difference compared to when she was an assistant writer. It was not a small amount, but she didn’t dare think about getting another assistant writer with this money. If the TV station didn’t give her an assistant writer, she might have had to do this by herself.

Even the total of nearly 50 million won manuscript fee felt quite small when she considered that she might not be able to do another work for a few years.

"That's how everyone is. That's why everyone's trying to raise their own worth by writing good things. Ultimately this comes down to business after all; it is both a cultural business and drama business."

"Right. It'd be a big trouble to do art with someone else's money. When I was young, I dreamed of writing a perfect piece from beginning to end, but I don't wish for that anymore. That's a dream only someone who reached the top could have. No, even top-tier writers can't do as they wish in this industry. No one can act superior in front of viewing rates."

"Still, someone on the level of writer Park Misook must be able to do as she wishes."

"But she's the godmother of this industry. I looked at a recent article saying that she's getting 90 million per episode."

"90 million, huh? That's about the same as the annual salary of general managers at decent companies. Considering all the other things she'll be getting, it must be huge."

Whether she liked it or not, everything came down to money. Hyojung also wanted to become a writer who could sell well. The winds blowing in the drama-writer world were too fierce to live with the dreams and hopes of a literature girl.

Before the proposal went through, she was worried every day that the drama might halt, and once the proposal did go through, she was worried about getting enough budget, and once she were to finish the drama, she would have to worry about when she would be doing her next piece.

If she wanted to endure the chilling winds of worries, she had to have a refuge, and the most important factor in creating that refuge was money.

Money — it was a target of hatred, as well as aspiration.

"We should do well with our piece this time so that both you and I can raise our worth."

After gulping down the remaining tea in an instant, director Cha took out something from his pocket. What was on the table was an SD card and a card reader.

"This is the audition video I told you about before I came here. This is something that I can decide on my own, but since this is the first time for both of us, I'd like to listen to your opinion as well for most of the things. If you don't want to be bothered with things like this, I'll take care of everything on my end next time."

"No, it's okay. It'd be exhausting if I have to listen to every detail, but characters are something I am telling you about. You said they're doing the lines of officer Park and Jaeyeon, right?"

"Yes. Officer Park will be especially important. It'll be the first murder that appears in the story."

"The ones I saw last time were pretty good."

"These are the last candidates, so let's decide today after watching this. But once you watch it, only one of them will catch your eye. Well, if you and I have similar preferences that is."

"So there was an actor you liked?"

"He was overwhelming, at least among the people here."

She opened her laptop and inserted the card reader. She played back the videos on the SD card with her video program.

Along with some white noise, a man appeared. Director Cha's voice could be heard outside the frame, telling him to start once he was ready.

"He's good-looking."

"He's preparing to become an idol, apparently. These days, idol trainees are trained in acting as well. Younger and younger people will keep appearing, and they'll have a hard time being idols once they're in their late 20s, so they get prepared early."

"Idols are hard to ignore these days too. There are so many good people."

"Tell me about it. They actually have a lot of tenacity in them, so they improve rapidly. I mean, they do have to digest difficult choreography, singing, and hellish schedules."

Hyojung looked at the acting of the man on the screen. It didn't look bad. It didn't look too off, and his diction of the lines was good as well. Based on acting alone, it was a pity to use him as a minor actor.

"How is he?"

"He's good, but no good."

"I'm of the same opinion. First of all, he doesn't have that detective vibe. I mean, not all criminal investigators are buff and muscular, but he's too skinny, isn't he?"

"I imagined him standing alongside the other actors. He doesn't fit. He also pops out a little too much. I want an amicable image."

"Good. We agree on that."

Hyojung moved her mouse to click the next video, but director Cha told her to wait and told her to click on the file after that.

"Let's look at the middle one later. For now, this one first."

It seemed that the actor director Cha chose was in the middle. Hyojung clicked on the next video over. As soon as she saw it, she said that it was okay. He looked pretty young, with eyes full of mischief. He gave off a good impression to cover the 'youngest member' image.

Outside lead actors, the actors' impression was more important than their acting skills. This was especially the case for officer Park, who would show the moment of death very clearly. If that innocent-looking face was colored in shock, it would definitely grab the attention of the viewers.

"I like him. I think he'll fit into the story well. His acting is decent as well."

"Yes. I agree. Let's look at the last one."

Director Cha was filled with confidence. From what she could tell of him, he was someone with clear likes and dislikes. His explanation of something or someone would be very long when he was talking about something he had taken a liking to. Yet, even such a person just told her to watch without explaining anything.

How much must he have liked this person to urge her to this extent? She opened the file with a lot of expectations.

Unlike the previous videos, this one had a lot of noise. She could tell what the situation was immediately. This was a video that was taken during practice before the test actually started. The two men she had watched moved past the screen. She could also see two women.

The camera kept moving until it stopped when it focused on the man standing in the corner. The way he concentrated while looking at the script was pretty serious. His eyes were fixed, and his lips kept moving non-stop.

The man, who was absorbed in his script, loosened his hands. He closed his eyes slightly and kept breathing slowly. Unlike the previous two men, his first impression was only about 70 points. His contours were a little too distinct. His eyes were also sharper compared to the two men before. He was a face suited for a criminal investigation drama, but not for officer Park. He was suited to be a veteran detective rather than a new recruit.

No, he was too young, so a veteran role was no good either. She had been mistaken for a moment because he looked to be full of experience despite being young.

She never knew she'd feel a sense of experience from a young man who only looked to be about twenty-three.

What did director Cha like about this actor? Based on impression alone, the second actor was actually better, which meant that he fell for this man due to his acting. Hyojung crossed her arms. Just how good was his acting for him to prioritize this man's acting over the other man's appearance?

The man's mouth opened. His words were light like he was joking around. She thought that he was pretty good. Above everything, his voicing was stable. He felt a lot weightier compared to the two people before. It wasn't a weight that made a character feel heavy, but a voice that turned the character more three-dimensional and realistic.

Still, it was such a pity. Appearances were just that hard to beat.

She glanced at director Cha. He was pointing at the screen as though telling her to wait for the good bit.

The man was changing his tone. He jerked his body a few times before fixing his expression entirely.

It felt messy. He looked incredibly unstable. The sense of weight he gave off disappeared, making his entire character rather faint. She frowned at the terrible acting.

It was when she was seriously thinking about whether she had to doubt director Cha's judgment that there was a change. The emotions that were all over the place started returning to the right places.

His rather deep voice now reached a level that reminded her of officer Park. It didn't feel forced at all and instead felt natural. Even the lines that did not have any character started to have color.

His messy lines and actions were a preparatory step for finding the traits of the character? Officer Park was being constructed like he was being built from all the right pieces. The moment she saw the finished product, Hyojung forgot about the two people she watched before.

"Just seeing that made me think that this is the guy. But there's still more."

More — Hyojung remembered that there was the death scene. The mischievous officer Park flinched backward into a corner. There was another moment of recreation.

The space that was noisy like the middle of the market turned silent in an instant. The other participants that were making noise due to their own practice had turned silent. While it wasn't on screen, Hyojung could tell that they must all be looking at the man in the corner, having forgotten that they were supposed to be practicing.

The man called 'senior Kang' once and stood up with his expression composed. He seemed like he didn't like something. The fear-stricken face changed. The mischievous officer Park had returned. A bold light circulated in his eyes. His interpretation of the character had changed; it had changed from being stricken with fear in the beginning, from getting stricken with fear while facing the killer.

Every one of his expressions and actions was delicate. She knew what the situation was like prior to and after this scene, so maybe it came even clearer to her, but she could see that this man was trying to catch the intent of the writer. She was very excited to see the actor dig deeper into the world of her writing. She felt like she was being praised.

Hyojung locked her fingers and focused on the screen. She could picture officer Park facing off against the killer. Officer Park, who was calling senior Kang with confidence, eventually seemed to have realized that the situation wasn't in his favor and started backing off.

As he staggered away, he fell over. He crawled on the floor like he was pushed to the edge of a cliff. The mischievous, bold officer Park became pathetic in the face of death.

Death without a scream arrived. Officer Park clutched his stomach and curled up. His eyes looked like they were going to burst. She could see the blood vessels appear in his eyes. It was dynamic and realistic, so much so that she thought he was really stabbed.

The man who acted with all of his energy sat down on the floor like a calm man again. He seemed to have fallen in thought as though he felt he was insufficient.

She saw the man look at the camera at director Cha's voice. The video stopped there. Hyojung leaned back again. Then she spoke,

"I watched a performance of The King of Masks once before. I’m reminded of back then.”

She fixed her gaze on the man on the screen. A man of a thousand faces. She thought about the expression that was actually pretty common, but not used all that often.

After Story 51

“Then you should look for an assistant writer and call me when you find someone. If you can’t find any, we’ll introduce one to you.”

“Okay.”

Director Cha left.

Hyojung looked at the living room in a daze. It finally came to her that there wasn’t long left until the shoot. She wished to finish the scripts for all the episodes right now, but that was impossible considering the traits of dramas. She had to insert ads, and above all, she had to check the responses from the viewers.

At first glance, dramas may look like unidirectional media, but it was in truth bilateral media where the opinions of the viewers mattered the most after the core main storyline. It was impossible to predict anything before the drama actually aired. The reality was that the character she put so much effort into may disappear amidst the disinterest of the viewers, while a character she didn’t put much effort into may receive a lot of love. If the public wanted, she had to adjust the significance of the characters while not influencing the ending. Only then would the viewing rates increase.

She sat down on the sofa. She looked at the videos that producer Cha copied into her main drive. It was incredible even when she watched it a second time. Despite the fact that he wasn’t acting on a proper set, she could picture a dark and gloomy warehouse thanks to the vivid expressions on his face. She felt like it was a pity even, as officer Park was a character that would be thrown away as a plot device to bring tension into the drama.

Hyojung pulled up a word document and placed her hands on the keyboard. She couldn’t change the fact that officer Park would die in episode 3. That wasn’t something she could touch. Instead, she decided to retouch his appearance so that the viewers could sympathize with the character known as officer Park; and also so that his death would come as an even bigger shock.

Her fingers felt light as she typed on the keyboard. After writing without any blocks, she tried picturing the scene in her mind. The edit didn’t take that long. She started editing the script she had written beforehand, restraining herself so that she wouldn’t change too much. As pitiful as it was, officer Park was a minor character, a role that had to be sacrificed for the story, and the lead characters.

She added quite a lot of emotion in the last scene. She changed it so that he wasn’t simply just a bridge that connects to the next case. She made it so that the character itself would be emphasized a little more.

“That looks good.” She took her hands off the keyboard.

What was left now was to consult with director Cha. He would probably say okay as well.

Hyojung stretched her neck from side to side and stood up, imagining how the viewers would react in episode 3.

* * *

“I’m off.” Bada left, checking if she hadn’t forgotten anything in front of the shoe cabinet. When she went down the stairs and walked past the glass door, she felt her heart pounding.

She took a deep breath, holding it in for a moment, before letting it out. The sense of nervousness below her navel had not changed. Maybe she should take some calming pills?

I’m going to be okay — Bada muttered to herself in a small voice as she headed to the bus stop. On her way to her destination, she closed her eyes and kept practicing the acting she had prepared in her mind.

Hey, have you heard? I heard that Dayeon fought with the professor.

She saw a tip on the internet, which told her that she should produce a natural and relaxing situation if she wasn’t requested to do anything in an audition. Bada had adapted something that she had experienced herself and turned it into a skit. When she acted while recalling the emotions she felt back then, it looked pretty decent.

As for the second, she prepared a skit where she was getting scolded at home. While ‘scolded’ only consisted of a small scuffle with her mother, she also planned a dynamic acting skit that involved high-pitched voices, which she planned to use in the audition if the judges didn’t find it enough. She was still awkward when it came to expressing her anger, so she was only planning to do it when she was asked to.

Having arrived at Gangnam, Bada checked the time and went to the nearby convenience store. As the weather had gotten pretty cool since the start of October, the heating cabinet was right next to the counter. She took out some warm honey tea from it. When her hands touched the warmth, she felt like her racing heart was calming down somewhat.

There was about an hour left until the audition. Bada sat down under the parasol in front of the convenience store and polished her acting. In her imagination, she was able to perform nearly perfectly, but the problem was that the ideal performance was shattered the moment anything escaped her mouth.

She repeated her skit again and again. Even when she had a look at the internet, she did not find a way to increase acting skills in a short period of time. The only method was to practice with all of her energy.

She found that 40 minutes had passed already. The honey tea she bought from the convenience store had cooled as well.

“Let’s do this, Han Bada.”

She intentionally spoke out loud to console herself. Until just a few months ago, she had never been afraid of standing in front of other people, but ever since she started preparing to become an actress, that had changed. She realized in an audition that other people’s gazes could hit her like blunt weapons. Their eyes were completely different when she was doing presentations in class. It was hard to receive them calmly.

She gripped the honey tea bottle and tossed it in the trash, putting all the worries that eroded her head inside the bottle. She started walking boldly. She straightened her shoulders and smiled at everyone she came across. The passersby looked at her like she was someone strange, but she did not mind. She was going to throw away all of her shame and embarrassment on the streets.

The embarrassment didn’t last long, and she was able to greet people coming toward her like it was nothing. Most of them either avoided her gaze, misunderstood her, or turned back to look at her, but some of them responded to her with cheerful smiles. Each of those smiles empowered her. She felt like they were encouraging her.

Bada stopped walking and raised her head. Her head was directed at the only big building of over 5 stories on a street filled with single-floor cafés.

Hansol Entertainment — she was drawn to the signboard up at the top.

Hansol started off as an idol agency and started raising actors starting three years ago.

Chahoon and Lee Jiyoung — the two actors that received a lot of attention in the drama industry both belonged to this agency. Naturally, the attention it received in various internet communities was quite high. While it couldn’t be compared to auditions of large agencies, it was definitely an opportunity that she could not miss as an aspiring actress.

Bada shook her body lightly. This was an audition held by an agency that produced two rising stars. The competition was naturally high, and she handed in her application light-heartedly thinking that it would be a miracle to pass the first round, but she actually ended up reaching the offline audition. Since she came all the way here, she wanted to pass.

“Look at all those people.” She heard a voice from behind.

Bada looked at the entrance of the building. Various young men and women were entering the building. Even from the outlines of their heads, she could see that they were good-looking.

So she had to compete against those people? She took out her concealer from her bag. She applied it to the pimple on her forehead and chin before checking the mirror. She was usually confident in her skin, but she always had skin troubles prior to auditions.

She clicked her tongue and entered the building. There was an announcement on the wall: the audition is on the 3rd floor.

Bada joined the wave of people and went to the 3rd floor.

“Those of you that just arrived, please come this way.”

The moment she saw the woman who smiled and waved her hand, Bada was inwardly amazed. That woman looked like she must have heard ‘you should be a model’ several times. Her beauty was qualitatively different. Maybe idol agencies take appearance into account when recruiting office workers?

“Miss Han Bada, right? You’re here.”

Bada smiled back at the employee who smiled at her. She couldn’t help but do so.

Her confidence suddenly plummeted. She kept consoling herself by saying that actors aren’t judged on looks, but now that she actually came across a beauty that was in a different league, she couldn’t help but smile in vain. Being good-looking and pretty was an enormous head start. This was an undeniable fact at least in the entertainment industry.

After getting a waiting number, she went to the waiting room. As this was an idol agency, there was a large training room, and that place was temporarily being used as a waiting room for today. The audition venue was the training room right opposite the waiting room. The employee explained to her that the audition will be held in the order of the waiting numbers.

Bada sat down on a seat placed against the wall. The other participants started entering one by one as well. She felt this again, but they all had faces with various characteristics. Not to mention neat-looking appearances, they each had a unique characteristic. Bada looked at the mirror wall. She examined herself with it.

Not bad. Not extremely good either, but it’s enough — she brought up her plummeting confidence.

She thought about her favorite actor. Among them were some people who managed to draw attention with not such a great appearance. Skills mattered more than appearance.

She started hearing various voices throughout the waiting room. Everyone had started practicing. She also collected herself and prepared to act. Sounds stacked on top of one another. Everyone was voicing out while not being so loud that they would turn the atmosphere messy.

She started enjoying herself a little. A nice sense of tension welled up within her. The audition for the large agency she saw before didn’t have an atmosphere like this. Every participant was given a sticker with a number on it on the back of their hands like they were on a conveyor belt in a factory before they entered the waiting room in turns.

Groups of ten would stand on stage and walk past the camcorder and act. The audition ended without any time to heat up, and she was notified that she didn’t make it.

Compared to back then, this was much better. She was going to hone her acting until the last moment and then stand in front of the judges.

It was when she was looking at her expression through the mirror and focused on acting that she saw a woman step into the waiting room. She was going to focus again after giving her a glance, but regardless of her will, her eyes were drawn to the woman again.

She was a beauty. One that was as beautiful as the employee that guided them here. If there was a difference, it was that the employee amazed her once and that was it, but with the woman that entered just now, she was still drawn towards her. When she thought about why, she realized that it was because of her eyes. Those eyes, brimming with leisure, kept drawing her in. The woman did not show a shred of nervousness that other participants consciously or subconsciously had. She looked relaxed like she had come out on a stroll. That didn’t mean that she looked arrogant, though. Cool was the impression she gave off.

She stared at her for a while, until she made eye contact with her. She tried to turn away in embarrassment, but she was a little too late. She smiled awkwardly and turned around. That woman must be thinking that she was a strange girl.

Bada shook off her thoughts and focused again. This was no time to look at others. She had to prepare meticulously since she was supposed to be competing against those people. She calculated everything from how she should say her greeting, whether she should do her skit sitting down or standing up, to how she should be using her arms and legs.

She was reminded of her brother’s words. While her brother was unreliable, he sounded like a different person when talking about acting. No, from his recent actions, he was truly a different person. While he told her to get used to it, she still felt rather awkward. Though, he was much better than before, when he used to be a jerk.

Just as she was pushing her focus to the maximum and putting on the best act in the training room…

“Hello.”

She turned around at the sudden greeting.

After Story 52

Bada looked in front of her. The woman she made eye contact with before was smiling and looking at her. When she looked at her from up close, she couldn't help but gasp in exclamation. Her skin, which she had confidence in, was nothing in front of her.

"Oh… hello," she responded awkwardly.

The woman smiled and sat down next to her. She could feel her gaze. Even though she felt that she must be overthinking, she glanced sideways. The woman was still staring at her, with a face full of mischief.

"Wh-what is it?"

She even stuttered because of the nervousness. The woman said nothing and waved her hand in dismissal. Just as she was thinking that she was one strange woman, a hand suddenly appeared from outside her vision.

"If you're feeling nervous, you should chew on this. Gum actually helps out a lot."

The woman handed her some chewing gum. She wondered what this was about but still received it. After all, she heard that it was helpful.

She looked at the woman while chewing on it. She looked delighted like she met an old friend from school.

"Do you know me?" she asked just in case. The woman shook her head.

What is this really? — She avoided the woman's gaze. Maybe she was someone who was overly friendly?

She found the woman's gaze landing on her name tag around her neck.

"You have a good name," said the woman.

It was a rather sudden compliment, but it didn't feel that bad. If she wasn't in an audition right now, she might have smiled back at her.

Bada also looked at the woman's name tag: Han Haneul. She had never heard of that name before.

"We'll be calling out numbers now. If I call you, you should come to the room on the opposite side," the employee said next to the door to the waiting room. It was finally time. This was no time for chitchat.

Bada smiled at the person next to her, signaling to her that they should focus on their own auditions. The woman didn't speak to her anymore.

She kept reminding herself of her lines so that she could do them reflexively. In the last audition, she wasn't able to start properly because of her nervousness. One of the judges told her not to get nervous, so it was natural that she didn't make it.

This time, she never stopped practicing with the resolve that she wanted to display everything she had.

"Numbers 46 to 50," said the employee.

Bada checked her name tag. The large '47' printed on it told her that it was time for her to go to battle. She took her stuff and stood up. The woman next to her also stood up. She didn't realize this until now, but that woman was number 50.

The way to the entrance felt quite long. She calmed down her breathing and organized her thoughts, thinking that she should greet the judges the moment she goes inside and then wait for the signal to act.

The employee stood in front of the door on the other side and spoke, "Go inside in order and the judges there will call your numbers. If you need a chair, then you should bring a chair, and if you don't need it, you can start on the spot."

The employee pointed at a cross on the floor marked with black electrical tape.

"Once you finish your acting, you just have to listen to the judges and step back. That's it. I'll be guiding you in once the group inside finishes, so you just have to wait," the employee continued in a small voice.

There seemed to be a signal from inside, as she directed them in. Bada walked behind number 46 and went inside. The first thing she saw was a large monitor, followed by a camera tripod set. Behind the camera stood a woman who seemed to be operating it.

Her eyes moved to the table. She found a man wearing rimless glasses. He seemed to be the judge. He had a soft-looking impression and didn't look like the harsh, rebuking type.

If the judge was someone whose eyes were lit on fire like the previous one, she would've been quite nervous.

"First of all, thank you for your application. If time allows it, I'd love to take my time to talk to every one of you, but as you can see, there are a lot of people to go through. Okay then. Don't be nervous and display the act you have prepared. No one's chasing you, so there's no need to hurry."

After scanning through the profiles, the judge called number 46. The man in front of her stepped forward. When the place next to her became vacant, she felt her mouth dry up. She felt like being first would be much better.

"Spit it out."

A hand suddenly appeared in front of her face again. She felt a sense of deja vu and looked next to her. The woman who was supposed to be on the other end had approached her.

Spit out what? When she thought about it, she finally noticed the chewing gum bothering her mouth.

Bada received the tissue given to her by number 50 — Haneul.

"Thank you."

"Just as the judge said, you should relax."

At that moment, the judge smiled and told everyone to be quiet.

"Sorry."

Before Bada could apologize, Haneul said so first. The person who looked out for her even apologized in her stead. She felt grateful, but at the same time, quite strange.

This person didn't have any debt toward her, so why would she do something like that?

Maybe it was because she said something out loud, but the pressure was relieved quite a bit. She thought about the skit she was going to do as she looked at number 46's act.

Number 46 sat down on a chair and lamented about his life choices. His expression that she could see on the monitor looked natural. She wondered how much he must have practiced.

"Your eyes look good. Can I see something more cheerful this time?" The judge requested something more.

The man immediately stood up. He changed his expression in an instant before heaving heavy breaths. He seemed to be acting out a situation just after playing a game of basketball. The judge raised his hand at number 46, who was acting while speaking in a cheerful tone.

"That's enough. Mr. Yoo Young, is it? Your transmission of lines is lacking when you purposefully roughen your breathing. I think you need more practice on that part. I liked everything else."

"Thank you."

This was quite a rare scene at auditions of large agencies. Usually, the participant would go down the stage without getting any evaluation, but the judge in front of them pointed out their problems, albeit short. An audition where they could hear the opinions of a professional was very valuable, even if it meant not passing.

"Next."

She made eye contact with the judge. Bada let out a short breath before stepping forward. When she stood on top of the cross mark, she could see her own face on the monitor to the right. Thanks to the expensive concealer, the pimple couldn't be seen. Brand-name products were good alright.

"You can begin now."

The judge's eyes then looked at her profile.

Bada loosened her shoulders first. It was time for her to display the act that she had repeated hundreds of times in her head.

"Our professor is really good, as long as he doesn't drag out his lines just before the lecture ends."

She felt good about this. Every one of her lines felt natural on her tongue. There was no shaking and even the distribution of her breathing was okay. She continued acting without being blocked by anything. She spoke as she practiced, gestured as she practiced, and put on expressions as practiced.

From some time onwards, she forgot that she was supposed to be acting. She spoke smoothly like she was speaking with her friends.

"You're full of confidence. I like that."

That was the first ever compliment she heard in an audition. She subconsciously thanked him. However, that was it. She wasn't asked to display something else like the man before her.

"Thank you for your performance. First of all, I really like your vivid expressions and confidence. However, I don't really understand what you're trying to show me. Acting should be natural, but at the same time, it needs character. Expressing facts as they are isn't really considered good acting in my book. I hope you can think a little more about the difference between good, okay, and what you can do well."

Bada stepped back as she reminded herself of the words that struck her ears. She immediately understood what the judge was trying to say. As unfortunate as it was, this seemed to be a failure as well. Still, it was good that she got something out of it. This would come in handy later for her next try.

The audition continued. Bada forgot about the result and watched the world of acting that was displayed in front of her. She paid attention to what her peer aspiring actors focused on, what their expressions were like, and how the judges looked at each participant.

Numbers 48 and 49 finished their acts. The two of them also displayed only one act before stepping back. The only one that received a request from the judge was number 46.

"Next."

Bada looked sideways. Haneul, who was standing at the end, stepped forward. The eyes of the other participants were colored in admiration. Based on appearance alone, she might be in the top three among the participants today.

If she was just pretty, then it wouldn't be so surprising, but Haneul had a charm that drew other people's eyes.

Charm — there was no more desirous word than that when preparing to become an actor.

She followed Haneul's back with her eyes. When she stood in the middle of the stage, her face was displayed on the monitor. Haneul's face was much more attractive on screen than in person. She had a face that looked good under good lighting conditions. The faint shades cast over her face made her contours look a lot more distinct.

The woman behind the camera whispered to the judge. It was probably not a bad thing she was saying.

"Begin when you're ready."

Haneul's expression changed as soon as the judge finished speaking. Bada was enraptured by Haneul in the monitor. The face that looked like it didn't know any suffering had distorted in an instant.

"Ha Changsoo. I will warn you one final time. Act properly. Think about the safety of the republic. Think of your family, and think about our great leader. I have warned you. Do not forget that my words will dictate everything. If you really want to be stamped as a spy and die, then go ahead."

A voice filled with offensive characteristics filled the floor. Her voice was small, but thanks to the accent, it was very easy to listen to. Bada thought back to the movie 'Infiltration' that she watched last week. Haneul was currently recreating a scene from that movie. In the movie, it was Kim Jihye who played that role. She flinched when she watched the act that looked like it would devour the audience whole, but Haneul's acting was no worse. The way her eyes slightly shifted according to her lines, and the way her mouth trembled ever so slightly… it was an act that was filled with anger, yet was restrained.

One of the tips left behind by 'audition seniors' in various internet communities was to 'stay away from acting something with character,' especially when it was recreating an impressive scene from a famous film. The general advice was that people should prepare something else since no matter how good someone is, it would only remind the judges of the original.

This was true not for just actor auditions, but for singer auditions as well, which had been gaining popularity. The unwritten rule was to stay away from songs with strong ‘originality’ from the singers.

From what Bada knew, the participants who sang songs that just ‘had to be sung by that singer’ had all failed to make it.

She locked her fingers and looked at the screen. While Haneul was putting on the same act as Kim Jihye, no hint of Kim Jihye could be seen. It wasn’t an act that overlapped. The flow of emotions was similar, but different forms of expressions were used throughout. If Kim Jihye felt like a female warrior, Haneul felt like a negotiator. She couldn’t judge whose act was better. Their interpretations were different after all.

The act continued. The judge, who would stop the participant in 30 seconds, or after at most 1 minute, did not say anything.

She saw the judge's hands moving fast. The pen in his hand was writing something.

It felt like a long time had passed. Haneul collected her emotions and looked at the judge. The rough feeling disappeared in an instant, and the kind girl who gave her chewing gum appeared again.

"This is…”

The judge took off his glasses. For the first time ever, he covered his mouth and chuckled as though he was taken aback.

Bada intuitively realized that someone had passed the audition.

After Story 53

It felt like she was watching a model answer. It was hard to find any deficiencies. If the acting was awkward, her good-looking appearance would have held her down instead, but because of the excellent character depiction, she was enraptured by the atmosphere before the face. Honestly, she thought that her face would be Haneul's biggest advantage.

However, Haneul showed that her face was only secondary and that her charms lay in her acting skills. She even fell for her for not losing her breath until the last moment.

They should be similar in age, so how was she so good?

"Please exit this way," a male employee said while opening the door.

She saw that the judge's eyes were fixed on Haneul. No, it wasn't just the judge. The participants all had their eyes glued on Haneul. Jealousy, surprise, shock… they contained various emotions. If there was one emotion that was shared among them, it was disappointment. They all seemed to have felt that this audition was no good for them. If their acting skills were on a similar level, then they would have had hopes. However, Haneul's acting was too domineering for them to have any hopes. To the people who saw Haneul's acting, they wouldn't be frustrated even if they failed to make it.

They followed the employee to the corridor. She listened to the explanation while returning the name tag; they would be contacted within half a month and the details will be told then.

Bada looked at the drama poster on the wall. In the corner was an actor she only knew the face of, but not the name. Now she knew; even playing a role like that required going through a path of thorns. She found that actor rather incredible.

"Uhm, can I take a selfie here?"

"Yes, go ahead."

After getting permission from the employee, she took a photo with the audition venue in the background. She posted the photo on Twitter and wrote down the feelings she had while acting. Thinking that she should be able to pass one someday if she kept recording her endeavors, she put her phone in her bag.

"It feels somewhat empty when the audition ends, doesn't it?"

Haneul suddenly talked to her. This person must like to appear out of nowhere. Everyone else had left the building, so why was this person here?

Bada blinked for a while before powerlessly replying 'yes'. She had just seen an act that was qualitatively different. While she resolved to not feel down, the truth was that she felt uncomfortable right now.

"Would you like to eat this? Something sweet is the best when you don't have energy."

It was almond chocolate. First, it was chewing gum, and now it was chocolate. Since she was given it, she accepted it and ate it. Tasting the slight bitterness, she looked at Haneul. She thought that this person looked out for anyone and that was just how her personality was. However, that wasn't the case. Whether in the audition venue or in the waiting room, Haneul gave only her something to eat and only talked to her.

"Uhm."

Number 46, who she thought had left, had returned. He seemed to have something to say to Haneul. Before the man could say anything else, Haneul spoke,

"Sorry. I have something to do with her." She grabbed Bada's hands. Bada rolled her eyes from side to side.

This put her in a difficult situation. Just as she was about to reflexively respond 'do what?' Haneul dragged her hand, saying 'let's go.' She couldn't even attempt to resist. Unlike her appearance, her strength was something else.

While being dragged, she looked at number 46. He was smiling bitterly. She felt sorry for some reason, for having become an obstacle between them.

Only after the elevator doors closed did Haneul let go. Bada looked at her palms, which had become red. Just where did the strength come from in such a slim figure?

"Did that hurt?"

"Forget hurt, why did you do that? That person seemed to have something to tell you," she said as she shook her hands. She was no romance expert, but she had her intuition as a woman. Number 46 must have held feelings for Haneul. From how he waited without calling out to her in a place with a lot of people, Bada could be sure of this.

"Really?"

I don't know — Haneul said with a smile. Maybe she had a boyfriend? Or did she not like such situations at all?

From how she grabbed a stranger's hands to escape the situation, it was clear that she really didn't like it.

"I don't know what it is, but tell him clearly next time. That man seemed to have summoned up a lot of courage to do that. Well, it's funny for me to say something like that though."

"That's the same for me. I'm bringing up a lot of courage too."

"What?"

That was out of nowhere. What did she need to bring up some courage for?

Along with a ding sound, the elevator opened. In any case, she would say goodbye to this woman now.

"Thanks for the chewing gum and chocolate. Also, I learned a lot from your act. It made me think about a lot of things. Anyway, good work today."

It was a rather peculiar meeting. She felt taken aback right now, but well, all sorts of people exist in the world.

This was just a hunch on her part, but she felt that it would be on TV that she would meet her next time. Perhaps she just talked with a future star.

After leaving the elevator, she left the building through the glass door. She was satisfied with this audition just from the fact that she was able to display the act she prepared without making a mistake. She heard some advice as well. She was planning to practice her voicing when she went back home so that she could have a voice as clear as the other participants.

Just as she was walking towards the bus stop, her eyes caught sight of a bunsik restaurant. She was about to pass by, but her eyes were glued to the red tteokbokki.

Maybe a small reward was okay? After a short contemplation, she made a deal with herself: to eat well and do well.

She entered the restaurant and had a look at the menu. Her resolve to order just one portion of tteokbokki disappeared as soon as she looked at the menu.

Just today — she recited the magic spell and looked at what she should buy. Just then…

"Dipping the boiled liver into the tteokbokki sauce is gonna taste awesome."

She took a step to the side and looked at the entrance of the store. Haneul was waving at her with a smile.

"Wh-what is this?"

"I just felt sorry. You were startled I dragged you all of a sudden, weren't you?"

"It's okay."

"Oh, it's okay."

Haneul looked upwards and hesitated. Bada was reminded of the cat that her brother raised. She was a proud one, but when she needed something, she would open her eyes wide and twist her body, and Haneul was just like that.

If anyone strange approached her like this, she would be suspicious, feel pressured, and even feel angry, but thanks to her cute and energetic side, this person didn't feel that spiteful. She just found it curious.

"Do you have anything to say to me?" she asked, finding her pitiful for looking at her intensely.

Haneul brightened up and spoke, "Would you like to eat together?"

"Huh?"

"As fellow audition participants, we should eat together, talk a little, share information, and let out any worries we might have…”

Haneul trailed off and looked right at her. Bada couldn't say no. Regardless of gender, anyone would have a hard time rejecting Haneul's request after she looked at them with eyes like that. Bada's heart fluttered even though she was a woman.

"There were other people than me. There's number 46 too."

"But I like you, Miss Bada."

"Me? Why?"

It wouldn't be strange if they knew each other from before, but they met for the first time today.

Not only that, they just sat next to each other in the audition and didn't even talk that deeply. Was there anything that could make her think like that?

"That's a pretty difficult question. You can come up with multiple reasons to hate a person, but it's hard to say why you like them. I'm not about to introduce you to some multi-level marketing scheme or occult religion, so don't worry about that. I just want to talk to you. We're both preparing to become actresses, so I think we can get along. Can't we?"

She was a strange person, but not a bad person. There was no reason to refuse either. Bada was someone who enjoyed new experiences, not someone who avoided them.

Talking with a stranger over a meal was something that she admired when she looked at such experiences written in travel essays.

Above all, someone who showed her a great act was talking to her. If it wasn't some impure motive but just to talk, then well……

"Okay."

"I knew it. You always get along with me, sister."

"Huh? Sister?"

"Oh, it's nothing."

Haneul pointed at the menu.

"Since we're hungry, should we eat something?"

"Okay. I'll go with a tempura set and tteokbokki."

"Some soondae and fishcake soup will be perfect then. Okay, go inside. I'll order."

"You have to pay here when you order."

Bada was about to take her wallet out of her bag, but Haneul stopped her. Bada was unable to budge when she felt the hard grip around her hands.

She even thought that maybe this person was suited to be a gymnast more than an actress.

"I'll treat you. If you don't like this, then you should treat me later. I'm the one who said we should eat together today, so it's only right for me to be the one buying."

"Okay. Then I'll buy the coffee."

"That's great."

Somehow, the conversation felt like they were on their first date. She chuckled and went deeper inside the restaurant. She didn't realize this when she looked at it from the outside, but the inside was pretty wide. There were customers sitting down at four of the seven tables, ranging from a group of high school girls screeching at every food they ate to a couple eating quietly.

She sat down at a table and took out her phone. She went to the internet community of actors she frequented and posted a review of the audition. She had gained tips, so it was only right for her to share the information as well.

She was focusing for a while but then raised her head when she heard people exclaim in admiration. A bunch of boys sitting at the table next to her were looking toward the kitchen. To be precise, they were looking at Haneul, who was walking over with a tray.

That in itself looked like a TV commercial. All she was doing was walking, but the atmosphere around her was surreal. She had also tied up her hair, and that changed the impression she gave off.

Bada looked at Haneul who sat opposite her before getting herself together.

"Looks delicious, doesn't it?"

"Huh? Oh, yes."

"Here's your fork and spoon."

She put some tempura in her mouth and looked around. Every single person in the restaurant gave Haneul a glance at least once. The couple was not an exception. She thought that the woman would give the man a slap, but it turned out that the woman was staring at Haneul as well.

"Aren't you going to eat?"

"I am."

Was Haneul used to this kind of gaze? It was bound to be noticeable if many people looked at her, even if they did it secretly.

Didn't she feel uncomfortable? Just as she ate while having such worries, she felt her face feel hot. Haneul's gaze pierced her. She was grinning as though she was enjoying herself.

Bada fidgeted before coughing. It felt hot behind her ears. This was the first time a woman stared at her so intently and so blatantly in her life. She was even slightly worried that this woman may have slightly minor sexual preferences.

"You're very cute, Miss Bada."

"Huh? What?"

She felt like she had made a risky deal. The tteokbokki got stuck in her throat. Just then, Haneul covered her mouth and laughed out loud.

"I have a boyfriend, so don't worry."

"Wh-what are you saying I worried about?"

"It's written on your face though."

"N-no it's not."

"Yes, it is."

"I-it shouldn't be."

Bada kept fanning herself.

"If you don't want to believe it, should I show you a photo of him?"

Before she could say that it was okay, Haneul took out her phone. It was really difficult to escape her grasp after getting caught in her rhythm.

Bada waited while eating the tempura. A moment later, Haneul showed her her phone screen.

"He's good-looking isn't he?"

The moment she saw the screen, Bada frowned. That was a face she had seen a lot before.

No way, there's just no way. She put her face up close. At the same time, she was convinced. She felt like she was given the creeps all over her body.

"I'll ask just in case, but what is his name?"

"His name? He has a rather special name. He's called Han Maru. Now that I think about it, he has the same surname as you, doesn't he, Miss Bada?"

Oh my lord — Bada dropped her fork.

After Story 54

"Why would you do that?"

Those words escaped her mouth without filtering through her head, but she didn't feel that it was wrong and didn't correct herself.

Bada reemphasized her words – why would you do that?

"Do what?"

"Why would you date a pri… I mean, someone like this?"

"Do you happen to know Maru?"

Know him? They had seen each other to death before he left to live on his own, so how could she not know him?

She covered her mouth, looked at the photo again, and checked that the person in the photo was indeed her brother before speaking,

"If there's a person named Han Maru and he looks like this, then he can only be one person. He's my brother."

Oh, my – Haneul was surprised. She had to be. The person she met at an audition coincidentally turned out to be the sister of her boyfriend.

"Really?"

"Yes."

Her reason and emotions, which were always at odds with each other, were in agreement for the first time. Why would this person date that ass of a brother? Haneul and her brother did not suit each other from head to toe.

The first thing that came to her mind when she thought of her brother was laziness akin to that of a sloth. Also, the stench of cigarettes and a belly round with alcohol.

He seemed to have lost some weight during military service, but since he went drinking every single night after he was discharged, he gained weight again.

He seemed to have changed mentally the last time he visited home, but he looked the same on the outside. From what she could remember, he didn't smell like cigarettes last time either, but he probably smoked them in batches where he lived by himself.

Compared to that, how was Haneul? She was the epitome of self-management. Even if her face was something she inherited from her parents, that body figure must be the result of teeth-gnashing effort. Every woman in Korea knew the pain of losing weight. She didn't just look skinny either. The arms that she could see under the blouse were very trained and sleek, not to mention her legs.

On top of that, she even had exceptional acting skills. No matter how Bada looked at it, she was too good to be with her brother, who only knew how to eat and drink like a whale.

"What part of that Han Maru do you like?"

She knew it was a rude question, but she couldn't help but ask. Even leaving aside her personal judgment and looking at it objectively, there didn't seem to be any reason for them to be dating.

"Hm, I don't know. I said before, didn't I? That it's hard to come up with a reason for why you like someone. But if I had to pick, it's his personality I guess? That coziness?"

"Wh-what? Personality?"

"It's good, isn't it? Maru's personality, I mean."

"From what I know, he doesn't have something called a personality. I'm not saying bad things about him just because I'm his sister; that guy really just lives life half-assedly. I mean, he even got rejected during the health checkup for the military at his age for having a fatty liver."

"People are bound to experience a period of immaturity at least once. It's better to experience that when they're still young, playing around to their heart's content. Isn't it better to become serious later than have no life plans later in life?"

"That's true, but still…”

She couldn't retort to that. Just thinking about what would happen if her dad lived like her brother made her feel dizzy.

Bada's lips twitched. It was funny for a third party to interfere between a pair of lovers, but she didn't like the fact that Haneul, who made her have respect for her, was a pair with 'something like her brother.'

"Uhm, you're Haneul-unni, right? From Friendly Aroma."

The high school girls who had been looking over for a while came over. Haneul smiled gently and said that she was.

Bada looked at the high school girls and Haneul alternately as the girls kept screeching 'awesome.'

I recommended it to others because it has such a good smell; I have a good night's sleep thanks to that; I found it useful during studying — from the words said by the high school girls, they seemed to be talking about a therapeutic product.

"There's not long left until CSATs, so do your best."

"Yes."

The girls took a photo with Haneul and left the store.

So she was a cosmetics model. Bada felt like it was natural like 'it's hot in the summer.' Anyone would use her with her appearance. Even she would.

"What do we do? The tteokbokki's all cold now."

"That's not what's important here. You said you're the same age as my brother, right?"

"Yes."

"Then I'll call you Unni for now. Unni, think about it carefully. You might be mistaken right now. I won't say anything if it was anyone else, but I'm saying it because it's you. You're dating my brother because of his personality?"

"Well, not just his personality."

"What else, then?"

"His face?"

"Oh… his face…”

She felt her vision darkening more so than when she received her CSAT papers. She could persuade her if it was personality, but his face… was not something she could do anything about.

He did look like a man. He had two eyes, one nose, and one mouth.

"You sound like you really don't care about appearances, unni."

"Where can you find someone like that? I have my preferences, you know?"

"And your preference is my brother? If he was round and cute, then I'd understand, but my brother has a square face filled with fat."

"Miss Bada, when did you last see your brother?"

"It was back in June, so that's 4 months ago."

"How did he feel back then?"

"The same."

After saying those words, she thought about it a little. His appearance hadn't changed that much, but his actions had changed quite a lot. He seemed to be knowledgeable about acting too. Her gaze landed on Haneul. If his knowledge stemmed from Haneul, then that would explain things. Then, the change in his personality could also be attributed to Haneul?

"No, his personality has changed. It's like he's a different person. Before, he would rarely ever visit the house, and even if he did, he would just stare at the TV for a while before leaving, but that day, he even bought some fruit for mom. He listened to me too. Well, yeah. I think he's matured a little."

"So you haven't seen him since then?"

"There's no reason to."

"I see." Haneul fidgeted with her phone. "Would you like to see how your brother has changed?"

"Changed?"

"This is a photo he took a little while ago."

Bada looked at the phone placed on the table. A man in a nice suit was looking straight ahead. Under the dim lighting, the man looked like a model for a shoot, whether it was his hair styling or his outfit down to his shoes. This was her brother?

She looked at the phone from up close. As unbelievable as it was, it was really her brother.

His jawline had changed in just 4 months. Not to mention his face, his body figure had changed as well. It was no longer the brother who had lumps of flesh all over him. He looked dandy.

"There's a few more. We took it for his profile."

"Profile?"

Bada swiped on the screen with her finger. Whenever the photo changed, her brother, clad in a different set of colors, appeared in front of her.

A casual look suited him as well, but the suit looked really good on him. He even digested difficult colors without difficulty. For the classic black suit, she even forgot that he was her brother.

The indifferent expression gave off a rough vibe. Even then, he looked somewhat unstable and precarious, so it was hard to take her eyes off him.

"That one's good, right? That's the photo that projects Maru's image the best. He has a secretly tender side to him."

"Is this really my brother?"

Haneul just smiled without a word. This was even more shocking than finding out that the two were dating. How could someone change so dramatically? She had a few friends who became slightly prettier after losing weight during the holidays, but rarely did anyone have a complete shift in impression.

Who would think of a college boy drenched in alcohol and smoking after looking at this photo?

"Photoshop?"

"Only for a few blemishes on his skin, but I haven't touched anything."

"No way. He really changed like this?"

"He did. To be precise, you can say he regained his original appearance."

When she kept swiping, she found Haneul and her brother standing side by side. They were good enough to be used as wedding photos. Not a single aspect of her brother who couldn't be bothered with everything in the world remained. There was only a man who looked at the woman he loved with a look of confidence.

"You two… suit each other."

She had to admit it. Leaving everything aside, they looked good together even in terms of appearance. It wasn't purely aesthetic like having a golden ratio appearance, but the combination of their charms looked good.

Her friends would probably all accept if she tried to introduce her brother to them using this photo.

"Wait, you said profile before, right? Are you talking about his resume?"

"I don't think I can tell you right now."

"Why's that?"

"Maru hasn't told you anything, has he? About college or what he's doing."

"He's just a college student, isn't he?"

"You can hear it from your brother later. I think he'll get mad if I tell you."

"So I should hear it from himself, huh? Fine."

There was no need to delay. She immediately took out her phone, looked for his number, and called him.

She would usually text him, and this was the first time in years she called him.

-Hello?

"Hey! I mean, oppa."

-Is someone chasing you? Why are you shouting?

"I'm in a hurry right now, so answer me properly. You're in college, right?"

-I am.

She gave Haneul a glance before speaking again, "And you're dating Han Haneul-unni, right?"

There was no response. Oh? She urged him to speak.

-How did you know that?

"How would I know? Because I met her, duh."

-You met her? I mean, with Haneul?

"Yes, I did."

-Are you together right now?

"She's in front of me, why?"

-Did Haneul say something?

"She didn't, so that's why I'm calling you. What's all this about a profile photo? I thought it was just for a resume, but that doesn't make sense. I'll ask just in case, but oppa, are you preparing to be an actor?"

She didn't realize it when she thought about them separately, but when she put everything in one place, she had her answer. Whether it was the way he explained to her about acting, or the profile photos he took… above all, when she thought about what he had in common with Haneul, the only thing she could conclude was that he was an aspiring actor.

-I guess I can't cover it up anymore. Yes, you're right. I'm preparing.

"Are you crazy? Why?"

-That's not something you should say, as fellow aspiring actors.

"I found my dream."

-I found my dream too.

"So you're doing it? What about college?"

-Don't tell father and mother about this. I dropped out.

"You're crazy, totally crazy."

-This is the whole reason I stayed quiet.

"Mom will cause a fuss if she finds out."

-So please stay quiet.

"You're really bold. You decided to drop out of college all by yourself?"

-I already decided. Just because I say it doesn't mean I'll change my mind, so it's better to stay quiet for a while.

"You talked bad about me going to cram schools to take CSATs a second time, yet now you just dropped out? That's funny."

-I feel sorry about that. I'm really sorry I hurt you with my immature words. I wasn't thinking or being considerate of you.

"Why are you apologizing all of a sudden? You're putting me in a bad spot."

She had mostly gotten over the bad gripes she had with her brother during his last visit. If she really didn't like him, she wouldn't have told him about the results of the audition through text. The reason she was grumbling was she didn't know how to handle this kind of conversation.

-Can you hand me over to Haneul for a sec?

"Okay, wait a second."

She realized while they were talking: this person had really changed. He used to be someone who would never apologize for anything, not even in sarcasm.

Haneul, who got her phone, smiled and said that she came across his sister by chance.

"Alright, call you later." Haneul returned the phone with a big smile on his face.

She got her phone back. Her brother hung up after telling her that he would explain properly next time.

After Story 55

"I feel like I just watched three whole movies with plot twists. It's daunting."

"You should talk more with your brother. He has really changed. I'm sure you'll find him helpful as well. He's someone who would do his best if you ask for it."

"No way."

While she said those words, she did think that he had become slightly more reliable compared to before.

"Should we go to a café and chat some more? I'd hate to break up like this."

"Aren't you busy?"

"Not at all. If I could hang out with you, I'd cancel any promises even if I did have any."

There was no reason to refuse. Honestly, she wanted to talk a lot with the woman that many girls aspired to be. It'd be great if she could hear some skin management tips too.

She had the remaining food packaged and put it in her bag before leaving the restaurant.

"Uhm, unni."

"Yes?"

"Can I ask you one question?"

"You can ask a hundred."

Bada thought back to her brother in a suit and asked, "Have you seen my brother acting?"

"I have."

"How is he? Is he good?"

Haneul did not reply. She put on a mysterious smile and walked a few steps ahead before speaking, "There's probably no one better than him, at least among his peers."

"You're joking, right?"

"Do I look like it?"

Haneul pointed at the café in front of them and walked ahead. Bada tilted her head in puzzlement before following.

* * *

When he opened his eyes, it was 9 a.m. He had missed the alarm he had set for 6. He woke his dreamy state up and went to the bathroom.

When he saw the face reflected in the mirror, he couldn't help but chuckle. It looked like he had spent several days without any sleep. The women who invaded his house during the night managed to suck the soul out of him before disappearing. He'd probably be out of it the whole day today.

He dried his wet hair and looked at the living room. It was a total mess. Empty beer bottles, which were once full, were rolling around everywhere like bowling pins after getting hit. Next to them were some snacks that weren't even finished. There was a blanket crumpled on top of the sofa and a cushion on top of a cupboard.

His cat, which liked cleanliness, slapped the snack packaging as though telling him to clean up already.

"Sweetie, I'm here!"

"Oppa! Open up!"

The two women came over without warning last night and shouted that in front of his door.

He should not have opened the door back then. He should either have pretended to be absent or induced them to go to a restaurant outside. When he opened the door, he realized that it wasn't two people outside, but two storms in the shape of humans.

He tried to stop them, but the two looked like they had a drink already and refused to relent. If Bada was by herself, he would've easily pushed her out, but he had no options when Haneul pushed herself inside.

Before he knew it, the storms landed in the middle of his living room.

"I had a glass with your kind sister."

"Unni is such a great woman. She's wasted on you."

It was 7 when he started serving the two people. Back then, he thought that he should just exchange a few words and feed them some soup to sober up before sending them home.

That was his second misjudgment and also a critical one.

"Go and buy it!"

"Buy it! Buy it!"

He set up a drinking table thinking that he should shut them up first. The bottled beer he had prepared to sip when it was really, really necessary didn't even last 10 minutes before it dried up. The dried fruits and nuts that he brought as snacks also disappeared like smoke under the hands of the two ladies.

He felt that they would even start munching on cat food if he let them be, so he had no choice but to go grocery shopping. That was at 9.

"How did you meet someone like her? I don't get it no matter how hard I think. Also, she's 1000 times better than you, so how are you going to treat her?"

"That's good, my little sister. Go, go!"

Based on previous lives, it was highly likely that Haneul and Bada would get along. Sometimes, the two of them spent more time together than he spent with Haneul as her husband.

The two of them seemed to be on similar wavelengths in this life as well as they got along really well. Bada cherished Haneul like she was her daughter after many struggles, while Haneul fawned over Bada blatantly.

Considering their ages, their roles seemed to have been switched, but that was probably his wife's scheme. She was a smart one that won over his sister to her side.

It was after midnight when the two chatterbox storms had left. He sent them home in taxis before returning home and falling over on his bed, thinking that even a military march of 500 kilometers would be less taxing.

"Don't open the door recklessly in the evening, okay?" he said to the cat that stared at him before closing the door. Looking at the clean living room made him have some peace.

He turned on the TV and brewed some coffee with coffee sticks. He changed the TV channel to a news channel as he drank it.

-Next up, some entertainment news. The drama 'Castle' will undergo a remake in Japan. First, it was exported, and now it's being remade. The Korean Wave blowing over Japan has not cooled down yet.

He increased the volume a little. The drama industry was flowing in a similar direction to when Koren culture was booming. From the look of things, things like K-POP and webtoons, which were only considered popular domestically, would soon make up a portion of cultural capital.

While it was nothing compared to the money being thrown around in games, if the market kept up, the situation should change.

He thought about his previous lives, looking for a time when the flow of events was similar. While it was dangerous to have blind faith in statistics, he couldn't deny that it was something that could be referred to.

"Web dramas should be starting soon, and video adaptations of webtoons should start soon as well."

He could be wrong, but he decided to base his actions with those possibilities open. In the film industry, there were already three films adapted from webtoons. While their popularity was barely enough to break even, at least they did not fail miserably. When he looked it up on the internet, he saw the news that some production companies had bought the rights to some popular webtoons.

Money was always quick. There was a precedent that it didn't fail, so investors would start moving as well. The open-minded actors would take up anything, whether the original was based on webtoons or whatever, as long as the synopsis was good, but some actors would probably be against the idea of the original being a webtoon and stay away from it.

There were many such actors even when he was an actor in his previous life. They didn't feel any rejection towards adapting printed manhwa illustrated by those called masters, but they couldn't easily reach out to webtoons, which looked relatively light-hearted in comparison.

However, the trend would change soon. This would happen also in the drama industry. The start would be dramas that focus on realism, and animated production elements would be added on top. And just like that, webtoon-based dramas would also be born.

Whether webtoons would continue to be used or be thrown away would be up to whether they were successful or not.

Maru read some webtoons that had their rights sold, as well as some similar types of webtoons. He chose a character that he would be able to do in those titles and wrote some character notes. He had to do this while he was still an aspiring actor, which was almost closer to being unemployed so that he did not miss the opportunity when it did arrive.

The two genres that the Korean film industry was notoriously bad for were thriller and sci-fi. That fact had never changed even in his previous life.

However, from some time onwards, the notion that 'sci-fi is no good, but thriller might just work' would start taking root, and in this life, there was an event that brought that notion in around 2006.

At the center of the shift in thinking was the protagonist of the film titled 'Breathing Sound'.

Since then, the film industry had changed from having a mafia-comedy released once every quarter to having a thriller released every quarter.

Maru looked up 'Infiltration' on his phone. That film also interpreted the tension between North and South Korea in a thriller style. There were many opinions that thriller movies were outdated ever since they started being released frequently, but Infiltration had received applause from both the public and the critics.

Meaning, the thriller trend should continue.

Maru looked up some pieces with strong colors of being hard-boiled. He also took some characters from those titles.

The act he wanted to do was something he had to think about after he had gained a reputation. Right now, he had to put on the mask that the market and the public wanted him to put on.

As he personally preferred heavier titles with no elements of comedy, making a character note wasn't that boring. He would write down a paragraph, stand up and try acting it, and then separate between the various characters and adjust his acting so that they didn't overlap.

He had come up with various different characters for many different genres like he was intending to be a jack of all trades. Even then, he did not stop practicing romantic comedies as rom-com was an immortal genre that would never phase out in the country of Korea. Nay, romantic comedies were treasures that would continue to be adapted as long as humans shared love.

Man A, who sweet-talked his way out of everything; man B, who always caused trouble because of what he says; man C, who's usually mischievous but becomes serious when necessary.

He practiced characters that would be like the spice in food to death so that he could display it upon request. He used a comfortable voice to voice out various characters before stopping when he felt the cat walking around by his feet. It was 5 p.m. It was also time to feed the noble Lord Kitty.

He fed the cat some expensive cat food that he bought with the money he got as a dog model and organized his notes. Time was passing surprisingly fast. Even though there was a nigh-infinite amount of time in his head, the flow of time had become quicker, never slower.

He was about to open the note in his hand feeling disappointed before stopping. Taking a break was just as important as practicing. He turned off all the lights in the house and closed the curtain.

He lay down still on the floor and looked up at the ceiling.

Whenever some trivial thought came to mind, he reminded himself of a rocking chair. He focused his mind on the rocking chair swaying back and forth. He waited for his sharpened senses and emotions to become blunt again. He even stayed still when the cat stepped over him.

His body which had boiled up like a kettle started cooling down. He wasn't thinking about anything, but he knew that this process would consolidate his acting. It was a method unique to Han Maru that he had found out through numerous experiences.

After an hour of break, he stood up again. He never felt more relaxed. He took out a banana and some soy milk and left the house.

Now it was time to go watch people.

His destination was Gangnam, Seoul.

That place was like the playground of trendsetters, and it was the perfect place to study people.

* * *

"Think before you act. Don't do it reflexively. You're not at that stage yet. If you're arrogant enough to think that you're good enough, then you'll fall apart soon. You have to think about why I keep telling you the same words over and over again."

Seungah looked at her friend who was getting an earful. The lesson didn't end quietly today either.

"Choi Seungah."

"Yes."

"This applies to you too, so listen well."

"Yes, miss."

She got caught in the fire as well. Her friend, who came over, smiled apologetically. Seungah shook her head. They got scolded every single day, so it would be strange if she got off scot-free today.

The instructor, who was sitting on a chair, stood up. "Your body and your words play separately because you try to express what you only know inside your head instead of what is learned by your body. I have always told you, haven't I? That the basic of acting is to be natural. Whether it's stage acting, where emotional exaggeration always occurs, or camera acting, where the details will be in focus, being natural comes first. Don't try to run when you can't even walk. You'll break your nose."

The people listening to the lesson together replied 'yes' in unison.

"Let's stop here for today. Don't forget to do your homework before you come next week. Things like 'I forgot' won't work on me. If you don't do it, it'll be workouts all day that day. I'll make you into muscle kings and queens instead of actors, so keep that in mind. Finish!"

Thank you for your work — Seungah stretched her arms out and stood up.

"Choi Seungah."

All the other students left, and only she and the instructor remained in the room.

Seungah smiled and approached the instructor.

"Let's go get something to eat. I'll treat you."

"What for?"

"To commemorate the fact that you had a good audition."

"I don't even know if I passed yet."

"You said you didn't have any regrets. That's enough for now."

Seunga got her clothes and left the acting school. Students of all ages filled the streets of Gangnam today as well.

After Story 56

"I mean, I'm going to an acting school myself, but when I look at them, I feel pity. They go to cram schools right after they finish school, and once they're done with that, they'll have to go home and revise before sleeping, right?"

"I'm sure they're busier than most salarymen out there."

"How many do you think are going to cram schools because they want to?"

"I don't know. Among them, there might be some who are going to cram schools because they like math, English, physics, and whatnot."

"Do you think such people really exist?"

"Maybe one in a hundred? Or a thousand?"

Even though the sun had long set, the signboard of various cram schools brightened up the streets, perhaps enough for cars to not turn on their headlights.

Seungah looked at the students being sucked into the cram schools lined up side by side. If she was not acting, she would be among those people.

"Miss your school subjects?" her instructor said.

"No way. Oh, were you a good student in school?"

"Me, I was about average."

"I can believe anything else you say, but why is it that you don't sound persuasive right now?"

"You're joking around now that the lesson is over, huh?"

"I'm doing this only because the lesson is over."

They walked forward, passing through the place filled with academic passion. The restaurant that this unni talked about would only appear once they left the street full of cram schools.

It was just as she was standing in front of a crossing, looking at the traffic light across the road that she saw someone familiar under the traffic lights. As it was pretty dark and far away, she couldn't see properly.

The lights changed. Seungah smiled when she looked at the face that came closer.

"Hey, Han Maru."

Maru, who was walking as he looked around, stopped midway.

"Choi Seungah."

"Fancy seeing you here."

She was about to say a few more words but then remembered that she was in the middle of the road. The traffic light was also signaling that it was about to change lights.

Maru waved as he came over. He looked like he was going to pass by just like this, so she grabbed Maru's arm.

"Where are you going?"

She walked towards the blinking green light. Maru pointed at the other side but still followed along.

"You're just going like that? Do you have an appointment?"

"Well, no, not really."

"And you were just going to leave after saying hello like that?" She then turned around, "Unni, this is the guy I talked about last time. You know, the one I said I took the audition with."

"Really?"

Unni took off her baseball cap and walked forward. She looked at Maru in order to introduce this unni to him. However, Maru's expression was rather strange. 'Strange' was the only way to describe it.

Glee, confusion, surprise — after a mix of complicated emotions, it finally landed on a mysterious smile.

"Hello. My name is Han Maru."

She didn't even tell him, but Maru greeted her first, even going as far as to hold his hand out. It was an awkward handshake. Unni looked at Maru's hand in interest before grabbing it.

"Nice to meet you. I heard Seungah talk about you. She said that she made an amazing friend." Unni introduced herself as she shook the hand that grabbed his. "I'm Yang Miso."

* * *

"I'm Yang Miso."

He was convinced after seeing her face, but she decided to confirm it for him, so there was no need to doubt. It was indeed Yang Miso. Maru let go of her hand.

"I heard from Seungah that she has an acting instructor she's really grateful for. This is just a hunch of mine, but I think she was talking about you."

"Seungah, maybe the words acting instructor is written on my face," Miso said as she rubbed her forehead. "I am teaching over there. Though, I'm not too sure how grateful Seungah feels towards me."

Seungah, who was listening quietly, suddenly called out to her and shook her arm. The two of them looked close, throwing jokes around like this.

"You sound like a good instructor."

"Now, it feels even better when I get flattered on our first meeting. Did Seungah ask you to flatter me?"

"No way. I'm someone who can't lie. I just say what I see."

From what they said, they seemed to be going out for dinner after a lesson. Seungah gestured. There was a bunch of students rushing over to cross the road.

They walked away from the traffic light and stopped in front of a phone store.

"What brings you here? You said you didn't have any appointments. Also, didn't you say you live in Suwon last time?"

"I'm here to watch people."

"Watch people?" Seungah asked back in curiosity as she looked around. He looked at the students rushing over in waves.

"I was looking around other places, but I came here because I recalled the cram school street. I wanted to see what kind of faces kids these days make. Also, there's no better place than here to look at the everlasting fatigue and depression that children have."

No matter how many lives he had experienced, the general frame of the Republic of Korea had not changed, and the passion for education that Gangnam possessed did not change either.

It was good to receive the passion for art that the young people had around Hyehwa station, but watching the problems and pains of the era in Daechi-dong was also a good form of studying. After all, acting was about bringing out what was inside him.

The fancy lights shining down upon the whole street contrasted with the gloomy faces of the children walking below; a governor would think about policies and promises while looking at that street, while an investor might look for buildings to establish cram schools in.

As an actor, he just took in the short impression and emotions into his heart after changing them into simple elements so that he would be able to call them out whenever it was necessary.

Seungah looked at the students who were in a rush saying that they were late. "That's true. They look energetic right now, but by about eleven, when they start going home, even I start pitying them."

The lights changed. People started gathering under the red lights.

People ebbed and flowed. The scenery that he had seen millions if not tens of millions of times had never changed like a statue made of steel. He closed his eyes as an actor and looked at the children with the eyes of a parent for now, wishing that it wasn't the parents' greed but their own will that pushed their backs.

"What are you going to do once you're done watching people?"

"I heard that there's a popular restaurant, so I'm going to go home after eating dinner there."

"By yourself?"

"By myself."

Seungah looked at Miso. Seemingly having understood the intention behind that gaze, Miso spoke, "Would you like to come with us? Since you're eating, you might as well eat with us."

"You two can eat by yourselves. Having me might make things uncomfortable."

"We wouldn't be uncomfortable just because there's one more person. Just come."

Miso walked ahead after pressing on her baseball cap. Her charisma had not changed.

Seungah also urged him to follow and walked up to Miso. Maru looked at the two people becoming distant. After walking for a while, the two of them turned around and waved at him to hurry.

It was an offer he could not refuse. In truth, he wanted to eat with Miso the moment he saw her. He only pretended to be oblivious because he couldn't say anything first.

He followed the two, and they arrived at a gopchang restaurant. It didn't look like a noisy pojang-macha; it was more like a quiet café.

He sat down as he smelled the savory yet slightly unpleasant smell unique to gopchang.

"There's quite a lot of people here," he commented.

"It's a popular place," Seungah replied.

A waiter came over and handed them an apron each. They were even given some hairpins. Maru could see that there were many female customers.

"You drink beer, right?" Miso asked. They had decided to drop the honorifics before arriving.

"I'll just have one."

"Are you weak with alcohol?"

"I just managed to lose my alcohol belly."

"Alright. Actors need to know how to restrain themselves before starting to work and not just accept anything people buy for them," Miso said while looking at Seungah.

"I'm okay since I don't gain weight easily."

A pan of spicy gopchang sprinkled with cheese was placed on the table. From the looks of it, it looked like the tongue and brain would scream in glee, while the blood vessels would scream in fear.

Maru decided to add 30 minutes to the treadmill routine as he picked up his chopsticks. He also had a glass of beer. The fatigue from the suffering from the night before was relieved a little.

"Do you go to an acting school anywhere?" Miso asked.

Before he could reply, Seungah spoke in his stead, "Well, it's quite funny. He doesn't do anything. He doesn't go to an acting school. He's not in college, or any theater troupe for that matter. I got curious and asked him where he learned acting. Do you know what he replied with?"

"What did he say?"

"He said TV and YouTube are his teachers. At first, I thought it was funny, but when I thought about it, it's not entirely wrong."

Miso put down her chopsticks. "Have you really never learned it separately?"

Of course I have. I've learned under you hundreds of times at least — Maru reminisced the past as he spoke, "Yes. As Seungah said, I wasn't really taught anything in particular. It was June this year that I decided to become an actor."

Seungah stopped eating and spoke, "June? Seriously? I thought you just hadn't learned properly but had been practicing for ages. But you never thought about acting before that and decided to be an actor in June and still displayed an act of that caliber during the audition?"

Maru shrugged instead of responding. Seungah raised her beer glass. She emptied it in one go, saying that she felt frustrated.

"Unni. I'm about to get really depressed. Did you hear what he just said? June, he said! That means he's only in his 4th month, but he's better than me. How does that make any sense?"

"Seungah. You should eat or get angry. Just do one thing or the other. You're spitting."

Hearing Miso's words, Seungah made a dumbfounded expression and just chewed with her mouth closed. Miso seemed to know how to handle Seungah.

"Did you suddenly have the urge to do acting?" Miso asked.

Maru drank some water before replying, "You know times when you suddenly have vague aspirations like 'oh, I want to do this' or 'I want to try being that'. I think that's how acting was for me. Now that I think about it, I was more interested in the actors and their expressions and gestures than the story when I watched dramas. Perhaps I've always admired them."

He made up a suitable story. Miso should know that anyone could become an actor and that what was difficult was to stay and get by as an actor. If her thought process was similar to his last life, then she would accept it.

"There are many people who become actors like that. There are people around me who were perfectly good salarymen but changed their minds to suddenly start acting one day. Admiration is a splendid source of motivation."

Miso raised the beer bottle. While he said that he would only drink one glass, he couldn't refuse. He looked at the golden liquid filling up his glass. He never knew that he would get treated out to a drink from Miso like this.

Was this God's prank? Or some kind of fate that even God did not expect? He did not know.

"But is what Seungah said true? She actually has quite a big pride, so she doesn't really praise others, especially those around her age. But she easily praised you for being better than her, which means that you must be really good. How do you assess yourself? Do you think you're good?"

Maru sipped a bit of the beer before replying, "I'm not sure if I'm good. I don't know where I should standardize being 'bad', so I don't really know what it means to be good. But… I don't feel embarrassed; whether it's about me doing acting or showing my acting to others."

There were many actors who became jealous of actors much younger than them. The converse was true. There were many actors who felt pathetic when they looked at seniors who looked to be as high as the sky.

This was why it was hard to rank actors. After all, popularity would rise and fall depending on the work.

Miso did not show much response.

The meal continued. They talked about some movies that were released recently. As they chatted, they emptied the gopchang. They even had some rice fried in the empty pan.

When the crispy scorched rice gave off a savory smell, Miso suddenly brought it up, "Can I have a look as well? At your acting I mean."

After Story 57

“Miss Yang. Didn’t you finish up for the day?”

“I came back because I had something to do. Room A’s empty, right?”

“Yes, it is. Are you going to use it?”

Miso nodded toward the instructor preparing for the late-night class and headed inside. She turned on the lights and had Maru and Seungah come in.

“It’s pretty chilly.”

Many said that autumn would get shorter every year, and indeed, it looked like a thick coat would be necessary by November. She turned the heater on and took off her jacket.

“I didn’t ask you too rudely, did I?” she asked Maru, who was taking off his bag.

“If I didn’t want to do it, I wouldn’t have come here.”

He was very self-assertive. Miso smiled and unfolded her hair. Seungah brought a chair for Maru to sit on.

“Do you have a type of act that you’re confident in?”

“I do like something where I can use my body.”

“Have you learned things like martial arts?”

“I haven’t, but I can do action to a certain extent.”

It was unexpected to hear that he was confident in using his body. There were very few students who had any interest in action among the people who came to the acting school aspiring to become actors. Most of the time, they come to acting school in order to learn about emotions that are shown in still dramas.

“Can I have a look at that then? I don’t mind what it is.”

He was someone that Seungah of all people had praised. She would’ve dismissed it if Seungah only mentioned that he was just good. However, Seungah was vocal about it long after she finished her audition. She said there was someone who was on a completely different level. Just what kind of ‘level’ was she talking about? Miso found it curious as a casting director.

“I’ll do it with Seungah for a bit. Just a few simple things.”

Maru took Seungah to the floor, who was still. The two of them talked for a while. They waved their arms a few times before laughing.

“You’re going to watch from there, right?” Maru asked. Miso made a circle with her thumb and index finger to signal him.

“It might look awkward, but I’ll do it for now.”

Seungah, who was facing him, started acting. The scenario seemed to be that of an evil loan shark and a debtor.

“So, you can’t pay back the money?” Seungah laughed with a mischievous face and swung her right arm.

Along with a grunt, Maru’s head spun around at the precise timing. He looked like he had a deep understanding of action acting. It didn’t look too exaggerated, or too awkward. The situation was quite comical, but the act itself was quite realistic.

Seungah punched. Maru fell backward like he was hit by an expert martial artist in a Chinese movie. Even Seungah didn’t seem to have thought that he would come out so bad and just looked at Maru in surprise.

Maru, who rolled backward like he was being pulled by a wire by the waist, stood up while staggering. He wiped his mouth with the back of his mouth and went against Seungah again. He seemed to have thrown away the roleplay of being a debtor.

This didn’t seem to have been talked about beforehand, as Seungah just stood there without knowing what to do. Maru, who came over, punched out before frowning and lifting his chin. He staggered like he was hit on the chin, and this time, he flew toward the left.

He spun around once before falling to the ground. It looked pretty precarious, but Maru stood up like it was nothing and dusted off his clothes.

“It’s still on the level of a child’s play. I have to gain some more flexibility if I want to look good with professional actors, but it isn’t easy.”

Seungah approached him and asked if he broke a bone anywhere. The act was so clean that the closest person to him was worried about him getting injured. As someone who was watching from a distance, Miso was unable to find a single flaw.

The skit was closer to a setup to show the action, so there was no need to evaluate that, and based on how he used his body, he was better than most male actors.

It was not an easy feat to fall over where there was no mattress. It was proof that Maru had a significant understanding of his body. He knew how to fall over so that he wouldn’t get injured.

His analytical skills of screens were something else as well. He put on the action while thinking about the camera. He was aware of how to make things look good. If he didn’t learn it specifically, it would mean that he had researched it himself while watching action movies. This was not something that a person could catch onto instinctively.

“You look like you’ve done some sports,” Miso said.

“I don’t have bad reflexes, so it’s probably that.”

“That’s not something reflexes can explain. There’s probably no one at our school who can use their body as well as you can. You’re on the level of someone from a proper action school.”

“Thanks for the flattery.”

“It’s not flattery. It’s the truth. Well, I can see that your action acting is not something I can judge. Can I look at other things as well?”

“What would you like?”

“You can take orders?”

“There’s not a lot on the menu, but I'll try.”

“What’s a good recommended item? From your image, I think a rough style will be good.”

“Rather than free acting, should I go with an existing role?”

“That’s good too.”

He was easy to talk to. Miso crossed her legs, filled with expectation. What would this interesting child, who supposedly learned from videos, show her?

“Have you watched ‘Infiltration’?”

“I have. Anyone who’s acting is not doing their homework if they didn’t watch it. Seungah, you’ve watched it too, right?”

Seungah affirmed her question and recreated a scene from Infiltration. She played the nurse that was being threatened by a North Korean spy. It was short, but the emotions could be felt clearly. Seungah was someone she found worthwhile to teach. She had a little bit of greed, and she knew how to make use of that greed.

“Looks like I can play along with what Seungah just showed.”

“You mean the spy?”

“Yes. I quite admired that actor’s act.”

“It did become quite a bit of an issue. He’s a senior who’s been in the theater field for a long time, and he finally got to see the light.”

“Sounds like someone you know.”

Miso replied with a single nod. Maru jumped lightly on the spot. He shook his hands and feet as well.

“He did that in the audition too. Now that I look at it, he looks like he’s getting ready,” Seungah said from the side.

While Maru prepared himself, Miso looked up the video of the scene in question. There were a few videos floating around the internet that were released by the production company for promotional purposes.

“Should we have a look before we start? Seungah, you should play along as well.”

“Should I?”

She played the video. It was the scene where a North Korean spy, who was discovered, was taking a nurse hostage at a hospital. Miso looked at the two people focusing on the screen. Both of them had a considerably strong concentration.

The video, about one minute long, ended. Maru and Seungah stood in the middle of the practice room. The two of them talked to each other for a while like when they were plotting the action scene earlier before signaling Miso that they were ready.

“Okay. Three, two, one.” Miso signaled.

Maru went behind Seungah and snapped her left arm backward. His right hand, curled up like he was holding a knife, was right at Seungah’s throat. This was the position that the two actors showed in the video.

Seungah let out a rough breath. Her eyes moved around unstably, unable to find focus. Seungah was someone who showed her strength in scenes with drastic movement. While her ordinary life acting looked bland in comparison, she could display a splendid act in situations where she had to drive her emotions into a corner.

Even now, she was expressing the desperation of the nurse quite well. While it looked slightly messy due to the exaggerated emotions, it was very good considering that she had never practiced this before.

“I-I’ll do anything you say. P-please.”

“Shut yer trap.”

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry.”

“I said shut up.”

Miso turned to look at Maru. He was a spy, who had to be cold-minded, but he was hasty because his identity had been exposed. His eyes looked like he knew he was caught in a trap, even though he was looking around looking for a way out.

His taut shoulders, tense arms, and twitching throat from all the gulping… he didn’t express his nervousness through his face alone. There was a lot more information being given off by his body than his face, and he seemed to know that the audience could subconsciously catch the change in body language.

Miso liked that it was detailed, but not exaggerated. It was precisely the kind of acting that the movie industry wanted these days.

“Th-there’s a way out at the end of the corridor. If you go there,” Seungah said once again. She was solely focused on surviving. She expressed as much as possible that she had no intentions of resisting and that she would obediently follow whatever she was told. Her expressions looked better than before.

That was a result of loosening up a little. It was clear that she had gotten rid of the thought that she should be acting scared, acting stiff, and things like that. Or maybe, she forgot about it.

Miso leaned forward. Seunagh was being assimilated into Maru’s breathing speed. It was definitely Maru who held the tempo of the act. He suppressed Seungah from rushing forward in haste so that she could bring out her true skills and then let her go naturally. This was something frequently seen when a veteran actor led a new actor. There were many methods. Some would joke, or play a prank. Some might even start laughing for no reason. Doing so, they would snatch out the new actors from being too focused on the ‘act of acting’ and make them focus on ‘acting.’

Maru turned out to have the luxury to be considerate of his partner even while doing his own act. This student was someone who was not only good at acting but was good at things outside acting as well. No, calling him a ‘student’ wasn’t right. He was an exceptional actor.

“All hail the motherland.”

Maru, who was muttering a North Korean song with a shaky breath, pushed Seungah away. He stabbed his own neck with the knife he put against Seungah.

Because of the lack of props, the tragic beauty couldn’t be seen, but his act couldn’t be blamed at all. If there was a set and a camera here, even the director that shot Infiltration would have praised him for that.

Maru, who fell down, straightened out his knees with a cough. He coughed dryly a few times before smiling awkwardly. The chilly air dissipated. His mouth seemed to feel stiff as he opened his mouth wide.

Seungah smiled and asked how it was. Miso gave the two people appropriate assessments. She raised her two hands and clapped five times, telling them that it was good.

“Alright, be careful on your way home. Maru, take Seungah to her house.”

Miso saw the two people out and came back to the practice room. She looked at the empty space for a while, and Maru and Seungah’s act started playing out with the darkness as the background. It was light but not floaty, heavy, or blunt. It was a smart act that she hadn’t seen for a while.

“Miss Kang.”

Miso opened the door to the faculty office and looked for an instructor. The instructor, who was preparing for the late-night class, asked her what it was about.

“The audition for ‘Giant’ is being held at our acting school this time, right?”

“Yes. We’re all busy because of that. I heard that we’ll have to see about a thousand people.”

“Then let’s make that a thousand and one.”

“From what I know, all of our kids have submitted their profiles. Did someone forget?”

“He’s not someone from the school, but I think I’ll push him in. If it goes well, we can register him as one of us for some promotion.”

“Did you find someone you like, Miss Yang? Tell me his name for now. I’ll take the profile later.”

Miso thanked her before bringing up a name.

“His name is Han Maru. As for his profile, I’ll get it from him later.”

After Story 58

“Sorry for making you come. If there was time, I would’ve had you send it by mail, but the application is already finished, so I couldn’t delay it any longer.”

“I’m getting an opportunity for an audition. Coming to Seoul from Suwon is no big deal.”

Miso scanned Maru’s profile quickly. She removed the unnecessary text and sorted the images by style.

“They all look neat. But aren’t you curious about who the director is, and what you’ll be working on? I was kinda taken aback when you said you’d do it as soon as I called you yesterday.”

“I’m not at a stage where I can choose what I do. I want to do everything I can.”

“I like your attitude. I’ll tell the assistant director that you’re a fellow worth using,” Miso said as she waved the profile in her hand.

“Since you’re here, let’s eat together. It’s lunchtime anyway.”

“As much as I’d love to, I have to get going.”

“You have work to do?”

“Our director said he finally finished the editing. We decided to have a screening together with all of us.”

She thought about what Maru said last dinner. He said he had shot a short film. Miso put the profile under her arm and spoke, “So you’re submitting that to the Short Film Festival at the end of the year?”

“He seems to have a few places in mind.”

“I hope you get good results. If it goes well and makes it to theaters, do tell me about it. I’ll go watch it with Seungah.”

After a light handshake, Maru left.

A short film, huh? She was rather curious. She wanted to know what kind of act this young and smart actor would have displayed.

Miso turned around to the acting school. If the film is a well-made one, she should soon hear news of it. After all, people who like short films would not allow a good film to disappear without a sound.

How many people would receive attention this year? Miso thought about a few faces and smiled.

* * *

-Dead. Right, she died. Mijin was… right. She was…

Jungho slowly collapsed. He clutched his head in the corner of the room filled with darkness. Just seeing Jungho muttering with a face that looked like he was about to pass out was enough to cause nervousness.

Was he finally going completely crazy? Or could he not even do that and would just let go of everything? Even while knowing the conclusion, the immersion did not break. The actor’s display of skills did not allow any room for thought.

Jiseon thought about what happened during the shoot. They reshot the same scene over and over again in the single-room apartment. The acting wasn’t bad, and the atmosphere wasn’t bad either, but neither Yoonseok nor Maru was satisfied. They would usually go to the next cut after one or two takes, but they shot this specific scene for more than half a day. Back then, she thought that they were going overboard. She thought that they were better off redistributing the time to other scenes to raise the quality of the overall film. However, now that she was looking at the film after it was finished editing, she realized why the director and the lead actor were stubborn about this scene. The two of them must have thought that the climax part was more important than the resolution part of the story. It was a splendid choice. This was the scene that needed emphasis.

-Mijin, what do I do? What do you think I should do?

Jungho was happy about the illusion of his girlfriend that his brain showed him, but as time passed by, he became more and more exhausted. In the face of his lover who he could see yet not touch and would not respond, Juungho rapidly thinned.

There was something that Maru said as he shot that scene: he wanted to shoot it after he had lost enough weight.

Jiseon thought that there was no need for him to do so when she saw the screen. Maru was perfect at acting a person whose moisture had dried completely. If he really lost more weight, then it would’ve made him look even skinnier, but there was no big problem like that either.

Time in the film kept flowing. Jungho still saw his dead girlfriend. However, he was no longer able to feel anything. Jungho made his dead girlfriend a background, just like one of the many dried leaves on the side of the road; no longer lovely, no longer painful.

Jungho’s time had stopped. He could neither progress nor regress. He kept living in the same space and time.

Now, the only one in the frame was Jungho. His friends, who talked to him, as well as all the other people with him during lectures had all disappeared.

Jiseon asked Yoonseok a question when they shot this scene, about whether Jungho went to a place where no one was, or if people had really disappeared. Yoonseok responded to her that for someone who gave up on interacting, other people were less than objects and that even if there were people in reality, Jungho wouldn’t be able to see any.

Jungho appeared on the screen, sitting down on his bed in his apartment. His face looked stiff. It felt like some inorganic lump of matter was sitting there, not a human. A soulless shell was looking forward.

She felt this during the shoot as well, but Maru’s eyes looked too freaky when he looked like that. It was better when she watched him with her own eyes. After all, she could tell through minute breathing sounds and movements that he was a living person. However, looking at him on the screen all closed up, Maru’s face and gaze made her feel uncomfortable. After pondering about it, she realized why. He looked too similar to her; the powerless and expressionless Jungho was similar to her real self.

The film rushed toward its end. The only thing left for Jungho in his solitude was his illusion.

Jungho looked at Mijin with murky eyes. His parched lips slowly fell apart.

-In the end, it’s you again.

Jungho hugged Mijin. The cut immediately changed to that of Jungho hugging empty air. The camera slowly fell backward, leaving behind Jungho who was at the center of the screen.

Jungho’s small voice flowed out — I will only love you and only you. So don’t leave me alone.

The camera left the apartment and slowly went down, showing the stairs. The staff who helped out during the shoot walked past the front of the building with a smile. Jungho’s voice had disappeared, and an ordinary night scenery filled it instead. Then, everything faded out.

Jiseon let out a short breath. She had subconsciously ended up holding her breath when the last scene started. She looked around at the expressions of everyone around the table. All of them looked to be in a daze. Only Maru was looking at the screen until the very end indifferently.

“Is that… good?” one of the helpers asked. None of the nearly dozen people here were able to speak easily.

Jiseon also refrained from answering. As she had participated in the production, she had a lot of attachment to the film. The acting of the lead actor, Maru, was flawlessly good, and the plot of the story had come out just as they had intended.

Despite that, they couldn’t say that it was good, probably because of the lacking elements throughout. There were especially a lot of deficiencies in the technical part. Even though some of them couldn’t be helped, it was off-putting to think about.

“What’s up with all of you? You look like you’ve seen something unsightly,” Maru said. “Did you expect to see a video that has a constant composition of the screen and even a perfect color balance like commercial movies? We only shot this for a little over two days. As for the editing and post-processing, Yoonseok did it by himself. Considering the cost and manpower used, the quality is really good.”

It felt better when the lead actor encouraged them. Yoonseok, who had been listening this whole time, spoke, “It’d be a lie to say that I don’t see anything I’m disappointed with. But as Maru-hyung said, I think this much is pretty good. It’s our first-ever piece. It’s our first try, so if we wanted it to be like the movies we see in theaters, I think that’s wishing for too much.”

Yoonseok said it heartily, but Jiseon could read the thick regret hidden behind that laughter. There was no one here who had more attachment to this film than Yoonseok did. It was obvious. He was the one who was with the film from start to end. He was probably really frustrated right now, angry at himself for being only able to do so much.

“The context wasn’t strange, and for the editing, you removed just enough. It at least shows what the director wants to say. Director Lee, you’re not going to end it with just this one work, are you? There’s a next time and the one after that. Do you have to be so disappointed?” Maru said, patting Yoonseok’s shoulders.

Although the ones who planned this film out were Yoonseok’s friends, including Jiseon, the process of framing the film properly and fleshing it out was done with Maru. She was thankful to Maru for understanding Yoonseok’s feelings and encouraging him.

“You’ve done well. It’s good seeing how none of us sighed while watching. Someone I know tried really hard to make their first film, but the editing was so terrible that he didn’t even finish it and threw it away. Even to me, that was terrible. But this isn’t. It has minimum functionality as a film.”

“Minimum? Only that?” Yoonseok smiled. He seemed to have gotten rid of the frustration to an extent.

“You’re too greedy to want more than that. Anyway, well done, everyone! Let’s have a round of applause.” Maru raised his hands above his head and clapped. Everyone clapped along.

“Since the screening is finished, we should naturally eat out. We can’t hold anything grand, so don’t you think fried chicken and beer are okay?” Maru took out a check from his wallet.

Jiseon knew the origin of that check. It was Maru’s pay that they just gave him this morning. There were a total of three checks from Maru’s wallet. He was adding 200 thousand won from his own money on top of the 100 thousand he received as payment.

“You’re going to pay for it?”

“When else would I be able to act like an actor? Everyone, thanks for following a deficient actor and a producer until now. It was quite a short time, shooting for three days and two nights, but it was really fun. If there’s an opportunity, I’d love to work with all of you again. Once the plans are ready, please call me any time. Han Maru the actor will act in your work at a suitable price.”

An applause louder than the screening erupted. The get-together happened in the fried chicken restaurant in front of the college. They ate, poured, and drank.

“You all ate without me?” Haneul joined in later as well.

Things led to one another, and the second screening was held in the fried chicken restaurant. They all gathered in front of a laptop with a piece of chicken in hand. For some reason, it looked better than when they watched it for the first time. The majority opinion was that it was thanks to alcohol.

“It’s not that well-made, but I like it,” Haneul said after the video ended.

“Good, good,” Maru said, closing the laptop.

The get-together that she thought would end after the first round ended up entering the second round. This was thanks to Haneul taking out her credit card.

Before they went, however, everyone headed to a nearby PC-bang. The nearly dozen people stared holes into the monitor in silence.

“I’m sending it now.” Yoonseok took his hand off the mouse. At the same time, a message popped up, saying that the file was being sent.

After a moment, the file transfer was finished. They had now handed it in for the short film festival. They also uploaded a video of it on YouTube to use as a screener, and of course, it was set to private.

“Done,” Yoonseok said, leaning on the back of the chair. It was now truly over.

“Congratulations. We’ll have to wait to see the results, but just the fact that you completed it is worth congratulating,” Maru said. Something felt fluffy.

It felt slightly different from when they were at the chicken restaurant, thinking that it was all over — so it’s truly all over now. It’s now out of our hands and in the hands of professionals.

Jiseon felt like she finally knew why content creators stake their lives on content creation.

“It was fun, wasn’t it?” Maru asked.

She nodded at Maru, who smiled at her. Then she thanked Yoonseok, who was staring at the monitor, for allowing her to create the film with him.

“There there. It’s not over now. We still have time and money left over,” Haneul said, with a credit card in her hand; it was like she was a hero who pulled out the legendary sword.

Everyone left the PC-bang with smiles on their faces, heading towards the bar under the guidance of the heroine.

After Story 59

“Seoksoo-hyung. Didn’t you go to Taiwan?”

“I almost did, but no.”

“So that’s why you’re here.”

“Maybe I shouldn’t have come.”

“Come on, don’t say that.”

Seoksoo sat down when his junior offered him a seat. His eyes were drawn to the poster on the wall.

2008 Short Film Festival — it had finally begun again this year.

“How many have you gotten this year?”

“About 670.”

“There’s a lot this year too.”

“It’s increasing every single year. Compared to ’01, it’s more than ten times the amount.”

“At this rate, it’ll go over a thousand.”

“I’m sure it will. The difficulty of filming has decreased a lot. There’s also a lot more freedom with the format, so there have been a lot of applications.”

“Have you finished classifying the competitive works?”

His junior nodded. “There were a lot of applicants for the ‘contemplation’ category. Maybe it was because of all the noisy news, but there’s a lot of focus on that area.”

“It’s not like there have been just a few accidents and events this year. It was a natural course that the fury of new directors was directed there.”

Current affairs, melo, comedy, thriller, fantasy — the Short Film Festival accepted works in five different categories. That was a result of accepting opinions from various directors, who said that a variety of genres needed attention.

“This has gotten pretty big,” Seoksoo said as he thought about 670 tapes. Though the times had changed and the application was no longer submitted on tape, he always thought of film and tape whenever he thought about the volume of film.

Maybe he was getting old-fashioned now. He laughed inside.

“Of course it has. Just look at the directors helping out. There are actors who help out every year without forgetting. This year, it wasn’t just the city hall sponsoring. Happy and ThinTech Mall increased their funding as well. Thanks to that, we were able to book two cinemas for a long-enough duration.”

“That’s good.”

There were directors who were wary of more than necessary capital entering the film festival, but ultimately, money was necessary in order to hold the festival. As long as the judges continued to assess fairly, the influx of capital wouldn’t become a problem.

The junior gave him some Yakult with a straw in it.

Seoksoo spoke before he started drinking it, “You should change this out. Get on with the times.”

“I know you like drinking it. Rather than that, the fact that you’re here means that you have time, and the fact that you have time means you can help out in judging, right?”

“Is there any room for me even?”

“There’s a lot of room. I told you, there are 670. There are about 200 more than last year, but the number of judges hasn’t changed. I’m reaching out to various places looking for help too.”

“You’re always whiny.”

“I’m not being whiny. I’m really suffering. I’m going to fall ill at this rate. Why did I bring my own suffering by accepting this place as a committee head…”

“Did someone put it on you? You put it on yourself. Also, you’re all smiles for someone who’s suffering, so you don’t sound that reliable.”

This junior cherished the Short Film Festival more than anyone else. He acted as the committee head, even if he had to put aside his own work, so that the festival could function properly. Both Seoksoo’s seniors and juniors said that they couldn’t imagine the Short Film Festival working without this guy.

Seoksoo rather liked this junior, who was smiling like a child, even after he was forty. There were more than ten directors who gave up and joined as committee members after seeing his innocent smile.

“What part do you need help with?”

“The ‘Rising Rain’ part.”

Rising Rain — it was a term that referred to the melo part of the competitive part.

Seoksoo sucked up the yogurt in one go.

“Who are some other directors here?”

“Diretor Choi Jaehan, Lee Sooae, and Lee Chansik.”

“Those are all names I haven’t heard before.”

“They were passionate young directors until just a while ago. You know that having only fresh sets of eyes might end up missing some good ones, right? So you should bring in your experience here.”

“So you’re telling me to sit there with my old ass and look all serious, right?”

“There you have it. I’m sure the other directors will love it if you go there. They can be with the master director who has hit 8 million ticket sales with Infiltration.”

“You’ll get backstabbed one day if you keep teasing elders like that. There are many people who are grinding their knives for it.”

“Don’t worry about me. I have thick skin and I don’t get injured easily. It’s the same as last year, so each part can pick as they wish. Also, don’t forget to think about one for the special prize.”

“Sure, sure. Also, treat me out to a drink when this is all over. That’s the price for providing my labor.”

“You have a lot of money, but you’re always so stingy. That’s why there’s not a lot of hair on your head. You’re too bald for being forty-five.”

Seoksoo threw the yogurt container in his hand at the junior. The junior sneakily dodged it and smirked.

What a hateful guy. Seoksoo looked at the poster before leaving the office.

* * *

“It’s good, but…” Seoksoo scratched his head for a while before picking up his pen.

He drew a slash on the A4 paper in front of him. Now that he looked at it, he found a rain of slashes on the paper.

140 submissions of melo films — he split them up with three other directors and they decided to screen them once and then watch the ones they liked together. They decided that one person would pick about 10, so it should be about 40 in total.

In this Short Film Festival, there were 50 theaters that each screened one work. Ultimately, there would be about 10 melo films that go on the screen.

He bit on the head of his pen. At this rate, he wasn’t going to get five good pieces, not to mention 10. As there was an increase in the number of applicants, there was also an increase in the number of bad works. For some of them, he was in agony watching until the end.

In Seoksoo’s opinion, the film version of the singer audition programs that have been gaining popularity recently was the Short Film Festival. It had many famous judges as honorary judges, and ever since some famous actors joined as special judges, the Short Film Festival became a gate to stardom for new directors.

Director Jeong Ho, who won the grand prize in ’06, released his first-ever commercial film this year, which performed remarkably. It wasn’t just director Jeong Ho. The directors who won prizes in various film festivals received a lot of interest from various production companies and actors.

Since this was the situation they were in, they were getting all sorts of pieces as applications. If there were pieces that were armed with fresh elements that challenged film as a whole, he would watch with interest, but there were too many pieces that were literal imitations of other movies. The fact that young directors were more focused on getting the composition right than on transmitting a message left a bitter taste in his mouth.

They were directors who didn’t have anything to say, nor did they like movies either. For someone like them, they would be better off looking for other occupations.

He managed to decide on ten pieces after much difficulty. There were about three pieces of melo film that smelled human.

He had a hunch that the grand prize this year would not be from the melo category.

It would be great if there were some okay pieces in the hands of other directors.

Two days later, Seoksoo went to a café to meet Choi Jaehan, Lee Sooae, and Lee Chansik. When they actually met, they were so awkward that it was hard to smile. Even after telling them that they should be comfortable treating him, he could clearly see that they were stiff, so he could only stay quiet.

He felt bitter. He wasn’t even that old, but he kept being treated like a great senior.

Despite that, they seemed to have adapted a little after calling and meeting a few times, and now they were capable of holding a conversation with a smile.

“How is it? Anything fresh?” He started off.

Lee Sooae, who was drinking coffee, opened her eyes wide and spoke,

“I picked five that were decent and five that were to my liking. I liked most of them. They were all younger than me, but they had a great understanding. If people like them keep popping out, I don’t think I’ll ever shoot a commercial film.”

Choi Jaehan also said that there were many good pieces.

Seoksoo picked up some cookies and thought — so all the bombs had dropped on his side?

“Honestly, it’s somewhat funny for someone like me to say this, but it was a total mess.”

Seoksoo felt like he had found someone from his hometown in a completely foreign place as he looked at Lee Chansik, who said those words.

“How were they?”

“Absolutely terrible. Some of them weren’t even melo. For half of them, I didn't know what they were trying to do, and for half of the remaining ones, I couldn’t understand a thing because the sound wasn’t processed. I would understand if it was a bunch of students, but someone who applied before kept doing things like that, so it was quite funny. I had a look at the production date, and it was 2005. I think it’s the same thing as last year.”

“There's bound to be a lot of weird people coming to the table if there’s a lot of food. But you should have gotten some good ones, right?”

“I did.” Lee Chansik spoke after hesitation. He looked like an engineer who had to explain the mechanisms behind some complex machine.

When Seoksoo waited while rolling the cookie in his mouth, Chansik spoke again,

“The other eight are so-so. They’re a mix of good parts and bad parts.”

“So the other two are the problem?”

“Problem, you say. Yes, they’re a problem. Honestly, they aren’t all that well-made. The focus was wrong, the angle was all over the place, and the sound kept popping in and out. It’s full of awkward stuff, but I was focused when I watched them.”

“They must be good then.”

From their interactions during the past few days, Seoksoo could tell that Chansik was someone who was stingy with scoring. He was someone who couldn’t be satisfied with his own work and would tilt his head even after watching something that would usually be considered good, yet he said that he was focused when he watched them. It meant that there was something about those two pieces, something that Chansik couldn’t pinpoint.

Seoksoo looked at the cups of other directors. Everybody had finished their drinks.

“Let’s switch places for now. Our job is to watch. Also, let’s put aside the two films that Chansik talked about until the end. I don’t think there’s any other film that received such an assessment, so let’s leave them until the end as promising pieces.”

They went to the office prepared by the Short Film Festival committee. They sat down and turned on the beam projector. Dust particles in the air sparkled under the light projected by the beam projector.

“Let’s make our own assessments and talk about them at the end of each film. Talk about the things you liked and things that can be improved upon. If there’s nothing to say, you can just skip it. If there’s anything you want to support, then mark that one so that we can reflect your opinion once we finish watching everything and combine the scores,” Seoksoo explained.

Lee Sooae moved the mouse. Soon, the first film came up on the screen. Students in school uniforms ran around on the screen. It was a film that talked about student romance.

“It’s ordinary.”

“But the kids are cute.”

“Let’s give additional points for cuteness.”

The short ones only ran for about 5 minutes, while the longer ones lasted 20. The films with an average duration of about 10 minutes flashed past in front of their eyes.

They would rest their chins on their arms if they saw a film that was practically a joke and would pick up their pens when they saw traces of real human thought being put into it.

Just as Lee Sooae said, there were a few good pieces.

Seoksoo gave higher scores to films that looked fresh and young than films that handled difficult topics with not a lot of depth. He hated films that tried to ‘look good.’ He was someone who believed that those types of films were worse than films that just shot everyday life.

He couldn’t tell how much time had passed. He remembered eating dinner, but he started getting hungry. When he looked around, he saw that everyone looked exhausted. It was not an easy job to watch a film while also assessing it.

It was hard enough watching masterpieces back-to-back, so watching awkward pieces in a series like this was excruciating.

“There’s the last two left.”

Only the two films that Lee Chansik talked about before were left on the list.

“Let’s get some fresh air and come back.”

He left and even smoked in order to get himself together. As the overwhelming majority of the pieces were below average, he placed a lot of hope on the remaining two. If even those two were not above average, then there would be no special prize for the ’08 Short Film Festival in the melo part.

“I’ll put it on now. The title is ‘Water Fog.’”

Lee Sooae’s hand moved again.

After Story 60

A shadow loomed over the sky and the road that was shot from a low angle. The sole of a trainer filled the screen. Along with some white noise, the sound of asphalt being stepped on could be heard before the owner of the trainer became distant with his back to the camera.

He was wearing a work uniform stained with paint and a baseball cap that had yellowed out. In one hand was a cigarette that was almost burnt out. It explained the situation the protagonist was in with just one cut.

The place changed. It was now a cramped house. The man wearing the work uniform opened the door and came inside. His eyes were filled with fatigue, looking like they would close at any moment.

Having thrown down the baseball cap, the man staggered as he took off his uniform.

Seoksoo rather liked the natural-looking everyday act.

The man, who took off his pants while wiggling his toes, immediately lay down on the blanket laid out on the floor. An exhausted breathing sound came out through the speaker.

The sound didn't contain any strength and exhausted the listener as well.

Thud thud — the sound of knocking broke the short silence. The man did not move. Following that, his phone started ringing. The ringtone and the bell created a harmony.

The man put a blanket over his head and slapped his phone away. A moment later, there was the sound of some keys clinking before the door opened.

It was a woman. Just like the man, she looked to be in her twenties.

The camera scanned the messy state of the house from the perspective of the woman's eyes. The woman started cleaning. The man on the floor did not say anything. Around the time the woman finished cleaning, the woman said that they should have a talk.

"Later. Let's have one later," the man said while rolling himself up in the blanket.

His sunken voice indicated how exhausted he was as well as how bothersome he found this situation. The woman kept demanding to talk, but the man did not respond.

The woman stood up — Let's finish up our relationship, goodbye.

The man, who only turned his head to glance at the woman, smiled like he was fed up before pulling the blanket over his head.

Then, the screen changed. The man wearing the work uniform took out his phone next to the construction zone sign board.

"Pick up."

After talking to himself, the man then wrecked his nerves before turning off his phone.

The figure of him carrying bricks, eating food, and working followed as a montage.

The camera then came back to his house. The man, who was still exhausted, sleepily took off his trousers and threw himself on the unmanaged blanket.

The man, who was floundering in silence, took out his phone. He called the woman again. Only the signal beeping could be heard, and the woman did not pick up.

"God dammit. What does she want now."

The man put his hand inside his pants and scratched his butt before tossing his phone away as if he didn't need it anymore.

He kept giving the phone some glances every now and then like he was a thief.

Seoksoo liked that acting. That 'pathetic act' of the protagonist that had no likable elements created comedy, and at the same time, sympathy.

It was a boring parting of a long-time pair of lovers that some might have heard, or perhaps even experienced.

After that, the camera kept capturing the man inside the house. It went through every single one of the man's actions like a CCTV.

The man would cook himself some food, order deliveries, sigh while looking at the crumpled-up laundry, and clean his dirty bathroom while swearing.

The man who went outside and came back had some soju in his hands.

At this point, Seoksoo could guess what would follow. This film did not concentrate on the plot of the story, or the direction. Instead, it used the sympathy of everyday life as an advantage. This film was like an essay.

And the male actor on the screen was bringing out the taste of the film quite well.

Seoksoo thought: Perhaps the director didn't find an actor to fit the scenario, but wrote the scenario based on that actor.

The man, drunk, called the woman. He sobbed and repented his past.

I'm sorry, I was wrong. I'll do better.

After a fadeout, the man could be seen lying face down again. The house was still in a mess. The same knock could be heard, followed by the opening of the door.

When the woman came inside, the man looked at her in a daze before grinning.

The film ended after getting a close-up of the man's shy smile.

"I haven't watched something like this in a while. It tossed aside any kind of plot and just focused on the events that happened. I quite like this kind of thing. Also, I quite like that actor. He looks innocent and naïve, but he also has a sneaky side to him," Lee Sooae said.

Seoksoo nodded in agreement. He liked it because it didn't awkwardly try to follow existing pieces. The actor was also great. There wasn't the pressure of 'I have to look natural' coming off of his acting.

Whether he was born with it or attained it through much practice, he could not tell, but that fellow was someone who would likely become successful as an actor.

"It's okay, but it's still a little disappointing. Was it really necessary to make that into a video? That is the first thought I had. I think it would've been better if they dug into the characters a little more and brought out some topics to talk about." Choi Jaehan voiced a different opinion.

The good point about this film was that there were things to talk about, even if some people disagreed. For the films prior to this, they just skipped over everything without talking.

"Anyway, the general opinion is that the actor is good," Lee Chansik said. Everyone agreed as they looked at the man on the screen.

"The actor's name is Park Joohwan. I'll have to see the other one as well, but I'm going to give my vote to him. That kind of act is quite difficult, right? But he did it pretty well," Lee Sooae said, spinning her pen. She closed the screen and started writing.

Seoksoo gave a higher score than the previous ones because he liked the ordinary color it had. While he didn't know if it would receive an award, it would definitely be screened.

"I think I should go watch this during the GV."

"Let me go with you."

Everyone put their pens down, seemingly having finished their assessment. Now, there was just one left.

"Let's go get something to eat after the last one. I'm so hungry."

"Are you treating us, senior?"

"Have I ever not?"

Seoksoo glanced at Lee Sooae. Another screen popped onto the blue desktop background. The mouse cursor was placed on the last video. Along with a clicking sound, the video appeared on the screen.

"'The Form of Love.' First up, that's not a title I like."

The film began with Lee Sooae's giggle. This was the other film that Lee Chansik called a 'problem.' As 'Water Fog' was pretty decent, Seoksoo focused on the screen expectantly.

The first cut of the film was shot facing down on a man who opened his eyes in an apartment. The man, who stared at the ceiling without budging for a single moment as though he was crushed by something heavy, slowly stood up.

Seoksoo crossed his arms. If the actor in Water Fog expressed lightness with a mix of humor, the actor in front of him acted out frustration with a mix of weightiness.

The man washed up and changed his clothes excruciatingly quietly and took his bag. There wasn't a single hint of vitality in him.

What is the reason behind the depression on his face? The director had not yet revealed the reason.

The screen changed and a lecture room appeared. It was bright, a stark contrast to the man's gloomy room. It even looked a little too bright. A woman approached the man who was sitting in a daze. She asked if he was okay with concern on her face. There seemed to have been some sort of accident.

"It's a pity about what happened to Mijin, but you can't hold onto her forever."

After that line, the man's expression fell apart. Even depression could no longer be seen. It was a face that was literally 'zoned out'. His soul had left through his eyes.

Seoksoo could assume that Mijin must have been a close friend or a lover.

For 20 seconds, the camera showed the man's face. 20 seconds was quite long in a film. Not only that, there was not a single line and it showed just the man's face. While it was enough for the audience to lose their attention, the actor's skills took away any kind of boredom.

Seoksoo frowned. He didn't do it consciously. He was just drawn by the emotions of the man on the screen, making him tense his face.

The way the man's face broke down over the span of 20 seconds left a deep impression on him. The act was quite detailed. The minute movement of the eyes, the trembling of the lips, and the stiffening of the muscles created a trio.

Even while harboring a tragic emotion, the audience would never be able to tell if it wasn't expressed through the actor's eyes and muscles. That young actor was accurately aware of all of that. Young actors tended to find it difficult to express their inner emotions outside due to being too focused on the inner part, but that young man was different.

It was clear that he knew what emotions would be visible and how he should show them. Seoksoo liked the nonchalance of the actor from Water Fog, but he also liked the seriousness of this actor.

He quickly looked down, looking for the actor's name: Han Maru. It was a rather peculiar name that wasn't easily forgotten.

"He's good."

While it was no obligation, everyone stayed quiet during the screening, but someone spoke for the first time. It was Choi Jaehan.

"Yeah," Lee Sooae responded.

A light appeared in the man's eyes as he was falling to the depths of the abyss. He floundered upwards and headed to the entrance of the lecture room.

The camera, which followed the man's gaze, showed the entrance to the room. There was a woman there. She was looking at the camera expressionlessly.

Her expression was a stark contrast to the brightly colored one-piece dress she was wearing, which indicated one thing.

She was a dead person, aka, Mijin.

The camera put the man in the frame again. The man, who leaned against the wall looking for Mijin, curled up and fell down.

The screen changed. It was in front of a lake with a signboard. It truly looked dreary. The bitter and depressing scenery was just like the man. Seoksoo thought that the choice of location was pretty good.

There, the man met Mijin again. It was here he realized something. Mijin was no ghost; she was an illusion. She was the hope and the despair that only the man could see.

There were no fantasy elements like dead souls appearing. After that, the man conversed with the illusion, loved the illusion, and spent his time with it. In that short cut, the man was filled with vitality like never before.

It became bright. However, this didn't last long. The man possessed clear reason; he had enough to know that he was not sane, that illusions were just illusions. and that he could never console himself by relying on them.

The man became dry. His friends who looked out for him and even his family became distant, nay, disappeared.

The camera kept showing the lecture room and the street, but no people were there. Seoksoo felt like he could tell what the director's intention was.

At the last moment, the man and the woman were the only ones remaining in a space where everything had disappeared. The man embraced the woman. Whether it was because he loved her, or was trying to escape the solitude that would lead to his death, he could not tell.

The perspective changed and the camera portrayed a man in a hugging position all by himself before leaving the house. In the streets were people. The sound of bright laughter filled the audio before the screen went dark.

"The story is quite old-fashioned, but the direction was quite good. He's a talented director. As long as he gains experience, I think he'll make some good pieces," said Lee Sooae. Her assessment didn't end there. "Also, the actor. His acting style isn't something I prefer, I'll say that. He's too tight. It almost looks stuffy. However, I'm absolutely not saying that he's bad. It's a matter of personal preference."

"He's twenty-two? He has a solid foundation. I wonder where he popped out from."

"Tell me about it. But actors like this do appear from time to time. They don't last long though. They're too fixed in one style and can't change it. Unless he finds a way to gain fame by finding a piece that is perfect for him, he will disappear."

"True. I don't think he can act like the actor from Water Fog."

Seoksoo quietly listened to the words of his junior directors. They all had a point.

"Anyway, we all agree that it might not be a well-made film, but it is a good film?"

"Rather than calling it good, I'd like to call it an interesting film."

Seoksoo nodded and asked, "Okay then. Since we watched everything, let's make a decision. I think two out of the ten spots are decided. Water Fog and this one. What does everyone think?"

The answer came back soon — of course; this is definitely going on screen.

"Good. That's two. Now, let's pick the other eight."

After Story 61

Seoksoo clenched his right hand before loosening it. He felt sore as it had been a long time since he last held a pen.

“Okay, that’s that.”

They decided on the ten films that would go on screen. It took some time due to a clash of opinions right at the end, but it still ended earlier than he had expected.

After writing the list, he sent the email to the organizers. That was it for the melo section.

“Now that we actually filtered them, there’s quite a lot of decent pieces. The last two were especially good. The judges’ prize might actually be from the melo section this time,” Lee Sooae said.

“We’d have to open the lid to see how it goes. I heard from a director doing recent affairs, and apparently, they got a great film. The directors who watched it all said that it was worthy of the grand prize.”

“Really? If they’re blatantly complimenting it, I guess it must be really good. Otherwise, at least one or two people would have objected to it.”

“We’ll watch all the pieces recommended from each genre, so we’ll see whether it’s fake or not at that time. Well, then, since we’re done, shall we go for a light drink?”

Just as he stood up, Lee Sooae grabbed the mouse after telling him to wait. The beam projector spat out white light and put on a video on the screen. It was ‘The Form of Love’ which they watched at the end.

“Any problems?” Seoksoo asked.

“No, it’s not that there’s a problem. I just need to check something.”

The mouse pointer moved. After scrolling back and forth through the timeline, the video stopped. Seoksoo also put down his luggage and looked at the screen. The face of the actress who played the role of Mijin was on the left of the frame.

“I didn’t mention this since the whole video was focused on the male actor, and I was focused on him as well, but… doesn’t she look really good?”

“I also had my eyes drawn to that actress. I like that abstract gaze and also her totally expressionless acting. Heck, not to mention her face,” Choi Jaehan said. Now that the video was paused, indeed, the woman was quite a beauty.

The reason her appearance didn’t stand out and could dissolve into the film so naturally was thanks to her splendid expressionless acting. The direction played a part, but the actress herself was suppressing herself. She looked like she had zero desire to look pretty. She only functioned as the director intended, as someone who represented the main character’s psychology.

“I quite want her. I’ll have to ask her to do other things to be sure, but I really like her face.”

Lee Sooae looked for the director’s contact info. Her eyes gleamed. It was just the nature of directors to put their dibs when they found good actors. Lee Sooae seemed to have taken a liking to the ‘Mijin’ inside the screen.

“Are you going to meet her?”

“If possible. If she has a face like that and is interested in working as an actress, it’s highly likely that she has an agency right? I just want to keep her in mind for my next work.”

“How passionate.”

Lee Sooae put her pen down with a smile. It seemed she had written down the contact info on a piece of paper.

“If you’re done, then turn it off. We should go before it gets crowded.”

“Okay. You’re the one buying, right, senior?”

“Fine, I will.”

Before the screen turned off, Seoksoo looked at the two actors. He felt like there were a lot of interesting people this year. He picked up his stuff and left the room.

* * *

-Hyung! We did it! We did it!

He got a call from Yoonseok when he was wiping his table with some cloth. There was a lot of noise, as though he was jumping around as he called. Only after he told him to calm down several times did Yoonseok's voice calm down a little.

-Hyung, do you think we should wear a full suit when we go to the screening? With a vest and everything?

"Please don't do that. Just wear something casual."

-But it will be the first time I'll be meeting my audience. I should at least look formal.

"What if no one comes?"

-No way, I'm sure there will be one at least.

"Don't be so sure. I looked it up, and there were many screenings that didn't have a single person. If we're unlucky, we'll end up with the same fate."

-Really? Is that true?

His excited voice rapidly plummeted. He was so gullible that it was worth teasing. Maru smiled.

"I can't go any further since you react so seriously. There won't be a single empty seat, so don't be so depressed."

-Dammit, is it that fun to tease a younger person? I'm already nervous as it is.

"I'm sure you are. And you must be. Anyway, don't worry about people not visiting, and just think about answers to potential questions. There will be a talk with the audience once the screening is done. If you don't want to look dumb after getting asked questions, you should think about various things."

-What if people ask sharp questions? I'm not good at talking in front of people.

"Everyone is bound to do it when it's in front of them, so just think about what to say. Well, there's also the possibility that they won't ask you anything."

-That might be better.

"Now go boast to your friends and family. Whatever happens, your film will be going on a big screen. This might be the last time, so go boast about it."

-Who says it's the last one? Just look at me later. I'm going to create a masterpiece and monopolize a cinema for myself.

Before he hung up, Yoonseok asked one last time,

-But hyung. What are you going to be wearing?

"Me? Of course, I'll be going in a suit. With a vest and everything."

-Forget it. I was the fool for asking you. Don't you dare come looking strange.

"Mind your own business."

This wasn't like any other film festival, but the Short Film Festival, in the competitive section. It was a great opportunity to receive feedback from various judges and members of the audience. Maru looked forward to what kind of assessment he would receive.

As soon as he put the phone down, it started ringing again. It was a text message from Miso.

-Your audition is set. It'll be on the 6th of January next year. It was originally going to be in November, but everything got delayed. But it didn't flop, so do your best. The details about what to prepare will be sent to you by email as soon as it's decided.

At the end of her message was a small cheer up emoji. Miso really looked out for him in a lot of things, even though they were supposed to be a light acquaintance who just came across each other on the street.

Maru was once again reminded of fatalism. Even if that god did not intervene, is fate bound to make people run into each other?

Maru responded with a thank you message.

-Good luck. If it goes well, we're going to put your name and your face in our acting school. Let's benefit from each other.

It seemed that the power of capital was at play instead, not fate. The tips of Maru's lips curved upwards. This was just like Yang Miso. He asked her to put up a life-sized poster of him if he managed to debut.

-Only A-tier actors will get large-sized posters. Newbies will just have their faces hung up in the corner.

She really didn't back down.

From June to November, the seeds he had scattered were sprouting. Whether they would wither immediately or become the beanstalk grown by Jack, he would have to wait and see.

He did not feel any urgency, nor did he feel uneasy. When he first tried to become an actor, he did not play a named role a single time for eight years. Compared to back then, things were working out so smoothly that he might as well be on the highway.

Experience was truly a great asset. Even if he did stumble, he would be able to rise up easily. Not only that, he even had his reassuring wife.

Maru put the news on TV before heading back to the kitchen. It was time to clean the fur that the cat had shed everywhere.

* * *

He undid the button on the collar of his shirt and stood in front of the mirror. It definitely looked better undone than buttoned.

After taking off the shirt, he grabbed a hair dryer. He split his hair in a 7:3 part and pressed down lightly with a comb to tidy up his hair.

Today, he was going to style himself in a classic fashion. He created the basic form with some hair wax and did the finishing touches with some hair spray. There was no hair that protruded out.

Now that he was done with his hair, the only thing remaining was his glasses.

He took out a few glasses that had round frames. These were things he had bought for cheap when a local glasses store went out of business.

He tried out various 5,000-won frames for a while before finding one he liked. It was a light-brown frame.

He put on his shirt and his watch. It wasn't bad, considering that he styled himself. His hair was slightly lacking, but he felt like he would mess it up if he tried any further, so he just let it be.

He was reminded of the hair shop that he frequented. He used to be great friends with the owner there.

-Hyung, you left the house, right?

This director kept messaging him since morning, as though he was uneasy. Maru did not respond on purpose.

He put on some casual-style dress shoes and left the house. It was the 4th of November. The air of late autumn couldn't be more refreshing.

He got on the bus and basked in the warm sunlight. Until now, Yoonseok had sent five messages. A series of bear characters throwing a tantrum popped up on the screen.

-It's not the end of the world. I'm on my way there so don't worry.

He went to Thintech Mall which was in Apgujeong, Seoul. There were a bunch of posters plastered on the front of the mall, promoting the Short Film Festival.

He took the elevator and went to TC Cinema, which was on the 6th floor.

The Short Film Festival store was occupying more than half of the large waiting room. Helpers who volunteered to act as staff for the festival gave them leaflets.

"Please line up this way."

People lined up according to the helpers. They were lining up in order to buy merchandise related to film. Among the numerous film festivals that occurred throughout the year domestically, there was nothing that received more interest than the Short Film Festival. The tickets to the films that were screened would also be sold out every year.

"That's director Lee Jeongdong."

"You're right, that's him."

A middle-aged man who walked out of the elevator greeted the people and walked off to the staff office.

Director Lee Jeongdong was someone who received an award at the Cannes festival last year. Being able to see famous directors and actors was also a part of the charm of the Short Film Festival.

Maru bought the official pamphlet from the store. There were figures of directors and actors who challenged various different genres.

In the middle was Yoonseok's face. There was an introduction to his film and some words from him.

I wanted to talk about people and love — was what Yoonseok said as his own introduction.

He walked past the ticketing office with the pamphlet in hand. The works that received awards at the last festival were introduced. Next to them were the works that came in this year.

He slowly walked and read all of them. As an actor, and as someone who loved film, he was able to relate to all the sentences written there. This was a festival for the people, and by the people who loved film; and in some cases, by people slightly crazy about it.

"They look better than last year, right?"

"There's nothing that catches my fancy. I'm someone who likes melo, but none of them speaks to me."

The words of the audience flew into his ears. Those people were critics, as well as people of culture who were thirsty for film. They were those that looked for that strange niche that commercial film could not fulfill.

Would there be any film that satisfies them? Maru wondered as well.

He turned his wrist to check the time. It was almost time to go inside. As there were no preroll ads, he had to sit down beforehand.

"Hyung?"

He heard a voice call out to him from behind. He turned around to see Yoonseok. Next to him were Jiseon and the others who contributed to creating the film.

"You were causing a ruckus, yet you came just in time?"

"We were looking around. But, hey…”

"Hey?"

"Hyung, you're totally an actor when you suit up. You're even wearing glasses, huh? Are those prescriptions?"

"No."

He put his finger through the frame to show that there was nothing in it.

Just then, he heard a camera sound. Maru turned around. Jiseon was taking a photo of him with her phone.

"Your clothes are your wings, huh? Or is the cherry of fashion the hairstyle? You look like a totally different person."

"That's a compliment, right?"

"Of course. You have a sexy beauty about you."

"I can be sexy at times."

"And your mouth has to ruin everything. I wonder why you remind me of my dad every time you say something."

Maru smiled and pointed at the theaters. People were heading inside.

"Let's go."

He lined up at the end with the invitation card that he received beforehand.

After Story 62

Maru sat down in row A, which was closest to the screen. Yoonseok sat right next to him, while Jiseon and the others were seated behind them.

"The people next to us must be directors of the other works, right?" Yoonseok said as he looked to his left.

Maru nodded. Usually, during GVs, the directors and actors were seated at the front. This was done because they would have to go on stage once the screening was done. This was also for the sake of the audience who invested their time and money to come to the cinema.

"Hello."

A woman wearing an orange knitted sweater greeted Yoonseok. From how she was right next to him, she seemed to be related to the works being screened. Was she a director, or an actress? He didn't know yet.

Next to the woman was a young man. He had some folded tissue against his nose as though he had a terrible cold.

While the people seated in the A row greeted each other, the lights on the ceiling started dimming and the doors at the front opened. A man entered with a smile and greeted the audience.

"Hello, everyone. I'm in charge of procedures for 'Rising Rain', the Melo section. Please call me Mister Park. Those of you coming in should be careful as you go to your seats, and over there, the one drinking coke with a straw, I hope you can listen to me first."

People's heads turned according to the MC's gestures. The man in the audience drinking coke widened his eyes and took his mouth off the straw.

The MC then smiled and told him that there would be big trouble if he kept staring like that, so he should just look forward.

The stiff atmosphere in the theater soon became lax.

The MC checked the time and looked at the back door. A helper for the program closed the doors.

"It's time to begin. I'm going to move out of the way after telling you some necessary information, so don't worry. First, as it says on the ticket, you'll be watching four films in a series. Those of you who have bought the program book will be able to enjoy it a little more if you read the synopses before they begin. This program will last about 90 minutes in total, and of that, 65 minutes will be the films. During the rest, we'll dig deeper into the profundities of the minds of the directors and actors involved," the MC said as he pointed at the A row. Some of the audience at the back applauded.

"Thank you for the applause. We should repay such applause. Helper, could you please hand the two people who clapped some prizes?"

The MC showed that this was not a strict assessment place, but a festival they could enjoy together.

The audience applauded. The two people who received prizes stood up and bowed in embarrassment.

"I'm sure all of you are here because you love film. Please don't forget about the questions you have as you watch the four films and keep them in your mind. Don't forget to ask them when you talk to the directors. Otherwise, we'll all have to sit in awkward silence for about 30 minutes. That sounds terrible, doesn't it?"

Hearing the MC, the audience also chimed in, saying that they would keep that in mind.

"I love that we have so many cheerful people here. We'll start the first film now. Please enjoy."

The MC stepped down amidst applause. He was quite proficient. Talking to the audience would become a lot easier with him around.

The lights shining down on the stage were turned off. Along with some motor rolling sounds, a black screen rolled down on top of the screen.

After the top masking was done, some white noise could be heard. The electronic noise of the beam projector tickled the back of Maru's head. The film was finally starting.

He looked next to him as he drank the green tea that he bought from the convenience store. Yoonseok was looking at the screen, his face filled with nervousness. He should be more nervous than ever, and also uneasy. The inevitable time that all directors had to experience was upon him.

"Would you like some?" Maru offered him the green tea bottle. Yoonseok shook his head, saying that he wasn't in a state to put anything in his mouth right now.

The first film started. It was a film that Maru could feel a youthful passion from. It was about a love between a man and a woman working at a convenience store.

The producers did not get hung up on a dramatic plot and just displayed plain love. It used eye-level shots throughout the beginning sequences to maintain a sense of objectivity, and during the latter half, it used over-the-shoulder shots a lot.

The subjectivity on top of the objectivity increased the immersion, but it didn't suck him in.

The director kept putting up a wall. It was thin, but was definitely there, and was asking questions to the audience instead of allowing them to accept the psychology of the main character — What would you do?

After the film ended, the ending credits rolled.

Leaving aside the technical aspects of filming, it was quite satisfactory in terms of plot. Just because it was plain didn't mean that they didn't put much thought into it. A film like this was probably born because they held onto it for a long time, shaving it down and putting things aside.

"Should I ask them to not screen my film?" Yoonseok muttered.

Maru pressed down on the back of his neck with his thumb. "Your film isn't crap. Don't panic."

"The actor isn't crap, but I feel like it's crap because of my story."

"The last line of defense a creator can have is their confidence. The other directors are the same. On public occasions, they will always say that they got a lot of help from those around them, but when you look inside, everyone thinks that their film was successful because their story was the best. The degree might be different, but everyone thinks that. Personally, I think that those who lack that confidence will never be successful as an actor, or last a long time."

"Really?"

"This is something you wrote. Even if everyone else insults it, you of all people must be supportive of it. The moment a director gives up expressing his affection for his work, that work becomes nothing. Well, there are cases where works are labeled masterpieces even after the director throws them away, but that's because the films are just that good."

"You're saying that if I give up on our film, it'll be put in the trash, right?"

"What is up with all your negativity neurons today? Why are you so dejected? Our film wasn't even screened. If you want to cry, it wouldn't be too late to do it once your name appears in the credits."

It wasn't that Maru couldn't understand what Yoonseok was feeling. During the first screening, the only ones that watched were the people who had participated in the production. They knew everything already.

However, today, the ones that came to watch it were those who paid their own money for it. Because of that, Yoonseok must have the urge to go to the bathroom, and his ears might feel ticklish.

The second film began. Unlike the first film, it didn't leave that big of an impression. Not bad – that was it. It wasn't that the emotions were dry. Maru just didn't have any interest because the plot and the production style were something he was used to seeing.

He had participated in and even produced hundreds, thousands, if not tens of thousands of films. He had an enormous amount of data related to film in his head. When he looked at films, he could think of similar films even if he didn't intend to recall them.

With things to compare, the freshness of it naturally fell behind. It was really difficult for him to enjoy a film even if he tried to put in the effort. Though, the moment 'effort' came into play meant that it was no good.

In retrospect, he usually watched movies and dramas to use as reference material, not for enjoyment.

On one hand, he felt slightly relieved. At least, he didn't get fed up with acting. If even the fun of participation had withered away, he would never have dreamed of becoming an actor.

The third film began. Maru leaned back and raised his chin. Just because he could no longer easily enjoy film didn't mean that he could throw his focus out the window.

The title came up. It was Water Fog. Like the two films before it, it painted an ordinary picture of love and separation between a young man and a woman. Now, he could tell the preferences of the judges for the melo section in the festival.

'The Form of Love', in which he played the main character, was very different from the other three, starting from the intention of the production. Maybe they chose Yoonseok's piece in order to display other types.

He organized his thoughts and focused on the film. He was impressed for the first time as he watched the male lead's acting. It wasn't that the actors in the previous two pieces were bad. They properly displayed the story and transmitted the emotions.

However, that was it. They lacked the charm to shake the minds of those watching. It was a so-called 'lack of character.' Though, as they were young actors, this would be resolved naturally with some time, so there was no need to point it out as a mistake.

It was just that the actor in the third film had already found his character which made it a contrast. The act was tasteful. It was bold, yet delicate. He seemed to know what his charms were. Maru turned his head around.

Next to the woman wearing an orange sweater was the man who was still blocking his nose with some tissue. A man with curly hair and a dazed expression was acting nonchalantly inside the screen.

What a talented fellow – Maru looked at the man with goodwill. He always felt good when he found a junior with talent.

"He's pretty good," Yoonseok said.

Acting was something abstract, and being 'good' couldn't be defined properly, but for some curious reason, the people watching were usually able to make accurate assessments. The phrase 'you'll know whether it's porn or art if you watch it' was also an example of this.

It wasn't just Yoonseok. The majority of the people seated here must have watched the actor for the third film with focus, curious about who that actor might be, the one who nonchalantly acted so naturally.

The ending credits for the third film started rolling. Contrary to the first two works, there was applause. Although it didn't last long, it was very significant. It meant that they liked it to the point that they wanted to break the silence to express it.

Maru looked at the man again. He made eye contact with the man who was sniffing while blowing his nose lightly. Maru smiled and raised his thumb.

The man nodded slowly in response. His eyes were very calm.

"It's starting, it's starting. Oh my god, this is driving me crazy." Yoonseok said as he clasped his hands.

The fourth film, 'The Form of Love', was starting.

* * *

He rolled up the tissue. He then stuck it up his nose after it became about the thickness of a fingernail. It was a perfect fit.

Good – Park Joohwan put the used tissue in the trash can by his feet.

"You should've taken some medicine," said Moon Jungah.

"I'm okay."

"Pollen allergy?"

"Yeah, I'm like this every year."

"I told you to wear something warm."

"Maybe I should've listened."

"You're good at answering."

Joohwan looked at the orange knitted sweater that Jungah was wearing.

"Is that warm?"

"Should I take it off for you?"

"No, it's okay."

He blew his nose and looked ahead again. He quite looked forward to coming here, but honestly, it was quite boring. Both the first and second works were below his expectations.

He did not care about the plot or the production quality at all. What he looked at was the acting of the actors. Jungah told him that they would be good since they managed to win the competition, but in his view, they were all below his standards. It was hard not to yawn.

The film he acted in ended. He thought that he would be fed up with it because he had watched it over and over again, but unexpectedly, he was quite absorbed.

Just as he thought that a large screen sure did make a difference, he made eye contact with the man sitting next to him. He had neatly styled hair and a pair of glasses. He wasn't a pretty boy, but he had a masculine beauty about him.

The man gave him a thumbs up. Did that mean he enjoyed it? Joohwan nodded for now. He knew that his acting was good, even if he wasn't told it. At least, he should be better than every other actor in this place.

Just as he was putting away the used tissues, the fourth film began.

After Story 63

Joohwan was good at everything ever since he was young. It wasn’t just his personal opinion. Everyone around him told him the same thing: he is different from other people.

He was six when he first appeared on TV. Thanks to the urging from a neighborhood lady, his mother called the TV station, and he stood in front of the camera for the first time.

Back then, he didn’t know what being broadcasted meant, but it was quite a captivating matter for him to know that he would receive the attention and interest of many people.

He added and multiplied the numbers on the whiteboard. The faster he did it the louder the applause became.

He was confused about why everyone was making a fuss about what a calculator could do, but he liked it because they liked it.

After that, various TV stations called out to him. However, his mother judged that such attention would ruin her child and rejected all calls from program writers ever since.

When he thought about it now, it was a wise decision. If his mother was gullible, then it would've been very exhausting.

People soon forgot about the math prodigy. He just finished compulsory education with the support of his parents, telling him to do whatever he wants to do.

His grades were all over the place. He easily topped his school whenever he thought that he should study, but whenever he found interest in something other than schoolwork, he soon dropped to below average.

If there was one thing that he realized through exams, it was the importance of concentration. Even something as easy as schoolwork didn't give him desired results if he didn't concentrate.

"I'm going to go to Joongho High."

He tried his hand at various things while studying, but his interest didn't last that long. Only schoolwork gave him a consistent amount of interest. Even when he went off on a tangent, he would return to studying. He thought that he was suited for studying. This was why he chose a prestigious high school in his neighborhood.

Enrolling in a prestigious high school, then university, and then post-graduate studies, and then eventually becoming a professor… that was the simple life plan he had designed.

They say that there was no end to studying, so he felt that being friends with studying would be the most satisfactory for him.

From time to time, he felt vain for reasons he didn't know, but he thought that it was just life.

His frame of thinking changed when he was in his 2nd year of high school.

"Have you ever watched a play?"

About a week after the new school year started, a girl suddenly said those words to him. He was doing some mock exam papers and turned his head to look at the girl.

Moon Jungah.

She was a girl whose only trait was that she was quiet. It was the first time they talked as well, after a whole week.

He shook his head. He had watched a lot of dramas and movies, but he had never watched a play.

"What club were you in during 1st year?"

"The English Speech club."

"Was it fun?"

"So-so."

"Don't you have any interest in doing plays?"

After that conversation, Joohwan found out that the girl seated next to him was definitely not quiet, and was actually far from it.

He refused back then because of the lack of interest, but he headed to the gym after school when she asked him to come just to watch. When he went there, he found around ten people other than him.

"The play will end quickly, so I hope you can watch until the end."

"Just finish it before I have to go to cram school," said another student from another class sitting next to him. Everyone seemed to be running out of time because of various matters after school.

"If you find any interest after watching, then I hope you can come to the acting club. It's really fun."

Four people, including Jungah, stepped onto the stage. They all seemed to belong to the acting club. After checking the camera installed in front of the stage, Jungah started acting.

The story wasn't anything much. It was a story about finding an underwear thief.

Get him, no, get that guy instead — It was just a series of skits that seemed like it was from a comedy program.

20 minutes had passed after the play began. Five out of the ten people who gathered apologized and left.

Joohwan thought about the rows of cram school vehicles that should be lined up outside the school. It was quite a sight in this neighborhood. Everyone was going to go inside those.

Another ten minutes passed. The four remaining people also left, saying that they should talk later.

He heard a basketball bouncing on the ground next to him. The students who were here for some sports before after school studying were taking over the court.

In one corner, people were playing badminton. The gym was filled with noise.

He thought it should be okay to end it here, but the students on stage did not stop. They raised their voices since the noise in the court had become louder. They knew that their audience had left, but they did not pull out the strength in their actions.

But still, they were only human, so they made a lot of mistakes towards the end and their voices became smaller as well.

They probably didn't have any energy since there was no audience.

After the play ended, he applauded. It was his payment for their passionate labor, not something he did because they were good.

Even as someone clueless about acting, the stage was terrible.

"But there's still one person left. Our play was pretty okay, wasn't it?" Jungah asked from on top of the stage. The people standing next to her also looked at him with their eyes glistening.

They looked different from people who had dead fish eyes every time they studied. They seemed to be enjoying themselves. They were probably putting their passion into something they wanted to do.

"You were bad."

"Bad?"

"I'm not entirely sure about plays, but from a general perspective, I don't think you're good at all."

"Really? That can't be helped. We did our best to prepare throughout the holidays. But why did you watch until the end?"

"Because I don't have anything to do."

"Cram school?"

"I don't go to one."

"Hey… didn't you top out the mock exams all throughout first year?"

"Yeah. I did."

"You said you didn't wish to do after school study sessions either when they investigated. You don't go to cram school or go to self studies classes after school. Do you get schooled at home separately or something?"

"I don't do anything like that. I find it enough to just study for tests at school. I'll do more if I find it insufficient, but I don't need it for the time being, so I just find it better to go home and sleep."

"You're such a cocky guy."

"Is there anything to be cocky about when it's the truth?"

Jungah crouched down after twitching her eyes. There was sweat on her forehead.

"Then you must have a lot of free time, huh?"

"What if I do?"

"Would you like to join the acting club? I think you'll be good at it."

"Better than you for sure."

It was an offer he hadn't received for a while. Perhaps that was why, but he accepted it on the spot.

On his way home, he thought about it. He didn't accept it simply because he was given the offer. The greed that had been lying dormant within him had urged him to enter the acting club.

He wanted the ecstasy of standing in front of the camera, the sense of heightening when receiving the eyes of multiple people.

After that day, he looked at books related to acting instead of exam papers. He watched dramas and movies with a pair of analytical eyes instead of watching them as a pastime.

When he did, a whole new world unfolded in front of his eyes. The world of acting was something where the obvious was no longer obvious. It was interesting. Acting was a very strange 'act.' It was a formula to disguise the false as the truth, and also a tool to implement planar text into three-dimensional reality.

When he tried acting himself, he found that it had a different taste to it from studying. It was worth digging into.

"I want to try acting."

He said those words to his mother after two months of deep contemplation. That evening, they had a family meeting. While it was put in a grand way, the only thing that happened was telling his father about his opinion.

"Not as a hobby, but seriously?"

"Yeah. It's as fun as studying."

"Have you thought that you might have a hard time making a living from it?"

"I can make a living. I'm good at everything."

His father said that they should look into an acting school. He told his father that he was going to study by himself for the time being.

The world was his studying material, and since he knew what he had to study, going to an acting school was pointless.

Since then, he invested his concentration into studying acting. As for his grades, he was now about 30th in grade in the whole school, but he didn't care. He had long ago realized that he only had one hand in making a decision and that he could not choose two things at once.

It wasn't a problem even if he was fed up with eating midway. As long as he made that decision three months ahead of the college SATs, he wouldn't have a hard time going to a well-reputed university.

This new field of study known as acting was as deep, if not deeper, than studying for exams.

The castle of comedy and tragedy built before the era of Christ was sturdy and he did not get fed up with it no matter how much he studied it.

When he came to, he was right before the winter holidays of his third year. During that time, he won many prizes at the city, province, and national levels. Scanning the trophies lined up in the acting club, he made the decision to continue acting.

As he decided on his path, it was then time to take action. He enrolled in the theater department of Hanbyuk Arts University. Jungah enrolled in the same college and same department. He majored as an actor and Jungah as a producer.

His studies became deeper. The more he opened his eyes, the more he realized the excellence of actors in the media. The uniqueness and aura shown by actors in their mid to late thirties especially were the epitome of shock. Their acting had matured from years of concentration. If he imitated them, he might be able to look similar, but it wouldn't 'taste' the same.

A higher field was right before his eyes. Joohwan was so pleased with that fact. The desire to catch up to them one day heightened his concentration even further.

"You really don't watch the acting of your peers. They don't have anything for you to benefit from it, huh?" Jungah said. He did not deny her words.

There were only a handful of actors in the same age group as him that managed to catch his attention. There was not a single actor around him who had gained a reputation at the young age of twenty-one. Those people were far away in Chungmuro.

However, to his eyes, even the acting of those rising stars was lukewarm at best. They were good, but they lacked something. Even he was confident that he would be able to do those things if he was given their roles.

"You never know. There might be people who are far better than you, you know?"

Jungah said so, but he wasn't able to sympathize with her. No matter how many times he visited theaters around Hyehwa station and no matter how much he rummaged through all the movies being released, he never received stimulus from an actor around his age.

There were good actors for sure, but none were 'far superior' to him. That was the conclusion he came to after listening to and watching the objective facts.

As Jungah said, if there was such an actor, he wanted to see one. If there was an actor that made him stand on the edge, then he would go to that person first and give that person a big hug.

A competitor was precious after all. However, he believed that he would hardly find one since he had never seen one until now.

And right now, Joohwan was watching the film in front of his eyes, unable to loosen the grip of his interlocked hands.

His eyes were captivated by the man in 'The Form of Love.' It was the same man who just gave him a thumbs-up a while ago.

The man's acting itself seemed to be on a level that he could put out. The actor was good, but that seemed to be the only thing good about him. However, as time passed and the story progressed, his lips became parched.

He could not picture it in his head. This was weird. This was the first time he could only faintly see a figure of himself acting in the same place. The emotional act was something he had watched a lot and he felt like he would be able to recreate it, but when he sketched it out, the impression became faint.

Joohwan had tasted this once before. It was when he first came across high school-level mathematics when studying middle-school math; when he looked at a formula he had never seen before.

He was stifled, and eventually, exhilarated.

"How is it?" Jungah, who was next to him, asked in a small voice.

He spoke as he looked at the man hugging his dead girlfriend in the film, "He's good. But I don't get exactly what he's good at. I don't get it, but he's good. He's definitely good. He's someone worth learning from."

He raised his head to look at the man with the neat hairstyle. To him, studying was the same as fighting. They both led to the same sense of achievement after breaking down the unknown and stepping a foot forward.

"I must hear that I am better than him."

His sense of objective, which had become faint until now, became clear again at this moment.

After Story 64

For some reason, he felt a pair of prickly eyes on him. Even Yoonseok, who sat next to him, brought it up.

“Hyung, did you do something to him?” He glanced at the man blowing his nose through the side of his vision. He had found out that the man’s name was Park Joohwan from the ending credits of the 3rd film.

“It’s the first time I’m seeing him today.”

“So why does he keep looking at you? He doesn’t look like he’s picking a fight.”

“Maybe it’s not me, but you he’s looking at?”

Yoonseok crouched down, pretending to do his shoelaces. Joohwan took the opportunity and stared at Maru right in the face. Even Maru’s iron face, trained through all sorts of trials, was almost put in jeopardy by the blatant gaze.

Maru looked at Joohwan with a questioning gaze. He was curious as to why he was being stared at.

Joohwan stared at him for about five seconds before turning around to look at the screen again.

It was a rather lukewarm result considering that two males had exchanged gazes.

There should be sparks of competition or white flags raised out of defeat, but Joohwan’s gaze belonged to neither. He looked like a zoologist that found a peculiar animal. That was the impression Maru had from looking at Joohwan’s eyes.

‘The Form of Love’ reached its end.

Yoonseok, who was uneasy, also fell into the world he created. His black irises were scanning every corner of the screen. He probably had all sorts of thoughts going across his head.

I should’ve done this better, I should’ve placed this here, I should’ve looked for a better place — these kinds of disappointments would become the stepping stone for his next work.

“Well done,” Maru said as he looked at the ending credits.

Actor section: Lee Jungho by Han Maru. This was his first film in this life, and also his first lead role. He came across a good director, and his film was also screened, so this could be considered a successful debut.

Just like before with ‘Water Fog’ someone in the audience started clapping.

Maru looked back. Jiseon and the others who participated in the production were also turning around. Two women, who seemed to be friends, as well as a man seated in front of them were applauding.

“Director Lee. Have a good look at them. They might be your very first fans.”

Yoonseok looked at the audience with as much seriousness as when he was watching a film. There was probably no other moment that was as thrilling as this for a new director.

“Hyung.”

“What?”

“This is good. I like everything. I didn’t know I would be so happy. This feels even better than when I got an A on CSATs. No, that can’t even compare. It’s really unbelievable that people like what I created. It’s something that feels really amazing.”

“That’s why directors can’t put down their megaphones. They have a lot they want to say, and they want to see people who listen to their stories.”

Good work, director Lee — he patted Yoonseok’s shoulders as he added that.

After the ending credits, the lights in the theater were turned on.

“Did you enjoy the films?” The MC came up on the stage.

On the screen were the words ‘Talk with the Audience,’ as well as the titles and the names of the directors of each film.

“Let’s call up the directors and actors on stage. Please give them a round of applause!”

The helper led them onto the stage. Another helper with a camera around his neck started taking photos.

“Here are your mics.”

A helper in a blue uniform handed out microphones to the directors. Yoonseok kept fidgeting, as though he wasn’t used to holding a mic.

“Stand upright,” Maru said in a small voice.

Yoonseok, who was in a daze, came to himself and looked at the audience as he straightened his back and shoulder.

“We should have a light introduction first, shouldn’t we? Please introduce your film and names, starting from over here.”

A director held a microphone up to his mouth. He wasn’t nervous, as though he was used to receiving attention by nature.

The first director finished the greeting with a cheerful voice before the second director got the mic.

“Hello.”

When he stood there in a daze after a greeting, the MC guided him slightly.

“We have a director with a good voice here. Would you like to introduce yourself and your work to the audience?”

“Ah, yes! I’m Choi Joonhyuk. I was in charge of producing ‘Soon, Later.’”

The microphone then went to the actor next to him. The actor also introduced himself with a nervous voice. The audience applauded, as though to tell them that they should relax.

“Uhm, err. I’m Lee Yoonseok, who produced ‘The Form of Love.’ Please take care of me,” Yoonseok took a deep bow after saying those words. The MC laughed.

“You’re very polite. Maybe I should greet like that too. Please take good care of the Q&A session. You can’t stay silent.”

The MC folded his waist in half and greeted the audience. Yoonseok, who was frozen, smiled in relaxation as he saw that. Maru thought this during the opening speech, but the MC really had great proficiency and consideration.

“Hello. I’m Han Maru, and I shot the film with the polite director right next to me. I was worried since the weather is so good, as I thought you’d all cancel the tickets and go on a picnic or something. Seeing the seats filled like this makes me want to thank you.”

“I was slightly worried too. Isn’t the weather perfect for a picnic today?”

“Tell me about it.”

He exchanged some words with the MC. This was just the introduction, so it would be rude to speak for a long time. He took his mouth off the mic and looked at the woman to his left.

“I’m Moon Jungah. I’m the director of ‘Water Fog.’ I wonder why I’m so nervous when I’m just introducing myself.”

She was someone with a loud voice. Her pronunciation was clear as well. She said she was nervous, but her eyes and posture said otherwise. She must either be good on stage or have experience with it.

Joohwan, who stood next to her, grabbed the microphone from her.

“I’m Park Joohwan, who will become a good actor,” he said with strength in his voice. His bold claim didn’t sound ridiculous. He looked serious to the point that it made those looking at him nod in acceptance.

Maru thought that this fellow must have a healthy mind.

“Sorry.”

After saying those words, Joohwan turned around and blew his nose. He had a healthy mind, but not a healthy nose. The audience laughed.

“The weather’s good, but it has gotten slightly cold. Well then, since we’re done with introductions, I guess it’s time to listen to our audience. If anyone wants to say something, our helper will give you a microphone.”

The helper with the camera around his neck waved his hand and smiled. The MC followed up.

“Also, we’re going to take some photos and videos to create a video for the Short Film Festival, so if any of you don’t want your face to be shown, please tell us and only your voice will be in it.”

The people on stage took a step forward according to the MC’s words.

“Okay. Please raise your hand if you have any questions.”

As soon as those words ended, the majority of the audience raised their hands. As they were people who had a lot of interest in film to the point of attending this festival, they had no hesitation.

Maru saw Yoonseok flinching, surprised that the participation rate was so high.

“We have a lot of eager people in the audience. Very good. Then first, the one at the front who made eye contact with me.”

The helper gave the man a mic.

“First of all. I’d like to say that I enjoyed all four films. I want to ask director Lee Yoonseok a question. Unlike the other three, the perspective of love your work had was… how should I call it, special? Your subject was the illusion of a dead girlfriend. How did you decide on it?”

Just as Yoonseok was about to pick up the microphone and respond, a loud thud echoed in the theater.

Yoonseok frowned and covered his mouth. It seemed he had hit his mouth with the microphone due to nervousness.

“Our director has been looking into comedy recently, so he’s like this a lot.”

Maru bought some time for Yoonseok. Yoonseok wiped his mouth and looked at the man who asked the question.

“Sorry. I think I’m a little nervous.”

“You seem even more nervous than me. Sorry for asking.”

“No, no, don’t say that. First of all, thank you for the question. To answer your question, I found that idea in my dream. I forgot about everything, but I remembered that the woman who married me was an illusion. That was how the story started.”

“You could’ve used ghosts. So, why did you go with an illusion instead? Is it because you saw it in a dream?”

“I thought about that point quite a lot. I thought about portraying love between a living person and a dead person just like the old classic ‘Ghost’ from 1990, but I wanted to be more realistic. Also, I wanted to throw in a question about ‘existence.’ In a story, ghosts are usually the souls of the dead person, right? In some sense, they exist for real. However, an illusion is a misconception that only one person can see. I wanted to know if it’s possible to keep living on while loving that misconception.”

“Is ‘The Form of Love’ your answer to that?”

“To a certain extent. It’s unstable, yet he accepted the illusion as a form of forfeit, but I think that’s also a form of love.”

“One last question: Do you think Lee Jungho was happy?”

“I’m not sure. I hope he is, but illusions are bound to disappear one day.”

After asking, the man sat down with a satisfied smile on his face.

Yoonseok put down the microphone. From the way he was breathing, he seemed to be having difficulties. Maru patted his back. Although he started off stuttering, his meaning became more apparent and so did his voice as time passed. Since he had solved the difficult first step, it would be a lot easier from now on.

People continued to ask questions. The majority of them were directed at Yoonseok and Jungah. As unfortunate as it was, this was not something the MC could resolve. It was natural for people to be more focused on better works.

“I’d like to ask something from actor Park Joohwan,” said a woman who was given the opportunity to speak.

“Yes, what is it?”

“Your acting looked really natural. Was your acting something the director asked you to do? Or is that a reflection of your everyday lifestyle?”

“To use a percentage, 99% of it was the director’s request. I like to be quite clean, so I can never stay in a dirty house like that.”

Maru nodded as he listened to Joohwan’s answer. He agreed entirely with what he said.

“Did the director give you directions even down to the details?”

“Yes. There were a lot of detailed directions. Actually, the character portrays the lifestyle of the director. She has one messy room.”

Jungah’s face became red, almost like the color of her knitted sweater.

What was interesting was Joohwan’s expression. He looked like he was just saying simple facts.

The audience all burst into laughter.

“You must have had a hard time acting.”

“The hardest thing was to keep floundering in the apartment without folding the blankets. I’m totally serious. I felt like this wasn’t suited for me when I did it.”

“Even then, I think you were very good. Personally, how high would you rate your acting?”

“About 97 out of 100.”

People exclaimed here and there. Joohwan looked serious this time as well.

Maru felt that he really was someone with a strong ego. The more he looked at him, the more he liked this junior.

Putting down the microphone, Joohwan looked at him, seemingly asking him how he was.

Maru just raised his thumb just like he did when he was watching the film.

Joohwan nodded just like before.

The questions made rounds. Eventually, Maru was asked a question.

“What were you concerned with the most when expressing Lee Jungho?”

“It was my eyes. I had to give them a lot of change in order to portray the feeling that only I’m the one seeing that one thing.”

“That’s just how I felt. Did the director ask you to do that?”

“The character analysis and expression were left entirely up to me by the director. Thanks to that, I was able to try various things.”

The man who asked the question nodded before asking again.

“Lastly, I’d like to ask the same question someone else asked earlier: What would you rate your acting?”

“It’s very hard to put a score on acting. I think it’s impossible, even. But if I have to score myself…,” he looked at Joohwan and said, “About 98 points.”

After Story 65

“98 points?”

Maru looked at the man who asked the question and spoke, “Yes. But for me, it’s 98 out of 200. I have a lot of things I still lack.”

“Really? To my eyes, it looked like you brought out the character well. Which part did you find lacking?”

“This is our first work, for both the director and me, so there were a lot of changes midway. We did have a draft to go on when we started shooting, but whenever we had a flash of inspiration midway, we changed directions. We were focused on taking on a challenge, so to speak. In that process, the description of the character slightly changed, and as the actor, I should’ve been cautious of that. Now that I look at the finished piece, I see things that are still lacking.”

“Do you pursue perfection when you act?”

“I believe all actors in this world want to display perfect acting, and are striving to do so. Of course, they can’t be truly perfect. Whether they’re borrowing the clothes of the character or becoming the character, the process of change is bound to cause losses. So, I guess I should say that it’s my aim to do an act that is near perfection.”

“Thank you for your answer. I said one last question, but I guess I asked more than that.”

“Not at all. Thank you for asking. Also, thank you for having an interest in our work.”

The man gave the microphone to the helper and sat down. The front door to the theater slightly opened and a helper in a green t-shirt poked his head inside.

The MC immediately spoke, “I had nothing to do since everyone was so eager to talk. I’d love to hear more from the audience as well, but unfortunately, it’s time to end things here. We have to prepare for the next section too.”

The lights on the ceiling were all turned on. As the MC said, it was time to finish things.

“Then director Lee Yoonseok, please say goodbye for all of us, since you’re the most polite out of all of us. And then, we’ll have a photo session with the audience at the front. Well, then. Director.”

Yoonseok, who was relieved that things were over, ended up getting the mic again. He hastily stepped forward and spoke,

“It makes me nervous when I think that I’m representing all of these people. Thank you very much for coming today, and we’ll strive our best to bring you films you will enjoy in the future. Thank you for loving short films.”

Maru applauded. People seemed to have felt the honesty in Yoonseok’s words as they applauded even louder than before.

“Then let us take a commemoratory picture. The photos we take will be uploaded on the official website for the Short Film Festival, so please download them there if you need them.”

The members of the audience all stood up and gathered in front of the stage. The helper with the camera pressed the shutter a few times before putting down the camera with an okay call.

“Thank you all for coming today. Please be careful on your way home, and I was Mister Park. I hope I see you again.”

The GV ended with the MC’s cheerful goodbye. There was a piece of paper in the hands of the audience leaving through the back door. They were assessment papers. They were able to score just one of the four films they watched today, and the audience award will be chosen according to their assessments.

“Directors, actors, please wait a second,” a helper approached them and said after the last audience left.

“You know that the closing ceremony is the day after tomorrow, right? It’ll be at 6 in hall 8, so you can come at that time, and before the ceremony, you’ll be contacted about getting an award. If you are picked from the list, then you must come.”

The helper reminded them of what they heard during the opening ceremony.

The audience seats were totally empty. The MC and the helpers also left after saying goodbye.

“Let’s go as well,” Maru said, pointing at the back door.

He walked up the stairs before looking behind him. He found Yoonseok still staring at the screen in a daze on the stage. It seemed that he still felt the lingering energy here.

He waited for Yoonseok from the stairs. The other directors and actors all walked past him.

“Good work,” Moon Jungah said and walked past him. Maru responded back the same.

Joohwan, who was right behind Jungah, stopped on the same step as him. Maru said goodbye first, “See you at the closing ceremony.”

“Yes.”

They were supposed to be done, but Joohwan did not move. Jungah, who arrived at the door first, called out to Joohwan, telling him to hurry up.

Maybe he had something more to say? Maru looked at him with a puzzled expression.

“Mr. Han Maru, right?”

“Yes.”

“I know it’s impolite to ask this on our first encounter, but how old are you?”

“Me? I’m twenty-two this year.”

“So you’re two years older than me. Uhm, can I ask you one thing?”

“Yes, go ahead.”

“Can I hug you once?”

Maru didn’t feel like he had heard wrong. Still, he asked just in case what he meant by that.

“I said what I mean, a literal hug.”

“You mean me?”

“Yes.”

Maru blinked in a daze due to the confusion that crept up from the tips of his feet. It had been an extremely long time since his thought process came to a screeching halt because of someone’s words.

Joohwan blatantly stared at him during the screening of ‘The Form of Love’ for a reason he couldn’t understand. The same person suddenly said that he wanted a hug, still for a reason he couldn’t understand.

“You’re saying something weird again, aren’t you?” Jungah walked over and pulled on Joohwan. She looked like a mother rebuking an immature son.

“Sorry, did this guy say something rude to you?” she asked.

“I’m not so sure.”

“What did he say?”

“He said he wants to hug me…”

Jungah’s eyes widened. Joohwan shushed Jungah just as she was about to speak and took her arms off him.

“That’s the problem with you. You keep trying to judge me using your standards. I have something to say to this actor, so wait a little bit,” he said in a slow voice. Jungah, who was about to rebuke him, twitched her mouth and just stayed quiet.

They were an interesting couple. It seemed like the woman had a firm grasp on the man, but the man was the one leading.

After watching the relationship between the two people, Maru returned to the question at hand.

“Can I ask you why you want to hug me?”

“Because I’m grateful.”

“You’re grateful to me?”

“Yes. I’m very grateful.”

“It’s rather strange to hear that when I haven’t done anything.”

“You have done something. You showed me something, very clearly in fact. There was something I’d been looking for ever since I started studying acting. It’s an actor around the same age as me.”

“I think there should be thousands of actors in their twenties.”

“There are a lot, sure, but they’re all so-so. Not one of them stands out. You know, I believe that the existence of a stimulus is very important. Sure, the seniors up there must be good. Naturally, I get shocked, in a good way, when I watch them. But they don’t stimulate me. You get what I mean, right?”

Maru recalled the eyes of numerous companion animals that he had raised until now. Joohwan’s eyes were similar to theirs.

They were untainted white. He had no intention to be roundabout or sarcastic at all, and he was just expressing his emotions with the most honest, accurate words possible.

“Did I become a good stimulus for you?”

“Yes. I didn’t know when I was young, but there’s something I found out recently. I actually quite like competition. When I think about it, one of the reasons I liked studying was because there were targets of comparison. Acting is the same. It’s not like there’s an absolute standard or an assessment value, but people can tell by looking right? About who’s better than who, and who’s worse than who.”

After saying those words, Joohwan suddenly apologized and turned around. Jungah gave him some tissue from the side. He blew his nose and continued to speak, “Actually, I didn’t have big expectations from the film festival. But my head was dazed when I watched ‘The Form of Love.’ I couldn’t picture myself doing that kind of act naturally. It was vague. For me, I was uncontrollably happy because of it.”

“You have great self-confidence, Mr. Joohwan. No, you know yourself well.”

He was someone who couldn’t stand the absence of competition. Maru knew people like this. They were the people who improved endlessly, and ultimately saw the end.

He would definitely make his name known should he continue to proceed as an actor. A competent, ambitious junior thanked him. This was no different from a challenge. It was also a declaration that he would analyze every detail about Maru’s act that he found abstract for now, and would feed off them to eventually stand above him.

“As you said in your introduction, I’m sure you’ll become a good actor in the future.”

“Yes. I will.”

“To say my honest feelings right now, you’ll… become an even better actor, senior.”

“Slightly better than you, Mr. Joohwan?”

“It’s 97 points versus 98 points after all.”

“Mine was out of 200 though.”

“If the maximum amount of points for that act was 200, then mine’s also out of 200. How did you feel when you looked at my acting? Was mine easy? Clear? Did it have a sense of identity?”

“It had character for sure. It didn’t look easy either. You expressed it clearly with your own colors. It was very good.”

“Thank you.”

Joohwan smiled brightly as soon as he got a compliment. He was a really honest fellow. He was clever, but he did not attempt to hide. He was upfront about everything. Maru could tell that he was raised with great love and care under his parents.

The more he watched him, the more he wanted him. If this was one of his previous lives where he ran an agency, he would’ve brought in him under great conditions.

He gave Joohwan a light hug before letting go.

“Perhaps we may meet often in the future at auditions or other works. Though, I’m sure you might find it funny for a rookie like me to say such a thing.”

“No. It is just as you said, senior. I am sure that we’ll be seeing each other often.”

“Can you give me half of the confidence you have?”

Joohwan shook his head. “I don’t think I need to. In my eyes, you seem to have more than enough confidence as you are.”

“Me? I don’t think that’s true.”

“No, I’m sure of it. I just found out that you might be a good stimulus to me, but the opposite doesn’t hold true. This hurts my pride.”

“I gained good inspiration watching your acting too.”

“Inspiration is something you rediscover from something you already have. Stimulus stems from a sense of crisis. The sense of crisis that you get when someone else possesses something that you don’t have.”

Joohwan sniffed once before bowing.

“I’m going to become your stimulus. I think I should change my objective to that.”

Maru watched as Joohwan climbed the stairs. Jungah apologized to him in Joohwan’s stead for saying something strange.

“No, it’s not something strange. He’s a good person. He’s also a good actor. I look forward to what you two will be creating in the future.”

He shook hands with Jungah. Joohwan, who arrived at the back door, turned around and shouted,

“I ended up calling you senior, but you’re okay with it, right?”

“Yes.”

“Then please stay as a good senior. I’ll be a better junior next time.”

“We’ll be seeing each other in two days at the closing ceremony anyway.”

Joohwan uttered ‘ah.’ He said goodbye with an awkward smile before leaving. He had a klutzy side to him.

“What did you two talk about?” Yoonseok approached him. He seemed better as though he had shaken the lingering feelings off.

“I got an interesting junior.”

“An interesting junior?”

“I’ll tell you on the way.”

Maru looked at the stage that had the lights turned off and turned around.

After Story 66

“Are you done?” Haneul asked as she took her left hand off the keyboard.

-I’m on the way back.

Maru said in response. She could tell from his voice that the film was satisfactory and the GV ended without a hitch.

“It might be too early, but do you think you’ll get an award?”

-I think we’ll be able to get one.

“Story Award, Acting Award, Audience Award — which one of the three do you think you’re most likely to get?”

-The Audience Award.

She signaled Yeonjoo, who was in front of the camera, to take a break. Yeonjoo asked if it was her boyfriend. She nodded and continued the call,

“How about the acting award? I don’t think it’s strange for you to get it, sweetie.”

-I didn’t have enough time so I only watched about 12 of them, but there were quite a lot of people who were good. Some professional actors participated too. Also, there’s an actor who participated in the same GV as me, and he’s pretty good as well. He’s a junior I quite like.

“I wonder who managed to get Han Maru’s interest. I want to see him too.”

-Can you come during the closing ceremony? I saw that about twenty tickets will be sold to the general public.

“I do want to go, but…” Haneul received the teacup that Yeonjoo held out to her. There was a green tea teabag in it. “I’m so busy. I have to change the entire website design and also do some work with the products.”

-Should I go and help?

“I’ll call out to you for help if I really need help. Right now, it’s still manageable.”

-How’s Miss Yeonjoo doing? Has she adapted now?

“She’s at the point where she can make jokes in front of the camera. I’m not saying this just because she’s a friend of mine, but she really is suited for this. She fits the image of the products too. Once I finish this, I plan to reduce work in this area. I told the president about it too.”

-How about sales?

“Things are going so well that we’re lacking manpower. The business we are doing this together with is showing a good response as well. We plan to expand the offline sales from Seoul to other regions as well. We’ve got a few offers for partnerships too. In any case, we managed to procure a portion of the market. Expanding the business is up to the president now.”

‘Friendly Aroma’ had cornered the market as a low-cost brand. The fact that it became popular with high school students, especially girls, played a big role in making the brand known.

“It’s a personal preference item and the market itself is pretty small, so once the latecomers start releasing products, the explosive orders we’re getting now will probably decrease. That’s when the real competition starts.”

-That sounds tough.

“Making a living is always tough. Funny, isn’t it? We did so many things in order to make a living, but it’s hard every single time. Maybe work isn’t something we can get used to.”

Haneul checked the time.

“I need to finish off my work here. Call you later.”

-Alright. Watch out for your health. You always get sick like that.

“Okay, you too, sweetie.”

She hung up. Her husband had managed to successfully debut on screen. He had achieved something that would leave a line behind on his profile. He looked quite concerned regarding his possibility of success, but to her eyes, it was only a matter of time before he succeeded.

The eyes of the masses were always sharp and fair. No matter how much support an agency gave someone, they would sink to the bottom without the skills. That was how the entertainment industry worked. This was especially pronounced in the actor part.

Maru had the skills. He also knew how to efficiently display his skills. He only lacked one thing: a way to promote himself. Once the public started recognizing him, he would go higher and higher.

Haneul put down her teacup. She hated to be left behind. Her wish for her husband to do well and her own desire to stand on the same stage as him always existed in equal parts within her.

Her husband had taken the first step. To keep up with him, she would have to make a move as well. As much as she loved him, she did not want to lose to him.

“Yeonjoo.”

“Yeah?”

“We’re going all the way to the 3rd sample today. From the sampling to the review. We’re also going to shoot the cover photo, so think about a theme for your clothing. Let’s vary things on top of that.”

“We’re doing all of that today?”

“What about it?”

“It seems like a lot.”

“And what do we do if there’s a lot of work?”

Yeonjoo clenched her eyes shut and opened them again.

“Overtime work.”

“Good. You know now.”

“Why do I feel like this is even more tiring than when I was in my third year of high school?”

“Back then, you just had to study at your desk, but this is about taking what’s inside your head out. Don’t relax and smile. You’re the main model of our brand. You can’t look gloomy.”

“Alright, alright.”

She pushed Yeonjoo’s dejected-looking back and had her stand in front of the camera.

There was not long left. By next week, Yeonjoo and a new recruit would start a new project. Haneul was planning to take her hands off all work save for making new recipes.

She would only provide details, and the president and Yeonjoo would be the ones deciding the details. Since she was taking a step out, she would receive less money, but she had earned plenty of money as is. A sum unimaginable to a college student would enter her wallet by February of next year.

320 million won. The president said he would even pay the taxes.

“Haneul,” Yeonjoo said, getting ready to shoot with the product in hand.

“What?”

“I just wanted to say thank you.”

“What’s this all of a sudden?”

“I told you. I managed to send my parents on a trip to Jejudo last year. At first, mom was really worried that I fell into multi-level marketing or something.”

“It’s not surprising. You probably went to them with millions of won.”

“But when I showed her the promotion video I shot and gave her a product, she believed in me. Not only that, she boasted about it to her friends. She keeps messaging me these days, asking me about employee discounts because she wants to buy some to hand out as gifts.”

“Tell her that there are employee discounts, so she can buy it.”

Yeonjoo smiled. “But do you think I’ll do well in the future? If you start getting ready for acting, you won’t be here at the office a lot. I’m already worried.”

“Yeonjoo, honestly speaking, I don’t place people in important positions just because I know them. You have the senses. The president is satisfied with you too. At first, it might be quite baffling for you. You’ll probably wonder how you should be working with the people under you, as well as how much distance you should put, but I’m sure you’ll adapt soon. And you’ll produce even better work. There’s no need for you to do it all by yourself. Why do you think we’re picking experts? If you can’t do something then leave it to them. That’s what a company is about, and that’s what cooperating means. So you should get used to ordering people. Of course, I don’t mean you should whimsically order them around as you wish.”

Yeonjoo waved her hand in denial. She stared at Haneul for a while before speaking, “You know what’s funny? It’s that I gain confidence when you say that to me.”

“There’s no way someone else can give you confidence. It’s something you had in you already. I just pointed at it. You have the confidence in you right here, so you better make use of it.”

“Right, I should find confidence and do my work. Since I started this, I’m going to become rich.”

“Would you gift me an apartment with the Han river view if you make it rich?”

“Dream on.” Yeonjoo twitched her nose.

Haneul clapped once before working again. Considering the contract she had to sign tomorrow, she had to hurry.

* * *

“Yes, I’m almost here.”

-Once you’re here, please come up to the 2nd floor. We’ll talk about the details in the office.

Haneul took her phone off her ear. She yawned subconsciously. She had worked overnight at the studio and thus only had about two hours of sleep.

She was only able to wake up thanks to two alarm clocks on top of her phone alarm. If she just relied on her phone, she might not have made it.

“Driver, please stop over there.”

She got off the taxi and looked up at the building right in front of her.

Hansol Entertainment. Last week, she was contacted by the agency to come to the office since she had passed the audition. As the matter with the aroma business was in its last stages, she wanted to postpone the appointment with Hansol, but she wasn’t in a position to make demands.

She stretched her neck lightly and walked past the glass doors.

What would they offer her? She thought about the entertainment industry in the year 2008 as she walked up the stairs. A man who seemed to be a road manager walked past her with a convenience store bag. There was fatigue plastered all over his face. Even as time passes, the intensity of labor would probably never change.

“Hello.”

“Why have you come here?”

“I was notified that I passed an audition. I’m Han Haneul.”

“Oh, Miss Haneul. Please come this way. The head manager will be here soon.”

She followed the employee into a guest room. The main faces of Hansol Entertainment were decorating one wall. Most of them were singers. There were also trophies on one side.

“Sorry to make you wait.” The door opened and a man entered. It was the man who acted as the judge during the audition.

“I didn’t wait for long. I was also given something to drink, so I was quite comfortable.”

“That’s good.”

The man pushed up his glasses before giving her a business card.

Yoo Namgyu, Hansol Entertainment — she remembered his name and put the business card in her wallet.

“It’s gotten quite cold lately, hasn’t it? I was going to leave with the clothes I’m wearing now, but I ended up taking my jacket,” said Yoo Namgyu with a smile.

He didn’t have an overbearing attitude. It seemed he didn’t have any intention to pressure a new recruit to write a contract in their favor.

“Yes, it has gotten quite cold.”

“You should especially be careful in weather like this. It’s easy to catch a cold.”

Namgyu opened a file that he brought. Inside was the profile she sent in as well as a contract.

“I’d like to talk about other things, but the contract matters to you and me the most, so let’s finish that up first.”

“That definitely makes things easier.”

“Miss Haneul. Have you heard of our agency before this? By before, I mean before you took interest in the audition.”

“Unfortunately, I haven’t.”

“Yes. That’s probably the case. We produced a decent idol group, and we managed to excavate two new actors who got new actor awards, but we still have a long way to go. That’s why we’re even more thirsty for talent. Especially people like you.”

Namgyu gave her a contract. Haneul smiled and picked up the contract.

“You haven’t seen this kind of contract before, have you?”

“No, this is my first.”

She had seen it to death before, but in this life anyway, it was her first.

Haneul scanned the contract slowly. Parties involved, Hansol Entertainment, and Han Haneul — below that was the standard contract provided by the Korea Creative Content Agency (KOCCA).

“It looks complicated, doesn’t it?”

“No.”

“Really?”

“It’s written in Korean.”

“That’s true.”

“The payment is done monthly?”

“I heard that’s better than doing it per episode.”

“That makes things easier. The ratio is 70:30. It’s standard.”

Namgyu faintly smiled. Haneul put down the contact and looked at Namgyu, wondering why he was looking at her like that.

“It might sound strange, but you look very used to reading contracts. You’re talking about the main points too.”

“I put it in my profile as well, but I’m doing work at a business. This is the first time I’ve seen an exclusive contract, but I’ve seen other labor contracts and other types of contracts.”

“Yes, I’ve seen it, Friendly Aroma. Honestly, I was surprised. It’s incredible that you have a brand that you put your face on at such a young age.”

“I’m asking just in case, but the payment for entertainment activities doesn’t include the aroma work, does it?”

“I know that there are a lot of thug-like companies in the industry, but Hansol isn’t like that. It’s mentioned in article 17.”

“That’s good. There are times when people try to tamper with things like that.”

She read the contract in detail before putting it down.

“It’s really a standard contract.”

“It is.”

“There are no problems with that, so I guess the conversation we’re about to have will be important.” She clasped her hands together. “Let’s tune the details, shall we?”

After Story 67

"Shall we tune the details?"

He had heard that she was twenty-two. Even the little social experience she had only amounted to about five months. Considering that she was a college student, it was incredible that she had her own brand with her name on it, but that was only a business she lent her face to, and she shouldn't have participated in logistics or development.

She was supposed to be just a slightly proud college student, who did not know of the dirty side of society. A young student who might look sturdy on the outside but should be soft on the inside.

However, from how she gathered her hands together, she looked like she precisely knew what she had to take and what she had to give up.

His intuition told him that she wasn't so ordinary. The moment he saw Han Haneul look around the guest room with indifference, that intuition turned more concrete.

And now, Haneul was showing him that his estimates were not wrong.

Namgyu thought about what happened four days ago. The actor who had come to sign an exclusive contract came with his mother. This was common. After all, this wasn't a one-off contract, but an investment of five years.

The mother came with the child, worried that an evil corporation might have tampered with the contract that her child, who did not know the dark sides of society, would sign.

Namgyu also found it easier to sign a contract with the parent present. There would be less trouble if there was a rational parent to mediate the situation.

"Head manager?" Haneul called out. Namgyu apologized first.

"Usually, I'm the one who's supposed to bring that up, but you brought that up first, so I'm quite taken aback."

"We have to do it anyway, so it doesn't matter who brings it up first."

"Yes, you're right."

Haneul opened the contract. She pointed at the blank spaces in it, one by one. They were the spaces that the most important 'numbers' would go in.

Haneul's finger stopped on top of the contract period.

"The contract period is important."

"How long does Hansol set the contract to be when signing an exclusive contract with a new actor? Is it five years after all?"

"Yes, it's five years."

"Is that set in stone, or can it be changed?"

"It's something we can negotiate, but five years is the usual amount. It's not a bad deal. Five years may seem like a long time, but considering your age and the things you'll learn in the future, five years is pretty short. As it says in the contract, the agency will shoulder all the costs for lessons that are necessary for entertainment activities. Just because the period of learning is long, it doesn't mean that you'll face losses."

"The standard, I see. I'll take it that it can be changed. Let's go to the next one."

Namgyu pressed down on the contract and spoke, "Is there a period you have in mind?"

"Yes."

"How long is it?"

"Two years. I think that should be enough."

"Two years, you say. There are probably no agencies that will sign an exclusive contract for two years with a new actor. It's too short. The contract might end before we earn back our investment into the actor. As you see, the profit distribution is done after we take away the necessary costs for your activities. From our perspective, we'll be providing various forms of education on top of the contract deposit, and it's realistically impossible to earn back our investment in just two years."

"You're right. I'm sure that's why there are all those conflicts and whatnot in the media about this."

"If you understand that, then you should reconsider adjusting the contract per…”

Before he finished his words, Haneul shook her head; she looked like she had something else in mind. Namgyu decided to listen to her for now. He was curious as to what this bold new actress would bring up.

"Since we're at it, let us go through things one by one. First, the contract deposit. How much is Hansol planning to pay me upfront?"

The contract deposit was not mentioned in the standard contract. Namgyu took out a document exclusivity related to the contract deposit from his file.

"In the case of new actors, we provide 5 million won upfront as contract deposit. The other business should be the same. However, I plan to offer you something different today. Not to mention me, even the president thinks highly of the act you showed during the audition."

"What's the amount as a result of that?"

"5 years with a contract deposit of 15 million won. It is extremely rare to offer 15 million to a new actor who's more like a blank piece of paper. As you know, this contract deposit is an intangible asset that is not refunded. If we don't earn any money through you, it will be entirely our loss."

"15 million, huh? Will I get that as soon as I sign it?"

"Yes. It'll be transferred within a week."

"That's fast."

"That's the president's policy. I'm okay with anything else, but don't let money cause trouble, or something along those lines."

He had offered her a concrete amount and also told her that it was far above the industry average, so she should not adjust the contract period.

Just as Namgyu pushed the contract fee document to her side,

"How about two years, on the condition that I don't receive the contract deposit?"

"You won't receive it?"

"Yes. Instead, we'll decrease the contract period. I'll also adjust the revenue split to 50:50. That's my condition. There's no contract deposit and the revenue split is half-half, but the contract period is 2 years. Of course, I'm pretty sure you know best that the revenue split doesn't matter whether it's half-half or seventy-fifty. I mean, how much can a new actor earn? The ratio will only be important after I get a commercial. Oh, or does Hansol have a separate ratio for contracts?"

"We do write a separate contract when the actor gets a commercial."

Namgyu stroked his chin. This was outside his expectations. A new actor gave up on cash on the condition that the contract period becomes shorter.

Not only that, she even reduced the revenue split. Maybe she didn't have any desire towards money because she already earns enough money through 'Friendly Aroma'?

15 million won was definitely not a small amount of money. Even if the actor did not earn anything for the next five years, that 15 million would be the actor's worth.

How many actors would refuse free money? Not to mention a young one.

"Don't you think it's a not-so-bad condition? I won't need to go to lessons that much either. I'll ask for it if I need it, but that probably won't happen. Two years, don't you think it's a reasonable proposal for Hansol to have a hold on me for two years without any upfront investment?"

"That's true, but this kind of matter has never come up in the case of new actor contracts, so I cannot answer you immediately. If the adjustments were on a more general level, I can change it with my authority, but if it concerns something sensitive like the contract period, I'll have to talk to the president about it."

"That's true. Then shall I come next time?" Haneul picked up her bag without hesitation.

She didn't even look at the contract. She didn't have a shred of disappointment like a buyer who had a next appointment. If he left her alone, she might just walk off.

If it was any other new actor, he would've smiled and seen them out. He might have even given them some advice to reconsider since they wouldn't get anything close to this in other agencies.

Han Haneul. She was definitely a talented actor. She had a splendid appearance and body figure as well. If she were groomed well and put in front of the camera, she would receive attention.

However, receiving attention didn't mean being successful. Appearance only had the effect of pulling the starting line forward. Other elements were necessary in order to pass the finishing line known as success.

Namgyu would usually express those elements with just one word, 'charm.' And Han Haneul possessed charm, unlike actresses who were just pretty.

Although it was not distinct yet, his instincts told him that it was a charm that would definitely blossom one day.

"Well then…”

"Wait, wait."

She was a new actress who had shown him nothing but the act she displayed during the audition, but Namgyu hastily held her back.

Something like this had happened before as well. It was when he was working at another agency. That actor was introverted and had an awkward pronunciation, not showing much promise as an actor, but Namgyu was still concerned for some reason.

He persuaded the CEO to sign an exclusive contract, and that actor started his activities. Even though he was someone who had nothing to show immediately, Namgyu had a glimpse of his charm from his funny-looking smile.

Right now, that actor had become an A-tier actor in romantic comedy dramas.

"Miss Haneul. Can you wait for a minute? I'll talk to the president about this."

He couldn't afford to miss an actress with great potential like this. If he delayed the contract with her and some other agency ended up snatching her, he would feel terrible.

"Fortunately, I don't have anything else to do today. I can wait."

"Then please wait just a moment."

"Yes."

He immediately brought her something warm to drink before leaving the guest room. He immediately phoned the CEO.

"Hyung-nim. It's me."

-What is it?

"You know about the new actress we're signing a contract with today, right?"

-Yeah. Han Haneul was it? Are you done?

"I called you because I need to change some parts of the contract."

-You can take care of that. I think I gave you that much permission.

"It's because I have to change the contract period."

-The period?

He told the CEO about the various things they talked about, including the forfeit of contract deposit. After listening for a while, the CEO laughed bitterly.

-And you're of the opinion that we should hold onto her, right?

"Yes. You saw her, didn't you? She's great."

-But isn't two years too short? Even after considering that there is no deposit?

"From what I saw, I feel that she set the contract period to two years while considering the contract extension."

-A new actor is thinking about extending the contract before even signing the exclusivity contract?

"That's how it looks to me."

-She didn't sound absurd?

"If that was the case, I would never have called you in the first place."

-I did think that she was quite an item when I saw her video, but I didn't know that she would be such a bold lady. What does your intuition tell you? Do you think we should grab her?

"She'll definitely grow big. We might be in the inferior position when we extend the contract."

-Big things happened when you sounded so convinced. Go ahead. Let's see what kind of girl she is. We will see whether she's someone who's all about confidence, or whether she's a true treasure. I'll hear the details later when I return to the office. I'm about to meet an important person.

Namgyu opened the door to the guest room after the phone call.

The first thing he saw was Haneul who had fallen asleep. She looked very much at ease as though she left behind any sort of tension at home.

She was such an innocent young girl from how she slept, but she was a total professional when he thought back to the conversation they had a while ago. She was really unpredictable.

"Miss Haneul."

When he called out, Haneul slowly opened her eyes.

"Sorry. I didn't get enough sleep because I was working into the night."

"Those with talent always lack sleep. They have many things to do after all. Anyway, I finished calling the president. We'll proceed with the contract as you said."

"That was rather quick. I thought you would refuse."

"Were you going to propose something else if we refused?"

"No, I was going to look for another agency. If things don't work out after I keep trying, then I was planning to back off a little. However, I thought at least one place would accept me. I guess that's Hansol now."

Namgyu sat down and opened the contract. He picked up his pen with the two copies of the contract in front of him.

"Let's write it then, shall we?"

* * *

“What happened to the contract?” Maru asked as he sat down on the sofa.

His wife took a long time to say that she found her nest.

-It went well. I think it’s a decent place. I like the fact that they’re willing to listen to the conditions of a new actress.

“Looks like Hansol managed to get an award-winning actress.”

-If I want to adjust the terms during the contract extension, I should do my best. Tomorrow’s the closing ceremony, right?

“Yeah. Once that ends, I’ll make a new profile and send it around.”

-Why don’t you come to Hansol too, sweetie?

“I’ll think about it for now. You must be tired. Go and get some rest.”

-I’d love to, but I have to go back to the office.

“My mistress is having a hard time, huh? What can I do for you?”

-Cook me something good on the weekend. Something refreshing.

“I’ll have it ready.”

A smooch sound tickled his ear over the phone. Haneul hung up with a chuckle.

He put down his phone and placed it on the sofa.

“My honey is doing really well huh.”

He thought about a list of food to cook on the weekend as he closed his eyes.

After Story 68

“Ah, ah. Mic test, one two three. One two three. One two three four. Three four. The mic is working well.”

The director, who stood under the stage lights, overreacted in front of the mic.

“You must all be wondering what a fat man is doing here, right? Over there, please don’t look at me like that. I know that my face isn’t the most pleasing to look at, but if you keep staring at an ugly man, they’ll get hurt.”

Laughter erupted from the audience. Maru also covered his mouth with his fist and laughed. The director, who came up to ease the mood before the ceremony, showed what leisure and experience were.

“Please allow me to boast a little. My speech should be something similar to the principal’s speech that everyone dreaded when they were in school. If I may introduce myself, I’m Choi Dongha, and I’ve been acting as the head of the Short Film Festival Committee for the past four years.”

Director Choi Dongha stepped aside and bowed. The audience applauded. The director raised his head and gestured to them to do more.

Maru raised his hands above his head to clap.

“I can’t quit this position because of this applause. Man, high positions are good. You get to feel proud around others. Where else would I get applauded by people like you, lovers of film, handsome and beautiful, and have great fortune, right? Everyone here is good-looking, pretty, and even lucky. Can we have a round of applause from those who are?”

Loud cheers erupted from everywhere. He was a great moodmaker.

Maru looked at the helpers moving busily around the stage. The fact that there was no mention of the ceremony despite the fact that it was long past the time it was supposed to start seemed to indicate that there was a problem. The reason director Choi Dongha came up on stage should also be to buy time.

“I’m a fan of that director,” said Yoonseok, sitting next to him. He said he was going to come wearing a tuxedo, but he was wearing a hoodie instead.

“Director Choi Dongha’s works are definitely good.”

“He’s one of my role models. I want to create a movie just like his. ‘Hey, do you still live your life like that?’ — dang, that line. I watched his movie many times, but I keep clapping every single time.”

He really seemed to like this director’s work.

DIrector Choi, who was talking about the Short Film Festival while handing out presents, nodded toward somewhere off the stage. It seemed that the preparations were done.

“Thank you for listening to this uninteresting old man like me until now. Now, I’ll start the closing ceremony for the Short Film Festival. First, allow me to introduce an honorary judge of the festival who is also in charge of the proceedings today. Please welcome him with a round of applause.”

Director Choi then stepped back from the mic. At the same time, the door at the front of the theater opened. After that, there was a near scream-like cheer.

“Hyung! Look, look over there!”

Even without Yoonseok making a big deal, he was looking well.

“He’s my persona! It’s my dream to shoot a movie with him.”

“Don’t you think the director is too lacking to have that person as a persona?”

“I might be able to in the far future, so don’t nag me so much. Rather than that, he looks awesome in real life.”

“Yeah, he hasn’t changed.”

Maru looked at the actor who climbed the stairs and walked across the stage. The actor, wearing a light brown sweater, responded to the thunderous applause and stood in front of the mic.

“Hasn’t changed? It sounds like you know him. But there’s no way you do, right?” Yoonseok asked him what he meant.

“I just meant I’m used to him because I saw him a lot through the screen.”

“Then be clear about it. Hasn’t changed isn’t right, you should be saying, he looks the same as he does on screen.”

“Fine, he looks the same as he does on screen.”

While they were exchanging words, the actor finished leveling the microphone and began speaking,

“Hello everyone. I’m Hong Geunsoo.”

His voice flowed out through the speakers. It was a whisper-like voice. The cheers of the fans became a level louder.

Geunsoo calmly looked at the audience. The passionate shouts of the audience soon died down.

“Thank you for the great welcome. I hope you can do the same when the awardees come up. Hm, I had a lot to say before I came here, but now that I’m actually standing here, I can’t remember anything. I guess that’s a good thing. It’s somewhat strange for the person in charge of procedures to keep saying things and acting like he won something. But still, I have my own part, so allow me to talk a little more.”

The helper brought some chairs in front of the mic.

The director and actor who win an award would be able to sit down on those chairs and say their speech. They were intended to help break the stiff formality and were also a form of consideration for the awardees to talk with ease.

“It was the first year. I got the actor award right here. I can still remember it clearly. It was my first work with director Choi Dongha right over there. It was really fun. A few people dedicating all their effort into one work is definitely different from large-scale film shoots. And I’m sure those of you gathered here are people who have gotten a taste of that special thing. Some will get an award and some might return empty-handed, but I hope you can remember that the award is not a method of discerning superiority or inferiority, but an act of encouragement for all.”

Geunsoo picked up the mic and moved over to the left. While he moved, he declared in a mischievous voice that the 2008 Short Film Festival was officially starting.

“First, let me introduce two people who will help me out with the awards.”

Two people came up on the stage amidst the applause of the audience.

“Hello, everyone. I’m Baek Seoksoo, a slightly popular director.”

“Since you put it like that, director, I guess I should do the same. I’m Kim Jihye, a slightly less popular actress.”

They were the director and lead actress of ‘Infiltration,’ which was widely considered to be the best work of the latter half of the year.

Yoonseok caused a fuss again, saying that they were a director and an actress he liked. He probably had no one he hated among industry members.

After a short conversation, the director immediately introduced the awarded sections.

One work will be awarded in each of the five respective sections, one will be picked from votes by the audience, one will be the judges’ award, and one award will be given out for acting, production, and lastly staff, for a total of ten.

“As you all know, the Short Film Festival has one more award. It’s the Grand prize. However, we don’t pick one every year. It was left vacant both last year and the year before that. I don’t know how it will turn out this year. However, I hope there is one this year.”

The award proceeded. Not everything went according to the procedures like large-scale film festivals. There was some empty time with the awardees walking to and fro, and the awarding of the trophy took some time.

However, no one raised a complaint. In fact, they enjoyed it. This was not an award ceremony where everyone had to put on neckties. It was liberal and filled with laughter.

The fourth section, the action section, finished its award.

The director, who sat down on the chair, mentioned the name of all the staff in his speech. The audience went into an uproar, saying that he forgot someone’s name.

Just as the director was walking down the stage with the award, the director shouted in his raw voice, “Thank you Myungchul for the lighting.”

“Congratulations, Mr. Myungchul,” Geunsoo said with a laugh. “Next will be the melo section, ‘Rising Rain.’ Actress Kim Jihye will do the honors.”

Kim Jihye stepped forward. She looked down at the cue card and started speaking, “Melo film. That’s a genre I really like. In this festival, a total of ten melo films participated. We’d love to give all ten an award, but the card in my hands only has one title. Then, let me announce the winner: The award-winning work for the melo section is ‘Water Fog,’ Congratulations.”

Moon Jungah went up on stage. Maru looked at Yoonseok. Yoonseok was looking at Jungah in a daze before raising his hands to clap. He did not say anything.

“Thank you,” Jungah said before sitting down to give her speech.

Yoonseok scratched his eyebrows before smiling like a dejected man.

“It would be a lie to say that I didn’t expect anything at all. I was wondering if maybe I’ll get it, but… I guess it’s a disappointment.”

“The ceremony isn’t over yet.”

“As you said, it’s not over yet. Hyung, let’s get the acting award. I’m not sure about anything else, but I really wouldn’t be able to understand if you didn’t get the acting award.”

Jungah left the stage after saying that she would become a good director.

After that, the production award and the staff award followed. ‘The Form of Love’ was not called.

Maru expected this to some extent. The three other films he saw during the GV told him of the preferences of the judges.

‘The Form of Love’ was definitely not mainstream in the melo section of the film festival this time. That was why he was expecting the audience award; it was because the firm was unlikely to win any of the awards that the judges gave out.

Eventually, the time for the audience award arrived. However, ‘The Form of Love’ did not get it this time either. As unfortunate as it was, it couldn’t be helped.

“Next is the acting award, which might be our last. The acting award will be done by me. I look forward to who it is. Then let me announce the winner: acting award, Park Joohwan from ‘Water Fog.’”

Joohwan, who sat next to Jungah, stood up. He didn’t have any tissues with him, as though he wasn’t suffering from allergies right now.

Maru clapped towards Joohwan who walked past in front of him. Joohwan glanced at him before walking past him with a disgruntled face.

Joohwan got on the stage. He received a small trophy given to him by Geunsoo and stood next to the chair.

Even though Geunsoo gestured to him to sit down, he did not comply.

“First of all, thank you for this prize. I’ve done my best. I dedicated all my effort so that I wouldn’t be ashamed to receive it. That was why I thought that I would be able to boldly say my impression and then go down. Until three days ago, that is.” Joohwan put down the trophy. “But now, I feel bitter. I did my best, and I did well. I did everything I could. However, I believe that the award should go to someone who is better than me. He said that the award isn’t about discerning who’s superior, but the existence of the award itself is already a symbol to discern superiority, isn’t it?”

Maru smiled awkwardly. Joohwan was glaring at him. Joohwan rubbed his forehead before looking at Jungah. Jungah was gesturing to him to come down with a big frown on her face. Come down if you don’t wanna die — that was probably what she meant.

“Anyway, since you gave it to me, I’ll accept it. I think I got my meaning across to a certain senior sitting over there. Let me say one last thing: It feels iffy, but I win this time.”

The awardee came down the stage, but there was no applause. Everyone stared holes at him to find out what he meant by those words.

Maru eyed and gestured to Joohwan who stood in front of him. He looked like he might hand the trophy over if he stayed still.

“Hey, hey. Just walk past.”

“I want to give it to you.”

“You’re ruining the atmosphere enough already, so just go.”

The weirdo junior sighed and walked past.

Maru patted his chest in relief. That guy had to learn that even without malice, he could put other people in difficulty.

Even as he thought so, he felt laughter escape his lips. He was a funny guy. Maru was taken aback by this bold junior’s actions but also found him interesting.

“I get what he means, I think. I really like that kind of speech. Since everyone’s quiet now, I guess I should announce the important news. I just got a piece of paper. There’s a grand prize this year.”

When Geunsoo mentioned the grand prize, everyone’s eyes fell on the paper.

“And if I may dare, I’d like to invite a great senior who came to the festival today to proceed with it. Sir, please come up to the stage.”

Geunsoo pointed at the back of the audience seats. Everyone’s heads turned around. An elderly man, who was leaning against the wall with his arms crossed, laughed and waved his hand in denial. The words ‘I’m not doing it’ could also be heard.

“Everyone, please give a round of applause for Sir Yoon Moonjoong. He’s a bit shy, so you should do it loudly.”

Maru immediately stood up from his seat. Faint light reflected off the elderly man’s face.

“Elder.”

A word escaped his mouth against his intention.

After Story 69

Maru, boy, little junior, little boy… How many names did the elder call him by? The elder slowly walked up the stairs that connected the audience seats and the stage, combing his white hair back.

White trainer shoes, slightly baggy corduroy pants, a shirt with thick stripes, and horn-rimmed glasses to top it off… even in this life, he was trendy.

Maru’s eyes locked with the elder’s as he was walking up to the stage. The elder stopped on the spot and stared at him.

“Hyung, hyung.” Yoonseok tugged on Maru’s pants and called him out urgently.

It was only then that he realized that he was the only one standing and staring at the elder. Maru carefully bowed towards him before sitting down.

“What’s up with you all of a sudden?”

“No, it’s nothing.”

The elder stood in front of the mic with a smile.

Maru thought about the words he said: No, it’s nothing.

When he met Miso, he was surprised. When he saw Geunsoo today, he felt joyous.

And when he faced the elder, he felt agony.

He had lived an uncountably long time. He had formed an innumerable number of relationships and just as many broke. No matter how precious or how resentful of a relationship he had, it was bound to weather away with enough time.

He naturally became numb to everything since his mind wouldn’t be able to endure it if everyone was dear or resentful to him. It was a kind of formula that he used both consciously and subconsciously for the sake of survival. His wife was the only exception to this rule as she was the sole reason for his life which he had to cling to, even if it meant giving up on everything.

However, the moment he saw the elder, a wave of emotions went right over the wall and hit his head. He was unable to control his emotions, and his body reacted all by itself.

Maru stroked his face with his hand. As it turned out, there was one more person who held as much meaning to him as his wife.

He felt agonized and disappointed. Even though he knew that it was wrong to harbor such emotions and thoughts, it was hard to calm his mind. He felt like the elder would call out to him with ‘Maru’ at any moment. Despite knowing it was a delusion, it was hard to shake it off.

“I was suddenly asked to stand here. I guess I should introduce myself, right? I’m Yoon Moonjoong, an old actor.”

He’s still as lively as ever — Maru applauded the elder on stage.

For the past five months, he strived towards two things. One was a stable livelihood, and the other was pursuing his dream. His relationship with other people was no more than a process to achieve those two objectives.

However, right now, that process became his aim. He wanted to catch the elder’s eye. It was a young and immature desire, and an objective he would never give up.

“All the people gathered here have great energy. I feel that there will be many good films in the future. I’d like to give all the creators and actors sitting here the grand prize, however, since the stage isn’t so big, we’ll have one person get it as a representative. Do you all agree?”

Yes – people in the audience replied in unison. The elder smiled in satisfaction and looked at the cue card.

“Then let me announce the winner. 2008 Short Film Festival, Grand Prize. ‘The Form of Love,’ congratulations.”

Sound disappeared for a brief moment.

The elder on the stage looked straight at him. He then nodded towards him as though to urge him to come up.

He wasn’t mistaken. It was a definite signal. But how would he know that the director and actor of ‘The Form of Love’ were here?

“Yoonseok. Get going.”

“W-wait a minute.”

“Don’t be nervous. Quick.”

He really wished to stand on the stage in Yoonseok’s stead. He wanted to listen to the elder’s encouragement after getting an award from him. However, the stage wanted the director.

Yoonseok hastily went up to the stage. As he was looking at Yoonseok and the elder, someone spoke to him,

“Congratulations, senior.”

“Thanks.”

“I think the acting award is yours too. Take it.”

“Next time. I’ll take it in another award ceremony, so you can take that for now.”

“Sure. But there might not be a next time. I learn everything quickly.”

“I saw that. You have the talent. I’m sure you’ll do well. Compared to that, I’m closer to not having any talent. But you know, if someone without talent is given an unimaginable amount of time, they can surpass geniuses.”

“Time is limited.”

“You don’t say.”

Joohwan tilted his head in puzzlement. He congratulated Maru once again before turning around. He saw Jungah smiling awkwardly next to him. She kept looking at him apologetically.

Maru turned around to the stage again. Yoonseok was sitting down after getting the trophy. He seemed to be even more nervous because he got the prize while he was down, as indicated by his ruthlessly shaking knees. He had his mouth up to the mic under the pressure that he had to say something, but his mouth did not open.

“Shall we give the director some time?” The elder stepped in.

Relax, don’t be nervous, breathe — he just quietly watched him without any of those words.

The murmuring audience became calm again.

Yoonseok only spoke after around ten seconds,

“Sorry. I was so nervous because I got a prize I didn’t expect. I’m still nervous too. First of all, thank you for the prize. I gave up and just thought that I should enjoy myself when I didn’t get the prize from the melo section, but I got my hands on a trophy like this.”

Yoonseok wetted his lips.

“Everything was a new experience. A bunch of students who don’t even major in the relative fields learned everything by trial and error as we shot this film. It was terrible. Everything from A to Z made creaking noises. But it was fun. The fact that we were making something made us nervous.”

Yoonseok then looked at Maru.

“Actually, I was only able to finish this film thanks to Maru-hyung’s participation. Oh, Maru-hyung is… uhm, he’s the lead actor in the film. He told me not only things about acting but also the general aspects of filming as well, which allowed us to create this film. We really didn’t know anything. Hm, I can only say thank you to him. I never imagined in my wildest imaginations that I’d get the grand prize, so I didn’t prepare anything.”

Just as Yoonseok was waiting, the elder spoke, “Can junior Han Maru, the person our director thanks so much, come up to the stage as well?”

Maru stood up as soon as he heard those words. He was called, so there was no reason not to go up. He asked the people sitting next to him to make some room before leaving to the side. He got on the stage amidst the applause of the audience.

Light fell on his eyelashes. When he closed his eyes due to the sting and opened it again, he saw the elder standing right in front of him. When he looked at those wrinkly eyes, he felt all the nervousness drain from him as though he had returned to his hometown.

“Would you like to say something?” The elder handed him a mic. He calmed his breathing and grabbed the mic.

“Our director is quite feeble. He cries a lot. That’s why I like him.” Maru looked at Yoonseok who smiled at him before speaking again, “The afterparty will be late if I take too long, so I’ll make this short. ‘The Form of Love’ is not perfect, but it was an interesting film. The reason I was able to keep smiling throughout the shoot was thanks to the ingenuity that the film possessed. The director said that it was thanks to me that he shot it, but the only thing I lent him was some technical knowhow. It was he who sowed the seeds of art and grew its potential into a film. To be precise, it was the director and his friends. I managed to shoot something good with a group of good people. What can make me happier than that? On top of that, we got a prize, so there’s nothing for me to say. Thank you very much. I hope we can become a good director and an actor respectively.”

As soon as he put down the mic, a round of applause could be heard. The distant thunder of applause soon turned into that of cymbals. It was a noise that made his mind blank out. It was also a signal that his railroad of life was headed in the right direction.

He felt a sense of vertigo, a feeling like he was floating. Even he, who was used to getting prizes and standing on the stage, was getting dazed, so he could tell what state Yoonseok was in without even looking.

Just as he was about to step down with the dazed Yoonseok, a wrinkly hand appeared in front of him. Maru smiled at the owner of the hand before grabbing it.

“I hope you can become a better actor.”

“Yes. I definitely will.”

He let go and went down the stage. The faint residual heat from his palms faded away.

Maru clenched his hand and opened it again. What would Yoonseok say if he said that he was happier about the momentary handshake than getting the grand prize?

“Lastly, I’d like to bring up to the stage the helpers of the film festival who have worked hard throughout the festival. Please welcome them up to the stage.”

The helpers who worked throughout the festival came up on the stage. The audience who had been clapping quietly until now thanked them vocally.

Having returned to his seat, Maru calmed down his excited breathing and watched as the ceremony came to a close. The closing speech and the commemorative photo shoot were finished as well.

“Let us meet again next year. Well, then. That’s it!” Director Choi, the committee head, shouted into the mic.

At the same time, the lights in the theater were turned on. The exits opened up and the audience started leaving.

“Yoonseok!”

“Oppa!”

Jiseon and the others, who had left first, rushed over to them. They pushed away Yoonseok, who was drenched in emotions, and took away the trophy from him. They were all eager to take photos with it.

“Maru-oppa, come quick!”

The whole production crew for ‘The Form of Love’ stood in front of the large poster for the Short Film Festival.

Yoonseok, holding the trophy, stood in the middle, while Maru stood next to him.

“Thre, two, one, smile!”

After that, they installed a camera on a tripod and took a dozen more photos.

“It’s Hong Geunsoo! I’ll be off for a little.” Jiseon ran towards Geunsoo, who was walking past the lobby. Yoonseok was the one after that. The rest of them all rushed over as well.

The other members of the audience did the same. Geunsoo led a crowd of people like the pied piper.

That man hasn’t changed — Maru smiled and looked at the camera and the trophy in his hands. Even the grand prize trophy was given the cold shoulder in front of Hong Geunsoo.

A storm whizzed past. As soon as Geunsoo took the elevator and left, the cinema became totally empty.

“Do you think he’ll be there at the afterparty?”

“Doesn’t he have a shoot these days? I’m sure he’s busy.”

“I hope he comes. I wouldn’t have a wish if I could eat with him once.”

The film festival was over, but the afterparty with the participants had just begun. The bar in front of the Thintech mall was the venue.

They took their luggage and went to the bar. There was no list checking. It seemed they could just sit down at an empty table.

Maru sat down and looked around. Unfortunately, he could see neither Geunsoo nor the elder. Well, it couldn’t be helped since they were both busy people.

“Congratulations.”

The directors and actors who partook in the festival came over and congratulated him. Maru raised his glass with a smile. It was a pity that he couldn’t get a glass from the elder, but he found it plenty enjoyable.

“Well then, drink up! We still have some management funds left over,” director Choi Dongha shouted.

After that, people started ordering like crazy. It took exactly five minutes for director Choi to tell them to take it easy.

After Story 70

"Why did you get expelled? You should have taken a few more gap years and thought about it afterward."

"I've thought plenty. I chose to get expelled because my answer wouldn't change no matter how much more I think."

"Easy for you to say. Were you always this kind of character? The Han Maru I know would never get expelled."

"People are bound to change."

"You're right, you do look like you've changed, I mean, you're here drinking with just me when you said you'll never drink without girls."

His friend who came out on his last vacation from military service sighed and took a swig.

"Should I get expelled too?"

"If you want to, sure."

"What if half of me wants to and half of me doesn't?"

"Then think about it after you get discharged. Everyone's like that during their last days of military service. You think that you'll be earnest at everything you do once you get discharged, but when it actually arrives, you feel complicated. You finally feel like you're no longer a kid."

"It's really weird coming from you."

Maru poured some soju into his friend's glass. After staring at the glass, his friend waved his hand in denial, saying that he felt like he would vomit if he drank anymore.

"But hey, you know there's a bad rumor about you, right?"

"Rumor?"

"You don't know? Don't you keep in touch with the others?"

"If you mean the people from college, then it's indeed been quite a while since I last contacted them."

"So you cut ties entirely, huh."

"It's not that I cut ties. It's just that I don't have anything to talk to them about even if we do meet, so we naturally become distant. Though, someone like you, who calls during military vacation, I'm willing to meet."

"The guy that's always calling people out because of loneliness has become quite strange. Anyway, I was looking for you in the group chat, but everyone just grumbled. I asked what happened and apparently, you caused a fuss in your club when you were expelled. They said I shouldn't hang out with you since you swore at everyone saying that you won't have to meet them anymore."

"Really? I guess Mr. Sanghoon has worked hard."

"So it's true that things ended badly with Sanghoon-seonbae, huh?"

"Yeah."

"Why did you do that? You two hung out a lot."

"What's there to explain? He doesn't even matter to me. If he wants to swear at me, then let him. He wants to waste his life doing trivial stuff, and I don't see the need to stop him."

He could understand. After all, in college, the college community feels like everything. It must be fun to feel superior in that kind of lifestyle.

But how long would that fun last? The first thing they would realize after leaving that community would be 'that's just it.'

His friend drank a spoonful of udon soup and spoke, "That's cool, coming from you. I feel like you've become an adult over the past half a year, while I'm still a kid."

"Apparently, you're not a kid if you feel like a kid. Congratulations, you became an old-man-to-be."

"I also want to become a successful old man. I thought about going back to college and getting a job, and man, does my father look amazing. Also, I realize that none of the things he said to me were wrong. If only I studied really hard and went to SKY[1], I would never think about getting expelled."

He said he wouldn't drink, but he picked up the glass he pushed away and emptied it in his mouth. His face became red due to the alcohol.

Twenty-two — it was very young considering the times they were in, but this friend of his was filled with worries. This was probably the same for others around their age. Afterall, what awaited them at the end of the marathon known as studies was a march comparable to the triathlon, known as employment.

"Do you really not regret getting expelled?"

"I don't even have the time to regret or think like that. I'm busy with preparations."

"Right, I haven't asked about that. What do you do? Did you find a job somewhere if you went as far as getting expelled?"

"I didn't get employment, but I did get a job."

"What job? I don't get it."

"Acting."

His friend's chopsticks stopped in midair. He looked like he had just seen a watermelon in the frosty plains of winter.

"Acting? Is it what I think it is?"

"It is what you think it is."

"Acting, as in, like, actors on TV?"

"Actors like actors on TV."

"That's crazy. Did your parents allow that? When you said you're going to become an actor all of a sudden?"

"I haven't told them about it yet."

"That's just totally crazy."

His friend laughed because of the ridiculousness and said he was taking back the words that Maru became an adult.

"It would've been less shocking if I heard you say that you got employed at a public company. Acting? Actor? You haven't brought up anything of that kind when you went to college, you know?"

"Everyone just has a flash of craziness sometimes. For me, that was six months ago."

Just as his friend was about to speak due to the absurdity, a couple from the table opposite them came over.

"Excuse me, are you perhaps from the Short Film Festival…," the woman started. The man next to her also hesitated and muttered that it was him.

Maru stood up from his seat. "Were you perhaps there at the closing ceremony?"

"Yes! We weren't just at the closing ceremony. We went there during the screening too. You're the actor from 'The Form of Love,' right? I told you, oppa. It's him."

The woman slapped the shoulder of the man.

"Han Maru. Your name is Han Maru, right? It was rather peculiar, so I remember it."

"Thank you for remembering me. Yes, I'm Han Maru."

"I really enjoyed the film. I talked about a lot of things while watching with oppa here. What are you going to do if I die? — and things like that. I watched the other films as well, but The Form of Love gave me the deepest impression."

"I'm glad that's the case. I've done my part if I managed to create a film that remains in your memory."

"Uhm, can we take a photo with you? It's our first time seeing an actor from up close like this. We were in the back seats during the closing ceremony, so we couldn't see you that well." The woman took out her phone.

Maru grabbed her phone and gave it to his friend. His friend, who received the phone with a dazed look, stood up.

"Sorry to bother you while you were drinking. But we were so glad to see you."

"It's okay. I'm actually thankful that you recognized me."

Here it goes — his friend then pressed the shutter. A few shutter clicks could be heard.

"If you shoot another movie, I'll definitely go watch it."

"If it's okay with you, can you tell me your email address? If I really do shoot a movie, I'll send you premiere tickets for it. I might be overstepping my boundaries, but you are the first fans to recognize me, so I can't send you empty-handed. If not, I'll pay for your table as well."

"No, you don't have to… I'll tell you my email address. But I'm quite petty, so I remember things like this a lot. If you shoot a movie later and don't send me the tickets, I'll become your anti."

"I'll definitely send them over."

Maru received the man's email address, since getting the woman's email address might cause unnecessary misunderstandings.

The couple left the pojang-macha. Even as they left, they shouted 'fighting' towards him.

Maru sat down and checked the email address. He never knew that he would come across a fan like this. Korea sure wasn't that big.

"What is this? A candid camera? Are those your friends?"

"You were the one who took the photos, so what are you saying now?"

"Then they're really your fans? Really? Did you shoot a movie already? I heard it's only been six months since you got expelled and started preparing for acting!"

"I have an otherworldly talent in acting, it seems."

"No freaking way."

His friend took out his phone. He asked what the title of the film was. Maru told him that it was The Form of Love.

"The Form of Love, The Form of Love… it's really here? Short Film Festival Grand Prize. Holy shit. Your name's here too! Your name is on a web portal search."

"It's not from a people search. I'm sure it's just in small letters next to the awardee."

"What's important is that it's there. Moreover, your face is plastered on the film's poster. Where can I go watch this?"

"You can't. With some more time, the web portals will start supporting video streaming, but right now, there's no way to watch it since the film festival period is over."

"With some more time? How do you know that?"

"I just know."

His friend just let him go at that because he wasn't someone to pry. He seemed to find Maru's face on the internet rather curious as he stared holes into his phone for a while.

"Now I have something to boast about. There's an actor among my friends."

"Even if you didn't put me on a pedestal, I was going to be the one paying today, so don't worry."

"Of course you are. You weren't going to have a soldier pay, were you? Right, wait a second."

His friend grinned and controlled his phone for a little. Maru dipped the sliced carrot in some ssamjang and put it in his mouth as he watched his friend's actions.

"Hey, look here."

His friend showed him the phone screen. It was the group chat from college.

He had taken a screenshot of the web portal search result and the description of the film and put it in the chat.

"I was wondering what you were doing."

"It's quite embarrassing to say, but you and I aren't exactly that close, are we?"

"We aren't."

"We'd just go out drinking with others together and would go to PC bang together. That was about it."

"That's about right."

"We're just ordinary friends like that, but I'm not someone who would just say yes to something that isn't right."

"I'm sure that was why you asked me out to drink."

"Isn't that a pretty decent ordinary friend?"

"Yeah, you're a decent guy."

Not long later, his friend's phone started ringing loudly.

Ding, ding — alarms kept popping up after another. There were a bunch of responses from the group chat. Maru also took out his phone and put it on the table.

Though not as much as his friend's, he sometimes got notifications. When he had a look, he saw that his friends from college, who never reached out to him until now, had sent him some messages.

He didn't bother checking them though. He neither wanted to see them nor did he feel the necessity to.

"Look at these guys. Their responses are really funny after they found out that you became an actor."

"What are they saying?"

"Half of them don't care, and the other half are surprised. Some of them are bringing up rumors about you and standing up for you. And there's about three or four who are nagging me for uploading this."

"Right, why did you even do that…”

"A friend of mine is doing well, so I should make it known. Damn petty pricks. They can't even congratulate you, and they're even grumbling instead."

"You know, you called me crazy when I said I was going to be an actor."

"That's just that."

"And this is this?"

"Exactly."

His friend laughed out loud and showed him the phone.

"Hey, I got a call from Sanghoon-seonbae. This fella has a good network. Or maybe there's a spy in our year who rats to him about everything."

"Who knows? Rather than that, aren't you going to pick it up?"

"I don't care. I'm not close to him. What's he gonna do if I don't pick up?"

"You're going to keep meeting him in college."

"Sure, let him do whatever he wants. It's my GPA that will feed me in the future, not him. Rather than that, if you need a manager later, then please use me so that I can lessen my worries about employment."

"I'll think about it."

"You're not taking it as a joke?"

"You never know."

Just as he was chuckling, his friend's eyes became wide again. Then it became narrow. He looked at the phone for a while before speaking,

"I saw something strange from the main web portal."

"What is it?"

"Your face. And also, a dog."

His friend showed him the screen and touched the banner. The video started playing and sound started coming out. There was a man and a dog running around in the park with cheerful music.

"So now it's coming out, huh."

Maru smiled as he looked at Collie's clear eyes, which he hadn't seen for a while. He wondered if it was doing well. Maru thought about the dog that ran around everywhere.

"You even shot an advertisement. Not just that, it's a public service ad."

"Things happened."

"In just six months?"

"Things happened."

"Should I quit school too? And look for my talents?"

"Think about that after you sober up. It won't be too late then."

Maru put a piece of food in his friend's mouth, who was scratching his head.

1. Referring to (S)eoul National University, (K)orea University, and (Y)onsei University, commonly considered to be the 'top three' universities of South Korea around this time period.

After Story 71

“My friend over here is an actor. Amazing, isn’t he?”

His friend spoke as he stuffed some hangover drink in his mouth. It wasn’t that he shouted his lungs out, but it was loud enough for people walking by to give them a glance.

“I fed you an expensive drink to sober up, so why are you doing this?”

“Hey, you don’t drink this to sober up. It just relieves your stomach. Didn’t you know that?”

“If you have the leisure to talk about that, then get yourself together and walk straight. It’ll be a pain in the ass if a soldier causes trouble.”

“I’m not that drunk. I just feel good. A friend of mine got expelled and became an actor. How could I not be happy?”

“Yeah yeah, be happy all you want.”

They left the alley and headed out to the main road.

It was 10 p.m., and many salarymen who had finished get-togethers were lined up in order to grab taxis. When a taxi stopped, an extremely drunk man would get on and a brigade of people wearing neckties would bow towards the leaving taxi. These kinds of scenes could be commonly seen.

“I am definitely going to be like that. I want to get the taxi my subordinates grab for me and get home comfortably.”

“You’re dreaming of something that only elites can do.”

“Am I?”

Maru reached out and grabbed a taxi. A taxi that was near the pedestrian road turned off its ‘empty’ sign. Maru opened the back door and pushed his friend inside.

“Sorry about this, driver. My friend here is a little drunk. He’s not so out of it though, so there shouldn’t be a problem.”

“He looks to be on the better side. If you look out for me like this, I’d be fine with an even more drunk person.”

Maru asked his laughing friend where his house was. However, even though he was talking fine when he was walking, he looked to be in a dreamy state as soon as he sat down.

“Driver, please take him to West Suwon Library.”

Maru handed his friend a ten thousand won bill and closed the door. After seeing the taxi drive off, he took out his earphones.

It would take about 30 minutes if he ran home. He tied his shoelaces and started jogging. The night winds of December brushed past his face. The weather looked like it was going to snow soon. Just as he was rubbing his cheek which had become numb because of the cold, he got a call.

Lee Dongho. That was the name of the friend that got in the taxi.

“Yeah, what is it?”

-Where are you?

“Where am I? I’m going home.”

-In a taxi then?

“No, I’m running. I won’t be able to jog anymore if it gets any colder.”

-You used to hate running, and now you’re running…

Maru pushed the earbuds into his ears and started running faster. His friend seemed to have fallen asleep as he did not say anything more.

Just as he thought that he should hang up, his friend spoke,

-I talked about you while talking to the driver.

“Me?”

-Yeah. I told him that the guy from before is a friend of mine, and I boasted that he got expelled and became an actor. Then the driver asked me if a college student caused some kind of accident to get expelled from college. I asked what he meant, and the driver told me that getting expelled meant getting into trouble and being kicked out for a bad reason.

Maru understood where this was going. He stopped running and breathed out. White breath scattered into the air.

-That was when it got me. I made a grave mistake. You know how I showed you the group chat, right? People were saying you left in a bad way, or caused a mess. I think that might have been my underlying thought. Maybe I thought that you didn’t leave on your own accord, but left because of inevitable circumstances and were pushed out. Maybe that’s why, but I kept saying that you got expelled.

“Dropping out and getting expelled — they’re pretty much the same thing.”

-But people don’t use it that way. Usually, getting expelled means getting kicked out.

“Same thing.”

-You should’ve told me about it when we were drinking, that you dropped out instead of getting expelled. I would’ve changed it.

“I told you. I don’t have any regrets. Whether it’s getting expelled or dropping out, it’s all in the past. Rather than that, did you call just to tell me that?”

-I felt sorry. I know that you walked out on your own two feet, but I kept saying it like you left because of bad reasons.

“How delicate. You’ve become emotional because you’re drunk.”

-Sorry about that. And thanks. You just kept listening to what I said because it might ruin the mood, right? I know it already.

“You must be making the driver awkward. Let’s finish talking here. Also, just stay quiet. When you get to the library, get off quickly.”

-Yeah, I will. I love you, my friend! Do your best, actor Han!

Maru let out a helpless chuckle and hung up. This guy wasn’t like this before going to the military.

He changed tracks and started running again. A cheerful rhythm and an addictive melody hit his ears.

Whether he dropped out or got expelled, it wasn’t that important. Some might be offended by the choice of words, but those had no value to him at all.

If it bothered him, he would have corrected it the moment he heard it. Maybe because of that, he found his friend rather cute for mentioning a problem that he could have glossed over and going so far as explaining himself. Spending time talking and drinking with him didn’t feel like a waste at all. He rediscovered a good friend, so why would he find it wasteful?

“This is good.”

He slowed down as he ran with a smile. He suddenly stopped on the spot and reached his hand out. A snowflake fell on his palm. He looked at the snowflake that melted because of his body heat before raising his head. An innumerable number of white dots appeared in the dark sky. It was the first snow. The little snowflakes became larger and larger. Snow soon piled on top of his hair, and on his shoulders.

Maru took out his phone and stood below a lamp post. Just as he was about to take a photo of the snow reflecting off the orange light,

-It’s the first snow.

Haneul sent him a photo first. It was a photo she took from inside a studio. She was always a step quicker than him.

He also sent her a photo, saying that it snowed a lot.

-Don’t stay outside in the snow like a kid and go inside. Don’t catch a cold and make me suffer.

He got a harsh scolding in return. Maru ran like his lungs were going to burst. He had to be obedient if he wanted to avoid his wife’s nagging.

* * *

“It’s snowing.”

Seungah reached her hand outside the window in the corridor. The snow was pretty thick. She felt like she would be able to see cars covered in snow tomorrow.

“Is it snowing?” Miso asked from behind her.

“Yeah, it’s pretty heavy. I can’t believe this is the first snow.”

“The first snow should be heavy.”

Everyone came out to the corridor upon hearing that it was snowing. Not to mention students from the acting school, people came out from the math cram school and English cram school next to them.

What was a better excuse to take a breather than the first snow?

“Wow, it’s snowing.”

Seungah looked at Jung Dawoon. She hugged her neck close. Dawoon was like a human heater.

“You always hug me whenever you see me.”

“It’s because you’re so huggable. I can place my chin on your shoulder like this.”

She placed her chin on Dawoon’s shoulder and smiled. Dawoon shook.

She slightly loosened her hug around Dawoon. Dawoon slipped out and reached her hand out the window, trying to catch some of the snow.

“Are you a kid?”

“I saw you doing it too, you know? Also, look around. Everyone’s the same.”

Just as Dawoon said, everyone was putting their hands outside the window. They couldn’t leave the cram school, but they wanted to touch the snow, so that was the best they could do.

After watching for a while, the students started going inside one by one. They weren’t even allowed to drown in emotions while looking at snow for too long.

The ones who were left until the very end were from the acting school.

“Let’s finish up as well, so come inside,” Miso said.

Seungah returned to the classroom with Dawoon.

“Well done, both of you. It was good to see that you’ve done the homework I gave you.”

“I don’t dare slack off when it’s your homework. I have to do it properly.”

Miso shrugged. “This is why I can’t compliment you so easily. Look at you being all smug. Also, Dawoon, you improved a lot. I could see that you thought about what traits you had.”

Dawoon smiled awkwardly and nodded. Dawoon admired Miso a lot. She was someone who would believe Miso, even if she told a lie. It wasn’t that Seungah couldn’t understand that. She also relied on Miso a lot. It was natural for a disciple to follow after a good teacher.

“Dawoon, don’t just nod and reply.”

“Yes.”

“Right, you should keep voicing out like that. Just because you’re introverted, you shouldn’t stop expressing yourself. I’m not telling you to change your personality, I’m telling you to get used to using your body. As I said before, there are many introverted people among actors. However, there isn’t a single actor whose acting is introverted just because their personality is like that. They’re more passionate than anyone else. Dawoon, you need to become like that too.”

“Yes!”

“Good answer. Well then, shall we go home too?”

Seungah got her bag. Just as she was about to turn off the lights and leave, Dawoon spoke, “Uhm, instructor.”

“What is it?”

“Can I practice about an hour more before going?”

“Aren’t you pushing yourself?”

“I want to do it just a little more. There’s no other place I can move and shout to my heart’s content.”

“Really?”

Miso left, telling them to wait a moment, and returned soon later.

“Room A doesn’t have any more classes today. You can use it to your heart’s content. Once you’re done, you should turn off the lights and tell teacher Choi in the staff office, okay?”

“Yes, thank you.”

“Don’t push yourself. You should distribute your stamina as well. Then do your best.”

Seungah also waved at Dawoon. She really was a hard-working girl. Looking at her gave her motivation.

“Dawoon’s cute, isn’t she?”

“Yeah, she’s cute. She’s kind too. She just makes you want to look out for her.”

“I know it’s a childish question, but if you could cast just one of us, who would you take?”

“Why ask the obvious? Dawoon of course.”

“I’m disappointed.”

“If you’re the producer, who are you going to pick?”

“That’s obvious. It’s naturally Dawoon.”

Seungah faintly chuckled and went down the stairs with Miso.

* * *

Sweat dropped off her forehead. Dawoon looked at her figure through the mirror. She sighed when she saw that she was still very insufficient. She felt like she could do better, but when she actually did it, she was awkward like a clock with insufficient parts.

“Seungah-unni is good.”

She wished she could do just that much. Dawoon thought about Seungah’s acting she saw during the day. Seungah was improving by the day. Until just a few months ago, she thought that she was slightly better, but recently Seungah was improving so fast that it made her wonder if she could do the same.

It seemed that the audition for a drama she took two months ago had changed her entirely. She had heard that she met someone but did not hear the details.

“I should do my best.”

She encouraged her lagging self. If the unni she was taking the same class with was improving quickly, then that was something to congratulate her about, not to feel downtrodden.

Above all, she quite liked Seungah. It was she who reached out to Dawoon, who couldn’t easily reach out to others because of her introverted personality.

Dawoon wiped her sweat and took some time to cool down. After shaking off the tension in her body, she left the room. When she looked at the clock, she saw that it was past 11. Only the late-night class was still going, and the other rooms were all dark.

“Miss Choi Jayeon.” She knocked on the door to the office and opened it slightly. There was no one inside.

Did she leave for a minute? She was told to go home after telling the teacher, so she decided to wait a little.

She saw all sorts of audition schedules on the calendar on the wall.

“It’s soon, huh.”

Next month, on the 4th of January 2009, there was the audition for the movie ‘Giant’.

Dawoon had applied, and so did Sengah. Many students must have handed in their applications. She suddenly felt a wave of fatigue. How probable was it that she would get picked among all those people?

It was probably difficult. If she didn’t make it this time, how many times would that make?

Just as she was thinking about such things, she saw a plastic box on top of a desk a little away from her.

On the side of the box, it said ‘Audition for Giant, 2nd batch.’

She was drawn to that box. What entered her eyes were a bunch of profiles. She looked back at the door to the office. It was firmly shut.

After Story 72

Why was it?

She was reminded of the relay race she did in middle school. It was a cross-year race, and having been picked as a runner, Dawoon practiced starting a month before the school sports festival in order to win. She couldn’t remember how many laps she ran around the field. It was back when she realized just how fast the soles of training shoes could wear out.

What she thought as she ran was herself being applauded by her classmates.

Her record improved over the span of that month. She was sure about her victory. As long as she did not make a mistake, it would be she who would cross the finishing line first.

On the day of the sports festival, Dawoon clenched her teeth as she looked at the forerunner coming from afar as the last runner. Another runner from her class ended up falling over before she could receive the baton. She was slow and even made a mistake.

While the runners from other years, who were standing on the same line as her, started running on the track, Dawoon couldn’t do anything but wait on tiptoes.

She ran with all her might after receiving the baton, but the result was that they were last.

She was frustrated. She prepared her best for the sports festival. She practiced by herself, pushing away offers from her friends to go to noraebang together and to go shopping together.

She had the confidence to win. It wasn’t just confidence, she had the skills as well.

Yet, she was last.

Not because of her mistake, but someone else’s. If someone else was the runner, if that girl didn’t make a mistake, the victory for the cross-year relay race would be hers.

Dawoon looked at the profile box in front of her eyes. The plastic box looked like a baton to her. How many of those people would have put in ‘true effort’ among those numerous profiles? Was it really right to get an equal opportunity just because they handed in their applications? Before that, was it really justified that there were profiles of other students on top of the ones who were actually good?

Dawoon thought about the girl who fell over on the track. She thought about the bad girl who blamed others for her misfortune.

Her hands moved. She removed about half of the profiles from the box. She placed them on the table and looked for two names: Choi Seungah, Jung Dawoon.

She looked for a while before finding them around the middle. Dawoon put her and Seungah’s profiles at the very bottom of the box. Then she grabbed a chunk of profiles. She opened the bag and stuffed them in it. This was a process to receive a fair opportunity.

She and Seungah-unni were better than anyone else going to the same acting school. Wasn’t it natural for opportunities to go to those with more skills?

She fixed the crooked profile box and closed her bag. Her bag had become heavy in an instant.

The moment she took a step away from the table and breathed out, her lower stomach hurt. Her thought process, which had been entrapped by the school track, returned to reality. Fear pressed down on her neck.

Just what have I done? — Her fingertips shook. Dawoon groaned and opened the bag. She had to place them back before she did something regretful.

Just as she reached into her bag and grabbed the profiles, her ears, which had become sensitive, caught steps approaching the office. She took her hand off her bag and got away from the table.

“Dawoon.”

It was instructor Choi. Dawoon felt like she was sweating cold from her forehead. She touched her forehead, but there was no sweat.

“Are you done with practice?”

“Yes. Instructor Miso told me to tell you before leaving.”

“You could’ve just gone. Were you waiting for me?”

“Yes.”

“What a kind girl. You turned off the lights, right?”

“I did.”

“Okay, then. Get going. It’s getting late.”

Dawoon looked at the profile box on the table in a daze before turning around. Her bag felt so heavy that it might adhere to the ground at any moment. She had to take this home?

“Dawoon.”

Just as her left foot was about to step outside, instructor Choi stopped her. Dawoon felt like she was on the edge of a cliff. Did she get caught? What should she say? Maybe beg for forgiveness?

She slowly turned around.

Instructor Choi was approaching.

In her hands was some chocolate.

“Eat these on your way home. The snow has piled outside, so watch out.”

“Oh, okay.”

“But hey, didn’t you push yourself a little? You look a little pale.”

“Maybe it’s because of the cold.”

She made an excuse surprisingly easily. She thought that she was someone who couldn’t lie, so she was surprised at herself.

“Yeah, it suddenly became cold yesterday. Alright, stay warm.”

“Yes, I’ll take my leave now.”

She closed the office door and hurriedly left the acting school. She only climbed down three flights of stairs, but she was gasping already.

Dawoon pressed down on the cover of her bag and walked. She felt like the eyes of everyone around her were on her bag.

Her heart beat loudly. She almost thought that it might jump out of her mouth. She walked without being able to think about anything. When she came to, she found herself on a street she had never been to.

She took out her phone. For about 30 minutes, she wandered around aimlessly.

She walked into the convenience store in front of her. She suddenly felt the cold overwhelm her all at once.

She grabbed her numb nose and bought something warm to drink, then drank it at the minibar.

What her nerves pointed at after she calmed down a little was her bag, or to be precise, the profiles in them. She couldn’t take them home like this.

She imagined getting found out before stopping. She felt like she was going to throw up.

“Please give me a trash bag.”

“We only sell them in lots.”

“Then I’ll take one lot. Give me the 20, no, the 50-liter ones.”

She grabbed the trash bags and left the convenience store.

It was nearly midnight, and since it was heavily raining, she couldn’t see anyone walking by.

She opened her bag while standing against the walled fences of a house and stuffed the profiles inside the bag. She ripped a bag open in haste, so she had to use another one.

Her hands felt cold. A sense of guilt shook her head. She felt a wave of regret, but what mattered right now was to throw them away without getting found out. She also put some trash she could see around into the bag so that the profiles could no longer be seen under the other trash.

She started walking again with the full trash bag. She walked about another 20 minutes to enter a totally different residential area. This place was about an hour away from the acting school. Here, she would not get found out by anyone.

Why was it that she was so concerned about the dashcam of a stopped car? Dawoon put her own bag in the pile of other trash bags. As she left the alley, she looked behind her several times, imagining that instructor Choi had followed her in secret and suddenly grabbed her shoulder.

Only after getting on the bus did the shaking of her heart become calm again.

Dawoon held her locked fingers against her mouth. She bit hard on her index finger with her front teeth.

It’s going to be okay, don’t worry – she repeated that to herself numerous times as she went home.

* * *

[Mom wants you here ASAP.]

That was a message that Bada sent early in the morning. He smiled bitterly as soon as he saw it. He had a hunch that his mother had found out.

When the public service advertisement went on TV as commercials from regional TV broadcast stations, on top of internet ad banners, Maru had a hunch that a day like this would come someday.

He arrived at his parent’s house and pressed the doorbell. He felt like he couldn’t just enter after putting in the passcode.

-Who’s there?

“Me.”

-Me who?

“Mom’s son.”

-My son? You’re talking about my son who should be in college, right?

“Did you hear from Bada?”

-I did. I didn’t know when the two of you got so close. You told her what you wouldn’t tell mom. I thought you were totally enemies, but I guess I was wrong. I’m wondering if I really gave birth to you.

“Mom, it’s cold outside. Your son’s going to catch a cold.”

After listening to the door lock opening chime, he pulled the door open.

His mother, standing on the porch, displayed her displeasure without hiding anything. Maru went inside, his shoulders shrunk up due to nervousness. He hadn’t done anything well, so he had to beg for forgiveness without making excuses.

“Mom.”

“Come in for now. And tell me properly.”

“Alright. I’ll tell you everything, so don’t glare at me like that. You’re going to poke a hole through your only son.”

“And what was that only son thinking to hide the fact that he quit college from his only mother?”

He was told that before he could even sit.

Maru stood awkwardly in front of the table. Was he supposed to kneel? Or come out strong?

“I thought I must be mistaken when fatty called me about it.”

‘Fatty’. That was the name of an old friend of his mother. She came to this house more than twice a week before he moved out. He now knew the source of the information.

Maru signed inwardly. She was a good person, but he resented her today.

“She told me that my son was on TV and that I should have a look. I was wondering what nonsense it was about. Why would my son be on TV? And on an ad no less? I thought it was strange, but it came from fatty so I had a look. She watched you as much as I did. There’s no way she was mistaken so I looked into it. But who would’ve known? My son is actually in an advertisement.”

“Mom, so…”

“Shush. I’m not done yet.”

His mother raised her index finger, indicating him to not talk until she was done.

He closed his mouth shut like an obedient dog. He couldn’t say anything even if he had ten mouths, so he could do nothing but listen.

“Yeah. You can shoot an ad. A healthy college student can do something like that. You might have gotten recommended by the college board for it. I thought that. I mean, my son looks pretty good. If I were to think that you shot it because of recommendations from professors, it doesn’t sound that strange, right? But fatty came over and talked about how you shot a film.”

Maur wiped his mouth with his hand. He knew why his mother’s eyes were aglare. He had lived a long time as a parent as well. He knew the disappointment of finding out something about his child through someone else.

Despite knowing that the child was a separate entity and not his possession, he would feel agonized if he found out if ‘his child’ hid something from him.

That was just how a parent was.

“I flinched when I heard the word film. Bada was next to me back then. Mom has a good intuition, right? I gave her a glance and she turned away. I thought something must be up.”

“So that’s why Bada told you everything.”

“Not everything. The two of you have such a deep bond. She stayed quiet until the end and told me to go ask you. Though, when I urged her, she did tell me you quit college.”

“Bada is so loyal. But wait, she mentioned the most important thing, so I guess I can’t call it that.”

“You know that you aren’t supposed to be making jokes with mom here, right?”

He tried to ease things up a little but failed. Maru looked at his mother with an awkward expression.

“Did you really quit college?”

“Yes, I have.”

“Really?”

“I quit back in June.”

“June? Well done hiding it all this time then.”

“I’m sorry. I was planning to tell you after this year when things work out a little.”

“Sure you would. My lord. Is quitting college child’s play? What about tuition? What about all the time you spent studying? What about your future?”

“I came to that decision after considering everything, including what you said. I embarked on the right path before I wasted any more time and money on unnecessary stuff.”

“Studying is unnecessary? When everyone else does it?”

“At least to me, it is.”

“You really…”

Maru took out some cold water from the fridge and poured it into a cup.

His mother smiled at the absurdity and drank it.

After Story 73

“Mother.”

“Why have you been using humble speech for a while now? That’s not like you.”

“I can’t help it since I want to tell you my honest feelings. Also, this is easier for me. I know you’re worried. I’m sure you are. Your unfilial son suddenly quit college and wants to become an actor, so it would be strange if you aren’t worried. But I didn’t choose to become an actor as a backup option. I’m not doing it as a form of escapism either. I’m doing it because it’s a much better path for me, and it is a field where I can display my skills to the fullest.”

“Is being an actor easy? Is it easy to become a celebrity? Singing and acting are much harder than studying. What’s easier than studying in this world?”

“I know that acting is hard. But you see, I have a bit of talent. You heard I shot a film, right?”

“Well, only that you shot a short film or something. I didn’t even want to listen to the rest.”

“I got an award for it. Not a participation award, but the grand prize. Not only that, it was for the single biggest short film festival in the country.”

His mother’s eyebrows flinched. She asked if the prize was easy to get.

“There’s no way they’d hand it out to just anyone. You know the Thintech mall in Seoul, right?”

“I do. It’s that huge shopping mall.”

“Our film was screened in the theater there. The seats were full.”

He searched ‘The Form of Love’ on his phone. Underneath the introduction that it won the grand prize of the Short Film Festival, the face of Yoonseok, the director, could be seen alongside his.

“This is just the start. The results are very good considering that I’m just starting out. I didn’t become an actor to live my life sucking on my thumb. I’m going to be well-off, doing the kind of acts I want.”

His mother did not say anything. She must be feeling dizzy and frustrated because her son, who she thought she had a full grasp of, was suddenly talking about something she couldn’t understand.

“Mother, I’m going to live a good life. So don’t worry about me. I won’t ask you for money, so don’t worry about the financial side either.”

“Do you think I’m talking to you because of money?”

“I know that money is only secondary. But you must also know that it can’t be ignored. A good college and a good job are all a process to get a good salary afterward. It might be different from the form of success that you saw in me, but please believe me. I won’t disappoint you.”

His mother looked at the phone for a long time. Maru waited until his mother spoke again. He knew the result. There was no parent that could win against their child after all. It was just his duty as her child to display himself properly so that she felt less saddened or upset about it.

“I will tell dad about it later. Considering his personality, he’ll just give the okay without saying anything, so there shouldn’t be a problem.”

“Father is like that.”

“Tell us if you meet any difficulties. I watched a documentary before about becoming an actor, and it was not easy. They would work part-time and practice by night. If they don’t make it through an audition, it’ll be the same thing all over again. I can provide you support since there is no tuition, so don’t worry about that.”

“Mother, I’m earning money.”

“How much could you possibly earn? What part-time job are you doing?”

“Nothing for the moment. I still have some sources of money. We decided to split the grand prize money too. They gave me quite a lot because I’m the actor, so I won’t have any problems with living expenses for a while.”

“You aren’t lying, are you?”

“I’m not. Look at me. Do I look like I’m frequently skipping meals? I can do anything to earn money, so don’t worry about that.”

“Still, take the monthly rent and living expenses, just like when you were a student. Mom can do that much for you.”

Maru nodded to the offer that came a second time. He was going to accept it for now, even if he didn’t need it. After all, a parent’s mind would only feel relieved by putting something in the hands of their child.

“First there was Bada, and now there’s you. It makes my head dizzy because you both said you’re going to become actors like you’re possessed.”

“I’m sure Bada will do well too. She’ll keep trying without getting sick of it this time.”

“That will put me at ease.” His mother crossed her arms and looked at Maru. “What else?”

“Eh?”

“What else do you have to tell me? If you’re hiding anything, you better tell me now. If you don’t want to see your mother pass out that is.”

“I don’t have anything. What kind of amazing person do you take me to be to have two secrets?”

“You mean that, right? You really don’t have anything other than that you changed your career path? If I find something about you later, I’ll crush your legs and lock you in the house.”

“If you lock up a guy who should be working, it’ll be you who’ll be on the losing end.”

Now, it seemed a little okay to throw jokes. If he declared that he would become an actor recklessly, the conversation would have lasted a lot longer. He easily managed to bring the conversation to a conclusion thanks to the two achievements he had with the public service advertisement and winning the grand prize in the film festival.

“Wait just a few more years. I’ll be famous so you can brag about it.”

“Don’t get ahead of yourself, boy. You have to take it slow so that you don’t fall over. If you’ve decided to do it, then do it properly. You were always a problem when you were young because you slipped up while you were doing well.”

“I won’t slip up this time, I promise.”

“Of course, you will. You’re dropping out of the college you tried so hard to get into.”

After sighing, his mother stood up from her seat. She opened the fridge and took out some side dishes.

“Have some lunch before you go.”

“I will.”

“You are eating well, right? I think you lost too much weight.”

“I’m taking care of my diet. It’ll vary depending on the role, but generally, the thinner you are, the better you look,” Maru said to his mother as she cooked some beansprouts, “I have a movie audition coming up. I just finished a drama audition, and I’m waiting for the results.”

“A drama? You mean the one on TV?”

“There’s a mini-series that RBS is doing, and I auditioned for that. The director seems to have a pretty good assessment of me, but I don’t know what the results will be. Minor roles can change on a whim depending on the director, so I can’t say anything for sure before writing the contract.”

“If it works out, you’re going to be on TV?”

“Sure.”

“Pray, then, so that you will.”

“I don’t think praying will do anything, so I won’t. The one I know is quite petty so praying is no good.”

Maru stood up from his seat and opened the electric rice cooker.

“I guess I should wash the rice then.”

“Sit down. Mom’s doing it.”

“I’ll do it. It’s not like I haven’t made rice before.”

His mother stared at him and faintly smiled as she said yes.

* * *

“Did oppa come by?”

“He came in the morning and had some food. That rice was done by him.”

Bada looked at the rice which looked darker than usual. It was mixed with all sorts of other grains.

“He always liked white rice; I wonder what got into him.”

“Your brother seems to have changed a lot. I talked to him today, and I even wondered if he was the same immature boy I knew. It felt strange.”

“He did change a lot.”

Bada wrapped some rice in seaweed and put it in her mouth. The rice grains were quite rough. She heard that mixed grain rice was better for losing weight, so she endured it and chewed it.

“Maru won an award, apparently.”

“An award? What award?”

“The grand prize. It was from the Short Film Festival or something?”

“Really? The Short Film Festival is one of the biggest film festivals in the country.”

“You know about it too?”

“Mom, I’m an aspiring actress too. I pay attention to that, you know?”

Bada looked it up on her phone. Just as her mother said, her brother’s photo could be seen in the information regarding the grand prize.

She was surprised, but at the same time, felt bitter. The brother she always found insufficient, the brother she always wondered what he would do in life, was far ahead of her right now.

She chewed on the rice in her mouth forcefully, thinking that she had to do it too.

“If things go well, he’ll shoot a drama too, apparently.”

“Did he say that? That he’s shooting a drama?”

“He said he took an audition and the director took him in a good light or something. It’s not set in stone, but a director is someone in charge of producing the drama right? If such a person took a good look at Maru, I’m sure he’ll be on TV.” Her mother smiled saying that the rice was done well.

Bada put down her spoon. “Mom, how can you be like this in just one day?”

“What?”

“Yesterday, you were glaring at me and wanted me to spit out everything. Why are you all smiles today?”

“Who’s all smiles? I’m feeling very baffled.”

“That’s how you look when you’re baffled? You look like you’re totally overjoyed.”

“I’m not overjoyed. I just thought he dropped out of school without any plans, but he shot an advert and even got a prize, so I’m feeling a little relieved.”

“You’re totally on his side. No one’s on mine.”

“Why are we taking sides here? Also, when have I not taken your side? I was supportive of you when you said you wanted to quit cram school.”

Those words were true, so she had no retort to that.

Even so, how could her attitude towards her brother change so dramatically in just one day? She felt like she was losing. She stayed quiet until the very end to keep his secret and only barely managed to say the matter about college, but after having talked with him, her mother was smiling like she had something to boast about.

Just where was the mother who was dead set on rebuking him?

Bada’s lips twitched, but then she eventually smiled.

“Anyway, you decided to understand him, right? That’s good then.”

Just as she was about to go to her room after finishing her meal, her mother gave her a plate of fruits.

“Your brother said that you’ll do well too, that you’ll stay persistent this time, and that I shouldn’t worry.”

“Of course. Whose daughter do you think I am?”

She received the plate and went to her room. She sat down on the bed and took out a book. It was a book related to acting.

Ever since she resolved to become an actress, every single day became extremely short. Time, which didn’t pass no matter what when she was memorizing English vocabulary, passed by in a flash whenever she was immersed in acting.

“So he got the grand prize, huh.”

She never thought that she would feel inferior to her brother out of all people in her life. She also became motivated to catch up to him.

She flipped over a few pages before turning her head around. She got a notification from her messenger. It was a message from a friend of hers. She was inviting her out to an eating tour in Garosu-gil on the weekend.

Bada sent a reply: maybe next time.

She responded that she had to practice when her friends kept asking her why she wasn’t coming before leaving the chatroom.

It would definitely be fun if she went. It would relieve her stress too. However, she would definitely regret it on her way home. She didn’t want to do something that she would regret doing. Also, she enjoyed practicing much more right now.

She was about to turn off the messenger, but her mother’s new profile picture caught her eye.

She, who always had a single flower as her profile picture, had the face of a person this time. It was her brother.

“Who can stop her…”

When she touched it and zoomed in, she saw that it was the photo on the web portal. Bada smiled and put down her phone.

* * *

“Yes. Okay. Yes, I’ll see you then.”

Maru took his phone off his ear. He took a deep breath before breathing out slowly. He was quite expectant but had semi-given up after seeing that there was no news.

He stood up from the sofa and jumped up high. He could see the cat crouched down like a loaf of bread getting startled and jumping out and running to the dining table.

He rushed over to the cat. He raised her high and pushed his thumbs into the cat’s cheeks.

“Ricebun. I got a minor role. Daddy’s shooting a drama. I’ll give you even better cat food than when I got the model fee.”

The docile cat screeched and jumped up high. Landing softly, the cat glared at him not to approach before walking away.

Maru could stay happy even with his roommate’s bad treatment of him today. Although it was a role that would die in the beginning, it was still a role with a name. There was no better promotion method than this.

He looked at the calendar he hung up on the wall: December 24th. His Christmas present came a day earlier.

After Story 74

"Should we merge houses?"

Maru put down the beef jerky that he was just about to eat. Haneul, who was fidgeting with a tangerine, asked again about what he thought of it.

"Looks like you're done sorting yourself."

"I am. Not just that, I even decided on a path, and I found that this was the only remaining problem I had."

"Isn't it good to live apart?"

"It is. We've been together for too long."

"Then why?"

"Do I really need to explain?"

Haneul peeled off the white fibers on the flesh of the tangerine before handing it to him.

Here – she said as she flicked her hand.

Maru put his head forward and received and ate the tangerine with his mouth.

"Personal space is good, but it really feels bitter to have no one at home. We've become too used to having each other. Don't you think so too, sweetie?"

"Like hell I don't. It's a problem for me because I think too much about it."

"There are a lot of realistic problems too."

"You know what will happen once you start working as an actress. A young actress of twenty-two lives with a man. I can already see what the news titles will be like."

"Stop there. Just listening to that makes my head ache."

They wouldn't have had this problem if they chose to live as office workers. It wouldn't give them any disadvantages even if they lived together.

In fact, they would have pulled forward the date of their marriage so that they could benefit from the social infrastructure prepared for newlywed couples.

However, being actors was a different story. This was an occupation that fed off of rumors and was killed by them.

After becoming actors with top-of-the-industry ticketing powers, they would be able to suppress any rumors, but to actors who just started off, every single line uttered by the media was critical.

If it was about dating, then all the more so.

"How about an actor-actress couple who gets married early?" Haneul asked.

"I'm not sure. Looking at the era, that seems better than just dating. But people still prefer unmarried beautiful actresses to married ones. Especially for someone like you, who has the appearance to back it up."

"So I'm the bad one for being pretty?"

"What am I supposed to do if you take that joke so seriously?"

"Because it's true that I'm pretty. And what you said about the general perspective on actresses is true too. I guess it should be better for male actors?"

"Like hell it is. It's about the same. In fact, it might be even worse."

"Well, I guess both of us have public image-based jobs. Do you remember, sweetie? On the day after we publicly admitted our relationship, someone left a teddy bear with the eyes pulled out in front of your house."

"I do remember that. Whoever it was, that person even wrote my name on the forehead."

"And put a photo of me next to it."

"When was that again?"

"I'm not sure about that. Maybe around the 8000th time?"

"I think it's past the ten thousandth time."

"Maybe. I've loved and married the same person for tens of thousands of times, but I cannot remember it all. But I remember the teddy bear accident because it was such a shocker. Thinking back now, it's quite something. It means that it was so impressive that we still remember it to this day, right?"

"The problem is that it's impressive in a bad way."

Haneul seemed to be thinking about the event as she was looking at the blank space between the TV and the clock.

"We lived for such a long time, but we've never got divorced even once."

"Do you want to try?" He gave her some beef jerky.

Haneul bit on the jerky slightly.

"Should we do one in our later years? We'll get divorced when we get old to attract everyone's attention before combining again. We'll smile while looking at everyone telling us off for being senile."

"I sometimes don't understand what Han Haneul is thinking. You're my wife, but I still don't know a lot about you."

"You still don't know me?"

Haneul smiled and got close to him. Maru wrapped his hand around her shoulder and stroked it.

"It's already time," she said as she checked the time.

Three, two, one – she counted in a small voice and as soon as it was midnight, she stood up from the sofa.

"Merry Christmas. There will be a present-giving ceremony."

She went into the room and came back out with a palm-sized box in her hands.

"I don't like celebrating events, but this is our first Christmas together, so I can't just sit still. There, open it."

Maru smiled at Haneul, who urged him, and carefully opened the packaging.

He did have a hunch when he saw it in her hand, and the moment he saw for himself what it was, he ended up chuckling.

"What? You feel so happy that you're laughing?"

"That too, but there's another reason."

Maru opened the lid. Inside was a ring, a thick golden ring. As for the design, it only had a twist at the connection point. He took out the ring and put it on his ring finger.

"We both don't like anything fancy, so I went with that."

"That's good."

He put on the ring and looked around it. It didn't bother him at all.

"Does it fit?"

"Of course it does. It's you who gave it to me. But this makes things awkward."

"Why?"

He told the puzzled Haneul to open the drawer next to the sofa. She opened it and took out the present inside. She laughed as soon as she saw the size.

"Looks like we've lived together for too long after all."

"Tell me about it. Open it now. It'll be even funnier if you do."

Haneul took off the packaging while saying that she looked forward to it. When she opened the ring case, her expression changed continually from one moment to the next.

She looked at it in a daze first, then smiled, then laughed her tears out.

"Aren't we too similar?" she said as she showed him the case. Inside was a silver ring. Just like the one she gifted him, it was thin and didn't have any ornaments.

"Give me your hand," Haneul said as she put out her palm.

Maru placed her hand on hers. She took out the golden ring and put it on his ring finger. The gold and silver rings looked like a pair.

"Do it to me too," she said.

He also grabbed the silver ring. The ring slipped into the thin finger.

"It's pretty." She looked at the ring closely while flipping her hand over.

Seeing Haneul's satisfied expression was a much better gift than the present.

"I'm going to shoot a drama."

He wanted to tell her before anyone else. She, who was inspecting the ring, widened her eyes and asked back, "Really? You passed the one you auditioned for last time?"

"Yeah. I got contacted during the day."

"When will it air?"

"I'm not entirely sure, but it should be in the first quarter. It's already scheduled to be aired, so I don't have to worry about it flopping."

"Congratulations. We shouldn't have celebrated at home. We should've gone outside."

"I don't like noisy places. Also, I like being with you at home, hun."

"It's sometimes really pleasing to hear you call me 'hun' like that."

Haneul's upper body leaned towards him. Maru sat upright so that she could lean on him.

"Which TV station is it?"

"RBS."

"That's a fateful place. Most of your first dramas were shot in RBS, right?"

"Now that I think about it, it was RBS 9 times out of 10. Maybe it really suits me."

"What role are you playing?"

"A newbie detective."

Haneul tapped on his thigh, signaling him to go to the side a little more. She lay on the sofa, with his thigh as her pillow.

"A detective is good. What personality does he have?"

"A cheerful new recruit."

"You're good at things like that. It unexpectedly suits you."

"But he dies early."

"Early? Do you know what episode?"

"If I had to guess from the script I got from the audition, around the 2nd episode."

"That's too early. It'd be great if you could appear a little more."

"That's not something I get to decide. I guess I'll just have to die dynamically so that everyone wonders who that guy is."

"Right, right. My hubby, you gotta die well."

"It sounds weird if you put it like that."

She let out a soft chuckle. "I want to do something too. I don't care what it is, but I just want to start acting."

"I'm sure your agency will support you. If I was the president of that agency, I would have put you in all sorts of places to make you known. You're such a good item, so it's such a pity to just let you be like this, isn't it?"

He mischievously stroked Haneul's hair upwards. At first, she gestured to him to stop, but eventually just bit his thigh with her teeth.

He screeched in pain and immediately took his hand off.

"Are you a dog?"

"I sometimes want to be."

"If you say that, she'll stare at you like you're someone crazy." Maru pointed at the cat observing them from the corner. The way she twitched her eyes and stretched her waist made her look like an animal facing prey. She still didn't seem to like the human woman who visited every now and then.

"I have to get close to her too."

"She's a territorial animal, so you have to see her frequently to get close. Right now, she still finds you unfamiliar."

"Hey! You mad that I'm hogging your daddy?"

When Haneul shouted, the cat yawned. She smiled and sat up.

"On my way here, I found a large Christmas tree nearby."

"Shall we go have a look?"

"I was waiting for you to say that. Since we're going out, let's stop by a wine bar too. This big sister will treat you to a drink to celebrate your drama debut. No, just drink to your heart's content. I'll carry you if you're drunk."

"It's so good to have a reliable wife."

They put on their coats and left the house. She, who followed him out, didn't close the door and looked inside for a long while.

Maru wondered what she was up to, and approached her, only to see that she was having a staring contest with the cat.

"I'm stealing your daddy. Bye!"

There, she said it.

Maru smiled and grabbed her hand.

"You're such a kid."

"It's good to live young."

He followed her as she pulled him by his hands. The commercial district near his house was filled with sparkling lights unlike usual.

He could also hear some carols from time to time. It was a Christmas mood that he would not be able to feel at his house.

"I never get tired of this atmosphere."

Maru followed Haneul into the lights. This was his first Christmas.

* * *

"Thou who art working on Christmas. Depart, off to Hawaii."

"Don't say some weird nonsense and have a good look."

"Of course I'm taking a good look. I'm on the lookout for great talent so don't worry."

"That's good then."

Nam Joon scooped up the profiles on the table and put them in a cardboard box, though, rather than 'putting' it, it was closer to 'throwing it away'.

If it was this easy to gather scrap pieces of paper, maybe running a paper scrap yard wasn't so bad.

"You finished sorting that out, right?"

"Yes. These are the ones you chose."

"Were there so many?"

"There were. There are about 1,300 profiles we received. You said we're going to pick all the positions except the lead roles, so it would be strange if the amount was small."

Nam Joon brought a box and put it in front of the assistant director. This was the last profiles box.

"This one's from Bell Acting School?"

"Yes. The secondary ones. This is just the women's pile. We sorted the men's ones before."

"But it doesn't look like a lot."

"Now that you mention it, that's true. It looks less than the number of male applicants."

"From what I know, there are a lot of girls in that school."

"Maybe those people didn't want to do this film."

He took out the profiles and put them down in front of the assistant director and sat down next to him.

Nam Joon's role was to primarily classify the ones that fit the condition provided to him by the assistant director.

"I'll start from the ones on the bottom. Let's see, their names are… Miss Choi Seungah, and miss Jung Dawoon. That's a pretty name, Jung Dawoon. I got a feeling from her name. Can we just pick her?"

"Don't say nonsense and just sort the ones that fit the condition."

"Yes, I will. I just said what I said to freshen up the mood. I still can't believe two men are staring into profiles in a cramped room on Christmas of all days."

"Hey, do you want to work with the director instead of me?"

"No. Why are you doing this to me? I'll do my best."

Nam Joon handed the profiles of Choi Seungah and Jung Dawoon to the assistant director. Then he started going through the profiles of other girls.

After Story 75

“That’s done.”

Nam Joon stood up from his seat and twisted his body around. The big battle with profiles was finally over. He rubbed his eyes and looked at the profiles he put to the side. Those were the fellows that weren’t chosen.

“There are so many actors in this small piece of land.”

“What are you on about so suddenly?”

The assistant director took his eyes off the profiles.

“I mean what I said. There are so many applicants for a single movie. Comparing in terms of competition, it might not lose out to employment competitions at large companies.”

“Of course. Based on competition alone, it doesn’t lose out to large companies. But what if you factor in the success rate? It’s easy to become an actor. It’s not like you need someone’s approval to do so, and you can become an actor as long as you will it. However, how many actors are well-off? It’s actually much better to just aim to get into large corporations by studying. Or become a civil servant instead.”

“You’re quite cynical.”

“It’s reality. There are many controversies around employment corruption or whatever, but salarymen can walk past the doorstep with their own effort. They can walk in on their on will. Look at those people preparing to become civil servants. As long as they can get over the hurdle that is the public exams, they will get money. But look at celebrities. They ruin their bodies and waste their time, but that doesn’t guarantee success. Studying at least creates a foothold to try those tests, but celebrities will waste years if they slip up.”

“That’s not entirely true. A friend of mine failed while preparing to become an idol and failed, but he got employed in that field and is working there. Whatever happens, I think there’s a way out. On the contrary, the guy preparing for civil service exams is trying really hard but not passing.”

“If you say it like that, then everyone must be doing well. But how’s reality? Since you talked about idols, do you know how many groups debuted just last year?”

“I’m not entirely sure, but from what I saw on TV, about three groups?”

“It’s twelve. There were twelve groups who finished their preparations and made their debut. How many groups do you think there are that fell apart without even standing on the starting line? Too many to count. Then, how many trainees are there practicing hard just to get into those broken groups? I sometimes feel freaky if I think about the sheer number. I’m sure there are aspiring actors among them too.”

“I guess there are many people debuting as idols to become actors.”

Nam Joon thought about the profiles he looked through in the morning. In their experiences section, there were many people who wrote down ‘X team’, ‘Y Agency trainee’, and the like.

Even to someone who was not knowledgeable, the lifespan of idols was not long.

The idol group that colored South Korea with green balloons in 2004 ended up disbanding in 2007 due to disharmony between members. Even the most popular groups would disappear eventually. This was why even field idols looked for a way out early on, whether that be as singers, actors, or general-purpose entertainers. In order to survive, they had to ‘graduate’ from being idols.

“But hey, you’re quite knowledgeable about idols.”

“A friend of mine works as a producer for a music program. I pick up a few things from him.”

“Really? Then you must hear about a lot of the rumors circulating in the entertainment industry too, right?”

“Rumors are just rumors. They’re best ignored.”

“But a rumor from a producer is reliable. You got anything? It’s boring so tell me something.”

“There’s none. Even if I had one, I won’t give it to you. Haven’t you seen loads of people who screwed up their lives because they said the wrong things? Don’t take interest in unnecessary stuff either and just keep working hard.”

The assistant director, who was looking at the profiles, slapped down on the pile on the table.

“It’s not a bad one, but there is one fact I know.”

“Feeling itchy, are we? I’ll listen to every word. What is it? Someone dating? Or gambling?”

“I said it’s not a bad one. Do you know about Yoo Jon?”

“Yoo Jon? Never heard of that before.”

“I mean the male idol Yoo Jon.” Nam Joon sighed.

“I’m not someone with a whole lot of time on my hands, so why would I remember any boy idols? There are many cute and fresh girls out there. Do I have to know the men too?” The assistant director laughed.

“Anyway, that Yoo Jon kid is apparently going to be in a drama this time. It’s an RBS drama. Apparently, his agency did all sorts of things to push that guy in.”

“As a lead?”

“No matter how great idols are, there’s no way directors will use someone without experience as a lead role. He’s a support actor.”

“Wow, a support actor. A support actor for a public TV drama that the owners of thousands of profiles we just tossed away would never even dream of?”

“Don’t be so skeptical. Idols work extremely hard too.”

“Who said they don’t? They just do so in a different area. I guess there will be talks about crappy acting again.”

He could still clearly remember it. It was around this time last year. There was a news article about the leader of a famous idol band getting the lead role of a film. Nam Joon watched the first episode since it contained one of his favorite actors, and he was surprised the moment he saw the idol. It was incredibly crappy. With that fellow in, a serious drama became a sitcom.

Perhaps due to the influence of his agency, there were no news articles that mentioned his acting skills, but the responses of everyone around him were consistent. They were of the opinion that they could do better.

“But shall I be blunt? Compared to an actor who’s crazy good at acting but has no name value, it’s much more profitable to use an idol who’s terrible at acting but has more than enough name value.”

“But the resulting work is a stark contrast. The eyes of the masses aren’t decorations. There’s no way a terribly made piece would earn a lot of money.” The assistant director shook his head.

“Hey, you only worked for the film industry, right?”

“Yes. I’m a slave to Chungmuro through and through. I have no interest in anything other than that.”

“That’s why you can say that. Right now, the ecosystem of dramas is completely different from ours. Not just in the way things are shot, but also in the way money is earned.”

“Increase the viewing rates and sell out all the ad slots to earn money. Isn’t it the same?”

“Structurally, that’s right. But think about the market.”

“The market? It’s just Korea.”

“With film, the only market is Korea. The works that are exported overseas are generally done so for assessment rather than commercial worth. For dramas though, there’s one more market: Japan.”

“The Korean wave? I heard that it’s on the decline lately.”

“Like hell it is. Do you know where half of the production funds of dramas with idols come from? It’s Japan. In Japan, a drama sells if you put a named idol in it.”

“Even if it does, isn’t it a minor genre there? I’ve heard that some Korean dramas became popular there and the people of Japan started to call some people Choi-sama and Hyuk-sama, but I thought that was just luck.”

“Not at all. Although not completely mainstream, it’s riding on the flow of the mainstream. There are channels that put on Korean dramas 24/7 too. It’s also quite popular in the DVD market. Not only that, the price for ads there is totally nuts. Above all, the media consumption market cannot be compared to ours.”

“You mean things like merch?”

“So you know about that. Yeah, those kinds of things. Drama producers aren’t idiots. They aren’t using idols who are crappy at acting because they’re stupid. The principle is simple: Use them, get money. The financial department of the TV station proves the worth of idols, so who would refuse? A producer on the level of masters can win against pressure from higher-ups, but do you think the same can be said for other producers?”

The assistant director gathered the profiles. They were the ones that were sorted.

Nam Joon put the rest of the profiles in the trash.

The box was full. There were at least a hundred. It felt quite iffy to throw away hundreds of dreams into the trash.

“Dramas must be even harder than here huh? At least in the movie industry, there aren’t actors who lose out in favor of idols.”

“You never know. Film production is ultimately a form of business. Right now, the wall between TV and theater screen is still thick, so idols don’t dare try to enter, but what do you think will happen if enough time passes and those idols come after having received proper acting lessons?”

“People will use them. Fandom is ticketing power after all.”

“Even I would use them. Unless they’re totally terrible on camera, I’ll give them a support role or something. Rather than screwing up the whole movie and never picking up the megaphone again, I’ll just compromise once.”

“I guess you really will never know what will happen in ten years. I think by 2018, idols will be in films too.”

“I think there might be more than you expect. Right now, nobody’s giving them a glance since the few films that tried screwed up badly, but if they manage to open the Chinese market on top of the Japanese market, things will definitely change.”

“I guess it’ll be hard for actors to make a living.”

“That’s just how it is. 20 years, no, just 10 years ago, no one other than actors from theater troupes was allowed to stand in movies, but it’s different now. The wall between the television and the theater screen has collapsed too. There are a lot fewer people who look down on those who go to shoot dramas after shooting movies.”

“At this rate, the occupation of actors might really be put in jeopardy. Everyone will just start off as general-purpose entertainers and just choose actors as one of its many paths.”

“General-purpose entertainers have been on the rise lately. But the value of true actors will rise. I at least think so.”

Nam Joon lifted the box to the right of the assistant director and put it on the table. There were about 300 profiles that survived from the more than 1000 original pile.

The reward for getting past the 1:4 competition was the qualification to take the audition. How many of these 300 people would ultimately leave behind their names on film?

“Do you think there are true actors among these people here?”

“Maybe, maybe not. It’s about time male actors in their 20s rise. The male actors in their 30s are solid, but there’s no one who comes to mind when you think about a good male actor in their 20s.”

“Now that I think about it, you’re right. For the 30s, there are many well-known ones.”

“Yang Ganghwan, Hong Geunsoo, Choi Hojung, Park Sinseo — these four people are the representatives of the male actors in their 30s. Grab anyone from the street and ask the same question, and they’ll answer one of these four.”

“I saw Yang Ganghwan’s last theater performance in his twenties while I was in college. It was the best. There’s just no other way of describing that.”

“Right. After those four, who decorated the 20s actors beautifully, rose to their 30s, the 20s male actor slot is totally empty. So it’s about time. The media will not accept the absence of a star. They will find one, and if there isn’t one, they’ll make one.”

“I prefer actresses though. There are many pretty actresses in their 20s, but there isn’t anyone that comes to mind when I think about them in terms of acting.”

Nam Joon sat down and turned on his laptop. It was time to create a list of audition participants.

He had to send this to the picky ‘director Baek’ so he couldn’t make a mistake.

“Director. Say you’re producing a film. If there’s a decently good top idol actor and a truly good actor, who will you use?” he asked as he typed on his keyboard.

The assistant director, who was checking the profiles with a blue pen next to him, responded, “There’s no need to consider.”

“Who?”

“Both.”

“No, you can only choose one…”

“I’m going to use both, so let’s just shut up and finish things. You don’t want to stay with me until Christmas is over, do you?”

“It’s not like you have anyone to meet.”

“Shut up and go buy some coffee. And some sandwiches.”

“You’re buying mine too, right?”

“How are you so shameless?”

“I threw my shame away while I was slaving my life away.”

Nam Joon snatched the assistant director’s credit card and turned around.

When he opened the door and left, he saw couples gathered at the foot of a large Christmas tree.

“Death to couples.”

He crossed his arms and ran towards the café about two blocks away.

After Story 76

As he took a day off from his morning exercise, he had some time left over. Instead of going on a jog, Maru ran half a lap around the park and returned to his house.

He untied the scarf around his neck and drank some tea. Since today was the day of the audition, he had to look after his condition.

After he stretched himself a little, he started singing from a low voice in order to exercise his vocal cords. Then he picked up a mop.

Cleaning was one of his routines. Just like how tennis players would go through a series of actions like a ceremony to get into tip-top shape to give the best serve, he organized his thought during cleaning and calmed his mind, preparing to act.

He breathed out a long breath from the depths of his body and then had a look at the calendar: January 4th. He looked at the table clock underneath: 7 a.m. The audition, which was originally scheduled on the sixth, was pulled forward by two days, but there was no problem with that.

"I'm off," he said to the cat staring at him by the porch. Usually, she would be in the room whether he left or not, but today, she watched him until the door was closed, as if she was encouraging him.

-Hey, where are you?

He got a message on the train to Seoul. It was Seungah. He replied that he was on the way.

-You're full of leisure, huh? Come quickly. People are starting to gather one by one.

Seungah had arrived quite early. He put his phone in his pocket. Just because he hurried wouldn't mean that he would participate in the audition early.

It was instead much better to have some leisure like it had been ten years since he started working.

The train arrived at Daechi station. He took out his earbuds from his ears and got off the train. The street with cram schools was also rather empty, perhaps thanks to the fact that the CSATs had ended.

As he walked while simulating the skit he had prepared inside his head, he found himself at Bell acting school. There were people gathered outside the building.

"You're here," Seungah walked over.

As he was waving his hand, he found a girl right next to Seungah. Perhaps she was company.

"She's a little sister that's going to the audition with me today. She goes to our school too."

"So you're participating in the audition. Nice to meet you," Maru greeted the girl. The girl shyly looked around before speaking,

"Hello."

Seungah, who was watching, jumped in.

"Introduce yourselves, will you? We're going to hang out together after the audition anyway. This is Han Maru over here. He doesn't actually go to our school, but instructor Miso said he should try the audition; that's why he's here. He auditioned with me for a drama before too. And she's Jung Dawoon. She's one of the best students in the acting school."

"Unni, I'm not that good," Dawoon quickly shook her head and spoke.

Maru looked at the two of them alternately. The first impression he had was that they were a pair of a mother bird and newborn bird.

"Have you prepared well?" he asked Seungah.

"I don't know. I did prepare, but I'm not sure if it's 'well.'"

"If you didn't, then I guess you just won't make it."

"Thanks for the encouragement goddammit. Now, I'm going to blame you if I don't make it."

"And it's thanks to me if you do?"

"It's my effort if I do. How about you? Did you prepare well?"

"I did everything I could."

"How could you say that so confidently?"

"Because I have the confidence. Leaving aside whether I'm going to pass or not, I am prepared to show everything I have during the audition."

"Good on you, mister."

Seungah untied the muffler around her neck. She seemed to be feeling slightly too warm.

Maru spoke to Dawoon, "Have you prepared well?"

"Huh? Oh… yes. I have done everything I could."

"You're much better than your big sister over here. I'm sure you'll pass."

Dawoon's slightly stiff expression relaxed when he said those words. She thanked him with a faint smile.

"Why don't I get some of those warm words?"

"How could I say it to an actress who doesn't even know if she's ready or not? That'll just be rude to the other actors here."

"Fine, I get it! I also practiced to the death, but I was just being a little humble. I mean, who else other than me here will pass?"

"Yeah, that's much better. The unconfident words you tell yourself might nibble away at you without you knowing. Rather than freezing solid, it's much better to become a passionate fool."

Maru took out an insulated bottle from his bag. It was tea. The tea came into contact with the cold air and produced some steam.

The fragrant smell was relaxing.

"What's that?"

"Some tea. Would you like some?"

"Can I? It doesn't look like there's a lot."

"I have two bottles, so it's fine."

Maru showed them the other insulated bottle in his bag. Unless it was a mime, looking after one's throat was one of the basics, especially in winter, when the weather is cold and dry.

He poured some tea into the lid and gave it to Seungah. She took a careful sip before exclaiming and emptying the tea in one go.

"It's good."

"Would you like some too, Miss Dawoon?" He offered a cup to Dawoon.

Dawoon thanked him and received the lid with both of her hands. The way she drank reminded him of a squirrel.

"It's good."

"You'll be less nervous with something warm in your body."

"Can I have another cup?"

"Sure."

While they were waiting while drinking tea, people started gathering in front of the acting school. There were people of many ages, ranging from teens to people in their 40s. The rather empty-looking street started becoming crowded.

"We'll now hand out your name tags and call your name. Please come inside in order and check the name list and get your name tags."

People started walking into the building, starting with the people near the entrance. People lined up on the stairs and waited.

After about ten minutes, the three of them got their turn. Maru approached the employee who was waiting at the table in the corridor.

"It's Han Maru."

"Mr. Han Maru. You're number 228. Those in 200s will have their audition after 3 o'clock in the afternoon. You should come back at 3. If there are any changes, you'll be notified through a text message."

"Okay."

This was a frequent occurrence. Even auditions required them to wait. He would not have to go through the trouble of coming early if the production company sorted through the names and told them their numbers beforehand, but they weren't so considerate. After all, aspiring actors were as many as the stars in the sky.

He grabbed the name tag and left the building. Many people were leaving the building as well, after getting the name tags.

"What number are you?" Seungah asked while showing her name tag. Hers was 273.

Maru replied that he was 228. Dawoon was 274.

"If I knew this would happen, I would've taken my sweet time like you. I came here early for nothing."

"I had a hunch since this is an audition with many participants."

"Also, I had a look on my way out, but I saw some actors I've seen in movies. From how they didn't come back out, those people must have taken the early numbers, right?"

"Probably."

Maru had heard that all roles other than the lead characters would be selected through an audition. On the surface, it might look like a fair testing ground, but there should be all sorts of agreements and promises tangled within.

Sometimes, auditions were held only to show that they were fair in their picking.

Maru had participated as a judge for such auditions several times. No matter how low of a score he gave, there were always those that managed to pass.

He had no intention of blaming them. This was a business that involved hundreds of millions of won. They couldn't simply look for fairness in everything.

In any case, he needed someplace to spend time. Just then, a cinema caught his eye. If he watched a movie and ate a late lunch, he should finish just in time for the audition.

He walked towards the cinema. After walking for a long while, he looked back. He saw that Seungah and Dawoon were following him.

"Where are you going?" he asked.

"We're following you. Where are you going? To get some food?"

Maru pointed up at the sign on the building that had the cinema logo. Seungah looked at him like a madman.

"You're going to watch a movie right now?"

"There's nothing else to do to kill time. I don't prefer sitting down in a café for hours."

"But isn't watching a movie still going too far? It'll be the audition soon."

"People who have auditions can't even watch a movie? The seats are comfy, the air is heated, and if even the movie is interesting, isn't it the best way to spend time?"

"You're not wrong, but…”

"If I'm not wrong, then I'm right."

The two of them were puzzled but still followed him regardless.

With perfect timing, there was a movie that started in about 10 minutes. The runtime was about an hour and fifty minutes. Just perfect. The genre was also not bad, as it was a romance movie with a hint of thriller.

"This really doesn't feel right," Seungah said as she sat down next to him. Dawoon also didn't look that good.

However, once the movie started, both of them became absorbed.

"Both of you were totally absorbed in that. Where's the person who said it doesn't feel right?"

"Forget about the past. But hey, that was unexpectedly not bad. I guess it's not bad to watch a movie if you have time to kill. I would've been nervous if I was dazing out while waiting."

They had a late lunch at a kimbap restaurant, albeit just a light one so that they could stave off their hunger.

As they were leaving after finishing their meal, Dawoon spoke to him, "Uhm, aren't you nervous?"

"No, not really."

"You must be used to auditions then."

Maru gave Seungah a glance and spoke,

"It hasn't been that long since I started acting, so I'm not entirely used to it."

"Really? And you still don't get nervous, huh."

"Are you nervous?"

"Yes."

Maru glanced at Seungah again. Seungah looked at him with a gaze that said he should console her.

He did find it strange. Having watched her for a few hours, Dawoon wasn't someone sociable enough to talk to someone of her own accord.

It would be a different story if they became close, but she wouldn't talk to someone of her own accord if it was a stranger. It was probably Seungah's urging. After all, to Seungah, Maru must be someone who's good at consultation.

"Have you thought about why you're nervous?"

"No, I'm just nervous…”

"Try asking yourself why you feel nervous."

After thinking about it for a while, Dawoon spoke cautiously,

"Because my preparations aren't perfect."

"It's good that you found out. There are many different forms of nervousness, but it ultimately comes down to one thing: Incomplete preparation. You said in the morning that you did everything you could, right? But unlike what you said, you must know in your heart that you are still not enough."

"Then Maru… oppa, are you saying that you're not nervous because you've come perfectly prepared?"

"Something similar. Of course, I'm not saying that I'm perfect. I'm just saying that I didn't waste any time unnecessarily during preparation. If you don't have room to regret, then you don't feel nervous either. That's how everyone is, and that's why they practice."

Dawoon nodded twice and thanked him. Just because he told her that, it wouldn't make her nervousness disappear. While the power of words was great, it couldn't solve everything.

To not feel nervous, one had to have one of two things: one, be born with a heart of steel, or two, push oneself to the limits so that they wouldn't have any room to feel nervous.

"But hey, when are you going to drop the honorifics?" Seungah said.

Maru looked at Dawoon.

"If you feel uncomfortable, then you can drop the honorifics. I'm fine either way."

"Now's a little…”

"It might actually feel easier to use polite speech. Seungah only thinks that it's easier to drop it since she's young."

"Thanks for thinking I'm young. But we should get going, you know? It's almost three."

Seungah walked ahead. Maru also checked the time and quickly followed.

* * *

Right, I haven't prepared perfectly. What he said is right — Dawoon chased Maru walking ahead of her with her eyes.

He didn't sound arrogant. What he said felt like it came from his heart. It wasn't so often that she found herself sympathizing with what someone else was thinking.

"A perfect preparation."

She suddenly recalled the profiles she threw away in a trash bag.

Dawoon shook her head. That was just a single mistake. It would never happen again… probably.

She shook off her thoughts and looked ahead of her. She saw Maru look back at her.

Dawoon quickly moved. She hadn't seen him before today, but she was at ease around him. Although they weren't close enough to drop the polite speech, she wanted to talk to him more.

After taking a few more steps, Dawoon found that the nervousness that tickled her neck had become quite a lot fainter.

"Let's catch up. I think she plans to leave us behind," Maru said with a smile. Dawoon also smiled.

A good man — echoing these words that came to her mind in her head, she moved.

After Story 77

"My eyes are dry."

"You think you're alone? I'm the same."

"How long do you think we'll have to keep watching today?"

"We've done half now, so it should end before six. Considering the speed the director's going at, it might end before that."

Nam Joon pressed between his eyebrows as he listened to the assistant director. So he had to wait just an hour or two more?

"The actors assigned to the morning session are definitely quite good."

"They all have experience. They're incomparably proficient to the ones who are just starting out."

"It's a pity that such actors can't even shoot a single movie these days."

"There are many 'good' people, but they'll have to show more than just 'good' in order to get picked. Did you swap out the memory?"

Nam Joon tapped on the camera and nodded.

"Looks like we should start as soon as the director returns."

Just as the assistant director stood up to stretch his back, the door opened and the director and the scriptwriter came in.

"It's really cold. I'm going to freeze to death while smoking." Director Song Daejin trembled and sat down.

The writer seemed to be cold as well, as he blew warm air into his hands.

"Nam Joon, let's begin," said the director.

Nam Joon opened the door and notified the acting school staff that the audition had resumed.

"226 was it?"

"Yes."

While the director and the assistant director talked to each other, the door opened.

She was a woman whose short hair suited her quite a lot. Nam Joon looked at the woman's face that the camera caught. The charm of her real-life figure was brought out even on the screen as well. Based on appearances alone, she would be among the top people today.

"Hello. I'm Park Jiyoon, a bold new actress."

The director said that she could begin as soon as she was ready.

The eyes of the director, assistant director, and writer all turned toward the monitor on the right.

Standing at the front, the actress started.

"I saw it. I saw that prick steal it. Why won't you believe me! Why won't you ever believe me!"

The actress spoke loudly as she moved dynamically. It was when the actress flinched back and was about to say the next line that the director raised his hand to stop her.

"That's enough."

"Oh, okay."

"Miss Park Jiyoon. Your expression is good, but your pronunciation isn't as good. If you can't swear, then it's better if you don't. Thank you for coming."

"Is it over?"

"Yes, it's over."

"Uhm, there's a free acting that I've prepared."

"There's one more?"

"Yes."

"Alright, go on then."

The actress recollected herself from panic and started acting again. However, the director soon raised his hand to stop her again.

"Thank you for coming."

The director only looked at the actors when greeting them in or out.

Nam Joon pitifully looked at the actress who bowed.

Cheer up, Miss Jiyoon – he inwardly sent her some encouragement.

The actress then left the room. Nam Joon could remember at least 100 actors who left the audition room before two minutes had passed.

While the director permitted the actors to do their second skits if they so desired, not a single one managed to impress him in doing so.

"I guess this is why everyone uses actors that they know," said the writer.

"It's this hard to find actors. People don't say that preproduction is half the work for nothing," the director said as he rolled the pen in his hand.

"I did have to think quite a lot in the morning because there were decent actors, but now that we ate lunch, I feel like some people came as a joke. Joon, give me some coffee."

Nam Joon put down a canned coffee in front of the writer.

"Joon, are you sure you didn't slack when you looked through the profiles?"

"No way. I had a thorough look with the assistant director."

"Then why are they like this? At this rate, I think we'll have to do the audition again after picking a few people from the morning. Don't you think so, hyung-nim?"

The director shook his head at the writer's words.

"We've gotten a lot of people with good character, so I'm fine with ending things like this."

"You look disappointed though?."

"Because it's not outside my expectations. I persuaded the production company to hold a public audition, and if this is the result, who would want to try this again? Everyone would hold unopen auditions."

While the director was sighing, the next actor opened the door and came in. He was a man in his thirties.

The way he walked in front of the judges was bold. His first impression was really good.

"H-hello."

However, the moment he spoke, Nam Joon clenched his eyes shut. He could already picture what would happen in one minute. The director would raise his hand and the actor would step out.

"Don't be nervous. Start once you're ready."

They waited for a while, but the actor could not begin. He stuttered a few times with his face red and frowned.

Nam Joon could understand how he felt. He also took auditions when he was an actor. It was not an easy task to stay sane amidst the eyes of numerous judges in a closed space.

"Mr. Youngho. You have a very good physique. However, you're supposed to be an actor. If you don't show me anything, I can't judge you."

"Sorry, I wasn't like this while I was practicing. I can really do better…”

"I know. I get what you're trying to say, but we should stop here. Thank you for coming."

The man opened and closed his mouth a few times but then left with a sigh of self-blame.

He was probably angry at himself.

"He looked really good. You know we have that secretary role, right? I thought he was perfect for that," said the writer.

The director seemed to be of the same mind and nodded.

"Don't you think you're scaring people by glaring at them, director?" said the assistant director while stretching his hand.

The director just laughed.

"Let's get a few more people. We should get something out of this."

The door to the audition room opened again. This time, it was a man with a pretty good look in his eyes.

The way he walked in front of the judges after closing the door slowly looked quite natural. After looking at the judges in front of the camera, the actor took half a step sideways, so that he would show up in the middle of the screen.

Nam Joon had a hunch that he must be an actor who had taken many auditions.

"I'm Han Maru. I'll begin."

As soon as he introduced himself, he got into the mood. Nam Joon had a look at the actor's figure with his eyes and then looked through the screen. His face was actually much more three-dimensional than he had expected.

Under the fluorescent lights, the actor's eyes, cheeks, and chin contours stood out.

If it was possible to discern good and evil through one's face, he looked closer to evil than good. He looked like he had a 'bad guy' image in him so openly.

However, he had to change his mind when the actor smiled. He looked so pure and innocent that he might be easily enticed into guaranteeing for someone.

His face 'based on evil' had not changed, but the atmosphere he gave off had become different.

His face looked rough like it had received the weathering of the world, but it was still gentle and innocent on the inside, so to speak.

"Thank you all for your work. You must be cold, so let's have a drink each."

Smiling gently, the actor slowly moved his hands. Nam Joon could imagine him pouring some rice wine and drinking it.

After dipping his thumb into the bowl, the actor drank it all in one go before wiping his mouth with the back of his hand.

“I’m having a blast nowadays because everyone’s not skipping hours. Chulsoo, our new recruit, hasn’t run away either. Right right, if you endure and learn skills from these ahjussis, they’ll become useful later. I mean, studying isn’t everything these days, is it? Even if it’s manual labor, if you learn and get experience, you’ll receive good treatment and get a good life. You know Mr. Kang, right? The guy who was sent to the prime contractor, right? Sometimes, you get a stroke of luck like that, so let us all do our best. Here, have another bowl.”

The actor raised an invisible bowl above his head and sang a savory song. He looked to be in his mid-twenties at most, but the way he acted was a total old man. It didn’t feel like he was doing an awkward imitation. Where could he have heard that? Did he perhaps work in a construction zone?

Nam Joon looked at the actor dancing around and smiled faintly. His acting was not awkward at all and made Nam Joon keep looking.

“Wait a second,” said the director. The actor waited and stood upright.

“You’re good, but can you show me something else? If possible, something evil. Not something that’s outright threatening, but something that’s more subtle yet evil.”

The director gave the actor an order. This was the first time this happened in the afternoon. He told others to do the act they’d prepared but did not designate something for them.

“Okay.”

From the way the actor responded without hesitation, the actor seemed to have prepared something as well. Actors usually prepared two acts of totally opposite themes, so it was probably that.

The actor rolled up his sleeves.

“Missus, what’s so hard about buying this one thing?”

His mouth was in a smile, but his eyes were sharp. The way his eyes quickly moved up and down made him look like he was finding the weakness of his prey.

“I’ve treated you so well every time you came here. You know that, right? I was always smiling and laughing because you felt like you were my real mother, but I’ll be disappointed if you do this. Hey, what do your children do? They don’t let their mother buy something like this? Do they not send you any money?”

The actor knelt down and reached his arm out to the front. He made a filial expression and stroked the imaginary old lady’s hand.

Nam Joon took his eyes off the screen and looked at the actor. The other judges did the same.

Seemingly not feeling the attention on him at all, the actor smoothly continued his act. He kept consoling and urging the missus to buy the item but then eventually snapped out in ire. He looked like a stereotypical con artist targeting elderly people to buy unnecessary items. He looked so realistic that it made Nam Joon wonder if he actually tried doing it once.

“Missus, no, mom. Thank you. You’re the best, mom. Here, everyone, look. Missus Kim here, my mom, has bought five boxes of these great ginseng extracts that will increase her life by 10 years. She’s a totally generous spender. Everyone, give her a round of applause!”

The actor grinned brightly and kept clapping. Nam Joon, who made eye contact with him midway, raised his hands in the air. It felt like he had to clap.

“Nicely done,” the director said while nodding. “From your profile, it seems like you’re just starting out.”

“Yes. I don’t have much experience, so it might look rather empty.”

“Considering that you’re pretty good. Do you go to Bell acting school?”

“Not really. An instructor there recommended that I take this audition, so I applied through the acting school.”

“May I ask who that instructor is?”

“It’s instructor Yang Miso.”

“Oh, Miso did?” the director tapped the pen on the table.

From Nam Joon’s experience, it was the director’s habit when he was extremely satisfied.

“Joon, take your glasses off and hand them to him.”

Nam Joon gave the actor his glasses.

“Can you put it on?”

The actor put on the glasses. The director looked at the writer and asked how he was.

“I think he fits.”

“Right?”

“He looks a little young, but looking at what he did, that might actually be better off.”

The director marked the profile.

“Thank you for coming today. See you next time.”

“Thank you.”

The actor took off the glasses and left. The director had the next participant wait and checked the video they took. After watching the actor on the screen for a while, the director stroked his chin.

“I think we have our scammer. He’s the perfect fit.”

The director assigned a role on the spot. This was the first time it happened since the audition began.

Nam Joon looked at the actor who had the glasses on the screen.

He had a face that was both good and evil. If he got a little older and the contours of his face stood out a little more, what would he be like? He looked forward to that day.

After Story 78

“Could you turn around for a second?”

Seungah turned around at the judge’s request.

“Okay, that’s good.”

She looked toward the front again. She was relieved for now because she wasn’t interrupted while acting. She had displayed everything she had prepared, so she could look forward to the result.

“I see you’ve done a drama already.”

“Yes. I’ve experienced many things through it.”

“It’s a named role, so you must have had lines as well.”

“The character appeared for only a few episodes, but I did have lines.”

“I see. What’s important is that you’ve done it. Let me ask one final thing: Do you think you can smoke deliciously?”

“I’ve never smoked, but I am confident I can do so.”

“Okay. Thank you for coming today.”

Seungah bowed to the judges and left the room. A deep breath escaped her.

“Unni,” Dawoon came over. Now that she thought about it, Dawoon’s turn was next.

“Don’t be nervous and do your best.”

“How did you do?”

“So-so.”

Seungah gave Dawoon a pat along with some words of encouragement.

Dawoon took a deep breath and opened the door to the audition room.

“Good luck,” she said to the closing door in a small voice, hoping that Dawoon would not make a mistake and could finish the audition smoothly.

* * *

She finished the act she had prepared. She did not make a mistake, nor did she feel awkward doing it. Dawoon looked at the judges after calming down her senses that were on the edge.

The eyes of the judges all turned around from looking at the monitor.

Sensing the eyes on her, her calmed heart started thumping again.

“Does the image overlap a little?” said the man on the far right in a whispering fashion. Normally, she wouldn’t hear a voice that small, but maybe because of her heightened senses, she could hear it clearly.

She saw director Song Daejin fall into thought after hearing the man’s words. He was the only one she knew out of the four judges here. He was a famous director, so the actors participating in the audition today probably all knew him.

“Miso’s eyes are good alright,” said the director. “You’re learning acting with Miss Seungah, aren’t you? Under Miso, I mean.”

Dawoon replied yes to the director’s question.

“First of all, well done. You looked good on screen too.”

The director locked his hand and flicked his index finger before turning quiet. He seemed to have something to say. Dawoon looked at the director nervously. The words ‘image overlap’ which she just heard echoed in her ears.

“Thank you for coming,” the director said as he unlocked his hands. Dawoon said that she had prepared something else. She felt like she couldn’t leave like this.

“It’s okay. We’ve seen enough.”

“Yes.”

She couldn’t be stubborn. Dawoon bowed politely and turned around. When she opened the door and left, she saw Seungah standing at the end of the corridor.

Just as she was about to call, ‘unni’, she heard the judges chat among themselves. She grabbed the closing door softly and looked between the cracks. The four judges were looking at the screen. They were watching Seungah and her footage alternately.

Dawoon closed the door with her breath abated. Her eyes hurt as though they were being scorched.

She clenched her eyes shut before opening them again. The words ‘image overlap’ tickled her eardrums again.

What would have happened if they didn’t overlap? Were they discussing who among the two was suitable for one role? If only one of them could make it, who would take it?

Suddenly, Seungah, who was standing at the end of the corridor, felt distant. It felt hard to approach her, and she did not want to see her.

She recalled what happened during the day of the first snow. The profiles she stuffed in her bag that day, the convenience store from which she bought the trash bags, and the sparse neighborhood where she had thrown away the pile of profiles flashed in front of her eyes in series.

If she threw away unni’s profile from that profile pile…

She shook her head. That was a terrible thought. She loathed herself for thinking about such a thing even for one second.

“Dawoon,” Seungah called from the end of the corridor. Dawoon threw away her thoughts and approached Seungah.

She’s a good unni, don’t think like that.

She told herself such, but even at that moment, she heard a familiar voice: What if she threw it away?

* * *

“We’re gonna be together until the end. Let’s have a look. Right! The store’s name is Hanjoo Chicken Feet, right? Then we’re Hanjoo Chicken Feet gathering. People who belong to this group are not allowed to give up on acting and have to stay as actors until the end. Okay? We’ll help and encourage each other.”

Seungah put down her glass and created a group chat on the spot. The name of the group chat was ‘Hanjoo Chicken Feet Actors Association.’ The group became an association, even though there were just three of them.

“I get how much you can drink, so you can stop drinking now.”

Maru put away the glass that was in front of Seungah. If she drank anymore, he might have to deal with a living corpse.

“Dawoon, are you okay?”

“Yes, oppa. I’m okay.”

She said she was okay, but she didn’t look the part. A girl who looked like a squirrel was stuffing her mouth with side dishes like a squirrel. She seemed to be getting ready to hibernate as she piled some food in front of her.

One side was uttering nonsense, while the other was stuffing her mouth without end. Still, it was good that their drunk habits were not that troublesome.

“Let’s stand up for now. You two must be tired so get some rest.”

He left with the two women who said that they were fine and could drink more.

“I’ll get something to drink.” Seungah shook her head and walked to a nearby convenience store.

Maru offered to go with her, but Seungah waved her hand in denial.

Maru looked at Seungah walking precariously on top of the slippery road and spoke, “I think you should take care of her on the way home. She looks pretty drunk.”

“I will,” Dawoon said with a chuckle.

“Oppa, I’m a really bad girl, aren’t I?”

“What do you mean?”

He stared at her when she suddenly said something without context. Dawoon was staring at Seungah, who had just gone inside the convenience store, her gaze complex. Just as Maru was starting to get worried that she was badly drunk too…

“I really wish both of us did well, or both of us did badly. But just one of us doing well, and not only that, the one being unni…”

Dawoon whispered that before flinching and closing her mouth. She looked like she just said something she should not say. He did not ask what she meant by what she said. If she had something she wanted to hide, then he would let her do so. That was how everyone lived after all.

“Auditions are hard. It’s especially the case when there are many people you know in the audition.”

He no longer commented after that.

At that moment, Seungah had returned. In her hands were three banana milks.

“If you drink banana milk before you vomit, your vomit will taste like banana milk.” Seungah smiled, handing them the banana milk. That was some incredible preparation on her part.

So she was planning on vomiting. He took two steps away from her. He couldn’t stand pigeon food[1] splattering onto his clothes.

“Hey, why are you getting away from me?”

“It’s human instinct for survival. If you feel sick, then you should throw up before getting onto the taxi instead of making the driver suffer.”

“That’s why I bought the milk. But hey, I really do feel sick.”

Seungah burped as she closed her eyes.

Maru took two more steps away. To him, she looked more dangerous than explosives.

“Oppa, you said you live in Suwon, right? You should go ahead. I’ll take unni home.”

“Are you okay with that?”

“I am.”

Seungah, who was listening, jumped in, “Hey, Han Maru! You aren’t petty enough to run after just the first round, are you? We should go for a 2nd round. And go singing and bowling too.”

“You go by yourself. Stop causing trouble for the little sister next to you.”

“Dawoon said we should go too. Didn’t you, Dawoon?”

He looked at Dawoon. Her expression looked different from when they were drinking. It seemed that what she said to herself kept tugging on her mind. It was probably because of that, that she suggested for Maru go home first.

“I’ll get going now.”

“Hey, Han Maru! You’re so petty.”

“The weather’s cold. Stop fooling around and go home and sleep. Dawoon, you should be careful on your way home too.”

He waved his hand and was about to go home when Dawoon stopped him.

She didn’t call him ‘oppa’ like before, but just with an ‘uhm’ in hurry.

Dawoon hesitated and didn’t say anything in the end. Only when Seungah looked at her strangely did she speak,

“Watch out on your way home.”

“Yeah, you too.”

* * *

He must have heard it. The alcohol in her was talking, but she came to herself and quickly stopped talking, but she had already said those doubtful words. Dawoon held up the staggering Seungah and looked behind. Maru was becoming distant.

“Dawoon.”

“Huh?”

“What was that just now?”

“What?”

“You looked like you had something to say to Maru.”

“No, it’s nothing.”

“Really?”

Seungah narrowed her eyes.

She felt nervous. She felt like Seungah had seen her inner heart that she could never afford to have others find out.

Just then, Seungah took out her phone. It seemed that she had gotten a message. Dawoon looked behind again. She was worried that Maru, who she could no longer see, might have sent something strange to her. Or could he have sent something unnecessary to her?

“Dawoon.” Seungah’s voice had become a level deeper.

Her heart sank. Should she make the excuse that she did not think like that? Or should she confess her true feelings? Wouldn’t unni understand her? That it was plausible for her to think like that?

If she thought about it, the reason unni was able to take the audition was thanks to the fact that she had not thrown away the profile. In a way, unni was indebted to her. Wasn’t it going too far for her to rebuke her for that?

Just as her thoughts branched into all sorts of directions,

“I’m going to go to the toilet for a bit!” Seungah ran into the chicken feet restaurant. When she came back out, she had the toilet keys in her hand.

Dawoon sighed when she looked at Seungah rush.

So that was it; she just had a bad stomach.

Dawoon looked at the phone in her hand. It was Seungah’s. It was also unlocked. She looked at the alley into which Seungah had entered and then looked at the screen.

-Don’t make Dawoon suffer and watch out on your way home.

That was the message Maru sent. There was nothing else in it. She felt relieved and locked Seungah’s phone before taking out hers. Like Seungah, she had gotten a message from Maru as well.

-Anyone can feel like that in their heart. Be careful on your way home.

There was nothing else. Dawoon felt her legs lose power and collapsed on the ground for a second before standing up again.

It was fortunate that he was someone who could understand how she felt. She smiled and tried to type a response. However, when she tried to, she found herself unable to move her fingers. She felt ashamed and a little excited.

-Thank you. Be careful on your way home.

She barely managed to send it. This was much harder than acting during the audition. She tapped on Maru’s profile picture. It was a photo he took with a cat with scary-looking eyes. She looked at the photo in a daze for a while when she felt a presence behind her.

“What are you looking at?”

It was Seungah. Dawoon said that it was nothing and quickly put her phone away.

* * *

Dawoon checked the phone.

Maru yawned and grabbed the handle in the bus.

He was going to stay oblivious, but he said something because Dawoon called out to stop him right at the end.

She was probably feeling relieved. If she was a bold girl, it was a problem that she would gloss over like it was nothing, but unfortunately, Dawoon looked to have a frail personality. It seemed much better to tell her upfront rather than let her agonize all by herself.

After a few stops, the bus became crowded. These people were all probably headed to Suwon station.

He opened a video on his phone that he had edited at home. It was a bunch of video clips from dramas and movies about criminal investigators. Even if he had some images in his head, there was a need to compare them with the trends of the era.

“That’s good,” he said as he looked at the investigators on the screen.

Acting was really a form of study that had no end. He had done it so much, but he still found new things.

While watching, he took away the things he had to and gained the things he needed.

There was not long left until he shot the first episode of the drama. He wanted to come up with various character designs before he got the script.

Maru stuffed his earbuds deep inside his ears. There was about an hour left until Suwon station. It was just enough time to focus.

[1] Aka vomit

After Story 79

-Senior, the journalists have arrived, and I’ve readied the making film. You just need to come and start.

Cha Myungjoon checked his text and got out of his car. Writer Kang Hyojung also followed him out.

“It’s somewhat unnerving,” said Hyojung.

“I’m a little nervous too. I guess that’s natural since it’s the first time for both of us.”

“Are the others here?”

“The seniors will arrive a little late. I’ll check.”

He called his junior to ask what the situation was like in the reading room.

-People are arriving one by one. As always, the minor actors have already arrived, and a few seniors who hate being late are also here…

The junior explaining the situation stopped there and suddenly greeted someone. From the way he had a rushed voice, it seemed to be someone with a high status. Maybe the TV station’s president?

-Senior, come quickly.

“Why?”

-Sir Yoon Moonjoong is here. He’s on his chair now.

“He’s here already?”

Myungjoon tapped on the elevator button continuously.

“What is it?”

“Sir Yoon has arrived already and is waiting.”

“Sir Yoon? You mean actor Yoon Moonjoong?”

“Yes. I knew that he was an upright person, but I never knew he’d come so early. He doesn’t care about formalities, but a great senior is present, so we can’t be dilly-dallying.”

They took the elevator and went straight to the reading room. Some of the journalists waiting outside approached him. Myungjoon greeted them moderately before going inside. He waved his hand to the junior and immediately went over to Moonjoong.

“Sir.”

“Director Cha, you’re here.”

“I got a call downstairs and quickly rushed over.”

“Why rush? There’s plenty of time left.”

“I heard you’re here, so of course I’d rush.”

“I did come needlessly early. I was taking a walk and came inside because I thought it was almost time, but I was still too early.”

“You’re way too earnest. Take your time next time. That way, we can applaud when you come in.”

“Yes, yes. I’ll keep that in mind, director Cha.”

Myungjoon introduced Hyojung, who was standing next to him, “Sir, you remember writer Kang Hyojung, right? She was here during the get-together last time.”

“I do, of course.”

Moonjoong stood up and had a light handshake with Hyojung.

“I said this before, but thank you for using me in a great work, writer Kang.”

“Not at all, I’m honored that you’re participating in my work instead. I’ve always had you in mind when I first wrote the role of Taegang. I’ve told the director numerous times that it had to be you.”

“So I met Taegang thanks to you, writer Kang. I’ll repay you with good acting.”

While the two were talking, Myungjoon stepped back and looked for his junior.

“You’re getting all of this on camera, right?”

“You don’t say. We started rolling the moment Sir Yoon came in so don’t worry. We’ll shoot the actors when they come in and edit them all later.”

“Don’t be too focused on the lead actors. There are actors who are not used to shooting making films and some even hate it. If they make eye contact with the camera, then turn it around immediately. Don’t piss them off.”

Myungjoon tapped on the junior’s back and sat down. The journalists and actors started coming into the reading room. It seemed that word had spread that Moonjoong was here, as the other lead actors arrived earlier than he expected.

“Sir, it’s been a long time.”

“Sir, you look much younger than before.”

No matter who it was, they greeted Moonjoong first when they came in and made their presence known. Moonjoong greeted the juniors and asked each and every single one how they were doing. Who would hate a great senior who looked out for them? He didn’t become a senior who was admired by all just because he was good at acting. His genuine heartfelt attitude toward the juniors was what made the juniors respect him.

The reading room became bustling. Even the chairs lined up against the walls ran out of empty seats. The journalists who were given permission to shoot busily shot photos.

Publicizing the script reading session was a form of promotion. It was intended for practice as well, but more generally, it was used as a start signal of the drama.

Myungjoon hoped for the making film to spread the word. There was nothing bad about attracting attention before the drama aired.

The seniors always said that shooting a good drama would naturally make it popular. It was sound logic. He also believed that the work itself decided on the success and failure of a drama, not promotion.

However, now that he actually started his first work, he was too concerned about every little thing. He used to say that he didn’t need to shoot something like a making film, but right now, he was more ardently involved than anyone. This was probably what grasping at straws felt like.

The junior told him that everyone had arrived. It was about time to start. Myungjoon looked at the reading room. He looked at each person one by one, but the man sitting at the end of the wall to the right entered his eyes.

He was Han Maru. That man had given him a strong impression, so he assigned him the role of ‘Park Uijjung’ without hesitation.

Even the main writer, Hyojung, rewrote the script after seeing the audition footage. While there was no change in his death, the number of his appearances was increased and his lines were slightly changed to suit the image of the actor. As it was a character that changed the atmosphere of the drama in an instant, the writer probably put a lot of effort into changing them.

“Shall we begin?” Myungjoon said after checking that the junior picked up the camera.

“I’m Cha Myungjoon, and I’ll be directing this. I’ll do my best to make my debut work my best work.”

After the applause, Hyojung, who was next to him, stood up.

“I’m Kang Hyojung. It’s an honor that all of you here are participating. I’ll write to the death so that there won’t be any last-minute scripts.”

“I’ll look forward to that,” said a middle-aged supporting actor while applauding. He seemed to have taken a liking to Hyojung for declaring that she wouldn’t write last-minute scripts.

The other actors also cheered and applauded. But would that really happen? — Myungjoon thought to himself as he looked at Moonjoong.

“I’m Yoon Moonjoong, and I’ll be playing Taegang. I’m an insufficient actor, but I’ll do my best.”

“If you say that, what are the rest of us supposed to say? Also, please show us your evil side now. You live such a good life that we have to be humble as well,” said actress Yang Jisook, who was close to Moonjoong.

There were dozens of people in the reading room, but she was probably the only one who could make jokes with him. Moonjoong laughed heartily. Thanks to the two great seniors, the atmosphere in the reading room became lax. The stiffened young lead actors also followed up by introducing themselves with bright faces.

“Hello. I’m Yoo Jichan, playing Park Seok-oh. I’m happy to be doing this with all of you.”

“Jichan’s from my favorite group, Alte,” Jisook said with a smile.

Jichan smiled and bowed to everyone before sitting back down. There were a few elements that worried him about shooting this drama, and one of them was Jichan, a famous idol playing the lead character.

He grabbed the goblet, knowing that it was poisoned. He confirmed his acting skills through the audition. It was not bad, but not too good either. It was on a level that could be covered up through editing, so he got him for now.

Hyojung was also against it at first, but she soon accepted. Attract attention through idols and raise the tension through veteran actors. She had understood that formula.

Actually, a star writer or a star producer would have created a masterpiece with great actors and would not give idols a single glance. However, as both the writer and the producer were working on their debut pieces, there weren’t many veteran actors willingly reaching their hand out.

No, there was one, one that they could get thanks to Sir Yoon.

“I’m Lee Haena. I’ll do my best.”

Myungjoon tried to suppress his smile and looked at Haena. If Jichan was a lead actor he grabbed with much disappointment, Haena was someone he had to welcome with open arms.

Haena was on the path to stardom ever since the melo film ‘Winter, Yet Winter’ was released last year. She was a young actress who was only twenty-five, but her eyes were really good. As for her acting, it was already proven through the screen, so there was no need to worry about that.

After Haena’s introduction, the male actor standing next to her stood up. If it was a stroke of fortune that he managed to cast Haena, casting this fellow was closer to a blessing.

“I’m Park Sinseo. I was blessed enough to work on this piece with everyone here.”

* * *

Maru looked at Park Sinseo, who made a plain greeting. If his memories weren’t failing him, this man was one of the actors who represented South Korea right now.

He took out his phone and looked up Park Sinseo. An eye-catching filmography and all sorts of photos about him filled the web portal.

He looked up a few of the recent news articles. They were all those that praised his acting skills.

He then had a look at a few blog posts at the top. The blog owner, who had experience working as a film magazine journalist, called Park Sinseo an actor who possessed both power and charm.

It was also written with confidence that including him, Yang Ganghwan, Hong Geunsoo, and Choi Hojung were the top actors in their 30s.

Searching the four actors at the same time, he could find news articles and individual blogs of the same nuance. It was clear that he was an actor acknowledged by numerous people.

“I want his autograph,” said Seungah, who was sitting next to him.

She was looking at Park Sinseo with her mouth agape. She seemed to be a fan.

“Ask him to take a photo with you during the shoot.”

“If I have the opportunity, of course I’m going to ask. But I’m worried that I might be taking away his precious time.”

“You seem to like him a lot.”

“Is there a woman who hates Park Sinseo? Look at him. He’s a total ball of charm.”

“You should close your mouth. Your drool’s dripping.”

“Let it drip. I need to look at Sinseo-oppa.”

The actors sitting at the table finished introducing themselves. Maru opened the script he had gotten beforehand. As this was a reading session that involved a camera, it would start light-heartedly.

However, the people gathered here were all actors, meaning, there wasn’t a single one who took acting lightly. Once some time passes, the lax atmosphere would become stiff and taut again. There might be some time to laugh and play jokes midway, but they would all be serious in the read-through.

How long had it been? It felt like yesterday, and it also felt like a really distant memory. What he could say for sure was that he was unbearably happy. He could do a read-through with the elder present. It was a stroke of luck that he had gotten unintentionally.

“Our Park Uijung should also introduce himself, right?” the director said just as he was waiting after looking at the first page.

Maru received the gaze of the director and stood up after zoning out for a while. He never knew that he would have an opportunity to introduce himself. After all, the tradition was for just the actors sitting at the table to introduce themselves before proceeding.

Maybe director Cha was looking out for him? He felt thankful regardless.

Maru stood up from his seat. He put his hand holding the script against his pants and introduced himself politely.

“I’m Han Maru, and I’ll be playing Park Uijung.”

He couldn’t say anything else other than that. The actors turned around to look at him and greeted him with smiles.

Just as he was about to sit back down in a hurry, he heard someone clapping. The elder, who was sitting at the head of the table, was clapping with a gentle smile.

“We’ve seen each other before, haven’t we? Let us do our best.”

As soon as he sat down, the director said that they should begin. The elder, who gave him a glance, also turned away.

Maru looked at the elder in the distance and turned to the script. A wave of glee hit him later.

So he remembers me — he had to try hard to put the corners of his lips down.

After Story 80

“I think we need to dig into the Yeonma-dong incident again.”

“Punk, are you a frigging mole? Why do you need to dig anything?”

“Team leader, don’t you think it smells?”

“If it smells, then go home and take a shower. Get a new set of clothes too. Is being a criminal investigator some symbol of dirtiness? Let’s at least look like humans, alright?”

“Team leader.”

“Stop calling me! What’s your intention behind wanting to continue digging? Do you want to attach the word ‘serial’ in front of that case?”

“It’s not an entirely wild idea.”

“You fucking lunatic. You think that every incident in the world is unjust, suspicious, and has a different side to it, right? Have you heard about Occam’s razor?”

“Yes, I know about it.”

Yoo Jichan, who was about to continue, coughed dryly. He immediately reached out to the side and drank some water.

“I’m sorry.”

“Relax. You’re doing okay,” said the actor playing the role of the team leader of team 2.

Jichan cleared his throat and spoke again,

“Yes, I know about it. But don’t the circumstances look strange?”

“Yes, I’m sure it looks strange. I’m sure everything looks strange to you. But do you think crime investigators can move based on circumstantial evidence alone? And not only that, a case that was already closed by the court? It’s a case that a prosecutor has organized and been closed by a judge. It’s your seniors who guided that case there. Now you want to flip that thing over, huh? You don’t even know what you’re saying by saying that you want to dig into that case, do you?”

“But.”

“Don’t ‘but’ me. If you want to do something, bring me something with clear evidence. Then you settle the deal with the district leader.”

“Are you going to take responsibility if it’s actually a serial killer case?”

“Responsibility? Haha, responsibility, huh? I guess there lives an investigator who holds up the justice of this whole world. You were looking at this case from a perspective that someone insignificant like me would never understand. Fine, keep going outside. I’ll leave you out of team tasks, so do whatever you want to your heart’s content, officer Park Seok-oh. I hope you can get something concrete.”

The actor playing the role of the team leader tensed his eyes. He didn’t slack off just because this was a read-through. He was expressing a veteran violent crimes investigator with his unique accent and tone of speech.

Maru remembered the image of the investigator expressed by the actor in his forties. If he ever found himself playing a detective or an investigator role after he was forty, he would refer to this man’s acting.

He then looked at Jichan. As he saw during the audition, this man’s acting wasn’t bad. His pronunciation was precise and the way he expressed his emotions was natural. He looked slightly immature because he was not proficient in acting itself, but if he was given enough time to adjust, he would not hear that he was terrible at acting.

“Jongsoo, go easy on him. You’re draining Jichan’s energy. I’m just watching from the side, but I find it scary. You’re too good at acting, so you need to restrain yourself in a situation like this,” commented Jisook.

Hearing the great senior’s joke, the actors laughed and put down the scripts. Jisook always spoke up whenever there was a hint that the atmosphere was becoming stiff. She was someone who spread around good energy like a scented candle. Shooting with her would probably be filled with laughter.

The director and the writer read the narrations out loud in turns.

The background changed a few times before it returned to the police station again. The story that was portrayed through the views of various characters returned to the murder case.

Maru took his eyes off the script.

“Say it if you want to say something. Don’t just stand there like an anxious dog,” Park Sinseo said. His voice was filled with fatigue.

Although his voice was small and dragged out, his pronunciation was not mangled. His transmission of emotions and words was incredible.

Maru could tell from that short line that the assessment of the world about him was accurate. The actor in front of him was a proper actor.

“Senior, what do you think about the Yeonma-dong incident?” Jichan asked. His voice had become a level firmer than before. He seemed to have gotten used to this space.

“What do you think about it?” Sinseo asked back. His eyes were not on the script, but looking right at Jichan.

Jichan had his nose stuck in the script and didn’t seem to notice that Sinseo was looking at him. He was wasting the great opportunity to feel the breath of a good senior and learn from his eyes. If he had just a slight bit of leisure, he would have raised his head to look at the person he was talking to instead of following the lines with his eyes.

The less proficient someone was with acting, the more they had to look at the person they were talking to, rather than the text. It wasn’t too late to be more liberal after getting used to acting while looking into the eyes of their partner.

“I think it’s a serial killer case.”

“I think you’ve been looking into it for a long time. Did you get something?”

“I can’t say for sure yet, but the two disappearance cases are tugging on my mind.”

“So you’re saying that those two cases where people went missing aren’t just what it seems like and might be murder instead?”

“Yes. I at least think so. I talked to the team leader about it, but he won’t listen to me.”

“Faith is important, but to us, concrete proof is what matters even more.”

“So help me out a little here. There’s a limit to how much I can do by myself.”

Sinseo calmly turned around his head as he listened to Jichan’s words. He seemed to be the stereotypical ‘intellectual detective’ character. He seemed like he was going to solve every single case while sitting on a rocking chair. Maru rather liked the interpretation of the character that Sinseo displayed.

“Sinseo’s good and Jichan is good too. Senior Moonjoong, don’t you think the young people today are too good?”

“You’re having too much fun with young fellas around,” said the elder while pushing up his glasses.

“I’m also having fun because you’re around, senior,” Sinseo said with a laugh.

Jichan just smiled, seemingly finding it hard to speak between the two.

“Man, I’m sore,” Seungah said while straightening her back.

As it looked like they were taking a break, everyone started doing stretches. They also opened the windows for a bit saying that they needed some ventilation.

“There are two scenes left,” Maru said as he flipped through the script. Seungah would appear in the next scene.

She was a part-timer in the gukbap restaurant next to the police station. She would sometimes talk to the investigators, who were the lead characters.

“I’m slowly starting to get nervous. Thinking about how I have to do this in front of the seniors, I’m getting even more nervous than during the audition.”

“Why don’t you screw up badly and get attention that way? Senior Park Sinseo might look at you.”

“Be real. I’m going to get attention because I do well. Watch me, I’ll show you how smooth I can be. I look like this, but I’ve done dramas before.”

Despite her confident words, Seungah’s legs were shaking. Maru pointed at Seungah’s knees.

“That’s because it’s cold. We opened the windows.”

Seungah took a deep breath before quietly saying her lines. Maru listened to her chant–like lines before tapping her on the shoulder. Director Cha had sat down and was looking around at the actors.

“Shall we continue?”

Along with his signal, Jichan picked up the script again. Lines were exchanged. As the tension within the story became heightened, the expressions of the actors also became more serious.

Even Jisook, who constantly threw jokes, kept looking at the script ever since she put on her glasses.

Lines were tossed across the air without a break. Right before the hints of the murder case were about to be revealed, Seungah’s character appeared.

“You seem busy these days, huh?” she lightly spoke.

Jichan let out a heavy breath and grumbled. He received a call just before he could eat and rushed out of the restaurant.

“Er, detective!”

Calling out to Jichan in a loud voice was the end of Seungah’s role. Having finished her role, Seungah’s cheeks were puffed. Rather than satisfaction from having finished her role successfully, half of her face was filled with disappointment.

“Yes, senior. I’m going back right now.”

After Jichan’s words ended, everyone flipped over the page.

“It’s your turn now,” Seungah whispered as she pointed at the script.

* * *

Seungah looked at the actor who uttered the lines clearly. Everyone here was skilled. Although she would pick Park Sinseo in terms of appearance, based on acting skill, it was hard to say who was the best, especially when it came to veteran actors.

Whether it was wits or their words, most of them toyed around with the lines they had instead of just saying them.

They were actors she knew the faces of, but not the names. They were actors she saw on TV but hardly left an impression on her. From the perspective of an outsider, they might not be considered that successful.

However, as an aspiring actress, these actors that ‘the masses didn’t know that well’ seemed like tall mountains to her; they were mountains so high that she could not see their summits no matter how hard she raised her head.

There are many young actors, but there are only a handful of veteran actors; that’s how hard it is to survive as actors — these were Miso’s words. They were also words that Seungah swore not to forget.

“We got a newbie in our team,” said the team leader of the Violent Crimes Team 2.

Seungah looked next to her at Maru. Would the newbie, who was waiting, be nervous? When she had a look at his face, she saw that Maru was looking at the script just like usual. She was sure this guy was not right in the head. Not to mention nervousness, he probably didn’t know fear either.

“He’s a crazy guy who immediately applied to go to the crimes department after probation. I can’t believe he volunteered to go to the violent crimes section when everyone else avoids it,” said the team leader while shaking his head. Amidst his absurd laughter was a sense of joy.

“How old is he?” Sinseo asked.

“Twenty-four, I heard? He also apparently got an award for being a brave citizen. He didn’t go to college and went straight to the military before getting hired through the open recruitment period. And now, he’s here.”

“It’s good to have some new blood. That way you’ll be able to stay at the desk for longer.”

Seungah slightly turned around to look at Maru. It was his turn to say his line now.

“Hello everyone! I’m Park Uijung, and as of today, I’ve been assigned to Team 2 of the Violent Crimes department at Jijoong Police Station!”

Maru said his line with his back slightly curled up. The way he looked at his script was so clear and bright like a child who was at a theme park.

His face was all smiles and his shoulders were jumpy. His voice was cheerful like cymbals. It was quite a contrast to his usual deeper and slightly slower way of talking.

When that voice was layered on top of the image of Han Maru she had in her head, she felt it was quite awkward. It even felt a little forced. However, that sense of disparity disappeared as soon as he said his second line.

“He’s totally into it. Hey, are you that happy that you’re a detective now?”

“I am! It’s my dream to catch criminals to create a brighter society.”

“What a total douche.”

“Yes! I’m a total douche.”

He was mischievous but not hateful. Thanks to the cheerfulness in his voice, the form of the character was formed in an instant. Even she, who knew what Han Maru was like, accepted the mischievous Han Maru without much rejection, even going as far as to wonder that maybe this was how he really was.

Some of the actors who had their backs facing Maru even turned around to look at him. While the attention was quite prickly, Maru had his eyes fixed on the script and said his lines like a machine gun. He never took his eyes off the script while he played his part as the chatterbox new recruit.

After saying about four lines of self-introduction, Maru closed his mouth, his expression still looking excited.

“Team leader, can we reject him?”

Seungah could see that Sinseo was smiling as he said his line. The team leader of team 2, who had turned around to look at Maru, was also making a similar smile.

“How can we return someone who came here? But hey, newbie. Can you dance?”

Dance? Seungah looked at the script. There was no such line.

After Story 81

Dance. It didn’t matter if that line was in the script or not. What mattered was whether the flow of the play could accept that line or not. Dancing was an ad-lib that he could accept.

Maru took his eyes off the script. He realized that numerous actors in front of him were looking at him. They probably weren’t paying attention to him while expecting something amazing. What they were looking for was just a moment of laughter commonly seen throughout read-through sessions.

He didn’t care, it was good anyway. For a brief moment, the actors were paying attention to him. If not at a time like this, when else would a minor actor in the corner get attention?

“I can be a douche and quite the dancer.”

Once, when he was shooting a historical drama, there was a scene where he had to dance while reciting a poem during a ball. He started off gently like a high-class man and became rougher and rougher as it went on.

He held the script like he would a fan and stretched his hand out. He thought about the famous lines from back then and started moving around on the spot.

“Should we put on some music for you?” said the team leader of team 2 with a laugh.

Maru stood upright. Dragging this out would make this less fun. He had to do a quick one when he was given the opportunity to. If he dragged things out, he would make things worse as well.

“I’ll show you one properly on the day I get promoted!”

“Alright, see you on the day of the promotion, if you can, anyway.”

Maru quietly sat down. The other actors also went back to looking at their scripts as though they never looked at him in the first place.

“Gosh, that startled me,” Seungah said, bumping his shoulder. She looked embarrassed to death.

“Don’t you feel embarrassed?”

“They set a stage for me, so I needed to do something.”

“I’m envious of that thick face of yours. Give me some too.”

Seungah clicked her tongue and looked at the script. Maru also flipped over the page to catch up to the flow of the story. It was a series of scenes where Jichan was investigating the cases, believing it to be a serial killer case.

“You reported Miss Kim Jihye as missing after three days, right?”

“Yes. She’s such a good and earnest girl, but she missed work for three days, so I ended up reporting it.”

“What is your relationship with her?”

“Close friends, I guess. Jihye lives by herself. Apparently, she was raised in an orphanage. I looked after her because she grew up to be such a good girl despite having a harsh life. But…”

Director Cha said the line that was supposed to be done by a minor actor and then the writer read the narration. Sinseo hurriedly spoke when he heard that there was a phone call,

“Senior.”

“Where are you now?”

“Where could I be? I’m out to get evidence. I’m in Incheon right now.”

“Wrap it up and come back immediately.”

“Why? Did you find something out?”

“An abandoned corpse was discovered in Doram park. A red cloth tied the wrists, duct tape bound the legs together, and underwear strangled the neck.”

“That’s fucking crazy. When was it? The rot’s pretty bad, right? It’s been long, hasn’t it?”

“No, I’ll have to go there to be sure, but according to a senior who’s there, the corpse hasn’t rotted that badly. At least, it’s not a state someone in prison could have done.”

Sinseo clenched his left hand and spoke in a deep voice. He was an actor who transmitted nervousness quite well. He was only saying his lines, but he brought out the tension of the drama well.

The other actors leaned forward to get absorbed in the script. Everyone other than those that had lines waited with their breaths abated. The story started gaining a sense of speed. The speed at which people exchanged conversations became a lot more tight-knitted.

Just like a live-action stage where no mistakes were acceptable, the actors passionately acted without any flaws. All of their movements became exaggerated, as though they could no longer just move their mouths. They sometimes waved their hands in the air or jerked their bodies while shouting.

“Hey, punk! Watch your mouth, will you?”

Some shouted ear-piercingly loudly in scenes where emotions were at their peak. Jichan, who was like an outsider at first, was also getting deeply absorbed into the pool of emotions created by the actors present.

The story went on without a creak. It was like a train on a smooth rail.

The first episode ended after throwing a question. Although this was the time to take a break, the actors looked like they wanted to continue.

“Should we take a break after we go up to the 4th scene?” said director Cha.

No one objected. The read-through of the 2nd episode started with Lee Haena, who played an investigator from team 1.

“These were found among the belongings of the victim found in Doram park.”

When Haena gestured to hand over something, Sinseo, who was on the outside, acted as though he accepted it. Even though they were both just looking at the script, they were quite in sync.

“It’s a photo of a ballpoint pen. What does this mean?”

“Just that by itself, nothing. But look at this. These are the belongings of one of the people who went missing that Seok-oh was looking into. Do you see that ballpoint pen in the holder?”

“You mean they’re the same?”

“I can’t say for sure because all we have are photos, but to my eyes, they’re the same.”

“A common ground between victims, huh.”

Maru, who had been watching the two actors doing the read-through, jumped in after taking a beat to rest.

“Senior. You were here?”

“Who’s this kid and why does he call you senior?” Haena asked.

“He’s our new blood. He’s the guy who came in dancing to the violent crimes section that everyone avoids.”

“Wow, team 2 finally has some new blood, huh? I was working outside, so I hadn’t seen you. Nice to meet you, I’m Park Sunam from team 1. I’ll say this upfront, but you better stay quiet if you want to say something about my name.”

“Sunam is a pretty name, I think. I’m Park Uijung, please take care of me from now on.”

Haena chuckled in absurdity. “Hey, this dude has a weird character. He looks like he’s in for a beating from senior Jung.”

“You know what, though, senior Jung, our team leader, actually took a liking to him. Seok-oh does the opposite of what he’s told, but this guy is obedient, despite looking mischievous.”

“Really?”

Maru flipped over the page. The two actors had dissolved the glee that they could resolve this case into their lines. Maru’s role was to let that continue on.

“But er, the things you two were looking at,” Maru said after some hesitation.

“Leave it. You’re still assigned to the office. No matter how much we lack manpower, we don’t plan to give fieldwork to a newbie who just entered. Hey, have you seen the documents I told you to look at?”

“I’ve seen all of them. That’s why I’m here to find you.”

“If you’ve seen those, then go through the arson case file next to it and remember how that works. Once you’re done with that, go through the other cases. If you still have time after that, there’s a gym on the 2nd floor, so get some sweat out there.”

“No way, senior. I can totally see that you’re lacking manpower, so you should make use of a newbie like me.”

“Make what use of you? You don’t even know anything because you just got here.”

“Of course, when it comes to the hunch of a detective or the investigation methods, I’m far from catching up to you seniors. But if it’s something that ordinary people can do…”

Maru rolled up his sleeves. The narration said that he snatched the photos that Haena was looking at. While he was a new recruit in the violent crimes section, there should be something he could do. If there wasn’t, he could just make something. That was Park Uijung’s train of thought; it was enthusiastic and reckless.

He would sometimes hear that he couldn’t read the mood, but he would never cross the line. He was also a new chick that still had his dreams about justice and defeating crimes.

“Let’s see, this one. I think you’re looking into this one. Don’t you think I can look into that?”

“This one?”

“Yes! I can totally see that you seniors are busy, so investigating miscellaneous stuff like this should be done by the newest member, don’t you think? It’s not like looking into this will get me into trouble, much less danger. I know that it’s a huge pain for the seniors if a newbie screws up. So why don’t I take care of simple checklists like this? I have good stamina. Don’t you think it’s a waste of manpower to have someone with good stamina working in the office?”

Haena licked her lips. “Hey, let him do it. The entire crime investigation department will have a hot potato in their hands once it’s confirmed that it’s a serial case, and people from the Wide Area Investigation Department will come down and order us around, so just consider it as educating your newbie. From what he said, he doesn’t look like he’ll cause trouble.”

“I knew you looked like a good person when I first saw you. Detective Park Sunam, please take care of me once again.”

“Look at him talk. He’s pretty cute.”

Maru spat out a short breath and rotated his wrist. He had a series of long lines. There were quite a lot, considering that it was just a minor character. There was a big probability that it might get edited out during the shoot, but with this many lines, he would be standing in the middle of the camera for about 3 minutes. It wasn’t a common opportunity for sure.

“Hey, who are you? You were far away from me, so I didn’t catch your name last time.”

While the actors were taking a breather before starting the next scene, Jisook lowered her glasses and looked at Maru. He responded as soon as he was asked,

“It’s Han Maru.”

“Yes. Han Maru. You have a good attitude. Yep, you’re full of energy. That’s how you should be when you’re young. It’s great, isn’t it? It’s realistic and immersive.”

Sinseo, who was next to her, followed up.

“But you’re young too, senior.”

“That’s why I’m quite passionate too, so that I don’t get pushed around by the passion of the young ones. So, then, Maru, yes, Han Maru. Your name’s pretty easy to say too. Hope you do well in the future, though, you’re good even now.”

“Thank you.”

“Don’t be. If you still feel grateful, then buy me coffee later.”

“I definitely will.”

“I have a good memory. Everyone got that, right? The young actor over there said he’ll buy me coffee. There are many witnesses here. Buy me one when there’s an opportunity.” Jisook giggled.

“We’ll continue now.” Director Cha set the mood again.

Maru could see the elder, who was drinking tea, sit upright. The next scene started off with his line.

“No matter who it is, lock them up. If there’s none, then make one up. I’m sure all of you are aware that the masses are paying attention to this. If you can’t deal with that, some of the people here will get into big trouble, so better keep that in mind.”

The tips of his lips, which were usually curved upwards, had fallen down toward the ground. His narrowed eyes and his powerless voice switched the atmosphere in the reading room in an instant. It went from a busy violent-crimes section office to the cozy office space of the superiors.

For the first time today, he felt dissatisfied with the layout. It would be great if he could see that act from upfront. From where he was, he could barely see the side of the elder’s face.

The elder’s voice massaged the air. The actors participating in the conversation also added weight to their words. Each and every syllable had a texture to it. It might be a cliché scene, but the actor leading it removed any sort of elements that might be boring.

At this point, the acting stood above the storyline.

Maru had a look at the writer’s expression. She looked satisfied, but her hands were still moving busily. It seemed that she was inspired to bring out more of the story, not just the actors. This was why read-throughs were important events not just for the actors, but for the writer as well.

Another page was flipped. Seungah appeared for a brief moment and talked to Sinseo. After that part, Maru had a glance at Seungah. She looked calm on the surface, but her cheeks were flushed. She was probably happy to have exchanged lines with an actor she admired. Perhaps she was cheering on the inside.

“Senior. Isn’t this that ballpoint pen that the orphanage handed out?” Maru said his line to Jichan.

“It is. It was this. This was the common ground. Na Changsoo, Kim Jihye.”

“If Mr. Oh Junghyuk, the person we’re looking for in this disappearance case, is also from the orphanage…”

“We’ll have our lead to the culprit.”

Jichan brought out the line pretty well. As long as he could decide on a clear character, he would probably become quite good among the idols-turned-actors.

After saying his line, Jichan gave him a glance. He was smiling while also nodding. He seemed to have taken a liking to how he said his line just now.

Maru also smiled back at him. The ecstasy of having said a great line was one of the many pleasures that actors could experience. Of course, that sensation was short. An actor’s assignment was to overcome the stuffy feeling that followed.

“It’s already getting late. Let’s stop here today. Some people have a schedule after this too,” director Cha said as he folded the script.

After Story 82

"We'll take a photo now, actors, please come this way."

The actors moved when a staff member holding a camera said those words. Holding their scripts, the actors took a commemorative photo with the whiteboard in the background.

The director, writer, as well as lead and supporting actors, looked forward with bright smiles.

"Everyone else, please come this way."

Maru stood up with the script in his hand. The minor actors stood in a row next to the lead actors.

"To the left a little more. Yes, good. If I say one, two, three, please say fighting. Well then, one, two, three!"

Fighting – Maru shouted while holding up the script.

The photo session ended with people clapping. He picked up his bag and went over to Seungah.

"Let's eat before going home."

Seungah looked at the actors gathered around the director. "They won't call us to the after party, right?"

"No one said anything, so probably not. Why, do you want to go?"

"Of course I do. I would not have any other wish if I could see Sinseo-oppa eating from the side."

"Even if you did go, our table should be very far away from the others'."

"True. Over there, it's the main characters, while we're just minor characters."

Seungah tapped on her chest.

"There's a good pork cutlet restaurant in front of the TV station, wanna go there?"

"Sounds good."

Seungah left the room first.

Maru looked at the lead actors jabbing and joking around with each other. He managed to come to this place much earlier than he had expected. He thought he would have to spend years doing part-time jobs and acting side by side to get here, but he already managed to get a role with a name. The objective that seemed so distant was now in his range of vision.

He was given the opportunity, so now it was a battle of skill. While opportunity could come due to a stroke of luck, popularity was not something that could be gained with pure luck.

"Hey, the elevator is here." Seungah waved at him, telling him to come.

Just as he turned around after putting on his bag…

"Is there a place you must go in a hurry?"

…A voice grabbed him from behind. He quickly turned around. The elder was approaching him while taking off his glasses.

"No, I'm not in a hurry at all."

"That girl over there seems to be waiting for you."

"It's okay. She likes waiting."

The elder looked at Seungah waiting in front of the elevator. Seungah bowed before taking the elevator down. It was convenient that she was quick-witted.

"I saw you at the film festival too, and you look like you're really enjoying acting. It's good to see that. I want to cheer you on."

"Thank you."

"It might be some senile words from an old man, and it might be unnecessary advice, but I hope you can continue acting with that mindset in the future."

"I'll do my best with an always learning attitude."

The elder put on a thick smile and grabbed his arm forcefully.

"I can't hold a busy fella back for long."

You definitely can – Maru swallowed the words that came up to the tip of his tongue.

The elder took out his wallet from his back pocket.

"Go eat something nice with that friend of yours. A good act can only be displayed with a full stomach."

The elder urged him to take it, waving the check in the air. Maru accepted it with both his hands.

"Thank you. We'll definitely have something nice."

"Yes, yes. Good work today, and see you later sometime."

"Yes. I'll see you on the set."

"We might see each other in a place that's not a set."

The director called out to the elder. The elder gestured to him to go and turned around.

He took the elevator down to the first floor. Seungah was waiting in the lobby.

"What's up with that money? Did that person before give it to you?"

"Yes, Sir Yoon gave it to me to eat something nice with you."

"Wow. He's a great figure alright. Did I tell you before? One of the actors I respect is sir Yoon Moonjoong."

"Did you say that?"

"I did, you just don't remember. Anyway, I'm so touched. I can't believe he looked after a junior like this. It's also 100 thousand won. Hey, let's eat something else, not pork cutlets."

Seungah jumped around and left through the rotary door.

Maru looked at the check that the elder gave him. He really hadn't changed.

He smiled and followed after Seungah.

* * *

"It's about time I get up."

"You're heading home? We're about to switch places, so come with us."

"There's someone I must meet."

He originally planned to leave the get-together quietly, but thanks to director Cha standing up, he attracted all the attention.

The people drinking all put their glasses down and stood up with him.

"Leave it. Don't come outside and just stay here."

Those juniors still followed him out until the end. He was only able to leave after getting a grand goodbye greeting in front of the restaurant.

"Sir, I grabbed a taxi for you."

"Thanks."

He got in the taxi that the assistant director had called. He told the assistant director through the window to go back inside already and told the driver to go to Gwangwon tower.

"Yes, Jisook."

He got a call from Jisook on his way. She was nagging him to come back, blaming him for leaving by himself.

Moonjoong asked Jisook to mind two things as she kept nagging him: one, to hold back on the alcohol, and two, to not bully the kids so much.

"I don't need any change."

Moonjoong got out of the taxi. He made a call in front of a building that pierced through the dark skies.

"It's me."

-Where are you? I was just about to call too.

"In front of your building."

-You're here? You said you had a get-together today.

"I left midway, using you as an excuse."

-You should've called me. I would've gone to pick you up.

"It's right nearby, so no need. Rather than that, where are you?"

-I'm in the office. I'll go down.

"No, I'll go up instead. Rather than coming down, make me some tea. It's cold outside."

-You prefer green tea, right?

Moonjoong hung up and entered the building. The guard in the guard office came out with a smile.

"Sir Yoon, what brings you all the way here?"

"I'm here to see someone up there. Right, how did the first celebration of your daughter go?"

"It went well, thank you."

"I should've gone and congratulated you, but I was busy with work. I'm sorry."

"Please don't say that. I'm really grateful that you feel that way. Oh, it's not just feelings you gave me. The stroller you gave us, we're using it well. The girl's mother loves it."

He went upstairs after talking with the guard. When he walked along the corridor after getting off the elevator, he saw an office.

Although it was way past work hours, he could still see quite a lot of people by their desks. He walked right next to the wall so that he didn't disturb them. Whenever an employee noticed him and looked like they were about to greet him, he quickly waved his hand to stop them.

"So the CEO of Evil Corp is here," Moonjoong said as he opened the door inside the office.

Lee Junmin, who was working with a pure white kettle, made a thin smile.

"I'm paying them decently, so we aren't exactly an evil company. Please sit down. The tea's just boiled."

Junmin tilted the kettle while Moonjoong took off his jacket and sat down.

A fragrance that cleared his mind wafted up from the tea.

As Moonjoong was about to lift the teacup, Junmin stopped him.

"Don't be in such a hurry. Wait a little. It needs time for the flavor to come out."

"What a picky guy."

Moonjoong lifted the teacup up to his nose. His nose, which felt numb due to the cold air, melted down due to the heat from the tea. He could see the dried tea leaves slowly sink down.

"Please, try some."

He took a sip. Contrary to the refreshing fragrance, it tasted really bitter. Even after it went down his throat, it left a thick aftertaste in his mouth.

"I think I prefer commercially available tea bags."

"You'll like it once you get used to it."

"I still have great options, why do I need to get used to expensive tea? Well, I think it's a great tea to go with some rice cakes."

"Geez, senior."

Standing up from his seat, Junmin brought some sticky rice cakes. They were packaged in newspaper too.

"What's up with these?"

"I saw them on my way here. Some guy was shouting 'sticky rice cakes' while ringing a bell, and it reminded me of the old times so I bought them."

"There are still people like that?"

"It was a young man too. I think it's a great way of advertising if it's for a short season. It'll be profitable if someone like me buys them just once."

Just as he was about to shake off some of the powder and put it in his mouth…

"Senior. How was he?"

"I haven't even eaten yet."

"Tell me as you eat."

Moonjoong took a bite of the rice cake and didn't even chew that many times before swallowing it. Junmin was staring holes into him, so he had no time to appreciate the flavor.

"If you're going to urge me like that, you should've talked to him yourself."

"You know that seeing him in person comes last. Also, I trust your assessment more than my eyes."

Moonjoong rinsed his mouth with the tea and spoke, "He looks like a good man. I felt this back at the award ceremony, but today too, his eyes looked good during the practice run. He was polite and yet still bold. This is just my first impression though. I've never talked to him for long, so who knows what he's thinking on the inside."

"We can get to know his insides later. Also, in my case, there won't be a problem even if he's growing a viper inside his stomach. As long as he doesn't show it, who would know?"

Junmin put a rice cake inside his mouth and chewed slowly.

It had been a very long time since Junmin showed this much interest in a young actor.

"In your eyes, senior, how was his acting?"

"I've only seen a fragment of that too, so I can't judge. Acting is not something you can judge easily."

"What if you have to assess him based on that fragment?"

"Well, the only proper thing I've seen about that fellow was the short film that he featured in, so if I have to assess based on that… I'll say that he's a smart actor. He has the basic skills down. He doesn't look too soft, but not vicious either. He has a face that can perform multiple types of roles. Above all, his voice is really good."

"His voice?"

"I got to listen to him during the read-through today, and he really seems to know his own tone. The thickness of his voice was different from the film, but it didn't sound awkward. I'm sure he must have researched a lot. It's not something luck can solve."

"Even considering that you're generally positive of people, your assessment is pretty good."

"The things I see are good."

"I see."

Junmin took out his notepad. He never lost that notepad, even if he lost his phone.

Once, he got curious and asked him to show what was in it. Inside the notepad that he handed over saying that there wasn't much in it, were rows of words that were hard to discern the meanings of.

Among those words were some names placed throughout, and most of the time, those people ended up under his wing.

Whether it was an object or a person, Junmin was someone who got his hands on the things he wanted.

Though, it was probably because of that greed that he managed to become the owner of this building, as well as the CEO of Evil Corp.

Evil Corp, it was such an addictive title to say.

"If you found anything interesting about him, then tell me about it too."

Moonjoong laughed out loud before pointing at Junmin.

"I wonder if there's anyone else who's fit to be called the CEO of an evil corp."

"I'm on the more angelic side. You know that. Also, don't forget that you're also a big pillar in that Evil Corp."

"Haha, I forgot."

He let out a low laugh and finished the rest of his tea.

"It really doesn't taste that good."

"Should I bring you some honey tea or something?"

"If you have it, then sure. Sweet is better than bitter."

Junmin stood up while Moonjoong looked at the notepad.

Golden Retriever, cute, cheerful, good eyes, good smile, Han Maru, good or bad? — they were written like scribbles.

"Are you going to see him?"

"I'm going to hurry. If your opinion of him is that good, he'll soon catch the eyes of the public, so I should call dibs on him before that," said the CEO of Evil Corp while shaking a bottle of honey in his hand.

After Story 83

“Director Lee Sooae?” Haneul approached the woman sitting by the window.

“You’re Miss Mijin, I mean, Miss Haneul, right?”

“Yes, I’m Han Haneul.”

“Nice to meet you. And thank you for meeting me like this. Let’s have some tea first. Your hands are cold.”

The director led her by her hand to the counter. Despite it being their first meeting, this person approached her boldly, though it didn’t feel that forced, so Haneul didn’t feel unpleasant. If she expressed any discomfort, she would’ve probably let go immediately and apologized.

After buying two cups of coffee, they returned to their seats. The director gave her a business card and introduced herself.

“I’ve told you over the phone already, but I should still introduce myself properly now that we’ve seen each other, right? I’m Lee Sooae, a director who decided to see you after having taken a liking to you.”

“Before I came here, I looked into what kind of person you are.”

“Really? In your eyes, what kind of person am I?”

“A director with a lot of greed.”

“Do I look like I have a lot of greed?”

“It felt that way from the things you worked on. Oh, this person must have a lot of things she wants to do.”

The alarm token next to the receipt started ringing. Haneul received the coffee instead of Sooae, who tried to stand up.

“Right. I do have a lot of things I want to do. There’s a limited amount of time, but there’s so much I want to say, which is why I have trouble all the time. Have you seen all three of my works?”

“No. I watched just one. The most recent one.”

“How was it? I’d like to hear your impressions.”

“I enjoyed it.”

“I want to hear something else though. Didn’t you find anything lacking?”

Haneul spun the cup around a little and spoke, “If I have to point one out, then it’s that Kangjin’s emotions weren’t expressed as much as Jane’s. As it headed towards the conclusion, it felt more like Jane’s personal story rather than a story of the two. Although it ended with the two getting together, I couldn’t see Kangjin’s feelings, which were supposed to be there between the climax and the conclusion, so that was a bit of a disappointment.”

“That’s a bitter assessment.”

Sooae let out a sigh after drinking a sip of the coffee.

“I said something unnecessary, didn’t I?”

“No, you’re right, Miss Haneul. It’s what the critics said too.”

“How did you feel about that, director?”

“I was personally satisfied with it. That was why I edited it that way. I think I projected myself into Jane a lot. Her story was my story, so the scales tilted that way. Actually, I shot Kangjin’s part as well. It was just removed in editing.”

“I see. Well, disappointments aside, it’s not wrong per se. If you look at it from the other perspective, of the members of the audience who focus on Jane, there’s no story better than that. In the first place, it’s impossible to satisfy everyone after all.”

Sooae locked her hands together. She seemed to have taken an interest in what Haneul just said.

“Do you believe that it’s impossible to satisfy everyone, Miss Haneul?”

“Yes, I think that way.”

“Then do you act with the intent to captivate a specific target audience? Or maybe you only do genres that will make the audience like you?”

Haneul smiled softly and drank the coffee. She noticed what intention Sooae had in asking that question.

“You told me this when you first called me, didn’t you? That it would be interesting to work together.”

“I did.”

“Is the work you’re preparing to do perhaps very strong?”

“That will depend on the individual. It might seem strong to some, but not to others.”

“In your eyes, what genre do you think suits me? No, let me change the question. What genre do you think I prefer doing?”

“Based on appearances alone, then of course, melo. Not some deep, thick melo, but more of the pure and innocent one. The genres that women in their twenties like.”

“I might be getting ahead of myself, but I believe that there’s a scenario in your bag, and it’s definitely not melo, right?”

“If you’re bored, would you like to have a look?”

“May I?”

Sooae opened the bag and gave her a scenario.

“Geez, I came here just to talk to you, too.”

“Then should I stop here?” Haneul put her hand on top of the scenario.

Sooae quickly shook her head and grabbed her wrist to take it off.

“Looks like I shouldn’t joke around with you.”

“I was joking with you too. I’ll read it.”

“Take it slowly. It’d be even better if you could pay attention to the details.”

Haneul pushed the coffee cup to the side and put the scenario in front of her. She first had a look at the title: Hidden Knife. Was that a tentative title? Or was it decided? Regardless of which, the title was not ordinary.

She flipped over the pages and had a look at the contents. She looked at everything, down to the last comma.

“It’s strong, alright,” Haneul said as she closed the scenario. There was a reason why the director kept being roundabout all this time.

“I’m not saying that we should do this right now. There should be contract terms, as well as realistic problems. I just wanted to hear your opinion. If you were offered this work as an actress, how is it? Would you do it?”

“Before I answer, I’d like to ask one more question. Why did you show me this scenario? It’s a strong story. There should be others who want to work on this.”

“Of course, it’s not a scenario I showed you only. I can’t name any names, but I’ve contacted some other actors as well. The reason I showed you this is purely because of my greed. Miss Haneul, do you believe in instinct?”

“I do. There were times I lost out after ignoring it.”

“I’m the same. Although it’s not common, I sometimes get the ‘hunch’. I got that hunch when I looked at the film you featured in. Your empty eyes, dry face… bluntly speaking, I fell for you when I saw that a pretty girl managed to create such a charm. I’m sure you know about it since you read it, but such an aspect is necessary for the character.”

Haneul looked at the scenario, her hands clasped. It was really pointy, as though the ‘hidden knife’ would really poke her eyes. It was a film that only actors who had not been stereotyped could boldly try out.

“I’d like to do it if I can.”

“I was hoping you would say that.”

“But there are other actors who are better than me. If such actors desire this script, then there won’t be a place for me.”

“Who knows? You can never say that for sure.”

“Would the production company like me? An actress who just started and has no name?”

Sooae tensed her eyes in order to say something, but she eventually just leaned back.

“Honestly speaking, it’ll be difficult to ignore the power of money. But with your charms, Miss Haneul, I’m sure we’ll be able to persuade them.”

“I hope that happens.”

Haneul pushed the scenario to Sooae.

“I haven’t told the company about this. This was just me individually listening to your opinion, so if there’s any progress, please contact my agency in the future.”

“If it’s about that, I told them about it before I came here. What you need to do is to persuade your CEO, Miss Haneul. They were originally an idol management agency, so they should be very sensitive about image management. If the image that the company wants from you does not correspond to the image that this film will show, there’s a possibility that they’ll reject it even if we do give you an offer.”

“Would they go that far for a new actress? They’ll have me do something.”

Sooae smiled and raised her cup.

“It’s somewhat funny for the person who showed you the scenario to say this, but are you okay with it? If things do work out, it’ll be very hard. You might have to live with wires attached to your body. I’ve seen many people who took action lightly and were crying throughout the whole shoot.”

“Fortunately, I’m quite confident in something that requires my body. I have some tricks too.”

“You know some tricks? Do you have any experience?”

Haneul smiled and shook her head, “I was just saying that I am confident. I’m sturdier than I look.”

“You’d better be. There will be a lot of fights.”

Haneul looked at the scenario going inside Sooae’s bag.

Hidden Knife. If she ended up doing it, it would be quite a fun shoot.

* * *

“An espionage movie based on the Japanese rule period huh? Is it hard-boiled? Or just espionage action?”

-Somewhere around the middle, I guess.

Maru chuckled upon hearing Haneul’s answer.

“How was it when you read it? Do you like it?”

-It’s something I can do without any fear because I’m starting off. It’s merciless and cruel. I did say I want to do it, but I’m slightly worried because this might stereotype my image.

“You just have to leave a line in Korean film history. Han Haneul will be the first person people think of when they think of a villain actress.”

-It’s not a villain role.

“You know that you’ll get a bunch of scenarios with villain roles if your image consolidates that way.”

-After I shoot it, I’ll have to look at how things go and quickly snatch a fresh and cute film.

“You sound like you’re the main character already. You sound confident.”

-Don’t both of us have nothing left without our confidence?

“That’s true. We’ve done so much, so if we didn’t have any confidence, we would have lived the wrong lives. But I’m slightly jealous. That person didn’t come to me after watching the film I was the lead in, but you, a supporting character, and offered you the chance to be a lead character.”

-I’ll get the new actress award first. You can follow up slowly.

“How could I stay still after you said that? Should we make a bet?”

-What bet?

“Which one of us will get an award first at an award ceremony hosted by the three public TV stations.”

-Are you okay with that, sweetie? I’ve never lost a bet like that.

“There must be something wrong with your memory since I’m the one who’s at an advantage in bets like this, you know? I have luck too. The one who loses will be in charge of cleaning for a year after marriage. How is it?”

-Good. Let’s go with that.

The call hung up. Maru put his phone on the table.

His wife sounded confident. While victory or loss didn’t matter, it was better to win since he started.

No, he had to win. He changed his mind after imagining her giving him that mocking smirk while holding the prize. Haneul could be endlessly petty at times.

…And their daughter was also used to teasing her dad, getting it from her mother.

-But you know that I won’t lose out even if I lose, right? Even if I’m the one cleaning, I can already see you following me with a mop.

That was a message Haneul sent. She was right, so he couldn’t even retort.

He made a great bet but didn’t think properly about the reward. He had to ask for a liberated weekend instead.

He checked the time. There were still 10 minutes until 2. Considering the personality of the person that was about to show up, the door to the café should open soon.

Just then, he saw a car stop in front of the café. The moment Maru saw the man who got off the black sedan, he let out a short breath.

Someone who he was seeing for the first time, yet was a familiar face. Someone he was used to, but couldn’t help but be tense around.

The door to the café opened. After a song with some electronic ringtone played, he could hear the employee’s welcome.

Maru did not turn around, instead, he focused on his ears. The soles of dress shoes, drenched in snow, made some rough noises due to friction with the floor titles.

He took a deep breath before breathing out. He was now ready to see the customer.

“Mr. Han Maru?”

Maru raised his head to look at Lee Junmin, standing next to the table.

“Yes.”

“So I found the right person. Nice to meet you. I’m Lee Junmin.”

Junmin took off his top hat and sat down.

After Story 84

“It has snowed a lot.”

“It’s a difficult season for driving. Wasn’t it difficult getting here?” Maru said as he looked at the snow piled up through the window. The snow had become a thin layer of ice on top of the road.

“I came here using my insane driving skills.” Junmin took off his coat and hung it on the backrest. “As I told you before over the phone, the reason I called you out before the contract is to find out a few things beforehand. Before we get to the main topic, let me check again. You currently don’t belong to an agency, correct?”

“That is right.”

“Okay. Then I guess I should introduce myself and my company a little. Oh, shall we drink something? This might take a long time.”

While the coffee was being made, Junmin kept talking about the weather. It seemed that he would talk about the contract once the coffee came out.

When the cups were placed on the table, Junmin started talking again,

“First of all, here, please take my business card.”

Maru received Junmin’s business card and spoke, “I don’t have one yet.”

“That’s okay. Business cards are for giving out rather than receiving. As you see, I’m currently the CEO of JA Entertainment. Have you heard about it?”

“I have.”

“That’s good. Then allow me to introduce my company a little. JA is an agency that exists for the convenience of the actors. We’ll do various tasks so that the actors can focus on their acting. We also resolve various problems that the actors may run into during their career.”

“So it’s a necessary place for actors.”

Junmin smiled. “Of course, there are people who set up personal agencies and run that way. There are pros and cons to partnering up with a big company and running your own business. However, in the case of new actors, it should be a lot easier to work with a company.”

“That’s true. A nameless actor like me will have a hard time getting any work at all.”

“That’s the kind of thing that the company takes care of. Unlike normal companies, who pay salaries to employees, actors start off on equal footing when it comes to entertainment agencies. Though the agency might be worse off if the actor’s name value becomes high, that’s a conversation for later.”

Junmin drank some milk tea. Maru also raised his cup. The things mentioned until now were all just formal things. Did Junmin come here to talk about these things? Probably not. Maru had come across numerous different Lee Junmins in his numerous lives. His personality and hobbies may have changed each time slightly, but the fundamental person known as ‘Lee Junmin’ had never changed even once. He was definitely not someone who would spend any time just to explain the obvious.

Maru looked at Junmin with some coffee in his mouth. Thanks to God’s mischief and the sacrifice of numerous Han Marus, he had gotten this last life, and many things had changed. There was an innumerable number of things that he had never experienced before, even in his nigh-infinite life experiences.

Did the character known as Lee Junmin change as well? He couldn’t leave out that possibility. If that really happened, he would have to refrain from making a decision. If this was the Lee Junmin he knew, then he would have signed the contract without even reading it. It was okay to do that.

However, if he had changed, this would require some thinking. Choosing the first agency was a big crossroad that might decide the very future career of an actor.

“The things I said until now are just typical stuff. You’ll hear this wherever you go.” Junmin put down his cup. “But is that really the case? Can an agency and an actor truly treat each other as equals when the agency has many connections through various channels while a mere actor has no power at all?”

Maru smiled as he listened to Junmin’s words. He was finally saying what the actor needed to know. They were also words that the numerous Junmins in his memory said to him as well.

“That’s probably difficult.”

“Agencies make a living by selling their actors; they consume their image for an expensive price in order to grow big. That’s why sometimes things like these happen.”

Junmin reached out to the makeshift shelf next to the table. He grabbed a magazine. When he opened it, there was an ad.

“After you sign a contract with us, I make a proposal that goes something like this: this is a commercial for a health supplement, and I hope you can do it. As it is a product that you’re going to promote, you must look into it, right? But when you do, you find out that it’s just expensive and has no effect at all. The reviews are all negative as well, saying that spending any money for stuff like this is basically a scam.”

“That sounds tough.”

“I’m sure it is. You might tell me that you cannot do that promotion. However, when you do, you might notice something. You might no longer receive proper management the moment you refuse it. Even if you get a decent scenario in your way, you might be passed, and I might prevent you from meeting the director directly. Of course, there is no proof. You’ll only know through intuition.”

“That sounds scary.”

“Actors are freelancers after all. They don’t get paid for just sitting down at a desk as most salarymen do. They also don’t get any retirement money or severance pay even if they work for years. The moment the contract is cut off, if they don’t have any other forms of business that they have been running, they will have zero income, if not negative. In that situation, can you really refuse the company’s offer?”

“It won’t be easy. If the company really pressures me, it’ll be hard to hold on too.”

“On top of that, I might be able to influence others too. I’ll tell people around me not to use the actor Han Maru so that I can fix that ‘bad attitude’ of yours. I’m no one amazing, but that should be enough to damage you.”

If you’re not amazing then who is? – Maru faintly smiled instead of speaking.

“What would you do? Would you accept the agency’s proposal, or reject it?”

“If it’s within the scope I can understand, then I’ll do it of course.”

“What if it’s outside that? What if it’s a promotion for something that’s far outside your moral standards? Of course, just because you do it, you will not need to take any legal responsibilities. We won’t have you do something illegal. It’s just a moral thing.”

“If I deem that it’s something I should not do, then I will not take it. I’ll lose more in the long term compared to the immediate benefits I might gain.”

“Even if that means you’ll fall out with the company?”

“At that time… I’ll have to use the other method you talked about. Running a personal business shouldn’t be that bad. If I once belonged to JA and even received an ad because of it, it means that I’ve made myself known to the investors.”

“That might lead to severe difficulties. Actors often have a really hard time recovering once they fall down, especially in the case of new actors, where there are a lot of replacements.”

“That’s why I should become an irreplaceable resource.”

“That won’t be easy.”

“I’ve never thought that this was easy. It’s already hard, so it’ll be just a little harder. If there comes a time it becomes too hard that I can’t do anything about it, then I’ll just work elsewhere.”

“You’ll give up on being an actor?”

“Yes.”

“To me that sounds like your dream to become an actor is not that important to you?”

Maru shook his head, “How many people don’t value their dreams? I very much cherish my occupation. I still hope that I will be successful as an actor and make a living out of it. However, I don’t place everything into just one dream. Being an actor is one of the many dreams that I desire the most and want to achieve. Dreams are a method, a way for me to become happy. While becoming an actor is my dream, if I become unhappy because of it, and if the people around me are uncomfortable because of it, I’ll look for something else. Just because one dream fell apart doesn’t mean that I’ll fall apart with it.”

Junmin looked down at the coffee cup. “If you were truly desperate, if you truly want to become an actor, it shouldn’t be easy to say those words. Isn’t that right?”

“I’m not saying this easily. I might look like it, but if such a thing does happen to me, I’ll probably start crying in a corner of my room. I’ll cry and cry again and then let go. Living for the sake of dreams and shackling yourself with them is a completely different matter. You have no choice but to promote the wrong thing for the sake of your acting occupation… Well, I think that something had gone wrong the moment ‘you had no choice’ about something.”

Maru looked at the magazine that Junmin put down. “I don’t even have to get into talking about my beliefs. The fact that the agency asked me to do such an advertisement means that that’s just my value as a product. If the company can sell me at a much higher rate, would they ask me to promote that product? Absolutely not.”

“Do you think that actors are products?”

“I want to be an artist, but I’m not becoming an actor just to do art. As long as I can fulfill my desire to display my performance, then there are many methods. I can just act all on my own in the streets and put it on the internet. However, I plan to make a living with it. One day, when I become an actor who can stack scenarios in front of me and choose one of them, I’ll choose to do art, but I’ll do my best as a product in order to climb to such a position.”

“While not betraying your own sense of morals, you mean?”

“Yes. Also, there’s no rule that artists have to look down on money, is there?”

“You’re right. Money is innocent. Moreover, it’s the firmest agreement that society has created. What is so strange about an artist who likes agreements? It’s those who tyrannize with that money that are in the bad.”

Junmin apologized before taking out his phone. He seems to have gotten a phone call.

“I’m sorry, but I’m talking right now, so I’ll call you later. What? You don’t see Ulgum anywhere? Calm down and check the veranda. Is he not there?”

Junmin talked with a serious expression. Maru quietly said that he was okay to Junmin who looked apologetic.

“Then go to the smaller room. There should be some space right behind the turntable. Try looking there. How is it? Is he there? Oh, he’s there? Then that’s good. You should close the door to that room since Ulgum might end up in there again. Alright, I will call you later.”

Junmin let out a short breath before putting down his phone.

“Sorry about that.”

“There seems to be a problem. Don’t you need to go?”

“It’s okay. My wife seems to have gotten startled because she couldn’t find a puppy. She’s found it so it’s okay.”

Wife… Maru widened his eyes. This was unexpected.

Junmin had been by himself in the numerous lives before. But here, he was married. It seemed that the last life truly had a lot of changes.

“This is Ulgum.”

Junmin put his phone out suddenly. He had a foolish smile on his face like a parent boasting about his child. Maru couldn’t believe that he was the same person who was coldly talking about actors and agencies.

There was a fluffball-like puppy in a woman’s bosom.

Maru focused on the person’s face more than the dog. So this person became the president’s wife.

He was vaguely expecting this. There was only one person that took Junmin’s heart, and he had heard that numerous times before.

Jung Haejoo should be her name.

“That’s cute.”

“I’ve seen the public commercial that you’ve shot. I knew as soon as I saw it that you must be raising a dog at home.”

“Right now, I have a cat at home.”

“…That’s such a pity.”

It shouldn’t be a mistake that Junmin’s eyes looked like they were full of disappointment. It seemed that he had lost points on a strange part.

“As I said before, I’m only here to talk to you a little today. I thought it would drag on for a long time, but I guess I was worried for nothing.”

Junmin took out an envelope from his bag.

“Take it home and read it over slowly. When you contact me after reading it, we’ll talk about the contract.”

“Don’t you want to know anything more about me?”

“It’s okay. The person I trust the most has already verified you. Also, that conversation we had just now allowed me to conclude that I should grab you now because I might feel jealous if I miss you later.”

Junmin stood up from his seat. Maru also stood up. Putting on his hat and getting his bag, Junmin put out his hand.

“If the contract does go through, the company will do one thing for you: we’ll do everything within our powers so that you won’t give up on being an actor. The company will put a bridge in front of you until the moment you decide to give up on your dream. If the company can’t do it, I’ll do it with my own name. That’s the benefit that actors affiliated with JA will get.”

They shook hands, and Junmin gripped strongly before leaving the café, saying that they should meet again next time.

Maru looked at his numb hand and smiled faintly. The giant’s hand was still spicy.

After Story 85

“Over here.”

Seungah waved the tongs in her hand. Maru took off his coat and walked over to the table Seungah was sitting at.

“Dawoon said she had time so I called her too. You okay with that?”

“The one who’s paying is calling someone else over, so I don’t really care.”

“What the, I’m buying today?”

“Isn’t the rule to be the one treating if you’re the one calling people out? Isn’t that right, Dawoon?”

Dawoon laid out the cutleries and nodded.

“You two are on one side, huh? Hey, Jung Dawoon, this unni will be disappointed if you keep doing that.”

“You weren’t buying?”

Seungah’s lips twitched before she put down the tongs and the scissors.

“Fine, I’ll buy for today. Instead, you two serve. First up, cut up the meat into suitable pieces.”

Maru picked up the tongs. He was planning to grill the meat even if he wasn’t told to. He couldn’t let anyone else handle this delicate food that would differ in taste depending on the grilling intensity and duration.

He placed his palm above the grill. It was just the right temperature. He put on the thick pork belly and started watching intensely.

“Wow, a master has appeared alright,” Seungah said, her interest piqued.

He looked at the surface of the meat for a while before flipping it over. The fat had melted down just enough, making it look yellow. He sliced it into suitable pieces and placed it in front of the girls.

“What the, what the hell is this?”

“It’s really good.”

He could probably build the Great Wall of China with the number of grills he swapped out, so it would be troublesome if it wasn’t tasty. He put the grilled pork belly in his mouth.

It was the taste that contained the frustration of a new recruit at a company.

Maybe he should open up a restaurant instead. Based on the stability of income, there was nothing better than decent restaurants. He had experience opening one thousands of times, as well as going out of business thousands of times, so he had plenty of know-how. If he could gain enough experience as an actor and then open a barbecue restaurant targeted at mid-income people…

“Oppa, aren’t you going to eat?” Dawoon said, putting some of the meat onto his dish.

He named the rough idea in his head ‘Business item no.21’ and stored it away.

“You should open a restaurant in the future. I’m a regular here, and it’s never been as delicious before.”

Seungah said those words after they finished their meal and left.

Maru was the one who paid. Seungah was the one who said that they should eat dinner together, but it was he who called her out for business in the first place.

“I was thinking about it, so don’t worry.”

“Tell me if you do open one. If it’s that good, I’ll go every day.”

“Me too.”

After getting them some coffee from the café he switched places. It was about time to go to the police station.

“I see the kids over there.”

There were about 20 primary school kids where Seungah was pointing. They were walking inside the police department under their teacher’s guidance.

“But is it really okay? It’d be troublesome if we’re bothering them,” Maru asked as he walked past the entrance.

“Don’t worry. My uncle told me that it’s fine even if we do it on the day of the primary school visit.”

They walked past the noisy central staircase filled with primary school students and walked up to the 2nd floor. The sign indicating to the Violent Crimes team was pointing towards the corridor.

Seungah walked without hesitation as though she had come here before.

Maru looked around the police station and accepted the atmosphere into his body.

In his memories, he had numerous materials related to crime investigators. Not only did he have interviews, but he also had real-life experience, so the value of them was really high. However, those memories were a product of the past. They also contained his personal bias, so a lot of it would have lost its meaning.

He needed raw impressions. It was then that Seungah asked if he’d like to visit the police station together.

It was a precious opportunity to listen to a real-life violent crime investigator. He said he would definitely go.

A man with a sturdy build walked towards them from the other side. From the look of him, he seemed to be an investigator from the violent crimes team. He observed the way he walked, the impression he gave off, as well as his overall style before Dawoon, who was next to him, caught his eyes.

She looked very nervous. Even the smile she had on all the time disappeared without a trace. Her eyes were fixed on the floor.

“Did you commit something wrong or something?” he said as a joke.

After all, people easily became assimilated into the atmosphere that the place gave off.

Dawoon suddenly stopped. Her pupils widened, her lips trembled, and her hands hesitated.

“Huh?”

He was reminded of the last get-together while listening to the stiff answer when he remembered what Dawoon said to herself. Was there something else other than what she blurted out that day?

“Come on. She’s way over there.” Maru pointed at Seungah, standing in front of the violent crimes team.

Dawoon soon got herself together and followed him. He couldn’t tell if she was frail or if there was something else about her.

He stopped thinking and approached the investigator that Seungah was greeting cheerfully. An investigator at his desk stood up after seeing her.

“I’m here.”

“Oh yes. Are those your friends?”

“Yes. You two, this is my uncle.”

Maru greeted the investigator. The investigator came over and shook hands with him.

“Aren’t you busy?”

“We’re extremely busy at times, but now’s not that time. Sit down here first, and the two of you too.”

They walked over to a table covered in newspaper. The investigators around them gave them a glance before looking away.

“What is it exactly that you want to hear?”

“He’ll be the one to ask you that. We’re doing a drama together this time, and his role is a violent crimes investigator.”

“Really? But he’s quite young considering that’s the case.” The investigator pointed around, telling him to look. “See that? Everyone looks old as heck. The youngest one is thirty.”

When he said those words, another investigator spoke up,

“Team leader, I can hear you. And honestly, you look the oldest around here. You look like you’re at least past 50, but you’re only in your forties.”

“Look at you speak. Can’t you keep some face for us police? You’re being too crude in front of kids who came to hear about the violent crimes department.”

The investigators laughed out loud. The team leader stood up, telling them to wait. When he returned, he gave each one of them a drink.

“Not everything’s harsh and vicious just because it’s the violent crimes team. We’re all the same people here. Of course, it does change if there’s a case, “ the team leader said to Maru. “I also need to go see the kids that came over. I think I’ll have about thirty minutes. Do you think you can ask enough in that time?”

“Yes. That’s enough. And also, thank you for making the time.”

“Don’t mention it. A friend of my niece wants to know about investigators, so I’ll be happy to help out. But I wonder if the things I say would actually help?”

“It’ll be very helpful.”

“I guess that’s good. Then ask away. I’m actually curious about what questions you’ll ask.”

Maru asked if it was okay to record the audio. The team leader gladly gave him permission.

He took out the notepad he had brought. He was going to write down the visual clues that audio wouldn’t be able to get on the notepad.

“You’re fully prepared, huh? It’s making me slightly nervous.”

Maru asked his first question to the team leader who sat upright,

“How did you feel when you first joined the violent crimes team?”

“How did I feel, huh? Honestly speaking, I wasn’t that nervous. I applied to come to the investigation department, and that’s how I was assigned to the violent crimes section. I just thought it was an extension of what I’m already used to. Of course, my thoughts totally changed after the first dispatch.”

“What kind of event was it?”

“It was 1 a.m. I can still remember it clearly. We got a report that someone was trying to trespass by stepping on someone’s car. I and a senior of mine went out immediately. I was a little excited too. I mean, it was a thief. I was thinking that I should get a cool achievement for my first job. When I arrived at the scene though, we could not get in touch with the one who reported, and the car couldn’t be seen either. My senior told me that it must be a prank call and that we should just return but then I saw the anti-theft fencing on the ground. It was from the 3rd floor. The lights were off, but the fencing had fallen off and the window was wide-open? I thought that something was wrong and immediately jumped inside. Then, I was hospitalized.”

“Hospitalized?”

“I came across the thief on my way up the stairs. Seeing the opportunity, I tried to catch him but he took out a hammer. It was a really small hammer. But when I saw it, it scared me. Then I slipped on the stairs. Meaning, I just fell backward all by myself. I asked the senior later, and apparently, the thief was shaking me to wake me up.”

The team leader spoke with a smile, but if it was a real scenario, it was definitely not something to laugh about.

“I got all sorts of cuss words from my seniors. They told me I was reckless and that I should be elsewhere if I want to play detective. I learned on my first dispatch that investigators need to know fear. Only if I know fear will I be able to apprehend the culprit so that both I and the culprit do not get hurt.”

“It must have been a precious experience.”

“It was. And I was lucky too. If I was unlucky that day, I might have died from a concussion. Or the culprit might have killed me out of panic.”

Seungah, who was listening quietly, was startled and told him not to say such things.

“May I continue asking?”

“Yes.”

“Since we’re on the topic of fear, have you ever had your life threatened?”

“Have I had my life threatened, huh? There were a few times I thought that I was really going to die.”

“It might be difficult to answer, but have you ever been threatened with a knife or been stabbed with it?”

“I have. Fortunately though, it wasn’t that deep.”

“May I listen to the feelings you had at that time?”

“My feelings at that time, huh.”

The team leader scratched the back of his neck a few times. Maru looked at his expression.

There were some people who just looked back at past events, while others would have difficulty doing so. He had no plans of forcing him to speak. He was going to end the interview as soon as he showed the slightest hint of being agonized.

Poking into another’s wounds on the pretext of an interview was not a humane thing to do. He had that done to him numerous times, so he knew the viciousness of it.

“If it’s too difficult…”

Just as he was about to say that he should stop, the team leader raised his hand and spoke,

“It’s not that iffy. I just hesitated because it was so vivid despite being such a long time ago. My feelings, huh? Yes, my feelings. It doesn’t sound like you want to know what the case is about, so I’ll tell you just about what happened when I met the culprit and when I got stabbed, okay?”

“Yes. That’s enough.”

“I thought he would get apprehended obediently. He listened to my words too. I never even imagined that he would pull out a knife so suddenly. The moment I let my guard down, I had a knife stuck in my shoulder. I did shout in pain, but it actually didn’t hurt that much. Instead, it was fear that ruled my head. The first thing that came to mind was that I should run. The pistol on my vest didn’t even come to mind.”

The team leader seemed to be reminded of that event and he gnashed his teeth a little.

“But curiously, the moment I saw the culprit’s face, heat gushed out and my fear disappeared. I’m not saying this to sound cool. It was really like that. I had the ridiculous desire to get that guy even if it meant falling there and then. It seemed that it was his first time using a knife as well, and he even got a cut on himself. I just threw everything away and just jumped at him. Then I apprehended him with a follow-up investigator. That was when the pain hit me. I even shed some tears. My direct senior asked me if I was crying, and I was really sad, hurt, and afraid, but I was also proud of myself.”

The team leader ended the story with a smile.

The moment he saw that face, Maru decided on the personality of the character he was going to play. It was going to be a slightly different direction from what he showed during the audition. He was going to tune the minute things in ways he could change as an actor, even while not going outside the big frame that the writer wanted.

“Team leader Choi. You should go see the kids.”

Someone called him from outside. He stood up from the seat.

“Looks like the time was pulled forward. I didn’t even get to tell you that much, sorry about that.”

“Not at all. It was really helpful.”

“Glad to be of help. Everyone, good luck with your acting, and Seungah, see you again next time.”

The team leader hurriedly left the office.

Maru imagined what he would’ve looked like during his younger days and overlapped the character ‘Park Uijung’ on top of it.

“Shall we go?” Seungah said.

Maru nodded with his phone and notepad in hand.

After Story 86

“But is that really enough?” Seungah asked, looking back at the police station.

She confidently said she’d help out her friend, but the interview with her uncle only lasted about 10 minutes. She wondered if that short interview would even be helpful.

“Yeah, I received more than enough. He said something crucial in setting my character.”

“I guess if you’re good with it, that’s fine.”

She looked at the notepad that Maru was holding.

“Can you show me that?”

“There’s nothing much though.”

“If there’s nothing much, then show me. I’m curious about what you wrote.”

Maru held the notepad out.

“Oppa, can I look at it as well?” Dawoon also showed interest. Maru nodded.

“This is unexpected. Your writing is really neat. Did you get lessons or something?”

Clean writing filled the first page. It looked like it was written quickly, but it was neat nonetheless. She then saw that the notepad wasn’t even lined. His words were so straight that she thought he wrote on top of lines, but there were none.

Seungah looked downwards. There was a question ‘why’ underneath the character’s name. It was a series of ‘whys’ from beginning to end.

There was no clear answer in the notepad. It was just one question leading to another question.

“You can organize your thoughts like that?”

She took her eyes off the notepad. She felt dizzy instead when she looked at the huge agglomeration of whys.

This was not a process to make the character clearer. It was a process of pushing the character inside a fog. There was no answer to any question, and instead, even more questions.

“Each person has their own way. Also, this notepad is for thinking, not for organizing. I rarely write any conclusion here. It’s a notepad where I keep throwing questions.”

“I shouldn’t have looked. If you write so many questions for just a minor character, how are you supposed to do a lead character?”

“Ask even more questions than this. But if I read it, it’s not actually that much. You should try if you have some time.”

“What? Do that?”

“If you do, you’ll realize that I actually haven’t written down a lot of questions. You must also think about a lot of things if you play a character. Try gathering all the questions that just flash past your head. There’s no need to write it down on a notepad. If you’re more comfortable typing, then you can do that, and if you’re fine with recording, then you can do that too. Try gathering them and looking back at them. There will probably be a lot more than I have here, you know?”

“Really? I actually think quite a lot, but I don’t think it’s that much.”

“You can’t go wrong with trying. It doesn’t consume money or even a lot of time, so you should try it. You might not get anything out of it, but you might be able to find out something interesting in the process of creating questions. Dawoon, you should try it too if you have time. If you don’t have any characters to play right now, then you can do it with a character you want to play, or you can also pick a character from a movie and ask questions in your own way. It’s somewhat fun to compare the character you have created based on the questions you asked about the character that the actor displays.”

Questions, huh? Seungah tapped on her lips. It was an irreplaceable step in the process of refining a character. However, she had never thrown endless questions like that without answering them. There was only a question that sought an answer.

“Isn’t that inefficient? It’s just a minor character.”

“From some perspectives, it might be inefficient. But it’s not like I’m so busy that I need to consider efficiency. It won’t be too late to think about efficiency later, don’t you think?”

“You’re right. I’ll try as well since I have a lot of time.”

Dawoon stood in front of Maru and spoke, “I’ll try doing it as well. Can you have a look at the things I wrote down later?”

“It’s no use for anyone else to see it, but if you want to, I’ll have a look.”

“Thank you, oppa.”

Seungah looked at Dawoon and Maru who smiled at each other.

Oh? – She put on a thick smile and bumped Dawoon with her shoulder. Dawoon blinked and looked at her.

“What is it?”

“Nothing.”

“What is it? Your smile is clearly fishy.”

“I said it’s nothing.”

She couldn’t say it in front of Maru. She handed the notepad back to Maru.

“Since we ate and did what we needed to do, shall we part ways here?”

Seungah pushed Maru’s back and sent him to the bus stop. As she did so, she had a glance at Dawoon. While she didn’t make it look obvious, she was clearly disappointed. How cute.

Maru left on the bus.

“Jung Dawoon.”

“Huh?”

“Be honest with me.”

“What?”

“Don’t you have anything to say to me? This unni already knows everything.”

Dawoon, who was walking ahead, flinched to a stop. Her shoulders shriveled inwards. She knew it was going to be like this. Seungah slapped Dawoon’s back hard.

She walked forward to see Dawoon’s uneasy face. Dawoon was looking down with her expression frozen stiff. She was so pale that she looked shocked.

She thought she made a mistake. She never knew that Dawoon would feel so uncomfortable talking about romance.

“Dawoon, Dawoon. I’m not trying to tease you.”

“Huh… huh?”

Dawoon raised her head. Her eyes were complex.

Just how startled was she? – she felt pity and grabbed her hands.

“I just mentioned it lightly. If I knew you hated it so much, I wouldn’t have even said it.”

“What… do you mean?”

“What do you mean what do I mean? Aren’t you interested in Maru?”

Dawoon’s lips, which had stiffened into a straight line, trembled before softening up. Dawoon rubbed the corner of her eyes and spoke, “It’s about that?”

“Of course it’s about this. What else would I tease you about? Anyway, this is it. I won’t talk about this ever again.”

“It’s okay,” Dawoon said, shaking her head.

“It’s okay?”

“As you said, unni, I’m a little interested in him.” Dawoon smiled in embarrassment.

Seungah narrowed her eyes. “Look at you. I knew my hunch wasn’t wrong.”

“But it’s not like I really like him that much.”

“I know, I know. Han Maru is a pretty decent guy. He’s gentle and he looks good too.”

“He’s caring in the little parts, and he keeps promises too,” Dawoon added.

“How likely is it for that basic goodwill to turn into romantic feelings? Just tell me about it.”

“Why are you doing this? Do you even have to know?”

“Hey. I should know a little bit so that I can help you out indirectly, or just ignore it. If you’re just thinking of him as a decent person, then I’ll stay still, but if it’s not that and you want to proceed further…”

Seungah smirked and linked arms with Dawoon.

“Tell me quickly.”

“Why are you doing this? Geez.”

Dawoon took her arm away with a smile. From her attitude, it was clear that she wanted to go beyond the current relationship.

“I can also read the mood, so I won’t cause a fuss. Instead, I can help you to get in the mood, just slightly.”

“You don’t have to.”

“Really?”

Dawon became quiet. After a while, she spoke in a small voice, “If you make it unnoticeable…”

“What?”

“If you’re going to tease me for it, then forget it.”

Dawoon walked ahead, looking mad. She was so cute. Seungah quickly went up to her and linked arms again.

“Just trust this unni. I’ll set you up ever so slightly that it won’t look noticeable.”

“Don’t go too far. Both oppa and I might find it uncomfortable. I don’t want things to be like that. I want to get close to him naturally.”

“Okay. I’ll take care of that, so don’t worry.”

Seungah grabbed a taxi.

“What about you?”

“I have something to buy, so I’m going to go grocery shopping.”

“Should I go with you?”

“Nah, it’s okay. You should get going now. See you at the acting school tomorrow.”

“Okay.”

She closed the taxi door. The taxi then stopped right in front at the traffic light. Seungah waved her hand. Dawoon smiled and pulled her head back into the taxi.

“Wait, I should find out some info before that, right?”

Seungah took out her phone. It was time for the romance detective to get to work.

* * *

Dawoon smiled as she thought about Seungah. She was really stifled when she was asked if she had anything to say. She felt like that was how it would feel when being hit by a car.

However, her worries were for naught. Seungah didn’t know anything. It was proof that Maru was keeping his promise.

When her nervousness died down, she faintly smiled. She was overly worried and realized that worrying would do more harm than good.

No one would know that she threw away those profiles. Only Maru had heard what she said while she was half drunk, but that was okay. Even if Maru brought up what she said that day, she could just play dumb, not that he would say something like that easily based on his personality.

A mistake was not a mistake if no one knew about it. She didn’t commit a crime, so she had to be bold. It would be troublesome if she stiffened up and talked nonsense.

She fidgeted with her phone before smiling. She hoped that unni didn’t do anything unnecessary. She was worried, but she was also looking forward to it. She didn’t want to date him just yet, but she definitely wanted to become closer to him.

If Seungah could set up the mood, she would more easily be able to talk about personal stuff and get to know each other better.

She thought about Maru’s advice. The way he spoke seriously was honestly quite charming. People said that there was no sexier man than one who is focused on his work, and it was indeed true. A person focusing on his clear objective was sexy.

Maybe it wasn’t that bad to get closer to him. Dawoon fantasized about a lot of things, but she stopped because she kept grinning.

“If things go well…” Dawoon whispered while looking outside the window.

If she got closer to him thanks to unni’s help, would that mean they helped each other out? Unni might not know it, but without her help, unni would’ve been unable to participate in the audition.

When she thought about that, it felt very natural to get Seungah’s help. She felt proud for some reason. It also felt like throwing away those profiles wasn’t so bad.

The ones who pass were designated in the first place. She only did what she did so that the one who put in more effort received a fairer chance, so she couldn’t call it a sin.

Was it really a bad thing that she threw away those profiles? Would not throwing them away have changed anything? Wasn’t there more to gain by throwing those things away?

Dawoon smiled. She kept asking questions just like Maru said, and the more she did, the more justified her actions seemed to be.

She felt comfortable now. Everything felt refreshed.

* * *

Maru stared at his phone. He read the message Seungah sent him several times over.

-Hey, are you seeing anyone right now?

What was her intention behind sending that text? Usually, when a woman who showed no signs of romance sent him a text like this, it was usually about introducing him to another woman. He had also experienced actors dating each other, so it wasn’t even that surprising.

-I do have someone I’m seeing right now.

He sent the message before he got anything more unnecessary. Rather than being kidnapped to another group chat by being roundabout, it was better to cut the sapling early.

-You have someone you’re dating?

-I do.

-Why?

Why? — Maru chuckled in absurdity and asked what it was about.

-No, nothing. If you had one, then you should’ve shown a hint about it.

-Isn’t it stranger to show it?

-Anyway, okay.

-What is it?

He was reminded of Dawoon, but he didn’t mention it. He might be getting overly conscious because of his old age.

Seungah told him once again not to mind before saying goodbye. She told him not to mind, so there was no need for him to mind. He said what he needed to say, so Seungah should take care of whatever happened.

He saw the couple seated in front of him giggling while sharing earphones.

Whether it was Seungah, or those two… they had it good.

Maru closed his eyes and leaned on the chair. He would be at Suwon station after taking a nap.

After Story 87

"He has one?" Seungah muttered as she picked up some batteries.

She wasn't that close to Maru, but she thought that they had gotten rather close. They talked about a lot of things outside of acting too.

However, she had never heard about him having a girlfriend. She had to tell Dawoon about this.

Thinking about Dawoon, who would smile saying that it was okay, left a bitter taste in her mouth. That girl looked like she had taken quite a liking to Maru too.

"Customer, this product has been damaged. There's only one battery."

Just as she was typing a message to send to Dawoon next to the counter, the cashier told her about the ripped packaging.

"I'll bring another one."

"Sorry for the inconvenience."

"Not at all."

Seungah put her phone in her pocket. When she thought about it, it felt like it would be better to tell her in person rather than through text. It would be less awkward if she said it with some laughter.

* * *

After a shower, Dawoon took out a cosmetic mask from the refrigerator. Maybe it was due to the cold weather, but her skin was in terrible condition. She put some mist on her face before applying the mask. She pressed the mask so that it didn't peel off and grabbed her phone.

She looked at the messages that her friends shared and snuggled into the blanket.

Some of her friends went to Japan over the winter holidays and sent her a bunch of photos. They also said that they should go together next time.

She had four auditions in January alone. While she was envious that they were traveling, she had something to do, so she couldn't hang out with them.

-Take a lot of photos and show them to me.

After leaving that message, she was about to look at the photos again when a friend she had not contacted for a long time sent her a message.

Her profile photo had changed as well. It was a photo of her raising her hand, locked with her boyfriend's. She called her so that she could hear her voice and ask about recent matters.

"What, you got a boyfriend?"

She chatted for about 30 minutes with that question at the start. It was mostly about her friend boasting about her lover.

Usually, she would've just responded nonchalantly. There was never a time when she truly found fun in another person's love story.

However, today was different. Her heart was moved by her friend's story. Each and every word she said touched her heart.

-They say confession is only a confirmation process, right? But that's not entirely true. If you have feelings for each other, it's okay to come out a little strong, especially if you're a girl. I also didn't like girls confessing first before, but I changed my mind after meeting my boyfriend.

"Really?"

-Yeah. If there's a really good person, I think it's better to show your feelings and confess immediately. Honestly, you think about it when you go to school don't you? Why do the decent guys already have a pair?

"We do say that from time to time."

-I realized when I met my boyfriend. You need to place your dibs on good men first. Look at my boyfriend, for example. He's good-looking and he's gentle, so the women around him all woo him, but I pat my chest in relief whenever they do that. Had I been late, he would've been taken away too. Also, men these days are quite shy about expressing their feelings. Some even want the girls to be the ones leading them.

"Really?"

-From the way you speak, it sounds like there's a guy on your mind. Well, I guess it's about time for you too.

"It's not like that."

-Like hell it's not. For now, you should be more proactive. It actually works, you know? You know Soomin, right? She got a boyfriend recently, and he's a total hottie. But honestly, Soomin isn't that pretty, right? She's chubby and cute. Even girls like her have boys. So someone like you don't need to hesitate.

Her friend hung up, saying that they should talk again later.

Dawoon thought as she took off the cosmetic mask that had dried slightly. So a confession doesn't necessarily need to be a confirmation process?

She sat down in front of the makeup desk in order to take care of her skin. Today, her face looked white and pretty. She didn't have an appearance that lost out to anyone.

She never boasted about her appearance, but she never had trouble because of it either. When she looked back, the reason she decided to become an actress was that the people around her called her pretty and said she should be a model or an actress.

Dawoon bit on her thumb slightly. When she looked at her phone, it was going past 9. It was not too late to send a message.

She grabbed her phone and hesitated for a long time before turning it on.

It wasn't that she was going to confess. She just wanted to meet him in private. She had a good feeling from the first time she met him. He didn't look that rejective either.

He smiled at her gently and gave her the necessary advice. If she was a woman he wanted to distance himself from, he would not have shown such kindness.

She thought that she should be more confident. After taking a deep breath, she sent him a text.

-Oppa, what are you up to?

She turned her phone off after sending it. The nervousness she felt was on a different level from when she was sending a text to just a 'friend who is male'. But she didn't feel that unpleasant. She couldn't help but smile.

Should she say that they should watch a movie together? Or should she say she wanted to ask something about acting? In any case, she wanted to schedule a meeting with him.

10 minutes passed. The toe-wriggling tension had disappeared as well. Why was it that she was not getting a reply?

She turned on the screen. The 'unread' mark did not change, meaning he didn't even read her message.

"Is he charging the phone?"

She thought that she shouldn't mind, but she still couldn't help but look at the phone.

When would he read it? Even if it was being charged, there should be some noise. Maybe he left the phone at home and left his house for a bit?

At that moment, Maru checked the message. Dawoon quickly turned off the messenger and even locked the screen.

She immediately got a notification that she got a message. It was a message from Maru – I was cleaning.

"Cleaning, at this hour?"

Dawoon smiled and grabbed the phone. She didn't want to send a reply right away. She decided to wait five, no, just two minutes.

After waiting, she turned on the messenger.

-Do you clean often at night?

-Not that often, but my cat spilled something.

-Oh, your cat! It's the one in your profile picture, right?

-Yeah.

She thought about the cat with sharp eyes as she lay on her bed. It was nothing much, but she felt good.

-Something up?

Maru asked.

-No, not really.

-Yeah? Then what is it?

She sat up when she read that text. This was the opportunity; she had to bring up her objective before the conversation strayed elsewhere.

-Uhm, oppa, do you have time tomorrow?

-Tomorrow? I do, I guess.

Dawoon hesitated for a while before moving her thumbs, carefully so that she didn't make a typo.

-Then do you want to meet with me?

-Er, if you have something to talk to me about, it's okay to call me right now.

-It's not that I have something to say. I just want to talk about various things. There are some things I'm thankful to you about, and I want to treat you out if possible.

-If it's like that, then don't mind it. I only said a few words because a hard-working junior was good to look at.

-But I really feel thankful.

-If that's the case, then let's call Seungah as well and go on a food trip. Don't you think that's better?

Dawoon put her phone down as soon as she saw the reply. Even a fool would know what that attitude was. Maru drew the line saying that there was no reason for them to meet in private.

She felt confused, and at the same time, humiliated. Was she that unattractive? She even felt a sense of guilt.

She suddenly recalled what she blurted out due to the alcohol.

Was he putting distance because he remembered that? Was he saying that he didn't want to meet a creepy girl like that in private? If so, then why did he act so kind? Wasn't it his fault that she misunderstood? Did he perhaps do it on purpose? Did he play around with her?

-Dawoon, let me say this just in case, but I'm seeing someone right now. If I was off the mark, then you can just laugh at me for getting ahead of myself. I'm kinda bad at things like that.

Her chin shook when she read the message that Maru sent. So it turned out he had a girlfriend. She no longer felt embarrassed; she felt tragic. She ended up being a woman who wooed a man who was dating someone.

The fact that she didn't know annoyed her even more. She even wanted to cry because of Maru's caring attitude.

Then she quickly sent a text with shaking hands.

-Oppa, you sent that for me to laugh, right? Of course not.

-I knew this would be the case. Sorry about that, I have terminal-stage celebrity disease.

-Still, I got a good laugh thanks to you.

She pressed her forehead. She wanted to get amnesia. Why did she do something like this? How was she supposed to smile the next time they met? She felt dizzy.

-Then let's go eat something nice together later.

-Alright, I'll be looking forward to it.

She turned off her screen and tossed it onto her bed. Unfortunately, it didn't hit the blanket but the mattress instead and was flung away.

While she was dazed, the phone flew up into the air and fell down on the ground. The noise was quite loud. Moreover, the screen was facing the ground.

Her mood plummeted. She went over and flipped the phone over. There was a crack on the screen.

"What was that?" her mother said as she opened the door.

Dawoon smiled forcefully and said that she dropped her phone. Seeing the crack on the screen, her mother clicked her tongue.

"You should've been more careful. You gotta get that fixed."

Her mother glanced at her before closing the door. This was the worst. Why did things come to this? She had a splitting headache.

Dawoon burrowed into her blanket. How did things come to this? She looked for a cause and closed her eyes.

Her headache became worse.

* * *

"How could you tell me that now?! And not yesterday when you found out! Why!"

Seungah looked at Dawoon in surprise. This was the first time this girl showed such violent emotions outside acting.

What could've happened? When she thought about it, she remembered that Dawoon didn't have a good expression when they greeted each other. She was even worried that the girl might be sick.

She asked Dawoon if she was feeling sick. Dawoon said that she was okay and smiled. While it felt iffy, the person in question said she was okay, so she decided to let that go.

When they started practicing, Dawoon showed that she was not that different from before.

After practice, she called Dawoon out to the corridor. She had to tell her what she heard from Maru the night before.

Dawoon might feel embarrassed if she said it seriously, so she spoke in a joking tone.

The next moment, however, she heard Dawoon's nervous shout. Seungah looked at Dawoon's expression in a daze. Rather than feeling sorry, she felt worried first. What made this girl so sensitive? Just as she was about to ask the reason…

"S-sorry, unni. I wasn't going to do that…”

The person who shouted was even more flustered. Seungah quickly spoke,

"No, it's okay. I was a bit too light-hearted when I spoke, right? It must've been an important matter to you."

"It's not that."

Dawoon buried her face in her palms. It felt like she had touched a shameful side of hers.

She reached out in order to console her. When her hand touched Dawoon's shoulder, Dawoon took a step back.

"Unni, I'm sorry. I think I'll have to go home early today. Tell the instructor I don't feel well."

"Dawoon."

"Please."

Dawoon went inside the acting school and soon came back out with her bag.

She was unable to call out to her. Dawoon walked away with her mouth firmly shut.

"Did she like him that much? Or did something happen?"

Wasn't it just simple good feelings? She really didn't know that Dawoon would react like this.

She walked back and forth in the corridor and thought about it. No matter how she thought about it, Dawoon's attitude was strange. If the man she had feelings for turned out to have a girlfriend, she might feel disappointed, but it didn't make sense that she snapped out like that.

Seungah called Maru. Something must have happened yesterday. Otherwise, there was no way she would snap out angrily like that.

"Yeah, Maru. Can I talk to you for a second?"

In that short phone call, she found out the truth. Dawoon asked him out on a date first, and in that process, Maru notified her that he had a girlfriend.

-From how you're calling me, it seems like it wasn't just good feelings. I feel sorry now.

"You just stay oblivious like you are now. Dawoon also pretended otherwise, didn't she?"

-Alright, please console her. There are people who don't think much of this, but there are also people who think that this is really shameful. Also, let's not meet up for a while. I think that'll be the better option until Dawoon brings it up.

"Okay."

Seungah put her phone down and looked at the path that Dawoon took.

After Story 88

She was definitely being made fun of. That must have been intentional.

Dawoon sat down on the bus stop chair and barely stopped her arms and legs from shaking.

Maru, you know, apparently has someone he’s seeing — the words Seungah said to her echoed in her ears.

She knew that and didn’t tell her yesterday. Had she notified her through text last night, all of this would’ve never happened.

Dawoon took out her phone. On the cracked screen, she could see the conversation she had with Maru yesterday.

“How taken aback must he have been?”

He must’ve known everything. That must’ve been why he tried to smoothly overcome the situation by saying he had celebrity disease.

How kind was that? How considerate was that?

Compared to him, unni was totally malicious. She toyed with a person’s feelings.

She didn’t send a text because she felt like it was better to say it in person?

Lies. She must have hidden it to humiliate her.

Seungah took her feelings lightly. She looked down on a person's emotions.

How could she be like that? After the sacrifice, she made for the sake of unni?

Had she not taken care of Seungah’s profile and thrown it away alongside the other competitors’ profiles, then Seungah would’ve never even had the opportunity to do the audition. It wasn’t something she did expecting appreciation. She only helped out because Seungah was her unni, and because she was a thankful person. And yet, what she got in return was mockery.

For a moment, it crossed her mind that she didn’t do what she did for the sake of unni, but Dawoon shook her head and cut off that train of thought. Regardless of the intention, Seungah was the one who ultimately benefited from it. Seungah was indebted to her. But she paid it back like this…

Dawoon looked at the bus coming towards the bus stop in a daze. It was a bus that headed towards Suwon. The bus stopped right in front of her, opened its door, and let out its passengers.

Dawoon got on that bus headed for Suwon like she was enchanted. The moment she paid her fare and sat down, she thought ‘why’.

Her question was resolved soon though: Maru was in Suwon.

What am I supposed to do there? — Dawoon rubbed her face.

Rationally speaking, it wasn’t even that big of a deal. It might be a moral problem to like someone who has a partner, but it was definitely not something illegal. It was just a cute mistake, something she could just laugh over. However, she was mentally too exhausted. Everything was a first for her, whether it was feeling attracted to a member of the opposite sex or the fact that she expressed it directly. There might be people who do that easily, but she had an extremely hard time making a decision and putting it into action.

She mentally exhausted herself so much that she wasn’t even able to sleep properly last night because of a headache. Throughout the night, she even felt like vomiting and frequented the bathroom.

While she was tossing and turning in bed, she kept hearing an unknown person’s mockery: Dawoon, you know, she tried flirting with a man who has a girlfriend already. But she got dumped. She’s so funny.

It was today she found out the identity of the unknown person. It was Seungah.

She must have laughed at her. She must have been looking forward to the introverted junior sister falling into a predicament.

How funny must it have been to her? The more Dawoon thought about it, the more creeped out she was. Her eyes felt hot. She realized that if her anger got to the top of her head, she would start crying.

The tears were not symbolic of sadness. It was just a passage of uncontrollable emotions. She wiped her tears.

First, she had to save herself from mockery.

Maru probably knew everything, so she had to talk to him first about it. She could do it over the phone, but since she was on the bus, she had to meet him in person.

Someone as considerate and warm as him would console her mistakes wholeheartedly. If she got to see his smile, she might feel a lot more relieved. She might even end up shaking it off and even forgive Seungah on the spot.

She arrived at Suwon station. As she got off, she got herself together. It was finally time to make a call. She would probably feel awkward if they met, and she also had to say sorry.

Just as she took out her phone while thinking, she saw a familiar face in the distance.

Even under the darkening sky, she could make out that face in an instant.

She felt like this was a drama. Just as she was about to make a call, she saw Maru on the other side of the road. It felt like God was whispering to her that this situation was nothing and that she was still okay.

She would hate to be in an awkward relationship with Maru. She was going to revert their relationship into that of friends; one where they would greet each other, ask what they were up to recently, and sometimes have nice meals together.

Perhaps he might insult Seungah’s pettiness with her. He was a kind person after all.

Just as she was about to approach him while putting her phone down, she saw Maru turn his head and wave his hand in the air.

Dawoon flinched and looked in the direction that Maru was looking at. There was a woman who was eye-catching even in the crowd of people flooding out of the train station. Even at this distance, that woman was something else, whether it was her facial features or her body figure.

No way — she hid behind the traffic light pole. She didn’t know why she had to hide, but she wanted to hide for now.

The two of them met in front of a pedestrian bridge. The way they looked at each other and held each other’s hands looked natural. When the woman’s mouth moved, Maru smiled brightly.

They lightly jabbed each other and pushed each other mischievously. They were a pair of lovers without any gaps to exploit at all.

The two of them looked like fragments that became whole together.

Dawoon turned around. Maru and the woman were approaching.

She put on the hood that was on her jacket and pretended to look at her phone.

Maru walked past her.

Dawoon slowly raised her head. Why couldn’t she step up? It wasn’t like she did anything wrong. She just had to say what she had to.

Her face was reflected on the cracked screen. The face that she felt didn’t lack anything now looked terrible like the phone screen that needed repair.

She was startled and let go of her phone. People around her looked at her and the phone she dropped on the floor.

Dawoon slowly bent down to get her phone. Meanwhile, Maru and the woman had walked even farther away. The two of them were talking to each other while pointing at the advert banner on Suwon station.

She watched them for a while before turning on her phone.

“Oppa, are you okay with taking a phone call right now?”

She saw Maru pick up the phone in the distance.

-Yeah, I’m alright.

“About yesterday.”

-Yesterday?

“You actually knew about it, didn’t you? That I sent you a text with feelings more than just goodwill.”

-Somewhat. There was the matter of Seungah’s questions too.

“Sorry I made you bothered.”

-It’s okay. It’s not a sin to hold someone in a good light. But why do you sound so powerless?

“Nothing. I’m just a little embarrassed.”

-Don’t be. You know that there’s no need for you to feel bad at all, right?

“Thank you for telling me that.”

-Nah. It’s evening, have you eaten dinner?

“No, I was just about to eat.”

-Alright. Have a good meal and practice hard. I don’t feel uncomfortable about you at all so don’t worry about something unnecessary.

“Yes.”

-I think we said everything we need to each other, so I’ll hang up now. Don’t act awkward the next time you see me.

“Uhm, oppa!”

-What?

“Promise me, don’t act awkward next time.”

-Okay.

“And one more thing. The person you’re dating, what kind of person is she?”

-Why do you want to know that?

“Asking as a friend. I think I’ll feel less awkward this way.”

-Geez.

Maru turned his head to look at his girlfriend.

-She’s a cool person. She’s competent and has a great personality. I really can’t find a flaw to her. Wait, did I boast too much?

“You must really like her.”

-It’s more than just that.

“Haha, okay. I hope you last a long time.”

Dawoon hung up.

While she was laughing, her eyes weren’t smiling at all.

So it was possible to sound cheerful without smiling. She was surprised at herself.

Maru and the woman looked at each other and spoke. What would they be talking about? Perhaps about Dawoon herself?

Dawoon focused on the woman rather than Maru. A woman acknowledged by him…

She bit on her thumb. She was desirous of that position. What would it feel like to stand in the place that Maru was looking at directly? It wasn’t the feeling of wanting to receive love. She just wanted to be acknowledged. She felt like her pride would return to normal if Maru admitted that she was just as good as the woman standing there.

Dawoon grabbed the back of her neck with her hand. She could feel some flesh. Her body figure was pathetic compared to that woman who had a sleek neckline. If she lost more weight, she would look more slender.

She probably had to start working out. That wasn’t a body that simply losing weight would allow her to achieve.

Dawoon turned on her phone camera. Then she took a series of photos of the woman next to Maru. The woman’s clothes, makeup style, hairstyle… she noted down everything without missing a single one.

She then looked down at her own sneakers and jeans. They looked out of date. They were clothes she cherished, but they looked insufficient.

She could no longer stay in Suwon. She felt like she would continue to shrink and disappear into a dot if she kept staying in the same space as Maru, and especially that woman.

She grabbed a taxi. She did not have the confidence to get on a bus. She didn’t want to show her pathetic figure and clothes to the others.

On her way back to Seoul in the taxi, a cosmetics shop by the street caught her eye.

“Driver, wait a second.”

Dawoon got out of the taxi. She saw Maru’s girlfriend there. She was looking at an aromatherapy product in her hand with a beautiful gaze.

She walked over and looked at the large poster. ‘Friendly Aroma’ official model, Han Haneul.

She went into the store and asked if she could get a flier. The employee smiled and gave her a flier about Friendly Aroma.

Dawoon returned to the taxi. She looked up Han Haneul on her phone inside the taxi, her eyes wide open.

She gulped and looked through the photos. She could see the ideal self that she had been imagining.

“So only like this…”

Dawoon started looking up everything related to Han Haneul. She got a call from Seungah midway, but she did not pick up. For that bad bitch, she would give her a proper lesson later. A bitch who pays her grace as revenge would only get herself together after getting the same thing done to her.

* * *

“Have a look.”

“I said it’s okay.”

He was about to leave, but Haneul grabbed him. Maru pouted and turned around. Haneul scanned him from top to bottom with her arms crossed.

“Your hair is a little not to my liking, but I guess they’ll touch you up there if they don’t like it.”

Haneul reached out and stroked Maru’s eyebrows.

“Don’t you think you should get an eyebrow tattoo?”

“I’m okay right now. I didn’t have one more often than I did.”

“It’s okay, but your eyebrows look quite empty if you have them trimmed, sweetie.”

Maru pointed at the clock in the living room.

“What excuse am I supposed to make if I’m late?”

“Who cares? You’re going to have to wait even if you go. You aren’t in the first scene, are you?”

“That’s true. That’s also why I’m bringing three books to kill time.”

“It must be tough since it’s cold. Did you get some hot packs ready?”

“I have plenty.”

“Watch out so that you don’t catch a cold. No wait, should I go with you? I have a company car.”

“Use your company car for the right purposes, okay?”

Maru put on his trainers.

After hiking a few times, they looked like they were used for everyday life. It would be rather strange if a crime investigator’s shoes looked too clean.

“When are you going to contact president Lee Junmin? You should do it as quickly as possible.”

“Hun, I’m really going to be late.”

“No you won’t. That won’t work on me when I know Seoul’s geography better than anyone.”

“Knowing a lot isn’t the best thing at times huh? I’m going to contact the president after the drama shoot ends.”

“Don’t miss this opportunity. The agency that suited Han Maru the best was always JA.”

“Of course, of course.”

Maru pulled his wife in by the waist and kissed her.

“I’m off.”

“Have a good day. Also, I’m going to stay here for two days. I don’t have any schedule.”

“That’s fine with me. Play around with our princess too.”

“That’s a tall order. She hates me,” Haneul pointed at the cat sitting on the door sill to the bedroom.

Maru smiled and opened the door.

After Story 89

It was a day with clean air. The air he breathed in with every step tasted sweet. On a day like this, things were bound to go well.

The hot pack he had shaken beforehand as he got off the train started releasing heat. Maru pressed the heated pack against his cheek and left Tanhyeon station.

Not even 10 minutes away by foot, a production set for RBS was located. There was a giant RBS logo on a big building that seemed like a warehouse.

He checked the time. It was 8:30 a.m. The first call would be at 9, so he arrived at just the right time.

“Let’s hurry up.”

The words that could be heard the most frequently on sets could be heard this time as well.

Maru looked at the completed set from a distance. There was a metal cabinet next to a pair of desks that faced each other.

Under the round clock that had the word ‘POLICE’ embedded on it was a calendar.

“Put that file to the side and make it look messy.”

A staff member slightly hit the pile of files to make them look crooked. The slippers on the floor were worn once before taken off, and the neatly lined up desks were also pushed to make them look used.

Maru looked at the scene that was near completion before walking to the waiting room. Inside the waiting room was a TV that projected the scene outside. The minor actors were gathered in front of it.

“Hello,” Maru greeted as he walked over.

The actors, who were doing their own things, smiled and responded to him. No one looked down on him. Everyone here knew that they would have to see each other for hours here.

“Everyone here must have their first call at nine, huh?” said a woman that looked around 30. The minor actors all nodded.

“I’m ‘woman causing a ruckus,’ what is everyone else playing?”

“Drunk man causing a disturbance over here.”

“I don’t know mine yet.”

Everyone said a word each. After they got a turn, people’s eyes gathered on Maru.

“Rookie investigator.”

“Wow, we had an investigator among us, huh? You might get to act with actor Park Sinseo if you’re lucky, huh?”

“Yes, I do share a few words with him.”

“How do you know that? Did you get your script?”

“I participated in the first read-through, so I found out a little back then.”

“I’m envious. I wouldn’t have another wish if I had a role that could participate in the read-through.” The woman sighed.

“How’s the atmosphere at the set? Does anyone know?” said the man who said he didn’t know his role. The answer came from the woman.

“It’s good. Everyone’s encouraging each other. There doesn’t seem to be anyone picky either. The only downside is that there are delays. Originally, I was supposed to finish my scenes yesterday, but I had to come today. I waited from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. doing nothing.”

“That must be hard.”

“That’s just normal. It was less boring since they shot crowd reactions every once in a while. Oh yeah, the coffee here is nice.” The woman pointed outside the waiting room. On the other side was the cafeteria store.

“Why don’t we go get a drink?”

Drunk man causing a disturbance stood up. Everyone got black coffee from the cafeteria store and returned to the waiting room.

Maru smiled after taking a sip. It was better than most coffee shops.

A staff member came in when they were about to finish charging their caffeine.

“We’re going to start the scene explanation in a little bit. Those of you who have prepared clothing should get changed now.”

Some of the minor actors left. They seemed to have gone to change their clothes.

Drunk man causing a disturbance came back wearing a suit. He didn’t have his necktie on.

“Are there many people in the bathroom?” Maru asked the man.

“No, there’s no one.”

He headed to the bathroom after hearing that answer. He checked on his clothing in front of the mirror.

He was wearing activity clothes due to the text he received two days ago from the production team.

He did not have any accessories on, and he only used hair wax to press down his hair where it was raised. It didn’t look like he had any flaws.

He returned to the waiting room. Now, waiting was his work.

“Hello everyone.”

A man in his early thirties came into the waiting room about 20 minutes later. He seemed to be the FD.

The minor actors also stood up and greeted him.

“Please come this way. We’ll start explaining the scene.”

They went to the set following the FD. Maru felt glad to see the lighting equipment and the camera again.

He saw director Cha standing next to the camera with a script in his hand.

“Hello. Oh, Maru’s here too, huh?”

Director Cha smiled and patted his shoulder.

“Hello! The weather’s really good, isn’t it?”

The one who appeared with a cheerful greeting was Lee Haena.

Director Cha turned around to greet Haena. The other staff members also turned around to look at her.

“Her face is really small. It might be less than half the size of mine,” said the drunk man causing a disturbance.

Everyone seemed to be thinking the same as they were nodding.

Following that, Park Sinseo and Yoo Jichan appeared. After a short greeting, the production explanation began.

“Haena will come this way and grab this.”

“Should I do it like this?”

“Yes. Sinseo and Jichan, you two come in from that way so that your movement lines don’t overlap.”

The movement lines for the main actors seemed to have been decided, as director Cha then called for the minor actors.

“Shall I try struggling? Sinseo, grab his arms for a minute.”

Drunk man causing a disturbance shook his arms violently to shake Sinseo off. Due to the difference in physique, Sinseo was shaken off quite easily.

“Enough. Go with just that, but tone down your strength a little. Sinseo will restrain you and then suppress you into the chair.”

The two of them tried acting according to the director’s words. Sinseo grabbed the man’s arm and kept asking if it didn’t hurt.

“I think you can do it with a little more force.”

“Then I’ll put more strength into it. If you feel uncomfortable please tell me immediately.”

“It’s okay.” The man laughed heartily.

After they tried a few more times, it looked rather decent. Sinseo said that he would do it properly and subdued the man with a serious expression. He seemed to have practiced the action by himself a lot, as there were no wasted movements in his actions.

“Please just do this much during the real shoot.”

“Yes, okay.”

Director Cha smiled and had the other minor actors try acting with the lead actors as well. Everyone quickly caught onto the intention behind the way it was produced and reflected it in their acts.

It was at the investigation scene that the smooth rehearsal started being delayed.

“You aren’t frustrated. You should be enraged,” director Cha said once again.

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry.”

“You’re too nervous. Relax. You look like you’ll do well, but you’re too tense and aren’t bringing your skills out.”

“I’ll do well.”

A man in his early twenties, who was supposed to be investigated, kept bowing his head. He seemed to be a student preparing to become an actor. As pitiful as he was, Maru had nothing to say to him. No, he had numerous words that might help him out, but this was not a situation where he should step in.

Even if he did step in and give some advice, it didn’t look like that man was in a state to listen to anything.

What was necessary was the words of an actor acting with him. Sinseo also seemed to know that and approached that man first.

“You should shout. I’ll receive it no matter what you do. Also, if you try, you’ll be used to it, so don’t worry.”

Director Cha just told him that he should try before turning quiet. He probably judged that it was better for the actors to sort it out among themselves.

The young actor quickly recovered to tip-top condition under Sinseo’s guidance.

As the woman said in the waiting room, the atmosphere at the shoot was pretty good.

“Han Maru, how have you been?” director Cha spoke to him comfortably.

“I’ve been doing well.”

“Do your best today. The writer liked your acting to the point that she changed the script after seeing your act.”

“I must answer her expectations then.”

He walked over to Sinseo and Jichan who were sitting by their desks with the script.

“Jichan, I think you can do it while looking toward me.”

“Towards you, senior? Like this?”

“Yeah. How is it, director?”

Director Cha looked at the two before saying that it was good. Maru watched for a bit before stepping forward.

“Hello. I’m Han Maru, a new actor. Please take good care of me.”

“I remember. You were so good during the read-through. Your name is rather unique too.”

He lightly shook hands with Sinseo. Jichan, who was sitting next to him, came over.

“Let us both do our best as new actors.”

“Please take care of me too.”

Director Cha stepped in.

“You’ll be seeing each other for a while still, so get along. Then we’ll start from scene 18.”

Maru sat at the desk next to Jichan.

Sinseo, who was on the other side, got into the mood as he looked at the script.

Maru had a look before and saw that the script was clean. There were no creases or any traces of something being written on it.

“Rookie,” Sinseo said his line. It was a rather sudden beginning.

Maru slid his script underneath the desk and spoke,

“Yes, senior.”

“Have you met the witness for the violent crime in Gangwol-dong?”

“I met him yesterday. The culprit was very malicious. The witness told me that the culprit started hitting without any rhyme or reason. I also got the CCTV footage from a nearby shop. He did indeed hit first.”

Sinseo stroked his chin and leaned forward.

“Seok-oh, summon the culprit and get a testimony. Rookie, you go with Seok-oh and see how things roll. There are loads of work in the crime investigation department. You should quickly grow up and do your own worth.”

“Don’t worry. I was born a big baby. I’ll grow up quickly and support you all from the back, so please wait just a little.”

“You really have your way with words.”

After finishing his line there, Sinseo took his eyes off the script.

“Director, was that good?”

“There aren’t any directions I can give. The three of you look quite good together. Also, Jichan, I think you can stop being worried now. You’re doing well without looking tense at all.”

Jichan smiled awkwardly.

“Okay then, let’s begin,” director Cha said as he waved the rolled-up script above his head.

Maru sat down on his chair. The other minor actors moved to their respective positions as well.

“Uhm, Maru, right?”

Jichan spoke to him before the camera started rolling.

“Yes.”

“You see, I’m still a little awkward. So I think I’ll make a lot of mistakes.”

“You were doing perfectly fine though just now.”

“I’m better off when there is no light on the camera, but I’m someone that gets really nervous when I start doing it for real. So let me apologize to you in advance. I think we’re going to get delayed because of me.”

“I saw you doing a performance on stage. I could see that you were enjoying the camera being pointed at you. Don’t you think it’s the same here as on stage? I’m sure you’ll do well.”

“I feel reassured after you told me that. Thank you.”

“Don’t mention it.”

This person was quite polite. He had a good attitude as though to show that not just anyone could become a top idol.

One of Maru’s core principles was that celebrities with a lot of controversies might last a long time, but they would never reach the top.

Since Jichan was an idol who had once reached the top, he should know well that there would be a lot to lose if he made a mistake.

“Don’t you two get close all by yourself and let me in as well,” Sinseo said from the other side with a smile.

“You’re always welcome, hyung-nim.”

Jichan showed Sinseo a heart made with both of his hands. These two people got along.

“Maru. How old are you?” Sinseo asked.

“I’m twenty-two.”

“A college student, huh. I’m envious of you lot because everyone’s so good these days.”

“If I hear that, I’ll be embarrassed and want to hide. I still have a lot of things I lack, so please tell me whenever you think my acting isn’t up to par. I still have a lot to learn.”

“I have quite a vile mouth though. Are you okay with that? I might say something that might hurt you. I’m sure Jichan hates me too because of it.”

“That hyung-nim’s teasing me again.”

Sinseo faintly smiled.

“Standby.”

A voice could be heard from the production team. Maru relaxed his expression and looked at the desk. He now had to put aside laughing and chatting and become a crime investigator.

After Story 90

“I said that’s not it!”

A woman caused a ruckus in front of Jichan before scratching her head. She looked unjustly accused.

She continued talking as she used both her hands and feet to express that this was unjustified.

“I was really just doing as I was told to do.”

“Okay, okay. I get it.”

“Then I get off scot-free, right?”

“I told you that’s not for us to decide.”

“Then why did you arrest me!”

“Why do you think we arrested you? Please stop venting your temper at us and let’s talk this out with words. I have a lot to do too. I’ll have to write up a statement, see if you have committed any other crimes, and also request a warrant.”

“A-a warrant? Officer, I told you I haven’t done anything wrong.”

“And I told you that if you’re so upright, then you should tell me everything. You should just report the act of crime as an innocent citizen, right?”

The woman rubbed her hands and begged. At the same time, the FD next to the camera sent a signal.

An actor waiting outside the set entered the violent crimes department office.

“This damned woman!”

The actor playing ‘husband’ jumped in. Maru watched for a while before standing up when the ‘husband’ took about three steps. This was prearranged beforehand.

“Wait, calm down.”

“Officer, let me go. I’m going to break that woman’s legs and go to jail.”

“Sir, please calm down.”

The man huffed and puffed and started pushing with his body. He was using much more strength than during practice. It seemed he was really absorbed.

However, just because the opposing actor suddenly burst out with emotions didn’t mean that Maru could do the same. He was supposed to be an investigator, so it would be an NG if he became just as emotional. Maru put his hands through the husband’s armpits and pushed his shoulder back.

The husband was startled before he was pushed backward.

“Hey! You damn woman!”

“Gosh! Stop calling me! I’m ashamed as it is that I’m your wife.”

“What? Ashamed? Fine, let’s get to the end of this today. Either you go to prison, or I go to prison. One of us will start eating prison food.”

“Then you go in! I’m innocent!”

The wife screeched while the husband struggled and shouted.

Thanks to the passionate acting of the two minor actors, the scene looked very realistic.

“Both of you, calm down. This is not a place where the one with the bigger voice wins,” Sinseo said, his eyes still glued to the document he was looking at while he was in his chair.

Hearing the extremely detached voice, the excited husband’s lips twitched before he straightened out his collars. The woman also looked at the husband before turning her head away.

“Okay. That’s good,” director Cha shouted.

Maru let go of the husband.

The husband spoke cautiously, “Are you okay? I was a little too into it thinking that we should do this in one go, so I think I ended up putting in more strength than necessary.”

“It was good. You were really good at acting, you know?”

“Haha, I’m pretty good at acting like an entitled person.”

“Please teach me if there’s an opportunity later.”

The two cameras shooting the office changed locations. The actors sitting at their desks went over to the monitor. They were monitoring their own acts while the camera was being adjusted.

Maru also sneakily stood behind the other actors. Watching the camera feed was one of the basics of acting. It had to be done at every opportunity.

“Here, when Sinseo and Jichan talk to each other, you see that slight gap? Try to get a little closer. I will overlook it this time because you two are good-looking but not next time.”

The two actors nodded after listening to the director’s words.

Director Cha stood next to the pillar in the violent crimes department office. Then he called Jichan.

“Jichan, stand here. Camera, please shoot him with him framed in the center.”

The FD stood in front of Jichan. He had a camera on his shoulder and shot Jichan.

Director Cha personally showed Jichan what act to do to instruct him.

“Your lips keep protruding out right before you say your lines, but you really need to get rid of that habit. The reason you’re doing it is that you keep thinking that you have to act. It’s here, I’m going to start acting, I’m going to say my line. Let’s get ready! That’s the kind of thing that leads to that.”

Director Cha pointed out Jichan’s bad habit and kept instructing him. After being instructed, Jichan started acting on the spot. Maru could see that he was changing slightly.

The director proactively instructs the actor, and the actor accepts it without taking that as pressure. It was great that they got along.

“The director’s really passionate.”

Maru looked next to him. He saw that Sinseo had approached him. During lunch, they decided that Sinseo and Jichan would drop the honorifics with him.

“It’s his first work after all. I’m sure the attachment he has is something we can’t imagine.”

“It’s great that Jichan doesn’t take the director’s words as offensive. There are some actors who take acting instructions from the director as disdain and an insult.”

“That sounds plausible.”

Why wouldn’t he know it? He had seen it numerous times in the past as well; there were always actors who ignored the directions of the director and just acted by themselves. It wouldn’t be a problem if one of them was overwhelmingly superior to the other, but if the skills of the director and the actor were on a similar level, the atmosphere at the set would become terrible.

This also caused some incidents where a director or an actor was changed out midway.

After a round of practice, the shoot resumed. The production crew seemed to have had a hard time scheduling the lead actors, as they kept skipping scenes and shooting all the scenes they had to at the set.

“I have a concert. This was scheduled before the shoot was decided so I couldn’t cancel it. It’s a good thing that it’s just one day,” Jichan said during a break. He also said that he practiced the choreography until late into the night last night.

So there was a reason why his lips kept getting chapped. His stylist came over and kept applying lip balm.

“You must be exhausted,” Maru said as he gave Jichan a cup of water.

“Even if it’s hard, I have to endure. I’m not doing this for anyone else’s sake. I’m doing it because I like it and I want to do well.”

“Right, you’re the one who wants to do it so you should hold on a little more.” Sinseo encouraged him as well.

4 p.m. – Maru left the set for a little as he didn’t have any scenes for a while. There was a scene scheduled for 8 p.m., but he wondered if that was going to happen. Unlike in the morning, there were a lot more NGs in the afternoon. The director also asked for a lot of reshoots.

Everyone had become sensitive because they were shooting the important scenes in the first episode.

After getting some fresh air, he returned to the set. There, he saw Lee Haena saying goodbye to the staff members. It seemed that her scene was over. Maru also said goodbye to Haena as he walked by.

“Thank you for your work today.”

“Yes, you too.”

Haena stopped just as she was about to walk out.

“Mr. Maru, right?”

“Yes.”

“I heard from senior Sinseo that he talked about dropping the honorifics with you.”

“He said that would be for the better. He was being considerate of me.”

“Then please allow me to do the same. We’re both in the crime investigation department.”

“Okay.”

“You look younger than me, am I right?”

“I’m twenty-two.”

“I’m twenty-five. Can I?”

“Go ahead.”

Haena smiled and waved her hand.

“Then see you at the next shoot. Good luck with the rest of the shoot!”

“Yes, be careful on your way home too, noona.”

“Alright. Also, look out for Jichan-oppa a little. He’ll do better if you compliment him from the side. He looked exhausted.”

“I will.”

“Bye then!”

Haena winked and said goodbye. She was one cheerful lady. Many people had a good laugh during the shoot thanks to her.

Maru spat out a short breath and looked at the set lit up with bright lights. The mood maker had left the set, meaning the already volatile atmosphere would become even more sensitive.

He quietly walked over. The shoot was in full swing. It was a scene where Jichan was saying his line while walking around the office.

Maru stood behind the director. He could see the monitor over the shoulder of the scripter.

The camera was framing Jichan in a bust shot, while the left monitor showed him the full shot.

Director Cha looked alternately between the two monitors. His expression was stiffening up. Maru could tell that he was going to raise his hand soon.

“Wait. Jichan, can you come here for a bit?” Director Cha called Jichan.

Jichan stopped and rubbed his eyes before quickly coming over.

“Look here. At this part, your gaze is too unstable. This is not good. It’s too obvious that you’re conscious of the camera. This is a shooting set, not the stage that you’re used to standing on. You should leave looking at the camera whenever you see a red light to when you’re standing on a stage.”

“I’m sorry.”

Director Cha tapped on his own neck with a rolled-up script. Whether it was director Cha saying something bad, or Jiseok who was being pointed out, both of them should have it hard.

“Let’s take a 10-minute break before doing this again.” Director Cha stood up.

The assistant director and the camera director left the set with director Cha. In their hands were cigarettes.

“This is driving me nuts,” Jichan said as he sat down. He probably had a big headache.

He listened to the explanation, so he probably knew what he had to do in his head, but he couldn’t fix what he was being pointed out for when he actually did the act.

Until he became used to acting techniques, he would probably keep receiving scoldings.

Jichan’s manager came over and consoled him, saying that it was okay and that he was doing better and better.

Jichan drank his drink with an exhausted expression. His lips were more chapped than before.

“The air here is stale. Let’s go outside as well,” Sinseo said.

The three of them left the set together.

“Anyone here smokes?” Sinseo asked.

Maru shook his head while Jichan said that he didn’t want to for now.

Sinseo lit up his cigarette and asked, “Jichan.”

“Yes.”

“It’s hard, isn’t it?”

“A little.”

“But you should also know well that no matter how hard it is, other people can’t resolve it for you.”

Sinseo took a single puff before throwing the cigarette on the ground. He stepped on it to put it out before picking it up again and putting it in the trash.

“This is something you wanted to do, so you should keep challenging it. I don’t know much about singing and dancing, but I’m pretty sure they’re similar to acting. You might feel stuck at first, but if you keep doing it, you’ll see a way forward, and you’ll learn new tricks. Acting is the same. If you keep doing it, it’ll get better. It’s nothing amazing. No matter what you do, you’re bound to improve if you keep doing it. So keep doing it. The director understands you. He knows that you’re not being arrogant and you’re doing this seriously, so don’t be afraid, and don’t chicken out. Just keep at it.”

Sinseo told them to get some more air before going back inside.

Jichan leaned on the wall and stretched out his arms.

“Isn’t he awesome?”

“Yes, he’s awesome,” Maru replied with a smile.

“Maru.”

“Yes?”

“What should I do? I get what the director’s saying, but I just can’t do it once the shoot begins. Was I this stupid?”

“Don’t blame yourself. No one’s good from the beginning.”

“I know that, but it’s driving me nuts because I need to do it right now but can’t. Hey, do you read news articles?”

“News articles? I looked some up related to the drama. There was nothing about me though.”

“You’ve seen the comments there too, right?”

“I did, I guess.”

“What did they say?”

Maru looked up at the sky. “This and that.”

“Weren’t there a lot of comments about how an idol is arrogantly trying to sneak in again?”

“You’re concerned about that?”

“Sure I am. I will never get used to toxic comments until I die. Maybe it’s because I’m introverted.”

“Who cares if you get insulted a little? They’re insulting you without even watching it. They’re those that’ll turn around if you do well.”

“What if I don’t do well?”

“…Who cares if you get insulted a little?”

Maru repeated the same words. Jichan giggled after hearing that.

“Yeah, I guess I’m going to get a lot of insults.”

Jichan snapped up from leaning against the wall.

“Hyung.”

Maru called out to Jichan who was stumbling his way forward.

“Yeah?”

“Try calling me a son of a bitch.”

After Story 91

Jichan looked at Maru, who was smiling at him. That was rather sudden, asking him to swear. He needed an explanation.

He had been trying very hard not to use harsh words until now, even in private places. He had seen numerous seniors and juniors who ruined their images because of saying a single wrong word. He did not want to ruin the idol life that he staked his life on with just words.

“That’s rather sudden.”

“There’s this thing I heard,” Maru said, “that all people wear a mask. I might sound like a bad guy who labels people as those that are different on the outside from the inside, but it’s not that. Apparently, people wear masks as some defense mechanism.”

“Defense mechanism?”

“I’m sure you know better than me since you have more social experience. There are many times when you have to smile even after hearing something disgusting. If you accept everything other people say wholeheartedly, people just don’t last, apparently. Those who endure supposedly reached nirvana a long time ago.”

“As you say, if you pay attention to everything like that, people will have to visit the psychologist constantly.”

“Exactly. That’s why it almost becomes impossible to have a social life if you respond sensitively and directly to everything that attacks you. That’s why people compromise and wear masks. The me behind the mask can frown and retort if I hear something disgusting, but it won’t be displayed on the mask. People who have a clear distinction of that can apparently maintain a very clean mental state.”

“What does that have to do with swearing though?” Jichan focused on Maru’s words.

This young brother, who said he had started acting not too long ago, was very calm during shoots contrary to his words. He looked proficient even as he exchanged words with the director and when exchanging opinions with other actors.

Even Jichan himself found the set unfamiliar despite having numerous stage experiences, but Maru looked used to being here as though he had been here for a long time. It meant that Maru possessed the knowledge and attitude that Jichan needed.

“To my eyes, you look like someone who meticulously keeps that boundary. I’m sure that’s the case. Since you have an occupation that puts you in front of the masses, I think it’s a good thing that you become more cautious. But how about when it comes to acting?”

Maru put two fingers in the air before continuing to speak,

“I believe that actors can be separated into two large categories. The first are actors who can act proficiently even with their masks on, while the second are actors who can’t display their skills if they put their masks on. There’s no good or bad between the two. It’s a matter of personal traits after all. There are people who can meticulously separate themselves and the character they’re playing and act objectively, while there are people who cannot act without accepting the character within themselves.”

“Method acting, you mean?”

“Yes. It’s a form of acting that synchronizes you and the character to the extreme. Those kinds of actors cannot wear masks. They look terribly awkward the moment they try to separate the character from themselves.”

“I think I’m quite absorbed in it though.”

“That’s exactly it. I’m saying that that may perhaps not suit you.”

Jichan exclaimed inwardly. What Maru was suggesting was not acting that synchronizes with the character, but acting that observes and designs from the outside.

“Of course, I told you there are two types of acting methodologically, but they should ultimately boil down to one. You should wear clothes that suit your style first and hone your senses before trying your hand at other types of fashion. Eventually, you’ll be able to handle all of it, but the starting point should be different.”

“When you told me to swear…”

“It’s hard to do, isn’t it? I’m sure it is. That’s how you trained yourself after all. On the contrary, how is the character ‘Park Seok-oh’ that you’re playing?”

“He’s a hot-tempered investigator. He can’t stand injustice, he’s rough, proactive, and reckless.”

“Park Seok-oh should have said son of a bitch on the spot.”

“He wouldn’t hesitate, yeah.”

“But you aren’t Park Seok-oh, yet you do have to act him out.”

Jichan’s lips itched. The faint smell of cigarettes in the air stimulated his desire to smoke. He felt hasty.

It was a similar sensation to when he was urgently looking for his phone when he suddenly came up with a melody and lyrics that he wanted to write.

He felt like something was within grasp.

“You’re an enthusiastic person. You’re just as passionate as the character Park Seok-oh, which is why you climbed to where you are. However, isn’t the method of expression different? It shouldn’t be a problem if you were someone who could easily push yourself into a character, but if you can’t, you’ll have to change your ways.”

“I heard that getting absorbed in the emotions and ultimately becoming the character itself is the best form of acting. That’s how I practiced as well.”

“How could there be good and bad ways of acting? Just because you do method acting doesn’t mean that you don’t analyze that character. You do everything in parallel.”

“So you’re telling me not to force myself to become Park Seok-oh, but to act the Park Seok-oh of my imagination?”

“Try doing that first. Don’t ask ‘what would Park Seok-oh have done?’, ask ‘what would I have done if I was in his shoes?’ Depending on who you ask, there might be actors who say that this is wrong, but I’m of the opinion that you should try experiencing it even if it’s wrong. Also, is there an answer to acting? Who would dare say that there’s a concrete equation in acting? Ultimately, acting is a form of abstract art that expresses something that’s not you, so it’s contradictory to say that there’s an answer. Even God probably can’t define the right answer, you know?”

After saying that, Maru looked at his phone.

“Hyung, we should go back now. I think the director’s coming too.”

He saw director Cha and the others walking towards the building in the direction that Maru was looking at. Break time was over.

Jichan walked back into the set. The space that stifled him until just 10 minutes ago somehow felt relaxing to him. The things he thought were different finally looked like they weren’t out of place.

The cameras, lights, production crew, as well as time.

He was always on top of the stage. He sang and danced in front of people. That too was a form of acting. However, the one he acted on stage was not Yoo Jichan, but the ‘idol Jichan’.

He finally understood what Maru said. He always put distance between the two. While Yoo Jichan and Jichan were the same, they were also different. From the moment he became an idol trainee to now, he always put some distance between the two.

“There’s no way it will change in one go.” He chuckled in vain as he looked at the script.

He got on the stage in an outfit that didn’t suit him, so it was no wonder that his choreography was terrible.

A beginner actor could make mistakes and that would be a form of education, but before he was a beginner actor, he was the lead character of this drama.

Mistake? A pro who gets paid to do work making mistakes?

Right now, he shouldn’t be choosing a new, revolutionary method, but the method that he was used to. As Maru said, method acting was something he had to try at a later time.

Jichan gave up on becoming Park Seok-oh, and instead, put on Park Seok-oh’s mask. He was going to express Park Seok-oh’s actions using Yoo Jichan’s thought process. Erasing himself completely and becoming one with the character was something he had to do at a later time.

* * *

“Wave your arms right here.”

“Like this?”

“Yes.”

“Director. I thought about it, but how is this?”

Director Cha and Jichan continued to converse at the desk.

Jichan still caused some NGs and had not found the center of his acting yet, so his character was all over the place and he made a lot of mistakes in his lines as well. It was natural. If someone could change based on a few pieces of advice, humans would have conquered the universe by now.

“I’ll try again,” Jichan said with a voice filled with vitality.

His acting did not change, but his attitude was visibly different. He no longer looked hesitant and lost.

Whether that change would bring about a good result or not, was something hard to predict. However, Maru believed that Jichan would bring about positive results.

Jichan was someone who had reached the top of the idol market where both skills and luck were mandatory. There was no way he would miss the clue to success.

“He’s gotten some confidence,” Sinseo said.

“I’m sure he just realized that he’s actually a great guy. I’m sure he’ll do better in acting.”

“Jichan told me that you said some good words to him.”

“I just told him some words I picked up from people around me. If that was helpful, that shouldn’t be because of me, but because of his own capabilities. You know those people who ask where their phone is when they have it right in their hands, right? He just got confused for a second, but he is no longer now.”

“Cut!”

Director Cha stood up in front of the monitor again.

Jichan clutched his face and apologized.

Maru smiled as he looked at the two people who were together once again.

“Looks like he’s still lost.”

“If he does it immediately after realizing it, then he wouldn’t be human. He would be superhuman.”

Sinseo hung his arm around Maru’s shoulder.

“It was at the dinner event after the first read-through. I had an opportunity to speak to Sir Yoon, and he talked about you.”

“You mean Sir Yoon Moonjoong?”

“Yes. He said that kids these days are really good at acting and mentioned your name. He watched the film that you were in and said that he was surprised to see a young fellow act like that.”

“That somehow puts pressure on me.”

“It should. That’s what it means to receive someone’s expectations.”

Sinseo laughed and took his arm off.

“Do your best. Do well and come across good works. Only then will we be able to work together. I feel like it’s going to be fun acting with you. That’s why I’m looking forward to it too.”

The FD approached Sinseo. It seemed that it was time for Sinseo’s appearance.

Sinseo grabbed his jacket and walked to director Cha, who was in the middle of the set.

“Hyung.”

Maru picked up the script that Sinseo left behind. Sinseo thanked him before taking the script.

Maru looked at the two people shooting from the corner of the set where no light reached him.

Jichan was still being led by the nose by Sinseo’s acting. This power balance would probably never change until the end of the drama.

It might be a disappointment from Jichan’s perspective, but as a whole, it wasn’t that bad. A drama led by a single strong actor would at least do well in terms of sales.

One of the immutable truths in the TV industry was that having a good character contributed to half the success.

SInseo’s character was perfect.

I can’t imagine anyone other than Park Sinseo playing that role – this would probably be the majority opinion once it was aired. Many people would also say that they were watching this drama purely because of Park Sinseo.

“How much bigger do I need to become if I want to work with him?”

Maru took out his phone and sat down on the floor. It was going past 11 p.m.

He did expect that this would be rather taxing, but he didn’t know that he would be staying up the night starting on the second day of the shoot.

At this pace, the drama shoot would become a war past the halfway point; a terrible war of stamina.

It was fortunate that he only had a minor role. Maru opened the script. After these two days of shoots, he wouldn’t have any appearances until next week.

The next time he is called, he would be going somewhere else, not the set in Tanhyeon. He had to shoot his death scene after all.

“Okay, cut! Next.”

“Actors, please stand by.”

Maru stood up as he looked at the crew member that was looking for him.

The night was long, and the camera did not get turned off.

Thinking that he would have to spend the night at the local jjimjilbang, he stepped off.

After Story 92

“Please wait a moment. The president usually handles exclusive contracts himself. He said he’ll be here soon, so please wait for just a little as you drink this.”

Maru received the cup and spoke, “Please don’t mind me and do your work.”

The hesitant employee eventually closed the door to the guest room and left. Maru looked at the foggy yellow drink in the cup before putting it against his mouth. It seemed like some kind of tea with a fruity smell added on top of a green tea base.

When he kept sipping on it, he found himself finishing it in no time. He wanted to know what brand of tea this was.

He reached out to the shelf to his left. There were various magazines ranging from news topics to culture. He grabbed a random one, and it was a travel magazine. When he went past the ads at the front, he saw an article written by the head editor. It was an article about how traveling on bikes is such a taxing thing, written with some jokes. The writing was good, and it made him read without looking at the passage of time.

“Sorry to make you wait.” Junmin opened the door and came in.

He was wearing a navy blue jacket and a white t-shirt with a round neck. He had a young fashion style that couldn’t be seen from someone nearing sixty. It seemed that Junmin was at the epitome of self-management even in this life.

“Thinking of going traveling?” Junmin said as he sat down.

Maru closed the magazine. “If I have the leisure.”

“Personally, traveling is most fun if you go without any time or money. If you have room, it might be more comfortable, but it might be lacking on the fun side.”

“I personally prefer enjoying a relaxing stay at a hotel.”

“At your age, don’t you dream about going overseas with a single backpack? People around your age prefer guest houses over hotels. I recently found out that people use their personal houses to run lodging businesses. One of our employees rented someone’s house in San Francisco and went on a tour there.”

“Such romantic aspects are good too, but each of the things you have to do is an obstacles. If you look closely, being romantic might be synonymous with going through hardships. I’ll choose to sleep quietly on a comfy bed.”

“Actually, that is for the best.”

Junmin gave him the file that he brought with him.

“Call it a jinx, if you will, but I found that signing the contract here usually makes the actor do well and not run into accidents. I don’t believe in god or any other religion, but as a businessman, I ended up following old habits.”

“There’s no need to change what’s perfectly fine.”

“Are you religious, Mr. Maru?”

“I’m not religious, but I do think that god exists. Oh, that doesn’t mean that I believe in him though.”

“You admit the existence of god but don’t believe in him?”

“Yes. I feel like I’m making losses if I do. If things go well, it’s my effort. If things go bad, then it’s my fault. That just makes things easier for me.”

“You’re similar to me in that regard.”

“It’s not fun to think that someone you don’t know the face or name of is dictating your life.”

Maru opened the file. He saw two copies of the exclusive contract. He took one out of the file and had a closer look.

“If I leave aside the normal stuff and talk about the important things, the exclusive contract period will be 5 years and the contract deposit will be 50 million. The revenue split will be 70-30. You will take 70, Mr. Maru. When it comes to sales distribution, every profit made through your activities as an actor will be split according to that ratio between you and the agency after deducting expenses. As for expenses, it refers to everything that requires money while the actor works.”

“Managers, styling, makeup, fuel, meals, lodging, profiling, and the like, I see.”

“Yes, those kinds of things.”

“Taxes arising from the profits will be on the actor, right?”

The other clauses were all in accordance with the norms of the industry. The contract deposit though, was slightly large considering that it was for a new recruit. Considering that many agencies signed the contracts without any form of deposit, it could be seen how much JA Entertainment treated their new actors.

The most important thing was tax. Most of the time, new actors made less than 10 million won per year, so there was no need to worry about taxes. In fact, with some proper procedures, the actor might receive tax refunds. The problem was when the profit went over a certain point.

According to the tax rates, once the money earned was in the hundreds of millions, the NTS, National Tax Service, would take more than the agency.

It might look like he was thinking too far ahead into the future, but since he had the knowledge, he couldn’t help but be meticulous. Haneul also took this into consideration, which was the reason she gave up on the exclusive contract fee and reduced the contract period. With the confidence to grow big, it was much more beneficial to reduce the contract period.

“Usually, that’s how it’s handled.”

Maru nodded. He had already made the decision anyway. As long as there weren’t any malicious clauses in the contract, he was going to sign the contract without a second thought.

JA Entertainment, that is, Lee Junmin was worth doing so.

He recalled back to his previous life. He actually offered 300 million won to a person like this. It was rather funny that Junmin even accepted it.

“Is there a problem?”

He chuckled due to thinking about the old times. Junmin asked because he saw his expression.

“I just remembered what happened to someone I know. President, what would you do if a new actor who has nothing on him wants you to buy his time for 300 million?”

“If it’s someone I’ve taken a liking to, I will listen to him. Then I’ll contemplate whether that fellow is worth the 300 million or not.”

“If you find the value in it, would you give it to him?”

“Sure. It’s not a problem since I can just make more off him later. Do you also want 300 million won?”

Maru smiled and shook his head. Back then, the 300 million won he received wasn’t something he got after proving his worth. It was the price of selling his time. It was a guarantee for fully throwing himself into acting. He was in a different situation back then.

Maru got ready to take out his name stamp and read the last page. Clauses related to contracts were laid out, and at the end was the clause about tax. He leaned forward and read the tax clause at the end once again. He thought he had read wrong, but he didn’t.

“This tax clause at the end. This isn’t a typo, is it?”

“Why, unsatisfied?”

“No, it’s way too good that I’m doubting it.”

Taxes weren’t handled by the actor. Under a certain amount, the actor was required to pay the taxes, but as the tax rates increased, there were parts that the agency would pay in the actor’s stead.

This was a method that agencies used when they didn’t want to miss top stars. Either they would adjust the revenue split to 90:10, or 100:0 in extreme cases, or pay a portion of the actor’s taxes.

“I might not be able to give you profit immediately, but the more I earn, the more the company will lose.”

“It will not be a loss if you become an actor recognized by everyone, Mr. Maru. It’s true that an actor’s guarantee in their work is one of the forms of income for JA, but that’s not all. There are many more cases where the actor’s name value becomes much more desirable. Investors look at the names of the actors affiliated with JA, not the title of JA itself.”

“I do know that to a certain extent, but I didn’t know you’d include this clause for a new actor.”

“I have to give the proper treatment if I want to grab hold of a good actor. Now then, what would you do? It’s okay even if you take it home and read through it a little more.”

Maru put the two copies of the contract together and spoke, “I see no need to wait. I want this company to get a hold of me.”

He took out his stamp from his pocket. These conditions were much better than he had initially anticipated. He was even worried that the contract might be changed here.

“Let us fill the gaps before the stamping process.”

Junmin smiled and gave him a pen. Maru put down the stamp he clenched in his hand and grabbed the pen.

* * *

“It’s really cold.”

Seungah gathered her hands together and blew warm air into them. As there was news about the worst cold in winter in many years, she felt like everything from her toes to her hair was going to freeze. Had she known that thing would be like this, she would’ve packed some hot packs beforehand.

“Hey hey! Catch him.”

Jichan, who was running outside the restaurant, fell on top of the pavement. Seungah, who was watching, covered her mouth. The production staff all rushed out and looked at how Jichan was doing.

“It’s okay, I didn’t fall over that hard,” Jichan said as he showed them his hand, which had gotten cut.

Director Cha shouted to put more sand on the ground.

The shoot halted for a moment.

Seungah got on her tiptoes and looked at Jichan surrounded by the staff members. He was getting ointment and a band-aid put on him.

“Director. This won’t look that off, will it?” Jichan asked as he showed the band-aid on his palm.

“It shouldn’t matter. But are you really okay?”

“Of course. I’ve fallen over on stage many times, so this much is nothing.”

“You aren’t holding back even though it hurts, are you? It’ll be much bigger trouble if it turns out that you got a fractured bone or something and it swells up later. You can go to the hospital now since it’ll become much more troublesome later.”

“I’m really okay. I’m a real scaredy-cat you know? If I was hurt, I wouldn’t be here like this. So you can continue the shoot. We should go through the scenes we have to do today.”

Jichan dusted himself and stood up. Watching him smile, Seungah thought that Jichan was pretty decent. He had a pretty face that was fairer than most girls, so he didn’t look like he was suited to be a crime investigator, and she thought that his acting would be awkward, but seeing him on set, it felt quite different.

His attitude towards acting was also rather serious.

“You can’t take it off right away, so let’s reshoot the previous cut. We’ll pretend as if you had that on you the whole time.”

“Yes.”

Seungah also got ready when she heard that the previous cut was going to be reshot. A staff member turned the gas stove on. The camera also entered the restaurant again.

“We’re shooting this again because of me. I’m sorry.”

Seungah looked at Jichan sitting at the table. She felt embarrassed because he was apologizing for something he didn’t have to.

“It’s not that weird during shoots. But rather than that, are you really okay?”

“Yes. I’m really okay. But it’s such a pity. It would’ve been good if I didn’t fall over. I just had that feeling you know? Ah, I’m going to look cool if I run like this! But hey, I guess I fell over.”

“You should watch out. The ground’s frozen solid today, so you might get in big trouble if you fall over.”

She got to converse with a Korean Wave star like this. Seungah smiled before thinking about her line. It was a cut that already received an ‘okay’ from the director, so it shouldn’t be a problem this time either.

“Did I go this way last time?” Jichan asked as he grabbed the table.

Seungah pointed to the right.

“Yes, you turned around there and ran out.”

“Thanks.”

As they were going through the lines, she saw Han Maru among the staff members walking by. She did hear that he had a shoot today, however, she heard that it was in a different place, and it was supposed to be at night. And 10 a.m. was definitely not night.

She waved at Maru. Maru was greeting the director and didn’t see her.

“Oh, he’s here,” Jichan said.

She wondered who he was referring to and found out that his eyes were on Maru.

She asked in reflex, “You know Maru?”

Jichan turned around. He looked like he was asking her if she knew him.

“He’s a friend of mine.”

“Really?”

Jichan reached his hand out as though he was happy. A handshake even though they introduced themselves to each other a long time ago? She was rather taken aback, but she grabbed it anyway.

Meanwhile, Maru came over.

“What are you two doing?”

“Maru, I heard you are friends with this person, right? That makes her a friend of my friend, so I was saying hi,” Jichan said.

Friend of a friend? It shouldn’t be that actors who work on the same set would definitely become close, but Maru and Jichan looked like they were long-time friends.

“Hyung, you’re too cruel, telling me to come and watch early if I don’t have anything to do.”

“That’s why I’m thanking you like this.”

Jichan stood up and hugged Maru. He swayed left and right and smiled brightly.

What the heck was up with this? Seungah looked at the two of them in puzzlement.

After Story 93

“Senior, here’s your coffee.”

Cha Myungjoon received the canned coffee. It was much hotter than the hot pack.

“I heard there’s a heavy snow warning,” said the assistant director next to him.

“We just have to pray that it doesn’t snow. We came outside to shoot, so it’d be terrible if it snows.”

“Yeah. We just have to hope that the weather forecast is wrong like it always is.”

The assistant director looked up at the sky.

Myungjoon also looked up. The sky was rather gloomy. It wouldn’t be strange if it started snowing at any moment.

Even as he hoped that it wouldn’t come, a part of his mind was already thinking about readjusting the schedule. If it did snow, he would have to cancel the shoot and reschedule.

There were many actors who couldn’t take their time off too. Myungjoon nervously drank the coffee.

“It should be fine if it snows for the warehouse scene. How’s the park we looked at last time?”

“We’ll be doomed if it snows there.”

“Let’s say it snowed. How long would it take to remove all the snow in the frame?”

“If we want to get rid of all of that, we’ll have to bring everyone in the crew and sweep away for hours with a broom. Or, we’ll have to shrink the frame.”

“Let’s just pray it doesn’t snow. Either of those options sounds terrible.”

“It’ll be great if it rains instead.”

“Yeah.”

Myungjoon downed his coffee in one go and stood up.

“Just in case, look for a few other places that have the same atmosphere. There should be a place that has less snow.”

“Okay.”

He looked inside the restaurant. Jichan and Maru were talking to each other. Jichan looked better than when he just started the shoot.

“Why the hell are you here so early?” Myungjoon approached and asked. Maru’s scene was supposed to be in the afternoon.

“Jichan-hyung told me to come if I didn’t have anything to do. A big actor was telling me to come so what choice do I have?”

Hearing Maru’s words, Jichan waved his hand in the air in denial. He seemed startled by the word ‘big actor.’

Myungjoon laughed as he looked at the two. Regardless of the reason, Maru’s presence seemed to have influenced Jichan’s condition positively.

“Get ready. It’s a cut we’ve shot before, so let’s get it done quickly.”

“Yes.”

“Also, watch out for your body. If you get injured, we all get in big trouble.”

“I’ll be careful,” Jichan said, hiding his injured hand behind him.

Myungjoon thought he’d be slightly arrogant since he had a taste of what popularity was like, but Jichan went about the shoot like he was a new actor. It was good to see, and at the same time, it gave Myungjoon a sense of responsibility. After all, it would mean that he was not up to par if he could not produce good results with an enthusiastic person.

“Get ready,” Myungjoon said as he sat down in front of the monitor. The FD, who was standing at the entrance of the restaurant, signaled everyone that the shoot was going to begin.

He could see the actors tensing up through the camera. He looked at their expressions before giving the cue sign when he thought the moment was right.

“Thanks.”

A minor actor put down a bowl of gukbap in front of Jichan.

Just as Jichan picked up the spoon and was about to take a scoop, he gave the signal. Jichan, who put his phone against his ears, looked outside the restaurant with a serious expression. His eyes moved slowly, and his voice was deeper than before. His acting had become better than last time.

“Okay. I’ll go there right now.”

Jichan stood up from his seat and left to the right side of the camera. The minor actor from before shouted at his back.

“Sir, aren’t you going to eat this?”

“I’ll come back later.”

Jichan grabbed the restaurant door and left. Myungjoon shouted cut right at that moment. It was clean.

There were no wasted movements that he caught through the camera. The sense of urgency from his actions looked good as well.

“Okay let’s move,” Myungjoon stood up and spoke.

He couldn’t stop the snow, so they had to speed up the shoot.

He rubbed his fingertips and reached out to the sky. It felt more humid than when they began shooting.

“This is driving me crazy.”

He picked up the tray that had the monitor on it. Every bit of manpower was precious right now.

* * *

“Why aren’t you going?” Maru said.

Seungah replied as she sniffled, “Today’s the day you get off the drama. I’m staying to watch. I’ll treat you out afterward.”

“It might end late.”

“If it looks like it’s going to be too late, of course, I’m leaving first.”

“I admire your loyalty to your friend.”

Seungah smiled and looked forward. Park Sinseo and Lee Haena were talking as they were walking around the lake. If it weren’t for the camera and the lights right up against them, they would look like a good-looking couple.

“The two of them look good together.”

“Why don’t you be honest? You’re here just to watch Sinseo-hyung, aren’t you?”

“Do you take me for such a fickle woman? Geez, look at you speak. Since Sinseo-oppa and Haena-unni are there, I’m just watching them since I have to wait for you. No, I’m not just watching them either. I’m studying acting from them too.”

The two actors walking by the lake suddenly stopped. They looked around before turning around to the reed field.

The lights and the camera started moving hurriedly. This was the fifth shoot already. It was a scene where it was important for the actors and the staff to be in sync.

Sinseo roughly made his way through the reed field. Seungah couldn’t help but screech when she saw the fierceness in his eyes. She really wished to see the monitor right next to the director, but she couldn’t dare to do so. As unfortunate as it was, she had to be satisfied with just looking through the small screen.

“This is it.”

He looked like a detective that just caught onto a clue. Sinseo usually had a wild beauty in his eyes, and although they looked sharp now, he looked even more handsome.

How many women would not be shaken after seeing that?

Just as she was looking into the small monitor with her breath abated, a head appeared in her field of vision, it was the back of Maru’s head.

“Look at him acting. It’s fierce.”

Seungah quickly pushed Maru’s head out of the way. How dare he block her sight when Sinseo-oppa was acting.

Maru, who was pushed to the side, chuckled before turning around.

“Cut! Turn the camera to the other side. Sinseo, see me for a second.”

Director Cha stood up as though he managed to get some satisfactory footage. Seungah looked at Sinseo, who was talking to director Cha before turning around. She couldn’t see Maru, who had stepped back. Where’d he go?

She tiptoed and looked around. She saw Maru next to the reeds being blown away by the winter wind. It was also where the lake ended. Maru was looking at an old bench and a rusted trash can and was muttering something.

“What are you doing?”

She approached him and tapped him on the shoulder. Maru turned around abruptly.

Seungah flinched when she saw his face. It was terribly distorted.

“Wh-what’s up with you? You hurt?”

Maru, who was agonizing like he was about to cry at any second, relaxed his expression as though nothing had happened.

“I was just practicing.”

“What?”

“I felt like we were going to move soon.”

Maru smiled. Seungah straightened her shoulders. It was for a brief moment, but she was truly startled. She couldn’t think of it as acting. She thought for sure that a problem had occurred, but it turned out that he was just practicing.

Seungah crossed her arms and watched Maru. Maru was muttering as he was looking at the script. Whenever his mouth moved, his expression changed to a different one; from a smile to a crying face — Maru went between two extremes like it was nothing.

She couldn’t even tell what he was doing. What kind of practice was he doing?

“If you’re bored, would you like to accompany me in my practice?” Maru said.

Seungah looked behind her. Sinseo and Haena were getting ready for the shoot. From how camera rails were being installed, it seemed to be a dynamic scene. She wanted to watch it. As a fan, it would make her happy to just watch them.

She grabbed the script that Maru handed her. This was strange. Compared to watching the two actors passionately acting behind her, she wanted to see Maru’s acting, even though it was a teeny tiny difference.

It wasn’t because they were friends. She was moved as an actress. That day, on the day of the drama audition, the acting that Maru showed her provoked a sense of urgency within her. His act made her think that she might actually fail.

Quite a bit of time had passed since then. How much would Maru have honed his acting?

“Do I have to start here?”

“Yeah. Do it for real since you’re doing it anyway.”

“Fine, I’ll do it real good. Where’s the knife?”

Maru chuckled and told her to take it easy. Seungah read the narration and read the lines of the killer and got into the mood. Now that she thought about it, she had never properly acted with Maru. He felt like a long-time friend, but based on dates alone, it hadn’t even been half a year since they got to know each other. There wasn’t that much time to do something with him.

She removed any sort of mischievousness. Although she was seeing these lines for the first time today, she was going to do her best. She had an unknown sense of expectation. It became even bigger when she saw Maru getting ready.

“You can start,” Maru said.

Seungah licked her lips. What would this fellow, who supposedly learned his acting skills from the internet, show her this time? Seungah took her eyes off the script and said the first line.

* * *

-Don’t stray off somewhere strange.

“Hyung, did you ever see me go somewhere weird?”

-I haven’t. I’m saying this just in case. But hey, you said you were done with your shoot, so why are you staying there?

“Someone I know has his last shoot today. He also came in the morning to watch me. I was feeling thankful, so I was going to eat out with him afterward.”

-No alcohol. You know that you can’t be drinking until the concert, right?

“This isn’t my first time. Of course I’m not going to drink. So don’t worry and rest up.”

The oldest member of the group told him to be careful and hung up.

Jichan put on the hood of his padded jacket. The wind was frosty and sharp. It wasn’t like this in the morning.

“Hey, get rid of that one over there, and that one too! Let’s get this done quickly.”

As the night deepened and the temperature dropped, the staff became more sensitive. Jichan moved to the side so that he didn’t bother anyone. The messy warehouse was being cleaned.

“You step backward here. Jungho, you carefully but quickly shrink the distance.”

Director Cha was doing a rehearsal with the two actors. They were Maru and Choi Jungho.

This was the first time he saw Choi Jungho after the read-through. He was an actor who played the killer at the very beginning of the drama, and he looked very different after he had makeup on.

If someone who looked like that was chasing with a knife, he would probably beg and ask for mercy.

The two actors started acting. The action director explained from the side, and the two people put it into action.

There were many rough actions. It would be easier if they got each action in separate cuts, but from the way they were practicing, it seemed that they were going to cram it all into one cut

Jungho swung the prop knife. Maru fell back at the right time before falling over. He fell over quite hard and it made Jichan worry that he was injured. He could see some of the staff walking over as well.

Maru dusted his clothes and stood up, his face smiling.

“Was that good?”

“Do something like that once the camera’s rolling. Don’t make people frightened.”

Jichan approached to a distance where he could hear their conversation. Maru made eye contact with him and looked at him in puzzlement before smiling.

The two actors resumed practice. Swinging a knife, falling back, and mounting. These were all tricky actions to do. It was even more difficult to do them in series, but the biggest problem was that there was a risk of injury should the timing be off.

Unlike his expectation, Maru seemed to have learned action acting from somewhere. It was a wonder that he could digest all the instructions from the action director.

“Well, then. Let’s start,” said director Cha.

They were finally shooting the scene that would decorate the end of the second episode.

Jichan greeted the director and stood right behind him to look at the monitor.

He hoped that Maru would do well. Just as he was having such thoughts, a person entered his vision. It was the actress he acted with in the morning. She also said that she was friends with Maru. Seungah was her name.

She seemed to be waiting for Maru. Jichan approached Seungah.

“You can’t see properly over there, so come over here.”

“Can I?”

“It should be fine as long as you don’t bother the director.”

He stood behind the director with Seungah. Everyone was absorbed in watching the monitor, so no one took interest in someone standing behind them.

Just as he was about to say that it was okay and looked back at her, he saw that Seungah’s eyes looked strange. She didn’t look like someone who was watching her friend acting. She looked somewhat taken aback.

“Did something happen?” Jichan asked.

Did she perhaps get into a quarrel with Maru? No, if that happened, there was no reason for her to stay here and watch him act.

Seungah smiled awkwardly. She touched the back of her neck and spoke,

“I was just feeling jealous.”

She said something incomprehensible before focusing on the monitor again.

After Story 94

Jealousy. Seungah smiled bitterly after uttering that word. It was a word she never thought she would use. Only after saying it did she realize what she said. She looked at Jichan who looked at her in puzzlement before shaking her head.

“Hey, hey! It’s snowing!” someone shouted.

Seungah reflexively raised her head. She couldn’t see it clearly due to the strong lighting, but she soon saw snow falling. At first, they were like bits of salt, but they soon became thicker.

“I wonder if this is going to pile,” Jichan muttered.

Seungah put her hand inside her pocket. The weather was teeth-clatteringly cold. The snow should pile up without melting down. The shooting location was already quite bustling, but there was a mess after people heard that it was snowing.

A cover was drawn over the camera that was shooting inside the warehouse from the outside. The lighting equipment was also moved slightly as well. It was rather fortunate that the shoot was done inside the warehouse. If it was a place without a roof, the shoot would’ve come to a halt.

The scattering snow stopped for a brief moment. Under director Cha’s instructions, people moved around busily. Even the actors gathered around the heater went over to the camera.

Seungah looked at Maru exchanging words with his opposing actor. He looked more relaxed than when he was practicing. Back when he was practicing, there was a sense of sharp tension around him, but now he felt more rounded.

Well, if he had practiced to such a degree of perfection, he must be enjoying the shoot.

Seungah recalled the barrel reed field. She thought back to the act Maru showed there.

It was rough yet delicate. The moment she saw the eyes filled with fear, she couldn’t just utter the lines moderately. She put emotions into the lines in order to keep up with Maru. She focused so that she could become a killer who knew the taste of blood and was suited to be with the crime investigator nearing death.

However, it was no good. The acting she displayed did not fit in with the act that Maru showed her. It was an act meant for someone else, and she had never practiced that before, so it was natural that she was bad at it. It was supposed to be natural, but she wanted to do it.

They did it several times over. After some time, she was so into it that she couldn’t tell whether it was her or Maru who was the one practicing. Even then, she was lacking. Whenever Maru exploded with the accumulated emotions, she wasn’t able to hold herself together and got swayed by him.

She felt like she had become a mirror, a mirror that just displayed the emotions that Maru showed. She told Maru to do it once again when Maru said that it was enough, but she immediately retracted it. She was sweating profusely under her jacket. She had been so immersed that she forgot about the cold. Despite that, it didn’t feel like she had acted with Maru. She only followed the path that Maru showed her.

It was a vain yet incredible experience. That was also when the feelings of jealousy sprouted.

* * *

Maru stepped backward just as Choi Jungho stabbed out with the knife. Jungho stepped out with his right foot in a large stride to decrease the distance.

One back step and then injury.

Maru looked at the knife that dug into his armpit. They were perfectly in sync.

“I think that just about does it,” he said with a smile.

“Was the speed of the knife okay?” Jungho retracted his knife.

“I think I can react even if you do it slightly faster.”

“Then let’s do it once more before the camera rolls. It’s a prop knife, but you’ll get bruised if you get hit on a soft spot.”

They tried doing it again. The action director watching from the side revised Jungho’s position for a bit, saying that he had to stab out a little more to make it look better.

“Mr. Maru, you’re really good at spinning. Did you do it somewhere before?”

“I like action movies. I just practiced by myself while watching many things.”

“You have good senses for that to be true. When Jungho slashes sideways, do you think you can watch it until the last moment before falling back? Watching you made me greedy. It’ll look really good if we don’t separate the cuts and can do it in one cue. If you can, I’ll talk to the director about it myself.”

“Shall I try?”

The action director told him to take into consideration that the camera was shooting from the side. If it was shooting from the side and not the back, there should not be any dead angles. When being stabbed from the back, he just had to pretend to get stabbed at the right time even if the knife didn’t appear in front of him, but when shooting from the side he would have to control the distance accurately.

If the knife drew across thin air but scattered blood anyway, that wouldn’t be a drama, it would be a comedy.

He talked to Jungho for a few minutes. In action scenes, trust in each other was just as important as skill. Neither of them would get hurt only if they stabbed and got stabbed according to the agreement.

“Here, like this.”

Jungho stabbed to the left. Maru twisted his body slightly.

“And then again like this.”

Jungho pushed his shoulder forward. This was about getting the flow right, so there was no need to be rough. Maru pretended to have been bumped in the shoulder and stepped backward. Jungho came at him again. He retracted the knife and stabbed out again. Maru dodged and glared at him, while Jungho slashed sideways.

“Let’s do this part again.”

Maru lowered his posture and looked at the knife coming at him.

Jungho said that he would do it for real. He charged with the right air about him. The knife came at him as though it was going to cut his nose. Maru watched until the very end before pulling back.

“You okay?” Jungho was startled and walked over. He was looking at the prop knife.

“I didn’t get cut,” Maru scratched his nose and said.

Jungho reached his hand out. Maru grabbed his hand and stood up.

“It’s been a long time since I did something so tightly. And it’s in a drama too.”

“We’re both dying thanks to the two directors.” Maru pointed at director Cha and the action director.

The action director was probably persuading director Cha to change the cut. Eventually, director Cha came over.

“Let’s have a look.”

Maru exchanged gazes with Jungho and got into position. They showed director Cha the action scene they had repeated many times. Their action had become much more intricate with more practice, so at the last bit, the prop knife brushed past Maru’s clothes.

“Will the two of you be okay with that?” director Cha asked worriedly.

Director Cha was definitely a good person compared to other people who would just go ahead with whatever looked good. Though, he might change with more experience.

“I’m okay with it. I’m not the one getting injured. It’s up to Mr. Maru here,” Jungho said.

Director Cha’s eyes then headed to him.

“Director, you know today’s my last day. It shouldn’t be a huge problem even if I get injured. Even if I do, it’ll be beneficial if it looks good.”

“You’re saying something scary. You shouldn’t take injuries lightly.”

“I’m just saying. As you saw, Mr. Jungho’s maneuvers are artistic. I’m not that slow either. As the action director says, I think it’ll look cool to go like this. What do you think?”

“Of course, it looks killer. It’s one of my wishes to parody the corridor hammer scene.”

“That one’s a little too far out of reach.”

Director Cha stroked his chin and looked inside the warehouse. The camera director had walked over as well.

“Senior, do you think we’ll get a good picture if we use a dolly shot?”

“Let’s have a look, with lighting and all.”

The camera came in. Maru and Jungho stood where the camera director instructed them to. Light shone down on them from either side.

“That’s some good contrast. The depth is good thanks to the materials behind it as well. I think orientation is good,” said the camera director.

Maru displayed some light action with Jungho. He could see the camera moving slowly above his head.

Director Cha, the camera director, and the action director all got together and had a talk. They seemed to have decided on a direction as the action director stopped talking to the other two and walked over.

“Let’s go with what you practiced last time.”

At the same time, there was a voice outside saying that it was snowing.

“Let’s shoot now.”

People moved. Maru and Jungho also practiced one last time. Maru could tell the trajectory of the knife with his eyes closed at this point. He was glad that he could be in sync with this actor.

“Get into position!” director Cha shouted in front of the monitor. Jungho stepped aside.

Maru waited for the signal at the entrance of the warehouse. The FD, who was instructed by director Cha through a walkie-talkie, gestured to him.

Maru ran in pace with the camera in front of him.

He panted heavily like he had been running at full strength and went inside the warehouse before falling down on his knees and breathing heavily. He intentionally used his shoulders to breathe. He opened his mouth and raised his chin. He dusted off his head with his left hand and looked around.

“You’re tiring me out. Why don’t you just go when you still have the chance?”

Park Uijung was a passionate new detective. He passed the police exam in one go and always talked about going to the crime investigation department during probation. He was someone who was enamored with the job of a detective. He was someone who had dreams about the cases that occurred there.

And right now, he was given the opportunity to achieve great things as a detective.

A new crime investigator catching a murder criminal? He was trembling slightly, but he was not afraid. The figure of the killer was not that large when he saw him while running away. He had the confidence that he could easily subdue him. He could already picture himself getting awarded by the Police Commissioner.

According to his senior, the one hiding inside the warehouse was a serial killer. If he managed to arrest this man by himself, getting an award was not too big of a dream. He had dreamt of becoming a police officer for the sake of the safety of the citizens, but it wasn’t that he didn’t have any desire for power.

He could get promoted to team leader, department leader, then section chief, then police chief, and so on, couldn’t he? This case might become the trigger. The inexperienced rookie treatment would be over once he subdued a murderer.

He looked at the warehouse sunken in darkness as he walked. The criminal had hidden in there. The door on the outside was firmly shut. He would have to run to the entrance if he wanted to escape.

“Let’s not make any trouble.”

He didn’t have any handcuffs, but he had cable ties. He pictured in his mind doing a suplex on the criminal.

The moment you are found is the moment you are caught.

He was excited. There was not a shred of fear in him. He felt like being a criminal investigator was his calling.

His heavy breathing returned to its original state as well. He was going to end it in one go the moment he caught sight of the criminal.

At that moment, he heard asphalt being scratched. He immediately turned sideways. The criminal was walking out of the darkness. He stopped his breathing and looked at the criminal.

“Cut.”

He heard a voice that woke up his mind.

Maru relaxed his expression. The thread of emotion was very taut right now. He opened his eyes halfway and stood still while looking at the ground. The camera moved around to his back. He and Jungho were now going to be shot together from the side.

He could let go of his emotions here, but he maintained the tension so that Jungho could immerse himself more when they acted together.

Jungho, who stood in front of him, also seemed to be of the same mind as his face was stiff despite the fact that the cue sign hadn’t appeared yet.

“Let’s go immediately.”

The shoot resumed. Maru looked at Jungho through Park Uijung’s eyes.

The criminal looked around with uneasy eyes. He seemed to be looking for any potential comrades.

He was now convinced. This man had a small figure and was afraid. Moreover, his victims were only women. He was a stereotypical killer who only exerted violence against targets he had superior strength over.

“Cut.”

Director Cha did not instruct anything. Only the camera changed locations. It meant that the acting was satisfactory.

The makeup artist came over and redid the makeup under his eyes. Maru maintained an excited expression. The makeup artist did not request him to relax his face or even talk to him at all.

She must be being considerate of the actor’s state.

“Just a little more inside.”

He could hear the camera director’s voice. A camera was mounted on top of straight rails. Light fixtures and a person with a boom mic stood next to it.

While the lighting was being set up, the action director came over.

“Both of you, read each other well. Keep moving before the shoot starts. The weather’s cold so you might make a mistake.”

Per the action director’s words, he kept moving. Eventually, preparations for the shoot were done. He got into position again.

“Let’s do this in one go. Be careful.”

The camera started rolling along with director Cha’s words.

After Story 95

He heard a light snap from his wrists that he cracked. He touched his nose as he walked forward. The criminal became wary and moved backward. There was no sign of resistance. It looked like he would give up and turn himself in if he coaxed him.

That wasn’t bad either. That was much smarter than using force to arrest him.

“It’s all over now. That place is a dead end. If you want to run, you would have to run past me, but can you do that? It must be hard for you so don’t bother,” he said as he looked into the criminal’s eyes. A killer was nothing special. This man was just trash who only targeted the weak.

He slowly approached the criminal. He recalled his senior telling him that the team always had to move in twos, but this was a special case. He couldn’t exactly tell a criminal to wait until another officer arrived.

His eyes perfectly adjusted to the darkness. He could now see the surrounding terrain as well instead of just the criminal. He couldn’t find any spots the criminal could use to run away. If he kept pressuring him like this, he should be able to arrest the criminal.

The criminal looked around before speaking,

“You by yourself?”

He chuckled.

“Does that change anything?”

From young, he had never lost a brawl. He could subdue a frail man instantly if he so wished. In fact, he would have to worry about not injuring him too much.

“You are taking me lightly too, aren’t you?”

“You just found that out?”

He provoked the criminal. It would be easier if the criminal got agitated, making his actions larger. This was a perfect strategy. Who would think of him as a rookie investigator?

He could imagine himself smiling amidst the shower of praises from his seniors. This would happen not too far in the future. It would be a reality as long as he could arrest the man in front of him.

The criminal, who was on guard from a distance, walked forward.

He inwardly smiled. So this man was coming at him now?

The criminal approached him without hesitation. Now, they were close enough for him to make out the criminal’s face.

He gulped. It wasn’t that he was nervous. Saliva just pooled in his mouth. He was much larger in terms of weight class and that should be the case in terms of experience as well. He had been doing sports for years after all. He would not get defeated by such a lean man.

He checked for escape routes once again. The criminal would definitely look for an opportunity to run toward the entrance, just like when he ran to the warehouse.

Honestly, he didn’t have the confidence to keep up if it was down to endurance. He was gasping for air after just chasing him down here after all. If this man ran towards an open space instead of a dead end like this, it would’ve been much harder to catch him.

The criminal put his left foot forward. Perhaps he was preparing to run away? Just as he got ready to act in response, he could see the criminal reach out to his inner jacket.

“I know pricks like you. You believe in your big bodies and act like you can do whatever you want. But do you know what? Being bigger just means that there are more places to stab.”

The criminal immediately rushed forward after taking out the knife.

He gasped and dodged. A sharp knife flashed past his face. He stopped in an awkward position and glared at the criminal.

This madman actually took out a knife? He must be out of his mind. He actually decided to kill a policeman.

He reached out to his waist, but he couldn’t find anything. This was bad. He left his vest with his pistol back at the office.

“You don’t have your gun with you, do you?”

The criminal’s eyes became a level sharper. He couldn’t even reply; his palms were sweaty. According to the field manual, facing a criminal holding a knife was no different from suicide. Not only that, he didn’t have the knife-resistant vest nor the extending rod.

He looked at the tip of the criminal’s knife. His vision had narrowed in on the knife and he couldn’t see anything else. He took one step back. The very best of his efforts allowed him to step that single step back.

His body suddenly didn’t listen to him anymore. The moment he turned around, he felt like that knife would pierce his body.

He felt stifled as though he fell back first. His head, filled with pleasing imaginations, had turned blank.

What colored that newly whitened page was his own figure turning red and falling down inside the warehouse.

Only then did reality hit him. The rookie investigator dreaming of success had disappeared, and all that was left was an ordinary citizen in front of a knife-wielding murderer.

He had never gotten stabbed before, but he could predict what would happen. He would be utterly powerless.

He looked left and right. There was nothing he could use as a weapon. The criminal didn’t miss that moment when the inside of his head turned into a mess.

The knife assaulted him. Now, the criminal looked like a giant knife to him. The slightest nick would chop his body.

He remembered the bodies of the victims. This man was someone who chopped apart the arms and even each finger joint to throw the bodies away.

The moment that knife touched him, he would no longer be a criminal investigator but simply an addition to the corpses being thrown away.

He stepped backward. He had to survive. He wanted to survive.

Forget being an investigator, getting an award or a promotion or whatever, he didn’t need any of them. He was willing to give up his status as a civil servant if he could run away from this knife-holding devil.

It was fortunate that he had his back to the entrance. If he ran away like this, he would be able to survive.

There was some distance to a residential area, but if he ran away like this, he would at least be able to survive.

It was around the fifth step when his right ankle was twisted. He couldn’t tell whether he stepped on an obstacle or simply just misstepped. Before he knew it, he lost his sense of balance.

He screamed inwardly and floundered, but he didn’t regain his balance at all.

Thud-

A big noise could be heard. Even though it was just one person falling down on their butt, it numbed his ears as though a pile of construction materials had collapsed.

His hand propping himself up from the ground felt sore. He thought he would intuitively get into a protective position due to all the practice he did, but his body betrayed his expectations.

He fixed his eyes on the concrete floor. He didn’t have the courage to turn around.

He could hear footsteps. His chin trembled.

He barely managed to turn his head around to look behind him. The knife was approaching him, cheerfully and stably. There was no hint of hesitation at all.

This man would knife him just like a chef chopping up a fish on a chopping board. Death was now in front of his eyes in corporeal form.

He turned around and crawled on the ground with his two arms and legs. He momentarily forgot how to stand up or walk.

That man seemed to be enjoying this situation; it was as though he had seen many people like this. That calmness was what stifled him.

“Everyone was the same. Not a single one was different. You know, a knife is really fair. Don’t you think so too?”

Something must be wrong with his lungs. They were functioning properly, but why was it that he was lacking breath? Air lingered at the tip of his tongue before disappearing. His whole body was demanding oxygen.

The criminal’s shadow loomed over him. He struggled. He kicked the criminal while he was down.

However, as though enjoying it, the criminal just avoided his kick lightly. He seemed like he was waiting for the frog on the dissection table to become still and just looked around.

“Anyone? Hello? Hey!”

He screamed for help. Even though he knew that this was a deserted area without any people nearby, he couldn’t help but shout. There was nothing else he could do.

Just as he saw the light seeping into the warehouse, the criminal charged at him. It happened in an instant.

All of his nerves were directed at the knife. The knife mercilessly dug into his flank.

* * *

As he had quite a rough-looking face, he always got roles like detective or criminal. This time was no different. It wasn’t a villain role that had any significance in the story. It was just ‘killer A’ that appeared at the beginning of the drama. Well, it wasn’t like he was in a position to be picky.

Thanks to his rough appearance, he managed to get murderer or detective roles. Otherwise, he might have been doing part-time jobs all the time until he left the acting scene.

Jungho thought that his partner actor, Maru, was in a similar situation; he was just one of the many minor actors doing all sorts of roles because he didn’t have a fixed role yet.

He might have prepared a lot of things in order to digest the role he was playing, but minor roles were ultimately just minor roles. They were consumables for the sake of the story. If the lead characters were comparable to the main dish, the supporting characters would be the side dishes that complement them.

As for minor characters, they were on the level of chopsticks. They were used purely for the sake of the story and the lead characters.

It wasn’t that he was complaining. He knew that the drama industry wasn’t so easy for minor actors to request cool scenes.

Maybe because of that, while he did his best regardless, he did not hold onto any hopes; he had no hopes that he might make it big through this scene. The delusion that someone would recognize him had long since entered the trash.

Do your best, but don’t have any hopes. Jungho also muttered these words to himself whenever he played a minor character.

“AACK!”

A short scream hit his ears. Maru, no, investigator Park Uijung who had fallen down, stopped struggling. Jungho felt a sense of glee. The little chickling investigator was underneath his feet.

Jungho thought as he looked at the investigator clutching his flank and curling up.

Struggle more. Do something more! Try saying what you said again.

The reason to say his lines and the emotional agitation maintained a strange balance.

Jungho thought back to when he played around with dragonflies when he was young. He would hold the dragonfly by the wings between his index and middle fingers and keep watching it. The dragonfly would curl up and twitch its head a few times before turning still.

After turning still, the dragonfly would become a different toy. He and some other friends would flick their index fingers aiming at the dragonfly’s head.

They would let go of the wings just as the head flew off. The dragonfly would then fly perfectly fine for a while even after losing its head. He and his friends would laugh while looking at it.

It wasn’t something they did out of malice. They did not think that it was a terrible thing to do. Only after they grew up and got to know about more things did they slightly freak out at what they did.

And now, Jungho overlapped that dragonfly with Maru. Before the camera started rolling, Han Maru was just Han Maru, a minor actor who works hard.

However, once the acting began and Maru fell down struggling, he was no longer Han Maru. He registered as a completely different man. Jungho let that strange sensation take over his body.

He was no longer acting according to the manual. He truly stabbed ‘Park Uijung’ with the mind of a murderer.

He saw the knife that dug underneath Maru’s flank. It was natural. It was a plastic knife, so it couldn’t actually stab into the flesh. It would be disastrous if it did happen.

But for some reason, he felt annoyed. It felt like he had missed the stab. It would be better if the knife actually got stuck in the flank.

Jungho flinched at the sudden thought. He felt like the harmony between reason and emotion had tilted. He even started worrying if he should continue acting like this.

Just then, Maru, who was on the ground, reached out and grabbed his collars. This was not planned beforehand.

However, it looked all the more natural. It was the last desperate struggle from the crime investigator dying like a coward. The ‘I’m taking this guy down with me’ mind had activated after realizing that he had been stabbed.

It was strange. Those emotions, those thoughts were transmitted through Maru’s hand.

This wasn’t something they hadn’t talked about at all beforehand, yet it looked natural as though it was part of the script. He even thought that this was the right way for things to go.

Jungho twisted his lips. While his lips wouldn’t be captured by the camera anyway, he didn’t care. Right now, the target he had to show all of his acting to was not the camera outside his consciousness, but the partner in front of him who was acting with all his might.

He was only a minor character, who would only show up in the ending credits in name just once, but he couldn’t care at this moment.

Jungho pulled out the knife. He took off Maru’s hand that grabbed his collar with his left hand. He heard a gurgling underneath his throat. It was a shout that his vivid emotions had created, one that wasn’t in the script.

He stabbed, stabbed, and stabbed again.

A few times, the knife actually hit Maru’s flesh. He was probably bruised.

However, he couldn’t stop there. He could not afford to stop there.

He felt like he knew why Maru reached out to him midway. It must have been his signal not to stop. It was also a form of encouragement telling him that his acting was best and that he should not stop.

So, he had to respond.

As a murderer.

To the best extent of his skills.

After Story 96

The storyboard was a guideline, some pre-work for the sake of getting a good video, and also a method to decrease overall labor. Not everything always went according to the storyboard, but most of the time, it did. After all, the result would be a mess if the standard they set was changed every single time.

Cha Myungjoon clenched his hands and rubbed them against each other endlessly. He couldn’t stop his hands like he was suffering from withdrawal symptoms. If there was a walnut in his hands, he would probably have crushed it already.

Jungho pulled out a knife and stabbed. There was a thick shadow cast over his face because he was away from the center of the camera angle. This was definitely not the picture he wanted.

According to the storyboard, he would have said cut a long time ago. Then, he would flip the camera around and get the killer’s face up close.

However, he did not do that. He just looked at the monitor while grabbing his hands. He wanted to know how far the two actors would go in acting.

The knife he violently pulled out stabbed into Maru’s flank. He could hear some noise as though there were sound effects applied to the scene. No, he couldn’t ‘hear’ anything. It was just his brain creating the signal in accordance with the visual cues he was receiving.

Maru, who was strewn out on the floor like he had been hit by a car, suddenly reached out. It was not a heroic scene. After all, he was a petty and arrogant new crime investigator until he fell over.

That was just stubbornness; a last will of sorts left behind by the human known as Park Uijung.

Jungho’s hand became faster. Now, he started hacking away with the knife.

The camera director did not turn the camera away. He must know that the moment the two actors were placed in the center of the screen, it would look very man-made and artificial.

Maru’s hand fell on the floor. Any life activity in his body had come to a complete halt. Jungho’s actions became even more violent, as though his purpose was no longer to kill but to completely butcher the corpse.

They dug too deep into their characters. The two actors were throwing their emotions at each other. They received and tossed it back well as though they were in perfect sync. There was not a single thing out of line in their acting. For this moment at least, the stage was completely owned by the two of them.

He thought that even if he brought Park Sinseo, he wouldn’t do as well as those two.

There was a moment of silence. Jungho staggered and stepped back. He breathed out heavily and looked down at his own work.

As the camera was shooting from a diagonal angle, not all of Jungho’s expression could be seen, which made it look better. The curtain of the dead angle made the two actors stand out even more. Because they were hidden, they were clearer.

It was too much of a pity. It was too much of a pity to shout cut at this point.

Myungjoon said into the walkie-talkie — cut.

He wanted to capture that residual energy, but they needed makeup. It would look awkward if they added blood through CG afterward.

Both actors didn’t seem to have managers, as no one went over to take care of them.

Just as Myungjoon was about to give orders to hand the two actors some blankets, he saw the action director approach them with blankets. He was laughing as he hit the two actors on their shoulders. He seemed to be having a blast because the result looked much better than what he originally planned.

Well, he must definitely be proud to see students who did better than what he taught them.

Myungjoon looked at the two actors who started getting makeup before moving his eyes to the monitor. The camera director approached him.

“Senior, how is it?”

“Don’t you think we should just go with this? If we split up the cuts and get a low-angle, I think it’ll look bland instead.”

“Right? I think so too.”

“I don’t think you should touch the color saturation either. The contrast in this scene is nigh-artistic. The faint light coming in from outside the warehouse is good too. You lucked out on this one. The light and darkness inside the warehouse are perfect, and they’re right at the border.”

“Right.”

Myungjoon rewound the footage he got as he listened to the camera director’s words. From the first moment when Jungho charged all the way to Maru’s death, it took about one minute.

Myungjoon asked the scriptor for a script. He could see a list of editing points that he wrote down.

“Should I keep this or throw it away…”

He spun his pen around with his hand which had become stiff from the cold.

No matter how good the cut was, he couldn’t use all of it in the drama.

Even in that scene he just took, if he cut it midway, he would be able to earn about 30 seconds more time. 30 seconds was enough time for a PPL ad. It was also important to give the writer some leeway. While this was a very important scene in terms of the drama’s story progression, what mattered was the very fact that the new investigator had died, not how it looked.

Visual appearances were supposed to be filled in by Sinseo, Haena, and Jichan. That was what the audience and the advertisers wanted.

“There’s no blood in it, but don’t you think it looks even crueler than most movies?” said the scriptor. That was one of the things he was worried about.

Suggestiveness and violence — those two were things that dramas had to stay away from. A producer’s homework was to make the story they wanted to tell look pretty.

Myungjoon looked at the video again. He looked at that single cut of action that two minor actors had managed to create. He even looked at the uncomfortable emotions imbued in it. Then he made the decision.

“If there’s a ruckus in the TV station’s message board, I guess I’ll just visit the KCC[1]. Well, isn’t that how it goes with debut pieces?” Myungjoon looked at the scripter. “No edits. Use it as is.”

* * *

“But are you really okay?” asked the action director, his eyes on Maru’s flank. Jungho was no different.

Maru smiled and waved his hand in the air.

“I’m okay. Mr. Jungho here held back so it doesn’t even hurt that much.”

“Just in case, though, let me have a look.”

Jungho walked over. He told him not to worry several times but it was to no avail. It seemed that he would only feel relieved if he checked with his own eyes.

Maru scratched his eyebrows. He had no choice now. He lifted up his shirt a little.

“Holy.” The action director clicked his tongue.

Maru didn’t look at the injury. The deep pain indicated to him what kind of state it was in.

“You’re going to get bruised badly. Right now, it just looks a little red, but it’ll turn black in due time. Do you feel unwell? You have to tell me properly. If you hold it in and fall ill later, it might turn into big trouble,” said the action director while looking at the wound.

Jungho was frowning. He looked extremely apologetic.

Maru pulled down his shirt to hide the wound. The moment his clothes touched the wound, a pain bad enough to raise the hairs on the back of his head tingled through his mind. He barely managed to control his expression from deforming and spoke,

“It’s because it’s soft flesh. It’s only bruised on the outside, and it doesn’t hurt that much. There won’t be any problems. Rather than that, Mr. Jungho, that act was so good. I ad-libbed because I got caught up in the atmosphere, but you received that well too.”

“Not at all. It looked natural only because you were really good at expressing yourself. But hey, are you really okay? Don’t you need to go to the hospital?”

“If I have to go to the hospital just for this, then stunt actors might as well commute to the hospital for their work. Isn’t that right, director?” Maru said to the action director.

There were still some shoots left. He had to create the atmosphere so that Jungho, his partnering actor, could finish up until the end in comfort.

“That’s true. Jungho, the person in question said he’s okay so don’t worry about it too much.”

“But still.”

“It’s not like his injuries will heal just because you feel sorry. Isn’t that right?” The action director said to Maru.

They were perfectly in sync. Maru also responded with a smile, “Just as he said, don’t worry too much. It wasn’t a real knife, but a plastic mockup. You were really skilled in feigning the stab as well. Don’t worry about it and finish things up well.”

The makeup artist arrived. She applied blood on Jungho’s face and also some on his clothes.

Meanwhile, the props manager scattered some blood on the floor around them. Reddish-black liquid seeped into the asphalt.

Director Cha walked over with the walkie-talkie in hand.

“The two of you were so good that I don’t need to say anything. Let’s keep this up until the end so that this cut doesn’t go to waste.”

Director Cha gave Jungho some instructions on where he should go. This was the scene where he removed anything that might become a clue before leaving the warehouse.

Maru crouched down on the ground. It was the place he had to lie down if the light on the camera started blinking.

“Good, then let’s go with that.”

Director Cha walked over as though he finished his explanation to Jungho. Maru raised his head to look at director Cha.

“You okay?”

“People will write about me if I die while shooting a drama, right?”

“Don’t say nonsense.”

“It hurts a little, but nothing serious. I’m sure I’m going to writhe in bed when I wake up tomorrow, but I can move completely fine right now, so you can use me however you like.”

“There’s nothing to use you for though. You’re a corpse anyway. Just lie down still.”

“Okay.”

“And also…”

Director Cha trailed off and raised his thumb. He winked before turning around.

Maru slightly pressed down on his sore flank and smiled. He managed to get praise form the director as a minor actor. He felt proud. From director Cha’s expression too, it didn’t look like this was going to get edited out.

He lay down on the floor and frowned slightly due to the pain. The shoot was about to begin.

The cold was seeping up through the floor, but it was bearable compared to being hacked at by a plastic knife.

He got into the position that the staff told him to. He remembered the position so that he didn’t have to do it again. He fixed his arms and legs and only moved his head left and right.

He saw Seungah standing behind director Cha. She said that she was going to throw a small afterparty, and who could’ve guessed that she was actually still waiting.

He also saw Jichan next to him. Did he have a shoot late at night? Or maybe a get-together?

He made eye contact with Seungah.

Maru waved his right hand. He could tell that Seungah was looking at him pitifully even from this distance. Looking at her worried expression, it seemed that the camera took a really good cut from the scene before. He spat out a breath and looked at the ceiling. The white breath that seeped through his mouth rose into the air before disappearing.

“Get ready!”

The FD’s voice could be heard. Maru breathed in through his nose before closing his eyes. Today was over now. He just had to wait for time to pass as a corpse.

* * *

“Be careful when you get on.”

“I’m not a patient.”

Seungah poked Maru’s flank as he was laughing. She could see Maru clutching the door while swallowing his groan.

“You are a patient. What else can you be?”

Seungah pushed Maru inside the car. Jichan went over to the driver’s seat after checking that the two people got on.

“The van is really big,” Seungah said as she looked around.

Jichan put his seatbelt on and spoke, “This one actually isn’t on the larger side. The van we use when all the members move together is even bigger.”

“It must be expensive right? Both this one and the one you just said.”

Jichan started the car and drove off. He had sent his manager home a long time ago.

“You’re hungry, right? Should we go to the restaurant that I usually go to?” Jichan said as he looked at the two people in the back.

“Can we? I’d love to. A restaurant that a top idol goes to huh? I’m really curious,” Seungah replied.

“Hyung, are you really okay on time? If you have a schedule tomorrow, you shouldn’t push yourself. We should just go somewhere nearby,” Maru said, his hands still on his flank.

He parroted that he was okay, but it seemed that it was really painful after all.

“It’s okay, I’m on a break. The concerts are over too. But there’s one place we must go to before we eat.”

Jichan made a call after putting some earbuds into his ears.

“Hyung, it’s me. You’re at the hospital, right? Someone I know is a bit injured, can you take a look? He’s not sick. He has a serious bruise. Alright, see you there.”

After the phone call, he looked back.

“We’re going to a hospital?” Seungah asked.

“My brother’s a doctor. He’s in Seoul Hospital so let’s get him treated before we eat anything. I also got injured a lot while practicing my choreography, so I had him take care of me a few times.”

“I’m really okay though,” Maru said.

Jichan eyed Seungah to poke him on the side again.

Seungah quickly caught on and immediately reached her hand out. Maru groaned and butted his head into the window.

“I’ll… just get some anti-inflammatory medicine,” Maru said, almost sobbing.

[1] Korea Communications Commission. Basically where the standards of age rating of media content is decided.

After Story 97

Jichan smiled and turned the driving wheel. On their way, he let them listen to the song he had been working on. Seungah liked it and nodded her head according to the rhythm.

He looked at Seungah humming through the rearview mirror before moving his eyes to Maru who was next to her.

He did expect Maru to be good at acting. During the first read-through and even when he was given advice before, he thought that Maru was different from the others.

However, he didn't think that he was this good. Jichan ended up subconsciously frowning as he looked at the screen.

It was like a flashbang. It was intense. Jungho, who was Maru's partner in the act, was incredible too, but he had thought that it was Maru who produced that scene.

He had a glimpse of Maru's injury before. His skin had turned black, meaning Jungho had stabbed with all of his power.

It must have been an incredible impact. He must have suffered unspeakable pain continuously.

But he did not utter a single moan after the necessary scream. He swallowed the pain so that Jungho could get absorbed in the situation.

Jichan thought back to the nearly 10 seconds of silence that director Cha took before he said cut.

It gave him the chills. It felt like he wasn't at a shoot, but at a crime scene.

Whether it was Jungho's eyes that were colored with madness or Maru's face that lacked any vitality at all, they all looked all too real.

He could understand why Seungah mentioned the word jealousy.

Jichan cherished the emotions that sprouted inside him, wishing that someone else would feel the same way towards him after looking at his act in the future.

* * *

"I never thought I'd get treated out by a celebrity. Good, good," Seungah said as she rubbed her stomach. He smiled when he saw her satisfied.

"But isn't that bruise going to last a long time?"

Her eyes were on Maru's flank. Maru just shrugged.

"Probably a few days. But it's not like I'm going to show anyone my naked skin, so there's no problem."

"That's not the problem, is it? The problem is that it hurts."

Seungah grumbled, telling him to be careful next time.

Maru discovered a taxi coming from a distance. It seemed to be an empty one.

"You should go first."

He was about to raise his hand to stop the taxi when Seungah talked to him,

"Hey."

He stopped raising his hand and looked at Seungah.

"I think I asked you something similar last time, but I must do it again. How do you go about acting? How can I do as good as you?"

The taxi, which had changed lanes to the last lane, passed right in front of their eyes. Maru sniffled and looked at Seungah who crouched down.

"You're doing well too."

"I'm not saying I'm bad." Seungah chuckled. She didn't look like she lost her motivation or the like.

"I just wanted to know after looking at you. Just what's the motivation that makes you drive yourself into a corner like this? As for seniors, I can put it off as being more experienced, but for you, you are the same age as me. I couldn't help but be jealous when someone my age managed to produce a freakishly good scene right in front of my eyes."

"I'm no one amazing to get jealous of. Also, I'm more amazed that you can say something like that without holding back. Your acting is quite skilled."

"Is that right? Well, I guess I am good at putting on a thick face."

Seungah dusted her knees and stood up.

“When I looked at the people studying with me at the acting school, I honestly thought that they were good, but not special. If any of them were to get picked by the masses, then I too should be able to do the same.”

Seungah turned her head around. Her eyes were tense.

“But that wasn’t the case with you. You look really far away. Maybe that’s why I’m jealous… And maybe that’s why I want to do better.”

Seungah walked forward one step and reached out her hand. A taxi on the other side of the road did a U-turn and stopped in front of Seungah.

“I’ll give you men first treatment, so would you like to get on first?”

“You don’t sound cool when you say that with your nose red.”

“I was going to get on first anyway. Ladies first.”

Seungah got in the taxi. She rolled down the window and stuck her head out slightly.

“We got a new member for Hanjoo Chicken Feet Actor’s Association.”

“You haven’t disbanded that?”

“I’m the first-generation chairman. Who dares to disband it without my permission? Anyway, Jichan-oppa is also an honorary member now. I’m going to send you a group chat invite so don’t ignore it.”

“I’ll join right away.”

“Oh, and about Dawoon.”

Saying that, Seungah turned her head around. It seemed that the taxi driver asked her where she was going. Seungah’s talking speed became faster.

“Did she ever contact you on her own?”

“No. I’m curious too. How is she these days?”

“I don’t know. I just can’t understand her.”

“She doesn’t come to class?”

“She does. She talks to me like normal too. But she’s not like before. No wait, is it just me? I don’t get it. I should’ve been careful. I feel like I’ve wounded a frail girl.”

Seungah quickly waved her hand. It was the goodbye greeting. It seemed that the taxi driver urged her.

“Careful on your way.”

The taxi left. He took out his phone and opened his messenger. He looked for Jung Dawoon in his friend list. Her profile picture was of herself with a bright smile.

He flicked his fingers a few times before leaving the messenger. This wasn’t something he should get involved in. He could understand what kind of misunderstanding Dawoon got into.

There might be residual resentment between the two people. It was up to the two people to sort that out. If he interrupted between the two of them awkwardly, it would make things more complicated instead.

“My daughter will also one day reach that age.”

Puberty was one thing, but he was even more worried about what would happen to her once she was to enter college. If she were to be born delicate and full of emotions, she might get wounded from romantic relationships. He thought about how an unknown dude would make her daughter cry and ended up laughing.

He dusted off the snow piled on his hair. That was going to happen in the far future. He just had to worry about it when the time comes. He just had to break that dude’s leg at that time.

“To Suwon station please,” Maru said after grabbing a taxi.

On his way home, he got a message from the group chat. It was from Seungah.

‘Hanjoo Chicken Feet Actor’s Association.’ When he entered, he saw Seungah and Jichan talking. Not long later, Dawoon also left behind a greeting.

Contrary to Seungah’s worries, she chatted with cheerful emojis and participated in the conversation. He followed the conversation with his eyes and smiled.

Seungah asked Jichan for a self-introduction, and Jichan just plainly stated the band he was in.

Seeing that, Dawoon told him not to joke around and said she wouldn’t be fooled. Only after Jichan uploaded a proof photo did the conversation calm down.

It might be different if he saw them in person, but through the group chat at least, the three of them were getting along well.

Maru gently put down his phone. He lacked the stamina to keep up with the chatting of young people.

He rested his head on the headrest and gently rubbed his aching flank.

He thought that he should hide this from his wife. He closed his eyes and his mouth. The taxi, which was stopped because of the traffic, started moving again.

* * *

It was Yoo Jichan. Dawoon looked at the photo that was posted in the group chat for a long time. She wasn’t a diehard fan, but she did listen to his songs quite often. She couldn’t believe that she would get to talk to a celebrity she thought she would never get involved with.

Although not participating in the chat right now — perhaps due to fatigue — the center of this group chat was Maru. She could tell how much Jichan liked Maru even without him mentioning it directly. Maru was a really cool person after all.

She glared at the name that ticked her off. Choi Seungah. It would be perfect if she wasn’t in this chat room.

When Seungah apologized to her again at the acting school, she thought that Seungah was extremely good at putting up pretenses. That apology didn’t contain any feelings at all. She might be acting sorry on the outside, but she could tell what that woman must be thinking:

I reached out to you first, so I’m innocent. If you don’t grab this hand, you’re gonna look petty.

She smiled and said that she was okay. Her opponent covered herself with lies. She had to do the same.

She was no longer going to be fooled by that woman’s deceitful words.

Dawoon tossed her phone on her bed and went to the kitchen. It was time to get some exercise. She skipped all her meals after breakfast today. She despised her chubby cheeks as though they were fat. She still had a long way to go until she was to catch up to Han Haneul. She had to starve and lose weight.

She had to drag her true self out of the pile of trash that was excess flesh.

“Dawoon, aren’t you pushing yourself too much?” said her mother.

Dawoon glared at her faintly before smiling.

“It’s okay mom. Everyone does this much these days. An actress should be able to endure this, don’t you think?”

“But mom thinks you’re too skinny.”

“It’s only you who think that. Other people don’t. Look at the TV. Compared to those people, I still have a long way to go. I can still do more, and I have to do more. So mom, don’t say things like that. I’m having a hard time as is, and you’re making it even harder if you say things like that. Don’t you think so?”

“Right, I’m sorry when you’re working so hard. But still, you should eat something. You’re going to fall ill at that rate.”

“Mom!” Dawoon screeched. She could no longer hold back.

Her mother hesitated for a while before saying that fruits must be okay and went into her room after taking out an apple.

She looked at the apple before sighing.

“Why does everyone want to bully me?”

She wanted to cry. Dawoon put the plate with the apple on the table before leaving the house. She had to jog for a bit so that she could blow away all these unnecessary thoughts.

* * *

Sanghoon took out his earbuds.

“Everyone’s busy as fuck huh.”

He was trying to gather some people before classes started to go skiing, but everyone refused, saying that they were busy.

Like hell they were busy. Sanghoon looked at his juniors’ blogs. The one who told him that he had some matters at home uploaded a picture of himself drinking alcohol at a restaurant.

There wasn’t just one or two of them either. He was blatantly excluded.

They didn’t seem to have any intentions of hiding as they were taking photos of themselves and uploading them.

“Hey, didn’t you say you couldn’t hang out with me because you were sick?” Sanghoon called a junior.

She was someone who fawned over him.

-The thing is, I got well soon.

“So you went there?”

-Let’s hang out together next time, seonbae.

“Hey. Are you taking me lightly?”

-It’s not like that.

He was about to give her a harsh scolding but then she just hung up, saying that a relative was calling her.

He was fuming now. That was just rude. They were trying to step over him since he was being lenient. The class of 08 was completely crazy. He invited all the 08 class juniors to a group chat.

Before, many of them would immediately respond and greet him, but there wasn’t a single response even after 30 minutes. The number of ‘unreads’ didn’t decrease either. Sanghoon was flabbergasted.

He called another junior, a male this time. It was about time he told them the severity of the situation.

-Seonbae, you did enough. There’s a limit to how childish you can be.

“You little shit. What did you just say?”

-You must know about it, don’t you? There’s a rumor going around that you lied in order to bury some other senior. What was his name again? Han Maru-seonbae? I don’t know him that well, but you know, it’s a bit… that. It’s not like you’re playing high school delinquent again.

“Where the hell are you right now?”

-You want to come? I’m at the department office right now. You can come if you want to. But think about it carefully. Honestly, who cares about senior-junior relationships in a shitty college like this? There’s a limit to putting up with your crap. If you’re going to keep doing this, why don’t we just have a bout? You always boast about how you’re really good at fighting, don’t you?

Sanghoon immediately hung up. The junior he just called had quite a sturdy figure. It wasn’t that he was being out pressured. He just stopped the conversation there because two adults fighting would look unsightly.

“So shitty.”

Sanghoon recalled Han Maru, who actually managed to extort that 300 thousand won from him.

After Story 98

He vaguely realized a while ago that the name ‘Han Maru’ started floating around in the department from some moment onwards. Why would someone who dropped out suddenly be the topic of everyone?

He found out that Han Maru, that guy, had become an actor, and not just that, an actor who had won the grand prize at a film festival. He would have ridiculed him if it was some run-of-the-mill film festival, but when he investigated, it turned out to be the biggest short film festival in the country. Many famous actors participated as hosts and many famous directors participated as judges.

Not only that, Han Maru started appearing in a new drama as a minor actor. Naturally, people who knew Maru started mentioning him in the department, and the event that led up to his dropping out became quite a hot topic. The story that was buried without a proper closure ended up surfacing again.

Sanghoon chewed his lips and looked at his phone. His juniors did not read his message. He was being blatantly ignored. He also posted something in the group chat composed of his colleagues. Not a single one of them replied either. The same went for his club. In just a few months, his position had degraded into ridicule. Not to mention the department, even the club he was in used to be centered around him, but now, no one replied to him anymore.

It was around that time that he got a message. It was from a friend of his in the same club as him.

-They made another group chat without you. Why did you have to borrow money and not pay it back and ruin your image like that?

Didn’t pay him back? Sanghoon felt unjustified. He did pay him back. There was just a slight misunderstanding in the process of scolding a rude junior. Sanghoon swore as he looked at the blackened TV screen. His personal relationships, which he always considered to be good, had been ruined in an instant. He felt like he was stranded on a deserted island.

How much effort did he put into managing his college relationships? He always attended get-togethers no matter how tired he was and participated in every event he knew. At college, he was known as a cheerful and helpful guy.

But then, after just one event, he started being disrespected by his juniors and mocked by his colleagues. He was worried about what would happen after classes started. How was he supposed to look at anyone now? People would start talking behind his back, that he was a scoundrel who borrowed money and feigned ignorance.

His head ached. Sanghoon reached out to the remote control. He turned on the TV and watched in a daze. He wanted to forget about this shitty situation even for a moment.

A drama that just started yesterday was being broadcasted.

“A new drama…” Sanghoon muttered as he looked at the screen. A familiar face appeared on the screen. He had lost some weight and become much neater-looking, so he almost didn’t recognize him, but it was indeed Han Maru.

He swore and was about to change the channel before deciding to just watch.

This was the 21st century, was it not? It was a great era where the feedback of a drama could be done practically in real-time.

Sanghoon turned on his laptop. Using his phone to type was too slow. Han Maru wouldn’t probably get an article written about him. After all, he was just an extra. Instead, there should be articles about the drama. He just had to look at them and comment there.

The Maru inside the drama was a crime investigator. His acting was ordinary too. That much was something even he could do.

An actor on that level managed to win the grand prize? Sanghoon was sure that the grand prize for the film festival was picked through a lottery.

Soon, articles about the drama started coming up. It was not surprising since a great actor, namely Park Sinseo, was playing the main character. Many online media outlets, ranging from third-rate nameless outlets to ones that everyone knew, were releasing their news articles. One of the articles caught his eye:

“From Lead Characters to Support Characters. A Drama Near Perfection.” This was the article he wanted.

When he clicked on it, he saw that there were over 100 comments. He also had a look at the comments. The fans of the idol seemed to be on a mission as the comment section was spammed with praises about Yoo Jichan.

Sanghoon clicked his tongue and started typing.

-Yoo Jichan’s acting is really good, but that minor actor is really breaking the mood. I found out that his name is Han Maru, and I think he’s dragging down Yoo Jichan with his acting skills. Jichan is really good when he’s with Park Sinseo, but he looks awkward when he’s with that minor actor. Am I the only one that thinks so?

He also commented similar things under other articles as well. He compared Maru to Sinseo under articles with Sinseo’s fans and with Haena under articles with her fans. It was a tedious thing to do, but when he did it, it was fun.

It wasn’t like it cost him any money to do it either. He just had to move his fingers a little.

These days, it was pretty much common knowledge that dramas proactively listened to viewer opinions and reflect on them. It might be difficult to swap out a lead actor, but they should be able to cut off a minor actor for the sake of the program.

Just imagining it made him joyous. Han Maru was going to disappear thanks to the bad comments about him that Sanghoon himself made.

The comment he wrote shot to the top of the comment section. The number of likes on his comment was over 300.

He looked at the comment replies. It managed to spark a fire.

Who is that minor actor? He’s terrible and is bringing oppa down. Another actor would’ve been much better.

The reactions were better than he expected.

“That’s what you get with kids who are head over heels for idols.”

Sanghoon complimented their ‘oppa’ a little and now everyone was with him in criticizing Maru. Now, things were going just the way he expected.

He had a look at the other articles as well and the reactions there were similar. All he said was a minor actor was ruining the drama, yet everyone agreed with him.

It was so easy to ruin the image of a person. Now, other people stepped in and started pointing out problems with the minor actor. He could now see the fire spreading.

The comment section of large media outlets flowed in a similar manner. The drama production crew must have seen the comments as well. He felt refreshed now. His objective was for Maru to disappear from the drama, but this much was already enough. The comments spammed curses at the minor actor.

Maru would probably also look up the articles as well. How would he feel seeing articles filled with insults about him in the comments? Sanghoon couldn’t help but grin when he thought about how depressed Maru must be. Well, that was what he got for messing with the wrong person.

He also joined an internet café that talked about newly released dramas. It was a huge café with over 400 thousand members.

As soon as he joined, he wrote a post related to the drama. He wrote good things about the drama and pointed out the lack of skill of a minor actor right at the end. He added screen captures of various comment sections criticizing Maru as well.

The moment he refreshed the page after posting it, he found over a dozen comments. Everyone said that the lead and supporting actors were great, but the minor actor was ruining it.

He felt funny. Maru wasn’t that bad at acting. He was just ordinary. The people who were agreeing with him probably didn’t watch the drama or must be looking at what they wanted to look at.

In any case, they were thankful people that said what he wanted them to say.

He left behind comments on other parts of the internet as well. When he did, he started to understand the psychology of people who left behind bad comments all day every day. This was actually rather fun. He also felt rather proud whenever he saw the number of people sympathizing with him increase. He felt like he was a part of the mainstream, which made him feel smug.

Sanghoon took his hands off the keyboard. He no longer needed to write anything. People everywhere were scolding the lack of skill of the minor actor. The reason for it was not important. They just liked blaming people and writing their comments for their enjoyment.

He watched the drama with ease now. He even brought some beer. The content was quite interesting. It took some time to make out what it was about because he hadn’t watched the first episode, but when he figured it out, he found himself quite absorbed in it.

Park Sinseo and Lee Haena — these two were great actors. As expected of actors who usually appeared in films, the scenes that contained the two of them gave off a completely different atmosphere from the rest. Yoo Jichan’s acting was decent as well. The middle-aged veteran actors didn’t even need to be mentioned.

He ate some potato chips and focused on the screen. When was the last time he watched a drama in front of the TV again?

The story progressed so fast that he couldn’t take his eyes off.

Another suspect appeared aside from the apprehended culprit. It was the serial killer.

The series of seemingly independent cases turned out to be just one case, and the investigators who caught a clue of the real culprit started their investigations.

The pursuit scene was quite high-effort as well. The quick change of scenes increased the tension.

It was just around the time they predicted the true culprit’s location and narrowed their search radius that the screen switched. The drama then progressed from the culprit’s point of view. The true culprit, who was trying to escape the siege of the investigators, caught sight of the newbie investigator.

He didn’t like the fact that Han Maru had to appear during an important moment like this. An extra was appearing during a moment when the main character had to display a show of power? He started doubting the writer’s skills.

The true culprit and Maru saw each other from a distance. The true culprit started running away. He escaped the dark alleys and ran across a road surrounded by fields.

Maru followed behind. The pursuit scene didn’t contain a single line. Only the sound of rough breathing could be heard through the speakers.

Sanghoon, who was leaning back against the sofa, sat up. He also put down the snacks he was eating. He ended up focusing without realizing it.

The true culprit ran into a warehouse. It was such a dark place that only his silhouette could barely be made out.

Following that, Maru came in. He had a smile befitting a proud newbie investigator. Sanghoon could feel the glee that came from the thought that he had caught the culprit. He couldn’t think about anything else. He was just busy accepting the world unfolding in front of him, the reality that the drama created.

The culprit and Maru faced off.

Sanghoon then realized that this was going to be a murder scene. There was nothing more boring than a predictable story. He was supposed to ridicule it and lose interest here, but for some reason, he couldn’t take his eyes off it.

The true culprit, sunken in darkness, stepped forward. The camera was shooting from the side, so his face couldn’t be seen properly. Despite that, though, the viciousness in his eyes could be seen clearly.

A knife appeared. It was blurred because of censorship.

That was ok though because if it was shot from up close, the blurred knife would’ve ruined the image.

The culprit charged. Only the sound of rustling could be heard without any music.

Sanghoon felt like he was witnessing a madman waving a knife in real life, right from the entrance of the warehouse.

The camera continued to capture the two people from the side.

At this point, it wouldn’t be strange for the camera to zoom in on the culprit’s face or the investigator’s face, but it was fixed in one spot.

Maybe because of that, though, Sanghoon kept his mouth shut and looked at the screen, his breath abated. All of his nerves were focused on that little box that was the TV. Critiques and criticisms were at the back of his mind now. Watching was all he could do.

The true culprit pushed Maru. The two of them were pushed to the periphery of the camera frame.

Even though the center of the frame was empty, the composition didn’t look off. In fact, it looked realistic.

The true culprit, who was at the edge of the frame, swung his knife while being tangled with Maru. No, it was pretty much just a one-sided stab.

Sanghoon rubbed his neck as he watched the scene.

What could he say? It looked so cruel that he wondered if this was even fine. It was violent. It was also why he found it hard to take his eyes off.

Just like how people watched in a daze when there was a steamy sexual scene in a movie, he couldn’t bring himself to escape from the intense moment of murder.

The tension rose along with the cruelty. If the murder scene was displayed blatantly, it would feel cheap, but in this scene, it was covered up and felt polished, and yet it still conveyed the intention properly.

There was no background music either. The only thing that could be heard through the speakers was the killer’s excited breathing sound, the sound of the wind, as well as Maru's dying breath.

Huuu, huu.

When the true culprit calmed his breathing and all sound stopped, the drama OST started flowing out. It was the ending track.

Sanghoon watched the next week’s episode teaser in a daze before opening the laptop. He went back to the internet café again. There was an enormous influx of new posts. The comments that ridiculed the minor actor had long since disappeared. People were busy praising the actors that played the killer and the investigator.

He felt like he was smashed on the back of his head. He immediately looked up the drama on a web portal.

Before, most of the articles were centered around Park Sinseo, Lee Haena, and Yoo Jichan, but now, there were more mentioning the feats of the supporting characters.

5 minutes later, a new article came up.

A world where the lead characters aren’t everything. A rebellion of the minor actors. Pay attention to these people.

Sanghoon looked at the laptop screen for a while before moving his fingers. The first thing he did was delete all the comments and posts he made.

Then, he called Maru.

“Maru, it’s me, Sanghoon-hyung. How are you doing these days?”

After Story 99

“Alright, I’ll treat you out sometime. I have been feeling really iffy ever since you left like that, you know? You know how I feel right? I mean, I looked out for you a lot, didn’t I? Remember back when you first joined the club? I looked after you. We really got along well at the first MT too, didn't we?”

-Yes, right.

Sanghoon laughed as he spoke.

“You and I used to get along so well too, but people started having misunderstandings about us after we quarreled for that little bit. I mean, only people who are close get into a fight, right? People don’t fight when they don’t have any relationship. There’s a strange rumor going around the college, but if you happen to hear any of it, just don’t listen to it. You know that people talk bad about other people whenever they feel bored, right?”

-Uhm, seonbae.

“Yes, speak.”

-I’m with someone important right now. I don’t think I can continue calling you for long.

“Someone important? Then you should of course hang up. A junior of mine who has a bright path ahead of him is meeting an important person, so a close friend like me should never intervene. Also, you know that I’m a man of my word when I say I’ll treat you out sometime, right? I’m not saying it out of formality, so leave some time for me. Let’s drink and chat together like before.”

Sanghoon waited while holding his phone with two hands. A few seconds later, Maru hung up.

He sighed and put down his phone. His jaws felt numb because he talked like he was doing a 100m sprint.

“I almost won him over. I was worried for nothing.”

They had known each other for a while. Sanghoon patted his chest. It was a loss for him to be at odds with someone who might become successful as an actor.

He closed the lid of the laptop that had been turned off. The drama’s ending scene became quite a hot topic in various internet cafés and websites. People were curious about the two young actors who decorated the finale of the second episode.

Even Sanghoon, who was basically clueless about the entertainment industry, knew the importance of that interest.

Someone who just showed up on TV was receiving attention. This meant that people recognized that he might have the qualities to become a star.

While he didn’t like that, he had to be on the humble side here. After all, the more connections people had, the easier life was.

Who could tell? He might be able to get a female celebrity as his girlfriend or Maru would lend him money in times of need?

“Sanghoon, you’re so smart.”

He praised himself, saying that shame only lasted an instant. He felt proud of himself. Only those who lined up in front of the right people would be able to win in life. Maru also should have a good opinion of him since a senior was acting low. Of course he would. Sanghoon did so much for him.

Sanghoon drank the rest of the beer.

* * *

“Who was that?” Haneul asked while lying on the yoga mat.

Her waist was bent at a painful angle, though, the person doing the yoga seemed refreshed.

“An old debtee.”

“Debtee?”

Haneul let out a slow breath and raised her torso.

“There’s only one debtee that I heard about from you, sweetie. The 300K from college?”

“Yes, that one.”

“What artistic timing. He called as soon as your drama ended.”

“This man’s a master of wits. He was good at fawning over people from a long time ago. He talks like he’s willing to do anything to those higher than him.”

“How old is he?”

“A year older than me.”

“And he’s already fawning over other people? Looks like he won’t starve anywhere.”

“He’ll get by, even if it means begging.”

“There was always someone like that in every life.”

“That might just be human nature and he’s just faithful to it.”

“If that’s human nature, I’d rather be a monkey.”

Haneul went to the bathroom. He folded the yoga mat and pushed it between the side of the sofa and the wall.

“Get me some underwear and a towel.”

“I told you to bring it with you.”

She was mindful of everything, but she never took her towels and underwear when washing. He put his hand with the towel inside the bathroom and waved his arm. His wife chuckled and snatched it away.

“But hey, didn’t you put in too much effort?”

Haneul’s voice could be heard alongside the sound of water falling from the shower.

“Too much effort?”

“I mean your acting. I think you went a little too far because you were excited to be on TV again.”

“Is that how it looks to you?”

“I like that kind of acting, but I prefer it when you are more plain and deep. Well, I guess the scope of your acting was already decided with the character you were playing.”

“Looks like I should do my best to get a docile role next time. I wonder what’s good?”

“I liked that one. Do you remember ‘Your Spring, My Winter’? The one where you played a college professor.”

“I shot that after I was forty. And that was about flirting with a young student. You liked that?”

“Because it looked good. Did you know that I clenched my teeth really hard when I watched that? The film was really good, but I couldn’t tell if that guy smiling on the screen was smiling because of acting or because he liked the partnering actress.”

“Don’t even mention it. You were nagging me about whether I was grinning throughout the whole thing. I can still remember what you said. Wait, I can’t be the only one to get attacked like this. You also looked overjoyed to death when you were shooting a bed scene with a young guy.”

Haneul opened the bathroom door. She poked her head out of the small gap and smiled mischievously.

“It was good alright. That guy’s chest and abs were so firm. I could do my laundry on it. I think there were about ten thousand people who were lovers with me at film festivals, right?”

“Forget it. I shouldn’t have picked this fight.”

Having left the shower, Haneul sat down next to him, shoving her wet hair in front of him.

“How’s the response to the drama? That production style was definitely worthy of a news article.”

“I didn’t look it up. You know I’m kinda sensitive to things like that.”

“Looks like I should look it up instead of my introverted hubby.”

Maru picked up the cat that came to his feet. Haneul turned on the laptop and started searching on the internet.

“First of all, the drama’s 1st on the search term ranking. Congratulations, your drama didn’t get buried into nothing.”

Haneul shook her hair next to the cat which got some moisture on her. She waved her front paw while struggling.

“You know that’s why Ricebun hates you, right?”

“She always scratches me whenever she sees me even though she sees that I’m with you the whole time. It’s war. A peace treaty fell through, so I’m going to annoy her into giving up.”

She typed on the keyboard again. Maru looked at the screen that changed quickly.

“When did you join internet cafés like that?”

“I’m an owner of my own brand. Of course I made an account so that I could promote things. Though, I’m not doing anything for the time being.”

Maru looked at Haneul smiling and whispered into the cat’s ears.

“Ricebun, just give it up and admit that she’s mommy. You’ll never win against her, you know?”

The cat struggled in his arms and sprung out to escape. She looked at him after getting far away. You can play on your own without me – she seemed to be saying.

“There it is.”

Haneul turned the laptop around so that he could see better. There was a list of articles searched by the drama title.

Maru looked at each one with his eyes. He saw one related to minor actors in the middle.

“A world where the lead characters aren’t everything; A rebellion of minor characters. I don’t know who that journalist is, but he has a knack for naming things. Moreover, it’s not just one. There are about five or more articles similar to this, as though they foresaw that the search rankings would be related to this.”

Haneul clicked on an article.

“Really?”

“I smell a little bit of president Lee Junmin, who will cherish you in the future, sweetie, but from how some named media outlets are talking about it as well, albeit in short excerpts, this wasn’t entirely done through money.”

Haneul showed him some other articles. Although those weren’t written beforehand and the content was quite short, they were still thankful articles that talked about minor actors.

“If you think about it, it’s quite curious. That whimsical god told us that this is our last life and that it will be different from the previous ones, yet Han Maru still managed to meet Lee Junmin. If you think about it like that, maybe you’re tied to him tighter than to me?” She said, her eyes full of mischief but still with a hint of heartfelt jealousy.

“Maybe. Oh, speaking of the president. He got married.”

“Really?”

Haneul turned around. She, who rarely got surprised, seemed very startled.

“Is it to Jung Haejoo?”

“Yes. He married that person.”

She closed her mouth. Although they were facing each other, Maru didn’t feel like she was looking at him. She looked like she was having difficulty looking somewhere distant, at a place where neither time nor distance could be made out.

“I think it was Miss Jung Haejoo who came to find me when I wished to turn back time, back when the whole repeated reincarnations started. It’s an extremely distant memory and the memories of when I was a rabbit are blurry so I can’t be sure about this, but she too, like us, must have managed to…”

Maru reached out and grabbed her hand. She looked at the hand that held hers before twinging her nose and smiling.

“It’s over, isn’t it?”

“Yes, it’s all over now. We’re just ordinary citizens bound to common sense.”

“So we should do away with the fantasy.”

She sat next to him after picking up the laptop. Maru put his arm around her shoulder and massaged her lightly.

“Does president Lee still like dogs?”

“The reason I caught his eyes is because of the abandoned dogs public advertisement. Apparently, it was him who paid for it.”

“That’s an amazing coincidence.”

“If it was a public service advertisement about abandoned cats, then we might have never met.”

“Since we’re at it, shall we get a cute, gentle dog who doesn’t scratch instead of Ricebun?” Haneul said as she looked at the cat scratching the dining table leg. The cat glared at her as though she understood what Haneul was saying.

“That’s no cat. She must be a person.”

“Try to get along. You’ll be seeing her a lot in the future.”

“Mr. Han Maru. Is it her? Or is it me? Choose one.”

Maru stayed quiet.

“I see, I guess a young and cute cat is much better than an old wife.”

Haneul walked over to the cat. She picked up the cat that stared at her. For some reason, the cat stayed docile.

“Sweetie! Look at her!”

Haneul immediately got excited and jumped around. The pouting ‘old wife’ from before was nowhere to be seen.

He looked at his wife dancing a waltz with the cat before reaching out to his phone. He had gotten a phone call.

“Yes, mother. Did you watch it?”

It was his mother. At first, she talked about how gory it was and that she barely managed to watch any, but then she asked worriedly about whether he was going to stop appearing.

“That character died, so I guess I should look for my next work.”

-What a pity. I boasted to others that my son’s on TV too.

“I did get on TV. Did Bada watch it with you?”

-She did. She went back into her room looking pissed after watching it. She’s all passionate about practicing now.

“I guess it’s good if she got stimulus. You should sleep now. It’s getting late.”

His mother hung up after telling him that he did good work.

“Mother-in-law?”

“Yeah.”

“What did she say?”

“Good work.”

“It must have been hard to watch because of the rather rough production direction.”

“Yeah, she told me it was too gory. She’s a strong person, but she’s unexpectedly weak with things like this.”

“Strong? Your mother’s such a little girl. You really don’t know a lot about your mother, sweetie.”

Just as he was about to retort, his phone started vibrating. From text messages to app messages, his phone was on fire.

The power of public TV dramas was quite a force to be reckoned with every time he experienced it. The people who he kept in touch with all sent him texts. They were all asking the same things though: was that you?

“There’s no Han Maru who acts smug and spends all his money, right?”

Haneul pointed the cat’s front paw at Maru’s chest.

“Well, I think there’s about a hundred of them.”

“I’ll forgive you until the 5th iteration. No more than that. We still have a long way to go starting from housing.”

“You were always in charge of the financial matters.”

Even as they talked, he kept getting messages and calls. Maru shrugged and picked up the call. It felt like tonight was going to be quite a busy one.

After Story 100

Dawoon unlocked her hands. There was no end that made her sit on the edge like this among the dramas she watched this year. The internet was raging about it as well. How thrilling must it have been to watch it at the scene?

If it weren’t for that Choi Seungah, she would have participated as a minor actor too. Dawoon bit on her thumb. If it weren’t for Seungah, it would have been her who would’ve received the recommendation from instructor Miso. The role Seungah was playing was just a simple character that anyone could play. It was such a pity as it meant that she had been deprived of an opportunity to work with good actors.

Looking back, she was quite foolish. When instructor Miso talked about the audition, she should have been more proactive about getting it instead of yielding it to Seungah.

This was the result of thinking that Seungah was someone closer to her and that she had another opportunity.

“Next time…”

Dawoon got off the indoor bike and went to the bathroom. She let some hot water into the bath and opened the aroma bottle that Han Haneul recommended. A good fragrance covered her body.

She looked at her reflection in the mirror. She was losing weight every single day. She tried turning her head slightly. She could see a glimpse of Han Haneul through the steamed mirror.

She let out a short cheer. She was catching up. She was changing. There was not long left until she would be reborn.

For a very brief moment, she recalled Haneul, who was walking alongside Maru. Her heated body cooled down instantly.

What would Maru think after looking at the changed her? She dipped her body into the bath. It was morally not right to get in between a man and a woman dating. However, it wasn’t illegal. Breaking up while dating was something common. The woman standing next to Maru changing into another was also ‘possible.’

She touched her lips which had curved upwards.

* * *

“President. Good morning.”

“That’s a very business-like greeting.”

“Even if it’s business-like, a greeting like that is better than not doing it.”

Junmin waved his hand at the employee before going into the CEO’s office. He scanned the headlines of the morning newspaper that his secretary had brought and grabbed a copy.

“President, what will you do for breakfast?” said the secretary while opening the door. Next to her was a new secretary.

“Just some tea will do. Also, Miss Kim Jungyeon,” he called out to the new secretary.

“Yes, president.”

“Don’t be nervous, and don’t try to read my mood. You just need to do what you have to. Also, there’s not much you have to do either. You just have to do what secretary Kang who is standing next to you tells you to do.”

“Yes.”

“And are you wearing heels because you’re comfortable with them?”

The new secretary rolled her eyes away. Junmin said once again, that she shouldn’t try to read his mood and that she shouldn’t be nervous.

“I wore them because I thought it would look formal.”

“If you are wearing them because you’re comfortable in them or you like them, I won’t stop you. But if you’re doing it because you felt like you had to do it or because of the atmosphere, then change them. Secretary Kang is a great example.”

Secretary Kang smiled and lifted up the slippers she was wearing. The new secretary nodded.

“I’ll give you your first task. The deadline will be 7 p.m. this Friday. Scrape together the articles related to the RBS drama ‘The Witness’ after midnight today. Then, sort and classify them into positive and negative contents and report to me the overview.”

“Yes, sir.”

“When did I say the deadline was?”

“Friday, 7 p.m.”

“Perfect. You may leave now. Oh, can you call head manager Choi?”

Secretary Kang replied yes before leaving the office.

Junmin slowly read the newspaper, starting with the politics part. As for the economics part, he only read the parts he was interested in before moving to the entertainment section. A celebrity accused of consuming methamphetamine took a large portion. It was something unrelated to him, so he just moved his eyes elsewhere.

There was a critique article of newly released dramas. They were mostly ordinary. However, the last paragraph was to his liking. It said that people should remember minor actors who might be suffering hardships to make enough money for everyday life.

“My nose is freezing.” Head manager Choi came in.

In his hand was a cup and he had a paper bag with him.

“It’s some tteok.”

“I told secretary Kang that I won’t be having breakfast.”

“You see, your wife’s words take priority over secretary Kang. We got a call in the morning to feed you something.”

Secretary Kang put down the tteok and told him to eat. Junmin had no choice but to eat the tteok for nutrition.

“How is the state of the journalists who got money from us? Are they working without slacking?”

“They have to; they got something from us after all. I had them upload articles so that they didn’t overlap, both in terms of content and in terms of time. Well, they’re good with things like that, so there was no need for me to worry.”

“How’s the response on the other side?”

“For now, the responses are good in the large communities that we are monitoring. The attention has gone up so high that we might not have had to spend any money at all. Although it always happened when a new mini-series started, it’s been a long time since minor actors received so much attention instead of the main characters.”

Head manager Choi gave him a file. There was a short report of responses from large community sites that many large TV stations and entertainment agencies monitored. He flipped the page over. There was a list of news articles that came out yesterday, sorted by title.

“Park Sinseo is something alright. There are many people who flop when they do dramas after staying in the film industry, but this man sure is different. Shooting a movie and shooting a drama is structurally different, but he adapted well.”

“It’s a pity about him. I had my dibs on him and almost got him, but he said he wanted to stay loyal, so what could I do? I had to let him go.”

“He’s got both skill and loyalty.”

“I’ll have to see him again after his contract ends this time.”

“Let him keep his loyalty. At this rate, all the major actors might as well be under the JA banner.”

“Monopoly isn’t a bad thing.”

“It is if you do it, president.”

“Head manager Choi, do you know the reason you don’t get a pay raise? It’s because you lack respect for the president.”

“I know that. That’s why I gave up on getting a good salary and just decided to joke around with you. Also, I can just ask your wife for the pay raise. She’s on my side.”

Junmin smiled bitterly. This guy wouldn’t be so hateful if he were bad at talking.

“Also, I’ve handed over the report material that you told me about. The article will go up as soon as I contact them.”

“Tell them to upload around five.”

“Yes, sir.”

At five, two news outlets would release the news that Han Maru has signed an exclusive contract with JA. It was the right time to spread the news since he got publicity through the drama.

“Shall I schedule interviews as well?”

“No, let’s keep watching for now. He said he’s also starting a film, so let’s watch until that one. We might fall over while trying to get ahead of ourselves.”

“You got him a film already?”

“I didn’t get him anything. He got it himself. Isn’t it interesting? He started acting last June, but he’s already doing everything. It’s like he knows the path he should walk on better than I do.”

Head manager Choi drank some tea before asking, “What do you think about him? Do you think JA finally managed to get a 20s male actor that could be at the top?”

“I wouldn’t know.”

“If you don’t know, who else in the country would know?”

“You know well that this industry is one where things that look like they will go well will flop and things that look hopeless will do well. The start is good, but we don’t know if it’s just the start that will be good, so we have to keep watching.”

Head manager Choi reached out to some tteok, but Junmin blocked his hand with the hot teacup. Head manager Choi twitched his mouth.

“I thought you weren’t eating it.”

“It’s in my hands now, so I don’t want to give it to someone else.”

“I’m someone else?”

Head manager Choi snatched some tteok quickly.

“What happened to that fellow Park Joohwan? Are you going to sign a contract with him?”

“Unfortunately, I was a step late. He already signed with another place.”

“There’s someone faster than you, president.”

“There’s a lot. I can’t go around meeting all the new faces.”

“Well, you are doing it as a hobby of sorts when you don’t have to do it. It’s not like JA’s lacking talent either. Moreover, the business profits are more focused on production and logistics.”

“But we are an actor agency at heart. I’ll bring good actors in if I see them.”

“Good actors, you say. Park Joohwan, that fellow felt good too, so it’s a pity. I personally liked Park Joohwan better than Han Maru. I mean, Park Joohwan wins in terms of appearance. He looks fair on the outside, but there’s strength in his eyes. He’ll probably be able to take to the skies among dramas if you get him a romantic comedy, you know?”

“Maybe. In terms of appearance, I’ll definitely give more points to Park Joohwan.”

“And yet, you decided to approach Han Maru first, and we lost Park Joohwan thanks to that.”

“So it’s my fault?”

“Who said it’s your fault? I just want to see your insightful eyes fail at least once.”

“Why don’t you be the president? I’ll retire.”

“There you go again. You’re half of the name of JA Entertainment, so if you quit, the company will start going downhill. Also, I know you. If you leave JA, you’ll probably start a new company and put me in my place. I don’t want it. I’ll live a comfortable life under you my whole life.”

Junmin snorted and looked at the monitor screen. He looked at the awardees of the Short Film Festival.

Park Joohwan, acting award. Grand prize, Han Maru. They were both good talents. Their future paths would be decided depending on what kind of work they appear in.

“But what’s the movie that Han Maru got himself? The ones that held auditions recently are all big titles.”

“Giant.”

Head manager Choi exclaimed in admiration. “Wow. That should’ve gotten a huge influx of participants, and he managed to get a role. You are talking about director Song Daejin’s work, right?”

“I am.”

“It’s been four years huh? As far as I know, he refused all the scenarios he received until now, yet now he’s revving up. What role is he playing?”

“A con artist.”

“A con artist? I think he got the wrong role. I saw him in the drama last night, and he’s definitely the upright, just type. He might as well be the one being scammed instead.”

Junmin recalled the Han Maru formed by the abandoned dogs public commercial advertisement and the drama. As director Choi said, a good guy image did suit him.

However, taking those characters away from him, Han Maru honestly didn’t give off a soft impression. In fact, he looked like a villain role suited him better. He should probably fit well with characters that hide their vengeance and sneakily carry out evil deeds.

That was in line with a con artist. Sneaky, yet not sneaky; evil, yet not evil.

“We’ll see,” Junmin said as he looked at Maru on the screen.

* * *

Some snow landed on the large leaf. He tapped on the leaf and let out a short breath. The cold air that brushed past his lungs cooled his heated body.

Maru took off the hoodie and took out his phone. It was 7 a.m. He took out his earbuds and put them on before turning on the FM radio.

-Friday, 3rd of April. Good morning, everyone. I hear the roads are slightly slippery because it rained throughout the night. You should be careful during your morning commute.

He headed home as he listened to the morning broadcast. On his way, he visited the market to buy some eggs, milk, and cabbages.

“I’ll give you food, so don’t look at me like that.”

He fed the grumbling cat before washing up. He put some cereal in milk and went to the TV. He watched a program related to everyday living, and it said that milk in the morning wasn’t good for the intestines, even though just a few days ago, they said that having milk on an empty stomach was good.

He finished washing the dishes before starting to clean. It seemed cats had a fur-shedding season, as the amount of fur produced was on the level of a factory.

He lifted up the fur generator and combed her. This was the best treatment she could get from him.

-The afterparty for the hot drama with a 25% viewing rate, ‘The Witness’ occurred last night. We managed to get some of the actors who maintained the tension until the end, on our cameras.

Maru sat down on the sofa. Many cameras were shooting the actors going into the get-together restaurant.

Getting over 25% viewing rate with a minor genre drama didn’t happen that many times in history, so the interest was big.

Starting with Park Sinseo, the actors showed up on the screen. Yoo Jichan, who appeared midway, did right-angle bows wherever he went. His face was full of smiles.

He watched TV for a while before getting his jacket. While the lead actors were basking in their glory, minor actors had to work busily.

“Yes. This is Han Maru who contacted you last time. I’m going to Suwon station. Yes. It’s the 11 o’clock train to Busan. I’ll see you on platform five.”

Maru grabbed the bag with some clothes and daily necessities and left the house.

After Story 101

Maru approached the man waiting on the train platform. As they had only exchanged names through a phone call, this was their first meeting.

“I’m Baek Youngjae.”

“Han Maru. Nice to meet you.”

Maru offered him a canned coffee that he had bought beforehand. Youngjae thanked him and accepted it.

“It’s great that the weather has gotten rather warm.”

“Right.”

They talked over coffee while waiting for the train. They began with introductions. Youngjae said that he was twenty-six and that it had been over four years since he started working as an actor.

“I’ll be twenty-four this year.”

“Really? You do look rather young.”

“That’s the first time I heard that.”

“Just take it for what it is.”

Youngjae smiled gently. He didn’t seem to be the type to want to become close friends on his first encounters as he kept using formal speech.

“How many times have you worked on movies?” Youngjae asked.

“This is my first time. How about you?”

“Well, I think I played a minor character about ten times. But I’m rather looking forward to this one because I have quite a lot of lines. Most of the time, I was usually just background with no lines at all.”

Youngjae twitched his eyes and displayed some facial acting. His expression became rather vicious.

“I’ll wear a suit and stand behind the main characters with this face. I think I played a lot of thug roles. I want to be the leader someday.” He let out a chuckle.

Not long later, a Mugunghwa-ho train came to the platform. Youngjae sat by the window.

“Would you like to eat some kimbap? I bought some because lunchtime is going to be quite awkward. Buying anything to eat inside the train is going to be expensive.”

Youngjae showed him some kimbap wrapped in aluminum foil.

Maru grabbed just two pieces. Looking at Youngjae reminded him of the old times. Minor actors had to take care of everything from transportation to living, clothing, as well as all the other preparation processes. Some production companies would pay their expenses afterward, but most of the time, it was insufficient, and there were times when they didn’t get any money at all. Above all, the broker fee was quite big.

What connections would a minor actor use to win roles? They just pay the casting manager a portion of their payment if they get a role. And after taking out various expenses after that, they would hardly have any money for daily expenses.

“What do you do usually?” Youngjae asked after about an hour of silence.

“I did think about taking up part-time jobs, but I was lucky enough that I don’t have anything to do for financial support. How about you, Mr. Youngjae?”

“I do various things. I guess many people are the same. I work at a PC-bang on the weekend, and I look for short-term jobs during the week. As you know, if we get shoots scheduled like this, it’s impossible to get a fixed slot part-time job. There’s a limit to asking to change shifts. I can’t keep asking the owner to be considerate of me.”

“That’s the difficult part. When you get a part-time job with good pay but get contacted with a role the next day, it really makes things awkward.”

“Right. I'm happy getting a role at all, but if it’s a one-shot thing like a movie, it’s even more of a pain. That’s why I sometimes wonder why I took up acting at all.”

“You start acting because you like it, but if there’s money dangling in front of your eyes, it’ll drive you crazy.”

“Everyone must be like that, right?”

“I wonder how many aren’t.”

A snack cart came into their carriage. Maru raised his hand to call for the crew pushing the cart.

“It is still three hours until Busan, so let’s have some snacks. Choose what you want,” he said to Youngjae.

Youngjae waved his hand in denial, his face looking rather troubled. He said that he was okay and that he was not hungry at all.

Well, for someone not hungry, he did clean out the bits of carrot remaining in the aluminum foil.

Maru grabbed whatever snacks he reached out to. He also grabbed a handful of chocolate bars which could be eaten later.

“That will be forty-seven thousand won.”

He put the change in his wallet and split the snacks on his knees exactly in half. He gave one half to Youngjae, who gave him awkward glances.

“I don’t need this much.”

“The weather’s cold. It’s not like they’ll give you snacks at the set either. You should keep them and eat them later.”

“How much did it cost again? I’ll pay for half of it.”

“It’s okay. I told you, didn’t I? That I’m not doing any part-time jobs for the time being because I was quite lucky. Think of it as the price for getting kimbap from you and take it. You know you’ll put me in a tight spot if you keep refusing, right?”

He opened Youngjae’s bag in his stead and stuffed the snacks inside.

“Thank you.” Youngjae smiled awkwardly. He was a rather innocent fellow.

Maybe Maru should have bought a lunchbox and given it to him as well.

Youngjae peeled a boiled egg and put it in his mouth. Maru also ate one in one go after cracking the egg with his head.

“Is it okay if I ask you something?” Youngjae asked while cleaning the eggshells.

“What is it?”

“What did you mean when you said you were lucky? Did you win the lottery or something?”

“I guess you could call it a lottery. I was just quite lucky enough to do multiple shoots in a short period of time. Thanks to that, I don’t have to worry about rent.”

Though what really helped him out was the deposit for the exclusive contract, he didn’t need to explain that now.

Youngjae shut his mouth. He seemed to fall into deep thought before reaching out into his bag. What came out was a wallet. He opened the brown wallet and took out two ten thousand won bills.

“Take it.”

“It’s okay.”

“You earned that money with your own efforts. You’re also a minor actor who shouldn’t be that much better off than me. Twenty thousand won isn’t a small amount.”

Youngjae smiled and held out the money. This young fellow was actually quite proud and cool. He looked like he would get angry if Maru didn’t take it. Though, Maru didn’t want to take it either. At times like these, it was quite an inconvenience that he was young. He couldn’t buy other people food easily as a senior in life.

“Then just buy me some gukbap when we get to Busan. We have to eat dinner anyway.”

He grabbed Youngjae’s hand and put the money back inside the wallet.

“I’ll buy you an extra-large sized one.”

“Sounds good. No wait, do you like gukbap or do you like wonton?”

“This is my first time going to Busan, but I heard that spicy glass noodles are really good…”

Maru shook his head. He could accept anything but that. Youngjae looked at him before speaking,

“Let’s go with Soondae-gukbap.”

The train arrived at Busan station three hours after that. They took their luggage and left the train. The sun was already setting over the sea.

“I heard from someone I know, and apparently, the lodging on that side is cheap. I heard everyone stays there when there’s a shoot in Busan. Though, I did hear that the facilities weren’t that good.”

“We’ll only be staying here for a few nights, so a place to sleep is all we need.”

He followed Youngjae to the lodging. They paid money to the owner who was grinding some garlic at the counter before going to the 2nd floor.

As Youngjae said, the facilities weren’t that good. Still, the room was warm and there was hot water. That was enough.

“Let’s get some food now. Extra-large gukbap it is. Is there a place you know?”

“Wait a moment. It’s been quite a long time since I last came here, so I’m not sure if the restaurant is there or not. Let’s try going for now. If not, we can eat nearby.”

He went to the gukbap restaurant that he frequented while living as a previous Han Maru.

It was an old couple running their business on the first floor of a run-down building, and the taste was really good.

“It doesn’t look like there’s going to be a restaurant here,” Youngjae said.

Maru nodded as he looked at the flashing LED lights.

There was a large-scale electronics shop in the place where the gukbap restaurant was supposed to be. This was the first time he saw an electronics shop in this place. He smiled bitterly and headed to the next block over.

He just went to a gukbap restaurant that caught his eye.

He took out a soondae from the boiling ceramic pot and put it in his mouth. It was good, but it felt lacking. Maybe it was how memories got glorified. God was so petty. Leaving behind a gukbap restaurant wasn’t that hard.

They drank a bottle of rice wine together before returning to the lodging.

When he came back out after washing first, he saw Youngjae sitting down in front of an old TV. He was practicing acting while watching a drama.

“What kind of role do you want to play if you ever get to play a main character?” Maru asked as he dried his hair with a towel.

Youngjae responded without hesitation,

“I’m not sure if it’ll be possible, but I want to play Yeonsangun, the King from the Chosun era.”

“Yeonsangun?”

“Yes. He’s a terrible figure if you place him by himself, but if you look at him as a character, he has that charm that makes me want to play him. Vengeance, lunacy. I think it’ll be fun.”

“Have you ever practiced? I want to watch you.”

“Then would you? It’s nothing amazing and not worth anyone’s evaluation, so I didn’t show it to anyone until now.”

Maru applauded and sat against the wall. Youngjae, who looked like he was going to start acting at any moment, wiped his mouth and hesitated. Maru could tell what he was going through.

It was actually quite a lot of pressure to act in front of a total stranger, instead of a professor or a judge. It was a different kind of tension that ruled over the body unlike when acting in front of multiple people.

Moreover, this was a run-down lodging. Even a veteran would find it hard to start acting in a space that didn’t have the correct atmosphere.

“It’s really embarrassing.”

“Just show me a short one. Is it from something that’s been out before?”

“There’s a historical drama that was released a few years ago. Have you seen ‘Death Flower’?”

“I have. The Yeonsangun from that drama was quite intense.”

“It left a deep impression on me.”

Youngjae shook his hands and feet, probably in an attempt to shake off his nervousness.

He eventually started talking. It was the scene where he released his suppressed anger to the Former Queen Insu, who was also his grandmother.

“For what cause have you driven my mother to her demise?”

Youngjae released the suppressed emotions at once and opened his eyes aglare. It was a moment that was supposed to be overflowing with killing intent and make the audience freeze.

Youngjae, who twisted his lips as he continued acting, suddenly closed his eyes before letting out a chuckle.

“It really is hard to do it properly. I think I need more practice.”

“It was good though. You should’ve done it until the end.”

“It felt somewhat wrong. It’s like this every time. I feel like I’m dragging things out at a part I should be bursting out.”

Youngjae sat down.

“Why don’t you do something too, Mr. Maru?”

Maru put his towel over his shoulder and stood up. He didn’t know if this would be of any help, but he wanted to give a small gift to this junior who knew his etiquette.

“Then I’ll also play Yeonsangun.”

Youngjae smiled and applauded. It might be a situation that might make him unpleasant, but it seemed that Youngjae enjoyed looking at other people’s act. That attitude of his was what made Maru overjoyed. This fellow was someone who knew how to enjoy acting and cherish it.

“I also liked that part you just showed me. I’ll never be better than the original, but I’m pretty sure it’ll be quite decent.”

He stretched his shoulders once before loosening his whole body. He had to dance with a sword in order to relieve the resentment of his mother, who had died an unjustified death. Even his grandmother would not be able to avoid his wrath. He may not be able to kill her, but she would definitely have to pay a similar price.

He snapped the towel on his shoulder strongly. Along with a strong pop, his mind had migrated to a historical drama set.

Severely drunk, he saw his grandmother in front of him; it was the terrible woman who witnessed his mother’s death, yet did nothing about it.

He staggered and took a difficult step toward his grandmother. His grandmother’s face, overlapping over Youngjae's, started being colored in ruin.

He uttered every single syllable of words very slowly and clearly so that his grandmother could hear the boiling wrath in him.

“Why, for what cause have you driven my mother to her demise?”

After Story 102

When they left the high-rise building area of Busan’s eastern district, they saw slate roofs around. This place was ‘Chookdae Maeul.’

They walked farther inside as they observed the paintings and writing that nameless street artists had left behind on the old walls. A crow flew underneath a leaning lamp post.

They walked past ‘Woomyung Building’ which looked like it had been at least three years since it was last used. People could be seen in the distance.

“Hey! Don’t step on the lines! Manage the cables properly and put the people in order.”

Preparations for the shoot were underway. Maru and Youngjae walked over to where the staff had gathered. When they told them that they were minor actors, they were directed to a building with a blue roof.

“If you wait around there, we’ll call for you. Please don’t go too far out, and if you want to smoke, please go to the alleys.”

There seemed to be some locals around, taking peeps at them from time to time. Maru put his hands in his pocket and walked over to the house with a blue roof. People of various ages gathered around. They seemed to be minor actors.

“It’s still quite cold, huh,” Maru said, jumping around on the spot.

The first day of Spring was already past them according to the calendar, but there was no sign of Spring at all.

“It’ll become warmer by May and hot by June,” Youngjae replied, blowing warm air into his hands.

Last night, he and Youngjae had a long talk. Youngjae was mostly doing the asking, while he did the responding. Youngjae seemed to have taken a liking to the short historical skit he showed off, as he kept persistently asking how to set the vocal tone and facial expressions.

“Perhaps today and tomorrow might be my last opportunity to act with you, Mr. Maru.”

“What do you mean by that?”

“In my opinion, you’ll rise really fast. You’re not someone who will stay a minor actor for a long time. The acting you showed me last night made me think a lot. I thought that luck was a factor when getting a role, but looking at you, it made me think that maybe, skills can overpower luck.”

“You never know what will happen. You might become successful before I do.”

“I’ll feel great if that happens, but it probably won’t happen. I have a good hunch when it comes to things like this. That’s why I’m going to try harder. I’ll have to clench my teeth if I don’t want to get suppressed by your aura.”

“I can’t exactly stay still after hearing what you just said. I guess I’m going to have to try my very best as well.”

They saw onlookers in the distance take out their phones and raise them above their heads. The production crew told them to refrain from taking any photos or videos, but it didn’t work at all. Maru tiptoed and looked at the place where the onlookers were looking.

The main actor was here: Ahn Baeho. He was 39 years old and had been a supporting actor until last year. This was supposedly his first appearance as a lead actor.

Maru had looked up the two films that the director Song Daejin and Ahn Baeho had worked together on. By watching them, he tried to grasp what kind of aesthetics the director pursued and how he placed various actors in a scene.

“Scammers, please gather.”

A man, who told everyone to just call him “Mr. Nam Joon” called for the scammers. Maru and Youngjae took off their thick padded jackets and followed Nam Joon. When they stopped, they found the director shouting, as though there was some problem. In front of the director was a man in his mid-twenties, who seemed to be the new recruit of the production team. It was a very common scene on a shooting set.

“And he said he wants to learn,” the director grumbled as he walked over to the lead actor.

The man in his twenties, who kept bowing, immediately followed after the director.

“He’s on the more docile side as a director,” Youngjae said.

Maru nodded. He had seen numerous actors who would move their hands, not mouth, first.

He recalled one such young member of the crew who would say that he would kill the director if it was the last thing he did, probably because of the alcohol talking. In fact, there was more than one such youngster.

“Still, I guess we’re rather lucky to shoot after waiting just an hour.”

Maru lightly jogged on the spot so that he didn’t become stiff. The director gestured to Nam Joon after talking with the lead actors. They followed Nam Joon with the director.

“I remember you now that I see your face,” director Song said while looking at him.

“There’s not many lines. You just have to walk over with Baeho from over there, and when Baeho says ‘let’s get some food’ while looking at the restaurant,” director Song grabbed Youngjae by the shoulder, “you say ‘President, what will you be eating?’ to him.”

Youngjae responded yes. Director Song’s hand was now placed on Maru’s shoulder.

“While you say ‘being called president makes you look dandy’ to him.”

They checked the movement lines with director Song. They were to walk about one step behind Ahn Baeho.

“Here, Baeho, you look that way and say your line.”

When director Song demonstrated, Ahn Baeho followed suit. As they were a pair that had worked together on multiple occasions, their chemistry was pretty good.

After the final rehearsal, director Song headed over to the monitor.

“Please take good care of me,” said Ahn Baeho with a smile.

The lights turned on and the camera on a rail came right in front of them. There was also a boom mic above their heads.

After the okay call from the recording engineer and the camera director, the man who was being scolded by the director stood in front of the camera with the slate.

“Scene 4-3, take 1.”

Along with a snap, the man left the camera angle. About two seconds later, director Song shouted action.

Ahn Baeho moved first. As director Song told them beforehand, Maru followed a step behind.

Ahn Baeho, who walked arrogantly, stopped in front of a gukbap restaurant.

“Let’s get some food.”

Youngjae followed up with his own line. Maru then followed him up so that the audio didn’t overlap.

“Cut, keep.”

“It’s a keeper,” the crew said in unison.

The actions were just like the rehearsal, but the director didn’t seem to like it and requested a reshoot. There weren’t any specific instructions either. They went back the way they came and stood in the starting position.

“Take 2.”

Slate, then action. They repeated the same act as before. If a minor actor stood out too much or did something wrong, the director would stop it immediately. The fact that there was no specific word about anything probably meant that he was dissatisfied with the lead actor or the background. There was also the possibility that he was getting multiple cuts just in case. It was a form of shooting unimaginable if they were still using film cameras.

Director Song came over. He walked with Ahn Baeho and gave him some additional instructions. He didn’t say anything to Maru or Youngjae.

“Take 3.”

The lead actor jerked his shoulders a little more than before. This time, the director seemed to have taken a liking to it as he said ‘okay’.

Ahn Baeho’s manager rushed over and put a jacket on him. Maru and Youngjae glanced at each other before leaving the place. They put on their jackets before waiting again.

“It reminds me of the old times. I first played a minor role in a film four years ago. I thought I didn’t have a single line and just had to walk around doing nothing like a background actor, but the director suddenly gave me a role that picks a fight with the main character,” Youngjae said as he crossed his arms.

“You must’ve been very nervous.”

“Don’t get me started. The joy only lasted an instant, and what waited for me was hell. Back then, we were still using film cameras, right? It was a time where we didn’t even use slates because it would waste a precious roll of film, but a minor actor caused seven NGs in a row, so the director was fuming. I got all sorts of insults back then, and it still makes me shiver to this day.”

“I heard that it shows up in your dream if that happens to you, right? Apparently, it’s as scary as going back to the military.”

“It’s on the same level. The director is cursing me, and the dozens of staff members frown at me. If I couldn’t collect myself back then, I would probably have quit already. I would definitely not do something hellish like that.”

“But you didn’t. Well done. If you stopped there, it would’ve been more iffy. It always keeps coming back later to haunt you, making you think that maybe you were running away, not quitting.”

Hearing that, Youngjae nodded in reminiscence and asked, “You know, your acting is one thing, but I think you have a way with your words too, Mr. Maru. But are you saying that from experience? It feels like that to me.”

“I don’t have enough of a career to experience something like that. It’s something I picked up from people around me. People told me various things because it gets boring quickly while waiting.”

“Well, I guess you can only chat if you want to stave off the boredom.”

The shoot continued for three hours in the same location. After shooting the scene where they entered the gukbap restaurant, they spent time waiting.

They looked at actor Ahn acting with a supporting actor. He was explaining something passionately after having gathered people. It was probably some groundwork for scamming.

“I wonder what the movie is about,” Youngjae said as he looked at the shoot.

“Me too. Looking at the attire, it’s not set in history.”

“I heard them mentioning illegal estate agents. Maybe it’s about real estate scams?”

“There was a movie about the stock market a while ago, so real estate sounds plausible.”

“Apparently, the main character succeeds in a real estate scam, so maybe the main character leads a comfy life.”

“Yeah. I wonder if it’ll end with him living in an apartment in Gangnam somewhere?”

“I wonder when we would be able to live in a place like that.”

“Shouldn’t it be possible in this life at least?”

“That’s quite an optimistic view you have there, Mr. Maru. I’ll see if I can do it in the next life. I sometimes look at the price tag even though I’ll never be able to buy one. I get about 150 thousand won for appearing in a drama for one episode, but the land over there is increasing by the tens of millions.”

“Then you just have to become an actor who receives hundreds of millions.”

“Do you think I can become one?”

“They say you should have big dreams. If even your dream is small, what fun do you have in living life? Even if you get teased for being delusional, don’t you think having a big dream is better than having a tiny one?”

The camera was being taken down and packed up. They were going to move locations.

Nam Joon approached them and said that they were going to appear in the next scene.

“Today’s a lucky day.”

They were doing two scenes in one day, and the waiting time was less than three hours.

They saw the camera equipment going into the building on the opposite side of the gukbap restaurant. That seemed to be the hideout of the scammers.

Maru and Youngjae followed Nam Joon. They had their makeup fixed before going into the office. A makeup artist exuding a frosty air gestured to them that the work was done with a nod.

“How long am I going to keep working on background people?”

He heard the makeup artist’s whisper. No, it felt like she was intending for him to listen.

Maru smiled at the makeup artist. She seemed to have some shame left as she looked away with an awkward expression.

“Background people, huh.”

Youngjae also smiled bitterly as though he heard it. Wherever it was, the bottom of the rung people received subpar treatment.

“I’m Baek Youngjae.”

“I’m Han Maru.”

They greeted the senior actors who came up to the office. Some responded in kind, while some just nodded.

In the office were four crooked metal desks. Director Song had him and Youngjae sit down at the desk in the corner.

Actor Ahn was placed in the middle of the camera, while the supporting actors were seated on either side.

“You push the whiteboard in, and you write with the board marker, okay?”

Maru remembered director Song’s instructions and returned to his seat. He also roughly measured how many steps he had to take. He felt like it would be better to walk at a constant pace.

There was no detailed explanation, so he just had to act without standing out.

“Oh, and you there, come here.”

Director Song pointed at Maru.

Maru joined the row of actors around the director. The director gave him a script.

“You gave me a good feeling during the audition. That’s why I’m going to give you a line. You can do it, right?”

There was only one possible response:

“I’ll do anything.”

“Good.”

Director Song stood in front of the whiteboard.

“Stand here for the time being.”

After Story 103

“Stand here and write ‘what is a scam’ on the whiteboard like this.”

Director Song wrote on the whiteboard, indicating where and how to write.

“And then you turn around and say ‘my brothers, scams, you see, aren’t things that anyone can do,’ like that.”

“Should I go with the tone you just used?” Maru asked as he received the board marker.

“If you have anything in mind, then you can go with that.”

“I’ll try to sound unnecessarily heavy.”

Maru slightly pushed his bangs aside and wrote on the whiteboard. He wrote neatly like he was doing calligraphy. After putting a period, he turned around.

“Scams aren't something anyone can do.”

He lowered his voice a little. He also put plenty of gaps between each word. It was a tone of speech he used to use when going around giving lectures while doing multi-level marketing.

Before he started, he started off with a big breath to draw attention, and he uttered each word with a machine-like pronunciation.

As for his hand, he just put them by his side, only opening and clenching his hand. He only used his hand proactively when the audience started to lose their focus.

“Now that I heard it, your voice is pretty good.”

“Thank you.”

“And you have a decent appearance. Can you talk more about scams? You can go with stereotypical things or practical things. It’s fine even if it doesn’t make any sense.”

“Shall I talk some more?”

“Go on, go on,” director Song said as he stepped back. The other actors also gathered by the director’s side to watch.

Maru thought back to the lecture he gave in Daejeon once. He had to promote multi-level marketing to office workers who were actually rather smart, so he had to prepare a lot.

“There are many types of scams. However, all scams are based on boasting. Think about it. A man wearing worn-out clothes tells you that he knows which stocks will rise and that you should definitely buy them. How many people would actually listen to him?”

Maru pointed at the director and the actors with the board marker in his hand.

“Of course they won’t buy it. Even the most wealthy people with money burning a hole through their pockets wouldn’t listen to such a man. That’s why you have to dress well. You have to look neat too. You have to look better than the target you’re trying to work on. That’s the basics. You see, people don’t listen to those worse off than them no matter what. There’s a saying that you can learn something from anyone, even a child, right? That’s a load of crap. We have to ‘look’ cooler than our targets, and we have to ‘look’ like we are better off than them.”

Maru closed his mouth and looked at director Song, asking silently if he should do more.

Director Song quickly nodded.

“That’s the logic behind scams. We aren’t trying to take the money of snot-nosed brats, are we? We are targeting the wallets of adults who have finished their mandatory education and have lived through the harsh lives of society. Speaking from common sense, scamming is a really difficult job. Lying through your teeth to someone who knows everything already and stealing their money? Does that even make sense? But the funny thing is that this country is full of scams. Every one of your neighbors, above, below, next house over, the house opposite you; they’re all scammers.”

He pointed up, down, left, and right with the marker once and then continued,

“I said stealing their money, right? Let me correct myself. We never steal anything. We need to think like that. We are simply borrowing. We are simply borrowing money so that we can give even bigger profits to idiots. Here, the concept of ‘borrowing’ is really important. Guarantees, loans, and credibility. Shall we go back to the beginning? I said scams are about boasting, right?”

“Yes.”

One of the actors responded like a good student.

Maru winked at that actor and continued,

“If you sneakily boast about yourself in front of a person who desires to dress well and earn a lot of money, you’re halfway successful. Is this really half of scamming, you ask? Yes, this is half of it. That’s why you need talent, even when it comes to scamming. You have to have charm as a person and sound logical. I kept emphasizing that you need to ‘look’ well since a while ago, right? This is really important. From A to Z, we need to show our idiots — that we ‘look’ like we’re having a luxurious life, that we ‘look’ like we’re leisurely, and that we ‘look’ like we have grabbed an opportunity. Just like actors.”

Just as he spoke up to there, director Song clicked his hand. Maru closed his mouth and looked at director Song.

“What a funny guy. Hey, what was your name again?”

“It’s Han Maru, sir.”

“Yes, Maru. Can you remember what you just said?”

“Yes.”

“Write everything down on a piece of paper. Let’s have it edited and add it. It feels really good, but there’s a need to conform it with the character.”

Director Song called for the youngest member of the production crew.

“Get some paper and pen, quickly.”

“As for you, write down what you just said.”

He sat down and wrote down the words he just said at a desk.

Watching director Song’s previous works was very helpful. Even in his previous works, there were always characters who talked very logically.

Maru added some spice, namely his own experiences, on top of that. The director’s response was better than he had expected.

While the director rehearsed with the other actors, he wrote down everything he said. He just gave a slight twist to the information he had attained while doing MLM, so it sounded more realistic than something purely made from scratch. Director Song must have recognized the vividness that his words contained.

“Here.”

He gave director Song the paper. The director read it on the spot.

“This is good. Hey, give me the storyboard.”

Director Song slowly flipped over the file in his hand. From how there were pictures in it, it seemed to be the storyboard.

“I really like ad-libs. That’s why I sometimes tell good actors to not look at the script at all. And you’re exactly like that. But… to use it or not to use it…”

Director Song tapped on his chin.

“Let’s get ready for now.”

“Five minutes until standby.”

The production staff got into position. The actors also moved to their locations.

Director Song stared at the lines Maru wrote until the end before speaking just before going over to the monitor,

“Hey, let’s roll with this for now. I can’t guarantee that this will make it to the final cut, but if it’s really good, I’ll use it, okay?”

“I’ll try my best so that you will have to think about it until the very end in the editing room.”

“That’s a good attitude. I liked the way you pointed with the board marker too. You can exaggerate it a little more.”

“Yes.”

“And try talking a little faster. I think that’ll look better.”

“Okay.”

He committed the director’s instructions to memory. Minor actors had to focus on carrying out the director’s requests to the tee more than showing off their own characters if they wanted to make it into the final cut like director Song said.

“Ready, we’ll start when the car outside goes by.”

The engine noise outside the window disappeared.

“Everyone on standby!” the assistant director shouted.

“Ready.”

Director Song’s calm voice came out through the megaphone.

After the recording engineer’s signal came, the slate made a sound.

“Action.”

* * *

Song Daejin looked at Maru, who stepped forward with the board marker in hand. Just where did a kid like this pop out from? He did think that this guy was rather peculiar during the audition too, however, he didn’t know that he would be able to create on the spot a very persuasive and interesting-sounding skit.

He looked at the lines that Maru wrote again. Normally, making up words on the spot would usually sound inconsistent, boring, and not smooth, but this guy’s lines were the complete opposite.

He made up something like this on the spot? It was hard to believe.

Maybe he saw this from another work, or maybe he had practiced this beforehand.

“What is scamming?”

The Maru in the monitor started off with a neat smile. His wording had changed, but it didn’t matter since he was asking for an ad-lib anyway. Changing things up would sound nice if done in a moderate amount.

His walk, his posture, his gesture, his expression, eyes, and speech — everything looked good. He looked natural like someone who had researched the character of a scammer for a long time.

Daejin put his head closer to the monitor. It felt like getting a close-up just above his neck would look good as well. Maru’s expressions were too good to just skim over as a waist shot.

Maru was being totally shameless, but he didn’t look or sound cheap. He looked like he had been in this business for 30 years at least. His mouth uttered scammer philosophy like he was breathing, and Daejin felt like he had to take out some money and put it down in front of him.

Maru pointed at the actors with the marker. The way he used his body didn’t look awkward.

There was only one reason he didn’t ask minor actors to act. It was because they weren’t good. Once, he had been fuming because of a weird guy who couldn’t say his lines without fidgeting his left hand.

After that, he did not have any minor actors do more than necessary.

Tap, tap- Maru tapped on the whiteboard with the marker a couple times.

Daejin took his eyes off the monitor and looked at the expressions of the actors sitting in front of Maru. They were all looking at him like docile sheep. It was as if they were truly listening to a lecture and not appreciating an act.

“Cut, okay.”

There was no need to redo that. While he desired to change up the angle and shoot again, that was rather excessive considering the story. Maru was just the moodsetter.

Actors he didn’t even call over rushed over to the monitor. They all looked curious.

Daejin waved at Maru. This must be his first time letting a minor actor look at the monitor.

-What is scamming?

He routed the audio output to the speakers instead of the headphones.

Daejin crossed his arms and looked at the monitor. It looked good even though he was seeing it again. There were no wasted movements. Maru didn’t ruin the flow just because he got a role, nor did he freeze into a statue. He only took out the things that were necessary, just at the necessary times.

“Miso’s good alright. There’s no way she recommended a nobody.”

Daejin turned his head around to look at Maru. He felt it was such a pity. If only he could have used him as a supporting role or more…

“Ah, that’s right.” Ahn Baeho suddenly clapped.

“Han Maru, I thought I heard that name somewhere. Mr. Maru, you were at the Short Film Festival, weren’t you?”

The Short Film Festival? Daejin thought back to the event that happened last year.

“Yes. I participated in it.”

“I was right. I wasn’t there myself, but I did hear that someone with great acting got the grand prize. Han Maru, his name was rather peculiar so I remembered it.”

“Now that I think about it, I did hear that the Short Film Festival gave out its grand prize for the first time in years. I remember it now too. But there wasn’t anything listed in your career during the audition, was there? Or did I just miss it?” Daejin asked Maru. It was vague, but he couldn’t remember anything about the Short Film Festival in Maru’s profile.

“I handed in the profile a long time before that, so I wasn’t able to put it in there.”

“You should’ve appealed that during the audition. You’re good at acting, but you’re not that good at self-appealing, I see.”

“I was going to if things looked bad, but I just left because it looked like you took me in a good light, director.”

Daejin took out his phone. He was unable to participate in the Short Film Festival last year due to preparations for his new work, but he usually helped out every year.

He looked up Han Maru on the web portal. His profile was up there at the very top.[1]

“Wow, you even have a profile and a photo at the top, you know? Did you apply for this yourself? I heard it was really difficult for an individual to do it. I barely got mine there last year.”

“I didn’t apply for it. I think my agency did it for me.”

“Really? I guess people care about this stuff nowadays, huh.”

After saying that, he scrolled down slightly. This time, a news article caught his eye.

News article? About someone who just started off? It shouldn’t be someone else with the same name.

Daejin narrowed his eyes and looked at the article. After seeing the exclusive contract news and looking at Maru’s face again, he looked back at the article.

“Let’s take a break.”

Daejin stood up with his phone. He needed some time to confirm things with the owner of JA.

[1] Korean web search portal Naver lists the profiles of famous people (politicians, celebrities, actors, etc) at the top of search results if they’re in the database, which you can apply to Naver to list.

After Story 104

Daejin left the office, the location for the shoot. He scrolled through his contact list as he walked down the stairs. This would make it half a year since the last time he called this person.

“Hyung-nim. How have you been? It’s me, Song Daejin.”

-We live in an era where the name of the caller shows up on the phone screen, so you don’t have to introduce yourself. What’s up? You’re calling rather early for someone who barely calls once a year.

“I was curious about one thing, so I decided to ask.” Daejin looked up and said, “Han Maru, you know him, right?”

-I do.

“Did he really go under your wing?”

-It’s a little small to put it like that, but yes, let’s say he’s under my wing.

“You really took an unverified twenty-something-year-old kid?”

-It’s a little funny now that have I gotten a few calls like this. Think about it. Who did I take when I decided to grow JA: Geunsoo, Ganghwan, Suyeon, they were all nameless. But people have forgotten their nameless days and only think about their current, completed figures. I was someone who took on quite a challenge.

“Right, I forgot about that. I forgot that they started under you.”

Right now, JA had the image of a super agency because it possessed many actors who were A, no, S-tier actors, but it started off quite small. Although Junmin possessed a lot of capital because he was a good businessman, the actors, the main backbone of the agency, were weak and worthless like broken chinaware.

Of course, those pieces of broken chinaware that were unsuited to become bowls used for eating were now on the level of priceless chinaware that should be in museums.

“If you were going to put him in my work, you should’ve told me about it beforehand. You aren’t mad because I didn’t call you frequently, are you?”

-Why would I care about you calling me? The reason I didn’t tell you beforehand is that I didn’t know about it. It’s only recently that I signed a contract with him. Go look it up on the internet. The day the articles were released was pretty much the day I signed the contract with him.

“I called you after seeing those articles.”

Daejin put a cigarette in his mouth.

“Do you know what else I saw other than the articles?”

-What?

“Han Maru’s acting.”

-I was told that he’s a minor character who doesn’t even have a script.

“Right, he didn’t have one. I was just going to use him as a pretty backdrop, with a couple words. But when I set him up to try, how should I put this…”

Daejin flicked the cigarette. He recalled Maru acting so naturally.

-What is it?

“It’s just such a pity. I’m sure you know since you participated in production multiple times. Someone I brought wanting 20 from him suddenly showed off that he could do 80 or 90. It just makes you laugh, especially if you think that there’s a role better suited for him.”

-I know how that feels.

“Why didn’t you sign the contract earlier and tell me about him? If you did, I would’ve given him a decent role too, not a minor character.”

-Invent a time machine and go back in time or something. Don’t vent it on me.

“When did I vent anything on you?”

Daejin puffed a deep one so that the cigarette burnt until the filter. He then threw the glowing cigarette butt on the ground.

“Anyway, alright.”

-What are you going to do with him?

“What can I do? I’ll make the best use of him. I want to see him more, but unfortunately, there’s no place for him in this movie. I’ve set out everything tightly.”

-You sound confident, seeing that you’re practically declaring that you’re flawless.

“I was always confident, you know.”

-Use him well before you send him back. If you of all people are assessing him like that, he might be an important person that might represent the 20s actors of JA.

“Alright, I’ll use him well and send him back to you intact.”

Daejin hung up and returned to the office on the 2nd floor. He saw Maru standing quietly in the corner.

He really wished to create a character that didn’t exist before and give it to him, but he had already planned everything out in this movie, so he couldn’t do that.

Had it been Hong Geunsoo or Yang Ganghwan, he would create a role even if it meant increasing the runtime of the entire film by 10 minutes, but he couldn’t invest that much into that young actor. He just had to make the best use of him.

Daejin walked in front of the monitor and spoke,

“Let’s go again.”

* * *

Youngjae scooped up a large portion of jjajang-myun and put it in his mouth before spitting it back out. He looked at the actor in front of him in surprise.

Ahn Baeho scratched his head with the tip of the chopstick before kicking. The MDF flipped over, throwing the plate of jjajang-myun on the ground.

“President Choi. You don’t believe us? I told you we can make some big buck with this. These days, you can rake in all the money you want with estate agent stalls, y’know. Look, prez Choi. We buy some bankbooks and then sell them back at a premium! Isn’t that easy? President Choi, President Choi!”

Ahn Baeho sighed and threw his phone into the air. Maru snatched that phone easily with one hand.

“President, please calm down and…” Maru gave him back the phone with a smile.

Ahn Baeho looked at the phone and Maru alternately with a smirk before giving him a hard slap.

Along with a loud noise, Maru’s head turned around.

This time, he hit properly. This was… the fifth time already? As the number of takes increased, Ahn Baeho’s slaps became harder.

Maru stuck out his tongue slightly to lick his lips. He looked at Ahn Baeho with a bitter expression and left the office after notifying Ahn Baeho.

“He looks like he’s something cuz he can use his smarts a little. Hey!”

“Yes, president,” Youngjae said his line as he stood up. This time, he didn’t make a mistake.

In the previous take, he was in such a hurry that he ended up kicking the bowl of jjajang-myun on the ground.

“Go and tell that prick to fuck off. I can do this by myself. No, wait, you fuck off too. I’ll give you enough compensation.”

Ahn Baeho took out his wallet and counted some bills before eventually just tossing the whole wallet over.

Youngjae quickly snatched the wallet that fell on the ground after hitting his face before bowing towards Ahn Baeho.

“President, I’ll contact you later.”

“Bullshit, just fuck off.”

Youngjae replied yes in a loud voice before running over to the entrance of the office. He glimpsed inside the wallet in front of the entrance before turning around to glare at the back of Ahn Baeho’s head.

“Tch, it’s just two ten thousand-won bills.”

“You’re still here?” Ahn Baeho shouted while picking up the bowl of jjajang-myeon. Youngjae grinned like a fool before leaving the office. He closed the door and looked down the stairs. Maru was waving a hot pack.

“Did that go well?”

Youngjae received the hot pack that Maru gave him. It was warm.

“I was nervous that I was going to cause an NG, but I didn’t make any mistakes. Rather than that, is your cheek okay? That slap sounded bad.”

“I asked him to do it so that we can finish this for good. How was it when you looked from the side?”

“Terrific. I was worried that you were going to lose a few teeth.”

Youngjae smiled as he looked at Maru’s face. Maru’s cheek was swollen red. His own cheek ached from just looking at him.

A voice shouting cut could be heard from the office. Youngjae leaned against the door. It should be an okay this time, right?

“Okay.”

“It’s an okay.”

Director Song finally stamped the papers.

The office door opened and Ahn Baeho came out. He looked around before finding Maru and then walking over.

“I hit you too hard, didn’t I?” Ahn Baeho wrapped his hand around Maru’s face with an apologetic expression.

“It sounded loud, but it didn’t hurt that much.”

Ahn Baeho smiled kindly when he heard that. After exchanging a couple more words, Ahn Baeho then talked to Youngjae.

“Is your nose okay? It must’ve hurt because the wallet was hard. I feel like I’m hurting many people today.”

Ahn Baeho kept apologizing while taking a close look at his face.

“Throw it anytime. I’m completely okay.”

Ahn Baeho returned to the office. It seemed he went back for monitoring.

Youngjae looked down at his hands. He couldn’t believe that actor Ahn had grabbed these hands until just a moment ago.

“Mr. Maru. Thank you.”

“For what?”

“That I got to shoot like this. Actually, I heard everything yesterday, when you talked to the director.”

Yesterday, around the time the scene at the office almost ended, he saw Maru talk with the director in person. It was then he found out that Maru was affiliated with JA and that he won the grand prize in the Short Film Festival.

The intense Yeonsangun act that he showed at the lodging was not a product of coincidence, but a result of his skill. Although he realized back then that they were in different leagues when it came to acting, he didn’t know that even the support they received was different.

It was JA of all places, the place where seniors he looked up to belonged to. It was one of the agencies he only dreamed about joining, and yet, Han Maru was there. Someone who only started acting recently, who was also someone younger than him, was there.

He felt vain, slightly betrayed, and enormous envy. After realizing that this man younger than him started off on a different point and probably even had a different destination, he felt rather vain.

After the shoot last night, the director didn’t give them any further instructions, so the only thing he had to do was to go back to Seoul. Maru would probably stay behind for further shoots.

It was then that he overheard that Maru wanted to try acting with the actor he acted with during the day. A mere minor actor, someone the director could blow away with a single breath, had given the director a proposal. Maru even sounded calm and bold.

Youngjae thought: would he be able to do the same if he were in Maru’s shoes? Honestly, he would find it difficult to do so.

The words Maru said when he left the building after talking to the director were very plain: Mr. Youngjae, the director said he wants to see us again tomorrow.

Youngjae wouldn’t have felt jealous even if Maru boasted that it was thanks to him, but Maru said none of that.

“It wasn’t much. I was just asking if it would look better for both of us to be in it rather than me alone.”

“That’s what I’m grateful about. Had it been me alone, the director wouldn’t have given me a line at all.”

“I can’t say I know the director well, but I can tell that he has a picky personality. He used you because he liked your acting. If he didn’t, he would’ve been merciless.”

The production staff packed up their equipment and left the building.

“Let’s go out as well. I think they’re going to shoot outside.”

Maru stood up. Youngjae looked at Maru who stepped down the stairs. Back when they were on the train to Busan, he thought that this shoot was going to be just like the ones he had experienced before.

His mindset was that he should just make a living since rising to a star in one go was nothing more than a delusion.

Now, however, it was different. He got to say all the lines he wanted to and even worked together with senior actors on the set. It became motivation to him, who had been stagnating and exhausted after having worked part-time for years alongside acting.

He wanted to stand up again. He wanted to do better. He wanted to be like Maru.

“Wait for me.”

Youngjae pulled himself up by pushing on his knees.

* * *

“Hey, hey. Just go. There’s no need to look back. There was only 20 thousand won in his wallet. That prick will just be one of those petty criminals.”

Youngjae acted with a lot more leisure on his face, as though he got used to saying his lines now. After looking at Youngjae, Maru turned around to look up at the office. To be precise, at the camera on the window of the office.

He looked with eyes full of disdain before putting his hand into his pocket.

He walked snobbily for a bit before frowning when he looked at a cigarette butt that he kicked.

He then walked down the long, straight alley, until he heard that he was signaled to stop.

“Okay.”

“We’re done.”

He stopped and turned around. All of his appearances were now over. As he was playing a stereotypical character, there was no fun in digging deep into it, but he enjoyed everything, perhaps because it had been a long time since he last shot a movie.

It definitely felt different from shooting a low-budget film.

“It’s over now,” Youngjae said, looking rather disappointed.

“Should we go get some rice wine to drink? And some pork too.”

Maru grabbed an invisible cup and tilted it in the direction of his mouth.

“Sounds good. It’s our last night in Busan, so let’s drink a whole lot before we return.”

Just as they returned to the set while giggling,

“Huh? Maru-oppa?”

A familiar voice stopped Maru in his track.

After Story 105

Brown hair tied into a ponytail and draped to the side, round glasses without a prescription, a pale green shirt, and a pair of skinny jeans… a woman that seemed to signify the coming of Spring approached him with a smile.

Who was this? — Maru thought as he looked at the woman who got closer to him before thinking up a name. He had not recognized her because she had changed a lot in the past few months. Her makeup style also seemed to have changed.

“Dawoon.”

Dawoon smiled in front of him.

“What a coincidence. I got to meet you like this, oppa. So you passed the audition?”

“And you passed the audition too, huh? You’re here because of the shoot, right?”

“Yeah. When did you come to Busan, oppa?”

“Just yesterday.”

“Don’t tell me you finished your shoot already?”

“I did. I just finished off my last scene.”

“What a pity. If I knew about it beforehand, I would’ve called you.”

Dawoon covered her mouth and coughed softly.

“It’s cold. You should put something on.”

“I heard I was going to be in the next scene, so I just took it off.”

He saw a thick jacket neatly folded where Dawoon was pointing at.

“Right, I enjoyed the drama. The first and second episodes with you in them were the most interesting. It’s been two months since the series ended, but I only got to tell you about it now.”

“Thanks for telling me, even if it’s a little late.”

Maru looked at Dawoon’s expression and continued speaking,

“Seungah also took the audition. I wonder how it turned out for her.”

“She didn’t make it, unfortunately. She told me she didn’t get contacted.”

“Really?”

The two of them seemed to have resolved this between them, as Dawoon didn’t look awkward mentioning Seungah. They also talked to each other quite well in the group chat, so there didn’t seem to be any resentment remaining between them.

“I wish she was here instead of me. I mean, she’s a little better than me.”

“The director must have picked you because he judged that you were better.”

Youngjae, who stood next to him, left, saying that he would go ahead.

“Who was that?” Dawoon asked as she looked at Youngjae walking off.

“An actor I worked with. He lives in Suwon as well, so we came to Busan together. Thanks to that, it was less lonely.”

Dawoon took off her glasses. “How many months has it been since we saw each other like this?”

“About four months, I guess?”

“Honestly, I thought I’d feel rather awkward to see you, but it’s not like that at all.”

“What’s there to be awkward about? We resolved everything through the phone call back then.”

Dawoon smiled brightly, enough to show her teeth.

“Right. We talked about it and resolved everything back then, but I was a little shy and never managed to reach out to you on my own accord. I’ll say just in case, but I don’t have any feelings for you anymore, so you can’t avoid me or something like that, okay?”

“There’s no way I would do that, is there? It’s just meeting a member of the Hanjoo Chicken Feet Actors Association, so there’s no reason for me to avoid it.”

“Just as ordinary friends, right?”

Dawoon turned her head around. The camera that came out of the office was being set up on the street. The lights were almost finished being installed as well.

“Looks like I have to go soon. Oppa, how am I?”

“What do you mean?”

“Do I look like someone flirtatious? It’s the role I have. I’m a thieving fox who has to enchant men.”

“If it’s that, you look very suitable right now.”

“I wonder if I can shake your heart too?”

He tilted his head as he looked at Dawoon. Dawoon put her glasses on again and spoke,

“I was just joking. You’re putting me in an awkward position if you look at me like that. We decided not to do that, didn’t we?”

“Ah, right.”

Maru smiled and took out the hot pack he had in his pocket.

“It’s rather cold, so you should watch out for your health when you shoot. The director has a fiery personality, but he’s great when it comes to giving instructions on acting, so I’m sure there’s a lot to learn.”

“That’s good. I was actually quite worried because the director looks scary,” Dawoon said, putting the hot pack against her cheek, adding that it was really warm.

“You should go now, the shoot’s going to start.”

“Okay.”

Maru turned around to look for Youngjae. He was waiting at the exit of the alley leading to the city center. Just as he was about to raise his hand to indicate that he was going,

“Maru oppa.”

He slightly turned around to look at Dawoon.

“Uhm, are you busy?”

“Why do you ask?”

“You see, I came here by myself. I told you about this before, right? So I feel complicated. It’s my first time coming to a movie shoot like this too.”

“You don’t have to worry about that. As long as you focus on acting, you’ll forget about everything else.”

“That’s true, but… how should I put this. I need some advice. If you’re okay with it, can’t you stay in Busan until I finish my shoot?” Dawoon said as she grabbed the hems of her shirt.

He spoke to Dawoon, who was smiling awkwardly.

“You wouldn’t find me helpful even if I am here. Acting is purely up to you after all. Also, I don’t think that your acting is bad. I’m sure you’ll be able to handle it without a problem.”

“R-really?”

“If you feel nervous for no reason, you should try talking to other actors. There are many kind people here. Especially senior Ahn Baeho. He will never look away from you if you ask him for help. Of course, you might have to wait if he becomes sensitive because of the shoot.”

Dawoon rolled her tongue inside her mouth and eventually put on an expression of forfeit.

“Alright, oppa, I’ll do that. Then… are you going back to Suwon tonight?”

“I probably will. I booked a train too.”

“I see, you’re going.”

“Let’s meet up with everyone else and do something once you’re done with the shoot here. Jichan-hyung said he wanted to see you. The drama has ended too, so let’s meet up when Jichan-hyun has time in his schedule.”

“Yeah, sounds good.”

She looked like she still had something to say.

Maru believed that while he couldn’t read what a person was thinking deep in their hearts, he thought he could read their expressions at least. It was not some kind of supernatural ability, but a form of intuition he gained from repeated lives.

If it was someone else, not Dawoon, he would’ve spoken some more and perhaps asked what troubles they were having.

“Alright, then good luck. It’s cold, so stay warm.”

“Erm.”

Dawoon spoke with a hesitant hand gesture. Maru pointed at Youngjae waiting in the distance.

“I’m sorry. He’s waiting because we agreed to eat together. I can’t make him wait forever.”

Ah – Dawoon changed her expression into a smile.

Maru didn’t want to leave any room. People’s emotions were like piled snow. Even after brushing away everything with a broom, there was bound to be some remaining behind in the shadows.

That was why he had to finish the conversation here. Given enough time, they might be able to form a casual relationship, but that time was not now.

Maru waved his hand and turned around.

“She seems like an actress,” Youngjae said as he looked at Dawoon.

“She’s someone I know. She took the audition with me, and it seems like she passed and got a role.”

“That’s good.”

Youngjae kept giving Dawoon glimpses as they walked.

“What about her?” Maru asked.

“She’s pretty. I don’t mean anything else; she just has a face that’ll be beneficial for her as an actress. After all, even as the times change, appearance is a condition that actresses can’t do without.”

“Should I set you up with her?”

Youngjae shook his head.

“I really don’t have any intentions like that. Above all, I’m not in a situation where I can care about dating. I’m having trouble taking care of myself, so I can’t imagine looking out for someone else.”

“You never know. There are people who make you forget that you have such trouble and make your life enjoyable.”

“Sounds like you’re seeing someone.”

“I am. Thanks to that, life is enjoyable.”

Youngjae smiled.

“Don’t the people around tell you that you don’t act your age?”

“They do. Maybe my mind’s gotten told.”

They walked past the walls that looked like they would fall apart soon. After passing by a construction zone with piles of wooden fiberboards, they crossed a four-lane road. They returned to the end of the shanty town and the beginning of the building zone.

Maru looked at the barbecue restaurant in front of him and spoke,

“Let’s get some food first before we go pack our luggage.”

* * *

Dawoon looked at the reflection of her face through the hand mirror. While it was still not to her liking, it had definitely changed compared to a few months ago.

She lost some weight in her cheeks, making the contours of her face much clearer, and her nose had gotten higher as well. She had also gotten used to her new makeup style, so she didn’t make mistakes there either.

Her figure in the mirror was definitely catching up to Han Haneul.

“Just a little more,” she said in a small voice.

She had expected Maru to respond like that to some extent. He was probably feeling awkward. After all, a girl who practically confessed to him greeted him with a smile.

It wouldn’t be strange for him to be flustered and leave after a curt greeting, but Maru kindly asked her how she was doing and was worried about her. He also told her that she looked good.

Positive indicators were found everywhere. If he didn’t have a girlfriend, he would probably have treated her kinder. For now, though, she was satisfied that he wasn’t staying away from her.

However, what would it be like in due time? She thought that she had to put in more effort. Only after becoming a woman full of charm would she be able to attract Maru’s interest legally.

Han Haneul was definitely a cool person. Even as a girl, she felt rather enchanted when she looked at Han Haneul’s poster, at those mysterious eyes.

Had she been a man, she would definitely have longed for her.

She imagined herself standing next to Maru instead of Han Haneul. Just imagining that made her feel shiveringly excited. That would be the moment she becomes perfect as a woman, and as an actress.

It dawned on her when she watched the drama that Maru shot. Only she would be able to put on a passionate act with that man.

She had to accumulate everything inwardly for now until the day that would come soon.

For the sake of the moment when her appearance, acting skills, and emotions all blossomed at once.

* * *

“I thought it was a butterfly. It was quite pretty. But then I suddenly found out one day that the pretty butterfly I used to admire actually turned out to be a moth. What was its name again? It was a hawk moth or something,” Youngjae said as he put down the drinking bowl. It seemed that he was weak to alcohol and was the type to get talkative.

Still, he only talked softly like a docile student, so it wasn’t a bad drinking habit.

“It’s funny, isn’t it? Butterflies or moths, they’re pretty much the same thing, insects. But when you think of butterflies, you think elegant, cool, and pure, while moths are dirty, harmful, and disgusting.”

“Was it shocking?”

Maru filled Youngjae’s bowl only about halfway full. If he fed him anymore, he might have to carry him. That was one thing he didn’t want to do.

“It was shocking even when I was twenty. I found out then that it’s how I perceive it that’s most important. Even moths are butterflies if I look at them prettily, and butterflies might as well be moths if I hate them.”

“You learned something good.”

“Yes. But I still like butterflies and hate moths. I want to become a butterfly if possible. That’s why I’m envious of you. Ah, right! The drama! I think you’re really amazing. I was shocked when I watched it, and I still can’t believe that was you. Isn’t there anything else?”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean, like another great secret.”

After chuckling, Youngjae smiled and stood up, saying that he had to go to the bathroom. It seemed that they had to stop drinking here.

He emptied the rice wine in Youngjae’s bowl and stood up.

“Mr. Youngjae. Let’s walk a little before going to the station,” he said, holding Youngjae up who was chuckling.

After Story 106

Water droplets fell on his face. He wiped the droplets before raising his head. The angry sky was getting ready to pour rain.

“See you next time.”

“Alright, Mr. Maru. See you next time.”

He separated from Youngjae at Suwon station. He had heard that it had rained quite heavily during the two days he spent shooting the movie in Busan.

Looking at the gloomy sky, it seemed like it was going to rain again tonight.

He got on the bus while taking into his nose the smell of wet asphalt. As soon as he sat down on a chair, he got a message from Haneul.

-You must be in Suwon by now, huh?

Maru replied that he had arrived and had gotten on a bus.

-Ricebun won’t be there when you get home. I brought her over to mine. I was originally going to leave her at your house, but she kept following me. I’ll bring her over tomorrow. I brought her to a vet, and I was told that you need to watch out for her diet if you spayed her, otherwise she’ll gain weight easily. We need to limit the number of times we feed her for her own health.

He smiled and replied okay.

She had become a total cat lover. Ever since the pesky little one started treating her nicely, Haneul looked after the cat devotedly. No, she was practically serving her.

The cat also seemed to have noticed Haneul’s devotion and started following her a lot more. He was surprised when the cat rolled over like a docile pup and allowed Haneul to stroke her stomach.

The bus arrived at the bus stop in front of his house. Fortunately, it wasn’t raining yet.

He opened the front door and went inside. He felt slightly lonely when the cat that was supposed to be looking for him for food wasn’t there.

Petty girl, she actually followed Haneul. Was it okay for a territorial animal to abandon their territory and follow a person?

He felt like he had sent off his lovely daughter to marriage. Was it normal or abnormal that he was feeling jealous of his wife? It was because of a cat too.

He giggled to himself and stood in front of the refrigerator. There were two sticky notes on it.

The one on the left said “Good work and I love you”. The one on the right listed the side dishes in the fridge.

Maru looked at the clock. It was 11 at night. Although he had consumed more than enough calories through meat and alcohol, he felt hungry. He took out the stir-fried potatoes and braised eggplants. He also took out instant noodles and went in front of the TV.

If his wife saw him, she would have nagged at him to eat at the table, but she wasn’t here right now.

-Hyung, are you done with your shoot?

Yoonseok was the one who sent a message this late at night. He replied that he had returned home. He soon got a call.

-Hyung, aren’t you going to become a big star at this rate? You gotta work with me once more before you become too expensive.

“And there’s something you’re working on?”

-Nope. I don’t even have any time because of my part-time job. I thought something was going to happen after winning the grand prize, but nothing happened like it was a midsummer night’s dream.

“You wanted to change your status with just a prize from a film festival? You’re taking life way too easily.”

-I’m just saying. I know that. Winning the grand prize in the Short Film Festival won’t become anything but an extra line on my resume.

“You’re calling me because you wanted to lament about yourself this late in the night? I can spare you about 30 minutes. I’m tired, so I definitely can’t do one hour.”

-I can’t waste your time when you’re busy. Uhm, hyung, can I ask you a favor?

“A favor?” he said after drinking the soup of the instant noodles.

The Yoonseok he knew was definitely not someone who would ask for a favor for something useless. He might be awkward, but he was always serious.

“What is it?”

-You see, I sometimes meet up with the directors I got to know at the Short Film Festival.

“You already formed a faction?”

-It’s not really a faction. It’s just a small meeting.

Yoonseok chuckled and continued,

-Do you remember Moon Jungah?

“Moon Jungah?”

-The director of ‘Water Fog’. The ones who sat next to us during the GV.

“I remember.”

Maru recalled the woman wearing the orange knitted sweater. The impression Park Joohwan gave him was so strong that he had forgotten about Jungah, who was the director.

-She asked me for help. She’s majoring in theater, and she’s apparently putting on a play in the theater at her college.

“And?”

-She asked me if you could come over and help. It looks like something’s not going well over there.

“They should have their own seniors there too.”

-From what I heard, there’s a problem in their department. I haven’t heard the specifics, but apparently, one of the professors sexually harassed someone or something, so the atmosphere there is terrible. It’s an arts university, but it’s not like the acting department is famous, and what is even worse, it was only formed recently so they don’t have any proper professors there either. The seniors there are apparently preparing for other things rather than participating in department events. I think she said something about the majority of the 2nd and 3rd years quitting and going to acting schools.

“What a university.”

-And amidst all that, the guy called Park Joohwan got into a conflict with the seniors.

“Park Joohwan? The lead actor?”

-Yeah. You remember him because he’s quite peculiar, don’t you?

“I do remember that he’s rather interesting.”

-Anyway, their situation seems to be rather complex. The freshmen and Jungah are doing their best, but apparently, it’s not going well. Jungah’s quite a perfectionist too after all.

“Would I be able to change anything by going? If the situation isn’t good over there, quitting is an option.”

-And she doesn’t want to do that, apparently. She’s quite stubborn. Above anything though, she just seems to enjoy that she’s preparing to put on a stage. From what I heard, she was in the acting club all throughout high school as well. There weren’t many members nor a teacher in charge, but she managed to lead that club for three whole years.

“Really?”

The acting club, huh? He recalled the memories of his previous life and smiled. While there were many accidents, it was a rather enjoyable extracurricular activity all in all.

-It’s somewhat funny to ask you to do this, but I wanted to cheer for her when I heard what she said. That’s why I’m telling you about it. You can of course reject this. You’re an actor with an agency now after all.

“I did sign the contract, but I don’t have any restrictions for now. I went to Busan by myself too. Since there’s little support, I am quite free.”

-Wait, why don’t they give you any support when you’re contracted to them?

“Of course they don’t. They’ll make immense losses if they give me a manager and a vehicle when I only get paid 300 thousand won per day. Even if they try to, I’ll refuse. Right now, I’m more comfortable by myself. There’s no need for management. Also, this movie shoot wasn’t something that JA gave me, so there’s no pie to share.”

-That sounds rather cold-hearted.

“It’s called being detailed. That’s for the better when thinking about the future.”

Maru held up his phone with his other hand.

“Where’s the university?”

-It’s in Anyang. It’s called Hanbyuk Arts University.

This was the first time he heard of that name. This small piece of land had quite a lot of universities.

When he looked it up on the internet, he saw that it was on the upper rankings in the study of insufficient universities conducted for the first time in 2009.

Below that, he saw an article about the sexual harassment of a professor. It seemed to be the person from the Department of Theater that Yoonseok mentioned.

“For now, please send Miss Jungah my number. Tell her to contact me when she has time. I’ll listen to what she has to say.”

-Thank you, hyung. Even as I was saying it, I was wondering if it was really okay to call you about this.

“I can do this much when it’s a favor from the director who gave me the grand prize. As compensation, if you produce a good scenario, you should show me first.”

-Of course. You’re my eternal persona after all.

“I remember you saying that Hong Geunsoo was your persona last time.”

-It gets renewed regularly.

If he had something to do, he would have refused this, but he had the time, so he planned to listen at least. He was personally curious about it as well. What would the director who created Water Fog be like on stage? And how would Park Joohwan act on a play stage?

He washed the dishes, and just as he was about to go to the bathroom, he got a call. He saw that it was a number he didn’t know.

“Hello?”

-Hello. Uhm, is this Mr. Han Maru’s phone?

“Yes. You must be Miss Moon Jungah, right?”

-Yes. Sorry for calling you so late at night, but I couldn’t wait.

“Looks like Yoonseok reached out to you immediately.”

-Yes. I’m calling you right after I got your number. Is it okay for you to be on the phone right now?

“Yes. It’s okay.”

Maru sat down on the sofa.

“I heard about the general situation through Yoonseok. Something’s not going to your liking while preparing for a stage, supposedly.”

Jungah stayed silent for a few seconds before speaking,

-Yes. Actually, I could ask other people for help if it was about technical things like directions. Our college is not in a good state, but we still have people.

“So why have you reached out to me?”

-I think, no, I’m convinced you’re the only one who can solve this problem.

“Solve? Solve what problem?”

-Park Joohwan that stubborn-ass prick.

* * *

Maru slowly turned his head from left to right.

There was a banner on the front gate of the campus, asking for the dismissal of the professor. Behind that, he saw signs saying ‘improve the status of the university’ or such lines. It was rather messy for a university entrance.

He took off the baseball cap and went inside. He had heard from Jungah beforehand about where the theater was.

The campus wasn’t that big because it was right in the middle of the city. He soon found the theater after walking a little. There was a glass door under the sign that said ‘Starlight Square.’ He went inside.

He saw a staircase to the left of the vending machine. Up? Or forward? Just as he was wondering, he heard a sound from the inside.

He walked down the short corridor, approaching the half-open door. He saw people inside. The lights were all off for the audience seats and were only on for the stage.

About a dozen students on the stage were all lying down. A director with a nasty personality would’ve scolded them for doing such a thing on the sacred stage. He had no intention of being so unreasonable with the youngsters, so he quietly went inside.

The students on stage didn’t seem to have noticed the guest they had.

Maru didn’t make any noise and hid behind a chair. From the look of things, it didn’t seem like they were exhausted after a long practice. There were at most five students just sighing with disgruntled faces. It looked like their problem was about to burst at any moment.

They looked like they were literally going to rip out all their hair.

“It’s not right.”

The one who said those words was Park Joohwan, who was on the stage. He was looking at the student in front of him with a dissatisfied expression. She was a girl, and her face turned red. It was a rather visible rage.

The girl screeched and ran around the stage. She wasn’t acting. She looked like she was truly frustrated.

Maru looked at the students while crouching down. It was rather comedic.

“What’s not right?”

“Things.”

“Like what things?”

“Like little things.”

“I said to explain that to us.”

“I told you many times. Your performance is awkward.”

“Like I said, what about it is awkward?”

Joohwan’s lips twitched before letting out a sigh.

“Forget it.”

“Gosh, for real. Hey, Moon Jungah! Can’t you do something about him?”

Jungah, who was down below, rubbed her hands and begged.

“I’m sorry. So let’s do it a little more.”

“What? He should tell me what’s wrong so that I can fix it. Hey, Park Joohwan. Is Jungah your spokesperson? You should explain it yourself.”

“If I could, I wouldn’t be doing this. Also, even if I do explain, you don’t really change much.”

“Don’t shift the blame to me.”

It seemed that the two quarreling on stage were the two lead characters.

The girl’s voice became higher and higher. The students sitting on the chairs let out thicker and lower sighs.

Maru smiled and watched them. He thought back to the days when he got into a lot of trouble in various theater troupes. Even back then, he got into quarrels about who was better when remaining behind for further practice.

It was when he didn’t have any source of income, or any career to speak of, meaning he only had his pride.

“Uhm, shall we say hello?”

Maru voiced out. He couldn’t stay a spectator forever.

After Story 107

He received everyone’s gazes at once. Maru nodded at everyone as a greeting before walking down the stairs. Moon Jungah rushed over. It was only after she neatened her hair, which had become messy from ripping it apart, that she managed to greet him.

“When did you arrive?”

“I just arrived. The door was open, so I peeked inside, but you were all in the middle of doing something, so I stayed quiet.”

The people on the stage looked at Jungah, looking for an explanation.

“Everyone, come down. This is the person I told you about last time. The person who won the grand prize at the film festival.”

“Hello, everyone. I’m Han Maru,” he said to the students gathered in front of him.

Some of them acted like they knew him, while some of them seemed puzzled.

One of them, the girl who was quarreling with Joohwan before, pointed at him and shouted,

“Ah! That drama! You’re from that drama, aren’t you? The rookie investigator!”

“If you’re talking about The Witness, then yes, that is me.”

The girl jumped in excitement before realizing that her hand gesture was rude and apologized.

“I was so surprised. I definitely didn’t mean to point fingers at you.”

“I know. I do that from time to time too when I’m surprised.”

“I looked you up after hearing what Jungah told us, and I found out that you’re that investigator from The Witness. That was why I asked Jungah if she could invite you over, but I never knew you’d actually come.”

The girl rebuked everyone for not knowing who Han Maru was. Maru just looked at Jungah with an awkward smile. He felt like Jungah needed to step in in order to get this situation sorted.

“Sinhye, we all get it, so calm down. For now, err…”

Jungah trailed off and stared at him. She seems to be asking what they should call him.

“Call me however you’d like.”

“I’ll explain to everyone why actor Han came here.”

Mr. Maru was better, but this wasn’t the time to cut her off. He scratched the tip of his eyebrows and listened to what Jungah was saying.

“As you all know, we’re supposed to put on a play. We prepared quite hard, so we can’t just let it go to waste just because the school does not have a good atmosphere.”

“We definitely have to do it,” said one of the others.

“But we are stagnating right before the final rehearsal, aren’t we?”

“Thanks to a certain someone that is,” Sinhye grumbled as she looked at Joohwan.

Joohwan didn’t pay her any heed and was staring holes at Maru.

Honestly, Maru felt rather awkward and turned his eyes away several times, but Joohwan’s eyes were fixed on him. Whether it was back at the closing ceremony, or now, this guy really lived in his own world.

“That’s why I asked actor Han to resolve this problem. First of all, let’s have a round of applause for the actor who visited us despite his schedule.”

Jungah looked at him while clapping. Her eyes looked desperate. She was full of vitality when he last saw her at the closing ceremony, but right now, she looked like she had pulled three all-nighters in a row.

Jungah narrowed her eyes and looked at Joohwan. She seemed to be indicating that he was the source of all evil.

“I am an actor who, like everyone here, is still learning, but I’ll do my best to help. I don’t know how helpful I would be, but let us all do our best to put on a good performance.”

“You’re not like us. I’ve totally become your fan after seeing the ending of episode two of that drama. Hey, hey. Let’s go buy something. We have a guest here, so we can’t have him just stand here.” Sinhye urged everyone. Three boys got Jungah’s credit card and left the theater.

“Actor, this way.”

Sinhye politely guided him to a chair.

“Uhm, please call me something other than ‘actor Han’. It’s a little too much for me.”

“Then what would be good? Uhm, if you don’t mind me asking, how old are you?” Sinhye asked while clasping her hands.

“I’m twenty-four this year.”

“You are one year older than us. Then shall we just go with senior? You aren’t our upperclassman at college, but you are a senior in the bigger frame of life.”

“That’s better.”

“How about you stop using polite speech with us?”

“I’ll see how things go.”

“You’re quite introverted, huh? It’s fine even if you call me ‘Sinhye’ you know?”

Sinhye was unrestrained. The outgoing attitude suited her. She easily shrunk the sense of distance between them without a problem. This seemed to be something she was born with. She was that one girl who barges into your life but doesn’t make it feel awkward while doing so.

“She’s normally like that. She’s a good girl, so don’t think of her too badly.”

“It’s better than stuttering.”

Jungah nodded. The men who went to get drinks returned.

The students rolled out some newspapers on top of the stage.

“Senior, come on up.” Sinhye gestured.

Maru looked at Jungah.

“It’s okay. We laid out a stage double,” Jungah said as she got on the stage.

Maru lifted the cover slightly before getting on the stage. There was an additional layer. From the traces of nails here and there, it seemed they had finished setting up the stage.

“It’s not a stage double, but a platform,” Joohwan said.

Jungah blocked her ears and shook her head as though she didn’t want to listen to it.

“Did you install everything by yourselves?” Maru said as he scanned the stage. The curtains to the left and right of the stage had special logos embroidered on them as well.

“Yes. We came here every day throughout the winter holidays. We made the set, the props, and costumes as well.”

“It must have been hard.”

“But it was worth it. That’s why we want to put on the performance no matter what.”

Everyone nodded at Jungah’s words silently. Everyone’s passion for acting seemed to be the same.

He looked behind the stage. He saw two hangers with clothes on them. They were costumes that were created from modifying commercially available clothes.

He was looking at the worn-out belt on the overalls when Sinhye approached him.

“I made that. I made it from scratch with all the fabric and everything.”

“You’re good with your hands.”

“I’m indeed quite good with my hands.”

Sinhye kept explaining as though she wanted more compliments.

“Senior, there won’t be an end if she keeps explaining so come here. And have some of this.”

He went to the center of the stage after listening to Jungah’s words. He sat down on the newspaper laid out and got some drinks.

Meanwhile, Joohwan’s eyes were still glued to his head. Maru felt like he had been flicked on the forehead a bunch of times.

“Park Joohwan, it’s been a while.”

“Yes, senior. It’s been a while.”

“Doing well?”

“I haven’t run into an accident, so I am doing well. But senior, you’re going way too far ahead.”

“I am?”

“You remember what I said at the GV, right? That you’ll be a good stimulus for me and that I’ll keep chasing you if you remain a good senior. But the gap has widened too much over the past few months. I can’t even put on a college play properly, but you’ve received good assessments through your short appearance in the drama. I heard you even shot a movie as well?”

“I was lucky.”

Joohwan wiped under his nose.

“You said this during the closing ceremony, right? That I can take the acting award because you could win it elsewhere. Back then, I had the confidence that I would be able to compete with you on similar works at a similar time. But now, I feel at a loss.”

Joohwan’s lips twitched before he downed the drink in front of him in one go as though he felt frustrated. He still hadn’t changed his habit of saying everything that was on his mind without filtering.

“Hey, did I just see and hear that right?”

Sinhye frowned. The other students had similar expressions. They looked surprised like they had seen a dog talking.

“You now see why I called him here, right?” Jungah said. The others nodded in a daze.

“I never knew I’d hear something like that from Park Joohwan’s mouth before the end of the world. I think I need to buy a lottery ticket today.”

Sinhye walked over to Joohwan on her knees.

“Park Joohwan. Say that again. I’m going to record it and listen to it when I get depressed.”

Joohwan pushed away Sinhye’s phone. The guy full of self-confidence had changed a lot in a few months. No, his personality hadn’t changed. That much was obvious enough from how he still uttered embarrassing statements to people’s faces.

“So, you’re depressed?” Maru asked.

“I don’t know. I don’t know if this is depression or not. This is the first time I felt like this. I’ve never felt something like getting further away from what I’m aiming for. Whether it’s studying, sports, or acting, before I met you, I was confident that I could one day reach my objective and that I only needed time, but looking at you, I don’t really know anymore. I don’t get that confidence. The sense of vagueness I got on that day is still there. It’s not a good feeling. I feel like my acting is not improving.”

Sinhye freaked out and got away from Joohwan. The others also laughed in vain as well. Maru realized what Joohwan was usually like. The actions he showed during the GV and the closing ceremony were not false.

He was a talented kid filled with confidence. Yet such a guy was sighing with feelings filled with frustration.

“But he’s at least not lying. He’s the top of the year in terms of grades, and our department came in 3rd place thanks to him during the last sports festival,” said one of the men.

“That’s true.”

“He’s a talented guy for sure.”

“The problem is he’s way too cocky.”

The others chimed in. It wasn’t blatant mockery, just jokes. Maru could tell that they were close. Well, they were trying to put on a performance despite the volatile atmosphere at the campus.

“Wait. I just saw an article. Senior Maru, you’re in JA? For real?” One of the girls asked as she held her phone out. It was an article from a few months ago.

“I am.”

“That’s crazy. Hey, Joohwan. He’s in a completely different league than you.”

Joohwan lowered his head even more. He was showing with his whole body that he was depressed.

“You’re going far ahead of me, while I’m just here. Should I do something other than acting?” Joohwan muttered.

Jungah glared at him.

“Are you serious?”

“No, running away like a loser doesn’t suit my character. If I do, I won’t even be able to die because of frustration.”

Maru drank a sip of strawberry milk. He now got a barrage of questions. Most of them were about the celebrities in the agency. The girls asked about Hong Geunsoo and Yang Ganghwan, while the boys asked about Kim Suyeon.

“It hasn’t been that long since I signed the contract, so I don’t have any relationship with them.”

“That’s a pity. But you’ll probably get close really fast since you’re in the same agency, right?” Sinhye asked.

“Being in the same agency is a separate matter from getting close. It’s just like school. Not everyone gets close in the same school.”

“Aha, that’s true.”

Maru stood up. The students turned around to look at him.

“Now that we had something to eat, shall we get some exercise? For now, I’d like to see your acting.”

“You want to see my acting? You should’ve told me beforehand. I have my talent in acting too.”

Sinhye jumped up to her feet and put away the newspaper. She urged everyone that they should start.

One of the boys came over and whispered to him,

“Joohwan’s the main problem, but she’s problematic too. She’s like that niece with infinite energy and won’t stop running around.”

“Looks like I should drain her stamina a little.”

“Please.“

Maru smiled at the boy.

“Can I have a look as soon as you’re ready?”

“Of course!” Sinhye said as she raised the newspaper into the air.

Joohwan, who was acting like a turtle, also started moving quickly when Maru said that he wanted to see them acting.

Maru also cleaned the stage with them while carrying the trash bag. The stage became clean in no time.

“Since we’re doing it, shall we do it properly?” Sinhye asked as she looked at Jungah.

Jungah turned to look around at him.

“Do it properly. I’ll also watch you with the mind of an audience that came to watch after paying for a ticket,” Maru said as he sat down.

After Story 108

“Are you doing an existing play?” Maru asked Jungah, who sat next to him.

“We wanted to create our own, but it was out of our capabilities. That was why we made slight changes to the play ‘A Night in June.’”

“A Night in June. That’s an interesting play.”

He combed through his memories. A Night in June was a play about an event that happens in a mountain village. Although there were slight changes in each era, the event that created conflict was always the same.

“Who plays the village chief?”

“Taemin plays it. He’s the one wearing glasses on the far right. He’s great at making himself look bad, so he’s playing the chief,” said Jungah.

The one who borrowed money from the chief, the one whose weakness the chief held, the one who shared a secret with the chief, and the one bullied by the chief — there were various people, but the story would progress after hearing the news of the chief’s death.

“We’re ready!” Sinhye said, poking her head out from behind the curtain.

Maru twisted his leg and buried himself into the chair. Since he had decided to help out, he was going to watch properly with the eyes of a critic.

The fact that they asked for advice meant that they were ready to be criticized. He forgot the fact that they were still college students. That identity couldn’t pardon them if they made a mistake. The only thing they should do as aspiring actors on stage was to display good acting for the audience.

“May we start?” Jungah asked.

Maru shouted at the stage, “Can everyone come to the center of the stage for a moment?”

Everyone came to the stage.

“Before we start, I’d like to gather your opinions. I’m no one amazing and don’t possess any great pair of eyes, but since I was asked to give you feedback, I will have no choice but to give you bitter words. Of course, I will applaud you if you do well. If you do not like my attitude, please tell me.”

“Please criticize us big time. Jungah wouldn’t have called you here just to make us feel good,” Sinhye said with a smile. The others also said similar things.

He had a look at the faces of the students. He could roughly tell what they were thinking. They were probably thinking that there was a limit to how harsh he could be since he was at most a year or two older than them and that at most, it would be a couple pieces of advice.

Maru smiled and pointed at the students with both of his hands, indicating for them to start.

“Please wait, I’ll go turn off the lights.”

Jungah left her seat and a moment later, the lights were off. Jungah returned and spoke as she sat down,

“There are blackout parts throughout the play, but I don’t think we can do that because we don’t have anyone in the control room.”

“That’s okay. I’ll take that into account. Then there won’t be any sound effects either, huh?”

“Yes. I know this is supposed to be a proper rehearsal, but it’s still improper.”

“You lack people, so I guess it can’t be helped.”

The play then began. A man came up to the empty stage. He did not hide his disgruntled expression and shouted after walking to and fro for a while.

“Miss Lee! When are you going to pay me back the money?”

He seemed to be the village chief. After the chief’s shout, a woman hurriedly came out from behind the curtain.

“I’m sorry, village chief. My parents told me they would send the money, but something must’ve happened as I haven’t gotten it yet.”

“You don’t look the part, but you’re a scary woman, Miss Lee. I lent you big money because I pitied you for having a hard time in a place like this despite being a young woman, yet now, you what? Something must have happened?”

“I’m really sorry.”

“You’re sorry?”

“Of course I am.”

“Then massage my shoulders a little. I think my stiff shoulders will disappear in no time if a pair of soft hands could massage them.”

The woman shirked away and spoke, “Chief, you said you wouldn’t do this.”

“What did I even do? I just asked you to massage my shoulders. Is that so hard? How can you shirk away from massaging an elder’s shoulders after getting millions of won from me for nothing.”

The woman hesitated before approaching the village chief and massaging his shoulders.

“This feels good. Your hands are so fair and pretty.” The chief stroked the woman’s hands.

The woman shook her hands like she had been touched by a bug, but she still returned to massaging the chief’s shoulders.

“Well, it’s no wonder you can’t tell your parents. You blew all your tuition on gambling.”

“H-how did you…”

“I’ve seen my fair share of people so how would I not know? It’s hard to earn money, isn’t it? I won’t tell you to pay back the interest and money, so just give me a shoulder massage like this from time to time. Tell me if you need more money, but only if you could massage other places than my shoulders.”

The village chief left the stage after saying that he was feeling refreshed.

The woman who was left alone on stage followed the chief with her eyes, her gaze filled with rage and fear.

“I hope he dies.”

After that, similar scenes unfolded. They were all servile in front of the village chief but deep in their hearts, they wished for the chief to die.

This was a rather decent opening. As Jungah said, the one playing the village chief did rather well in setting the foundation.

In A Night in June, the village chief was not pure evil. He was just an ordinary person with power. As such, the villagers who didn’t have any association with the village chief did not have any bad feelings toward him. In fact, quite a lot of people knew him because he greeted other people a lot.

The only ones wishing for his death were the ones who borrowed his power or got caught by him doing something bad.

“Hey, have you heard? I heard the chief died.”

“Was that what the police cars were about yesterday?”

“Yeah.”

“If he passed away in his sleep, it would be just an ambulance.”

“Something must’ve happened.”

The whispering villagers left and a man wearing a leather jacket came in.

The man spoke to Joohwan, who was passing by the stage.

“Excuse me. I am from the Wonho Police Station.”

“Eh? Okay.”

Joohwan loosened his fists and wiped them on his pants. He was expressing the tension well through his actions. It looked rather natural.

Jungah had mentioned that Joohwan was the biggest problem. For now though, nothing looked out of place. He was displaying a good character just like the time with ‘Water Fog.’

“I’m not sure if you have heard, but the village chief died last night.”

“The village chief? How…”

“That’s what we’re trying to find out. May I hear what you were doing last night?”

“Me? But why would you…”

“It’s a murder case.”

“I didn’t kill him!”

“Yes, I know. We’re only investigating just in case. It’s a small village after all.”

The investigator then met multiple people throughout the village. They were all people that had resentment toward the village chief. They all became nervous when they heard that the chief had died.

“There doesn’t seem to be a problem with Joohwan’s acting,” Maru whispered to Jungah.

“It has been okay until now. The problem is with this bit.”

After the investigator and the villagers left, Sinhye and Joohwan came up on stage.

These were the two problematic children of the troupe. The two took center stage.

“Tell me honestly. You cheated on me, didn’t you?”

“Woman, you’re still going on about this nonsense? You’ve gone crazy for the divorce money, haven’t you?”

“You’re the one who’s crazy. I was an idiot for believing that people won’t cheat when they get married.”

“Look at your attitude towards your husband who came back from work. You’re probably wishing that I set up a livelihood with another woman, as that way you can legally take the money I worked for with my blood and sweat.”

“I know you already set one up.”

“There you go off again, with your delusions. I can’t lift my head around this neighborhood, you know? Some crazy woman is turning an innocent man into a cheater.”

“I’m crazy? I’M CRAZY?”

This showed the deepening of the conflict. The good part about this play was watching the situations of the characters that kept getting worse and worse while the culprit that killed the village chief was still a mystery.

At the same time, it had to give the audience some clues to deduce the killer. It wasn’t a play that needed audience participation, but it had a similar aspect.

The element of deduction was very satisfactory. In the first place, there was an original play this was based on, so the consistency wasn’t a problem.

The actor’s acting wasn’t so bad in increasing the immersion. It couldn’t be called splendid, but it was not terrible. Maru had yet to find any fatal problems that were detrimental to displaying the performance. As for the trivial things, he could say them after the play.

What could be the problem? He watched while pondering.

“Look at me in the eyes when you speak,” Sinhye said while grabbing Joohwan’s arm.

Joohwan shook her arm off and put his face against Sinhye’s. After panting, he looked like he was about to speak, but…

The face filled with intense rage was gone in an instant.

It was also at this moment that Jungah clutched her face with a sigh.

Sinhye frowned and went up to him, but Joohwan turned his head away and waved his hand.

“This isn’t right. Nam Sinhye, this isn’t the right feeling.”

“Hey, geez!”

Sinhye shook her head like a horse neighing before getting away from him. The actors behind the curtain crept out.

Joohwan scratched his chin and looked at Maru.

“Senior, you saw that, right? This isn’t right. It just doesn’t fit. The emotions don’t match.”

Maru looked at the actors on stage with his legs crossed. He waited for one minute. The actors still stood there.

Maru looked at Joohwan and laughed.

“Joohwan.”

“Yes.”

“What did you tell me again? That I gave you stimulus? That I should continue to be one?”

“Yes.”

“Looks like I must’ve misunderstood your words. I thought what you said contained a hint of respect. But I guess I was wrong.”

“No, I really respect you. I want to catch up to you.”

“Do you truly think so?”

“Yes.”

Maru scratched his eyebrows. He had come across many absurd situations after starting his life, but he had never been angry.

He had lived for such a long time and experienced everything he needed to. How could he get angry at everything?

However, right now, he was more annoyed than if he was being insulted outright.

No, forget annoyance. He felt humiliated.

“Park Joohwan. Where do you think you’re standing now?”

“Huh?”

“I’ll tell you since it looks like you don’t know, but you’re on the stage. Also, I told you before you started right? That I will watch with the mindset of an audience that paid for the ticket. Also, everyone other than Joohwan, you all said that I can criticize as much as I want, right?”

Maru scanned everyone on stage. Some of them lowered their heads as though they realized what the problem was.

“Since you stopped, let me say one thing.”

He stood up from his seat. Then he walked towards the stage.

He stopped in front of the stage that came up to his waist and looked up at the actors.

“I don’t usually swear. There’s no benefit for me in doing so. But I do when I think it’s necessary. First of all, every one of you, consider it fortunate that you aren’t acting for money. This is what you call proper? An accident occurred on stage and you just crawl out after dazing out? You aren’t thinking properly, are you? You don’t want to do this, do you?”

The actors all stayed silent when they made eye contact with him.

Maru looked at Joohwan right in front of him and continued, “And you, don’t you ever go around telling people that you know me. If you had the slightest thought that I was your senior, no, I was a member of the audience, you wouldn’t dare do something like this.”

He pointed at the stage with his finger. The voice he tried hard to suppress became louder and louder. He thought Joohwan was a decent junior, but he turned out to be a total idiot.

“It’s not like a light fixture fell down, it’s not like the platform suddenly collapsed, and it’s not like someone suddenly collapsed from a heart attack, yet you dare stop acting and start uttering bullshit! Hey, you bastard, how dare you still call yourself an actor!”

Maru stroked the stage.

“Get down here. The stage is wasted on you.”

After Story 109

Jungah looked down at her hands. Her hands were clasped neatly and placed right below her belly button. She couldn't utter a word as though she was being rebuked by her professor.

"I felt really proud when I saw everyone perform the play with confidence. Ah, you must have prepared a lot and have practiced well enough to act without embarrassing yourselves in front of the audience. But what's this? Had you told me that you were not fully prepared yet, that you weren't good enough to respond to accidental events, or just that you were going to practice, I wouldn't be this flabbergasted," Maru said as he looked up at the stage.

Jungah felt bitter inside. Maru's rebuke made it clear that it was not just a problem with the actors on stage. He, who had a warm smile on his face until just twenty minutes ago, was scanning the stage and the actors on it with feelings of tragedy, as though he was more angry and flabbergasted than anyone else here.

He was just two years older than her. If a senior at her college acted like that, she would have accepted it, but she would have still retorted. She would have said that this wasn't a proper stage and that while they were doing it properly, this was still closer to a practice run.

However, looking at Maru's face, it was hard to even budge her lips.

There was no pretense in his words at all. Every single word that came out of his mouth contained his genuine feelings. He was even more disappointed than her friends who had prepared for this play with her. How could she possibly make an excuse to a person like that?

Jungah clenched her mouth shut strongly enough for her lips to tremble.

If they had any shame, they wouldn't be able to respond. Her friends on stage should also be listening quietly because they felt the same as her.

Also, Maru's cold attitude felt a little scary as well. She didn't realize this when he was smiling, but he actually gave off a sharp impression when he stiffened up. Her friends, who were receiving that gaze straight on, must be feeling scared out of their wits.

Her hands were feeling sweaty despite listening from the side, so they must have had it worse.

"Sorry," Sinhye said.

Maru sighed and shook his head.

"Is this the time to apologize? I thought you wanted to perform? The stage was prepared so well, but the people going on it are in terrible shape… I can't believe it. Honestly, your acting was okay. I was thinking that you were doing great considering that you're doing this on top of your college studies and preparing the stage. But this isn't right. What's good about polishing the outside? The inside is crumbling apart."

Maru rubbed his hands before stroking down his face.

"You don't want to listen to bitter words, do you? I'm sure you don't like me rebuking you when I'm around the same age as you. I don't plan to waste my energy to rebuke all of you either. What I said just now was an expression of my disappointment. Miss Jungah," Maru called out to her.

Jungah flinched and responded.

"You have the script with you?"

"Yes."

"Give it to me. What more should I say? I'll just write down a couple of points that I think would look better if you fix them. You can practice with that, refer to it, or do whatever you want with it."

"Uhm…”

"You all are actors too, aren't you? You have your pride, don't you? Don't listen to some random person chatting away in front of you and just practice like you're doing now. Just, don't make a mistake during the real run. No, you can make mistakes. Everyone makes mistakes. Just don't let the audience find out that you did; don't stop the play just because of a mistake. That's minimum respect. It's also one of the most fundamental things you must keep as an actor."

Maru plainly held out his hand. He looked like he would really just walk out after writing down a few things on the script if she handed it to him.

Jungah looked at the stage. She needed the opinion of her friends. There must be some who might not like Maru's attitude.

Albeit only in name, she was the producer of this play. It was up to her to gather their opinion and tune them. If an outsider was creating conflict amongst the actors, she had to decide:

Either send Maru home or persuade her friends.

"Er, senior. Can you give us some time to talk?"

"You need time?"

"Yes. We'll be done in no time."

Maru glanced at the stage before nodding. Jungah quickly went up on the stage. She grabbed Joohwan, who was half out of it, and gathered her friends around.

"Before I listen to your opinion, I will speak mine first," Jungah firmly said to her friends. "I think that we must learn from senior Maru. I felt a lot of things after listening to his words just now. He might be similar to us in terms of age, but he's different. I'm not sure if he was born with that or learned it through experience, but I believe that there are things we can learn from him. It's not just about the technical aspect. I think it's a good opportunity to listen to what attitude an actor must have."

She let out a short breath before speaking again,

"What do you all think?"

At that moment, Joohwan turned around suddenly and rushed down the stage.

Surprised, she called out to him, but he was already in front of Maru.

"Hey, gosh…” Sinhye frowned. The others looked like they were screwed as well.

Jungah quickly went down the stairs. She had watched Joohwan by his side for five years. Although he neither had a terrible personality nor was a psychopath, there were times when she thought that he lacked sympathy. She believed that to have stemmed from his innate talent.

Joohwan and Sinhye — although these two were closer than anyone else after practice, they were archenemies on stage. No, it was Joohwan who one-sidedly avoided her, saying that he didn't like Sinhye's acting.

"Didn't like" was a nice way of putting it since the two of them were on close terms. Had it been anyone else, he would have just told them that they were bad.

That same person stood in front of Maru with a stiff expression without any time for her to hold him back. She couldn't begin to imagine what he would say.

It would be over the moment he said something offensive to Maru, which the man known as Joohwan was definitely capable of. The fact that they didn't have any seniors older than them here was also one of the tragedies caused by Joohwan after all.

He wasn't a bad kid, but he was way too direct with his words. No wait, maybe that was called being bad?

"Senior." Jungah stood next to Joohwan, her hands fidgeting.

She spoke, so she could no longer return. She had a glance at Joohwan's expression. He looked more expressionless than ever.

Just as she thought that it was all over, Joohwan grabbed his pants and bowed.

Jungah was more surprised than when Maru got angry. She had never seen this before. She had been with him for five years, but this was the first time he had apologized to anyone in person. After all, he never did something that would warrant an apology; he was good at everything.

Joohwan was the type to bite back at anyone, whether it be a senior or a teacher if someone attacked him.

Yet, such a guy, who never batted an eyelid while being rebuked by his professors and pointed out their mistakes, was bowing.

Jungah looked behind her. The people on stage looked surprised as well. Sinhye's expression was closer to that of shock.

"I was short-sighted. I just wanted to show you my cool side. I wanted to show you that I could do something other than just what I showed in Water Fog."

"And?" Maru asked back.

"When I had that thought, I didn't like the situation I was in. I could do more, but my counterpart couldn't keep up with me, so I was frustrated. That's why I stopped."

"Are you saying you're not at fault?"

"No, it's not that." Joohwan scratched his head. His lips twitched before sighing.

"Honestly, I don't get it. It was much easier when I was doing it by myself. I could get down to the bottom of myself. But I can't do that when I'm acting with others."

"You did well during Water Fog. Even when acting with someone else."

"That's why I'm even more confused."

"You were in the acting club during high school, correct?"

"Yes."

"How was it back then?"

"I felt like I was acting by myself. I got a lot of awards as well. I definitely wasn't bad."

"I'm sure you were. You're good. I don't plan to deny that. You're a talented guy. I'm sure you'll distinguish yourself in the film industry in due time."

Maru stood up from his seat. Jungah kept rolling her head in order to keep up with the conversation. For now, it seemed that Maru's anger had subsided to an extent. That relieved her.

"But you know, unless you're doing a monodrama, you have to exchange your emotions with other people."

"I know."

"No, you do not know. You only know how to put forward your own emotions. Pushing your feelings onto others is not the key. Sometimes, you need to learn to accept it."

Maru crossed his arms and looked at the actors on the stage.

"Can you give me some time? If you are willing to, that is."

Jungah looked at her friends. They all looked like they were gladly willing to.

"Please," Jungah said wholeheartedly.

Right now, they were desperate for Maru's help. That was easy enough to see from Joohwan's attitude alone.

They needed not anyone else, but Maru specifically.

"Then allow me to borrow everyone's time for a little."

Maru stepped on stage.

* * *

Sinhye smiled and looked at Maru in front of her. His eyes looked extraordinary as he scanned the script. He was so scary and frightening that it gave her stomach cramps when he rebuked them, but now, the atmosphere was warm just like when they first greeted each other.

They say the more a person smiles, the scarier they are when they get angry, and Maru seemed to fit that description to the tee.

She then looked at Joohwan, who had gone down from the stage and was sitting down on a seat. The thought that he deserved it only lasted a moment. Right now, she pitied him.

It was just as she was looking at Joohwan, who looked like a drenched, dejected dog,

"Miss Sinhye," Maru called out to her.

"Yes."

"How did you do this part with Joohwan?" Maru asked as he pointed at the script.

It was the scene where the woman was snapping and lashing out due to her husband's cheating. It was also the scene where Joohwan stopped the play.

"I just brought out my emotions when acting. Joohwan is pretending to be wronged while hiding his heart, while I'm swearing and prying him, feeling like the world is falling apart."

"Can you do it once?" Maru said as he put down the script.

Sinhye got into the emotion immediately. She had been nervous ever since Maru said that they should get themselves together if they were on the stage. Thanks to that, it was easier to get into the mood.

"You cheated on me, didn't you?"

"No."

Maru responded. There were no emotions in it.

"Look at me in the eyes when you say that."

"I said no."

Sinhye brought out the vexation boiling deep within her body in one go.

"It's you who's out of your mind. I was an idiot for believing that men would stop cheating after getting married."

Maru nodded.

"When you acted back then, did you just say your lines like this?"

"Yes."

"Because that was how the script was?"

"That too, but we thought that expressing it through words is better than expressing it through violent actions."

"Whose opinion was that?"

Whose was it again? Sinhye combed through her memories. It might have been Joohwan, but it also felt like it might have been Jungah.

"I don't remember who, but I thought that it was the right way and decided to go with it."

"Then shall we do that again? This time, I'll act along with you."

"Yes."

"And also, let me ask you to do one thing before we start."

"What is it?"

"Throw it all out."

"What?"

"It's okay if you let out a little more. It feels like you can do more but you're stopping yourself on purpose."

"I'm expressing as much as possible."

"Then let's just start. If you feel anything while doing it, then try going with the flow."

Sinhye nodded. She didn't know what this was about, but there was no reason she couldn't do it when she was asked to.

She calmed her breathing and looked in front of her. Maru slightly pulled his chin inward. It was his signal to start.

"You're coming home now?"

"I'm late due to work. What now?" Maru said as he pushed his face closer to her.

He was quite close, to the point that she could see her own reflection through Maru's eyes.

Sinhye's lips twitched as she continued her line.

"You were late because of work?"

"Woman, you're asking the same thing again. What kind of nonsense are you going to utter to ruin your husband's mood?"

"You can speak, for being a sinner."

"Sinner? Me?"

Maru smirked and pushed her on the shoulder with a tap. It wasn't even that big of a gesture. However, she felt really dirty. She knew that it was just an act, but she was ticked off by those mocking eyes.

Sinhye let out the chuckle that was tickling her throat — Ha.

It wasn't in the script, but it came out naturally. Her nerves were on edge, and her vision narrowed. She could only see Maru's face in her vision now.

"You cheated on me, didn't you?"

Sinhye took a step forward. As there was no predetermined movement route they decided on beforehand, she just let her emotions lead her body.

Maru's eyes shook side to side before going down to the floor. It was dead obvious that he was lying. It was the stereotypical face of someone trying to lie.

"No," Maru said.

His words ticked her off.

Anger got to the top of her head. The emotions she set reached the wall known as Maru and returned to her like an echo. A bigger amplitude of emotions brushed past her body. The back of her neck felt strained.

She reached out her hand at this husband's dastardly attitude. Her mouth couldn't do all the uttering of her vexation and her hand had to chime in.

It wasn't something she intended. Just as Maru said, she just went with the flow.

"You're the one who's out of your mind. I was the idiot for believing that men wouldn't cheat after getting married! Gosh!"

Some spittle got on Maru's face. Maru's face twitched with rage and disgust before a smile appeared on his face.

"Miss Sinhye. You're good after all."

She stood in a daze before screaming.

"Oh my god. I got spit on you! What do I do!"

She caused a fuss, asking others for some tissue.

After Story 110

Maru wiped his cheek with the tissue Sinhye handed him. The spittle wasn’t as bad as Sinhye made it out to be. It was natural for people to spray spit when speaking fiercely. On top of that, Sinhye was playing a character that had a husband who cheated on her. There was neither reason nor need for any calm for such a character.

“How do you feel now that you did that?” Maru asked Sinhye.

“The way I did my acting was no different from usual. I was just going to do what I had in my mind, but I suddenly had this urge when I start acting. Any other time, I would’ve held myself back, but I did as you said and went with the flow and…”

Sinhye stopped and looked at the floor of the stage. She seemed to be looking back at her own acting in retrospect.

“Jungah, how was it in your eyes?” Sinhye asked Jungah.

“It wasn’t polished, but that was the feeling I wanted. It was easier to see that the character was fuming inside.”

“Right?”

Sinhye looked at Maru.

“How did you do that?”

“I didn’t do anything. It was you who did it, Miss Sinhye.”

“But that’s strange. This is the first time I acted with you, without practice even, but the results are too good to be true. I didn’t do anything differently either.”

“That’s because you already prepared sufficiently. You just needed an outlet, a target that could receive the emotions you have accumulated.”

“But this never happened when I was practicing with that guy despite doing it so many times. Yet, it worked out the moment I did it with you. Are you sure you didn’t cast some type of magic?” Sinhye pointed at Joohwan.

Joohwan was listening to him like a student listening to a great lecture. It seemed that gloominess didn’t last that long.

The junior, who was sitting in the audience seats, was using all of his senses in order to take everything that he lacked.

“Park Joohwan.”

“Yes.”

“Come up.”

“Can I?”

“Come up now.”

Maru had Joohwan stand next to him. He was originally not going to deal with him if this guy was just being arrogant and putting his faith in his meager talent. There were numerous people who flopped after being blinded by their talents after all.

However, Joohwan was not like that. He looked like he truly didn’t know what was wrong. This kind of person was rather rare. He was like a child who only rode on highways and didn’t know the feeling of driving down squiggly alleyway roads. Joohwan probably didn’t know the word ‘setback’ as it was not a part of his life. He might have had a few hurdles but never a trial that he could not overcome because of his lack of ability.

“I heard that you’re from the same high school as Miss Jungah, right? You were in the acting club too.”

“Yes.”

“Did you join the acting club because you were interested in acting from the beginning?”

“No. I didn’t have any interest. I’ve never watched a play before.”

“Then why did you join?”

“Because Jungah asked me to join together. And also, it was quite fun when I did it. I put aside my studies and focused on acting for a while.”

Basically, this guy went to America following a friend and lived the American dream instead of the friend. Maru looked at Jungah. He needed more explanation.

“Miss Jungah, how was Joohwan during high school?”

Joohan replied without hesitation,

“He was the same as he is now. He easily learned acting and soon became the center of the acting club and started playing the lead character. That lasted all the way until the end of high school.”

Maru nodded and looked at Joohwan.

“How were your grades in high school?”

“I joined the acting club in 2nd year. I topped my year all throughout first year.”

“What about after you joined the acting club?”

“I was around the 10th percentile. I thought I shouldn’t just let go of it entirely so I studied from time to time.”

“10th percentile despite studying from time to time, huh.”

“Anyone can do that if they focus.”

The people listening to Joohwan’s words all frowned. Sinhye pretended to vomit saying that he was putting on an arrogant air.

“Let me ask one more thing. Have you ever encountered something so hard that you thought that it was impossible or was too hard and you couldn’t do it?”

“There were many times when it was hard.”

“How about impossible?”

“None. Hard means hard, it’s not the distinction between possible and impossible.”

“If you were in high school, you should’ve been worried about your future on top of the CSATs. Have you ever had any second thoughts when you joined the acting club? You know, things like detriments that your fall in grades will bring, or fears about enrolling into college.”

“I’ve thought about that as well. I thought that my enjoyment was the top priority, but I couldn’t just ignore reality. When I estimated, I believed that I would be able to get into the college I wanted if I prepared for CSATs starting from the summer vacation of my 3rd year.”

There was not a hint of shame in his words. He wasn’t boasting either. He was just stating the truth as it was, like pointing at a red apple and saying that it was red.

This was something he was just born with. He would’ve done well in anything, even if it wasn’t acting. In fact, if he chose to go with studying, a field that had a clearer standard of assessment, he might have had more things in his hands now. For example, things like enrolling in a prestigious university and/or a full scholarship.

Maru let out a laugh mixed with a sigh.

“And you took the CSATs?”

Joohwan looked to the side. He was looking at Jungah. For the first time since he started speaking, he seemed to be cautious about what he was saying.

“I’m pretty sure Joohwan didn’t take them. He came to this college with me through pre-selection. There was no need for him to take it.”

“It doesn’t look like that’s what he wants to say though.”

Maru looked at Joohwan. Joohwan hesitated before speaking,

“I didn’t take it during my 3rd year of high school. As Jungah said, I already had a college to go to and there was no need for me to take it. It was cold too. It was last year when I took it. I just tried it to see if my studies hadn’t completely died yet.”

“The result?”

“Well, it turns out staying away from studies has a big effect. Everyone told me I was a prodigy or something, but I was nothing without practice.”

“What were your grades like?”

“I was in the 80th percentile for the languages section.”

Sinhye, who was listening, chuckled.

“Last year’s CSATs were pretty tough. But isn’t the 80th percentile going a little too far? For someone who used to be pretty good too.”

Joohwan nodded. He seemed to be very disappointed in himself.

“I was off by one question when marking the answers. When I was preparing hard for CSATs, I was dividing up the allocated time into seconds, but I made such a mistake after having played around for just a year. I was really lacking for sure.”

Sinhye narrowed her eyes.

“80th percentile because you marked the wrong answers? What about the other subjects then?”

“Straight As.”

“Arrogant prick. You should’ve gone to one of those top universities. Why did you bother coming to a backwater college like this one?”

“Jungah said she was going here. I also came here because it was close to my house. This is the only college around this area that has a theater department.”

Jungah smiled awkwardly after Joohwan’s words.

“I was never good at studying. I was only able to get into a rather good high school because of a special case, and I was never good enough in practical exams, so I didn’t have any other choice than going here.”

“This place is a good college too.”

“Like hell it is. Also, just shut up. You’re making me ashamed.”

“Being bad at studying is nothing to be ashamed about, is it?”

Jungah shook her head and turned silent. She just gave up on talking since it was tiring to do so.

“I wonder if I should call you lucky or unlucky,” Maru said as he looked at Joohwan.

It must be a blessing that his pride was never hurt. He also had the talent to boot, so he shouldn’t have run into problems either. It was only now that he ran into a wall. A wall that was high and sturdy and could not be overcome with his abilities alone.

He had Joohwan and Sinhye face each other.

“First, we should resolve the problem between these two and the rest should get better soon enough. If you remember what I said before, I’m sure you all now know what mindset you must have when you go on stage.”

The actors on stage all nodded simultaneously.

“I am aware that you are all amateurs. I am an amateur too. However, everyone here must be striving to become professionals. If so, then you should get used to having an attitude like a pro. This is especially true if you’re acting on stage with the audience in front of you, compared to when you’re in front of a camera.”

Maru walked to the edge of the stage. One more step and he would have to jump downstage.

“A staged play does not have a rebroadcast. That’s why you have to be tense the whole time. Everyone makes mistakes. There might not be anyone who does something out of their mind like what Joohwan did, but there are plenty of cases when people forget their lines or mix up their movement lines. When that happens, you can’t stand still like an idiot. If you haven’t decided on a countermeasure beforehand, you have to respond dynamically depending on the situation,” he said to the actors.

It had been a while since he last taught students. He was originally going to say a few words of advice before leaving, but he found himself doing his best.

Would these people have any idea that he once was paid millions of won per hour to hold lectures like this?

“Reciting lines and moving along lines is something anyone can do. We are still too young to act out of momentum. You can do something like that when you get older. Right now, you should respond sensitively to each and every small thing. Look at not just your partnering actor, but the stage as well. Look at the stage with a fresh pair of eyes all the time. Forming a force of habit can be left to when you’re about to retire.”

Maru called the actors over.

“Well, I believe that you have gotten yourselves together. If you’re going to act like you’re in a daze even after I told you all this, then I won’t say anymore. I guess those people just have their own ways.”

“We’ve woken up now. I’m sure everyone here has. Right?” Sinhye said as she looked around at everyone. She looked like she was going to pounce at them if they said anything unnecessary.

“I won’t give you any direct instructions. Not only am I not qualified to do so, there’s not enough time either. Instead, I will stop you throughout your practice for three runs and show you some alternatives. Either you can choose the version you are attracted to and practice it, add your own elements to it to revise it, or do pretty much whatever you want. It’s entirely fine even if you choose to ignore it. There is no answer to acting. What you think is right is right.”

“But there are acts that clearly look like an answer. Doesn’t that mean there is a right answer in acting?” a girl asked as she raised her hand.

“Let me give you a simple example. We ask actors Hong Geunsoo and Park Joohwan to do the same act. Who would do better?”

Everyone responded Hong Geunsoo. Joohwan looked at the floor with an awkward expression.

“Then we ask Hong Geunsoo and Yang Ganghwan to do the same. Who would do better now?”

This time, the opinions were split.

“I hope this answers that question. There is no right method of acting. If there’s something close to an answer, it should come down to the actor doing it.”

Maru called Sinhye and Joohwan over.

“The two of you will hold hands throughout the three runs. Lock your fingers together.”

Sinhye freaked out and shook her head. She shook her head so vigorously that her cheeks waved.

Joohwan walked over to Sinhye before grabbing her hand.

“You’re asking me to do this, so I’ll do it for now.”

“Hey!”

“I don’t feel good about this either. But I want to do well in acting. Don’t you?”

“Who says I don’t? I was about to grab you first, but you made a big fuss about it, you know?”

Even while acting like two archenemies, the two grabbed hands.

“Miss Sinhye, please let everything out like when you were acting with me. Joohwan, don’t be busy minding your own acting, and look at Miss Sinhye until the end.”

“But senior, what do we do about scenes where we have to appear separately?” Joohwan asked, raising the locked hand into the air.

“Keep going around together. Look at each other’s acting from right next to them. It’s a childish method, but there’s nothing that’s more efficient.”

Maru clapped once and walked down the stage.

“Then let’s start immediately. Get yourselves together and let’s just do three runs.”

After Story 111

Three runs — it was not a lot compared to the number of rehearsals they had until now. Just how different could they become in those three runs? — she had that suspicion at first.

“Although nowadays, acting in a play and acting in front of a camera has become a lot more similar, in terms of the scale of your actions, it is definitely a lot more exaggerated in plays. Of course, I am sure you are all aware of this already, but sometimes, you forget about it when you act. That’s why, I think it’ll be better if you use your arms a little more in this scene, Mr. Youngjin.”

Maru reached his arms out and said a line. He was like a refrigerator full of ingredients: he easily displayed various emotions like he was able to cook anything.

Youngjin, who received the advice, changed his ways slightly. Even from a glance, she could tell that it was better than before.

“Let’s continue,” Maru said, stepping aside.

The actors looked like they would believe whatever came out of Maru’s mouth now.

Jungah wrote down the things Maru said in a notebook. She was more fervent than ever. This was the first time she felt nervous that she was going to miss a word. She was originally going to use her phone to record it, but her phone’s recording features weren’t that good and were unable to capture what was going on on the stage. The only thing she could rely on were her highly functional ears and her skilled hands.

“Joohwan, come in.”

Joohwan left the curtain at Maru’s gesture, his hand still locked with Sinhye’s.

In the first run, the two of them were uncomfortable and awkward when acting in that position, but now, they acted freely as though they forgot about the person next to them.

“I told you I wished the village chief would die, but I didn’t kill him. Everyone thinks like that from time to time, don’t they? I mean, people wouldn’t actually kill based on that alone. Please use common sense. You aren’t monkeys.”

Even Joohwan’s acting, which she considered to be perfect and couldn’t be improved upon, had seen some changes. His presence, which always felt like the leading character, became fainter. He was melting into the performance. The harmony between the actors was brought out.

It was a slight pity since the actor that was the symbol of the play was being put behind a veil, but in terms of completion, this was much better.

“What do you want me to do!” Maru shouted as he stomped his feet. This time, he was acting as the college girl.

He instantly switched into the character and acted, but he didn’t look out of place. In fact, he looked more fitting than her friends who had analyzed the characters for months.

As he had promised, Maru showed about two different acts. This was multiple times more difficult than explaining it through abstract words.

Jungah imagined herself going up on stage and explaining and acting like Maru did. She soon shook her head. Even imagining it made her exhausted.

Analyzing a dozen characters in a short period of time and showing each off as an act was not something anyone could do. When Maru was asked a question, he asked them to give him some time to think and came up with a response about ten-something minutes later. He was unstoppable.

The faces of her friends who got an answer from him became brighter without exception. They looked like they found their lost wallets from underneath the drawer.

“Repeating yourselves until you can reflexively display the performance is something you naturally have to do. You can’t think about acting without proficiency. However, if you stop there, you will never become a good actor. Keep thinking. Think and ponder. Question a character’s actions and look into what that signifies. Directors and writers recognize the actors who do that well. Personas don’t appear due to coincidence.”

She had heard similar words in many lectures during college. However, those words were just piled up in a corner of her head as knowledge, just like bricks piled up in a corner of a construction zone.

Maru’s words, however, were different. They weren’t inorganic objects, but creatures that might pop out anywhere at any moment. It was insufficient to just accept them as they were. They had to grab onto it with all of their minds.

Think and ponder — those words drove her into a rather frustrating, yet still enjoyable worry.

For the first time, Jungah regretted taking charge of the production. She wanted to be on the stage and receive advice from Maru like the others. If that was possible, she would be able to better her acting skills.

She slapped her left cheek to get herself together. This wasn’t the time to be drenched in regret. Maru’s lips hadn’t stopped. She had to be moving her hands right now.

The things she wrote down in her notebook today would become a guidepost in leading this play in the future. Perhaps it might become a legendary legacy that was passed down through generations of her major.

“I think that should be enough. All that’s left now is to assimilate the things you have heard with your body. Let’s do it one last time. I won’t stop you midway, so do everything to your heart’s content. As long as you don’t mirror the advice I have given you, anything’s fine. Combine the fragments and build up what has collapsed. Once you’re done with that, this performance will become much better than it is now. Some of you might be able to find your character.”

Maru came down from the stage. Jungah exercised her sore wrists and put down her pen.

“Great work. And thank you,” Jungah said to Maru, who sat down next to her.

“It’s still too early to thank me. There’s a lot of work for you to do from now on.”

“Me? I think most of the problems are solved. Is there anything I have to do?”

“There’s the most important thing left.”

The actors on stage got behind the curtains. The play was going to start soon.

“Joohwan is a smart kid. He only grumbled like a child because he came across a difficult problem for the first time in his life. I’m sure you can tell from his acting, but he now knows what the problem is, and he has found a solution himself. You can see that the play is becoming more harmonized, can’t you?”

“Yes. It has become surprisingly good.”

“You know why that is too, right?”

Jungah clutched her notebook slightly and said, “He’s no longer eye-catching.”

“Yes. If this was a drama or a movie, the character balance can be maintained through the power of editing, but that’s not possible with a staged play. Joohwan quickly realized the problem and shirked back to reduce his presence.”

Maru pointed at Joohwan, who slightly poked his head out of the curtain.

“Joohwan is a desirable-looking ripe apple. An apple you can tell is good from looking at it. Compared to him, the other actors aren’t as ready. They aren’t fully ripe yet. Had this been a play that was focused on Joohwan, there shouldn’t have been any problems. However, his portion in this play is so-so at best.”

“So Joohwan must be lowering himself to be equal to the others.”

Maru nodded.

“This is his first time putting together a stage and performing with his peers, right? And one where he isn’t the lead character.”

“Yes, this is practically the first time.”

“That’s why there was some trouble. Of course, that has become better now. However, just because one of the apples in the basket is deliciously ripe, is it the right thing to remove that from the rest? Is it really the right thing to do to lower one’s capability for the sake of the whole?”

“I don’t think that’s right.”

“Now you see what you have to do, don’t you? Raise the basic skill level of actors other than Joohwan. When are you putting on the performance?”

“Next month.”

“So there’s about a month left. If you want to raise the overall completeness of the play, you’re going to have to think a lot with the other actors. It’s probably going to be difficult.”

Jungah looked at Maru. She could say with confidence that these three hours of practice they had with Maru were more helpful to the actors than what they did for the past few weeks. If Maru was in charge of directing this whole play, she felt like they could get through any kind of storm with ease.

It was just as she was about to ask him about it that Maru spoke,

“I’m only helping you today. Students have more to gain from student plays when they do it by themselves.”

Maru brought it up first as though he had read her mind.

Jungah put on an awkward expression.

“You’ve done well until now, so please hold on a little more.”

“Will I be able to do well from now on?”

“You will have to. There’s no other way.”

“That’s a lot of pressure.”

“It’s just what it means to be in charge of directing. You should buy some stomach medicine from the local pharmacy.”

Really, she felt like she needed some stomach medicine.

“When did you get so much experience with acting on stage?”

“I had the opportunity to do that in various places.”

That was a rather peculiar answer. It was also the first question that Maru avoided answering. She felt like it would not be polite to ask anymore and stayed silent.

“Please look after Joohwan a lot. He will never cause a problem if there’s someone to watch him by his side. He’s also going to grow at a frightening pace. Raise him to be a good actor.”

“I don’t think he’s someone I can handle.”

“That may be the case if you look at him as an actor. But, the person known as Park Joohwan seems to be heavily reliant on you, Miss Jungah.”

“Do you really think so?”

“If it’s truly too much for you to handle, just give him a slight push on the back when he falters. He’ll start running again in no time.”

Unlike how harsh he was to Joohwan before, Maru’s eyes were filled with kindness.

“You seem to be quite fond of him?”

“He’s a good fellow. He’s not someone who has blind faith in his talent either. I like people like him.”

“And it would be great if you could be here to give him advice.”

“As I said before, this will be the last one. The next time I come here is to watch a play.”

“I’m just saying. It’s such a pity.”

Jungah shut her mouth and looked forward. The play was about to begin.

* * *

“My dad is a producer at a TV station, and he has been one ever since I was born. When I was young, I thought all the dramas on TV were created by him. And maybe because of that, I caused a fuss saying I wanted to become an actress. When I grew up, I found out that dad had nothing to do with the drama department. Although it’s a bit of a pity, what could I do? I had already taken a liking to acting by then.” Sinhye let out a long sigh. Her breath was mixed with a strong smell of alcohol.

Maru looked around him. Most people had become drunk and passed out.

The first one to have passed out on the stage was Joohwan. He could only handle a glass of beer and a glass of soju. That was it.

This drinking occasion, which just consisted of endless drinking without any games, kept producing one victim after another. Jungah said that she was in charge of taking care of the aftermath and didn’t drink a sip.

As a result, the only ones conscious other than Maru were four people, with Sinhye being the only chatterbox.

“Senior, you are going to come again, right?”

“I’ll be here to watch it when you perform.”

“Gosh, don’t say that, and help us out from time to time. Please?”

“No.”

“You’re so cold.”

“I get that a lot.”

Maru grabbed a rolling bottle and put it upright. It looked like they should wrap things up now.

“You should go back now. I’ll take care of the others,” Jungah said.

Sinhye, who was muttering all this while, also lowered her head as though she was excited.

“Take good care.”

“This isn’t the first time this happened, so I’m used to it. Sorry I can’t see you out. They might cause trouble if I’m not here.”

Maru smiled and went down the stage.

“I had a lot of fun today. Call me next time when you perform. I’ll definitely come watch.”

“Yes. I’ll call you about it. And thank you. I think we’ll be able to put on a good performance thanks to you.”

Sinhye, who was nodding off, suddenly raised her head before crying and telling him not to go.

Maru quickly finished off his goodbyes and left the place.

He stayed for too long, and it was already going past 10.

“It’s a good age to enjoy.”

Maru looked at the theater before turning around.

* * *

“Ugh, my head.”

Sinhye sat at the table while sniffling. Her father, who was preparing breakfast, gave her a cup of cold water.

“Way to go, girl. The only thing you got better at in college is drinking, isn’t it?”

“Must you say that when your daughter is suffering so much?”

“Of course I have to. My fully grown daughter was crying while asking to open the door. What do you think a parent would feel after seeing that?”

“That’s because I take after you, dad. You’re always drunk when you come back from planning, looking for mom.”

“Attagirl.”

Sinhye drank the cold water and asked,

“But hey, how come you’re making breakfast today? Didn’t you say you were busy preparing a documentary?”

“My ignorant daughter. That was three months ago. The editing is all done, and all that’s left is the dubbing.”

“Your work is going to be on TV, huh? What is it about this time? Last time it was about bees. I wish it was about penguins this time.”

Her father chuckled before sitting down.

“This time, it’s not about animals, but people.”

After Story 112

"People? That's different. Have you ever created a documentary using people as the subject? I think it was an animal every time."

"Humans are classified under animals, though."

"That's true, but still, it's a bit curious."

"You are at the age where you are curious about everything."

Her father raised a food bowl and asked if she was going to eat breakfast. Sinhye shook her head.

"Why don't you go easy on the alcohol from now on? I don't want to worry about my daughter's drinking problems this early on."

"Sorry, dad. Looks like alcohol loves me. It won't let me go."

"You should refuse from time to time. You'll soon break up if you're the one being dragged around all the time, you know?"

"Alcohol will reject me? Not happening. It's already fallen deep for my charms, you know?"

Sinhye spoke as she looked at her father eating breakfast,

"What's this about a documentary about people? Your job is to observe things, isn't it? Did you perhaps lock someone up in a closed room and observe the change in their emotional state?"

"You're really creative, my girl. I'm sure you'll make it big if you write sci-fi novels."

"You aren't?"

"Like hell the management will allow something like that. We didn't observe an individual, but society and the era."

"That's cool, dad. The observer of the era. That sounds like a line from a play, doesn't it?"

Sinhye grabbed some garlic stalks with her finger and ate them. She felt a little better after eating something spicy.

"Now, stop beating around the bush and tell me. You always had me guess whenever I asked you about what you were working on. Can't you just give it to me straight?"

"Isn't it fun though?"

"Have I ever said that?"

Her father put down his spoon and smiled.

"What do you plan to do after you graduate college?"

"Me? An actress of course. I'll start from a minor actor and climb my way up. It's good to become a star in one go, but the chances of that are slim."

"How about your friends who didn't go to Arts universities? What do you think they're thinking about for the future?"

"Well, after graduation, the next thing will be employment, right? Going to college is just a precursor to looking for a good job after all. It might be called a place for higher education, but aren't they practically an extension of getting specs?"

"Employment. I guess that's the biggest obstacle you'll meet after CSATs, right?"

Sinhye nodded.

"A friend of mine went to a 2-year college, and she's already worried about what she wants to do. After all, in order to apply to big corporations you have to have graduated from a 4-year college. It's not about my life, so I can't just tell her to start from a smaller company either. You should know that better than me. You know the significance of first jobs even though we don't live in an era of life-long jobs anymore."

"I thought you were ignorant, but you seem to be thinking about a lot of things, huh?"

"I have a lot of worries too, you know? I did say I'll become an actress with confidence, but I know it's difficult. Especially if I see people close to me with real talent."

Her father raised the soup bowl and asked, "You're talking about that kid called Park Joohwan?"

"He's one of them, but I saw the real genius yesterday. Compared to him, Joohwan is somewhat immature."

"Genius?"

"Yeah. Don't even start. He managed to recreate characters that we've spent months practicing in just a few hours. He's only two years older than me too."

"He's that good?"

"You'll be surprised, you know? But you don't work with dramas, do you, dad? You don't watch them either. I'll ask just in case, but have you heard about the name Han Maru?"

"One of the construction companies I know is called Maru."

"Told you you wouldn't know him."

Sinhye thought back to the stage yesterday. It was much more worthwhile than when she was getting taught directly by a professor. It was the first time she thought that it was a pity that practice was ending.

"But what's all the talk about employment? Is the documentary related to that?"

"That's the main point: the increase in youth unemployment rates and the decrease in the overall employment rate. What is the truth like for South Korea, after having thought that we overcame the IMF crisis well? Whose shoulders is all that debt pressing on?"

"That sounds heavy from just hearing about it. Talking about penguins would be better."

"Thanks for the discouraging words before the airing."

Her father stood up with the empty bowls. Sinhye closed the lids of the side dishes.

In front of the sink, her father spoke as he turned on the tap,

"I've interviewed a lot of people, I mean young people. That's how the first episode was created: people living in Gosiwon."

"Gosiwon?"

"The doors to large corporations are so small that young people are directed to civil servants instead. The proportion is way bigger than I imagined. Compared to a decade ago, there's a strange amount of people trying to be civil servants. I'm sure it'll only increase in ten years from now on."

"Now that you mention it, one of my friends is preparing for the class 9 civil servant test. She used to be really good at studying too."

"It just goes to show that the times are changing. The awareness that stability is best is spreading amongst young people. It looks like it's not just a trend that will go away with time as it seems to be but the general opinion of the era. And that's why I decided to go with it."

"If I don't make challenges at my age, when else would I?" Sinhye shrugged.

"Maybe it just means that the times are becoming harsher for the young people," said her father.

Sinhye felt that this documentary was going to be on a different tangent than the ones he had made until now. There wouldn't be any pretty corals or cute squirrels. It would be a gloomy story.

She suddenly recalled Maru's voice. A stable and deep vocal tone. It was a voice that made her calm from just listening to it.

"You said that there's still the dubbing to do, right?"

"Yeah. What about it?"

"How about you use the senior that I talked about before?"

Her father laughed.

"Dubbing is done by professionals or expert actors. This documentary especially needs someone with a heavy voice. Since it's a story about people in their 20s, I will be looking for young voice actors, but I'm not sure if there will be anyone to my liking."

"There's a saying that you'll get something nice if you listen to your daughter's words."

"I refuse."

"Don't say that and listen to me this one time. That senior's voice is killer."

"Didn't you say he was an acting genius?"

"And he has a good voice as the cherry on top. Didn't you always say that you have to pay back your graces? That senior helped your pretty daughter for one day, so don't you think it's okay to give him a small opportunity like that?"

"If you want to pay back his graces, then you do it. Dad has to do work, so I'll pretend I haven't heard it."

"You might regret it later."

Her father smiled and went to his room. Sinhye shouted at the closed door.

"His name is Han Maru! At least keep that in mind!"

* * *

"You're here?"

Nam Jaehyun gave his half-dying junior a cup of coffee.

"I'll be in trouble if I drink something in the editing room," said his junior while receiving the coffee.

"I can cover for you even if the president comes here, so drink quietly. Rather than that, how's the final cut that we got from the CG team?"

"It's perfect. It's just the picture you wanted. You should have a look at it later. Though, it's pretty boring without the narration."

"Let me have a look at that now. I'll skip over some parts. There aren't any errors with the graphs and numbers, right?"

"You checked firsthand, and then I and the numerous zombies here checked again and again, and we haven't found any problems. If there are any errors at this point, it's not an error on our part. It's the data we got that's an error."

"They're sensitive numbers so we can't get them wrong."

"Of course, we'll be in big trouble if they are."

Jaehyun looked at the screen. He had checked the video several times, but he still looked ardently every single time just in case there was an error.

He had the exhausted junior get some rest and started editing himself.

"Did you get some sleep?"

"I had a good sleep at home after a long time. And you?"

"You can see me. I couldn't be bothered to go home, so I slept in the sleeping area. Senior Bae asked me why I was here when I'm past the point of doing work past hours."

"You should go home and sleep. Only then will the people below you get some rest."

"You think they'll get any rest just because we do? Also, we should be using all our energy because we're in the last spurt. I had a bad feeling when you said that this was the founding anniversary special, but I didn't know it would be this hard. Heck, I think it was better when I was fighting mosquitos in safaris. Interviewing people is more mentally exhausting."

Jaehyun chuckled before going to the next scene. Having gone through the CG team, the video looked just as good as he wanted it to be.

If it was the drama department, things would look awkward here and there because they were so pressed for time.

"Good, it's well-made. The mix of the sound and the video is good too."

The junior watching the screen spoke,

"I'm not sure if I should be saying this as one of the creators, but it's a rather bitter documentary for sure. The rate of suicide has leaped over the past few years, right? The rate of attempted suicide among minors was so high that it made me shocked."

"It just means that there has never been a harsher time for youths."

"But if you look at the distribution of the population according to age, I think it'll be even more problematic in ten years. I wonder if my daughter can get proper employment."

"You should earn while you still can. You'll have to take care of her marriage as well. Being Kangaroos is no longer a matter of other people."

"That's true. Oh, how's Sinhye these days? Is she still causing a fuss about becoming an actress?"

"She already got into an arts university. That happened a year ago."

"Time sure flies. My daughter will soon be in middle school too. She'll be in college in no time, right?"

"Right."

Jaehyun stopped the video. He couldn't find any flaws in the final cut. Adding the narration and adjusting the sync would complete the project for airing.

"Who should we go to for dubbing?"

Jaehyun turned around to look at his junior.

"I don't know. I think we should go with a young voice actor just as we planned, but looking at the video, I think a voice with a heartfelt sound is going to be better."

"You did ask for voice samples from the RBS voice actors, right?"

"I did. Would you like to listen to them first?"

The junior played back the recorded audio. The voice actors read some text for about a minute.

He played back the video and listened to the narration. As they were professionals, their pronunciation and volume were perfect. The problem was that none of them really struck a chord.

"They're all good, but they're lacking something. Should we look for veteran voice actors instead?"

"This is about people in their twenties, so a young voice should be better."

"How about we use singers? I had a look at some documentaries created by RBS that used an idol as the narrator, and it was quite good. It can attract attention too."

"As long as they're good, it doesn't matter if it's an idol or not. But do you think there's one that fits this?"

"That's true. Or would you like to do it instead?"

"Are you teasing me?"

The junior snickered before leaning back on the chair. Semi-laying down, the junior yawned.

"Let's just ask for verified professionals. If we bring some immature kid just because we want to use a young person, it's going to be hell in the dubbing room. You know how disastrous that can be."

"The narration is the cherry on top. We have to go with the best option possible."

"Do you have anyone in mind? It will start airing next week, so we gotta get it recorded. If we can't make the schedule, there's going to be a fuss again."

"Don't you have anyone in mind? Should we just go with veterans instead?"

"Don't shift the responsibility to me. You're the one in charge. I'm just going to go with whatever you want to. If the results are good, I'll get some benefits, and if it's terrible, I'm going to run."

"No matter how far you run, you can't run outside the station."

Just as he was pondering while looking at the paused screen, he thought back to the conversation he had with his daughter.

There was a name right at the end.

"Han Maru."

"What?"

"Since we have time left over, shall we go man-hunting?"

"What the heck does that mean?"

Jaehyun tapped his junior on the shoulder and stood up.

After Story 113

“Senior, what do you mean by that all of a sudden? Manhunting?”

“You said RBS used an idol, and the response was good.”

“That I did, but are you going to look for an idol? You said this needs to sound heavy.”

“I’m going to look for an actor instead. I’m not completely sure yet, so just come here for a sec.”

Jaehyun sat down at the desk and moved the mouse. The screensaver feature went away and the desktop appeared. He opened a browser.

“Who are you going to look up?”

“I’m going to play the fool and try trusting my daughter.”

“You mean Sinhye?”

Jaehyun typed ‘Han Maru’ into the search window. A profile with his photo and major career came up.

“I haven’t seen him before. He’s an actor?”

“Sinhye told me that he’s an acting genius.”

“An acting genius? There’s no way someone I haven’t seen before is an acting genius. If he was a real genius, I’m sure he would’ve made it big already.”

“The broadcast industry doesn’t always revolve around talent.”

The junior brought a chair from the next desk over and sat down next to him.

“Rather than that, you’re quite doting on your daughter. You’re actually looking up someone your daughter recommended.”

“I’m not doting. It’s just a special case. You know my daughter’s personality, right?”

“Of course I do. She has such a high pride, that little one. I went over to your house once, and if I think about what happened when I tried playing hangman with her, it still makes my hair raise to this day. I think she was ten back then? She said she will do it until she wins, and geez.”

“She’s my daughter, but she’s not quiet at all. She’s rough and stubborn and her pride reaches the skies. She’s someone who doesn’t acknowledge and praise others easily, yet she’s calling him a genius, so I’m sure there’s something about him.”

The junior nodded.

“That’s true. I’m really envious of your family. You have a good relationship with your daughter. My daughter isn’t even in middle school yet, but she’s already hit puberty and won’t even talk to me. When she was young, she would cry whenever daddy wasn’t there, but now it’s awkward to even eat together. I’m not sure if I changed or she changed.”

“Treat her well. It’s up to the parent. Or you can get divorced. You’ll focus on your kid more and will treat her well.”

“That’s a scary thing you’re saying there.”

Jaehyun smiled and moved the mouse.

The grand prize at the Short Film Festival, huh? He had no idea how the film industry worked, so he didn’t know what kind of great prize it was.

“Do you know about the Short Film Festival?”

“It’s a film festival with many named directors. I think it’s a pretty authoritative film festival in the film industry.”

“If he got the grand prize from a place like that, it’s not that much of a stretch to call him an acting genius, right?”

“No way, that’s not right. Honestly, film festivals like that one are about preferences, aren’t they? It should be about artistic films rather than commercial ones. I’ve looked at an art film that supposedly won a prize before, but I really didn’t understand how it won. I don’t think winning the grand prize there means that he’s good at acting.”

“Are you sure you just didn’t understand it because it was too profound?”

“Maybe. That’s why I don’t like art films. I don’t really get those things where they only care about each other. There are much cooler and more interesting movies in cinemas, so I don’t really need to go out of my way to watch them.”

“That’s true for me too. Some Rambo action is definitely better than elegant movies.”

Leaving aside his career, they had to listen to his voice. He then looked at the video search results.

“He came out in The Witness?”

“The Witness?”

“You don’t know about it? It was a drama that came out at the beginning of the year, and it had good reviews.”

“You had the time to watch something like that?”

“I watched it from time to time.”

Jaehyun clicked on the video at the very top. The views were pretty high. He turned the volume up and played back the video. As soon as it started playing, the junior looked like he recognized it.

“I know this scene. It’s the scene where the criminal kills a crime investigator kid, and it’s terrific. I’m sure the producer that shot this was called to the KCC.”

“Why?”

“Because it’s too cruel. The production is raw. It’s a drama, but this scene felt like a movie. The people acting there weren’t the lead actors either, but their skills were really good.”

Jaehyun focused on the video. The expressions on the actors were vicious to the point that it made him absorbed even without knowing what the story was about.

“It’s good, isn’t it?” the junior asked.

“Yea, it was really well taken.”

Jaehyun found out the investigator that died was played by Han Maru through the video description. It was rather fresh that a 22-year-old young actor created such immersion. It seemed that his daughter wasn’t completely ungrounded when she said that he was an acting genius.

“But the sound was all breathing, so I don’t know if his voice will fit our narration or not. Even if he’s good at acting, we can’t really use him if his voice doesn’t fit our video, can we?”

“Isn’t there anything else?”

Unfortunately, that was the only video that came up when he looked up Han Maru. He searched the drama by the title, but most of the clips consisted of the lead actors, so Han Maru couldn’t be seen.

“Wait a sec. I think there’s something on my phone.”

The junior took out his phone.

“Here it is. But he’s a little jumpy. His voice itself is quite heavy, but the character’s so jumpy that even his voice feels like it’s up in the air.”

He received the junior’s phone and watched the drama. He couldn’t believe that the young actor was the same as the one dying just moments ago. He couldn’t grasp what his normal tone would be like. According to his daughter, his voice was a pleasant deep one.

“Should we just use a voice actor instead?” Jaehyun asked, giving his junior back his phone.

He did look it up just in case, but he didn’t want to gamble since he had prepared a long time for this documentary. A heartfelt voice was the biggest priority; a young voice was only secondary.

As the documentary pertained to the pains of the times, it would definitely be better if a young person did it, but he did not plan to be stubborn about it. Emotional and information transmission had to be prioritized.

“In fact, I just got a hunch.”

“Hunch?”

“It’s quite common for actors to do the narration. The voice of an actor with experience has a different tone from that of a voice actor too.”

“But this guy’s a rookie. He doesn’t sound that suitable either.”

“That we just have to find out for ourselves. Since we came this far, why don’t we get a sample at least? As you said, Sinhye’s not an ordinary kid, is she? If she went as far as to talk to her dad about it, I don’t think she’s doing it as a joke.”

“Since when were you so knowledgeable about my daughter?”

The junior waved his hand in the air in denial.

“You know that sometimes you got better results by listening to my opinion when we had split opinions.”

“The problem is that it only happens once in ten times.”

“That once might be now. I think this fellow’s pretty good. This documentary is supposed to be a challenge. It’s like we’re going against the government too. So I think a young voice is crucial here. We also can’t have someone too famous. This is supposed to be about youths in harsh environments, but if it’s someone doing too well, that would be too ironic.”

Jaehyun looked at Han Maru inside the monitor. His eyes contained a strange mix of indifference and kindness.

“As you say then. I guess we can at least receive a voice sample.”

“Since we’re doing it, let’s get some from a few young actors. If they have learned acting properly, there shouldn’t be a problem with pronunciation and style.”

“Let’s invest just one week then. If we can’t find anyone, then we can just pick one of the voice actors from the list we’ve made.”

“I think we can go like that. I’ll have the others contact some agencies. Oh, does this fellow have an agency too?” the junior asked while pointing at the monitor.

“Wait a sec.”

Jaehyun scrolled down a little. Below his profile was his agency.

“JA? He was a bigshot, huh?”

“If he’s there, I guess I can make the call.”

“You?”

He took his hand off the mouse and got his phone out. One of his few contacts in the broadcast industry was in JA.

While the signal beeps could be heard, his junior kept asking questions: who are you calling, is it an actor, is the person famous? And the like.

He found it noisy, so he pushed away the chair his junior was sitting on. The wheeled chair slid off.

“It’s not an actor, so don’t cause so much of a fuss.”

“Then who is it?”

“Who else? Someone who works in JA.”

Not long later, the person on the other side picked up.

“Yes, head manager Choi. Is it okay for you to speak on the phone right now?”

-Yes, producer. I’m okay.

“It’s been a long time since we last called.”

-That’s true. Has it been about a year? What’s up for you to call me at this time?

“You have someone named Han Maru at JA, right?”

-Yes, we do. I wonder why you’re looking for actor Han.

Jaehyun nodded before speaking,

“We’re creating a documentary, and we still have the dubbing left to do. I was thinking that we could use a young person instead of a veteran voice actor for it.”

-Really? We’d love to have an opportunity. Your documentaries are always a hot topic, aren’t they?

“They’re not that great. I was just lucky. Rather than that, how is he? I was wondering if I could listen to your assessment since you have great eyes, head manager Choi.”

-My eyes aren’t that good. But don’t you think our president’s eyes are trustworthy? He’s not someone who will raise a sapling that won’t grow big in his own yard.

“Looks like I’ve asked something unnecessary. Can I get in contact with him? I’d like to listen to his voice. Or we can send you a script and you can send back a sample.”

-If it’s like that, could you wait a second? Since you’ve contacted us directly, producer, we can’t make you wait.

“We can wait however long it takes. Most of the stuff at the station consists of waiting.”

-You’ll soon get a call back to you.

“You can take your time.”

He put his phone down.

Unlike the way he spoke, head manager Choi was rather cautious and meticulous in the way he did work. That was probably why JA’s CEO had him close by.

According to some rumors, Taeyang Corp tried to recruit head manager Choi as the head of their directing team, and apparently, he flatly refused.

It meant that he chose JA, nay, Lee Junmin over Taeyang Corp.

“Did they say they’ll call us back?” His junior asked.

“They did tell me to wait just a moment.”

As soon as he said those words, his phone started ringing. It was a number he didn’t know. He received the call just in case.

“Hello?”

-Excuse me, but is this producer Nam Jaehyun’s phone number?

“Yes. You’re speaking to him.”

-Hello. I called you after head manager Choi reached out to me. I’m Han Maru.

“Oh, Mr. Maru. I didn’t know you’d call so quickly.”

-The company motto is that we’re to snatch work that comes our way as soon as possible.

“There are mottos like that?”

-I was surprised when I first visited as well. It was actually there.

Jaehyun tapped on the desk while listening to Maru’s voice. It was hard to judge based on the phone call alone. Although phone call quality had supposedly increased a lot, there was still a lot of minute noise.

“Have you heard the explanation?”

-Yes.

“I don’t think I can give you a concrete answer based on our phone call alone. Do you have a voice recorder at home? Or you can ask your agency to borrow a recording room for you.”

-Recording is fine, but should I just go visit the TV station instead?

“That’ll make things easier for me.”

-If you could allow me, I’d like to go to the dubbing room and work with the video itself.

Oh? Jaehyun liked his attitude at least.

There was no reason to refuse when he said he would be coming. Jaehyun asked when it would be okay. Maru responded right away,

-I can go right now.

That was a refreshing answer.

After Story 114

“When is he coming?”

Jaehyun looked at his junior who seemed curious and said, “Soon.”

“Soon? You mean now?”

“He’s a quick kid. He said he was okay with coming right now, so I told him to come. It’s true that we have some time until it airs, but there’s nothing wrong with hurrying.”

“I’ll go see if the dubbing room’s empty.”

The junior opened up the website for the TV station employees.

“It’s empty today. Shall we sync it with the video since we’re at it?”

“He brought that up too. He wants to do it in the dubbing room.”

“Really? Sounds like he has experience recording audio then.”

“Right. What’s the time right now?”

“Lunch time.”

“Let’s eat before he comes. He says it’ll take about an hour and a half to come.”

Jaehyun took his junior to the company cafeteria.

“Why did you buy so many meal tickets? You should’ve just paid with your credit card.”

“You have to save up whenever possible. I heard that it’s going to go up by 500 won starting next month. If you pay with your credit card, that’ll be an extra 500 won with every purchase, but with meal tickets, you can use all the tickets you bought beforehand. Only if I save up money like this will I be able to drink with everyone else.”

“What a frugal guy. You should’ve shared something like that beforehand.”

“You don’t even have a wife at home. Why go so far?”

After they ate lunch, they got some coffee before leaving the TV station.

There were three cameras in front of the TV station. They were shooting a show.

“They've been shooting a lot here ever since the building got built.”

“They used a lot of money for the building, so they gotta make use of it somehow.”

“The building in Songpa is still useful. I don’t know why they built something like this and moved. If they had money to build a new building, they should use it to raise our salaries instead.”

“They don’t have enough money to raise the salaries of the employees but have enough to buy land and build a building. Still, I like it here since commuting has gotten easier.”

“I like that too. Anyway, what do you think they’re shooting?”

“Seeing director Kang Jaeyoon, I think it’s ‘Hot-blooded Youths’.”

“Oh, you’re talking about that thing where they bring in a bunch of young people and have them do difficult jobs, right? I watched it for a bit before, and it wasn’t really something that I liked. I saw a bunch of young kids carrying heavy stuff in construction zones. I have it difficult as is, so watching other people suffering made me wonder what the heck I was doing.”

“Don’t say that. They get a lot of views. In the broadcast industry, viewing rates are the truth and the life.”

Jaehyun waved his hand at director Kang Jaeyoon, as they made eye contact. Jaeyoon, who was a junior of his, smiled and bowed.

“When I look at you like this, it makes me realize you’ve been in this field for a long time. It’s about you quit working on the field and play hooky as a CP at the desk.”

“I don’t want to. I’m going to carry a camera until I’m too weak to walk.”

“You don’t hold the camera, the ones below you do.”

“It’s just a figure of expression. Why are you being so picky today?”

“I’m not being picky. I’m saying it for your sake. Rather than that, it’s almost time.”

He drank some coffee as he listened to his junior. It was 1 p.m., almost the appointed time.

As they were watching the TV show shoot happening in front of the new building, he got a call. It was Han Maru’s number.

“Have you arrived?”

-Yes. I’m in front of the station. But there’s a shoot here.

“You can go around them. I’ll be at the entrance so come quick.”

-I will go right now.

He waited after hanging up. Not long later, he caught sight of a young man wearing a black sweater and jeans. He knew as soon as he saw him that it was Han Maru. His stature was larger than what he saw in the video. He wasn’t breathtakingly handsome, but he did have a charm about him.

“Mr. Han Maru?”

“Yes. That’s me.”

“Hello there. I’m Nam Jaehyun.”

They had a light handshake. The junior introduced himself to Maru as well.

“Did I call you when you were supposed to be busy?”

“I was cleaning at home, wondering if I’ll get any work.”

Just as his daughter said, his voice was considerably good. There was a deep ring to it that he couldn’t tell over the phone. It was a clean and neat tone. His expectations rose.

“Should I call you director, or would you like me to call you producer instead?”

“Call me whatever you want. Have you had lunch?”

“I ate on my way here. It’s good to have a full stomach before working.”

“Right. Let’s head inside for now.”

The dubbing room was on the third floor. Jaehyun asked Maru on the way, “Do you watch documentaries often?”

“I watch all the documentaries from the three major TV stations. Though, I sometimes miss the special episodes.”

“All three major TV stations? That’s quite peculiar. Do you find documentaries fun?”

“Fun is one thing, but I mostly watch them out of habit. I like being at home, so I watch most of the things they put on TV. It’s worth studying from them as well.”

His junior cut in,

“You can study from documentaries despite being an actor?”

“Maybe it’s because I’m young, but I feel like there’s something to learn from anything.”

“That’s true. I learned a lot from adult tapes when I was young.”

Jaehyun laughed and looked at his junior. The junior shrugged.

“Come inside,” he said as he opened the dubbing room. Behind the mixers was a booth that was soundproofed.

It was possible to see inside the booth through a glass window.

Jaehyun went into the soundproof booth with Maru.

“Since you came all the way here, let’s skip the test and try dubbing the video itself. I’m sure this will be a good experience for you.”

“Thank you.”

“Have you worked on something like this before?”

“No, this is my first time.”

“I see. Your vocal tone is really good for now. It’s not a voice you’re squeezing out, so I think it’ll go well with the documentary too.”

Jaehyun got the script from his junior and gave it to Maru.

“This is not official, so you don’t have to be nervous at all. You’re an actor, so you’ve seen scripts before, right?”

“Yes.”

“The lines will be a lot longer compared to what you’ve seen in dramas. There are cases where you have to explain the scene through words, and there are times when you have to transmit your emotions purely through words, so they’ll be pretty long. You’ll probably have a hard time, and you’ll be quite thirsty too. Have a look through it for now.”

Maru’s eyes moved along the lines. Even though this must be an unfamiliar environment to him, he was adjusting easily. He was someone with a strong sense of self. He thought back to what head manager Choi had said about him. They wouldn’t raise a sapling that won’t become big, huh?

“How is it?”

“It’s a heavy topic. It’s also a story that someone has to tell.”

“It’s the reality experienced by people of your age. So? Do you think you can do it?”

“I’ll try it for now. The decision is up to you, producer.”

Jaehyun pulled his chin inward and said, “The documentary video will be played back on the monitor in front of you. I’ll explain before the dubbing starts about when you need to start and when you need to cut off. Relax. You just need to speak into the pop filter. Don’t get too close though.”

“I’ll try my best.”

“Do your best then.”

Jaehyun closed the soundproof booth and left. The junior was in front of the mixer, ready to record.

“Senior.”

“What?”

“Look at his expression. He looks like he’s in his own bedroom. I’m not sure if he’s bold or just numb.”

“It’s better than getting nervous or excited. How did he sound to you? Do you think we can use his voice?”

“His voice is good. We’ll have to see the recording to be sure, but if that’s how it sounds, then I think we can use it. But the quality of narration depends on how good the storytelling is. No matter how good his voice is, we can’t use it if it doesn’t sound good.”

“Let’s hear him out first and tell him if we need anything. I mean, he did come all the way here even though we didn’t arrange anything beforehand.”

“So what? When we were his age, we went around everywhere begging people to give us jobs.”

“Fine, you do you. Turn on the video for now.”

The junior put up the video. Jaehyun placed his hand on the mic button and spoke,

“Can you see the video?”

Inside the booth, Maru said that he could see it.

“We’re just doing a trial run for now, so we’re going to skip to the parts where there’s voice. I’ve marked the scenes on the script, so you can see how we’re doing this, right?”

“Yes, I’ll catch the hints.”

The junior quickly skipped through the video to the first part that had narration. He could see multiple high-rise buildings taken from a bird’s eye view.

Jaehyun explained into the mic.

“First, focus on speaking accurately like you’re reading from a textbook. We’ll have to see if your voice fits the video.”

“Okay. Can I slightly lower my vocal tone?”

“If there’s something you have in mind, you can try it out. As I said before, this is not the official recording.”

Jaehyun took his finger off the mic button and smiled.

His junior said, “I like his attitude of wanting to try various things. I’ll start now.”

Jaehyun put on the headset. Maru’s voice could be heard amidst the faint white noise.

He didn’t look the part, but maybe he got nervous? His breathing noise was louder than what Jaehyun expected.

The paused video started again. A cat walking at the foot of the building appeared. Jaehyun spoke in a small voice,

“Start now.”

Maru’s breathing was completely cut off before his voice kicked in.

-I, am a cat. The flower bed at the foot of Guwol-dong building is my house.

The cat crossed the road to the café on the opposite side of the road. Maru spoke his line at just the right time.

-My mornings always begin with visiting the café in front of the building. If I sit still at the café, I can see many people coming and going. People wearing the same clothes walk in the same direction every day. I find them curious, and on one hand, quite frustrating. What is it that they’re doing?

“Wait a second,” Jaehyun said, stopping the video. He saw Maru in the booth putting down the script.

“Senior. That was better than I expected?”

“Yeah.”

“First of all, he’s stable. You know how rookies slip up when they first say their lines. Their breathing is messed up, they never get the timing right, and they try to add unnecessarily fancy techniques. But he’s quite plain. I can’t tell how good the storytelling is, but it’s good to hear.”

“That’s one thing, but the way he uses his breathing is also not ordinary.”

The junior nodded.

“You’re talking about how mixed in his breathing when he started his second line, right?”

“Do you think he did that intentionally?”

“We’ll see if we continue.”

Jaehyun looked at Maru through the window. Did he really not have any experience doing dubbing? It was not an easy task to add voice to a scene accurately. If that were easy, voice acting wouldn’t be a profession.

The timing of the lines he just said was perfect to the point that there was no need to extract the audio and re-sync.

Although he gave the signal for the first line, it was entirely on Maru when he started his second line.

“We’ll see if he got that right due to coincidence, or if he’s just that talented in structuring a video.”

Jaehyun signaled his junior. He was originally planning to listen for just about 10 minutes, but he changed his mind.

“Mr. Maru.”

“Yes.”

“Are you busy today?”

“I’m not.”

“Then we can take our time recording, right?”

“I’m okay with that.”

“First up, you’re really good, both your voice and your senses in knowing where to begin. We’ll try textbook-style reading for a few more paragraphs. Like before, I’ll tell you where to begin on the first part, but after that, you can try it out yourself. Can you do that?”

“I’ll try.”

Jaehyun put on his headset again and said, “Then let’s continue.”

After Story 115

-The sun has set. However, the day in the city has not yet ended. A sun brighter than the daylight sun, the fluorescent lights, replace it.

The camera that was following a student pointed at a college library. Through a timelapse, the scenery in front of the library soon changed from day to night. The students walking by disappeared and only the library was left, with its lights all turned on.

Maru’s voice followed up like a precisely cut film.

-This place has 30,000 visitors every day. It is now 10 p.m. Even the most crowded rooms have turned quiet. Miss Hyegyung, a librarian, is leaving the materials room after putting back the books.

The scene changed to an interview with the librarian.

Jaehyun looked at the screen before moving his eyes to Maru, who was in the soundproof booth.

The recording, which he started just to listen to Maru’s voice, was nearing 20 minutes. During these 20 minutes, Maru had not made a single mistake. Even if they read the script like a textbook, people would screw up and miss the timing from time to time, but Maru didn’t even look flustered as though he was a machine.

-Miss Hyegyung’s job is over for the day, but she does not leave the library. It takes 20 minutes to get home by bus. The place she could rest in ease is only 20 minutes away, yet she takes her bag and goes to the 4th floor, the reading room. Unlike the quiet materials room, the reading room is crowded and she has difficulty finding a spot even at this time of night.

The video changed to a montage before it ended with a woman walking to an empty spot.

-Miss Hyegyung has managed to find a seat after a long time. Her body is exhausted, but she doesn’t have any time to rest. She has to solve questions on her English mock exams. If working as a librarian is a method to get by, the English exam is preparation for the upcoming war.

“Let’s stop here for now.”

Jaehyun carried a water bottle into the booth.

“Please wait a little while drinking this. If you want to go to the bathroom, it’s right in front of the room. Do you smoke?”

“No, I quit smoking.”

“That’s good. I need to quit smoking too.”

Jaehyun left the dubbing room with his junior.

“How was he?”

“What can I say? I can’t find any flaws. Is this really his first time? His skills definitely don’t make it seem so. No, I’d believe it if you told me he’s a writer who planned this program with us. His timing when starting the lines is nigh artistic. He never slipped up his tone either. He’s very accurately and stably saying everything with the tone you’ve asked him to make.”

“My words exactly. Speaking is something he might be born with, but that stability shouldn’t be something he should be able to gain in just a day or two.”

“Maybe he’s a genius in multiple fields.”

“No way.”

The junior looked at the door to the dubbing room and spoke,

“I think we’ve seen enough stability, so should we ask him to use some techniques? From the way things are looking, I think he’ll be good at putting in emotions as well.”

“He said he’s okay with time too, so I guess why not.”

They went back into the dubbing room. Jaehyun saw Maru reading the script. He looked like he would read away for an eternity if he didn’t speak out to him.

“Mr. Maru. This time, try reading without removing emotions. You can decide for yourself what emotions and tones you want to use depending on the situation.”

Jaehyun put on the headphones. He thought that perhaps this might be the most fitting voice for the documentary.

However, the narration wasn’t something that could be done with just a good voice. This was especially true in the case of documentaries, where voiceovers played an important role.

If the video was transmitting clear information, the voice would represent the emotions of the producer that created it. He used just as much time creating a narration script on deciding the subject, shooting, and editing.

How much of the emotions in the script would Maru be able to convey?

He rewound the video. It was the entrance to the library.

“You ready?”

-Yes, I am.

“Then let’s start.”

* * *

Maru slightly leaned forward, bent his back, and placed his left elbow on the table. He held the script in his right hand so that it was on the same level as the monitor in front of him. It might come off as an arrogant pose at first, but he couldn’t help it.

Just like how baseball pitchers could only throw their strongest balls in the right posture, he had an easier time getting into the emotions in a crooked posture.

He always recorded his voice in this posture whenever he did narrations.

The producer’s signal fell and the video started moving. He could see the library. He looked at the script from the corner of his eyes.

Before he uttered the first line, he let out a faint breath first. His words were carried along with his breathing.

-This place has 30,000 visitors every day. It is now 10 p.m. Even the most crowded rooms have turned quiet.

Although he continued his words here, he paused slightly this time. He watched the video that changed frame by frame before continuing right as Hyegyung was caught on camera.

-Miss Hyegyung, a librarian, is leaving the materials room after putting back the books.

Plainly and slowly. On top of that, he had to watch out for the accent of his words so that the ones watching could focus on Miss Hyegyung. It was inefficient to pour emotions into every single line. In fact, that would only increase the emotional fatigue of the viewers.

The documentary that producer Nam created was overall very heavy. It couldn’t be helped since the topic itself was nothing close to light.

As such, he had to pull out as much strength as possible whenever he could describe the scene indifferently.

-Miss Hyegyung’s job is over for the day, but she does not leave the library.

Hyegyung got her luggage. There was some rustling sound. Maru focused on that sound. Forced emotions would act as poison here. He had to synchronize himself with the situation first and then imbue his voice with the emotions that naturally stemmed from it.

He could change the tone of his emotions after plenty of discussions with the producer, but currently, the producer had given him full control. It was entirely up to him to decide on the emotions of every moment, and also to control the volume and the speed of his voice.

He was deeply able to sympathize with Hyegyung’s situation. He had also spent numerous years in his twenties. For most of those lives, he was being pushed around by life. Just like Hyegyung and numerous other college students in the library.

-It takes 20 minutes to get home by bus. The place she could rest in ease is only 20 minutes away, yet she takes her bag and goes to the 4th floor, the reading room. Unlike the quiet materials room, the reading room is crowded and she has difficulty finding a spot even at this time of night.

Passion Pay — this was a term yet to be coined in the current era. However, it would be a serious issue that even the news would talk about in a few years' time.

It was 2009 and this documentary had caught onto a hint of that passion pay.

The people watching this documentary would think of many things as they watch Hyegyung walk toward the reading room with a single bag behind her back. The adult generation, the sufferings of their youths; the youths, the reality that they would soon face, or are facing.

He could use a biased voice to discuss the pitiful reality that Hyegyung was in. It was an easy job for him to create a totally different result with the same script.

After all, the form of the words did not matter, the nuance did.

Where should he place the focus of the narration? He decided to go with encouragement. Encourage Hyegyung, as well as those just entering society.

It might become slightly biased, but this was not the official recording. It was a practice run where he could freely reflect his opinions.

He went slightly closer to the pop filter. He wetted his slightly dry lips and got ready to speak.

-Miss Gijeong’s day starts at six in the morning. She wants to sleep some more, but she cannot afford to do so. A week ago, her neighbor and friend left the Gosiwon. Not because she passed, but because of a different reason.

Gijeong’s interview followed up. Maru put the script down and wrote on that part of the script where he should pause and where he should proceed quickly.

Knowing it in his mind was primary, and reading the marks with his eyes was secondary. The only way to reduce mistakes was to keep going over them.

He took his eyes off the script and looked at Gijeong. She was someone he had never seen before, but there were many things he sympathized with.

The youths in their 20s watching this documentary would probably nod in agreement. This wasn’t about a specific social class, but us, the general population.

Gijeong’s voice was filled with more hope than Hyegyung.

Maru decided to change the tone here. The narrator of the documentary was not a statue. Their voice would change depending on the people appearing, and according to the scenery.

After Gijeong, who expressed that she was uneasy but still was confident to challenge new heights, was Jungtae, 29 years old. He was a man who could no longer take his hands off studying for civil service exams.

-Mr. Jungtae knows too. He knows that studying isn’t the only path forward. However, he cannot leave the Gosiwon.

Maru focused his ears on Jungtae’s voice. Someone who has given up on despairing. The man who might once have had eyes that sparkled brighter than everyone continued the interview with a face filled with resignation.

Maru pulled the chair back slightly and let out a sigh to relieve his frustration. Who could, who would dare tell that man to try harder? The inside of his mouth felt dry and disgusting like he had swallowed a handful of sand.

Synchronizing with the views of the character was just as hard as releasing all pent-up emotions.

It was very possible for Maru to narrate without any consumption of emotions. He had learned that trick a long time ago. He could pretend to be depressed, pretend to focus, pretend to sympathize. It was easy for him to disguise a pretense as real.

99 people out of 100 would not notice it. However, while it might be difficult, he didn’t want to become a ‘fake’. That sensitive one person would look into the truth behind that pretense and click their tongue. That wasn’t something he could accept. He wanted to become a perfectionist regarding work.

-He sets out for his first day of work with a heart filled with expectation. The streets he saw every day seem different today. His new suit is a little stuffy, but that’s okay. The commute is a little long, but that’s okay. His salary is quite low because he’s an intern, but that’s okay. Everything would be resolved as long as he becomes an official employee. But… is he really okay?

He let out a deep breath and pulled his head back. Just then, the sound of the video came to a complete stop. The video had stopped as well.

He turned around to look outside the booth. Producer Nam was stroking his chin. The junior producer next to him was looking inside the booth with their arms crossed.

Maru took out the earphones. Both of them looked like they had something to say.

He wanted to go to the bathroom as well, so he opened the door to the booth and left.

“What is it?” the junior producer asked.

“I was going to go to the bathroom.”

“Oh, the bathroom. Come straight back here after that. Don’t wander off elsewhere.”

Producer Nam stood up from his seat.

“Mr. Maru.”

“Yes.”

“Have you really never worked on dubbing like this before?”

“I’ve spoken into my phone by myself as practice, but this is my first time doing it in a proper environment.”

“I see, that’s how it is.”

“What is it?”

“You’re strangely good. It’s surprising.”

Of course he had to be good. He had dubbed thousands of episodes. If he couldn’t do well, would humans be animals of learning?

Maru smiled and left the dubbing room.

* * *

“Do we even need to get samples from other actors? The samples we got from professional voice actors weren’t this good.”

“Are you sure?”

“You disagree, senior?”

“Well…”

Jaehyun scratched his head. He had been won over already. As documentaries were free from capital and advertisements, the authority of using human resources was up to the producer, meaning, he could use Maru as long as he had him stamp the contract.

“Grab him while he gives you that feel. Also, you should listen to Sinhye from now on. She’s very helpful to her dad’s work.”

Jaehyun couldn’t help but laugh at his junior’s words.

After Story 116

The golf ball rolling along with the slope of the putting green eventually fell into the hole.

Junmin handed his club to the caddie and said, “I won this coffee bet.”

“You should’ve gone easier on me. You have a lot of money, but you always do your hardest whenever there’s money in a bet, so I can never win,” said the chief of the economy, putting his club between his arm and his body.

“Have you forgotten that you won the coffee bet last time?”

“Did I?”

A suitable distance ahead of the caddie, he walked the fairway with the chief of the economy.

“Seeing the weather, it seems like it truly has become spring.”

“It’s the best weather to go on rounds these days. Next time, let’s call hospital director Kang with us and play together.”

“Hospital director Kang, that fellow, isn’t that good at golf. Only someone on our level should play together, don’t you think?”

“No wonder hospital director Kang has been gnashing his teeth. You teased him too much last time. I heard he got a new set of clubs and is raring to go.”

“Then I must call him once again and put him down again.”

“Please go easy on him. Also, chief of economy, I heard that your grandson is undergoing heart surgery soon.”

The chief of economy gave Junmin a glance before laughing.

“Where did you hear something like that?”

“I have a lot of ears in many places.”

“Sounds like hospital director Kang is interested in something other than coffee bets?”

“There are many skilled doctors under him. They’ll look after your grandson with great care. I was told they brought in some good medical devices from overseas this time, so the chances of the surgery going well have become a lot higher.”

“I can’t really pretend to have not heard that when it’s you saying it, president Lee.”

“You should try approaching hospital director Kang with generosity.”

“If that fellow does well on the surgery, I’ll be indebted to him then?” The chief of economy twitched his nose.

“Hospital director Kang isn’t a greedy person. He’s someone who would be satisfied with achieving something to boast about, something along the lines of ‘I got to treat the grandson of the chief of economy because he asked me.’ If you can inflate his pride slightly, you should be able to remain good friends with him.”

“And what do you have to gain from this, president Lee?”

“Well, I… will be able to get a slight discount on my next regular health checkup.”

“That’s important too.”

The chief of economy laughed heartily and waved his hand in the air. The caddie, who was walking from some distance behind, approached and got the chief of economy’s club.

“President Lee.”

“Yes.”

“Then the coffee’s on you, right?”

“I have learned that requests and bets are separate.”

“How frugal of you. Let’s go, I’ll buy you some good coffee.”

Returning to the hotel, Junmin drank some coffee with the chief of economy.

While they were talking about personal affairs, the chief of economy picked up a call. He gave a hint to his attendant as though something came up.

“President Lee. Thank you for today. I’d love to go with you to the sauna if there’s a chance, but matters of the country are quite hectic.”

“I’m glad that you took the time to come to the field with me today.”

“Next time, come over to my house. My daughter-in-law brought some good wine when she came back to Korea this time, but it’s been collecting dust on the shelf because there’s no one to enjoy it with.”

“I’ll contact you soon. I’ll prepare the side dishes to go with it.”

“Alright, see you next time.”

After seeing the chief of economy out, Junmin returned to the hotel café. As the café only accepted VVIP members this week, it was rather empty. All the visitors were familiar faces.

Junmin waved his hand at the IT company CEO that greeted him.

“President.” Head manager Choi sat opposite him.

“I’m sure you’ve played around enough, so it’s time to check up on the current state of the actors.”

“It looks like I’m playing around to you, huh?”

“Chatting while playing golf is playing around.”

“Then you play around in my stead next time. I’ll do your work.”

Head manager Choi shook his head and gave him a file. He read down the contents of the A4 print slowly.

“These days, there are a lot of great tablet PCs, so why don’t you use one for the cool factor, president? How long are you going to keep holding papers? Let’s keep up with the trend.”

“Be trendy all you want. I like this better.”

He read the month's schedule for Yang Ganghwan and Hong Geunsoo. Both of them had a shoot for the commercial that was renewed every year. One of them promoted a bank while the other, coffee.

Ever since the two of them started the promotion of those two businesses, both of them had not changed their advertisement models for the past 7 years.

At this point, everyone would think of Hong Geunsoo when they think of Woosung Bank and Yang Ganghwan for Leo Coffee.

“You’re the type of person behind destroying precious forests. You should use a tablet to protect the environment.”

“You’re still on about that? Also, it’s not to protect the environment. It’s because you simply can’t be bothered to print it out every time.”

“You know me.”

“So let me bother you for a long time from now. I’ll talk about using a tablet when I’m past 70.”

“You’re going to keep being the CEO until then? You’re fifty-five this year, so you’ll be running for another fifteen years, huh? Then I guess I won’t have to worry about my salary for the next 15 years as well.”

Junmin asked head manager Choi, who was drinking coffee,

“Woosung Bank shouldn’t be a problem. How’s Leo Coffee these days?”

“Jinsung, the company manufacturing Leo Coffee, doesn’t have a good image these days. After the bacillus detection in their products, they ran into a dispute with a consumer while cleaning up the aftermath. The consumer requested compensation after experiencing indigestion, but the employee answering that person used bad language.”

“From the perspective of the business, they’ll have to compensate every single person if they relented, so that’s why they probably endured. But from how this became big, it mustn't just be on the level of ‘bad language’ is it?”

“It was assistant manager personnel that apparently got frustrated because a superior snapped out. The upper echelons are all angry and the consumer is angry as well, so it just exploded in the middle. This was something fixable, but an internal company notice to ignore all consumer requests was leaked.”

Junmin rested his chin on his hand and spoke, “How bad has their image become?”

“We’ll have to see their quarterly sales report to be sure, but the anti-sales movement is slowly starting, so I think they’ll fall down. Their stocks wavered yesterday too.”

“Let’s reconsider extending the contract. As for the stocks we have in Jinsung, sell some of them off according to the ex-dividend. We can’t ruin Ganghwan’s image.”

“I’ll proceed with the investment case after talking to president Kim.”

“Okay.”

Junmin had a look at the schedules of other actors as well.

“Are the preparations finished for Suyeon’s fan meetup in Japan?”

“Yes. All the preparations for the procession including getting a venue have been finished.”

“How’s Suyeon?”

“Depressed. It seems like singing and dancing is coming off as quite a bit of pressure to her.”

“I did tell her that she could do it in a talk show fashion.”

“She started it herself saying that she wanted to show the fans who show up something special, but it looks like she’s embarrassed now that she actually has to do it. Her practice is going well, but it’s unknown whether she’ll do well on stage on the day itself.”

“It shouldn’t matter even if she makes a mistake. In fact, many of her fans might want that to happen. But would she make a mistake?”

“She might look precarious right now, but she’ll probably do it perfectly once she does it. Her face changes completely when the camera starts rolling.”

Junmin nodded. After checking her major schedules, he flipped the page.

“How’s Maru?”

The last page was about Maru. After participating in a documentary as a narrator about a month ago, there was no further schedule. It was a gap that all new actors went through. They would have no work for weeks at the shortest, or even half a year at the longest.

“Before we talk about Maru, please have a look at this first.” Head manager Choi gave him a tablet PC.

Junmin put down the report and grabbed the tablet. There was a series of articles on the screen. They were talking about the founding anniversary special documentary for YBS. What was of note here was the sheer number of them.

They weren’t talking about politics or entertainment, but there were so many?

“You haven’t watched any TV for the past month, have you?”

“I didn’t have the time to. I only watched a few dramas and movies on the plane.”

As his overseas schedule was crammed in May, he spent at least ten days in an airplane. He barely managed to catch up with the news because of his busy schedule.

“First, have a look at the viewing rate of the documentary. It’s a three-part documentary, and part two has aired.”

Junmin slid his finger up the screen. He saw the viewing rate of the documentary below. The first episode, which aired two weeks ago, had a 7% viewing rate.

“7% viewing rate for an 11 p.m. documentary is pretty good. This was producer Nam Jaehyun’s work, right?”

“Yes. He received an award for the documentary he made on bees in 2006, and he single-handedly increased the viewing rate of documentaries as a whole. This is the reason I scheduled things myself without consulting you when he contacted me saying that he wanted to try working with Maru.”

Junmin scrolled a little more. He saw the viewing rate of last week’s episode. It was 15%, an outlier in terms of viewing rates. A documentary has probably never hit such a viewing rate in the history of YBS. Now he knew why the internet was overflowing with articles about the documentary.

“Just what’s it about that the response is so good?”

“It’s about young people. It talks about people who are pushed to the edge, people who walk for low wages, and the like. It handled youth unemployment rates that were only considered numbers until now in a raw fashion. It attracted people’s attention by handling an uncomfortable topic. Even the opposing party is attacking the ruling party with this documentary as the basis. It just goes to show that many people are sympathizing with it.”

“What a big one.”

“The thing is, many people are saying that Maru is the one who made the documentary big. The narration was just that good. I also planned to watch for a little bit for monitoring purposes, but I ended up watching all of it. It surprised me. I didn’t know this kid’s voice had so much power to provoke emotions.”

Head manager Choi gave him a pair of earbuds. Junmin connected the earbuds to the tablet and played back a video file. He watched the video for about ten-something minutes. The structuring of the topic was good, but the voice that went along with the video was above everything else. There was a clear distinction in his voice when he was representing the emotions of the interviewer and when he was using the voice of Han Maru. It didn’t feel forced. Even in moments when a slight change might make it feel boring, he managed to invoke interest.

“Did Maru say he had experience recording before?”

“No, he says this is his first time.”

“This is his first time?”

“Isn’t he absurdly good?”

It was just as head manager Choi said: absurd.

There was a hint of veteran experience from his techniques of loosening and tightening his voice and then lowering and heightening it. It was definitely not something he had done a couple times. Maru was recreating the most accurate voice required by the video.

He saw a man and a woman heading home with exhausted bodies. The shadow of the two people elongated under the streetlamp.

At the same time, the narration began.

-Today came to an end. Today was no different from any other day. Tomorrow, we’ll repeat what happened today. The day after tomorrow, the day after that, and perhaps even a few months later. We endure today in hopes of a different tomorrow, but what awaits us is the same today. Miss Nayoung has completed the last day of her internship today. There was no change to regular employment. Mr. Taehwan has been notified that he was fired. His last salary is 2.1 million won. The company he had commuted to for the past year has put out a new employment notice yesterday. The salary is 1.9 million won. Today is ending. How different will tomorrow be? I hope it’s different. Even if it’s a little, just a little.

The voice that dug into his ears pressed down on his heart, went through his stomach, and left through his feet.

Junmin rubbed his fingertips and took out the earbuds.

“It managed to put me in a daze, so people in their twenties must be thinking about a lot of things.”

“Tonight’s the last episode of the documentary. I think there will be quite a response from many places.”

“Maru managed to grab a great opportunity. He’s doing well by himself.”

“He’s doing so well that it’s a pity. There’s nothing we can do to support him as a company. I said I’d give him a manager, but he says he’s okay for the moment.”

“He might still feel uncomfortable with that. Does Maru have a car?”

“To my knowledge, he doesn’t.”

“Then give him one. If the broadcast industry listened to this voice properly, he’ll definitely get some work his way.”

“Speaking of that, we got a commercial under his name.”

“Really? What commercial is it?”

Head manager Choi smiled. “Throat candy. Radio-exclusive, three months for now.”

“Get a plan from them and talk to Maru about it.”

“Understood.”

Junmin gave back the tablet PC.

After Story 117

“I shouldn't have taken in a low-born. It seems you can't fool your own blood as the nature of your low birth still remains in you.”

“Not at all, mistress. That was definitely not my doing.”

“Is that the only excuse you can utter from your mouth? After I have looked after you all this time?”

“I have not stolen your hairpin, mistress. I really haven't.”

“There are children who said they saw you around midnight. Two of them! If what you say is true, it means that those two children are lying. What were you doing around midnight?”

“I brought some firewood to the heater and returned to my room. Then I went to sleep.”

“And how will you prove that?”

“That's…”

“The two children who have seen you have attested to the same thing. That is why I used this roundabout method to rebuke you. Had you shown the slightest hint of repenting, had you shown a hint of shame, even, I was planning to forgive you. However, it seems that your nature is truly that of evil.”

Senior Jung, who was rebuking her while emitting her wrath, turned around while clicking her tongue. Her acting was flawless. Acting that contained sixty years of experience turned an artificial set into a place of the Chosun era.

Director Baek looked at the actress fallen down on the ground. He could see a haggard face below the messily scattered hair. There was black soot all over her face and on her teeth were yellow food remains.

Her face had also been twisted because of facial paralysis. It was the face of a commoner who was unjustly accused.

The young actress hurriedly walked on her knees and grabbed the hems of senior Jung's skirt.

“Mistress, please spare me. I was in the wrong. Please spare my life.”

“You are admitting to your sins now?”

“Yes. I was a bad woman. It is all my fault. So please, anything but throwing me out of the house.”

Senior Jung kicked her away. The actress that was kicked fell backward. They were so in sync that it really looked like she had been kicked on the chin.

“Drag that woman out of the house.”

“Mistress!”

“And shut her mouth as well. I despise her voice.”

“Why are you doing this, mistress! For your sake, I really…”

The other minor actors started dragging the actress by the arms. The actress fell to the ground and started wailing.

“Please spare me, mistress!”

The actress hit the ground with the back of her soles and resisted. Her face was messy with tears, snot, and saliva. Even during that moment, she acted while taking into account that the left half of her face had been paralyzed. The detail in her act was surprisingly perfect.

The actress kept struggling to the point that even the male actors around her had a hard time holding her down. Only after becoming limp like she had passed out was she dragged out in the hands of others.

“I cannot believe I have had such a vile girl by my side. If it were not for you, I would have had to suffer an insult,” said senior Jung as she looked to the side.

Choi Nayeon responded to that. “I have only paid back a small amount of the grace you have shown me, mistress. Rather than that, you must be feeling unwell. A servant you have commanded for a long time has reached her hand out to her mistress' items.”

“A low-born cannot fool their blood. I had taken her in out of pity, but a dog must be thrown out if they bite its owner, no?”

“You're wholly right, mistress.”

Director Baek shouted cut after seeing Nayeon smile faintly until the very end.

He could see Nayeon's manager, who was waiting behind him, quickly rush out.

“Senior Jung. How can your acting improve so much year after year? You're even better than when you were working with me last time.”

“I don't know what to say if you keep flattering me like that.”

“I'm not flattering you. I mean it. Nayeon, you were good as well. You're good at everything, whether it's your looks, acting, or singing.”

Nayeon waved her hand in the air in denial. “Not at all, director. It's all thanks to madam's guidance. The advice she had for me was so good. I want to learn a lot from her.”

Nayeon faintly smiled and grabbed senior Jung's arm. Senior Jung patted Nayeon on the head like she was looking at her own granddaughter.

“Director Baek. Where's that girl from before?” said senior Jung.

“Who are you talking about?”

“The girl I kicked.”

“Oh, her. She doesn't have a scene anymore. That was her last bit.”

“Really? Her acting skills were extraordinary.”

Director Baek nodded. Just as she said, her acting skills were surprising considering that she was just a minor actor.

“You should watch out for her. She had good eyes. It's not that easy to put everything down and act like that. But that young girl managed to do it splendidly.”

It was rare for senior Jung to praise other actors. She usually avoided doing so entirely, and yet she chose to do so.

Director Baek looked for leader Kim while the camera was undergoing a position shift. He asked where the minor actors were waiting.

“They're waiting nearby. But why? Do you need someone now?”

“I just wanted to see someone.”

He went to the place leader Kim told him.

It was May, but the weather was pretty chilly. He looked for the actress who had just finished her shoot among the people waiting while sitting down against the rock fence.

“Hello,” he called out to the actress. She had not yet erased her makeup.

He already thought this when he first saw her face before the shoot, but the shape of her head was very pretty. Now that she had a relaxed face after putting away the frown she had to put on because of the facial paralysis, her facial features looked good as well.

No, she was a considerable beauty. Did she always look like this?

“Yes, director.”

“It's just that senior Jung, I mean, senior Jung Hyejung praised you for your acting. She usually doesn't say something like that.”

“I see she has seen me in a good light.”

The actress smiled faintly by raising the tips of her lips. It was such a clean smile that the yellow stuff stuck between her teeth didn't come to his mind. There was a hint of elegance that he couldn't find when she was resisting due to the unjust accusation.

“Or maybe she hid it with her acting.”

“Sorry?”

“Nothing, I was just talking to myself. What's your name?”

“I'm Han Haneul.”

“Have you worked on anything else before? Your skills aren't something that a minor actor should have.”

“Not many times. I just started off.”

“Really?”

She seemed like she had received regular acting lessons since young. An actress with beauty, character, and skill was always precious. Not to mention, she was young.

“Oh, you were here?”

Director Baek turned around when he heard a voice behind him. It was senior Jung who had approached.

“Were you okay before? I might have pushed a little too hard because I wanted to finish it in one go.”

“You pushed moderately so it didn't hurt at all. Look. I only got some dirt on me. I'm totally fine,” Haneul said as she slightly raised her sleeve.

“I'm glad that you're okay. You did really well before.”

“Thank you.”

“Let us meet again later if we have the opportunity.”

Senior Jung grabbed Haneul's hand once before returning to the set. If that person said such a thing directly, it meant no ordinary business…

Director Baek had a closer look at Haneul again. It was always better to know promising talents beforehand. After all, only then would he be able to cast them using his connections later when they become successful.

“For today, I have no choice since your role is over, but if I have the opportunity next time, I'd love to give you a more important role.”

“Thank you for your words alone.”

“It's not just words. You'll really see me later.”

For now, he left an impression on her.

Due to the nature of acting, it was hard to probe out everything with just a glimpse, but the scene where she passed out was on a high level.

The entertainment industry would never let a talent that protrudes above everyone else be. The people from the broadcast industry would do whatever it took to find those people and let them stand in front of a camera.

On his way back to the set after saying goodbye, he saw Nayeon running over.

“Director.”

“In a hurry? Why are you running?”

“I heard what the madam said before. I wanted to talk to that actress as well. I mean, I still lack skill. She looked like she was around my age, so I thought I might learn something if I talk to her.”

“What a good girl. You're doing well right now, but you want to do even better?”

“I'm still lacking compared to other actors. I should do my best to learn if I don't want to shame my position as a lead actress.”

“You're modest. You should turn right when you go out and you'll see her right away.”

“Thank you, director. Then I'll go talk to her.”

“Yes.”

She was an earnest girl, definitely much better than those arrogant kids who raised their heads high because they tasted success at a young age.

Her acting was also rather decent considering that it was her first time in a historical drama. Despite receiving bad gazes from around because of her title as an idol, she still did her best. He liked seeing that.

Maybe because of that, senior Jung looked after her as well. No, other actors also liked Nayeon. Who would hate her when she went out of her way to greet all of them one by one when she came?

“Those that become successful sure are different.”

Director Baek crossed his arms and walked back to the monitor.

* * *

“Hello.”

Haneul looked at Nayeon who approached with a smile, before realizing that it was directed at her and spoke,

“Yes, hello.”

“I was next to you when you were acting before. Do you remember?”

“I do. Even putting aside your acting, you're a singer I like so I knew you.”

“You know our song?”

“I do. It's always on the charts, so how could I not?”

Nayeon took a step closer and asked, “How was our song this time? I'm worried because some people are saying that it's only so-so.”

“I had fun listening to it. It's a song that makes you jerk your shoulders without knowing it.”

Nayeon's expression brightened up. Haneul smiled and thought about the reason Nayeon came over to speak to her.

Did she approach her first because she was just that sociable? Or was there some other reason?

“Come to the yard,” shouted the leader.

The minor actors resting while leaning against the walls, stood up and walked into the yard through the front gate.

“Leader, how about me?” she asked the leader who was far away.

“You can come as you are now. The director said he wants to do another take.”

“Okay!”

Her face was itchy, but she had to hold back since there was an additional shoot.

“I’m shooting some more,” Haneul said to Nayeon in front of her.

She had been staring without a word for quite a while now. She couldn’t tell whether this girl had something to say to her or not.

“Hey,” Nayeon said.

“I’m the lead actor. Please go easy. Okay?”

“What do you…”

“It looks bad, doesn’t it? Unni, oh, you look older than me, right? Anyway, unni, you’re a minor actor while I’m a lead actor. That act back there wasn’t something you should’ve put so much of your mind into, but I think you took things a little too far just because you were in front of the camera. That kind of acting is not good acting.”

“Oh, okay,” Haneul replied with a smile.

“Anyway, please take care of me, and try to read the room. In shoots, you have to do small things like that really well. I’m not blaming you for anything. I’m just telling you this for your own good. You aren’t upset, are you? I’d be upset if you are.”

Nayeon looked down and made a teary face. This girl knew how to look cute in front of others.

Haneul nodded.

“I’ll try.”

“I knew I could get through to you. Then let’s go. We can’t be late.”

Haneul looked at Nayeon who naturally hooked her arm around hers and led the way. Her cunning actions were pretty skilled.

But there was one thing she didn’t like.

“I’m twenty-three this year,” Haneul said.

“Really? You were the same age as me, huh? I thought you were an unni for sure.”

Nayeon chuckled and dragged Haneul forward by the arm.

What an interesting girl she is — Haneul smiled and walked with her.

After Story 118

“We’re going to shoot from where you get kicked to where you get dragged out. Please just do it like before.”

The director didn’t give her any further instructions and returned to the monitor.

Haneul sat down under the roof after neatening her clothes. Jung Hyejung spoke from on top of the staircase,

“I will push you not so hard this time.”

“Please do it just like before. It really didn’t hurt at all. I think I can only do better if you do it like that.”

“Really? Then I’ll kick just a little harder than last time as a form of encouragement.” Hyejung pulled up her skirt and pretended to kick.

Haneul put on a smile when she saw the mischievous act. This senior was really kind, not ignoring the words of a minor actor.

“She was really good before. I was intimidated even though I was only watching from the side,” Nayeon said, stuck right next to Hyejung.

“Nayeon, you’re doing well too. It’s okay if you learn step by step, so you don’t need to feel hurried.”

“Thank you, ma’am. I really wouldn’t have been able to shoot this drama if it weren’t for you. So you have to keep looking after me, okay?”

“Okay, okay. I don’t have any power, but if there’s someone who says something bad to you, I’ll glare at that person from the side, okay?”

The two of them shared a warm conversation. Haneul lowered her head and giggled by herself. Nayeon’s actions were all cute. They could even be called deviously cute. She looked like a little girl trying to desperately cling to what she was holding in her hand. She would hide her devious tail in front of an elder and bare her fangs when up against someone she deemed ‘doable’. Even then, she stayed behind a line, never doing something that might come back to harm her later.

She could tell this much from the conversation they had earlier. She sneakily leaked what she wanted to happen and tried to pick Haneul’s nerve in a roundabout way. She was definitely well-educated in this regard.

The entertainment industry was no easy place, so she probably had to learn how to use her words to get out of difficult situations if she didn’t want adults to boss her around.

“Unni, please take good care of me.”

Nayeon raised her fist in front of her face and shouted ‘fighting’. Haneul smiled and nodded.

She was fine with everything else, whether it be acting cute in front of Hyejung to score points with her or giving that threat-like request so that her own skills wouldn’t be compared to that of a minor actor.

But unni? Unforgivable.

She had reached this place after going against all sorts of trials. Honestly, she had the confidence not to bat an eyelid even if someone died right in front of her eyes.

Thousands of times had she witnessed the death of her husband right in front of her eyes. And it was probably a dozen times more than that where she felt the despair of a life she could not save seeping away through her fingers.

The reason her mind, which should have been devastated to oblivion, was intact was either a result of her mentality becoming stronger than a diamond or that it was the last gift from god.

As such, it didn’t make sense that she was pissed while looking at the cute actions of a little girl who just turned twenty-three this year.

That’s supposed to be the case, but still, unni? Unforgivable.

Other people might say that she was childish for acting like that, but so what? She would rather listen to a barrage of insults to her face than listen to that sneaky ‘unni’.

No, that wasn’t right. Wasn’t twenty-three an age where she could be childish? Just like Nayeon in front of her, that is.

If she was going to live a life of enlightenment, away from worldly desires and the pleasures of the five senses, she would have either become a monk or just kept meditating at home.

However, she — as well as her husband — did not choose to live a life like that. They wanted a life so ordinary, nay, maybe a little special.

That was why they became actors. They chose to live a life true to their desires and were deeply engrossed in their greed.

If necessary, they would gladly endure everything, but if not, then they would vent it out, in a way that wouldn’t leave behind problems.

“We’re starting!”

She got into emotion after hearing the voice of the assistant director. She made eye contact with Nayeon, who was looking down at her from above the staircase.

She winked at her. At first, Nayeon made a confused expression before smiling. She also smiled back. She was told to do things moderately, so ‘moderately’ it would be.

“Action!”

Haneul flung herself backward after being hit by the foot that came right at her. She let the ground hold her body. Her elbows felt numb. It was pain that helped her set her emotions right.

If she brought the frustration from the unjust accusation to her chest level during the master shot, this time, she struggled to the point her vocal cords were overexerting.

Her eyes flipped and her body became cold as though all the blood had left her. The hem of the skirt in front of her was her only chance at survival. Should she miss this opportunity, she would be abandoned to wander in the wintry lands without anything on her.

She stomped her way forward on her knees. Her lips were trembling, and her fingers moved by themselves as though each joint had snapped.

She barely managed to put strength into her hands and grabbed the skirt. No, she hugged it.

“Mistress, please spare me. I was wrong. I was the bad woman.”

“Only now you confess your sins?”

“Yes, mistress. It is all my fault. So please, please spare me this once.”

She couldn’t hold back the shaking of her jaws. As a servant, being abandoned by the master meant death. She didn’t want to die. She had never stolen the hairpin, nor had she even looked at one, but she had to live first.

The foreboding sense of despair made her retch. She barely held it down and looked at her mistress. The mistress, who was looking down at her hand that was grabbing the skirt, clicked her tongue. That sounded like a thunderclap to her.

She started crying against her will. She grabbed onto the hem desperately and fell to the ground.

Two servants came over and grabbed her arms.

“Mistress, it wasn’t me. It wasn’t me!”

She twisted her body in resistance. She used her fingers to scratch the ground. She felt her fingernail crack at the tip, but it didn’t matter. If she couldn’t make it through this, she would be dead anyway. If she could buy empathy, a few fingernails was a cheap price to pay.

However, the mistress’ eyes had turned cold. There was no room for any empathy in her eyes. She cut off their relationship cleanly, just like a cook chopping off the head of a fish.

The moment she saw those eyes, her frustration turned to hatred.

There was no hope for survival, so only curses remained.

She struggled and screamed. She wanted to utter insults, but the sliver of reason she left within herself whispered to her that there was no swearing in the script.

The chilled body became hot as though she had a fever. She wrapped her arms around a pillar in the room before being dragged out the doors.

“Wow, you’re strong, young lady. You almost dragged me away instead.”

As soon as they left the frame of the camera, a minor actor playing the servant grumbled. The other minor actor also gasped.

The wrist she gripped onto had turned blue.

“Gee, you’re one tough lady. Look at this, isn’t this a bruise?”

Haneul neatened her messy clothes.

“I’m so sorry. I can only be satisfied if I do things properly when I need to. Did it hurt a lot?”

The two actors chimed in,

“Do it properly twice and I won’t have an arm left. Also, I thought you were really going to die. I was even wondering if you were sick somewhere.”

“Your acting is pretty ghastly alright. It’s not like you get paid more even if you do that, so let’s take things easy next time. Well, you are really good, but please take us into account next time.”

Haneul smiled and apologized again. The two minor actors also laughed it off.

“Nobody would’ve said anything even if you did it just like before. Why the sudden change in effort?” one of them asked.

Haneul stroked up the hair that covered her eyes.

“Someone told me to do things moderately. So I did just that.”

Just then, a ‘cut’ could be heard inside the gates. She peeked inside to have a look at the situation. The actors were putting on their jackets and gathering in front of the monitor.

She made eye contact with Nayeon, who was walking towards the gates.

She waved her hand in the air and smiled brightly. Nayeon, who was watching her, twitched her mouth before turning around.

“What are you doing?” asked an actor next to her.

“I tried acting like a child. Acting immature is the best.”

Haneul chuckled while covering her mouth before coughing awkwardly to stop.

“Let’s wrap things up and go to the next part. Hurry up.”

It seemed that the shoot at the master house was done. The leader gathered all the minor actors in one spot.

“Good work today, everyone. Everyone other than the four men here can go home now. Returning the costumes is part of the work, so please put your mind to it. If there’s a problem with the clothing, tell the staff about it, if you don’t want to get contacted later about it. Especially over there.”

The leader pointed out Haneul specifically.

“If there’s a rip in the clothes, say it properly when you return it, okay?”

“Yes,” Haneul responded before looking at her clothes and skirt. There was some dirt on it, but no tears.

“Let’s finish up then. Everyone can go home unless you still haven’t written the journal yet.”

Haneul took out the pin that fixed her wig in place and took off the wig. When she placed her hand on the top of her head, she found it hot like a heater. Her body would probably turn cold in no time if she let things be.

She quickly ran to the bathroom. She changed her clothes and folded the traditional attire costume and put it between her arm and her body.

She came across Nayeon in front of the bathroom. Nayeon, wearing a black padded coat, came over in large strides.

“Unni! What was that for? You went too far.”

“Me? What did I do?”

“I told you that you can’t be acting like that. You really don’t know how dramas work. Look, no matter how much effort you put in, the one on camera is me. People watch the drama to watch me, not a minor actor like you, right?”

“Maybe.”

“So I told you to take hints, yet why did you do that? You were putting in even more effort than before.”

“More effort? No. I took things moderately. I’m not bleeding, I’m not hurt anywhere, and I don’t even have any bruises on me. I really took things safely so don’t worry.”

“Do you think I’m worried about you, unni? You really can’t read between the lines.”

“I’m actually quite good at it though. How strange.”

Nayeon sucked her lips inward and frowned. It seemed that she heard something from the director, or maybe nothing at all.

Perhaps he might have said that the minor actor was really good at acting, in response to which, Nayeon would have no choice but to agree.

She couldn’t help but chuckle when she imagined such a scene.

“UnnI! Are you laughing?”

“It’s funny though.”

Haha — she grabbed Nayeon’s shoulder and laughed. Nayeon’s nostrils became several times larger than normal. She snorted and looked around before putting her face up close.

“Unni, I’m the main character, okay?”

“Who told you otherwise? You are the main character alright. I won’t be appearing anymore from now on. So don’t act like a child and try your best. Well, I guess I acted like a child too.”

“Funny. Unni, you know you’re funny, right?”

Nayeon narrowed her eyes in a glare and frowned. At that time, Haneul found Jung Hyejung walking over to the bathroom.

“Miss Nayeon.”

“What is it? What!”

“Madam Jung is coming. Quickly act like you’re close to me.”

“Unni, I won’t fall for such a crude lie, you know?”

Hyejung was now right behind Nayeon. Haneul put on a warm smile and hooked arms with Nayeon.

Then she spoke,

“Don’t praise me too much. You’re much better than me, Miss Nayeon. But hey, you have a great personality. Celebrities are kinda hard to approach, but you are not like that. Oh, madam Jung.”

Haneul pulled Nayeon backward. Nayeon, who found Hyejung standing behind her, stiffened up before producing a cheerful voice.

“Madam.”

“What were you two doing?”

“I was just trying to learn acting from unni, so I rushed over.”

“How earnest of you. That’s right, that’s how you learn acting. Please understand Nayeon even if she bothers you. She’s just really passionate about acting.”

Haneul nodded. Hyejung walked past them and disappeared. Nayeon, who had her arm grabbed, spoke in a small voice,

“Why did you help me?”

“Then was I supposed to let her see you snapping out at me?”

“No! I don’t have that kind of image.”

“Exactly, that’s why I told you about it so that you can keep up that image.”

Haneul undid the lock on Nayeon’s arm.

“Go on then. I’m going to go home now. Good work today.”

She glanced at Nayeon, who was standing in a daze, before turning around.

After Story 119

“What’s up with you?” Nayeon followed her.

Haneul did not stop walking.

“I said, what’s up with you?”

Nayeon eventually blocked her path.

“Is there a problem? I need to hand this in and go home. You should get the rest of your shoot done too,” Haneul said, waving the costume in the air.

“I still have time, you know?”

“Really? I’m sorry, but I don’t have the time.” Haneul took out her phone. “It ended earlier than I expected, so I’m going to go home and have dinner.”

She was about to walk past Nayeon, but Nayeon blocked her way. She lifted her lips upward to show her dissatisfaction.

“Why are you putting on a good girl pretense?”

“Because I’m not one, so I should at least put up a pretense. But what’s the problem with that? Things should be okay for you since you didn’t look bad in front of the madam, shouldn't it?”

“Like I said, why are you putting on a good girl pretense, unni?”

“Then should I go up to her and say that Miss Nayeon is actually narrow-minded and can only flatter others?”

“No!”

Nayeon peeked her head up high and looked around. She looked like a pretty meerkat watching its surroundings.

Haneul quickly walked past her while Nayeon was caught up in looking around. She had no time to quarrel with a kid full of strange pride. She was going to go home, have a hot shower, and have a late-night meal with her husband.

She already decided on the menu as well: some tongue-numbing spicy pig feet.

She handed her costume to the staff member loitering around in front of the costume vehicle. She saw Nayeon, who followed her out, see the staff and stop just as she was about to speak.

“Miss Nayeon, good work today.” She waved her hand in front of the staff.

Nayeon smiled blankly and said goodbye. She wouldn’t be able to throw a tantrum in front of other people.

“Sweetie, where are you right now? I just finished work so I was planning to go to your house.”

-Where did you say the shoot was?

“The traditional village.”

-Then go wait in a nearby café. I’ll go pick you up.

“Aren’t you using your car too much just because your company provided it for you?”

-They’re paying for the expenses, so I might as well get the base use out of it. Let’s go shopping for some groceries while we’re out.

“I was planning on getting some pig feet, some spicy ones.”

-Then let’s buy a mini pig foot set at the restaurant across from the grocery store. Along with some buckwheat noodles.

“That sounds salivating. I ate lunch, but it got digested real quick so I’m really hungry right now.”

-I’ll be right there.

When she stretched her arms out after getting off the phone call, she saw a shadow poke out in front of her. She looked back, thinking there was just no way. She saw Nayeon gasping.

“You’re persistent.”

“What was that?”

“Are you going to keep following me? Don’t you have a shoot?”

“You don’t need to worry about me, you know? My scene got delayed, so I have plenty of time.”

“Then go get some rest in your van or something. When else would you get rest? It must be hard as it is since it’s a historical drama.”

Nayeon lifted up her skirt slightly and strode forward.

“I can’t let things slide after getting looked down on. But you, unni, looked down on me, twice.”

“Why fuss over a nobody like me? I’m nothing to you, am I?”

“Exactly! You’re nothing. So why is someone like you trying to educate me and look down on me? Do you find me ridiculous? Do I look like a pushover?”

She was a child who would charge forward like a bull if steam got to her head. It seemed that helping her look good in front of Jung Hyejung before provoked Nayeon’s pride instead.

“I didn’t look down on you, and I don’t think you’re a pushover. Is that enough for you?”

“What?”

“I don’t look down on you at all, Miss Nayeon. This is our first meeting today, but I was actually thinking that you were a good person since I could see that you liked acting and were trying your best to improve. Though, I don’t like how you call me unni just a little tiny bit. We’re the same age after all.”

“Even if we’re the same age, you look much older than me, you know?”

“You see, I apparently last until 40 with this face. It’s not really an old-looking face but a mature one, so I’m good. Also…” Haneul approached Nayeon.

Nayeon stepped backward, startled because Haneul took a step towards her for the first time.

“I’m a little prettier.”

“What was that? Gosh, you’re a funny woman. I’m cuter and prettier, you know?”

“I don’t want to fight over who’s prettier like a child, but objectively speaking, I think I’m about three times better.”

“Th-three times? You really can blab on, huh? What’s so bad about me? How am I lacking in any way compared to you?”

Nayeon twitched her mouth before taking out her phone. Wondering what she was up to, Haneul just kept watching.

“Let’s take a photo together. I’ll show you what being objective really means.”

“Do you really need to go that far?”

“You don’t want to? Honestly, you’re feeling bad about what you said, aren’t you? I look better than you.”

Haneul tiptoed a few times while wondering what to do before standing in front of Nayeon. She had to wait until Maru arrived anyway. Playing around with this tomboy should be better than reading a book at a café. This girl was also rather interesting since she responded to everything she said.

“W-wait a second.”

She was waiting with her face up close to Nayeon’s, just like how she would take a picture with a friend while traveling.

Nayeon pouted before getting away.

“What is it? You said we should take a picture together.”

“I think my camera isn't working right because it’s dark here. Let’s go under the streetlamp over there.”

They moved places. They were next to a bench where the light from the streetlamp was falling straight down.

As they were outside the boundary of the shooting area, some of the passersby recognized Nayeon and approached. Nayeon put on a gentle smile and greeted them.

“Being an idol must be tough. You can’t snap out easily.”

“Be quiet. And smile. We need to look like we’re close.”

“What are you planning to do if I make rumors about you in other places?”

“Do you think there are just one or two such rumors? I’ve been insulted at least a hundred times because of something I didn’t even do. 101 times won’t make a difference. Also, I’d be less frustrated if it was actually because I got annoyed at someone.”

“So you do know that you’re being annoying to me.” Haneul smiled.

Nayeon narrowed her eyes and looked at her.

Haneul smiled. “Smile. People are looking.”

Nayeon quickly fixed her expression. She was an obedient girl for sure.

“Let’s shoot quickly before people flock over.”

“I can’t shoot because you keep pulling your head backward.”

“Me? I’ve been staying still the whole time. Give it to me. I’ll take the photo.”

“No. I’m going to take it.”

Nayeon pulled her head backward. She seemed to have realized that their head sizes differed by quite a bit now that they were up close. Nayeon rolled her eyes from side to side before eventually taking the photo. She heard a few shutter noises.

“Let’s have a look.”

“Wait a sec. I’m going to look at them first.”

Nayeon turned around and checked her phone. Meanwhile, even more people came over. The people who were holding back when there weren’t that many people started getting closer as well. It felt like there was going to be an accident at this rate.

“Was the angle off?” Nayeon muttered as she looked at her phone, not realizing that she was about to get run over by a crowd.

Haneul grabbed Nayeon’s arm and pulled her. Nayeon, who got pulled, saw what was happening and sped up.

“I’m sorry! I have a shoot right now! See you later! Love you all!”

Even then, she did not forget to offer her fans some service. After taking her to a place devoid of people, she reached her hand out. Since they were here, she wanted to check the photo at least.

“Let’s have a look at the photo. I have to see how good it is.”

“It wasn’t taken properly because my hands were shaky.”

“It looked good at a glance though.”

“Why are you so doubtful? If I say it wasn’t good, then it wasn’t good.”

“I won’t doubt you so show it to me. I also want to see a photo I shot with a celebrity.”

She held her hand out. Nayeon, who was resisting, eventually gave in and handed over the phone.

Haneul had a look at the photo on the screen. It was taken clearly, though, it looked rather faint because it was a low-light photo.

“How is it? You saw it for yourself.”

“It’s just as you see.”

“My impression isn’t important. How is it in your eyes, Miss Nayeon? Do you think you look better?”

“Are you trying to tease me?”

“You just found out? I thought you were quick-witted, but I must have been mistaken.”

Haneul had a look at the rest of the photos as well. Whether she looked at it with the eyes of an advertiser, director, or creator, she looked much better than Nayeon. It was an objective assessment.

“I’ll delete it then.”

“What?”

“I said I’ll delete it. You don’t like this photo, so I’ll erase it. Or should I leave one behind for you? For the kind-hearted actress who took good care of a minor actor.”

She erased the photos before handing the phone back to Nayeon.

“Also, you’ll get in big trouble if you give your phone to other people like this. What are you going to do if I saw a private photo or something?”

“I’m not foolish enough to leave behind stuff like that.”

“Really? Then that’s fine.”

Haneul looked at Nayeon putting on a dissatisfied expression. “Were you upset?”

“Who would be upset because of something like this? I’m not a kid.”

“Then that’s fine.”

Haneul saw lights for the shoot being turned on in the distance. She looked at them for a moment before turning around to Nayeon.

“Good luck on the shoot. I’ll watch the drama, so do your best. If you were upset because I acted like a child today, then just forget about it. I just had too much fun quarreling with an actor of my age after a long time. Don’t think too badly of me.”

She waved her hand at Nayeon and turned around. She took about ten steps when she heard running behind her.

Nayeon stood next to her, her face full of dissatisfaction and her arms crossed.

“What is it?”

“Just look at the camera. I’m gonna shoot.”

She suddenly started using informal speech. Nayeon glanced at her before continuing,

“You said we were the same age. Is it strange that I dropped the formal speech?”

She really was a reckless bull. A bull who acted like a deceitful fox, huh?

Haneul smiled and looked at the camera. She heard the shutter noise just once.

“Name.”

“What?”

“What’s your name?”

“Han Haneul.”

“That’s a stage name, right?”

“No.”

“Well, your name’s pretty. I’m better in appearance though.”

Nayeon moved her hand around busily just like her grumbling mouth. Haneul got slightly closer and looked at Nayeon’s phone. It was Instagram which celebrities started using about two months ago. The post was simple.

“I met Haneul at a shoot today. She’s so pretty, isn’t she? We’re going to do our best to become good actresses. Let’s do our best today… You really can make up quite a bit on the spot.”

“Tell me honestly, don’t you feel good? I’m uploading a photo of you like this, and I’m acting like we’re close.”

Haneul tilted her head. “Well, I’m not really sure.”

She put her hands in her pocket and started walking. They had chatted for quite a bit now. Maru should be arriving soon.

“Hey!”

She thought it was over, but no. Nayeon chased her again.

“Aren’t you going?”

“I’m going to go. Before that, tell me your messenger ID.”

“Mine? Why?”

“I’ll send you the photo.”

“I don’t need it.”

“Why don’t you need it?! Anyway, give it to me. An opportunity like this doesn’t come often.”

“I said I’m okay though.”

“Just give it to me!”

Nayeon grabbed her sleeve and shook it. Haneul didn’t expect this to happen, so she was rather taken aback. She thought that Nayeon would bother her to no end if she didn’t give it to her, so she told her the ID.

“When are you coming again?” Nayeon asked.

Haneul straightened her crumpled sleeves. “I’m a minor actor so I won’t be coming.”

“Why?”

“Because I’m a minor actor.”

Just then, she got a call. It was from her husband. Haneul picked up the call as she turned around.

“Yeah. I’m just leaving now. See you in front of the parking lot.”

She checked up on Nayeon on her way. Nayeon, who was looking at her in a daze, pointed at her own face.

“Honestly, I’m a little prettier, you know? Keep that in mind!”

She was a funny girl until the end.

-Something up? You sound strangely pleased.

“I’ll tell you later. Kids these days are so funny.”

She stifled her giggle as she headed to the parking lot.

After Story 120

“Where have you been?”

“Just on a phone call. Oppa, I’m going to get some sleep so stay quiet.”

“Alright. You still have some scenes left to shoot, so get some shut-eye. I’m going to get some food, so call me if something happens. Don’t forget to use a blanket.”

“Okay.”

The manager left. Nayeon leaned the chair backward and closed her eyes. She stayed like that for about five minutes before sitting back up.

“She’s not reading it?”

Haneul was not reading the messenger. She had the urge to call, but she couldn’t do so because of her pride. She rolled around on the spot for a while before leaving the car in frustration. It had been a really long time since she quarreled with someone of her age. As she had been living in the entertainment industry since young, she barely had anyone she could consider a friend of her age. Not a single one of them was someone she could quarrel with.

The only person she could speak her heart to at this set was a younger girl she had befriended only recently. Though, she was on the taking care side, not being taken care of, and had to be rather calm when speaking.

Maybe because of that, she found Haneul interesting for not finding her difficult and instead even acting so bold in front of her. Haneul was annoying, but not hateful.

Above all, she didn’t put up pretenses. Nayeon found herself putting aside the mask of an idol and talking to Haneul. There was a small incident as well.

Haneul helped her out like a close friend, who would take care of her in times of need even after quarreling. It was strange, but looking at her reminded Nayeon of her mother. A friend reliable like a mother.

Although they started off on a bad note, she wanted to become friends with Haneul. However, she couldn’t remember how friendships began. All she had was when she was young, before she became a trainee at an idol agency, when she befriended someone after quarreling and giving her candy to make up.

That was why Nayeon asked for Haneul’s messenger ID. They would eventually become close if they talk to each other. Not only that, Nayeon was an idol. While Haneul acted totally calm on the outside, would she really have zero interest in an idol? Nayeon thought that she’d soon get a reply if she sent a message first.

“What a petty girl.”

There was still no reply. A celebrity reached out to her first, and she was just ignoring it?

Had she known that this would happen, Nayeon would have told Haneul honestly that they might become good quarreling friends. She started regretting asking when Haneul would come to the shoot again just because of her awkwardness and embarrassment.

“Well, even I wouldn’t reply. I would’ve blocked the ID first thing, thinking that I stepped on poop.”

She walked as she muttered to herself. She felt like she wasn’t like this when she was young, so when did she start to have a terrible personality? She felt like she had given up on a few things for the sake of success, and maybe her nature was one of them?

Nayeon, who was walking with a smile, stopped. Someone she knew was walking over from the other side.

“Nayeon-unni.”

“Dawoon, you’re here?”

Nayeon opened her arms wide and hugged Dawoon tight before shaking her left and right.

“You had a shoot today?”

“My schedule changed. Are you done with yours?”

“I would’ve gone home if it was, right?”

Dawoon was a girl she got to know at the shoot. This younger girl was affectionate and docile, so they got close quickly. She was also the only girl she could talk about private matters with at the shoot.

“When does your shoot start?”

“I don’t know yet. I’m waiting for now.”

“What time were you called for?”

“I was called for eight.”

“That’s an hour ago. You should’ve called me.”

“I didn’t because I might have distracted you during your shoot.”

“Call me next time. It’s boring to wait by yourself. Let’s go to the car first. Isn’t it cold?”

She returned to the van with Dawoon.

“Can I stay here?”

“Of course. The company loaned it out to me for my use. Here, drink some of this.”

She offered Dawoon some yuja tea that her manager bought. Dawoon sipped on the tea.

“It’s the first time I got in a car like this.”

“I’m sure you’ll ride something like this in no time. Your agency will be providing you with all sorts of support.”

“I’m still far from being on that level. I only signed the contract recently too.”

“Don’t feel so down. You’re good at acting. The director praised you too.”

“Isn’t that just out of formality?”

“Your only downside is that you lack confidence. Learn from me. Have you ever seen me dejected?”

“No.”

“That’s what’s most important. I once got all depressed due to worrying just like you, but it doesn’t help at all. In fact, it’s better to look arrogant instead. That way people don’t look down on you.”

Dawoon put down the bottle in her hand on her thigh.

“You’re really amazing, unni. You’re my role model.”

“That’s putting me up too high.”

“I mean it. There’s no one like you around me. Especially not someone who gives me good advice like that.”

Dawoon’s gaze was on the floor. Her expression looked pitiful.

Nayeon stroked Dawoon’s bangs and neatened them.

“Did that bad bitch say something again?”

“No. We’re getting along well recently.”

“Geez, you’re too kind for your own good. If it was me, I would have grabbed that bitch’s hair already.”

She felt angry just thinking about it. This was something she had heard after getting close to Dawoon. It was about her first love. She was expecting some sweet and ticklish love story, but anger was getting to her head after she listened to everything.

“It’s ridiculous no matter how I think about it. You consulted someone about your first love, but that girl played with your heart instead.”

“Unni. I’m really okay now. She said it was a misunderstanding too.”

“Like hell it’s a misunderstanding. She definitely did that on purpose to get one up on you. Or it’s like this: that bitch must like the man you like as well.”

“Unni.”

Dawoon grabbed her hand.

“Don’t be like that too much. I don’t want you to feel upset for me. Also, we’re really doing well now. Oh, I told you last time, right? We met up with Jichan-oppa and had some food together.”

“And that bitch was there too?”

“Stop calling her bitch. You’ll fall into a habit if you keep using it.”

This girl was too kind for her own good. Nayeon hugged Dawoon and patted her.

If it was Nayeon herself whose first love was toyed with by an unni close to her, she would have flipped her eyes over and duke things out with her.

“Yeah. Bad bitches are bound to get what they deserve one day, so I’ll stop. Rather than that, did Jichan-oppa look after you?”

“Yes. I found out that he’s a good person as soon as I met him.”

“That oppa’s a good person. Though, he does have the tendency to forget about those around him if he gets too focused on what he’s doing.”

Nayeon told her to wait before taking out her phone. She then called Jichan.

“Oppa, it’s me, Nayeon.”

-What’s up? You’re calling me at this hour.

“Dawoon’s next to me. We were talking about you, so I called you.”

-Really?

“I was just calling to tell you to look after Dawoon well. She’s too kind for her own good, so I’m worried that she might get betrayed by people around her.”

-When did you two become so close?

“I think it’s been about a month and a half? She struck a chord with me so I just made her my little sister. Anyway, oppa. Whenever you hold that chicken feet meeting or whatever, please look after Dawoon. And also.”

Nayeon was about to tell him to watch out for the bad bitch named ‘Choi Seungah’ before deciding not to after seeing Dawoon shake her head.

-And?

“I want to participate as well.”

-In our meeting?

“You said it’s an actor’s meeting. I’m an actress too, so I’m qualified, aren’t I?”

-I don’t really mind, but I’m not the chairman.

“Then who is it?”

-There’s a girl named Seungah. She’s the first chairman.

“She’s the chairman?”

-Your voice turned thorny all of a sudden. Did something happen?

“No, nothing. Anyway, I’m going to be there at the next meeting, so keep that in mind.”

-Don’t tell me about it. Ask Dawoon. She’s close to Seungah.

“Close? They’re close?”

She was about to rebuke this dumb oppa before stopping. Dawoon might be in a fix after all. She said she understood before hanging up.

“You want to join too?”

“Why? You don’t want me to?”

Dawoon brightened up.

“No, I’d love to have you. But unni. You aren’t planning to tell something to Seungah-unni, are you?”

“If it weren’t for you, I would’ve done so a hundred times. But I’m not going to since that might put you in a difficult spot. I just want to hang around. Jichan-oppa is a decent person, and you’re good too. Oh right, you said there was one more person, wasn’t there?”

“Yes. There is.”

Dawoon smiled in embarrassment as soon as she said that.

“Who is it to make you smile like that? A man?”

“Yes.”

“Don’t tell me it’s your first love?”

Dawoon slowly nodded.

“That’s good. This time, this unni will help you for sure. I’m different from that girl named Choi Seungah. I’m not a bad bitch who toys with the love of my little sister, so don’t worry.”

“No, don’t do that.”

“Why? Since he’s hanging around with you all, doesn’t that mean he has feelings for you too?”

“For now, we decided to be just close friends. Above all, that oppa has a girlfriend already.”

Dawoon immediately became dejected. Really, she was a girl who would easily be at the whim of others. She was so pitiful that Nayeon wanted to help her more.

“Just because he’s dating someone doesn’t mean that he’ll marry that person, does it? It’s not a sin to like someone. At our age, people date and break up all the time. Well, I guess you can’t appeal directly to him since he’s dating someone.”

“That’s why I’m staying quiet without showing it. I’m sure I’ll get my opportunity someday.”

“You’re really pure at heart, huh? Why don’t I introduce you to a man instead? It’s important to meet many men too, you know?”

“No. I don’t want to meet someone else for now. I’m going to work my hardest for the time being.”

“Such a good girl. If that man has any eyes, he’ll definitely show interest in you. If he breaks up, he’ll probably approach you first, you know?”

“Really?”

“Of course. How could a man leave a cute and kind girl like you be? If things don’t work out, then just steal him away. You are supposed to obtain what you like. Of course, you have to do it fair and square.”

Nayeon gestured to Dawoon. She took out her phone, sitting shoulder to shoulder.

“Let’s take a photo together. I’ll upload it on Instagram.”

“Can I upload it as well?”

“Of course. Say that I’m an unni you lovve, with two vs for emphasis.”

“Okay.”

They took photos together and uploaded them on Instagram. Then, she looked at the photo she took with Haneul a while ago. There were some comments already.

“Unni, who… is this person?” Dawoon asked as she showed her phone. It was the photo she took with Haneul.

“A minor actor I met today. She has a fiery personality.”

“How was she?”

“What do you mean?”

“I meant this Han Haneul person. You know, things like her personality or actions.”

“Why do you want to know that?”

“Nothing. Seeing you smile so brightly made me wonder if she’s a decent person.”

Nayeon thought about the conversation she had with Haneul.

“I think she has just as much pride as me. I quite liked that about her though. At first, I thought she’d act overly kind or avoid me like other people, but she even got into a quarrel with me. It was fun. Did I tell you? I actually don’t have a lot of friends.”

“Do you want to befriend this person?”

“Yeah. I think it’s going to be somewhat interesting.”

She looked at Dawoon’s face as she said so. The girl who always had a docile smile was looking at the photo with indifference. Her eyes were frosty even, so it made Nayeon surprised. Rage? Jealousy? Envy? Emotions of that sort seemed to be mixed in her expression.

“Dawoon?”

At that moment, Dawoon started coughing loudly. She kept coughing dryly and it made Nayeon worried.

Nayeon got some tissues.

“I’m sorry. I suddenly felt cold.”

“You should watch out. I got sick a few times like that.”

It seemed that the expression she had just now was from her body condition. Nayeon turned the heater up to high in the car.

“My little sister. You can’t catch a cold.”

“It’s okay. I’m sturdy.”

“Right, you should be.”

She pulled Dawoon’s shoulders close and patted her.

Looking back, it was quite curious. She never knew she’d become so close to a girl she had only known for less than two months.

Now that she thought about it, Dawoon had some similarities to Haneul, whom she had seen for the first time today. Maybe she came to like Haneul because Haneul felt similar to Dawoon? The two of them were definitely different up close, but the vibe they get off felt strangely similar.

“Unni, let’s eat together next time, at the meeting.”

“Yeah. You ask that bitch, I mean, Seungah about it. I’ll join even if she says no though.”

“She’ll probably give the okay.”

“Then that’s fine.”

Nayeon smiled. Both the air and her heart felt warm. She started feeling drowsy.

Just as her eyes fully closed, she had this thought — did she tell Dawoon that Haneul’s surname was Han?

It wasn’t anything important, so she forgot about it. Right now, she had to get some rest.

“You should get some rest as well.”

The last thing she saw before fully closing her eyes was Dawoon, who intently stared into the phone.

After Story 121

-Experience your own little forest in the city. With our all-new mint, the refreshing effect is…

Maru spoke as he handed a stick of mixed coffee to Haneul, “How long are you going to keep listening to that?”

“I only heard it five times now,” she replied as she received the coffee. After the throat candy ad was finished, she moved her finger again. The ad started again from the beginning.

“What’s your motive for recording it and saving it on your phone?”

“It’s nothing worth a motive. I just saved it to commemorate my husband’s first commercial. You’re insensitive to things like this, sweetie, so you just forget about it after you shoot it. I should collect them one by one so that I can go through them with Gaeul in the future like going through an album.”

“I can already picture it. Our daughter asking ‘what is this, daddy?’ with her eyes all sparkly.”

He sat down next to Haneul. The boxes piled next to the sofa entered his eyes. They were boxes of throat candy that the manufacturer sent him. He had already handed out a lot to the people around him, yet there were still that many left.

“Is the historical drama you shot airing this weekend?”

“I think so? I’m not sure. I’m only a minor character.”

“The president of your agency doesn’t seem to work that much, huh? A good actress is fooling around doing nothing, but they’re not getting work for you.”

“He’s doing his best in his own way. If he called a new actress directly to tell me that I shouldn’t be hasty, then, I guess you can call that looking out for me. As for work, it’s bound to come, so there’s no reason for me to worry.”

“You sound full of confidence.”

“I’m Han Haneul, you know,” she said with a smile before leaning over.

“If it was before, I would be totally uneasy. My time as a youth is passing, but I’m not getting any opportunity to gain experience. But now, things are different. I’m relaxed because I don’t have any worries about my livelihood. I think it was a good decision to jump into the aroma oil business even now.”

He asked as he drank some coffee, “How’s Miss Yeonjoo doing? Has she been having a hard time ever since you stopped working?”

“She was having a hard time when I handed over the modeling work, but she got used to that now. I’m helping her out when it comes to meeting other businesses, so there’s no problem there either. As for the president and his wife, they were already running their business even without me, so there was no need for me to interfere once they got used to the work.”

“I’m glad that your partners are good people.”

“Right. If I didn’t meet the president and if my relationship with Yeonjoo had gone bad, things would’ve been a lot harder. Of course, I would still have made it successful anyway.”

“Of course, of course. It’s you on the job after all.” He tapped on Haneul’s cheek. “How are things going with the film?”

A few months ago, Haneul had been offered a place in a movie. It seemed that one of the director judges of the Short Film Festival took Haneul in a good light. He had heard that it was a ‘strong espionage movie’ with a female lead character.

“I haven’t heard anything yet. They shouldn’t be feeling that adventurous since it’s a commercial movie after all. Even if the director wants to, if the investors come up with a replacement, she wouldn’t be able to be stubborn about using me, you know?”

“If I was in charge of investment, I would never miss the opportunity to use Han Haneul. Not only that, the guarantee is exceedingly cheap, isn’t it? If they miss this opportunity, they should doubt their qualifications as an investor.”

Haneul, who had a smile on her face, winked.

“Sweetie, did you do something bad?”

“Me? What?”

“I just have this sense of déjà vu. Whenever you praised me like that, it was after you did something you’d feel sorry about, seven out of ten times. Like smoking after declaring that you quit smoking, or you spent too much money after drinking.”

“It’s a sad world, having to be suspected for praising out of goodwill.”

Maru flicked her forehead. He put quite a lot of strength into it as well.

Haneul frowned and rubbed her forehead.

“That hurts.”

“I know. Do you have a schedule today?”

“Today, my schedule is to play around with our princess, bathe her, and interact with her, I guess?”

Ricebun came out hearing the word ‘princess’. She leaped into Haneul’s arms. Maru chuckled and looked at the person and cat duo.

“I feel like I’m getting cheated on.”

“Ricebun. Your father must be jealous of our relationship. Well, that’s true. You looked like you’d never open up to me, but now you’re so sweet with me. Cats are spiritual creatures alright. They discern the nature of humans and approach them like this. Ricebun, watch out for that black-hearted man. He’ll tempt you with munchies later to try to win you over. Don’t fall for it, okay?”

Maru immediately took out some cat treats from the cupboard. It was a cat snack said to calm down any angry cat. He intentionally made rustling noises before ripping it open. The cat in Haneul’s arms jumped out.

He fed the cat that tried to climb his leg some treats, not forgetting to look at Haneul with a smug expression.

“What was that about jealousy?”

“You’re so petty.”

“You mean Ricebun’s petty, not me.”

Haneul walked over before snatching both the snack and the cat.

“What did mom tell you about following strangers? Good or bad?”

Haneul rebuked the cat, who just kept blinking. Maru watched the two quarrel before washing the dishes. He got ready to leave after putting the dishes on the rack to dry.

“Are you going to be late today?” she asked.

“I have a radio in the afternoon, so I think I’m going to be late. That starts at 7:40.”

“You’re leaving now even though it starts at 7? It’s only 4 o’clock right now,” she said as she looked at the clock.

“I need to visit the acting school. Miso-noona called me over.”

“Miso-unni did? For what?”

“I’m not sure. I’ll have to get there to be sure, but I’m pretty sure she didn’t call me just to eat together.”

“I need to say hello to her too. How’s her personality?”

“She’s an average Yang Miso. Sociable, rash, and must have her way with things.”

“It’d be fun to meet her. Set me up next time.”

“I will.”

She brought his jacket from the bedroom. It was a dark-brown one.

“It’s funny, isn’t it? I know her well, but I need someone to introduce her to me. Last time, I coincidentally came across someone I was close to, and I almost said hello. Even though that person doesn’t know me at all.”

“You can just start getting to know them now. You’re someone who can get close to anyone.”

Maru put on his jacket and got his wallet. He grabbed the car keys he had placed on top of the shoe rack and opened the door.

“Have a safe trip. Good luck with the radio broadcast too.”

“Alright, I will. Also, leave the door open when you wash her. She gets uneasy when you close the door.”

“Okay.”

After a light kiss with Haneul, he left. The weather was getting warmer now. The season for jackets was passing. He got in his car and went to Daechi-dong. He called Miso just before arriving.

“I’m almost there. Shall I go to the acting school?”

-You can come right now.

“Is there a place for parking?”

-You have your own car? There’s an underground parking lot.

“You are going to give me the parking ticket, right?”

-You aren’t coming if I don’t?

He hung up and went to the parking lot. He parked in an empty spot and took the elevator. He saw Miso as soon as he got off the elevator on the floor with the acting school.

“That camera massage must have worked wonders, huh? You’re looking a lot better than last time.”

“I didn’t even shoot that many things.”

Miso smiled and told him to come in. The lecture room was filled with students preparing to get into college.

“This way.”

He walked past the lecture room to the office. Miso’s desk was the one filled with a lot of dolls. He sat down on a chair and looked at Miso. He had yet to hear the reason he was called here.

“Give and take,” Miso said. “I was thinking you should pay me back for the audition I got a hold of for you last time. I’m not forcing you or anything. I’m just pleading with you desperately. Of course, if you aren’t doing it, you can’t leave this place today.”

“This isn’t a plea or a request, but a threat, isn’t it?”

“It’s not. It’s a very polite request.”

He decided to listen to the circumstances for now.

“It’s a poster shoot.”

“A poster?”

“You know that you’ve made yourself quite well-known through the drama and the documentary, right? The documentary especially played a big role. We’re running a professional voice actor class at the acting school as well, and I thought it’d be good to have your photo on the poster.”

“But I never learned from this place.”

“Not entirely. It was for a short moment, but you and Seungah studied here too. As for the voice acting side, we’re just going to put your career on the poster and the information leaflet.”

“You’re practically milking me, huh? But would I be of any help?”

“Of course. That’s why I’m asking you. I already told the director of the school about it. You just need to lend your face. It’s nothing grand. You’ll just appear in the corner.”

“If it’s an official contract, I can’t do anything by myself now. My agency is in the middle. The contract says any contract I take in the entertainment industry is done under negotiation with the agency.”

“If it’s that, I already got permission.”

“Got permission?”

Miso smiled. “You see, I’m acquainted with president Lee Junmin. I was in charge of teaching some of JA’s child actors. I asked about it when I called him last time, and he said I can proceed with it as long as you are okay with it.”

“So I was brought to a table with all the food set up, huh? Why didn’t you call me to the studio instead? I would’ve shot it immediately.”

“I’m about to take you there anyways.”

Miso was really meticulous in her planning. He asked Miso, who took out her phone while humming.

“Are you perhaps acquainted with senior Hong Geunsoo or senior Yang Ganghwan as well?”

“There’s no way I know such famous actors, is there? I’ve seen them a couple times, but I’ve never talked to them. Why do you ask?”

“No reason.”

“Since you talked about them, get me Mr. Ganghwan’s autograph for me in the future. I’m a fan of his. I cried after seeing his musical.”

The three of them were practically siblings in the last life, but it seemed that their ties didn’t last until this life. Still, they should probably get close in no time if they do meet.

“I’ll get one for you if I ever get close to him.”

“I guess you won’t see him that often even if you’re the same agency, huh.”

Miso called somewhere. It seemed to be the studio.

“Let’s go. You said you had a schedule in the evening, didn’t you?”

“Yes.”

“I can’t hold back someone busy for long. The studio is ten minutes away by car. We just have to shoot a few photos there. As for the rest, we’ll take care of it.”

Maru said as they took the elevator down, “Does that take care of the debt now?”

“It does, but tell me any time if you want to pay back some more.”

He got in the car and started it. He drove the way Miso told him to.

“Don’t you have any plans about marriage, noona?”

“Why, you wanna take me?”

“No, I was just asking.”

“I guess I’m well past the suitable age. But I’m just planning to live by myself. I’m going to spend all the money I earned and quietly enter the coffin. What do you think? Envious, aren’t you?”

“I am.”

Numerous Yang Misos flashed in front of his eyes. They all lived different lives, but as she was someone who didn’t know regret, she would probably live an enjoyable life this time as well.

He was put in front of a camera as soon as he arrived at the studio. He posed and put on the expression that the photographer asked him to take.

“You seem to be experienced with modeling, huh?” said the photographer while looking at the monitor, adding that there were no B-cuts at all.

“I’m doing great with photos today.”

He picked a few photos among the ones that the photographers took. Miso would probably make the final decision. He also got five A-cuts by email. It was from Miso, saying that it was service.

“Let’s eat out together with Seungah and all.”

Maru gave Miso a gift box that he had placed in the back seat as Miso got off.

“What’s this?”

“Some throat candy. You should have some with the people at the acting school. I was sponsored these after shooting a commercial, but I still have a lot left.”

“Thanks. Good luck with the shoot.”

Maru said goodbye to Miso, who waved his hand and drove to the TV station.

After Story 122

There were people gathered outside YBS’s new building. He could see a few cameras as well. It seemed to be for some kind of TV show. Maru headed to the underground parking lot in his car.

“I’m Han Maru. I should be registered as a guest for ‘The Night with the Sound,’” he said to the parking lot manager.

The manager flipped through a list of guests before waving at him to go inside.

For a moment, he recalled the days when he would pass by freely whenever he was in his own car thanks to everyone recognizing his license plate.

After parking, he went to the first-floor lobby. He could see some celebrities entering the building alongside cameras. He saw something similar when he first came to YBS for the practice recording for the voiceover. That TV show’s opening seemed to be taken in front of the new building every time.

“Today, our youths of ‘Hot-Blooded Youths’ will be working here in the TV station. It’s not just celebrities that work in TV stations. There are many different people with a variety of jobs here, from guides to shoot assistants. We’ll show you everything here in Hot-Blooded Youths,” said the man who seemed to be the main host.

Maru moved sideways a little to see the face of the main host. It was Choi Myungho. He remembered back to his previous life. That man was between B and A tier when it came to entertainment shows. As for the guests surrounding him, he couldn’t recognize any of them. They were all in their early to mid-twenties.

He watched for a while. There was still some time left until the radio broadcast.

Choi Myungho livened up the mood and introduced the program. There was a mix of new actors, comedians, and idols. Two girl idols came forward and introduced themselves in turns. The way they shouted indicated that they were nervous.

Maru looked up ‘Hot-Blooded Youths’ on the internet. It was an entertainment show that aired at 11 p.m. on Friday, and the viewing rate was around 3%, quite low due to the concurrent shows from RBS and MBS being quite popular.

Still, it seemed to have formed a fanbase and there were many articles on the internet. It seemed that the fact that people could see new actors and idols, who were hard to see in popular programs, had stimulated the hearts of the minority.

“Then let us proceed with the lots that will decide today’s fate.”

The intensity of the work seemed to have been split into high, mid, and low. The guests rushed over to a box. They glanced at each other before quickly putting their hands into the box when the song ended.

Maru turned around after looking at that. He had gotten a call from the writer of the radio.

-I’m writer Sobam who called you yesterday. Have you arrived at the station?

“I’m waiting in the lobby on the first floor.”

-Then I’ll go down now. Please wait just a moment.

Five minutes later, a woman with the employee ID around her neck appeared in the lobby, looking around. Maru approached the woman.

“Mr. Han Maru?”

“Yes.”

“Come quickly. Let me tell you a few things before the live broadcast begins.”

They took the employee-only elevator. They got off the 4th floor and Maru followed the writer.

As he walked while looking at the posters of the main radio shows here, he found himself in front of the studio.

The writer opened the door and told him to come in. The production staff was directing the host inside the booth.

Maru looked at the woman reading a script by herself on the other side of the glass window. It was Kim Suyeon.

“First, the corner you’ll be appearing in is ‘Off-work candidness,’ and once you sit down next to Miss Suyeon, you’ll see a monitor in front of you. There will be text messages and live forum posts, so you can proceed based on those. Actually, there’s not much you need to do. Miss Suyeon will do most of them.”

“Is there anything I should watch out for?”

“Since it’s a live broadcast, you need to watch your language. Swear words are naturally out of the question, and try to use as little slang as possible, especially internet slang that gained traction recently. You might be able to use them depending on the situation, but Miss Suyeon and the producer will decide that for you. First of all, though, the most important thing is that you don’t get nervous.”

“I should stay calm then,” Maru smiled.

A woman in her late thirties sitting in front of the console desk waved at him. She seemed to be the producer. Maru walked over along with the writer.

“Welcome. I’m sorry for asking this as soon as we met, but your throat is doing okay, right?”

“Thankfully, I’m good.”

“Good. Don’t be nervous just because this is live, and take it easy. It’d be easier if you think like you are acting while looking at the script.”

“Okay, I will.”

10 seconds until commercial – said a man.

“Go inside the booth. Say hello to Suyeon too.”

The writer opened the door to the booth. He could see Suyeon stand up.

“Miss Suyeon. This is Mr. Han Maru, the guest for today.”

“I heard. Nice to meet you, Mr. Han. Kim Suyeon.”

After exchanging greetings, he sat down on the seat the writer told him to. In front of him was a monitor that was around 27 inches. On the left of the screen were real-time text messages, and on the right were messages sent by the production crew.

“You don’t have to put your mouth too close to the mic, so relax.”

“Okay.”

Outside, the producer called for the writer. The writer opened the door and left. The booth was filled with the sound of commercials of chauffeur service, fried chicken, and travel packages. There was even one for throat candy.

“I’m not that sociable,” said Suyeon, who had been staying quiet the whole time.

She, who had faint makeup on, looked slightly exhausted. No, she seemed sleepy. She gave off a different impression from the person in his previous life. While he had come across calm-like-the-seas Kim Suyeon a few times, the majority of Kim Suyeons were closer to being active volcanoes.

Maru couldn’t help but smile at the appearance of a different-from-normal Kim Suyeon.

“That’s okay. People have their character.”

“I did hear about this from the president. I was told to look after you. I’m sorry I’m not a reliable senior. But I’ll help you so that you can say as much as you want when the show resumes.”

“Thank you for looking out for me.”

Suyeon nodded in response and covered her mouth before yawning.

“You seem tired.”

“I had a shoot until early in the morning. It was a sudden change in schedule, so I didn’t get much sleep.”

“If you’d like, would you like some of this? It won’t chase away sleep, but it will make you feel better.”

He handed her a throat candy. Suyeon thanked him and accepted it.

“There are about 8 minutes left of the commercial, so I guess it’s okay to eat it.”

Suyeon looked outside the booth before standing up. It seemed the producer had called for her. Maru listened to the commercials and looked at the new messages that came up on the monitor.

‘Off-work candidness’ was a segment for workers. People would send in their stories of events that happened during work today, and the radio DJ would read them and give a solution or just sympathize with them, sometimes swearing with them.

Of course, within the scope of what was permitted to be broadcasted.

As he read the stories that contained the frustrations of the workers, the commercial break started coming close to an end.

“Mr. Maru. Recommend me a song. I should’ve gotten it beforehand, but I forgot.”

“Jian’s ‘Like Today’. Is that okay?”

“I’ll go with that.”

Maru drank some water that the writer left behind. He exercised his vocal cords and got ready to speak.

Suyeon, who went outside the booth, had returned as well.

“You weren’t lonely by yourself, were you?” Suyeon asked as she sat down.

“The stories that came up on the screen were all so fascinating that I didn’t have any time for that.”

“If you find any interesting stories, you should keep about three of them to the side. You can read them out loud when I ask you to. If there’s a specific one the producer asks you to read, then read that one.”

Maru nodded.

“Have you ever been on the radio before?”

“No, this is my first time doing something live too.”

“Don’t freeze up even if you make a mistake midway. I’ll try to help you out as much as possible,” Suyeon said as she smiled. Her smile didn’t have the slightest pretense.

Maru also smiled without a word when he saw a familiar, yet unfamiliar response.

Perhaps because the memories of his previous life remained the most intensely, the figure of docile Suyeon was very interesting.

“Ten seconds until the end of the commercials,” he heard from outside.

Maru closed his mouth and looked at the side of Suyeon’s face. Ten seconds later, Suyeon put on her headphones and started speaking,

“That’s the end of the commercial segment. I think it was longer than usual today. We’re growing bigger and bigger thanks to all of you. The next segment is for all the salarymen and salarywomen out there. It’s Off-work candidness. If you send any difficulties or frustrations you had today, I’ll chew that person for you. You can send it via text, and you can also send in your stories through the YBS Radio app.”

Suyeon paused for a moment there. Her voice was very pleasing to listen to.

Maru was also enchanted for a moment when he heard the whisper-like sounds right at his ears. This program probably had a high proportion of males in the audience. He could tell for sure.

“While we wait for a story, let me put on some music. It was recommended by Mr. Han Maru, our guest for today. ‘Like Today’ by Jian. I really like this song too, let’s listen to it together.”

As the song came out, Suyeon took off her headphones.

“Have you picked the stories?”

“Yes. I picked three.”

Following that, the writer from before came in. Maru showed her the three stories he picked. The writer edited parts of them and put them on his screen.

“You can read those, and when it’s time to say some short stories in the middle, you can read the text messages that come up real-time. Don’t read any of the strange ones though.”

He read the text that the writer put on his monitor. As this program was intended to keep a close distance between the hosts and the listeners, there shouldn’t be a need to speak in a voice-actor tone.

A new window popped up on his monitor.

-Mr. Maru. Read this with the tone you used for the documentary. Make it sound like you’re caressing the exhausted listeners.

It was a request from the PD. The norm in live broadcasts was to refrain from having a new person do anything, but it seemed that the documentary had left a deep impression on the producer.

He looked outside the booth and nodded. He was getting air time, so there was no reason to refuse.

“You can take it slow,” Suyeon said before the song ended.

When the song ended, Suyeon raised her hand to indicate that it was time to start.

“I’d like to say this to the workers who are going back home with their exhausted bodies in buses, trains, and cars: Good work, it’s okay. I’m sure things will go well. Try breathing in a little bit of the chilly air and then breathing out slowly. Let out your bitterness, your depression, your anger, and your sadness. It’ll make you feel a little better.”

He took his head away from the pop filter and looked at Suyeon.

Suyeon, who was looking at him in a daze with her hands on her headphones, nodded once before speaking,

“The start of part 3 was opened by actor Han Maru. Isn’t his voice great everyone? I was listening from the side, and it startled me. It made my heart warm and fluffy.”

“Thank you,” he responded.

The window on the left of the monitor was changing rapidly. There was a sudden influx of text messages.

After Story 123

“The audience is saying that your voice is really good. Mr. Maru. The documentary that aired a while ago was narrated by you, right?” Suyeon said.

She said she’d give him opportunities to talk, so it naturally came to be about the documentary. Maru appreciated that. He responded.

“Yes. I was actually quite worried when I recorded it. As the documentary had such good content, I was worried that my voice might have a negative impact and that I might not live up to it.”

“Contrary to your worries though, the documentary had extremely good reviews. Not to mention the content, there were praises about you, the narrator as well. I also watched the documentary inside the car when I was on the move. At first, I was just planning to watch the first episode, but I found myself on the last episode when I came to. It was a documentary that gave me a lot to think about.”

“The producer for that program displayed what could be a frustrating and heavy topic as plainly as possible. I think that it was the best choice to make the audience decide for themselves.”

Suyeon turned around to look at the monitor. “The reason the stories inside the documentary don’t feel like someone else’s problem is probably because it’s the story of many youths who had just joined the frontlines of the battle known as corporate lifestyle. In that sense, why don’t we talk about the stories of our younger audience today? The article that just came up caught my eye. Mr. Maru. Would you like to introduce us to this story?”

A message popped up on the window to the right. Looking outside the booth, Maru saw the producer create a circle with her fingers.

“I’m a bit nervous because it’s my first time, but here we go. This one is from 7882. Hello, Ssu-D[1]. I’m a woman in my twenties who just started working in Seoul. I’m getting by every day listening to your voice.”

He paused there to look at Suyeon. Suyeon spoke when she received the signal,

“Thank you too for liking my voice.”

He waited until Suyeon to finish before continuing.

“The excitement of my first job only lasted a short moment. A month into my employment, I’m seriously considering quitting my job. The problem is not with the intensity of my workload, but quarreling with my superior.”

He paused for a moment to take a breath before speaking again,

“An assistant manager, who’s been here for three years, hates me so much. I’d feel better if I knew the reason at least, but I feel like I’m going to cry since I don’t know the reason at all. Once, something like this even happened.”

The event that happened was then written in a conversation format. He changed his voice slightly to liven up the sound.

“You can’t even do this properly? It’s been a month since you’ve joined, but you can’t do anything? – said the assistant manager. I was rebuked without even knowing why. But it was strange to me. The assistant manager didn’t give me any work nor did I do anything wrong. So I asked what I did wrong.”

The scroll went down.

As he chased the words with his eyes, he pictured the situation in his head so that the listeners could think about the situation rather than having him simply read out the text.

“Then the assistant manager said to me – Oh, right. This was for someone else. But why did you keep listening like that? You’re quite pathetic.”

Maru stopped there. He had listened to Kim Suyeon’s radio programs a few times before he came here. Suyeon would always speak at a moment like this.

“That sounds like a really bad person. If it was me, I would’ve even cried a little, feeling wronged.”

He immediately followed up by continuing the story so that there were no big pauses.

“That assistant manager didn’t even apologize to me. In fact, he got angry at me. This didn’t happen just once or twice either. I would get called during lunchtime to be scolded, and he would give me work near the end of the day. I got this job after much difficulty, so I want to hold on, but my resolution keep falling apart. Ssu-D, what should I do?”

It was a story that any newly employed workers could sympathize with, which was probably why the production staff went with it.

Suyeon said, “Miss 7882. It must’ve been hard. There’s nothing more agonizing than being hated for no apparent reason. I mean, if people told me why they hate me, then I would at least try to fix it, but if they keep swearing at me without telling me why, it just feels frustrating. Have you had an experience like this, Mr. Maru?”

“Although it was not as bad as the person who sent us this story, I do have experience getting scolded for no reason. I’m sure those listening to our radio must have experienced it in one form or another. It’s really frustrating.”

“This is a really big problem. As you said in the documentary, the gateway for employment is getting smaller and smaller. I’m sure it must take an unimaginable amount of resolve to quit a company you joined after much difficulty.”

“I’m sure it takes even more when you think about the sense of achievement you had when you successfully joined. Moreover, considering quitting not because of your own circumstances but because of others is a really heart-breaking matter.”

“Normally, this is where I swear at the superior, but I think we need a more heartfelt conversation today. Let me call the person who sent us this story.”

The producer on the other side of the window pointed upwards and spun her finger around. Following that, a phone connection ringtone could be heard. It was a sad ballad.

“The ballad sounds even sadder today.”

When Suyeon’s words ended, the call connected.

-Hello?

“Hello. It’s Kim Suyeon.”

The person on the other side fell silent for a moment. Suyeon put on a gentle smile and carefully called for the person.

“Is it fine for you to be on the phone right now?”

-Ah, yes. I was out of it because I was so surprised. Unni, you have a great voice.

“Thank you. What should we call you? I don’t think we can use your real name.”

-Call me Luna. It’s a nickname of mine.

“Okay then, Miss Luna. Are you on your way back home from work?”

-I just got off the bus and am going home. I was listening to the radio while walking, and I was surprised to have my own story featured.

Suyeon nodded. Her eyes looked affectionate as though she was talking to the person right in front of her. She was probably a very affectionate person and was someone who easily sympathized with others, considering that she was making that expression despite the fact that this wasn’t a video-radio simultaneous broadcast.

“We just read your story. Things are hard because of your superior, isn’t it?”

-Yes. I didn’t think I’d seriously consider quitting like this. I got employed after much difficulty, so I boasted to my family and had my friends congratulate me, but in just a month, I…

“It’s making me feel frustrated too. Miss Luna, do you not have an idea why that superior is acting that way to you?”

-Not at all. I don’t have a single clue. We are in the same department, but there’s another assistant manager who looks after my work. That person is really good. He’s the only reason I can last in this company.

“It’s great that you have at least one ally.”

-Tell me about it. The assistant manager who hates me doesn’t even meet me that often for business, but he rebukes me every time. I’m so frustrated that I even once cried by myself on the toilet.

“Did you ever talk about it with another superior?”

-I really want to, but you know how it is with companies. Once rumors start floating around, it makes life really difficult. An employee from another department that entered the company around the same time as I, quit the company already after getting involved with bad rumors like that.

“That’s true. It must be even harder because you can’t talk to anyone about it.”

-I’m sick and tired of venting it out on my friends all the time. I feel sorry too. Mom consoles me and tells me I am doing a good job whenever I get home, and I really can’t bear to tell her that I want to quit work when she says that to me.

“I can sympathize with you, Miss Luna. I feel sorry. I want to help you, but I can’t help you.”

Suyeon was clenching her locked hands.

-Not at all. I feel better just listening to your radio, unni. Especially when I listen to this segment. It makes me think that others are going through the same stuff as me and that it’s hard to earn money from other people’s pockets.

“I feel like you’re more mature than me, Miss Luna. I would’ve run away already if I was in your shoes. I’m proud of you.”

-Not at all.

A chuckle was sent over the phone. Suyeon was showing that resolving the problem was not the only thing they had to do. Listening to them, understanding them, and sympathizing with them — her words caressed the listener so that they didn’t make the emotional injuries worse.

-Can you say a word to that assistant manager in my place?

“Of course, I will.”

Suyeon cleared her throat.

“Mr. Assistant Manager who keeps bullying Miss Luna!”

Her voice sounded agitated. Her eyes were tense as well. Putting her mouth up against the pop filter, Suyeon’s lips moved without hesitation.

“Let her be while I still say it in good words. If you keep bullying her, I’ll!”

That was then followed by a continuous beep.

The listeners might catch onto Suyeon’s intermittent voices throughout that bleep, but from right next to her, Maru got to hear all sorts of cuss words raw. She sounded cute, honestly. Though, those words weren’t suitable to be aired.

“Anyway, you should do things properly. Stop bullying other people.”

-Unni, you really say stuff like that? I always thought that it was bleeped out for convenience and you didn’t say anything.

“I’m an honest DJ. I say what’s on my mind when I’m pissed.”

-It might sound funny, but you sound so cute. It doesn’t suit you.

“I get that from time to time. But I am practicing, so it’ll probably get better.”

There was a signal from outside the booth to end the call. Suyeon put her hand on the headphones and spoke,

“Miss Luna. Thank you for submitting your story today. I hope you feel a little better now.”

-I feel refreshed thanks to you.

“Okay. I can tell that you’re someone who can endure hardships through your voice. Do your best from now on. Don’t lose to that bad assistant manager.”

-Yes! I’ll do my best.

The call ended after notifying her that there will be a call from a writer of the program to send a small gift.

“I hope Miss Luna becomes happy. Well then, let’s read a few short messages. Hello Ssu-DJ.”

Just as Suyeon was reading the texts, Maru saw the door to the studio open. A group of people, along with a camera, came inside the studio. This seemed to have been arranged beforehand as the producer welcomed the people with a smile.

Maru could see the camera scanning the surroundings. The camera shot inside the booth as well, but Suyeon did not respond. She only focused on reading the text messages.

“Many people are asking for your opinion, Mr. Maru. Since we’re at it, what would you do in her shoes? Is there anything that might be helpful to Miss Luna?”

He turned around to look at Suyeon.

“I don’t know if I can be of big help, but if it was up to me, I would think about it for just ten minutes.”

“Think about what for ten minutes?”

“I believe Miss Luna already knows the answer. And I’m pretty sure this applies to many other people as well. The one who knows best about the situation you’re in is none other than yourself. That’s why you have to think about it seriously. If that assistant manager’s actions are seriously intolerable, then it’s only right to take action. Whether that comes in the form of quitting work or an official protest.”

He lowered his voice a little deeper.

“It’s a bit of an extreme analogy, but when a big fire breaks out at your house, there is only one thing you must do. You must escape that place. Whether you’re in your pajamas or totally naked, it doesn’t matter. A big problem makes all other trivial problems irrelevant. If that assistant manager is really a big fire, then avoiding it is one method. But if he’s not, you should pick up a fire extinguisher and put it out. That’s the way to protect yourself after all.”

Maru stopped and calmed his breathing for a moment.

“What I said is totally obvious so I’m not sure if that helped or not.”

“Sometimes, the obvious is what’s necessary. I also nodded after listening to that.”

While Suyeon responded, the door to the booth opened slightly.

Two people, alongside a cameraman, entered the booth. They were the girl idols he saw in the lobby.

Suyeon took off one side of the headphones and spoke,

“We’ll now play a song for Miss Luna: ‘Mind Your Own Business’ by Han Gyung.”

As soon as the song started playing, the girl idols bowed to Suyeon. The producer also came inside the booth.

“Suyeon, I told you about it, right? It’s Hot-Blooded Youth shoot,” said the producer.

[1] Suyeon + DJ

After Story 124

“We’ll just capture natural footage from the side. We’ll try our best not to disrupt the broadcast so don’t worry too much,” said the writer of Hot Blooded Youths.

The camera shot Suyeon before turning around to capture the girl idols that just came into the booth.

“You’re okay with being on camera, right?”

Maru nodded at the writer’s question.

“Suyeon, you should introduce Hot Blooded Youths for a brief moment and then just proceed as usual,” said the producer for the radio.

Suyeon put on the headphones again. The song was ending.

“That was a refreshing song. While we were listening to the song, another guest came to visit the studio. Do you all know about Hot Blooded Youths? I watched this show a few times, and they’re working at the TV station this time. Miss Jennie, say hello to our audience.”

Jennie spoke into the unoccupied mic,

“Hello everyone. I’m Jennie from Daylee. I’m honored to say hello on a radio I usually enjoy listening to.”

“What work are you doing today, Miss Jennie?”

“I’m following the writer and helping out with program procedures. I have been looking, and it really is hard to do it for real.”

“Right. The production crew members do a really hard job. Ah, right. Miss Jennie.”

“Yes?”

“Our current segment is giving a word of encouragement to people who are exhausted from work. Please say a word or two to cheer on our listeners who are going home.”

Suyeon’s request seemed to have been arranged beforehand, so Jennie replied without hesitation,

“I heard that if something bad happens, something good will definitely come to you. So let us all do our best without feeling down. Fighting!” said Jennie.

Suyeon smiled and followed up,

“I’m feeling encouraged by Miss Jennie’s energetic voice. I hope everyone listening has received some of the energy as well.”

Suyeon then looked outside the booth. The writer outside was making hand gestures. It was a signal for her to pick up the phone. Suyeon spoke after receiving the message,

“Everyone, Miss Luna, who sent a story a while ago, seems to have called us back. She says she wants to say something. Let us hear her out. Hello? Miss Luna?”

-Hello? Can you hear me?

‘Luna,’ who sent the story before, could be heard again. Her voice sounded rather excited.

“Yes, we can hear you. Miss Luna, did something good happen to you? You sound a lot better than before.”

-The thing is, wait a minute. I’m so excited I can’t speak properly right now.

“It’s okay so take it easy. You aren’t sick anywhere, are you?”

-I’m not sick at all. In fact, I feel great.

“What happened?”

Maru became curious as well. What could’ve happened in that ten or so minutes?

-That person from before… the guest. I’m so sorry, I swear I could remember his name until just a moment ago.

“Mr. Han Maru?”

-Yes! Han Maru. Anyway, After I heard what he said, I felt frustrated. So I stopped on my way home and thought about it. It was just for ten minutes, as Mr. Han Maru said. He also said that if it’s a big fire, then avoiding it is one method.

“Yes, that he did.”

-I thought about it. Is that assistant manager really a fire that I can’t do anything about? Is he really someone I should run away from? I thought about it, and no, he wasn’t. He’s annoying and I don’t like him, but it wasn’t bad to the point I had to give up what I attained after much difficulty. As soon as I had that thought, I inadvertently called the assistant manager.

She was decisive alright. Maru waited for the following story with interest.

Suyeon looked like her interest had been piqued as well.

The production crew for Hot Blooded Youths had not left and continued the shoot. They seemed to have thought that the sudden call was a rather decent item, as the producer and writer for Hot Blooded Youths started whispering to each other.

-I asked straight, about why the assistant manager hated me so much and why he treats me like that; I told him that I don’t want to quit the company, so I have to resolve the problem.

“You said that?”

-Yes! I was even surprised at how easy that was after I said it.

“What did the assistant manager say?”

-The thing is, it went ridiculously well. When I talked about the things that happened until now, the assistant manager apologized to me first. Apparently, he has been on the edge because of family matters recently, and ended up taking it out on me. We talked for a little more and I could understand where he was coming from. If I look back, I think I was being thorny in front of him as well.

“That sounds great. You must be relieved, Miss Luna.”

-Tell me about it. This was such a simple problem, so I feel like a fool for suffering all by myself. It was a great decision to consult you about it, unni. If not, I might have quit the company. Then I would’ve really regretted it.

“I’m glad that you had it resolved.”

-The assistant manager said he would buy me lunch tomorrow as an apology Every morning, I would feel terrible when I wake up because of stress, but I think I can wake up tomorrow feeling refreshed.

“Congratulations. I’m happy everything worked out for you.”

Text messages were flying in real time. Half of them congratulated Luna, and the other half mentioned that they wanted a consultation.

-Thank you Ssu-D, and thank you Mr. Han Maru as well. I don’t think I’ll feel as bad in the future even if I run into something similar. If it’s a big fire, I can just avoid it, and otherwise, I can just face it straight on.

“I hope you can live a wonderful life, Miss Luna, and congratulations once again.”

-Yes. I’ll keep listening to the radio in the future. One last thing, I love you, Ssu-D, and you too, Mr. Han Maru!

Luna left behind an energetic laughter before hanging up. Suyeon, who put a hand on her headphones, twitched her nose and smiled. She seemed to rather like Luna’s cheerful voice.

“I think that was the fastest resolution of this segment in the history of our radio. Her voice sounded like a completely different person, didn’t it? Miss Luna is really cool, going to her superior and resolving things on the spot. I hope I can learn from her.”

Suyeon then looked at him.

“It’s really hard to put what you hear from someone else into practice, but Miss Luna managed to do it on the spot. I’m sure she would’ve resolved the problem by herself even if I didn’t say anything much.”

“No way. Your help must have played a big role. You know we’re getting a flood of texts from people wanting consultations from you, right? I’m a bit jealous.”

“Then, let me be shameless to ask for the main DJ position…”

“Hey, I didn’t know you could be like that.”

“If there’s a position, I might as well take it.”

Suyeon laughed into the mic.

“We have to introduce our second story for the day, but we spent too much time on the first one. We’ll go to the short stories today. As compensation, I’ll try to make some time to read more of them so don’t worry too much. Then, Mr. Maru, could you read one for us?”

He read the text message that he had eyed beforehand.

“This is from 3626 in Ansan. Today, a colleague of mine sent me a wedding invitation through a messenger. He didn’t come to my wedding either. What should I do?”

“I guess it’s May, the season of marriage. What would you do, Mr. Maru?” Suyeon asked.

“I would set 50,000 won as the baseline. Then you add or subtract based on that. That person sent you a wedding invitation just through the messenger without telling you anything about it? Uh, it’s a bit iffy, but I’d deduct points. Not close to that person? More points deducted. You don’t run into each other often and work in different departments? Even more points deducted. Stuff like that.”

“Wouldn’t you feel embarrassed if you ran into each other later?”

“Of course, it is a celebratory occasion, so if you have the time and the monetary leisure, then it’d be great if you could make it. But if you don’t like that, then try using that formula. Sometimes, it’s better to be a slightly cold person rather than someone who acts kind to everyone.”

Suyeon raised her voice slightly.

“Since Mr. Maru has talked about the realistic side of things, I would recommend that you definitely go. Go, and meet some good people and eat good food.”

“Compared to the congratulatory gift money, the food at a wedding isn’t that good. You should use that money to go to a better place with your lover, family, or friends.”

“Hey, how could you do that? 3626, please decide. Will you listen to me, or will you listen to him? Don’t forget to write a review later.”

Having a character in a broadcast was crucial, and Suyeon just decided on the characters for him. Maru continued in the direction the broadcast pushed him toward. If Suyeon came up with rounded, gentler solutions, he would come up with more realistic, albeit perhaps cruel-sounding, solutions.

“8372 has sent a text message, saying that an angel and demon are trying to do business on one person. I’m the angel, right?” Suyeon asked.

Maru spoke into the mic,

“It’s such a pity that this is not a video simulcast. Ssu-D’s expression was really proud just now. I wish I could show everyone.”

“Unfortunately, I’m not wearing makeup today, so I can’t show anyone.”

Suyeon, who was looking at the monitor, raised her thumb. She looked satisfied.

“Today, time really passed by in a flash. Unfortunately, we’ll have to end this segment here, and I’ll come back for part four in a while. Thanks to our sponsors ‘Lala Travels’ and ‘Daily Soup’, and of course our guest Han Maru. Mr. Maru, please say goodbye to our listeners.”

“I had a great time today. I’d love to come here again. Lastly, watch out on your way home. Safety first.”

After the brand song, ads started coming out. Maru took out his earphones. The nearly 30 minutes of the show had ended.

“Thank you for your work,” he stood up from his seat and said to Suyeon.

Suyeon took off her headphones and stood up.

“You were better with the proceedings than me?”

“Not at all. You were a great guide that I only hopped on slightly.”

“It’s no wonder the president compliments you.”

“The president?”

“He told me in private that our new recruit is out of the ordinary. Anyway, I very much enjoyed today.”

Suyeon reached her hand out. Maru shook hands with her.

“But I don’t think today will be the last time.”

Maru turned his head around, following Suyeon. The producer was waving at him from outside the booth. He could also see the producer for Hot Blooded Youths, whose production crew had left about 10 minutes ago.

“The response was just that good. The third segment usually doesn’t have a fixed guest, but we always talk about fixing someone for the position.”

“Am I going to get a regular schedule?”

“I’ll tell the producer about it as well, about how easy it was to work with you. You’re free on Wednesdays, right? Like today.”

“I’m practically unemployed at the moment. I have no work.”

“That’s good. You can leave for now. The producer seems to have something for you.”

He looked at Suyeon who smiled at him before leaving the booth.

“Mr. Han. Good work. Come this way for a second.”

The producers for the radio and Hot Blooded Youths were waving at him. He stood in front of the two.

“When it comes to programs, the will of the person matters the most. Mr. Han. You saw the text messages from before, right? This segment had great responses. I think we can keep up with that good-evil duo and go with it. Are you busy?”

“No, I don’t have a fixed schedule for the time being.”

“Really? Then can you work with us? I can’t pay you a lot, but our program usually ranks first or second among the radio shows of YBS.”

“If you call for me, I’ll be here in a heartbeat.”

The radio producer smiled and slapped him on the shoulder. Her hands were quite spicy.

“I’m a bit strong for a woman. I’m sorry if that hurt. It was just too good.”

The producer for Hot Blooded Youths, who was waiting on the side, took the opportunity to speak.

“Mr. Han. Would you like to appear in our program as well? I knew the moment I saw you that I had to scout you.”

Maru glanced at Suyeon inside the booth. This man was probably not looking for Han Maru the person, but an entertainer affiliated with JA. That didn’t matter that much though. That was how things worked around here.

“If you give me the work, I’d love to take up the task.”

“Then you are saying yes?”

“Yes. But I’ll have to talk to my agency about it.”

“Right. Give me your manager’s number. Our writer will proceed with it.”

“Uh, the thing is, I don’t have a manager yet.”

“Really?”

“If you could give me the writer’s contact info, I’ll make the call later.”

A fixed guest for a radio segment, and a guest for a rather eccentric TV show. It was some decent work.

He smiled and received the writer’s number.

After Story 125

It was just after 10:40 when he arrived at Gwangwon Tower. He ended up arriving twenty minutes earlier than he had originally expected.

“I’m here to go to the JA Entertainment office,” Maru said to the security guard.

“Did you forget your employee card?”

“No, I’m visiting because of an appointment. Last time, I was with someone else, but I came by myself this time.”

“What is your name?”

“Han Maru.”

After he waited for a bit, the guard gave him a visitor card.

“You can go up to the 8th floor if you put it next to the elevator. Don’t forget to return it once you’re done with your business here.”

He put the card against the sensor. The elevator came down soon.

He went up to the 8th floor alongside another employee who was waiting. With the hallway that had the elevator in the middle, JA looked like a trading company to the left and an entertainment agency to the right. It seemed that president Lee Junmin was trying his hand at various other types of business other than just entertainment in this life as well.

“I hope you don’t feel too upset that I’m making you visit. Next time, I’ll make the time to visit myself.”

“Not at all, please call me any time.”

Maru sat down on the chair Jumin pointed to.

“In other agencies, leaders of teams or departments would be doing this work. But I’m slightly different. I go through every little thing myself. Later on, I’ll leave all the decision making, even down to choosing a movie scenario up to you, but for now, everything will proceed through me, even for the little events. So you should get used to it.”

“I might miss the overprotection if I have to work by myself later.”

“If you so wish, I can keep going through them for you. If you so wish, that is.”

“I’ll be satisfied with asking for some opinion if necessary.”

Junmin smiled and continued,

“As for being a guest at the radio program, I have nothing more to say. I heard your segment and you sounded like a natural. Looking at you, it feels like you can do anything, huh?”

“I’m sure you don’t like people being humble, so if I may say, I can do it even if I were to be the main DJ.”

“Instead of just having the confidence to, you are actually declaring that you can do it?”

“Was I being too arrogant?”

“No, I just thought about it for a sec, if there was a radio slot that’s empty. But I guess I should leave that to the side since there’s not a suitable place. If an actor wants to do the radio, they have to have career experience, but you aren’t there yet.”

“Yes, I’m aware.”

Junmin put down some paper to the left. It seemed to be an informal contract from a TV station. Most of the time, contracts proceeded verbally, but the TV station seemed to have sent a contract over because of the name value of JA.

“For the radio, you’ll be a fixed guest once a week. The broadcast will be for about 30 minutes, and the pay is 80 thousand won.”

“80 thousand won?”

“Why? Too little?”

“No, I was thinking it was more than I expected. I thought it would be 50 thousand at most.”

Junmin scratched his chin.

“So you know your stuff. The producer seems to have taken a liking to you as she said she’d pay 30 thousand more. Maybe Suyeon had an influence on this.”

“I feel thankful.”

“You feel thankful for just 80 thousand won?”

“I live in a world where the minimum wage is not even 5 thousand, so getting 80 thousand for just half an hour is definitely something I should be thankful for. That takes care of my rent, I guess. No, wait, it might not be slightly enough after going through revenue split.”

He made a disappointed face.

“I won’t touch a single penny from that 320 thousand won so take it all.”

“Am I receiving a privilege?”

“It’s a great privilege, so continue to do well in the future.”

Junmin picked up the paper underneath the contract.

“Ever since Suyeon became the DJ of that radio, the program has been getting a lot of good commercials. The listening rate is good, and the audience is on the younger side. There’s no harm in being a fixed guest, so if you like it, you can keep doing it.”

“I’ll do it.”

Junmin nodded.

“That takes care of the radio, but the problem is the TV show. Do you want to do this?”

“For now, I think it’s an opportunity. It can be a good stage for a newbie who doesn’t have anything to show.”

While the viewing rate was lower than other concurrent programs, it was still a TV entertainment show. There were many people who would call producers and writers just to have their faces shown in the entertainment shows of major TV stations, so there was no reason to refuse an opportunity like this.

“Honestly speaking, I like the strategy of differentiation. Although the era has changed and actors do appear in TV shows, they still have a face to upkeep. If we’re talking about one of the top entertainment shows of the three major TV stations, it might be worth thinking about, but for this one, even if you do go, it won’t become an issue and you’ll be suffering instead.”

“Maybe.”

“Why don’t you reduce your appearance instead? If you’re facing financial difficulties, I’ll give you enough help, so we’ll start with the good things. If it’s a friendly image, you can open up a social network account,” Junmin said, crossing his legs. “Honestly speaking, this show is a low-quality one. Even if you’re new to the industry, you have the JA title on you. Look above you. Is there a senior who lacks anything?”

“You’re saying they all climbed up to that position thanks to your consultations?”

Junmin responded by shrugging.

“Actors do need to be good at acting, but what’s more important than that is the planning. The times are changing. It’s becoming harder and harder to climb up to the top using talent alone. We’re living in an era where even if you lack some skills as an actor, you can be a popular actor.”

Maru did not respond and kept listening to Junmin’s words. While he didn’t entirely agree, it was not something he could simply deny. Above all, the signs looked strange. He had to refrain from answering at this point.

“I’m always of the same mind. Actors need to be high-class. To compare them to alcoholic drinks, they should be aged fine wine. There are many actors like soju too. However, soju will always be sold at soju prices.”

“What do I have to do to become an actor like fine wine?”

“As I said before, we’ll go with a strategy of differentiation. I’m going to choose the works of famous directors and writers to give you roles and, at the same time, leak some of your background through the media. You have the talent, so I’m going to focus on that. There’s an image you showed through the drama, so I’m sure you’ll receive attention in no time.”

“What after that?”

“I’ll look for roles that suit your image. I won’t fit you to the character, but the character to you. The acting will become easier as well. Because I’ll simply get roles like that. You’ll enhance your image by playing similar characters. You just have to show above-average acting skills.”

“Then after that, the company will do marketing with that again, leaking my name through various media outlets.”

Junmin put on a satisfied smile.

“Only actors who have worked in theaters will become the blue chips of Chungmuro and eventually national actors. How many people do you think fit that criteria these days? Actors are no different from idols now. The financial and planning power of the agencies are what make a good actor.”

“So people are made into actors, not grown as one.”

“I’m sure you know this. Actors cannot be classified as artists anymore. At this point, it’s just a form of business that happens on an individual level. There are many directors and writers that JA has ties with. If you appear in their works and we move the media through JA’s background, it’ll be hard for an actor to fail.”

“In other words, you can pretty much make anyone succeed as an actor?”

“Not just anyone. No matter how good the planning is, if you multiply zero by anything, the result is still zero. Someone on your level, however, we can expect some good results. It’s a low-risk solid business.”

“Then do I just have to play the roles in the works you’ve selected?”

“For the time being, yes. Once the business item known as Han Maru has been polished somewhat and your image has been consolidated, it wouldn’t matter what you do. An actor’s image will not be broken so easily once it’s been solidified. You’ll continue to get work to do.”

“While you, president, will make profit in various ways.”

“That’s how it is.”

Maru looked at the contract and Junmin alternately before speaking, “Do you really think so?”

“Do I not look like it?”

“Not at all. I don’t think you think like that. First of all, if you prioritized business above everything else, you wouldn’t have brought me here. There should be many other people more suitable than me when it comes to taking the route that you just told me. Honestly, my appearance is not good enough to attract everyone’s attention in one go.”

“Really? I very much like it though.”

“I’m not saying I don’t like it. I very much like my appearance as an actor. Regardless if I play a beggar or a wealthy man, I can fit the role. If I had a fair face, there should’ve been roles I would have a hard time doing, but this face doesn’t really differentiate.”

Junmin looked at him as though telling him to go on.

“Among the businesses you’re running, I’m sure the entertainment agency does not play a big portion. This is pure speculation on my part, so I may be wrong.”

“Does that make a difference?”

“It does. I’m not too knowledgeable, but there’s nothing as important as time when it comes to businessmen. Using precious time to talk about an 80 thousand won contract goes against the words you just said.”

“I just made the time to persuade you. Didn’t I say? You’re a good business item.”

“If you really looked at actors as business items, then there’s no need to go through this tedious process. All you had to do was just notify me. There are many people who can become ingredients. Going back to the beginning, if other businesses took up the minority portion, it’s strange that you’re doing the planning yourself, president. It’s not that JA doesn’t have actors. It has some of the top people in the industry. Anyone can tell that making use of them is much more profitable.”

“So I’m doing something useless, you’re saying?” Junmin asked back.

“If you really saw actors as business items, then yes, you are doing something useless. However, you shouldn’t be seeing actors as simple items. Though, this too, is a speculation on my part.”

“What do you think I think of actors then?”

“Actors are actors. I’m absolutely not saying that money is not important. It is important. However, if I were to ask if you had to choose between money and a good actor, I think that you would take the side of an actor.”

Because that was how Lee Junmin had always been. Of course, this last life had a lot of changes, so Junmin might have changed as well. However, the circumstances told Maru that Junmin’s words were not genuine.

He was such a logical man, so following the designs he said through his words allowed him to get a grasp on things. Although this too might be an error and a misunderstanding, he didn’t think that the person known as Lee Junmin was so half-baked.

“Also, I have the confidence to make a living even if you don’t plan things out for me. I became an actor out of my love for acting, not because I wanted to become rich quickly. Though, of course, it’d be great if I could earn a lot.”

“You’ll be successful as long as you do what I tell you to do.”

“I have the confidence too. Also, I want to become an actor rather than a business item. Call me petty, but I want to keep trying as an artist.”

“But you do know that actors are ultimately products, right?”

“Yes, I do. However, other people treating me like a product and me becoming a product myself are two different things. I’ll be in the market as a product, but I do not plan to change what’s inside me.”

“Then I guess there’s no helping it. You’ll have to go to this uninteresting TV show.”

“You’re giving up on the differentiation strategy?”

“You said you want to become an actor like soju, so what can I do about it? Also, you don’t want to change what’s inside you. I can’t put soju in a wine bottle and sell that. That’s illegal.”

There was a phone call. It was Junmin’s phone. Junmin got his jacket after receiving the call.

“The manager who will be in charge of you will be coming soon. Wait a bit here. You can talk to him about the specifics.”

Maru said to Junmin who opened the door to leave, “President, is there an actor who has become fine wine in JA?”

Junmin turned his head around, his foot half out the door.

“Everyone’s so old-fashioned, so they’re in a basket full of soju bottles. They really won’t listen. I said I can sell them well as good products, but they all like being actors instead.”

Junmin then walked off with a smile. His voice could be heard through the closing door.

“But you know, I could never understand the taste of wine.”

Tap - the door closed. Maru smiled and leaned back against the chair.

This person hadn’t changed, whether it was lying without batting an eyelid or the process of checking whether someone was his own person.

“I guess I’m a member of the family now?”

He stretched his arms out. He felt like a migratory bird that returned home after a long time. He felt comfortable.

After Story 126

He introduced himself as Park Yeonjin. He was twenty-seven years old, and it had been four years since he started working as a road manager. He had only joined JA recently.

“I will send you the weekly schedule through both messenger and email. If there are any changes, I’ll call you and notify you,” Yeonjin said as he told him his number.

“Okay. Also, you don’t have to be so formal with me,” Maru said.

“I will do that later. Right now, I’m still on probation, so I need to be on the edge. Are you uncomfortable with it?”

“Not at all. Let’s clear up how we call each other when you’re okay with it. I’ll just call you manager until then.”

“Thank you. Also, you have a schedule tomorrow.”

“Tomorrow?”

“It’s a clothing brand, and they wanted to sponsor you. They said it would be great if you could wear their clothes to your shoots but also that it wouldn’t matter if you didn’t. Instead, they will have your picture on a website. There’s also the matter of receiving clothes once every season and modeling for them, but this is up to you to decide.”

“I should naturally do it without complaints. What’s the brand called?”

“It’s street fashion and the label is ‘POP.’ They’re entering Myungdong and Yoohan Department Store soon too. It’s a decent brand.”

“That sounds like a brand that could make use of popular celebrities.”

“I looked into it a little, and the CEO seems to like taking up a challenge. Promising talent, people often say, right? They contract such actors early on. They can take advantage of the lower contract conditions if the ones they’re contracting are still new.”

“I’m thankful that I’m viewed as a promising talent. What time is the shoot?”

“I’ll be at your house by one. Your hair will be done at a hair shop, while the makeup is supposed to be done on-site. As for the clothes, you’ll be wearing those provided by the brand, so you can wear casual clothes when you leave the house.”

“Then see you tomorrow at one.”

Yeonjin left the café after saying that they should get along from now on. It seemed he was in charge of a few actors other than him.

Maru emptied the coffee and got in his car. He drove to Anyang. When he arrived at Hanbyuk Arts University, he saw a banner on the right.

May, Starlight Theater.

He parked his car and went to the theater. As the play began right as classes were ending, there were quite a lot of people. He went past the crowded entrance and went inside. There was not a single empty seat in the theater. In the end, he waited while leaning against the wall.

“Okay then. We’ll start the play now. Please sit down, and turn your phones on silent.”

Jungah clapped to attract everyone’s attention. The murmuring audience died down and focused.

“We’ll be really thankful if you could respond throughout the play, and there will be a small event afterward, so please watch until the end. Then now, we’ll begin.”

Jungah came down from the stage and walked right through the audience seats. She was heading to the control room at the back of the audience seats.

Maru waved his hand at Jungah while she was on her way.

“Senior! When did you come?”

“Just now.”

“I thought you weren’t coming because you didn’t say anything.”

“My earlier appointment ended early, so I managed to come here just in time. Rather than that, you should go inside. You should turn the lights off.”

“Yes. You should wait around after the end to meet everyone else. Don’t just leave.”

“Okay.”

After Jungah went inside the control room, all the lights inside the theater including the stage lights, were turned off. Only the safety lights on the floor faintly glowed in the dark before the stage lights were turned on alongside some sound of rain.

Maru watched the theater with the mind of a teacher watching his students. Although it was only for a day, he did teach them. There was a hint of him in that stage. If they did well, he would feel proud, and if they made a mistake, he would inwardly flinch.

“I killed the village chief? You got proof of that? People. What era do you think you’re living in? How dare you suspect people first? Besides, what are you guys? Cops? You aren’t cops.”

The stiff actions became rather smooth. There was also power in the voice that spread to the audience seats. Maru could see hints that they practiced hard during this short time.

Even amidst the students who had improved themselves, Park Joohwan was special. His boar-like recklessness that flipped the stage upside down had disappeared and now he was harmonizing with his partnering actors. He was someone who realized three to four things if he was taught one.

Maru had a look at the expressions of the members of the audience. They were all watching the stage in a daze. Their eyes indicated to him that they had forgotten about reality for a moment and were sucked into the world inside the stage. It was a good performance. Neither the audience nor the actors would have any regrets.

Amidst the play, Joohwan came down the stage. He asked the audience, who had become villages for a moment, who the real culprit was. Thanks to the proactive response from the crowd, the play became better.

Soon, the play was near its end. The real culprit had been revealed, and the case was resolved as well.

Although taking care of the aftermath of the emotions raised by the characters left room for improvement, it wasn’t bad to the point that he could call it a flaw. It was really good considering that it was a stage performed by a bunch of students. This was a splendid performance considering that it was free of charge.

The curtain call began. The characters came out from the two side curtains and met on the stage. They grabbed hands and bowed towards the audience.

Joohwan and Sinhye came out last.

The audience also gave them a big round of applause. Maru also clapped from the edge of the audience seats.

The event Jungah mentioned before began. There was an easy quiz about the play and the ones who got it right were given a small present.

“No one got this question right even in our previous performance, and I’d like to see if any of you can answer it! Well then! You saw this person throughout the play, right?”

Sinhye brought a girl who appeared in the play for a brief moment.

“Who knows the name of the character that she played?”

The passionate audience became quiet for the first time. Sinhye and the girl looked like this was only natural and smiled.

“Okay, I’ll give you ten seconds!”

Sinhye counted down, and when it was one, Maru raised his hand slightly. Sinhye narrowed her eyes and looked at him before pointing at him.

“The one standing at the very back! I think you might know the answer. What’s our answer?”

“Chaewon.”

“That’s correct.”

He went on stage alongside the other people who got the questions right. The actors on stage were looking at him while holding back their laughter.

Sinhye started handing out presents starting from the left. The presents were mostly chocolate and snacks.

“That concludes our play. Thank you for visiting, and thank you for watching till the end. The way out is quite narrow, so please be careful. We hope we see you next time!”

The audience left. Jungah, who was in the control room, could be seen leaving.

Maru looked at the snacks in his hands before looking at Sinhye who was right in front of him.

“When did you come?”

“Around the time you started. I see you’ve practiced a lot.”

“We were rebuked, so we had to do our best. But you know that it’s illegal to get presents like this, right? It’s practically inside trading.”

Maru shrugged and opened the packaging. He took out a stick-shaped snack and gave it to Sinhye.

“This is a return payment.”

“For what?”

“Thanks to you, I got to do the commentary for the documentary.”

“You’re going to write it off with just this?”

Sinhye put the snack in her mouth, saying that it wasn’t nearly enough.

“Can you get fried chicken delivered here? I’ll pay for it,” Maru said as he took out his phone.

Sinhye said that it was absolutely possible and added that she liked the sauce version better.

“You can clean up after eating. Well done, everyone.”

The delivery came in no time. They laid out some newspaper on the stage and put fried chicken and beer on it.

“Aren’t you spending too much for a return payment? Twenty chickens and this much beer and fries should cost hundreds of thousands of won,” Sinhye said while looking at the food.

Jungah, who was listening, said that she’d pay for some of it.

“Actually, this is the only time where I can act like a senior. My juniors have shown a great performance, so as the senior, I should congratulate you by opening my wallet. I enjoyed your performance today. It was so good that I felt embarrassed saying something to you before. I can see how much you’ve practiced.”

“I practiced the hardest, more than anyone else,” Joohwan said while picking up a drumstick.

Maru smiled and didn’t respond.

“There’s nothing worse than speaking in front of food. Let’s eat and drink and get drunk, then we clean up the stage and go home, okay?”

“You should sit down as well,” Jungah said.

“I have work tomorrow, so I think I need to get going. I also get bloated easily when I eat, so I can’t eat right now.”

“You’re leaving now? No way.”

When Jungah hinted at everyone, students flocked and grabbed him. They only let him go after forcefully making him sit down.

Joohwan sat right next to him. Whenever Maru tried to stand up, he would put down the chicken he was eating and grab him.

“Where har you ghoing?”

“I’m not going anywhere, so eat before you speak. You’re spraying food everywhere.”

Maru pushed Joohwan’s chin to move him away. It had been a long time since he was in a rowdy atmosphere like this. He felt like he was back in the days at the theater troupe. It was distant, yet still warm.

He really wished to drink with them to the end, but he had a schedule for tomorrow. He did not empty his glass of beer until the end.

Although he drank the first glass out of courtesy, he didn’t touch it after that.

“I told everyone around me to watch the documentary.”

“Me too.”

The students all chimed in. As the documentary showed unprecedented levels of viewing rate, everyone said that they watched it.

“Dad told me that he wants to use you as the narrator next time as well.”

“Tell him to call me any time. I’ll definitely make the time for it.”

“I’m going to tell him word-for-word, okay? You can’t make excuses later.”

Sinhye took out her phone. She wrote a text message on the spot and showed him.

“People around you look for you, right? I heard people would reach out to you if you become controversial,” Jungah asked. She was an aspiring producer, so she seemed interested in how things worked in the industry.

“Not that much. Compared to the times I got nothing, it did increase quite a lot, but many places are giving me absurd contract conditions, so there’s not much left once you filter all those out.”

“Did you get any work to do? Someone on your level must get a lot. It’s been some time since the drama ended too.”

“I’ll be in a film that’s released in July as a minor character. Other than that, there’s nothing. I also want to work, but there aren’t many places that call for me.”

“They all can’t see you properly or they don’t have eyes,” Joohwan said, his face beet red.

He still wasn’t good with alcohol.

“You’re the best among your peers. No, you have to be the best. If you aren’t the best, it just means that I don’t amount to much either. So go and work quickly.”

“Do you think I can shoot a film or a drama by myself? I can only shoot one if people need me.”

Joohwan, who talked by himself about how Maru should shoot something, eventually curled up and fell to the side. Someone next to him covered him up with a newspaper. This seemed commonplace as no one seemed to be bothered.

The one that acted as his shackles had fallen down. It was about time he got up.

“I’ll get going first then. You should drink some more before going home.”

“Hey! The senior’s leaving!” Sinhye shouted.

He ended up having everyone see him out of the theater.

“Uhm, senior,” Jungah called out to him at the entrance.

“You shouldn’t be so formal with us the next time we meet. We want to be treated like juniors too.”

“I will.”

“Also, we also want to have our debut and work with you. Senior, don’t be too successful and wait for us. We’ll catch up soon,” one of the others said, and the others chimed in as well.

“Let us all do our best to become good actors.”

He nodded to the juniors who waved their hands before turning around. When he was some distance away from the theater, he turned around. He saw the juniors chatting under the night wind.

They were in good times. They were at an age where having friends to prepare a play together would excite them just by itself.

That was why he was also worried. How many of them would enter the entertainment industry in three years? Perhaps the performance they did today might be the last one in their lives. That was just reality: although everyone dreamed of becoming an actor, not everyone could become one.

He drove his car home. This wasn’t actually the time to worry about his juniors. He was also placed in the middle of reality.

“I’m calling for the schedule tomorrow.”

Maru got out of his car and made a phone call. He had to make various efforts in order to not get kicked around by reality.

It was such a frustrating word, but he couldn’t let go of it either.

After Story 127

“Even a glass of beer is still alcohol. I know that you’re strong with alcohol, that you talked for hours after that single glass, and that one glass won’t affect you at all. But you know, I don’t plan to nag you about drinking one glass because of the atmosphere. Of course you can do that. But don’t grab the driving wheel after drinking. I know that you’ve lived for a long time and know a lot of things, but you aren’t omnipotent.”

He couldn’t make any excuses, so the only thing he could say was sorry. His wife glared at him sharply before sighing.

“Don’t make me worry. If something happens to you I might pass out.”

“I’m sorry. All I was thinking about was that I should watch out for my condition and get home as soon as possible.”

“Yeah, I’m sure. You’re not someone who would grab the wheel because you don’t want to call chauffeur service.”

His wife looked down next to her, gesturing to him to sit down. Maru quietly sat down on the sofa.

“What did you do with everyone?”

“Nothing much. I just thought I had to put in a lot more effort when I looked at them. I am climbing up steadily right now, but I don’t know when I’ll slip down again.”

“It’s good that you’re striving to do better in work, but you’re my husband before you’re an actor, and before you’re my husband you’re mother-in-law’s son. How many times do you think I’ve seen you get into a traffic accident? How many times do you think mother-in-law experienced that? I can endure everything else, but not a call from the ER.”

“I’ll watch out.”

She pressed down on her eyes. Her eyes were stiff as well due to nervousness. It wasn’t that she was acting weak and making a big deal. She was a strong woman, someone who overcame crises by herself. However, she had always witnessed Han Maru’s death, left by herself. Even as his consciousness was snapped off and sent into the afterworld, she must have witnessed his last moments very vividly.

The death of a family member must be excruciating. She had endured that pain tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, of times.

Now that they had regained all of their memories, horrible memories he probably wouldn’t be able to fathom were probably remaining inside her frail body. She must have built countless tombstones in her heart.

“I’ll live a long, healthy life. I will definitely not die in vain. Today will be the last time I make a mistake like this.”

“My husband is someone who keeps what he says. So don’t you ever do that again.”

“Okay. Should I hand in my keys at this opportunity too?”

She let out a chuckle.

“Go and get washed. I’ll put a facial mask on you.”

“Okay.”

He turned on the cold water and put his head under the shower.

“Get yourself together,” Maru said to himself.

Just because there was a lot in his head didn’t mean that he was perfect. Knowledge that could not be used properly was nothing more than information. The actions he took were irresponsible, stemming from his shallow thought that he would be okay this time since he had never run into an accident after a single cup of beer.

A gambler would’ve scoffed at him. You rolled sixes this whole time, so you think you’re going to get another six? Too bad, it’s one this time.

“What am I supposed to do without you?” he said to her, who was sitting down with the facial mask in hand.

“You just found out?” Haneul tapped on the floor. Maru lay down, resting his head on her lap.

“Don’t leave me behind and go by yourself,” his wife told him as she applied the facial mask on him.

He responded by nodding.

“Maybe I’m being too sensitive. I try to be calm, but then those memories come to me. The memories where your life fades away right before my eyes.”

He grabbed her hands tightly.

“I’ll stay next to you until you get sick of me.”

His wife, above his head, stayed silent for a moment before starting to hum. It was a nostalgic tune that brought him to his hometown in an instant.

“I think it’s been a long time since I heard it directly like this. Sing some more.”

Maru grabbed Haneul’s hand and closed his eyes. In his dream, he saw his wife sitting by herself outside the ER. He sat down next to her and consoled her, telling her that he was sorry that he left her by herself.

His wife cried again and again like a child.

* * *

Her husband cried. She didn’t know what he was seeing in his dream, but he let out shaking breaths as he kept crying. Haneul put strength into the hand that her husband was holding. Then she patted him on the shoulders.

“It’s okay, it’s okay.”

Not long later, he fell deep asleep. His breathing became more relaxed as well.

She thought about waking him up and sending him to bed but decided not to after seeing his face. He was so sound asleep that she felt sorry for waking him.

Even though she prided herself on the fact that she knew everything about him, at times like these, she felt like she knew nothing about him. They had lived such a long time as a married couple too. It was such a curious matter.

“Did I pain you?”

After she patted him on the head a few times and was about to stand up, she found that he wouldn’t let go of her hand. He was just like a baby desperately clinging to a milk bottle.

“You’re going to have to pay us back for all the food you ate today.”

She pulled her hand out by force and put the cat’s paw in her husband’s hand. The cat lay down with her paw still as though she would stay still for the day.

Haneul brought some blankets from the bedroom. She turned on the heater and also closed the curtains.

She also brought some pillows. She peeled the facial mask on Maru and put a pillow under his head.

She laid down next to him. She looked at her sleeping husband for a long time before closing her eyes. She heard breathing. It was a sound that she was more used to hearing than her own.

* * *

In one hand, he was holding her hand, and in the other, he was holding a cat paw. Maru looked at both alternately before chuckling.

He crawled out of the blanket, being careful not to wake his wife up. He threw the facial mask on the floor into the trash.

The cat, sensitive to her surroundings, quickly woke up and followed him. She looked proud for some reason. She looked like she wanted a reward because she did something great.

“I don’t know what it was, but thanks.”

He gave her some food and some snacks on top of that.

He checked the time. It was 10 in the morning. He felt like he had fallen asleep around ten last night, too. It seemed that he had gotten some deep sleep.

As he had a schedule today, he didn’t go on his morning exercises. Instead, he prepared some brunch. He thought he was being quiet, but he saw Haneul rub her eyes and wake up.

“Was I too noisy?”

“Just a little. Making breakfast?”

“It’s spinach doenjang-guk. Also, it’s closer to lunch than breakfast.”

“So it’s so late already. When do you have to leave again, sweetie?”

“At one. I still have plenty of time.”

His wife sniffled and walked over before staring at him.

“What is it?”

She smiled without saying anything. Only when he asked once again did she utter some cryptic words.

“You’re such a crybaby.”

“I am?”

“If you don’t remember, then forget it. I’ll go get washed.”

Now that he thought back, he felt like he had a dream last night. He didn’t remember what it was about, but there was a weird sensation of a mix of pain and refreshment.

“Crybaby? Do you know something?” Maru asked the cat eating by his feet.

The cat replied — meow.

“Forget it.”

He had a meal with his wife. They talked about his schedule today, and he got some advice as well.

“There are multiple brands that go out of business every day, but this brand looks decent. They aren’t pushing themselves to open offline stores, and they’re only opening stores where it matters. The CEO of the brand looks to be investing in just the necessary parts. Have you heard about the reason they’re using you?”

“Apparently, the CEO likes a challenge. They seem to like using new entrants as their models.”

“There are quite a lot of people who made it big after going through this place, and it didn’t take that long too. This person seems to have good eyes.”

“Looks like I should stay contracted for a long time.”

After their meal, they had some tea and it soon became one o’clock. Maru’s manager contacted him saying that he would be arriving soon.

“I don’t know what kind of clothing you’ll be putting on, but you do know that a forceful, masculine image suits you better than the gentle one, right?”

“I’ll try to appeal that.”

“Do your best. Modeling for a clothing brand can be helpful in promotion.”

“I will.”

He left behind Haneul who saw him out and left the house. He saw Yeonjin in the car outside.

“Get on, we’ll get your hair done first.”

He was brought to Seoul in the car. Yeonjin said that it was a shop that actors affiliated with JA Entertainment often used. He entered the shop after seeing the name ‘Fille.’

“Welcome.”

“We have a reservation, it should be under JA’s Park Yeonjin.”

“Ah, we’ll call the director.”

He walked past the waiting room that looked like a café and went inside.

“A new face. Hi.”

A woman in her early forties with bleached hair welcomed him. The director introduced herself as Eunji and pointed at a chair.

“Usually, I would see the person a few times to learn their style but you said you have work to do today, so I’ll go with a more general styling today. But the president seems to dote on you a lot, huh?”

“On me?”

“He called me last night to look after you well. So which style do you prefer? If you cover your forehead and comb your bangs sideways, you’ll look softer, and if you raise it, you’ll give off a sharper impression.”

“I’d like to go with the sharper one. Someone who knows me told me that I’d look better emphasizing my masculinity.”

“That friend of yours must have good eyes. Your facial shape is definitely more suited to be macho than round. From how barber shops are opening one after another lately, a pomade style might catch the trend, so it shouldn’t be bad to try it early on. Though, for today, I’ll just be doing some small touches.”

Once he consolidated his position, the first thing he had to do was to find a makeup stylist and a photographer. From how president Lee was having all JA actors get taken care of by her, Eunji’s skills must be exceptional, but he would have to look for other places if he personally didn’t like it.

“How is it?”

He looked at his hair after the shampoo and the styling was done. He put on a satisfied smile and nodded. He liked it to the point that he didn’t feel like he needed to look for a stylist.

“It’s good. I don’t think it needs anything else.”

“It’s a simple style, so if it gets toned down throughout the shoot, you just have to wax this part and spray this part. As for the products, do it with the ones we’re giving you. They’re the best ones. I left them with your manager so use them when you need to.”

“Thank you.”

“Don’t thank me. I’m getting paid for this. But hey, your face does look good. It isn’t just pretty-looking, but masculine.”

He looked at the mirror again. The power of styling was scary.

He put on a smile before going to the resting room. He could see some of the people waiting while drinking tea giving him glances.

“Your style became a lot more vivid,” Yeonjin said.

“It’s a face that will sell a lot, right?”

“Yes. But rather than casual, I think a formal suit might be better.”

“I think so too.”

He did shoot quite a lot of suit commercials in the past too.

He took the car to the appointed place. It was a building that used the entirety of the first floor as a clothes warehouse.

Inside, he saw shooting equipment set up. There were also many walls of different colors.

“Hello.”

Maru greeted the photographer first. This photographer was in charge of all the clothing photos of this brand, POP.

“Even if it’s your first time, don’t be nervous and relax, and most of it should be fine. At first, we’ll shoot from the front to get you used to it, and we’ll change the position little by little after that, so don’t worry.”

“I’ll do my best. If there’s a pose you’d like me to take, then please tell me. I’ll do my best to do it.”

“I like that confidence. Should we go with a knitted sweater first?”

Maru put on the clothes, being careful not to ruin his hair styling, and stood in front of the camera.

“Let’s start,” Maru said to the photographer.

After Story 128

“Yes, look straight ahead. Good. Shall we change up the pose a little?” said the photographer.

Maru sat on the edge of the chair without a backrest and stretched out his legs. He looked into the distance and slightly tilted his chin.

“Tilt your gaze just a little to the right.”

He moved his gaze just as the photographer requested. He had done tons of photo shoots. He could determine the preferences of the photographer after a few poses.

“Shall we try walking a little now? We went with a strong image until now, so let’s go with a slightly exhausted feeling.”

“If you think I’m not doing it right, then tell me right away.”

Maru put his hand on the back of his neck and sighed a little as he walked forward. He thought about the fatigue of going home after a hard exercise; his body was exhausted but his expression was filled with vitality.

“It looks okay, but I think we should go with being so exhausted that you’re about to collapse. Throw out all the leisure and make it look like it’s hard to take a single step.”

“That’s also a specialty of mine.”

He thought about when he was working at his company without being able to sleep because a problem occurred in the production line. Back then, he experienced what it meant to be overworked to death. Even though it wasn’t like he sprinted or anything, his mouth felt dry and his eyelids kept closing against his will. It was when falling over and sleeping was his only desire.

He took a few steps like he was about to fall over before sitting down on a chair. The photographer moved left and right as he took photos.

“Good. Looks like I’m going to have to spend a lot of time choosing photos. There are many that are just too good to be thrown away.”

Maru got changed and stood in front of the computer. The photographer put the photos he just took on the screen. They were photos that only had their color temperature adjusted.

“This one and this one will be monochrome. Which one do you like from the right?”

Maru chose three of them without hesitation. They were the ones that had a decent match between the mode, clothes, and the expression.

“Your standards are similar to mine. I like those two. And also this one and this one.”

“Your skills are good, so each one of them is artistic.”

“And the model is good too. You took a lot of photos, right? That’s not an expression someone can show after just one or two tries.”

“I like taking photos by myself. I participated in club activities for a little bit, too.”

“The thing is, if the ones getting shot know how to shoot, they feel different. I had a blast shooting photos after a long time. When the person I’m shooting is just like my imagination in the frame, then the feeling of pressing the shutter is just that much better.”

As he was choosing photos with the photographer, he heard the employee putting away the clothes greet someone. When he turned around, he saw a woman in her early thirties walking over. The woolen, brown-tone two-piece dress and the teardrop-shaped buttons caught his eyes.

“Sorry I’m late. I wanted to say hello before things started, but I had somewhere I needed to be. Mr. Han Maru, right?”

The woman held out her hand. Maru realized that the woman in front of him was Han Gyungjin, the CEO of POP.

“Nice to meet you.”

“You were in the middle of work, so let’s stop the greetings here. Mr. Choi. How are the photos?”

Gyungjin walked past him. He thought the CEO would be male after hearing the name, but he was wrong.

While the photographer and the CEO talked to each other, Maru looked at his clothes in front of a mirror. He had to look at it so that he could think about what kind of poses to make to bring out the best of the clothes.

“Mr. Han, just a sec,” the CEO called out to him. “First of all, I’m really happy that I get to work with you like this. Seeing the photos multiplied that joy for me. They were much better than I expected.”

“Thank you.”

“I guess it was the right decision not to decide on a theme beforehand. They look so good that we can use them for the catalog that we provide our consumers. But…,” the CEO trailed off.

“Is there a problem?” he asked.

“No, there isn’t a problem. It’s just I’m feeling greedy. I might be going too far with this request, but can I pour water on you?”

“Water?”

“Look at this photo.”

He looked at the photos that the CEO pointed at. They were the photos that the photographer said they should use as monochrome. It was a photo where he sat leaning against a wall and was looking down at the ground.

“This one looks good as it is, but I had the thought that it might look better if it rained. A Spring rain and a wet man. It’s a scene that gives off a decadent beauty.”

The CEO suddenly shook her head while speaking,

“No wait. It won’t look good inside this studio. The backdrops we have here are all too simple. Mr. Han, if it’s okay with you, can you spare one or two more days? Of course, we’ll give you the money for various expenses and for the photo shoot.”

Maru looked at his manager. Yeonjin came over and talked to the CEO.

“She’s normally a calm person, but she doesn’t hesitate when it’s about the catalog,” said the photographer in a small voice after approaching him.

“It must be that passion that allowed the company to grow. But the president was a woman, huh.”

“There are many people who think she’s male based on her name alone. The president seems to want people to make that mistake as well. Even though the era has changed, there are still a few people who look down on women who do business.”

The manager came over after they settled things to an extent.

“I think we should just decide on a schedule. What would you like to do? If the atmosphere was okay today, it should be okay to keep doing it. Above all, I really like her proposal to use you on the cover of the catalog.”

“Then I should do it. They’re putting me as the main face of a business that puts out 60 billion won in sales every year.”

He walked over to the CEO along with his manager. The CEO, who was looking at the photos in detail, asked if he had decided.

“I’ll do it. Thank you for giving me this opportunity.”

“I should be thankful instead. Actually, I didn’t expect that much from you, to be honest, Mr. Han. I admit that you’re a good actor, but how that would translate to modeling, I couldn’t be so sure. It’s not like photos contain voices. But now that I had a look, I can’t just let you be. Some of these photos are better than the ones taken by our exclusive models. We’ll need to take a few more photos to be sure, but if things go well, I hope you can manage our PB line as well.”

“I’ll do it if you’re giving me more work to do, but aren’t you deciding too whimsically? It should be okay to decide after seeing the responses,” Maru said with a smile.

“I don’t really know that much about acting. It’s obvious since I’m not an actress myself. However, when it comes to clothing distribution and clothes marketing, I know a thing or two. When it comes to themes of clothing, the most important thing is to get on the trend. Even then, it’s useless when you’re the last one on board. That’s why I need to hurry. A sloth cannot become a trendsetter.”

The CEO told the employees to bring something.

A moment later, two employees appeared with paper bags in each hand.

“This is to commemorate us working together. I got some for your manager as well. They aren’t expensive stuff, just some of the products our brand has. My dream is to have the sales of our products be higher than what I earn through logistics. If you think they’re good, you should tell the people around you about them. There’s nothing better than word of mouth when it comes to marketing.”

The CEO then left, saying that they should meet at the next shoot. While the manager was fine-tuning the schedule with another employee, he looked inside the bag. There were clothes he could wear casually. They weren’t too expensive.

“I guess not anyone can do business, huh,” he said as he left the building.

The manager started the car. “The female CEOs of internet shopping malls these days are no joke.”

The car drove off. The manager asked as he tapped on the GPS navigation,

“If you don’t have anywhere you need to go, then I’ll bring you to your house.”

“There is a place I need to go.”

“Where?”

“The bbq restaurant nearby. Let’s have something to eat together. We’re going to be working together in the future, but we haven’t even eaten together yet.”

“Shall we? I was feeling hungry too.”

“I’ll treat you this time so let’s go quickly.”

They went to a pork belly restaurant. Maru was grilling the meat when the manager’s phone rang. After checking the number, the manager hurriedly accepted the call.

“Yes, this is Yeonjin speaking.” The manager eyed him and then left.

Yeonjin only came back after the pork belly had been fully cooked.

“I was going to eat about three portions and even some kimchi-jjigae, but I guess we have to go after this one,” he said.

“Did something happen?”

“Mr. Maru, you don’t have any work this evening, do you? Please tell me you don’t.”

“Well, no, not really.”

“Then let’s go after eating this. There’s someone you need to meet.”

“So suddenly?”

“Yes. The person who called me is the head manager, and apparently, this was set up all of a sudden. Do you know about director Lim Hwanggeun?”

“I do.”

He was a person who had stayed a long time in the film industry. He was someone who made comedic mafia movies popular. Even this life’s Han Maru, who did not like movies that much, had seen director Lim Hwanggeun’s movies during festive occasions. They were just that popular with the masses.

“That person decided to eat out with the head manager, and apparently, the director wanted to see you.”

“Me?”

“I don’t know if it was the head manager who talked about you or whether he saw your acting, but in any case, things went well. Usually, casting happens in private meetings like this one, unless you’re holding a public audition. Even if it’s not related to the casting, this is an opportunity to get yourself acquainted,”

Yeonjin spoke excitedly, as though this was his own matter. Maru nodded before putting a piece of pork belly into some lettuce and putting it in his mouth.

“You don’t seem that excited? This is a great opportunity, you know?”

“I know it’s a great opportunity. But there’s meat sizzling in front of my eyes, so I can’t be too distracted. You should eat as well. For me, I’d get treated to a meal if I go, but this is your dinner, isn’t it?”

“That’s true, but I thought you’d be more excited than this.”

“More often than not, even if I do go to places like that, I’d have to leave after getting scrutinized. Even if you are called with casting in mind, there are many people who take it back because they don’t like the figure in real life.”

“Really?” The manager, who was putting some ssam in his mouth, stopped midway.

“How do you know all that?”

“I don’t know it. It just feels like that, so let’s eat first. Oh, what’s your hobby, manager?”

“Hobby?”

“I tend to find it easier to work with people I know. It wouldn’t be necessary if it’s a temporary relationship, but It seems like I’ll be working with you for a long time. The more we know each other, the closer we will be, and the closer we are, the more careful we can be around each other.”

“That’s true. Hobby, huh? For me, that’d be fishing.”

“Fishing is good. We should go together sometime.”

“Shall we?”

They talked over the meal. By the time they finished eating, Yeonjin said first that they should drop the formal speech at this opportunity.

“That’s just what I wanted. Then shall we get going?”

“Yeah. We should get going now if we want to go there by car.”

After paying for the meal, Maru got in the car.

Director Lim Hwanggeun – Maru looked him up on the way. After the mafia movie he shot 3 years ago, he had not been doing anything else. Perhaps he had finally finished planning his new work?

“It’s this place. Go inside and mention the head manager’s name, and you should be guided to the right place. I’ll wait nearby, so give me a call once you’re done,” Yeonjin said.

The car stopped in front of a high-class Japanese restaurant.

“Don’t wait and go back first.”

“Will you be okay?”

“There are plenty of buses going to Suwon from Seoul. You should go home. Let’s meet next time.”

“Alright. I’ll bring the clothes we received to your house next time. It’s nothing we should be in a hurry about.”

“Let’s do that then. Watch out on your way home.”

Maru looked at the car leaving before going inside the restaurant.

After Story 129

He met head manager Choi and director Lim Hwanggeun in the room he was guided to. It seemed they had yet to start drinking as director Lim scanned Maru from top to bottom.

“It seems I’m late.”

“No, not at all. You’re here just in time. Director, this is Maru.”

Director Lim nodded.

“I can tell from looking. There’s no way I don’t know the face of someone I called here myself. Dinner?”

“I had a light meal before coming,” he said as he sat down on the chair head manager Choi pointed at.

“Then let’s have a talk over a simple meal. First of all, have a glass from me.”

Maru picked up the glass in front of him and held it out with both hands.

“I’m sure you’re rather taken aback because I decided to see you all of a sudden. Anyway, thank you for coming.”

“Not at all. I’m thankful that you called me here. Allow me to pour you a glass as well.”

“No, I can pour mine. To commemorate, let’s toast.”

Director Lim held out his glass. Maru and head manager Choi held out their glasses to toast as well.

“Now that I look at you like this, you’re giving me just the impression I want. You know, I’m asking just in case, but can you cut your hair short to follow the character? I’m talking about something nearly a buzz cut.”

“If necessary, sure.”

Director Lim looked at Maru from side to side.

“Director, if you do that so suddenly, Maru here will be confused. You’re good at everything else, but you really aren’t good at explaining.”

“That’s why I like you, head manager Choi. You know what’s necessary.”

Director Lim put a piece of sushi in his mouth and swallowed it after not chewing that many times. He ate three pieces like that in a row.

“What kind of movies do you like?”

That question was aimed at Maru.

“If you’re talking about genre, then there’s nothing I tend to avoid.”

“Really? Then what do you dislike?”

“If I had to pick one, it’d be horror.”

“Horror movies, huh? I don’t like stuff like ghosts either.”

Director Lim poured a glass for himself before drinking. From how he was drinking Japanese Sake with a high alcohol content like it was water, he seemed to be quite the alcoholic.

“Hey, have you ever seen any of my movies?”

“I have.”

“Which ones?”

“I’ve seen Gawol-dong.”

It was the piece that engraved director Lim’s name in the hearts of the public, as well as the work that labeled him as a sneaky man that aimed at festive seasons[1]. People went as far as to call him the godfather and the grim reaper of comedic mafia movies.

“Did you enjoy them?”

“Yes, they were enjoyable.”

“I’m glad that they were enjoyable at least. If I couldn’t make that happen, how would I have any shame to lift my head in public?”

Director Lim sniffled once before drinking straight. If not for director Choi holding him back, he might have emptied all the sake in the pot.

“Hey. Are you going to shoot a mafia movie if you’re told to?”

“If the work is good, then sure.”

“If it’s bad, you aren’t going to shoot it?”

“I’m not sure. I can only tell whether a scenario is good or not after I see it.”

“Hey, young fella. You should learn how to talk sweet lies and make people feel proud, you know? You’re making me feel embarrassed.”

“I thought you wouldn’t like something like that, director.”

The director scoffed.

“If I can lament while I’m drunk, I regret every day that I became a film director. I don’t know why I have to suffer so much because of this trashy job.”

“Seeing as how you didn’t quit, it shouldn’t be just all suffering, I see,” Maru said.

Director Lim, who leaned backward with his arms drooping to the floor, gave director Choi a glance before looking at him again. His eyes looked like his interest in this young man had been piqued.

“Let me take a call real quick.” Head manager Choi left the room.

Director Lim leaned forward and rested his elbows on the table. When he sighed, there was a thick sweet smell of alcohol.

“You know what? When people’s wallets become thick, they start wanting something else. Back when I was shooting Gawol-dong, I was more in it for the money than the work itself. Even if it was criticized as being terrible, the money transferred to my bank account was quite a lot. But after I finished that movie, people started looking down on me. They said they’d rather quit this line of work than earn money like how I did.”

Director Lim reached out to the sake pot. Maru grabbed the pot in director Lim’s stead since he was swaying left and right.

“You’ve drunk quite a lot.”

“Drinking alcohol is about getting drunk anyway. Give it to me.”

“Then have just one more glass.”

“Alright, just one more glass.”

Maru filled director Lim’s glass about halfway. Director Lim looked at him in dissatisfaction, but he drank without saying anything to him about it.

“Do you think that too? Do you think it’s better to quit than make money off of trashy movies?”

“Who in the world pays money to watch trash? I, at least, haven’t seen anyone who does that. People watched Gawol-dong because it has its own unique taste.”

“Hey, you can actually be quite a sweet talker, eh?”

“I did sweeten up a little bit, but it’s also my honest opinion. If it were truly trash, no one would’ve watched it. Do you hate Gawol-dong, director?”

“Me? I like it. Think about what would happen if all movies were serious and heavy. Who would go to the cinema? It’s because there’s a choice that it’s worth going. But honestly, I know it too. My film is lower quality compared to the ones that are critiqued as being good.”

He followed up.

“I’m fed up with consoling myself by calling it the limitation of entertainment films. That’s why I’m planning to have a go at it. This Lim Hwanggeun is gonna have a shot at it. Yer think I don’t have the desire to do good work? I do. Of course ah’ do. I’m filled with the desire to shoot a real good noire film rather than some ridiculous comedic stuff.”

“So you’re having a go at it this time?”

Director Lim nodded. From how his eyes were semi-loose and he kept licking his lips, he seemed to be very drunk. Maru thought he was good with alcohol from the way he drank all that sake, but he turned out to be wrong.

“Liszen to me. I’m going to talk about the mafia real properly this time. A fucker good at scheming, a sucker who trusts his punches, a back-stabbing motherfucker, a loyalty-crazed weirdo. It’s gunna be a movie with lotsa blood in it. Sounds interesting, doeznnit?”

“I’m not sure yet. I’ll have to look at the scenario to be sure.”

“Hey, you damn prick. It sounds interesting even from that, doesn’t it? I’ve been holding onto this for six yearsh. I kept changing the cast in my brain and edited the story and now I finally put a dot on it. Then I saw you. Damn, man. That was a way to die.”

Maru smiled.

“As soon as I saw that scene in the drama, I thought this little shit is gonna be the real deal. That’s why I called you here. How ‘bout it? Wanna do it?”

“If the scenario’s good, of course I’d want to do it.”

Director Lim suddenly slapped down on the table. The glass dishes all made spinning sounds before stopping.

“Scenario this, scenario that. Hey! You acting expensive in front of me?”

“I’m very cheap. If it’s a minor character, then I’m willing to play anything. But if you called me all the way here to talk about the movie and even lament in front of me, then it makes me think that the role you want me to play is at least a supporting character. If that’s the case, I’ll have to look at the story.”

“You sayin’ you gonna assess my work?”

Maru didn’t say anything. If it were a background character or a minor character, he wouldn’t hesitate to do it since those characters had less weight in the story and had no influence in the grand scheme of things.

However, if it was about playing a character on the level of a supporting role or higher, he couldn’t simply accept everything. When he said he wanted to become a soju-like actor, he meant he would become an actor that could be used for any type of role, not that he would appear in whatever work that came his way.

If the density of the story was high and the plot was interesting, he would take them up on it. Otherwise, he would refuse. This was the part that he placed the most importance on when it came to choosing a scenario. Commercial success came after that.

It wasn’t like an individual could predict the commercial success or failure of a movie anyway.

“What a petty prick.”

Director Lim pressed his eyes before falling over. Maru called out to him but to no avail.

“This fella, he’s down like this again,” said head manager Choi when he returned. “What’d he say?”

“I’m not entirely sure because he spoke without any context, but I think he wanted to cast me.”

“Are you going to take him up on it if you’re offered to be cast?”

“I’ll decide after I have a look. I can’t just say yes based on words alone. Also, for a while, any work I do will have to go through the president, so I can’t decide anything by myself.” Maru looked at the director. “But what now? I don’t think we can talk anymore, and I think we should bring the director home.”

“Don’t worry about that. I’ll take him home.” He carried director LIm along with head manager Choi. After pushing director Lim into the back seat of the taxi, head manager Choi spoke to him,

“Good work. Watch out on your way home.”

“Yes.”

He heard the head manager speak as he got in the car — director, I told you to take it easy on the alcohol, you really never listen — they seemed to be on close terms.

Maru walked to the nearby train station. Although it was way past rush hour, it didn’t change the fact that it was still crowded.

He put himself on the crowded train. He shrunk himself as much as possible and grabbed a handle. It was around when he arrived at Sadang station in the big crowd that he got a phone call. It was from head manager Choi. He got off the train and picked up.

“Yes, head manager.”

-Director Lim says you should come to an audition in two days.

“In two days?”

-Yes. He says he’ll show you the scenario depending on how you do. He mentioned that it was his last pride or whatever. Just what the heck did you two talk about?

“Nothing much. Rather than that, has this gone through the president?”

-Why do you think I’m calling you? The president has already read the scenario that director Lim wrote.

“It must’ve been okay then.”

-It wasn’t okay… it was great. I’ll send you the lines you have to practice tomorrow. You should prepare that along with a free skit. I’ll write to you the place you need to go to as well.

“Okay.”

-It’s an audition where you’ll be competing for one role. I think he’ll gather veterans and choose from them. Try to do well. It looks like director Lim has set his mind this time.

Head manager Choi then hung up. A work that already went through the screening of the president, huh?

When he arrived at home, he checked his email. The lines for the audition had arrived in his inbox. There were three different scenes. While he printed out the lines, Haneul came over.

“An audition?”

“Yeah.”

“Let me have a look.”

She slowly looked through the lines that were printed.

“It looks like you’re going to blow away the cultured image that you got through the documentary if you do this properly.”

“How is it? Do you think it’s a good character?”

“I can’t tell from this alone. But I feel like it will suit you, sweetie. But if you want to go with this image, I think you’ll have to cut your hair short. An intense impression is better after all.”

“The director said that to me too.”

“You look like a thug if you cut your hair short.”

“That’s just right for this character, then.”

He grabbed the paper and went to the living room. Then he asked the judge with the most accurate eyes above all for some help.

“Look at me and see how I do.”

“You’re prepared to hear some rough things, right? I’m ruthless when it comes to looking over your acting, sweetie.”

“Don’t just give me the whips though.”

Maru stood in front of his wife who sat down on the sofa. He was only given two days. It was a period of time that allowed him to tell what director Lim was thinking: he was thinking of Maru as someone he looked forward to, but wasn’t entirely necessary. Then, there was only one thing to do – to become the man director Lim needed.

“It’s meh,” said his wife.

Maru smiled bitterly. Before he caught director Lim’s eyes, he had to get this woman to like it first.

[1] TVs will show ‘festive season movies’ during festive seasons, so you can watch such movies without going to the cinema. It’s a bit like how Home Alone is aired every single Christmas. Here (and before too), ‘festive season’ refers to Lunar New Years and Thanksgiving in Korea (Chuseok)

After Story 130

“This is him?” Director Lim Hwanggeun took his eyes off the phone the assistant director gave him.

“You didn’t know? I thought you knew already.”

“I only watched the drama. Just the dying scene too. I didn’t know what he was doing in other places,” saying that, he gave the assistant director back his phone.

The 10 minutes or so of the documentary he just watched left a deep impression inside his head. The content was one thing, but the voice that narrated all of it was splendid. It was heavy and sturdy but was not frustrating either.

He also liked the fact that the narrator raised the pitch at the necessary times to refresh the atmosphere. If he did not know the identity of the narrator, he would’ve thought that it was a veteran voice actor who had a young voice.

“It was all the rage once in internet communities. Young people who like to edit stuff like this took this actor’s voice and put it in other clips too. Some people even said they could sleep well if they listen to this voice and listened to them all night.”

“People do all sorts of stuff, huh.”

Hwanggeun smiled as he looked at the various videos on the internet that the assistant director showed him. The younger generation these days was somewhat incomprehensible to him.

“It’s an era where all sorts of things are possible. Shall we start now?” said the assistant director, looking at his watch.

Hwanggeun drank some water and nodded.

The assistant director stood up and left through the door.

Hwanggeun looked at the faces of the actors waiting in the waiting room outside. They all had good eyes. There wasn’t anyone who looked out of character for the role.

The first actor came in along with the assistant director.

“Hello, director.”

“Hi, it’s been a while.”

As this was a closed audition, some of the participants were people he knew.

“Shall I start immediately?”

“You can begin when you’re ready.”

Since he was an actor whose skills had been proven already, Hwanggeun had to look at the atmosphere or the vibe. How good would this actor be in the shoes of Gomchi? He appreciated the act of the first participant while fidgeting with his pen.

“Hey, fuck. Gosh, please! Hey, hey. Get yourself together. Don’t bullshit me.”

The actor despaired while holding onto a person who was hit by a car. Panic and unease continuously flashed on his face. His act was good, with no disparity between his actions and expressions.

The actor, who kept looking down at the corpse with shaking eyes, turned around.

“Good. You’re good at acting after all.”

It was smooth without any glaring flaws. It was a slight disappointment that the speed at which he got out of the emotions was too fast, but he could understand since this was an audition. For the details, he could just set them straight during the audition. Right now, checking the vibe was the most important.

The actor skilfully did the next act without making a mistake either. He expressed well the changes that Gomchi went through as he became more and more numb to the pains of others and his own sense of guilt. Hwanggeun thought he would’ve done even better if he had more time to practice.

“Good work. You’re much better than the last time I saw you. At this rate, you might become an actor I won’t be able to use.”

“I’d love to be able to work with you, director. Call me any time.”

Hwanggeun smiled and told him that they should meet next time. The actor left alongside the assistant director.

The start was good. If all the actors outside were on this level, he would have a happy time worrying about who to use.

For now, he put ‘No. 1’ on the A4 paper in front of him and wrote down his impressions. Instead of writing general assessments, he wrote about what impressions he received from moment to moment. As for the general assessment, he could do it while looking at the recorded footage later.

The second participant came in. They weren’t acquainted, but he had seen this actor a few times. This fellow was pretty good as well. Hwanggeun greeted him.

“Can I start from the third scene?”

“As you wish. Looks like you prepared something, huh?”

The second actor started acting with a confident expression.

The more you do it, the more proficient you get, and indeed, as this person had played a mafia role in another movie before, his acting was quite good. He showed Gomchi numb to violence first and then rewind time to show him with an intense sense of guilt. Hwanggeun liked that as well.

It was the same character, but since there was a drastic change in the character’s mindset, he needed an actor who could make them look distinct.

He waved his hand at the actor who recited the lines, flustered at not knowing what to do. Based on impressions alone, the second was better than the first.

“Thank you. That was enjoyable.”

“I’ll expect good news.”

“Don’t give me pressure like that. You’ll make me a bad guy if I don’t contact you.”

The second actor left as well. When the third actor came in, he felt that he was no good the moment he came in. First of all, he was frozen stiff. Although there were many actors who could change at the flip of a switch when the camera started rolling, actors who froze in an audition mostly froze stiff in front of a camera as well.

And just as he had expected, when he set up the stage for him, the man kept making mistakes like he had just started learning to act. His lines were murmurs at best and his acting was terrible.

“Stop. Practice some more and come again next time.”

“I’m sorry.”

“Why are you saying that to me? You should feel sorry for yourself. Practice like your life depends on it and then reach out to me once you practice to the point you can accept yourself. I’ll have a look at you personally. Okay?”

“Yes.” The actor left.

The director told the assistant director that they should take a break. After going to the bathroom, he bought a cup of coffee.

On the way back, he ran into the actors waiting. The actors who knew him greeted him, and even the actors he didn’t know greeted him after noticing who he was.

“Please don’t be nervous. If you’re going to feel nervous after you go inside, then just go home. It’s not like you’ve sinned. You’re here to show what you’ve practiced. If you’re nervous about that, it just means you haven’t practiced enough.”

He returned to the room after saying that.

“You could have put it nicely, but you always speak like that,” said the assistant director.

“What, you don’t like that?”

“People like me, who have a lot of experience with you, would understand that you’re worried about them and that you’re cheering for them… but what would other people think when they hear that for the first time?”

“If they’re going to feel upset from just that, then it’s better that they don’t work with me. I’ll be like this throughout the entire shoot.”

“That’s why you should try fixing your tone.”

“Shut up and have the next person come in. We should go through as many as possible while I’m still sane.”

The assistant director emptied his coffee in one go and left the room.

Hwanggeun scratched between his eyebrows. The assistant director was right. He could change his tone slightly to sound nicer, but he couldn’t fix that. Whether it was because of his petty pride or his embarrassment, even he did not know.

It was also rather funny that he was worried about something like this when he was way past forty years old.

The audition continued. Other than a few insufficient actors, most of them showed acting skills above his expectations. It was a pity that he could only pick one of them.

“Everyone’s good. It feels like they’ve analyzed a lot.”

“Who do you think is the best?”

“I like the second actor. Mr. Ha Gyungsoo, I think he was? Along with him, the thirteenth person, actor Yoo Mansung, gave me the deepest impression. How about you, director?”

“I’m the same. How many are there left?”

“Three of them. Shall I bring the next person?”

“Yeah. Let’s go have dinner after we see the rest of them.”

The sixteenth actor came into the room. Hwanggeun first scanned the profile and looked in front of him. Maru, wearing a beanie, was in front of him.

Perhaps because of the beanie that nearly covered his eyebrows, he gave off a different appearance. He looked a lot sharper compared to when they met in the Japanese restaurant.

“Do you think you can do it?”

He didn’t expect a lot from Maru. If he was an actor that he really wanted to see, he would’ve invited Maru before the meal and formally introduced himself.

Maru was someone he just wanted to look at once, someone he just wanted to check the vibes of. That was the level of interest he had in this man.

He only had some curiosity because of the death in the drama that left a deep impression on him, and he didn’t actually consider him to be an actor suitable for Gomchi.

The reason he told Maru the audition schedule was because of what he said.

I can only say after looking at the scenario. — He rather liked the way he spoke, not being too humble, and saying what was right.

“I’ll do it. I have taken a liking to this character.”

“Go on then.”

Maru took off his beanie. The short hairstyle entered Hwanggeun’s eyes. Although it wasn’t so short that it was a buzz cut, the side bangs that had been cut short gave him a totally different impression.

“You cut your hair?”

“You said I would look better that way. And I think so too.”

“I never promised you this role. You did that all by yourself.”

“It’s okay. I am going to take this role.”

“You sound confident.”

Maru didn’t respond and shook his body lightly. He probably meant that he would show it through his act instead of his words.

Was this the arrogance of a rookie? Or plausible confidence?

There were many actors who were perfect in just one scene. The scene that Hwanggeun checked was the one where Maru died. Just that single one. That one scene was so perfect that he could send praises, but that wasn’t enough for him to discern the level of an actor.

Well then, would the young actor in front of him show more than just that?

Maru acted out the first scene. The important thing in this scene was the display of inner conflict. Maru, who looked down at the person hit by a car, closed his eyes and opened them again. All sorts of emotions flashed through his eyes.

“Hey, fuck. Gosh!”

Maru looked at a loss like he just found out his house was being washed away in a flood. He also delicately displayed the onslaught of disgust and sadness on top of the despair at the sudden misfortune that arrived.

The flustered act was passable for now.

A sense of chill fluctuated in his eyes as he looked at the corpse. He clenched the hands that he was using to probe around the corpse and started looking around like a predatory animal on a hunt. The desire for survival overwrote the sense of guilt of having killed a man. He wiped his hands that he had been rubbing.

While the way he gasped like he had been diving underwater was still there, the way he looked around the corpse and the surroundings became quicker and quicker.

“Don’t bullshit me. It cannot end like this. It must not end like this.”

His words were ruthlessly shaky. It wasn’t a voice that was squeezed out and was displeasing to listen to. It was an extremely natural tremble that anyone would sympathize with.

The words that were placed on top of his violent breathing entered Hwanggeun’s ears without getting squashed. Maru didn’t make the mistake of being swept by the torrent of emotions and losing the focus of his act. He looked just as good, if not slightly better, than the actors that preceded him.

However, Hwanggeun couldn’t make the decision already. He had to see the other scenes as well. The process of Gomchi letting go of his human morals and becoming a money-starved ghost was important.

He would be able to tell whether Maru understood that point or not after seeing Maru’s act of Gomchi changing with time.

“I’ll do the next act.”

“Go on.”

Hwanggeun raised his pen. The first scene was done splendidly, but if Maru did the second scene in the same nuance, then it would all be for naught. There had to be clear changes like taking a nosedive after flying in the air for a long time or coming up to the surface from the deep seas.

No, rather than changes, it was closer to a transformation. That was Gomchi’s character. Someone who moved further and further away from being human.

Just before Maru’s second act began, he suddenly realized. He had forgotten this because Maru had shown such a well-prepared act.

Two days. Maru only had two days to prepare for this.

His consciousness suddenly flashed like someone poured cold water on him.

This was what he prepared over the span of two days?

Maru pressed on his beanie again and looked forward. The moment he saw those eyes, Hwanggeun realized that the character had changed. It was the change in impression caused by the delicate movement of facial muscles. It was an acting technique practically unseen from actors in their early 20s.

“How much will I get for this one?”

The moment he heard that line, Hwanggeun put down his pen. There was no need to write down any impressions. The one in front of him was Gomchi.

After Story 131

He grabbed the man by the neck and stabbed him. He stabbed from a slanted angle right through the ribs before pulling the knife out and stabbing once again.

He twisted his wrist, feeling the space between the ribs widening, before pulling out the knife.

A heavy breath escaped his slightly open mouth. The air that entered through his nose felt itchy.

The air passed through his airways and sank deep. It got stuck in various parts of his lungs as though it had viscosity.

He started running out of breath. The inhaling breath circulated around his throat before leaving.

He put down the knife and turned around. For a moment, he lost focus. His throat suddenly tightened up as though he had gotten a strong hit on the chest.

He bent down his waist and blocked his mouth with both of his hands and looked around. A corpse that didn’t contain a single sign of life was right in front of his eyes. This was now murder that contained clearly intent, not homicide resulting from a mistake.

If he got caught, he would spend a dozen years in prison at least and a life sentence at worst.

He thought back to what happened a long time ago. Back then, he killed a person due to a mistake. He spent many sleepless nights after that, having illusions about the police suddenly barging into his house and arresting him.

He also saw the dead guy appear in front of him and stare at him in a daze.

Every single day was hell, but he endured it all. He won against hell. He was a victor, and he would stay one.

His breathing became refreshed. His blurry vision became clearer as well. His thoughts became much more focused. He could think about what to do next.

The shaking of his hands and feet stopped. He even felt refreshed as though he just woke up from a good night of sleep.

He quickly cleaned the surroundings. He removed any traces from this space. He was going to erase any sort of evidence that there was a person here.

“You can do it. You just have to stay calm. This is an easy matter. It’s just like making instant noodles.” He consoled himself as he moved.

After finishing the act, Maru loosened his fingers gripping the corpse. The dead body, the blood, and the murder weapon all disappeared from his eyes.

What he saw was the corner of the room, as well as the two judges watching him from in front of him.

“That concludes my act.”

He saw director Lim Hwanggeun stroke his lips.

“Two days, was it?”

“Pardon?”

“The time you had to prepare. It was two days ago when I saw you at the restaurant and told you about it, right?”

“It was.”

“Yes, okay. Good work, and you may leave.”

“I have two free skits I’ve prepared.”

“No, it’s okay. I don’t need to see it.”

Did his act work? Or was he getting rejected because he didn’t have the right image? He couldn’t tell for sure right now. Although he had the confidence, casting wasn’t based on acting skills alone.

He left the room with the assistant director. The gloomy air stuck around his body finally disappeared at that time. His act managed to produce the word ‘decent’ from his wife’s mouth. He did enough to satisfy himself, so the only thing left now was to wait.

“I really don’t say this to someone who just finished an audition, but I dare say that you’ll take the role, Mr. Han. At least in my eyes, you were the best out of everyone today,” the assistant director said those words after saying goodbye.

He didn’t seem to say that out of formality. The act he prepared his best for was complimented. There would be nothing more pleasing than this as an actor. He lightly lowered his head and left the building.

Would he get contacted? Or would he not make it?

He looked at the reflection of his short hair in front of a shop before starting to walk again.

Maybe he should’ve cut his hair after the audition.

* * *

“You’re home?”

Hwanggeun smiled after seeing his son at home. As his son had started living in his college dormitory, it wasn’t that often that he got to see him. Although their relationship wasn’t the best when his son was in high school, it had become a lot better after his son had finished his military service, seemingly having matured during it.

“What brings you here?”

“I’m here because it’s the weekend. I also had something to pick up at home since exams are coming up.”

“Have you had dinner?”

“I was waiting for you to arrive. You haven’t had dinner yet, have you?”

“It’s been a while, so should we eat outside?” Hwanggeun asked, taking only one arm out of his jacket.

“Let’s have a simple meal at home. How about some instant noodles and kimchi? I can also put some rice cakes in it.”

“Sounds good.”

His son started cooking instant noodles. Seeing the son stand in the kitchen, he found how fast the little baby grew up quite curious.

He went inside his bedroom and brought out his laptop. He connected the SD card to the card reader and then to the laptop. The video files for the audition appeared on the screen.

He checked each of the files and opened the videos. He first had a look at the actors that weren’t to his liking. He went through this process to recheck if there was a charm point that he could not find through the naked eye.

He skimmed through two people’s videos quickly. There weren’t any results there. He only saw terrible acting.

“Father, should we eat here?”

His son brought some food on a tray. There were some noodles in a pot, kimchi, and cooled rice.

In truth, he had already had dinner with the assistant director after the audition. Although he wasn’t that hungry, it had been a long time since he ate anything with his son. He smiled and picked up his chopsticks.

“Are you okay with just this?”

“It’s good enough. I’ll scoop the noodles for you.”

He scooped some noodles that his son poured for him with his chopsticks.

“It’s good.”

“I was the KP in the military.”

His son, who was just about to pick up his chopsticks, looked at the laptop and spoke,

“What’s that?”

“The audition I had today.”

“You’re starting a film soon?”

“Once I’m done selecting supporting characters, it’ll be the crank-in.”

This felt rather unfamiliar to him since he had never talked about his films with his son. Still, he was glad to see his son show interest in it.

“Can I look at it?”

“It’s not something suitable to watch over a meal, but you can.”

Hwanggeun pressed the spacebar as he said so. The paused video resumed again. The actor he decided to drop acted for about three minutes.

“Is that considered good?”

“How do you see it?”

“I don’t know much about acting, but it looks rather awkward.”

“He is awkward. Whether it’s you or me, our standards of discerning acting skills are about the same. That’s why acting is so difficult. An act that everyone thinks is good is definitely not easy.”

His son put some kimchi in his mouth.

“But the story is quite cruel, huh.”

“It’s not like the movies I shot until now, is it?”

His son smiled without replying.

“Since we’re on the topic, let me ask. Have you seen my movies?”

“I did. It aired in Chuseok last year.”

“Really? How was it?”

“It wasn’t really my cup of tea. But I did enjoy it.”

His son saying that he enjoyed it made him more excited than any form of acknowledgment from the people around him. Holding back the smile creeping onto his face, Hwanggeun coughed as though he wasn’t fazed at all.

“Who are you going to pick? Is there an actor you like?”

“There is.”

Hwanggeun scrolled to the top and looked at the two files up there.

Ha Gyungsoo A, Han Maru A, Yoo Mansung A. These three were the actors he had noted based on the vibe he felt at the audition.

As for acting skills, they were roughly similar. Yoo Mansung was lacking compared to the other two, but it wasn’t on the level of a flaw. Moreover, as these were distinct cuts and not continuous scenes, there weren’t many points to assess.

Predicting the whole through fragments. This was a difficulty he experienced every time he held an audition. It was also the reason why many people used actors who had already proven their skills rather than holding auditions.

“Give me your opinion on who’s best.”

“What do I know about this though?”

“Do you think everyone who watches movies is in the industry? People like you, who have nothing to do with the industry, make up the audience.”

“That’s true, I guess.”

“Watch it seriously. One of these three people will end up getting the role.”

He first played Ha Gyungsoo’s video. His son’s eyes were glued to the screen. He also looked at the acting of the actor in detail.

Gomchi was a very important role that set up the atmosphere of the movie as a whole. Although there was an actor he wanted to use, he decided to use a new actor as that proposal was refused, thinking that if not for that actor, it would be the same regardless.

“He’s definitely good. Miles better than the one I saw before.”

“He has built his career playing various supporting characters.”

“Now that you mention it, I think I saw him somewhere. I don’t know his name though.”

Following that, he played Han Maru’s video. After watching for a while, his son commented,

“This person’s good too. I don’t know how to put this, but he makes me unable to think about anything else. That actor before made me focus as well, but I think this person is better. Above all…”

His son trailed off. It seemed that he was putting off his opinion for later.

Hwanggeun then played the last video. It was actor Yoo Mansung.

Based on appearances alone, actor Yoo was the best among the three. He looked gentle at a glance but had viciousness in his eyes. He had the best appearance to express the changes in Gomchi throughout the story.

The one thing that was lacking about him was his acting didn’t have the immersive power that the previous two showed.

“This person gives me the chills. Especially at this point, his eyes are really scary.”

Perhaps because they shared blood, their standards seemed to be similar. After showing all the videos, Hwanggeun asked his son who was the best and who suited the character the most.

“The person that caught my eyes the first time was the third person.”

“Really? How was the acting?”

“It was good, just like the others. I don’t know what the character is supposed to be exactly, but based on stabbing and killing people alone, the third person looks like the best man for the job.”

His son put the empty plates on the tray. He asked as he stood up with the tray in his hands,

“Who do you like the most, father?”

“I’m thinking about it. All three of them have their pros and cons.”

Based on the details of acting alone, the first two people should be better than the third one. However, his son prioritized the overall image. The audience should be the same.

Rather than detailed acting that could only be discerned through careful rumination, an eye-catching, intense image was definitely…

His son’s voice from the kitchen stopped him in his tracks.

“But how should I put this, off-putting? No, sickening? The one who made me frown while watching was the second person. He looked like someone who became a murderer even though he was someone who had totally none of that before.”

Hwanggeun looked at his son washing the dishes before looking at the screen again. His head became refreshed as though he had heard a clear answer.

“But I don’t think my opinions are helpful. The movie’s shot by you, so you’re the one who should decide.”

“No, I think you helped me out on this one.”

There was no right answer in casting, nor was there a sure-fire strategy that led to success. He had to choose the ones that looked like they would become gems from dozens of ores. He could refer to a few successful cases and make his judgment based on them, but ultimately, intuition was the most important.

Hwanggeun decided to trust his son’s intuition for this one. To be precise, he grabbed onto his own intuition that reacted to his son’s words — to let the fellow who managed to form the atmosphere of the character in two short days play Gomchi.

“Sickening is more than enough.”

He closed the lid of the laptop. He was someone who didn’t go back on his decisions.

* * *

“Yes, okay.”

Maru opened his laptop as soon as he hung up. He had gotten an email from an unfamiliar address. He clicked on it and downloaded the attachment.

The scenario for ‘Depths of Evil.’

The cat came over and sat on his lap. He tickled the cat’s head and slowly scrolled down. By the time the cat went away and the residual heat from the cat disappeared, he let out a short breath and took his hands off his mouse.

He pressed between his eyebrows and smiled.

“Gomchi.”

He liked the scenario, and he liked the character even more.

He remembered the words that the director told him just now: the casting was done, the crank-in was in July, and he should start preparing.

He decided not to think about his payment for a moment. It didn’t matter even if he got little. This was something he didn’t want to miss.

He then immediately messaged his manager, telling him to contact him tomorrow since there was a contract to proceed with.

After Story 132

"I want you to play 'Myung', Miss Haneul. I originally wanted you to play 'Jungae,' but the distributor won't approve it. I wish I can shoot everything using my own funds, but I don't have enough money on hand."

Haneul shook her head in resignation as she listened to director Lee Sooae's words.

"I was expecting it. Even if it were me, I wouldn't want to let a rookie play the lead character. Then when should I go to the audition?"

"You don't need to go to an audition. This much casting is within my authority."

"Are you okay with that? What are you going to do if I turn out to be bad?"

"So, are you going to be bad? I believe that you're going to do better than anyone else. Let's decide on the guarantee the next time we meet, and let's finish talking about work here, shall we?"

"We can't hold off the important talk for later." Haneul smiled and raised her coffee mug.

"I know that you don't decide on the payment of the actors, director. That's usually the job of the investors or the production companies. But still, I want to hear it. I want you to tell me how much payment you're willing to offer me."

"If it was up to me, I'd love to pay as much as you want."

"How about realistically? Considering that you have full authority over the budget."

Director Lee Sooae's crossed her arms.

"That's an unexpectedly difficult question."

"I promise I won't negotiate with the information you've given me so don't worry. I don't really know the market price of the film industry quite yet."

"Normally, supporting actors are paid based on what they were previously paid. You know this, right?"

"I do."

"Unfortunately, you don't have anything that could be called a previous work. Either you were playing minor roles or showed up in student works. Did you perhaps get paid when you shot the work that was submitted to the Short Film Festival?"

"It was a guest appearance."

"I see."

Director Lee tapped her fingers and fell into thought. Haneul liked the fact that she didn't take this lightly and instead thought deeply about it. She waited for the director to finish pondering while drinking her coffee.

"The estimated number of shoots is 50. The number of shoots you'll be in will be around 10 to 15. It might be lower than that."

Director Lee uncrossed her arms.

"Those that we typically consider to be well-known supporting actors sometimes request guarantees per shoot just like they would do in dramas. It made sense since getting paid the same amount for 5 shoots and 30 shoots is not reasonable."

"But that doesn't apply to an actress like me."

"Right. That's because you don't have any prior experience. Since that's the case, your payment will be decided based on the payment table that the production company comes up with. The company behind this film, 'World Road' is known to pay well for leading actors, but they are quite petty when it comes to supporting roles. Though, I'm sure everyone must be similar."

"Then how much can I expect?"

"I can't tell you this for sure, but if I combine a little bit of my greed with real life, then I'd expect around 15 million won."

"That sounds like an amount that has a lot of your personal desire included in it."

"I'd love to give you more, but you told me to consider reality, so that's why I stopped there."

That was more than the amount Haneul had been expecting. It was rather surprising that payment really hadn't changed that much despite the change in worlds.

Well, looking back, the payment for rookie actors was around the same no matter which life it was.

"I hope you can help me out when I negotiate my payment."

"Miss Haneul. You asked this to put pressure on me, didn't you?"

"No way. I'm just having slight expectations."

"I'll say that you're a crucial actress, so if you do get a good payment, you should treat me out."

After that, she talked to director Lee for a long time. As they struck a chord together, they kept bringing up one topic after another without rest.

Haneul rather liked Lee Sooae, not just as a director, but as a person.

"I wasn't joking when I said that. Let's go traveling together sometime."

"Alright. Let's go before we shoot the movie. Only then will you not change your mind and will appear in the movie for me."

By the time they separated, they became like sisters. Haneul said goodbye to the director and returned home.

She turned on the electric fan and opened the window. The weather was getting warm. Soon, it looked like there would be mentions of tropical nights.

She stuffed the piled-up laundry into the washing machine and then powered on the vacuum. As she was spending more and more time at Maru's house, there was a lot of housework piled up at home.

Considering the monthly rent that left her wallet every month, it was quite a bit of a waste, but they couldn't exactly move in together right now.

She went to the supermarket and filled her fridge with some groceries. They were mostly ingredients that she was going to take to her husband's house. She only put some instant foods to eat by herself at home in the cupboard.

-It feels like just yesterday when the night winds were pretty chilly, but we're already in the season of electric fans and watermelons. Time sure flies.

She turned on the radio as she ate a late dinner. Today, her husband was the guest today.

-July 23rd. The Night of Stories. I'm Kim Suyeon. Please enjoy these two hours today too.

When she listened while eating, an hour passed by in a flash. She turned up the volume on the laptop before heading to the kitchen.

When she turned on the tap and picked up the sponge full of soap bubbles, she heard Maru's voice.

-I'm cheering for all the salary people who are listening to this while stuck in traffic, on a shaking bus, or on a crowded train. Hello, I'm Han Maru.

Along with an applause, Suyeon started speaking.

-Mr. Maru. What made you dress up all neatly today?

-Today's my first day for visual radio. I put some effort into it.

-You don't wear makeup and always come wearing the same jersey, so it's nice to see you all dressed up neatly like this.

-Right. You look different too, Ssu-DJ, wearing a refreshing dress when you've been wearing a baggy t-shirt with disheveled hair this whole time.

-Me? I've always shown up fashionably.

-It's really nice to see you lie so naturally.

-Wow. How can a person change like this? On his first time here a few months ago, he had so much difficulty talking to me, but now he's teasing me. Everyone, how could he do this to me?

Haneul listened to the broadcast with a smile. The two of them got along well together.

The stiff speech had disappeared, and now they were close enough to playfully diss each other live.

Her husband was getting more and more well-known through the radio. He had quite the talking skills in a radio broadcast that had a large audience, so it was natural for him to be the topic of many.

The fact that the two hosts were split up into moral and practical sides of reality also had great responses.

On days when Maru was on the radio, it was more common to see people looking for Maru than Suyeon on the radio bulletin board.

He was definitely gaining more and more recognition. If the movie he was about to shoot became popular, then the media would start paying attention to him as well.

She turned the volume down on her laptop and opened the script that she got from director Lee Sooae. Although this script would go through a lot of revision once the shoot starts, the character would not change.

She was going to polish it well and show everyone properly.

Since her husband was making fast progress, she also had to move busily. They had to be on similar levels if they wanted to meet as similar-level characters in the same work.

She lay down on the mattress and repeatedly read the scenario while twisting her waist.

'Myung', the character director Lee assigned to her, sublimed into her awareness.

* * *

"The payment is 25 million won. There will be adjustments, but the number of shoots will be about 15," Yeonjin said. "The main shooting location will be Daegu. Depending on the schedule, it might be better to find lodging there to shoot."

"Daegu in August, huh? That's gonna be hard."

"It's good that it's a modern setting. If it was a historical one… just thinking about it makes me dreadful."

Maru looked at the hourglass he placed on the side. The sand had all fallen to the bottom. He wiped his face with a towel and left the sauna.

He went in front of a large TV along with some instant noodles, sikhye, and a boiled egg. As it was a weekday evening, there weren't that many people.

Hot-blooded Youths was being played on the TV, which was the only thing making noise.

"The day after tomorrow is the shoot, huh," Yeonjin said.

"I guess I'm going to suffer there. Since I'm doing it, I hope they give me something difficult. I won't be able to get any screen time if it's something awkward."

"Are you confident in your strength?"

"I'm not entirely sure about strength, but I do have some tricks up my sleeves."

Maru put the boiled egg in his mouth. He was gaining weight to play the role of Gomchi. He could eat without restraint until he got some flesh under his chin.

"A burly character is definitely much better than a skinny one."

"Because you don't have to go on a diet?"

"Yeah. Sometimes, it's harder to get into the right body shape than the acting itself. Especially when there's one get-together after another."

"You are exercising frequently though, right? You can't just be gaining weight through eating."

"I've been increasing my weight training recently with the trainer. It's just pure bulking up without any form of definition," Maru said as he looked at his right arm, which had gotten quite thick.

If he started taking care of his diet and his exercises, he would get a body suitable for photo shoots. However, he was intaking more than sufficient nutrients and was exercising non-stop, so he was gaining weight without producing any streamlined contours of his muscles.

"You know you have a schedule tomorrow, right?"

"You mean the audiobook recording? How long do you think that will take?"

"The schedule is split up into parts, so you should see how it goes depending on your condition. You don't have to finish it in one go, so just try it for an hour if it feels like too much."

He stood up after eating all the food he bought. Even though he had sweated quite a lot in the sauna, he sweated even more when he left the building.

The tropical nights were here. When he went to the Han river park right nearby, he saw people laying out mattresses to stay away from the heat.

Memories he made with Haneul here swept in. Now that he thought about it, they always stayed at home together because they were both busy with work and had never gone out together.

"Your eyes tell me that you're thinking about your girlfriend?" Yeonjin said from the side.

"Did I get found out?"

"It's good that you have a girlfriend, but don't show it. You know that, right?"

"Of course. I haven't been doing this business for one or two days."

Yeonjin didn't pry too deeply about his girlfriend. He only knew that Maru had one. It seemed to be his method to keep a certain distance even if they become personally close.

Maru also didn't mention more than necessary. Once more time passes and it became okay to talk about personal histories, he might talk about it then, but that time wasn't now.

Moreover, he experienced several managers backstabbing him. Secrets were necessary for both of their sakes.

"But are they really not going to tell me what I'm going to do?"

"I asked the writer, and apparently they have to shut up because of the controversies about manipulation and whatnot. You're going to have to find out in two days."

"How stuck-up."

"I thought you wanted to do something difficult, didn't you? Don't worry, then. From the nuance they gave me, it doesn't look like an easy job."

Yeonjin laughed, telling him to go suffer.

* * *

"We'll put the mics on you now."

Maru put the transmitter for the wireless mic on his waist and looked in front of him. The camera lens had finished adjusting and was waiting for him.

"It's hot, so we're going to quickly shoot the opening and go to the next part."

He nodded as he looked at the writer that came to explain.

He made eye contact with the idol who went around greeting others. He smiled awkwardly and waited for the main host to arrive.

Not long later, the main host arrived. He was given a mic as well before being put in front of the camera.

"Well then. We'll begin after a clap," said the producer.

After Story 133

"Now then, we'll decide which youths will get to work at which passionate workplace. Please, bring the Work Box."

Choi Myungho raised his hand as he shouted the opening commentary of Hot-blooded Youths.

A staff member came forward with a yellow cardboard box. Myungho received the box and looked at the cast standing next to him.

"We'll start with Epix, who won the mini game."

Two good-looking male idols came forward. Through the material he received from the writer before the shoot, he knew when the 'Epix' had debuted and what their debut song was. He even looked up their song and listened to it, but the song wasn't to his tastes.

He had come across numerous idols while doing Hot-blooded Youths. As idols only manage to debut after a harsh period of practice, he wanted them to do well.

However, of the idol teams that appeared on Hot-blooded Youths, there were only two teams that ever made it to the higher ranks of music charts. As for the rest, he didn't even know whether they still existed.

Succeeding in the entertainment industry was just that hard.

Myungho spoke to Cheonho from Epix, who clearly looked nervous,

"Cheonho. What kind of work would you like to do today?"

It was Myungho's job to make them relax and to induce them to comment. As all of them knew how TV programs worked, they would usually speak well if they were given the opportunity.

"I'm confident in my stamina, you see, so I think I'll cope well with something physically taxing."

"How about you, Jay?"

"I also prefer to move around over sitting down."

"The two of you are the same in that regard. Well, then, which one of you will do the picking? Cheonho? Or Jay?"

Cheonho put his hand inside the box. A piece of paper folded twice was dragged out between his fingers.

"You picked one? Then please reveal it to the audience!"

Cheonho opened the folded piece of paper. Today, Epix was going to work at a call center. Myungho spoke in pity,

"Looks like you two will be running your mouth today, not your body. How about it? Do you have the confidence to respond well to the inquiries of customers?"

"I'm slightly worried, but I'll do my best."

"I'll do my best as well."

Myungho told them to do their best before bringing the box to the next group.

This time, it was a girl band. One of them had short, black hair, while the other had curly blond hair.

Just like before, he asked the questions and received their answers. He tried asking them about what they were up to recently and about the program in order to induce more conversation, but the only responses he got were short answers.

They seemed to have frozen stiff because of the pressure that they needed to do something.

It was a pity, but he couldn't do any more for them as the host.

“The two of you from Bad Girl are going to a fish market. Do you two like fish?”

“No.”

“I don’t like them either.”

Myungho smiled at the two when he listened to their answers. He could predict that these two girls would be getting an earful from their agency CEOs after today.

He looked at where the managers were gathered. The man he presumed to be the manager of Bad Girl was looking at the two girls like he was frustrated to death.

“We’ll resume once the excavator goes by.”

An excavator passed next to the entrance of the TV station, where they shot the intro. There seemed to be construction in the park nearby.

Myungho put down the box and talked to the two girls.

“It’s the first time you two are in a program like this, isn’t it?”

“Yes.”

“It will be hard. You might be awkward in front of the camera. You heard from other people that you should speak as much as possible and react exaggeratedly, right?”

The two of them nodded simultaneously.

“At first, it might feel forced. That’s because you haven’t gotten used to it. If you keep doing it, you’ll gradually become used to it and will be able to spot opportunities to step in. There are people who quickly get accustomed to this, but normally it takes time. So try being just a little more proactive. It might be because you’re thinking too much that you can’t do it. Don’t be too focused on one thing and try blurting things out from time to time. Don’t worry about ruining the atmosphere just because you said something wrong. We have the power of editing on our side, okay?”

He felt pity whenever he saw young people out here to shoot TV programs. Who wouldn’t want to do well? Even these girls, who might be frozen stiff right now, might have thought of funny lines before coming to the shoot, only to blank out because of the unfamiliar environment they were in.

He also approached Epix and complimented them for the commentary they did. These two showed promise, so they would probably do well in their workplaces.

He also went over to the two people that didn’t pick their lots yet and talked to them. One of them was a comedian officially recruited by YBS. As comedians often held shows in Daehak-ro and were generally talented people, he didn’t worry about them. They would show their specialties as long as they were given the opportunity.

“How are you doing today?”

The last one he talked to was a new actor. His name was supposedly Han Maru. He was quite well-known for being a new actor as he was the narrator of a documentary that became a hot topic.

“I’m doing good. The weather’s perfect for working outside today. I was worried because I heard it was going to rain, but it puts me at ease that it’s sunny.”

From the way he added new topics to the response, he didn’t seem nervous. He smiled and looked at Maru.

“Just do it like you were doing now once we resume the shoot.”

“Okay.”

The excavator disappeared and the noise died down as well.

“We’ll start now.”

After a clap to indicate the editing point, the shoot resumed.

Myungho held out the box to the comedian. The comedian pulled out a paper in nervousness like he was gambling before opening it with much difficulty.

“That’s exactly what I wanted. I’ll deliver laughter along with the packages.”

The comedian didn’t need help with comments.

Lastly, Maru took out a paper from the box. On the paper he held out to the camera, it read ‘Joong-il Market.’

“There! That decides the places our four teams will work in today. Then shall we get on with it then?”

The main producers followed Epix, who could be considered the main characters today. As for the others, the sub producers and the main writer joined them.

Myungho also got into the same car as Epix for the time being. They arrived at a company in Jongno. It was a place packed with call centers for home shopping programs belonging to large companies.

They went to the place that was arranged beforehand. The shoot began with Epix receiving job training.

Myungho’s job was to package the events that may occur during their work in an interesting manner before presenting it. There would be interviews with them throughout as well.

After the training, Epix was sent to the task force. Myungho watched Epix receiving the calls before going to the producer.

“Those two are hard working.”

The producer nodded.

“Considering the kids that zoned out all the time last week, they’re much better. But I don’t think it’s going to be interesting today. I guess we’re going with the documentary theme instead of an entertaining theme today too.”

The producer smiled bitterly. Although this was a program that he had ambitiously prepared for and started last year, the responses weren’t that good.

As the guests changed all the time, it was hard to expect a fixed element of interest, and as the main format was labor, it was hard to add any stimulating tastes as well.

There was once when he tried to package it in a funny way out of his greed, but it ended up getting backlash from everywhere.

The audience all criticized him for causing a fuss in other people’s work places.

That day, Myungho drank with the producer. As the main host, he had it just as hard as the producer.

Since that event, they changed tracks to capture the genuine appearances of the guests, and naturally, laughter was reduced.

They were fortunate to have a hardcore audience base. Otherwise, the program would’ve been scrapped during the Spring reallocation season.

“I’m sorry, Myungho. I asked you to do this with me.”

“You’re at it again. I like this program. I often hear they watch it all the time. Don’t you think programs like ours should at least exist?”

“A program that has no laughter at all?”

“There are explosive moments from time to time. Who knows, the other fellows might create a big one today.”

“I hope so. If the others are so-so just like those two, we might not be an entertainment program anymore.”

He told the producer not to worry. It was something that he had gotten used to saying.

Don’t worry, it’ll go well; the viewing rate isn’t everything — words like these, he said a lot. However, inside, words he could never utter sometimes poked their heads up.

Do worry. It will not go well. The viewing rate is everything.

Ultimately, TV programs couldn’t help but be sensitive to numbers. It was a world where viewing rate was everything. This was especially for entertainment programs, which only had a single purpose. There was no escape from the pressure of numbers.

“Should we get an interview?”

Myungho turned on the mic again and approached Epix.

Sighing didn’t make the non-existent laughter appear out of nowhere. He had to do something to make it happen.

It’d be great if he could get at least ten minutes of usable footage from one hour of shoot.

Would he strike a jackpot today?

Only the god of entertainment would know.

* * *

The talent to make people laugh was no good in the face of the onslaught of packages. The comedian, one of the promising people of today, was focusing on his work while sweating hard.

According to the main writer, for the first hour, he tried saying all sorts of things to liven up the mood, but after that, he wordlessly loaded packages with a smile on his face.

The girl band side he visited just before was in the same situation. They were all focused on doing well so there was no room for laughter at all.

The production crew tried their hand but it was to no avail. The stiffened up idols had a hard time working.

As the producer predicted, today was going to be a documentary style as well.

A realistic documentary in an era where realistic entertainment shows rule, huh. Maybe this was a new type of strategy for survival?

While he carried out an interview, the comedian did his best to induce laughter. He was thankful for that. The comedian worked his bones off and even created some laughs.

He bought some drinks with his personal money and handed them out to the workers.

“Do you think it’ll be fun if it goes on TV?” the comedian asked.

He replied that it was going to be okay. He couldn’t say that it was going to be fun.

If they artistically edited the four scenes today, they might be able to produce entertainment that probably doesn’t exist, but looking at the situation today, that seemed difficult.

It was around the time Myungho also took off his jacket to participate in the loading work in order to get some footage.

The sub producer received a call and he quickly waved. Myungho approached him, wondering what that was about.

“Hyung-nim. Apparently it’s chaos at the market.”

“The market? You mean the place the actor fellow went to?”

“Yes. Apparently, there are so many people that it’s hard to get any audio. The main producer is going there as well.”

“Then who’s looking after Epix?”

“Wang-noona went their way.”

Wang-noona. That was what they called the main writer.

“The producer’s calling you to come as well.”

“I have to get more interviews here, though.”

“He said we should settle things in the market first, mentioning something like getting a good picture before all the people pulled out.”

Myungho sighed. He made eye contact with the comedian arduously carrying boxes. The comedian said goodbye as though he had an inkling of what was going on.

“I’ll go to that side for now. Do your best at work.”

“Okay! Go on.”

He felt sorry when he heard the energetic answer. As pitiful as it was, TV programs were bound to be centered around entertainment. If a new oil reserve of laughter exploded in the package delivery side, the camera would not have moved to the market.

He put on his jacket and got in the car. If the producer himself had put the main writer in charge of Epix and went to the market, it meant that this was quite big.

Just what was happening for there to be so many people at the market? Maybe they were overreacting even though it was usually like that around this time of the month?

He arrived at Joong-il market with all sorts of worries in mind.

There, he witnessed.

A man was wearing a dried squid like a mask and was shouting.

After Story 134

Hot-blooded Youths was her third entertainment program. She went through two cultural programs and two entertainment programs as a freelancer, and this was her current one, which she got through YBS. Although she was not the main writer, she received considerably good treatment when she joined.

Back when they first held the item meeting, she was enveloped with the thought that this would hit a jackpot. She prepared for the broadcast, imagining a dream-like situation where the media praised Hot-Blooded Youths for its idea and top stars asked for an appearance.

The results, however, weren’t so good. Nay, the video was produced just according to the intent of their original plan, but there weren’t any responses.

A few times, they received attention. This was thanks to the guests going wild, in a good way.

However, that momentary increase in viewing rate was restored the next week. In fact, it even decreased more than before.

Such was the birth of a calm entertainment show for the night.

She ran her mouth numerous times in occasions without the producer, saying that it might disappear during the Autumn reassignment, and after that, the Spring reassignment.

Thankfully, they managed to survive both the Autumn and Spring reassignments, but that didn’t guarantee the following Autumn reassignment.

As a freelancer, the end of a program meant the end of her payment. She couldn’t give up her means of living, so she started taking the work into her own hands.

She used all sorts of methods in order to recruit singers and actors that were well-known. Once, she managed to scout a huge actor thanks to her efforts, but the shoot didn’t happen. She had no choice since that person’s movie shoot schedule suddenly changed.

Ever since then, the shoot continued with the feeling that she was barely managing to survive one week after another.

Today too, the guests were a combination of new idols and a nameless actor. Epix, she had heard their names at least. If the viewing rate increased, it would be thanks to them.

The person she was in charge of, was the new actor. His name was Han Maru. Apparently, a lot of people knew him because he did narration in a documentary, but this was the first time she had heard of his name.

“Once you go to the market, you’ll be selling items at the shop that we arranged beforehand. Don’t think that it’s too difficult and think that you’re genuinely here to help them out.”

She did not place much hope on the new actor. The main producer went to Epix, the sub-producer went to the comedian, and Wang-unni went to Bad Girls.

This assignment of members meant one thing. Han Maru was a guest they only brought to increase the running time. This was evident by the fact that she was always put in charge of the least well-known guest.

They arrived at Joong-il market. She got out of the car and looked up at the sky. The weather, at least, was really good. It was the perfect weather to go on a picnic.

Thanks to the weather, there were many people at the market, so that was a silver lining. The combination of a nameless actor plus a deserted marketplace made her freak out just by imagining it.

She started setting things up first alongside the new assistant director (AD) recruit at the TV station, and a veteran video journalist (VJ). People approached them after seeing the camera, but they soon lost interest and left.

Whenever this happened, she sometimes thought that celebrities who weren’t famous might attract even less attention than pretty puppies.

“Why can’t I get a sound signal?” said the VJ that was checking the camera audio.

There was supposed to be sound from the wireless mic on the guest, but it was not working. She checked the camera with him and scratched her head. The new AD stared in a daze for a while before asking what they should do.

“Call the producer. I think we need to ask the audio director for this,” she said to the AD.

As the production crew split up for the shoot, the main-level staff were all on Epix’s side.

Over there, they even had a boom mic on top of the wireless mics, so there wouldn’t be a problem even if the wireless mics broke, but here, the mic on the guest was the only one. If they couldn’t solve this, then they couldn’t even proceed with the shoot.

The AD took out his phone with an expression like he just chewed on something bitter. He probably didn’t want to make a call, since it was obvious that he would get a scolding.

What else could he do though? On paper at least, the one responsible for the scene was the AD.

The shoot would usually be led by her, but any accidents would account the AD responsible. He was an official employee at the TV station unlike her, who was a freelancer, so that much was a given.

“Is there a problem?” Han Maru, the guest, walked over.

He must have been nervous since the staff was talking amongst themselves without proceeding with the shoot.

“I’m sorry. There’s a small problem with the broadcasting equipment. We’re going to proceed after asking the audio director, so please wait a little.”

“Is the problem with the mic?”

Maru took off the transmitter attached to his waist. She raised her hand to stop him.

“You can’t touch that. We set it all up before the shoot.”

“You checked the channels, right?”

She nodded, saying that it was natural.

“How about the battery?”

“You see that light indicator over there, right? It means that the power is on.”

“This happens sometimes. The LED indicates the battery level is still lit, but it doesn’t have enough power to send a signal. There doesn’t seem to be a problem with the connector either. You have spare batteries, right?”

He was so bold in his words that she looked for the batteries. Seeing Maru change out the battery so leisurely, he looked like TV personnel who had experienced all there was to TV media rather than a new actor who knew nothing about TV programs.

“Check the in-ears. Can you hear me?” Maru spoke into the microphone.

The VJ smiled and said that he could hear it.

“There doesn’t seem to be a problem with the audio sync either. If there’s a problem, I guess they’ll do something in the post-processing. Can we proceed with the shoot now?” Maru said as he put the transmitter by his waist again.

He also put the pin mic inside his clothes and fixed it in place. She was reaching out to him to help him, so it was quite awkward.

All the new actors she had experienced until now were all akin to little kids when it came to video production. They would usually sit still like a wooden puppets before they were asked to do something, but the man in front of her was different.

He exchanged opinions with the production staff and even shared jokes.

He was definitely someone they had met for the first time this morning, but he mixed in with the staff like he had been a member of the team for a long time.

“We’ll shoot the insert now when there’s still a lot of people and then we’ll begin soon.”

She told Maru to wait and shot the market as a background. Merchants selling various things, people going to and fro… the market was quite crowded, so it was quite a good picture.

“This is the place you’ll be working today. Hello, sir.”

The place the new actor was going to work at was a dried fish shop located at the entrance of Joong-il market.

“We’ll begin with a short interview. These are the questions.”

She handed Maru a list of questions. They based the questions on the story of the owners of the dried fish store they received beforehand.

Maru looked at the paper for a few minutes before putting it in his pocket. Did he memorize them all already?

“You can treat us comfortably too, owner. We’re going to shoot starting from the scene where we’re approaching, and you can just welcome us warmly.”

“I’m not really that good with words,” said the husband of the owner couple.

Next to the husband smiling awkwardly was his wife, who was even more shy.

She didn’t think that this was bad. A cozy and warm vibe was not a bad item. In the first place, not many people watched their program for laughs.

“Please relax.”

That was the only thing she could say to them. Actually, the market was not a really charming place. If there was a famous actor here, there might be people gathering, but for a nameless actor, people would just give them a glance before going their way no matter how hard they tried.

“We’ll begin now.”

They approached the dried fish shop with Maru. They greeted the owner couple before proceeding to have a conversation.

“This is rather unexpected. I visit a lot of traditional markets, but it’s hard to see a young owner.”

“The thing is, the two of us were ordinary salarymen like the others. But one day, I suddenly had the urge to do merchant business.”

“Merchant business? Madam, how did you feel when your husband suddenly said that he wanted to do that?”

“I… well…”

Unlike the husband, who responded to the questions at least, the questions stopped when the mic was given to the wife’s side.

She thought that she had to intervene here to change the direction of the interview. It was just as she was about to speak,

“If it were me, I would’ve been really angry. If he was thinking about something so life-changing, he should have given hints about it and consulted you about it, right?”

Maru suddenly looked at the husband like he was angry and pressed down on his thigh.

The husband curled up a little. Seeing that, the wife smiled faintly and spoke,

“Actually, more than angry, I was just flabbergasted. I was wondering what this man was up to.”

The wife’s mouth opened just as it was about to get fully locked up.

She put down her hand that she half-raised. Then, she looked at Maru, who was communicating with the married couple. His eyes looked really gentle.

The couple didn’t even care about the camera anymore and started talking to Maru.

Having started talking, the wife spoke like she was going to utter everything she was disappointed with until now.

Between the two, Maru sided with one of them from time to time, and even scolded one at times, not letting the conversation cut off.

“So it wasn’t the cafe that you wanted, madam, but a dried fish shop, huh?”

“Exactly.”

“This… is entirely your fault, mister.”

The husband rubbed under his nose and smiled awkwardly.

“But how is it now that you started it? The market isn’t so bad, is it?”

“It’s taxing, but when we started doing it, I found out that he didn’t start this irresponsibly. He looked into the logistics and learned some know-how from the previous owner as well. The business isn’t exactly booming, but it’s fun living among the people here.”

The couple looked at each other and smiled.

“Well then, can I ask you to do a hug of reconciliation? Or a kiss? A deep one?”

The way Maru made a perverted smile to say that was strangely suited to him. It was quite funny that a young actor gave off the vibe of an old man.

From the way he set up the mood without crossing the line and inflicted harm on his own image when inducing laughter, it didn’t look like he did this kind of thing only once or twice.

The husband, who had a bold personality, gave the wife a kiss. As this was the kiss of a young married couple in their 20s, it looked cute. She had confidence that this was not going to get edited out.

They managed to get quite a lot of good footage from the opening that she didn’t place many expectations on.

If the interview went according to the interview sheet she gave Maru before, it would’ve ended twenty minutes ago, but it lasted about 30 minutes.

Just when did he come up with those commentaries and questions, she could only marvel.

“How much sales do you want today, the two of you?”

“I hope I can sell just a little more than usual,” said the husband.

“I want double,” the wife cut in, raising two fingers up.

“The madam is a lot more ambitious. Fine. Let’s sell triple today. If I don’t sell that much, I’ll buy the rest to make up for it,” Maru said boldly.

His voice was pretty loud, so the people walking by, who didn’t have any interest, started looking over.

She got a little away from the shop and looked at it. Although people had gathered slightly, they still didn’t show a whole lot of interest.

If the store was bustling with people, then she would try getting a far shot, too.

Just as she was feeling a little pity, however,

“Sir. Please grill ten of these squids for me. I’m going to buy them with my own money.”

Hearing Maru’s words, the husband placed squids on top of a stone grill. Soon, an irresistible salty and savory smell started wafting out.

“And this one’s on me too.”

The thing Maru grabbed was a dried squid. He asked the wife for a pair of scissors and a rubber band and soon made a squid mask.

With the mask on his head, Maru climbed on top of a plastic chair.

People who came here to buy groceries started showing interest in the person that suddenly towered above everyone else.

“Is this some kind of TV show?”

“I’m not sure.”

He managed to grab their attention, but still not their interest.

Just then, Maru raised his hand. She narrowed her hand. She didn’t know where he got it, but there was thick pair of scissors in Maru’s hand.

After Story 135

Snip, snip.

He snipped the scissors lightly before finding a rhythm. The sound of the scissors spread around with the dried fish store as the center.

Maru kept snipping without saying a word. The rhythm was strangely addictive and it made people move their shoulders.

Even the people who didn’t show any interest despite the presence of the camera started approaching at the sound of the scissors.

It was mostly elderly, but there were quite a lot of students wearing school uniforms. They were clearly students headed to the tteokbokki alley further down the market.

People started gathering around the small stage that was a chair.

She didn’t understand what was happening even as she watched everything unfold.

The snipping continued for about ten minutes without any accompanying music before stopping. Maru, who was just snipping away like he was possessed, finally opened his eyes and looked in front of him.

“Now, then.”

They were two simple words. Those two words reminded her of the train.

Merchants selling miscellaneous stuff in boxes on trains. It was the voice unique to them.

There was a sense of rhythm in his blunt voice like that of the snipping.

“This is no amazing item, but it ain’t your ordinary stuff either. It’s a special item that I’m selling just to the people gathered here today. It’s called fried fish, also called… I dunno.”

The metallic screech along with his baritone voice on top of the snipping sounds made it a performance.

As though he had a loudspeaker in his throat, his voice overpowered the murmurs of the people around him.

She looked around. People were gathering. Now, they weren’t gathering because of Maru’s appearance, but because people had flocked here.

A housewife going back home after buying groceries, students walking together with their arms crossed, a middle-aged lady carrying a tray on her head, and a middle-aged man wearing a work outfit all approached the dried fish store.

It was a pity that there was only one camera. Right now, they had to shoot Maru, so it was hard to shift the camera.

“Hello, ladies and gents. First, allow me to offer my sincere gratitude to all the important people who have taken out their time to come to see the important product today.”

When he had all the attention, Maru changed his voice again. He turned from a street merchant to an insurance designer. His popping voice became calm.

What was interesting was that as Maru’s voice died down, so did the noise in the surroundings. They were all focused on Maru.

“If you would allow me to explain about this dried filefish filet, it is made from a filefish that is estimated to have swam across the northern seas, down to have a drink of the sea waters of the Atlantic, then to have a bath in the mineral-rich seas of the Indian sea, before swimming across the Pacific all the way to the east sea.”

Maru uttered nonsense in a very smooth manner. Thanks to the moderate change of tones midway, there were quite a lot of people who laughed despite the terrible joke.

“Look at this tender fish meat. This is no ordinary filefish. You are not going to see something like this anywhere else. Girls.”

Maru called out to a few girls watching from the front. They were the girls who were waving their hands at the camera like mad for a while.

“You have to be honest with me after eating this. Tell me whether they’re good or not.”

Maru handed out a grilled dried filefish filet. The girls blew on the filet before putting it in their mouths.

“How is it? Good, isn’t it?”

“It’s good, but not that good.”

Maru twitched his eyes before taking out a wallet from his pocket. He took out a thousand-won bill and gave it to the student who just replied.

“I couldn’t hear you just now, how is the filet again?”

“It was super awesome.”

The girl joined Maru’s gig, knowing how TV programs worked. The atmosphere would’ve turned cold if she was a hesitant person, but she was just as mischievous as Maru, so people laughed again.

Was it a coincidence that Maru pointed at that specific girl? Or was it Maru’s discernment?

“Everyone. Didn’t you just see? Young students don’t lie. They’re very honest about the things they like and dislike. If they didn’t find it tasty, would they have said that it was good?”

This time, Maru pointed at a lady holding groceries in her hand when he asked. The lady who was pointed out spoke in a loud voice, even as she looked embarrassed.

“Kids these days are so smart and picky. They won’t say something is good if it’s not actually good.”

“See? This filet has been acknowledged by children and adults alike. You won’t find these in department stores. You won’t find these at the supermarket. You’ll only find them here in the dried fish shop. But unfortunately, we apparently don’t have many of these filets. Sir, how much of these filets do we have in stock today?”

Maru asked the husband standing behind him. Over a hundred pairs of gazes all fell on the husband.

“F-fifty middle-sized ones.”

The husband stuttered, seemingly overwhelmed by the sudden gazes.

“Hear that, everyone? There are only fifty of this great product. Fifty. This is a very rare opportunity. Also, what are these filets made from? Fish, right? The gentleman over there. You must’ve heard that flour, pork, and the like are bad for you from the TV, but you have never heard that fish is bad for your body, right?”

Maru’s hand was now pointed at a man who was semi-bald. The man seemed to be delighted to receive attention and replied boldly,

“Never! Even when the doctor told me to stop drinking alcohol and eating meat, I’ve never heard I should stop eating fish.”

“Of course, I’m sure being moderate is the best with anything. But as we all know, fish is at the forefront of healthy food, isn’t it? Do your children ask for snacks every day? How about giving them this fish rather than giving them snacks or cooking them instant noodles? The mothers here all know that chewing helps in developing the brain, right? This dried fish filet is moderately hard and you can chew on it for a long time, so it might help with your children’s studies.”

He wasn’t exactly lying, but he was adding details that shouldn’t really be related.

She was reminded of when she signed two contracts for cancer after hearing that they should just get some coffee.

Even the most veteran insurance designers would end up signing their names on a contract when they were in front of Maru. His speech was just that great.

Now, she crossed her arms and started watching Maru. There was no need to write a script or interfere at all for that matter. There were only two things she had to do. It was to look around so that no accidents happened and to decide on the position of the camera.

“Call the producer. Tell him that it’s total chaos here.”

She also said a word to the new AD.

This kind of atmosphere was unprecedented in the history of Hot Blooded Youths. It was hard to capture all of this with a single camera. She needed backup.

When Maru piqued their interest, the people started opening their wallets. It wasn’t that expensive, and since Maru was so entertaining, people just bought stuff for fun.

While the owner couple was putting dried fish into bags without any time to rest, Maru picked up the next item. It was the squid he bought with his personal money.

“Thanks to everyone’s heated responses, the 50 filefish filets were just sold out. Give a round of applause!”

The onlookers soon applauded when they were asked to.

“I’m taking the time of so many important people here, so I can’t send you home just because we ran out of one product, now, can I? That’s why I’ve prepared. This is the squid that has been caught in the depths in front of the western coast.”

Maru cut the dried squid into bits and handed them out to the people in front of him. People, chewing on a piece of squid or squid leg, stared at Maru’s mouth. They were practically the mother hen and the little chicks waiting for food.

Whenever Maru said something, he got responses everywhere. He didn’t just talk by himself. He exchanged words with the onlookers to ripen the mood. Having become participants instead of just onlookers, people became absorbed even more and looked at Maru’s hands and mouth.

“Just what the heck is he?”

She laughed in vain after seeing Maru who even ended up singing a song. He changed up the lyrics in a trot song that anyone in Korea would know in order to induce cheers.

He even seemed to have thought about copyright problems as he didn’t sing until the end.

She called for the AD and the VJ. They then passed through the crowd to the outside and shot Maru from even further out. She really wished she could use a helicam right now.

“It feels like there are more people here, doesn’t it?”

“There are definitely more people than before.”

She looked towards the entrance of the market. It had been quite some time since they called the producer. It was about time they arrived.

Just then, she saw people rushing in from the entrance.

They were made up of the necktie brigade getting off work and some young people looking to be college students.

Did Joong-il market always have a lot of people?

“Hey hey, there he is.”

“He really is there.”

These were words spoken by salarymen who were approaching the dried fish store. They looked like they came here knowing that Maru was shooting here.

There weren’t just one or two people like that. The new wave of young people all took out their phones to shoot Han Maru.

Was that person this popular?

“Writer.”

The AD gave her his phone, telling her to look at it. It was the YBS radio bulletin board.

“Apparently, Kim Suyeon said on her radio that Han Maru is shooting in Joong-il market, and she asked the people nearby for support.”

“Kim Suyeon?”

A top star’s support fire. That made this situation understandable. Now that she thought back, Maru was a regular guest on the radio program hosted by Kim Suyeon. Were those two close enough to mention each other’s schedules and even talk about them live?

In any case, this was a good thing.

They captured the owner duo, who were busy wrapping up the products, and Maru who was doing a fantastic job of gathering customers, in one frame.

Truthfully, just broadcasting Maru without much editing and adding background music might make the program several times more interesting than the previous episodes.

Just where did someone like this pop out from? If the people gathered here talked to their acquaintances about the program, the viewing rate would see a considerable improvement.

Kim Suyeon’s radio program, which was known to have a large audience, was also helping them out, so Kim Suyeon’s fans might watch the show as well.

This might be the trigger for Hot-blooded Youths to hit a 5% viewing rate for the first time.

She might be overthinking things, but looking at Maru right now, it didn’t seem like a dream.

“Our missus over here has bought the dried squid for five thousand won. Would you like some as well, sir? Yes! Okay, thank you!”

Maybe this was his god-sent gift? He might earn tons of money if he did sales instead of acting.

“What’s all this?”

She heard a welcomed voice behind her. She turned around. The main host for the program arrived.

“Myungho-oppa, you should go quickly. You see that mess? It is crazy here,” she said to Myungho.

The producer arrived soon as well. The producer smiled heartily after seeing the entrance of the market bustling with people.

“Put the mic up! Turn the camera on as well! Over there, control the people so that there are no accidents!”

While the producer was cleaning up, the people were gathering.

Maru, who had been shouting for over an hour, kept snipping away with his scissors and waved the dried squid without even looking the slightest bit tired. He even looked to be more energetic.

“You won’t get this price except today. Just ten thousand won.”

A comment she felt like she had heard before resounded out.

* * *

“What’s all that?” Haneul asked as she looked at her husband enter the house with an exhausted face, his hands carrying a giant box.

“I don’t have the energy to explain. I’ll go get washed for now.”

“O-okay.”

She had never seen him that exhausted before.

She sniffed. There was a fishy smell coming up from the box. She opened up the box and looked inside.

“Squid…?”

A pile of dried fish greeted her.

She looked at the closed bathroom door in confusion.

“Just what had he been up to?”

After Story 136

She took out the dried fish from the box. Filefish, squid, octopus, pollack… there were all sorts of things inside. They filled the entire box too, so the price must be considerable.

She put the dried filefish filets on the table since they were packaged in small packs while putting the rest under the sink and in the cupboard.

Eating all of them might wear their jaw muscles out.

“We should hand these out to the people around us tomorrow,” she said to Maru, who came out of the shower.

Maru went to the sofa and sat down with a towel on his head. He looked exhausted like he had used tomorrow’s stamina in advance.

She mixed some cold water with green plum extract and gave it to him. Only after gulping it down in one go did he heave a sigh of relief.

“Didn’t you say you were going to a shoot for Hot-blooded Youths?” she asked as she sat down on the floor.

“I did. I went to the market.”

“You went there to work, so what’s up with all the dried fish?”

“The owner gave it to me as a token of appreciation.”

“All that, just for a token of appreciation?” She pointed at the empty box she put in front of the porch.

How thankful must they have been to give Maru a box full of expensive products?

Maru dusted the water off his hair with the towel before speaking,

“I was originally going to take it easy and finish the shoot there, but I received unexpected help. Thanks to that, the market was bustling like a concert.”

“Help? Someone helped you?”

She felt like this was going to be interesting, so she brought some semi-dried squid and some beer. She poured a glass for Maru while she drank directly from the can.

“There were quite a lot of people when the shoot started. The weather was good, and it was the weekly market day as well. That’s why I started selling squid there. You know how good I am at sales, right?”

“Right, you’re terrific.”

“When I did it, I thought back to when I was selling fruit with you, honey. We would drive around a 1-ton truck and set up stalls.”

“It was not just once or twice we did that, was it? Fruit store, vegetable store, accessories store — we practically ran all kinds of stores imaginable. If there’s one thing we didn't do, it might be a luxury brand store?”

She could think of multiple memories of selling various items off the top of her head. Her husband had always gone outside the store and started attracting customers in a loud voice whenever they ran their own business. Though, at times, he was introverted and was unable to do anything and just stared holes into the door.

She put some squid between her molars.

“Not just that, you were a diamond member in multi-level marketing schemes a few times. Thanks to that, you got into a fight with me a lot and even stayed hostile with my parents.”

“I’d like to say that it was all in the past, but it’s way too vivid.”

“You even had the title of insurance king and car sales king, so, of course, you were good at selling. So what, did you sell everything they had? And that’s why the owner gave you so much as a gift?”

“I did sell a lot, but not to the point that I would get so much. I think it was about an hour into the shoot? People started rushing in from outside the market. I found out later that Suyeon-noona blatantly promoted me on the radio.”

“On the radio?”

“I didn’t expect her to do that. I didn’t ask her to do it, and it shouldn’t have been the president’s order either. One wrong step, and I might have heard that it was blatant favoritism from the public.”

“So Miss Suyeon brought it up on her own accord? You two got close, huh.”

“I really didn’t know she’d look out for me like that.”

“So thanks to her, you sold out everything, huh?”

He shook his head. “Although people did come, it wasn’t that large of a number. They were just people passing by making a visit. I’m not yet an actor who’s charming enough for people to go out of their way to visit, am I?”

“You mean someone other than Miss Suyeon helped you?”

He smiled as though the memory was still vivid.

“Jichan-hyung came to the scene.”

“Jichan?”

There was no one that came to her mind immediately. Jichan, Jichan. When she ruminated on the name for a bit, she recalled a face. He was such a famous person that she didn’t associate him with her husband.

“Jichan from Alt? The idol that you did a drama with?”

“Yeah. Although we do keep in touch from time to time and meet up to drink every once in a while, it’s been quite a while since we met. He’s a busy person after all. I don’t know where he got the news, but he came to the market.”

“I can see what happened. A celebrity of that level must have brought a huge number of fans.”

“Tell me about it. At first, he just came secretly and sold some things for me, but a photo was soon uploaded to social media, and fans started flocking like mad. Even the police ended up coming.”

“It’s not unreasonable since people were gathering without any prior arrangements. But Joong-il market should be pretty wide. Did people fill up all that space?”

“Don’t get me started on that. It was hard to move. It was practically a guerilla concert, alright. Fandom is something incredible. When Jichan-hyung sold the items and shook hands with whoever bought the stuff, people competitively started to buy stuff. Thanks to that, we sold out everything, down to the last item in the warehouse.”

He coughed dryly and leaned back against the sofa.

“The producer smiled in joy. Well, it’s not surprising. The response was good, and above all, an idol member who doesn’t show up on TV but goes around on overseas tours actually showed up.”

“So the viewing rate will increase, huh?”

“Probably?”

Maru groaned and lay down on the sofa. Haneul lightly massaged her husband on the shoulders.

“Good work, my hubby.”

“I feel like I’ve done proper work after a long time. But I think I might have taken things a little too far. I think I’m going to be down tomorrow as well.”

“You don’t have a schedule tomorrow, so rest easy. Oh, right. When do you start shooting your movie?”

“Next week. That’s why I have to go down to Daegu on the weekend. Since we’re on the topic, please look after Ricebun for me during that time.”

“You’re more worried about Ricebun than me, aren’t you?”

“You can feed yourself, but she can’t.”

Her mouth twitched. She pressed down with her thumb into his shoulder blade. Maru groaned and wriggled.

“You should pack your luggage early. Don’t stuff a bunch of underwear into your bag on the day you’re leaving.”

“Okay.”

“You always respond well.”

After slapping his butt, she started cleaning up. After she washed her hands at the sink and came back, she heard snoring. Maru had fallen asleep during that time.

“Old man, you can’t be sleeping here. You should brush your teeth and sleep on your bed.”

“Can’t be bothered,” he replied with drowsy eyes.

She dragged him out of the world of sleep. Even if the world was turned upside down many times, and even if an uncountable period of time had passed, this kind of scenery would never change. That was also what put her at ease.

“Aren’t you going to sleep?” he said as he lay on the bed.

She shook her head and turned off the lights. She came out to the living room and turned on the reading lights she got recently and opened the movie script. She flipped over the pages while listening to the faint breathing sound she could hear from the bedroom.

After reading the script from beginning to end, she took out her phone. She went on the internet and saw that Hot-blooded Youths was number 17 on the recent mostly searched terms. Above that was Yoo Jichan.

“Why can’t they search Han Maru too…” she muttered as she looked at the articles.

Journalists in the entertainment industry had written articles mostly centered around Jichan, who hadn’t appeared on TV for quite a while.

“'A new actor’s unexpected relationship. They did a drama together earlier this year.' Journalist, you should’ve written the actor’s name if you were going to go that far.”

She logged in and left behind a comment. Amidst the comments that talked about Jichan was a single comment that said ‘Han Maru, I’m rooting for you.’ Though, it soon disappeared in the wave of other comments.

She walked around the living room while reading her script and sometimes said her lines out in a small voice to practice before going into the bedroom.

There, she saw her husband sleeping with his arms fully unfolded to the sides. He seemed to be quite hot as he had pushed the blanket to the side. He also seemed to be sweating slightly.

After turning on the air conditioner to night mode, she put the blanket over him.

She lay down next to him to get some sleep when an arm flew over her neck. She was about to wake him up and tell him to sleep properly but decided not to after seeing him breathe out.

“He’s a kid, even grown up.”

She pushed his arm away and closed her eyes.

* * *

He felt like he had a nightmare where he got crushed under a building, and when he woke up, he found out the reason why. It turned out that his wife’s leg was pressing down on his flank. It wasn’t just ‘placed on top.’ She had turned her waist over to put pressure.

“If you didn’t like something, you should’ve said it in words.”

Maru smiled and took off his wife’s leg. She had fallen deep asleep while drooling a whole lot again.

He gently took out the strands of hair that had rolled into her mouth. He was pretty sure that there would be a lump of hair in her stomach like a cat’s hairball.

He lightly washed his face and went out for a jog. He had gained a moderate amount of weight, so it was time to manage himself. He wanted a sturdy, reliable body, not a round one.

After running half a lap around the park, he walked for about another 30 minutes. Despite doing just that, he sweated bullets. Summer was still summer; it was hot.

When he returned, his wife had woken up and was washing up. He mentioned briefly the tragedy that happened during the night, about how he had a nightmare because he was crushed by her leg.

“I didn’t do that though?” she retorted, widening her eyes like a rabbit.

Sensing the evil aura contained in those words, he was sure that she was aware of it.

“I’m such a docile sleeper. You know that.”

“Yeah, I do. Of course, I do.”

While he took a shower, his wife had finished getting ready to leave. She was wearing a black suit that made her look leisurely. She was wearing bootcut pants and black high heels. Holding a brown cross bag at her waist, she opened the door.

“I have a meeting with a business client today, so I might be late. You should eat the side dishes in the fridge and warm up the rice in the freezer.”

“You’re a full businesswoman today, huh?”

She smiled. “Friendly Aroma decided to launch a department store this time.”

“That was quick.”

“I was lucky. We’ve also scheduled a collab with a designer shop named ‘Eterium’ in Myeongdong. We were originally going to keep going with an inexpensive brand image, but we kept getting offers, so I’m going to try it.”

“Who’s modeling?”

“This time, it’s going to be me. Yeonjoo said she couldn’t bear to do it. Well, they wanted me to do it too.”

“I can hear your value rising. Don’t you have to resign the contract for your movie, honey?”

Of course, he was just joking. She also laughed and opened the door.

“Since the director recognized me first, I don’t really mind the payment. I’m just wondering how good she’ll make use of me. How’s the director on your side?”

“I’ll have to experience more to be sure, but he has his pride. He’s trying to put an end to the streak of self-replication, so I’m sure it’s going to be interesting.”

His wife started closing the door.

“You look overjoyed to death.”

“I’m looking forward to the day I go to Daegu.”

Slam.

The door was shut.

He turned around and went into the bedroom. He took out the travel bag that he hadn’t used that many times and packed up.

In two days, he would go down to Daegu. This was the first role he got that played a significant role in the story in this life.

It was very good considering that it was an achievement he made in just one year. Although no one could tell what the results would be like, he was satisfied that he received an opportunity at least.

Maru muttered the lines that flashed past his head and packed his stuff.

* * *

“Is that it?” Yeonjin asked after seeing Maru’s luggage.

All he had was a small travel case. He was going to have to spend at least ten days there, so it was quite lacking considering that.

“I only packed my underwear. And a few books to read.”

“Well, I guess that’s all you need. Get on.”

He started the car after Maru got in. Maru, who sat in the back seat, placed his script on his lap and started reading slowly. He looked serious as he did that, so Yeonjin quietly drove without saying anything.

When Maru got out of his position, they were at the expressway stop. His focus was incredible.

After Story 137

“This is my first time coming here myself,” Yeonjin said as he opened the door.

He walked past the shower room next to the front door and went inside. The wallpapers were a clean gray. Next to the window that had the view of the Daegu central city was a desk.

The bed was double-size. It looked wide and comfy.

“It’s near the city center, so there shouldn’t be any inconvenience. Maru, how is it?”

“I’m more than satisfied,” Maru said as he stroked the bedsheet.

When he first heard that this was a business hotel under the possession of the company, he was thinking of a pretty old motel, but now that he saw it for himself, it was a newly built building with a good interior.

Once again, he could see the brand value of JA.

“Was there a need to come down so early? The shoot starts on Tuesday, so you could’ve come on Monday.”

“It’s a habit of mine. When there’s an extended period of shooting in the countryside, I have to go there early to get some of the air there and look around the place to feel at ease.”

“You sound like you’ve done a lot of countryside shoots?” Yeonjin asked with a smile.

This was Maru’s first time playing a supporting character, but his way of speaking was like that of a veteran actor. There were times when Maru acted like this. Whether he was a showoff or he was joking in order to ease his nervousness, he couldn’t tell.

Maru twitched his eyes and spoke, “Are you going to keep staying here as well, hyung?”

“I want to do that too, but I need to tend to other people’s schedules. I’d love to be exclusively in charge of you, but the company won’t help me with that.”

“You’re going back right away?”

“No, I’m going to stay here for the day and go back tomorrow. I’ll come back by Thursday. Though, if the team leader tells me to prioritize looking after you, I might come earlier.”

The company did not provide an exclusive manager to Maru yet. If the company deemed it necessary, they would’ve brought it up first, but Yeonjin had an inkling that he might be called Maru’s exclusive manager quite soon.

Not long after he started his activities, he managed to win a supporting character for a famous director’s work. He was a sapling that showed promise. He would soon become busy enough to need an exclusive manager.

“Let’s go have dinner now. What would you like to eat?”

“How about some cold noodles since it’s hot? We can have some meat on the side as well.”

“Sounds good.”

“You should eat up. I heard that there’s a heat warning tomorrow, so we can’t have you become exhausted.”

“I was planning on eating a lot.”

Yeonjin smiled and opened the door.

* * *

“My, my. Come on in. The weather’s really hot today, isn’t it?”

Haneul smiled at head manager Kim who made a fuss, before sitting down.

“The course menu here is incredible. There’s no better Chinese restaurant around here than this. The food is neither salty nor too oily. I’m sure you’ll like it,” said head manager Kim as she glanced at the door. She seemed to be waiting for a guest.

Haneul drank some water.

“Miss Jung Dawoon was it? The one you said will model with me.”

“Yes, she’s Jung Dawoon. You’ll know when you meet her, but she’s a really good person. She gives off good vibes as a model, and our designer said she has a good atmosphere too.”

Designer. Haneul recalled the name ‘Na Baekhoon.’ The reason she made some time after the business meeting was to meet the designer of Eterium. She thought that it would be okay to meet him before the collab with Eterium.

“It’s about time.”

Head manager Kim looked nervous. She seemed to be feeling uneasy because there was no call despite the fact that it was almost nearing the appointed time.

“Is the designer frequently late to appointments?”

“People have their flaws. Please be understanding.”

“He’s not late yet. If he’s late, we can just start eating by ourselves.”

“I like that easygoing attitude of yours, Miss Haneul.”

Head manager Kim then left the room with her phone after telling her to wait just a little.

Haneul pushed the rotating table with her fingers as she looked at the door that head manager Kim just left through.

“The designer told us to eat first.”

A few minutes after head manager Kim returned, the door opened along with a knock.

“Hello.”

“Miss Dawoon, you’re here. Why are you so late? You should’ve come on time.”

“I’m sorry. The photoshoot took longer than I expected.”

Haneul looked at Dawoon, who made an apologetic expression. She gave off an innocent impression or maybe it was an adorable one. Although she had never heard of this actress before, she felt like she would soon rise up based on her image alone.

“Really? Then I guess I can’t help it. Why don’t I introduce you two to each other? This is President Han Haneul of Friendly Aroma.”

Haneul corrected head manager Kim’s words.

“You’re saying that again. It’s no longer a permanent position now, so just call me Miss Haneul. Also, I’m not here as the CEO of Friendly Aroma. I am just here to enjoy a light dinner.”

“Oh, look at me. I keep calling you Miss Haneul, but it feels somewhat wrong to do that when I introduce you to others. Anyway, Miss Dawoon, you should say hello. This is Miss Han Haneul, who will be modeling alongside you for the designer shop collab. Well, I guess calling you an actress would be better?”

“Please call me with whatever you’re comfortable with. Anyway, nice to meet you, Miss Dawoon. I’m Han Haneul.”

Haneul stood up and put her hand out. Dawoon stared at her in a daze and didn’t move.

“Is there a problem?” Haneul asked.

“No, I’m just too nervous that I forgot what I had to do.”

“It’s just a handshake. Why are you so nervous?”

“The thing is, I actually respect you a lot unni. Oh, right, can I call you that?”

“I don’t really mind, but respect, you said?”

Dawoon took a step closer. She was a little too close for comfort.

“I saw the poster for Friendly Aroma in the streets a few months ago, and that changed my life. I started putting a lot of effort in after seeing you in it.”

“Really?”

“Yes.”

“I’m a little surprised, but I guess I appreciate that you strived to improve after seeing me. But I’m no one amazing to deserve respect.”

“No, you’re really amazing, unni. I want to become like you.”

I want to become like you — for some reason, Haneul found these words rather iffy. It may be because of all the years she lived, but she felt wary when she received more than necessary goodwill.

Haneul closed her eyes before opening them again. She thought that she shouldn’t be so paranoid. This girl might just be overly affectionate when it came to expressing her emotions.

“You shouldn’t become like me, you should strive to be better.”

“No. It’s my wish to become like you. I mean it.”

“Really?”

“Yes. I’ll definitely become like you, unni,” Dawoon said with a smile.

Whether it was the terms she used, her tone of speech, her expression, or her attitude of getting too close for comfort… Haneul flicked the back of her teeth with her tongue. Her intuition was not wrong. This girl was rather aggressive.

Her smiling eyes and lips and her docilely clasped hands were nothing more than illusions.

It was rather peculiar. Why was she seeing this reaction from someone she had never met before? It would be understandable if Dawoon was sarcastically praising her because her first impression of Haneul wasn’t good, but the vibes Dawoon gave off were nothing of that sort.

Jealousy? No, it was something much more intense…

Just then, the door opened and the waiter came in with the food.

Haneul sat down on her seat for now. This wasn’t a problem she could nitpick openly, so she was going to put it to the side for now. Though, she would bring up the topic if Dawoon tried to pry.

“This is so good. Unni, how is it?”

“Yes. It’s good. It’s not surprising that head manager Kim recommended this place.”

Head manager Kim spoke with a smile, “I’m glad that it’s to your liking. There’s a reason I book this place when there’s an important meeting. If the food is good, people’s mood becomes good, and if their moods are good, the conversation naturally becomes a lot smoother, don’t you think? It’s just a simple meal, but we might end up talking about contracts here.”

“I hope to exchange some good words as well.”

It was around the time they finished the appetizer soup that designer Na Baekhoon entered the room.

“I’m sorry. I was late despite being the one who invited all of you.”

He had a wide back and shoulders like a water polo athlete. Unlike other fashion designers who were known for their delicate images, Na Baek Hoon gave off a thick masculine beauty. He was just like the rumors.

“It’s okay. We started eating ahead of you.”

“That’s good. How’s the meal? This is one of head manager Kim’s secret weapons.”

“We only had soup, but that alone was satisfactory,” Haneul replied with a smile.

She turned her gaze to Dawoon for a little bit from Na Baekhoon. This was the time to look at Na Baekhoon since he was the host, but Dawoon’s gaze was still glued to her.

It didn’t feel like she was simply watching, but observing every little detail. A little like a thief scouting a place to steal.

She became more interesting the more she watched her. Just what was on her mind?

It had been a while since she had been observed in so much detail for unknown reasons. She wondered what kind of cute accident this girl might cause.

“As a token of apology for being late, I’ve prepared some gifts.”

Na Baekhoon gave some orders to the waiter carrying food. Soon, an employee appeared carrying a wine bottle and two paper bags.

“Both of you are okay with a cup of wine, right?”

Haneul nodded. Dawoon also responded with a yes. While the employee poured the wine after decanting it, Na Baekhoon handed out the paper bags to the two of them.

“It’s a scarf. I wish I could fit you with evening dresses, but I do not know your exact measurements yet. Please accept this scarf first, and if there’s an opportunity, I’d like to make you dresses.”

He naturally spoke words that might come off as a little over the top. His tone was plain and not unpleasant at all. He knew how to talk to other people.

“Thank you for the gift.” Haneul put down the paper bag on the floor.

“May I open it now?” Dawoon said as she took out the box from the bag.

“Of course.”

Haneul looked at Dawoon who smiled brightly before moving her chopsticks to the food. The girl next to her seemed to be playing the role of being overjoyed by the gift, so she was planning to have her fill.

“You must’ve been hungry,” Na Baekhoon said.

Haneul chewed the food in her mouth and nodded.

“Designer, this is really pretty.”

“I’m glad that you like it.”

Na Baekhoon then gave a glance her way. He seemed to want her to open the box. Haneul smiled and grabbed a stir-fried shrimp this time.

“The food is getting cold. You should eat as well.”

Hearing her words, Na Baekhoon also smiled and started eating. They talked about the food for a while. The topic of conversation changed when Na Baekhoon started talking about the stock exchange and real estate.

For a while, a story, or more accurately a boast, continued.

Na Baekhoon sneakily boasted his wealth. He also implied that his social standing was unlike normal people. It was as though he wanted them to know that he wasn’t simply a designer running a shop.

“Oh, the time’s so late already. I’ll take my leave first,” Na Baekhoon said by the time the meal ended.

As soon as he left, head manager Kim spoke,

“The designer is a busy man. As you could imagine from his words before, his design work is closer to a hobby.”

“He sounds like an incredible man,” Dawoon said.

“Actually, there are many people who wish to meet him. He’s just that hard to meet. In that sense, the two of you are very lucky.”

Head manager Kim shrugged as though Na Baekhoon’s social standing was hers. Then, she received a call.

“Yes, okay,” she said as she hung up.

“You two have it good. The designer just told me that if you two are okay with it, he wants to invite you two to his house. I’m envious. You get proper invitations like this.”

“To his house?” Dawoon asked back.

“Yes, his house. Not just anyone gets invited like this. He’s a really quiet and clean man, so he doesn’t bring anyone to his home. How about it, you two? You can have important conversations there too. Isn’t that good?”

Head manager Kim was all smiles.

Haneul picked up the paper bag. “Head manager Kim. Please tell him that I really enjoyed our meal today. Oh, and that I really appreciate the gift. The next time we meet will be at the shoot, right?”

“M-miss Haneul. You’re leaving?”

“Yes.”

Haneul looked at Dawoon. Dawoon stood still with a stiff expression.

“Well, you two can continue. Miss Dawoon. It was nice meeting you today.”

She opened the door and left. Whatever decision Dawoon made was not her problem. Whether she went to his house and just had a chat, or she had a deeper conversation than that, it was all up to the young actress known as Jung Dawoon.

After Story 138

“You didn’t have to come through.”

“I came to pick you up because I was passing by. But that ended unexpectedly quickly. Did you break up after eating?” Yeonjoo asked as Haneul got in the car. In her hands was some coffee.

“Yeah. I would’ve stayed for a little more if we ended up talking a little more about the collab, but the atmosphere wasn’t like that.”

Haneul pulled on the seat belt. She had eaten so much that she had to undo the button on her pants, and she felt drowsy the moment she sat down. She had to enjoy the happiness of eating while she still didn’t have a shoot.

“What do you mean, the atmosphere wasn’t like that?”

“There was no mention of work at all, just personal conversations. Even then, more than half of it was him boasting about himself.”

“Designer Na Baekhoon boasted about himself the whole time?”

“Not blatantly, but ultimately, he was basically talking about how good of a man he was. The food was so good, so I just responded moderately to kill time.”

“Really? That’s different from the rumors. I heard he’s really humble and modest.”

“I guess people are the same. They just need to show what’s appropriate for the occasion. That person must’ve thought that such an attitude was appropriate for today's occasion.”

“There are occasions where boasting is appropriate?”

“There sure are.”

It was natural for a male beast who wanted to spend a hot night to boast about its slick fur and big body.

“Also, what’s that bag?”

“A scarf. He gave it to me as a gift.”

“Try opening it. I want to have a look at what a designer-made product is like. Eterium is more expensive than most brands.”

Haneul opened the box and took out the scarf that was fixed in place with a pin. It was a light-green scarf.

She unfurled the scarf before folding it and putting it in the box again.

“It’s not to my taste.”

“Why? It’s pretty.”

“I don’t like the color. If you like it, do you want it?”

“You got it as a gift, so the one who gave it to you might hate it if you give it away.”

“If you don’t want it, then fine. I guess I’ll put it on my cat.”

“If you’re giving it to a cat, then you might as well give it to me,” Yeonjoo asked as she gave Haneul a glance.

Haneul smiled and put the paper bag in the back seat.

“Oh, right. Didn’t you say there was another model? How did that go?”

“Now you feel like a full-fledged businesswoman, asking stuff like that.”

Haneul opened the window. She was feeling sleepy because her stomach was active. She felt like she needed some fresh air to stay focused. The car was standing still making the wind lukewarm, but it was still better than the air from the air conditioner.

“She looked like she’d do well.”

“Really? From what I heard from the head manager over there, apparently, the two of you got scouted together because the vibe you get off is similar.”

Vibe, huh? Haneul looked outside the window.

“Maybe.”

“Anyway, good luck with that. Not anyone can model for Eterium. I heard that female celebrities would competitively buy clothes whenever they release their clothing line every season.”

“I’ll do as much as I’m paid for. I like doing modeling work, but I want to focus on acting more. Once I’m done with this, I’m going to hand over most of the things to you. The president also knows how well you’ve been doing until now, so he shouldn’t have any complaints.”

“Don’t say that and stay next to me a little more. It’s a little too much to do things by myself. Hey, bluntly speaking, I’m only twenty-three this year, you know? If it wasn’t for you, I would still be in college, but now I’m in meetings where money in the hundreds of millions are being exchanged, so it makes my head ache.”

“You get paid the appropriate amount too. You should at least do as much as you’re paid. Also, you’re doing well. Don’t be greedy and keep going as you’re doing now. If you do, some media outlets might contact you for an interview, saying stuff like you are a successful businesswoman in their 20s and whatnot.”

Yeonjoo trembled, saying that she despised the thought of it.

“I’ll drive after drinking this. There’s not a lot left. We can chat in the meanwhile too,” Yeonjoo said, shaking the paper cup.

Haneul told her to take it slow. There was no need to hurry home, and like Yeonjoo said, she wanted to chat a little too. As they were both busy for a while, they had only been talking about work for the past month.

“Right, when are you going to start shooting the movie?”

“There’s no specific schedule yet, but I think it’ll begin around autumn.”

“I’m looking forward to how you’ll appear in a movie.”

“The start is important, so I’m going to squeeze as much as possible out of myself.”

This was an era where individuals were their own media. It was no longer the age of newspapers and TV where the transmission of information was unidirectional, as now, everyone received and transmitted their own information.

If, in the past, being a nameless actor for a period of time was mandatory and inevitable, it was possible to become a star through one work right now. Though, of course, that was as rare as winning the lottery.

“If you do well, I guess the company will become big too.”

“You’re already thinking about stuff like that?”

“I have to. I believe that you’re going to be successful like any other successful actress out there. When you do, though, you have to sign a contract with Friendly Aroma for cheap, okay?”

“I’ll think about it.” Haneul smiled.

Success and failure couldn’t be guaranteed by anyone. However, she felt that she was closer to success than failure. Her basis was her intuition, instinct, and statistics.

“But what part of me makes you think that I’ll be successful as an actress?” Haneul asked.

Yeonjoo flicked her fingers, which were on the wheel.

“If you ask me to pick one thing, then there’s nothing that really comes to mind. That’s because it feels like you’re going to do everything well. It’s funny, isn’t it? I’ve never even seen you acting, but when I see how you work, I think you’re going to do acting easily.”

“Nothing’s easy in this world.”

“You’re right. But there are people who do things easily. I’m not sure about anything else, but I’m quite confident in my discernment, you know? In my eyes, you’re going to sweep the awards.”

“Really?”

“Or maybe not.”

“What a convenient answer.”

“Just wait. When you go up to the stage to comment about winning an award, you’re going to remember this conversation. You have to say my name okay? You have to say that you got the award thanks to Yeonjoo’s encouragement.”

“I’ll definitely say it if I get it.”

Yeonjoo started the car. It seemed she had finished the coffee. Right before she started driving, Yeonjoo turned her head around.

“Right, there is one. The clear reason why you’ll definitely succeed. I guarantee that there’s no one who gives off a vibe like you. I can be sure of that. You’re uni… huh?”

Yeonjoo’s gaze was directed outside the window. Haneul also looked there. She saw Dawoon coming out with head manager Kim from the restaurant.

“It’s head manager Kim. Then the one next to her is the model who’s shooting with you?”

“She is.”

“Didn’t you split up after the meal? Why are those two… Wait. That person in front of the car is Na Baekhoon, isn’t he?”

Head manager Kim brought Dawoon to the car before leaving.

Na Baekhoon opened the door to the passenger seat. Dawoon carefully got on it. The car soon drove off.

“What was that?” Yeonjoo asked, looking at Haneul.

“What was what?”

“Why are you here, and why are those two together?”

“Maybe they have something to talk about between just the two of them.”

“Yeah, but why just the two of them? They signed a model contract with you too.”

“Why bother thinking so much? Let’s go home already. I’m sleepy.”

“Aren’t you concerned? What are you going to do if that designer decides to be biased toward that model?”

“They can do that all they want. I’m done as soon as I shoot the photos for the advertisement.”

Yeonjoo narrowed her eyes.

“Are those two perhaps meeting up not because of work but as a man and a woman? No wait, that can’t be right. Those two must be more than a decade apart.”

“Yeonjoo.”

“Yeah?”

“Stop writing a script for a morning drama and just go. So what if those two start dating or not? They’re both adults.”

“But she’s still a model who’ll be working with you. The designer calling her out separately like that is a little…”

“If he was so careless in his work, then he wouldn’t have gained his current reputation. I don’t care as long as the collab goes successfully. Bluntly speaking, It’ll be even better if those two end up well. The designer would be more focused on the work.”

Yeonjoo started driving.

“That’s true, but it just feels iffy.”

“Don’t bother. It’s someone else’s matter.”

Haneul put on some music and leaned back. A symphony she had heard many times but did not know the name of was flowing out. After the song ended, the radio DJ said the name of the track.

Sernoff Symphony No. 6. March of the Maids.

“Tell me if they do discriminate against you. I’ll give them a warning,” Yeonjoo said.

Haneul smiled and responded that she would.

* * *

“You said you were twenty-two, didn’t you?”

“Yes.”

Dawoon picked up the cocktail glass. Her hands and feet were trembling before coming inside the house, but now she had calmed down.

When she calmed down, the rest of the scenery entered her eyes. The Han River she could see through a full-pane window was like a piece of art. On the left wall was a watercolor painting by an artist she didn’t know.

Other than that, the whole house was black. The wallpaper, the furniture, and even down to the carpet on the floor. The plates were white at least, which was fortunate.

“So you aren’t a child then?”

“Right. I’m not a child.”

“Then what’s the reason you came all the way here?” Na Baekhoon asked while drinking some of the cocktail.

“Because you invited me…”

“You go to anyone’s house just because they invite you?” He grinned.

Dawoon felt her mouth going dry. She quickly drank the cocktail. After a popping fizz was a taste of sweetness.

“I don’t want to be roundabout after coming all the way here. So, I want you to be honest as well, Miss Dawoon. It’s a little frustrating to talk to each other with masks on, don’t you think?”

Na Baekhoon undid a button on his shirt. Dawoon kept drinking the cocktail. She was not planning to stay oblivious.

The reason she accepted the invitation, the reason she was worried on her way here, and the reason she was shaking were all for the sake of one thing, and she had made her decision.

“You see. I can do quite a lot of things. Eterium is one of them. However, Eterium is nothing but a small part of me. Recently, I have taken an interest in movies. That’s why I’m preparing something, and there will soon be results.”

“I see.”

He poured some drinks into her glass. It wasn’t a cocktail this time. A strong alcoholic smell wafted off the drink that fell on top of the thick block of ice.

“You said you weren’t a child, didn’t you?” he asked as he looked at the glass.

She clenched her eyes shut and drank it. It was bitter, hot, and made her tongue numb. She then ate the fruit that he handed over with his hands.

“Whether it was you or Miss Han Haneul, I got the feeling when I saw the two of you. Ah, both of these women are ores. But honestly speaking, the one I wanted more was Miss Han Haneul. You’re okay, but how should I put this… Miss Han Haneul had the image of a jewel that looked good anywhere with a little bit of polishing… no, because she was already polished. She’s a mysterious jewel that was luxurious and yet still friendly. Really, she was desirable.”

“You mean to say I’m severely lacking?” Dawoon raised her voice.

“From a business standpoint, you are a little bit.”

Dawoon clenched her hands.

He continued, “But through my hands, that can change. I told you, didn’t I? That the two of you have a similar image. I heard from head manager Kim that you’re aiming to be Miss Haneul. That’s when I realized that you must be a greedy woman.”

“I want to stand on a higher ground than Han Haneul.”

“And why is that?”

“Do I have to say that too?”

“It’s good to know as a business partner.”

Dawoon twitched her lips before eventually speaking,

“There’s a man I want to steal. I know it sounds ridiculous. But it’s an important matter to me. I feel like I can only rest at ease if I get acknowledged by that person. I feel like only then will I be able to exist as me.”

“Good. I like such primitive reasons like that.”

He then proceeded to kiss her. Dawoon let her stiffened body fall into his arms. After their lips fell apart, she asked,

“What can you give me?”

“If there are similar products in the market, then the one who comes out first has the advantage, an overwhelming advantage, in fact. I will give you the gift of originality. You will not be a second Han Haneul, but Han Haneul will be a second Jung Dawoon.”

Dawoon nodded after letting out a shaky breath. It was the answer she wanted.

After Story 139

Why did this only happen to him? Something must be very wrong.

Just when did things start going wrong? When he easily quit his first job? When he couldn’t hold back his nature and beat up a senior at school and was forced to transfer schools? When he deceived the granny at the small shop and stole money and food? Or when he was born under to goddamned parents?

He wiped his sweat and went into the shade. The weather was extremely hot, enough to melt some plastics. It wouldn’t be strange even if someone died because of a heat stroke.

He took out the bottle of water he brought from his house. It was totally frozen when he left his house, but now it was half-melted. He opened the lid and drank a little bit before pouring the rest above his head. Cold water ran down his neck, making him feel slightly better.

“Dammit.”

He glanced at the people walking by outside the shade. An ahjumma in her late fifties holding a sunshade seemed to be in a good mood as she was laughing and chatting with a phone against her ear.

Here, someone was almost dying because of the heat, so he found it very annoying that she laughed like she had everything in the world.

He chewed on his lips as he watched that woman before lowering his head. Picking a fight was also a waste of energy. On a day like this, he had to stay still.

He rested for a long while under the shade before leaving. He flicked away the droplets of sweat that formed on his head as he stood in front of a vending machine. He put his hand in the hole where the change would come out before rummaging through it. Something caught his hands. When he took it out, it was a 500-won coin.

“Shit, that’s some good stuff,” he grinned before putting it in his pocket.

At the next vending machine, he got 50 won. Like that, he went around the whole neighborhood. He now had 2,000 won in his pocket. The 1,000 won he picked up underneath one of the vending machines was a windfall.

He looked at the money in his hands before frowning and crouching down.

What an idiot, being happy because of something like this. Other people were busy graduating college and getting employment, while he had become nothing but an unemployed thug that was rummaging through vending machines.

He knew he had to work, but he didn’t want to bow his head to other people just to earn chump change. He had already quit his part-time job at the convenience store after a few days when he punched a customer in the face. A customer should act like one. They shouldn’t be tossing money and acting arrogantly to the part-timer.

He didn’t want to work like that for an hourly wage of 3,500 won.

Just where did everything go wrong? This wasn’t supposed to be his life. Something must have gone gravely wrong.

Or maybe, he did not get his opportunity yet. Just like how cicadas would endure months in the ground before finally poking out of the ground to fly up in the air, something life-changing was bound to arrive in his life.

After deciding to think like that, he felt a little more comfortable. He did nothing wrong. He might have made a few mistakes but nothing was grave enough for his whole life to flop on its face.

There was bound to be an opportunity for reversal. There would be a chance so great that it would make him forget about this moment.

He used the back of his hand to scatter the pooled sweat between his chin and his neck. He had long since ran out of water.

When he looked around, he saw a convenience store. He was craving some cold ice cream. It was just when he was standing up after pushing against his knees,

“Hey, young man! Why are you staying here in front of another person’s restaurant the whole day?”

An ahjumma opened the door and shouted at him.

* * *

Thanks to the scorching heat, there were no customers, and she had just heard that the rent was going up, so she had been vexed to her bone. That was when she saw a random young man not moving an inch in front of her restaurant.

Normally, someone like him wouldn’t even have caught her eye. She would’ve just thought that he would leave after some time. However, she wasn’t feeling good today.

She opened the door and vented the frustration that had been piling up since morning today.

Hearing her words, the man slowly stood up. His short hair and baggy shirt entered her eyes first. The next moment, she made eye contact with him.

She felt her frustration disappear in an instant, and instead, felt like she had provoked the wrong guy. His exhausted-looking eyes were filled with unknown frustration. She instantly realized that he might explode with a small stimulus.

She had been running a barbecue restaurant for 10 years and knew that someone like him wouldn’t restrain himself. He was the type of guy to barge into the restaurant and cause a total mess.

It was likely that the police would be useless as well. At most, he would be rebuked, and he would then just come back later to cause another mess.

It seemed she had made a grave mistake this time. She flinched back before trying to close the door quietly.

The man approached her. Just as she was thinking that he was going to cause a mess at her restaurant and started to feel gloomy,

“I’m sorry. I was a little dazed thinking about something.”

The man lowered his head before raising it again.

She felt rather taken aback. The impression the man gave off, that felt like he might pick a fight with anyone around, had changed drastically. He looked so round now that he might just laugh it off even if he was sworn at. It was rather peculiar.

Did she see something wrong? Just a moment ago, he felt like a total thug, but now, he only looked the part, as he actually seemed to be a polite young man.

“I-I’m sorry too, for shouting at you all of a sudden.”

“No, that’s okay. I mean, the weather’s so hot.”

The young man scratched his eyebrows while laughing. Looking at that, she felt apologetic. The weather was hot enough that healthy young men would fall down from heat strokes. She had to be understanding that some people might rest in the shade. Just how exhausted must he have been that he had been dazed out without even being able to move?

Now that she had another look, he looked a little similar to her son, who had gone to military service at a late age.

Was she always such a stuck-up person? She felt sorry for saying something bad to a youth who was exhausted due to the heat.

“Wait a sec.”

She took out a drink from the refrigerator at her restaurant and gave it to the young man.

“It’s okay.”

“Take it. I just feel sorry. I didn’t take into account how exhausted you must have been to sit in front of my restaurant like this, and I snapped out at you.”

She felt a little better after giving him a drink even though he refused until the end.

“I’ll come by next time.”

“Alright. I’ll give you a lot of freebies.”

The youth smiled kindly before turning around. After he disappeared, she closed the door and sat down on a chair. Just why did such an innocent young man look so vicious a while ago, she had no idea.

She looked at the clock before opening the refrigerator in the kitchen. It was about time she got ready to receive evening customers.

* * *

Having returned to the hotel, Maru put the drink the lady gave him into the refrigerator.

As this was his first time playing a supporting character, he wanted to get into the role properly. So he acted and thought like Gomchi, which brought this trouble.

Before the lady talked to him, his nerves had been on the edge. If something went wrong, he might have blurted out vicious words at her.

His thoughts might become biased if he kept looking at the script, so he wore the character over himself and walked around the neighborhood.

Having touched upon method acting after a long time, it gave him more fatigue than he had imagined.

He took a shower and fell down on the bed. The easily angered nature of Gomchi still seemed to remain in his head and on his skin. It was truly hard to become less of himself and more of someone else.

He looked at the ceiling in a daze for a while and got some rest. He focused his senses on the sounds that came from the outside and then on the sounds coming from his body. He meditated lightly to hone his mind and control his body that had been exhausted by the sun.

-It’s over 37 degrees in Daegu. Watch out so you don’t get heat stroke.

That was a message from Haneul. He messaged her to be careful as well before standing up. Gomchi’s personality, which was filled with petty self-pity and dissatisfaction towards society, was now put away completely. He felt like he would be able to create a satisfactory character with some more polishing.

He read the book he brought from home before getting dressed and leaving the hotel. Today was the ceremonial day before the crank-in.

Usually, this would be done on the rooftop of the office of the production company, but the director said that he wanted to hold it in Daegu, where most of the shoot would occur.

He went to the appointed place. It was in front of a shipping container, which would be used as the base for the main characters in the movie.

He saw people gathered around. There were even some journalists holding cameras. It seemed that they had taken an interest after finding out that it was director Lim Hwanggeun’s attempt at something new.

He saw director Lim talking to a middle-aged man in a suit. He watched from a little distance away before approaching and greeting him.

“That’s a nice haircut you have there,” director Lim said while touching his hair slightly.

“Does it suit me?”

“It looks good. It’s just the image I want. A slightly awkward thug. Did you just come down to Daegu?”

“I came here a few days ago.”

“You came early.”

“I was planning to look around and get used to the air around here.”

Director Lim laughed before waving at someone else behind him. When he turned around, he saw Kim Hyuk approaching. Maru had seen this man in Seoul before, so he took a light bow.

“Director, the weather here’s terrific.”

“It’s heaven’s decree to shoot passionately.”

“I might collapse while shooting. Nice to see you here, Mr. Maru. You had a haircut?”

“Yep.”

“Now that I look at you, your face is something else. I might get overshadowed by you.”

Kim Hyuk smiled and showed off his neat hair. Having a clean image was important for him in the movie because he was the one leading the insurance scams, and Kim Hyuk suited the image of an intellectual scammer. He seemed to have chosen director Lim’s work this time in order to escape the image of being an actor specializing in romance.

“Let’s work well together.”

“Likewise. Please take care of me.”

“Don’t say that to me. We just have to hope that the director guides us well.”

All the actors gathered around director Lim. The CEO of the production company and the representative of the investors arrived as well.

The ceremonial table was soon set up. Although the food on the table was lacking compared to a full ceremony, they prepared a big pig’s head.

“We’ll take a photo now.”

The actors gathered in front of the table.

Maru stood next to Kim Hyuk. Kim Hyuk put an arm around his shoulder and winked. This man was easily approachable. It seemed that the atmosphere at the shoot was going to be good.

After taking a photo, they held the ceremony. The CEO of the production company put a money envelope into the pig’s mouth and said that he wanted 5 million in sales.

The other people also gathered around and added their own wishes as they put their money envelopes in the pig’s mouth.

The nearly hundred people in the production staff were staring at the money envelopes in the pig’s mouth. The amount of money gathered there was going to decide the menu for the get-together, so they couldn’t help but pay attention as well.

Maru also put an envelope in the pig’s mouth and commented in a small voice,

“I think 6 million is better than 5 million.”

Then, he smiled at the camera next to the ceremonial table. It was the camera they installed to make the making film.

Lastly, the director stepped forward.

“Let us all do our best so that the movie goes well. And since we’re shooting it, let’s get 10 million in sales. Those that mock me for producing cheap stuff should shut up if I hit ten million.”

After director Lim’s comment, he walked away from the ceremonial table. People applauded and laughed.

“Let’s put the table away and get some food. We’re going to eat and drink tonight and then work to death starting in two days, okay?”

Hearing the director’s words, the staff all replied yes.

Maru put a small piece of tteok in his mouth. The movie shoot that would continue for a month under the scorching heat had just begun.

After Story 140

#5 Street / Afternoon.

Gyukho approaches Gomchi, who has just left the store with some soju.

Gomchi glances at Gyukho, who is dressed neatly, from top to bottom.

Gyukho received the glance indifferently. He rustles the plastic bag in his hands roughly and walks by.

Gyukho: Hey.

Gomchi: (rather weirded out) Hey?

Gyukho: Yes, you.

Gomchi: You know me?

Gyukho: (grins) I do.

Gyukho hangs an arm around Gomchi’s shoulders. Gomchi flicks his shoulders to resist, but Gyukho does not pay it any heed and does it again.

Gyukho: Hey, don’t you want to take care of a big case?

Gomchi: What big case? Hey, let me go.

Gyukho: (closing his face toward Gomchi’s) You know Lee Dongsik, don’t you?

Gomchi pushes away Gyukho again at the mention of the name Lee Dongsik. The two stare at each other for a while.

The chatter of ladies fills the quiet alleyway. Students pass by, and Gomchi turns around after giving a glance at Gyukho.

Gyukho follows right behind Gomchi.

Gyukho: You quit your company, didn’t you? (Snatches the plastic bag) Don’t you think you should drink while doing some work at least?

Gomchi: (muttering) Mind your own business.

Gyukho: What?

Gomchi: I said mind your own business. I will take care of my own business. I don’t know how you’re related to that fucker Dongsik, but I got no business with him.

Gyukho: Why? I heard you two were close friends.

Gomchi: Bullshit. I got no business with you so fuck off. Also, tell Dongsik when you meet him that he should pay money back.

Gyukho: 10 million won.

Gomchi: (turns around while walking away) What?

Gyukho: Did the amount pique your interest? How long are you going to earn chump change? How are you going to buy a car or a house, or meet a woman like that? Dongsik said you’re a big man who can play in big waters. How about you do something big instead of earning a petty sum?

* * *

He glared at Gyukho. Ten million won. His curiosity was piqued after hearing the number, but he didn’t feel that good when he found out that this man was with Dongsik.

Who was Lee Dongsik? That dude was someone who borrowed hundreds of thousands and even millions of won from his friends and cut all contact.

The amount was not big enough to cause a big fuss over, and he just let it go thinking that he just stepped on poop, but still, Dongsik was no different from a swindler.

“Is ten million too little? Well, I guess it might be depending on the person. But ten million is just the beginning. As long as you do your work properly, we can earn tens of millions or even hundreds of millions.”

That kind of sum was a number he couldn’t even imagine, as he was someone who quit work after getting paid 1.8 million won per month at a mid-sized company.

“Who do you think you’re kidding? You’re going to make me earn that kind of money? What is this, multi-level marketing? But what are you going to do? I don’t have the money to sell your items for you.”

“Who says it’s multi-level marketing? And bluntly speaking, who would want to swindle money out of you? I’m recruiting employees. Employees for a company with a clear vision.”

His words were smooth at least.

Gomchi looked at the man who introduced himself as Lee Gyukho. This man looked to be around in his mid to late twenties. His hair had been combed neatly. He was even wearing horn-rimmed glasses, which made him look like a goody-two-shoes.

It was obvious that all of this was going to be nonsense. Where in the world was a job that could easily earn ten million won? He just had to ignore this man and go home to drink some soju.

Yet, for some reason, he could not walk a step. A ‘what if it’s true’ pervaded his mind like an overflowing river.

First of all, it was obvious that this was not going to be honest work. The fact that he had to work with Lee Dongsik reeked of illegal.

He looked down at the plastic bag in his hands. The soju bottles inside glistened.

If he went home here, he would drink them and wake up tomorrow in a daze only to grumble and look at the newspaper for some work. Then he would play games, meet some neighborhood friends, and then drink again.

He could imagine himself living a life of a hamster in a wheel as he carried around bricks at a construction zone.

It was a gloomy future far from getting a car, a house, or a woman. Sure, he wouldn’t have a problem getting by. However, that was it. He would eventually die just like that.

It was a damned, uninteresting life.

Ten million won. He thought about the number of zeros that number had.

“What’s it about?”

“Simple. We help some people in need and get some compensation.”

“People in need?”

Gyukho rubbed his lips with his thumb. “Hey, have you ever thought that insurance is a loss when you don’t get into an accident? It’s quite funny if you think about it. You’re giving a company money while worrying about an accident that hasn’t even happened yet. You’re worried about something you’re worried about. It’s a price of worry.”

“So?”

“What we’re doing is returning the money that had been extorted unjustly back to the right people. No one will receive harm.”

“So what you want to do is an insurance scam, huh?” Gomchi asked as he stared at Gyukho.

Gyukho smiled in response.

“Oh please, don’t call it an insurance scam. Call it getting back rightful money.”

* * *

Lim Hwanggeun shouted cut and approached the two actors. The two had their sweat wiped off but soon started sweating again.

“It was good, but let’s do that again. Hyuk, when you grab Maru in front of the store, you should be more greasy.”

Hwanggeun demonstrated it himself. He wrapped an arm around Maru’s shoulders and said Gyukho’s line while winking.

Kim Hyuk nodded, saying that he understood what it was like.

“Maru, you should hide your emotions a little more. It’s too obvious which makes the following plot too predictable.”

“Yes.”

If it was a mafia comedy, he would’ve just glossed this over and gone to the next scene. After all, he would invest more time in scenes where an actor’s skill could be displayed to create laughs.

However, this movie was different. The characters and the plot were more important than anything else. This was especially true for Gyukho, who was played by Kim Hyuk. If Gyukho lacked the charm, the whole story would not have as much weight.

It could be said that it was a movie by Kim Hyuk for Kim Hyuk. Following this train of thought, Maru’s role was also important.

Gomchi was going to be the trigger that would show what was at the bottom of Gyukho. He was the spice that made Gyukho more three-dimensional.

“Well, get ready. Camera.”

Hwanggeun looked at the monitor. Currently, the camera was shooting the two actor’s faces in closeup.

This was the meeting between Gomchi, who still had a shred of humanity, and Gyukho, who was a perfected evil man.

The yellow light created by the setting sun covered the two actors. Hwanggeun rather liked the light because it was a precursor of the night that would soon follow.

The minor actors he had on standby started moving first. An actor wearing a school uniform walked along the walls. A motorbike followed right behind him, and four middle-aged actresses walked past Kim Hyuk and Maru while chatting.

It was a moment where evil was birthed amidst everyday life. Kim Hyuk’s expression was shown by the camera.

Having become Gyukho, Kim Hyuk acted very politely, but his eyes were gleaming with malice. Hwanggeun could see that Kim Hyuk had analyzed this Gyukho character a lot.

He then saw Maru, who turned back around after hearing the ten million figure. His expression was a complex mix of confusion, suspicion, and hostility, all necessary emotions for this scene.

Hwanggeun crossed his arms and looked at Gomchi’s face closely. He was reminded of what his son said, about how someone who didn’t look the part committed murder and that was disgusting and ugly.

It was those words that made him decide to cast Maru.

Now that they were ten days into the shoot, Hwanggeun couldn’t imagine anyone other than Maru playing Gomchi.

Gomchi was drenched in laziness, but he still maintained reason as a citizen of a lawful country. Even through the camera, it was obvious that he disdained Gyukho for trying to commit insurance fraud.

Gyukho’s line followed up. His lines were very smooth as though his tongue was oiled. The lines Hwanggeun wrote had been slightly edited.

Kim Hyuk suggested the change, saying that Lee Gyukho would say such words, and Hwanggeun approved it in an instant.

“What’s it about?” Gomchi said.

He still looked wary, but his eyes were shaken. Gomchi, who despised his own life which did not make any progress, was waiting for an opportunity that might come one day. Gyukho provided him with that opportunity.

Gomchi knew that illegal acts were not supposed to be done and that danger would soon follow.

From the perspective of society, Gomchi was a dropout, but that didn’t mean he was stupid. He knew better than anyone what it meant to accept Gyukho’s proposal.

He also knew that he had to refuse, and yet, he would still choose to join hands, ultimately believing in the words of the snake that this boring life could be changed easily and quickly; he harbored the conviction that even if destruction was what lay at the end of it, he would not meet such a conclusion.

Maru showed the minute changes in his emotions using detailed movements of his facial muscles. It was incredible to see that he quickly understood that his emotions were too obvious and changed his acting instantly.

It was as though there was a perfect acting manual inside his head.

Maybe because of that, Hwanggeun kept having higher and higher standards. He would keep reshooting scenes he would normally be satisfied with.

There was an actor in front of him who could respond with a change in his acting at his every request, so it would be a loss if he just shot once.

They were living in an era where film rolls were no longer being used and editing had become a lot easier thanks to advances in digital technology.

As long as the time allowed it, he was going to capture acts that contained details.

“I think you can hit harder here.”

“Then how about this much?”

The sync between Han Maru and Kim Hyuk was good as well. The ad-libs that the two came up with while joking around with each other were sometimes hard to just let go of.

“Okay!”

“It’s an okay.”

Hwanggeun drank cold water and stood up from his seat. The day was turning dark. He packed up the shooting equipment and went to the next location.

“Miss Gayoung says she’ll be a little late.”

“Again?”

Hwanggeun scratched his head in vexation.

He had to accept a few proposals from the production company in order to recruit the actors he wanted, and one of them was Jung Gayoung.

“Why’s she late?”

“Apparently, the shoot for her ad took longer than originally expected.”

“It’s not like she’s the only busy person. Dammit.”

“Director, don’t be like that. Miss Gayoung looked really apologetic.”

“If she feels sorry, then she should come early! It takes ages to shoot with her since she’s terrible at acting, and she’s late all the time too. This is the third time already.”

“What can you do? She’s really popular these days.”

Hwanggeun told the assistant director to have the staff take a break.

The sun had set so they couldn’t even shoot another scene. They could only wait for the main actress to come.

“Looks like Gayoung is really busy. It makes me want to work in her place,” Kim Hyuk came by and said. Maru was next to him.

“The weather’s so hot, so why does she have to be late? We have to shoot as quickly as possible so that everyone can get some rest for the next shoot.”

“Director. Be easy on her. You know that Gayoung’s really nervous in front of you, right?”

“Let her be! If she doesn’t like that, she can be the director. Or, she can be as good as you or Maru. If an actor can’t act, she deserves it.”

“Looks like our director’s pretty pissed. Here, have something cold and ease up. I’m sure she’ll come soon.”

Kim Hyuk smiled like a good man and gave him some ice cream. Apparently, he bought them with his own money. When he looked around, the members of the staff were all holding one as well.

What a thankful guy.

Hwanggeun accepted the ice cream, and just as he was about to rip it open,

“Miss Gayoung has arrived,” said one of the staff.

Hwanggeun turned his head around. He saw a woman running over with her manager in the distance.

“I’m so sorry!” Gayoung said.

After Story 141

"I-isn’t this taking things a little too far?” Mira said. Her voice was so small that it would be inaudible even with hearing aids.

Her eyes were always glued to the ground, and her shoulders were always curled up. It was as if she was born that way.

“Speak louder. I can’t hear a damn thing you’re saying,” Gomchi said as he glanced at Mira.

He didn’t like Dongsik, but Mira was just unbearable. How did it even make sense that they were going to commit insurance fraud with a woman like that?

Having been scolded, Mira curled her shoulders even more. She was shrinking and shrinking.

Gomchi was nearly fed up with her when she kept shirking away without even responding properly. He grabbed the magazine in front of him and threw it at Mira’s feet.

Along with a flop, the magazine hit the floor and opened. Mira groaned and flinched before falling over on the chair.

Gomchi clicked his tongue. Seriously, this woman was quite something.

“You want to proceed with her on board? Seriously?”

Gomchi looked at Gyukho and Dongsik, who were sitting at a desk. Gyukho was smiling as always, and Dongsik looked at Mira in pity.

“Hey, prick. Did Mira do something wrong? It’s because you act like that that she gets scared all the time,” Dongsik said.

Huh? This dude was blatantly siding with Mira. Gomchi pushed his cheek outward with his tongue and spoke,

“Why are we gathered here, huh? Are we here to enjoy a hobby together? Are we here to make friends while looking at faces we don’t even want to see? We’re here to earn money. And not only that, we’ll get cuffed the moment something goes wrong. And yet you want that kind of woman on board? What are you trying to do? Put on a comedy show?”

“I’m sorry. I’ll do better.”

Mira looked nervous. Dongsik said that it was not something she should be worried about and consoled her.

Gomchi looked at the two alternately before letting out an empty chuckle.

“What a load of bullshit. What the hell are you two doing? Are you here on a date? Should I book a love hotel for you? I saw a nice one on the way here. Why don’t you go fuck around there? It looks like you’re forcefully allowing her to join this because Dongsik, that fucker, fell for her, but let’s just give her to Dongsik as his girlfriend and bring a proper dude here. Huh? Gyukho, don’t you think so too?”

Since he decided to do it, he had to do this as cleanly as possible. Scamming was no children’s play, and if they made a single mistake, they would immediately be sent behind bars.

Just what were they planning to do with an introverted kid who couldn’t even speak properly, he couldn’t understand.

“You bastard. How dare you talk like that?”

Dongsik stood up. Gomchi approached Dongsik and pushed on Dongsik’s shoulder with his hand.

“Look at your eyes. You look like you’re gonna hit someone, eh? Fine, hit me. I don’t like having to do something with you anyway. What am I supposed to do with a guy who only knows how to leech off people?”

“And how are you qualified to say any of that? You’re fighting all the time, and you have low intellect and don’t know a shred of restraint. Hey, you know what? When we high school OBs met up, we all decided to not live our lives like you. You’re a brute who only knows how to use your fist. You don’t know how to hold back, do you? That’s why you quit college like that and got fired from your company.”

“I didn’t get fired. I quit, bitch. They tried to extort me with chump change.”

“That company is practically a charity for employing someone like you in the first place. Why else would anyone hire an idiot like you? Hey, can you even do addition properly?”

“Addition? I’m not so sure about addition, but I do know about subtraction a little.”

He smacked Dongsik on the chin. Due to getting hit, Dongsik fell back with a groan.

Mira screamed and trembled in nervousness.

“Shut the hell up. A person won’t die with just this,” he rebuked Mira before approaching Dongsik.

Dongsik was wiping his bleeding lips with the back of his hand and started rolling his eyes left and right when he approached him.

Gomchi could see him panic.

“You were always like that. You would always run your mouth like that and then freeze stiff when you get beaten up. Pitiful bastard. You’re a man with no guts. What can you do?”

He tapped on Dongsik’s cheek with his palm.

“I told you I can do some subtraction right? Let me have a look at whether you’re missing some teeth. If I smash two of your front teeth out, it’s subtraction, right?”

He slightly pinched the frozen Dongsik’s cheek. Seeing him totally scared made him feel like it was ridiculous to fight.

“Done yet?” Gyukho cut in.

Having come down from the desk, Gyukhio flicked a finger as though to signal them to gather around.

Gomchi glared at Gyukho but still followed his instructions. Gyukho was an extraordinary guy. He was worth following. As a practice, Gyukho tried double-billing a car repair fee and it became apparent that it was too easy to get his hands on millions of won.

Gyukho was a natural. With him, it should be possible to earn tens or even hundreds of millions.

However, Dongsik and Mira were unreliable. Dongsik at least tried to use his brain, but Mira seemed like she couldn’t do anything at all.

“Gomchi,” said Gyukho.

“What?”

“You trust me?”

He looked at Gyukho’s deep eyes; those eyes seemed to wander into the depths of time, instead of just looking at what was in front of them.

He nodded. “I do.”

“Then trust Mira as well. She’s not here to fool around. She’s someone who’ll do it if it’s necessary, and we need her for our plan.”

“I’m just iffy, especially with how Dongsik that prick is protective of her. We’re in a position where we’d be doomed with a single mistake, so what if something goes wrong while covering for someone else’s ass?”

“Don’t worry about that part. I’ll take care of that on my end. Also, Mira. You remember what you promised me, right? You have to change. Otherwise, you’ll go back to that gutter.”

Mira nodded vigorously when she heard the word gutter. What circumstances she had, Gomchi didn’t know, but Mira’s expression did change.

“We’re a team. We are each other’s heads and hearts. If one’s missing, then we die just like that. So let’s look out for each other, okay? You know that internal consolidation is important if we want to earn big, right?” Gyukho said with a grin.

Gomchi also grinned in satisfaction. As long as Gyukho, the centerpiece, was here, this team wouldn’t have any problems. As for Mira, he decided that he’d watch her for a while.

“Dongsik, did that hurt?”

“It does, son of a bitch.”

“Remember that and hit me later. I’ll gladly take one.”

Dongsik scoffed.

Although there were many conflicts, they didn’t last long. In the first place, they weren’t gathered here because of some incredible friendship.

They all knew that they had only gathered for the sake of money, so there was no need for needless emotional squabble.

What they needed were skill and guts.

“I’ll also do better.”

Right after Mira spoke with a smile, she seemed to find her nose itchy and she ended up sneezing loudly.

There was a short moment of silence.

“Look at that, even her sneeze is awkward,” he said.

Following that, Dongsik told him to lay off.

Gyukho also smiled and said that it was okay.

At that moment, Mira lowered her head.

“I’m sorry. I’ll do that again. I’m sorry.”

* * *

Maru pulled forward his body, which he had jerked backward. He had to breathe calmly for a while in order for his taut nerves to return to their normal state.

He pressed between his eyes with both of his thumbs, resolving the various emotions that had been spread around in his body, and then raised his head.

Gomchi subsided, and Han Maru returned.

“I’m sorry.”

Gayoung was apologizing with a smile.

Was this the third, no, the fourth time?

Kim Hyuk stretched his arms out and turned around. Maru also stood up from his seat.

“Maru, are my teeth okay?” said Jung Beomseok, the actor playing Dongsik, as he pointed at his front teeth.

“I think they’re cracked. One on the top and one on the bottom.”

“Right? I knew it. Your hit had emotions in it. If we ever have any grudges, then tell me about it. I don’t want to end up with broken teeth.”

Beomseok was someone who had a mischievous attitude no matter what he did. He boasted conversational skills that did not lose out to a comedian, and anyone around him would keep smiling.

Even Kim Hyuk, who enjoyed making others laugh, was helpless in front of Beomseok. It was to the point that even director Lim told him to stop with the jokes.

“It was going good too,” said director Lim. “Gayoung. The others continued the scene well. Why didn’t you just go with it?”

“I was going to, but I felt like it was no good. Didn’t you feel the same? I felt like the atmosphere had changed a little,” said Gayoung as she looked at the other actors.

As the director said, if she followed up with an ad-lib instead of apologizing, he wouldn’t have needed to shout cut.

“Gayoung likes being perfect,” Kim Hyuk said from between director Lim and Gayoung.

Director Lim and Gayoung had been on bad terms since the beginning of the shoot as Gagyoung would object to director Lim’s instructions from time to time, even while being obedient.

It wasn’t bad to the point that director Lim had to point it out, and Gayoung was also being careful not to give the director an opportunity to do so.

“Director. Why don’t we take a break? I need to go to the bathroom.”

“You don’t have to tell me so, so just go. This isn’t school.”

“I’m just scared you’ll grumble about me if I leave without saying a word.”

It was like watching a fight between a fox and a bear.

Gayoung left the place. Director Lim stared holes into the back of Gayoung’s head before leaving the scene with a cigarette in his mouth.

“Wait,” Beomseok said as he poked Maru on the flank.

Kim Hyuk was with him.

“Who do we side with? The atmosphere is really iffy. Hyuk, what do you think?”

“How can we side with either? We have to think about how to make their relationship better.”

“If there was a method to do that, I would’ve tried already. Han Maru, don’t you have anything? You’re the youngest out of us, so you must have a malleable brain.”

Maru shrugged.

“How can I provide an answer to something even you can’t? But before that, why do those two have such a bad relationship? At first, I just thought the director didn’t like her because she was late all the time, but from what I see, that’s just one of the reasons. Gayoung-noona also seemed to be overly annoyed with the director.”

Kim Hyuk and Beomseok both shook their heads.

“At this rate, the atmosphere at the set is going to turn shit. I had a pain shooting the last movie too because the director and an actor fell out.”

Beomseok sighed.

A shoot was something that involved people working with people in everything from A to Z. Naturally, there were bound to be conflicts, which may lead to bad relationships. Eventually, either the director or the actor might change as well.

Most of the time, the actor would be the one quitting, but sometimes, the director would be changed.

For ‘Depths of Evil,’ director Lim was the one who came up with the script, so if the problem deepened, Gayoung would be the one quitting. Though, in most cases, things did not go that far.

Maru massaged the back of his neck. The plot was good, the actors were good, and he even liked the production style, so he was looking forward to this, but an unexpected problem was dragging this whole thing down.

As they were all professionals who worked for money, they would not do something that might harm their work.

However, if the strange emotional conflicts continued to occur, it would definitely affect the final outcome.

This was especially true since director Lim’s nature was notorious for being like a volcano. It was to the point where they would sometimes receive complaints from the local residents because of his shouts.

On the other hand, Gayoung, while looking strong on the outside, was someone who would soon cry after her threshold was reached.

One side shouting, and one side crying.

That would really ruin the mood.

“Thank you for your work.”

When the shoot ended, it was 1 a.m. Beomseok hinted at Maru and Kim Hyuk.

The two of them approached Gayoung.

“Gayoung,” Kim Hyuk called out to her.

“Yeah?”

“I was wondering if we could have a talk. Are you okay on time?”

Gayoung put her lips together before speaking in a pitiful tone.

“I’m sorry, oppa. I’m too tired. Let’s talk next time. You’re okay with it, right?”

“Er, okay. If you’re tired, you should get some rest.”

Maru spoke in Kim Hyuk’s stead since he looked like he was going to send her home.

“Noona, do you have a problem with the director?”

“Why? Do you think there’s a problem?”

“Yes. It sure doesn’t look like you two are in a good relationship.”

Kim Hyuk also expressed that he was of the same opinion with an awkward smile.

Beomseok did the same.

“You think I’m the problem?”

“I wouldn’t know who the problem is. That’s why I think I need to listen.”

Gayoung sighed.

“I’m trying to fix the director’s bad habit. Director Lim, you know, what era does he think he lives in, looking down on actresses just because they’re women? Does he think I’m that easy? Am I that bad?”

As she said that, her eyes became red before she started crying.

The sudden burst of tears not only confused him but Kim Hyuk and Beomseok as well, making them fall silent.

“Anyway, you’re all going to side with me, right? Actors should band with actors.”

The words Maru was worried about the most came out of Gayoung’s mouth.

After Story 142

“Five years. I’ve been working on this for five years. I didn’t write it up in a few months and stuffed it in my drawer for the rest; I really edited and edited it again for the whole five years. I didn’t write a single scene or a single line with ease. I even looked for suitable locations to shoot myself. There’s not a single spot that I did not touch in the groundwork of the film.”

Director Lim let out a heavy sigh. He was quite drunk.

Maru poured some cold water and put it in front of the director. Meanwhile, Kim Hyuk put away the bottles and Beomseok ordered some spicy jjigae.

“Just one. If there’s one thing that’s not going according to my will, it’s Jung Gayoung.”

Director Lim took a spoonful of the boiling budae-jjigae and continued.

“Hyuk, Beomseok, Maru, not to mention the three of you here, I am the one who picked Choi Jahye, Kang Gwonseok, Oh Jiyoon, Ahn Dabin, Kang Jinsoo, and Baek Yoonmi – all of them with my own hands. I have absolutely no complaints about them, you know? You can see that, right? I might shout a little, but I’ve never picked a fight with you.”

“Yes, I can,” Beomseok said.

“But Jung Gayoung isn’t like that. I’m not the one who picked her.”

“Still, Gayoung’s doing well. And she’s hardworking too,” Kim Hyuk brought that up.

Director Lim chuckled.

“Sure, she’s doing good. The production company isn’t a group of idiots who would recommend someone who has no skill at all. But a film is a puzzle. There was no Jung Gayoung in the frame that I had designed. So what if she’s good? This is my movie, and she does not belong here. Also, you guys saw how she acted right? She kept picking a fight with every little thing I said. I mean, just look at today. Jung Gayoung cut off the scene where the three of you ad-libbed smoothly. Skill? Yeah, she has the skill, but she doesn’t have the wits. She’s not suited to be here.”

“I’m sure Gayoung’s trying her best to mix in,” Beomseok said as he looked into director Lim’s eyes.

Maru also looked at the changes in the director’s expression.

While this may look like a harmonious drinking occasion, the three men were all walking on a tightrope. Director Lim would sometimes explode like a bomb without a fuse even when he seemingly looked calm.

They had to refrain from using any words that might spark him and observe him to their utmost best.

“I’m sure she’s trying her best. Not her best to do well in acting, but to win against me. Just like how you have your own network of actors, we directors have our own community as well. Do you know how she’s known among us? Everyone says she’s a sneaky fox who might look docile on the outside but is actually cunning on the inside. But she’s got the wrong man this time. You know who I am, right? I don’t lose. I was originally from a pack of wild dogs who fought dirty. It looks like all she’s faced were rather docile directors until now, but she’s met her match this time.”

Beomseok brought away director Lim after the drinking session.

“This is rather awkward,” Kim Hyuk said.

“I can’t picture the director reaching his hand out first.”

It was a battle of pride between the director and the actress. Director Lim would never compromise. Meaning, Jung Gayoung was the only one who could bring peace to the shoot.

“But that doesn’t mean that Gayoung would obediently make up with the director.”

“That’s the problem. But don’t you think there’s a higher possibility for Gayoung-noona to be the one reconciling?”

“I’m not sure. Both of them aren’t ordinary.”

“But we can’t just leave this as it is. Other people are starting to take hints.”

“We’ll have to talk to Gayoung about it.”

Maru started walking.

“Noona said that we actors should help each other out, didn’t she? What are you going to do if both of them decide to be stubborn until the end?”

“Me? I’ll have to mediate between the two. There’s nothing more terrible than causing a fight at the shoot. What will you do?”

“I’ll see how things go and stick to one side,” Maru said with a smile.

The next day, the young actors gathered together during lunch. Other than those who had a schedule, they ate at a sushi restaurant and conversed.

“If I did something gravely wrong, I would apologize and try to get along, but the director just hates me. It’s weird for me to just smile at him when he hates me too. I’m just going to do my own work,” Gayoung said.

The actors sitting next to her sympathized with her.

“But at this rate, I think there’s going to be a cold war. Don’t you think it’ll be better to yield just once,” Beomseok said.

Hearing the contrasting opinions, the actors started talking about it. They were split into a group of people who said that it was absurd for Gayoung to yield and a group who said she should yield for the sake of the shoot.

“Let’s stop talking about this. You’re putting me in an awkward spot,” Gayoung started to mediate.

While their words decreased, their conflict seemed to have gotten deeper. The director used some harsh words. It wouldn’t be strange if some of them were hurt by him.

Even now, there were three actors who said they would console and help Gayoung.

Maru drank some water as he looked around. There were signs that this was going to escalate from an individual problem between the director and Gayoung to a problem of the whole group. Whether Gayoung wanted it or not, the atmosphere at the set would be a lot stricter than before.

That was not something he wanted. This was his first work where he played a supporting character. He couldn’t afford to have the work ruined because of a petty war between the production crew and the actors.

This was no time to just observe. He had to block the leak while it was still small. If he kept watching, the crack might widen and burst.

After they finished eating and left the restaurant, he approached Gayoung.

“Noona, can we have a talk?”

“About what?”

“Well, a lot of things. I’ll buy the coffee.”

Gayoung smiled and replied yes. The two of them entered a non-franchise café that didn’t have a lot of people in it. The owner tilted his head while looking at Gayoung. He seemed to know her from somewhere.

After ordering the coffee, they sat down. A moment later, the owner appeared with the coffee.

“Aren’t you Miss Jung Gayoung?”

“I am.”

“I’ve heard from the students who come to our café. You have a shoot around here, right? Your head is really small now that I see you in real life. You’re so pretty too.”

“You look like a splendid person too, owner.”

Gayoung and the owner took a photo together. She even gave him her autograph.

“You can just take the coffee, I’ll give it to you for free. Oh, and this cake too.”

Maru sliced the cake the owner left with a fork and put a piece in his mouth.

“I was going to be the one buying, but I guess I’m getting some from you.”

“It’s not me, but the owner who’s giving it to us for free.”

“You must have it good, being treated to food by so many people.”

“It’s not always that good. People recognize me even if I want to stay quiet.”

“It’s better than having no one recognize you like me.”

“Not really, I think? Try being in my shoes. This kind of lifestyle isn’t all that good.”

He turned the handle of the coffee to his side and spoke,

“Do you really think so?”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean your popularity. Do you really think you want fewer people to recognize you?”

Gayoung picked up the coffee mug and looked outside.

“These days, I keep thinking about it. I want people to just let me be. Yet do you think that’s easy? Wherever I go, people would sneak up to me and ask if I’m an actress or if I’m Jung Gayoung and then they will act like they’re all close to me.”

“And you’re tired of that kind of life?”

“Should I say tired? Or should I say that I’m annoyed?”

Her eyes as she scanned the streets outside looked bored.

Maru sipped some of the coffee.

“From what I see though, that’s not true.”

“Why do you think that?”

“If you really were sick and tired of all those gazes, you would’ve quit working already or gone a period of rest. But you’re working without resting, aren’t you?”

“Trying being in my shoes. You’ll learn what it means to be dragged around against your will.”

“If you really couldn’t help it, you would’ve stopped anyway. There aren’t many people who would keep marching forward when they can feel that they’re being ruined in real-time.”

Gayoung stared right back at him.

“Your words are ticking me off. Did I ever do something wrong to you? Or what is this? It sounds like you’re picking a fight with me.”

“I’m not picking a fight with you. I just want to know what kind of person you are.”

“And what are you going to do with that information?”

“Only with it will I be able to decide what to do. First, let me be honest. I really like this movie, from the character to the story. I can’t guarantee success, but I’m sure the critics should give pretty decent reviews. I rarely feel like this about a movie. You think so too, don’t you?”

Gayoung sealed her lips and leaned back against the backrest. Her eyes were telling him to go on.

“Do you really not know why the director hates you?”

“I’m no idiot. Do you think I really don’t know? Leaving aside everything else, the fact that I’m not the actress he wanted should be the biggest reason.”

“So you do know.”

“That’s what pisses me off even more. I mean, I’m not someone who joined this piece because I used underhanded methods, am I? I was rightfully scouted, and I checked the scenario and liked the character before deciding to join. I tried to do my best too. But it seems like that’s not the same for director Lim.” Gayoung chuckled in vain before straightening up her expression. “But why do I have to talk about this with you? This is strange. I’m blabbing because of the atmosphere.”

“It’s proof that you wanted to talk about it with someone. Didn’t you say that actors should side with other actors? I’ll be on your side, so let me be blunt here. I’m wishing for the success of this movie. But the director is at odds with one of the main actresses. I don’t like that.”

He slightly rubbed his eyes as he spoke,

“Hey, you have a different image from what I imagined.”

“I’m not different. I just have this kind of side to me. I’m sure you don’t want the movie to flop either, noona.”

“Isn’t that obvious? Where can you find an actor who wants a blemish in their career?”

“That means one of you two will have to reach out to reconcile.”

“Don’t tell me to do it first. I tried my best in my own way. I laughed it off after what he said to me during the first get-together. I even held back until the second day of the shoot, but I’ve now run out of patience. Actors are people too, right? We aren’t machines who just act for money, right?”

“Right. You aren’t wrong at all.” Maru leaned forward. “That’s why it’s even more important that you match him.”

“What do you mean?”

“You have to match yourself with the kind of actress that the director wants.”

“That sounds like even more of a humiliation than apologizing to him in private.”

“The director doesn’t think that you’re a bad actress. In fact, he thinks that you’re good. That’s why he’s even more rejective of you. If you were an awkward actress, you would’ve been buried under the mise en scène of the movie and disappeared. But the color of your acting is splendid. It stands out. The director doesn’t like that.”

Gayoung crossed her arms. Her eyes were scanning the table. She seemed to be pondering.

She must know as well, that she couldn’t maintain a bad relationship with the director throughout the whole ordeal, as well as the fact that it would be her who would be ousted if they really took this to the end.

Maru thought about it after hearing what Gayoung said during lunch. Maybe she needed someone to give her a little push on the back. If she wanted to keep her pride even while meeting the director’s expectations, she would need the excuse that the people around her asked her to do so and that she had no choice because of it.

“Don’t you think it’ll be interesting? You become the perfect actress that the director wants. The director will be flabbergasted because he has been telling you that you haven’t been good enough.”

“Well, that’d look funny for sure.”

“The director might be a stubborn general, but he’s not an idiot. He’ll change his attitude if he’s given the right opportunity. And you’ll become a benevolent, generous person.”

“That’s taking things a little too far.”

Gayoung drank the iced coffee in front of her in one go.

“Hey, you’re going to go to the director too, aren’t you?”

“I’ll see how things go.”

“You really are different from how you look. I thought you’d be innocent and naïve.”

“I’m just good at noticing where other people feel itchy.”

Gayoung stood up.

“A junior with a promising future has given me a request like this, so I can’t just snap out as a senior. I’ll give your words a try.”

“That’s the answer I wanted.”

Maru smiled at her.

“You have a different image from the first impression you gave off. What were those tears you showed us yesterday?”

“Just like you, that’s also a part of me. I actually cry a lot, and I’m introverted. That’s why I sometimes wait for someone to side with me, and to provide me with an opportunity. Anyway, I’ve been persuaded by you. You do something about the director. I’ll be benevolent and generous and match his style for now.”

“That’s more than enough.”

Gayoung, who was about to leave, stopped and spoke,

“You’re quite good at acting, whether it’s in real life or at the shoot.”

“It’s how I make money.”

She smiled.

“See you tomorrow.”

Gayoung left while waving her hand. Maru let out a short sigh before drinking the rest of the coffee.

After Story 143

After thinking of the line, he rolled it in his mouth a few times before voicing it out. Kim Hyuk repeated the same line over and over again.

A gentleman-like swindler was a character that appeared often in other movies. It was consumed so many times that it was almost impossible to create an entirely new character.

As such, he had to focus on maximizing his own unique traits rather than finding entirely new ones.

“Standby.”

Kim Hyuk swallowed the words in his mouth. He thought about Gyukho’s emotions and predicted Gyukho’s actions as he waited for the director’s signal. Soon, the word ‘action’ hit his ears.

“Both of you can do it, right?”

Hearing his words, Maru nodded. There was a hint of hesitation in him, but his eyes contained resolution.

What he found out through the past ten days of shoots was that Maru’s facial expression when he acted was frighteningly detailed. It was like looking at an analog watch crafted by a master craftsman. There wasn’t a shred of distortion in his facial muscles as he conveyed signals. He was like a delicately machined set of gears accurate down to the teeth, not committing a single mistake or looking even a little vague.

Looking back, other than when they simultaneously burst into laughter, Maru had not made a mistake on his part. His concentration and stability were incredible.

Maybe because of that, it was easy to fall into acting with Maru in front of him. He often felt like he had become a cogwheel; he had become a part of the acting clock known as Han Maru.

He had heard that Maru was twenty-three this year. When he was twenty-three, he was still in college. He was still dreaming of becoming an actor and was practicing when he was twenty-three.

Was it a difference of talent? Or was it the difference of effort?

What he could say for sure was that he felt the same thing from Maru as what he felt when he practiced with great seniors.

Maru had become the axis. He was acting as the center of gravity so that the wheel of acting did not shake.

It might not show through the screen, but the actors working with him at the scene should be aware of this to a certain extent.

Jealousy only lasted for a brief moment. He stopped being amazed by it as well. What remained was the trust that Maru would do this much with ease.

“Do you think it’ll be okay?” Beomseok said his line, full of insecurity

“It’ll be okay. We practiced so many times. I told you we just have to do what we practiced. If you’re so insecure, you can drive the car and hit me. I’m confident in both driving the car and getting hit,” Maru said, strongly rubbing his short hair.

Maru was proficient even in expressing his character. He used actions that weren’t in the script to portray the character splendidly.

Whether it was flicking away his sweat with his fingers, rubbing his head aggressively like he did now, shaking his left leg, or how his right eye twitched whenever his emotions became violent, all became a part of Gomchi’s character.

None of those were things that the director had assigned to him. They were all thought of by Maru himself. Those trivial actions became one to create Gomchi.

Gomchi became so realistic that there might be someone like this living in this country somewhere.

Kim Hyuk also studied as he watched the natural-looking actions. Beomseok did the same.

Seemingly having felt similar things, Beomseok asked Maru a few questions. Kim Hyuk was reminded that there was no age when it came to learning.

“Actually, Dongsik, you drive. I’d rather get hit than become a criminal because of bad luck,” Maru said as he tossed over the car keys.

Receiving the keys, Beomseok put on a complicated expression.

“What, you don’t have the confidence?” Maru urged him.

It was a provocation so real that it didn’t look like acting.

Tension rose. Beomseok put on a wry smile and tossed the keys to Maru.

“Just drive well. Don’t kill me.”

“You better watch your language or otherwise I might end up killing you.”

“Go ahead if you want. At worst, I’ll die, but you’ll rot away in jail as a murderer.”

Kim Hyuk watched the two people before speaking, “Stop wasting your energy before we even start. Let’s get ready. I just got the message. We just have to do well.”

He stood up from the table.

“This is the start. We’ll get a grasp on how things are through this incident. We’ll learn what level of an accident the insurance company needs to come to the scene. As long as we can catch that, it’ll be smooth sailing afterwards. We hit lightly and get insurance money.”

“Let’s go get some good cash,” Maru said as he unfolded his hand.

Kim Hyuk clapped loudly. The door to the container room opened and Gayoung came in.

“The preparations are done,” she said while breathing heavily.

Gagyoung’s acting had changed during these past two days. Her aggressive and subjective acting style had been subdued quite a lot, and she changed her style to support other actors more.

They talked more and more about acting as well, finding each other’s weak points and supplementing them.

Above everything else, her attitude had softened up a lot. Her defiant attitude had disappeared as well.

There were times when she would watch in dissatisfaction, but she didn’t express it to the point that the director noticed.

“Okay.”

Hearing the okay sign, Kim Hyuk relaxed his expression and walked over to the monitor. He stood behind the director while holding a portable fan over his face. The other actors also came over.

The cut they just shot was played back. It was the master shot that shot the whole container.

He watched his own acting to see if there were any points that he thought he lacked.

“The overall feel is good. But when we get to shooting the one-on-one scenes, you’ll have to be more expressive. For example, here, when Maru and Beomseok exchange words, it sounds too bland. Maintain the secretive emotions of suspecting and hating each other.”

“I’ll keep that in mind when we change the angle,” Beomseok replied.

“And Gayoung.”

Kim Hyuk looked at director Lim’s mouth.

“You were really good today. If there’s one thing I want from you, I want you to look more like you’re exhausted. It might be a problem with makeup, so you can change it a little as well.”

“Yes, director.”

Kim Hyuk sighed inwardly. He was nervous, thinking that there might be some harsh words, but it turned out to be compliments. He waited for the actors to leave the monitor before talking to director Lim.

“As expected of the director, you’re benevolent.”

“Like hell I am. I did say what I said over the drink, but honestly speaking, I can’t keep quarreling with her forever. I was planning to hold my hand out to her if she became moderately docile. Yesterday and today though, she was really good. She can do that yet she didn’t do it until now, tsk, tsk.”

Director Lim looked at him.

“Was it you? Did you go to Gayoung and tell her to be more obedient like what you said to me?”

Yesterday, Kim Hyuk had a private meeting with director Lim. He couldn’t afford to have the problem between Gayoung and the director keep going, so he tried to resolve it through a genuine talk with the director. The director was only human and said that he didn’t want to maintain the uncomfortable relationship.

It was just that, the director also made sure to say that he did not plan to let things go her way on his own accord first.

“No, I didn’t talk to Gayoung separately. I think she just felt apologetic and apologized to you first.”

“I’ve never gotten an apology though.”

“The way she’s acting the way you wanted is practically an apology. So you really should go easy on her. She’s a good kid. She’s good at acting, and if it’s her schedule, that’s not her fault, so don’t be too harsh on her for it.”

“Alright, alright. I’ll hold back this time because of what you said.”

“Thank you.”

He was more relieved now. With this, the director and Gayoung would not be growling at each other again.

The atmosphere at the set, which had turned solid due to the confrontation between the two, had become a lot softer as well.

Work really did go well in a comfortable environment after all.

With that done, Kim Hyuk looked at Gayoung.

Gayoung originally looked like she was going to be at odds with the director until the end, but contrary to his expectations, she raised a white flag. No, rather than a white flag, she responded like an adult.

“Thanks to you, the shoot has gotten easier,” Kim Hyuk approached Gayoung and said.

“I can’t keep it up forever. Rather than that, you managed to persuade director Lim, huh? If he wanted to fight until the end, I wouldn’t have been able to hold back.”

“The director isn’t a kid either. Still, I’m glad that you’re more of an adult. I talked to the director about it, so I was wondering how I should go about persuading you. I’m glad that you changed on your own accord.”

“It was not on my own accord though?”

Gayoung blinked a few times before looking at Maru. Why would she look at Maru all of a sudden?”

“Didn’t you talk it out with Maru?”

“About what?”

“I thought you two were in on this together. Maru heard me out and gave me an excuse to change as well. Thanks to that, I’ve been feeling less worried.”

Kim Hyuk looked at Maru, who was talking to the other members of the production staff.

When had he become close to the other staff members? When Maru went to the bathroom, he approached the person he was talking to.

“What were you talking about?”

“Nothing much. Oh, I found out that Miss Gayoung is actually a lot kinder than I thought. I thought she was quite picky, but hearing from Maru, it seems like she really thinks a lot about the shoot. She seems like a good actress.”

Kim Hyuk stared at Maru when he came back from the bathroom. He knew that Maru was good at acting, but his way of handling relationships was unlike others as well. He was smart to boot, stepping in to prevent bad rumors about Gayoung from spreading.

“Han Maru.”

“Yes?”

“Good work.”

He only said those two words, but Maru smiled as though he understood everything.

“You were the one who persuaded the director, weren’t you?”

“I only told him about it. I guess neither of them wanted to go down to the bitter end. From how both of them blatantly told the people around, it seems like they wanted someone to step in like this.”

“I think so too.”

Just as they were conversing, Beomseok came over.

“I don’t know what happened, but the director and Gayoung seemed to have turned out well, right?”

Kim Hyuk smiled and nodded.

“Let’s stop here for the day and start early tomorrow. Also, Maru.”

Director Lim called Maru and came over.

“You know what to do tomorrow right? I fell for your acting after seeing that at your audition. You have to show it to me properly tomorrow.”

“I’ll do my best.”

“Beomseok, die well tomorrow.”

“That’s something I’m good at.”

Director Lim bumped Beomseko’s shoulders.

“If things end early, let’s have a drink with the four of us.”

“Director, you want to drink again? You’re going to fall ill.”

“The shoot is supposed to be done semi-drunk. Anyway, good work today, you all.”

Kim Hyuk looked at the two people after the director left.

“I’m going to have some food. What about you two?”

“Let’s go. We’re doing this to earn money to eat after all,” Beomseok said.

Kim Hyuk put his arms around the shoulders of the two people and left the shoot.

* * *

“Line it up well! Over there, get some more mattresses! Also, control the traffic properly. Block the alleyway so that no car goes there,” director Lim shouted.

He seemed to be on the edge.

From what he heard, he apparently became sensitive on days involving shooting cars ever since an accident happened during a shoot before.

Today, director Lim was an active volcano with magma up to his head.

The stuntmen could be seen practicing together. They put on safety equipment and then clothes — the same ones Beomseok was wearing — on top of that.

The shoot began. The stuntman walked towards the sliding car.

Being hit by the car, the stuntman went onto the hood and smashed the front window before falling down on the street.

“Hey, hey! Go check on him!”

The staff all rushed in to check the safety of the stuntman. He seemed to be okay as he stood up while raising his thumb. Thankfully, there seemed to be no injuries.

Maru calmed his breathing and looked at the driver’s seat. He was going to be in there in a few minutes. He would become a human who hit a colleague and had to express the emotions of such a person.

After Story 144

The sun that had been scorching them just two days ago could no longer be seen, hidden behind dark clouds. Moist air before the rain swept past his face. It was the weather that director Lim wanted so much.

Maru closed the script he was skimming through and closed his eyes. He pictured a vehicle on the black curtains created by his eyelids.

He pressed down on the accelerator as strongly as possible and took his foot off at the appointed place. He pressed down on the brakes lightly and looked at Dongsik, who would pop out from the alleyway.

Everything would be fine as long as he hit him slightly. It was a simple job of putting his arm against the side mirror.

However, Dongsik’s body was strange. He had moved out more than he had expected.

Just as he started to think that something was wrong, Dongsik’s body was already flying into the air. He flew up onto the hood before being flicked away. He watched as all of it happened.

A stifling silence befell him. Dongsik’s neck had been snapped into a weird angle.

The moment he saw that, he knew that Dongsik had croaked.

“Mr. Maru.”

He opened his eyes when a production crew member called out to him. He held onto the emotions he just evoked as he headed to the set.

Beomseok was lying down on the floor after putting on special makeup. The skin around his eyes looked to be ripped, and something white could be seen under his neck.

“This is gonna give people shivers at night, isn’t it?” Beomseok said.

Maru stood in front of the car with director Lim. Director Lim scanned the surroundings before speaking,

“For now, we’ll shoot everything in one cue, from the crash to the discovery to the approach to the conflict.”

Director Lim got in the car himself and showed what Gomchi had to do. He always provided a guideline before the act began. It meant that there was a complete form of the movie inside his head.

Maru committed director Lim’s movements to memory.

“You leave the car then walk past the headlights like you’re pushing it away and collapse on this spot.”

Maru moved as he listened to the explanation. He got in the car and grabbed the wheel. He looked forward and thought of the events up to the accident before leaving the car. Just as the director said, he bumped into the headlights and staggered his way to where Beomseok was sitting.

“If you feel there are any wasted movements, you can remove them by yourself. How do you feel now that you acted it out? Do you think that you’re moving according to Gomchi’s emotions?”

“For now, I think it’s okay. I’ll have to try to be sure.”

“Yeah, trying is important.”

While director Lim talked to the camera director, Maru went over to Beomseok.

“It’s gonna be terrific if I shoot a zombie movie in this state. I’m quite good at acting like I’m out of my mind too.”

Beomseok laughed. He seemed to be trying to ease the tension.

“I might hit you hard when we shoot later. Don’t make any sound even if it hurts.”

“Even corpses make noise when they’re hurt. So go easy on me.”

Beomseok lay on the ground.

“Should I just lie down on the ground like this? For you to have an easier time expressing stuff with me, then I should turn my head this way, right?”

Maru looked at Beomseok’s position while standing up and changed the positions of his arms and legs slightly.

“If you get hit from the side, it’s more likely that your arms and legs become like this according to the structure of the human body. Though, that will depend on the angle of the crash.”

“Really? You know some weird stuff.”

“I saw it in a news article.”

Director Lim came over as though he finished talking with the camera director. He looked at Beomseok’s lying posture and commented,

“That’s a good position. I was going to tell you to lie down like that.”

“Maru told me that this would look better.”

Director Lim laughed and returned after giving him a tap on the shoulder. A moment later, Kim Hyuk arrived.

“You’re off today, aren’t you?”

Kim Hyuk took out his phone.

“I’m here for the phone call. Do you not need it?”

“I’d be thankful if you do.”

Just because it was a shoot didn’t mean that all actors gathered on one day and shot the same scene. This was especially true for phone call scenes, where the director would say the lines in the actor’s stead or the actor would simply talk into thin air according to the timing.

Maru was thankful that Kim Hyuk had made some time to come.

“We’re ready,” said the assistant director.

Maru got in the car. There was a camera stuck right next to the window. He thought about the preset movement again and got into his emotions.

“Well, then let’s start. Roll the camera.”

Ready, sound, check, 5-1. After a simple situation check between the staff, silence fell over the shoot which had been bustling just moments ago.

Maru grabbed the driving wheel with his head lowered and took a deep breath of the moist air.

The director’s voice broke the vacuum-like silence.

“Action!”

Maru urgently swallowed the air in his mouth which made his throat gulp and then raised his head. The camera shooting him from the side, the microphone right outside the car, and even the sprinkler truck waiting outside left his vision. The only things he saw were the dark asphalt as well as Dongsik who had been strewn across it.

His fingertips started shaking. Before he even realized that something was wrong, his body started going haywire. He barely managed to breathe in the air that kept hitting the top of his mouth without actually going down his airways.

“Why, why.”

The inside of his mouth became so dry as though he had the hair dryer set to full power inside his mouth.

This was no good. This was something totally unexpected.

He thought about the situation from just before. He drove the car just as they promised. He did not have a shred of thought that he would fail. They did it a few times during practice, and there were no problems there, so he thought that things would not end in failure.

His expectations broke down when Dongsik rushed out of the alleyway. One step should’ve been enough. Dongsik should’ve taken just one step so that his arm hit the side mirror. Dongsik should’ve known that as well, but he took two steps.

Whether he thought the distance between him and the car was too far, or he subconsciously took another step without thinking, he could not tell.

The important thing was that the one damned step resulted in Dongsik’s torso being bent 90 degrees as the car crashed into him, and now he was strewn across the road.

His gaze was concentrated on one thing. It was Dongsik’s eye. His eyes were glued to that eye from which blood was flowing out.

Haa, haa, ha – his breathing became ragged. He hurriedly opened the door and left.

Looking down from above, Dongsik’s figure was truly hopeless.

He blocked his mouth and frowned deeply before getting himself together. He quickly checked the surroundings. They had purposefully chosen a road without any CCTVs or nearby parked cars. There were no people in sight either.

The shops lined up on one wall had all closed down as well.

Light returned to his darkened vision. For now, there were no witnesses. This was such an important fact to him.

Just then, he got a call. It was from Gyukho.

He approached Dongsik and received the call. His legs gave away as he did so. He hit the side mirror and fell forward. He kneeled down on one knee and took a large stride. Dongsik’s face was right in front of him.

He fell backward and groaned.

-Did the work go well?

“G-Gyukho.”

-What’s up with your voice?

“What do I do?”

He looked at Dongsik. The wide-open eyes seemed to signify resentment towards him.

His lower lip trembled helplessly.

“Dongsik, Dongsik this prick made a mistake.”

-What do you mean?

“I did it properly! But this bastard just had to!”

-Calm down and talk properly. Was there an accident?

An accident. That word gave him a blow on the head. Indeed, this was an accident. What would happen if he reported this situation to the police? He would definitely go to jail since he killed a man with a car. Moreover, if his relationship with the deceased Dongsik was investigated and the insurance money he got through scamming was exposed, the sentence would be even higher.

His life would certainly meet its end.

He didn’t start this job so that things could end like this. Regret, fear, and frustration intertwined with each other and rampaged through his body. It was all over. Everything was hopeless.

It was just as he was looking at Dongsik in resignation,

-Anyone see it?

Gyukho’s voice, which sounded tinny like a mosquito, suddenly became crystal clear. He responded reflexively,

“What?”

-Get yourself together and talk to me. Did anyone see it? Look around you. There’s no CCTV there, and there shouldn’t be any cars parked there either.

He stood up staggering like he was being possessed by something and looked at the surroundings again. He rationally checked the things that he instinctively checked when he first got out of the car. Then he came to the conclusion: not a single person had witnessed this accident.

“There’s no one. I’m sure of it. Not a single soul saw this.”

-Check on Dongsik.

“C-check him?”

-Check him to see if he’s really dead or he’s alive!

Gyukho’s voice became roused for the first time. He checked Dongsik while flailing like a pony with its tail on fire.

He tried slapping Dongsik on the cheek and even talked to him. He then once again checked that the thing in front of him was a piece of meat that had no use for anything other than a funeral.

“He’s dead.”

Just why was it so hard to say those two words… he barely retained his consciousness when he said those words.

-Listen to me carefully. Carry Dongsik and put him in the back seat.

“The back seat?”

-Yes. And come back here. How is it there? Is there a lot of blood around?

He looked around the surroundings. Thankfully, the bleeding wasn’t serious, so there was no blood pooling on the ground.

“No, it’s clean.”

-Good. Now, calm down before you take any action. First, load the body into the car and look around to see if you dropped anything. Then come back here. You can never be caught though. If you get caught, everything’s over.

As he listened to Gyukho’s words, he felt like his head was becoming clearer. This couldn’t be helped, and he did not want to ruin his life because of something he couldn’t help.

“I’ll be there after cleaning up.”

He put his phone inside his pocket. The sensation in his body was returning to its normal state. The onslaught of nausea had subsided as well.

His brain became rational without limits. He calmly walked over to the fallen Dongsik.

“God, fuck.”

He had heard somewhere that dead people would become stiff, but Dongsik’s body was still soft. His stomach started churning again. He had a rush of the urge to vomit as though he had acute pancreatitis. Touching Dongsik for real was more terrible than he had ever imagined.

“Really, this is such a bitch.”

He swallowed the sour liquid that felt like it was leaking through his teeth and pulled the corpse, continuously sighing as he did so. He pushed Dongsik into the back seat and closed the door.

He leaned against the car and sat down as he collapsed. He was crying. Whether these were tears of fear or frustration, he couldn’t tell.

He wiped his face with his palm before realizing that there was blood and quickly took his hand off his face with a scream.

Everything felt like a dream. How great would it be if it was one? However, the blood on his hands was too clear.

He clasped his shaking hands. His own actions of calmly moving the corpse belatedly started squeezing his conscience. He felt complex.

Just then, he heard a thud.

It was a sound that made his whole body freeze up. He carefully stood up and looked into the back window. Dongsik’s body was convulsing.

He was alive? He could be saved?

Just as he thought so, he made eye contact with Dongsik. Those eyes seemed to be pleading for life, but they also seemed to be full of resentment and hatred.

His mind blanked. His vision turned hazy and he couldn’t see anything.

Just as his ears became numb like he was at a high altitude, he heard a voice. They were the words he heard from Gyukho.

You cannot be caught. Never. If you get caught, everything’s over.

When his vision returned and he could start hearing again, he realized what he was doing.

Dongsik’s neck was between his hands.

Dongsik’s trembling body slowly became limp again.

After Story 145

It was a break day from shooting for him. On days without a schedule, he would often go looking for local bookstores. These days, it was quite hard to look for bookstores operated by individuals, as there were many places that couldn’t even last a year before closing down. Online bookstores were so convenient that there was just no competition.

That was why he felt incredibly happy when he came across small bookstores in unfamiliar places.

He had heard that there were individual bookstores in Daegu, he had been excited since the morning when he had heard that the bookstores helped independent publishing.

He drove there early in the morning and saw that the bookstore was filled with traces of human presence. The owner’s recommendation memo could be seen above every book.

He took a deep breath of the smell that only these kinds of old bookstores could make and put some books into the bag he brought.

Now that he bought some books, the only thing left now was to go back to the hotel and read those books under some air conditioning, which would create a satisfactory rest day.

However, when he came to, he found himself at the shoot.

He looked up at the gloomy rainclouds before approaching Maru, who was doing a rehearsal.

Up until this point, Kim Hyuk himself did not know why he didn’t take a break and came here instead. He just told Maru that he was here to help.

Without knowing the reason, he waited for the shoot to begin. The books he placed in the passenger seat of his car came to his mind.

Why was he here? It didn’t matter even if he wasn’t here for this scene.

Then, the light started blinking on the camera. He raised his phone in a place where he could see the side of Maru’s face. Since he was here anyway, he wanted to do it properly.

Maru, who was inside the car, got out.

The assistant director told him the timing of the phone call. He looked for Maru’s phone number and placed his finger above the call button.

He pressed the call button when Maru staggered and approached Beomseok. Maru received the call.

He heard Maru’s voice over the phone. His breathing was ragged, and his voice sounded frustrated. It was very good emotional acting. He felt like he could picture the scene based on the voice alone. He turned around to take the call.

He wanted this to feel more genuine. He controlled the level of emotions according to the information that Maru transmitted to him.

After the urgent phone call, Kim Hyuk took his phone off his ears and turned around.

Acting was something abstract and couldn’t be assessed easily. It should be nearly impossible to make an objective score chart for every single person.

However, it was too easy to differentiate between proficient and awkward acting.

Maru was undeniably on the proficient side. His breathing, his gaze, and his hand gestures were just on the necessary level. He was proficient in everything that Kim Hyuk could see. As for how difficult that was to do, he knew just how difficult. Not to mention major elements of acting like expression and vocalization, Maru was delicately precise down to the trivial elements.

Those elements by themselves might not seem like anything much, but a perfect combination of those things from one person in one scene would increase the density of the act.

Maru was the only one on screen. It was also a scene where his emotions were bared for the audience to see.

Without power from the actor, it was bound to feel loose, but Maru was striking with movement after movement as though he did not plan to let go of the eyes that were glued to him.

How would it feel to watch this scene on a big screen? Kim Hyuk imagined the audience looking at the screen in a daze, forgetting to eat their popcorn.

When Gomchi breathes in, they would breathe in, and when Gomchi breathes out, they would breathe out…

Maru dragged Beomseok and stuffed him into the car. Even though it wouldn’t be strange if the cut was divided up here, there was no stopping. It seemed that the director was planning a different kind of style.

Beomseok, who was acting as a corpse, was having a hard time as well. His left hand was hit by the door frame when Maru stuffed him into the car, but he didn’t flinch.

Maru probably didn’t even know that Beomseok was hurt. His eyes looked like he was absorbed in acting. He was probably thinking that he had just put away a cold corpse, and not that it was Beomseok.

Maru leaned against the car and fell down. The camera shot Maru from above. The faintly blurry atmosphere set up the mood. His figure, which looked like it was being pressed down under a sense of guilt, was pretty okay.

Maru, who breathed heavily for a few seconds, suddenly paled and looked behind him.

A sound could be heard from the car. His widened eyes scanned the surroundings without being able to focus. Gomchi’s psychology of not being able to look into the car was revealed on the surface.

The hesitant Maru cautiously opened the car door and looked inside. The camera portrayed him as he did so.

It shot over Maru’s shoulders and at Beomseok who was lying down on the back seat. Beomseok, who was flinching, let out a faint breath.

Maru’s ragged breathing became calm. He froze as though time had stopped. It was a stark contrast to Beomseok, who was breathing albeit faintly.

He wanted to see them from up front. However, the camera only shot Maru’s back still.

What kind of sounds would the headphones that the director was wearing produce? There was quite a bit of distance, so he couldn’t hear Maru’s breathing properly.

It was hard to feel the entirety of the emotions being exchanged between Maru and Beomseok.

Kim Hyuk looked at director Lim’s face. His clenched lips indicated just how focused he was. His eyes even showed signs of being bloodshot. His torso was bent forward like he was going to be sucked into the screen.

He started fidgeting. He could tell from director Lim’s expression. The act that was occurring in a car just about five meters away from him was not just stifling the actors themselves, but even those watching.

Only Beomseok was seeing Maru’s face in its entirety. On the screen, Beomseok’s face changed at every single moment. It turned from the hope of living to confusion and slowly to despair.

The despair then eventually morphed into rage.

The moment Beomseok was about to say something, Maru rushed in. Not to mention him, who was focusing on the screen, even director Lim flinched and pulled out.

Those were the actions of a wild beast. Just like a beast that knew that it would die if it did not kill first, Maru strangled Beomseok with his two hands.

The camera shook slightly, matching the struggles of Beomseok. The camera director’s expression was also dissolving right into the scene.

That made him even more curious about what kind of expression Maru had. However, one part of him thought that it was better to finish up the scene from the perspective of watching his back. He felt that the taut atmosphere would shatter instantly the moment the camera was flipped around to capture Maru’s face.

Above all, that back figure was more than enough. All the necessary elements were gathered there.

The film would capture Beomseok’s death from a third perspective instead of Maru’s eyes. Beomseok flailed like a fish that had been washed ashore before eventually becoming limp.

The shaking car became still. The sprinkler truck started spraying water. The sound of the rain hitting the car was noisy.

Maru, who was strangling Beomseok, took his hands off Beomseok’s neck. Then, he slowly fell back and closed the door before sitting on the ground as he collapsed. He clasped his hands as though to pray and put them near his chest. His expression revealed underneath the rainwater was something that was inexplicable with words. All sorts of emotions were swirling around. He looked like he was stifling his cry but also like he was faintly smiling.

Maru slowly rubbed his hands on his pants. The red ink faintly spread under the rain.

Kim Hyuk felt an invisible hand slowly wrap around his neck. Those hands were so vivid that it was hard to even gulp.

For that moment, he couldn’t feel the intense moist heat of midsummer.

He brushed his neck with his hand. Only then did the unpleasant feeling disappear.

It was also then that Maru, who was sitting down in a daze, had raised his head.

Now, only the last line was left. He opened the script. A single ‘sorry’ with a pale face was the last word that Gomchi would say to the dead Dongsik.

Slowly standing up, Maru started looking around again. This wasn’t in the script. Maru put his hand on the car door and spoke,

“It’s done. It’s okay, it’s done.”

Sorry versus it’s done. They were completely different words. Rainwater seeped into Maru’s slack mouth. Maru spat out the water before getting in the car. Then he started the car.

“…Okay.”

Director Lim’s okay sign came much later. Even though the sprinkler truck stopped the rain and some of the production crew went over, Maru and Beomseok did not budge from the car.

Kim Hyuk quickly approached the car. The staff were opening the door.

When he looked inside. Maru was breathing heavily with his head stuffed into the driving wheel, while Beomseok was covering his face with his palm and was calming his breathing in the back seat.

“Are you two okay?”

There was no violent action scene nor was this a dangerous scene that involved wires. However, the two of them looked very precarious as though they were about to pass out at any moment.

They released everything they had. One tried to kill in order to survive, and one struggled to live, so it was only natural that they were exhausted both physically and mentally.

“Maru, you prick. I’m sure you have something against me.”

Beomseok, who came to himself first, spoke as he sat up. There were clear handprints on his neck. There was no pressure against his airways, and it seemed that only the left and right sides of his neck were pressed strongly.

“I was just thinking that your neck looked too stiff, so I gave you a massage,” Maru said, his face still planted on the driving wheel.

“I’ve heard that shoulders can get stiff, but not the neck. If I fall sick, it’s your responsibility.”

“You should be fine.”

Seeing as how they were exchanging jabs with each other, both of them didn’t seem to have any problems. Beomseok got out of the car and spoke,

“Hyuk, you see this? It’s red, isn’t it?”

“It is.”

“Damn, this guy can strangle. He really looked like he would kill me when the camera was still rolling. That was why I also struggled to survive. How was it through the screen? Did it come through?”

“You should go look at it later. It’s quite an impact.”

“It’s my last scene, so of course it should have an impact.”

Beomseok went over to the director. Maru also got out of the car.

Maru shook his head as though he was tired and walked over to the monitor. Kim Hyuk tapped him on the back.

“Take it easy on the acting.”

“I don’t have the energy to do anything now.”

He smiled and stood in front of the director alongside Maru. Now he felt like he knew why he ended up driving here when he didn’t even have a shoot today.

It was all to see this scene.

It was to check the feelings that he had been receiving until now.

He was inwardly curious about how much Maru could do if he was given a solo shot in a scene where he had to burst out with emotions.

He got a clear answer to that question.

Kim Hyuk thought that it was good that he came here. A pleasant sense of tension wrapped around his body. His motivation to act gushed out.

“Why did you change the line?”

The director didn’t ask anything else besides just that one question. Kim Hyuk also looked at Maru’s mouth. While changing the nuance of the line happened frequently in a shoot, it was mostly done after consulting the director.

Changing the script without any prior consultations, especially as a new actor, was something that he could get sworn at by the director for.

“I’m sorry. But I had to say that at that time.”

Director Lim wordlessly put his headphones on and replayed the scene from just now. He checked the footage about three times before speaking,

“Next time, give me a heads up. I almost shouted cut.”

He then started laughing.

“Well then, let’s get some insert shots and go to the next scene,” he said.

It seemed, there was no need for a take 2.

After Story 146

“You tried to use me like that?” Dawoon said her line as she looked at her partnering actor.

Today, she was feeling good. She could remember her lines like they were printed right in front of her eyes, and it was easier to get into the emotions. Not to mention her own physical condition, the actor in front of her did not make any mistakes either.

She pushed the chair away and stood up. She walked straight forward with her back to the camera.

“Okay. We’ll go with this one.”

She heard the producer speak. She smiled and greeted the people around her.

“Good work, everyone. Thank you for your work.”

“Miss Dawoon, great work. Your acting was really good today.”

“It’s thanks to you, director.”

“I’m feeling that it’s thanks to you, Miss Dawoon. How are the responses from the people around you these days? I think there must be quite a lot of people who recognize you now.”

Dawoon pretended to be embarrassed as she spoke,

“Thankfully, a lot of the adults recognize me. Especially the ladies, they tell me that I’m good at acting vicious. Sometimes they even come up to me and slap my back and call me a bad woman.”

“That’s because your acting is so good. The writer also seems to have taken a liking to the character you were acting as she said that she’s going to write new events that involve more of you. You must have it good.”

“All I’m doing is acting according to the script, so I’m really thankful that people are looking out for me.”

Dawoon politely said goodbye to the production crew until the moment she left the set. Only after returning to the car with her manager did she sigh in relief.

“Good work.”

“Oppa, how was I today?”

“How were you? You were great. I told you last time, right? That my mother is a fan of yours. These days, whenever you’re on TV, she’s absorbed in the TV to watch every one of your works. She tells me how good you are. Then sometimes she asks me stuff like whether she has a bad personality like in the drama.”

“What did you tell her?”

“I said that she’s angelic. She looks out for those around her, never frowns no matter how hard it is, and is even hard working. The president said during the get-together that signing a contract with you was the best thing he did this whole year.”

Dawoon smiled at the praises given to her. While the car was on the road, she took a photo to upload to social media. The title was ‘On the move to the next shoot.’

As soon as she uploaded it, she got many hearts and comments. She repeatedly read the comments that people gave her.

These people loved her. It was a sense of pleasure that she couldn’t describe with words. Whenever she was offered the chance to join a daily drama, she actually felt rather awkward about it. After all, daily dramas were a level lower level than mini-series dramas.

However, she turned out to be wrong. Perhaps thanks to her villainess character, people’s awareness of her increased rapidly. Not to mention people in their middle ages, many young people recognized her as well. She appeared on the radio and even on some TV programs.

She sent a text message to Na Baekhoon. It was he who introduced her to the producer of the drama.

It was thanks to consulting with him that the name value of the actress known as Jung Dawoon had increased severalfold in the past few months. Choosing to be with him during their first meeting was the best decision she made. Na Baekhoon was a skilled businessman just as he had guaranteed.

-We’ll arrive soon.

Today, there was a photo shoot: a collab between Eterium and Friendly Aroma.

She had heard that different-textured materials were going to be used in an attempt to express them in the form of smell rather than impression, but she couldn’t understand what that really meant.

She had heard that what models did were no different from an ordinary photo shoot, so she decided not to mind.

Having arrived at the set, Dawoon received another round of makeup. It was not like makeup for a drama that had to look natural, but makeup that pronounced the lighter and darker parts.

“I think it’d be better to make her eyebrows a little thicker.”

Those words were from Na Baekhoon, who had appeared without her knowing. He told the makeup artist to move and touched up her face himself.

“You learned to do makeup?”

“As a hobby.”

Considering that, his touches were quick and delicate. Dawoon exclaimed in admiration as she looked at the mirror. Reflected by the mirror was a woman who had a provocative gaze.

“Today, you’re shooting with Han Haneul, huh,” said Na Baekhoon.

“I’m going to be better.”

She had the confidence. Han Haneul was definitely the ideal that she had been pursuing. However, she had also changed dramatically in the past few months. She had less of her sense of urgency and gained more leisure.

Strictly speaking, she wasn’t lacking compared to Han Haneul in any way. She strived to become similar to Han Haneul and now believed that she was able to supersede her.

While she was making her name known through various forms of media, Han Haneul was staying still. By next year, the gap between them would widen so much that she wouldn’t have to worry anymore.

“Did you talk to that man?” asked Na Baekhoon as he touched the back of her neck.

It was a touch she was used to, but she slapped his hand away today.

“I made an appointment next week. He’s doing a shoot as well. We’re both busy, so we barely made the time.”

“What are you going to tell him if you meet him?”

“I’ll just show him how much I’ve changed.”

“What if he doesn’t show much interest?”

“I don’t care. There’s plenty of time. People are bound to become fed up. Especially if there’s a replacement option.”

“Isn’t it a sad thing to say that you’re a replacement?”

“It’s the truth. Also, I might be a replacement before I am chosen, but once I am chosen, I’ll be the only woman for that oppa, so it’s fine.”

“Let’s say things go well and you get acknowledged by that man and you get that man. What’s next?”

Next? Dawoon looked at her own figure through the mirror. What should she do next? She imagined spending her days with Maru. She would definitely be happy. Maru was a good person after all.

But how long would that last?

“Someone told me people are bound to get fed up.”

Na Baekhoon opened the door, telling her to continue preparing. Dawoon asked as he was about to leave,

“How long are you going to help me? Are you going to keep helping me while I’m seeing you?”

“I plan to. I think the person known as Jung Dawoon is pretty interesting. There are many people who live with a knife underneath their tongues, but you at least have shown that knife openly. I like such people,” he said as he closed the door.

“But you’re right. People are bound to get fed up. Maybe that’s why they strive not to get fed up with each other.”

Dawoon looked at the closed door and clenched her hands.

She had just started gaining a reputation as an actress. The one who provided her with the opportunity to do so was Na Baekhoon. She still needed him for now. Perhaps, she would continue to need him.

How long would this relationship of providing each other what they each needed, last?

She touched her cheek which had stiffened up. Then she looked down at her own body.

Beauty. That was the only value that allowed Jung Dawoon to be Jung Dawoon.

She threw the cereal bar in front of her into the trash. She didn’t know why, but she felt like she had gained some weight on her neck. She also felt like there was unnecessary flesh on her line that extended from her breasts to her flank.

“Calm down Jung Dawoon. You’re okay. You’re the best.”

As she was muttering as though to hypnotize herself, the door to the break room opened.

“Miss Dawoon. Long time no see.”

It was Han Haneul. She took off her sunglasses and naturally sat in front of a makeup table.

“It’ll be October soon, but it sure is still hot,” Haneul said naturally.

Dawoon looked at the mirror and replied, “I’m sure it’ll cool down soon.”

“I really hope so. Oh right, I’m really enjoying the drama. Your acting was really good.”

“Thank you. This is my first time playing a supporting character in a drama, so I was worried, but I’m relieved that everyone thinks well of me.”

It was a little hard to speak with a smile. The words Na Baekhoon left behind were stuck in her head.

“I’m sure you’ll do well in the future too.”

Haneul took out some cosmetics from her bag. She turned her face left and right while looking at the mirror before starting to tone her skin with some cosmetic cotton.

“You’re doing it yourself?” Dawoon asked.

“It’s commonplace for actors and actresses who haven’t done much work. I’m not in a position where I could ask for a manager from my agency, so there’s no way I have a stylist.”

“For someone on your level, it wouldn’t be strange to have an exclusive manager.”

“Agencies are businesses. They aren’t lenient enough to waste their manpower on a person who has yet to prove their worth.”

Even as she spoke, Haneul moved her hands. Whenever her hands brushed her face, her impression changed slightly.

Dawoon watched as Haneul put on makeup. Given enough time, she could put on makeup like that with no problem. However, she didn’t have the confidence to do it as quickly as Haneul did. Haneul’s touches didn’t contain any hesitation as though she had been working with makeup her whole life. She was accurate as well; there was not a single mistake in her makeup.

Was it possible to do that while chatting?

“What is it?” Haneul asked after finishing her makeup.

Dawoon got herself together and spoke,

“It was just, you were so good. Where did you learn to do that?”

“I learned from the people around me.”

Haneul snapped her cosmetics shut and stood up.

“I saw on my way in that everyone seemed to be done with preparations. I think they’ll start as soon as we go out.”

“Oh, okay.”

Her thought to lead the conversation ended just as a thought. She passively responded to every one of Haneul’s words and actions.

She thought as she looked at Haneul’s back: What was so different about her? Why was there such a gap?

And lastly, what was she supposed to do with this glaring sense of inferiority within her?

“The drama shoot was rather hard,” she said as she stood next to Haneul.

She had to talk about something she was superior to Haneul in. As Haneul had not done any proper works yet, she would only smile awkwardly if Dawoon talked about the drama.

“It is quite hard. The schedule’s really tough to keep up with,” Haneul responded as though she knew everything.

Dawoon didn’t like that. Haneul should not have experienced how tough a drama schedule is, yet she spoke as though she experienced everything.

“You’re going to have to look out for your health when you shoot a drama later, unni. I also had quite the confidence in my stamina, but after shooting late into the night several times, it was quite hard.”

“That’s why it’s a lot more convenient to change your night and day schedule early on. You sleep when you see the sun rising and wake up along with the moon rising.”

“That’s not as easy as you say it is,” she said with a smile.

“It’ll be better if you get used to it. Everything’s hard at first, but you get more proficient as you keep doing it.”

“But unni, you… don’t know what it feels like. You haven’t done any works yet.”

Haneul, who was walking next to her, suddenly stopped. She also instantly regretted what she said.

The nuance of her words was not good. It was not good to pick a fight with her like that. Jung Dawoon could not stoop to such low heights.

Haneul must have thought that she was being dismissive. It was just as she thought that she would get an aggressive response in return,

Haneul clenched her eyes shut and opened them again before waving her hand.

“You’re right, Miss Dawoon. I’m not that well aware.”

“…Yes.”

She suddenly lost her energy. This woman really didn’t get along with her.

Above everything else, Dawoon didn’t like those eyes. They were the eyes that did not scan the surface but looked deep inside. Those eyes looked at everything.

She knew one person who had eyes like that. The kind and gentle Maru-oppa.

Haneul started walking again. Dawoon walked from a little distance away.

Haneul shouldn’t have anything better than her, so how could she respond like that? If Haneul showed slight wariness while looking at her or showed a sense of crisis, then Dawoon wouldn’t be feeling as uneasy as this.

However, Haneul just looked at her with a smile, as though that was enough.

“Miss Dawoon.”

“Yes?”

“When we’re at the shoot, let’s focus on the shoot. If you have anything to say after that, then I’ll listen to everything. I can’t stand prolonging the shoot more than necessary.”

Haneul stepped into the set with a wink. Dawoon twitched her lips before she walked forward.

After Story 147

What was the reason for the hostility? Haneul thought for a moment before shaking that thought off. Anything could be a splendid reason to hate someone.

For example, talking to them when they are in a bad condition because someone happened to be smiling when they stepped on poop, because there was someone next to them just when they needed someone to vent their frustration on.

People resented each other for the most trivial reasons.

It was a pain to look into it, and even if it was known, it wouldn’t change anything.

As such, the best thing to do when someone hated you was to just turn away from them.

There were some people who would chase with a knife in their hand, but Dawoon was empty-handed at least.

“Am I in the early stages of human disgust?”

Haneul let out a vain chuckle before putting on her clothes. A book she read before had this phrase: The more you know, the more you hate, the less you know, the more you love.

When she thought about it now, there were no other words that expressed life better than that.

However, even in these words that sounded like absolute truth, there were always exceptions. Knowing someone too well would only leave love for that person, even turning the hate into love.

Her husband was like that. They were in a relationship where they looked into each other as clear as day.

It even felt as though her entity had split off when she reached the depths of his mind. It was a strange situation where loving her husband equated to loving herself.

She didn’t even get fed up with him either. She thought about her husband and went to the set where people would be waiting for her.

Dawoon was doing her shoot. She had heard that she would shoot together with her once Dawoon was done with her individual shoot.

Today’s photos would go on the photo albums targeted at the major customers of Eterium. The plan was to decorate the pages with collages and package an incense perfume that represented the page well.

When she first received this proposal, she was honestly surprised. Na Baekhoon’s design skills were splendid. She had to admit, he wasn’t a man who was all talk.

This collaboration was a good opportunity to make Friendly Armoa known to the customers who wore luxury brands like Eterium. This was the first step to making her brand a luxury brand as well as the first test on customers of that level.

If there were any responses, she would come up with premium-tier perfumes, and if the responses were quiet, she would focus on the mid-to-low price product category and leave the luxury for later.

“Can you put your hand on your neck slightly?” said the photographer.

Next to him was Na Baekhoon.

Under the faint lighting, Dawoon posed. She sat down on a chair without a backrest and stretched her legs forward while looking forward.

Her eyes contained strength, but her smiles contained leisure. She was a kid with talent. Given enough time, she would grow up to be a good actress or a model.

Haneul walked over to the monitor. The photos that the photographer took were displayed in real-time.

Whenever Na Baekhoon and the photographer exchanged a few words, the layout of the photo changed.

She looked at the screen that kept changing and saw through Na Baekhoon’s preferences and the overall theme of this collaboration. She also rubbed her lips lightly and stretched her body so that her muscles were relaxed.

“We’re done.”

Dawoon stepped down, getting a bottle of water from her manager.

“Please take care of me.”

Haneul stood in the center of the set as she greeted those around her.

“Miss Haneul. You have such a great impression,” said the photographer, who was looking at her through the camera.

Na Baekhoon didn’t say anything.

“Then shall we start off lightly? Please sit on the edge of the chair and look forward. Expose both your ears like you’re taking a photo for your passport and put on a faint smile,” said the photographer.

Haneul combed her hair behind her ears on both sides and looked straight at the camera. Even without being conscious of it, her shoulders and back straightened up.

There were various methods for a model to create a ‘feel’. They were all so unique and innumerable that each model had their own feel.

When it came to herself, she liked having a faint image. The other photographers cherished that image of hers as well.

She could put in the effort to give off other kinds of feel, but a faint, blurry image was the only thing that gave off a feel unique to Han Haneul.

A feel that looked clear on the surface but also like she would disappear entirely. She always managed to bring out an exclamation from the photographers whenever she needed to put on a dreamy image.

“Good. Is there a pose you’re confident in? It can be one you’re comfortable in too. Can you do it like you’re giving off your own charm?”

Haneul lowered her head slightly as she listened to the photographer’s words. She crossed her legs and placed her elbows on her knees and rested her chin on her hands.

She slightly pulled her chin inwards so that her neckline was more pronounced, and she threw her gaze outside the set.

She thought about some methods she could use to bring about other expressions before pushing them away. She let out a thin breath and raised her head to look at the camera.

She watched as the photographer busily moved his index finger on the shutter button before changing her pose a little.

Then she caught sight of Dawoon, who was watching her while holding a bottle of water.

She decided to tease her a little. It was rather fun to act like a child after all.

She looked at Dawoon with eyes of thick seductiveness. How would that girl respond to her provocation?

She soon heard the water bottle being crushed. At the same time, she also saw Na Baekhoon turning around to look at Dawoon.

She faintly smiled and took her eyes off. Oh, how cute.

“Can I put away the chair?”

“Of course, do whatever you want,” said the photographer in glee.

Haneul took off her high heels and her socks as well. The cold of the floor climbed up her own body.

She calmed her body and slowly blinked a few times. She was in a good condition today. The muscles in her body moved according to her will. On days like this, she would often shoot above her expectations.

“We’ll take it slow.”

She slowly sat down on the ground and hugged her knees, looking at the tip of her toes with eyes of laziness.

* * *

There were words he often heard when he was young. You have the talent, it suits you. Even among them, he would receive great praise for any work regarding design.

Baekhoon thought that his ability lay in seeing through beauty, in discovering the beauty of the flower that had yet to bud, and then polishing it before displaying it to the world. It was a blissful thing to do.

Whenever he watched all the products of beauty that were reborn through his own hands, he even felt a sense of beauty.

Jung Dawoon was an item that he could acquire that beauty from. She was someone who was worth polishing.

Missing Han Haneul was a bit of a pity, but he wasn’t too disappointed.

Han Haneul was definitely completed in terms of appearance. Other than the fact that she lacked a bit of sexy beauty because of her young age, she had all the other elements that people of her age could possess.

However, the beauty of an actor wasn’t something that was decided by the completion rate of their skin.

Only when they could tap into the realms of abstract hard to explain in words could they possess true beauty as an actor.

In that sense, he thought that Jung Dawoon and Han Haneul were no different. Until just ten minutes ago, he had not changed that thought.

He crossed his arms and looked at Haneul in front of him.

She, who was laying down on her stomach with her two arms acting as pillows, looked somewhat precarious. It was to the point that it wouldn’t be strange if she disappeared right in front of his eyes if he blinked a single time.

It wasn’t that the model lacked any character and didn’t catch his eye. In fact, she possessed intense power that attracted everyone’s eyes. It was hard to take his eyes off her. And yet, the presence of the target of the shoot was faint. It was hard to describe.

He felt like if he reached his hand out to touch her, she would scatter like smoke.

That was why, whenever Haneul changed her pose slightly, he had to swallow his groan in secret.

The photographer he had been working with for a long time didn’t even think to look at the kind of photos he was taking and kept pressing the shutter.

Normally, he would look at the monitor after taking three or four photos, but he didn’t do so today.

No, to be precise, he didn’t even approach anywhere near the monitor while he was shooting Han Haneul.

He could understand how that felt. That fellow must have also felt that Han Haneul might disappear at any moment.

Photography was the art of an instant. There couldn’t be two photos that were the same. Even at the same point of shoot and angle, there could not be two same photos.

That photographer fellow was bringing out extreme focus to move each and every moment into the realm of digital.

She was sometimes daring and sometimes modest. Han Haneul possessed both high and low class.

What was interesting was that she didn’t show both sides in an awkward fashion. She changed dramatically like a coin that would show a completely different face when flipped.

He felt like a woman was trapped in a fog, doing a play by herself. It was an incredible play where one actress played multiple roles.

Whether it was her expressions or actions, nothing seemed to be lacking. She was unbelievably proficient.

It had been a long time, but Na Baekhoon had to admit his mistake. It was a clear error to tie Haneul and Dawoon into a similar category. The two actresses were standing on two different foundations.

Han Haneul stood in a place where Dawoon had to raise her head to look. It was nigh impossible to reach.

He gulped dryly. The woman in front of him was no source stone. She was a jewel that had already gone through the hands of a polisher. The reality was that her young age and appearance were dragging her down instead.

Given enough time, that face would look… he placed his clenched hand against his mouth. He couldn’t hold back his smile. He could never have imagined that he would come across the essence of beauty that he was pursuing in a place like this.

He felt complicated. How could he be of help to a form that was already near perfection, to someone he couldn’t do anything to? This woman didn’t have any beauty to excavate. Only time could help her mature.

It was so tragic and yet so blissful that it drove him crazy.

The shoot was dragged out endlessly. Shooting one target for so long was bound to result in a lack of freshness and a sense of déjà vu, but that didn’t apply to Haneul.

Just how many emotions and expressions did that small body contain?

“Ah.”

The photographer finally put down the camera as though he thought of something. His gaze was on Dawoon.

Baekhoon had forgotten about her as well. Another model was waiting for her turn.

“Let’s rest a little before shooting both of you together.”

He saw that any sense of vitality had left Dawoon’s face. She was a smart woman, so she must have noticed what the atmosphere was like at the shoot.

Baekhoon followed Dawoon who went around to the back of the set. Dawoon spoke when there were no eyes around,

“Keep your promise. I don’t want to be buried under that woman. You told me that you would make me the original.”

“I did. I haven’t forgotten.”

“Then do it properly.”

Dawoon turned around and walked away. He leaned against the wall and sighed.

He had never felt frustrated in his life. If a problem blocked his way, he would analyze it and overcome it.

But for the first time today, he couldn’t see a solution.

Dawoon’s request was simple: make me shine.

He had the confidence to do that. He had brought some results as well. Compared to a few months ago, Dawoon had improved from a spark to a flame.

Yes, a flame.

He stroked down his face. How big of a flame did he need to compare it against the sun? His mind couldn’t come up with an answer to that question.

However, a promise was a promise. He would not give up on his efforts in his attempt to do so. However, ultimately, it would be Jung Dawoon who would become Icarus and crash into the ground.

There was only one way Jung Dawoon could continue her career as an actress. It was to give up becoming Han Haneul and look for new traits as Jung Dawoon.

He was going to talk to her about it. It was something that hurt both of their prides, but there were things that simply couldn’t be helped in this world.

If Dawoon accepted it, he would give her new kinds of consultations, and if she didn’t…

“We’ll begin the shoot.”

Baekhoon shook away his thoughts. There was one determined result. The choice was in Dawoon’s hands.

After Story 148

The shoot ended. Dawoon turned around to look at Baekhoon and the photographer talking to one another. What were they talking about? She could hear some whisper:

Jung Dawoon isn’t as good as Haneul when they’re side by side. We should’ve gone with a single shoot instead.

She felt a burst of dizziness. When she came to, she found herself standing next to the photographer and Baekhoon.

“Let’s pick a few from the B cuts as well and compare them. It’ll feel different when they’re actually printed. Also…”

Baekhoon cut the photographer off and hinted at him. The photographer then left, saying that they should meet later.

“Anything you want to say?”

“No, nothing.” She shook her head. She could hear someone muttering while she was talking to Baekhoon:

Now that I look at it, Jung Dawoon is just a counterfeit Han Haneul. She’s low quality.

Even if she blocked her ears, she would continue to hear this sound. After all, the voice came from within her, not outside.

She forced herself to smile. It was only then that the whispers faded away.

“You look tired.”

“A little.”

“You should go home early then.”

“Isn’t today an appointed day?”

Baekhoon looked at his watch. As it was an analog watch, telling the time was the only thing it could do, yet he always looked at his watch when he thought of his schedule.

“I have a lot of things to attend to. You look tired too. We can meet each other whenever we have time, so it doesn’t matter.”

Baekhoon turned around after saying goodbye. She stopped him.

“You aren’t fed up with me, are you?”

“I am a businessman. My motto is to give back as much as I receive,” Baekhoon said as he looked right at her. “Since we’re on the topic, I might as well say it now. I’m going to give you about three or four more opportunities in the future. The fact that I’m going to let you appear in my movie also won’t change. However, I must change one thing from what I said.”

“What would that be?”

“You will never overcome Han Haneul. I thought you could be in the lead. I thought that if you appeared in the market first, Han Haneul would be buried under your spotlight since she’s a latecomer. You’re both actresses with similar styles after all.”

“Why the sudden lack of confidence?”

“Because I saw her with my own eyes. I thought that Han Haneul was a woman whose appearance was the only thing good about her. Someone who could do some form of business, an actress who amounted to just that. But I was wrong.”

Baekhoon tapped on his watch twice.

“Maybe you felt that more than I did. Because you must have seen her from up close.”

Her lips trembled. She wanted to retort at once that there was nothing that Han Haneul had that was better than her; she wanted to say that it was a misjudgment to think that.

However, she couldn’t say that. It was just as he said. The one who felt the charm of Han Haneul the most was none other than her, who stood next to her for the entirety of the shoot.

Even if she tried to catch up, she couldn’t believe that she could do so. Trying to imitate her awkwardly only ended in a tremendous sense of shame.

It reminded her of when she first learned ballet. Haneul was the instructor who could pose elegantly, while she was a student who was struggling to split her legs.

“It will be different in acting. For modeling, yes, for modeling, let’s say it’s like that. However, as an actress, I’m better than Han Haneul.”

Her voice was agitated. Cold sweat ran down her back. She felt like she was going to fall sick. Despite being in her best condition at the beginning of the shoot, she felt absolutely terrible right now.

She looked at Baekhoon’s mouth. Just a few words of encouragement would suffice: you have the potential. As long as she heard those words, she felt like she could stand back up again.

“Would that really be true?”

Baekhoon left, saying that he was running out of time.

Dawoon clutched her jaw, which was trembling. She blocked her mouth with her palm and clenched her teeth before screaming so that she didn’t make any sound.

She stood still in the empty studio for a few minutes before quickly returning to the break room.

She opened the door and went inside. There, she saw Han Haneul, who had gotten ready to go home.

“I wanted to say goodbye at least, so it’s good that you’re here. Good work today. See you again next time.”

Han Haneul nodded as a greeting before walking past her.

She turned around and grabbed Haneul’s wrist. Haneul looked at her wrist before giving her a glance.

“What does this mean?”

“Don’t be so arrogant.”

“Me?”

She looked into Haneul’s eyes.

She must have thought that she won. She must have thought that it was her complete victory. That must be why she could open her eyes so arrogantly like that.

“I don’t get what you’re saying at all.”

“Did Na Baekhoon tell you that you’ll be more successful than me? That you’re better than me?”

“Err, Miss Dawoon, are you shooting a drama right now?”

“Tell me. What did Na Baekhoon say? Did he promise you support? Did he say he lost interest in Jung Dawoon and will support you instead?”

Her foggy vision cleared up in an instant The stifling sensation also subsided. She felt like she finally knew. It wasn’t that she was worse compared to Han Haneul. The reason Na Baekhoon uttered those words in front of her was also not because Han Haneul was better than her.

He just switched. He picked Haneul as his new partner.

“You met Na Baekhoon, didn’t you?”

“Miss Dawoon.”

“I thought it was strange. It was a rigged game the whole time. You set the mood like that, so I was swept away too. How am I any worse than you? I was just intimidated during the shoot. Yes, that’s how it was.”

“Hey. If you’re going to talk by yourself like this, then let me go and go talk to a mirror or something.”

“Shut up!” she shouted as she strongly shook the wrist she was holding. “You can’t win against me in skill, so you resort to something like this?”

“Who’s trying to win against who?”

“Shut your trap. Now I see. Sure enough, there’s no way that was true. When did it begin, huh? When did it all start?”

Han Haneul was a dirty woman. She started hearing voices again:

Jung Dawoon is below Han Haneul in quality. There’s no need to compare the two.

She closed her mouth when it felt like her stomach was suddenly shrinking. Her mind entered a daze, and her hands and feet started trembling.

Suddenly, it became difficult to breathe. She couldn’t breathe in any air. No matter how much she breathed in, she lacked air.

“Miss Dawoon. Miss Jung Dawoon.”

She let go of Haneul’s wrist and fell on her butt. The marble floor looked wavy. There were ripples on the floor. She also felt like the ceiling was collapsing. Her chest trembled before she was enveloped in piercing pain.

Haa, haa. Her voice became insanely loud. She felt like her body had turned into a giant lung.

Her dizziness reached the limit, and it became hard to move her body.

Just then, she felt a hand. She also heard some rustling. Something touched her mouth. While she was out of it, she realized that it was a plastic bag.

“Breathe slowly. Easy does it. Relax and focus on breathing. Don’t be in a hurry. Don’t worry either, and just breathe in and breathe out.”

She followed Haneul’s words. She could hear the plastic bag shrinking and expanding.

Warm breath entered her body. Her stiffened body relaxed. Her trembling hands also calmed down.

Not long later, she had an easier time breathing. She let go of the plastic bag that she held onto like her lifeline. She felt like she came back to life from death.

“The symptoms don’t look too serious. Looking at you, it must be stress-induced, so you should call your manager and go to the hospital. It might be an illness of your body.”

Haneul examined her like a doctor before standing up.

“Should I call your manager for you?”

“It’s fine,” she said. Her malfunctioning breathing organs returned to normal.

She slowly stood up. There was a short burst of dizziness, but it wasn’t something she couldn’t endure.

“Then that’s good.”

“Wait.”

“You still have business with me?”

“Na Baekhoon, tell me when it all started.”

Leaving aside the help she received, she had to figure out when the two started colluding. It was when she put strength into her legs to stand upright that Haneul approached her.

The distance between them shrunk suddenly. She flinched at the sudden action.

Just then, she saw Haneul’s hand go up. The hand slowly approached her face.

She reflexively closed her eyes. There was a slap sound. It didn’t hurt, it was just a light tap.

“Miss Dawoon. People should watch their mouths. I’ve seen numerous people who’ve met their demise because they couldn’t control their mouths.”

Dawoon couldn’t look straight at the pair of eyes in front of her. Haneul felt like a different person. She even started suspecting whether it was the same Han Haneul as the smiling person from before.

“You can suspect in your mind. You can blame others in your mind. That’s how people live after all. But the story changes when you mention that out loud. So you should really hold back.”

Haneul picked up the plastic bag on the floor and stuffed it into her hands.

“And also, Mr. Na Baekhoon isn’t my type. Done now?”

She clenched the plastic bag and squeezed out her voice. “Don’t lie to me. If the two of you aren’t seeing each other, there’s no way he would suddenly start saying something like…”

“Excuse me, Miss Jung Dawoon. I don’t care at all about whether you meet up with Na Baekhoon or do whatever bullshit you might be up to. Oops, I said bullshit. Since I used it, let me use it a little more. I don’t even want to know what kind of bullshit entered your body that made you suddenly do this to me.”

The words ‘don’t even want to know’ gave her a smack on the head.

She raised her head slightly. She saw Haneu’s eyes, which she had been avoiding this whole time.

Those eyes didn’t contain rage, disappointment, or even criticism. They were totally emotionless just like the words she was saying.

“I wanted to win against you? Why would I? Are we in some kind of great relationship where one must win and one must lose? Honestly, the only thing I know about you is your name. You seem to know more than that about me, but I don’t know anything about you. I don’t plan to find out either.”

“I-I…”

“I don’t know what kind of reason you suddenly made me your competitor, but please don’t involve me in it. I despise stuff like that.”

Haneul put her bag on.

She could only watch as Haneul walked towards the door.

She had to shout that Haneul was lying, that she should tell the truth, but she couldn’t say anything.

When Haneul walked past the door and closed the door about halfway, she could barely speak,

“You’re actually worried, aren’t you? That I might be more successful than you. You’re jealous because I’m better than you when I’m similar to you, aren’t you? That’s why you colluded with Na Baekhoon and…”

Haneul stopped as she was closing the door. Then she spoke indifferently,

“Miss Dawoon. Do you know how you look in my eyes right now? You look like you are begging me to be jealous of you. But what can I do? I don’t want to do that. You’re like a little child. The only way you could acknowledge yourself is through the assessment of others.”

Hope you take care of your health — Haneul left after leaving those words behind.

She looked at the makeup desk in the break room. She couldn’t see anything through the mirror.

She opened the door and left and shouted at Han Haneul who was walking down the corridor.

“In truth, you’re jealous of me! That’s how it is! Tell me! Tell me that it’s true!”

Her voice echoed in the corridor. Haneul, who was walking forward, raised her hand up. She waved her middle finger left and right before disappearing.

She collapsed on the floor. The lights in the corridor went out and darkness pervaded.

After Story 149

“Everyone’s living their best, huh? They’re trying hard.”

He put the lip of the canned beer against his mouth. A sip later, the can was empty.

He licked his lips and crushed the can before placing it on the desk.

Looking down from the hotel, he saw many people moving around busily. He followed a man in a suit who was walking quickly while looking at his watch, as though he was being chased to be on time.

He put on a mocking smile and got away from the window. Those people lived such pitiful lives. No matter how busy they lived their lives, the money that would end up in their hands would be chump change. When would they be able to buy a house and enjoy leisure?

“What are you doing?”

“No, it’s nothing.”

He put his arm around a woman who was wearing a shower gown and pushed her down onto the bed. The woman acted coquettish before wrapping her arm around his neck.

“You’re going to be tired if you do this in the morning.”

“We’ll see if that’s true.”

He kissed the woman on the neck before stripping down the gown on her shoulders slightly.

-Okay.

Hearing the director’s voice, Maru loosened his grip on the gown. The partnering actress under him stood up with a giggle.

“Mr. Maru, you can’t do that. How could you laugh like that at the end? I had a hard time holding back.”

“But you had an easier time thanks to it, didn’t you?”

“Yes, I did. The problem was that I had a harder time stifling my laughter than the acting itself.”

Maru put a blanket over the actress’ body. Coming inside the room, the production crew started cleaning up. The additional shoot was now over.

After putting on his clothes, he headed to where the director was, in the next room over.

“Did it come out well?”

“Why should I bother speaking?”

The director flicked his finger. He stood next to the director and checked the cut they just shot.

The actress’ expression as she fell on the bed was good. The way she wrapped her hand around his neck was also sticky.

A strictly business and sexual relationship was portrayed instead of that of a sweet pair of lovers’. It was exactly the atmosphere that director Lim requested from him.

“That looks good.”

“Should I smooth out the fat on your flank with CG? I can also add more muscle to your back.”

“Do you have money left over?”

Director Lim smiled and waved his hand in denial. He then took his headphones off and stood up.

“You should come with us to drink after we’re done.”

“I’d love to, but there’s someone I need to meet.”

“Hey, you should really drink out with me when I’m the director. Hyuk and Beomseok are also going to be there at night because they have a shoot.”

“I’m sorry.”

“That’s quite a firm refusal. Is it a woman?”

“Yes.”

“A young man says he’s meeting a woman so I can’t exactly hold you back, I guess. Anyway, good work today. Sorry to have you run around like crazy in this weather.”

“If you’re so sorry, please don’t edit me out during the final edit. Give me a lot of screen time.”

“Are you going to drink with me if I say I will?”

Maru shrugged.

“I guess I can’t help but give up on screen time. You should also drink lightly. You let alcohol influence this film too much.”

“Those who don’t drink while shooting are the strange ones.”

After shaking hands with director Lim, he left the room. He bid farewell to the staff members he worked hard with for the past two months. He even made an appointment to eat out together with the youngest member of the production team whom he had talked to a lot with.

“Yes, hyung. I just finished and am heading to the station.”

-I guess taking the train is a lot easier than driving. Good work suffering under the heat of Daegu all of summer.

“I don’t have any schedule for a while, right?”

-Yeah. For about a week.

“Looks like I can relax then.”

-Watch out for your body. You might become busy a week later.

“Something up?”

-Not for now, but my intuition tells me so.

“Looks like I gotta trust that intuition this once.”

After finishing his call with his manager Yeonjin, he got on the train.

He had come down to Daegu in the midst of summer and commuted to Suwon every once in a while, then stayed for another two weeks because of an additional shoot.

In the meanwhile, it became time for some of the tree leaves to change color.

He read a book and looked outside in a daze for a while before he realized that the sun had set and the train had arrived at Suwon station.

He got his luggage and left the train. The night air was rather cool. When he arrived home after taking the bus home, he saw that it was 10 p.m.

He stroked the head of the cat that was lazing around and took a shower.

Haneul was not at home. It seemed that her shoot was being delayed.

“Still at the shoot?” He made a call as he lay on the sofa.

The cat jumped up and sat down on his stomach.

-Yeah. There’s a problem at the set, so things are getting delayed.

“A set without problems is not a set.”

-True.

There was no energy in her voice.

“Are you not in a good condition?”

-I can’t say I’m good. How about you, sweetie? Finish up the shoot well?

“I just got back home. I was thinking that we should eat a late dinner together, but I guess it’ll be hard today.”

-I think the shoot is going to last into the night. You must be tired, so go to sleep without me.

“I’m not that tired. I’m still clear-headed because night and day have been switched around for a while. You aren’t here either. I wonder what I have to do in order to spend this long night without feeling bored.”

-I guess you can play with Ricebun.

“That girl, ever since she started getting along with you, won’t treat me like an owner anymore. At most, she thinks I just give her food.”

As he talked to her on the phone with a smile, he heard a knock on the door.

He didn’t order anything. He stood up and walked to the door.

“Wait sec.”

-What is it?

“Someone’s at the door.”

-I ordered something. I got told that the package might arrive late since our address is the last neighborhood.

He said he understood as he opened the door.

Standing outside was a person holding a phone in her left hand and a plastic bag in her right hand. It was his wife.

Maru stared at his wife in a daze for a while before quickly closing the door. Haneul shouted outside for him to receive the package.

“Looks like they got the wrong address,” he said into the phone with a smile.

-That can’t be right.

“I’m sure. Some weird lady was at the door. I was scared and quickly closed it.”

-I think that lady is going to be angry soon, so how about you open the door?

“I can’t let that happen.”

Maru opened the door. His wife gave him the plastic bag.

“I thought you were going to be late,” he said as he checked the contents of the bag.

He saw some sushi. He had been thinking that he wanted to eat something light instead of something greasy, so it was perfect.

“I came here now because it was delayed.”

Haneul’s voice contained a lot of fatigue.

“Was it hard?”

“The director’s passion was quite something. Moreover, the camera director and the director had a fight in the afternoon. I thought they were going to finish the shoot just like that, but things soon got better and we barely managed to finish the shoot. The director was rather hearty. She’s a general alright.”

“Not as much as you, I would think. You’re going to get washed, right?”

“I’ll get washed after I eat. I’m hungry.”

“What do you want to drink?”

“Just one beer.”

He set up the table to eat lightly. He shooed away the cat loitering around in front of the sushi and took a seat.

Haneul tied her loose hair together and put it above her head.

“How are you getting along with other people? Are you having any problems?” he asked as he poured some soy sauce into a small dish.

“I’m good. The atmosphere at the set is okay too.”

“How about the action? I heard that you had to use your body a lot at the beginning. Are you okay?”

“I think they’re going to shoot all the wire action halfway through, and as for hand-to-hand combat, I’m an expert in that so it was easy,” said his wife while showing her arm. There were blue bruises.

“Easy? With those bruises on your arm?”

“It’s not my fault. The actor I worked with got totally absorbed and swung the wooden bat properly. It was made to break and even had styrofoam covering it, but it still hurt.”

“You should pay them back for it later.”

“Unfortunately, that person died today.”

Haneul put a piece of salmon sushi in her mouth. Her eyes widened as though it was to her liking.

“I didn’t expect much when I bought it at the market, but it’s pretty good.”

“Yeah.”

Maru asked as he took a sip of the beer,

“When do you think you’re going to die?”

“I’ll have to see the order of the scene placement, but I think it should be pretty soon. What scene did you do today, sweetie? You said you had an additional shoot.”

“A scene where I rolled around in bed with a fair lady.”

“You must have had it good, huh?”

“Not much.”

“Why?”

“Your face lingered in front of me.”

“You really can’t lie after all these years, huh?”

“Was it obvious?”

His wife pretended to poke his eyes with chopsticks.

He quickly raised the cat to block her. Being lifted in the air, the cat struggled before becoming limp, as though she was fed up with this.

“Look at her face. She seems like she’s really bothered,” Haneul said with a smile.

For a while, they talked about autumn as they ate. Just as they concluded that it might be good to go on a leisurely hike sometime, his wife stood up.

“There’s something I have to show you.”

She went inside the room and when she came back out, she was holding a small booklet. When he received it and opened it, he saw that it was a product catalog.

“This is practically a photo album.”

Maru flipped to the first page as he read the brand logo that said ‘Eterium.’

He saw his wife pulling her knees towards her while sitting down. The silk clothes softly draped across her shoulders suited her well.

Whether it was her pose, her eyes, or anything else, she didn’t lack anything. She held onto the gazes of the readers of the catalog with her faint presence as though to toy with them.

Literally attractive. That was the expression that suited the photo.

“Didn’t you put too much effort in?”

When he flipped over to the next page as he said so, he caught sight of another model. The first thought that came to his mind was that she looked like someone he knew. Eventually, he recognized that the model was Jung Dawoon.

“You shot with her?”

“You know Miss Dawoon?”

“I told you about Hanjoo Chicken Feet association, right?”

“The actor’s club that you often go to, sweetie?”

“She’s part of it.”

“Really?”

“Looks like the atmosphere around her changed again in this short while. She’s totally different from when I first saw her. From how she changed like this in just a year, it looks like she must have put in a lot of effort.”

“How was she a year ago?” his wife came over and asked.

“She had a feeble impression. I told you about Choi Seungah, right? The girl who allowed me to meet Miso-noona.”

“You did.”

“Seungah’s quite outgoing, while Dawoon was quite docile. But her impression totally changed when I met her at a shoot a few months ago. It looked like she strived to become extroverted.”

He looked at Dawoon in the photo. It must be because of the theme of the shoot, but she didn’t look that suited to this. Even more so because Haneul was next to her.

“Did you treat her well?”

“I couldn’t,” his wife responded.

“What do you mean?”

“Miss Dawoon really hated me. No, I guess it was jealousy to be precise? Now that I think back on it, our first meeting was strange too. It felt like she was strangely obsessed with me. She’s not a lesbian, so she probably didn’t do that because she wanted something from me, so there’s only one cause.”

His wife narrowed her eyes and looked at him.

“You are acting properly in public, right?”

“Your hubby isn’t daring enough to cheat on you. But, there is something that comes to mind.”

He briefly explained what happened between Seungah, Dawoon, and himself. Haneul nodded.

“Now that you tell me that, I think she still has attachments to you.”

“I didn’t give her any opening though.”

“She can make one even if you didn’t give her one.”

“Then looks like I’ll have to tell her properly before things go even more wrong.”

“Tell her off kindly. She was a total kid who’s quick to cry.”

His wife was about to say something more but suddenly smiled it off.

“Should we open another can of beer?” Haneul said.

Maru smiled and brought out some more beer.

After eating, his wife went to the bathroom to get washed.

Maru took out his phone and messaged Dawoon.

Not long later, he got a reply. She said that she couldn’t get back to him because she was busy right now.

-Then contact me when you have the time. I have something to tell you and something to hear from you.

He placed his phone on the sofa.

After Story 150

The sound from the TV echoed in her ears before fading away. Just five minutes ago, she was laughing and giggling while watching, but right now, none of its content entered her eyes.

Dawoon chewed on her thumb and looked at the phone she placed next to her. The message that Maru sent was on the screen. The simple message ‘let’s talk’ poked her eyes.

She intuitively knew that this was going to be related to Han Haneul.

Without being able to be happy that she was messaged by Maru, she had to send a message; a message that she was busy right now so it was hard to talk.

“I’m sure she said it. I’m sure she went to oppa and blurted out everything.”

She threw the remote control at the TV that was blabbing on all by itself. It was noisy. It would be great if it could shut up for a little.

She took her phone and went inside her room before closing the door. What should she do? Han Haneul was a cunning woman.

She had forgotten about this for a while after the shoot and didn’t realize that Haneul would backstab her like this.

What would Maru-oppa be thinking right now? Wouldn’t he be putting blind faith in his girlfriend’s words and would start treating Dawoon like total trash?

She felt stifled. First, she took a deep breath. There was a need to calm down.

Her narrow vision recovered a little. Her tightening breath also relaxed.

Dawoon relaxed her body and started thinking in a calm state. This was a disadvantageous battle. Whatever the case may be, Maru would trust Haneul’s words more. Moreover, someone like Han Haneul would make up stories to badmouth her.

She felt terrible just thinking about it. That woman was truly terrible. It was no wonder that she schemed with Na Baekhoon behind Dawoon’s back.

It was because Maru was kind and affectionate that he was being swung around by a woman like that. Dawoon had to rescue the pitiful oppa.

Suddenly, it felt like this was not misfortune, but an opportunity. She organized her thoughts and picked up her phone. There was something she needed to test.

She scanned through her messenger friends list and picked a few who she didn’t care if she ruined her relationship with them. Then, she picked someone among them who was dating.

-Jiyoung, it might be my misunderstanding, but I think I saw your boyfriend go to a nightclub with another woman.

After that, she spent twenty minutes talking with Jiyoung. At first, Jiyoung said that there was just no way, but when she kept instigating her, Jiyoung’s attitude changed.

Wasn’t there anything strange? Doesn’t he contact you less and less lately? Wasn’t he acting negligently?

She got a phone call. It was Jiyoung. That friend then revealed over the phone that they had been in a strange mood lately while crying.

Dawoon felt glee. She only made up plausible-sounding words, but she managed to put a crack in someone else’s relationship. She advised Jiyoung to not bring the topic up first just in case before hanging up. Then she went through her photos on her phone.

She found a photo where Han Haneul and Na Baekhoon were standing side by side and smiling. It was a photo she took during the shoot. There should be absolutely no problems with this photo, but with a few words, she would be able to sow seeds of suspicion.

It didn’t matter even if it was a minute crack. If she could dent the relationship between Maru and Haneul, it would be easy to seep through that crack.

She felt relaxed now. She found a way.

When she lay down on her bed with a smile, a sense of shame assaulted her. How tragic was this? What kind of shameful deed was this?

She couldn’t help it though. She felt like she would collapse if she didn’t do this. This was an inevitable choice to defend herself. If lucky, she would be able to be tied to the person she wanted to be.

She couldn’t be bothered to think anymore. She put aside all her worries and closed her eyes. Right before she fell asleep, she heard someone whispering:

What if you start dating? What next?

Nothing really came to mind.

* * *

“The song you just heard was Yoo An’s Night of the Leaving Sun. Hearing this song, I want to go to the mountains and just listen to the birds.”

Suyeon paused a little before continuing her commentary,

“For part three, we’re joined by Mr. Han Maru, who has come to the studio after a long time. Mr. Maru, hasn’t it been too long?”

“Was I away for about three weeks? I think it’s been a really long time too. I came into the room, and it felt really unfamiliar.”

“So please come regularly. While you were away, everyone was looking for you. They said they needed advice from the devil.”

“I’m grateful that people looked for me without forgetting about me. I shall do my best to be the stick.”

Suyeon’s laughter could be heard over the microphone.

“Before we start, please tell us about your recent activities. Many of our listeners are curious.”

He was thankful that she looked out for him like this. Maru cleared his throat and spoke,

“I shot a film this time. I managed to join director Lim Hwanggeun’s work.”

“It must have been tough shooting in this hot weather.”

“I had a hard time, sure. But the results were really good, so I forgot all of that.”

“You said director Lim Hwanggeun, right? Isn’t he famous for his Gawol-dong series? Is this movie the sequel to that?”

“No, this will feel a lot different from his works until now.”

“So it’s not a comedy?”

Before Maru answered, he looked outside the booth at the producer. Although the progression of the program was up to the DJ, he might not be seen in a good light if he dragged on talking about what might be self-promotion.

If the producer told him to cut it off moderately, then he was going to say a couple more lines before wrapping up.

The producer raised her right hand to create a circle. It was a signal that he could continue. Was she being considerate? Or…

He looked at Suyeon. Suyeon smiled and hinted at him to speak comfortably. It seemed that she talked about it with the producer beforehand.

Suyeon had set him up well. Now, it was his turn to display everything without pulling back.

“There’s no sense of laughter at all. There are witty comebacks throughout to refresh the mood, but the story overall doesn’t have any comedic elements. So if you watch the movie thinking about his previous works, you might be taken aback by the nuance.”

“Can you tell me what it’s about? I’m curious.”

“I just finished the shoot, so I can’t tell you much, but I can tell you that it’s a story about bad guys.”

“Bad guys, you say?”

“Scammers. They’re all out to find weaknesses in others. They’re people who put aside law and justice, and they live purely for the money in front of their eyes.”

“Bad guys shouldn’t be so charming if they’re just bad. There must be something else too, right?”

“I’m a little embarrassed since this will sound like I’m boasting, but I’m sure you’ll come to like the villains in this movie.”

“Looks like I must go watch it once it’s released. You’re going to give premiere tickets to our listeners, right?”

“I’ll definitely give some tickets to our audience even if it means using my own money.”

Suyeon clapped.

“Everyone, you hear that? It’s been recorded, so don’t you go telling us that you don’t remember later. I guess we got some good presents to give away. The writer outside is applauding me for having done a good job.”

Maru looked at the monitor in front of him. Messages of encouragement were coming in real-time.

Some of them grumbled, saying that he shouldn’t be promoting himself, but those soon got buried under the new messages.

He sighed in relief inwardly. If Han Maru had a bad image as an actor, he would’ve gotten a lot more negative feedback than this. He felt relieved that there were more messages of encouragement instead.

“Well then, shall we listen to the resentments of salarymen on their way back from work?” Suyeon said into the mic as though whispering.

* * *

“Maru, what are you doing after this?” Suyeon asked while the radio was on commercial.

Maru took off his headphones and spoke,

“I’m going to go home and play with my cat.”

“So you don’t have an appointment, huh? Does your cat get lonely often?”

“Well, from what I see, she’s totally fine by herself so I don’t think so.”

“Then you should eat with us. We’re having a get-together after the radio today.”

“Is it okay for me to join you?”

“We wouldn’t invite someone who goes straight home after the program. You’re on close terms with other people too,” Suyeon said while looking outside.

The writer opened the door and came in before speaking,

“Mr. Han. What are you doing after this? If you don’t have anything, you should eat with us.”

“I was just talking to him about that. But this guy still seems to feel unfamiliar with us. He asked me if it was okay for him to join us,” Sueyon said.

He shook his head and replied,

“I really like get-togethers. I’ll definitely join you.”

He waited in the studio for about an hour. The main writer gave him some postcards with stories on them, telling him that he should do some work without dazing around.

“There are still people who send postcards, huh?”

“These days, this is special. There are many people who keep sending them since it’s quite fun if you get the hang of it. Read them and get some stories that are decent. Let’s see how your judgment is regarding shows.”

Judgment, huh? He picked a few stories suitable for the radio and gave them back to the writer. Scanning through them quickly, the writer spoke,

“Hey, you wanna work here? I’ll raise you if you do.”

“I like my job as an actor.”

“That’s a pity. Producer, Maru did work, so buy him something nice at the get-together.”

The producer smiled and said yes. They went to the nearby stewed ribs restaurant after the show.

Pork ribs colored in red sauce boiled inside a dented nickel-silver pot.

They had drinks and talked. There were four women, and Maru was the only man.

He did various menial tasks for the table. Even then, he kept his ears open.

“Maru, do you have a lover?”

The main writer, who was grumbling that her husband was giving her a hard time because of his sleeping habits, changed the topic.

Maru put the empty side dishes to one side and spoke,

“How do I look? Do you think I have one?”

“I put my vote on yes.”

“Me too.”

“I put my vote on no.”

The production crew said a word each. Then, their gazes gathered on Suyeon, who was drinking quietly.

“To even things up, I’ll put my vote on no.”

Then she faintly smiled and drank the rest.

The table became bustling again. They talked about the writer’s plans to visit overseas to the producer’s new washing machine.

While the topics changed, Suyeon did not say much. At most, she smiled and chimed in from time to time.

“She’s a lot different from when we’re doing the radio, right?” the main writer said while looking at Suyeon. “It’s not that she’s ignoring us or something like that, so don’t think too strangely. We found it weird at first, but we started not to mind ever since we found out that she was that kind of girl.”

Suyeon said that she was uninteresting and told them to stop before grabbing a rib with a hand with a glove on.

“She’s more noisy than ever during broadcasts, but she’s quiet outside the booth. Sometimes, we forget she’s even there. Suyeon, talk about something interesting for us.”

“I got nothing. Also, if you talk too much while you eat, you’ll lose your fortune.”

“See? She’s on the more talkative side today too.”

The main writer grinned and picked up her glass. This didn’t feel like a drink-and-get-drunk atmosphere.

After they had drunk moderately, someone said they should get up.

The producer paid for the food and left first. Other than the new writer, everyone else had families, so they left soon.

“It’s good to try your best, but sometimes you need to have some leisure. Actors aren’t sprinters. Well, you might not need any of this advice. You seem to be doing well by yourself.”

Suyeon said those words to him before she got in the taxi.

They were probably words she said without much thought, but Maru could feel the concern of a senior towards her junior.

“I’m glad that you look comfortable in this life.”

“What was that?” Suyeon asked while poking her head out the window.

“Nothing. Watch out on your way home.”

“Okay, see you at the next broadcast.”

“Goodbye.”

He lowered his head at the taxi that was driving off. He was smiling because he felt suitably drunk.

Just then, his phone notified him of a messenger alert.

-We should meet up once, right? Hanjoo Chicken Feet Association!

It was Yoo Jichan’s message in the group chat.

After Story 151

“Why is it so hard to see each other when we live on this small piece of land?”

“You do realize just who makes it hard to meet up, right?”

Maru looked at Jichan, who feigned ignorance. From what he heard, Jichan was busy holding overseas fan meetups and exclusive concerts, participating in movie shoots, and even preparing a mini album.

“Hyung, I gotta say, you have great stamina. I saw your schedule and it should be enough to send someone to the grave.”

“I should earn while I still can. This year might be my last year as an idol after all. I will continue to do music, but I don’t think it’ll be possible to do tight choreography like I’m doing with the others right now. That was why the domestic concert schedule was so tightly scheduled.”

“But your group doesn’t run into accidents or controversies.”

“We’re so busy that we don’t have time to fight. Also, we’re all doing one thing that we want to do, so we don’t clash either. Then there’s the fact that we’ve gotten old enough to not fight over trivial stuff like that.”

“You’re gonna be thirty in a couple years, huh?”

“I’m still twenty-seven, in real age.”

Jichan took out an envelope from his inner pocket. Maru received it before asking,

“What’s this?”

“An invitation to my concert. It’s an S-class seat. It should be really expensive, you know? It’s being sold at a premium I think.”

“You gave it to me so that I can resell it on the internet, right?”

Jichan twitched his eyes before reaching out demanding it back. Maru quickly put the envelope away into his pocket.

“Make some time to come. We prepared a lot this time. I’m sure it’ll be fun.”

“I’ll definitely make the time to go.”

“Now then, where are the rest of them? They’re way too punctual in keeping Korean time,[1]” Jichan said as he looked at the time.

Their original appointment was supposed to be at 7, but only he and Jichan were the ones present despite the fact that 20 minutes had passed since the appointed time.

“Seungah said she’s coming after work, and Dawoon says she’ll be slightly late because her shoot got delayed.”

“Looks like I can’t say anything, huh? It was me who asked to meet at this time. But I really felt like I couldn’t make any time other than today.”

“I’m pretty free, so I can meet up any time.”

“That’s why I like you. I can call you whenever I feel bored, right?”

Jichan took out his phone while speaking. He seemed to be exchanging messages with someone.

“Right, you know that Nayeon’s coming, right?”

“Miss Choi Nayeon? I did hear about it. Apparently, she’s on close terms with Dawoon and will be joining us today.”

“She’s a good kid, but you might be taken aback because she doesn’t hold back when she speaks. Keep that in mind.” Jichan put down his phone. “Also, I heard you finished your movie shoot, right?”

“Yes, I finished shooting my part a while ago.”

“When will it be released?”

“There’s still the post-processing left to do, as well as securing theaters, so even if everything goes absurdly fast, it’ll be at the end of the year or early next year, I think. But the thing about movies is that they might get delayed if there are competing works being released around the same time slot, so I don’t really know what will happen. I heard that the age rating was 15.”

The waiter brought chicken karaage and a bottle of beer. They decided to drink lightly while waiting for others to arrive.

“How do you think you’ll feel if you hit ten million ticket sales?”

“I’ll probably not get enough sleep. I’ll probably toss around in bed and get out my phone to look it up again and again.”

“Tell me honestly. How many times do you look up your name on the internet?”

“Me? I don’t think I did that in the past few months.”

“Really?”

“Yes. Whenever I have work or whenever what I did goes on air, I do look it up from time to time to see the responses, but I don’t usually do it.”

In one previous life, which he could only remember the fragments of, he looked up Han Maru more than a dozen times in the span of a single day.

There were times when he looked them up nervously by himself at home even after telling others that he didn’t care about it. How high is my name worth? How controversial am I? Are people looking for me? – these kinds of questions.

“I found out that it’s much better for my mental health to let go of things that are meaningless to do. It’s not like the people who curse at me will change just because I look my name up,” Maru smiled.

“I know that, but it doesn’t really happen that way. Do you know about attention seekers? I saw this word on the internet, and I think it expresses people like us quite well.”

“The thing is, we have a job that will be in a precarious position if we don’t have attention. It’s just like politicians. We want to be in the mouths of the people regardless of what it is.”

Jichan forked a piece of karaage and spoke,

“I get scared from time to time even now, thinking that people will suddenly stop recognizing me one day. Funny, right? One part of me wants them to pretend to not know me, but the part that wants them to recognize me is even bigger.”

“For someone like you, I think people will recognize you until the day you enter your grave.”

“That’s a little too much. I wish they will look for me until I’m about sixty. After that, I’ll enjoy the rest of my life in leisure.”

“Who knows, you might want attention even after you’re sixty.”

“Is that so? Well, maybe. Like you said, I’m sure I’ll want attention and will miss the stage. It’s an exhilarating experience after all, right? At least, in the life I’ve lived, there was nothing more pleasurable than being applauded on stage and receiving everyone’s wholehearted attention. No amount of tasty food nor amount of comfortable sleep at a luxurious hotel can be compared to the massive cheers after a performance.”

“That’s why people can never escape something once they taste how good it is. You know what people say, that the limits of pleasure will never become low. At first, one candy is all that’s needed to satisfy you, but once you get a taste of that, one will not be enough. You’ll look for two, then three, then when you’re fed up with it, you’ll look for something else.”

The pleasure of being applauded after a passionate performance was something inexplicable with words. There was no sense of loss at all, and it felt like having the entire world to oneself.

Once the blinding lights were turned off and the audience seats shrouded in darkness were revealed, showing their bright faces, celebrities would feel exhilarated and would laugh and cry.

The ultimate pleasure, peak delight, extreme satisfaction.

It was because of those moments when the brain felt like it was being drenched in dopamine that people were able to endure agonizing practice sessions and extremely long preparation periods.

“That’s why the sense of emptiness that assaults me after a performance is unspeakably terrifying. When I was a trainee, I could never understand why my seniors would do drugs. They would be risking everything they’ve achieved until now, so why would they do something dangerous like that? I thought that they were pathetic. But now I understand. It’s because the sense of emptiness is scary. It’s because they despise life where nothing they do is entertaining for them that they reach out for things like that.”

Jichan put on a bitter smile. Maru took a bite of the karaage and spoke,

“So you’re going to do drugs too?”

“Are you crazy? Hell no.”

“Right, don’t do it. Don’t sympathize with them either. I get what you’re saying, but ultimately, it’s all a form of escapism, and it’s just worded in a neat way.”

“That’s true. If I had to do drugs to drive away my emptiness, I’d rather do a street performance instead.”

After they had a light toast, the door opened and Seungah came in.

“What the heck? Why have you started already?”

“That’s not what someone who’s late to the party should say.”

“Jichan-oppa, I’m the president of this meeting, you know? You can’t start without my permission.”

“I’ll pour you one so please sit down, president.”

Seungah smiled and sat on the opposite side. Maru took out the cutleries and hand wipes for her.

“How’s the part-time job?” Maru asked.

Like many aspiring actors, Seungah started doing a job alongside her career.

“It’s okay other than the fact that I have to stay standing the whole day. I didn’t have any unpleasant customers today either.”

“Sounds like a lot of hard work.”

Jichan poured some beer for Seungah.

“But there were really a lot of Chinese people. More than half of the visitors at the department store were Chinese. Apparently, it’s a trend there to come to Korea for shopping.”

“The Chinese market is massive,” Maru said, thinking about the not-so-distant future.

Even among his numerous lives, China’s growth rate had never wavered.

This life should go in a similar fashion. The cultural business should also receive a lot of influence from China.

“Did the matters with the agency get resolved?”

“It’s up in the air. For me, I didn’t really receive that much damage, and I even received some money, so I don’t have a problem with it, but it seems like the people who signed a contract for commercials are in a complicated position.”

The agency was disbanded overnight, and the CEO, who held all the contract deposits, had run away. This was also a rather common story. Fortunately, Seungah didn’t seem to have received much damage.

“In that sense, I’m envious of JA. In terms of corporations, JA is a big company with a solid foundation, isn’t it?” Seungah said.

“You know what’s scary about big corporations? It’s that they remove your desk if you don’t have any achievements.”

“That’s true. How did your movie go?”

It was a question he was asked every time he met someone. Maru responded with a nod instead.

“I also wanna do acting. Not just part-time jobs as background.”

“Should I pull some strings?”

Hearing Jichan’s words, Seungah immediately shook her head.

“If I heard that from anyone else, I would’ve taken it as a joke, but I’m scared when you say it because you might actually do something. I’ll win everything with my own skills through an audition, so just tell me whenever you hear of an audition happening.”

Maru spoke after Seungah,

“Hyung. I really like pulling strings. If there’s an occasion, please don’t hesitate to tell me.”

“With you, I don’t want to do it. I feel like you’re going to steal my position away from me.”

While they were laughing and chatting, Dawoon and Nayeon called and said that they had arrived. Not too long later, the two of them came into the room.

“Hello,” Choi Nayeon greeted.

“Pretending to be polite, huh.” Jichan received it with a smile.

The two seemed to be on close terms.

Maru looked at Dawoon, who followed her in. When they made eye contact, Dawoon carefully averted her gaze.

Today, he had decided to wrap things up completely, so he would bring the topic up after seeing how things go. He should have drawn a clear line at the last shoot, yet was she ignoring that? Or did she not realize?

Whatever the case may be, he would make sure to bring about a conclusion today.

It was when Nayeon walked past Seungah that he saw her suddenly push Seungah. Seungah dropped her fork on her pants.

“I’m sorry. I couldn’t see properly because it was dark. Are you okay? Are your clothes dirty?”

“Oh, it’s okay. I got some on my clothes, but don’t worry about it. These are casual clothes anyway.”

“I’m glad.”

Maru looked at Nayeon as he sipped some beer.

Did he see it wrong? Just now, he felt like Nayeon intentionally bumped Seungah, as though to bully her.

“You should really be more careful. You really have no caution,” Jichan said.

“Oppa, I haven’t seen you in a long time and you’re nagging me already? It’s no wonder that you don’t have a girlfriend.”

“I don’t have the time.”

“Like hell you don’t. Oh, and you must be Mr. Han Maru, right?”

Nayeon reached her hand out. It was interesting that she was asking for a handshake on an occasion like this. He smiled and grabbed her hand.

“Yes, I’m Han Maru.”

“I heard a lot about you from Dawoon. She says you’re a good person.”

“Really? I’m glad she didn’t say bad things about me.”

“You look like a good person just as I heard. Oppa, switch places with me. We already know each other. I’ll talk to Mr. Maru. Dawoon, you sit here too.”

Nayeon changed everyone’s seats the moment she arrived.

Jichan looked at Seungah.

“Hey, you should introduce yourself to our president.”

“President? You mean Miss Seungah? I heard a lot about you too from Dawoon. Hm, you don’t really have a great impression.”

When she said that, Dawoon spoke from the side,

“Unni!”

“I was joking. Miss Seungah. I hope we get along. I heard that you look after Dawoon a lot, right? I do too. Let’s get along as fellow caretakers.”

“Yes, okay.”

Maru picked up his glass as he looked at the faces of the two people. He felt like this was going to be an uncomfortable place.

[1] There’s a meme in Korea where close friends will never turn up at the appointed time and will always be slightly late, which was later dubbed the ‘Korean time’.

After Story 152

“There, there! Gather your glasses! It’s fate that brought us together, so let us get along from now on. Don’t bully me too much because I’m a newbie,” Nayeon said as she raised her glass.

She stood up from the table and made rounds under the guise of toasting. She toasted with everyone before returning to her seat. She intentionally pushed Maru to the side so that he sat next to Dawoon.

“Now that I see you like this, you’re much better looking than Jichan-oppa.” She tried talking to Maru.

“He’s much better than me.”

“Why do you say that? I say you’re much more manly. That guy is too fair looking.”

“Did you have a hand in making me look fair or something?” Jichan retorted.

There were two reasons she attended this meeting today. One was to see what kind of person Maru was, and the other was to see what kind of schemes that Choi Seungah was cooking up.

With Seungah, she looked like a good person on the outside, just as she had heard from Dawoon. She smiled a lot and she received conversations well. It was probably this side of her that Dawoon was attracted to which made her end up talking about her worries, the consequence of which was a betrayal. She was the type that Nayeon hated the most: people who tried to take advantage of other people’s worries to gain their own benefits.

Nayeon looked at Seungah from the corner of her eyes. The way she smiled when talking to Maru was really not to her liking. That woman must have liked Maru as well, and that must be why she became an obstacle for Dawoon when she talked about her worries of her first love.

Right now, she was putting up a pretense of not having any interest in Maru, a pretense of being just a friend, but given the opportunity, she would cook up all sorts of schemes to snatch him away.

The food came out and the alcohol made about two or so rounds. Nayeon quietly asked Maru,

“You have a girlfriend, right, Mr. Maru?”

“I do.”

There was a response as soon as she asked. He didn’t even ask why she asked.

Nayeon tapped on her own cheeks and looked at Dawoon. Her original plan was to hook them together depending on the situation. After all, breaking up and dating someone else was something that happened frequently.

However, she changed her mind when she heard Maru’s instant answer.

“You sound like you have been dating each other for a long time.”

“We have.”

“Looks like you like her a lot.”

Maru smiled instead of responding.

With that, she was sure. This man had no gaps.

Even someone who was dating was bound to show a sign or two if they had other thoughts about their romantic relationship. However, Maru had nothing like that. He was a tree that wouldn’t drop a fruit no matter how hard he was hit; a tree that would break the axe that hit him.

“Dawoon, let’s go to the bathroom.”

Nayeon took Dawoon to the bathroom.

“I don’t have full confidence in my skill to understand a person perfectly, but from my experiences until now, I don’t think Mr. Maru is good.”

“What’s not good?” Dawoon asked back.

“I’m saying you’re better off wrapping up your feelings for him. From how I see it, I don’t think he’ll ever give a single glance your way no matter how much you stare at him. You can see that from how he never talks about anything personal with you…”

“So you want me to give up? Because I’m worse than Han Haneul?”

Nayeon turned her head around to look at Dawoon. The little sister who always gently smiled at her was glaring at her with the intent to kill. She felt like a totally different person, not Jung Dawoon.

“Dawoon?”

Only when she called out to her did Dawoon get startled and lower her head. Dawoon, with her head lowered, kept apologizing.

“What’s up with you? Why did you bring up Han Haneul all of a sudden?”

“I’m sorry, unni. I’m really sorry.”

Dawoon started crying. She looked very unstable. Worried about her, Nayeon quickly hugged her. Dawoon trembled like she had been dipped in a bath of ice water.

“What is it? Did something happen?”

Dawoon revealed her story that she was receiving psychological consultations because of her stress from shoots, and that was why she sometimes blurted out things that she didn’t mean.

“Why didn’t you say it?”

“I didn’t want to make you worry.”

Dawoon took out a medicine parcel from her pocket. She opened it with difficulty and emptied it into her mouth before drinking some water.

“If you’re having a hard time, then you should go home. I’ll take you there.”

“No, I’m okay now. Also, we met up after a long time, so I can’t ruin the atmosphere just because of me.”

“You’re too kind for your own good, worrying for other people.”

No wonder she fell sick. Nayeon patted Dawoon’s back.

This girl was feeble. She must have had a hard time while playing a villain role in her drama. Some people might have sworn at her without being able to differentiate reality and fiction.

How many celebrities were truly mentally healthy? Nayeon could understand.

The sudden mention of Han Haneul was strange, but she did not bother asking. It must be something that happened randomly. She stood next to Dawoon so that Dawoon could calm down. She started to think: Why did this girl suddenly start having difficulties? She could only think of one reason.

“It’s Choi Seungah, isn’t it? She’s the reason you’re rapidly deteriorating, isn’t it?”

“No, I’m really on good terms with Seungah-unni now.”

“Don’t lie to me. Such a girl wouldn’t give a single glance to Choi Seungah? I’m sure you must have forgiven her. You’re a kind girl after all. But you know, people have a subconscious that they aren’t fully aware of. You must be having a hard time because someone you don’t like is all smiles. Especially since Maru is present.”

“Is that how it is?”

She took out some tissue to wipe Dawoon’s tears. Someone who was this affectionate was betrayed. How hurt must she have been? How much suffering did she have to go through? She was innocent and naïve and must have forgiven easily, but being a person, she must have had some residual feelings of hatred as well that she suppressed with her reason. It was no wonder that she fell sick.

“Repeat after me. Choi Seungah is a bitch.”

“N-no, she’s not.”

“I said repeat after me. At times like this, you have to release it to feel better. I do it all the time too. Swear words don’t exist for nothing. They exist because people found them necessary.”

“I’ve never said something like that.”

“I know. Words like this don’t suit you. But at times like these, you have to say them out loud intentionally.”

After hesitating, Dawoon swore with a mosquito-like voice.

She wanted to tell her to say it louder but decided not to. Considering Dawoon’s personality, it must have been hard just swearing.

The more she thought about it, the angrier she felt. She couldn’t believe that someone would backstab a girl like this.

“Should I spray soju at her?” Nayeon said with a smile.

It was only then that Dawoon put on a faint smile.

“Don’t do that.”

“Now you’re smiling. You should tell me if you’re having a hard time. I can make an excuse and leave. Okay?”

“Okay.”

They were leaving the bathroom together when Dawoon spoke in a small voice,

“Unni, I’m really thankful. Without you, I would have had a really hard time.”

“Don’t be. It’s natural to look after someone like you. It’s Choi Seungah that’s a strange woman. Anyway, when we go back, don’t mind her and just enjoy the occasion with everyone else. Other than Choi Seungah, they’re all decent people. No, wait, should I strip off that woman’s mask at this opportunity?”

“I want to get along with everyone.”

She was a round girl until the end. Nayeon let out a small sigh and smiled.

“I’ll hold back for your sake. Let’s go.”

She grabbed Nayeon’s hand and returned to the room.

“Who did you swear at this time?” Jichan said.

“Who else can it be? There’s only one person here who deserves a good swear.”

Nayeon gave a sneaky glance at Seungah. Seungah, receiving the gaze, put on a puzzled face. She must have flinched.

She turned around to look at Jichan.

“Of course it’s you, oppa.”

“Fine, swear at me all you want. I don’t know what it is, but I’ll take it.”

As soon as they sat down, they talked about the drama that Dawoon was in.

“Dawoon, your acting was good. I thought a role like that wouldn’t suit her, but she actually looks good in it,” Jichan said.

“Oppa, that’s what you call a difference of skill. Our little Dawoon is perfect when it comes to everything, whether it’s acting or her nature, right?”

“You know, you have been siding with Dawoon for a while now.”

“Of course I should. If I don’t side with a cute and gentle girl like this, then who else would I side with? There’s no one who’s giving her a hard time here, right?”

“Of course not, duh.”

Nayeon looked at Maru and spoke, her tone as mischievous as possible,

“You don’t happen to be the one giving her a hard time right, Mr. Maru?”

“I’m not sure. I think I’m treating her well, but I’m not sure what Dawoon thinks.”

Dawoon immediately followed up, “There’s no one who looks after me as much as you do.”

Nayeon nodded and then looked at Seungah this time.

“Then is Miss Seungah the culprit?”

“What the hell is up with you? Are you drunk?” Jichan interrupted.

“I’m not drunk. I’m just trying to get along.”

“We’re all getting along without you, so you’re the only one who has to do her best.”

“When have I ever not? I’m the definition of sociability and kindness.”

“That’s true. Choi Nayeon is a good girl alright.”

The atmosphere turned cheerful. Choi Seungah’s innards must be flipping over right now. She must be having a difficult time staying here just like how a criminal would feel nervous in front of a victim. She was smiling on the outside as though she was oblivious, but it was clear that she would soon snap out. Those with bad personalities have short tempers after all.

“Since we drank a little. Should we play Truth or Dare? Or the King’s game?” Nayeon suggested.

People immediately said that it was childish but soon they decided to do Truth or Dare. They pushed the plates to one side and placed an empty beer bottle in the middle.

“Then I’ll start.”

Nayeon spun the bottle around energetically. The bottleneck stopped in front of Maru.

“Since we’re doing this for fun, the one who gets picked will have to drink a little in punishment.”

She poured some soju and beer into a glass before asking,

“There’s a member of the opposite sex here that you like. Yes or no.”

“As fellow members of the industry, I like everyone here.”

“How about personal feelings?”

“Absolutely none.”

“Boo, that was disappointing.”

Jichan, who was to her left, snatched the bottle away. For the first round, they decided to go clockwise.

“What’s so disappointing? He has a girlfriend already. Okay then, I’m spinning it.”

Jichan spun the bottle. The bottleneck pointed at Nayeon.

“Let me ask the same question then. You have someone you like here, yes or no?”

She smiled and drank as punishment for not answering. Jichan narrowed his eyes and asked,

“Nayeon, I can’t reciprocate your feelings. You know that, right?”

“How disappointing.”

Livening up the mood, they kept continuing with the game. They exchanged soft questions that could be answered moderately. These were mostly light jabs at best. A bomb drop was bound to occur every once in a while.

Dawoon grabbed the bottle. After spinning around, the bottleneck pointed at Maru.

Dawoon asked in a light tone as though she was making a joke,

“You had a slight interest in me, yes or no?”

Jichan exclaimed in admiration and looked at Maru. Nayeon also chimed in.

It was an awkward question to answer. According to her expectations, there should be a moment of silence or awkward laughter.

However, she was wrong.

“Not in the slightest.”

There was not a single delay in his response as though he just flicked on the switch to an LED light. It was a simple, no-jokes answer.

Nayeon saw Dawoon’s fingertips trembling. She felt like she couldn’t let things go like this.

She laughed heartily and picked up the punishment glass.

“Okay, that’s it! Everyone’s so innocent that it’s no fun. Let’s end it after I drink this as punishment.”

“If you wanted to drink, then you should’ve said so,” Jichan said with a smile.

They decided to talk for a while before switching places. Jichan left first, saying that he would guide everyone to a sushi house he knew. Dawoon and Seungah followed suit.

Nayeon spoke to Maru, who was packing up his stuff.

“You could’ve replied in a softer way.”

When she said it, she realized that she left out all the context. Just as she thought that he must not have understood and was about to speak again,

“There are people like this from time to time. Those who don’t take what’s good for them as is.”

“What?”

“What did you hear from Dawoon?” Maru asked as he walked over.

“You were so obvious that it was easy to see. This must be your first time meeting Seungah, but you were quite hostile to her. It’s like you know something.”

“Well, if you saw it that way, then I can’t help it. But since we’re on the topic, let me say something.”

Nayeon talked about what kind of situation Dawoon was in. That should’ve been enough for him to understand what kind of terrible person Choi Seungah was. However, Maru’s expression did not change.

“Did you hear all of this from Dawoon?”

“Yes! She’s such a pitiful girl. She’s so feeble and…”

“Did you bother to check the truth?”

“What?”

“You have an innocent side to you unlike how you look, Miss Nayeon. It seems Dawoon saw that too. Also, Dawoon is in a much more serious condition than I thought.”

“Wh-what do you mean?”

Maru only smiled faintly and walked past her.

After Story 153

Nayeon followed Maru, who walked past her. She needed to hear what he meant before leaving the restaurant.

Innocent? And serious?

“What are you two doing?” Jichan asked as he poked his head inside. He was wearing a hat.

“Mr. Maru and I have something to talk about. You should go ahead with the rest. You said it was close by, didn’t you?”

“What kind of secret talk are you up to again… Just finish things up quickly. It’s a sushi restaurant named Gekka, so you should go there.”

“Okay, we’ll be there soon.”

After sending Jichan off, she looked at Maru.

“I hate leaving things unfinished. Just what were you talking about? I am innocent and Dawoon is serious? What do you mean?”

“How long have you worked in the entertainment industry?”

“Why do you ask?”

“Haven’t you seen people whose camera life and private life are drastically different?”

“What does that have to do with what we’re going to talk about?”

Maru scratched his eyebrows before changing the question.

“In your eyes, what kind of person is Dawoon?”

“What kind of person is she? She’s someone earnest, honest, and a little too good for her own good.”

“Sounds like you’ve known her for a long time, seeing you so confident in your words.”

“You don’t have to know someone for a long time to know them. It’s not like meeting them for a long time means you know everything about them either. You just have to see the things they do to know what kind of personality they have. You asked how long I’ve been in the industry, right? This is my eighth year. I’ve come across all sorts of people. I may not be well-versed in matters about the world, but I know my fair share of people. I have developed a very good sense since I have been working with other people all the time.”

Maru nodded. “You’re right. None of what you just said is wrong. But sometimes, there is just that one person; someone who grasps an opponent’s weak point and desires and digs into that. It might be intentional or it might be something natural that they were born with.”

Nayeon felt a little uncomfortable by Maru’s gaze on her. His eyes looked like they were looking at every nook and cranny inside her heart, including the things she wrapped up and hid away because she didn’t want others to see them.

Those eyes reminded her of her strict grandfather when she was young. Her grandfather would catch her immediately whenever she lied and would give her a harsh scolding.

“Miss Nayeon, you must be someone who’s very self-assertive. And you must like being in the lead, whatever it may be. When you discovered Dawoon’s frail side, you must have thought that you should heal her and guide her.”

“That’s not a bad thing though. She’s introverted and very cautious, so she can’t even speak what’s on her own mind.”

“Yes, she must have looked like that to you. She probably didn’t need to come up with big lies either. She must have predicted that you would deduce the details and step forward as long as she gave you some false hints. Of course, this is ultimately just my opinion, so you can totally ignore me.”

“How can I ignore you after you said all that? So you’re saying that Dawoon is taking advantage of me, right?”

“To my eyes, yes.”

She was flabbergasted. That girl was someone who received psychotherapy because she was sick. She was someone who suffered on the inside and couldn’t even swear properly.

That was who Dawoon was, and yet, Maru was saying that Dawoon could fool someone to do her bidding?

She couldn’t believe it. The Dawoon she saw was definitely not someone who would do something like that.

“Those who are proactive in the things they do often think that they’re the ones holding the reins. They think that they’re the ones making decisions and judgments. However, who is the one that decided on the destination of the horse?”

“I believe in Dawoon.”

“You’re a good person, Miss Nayeon.”

Maru took out his phone.

“I was originally going to end this quietly, but it seems like things will be a lot more complicated with you here. I feel sorry for Dawoon, but I’d better wrap things up properly. Should we call the person in question?”

Maru touched his phone for a while before putting it down.

“Before that, let me tell you some things. It’d be great if the speculations I say just end as that: speculations, but I’ll say this just in case. When Dawoon comes later…”

* * *

“Am I being bullied?” Jichan looked at the totally empty room.

Seungah and Dawoon went outside after receiving a call.

From what he could tell, Maru and Nayeon seemed to have called them out.

He stirred the soy sauce in front of him with his chopsticks when he got a call. It was Maru.

-Hyung. I’m sorry, but please wait a little.

“What is it? I’m going to feel sad.”

-Don’t be. We’ll finish things up quickly and go back soon. But you know, you and I might be the only ones drinking today.

It didn’t sound like he was joking.

“I don’t know what it is, but you all should get along. I want to see you guys for a long time.”

-Okay. We’ll be there soon.

“Alright, don’t bully me too much.”

After hanging up, he looked at his phone. He had a bad premonition. If it was just a light quarrel, Maru wouldn’t have brought it up like this.

Jichan sighed and looked outside.

* * *

It was when she saw Maru and Nayeon waiting outside the building that she felt that something must be wrong. The atmosphere didn’t look too good.

“Why do you think they called us out all of a sudden?” Seungah said from the side.

Dawoon did not speak. She had to think if she had any time to answer. Her steps became heavy as though some lead weights were suddenly added to her shoes. She barely managed to walk her way over to Nayeon and Maru.

“What is it? Jichan-oppa is waiting inside,” Seungah said.

“There’s something I must make clear. I was originally going to do this after the meeting in private, but things have come to this.”

Make clear, he said. Dawoon felt like the land below her suddenly caved in. Her intuition told her that an ominous conclusion was approaching.

“Why don’t we go up first? The food should be coming out soon,” Dawoon said, feigning calmness desperately.

She felt like bringing Jichan into the equation was the best option.

“It won’t take long, Dawoon,” Maru said.

She felt like she was standing in court, in front of a judge.

No way, that can’t be right. Dawoon believed in Maru’s personality. Someone like him, who had a kind and gentle nature, would not publicize the problem. She was confident in that. That was why she was able to bring Nayeon. After all, if someone said something wrong or her lies were exposed because something went wrong, Maru would call her out separately.

But she was wrong. He even called Seungah here. She felt panicked.

Maru must know that the person in question would suffer the most if every party was in the conversation. She predicted that she would definitely not run into a situation like that, but things were not going the way she thought it would.

“The reason I said we should meet out here is to resolve the misunderstanding between all of us. It might not be a misunderstanding, but let me call it that for now,” Maru said.

“A misunderstanding? What do you mean?” Seungah asked back.

Dawoon stayed silent and looked at Nayeon.

Things actually came to this. So now, she had to jump in first.

“Nayeon-unni, did you say something to Maru-oppa?”

She first had to shift the blame. Nayeon would feel a sense of responsibility and try to clean up. There might be some noise, but the important thing here was to break this occasion.

She told her during their bathroom visit together that she was receiving psychotherapy, so Nayeon would try her best not to give her any stress. It would be for the best if she said that they should talk about this at a later date.

Once that happened, Dawoon would ‘reluctantly’ agree and leave.

Just as Nayeon was about to speak, Maru interrupted,

“First, I’ll summarize what Miss Nayeon has told me.”

Just why? Dawoon couldn’t hide her confusion and looked at Maru. The Maru she knew didn’t drive people into a corner like this. He was someone who offered warm words and showed concern. He must have realized that something must be up, but why was he being so pesky about this?

He should just pretend that he didn’t hear anything, just like before when she talked bad about Seungah, and just say that they should talk about it later with a smile on his face.

She made eye contact with Maru. At that moment, her lips trembled. She even had to bite her lower lip in order to hide her anxiousness.

He looked too similar. The two were way too similar. Maru’s eyes were frighteningly similar to Han Haneul’s eyes that peered deep into her heart.

Maru started explaining. When he finished speaking, Dawoon turned her gaze to look at Seungah.

“So you said that I like Maru and hindered the relationship between Maru and Dawoon because of that, or something along those lines, right?”

Seungah’s eyes were on Nayeon. Dawoon felt a chill.

“I really wonder if I have to go so far, but I think it’ll be better to get things cleared up early on. I think that would be better for you too, Dawoon.”

What was that woman saying? Dawoon gaped silently as she looked at Nayeon blabbering on and on.

This wasn’t the response she wanted. She should’ve said that this kind of conversation was unnecessary and would only put people in a hard spot, so they should talk about it later.

She almost shouted out loud. The only reason she could hold back was because of Maru’s indifferent gaze.

Why would you look at me like that? You’re not that kind of person!

“First, let me laugh at the point that I like this guy. I think of him as a good friend, but I’ve never seen him as someone of the opposite sex. No, even if I did, I’m not foolish enough to be attached to a guy who already declared that he has a girlfriend.”

“That’s different from what I heard from Dawoon.”

Nayeon looked at Dawoon, her eyes inquisitive.

Dawoon felt like her head was becoming hot, just like a CPU that had been given an instruction that it could not process.

It seemed impossible to get out of this situation smoothly. All the parties in question were gathered, and the entire situation was revealed.

Dawoon calmed her breathing. She would tell the truth. As a result of that, she might get on bad terms with Nayeon, but that was not something she could help.

“I said that?” she said with an expression of puzzlement.

“Unni, I told you, didn’t I? That I reconciled with Seungah-unni and that there’s no bad blood between us. Did you perhaps blurt out what you were imagining to Maru-oppa?” Dawoon said as she grabbed Seungah’s arm.

“Unni, I’m sorry. Regardless of the circumstances, it’s my fault. I just felt like I had gotten close to Nayeon-unni so I told her that this kind of event happened in the past.”

Seungah frowned and looked at Nayeon. Dawoon inwardly sighed in relief. It was fortunate that Seungah was a stupid woman. In any case, this cleared up the teams.

She just had to make it so that Nayeon misunderstood everything by herself and did everything on her own accord.

“Dawoon,” Nayeon said, her expression dazed.

Dawoon didn’t give her any room and drove her back again.

“I’m really grateful that you were looking out for me. But I really can’t have you misunderstand our relationship like that. When did I say that Seungah-unni did something like that because she liked Maru-oppa?”

“You didn’t, but from your nuance…”

“Nuance?”

“Back in the bathroom too, you…”

“Unni, you’re really going too far. You’re the only one I told that I was receiving psychotherapy.”

Nayeon was probably going to bring up how she made Dawoon swear at Seungah in the bathroom. Dawoon expected that, so she quickly changed the direction of the topic. Psychotherapy wasn’t actually anything special, but those who were facing those undergoing it were bound to become cautious.

Nayeon stopped speaking after letting out an empty chuckle. Dawoon could predict what she felt. Considering her personality, Nayeon would probably no longer speak.

Success, she thought, when,

“It’s been a long time since I thought someone could be so frightening.” Nayeon looked at her with bitter eyes. Something was not right.

“I really didn’t think things would turn out like this, but it really happened as you said. Mr. Maru, I’m sorry. I’ll treat you out next time. And also, Miss Seungah.”

“Yes?”

“I apologize for being rude before. I’ll leave it at this for now, and I’ll apologize properly next time, so give me some time. I really want to try drinking with you once. Also, Jung Dawoon.”

Dawoon gulped and looked at Nayeon.

“Had you said sorry, had you said a single word of apology or that you did it out of jealousy, then I would’ve stood on your side. I really cherished you. But this is what I get in return, huh.”

“Unni?”

“Don’t call me that. I’ll leave first. Tell Jichan-oppa I’m sorry that I ruined the atmosphere.”

Nayeon turned around and left just like that.

It felt a little iffy, but things were resolved for now…?

“I’m sorry. I’m the cause of everything. Let’s go inside and talk. Jichan-oppa is waiting,” she said, looking fully apologetic.

It seemed that things were cleared up right now, however that happened. She just had to return and make some suitable excuses and call Nayeon later to…

“Dawoon.” Maru smiled. “Don’t we still have something to talk about?”

She had forgotten.

The judge had yet to pass his sentence.

After Story 154

“Seungah, I’m sorry, but can you go back up first? I think Jichan-hyung should be feeling lonely by now.”

Dawoon reflexively grabbed Seungah’s hand. She could imagine what Maru would say after Seungah was gone.

“Han Maru, you still have something to say?”

Thankfully, Seungah stepped in.

“I have something personal to talk about with Dawoon, so I’m going to talk to her about it.”

“Is it something I can’t hear?”

“It doesn’t really matter if you’re here, but I’m not sure if Dawoon will be okay with it. What do you want to do?”

Dawoon looked at Maru and Seungah alternately. Maru looked like he was going to say everything. Having Seungah here might not have a desirable result.

“Unni, please go back up first. I’ll have a talk with oppa and be right there.”

She let go of Seungah’s hand.

“I’m not sure what it is, but take it easy. It’s been a long time since we last met.”

Seungah left those words before walking over to the building.

“I assume you know what I’m about to say, right?”

“I don’t know at all.”

There was no need to hurry. She could predict what he was about to say today, but if she said anything first, that might start more trouble. It should be okay to reply after listening carefully.

“You caused conflict between Seungah and Miss Nayeon and involved me in it with your made-up stories. Actually, I don’t really care about that. People sometimes do things like that after all.”

“Oppa, that’s all a misunderstanding.”

“Fine. Let’s call it a misunderstanding if you want to call it that. It’s not me you have to clear the misunderstanding with, so I don’t need to nitpick with that.”

A bus drove past them. The engine noise blocked all sound and Maru waited until the sound became distant before speaking,

“How did you know that Haneul and I were going out?”

“What do you mean?”

“I get everything else, but I was curious about that. It doesn’t really hurt me even if it gets known, but we were rather careful about it. Ever since both of us started working properly, we were careful not to meet outside. Only a few people close to me know about it, so I found it curious that you knew about it. I really mean it.”

“I didn’t know. Were you dating Haneul-unni? This is my first time hearing it,” Dawoon said, maintaining her calm.

While that question might not sound significant, she could only make excuses for the rest of the things if she feigned ignorance.

“Did you really not know it?”

“I really didn’t know it.”

“Fine. If you say so.”

Dawoon clenched her clasped hands. The further the conversation progressed, the chillier Maru’s eyes became. The spark of hope in his eyes seemed to be dying out.

She felt hesitant. Maybe it was better to reveal the truth here? Would he forgive her if she did so?

“Believe me. I really didn’t know.”

Dawoon made a decision. The train had left the situation. There was no turning back. The moment the train tried to turn its head to return, it would capsize. She could only pray that there were no obstacles in her way and maintain her speed.

“Then let’s say that you just found out that Haneul and I are going out. Now I’m going to say the things I heard from Haneul.”

What was going to come had come. Dawoon quickly brought up the words she had prepared beforehand.

“I wasn’t in the right mind back then.”

“You weren’t in the right mind back then?”

“You heard what I said before, right? I’m actually receiving psychotherapy. It seems like living as an actress has actually taken a big toll on me. I started feeling uneasy with all the attention I suddenly received. Not only that, the role I’m playing is a villainess role, isn’t it? There’s the stress from synchronizing with my character, and I’m also receiving a lot of insults from people who don’t even know me, so I really felt like crying.”

“Really?”

Dawoon wiped her tears. She was crying half out of rage and half out of fear; rage towards Han Haneul and fear that Maru may turn his back on her.

“Haneul-unni was really pretty. She was perfect as a model too. I was in a really bad condition on the day of the shoot, and there happened to be someone incomparably better than me doing a shoot right in front of me. I was envious and jealous. I know I shouldn’t be feeling like that, but I couldn’t help it. I was just too mentally weak.”

She took a step towards Maru.

She was going to speak based on facts. If she told any lies, everything might be exposed.

“It’s my fault. It was all my fault. I couldn’t control myself after the shoot. I just found myself too pathetic. That was why I said all those unspeakable things to her. I really shouldn’t have said those things…”

“Do you remember exactly what you said to her?”

Dawoon shook her head. “I wasn’t in the right mind back then, so I don’t remember. But I do know that they were things I must not have said out loud. I feel sorry for Haneul-unni even now. She must’ve been so shocked and hurt because of me.”

It was human psychology to not be able to hit someone who was asking to get hit. While Maru was looking at her with a frosty gaze, he was someone very warm on the inside. She was sure that he would forgive her and comfort her.

Dawoon looked at Maru.

“I see.”

Did he believe her? Dawoon relaxed a little.

“Dawoon.”

“Yeah?”

“Everyone knows that it’s a bad thing to just listen to one side of the story, suspect someone, and believe in it entirely.”

“Right. You have to listen to both sides.”

“Yes. An event is interpreted differently depending on who tells it.”

“I think so too. It’s true that I did something wrong to unni, but I didn’t do it intentionally. The doctor told me that I might say something offensive regardless of my will.”

“The doctor said that?”

“Yes.”

“How’s the therapy going?”

“I’m still having a difficult time, but I think it’s manageable. I’m eating medicine as well. Also, there are people like you around me who are helping me out, so I’m sure I’ll become better in due time.”

“That’s good.”

Maru looked at the building. Maybe he was planning to go back soon?

It was such a precarious situation that she was even sweating coldly, but it seemed that she had avoided the situation well.

Things would return to normal as long as she called Nayeon later and coaxed her.

“Do you remember what Miss Nayeon said before she left?”

“What unni said?”

“That she would’ve taken your side if you honestly apologized.”

“Y-yes.”

“You should’ve clung onto her back then. You were doing so well but ended up choosing the wrong person at the end. Miss Nayeon would’ve been much more helpful towards your career.”

“Maru-oppa?” Dawoon called out Maru’s name, flustered.

His words were dry. Maru’s eyes, which were exuding a chill before, no longer contained any emotion. His eyes looked like well-made prosthetic eyes.

“There’s one reason I left you behind separately to ask these questions. It’s to clear things up properly. It might become annoying later if there are ties between us.”

Maru received a call. It seemed to be from Jichan.

“Yes, hyung. I’ll be right there. You can eat ahead of me.”

Maru hung up and then spoke,

“You seem to believe that you can persuade me, but that’s not happening. I’ve already made the decision before coming here. I did not think that you would tell the truth at all. And I was right.”

“No, oppa. I only said facts.”

“That was splendid. I could tell from your face that everything you said was a fact. But isn’t the truth different from the facts?”

“Were you that angry that I said strange words to Haneul-unni? I told you that I was receiving psychotherapy.”

“And which clinic are you receiving your therapy in?”

Dawoon tensed her eyes.

“Are you doubting me right now?”

“Miss Nayeon told me that you ate medicine in the bathroom.”

“Right. She saw me.”

“Those medicines. Can you show them to me as well?”

Her hands turned stiff. Dawoon hesitated for a while before taking out her medicine box. She couldn’t say that she couldn’t show him, and it didn’t feel like there would be a huge problem even if she did show him.

“It’s this. This is my prescription.”

“Really?”

Maru emptied the medicine onto his palm. Dawoon stared at him. They were small pills. What could he possibly find out from it?

“Pheniramine tablets and antihistamines, huh. I guess the rhinitis is getting worse since it’s the change of seasons. So your psychotherapist prescribed this for you? It looks like these work instead of tranquilizers these days, huh?”

Maru put the medicines back into the container and gave it back to her.

Dawoon received the container with shaky hands. However, she couldn’t put any strength into her hands and ended up dropping it.

The container hit the floor and fell around Maru’s feet. Maru grabbed the medicine and put it into her two hands; this time he made sure she wouldn’t drop it.

Dawoon couldn’t think of anything.

“I told you before, right? That people need to hear both sides of the story. I generally think the same. However, there’s someone I trust entirely. Someone whose judgment I prioritize above my own.”

Maru’s face closed in.

“Why didn’t you toy with me instead? Why didn’t you insult me instead? If you did, I would’ve at least listened to your story.”

“Oppa, I…”

“I think it’s a waste of time to look into what kind of person you are.”

She looked down at her own hands. Maru was taking his hands off hers. Dawoon let go of the medicine box and reached out to grab Maru’s hand.

“I’m sorry. It’s just as you said, oppa. I lied. Ever since I found out that you and Haneul-unni were dating, I felt so jealous. You know, don’t you? That I used to like you. That’s why I wanted to give myself an opportunity. Honestly, the two of you are just lovers, aren’t you? It’s not like you’re married. I can butt in, can’t I?”

She quickly continued as she looked at Maru’s eyes,

“I said something terrible to unni. I remember it all. I said things like how she must be trying to use Na Baekhoon to her advantage to get his support and that she must be using her body rather than her skills. But that wasn’t simply out of jealousy.”

Dawoon took out her phone and showed him a photo of Na Baekhoon standing side by side with Han Haneul.

“Look at this. There’s something between the two. Right?”

“Dawoon.”

“Look here. Don’t you think there’s something between them? Have you ever not suspected Haneul-unni at all?”

Maru calmly looked at the phone. Even if they were lovers, their relationship would soon crack if Maru started suspecting things. Dawoon was planning to aim for that gap. That was her final method.

Maru approached her. He put his arm around her and raised his phone above his head.

“Dawoon, look at the camera and smile.”

“Huh? Okay.”

She didn’t know what this was about but did as he said. She also put her hand around Maru’s waist so that they looked like affectionate lovers.

Maru took a photo and sent it somewhere.

A moment later, there was a notification alarm from his phone. It seemed he got a reply. After seeing the reply first, Maru smiled and showed her his screen.

It was Han Haneul’s response.

-Looks like you managed to relieve her for good. Is it fun to play with a younger girl?

Dawoon blinked. That wasn’t even funny. Her lips twitched. It was flabbergasting. She felt angry and at the same time, empty.

Haneul looked at that photo and that was the response she showed? That was it?

“Dawoon. Just how much significance did you think you held in me?”

Maru put his phone in his pocket and turned around to look at the building.

Dawoon fell on her butt on the spot. All sound disappeared.

She felt dazed.

“Would you like to say goodbye at least? You might be in an awkward position when you meet Seungah next time.”

Those words made her wake up. She quickly stood up and rushed over to Maru. Then she grabbed his arm.

“You’re not going to tell Seungah-unni, right? You’re going to keep it a secret from Jichan-oppa, right?”

“Do you want me to?”

“Please. I beg you.”

“You’re suddenly all polite again. It reminds me of when we first met. Dawoon.”

“Yes?”

“It’s a duty of mankind to tell others that there’s someone hopeless around them.”

“Er, uhm, er.”

“Let’s go up first. We need to eat at least,” Maru said with a smile.

His smile looked all the more gentle.

After Story 155

It was all over now. She wanted to turn around and run away immediately. However, what would she do after that?

She looked at Maru waiting in front of the building and then thought about Seungah and Jichan who were waiting upstairs.

If she lost her relationship with them…

Dawoon felt her breathing quicken. Na Baekhoon had already semi-given up on her. She had become distant from Nayeon as well.

She also cut all contact with her friends ever since she started her work in the entertainment industry. After all, those that were suited to be friends with the actress Jung Dawoon were not ordinary civilians, but future stars.

If she was abandoned by herself here, she would become truly alone.

Dawoon felt her eyes darken. Now that the situation came to this, she was finally able to see herself objectively. She was in need of help right now. She couldn’t do anything by herself. To consolidate her position as an actress, and for the person known as Jung Dawoon to be herself…

Yet, Maru’s eyes were tossing away all of her emotions. He would never hear her out no matter what she had to say.

Was he really the same person as the oppa she knew? She suddenly felt afraid of everything now. The Maru in front of her was scary, and she became fearful of losing all of her relationships.

Even her head, which always produced answers quickly, had screeched to a halt ever since Maru passed his sentence. She couldn’t grasp what she had to do at all.

“I don’t want to go back to before,” she barely managed to squeeze out those words. Those words were genuine, without any filtering.

“Dawoon,” said Maru.

“Yes?”

“You have two choices ahead of you. One is to just walk away like this. If you do, then I’ll go back up and tell the two of them everything that happened.”

“No!”

“Then there’s a second choice. You go up and tell them yourself.”

“That’s…”

“I don’t really care what happens to you. But, Seungah should be different. She used to cherish you after all. You go up and tell her everything and wait for her answer.”

“Jichan oppa is there too.”

“That guy should be in the know too. He’ll hear about it from Miss Nayeon later anyway. It’s just a matter of time.”

“Everyone will hate me if I tell them. I’ll be treated like trash.”

“If you knew that, then you should’ve done better since the beginning or hid it well so that no one ever found out. There’s one thing I’ve realized over my life, and it’s that lying is multiple times harder than telling the truth. It might be easier for the time being but lies gain mass the more you make them. Eventually, there comes a point where you can’t handle it. At that point, you aren’t lying for the sake of yourself and are moving for the sake of lying. Dawoon, how about you? From how I see it, you should still be able to move around right now.”

Maru approached her.

“If you go up and tell them, I am willing to help you out a little.”

“Sorry?”

“Isn’t what you want a decent relationship with the others? People who can become your footholds so that you can climb higher.”

Just how much did he see through? She felt her body shrinking back. She really wished to just close her eyes and smack her head on the ground. She wanted to get away from those eyes that peered at everything inside her. However, she could not.

Maru’s words were frightening yet also enticing. He sounded like he wanted to give her what she wanted. How could she possibly refuse?

“Are you forgiving me?”

“No, that’s for Seungah to do. I’m just giving you an offer. What do you want to do? Would you like to go up together and tell them the truth? Or are you going to walk away right now?”

She was given a choice, but there was only one thing she could choose. Dawoon calmed her breathing and nodded.

“I’ll go with you.”

“Calm down and watch your tone of words.”

Maru turned around. She stroked her neck with her own hands. She felt like an invisible rope was strangling her.

* * *

“Unni.”

“Dawoon, let’s talk next time. I don’t feel like it today. Oppa, I’m sorry, I’ll be leaving first. Maru, I hope you stay well too.”

Seungah left. Dawoon got her bag and followed her out.

“Was it a mistake on my part to gather everyone? This wasn’t what I had in mind,” Jichan said, his expression looking dazed.

Maru put a piece of sashimi in his mouth.

“You can still eat in an atmosphere like this?”

“It’s nothing all that serious, so you should eat as well. It’s a waste of money.”

He picked up some sushi and placed it on Jichan's plate.

Jichan shook his head before pressing between his eyebrows.

“They say people’s hearts are unpredictable, but I really didn’t know Dawoon would do something like that to Seungah.”

“She’s bad enough to receive psychotherapy, and all those things had to happen on top of that.”

“And the source of ‘all those things’ is you.”

“I can’t really be called the source. I’ve never acted like I’m single, and I’ve never given her any room.”

“That’s true. No, let’s just say it’s your fault. So what’s gonna happen to those two? Even I would feel terrible in that situation. I heard they were close enough that they were stuck together at their acting school, but Dawoon turned out to be talking behind Seungah’s back the whole time.”

“I’m sure Seungah will take care of herself. Even if she perfectly understands and forgives Dawoon, it should be hard to treat her the same as before.”

Jichan sighed before eating some sushi.

“I thought you weren’t going to eat?”

“I’m eating because I’m frustrated. What about it?”

Maru smiled and poured some sake into a flat glass.

“What are you going to do?”

“About what?”

“About Dawoon.”

“What do you want to do, hyung?”

“I, of course, want to get along with everyone.”

“So that depends on how Seungah responds, huh?”

“I guess so.”

Maru took a sip of the sake before speaking,

“I’m going to just stay moderately close like we’re now.”

“Like we’re now?”

“Yes. That’s much easier for me. The four of us met a few times calling it a meeting, but we never exchanged anything deep. Dawoon is different from Seungah and you. Even if she stays twisted, I don’t really care for her that much. We’ll just meet up every once in a while and talk about recent matters before splitting up with a smile.”

“At times like this, you sound totally cold-bodied.”

“You mean cold-blooded?”

“Same thing.”

Jichan drank some sake. He frowned a little before speaking,

“But you know. Do you think it’s true that she did it because she was mentally ill? From what I saw, it didn’t look like she had any problems at all. It’s rather sudden that she started receiving psychotherapy.”

Maru put down his chopsticks. This older guy wasn’t just a good-natured, all-laughs kind of guy. He was someone who had survived the entertainment industry until he was nearly thirty. There was no way he was not quick-witted. He must of course think that Dawoon’s words were only a form of escapism.

“Everyone now knows what happened, so there’s no need to fuss over the details now. It doesn’t change the fact that Dawoon was in the wrong.”

“I could understand if Dawoon did it because she was mentally sick, but if she wasn’t, it feels a little iffy.”

Maru just shrugged. This much was enough for helping Dawoon out. He wouldn’t say anything that would influence his judgment.

“I was just thinking that it was nice to have made some friends I could chat with comfortably, too.”

“You can meet them comfortably if you still want.”

“Would Dawoon come even if we call her again?”

“I say she would. She’ll act like nothing happened.”

“That sounds scary in its own way.”

“People are all similar. Even I have things that I couldn’t tell you, and I’m sure you must have things you can’t tell me. In the case of Dawoon, her secret was just exposed.”

“If you’re ever going to swear at me, then say it to my face. That’ll be a lot easier for me.”

“Do I look like someone who’d talk behind your back?”

“No, you’re someone who would say it straight to my face even if it means calling me out.”

Jichan bumped his fist against Maru’s shoulder.

“How about you just quietly bury everything under the rug? Wasn’t that an option? Without creating a fuss like this?”

“I thought about that too, but looking at the way things were going, I thought that bringing about a proper closure was the right thing to do. Honestly speaking, people like Dawoon scare me the most.”

“She does?”

“Yes,” Maru said as he took out an abalone from a shell. “Most people are different on the inside and the outside. If there’s really someone who’s consistent, then that must be something other than human. I can understand lying and saying nonsense. In fact, I’d be more relieved to see people do so.”

“That was what Dawoon was doing though.”

“It might look the same, but it’s different. She takes action. She’s different from those who are all talk. I guess you can call it a skill to just do things without looking back, but sometimes the consequences are not what I can manage if they go in a weird direction.”

“And?”

“For people like her, you can’t take away everything they have. Even if they have a lot of things left in their hands, they take action in order to regain the thing they lost right in front of their eyes, sometimes taking extreme actions to do so.”

Maru thought back to the numerous people that drove him to his death. It was the same with the third-generation chaebol that caused a traffic accident in his previous life.

He had many things in his hands, but when he lost one thing he held dear, he would put everything aside and attack.

Dawoon’s eyes contained that near-lunacy levels of obsession. It was a foolish thing to drive a woman who would run amok to the edge of a cliff.

It was fine giving her a scare. Dawoon would now crouch down to not lose the things she had in her hands.

“You got badly hurt by someone before, huh?”

“Hasn’t everyone? I’m sure you were too.”

“I was. But I’m not at the level where I can say it so calmly like you’re doing now. I still feel extremely angry if I think about it now.”

“Time will solve that.”

“Why don’t you be my big brother instead?”

Jichan held out his glass. Maru toasted with him, making a sound with his mouth.

“I guess we can just meet up every once in a while to eat together. I’ll just call you or Seungah out separately when I want someone to talk to.”

“Don’t you have any friends?”

“I don’t. Satisfied?”

“I do.”

“Good for you, prick.”

Maru smiled and took a swig.

* * *

“How much for these gloves?”

“It’s ten thousand won, but just give me five.”

Maru handed the old lady the money. He headed home with the gloves in a plastic bag.

It snowed for the first time this year a few days ago, and the shades of the parking lot still had some residual snow left. A large snowman that someone made was also semi-collapsed but was still there.

“Geez, it’s cold,” Maru said as he opened the front door.

Haneul, who was in the kitchen, took off her rubber gloves and came over.

“It’s winter after all. What’s that in your hand?”

“A gift.”

He took out the gloves from the plastic bag. His wife asked as she looked at her sleek leather gloves,

“Where did you buy them?”

“At a department store.”

“Don’t even try to lie to me. It’s obviously street-bought. Ten thousand?”

“Five.”

“That’s a good deal.”

His wife smiled and tried the gloves. They fit her perfectly.

“Thanks for these. I was in need of a pair too.”

“Did you do well at the shoot?” Maru asked as he sat at the table.

The movie shoot that his wife was supposed to start at the start of autumn was delayed by three months. It was fortunate that the shoot was done on a set.

“For the shoot, I did pretty well. But wearing wires after all these years almost killed me.”

“Good work shooting an action movie.”

“You’re going to get washed after you eat, right?”

“I plan to.”

While his wife scooped up some soup, Maru got the rice from the rice cooker.

“When did you say your movie premieres?”

“Tomorrow.”

“Then you should get your hair done. Should I touch it up for you?”

“I’d love it if you do.”

She asked as she picked up her spoon,

“How did it look during the internal premiere?”

“There are a few things that caught my eye, but as long as it’s edited well, it should be pretty decent.”

“Oh, pretty decent, you say? That’s a great compliment coming from you.” She smiled.

Maru spoke before he started eating,

“I just have to hope that my eyes aren’t too terrible.”

After Story 156

He stuffed some bloated oatmeal flakes in his mouth before sitting in front of the laptop. He set the timer for thirty minutes before starting to move his fingers across the keyboard.

He moved his upper body back and forth and muttered as he wrote before taking his hands off when he heard the beeps from the alarm. Thirty minutes passed by in a flash.

He gave a cursory scan over the words he wrote before closing the laptop. It wouldn’t get any better even if he clung onto it a little more.

He checked the camera battery before getting his luggage.

-Jungyeol, you’re going to go to journalist Jung’s wedding tomorrow, right?

He said into his phone, “Do I really have to when it’s his second wedding? That man would probably get divorced again anyway.”

-What a sharp tongue you have early in the morning. You really can’t hold back your words, huh? Don’t say that and let’s go.

“Forget it. Rather than that, have you departed yet? Today’s the premiere.”

-I’m on my way. But hey, it seems like Lim Hwanggeun has earned quite a lot of money, huh? He’s doing something that’s not a comedy.

“He’s probably trying his hand at a new genre, thinking of himself as a film director, but from how I see it, it’s just a waste of time. People’s preferences don’t change so easily. He should’ve just done the things he was confident in to earn money.”

-You never know. He might have made a masterpiece like Kang Sook did.

“Masterpiece? I’d be glad if it was half-decent. It’s excruciating to watch a terrible movie for two hours.”

Jungyeol put down his phone and grabbed the driving wheel.

When he arrived at the cinema where the premiere was happening, he could see a few familiar faces he interacted with often.

“Yo, Lee Jungyeol, what brings you here today?”

He showed Taejoo, who spoke to him with a cigarette in his mouth, the camera.

“So for journalism, huh? This is your first time seeing Miss Junghwa here, right? Miss Junghwa, this is Lee Jungyeol, who writes novels, news articles, and movie critiques. Jungyeol, you should introduce yourself. She just joined ‘Movie Street’ as a new journalist.”

Jungyeol shook hands with the woman.

“I saw your articles a lot.”

“I didn’t even write that many, so there shouldn’t have been that many to see,” Jungeyol said in a blunt tone.

He didn’t do that because he was displeased or uncomfortable. It was just his habit. He thought that he should fix it, but it ended up sticking with him like a habit.

“Miss Junghwa, don’t mind this guy too much, since that’s how he’s normally like. You probably know if you saw his movie reviews, but he’s a stiff guy and doesn’t get emotional easily. What a waste of the name Jungyeol[1], right?” Taejoo said as he put out his cigarette.

“I hate my name too.”

He blew his nose on some tissue before checking the time. There was about 20 minutes left.

“How do you think this movie is going to be?” Junghwa asked.

Jungyeol took out his glasses and put them on.

“I’ll be satisfied if I don’t fall asleep while watching.”

“I’m really looking forward to it. I really enjoyed all of director Lim Hwanggeun’s works.”

“If you find those things fun, then you probably enjoy everything. Good for you.”

Junghwa smiled awkwardly.

“Miss Junghwa, don’t talk to this guy. You’ll have to spend ten years with this guy if you want to adapt to his personality like I did. I always tell him to take out the cutting knife from his tongue, but he won’t listen to me.”

“I live off of it, so there’s no way I will.”

Jungwha, who was listening, cut in,

“He’s right. The brutal one-line commentary. While all the other critics write sentence after sentence, he finishes it off with just one sentence. Sometimes, even a word.”

“I don’t write that short all the time. I write long entries for the movies I like. It’s just people don’t read the things I wrote long reviews for. I heard that young fellows these days don’t read more than two lines, right? Maybe you didn’t read my long reviews either?”

“Uhm, err, haha.”

Junghwa made an awkward smile. He was going to say he was just joking but stopped because he felt like it would make him look pathetic.

“Are you going to skip the mic today as well?” Taejoo asked.

“I’ll see how things go.”

“So you are, huh? Well, I guess the director would pass out if you ask questions at a premiere.”

“What do you mean by that?” Junghwa, who had been listening, asked.

Usually, people would stay quiet after getting fed up with his personality, but she kept standing back up, perhaps because she was young. Taejoo smiled.

“There are only two cases when Jungyeol asks questions at a movie premiere. Either he absolutely loves the movie, or it’s utterly terrible. But he’s a picky guy so rarely anything satisfies him. So if he asks anything, it means that it’s one of the most terrible things he has watched. Not only that, you heard how he’s like with his words. He asks brutal questions that make me feel ashamed even when I’m not the one he’s asking. Once, he almost got into a fight with the director he asked a question to.”

“It’s that bad?”

“He says he doesn’t suit his name Jungyeol, but at times like that, nothing else suits him better. He attacks without looking back.”

Jungyeol glanced at Taejoo speaking.

“I’m sure half of the rumors about me came from you.”

“Hey, I’m not the one you’re talking to, am I? There are tons of directors waiting to duke it out with you, you know?”

“If they feel so wronged, then they should have made it better. They used the wrong actors to create a terrible mess, so if they want to hear good questions, then they’re the ones in the wrong.”

He pointed at the screen room and spoke,

“It’s about to start.”

Before he went in, he turned on the camera to check the status. He sat on his designated seat and looked at the stage. The host came up and grabbed the mic.

“To the journalists from various news outlets, as well as critics and bloggers, welcome.”

After a round of applause, the host explained the schedule briefly.

“The movie will have a runtime of two hours, and after that, there will be a Q&A session with the director and the actors. As for photos, we’d appreciate it if you take them after we signal you. As you probably know already, you must use the video materials we provide for you instead of shooting anything here. There are some light snacks in the plastic bag we handed out at the entrance, so please watch comfortably while you eat them. Then, the movie will start.”

Jungyeol looked at the pamphlet that would be distributed across the whole country next week.

‘Depths of Evil.’

He looked at the names of the actors: Kim Hyuk, Jung Beomseok, Jung Gayoung, Kang Chaejoo, Han Maru.

By his standards, Kim Hyuk was a good actor. He was good at acting and possessed considerable skill in creating characters.

He would become a flower in a flower field and a piece of scrap plastic in a heap of trash plastic. The only downside to him was that he didn’t possess anything unique, but that didn’t change the fact that he was a good actor.

Jung Beomseok was a little more difficult to judge. His opinion of this man varied dramatically depending on the work. Sometimes, he couldn’t hold back his admiration, and sometimes, he would wonder if that was all he could do.

The combination of Lim Hwanggeun’s thriller and Jung Beomseok, huh? He felt like this was a precursor to a terrible ruin.

Jung Gayoung. He had heard of her name, but he had never seen a movie she appeared in. He had a few opportunities to watch them, but he didn’t want to. From what he could hear, she was someone who received good opinions, but her eyes in choosing a movie seemed non-existent seeing as how she decided to appear in a movie written by Lim Hwanggeun.

The other two, he never even heard of their names. Usually, a movie’s poster would only place the lead character’s names on the front, but there were names of actors he had never heard of before on the front page.

Maybe they did this because it might look lonely with just Kim Hyuk and Jung Beomseok on the front?

As for the poster, it came out pretty decently. If there was a superstar actor, then that actor’s face would take up the majority of the poster, but since the combination of actors was awkward, they took a pretty moody-looking photo.

A broken car window, rain, a totally drenched man, and faint blood on the ground.

The light turned on and the video screen scrolled down. He could hear a high-pitched noise from the screen room behind him.

Jungyeol leaned back against the chair.

An image appeared on the screen. The logos of the production company and the distribution company went past.

From how one of the three major distributors grabbed his hand, it seemed that they seemed to believe in Lim Hwanggeun’s name value and ticketing power.

However, this movie was a thriller, not a comedy that the director was strong in, and a crime thriller at that.

A man’s monologue started off the movie. It was Kim Hyuk’s voice. It was then followed by the back figure of a man walking forward.

The moment he saw it, he felt that it was a boring progression. It was only bearable thanks to Kim Hyuk’s good voice.

The movie seemed to be set in the early 2000s. He became sure of this after seeing the cars.

Kim Hyuk, a traveling salesman, went into a company while holding a briefcase.

He introduced a product with a submissive smile, but no one listened to him. There were a few scenes like that in succession.

After that, Kim Hyuk was shown losing everything after a scam.

The plot was everything on screen. There was nothing to think about nor were there any eye-catching visuals. The word ‘boring’ echoed in his mouth.

He could name five movies off the top of his head if he was asked to name domestic crime movies that progressed like this.

It was exactly on the level he was expecting. It was just five minutes, but he felt like he had finished watching the whole movie already.

Had it been any other director, he would’ve had some expectations left, but the one in charge of production was none other than Lim Hwanggeun; someone who couldn’t even replicate his own work and only became a popular director because he was born at the right time.

Jungyeol crossed his legs. He kept losing his strength in his eyes. He knew that dozing off at a premiere was rude, but wasn’t the production company in the bad here for holding a premiere for a movie like this?

He thought that the remaining hour and fifty minutes would be hell.

Just then, Kim Hyuk stabbed the person he was facing with the knife he was holding. Although he kept giving off the signs, Jungyeol did not expect something so extreme to happen so quickly.

The Kim Hyuk on the screen looked down at the person writhing to death. It was a rather raw portrayal.

Jungyeol frowned. This wasn’t a style of production he preferred. Expressing evil by continuously displaying cruelty was something he considered a poor level of production.

However, he did think that it was rather refreshing. Although it was not a production technique that could raise the entire level, it was a type of image that people who like the genre would be interested in.

It was a secretive cruelty that could only be experienced through a screen. Above all, now the story had power. It showed that the innocent traveling salesman Kim Hyuk at the beginning of the movie was just his way to survive in this society.

The weak character build-up was now more fleshed out. Kim Hyuk did a splendid job of displaying the expression of a murderer.

He went through his options and chose the most efficient and quickest method of killing. He was one of the most feared people in modern society - a sociopath.

Jungyeol uncrossed his legs. He straightened his back and waist. It seemed that he needed to focus a little more.

Having cut off the strand of morals, Kim Hyuk started looking for easier methods. In that process came another victim. It was a friend of Kim Hyuk.

-I can’t help it, so be understanding.

Kim Hyuk said indifferently in front of a corpse.

The director put a lot of effort into capturing the process of erasing the traces and taking care of the aftermath. He imbued into the audience the notion that Kim Hyuk’s murder was perfect and flawless.

The murderer appeared again wearing clean clothes. It seemed that he thought that murder was easy, but not so efficient.

Kim Hyuk started gathering a team.

Jungyeol thought as he looked at the people forming the team: How many of these people would survive in the end, if any?

Everyone in the theater probably thought the same thing.

In most crime thrillers, the meticulous plotting of the crime as well as the mistakes that happened during the operation were bound to lead the whole story.

However, in ‘Depths of Evil,’ crime was only a secondary device. Jungyeol could predict that there wouldn’t be any fancy and detailed crime plotting.

The only thing that produces tension would end up being Kim Hyuk’s eyes and hands; who would be dealt with when things go wrong?

A person nicknamed Gomchi appeared. From how he was named Gomchi even in the pamphlet, it seemed that he was going to be called Gomchi throughout the whole movie.

By comparing the faces on the pamphlet with the actors’ names, he found out that Han Maru was the actor who played Gomchi.

His first impression was that the actor looked pretty young. Wasn’t he too young to act in tandem with actors who are over thirty?

-Over there.

Just as he was thinking that this was a mistake in casting, his thoughts disappeared when he saw the two acting together.

Gomchi’s sense of weight in the plot was pretty decent, against his expectations. The young impression he gave off disappeared when his expression and tone started being more pronounced.

[1] Jungyeol can mean ‘passion.’

After Story 157

Han Maru — Jungyeol thought about the name of the actor who played Gomchi as he watched the movie unfold. The devil that could kill a man without batting an eyelid if necessary put on the mask of a swindler and dragged Gomchi into his ploy.

The director portrayed information about the character known as Gomchi through a short conversation. He was a quick-to-punch boy when he was a student, and even when he grew up and entered a company, he couldn’t restrain his nature and got fired.

It was a common method used to describe a supporting-level character. These kinds of characters would usually be thrown away after being used as a plot device. It seemed that Gomchi was going to be the next one to die.

Jung Beomseok and Jung Gayoung also gathered in one spot as well. The four of them started preparing for the insurance scam.

As he had expected, the director did not waste any screen time showing the method of the scam. Instead, he kept showing what kind of things provoked the character that Kim Hyuk was acting. He made the audience learn that some words and some attitudes acted as a spell to wake up the murderer.

Whenever the team members uttered words that touched upon Kim Hyuk’s mood, he did not look at the center of the screen, but at Kim Hyuk who was at the edge. The ones conversing were definitely the members of the team, but his gaze couldn’t help but move toward Kim Hyuk, who was at the perimeter.

It was a smart production. The director was increasing the tension indirectly. He kept creating a situation where it wouldn’t be strange for someone to die at any moment.

Eventually, the moment of the large insurance scam arrived. It was a classic run-into-a-driving-car method to get insurance money.

The director’s intentions became even clearer with this. He had absolutely no intention to display a precisely devised mechanism or a puzzle.

The only thing that created a sense of tension was ‘Gyukho’, who was being played by Kim Hyuk.

Will Kim Hyuk make his move after the scam is successful? Or would it end in a failure, triggering some kind of change?

They then decided who would get hit by the car. Gomchi decided to be the one getting hit. Was that the end of that character? – Just as he thought so, the roles changed. Gomchi was the one driving, and Lee Dongsik, the character Jung Beomseok was playing, was the one that would get hit by a car.

Jung Beomseok was one of the main characters, so nothing bad would happen to him.

As he wondered about the director’s next move and focused on the screen, Jung Beomseok approached the car which had gained speed.

Just as he was thinking that something was not right, the camera frame shook along with a loud boom. The camera that always had a fixed angle was shaken for the first time.

He gulped down his breath when he heard Gomchi’s head smack the driving wheel.

Silence followed. His heart rate went up as though he was involved in a traffic accident.

The camera showed the side of Gomchi’s face. His delinquent face had been bleached pale.

His eyes shook like crazy, and his facial muscles stiffened up.

Jungyeol covered his mouth with a clenched fist. That acting was really detailed. In a situation without a single line, the actor was creating an extreme sense of reality based on facial expressions alone.

The camera angle changed. It was now outside the car. The tinted window, Gomchi’s shoulders, and Jung Beomseok, who was strewn across the road, were framed all at once.

Along with the rhythm of Gomchi’s breathing, his shoulders jerked up and down, the camera waved along with it.

The director was pulling the audience into the screen. The audience stood witness to the accident, not viewing it from Gomchi's perspective.

The camera no longer shot from Gomchi’s shoulders. It started showing everything from an objective point of view.

Gomchi opened the door.

The scene had not changed.

The way he slowly walked over to the corpse was captured from a fixed perspective. It did not follow Maru to get a close-up of the corpse or portray the scene so that Gomchi’s emotions were conveyed.

At a glance, it could be a boring structure. That was why, however, that he thought that it was a bold move.

It was nearly two minutes of a nearly uninterrupted, long take.

The acting was done by a new actor that he didn’t even know the name of. He might have gained some career experience elsewhere, but the fact that the director chose Han Maru instead of an actor who might shine if used properly, like Jung Beomseok, was surprising to him.

It meant that the actor had the full trust of the director, and Jungyeol wanted to applaud the director for his faith in the actor.

It was splendid. He had totally forgotten about Kim Hyuk, who was at the center of attention throughout the whole movie until now, and he could only see Gomchi, nay, Han Maru.

Just where did that actor pop out from? He knew how to speak with his face and with his body. And he didn’t stop there; he displayed the perfect example of it.

Perfect — Jungyeol never imagined that he would think of that word while watching this movie. He especially didn’t imagine that he would be so impressed by the acting of an actor he didn’t know before over Kim Hyuk.

He frowned when he watched Han Maru strangle Jung Beomseok, who was still alive.

It wouldn’t be strange even if the camera was turned around to show the expression of Gomchi who was doing the strangling, but the director decided to keep showing his back, as though that was enough.

When the impulsive murder ended, it started raining. Gomchi leaned against the car and clutched his face. Amidst the rain, Gomchi’s line could be heard.

-It’s done. It’s okay, it’s done.

The moment he heard that line, he bit his lips. It was a sense of catharsis from cruelty and sadism. They were words that stimulated the desire for violence that any person might harbor deep in their heart.

It was ultimately the truth that Kim Hyuk and Han Maru were disgusting evils. If it was reality, there wouldn’t be a need for sympathy or understanding. They were just evil men.

However, this was a movie. He could only witness the world created by the director and the actors.

Just where could the birth of this evil lead? — He couldn’t help but have such thoughts.

Kim Hyuk met with Han Maru, who came back with a corpse.

He realized that the camera angle had changed. Kim Hyuk, who always stayed on the edge after forming his team, was now in the middle with Han Maru.

It signified that Han Maru had been brought into the team as an equal entity, rather than a consumable.

He had to acknowledge director Lim’s senses in this. There wasn’t a single hint of the nonsensical mafia comedy. He had razed everything down and built everything anew. It didn’t look crude either and was rather well-balanced.

He was probably frighteningly well-coordinated with the camera director. Otherwise, this kind of outcome wouldn’t be possible.

Thanks to the camera tenaciously following the characters, the acting skills of the actors stood out. He also liked the use of intense lighting. The use of lights was so good that he wondered if it was the same director as before, who used lines to do everything. The two people were lit up differently as they climbed up a mountain to bury the corpse.

-What do I do now?

-It’s alright. It’s still okay.

Gomchi, who was trembling in unease, was submerged completely in darkness, and in contrast, Kim Hyuk’s face lit up from a key light, making the dark side and light side of his face clearly distinguishable.

Kim Hyuk’s left lip, which was on the light side, curved upwards. It was a blatant foreshadowing.

There probably wouldn’t be any complex plot points until the end of the movie. The director knew precisely what he had to show and what he had to refrain from doing.

For a while, they were shown to be quite successful and earning a lot of money.

Kim Hyuk did not change, but Gomchi did. His sense of guilt was weathered away in due time, and from time to time, he even uttered words that made him sound proud that he had committed murder before.

The moment there was the thick air of a murderer, which Jungyeol saw in other movies, around him, he realized that Gomchi’s death was not too far off.

The blatant lighting difference on the mountain did not keep staying as a MacGuffin.

Kim Hyuk’s knife clearly penetrated Gomchi’s stomach. It was simple, clean, and mechanical.

Gomchi collapsed while frothing blood and begging for help. His act was dirty and yet desperate.

If he internalized the emotions as much as possible in the accident scene, he was expressing everything.

It might feel forced if it was done too excessively, but Gomchi kept the line frighteningly well.

Jungyeol had never seen any actors who could act on that level at that age. If Kim Hyuk was the one leading the introductory part, the middle and later parts were jointly led by Kim Hyuk and Han Maru.

Comparing pure screen time, Jung Gayoung probably had more. However, the people who watch this movie would probably only remember Kim Hyuk and Han Maru at the end.

It wasn’t that Jung Gayoung was bad at acting. She did her part. It was just that the two men were overwhelming.

Personally, he liked Han Maru’s acting better out of the two. The shock was big because he didn’t have any expectations at all.

The movie ended with Jung Gayoung meeting her death, just as he had expected. The last scene was Kim Hyuk wearing a suit blending and disappearing into a crowd.

The moment the figure of Kim Hyuk could no longer be seen in the streets where many people walked by, the ending credits started rolling along with a song.

The lights turned on. He could hear exhales of breaths throughout the cinema. He also let out a breath that he had been holding back for a while.

The movie was definitely not one with an incredible plot progression. There wasn’t a plot twist that people of this country went crazy for, nor was it a heart-breaking soap opera.

It was a movie that was created purely through the power of production and the actors.

“Ha, geez.”

He rubbed his forehead. He ended up getting charmed by a simple movie.

Should this be called being faithful to the genre? Or should it be called baiting instead?

Tables started appearing on top of the stage. Large advert panels were also installed behind the table. The director and the actors started appearing one by one and each sat down on their chairs.

He rolled his eyes around. He first looked at the director who gave him a pleasant sense of betrayal then immediately looked for Han Maru. The actor sitting on the far left entered his eyes.

At first, he thought that it wasn’t Han Maru. He looked like a totally different person after losing some weight and growing out his hair. Although he had a sharp impression, he looked endlessly gentle when he smiled with a mic.

He was thinking that there was no way someone with such a face could shoot a romantic comedy, but right now, he was thinking that romcom might suit him better.

He acted Gomchi with a face like that, huh?

“We’ll now proceed to the Q&A session. Those of you who want to ask questions, please raise your hand. We’ll give you a mic.”

After a brief introduction of the cast, the journalists were given the mic.

He felt his mouth itch after a long time. He was dying to ask Han Maru where he had been this whole time.

“I’m Park Ohyoung from Cosmos. I have questions for director Lim, as well as actor Han Maru.”

“I’m Kim Serom from X-Movie. I really enjoyed the movie, and I’d like to ask something to actor Han Maru.”

“I’m Park Seoeun from Cinema Road. I have questions for the director and actor Han Maru.”

Everyone seemed to have similar impressions as the questions were focused on the director and the new actor. While the other actors received some questions as well, Han Maru received the most attention.

He could only get his hand on the mic after waving his arm in the air until his arm hurt.

“I’m Lee Jungyeol from Movie People.”

As soon as he introduced himself, director Lim spoke into the mic,

“Look who it is. Aren’t you the critic who despises my movies?”

His tone was befitting of director Lim. His personality of causing trouble on private occasions did not go anywhere.

“You have a good memory, director.”

“Of course I do. I can’t forget something like that. I’m sorry for interrupting, but let me ask this one thing: How was this movie?”

Director Lim smiled in confidence. While he wanted to throw sarcastic comments at that, he did not do so. What was good had to be said that it was good.

“It was good. Some of it was perfect.”

“Now that makes me feel refreshed. Please write something good this time.”

The director put down the mic.

He cleared his throat before speaking,

“I’m sure you must be tired after receiving so many questions, but I can’t help it either. I have a question for actor Han Maru.”

After Story 158

The moment she heard the first note of the music, Haneul reached her hand out. She had forgotten to turn off the alarm.

It was 9 in the morning. She blocked the speaker part of the phone and looked at her husband lying down next to her. His eyes were twitching as he rolled around in bed.

She turned off the alarm and left the bed. She had turned on the heater for about two hours throughout the night, but there was a chill in the room. Winter sure was winter.

She took out some slippers from under the bed and put her feet inside. They were something that she only wore during the winter. Her feet were freezing like they were dipped in ice water.

She twitched her toes in a daze while sitting on the bed before turning on the heater. Then, she put on the old sweater that she put on the chair of her makeup desk and went out to the living room.

She yawned softly as she opened both the refrigerator and the freezer. She took out the portioned brown rice from the freezer, and eggs, broccoli, and bell peppers from the refrigerator. She microwaved the brown rice and placed a fried egg on top of it before sprinkling some sesame oil and soy sauce. This was the best combination when there was no soup to eat with the rice.

She placed some vegetables on a small plate and headed to the sofa. She took out her feet from the slippers to place them on the sofa and turned on the TV.

The cat came to the living room, seemingly woken up by the sounds she made. She yawned loudly before lying down again on the slippers Haneul had taken off. She seemed to have found them still warm from the heat from her feet.

She browsed through the channels as she ate the rice. Was there nothing interesting even though it was Sunday morning? Then her fingers stopped when the channel changed to YBS. ‘Movie Hike’ was just starting.

Movies or animals were the best way to start off a weekend morning. She lifted her rice bowl and looked at the screen.

-Today on movies that we look forward to, I’d like to introduce to you two Hollywood Blockbuster films that will soon be released. Many people are looking forward to them as they received lots of love in the country. We’ll go through these two one by one. They look similar at a glance but are different at heart.

It seemed that Hollywood movies based on original comics were going to go quite strong in this life as well. Looking back at her previous lives, it seemed to be a natural flow of things. The advancements in film technology broadened the horizons more than people could imagine.

Adapting the world of novels and comic books into video was probably fate.

She put the well-mixed egg rice in her mouth and chewed.

They were all movies that she felt like she’d seen before in a previous life, but she watched the movie introductions with focus. A hero overcomes hardships and eventually prevails – they were hero movies that could be summed down to just that one sentence, but she liked such movies.

After a comparison of blockbuster movies, the host briefly announced movies that would be released this week.

Next, the screen changed. Two men, sitting inside what seemed like a video editing room, appeared on the screen. Haneul looked at the cat that snuggled into her arms before moving her gaze back to the TV.

-A cruel killer is coming. There’s no revenge, no hatred. There’s only convenience and profit. Today on ‘That Movie’, we’d like to discuss ‘Depths of Evil’, which has shaken the hearts of thriller fans. I’m joined by director LIm Hwanggeun, who produced the movie. Director, please introduce yourself to the audience.

-It’s been a really long time since I last came here. Hello everyone, Lim Hwanggeun here.

It was her husband’s work. Haneul increased the TV volume a little.

-Director, before we start, I’d like to say this. Honestly, I really thought there would be a comedy skit in the middle.

Director Lim let out a chuckle.

-I heard that many times. It’s your movie, so you’ll probably try to make people laugh, so there might be a joke in the middle. But do I really look like I stake my life in comedy?

-It’s probably because all of your previous works involved comedy, right? I’m sure our audience will think of comedy when they think of director Lim Hwanggen.

-I think that’s why I went with an even plainer, or you could say, dryer method. Even the actors were telling me that I should insert a joke somewhere.

-But you didn’t add a single one. It wasn’t that there isn’t a refresher scene, but there aren’t any wordplay jokes or absurd situations that many people think of when they think of Lim Hwanggeun.

-Actually, I was quite worried as I was doing the shoot. Two hours is definitely not a short time. I was really worried that the audience might not take a liking to the dry progression or they might not find it fun. Fortunately, though, they did.

-Forget like, you’re receiving tons of love from everyone. The sales are already over 5 million at the time we’re shooting this now. Did you expect there to be this many sales?

-Not at all. Ever since I decided to drop the PG15 rating and opted to go with an adult rating after persuading the actors, I honestly didn’t have high hopes. No, I always had hope, but I didn’t have the confidence. I mean, statistics is a thing. But I feel really good since I received much more interest in my work than I had imagined.

Director Lim burst into laughter. The host asked a few more questions about director Lim’s recent matters before going over to the movie.

-We can’t leave out talking about the actors. Actor Kim Hyuk, were you confident that he’ll be suited to that kind of role? Personally, it was really unexpected for me since he always played innocent and just characters.

-Hyuk is a really clean kid. Not only on the set, he’s also very polite on private occasions too. He really doesn’t look like he would cause trouble. That was why I wanted to let him do it. What would it feel like if those innocent-looking eyes were colored in murder?

She nodded after listening to director Lim’s words.

Kim Hyuk was someone who digested his role just as well as her husband. The harmony between the two was what led to the current popularity.

-So you could say that casting actor Kim Hyuk was a form of challenge.

-Not really. Challenge isn’t really the right word. I was confident that Hyuk would do well, that he would act out a perfectly indifferent murderer. If we’re talking about challenges, casting Maru was the challenge instead.

Her husband’s name came out. She tensed her hug around the cat.

-We can’t leave out actor Han Maru’s name either. In some aspects, he was even more surprising than actor Kim Hyuk. It could be a difference of expectation, I guess I could say.

-Many people should’ve thought the same thing. Hyuk has shown a lot of things, but Maru doesn’t have that. Actually, I thought a lot when I cast the character Gomchi. There were some other actors who were quite suitable to play Gomchi as well.

-And yet, you decided to have actor Han Maru play the role of Gomchi. If you go as far as to call it a challenge, it must have been a really tough decision.

-It was. I held onto the audition tapes until the end at home. I couldn’t decide until the very end.

-Then what made you make the decision?

-It was thanks to my son. I was curious about what an ordinary member of the audience would feel when they see acting from their eyes without any information. My son told me about his impressions after watching the actors.

-What did he say when he looked at actor Han Maru’s acting?

-He said it was sickening. I know it’s a strange thing to say, but that was the best possible praise. I shed my worries after hearing that. I immediately called Maru and said that we should do this together.

“Director Lim has raised a good son,” Haneul whispered into the cat’s ear.

Director Lim managed to buy her husband’s acting skills for cheap thanks to his son. Considering the price of her husband in his prime, it was really chump change. Probably the difference between the first place in the lottery and third place.

-So that ended up being a splendid choice.

-I don’t have to say anything about that. He brought out the Gomchi that I wanted, no, even better than that.

-I didn’t know you’d compliment him that far. Wouldn’t the other actors be jealous?

-I’m pretty sure there isn't anyone who would feel jealous. Anyone who’s seen him and his acting on set would come to like him. He has a good attitude, so everyone liked him.

The host looked at the cue sheet and spoke,

-Kim Hyuk and Han Maru, these two actors actually have quite an age gap, huh?

-But they look like the same age when you see them on screen, right?

-I thought actor Han Maru could be in his early thirties, but he only turned out to be twenty-three. It’s surprising that such a young actor didn’t feel off despite working with actor Kim Hyuk.

-He’s an actor who can proficiently change his image. When I first held the audition, he was too skinny and didn’t suit Gomchi appearance-wise. But a few months after the audition, I met him in Daegu and he actually bulked up a little, even cutting his hair short.

-You didn’t ask him to do it, yet he did it on his own accord?

-Yes. Actually, I thought that I wouldn’t mind him being skinny. But when I saw him all big, I really felt that this was the guy. Then I found out that Maru was no ordinary guy at the first shoot. He really prepared a lot of things for Gomchi, like his habits and whatnot. Those trivial things made Gomchi look more complete, and thanks to that, the awkwardness coming from their age gap disappeared.

-When you put it like that, he seems like a really amazing actor.

-I really look forward to his next work.

-How about you work with him for your next work as well?

-I told him about it as well. But I’m not sure if he’d listen. I can guarantee that many people will start looking for him now. Had I known this would happen, I would’ve gotten confirmation from him.

-Why don’t you tell him your message through video at this opportunity?

Director Lim put on an awkward expression and looked at the camera.

-Maru. You know I cherish you, right? If I call you next time, don’t ignore it and pick up. I’ll give you a nice role.

I’m not joking — director Lim added with tensed eyes.

Just as the host and the director conversed while looking at some footage from the movie, the door to the bedroom opened and her husband walked out. Looking at his eyes, he hadn’t woken up properly.

“You should sleep some more. You should be tired.”

“I had enough sleep. What are you watching?”

She opened the blanket she placed on the sofa and put it around her before waving at her husband. Maru yawned and came over before sitting down. She wrapped the blanket around him as well so that he wasn’t cold.

“The director is praising you to no end. He said he wants to work together in his next work too.”

“He was telling me that yesterday too, while drinking.”

Maru had eaten out with the people from ‘Depths of Evil’ last night. She heard that it was to celebrate 7 million in sales.

It was just last week when they drank until late into the night to celebrate 5 million, and in just a few days, they had gained another two million.

“Good for you, rising to stardom in one leap.”

“I’m a star already?” He laughed.

“If you’ve got three interviews with three major magazines, then you’re a star alright. Oh, right, did you decide to take that commercial?”

“Yeah. But it’s really funny. A laundry detergent ad, huh.”

“The advertisers are way ahead of the game. Rather than an ad that looks totally ordinary, they know that one with a screw loose will work better. What did you say the theme was?”

“A clean detergent that a murderer uses. A super detergent that can erase traces of the crime.”

Maru laughed before lying down on the sofa. She passed the cat over to him before going over to the kitchen.

“How are you feeling?”

“So-so.”

“Are you good with bean sprout soup?”

“Sounds great. Are you making it for me?”

“You earned money, so, of course, I have to.”

“What if I haven’t?”

“I’ll still make some.”

Haneul opened the refrigerator.

* * *

“Throw the foam into the air and smile.”

Maru threw the foam on the rubber gloves into the air according to the signal. The shoot for the commercial only ended after the floor of the studio was covered in foam.

“Thanks for your work.”

He changed his clothes and left the studio. Yeonjin also came to the parking lot, seemingly having finished talking to the company.

“Good work.”

“This was harder than I expected,” Maru said as he sat in the back seat. His knees hurt after having jumped around all day with foam all over him.

“I’m sure you must be feeling tired, but there’s no time to rest. There’s an interview.”

“Right now?”

“Yes. Even this I barely managed to squeeze into the schedule.”

“It’s okay to take it easy.”

“Take it easy? You should row the boat when there’s still water.”

“I’m the type to see where the water goes when water flows in. If I row thinking that I’m going forward, there are times when I come across a waterfall and fall down.”

“Don’t worry about that. Who do you think looks after your schedule? It’s the president. Even if you jump down the waterfall, there will be a treasure chest at the bottom so you need to keep moving without rest.”

“For some reason, it looks like you’re more excited than I am.”

“Of course I am. The bigger you become, the more I earn. Well then, you got an exclusive manager now, so you need to work your bones off.”

Maru smiled and closed his eyes. He had to sleep now if he didn’t want to doze off during the interview.

“I’ll wake you up when we’re there.”

“Please do.”

After Story 159

“Let’s do this.”

Choi Junghwa blew air into her hands. She was feeling nervous because this was her first interview. She tried to cool her nervous body with the cold wind, but it didn’t really work out that well.

She stomped her feet a few times before turning her head around. High-rise buildings scattered light like lighthouses in the darkness.

Just like how many exam students aimed for the ivory tower of college, many actors were probably dreaming of entering this building that contained JA Entertainment.

“I guess he was promising as a sapling, huh.”

She was wondering how this actor popped out of nowhere, and it turned out that he was contracted to JA.

She thought back to the press premiere of ‘Depths of Evil’ that she went to around three weeks ago. She didn’t like cruel movies, but the film was so good that she watched it with focus.

The grim mise en scène enchanted her, and the acting of the actors stole her heart.

Not a single one of them was lacking, but she was especially focused on Han Maru, who played the role of Gomchi. That previously nameless actor showed acting skills that were on par, and in some scenes, better, than Kim Hyuk.

She thought that he was really good and felt that this was the birth of a new star.

Even back then, Han Maru received the most questions after the director. It must have been his first time being in an event where camera flashes were popping out everywhere, but Han Maru managed to respond to the questions calmly. He even managed to mix a few jokes throughout when he communicated with the journalists to relax the mood.

His calmness and leisure were unbelievable for a new actor who had just finished his first movie.

“Ah, yes. I’m waiting on the first floor. Yes, okay.”

That was a call from Maru’s manager. She was asked to wait just a little because they were going to be here soon.

After finishing the call, she turned on her selfie camera. Her hair looked decent and her makeup looked alright. She entered the building and stared at the entrance.

About five or so minutes later, she saw the face of the person she was waiting for outside the glass door. She walked over with a smile.

“Hello.”

When she greeted him, Maru turned his head around and yawned slightly.

“I’m sorry. I had a light nap because I was tired, so I’m still feeling a little drowsy right now.”

“You must be busy after all.”

“I’ll be in my best condition throughout the interview.”

She was guided by the manager to a room. It was a calm-looking room with walls painted in gray.

She took out her laptop, camera, question sheet, and voice recorder.

“I’ll finish it quickly.”

“You can take your time. This is the last thing on my schedule as well.”

Maru raised his teacup. He looked so intellectual that she wondered if he was the same person as the one who played Gomchi. That was probably why he felt like an older man despite being younger than her.

“Have you had dinner?” Maru asked.

She shook her head. After lunch, she was preparing for this interview, so she skipped dinner.

“Then let’s eat something.”

“You don’t have to do that for me.”

“I’m hungry too. The sandwich from the first floor is good, how about it? The president is especially mindful of that café, so the taste is really good.”

A sandwich sounded light enough. She stood up with her wallet. Maru also stood up.

“I’ll go and buy one for you.”

“Do you know what I like?”

“N-no.”

“Let’s go together, I’ll recommend some things to you. Also, the employee discount is pretty high. The auntie there is really caring too.”

The conversation didn’t end as they took the elevator down. She felt like she was talking to a close friend she had not been in touch with for a long time. She felt comfortable. The more she looked at him, the more his character felt like the complete opposite of Gomchi’s.

“Auntie, two signature sandwiches and…”

Maru looked at her. It took a few seconds for her to understand what his intent was.

“I’ll go with a latte.”

“And two lattes please.”

The woman in his fifties told him that it’d be ready soon and smiled gently.

Maru also talked to the people who seemed to be part-time workers here without any restraint.

“Here.”

Maru handed her her coffee and sandwich.

“How about the payment?”

“I did it.”

“You should’ve called me.”

“It’s a bribe from me to write good articles, so don’t worry too much.”

“That’s what this is about?” She chuckled and accepted the food.

They returned to the interview room and sat down.

It had only been twenty minutes since they met, but any kind of nervousness she had disappeared altogether. She even talked about the buffet she went to a few days ago.

“I heard from my manager that this is your first interview.”

“It is.”

“Isn’t it hard to prepare for something like this? For famous actors, it might be easier to come up with questions, but if there’s no public information as in my case, it’s a bit hard to come up with them, since you don’t know what you can and cannot ask.”

He was aware of the challenges of an interviewer extremely well. In truth, she had been thinking all day about what questions she had to ask. Even if she wanted to refer to previous news articles, the only info out there was about documentaries, so it was hard to get any information from them.

She couldn’t exactly talk to him about the movie from beginning to end, and eventually, she came up with a list of questions after many hardships, but they weren’t on a satisfactory level.

“Seeing your face, it must’ve been quite difficult.”

“It wasn’t that hard.”

“So it was hard after all?”

“A little?”

Maru smiled first. Junghwa also smiled in return.

“I’m fine with any questions as long as they aren’t too strange, so you can take it easy.”

Junghwa nodded.

“Let’s do it while we eat.”

Maru picked up his sandwich. She pressed the record button on the voice recorder and started to speak,

“Before we begin, I’d like to decide on the tone of the interview. Should I upload our conversation as is, or should I edit it to sound more business-like?”

“What do the people at ‘Movie Road’ prefer?”

“If it’s a personal interview, the tone that’s used during the interview is mostly uploaded as is. The ones who look for interviews are those who have a personal interest, so finding out what tone an actor uses is one of the fun parts.”

“Then please edit it as little as possible.”

“Okay.”

Maru took a bite of the sandwich.

Junghwa scanned the top of the question sheet and asked,

“First of all, you have hit 7 million views for your first commercial movie debut. How do you feel about this?”

“When I wake up from sleep, I touch my cheeks. Then I feel relieved that it’s not a dream.”

“Does it still feel unrealistic?”

“I did think it was a good movie. I was confident that it was going to be fun too. However, I didn’t go as far as wishing for commercial success. As you know, it’s not a family movie you can watch with everyone. It’s not something a pair of lovers might go watch either.”

“It’s definitely not a family movie.”

She sipped a bit of the coffee before continuing her questions,

“This might be your first commercial movie, but I found out that you won the grand prize in the Short Film Festival through an indie movie, right?”

“That was thanks to a good director and a good script.”

“How about ‘Depths of Evil’ then? Don’t you want the prize?”

“I always want the prize. I mean, how many actors don’t imagine themselves getting called to various award ceremonies and getting prizes? But as you know, awards aren’t things you can receive just because you want to. Above all, the movie was released in December and aired throughout January, so I seriously wonder how many people would still remember it at the end of the year.”

“I will definitely remember at least.”

“Thank you. If Movie Road decides to create an award and give it to me, I’d be really grateful.”

“I’ll put that in as a suggestion, to create a special award just for this year.”

Maru pointed at her sandwich, gesturing for her to eat. She took a big bite. She was looking for the right time to eat as well.

After swallowing, she spoke,

“The character Gomchi gives off a strong impression, right? What are the responses from the people around you?”

“First of all, my family members really liked it. But after watching the movie, they would smile awkwardly. I mean, the role isn’t exactly a good one.”

“That just goes to show how realistic your acting was. How about your friends?”

“People close to me say that it’s a character that suits me perfectly, saying that the evil and sneaky attitude is just like me.”

“Sounds like really close friends.”

She typed on her laptop for a bit before continuing to ask,

“According to public information, you are only in the second year — no, since the year has changed, it’s the third now — of your career, but you still managed to receive this kind of attention. Did you have the confidence that you’d be successful as an actor?”

“Not at all. I’m someone who worries about a lot of things. I spend a really long time thinking about what hasn’t happened. That was why when I decided to become an actor, I was already planning for scenarios where I failed. Fortunately, many people are looking out for me right now, but I’m still thinking that this too might end as a short burst of interest.”

“Personally, I thought you wouldn’t worry about the details.”

“I try hard not to show it. Since it’s a job where I have to show myself to others, I only want to show the good side.”

She thought it was a professional attitude. These days, being twenty-four socially felt like they were still in their growth phase, but the actor in front of her felt like he had matured.

While he was polite with his words, he didn’t feel like he was lowering himself in any way. He had dignity, so to speak.

She thought about whether there were any actors among his peers that gave her the same feeling. Not a single person came to mind.

“I’d like to talk about the movie next. What was the hardest part when you were preparing the character Gomchi?”

“I’d say expressing the violent impression that he had. Of course, I have a really vicious face, so I look vile when I tense my face, but Gomchi’s slightly different. Rather than the violent nature of a wolf, I had to show the sneaky evil of a hyena.”

“The director said that it was your own choice to gain weight, not at his request.”

“Yes. Gomchi is a slow man. I thought it’d be better to visually show that he was dumb-witted, so I gained some weight. I could only do so thanks to the director who left the design of the character entirely to me.”

She nodded before going over to the next question.

“The scene that left the strongest impression in this movie has to be the one where you commit your first murder. Many people said that it felt creepy and realistic. How did you feel when you were acting?”

Maru crossed his arms.

“For this role, I really immersed myself into the character until the end. It’s not an acting method I like that much, but I thought it was necessary. So if you ask me how I felt back then, then I felt really relieved like how Gomchi would feel; I felt relieved that I wasn’t caught.”

As he reminisced on it, Maru’s eyes had returned to that of Gomchi’s for a brief moment. She even wondered if his original personality might actually be similar to Gomchi’s. However, she soon saw Maru smiling again and felt that he was incredible.

Perfect acting could actually realize a fictional character in reality.

She quickly wrote down the impressions she had during the interview on her laptop.

Although this was her first interview, she didn’t hit any blocks. She had confidence that this would become a good interview that could fill the whole page.

After that, they continued the interview for about thirty more minutes. Even after she ran out of questions she had prepared, the conversation flowed naturally.

Whenever Maru hung onto a topic and twisted it a little, it became a splendid question.

In the final stages, she realized that this young actor had been considerate of her from beginning to end.

She packed her stuff and stood up.

“The interview was really comfortable, thanks to you.”

“It’s all thanks to your thorough preparation.”

“I don’t think so. Anyway, thank you.”

Junghwa stood in front of the elevator with a smile.

Maru said that he had business in the office.

After getting on the elevator, Junghwa slightly bowed towards Maru.

“I hope I can interview you next time.”

“If you do, then please take care of me too at that time. Also, the questions you asked me during the premiere were really good. I’m sure you’ll become a good journalist, as long as you watch out for your stuttering.”

The elevator closed. Junghwa blinked. She never imagined that he remembered what happened back then. When she left the building, she got a call from the head editor.

-How was the interview?

“Good, sir.”

-I was originally going to send someone else, but they chose you. It’s curious, right? How did they know about someone who just joined the company?

“So he knew.”

-What?

“Nothing. I’m going back right now.”

She looked back at the building. She felt like she was dancing in the palm of a young actor, but it didn’t feel that bad.

She grabbed a taxi with a smile. She looked forward to organizing their conversation already.

After Story 160

Yoo Jungtae scanned the news articles on the internet over some coffee.

Three months into 2010, the rowdy entertainment industry had become calm again. Divorce, cheating, drunk driving, drugs… The news articles that came out non-stop for the past month could no longer be seen any more.

What replaced the lack of entertainment news was some news about delicious restaurants that stars went to.

Jungtae looked for articles about the dramas that were airing right now. The one that was showing a strong performance right now was RBS’ Monday-Tuesday drama.

It had been quite some time since a historical drama made it to the forefront. It was a light historical drama that could appeal to the female audience, rather than the super long-running historical dramas that almost exclusively appealed to men.

Both the lead male and female characters were young and pretty. The story set the background of the two in complex situations and mostly talked about the love story between the two.

The audience's opinions that the historical drama looked awkward only made some noise at first, and now people were praising it.

“That’s the power of the writer.”

Jungtae looked at the plot that even buried the flaws of the actors and licked his lips. How much would the writer receive per episode? — He scratched his head before closing the laptop.

It had been fifteen years since he started living as a writer. He was lucky enough to debut through a drama script contest at YBS, and he had managed to write a few drama episodes ever since. Most of his works were historical dramas, and the responses weren’t bad. ‘Chosun,’ which aired six years ago, managed to even get him an award as well.

When he rejoiced that his prime as a writer had arrived, writer’s block also crept toward him as well. He wrote a short script two years ago when a producer he worked with before reached out to him about doing a one-shot drama together, and that was his last work.

What was fortunate was that he always thought that the life of a freelancer was a ship that might capsize at any moment and did not spend all the money he had earned.

However, the money he had saved up started bottoming out in the past few years.

You get why there aren’t many male writers in the drama field, right? — he thought back to the words that a friend of his told him a few days ago.

It was only thanks to the fact that he was single; if he had any family to feed, he would’ve long since looked for other types of work.

He checked his bank balance through his banking app.

7.9 million won.

He thought of his limit as 2 million won, of which there was 5.9 million left.

He would be forty in three years. It would be too late to try something new.

Although many people said that the people living in this era would live until they were 100 years old, there wouldn’t be any companies that would accept a man in his late thirties whose only talent lay in writing; and even then, not a great talent.

“Thanks, please take care of me when the time comes.”

-Are you really going to come? If you do, I’ll watch out for you…

“If there’s no news, I’m going to quit now. I realized that it’s impossible to make a living with my head, so now it’s time to use my body.”

-It’s unfortunate, but if you’ve decided, then I guess there’s no helping it. There are many people who think of manual labor as the lowest of the low, but it’s better than most companies. It’s not that physically taxing, and you get as much as you work for. Even if you don’t have any skills right now, you can learn them one by one when you start working. You’re quite smart, aren’t you? I’m sure you’ll do well.

“That gives me strength. Anyway, I’ll contact you again in a while.”

-Writer Yoo, do your best. I’m sure you’ll do well.

“Thanks.”

He hated to admit it, but it was time to accept the facts. He was a writer who couldn’t keep up with the trends. When he looked at the drama writers of the currently airing dramas, nine out of ten of them were women.

The trend of romantic comedy was even infiltrating the historical drama market, so it was hard to find any male writers. There were some male writers writing romcoms, but the responses weren’t so good.

He looked at his phone which was staying silent. He knew that it wasn’t going to ring, but he couldn’t help but look at it. He had sent some of his works to a drama outsourcing company about two months ago. He also sent his works to the producers he knew. He told them that he didn’t even wish to work with them on those, just that it would be great if they could read it at least.

Maybe what he said actually happened: they might have thrown it in the trash after reading it. There was not a single call.

Well, it wasn’t surprising. It was an era where many people tried their hands at becoming a drama writer. People would flock even more since the news of a writer receiving a high manuscript fee came out just a few days ago.

Among the people who try sending in their works with the ‘Maybe I should try it out’ mindset, there might be someone with talent.

Getting pushed to the back once and then twice by such writers would eventually put the existing writers in his position.

Still, it was a bit of a pity. He thought he used quite a fresh theme and a bold story in this work.

“Maybe it was uselessly fresh and needlessly bold,” he muttered to himself as he looked at the script he had printed. There was a pile of dust on it.

He dusted it off before opening it. When he read it, it was enjoyable.

However, perhaps that might precisely be the problem. Writing that only the writer enjoys; the moment he wished to earn money while being hung up on a work that didn’t have any market value, he was doomed as a writer.

It was after he put the script to the side and cleaned his desk with some wet wipes that his phone started ringing. He quickly picked it up, having hopes.

-Hello. This is your internet service provider Shine. If you change your internet plan right now…

“I don’t need it.”

He replied even though he knew that it was a pre-recorded call. He felt bitter inside. Maybe he should not bother waiting and just pack his stuff to get ready to leave.

His phone rang again. Another phone ad? He picked it up and said hello.

-Writer Yoo?

He took his ear off the phone and checked the name of the person who called. It was producer Cha Myungjoon.

“Producer Cha, it’s been a long time.”

-Yes, writer. How have you been?

“I’m doing okay.”

Producer Cha was someone he got to know on a private occasion. It was back when he was still busy working. They met when he went drinking after finishing his editing.

-How long has it been since I heard your voice?

“It’s been about two years. We last met at the after party.”

-So it’s been that long already. How time flies.

He laughed and waited for Myungjoon’s next words. There was no way he had called just to say hello.

-Writer. I happened to read your work.

“Mine?”

-Yes. It was through producer Choi.

“Ah, okay.”

When he passed the script to producer Choi, he did tell him to show it to the people around if they showed any interest.

-Did anyone reach out to you?

This was no time to reject this offer because of his pride. He replied honestly,

“Not a single one. I waited for about two months, but there was absolutely no feedback at all.”

-The script is difficult to understand at times after all.

“It looks like the writing is really not up to par then. I did think about it when I wrote, that maybe I was too focused on bringing something new. I knew that it was over the moment I let go of popular elements, but I kept slipping and ended up doing something absurd.”

Self-deprecating words came out automatically. A writer was supposed to have pride in his work until the end, and letting go of that meant that his life was over as a writer.

He became quiet and looked around the room, wondering how long it would take to pack up before telling the landlord that he was leaving.

-Yes. It’s definitely not a drama that public TV stations would do. They think that these kinds of genres are dangerous.

“I feel much better after hearing that from you. I think I can throw away my regrets now. It looks like I used up my talent in writing. It’s time to let go.”

He felt calm despite hearing that his work was no good from a drama producer who was still working in the industry. In fact, he felt relieved that it came to a proper closure.

-Let go, you say?

“I have to let go now. A producer from the TV station said it won’t work, so it’d be strange to keep holding onto it. There weren’t any responses from outsourcing companies either. Though, I guess it’s natural since outsourcing means that they get a slot from the TV stations.”

-Writer Yoo.

“Yes.”

-There seems to be some kind of misunderstanding between us. I said that it won’t work on public TV. P.u.b.l.i.c TV.

“We’re talking about dramas, so where else would…”

He trailed off. There was a news article he skipped after just reading the title this morning.

“Are you saying, private-owned channels?”

-The TV stations are already in an uproar. There are many producers who are packing up already. They’re reaching out to producers and writers who all left for outsourcing companies.

“Is that going to work? There was a lot of controversy about whether it was going to happen or not.”

-It will. Was there anything in this country that didn’t go the way big corporations wanted? Three of the major newspaper companies have bought buildings already. There are newspaper companies that set up TV stations within their own building as well. I heard that they even bought land for production-related work.”

“Well, I guess they wouldn’t have talked about it if it wasn’t going to work.”

-Three of my seniors have left the entertainment department here. Even some chief producer-level people have moved too. I’m sure those private-owned companies have no intentions to live off of making news alone, so I’m sure they’ll make all sorts of things. Cable TV is going to become big.

“Are you moving as well?”

-I’m not exactly moving. I decided to leave RBS this time to enter Chungsong Production instead.

“That’s a place I haven’t heard of before.”

-You’ll probably hear about it a lot soon. It’s a subsidiary of YR that they made in order to produce dramas.

“So funds from a big company, huh? I did hear about it; so this is how it went.”

-Once those private-owned channels start airing, there will be dramas produced with massive budgets.

“Sure. They need to steal the audience from public TV channels.”

-Simply increasing the budget wouldn’t be enough. They are trying to try their hands at genres that existing public TV stations wouldn’t easily do.

“They’re playing an adventurous move, you mean?”

-Ever since the rise of Youtube or whatever internet media, viewing rates have decreased rapidly. Not only that, there are individual broadcasters running their own internet channels. Large corporations didn’t exactly win over the channel frequencies just to attack the existing public TV companies. The people here are clenching their teeth hard.

“So you’re saying…”

-We can’t do your work on a public TV channel, but it’s a different story for a private-owned channel. I also showed your writing to the head producer. He showed interest.

“Is that true?”

-Yes. However, there’s something you must change.

“Change?”

The word that made writers the most uncomfortable showed its head in the producer’s words.

‘Change’ was a magical word. Changing a single word was a change, and rewriting the entire drama was also a ‘change.’ With that being the case, how big of a change was producer Cha talking about?

-The ending is really good. But, there’s no room for more. It’s a perfectly closed ending.

“Yes, it’s a drama after all.”

-I want you to leave an opening.

“What?”

-Seasons. Even drama seasons that public TV channels would never accept are going to be accepted here. That’s why we want an ending that can be continued if the responses are good, rather than a perfectly closed one.

“I don’t really understand.”

-It’s a little too much to talk about over the phone. Do you have some time? I’ll make a visit.

“I’m free all the time.”

-Then let’s meet today. We’ll talk about some things, including casting.

“Already?”

-You know that we reach out to the writers after deciding everything, don’t you? Also, there was an actor that came to my mind the moment I saw your writing. I want to hear your opinion about having him as the main character.

“If it can be adapted into a drama, then I don’t care who it is. I’m not in a position to be picky about that.”

-Writer, you’ve become quite weak.

“Maybe that’s how it is with writers who can’t write. So who are you recommending?”

-I’m not sure if you know him. He does come out on TV quite a lot these days.

“Who is it?”

-Han Maru.

“Oh, him. I know him. I’ve watched Depths of Evil three times.”

-How about a drama with him in it?

There was no need to think about it. He said with emphasis,

“I’d like to beg him instead to take the role.”

After Story 161

Maru checked the time as he got out of the car. He thought he’d be late because there was a traffic jam on his way here, but fortunately, he managed to arrive on time.

Last year’s summer was scorching, but this year’s summer was unreasonably cool. Though, that may be due to how it was still July.

“Producer, I’ve arrived.”

-You’re here? If you look around there’s a store on the second story named ‘Sindorim.’

He saw the sign for ‘Sindorim’ on the building opposite to him. He crossed the street and went up to the 2nd floor. He wondered what kind of restaurant it was, and it turned out to be a charcoal BBQ restaurant.

He went deeper inside the restaurant and stood in front of the room named ‘Cotton.’ When he opened the door, he saw the two people inside.

“You’re here. Come here and have a seat.”

Maru took off his shoes and went into the room. Although the table was low and there were no chairs, there was an indentation in the ground where one’s feet would be placed, so it would be easier to sit.

“You’re getting more handsome by the day. I think you’ve become much more fit than when I saw you last year too.”

“I’m working out a little.”

The man sitting opposite of producer Cha Myungjoon stood up and reached his hand out.

“Hello. My name is Yoo Jungtae. I’m not sure if you’ve heard about me from the producer yet.”

“I have heard a lot. I’m Han Maru. Also, you don’t have to be so polite with me.”

“Then let’s get close as we eat. Please sit down.”

Maru sat down next to producer Cha.

“This place does beef ribs really well.”

A waiter brought some meat. Maru received the tongs from the waiter and told him, “We’ll grill the meat. You don’t have to mind us.”

After putting down other dishes, the waiter told them to have a nice meal before closing the door.

“Before I start grilling, I think I need to know what this is about. Only after knowing will I be able to eat in peace. If you just called me out here to treat me to a meal, then I’ll get to grilling right away.”

Producer Cha exchanged gazes with Jungtae.

“We might be getting ahead of ourselves. The initial plans are out, but as with any other TV programs, it won’t be strange even if it gets canceled tomorrow.”

“Is it about work?”

Producer Cha nodded before continuing.”

“I told you that this person is a writer over the phone, right?”

Maru looked at Jungtae and replied affirmatively.

“He wrote something this time, and we’re planning to talk to you about it.”

“If you’re talking about casting, then I should be the one treating you two out instead. Since you talked to producer Cha about it, is it a drama for RBS?”

“No, it’s not for public TV.”

“Then it’s for cable TV? I heard they only do short entertainment series.”

“It’s for a private-owned channel.”

Maru looked at the two alternately.

“Looks like I should start grilling at least.”

He put the ribs on top of the metal grill. Having been heated up, the meat made a sizzling noise as it was placed on top of the grill. It was a sound that stimulated the desire to eat.

“I saw on the news. The opening of private-owned channels, as far as I know, is in December.”

“The date is set to the first of December.”

“It’s still July right now, so there are five months left.”

“Right.”

“Is the station trying to schedule dramas at the same time as its launch?”

“The newspaper companies didn’t exactly want to open TV stations because they want to do news.”

“That’s true.”

Maru cut up the well-grilled meat and put it on everyone's plates. After eating a piece, producer Cha’s expression became brighter.

“You weren’t kidding when you said you were good.”

But of course. He had once grilled top-tier beef as the head chef of an Omakase[1] restaurant.

He cut up the rest of the meat on the grill into suitable pieces and pushed them to the edge where the grill didn’t get as much heat.

“Since you called me out separately like this, you must be thinking of giving me a spot for one of the lead characters, am I correct?”

“Both writer Yoo and I are of the same mind. We want you to play the protagonist. Of course, once we start talking about the contract, there will be a lot of details to go through, but we’re letting you know our intentions for now. We believe there’s no one better suited to this role than you.”

“There’s nothing better to hear as an actor. But may I ask one thing?”

“Sure.”

“Is this work a throwaway card? Excuse me for being rude to writer Yoo, but I need to know as well.”

He tossed the question and started to eat the meat. Private-owned TV channels had been born in every single life he had lived in without fail. There might be changes in the companies that create them, but the diversification of channels was something that always happened.

There would be two if there were only a few, and five if there were a lot. Like that, the media companies would separate their dependence from public TV channels and do various things to attract audiences and advertisers alike.

This life would probably be no different. They would probably try to conquer the existing audience by showing a difference in their content, whether it be news, entertainment programs, or dramas.

The problem here was that those attempts were sometimes successful, but also sometimes so terrible that it even brought the parent company to bankruptcy.

From the top of his head, the ratio was about half-half.

“There are a total of three private-owned channels being created this time, right? I don’t know the general direction that each channel has decided on, but I’ve seen it on the news a few times before, that the news TV companies were preparing for dramas. Nothing about it, whether it be content, the actors, or the scale, has been leaked to the public, but I’m sure some of that has been decided internally.”

Producer Cha nodded with his mouth shut.

“Preparing for a drama in time for the launch of the station in five months must not be an easy task. If you truly wanted to hit a jackpot, you would’ve released a press news after you were done scouting and even considered finishing the whole production beforehand.”

Maru took out his phone.

“Please excuse me for a moment.”

TNQ, TVL, Channel S — these were the three private-owned channels that were being created this time. When he looked up some news about each channel, it talked about dramas that were in production or finished being produced.

He read one of the articles out loud,

“TNQ is planning to schedule a drama titled ‘That Doctor’, starring Choi Hojae and Park Hanhee as the lead characters. ‘That Doctor’ has finished being produced and is therefore expected to have a high completion rate, production value and a solid story. TVL is planning to air a drama shot overseas in time for the launch date. Park Sinseo and numerous other famous actors have been confirmed joining the shoot. The title has not been decided yet, but the story will be about a government intelligence organization coming up with countermeasures for potential national crises.”

Maru scrolled down. That was the end of the article.

There was no word that channel S was preparing something. The other articles were the same. None of them mentioned any news about dramas related to Channel S.

“They’re slowly releasing the news now. After all, only then will they be able to attract attention. Choi Hojae, Park Hanhee, and Park Sinseo are all amazing actors. A medical drama and an overseas drama must mean that their production budgets must be considerable too.”

He then asked after putting his phone down,

“But not a single one of them mentions Channel S. Producer Cha, which station will the drama you’re offering me be scheduled in?”

“First of all, I have left RBS and joined ‘Studio Rain,’ a subsidiary of YR.”

Hearing that, Maru cut in,

“YR is very close to Sihwa News. So it’s Channel S.”

“You’re right.”

He ate a piece of white kimchi to rinse his mouth.

“Is there a drama that Channel S is preparing?”

“No, not yet. If the talk with you goes well, then the drama you’re doing will be the first drama for Channel S.”

“That increases the likelihood that this is just a throwaway card. Well, looking at the lineup for the two competing stations, even I would want to stay away. Since Sihwa is the smallest in scale among the three newspaper companies, I’m sure they don’t want to jump into the no-benefits competition.”

Although all three companies were ‘major’ newspaper companies, the difference in their scale was as clear as day. The other two companies were newspaper companies founded in the early 1900s. They were on a fundamentally different scale than Sihwa News, which released its first newspaper in the 70s and only managed to separate itself from under the umbrella of a large corporation later, both in terms of politics and finances.

“Channel S must be quite reluctant to do the drama business then. This is a business that they might lose money over if they can’t find sales routes overseas. Is that why they want to try their hand out with cheap, but fresh material?”

Maru looked at writer Yoo’s expression. From his bitter expression, it seemed that this had been explained to him beforehand.

“If you say everything like that before I can say anything, then you’re putting me in a tight spot.”

“It became a habit of mine to calculate the benefits and losses quickly.”

“Yes, it’s just as you say. Channel S’s attitude towards the drama business is lukewarm. Instead, they’re more focused on general entertainment programs and news targeting the mid to upper age group. TNQ and TVL are aiming for the younger generation, so they’re planning to just attract the readers of their newspapers.”

“But they couldn’t exactly sit back and relax, since they might be pushed out of the competition entirely.”

Producer Cha looked at the charcoal turning red before speaking,

“I don’t know the exact situation over there at the TV station, but I’ve overheard a couple things. As you said, Channel S doesn’t want to invest a huge sum, but they’re thinking that they can’t exactly miss out either.”

“And that must be where someone brought up that they should compete in terms of story.”

“Right. Normally, they wouldn’t even bother giving a second glance at stories that sound idealistic, but they’re at the starting line right now. The higher-ups were positive about it as well. They don’t mind shooting a drama with a moderate budget.”

“And that’s how I got called here.” Maru nodded and ate a piece of meat that had cooled down.

A story that a public TV channel would, no, could never do, but something that private-owned channels, which were practically like startups, might try out.

Using a newer actor that didn’t have much reputation in a drama? The business team would definitely be opposed to that.

“It must be more profitable to use an idol-turned-actor than someone like me. Especially if you’re aiming to increase people’s interest in the work.”

“If it’s simply about attracting people’s interest, then true, that is a better way. But you know, both I and writer Yoo don’t think that this is a throwaway card.”

Producer Cha took out a clear file from his bag. He took out a paper from the file and handed it over to him.

“This is the synopsis.”

Maru looked at writer Yoo as he accepted the paper. Writer Yoo urged him with his eyes to have a look.

He calmly read the writing that detailed the overall story of the drama, the background of the main characters, as well as the intentions behind each plot, and the ending that the writer was thinking of.

After reading everything, Maru put down the paper. Producer Cha spoke,

“As you can see, it’s a kind of genre that public TV channels would never touch. I’ve seen dozens of similar works being submitted every year, but not a single one of them was selected.”

“They must be wondering if the masses are ready to accept this or not. There’s also a precedent of screwing up big time with fantasy.”

“The higher ups always say that people don’t like complex stories. But I say otherwise. This country has changed. We’re importing a lot of different cultural media from overseas. The adult generation might click their tongues at a genre like this, but people of my generation and below are used to fantasy like this.”

“Public TV channels won’t do this since they have to target all ages, but the private-owned channels are different, you’re saying.”

In the lives he lived where private-owned channels were at the forefront of media content, public TV channels were also heavily influenced by the trends to proactively create various different genres of dramas. This drama did have potential.

“It might not turn out that well, but I have the confidence that it will be a good drama,” said producer Cha with emphasis.

Maru picked up the synopsis and spoke,

“The financial success and failure is definitely important, but what’s more important for me is to have an interest in the work as an actor.”

“Yes, that’s important too. So, how do you feel about it?”

Maru looked at writer Yoo instead of producer Cha.

“Writer, don’t you think that there are other actors who suit this role?”

“Honestly speaking, I didn’t even think about the casting when I wrote it. I didn’t have the time to think about that.”

“So it’s okay even if it’s not me, huh.”

Writer Yoo rubbed under his eyes.

“I can’t exactly force an unwilling actor to take it.”

“So you can look for other actors, huh.”

Maru smiled and folded the synopsis in half, then in half again before putting it in his pocket.

“Well, then, writer. It’s my turn to ask. Please don’t look into other actors. I really want to do this.”

[1] A Japanese style restaurant where the chef decides the course for the customer. ‘Omakase’ literally means ‘I’ll leave it up to you(the chef)’

After Story 162

Cha Myungjoon stared at Maru’s mouth, wondering if he had heard wrong.

“You’re going to do it?” he asked for confirmation.

Maru looked at Myungjoon and spoke with conviction,

“Yes. Please let me do it. So you can’t go looking for other people now. Please promise me, both of you.”

Maru put a lot of meat on the grill, saying that he could eat at ease now.

“I know it’s somewhat strange to ask this when you said yes, but why?” Myungjoon asked, still bewildered.

“You thought I wouldn’t do it?”

He looked at writer Yoo. Before he set up this occasion, he already told writer Yoo that not many actors would accept this readily and that Han Maru, whose reputation had soared after ‘Depths of Evil,’ would definitely find it difficult to accept.

Maru was insightful enough to see through the current situation at the TV station on the spot. This made him think even more that Maru would refuse, but he actually accepted without reservation.

“I didn’t think you’d accept it this easily at least. Why do you think I brought writer Yoo here? I had him come to persuade you if you showed signs of hesitation, but seeing you accept it just like that, it feels good and also weird.”

“Maybe I should’ve acted difficult just as the two of you wanted.” Maru smiled. It was a refreshing smile. “I’ll tell the president about this myself. I’ll persuade him if he says no. I’m definitely going to do this. You two can’t go anywhere and say otherwise either, okay?”

“There’s no need to when you’re the one doing it,” said writer Yoo.

“So who are you going to cast for the murderer character? The most important character in this story should be the murderer after all.”

Myungjoon flinched as soon as he heard Maru’s words.

“The murderer role?”

He said again to Maru, who tilted his head.

“You’re playing the murderer.”

“I want to play the role of Ahn Changsik though. Oh, the two of you were thinking of me as the murderer.”

“Naturally. There’s no one among your peers who can digest that role better than you.”

“While the murderer role is tempting, I’m more attracted to An Changsik.”

Myungjoon blinked a couple of times before looking at writer Yoo. This was outside of his expectations. He was planning to use the image that Maru showed in the movie in the drama, but the person in question refused to play the murderer character.

“I know what the two of you are thinking. Right now, I’m sure my image suits the murderer role better. I have the confidence to do it well too. But I don’t want my image to be consolidated in the beginning stage. Once it does, then even if I know how to play a variety of things, the production companies and directors will think about efficiency and will keep trying to give me similar roles, like a murderer or a psychopath.”

Maru continued as he flipped over the meat,

“You can call me foolish. You might tell me that I should be thankful that I can play anything and will make me choose to play the murderer. But I will not do this if I’m not playing Ahn Changsik. If you somehow think that I don’t suit the character, then allow me to return this to you.”

Maru tried to take out the synopsis from his pocket. Myungjoon waved his hand in denial for now.

“I’m not saying that it doesn’t suit you. I’m just saying you can do it better. I get what you’re worried about, but just because you play a series of murderer characters continuously doesn’t mean that your image will be consolidated. There are differences between movies and dramas.”

“Sure, they might be different. But the general picture does not change. Above all, I want to play Ahn Changsik. If I can’t play this role, I have no reason to join you for this drama. If you’re planning to scout me into your work for practical reasons, I’ll also have to think just the same.”

That was an unexpected answer. Myungjoon drank water for now. He thought things were going smoothly, but they hit a block in a weird place.

“If I may boast, I was offered five movie scenarios in my name. Some of them are already set to be shot at the end of the year.”

Myungjoon thought that Maru wasn’t boasting as it was only natural. Anyone would want to use an actor who had proven themselves. Not only that, Maru was young. Even better, he could change into anything.

Most people meeting Maru for the first time would be surprised because there wasn’t a single hint of Gomchi in him in real life.

In the current era where not many useful young actors existed, the sudden appearance of Maru was a very useful resource.

“I haven’t given a concrete reply to any of them. This is the only work I’ve given the okay on the spot after getting the synopsis. If you are willing to give me the role of Ahn Changsik, I’m going to set my schedule according to this drama. However, if you plan to let me play the murderer, I’m going to choose a movie over a private-owned channel’s drama.”

He didn’t give any hints and went straight to the point. He was saying that it had to be the way he wanted it to be. It was obvious from looking at his eyes that persuading him was not happening.

Myungjoon looked at writer Yoo. Myungjoon himself was okay with Maru playing Ahn Changsik instead of the murderer. He could still vividly remember Maru’s desperate death as a newbie investigator in the drama ‘The Witness.’

Maru, who managed to depict everything about a human turning from a newly recruited investigator to a coward fearing death, should be able to handle Ahn Changsik well too.

“Writer Yoo, what’s your opinion?”

If writer Yoo hesitated here, his job would not be to persuade Maru but to persuade writer Yoo instead. He couldn’t afford to miss Maru. Truthfully speaking, he had to grab Maru considering the production budget.

“Mr. Maru,” writer Yoo said.

“Yes, writer.”

“You know, I’ve shown this work to a lot of people. Not to mention TV station producers, I handed it around to production companies as well. I’m sure some actors must have seen the scenarios as well.”

“I see.”

“But not a single one of them reached out to me. Not a single one. The only one that called me was producer Cha Myungjoon here. It may not be possible on a public TV channel, but it can be done on a private-owned channel. He also told me this: I want to try doing this no matter what.”

Writer Yoo picked up his chopsticks. He spoke as he picked up the meat that Maru had cut up,

“And you just told me too that you wanted to play Ahn Changsik, that you will only do it if you can play that character. I’ve written many works and had many of them adapted into dramas, but I have never experienced an actor telling me that. In your eyes, is Ahn Changsik that temptingly good?”

“I don’t want to let anyone else do it. Of course, I can only say this for sure after seeing some more of the script.”

“You really don’t hold back.”

“I’m not sure about other places, but on an occasion like this, I have to act like I’m at the end of my rope. If I miss the character because I was too proud, what kind of loss is that?”

Writer Yoo laughed, saying that Maru was right.

“There’s someone who wants it here, so I’ll give it to you. But acting Ahn Chnagsik will be very tough.”

“That’s precisely why I want to do it.”

Writer Yoo reached out his hand, Maru grabbed that hand with both of his hands.

“Try bringing Ahn Changsik to life.”

“Definitely.”

“It’s a bit late, but I’d like to drop the formal speech with you, if it’s okay.”

“Please go ahead.”

Writer Yoo let go and then spoke,

“Okay, yeah. Anyway, thanks for telling me that you want to do it. It really gives me room to breathe. I feel like I just died and revived as a theater writer.”

Myungjoon inwardly sighed in relief.

“Then let’s get on with the meal. It seems like producer Cha is treating us out big time today.”

“Fine, why don’t you strip every penny from me.”

Maru’s hand that was grilling the meat became faster. Myungjoon wanted to have a drink as well, but as everyone had brought cars, they went with just fizzy drinks instead. Running into an accident before the drama even started wouldn’t even be funny.

“Is there an actor you thought would suit the murderer?” Maru asked when they almost finished eating,

“I thought you’d be the perfect man, so I haven’t thought about anyone else. How about you, writer Yoo?”

“No one comes to mind. I was also thinking about Maru.”

“The drama won’t just disband into thin air because the casting doesn’t work out, right?”

Hearing Maru’s words, Myungjoon smiled bitterly.

“Actually, I’m very worried that things might turn out as you said. Even if we’re preparing, if the higher-ups tell me to stop, then that’ll be the end of it.”

“You should voice your opinion to the company that this drama will work.”

“Only people who can take responsibility can say stuff like that. A mere producer like me has no guts to say that. I just pray that they won’t block my way so that we can see through this until the end.”

“You go to church?”

“Should I at this opportunity? I’ll go to church, Maru, you go to a Buddhist temple, and writer Yoo, you go to the Catholic church. I’m sure god will be touched and will help us out.”

Writer Yoo said that they might as well do some shamanistic rituals instead.

“There are still a lot of mountains to cross. We can only proceed with the rest when we’re done casting the main characters.”

“Sounds like you’ll have to work hard, producer Cha, looking for actors who would dip their feet into this precarious drama.”

“If I can’t find anyone, I should just proceed with a public audition for everything and look for a pearl in the sand.”

“If you do that, the TV station will never give you a slot, you know? They won’t sell ads like that.”

“That’s true.”

Actors who were good at acting were large in number if he looked for them. The veteran actors in the play scene were better than most actors that appeared in dramas.

However, for dramas, acting skill wasn’t everything.

For one, people had to watch it. To make people watch, some kind of issue was necessary to attract viewers, and there was nothing that attracted more viewers than popular stars.

That was why star actors who were good at acting received sky-high payments. Everyone wanted that star to be in their work after all.

Sometimes — very rarely — there were dramas that hit huge jackpots with actors without much recognition.

Those works were born through a combination of many things, such as overwhelming production skills, godly acting, the most perfect story, and last but not least, the terrible failure of dramas airing concurrently.

In other words, it was almost impossible.

“For now then, I should go talk to the president about this,” Maru said as they left the restaurant.

He said it was nothing, so Myungjoon didn’t think much of it either at first but then remembered who was at the helm of JA.

“You’re talking about president Lee Junmin, right?”

“Yes.”

“You should contact him politely before visiting him. Things might not work out even if you show him the utmost respect. If you end up getting on his bad side, I can’t take responsibility for that.”

“It’s okay. He’ll probably like it instead, you know? He has been calling me for this past while about when I’m going to decide on my next work.”

“Really? He sounds different from what I imagined.”

“It looks like he’s gained an interest in raising little ducklings from scratch. Anyway, I’ll visit him today and give you a concrete answer by the end of the day.”

Maru left first in his car. Writer Yoo spoke after looking at the disappearing car,

“Now that I thought about it, he’s from JA, isn’t he?”

“Yes.”

“The president there is famous for not knowing failure.”

“He’s a self-made man. He’s also doing other forms of business with flying colors to the point that many are speculating that his job in the entertainment industry is only a hobby.”

“I heard that that’s precisely what makes him care so much about the actors.”

“Yes.”

“Do you think he’ll let Maru do this work? This must be an important period for Maru too.”

“True. Well, Maru said he’d try persuading the president, so we can only believe in him for now.”

Writer Yoo took out a cigarette.

“Even if Maru says yes, there are still problems. Who’s going to play the role of Yoon Hojung?”

“We’ll have to look for one. I’m sure someone will take an interest if I ask around if anyone’s interested in playing an awesome murderer.”

“And he has to be pretty popular too.”

“Let’s not think that far. It’s making me depressed.”

Myungjoon also started smoking.

After Story 163

“You want to do this?” Junmin put down the scenario that Maru brought.

“Yes.”

“You do know that there are five other scenarios that came your way, right?”

“I do.”

“Among them, you should know that there’s a distributor who booked 700 theaters after just seeing the names of the staff and actors involved, right?”

“I do not have the best memory, but I remember that much.”

“And you’re telling me that you are going to reject that movie to do this drama that we don’t even know will work out on a private-owned channel of all places?”

“I guess that’s how it is.”

“Am I supposed to tell you to go ahead?”

“I believe you will.”

His eyes were fixed in the middle and didn’t budge even a little bit. He looked like he had finished thinking about it a long time ago.

Junmin leaned back against the sofa.

“I said this before too. The people I work with all love to be placed in baskets of soju. Rather than being a high-class business card, they want to consolidate their positions as actors while doing the roles they want to do. It’s a good thing in theory.”

Junmin scanned the scenario placed on his desk. It was a work that stimulated an actor’s challenging mindset.

Whether it was the characters or the story, it was a kind of work that was never seen in public TV dramas until now.

The problem was that it was too new. Yes, maybe the masses will get used to this one day, but what about now?

“There will be a fantasy romance in 2011. There are many talks about whether it will work out or not, but since it’s romance, the investment was achieved. But this drama you’re saying you are going to do should be classified as a fantasy mystery, if it can be classified at all.”

“Doesn’t it look interesting?”

“It does. I like fantasy too. Not only that, even domestically, we’re expanding from simply having everything be ghosts and demons in a traditional setting. Even the ones that push on with weird plot twists have all fallen in mannerisms, so we do need something new. But this one, this one’s too heavy and too fresh. They say people want new, fresh things, but they actually look for ones that they’re familiar with.”

Other than gourmets, not many people tried new food. This was the same with movies and music. When they were young, they would readily accept new things, but once they consolidated their preferences and those preferences matured, they would not change. They would want only slight changes.

That was just the nature of animals. Changes mean danger after all.

Even in the realm of hobbies, that kind of nature was bound to be reflected.

There was no special reason why people in the drama industry kept shooting the same content over and over again, despite hearing that they were old-fashioned. They invest in those because the masses want that kind of content.

“If you really wish to do it, then I don’t plan to hold you back. When I signed a contract with you as the CEO of the company known as JA, we decided that I will accept whatever work you strongly want to do.”

“What do you think of this as a businessperson?”

Junmin placed his hand on the armrest of the sofa. He scratched the leather with his fingertip slightly and spoke,

“If I have to invest in this drama, I will only invest a small amount. In terms of stocks, this is the chump change of stock exchanges. It also serves as a thematic stock. With a single issue, it can rise ever so higher every day.”

“And conversely, it might fall every day due to an issue and…”

“Eventually be delisted.”

“Hearing that from your mouth directly made me flinch.”

Junmin looked at Maru.

Right now, Maru was in a position where he could consolidate his level as a supporting character. The scenarios coming his way were all good as well. But Maru chose to go with a not-so-safe lead character rather than a surefire supporting character.

“Is the reason you’re pushing this drama just because you’re the lead character?”

“I don’t really mind my weight in the story. I’m not saying that it doesn’t matter at all, but it’s not a priority. I chose this drama because I liked the story and the character.”

“You know what it means to play a lead character in a failed drama, right? If you don’t have any foundation, you might fall for good just from that.”

“I still want to do it.”

Despite telling him the risks, Maru seemed to have not changed his decision.

Junmin nodded with a smile.

“Fine. Go ahead then, this might be an opportunity for you.”

“Thank you.”

“Don’t thank me. It’s your life. If it turns out good, then it’s thanks to you, and if it does bad, then it’s your fault. I’ll tell Yeonjin to adjust your schedule, so focus on the drama. Also, since you’re here, let’s shoot a profile for you as well.”

“A profile?”

“It’s about time you appear on our website. Until now, you only had your name and a couple of lines of career listed. In the industry, there are people who look for you quite frequently, but the public does not know you yet. If you start a drama in this situation, you won’t get a boost, and we have some time until the end of the year when the drama airs for the first time, so I have to make you known as much as possible before then.”

Junmin opened the door and left. He stopped secretary Kim from standing up.

“Miss Jungyeon, I’ll be on the second floor for a bit.”

“Yes, president.”

“If there are any calls coming my way, please redirect them to me.”

“Yes, sir. Oh, sir, president Park Jeonho from Hanjun Group says he wishes to delay the dinner appointment by an hour. What would you like to do?”

“If he can’t make it, then tell him to delay it until next time. He’ll probably call again saying that he’ll come in time.”

“I’ll tell him that.”

On their way to the elevator, Maru spoke,

“If things don’t work out for me as an actor, do you think I can get a job here?”

“As an employee, not an actor? Where did you go to college?”

“I have a high school diploma.”

“You’ll fail before the interview stage. Don’t even dream of it.”

“How meticulous of you.”

Junmin smiled and got on the elevator with Maru.

* * *

Kim Jungyeon stayed standing until president Lee Junmin and the actor disappeared before sitting down. It had been more than a year since she started working as a secretary, but she still felt nervous whenever she talked to the president.

“Miss Jungyeon, where’s the president?”

“He went to the 2nd floor with Mr. Han Maru.”

“Is it for the profile shoot then? Did you tell him about the dinner with Hanjun group?”

“Yes, senior.”

“Well done. Now I should be able to leave everything to you and leave the company.”

Jungyeon waved her hand in denial.

“Please don’t say that. I’ll be in big trouble without you, senior. I found myself frozen stiff when I talked face-to-face with him just now.”

“Isn’t it about time you adapt? The president isn’t some kind of grim reaper.”

“Right. He really looks out for me, but whenever we make eye contact, it happens anyway. This isn’t coming from the difference in position as the CEO and an employee; it is a matter of innate nature.”

“Innate nature?”

“You know, it’s like how frogs freeze up in front of a snake.”

“Miss Jungyeon, since when were you a frog?”

The senior smiled and looked at his watch.

“Did you get the president’s suit?”

“No, I was just about to leave.”

“I’ll go get it then. I have some business to do at a bank. Should I buy you some coffee on the way back?”

“That’d be great.”

“Wait a little then. I’ll buy some macarons too.”

“Please be on your way.”

Jungyeon organized the schedule and had a look at the email. She had to be on full alert as there were dozens of business-related emails coming in every single day.

Though, the most important emails were directly sent to the CEO’s address, so that was good.

“Is the president inside?”

It was head manager Choi. He was holding a puppy.

“No, he just went down to the 2nd floor.”

“This guy… he called me up here too.”

Head manager Choi was one of the very few people who could call the president ‘this guy’ in the company. After twitching his eyes, head manager Choi exclaimed before frowning.

“Hey, you should’ve said something if you wanted to pee.”

Head manager Choi placed the puppy down on the floor. Jungyeon pulled out some boxed tissues and gave them to head manager Choi.

“Miss Jungyeon, I’m sorry, but please take care of this one for a moment.”

“I will, please go to the bathroom.”

Head manager Choi grumbled and undid the buttons of his shirt, which had dog pee on it.

Jungyeon crouched down and looked at the puppy with its chin on the floor. From the appearance, it seemed to be a Welsh Corgi.

When she patted its head carefully, it became happy.

“Do you have a name?”

The puppy barked in a small voice as though it understood her. She found that cute.

“How old are you? Are you male or female?”

Just as she was touching the puppy all over the place and talking to herself…

“It’s a male.”

She heard a voice above her. When she raised her head, she found a man looking down at her. She was so absorbed with the puppy that she didn’t notice someone approaching.

Jungyeon stood up with the puppy in her arms.

“The company has good welfare, bringing pets to work.”

“No, it’s not like that…”

Jungyeon scanned the man from top to bottom as she responded.

He had an old-fashioned hair perm that even old ladies these days wouldn’t do and was wearing a pair of sunglasses with tiger stripes for the frame. His beard was messy as though he hadn’t shaved for months.

He was also wearing a beach shirt and tight shorts, finishing up with black socks and sandals.

While she didn’t think of herself as fashionable enough to advise other people, she really wanted to say a word or two to the man in front of her.

“Fashionable, aren’t I?”

“Eh?”

“Aren’t I stylish?”

Stylish… Jungyeon looked at the magazine placed next to her office computer. There was a photo shoot of actors who could be called the definition of ‘stylish.’

On its cover was Yang Ganghwan, one of the main stars of JA.

He had a handsome face, a bright smile, and even the clothes he was wearing were neat. His boasting expression was the epitome of dandyism.

That was stylish. Not socks and sandals.

“Yes, well, it’s unique.”

She came to herself and returned to her original occupation.

“This is the president’s office. Do you have a prior appointment?”

“I don’t. Do I have to?”

“Obviously, right?”

“I see. I didn’t know. Then should I get an appointment now?”

“Er, I’m sorry, but we aren’t accepting on-day appointments unless it’s a special occasion.”

“That puts me in a fix.”

Just then, the dog in her arms suddenly wiggled before jumping out. She reached out her arms in surprise, but the man was quicker.

Being in the man’s arm, the puppy wagged its tail a lot, as though it knew the man from before.

“Oh, it’s you. I thought I saw you somewhere,” said the man as he pushed up his sunglasses.

Jungyeon was surprised when she saw the eyes and nose hidden behind the thick glasses frames.

He looked quite decent, contrary to his weird appearance. No, his face looked handsome.

She felt like she had seen him somewhere before too. Just as she was feeling a strange sense of déjà vu, the man grinned before opening the door to the president’s office.

“Hey! You can’t just go in like that.”

She quickly followed in. There she saw the man grabbing some papers on the desk. She immediately went up to him.

“Hey.”

“Wait a bit,” said the man, giving her the puppy.

Jungyeon inadvertently received the dog. The man pushed up his sunglasses and looked at the paper.

“What’s this now?”

“Do you want me to call security?”

“Don’t bother. Even if people from security come over, I won’t be thrown out.”

This was the first time she had seen someone so audacious. The fact that he came up all the way here meant that he had a visitor ID or an employee ID, but what made him act so bold?

“What are you doing over there?”

It was her senior’s voice. The moment she saw her senior holding some coffee, Jungyeon rushed out.

“Senior! I told that person he can’t come, but he went inside and…”

Contrary to her expectations that her senior would shout at the man, he spoke warmly,

“When did you come? What the heck is that outfit you’re in?”

“My casual clothes. It’s been a while, secretary Kang.”

“Yes, it has been. But didn’t you say you were coming tomorrow?”

“I had some free time so I came. Where’s the president?”

“You should go to the 2nd floor. He’s there.”

“Thanks.”

The man left while holding the paper. Jungeyon stood dumbfounded before asking her senior,

“Senior, do you know that person?”

Her senior frowned, looking at her like he couldn’t understand.

“You really didn’t recognize him?”

“I don’t know him.”

“But you said you were a fan of his.”

“What?”

“You told me you were a huge fan of his, yet you don’t recognize him? Well, I guess I didn’t recognize him at first either. That person’s appearance totally changes during break season.”

The senior left the room. Jungyeon followed and asked,

“So who is he?”

“You’ll regret it, you know?”

“Who the heck is he that I will end up regretting?”

“I’m sure you’ll regret it.”

The senior pointed at the magazine on the desk. She was unable to understand.

“What?”

“This person is that person.”

She looked at the photo of Yang Ganghwan, which lay at the end of what he pointed at. She chuckled and shook her head.

“Don’t lie to me. There’s just no way.”

“You’re saying that, but you can put the puzzle together in your head, right?”

Jungyeon thought back to the man from before.

Changing his weirdo fashion to something neater, carving some flesh out of his facial line, shaving his beard, and…

“Holy shit.”

“See, I told you you’ll regret it,” the senior smiled.

After Story 164

“Why’s it so hard to see your face?” said the man who opened the door to the studio.

The man with the weird fashion immediately headed to the president.

“What’s up with that outfit?” asked the president.

From how a smile crept onto his face the moment he arrived, the two of them seemed to be very close.

“Maru, say hello.”

Maru left the range of the lights and approached the two people.

The man took off his sunglasses. The moment Maru saw the eyes that contained depth, he realized the identity of the man.

“So you’re him. Nice to meet ya.”

“Pleased to meet you, senior.”

“Do you recognize who I am?”

“Aren’t you senior Yang Ganghwan?”

“You recognized me instantly, huh? Well, I guess my appearance isn’t something that can be hidden. I was just born too handsome.”

Ganghwan threw jokes around on their first meeting.

Maru shook hands with Ganghwan with a smile. Just through this greeting, he was able to find out what kind of person Yang Ganghwan was: someone full of energy who made those around them enjoy themselves. He was similar to the numerous Yang Ganghwans he had met in previous lives.

“Didn’t you say you were coming tomorrow?” asked the president.

“I had some free time, so I came a day early. But hey, you have a new secretary, huh.”

“It’s been a year since she started working.”

“To think such a beauty joined the company in my sabbatical year… Had I known earlier, I would’ve eaten out with her.”

“Stop saying something like that and get married already. Thirty-six is late enough, isn’t it?”

“I can’t drive a nail through the hearts of the many women who cherish me, can I? I’ll share this overflowing love with a lot more people before getting married.”

“The people who say that always get into unwanted marriages. Though, looking at your appearance right now, forget marriage, I doubt you’ll be able to date anyone.”

“You really don’t know a thing about fashion, president. It’s no wonder that you wear nothing but a suit. It’s too classic. These days, young people are focused on expressing their creativity, like I am.”

Maru received a gaze from Ganghwan asking for agreement. He couldn’t really nod. While Ganghwan was right, his current appearance was closer to deconstructive fashion. It was hard to call it ‘creativity.’

“The young fellow says no.” The president clicked his tongue. “And what’s that in your hand?”

His eyes looked at the paper that Ganghwan was holding. It was a piece of A4 paper folded in half twice.

“Oh, this? It was in your office.”

Ganghwan opened the paper. It was the scenario that producer Cha gave. But why did senior Ganghwan have it?

“It looks like a new work that’s starting soon. Did it come to the company?”

“To be precise, Maru brought it to me, saying that he wants to do it.”

“Really?”

Ganghwan looked at him. The sunglasses on his head slipped down and covered his eyes. Maru could see Ganghwan’s pupils moving on the other side of the black glass. They were eyes that revealed interest and greed without holding back.

“I really enjoyed ‘Depths of Evil.’ It’s been a while since I watched a movie twice in the cinema.”

“Thank you.”

“The fact that you got this scenario must be because of casting the murderer character, right?”

“Yes.”

Ganghwan slowly lifted up his glasses. His eyes which looked full of vitality became dejected. Maru could feel the intense disappointment.

“Too bad, too bad. I can’t exactly take away the work of one of my own family members.”

Ganghwan handed him the paper. Maru received the paper and spoke,

“The role I was offered was Yoon Hojung, but I refused. Instead, it was decided that I’m going to play Ahn Changsik.”

“Really?”

Ganghwan’s dejected face brightened up again.

“Did you hear anything from the producer or the writer during the casting? About who’s going to play Yoon Hojung?”

“No, there shouldn’t be anyone for the time being. They just started casting.”

“When did you get the offer?”

“Today at lunch.”

“No wonder I wanted to come to the company today, not tomorrow. I really have great luck.”

Ganghwan snatched the scenario in Maru’s hand again.

“Who’s the producer?”

“Producer Cha Myungjoon.”

“Oh, it’s Myungjoon-hyung? If he was planning something like this, he should’ve given me a call first.”

Ganghwan took out his phone and then looked at the president.

“Oh, president, I’m doing this, okay?”

“You don’t even want to know what TV station it is, what the production budget is like, nor where the shoot is happening, do you?”

“Obviously.”

“You’re going to fall hard if you keep doing that.”

“President. How can someone keep being successful? A life without ups and downs is no fun. If I do it and it doesn’t go well, then I’m just getting what I deserve, and if it does go well, it’s a blessing. And you know how it is. I have great luck.”

“I can’t deny that.”

Ganghwan put his phone against his ear.

“Hyung, it’s me. How have you been doing?”

Ganghwan winked before leaving the studio.

“Quite hectic, isn’t he?” said the president.

“He’s energetic.”

“Too energetic for his own good. He told me he was going to play around to the fullest for one year, but I see he still has energy left over.”

“Do you think he’ll really do a drama for a private-owned channel? There should be problems with payment because of the production budget.”

“That guy will definitely be more than willing to do it. He will not find it wasteful if he invests in something as long as he likes it. As for money, he already has had a lot of fun with real estate, so I don’t think he has attachments to that.”

“I’m envious.”

“You wanna live like that too?”

“Isn’t owning a building the dream of the working population? You rent it out and go traveling overseas every other week and play golf.”

“That’s a good dream you have there. Are kids these days all like you?”

“Probably?”

Ganghwan opened the door and came back inside. He walked over to Maru with a huge grin on his face and hung an arm around his shoulder.

“I almost missed something fun. Thanks to you, I got a good character.”

“Are you really doing it?”

“I am. I got the feels from the scenario alone, so how interesting would it be if I get the whole thing? The writer said he wrote everything until the end, so there should be less of a worry about getting last-minute scripts. I didn’t want to do something boring as my comeback piece, so this is good.”

Ganghwan took his arm off.

“Before we start working, we should have some time to get to know each other, don’t you think? I really can’t work with people when I find them uncomfortable. How’s dinner?”

“I’m free.”

“President, should we go for a big round of soju?”

President Lee Junmin shook his head.

“I’m forbidden from drinking for a while.”

“Why?”

“Why do you think?”

Ganghwan squinted his eyes before clicking his finger.

“So it’s your wife. Well, that can’t be helped then. Also, if you think about it, it’s about time you look out for your health. Then let’s forget booze and go eat some healthy sushi. I have a lot to talk about, you know? I’ll tell you all the spectacular things I’ve experienced during the past year. I should really be getting paid for this, but this is what being a family is about, right?”

Ganghwan’s lips never ceased to move even after that. It was as if he would get in big trouble if his lips stayed sealed for more than five seconds.

As he was talking about his episodes in Hawaii, Ganghwan looked around before suddenly coming to a stop. Was it finally over now?

“Oh, now that I think about it, you two were working huh? I’ll tell you the rest over dinner, so you should finish up your work. I’ll look for a nice place to eat out, so just give me a message once you’re done.”

“…Alright,” president Lee Junmin responded in an exhausted voice.

Even though it was Ganghwan doing the talking, it was he and the president whose stamina had decreased.

Ganghwan left the studio, saying that they should meet up later.

“He’s way too energetic.”

“It was the biggest regret of my life to sign a contract with him without knowing what that mouth could be like.”

“You are going to come with me to the meal, right?”

“If someone has to die, then it’d be better if only one of us goes.”

The president patted him on the shoulder before picking up his phone.

“Miss Jungyeon, regarding the dinner appointment with the president of Hanjun group, tell him I’ll be there right now. If you tell him that I’ll be visiting him, he won’t say anything.”

The president hung up with a fresh smile.

“President?”

“Enjoy your meal with Ganghwan and listen to his stories. It’ll be better if you could hear all of it so that he doesn’t come to talk to me about it next time.”

The president asked the photographer to take care of Maru before turning around.

Maru sighed and palmed his face. He felt exhausted already when he thought about listening to the energy-draining story through the course of an entire meal.

What scared him even more was that he would have to work with that chatterbox throughout the whole shoot of the drama.

“Mr. Maru. Let’s resume, shall we?”

“Yes.”

He smiled as he sat down on the seat.

“Your expression is good, but be a little brighter.”

“Yes, brighter, right?”

He forced himself to smile.

* * *

“What’s up with your face?” Haneul said as he looked at Maru opening the door.

His skin was dry like he had aged years, and his eyes were dark. As far as she knew, he didn’t have any difficult schedule today.

“I met senior Ganghwan,” Maru said on the spot.

His eyes were looking at the floor. Haneul felt pity when she looked at the foolish face.

“That’s a good thing.”

“Yeah, it’s a good thing.”

“Did something happen?”

“No.”

Maru staggered his way to the room. Haneul followed in worry.

Flopping onto the bed, her husband buried his face between the pillow and the duvet. He was like a surprised ostrich.

“Honey.”

“Yeah?”

“Watch out for talkative people. They can kill with their words alone. Also, no Hawaii. There’s too much to talk about from that place.”

“Er, okay.”

“No India either.”

“…Should I turn off the lights for you?”

The pillow moved up and down; it seemed he nodded. Haneul turned off the lights and quietly closed the door to the bedroom.

“What was that?”

He didn’t look that tired when he came back after a tough shoot in Daegu. Just how intense of a battle did he have at his company? Was president Lee Junmin against his decision?

That shouldn’t be true. She scratched her cheek before opening the door again. Her husband had fallen asleep already.

“I don’t know what it is, but good work today.”

She picked up the tickets she placed on the table. It was the VIP premiere invitation tickets that the distributor prepared. The actors were going to be attending as well to have a small talk.

“Looks like I’ll have to give this to him tomorrow.”

Haneul stretched her arms out before turning around. She could hear faint snoring from inside the room. Maybe she should make him some good food tomorrow. Watching out for one’s stamina while young was a good thing after all.

She grabbed the cat that was trying to scratch the door to the bedroom and headed to the sofa.

* * *

He had been excited since morning. He really hadn’t felt like this in a while.

Na Baekhoon headed to Yeongdeungpo, where the VIP premiere was being held. He parked his car at the department store that had a cinema multiplex and went up to the 7th floor. People were flocking already.

Director Lee Sooae, who only talked about the depths of the hearts of men and women to create sometimes dirty and sometimes innocent movies, had tried her hand at action for the first time. That should’ve been enough of an attraction.

On top of that, Yoo Hanbyul played the role of ‘Junga,’ the main character. It was the comeback piece of a beauty actress, so many people should be looking forward to it.

However, the reason Baekhoon was here at the VIP premiere was not because of the director or Hanbyul. It was to see the actress that played ‘Myung.’

The journalists were flocking to the photo line.

Na Baekhoon also approached the photo zone. There were movie promotion panels installed on the inside of the safety line. Actors would soon stand there.

“Unni!”

Someone’s shout made everyone else’s heads turn. The actors were appearing.

After Story 165

The actors stepped into the photo zone on the carpet. While the journalists took photos, scattering light everywhere, the civilians raised their phones to take photos of the actors.

“There is time after the premiere, so we’ll briefly introduce ourselves for now. Miss Yoo Hanbyul, please go first.”

The mic was given to Yoo Hanbyul.

“Hello. It’s Yoo Hanbyul. I’m really grateful that you came all the way here in this heat. Since I did my best in this movie, I hope you all will enjoy it.”

When she put down the mic after finishing her words, another round of camera flashes covered the scene. With all the lights flickering everywhere, it wouldn’t be surprising if she found it displeasing, but Yoo Hanbyul did not bat an eyelid.

Following that, Jung Haseok received the mic.

“Jung Haseok here. It wasn’t just me. All the actors here did not hold themselves back when they shot the film. I’m sure you will not feel an ounce of boredom, so please enjoy.”

The third one to hold the mic was Han Haneul.

Only now did Baekhoon raise his camera that he had not been using before. He could see Han Haneul wearing a loose-fit shirt through the viewfinder.

“Pleased to meet you. I’m Han Haneul. Please enjoy the movie and say lots of good things about it.”

Her clean teeth which were revealed as she smiled faintly while putting down the microphone were charming.

Journalists who look at a person rather than their popularity must have noticed Han Haneul’s beauty. If they haven’t, then they did not have any talent as journalists.

Haneul quietly looked around. She was being mindful of making herself seen from all angles for the journalists.

Baekhoon also used this opportunity to shoot many photos.

Suddenly, he spotted a moment when Haneul’s eyes became minutely different. It was a kind of gaze that couldn’t be noticed without detailed observation.

He looked in the direction that Haneul was looking. It was where the general audience was standing.

Baekhoon discovered a man among the numerous people in the crowd. He instinctively knew that that man was the person Haneul was exchanging looks with.

He took a photo of that man with his camera. He felt like he had seen the man from somewhere, but nothing came to his mind at the moment.

A family member, a friend, or perhaps a lover. Among the three, Baekhoon thought that he was likely to be Haneul’s lover, the man that Jung Dawoon aimed for.

Baekhoon took a photo of that man a few more times before putting down the camera. Haneul was putting on an elegant face as though none of that just now had happened and looked forward.

The last one to receive the mic was the director. After director Lee Sooae’s introduction, the photo time finished as well.

Amidst the fans who kept shouting, ‘you’re pretty’, ‘you’re cool’, the actors walked past.

“The counter where you can exchange your invitations with tickets will be different according to your invitation, so please check the noticeboard before getting your tickets.”

Hearing the employee’s voice, the people started moving. Baekhoon went to the ticketing counter on the left side of the theater entrance with his invitation.

“Your invitation has been checked. Please take this gift and drink. Once you go to the entrance, another employee will guide you.”

It was a large-scale VIP premiere that rented out an entire multiplex. Although it was called VIP premiere in name, the ones who were treated like VIPs were only those invited to watch in the first theater. The talk with the actors only happened in the first theater after all.

Baekhoon sat in row F. He had a middle seat where he could see the screen well.

The A row was empty, and he could see journalists sitting down behind it. Those journalists should be from media outlets that were quite well-known. There was a considerable number of actors as well, who should be actors close to the cast.

“Designer, fancy seeing you here.”

A woman walking past him talked to him. She was an actress that modeled for his clothing brand once before.

Baekhoon responded with a nod.

“Yes, it has been quite a while.”

“You never called me after telling me that we should eat together last time. I’m rather sad.”

“I’m sorry. I was so busy that I wasn’t able to keep up with my personal appointments.”

“I’m sure you are since you’re doing clothes design, brand business, and even movies. But please do make some time for me.”

“I’ll definitely make some time to contact you.”

“Don’t forget this time.”

The woman smiled and walked past him. While she was a good actress and a splendid model, she did not enter his eyes right now. His interest was solely focused on Han Haneul.

Back during the photo shoot, he saw that she was complete as a model. Her expressions, poses, and even her atmosphere were flawless.

How would she be as an actress then? Baekhoon felt like he was going crazy because of his curiosity.

A few actors, journalists, and businesspeople recognized him and greeted him.

While he was returning the greetings politely, a big shot entered his eyes. He, who was greeting people while seated, stood up and walked towards the entrance.

“President.”

He walked up to president Lee Junmin, who was trying to quietly enter the theater. Lee Junmin stroked his glasses frame and spoke,

“If it isn’t director Na.”

He also ran an art gallery, so he was used to being called director. He cautiously grabbed the hand that Lee Junmin held out.

“I didn’t know I’d see you here. It’s been half a year since I saw you at the general meeting.”

“So it’s been that long already. I’ve been hearing a lot of news about you, director Na. How are the preparations for the movie going?”

“It’s been giving me headaches from the beginning, but I’m having so much fun that I don’t even feel the time passing.”

“Don’t push yourself too hard and go easy. Some of the directors I know were clicking their tongues when they found out that you’re making a movie. They’re thinking that you’re going to take over the movie industry too.”

“How much can a rookie movie director achieve? I’m just placing importance on the fact that I’m trying. How are you doing recently, president?”

“I’m the same as always. I do work and spend the rest of my time looking after my dogs.”

“That hasn’t changed.”

“The older I got, the more scared I became to try out new things. Oh, Ganghwan’s going to start working again.”

“So it’s been a year already. How is he? Do you think that he exhausted himself in the past year having fun?”

President Lee Junmin, who always maintained a poker face, frowned, saying that he was agonized. It seemed that Ganghwan’s chatterbox nature hadn’t changed.

“Looks like I should ignore any incoming calls for a while.”

“Avoid him as much as possible. I’m not sure if that will even work, though. Ganghwan talked about you, saying that you really listen to him quite well.”

“The single biggest mistake I made as a businessperson is becoming drinking friends with Ganghwan," Baekhoon said with a smile.

The person he thought of as a role model, both as an artist and as a businessman, was Lee Junmin.

The reason he didn’t stop at just being a designer and tried out various other forms of business was also the influence of president Lee Junmin.

If his ultimate objective was to discover the hidden beauties of the world and reveal them to the world, one of his trivial objectives was to compete with Lee Junmin.

Although it was obvious that he was going to lose, he could be satisfied just thinking that he once stood on the same level as him. No, if such a day ever arrived, he would feel honored.

While talking to president Lee Junmin, he realized that someone was standing a few steps behind the president. It was the man he had taken photos of ago a while back.

When he fixed his eyes on the man, president Lee Junmin also turned his head around. At that time, the man spoke,

“I was wondering if I saw the right person, and it was you, after all, president,” the man said as he came over.

He seemed to be acquainted with president Lee Junmin?

“You’re here too?”

President Lee Junmin spoke comfortably with the man, indicating that they were on close terms even in private. Just what kind of relationship would a man in his 20s have with the president…

Then, a name came to his mind. Baekhoon knew who that man was. He knew his name even.

At the beginning of the year, he watched the movie that this man appeared in three times at the cinema and twice after downloading it through his smart TV.

The man in front of him was the very man behind the character that he watched with admiration. The reason he wasn’t able to remember right away was because of the dramatic difference in appearance and atmosphere to ‘Gomchi.’

“I wonder if you know him, director Na. This is…”

Before the president finished his words, he reached out to the man first, speaking with glee and admiration.

“Mr. Han Maru, right? I’m Na Baekhoon, and I do various things.”

“Pleased to meet you. I’m Han Maru. Forgive me if I’m wrong, but are you perhaps the designer of Eterium…”

“Yes, I am. I’m happy that you know.”

Just as he was about to say a few more words, the lights on the ceiling were turned off. An employee came in and notified everyone that the movie was going to start soon.

“Let us talk later.”

He said goodbye to president Lee Junmin before returning to his seat. As he sat down, he put together the puzzle pieces in his head. If what he predicted was right, Han Maru and Han Haneul were dating.

He soon understood why Jung Dawoon was desirous of Han Maru. In terms of acting skills at least, Han Maru was exceptional and without equal among his peers. If he had a good nature on top of that, it wasn’t surprising that she wanted to steal him away.

He thought back to the acting that Han Maru showed in the movie. That man managed to display a dirty and evil man very meticulously. The character looked so complete that it was hard to think about Gomchi being played by some actor other than Han Maru.

The character was evil, but the process of showing it was the epitome of beauty. He could guarantee that Han Maru was an artist, just that his way of expression was through acting. He admired and loved actors who were also artists.

“I really can’t win against president Lee.”

The actors affiliated with JA were all so flawless. No, as they were human, they probably had some flaws, but they were actors who possessed the power to use their flaws to their advantage.

Han Maru and Han Haneul. These two were people who possessed the beauty that he pursued. They suited each other. It suddenly felt terrible that a mere Jung Dawoon tried to butt in between them and that he tried to help her do so.

If his predictions were wrong and the two didn’t have any sort of relationship, he even wanted to step in and tie the two together. How beautiful would the product of two perfections be? He found himself pleased just by imagining it.

A few of his friends that he talked about everything to always teased him saying that he was a pervert whose fetish was beauty. They were right to an extent. Well, it was at least great that it wasn’t some perverse lust that could be problematic.

After the commercial for the distribution company, the movie began.

He dearly wished that Han Haneul’s acting was above his expectations. After all, only then would he be able to see the ensemble of two perfect actors: Han Maru and Han Haneul.

Along with a gunshot sound, the screen brightened up. He focused on the movie.

* * *

The ceiling lights turned on and the ending credits started rolling. Lee Junmin uncrossed his arms and breathed out through his nose.

The acting, the set, the CG, the sound — everything was okay, except… for the story.

The story lost its drive further into the movie. It was a stereotypical movie that failed at balancing intensity.

There must have been some words about it during the internal premiere, but if this was the final result, then it was clear that there was a problem with it during the planning stage.

While the movie left him with many disappointments, there were many scenes that left a deep impression on him. Just that, it came as a surprise to him that it was a new actress that created those scenes. Han Haneul was an incredibly charming actress.

Junmin took out his phone and looked her up. Unfortunately, there was an agency she was contracted to.

After the ending credits were over, the actors came up on stage.

Director Lee Sooae’s expression was rather dark. She must have realized that there were a lot of insufficiencies in the movie.

“Well, then. There will be a talking session,” said the host.

Junmin quietly stood up. He couldn’t stay here until the end as he had a prior appointment. He left behind a short word of goodbye to director Na on his way out.

As he left through the exit, he looked at Han Haneul, who was holding the mic.

“I wonder how long there is left of her contract.”

He thought about some new work to give to head manager Choi as he left the cinema.

After Story 166

The beginning sequences were good. They showed each person’s definition of justice and imbued a sense of expectation for the events about to occur.

The dry conversational tone, combined with the dark and desolate background created tension, and the mix of action on top of that increased the immersion. Based on the beginning parts alone, it could be considered the birth of a well-made espionage movie, but it lost its focus after the halfway point.

Yoo Hanbyul, the main actress, wasn’t so bad in her acting. The action scenes were sliced up into many cuts so that it wouldn’t look awkward.

Haneul did more than enough, and there weren’t any glaring flaws among the remaining actors either.

Ultimately, it came down to the story.

It was when an independence fighter disguised as a Japanese officer had his identity exposed. The main character was no longer the center of attention. This was a failure of scene distribution.

The movie, which described the story in order of progression using events and scenes, started explaining the story through the words of the characters.

One of the characters would talk a lot to clear up the context.

If used well, this technique could compress the story and add to the tension of the story, but director Lee Sooae ended up creating an explaining character for the sake of convenience. She probably realized this when editing.

If there was enough time and budget, the storytelling method would have changed. However, that was one of the most common excuses a director could make in this world.

Creating a decent product using limited resources without making mistakes — that was supposed to be the work of the director and the production crew.

As director Lee Sooae always used to produce emotional movies, this movie should have come as a challenge to her. While it could be said to be not a bad first attempt, movies were a cultural business. In a business where everything was about money, who could laugh in contentment at the assessment of ‘not bad?’

Maru looked at director Lee Sooae on stage. Although she spoke with a smile whenever she held the mic, there was a shade cast over her face whenever she looked at the actors.

She probably felt bitter and probably angry at herself too. She might even feel wronged. After all, she might not have been able to shoot to her heart’s content due to the pressure of budget.

However, whatever happened in the process of creation was not the audience’s business. If a movie they spent ten thousand won for a ticket ended up being rather lukewarm, the words they speak would be negative.

“If there’s something you think you could improve on, what do you think it would be?” one of the journalists asked the director.

“There are so many things I want to improve on, so it’s hard to pick just one, but I really wish I had more time to shoot.”

“Do you think the ending would’ve been different if you were given more time?”

“The ending would’ve stayed the same, but the process of reaching there would have changed a lot. That’s why I feel sorry for the actors even now.”

Usually, people would only say good things at public events, but if the director was blatantly expressing her apologetic feelings and disappointment, then it seemed that there were some complex issues behind it.

The journalist no longer asked anything either. A journalist crazy for controversy would’ve pried more into this, but it seemed this journalist knew some etiquette.

“Miss Han Haneul’s acting was rather impressive, especially the scene where she was being tortured and eventually died. What were you thinking when you were shooting it?”

Haneul picked up the mic. Maru focused so that he could hear his wife’s voice.

“That’s a very broad question. If you ask what I was thinking, then I can only say that I was thinking about a lot of things. I had to think about my line, the feelings of the character, and the movement of the other actors. Of course, the director who’s racking her brain as well.”

Director Lee Sooae smiled a little. She looked like she was a little relieved by Haneul’s words.

The journalist that asked Haneul the question was slightly taken aback and asked again,

“You were playing an independence fighter who died, right?”

“Yes.”

“Your acting was really delicate. Did you do that scene with the heart of an independence fighter?”

“I can predict what kind of answer you want, but I only shot that scene as an actress.”

The journalist froze up and stared at her in a daze. Haneul smiled and continued to speak,

“While I played the role of an independence fighter, how much of the pain would I possibly need to know to say I could understand what those people actually experienced? I’m ashamed to even say that I understand how they felt. It must not be the kind of pain that I could possibly imagine. I only displayed what I’ve once experienced according to the situation.”

“Ah, yes. Thank you for your answer.”

Maru covered his mouth and faintly laughed. Haneul’s answer prevented any kind of weird news articles from being written.

After that, the journalist asked more blatant questions for the sake of their articles.

One of the actors, who was gaining a lot of popularity in a recent drama, was asked about the drama instead of the movie. Despite the actor showing a sense of displeasure, the journalist did not hold back.

Still, that much was okay.

“Mr. Jung Haseok. According to an article that was released a little while ago, you’re supposedly in a romantic relationship with the idol Yuni. Is this true?”

Jung Haseok, one of the main actors, picked up the mic.

“It’s a misunderstanding. Miss Yuni and I are just close friends.”

“To call it that, there are reports of you two meeting in front of a hotel.”

“I only said hello near the shooting location I was at.”

“And that place happened to be in front of a hotel?”

“Excuse me, sir, but I would like it if you could refrain from asking questions unrelated to the movie.”

“The movie is one thing, but don’t you think people would like this kind of news as well? It should positively influence the advertisement for the movie. It’s not like dating is a sin, so why don’t you tell us the truth?”

Not to mention Jung Haseok, the expression of Yoo Hanbyul next to him also froze. An employee from the cinema approached the journalist and took the mic away from him. The journalist smiled and shouted with his raw voice, asking if he wasn’t dating Yuni.

“We hope you can ask questions related to the movie.” The host eventually had to step in. However, that didn’t work either.

The members of the ordinary audience also started whispering among each other and took out their phones to look it up. The other journalists that received the mic also brought up the topic of dating and asked Jung Haseok related questions.

Maru didn’t know who Yuni was. The best he could remember was that she was a member of a top-tier idol group and that she was in her early twenties.

“Wasn’t there anything uncomfortable about dating an idol who’s more than a decade younger than you?” someone shouted.

When the general audience started showing interest, the journalists started shouting their questions without using the mic. The host then stepped in, seemingly having judged that there was going to be no progress like this.

“We’d like to conclude the premiere here. Everyone, please say a word of goodbye. You first, director.”

Everyone left behind a short goodbye message as though they were exhausted.

Thank you for coming, please watch the movie when it’s released, et cetera.

It was when Jung Haseok, who was on the far left, was given the mic,

“Don’t live like that and do your work properly. It’s because of actions like that that you’re being called trash. Okay?”

After mocking the journalists, the actor threw the mic roughly on the ground.

Maru smiled bitterly. Sure, he could understand the actor’s feelings. It must have felt like becoming a toy. However, he had endured until then, so he should’ve endured until he stepped down from the stage.

The journalists in the front row all started pressing their shutters. They managed to get a scoop on a scene where an actor threw the mic on the ground in anger, so they would be delighted to write articles about it.

The title would be something like ‘Actor Jung Haseok, someone who frequently verbally abuses the journalists that ask him questions,’ or something along those lines.

Some actors compared journalists in the entertainment industry to maggots: beings that survive by leeching off other people’s wounds.

They would write absurd articles based on intuitive evidence alone, and they would avoid all responsibility by writing a couple of lines of ‘correction’ in a later article if they happened to be wrong. It was natural to feel angry when seeing such people.

However, ultimately, public figures had to use journalists as a way to promote themselves in the eyes of the public. It would be rather troublesome if they made those journalists their enemies.

Maru sighed as he looked at Haneul leaving.

This was one of the hardships of actors. No matter how great they were by themselves, movies were a combined art form, and there was a limit to how much one person could do by themself. A topic of gossip appeared as well, so the participants of the movie would be feeling headaches by now.

Though, as for his wife, she would probably smile it off because she was used to something like this.

“It makes me displeased looking at them.”

Na Baekhoon had come to his side.

He was a man who showed interest in his wife. That fact alone didn’t make him angry or displeased. After all, Haneul was no ordinary woman. In fact, he would’ve been more suspicious instead if he didn’t have any feelings after seeing his wife in person.

“Looks like this will become quite an issue in a different way, even though they must want to be assessed by the work.”

“Can’t a movie become successful like this too? Well, not that I really like it either.”

“Err…,” Maru trailed off and looked at Na Baekhoon. He didn’t know what to call this man. Would ‘president’ be good?

“You can call me however you’d like. Director, designer, president, manager… I have a lot of titles.”

“Did you find the movie boring?”

“I just don’t like soap operas in general, especially if it’s about nationalism. I do like them if they’re done right, but director Lee Sooae used her talent for emotional production in a weird spot. She exerted too much of her influence for parts that needed to be dry, so it couldn’t be helped that the movie fell apart.”

Even someone from the general masses that was walking past them to leave was saying that the movie was not that good.

From how even the general public was not giving it a good assessment adding on top of the critics, it seemed that this movie wasn’t going to be successful.

“Mr. Maru.” Baekhoon sat down next to him. While Maru didn’t entirely like that, he didn’t show it and looked at Baekhoon.

“I tend to become really direct when it’s necessary. Only then will I be able to catch what I want.”

“I see.”

“So allow me to ask you a question. Please don’t misunderstand and if what I ask is not true, then respond as such.”

“Please speak.”

Baekhoon rubbed under his nose with his index finger and spoke,

“Do you happen to know an actress known as Jung Dawoon?”

For now, Maru looked at Baekhoon without changing his expression. He thought about the intent behind that question.

The relationship between Na Baekhoon and Jung Dawoon, as well as between Dawoon and Haneul came to mind.

Haneul assessed Baekhoon as someone true to his desires. If such a man suddenly brought up Jung Dawoon…

As he was thinking, Na Baekhoon frowned slightly.

“This isn’t direct enough. I became too shy because it’s related to the people I want to cherish. Allow me to put aside my etiquette and ask.” He lowered his voice. “Are you lovers with Miss Han Haneul?”

* * *

General manager Lee headed home after paying the chauffeur serviceman. A dark house greeted him. His wife and daughter were currently traveling in Japan.

When he sent them off, he sent them off well, but now that he actually spent a week by himself, he felt lonely and sad.

It was great that his daughter kept sending him photos every day. If she hadn’t, then he might have cried while drinking by himself, despite being in his late forties.

When he was young, he would feel happy whenever his wife said that she was going to visit her parents and would drink out with his friends, but at this point, there weren’t that many people he kept in touch with, so it felt lonely.

He sat down on the sofa and messaged the people he drank with today.

As they were directors of marketing, he had to end things on a clean note. It would be troublesome if he left it to someone below him and that person screwed up.

Just as he was resting after sending out the texts, he got a call from Cha Myungjoon.

“This dude said something weird during the day, and now he’s calling at night?”

He picked up the call.

“What? You were blabbing about stuff during the day too. Am I your subordinate?”

-General manager Lee!

He was startled and took his phone off his ear. That was a loud voice alright. He rubbed his ear before switching the call into speaker mode.

“You lunatic. If you’re drunk, you should get some sleep. Why did you call me!”

-General manager Lee! You’re going to thank me for this.

“What bullshit is this? Hey, Myungjoon. I know you’re having a hard time, but how dare you call a senior in the middle of the night after getting drunk?”

-General manager, there’s something big this time. There’s really something big!

For something big to have happened, the guy was laughing like crazy.

“Speak properly. How are you going to see my face tomorrow? There’s a limit to being close.”

Just then, the voice changed.

-Hello, sir.

“And who are you?”

-Oh, I guess I should introduce myself first. I’m a very close friend of our dear producer Cha over here, a beloved younger brother, a drinking buddy, and…

The man kept going on and on and on. It seemed that two crazies had gotten drunk.

Just as he sighed and was about to hang up,

-I’m Yang Ganghwan.

After Story 167

“So what? You seem to be a young fella. If you’re drunk, you should play around more quietly. Tell Myungjoon that I’ll see him at work tomorrow.”

General manager Lee hung up. It was he who brought Myungjoon, who was working at RBS, to Studio Rain.

It was a company that took its first step as a drama outsourcing production company, and it needed a skilled producer. It was hard-pressed to find someone as good as Myungjoon.

“I’m sure it must be difficult.”

He knew how many hardships Myungjoon was going through. Dramas were things that pained the producer with its budget. Whether it was scouting or shooting, everything was about money.

The company wanted to give him more support, but there was a clear limit because they decided that their first work would be a drama for a private-owned channel.

The company itself didn’t seem to place many expectations on the drama. Whether it was the channel itself or the company Studio Rain, they were taking their baby steps. It would be great if they succeeded, but they were also internally thinking that it couldn’t be helped if it wasn’t successful.

On the surface, everyone would naturally say that they wished for great success, but whenever the executives had a meeting, they were saying that it would not be so bad as long as they could recoup their investment.

In the first place, it wasn’t a 16-episode series that public TV stations did. It was a 10-episode drama, or maybe even 8.

For this drama, the company decided to pay for half of the production budget, while Channel S, the private-owned channel being launched, was going to pay the other half.

Considering that the stakes the TV stations would have in a drama was usually nearly 85%, the company was investing quite a lot here. Though, even as a big investment, the scale wasn’t so big, so it shouldn’t come off as much pressure on the company. Compared to the asset power of the parent company behind Channel S, it was quite a solid investment.

Thanks to that, the drama had the freedom of production. The producer was able to handle stories that he could never dream of doing when working for a public TV station.

That in itself was good. Myungjoon also liked it, saying that he could do a drama he wanted. The problem was casting. Reality was that more than half of the production budget of the drama was spent on paying the actors. It became the undeniable truth that using good actors resulted in good viewing rates.

The seasonal drama series that the three public TV stations created all contained famous stars. Even they weren’t able to use a bunch of new actors for a drama and air it during peak hours. The private-owned channel, which was only expecting moderate success, seemed to be quite looking forward to the casting of the actors as well. They knew very well that it wouldn’t work out, but they wanted producer Cha to bring a ‘star.’

That was ridiculous. The cost to pay those stars was astronomical. With the production budget that the company and the station prepared, it was hard-pressed to pay proven, veteran actors, much less bigshots.

According to his calculation, each main actor would at most be paid 8 million won per episode. Considering that the amount a decently well-known actor received per episode was about 20 million per episode, and with incentives at that, how many of those actors would want to do the work for less than half?

It was doubtful how much of the public TV viewership they could attract and even the payment was little. General manager Lee shook his head. This was an option even he would refuse if he was an actor.

They were in a worse situation compared to other public TV dramas as well. The two places other than Channel S were investing huge sums into producing the drama. Not to mention a huge push in marketing and hiring stars, they even managed to hire star writers.

With a producer who managed to create a great drama known as ‘The Witness’ but had no success after that and a drama writer that wasn’t able to write anything for years, combined with a TV station that was just launching, and a drama outsourcing production company that was just taking off… It seemed shameful to expect success.

Thanks to this, even general manager Lee was gaining white hair every day. They needed to win adverts in order to get a larger budget, but why would any marketing teams in other companies invest in a private-owned channel’s drama?

While he fed them a lot of alcohol and asked them to view them in a good light during budgeting meetings, it was unknown how many of them would actually get back to him.

Just as he sighed, he got a call again. It was Cha Myungjoon again.

The guy that went out to cast the main actors was drinking like crazy, so it was clear that he must have failed. He wanted to shout at the guy to just get some sleep if he was drunk, but he couldn’t be so cold when he was the one who persuaded him to leave his job.

“Myungjoon, you should get some sleep for now, and let’s talk about this tomorr…”

-General manager Lee, you don’t know Yang Ganghwan?

“Yang Ganghwan? That friend of yours?”

-He’s a friend of mine, but I’m talking about actor Yang Ganghwan.

Actor Yang Ganghwan. How many people working in the drama business did not know that name? He was a star among stars that recorded a massive 38% viewing rate in his YBS legal drama that aired in 2008. His mind sparked like a flintstone and lit his dark and drowsy head.

Yang Ganghwan? That Yang Ganghwan?

“H-hey! Is the person that talked to me that Yang Ganghwan?”

-Yes!

“No kidding?”

-No matter how close I am to you, I wouldn’t joke around about something like that.

“R-right. But what about him? I don’t want to place any hopes, so you tell me.”

-He says he’ll appear in our drama.

“What?”

He abruptly stood up. He grabbed his phone with both of his hands and asked back,

“You managed to cast Yang Ganghwan? For real?”

-Yes! I can’t wait to tell Manager Go from the planning department. I know he’s always giving me bad looks, and I’m going to crush him tomorrow.

“Myungjoon, you aren’t saying anything you want because you’re drunk, are you? You did explain to him our production budget, right?”

-I’ll talk about the details at the company tomorrow. Ganghwan will be there too. Oh, there’s one more person. Han Maru, I told you about him before, right?

Han Maru. It was the actor that Myungjoon said he wanted to work with. He was also a young actor that had been gaining rapid fame in the movie industry lately too.

General manager Lee checked his own state using one of the most classic methods: he pinched the inside of his thigh. It hurt like hell. It wasn’t a dream.

-Then see you tomorrow.

Myungjoon hung up. Normally, he would’ve clicked his tongue at that bad habit of his, but not now. He grabbed his phone like he was praying.

“Anyway, Amen to that.”

If that wasn’t a lie, he would witness a miracle tomorrow at work.

* * *

“Come on in.”

Maru followed Baekhoon inside his house. There was a big self-portrait of him at the entrance. There were also various smaller frames placed throughout, and they were all photos of Na Baekhoon as well. He was a man with a great ego.

“I didn’t think you’d accept my invitation.”

“I wanted to talk to you. I want to talk about your intent behind that question too.”

Maru sat down on a seat without a backrest at the island-style dinner table.

“Do you like alcohol?”

“I’ll take something light.”

“There’s a cheap but good white wine. It’s from Chile, and it can be bought from the supermarket, but the sweet and sour taste is really good.”

Baekhoon put down two glasses and poured some wine. He also put some crackers and cheese on a plate.

“It looks like you invite guests to your house often?” Maru asked as he looked at the utensils in the kitchen. There were many plates that he believed were intended to be used for serving guests.

“Yes. They’re mostly women, and you’re surprisingly the second man I have invited to this house.”

“Now that’s an honor.”

He took a sip of the wine. The moderate fizz and the faint sweetness were good. There was also a tinge of sourness at the end too. It didn’t have much of the bitterness unique to wine, so it was easy to drink.

“How much do you need to pay to live in a house like this?” Maru asked as he looked at the living room decorated with black wallpaper. This was a luxurious apartment close to the Han River.

“It’s not that expensive. It should be about 1.5 billion won at the sale price.”

“I’m envious of your financial power.”

“Really? I personally envy your talent more.”

Maru looked at Na Baekhoon. It was hard to see through this man. He accepted this man’s invitation because he wanted to know what he wanted and why he was showing interest in conversations like these.

He also seemed to be showing interest in Haneul, so he was planning to observe this man carefully.

“Let me enjoy the wine a little more slowly, and…” Maru put down the glass. “May I ask why you asked me a question like that at the theater?”

“You’re quite patient, more than you look. I honestly thought you’d ask on our way here.”

Baekhoon leaned against the table.

“The reason I asked was simply because I wanted to know the relationship between you two.”

“Let’s say that is the case. So why did such a question pop inside your head, director Na? I’m more curious about that.”

Baekhoon smiled.

“Explaining that will take some time, but let me sum it up as much as possible. Before that though, let me explain a little about myself. I pursue beauty.”

“Beauty?”

Baekhoon nodded before continuing. He explained how he met Jung Dawoon and Haneul, as well as the deal with Jung Dawoon, and the photo shoot with Haneul. It was this man’s doing that Dawoon managed to win a villain role in a daily drama and was able to be cast in some movies. He heard that this guy was quite a big businessman, and indeed, his consulting skills were quite considerable.

“I saw the two of you today while knowing that Miss Haneul was in a relationship. So I got the feeling. Although it’s just my intuition, my intuition rarely misses.”

“And that’s how you came to think that Miss Haneul and I are dating?”

“Yes. And seeing your tone and attitude, I became sure of it. It seems you’ve judged that this conversation isn’t that dangerous. It was hard to read you back in the car, but I can read you easily right now.”

Maru didn’t bother denying it.

“It is true that we are going out and it wouldn’t be a huge problem even if it was found out. Above all, I don’t think that you’ll tell anyone.”

“That you saw right. I am the type of person to stake my life to protect the things I cherish.”

The word ‘life’ didn’t sound so light when it left the man’s lips.

Maru thought back to the first words that director Na said and asked, “So, is Haneul included in that beauty you’re pursuing?”

“It’s not just her. You are also in my collection. Oh, you may find it uncomfortable for me to use that word.”

“It doesn’t matter. I don’t really mind wording.”

“I see.”

“I’ve heard your story. I understand you to a certain extent too. But there’s one thing that’s still not clear to me: what are you planning to do after this?”

Baekhon replied with a serious expression, “I want to see the complete form of beauty. That’s a very important matter to me. That’s why I am supporting a few people. A woman who dedicated her youth to playing the violin, a young man passionate about soccer, and an old smith staking his life in glasswork. I am helping them out so that they don’t hit the obstacle known as money.”

“That means Haneul and I too are…”

Baekhoon shook his head. “The two of you probably don’t need my help. Your talent is more exceptional than anyone else’s that I have seen so far. I simply want to keep watching, and I wanted you two to know that there’s someone watching like this.”

“Is that really everything?”

“Of course, if you need help, I will help you any time. However, you don’t seem to be that kind of person, and the same goes for Miss Haneul. Actually, I’m rather desperate. I want to be a part of completing that beauty, but it doesn’t seem like I’m necessary.”

Baekhoon sighed in disappointment.

“That’s why I simply made my existence known. It excites me just to know that the two of you remember me.”

Maru looked at Baekhoon who was faintly smiling. This was what being perverse was.

Just like how people free of money would show all sorts of weird actions, this man was putting all his passion into pursuing beauty.

Right now, Na Baekhoon was neither dangerous nor evil to him. To classify him, he was slightly bothersome and annoying.

“Since we’re on that topic, I have a request,” Baekhoon said as he opened his eyes wide again. “I wish to invite you two for dinner. Is that okay? I also want to hear your stories.”

“I’ll talk to Haneul about it.”

“That makes me delighted, just like the first time Ganghwan came here.”

“Are you saying that the man that visited this place before me is senior Yang Ganghwan?”

“Yes. He’s also the first beautiful human I discovered. No, he’s beautiful when he keeps his mouth shut. He’s really perfect as an actor, but it’s agonizing to meet him in private.”

That was an unexpected thing he could relate to and sympathize with. Maru held out his wineglass.

“May I drink another glass? As for the side dish, it’ll be senior Yang Ganghwan.”

Baekhoon smiled brightly.

“That man is very much worth chewing.”

After Story 168

“See you again next time,” Haneul said as she left the get-together.

She left the building and was waiting for a taxi when someone spoke to her from behind. It was director Lee Sooae.

“I’m sorry, Haneul.”

“Stop apologizing. These kinds of things just happen in life. You just have to do better next time.”

“Thanks for telling me that. But do you think I can even do a next work?”

“Unni, don’t think about anything today and just go home and have a good rest. Whatever you do right now, you’ll only have negative thoughts.”

Sooae palmed her face and sighed before taking out a cigarette. While the thin tip of the cigarette burned, a taxi drove by.

“Weren’t you supposed to get that?”

“I can grab the next one. Anyway, you’re smoking when you haven’t smoked even once throughout the shoot?”

“I just feel frustrated. I got a bad feeling when I went to the distributors with the rough outcome. I thought I was becoming depressed when I was editing it. I had confidence too. I really did.”

Sooae’s lips twitched as though she was about to cry at any moment, but she eventually just chuckled.

“I’m the most sorry to you above everyone else. I didn’t want to consume your character like this.”

“People are going to think there’s a funeral around here after looking at your face. I’m fine, so don’t worry about it. Even if the responses from the premiere aren’t good, the movie has yet to go on screen. Who knows? It might become popular.”

“What do you think about it then? Do you think our movie is going to be popular?”

Haneul slightly looked upwards.

“I wish it does.”

Sooae nodded and threw the cigarette butt into the sewer.

“Are you going to work with me next time as well?”

“If the story’s good, sure. I really enjoyed working with you, unni. No one can tell for sure whether something’s going to be popular or not. It’s not like you did badly on purpose either. You said it was going to be great while we were doing the shoot.”

“I thought it would slap Citizen Kane in the face.”

Sooae used both of her hands to put her hair behind her ears. She looked a little better now.

“Do you want to drink some more at a cocktail bar?”

“I’d love to, but I have to go. Why don’t you get a young man inside to sit down next to you instead of me?”

Sooae smiled and waved her hand in denial. Haneul waved her hand at the taxi on the other side of the road. The taxi turned off its ‘vacant’ sign and did a U-turn.

“Careful on your way home.”

“You should go home soon too, director. Stay away from internet news for a while.”

“I was planning to stuff my phone in my desk drawer until the movie goes down. I’m planning to stuff myself in my home too.”

“If you’re bored you can call me.”

Haneul got in the taxi. She told the driver her address and buried herself in the seat. The premiere was rather chaotic. She thought that the movie was going to be pretty decent when they were doing the shoot, but now that the final results were out, she saw that it was an awkward mixture of awkward things.

She did lower her expectations during the internal premiere, but even when she looked at it again, it still disappointed her.

For a movie, the norm was to cut up time and space and shoot in whichever order was the most convenient. The only way for the actors to know the context of the story was through the script.

For this film, the script was good. She liked the lines as well. However, the scenes she thought were okay disappeared from the final product. The scenes that were supposed to make up the framework were reduced by a lot, and the scenes that were supposed to flesh out the characters were also pushed out of priority.

With that, they managed to gain speed and momentum, but the structure became weak. The director must have felt it during the editing as well. She might even have wanted to reshoot some parts to make up for it. However, in a situation where the entire shooting staff had pulled out, there was no distributor who would pay to hire shooting staff for missing cuts, much less re-shooting an existing one.

Of course, if director Lee Sooae was a well-known master of action films and a guaranteed success ticket, then the distributor and production companies would have given her a chance.

Then, there was one of the main actors who got caught up in gossip. The movie looked precarious and there was an actor who turned journalists into his enemy.

It was hard to estimate how many days the movie will last in cinemas.

“This isn’t easy.”

She placed her palm on her cheek and rubbed it in circles. She felt that it was a bit of a shame, but she didn’t feel disappointed. There were just too many movies that she guided to success, as well as flopped to ruin, for her to become emotional over just one movie.

Movies were like a game of cards. No one would know what the outcome would be like unless it was flipped over. It was somewhat predictable by taking into account the cards in one’s hand and the cards on the table, but that was just a prediction. If a good card comes out, then it would rake in all the money, and if not, then they would have to cough up.

Haneul visited the convenience store before going back. She wanted to have a drink with her husband.

But when she actually arrived at home, she couldn’t see him. She saw him at the premiere, and he shouldn’t have any appointments today.

She tried calling him. He did not pick up. Did he have an urgent appointment maybe?

She sat down on the sofa and browsed through some internet news articles.

As she had expected, the ruckus that occurred during the premiere had become articles. An actor who verbally abuses journalists frequently — those journalists sure had a knack for creating titles. She didn’t know whether she should be happy or sad that she was receiving interest like this.

After stretching herself lightly, she had a shower. It was past 10. If the atmosphere at the premiere was good, then the get-together should still be underway right now.

She dried her hair and was playing with the cat when the door opened. It was Maru.

“You’re back early?” he said.

“You saw what happened at the premiere. No one was in the mood to laugh and drink, so we all split up after having dinner. Where have you been, sweetie? Did you have an appointment after the premiere?”

“I suddenly got one. It was with Mr. Na Baekhoon.”

“Na Baekhoon? The same one I know?”

“Yes.”

“How did you get involved with him?”

“I saw him at the premiere. I just said hello and shared a few words when he asked if I was dating Miss Han Haneul.”

“Did he hear it through Miss Dawoon?”

“I don’t think so. When I heard the situation from him, it was quite easy to deduce. If he talked about anything else, I would’ve simply ignored him and come back home, but I became curious when he suddenly blurted out things like that. So I went to his house to have a talk.”

Haneul listened to her husband talk about what conversation he had with Na Baekhoon over some beer.

“It wasn’t that common, but he’s the kind of character we’ve seen a few times, huh,” Haneul said as she thought back on Na Baekhoon’s face.

According to her husband, he wasn’t a problematic character. In fact, he would be helpful to them.

“Thanks to that though, I got one less thing to worry about.”

“What is that?”

“Jung Dawoon.”

“Miss Dawoon?”

“I did wrap things up, but there was still something that made me feel iffy. It would be even better if Dawoon stays still, but there’s the ‘what if.’ Director Na said he’ll handle that himself.”

Haneul frowned. “You sound like a total villain.”

“It’s always the bad guys who live a good life. They doubt, worry and prepare for everything. You need to be diligent to become a villain.”

“Don’t push her too much. I found her pitiful because she looks mentally unstable.”

“I’m going to have her receive treatment and even help her find her own life. I’m going to do it for certain so that she can’t do anything weird with the excuse that she’s mentally unstable. You know how many of my lives ended. Leaving your side because of a weird accident is something I don’t want to experience anymore.”

Haneul grabbed her husband’s hand. He had experienced so many different types of deaths that just writing them down would be a full novel.

Although there were many deaths resulting from illnesses such as cancer and brain diseases, being killed by someone else didn’t amount to just a small number either. It wouldn’t be strange even if he avoided people out of distrust.

However, he had won against that through his strong willpower and was trying his best to lead an ordinary life. It was quite marveling to watch him by his side.

“At least in this life, I’m going to die one day earlier than you, sweetie, so don’t worry about it.”

“Well, thanks for that.” He smiled.

“Director Na invited me out to a meal, and you too.”

“Me too?”

“He wants us to visit whenever we’re comfortable. I don’t think it’s a bad idea to make a visit. He’s a decent guy to have by our side as a helper. If you don’t like him, then it’s fine even if we refuse. He said he’ll be content just watching.”

“Let’s make some time and visit him. We’ll see if he’s simply crazy or just pursues his ideas like you said.”

After that, they talked about the movie. Her husband was of the same opinion as her.

He, who worked as a cultural critic and a movie marketer, had negative opinions about the movie, so this movie would definitely not be received well.

“I really don’t like there being a gap between us as actors…,” she muttered as she looked at him.

At this moment, their payment would probably differ severalfold.

Although actresses were traditionally valued lower than male actors in the movie industry, she didn’t like the fact that there was such a big gap already.

“Why don’t you take a year off? So I can get some career experience?”

“As much as I’d like to, I got work already. I have to go out tomorrow,” he responded with a smile.

“Where are you going?”

“The drama outsourcing production company. Studio Rain, I think they were called? Senior Ganghwan and I decided to go together.”

“Did Mr. Ganghwan really say he’ll do it?”

“Yeah.”

“Looks like this will become a huge piece of news. But he’s one incredible person alright. For us, we’ve seen a lot of things, so we don’t feel repulsive against such works, but it wouldn’t be strange if he wanted to stay away from it.”

“It just makes me realize that the wall of talent and instinct is insurmountable even with time. I looked up all the works that he appeared in. That guy is incredible even in this timeline. I really don’t like the word genius, but I don’t think there’s any other word that suits him.”

“Looks like you gotta do your best not to get drowned under him, hubby.”

“I have to do my best, and I need to do well.”

She had a close look at her husband who put on a faint smile. He looked like a sports player prior to an important match. There was glee and nervousness on his face like he was going to stand on a big stage. Being able to shoot with an exceptional actor was just that exciting.

“Have you heard about your payment?”

Aside from participating in a good work, monetary issues couldn’t be left out either. Hearing her question, Maru stroked his chin.

“I heard the general amount, but I think it’s going to increase tomorrow. I managed to get senior Ganghwan, so I should get something out of it.”

* * *

General manager Lee made a glance at the man sitting in the meeting room and spoke to his junior standing next to him.

“That is Yang Ganghwan, right?”

“I think so. He’s just a little chubbier than before.”

“He really is here.”

“The planning department is in an uproar right now.”

“Sure they are. Yang Ganghwan popped out of nowhere.”

“Getting Han Maru was a good enough result, but we suddenly struck gold.”

General manager Lee smiled. The fatigue from last night disappeared in an instant. It seemed that the ad slots for this drama would sell out like crazy.

Especially with product placements. Yang Ganghwan was known to be picky about choosing what kind of products he would do commercials for, yet such an actor was going to eat, wear, and use some products? Advertisers would line up wanting to be in the drama.

“But it seems like actors have a set of eyes for discerning work. The marketing department said that this work would never go well.”

“Whatever it is, the pioneers are bound to receive a lot of criticism. We really don’t know how this will turn out. If Myungjoon does well and the actors do their stuff properly, then we’ll strike a jackpot on a private-owned channel drama.”

“Looks like it’ll be heavily promoted too, since it’s Yang Ganghwan after all.”

The employees at the company all perked their heads out like meerkats and looked into the meeting room.

Not long later, the door to the meeting room opened. Although this wasn’t the official contract, it seemed that the talks went well, as they were shaking hands with smiles.

“We might be able to get a big bonus as soon as the company’s founded.”

“I’d have no other wish if that happens.”

General manager Lee looked at the busy marketing department. Soon, there would be a flood of articles on the internet.

After Story 169

“Did something good happen to you today?”

“Do I look like it?”

“You were all smiles when you entered the shop, so how could I not tell? What happened? Starting a new work?”

“No, but something good happened in my personal life.”

“I don’t know what occurred, but good for you.”

As they talked about various things, the nail care finished. Dawoon looked at her slick new nails and smiled.

Everything was to her liking today: the weather, her nails, and even the news articles in the entertainment section.

“Goodbye.”

She left the store, being seen out by an employee. Thanks to the marathon-like daily drama coming to an end, she had gained some time.

She went traveling with her actor friends and met a few college friends she hadn’t been in touch with for a while.

Every day was perfect. People’s awareness of her was increasing, and her bank account was getting unimaginable amounts of money.

Everything was smooth sailing. At this point, even falling out with Nayeon felt like nothing anymore.

Her relationship with Seungah, Jichan, and Maru felt like it had recovered to some extent, albeit not as good as before. Time was the remedy.

She went to a café and turned on her phone. She loaded a page that she had favorited last night.

-Violent actor combined with an awkward storyline. The movie’s poor sales were only to be expected.

She wanted to hug the journalist that came up with that title and kiss them.

The movie that featured Han Haneul as a supporting character was disappearing from cinemas a mere two weeks after its release. It was a tragic failure.

Dawoon laughed her stomach out as she looked at the bad reviews that poured out every single day. Even now, she couldn’t help but chuckle.

She had a look at the score provided by the web portal. It was just above 6 points. As for the critic reviews, it was just under 3 points.

The worst movie in the first half of the year — this was the comment that received the most likes.

A feather-like weightiness and tragic nationalism — this was the review of a famous movie critic known to be lenient.

Dawoon went to see the movie herself after seeing that the scores were low. She laughed to herself in mockery multiple times while watching. No matter how good an actor was, they would die along with the movie if the production was terrible.

Han Haneul was the same. She seemed to shine, but ultimately, she was just a flower in the trash.

She felt relieved. Han Haneul had flopped completely. Compared to her, she was walking on the path of success. The movie she participated in as a supporting actress did decently well and the daily drama that she did after that was a huge jackpot.

She made herself known to the public not as Jung Dawoon, but as the villainess within the drama.

How meaningful was that for an actress? It was an incomparably better result compared to Haneul, who wasn’t even a topic of gossip.

Dawoon looked at the next article. It mentioned that Channel S was creating a drama with Yang Ganghwan and Han Maru. That man was truly different. He proved his skills through his flawless act of the character at the beginning of the year, and now, he was chosen as the main character of a drama.

“I want him after all.”

He really was wasted on Han Haneul.

She thought back to the Hanjoo Chicken Feet meeting from last time. Maru was incredibly scary when he looked at her after seeing through everything. She thought that everything was over that day.

Her lies were exposed, and not to mention Seungah, even Jichan would turn his back on her.

However, Maru gave her a way out. She wasn’t in a good situation for sure, but the Hanjoo Chicken Feet meeting was still continuing.

Back then, she resented Maru for what he did, but after some time, she changed her mind.

Ultimately, it was oppa who saved me — she judged that Maru harbored pity toward her. And twisting that pity just a little should be able to turn it into feelings of love. The game of love wasn’t over. There was still an opportunity. This was the right time now that Han Haneul had failed miserably. She had to let Maru know that the woman by his side is not worth much.

After all, love was an all-encompassing feeling.

Appearance, intellect, financial power, skills… Love was a form of expression that combined all those elements into one. As long as there was a flaw, Maru’s love towards Haneul should have changed as well.

Dawoon pleasantly drank some coffee before leaving. She drove the car she bought a month ago and headed to Na Baekhoon’s house.

“How about a drink after all this time?” she called and asked.

During the past few months, she had not met Baekhoon. She was busy shooting dramas, movies, and commercials, and there was also no reason for her to meet him, so she visited him less and less frequently. It was proof that she could stand on her own two feet without Baekhoon.

Still, she still needed Na Baekhoon’s support. She had to become the main character of the movie that he was going to direct.

If that movie was successful after Han Haneul’s movie failed, it would be exhilarating.

-I’m okay.

The answer was lukewarm. Dawoon curled her lips up and looked up at the apartment building in front of her.

“I’m in front of your house right now.”

-I dislike people coming to visit me like this without saying anything.

“Was our relationship that shallow? Anyway, you’re at home right?”

-Well, I am.

“Are you going to keep me waiting out here?”

Baekhoon stayed silent for a while before telling her to come.

Oh, men — she smiled blandly and walked into Baekhoon’s house. The clean interior greeted her as always. She put on some slippers and went inside the living room. Baekhoon was cooking something in a pan in the kitchen. He seemed to be making some pasta.

“Make mine too.”

Baekhoon poured a little bit of the noodle-boiled water without saying a word. Dawoon looked at the food being made.

Baekhoon placed some pasta on a plate and put it down in front of her. She used a fork to put some in her mouth.

“How about you run a restaurant? I think you have talent in cooking too.”

“Now you’re giving me advice, huh?”

“Why not? We’re business partners.”

“True. Business partners.”

Baekhoon smiled and nodded.

“Can’t you give me a glass of wine? I think that one looks good.”

She pointed at a bottle of wine in the semi-translucent wine cellar. It was a bottle she had not seen before.

“That one’s no good.”

“Why?”

“I just got it as a gift yesterday, and above all, it’s for guests.”

“And I’m not a guest?”

“I don’t call people who come to my house without contacting me first, guests. So I thought about it for a moment: what qualifies you to visit me? Then your words made me remember. We’re business partners.”

Baekhoon emptied his plate and wiped his mouth with some tissue. Although his attitude had not changed from usual, he felt a little colder today.

Feeling an unknown sense of unease, Dawoon stood up and wrapped her arms around Baekhoon’s neck.

“Weren’t you here to eat?”

Baekhoon pulled her arms off. Seeing his face that didn’t have a hint of a smile at all, Dawoon felt humiliated. She wanted to get angry, but she had to hold it in. The priority right now was to find out why. She smiled and asked,

“Something bad happen?”

“I was feeling good until just 20 minutes ago. Moreover, an important guest made a visit yesterday. A guest that might give me the gift of the greatest joy in my life.”

Baekhoon’s statue-like face brightened up all of a sudden. He seemed to be feeling uncontrollable joy just by remembering the guest that visited yesterday.

“But thanks to the intrusion of a certain business partner, that all broke down.”

Dawoon pouted. “Don’t be too harsh. We’re partners on the same boat.”

“The same boat?” Baekhoon shook his head. “You mean you’re the one on board my ship.”

“Same thing.”

She reached her hand out to Baekhoon again. However, Baekhoon did not give her what she wanted. He took a step back and looked at her with clear intent – don’t approach any further.

“What are you doing?” She stiffened up.

Two refusals. This was no longer something she could laugh over.

“Since you’re here, we should clarify that business.”

“Clarify?”

“There should be quite a lot of things I did for you. You got a few dramas and a few contracts for commercials.”

“Why bring that up all of a sudden?”

“I’m saying I’ve given back as much as I’ve received. You’re quick to calculate, so you shouldn’t be able to tell me that you’re on the losing end.”

The reason for the unease was revealed. Baekhoon was planning to abandon her. She forcefully smiled and spoke,l

“You’re angry that I visited you all of a sudden? If it’s like that, then I’ll apologize, and I’ll never come suddenly like this ever again. I’ll come when you call me like before.”

“No, that’s okay. You won’t be coming here from now on. I’ll make you an appointment with the producer of YBS. He’s looking for someone with your style, so you should be able to get the role if you meet him. It’s also my last gift to you.”

“Last gift? Why are you doing this?”

“Do you remember what I said before? That people are bound to get fed up?”

Words she did not want to hear from Baekhoon came out of his mouth. They were words that trampled on her pride. She stared right back at Baekhoon’s eyes.

“Are you saying you’re abandoning me right now?”

“Let’s set that straight. Abandoning makes it sound like I’m the only bad guy, doesn’t it? Let’s say it’s a termination of a contract.”

“What about the movie? The opportunity is now.” Dawoon showed him the article on her phone. “Han Haneul has failed. I can manage to get that image at this time.”

“The drama will replace the movie. I don’t plan to use you in my film.”

“You can’t do that. You were going to use me.”

“I did, but you know that the situation has changed.”

“You’re not saying you’re going to use Han Haneul instead of me, are you?”

“If possible, I’d love to. But she refused, saying that the scenario was subpar. It hurt my pride, but what can I do? Actually, when I had a look at it after she told me that, I saw that the story seemed inadequate. I’m going to polish it again and then show it to her once more. If she looks at my scenario and accepts being cast, I will be all the more happy.”

Dawoon shut her mouth. Her ominous feelings branched out and eventually reached the wine in the cellar.

The guest last night, his happy expression, and lastly, Han Haneul who saw his scenario.

“Han Haneul is the guest that visited yesterday?”

“It was an honor that she accepted the invitation.”

“Are you crazy?”

“Of course I am. I had dinner with those two people, so of course I’m crazily happy.”

“Two people? Maru-oppa came here as well?”

She felt like the floor had suddenly disappeared. She grabbed the table during her sense of vertigo.

“Anyway, do your best. While not as much as Han Haneul, you have talent too. If you can look after yourself well, you’ll look decently beautiful.”

“You can’t do this. You were going to help me!”

“I can’t have you saying that. It was you who called this relationship business partners. There are no more business items to be made, so we should end the contract here. Also, I’m making losses in this trade. You know that, right?”

“But.”

Baekhoon placed an index finger on his lips.

“Talk is over. You can go now.”

She stared at Baekhoon, who nonchalantly went to the kitchen to wash the dishes, before speaking,

“I’m going to expose everything.”

“What everything?”

“What happened between you and me.”

“Really? Go ahead then. I’m just going to say that we were dating for a brief moment, that I helped you because you were my lover.”

“That’s not the truth though, is it?”

Baekhoon laughed.

“Then go grab some journalists and tell them the truth. What would both of us have to lose? As you probably know, my reputation isn’t all that great, especially when it comes to my relationships. Having another one on top of that means nothing. But how about you? Can you, an actress who’s just started to become popular, handle rumors like that? How about your contract with the commercial? Do you have the money to pay them for the breach of contract?”

“That’s…”

Baekhoon turned around. He rubbed the soap bubbles in his hand and spoke,

“Mr. Maru is such a gentleman, looking out for you. No, perhaps he was worried that you might do something drastic. He’s a smart guy after all. He has a lot of things to lose even now. But you know, I’m different. I can gladly fight it out with you in a pit of mud. It’s fine even if my social reputation hits rock bottom. I can bring it back up again. I have the skills and money to do that after all. How about you?”

Dawoon wasn’t able to say anything. She only stared at the soap bubbles popping in Baekhoon’s hand.

“Just eat what’s served in front of you, and don’t be greedy for anything else. If the day comes when something bad comes out of your mouth related to those two people, then things are going to be real interesting. It’ll be quite a sight to see if every news media talks about you.”

“NO!” She screamed out. It would be truly over if that happened.

“So reach out to whatever you’re given, and don’t even stare at what’s outside that. That’s my advice and warning to you. Do not hinder my joy.”

* * *

Baekhoon smiled as he looked at Dawoon hurriedly leaving. Things went well.

Her eyes were totally dead. She wouldn’t be able to think about anything else now. She wasn’t daring enough to let go of everything she had gained until now and choose mutual destruction.

He sent a text message to Han Maru saying that he doesn’t have anything to worry about that was related to Jung Dawoon. Not long later, he got a reply.

-Thank you for the gift.

He replied that it was repayment for the wine.

He put down the phone and looked at the Han River under the sunset.

“How neat.”

He turned on some music and finished washing the dishes.

After Story 170

Myungjoon opened his eyes at the sound of dripping water. He stretched his stiff neck and left the tent.

Although it was August, the night at the campsite was quite chilly. There was a drizzle throughout the night, so the temperature dropped even further.

He took out the wet firewood from the brazier and put some dry firewood in it. He stuffed some small pieces of firewood in the pile and also some dried pinecones. When he used a lighter to light it, the fire lit up soon.

Myungjoon checked the tent after seeing the fire lit up. He saw Ganghwan and Maru sleeping back to back.

“Right, get some sleep. Some good sleep.”

You who want food, work for it. He poured some water into a pot and opened a pack of ramyun.

As soon as he added the powdered soup and the noodles, he heard a rustling sound.

Ganghwan crawled out of the tent, his eyes all swollen. He wriggled like a shedding snake and came over to the fire.

“Is it done?” Ganghwan asked with a sleepy expression. He was probably overcoming his desire to sleep with hunger.

“There’s still a long time until it’s done, so go wash your face. You’re supposed to be an actor, but the way you look now… sheesh.”

“Hyung, there isn’t anyone else here.”

Ganghwan yawned and stretched his arms out. As this was a camping site only enthusiasts knew about, there weren’t that many people.

Ganghwan left for a bit, saying that he was going to the bathroom.

“Good morning,” Maru said as he pressed down his bed hair.

“Had a good sleep?”

“Yes, I did. How about you, hyung-nim?”

“I had a great sleep thanks to the surround sound of one of you snoring and one of you grinding your teeth.”

Maru smiled awkwardly and crouched down next to him.

“Is it ramyun?”

“There’s nothing better than this for breakfast.”

“I’ll do it from here.”

“It’s almost done. You should get washed as well. Why do both of you have terrible faces when you’re supposed to be actors?”

“Now that I look at you, you look clean.”

“I washed up before I went to sleep.”

Maru also headed to the bathroom as well as he scratched his head.

The ramyun had finished cooking during the time he talked to the two actors. He placed the pot on the tree stump next to the tent. It was the makeshift table they had been using since last night.

He gave chopsticks and bowls to the two people when they came back from the bathroom.

“Let’s pack up and return once we finish eating.”

“Already?” Ganghwan said in disappointment.

It was okay to take it easy and depart in the afternoon, but he wanted to pack up quickly and go back to Seoul. Camping wasn’t that fun when you’re the big brother that has to take care of everything after all.

“Let’s come back once we’re done with the drama. The three of us,” Ganghwan said after eating some ramyun.

“We’ll come if the viewing rates are good. Otherwise, we’ll probably never see each other again,” Myungjoon replied semi-seriously.

Listening to Ganghwan’s chatter all day in a place surrounded by nothing but grass and trees was not an easy thing to do.

“Hyung-nim, let’s just go without the chatterbox next time.”

Hearing Maru’s words, Myungjoon smiled and nodded.

After the light breakfast, they started packing up. They packed up the trash into a trash bag and placed it next to the camping site management office.

Maru was the one behind the wheel. Ganghwan fell asleep the moment he sat down in the back seat. It didn’t seem to be a joke when he said that he could sleep for days if he was left alone. That was probably the energy source behind chatting without stopping.

“Light camping like this isn’t so bad,” Maru said.

“It’s good if you go with the people you get along with. It’s nice staring at a campfire too. Next time, let’s bring some proper food.”

“Let’s really get a whole pig that time. I thought we bought a lot, but Ganghwan-hyung’s appetite is really beyond my imagination.”

“He really ate without restraint, saying that he doesn’t need to lose weight for the role. Had I known that this would happen, I would’ve talked to the writer and made the character a skinny one.”

“Please do that next time.”

The car entered the highway.

Myungjoon opened his laptop and opened the script that writer Yoo sent him three days ago.

The schedule was decided the moment Ganghwan was cast. As a TV station founded by a newspaper company, there was a lot of advertisement as well.

Though, he really didn’t like them creating adverts for things that weren’t decided yet.

“Is that the script?” Maru asked

“Yes,” Myungjoon replied as he scanned the script. “This is the good thing about pre-produced dramas. We can start the shoot after the entirety of the story is set. We can also increase the density of the story because there aren’t that many episodes plotted.”

“And the episodes being aired are fixed too.”

“In the first place, we set that in stone. There will be no early endings or extensions. Things went well thanks to Ganghwan, who emphasized that they should lead the story tightly.”

Although his face was swollen, he ground his teeth at night, and was needlessly talkative, he was still a star. Not just an A-tier star, but an S-tier one. Thanks to Ganghwan’s support for the production team, the drama was progressing without much squabbling with the higher-ups.

The production budget increased slightly as well. This was thanks to Ganghwan lowering his own payment when he signed the contract.

“How are the lines? You think you can get used to them?” Myungjoon asked Maru.

A drama of an unfamiliar genre in a newly launched TV station. Everything was a series of challenges. That was why everyone was in this together. While writer Yoo worked on the overall frame of the script, he asked for opinions from the actors throughout, mainly about the lines.

“They’re mostly good. The lines express the characters well. It does feel somewhat excessive sometimes, but this might change when I actually do the shoot.”

“The lines don’t sound old-fashioned?”

“It’s good. It’s much better than awkwardly using newly created words. It’ll sound even more strange if we use new words while refraining from using old words intentionally.”

“Writer Yoo is very worried that his skills in writing might have dwindled. He’s someone who only used to write historical dramas, so he’s concerned about the tone of speech. You might find it bothersome, but I hope you can voice your opinions from time to time.”

“We’re all doing this hoping for good results. I don’t find it bothersome.”

There were some writers who wanted the actors to never touch the lines because it was the writer’s authority, and there were some who asked for opinions from the production crew and the actors.

There were advantages and disadvantages to each method, so neither one could be said to be right or wrong, but as this was an unfamiliar genre, it seemed better to ask for opinions from the people around.

“It has to look like it makes sense when it doesn’t.”

“That’s the most important part.”

Bringing imagination to reality needed ‘plausibility.’

The moment an audience asks ‘how does that make sense?’, the drama would be doomed.

No matter how good the story or how great the acting was, if there was no sense of logic to the plot, the drama would fall to being worthless.

“There’s a week left now.”

Next Tuesday, they would hold a ritual to wish for success at the set and start shooting.

The casting of actors, which was originally thought to be the big hurdle, was solved in a flash once Yang Ganghwan was on the list of main actors.

Scouting shooting locations was smooth sailing as well. Furthermore, the set of the apartment was finished, so the remaining thing to do was to spend all the remaining energy on the shoot.

“People don’t recognize you, do they? Even though you were a supporting character in a movie with 8 million ticket sales.”

“Please write ‘the guy that appeared in Depths of Evil’ in the intro. Or should I gain weight again? And cut my hair short too?”

“If you do that, you’ll have to act as the murderer Yoon Hojung instead of Ahn Changsik, you know?”

Maru faintly chuckled.

“But still, the TV station was releasing a lot of news articles. It looks like they’re doing all they can.”

“I also looked some of them up. They seemed to have made me into some kind of amazing actor. People are going to swear at me if they start comparing me to Ganghwan-hyung or something.”

“So you should do well.”

“I will. I don’t want to get sworn at.”

Maru was filled with leisure. Myungjoon trusted the two actors. Ganghwan had already proven himself time and time again, and Maru also indirectly told everyone that his acting as the newbie detective in the drama was not a fluke through the movie.

What would the combination of the two bring? That would be revealed next week when the shoot starts.

* * *

-I must bring disappointing news to our audience. Mr. Han Maru, why don’t you tell them yourself?

Maru followed up on Suyeon’s comment.

-I am starting a drama shoot soon.

-Why are you doing as you please?

-I need to make a living too.

-The payment for the radio must be small, huh?

-It’s definitely not a lot for sure.

Suyeon chuckled. Maru continued.

-I tried to reschedule as much as possible, but the result was that I couldn’t. So for a few months, I won’t be appearing on the radio.

-Forget it. We’re going to bring in a super handsome actor to sit on your seat. Our audience really loves you, but you’re leaving just like that. I’m disappointed.

-This noona is at it again. Everyone, I’m not quitting. I’m going to come back when I’m done with the shoot. Unless the program gets axed during the rescheduling, I will be here until the end of the program.

Suyeon raised her voice.

-Then let me ask a question right away. What if you could only choose one? The drama or the radio?

-Today, I’ll be selecting the songs. ‘Drama’ by Han Donggil. Please listen.

Maru took off his earphones and looked at Suyeon. She was staring at the screen expressionlessly as though she had never smiled at all.

“You were encouraging me about the drama before the start and all, yet that’s what you tell me?”

“Isn’t this what broadcasts are about?”

Suyeon chuckled as though she found it hard to hold back.

“People are all rather sad. They’re saying it’ll be rather bland for a while because the master of everyday life won’t be here.”

Suyeon gestured to him to come over and see. Most of the messages that the listeners sent in real-time were messages of encouragement.

There were some people who promised they would keep up with the drama. Though, there were some that were mad that they were promoting the drama on the radio program.

“Then please take care of the program while I’m not here.”

“I did that just fine when you weren’t here, so don’t worry. Oh, and how’s your relationship with Ganghwan-oppa?”

“We went camping together a while ago.”

“So you’ve become close, huh? That oppa is actually shy around people.”

“What? That can’t be right.”

“I’m not sure about anything else, but I’m sure I know more about him than you do.”

They were words that didn’t mean much, but to Maru, they sounded like they contained some meaning.

“Then I’ll take my leave now.”

“Good work today, call me when you’re off-shoot.”

“You’re buying me food?”

“No, so we can record an episode of the radio.”

“When I first met you, I thought you were someone who’s quiet but looks after people a lot.”

“What’s your impression now?”

“Someone who quietly extorts other people. There’s a hint of the president in you.”

Suyeon smiled and waved her hand, gesturing for him to leave.

Maru left the booth and said goodbye to the production crew.

“Come right away when you don’t have a shoot. Han Maru and our program are in this together until the end of the program, alright?”

“Sure, I’m a member here now.”

He left the studio. He took the elevator down and went to the lobby and ordered a cup of coffee.

He wouldn’t be coming here for a while. He had wrapped up everything on his schedule to focus on the drama. He was going to spend all of his free time studying acting.

He was playing a main character now, not a supporting one. On top of that, his partnering actor was Yang Ganghwan.

If an insufficiency was exposed in the drama and negatively influenced the performance of it, his reputation as an actor would fall to rock bottom.

Casting a young actor who was practically new to the industry should have been an adventurous move on the TV station’s part. He had to do well.

Although he had shot numerous works before, he couldn’t help but become nervous before the start of a new one. There were many times when a drama or a film didn’t go the way he expected.

“Yeah, I’m going back right now.”

He got in the car as he got a call from his wife.

Tomorrow was the first shoot. Tonight, he would probably have a long talk with his wife.

He should be able to do the shoot calmly once he heard the assessment of a meticulous acting teacher.

After Story 171

His oldest memory was when he was playing with sand on the playground. He piled sand that had gotten wet from the rain on top of his hand and slowly pulled his hand out before smoothening the dome shape. He competed with his friends, whom he could no longer remember if he was close to or not, about who could make the bigger cave.

They were all so focused on making the cave that some of them would cry if it collapsed while they were making it. Eventually, one or two people started to leave after getting called by their mothers.

It was when he was the only one behind, watching over all the caves without owners.

“Aren’t you going home?”

He raised his head at the unfamiliar voice. He couldn’t remember the figures of his friends, but he could remember the face of that lady clearly. He couldn’t possibly forget. It was the first day he saw ‘that.’

* * *

“Do you see anything on mommy’s shoulder?”

“No.”

“Really?”

“No, I can’t see anything.”

“You’re sure, right?”

“Right.”

Changsik lied. There was definitely ‘that’ on his mother’s left shoulder. However, he said that he couldn’t see it. It was what he decided to say ever since he turned seven.

He realized that everyone would be uncomfortable with him saying the truth.

At first, he was uneasy that he was different from everyone else. When he got older and started wearing a school uniform, he had more interest than unease.

Maybe I have special powers. Maybe I’ll become a hero in comic books.

Then when he no longer had to wear a school uniform and became a college student, ‘that’ was neither an element of unease nor something special.

He just thought of it as a special kind of disorder that did not hinder everyday life. He did not tell anyone about it. He saw it, but he pretended he didn’t see it.

He never gained nor lost anything because of ‘that’.

The number ‘0’, or perhaps the alphabet ‘O’, or even the Korean letter ‘ㅇ’ — it could be any of them or something else entirely. Just because he saw a meaningless circle didn’t mean that something big happened in his life.

* * *

“Did you watch yesterday’s episode of ‘Today’s Mystery’?”

“The one with shamans in it?”

“The way I see it, it must be real.”

“You’re quite amazing, looking for ghosts in college. Did you get admitted through gambling?”

“Hey! Have you ever seen a ghost?”

“No.”

“Then how can you be so sure that they don’t exist?”

“Here, look. Actually, I’m superman. No wait, I guess it makes me supergirl. Anyway, I can fly through the sky and shoot laser beams from my eyes.”

“What kind of nonsense is that?”

“Ghosts make sense, but not supermen?”

“This and that are different.”

“They’re the same, isn’t that right, Changsik?”

The two people chatting in front of him looked his way at the same time. Changsik stuffed some potato fries in his mouth and responded,

“There may be ghosts or there may not be.”

“Hey! How do ghosts make any sense? If there’s something spiritual, it would’ve been scientifically proven a long time ago.”

The other person, who was pro-ghosts, spoke,

“Science couldn’t even fully grasp the human brain. Ghosts might be some kind of scientific phenomenon happening at the atomic level, right?”

“If the tens of thousands of measuring instruments that modern science created cannot see it, then it just doesn’t exist. Even if it does exist, it doesn’t exist if we can’t see it.”

“But air exists when you can’t see it.”

“Air has been scientifically proven, even its composition, but with ghosts, there’s not even a piece of counterevidence of its non-existence, much less proof of its existence. It’s the same as supermen, you know?”

Seeing the two friends discussing heatedly in front of him, Changsik looked at the ‘0’ on top of their shoulders.

Was that science or ghosts? As he had watched it from a young age, he would feel disappointed if he didn’t see anything at this point.

“Hey, Ahn Changsik, you make the conclusion. Do ghosts exist or not?”

Changsik stood up with the tray that only had the empty burger wrap.

“What if they exist and what if they don’t? It doesn’t really matter.”

After throwing away the trash on the tray and returning it, he left the fast food restaurant.

Whenever he looked at the faces of the people coming his way, he also saw the symbol on their shoulders. All of them were shaped like ‘0’.

All he saw was the same symbol, and even during his military service, he had never seen anyone with a different symbol. Once, he tried to find the meaning behind that symbol, but it was to no avail.

The decisive event that made him lose interest in the symbol occurred three years ago when he stared at the face of a man coming his way and got beaten up.

Ever since then, he just treated it as some kind of disorder of his pupils.

It never really bothered him, so he didn’t go to the hospital either. When he first discovered the symbol when he was young, he spoke about it innocently and had to visit the hospital a lot.

He would probably confess he had this ‘ability’ to his children around the time he dies; he could actually see what they couldn’t.

What would his children think? They would probably think that he was in the terminal stages of Alzheimer’s disease.

He glanced at his friends following him before looking ahead of him again, when,

He saw ‘something else’ among the crowd of people pouring out of the train station because it was rush hour.

Among the red ‘0’s floating above everyone’s shoulders was a ‘1’ that clearly proved that it was different.

This was the first time it happened in his life. He slowly turned his head around to look for the person with the ‘1.’

As the crowd was tightly packed, it wasn’t easy to find where ‘1’ went.

“Hey! Where are you going!”

He waved his hand at his friends calling out to him from behind and chased the ‘1.’ The people scattered after stepping on the pavement, and he eventually managed to find the owner of ‘1.’

It was a woman in her fifties wearing cool sunglasses. Changsik stood next to the lady.

Why was this person different? That symbol was a ‘1’. This was the moment he realized that the identity of the symbol he could not figure out for the past 20 years was a number.

The traffic signal changed. The lady was all laughs as she was on the phone.

Her high-pitched voice suppressed all the noise around her, and not minding the gazes of others, she kept talking into the phone while showing off her loud voice.

Changsik followed the lady to the other side of the road. His mouth was itching to say something. However, there was nothing he could ask. What would he ask?

Ma’am, there’s a red number 1 on your shoulder, what do you think it could be? — Asking her if she knew ‘the way’ sounded like a better question.

Eventually, the lady disappeared from his sight. It was the first time he saw the number 1. However, nothing had changed aside from the fact that he had discovered a new symbol. The meaning behind it was still a mystery.

“What are you doing? Who was that woman for you to follow her like you’re in a trance?”

When he looked back, he saw his friends, who followed him across the road.

“No, it’s nothing.”

“You’re okay, right?”

Changsik turned around to look at the road that the lady went down before speaking,

“Actually, I was wondering if she was the lady who lived above me when I was young. She really looked after me a lot.”

“Really? Then you should’ve talked to her.”

“I saw her from up close and saw that she wasn’t the same person.”

“Sometimes, you look like you’re staring at something strange, you know? You can actually see ghosts, can’t you?”

Changsik smiled and shook his head. 0 and 1 — those seemed far-fetched from any kind of ghosts. Machine code and ghosts, these two seemed completely unrelated without any point of contact.

Having returned home, Changsik took a shower and thought about the lady with the 1 on her shoulder that he saw during the day. In a world filled with 0s, a 1 meant something special.

What was that woman? What did 0 mean, and what did 1 mean?

He thought he had lost interest and didn’t have any attachments anymore, but his head was filled with the symbols like the time he was in middle school.

Just as he was agonizing over a problem that he could not solve, his sister came to his room.

To their parents, she was a proud daughter of the family who passed the test for a civil servant at the young age of 25, and to Changsik, she was a thankful family member who gave him pocket money from time to time.

“You should really clean up a little. Even pigs would freak out at the sight of this place.”

“This is on the cleaner side.”

Instead of his parents, who lived in the countryside, his sister looked out for him a lot.

When they were young, they were quick to get into fights, but as they got older, they became closer instead.

Changsik looked at the number zero on top of his sister’s shoulder. It was naturally a zero. His curiosity towards the number 1 deepened.

“I saw that someone was moving in next door.”

“At this hour?”

Moving in at 8 in the evening, huh?

“Looks like he doesn’t have much luggage. He seemed to be carrying it all by himself.”

“You sound quite attentive.”

“He’s quite the looker, and he has a good physique too. Above all, he was really polite. He greeted me when I came across him on the way up, saying that he was moving in today. He looked really kind.”

After seeing off his sister, who said she was leaving, Changsik looked at the door of the apartment next to his.

As this was a one-room room that had a frequent change of tenants, he had never gotten close to his neighbors. Though it was doubtful whether living next door would mean they would get close in an era like this.

The lights were turned on. Music started flowing out. He could hear a singing voice following the music before turning quiet as though the person realized that he was making too much noise.

Changsik was relieved to see that this person seemed to know the etiquette. He wished for this man he didn’t know the name of to be a quiet person as he returned to his house.

* * *

It was the number 4. It turned out that the world of numbers didn’t just contain 0 and 1, but numbers above that as well.

Changsik followed the man who had a 4 on his shoulder. The man walked down a familiar path.

When the man eventually stopped, Changsik widened his eyes. It was the villa that he lived in.

He quickened his steps and entered the building before the door closed, following the man walking past the glass door.

“Hello,” the man greeted him with a bright smile.

This was the first time he had received a greeting from someone else while living here, other than from the landlord who lived on the 5th floor.

Changsik awkwardly bowed back.

“Do you live here?” asked the man.

“Yes.”

“I moved here a week ago. Are you a college student?”

“Yes.”

“You’re quite good-looking. You must be quite popular with the girls.”

The man flattered him. Just as it was about to become awkward from the lack of conversation, the man walked up the stairs. Room 301 was the man’s house.

“So you lived right next to me. You should say hello the next time we meet.”

The man smiled and went into his house. Just like his sister said, he was really polite. Usually, when people living in the same villa came across each other, they would smile awkwardly or pretend they didn’t see anyone.

Changsik closed the door and thought back to the man. It wasn’t a 0 nor a 1, but a 4. What could it be?

* * *

“Attending a trial?” Changsik asked his friend.

It was that friend who believed that ghosts existed. Next to him was the science girl that always hung out with him.

“They say an evil spirit gets attached to someone who commits murder.”

“You’re going to watch a trial just because you want to see that?”

“In Korea, trials are fundamentally public, meaning there’s no problem with going and watching.”

What a passion. A trial was something he had never been to before.

Eventually, he decided to go with him. He would’ve hesitated if the application process was tedious, but he accepted when he heard that he could just go.

* * *

“She’s not picking up? Mom, you’re clearly overly worried. I’m sure she’s busy. Right, she’ll call you when it’s time, so don’t worry so much.”

His mother became more and more worried about her children every day, even though she had been very lenient in raising them when they were young.

Changsik smiled and left his house. Today was the day he was attending the trial that he promised his friends he would go see with them a month ago.

On his way out, he came across the man living next door. Just as he was about to greet him, he saw something different from usual.

The number 5.

“Going on a date?”

“Not really a date. Just an appointment.”

“Have fun.”

From 4 to 5. The number had increased by one. What could this mean? He was curious, but his appointment came first.

He met up with his friends and went to Songjung Court. They were able to attend the trial without any complicated process. It was a murder trial.

“It makes me nervous.”

“Me too.”

Just as he was waiting while listening to his friends, he saw the figure of the defendant.

At that moment, Changsik froze. Among the numerous zeros in the court was an eye-catching 1.

There was the number 1 on the left shoulder of the defendant.

* * *

Maru grabbed his pants and looked at the actor playing the defendant. He expressed the state of his thoughts becoming paralyzed and not being able to do anything with quite a lot of detail.

His mouth was slightly gaping and his eyes were fixed. In a situation where the surrounding noise became extremely distant, an okay sign shook his head.

“Nice expression, Maru.”

He listened to Producer Cha’s voice and stood up from his seat.

After Story 172

“Lift the cables when you move them.”

The camera moved. The production crew moved like a delicately-assembled machine. Maru could feel that the staff members were made up of veterans.

He left the gallery and went to the monitor. Producer Cha pointed at the screen with his finger.

“Those were some good eyes you were showing.”

“Should I keep going like this?”

“It’s perfect right now. It’s just the expression I wanted.”

Maru widened his eyes more than he did on the screen and tried expressing his unease.

“How about this?”

“That’s excessive.”

“My eyes are slightly odd, so I think it’ll be more pretty if I open my eyes a little more.”

“Forget that. You’re doing plenty well right now.”

After a round of jokes, he listened to the producer’s instructions again. As they had done several rehearsals before the real shoot, some simple explanations were enough.

After conversing with the producer, he went back to the gallery. Actress Kim Yoonjung and actor Na Jungho, who played his college friends, were talking about their monthly rent.

“I have to come a few more times if I want to go to my part-time job less. Only then will I be able to escape from the pressure of rent.”

“I’m praying even now. Not to God or Buddha, but to the writer to appear more than this. Every time I appear, my bank balance gets more plentiful.”

Actors who received their payment according to their grades were paid according to the number of appearances in an episode. Even if they shot for three days and nights, if they only appeared in one episode, then their payment would be that for one episode.

If they weren’t playing roles that could leave behind a deep impression, it was much better to appear in each episode for short moments, if it was about earning money.

“Both of you moved out of your parent’s houses?” Maru asked as he sat down.

He dropped the formal speech with them during the first shoot. Not only were they close in age, but Maru had also proactively talked to them so that he could feel less of a discrepancy during the shoot.

“Everyone’s the same if they came up to Seoul while dreaming of becoming an actor. Both Jungho and I are living in goshiwons.”

“Noryangjin[1], then?”

“Yeah. These days, there are a lot of people studying for civil servant exams, but there are also people like us who don’t have anything on them living there.”

“Are you eating on time?”

“There’s a supermarket that sells food ingredients that are nearing their expiry dates for cheap. Thanks to that, there’s no worry about food.”

Yoonjung, who was listening, said that her main source of intake was cup rice[2].

“Do both of you have time the day after tomorrow?”

“I have plenty of time.”

“I’ll treat you out. You should come with me.”

“Our main actor is something else alright. But we got treated by you last time. Having you treat us again is a little…”

Both Yoonjung and Jungho smiled awkwardly.

“I’m feeding you so that you can keep taking care of me in the drama. Don’t feel so bad.”

“If you put it that way, I’ll gratefully accept.”

These two were youths who were enduring in Seoul with their willpower alone after having come when they were just twenty years old. There was no need for advice like ‘think about the future’ or ‘look at the reality’ for such people.

A warm bowl of rice and a cup of coffee to drive away sleep would be much more useful to them.

“Oh, right. How were my lines before? I think it was okay since the director didn’t say anything much,” Jungho asked.

“If you’re excited that you’re in a new environment, namely the court, then you should speak a little faster, but if you’re nervous, then you’re doing well right now. You should adjust according to the character you have in your mind.”

“I think I’m going to have stomach cramps if he snaps out like last time.”

“If a minor actor wants directions from the director, then you should sometimes just push forward with it while thinking that you’re crazy. Of course, you have to be prepared to get sworn at.”

“Maru, can’t I use your name this time? If I say that you told me to do it, then I think the director will just laugh it off.”

“What an ungrateful guy.”

“I was just joking. I’m a minor actor, so I don’t dare ruin the flow of the shoot. I’m not sure about anything else, but I sure am good at knowing my own position.”

When Jungho stopped talking, Yoonjung spoke this time. She asked Maru to observe her and tell her if she didn’t look awkward.

Both of them had a great passion to learn acting. It should’ve been hard for them to ask someone of a similar age to teach them, but the two of them politely asked Maru for help.

A pair of juniors asked him for help while being polite. How could he refuse?

Still, however, he didn’t talk about anything in detail since they were in the middle of a shoot. He only told them some tips that they could make use of right away.

“Teacher Han’s lessons are incredible. If acting schools taught like this, I would become a star in no time.”

“The things I’m telling you are only some tricks. The more you learn from studying, the more you’ll find out that what I told you is just an empty carcass.”

“An empty carcass is still good. If I want to learn that, it’ll cost hundreds of thousands of won per month. I’ve been to numerous shoots as a minor actor, but I’ve never gained as much as I did here.”

He twitched his eyes.

“Why are you flattering me all of a sudden? It’s creeping me out.”

“Why else? I’m trying to get you to buy me expensive beef.”

While they were talking, the shoot resumed. As this was a 10-episode drama instead of the usual 16-episode one, the progression of the story was very quick. It should be quite a headache to plot the storyline while taking into account the product placement ads throughout.

Maru could picture writer Yoo who must be agonizing about now. His assistant writers were probably having a hard time as well.

“Lower the reflector a little more.”

Maru slightly closed his eyes at the light and opened them again.

Producer Cha was adjusting the weight of the drama through lighting. The overall picture was probably going to be rather dark.

Having fewer episodes compared to public TV stations was helpful in this case. As they could allocate more time to the shoot, they could focus on making the cuts look good.

“Get ready.” The director signaled.

Maru took a deep breath and started acting.

He took out his phone, which he had put on silent, and looked at it. The seemingly unrelated events created an unpleasant mixing noise as they were combined into one.

The number 1 on the shoulder of the murder case defendant, his neighbor’s number increasing from 4 to 5, and lastly, his sister who had not been in contact recently.

“What is it?” Yoonjung said his line. He was making quick use of what Maru taught him.

“No, it’s nothing.”

He put his phone in his pocket again. While he felt uneasy, he couldn’t be sure of anything. Right now, it was still his delusion. It was more likely that he was unnecessarily worried.

The number was probably a coincidence, his neighbor must be a kind person, and his sister should call back like nothing happened soon.

All sorts of misfortunes wouldn’t suddenly assault him like this. It was ridiculous to think that such a dramatic misfortune would suddenly find its way to him, who had been living an ordinary life until now.

He forced himself to smile. Maru was someone who put a lot of effort into his smiles. A smile stemming from relaxation and being worry-free didn’t suit this situation. He had to leave room for doubt. His smile must tell the audience at home to feel unease and that Murphy’s Law was indeed correct.

He forcefully pulled the corners of his lips to make a false smile.

Here lay the reason he wanted to play Ahn Changsik: the detailed expression acting.

He had to delicately unfold the process of how an ordinary citizen changes when coming across undeliverable malice.

It was a character that he couldn’t help but want to play. At the same time, it was a role that came with a lot of risks.

Producer Cha told him about this during the casting as well, that his facial close-ups will be partial close-ups to bring out every last description of emotions. Especially the hands. He said that Ahn Changsik’s uneasy psychology would be shown to the audience through his hands a lot.

Producer Cha was a pretty daring person. He put aside the easy way out and chose a difficult path. He chose hands instead of one’s eyes and voice that could easily transmit emotions.

Of course, he shouldn’t just increase the proportion of hands recklessly. He would probably use hands to express emotions instead of the face or the voice at the most decisive moment.

Maru had to transmit emotions through his fingertips. Not to mention various gestures, he would have to make use of minute trembling, stiffening, and even the movements of his tendons and bones.

From what he heard, the producer was even thinking about a montage of just the hands. Yang Ganghwan said that he loved these kinds of techniques and readily agreed to it.

As this was the beginning of the story, they were shooting with ordinary angles for the sake of building the background and immersion, but unique filming techniques were going to be used further down the drama.

This was probably only possible thanks to Yang Ganghwan’s admission into the drama, which increased the power of the production crew.

After the court trial scene, they moved to a corridor. While the background actors checked their movement routes according to the explanations, Maru checked his script for his lines. While everything was in his head, he could only feel at ease after he checked all the letters through his eyes.

He would remind himself of the writer’s intent while looking at the script, then consequently overwrite his own thoughts with the character that he had researched.

All forms of acting had to begin with respecting the world created by the writer. Going into the act after studying sufficiently versus trusting entirely in one’s own interpretation — such different attitudes were bound to cause a clear difference. Most of the time, the latter tended to produce negative results.

Of course, if he felt a sense of awkwardness from the lines when he tried saying it on the set, then an edit was inevitable. A line that the producer and the actor could not agree on meant that there was something wrong with it.

Most of the writers were accepting of line changes during the shoot, but some writers did not tolerate any changes down to every last comma.

Thankfully, writer Yoo placed more emphasis on the shoot. His passion to make this successful was quite amazing that he even called Maru, the actor, a few times to ask questions.

The producer, the writer, and the actors were all excited about this new challenge.

From Maru’s experience, the result of a shooting atmosphere like this tended to be one of two things: a huge success or a weird mess filled with passion. There was probably no middle ground.

“Let’s do that again.”

He took out his phone and pressed a speed dial. His manager’s number came up, and after a few rings, he was notified that the phone he was calling was turned off.

He pressed the button again. While waiting for it to connect, he looked at the background actors walking over from the other side.

He fixed his eyes on their shoulders, chasing the invisible number 0 with his eyes.

They shot three or four more times until the angle of the camera, lights, and reflectors were all in perfect positions.

The moment a thick shadow covered exactly half of his face, producer Cha shouted cut.

They then checked the cut they just took through the monitor. It was a blatant use of lighting.

The reflectors, which were supposed to act as fill lights, were put far away in order to create a shadow. The screen felt heavy, stiff, and cold in general. It would probably look even frostier once some color editing was done to it.

“The ending cut looks good. I’m definitely going to be using this. Even if I scrap everything else in the editing room, I’m going to use this.”

“Doesn’t it look too depressing?”

“Impact is what is important. Rather than that, your expression looks really good. You look like a dog drenched in rain.”

Producer Cha smiled and gave him a tap on his waist.

* * *

Ganghwan scratched his head before turning around to look behind him. He saw an actress lying down on the cold floor.

Actress? No, that was a woman who was about to become a corpse.

He approached the woman. The moment he looked into the pupils that had expanded from fear, an uncontrollable sense of pleasure swept over his body.

“It’s okay. Don’t worry about anything. So…”

He slowly wrapped his hands around the woman’s neck and pushed his body weight down onto them. He didn’t forget to push the woman’s arms with both of his knees so that she couldn’t struggle.

The trembling sensation that was transmitted through his palms made him want to smile even more, which he forcefully stopped.

It was not yet time to smile. It was an important moment. He had to focus to do it cleanly and in one go.

“Okay.”

Ganghwan immediately let go when the voice woke his mind. The actress underneath him coughed dryly. He hurriedly opened a bottle of water and handed it to her.

“Are you okay?”

“Yes, I’m okay.”

“I was trying to watch out too.”

“No, you did well. If it was awkward, we would’ve had to do that again.”

He grabbed the actress’ hand and pulled her up. He also dusted her clothes.

The actress stroked her neck and spoke, “But you were a little scary. I was looking up from below, and your eyes were… holy crap!”

The actress who was speaking mischievously while rolling her eyes backwards, took a deep breath again before leaving the place.

Gangwhan clenched his hands and opened them again. Sometimes, being immersed in his role made him feel a sense of crisis.

The better he tried to do, the more he was colored in the ideals of the murderer.

His reason held him back from crossing the dangerous boundary, so there was no worry of causing accidents, but he couldn’t do anything about the subconscious sudden burst of violent nature.

“This looks hella freaky,” said producer Cha while looking at the screen, looking satisfied.

Ganghwan also had a look at the screen. The murderer that he expressed was putting on a perverse smile.

“I was like that?”

“Who else could it be?”

“Looks like I’m going to ruin my image after shooting this.”

“Are you boasting that you’re good at acting?”

“Was it obvious?”

He rubbed his stiff cheeks with his palms. The murderer was seeping into his body.

[1] A district in Seoul known for having lots of goshiwons.

[2] Like cup noodles, but rice instead of noodles.

After Story 173

As with everything else in life, acting too sometimes becomes more unfamiliar and new the more you do it. As it was a form of art expressed with the human body, it too would become formulized over time. That person would eventually stop worrying and fall back to their compiled methodology until eventually they feel a sense of mannerism and change their method.

The acting they had done for years would become unfamiliar in a span of an instant.

‘This method’ when expressing joy and ‘that method’ when expressing sadness — when that formulized internal system collapses, some would say they agonized, but for Ganghwan, he always looked forward to such moments.

The reason he took a so-called ‘Sabbatical year’ and spent time in places unrelated to his acting was also to break through his mannerism. He was intentionally placing a gap in his work period to shake off the things he had gotten used to, both consciously and subconsciously.

Having escaped his original method of acting, when he started this drama, he placed his focus on ‘raw acting’ this time. Rough emotional acting with minimal filtering. He really wanted to remove all the emotional filters and throw himself into the role, but as the role was that of a murderer, he couldn’t exactly do that.

He was holding onto a sliver of himself so that no accidents would occur.

In that sense, the character Yoon Hojung was very picky. The murderers he saw in Korean dramas only chose murder as a form of manifesting their desire for success. They would kill their target to steal their social position or for monetary gains.

On the contrary, Yoon Hojung was a character whose entire objective was murder. Enacting justice and bringing benefit to society and whatnot were outside of his interests. What he pursued was the act of murder itself.

The most important commitment during serial murders was to not get caught. To not get caught, he had to be smart. The murderer didn’t just need to possess a lot of knowledge, they had to be able to use that knowledge practically.

He could be excited about doing the deed, but even at his climax, he had to stay a rational person that does not miss a single mistake.

A murder had to occur only in the designated places, leaving no traces behind, and he had to watch out not to make any mistakes that might put him on the suspected list.

Naturally, he couldn’t help but become meticulous. The character that the writer designed was in accordance with his thoughts.

What of his expressions and tone of speech then?

Yoon Hojung was someone who could not afford to be on the suspected criminal list. He had to maintain a suitable social relationship, but he never show a glimpse of what was inside him.

And there was nothing better than a smile when it came to hiding that deep abyss. He wore a faint smile in all scenes, even in scenes where he was doing a monologue.

That wasn’t the thought of Yang Ganghwan. It was the will of Yoon Hojung. He just naturally became like that.

To that, producer Cha said that it was good.

“Don’t mind me and try to shake me off with all of your power.”

“I’m really going try hard,” said the actress.

“Please do. Also, I might be a little rough. If you feel that something isn’t right, or you feel too uncomfortable, then please shout right away so that I can stop.”

The actress nodded, seemingly understanding that Ganghwan wasn’t saying this out of formality.

“Just watch out so that I don’t get bruised.”

They did a rehearsal with producer Cha. Throughout the rehearsal, Ganghwan kept telling the actress that he was going to do it harder in the real run and that she should do so as well.

Before the standby, producer Cha said to him, “How about you hold back a little?”

“If I hold back here, I’m going to be a totally different person from what we’ve shot until now.”

“I’m worried about your health. Your eyes look bloodshot whenever we shoot, so you can’t blame me for being worried.”

“It just means I’m enjoying myself so don’t worry about it. I’m younger than you, so don’t you think I have better stamina than you?”

“It’s only a couple of years of difference. Anyway, watch out so that you don’t get hurt. Your body price is our entire production budget. Keep in mind that if you get hurt, everything comes to a screeching halt.”

“You keep giving me pressure instead of encouragement. Fine, I’ll watch out for myself.”

The staff members got into their positions.

Ganghwan once again reminded his partnering actress to put everything into this. The woman displayed that she was slightly fed up with hearing this again but still got ready.

“Well then, let’s go.”

He raised his head after looking at the lights faintly scattering on the floor. He saw a woman staggering while wearing high heels. It was prey that had come to one of the locations he set his eyes on. She was merely a piece of meat that was drunk without knowing what was going to happen to her soon.

He stretched his neck and looked around. This place was a narrow alleyway without any security cameras or even a parked car. It was also a commercial district far away from residential areas.

The residential area was three minutes away by walk. The woman should be feeling pretty safe while looking at the fluorescent lights in the distance.

This was the optimal place, and the time was optimal as well. He suppressed his excitement and walked towards the woman.

Running was not an option. He would decrease the distance until he was sure he could catch his prey and snatch her away with the strength of his constricted muscles when he could subdue it with certainty.

He was now close enough to grab the woman by her collars in just one large stride.

He leaped.

The smell of booze could be smelled amidst the damp air of summer. The drunk woman couldn’t even respond to the sound coming from behind her.

He wrapped her body with his arm and squeezed. The woman twisted her body in retaliation. She shouldn’t be able to scream since he had her mouth covered and throat strangled.

He already knew from a few experiences that the human body would become stiff like a wooden puppet when it enters a state of extreme nervousness with the airways blocked.

Cooking a stiff human was easier than fileting a fish. The struggling woman’s body eventually lost strength. He put on his hat again, which had been flicked away by the woman in her struggles, and put an arm around her shoulder to carry her.

He walked boldly like her lover trying to get her home. He was taking measures against scenarios where someone might appear in this deserted place. Just as he took the woman in front of his car that he had parked in the alley…

“Cut!”

Ganghwan immediately regained control of his excited body. The actress leaning against him let out a faint breath and looked at Ganghwan.

“I really had the urge to hit you midway. Even now I’m feeling shocked and my heart is racing.”

“That’s why I asked you to do it as hard as possible. You aren’t uncomfortable anywhere, are you?”

“It hurts a little, but this isn’t anything much.”

“Thanks to you, I had an easier time.”

The actress had a glance at producer Cha before speaking, “Then can you take a photo with me later? I’m a huge fan of yours, but it’s hard to ask you for something like this on set.”

“Is one enough?”

“Then three?”

The actress took out her phone and quickly took photos.

As they needed to shoot inside the car, there was a small break.

Ganghwan opened his script. It was the script he had preserved cleanly so that there wasn’t a single speck of dust on it. He was also careful when flipping the script over. He couldn’t afford to make a crease or a fold on it.

“Looks like my worksheet from my school years. It’s clean,” said producer Cha.

“I was going to look at a clean version without anything on it.”

“Did you do that in your last work as well?”

“No, but I felt like Yoon Hojung would be like this. He does not leave a single trace of himself behind. I thought I’d do the same because those things might bother me later. I want to act just based on the impression I get when the camera’s rolling.”

“That’s good too.”

Producer Cha walked away first, saying that they should rehearse for the next part. Ganghwan carefully put down the script and followed producer Cha.

The cut they were shooting this time was Yoon Hojung claiming his trophies. It was a ritual of sorts for Yoon Hojung to permanently retain the moment of his pleasure during the murder.

Of course, it didn’t consist of cutting an ear off or any other part of the body and preserving it.

The ritual was taking a trivial item that the victim had in their possession. That was his trophy. The value of his trophy was something only he could recognize after all.

It was sufficient as long as other people could not relate the item to a murder even if he showed them.

They took a shot of him taking the decoration off a phone. They took about seven shots of closeups on his hand delicately touching the ring.

“How perverse,” said producer Cha.

Ganghwan couldn’t retort to that. He was the one acting it, but he too found it perverse.

* * *

Ahn Changsik was an ordinary person. He was born in an ordinary household and received ordinary, compulsory education, and went to college like most of his other peers did. The only thing special about his ordinary life was that he could see numbers.

However, he did not stake his life on being special. In fact, he pretended to not see them so that he could assimilate into ordinary life. Whenever he saw new things, he would have curiosity towards them and even act on his curiosities for a while, but never to the end.

Ordinary life was the most important thing to him after all.

However, that ordinary life crumbled apart. The number that didn’t possess any meaning other than that he could see them now had meaning.

What did he have to do? No, how did he have to react?

Maru analyzed the character known as Ahn Changsik from top to bottom and thought again and again.

He threw questions, answered them, and looked at the script. He looked at the methods that the writer wrote out and compared them to the things that he thought about.

The character Ahn Changsik was perfected in that process. The character’s personality would change towards the latter half of the story when it reaches the climax, but he now had a general grasp of the Ahn Changsik that would lead the first half of the story.

He wrote down the things that came to his mind on a sticky note. He didn’t differentiate between the broad and detailed questions. Then, he placed his sticky notes on top of the relevant part and the relevant line.

Thanks to this, the thickness of his script kept increasing, and it also became much more colorful.

“I’ll get ready.”

Maru put the script down and stood in front of the court. They had to shoot a scene where he entered.

He walked up and down the stairs and thought about Ahn Changsik.

Today, Ahn Changsik came to court to prove himself. Just because a defendant of a murder case had the number 1 above his shoulder didn’t mean that it had to signify the number of murders that they committed.

He put aside the trivial question of ‘what relationship is there between a number system created by humans and a supernatural phenomenon.’

He simply needed to check. He would confirm with his own eyes what he saw by attending court trials.

While background actors changed clothes and places for the shoot, he looked at the shoulders of the people playing the defendants.

While the trial was for murder, some of them had a zero on their shoulders. He would understand if the defendant was pleading injustice and didn’t admit to anything, but a person with a zero was admitting to their crime.

He started having questions. Could he truly trust these eyes?

He called someone on his phone after leaving the court.

“Mom, did you get anything from my sister?”

Only a negative response was given to him. It had been a month since they filed a missing report to the police. The sense of unease gnawing away at his nerves was entering the stage of forfeit now.

He looked at his phone with his head loose. Even as he acted, he endlessly thought back to his own figure. He imagined himself in detail as though there was a third eye watching over him from above.

Was his expression adequate? Were his actions awkward? Were his emotions enough? He kept thinking and thinking so that he didn’t stop.

“And done.”

He let out a deep breath at the assistant producer’s signal.

Ahn Changsik had to be an active volcano, one that is on the verge of erupting, but not quite yet. He couldn’t let go of his tension because he had to continue with the precarious emotions.

“You’re here?”

He saw Yang Ganghwan next to producer Cha, fanning himself. As they were shooting apart most of the time, it had been a few days since they last met.

Producer Cha smiled before asking Maru for his script.

“Hey, are you two competing or something?”

A script that looked like it was fresh out of the printer versus a script with colorful sticky notes stuck on it everywhere.

Ganghwan smiled the moment he saw Maru’s script. He slowly looked through the script. After going halfway through, he spoke,

“It’s the record of someone’s thoughts.”

“I thought Ahn Changsik had to do that.”

Ganghwan nodded.

“A cold-hearted murderer has a clean script, while an ordinary student’s script is filled with notes. Are you sure you didn’t get that the other way around?”

Hearing producer Cha’s words, the two of them simultaneously shook their heads. Producer Cha pouted.

“Fine, you actors get along. Only my staff members understand me.”

Producer Cha looked behind him and said to the assistant producer,

“Let’s wrap things up and move. Today’s schedule is going to be a tight one.”

After Story 174

The world has become good. CCTVs were installed in many places, and the various convenience stores that opened on nearly every street installed cameras of their own. Before, investigations required asking people questions, but these days, there were many cases where simply checking a nearby CCTV was sufficient.

Despite that, however, there were still uncovered areas. Alleys with old commercial buildings, old districts, and residential areas that were still under development… once car dash cams became a norm, it would increase the number of arrests, but at the moment, that still seemed like a far distant future.

Apparently, 2010 will be the year when everyone would use a dash cam in their car. But as of now, the year 2000, it still seems like a distant future.

“Excuse me, sir. I’d like to ask you some questions.”

Lee Daecheol showed a photo to the owner of the dry cleaning shop and explained the situation briefly.

The owner looked at the photo indifferently before speaking,

“I wouldn’t know anything by looking at a photo.”

“Please don’t say that and have a closer look at it.”

“I did have a close look. But nothing comes to mind even if I see it. Heck, if I could remember a visitor from five years ago, would I be running a dry cleaning shop? I would’ve studied better and done something else.”

A customer came into the dry cleaning shop. The owner looked at Daecheol, signaling him to get out without showing that scary-looking face of his.

“If you happen to remember anything, please contact me.”

He smiled awkwardly before leaving the store. There were no results today. There were no results yesterday either, and he would probably not gain anything tomorrow.

Daecheol took out a memo that he had folded. They were clues to the missing person.

“Dammit.”

As soon as he returned to the police station and sat at his desk, the department leader came over.

“Where were you fooling around this time?”

“The weather was good, so I went for a stroll.”

“You sure do keep going on that stroll a lot. The entire country might be just strolling grounds to you.”

The leader gave him a cup of coffee. When he drank it, he noticed it was cheap 100-won coffee from a vending machine.

“Got anything?”

“Nope.”

“How long are you going to keep holding onto that?”

“You know I’m only looking into it when it doesn’t affect my work.”

“I do, but it’s been five years, so I was thinking it’s about time to let it go.”

Daecheol worked on his document as he listened to the leader’s words. He wrote labels for various pieces of evidence and also wrote some details for a search warrant.

“If you did as much as you could, you should learn to let things go. No one can blame you for it.”

“I get it already.”

“Look at your answer. You won’t listen to a single goddamn word I say to you.”

Daecheol thanked the leader for the coffee and organized the documents. Although he was an investigator that did fieldwork, he spent more time working on documents at his desk when looking at his overall work hours.

“Detective Lee.” A junior of his approached him.

“It’s about the case you were talking about last time. The one where a woman in her twenties went missing.”

“Oh, that. Got something?”

“Nothing. Even her family canceled the missing report. I don’t know if they just accepted it or gave up.”

“Anything being investigated?”

“You know how it is. We don’t dispatch people to look for a missing adult. There isn’t anything of note, so who would investigate that? Also, her last call mentioned that she was going to come back after earning money, so well, I’m sure she’ll come back once she does that.”

Daecheol nodded. In South Korea, around 80 thousand people went missing every year. Among them, 20 thousand were classified as missing. The majority of that was the elderly with dementia, and the next most numerous were toddlers.

When a completely fine adult went missing, they were classified as ‘leavers,’ meaning, there were approximately 60 thousand leavers every year.

Of course, the majority of them would return to their houses. They would return once their financial and whatever other problems they had were resolved, and as such, would return to society, automatically dissolving their missing status.

However, there should certainly be some people who go missing because of someone else. They would get quietly buried in a place where no one can find them forever.

The junior looked at the photo on the table and spoke, “This is that case from five years ago, right? When a missing college girl was discovered as a corpse. Wasn’t there an investigation team that was formed but then disbanded?”

“It disbanded.”

“Then why are you still looking into it?”

“Because the case is still there, even though the team isn’t.”

Daecheol drank the cooled coffee. The voice from five years ago became vivid to him again.

-Detective, I told you. Our girl isn’t someone who would go missing. I told you. We told you! So why!

He shook his head.

“Anyway, thanks for looking into it.”

“Don’t mention it.” The junior turned around before stopping. “Erm, detective Lee.”

“Yeah?”

“This is something that a friend of mine who looked into this missing case told me, but apparently, there is a case of a college girl missing in Songjung-gu. The missing person’s family came over and apparently caused a total ruckus.”

“Really?”

“It shouldn’t be related to the case from five years ago, but it happened in the same district, so I’m telling you just in case.”

“How long has it been since she went missing?”

“Over a month, from what I’ve heard, but I don’t know the details.”

“Okay. I’ll ask you for something else later.”

“At that time, sweet’n’sour pork won’t cut it.”

Daecheol sighed and pressed between his eyes. As his junior said, these two cases shouldn’t be related. The reason he was concerned about it despite that was probably because of the word ‘missing.’ The leader was right. This was a disease. A damned disease known as guilt.

* * *

Cha Myungjoon shouted okay after clicking his finger. The scene looked so good that he couldn’t help but click his fingers.

Hwang Hojoong, who was acting ‘Lee Daecheol’ at the desk, stood up from his seat.

“Hojoon-hyung, that was really good. How can you be so good?”

“If you keep putting me on a pedestal like that, I’ll be too embarrassed to continue.”

Hojoon laughed cutely with a baritone voice. He was really quite something. Casting him was just as big of an achievement as casting Yang Ganghwan and Han Maru.

“Senior, please take it easy,” said Maru, who was on the side.

Hojoon told him not to say something like that and waved his hand in the air.

“I can’t take it easy if I don’t want to embarrass the drama.”

“Embarrass the drama? Oh please. You’re leading it right now.”

“Maru, I feel my stomach churn whenever I hear something like that.”

The two of them joked around.

When it was confirmed that Han Maru would play Ahn Changsik and Yang Ganghwan, Yoon Hojung, Myungjoon immediately started pondering who he would ask to play the role of Lee Daecheol.

This drama had a total of three main characters. The college student Ahn Changsik, who was finding more and more about the case, Yoon Hojung the main culprit, and the investigator character Lee Daecheol, who would help Changsik out.

Although there were a lot of fantasy elements, as it was a drama based on reality, it was impossible for Ahn Changsik, a college student, to resolve everything by himself. This necessitated the existence of a helper, and that was where an investigator who had lingering attachments to a past came in.

It was a character that needed detailed emotional expression, just as much as Ahn Changsik and Yoon Hojung. There were also quite a lot of action scenes on top of that. While they could use professional stuntmen for the dangerous scenes, any scenes that revealed the investigator’s face had to be done by the actor himself.

He had less screen time than Ahn Changsik and Yoon Hojung, and there were many action scenes to digest, on top of all the detailed acting scenes. It was a picky character.

First of all, it was impossible to scout a famous actor. Yang Ganghwan and Han Maru were the two top actors in the drama, so there shouldn’t be many stars who would want to play a character with less content. Not that they had any budget to cast anyone like that in the first place.

To use a veteran supporting actor, the budget was too tight. Just as he was agonizing over who to cast, since he couldn’t exactly use anyone since it was a protagonist-level role, Maru gave him a recommendation.

“How about senior Hwang Hojoon for the role of Lee Daecheol?”

It was a name he hadn’t heard of before. When he asked how Maru knew this person, he replied that he met him in the movie he shot before Depths of Evil. Apparently, both of them were minor characters who didn’t appear that many times.

“He’s someone with great skills. He just hasn’t come across the right work yet.”

This drama was something that was only set alight thanks to Maru. Yang Ganghwan was practically brought by Maru as well.

He decided to play along with, no, believe in Maru’s words and had a meeting with Hwang Hojoon.

The first impression he had was that this man was a farmer. He had a thick neck, copper skin, and big hands. He was also wearing a vest with the logo for the farmer’s association.

Just like his impression, Hojoon was currently doing actor work while helping out at the greenhouse being run by his brother. He definitely did not have the face of an investigator who might look fine on the outside but was brewing a storm of depression on the inside.

He had a gentle smile and spoke deeply and slowly. Based on his image alone, he definitely was no Lee Daecheol.

However, Myungjoon changed his mind after seeing a few videos of him acting. Of course, Maru’s endless persuasion helped a lot in changing his mind.

His company also seemed against it at first. However, when both Maru and Ganghwan came out strongly, saying that they wouldn’t do it without Hojoon, the opposing opinions all disappeared.

Like that, the shoot started. There, Hojoon completely manifested Lee Daecheol into reality.

The man who became an innocent farmer when the camera was off, could play Lee Daecheol so well. It made him wonder just how it was possible even as he watched it all happen.

“Senior, it’s about time you become used to it. You’re the main character of a drama.”

Hojoon vigorously shook his head at Maru’s words.

“Of course not! You and Ganghwan are the main characters. I’ll suffice as long as I’m a sidekick that works hard.”

“Let me make a prediction. By the time this drama ends, everyone will reach out to you to work together.”

“I’d have no other wish if that happened. Thank you even if it was just a formality.”

“Just wait. We’ll see if I’m just saying this out of formality, or if it’ll truly happen.”

Maru left the place for a while. Hojoon looked in the direction Maru went to and spoke,

“Director.”

“Yes.”

“You know? No one has ever told me that they believe in me to this extent. But that young man, he didn’t even see me that many times, but he won’t hesitate to tell me that he believes in me. At first, I felt like that was too much for me. I mean, isn’t that right? I don’t have anything good going for me, and my acting is inadequate too. But right now, I’m truly grateful. I gain energy thanks to his words.”

Hojoon turned his head around to look at him.

When they first met in a café, his eyes would always droop slightly downwards, but now his eyes were fixed right in the middle. Myungjoon could feel the overflowing confidence in his eyes.

“You see, I’m not that quick-witted. So if you ever think that something’s not right when you see me acting, please tell me right away. I’m good at listening to feedback and fixing things.”

“Would there ever come a day I need to advise you on acting? You’re perfect even now.”

Myungjoon tapped on Hojoon’s thick arm with his fist.

The sync between the actors was too good.

Even when Maru and Ganghwan quarreled against each other because of a conflict in acting, when Hojoon butted in and smiled, they all laughed as though they weren’t in a conflict at all.

His smile was practically that of the merciful Buddha. Whenever Hojoon was at the shoot, not a single person raised their voice, including Myungjoon himself.

“Okay then. Let’s go to the next bit,” Myungjoon said to the staff members.

* * *

He couldn’t see his neighbor. Ahn Changsik silenced all sound from his house, just in case he missed his neighbor coming back.

It had been a month since his sister went missing. The police told him that they couldn’t do anything about an adult leaving the house.

His mother went to the Songjung-gu police station and caused a ruckus. Even that, however, changed nothing.

The police brought up realistic reasons and calmed his mother down. The reality of his sister’s disappearance didn’t seem to mean much to the police.

The man whose number increased from 4 to 5.

Changsik clutched his face. He kept attending trials during the past month, mainly focusing on murder cases. However, it was not easy to find a rule to the numbers.

To simply rule the number as the number of murders someone committed, there were too many things he was unsure of. There were some people who had a zero above their shoulders despite being defendants after all.

Moreover, he had never seen anyone with a number above 1. It drove him crazy.

Once, he completely flipped and told the police everything — that he could see what other people couldn’t see, and that it seems to be related to the number of murders someone committed.

When he saw the policeman’s face after saying all that, Changsik ended up laughing in vain. The policeman was looking at him with pity.

He did understand them. Even he would feel the same. A number only one person could see? That was ridiculous.

Ultimately, the only clue left to him was his next-door neighbor. The timing of his sister going missing and the man’s number increasing overlapped. Though, this was just intuitive evidence.

However, what could he do even if he met his neighbor? Should he ask if he knew of his sister? Even if he did know her, how would that be a sin? Did he have the authority to ask him for an alibi? Can a mere citizen resolve a matter that the social infrastructure didn’t help with?

As he was agonizing over it, he got a number from an unknown number.

-This is Lee Daecheol from Yangdo-gu’s violent crimes department. Are you available for a call right now?

After Story 175

Ahn Changsik’s face was filled with apprehension as he entered the café. While it was a face that many families of missing people made, Changsik’s face was even darker than usual.

It was like he saw a terrible conclusion that he didn’t even want to imagine early on.

“Thank you for coming like this.”

Daecheol offered Changsik a seat. This was a case that was under the jurisdiction of another department. He had called Changsik strictly for a personal reason for a case that he didn’t have authority over.

Thankfully, Changsik did not reject the request for a conversation.

“You said the area you’re in charge of is Yangdo-gu, didn’t you?”

“Yes. It’s pretty far away from Songjung-gu.”

“Then why are you asking me about my sister?”

“I told you over the phone, but this is not an official investigation. I’m investigating many missing cases because of a personal matter.”

Changsik asked back as he listened,

“When you say it’s personal…”

Daecheol scratched his head. As he investigated many missing cases that occurred near Songjung-gu, he met the family members of numerous people that went missing. Among them, some of them asked him to help even if it was something he was doing personally, but some people swore at him, telling him not to be nosy.

He had to explain everything here. Daecheol first talked about the case where a body of a college girl was discovered in Songjung-gu about five years ago.

“The first missing report was filed six years ago, and the body was discovered a year later. It was the body that the criminal threw away.”

Daecheol looked at Changsik’s expression. There was no hint of surprise or disgust. His face only darkened.

This was a response he hadn’t seen before. Changsik looked like something vague to him had just become clear.

Maybe he knew something?

“I remember it. I saw it on the news a few times,” Changsik said.

Daecheol looked closely at the expression of the college boy in front of him before speaking,

“There was an investigation for a while. It wasn’t an accidental death after all.”

“A murder case, is it?”

“Yes. Investigations happened in multiple areas, but ultimately, we gained nothing. It remains an unresolved case till this day.”

“You’re looking into the murder case, and you’re asking me about my sister. Don’t tell me…”

Changsik jerked his body after leaning forward. It was a sudden change in emotion.

The student that seemed to be unexpectedly calm now suddenly looked like he was going to cry out at any moment.

Daecheol felt rather puzzled at the violent reaction, but he still calmed Changsik down first.

“I’m not saying that there is a relationship. As I said before, I’m only asking in order to find out. Your sister should be totally fine, so don’t worry about it.”

It wasn’t simply rage. If he was causing a ruckus saying that there was no way his sister was dead, that response would be in line with other families with missing members and would’ve been understandable.

Changsik’s rage wasn’t directed towards the investigator who ‘uttered nonsense.’ Just who was he resenting? Daecheol was very concerned about the direction of the rage.

“Please, drink some water for now.”

Daecheol observed Changsik in detail as he drank water. No way, did he have some connection to his sister going missing? Out of habit, he assumed a scenario where Changsik was the culprit.

Changsik would have committed the homicide because of some accident and then hid the corpse. He must have been uneasy every single day, and his other family members must have filed a missing report.

He then clicked his tongue. That deduction didn’t sound right. Putting aside everything else, it didn’t make sense that he came to this place.

It wasn’t an official investigation, so he could’ve just refused over the phone, so there was no way he would come if he was the criminal. Changsik didn’t look like he was here to interrupt his investigations or to gain a thrill from teasing the investigator.

The most plausible reason he could think of was that Changsik was feeling uneasy emotionally because of the missing case of his sister.

“You calm now?”

“Yes, sorry for that.”

“It’s not surprising. It’d be strange if you were fine instead after a member of your family no longer keeps in touch. Should I organize another meeting at a later date if you’re having a hard time? Or, you can just tell me the circumstances at that time through your email.”

“No, I’ll tell you. I think I need to tell you this no matter what.”

Tell him something, huh? Daecheol decided to listen to his story for now.

“When was the last time you met your sister?”

“It was about a month and two weeks ago. She came over and went back after saying a few words. Our parents work in the countryside, so it was my sister who looked after me.”

“You must’ve been on good terms.”

“Yes. We fought a lot when we were young, but we became more comfortable around each other at the end of my military service.”

Changsik looked a little better as he talked about his sister. Daecheol’s opinion was that there were no lies in his expressions. The two of them were probably really close.

“I heard your sister is a college student.”

“She passed the civil servant exams already. She would’ve gone to her first day of work as long as she was assigned. She boasted a lot at home, rightfully so. The thing is, she prepared for the tests while doing a part-time job. Isn’t she amazing? She herself is having such a hard time, but she even gave me pocket money.”

Changsik clasped his hands. His two hands were shaking endlessly.

“You see… my sister… she’s a really good person. She never inconvenienced anyone and in fact, she was too kind for her own good. She was too innocent and would help out people she doesn’t even know…”

It seemed that he was unable to take control of the emotions that overflowed from him.

Changsik lowered his head. He was currently swallowing his tears inside. Daecheol reached his hand out and patted Changsik on the shoulder.

“Your sister will come back totally intact. There’s no need to cry.”

He said the same thing around six years ago. However, while the form of his words might have been the same, the emotions behind the words were entirely different. Back then, he just said it out of annoyance. The feelings of the remaining members of the family meant nothing to him back then.

They were words he uttered easily thinking that the missing person would come back eventually.

Then, the girl who went missing was discovered as a dead body.

He could still vividly picture a middle-aged lady screaming ‘why’ at him, with her eyes bloodshot.

Tears of blood were not just a figure of expression. The old lady expressed her sadness with blood instead of her two eyes which had run dry.

Changsik sighed deeply. It seemed that he had calmed down to a certain extent.

“I know that you must feel hurt and that whatever I say won’t make you stop being worried. But statistically speaking, the majority of adults who left their houses come back. So, there’s no need to despair. Just rest easy. After all, only then will you be able to show a brave and healthy side to her when she returns.”

“Can she return though?” Changsik said with a dazed face.

That was something he could not gloss over. It was definitely not the type of words a member of the family of the missing person would say.

“Why do you say that?”

“Detective, I’m feeling so uneasy that it’s driving me nuts. I am so anxious that I told other investigators about it, but they won’t believe me. But I can’t say it to my family either. My sister went missing, so how would my parents hold if their son starts uttering absurd stuff? Not that they would believe me in any case.”

“Believe what?”

Changsik turned his head around. There was no rage, sadness, or despair in his eyes. His eyes were instead completely empty. Daecheol had seen those eyes many times.

“You know something, don’t you?”

“I know what only I know. Something totally useless.”

“Tell me about it.”

Changsik began explaining with the phrase ‘I know you won’t believe it.’

After his story ended, Daecheol pulled his body back and spoke,

“So you see numbers on people’s shoulders?”

Changsik laughed as soon as he asked back.

“Sounds unbelievable, doesn’t it? Don’t believe it; it’s not like I had any hopes.”

Daecheol crossed his arms. There was once a case where a man in his thirties swung a knife against a shaman. The content of that case was simple. A man who paid ten million won for fortune telling went to the fortune teller for a refund when nothing went the way he wanted.

The shaman naturally refused, and a knife-swinging fight ensued.

In the investigation process, one of the detectives from that department said to the shaman as a joke that even divination couldn’t foresee himself getting stabbed.

The shaman only pouted and was unable to answer.

“Do you really see them?”

“You think I’m a crazy person, don’t you? Yes, that’s right. I’m the only one who can see them in a world where no one else can see them, so, I’m indeed crazy.”

Changsik stood up, saying that he had nothing more to say.

Daecheol looked at Changsik who turned around to leave. The shouts from the middle-aged lady five years ago became vivid in his mind.

-Our daughter won’t do something like that, why won’t you believe us?

If he could really see the number of kills, and if he found something from it, then that would explain the emotions that Chnagsik had from the beginning.

He emptied the coffee in an instant and left the café. He chased the distant Changsik and caught up to him.

“What do you see on my shoulder?”

“I thought you don’t believe me.”

“Tell me regardless.”

“A 0.”

“Of course it’s a 0. A murderer cannot become a police officer.”

“You want to tease the crazy guy now?”

Changsik pushed his arm off. However, Daecheol did not let go.

“I’ll trust you. I’ll try trusting you on this one.”

“What?”

“I said I’ll trust you, I’ll try trusting you unconditionally. But you know that trust needs proof, right?”

“Proof?”

“Come with me, I’ll check whether you’re really a wizard or not.”

* * *

Hojoon let go at the voice shouting cut. Maru looked at his own arm that Hojoon grabbed. There was a large handprint on it. His gripping strength was something else.

Considering his body figure, he probably would’ve done well even as a heavy-lifting athlete.

“So-sorry about that. I got caught up in the moment…”

“This is nothing. Just do it any way you’re comfortable, senior. I’ll obediently follow your lead.”

Hojoon laughed heartily. At first, he was really nervous because this was the first drama where he played a main role, but now, he seemed to have completely adapted.

His acting skills had also ripened, and even Maru was surprised from time to time when they acted together. He didn’t know that Hojoon would be this perfect.

“Hyung-nim, you gotta do that when you’re with me too. So that there’s a park between us,” Ganghwan said as he waved his hand in the empty air. This guy’s shoot wasn’t supposed to begin until 7, but he came here two hours early to chat.

“Please take care of me too. Don’t tell me off too badly even if I don’t do that well.”

Hojoon laughed heartily.

“You and I should have great sync, senior. As for that talkative person over there, he’s a murderer, so you can just stop interacting with him.”

“That’s true.”

Ganghwan twitched his nose as he listened to the conversation.

“I’ll see to you in our next scene together. You know I haven’t scheduled anything else apart from this drama, right? Just let me catch you, and I’ll show you how scary an unemployed murderer is.”

“If you do that, producer Cha will probably try to kill you.”

While they were laughing, producer Cha came over.

“Stop badmouthing me and move. We need to wrap the set up before the sun falls and go to an important scene.”

Important scene. Maru looked at Ganghwan. Today, they were shooting the scene where Ahn Changsik and Yoon Hojoon were going to meet, which wasn’t in the original scenario.

* * *

Changsik looked at the detective business card that Daecheol gave him: Lee Daecheol from the investigation department. Changsik thought that there was no way he would believe him. It simply didn’t make sense to see a number from a common knowledge perspective.

Daecheol, who was entering the police station with his large figure reminiscent of a small bear, suddenly came to a stop.

“Normally, you’d first apply to have a meeting.”

Daecheol was implying that what he was doing right now was something he couldn’t be upfront about.

When he entered the door that had the sign for the investigation team on it, he saw some bars. There were three people in different cells.

“I’ll believe you. But instead, show me proof. Yesterday…”

Changsik raised a finger before Daecheol finished his words. It was the woman on the left. She was looking at the ground with a tired face.

He could see the number 1 above that woman’s shoulder. As for the others, a zero floated above their shoulders.

Daecheol became quiet and then brushed up his hair.

“Yes, that’s how it should be. But once isn’t enough, you know that, right?”

Daecheol looked at the woman in the cell with a complicated expression. Changsik asked in a small voice,

“That woman’s a murderer?”

Daecheol nodded instead of responding. Then he turned around to leave.

After Story 176

Guessing the right one out of three. It was perhaps an answer that one could guess through coincidence or intuition.

However, Changsik showed no hesitation as he chose someone. It was as though he could really prove that he could see a number that signified someone’s number of murders.

Daecheol took Changsik outside the police station.

“Did you really see it?”

“I wish I didn’t see it instead.”

“You couldn’t see anything from the others, but you could see a 1 from that woman?”

“Yes.”

“Geez, that’s crazy.”

“It sounds absurd, doesn’t it?”

“If you were in my shoes, would you believe it if I said I can see something like that?”

“If I couldn’t see something like this, then I would’ve treated it as nonsense.”

“I’m feeling exactly like that right now. But what can I do? I said I’ll try believing in you.”

It wasn’t something he could just end after just one check. Even mass-produced items undergo numerous checks under the guise of quality assurance, so there was no way he could believe what was practically supernatural with just one test.

“I went to the court numerous times,” Changsik said.

“The court? Why?”

“So that I can look into it. Just a month ago, I didn’t know what the numbers signified. Everyone had a zero after all. So, I just considered myself as having a rather peculiar disability and didn’t even tell other people about it. Even if I did, people would look at me strangely, like you did.”

Two men in uniform entered the police station. Changsik chased those people with his eyes and spoke,

“That was when I coincidentally found out. My friends and I attended a trial together, and I saw the number 1 on the shoulder of the defendant. It was a murder case.”

“So you found out what the numbers meant.”

“At first, I denied it. I thought that it must be a coincidence and that there was no meaning to the numbers. That’s why I kept attending court trials of murder cases.”

“Were there numbers on other criminals as well?”

Changsik nodded before shaking his head. That was a vague expression of whether he saw it or not.

“There were two people who were being tried for murder, and they even admitted to it, but they had a zero on their shoulders. In other cases, I could see a clear number on the defendant, but two people had a zero.”

“That’s not that good. If you get a zero even if they committed murder, that means it’s useless.”

“It was just two people, and the rest were right.”

“You see, the importance of law is not sending a hundred criminals to prison, but to save one innocent man. There’s no one who will believe your eyes, but if the reliability of your eyes is questionable, then even I can’t help you.”

“I know, that’s why I’m frustrated to death. If I couldn’t see anything, I could at least pretend that I don’t know, but what can I do? I see it. I see those numbers!”

Changsik shouted before walking outside the premises of the station. The passersby looked at Changsik before walking past again.

Daecheol grabbed his own hair. Ever since he was young, he stayed away from horror movies with ghosts.

When he happened to come across one, he would yawn before eventually falling asleep. They were just too childish.

He knew from a young age that a punch flying toward his face was much scarier than ghosts that don’t even exist.

“I must be crazy.”

Daecheol ran and grabbed Changsik. He didn’t chase after even his girlfriend when they broke up, but today, he chased after a college boy twice.

“You said checking, right? That you’ve had those eyes for all your life, and if you checked it, then you should’ve come to some kind of conclusion, right?”

“You said it was unreliable though.”

“It definitely is not reliable, so let’s check it again together. Are you a stuck-up old man or something? Also, you aren’t the only one who can get angry. I can get angry too.”

Changsik drooped his shoulders and looked at the floor.

Daecheol felt bitter. He was a kid who could see strange things, and even his sister went missing on top of that, so he must be feeling chaotic.

Just as he thought up to that point,

“Oh, I almost forgot. This is the thing that bothered me the most when we talked at the café.”

Changsik raised his head without a word, seemingly not having the energy to respond at all. While Daecheol found it pitiful, there was something he had to hear from Changsik’s mouth.

“The fact that your sister went missing, and the fact that you can see murder counts. How are these two related? If they aren’t related, there is no way you would act so sensitively. Hey, you. Look at me in the eyes. You’re thinking that your sister isn’t missing, but murdered, right?”

Because if not, nothing would explain why the college boy in front of him was angry. Changsik’s droopy face started trembling. Daecheol instantly realized that anxiety and sadness were shaking Changsik’s body up and down.

“Detective. What do I do about my sister? I want to believe that she’s alive, I know that I shouldn’t be thinking like this, but…”

Maybe he was teetering on the edge. Daeceol put on a bitter expression and patted Changsik who looked like he was about to collapse.

“I’ll listen to you. I’ll listen to everything so don’t cry.”

* * *

“From 4 to 5?”

Changsik repeated what he said to Daecheol, who was frowning.

“You said that it was the number of murders with your own mouth, right?”

“Yes.”

If not, there was no other reason for the number to increase. The fact that 4 became 5 meant that he had done it again: killing someone else.

“If what you say is true, you know that it’s a serious problem, right?”

“Yes.”

“Then you should’ve filed a report right aw…”

Daecheol shouted before blinking his eyes a couple times and sighing.

Report. This was the first thing that came to his mind.

He wanted to do it. He wanted to file a report more than anyone else. However, he was treated like a lunatic when he brought up the matter of numbers to the policeman who was in charge of filing missing reports. He already saw the response from the police. Why would he bother reporting?

“I think my neighbor killed five people, so investigate him. Would you investigate a person and issue a warrant and all that just based on what I said?”

“If a warrant could be so easily issued just because of a personal report, then everyone who earned some hate would’ve been reported already.”

“What do you think would happen if I say the proof is a number that only I can see?”

“Fine. I misspoke. At least I’m listening to you. I know these days people don’t like the cops, but we’re all doing our best, so don’t hate us too much.”

Daecheol took out a notepad. He started writing something down.

“First of all, we can’t ignore the timing overlap. Your sister going missing and the number on your neighbor increasing… it would be for the best if there are no relationships between these two incidents, but…”

Daecheol trailed off. Changsik kept his mouth shut.

If these two incidents were that of cause and effect, it would signify the death of his sister. Just imagining him made his heart beat uncontrollably faster and gave him the urge to vomit.

“You haven’t seen this man recently?”

“I haven’t.”

“Don’t you know anything? If you’re neighbors, you must have run into each other a few times.”

“We were at most close enough to say hello. Like normal people.”

“How old is he?”

“Around the early thirties.”

“His physique?”

“Better than me. He’s not as buff as you, but he can be considered healthy. He does look quite chubby in some parts, but he looked like he would be athletic.”

“You don’t know his job, do you?”

“I don’t, but I’ve never seen him wear a suit. The time of day I met him was different every time too. If he’s a salaryman, there’s no way he would be at home at 4 o’clock.”

“He might be unemployed then.”

“I’m not sure.”

“What’s his personality like?”

“He’s very amicable. He greets me first, and he looked so kind that I couldn’t think of him as a murderer. That was why I kept thinking when I verified the number. Did such a person really commit murder? Is this number really related to murder?”

Daecheol stopped writing.

“Do you know what the serial killers that were caught until now had in common?”

“I don’t.”

“It’s that they look like good people. Those who profit from going around showing themselves off as criminals are only the mafia. The ones who commit deliberate murder generally don’t look the part on the outside. They look neat, polite, and kind. They know that their attitudes are what puts their target’s guard down and what makes them safe.”

Daecheol looked more detective-like than ever. Changsik could feel some kind of strong dogma, as well as some unknown sadness.

The fact that he listened to the absurd story without considering him a lunatic also seemed to be for some personal reason rather than the sense of duty as a police officer. Changsik could only estimate that the college girl from five years ago was the reason.

What he could say for sure, was that he finally met an ally.

“It doesn't look like the man next door has moved?”

“No. I checked his mailbox on the first floor and the bill that was there disappeared. It means he took it.”

“But he doesn’t come back home?”

“He might have come throughout the night, but for now, I can’t hear the sound of the door while I’m awake.”

“You weren’t watching him all the time, were you?”

“For the past week, I keep listening for sounds from his house.”

“But you’re in college. What about classes?”

Changsik smiled bitterly.

“I don’t know. I’m thinking I should take the semester off.”

“It’s your problem, so I can’t say anything easily, but you should really go to college. This whole ordeal might be irrelevant. You know what I mean, right?”

“I do think that, but I can’t get any studies done like this right now.”

“True. Anyway, think carefully. The matter of your sister is important, but you should also take care of your own life. Only then will she not feel sorry. It’s a pain if family members suddenly feel like they owe a debt to each other.”

“Thank you.”

“For what?”

“For listening to me and telling me all this.”

Daecheol brushed up his hair with his hand.

“You didn’t tell your parents about this, did you?”

“I haven’t. You see, I went to the hospital when I said I could see numbers when I was young. I can’t remember anything else, but I do remember mom’s worried face back then. So that’s why I didn’t say anything.”

“Good. From now on, tell me everything. I’ll help you as much as possible. But you know that I have work to do, right? I’m a detective so I have quite a lot to do. I can’t focus all my resources on this.”

“Yes, I’m aware of that.”

Daecheol closed the notepad.

“For now, forget about the man next door. Even if you do see him, don’t make anything obvious and act like usual. If your eyes are true, this is no joke.”

“I’ll do that.”

“Also, your eyes. I’m going to make some time to check them a few more times. After that, we’ll have to find out the reason why even some murders have a zero.”

“You really believe me?”

“Don’t make me repeat myself. I’m trying to believe you, but I’m not fully trusting you.”

Daecheol stood up as he put his phone against his ear.

“For now, I’ll be leaving. Don’t do anything strange and stay still. If something happens, call me through the number I’m giving you. Oh, do you have a phone?”

“I do”

“That’s good.”

Daecheol wrote down a number before leaving.

* * *

“Should I walk like this and stop here?”

“Yes, I think that’ll be for the best, “ Maru said to the approaching Gangwhan.

The morning shoot at the set was over, and now they had to shoot outside in a residential district in the middle of the night. Shooting in this kind of place would result in complaints even if the TV station gained permission beforehand, so the best thing was to shoot and leave as quickly as possible.

“I saw you doing pretty well with Hojoon-hyung.”

“He’s very good. I just hopped on the ride.”

“That sounds like it’ll be all my fault if this doesn’t look good. I’m clearly way too twisted, aren’t I?”

“You heard that right. I’m placing full faith in you.”

A dog barking from one of the apartments became quiet. At the same time, the lights were turned on. The production crew got into position and the actors also got ready.

“Alright, then. Let’s do this as quickly as possible.”

The shoot began with producer Cha’s words.

After Story 177

His house was his refuge. Even the worries he had would all be stripped off if he stepped past the door.

When he closed his eyes to the noise from the old refrigerator as a lullaby, his body would automatically relax and fall asleep.

However, many things had changed since the disappearance of his sister. His house was no longer a refuge. The closer to his house he went, the higher his heart rate became.

It felt like the density of the air around his house was different, and it felt hard to breathe. He felt like he was better off sleeping in the streets.

Whenever he opened the door, he first opened the windows and observed the street in front of the villa.

He would ardently look for traces of his neighbor for about an hour in front of the window before taking a shower. Then, he would go back to observing.

He had removed the batteries of the clock that his sister gave to him as a present and placed it on the floor. The ticking of the clock was just too much to bear.

He also pulled out the cord for the refrigerator, and it had been like three weeks since he last turned on the TV. He killed all the noise in his house. In the dead still silence, he waited for his neighbor.

Changsik fiddled with the business card that Daecheol gave him before putting it down.

It was midnight. His neighbor had not come home today either. Maybe he went somewhere else, or maybe he only moved during the night.

It would be great if things went well and he could receive Daecheol’s help, but if not, he would have to investigate this case by himself.

Changsik closed his eyes and thought about his neighbor, the man who would always smile brightly and greet him if they came across each other; the man who would joke around with him.

At the end of his thoughts, he pictured his sister being strangled to death by that man.

Changsik grabbed the window sill and started retching. He couldn’t shake off the negative thoughts. Whatever he thought about, he always ended up thinking about his sister covered in blood.

He leaned against the wall, collapsed his hands, and started praying to all sorts of gods he knew. Whoever it is, I don’t care so save my sister.

As he was struggling in despair, he raised his head. He heard a sound. It was the sound of footsteps, slow, rising footsteps up the staircase.

Changsik hurriedly crawled over the door and placed his ear against it. Then, he was disappointed. It was the sound of high heels hitting the ground.

He could also hear a woman swear. It seemed to be the salarywoman he had met a couple times before.

Just as leaned against the shoe rack and laughed in vain, he heard another sound. The person who climbed up the stairs while coughing stood in front of a door.

Changsik slowly stood up and peeked through the peephole on the door.

Outside was his neighbor. The man, wearing a black jumper, sighed and opened the door before going inside.

Changsik let out his breath the moment the door closed and sat down on the spot. That man hadn’t disappeared; he still lived next door.

He walked over to his bed with shaky legs. He opened his phone and sent detective Lee Daecheol a message.

-That man’s still living next door. He just came back.

A few minutes ago, his hands were ice-cold, but right now, they were drenched with sweat. He walked around his room and looked at the door several times. The person that could be the culprit was right in front of him, but he was unable to do anything.

-It’s good as long as you checked that he still lives there. Don’t do anything reckless and stay still.

That was a message from Daecheol. He felt thankful for him to have sent back a message despite it being late at night. However, he couldn’t accept that he had to stay still.

He might be planning to pack up and leave. By tomorrow, he might have disappeared from this neighborhood.

He felt a rush of unease. The sound of his heartbeat deafened his ears as though it was right below his tongue.

Before he could finish wrapping up his thoughts, his hands were holding the door. He left his house and looked at the door to his neighbor’s.

There was a faint smell of cigarettes dissolved in the cool early autumn night air. It was the same cigarette smell as the one he could smell when he talked to the man.

He took three steps and stood right in front of the man’s house. His breathing turned ragged.

Should he knock? What should he say after that?

Would the man listen to him if he suddenly said that he wanted to consult him about something? He felt like the man would accept with a smile.

Perhaps he might buy a can of beer and give him life advice. The man was a kind neighbor after all.

The moment he was about to knock, he could hear his phone ringing.

He turned around to look at his own house. The light on his phone was flashing.

His mind came to complete clarity as though he saw the traffic lights turn from green to orange.

This was no time for a newbie to get swept up in emotions and speed up. He had to follow the expert’s advice.

He returned to his house and checked his phone. Daecheol had sent a series of texts: Don’t do anything reckless, Answer me.

-Okay, I’ll stay still.

Changsik sent a text. There was a need to become calm.

Whatever the case may be, his neighbor was a terrible criminal. While he couldn’t tell if he was the man who killed his sister, he was someone who killed five people.

From how he could walk outside so blatantly after having killed five people, he was definitely not normal. He must be frighteningly smart and also quick to act.

If an immature college student showed something suspicious in an attempt to probe him, the criminal would find out in no time and would disappear without a trace.

Changsik sat at the edge of his bed. It didn’t even happen and he only thought about how things would go, but he was out of energy already.

Feeling thirsty, he opened the refrigerator. What greeted him was a dark interior.

“Oh, I turned it off.”

He grabbed his wallet and left the house. He went to the convenience store in front of the house and grabbed a bottle of water.

If it was a month ago, he would’ve placed instant noodles and rice balls on the counter too. It seemed like his appetite wouldn’t return until the case was resolved. After paying for the items, he left the convenience store. He opened the water bottle and drank directly.

After he took a sip, he realized that he was quite thirsty. He jerked his head back and drank everything in one go.

The bitter taste in his mouth was rinsed away, and his thirst had subsided as well.

He let out a deep breath and turned his head around. He saw the lights in the villa turn on after detecting a presence.

Changsik froze on the spot. He made eye contact with his neighbor who came out.

There was a vivid 5 on his shoulder. His thoughts stopped for a moment.

“What are you doing at this hour?”

The man approached him with a kind smile just like always. The number and the face became clearer and clearer.

Changsik squeezed the empty plastic bottle with all his might. He could gain a little bit of clarity when the sound of plastic being crumpled hit his ears.

* * *

The empty laughter suited him well. His face was so good-looking that even after gaining weight, his coolness did not disappear.

Maru spoke to Ganghwan, who was approaching,

“I-I was just feeling a little thirsty, you see.”

He let out a voice from his throat, which had contracted due to nervousness. It was the voice he wanted.

Ganghwan approached him without hesitation. His distance was precisely the same as the distance they decided on during the rehearsal.

“Isn’t it expensive to buy water? My salary isn’t that high, so I usually go to the mineral spring in the mountains.”

“I don’t buy it often either. I had no choice because my refrigerator broke.”

“It’s broken? That must be terribly inconvenient.”

Contrary to his soft smile, Ganghwan’s eyes were sharp. Of course, that sharpness was only revealed indirectly. His eyes soon drew a soft curve.

He was like a wild beast. One that did not reveal itself easily and observed its target closely.

Those eyes suited this scene all the more. What was surprising was that there was a strong hint of improvisation.

Ganghwan was letting the atmosphere dictate his movements. He looked like he had zero intentions to hold back.

If he stayed in a daze, he would get swept up. They might have started off as a three-legged race, but after the starting line, Ganghwan would become a short-distance sprinter all by himself, with their feet still tied. If Maru could not run his hardest to keep up, he would fall down and get dragged along.

Please go easy on me — he could not say these words. Slowing down meant swallowing the energy that was supposed to burst outside.

The moment he dragged Ganghwan down from his enjoyment, the mood here would plummet.

Of course, Ganghwan should be a veteran who could keep pace with his partnering actor if need be.

However, walking at a moderate pace. That sounded terribly boring.

A wild horse would only perform at its best without a bridle. If he wanted to keep pace with that horse, he would have to do his utmost best.

“I’ll have to get it fixed soon. Also, heading out?”

He squeezed his voice at first but loosened it as time passed.

Ahn Changsik was an ordinary student, but he was also the main character of the drama. Main characters had to be extraordinary, even if it didn’t mean possessing amazing abilities.

Slowly overcoming an adversary. What induced tension and attracted the viewer’s eyes was always the same thing no matter the time.

His shriveled body also relaxed somewhat. However, he could not look too bold.

Maru could see Ganghwan enjoying himself. When everything fell into place, acting would become enjoyable.

Maru prepared to act the way they promised during the rehearsal, but he also prepared for anything unexpected that Ganghwan might do.

They were heating up. What appeared on camera might be an ordinary exchange of conversation, but Ahn Changsik’s inner mind was practically in hell as he knew the truth.

The tightening tension, the sense of unease that was revealed accordingly.

There was no way Ganghwan, no Yoon Hojung, wouldn’t be able to catch such a change when he had been hunting humans professionally.

Everything was going according to the scenario, so it was now time for instantaneous exchanges of emotions and expressions which was the realm of actors.

The script said A, but the actors did B — It had to feel not like this, but like the actors drove the situation to B.

It was when the actors inside a screen felt alive that the viewers forgot everything else and become absorbed.

The hunter approached. He controlled his breathing. Right now, he still wasn’t capable of facing him openly.

He was ignorant and weak. He would reveal what was on his mind when he was supposed to hide it.

The moment he made a slight change to his expression, Ganghwan smiled as though he had been waiting for that moment.

The viewers would realize that his smile was qualitatively different from the ones he always made.

If they weren’t acting, Maru would’ve applauded since that was splendid, nay, perfect. Ganghwan’s acting was flawless.

“I had some business to attend to.”

“Ah, okay.”

Ganghwan nodded and said goodbye, but before he left, he added a word at the end.

“Also, is your sister not coming by anymore?”

It was a voice that tore through his throat and dug deep into his lungs.

Despite knowing what was coming, listening to Ganghwan, who had perfectly become Yoon Hojung, had a power that made his emotions boil.

Maru placed his hand on his pants and looked at Ganghwan with his mouth closed.

His throat tensed. He could feel the blood vessels thickening. It was a verbal fight without words.

“I saw her once going into your room. She told me to take care of you. It must be good to have a good sister.”

“Yes, she’s a good sister.”

“Alright, see you next time.”

While turning around, Ganghwan was grinning with his teeth visible. That wasn’t in the script. However, the moment he saw that, he felt like Yoon Hojung had to do that.

He sealed his lips and looked at Ganghwan becoming distant.

Producer Cha shouted cut around the time he started having a bad stomach.

He loosened the strength in his stiff neck and let out a heavy breath. He felt like he had been holding his breath underwater.

Ganghwan, who was becoming distant, hopped over like a total kid. His face looked refreshed as though he had been to a sauna.

“That felt terrific, didn’t it?”

Maru nodded. He started becoming worried. So he had to work together with this actor who had nigh-infinite stamina? It would be quite a painful experience to accept all his emotions.

“I haven’t felt like taking a challenge in a long time,” he said to Ganghwan.

Ganghwan made a puzzled expression as though he was confused.

After Story 178

“No,” said Haneul to the cat.

The cat flinched and looked at her before creeping over to the top of the laptop keyboard. She sighed.

“It’s not funny if you do this, okay?”

She curled her fingers up with the intent to flick the cat on the forehead. The cat cried curtly and raised her front paw.

She seemed like a baby reaching out to a baby mobile. She looked so cute that Haneul forgot that she was a mischievous kid interrupting her work.

Some say that cats are auspicious animals, and Ricebun definitely looked the part.

“Sheesh, the cute ones are the most frightening,” she said as she tickled the cat’s chin.

She couldn’t bring herself to hate the cat when it approached her like a dog would instead of keeping a distance.

“Still, mom has something to do, so I’ll play with you later.”

She raised the cat up and placed her on her lap. The cat took her place on her lap in comfort as though she found her lap warmer and more comfortable than the keyboard.

She stroked the cat’s round head with her left hand and used a mouse with her right.

She looked alternately at the scenario and the script she had written and opened an editing program for storyboard creation.

She drew some sketches in the boxes split vertically. As she was drawing with a mouse, it didn’t look that great, but that didn’t matter. This was just about setting the structure and getting a general feel.

She would write some words, then draw the storyboard again, then go back to writing. She had gotten used to doing multiple things at once, so she didn’t find anything difficult. In fact, she found it much more efficient than working on them separately.

The cat on her lap eventually left in search of other toys. Haneul kept moving her fingers while the cat explored everywhere in the house.

She focused for a while before checking the clock. She had been sitting down for two hours. Her back, wrist, and neck felt stiff from sitting too long.

She did some light stretches and made some coffee. Her husband was going to be late because of a shoot, so she could just eat a light dinner by herself.

She brought a pillow from the bedroom and placed it on her lap before starting to work again.

Whenever she hit a block, she drank the cooled coffee and took some time to close her eyes.

Opening a book or starting to clean was a terrible idea even if she couldn’t write. She had to stay at the desk even if her head was in a daze.

She fidgeted by scrolling up and down the scroll wheel on the mouse as she drank from the mug with the other hand. Even though she tilted the cup a lot, no coffee touched her lips. It turned out that she had drunk everything already.

“The time… is quite late.”

The sun had set. She clenched her sore eyes shut before opening them again. A sense of hunger she had forgotten about rushed over her. Her brain was demanding glucose.

She opened the cupboard and took out cup noodles. Today, she could only think about instant noodles. It must be a habit from her previous life.

After finishing the cup noodles, she made another cup of coffee and went to the laptop again. She had to write as much as possible while she still had time.

She glanced over the lines she had written in the morning and checked if they were truly lines that stemmed from emotions, if they were unnecessary, and if they felt forced.

Thankfully, there was not that much to edit. It was very satisfactory. But then again, she might feel different a week later.

Just then, she could hear the door opening.

It was 8 p.m. She had heard that he was going to shoot late into the night, so this was surprising. She stood up and stood in front of the door. Her husband came in holding a wet umbrella.

She was slightly startled.

“Is it raining?”

“It’s pouring. Summer’s passed us, but it’s quite heavy.”

“I didn’t even realize it was raining.”

“This house has terrific soundproofing. If you close the door and shut the curtains, you won’t be able to hear anything.”

“Anyway, good work. The shoot must’ve been halted midway, right?”

“Yeah. It wasn’t the kind of rain that would stop. We waited for 30 minutes before pulling out.”

“How about food?”

Maru took off his jacket. “I ate something, but I’m still hungry. Did you make something?”

“I had instant noodles.”

“Then I guess I can eat instant noodles too.”

“Would you like to eat rice instead? I’ll make some.”

“Forget it. You have work to do.” Maru pointed at the laptop she had opened in the living room.

While he changed his clothes in the bedroom, she took out a cup noodles and boiled some water.

“Spicy or mild?”

“Mild.”

She poured the water into the cup noodles and took out some kimchi from the refrigerator and placed it next to the cup. Having left the bedroom, her husband yawned as though he was tired. She sat opposite him.

“How was the shoot?”

He replied as he used chopsticks to eat,

“Senior Yang drained me of all energy today too.”

“You look good for being someone drained of energy.”

“It’s fun at least. It was just a little tiring. Would you like some?”

She shook her head. After drinking the soup, he looked at the living room and asked,

“Is the writing going well?”

“For now, I’m not hitting any blocks. It’s going smoothly. I’m not sure if it’s going in the right direction though.”

“It’s you writing it, so there’s no way it would go off track. Can I read it?”

“I’ll show it to you later. It’s not fun if you read an unfinished script.”

He smiled and nodded.

“Since we’re getting monetary support, try making a huge blockbuster with a 10 billion won production budget. Director Na says he has a lot of money.”

“Even the almighty director Na will refuse that. Also, I can’t handle something that needs a lot of budget. I’m going to increase the density with me, you, and a few others. It’s not my style to create something big,” she said as she glanced at the laptop.

It had been two months since she started trying her hand at writing a film scenario. The trigger was Na Baekhoon. After refusing a few of the scenarios he proposed, he suggested that she write one herself.

He even said that he would hand over the position of director, and at first, she thought of that as a joke. After that, he told her on multiple occasions to be in charge of the script for the film.

She then asked what part he had so much faith in that he suggested something like that.

“I trust the person known as Han Hnaeul. A person with a complete world of their own is bound to stand out no matter what they do. Moreover, when you pointed things out while looking at my script, it wasn’t advice from someone with superficial knowledge. I’m sure you must have tried writing yourself, or perhaps even have a completed script. So, rather than my half-baked script, how about you plan and shoot a movie, Miss Haneul?”

Honestly, she was won over the moment she heard those words. Unlike her husband, she had been both an actress and a director numerous times.

Perhaps thanks to the influence of her mother, who was a writer seven out of ten times, she had a keen interest in creating a world.

Just because she was tempted, however, she couldn’t accept it readily. She thought over it multiple times.

The contract had become quite complex, and she had not yet fully spanned her wings as an actress, so she couldn’t just switch course to being a director.

“Then, for now, try writing your piece. I’ll be the capital when you create a scenario that is satisfactory to you, and when you want to make your writing into a video.”

Director Na was a man with a great obsession. He kept persuading her, saying that he wanted to see the outcome even if it were to take time.

The result of all that was the laptop on the table.

She didn’t know when, but she would grab the megaphone at least once before her breathing came to a stop.

“How about 50,000 won for your payment, sweetie?”

“A certain someone told me that you should be more meticulous about monetary matters the closer you are,” he replied as he washed the empty noodle container.

“So you want to get paid in full?”

“By the time the script you write is being filmed, the price tag on my body would be quite considerable. If I do it for a mere 50,000 won, wouldn’t the people around me say something about it?”

“That’s how you want to play this?” Haneul twitched her eyes.

“I was just joking. I’ll take the 50,000 won, so create a splendid story. If I don’t like it after looking at it, I won’t do it. I have my pride as an actor. I can’t participate in an awful story.”

“How picky of you.”

She looked at him cleaning up before sitting at her laptop again.

She was originally expecting a long-distance marathon and tried to take it slow, but when she actually started typing, she couldn’t stop herself.

“Ah, right. Introduce me to Mr. Daemyung.”

“Daemyung?”

“You told me he’s aspiring to become a writer in this life too, didn’t you? I’ll get some help from him. You said he quit working in Pohang and came back to Seoul, right?”

“You want an assistant writer, huh? You’re naturally paying for that, right?”

“I was once a famous scenario writer. Do I really need to pay someone when they get to work with me?”

“Your figure of an evil businesswoman putting passion pay into practice is quite beautiful. If you really want him to do charity work, I’m not giving you his number. He’s my friend after all.”

“I was joking. I have money too. For now, I’ll pay him by the hour to get some feedback and opinions about my work, and if I think it’s okay, we’ll create the plot together. It’d be great if he has talent in this life too. Having a best-selling author as a helper is quite reassuring. Oh, right, how many works did he write that got ten million ticket sales?”

“Uncountably many.”

Haneul tapped on her chin with her index finger. “Am I the one who should be learning from him instead?”

“Try talking to him. He might not have any talent in writing in this life.”

“Alright, I’ll talk to him then.”

Her husband came behind her. He looked at the screen before speaking,

“You’re creating the storyboard at the same time too?”

“Yeah.”

“You’re filled with willingness to create that film, huh? Director Na is quite something.”

“He might be above president Lee Junmin when it comes to discerning other people. He’s quick to catch what I want.”

“He’s a born businessman. Talent is quite scary. Seeing senior Yang makes me realize that.”

Her husband sat on the sofa and started reading his script. Whenever he looked at a script, he would focus on that alone as though he had become deaf.

Haneul too, focused on writing.

Only the sound of typing and rustling paper filled the living room for a while.

After looking over her writing for a while, Haneul thought about her schedule tomorrow and turned her head around.

“I almost forgot, we’re going tomorrow, aren’t we?”

Her husband also closed his script.

“Right. I totally forgot.”

“You prepared your clothes, right?”

“I was going to go with a suit, but I felt like that wasn’t right, so I’m going to go with a neat shirt and cotton pants.”

“That’s what’s best. My mom likes that style too.”

She had announced to her mother about a week ago that she was going to bring her boyfriend home. Her mother asked back multiple times in disbelief.

“What are you going to do?” she asked.

“Going to go with the textbook method. Please give me your daughter, I’ll not have her touch a drop of water all her life!”

“There you go again. If you bring up marriage, mom will pass out on the spot. Just appeal that you’re seeing me seriously, okay?”

“As you wish, m’lady.”

Her husband made a thin voice like a eunuch.

“Is father-in-law there too?”

“Of course.”

“He’s my only ally, my father-in-law. I hope he sides with me this time too.”

“My dad in this life is on the colder side, so he might not like you.”

“I’ll have to do my best to look good to him then. Are you really okay with just buying gifts from the local supermarket?”

“I think looking amicable is the way to go. As for proper gifts, we’ll do them when we properly introduce everyone. I’ll also do that when I visit mother-in-law. What do you think?”

“Mrs. Lee is someone who’ll be humbled even if you come empty-handed, and the same goes for my father.”

She closed her laptop.

“Like this, we’re introducing ourselves to the families, huh? We did it countless times, but I’m still nervous. Quite strange, isn’t it?”

“Yeah, tell me about it.”

Her husband fell in thought with a phone in his hand. She wondered what it was about and walked over. He looked up ‘how to make a good impression on your mother-in-law’ on the internet.

“Just be proud and tell her that you’re a successful actor,” she said while poking him on the shoulder.

Maru took his eyes off his phone.

“Then I guess I must introduce you as a female president with shares in a solid business and a soon-to-be successful actress, huh?”

“Is the supermarket not a good idea for a female president? Should I buy mother-in-law a bag? I’ll score points early on.”

“You want me to bring supermarket gifts, but you’re getting handbags? Let’s not do that. The thought is what counts.”

“I’ll have to get close to mother-in-law early on so I can talk bad about you together later.”

Her husband chuckled before going to the bathroom.

One by one, everything was returning to its proper place, whether it was for him or for her. Haneul looked down at her stomach.

“Daddy and mommy will play around for a little while longer before going to find you. Please wait a little more.”

She smiled while thinking about the child with lovely eyes, who would eventually, surely come.

After Story 179

Choi Haesoo picked up the wet rag that she had let go of. The floor underneath the sofa strangely looked dirty despite having wiped it just now. Only after she rubbed it until it started making squeaking sounds was she able to let go of the rag.

She sighed softly and looked at the house that she had just cleaned. Whether it was above the fridge, above the closet, underneath the sofa, and even the veranda, she went through all places that she had left behind even during Spring cleaning season with the excuse that she was too small or couldn’t reach.

She muttered to herself that she wouldn’t try this hard even if they were moving houses.

She placed the ceramic dolls she bought in a hurry two days ago into the right angle and checked the time.

It was 1 p.m. — almost time for them to arrive.

“They’re almost here. Where are you?”

-Why are you causing such a fuss? It’s not like we’re expecting very important guests.

“Then why did you go hiking all of a sudden when you never went before?”

-I just wanted to come.

“Who are you trying to fool here? You left because you felt awkward seeing them. Don’t be like that and come back. You need to see his face at least.”

-He’s not her marriage partner; he’s just a friend. Is there really a need for me to be there too? The one who’s coming will feel awkward too.

“Didn’t you hear what Haneul said? She said they’re not seeing each other lightly.”

-That doesn’t mean that they’re going out with the intent of marriage either. Also, Haneul is only twenty-four. Even the ones who get married early these days do it at twenty-nine. Life is unpredictable, so is there really a need for me to be there and be all awkward?

“So what, you aren’t coming?” Haesoo frowned.

Her voice was much higher than before. Her husband stayed silent for a few minutes before speaking,

-I will. I’ll just buy some fruits on the way.

“Come quickly. They’re going to be here soon.”

Before they finished the call, she could hear her husband’s deep sigh.

Their daughter had never brought a friend to their house once. Even during high school graduation, she told them that they didn’t need to come.

It was a rather desolate household. It wasn’t that there was a particular problem, but from some time onwards, they didn’t really talk much as a family.

Her husband and herself were busy with work, while their daughter was busy with school and cram schools.

When they had a weekend meal together, they only shared some formalities before they each went to their respective rooms.

Her friends told her that everyone lived like that and that a family is best when there isn’t any trouble.

She wondered if that was the case, but whenever she saw her daughter leave the house with an indifferent expression, she thought that something had gone terribly wrong.

Would she really be able to see Haneul once she became independent? — whenever she had such thoughts, she became slightly depressed.

The little girl she gave birth to, clothed, and fed became an unfamiliar person. She even felt that the employees at a bank might be more friendly towards her.

However, her daughter changed starting three years ago. Her change was so dramatic that it was hard to get used to. She suddenly declared that she was going to quit college and then started forging her own path.

Honestly, Haesoo almost passed out when she heard about Haneul running a business. She was going to tell her that she was too young and that she would be in big trouble if she failed, but it turned out that Haneul had only reported to her after being successful.

Just when did that immature daughter change so much, it made her wonder.

There was a big change in their family relationship as well. The girl who never talked to her dad went up to him and acted cute.

At first, her husband was taken aback, but he eventually got used to it, and right now, he became someone who would be all smiles in front of his daughter.

As for family trips, they only went a few times when Haneul was young, but last year, they went seven times under the lead of their daughter.

Thanks to that, the neighborhood ladies were all in an uproar, wondering how their daughter was so mindful of her parents.

Haesoo naturally felt proud. Whenever her daughter was praised, she felt like she was being put on a pedestal.

Every single day was enjoyable, and she felt grateful for it.

Haesoo took out a scrapbook from the drawer next to the TV. Inside was the hobby she had started recently. She had compiled Haneul’s photos she took for the aroma advert, as well as the articles about the movie she did.

She wanted to cherish the proud moments of her proud daughter. She was going to tell her grandkids that their mom was such a great person before.

“The movie was decent too.”

Because the movie that was released this year had terrible reviews, the news articles weren’t that good either. Maybe it was because it had her daughter in it, but Haesoo rather enjoyed watching it at the cinema.

Those people were so picky; they could have praised it.

Worried that she might have been hurt or having a hard time, she called her daughter after the movie was released.

Her daughter responded in a bright voice just as always, telling her that that much was nothing and that there was no need to worry. Just when did she turn into such a strong girl?

Haesoo closed the scrapbook and placed it on top of the drawer. She didn’t forget to angle it slightly so that it could be seen better.

“I wonder who she’s bringing.”

Her daughter was unpredictably prone to change. And that girl said she was going to bring not an ordinary friend, but her boyfriend.

When she first heard that, she was more taken aback than curious. Sure, having a boyfriend was not that surprising, but she felt rather strange when Haneul said that she was going to bring him home and introduce him to them.

“I’m meeting him seriously.”

What else could meeting him seriously signify? Her husband said that he shouldn’t be her partner for marriage, and he seemed rather displeased by the fact that the daughter he found so cute was bringing a man.

The guy who would not have even shown an ounce of interest was now waiting for his daughter in unease.

Haesoo checked the broth that she had been cooking. While Haneul said that her boyfriend enjoyed eating anything, it couldn’t be helped that she was nervous.

She turned the stove on for the galbi-tang that she made and made some jeon as well so that they could eat as soon as they arrived.

When she was about done preparing the food, the bell rang. She checked her makeup in front of the mirror and opened the door.

“Mom, I’m here.”

Her daughter came in first with a smile. Haesoo received her daughter’s greeting and looked past her. Behind Haneul was a young man wearing neat clothes.

He had a slightly scary appearance, but his impression was good since he was smiling. He was decently tall and had a good physique as well.

“Mom, what are you staring at?”

“I’m not staring at anything. I’m just looking. Oh, come on in.”

Haesoo received the paper bags that her daughter’s boyfriend brought.

“I really wanted to bring you some good gifts, but I was told you’d be more comfortable with these instead.”

“That’s good. I just needed to go grocery shopping too. It must be cold outside, so come on in.”

She went to the kitchen after letting the guest in. Her daughter followed her.

“Why did you prepare so much?”

“There’s a guest coming, so I should be prepared. I just need to plate them, so wait just a moment.”

“I’m feeling a little sad now. You never do this much for me when I come.”

Her daughter’s boyfriend also came in.

“I’ll help as well.”

Haesoo waved her hand in denial.

“There’s nothing for you to help with. I’ll get it done soon, so sit down on the sofa.”

“It’s better to help you rather than sit down foolishly.”

“It’s really okay though.”

Haesoo glanced at her daughter’s boyfriend as she spoke. He was quite nice. His speech was rather toned down, and he seemed polite as well.

He took a glance at the jeon in the pan and flipped it over with chopsticks, and he even poured the galbitang into bowls.

Just seeing him stand in the kitchen was enough for Haesoo to tell that he was used to working in the kitchen.

“I just like cooking for myself,” he said.

“Oh yeah, I haven’t told you his name. Mom, his name is Han Maru.”

“Your name is Maru? That’s a rather unique name, I like it.”

Maru thanked her and laughed. When the three of them were at the job, the table was set up in no time.

“Where’s dad?” Haneul asked as she sat down at the table.

“He’ll be here soon.”

As soon as she said that, the front door opened. Her husband came to the kitchen with a black plastic bag in hand. Then, he froze after discovering Maru.

“Hello, sir. I’m Han Maru.”

Maru stood up and greeted him first. Her husband made an awkward smile and reached his hand out to Maru.

“I-I see. I heard a lot about you.”

“Dad, I never told you about Maru though,” Haneul said with a chuckle.

When her husband was frozen in place, not knowing what to do, Maru stepped in again.

“Please sit down. Madam here has prepared a lot.”

How was he so good at softening the atmosphere? Haesoo had taken a liking to Maru already.

Her husband hesitantly sat down, and after that, their daughter led the conversation.

She talked about how she came across Maru, and how she had been until now.

While listening, Haesoo discovered another aspect of her daughter. She looked really relaxed when she smiled at Maru. It wasn’t the scalding hot love between a boy and a girl, but a much more cooled off but more intimate relationship.

She realized that Haneul wasn’t lying when she said that she was meeting him seriously. The word marriage didn’t look rushed at all.

“Fishing is good. Sir, I’ll definitely go with you one time.”

“Keep your word.”

Her husband, who was awkward at first, had gotten close enough to Maru to hug him by the end of the meal. Just how did he know what her husband might like? Her husband was all smiles whenever Maru spoke.

Of course, Haesoo was in the same situation. The more she looked at Maru, the more decent she found him to be.

“But dad, mom. Don’t you think you’ve seen him somewhere?”

“I’m not sure.”

“Aren’t you two curious about what he does?”

“Isn’t he in college?” Haesoo asked while looking at Maru. She had gotten used to dropping the formal speech now.

He was the same age as her daughter. It was their daughter that was rather special for running a business at that age, and normally, a boy around that age would just be graduating or coming back from military service.

“I dropped out of college.”

“Really? I guess there’s no real need to graduate college these days. Look at Haneul. She’s doing totally fine even without a degree,” she didn’t say that out of formality. He looked like such a good man, so she felt like she would be okay even if he said that he wasn’t doing anything.

He was in his youth after all. He could just look for something to do in the future.

“Are you preparing to find employment?” her husband asked.

Haneul giggled as soon as that question came out and then jabbed Maru in the arm.

“Looks like you need to become more popular.”

“Right.”

Haneul pulled out her phone and showed it to them.

Haesoo looked at the name on the screen. Han Maru, profession: actor.

Actor?

Her husband saw it as well. Below that was a list of movies. She hadn’t seen any of them, but they were all titles she remembered from the news talking about them.

“Maru’s pretty famous. But I see there’s nothing better than a drama if he wants to make himself known to mom’s generation.”

“Madam, I’ll try harder so that you can recognize me.”

She hadn’t gotten used to her daughter being an actress, but the boyfriend she brought was an actor she had seen a few times on the news.

Haesoo glanced at Maru. So, he was a famous actor?

A smile crept onto her face. He was fine as he is, and he even had a decent profession.

She heard a lot of things until the moment Maru left. After their daughter and Maru left, her husband spoke,

“I think I can give a passing score.”

“Me too.”

“If they decide to get married, what do we do about their housing? Do we have money saved up?”

“I was wondering about that too.”

“I thought marriage was a distant matter, but looking at the two of them, I don’t think it’ll be strange even if they get married right now.”

“I thought you said it was too early?”

Her husband coughed awkwardly and turned around.

* * *

After meeting his parents-in-law yesterday, he was bringing Haneul to his house today.

His wife, who was wearing a one-piece dress that she usually didn’t wear, was so pretty that he didn’t want to show her to anyone else.

“What’s that?”

“A present,” she said as she waved a bag.

“I thought you weren’t preparing.”

“How could I not? It’s the day I make my declaration of war.”

“Declaration of war?”

Maru was puzzled as he opened the door. His mother and Bada were at the entrance. Bada greeted Haneul warmly as soon as she saw her.

As for his father and mother, they observed his wife cautiously at some distance.

However, that wariness didn’t last long. Who was his wife? She was capable of melting the heart of a cold-blooded man. His family soon welcomed her as though they had never been distant.

And ten minutes later, just before they were about to eat, Maru found out what Haneul meant by ‘declaration of war.’

“Madam, sir, please give Maru to me.”

Hearing that, his father stood in a daze before nodding.

“A-alright. Use him well.”

His wife smiled.

After Story 180

“Thanks for listening to me. Well, then.”

Lee Daecheol took out his notepad as he left the house. He underlined a name with his pen. He had run out of clues related to the murder incident of the college girl from five years ago. There were no longer any areas he could investigate, nor anyone to ask.

He had to admit that the criminal took a total victory in the case from five years ago.

He took out another notepad. Inside this notepad were things that he couldn’t show any other detectives.

A college student who can see a murder count has a missing sister, and his neighborhood man.

Daecheol was investigating what seemed like a plot from a third-rate novel.

Though, it wasn’t an official investigation where he could use his powers as a civil servant.

“Let’s eat, come out.”

Daecheol called Ahn Changsik. They met in a sundae-gukbap restaurant near the police station in Songjung-gu.

Changsik looked better than two months ago. There was a hint of vitality in his eyes that were devoid of any life before. It was probably thanks to having a clear objective.

“Nothing from your neighbor after that?”

“Nope. I haven’t seen him again since I met him in front of the convenience store three weeks ago.”

“Does he have a job that requires him to travel a lot? Or does he have a lot of overnight work?”

“I know too little. Had I known, I would’ve asked various things when we met. The only thing I know right now is that he goes to a nearby spring to get water from there?”

“Don’t you dare. You said he mentioned your sister when you two met. That might be a warning, or he was probing you out.”

“I didn’t do anything that might have exposed what I was thinking. I did stiffen up a little though.”

“Anyway, it’s very likely that he’s a murderer, so you have to be careful.”

“It’s not just likely. It’s for certain. We checked it together.”

Daecheol put down his spoon and glared at Changsik.

In the past three weeks, they checked the authenticity of the murder count together. As a result of that, they managed to deduce a formula without contradictions.

“The counter doesn’t go up if it’s a murder by contract. And same with accidental homicide. Only a murder with clear intent increases the number. You agreed to this.”

“I did, but that’s only intuitive evidence. What you see can’t be made as evidence. So we need to wait until we can catch him with something we can be sure about.”

“Then what if the number becomes six?”

“If he’s really a serial killer, then he won’t commit murder that easily. He’s someone who makes meticulous plans before moving. Even if he kills for pleasure, he shouldn’t do it spontaneously. He must know that the risk of being exposed is higher if he shortens the interval.”

“But we can’t just sit around doing nothing.”

“I tell you this every time, but we don’t live in a time where we can send someone to jail based on suspicion alone. This isn’t the 80s. It’ll be over if the media gets a whiff of us investigating without any proof. The moment they write headlines that say something like ‘police who forcefully investigates an innocent civilian,’ I will no longer be able to help you and that man will be completely liberated.”

Changsik closed his mouth and nodded. This boy wasn’t someone who couldn’t make the right judgments. In fact, he was on the brighter side. He must know that this wasn’t something they should hurry.

The reason he was rushing despite that was a matter of emotions. It had been three months since his sister went missing. The man living next door directly mentioned his sister as though foreshadowing something.

Expecting a college student who just became an adult to stay calm was probably asking for too much.

“The matter I was in charge of has been resolved. I’m not too free, but I should be able to make plenty of time.”

Daecheol lifted the bowl and drank the soup of the sundae-gukbap before continuing,

“Let’s start from your sister’s house.”

* * *

Changsik stood in the old apartment that his sister used to live in. He had never visited this place when she lived here, but now that she went missing, he came here all the time.

“They really need to install CCTVs in residential areas,” Daecheol said as he looked around.

It was a rather old residential area. It was not really feasible to expect CCTVs to be installed in a neighborhood where even broken lights would stay broken for weeks.

There wasn’t a single convenience store nearby either. It was an alley that would become frighteningly quiet after 11 in the evening.

“It looks like there will be a lot of eyes here, but there really aren’t.”

Changsik raised his head as he listened to Daecheol’s words. There were only about three to four places that were lit up behind the firmly shut windows. Unless there was a huge commotion, not many people would poke their heads outside to look down at the alley.

“Your sister’s house has been dealt with, right?”

“Yes. We dealt with it last month. We pulled out all the furniture and took out all the items.”

Daecheol nodded and took off. Changsik followed Daecheol and headed to a store nearby.

“Good evening, sir,” Daecheol said to the owner.

The store owner seemed to have realized what Daecheol’s occupation was and was quite cooperative.

He soon started asking questions while holding Changsik’s sister’s photo.

“I remember her. She was a very amicable young woman.”

“She came to our shop to get her hair done a few times, and she was a really good person. She looked like a fair lady. But I haven’t seen her recently. Did something happen?”

“Oh, I remember. This lady was really polite and returned all of my greetings. But why do you ask? Did something happen?”

Changsik left the store before Daecheol did. His sister had disappeared, but the neighborhood remembered her as an amicable and polite young lady.

He wiped his eyes. He tensed his neck to hold himself back from crying. Daecheol, who came out not long later, tapped him on the shoulder.

“You okay?”

“Yes, I’m okay.”

“I can do this by myself.”

“No, I’ll follow you. I’m sure I can help out with something.”

“Don’t push yourself. You need to take care of yourself when you can so that you don’t fall apart.”

“I’ll do that after I find my sister… after I find her…”

What did he mean by ‘finding’? Changsik recalled the darkness. He thought of his sister lying down by herself deep in that darkness.

4 to 5, the man next door, his disappeared sister.

“Let’s go now.”

Daecheol moved. The veteran detective no longer lied to him, saying that his sister must be alive.

Did he assume the worst? Or was he simply saying that she was obviously alive and that he shouldn’t mind?

Changsik shook off his urge to cry and walked. His sister, shrouded in darkness, did not say anything. He ignored what that could signify with all his might.

* * *

“Hey, it’s been a while.”

Daecheol met up with a friend who worked at the Songjung police station. This fellow, who was working in law enforcement, showed him his bruised face, saying that he got hit by a drunk person last night during patrol.

“Why do you go around getting hit?”

“Of course, I’m getting hit. Should I be doing the hitting instead, then? That woman was goddamn strong. I can’t really go anywhere to complain about it either.”

“You should’ve stayed in the crime investigation department. If you got hit while fighting a criminal, you can boast about it as a glorious badge.”

“I’m sure my wife would love to hear that. She’s already nagging to transfer to the security department. If I tell her I want to be a detective again, she’ll cause a total ruckus.”

He exchanged drinks with his friend.

“You live nearby, so why is it so hard to see you?”

“Well, the closer you are, the harder it is to meet. It’s not like either one of us has a lot of free time.”

“That’s true. I wish I can get promoted to chief so I can sit at a desk all day.”

“Get old enough, and you’ll naturally become one.”

“You think becoming old is the only thing you need? You need achievements and backing,” his friend said while eating some meat.

“I guess that takes care of talking about recent matters. So why did you contact me? You don’t call me out just to see my face.”

“It’s nothing much. I just wanted to ask something about a missing case.”

“Missing case? What is it?”

Daecheol mentioned the incident from three months ago. When he mentioned Changsik’s sister’s name, his friend exclaimed in realization and put down his chopsticks.

“I think I remember. The madam caused a total fuss.”

“Was there an official investigation into that?”

“The complaint was rather big, so we did look into it. Our team tracked her movements and a few nearby CCTVs, but nothing. Hey, it’s not like we can get all the CCTV footage for a case that has no chance of being a crime. It’s not like we have manpower left over, so what can we do?”

“There was nothing suspicious?”

“It’s a case of an adult leaving her house, so it’s quite obvious. Oh, right, there were a few posts on the missing person’s personal blog. It was not open to the public, and it talked about how she didn’t actually feel that good now that she passed and that she wanted to go far away, or something along those lines.”

“Really?”

That wasn’t something he heard from Changsik.

“Have you told that to her family?”

“Probably just to the mother. The one under me was in charge of that, so I don’t know much either. It’s a typical case of someone leaving the house, so we didn’t dig that deep into it either. Kids these days are like that, you know? They run away if they find one thing hard. When we were her age, we had to endure getting beaten up, right?”

His friend laughed before taking out his phone. He talked to someone before telling that person to come over.

“Who is it?”

“My junior. You know how the wide-area investigation department solved a case a while ago, right? He’s the ace who caught the tail of that. He’s a reassuring junior who’ll surely sit somewhere high one day. Plus, this guy really likes me. I guess that just goes to show my character.”

“If you want to feed that guy, then you pay for it. I don’t have any money.”

“Petty prick. I’m introducing you to someone good, yet you aren’t even buying food?”

Not long later, his friend’s junior arrived. He was a good-looking man and had a nice build as well.

“Say hello. This is my friend Lee Daecheol, who has the crime investigation department in Yangdo-gu under his grasp.”

“Nice to meet you.”

The junior greeted him loudly. Daecheol liked this man for his refreshing attitude. He felt like he would have an easy time talking to him because he was quite manly.

They sat down and continued eating. This junior was quite good at talking and also fawning. If he was brought to a get-together, the superintendent would probably never stop laughing.

“Please lend me this guy when we have an athletic meetup at our station. I think we’ll have an easier time when the superintendent’s angry.”

“I’ll definitely go if I have the time,” the junior said.

After the meal, Daecheol paid for it with his credit card.

“You said you weren’t buying.”

“Do you think I’m paying because of you? I’m paying because I like him,” he said as he looked at the junior.

“How can I stay still after you told me all that? How about round two?”

“I don’t eat that much.”

“Then let’s have a light drink together. I live around here, and I know a good pojang-macha where you can drink lightly.”

“Shall we do that then?”

He hadn’t had any rest because of work, personal investigation matters, and more recently, Changsik. He felt like he could rest at ease for today at least.

“I live nearby, so we can eat some more at the pojang-macha and then go to my house if you want more. I have some bokbunja wine at home.”

“I’m really starting to like this guy.” Daecheol laughed.

It really wasn’t that common for him to click with someone on his first encounter. They followed the junior for a while. As they walked, he realized that he had visited this place twice. Changsik’s house was nearby.

“Seniors, please wait a moment. I’ll bring some money. My house is nearby.”

He looked at the place the junior pointed at. Daecheol slowly felt the drunkenness disappearing. That place was where Changsik lived.

He looked at the junior who went through the glass entrance. The lights on the first-floor staircase lit up, then the second floor, and then the third floor. The third floor — that was where Changsik lived.

Eventually, the lights to a house on the third-floor were turned on.

“Detective?”

Daecheol turned his head around when he heard a voice behind him. He saw Changsik.

* * *

“RUN!” Bada subconsciously blurted out while watching the drama.

Even her mother, who originally said that she was too scared to watch it, chimed in.

When the murderer and her brother were about to meet, the music started flowing out and the drama ended.

Bada rushed to her room to get her phone and called her brother.

-What is it?

“What happens in the next episode?”

-How can I tell you that?

“Gosh! Are you really going to do this?”

-Wait until next week. It’s the joy of waiting.

“You’re so mean.”

Bada hung up and came back out to the living room. What was so good about having a family member in a drama? It wasn’t like he would lose anything if he spoiled just a little at a time like this.

“I’m too scared to watch anymore.”

“Mom, you know you watched until the end despite saying that, right?”

“I’m only watching to see your brother.”

After frowning, her mother asked,

“So? What happens next? Do they meet? Is he getting exposed?”

Bada chuckled in vain and shook her head. Her mother was a splendid drama addict.

After Story 181

“Take some dumplings with you. If you buy vegetable dumplings, we’ll give you kimchi dumplings for free.”

She couldn’t pass that by.

The steam from the steamer, the smell of the steam, as well as the words that she would get extra freebies, made Haneul stop.

“Are they good?” Haneul asked the lady.

The lady smiled and opened the steamer. Well-cooked dumplings revealed their figures.

“Try one. I wouldn’t be able to sell them with so much confidence if they weren’t good.”

“I really like dumplings, but none of the recent products were to my taste.”

“This one’s different. Also, it’s buy one get one free.”

She received the dumpling that the lady gave her on a toothpick.

As she ate, she wondered if there were any dumplings in this world that were bad. The saltiness was just right, and there was no smell of pork either.

“Unni, can I try the kimchi dumplings as well?”

“Sure. Here.”

She tried a kimchi dumpling as well. In truth, it was decided that she would buy these when she stopped. It was just a matter of how many she would pick up.

“They’re good, aren’t they?”

“They are. Give me three.”

Three frozen dumplings, including the free kimchi dumplings, made a total of six bags that were put inside her cart.

Haneul spoke before she left,

“Can you give me one more bag of vegetable dumplings?”

“Want the kimchi one too?”

“I’d love it.”

“I’m giving it to you because you’re pretty.”

“You’re quite pretty yourself, unni.”

After exchanging giggles, Haneul pushed the cart away. She was going to send one to Maru’s house, and the rest to her and his parent’s houses.

Ever since they introduced each other to their parents, they moved in together. When she talked about living together before marriage to her mother, her mother spoke in realization,

“No wonder it felt like no one lived in your house.”

Thankfully, none of their parents objected to the two of them living together. This was probably thanks to the fact that they were financially independent and had a decent social status.

Actually, she was originally planning to hide that she was living together until the end, but she decided to reveal it since she made her ‘declaration of war.’

She left the first-floor food corner and went to the second-floor electronics corner. They needed a humidifier, and she was also planning to buy a new vacuum cleaner. Though, of course, it was her husband who would be using the latter most of the time. After all, whenever she did the cleaning, he would make a dissatisfied expression and take up a mop himself.

“Han Haneul!”

She grabbed the hands of a college friend that worked here. She could see the employees working here giving her a glance. Her friend grabbed her hand and took her to the others.

“We have a celebrity here! This is my friend Haneul.”

“Hello.”

Half of them recognized her and the other half that did not just smiled awkwardly. The overwhelming majority of those who recognized her knew her as the model for ‘Friendly Aroma.’ It was rather bitter that her reputation as an actress was still low.

Maybe because of that, she could imagine her husband’s face, grinning at her and telling her that he was more famous for the time being.

“What is it?” her friend asked.

“Nothing. I just remembered a cute enemy.”

“Cute enemy?”

After greeting her awkwardly, the other employees left only her and her friend behind.

“So what brings you here?” her friend asked again.

“Why else would I be here? I’m here to raise the sales performance of my working friend. It’d be better if I can get an employee discount too if possible.”

“What, you’re here to buy things? You don’t have to though.”

“And yet you’re smiling.”

Haneul asked her friend to show her humidifiers and vacuum cleaners.

“Do you have anything in mind?”

“I guess you can show me the popular ones that give you a lot of incentives.”

“As expected of a celebrity.”

“I haven’t really earned much as an actress. It’s mostly other income.”

Her friend showed her some products and asked, “Are you still doing that aroma business? I saw that Yeonjoo was modeling these days.”

“The main model is Yeonjoo now. I’m only involved in planning and product development. I rarely model for them now.”

“I’m envious of both of you.”

“Would you like to come over here if you don’t think that you fit in this place? We keep opening more and more exclusive offline stores, and I don’t think being a sales clerk there is going to be a bad thing.”

After listening to that, her friend hesitated for a little before shaking her head.

“I’ll stay here until I can. Since I started this, I’ll do it until I get sick of it before I quit. I don’t think it’s right to just switch midway.”

Haneul smiled and nodded. “You’re right. You decide what’s best for you.”

She decided on the items with the help of her friend. She was shown the price of a recently manufactured product, with an employee discount and a promotion event.

“You should really buy it on the Internet rather than here. If you get it there, you can get interest-free installments and even a few giveaways,” said her friend.

Haneul shook her head. If her objective was to buy things for cheap, then she would indeed have bought them through the Internet. The reason she came all the way here was to see her friend. Whether she liked it or not, life was about the people around you after all.

Spending money for people she could call friends was definitely not wasteful.

“Robotic vacuum cleaners are starting to come out, huh?”

At this point in time, they should only move according to the distance sensor, and in a few years, they would start to have memory capabilities and be able to remember the layout of the house.

“They were released not too long ago. The entire store is dead set on selling those. Even the ones who come here from other stores are hung up on them, you know?”

“You too?”

“I’m in somewhat of a similar position.”

“Then give me that one as well.”

“It’s pricey, you know?”

“It’s okay.”

“President Han, you’re a big spender today.”

Her friend hummed and took out a box from the counter.

Haneul crossed her arms and looked around. A man and a woman that seemed to be newlyweds were standing in front of a refrigerator. That looked like a not-so-distant future to her.

Having knowledge was scary for a lot of sales clerks. If she brought her husband to buy furniture for a new house, the employees there would probably have a hard time. This coolant blah blah, that motor blah blah, this panel blah blah, that software blah blah.

“I guess I’ll be using the internet to buy those then,” she muttered to herself and looked past the couple.

Large TVs filled an entire wall, ranging from small, 32-inch TVs to ones as large as a single-sized bed.

She thought about the TV at home. It was a boxy CRT TV.

Her husband was busy with shoots, and she herself was busy doing business, so she didn’t really mind since they both spent a lot of time outside, but looking at a large screen made her think that she should change it out.

In her memories were LED TVs that could fold, but technology wasn’t as advanced in the current era.

Just as she was going through thin, flat-screen TVs,

-The man next door is a detective? How can that be?!

Her husband came on screen. Hearing the ear-piercing shout, she stopped for a moment and looked at the drama. Ganghwan’s soft smile overlapped on top of her husband’s shaky eyes. The acting was good enough for anyone to be sucked in without knowing what was happening.

“Talent sure is scary.”

Leaving aside her husband, Ganghwan’s acting was somewhat indescribable. It was hard to put a finger on his acting even with all sorts of direct and indirect expressions. In the end, it came down to the old-fashioned praise: I can’t imagine anyone other than Yang Ganghwan playing that role.

“This one’s really fun these days. You know I don’t really watch dramas, right? But this one’s really different.”

“Are you sure you aren’t the only one who likes it? It looks scary.”

“You should watch it once. You won’t be able to escape,” said the couple who were browsing refrigerators before.

She perked up her ears and listened to them, inwardly cheering for the man.

Yes, it’s fun. So do your best to persuade your girlfriend and watch it together.

“I was wondering where you had gone.”

Haneul turned around to see her friend, holding a box containing the robotic vacuum cleaner. Her friend also looked at the TV.

“I usually put on soccer or cooking shows, but I changed all of them to this show.”

“You did this?”

“Yeah, you’ll see him soon.”

After the scene at the police station, her husband came out. It was the scene where he was looking at his own house with a complicated gaze.

“I’m totally into this guy these days, you know? He looks like a total wolf, but look at his acting. He looks really precarious. It makes me want to keep watching, hoping for the best.”

“Really?”

“I’m not really sure about acting and whatnot, but I’m sure this guy will be a huge star after this.”

“The movie this actor shot at the beginning of the year did well too.”

“You know him too?”

“Somewhat.”

Her friend looked at the changes in Maru’s expressions and spoke,

“He looks rough, but don’t you want to just protect him? I thought I graduated from stanning idols, but I found myself looking him up. It’s been 3, 4 years? since he debuted, but he’s already playing a main character. I don’t want him to become so famous.”

“You’re showing signs of hipsterism.”

“Hipsterism? What’s that?”

Maybe it was a word that wasn’t as widespread in Korea at this point in time? She smiled and said that it was nothing.

“Anyway, he looks around my age, but he’s doing so well. I’m somewhat envious, and it makes me sad thinking about myself.”

“You’re doing perfectly adequately. You know there’s no reason to be envious of him, right?”

“Thanks for saying that. Anyway, I summed up the price of the vacuum cleaner, humidifier, and the robotic cleaner. Together they’re quite pricey though. Are you okay with that? You should really buy it through the internet…”

“I said it’s okay. Also, any TVs here that you get incentives on?”

Her friend blinked.

“TV? Th-there is.”

“How much do the 60-inch ones cost? There’s no price tag.”

“They cost millions.”

“Pretty decent then.”

Her friend pointed at the TV.

“You’re buying this too? For real? Did you decide earlier to buy one today?”

“No, I was originally going to just buy a vacuum cleaner and a humidifier, but what you said made me think that I should buy it.”

“What did I even say?”

“Something like that. Anyway, give me this one as well.”

Her friend left, saying that she was going to tell her manager about it, eager to get some free gifts for her.

“She’s a fan and does free promotions, so I should do something for her.”

She smiled in satisfaction as she watched the drama that her husband was in.

The second episode finished airing yesterday. The viewing rate was 0.16%. The dramas airing on the other two channels recorded 1% and 0.8% respectively.

There was a lot of ridicule on the internet, and articles were written about it as well.

Private-owned channels’ dramas: are they good if they go past 1%?

She had experienced lives where private-owned channels were successful and unsuccessful. She could not predict the outcome this time either.

However, the responses from the ones who watched the drama were slowly appearing as well. They were very positive.

Next week’s viewing rates would probably see a change. Word of mouth was spreading the drama after all.

“How would you like to pay?”

“I’ll pay in full.”

She received the credit card that a male employee returned to her and looked at her friend.

“I wonder if that was of any help.”

“That was more than enough. The TV and the robot vacuum have personal incentives, so my salary is going to be quite decent this month. It’s all thanks to you, so I’ll treat you out sometime.”

“Sounds good.”

“Also, if you ever happen to see Han Maru while working, please get me his autograph.”

“Is that all you need?”

“Sure. But hey, sounds like you know him.”

“Maybe, maybe not.”

“What the, are you two close?”

Haneul shrugged. She was planning to introduce Maru to the people close to her in a while. She looked forward to what kind of expression this girl would make, but she also felt somewhat apologetic.

“I’ll be the one to treat you.”

“Why?”

“Something like that. I gotta get going now. See you later.”

Haneul looked behind her as she left the counter. Her husband’s face could be seen on the large display TVs.

“Looking good.”

She chuckled and pushed the cart.

After Story 182

From some time onwards, more and more people started writing reviews after titling themselves critics of popular culture. They were people who didn’t belong to any certified organizations or even had any business cards to speak of.

“It’s a good world since you can become anything after all.”

Na Baekhoon placed his hands on the keyboard. He too had the occupation of a critic of popular culture. It wasn’t something he got because he wanted to. He just wrote some blogs in his spare time, and before he knew it, he had become one.

Whenever he wrote anything related to popular culture on his blog, he would get hundreds of comments. If there were 100 total comments, 80 would be in agreement with him, 15 would disagree, and the remaining 5 would be unrelated adverts.

As he worked with clothes distribution, design, advertisement, and even video production, he heard a lot of things as well.

His method of writing was to pick a suitable topic to write about after filtering out stories that he needed for his business, as well as some confidential information. As there were a lot of visitors, some businesses had reached out to him with proposals as well, offering to pay him to promote their product, actor, singer, or idol.

Baekhoon rejected them all without hesitation. What he lacked wasn’t money. He had already earned more than enough money to make him wonder if he could spend it all before he died.

The money he had distributed to stocks, bonds, and gold was increasing by itself, and the building he bought in Seoul had a different number of digits in price whenever he checked every once in a while.

His business was also flourishing as well.

As such, there was no need to do something counterproductive like taking money to promote someone.

He used his blog solely to satiate his aesthetic curiosities and to promote his own view of his pursuit of beauty.

Most of the time, he would introduce actors that the public did not recognize, human cultural assets, as well as dramas, movies, and plays he would like everyone else to enjoy.

[Case Number 0, a drama that runs when everyone else walks.]

He tried reading out loud the title he wrote. On the internet, the title contributed more than half, nay, at least 80% of the views. In a world where all sorts of cultures were becoming bitesize, a long title was detrimental. He had to make it simple while also provoking the curiosity of the reader.

“Looks good.”

He normally fixed his title about twice, but he didn’t see any need to today. On a day like this, he would write without hitting a block.

[When we think of a mini-series, we think of sixteen episodes or perhaps 18 or 20 if there are extensions. That was the length of the mini-series we are used to. Bestowing character through events and descriptions would happen for about 4 episodes. The core events of the drama would happen after that.

That is why, some even say that you do not need to watch the third and fourth episodes if you watched the first two. This is true to some extent. In order to survive this war of viewing rates, most drama productions emphasize the first and second episodes while the third and fourth sometimes are filled with stories unrelated to the main plot.

Why does this happen? Why are the smart people who have passed Media Exams, writers who make a living off their writing, and producers who design the whole plot, doing that? Is it because they are idiots?

Naturally, the answer is no. There is no other reason why a drama becomes long. Collaborations, promotions, product placements… It’s all because of ads whether in front, in, or after the drama.

Ultimately, the TV stations do not sell their dramas to the public. They sell their adverts. Dramas were just a good-looking form of packaging.

That is why a drama is extended if the viewing rates become high and it gains popularity. It sells ads. The assistant writers would rack their brains to inset scenes with product placements like making the characters in the story drive cars, eat food, or use phones.

I am by no means criticizing these practices. I don’t think they’re bad either. I simply wish to say that that’s how market logic works. Everyone does that. It was marketing that the law allowed for, so it would be strange if they didn’t do it.

With that consideration, this drama is rather strange. Case Number 0 — this drama, which started airing on Channel S starting last week, started off by breaking the format of existing mini-series.

Case Number 0 has been created with a total of 10 episodes. As indicated by the past tense, it has finished being produced. The producer has said that he is expecting a seasonal production and that there is no plan to extend season 1 because it has been perfected. This was his public response.

A private-owned channel is undertaking a huge challenge by preproducing a whole drama series for its first series. This alone piqued my interest, and since two days ago, I have watched the first two episodes of the drama repeatedly.

To start from the conclusion, the production was insane, and the actors were even more so.

Just because the content of the drama was reduced by half does not signify that the density would multiply accordingly. However, Case Number 0 managed to catch both rabbits: speed and density.

It boldly omitted what required an explanation and replaced it with the acting of the actors. It aligned the necessary events precisely and made it so that there was no moment when it felt loose. Not only that, the identity of the murderer, which could be called the core of the drama, was revealed at the end of episode 2.

The entire time I was watching, I could not help but wonder why it happened already. Even I, who has seen my share of dramas, was expressing my doubts. That is why, however, I have a lot of expectations.

The production crew threw a bomb. It meant that they had the confidence to create the drama while keeping the tension. This…]

* * *

“This also means that they have full trust in the actors. If the production crew controls the speed of the drama, it is the actors who control the weight. If it’s all speed and no weight, it would capsize, but Case Number 0 has a firm axis that will not collapse.”

Junmin stood up after finishing what he was reading. Na Baekhoon was doing what JA’s marketing division had to do in their stead.

Considering his name value, promotions that may cost upwards of tens of millions of won would be less effective than a single post on his blog.

From how a man who couldn’t be moved with money had made a move, it seemed that he really did take a liking to him.

“The response on social media is good,” head manager Choi said as he returned to the room. As this was a drama that Yang Ganghwan was participating in, he was in charge of the monitoring.

“These days, this is really good because people share how they feel in real-time. If it was before, we would’ve had to investigate personally or pay money, but these days, they provide it to us for free.”

“How are the responses across generations?”

“As we originally expected, it’s the younger fellas that like it. I think the charm of the drama got through to people who watch with focus.”

“So you’re saying that there’s barely any demand in the elderly generation.”

“You did expect this to happen. It’s a drama you can hardly understand if you don’t stay in focus even for a little bit. And that’s some of the criticisms from the younger generation as well. These days, there are many people who watch on their phones rather than on TVs.”

“How are things for online platforms and downloads?”

Head manager Choi laughed.

“It’s very good considering the viewing rates. What’s interesting too, is that you know how the drama is targeted at the male audience, right? But there have been more sales from women.”

“That’s only natural though.”

“Well, I guess it is. Everyone knows that it’s women who consume the most pop culture and the fastest. What I’m saying is that the drama is a hit with the ladies in their 30s. Normally, it would be teens and twenties instead.”

“Really?”

“I’ll have to see after the drama ends, but if this becomes successful and the business model is known to the industry, there might be a boom of drama production in all sorts of genres. Of course, there will be romances that stimulate a woman’s heart.”

“That’s what’s a pity about Case Number Zero.”

“I actually quite like it because of the lack of romance, but from the perspective of a business, it’s somewhat disappointing after all.”

Junmin looked at the documents that head manager Choi gave him. They were news articles about dramas from the news agency that was the parent company of Channel S, as well as various other media outlets.

About half of them happened because JA used their funds to make the writers write.

“Looks like we no longer need any articles.”

“Yes. I believe this is sufficient. Also, there are a ton of interview requests too.”

“For Ganghwan?”

“Going by ratio, 8 out of ten are for Ganghwan, and two are for Maru.”

“Did Ganghwan say he’d do it?”

“Have you ever seen him do an interview? The one thing I’d like to do before I quit working is to send Ganghwan’s interview to a TV program.”

“That’s quite the small ambition you have there. Mine is to send him to a full entertainment show.”

“That’s impossible. He’s so good at talking, so I wonder why he despises going to TV shows.”

“It’s not that he’s good at talking, it’s just that he talks a lot. Also, you know what he’s like. He becomes too serious when he thinks that it’s work. He doesn’t suit the current trend in TV shows where it’s more relaxed. In fact, he’d probably fare better in a talk show that’s completely scripted like the ones that aired in the past.”

“That’s true.”

Head manager Choi switched the topic to Maru.

“He went back to being a radio host in the program that Suyeon’s doing.”

“Did Maru say he’d do it?”

“Yes. He said he promised to return, so he couldn’t pull out.”

“His schedule is going to be pretty tight though.”

“We got an offer from a casual clothing brand too. They want to use him as a seasonal model.”

“He does have a good body for clothing.”

“From how we didn’t get anything from the business we contracted before…”

Just then, there was a notification from the computer. He held his hand up to head manager Choi and looked at the screen. One of the secretaries shared a document through the company network. From how it came up outside of regular report hours, it was about a contract.

“It’s here. The clothing brand that invested in Maru early on wants him as an official model.”

“If it’s like that, I guess I should talk to them. Looks like the price for Maru’s ads will go up quite a lot.”

“Talk to Yeonjin as well. He’s Maru’s exclusive from now on.”

“I will.”

There were responses from all around. The advertising industry was half a step faster than the viewers. The fact that they were looking for Maru and Ganghwan was proof that they were taking the drama positively.

“Also, you seem quite mindful of Maru.”

“Have I ever not been mindful when I do work?”

“No, but it feels like you’re giving Maru some extra attention.”

Junmin smiled and responded,

“The things he’s doing are praiseworthy. I honestly didn’t think that he’d do this well. I was thinking that it would be okay as long as he could walk, but he’s running already. Don’t you want to just help him if you see him like that? Also, I have hopes that if I give him just a little more of a push, he might start flying.”

“Are you thinking of him as the post-Hong Geunsoo or post-Yang Ganghwan?”

“Who knows? Either Han Maru will be called the junior that succeeds Hong Geunsoo and Yang Ganghwan, or Hong Geunsoo and Yang Ganghwan will be treated as seniors in the same company as Han Maru.”

“Whatever the case may be, I just hope the three of them don’t cause trouble and will act a little obedient. The two older ones are really stubborn, so I hope Maru is a little more docile.”

“The way I see it, Han Maru, that kid shouldn’t be any better than the two.”

“He’s much better already because he goes to TV shows on his own accord.”

Head manager Choi stood up with the documents.

“I’ll call you later at night after meeting with those companies.”

* * *

“You’re him, right?”

Maru tilted his head at the question that the part-timer at the convenience store asked. A girl who seemed like she had just turned twenty, became all excited.

“I’m talking about Case Number 0. You’re Ahn Changsik, right?”

“Ah, yes. That’s me.”

“I was looking at you and felt like I saw you somewhere. Err, can you take a photo with me?”

The girl left the counter. Then she stood next to Maru and smiled.

“This is awesome. I’m really enjoying the drama.”

“Thank you. Since you’re watching it, don’t watch it by yourself and tell your family, friends, and relatives to watch it too.”

“Sure thing!”

He left the convenience store, leaving behind the part-timer who saw him out cheerfully.

After ‘Depths of Evil,’ people didn’t recognize him that much because he had a chubby role in the film and had cut his hair short, but now that he looked like himself in the drama, many people were quick to recognize him.

This was thanks to the fact that it had become quite a hot topic on the internet, despite the fact that the viewing rate was only 0.1%. Soon, the third episode would be airing. Whether the drama would gain drive or stay at 0.1%, episode 3 would determine everything.

He was only human, so he was quite wary of it. Even after all this time, he couldn’t help but feel nervous in the face of unknown results.

He headed home with some beer. He was going to watch episode 3 with the feeling of having his homework checked.

After Story 183

“Having a big one sure is good,” Maru said as he looked at his wife.

The boxy CRT was removed and a flatscreen LED TV took its place. It even had thin bezels with the manufacturer logo barely visible, and the design was simple, so he liked it quite a lot.

“I saw even larger ones, but I thought this was large enough for a house this size.”

His wife brought some semi-dried squid. Along with some beer from the convenience store, a simple drinking table was made.

When he looked at the plate with the squid on it, and she spoke to him,

“As I moved out, I tried bringing things that might suit your preferences.”

“My preferences?”

Since when a cute piglet running and jumping on a pink background was ‘his preference,’ he did not know, but his wife said so, therefore it was.

He leaned against the sofa and looked around the kitchen.

It hadn’t been that long since they moved in together, but in that short while, many parts of the house had changed. The cute set of dolls in front of the TV was his, and the cactus next to it was her preference.

The square and stiff cushion on the sofa was his and the soft cushion was hers.

Mugs, water bottles, slippers, laundry baskets, clothes hangers — there were many things that had different styles splitting up the space.

This was what it meant to live with her. The things he only knew about would wriggle their way into his reality, and he had to give them space.

He liked the traces of his wife he could see throughout. He liked her consideration when taking her own place while trying to not harm the overall frame of the interior. If she decided to change the curtains, she would ask beforehand about the color she was choosing and what he thought of it.

As for TVs and household electronics, it was her area since quite a long time ago, so Maru wouldn’t be surprised even if the TV disappeared outright one day.

They asked each other because they knew, and they did not ask each other because they knew. Being able to communicate without a conversation was a great thing.

Though, the pink piglet was still a no-no.

He grabbed some squid and put it in his mouth.

“When am I going to meet Miss Yeonjoo?”

“Around next week. You’re fine on time, right?”

“The drama shoot is over, so I have plenty of time left over.”

They decided to notify the people close to them of their relationship. It totaled around three or four people. As it wasn’t the right time to date publicly, it would be right before their marriage when they would notify the media about their relationship.

“I guess we can’t even go shopping together now,” said his wife.

“It can’t be helped.”

The number of people recognizing him in public was increasing rapidly. Not to mention the nearby convenience store, there were people who approached him in the streets.

In due time, he might have to wear a hoodie if he were to go jogging early in the morning.

“It’s about time.”

Haneul switched the channel to Channel S. Commercials had just finished and the drama was starting. His wife hugged a large cushion and sat next to him.

“It was 0.1% last week, so it should increase this week, right?” Haneul said.

“I’d be glad if that’s the case, but not many things went the way I wanted them to, so I’m not entirely sure.”

“For someone who’s unsure, you look quite confident.”

He picked up the canned beer.

“I did as much as I could. If I went this far and there is still no response, then I just have to think that this wasn’t the right time. That’s not something I can do anything about, so I have to give up.”

“So it’ll definitely be a hit if the time is right, you’re saying?”

His wife smiled at him. He shrugged and looked at the screen.

* * *

“Aren’t you watching?”

“I’m going to watch in my room.”

Bada looked at her parents gathered in the living room and went to her room.

She powered on her PC and put on the headset that she had hung up on the wall. The sound of the desktop hit her ears.

She quickly moved her mouse to open the browser.

She went to the homepage of Channel S, which she had favorited, and clicked the LIVE button. On the left was the drama, and on the right was a real-time chat window.

The drama was already starting. It was the last part of episode two, when her brother, Yang Ganghwan, and Lee Daecheol were about to meet.

Bada turned up the volume and opened up another browser. She looked up ‘Case Number 0’ and had a look at the cast.

“Right, senior Hwang Hojoon.”

She was unfamiliar with his name and only remembered him as Lee Daecheol, the character in the drama.

Along with some tense music, Hwang Hojoon’s face was closed in on.

Behind him was her brother looking clueless, and in front was Yang Ganghwan coming back from his house.

Her brother made eye contact with Hwang Hojoon. Hwang Hojoon raised his head slightly and pointed at the house with his finger. The camera then changed to her brother’s perspective.

The lights were on on the 3rd floor. Her brother stood in a daze for a while before his eyes changed and he quickly hid in an alley.

He didn’t look like he had grasped the situation entirely. He probably intuitively realized that he had to avoid this place.

Along with a short sigh from Hwang Hojoon, Yang Ganghwan came out of the building.

-What is it all of a sudden?

Daecheol’s friend, who was next to him, asked. He was probably mindful since someone totally fine suddenly started acting strange.

-Geez, there are mosquitos in autumn too, huh?

-Really?

Hojoon glossed it over.

Having brought his wallet, Yang Ganghwan joined up with them.

Her brother was watching the three people from the darkness. The shadow cast on his face changed slightly. It changed from puzzlement to despair and then rage.

He looked like he was about to rush out at any moment, but he did not move until the three of them left.

The camera shot her brother’s face before getting a figure of his back, curled up. The hands slightly lit up under the streetlamp looked tense.

Bada could feel an explosive sense of tension from a scene filled with only a thin breathing noise. The music and the still acting created a fantastic combo.

She looked at her hand and tried clenching it like her brother did. She could tell that it was clenched, but she couldn’t read any sort of emotions from it.

No matter how many times she tried, only her muscles squirmed. This was not acting, but exercise.

She bit her lower lip and focused on the screen. She also raised the volume even more.

How can she act like those actors; like her brother?

When she first left the cinema after watching ‘Depths of Evil’ for the first time, Bada stood in the middle of the street in a daze for an hour, staring at the movie leaflet.

It came as a shock. They were only two years apart as siblings. There was no big difference, and she thought that she would be better in some parts.

Even when her brother joined JA, and when he was cast in a movie as a minor actor, she thought that there wasn’t much of a difference. At most, he would be slightly better.

However, the acting of her blood sibling that she saw through the screen told her that there was an immeasurable gap.

Honestly, she couldn’t even think about anything related to acting while watching the movie. She was literally overwhelmed and did nothing but watch. She was swept by the energy given off by the actors and did not even have any time to think about anything.

Only after watching, only after she left, only after she was in the streets did she realize:

Ah, he’s in a different world.

A literal, different league.

She tried hard in the past two years, gaining experience as a background actor and even participating in a work as a minor actor.

She received a few lines as well. She was confident in saying that she was making progress and that she wasn’t wasting time.

She even pictured herself giving her brother advice, contrary to what happened before.

-Detective? You mean that murderer next door is a detective?

The next day, her brother met Hwang Hojoon at a café. They cleared up the situation while exchanging opinions about Yang Ganghwan based on the night before.

“Detective? You mean that murderer next door is a detective?”

She tried repeating her brother’s line, changing it to suit her style. However, it didn’t sound right. Even though it was a short line, it would become Ahn Changsik’s line if her brother did it, but she felt like it was just an empty echo in the air when she did it.

There was a clear difference after all. Her aim to maybe teach her brother acting one day had become a distant dream.

As if to prove that the murderer act he showed in ‘Depths of Evil’ was not out of luck, he was showing flawless acting even in ‘Case Number 0.’

“What in the world did he do?” she muttered to herself subconsciously.

If the gap was narrow, she would’ve understood.

However, the gap was so wide that she wouldn’t be able to catch up even if she sprinted at full speed.

That being the case, she didn’t even feel jealous. She was simply curious about what he did to produce acting of such a level in just a few short years.

She placed her hands on her headset and focused on the drama.

Han Maru could do it, so why couldn’t she? If she treated his acting as a guide and studied again and again, she would one day become an actor just like her brother.

* * *

Moon Jungah massaged her stiff neck. She had been sitting in a bad position for a long time because she was so absorbed in watching. She stood up from the spot and did some stretches, but she still had her eyes glued to the TV.

She could not miss a single second. As this was a drama that transmitted a lot of information in mere moments, she might miss any clues if she watched in a daze.

She wanted to create something like this one day if she were to ever create a drama. A drama that leaves out all the unnecessary stuff and drives the audience back into a corner again and again.

In yesterday’s episode 3, the relationship between Ahn Changsik, Lee Daecheol, and Yoon Hojung had been redefined.

Daecheol, who was simply helping Changsik out of goodwill, started watching Hojung as though he was going to investigate this case officially. Hojung had not noticed this yet, but considering the pace at which the drama was progressing, it was clear that something was going to happen in episode 4.

Due to the detective vs murder-in-detective-skin confrontation, Ahn Changsik’s presence had become faint, but even that was resolved halfway through the episode.

-You know, I will definitely catch them. I don’t care who it is or what I have to do.

Ahn Changsik and Yoon Hojung met. She felt that the writer was really smart.

After creating a sense of thrill with the battle of wings between Lee Daecheol and Yoon Hojung, he inserted Ahn Changsik into it and provoked primitive feelings.

The meeting of the protagonist and clear evil. The main character’s resolute declaration was practically a formula to create catharsis.

-Of course you should. Tell me whenever you need my help. What’s so good about neighbors? We should help each other out at a time like this.

Yoon Hojung said.

She really thought that the actor known as Yang Ganghwan was a treasure. That malice locked behind a smile, that faintly reflected a shade of evil really turned the character elegant.

Senior Maru, who responded to that, was also absurdly good. An unpolished main character was enduring his rage with difficulty as he spoke. It was tense.

He might become the next target of murder if he kept that up. It made her wonder why he was responding that way.

An intended crisis plus the detailed acting from the actors, combined with the fast-paced music, created an exceptional ensemble.

The conversation between one who knows the truth and one attempting to hide it kept continuing without allowing a single bit of time to rest.

They were fighting with words. The two actors showed with their entire bodies that there were hidden knives in their words.

-I hope you catch them, and find your sister too.

-Yes. I hope that happens too.

As the two parted ways, their faces showed up alternately on the camera.

Ahn Changsik’s eyes were frozen with obsession, while Yoon Hojung’s eyes moved rapidly as though he was a merchant putting a price on an item.

The scene changed as the soundtrack for the ending came out.

Lee Daecheol, who was sitting at his desk, fiddled with the accessory attached to his phone.

-A murderer’s trophy, huh?

At that line, the drama ended.

She let out a sigh of exclamation. She had to wait another week. It had been a while since a drama made her suffer so much.

After watching it, she was given a sense of urgency as though she had to do something.

An aspiring actor or someone learning production would not be able to sit still after watching this drama.

At that moment, she got a call. She felt like it would be Park Joohwan. He called this time last week as well.

She looked at her phone, and indeed, Park Joohwan’s name was on the screen.

“What?”

-When are you going to start your work? You have to use me as an actor.

“It’s that again.”

-I’m so annoyed that it drives me nuts. I want to act with him, but I can’t because I’m not famous. That’s why we should create something good and gain a reputation, okay?

“Stop your bullshit and get to sleep!”

She hung up and sat at her desk. She put her pen on the paper.

“Does he think I’m not doing it because I don’t want to?”

Hoping that a sense of urgency was put into the paper, she started writing.

After Story 184

“The old lord of our radio has returned. Mr. Maru, please say hello to our listeners,” Suyeon said as she looked at him with urging.

Maru put his mouth against the mic,

“I guess I haven’t been here for four months now. I’m Han Maru, who has returned from a long break. Thank you for calling me without forgetting about me.”

“At least you kept your promise. I thought you wouldn’t come again after the drama.”

“You’re making me nervous with your attacks right off the bat.”

“This is nothing. Mr. Han Maru, did you have fun ignoring the pleas of our listeners and going drama-shooting instead?”

“I was having fun until just a minute ago.”

“And it’s not fun now?”

“I’m uncomfortable because a certain actress’ gaze is too fierce.”

Suyeon snorted.

“Everyone, you hear that? That’s how Maru is. If our writer did not call him and beg him to come back, he wouldn’t have come. Well, I guess bringing a famous actor here is as hard as reaching for the stars.”

“I’ve become a famous actor without me knowing, huh?”

“You didn’t know?”

“I completely didn’t know. It feels somewhat strange since Miss Kim Suyeon, who’s sweeping all sorts of prizes at all sorts of award ceremonies, is calling me a famous actor.”

After a mischievous exchange of greetings, Suyeon asked some questions to catch up,

“What have you been doing lately? You’ve finished your drama shoot, so you’re taking a break?”

“Yes. I’m taking a good break. During the shoot, I was planning to go traveling once it was over, but now that it actually is, I can’t be bothered to do anything, so I just stay at home all the time.”

“You’re at the age where you should go traveling. Weren’t you twenty-four this year?”

“Yes. In a month, when the year changes, I’ll be twenty-five.”

“You’re at an age where you should hate to be at home.”

“For some reason, staying home is really good. I’m happy even if I don’t do anything.”

“I guess staying at home is good. Once you’re done with a shoot, you lose all the tension, so you don’t want to do anything.”

“Right. Lying down and watching movies and TV programs is what’s good. I’m living like that with the cat I serve.”

Suyeon smiled.

“Since we’re on the topic of cats, what’s your cat’s name?”

“It’s Ricebun. She’s really stretchy.”

“Do you have a photo?”

Maru showed her a photo he had on his phone. Suyeon exclaimed.

“Everyone, this is one pretty cat. I’ll have it uploaded on the message board later, so definitely go have a look at it. Hey, why don’t you bring her in for the show one time?”

Maru spoke in a disappointed tone,

“She really hates going outside. You know how people say cats are territorial animals, right? She’s a total queen at home, but she’s a scaredy-cat when she’s outside. I took her out to a park to show her around, and she snarled like crazy in my arms.”

“That’s a pity. Then take a lot of photos and show them to our listeners. Many people have cats these days.”

“I will.”

The youngest writer from the team entered the booth. She put down a piece of paper in front of Suyeon before leaving.

“Usually, I don’t introduce other media channels on my show, but I guess I can’t help it with this drama. The interest in it is crazy high, even to the point that they are sending in letters. Case Number 0. What’s going to happen in the future?”

“Isn’t that too direct?”

“You’re not going to answer me anyway, so I might as well ask straight up. Since I asked up front, you’ll be a bad guy if you don’t answer me.”

“Is this how you run your show? Aren’t you being too much of a bully just because I haven’t been here for a while?”

“Who told you you could leave? Anyway, what really happens in the drama? Ever since the notice went up that you’d be returning to the program, the message board and the incoming texts are flooded with questions about it. It’s not on the level of a hot potato, it’s a burning potato.”

Maru looked at the real-time messages. Everyone was talking about the drama. It was hard to proceed with the segment where they listened to the worries of salarymen.

-Please tell us a little bit of the story.

-What happens to Ahn Changsik? He gets Yoon Hojung, right?

-Are you close to actor Yang Ganghwan?

-I’m really enjoying the drama.

Episode 6 ended yesterday. The viewing rate, which stayed at 0.1% for the first two episodes, had risen to 1% for the following two episodes. It was satisfactory to see the viewing rate on par with other private-owned channel dramas, but it rose once again for episodes 5 and 6. According to Messouth, the viewing rate investigation agency, the viewing rate was 4%.

Compared to the huge-budget espionage drama with Park Sinseo in it, which fell to 0.7%, it was a huge number.

“Did you expect that you’d receive so much attention?” Suyeon asked.

Maru raised his voice slightly,

“I really didn’t. I wished for it to do well, but many people around me said that it was going to be hard. They all said that the TV station had just opened up, and it’ll be hard to compete with existing public channels.”

“And yet, against everyone’s expectations, you’re receiving a huge amount of attention.”

“Right.”

“Is it because you are good at acting, Mr. Maru?”

“I guess that’s part of the reason?” He laughed softly before continuing, “I’m just joking. The story is really good. The people around me also told me that the progress is really fast so it’s really refreshing.”

“I thought that too. As it’s only 10 episodes, it feels like it cut off all the auxiliary branches and focused on just the core point.”

“As the number of episodes is smaller than existing dramas, I think the writer focused on the main event as much as possible. I saw many people who said that it’s really hard to keep up once you’re distracted for a few minutes.”

“Username Snow White says that it’s a drama that you can’t take your eyes off of even for a moment. It must mean that it’s that interesting, but at the same time, should you take your eyes off it, you’ll be hard-pressed to understand what’s going on.”

Maru nodded.

“It’s unexpectedly difficult to keep focusing for the span of one hour. That was why the director thought things over and over. He had to control the fatigue level of the drama to transmit the fun parts. If there are too many lines just to transmit intent, then it’ll even more tiring, so I think he did a good job of controlling that.”

“And your acting was the cherry on top.”

“You’re going to make people swear at me if you keep saying that.”

“Who told you to leave our program then?”

He also said a word to Suyeon, who was smiling mischievously,

“You say that, but you came out as a cameo too, SSu-D, didn’t you?”

“How can you say that? It was supposed to be a secret.”

“It’s all over the news already, you know?”

“It’s supposed to be a public secret. I was going to say it myself after the episode went live.” Suyeon crossed her arms. “Since we’re on the topic, I’ll talk about some of what I saw from Mr. Maru at the scene.”

As soon as Suyeon spoke, there was a message from the writer. It said to keep talking about the drama because the responses were good.

“On the radio, Mr. Maru has a docile side to him. When we listen to people’s worries, he always says practical things, so he might sound like a cold-hearted person, but it’s different if you meet him in person. But at the set — how should I put this — he’s really ferocious.”

“I am?” he responded to give a reaction.

“I was right next to him when he was acting with Mr. Yang Ganghwan, right? The two of them were having an acting bout, and if someone not in the know saw that, they might think that the two of them were irreconcilable enemies.”

“Senior Ganghwan put too much strength into his acting, so I had to clench my teeth so that I didn’t get pushed back. It might have looked fierce from the side.”

“How was it in regards to working with Mr. Ganghwan? He’s known to be quite an eccentric actor.”

“At the beginning of the story, we were doing relatively okay since there was no intense clash of emotions, but once the friction occurred and the conflict deepened, I was shooting like I was at war. The moment I stopped focusing, I would lag behind the two seniors in terms of acting, so it was really hard.”

Suyeon pulled her chin inwards.

“How were you with senior Hwang Hojoon? He’s the character who becomes your support in the drama.”

“Senior Hojoon is a really reassuring man even in reality. He looks out for me a lot during shoots. I don’t know if it’s okay to say something like this, but he’s one of the few people who can keep senior Ganghwan under control at the set.”

“Mr. Ganghwan is known to run wild in sets.”

“He just has so much energy. You know how sometimes, shoots happen for a whole day, sometimes going well into the night and even the next morning, right? Actors are only human, so once they’re at that stage, it becomes hard to even speak, but senior Ganghwan moves like he’s some perpetual motion machine.”

“I get what you’re saying. Someone who’s so proactive that it makes the people around them tired. Of course, without malice.”

“That’s exactly it. He’s a really good senior. He really is, but if I stay next to him, I feel like I’m drained of energy? That’s when senior Hojoon steps in.”

“How does he do it?”

“It’s nothing special. He only laughs heartily and says ‘Ganghwan, let’s be quiet for a bit.’ Just that.”

“And he becomes quiet?”

“Yes. He doesn’t listen to other people, but he really listens to senior Hojoon’s words. The two of them get along well.”

“Really? That’s something good I learned today.”

Suyeon smiled. After that, they rounded up the questions from the viewers and Maru replied to the ones he could.

Honestly, it was surprising. He didn’t know that the responses would be so good.

The passionate interest must be in part due to the fact that the listeners of the radio and Case Number 0 were in a similar age group.

“It seems that there really isn’t a single person who has been stressed at work today. All the texts and posts on the message boards are talking about the drama. I know we did have fun talking about it, but I’m slightly disappointed. It feels like we’re worse than the drama,” Suyeon said in a soothing voice.

Stress-related posts came up immediately.

“It’s too late. The show’s almost ending. Since we’re at it, should we listen to Mr. Maru’s stories until the end?”

“Aren’t you going to get an earful from the higher-ups later? We’re practically talking about a drama on another channel for thirty minutes.”

“Don’t worry about it. The big-unni producer outside who’s all smiles will be the one taking care of that. Right?” Suyeon said as she looked outside the glass door. The producer at her seat made a large circle with her hands.

“Since we got her permission, aren’t there any interesting episodes that happened during the shoot? Don’t talk about it anywhere else, and do it here. We can get some more listeners that way.”

“Then shall I talk about a few things?”

“Everyone, please turn up the volume. And if you think that the story is really bad, then give us a message immediately. We’ll be harsh critics here.”

Suyeon looked at him with lazy eyes. She looked like she was leaving the rest up to him since she was going to get some rest. He cleared his throat and spoke,

“I guess I should talk about senior Ganghwan first.”

* * *

[From 0.1% to 4%. The charm of ‘Case Number 0’ and the secret to a 40x increase in viewing rates.

Choi Junghwa pasted the title she had edited for the final time at the top of the document and saved it on the cloud server. Once it was done, the head editor would read it before it would go on the magazine ‘Movie Road.’

“The schedule, schedule,” she hummed and looked through her calendar diary.

She had an interview scheduled with Han Maru during lunch. It felt like just yesterday when she first got to interview him for ‘Depths of Evil,’ and that was at the beginning of the year.

“We’re spending January and December together.”

She checked over the word ‘interview’ written on December 3rd. An actor who had caused a storm in the first half of the year with his murderer role has now returned with a drama. The work was an incredible one as well.

He was practically a blue chip. Everyone was trying to get an interview from him.

However, Han Maru designated her as his interviewer just like he did at the beginning of the year. She felt grateful.

“Maybe he has a personal interest in me… or not.”

While he was an amiable person, he didn’t appeal his traits as a man. It felt like he was giving her respect as a business partner.

“Yes. Mr. Maru. Right now? I’m fine with it. Okay then, I'll see you there.”

She put on her watch and picked up her bag. The schedule was pulled forward. She left her house after checking if she didn’t miss anything.

After Story 185

After getting out of the car, Junghwa looked for the café sign.

Insome, Insome… she found it. She grabbed her bag and started walking.

Having arrived at the café, she saw a sign that said that there was a shoot happening inside.

Looking inside, she saw Han Maru talking in front of a camera. Next to him was a reporter from a KBS entertainment program.

She carefully opened the door and went inside. She showed her business card for ‘Movie Road’ to the staff member trying to block her way.

It seemed they were notified beforehand, as the staff made way for her.

“With the indie film you have shot before, as well as Depths of Evil and Case Number 0, there was absolutely no romance in any of those works. Don’t you want to try acting as a couple?”

Maru laughed loudly at the reporter’s question.

“I’d love to if they allow me. But directors seem to look for more stimulating stuff from my face than fresh love.”

“I think that’s because you’re an actor with a lot of individuality. If you ever shoot something about fresh love, which actress would you like to try doing it with?”

“I’ve never thought about it in detail, but I’d like to do it with someone with a pretty smile.”

“That answer sounds like you were conscious of someone.”

“Did it?”

“Since we’re on the topic, let me ask you a question. This was at the top of the list of questions we took beforehand. Actor Han Maru is currently in a relationship or not? One, two, three!”

“I’d love to be.”

“So you’re single right now?”

“Yes.”

“Are you really sure?”

“Probably?”

“That sounds like a suspicious answer, but I think you’d hate me if I try to dig deeper, so I guess I should stop here.”

“I was planning to run away if you kept asking. It’s in the middle of winter, yet why am I sweating so hard, I wonder.”

Maru fanned himself and overreacted. He was fleshing out the reporter’s question so that the interview would go smoothly. It would be great if all actors responded to interviews like Maru did.

Junghwa sat on a chair in the café and wrote down the questions that the reporter asked. She was going to skip questions that she had ready if they overlapped with these questions or change them slightly.

Actors would gain fatigue and the quality of the interview would decrease if they were asked the same questions.

“Please look forward to actor Han Maru’s feats in the future. Actor Han, please say a word to our audience.”

“I’ll do my best to become a good actor. Please keep encouraging me and watching over me. Thank you.”

The reporter’s applause signaled the end of the shoot. The producer and the writer went over to Maru and had a conversation with him.

After a round of goodbyes, the equipment was pulled out. The people from the TV station also left the café.

“Did I make you wait for long? That took longer than I expected. If I had known that this would happen, I wouldn’t have called you to come early,” Maru came over and said.

“Not at all. I didn’t wait that long, and delays are frequent in broadcast shoots. Rather than that, you must be tired, doing one interview after another.”

“I thought about delaying the interview, but thinking about the date, I thought that I had to do it today.”

“You must be busy to make time for these.”

Maru shook his head at her words.

“There’s that too, but I’ll have to do the interview with you today so that the interview goes up before the TV broadcast, whether it’s on the internet or the magazine.”

“I didn’t know you looked out for me so much.”

She couldn’t tell if he was joking or not, but she did feel like he was being considerate of her. In any case, it was a grateful matter.

“I’m really enjoying the drama.”

She lightly brought up the topic of the drama before the interview.

“Was it interesting?”

“I found it really interesting. It’s been a while since I watched something so faithful to the genre, so I’m watching the new episodes whenever they come out.”

“How about the fantasy elements? Do they feel forced?”

“I was rather weirded out at first. It felt like watching that old drama about urban myths all over again. But when I kept watching, the sense of disparity disappeared. I thought that this would work out too.”

“Thank you for such positive feedback.”

While they were talking, the café owner came over. Maru took some photos with the owner and asked about what time they had the café reserved until.

“You can use it to your heart’s content until six. That was the agreement.”

The owner left after answering. She looked at the clock. There was plenty of time, so she could take the interview slowly.

“Shall we begin?” she asked as she opened up her laptop.

Maru nodded.

“First of all, thank you for responding to our interview request. The higher-ups were really eager to get an interview from you. You’re such a hot potato these days after all.”

“Movie Road is a magazine I enjoy reading. The article you wrote about me last time was good, so I wanted to do my first magazine interview with Movie Road this time as well. But it’s not really a movie I’ve been featured in, so I’m not sure it’ll go well with the magazine.”

“While we’re called Movie Road, we don’t always just talk about movies. These days, when domestic movie titles are far and few in between, we focus on the actors instead. I think you’ll be our main model for the cover for the January edition.”

“Am I really good enough to be on there?”

“More than sufficient, I’d say. I think you have the tendency to underestimate yourself.”

“It’s a habit of mine. If I boast without knowing how high the skies are, then I might fall down and break some bones.”

She smiled and asked back, “Honestly though, you do know that your popularity and reputation are incomparable to before, right?”

“If people recognizing me is a measure of popularity… then yes, I’m experiencing it in real-time.”

“I heard that your fans made lunchboxes for you during the drama shoot.”

“Thankfully, some people gave me some gifts. I thankfully enjoyed them all.”

She typed on the keyboard for a bit before speaking,

“Offerings are what they’re called, right? Internet fans are gifting presents to the singers and actors they like.”

“At first, I found that word a little funny, offerings.”

“I think it’s supposed to be a humorous word.”

“Before, most of it was about personal presents, but these days, it has changed in form to giving lunchboxes to the staff at the shoot or making donations under a celebrity’s name, right? I think that’s why I can receive it so much more comfortably. I would’ve felt that it was too much if it was a monetary gift.”

“Wasn’t it a pity though? With that kind of money, you can get a luxury brand bag.”

“That’s a scary question.”

It was supposed to be a joke question to lighten things up a little, so she had no plans to put it on the interview. Maru seemed to be aware of that as well.

“I can’t help but talk about the drama. Case Number 0, how did you get cast in it?”

She moved on to the questions about the actor. She first talked about the things that the subscribers to the magazine might be curious about.

“I was on a break after Depths of Evil. During that time, some businesses and directors sent me scenarios. They were all good works too. Had I not met Case Number 0, I would’ve appeared in one of them.”

“But you chose to go with a drama instead of a movie.”

“Yes. One day, director Cha Myungjoon and writer Yoo Jungtae reached out to me for lunch. I was getting a free lunch, so there was no reason for me to refuse, so I went there with glee.”

“And that turned out to be not just a simple eating occasion?”

“Yes. As soon as I sat down, they gave me a scenario with grave expressions. That was Case Number 0.”

“You must have been taken aback then?”

“A little. But when I read it, all of that disappeared. The writing intrigued me so much. I really liked the character. In my desire to do it, I said on the spot that I’ll do it.”

“That’s how you got to act as Ahn Changsik, I see.”

“Actually, no. The role that the two of them proposed to me was the role of Yoon Hojung, the murderer. Maybe I just look like one.”

She chuckled before following up,

“You’ll look good in the role of Yoon Hojung, but maybe because I watched the drama, but I don’t think I can imagine anyone else other than you in Ahn Changsik’s role.”

“You’re too good at flattering me. It’s rather embarrassing to get praised like that.”

“I’m honestly saying my impressions. So, while you were offered the role of Yoon Hojung, you ended up doing the role of Ahn Changsik, huh? Can you tell us the story behind that?”

Maru told her the circumstances behind how Yang Ganghwan, who was in the same agency, got to play the role of Yoon Hojung. She wrote down what Maru said and spoke to herself,

“If actor Yang Ganghwan didn’t come across the scenario that you took to the company…”

“If he didn’t see it, then someone else might be playing Yoon Hojung right now.”

“As an avid watcher of the drama, I can say that it’s such a relief. Actor Yang Ganghwan is also definitely necessary in Case Number 0.”

“It makes me think that luck is a really important factor when working.”

“Really.”

She then asked about Maru’s future plans.

“I think I’ll be busy until early next year with things other than acting.”

“You mean with commercials and other shoots?”

“Yes.”

“What about after that?”

“I will try to do my best so that you can see me in another work.”

“Are there any works that reached out to you? How are the works that you turned down for the sake of the drama?”

“I was unable to participate in the scenarios that I got before because of the schedule overlap, but thankfully, I was given a few other offers.”

“Following a murderer, you got to act as a family member of a murder victim. What kind of person will you show us next?”

“I’ll have to see what I can get, but I want to do something more comfortable to see.”

“Like everyday life?”

“Yes.”

“That sounds like it’ll suit you. If you do one, please get in touch with us.”

“Don’t worry. I’d like to maintain a good relationship with journalist Choi from Movie Road from now on too.”

She took out a camera. As the café had a good interior design, it was suitable to shoot photos in as well.

She took a photo of Maru looking outside with his chin resting on his palm.

In the last interview, she didn’t realize this because the photos they put in the magazine were his profile photos provided by the agency, but now that she actually took a photo of him, she felt a sense of leisure from him like he was a full-fledged model.

The figure was good, so even if the composition was awkward, the outcome looked good as well.

Serious expression, mischievous smile, locked in thought — these photos that she just took would decorate the magazine page that will be set aside for the special section.

“Oh, and this.”

She took out five fountain pens she had gotten ready. These were for subscriber gifts.

“These are the subscriber gifts I told you beforehand. Please sign your name here.”

“Are they going to be given away?”

“Yes. The company prepared some expensive fountain pens to commemorate you going on the special section. I’m sure the responses are going to be good.”

“Thank you. Can I sign here?”

She put the fountain pens with Maru’s signature in her bag.

She then listened to some more of Maru’s personal story before finishing up the interview.

“Thank you for your work today.”

“Not at all. You were the one doing the work.”

“When we finish the manuscript, we’ll send it to you beforehand as well. If you don’t like any of the sentences, please contact us.”

“Okay.”

Junghwa shook hands with Maru lightly before leaving the café.

Now came the real work. She had to polish the interview and edit it in the style of the magazine.

“I sent some photos through email. Please clean them up and give them back to me. Okay, I’ll leave that to you.”

As she grabbed the wheel, she looked at Maru standing in front of the café. He had grown as an actor whenever she looked at him. She wondered how it would be next year.

She looked forward to it. If he was successful in his subsequent work as well, he would stand with the top stars as icons of popularity.

What if a young actor at the age of twenty-five were to become like that?

She could practically hear his payments for acting and commercials rising already.

Above all, what was really attractive was that he had already been to the military. It meant that he could continue working without a gap period.

“Maybe I’m the lucky one.”

She started the car. Their meeting might have been a coincidence, but keeping that up was skill.

Han Maru provided her with the opportunity, so now it was time to repay him.

After Story 186

“Aren’t you smiling too much?” Haneul asked as she looked at Maru sitting on the sofa.

Her husband, who was talking to the reporter on the TV, was smiling like a pup before snacks.

“I can’t be crying, can I?” Maru retorted while twitching his eyes.

He was right, but she still found him hateful.

She looked at the letter that he was holding. It was one of the gifts sent to JA by his fans.

“Hun, this one’s a college girl that likes me a lot. She says I’m welcome to get married to her any time.”

“Sure, sure.”

“Are you feeling jealous yet?”

Her husband was being really mischievous. The saying that boys will always be boys was probably the greatest saying of all time.

She glared at him before going into their room.

“Aren’t we going to watch this together?” he asked from the living room.

“Watch all you want. I need to focus on writing.”

After replying, she took out her phone and looked up the search term rankings on the internet. Han Maru was currently in 1st place, and there were numerous articles about him.

She looked at the articles and comments one by one and smiled in satisfaction. Whenever she found a malicious comment, she pressed the dislike button.

“You busy?”

Her husband poked his head inside after opening the door. She put down her phone and stared at him.

“What is it?”

“Play with me if you aren’t busy.”

“Why don’t you play with that cute college girl of yours?”

“That’s why I’m here, so I can play with the cute college girl of mine that is in front of me.”

She tilted her head crookedly and spoke, “Don’t you feel embarrassed saying that at that age?”

“You know you like it.”

“I do?”

“I can see you smiling.”

She toned down her expression and sat at the edge of her bed.

“I’m not.”

“Even if you aren’t, watch with me anyway. I tried really hard throughout the shoot for this episode, so I want to watch it with you. I want to hear your opinion as well.”

“I’m sure you did fine. You’re a successful actor after all,” she said as she crossed her arms.

Her husband came inside the room and put his hand out. He stared at her and kept shaking his hand in front of her.

“It’s about to start.”

Her husband kept nagging her to grab his hand. He looked quite freaky but also rather cute.

Having no choice, she grabbed his hand. She relied on the slight pull to stand up from the bed.

After the commercial, the TV became silent for a bit. It was a sign that the drama was about to start.

She sat Maru down on the sofa before leaning against his knees. She found this position most comfortable. Plus she could pull a strand of his leg hair out whenever he said some nonsense, so it was a good position in many ways.

“Should I bring something?” Maru asked.

“No, don’t go anywhere and stay right there. It’s perfect right now.”

She relaxed her neck and looked at the screen.

Light returned to the blackened screen.

The follow-up from last week’s ending scene came out. Detective Lee Daecheol was looking through the case files on his desk like crazy. This was the beginning of episode 8.

* * *

“No way. My intuition isn’t that good anyway. There’s just no way.”

A smell unique to old paper lingered around his nose.

Daecheol looked back at a missing incident from 9 years ago. That case was filed before computer systems were adopted, so there were only paper records.

He placed his index finger on the word ‘missing.’ He slowly moved his finger from left to right and read the outline of the case.

A college girl goes missing in Cheonho-dong. It was a simple case of leaving, and not even an investigation took place. The missing person was last seen at a nearby noraebang in the neighborhood.

Daecheol then walked over to the wall that had a map on it.

The missing case from 9 years ago, 5 years ago, and Changsik’s sister going missing all happened around the Songjung-gu vicinity.

“If it’s not a series of unrelated murders, but a real serial killer…”

Yoon Hojung’s age was only thirty-three. If the missing college student from 9 years ago was his doing, no, if he started even before that, it would make him…

“Holy shit.”

If his assumption was true, then it meant that he had the audacity to nonchalantly keep living in the same neighborhood after committing murder.

No, he was practically at ease because he was in the same neighborhood. To him, Songjung-gu must be his hunting turf.

Rather than looking for prey in an unfamiliar place, he probably judged that committing his crimes in Songjung-gu, where he knew the location of every CCTV, was less dangerous.

He looked at the case file from 9 years ago again. The sentence at the bottom was piercing in his eyes.

[The missing person’s pager was discovered and consequently delivered to the family.]

He looked at the name of the policeman who filed this incident. He immediately went to the administrative department and got a contact number.

“Good day, sir. I’m detective Lee Daecheol from Yangdo-gu.”

-Yes, what is it?

“I just wanted to ask a few questions about a case from a few years ago.”

-A case?

“You filed a report about a missing case nine years ago.”

-What? Nine years ago?

The policeman on the other side responded with a suspicious voice. That was no surprise, as anyone would show a response like that when they found out that someone was digging into a case from nine years ago, especially a policeman.

One of the things that policemen hated the most was having someone dig into a case from the past.

“It’s not a big problem. It’s just a personal curiosity of mine.”

-How many people can remember an event from nine years ago? You know how things work around here, detective. You know how many complaints and events we process every single day.

“I do, I know full well that you must be working hard. But can’t you think about it just a little more? This is about a college girl going missing 9 years ago in Cheonho-dong.”

The person on the other side fell silent. He might be feeling vexed and iffy and was probably debating if they should refuse to reply. Daecheol was planning to visit him if talking over the phone didn’t work out. He was apparently in the investigation support team at Songjung-gu’s police station, so he should be able to get there in twenty minutes by car.

There was suddenly a lot more noise over the phone. The person on the other side seemed to be talking to someone.

He focused on the sound: Do you know who detective Lee Daecheol is? Oh, really?

It seemed that the person on the other side was checking for his identity.

-Detective Lee.

“Yes.”

-You mentioned the college girl incident in Cheonho-dong nine years ago, right?

“I did.”

-I remember a little bit because it was the first case I assisted in after I was appointed. But I think I’ll have to see the report to remember certain details.

“The thing I’m going to ask is pretty simple. I had a look at the report that you wrote while you were working there, and it states that you delivered the missing person’s pager to the family.”

-Oh, yes. I remember that. I was the one who filed the confirmation of return and gave it to them.

“Do you remember anything that the missing person’s family might have said? It’s fine even if it’s something trivial.”

-I’m not sure. I don’t think there was anything.

“I see.”

This wasn’t something he could get an answer to just by pressing him. Asking someone to remember a simple missing case from 9 years ago was a hard request in and of itself.

He supposedly worked in the investigation support department, so he must have a lot of work on his hands as well. It would not be easy to find a fragment of a worthless incident in the sea that was nine years of work.

He asked for one last time,

“Wasn’t there anything like an accessory missing?”

The college girl that disappeared five years ago and was discovered as a corpse also had a pager among her possessions. What Daecheol found out was that the keyring on the pager had disappeared.

And a few days ago, they discovered Changsik’s sister’s phone, which also had a missing accessory.

If this was a case of a single culprit committing serial murders, then the accessory must be the trophy.

He had his hypothesis. What was left now was to check and prove.

Eventually, he heard a voice from the other side.

-Oh! Now that I think about it, the missing person’s younger sister said that a small doll that she gifted the person had disappeared. Apparently, it was hung on the pager, but it wasn’t there when we discovered the pager again.

“Thank you.”

Daecheol looked for the missing person’s family. The address had not changed, so he had an easy time looking for them. He met with the younger sister of the missing person from 9 years ago, who was ten at the time.

“Yes, I remember. My sister always carried it with her. I kinda nagged her to never take it off.”

When the sister asked what was happening, Daecheol replied that it was no big deal. How was he supposed to say that her sister might have been killed to a person who had been waiting for 9 years?

He returned to the police station and sat down at his desk.

4 to 5, five victims, missing accessories, and the crazy murderer who still lives in the same neighborhood.

“Changsik, where are you right now?”

He called Changsik. The clearer the outline of the case became, the more heated Changsik became, and now he was like a furnace. The red-hot boiling liquid metal did not come pouring out just yet, but on the day the container was flipped, red-hot liquid metal would assault people. The person dying would be Yoon Hojung.

A serial killer must be tried in court, not buried in the back mountains somewhere.

-I’m with him right now.

“Are you crazy? What are you trying to do!”

-I’m not trying to do anything. I just… I’m just staying with him. We got pretty close. We’re like brothers and he treats me out for a drink.

“Stop doing anything dangerous and keep some distance from him. I’m making progress on my side.”

-I believe you, detective. I know you’ll get this guy someday. But I think it’s taking too long. These days, I haven’t been getting enough sleep. I keep hearing my sister crying whenever I close my eyes. She wants me to save her, she wants me to rescue her. But I can’t do that.

“Why can’t you!”

-Because she’s dead.

It was an unpleasantly sunken voice.

“You prick. There are things you can and cannot say. This might simply be a missing case. Don’t keep assuming the worst and…”

-I found it.

Those words made his heart sink. Daecheol responded,

“Found what?”

-The thing we both racked our heads to find. The trophy.

“Are you at that guy’s house right now?”

-Yes. It’s right here. The cross that my sister always had on her phone.

He realized the moment he heard Changsik’s voice. This guy had lost his reason.

Daecheol spoke hurriedly,

“Ahn Changsik. Listen to me. You believe me, don’t you? You said you’ll get to the bottom of this case with me, didn’t you? If you still remember that, then leave that place right now. Don’t give that guy any opening to exploit and get out of there RIGHT NOW!”

* * *

His ears felt numb. He kept hearing Daecheol’s shouts, but he didn’t understand. All of his nerves were focused on the cross on his palm.

A cross is a pretty common accessory. There’s no proof that this belongs to my sister — that hope was mercilessly shattered the moment he looked at the back side of the cross.

Writing written vertically alongside some initials pierced his eyes. It was indeed the cross that he had seen several times whenever she visited him.

Changsik looked at the other accessories neatly placed in the drawer.

One hairpin and three accessories with rings on them. They were encased in a clear acrylic container, like how high-class watches would be put on display.

“One, two, three, four…”

He clutched the cross on his palm.

“And five.”

At that moment, he heard the door open. Yoon Hojung, who had left to buy more beer, had returned.

“Changsik! We need to drink some more!”

At that moment, he happened to see a box knife in front of him. His head fell in a daze. He grabbed the knife without thinking.

He could hear his sister’s voice, overjoyed that she passed the test to become a civil servant. Why did it have to be her? Not anyone else, but her?

He knew in his head that he shouldn’t kill someone and that he should wait, just like the detective told him.

However, the moment he saw his sister’s article, the moment he heard Yoon Hojung’s joyful voice, he felt that the world was so unfair.

There was one more thing that was clear to him. It was that even if his guilt was proven, they would keep living under the same sky, breathing the same air.

He might even be released early as a model prisoner.

His sister was no longer in this world, but this guy would keep living.

He felt like retching. It was hard to endure. It was just when he came to the conclusion that he should think about it after stabbing him,

-If your sister really died as you said, then he’s the only guy who knows where your sister’s body is. Are you going to let her rot away in the cold? What about the other victims? If you slit that guy’s neck, you’ll only feel comfortable for a moment. Then you’ll get a number 1 on your shoulder. A number you will not be able to erase all your life!

After Story 187

The screen froze into a monotone still shot and the ending soundtrack started playing.

“I really like this song,” said his wife as she took her head off his knees.

Maru cautiously stretched his legs out. He asked as he massaged his sore legs,

“How was it?”

“It feels like it’s deviated from the story that it’s led until now. It’s not to the point of being not understandable, but I still think that Changsik’s change was a little too drastic. Of course, the end is approaching, and I’m sure you needed some kind of new conflict. It wasn’t to the point that made me think ‘this isn’t right,’ so I think the responses should be okay?”

“So it’s on a level the viewers will be able to accept?”

“There has been plenty of foreshadowing in the previous episodes, whether it was through Daecheol’s speech or through Changsik’s monologue. An unstable ego rushing to end the case is something that’s plausible, but the way it happened leaves some room to be desired. But considering that there are only 2 episodes left, I guess this was for the best. It’ll be too sudden if that happened in episode 9 and then episode 10 concluded everything.”

“Do you think it would’ve been better if we removed some of the episodes and focused more time on describing the main character’s psychology?”

“If you did that, you might get the plausibility down, but you would lose speed in the process. I think the director gave up on what they should give up on for the sake of a fast-paced story. Also, the acting is good, so the awkwardness in the storyline doesn’t really stand out. To the people who are absorbed in it, it shouldn’t have been a flaw at all. Especially with the majority of the audience, who can sympathize with Changsik. They might have even felt a sense of pleasure.”

He nodded as he listened to his wife’s words.

“I guess I shouldn’t worry about it then.”

“My words aren’t absolute, and the assessment of the public might be different. Aren’t you being too relieved here?”

“The critic I trust the most said that it was good, so I should be relieved.”

Maru looked up ‘Case Number 0’ on his phone.

As soon as episode 8 was over, there were various discussions all over the internet. He set aside the news articles and had a look at the posts written by ordinary viewers.

Someone willing to write a long post on the internet meant that he or she was an avid watcher, and the opinions of such people were precious, whether it was a good comment or a bad one.

“There are a few people with the same opinion as you. It feels a little rushed, but it was still good. It was a good direction to burst out with what was necessary.”

He flipped the screen around to show his wife. Haneul shrugged and stood up.

“You’re going to meet Mr. Daemyung tomorrow, aren’t you?”

“I set the appointment for 11. I’ll see how things go, and we’ll have lunch together.”

“Looks like I’ll get to see him after all this while. What feeling does he give off this time? A cute piglet? Or a burly bear?”

“He gained some weight ever since he quit working. He’s somewhere between an agile bear and a thin pig.”

“Looks like he still has a good physique, huh.”

His wife went to the bathroom first, saying that she was going to get washed. He sent Daemyung a text message telling him not to forget the appointment tomorrow.

* * *

There were a few times when Maru introduced him to his girlfriend before. He would have a girl sitting next to him when they went to drink, or he would show him photos of his girlfriend and notify him that way.

“I’m almost there.”

Daemyung hung up and climbed the stairs. He was told that he would see him immediately if he left through the 8th exit.

“Park Daemyung.”

Maru was standing at the end of the staircase. He smiled joyfully and approached Maru.

“Is it okay for a celebrity to be walking around like this?”

“That’s why I’m wearing a hat.”

Daemyung scanned Maru from top to bottom. This was something he would never have imagined just 4 years ago.

Han Maru, an actor? A successful one to boot?

“We should’ve met more often, but I was way too busy.”

“We can meet up every once in a while. Rather than that, where’s your girlfriend?”

“She’s waiting at a cafe on the other side of the road.”

He stood at the traffic crossing next to Maru.

“Rather than that, this is rather surprising. You never introduced me to anyone like this.”

“Due to our circumstances, we’re only introducing each other to the people close to us.”

“Well, I guess celebrities can’t be free when it comes to dating. But hey, is there really a clause forbidding you from having a relationship in the contract?”

“I’m not an idol, so do you think I would have something like that? We’re watching out just in case, for the sake of both parties.”

“It’s been a long time since we’ve known each other, but somehow, you feel unfamiliar to me today. As expected of a celebrity.”

“How long are you going to keep going on about that celebrity stuff?”

“I’m calling a celebrity a celebrity. What’s so wrong with that? Oh yeah, what’s Kim Suyeon’s real figure like? Is she really pretty?”

“I was wondering why you weren’t asking that.”

While they had talked to each other frequently on the phone, it had been eight months since they last met.

Maru was busy with his shoots, and Daemyung too had a hard time making any time because of part-time jobs and his own writing.

If they set an appointment, it wouldn’t be that hard to meet, but like all close friends, they always said that they should meet up whenever there was enough time.

“The end-of-year meeting has become a beginning-of-year meeting.”

“Right.”

“It feels like 2010 started just yesterday, but it’s 2011 already. At this rate, I’ll be thirty before I know it and forty if I blink, right?”

“Sure.”

“It was good when I could mindlessly kick balls and play games. Now, I’m always worried about money.”

The light changed. He started walking as he looked at the green light.

“How’s work?” Maru asked.

“It’s definitely a lot easier than making footholds in a construction site, or washing dishes, or driving. But it definitely doesn’t earn as much as manual labor. Still, I have a lot of free time, so I can get some writing done. That’s one good thing about it.”

“What are you writing these days?”

“I’ve been trying out a scenario since a few months ago. The format is completely different from a novel. A scenario is more like an instruction manual, so I have to mainly write things that sound like complete actions. Recreating what’s in your head perfectly into writing is really not an easy job, it turns out.”

“Writing is definitely hard.”

“Still not as bad as you have it, I think? I saw the drama yesterday. Your acting was pretty scary, you know? I was briefly worried that the blood vessels in your eyes might burst.”

Daemyung tried imitating the last scene in the drama, where Ahn Changsik discovered the trophies and went semi-crazy.

He clenched his molars and frowned.

“How is it? Look similar?”

“Hey, don’t you ever do acting.”

Daemyung relaxed his expression.

“I have no plans to.”

He entered the cafe following Maru. It was rather crowded because this was located downtown. They saw two men approaching with coffees in their hands. When passing by, he heard the two talk about how the girl upstairs was their style.

“Let’s go up. She’s waiting upstairs.”

They went upstairs. Among the people in groups of threes to fives, there was one woman who was looking outside the window in a daze. She was wearing thick glasses and a hoodie, so she couldn’t be seen properly, but even that was enough for Daemyung to tell that she was pretty.

Her figure was something else. She was the practical definition of a ‘fair lady.’

Maru walked towards the woman with large strides.

“Oh, you’re here," said the woman.

Daemyung stood next to Maru stiffly. He could swear that this was the first time he came across such a beauty. Even with light makeup, her facial features were very distinct. Anyone watching would exclaim without knowing.

“Mr. Daemyung. I heard a lot from Maru.”

“Ah, yes.”

Daemyung sat down in a daze, still taken aback. It was just as shocking as the fact that Maru had become an actor.

“I’m quite the looker, I know," said the woman.

It might have been an attempt to freshen the mood, but Daemyung nodded with a dazed face.

“You were supposed to laugh there so that I could feel less pressured.”

“Ah, that’s true.”

“I’m Han Haneul.”

“And I’m Park Daemyung.”

“Why do you look like you’re so nervous?”

“R-right.”

Haneul looked at him as though she was intrigued by him.

Daemyung had averted his gaze and turned his head around. He was as nervous as when he was shown obviously seductive moves during drinking sessions.

“The two of you are the same age. Drop the honorifics and just relax around each other. Daemyung, what do you want to drink?”

“Me? I’ll go with anything.”

“Let’s switch places after we talk for a bit. We need to eat.”

Maru stood up, saying that he was going to order. Daemyung also stood up.

“Why are you standing up?” Maru asked as he stared at him. Daemyung looked at Haneul from the corner of his eyes.

“Haneul, Daemyung finds you uncomfortable.”

“Really?”

Haneul smiled and looked at Daemyung. Daemyung shook his head.

“When did I say that? I don’t find her uncomfortable at all.”

“Then sit down. It was Haneul who wanted to see you more than me.”

Maru pushed down on his shoulder. Daemyung smiled awkwardly and looked at Haneul.

“It’s not that I feel awkward, I was just going to help Maru order.”

“Do you really need to help when I’m just ordering?”

“No, not really.”

Haneul took off her hoodie. Her messily tied hair draped down her back. Her hair was more glistening than any other girl he knew of. That was a shampoo commercial.

“We’ll talk about the details over lunch, but there is something I’d like to ask beforehand.”

“Something to ask?”

“I heard from Maru that you’re writing. Is it a novel? Or maybe a scenario for a drama or a movie?"

"I’m trying out various things. I’m currently practicing writing a scenario.”

“Really now?” Haneul took off her glasses. “Can you have a look at what I’ve written?”

* * *

"That’s not it. The story needs to progress like this for the flow to be okay.”

“Listen to me. Even if we remove this whole event from the story, it doesn’t sound off at all. If that’s the case, the right thing to do is remove it.”

“There is a foreshadow left by the event. It’s these kinds of events that keep piling up and decorate the ending, but if you remove this, the whole frame of the story will be shaken.”

“People can imagine it even if it is omitted, you know?”

“Like you said, you don’t need to show everything. But this one’s necessary. Gosh, this is frustrating.”

“What? Frustrating? Park Daemyung, I’m frustrating?”

“No, I mean… you know.”

Maru crossed his arms and looked at the two people. Just two hours ago, Haneul was on the teasing side and Daemyung was on the bullied side.

This structure had not changed even when they left the cafe and went to the restaurant to eat.

However, as they talked about writing, the situation changed. Having seen the scenario that Haneul wrote, Daemyung voiced his opinion without holding back.

As Haneul was the one who told him not to hold back, she was obediently listening at first, but as things progressed, both of their voices became louder.

And now, they were at a point where their words had become swords and spears.

“You’re going to cook all the sushi with all that passion. Eat first.”

Maru put some food on the plates in front of the two people. He did expect the conversation to heat up, but not to this extent.

Both of them had great pride. For his wife, it wasn’t surprising that she held up her pride because she had experience being successful as a director and a writer.

Daemyung, on the other hand, was rather unexpected. Maru originally thought that Daemyung would listen for a bit and bend his opinion, but he didn’t take a single step back. It meant that he just had that much faith in his style of writing.

His wife, who had been eating without a word for a while, spoke,

“You said you’re doing three part-time jobs right now, right?”

“Why bring that up all of a sudden?”

Daemyung stared at his wife.

“I’ll pay double what you’re getting now, so polish this scenario with me.”

Daemyung kept blinking at the sudden words.

Maru looked at his wife and smiled. So the harsh battle of words was a way for her to measure his skill, huh?

“I’ll pay you that way while we polish the scenario, and if I shoot a movie with this, I’ll give you royalties as well. Don’t try to refuse. I am only proposing this once.”

His wife let out a deep breath. The scenario she wrote was badly scrutinized, so she must be feeling quite bad.

He stared at his wife huffing and puffing because she was cute.

“Hey, Maru. What does all this mean?” Daemyung asked.

Maru replied with a smile.

“What do you mean? Madam president over there is hiring you. I wouldn’t miss this contract if I were you.”

Haneul raised a bottle of soju and said ‘glass.’

Daemyung let out a puzzled expression and grabbed his glass for now, politely with both of his hands.

“Writer Park. Please take good care of me, okay?”

Hearing Haneul's words, Daemyung could only say yes.

After Story 188

"Come on in,” Maru said as he opened the door.

Daemyung stiffly walked inside. It was because of the things he had heard before they arrived.

He rolled his eyes and looked at the pair of slippers in front of the porch. There were two pairs. The two cushions placed on the sofa also entered his eyes.

“What are you doing, standing still like that?”

“You’re living together for real?” Daemyung asked as he took his shoes off.

He had heard about this before, that couples would live together in the same house. He never thought a close friend of his would be doing that though.

“You can live together for fake then?” Maru responded as though it was nothing much. Haneul, who followed them in, smiled and went into what was presumably the main bedroom.

He looked at the living room where there was a big TV.

The whole house was clean. It felt like a well-decorated model house. Even the wallpaper and the curtains were of matching colors.

“This is good.”

“What is?”

“The house. It’s nicely designed.”

“We put in a lot of effort.”

“Haneul must’ve worked hard.”

“She didn’t do it. This was all me.”

“You?”

Daemyung looked at Maru. This friend he had made in high school was definitely not the type of person to organize his house like this. He had the average sense of dirtiness of South Korean men.

He had once visited Maru’s house after he had been discharged from military service. It was moderately dirty and moderately messy, a single man’s residence that could be seen just about anywhere.

“So even tendencies can change when your personality changes, huh?”

“What’s so bad about my personality?”

“I was complimenting you. I’m proud that you’ve become a better man. I guess military service changed a man?”

“I don’t think it was the military.”

“Well, the military doesn’t create men. It ruins them.”

There was something that caught his eye while talking. It was a cat right behind the door on the opposite side of the main bedroom. It was the cat he had only seen in pictures.

He quickly came down from the sofa and crouched down before clicking his tongue.

“Kitty, come here.”

He tried wooing the cat for a whole minute, but the cat did not respond at all. In fact, it seemed to be wary of him.

While he had never raised one, he had quite extensive knowledge about cats. He was an over-the-internet cat owner.

“She’s picky even with me.”

Maru approached the cat. The cat stared at him for a moment before going inside the room.

“There’s no cute side to her.”

“Isn’t that the charm of cats?”

He wanted to touch the cat, but he was also afraid that he would get bitten. If even the owner was having a hard time, it wouldn’t be surprising if it scratched unfamiliar humans.

“Ricebun, come over to mommy.”

Haneul came out of the room after having changed her clothes.

He had forgotten because they were eating and quarreling over her writing, but she was a very beautiful woman. It was no wonder that she became an actress.

The cat appeared at Haneul’s call.

It raised its tail high up in the sky and relaxed it before raising the front paw in front of Haneul, as though looking for a hug.

“She’s so docile.”

“Only to her. I’ve been feeding her and washing her for years too.” Maru grumbled as he sat down next to him.

While they laid out the drinks and snacks that they had brought, Haneul came over with the cat in her arms.

“She likes being petted.”

Haneul lifted the cat by the sides and placed it in front of him.

He carefully reached his hand out to pet it from its head to its waist. The fur was stiffer than he had expected.

He then went a little further and touched right below its chin. The cat snapped its neck his way and glared at him. It seemed to be telling him to be respectful.

“She doesn’t like being touched on the face,” Haneul said.

Daemyung wanted to squeeze the cat’s face like foaming a kitchen sponge, but he didn’t dare. He saw a glimpse of the claws hidden underneath the squishy front paw.

“I’ll be satisfied with just looking.”

Pets, whether dogs or cats, were best to look at, instead of raising your own. Raising one, in other words, living with one, was no ordinary amount of work.

Daemyung took a few photos of the cat, which seemed to take interest in the snacks, before grabbing the beer glass. He talked about the things he couldn’t finish talking about at the restaurant while drinking.

Honestly, he had never talked to someone about writing before. He didn’t have anyone to talk to about it, and talking about dreams also felt rather pathetic.

However, Maru, and by extension, Haneul, were different. They quietly listened to him, sympathized with him, and asked him questions.

They didn’t say anything out of formality. That made him excited. He didn’t know that talking about his dreams was such an enjoyable thing.

No, he probably knew that. After all, he always talked about his dreams when he was young. He just stopped talking about them ever since he had gotten older, gotten mature, and the weight of his dream became too much of a burden for him.

“Still, it comes to me as a surprise that you’re an actor and that your dream was to be one,” Daemyung said as he looked at Maru.

This fellow, who had claimed that he would become an actor four years ago, had made his words true.

He first seemed to shoot an indie movie, and before Daemyung realized it, he was appearing in a commercial movie, and now he was in a drama that everyone around him knew. He thought that Maru was amazing.

“It’s quite surprising. Even I didn’t know things would be like this. Luck was a very important factor.”

“Everyone says that luck is the best and that you can’t do anything without luck, but I think differently. I believe that everyone has good luck. I believe everyone encounters a similar number of lucky events. It’s just the difference of whether they can use that luck or not. And that’s what skill is.”

Perhaps thanks to the alcohol, he could keep talking without stopping. He could even talk about the things he would usually not talk about out of embarrassment.

“Right, grabbing that luck is a skill,” Haneul said.

“Daemyung, is that an empty bottle?”

Maru, who was smiling, pointed at the bottle. Daemyung grabbed the bottle and shook it. The once full beer bottle was now bottoming out. The other bottles were the same.

“When did we drink so much?”

“Right. Did we have any more in the fridge?”

Maru stood up and headed to the refrigerator.

Daemyung spoke as he looked at his friend going to get more drinks, “If you live together, who does the household chores? The Maru I know isn’t the kind of great man who would do something like cleaning.”

“You’ll probably freak out if you know how much of a clean freak he is, you know?” Haneul shook her head.

“The interior design of this house, was it really Maru who did it?”

“Some were things that I bought, but Maru basically did all of it. He applied the wallpaper, hung up the curtains, changed out the flooring and even the tiles in the bathroom.”

“How can someone change so much? It’s like he’s a totally different person.”

“Maybe he is a totally different person?”

While talking to Haneul, Maru returned. His hands were empty, indicating that the refrigerator didn’t have any alcohol either.

“It’s somewhat too early to end it like this, so I’ll go buy some more. Wait here.”

Maru put on a hat and opened the door.

“Want me to go with you?”

Maru waved his hand in denial.

“It’s cold, so don’t bother. You two can chat, or maybe talk about what to do with work from now on. You’ll be working together from now on, after all.”

Maru left through the front door, saying that he’d be back soon. Daemyung chuckled before looking at Haneul.

“But do you really need my help?”

“Desperately.”

“Don’t you need to look for a professional instead of someone like me? At first, I thought it was on the level of a hobby, but now I know it isn’t.”

It was apparently a scenario that was planned to become a movie with monetary investment and everything. This wasn’t child’s play, but a world of professionals. Would she really need his help, when he couldn’t even become an amateur?

“You talked about luck before, right? That everyone receives a fair share of luck, and skill is about grabbing that share.”

“I did.”

“How about now? Don’t you think my proposal is luck that went your way?”

“It is luck. You’re doubling what I get from part-time jobs, so it’s definitely luck. But I’m just wondering if you really need someone like me.”

Haneul gave him a glance. The stare didn’t feel too burdensome. If she looked at him like this during their first encounter at the cafe, he would’ve been startled and turned his head around.

“Daemyung.”

“Yes?”

“It’s not really a saying I like, but I found out that something was rarely wrong in my life. A person’s value is not something they prove by themselves. It’s what others decide for them.”

“A person’s value?”

“I believe that you’re sufficiently helpful. I have saved up a considerable amount of money, but that doesn’t mean that I spend it easily. I only do so when it’s necessary.”

Daemyung knew that Haneul was an executive member of a rather well-known cosmetics company and that she was an actress who had debuted in a commercial movie. Maybe because of that, the weight of her words felt heavy.

“This is also a form of investment.”

“There’s a reason to invest in me?”

“There is. You’ll probably regret it later in due time, you know? That you wrote for me for just hourly wages.”

“I don’t get a single cent from writing right now. Would I really regret that?”

“You never know. Anyway, I only glossed over this at the restaurant, but since we’re on the topic, let’s come to a verbal agreement. Your commuting hours are up to you to decide, but you have to come to the studio. Your work will be to talk to me about the scenario and supplement my writing. Depending on the situation, I might hand everything to you.”

“Hand to me the task of writing the whole scenario?”

Haneul softly nodded.

“You said this is for a movie with investments and everything. Is it okay for you to do that?”

“Of course, I’ll have to check over the scenario you wrote. But it should be fine. The investor has pretty much blind faith in what I do.”

“I don’t know what the situation is like, but I’d be down for it as long as I can get money while also being able to focus on writing.”

“Good. Unfortunately, I can’t get you the four major insurances. I’m not trying to run a business here.”

“I don’t even wish for that far.”

“Then let’s have a handshake as a token of our contract.”

He lightly grabbed Haneul’s hand.

“I’m the contractee, then?”

“You’re getting paid, so you’re the contractee.”

“Looks like I’ll have to do my best to look good to the contractor.”

Maru and Haneul. These two were the same age as him, but they were really different. Compared to the two of them, Daemyung felt rather pathetic about his experiences.

While he was toiling away in construction zones, these two had not only found their own paths but had also achieved decent success.

He was thinking that he was doing okay since he had jumped into the workforce a lot earlier than everyone else, but now, he wasn’t so sure anymore.

“Why do you suddenly look dejected? Because of our newly defined relationship?”

“No, it’s not that. I just feel like I wasted my time.”

“Is there truly wasted time? I believe that such things don’t exist.”

It seemed that she didn’t say those words just to console him as it seemed that she genuinely thought so. That encouraged him even more.

Maru was so blessed. Where did he find someone like this?

“How did you end up dating Maru?”

It wasn’t that difficult of a question, but Haneul stayed quiet and fidgeted with the beer bottle.

She slowly stroked the lip of the glass before speaking again,

“He always looked for me. Whether I was hiding or running. He always came for me. He really is a tenacious stalker. It’s no wonder I ended up falling for him.”

In the end, Haneul smiled brightly. It was a weird answer for sure, but he somehow accepted it.

At that moment, the door lock opened and Maru came back.

Daemyung spoke as he looked at his friend holding plastic bags in each hand,

“Hey, you’re back, stalker.”

Maru said with a frown, “What the hell did you two talk about?”

He smiled and looked at Haneul. Today was the first time he met her, but he was already feeling relaxed around her like he was with Maru.

Haneul said that it was nothing much and told him to sit down.

“This is why you don’t leave meetings. People immediately talk bad behind you.”

Maru took out some drinks and snacks.

After that, they talked without end while drinking. Even after the snacks and drinks ran out, they did not stop talking.

When he realized it, it was 4 a.m. This was the first time he had stayed up the night chatting.

“Use these.”

Haneul tossed over some duvets before going to the main bedroom.

He and Maru lay down in the living room. His mouth was feeling sore after all that talking.

Just as he felt like he was going to pass out the moment he closed his eyes, something warm took a place next to him. It was the cat.

“This is good.”

Daemyung smiled and closed his eyes.

After Story 189

As it had been a long time since he last slept on the floor, his back felt sore.

Maru woke up with a groan before discovering Daemyung, who was laying down next to him. The way he breathed out slow, heavy breaths made him look like a bear in hibernation.

The cat was laying down on top of the fellow’s chest, seemingly having come to like his wide chest.

“You’re up?”

His wife had gotten ready to leave. He had heard that she was going to go to the company because they were opening a store in a department store in Apgujeong. The big events were still handled by Haneul.

“You’re leaving now?”

“Yeah. Wake Daemyung up and have some breakfast.”

“I guess you’ll be late today?”

“Probably. When are you going to leave, sweetie? You said you were going to a concert.”

“I need to leave at four. There’s something Jichan-hyung told me to do.”

“Good luck with that.”

After a light kiss on the porch, he sent off his wife.

The cat raised her head as though she was woken up by the sound of the door being shut. She looked around before lightly stepping on Daemyung’s face and then going to the small room which was her refuge.

“What the?”

Daemyung woke up after being kicked by the cat. He touched his face with a dazed face.

“Ricebun is telling you to wake up. Get up and let’s eat. Oh, when does your part-time job start?”

“I only have one in the afternoon. The chauffeur service is something I only do when I want to, so it doesn’t matter.”

After yawning, Daemyung took out his phone.

Maru took out the soup that had been chilled in the refrigerator as well as some eggs. He heated up the soup and chopped up some spring onions to put in a rolled omelet.

“Yes, manager. No, I’m not sick. I just woke up so my voice is a little bit sunken. I was thinking about quitting the job. Should I bring someone I know to take over? Or would you like to get one yourself? Okay, alright. Thank you.”

“Your part-time job manager?” Maru asked as he scooped up some rice.

“Yeah. I decided to work with Haneul, so I should deal with my part-time jobs.”

“Nice decision.”

“I don’t lose anything from doing this, but I wonder if Haneul is okay with it. What if she says she can’t pay me later?” Daemyung said in a joking tone.

“Tell me about it if she ever skimps on payments. I’ll go on a strike with you.”

After eating with Daemyung, he started his routine of morning cleaning. When he turned on the vacuum, the cat stared at him as though she was fed up. It seemed that the motor noise from the vacuum was really unbearable no matter how many times she heard it.

“So you really do clean, huh?”

“Just what kind of Han Maru lives inside your head? He has rock bottom credit.”

“What do you mean? It’s just a moderately dirty Han Maru. Would you like me to help?”

“Don’t create more work for me to do and just make some coffee.”

They talked about dramas over some coffee before wrapping up.

“I think I should get going. Thanks for letting me sleep over.”

Daemyung said goodbye to the cat hiding in the small room and left. Maru saw him out to the entrance before coming back.

Household chores were about done now. He checked the time: 11:20. He took out a casual-style suit from the closet.

He went with a round-neck T-shirt instead of a full shirt. He put on his watch before leaving the house with his phone and wallet.

“Yes, manager. I’m going over there to get my hair done right now. Is that okay? It doesn’t matter who does it. Okay, I’ll go there for now.”

He drove his car to the hair shop he frequented. It was the place often used by the people at JA.

“You’re here, Mr. Maru?”

As soon as he entered the shop, an employee greeted him. Maru smiled and greeted back.

The people drinking some tea in the waiting room gave him a glance. This place was frequently visited by many celebrities, so no one caused a fuss.

The manager, whom he had called, came over.

“Didn’t you have a customer to attend to?”

“I handed them to someone else. A member of our JA family is coming, so I should attend to them, don’t you think?” The manager looked at his outfit and asked, “Going somewhere?”

“I was invited to a concert by someone I know. I think I’ll be on stage for a little bit.”

“Really? Whose concert?”

“Yoo Jichan.”

“I really like that person.”

“Really?”

“You have it good. Are you two close? I mean, you’re being called out to the stage instead of just being handed a ticket.”

“We’re just making use of each other, I guess.”

Before, Jichan had helped him out for the shoot for ‘Hot-blooded Youths.’ Maru didn’t even ask him to, but he had made the time to visit. How could he possibly refuse Jichan’s request when such a thing happened?’

While he had his hair done, he also received some makeup. Going up on stage without any makeup was not respectful.

“That came out pretty,” the manager said as she took her hands off.

Maru looked at himself through the mirror. Both his hair and makeup were flawless.

“I don’t think I can ever go to another shop.”

“Isn’t that what skill is about? Oh, if you have the time, please get an autograph from him. You can get one under the shop’s name. There’s an empty spot on the wall right there.”

Maru chuckled as he looked at the spot that the manager pointed at. As the shop was pretty large, there was even a separate space for celebrity visit photos and autographs.

The visiting customers also seemed to like it.

“Okay.”

“If the side of your hair rises, then spray it a little and press it down according to the line right now. As for the top of your head, nothing will happen to it for the rest of the day so don’t worry.”

“Okay, I will.”

He left the shop and went to a nearby cake bakery. It was a hand-made cake bakery that was known for having great cakes. They looked great too.

“Can you give me some candles as well?”

The concert was being held on Jichan’s birthday. Preparing some cake should be okay. If the stage staff said no, then he could just give it to him separately afterward.

-You up?

It was Jichan’s call.

“Not to mention up, I got my hair done and everything.”

-I was worried you’d sleep in and be late.

“Hyung, have you ever seen me be late to an appointment or outright forget it?”

-No, so where are you right now?

“I’m driving to the concert venue. Oh, what’s the seating scale?”

-Five thousand seats. This is my first ever individual concert, so I was worried it might not fill up, but thankfully, it’s sold out.

“Does it feel different from doing it as a group?”

-It definitely does. This will also serve as my fan meetup. Actually, I was very worried. I did continue to work with music, but the things I showed to the public were all dramas and movies. I thought that maybe Yoo Jichan doesn’t have much to do with music anymore.

“You were clearly overly worried. Hyung, idols don’t die that easily.”

-Now, there’s not long left of me being called an idol.

“Are you more comfortable with being called an actor?”

-I don’t know what’s more comfortable. Anyway, drive safely.

“Okay, good luck with preparations.”

He went to the handball arena in the Olympic Park, where the concert was being held.

He was getting off after parking when he saw people waiting in the distance.

He took the cake with him and went over. The staff members were handing out presents prior to entry. At the end of the line, he also saw some merch being sold.

“His popularity isn’t dead.”

He entered the concert venue as he muttered to himself. He mentioned his name to the staff member blocking his way, and that person guided him after saying ‘ah.’

“Please keep this on.”

A staff member wearing a yellow vest gave him a name tag, saying that it was necessary to go around the concert venue that was under preparation.

Maru walked past the people moving about busily while holding outfits and headed to the waiting room.

“Hyung,” he called out as he poked his head inside.

Jichan, who was exercising his voice with the guitar, stood up.

“You’re here already?”

“I should be here an hour early. How are you feeling? Is your condition good?”

“I was worried because I had a terrible cold just two days ago, but I feel perfect now. What’s that in your hand?”

“What else? It’s a cake for a birthday.”

“I’m touched. I didn’t know I’d ever get this from another dude.”

“I was planning to give it to you when I go up on stage to talk. Is that okay?”

“You’re planning to show it off to the fans?”

“I should show off that I look out for you a lot. Don’t you think I should receive some love from your 500-thousand-member fan club?”

Jichan talked to the staff about it. From what Maru heard, it seemed that the fans had prepared a cake as well. It was decided that Maru was to go up on stage after the cutting ceremony.

“What the, Maru’s already here, huh?”

He looked back after hearing the cheerful voice. Lee Haena stood there wearing a dark grey shirt and a white skirt.

“You’re here, noona.” Maru waved at Haena.

“Maru, it’s been two years, hasn’t it? We haven’t seen each other since The Witness.”

“That’s true.”

“Why weren’t you there at the afterparty?”

“What would a minor actor like me do?”

“It would’ve been great if you came by. What’s that box next to you?”

“A cake. It’s Jichan-hyung’s birthday after all.”

“That’s bad.”

Haena held out her arms. There was a small box, which seemed to be a cake.

“You two are way too straightforward. Why didn’t you buy flowers or something?”

Even as he grumbled, Jichan smiled brightly.

“Cake is the best on a birthday.”

“Right, cake is the best. Just accept what you’re given.”

Haena placed the cake on top of the makeup table.

“Sinseo-oppa won’t make it because of the drama shoot, right?”

“I asked and he’s in Busan. He was overseas because of a shoot just a week ago. He’s really busy.”

Jichan called someone with his phone, whom Maru presumed to be Park Sinseo.

“Why do you think I called? It’s to tell you that everyone else has gathered save for one heartless person.”

After a rather sarcastic greeting, Jichan handed the phone around, telling them to say hello. Maru spoke first,

“Sinseo hyung-nim. It’s me, Maru.”

“I’m here too, Oppa.”

“Hear that? The entire loyal faction from The Witness is here, but you aren’t. No, don’t swear at me. Anyway, good luck with the shoot. Huh? You want to talk to Maru?”

“Me?”

Maru received Jichan’s phone.

“Yes, hyung-nim.”

-It’s been a while.

“It has. Are you in a shoot right now?”

-I’m suffering under terrible snow.

“Sounds like hard work.”

-I’m enjoying your drama. Thanks to you, the atmosphere at the shoot on our side is slightly bad. The viewing rates are bad after all.

There was a bone behind those words. Maru faintly smiled.

“We should meet up sometime. I want to eat food treated by you.”

-You should be the one treating me. The one who’s doing well is the bigger brother, and they are the ones who should buy food.

“Do you really want to extort a newly starting-out junior?”

-I’m jealous, okay?

Sinseo laughed in a deep voice.

-I was just joking, and I hope you do well in the future. I’m really enjoying your drama.

“I’m also enjoying yours, hyung-nim.”

-Alright. See you later. Take care of Jichan today.

“I will.”

After finishing up the call, he returned the phone to Jichan.

“What did he say?”

“He wants me to treat him out, saying that the one who’s doing well is the bigger brother or whatnot.”

“That’s right. The one who’s doing well should be the one buying.”

The manager came into the waiting room, calling for Jichan for the final stage camera checkup.

“I’ll be right back.” Jichan left.

“Case Number 0 turned out really good. Senior Yang Ganghwan looked cool, and you look good too.”

“I’m getting a lot of popularity thanks to him. How are you doing, noona? Are you preparing for your next work?”

“I’m on a break for now. I did a series of dramas, so I’m a little tired. But I can’t exactly play around, so there’s a scenario I’m looking over, but I don’t know if I’ll do it or not.”

“I’m also being dragged everywhere after the shoot without being able to work on anything for four months.”

“The drama was really good. I’m sure you got a lot of interview offers.”

“I’m trying to make myself known so that my flash of popularity does not disappear again.”

“I don’t think it’ll just be a flash, you know? There are a lot of actors mentioning your name.”

“Really?”

“Thanks to that, I sold your name out a few times to get coffee from them.”

Haena winked. Her bright personality hadn’t changed from two years ago.

After Story 190

“Let’s keep in touch. I see Sinseo-oppa and Jichan-oppa from time to time, but not you.”

“Don’t pretend you don’t know me when I reach out to you later. I really will make calls if you say stuff like this.”

“Just don’t forget.”

Jichan came back after checking everything over. They talked about what happened during the shoot two years ago, and before they knew it, it was time for the concert.

“This is the order of events, and the two of you will go up at this point. We’ll notify you 10 minutes prior to that so, before then, you can watch the performance from here, so go out to the hall.”

The concert began as they listened to the explanations.

Maru and Haena watched the concert on the TV placed in the waiting room. They thought that Jichan was really a musician when they saw him sing and dance on stage.

“Looking at him like this is different.”

“It sure is. I think that guy needs to sing until he dies.”

He chatted with Haena as he watched. After a few songs, there was a session of talking to the fans. Some staff entered the waiting room and told them to get ready.

Maru got the cake he bought for Jichan, and Haena did as well.

They went around to the side of the stage. Jichan was talking over the cake the fans gave to him as a gift.

“Thank you all so much. Actually, I was really nervous. This is an individual concert from Yoo Jichan, not the group Alt. But so many of you have come anyway. Thank you all once again.”

The fans in the audience all cheered and applauded. The candles on the cake lit up, and Jichan blew them out.

“I’ll eat some here and then take the rest home so that I can boast to my family members.”

Jichan sliced the cake and put it in his mouth. In the meantime, Maru and Haena got ready to go on stage under the direction of the staff.

“Before I go to the next song, I’m thinking I should have some time to talk with you all. It’d be rather awkward and boring to talk by myself, so I invited over a few friends of mine. I hope you can give them a round of applause. Miss Lee Haena and Mr. Han Maru.”

A still frame shot from The Witness came up on the screen. Haena went up on the stage first, and Maru followed suit.

In front of them were five thousand people. Yellow cheering sticks, the color that signified Jichan in Alt, were waving around.

Even in his previous lives, Maru had rarely been invited to such events.

“Hello. I’m Lee Haena, an actress.”

“Hello. I’m Han Maru, an actor.”

They greeted as the staff members told them and sat down next to Jichan. Despite being the middle of winter, the top of the stage was scorching with all the stage lights and the heat from the people.

“First of all, thank you both for coming,” Jichan said.

“You called us here, so, of course, we’d be here. He’d complain about it to me later if I didn’t, so I had to come,” Maru said to the audience.

The main characters of this concert were Jichan and the fans in the audience. It was better to mention Jichan even in trivial conversations or jokes.

After a light joke, he looked at Haena who sat next to him. She kept smiling without a word despite it being her turn to speak.

He had felt this in the waiting room, but she seemed really nervous. Well, speaking normally under the gazes of 5,000 people was definitely not easy. Though, she’d probably get used to it in no time since she was someone who worked with hundreds of people at shoots.

“Looks like Haena-noona has gotten nervous.”

“Right. Everyone, her personality isn’t usually like this.”

Maru talked to Jichan and bought some time for Haena to adjust.

“It’s my first time coming up on such a large stage, so it put me in a daze. How should I put this… I’m rather proud that Jichan-oppa is singing and dancing on a stage like this.”

“People are going to think you’re older than me. Feeling proud of me, what the heck?”

“It’s fine as long as I get the meaning across,” Haena said. Her voice was slightly shaking, but she had regained her usual wittiness, so she should soon be able to talk without holding back.

The staff brought over a huge box. It was the box at the entrance of the concert venue. Maru had seen the fans put something in it before the start.

“You know what this is, right?”

Yes — a loud reply came from the audience.

“Inside are your seat numbers and your questions. Due to the situation at hand, we can’t receive that many direct questions, but I’ll try to answer as many of the questions inside the box as possible.”

Jichan proficiently communicated with the fans as he moved along the event. It was to be expected of an idol 12 years into their career. Jichan pulled out a paper and gave it to Haena.

“First question. This is from the person in 87A. Jichan-oppa, first of all, happy birthday.”

“Thank you.”

Haena continued after Jichan’s reply,

“I haven’t been able to get any sleep because it’s been so long since the last concert. I hope you do more concerts in the future. When do you have the next one planned?”

“I’d love to meet with you all more frequently, but alas the adult circumstances are not easy to deal with. Also, if I hold one too frequently, that will put all of your wallets in danger, isn’t that right?”

The laughter of five thousand people filled the stage.

“I don’t plan to let go of music anytime soon. While it is important that I see you all as an actor as well, music is my alpha and my omega. I’ll try to prepare as many albums as possible and see you from time to time. If I hold a concert next time, I want to hold one in a smaller place. There, we’ll be able to see each other better and chat. What do you all think?”

Good — Jichan was very proficient in communicating with the fans. For something like this, practice was one thing, but innate talent seemed to be a factor as well.

Maru and Haena alternated reading the questions from the fans. Jichan responded earnestly to every question, even bringing up some other related topics for questions that seemed to overlap with one of the previous ones. Maybe that was the secret to being a long-running idol.

“This time, we’ll get some questions directly. If I pull out a seat number and call you out, our staff will hand you the mic. This place is so large, so it might take some time to deliver the mic, so please be patient.”

Jichan pulled out a piece of paper from the box. When he called out the seat number, a scream-like cheer erupted from somewhere in the audience. Everyone’s heads looked that way.

“Your voice is really good. Can you get her the mic?”

Along with murmurs, the mic was delivered.

The main camera shot the audience seats. It was a woman in her mid-20s. She was grabbing the mic like she was holding the precious treasure of her household.

“What do I do?”

“What shall we do?”

Jichan responded with a smile. He calmly bought some time for the fan to ease up.

“Uhm, I’m a fan of Jichan-oppa, but I also really like Haena-unni too.”

“Really?”

“Yes! I was really surprised when Haena-unni came up.”

Haena, who was listening, thanked her.

“Then do you have a question for Miss Haena, not me?”

“No, I don’t really have a question…” After looking around, she continued, “Can I listen to you sing?”

“Miss Haena singing? Yes, of course. Miss Haena, that’s okay, right?”

“What?”

Haena looked visibly flustered. She seemed even more nervous than when she first came up on stage.

“I’m really bad though.”

“It’s fine. Everyone, it’s okay, right?”

Jichan set up the stage for her.

The fans also seemed to have noticed that Jichan and Haena were on really close terms, and urged her, calling her name out repeatedly.

Having said that though, Jichan had a close look at Haena’s face. He seemed to be planning to switch topics if she really looked to be in a difficult position.

“Then I’ll sing a short one. But I’m really bad, so don’t get your hopes up.”

The audience’s call of her name turned into ‘it’s okay’ this time.

Haena grabbed the mic and stood up.

“Can I have the accompaniment?”

“Copyright issues.”

Jichan cut her right off. It seemed that he saw that Haena resolved herself, so he was going to tease her until the end. After stomping her feet, Haena eventually started singing.

The rhythm was okay, but the pitch was rather off. It was a famous song, so even the fans who listened to her song started singing along. After singing around three lines, Haena let out a deep breath and took the mic off her mouth.

“You really can’t sing, huh?” Jichan said with a big laugh.

Haena walked over and slapped Jichan on the arm.

“But we can’t only have Haena sing, can we? We have two guests,” Jichan said.

Maru waved his hand in the air in denial, expressing his difficulty. While he had experienced it a few times, he wasn’t used to singing on a stage like this.

“I think we need everyone’s encouragement. Han Ma-ru, Han Ma-ru.”

The host was urging the audience, so there was no way the fans would stay still. They soon started calling Han Maru and waved their sticks around.

“Maru’s voice is really good. I’m sure everyone heard his voice through Case Number 0, right? Try imagining him singing with that voice.”

“Hey, do it quickly. I did it, so you’re not going anywhere.”

Two people pushed him forward. He grabbed the mic and stood up from the seat.

“I have to sing acapella too?”

“If you sing my song, you can have the track.”

“I’ll sing acapella then. I’m not that good either, so you can all block your ears for a second. We need to quickly get back to Jichan-hyung’s story, so I’ll make it short.”

It had been a long time since he sang on stage. He thought about what to sing before thinking of a track from a musical he had sung numerous times in his previous lives.

“Then I’ll sing one.”

* * *

How many times did one need to practice a song before performing on stage? Jichan was of the opinion that they should not be able to count the number of times. They should repeat themselves so many times until they think that it is impossible to make a mistake.

Only then would they be able to go on stage.

Only then would they be able to show everything properly.

Jichan looked at Maru’s back, who was singing. Nothing was prepared beforehand. Maru ended up with the mic in a sudden turn of events.

A singer would check the state of their own voice and sing their own song. Anyone whose job was singing would do that. But what about actors?

A familiar musical track entered his ears. Even people who did not know musicals would have heard this song at least once in their lives.

All the musical actors who sang it did so with different emotions, so whenever someone sang it, it would be compared with the others.

Jichan thought about a few actors who had sung this song before. Among them were some he listened to with extreme praise. But when compared to Maru? It might be a difference in preference, but Jichan wanted to side with Maru for that one.

It was definitely not easy for an acapella to have so much power. They had to fill the absence of instruments with their voices alone.

The audience seats fell quiet. It was a different reaction from when Haena was singing. Everyone was just listening. It wouldn’t be strange to call it a Han Maru concert.

A moderate distance between the mic and the mouth, suitable vocal techniques, charming breathing sounds — this was definitely not the realm of talent. That was something that could only be possessed by someone who had practiced countless times.

Maru had done musicals before? At least, Jichan himself had never heard of it.

“I’ll stop here.”

Maru put down the mic. A thunderclap of applause suddenly burst in the quiet venue.

“Er, should we not proceed with the rest of the events and just listen to Maru sing for the rest?” Jichan said half-jokingly and half-seriously.

“Why are you doing that again? I’m going to stop here. The people who came here want to listen to you singing, right?”

Maru smoothly changed the topics.

Jichan induced a round of applause again. It was very short, but the performance had depth. A round of applause was a cheap price to pay for that.

After Story 191

“Thank you all for coming today. I’d love to meet you all again. Don’t forget any of your bags when you leave after it’s all done. It will be very chaotic when you leave, so watch out so that you don’t get hurt, okay?”

“Yes!” Ha Yeojung replied loudly.

This was Yoo Jichan’s individual concert. She had been preparing since a month ago in order to come to the concert that was being held in time for his birthday. She applied for a leave from work and called everyone she knew to buy a ticket.

Having come to the concert after all those hardships, she found that it was really satisfactory. If she hadn’t come, she might have cried in frustration.

It was even better because she could see Yoo Jichan as a single artist and not just a member of Alt.

“I hope I meet you again. See you next time!”

“Oppa! I’ll definitely come again!”

Yeojung shouted while making her hands into a cone in front of her mouth. Her friend sitting next to her also drew a heart with her hand above her head. Reacting semi-crazily at a concert was what made it good.

“Everything’s good and all, but I feel depressed when it’s time to go.”

“Me too.”

She left the concert venue while deeply sympathizing with those sentiments. People were rushing over to the train station. She could hear Jichan’s solo album from many places. She smiled because she felt like everyone was enjoying the lingering energy from the concert.

“See you next week.”

“Alright, watch out on your way home.”

After parting with her friend, Yeojung headed to the parking lot. She sat down in the driver’s seat and checked the video and photos she took today. Why it felt like the concert had ended ages ago when it had only been 20 minutes was beyond her.

She let out a soft sigh at the wave of lingering disappointment.

When would Jichan hold another concert? She believed that it would be hard to hold one again for at least a few years. According to Jichan’s official schedule on the official website, he didn’t have any activities as a singer, and his schedule was packed with actor stuff.

While it was fun to watch Jichan becoming successful as an actor, she wished that he would show more of his singing side like the concert he held today.

“My oppa can really win against the trial of time.”

She looked at her own face through the rearview mirror.

“Maybe all the aging he managed to avoid came to me.”

Even the highest-quality photos she took didn’t contain a single hint of blemishes. This guy’s skin was something else.

When Jichan made his debut 10 years ago, she was only in middle school. She never knew that she’d like a celebrity for over a decade.

Of course, right now, she was watching him with the affection of a family member, rather than some passionate love.

“Yes, oppa. I’m on my way out. I’m going to go back now. Are you at work?”

She was on a call with her boyfriend[1] for a while. He was someone who could fortunately understand her fanship.

She drove her car home. After feeding the puppy that greeted her, she took a shower first. She jumped around towards the end of the concert, so she felt sticky with sweat.

Having washed herself, she took out the SD card from the camera and sat in front of the computer. After checking the video footage that she received from an outsourced job and not her company, she inserted the SD card into the card reader.

She used a total of eight SD cards while recording the concert. As she had taken high-quality videos, the total data came out to be a lot.

“It looks like it’ll take some time to edit.”

If this was her company work or an outsourcing job, she would be gnashing her teeth right now, but she opened the video editing program with glee.

She started off by importing the videos and putting audio sources she used frequently into another track.

She had been using video editing tools ever since she was young. She liked drawing pictures with her hands and also liked revealing her fanship with those skills.

Focusing on her hobby, she managed to gain skill, and she eventually even got a job from it. Following an idol changed her life.

She opened the email that Jichan’s agency sent her. In the email were things like recommended video length, audio sources she could use, as well as some other guidelines related to video editing.

“I haven’t been doing this for just a day, you know.”

This wasn’t something she was doing for money. If she was paid directly by the agency, this would no longer be fanship, but an outsourcing job. They were simply providing her with creator guidelines so that no problems would arise regarding copyright when she uploaded the video to Youtube.

There should be loads of people receiving this kind of email. After all, anyone could become a creator these days.

She finished working on one video by adjusting the placement of the watermark.

When she came to, it was already 2 a.m. It took her 4 hours to create a 30-minute video.

“That finished quickly.”

She yawned and closed the video editing program. She was going to edit the other videos as well, before giving them one final check and uploading them to Youtube.

She moved her sore body and made some coffee. She went out to the veranda to get some fresh winter air before coming back in after sipping some coffee. Sleep left her completely.

She sat down in front of the computer again. This time, it was time to write a blog post.

The visitors of her blog were already nagging her to upload photos from the concert.

She had around 4,000 average daily visitors, and even though it had only been two hours since the date had changed, she had 5,000 visitors already.

She left a post saying that she wasn’t sleeping and also that she would write a short review in the announcements section. She browsed through all the high-quality images and selected a few.

She uploaded the photos, starting with the ones she took on the way to the concert up at the top, and left behind a short impression.

She inserted the photos she took while entering the venue to Jichan’s appearance and even a figure of him singing passionately in the main article.

This was a teaser article, so this was fine. As soon as she uploaded it, she received comments, ranging from simple thank-yous to those that said they looked forward to her proper review tomorrow while asking for more photos.

The reason she didn’t feel a lot of burden despite investing so much time and money into her hobby was because of the interest of other people who liked Jichan. She would’ve been exhausted early on if she edited the videos and written posts wanting compensation.

Thinking that maybe she should do the rest tomorrow, Yeojung yawned.

It was just as she was about to close the folder that the eighth SD card entered her eyes. Right, there was that. She downloaded the video inside that SD card.

This was the first time she shot a guest in a concert in a daze. She played back the video and raised the volume.

After some noise at the scene, the stage with the three people entered the camera frame. As she lowered the camera after shooting Jichan, the focus was all over the place.

She saw a man walking in front of the blurry stage. Meanwhile, the video became clearer.

Up until this point, it was noisy all around. They all thought that this was going to be a chatty and enjoyable atmosphere just like when Lee Haena sang moments before.

The man, Han Maru, coughed into the mic. It was not an action worth much, but everyone became quiet in one go.

-I’m not that good, but I’ll try singing a short one. This is a verse from the musical ‘Colton Wives.’ I’m pretty sure you’ve heard it somewhere before.

She had no interest in musicals, so she wondered what song it was, but she exclaimed in realization as soon as Maru started singing. It was a song often used in commercials, and it floated around the internet a lot. The people around her also seemed to have noticed.

Her impression up until the end of the first verse was that he was rather good, enough not to be insulted even if he grabbed a mic anywhere. But then, her thoughts changed towards the end.

This was acapella. Moreover, as this was Jichan’s concert, everyone’s interest was focused on him as well. No matter how good he was at singing, it was nearly impossible to induce a great reaction. Yet, when Maru’s song reached its peak, the impossible had become reality.

Even Yeojung, a long-time fan of Jichan, focused the lens on Maru. She, who had never missed Jichan for a single moment, only shot Han Maru.

His deep voice that rang in the back of her head spread around in all directions as though any instrumental accompaniment was unnecessary.

When Maru put down the mic and took a deep breath, her mind was also sucked to Maru. That warm gaze as he looked at the audience seats, the natural movement of his hands playing along with the harmony created by his voice, as well as his controlled breathing and expression true to his emotions grabbed her focus.

As she had been following a singer for over a decade, she had a pretty good discerning eye, and in her opinion, Maru was the real deal. That was way beyond what a hobby could achieve.

What surprised her more than that was his use of the stage. While actors and singers could be categorized under the title ‘entertainers,’ their jobs were totally different.

She believed that only experienced singers could make full use of the stage, but Maru had the entire stage under his control as though he had performed dozens if not hundreds of times.

He didn’t awkwardly sing from one spot but moved around slightly in order to communicate his emotions with the audience that surrounded him in a semicircle.

When the song ended, Yeojung felt disappointed. For that moment, it felt like a pity that Jichan’s turn was returning. The stage was that charming.

How great would he be if he sang with proper equipment, accompaniment, and everything? Just imagining it made her excited.

She repeatedly listened to the song that was about 2 minutes long. Maru’s singing style had a totally different taste to Jichan’s.

Honestly, she didn’t know much about Han Maru. She had only heard that Case Number 0 is interesting and did not actually watch it herself. Detective stuff wasn’t a genre she liked after all.

An actor she had no interest in had attacked her in an unexpected place with a totally unexpected charm.

Yeojung, who had liked a single singer for a decade and only superficially knew about other celebrities, now had a different seed sprout in her.

When she came to, it was 5 a.m. In that time, she had watched the first two episodes of Case Number 0 and looked up Han Maru on the internet.

Her desktop was now filled with photos of Han Maru. She had already downloaded the document and the episode of Hot-blooded Youths that Maru had stood out in.

As soon as she listened to the narration of the documentary, she thought back to him singing in the concert. His voice had to be something he was born with. No, it must be a voice that went under frightening management.

Yeojung opened her editing program again. She grabbed the mouse with her zombie-shaky hands and clicked on the timeline with hazy eyes as she edited.

The editing didn’t take that long. She didn’t add any effects or subtitles and only adjusted for the shakiness of the camera and the color temperature. She intended to transmit Maru’s pure charm as is.

“I didn’t know I’d get into a traffic accident at this age.”

She got hit by the car known as Han Maru.

Yeojung let out a sigh. The sun had risen. It was 8 a.m. Sleep had long since left her. She would probably pass out after eating lunch.

She created a new messageboard in her blog. She created a category for Han Maru right under Yoo Jichan. Then, she uploaded the video she just edited and put a link in her blog post.

-Starting today, I’m digging Han Maru.

After her first post, she had breakfast. After exchanging messages with the friend she went to the concert with yesterday, she checked the blog. Her visitors showed interest in the newly created messageboard.

Some asked who he was, and some said that they knew him well. Whether they knew him or not, there was one thing in common.

-He’s a musical actor, right? His singing is really good.

-He’s totally different from the Maru I know. He’s good enough to release an album.

Everyone praised Maru’s singing skills. She felt like a trader who had just transmitted a new form of culture.

She felt proud when they liked him. This was why she couldn’t stop her fanship. She felt excited when she saw that other people liked the same thing she did.

The view count on her Youtube video was also rising step by step. Around 100 people watched the video. Although there were no comments yet, there were ten people who pressed the like button.

“Guh, I’m dying.”

She felt a wave of drowsiness after 11. She just brushed her teeth before falling down on her bed.

For a brief moment, she thought that she had to turn off the computer, but then didn’t bother. She didn’t want to do anything other than breathe.

When she opened her eyes again, it was going past 6 in the evening.

While she had totally wasted a Saturday, she didn’t have any regrets. She found a new celebrity that made her fanship tingle.

She watched another six episodes of Case Number 0. This was the first time she focused so hard on a domestic drama, not to mention a detective one.

After watching episode 8, she felt that she shouldn’t have watched it. How was she supposed to wait until next week?

She browsed through the interviews that Maru did on the internet. The interview from ‘Movie Road’ was detailed, which she liked.

“Can’t I get anything from the indie movie?”

The indie movie, which was practically Maru’s debut piece, was unobtainable. Only the creators probably had it.

She fidgeted with her toes. There was something she wanted to get as much as Jichan’s new album.

Just as she was looking into Han Maru, she got a flood of notifications from her Youtube account, even though she had yet to upload Jichan’s video.

She tilted her head and opened a youtube window. She went to the creator’s tab and checked what it was.

The video she uploaded of Maru was rising rapidly in view count. It was nearing 50,000 now.

She couldn’t tell what this was about. As this was a channel that mainly dealt with Jichan’s videos, other videos shouldn’t be chosen to be trending.

She went to her blog to check. That was the source of it all. There were over a thousand comments under that blog post.

“What’s all this?”

Yeojung blinked in a daze. She then got a notification that she got an email. When she opened it, she saw that it was from the web portal.

-Regarding main post selection.

It was a notification that her post would go up on the so-called ‘main page.’

[1] She calls her boyfriend ‘oppa.’

After Story 192

“This line from Kangseo, isn’t it a little iffy?” Haneul asked as she pressed the pen on the paper.

Daemyung, who was looking at the same part, twitched his lips.

“What about it?”

“He sounds too indifferent when he’s supposed to be expressing his feelings after breaking up with his lover. It makes me wonder if Kangseo is really the type of guy who would say such things.”

“You can’t sympathize at all as a woman?”

“That’s not it, but there’s something stuck on my tongue.”

“Isn’t that what makes it better?”

Haneul thought for a moment before putting a star right next to the line. This was a part that she would come back to later.

“Let’s have a coffee break.”

She felt sore after sitting down for two hours. She opened two instant coffee sticks and put one with some sweetener into her mug. Daemyung went with black coffee.

“You wrote the scenario, so why do you sound so unconfident?” Daemyung said as he drank some coffee.

“I can’t get a feel on how it should go. No matter how many times I do it, my confidence level suddenly drops when I work on a scenario. For other things, I’m confident in them because I did them to death, but for this, I can’t get used to it no matter how many times I do it.”

“How many times did you do it even?” Daemyung said with a smile.

Try doing all sorts of things throughout so many reincarnations that you can’t even remember how many times you did one thing; I literally did it ‘to the death.’ — Haneul swallowed the words at the tip of her tongue with the coffee.

“But is it really helpful for me to tell you all this? I don’t think we’re making any progress since we’re retorting every single element in the story.”

“That’s enough. I’m not in a hurry anyway. I’m going to polish it slowly so that everything from the writing to the shoot will be perfect.”

“A person I know told me not to put so much effort into my first attempt, saying that first attempts are bound to fail.”

“That’s not wrong, but I don’t plan to fail.”

As Daemyung said, if this was her first attempt in her life, then she would not have pursued perfection. The realm of perfection was something that only experienced people could reach. It was only right for a newbie to prepare for the next attempt while failing the first.

However, she was no rookie. She had pride as a director and could not put out inadequate work.

Maybe that required being hung up on every single detail to the point of being excessive. She did not even think about going to the next part while leaving it in a vague state.

“Did you bring the scenario that you wrote?”

“It’s in my bag.”

“What are you doing? Take it out already.”

“It’s not fun and even less helpful, you know? It’s terrible.”

Daemyung took out a clear file from his bag. Haneul took out the bundle of paper inside the file.

“I didn’t know because I never showed my work to anyone else, but this is more embarrassing than I thought.” Daemyung smiled awkwardly.

“That’s what it means to show your writing to someone else. It’s not just writing either. Showing the work you put a lot of time and effort into practically means showing your face to the world, so it’s perfectly normal to be embarrassed. But you’ll feel okay after experiencing it one or two times.”

Haneul emptied the sweet coffee in her mug in one go. Her brain had gotten stimulus from the sugar and caffeine and started reading down the text.

She looked at Daemyung a few times throughout and saw that he was waiting nervously.

“I’m not assessing anything, so don’t worry.”

“I know.”

Despite saying that, Daemyung couldn’t stop giving her glances.

“Go play on your phone or something. That’ll make you feel better,” Haneul said before going back to the text.

The story Daemyung wrote was a rather popular type of writing. And as such, it was easy to predict the placement of the characters, the story, as well as the plot design and expressions.

There was none of the superfluousness unique to writers writing for the first time. The writing smelled like an experienced writer but in a good way. So this was his first work?

It seemed that the Park Daemyung of this life was born with the talent to be a writer.

“What’s this?” Daemyung suddenly said as he looked at his phone.

“What is it?”

“There’s something on the main website of the web portal…”

Haneul looked at the phone screen. She didn’t know what to look for, so she glanced at Daemyung.

“Look at the thumbnail right below the middle.”

Below the middle? Haneul looked there. There was a photo of a man grabbing a mic under faint lighting. When she had a closer look, she saw that it was her husband.

“Give me a sec.”

She took the phone from Daemyung and clicked on the thumbnail. It was a link to someone’s personal blog.

She read the title at the top: I can’t tell if he’s an actor or a singer. Who is this man?

“Is it an article about Maru?” Daemyung asked.

“No, it’s a personal blog from someone, but it has gained enough popularity to be put on the main site.”

Haneul moved her fingers to look at the blog post. The post, which was riddled with all sorts of ridiculous emojis, basically said this: I like actor Han Maru.

Her husband had gone to Yoo Jichan’s concert two days ago, and it seemed that he ended up singing there. Haneul played the video at the top of the post.

She put down the phone on the table and raised the volume. Daemyung also focused on it. Under the lighting, her husband started singing. A voice that she never got fed up with flowed out through the speakers.

She looked at her husband inside the screen and smiled. This was a serenade. Regardless of gender, everyone at that concert would’ve fallen for Maru’s voice.

“There’s no way this is true,” Daemyung said.

“Why?”

“I’ve known this guy for years, and it’s been excruciating to go to the noraebang with him ever since we were in high school. He didn’t know anything about singing, but he really liked it. He would scream like crazy or act all queasy. Even the girls would quietly go to the bathroom if he grabbed the mic.”

“Really?”

“Yeah. But he’s like a totally different person now. Did he receive vocal lessons while acting?”

“Lessons, sure.”

In his previous lives…

Haneul raised the volume a little more. It had been a while since she heard him sing like this. He would often propose to her while singing shyly in that voice.

After the song, there was a few seconds of nothing before a round of applause. The camerawoman’s cheers were mixed in as well. She could imagine how raved the audience must have been.

“The people there were lucky.”

“Getting to listen to Maru singing is lucky?”

“It’s quite expensive if you want to pay to hear it.”

Daemyung frowned. He was probably thinking that it was some ridiculous notion between a pair of lovebirds.

But it was the truth. She thought back to the days when her husband was a musical actor. The black market prices of his musicals towards the end of the season were nearing the level of being ridiculous.

“I think you two suit each other, quite a lot,” Daemyung said with a smile.

“The video has over 200 thousand views.”

“200 thousand is a lot. Maru should really thank the person who wrote that post.”

The comments under the blog post and under the youtube video were all full of praise. As his popularity had gone up quite a lot thanks to Case Number 0, many people recognized him as well. Many people said that it was interesting to see a new side to him.

“Looks like his payment will rise the more well-known he gets. This is a pain,” Haneul said as she put down the phone.

“It’s good for you if his payment rises. Why do you say that?”

“This scenario you and I are writing, he’s the guy I’m casting. But he’s being petty and won’t give me a family discount, so I have to pay full price, and at this rate, I think his payment will be quite considerable by the time I adapt this into a film.”

“I’m sure it’s just a figure of speech. There’s no way he’d do that for his girlfriend’s work.”

“That guy sometimes stakes his life on things he says as a joke. He’s like a total kid.”

She grabbed the scenario she put to the side again.

“Let’s get back to work. I need to make this before the main actor’s payment rises even more. I know I’m using someone else’s money, but I should do my best to save on money since I’m a creator.”

Daemyung sat upright and spoke, “Now that you mention it, who’s the person that’s paying for the production costs?”

“He’s called Na Baekhoon, and he does various businesses.”

“I feel like I heard about him somewhere.”

After fiddling with his phone, Daemyung spoke in a surprised voice,

“Is this the person?”

The person on the screen was Na Baekhoon. Haneul nodded.

“He’s famous in many industries. This guy is investing in you?”

“Yeah.”

“Why?”

“Why do you think?” Haneul answered a question with a question.

Daemyung thought about it for a long while before speaking,

“Charity?”

“No way. Park Daemyung, we’ve only known each other for three days, but isn’t your assessment of me too low? You couldn’t even look at me properly in the eyes when we first met.”

“How are those two related? Rather than that, what’s the real reason? I can understand if he was investing in your aroma business, but I don’t see what he sees in you on the movie side.”

“You really don’t see it?”

“Nope.”

“Actually, he fell for my perfect appearance.”

“…You and Maru really do suit each other. Don’t break up and live the rest of your lives together. You two are practically a match made in heaven. There’s a limit to how much you can boast.”

“You don’t believe me.”

“It’d be strange if I did.”

“Actually, he fell for my beauty. That’s why he’s giving me full support, and the same is true for Maru.”

“I don’t believe you.”

“It’s real though.”

“You can’t write like that, people won’t get it.”

Haneul pouted before sighing.

“Fine, don’t believe it then. I would’ve thought that he was a scammer if this was my first time experiencing that. You need to know that there are all sorts of people in the world for your eyes to truly open. It’s too early for you, Daemyung.”

“Hello? You know you’re the same age as me, right?”

“Are we though?”

“Why, were you born earlier than me?”

“Not just early.”

In terms of age, I’m probably tens of thousands of times older than you — she stretched her arms out before grabbing her pen.

Her husband was going ahead of her, so she had to move busily as well.

“Should we go to the next part?” she said as she poked the paper with her pen.

* * *

If you’re unlucky, you might break your nose despite falling on your back, but if you’re lucky, you might end up finding money on the ground if you fall on your back.

Park Yeonjin truly believed that so as he looked at Maru who went to Jichan’s concert.

“I didn’t know it would become an issue like this,” he said as he looked at the article on the internet.

As Maru was an actor who also had singing skills, he became a hot topic in many places.

Due to the change in the times, agencies placed just as much importance on the internet as TV media, so the video with nearly 500 thousand views became quite helpful to Maru.

“What did?”

“What else? The video of you singing.”

“People still watch that?”

“What do you mean still? This is just the beginning. People are spreading the video around by themselves. Were you always this good at singing?”

“Originally, no… originally.” Maru smiled.

“Looks like you’ll get invited to music programs. They invite people that become quite an issue as a guest at least once.”

“I’ll do my best no matter what it is. Hyung, we can go now,” Maru said.

Yeonjin started the car. Maru, who sat in the back seat, took off his coat and started reading.

Yeonjin thought as he looked at Maru: People were bound to become loose when they earned popularity at a young age, but Maru had none of that. He didn’t have the slightest arrogance or the desire to show off. From a certain angle, he looked like a middle-aged veteran actor immune to worldly opinions.

“Can I put on a song?”

“Sure.”

He played an idol song and hummed along. It would take three hours to get to the destination. He saw Maru jerk his shoulders along with the song.

“But aren’t you going to be tired? Volunteer work will be quite hard.”

“It’s okay. Above all, Sir Yoon will be there. I’m sure it’ll be very enjoyable and not hard at all.”

“You really like him, huh? I didn’t know that.”

Looking at Maru through the rearview mirror, he had a thick smile on.

“Get some shut-eye if you’re tired. It’ll take quite some time.”

Yeonjin decreased the volume and sped up a little.

After Story 193

“How much further do we need to go?” Park Sinhye grumbled.

She was pouting this whole time.

Moon Jungah gave her a glance before taking out her phone.

“This thing says there’s not long left until the orphanage,” Jungah said while waving her phone.

“And how many meters is that? Don’t tell me it’s in kilometers?”

“If you want to know so badly, then look it up yourself.”

“I don’t have the energy to.”

“I told you we should grab a taxi. Who was it that persistently said we should embrace the air of the countryside and take a walk instead?”

“I didn’t know it would be so far.”

Sinhye put down the luggage and readjusted her backpack. Her backpack was huge, making her look like a snail, and she was even holding bags in both hands as well.

“I told you it was excessive when we set off.” Jungah put her hand out, intending to share some of her load.

Sinhye shook her head.

“I’m going to carry this all the way there and show off that I brought all of it there. Also, the more presents the better, my dad said so.”

Even as she grumbled, it seemed that Sinhye was the one who looked out for the children the most.

Jungah snatched some of Sinhye’s luggage anyway. Sinhye glared at her, signaling her to not take her merit away.

“I’ll say that you brought it, so let’s speed up a little. Also, Park Joohwan!” Jungah called out to Joohwan, who was far ahead.

Joohwan stopped and looked behind. Jungah pointed at Sinhye’s luggage.

“Carry some of this!”

“No.”

“That prick.”

Joohwan didn’t help out until the end. She wondered how that guy was going to get married later in life.

Jungah furiously stomped her feet before carrying some of Sinhye’s luggage.

“I didn’t know he’d actually do this. He asked only once at the station and didn’t even give a second glance after that. Quite a guy he is, alright!” Sinhye shouted.

Joohwan turned around and spoke, “I asked you if you needed help at the station. And you were the one who refused.”

“Fine! You do you!”

The passersby looked at Sinhye who shouted. Jungah sighed and put some distance between the two. It was one of her deepest regrets that she had become friends with those two.

Around the time they left the city and the smell of dung started piercing their noses, Jungah received a call from Maru.

“Yes, senior.”

-You should be there by now, right?

“No, we’re still on our way there.”

-Didn’t you take the 8 o’clock train?

“We did. We did, but we’re walking to the orphanage from the station.”

-The distance must be quite considerable. You guys are young alright, you have good stamina.

She chuckled in vain. It wasn’t that they had good stamina. This was just the result of a mistaken impression someone had about the countryside, as well as some twisted friendship. She asked for Maru’s location.

-I’m almost there. Also, thanks for coming. I’m sure the kids will like it.

“It’s for charity, and we can pay you back too. Also, when else would we get to meet a celebrity like this?”

Hearing Jungah’s laughter, the two quarreling friends next to her turned around to look at her. The first one to come over was Joohwan.

“Senior Maru?”

“Yeah.”

“Give it to me.”

His eyes sparked. Ever since he watched Case Number 0, Joohwan would wake up in the middle of the night if there was a mention of Maru. His eyes contained a complex mix of competitive spirit and respect.

Jungah handed the phone to him.

“Yes, senior. Come quickly. Also, have a look at my acting. I practiced a lot. Also, when can we act together? Aren’t there any empty spots? I’m fine with just a passerby role.”

It looked as though Joohwan would keep on blabbing if he was left to his own devices. Just as she was about to snatch the phone away, there was someone who beat her to it. It was Sinhye.

“Senior!”

There was no need to throw away the luggage, was there? Jungah picked up the luggage instead of Sinhye who jumped around in excitement.

Seeing Sinhye hold the phone with both hands, as well as Joohwan who demanded that Sinhye give the phone back, made her head start to ache.

There was one solution to this. It was to toss both of them over to Maru.

“He’s coming soon as well,” Sinhye said as she gave Jungah back her phone.

Hearing that Maru was almost here, Joohwan also lent a hand with the luggage.

The two of them walked forward in unison.

Jungah looked at the two people going ahead before turning to the right.

“You frustrating lots, that’s not the right way.”

When she walked ahead, the two of them shouted and followed.

Not long later, they saw the orphanage. It was a pretty old building. The only things nearby were a few private residences, some fields, and the wintry mountains.

“I wonder what they were thinking to build it here. What if the kids get sick?” Sinhye wondered.

“I’m sure there must be circumstances.”

“Money?”

Jungah nodded and started walking again.

She opened the door and went inside. Contrary to the old-looking exterior, it looked rather neat on the inside. The air was warm as well.

“It’s more decent than I thought.”

“Right.”

Jungah said hello to the child in front of her and looked for an adult. She knocked on the director’s door which was to the left of the entrance.

“Come in.”

She carefully opened the door and went inside.

“Hello. I’m Moon Jungah, who called you before. We came here for volunteer work.”

“Alright, come on in. It’s cold outside, isn’t it?”

Between the two people sitting on the sofa, a woman with slime flocks of gray hair greeted her first. She seemed to be the director.

While her two friends also came in and said their greetings, Jungah looked at the other person on the sofa. He was an elderly man who seemed to be past sixty. But she felt like she had seen him a lot somewhere before, even though there was no way she met such an elderly on many occasions.

Jungah probed her memories before coming up with a name and face that matched the elderly man in front of her.

“Aren’t you perhaps Sir Yoon Moonjoong?”

The elder said yes with a laugh. It was indeed the person she met during the award ceremony of the Short Film Festival.

She never knew that she’d come across one of the bigshots of the actor industry at a private occasion like this.

“Didn’t I see you at the Short Film Festival? I believe you are Miss Moon Jungah. The young director who won a prize.”

My lord — Jungah was touched. She didn’t think that he’d remember her. Moonjoon’s eyes then looked at Joohwan who stood behind her.

“I remember that fellow as well. Mr. Park Joohwan, am I correct?”

Even Joohwan, who never showed his emotions in things other than his interests, brightly smiled and greeted back when Moonjoong recognized him.

“Yes, sir. Thank you for remembering me.”

“Both of you were fine young people and had plenty of talent, so I couldn’t forget about you. But as for the person next to you… I must apologize. I’m sure we met at the Short Film Festival, and it’s that I don’t remember, right?”

Hearing Moonjoong’s call, Sinhye shook her head.

“This is our first meeting. I’m Park Sinhye! Pleased to meet you!”

Sinhye introduced herself amicably. Jungah was envious of Sinhye’s personality at a time like this.

“I see. Nice to meet you. But did all three of you come here to do volunteer work?”

“Yes! We followed senior Maru here.”

“Really?”

Jungah put down the gifts in front of the director.

“We didn’t know what to bring, so we just brought whatever we liked. Is that okay?”

“Of course. I’m grateful that you’re here in the first place.”

While drinking the tea that the director gave them, they listened to her. It was mostly things about what they were going to do today and what they should refrain from doing.

They then said hello to all the other teachers at the orphanage. Every one of them left a good impression.

Jungah was slightly nervous because of some news articles about embezzling funds and child abuse in orphanages, but this place seemed to really look after the kids.

“We also prepared a small play. Can we perform it?” Sinhye asked.

“Of course you can.”

“How old are the kids here?”

“Our orphanage only has custody of pre-elementary school children. Once they’re old enough to go to school, they’re transferred to another place nearby. It’d be great if we could all live together, but there are realistic challenges to overcome.”

Hearing that, Sinhye nodded.

“I hope they like our play. Actually, I was worried. It might be a little too childish for middle school students and higher.”

“The children here like everything, so don’t worry about it.”

Jungah put down the empty teacup.

“Director, what shall we do first? Please give us anything. We have good stamina.”

“Then shall we say hello to the children first and then start cleaning?”

“Okay, we’ll do that.”

Jungah and co left the director’s room, following a teacher in her early thirties.

“I didn’t know I’d see someone I only saw on TV. My dad told me a lot about Sir Yoon Moonjoong. He said that he’s one who can be called a Buddha in the dirty entertainment industry,” Sinhye said.

Just from the fact that he remembered the names of a few students he briefly came across at a film festival was enough to tell that he was a really good person.

“Some of the kids might throw unbearable tantrums. You can’t listen to all of them. They are young, but they know what they need to. If you look into their eyes and tell them, they should calm down.”

Bearing the words of the teacher in their minds, they went to the room with the children.

* * *

“I should go back right after saying hello to Sir Yoon,” Yeonjin said as he got out of the car.

He was just as busy as Maru these days.

“I could’ve come by myself.”

“I’d get an earful from the president if I did that. I wonder if he’s inside?”

“Probably.”

Maru opened the door to the orphanage. He could hear some rowdy noises inside. Amidst the laughter of the children were a few familiar voices. It seemed that Jungah, Joohwan, and Sinhye were putting on a play.

He inwardly smiled and went to the director’s room.

“Sir, I’m here.” Yeonjin went in first.

Maru lowered his head in tandem.

“It’s been a while since I saw you, Yeonjin.”

“I’ve become quite busy thanks to this guy.”

Yeonjin said as he pushed Maru’s shoulder. Maru smiled awkwardly and stood in front of Moonjoong.

“Did the fellows that came earlier make any mistakes?” Maru asked.

“There are no mistakes to make. They all seemed to be good people. But Maru, do you have time to hang out with children with me? I’m sure you have a lot of work these days.”

“It’s about working with you, sir, so I’ll have to make the time even if I don’t have any.”

The elder laughed heartily.

“You are good at talking alright.”

After a short greeting, he left the director’s room. Yeonjin got back in the car after unloading some items to be used at the orphanage.

“You won’t get hurt while playing with the children, right? If something happens to you, it will to me as well. Remember that.”

“If you keep giving me pressure like that. I might really get hurt. I might step on a lego.”

“That sounds painful. Anyway, have fun.”

“Yes, be careful on your way back as well.”

After the car left, Maru carried the items on the floor into the orphanage. As they brought a whole lot of items in the van, there was quite a considerable amount.

“Why did you bring so much?” Moonjoong said, coming outside.

“Sir, please head back inside. It’s cold out here.”

“It’s okay. If something happened to me from just this, I wouldn’t have been an actor.”

“That’s true. They’re some snacks for the children and some items to use at the orphanage. I heard that the price of diapers and powdered formulas are high these days, so it’s mainly those two.”

“Good. Eating and clothing are the most important.”

He carried the items inside with the elder. Halfway through, a male teacher from the orphanage also came out and helped out. After moving all the boxes, he found himself sweating despite the weather.

“Are the people who came before me inside?”

“Yes, they’re performing, and they’re hugely popular.”

He went inside the orphanage following the teacher. There were children sitting in a circle in a wide room, and the three were performing a play in the middle of them.

Maru crossed his arms and watched them. They were performing a story that was a series of a few folk tales, and it was pretty interesting.

“They’re pretty good, seeing as they major in acting,” said the elder.

“I did well bringing them here, didn’t I?”

“Yeah, you did.”

He smiled and appreciated the performance.

After Story 194

“This unni is ouchie ouchie, okay?”

Despite Sinhye speaking with her eyes wide open, the child grabbing her hair was all smiles. In the end, it was she who gave up when she saw the innocent smile.

“Fine, pull all you want. I’m sure it’ll grow again.”

Maru looked at Sinhye, who had given up, before picking up the boy in front of him. His name was Jinho, and considering that he just turned one, he was very docile.

“Adults say that kids don’t know anything, but as you work here, you realize how wrong that is,” said an orphanage teacher next to him.

Apparently, Jinho was placed right in front of the orphanage, along with a note that mentioned his name.

“Sometimes, they surprise me to no end. They tell me to not throw them away. It’s not that the kids don’t know. They know painfully well.”

Hearing that, Maru tickled Jinho’s cheeks. Jinho stared at him with his innocent eyes before closing his eyes. He seemed to be tired.

“He seems to be sleepy.”

Maru stabilized the back of Jinho’s neck, which was drooping down.

“Wait a second. I’ll lay him down in the room.”

The teacher from the orphanage took Jinho inside the room.

Maru looked at the children running around the living room. Parents gave up on raising their children, and the children were being nurtured in the hands of complete strangers. Heavenly ties were light, while man-made ties were heavy.

“Senior,” Joohwan called out.

He was shaking his body while holding two boys on each arm.

“You’re a human attraction, huh,” Maru said.

Joohwan put down the children and lay down on the ground. He seemed to be out of energy.

“You finished your drama shoot, right?”

“That ended last year.”

“Then when are you starting your next work?”

“I’m not sure. Nothing’s really decided yet.”

“If you do anything, please call me. I told you over the phone too, right? I don’t care what role it is, so just give me something.”

“That’s not up to me, is it? Casting is up to the producer.”

“I don’t care even if it’s just a passerby. I just want to work with you. I can get to see you work on set too.”

“What good is that gonna be?”

“If you wanna steal something, you have to keep watching. You have a lot of things that I don’t have, so I’m going to watch closely and steal from you.”

“That’s quite a blatant declaration of war.”

“There’s no one else I can say this to. You’re the only mystery right now. I thought a lot while watching Case Number 0; what if I played the role in his stead? I did have the confidence to do it, but not as good as you. Moreover, I can’t think of myself acting alongside actor Yang Ganghwan. I still have a lot to learn.”

“Learn from others, not me. Anything I have doesn’t have any nutritional value.”

His style of acting wasn’t something that could be imitated in a short time. Maru’s acting was a result of pure experience.

“You have the talent, so try making the most of that. I’m sure you’ll become a better actor than me.”

“That might happen someday, but that sounds like a distant future, so it makes me feel bitter.”

Maru slapped Joohwan’s back.

“Go and play with them. They’ve been looking at you for a while.”

“If I do, you’ll have to call me to your next work, okay?”

“I’ll think about it.”

Joohwan walked over to the kids on his knees. He put a girl on his back like he was a horse and crawled around the living room.

Girls followed him more than boys, but a lot of children flocked to Joohwan, perhaps having seen a glimpse of the innocent mental world that he had.

“I’m sure he’ll make a great elementary school teacher,” said the elder as he sat down next to Maru.

“He’s a kind guy. The children here seem to follow him a lot too.” Maru looked around himself before continuing, “Looks like they won’t come to me because I’m black-hearted.”

“Rather than black-hearted, I think it’s a matter of appearance.”

“You mean I have a black heart and a scary face?”

The elder laughed and waved his hand in dismissal.

“I heard they’re going to grill meat in the evening.”

“I’ll go buy it if they need anything.”

“You’re quick to catch on. I’m sure the teachers here must be tired, so the two of us should go. We’ll go in my car.”

“Yes.”

Maru told Jungah that he was going to buy groceries.

“Should I go with you?”

“The kids won’t let you go, you know? I’ll go with Sir Yoon, so please take care of the kids here. Sinhye and Joohwan are uncontrollable without you.”

“It’s not about control, the two of them just drain my energy. Can you buy me some ice cream on the way back? I’m fuming inside even though it’s winter.”

“I can buy you a whole lot.”

When he left the orphanage, he saw Moonjoong waiting for him in front of the car.

He got in the car and turned on the heater. The car had become a fridge in the span of a few hours. Winter sure was cold.

“Should we go with duck meat? I’m sure the kids will like it if we remove the skin, and it’ll be a good dish to have a drink with.”

“That sounds good.”

Maru had come here once last year, so he didn’t lose his way. He drove to a large-scale supermarket in the middle of the city. The housewives who had come grocery shopping for dinner all gave the elder a glance. They showed some hesitation before some of them approached him. That triggered a whole flock of people rushing over to him.

“Sir, I really liked you before I got married.”

“You still look so handsome.”

“Please take a photo with me.”

A lady around the age of the elder became joyful to the point of clapping.

Maru watched the elder from some distance away, ready to body tackle anyone taking extreme action.

“Hey hey, I think that’s him.”

“The elderly beside that guy is also an actor who frequently appears in dramas.”

“Right, right.”

He heard a voice behind him. The gazes on the elder were now distributed to him. The younger generation recognized him in no time. They did not flock like the older people did and just took out their phones on the spot to take photos.

Maru smiled and greeted them.

“You’re not doing a shoot here, are you?” asked a man wearing a staff vest.

He seemed fully willing to cooperate if this was a shoot.

“We’re not. We’re just here to buy groceries.”

“Oh, really?”

“Sorry for making things noisy.”

“Not at all. Rather than that, I’m really enjoying the drama, Mr. Maru.”

Thank you — Maru said as he shook hands with the employee. Starting with that, the people who stayed away from him started flocking over. Everyone came over and took photos with him.

“I didn’t watch the drama because it was too scary, but I do see it from time to time when I switch channels. You’re so good at acting that it just makes me watch you.”

“Please take your time and watch it slowly later. It’s not that scary.”

It wasn’t just the younger generation. The housewives recognized him as well. He really felt the change in recognition. It seemed that some of the older generation recognized him because the channel content, other than the drama, was mainly targeting the silver generation.

They could only continue grocery shopping after the commotion died down.

They put a whole lot of food and desserts for dinner into the cart. He also bought some alcohol to enjoy with the elder. He might not be able to drink until he got drunk since he had to look after the children, but a glass or two should be fine.

They went back to the car with the groceries. On the way back to the orphanage, the elder spoke,

“There’s something I say to all my juniors. It’s to always appreciate the people who like you. You cannot take it as a given that the public likes you. I’m sure you’ll do well, but I still wanted to tell you.”

“I always bear your words in mind. If you have anything to tell me, please tell me any time.”

Having returned to the orphanage, Maru immediately started preparing dinner. He fed the juniors a lot of meat since they had a hard time playing around with the kids. By the time the sun set and the children started sleeping, the adults had a light drinking session.

The teachers who commuted to work drank a whole lot, while the teachers who slept with the children stopped after taking a sip.

“We’ll take our leave now. I’ll come again next time.”

“We’ll come again next time.”

Maru grabbed the wheel. As he was the only one who could drive, he didn’t drink a single sip.

He put the drunk juniors in the back seat and the elder sat in the passenger seat.

“Tell me if you’re tired. I can drive.”

“Don’t worry and get some sleep.”

He started the car. The juniors soon fell asleep as though they were tired. Playing around with the kids wasn’t something that ordinary stamina could handle.

“What book are you reading?”

The elder showed him the cover. He saw the words ‘Big letter Bible.’

“Didn’t you go to the temple?”

“I go to temples, Catholic churches, and Christian churches.”

“You believe in multiple, then, huh?”

The elder shook his head, “I don’t really believe in any. There was a time I did, but rather than for faith, I just read because I want to know. I want to know what the merciful yet cruel god is thinking.”

“If you ever find out, please tell me too,” Maru said, recalling the god that toyed with him and his wife.

The car entered Seoul. Maru dropped off the juniors in front of a train station. He also thanked them and said that he’d treat them out to a drink properly next time.

“Rather than drinking, I want to work with you.”

Joohwan insisted on his request until the end.

The next destination was the elder’s residence. He drove the car to the place the elder told him. He lived in the same place as his previous life, so he didn’t find any difficulty getting there.

“People who don’t live around this area usually get lost the first time.”

“I’ve been to all sorts of places in Seoul.”

“Really?”

He arrived at the elder’s residence. Maru stared at the elder going inside his house full of intent.

“I’m sure you’re tired. Would you like to drink something before you go?”

“I was going to feel sad if you didn’t say that.”

When he opened the door and went inside, two white dogs greeted him. One looked handsome, while the other looked foolish.

“Sir, what are their names?”

“Taeng-chil and Taeng-pal[1].”

The elder laughed and went inside. He explained that the dogs were a gift from president Lee Junmin, and apparently, it had been over a decade since they started living with him.

While taking his shoes off, Maru had a look inside the house. The faint smell of doenjang and the crude furniture… many things had changed from the previous life, but the elder’s house was the same, even down to the unique smell. He felt like he was back in his hometown.

“Make yourself feel at home. You’re the guest now, so I should give you the proper treatment.”

“I’ll do it.”

“I said sit down.”

Maru stood up awkwardly before sitting down again.

For the other items, he could feel the age, but the TV and the laptop were latest-generation models.

After seeing the two items that looked rather alien, the elder gave him some tea. It was warm green plum tea.

“I made it myself. I give it to the folks at the TV station every year.”

“So it’s something precious. Thank you.”

Just as he was drinking, he saw a photo in front of the TV. It was a photo of the elder and his wife, as well as the two white dogs when they were puppies.

The elder’s gaze also headed to the photo.

“If she was around, she would’ve brought out some rice crackers.”

There was a thick sense of disappointment contained in his words. So it seemed she had parted in this life. He lowered his gaze, feeling sorry.

“When did your wife…”

He asked carefully, but the elder stayed silent. Maybe he shouldn’t have asked. He looked at the elder with a sense of guilt.

Just then, the door suddenly opened. Maru blinked and looked at the door. An elderly lady was coming in alongside the two white dogs.

He looked at the face of the woman coming in and the face of the elder’s wife in the photo. They were the same.

“You’re here?”

The elder said with a smile. When Maru froze stiff with a dazed face, the elder’s wife twitch her eye and spoke,

“Looks like you teased an innocent young man again. Honey, stop teasing the younger ones. I can still remember Ganghwan and Suyeon looking at me like they saw a ghost. Also, stop making me dead.”

“That sounds terrible. I didn’t say anything, and he’s the one who misunderstood on his own.”

“Same thing. Also, I told you to give some snacks if you bring a guest over. Don’t just stop at tea every time.”

The mistress opened the cupboard before taking out some rice crackers. Seeing that, the elder spoke in a small voice,

“See? If she’s around, you get rice crackers, right?”

[1] Chil means seven, pal means eight.

After Story 195

The two white dogs followed behind the madam, following her into the kitchen when she did and waiting outside the bathroom door when she went to the bathroom. She clearly seemed experienced in having them around.

“The dogs seem to really like the madam.”

“She raised them personally when they were pups. Right now, I’m sure she likes them more than even her own children that she suffered to give birth to.”

The elder pushed some gang-doenjang over to his side.

“I’m sure it’ll be to your tastes. Geunsoo and Ganghwan liked it as well.”

Maru scooped a spoonful of gang-doenjang and put it on top of his rice.

He mixed a bit of the vegetables, rice, and the gang-doenjang and wrapped it in some lettuce before putting it in his mouth. The taste was first-rate, with just the right saltiness accompanied by that slight doenjang taste.

“Madam! I think you can sell this gang-doenjang and make a fortune.”

The madam, who was peeling garlic in the kitchen, smiled pleasantly.

“Would you like to take some home?”

“I’d be really grateful if you could give me some. Oh, and also, these dried bracken shoots are really nice too.”

"Alright, alright, I’ll pack you some of those as well. Say, dear, where did you find someone so fawning like him?”

Hearing his wife’s joke, the elder just shrugged.

Maru poured some rice wine into the elder’s glass.

“Drink moderately, dear. You don’t have a good liver.”

“You’re overly worried. I’m just drinking a single glass. I don’t drink much because you nag at me, so don’t worry about it.”

The elder winked as he drank some of the rice wine. He seemed to hinting to keep the fact that he drank with the teachers at the orphanage a secret.

Maru smiled and nodded.

“Wife, why don’t you come and have some?”

“There’s some for me?”

“Of course there is. Ever seen me not give you any?”

Maru told the madam to come and shifted his seat slightly to the left.

Shaking off the garlic peels, the madam sat at the table. The two dogs each took a place on either side of her like loyal guards.

“I’ll pour you a glass.”

Maru poured some rice wine for the madam. He poured about halfway before looking at her. The madam looked at the glass wanting some more.

Maru poured the bottle until the rice wine almost filled the glass to the brim.

With the combination of late-night snacks, drinks, and conversations, it became midnight in no time.

“You should sleep in the guest room.”

“Not need at all. I can book a nearby motel right now.”

“There’s an empty room here, so why waste money? I’ll lay out the blankets, so get some good rest and go tomorrow.”

“I’ll do that then, madam.”

He received the blankets from the madam and laid them out in a small room. He was originally just going to drink some tea, but he ended up staying the night.

He sent a text message to his wife saying that he was going to sleep over at the elder’s house.

“The floor is quite cold, isn’t it?” the madam asked.

Maru shook his head.

“It’s warm. Don’t worry about me and please go to sleep.”

The madam nodded and closed the door.

Maru looked at the posters on the wall of the room. They were posters of movies in which Geunsoo, Ganghwan, and Suyeon played the main characters. He wondered if they were put up by the madam.

On top of a drawer was a photo that was taken in the front yard of this house.

The elder and his wife were sitting down on the flat platform and president Lee Junmin and his wife were sitting next to them. The two dogs, in their puppy days, were also in the photo.

Actors in JA all probably visited this room at least once.

“Are you asleep?”

The door opened and the elder poked his head inside.

“Not yet, sir.”

“It is a little early to be sleeping. How about it? Can you hang out with this old man a little more?”

The elder was holding a bottle of rice wine in his hand. It was the bottle that the madam put in the fridge, telling him not to touch it.

“Will you be okay? Your wife will be mad if she finds out.”

“I’ll be drinking in secret.”

Perhaps thanks to the existence of his wife, the elder seemed much more relaxed than in Maru’s previous life. He threw around more jokes, and he was also a lot more mischievous.

Maru wanted to thank the whimsical god for today.

“Just one glass, okay?”

“If I open the lid, I might as well get to the bottom of it.”

“I don’t think I can handle the madam’s fury. Also, you should look out for your health.”

“Haha, even you are now concerned about my health, huh? It seems everyone around me only thinks about my health.”

“I just want to see you act for a long time.”

While they were talking, one of the dogs started barking. They never even growled within the hot, but it barked like crazy as though it had just seen a thief.

The madam opened the door and came out. The elder tossed the bottle of rice wine over, and Maru quickly caught it and hid it under the blanket.

“What are you doing?”

“I was just going to have a talk with Maru, but that one keeps barking. Hey, don’t cause a fuss.”

“There’s no way he’d bark without reason, is there? He’s so smart.”

The madam looked inside the room. Maru made a faint smile. The mistress looked right at where he hid the rice wine.

“This isn’t my first time. Give me the thing you hid under there.”

“I didn’t hide anything.”

“Geunsoo said that to me once and got chased out in the middle of the night.”

Maru gave the elder a glance. The elder shook his head with his lips firmly sealed. He seemed to want to resist until the end.

He looked back and forth between the elder and the madam before eventually taking out the bottle of rice wine. He didn’t need to think for long to see who was in real charge of this house.

Receiving the rice wine, the madam gave the elder a glare before going over to the dog.

“Good boy.”

The madam stroked the dog on the chin before going back to her room.

When the madam left, the two white dogs came over and lingered around the elder’s feet. They wagged their tails while putting their tongues out.

“You guys didn’t do anything good.”

Even while scolding them, the elder patted their heads.

“The dogs are loyal.”

“There’s no one on my side in this house. Even you’re on her side.”

“Sir, I did my absolute best. The madam’s gaze was just so intense that I found it hard to endure.”

The elder sighed softly.

“Try hiding it better next time.”

“I’ll try my best.”

“If it’s cold inside, you’ll find the remote control for the boiler in the living room, so raise the temperature.”

“Okay.”

“Good work driving today. Get some good sleep.”

“Get some good rest, sir.”

The elder nodded and closed the door.

Maru thought back to the squabble between the elder and the madam and smiled. They were a pair of sweet lovers.

He imagined his own wife with her hair drained of color. As he had always died before the age of forty-five, it was not easy to imagine his wife getting old.

How would she look? Preparing for their later years together was something he hadn’t experienced even in his numerous lives.

Maru covered himself with the blanket and closed his eyes. The fatigue from driving a long distance overwhelmed him in an instant. There came a moment where his consciousness became faint and the boundary between reality and dream became blurry.

There, he saw his old wife sleeping on the sofa. He was reading a book while listening to the faint and nostalgic breathing sound.

Time seemed to be flowing, and yet also halted.

It was a relaxing and cozy time. Thinking that it was a rather good scenery, he completely fell asleep.

* * *

“Her skills are as good as always.”

That was Haneul’s evaluation of the madam’s gang-doenjang and dried bracket shoots.

“Why can’t I get it to taste the same even if I use the same ingredients and recipe?”

“Isn’t that just the difference in the taste of the hand?” Maru said.

“You’re saying my hands are terrible, huh?”

“I admit to everything else, but honestly, I’m better than you at cooking, aren’t I?”

His wife pouted, expressing her displeasure, but did not retort to his words.

“Right, if I think about it, I don’t need to be that good at cooking. I just need to make use of my husband who is. So starting today, I’m taking my hands off all kitchen work, okay?”

“I thought we were going to equally distribute household cho…”

“You told me I’m bad though.”

“Honey, I never said that you were bad at anything. You have a good memory, so you know that what I’m saying is correct, right?”

“There’s a thing called nuance.”

She emphasized the word ‘nuance.’ Not wanting to make the matter worse, Maru stayed quiet.

“You’re good at cleaning and even cooking. I’ll give you the title of housewife, sweetie. Instead, I’ll be earning money. That’s fair, right?”

“But I earn money t…”

His wife put a finger against his mouth. While her gesture was cute, the intent behind it was scary, so he just stayed quiet.

Ever since she started editing the scenario with Daemyung, his wife had gotten a lot more sensitive. Even a knife created by a master blacksmith would be blunt in comparison to her nerves which were on edge.

She was someone who became a perfectionist regarding her writing. Maru could imagine how stressful it must be for her to polish her own writing.

But she couldn’t just give up on it either. The day her scenario is finished would be the day his violent wife would return to normal.

“I’ll get going now.”

“Watch out for cars, and don’t get too much stress.”

“Alright, you have fun at your afterparty too, sweetie.”

He gave his wife a soft hug as a means to encourage her.

Haneul let out a soft sigh and left the house.

Maru immediately texted Daemyung, telling him not to be so strict and to console her a little.

“Yes, hyung. I’m going to the gym and then will attend to some business before going over there.”

After calling Yeonjin, he got ready to go outside.

Today was the day that episode 9 was airing. They decided to hold the afterparty at a barbecue restaurant in Seoul.

They were originally going to hold one earlier than this, but it kept getting delayed because of the schedules of the actors.

“Are you at the gym? I was about to go now.”

-Come quickly. You know there’s a tennis bet afterward, right? We need to get back the coffee that we had to pay for last time.

“I think you just need to do well.”

-You can cover for me.

Ganghwan told him to come as soon as possible. The men that acted in the drama got together and played some ball sports until they were fixated on tennis.

On their break days, the people who had time would meet up and play until sunset.

If they didn’t have the afterparty today, they would probably be playing tennis until they saw the moon.

Maru checked the time before leaving his house with some luggage.

* * *

“Yang Ganghwan’s coming.”

“Han Maru’s there too.”

“Hwang Hojoon and Kwon Seokhoon are there too. But their faces are really small.”

Journalist Jung continued muttering while pressing the camera shutter. The male actors walked into the makeshift photo zone in front of the restaurant.

No one present would’ve known that ‘Case Number 0’ would become such a groundbreaking drama when it first aired.

Going by episode 8, the viewing rate had entered a double-digit percentage. It was a ridiculous number compared to other dramas from private-owned channels, which were barely maintaining a single-digit percentage.

However, the ones that received the most damage from Case Number 0 were the public TV channels. YBS, which was airing a drama with a similar genre at a similar time slot, received the most damage.

Their viewing rate didn’t just half, it shattered into pieces. RBS and KBS couldn’t exactly be laughing either.

The advertisers who promoted their products in Case Number 0 were probably laughing by now. They would’ve paid cheap prices to advertise their products compared to public TV channels after all.

If this drama didn’t stop at being successful just once and was a repeated home run, then the advertising business of public TV channels would receive a huge hit as well.

The drama acted as a warning to the TV industry in many ways. After all, everything about broadcasting came down to ads.

“Please look over here once!”

“And here too!”

He could see the entertainment journalists who used to look down on the emergence of private-owned TV channels. The future was really unpredictable.

While he was taking a photo, he saw a female reporter step forward. From how security personnel didn’t budge, it seemed to be an interview that was scheduled beforehand.

After Story 196

“Hello. I’m from Channel S’ Deep In the Night.”

Maru looked back and forth between the reporter and the cameraman in front of him. He had been notified beforehand that there would be an interview from a program being made by Channel S.

“Yes, hello.”

The one who greeted her as their representative was Ganghwan.

“From how the four of you came together, did you perhaps match your schedules on purpose?”

“No, we were playing tennis together before we came to the afterparty. We’re kinda crazy for it right now.”

“I see.”

“You see, tennis is quite the stuff. When I first held the racquet, I wondered how much fun it could even be, but when I tried it, all I could think of at night was a yellow ball.”

“You seem really passionate about it.”

“I feel uneasy if I don’t hold the racquet for even a single day. You see, at first, even if you try to hit the ball, you miss a lot, and even if you do hit it, it’ll either fly so high or so low that it hits the net. But as you receive instructions and improve your posture, the ball curiously starts going past the net towards the opponent.”

“Aha, I see.”

The reporter’s smiling face became slightly gloomy when Ganghwan started talking about the aspects of tennis. It seemed this kind of interview was a first for her, where she couldn’t get in the lead at all and had to keep listening to whatever Ganghwan said.

“This guy really likes tennis that much. I’m sure he’ll debut as a player sooner or later.”

Maru interjected between Ganghwan and the reporter. If he let them keep going, they might as well continue the interview throughout the whole afterparty.

Hojoon pulled back Ganghwan with his thick arms and Seokhoon blocked Ganghwan, who looked like he could keep going on for hours, from the interviewer’s line of sight.

“If you have any questions for us, please go ahead and ask.”

“Th-thank you.”

The reporter looked at Ganghwan who was back in a daze before getting herself together and asking questions, directing them to Maru,

“This is your first time playing a protagonist, but the responses are very hot. How do you feel about this?”

“I’m rather taken aback because I didn’t know I’d receive so much attention. Before we began the shoot, I heard on multiple occasions that it was going to be hard. I’m very grateful that many people have watched me and encouraged me like this.”

The reporter nodded before continuing her questions,

“Tomorrow, the final episode will be airing. Many people are rather disappointed that it’s a short, 10-episode drama.”

“I find it a pity too. I really got attached to it while shooting it. But I’ll have to let it go after tomorrow.”

“There are talks about seasonal dreams. If there is another season, would you appear in it? The fans sure seem to want it.”

“Personally, I plan to shoot if they ever call me. I believe that seasonal dramas were being talked about from the planning stage. I expect things to proceed smoothly thanks to all the interest from the fans. After all, I’m also an avid fan of Case Number 0 before I’m an actor. Whether it’s Changsik or someone else’s story, I’d like to see some form of story that follows up.”

The questions were rather easy to answer. Following him, Hojoon was asked questions as well. Seokhoon, a minor actor, could also express his opinion.

“Thank you for your interview. Please come to our program once next time.”

“Sure, call us any time.”

The interview ended with a promise for an appointment that may or may not ever happen.

When they walked past the photo zone and into the store, Ganghwan spoke,

“Hey, I feel like I didn’t say anything about the drama.”

“You just realized?” Maru smiled.

As they walked deep inside they said hello to the production crew they hadn’t met in a while. Maru saw producer Cha, the writer, and the other actors sitting at the end.

“You were playing tennis again, weren’t you?” said producer Cha.

“Don’t even start. We were almost late because Ganghwan-hyung wanted to play one more game,” Maru said, sitting down slightly away from producer Cha.

The important seats were taken by the senior actors and the directors.

“Our actor Han is here, so we should toast, shouldn’t we?” said the camera director, waving a bottle in the air.

Maru took off his jacket and stood up.

“Please stay seated. I’ll go around making everyone a glass. We’re just starting off, so let me make one lightly.”

A row of soju glasses inside beer glasses was set up. Mixing drinks was something he could do easily with his eyes closed. If there was vodka, he could even display a fire performance.

He put a soju bottle against the row of glasses. Some of the actors sitting around him took out their phones.

“You’re taking a video of it again?”

“No matter how many times I see it, your skills are extraordinary. I’m going to shoot it and put it up on Instagram.”

“If you do that, people will see me as an alcoholic.”

As he said that, Maru moved the soju bottle. He poured soju into all glasses while moving in a straight line like a single, smooth stroke of a brush. Following that, he opened a bottle of beer and shook it slightly. He poured the beer that rose alongside air bubbles without spilling it into the glasses.

“It’s skillful no matter how many times I see it. Just where did you practice this?” asked a senior actor.

“What do you think I was doing when I was young? I obviously went drinking with my friends. Then, I saw a TV show where they made cocktails. That looked so cool to me, so I tried all sorts of things when I hung out with others. This is the result of that.”

“How peculiar.”

The people gathered around and raised their glasses.

“The shoot was over a long time ago, but still, thank you for your work once again. Thank you for listening to this insufficient director’s words. At the start, I just prayed that we didn’t fail, but now, I’m praying for the viewing rates to rise even more. Life really is unpredictable, isn’t it?”

“It’d be great if we could hit 20% for the last episode.”

“20 seems far-fetched. 15 is more like it.”

After listening to the others, producer Cha spoke again,

“Anyway, thanks to everyone here, the drama managed to reach this point. I hope we can meet like this again and drink to our heart’s content. Good work, everyone! To success!”

Cheers!

Along with a lot of clanging, glasses hit each other. Everyone emptied their glasses and started eating. People who hadn’t met in a long time talked about their recent matters as they spent their time.

“Maru, look over here for a sec.”

An actor two years older than him raised his phone as he spoke. He seemed to be taking a photo. Actors who liked to take commemorative photos started taking out their phones.

Maru put his face here and there.

“Uhm, I’ll be over there for a bit.”

He left the place with the main actors and went to where the minor actors and the production crew were. He also poured drinks and drank and talked to them.

“Mr. Maru! Can I take a photo?”

“Don’t ask. I don’t have any portrait rights. Shoot away.”

“Then, can I take one with an arm around your shoulder?”

“Sure.”

He took photos with the production staff that had worked hard for the past months.

Although there were actors who stayed distant from the staff because of various incidents, Maru tried to maintain a good relationship with the staff as much as possible. It was advice from the elder, and the atmosphere at the set would be better if he did as well.

“It’s starting!”

Channel S’ logo started coming up on the TVs installed throughout the restaurant. In places that were far from any TVs, people took out their phones.

“Maru’s right there just in time. Before it starts, say a word or two for all of us,” producer Cha shouted from the distance.

“You do it, producer!”

“No, you do it. The drama’s starting now.”

Maru smiled awkwardly while holding a glass. The minor actors next to him clapped and pushed a chair to the front, as though to tell him to go up on it.

“I was put in this position, so I guess I have to do it, right?”

He looked around before going up on the chair.

“I was pushed to do this against my own will, so don’t think of me too badly even if I screw up.”

People laughed next to him. Maru raised the glass to his eye level.

“Okay, then. Since we’re doing this, everyone raise your glasses.”

He checked to make sure everyone raised their glasses.

“Hojoon hyung-nim! Raise your glass.”

“Wait, we need to pour him some.”

Maru smiled. “Okay, everyone’s raised their glasses now. Thank you all for your hard work for the three months, whether it’s the writer, the director, the actors, or everyone on the production staff. I hope your future is filled with good things. I’ll say a phrase. I hope you can follow up after me so that I don’t feel awkward.”

Just as Maru was about to shout, the TV, which had its volume turned up, spat out a line from a drama.

-Ahn Changsik, you crazy! Just get out!

Everyone was focusing with their glasses raised, so as the voice rang out, people started laughing at the weird timing. Maru raised his glass above his head and spoke,

“Ahn Changsik, you crazy! Just get out!”

“Just get out!”

People laughed and followed along.

Maru said one last thing as he stepped down,

“The drama’s begun. Please enjoy your meal as you watch comfortably.”

* * *

“You should drink some more.”

Changsik put on his shoes. He felt like he would lose his reason and rush to the kitchen to get a knife, so he intentionally looked at the floor.

“Mom called me. Hyung, I’m sorry, but I think I need to get going.”

“At this hour? Did something big happen?”

“I’m not sure, but she wants me there.”

“Really? Then I guess I can’t help it. I don’t know what it is, but be careful on your way home. Tell me if there’s anything you need.”

“Okay.”

It was not an easy thing to suppress his rage as he answered. Changsik grabbed the door handle with shaky hands. He opened the door and left. After climbing down the stairs, he went to the playground in front of the apartment complex.

He looked at the cross in his hands. He ended up bringing it out from Hojung’s desk. He couldn’t bear to leave it there. He stared at the cross that dug into his palms. The last thread of hope was tragically snapped apart. His sister had become a cold corpse and was abandoned somewhere on this land.

His phone rang. It was detective Lee Daecheol.

-Where are you right now?

“I left.”

-From Yoon Hojung’s place, I assume?

“Yes.”

-Well done. You’ve done well to hold back.

“I’m not sure. I keep thinking that it might be better to just kill him there and then.”

-You prick! Get yourself together. You won’t solve anything by killing him. Above all, he’s a veteran. He’s not someone you can handle in a fight.

“Wouldn’t it work out if I stab him?”

-You… geez. Stop uttering nonsense. I’m on my way there right now, so don’t do anything rash and wait for me. If you have physical evidence then it’ll take no time to put him in prison.

“You can really, really get him, right?”

-I’ve been a detective for years, so why would I lie to you? Getting him and putting him in prison is the right way to go. Only then will the family of the deceased be put in relief. If you kill him right now, you’ll prove nothing.

“Okay.”

He hung up and sat on the swing.

His hands and feet started trembling again. It wasn’t because of rage. It was because of fear. Although he had conviction, the moment he saw clear, physical evidence with his eyes, it felt real to him that he was in the same place as a murderer. That made him afraid.

He let out deep breaths. Then he looked back at the apartment where Hojung would be.

* * *

It disappeared. This was why trusting his instincts was important.

Hojung opened the drawer again and checked once more. The trophy he had put in there recently had disappeared.

The silver cross. Where could it have gone?

Hojung thought about Changsik, who was here until just moments ago.

His body was minutely nervous, and his lips were tense. And above all, he tried to avoid making eye contact.

“I see, that’s how it is.”

He did expect this to a certain extent. He put on a smile. No one had pursued him to this extent. This exciting nervousness felt rather welcome.

He took out all the trophies in the bag, as well as all the tools he used.

It was easy to clean up traces of his work. He had always kept a scenario like this in mind.

He got his stuff and left his house for a bit. He had to say goodbye to his memories for a brief moment.

After Story 197

He hurriedly got out of the car and picked up his phone. Just a little away, he saw the building where Changsik lived. He looked at the 3rd floor first. All the lights were off. Did that mean Yoon Hojung had also left?

Daecheol called Changsik. He wanted to ask how that guy managed to even think about getting close to the murderer to get information. If he had known that he would do so, he would’ve held him back without a doubt.

This was not a regular criminal, but a serial murderer. The criminal was a lunatic who killed humans for fun and had forgotten about guilt a long time ago.

Did Changsik have the guts to approach a person like that? He had started seeming unstable a few days ago, but Daecheol did not think in his wildest imagination that he would respond like this.

“You said the playground, didn’t you? Where is it exactly?”

He heard the location from Changsik. He turned left at the convenience store and ran. Not long later, he saw a playground, in which he saw Changsik. He was looking down at his own hands in a daze while sitting on a swing.

“Hey, you okay?”

The moment he placed his hand on top of Changsik’s shoulder, Changsik spasmed and sprang up. Daecheol saw something fly into the air. It was a small and shiny object.

“Calm down. It’s me.”

He calmed him down before looking at the object that fell on the floor. It was a cross. Daecheol immediately realized what that cross, which shone under the lamplight, signified.

He took out his gloves and grabbed the tip of the cross.

“This is…”

“It’s my sister’s,” Changsik said.

Daecheol frowned. There wasn’t just dirt and dust on it. There was blood as well. It was not the blood of the deceased. It looked fresh.

Daecheol looked at Changsik’s palm. Blood was oozing out from his flesh. He probably gripped it so hard that it dug into his body.

He wrapped the cross in a handkerchief. This was important evidence. Although it had been damaged badly, he might get something out of it if he had it investigated.

“What do you think you were doing going in there?! I told you, didn’t I? That you should stay at your parents’ house for a while.”

“I tried to. But whenever I close my eyes, I keep hearing a sound. My sister is telling me to save her. How can I possibly stay at mom’s house, when I know that the fucking murderer is the person who lives right next door? Just how?”

“That’s why you thought to go inside the criminal’s house and drink with him? What do you think this is, a joke?”

“Do I look like I’m taking this as a joke to you?”

Daecheol closed his mouth. Changsik’s eyes were trembling. No, his entire body was trembling as though he was sick.

“This is seriously driving me nuts.”

Daecheol waved his hand a few times before grabbing his shoulder.

He just confirmed for himself that a member of his family had been killed. No one other than himself would probably know what he was going through.

Daecheol couldn’t give him any words of consolation. He could only say one thing.

“I’ll get him. I’ll get that guy and put him behind bars.”

“I wanted to kill him. Just 10 minutes ago, I really wanted to kill him. But now, I’m just scared. I’m scared that he killed my sister, I’m scared I was just with him, I’m scared that I’ll meet him again, and I’m scared that he remembers me.”

“I know, I know. It’d be strange if you weren’t. He’s someone who has killed people. If you aren’t scared of him, that’s what’s abnormal.”

Daecheol looked up at Yoon Hojung’s house and asked, “Where’s he?”

“I don’t know. I just got the cross and left his house.”

“The lights are off now, though. I’m sure he didn’t suddenly decide to sleep after drinking.”

Daecheol held up Changsik who had frozen stiff. He sat him down in the back of his car and had him breathe deeply.

Yoon Hojung was not a fool. He was an intellectual criminal who didn’t leave a trace of his crimes despite committing five murders in the vicinity. He probably wasn’t the type of person to dismiss a trivial change or a suspicious spot.

Changsik looked uneasy right now, so how would he have been in Yoon Hojung’s house? He must have made a mistake, and Yoon Hojung must have caught that.

“You wait here.”

Daecheol zipped up his jacket and went to the apartment where Yoon Hojung lived. He looked up at the 3rd floor before going inside.

11 p.m. The multi-residence building was rather quiet. He used the stairs to go up to the 3rd floor.

After looking at Changsik’s door, he turned his head around to Yoon Hojung’s house.

He licked his dry lips a few times before knocking on the door.

Once, twice, and a third time. There was no response. He even pressed the bell, but there was still no answer.

Maybe he fled already? Just as he thought so, he heard car engine noises from a distance. The engine noise died down right in front of the building. Daecheol killed his footsteps and went up to the 4th floor. He heard someone open the glass door and come in. From the coughs he heard, it was a man.

Daecheol stuck himself against the wall and checked the man coming up. The sound became closer and eventually stopped.

It was Yoon Hojung. Daecheol observed him while being careful not to get caught.

Hojung, who stood in front of his door quietly, opened the door while muttering.

“Interesting.”

* * *

“Nothing. It’s clean. There’s no DNA match.”

“Okay then.”

“Daecheol, are you going to keep doing this?”

“I am.”

“I don’t get it. I do trust you, but the case itself is rather ridiculous. You’re saying that some people that had been classified as leavers for the past few years were actually murdered and that the corpse that was discovered 5 years ago was also the doing of one person?”

“I won’t ask for any assistance. But if I catch a tail, please help me out at that time.”

The leader tossed the DNA test results from the NFS* in the trash. It was purely thanks to the leader, who had a friend in the NFS, that the NFS undertook a DNA test for a case that didn’t even have a warrant.

“Daecheol. I’ve seen many people who ruined their lives as investigators because they were hung up on an unsolved case. What you’re doing now is like gambling. It feels like you can do it, it feels like you can catch the criminal, but you won’t get any assistance, so you might ruin your own life investigating with your own money.”

“I’ll think about it at that time, right before my life is ruined.”

“You stubborn guy. I wonder why I have someone like you as my junior. Go on. I’ll give you a break, so dig into that properly. But if there are no results, you have to take your hands off it, okay? I don’t wanna hear it ever again.”

“How can I do that? I’ll go as far as I can.”

“Fine, then, punk. Do what you want.”

Daecheol scratched his head and returned to his desk. Even if the evidence was acquired without a warrant, an investigation would’ve been much easier if there was any DNA or a fingerprint from the missing person.

-How did it go?

Changsik called. Daecheol told him the truth.

-So you can’t do anything?

“We can’t move rashly right now. There’s nothing that can pressure him in this situation.”

-What about other methods? Do you have one in mind?

Daecheol closed his mouth. He had no other methods. Intuitive evidence could not become critical evidence.

-I’ll do it.

“What are you going to do now?”

-He probably knows anyway. The cross disappeared after all.

“So?”

-I’ll try mentioning my sister directly.

“What do you think he’ll do if you say that? He’ll be even more cautious than he is now. He’ll get rid of all the evidence as well.”

-You told me, didn’t you? That Yoon Hojung is smart but is also someone with an ego. He’s someone who stores the items of his victims that might put him in jeopardy if found out, inside his drawer. If he intended to throw them away, he would’ve done so ages ago. That man can’t throw them away. Those things are what’s most important to him.

“How do you know that?”

-A hunch.

“A hunch.”

-Intuition doesn’t come from nothing. It comes when the things you see, hear, and feel cross one another. I’ve talked a lot with Yoon Hojung. I heard his thoughts, and I saw his expressions.

“You’re saying you understood him?”

-Just a little. I’ve been watching people a lot since I was young because of the number only I could see. I tried to explain to them. I’m very quick to catch. And also.

Changsik continued with a calm voice.

-He’ll be shaken if I mention the exact number of his murders. There are no murderers who want to get caught after all. Once he thinks that the things he thought were perfect were actually flawed, he’ll show a reaction.

“You can’t. That’s too dangerous.”

-That’s why I’m telling you about it. Protect me, detective. Actually, I’m saying all this, but I feel really scared right now.

“If you’re scared, then stop! Don’t try to do what a detective must do!”

-But you said there is no way!

Daecheol took his phone away from his ear when he heard the loud voice. He thought back to the first time he met Changsik. Changsik had been becoming a totally different man in these past months. Perhaps talking with Yoon Hojung might have been the catalyst for the change.

A murderer was not someone an ordinary person could understand. Such a mess of a human talked to the victim of his crimes. Changsik was laughing and talking as a pretense this whole time. Would his mind be sane?

“I’ll take responsibility and catch that guy.”

-I believe you. I still feel grateful. But I don’t think a way involving the law will work.

“Hey, HEY!”

-I’m going to meet Yoon Hojung right now.

“Hey!”

He shouted as he stood up from his seat. His colleagues around him all stared at him, wondering what was going on.

Daecheol gnashed his teeth and got his vest. The texture of the pistol by his waist felt much rougher than usual.

* * *

Jung Dawoon looked at the TV in a daze. She had not gotten a single work in the past year. The popularity she thought she had gained while shooting the daily drama had disappeared like bubbles. Her agency only told her that things would go well.

She had earned quite a lot of money, so she didn’t have any trouble getting by. The apartment she bought also rose by 200 million won in the past year. Even if she didn’t get any work for a few years, she would have no problems in everyday life.

However, she didn’t become an actress to live like that. She wanted to shine brighter than anyone else, be loved more than anyone else.

Just where did things go wrong? She only tried to do better, to be loved more.

Episode 9 of Case Number 0 was nearing its end. The immersion was great to the point that it made her forget about her depressing thoughts.

Whenever she looked at Maru acting in the drama, she reflected on herself. Could she act like that?

“How boring. And unfair too.”

She called her manager, saying that she wished to no longer extend the contract with her agency.

Her manager asked what had gotten into her.

“It’s just not fun anymore.”

She grabbed her phone. She looked up all the numbers she had related to the entertainment industry and erased them.

The only one left at the end was Han Maru’s number.

-Hello?

“Oppa, it’s me.”

-Yeah.

“I plan to quit acting.”

-You didn’t need to tell me that.

“That’s true. But I just wanted to ask now that I called you. If, you know, if I didn’t do such things and confessed to you, would our relationship have changed a little?”

Maru replied without hesitation.

-I found that assumptions are generally meaningless.

Dawoon’s lips twitched before she pressed the end call button. She then erased Maru’s number.

“What’s so great about him?”

She sent texts to her friends that she had not contacted for a while. She was going to form new relationships; there, she would become the center and receive everyone’s love. There was no need to compare herself to great people and suffer.

“Yeah, it’s me. It’s been a while, hasn’t it? I was wondering if we could meet up. I’ll pay for everything, so won’t you go to Jeju island with me?”

Dawoon turned off the TV and said into her phone.

After Story 198

-I looked into it and she supposedly notified her agency yesterday that she is not extending her contract, despite being near the end of it.

“Is it possible to know the reason why?”

Na Baekhoon, who was on the other side of the phone, responded immediately.

-Because it’s no fun, or so she put it.

“I’m not sure if she’s fed up or just got bored of it, but I guess I won’t have to worry about her in the future.”

-Yes. That woman does not enjoy undertaking suffering. She’s good at impulsively throwing herself forward, but there’s no ‘what’s after that.’ She was someone who could only start well.

Maru smiled and spoke,

“Thank you for looking into it. That takes care of one worry for me.”

-This much is nothing. Moreover, my life has been really enjoyable recently thanks to you so I wish I could help you more. I am really enjoying Case Number 0. I don’t remember the last time I kept up with a Korean drama.

“Was it to your liking?”

-It is not entirely to my taste, but the actors in it are so splendid that the drama is worth watching based on that alone. Mr. Hwang Hojoon was decent too. Though, he doesn’t have the beauty that I pursue.

Maru readjusted his phone and flipped over a book. His wife, who came to the living room with a tray, stared at him. She seemed to be asking if the phone call was going to take long.

He responded by shaking his head.

-But you seem to watch out for her quite a lot. Jung Dawoon, she’s a worthless person, so it should be okay to just ignore her.

“A rock outside your awareness is more dangerous than the rock you can see. You see, I’ve tripped over them a few times, so I’m keeping them in my awareness as much as possible.”

-That sounds plausible too. I shall tell you about her from time to time so that she doesn’t become a rock that trips you over.

“Please.”

He hung up and then got down from the sofa. Haneul picked up a kiwi slice with a fork and gave it to him.

“What was the call about to make you smile so happily?”

“A pain in the head has finally been taken care of.”

“Really?”

“You wanna know what it is?”

“No. Whenever you laugh deviously like that and say that it’s a pain in the head, it is never something interesting. Also, if you’re going as far as describing it as a pain in the head, I don’t think I need to know about it. I’m sure you’ve taken care of it well.”

“What are you going to do if it turns out I am hiding a huge accident?”

“You still don’t know me after living with me for so long? Do you think I would miss a hint like that?”

“Absolutely not.”

“Have I ever not noticed when you came home after being fired? How about the day you got scammed out of the deposit money? I asked you first when you had to sell your factory because you couldn’t pay back the debt, didn’t I? If there was a problem.”

“I can deceive god, but probably not you.”

“Exactly.”

Maru received the fruit his wife gave to him and put it in his mouth. It was just as she said. The problem with Jung Dawoon was nothing more than a ‘pain in the head.’ Unless she charged at him holding a knife or in a car, Jung Dawoon was only as significant to him as bread crumbs.

Even then, he should no longer have to worry about it. The fact that she quit being an actress meant that she was wrapping up her personal relationships.

He did have an inkling when he made the call yesterday that she was running away since she could not win. Such was the ending for most people who tried to live an easy life.

“Here.”

Haneul gave him a bundle of papers. It was packed tightly with photos and writing.

“The company decided to release a male perfume this time. It’s targeted at males who like to groom themselves. We already have the women down, so it’s about time we expand and target men too.”

It was a well-made advertisement design plan. Maru scanned it quickly and asked,

“You want to use me as the model?”

“You don’t exactly have the fair boy image. I was thinking about faces that stimulate masculinity within men, and I thought you were the best candidate.”

“Are you sure you won’t get sued for misappropriate business practice?” he smiled as he asked.

“How can it be misappropriated when it produces profit?”

“How are you going to overcome the criticism that you’re giving your family work?”

“You were purely decided based on your traits, so there is no problem. Also, how many people even know that we’re family?”

“Most importantly, can you pay me my rates?”

“You don’t know, huh? Compared to the models we are using now… you’re still B-tier in the advertisement industry, sweetie.”

“I know, I just wanted to play hard-to-get.”

Maru returned the advertisement plan.

“You’ll probably get contacted in about two days. Yeonjoo will be the one going there to sign the contract, so treat her well.”

“Of course, she’s the advertiser.”

Maru ate some fruit as he browsed the channels. He saw Case Number 0 on the top right of the screen where ads were playing. Back when episode 1 was airing, the drama didn’t manage to sell any ads, so there was only a promotion of the news agency, but now, there was everything, ranging from cosmetics to cars.

“Right. Did you make a subscription account?” Haneul turned her head and asked.

“No, that didn’t even cross my mind.”

“I guess there’s no helping it. Buying a house directly is much faster than getting one through a subscription account. Let’s go look at houses together sometime next week. I want to go to Daechi-dong for the sake of good schools.”

“You want to have Gaeul study?”

“Not exactly. I want to open all possibilities for her. I want her to enjoy all the things I can do for her.”

He nodded before asking back, “But has Gaeul ever liked studying?”

She fell into thought before laughing.

“She took after her parents so she never did. But you never know what will happen in this life.”

“I think I know.”

Haneul put her head on her hands and muttered — that maybe she should focus on the view instead of academics.

“Think about it after you give birth. We’re still by ourselves for now.”

Maru picked up a strawberry with the fork and gave it to Haneul.

Seeing his wife nibble away at the strawberry with her incisors, he then looked at the TV. The ad was ending, and the last episode of the drama was starting.

* * *

Junmin put on his glasses and watched the TV. Although he started watching the drama as a form of monitoring the work that had two actors belonging to his agency, he started watching it for pure enjoyment after some time.

He ignored the two Golden Retrievers rushing to him to go for a walk, the Welsh Corgi asking him to play with a drool-drenched ball, and the Border Collie that kept looking for his attention at his feet and focused on the TV.

“Stop bothering your dad and all of you come here.”

His wife took the dogs to the 2nd floor. Thanks to that, the living room became quiet. He picked up the pu’er tea he had brewed. When he took a sip, Maru appeared.

-I’m going to tell Yoon Hojung.

The conflict and tension had all reached their peak. The main character had to make a decision in the face of a problem that the law could not solve. Either wait or clash up front.

Episodes 8 and 9 were purely used to show the change in the protagonist’s psychology. The drama which rushed so fast that not a single moment was wasted until episode 7 unexpectedly ended up controlling the speed prior to the ending.

While it might be a composition that might suddenly break the tension and make things boring, the production crew used a clever way to solve this problem. They decided to show the characters’ psychology in depth since the progress had slowed down. The drama that proceeded with just the emotions exposed on the surface had portrayed their minds.

Maru took the overwhelming majority of that inner portrayal. The director put the detective and the murderer to the side after having them lead the first 7 episodes of the drama and placed the main protagonist, Ahn Changsik, in the center.

They reconfirmed why the college student Ahn Changsik had to be the main character, not the detective Lee Daecheol, and why the ability to see murder counts and the habit of observation were important in the drama, albeit late into the story.

Comparing Case Number 0 to running, it would be a 100m sprint. In truth, the story had already reached its conclusion at the beginning of episode 8. With the goal line right in front of them, the camera gave up on framing the track and the runner, and instead, focused on the runner’s bloodshot eyes, tensed muscles, and violent breathing.

Ahn Changsik, who had been in a passive situation this whole time relative to the case, had received all the production’s attention. A college student no different from everyone else had experienced a special event known as murder and had undergone a change while facing a murderer.

That process was packed fully into episodes 8 and 9.

This was also proof that the producer had faith in the actor’s skills. If the story slows down, the viewers were bound to feel frustrated. A moment of vexation would mean changing the channel.

However, this drama undertook that risk and took on the challenge.

And, according to Junmin’s judgment, the challenge was very successful.

-Five people, isn’t it?

-Changsik, what are you saying?

-You know very well what I’m saying.

Maru said as he opened his hand to reveal a silver cross. This was the first time Ganghwan lost his composure in the drama.

-You must’ve thought that you were perfect. I’m sure you had a lot of pride as well. You killed five people and got away with it. Heck, you didn’t just get away with it, you have a job as a detective so no one suspects a thing. I’m sure everything was easy for you. I’m sure you thought that the world would go the way you want it to.

-Changsik, I don’t get what you’re saying at all. Let’s calm down first and talk over it.

-I’m sure you’re thinking that I must’ve deduced it from the five trophies in your drawer. No, that wasn’t the only clue, was it? You’re smart. What do my current actions signify?

-Stop it. I’m not sure what you’re misunderstanding, but it’s not fun.

-I don’t think that’s right. I’m sure you like this situation. You enjoy this kind of thrill, don’t you? Murder is one thing, but you get excited over a perfect criminal act itself. That’s why you don’t reveal yourself despite being a serial killer. Normally, the likes of you are bound to make others know that you did it. Why do I know this? You didn’t forget, did you? You told me all this. It was you.

-When did I ever say such a thing?

-You kept showing it to me in secret. You were teasing me. I mean, the little brother of the woman you killed was right in front of you. That little brother acted so friendly to you without knowing anything, so how thrilling must have that felt? The living proof of your perfect crime was right in front of you, wasn’t it? Little by little, you tossed me some evidence and became more thrilled… Not knowing how that would come back to you.

The location on the screen was where Ahn Changsik’s sister was murdered.

An alley without a single CCTV. A place without human presence. It was not a coincidence that Changsik led Yoon Hojung to such a place. Throughout the entire drama, it showed that the most splendid ability that Ahn Changsik had was his ability to analyze others.

He observed his target’s habits and made them his own to understand their thought process.

Any viewer who watched episodes 8 and 9 must have noticed early on that Changsik was imitating a certain habit that Yoon Hojung had.

The drama kept showing the youth becoming synchronized with the murderer.

Ahn Changsik came to the judgment that Yoon Hojung must have done something in this place, and that it would’ve been easy to do so.

Though, of course, he did not yet know that his sister died here.

Two people stood in the alley pervaded by darkness. A murderer against an ordinary college student. The two were still very different people, but their eyes looked similar.

The camera shot Yoon Hojung’s fingers. He was rubbing his thumb and index finger together. Anyone who watched the drama would know what this action, which seemed to be a form of pondering, indicated.

Having become Yoon Hojung’s eyes, the camera looked at the surroundings.

This was a perfect place where he already committed murder once. He must have assured himself that there was no other place he could wrap this up perfectly.

-Do you know what this place is?

Yoon Hojung spoke and rushed in. The camera switched. Junmin thought that the confrontation would continue a little longer, but it did not. The distance between the two shrank rapidly, and the sound of a knife digging into flesh could be heard through the speaker.

Just as Changsik’s eyes distorted in pain and he was about to scream, Hojung leisurely blocked his mouth.

-Shh, this is my first time killing a man too. But it doesn’t feel half-bad, eh? Don’t worry. It only takes a moment. Strange, isn’t it? It’s just a hole that is a few centimeters deep, but a human cannot stand up. That’s the downside of muscles. It’s really sturdy when the cells are grouped together, but the moment they are broken apart, everything falls apart with it. Don’t tense up. It’ll just hurt more.

Hojung whispered that into Changsik’s ears.

Junmin looked at Ganghwan’s act and felt both impressed and worried.

If he does so well in acting as a murderer, he would not be able to get any ads for a while. The acting skills of and the number of ads weren’t always directly proportional.

Changsik’s body collapsed. Just then, a faint smile crept onto the face distorted in pain.

-Getting caught in the act… supposedly makes it possible to be prosecuted for all the past crimes, huh?

Just as Changsik said so, a car quickly drove into the alley.

At the same time, the screen turned into a flashback to the call that Changsik made at the beginning of episode 10.

-Detective. Please come to the place I tell you to by ten o’clock.

-You aren’t going to Yoon Hojung, are you?

-I’m not going to do something so dangerous. I promised you, didn’t I? Instead, you have to come, okay? I have something important to tell you.

Getting out of the car, Daecheol looked at the two people lit up by the car headlights. At the same time, the screen blacked out after a scream-like sound.

-Changsik. Hey, Ahn Changsik!

After Story 199

He was taken aback by the story progression which was half a step faster than he had expected. He knew that today’s episode was the last episode and that things had to come to a conclusion one way or the other, but he didn’t know that it would abruptly end like this.

The confrontation between Ahn Changsik and Yoon Hojung was bound to happen. When Changsik was looking for a suitable location, Daemyung thought that the two would soon face off. It seemed obvious to any avid watchers of dramas.

The sense of unease grew as the actors raised the tension. No one would blame them even if they ended the drama with a stereotypical ending. In fact, many would praise it as being decent.

However, Case Number 0 was way outside the norm. There was an avid interest in the conclusion that it was the point that there were heated discussions online about the drama.

With all the attention from the public, the media was talking about Case Number 0 as well. The anticipation rose along with the interest in it. The heightened sense of expectation resulted in the viewers being unable to be satisfied with an ordinary ending.

In a situation like this, if they ended up going with a predictable ending, the viewers would probably go on a riot online. Daemyung also felt that he would curse it.

He knew in his head that he didn’t participate in the production and had to respect the intentions of the producer. He was also a writer himself, so he was aware of the agonies of the producers as well.

Despite that, as an avid viewer who had watched since episode 1 without missing a single episode, an obvious, predictable ending was hard to accept.

If the drama that broke through the mannerisms of existing public TV dramas went with a common ending at the end, he felt like he would go mad and complain about it online.

However, his worries were for naught. The director managed to give him a satisfying blow. He did expect the two to face off but not that Yoon Hojung would act so quickly.

He would’ve thought that it was a rushed plot if there was no plausibility, but that wasn’t true either. From Yoon Hojung’s perspective, there was no better timing than that. It was the perfect time for murder.

The alleyway he walked down together with Changsik was a path he had investigated dozens of times while planning his murders. They did not meet anyone midway, and no one knew that he was meeting up with Changsik. Even if someone knew, there was no evidence that could link Changsik with Hojung.

Hojung must’ve looked into Changsik’s psychology as well. He must’ve realized that it would be dangerous if he let Changsik be. And the reason he did not stand in court despite killing five people must’ve been because of his quick judgment and actions.

Just from how he hid the other trophies as soon as he discovered that the cross disappeared was enough to tell the viewers about Hojung’s preparation skills, actions, and daringness.

The drama borrowed a stereotypical story at the end and went a beat faster before pulling out a result that was different from what Daemyung expected.

The drama gave him tension and interest until the very final episode.

Now, he looked forward to how they were going to wrap it up.

Hojung must’ve been arrested on the scene. He may have not put up any resistance and just obediently let himself get caught. From what Daemyung could tell, Hojung was thinking of both the murder and the pursuit of the police as a form of pleasure. The moment it ended, he would probably only express his disappointment and let himself get cuffed.

Daemyung drank the water he had poured beforehand. Strangely, he felt thirsty. Maybe it was because he was too focused on the figure on the screen.

“Then what about the knife…”

Daemyung muttered to himself as he thought about the knife that Ahn Changsik took with him. Before he called Yoon Hojung out, he took with him a box knife. Changsik looked very indifferent as he put the knife in his pocket.

That made him freak out even more. What did the box knife signify? If it ended like this, it was likely that Changsik’s knife would end up being a MacGuffin.

Maybe it was just an item to increase tension. It wasn’t bad, but Daemyung wished the knife would’ve been brought up in more detail.

Along with Daecheol’s shout, the blackened screen changed into a scene in the hospital.

An old car entered the hospital parking lot. The camera shot inside the car. The one sitting inside was Lee Daecheol. The news flowed out through the car speakers.

-It’s been discovered that the attempted murderer caught last week, Yoon, has committed a series of other murders, giving shock and grief to many. The police say that this is not Yoon’s first crime as the several people that went missing in…

The news was cut off by the car door closing. The camera, which shot Daecheol from his back, scanned the hospital following Daecheol’s gaze.

He went past the hospital entrance and through the corridor. He saw the name tablet in front of the ward.

Ahn Changsik.

Daecheol opened the door and went inside.

-You’re here.

Changsik’s mother greeted Daecheol with a haggard face. Daecheol greeted her as he handed her the juice that he brought with him.

While they exchanged words of greetings, the camera shot Changnsik, who was sitting on the bed. His eyes looked empty.

Daemyung thought that Maru’s eyes were really great. Those eyes told more stories than any words could. There was no sense of ecstasy from catching a criminal, nor was there any relief that it was all over.

The director was really good at making the audience nervous.

The case was supposed to be over now. Yoon Hojung was captured and put on trial. Even the crimes that had been buried were being revealed.

Evil had been eradicated and justice survived. The bastard child of lawlessness had lost and justice had finally gained victory.

However, the victor was neither happy nor sad. In fact, Changsik looked like he had fallen deeper into the abyss than when he was stabbed by Yoon Hojung.

Daemyung pondered about it as he looked at the screen. The end was approaching, but he couldn’t grasp it at all.

-Mom, I have something to say to the detective. Can you stay outside for a minute?

Hearing Changsik’s words, his mother looked at Daecheol in unease.

-It’s nothing much. He just wants to say a couple of words to me.

-Mom, I’ll stay with the detective for a moment.

After asking Daecheol to take care of her son, Changsik’s mother left the ward. The camera shot the two people from the ceiling of the ward. Even though the two looked like they were within arm’s reach, they looked strangely distant.

A moment of silence later, Daecheol took out something from his pocket. The camera replaced Changsik’s gaze. Seeing the box knife in Daecheol’s hands, Changsik faintly smiled.

-I was wondering where that went. I remember taking it with me.

-I found this by your side after subduing Yoon Hojung and taking care of you who passed out.

-You hid it?

-It’s not an object that a victim should be holding.

Daecheol looked at the box knife and continued.

-I do understand how you feel. I know that this was insurance.

-I was scared. I was afraid to go there with nothing, so I took that with me.

-Hey, what were you going to do if I came too late?

-But you didn’t.

-Like I said, what if I did? If I was ordered to dispatch, then I wouldn’t have been able to go there. I would’ve called you and said that we should change the appointment.

-Detective, it’s all over now. The criminal has been caught, and I’m intact. What’s the problem?

Only then did Changsik chuckle. Daecheol looked at Changsik for a while before putting the box knife back in his pocket.

-You didn’t come to return that to me?

-No, I’ll keep this with me.

-Okay. I have no need for it now anyway.

Daecheol stood up after telling him to take care. Before he opened the door, he looked back at Changsik. Changsik was calmly looking outside the window.

-Is there a problem with my child?

Changsik’s mother, who was outside, asked. Daecheol smiled and shook his head.

-Not at all. It’s all over now, so I’m sure he’ll be fine.

Daemyung crossed his arms. The director did not forget about the box knife. He had it reappear in a scene near the end. A strange sense of nervousness continued.

Changsik was placed in the middle of the screen. After looking outside, Changsik turned his eyes to look directly at the camera.

Daemyung freaked out as though he had made direct eye contact with Changsik.

The screen turned gray and returned to the last moments of Changsik and Hojung’s confrontation.

Yoon Hojung was smiling bitterly. However, it didn’t look like he had given up. The way he looked left and right implied that he was thinking of escaping.

Just then, a box knife fell out from Changsik’s pocket. Hojung’s eyes moved at the clanging sound. He saw the box knife on the ground and then looked at Changsik.

-You. You tried to kill me, didn’t you?

Changsik didn’t reply and just gasped for breath.

Daecheol’s shout could be heard. Put the knife down, get down, I’ll shoot, et cetera.

-I thought it was a coincidence that you brought me here. I thought you were fated to die in my hands just like your sister. But I was wrong. This place was prepared by you for me. You tried to kill me in the most ideal way, just like I did.

Behind Hojung’s shoulder, Daecheol could be seen aiming his gun barrel and shrinking the distance. Hojung whispered into Changsik’s ear.

-You understood me.

Yoon Hojung carefully pulled out the knife. Then, he raised Changsik’s hand to press it down on the wounded part.

-Don’t die. I didn’t stab too deeply. That detective will save you. You know? I thought that no one would understand this game I’m playing. I thought that no one in the world could sympathize with me. That is a really sad thing. But you understood me. You noticed the methods I devised after deep thinking. You’re right. Maybe I told you a lot of things. My reason, and even my heart.

Changsik looked at Hojung with his eyes wide open.

Yoon Hojung placed Changsik carefully on the ground and raised his head. He showed with his entire body that he had no intentions of resisting and spoke.

-You said five, right? Yes, it’s five. I buried your sister on a mountain in Sanbon-dong. I’m sure you’ll find her soon. But where are the other four? No, I guess the one from five years ago was discovered, so where are the other three?

Daecheol came over. He put Yoon Hojung down and cuffed him. Even then, Hojung did not stop speaking.

-Changsik. I’m sure you’ll find out. I’m sure you’ll discover my own secrets that no one could find out until now. You will understand my game and solve it. Think about me, ponder over me, and analyze me. Keep remembering me. How about it? You will, won’t you?

-Shut up!

Daecheol shouted.

-Changsik! Let us continue this game. You know me, and I think I now know you. Keep that knife safe. I’m sure you’ll use it one day. If the day comes, don’t forget to tell me how the sensation of your first murder is!

Daemyung felt like he had discovered a new page when he thought that he was on the last one. He exclaimed. This was how they were going to do it?

Then, the screen returned to Daecheol’s perspective. In front of him was Yoon Hojung in a prisoner outfit. Hojung faced Daecheol with a more refreshed face than ever.

-Where did you bury the three others?

-Where’s Changsik?

-Stop looking for him. I don’t plan to let you meet him.

-Then I can’t help it. The three of them will stay as skeletons. Oh, did you find Changsik’s sister’s body? I’m sure it didn’t rot since it’s winter. She was quite pretty.

-Yoon Hojung.

-Bring me Changsik. I want to talk to him. It’s not a bad deal for you cops, is it? I’ll just talk a little and you’ll solve an unresolved mystery. You have all the attention right now, right? If you solve a long-time unresolved case, you’ll get promoted as…

Daecheol jumped up from his seat. As Hojung’s figure was shrouded in darkness, only his lips were left until the end.

-Let me play with Changsik.

Daemyung cringed as he looked at Ganghwan’s acting. Maybe Ganghwan’s real personality was like that of a murderer from how he could immerse himself so much.

He knew that it was foolish to think that someone’s on-screen personality is their real personality. He knew that, but Ganghwan was still unpleasantly good at acting, so it made him suspicious. Those eyes and expressions, how was that acting?

After the screen turned black, it returned to Changsik’s perspective. He was smiling and working in a convenience store.

It seemed that some time had passed since the case was resolved. The emptiness in his eyes from the hospital scene was no longer there. He was the ordinary college student Ahn Changsik from episode 1.

As Changsik was restocking some items, a drunk customer visited the convenience store. He slapped Changsik on the back of the head for no reason and shouted at him to bring him a pack of cigarettes.

Changsik returned to the counter with an awkward smile.

-Work properly, punk. If you don’t want to die.

The camera captured the drunk customer chucking money as well as the back of Changsik’s figure. The glass door opened and closed, creating a bell sound.

The bell died down, and the camera closed up on Changsik’s hand.

The moment the bell stopped, Changsik stroked his thumb with the tip of his index finger. This was Yoon Hojung’s habit.

Daemyung let out a long breath. The ending soundtrack started flowing out and some behind-the-scenes footage of Case Number 0 came up.

It involved actors Yang Ganghwan and Han Maru playing pranks on each other instead of the cruel murderer and the college student.

“I swear they aimed for this.”

The seasonal drama was so well-made that it was resentful. There was no need to look. The drama forums would probably explode, mostly with requests for a season 2.

Daemyung grabbed his phone. He went to the web portal that he set as his homepage. He saw three words at the top of the search term rankings: Case Number 0, Han Maru, Hang Ganghwan.

He then called Maru. He must be one of the people who knows the most about the existence of a season 2 after all.

After Story 200

“Am I late?”

“No, writer. You’ve come just in time.”

“It suddenly started snowing, so I left early, but I still got stuck in a jam right as I arrived.”

“I was surprised too. There was no mention of snow until just yesterday.”

Yoo Jungtae placed his bag on the chair and dusted off the snow on his shoulders.

“I think we should get some coffee before we proceed. What do you say?”

“Great.”

“Which one would you like?”

“I’ll go with a latte.”

The journalist headed to the counter. Jungtae took out his phone and placed it on the table. It had been a long time since he had done an in-person interview. This was the first time after he received a prize for a long-running historical drama, so it had been about 7 years.

“Here you go, writer. A warm latte.”

“Thank you.”

He took a sip of some bitter coffee and only then did the residual chill in his body melt away.

“You’re busy these days, aren’t you?” asked the journalist.

“I’ve been getting just a few more appointments than usual.”

“I told my company I was going to interview you, and they came to me with so many questions. My whole team is a fan of your drama that it is to the point that we watch it during get-togethers.”

“I guess the viewing rate was thanks to you then, huh.”

“I think my contribution is about the same amount as an ant’s tears.”

The journalist moderately fawned and spoke humorously before checking the time.

“I can’t keep you here for long, since you must be very busy, so I guess I should proceed with the interview.”

Jungtae responded to the journalist’s questions wholeheartedly. It had been a while since he did an interview, so it was very fun as well.

“Since I asked you about the story, I guess it’s about time we talk about the ending. First of all, how did you feel when you finished writing the last episode?”

“If I think about how I felt back then, I was more uneasy than I was hopeful. It was an entirely pre-produced drama, so I couldn’t get any feedback from the viewers. I know that last-minute scripts are bad, but there’s no better method to reflect the needs of the viewers than that.”

“It seems you were worried about whether the responses would be good or not.”

“I haven’t worked on a drama for years after all. If I didn’t meet director Cha, I was going to put Case Number 0 away and start another line of work.”

“Really?” The journalist looked at him with surprise.

“Yes. If I think about it now, it was a godsend that director Cha looked at my work and that I managed to meet actor Han Maru.”

Hearing that, the journalist nodded and added,

“I wanted to ask about that too. There was a lot of talk about how the reason behind how Case Number 0 got produced was not because of Yang Ganghwan’s name value, but because of Han Maru’s scouting skills.”

Jungtae smiled and responded, “That’s not entirely wrong. Mr. Han Maru’s role was very big in setting up the production environment. I’m sure this has been mentioned in other articles before, but the production budget wasn’t that big. Who would invest a lot into a crime thriller with a hint of fantasy?”

“I guess that would be very hard.”

“In that situation, Mr. Maru brought Mr. Ganghwan. Strictly speaking, he didn’t exactly call Mr. Ganghwan over, but I can say for sure that he provided the opportunity for it. Without him, there would’ve been no point of contact between us and Mr. Ganghwan anyway. If that happened, Case Number 0 would’ve been put on indefinite hold or stopped outright.”

“The same is true for actor Hwang Hojoon, right? In an interview with another magazine, he said that it was entirely thanks to Han Maru that he was cast for the role.”

“That’s right. Mr. Hojoon was Maru’s recommendation. Actually, I was quite worried at first. Han Maru and Yang Ganghwan — these two are very solid top runners. They are actors who can’t possibly have any controversies about their acting skills, right? Would actor Hwang Hojoon really be suited to act alongside the two people? Would he run into any acting skill controversies with the two of them around? I had my worries, but I guess they were for naught. Mr. Hojoon was a great actor too.”

The journalist switched the position of the voice recorder slightly and spoke,

“So the drama was able to be aired thanks to both luck and skill. Going back to our topic about the ending, it’s been causing an uproar online. You know about that, right?”

Jungtae smiled. Of course he knew. Not to mention the internet, his acquaintances were calling him about the last episode.

“The drama had such speed, right?”

“It did end up proceeding quite fast since there were only ten episodes to work with and we were unfolding the story in a different way from usual.”

“And yet, at the very end, you slowed down and got into the details.”

“Actually, I talked to the director a lot about this; we discussed whether we should accelerate the progress and keep hitting the audience or take a break. We decided on the latter, and the results were satisfactory.”

“I was nervous because things were finally happening, then I was relieved, only to find out that something totally unexpected happened. I was in a daze when I watched the episode live. I thought the two of them would talk a little more before taking action.”

“Actually, I was surprised too because I only found out about that through TV. That was entirely on producer Cha.”

“A good piece managed to meet a good conductor then.”

The journalist picked up the pen.

“Actually, I guess the two following questions are the crux of this interview. Everyone’s going crazy because they want to know this.”

“I can predict what it is.”

“First of all, season 2. Is there anything in the works?”

He shook his head.

“I’m floored that everyone loves my work so much, and I’m filled with the passion to work on it, but I don’t think I can for the time being.”

“You mean to say that it’ll take some time to plot out the story, right?”

“Yes. Both the production company and the TV station are positively considering a continuation. The director is even saying that they might start the production immediately if I get him the manuscript. But I’ve run into the limits of my energy. I may be able to write it if I’m forced to, but the audience isn’t eagerly waiting to see an awkward season 2, are they?”

“As a fan myself, I’d love to see a perfect season 2 as well. But I’d definitely feel disappointed if it takes too long.”

“I’ll try my best. I’m not sure how it would go though.”

As it was just after the last episode, there was a lot of interest and many people wanted a second season, but it was unknown how long that heated interest would last. This trial at a new genre of drama managed to get points from the audience being that it was new and refreshing. Being ‘new’ was a huge advantage in itself. However, by the time season 2 was to roll out, dramas with a hint of fantasy would have become a common element.

If he put out a season 2 that had a similar plot as before in front of an audience that had become used to the ‘new taste,’ success would be far out of reach. Naturally, he became very sensitive and cautious about writing a new story.

“I hope that season 2 comes out one day. And finally, I’d like to ask about the ending cut. There are people fighting over this. A colleague of mine talked a lot about it too.”

“It’s about Changsik, right?”

“Yes. That action he showed at the very end, that was the murderer Yoon Hojung’s habit. It’s a well-known fact that Changsik analyzed and studied many aspects of Hojung. It was a way for him to gain knowledge to catch the murderer. But what does it mean for him to show such actions when the case was resolved?”

Jungtae asked back what the journalist thought about it.

“I think it was just a coincidence or a force of habit. He had been imitating Yoon Hojung so much that he acted like that subconsciously. Conversely, though, there are many people who think that Changsik had been influenced by Hojung’s nature. That’s why there are many people debating about which one is right.”

“As a writer, I am very grateful that people are talking about the characters I made. That’s why it’s even harder to give you a concrete answer. The manuscript has left my hands to become a video, and as soon as the video reaches the audience, the interpretation is entirely up to them. I believe it’s a breach of authority to interfere with that directly. Of course, if someone talks about an entirely wrong interpretation like it’s the writer’s own, then I’d correct them.”

“You mean to say that Changsik might be the ordinary person we saw in episode 1, but he could also have a totally different personality altogether just as Hojung wanted him to be, right?”

“That’s how it is.”

“And the answer to that will only be revealed in season 2.”

Jungtae smiled and pulled his chin inward.

“It’s a pity to end it here, so let me ask one last thing: If you were a viewer of Case Number 0, writer, how would you hope for Changsik to change?”

“If I didn’t write this, then I’d want to see Changsik changing. The impressions he received from Hojung will subconsciously influence him. Of course, changing the protagonist into a murderer is a no-go, so I guess the main storyline would be about his inner conflict.”

“From that, I think I can predict how season 2 would be. If there’s a problem with shooting season 2 and you have to use a new set of actors than the original ones, how would you deal with that?”

“Err, if I answer this wrong, I guess the actors would be angry at me.”

“An interview is only interesting if there are some provocative things to spice it up.”

The journalist asked him to just answer comfortably.

“Honestly speaking, the chemistry between the current cast is so good that I can’t think of anyone else in their positions. If things don’t work out and I have to use other actors, then well… I guess the writer of season 2 will be someone else, not me. The impressions that Hwang Hojoon, Yang Ganghwan, and Han Maru left in my head are so deep now.”

“I also wish that the cast for season 2 does not change,” said the journalist, putting down his pen.

* * *

“I really don’t do things like this.”

“Even if you’re bored to death, bear with it for a while. You see senior Hojoon having high hopes, right? You have to cooperate well so that our senior Hojoon can boast to his wife about doing an interview on TV.”

Hearing Maru’s words, Hojoon widened his eyes. He was a burly man, yet he looked so nervous.

“I’m not having high hopes at all.”

“I was just joking so that you can relax a little, senior. But it is true that your wife is looking forward to the program, isn’t it?”

“Th-that’s true. But why am I shaking so much? Maybe I should’ve taken some calming pills.”

“It’s the same camera as the shoot. Don’t be so nervous.”

Ganghwan was bored and Hojoon was frozen stiff. Maru prepared for the interview while consoling the two big brothers. They had received a flood of calls from various programs immediately after the last episode finished airing.

Not only that, they were even from public TV channels.

“But did they always do interviews after dramas end?” Hojoon asked.

“Usually, they do interviews during press announcements. But our drama didn’t receive any interest at the beginning, and it was on a private-owned channel too.”

“True. But hey, public TV studios are really good. They are big. I guess other TV companies will call you if the drama does well, huh?”

“Because they can receive attention. If they can raise the viewing rates, what can’t they do?”

While they were talking, the reporter came in.

He was a pretty famous comedian and also the face of this program. He said hello to Ganghwan joyfully as though they knew each other beforehand.

“Don’t be too nervous just because it’s an interview and relax. You can take the drinks in front of you too. The theme we’re going with this time is a drunken candid conversation.”

“I’ll get in trouble if I get drunk,” Hojoon said in worry.

“You just need to drink just enough to ease up.”

As soon as the reporter finished those words, Hojoon opened a can of beer and drank a bunch.

The reporter smiled and told him to take it slow.

“It’s going to start soon. Don’t worry about the camera. The camera directors will do a good job by themselves. Just think of it as talking comfortably in a drinking place.”

While the reporter said spoke to them, the producer, who was watching, gave a signal. It seemed they were ready.

The reporter got into position, and the lights on the camera lit up.

“We have a special set of guests today. The three main characters of the hot drama, ‘Case Number 0.’”

After Story 201

“The lighting is good and it’s newly built, so the structure is well thought-out too. As you can probably see, the current resident is a clean person, so there’s no need for any repairs other than redoing the interior design.”

Haneul spoke as she opened the bathroom door, “There’s a lot of problems recently about newly-built apartments, isn’t there? Especially in regards to leaks.”

“There has been quite a controversy. But this place is okay. Before they started taking tenants, there were fewer than ten repair requests in the precheck stage. They were mostly trivial too.”

“That sounds good.”

“I can’t show you any ordinary item. It was president Lee’s personal request.”

Haneul smiled and looked at the estate agent. President Lee Junmin’s name value always did its worth.

“This place is for sale as well, right?”

“Yes, the current owner said he has to go overseas in a hurry, so the price is pretty decent considering that it’s on a VIP floor in a VIP area. This is probably the best house I’ll show you today.”

“I think so too. There’s no better place even considering the location,” Haneul said as she looked out the window.

Real estate in Seoul, especially one that had a view of the Han River, was infallible. No matter how many times they repeated their lives, she couldn’t remember a single time when real estate in Seoul had fallen. It might have stagnated sometimes, but eventually, it kept rising. There were 10 million people living in this cramped space, so it was not surprising that it kept going up even in a falling market.

Though, in this life, the population distribution seemed to be progressing pretty well with many people moving to the newly-built cities. Ultimately, though, the advantage of those newly-built cities was easy access to Seoul.

It wasn’t that she was buying real estate for investment purposes, but she did want to take root in a place that would rise in the future.

“Don’t you think it’s better to go with a larger apartment complex?” Maru asked as he looked around the living room.

“Let’s think about it when we have a child. For now, I think this place is good. How about you, sweetie?”

“I like anything you like.”

Haneul looked at the veranda for one last time before setting a contract deposit.

“I’ll contact you again with the necessary documents.”

“Thank you for your work today.”

“Don’t mention it. Just tell president Lee Junmin I said hi.”

The estate agent shook hands with Maru and sent him a strong message with his eyes. Maru smiled and said that he’d definitely do so.

“The president made things a lot easier,” Haneul said as she put on her seatbelt.

“He told me that you should definitely come to JA since he can help you with so much more. It seems he wants you there quite a lot.”

“President Lee has a good eye for people.”

Maru spoke as he started the car, “Are you going to extend your contract with your current agency?”

“No. JA has reached out to me, so there’s no reason for me to not go. If I move there, it’ll be a lot easier to work with you too.”

“Will the president on that side let you go that easily?”

“If I say I’ll be signing a contract with JA, they’ll probably smile bitterly while taking the contract away. It hurts my pride a little, but I can’t miss this opportunity.”

“Pride?”

“I didn’t manage to release anything good while I was in this agency. It would’ve been a lot more interesting to weigh both sides if the movie I shot last year did well.”

She might have been quite successful in running her business, but she didn’t reap any results as an actress. She knew she had to be satisfied since she achieved success in one area, but human greed knew no end.

“If I want to rise to your level, I’d either have to be lucky or take some time. Actresses get paid less too.”

“Take it slow,” Maru said.

“While you’re rushing far ahead?”

“Hun, you were doing two things at once. Your business has been successful, and you received considerable results as an actress too. I wouldn’t be able to do that. It’s thanks to you who stepped into creating a fallback that I was able to focus on acting work. You gave me so much support so of course I’ll bring results.”

“That makes me feel a little better.” She smiled mischievously.

She knew better than anyone an acting career was not a short-distance sprint, but a long-distance marathon. The reason she wanted to prove her worth as an actress despite that was purely because of her age.

An actor had things that they could only do when they were in their twenties. The same was true for the thirties and forties. No matter how good someone was at acting, their bodies wouldn’t be able to withstand the test of time.

She wanted to act alongside her husband in a piece that was only possible because she was at her current age. Then once again when she became thirty, and once more at 40.

“If I want to put Han Maru and Han Haneul in the main cast, I’ll have to do my best.”

“Then you can do that for the film director Na’s investing in.”

“For that, I’ll be participating both as an actor and the director. Oh, right. You’re going to need some stomach medicine when you work with me, sweetie. You know what that means, right?”

“I do. That’s why I’m contemplating if I should reject the cast or not. I love watching your acting but not acting according to your instructions. That’s just so hard. There’s a limit to being perfect, yet you’re so picky.”

“I’ll take that as a compliment.”

Haneul looked at her husband frowning before taking out her phone. The interview that the main cast of the drama shot last week was aired yesterday. As the interview proceeded over a drink, the responses were good.

“It looks like senior Hwang Hojoon will be quite popular as a wife-lover for a while.”

“The show actually edited a lot of it out. You know, he actually stayed quiet because of nervousness before we started drinking, but when he got into the mood, he suddenly started boasting about his wife a lot. The producer had a hard time holding him back from making a call.”

Maru chuckled as though he thought about what happened back then.

“What did you do after seeing that, sweetie?”

“Do what?”

“Didn’t you feel a sense of duty to boast about your lover? Senior Hwang was really sweet. I could feel his love for his wife. I was envious the whole time.”

“I guess I should’ve announced that I was dating, huh? I was too short-sighted. In my next interview, I’ll definitely say that I’m really happy because I went browsing through houses with the woman of my life,” he said in a grave tone.

“I’ll look forward to that,” Haneul said as she stroked his cheek.

“How’s your writing coming along? It looks like you’re coming home later and later recently. Is it not going well?”

“No, it is going well, which is why I’m late. Frankly, though, Daemyung has gotten quite obsessive lately.”

“Obsessive?”

“It looks like he’s gotten a deep impression after watching the last episode of Case Number 0. Ever since that day, he wants to hold me back when I say we should wrap up and go home, saying that he wants to do more. At this point, I’m getting tired instead.”

“Daemyung is the type of person to charge straight ahead without looking around once he’s into something.”

Haneul sighed softly. “I’m really grateful. It’s also exciting to see that the quality is rising all the time. But it feels strange being held back by him every single day without a single day of break like it’s some factory work. I’m supposed to be the employer, but at this point, I’m on the disadvantageous side of this relationship. It’d be somewhat ridiculous to ask him to stop when he says he wants to do more. Do you think it’s about time I hand everything to him?”

“It was something you were expecting to happen, I mean, having him take care of the script while you focus on the production.”

It was as her husband said. It was something she had predicted would happen. Daemyung possessed great qualities as a writer even in this life. His skill at writing was improving day by day.

As writing was something abstract, it was hard to tell which version was better, but in the case of Daemyung, it was visibly getting better, to the point that it was better to call it evolution than improvement at this stage. Not just any evolution, but some kind of malformed evolution that was happening in a short period of time.

“Daemyung told me this as well, that he wants to see Han Maru acting according to his script. Maybe it was your acting that stimulated him more, rather than the drama itself.”

“That’s quite embarrassing.”

“You know you like it.”

While heading home, her husband received a few calls. Whenever he responded to a call, he said this: I remember, I do, we should meet up sometime.

“Who is it this time?” Haneul asked.

Maru responded after finishing the call.

“Elementary school reunion.”

“Did you always go to those?”

“No, they never gave me a call. I didn’t know it existed.”

“They want you to come?”

“They want to meet up with me if I have the time. The problem is that I don’t remember anyone, whether it’s this person or any of the other people’s names that he listed.”

“Isn’t it that you can’t differentiate them to be exact? I’m like that.”

The compilation of their life data was frighteningly massive. How many elementary schools did they go to and how many friends did they make? There were times when they mixed up if a friend was from this life or one of the previous lives.

“I should call later and say that I can’t go. I have so many people to look out for, so seeing my elementary school colleagues is going to be too much for me when they haven’t called me in years.”

“If you were originally attending, then I wouldn’t say that for sure, but I think you shouldn’t go just as you said.”

Having arrived home, Maru changed his clothes and got ready to leave. After scanning his outfit, she made a circle with her fingers.

“Drink in moderation.”

“Okay. You’re going to meet Daemyung, right?”

“Yes. He’s been nagging me to come too.”

“Good work.”

She saw him out after a light kiss.

Maru had become a lot busier ever since the drama ended. He especially had a lot of drinking sessions with people from the TV stations. It just went to show how much the value of the actor known as Han Maru had increased.

Haneul also changed into comfortable clothes and left for the office. The office was something she rented in order to work with Daemyung.

When she opened the door and went inside, she saw Daemyung curling around the table.

“What are you up to?”

“Thinking.”

After walking for a while, Daemyung went to the kitchen and started washing a cup. He washed the clean cup again and again. Haneul smiled as she saw that.

“You can’t write?”

“I can, but I don’t like it.”

“Did you write any of it down?”

“It’s on the desk.”

She saw a notebook on the desk. She picked up the note and started reading it. Other than the main theme and the main structure, the script had changed entirely. At this point, it was embarrassing to put Han Haneul as the writer’s name.

“Now, there’s only a hint of my idea left in it.”

“You don’t like it?” Daemyung asked as he put down the cup, looking worried.

“No, I like this better. I think it’s about time I take my hands off writing and focus on producing and acting.”

“But you’re the original creator, so keep looking over it. I might stray off if I don’t see any indicators in front of me.”

“That makes me feel complicated. My role is just as an indicator, huh.”

“It’s just a figure of speech.”

She tossed the note at Daemyung who looked apologetic. Daemyung was startled and received the note.

“Stop doing something weird and write. In my opinion, you’re the type of person who can only write with your butt on the chair.”

She brought Daemyung over and sat him down at the desk.

“From now on, I’m not going to write anymore. Instead, I’ll be focusing on supporting your work. Tell me anything you need for writing, whether it’s material research or interviews. I’ll listen to it as much as possible.”

“You’re suddenly giving me everything?”

“It’s not sudden. I’ve been watching you for a long time and concluded that this is the most efficient method. I told you when we started that you might be in charge of it one day.”

“But this is your work.”

“No, it’s yours from now on. If the writing wasn’t that good, I was going to keep having a hand in it, but there’s no need for me to do that when there’s someone better than me at the job. It’s more efficient to focus on what each of us does best, isn’t it?”

Daemyung hesitated and looked at the note. He really hadn’t changed, hesitating at a time like this.

She twitched her eyes and slapped him on the arm.

“Just because I’m putting you in charge doesn’t mean I’m not going to look at it. I’m going to be even more meticulous about it as the producer. You might be the one telling me to hold back, you know?”

Haneul opened the notebook and put it in front of Daemyung.

“Well, then. Let’s get to work, shall we? Writer Park Daemyung.”

Daemyung sneaked a glance at her and put on a complex expression as he put his hands on the keyboard.

“Why does it feel like I’ve suddenly been shackled?”

“It’s just your imagination,” she said with a smile.

After Story 202

-Have you ever heard of canned tuna?

“Who doesn’t know of it? And why are you looking for it so suddenly?”

-Because I feel like one right now. I’m all locked up, writing, reading, and writing again. Maybe this is what it feels like to re-enlist?

“Your voice sounds quite cheerful for someone depressed.”

-It’s stifling, but it is quite fun. It’s something I’ve always wanted to do too.

“And you get paid for it too? If you feel like your head isn’t working, then tell Haneul about it. She’s a genius at handling people. I’m sure you’ll be sitting back at your desk before you know it.”

-I already experienced that. Maybe it’s because of that, but I’m scared of Haneul now. It’s like she’s not the same age as me. She seems more like a veteran soldier who has had more than her fair share of society. Well, I guess that must be how she’s the joint CEO of a good company.

Maru chuckled as he listened to Daemyung’s analogy. Someone on his wife’s level was not just a veteran soldier, but a veteran general who had commanded many wars. She was a master at making use of people, so she would probably bring out the limits of Daemyung’s talent.

“Work hard. It’s your piece from now on.”

-Even if you didn’t tell me that, I’ve been having a terrible stomachache because of the responsibility. I feel even more pressure when I think that you’re going to be acting according to my script.

“I’m only acting in it if your writing is good. If it’s subpar, I’ll look into doing something else.”

-And you call yourself a friend of mine. How cruel.

“If you chatted this much, I think it’s about time Haneul starts giving you hints. Try looking next to you.”

-… I think I should hang up. Your wifey is on the verge of making me do work.

“Good work, and good luck.”

He hung up and went into the nearby convenience store. He took out a can of coffee and gave the employee his credit card. The employee, who looked to be in college, took the card and gave him a glance. She looked rather puzzled and hesitant.

Maru didn’t say anything and received the coffee and the card.

He got in the car and drank the coffee before heading to Daehak-ro. As there wasn’t a single speck of clouds in the sky on the weekend, it was very bustling in front of Hyehwa station.

He put on his hoodie and got out of the car. Unless he made it obvious, no one would recognize him.

On his way to the theater, he bought some roasted sweet potatoes. There was no better snack than this.

“There’s a C-15 café on the opposite side. Is this the place?”

-Yes, it is. I’ll go up now.

“No, you don’t have to.”

He walked into the building’s basement. He walked past the sign that said that play preparations were underway, and there he saw the audience seats and the stage.

“How are things going?” Maru asked the juniors sitting on the stage.

“Senior!”

Sinhye greeted him first. Joohwan, Jungah, and the rest came over as well.

“You managed to rent a good theater,” Maru said as he looked around.

“We barely managed to get one through an acquaintance. It was cheaper than the market price too,” Jungah said in response.

“For how long?”

“Two months.”

“Are you doing practice here as well? It must be quite cramped.”

“We rented a practice room as well. Everything came down to money when we tried to put on a play. At school, the stage and even the practice rooms were free.”

“That’s how it is most of the time. For now, eat something before you do anything else.”

Maru gave the bag of roasted sweet potatoes to Jungah. Another junior, who was watching from the side, interjected,

“Senior, this isn’t everything, is it?”

“Joohwan, Jungah, and Sinhye were the ones who did all the work. Why do you want a share?”

“Because we share the same destiny,” said that junior, looking side to side.

“I brought these as snacks, so eat them for now. I’ll treat you out properly once you clean up and we leave.”

“You’re the best. I had trust in you.”

“Then you should come next time too. He who does not work, neither shall he eat. You know that, right?”

“Of course. I’ll go next time. I’m really good at looking after kids. I looked after all of my cousins.”

“That sounds reliable. Go on and eat before they cool off.”

While the juniors sat down in a circle to eat the sweet potatoes, Maru walked around the theater. Large stages with more than a thousand seats in the audience were good, but a small theater like this had its own charms.

The smaller stage meant being able to do a cozier play, and being closer to the audience seats meant easier communication.

“They use good chairs here,” Maru said looking at the seats that even had cushions on the backrest.

Compared to other theaters that just used long benches as seats, these might as well be premium seats.

“The owner said he doesn’t intend to earn money through the theater. That’s why he rents it to college students like us.”

“He sounds like a good person.”

He sat down on the chair and looked at the stage. The juniors eating the sweet potatoes all grinned and looked back at him.

“The stage is good and the actors are good too. As long as you can put on a proper act, I guess the people that visit won’t regret their decisions.”

It was a compliment, but the expressions of the juniors stiffened up slightly. He gave a glance before speaking,

“Is there a problem?”

“Uhm, the thing is… the person playing the main character found employment. It’s a good thing. She got into a well-known company. But the timing was a little…”

The juniors smiled awkwardly.

That alone was enough for Maru to discern their current situation. Other than Jungah, Sinhye, and Joohwan, the rest of them did not stake their lives in acting.

Sure, they might like acting, plays, and movies even now – which was why they were investing their own time and money into practice and rent so that they could hold a play – however, in the face of the giant that was making a living, acting and plays became less of a priority.

There was no need to blame anyone, nor should anyone do so. The juniors must have congratulated that person’s employment wholeheartedly. It was just a natural thing that they were worried about because of the sudden vacant position of the lead actor.

“We stopped her when she said she was going to do it until the end. You know large companies have month-long orientations for new employees, right? She managed to get in with so much difficulty, so she can’t just miss that and come here to act in plays. Moreover, we’re going to do the plays for two months, so we can’t have her commute to this place instead of work for that long.”

“She cried when we said it was okay. She’s way too kind for her own good. If it was me, I would’ve said ‘goodbye suckers’ and immediately left.”

“Are we suckers?”

“We are suckers with a good relationship.”

The juniors looked at each other and giggled. They acted like it was okay, but the absence of the lead actor was probably a huge problem.

“Senior.”

“I’m saying this upfront, but I can’t do it.”

Sinhye frowned.

“You won’t even let me speak. It’s not like you can do it anyway, can you? You’re a man and Jimin’s a girl.”

“I’m sorry, but in terms of acting, I can definitely do it. I’m pretty sure I can look more feminine than you, Sinhye. If I put on a little makeup.”

“Don’t say something so terrible. Anyway, I’m not asking you to do it, but…”

Sinhye was unable to finish her words since Jungah tapped on her flank to stop her.

Sinhye glared at Jungah before twitching her mouth and going back to eating the sweet potato.

“It’s nothing, senior.”

“You know that saying that makes me even more bothered, right?” Maru said.

This time, Sinhye tapped on Jungah and gave her a signal. Jungah put down the sweet potato she was holding.

“It was like this last time too, and I don’t think that it’s a good thing to get your help. I believe that it’s only right that we solve this ourselves since it was something that we were doing.”

“That’s true. But you know, don’t you find it a waste when there’s a person you can make use of right in front of you? Especially now when it’s a problem for multiple people. It’s a problem that you must solve one way or the other. Is it set in stone that Jimin can’t come?”

“Yes.”

“How many times did you put on the play?”

“Yesterday was the fourth run. Jimin came to that one, but the problem will be next week’s.”

“Do you have a backup plan?”

“We were going to talk about that.”

“Then go on. If you reach an answer, you go with that, and if you don’t then I’ll put in my own opinion as well.”

The juniors looked at each other before starting to discuss options ranging from removing a character altogether to finding a replacement. All the normal methods were mentioned.

“The best thing will be to find a replacement, but we don’t have a lot of time. We can at most do four more rehearsals until the 5th run next week. Don’t you think it’s impossible for someone to learn one of the main characters in such a short time?”

“It’s going to be difficult. Moreover, all of us can only meet up about twice. We really have a bad schedule this week.”

Among the juniors gathered here, more than half of them had graduated college. There were some doing part-time jobs and some that were already employed. It wouldn’t be so easy to have everyone meet up.

“If it doesn’t work out, then as much of a waste as it is, we can just wrap up here. The rental fees are a bit wasteful, but it’s much better than putting on an inadequate play,” Jungah said, to which Joohwan seemed to be in agreement.

“I don’t want to do that. Honestly speaking, it’ll be impossible for us to meet up like this in the future. For me, Joohwan, and Jungah, we can invest our time into this because it’s related to our careers, but that’s not the case for others. Everyone either has their own work to do or will find something soon. Do you think we can meet up again like this?”

“I agree with Sinhye. I think it’s better to just remove a role and simplify the play altogether.”

The opinions were split. Both sides sounded plausible and sympathizable.

“I want to do it too. But it’s not easy to remove Jimin’s role. That will end up changing the direction of the play, the content, and even the ending. Can you modify the script in just one week? I don’t have the confidence to do that. Moreover, we’re doing an existing play. If we’re going to reinterpret the whole thing, we have to ask for permission.”

“Geez, Jimin. I hope you’re happy at your job,” Sinhye said with a laugh.

As they hit a block, they couldn’t reach a conclusion.

“Can I say something?”

“I say you’re welcome to!” Sinhye said as she raised her hands.

Jungah also nodded apologetically.

“Seniors have two jobs. One is to pay for a meal without a word, and the second is to help out in times of need. You talked about this for quite a while, but you didn’t manage to find a solution, am I right?”

“Yes, we don’t have anything right now.”

Maru looked at Sinhye and spoke, “What were you going to ask me for, Sinhye?”

“I was going to ask you to introduce someone you know to us. You’re a famous actor now, so I’m sure you must know many actors, and I was thinking maybe you could introduce one to us. A professional should be able to make up for the lack of practice.”

“If I introduce someone to you, can you handle that person’s payment?”

“P-payment?”

“You weren’t expecting me to pay that person on top of introducing her to you, were you?”

Sinhye asked cautiously,

“Which actress were you going to ask? Is there an actress who would come for amateurs like us?”

“How about the actress Kim Suyeon?”

The juniors tilted their heads in confusion before looking at him in surprise.

“That Kim Suyeon?”

“I’m all for it!”

Maru spoke again after hearing their words,

“Instead, you’ll have to pay her around fifty per appearance.”

“It’s not fifty… thousand, is it?”

Maru shrugged. Sinhye sighed.

“Is there any other way?”

“Normally, no. You’d be hard-pressed to find actors who want to participate in an amateur stage. In that sense, you guys are lucky. I know one woman who loves stages like this.”

“Really?”

“But I can’t guarantee if she will accept or not. She has a lot of work to do. Give me a minute for now.”

Maru pressed the quick dial and put his phone against his ear,

-Yeah, what is it?

“What are you doing right now?”

-I’m out to get some bread. Some carbs for Daemyung.

“You don’t have anything else to do other than supporting Daemyung for a while, right?”

-I don’t. Why do you ask?

Maru looked at the juniors on the stage and spoke,

“Hun, how about going on a stage? And helping out some cute juniors while at it.”

After Story 203

He seemed to be calling the actress that could help them out. Jungah looked at Maru whispering into his phone. He was standing at the back of the audience seats, so his voice couldn’t be heard.

“Is he scouting someone?”

“I guess so, right?”

“It won’t actually be Kim Suyeon, will it?”

“No way.”

“But the person he’s calling now… they must be really close. Look at senior Maru’s expression.”

Everyone became quiet after that. Maru ended his call and was coming over while waving his phone.

“I did make a call for now.”

“Who is it? Is it really actress Kim Suyeon?”

“If you want, I can ask her as well. But can you handle her payment?”

“I was joking. But really, who were you calling? You seemed really close.”

“Someone I know. Anyway, she said she’ll call back after checking her schedule because she has work to do. You all better pray to the gods you believe in so she can come to this place.”

“Is she that amazing?”

“In my standards, yes.”

Maru’s phone started ringing again.

Wait – Maru said before picking up the call.

“If he’s going as far as saying that, who did he really call?”

“I’m not sure who it is, but I’m sure she can become our savior.”

While they were chatting, Maru hung up his call. Jungah looked at Maru’s lips which were firmly sealed in a straight line.

“Jungah.”

“Yes?”

“All the actors are here, right?”

“Other than Jimin, everyone else is here.”

“Good. Can you give me the script?”

Jungah brought the script from the waiting room behind the stage and handed it to Maru.

“That friend of mine is coming, but there is a condition. She said she’ll decide whether to help out or not after seeing how good the play is.”

“Then shall we prepare right now?”

“You don’t need to prepare any outfits or stage devices. You just need to show it to her once like you’re doing a rehearsal run. I’ll take the role that Jimin played. I’ll just go with the flow, so show her what you did as is.”

Jungah looked back at her friends. They all spoke in dissatisfaction.

“Senior Maru is someone we can rely on, but how are we supposed to trust the person that’s coming right now?”

“Can she really arrive at an answer if she sees our acting? I’m grateful that she’s coming to help, but it feels like we’re being tested when she said she’ll decide after watching.”

“There’s no way senior Maru called someone inadequate, is there? I’m sure he’s introducing her to us because he can rely on her. No one else here can resolve Jimin’s problem, right? I think it’s better to go with what he told us.”

“I’m not sure about anything else, but I’m honestly quite worried. We’re getting paid to host this play. Do you think the person that’s coming now can join us immediately? Jimin’s role is quite finicky.”

Jungah looked at her friends exchanging opinions before turning her head to look at Maru. He looked at them as though he knew what they were talking about.

“I’ll say this beforehand. This is a test. The person that’s coming now is very picky when it comes to standing on a stage.”

When he affirmed that this was indeed a test, everyone else looked complex.

“If this was a school activity or a volunteer play, then she wouldn’t have said that she needed to have a look. For those, other things matter more than the play itself. But this play you’re doing is something you’re selling tickets for in a theater in Daehak-ro, right? Since it involves money, this person will be very meticulous about it. Pride as an actress is one thing, but the more important thing is the position of the customers who will be paying money to watch,” Maru said as he raised his phone in the air. “If you don’t like this person’s conditions, then just tell me. I’ll tell her not to come. Ultimately, this is your stage. Your opinions matter the most. However, let me tell you that I will no longer be able to help with Jimin’s problem. Calling this person is the best and most reliable option that I can think of.”

Jungah bit her thumb and looked at her friends. Although only in name, she was their representative.

Maru gave her an option that left no room for negotiation. She either had to accept or refuse.

“I don’t get why you’re all so uncomfortable with getting tested,” Joohwan, who had been listening this whole time, suddenly interrupted and said.

“I’m good. I have the confidence. I am overjoyed that I can show my acting to a guest that the senior is calling over. Acting is an occupation that receives assessment. If you don’t like showing yourself to someone else, then there’s no need for you to be an actor.”

“Damn punk, I was wondering why you were quiet this whole time,” Sinhye immediately retorted. However, there was a smile on her face. “I know the way he speaks is really frustrating and he lives for his own good, but I think what he said is right. Hey, honestly speaking, are we bad? I think we’re better than most professional theater troupes, you know?”

When Joohwan and Sinhye stepped in, everyone started taking it positively.

“We’ll be the ones testing her. We’ll assess whether she’s fit to join us or not.”

Sinhye spoke to Maru,

“Senior, tell that person to come. We’ll show her how good we are.”

“Is that your decision?”

“Yes. Jungah, right?”

Jungah nodded. They had no great method to resolve Jimin’s absence, so they had to listen to Maru’s words anyway. She was worried that things might flow in a bad direction, but it was resolved well thanks to help from Joohwan and Sinhye.

“Instead, we’re going to assess her as well. It’s just as you said, we’re receiving payment to do this, aren’t we?”

Maru responded with a smile. “It’s just as Sinhye said. It’s important for you to check her as well. I’ll be watching from the sidelines, so you guys can decide for yourself whether the person that’s coming is qualified to stand on the same stage as you or not.”

“Senior, what are you going to do if we say we can’t do it with her?” Sinhye, who became excited, added.

“Jungah, you said last time when we were out drinking, right? That you want to move into the studio in front of the station,” Maru said.

It was rather sudden, but Jungah replied yes for the time being.

“Sinhye was wondering about changing her phone, and Joohwan, you said you wanted to go traveling to Australia, right? Boyeon said she wanted a new laptop, and for Jungman, was it a new road bike? As for Seonae, I believe it was…”

Things they said in passing, that even they didn’t remember, came out of Maru’s mouth.

“If you reject that person, I’ll resolve everything that I just talked about.”

“Resolve it? Are you saying you’re going to buy me a phone? With your own money?” Sinhye asked back in surprise.

Joohwan did the same, asking if he was really going to send him to Australia. The other members all asked the same with a smile. They seemed to be treating it as a joke. The same could be said for Jungah as well.

“Senior, the deposit for that house costs 50 million. I’m not moving in because I don’t have that much.”

“And I’m saying I’ll take care of that for you.”

“Don’t joke with me.”

“Do I look like I’m joking? I’m pretty serious right now. I’ll really take care of everything that I said before. That is, if you reject that person.”

As soon as Maru finished his words, Sinhye put her arms in the air in joy.

“Tell her to come quickly. I’m definitely going to say no.”

“Me too.”

“I’m not agreeing either.”

Their friends all smiled as they spoke. That was ridiculous. If he really granted everything they said, then he would have to spend hundreds of millions.

“I’m not joking though.”

Maru scratched his eyebrows.

“Senior, I get it, so stop it now. I’m really going to ask you for a phone, you know? If you keep going on with your jokes, we’re going to fall out with each other,” Sinhye said.

Maru just kept smiling, which provoked them even further. Jungah’s lips twitched as well. Sure, Maru was a senior they respected. She was also grateful to him for having helped her out on so many occasions. He was someone whose flaw was hard to find.

Maybe it was because of that, but she wanted to see him flustered because he was taken aback. Jungah looked at the others. They also seemed to be of the same opinion as well, as they nodded with a slight smile.

“Don’t you regret it, senior. You know we can be petty, right? If you break your promise, I’m going to follow you every day and nag you to buy me stuff.”

“Go ahead.”

Maru was firm until the end.

Jungah couldn’t help but ask, “Senior, what are you going to do if we really say no?”

“I have the conviction.”

“What if we refuse even if that person is good? We are very greedy for money, you know? Our pockets aren’t that deep either.”

“If that happens, then I guess I can’t help it. But if it was me, I wouldn’t miss this opportunity to stand on the same stage as that person because of a mere phone or a laptop. Oh, I guess Jungah might reconsider. 50 million isn’t a small amount.”

“What would you do, senior? 50 million won versus putting on a performance with the person that’s coming here. What if you had to choose just one of the two?”

“If it was up to me…”

Just then, Maru smiled and picked up the phone. He exchanged a few words with the caller before going over to the entrance.

“She says she’s here. For now, you said you’d show her the performance, so get ready. I’ll go pick her up.”

“Okay.”

After Maru left, Jungah prepared to perform with her members.

“I’m sure senior Maru is saying that because he knows we can’t refuse.”

“I’m really going to ask him for a phone if I don’t like her, you know?”

“I’ll get a new bike too at this opportunity. If it comes down to it, we can resolve Jimin’s role or just stop the performance outright. I mean, this is an opportunity to get a gift that’s worth millions, so even if we stop the play, it’s not a loss for us. Jungah, you really should ask him for that deposit, okay?”

As they were talking about various things, Maru brought the guest. She was wearing a white casual suit and a pair of glasses.

“That unni has a strong character.”

“I can tell her from her jawline that she must be celebrity-tier.”

“Are you sure she isn’t a celebrity?”

Maru put forward the guest. Having come forward to the stage, the guest took off her sunglasses.

Jungah found the person in front of her very familiar. She felt like she had seen this person somewhere before.

The other girls were the same. They all titled their heads as though they saw her somewhere before. Meanwhile, the boys were just praising her looks.

“Nice to meet you. I’m Han Haneul.”

“Ah, yes.”

“Were you upset that I said that I’ll decide after having a look?”

“No, not really.”

“Even if you were, I can’t help it. If the stage we’ll be creating is a mess, I don’t plan to do it.”

Her words were slightly on the offensive side. Jungah held her hands behind her back. Although they were an amateur theater troupe who were putting on their final performance, it wasn’t that she didn’t have her pride.

“I’m sure it’s not a mess, we prepared hard for it,” she said with emphasis.

“That’s good. I heard you hadn’t eaten yet. Let’s do this quickly and get some nice food. Maru said he’d be the one buying.”

Haneul sat in the middle of the audience seats. Maru also got on the stage.

It was decided that Maru was just going to act simply while looking at the script, and he would be told how to move when the time comes.

When they almost finished preparing, Haneul spoke,

“How much does the ticket cost?”

“Ten thousand won.”

“You said you already performed twice, right?”

“Yes.”

“How was it? Was your performance worth ten thousand won?”

She couldn’t easily respond yes. Jungah looked at the faces of her friends and spoke,

“Yes.”

“Good. I’ll look forward to it. I really like doing plays. So much so that I sometimes fight over it,” Haneul said with a smile.

Jungah found that smile ominous for some reason.

“Let’s do it perfectly so that she becomes speechless,” Jungah said before they started the performance.

After Story 204

“I’m sorry, but wait just a little. I have to take this call.”

It was right after they explained the progression of the play and were about to start when Maru picked up his phone with a troubled face.

“Go on. We aren’t in a hurry.”

“I’ll be right back. I’ll tell Haneul about this on the way out.”

“Yes.”

Jungah looked at Maru walking towards the audience seats. He said a few words to Haneul before leaving the theater.

“Do you think he got a casting call?”

“It’s definitely work since he said he has to take it. I once dreamed of becoming like that.”

“If you want, why don’t you quit preparing for employment and come back to acting?”

“I know my own limits. This kind of stage is the best I can do. Rather than that, let’s do a final check before senior Maru comes back. I’m nervous for some reason.”

While her friends went through the important lines in each act, Jungah looked at Haneul who was in the audience seats. She was taking a call with her right hand while using a tablet PC with her left. She looked very busy.

“I feel like I saw her somewhere before,” she muttered.

“I thought that too.”

Sinhye stood next to her. Jungah asked Sinhye, who placed her chin on her shoulder.

“You too?”

“The name rings a bell, you know. Han Haneul, Han Haneul…”

Sinhye looked it up on her phone. The web portal showed Han Haneul’s info. Jungah squinted and read the text that appeared on the screen.

“She’s an actress alright. Oh, it was this.”

Sinhye moved her finger. ‘Friendly Aroma’ could be seen where she was pointing at.

That was a brand she had heard of. She also remembered a few of her friends saying that it was a decent brand.

“Yes, I knew I saw her somewhere. She’s the model for Friendly Aroma. She’s pretty famous. I saw the blog posts she wrote before, yeah? And she’s the definition of a self-made woman.”

“Self-made?”

“She’s the same age as senior Maru, and she quit college to jump into the aroma business.”

“She must be pretty well-off, huh, seeing as she managed to prepare the money to create a business while she was still in college.”

Hearing Jungah’s words, Sinhye shook her finger in denial.

“No, no. That’s not it. Apparently, she visited a factory that had all the production infrastructure and advised them on their business practices. She apparently told them that she would help with product development and marketing while they take care of the production line. It sounded so amazing that I briefly had a dream of becoming a businesswoman after seeing that post.”

“That’s pretty amazing. She’s the owner of a business when she’s around the same age as us.”

“It just goes to show that she started off with a different talent. She must have talent as a businessperson. But as an actress, I’m not sure.”

Sinhye opened a new window. It was a page related to the film. On there was a movie that Han Haneul participated in as a supporting actress. It was a movie Jungah knew quite well.

“Oh, it’s this. I saw her in this one.”

The movie was produced by director Lee Sooae. She had been looking forward to the movie when she heard that a director known for melo films decided to film an espionage film based on the Japanese rule of Korea.

“Didn’t this do terribly? I was going to watch it, but the reviews were terrible, so I decided not to. There were talks about nationalism, bad production, and even attitude problems from the actors,” Sinhye said.

Jungah nodded in response.

“I had quite been looking forward to it, so I watched it on the date of the release.”

“Was it as bad as they say?”

“Yeah. It had been a long time since I got burned by a domestic drama.”

“And she participated in that drama, huh?”

Sinhye twitched her eyes and looked at Haneul. Their other friends gathered around as well. They all said a word each as they looked at Sinhye’s phone.

“If it was rated 2 by critics, that might go down in the history of Korean film.”

“There’s an article that goes like this: This movie exposed the problem of reckless nationalist marketing. It was the limitation of a director that only knew how to stimulate emotions.”

“There was also a controversy regarding the actors’ acting skills. Yoon Hanbyul, playing the role of Jungae, felt like a little match girl in need of help rather than a cold-headed spy. Do they usually go this far? Entertainment journalists and actors are in a symbiotic relationship.”

“Apparently, one of the main actors outright swore at the journalists during the press release. It’s not surprising that they wrote a bad article. If the movie was good, the journalists would have no choice but to write a good one even if they don’t like it, but the movie did terribly, so they went full out.”

As though she heard the voices of her friends, Haneul, who was on a call in the audience seats, raised her head to look at the stage. The moment Jungah made eye contact with Haneul, she smiled faintly and nodded. She quickly took her friends observing Haneul behind the curtain.

“Jungah, you said you watched this, right? How was Han Haneul’s acting?” Sinhye asked.

“It wasn’t bad. Her action was good too. But nothing really stood out. In the first place, she didn’t appear in any of the dramatic parts.”

“Really? So she’s not bad, but not entirely good either?”

“Honestly speaking, yes.”

“So senior Maru called just the right person.” Sinhye crossed her arms. “I mean, would an actress that anyone can name come to a place like this? It’s just as senior Maru said, we’re not doing this as a volunteer activity; this is supposed to be a stage. She must be an actress on our level.”

After hearing that, another person spoke,

“I’m starting to feel worried. Are you sure she isn’t going to be worse than Jimin?”

“That’s likely. Jimin practiced a lot. Even if she’s an actress who’s had her debut in a commercial movie, she shouldn’t be familiar with doing a play, you know?”

Sinhye opened her arms and pointed around.

“This is live. There’s no camera and making a mistake doesn’t mean we can just cut and start over.”

“Isn’t that what senior Maru told us before?” Jungah said with a chuckle.

Sinhye shrugged. “In any case, I feel that that person sitting proudly over there might be taken aback. She might look leisurely right now, but acting on stage is quite different from acting in front of a camera.”

“I think we might be able to get those presents from senior Maru.”

“Don’t be like that to someone who came all the way here. I think it was because of her pride that she mentioned tests and the like. In any case, it is true that she’s a senior who has debuted before us, isn’t she?”

Her friends agreed that they should just laugh even if Haneul’s acting turned out to be worse than they expected.

Jungah agreed to that. What was important was performing the play without a problem next week after all.

“What if she’s worse than we expected?” one of them said.

“At that point, we’ll really have to quit or edit the whole play.”

“I guess we’ll have to hope that she does well. Otherwise, it’ll be a massive pain.”

“I’m sure she’ll do as good as us. She’s an actress after all. Above all, senior Maru recommended her.”

“Yeah. I’m not sure about anything else, but if senior Maru brought her here, we should try trusting her at least.”

When they were about done talking, Maru came back. Jungah came out to the center stage and spoke to Haneul,

“We’ll start the play now.”

“Okay. Even if you make mistakes midway, don’t stop and just keep going on.”

“We won’t make mistakes.”

“I like that kind of confidence. I look forward to it.”

Junah stepped off the stage and gave the signal. Two of her friends, who were acting in the first scene, came up on stage. The play they were doing this time was ‘Story of Lovers.’

The core point of this play was to comedically display the fight between a couple. The main topics were those that might be uncomfortable for some couples, but likely came up at some point.

Of course, as the play was about comedy, it didn’t involve any serious problems.

The most apt description of it would be a sitcom version of over-the-top dramas.

“So you’re going to go to Jeju island with just her?”

“Is there a problem with that?”

“Are you crazy? Even if you’re just friends, you’re a guy and she’s a girl. And you want to go on a two-day trip?”

“I’ve known her for years. What you’re thinking will never happen.”

“Sure, in words at least.”

“Why are you doing that again? You’re making me tired.”

“Tired? This is something to be tired about? Shall I ask around? How many girlfriends would allow their boyfriend to go on an overnight trip with a girl they were close to since young?”

“Forget it. Don’t you see from how I’m telling you everything? If I really had feelings for her, I wouldn’t have told you and gone in secret.”

“Don’t give me that nonsense. Anyway, if you’re going to go, then it’s over between us.”

“Minseon.”

“Don’t think about it. I’m serious.”

As the two of them left the stage after their act, Jungah came onto the stage. Jungah had the role of communicating with the audience. The name of her role in the play was ‘girl representative.’ Naturally, there was a ‘boy representative’ as well.

“The man’s out of his mind, isn’t he? He has a girlfriend, so how dare he go traveling without her?” she said to Haneul, the only person in the audience. In the previous performance, a couple who came to watch got into a squabble over their opinions. Jungah was in charge of maintaining a suitable atmosphere in the audience and smoothly introducing the next part.

There were many things for her to think about because her role required her to see the reactions of the people and respond accordingly.

“If she really trusts him, don’t you think you can let him go?”

Haneul played the role of the audience when she thought she wouldn’t respond. Jungah nodded and responded. This was one of the expected scenarios.

She responded moderately and called the next set of characters onto the stage. It was the scene where the girlfriend who was telling off the boyfriend was drinking with another guy friend of hers. The whole play was composed like this: to have the characters say a model answer and then do the exact thing they said not to, so as to induce laughter from absurdity.

They did not use a format that clearly differentiated the good from the evil. If it was clearly divided, the whole play would become stiff and the responses from the audience would be bad as well.

Her friends acted with much more energy than usual. Although it was just practice, they seemed excited that they got to act with Maru. Their desire to show Haneul what a play is like must have played a role as well.

“Please continue on to the curtain call,” Haneul said after the play ended.

The actors came up on stage in turns to bow, and all the actors bowed in unison at the end.

Haneul applauded after watching until the end.

“Is this an original play?”

“No, it’s an existing one. We changed it up slightly, but the overall structure is the same.”

“I see. First of all, I like the structure. I like how the story changes at a point where the audience might find it uncomfortable.”

“The play is meant to be enjoyed after all.” Jungah smiled before asking, “How was our play?”

“I really enjoyed it. The stage was good too, save for that one awkward person over there,” Haneul said as she pointed at Maru.

Maru, who had become an ‘awkward person,’ looked as if he was about to cry as though he was wronged.

“But some of the parts are not as good as they could be. I might be overstepping my boundaries, but could you give me some of your time?”

Haneul stood up and moved in front of the stage.

“May I go up?”

“Yes, sure.”

Haneul got on the stage. Jungah inwardly exclaimed. Seeing her from up close, Haneul’s proportions were unreal. She thought that celebrities were something else after all.

“There is no answer to acting, right? So what I’m about to show you are all just proposals.”

“Uhm, before that, are you willing to work with us?” Jungah asked first.

“Yes. It’s not entirely terrible. Above all, I liked the energy.”

The answer was rather vague. Sinhye, who had been silent this whole time, stepped in,

“Excuse me. But we also can’t stand on stage with just ‘anyone.’ Of course, while I’m grateful that you’re willing to help us, you know how it is with plays. You can’t make a mistake on stage.”

“You’re right. Naturally, all of you here must assess me too. I was going to be disappointed if you said you were going to accept me right away.”

Haneul smiled in leisure. She even looked cool for answering so refreshingly.

Her first impression wasn’t that good, but after talking for a while, she seemed like a decent person.

“As a form of assessment, why don’t we go through the play you just did, with my opinions this time?”

“If that’s the case, here’s the scr…”

Jungah held out the script. Haneul would need the script to check after all.

Haneul smiled. “No, I’m okay. I have the context in my head.”

What about the lines though? — before she could ask that question, Haneul made her move.

“Let’s have a look at the first scene, shall we?”

After Story 205

The two members who came on stage in the first act stood in front of Haneul.

“Both of you had good expressivity. I could feel the emotions from the audience seats.”

The two smiled at Haneul’s compliment, as though it was only natural.

“So, what’s your psychology here?”

“What?”

“The feeling exposed on the surface is vexation, both from the girl and the boy. The boy wants to go traveling, but the girl doesn’t want to let him. What the two of them want from each other is fundamentally trust, right?”

“Yes. The boy is asking her to let him go on the trip because he won’t cheat,” said the person playing ‘boyfriend.’

“And the boy becomes more and more vexed that his girlfriend won’t trust him. Isn’t that right?”

“Yes, this character has no intentions of cheating at all.”

“Are you sure? Was that in the script? Or was that your own interpretation?”

“It’s my interpretation. I would never cheat.”

“So… what is your name?”

“Me? I’m Kim Yoonho.”

“So you were basing the character on yourself when interpreting this character, Mr. Yoonho, right? Because the script doesn’t mention anything.”

“Yes. I’m sure the others did the same. Other than the exact details written into the script, they should have their own thoughts put into the characters. It’s much easier to act that way,” Yoonho said as he looked around.

Everyone nodded in agreement.

“Really? What would you do if you experienced this for real? Are you going to act like what you showed on stage since you said that you reflected your own character in the role?” Haneul asked.

“Probably, I think?”

“Then let’s do an act. It’s just the first scene. I’ll play the role of the girl, so you just act like you did before. However, think that this is your own experience when you act. I’m sure the lines will stay the same, but the tone will be slightly different.”

Jungah thought that this was the time to give Haneul the script. Haneul refused it a moment before, but she would probably need it for the act.

However, Haneul spoke the first line without a hitch. Her expression and motion changed in an instant.

When Yoonho continued to be in a daze while facing her, Haneul spoke,

“Are you going to stay like that on stage?”

“No, I’ll begin now.”

Yoonho soon got himself together and started acting. They exchanged lines like they were practicing. When Yoonho brought up his emotions to say his lines, Haneul received and tossed them back as though they had been doing this together for a long time. Even everyone else, who had been practicing together for months, watched in a daze.

Jungah was no different. Haneul must have seen it just once, and yet… Jungah watched the two people while clutching the script in her hand.

“You’re going to go on an overnight trip?”

“I said what you’re thinking won’t happen.”

“How can I believe you? Did you forget how we started dating? We started dating after making eye contact. We just made eye contact at a bar during the college festival and started dating that way. And now you want to go traveling?”

“Are you really going to make me tired like this?”

When the first act was nearing the end, Haneul shook her head and raised her hand.

“Mr. Yoonho.”

“Yes?”

“This might be a misunderstanding on my part, so don’t take offense when I say this. Are you really going to do it like that? You told me that you reflected your own character into the role you’re playing on stage, didn’t you?”

Yoonho looked at Haneul with his mouth still shut.

“At first, I asked what your psychology was. The emotions you showed on the surface were conveyed really well. Oh, that man’s annoyed, oh, that woman is angry. But those are too generalized. Watch.”

Haneul frowned. Then she said Yoonho’s line as is. She stomped on the ground and shook her wrists. They were all things that Yoonho showed during his act.

“I showed you what you showed me as is. You were like this in the play you showed me, and you were like that just now too. This is a manual. It’s like deciding on what to do from 1 to 10 and repeating just that. Since you practiced a lot and the form you took was good, the emotions expressed were good. But that’s about it.”

Haneul waved at Maru. Maru walked over with an awkward smile.

“What I meant to say is that I can have this guy replace you and do the exact same thing. It’s like clothes. If I strip you and put it on someone else, anyone can become you.”

Yoonho stroked his chin. His expression wasn’t that good.

“It’s important to not make mistakes when acting. Acting according to the script is important too. But while your practice may be mechanical, you can’t be like that on stage.”

“I don’t think I was that bad,” Yoonho said, “I, on the other hand, think that it’s good because I can carry out what I practiced without getting it wrong. I thought about a lot of things during practice to bring out the most optimal form of acting. It isn’t a bad thing to carry that out on stage without making a mistake, is it?”

“Not at all, it’s not a bad thing. Other actors fundamentally do the same thing. But even I, who watched your play for the first time, received the feeling that it conformed too much to a frame. How about you? Do you really feel vexed when you act on stage? Do you become nervous?”

Yoonho, who was responding calmly until now, became quiet. His eyebrows went up. He seemed to be thinking.

Haneul waited for a while before speaking,

“Probably not, I don’t think? First of all, it’s a good thing that you got used to acting. It means that you understood the mechanisms of it. However, what will happen if you stop there? You will repeat what you always did and eventually stop making progress.”

Haneul slowly walked around the stage.

“Mr. Yoonho, no, it’s not just you. All of the actors gathered here are not lacking when it comes to expressing emotions. You’re doing well. Just like learning a mathematical formula.”

Haneul straightened both of her index fingers and continued speaking.

“Once you learn that one plus one equals two and two times two is four, you can calculate the others. But you must not forget how you did those calculations before you memorized the formula.”

Jungah realized what Haneul wanted to say. The others must have as well. It was something that they had heard from their professors and seniors at school on numerous occasions.

She was so used to hearing that phrase that she could automatically remember what came next just from the first part. It was something she was so familiar with, that it was conversely something she forgot about.

“Acting well isn’t something like a formula. If you add this expression on top of this motion, you express sadness, and if you add a sigh to that motion, you express disappointment. Just mechanically displaying emotions like this isn’t an actor’s job.”

Haneul stood at the edge of the stage.

“Form is important. However, what’s inside matters even more. You can’t just have an outline. Of course, I’m sure you know this. If you didn’t, you could never even try to do something like that. It’s just that you’ve forgotten and remembered it just now. Am I wrong?”

Haneul’s eyes landed on Yoonho. Yoonho locked his fingers and looked down at the ground for a moment.

“Mr. Yoonho?” Haneul called Yoonho again.

“Yes. I get what you mean.”

They had to admit it. Haneul was entirely right for them to simply act proud.

Jungah looked back at herself; whether she conformed to her habits with the excuse that she was just a producer, or whether she just learned neat tricks to get by in hard situations.

Sinhye, who said that she would show Haneul the real deal, did not say anything either. Even Yoonho, who had decided to quit acting after this, had accepted her words. There was no way Sinhye, who decided to continue acting, would be able to retort to Haneul’s words.

“In that sense, the person over there.” Haneul raised her hand. Joohwan was standing where she was pointing.

“Your acting was really good. I’d say that ten thousand won isn’t a waste just based on that I could watch him act.”

Jungah inwardly sighed bitterly. So Haneul meant to say that without Joohwan, ten thousand won for the ticket would’ve been a waste?

The others seemed to feel bitter after listening to Haneul’s words as they just smiled bitterly.

“I’m sure you must be thinking: who are you to blab on in front of us? Who can’t talk about the right things? Stop acting proud and mighty. But what can I do? If you want to prepare a stage with me, you’ll keep hearing me say this. Didn’t Maru say that I’m a picky woman?”

“I did,” Maru said.

“I actually anticipated a lot when I heard that you were juniors that Maru cherished a lot. I was also relieved that you were thankfully not so terrible. I’m going to do a total makeover of the play before the next performance.”

“I’m sorry, but Jungah is our main producer,” Sinhye said, looking stiff unlike before.

“Miss Jungah?”

Jungah raised her hand at Haneul’s call. Haneul, who was in front of Yoonho, turned around to stand in front of Jungah. Looking at her from up close, Jungah felt stifled. Jungho didn’t look down at the floor for nothing.

“What’s your opinion as the producer? Will there be difficulties in rebuilding the foundation?”

“Er… there’s not much time until the next performa…”

“Is it really a problem of time? Or does the problem lie with your opinions?”

Even talking to a professor one-on-one would feel less stifling than this.

While she was hesitating, Joowhan cut in,

“I don’t care. I want to learn anything, and I have the confidence to do well.”

“I like your answer. Mr. Joohwan, was it?”

“Yes.”

“Let us work together well from now on. Well then. What about the rest of you? If you say that you’re fine performing as you are now, then I won’t act so greedily either. I can act joyfully if someone like Mr. Joohwan is around, so I’ll match the rest of you. I’ll give you the acting that you want: a mechanical, stage prop. Is that what you want? Just filling in for the empty spot?”

Jungah looked at her friends, unsure how to answer that.

“Isn’t this enough? Also, this will be the last stage for me anyway. I’m not going to be an actor,” Haejung said. She was someone who would soon jump into the front lines of employment just like many others.

“So what?”

“What?”

“Since it’s your last time, are you going to just end it on a suitable note? What kind of crappy excuse is that?”

“Please, it’s not an excuse. I’m just talking about reality.”

“Really? Is that really reality?”

“You’re asking us to break out of formality when we have to perform next week. Isn’t that too…”

“Let me act like a despicable older generation for a second. Did you try it?”

“No, I haven’t tried it, but…”

“Then try it.”

“What?”

“Let’s try it together.”

“Uhm, err…”

Haneul walked over to Haejung and gave her a big hug before patting her back. Haejung left her embrace with a dazed face.

“Well then. Who’s next? Anyone willing to persuade me, please step forward.”

Jungah looked at Maru. Haneul was like a bulldozer. To stop her, Maru’s help was necessary since he was the one who invited her here.

They made eye contact, but Maru just smiled before shaking his head. Then he mouthed: good luck.

“I guess I should talk to Miss Jungah first then. No, why don’t you gather your opinions first? Since you’re doing it anyway, don’t you want to do well together? Are you really going to use me as a fill-in?”

For some reason, Haneul looked overjoyed. Moreover, Park Joohwan was already standing in front of Haneul. He was even smiling, as though to invite them to participate in a fun event.

“Tell me if there’s a reason you can’t do this. I’ll make it doable,” Haneul said with a faint smile.

After Story 206

“Don’t you feel like we got swept into her pace?” Sinhye asked.

“It’s not that I feel like it. We did get swept in her pace,” Joonsoo added.

“Why is Joohwan chatting over there?”

“He’s like that all the time. And it’s not like Miss Haneul said anything wrong.”

Everyone became quiet at Joonsoo’s words. They all knew that what Haneul said wasn’t wrong.

“It’s next week. Even if we all started practicing together immediately, we can only practice for about three days. I know what Miss Haneul said is right, but can we digest all that? From what she said before, it seems like she’s going to overturn everything and start from the foundations,” Joonsoo said as he looked around.

There was silence for a while.

When everyone was hesitant, Sinhye put her fingers inside her hair and rustled it relentlessly.

“I’ll be frank here. My heart is on Joohwan’s side.”

“You too?”

Sinhye nodded. “I’m going to continue acting. Among all of us here, who is better than Joohwan at acting? I know he’s dim-witted and cocky, but he’s smart and has good acting skills. Even then he uses his head to never do things that might bring him losses. Such a guy went to Han Haneul’s side. What do you think that means?”

“It means that it’s beneficial to go to her side,” Jungah responded.

“But it’s not like we saw that person’s acting properly. What if she’s all talk?”

“She’s a businesswoman, so it’s maybe a given that she can talk well, isn’t it?”

“The part she did with Yoonho was smooth, but even I can do that much. No, anyone here can do that much. She’s saying stuff like psychology and that expressing emotions wasn’t everything, but she’ll probably tire every one of us out if she’s all talk, you know? I mean, everyone here knows how terrible seniors who are all talk can be.”

The opinions were split.

Jungah found it hard to speak. If this was a performance she was preparing during a semester, if they ran into this situation while they were all still students, then her hesitation wouldn’t be long.

Let’s do it. Let’s go back to the basics. Let’s work hard together — she would have said such positive words to create a new stage.

“Let’s work hard together… was it always so hard to say that?” Jungah said as she looked around, “Let’s become honest just like Joohwan and Sinhye. I’ll say this upfront. I also have the desire to polish this stage. It’s natural to dream of putting on a better performance.”

She looked at Haejung on the other side. Haejung sighed softly and spoke,

“If I was still in college, then I would’ve said the same thing. I would’ve said that we should invest more time and effort in a better stage just like Jungah said. But do you remember what we said when we started this? The most important thing for us is to create our own memories.”

“Right.”

“It’s for one month. Going by performance count, it’ll be around 10 times. Some people, including me, will be busy preparing for employment, some are busy studying, and some are busy with their social lives. We barely managed to scrape enough time together to put on this performance, didn’t we?”

“We did,” Sinhye replied.

“I’ll be honest since Jungah told me to. I don’t have the energy. I can’t put any more energy into the play. I don’t really want to invest more time into the play like what Miss Haneul said. We weren’t bad together, were we?”

“We didn’t make any mistakes and while the seats weren’t full, we always had more than half. The results were pretty decent considering that it was just a bunch of nameless college students,” Joonsoo nodded.

“I think this is enough. I’m really grateful for Miss Haneul’s passion. I know I was quite picky in my response before, but if you think about it, this is a totally unrelated matter to her, isn’t it? I’m thankful that she stepped in to help us despite that,” Haejung looked down at her own hands and continued speaking, “But I don’t want to invest anymore effort into a small stage for a performance that we won’t even be doing that many times in front of what, thirty or so people? I know that this is my last performance, but employment matters a lot more.”

The fact that they weren’t students felt more bitter to them.

Employment preparations might change their very futures, while this performance was going to just decorate a single page in their memories. It was obvious to see which side held more weight.

Jungah looked at the others. Just like Haejung, they were people who were preparing other things in order to live a better life.

“It’s not possible to make more time to practice. Let’s just conclude that we’ll just do it like usual and do the remaining performances. That’s okay, right?” Jungah concluded after gathering everyone’s opinions.

“Let’s go tell her. If Miss Haneul says no, then we can just wrap up here. As for the rental fee, we can just take it that us friends took a great photo in a studio somewhere.”

Jungah clapped and approached Haneul, who was waiting.

After having heard everything, Haneul tapped on her chin with her finger.

“You’re all in your mid-twenties and have graduated college. It’s a very important time indeed.”

“Yes.”

“You cannot invest any more time for a stage that not many people even watch. That’s a very honest answer. If it’s okay with you, may I ask who said this?”

Haejung stepped forward without hesitation.

“I’m sure you don’t like it, but…”

“No,” Haneul cut her off. “I was actually waiting for an answer like this. What truly lies in your heart; your true reasons, not excuses.”

Haneul looked at them more amicably than before. Jungah stepped in.

“We said everything we have to. We don’t care even if it’s mechanically showing our audience what we prepared just like what you said. That’s easier for us both physically and mentally.”

“I understand.”

“What are you going to do now? I don’t think we can practice and perform the way you want. No, Joohwan and Sinhye can probably make the time to do so. But not the rest of us.”

“Plays are often practiced in parts. It’s not efficient to have everyone’s schedules match. But we do need a full rehearsal.”

“We can do it once or twice before we perform on stage. That’s the limit for all of us.”

Haneul nodded as she listened and returned to the audience seats.

What could she be up to? A moment later, Haneul returned with a tablet PC in hand.

“I understand your circumstances. And I’m grateful that you told me the truth. So now, would you like to listen to my genuine feelings?”

Haneul waved both of her hands and told everyone to gather. Everyone gathered in a semicircle in front of her.

“Can you hold it for me?” Haneul said as she gave the tablet to Maru.

“Naturally, president Han.”

Maru held out the tablet.

“First of all, is sixteen the total number of members?” Haneul asked.

Jungah said yes.

“I’ll take a survey right here. How many of you have to go to work?”

Five of them raised their hands.

“I’ll put aside Miss Jungah, Mr. Joohwan, and Miss Sinhye since these three said they can make the time. The remaining eight of you. You are preparing to get employment or are studying. Am I correct?”

They nodded.

“Good. I know the composition now, so I’ll tend to each problem individually,” Haneul said.

Jungah quickly stepped in.

“Err, Miss Haneul.”

“Yes?”

“You don’t have to do something like this. You just have to decide whether you’re just going to go with what we said or just leave after this…”

“Please ask that again once I’m done and you don’t like my suggestion. At that time, I’ll do as you say. So can you give me just ten minutes? Is that okay with you?”

They permitted Haneul to speak. They were all probably curious about what she wanted to say, even going as far as bringing a tablet.

“First of all, the ones going to work. I’m sure you’re beginning your careers. It must have been at most a year or two since you joined the company, correct?”

“Yes,” said one of them who commuted to work.

“In a company, the important thing is to have achievements, but the more important thing than that is a monthly salary, right?”

Hearing the word salary, everyone smiled. How many things were there to talk about work other than salaries?

While Jungah had not yet jumped into the frontlines of employment, she knew the greatness of a salary whenever she saw her friends become full of vitality on the day they get paid.

“I’m sure all of you don’t have enough money as someone who just joined society. There must be times when you spend more than you get. So, allow me to give you an offer. Alongside preparing for the play, you’ll sign a contract with me for a movie. Of course, you’ll just be minor characters who’ll be appearing for a brief moment, but I’ll pay you more decently than short-term part-time jobs.”

“You’re paying us money?”

That was totally unexpected. Jungah looked at her employed friends who looked better and better even as they looked confused.

“Yes. You all have jobs, so the important thing is the cash. There must be people doing part-time jobs on weekends due to not being satisfied with their salaries. If you can earn extra income while doing acting, the thing you like, don’t you think that’s a really good deal?”

Haneul showed a makeshift contract and the payment on the tablet. It was just as she said. The amount was quite high considering that it was just a part-time job on the weekend.

“Including practicing for the play, you’ll be paid 500 thousand won per shoot for a movie that will occur later. This is the highest treatment you’ll get in the industry.”

“You’re really going to give us this much?”

“Giving what people need and getting their time in return, that’s the basics of business. How is it, pretty okay, don’t you think?”

The employed people agreed without a moment of hesitation. That was natural. They had more leeway than those who were preparing for employment.

“And those of you preparing for employment. Don’t you need things that you can write down on your resume?”

Haneul slides the tablet over to another screen.

“I’m sure some of you may know already, but my name is on the list of board executives for Friendly Aroma. Thanks to that, I have a few connections to human resources departments in some of the companies we’re doing business with. Isn’t an internship in a pretty well-known logistics company a decent place? If you have an interest in our company, then I’ll help you apply to our side too.”

Hearing the word resume, the eyes of the people getting ready for employment all changed.

Even those that weren’t sure of the actress Han Haneul seemed infinitely trusting of Han Haneul who was a crux of a company.

From some time onwards, everyone was listening to Haneul’s words while nodding.

“I’m sure none of you here hate acting. If you did, then you wouldn’t have thought about putting on a play in the first place. It must be just that you had to give up on it because you have things to prioritize above that. I’m going to support all of you so that you won’t feel like you’re undertaking losses while finishing off this performance.”

“Are you serious? Are you really going to do what you said?”

“I tend to lie a lot, but I don’t plan to lie to all of you. Also, there might be additional benefits for you other than the things I said. For example, putting on your final performance in a place larger than this.”

Jungah’s friends said in unison that they wanted to follow Haneul’s schedule. Not a single one was opposed to it. Participating in practice was not just beneficial, but profitable. Who would be opposed to it?

They would catch both rabbits at once: the play and their livelihood. Haneul gave them an ideal offer that they didn’t even wish for.

Maybe the ‘Haneul’ in ‘Han Haneul[1]’ meant the person in the heavens? Jungah chuckled to herself. At least in this small theater, Haneul was their Lord and Savior.

“Let’s tune the schedule in detail after we eat. Let’s make a dent in Mr. Han Maru’s credit card.”

Maru shrugged and took out his wallet.

Jungah waited for a moment before talking to Haneul who was left by herself.

“Uhm, can I ask one thing?”

“Yes. I like questions. Ask me anything.”

“Why are you helping us so much?”

“Is it suspicious? Because someone you saw for the first time today gave you conditions too good to be true?”

“I’m not really suspecting. I’m purely curious.”

Haneul turned around. She put on a faint smile.

“It’s because that’s what Maru wants. What’s important to him is important to me.”

“That’s… it?”

“Isn’t that enough? That’s more than enough reason for me.”

Haneul stiffened up before making a mischievous smile.

At that moment, Jungah recalled a scene. A cut from the movie she saw in the Short Film Festival 4 years ago.

“Didn’t you appear in the short film that senior Maru shot? The one that got the grand prize at the Short Film Festival.”

Haneul responded with a nod. Jungah finally felt her sense of deja vu being resolved. She had seen this person through the short film before the movie.

“It sounds like you’ve known him for a long time.”

Haneul tilted her head before turning around.

Jungah could hear her speak softly as she walked out the entrance.

“It has been. It’s been a very long time.”

Haneul glanced at Jungah before speaking,

“Let’s go. We have a lot of things to do, so let’s eat.”

[1] Haneul means “sky”.

After Story 207

“One-two-three, two-two-three. One beat rest, now once again.”

Sinhye wiped her eyes with the back of her hand. Her eyes were feeling prickly because sweat got into them.

“Sinhye, you’ve gotten slower.”

“Do you have eyes on your back!?”

“Get in line with the beat if you have time to respond.”

She was like a spirit that watched your every move. Two days into the practice, Haneul was given the nickname of the Human CCTV. She was in the middle of the practice room, yet how she managed to precisely check the movements of people she couldn’t even see was such a mystery.

“Jungah, you’re slowing down as well. Haejung, you keep up too.”

One-two-three, two-two-three. At this point, she felt like she would wake up in the middle of the night if she heard those phrases. Everyone, who was running around Haneul in a circle, stopped simultaneously. Haneul’s index finger was pointing at the ceiling.

“Fish,” she said.

As soon as she heard that, Sinhye got on the floor, stretched her arms forward, and put her legs together. Then she started moving her body from side to side. She checked what the others were doing as well. They were all similar. They were all doing their best to become a fish.

“Sinhye.”

“Yes?”

She always felt uneasy when Haneul talked to her.

“Put it down more.”

“Put what down more? I’m really a fish now.”

“No, you can do better.”

In practices led by Haneul, compliments were just another word for a whip. Sinhye hesitated before going down again. She did her utmost best to become a salmon swimming in the deep seas.

“If you thought about it, then don’t hesitate. What if it’s strange? What if it’s different? What if I look funny? Don’t think about any of those and focus on the word and the object.”

Haneul flicked her finger. The fish swimming on top of the floor stood up all at once. Sinhye moved again without having any time to touch her hair which had become messy.

One-two-three, two-two-three. The human metronome started again.

“Let’s take a ten-minute break. Don’t forget to drink water and go to the bathroom,” Haneul said as she sat down on a chair.

Everyone else lay strewn across the floor and gasping heavily.

“I didn’t know I’d do something I only did when I first learned acting.”

“But it is pretty fun after a while.”

“It is fun, sure. But it’s exhausting.”

Sinhye looked at the camera installed in front of the practice room. There wasn’t just one. There were three along the walls of the practice room.

Like yesterday, they would probably have to watch the footage recorded by those machines at the end of practice. They would talk a lot over it too.

“But is it okay that we don’t rehearse? We haven’t practiced with the script even once,” Haejung said.

“We decided to follow her for now, so we should focus without thinking about anything else,” Sinhye said after taking a sip of water.

Even if there were parts that felt uneasy, they started now, so they had to leave it up to Haneul.

“Hey, press on my waist.”

If they fooled around just because it was break time, they would suffer in the next lesson.

“Let’s pair up like yesterday to do some light leg splits and warm-ups.”

Haneul said those words ten minutes later. Just who on earth does ‘light’ ‘leg splits,’ they did not know, but Sinhye pressed down on all her muscles with her mouth firmly shut. She was given a moment of relaxation when her legs started feeling numb. It was the only time her body became relaxed.

“Your posture doesn’t matter. You can lie down or stay seated.”

Sinhye sat down against the wall. She stretched her legs forward and lowered her head slightly.

Haneul continued speaking, “You can close your eyes or open them. You can focus on my voice or focus on your breathing. However, don’t think that you have to stop thinking.”

Sinhye focused on her breathing. Her heated body let out rough breaths.

“This time, we’re going to focus on the body. Find what part hurts and what part is relaxed. Put your consciousness to one side and listen to what your body is telling you. Oh, my neck is sore, my legs are aching, my heart is beating fast. Don’t block your thinking, just let it go naturally.”

It was not a meditation session to forget the self but to sense the self. The important thing was to not add any analysis to those feelings. She just let herself feel and just let her thoughts go wherever they wanted.

Haneul’s voice stopped. Time passed by very slowly. The stimulus on her body became a lot clearer.

The pressure exerted on her butt by the floor, the cold energy from it, the occasionally spasming arm muscles, and eyes that moved around behind the eyelids.

“Slowly calm your breathing.”

She opened her eyes as she listened to Haneul’s words. She thought that at least three or four hours had passed, but it had only been twenty minutes.

This was something she thought every time she did this, but in complete solitude, a human would probably go crazy in just one day.

She started practice again with a body and mind that had relaxed somewhat. If they moved to the point of sweating bullets in the morning, they moved slower than a sloth in the afternoon.

However, it was just as hard. Walking slowly was a splendid torture method on the muscles.

“Keep in pace, and you’re going to control every muscle perfectly from the back of your feet all the way to the top of your head. You’ve done this before, so you know what it feels like, right?”

Just as she stepped off while looking at the back of the friend in front of her, the door to the practice room opened. Sinhye reflexively turned her head around to the door. There, she saw Maru holding plastic bags in each hand.

“Sinhye.” Haneul frowned and looked at her.

Sinhye quickly turned around and focused on walking.

Seriously, Haneul must have eyes hidden behind her head covered by hair.

* * *

“Can you give me a cup?”

“Me too.”

Food was laid out on the floor of the practice room. It was jokbal[1] that Maru bought. On one side, they mixed up the mak-guksu[2], and on the other side, they split up the jokbal and the bossam[3].

“Senior, come over and eat.”

“You guys can eat first. I’ll have a talk with Haneul.”

Maru and Haneul left the practice room.

“Let’s eat. I’m exhausted.”

“Give me some ssamjang[4]. And some salted shrimp.”

Everyone jumped in with their chopsticks. Jungah stepped out to the side after getting some noodles and jokbal on her plate.

“I think I’ll get my palate back in just two days if I stay here even if I don’t have any appetite,” Sinhye said as she sat down in front of her.

Jungah nodded with a smile.

“Jungah, didn’t senior Haneul say anything about practicing with the script?”

“I haven’t heard anything either.”

“The performance is in two days. Is she planning not to do it?”

“It seems she thinks that getting our foundations down is more important than practicing with the script.”

“It sure feels weird to do the things we did back in freshman year. Expressing objects was something I only briefly did for tests.”

“Yeah. I can’t remember the last time I did it.”

Ball, tree, kettle, deer, et cetera. They did all sorts of things for the past few days. In college, they had some time to prepare, but here, they had to improvise on the spot.

Sinhye stopped eating for a moment and spoke,

“Just yesterday, I was wondering how this was of any help, right? I was wondering what we could do in just three days. But looking at their faces, I feel like it’s going to go well.”

Sinhye looked at everyone chatting and laughing as she spoke. Jungah felt like she knew what Sinhye wanted to say.

“Do you remember back when we first started practicing?” Jungah asked.

“I do. We were just like this. We would argue with each other about who was right, then laugh together when we’re eating.”

“Do you remember what happened just a month after that?”

Sinhye nodded softly. “It became quiet. Everyone came to practice after work. The ones going to work were scolded by their superiors and the ones preparing for employment were devastated at the news that they didn’t make it… in that situation, the only practice we did was reading the script and checking for mistakes, wasn’t it?”

“I thought that was enough back then. I couldn’t ask them for more. It was tiring too.”

“I felt sorry. You, I and Joohwan are going to do this for our jobs. We wouldn’t hesitate to make the time, but the others aren’t like that. That was why I couldn’t say that we should try to do better or focus more. It felt like a shameful thing to do.”

“You know something like shame?” Jungah said in teasing.

Sinhye glared at her before chuckling.

“But look at things now. It’s hard, but it’s fun. I’m still worried if it’s okay to be like this though.”

“I’m sure it’ll go well. I believe senior Haneul has that amount of skill. Senior Maru is giving us support as well.”

Both yesterday and today, Maru kept visiting the practice room and watching over them. That alone gave them a sense of tension, allowing them to focus.

“But why do you think senior Haneul is helping us so much?” Sinhye asked.

“I was curious about that, so I asked her about it.”

“What was her answer?”

“You see, it’s a bit suspicious.”

“What was it?”

“Her answer was that… it was because that’s what senior Maru wanted.”

“Oho, that’s an answer that doesn’t leave room for doubt.”

Jungah lowered her voice a little. “It’s for sure that the two don't have an ordinary relationship.”

“Even if they were dating, they wouldn’t say that so easily. Those are the kind of words only spoken by lovers that have gone beyond the heated passionate love. In my estimates, I think they introduced each other’s parents and are about to send out wedding invitations.”

“Maybe.”

Sinhye sighed. “I had my dibs on him, but man, the competitor is too powerful, so I just have to humbly give up.”

“Excuse me, competitor? That’s a strange choice of words. Isn’t competing done between two people of similar levels?”

“Don’t you take it seriously when a friend makes a joke. That is why Park Joohwan is your only friend.”

“I almost felt sad when you said Park Joohwan is my only friend. Apologize.”

“Sorry. I went too far. Anyway, I guess we profited off senior Maru.”

“True. But Miss Haneul seems like such an innocent person too. There’s nothing that she has to gain from this, but she’s still helping out.”

“It just goes to show how deeply she fell in love with senior Maru. This is why love is scary. A friend also got into trouble with her parents when she said that she wanted to handle her boyfriend’s debt.”

“It looks like senior Haneul doesn’t care about profits when it comes to what senior Maru does.”

“That’s the power of love. A great power I have yet to taste.”

The two chuckled before standing up. If they kept chatting, the food would disappear in no time.

* * *

“How are things?” Maru asked Haneul.

Seeing her face filled with vitality, though, it felt like a needless question.

“They’re all good. They’ve learned step by step, so they’ll become much better with some urging. But rather than that, you’re sure that Joohwan doesn’t have an agency, right?”

“Yeah. There should’ve been a problem with the agency he signed a contract with before, which meant the contract should’ve also been annulled. He seems to get contacts from here and there, but I think he’ll be by himself for a while. He’s not a guy who’s hung up on doing work, so I’m sure he’ll find one if he feels it’s necessary.”

“Then that’s fine. Have you notified them of the date?”

“Yeah. Both of them said they had time that day and will be coming to watch.”

Haneul clapped and smiled.

“I guess the only thing left then is to nurture them well and show them off.”

“The performance is the day after tomorrow. Can you bring them up to that level?”

“It’s a casual play. I won’t have a problem.”

Haneul stretched.

“Joohwan was quite something alright. I hit a huge jackpot considering I managed to grab him for 500 thousand. Jungah was decent too. She’s better suited for acting than producing. I like faces like hers.”

“You put dibs on some of them already?”

“Who knows? One of them might become my persona in the future.”

Maru looked at Haneul and asked, “I think director Han Haneul is doing well, but how about the actress Han Haneul?”

“Just you wait. I’m going to be in some rumors after this play.”

“You sound confident.”

“It’s a performance that has no editing. Although not as much as you, I’m a pretty decent stage actor too.”

“And you’ll catch the eyes of people coming that day?”

Haneul shrugged before speaking, “Let’s go inside. I’m sure they’re waiting.”

Maru thought as he looked at Haneul’s back.

The juniors seemed to be misunderstanding something as they looked at Haneul. They seemed to think that his wife was sacrificing herself for a stage that she doesn’t have anything to gain from. However, that was wrong. His wife may be a kind person, but she was also a businesswoman.

She knew how to gain her profits without showing it off. There was nothing wrong with this since she wasn’t scamming anyone, but he couldn’t help but smile when he saw that the juniors were treating her like an innocent, good person.

She was only doing this because she had things to gain from them, just as they did from her.

“Oh yeah, sweetie.”

“Yeah?”

“Go buy some water.”

“You’re using me again?”

“You know how it is.”

His wife winked before going into the practice room. Maru faintly smiled and turned around.

[1] Pig’s foot.

[2] Buckwheat noodles, commonly eaten with jokbal.

[3] Boiled pork.

[4] A mixture of gochujang(spicy pepper paste) and doenjang (and optionally, sesame oil). Commonly eaten as a condiment with pig’s foot and boiled pork.

After Story 208

“I said your pee gets on the toilet, didn’t I!”

“You see.”

“You see?”

“It’s a bit, you know, a little off to pee sitting down.”

“Then should I do it standing up too? Like this? Or this?” Haneul said as she grabbed her pants.

Joonsoo quickly reached out and grabbed Haneul by the waist. The way they quarreled with each other made them look like real lovers.

Jungah kept watching Haneul’s act. Was this really her first run? Her attention to detail was surprisingly good.

“When did she practice so much?”

“You tell me.”

“And also, why is Joonsoo so good? He’s much better than when Jimin was around.”

Haneul and Joonsoo exited after their act and then Sinhye and Dongmin stepped in. Jungah was surprised once again. These two’s acting skills had improved quite a lot as well. The faint forced impression she felt was completely gone without a trace.

The others felt the same. Did the two days of working on the foundations with Haneul create such a big difference?

It became Jungah’s turn. She went to the center of the practice room alone, where they assumed it was the stage. The moment she received the gazes of her friends, she realized that it was different from before. She had a lot more leisure whether it was her mind or her body. Before, she was busy reciting the line from the script, looking at the reactions from the audience, and preparing for the next line, but now, she was even able to look at the expressions of her friends, what postures they were taking, and even what clothes they were wearing.

She stepped aside after saying her prepared lines. They practiced all the way to act 7 without stopping.

Despite the fact that it was her first time acting alongside them, Haneul did not make a single mistake. Whether it was her movement, lines, or expressions, she was proficient as though she had been practicing for a long time.

“Come on over.”

Haneul called everyone to the monitor. The video they just captured through the camera was on the screen.

“Before we watch, I’d like to say that you’re all doing well. You got used to the lines, and your actions look natural. Your expressivity has gotten a lot better than when I first watched you.”

Haneul clicked with the mouse. The two people who acted in act 1 came on the screen. The two people whose scene was playing were watching more eagerly than anyone else. When they finished acting, Haneul paused the video.

“There might be differences, but I’m sure all of you are feeling it right now. You must feel lighter, think that it is easier to say your lines, and have leisure in your thinking.”

Jungah nodded subconsciously. She was in that exact situation.

“What I told you continuously over the past two days was just one thing: put it down. This is something everyone has heard if they learned acting 101. However, they’re also words people easily forget.”

Haneul played another video. It contained them before they practiced with her.

“Even here, you aren’t bad in the technical aspects. But as I said before, it feels very stiff. This stage is just a well-made machine. If you roll one gear, the other gears will just align with it and turn together.”

Jungah watched the video of their previous rehearsal. She thought that it was a good stage that didn’t have any mistakes, but after listening to Haneul, she did feel that it was a little stifling.

“Reaching this level is important too. But, if you’re a pro, you should’ve taken a step further. You cannot call yourselves play actors just by not making mistakes. I’m sure Maru must have said a lot of good words to you before. But good words tend to easily get forgotten too.”

Haneul resumed the video that they just shot. The emotions of the actors became much more plentiful.

They did not make any mistakes this time either, but the energy they gave off was on a different level.

“You are all well-trained actors. Even the ones who quit acting are better than most actors. The proof that you tried hard is there. It might have felt stiff, but there was no instability.”

“We really tried hard at first. I mean it,” Sinhye said.

Haneul nodded in understanding. “I’m sure I don’t have to say anything for you to see the changes in this video. What I did isn’t anything special. I just loosened up some of those gears that were fitted too tightly. And also your bodies while at it.”

“You loosened us too much. I feel like a mollusk.”

“Even better.”

Haneul raised the volume of the video. From the screen were the voices of everyone filling the whole practice room.

“Look here. Joonsoo’s expression is good, right? He looks adorable.”

“I can be adorable at times,” Joonsoo said.

“See that? People become shameless when they have leisure. That shamelessness is the asset of actors. Sure, an actor can be introverted. There are numerous actors who freeze up and act all awkwardly once the camera turns off. However, they’re all shameless in front of the camera, or on top of a stage. They shamelessly become detectives, cooks, and doctors.”

Haneul put her hands in her pockets and smirked with a twitch in her eye. Maybe that would be the expression of arrogance and overinflated ego in the form of a body. Jungah smiled and waited for Haneul’s next words.

“There was one more thing I found rather pitiful as I watched. You all said that this would be your last stage and that your aim is to create memories, but everything looked too dry for that. It’s important to give laughter to the audience, but this is your stage. Don’t you think you forgot to enjoy yourselves because you were busy focusing on acting?”

Haneul played back the video again. It was act 6 of what they just did. It was a scene where someone laughed and that caused everyone to burst into laughter.

It wasn’t a mistake that was problematic. Even during a real run, they could smoothly go over to the next part.

“How is it? How do you look in this video?”

“Good. We look like we’re overjoyed to death,” Haejung said.

“I hope that you can enjoy yourselves to your heart’s content. I want you to run around happily. Rather than thinking that you have to be perfect because this is your last time, I want you to enjoy yourselves without regrets. Of course, that doesn’t mean that you should be acting awkwardly either.”

“Enjoy to our heart’s content while polishing up the acting, am I right?”

“Is that too difficult?”

“It is, but it’s nothing impossible.”

Haneul raised her thumb at Sinhye’s answer.

“Yes. It’s nothing impossible. I’m sure you’ll all do well.”

“Of course. I mean, we did the performance twice already, so what can’t we do? Since we have you on board and have additional benefits, I guess the only thing left is to enjoy ourselves.”

“Sinhye is really good with words.”

Jungah looked at her friends laughing pleasantly. The performance they’ll put on tomorrow would be much better than the ones they had done until now. Though, it was still a pity that Jimin wasn’t here with them.

“But it’d be a pity if we didn’t sell many tickets and less than half the audience is full.”

“I’m suddenly worried about that too. Senior Haneul helped us out, so it’d be a pity if we have to cancel the play because we don’t have people.”

“I hope we get at least half the seats. I don’t even expect a full audience anymore.”

Everyone said similar things. This was also what Jungah was inwardly worried about. The news kept talking about cold waves. This was a play done by a bunch of college students with nothing to show and even the weather wasn’t helping them out.

“You don’t have to worry about that. I’m sure things will work out,” Haneul said, her expression rather dubious.

“Senior, did you prepare something?”

“I found a friend who could sell the tickets for us. It’ll be an on-site seller, but I’m sure they’ll sell out.”

“Who is it?”

“Who else?”

Hearing Haneul’s words, Jungah quickly looked at Maru who stood at the entrance. No way, really?

“That’s how it is,” Maru said.

“Are you really selling the tickets for us?”

“I won’t be promoting in front of Hyehwa station. I’ll just be going around this area selling quietly.”

“Will ‘quietly’ even work out? Everyone will recognize you,” Jungah said in excitement.

If Maru stepped in as their marketer, then full seats would no longer be a dream.

No, there may be people who would have to leave because there were not enough seats.

“Oh, right. There are two people who’ll be coming to watch us as a form of encouragement tomorrow,” Haneul said.

Encouragement? Jungah asked who they were in curiosity.

“They’re…”

The moment she heard the names from Haneul’s mouth, Jungah was put in a daze.

* * *

“Geunsoo, sorry about this every time.”

“You don’t have to be. I kinda expected this when the president called me in the middle of the night for a drink. Also, I like playing with them, so don’t worry about it.”

His wife turned the stove on and told Geunsoo to eat it when it boiled.

“He’s way past thirty. He’ll feed himself even if you don’t,” Junmin said to his wife, who caused a ruckus.

His wife glared at him and walked over.

“Consider yourself blessed, hun. Only kind people like Geunsoo accept your terrible personality.”

“What’s so bad about my personality?”

“You’re picky and twisted. Anyway, treat them well.”

“There’s no one who treats them better than me. Geunsoo, isn’t that right?”

Geunsoo gave him a glance before going to the kitchen without answering.

“That guy, what a…”

“Don’t bully an innocent guy and let’s go. Geunsoo, we’ll be out,” said his wife as she pushed him.

Geunsoo, who poked his head out of the kitchen, bowed to his wife and told them to have a great time.

Junmin spoke as he left the house, “If I think about it, I think everyone follows you more than they do me.”

“Isn’t that just the result of my nature?”

Junmin looked at his wife and spoke in defeat, “I guess Mrs. Jung Haejoo’s nature is really good.”

His wife smiled brightly. He thought to himself as he looked at his wife’s smile that he may never be able to win against this woman in his life.

“But what made you go to Daehak-ro? I thought you didn’t have any business there anymore.”

“I just got one. That’s why I’m going there; It is also to go on a date with you.”

“So it’s a date?”

“Yes. It’s a date.”

“Daehak-ro, huh? We went there a lot when we were young, didn’t we?”

“That we did. Your youth is still there, isn’t it?”

“It’s not just me. Your youth is there too.”

Junmin grabbed his wife’s hand for a while and started the car. On his way there, he got a call from Na Baekhoon.

-President, have you departed?

“I’m on my way there.”

-I just set out as well. How about a meal together after the play? Since you’re so busy, I thought I had to talk to you about it beforehand.

“I appreciate your invitation, but I’m going with my wife.”

-I see. Then I’ll postpone our meal.

“Let’s do that.”

He hung up. Next to him, his wife asked who he was talking to.

“Someone with good business senses. I keep in touch with him because I feel like we might be working together this time.”

“You aren’t expanding your business again, are you?”

“It’s something I always do.”

“Please reduce your workload. At your age, you need to learn to step to the back lines and watch.”

“You know you’re the only one who says that to me, right?”

“I have to do it at least because everyone else probably can’t say that when they work under you.”

Junmin laughed as he drove. He parked the car in the parking lot in front of Hyehwa station and got out.

The ground was quite slippery. He walked around to the passenger seat and grabbed his wife’s hand.

“This place has changed a lot.”

“Time has passed after all.”

“Where are we watching the play?”

“Let’s see, I was told that I would be able to see it if I go in the direction of Marronnier Park.”

Not long after they started walking, Junmin saw a crowd of people. There was no way there was a street performance in this cold weather, so he wondered why people were flocked over there.

“Let’s go over,” said his wife.

She seemed pleased as it had been a long time since they went out together. He followed his wife to the crowd of people. There, he saw someone he knew.

“I was wondering what he was up to while he was on a break,” Junmin muttered.

In front of him was Maru, standing in front of a crowd of people with yellow balloons around his waist.

After Story 209

“You look like you’re in high school. Don’t you have a boyfriend to meet?”

“Whoa, that hurt. How could you tease me like that?” said a girl who had neatly cut bangs while twitching her nose.

Her friends beside her explained to him that she got rejected after confessing.

Maru acted surprised. “You confessed but got rejected?”

“Why are you doing that? It’s embarrassing.”

“Why is it embarrassing? Those who dare to take action are the coolest. I’ll give you two balloons as a present. What would you like?”

“A duck hat like that one and a rabbit,” said the girl as she pointed at a child who received a balloon just now.

“Okay. Wait a sec.”

Maru pumped air into a long balloon. The girl, who was watching, asked,

“Also, is this some kind of shoot?”

“No. Look around and see if you spot any cameras.”

“Then why are you doing this?”

“As a street performance to promote a play.”

Maru flicked his flank forward to the girls.

“Do you see the discount tickets in my pocket?”

“Yes.”

“Take one each. But you are in high school, right? The play is for high schoolers and above.”

“We are in high school.”

“You girls look way too young. How can you be so cute and pretty?”

“Whoa, I thought you were my style when I saw you in the drama, but…”

“How am I in real life?”

“A little distasteful.”

Maru handed the giggling girls the duck hat. Then, when one of them tried to grab the balloon hat with both hands, he quickly snatched it away into the air. The girl’s hands swept across empty space.

“Really distasteful,” said the girl.

Maru smiled and put the duck hat on the girl’s head.

“The theater is small, so there shouldn’t be many seats. If you want to watch, go watch early, and if it’s full, you can wait until the next showing. If that doesn’t work, then you should come and watch next week.”

“Do we have to watch it?”

“I can guarantee that it’ll be fun, so you should put aside your cram schools for once.”

“If the cram school teacher makes a call, can I say that you told me to do it? If I can use Han Maru’s name, then I’ll really go watch.”

“Of course not. You take responsibility for your own actions.”

Maru gave her the rabbit balloon before taking a photo.

Just two hours ago, there was not a single person here, but nearly thirty people had gathered right now.

A pair of lovers heading towards the restaurant alley in Daehak-ro turned around and came over.

“Mr. Han Maru, right?” the woman asked in uncertainty.

Maru responded with a smile. “Do I look like him?”

“Are you not? You resemble him.”

“I hear that I look like that actor a lot, this Mr. Han Maru. Apparently, he’s very handsome and has a good nature. His fellow actors praise him a lot.”

The woman, who had been listening for a while, started laughing.

“It is you!”

Maru nodded with a smile. He asked the woman who looked at him in curiosity, “Where are you two going?”

“We’re going to get lunch.”

The woman grabbed her boyfriend and kept telling him that the man in front of them was the actor Han Maru. The man also frowned and looked at him before taking out a name.

“Ahn Changsik!”

“Yes, I’m that Ahn Changsik. Changsik is more familiar than Han Maru, isn’t he?”

“I really enjoyed the drama.”

He shook hands with the man. He looked overjoyed saying that he was a fan, and his voice was loud enough to be heard by everyone around.

The people passing by stopped when they heard the man erupt into cheers. Maru placed his index finger on his lips.

“There are people quietly taking a walk, so don’t make too much noise.”

“Ah, okay.”

“That aside, you’re here in Daehak-ro. Why don’t you watch a play?”

“A play?”

“You don’t like them?”

The man and the woman exchanged looks. They said they liked coming to Daehak-ro to play around, but they didn’t have much interest in plays. They also added that they liked movies more than plays.

“Then how about you try watching a play instead of a movie this time? Coincidentally, I know of a great play that’s happening. If you take this, then they’ll even give you a discount.”

Maru gave them a balloon each and put his flank forward. Just like the people before, the couple took the discount tickets.

“Watch it if you have the time. It’ll be playing for a month, so if you can’t make it today, then you can come back next time.”

“Are you in it as well?”

“I won’t be on stage directly, but it’s being done by many good friends of mine. I’m sure you’ll enjoy it, so do come over.”

“We’ll try visiting after lunch.”

It was as he was about to talk to the next bunch of students after sending off the couple that he saw two people coming over from the direction of Hyehwa station. They were president Lee Junmin and his wife Jung Haejoo.

“You’re here.”

Maru approached president Lee first and greeted him. The people around took hints and gave way. He gave the husband and wife holding hands a balloon that he had made.

“You’re giving it to me?” Haejoo received the balloon after thanking him.

“Pleased to meet you. I’m Han Maru.”

“My husband talks a lot about you. You look better in real life.”

“That I do. Would you like one too, president?” he asked as he took out a long balloon.

“I’m long past the age where I should be holding one of those.” He waved his hand in denial. “I thought you’d be waiting at the theater, but you’re promoting it here. Also, where did you learn that balloon trick?”

“I practiced it from time to time. I was planning to try out many things if I found it difficult to make a living off of acting.”

“For that to be the case, you look way too proficient,” president Lee said as he looked around. The various animal balloons seemed to pique his interest.

“Why don’t you take this too, president? It’s a ticket that will give you a 4,000 won discount. It also gives you a discount on other plays, so it’s quite useful.”

Maru held out his flank again. President Lee chuckled before pulling out a pair of tickets.

“Is this your way of resting?”

“I guess it’s closer to doing labor than resting. Still though, it’s quite fun. It helps out my juniors as well.”

“It’s good as long as you enjoy it. But you do know that you have a lot of work piled up, right? There are a few good scenarios. You should continue working on a piece before you start losing your grip.”

“I will.”

Maru told them to wait a little before giving a child staring at him a crown made with a balloon. The snotty-nosed child ran over to his mother as soon as he got the balloon.

“Is Miss Haneul preparing well?” president Lee asked.

“She prepares everything she does perfectly, so you do not have to worry about that.”

“I have high expectations because her camera acting was good. I’m worried that I’ll be disappointed after seeing her on stage. From what I know, she should have no experience standing on a stage.”

“She’s well-rounded in many areas.”

President Lee smiled. He seemed like he was going to go to the theater next.

“Come and see me after the play ends.”

“Okay. Also, it looks really good that the two of you are holding hands.”

Hearing that, president Lee raised his hand that was grabbing Jung Haejoo’s hand slightly.

“See you again after the play,” Jung Haejoo left after waving.

Some of the people around watched president Lee before starting to follow him.

“The person in military uniform. Are you on your holiday?”

Maru started talking to the people on this small stage again. Meanwhile, even more people started flocking, this time with phones in their hands.

* * *

“It’s full. We might as well accept standing seats now,” Joowhan said as he looked at the audience seats that had the lights still on.

The small theater had a total of 70 seats and every single one was full.

“What was our biggest record again?”

“Forty-two.”

“Why did it increase so much?”

Some other people who were chatting behind them suddenly made a ruckus.

“Hey, hey. I was wondering where senior Maru went, and it seems he was doing this,” said one of them while holding out a phone.

Photos of Han Maru were popping up on Twitter and Instagram. The tags were Daehak-ro and Han Maru.

“So this is why it’s full.”

“This senior, he’s so caring. Is he going so far for our sake?”

“I don’t think so.”

When Joohwan said those words, everyone looked at him.

“You’re really good at doubting others. Just take it for what it is,” Sinhye said as she bumped Joohwan’s arm with a fist.

Joohwan rubbed his arm. Sinhye did not seem to know how fierce her fists were. No, maybe she knew it too well.

“Hey, holy shit! He’s really there,” Sinhye said while stomping her feet.

Joohwan saw a middle-aged husband and wife coming down the stairs and sitting in front of the stage. Joohwan looked at Lee Junmin who sat down as he took off his flat cap.

“There’s no better place than JA if you want to join an agency, right?” Joohwan said.

“Duh! It’s a place where the top class of the industry is gathered. Senior Maru is there too.”

“Then I guess I should go to JA too then.”

“You’re delusional. Who says they’ll take you?”

“I’m confident. My acting isn’t that bad.”

“Putting acting aside, you don’t have any other qualities of a star. Maybe I’m better.”

Sinhye tiptoed and looked at the audience seats.

“But why do you think Lee Junmin came to see our stage?”

“Senior Maru probably called him.”

“But why?”

“Is there a reason behind everything? They’re obviously a good husband and wife who came out on a date. I’m sure senior Maru told them to watch this play while at it.”

“Do you think it’s just something like that?”

“Or… there might be someone he has his eyes on among us,” Jungah said.

At once, everyone’s gazes looked towards one side. They saw Han Haneul stretching her arms and legs in the short corridor between the stage and the waiting room.

“If there is, it must be senior Haneul.”

“Do you think senior Maru recommended senior Haneul to him?”

“We’ll never know that. What’s important is that a big shot has come to watch our stage. If we get chosen here, it might change our lives.”

“Chosen? Well, I guess if you think about JA giving you support, I guess it’ll be like becoming a king’s vassal.”

“I know it’s just a what-if, but what if they want to sign a contract with me? Do I have to quit my job?”

It was Sinhye who made everyone quiet again.

“Na Baekhoon is here as well. This is crazy.”

Following Lee Junmin, there was Na Baekhoon.

Joohwan leaned against the wall and opened the script. His excited friends also started doing stretches or reciting their lines.

The backstage, which was as loud as the audience seats, became quiet.

“What’s this atmosphere? Why does everyone look nervous?” Haneul said.

Nervous — everyone smiled awkwardly at that word.

“Just do it like normal. It’s the stage. It’s fun!”

Haneul pushed Jungah by the waist. Joohwan also closed the script. It was time to put on a performance. Jungah calmed her breathing and stepped on stage.

“Hello, everyone. Thank you for coming to watch us today. My name is Moon Jungah, and before we begin, I’ll tell you a few things.”

* * *

“I’ll come to Daehak-ro again to talk to you and make you balloons like this, so give this street lots of love. And watch a lot of plays too!”

“Yes!”

The audience replied in unison. Maru cleaned up and started walking toward the theater. When he shook his head with a crying face to the fans that followed him, the fans laughed and walked away.

Maru checked the time and went inside the theater.

He lifted the rope barrier and went inside. When he pushed the masking curtains to the side, he saw the stage and the audience seats.

In the center of the stage was his wife.

“So what do you want me to do!”

He fell into the world of the play just from that line alone.

It was a ridiculously good immersion.

After Story 210

His wife, looking at the actor in front of her as she said her line, turned around. She then looked straight at the audience seats and started speaking,

“I’m fed up with all this. Whether it’s me doing this to you, or you doing this to me, I think we’ve dated for too long.”

Maru crossed his arms and leaned against the wall. He really wanted to see his wife’s acting from the place closest to the stage, but there was not a single empty seat.

“You’re going on about that again?” the male actor, Joonsoo, said.

His expression had changed in the span of a week. He had grown up from emotions that were just for show and had become one with the role he was playing.

“What, you don’t want to even talk to me anymore?” his wife said to Joonsoo.

The vexation in her eyes contained a hint of wanting the other party to understand her. The longing for the good times and the frustration towards the current situation were clashing.

Even without any lines, the emotions of the woman on the stage could be felt clearly.

Maru had a glance at the audience seats. Some of the couples were tapping on the other’s arm, as though what was happening on stage was not entirely unrelated to them.

“Let’s stop this and go get something to eat. You said you wanted to eat pasta last time.”

“Am I a woman who’ll be fine as long as I’m fed? Why do you always say we should eat?” his wife snorted in ridicule.

Maru thought as he looked at his wife acting: I can take grumbling from a woman like her all day.

Joonsoo took large strides forward and grabbed her hand. She tried and tried to push him off, however, she didn’t do it with force. She only did it to show her complaint, as though she was pushing a stroller.

“I want to eat something spicy,” Joonsoo said.

“I’m still mad.” She shook her head.

When Joonsoo dragged her along, she started moving. Even though she kept saying no, that she wasn’t in the mood to eat, and that he should stop, she followed Joonsoo very obediently.

They exchanged lines as they moved from left to right, then right to left. More than half of them were improvised lines.

Maru knew from watching their practice that Haneul and Joonsoo had been holding hands for hours for that scene.

At first, Joonsoo was taken aback and then embarrassed, before giving up and starting to joke around with her. His wife had managed to resolve the process of communicating with another actor in a short and precise way.

They fought over something trivial, got over it over something trivial, and laughed over something trivial as they walked around the stage.

Their conversation eventually managed to make the audience laugh as well.

Maru forgot everything and looked at his wife joyfully acting on stage. Every single step and every single hand gesture of hers had delicacy. Even the level of perfection was below her.

His wife always praised his acting and said that she wanted to stand on the same stage as him. Whenever she said so, Maru always felt nervous without her knowing.

From his perspective, his wife was no ordinary person.

Even when compared to the crystallization of talent like Hong Geunsoo and Yang Ganghwan, she was only slightly behind. She was someone who would be called a genius by ordinary standards.

When his wife looked at him in admiration, he would smile leisurely at first but then throw himself into studying acting without end. Only then would he be able to keep up with his wife.

Haneul and Joonsoo stepped out to the side of the stage. Jungah, who came on stage while looking at her phone, turned around to the audience.

“There’s an interesting research study that was conducted. To group A, the researchers told couples who were angry at each other to talk it out, and to group B, to just give each other a hug without saying anything. They took a survey of both groups afterward. Which group do you think became more generous to the other?”

Group A, group B — answers came from the audience. There were more people who said group B.

“That’s right, it was group B. Rather than words, you can transmit more meaning through skin contact. In that sense, why don’t you try holding hands with the friend or lover next to you? Don’t be embarrassed. It’s only for a while.”

Jungah then went back to looking at her phone and walked toward the left of the stage. Just then, she collided with Joohwan, who stepped out from behind the curtain.

Jungah dropped her phone and Joohwan lowered his body. Two hands reached out to one phone and made contact. It was like a stereotypical romance drama plot.

Jungah winked at the audience before grabbing Joohwan’s hand tightly. She even locked her fingers with him.

“What are you doing?”

Joohwan turned grave and shook her hand off. Jungah said to the audience,

“But like this, skin contact can create disharmony in a relationship without any bond. That’s why you can’t just start grabbing anyone’s hand, okay?”

“Hey, who are you talking to?” Joohwan said as he looked around.

The skit that made use of breaking the 4th wall made the audience laugh.

Jungah indifferently picked up her phone and left the stage. Joohwan, who was watching, spoke,

“Is she a pervert?”

“Who is?”

Sinhye, who came out from the other side, came out and the next act started.

The comedic skits they inserted midway had good responses, and above all, the sync between actors had become a lot better than when they were practicing.

All of them must have felt something after seeing Haneul’s act. Maru was proud that they didn’t ignore that stimulus but used it to improve themselves.

* * *

The woman announced her breakup to the man who clung to her. It might be an act that could easily become messy with excessive emotions, but both of the young actors did it smoothly.

“Plays these days are still fun,” said his wife.

Junmin nodded in agreement. He had only come here to check Han Haneul’s acting, but the play’s overall degree of completion was pretty good, which made him enjoy it. He even thought that he wanted to introduce this place to the masses who complained that there weren’t good young actors these days.

If they deviated slightly away from the TV or went to places just a little farther than the usual movie theaters, there were so many young actors shining brightly like this.

However, he couldn’t exactly blame the public. He knew well that it wasn’t a problem that just lay with the demand. It was ridiculous for the suppliers to ask the consumers to look for creative products when they unified all the products they had on display.

“They’re all good, but that person is the most impressive.”

Junmin looked at the stage as he listened to his wife’s words. Han Haneul was coming out from behind the curtain.

The audience seats changed in atmosphere whenever Haneul came on stage. Everyone stopped talking about whatever trivial thing it was with others and focused on the stage, even going as far as to stifle their breathing.

Just looking at the mouth of the young man sitting next to him was enough for him to tell just how different Haneul’s presence was. This young man’s mouth was semi-gaping when looking at other actors, but whenever Haneul came out, his mouth widened to the point of being able to see his lower row of teeth. His subconscious thought to keep his mouth closed was dedicated to his eyes at those times. He was the prime example of watching passionately. No, many of the people here were probably just like this young man here.

Han Haneul’s acting was just that provocative. She was giving them a pleasant threat to keep looking at her and keep focusing on her. It was different from being arrogant. Arrogance was standing out while ruining the flow, a type of act that made people frown and eventually look away.

Han Haneul’s acting was not like that. She invested sufficient energy into the stage but still managed to show off her acting skills. She wasn’t like a pointy rock that jutted out and was more like a heavy, sturdy foundation stone.

“You want to break up?”

In an early act, Haneul complained and got the boy to sympathize with her, but the situation changed. The man did not hide his fatigue. It seemed he came to the conclusion that it was meaningless to continue the relationship.

“Yes. Just like you said, let’s put an end to it.”

“Hey.”

Haneul was taken aback but did not put down her high-and-mighty attitude. If you just do a little more for me, I’ll be better, so why are you doing this to me? — she seemed to mean with her words.

“You wanted to stop. I’m doing what you wanted.”

“Are you really going to be like this?”

Haneul laughed as though she found it absurd before carefully looking at the man’s face. Her attitude changed little by little. She turned from a woman with too much pride and ego to a woman who would feel unease without love.

“Why are you doing this?”

“I just thought it’ll be better to do as you say. You said every day that we should break up and that we should stop. So I’m just doing what you said.”

“Hey, don’t do this.”

Haneul’s proud face became a lot more nervous. She didn’t seem to have any intentions of hiding her unease as she approached the man with a smile. The fluctuation in emotions was big, but there was no sense of disparity at all.

Just like a ball thrown in the air would draw a parabola and fall down, it was hard to find a contradiction in Haneul’s change both logically and emotionally. The way she imbued understanding and sympathy into the audience was absolutely perfect.

Junmin had to rethink the assessment he had before he watched the play.

Her camera acting was charming. However, her stage acting was even more so.

“Wait, let’s talk a little.”

Having been exhausted by the emotional labor, the man looked at Haneul as though he was fed up with everything. Any long-time pair of lovers would know how that would feel.

Junmin was reminded of when he was young. However, he had to postpone getting immersed in his old memories. Haneul’s acting grabbed his mind before it could go on a trip back in time.

“Hey, Kang Jungmin. Hey!”

Becoming desperate, Haneul grabbed the man’s arm and started explaining herself. Not only was she crying, but she was also talking extremely fast. An actor with bad pronunciation would’ve mangled every single word, making it sound like some murmurs. However, Haneul transmitted all the lines to the audience properly, other than when she intentionally mangled the pronunciations. She was an actress who had a frighteningly deep understanding of the basics of stage acting.

“Don’t… go. I told you. If you really go like this, it’ll be over between us. I mean it!”

Despite her coercion, the man left the stage. Haneul, who was looking at the side of the stage in bitterness, sat down on the spot. Then she started crying. She started crying like a little child.

Other actors walked around the stage and glanced at her, some laughing, and some murmuring while taking photos.

“Kang Jungmin, come back!”

After crying her heart out, Haneul wiped her eyes and stood up. Her makeup was a total mess. The area around her eyes had turned black, and her red lipstick had spread all the way to her cheek.

Haneul pouted and looked at the audience seats while huffing and puffing.

“What are you looking at… was I in the wrong?”

The audience replied yes. Haneul covered her upper lip with her lower lip. She froze stiff like a kid undergoing punishment before running off to the right of the stage.

“Jungmin!”

As spiteful as the character was, it was hard to dislike her. As it was a character often appearing in dramas, there was the risk of the character feeling flat, but Haneul’s acting imbued a sense of vitality.

“Her acting. It’s elegant,” said his wife.

He agreed with her. The character was petty and threw tantrums while crying, but Haneul, the one who played the character, was elegant.

“She’s a good actress,” Junmin said as he tapped on his thigh.

It had been a while since he felt so much unease. He felt like he could only rest easy if he had her sign the contract.

If anyone here had any relation to the entertainment business, they would probably contact their company without hesitation, saying that they found a talent that they must get no matter what at this small theater.

In that sense, Junmin thought that he was lucky. He may have found her late, but his actions were quicker.

He thought about the contract he left back in the car and looked towards the exit, when…

“That fellow. He…”

He discovered Na Baekhoon, watching the stage like he was emotionally touched, with his hands clasped. Someone who had their desires fulfilled would make a foolish expression like that.

“You want to marry me?”

Other actors came on stage. Junmin focused on the stage again. It would be a pity to miss this, so he had to watch until the end.

After Story 211

“Okay, see you tomorrow.”

Sinhye left the stage after saying her last line. Her heart was beating hard like it was going to burst. It had been a long time since the last time she felt something like this.

“I made a mistake, didn’t I?” she asked Jungah, who was behind the curtain.

Jungah shook her head. “No, you did well. You didn’t make a mistake until the end.”

Jungah’s face was flushed red as well. Even the girl who always maintained her calm had gotten heated.

Sinhye looked at the stage while trying to calm herself down. The last act was starting.

Joonsoo came on stage first, followed by Haneul. Under the lighting, Haneul’s figure screamed ‘I’m the main character.’

“I was surprised during practice as well, but seeing her on a real stage is incomparable.”

Haneul was someone who managed to turn even fellow actors on stage into members of the audience.

She looked at Haneul’s acting. Every single moment was precious. Her eyes contained love, and on her fingertips lay sadness. The amount of emotions transmitted by her body was overwhelmingly superior to those by her lines.

“Is this what it’s like to fall for someone?” Jungah said.

“If it was any other time, I would’ve told you to stop joking, but I can’t help but agree. I’m feeling the same.”

Sinhye thought of the Pietà she saw in Vatican City. When she first saw the statue when she was seventeen, her first impression was that it was smaller than she thought. Looking at the Pietà from outside the barrier, through a pane of bulletproof glass, she thought that it looked more shabby than what she saw in her textbook.

When she thought about why she had made it through the crowd of people for just that, she had one last look at the Pietà. She still didn’t have much of an impression.

She took one step, and then another.

Only after taking a few steps did she realize that her eyes were still drawn to it.

The grandiose and overwhelming St. Peter’s Basilica impressed her, but after she had a look around, it didn’t give her that big of an impression.

However, the Pietà was different. She went to look at it several times during her visit.

Then, on the day she left, she took the first and last photo of it.

She realized today that she was feeling something similar to looking at the photo of it she had on her desk when looking at Haneul.

She was completely charmed by the actress known as Han Haneul.

After Haneul’s last line, the lights on the stage dimmed. During the short blackout, Jungah went to the center of the stage.

Sinhye handed Haneul, who stood next to her while sweating, a bottle of water

“That was great.”

“Was it okay?”

“Was it okay, you ask? Senior, that was terrific.”

“I had too much fun because it has been such a long time since I was on stage. I almost forgot my lines midway too.”

“I don’t think it would’ve mattered though. Anyone would’ve thought that whatever you said was the correct line. That was just how perfect you were.”

“Having you say that makes me feel better.”

“I didn’t know I’d say something like this either. You know I’m really stingy with compliments right? If you get a compliment from me, then it’s an amazing feat.”

Haneul smiled before putting the water bottle on the ground.

Jungah, who went on stage, was giving the finishing commentary. The person in the control room started playing the music.

“Don’t let go of the tension until the end,” Haneul said as she went on stage. Sinhye also waited for her turn before going on stage.

She grabbed Haneul’s hand and raised the hand above their heads before putting it down with a bow.

The audience gave them a round of applause. They received applause after their previous performances too, but it was not as loud as the one she was getting today.

She just managed to regain her calm, but her heart started racing again.

Sinhye smiled and wiped her eyes. She felt a surge of emotions. Not to mention the actors who prepared the play, it felt like even the audience had become one.

“Thank you for watching our play, and after a brief photo time, you’ll be guided out. Once again, thank you for coming and watching until the end.”

Jungah’s last goodbye ended. The audience took out their phones and started taking photos. The actors stood on stage one by one just as they agreed beforehand and made poses.

“Please check that you haven’t forgotten anything, and watch out for the stairs on your way out.”

After the photo time, Sinhye stood in the corridor leading outside the building. The other actors also stood in regular intervals and saw out the people that left.

“Thank you. Please come again,” Sinhye said to the person going past her.

She shook hands with those who asked and even took photos with those who wanted one. After saying goodbye to the woman she presumed to be the last one, she left the building.

People were gathered there, flocking towards Haneul to take photos with her.

“It’s great that we had senior Haneul wait outside. If she was in the corridor like us, it would’ve been total chaos,” Jungah said, having come to take a look.

“Someone who didn’t even say anything to me is waiting over there. This is sad,” Sinhye said with a smile.

It wasn’t that she was genuinely disappointed. Even if she was in their shoes, she would’ve hurried out to take photos with Haneul. After all, she shone more brightly than anyone at least on today’s stage.

“You were good today.”

She turned her head around when she felt someone tap on her shoulder.

“Hey, when did you come?”

It was Jimin. The others found her as well and gathered around.

“How about your work? You were busy preparing for the orientation.”

“I somehow managed to make some time. Rather than that, you guys were really good. I feel like it’s a good thing that I left.”

“How could you say that? You’re making us feel bad.”

Sinhye dragged Jimin by the arm over to the center of the group. She was someone who prepared for the play more earnestly than anyone. She was also stubborn about staying until the end. She felt thankful that Jimin came over to watch at all.

“I think it was a good decision to come today. I feel at ease after seeing you guys on stage. But hey, isn’t this a little too much? How could you do so well? I feel bitter now.”

“Get accustomed to your company quickly and make some time. We’ll do another one.”

“Wasn’t this the last time?” Jimin said with a mischievous smile.

Sinhye looked at the faces of the others. Their heated expressions were calming down.

They had probably forgotten that after this month, the majority of them would start working in places unrelated to acting or preparing for employment.

“I’ll go say hello to her for now. She helped me out, so I should at least say thanks.”

Jimin turned around. As soon as she left, everyone else smiled awkwardly.

“Yeah, this was the last, wasn’t it?”

“I totally forgot about it. I was having so much fun on stage that I couldn’t think of anything else.”

As soon as they finished speaking, Joohwan spoke,

“If you have any regrets, then keep doing it. It’s not like you swore an oath to give up on acting. Who can say anything even if you took it back?”

“I feel envious whenever that guy says something like that. Living without thinking must be a skill of its own.”

“I probably think more than any one of you here, you know? I’m smarter too. I know exam scores aren’t everything, but all of you are below me, aren’t you?”

“Fine, you do you.”

“I’m just telling you not to do something that you might regret later. Even a snot-nosed brat would know that.”

Sinhye covered Joohwan’s mouth. He was right, but he was still cocky.

“I get that you worked hard, but aren’t you guys forgetting something?”

She heard a voice from down the stairs. Sinhye looked down with a face that looked like she forgot something. There, she saw Maru holding trash bags. She had forgotten that they had to clean up after the audience left.

“I’m going to ask to be paid by minimum wage standards for this. I’m not joking.”

“I’m sorry, senior. Jimin came over, so we were having a talk.”

“Jimin’s here?” Maru asked as he put down the trash bags.

Sinhye quickly raised her hand to point at where Haneul was.

“She went to senior Haneul to say thank you.”

“She came even though she must be busy. I’ll go see her too.”

When Maru approached the crowd, people became noisy again. Sinhye looked at Maru, who was receiving a lot of attention.

“Celebrities are celebrities alright. I totally forgot though because I saw him so many times during practice.”

“Could we become like that one day?” Jungah said.

“But you’re going to be a director.”

“I’m not sure. Senior Haneul told me that I should consider preparing to become a director even while being an actress. It’s her saying it, so I feel tempted.”

Sinhye told her to try it. Even she could tell that Jungah had skills.

In truth, directing was a job that required acting skills better than anyone else’s. They had to transmit what they wanted to express to the actors, and words didn’t always suffice.

“Let’s go down now and pick up where senior left off and clean up.”

Joohwan waved and walked down the stairs.

“I swear he’ll maybe hesitate for about two seconds if senior Maru tells him to jump off a roof.”

“Would he though? I think he would jump immediately.”

“Really?”

Sinhye faintly smiled and walked down the stairs. The noise from the audience became distant.

* * *

Junmin looked outside the window while drinking coffee. There, he saw his wife smiling joyfully. It seemed that Maru, who was next to her, was telling her an interesting story.

“It’s a contract I can’t help but sign.”

“I did decide to put my heart into bringing you over,” Junmin said as he looked at Haneul.

She was putting down the contract as though she read everything.

“Is there anything you’d like to add or edit? Even if it’s a minor complaint, I’ll listen to it,” he said.

“No, I wouldn’t be able to receive a better contract than this in my current situation, so I don’t have any complaints.”

“That’s fortunate. Is the contract with your previous agency completely settled?”

“Yes. It was settled cleanly so that there won’t be any noise later.”

“Even if it does become problematic later, I do not care. That is something I can take care of.”

“I feel a lot better when you say that.”

“Then shall we sign it? Originally, I would’ve taken it slow and done it at the company, but I’m afraid I’ll miss you if I do.”

“I’m going to get airsick if you put me up so high.”

“I’d like you to know that I’m just that serious about signing a contract with you.”

“Looks like I have no choice but to sign it then.”

Junmin put two copies of the contract side by side and pointed at the place where it had to be stamped together.

Haneul picked up the stamp and stamped the seal between the two copies. He put one copy of the contract in an envelope and gave it to Haneul.

“Thank you for coming to JA.”

“No, thank you for calling me. I’ll do my best to become a good actress.”

He put on a satisfactory smile. He had thought that he would not sign any new actors for a while, especially not someone so exceptional like her.

“I have heard the general outline from Maru. Apparently, the two of you are dating.”

“Yes. You are in management, so I thought you should know.”

“Are you going to make your relationship public?”

“Not for the time being. But we don’t plan to stay meticulously hidden.”

“Whatever it is, take it easy. If you ever decide on a date, then please tell me. I’ll gift you a house you two can live in at least.”

“I’ll hold you to that.”

Hearing her bold answer, Jumin ended up laughing out loud.

“Please drop the honorifics when we meet next time.”

“I will. Anyway, I really enjoyed your performance today. I had as much fun as when I first came to Daehak-ro to watch a play.”

“There’s no better compliment than that to an actor.”

“With that being the case, how many more times are you doing the play?”

“We’re performing on weekends, and 3 to 4 times a day, so… I think there should be around 20 more times.”

“Are the actors who performed with you affiliated with theater troupes?”

“No, they’re college students and graduates preparing for employment. It’s one of those last stages from those in the theater department.”

“I see,” Junmin crossed his arms. “Then could I talk to the person in charge of production?”

After Story 212

“Yes, good. Raise your chin just a little. Yes, that’s good.”

Maru looked into the distance as he listened to the shutter sounds.

He changed his posture slightly according to the rhythm of the shutter. He also changed up his expression. He added the spice of a smile on top of an indifferent expression base.

“Please wear this one this time.”

“That looks vintage,” Maru said as he received the glasses. The glasses had thick rectangular frames.

He was subconsciously reminded of pop artists from the 80s holding acoustic guitars.

“Whether it’s music or trends, they go round and round.”

Maru took off the horn-rimmed glasses he was wearing and put on the golden ones.

“Does a classic suit go well with these glasses?”

“I think rather than classic, we should go with one that’s slightly roomy on the chest and looks lackadaisical as a whole. Miss Chayeon, do we have one in inventory?”

“Wait a second.”

Maru went to the back of the studio along with Chaeyeon. The employee, who was browsing through clothes seemingly at random, gave him a suit.

“I think this would be a good match.”

The photographer and the glasses seller followed them in and had a look at the clothes as well.

“What are your opinions as the model and the photographer? I was told to respect the opinions of the people on set as much as possible,” said the person from the glasses shop.

“I think it suits me quite well.”

Hearing Maru’s answer, the photographer nodded as well.

“Then let’s go with this one. I guess this should be the feel for a similar lineup of products.”

Maru changed clothes and stood in front of the lights. He put on the glasses that were adjusted to his head shape and posed.

“Your hands look rather empty. Shall we use some props?” said the photographer.

The person from the glasses shop gave Maru a glasses case and a wipe.

Maru grabbed the glasses by the temples and slowly started cleaning the lens.

“I like your current expression. Let’s shoot a few more like that.”

* * *

“Auntie, two extra-large gukbaps and a bowl of head meat.”

The auntie who received his order told him to wait and poked her head inside the kitchen. Two XL gukbap, one meat — Maru poured a cup of water as he listened.

“You always come to this place when you go anywhere nearby,” Yeonjin said as he set the spoons and chopsticks.

“The taste is just that good.”

“I have to admit that you’re right, but let’s eat other things too from time to time. The company provides a whole lot of money for meals.”

“Then let’s go to the place you want next time, hyung. Today, hang out with me here.”

“Do you know what I hate the most when I come here? It’s that I can’t drink. I have to drive after all.”

“That’s why I drink your share too. It’s a super close-range mukbang.”

Maru poured some rice wine into a bowl and drank it in one go. Yeonjin looked at the empty bowl in yearning before dipping his chopstick into the ssamjang and eating it.

“There’s no other form of torture quite like this.”

“Then you should just drink too and call a chauffeur service.”

“Your schedule might be over, but mine isn’t. You know that. How spiteful.”

While they laughed and chatted, the food was served. Maru added a little bit of salted shrimp to get the taste right. The delicious savoriness had not changed from before.

When he thought about it, it was quite curious. During his numerous lives, uncountably many things had changed, but this restaurant’s taste had not changed even once.

Maybe this was god’s blessing?

“It’s something you eat all the time. Do you like it that much?” Yeonjin asked when he started eating with a smile.

“The taste you’re used to is the most scary taste.”

He put some ssamjang on the head meat and ate it. After he appreciated the flavor of the fat and swallowed it, Yeonjin spoke,

“Looks like Miss Haneul will become busy soon too.”

Yeonjin was looking at his phone. Maru stopped his chopsticks and spoke,

“Did something happen?”

“You know the play they finished a little while ago? The responses were pretty good. Assessment of Miss Haneul has changed considerably in the two months after she signed a contract with the company. Well, with her appearance and acting skills, it was only a matter of time before people got to know her. If I think about it now, it’s curious how she managed to stay buried until now.”

“No matter how big the sail is, a boat will not move forward without the right wind.”

“As you say, it looks like she managed to get some proper wind this time. You said you were close to her, right? I haven’t heard the specifics, but I heard the president met her through you.”

“Something like that.”

“If you knew someone like her, then you should’ve told this big brother about it first. If I managed to cast her, I would’ve gotten two promotions at least.”

“Are you going to make me feel bad like that?”

Yeonjin shrugged before taking a large soondae from Maru’s gukbap.

“Let’s make do with this.”

“Hey, I was saving that for later.”

“I don’t know about anything else, but I’ll give you some advice as a senior in life. If there’s something good, you have to eat it quickly before anything else.”

Seeing him eat the soondae while teasing him, Maru let out a chuckle.

“The agency that let go of Miss Haneul, I’m sure they’re gonna be real jealous right now.”

“It’s the price for not giving her support for three years. They practically abandoned her after that movie slip-up.”

“After I heard that we signed a contract with Miss Haneul, I looked for that movie. I paid a whopping 3,000 won to download it.”

“How was it?”

“I learned once again that no matter how great the actors are, it’ll be doomed if the production and the story are bad. Miss Haneul’s acting was good there too. Heck, I even felt hurt when she was tortured. But after that, I don’t remember anything. I don’t even know what the movie was trying to say, and I’m fed up with soap operas and nationalism.”

“It was quite decent when it was still a script. It wasn’t without context like the movie either, and the characters were fresh. So I guess that happened after they shot everything and edited it.”

Yeonjin, who nodded, suddenly stared at him.

“You looked at the script for that movie?”

Maru looked away slightly.

“Yes, well.”

“Looks like you two are closer than friends.”

“We are very close.”

“Are you sure there isn’t something between the two of you that I don’t know of?”

“Maybe.”

He was planning to tell Yeonjin about it soon anyway. His wife said that they should hide their relationship but not adamantly deny it.

If some unknown internet journalist wrote about their relationship, then they would probably respond that they had a good relationship.

“Miss Haneul is wasted on you.”

“Hyung, how can you say that to the actor you’re in charge of?”

“What’s a waste is a waste. Just don’t forget to introduce me to her later. You know it’s hard to see other people’s faces even in the same company, right?”

“That won’t be easy since she’s wasted on me.”

“You’re smiling even though you’re pretending to be mad. You seem to like her a lot?”

They continued eating while chatting. Around the time they were about done, Maru told the auntie to pack 3 portions for takeout.

While he bought some vending machine coffee, the packaged soondae came out.

“I’ll pay for the soondae,” Maru said.

“Why? I can pay for it with the company card.”

“No matter how convenient company cards are, this is separate.”

“You’re worried about unnecessary things.”

After paying, they left the store. Maru gave Yeonjin the plastic bag with 2 portions that he was holding.

“You’re giving them to me?”

“Don’t eat them by yourself and send some of them to your mother. You said last time that she likes soondae.”

“Did I?”

Yeonjin tilted his head in confusion before thanking him and accepting the plastic bag.

“I have an appointment. You can go in first.”

“Where is it? I’ll give you a lift before going back to the company.”

“It’s a college right nearby, so I’m okay. Also, if you have time to give me a ride, then you should deliver the soondae first. You know the taste isn’t as good once it cools off, right?”

“Don’t keep giving me stuff like this. It makes me feel like I have to do better.”

“You’re doing plenty well.”

Yeonjin smiled and got in the car. He rolled down the window on the passenger side and spoke up,

“Call me if you need anything.”

“I will.”

“I know it’s April, but it’s still pretty chilly, so don’t dress too thin. If you encounter health problems, I’ll get into trouble with the president.”

“Okay. But are you going to keep nagging me? Even my mom doesn’t look out for me this much.”

“It’s my job to look out for you, what can I do? Anyway, thanks for the soondae. I’m sure my mom will like it if I tell her that it’s a gift from a famous actor.”

Yeonjin drove off. Maru took out his phone and made a call.

“I’m planning to go there now. Are you at school?”

-Yeah. But you’re coming? Really?

“I told you that we should meet up. You told me that your work was somewhat done as well. You didn’t stay in the military like an idiot for two years, right?”

-You’re too cruel to someone who just got discharged less than two weeks ago.

“Anyway, you can’t make time?”

-I can. All I have is time. But it feels somewhat weird to hear that you’re coming over all of a sudden.

“How is it weird?”

-You’re a famous actor now. During the Short Film Festival, I thought we were pretty even in pace, but during my time in the military, the gap became insurmountably wider. I can’t even believe that you’re willing to work with me again.

“So you don’t like it? Tell me if you don’t want to.”

-Who said…! Who said I don’t like it?

Yoonseok raised his voice before toning it down. There seemed to be people around him.

“I don’t feel bad doing work with a director I trust.”

-I’m grateful that you say that, but…

“What then, is the thing you wrote in the military that bad? That you don’t want to show it to others?”

-That’s not it. I felt a lot of things in the military, and I made use of them in my writing, so I like the script better than when we did the Short Film Festival.

“That’s good enough. Let’s meet up for now. We can talk as we go over it.”

Yoonseok didn’t reply for a while before speaking,

-Uhm, but, hyung.

“What?”

-Can I tell the others that you’re coming? I want to boast a little. I mean, they won’t believe me. They’re telling me that we lost contact after the Short Film Festival and that I was abandoned or whatnot.

“Looks like I’ll have to let director Lee feel proud for a bit.”

-Really?

“But if the scenario is terrible, I’m going to swear right at your face, so the choice is yours. Being shamed in front of your friends will be quite an experience.”

-Now I feel nervous.

“Anyway, I’m going to your school now, so come out and meet me. Let’s meet at the gates.”

-Okay. The toast store we went to a lot while we shot the film is still there, so let’s meet up there.

“Alright.”

He hung up. It was just 10 minutes to the college on foot, so he decided to take a walk.

He could see plants sprouting from the broken gaps in the pavement. Winter, which he thought wouldn’t end, was now going away.

Maru took out his phone from his pocket. He got a message from Yeonjin.

-You haven’t forgotten about the pre-production meeting for the drama next week, right?

Maru replied yes before starting to walk. He put on the glasses given to him by the glasses shop and looked at his reflection in the window of a parked car. He looked pretty decent. He was just about fed up with the horn-rimmed ones, so he liked the new circular golden frames.

He turned right at a convenience store. He could see a road that led up the hill to the front gates of the college. He looked at the students heading towards the restaurants nearby for lunch.

Maru waited in front of the toast store that Yoonseok mentioned. A man who just received his toast and was about to eat it looked at him before turning around.

After taking a few steps, the man turned around to look at him again.

Maru pretended to be oblivious. The man tilted his head before walking towards a PC bang.

“Hyung!”

He saw Yoonseok rushing over from the gate. A young man who had been burned black in the military was standing in front of him.

Maru smiled and gave him some soondae.

“Did you not apply sunscreen when you did your service?”

“A man doesn’t need something like that.”

“You should’ve taken care in your later years at least. The sun doesn’t differentiate between men and women.”

“With my appearance, it doesn’t matter if I’m burnt or not. Also, what’s this?”

“Some soondae. Let’s sit down somewhere.”

Yoonseok nodded and received the soondae.

After Story 213

Yoonseok repeatedly glanced at Maru, who was walking by his side.

“What is it?” Maru asked, seemingly bothered by it.

Yoonseok smiled. “A camera massage is good alright. You’re like a totally different person now.”

“In a good way?”

“You don’t say. You’ve become a total dragon. I’m proud of you.”

“That’s a weird thing to be proud of. Did you go back to school?”

Yoonseok spoke as he waved the plastic bag of soondae back and forth, “The timing was right, so I went back to classes right away. I listened to lectures during my last vacation in March, and for the ones I had to miss, I explained to the professors and they let me go.”

“That’s good.”

“I really wish I could take a year off and try out various things, but all my seniors told me that I’ll just be wasting it. They told me I should get myself together and get ready to graduate, or just quit altogether.”

“Is it the trend these days to advise other people to drop out?”

“You see, my major was combined with another department and disappeared. I always laughed about it when I heard such news in the military, but now that I’m actually here, it’s become my problem. Some of my colleagues prepared to transfer to another department, while the ones that fooled around just stayed in the new department.”

“It’s just the start now. Other than the major universities, it’ll become harder and harder to operate,” Maru said.

“Should I just quit like you, hyung? I heard you dropped out after military service.”

“What can I tell you? Think about it well before you make the decision. Are you on a student loan, or did your parents support you?”

“My parents paid for the tuition.”

“Then before you think about it, consult your parents about it. The shareholder’s opinion is important. Of course, if your opinion is firm, then you should be prepared to persuade them.”

“It’s a bit awkward to tell them about it.”

“Then you should report to them after achieving something that they might accept. You know in the military that sometimes you’re allowed to take action first then report, right? But if the action is wrong, you know what will happen to you, right?”

Yoonseok organized his thoughts before asking again,

“What did you do?”

“Me? I had the conviction, so I left right away.”

“You didn’t tell your parents?”

Maru didn’t respond and just smiled. Yoonseok thought about it for a moment before speaking,

“If I had a son and he said he wants to quit school to become an actor, I’d be opposed to it, but if he shows results like you did, then I guess I will have no choice but to accept it.”

“Did you tell them about the grand prize you got from the Short Film Festival?”

“No, I haven’t said a single thing about movies at home. Mom once told me that dad once quit a good job because he wanted to become a writer. Thanks to that, mom suffered a lot, and she apparently beat dad up when he looked like he couldn’t get himself together. That was how our household motto became ‘salaryman is best.’”

“It should’ve been hard to hide it from your parents since you stayed up night after night and spent a lot when we shot it.”

Hearing Maru’s words, Yoonseok sighed. Thinking about it now, he had been full of lies back when he shot ‘The Form of Love.’ Whenever his mom asked where he was going, he told her that he was going out to do some assignments or studying. To his mother, it must’ve looked like he was earnestly continuing his studies.

When he explained the circumstances to Maru, Maru patted him on the shoulder.

“I want to keep working on films, but I feel uneasy too. When I got the grand prize in the Short Film Festival, I thought I’d rise to stardom. I’d receive the spotlight as a student director, gain experience at real film shoots, and then immediately debut with a commercial movie,” Yoonseok said as he raised his hands up into the sky.

The plastic bag rustled as it swayed.

“But after the film festival, I looked at reality as I got ready to go to the military. People like me were a dime a dozen. Numerous directors get awards from various film festivals hosted by cities, provinces, and companies. But, the overwhelming majority of those directors disappear without being able to shoot a single commercial movie. I was curious, so I even looked into it.”

Yoonseok took out his phone. He put up a photo that he took before he went to the military. It was a photo he took with a man in his middle thirties, wearing an ID card around his neck.

“This person apparently received a lot of spotlight ten years ago through an indie movie. He must have been similar to me, right? And he was even invited to an overseas film festival for the non-competitive section. He’s incomparably more amazing than me. But now, he works a job totally unrelated to movies.”

Yoonseok put on a bitter smile and closed his phone.

The ex-director that had become a salaryman told him that he would do well and that he’d be different from how he had turned out. However, he had also given the cautious advice when they parted to learn to let go if it felt no good.

“He told me that if he got himself together a year early and let go of film, then his life would’ve changed. It looks like there’s an insurmountable gap between what seems plausible and what is possible.”

“He’s given you priceless advice.”

“I thought about it from the moment I was drafted to the day I was discharged. People say you stop thinking about trivial things when you go to the military, but I thought even more instead.”

“From how you didn’t let go of writing even in the military, you don’t plan to give up, huh?” Maru asked.

Yoonseok rubbed the back of his neck.

“There’s nothing else to do there. I asked for light extensions and kept writing. It’s the only talent I have.”

Yoonseok stopped walking. Maru, who was walking about two steps ahead, also stopped and looked at him.

“That’s why when you called me and asked me to show you the scenario I wrote, I thought that this was my last opportunity, a test perhaps.”

“This is just your second time.”

“I know that it’s unsightly of me to keep ranting about worries when I haven’t even tried properly, but I just don’t want to make excuses.”

Yoonseok thought back to the days he was shooting a movie with his friends and Maru. To prepare for the production costs, he wiped plates in a buffet instead of listening to lectures, and he kept cycling all day in order to look for a suitable spot. He got into a quarrel with his friends over the production, and he also had some conflict with the actor Maru over differences in opinion.

When he looked back, he was only happy at the last moment of the shoot, and during the rest, it was a time of suffering and endurance.

“Shooting was really hard. But it was too fun. It hurt, but I was smiling. I just love making a film out of a story I created. I like the fighting that happens in the process. But if I fail and my life goes wrong, then I think I’ll criticize those moments and regret it. I feel freaky because I feel like I’m going to look for the reason I’m not doing well in film.”

“So?” Maru asked as he took his glasses off.

His eyes looked calm. Yoonseok found those eyes comfortable because they didn’t contain any consolation or encouragement.

He smiled faintly and spoke, “I’m going to make the decision after this film I’m doing with you. If I can get investment through that movie, I’m going to keep trying. I’ll officially tell my parents about it and will put all my effort into creating films rather than staying in college.”

“What if it doesn’t work out?”

“I’ll just keep doing it as a hobby. I didn’t know about this, but apparently, there are movie gatherings for workers as well. They gather into small groups and create a movie as a hobby. It’s called a hobby, but the results are pretty good because they’re all investing time that they can make.”

Just like his father and the director that eventually became a salaryman, he wanted to go all in when creating movies. However, he couldn’t just decide recklessly. He needed a basis for his judgment. And that basis would be decided this time.

“Those who stake their lives on movies might think that I’m childish, but I still can’t forget that person’s words. I should let go if it seems no good, huh.”

This was his genuine opinion that he had not revealed to his parents or to his closest friends.

He did feel a little relieved after saying it.

For a while, they kept on walking without a word. They went into the college library and went to the resting area in the basement. When they sat down in the noisy rest area, Maru spoke,

“Even if this one succeeds, there’s no guarantee that your next one will.”

“I know. I just lack decisiveness, so I’m letting this movie make the decision. If it works out, I’ll drop out and go all in. I’ll start working from the bottom of the rung. If it doesn’t work out, then I’ll just have to study, graduate and get a job.”

Maru crossed his arms.

“So the worst case scenario is that this movie goes well and you quit school, but you screw up the one after it and lose all investment, huh.”

“That sounds terrifying.”

“It’s a plausible occurrence.”

“I know, but blood truly is frightening. I think the artistic blood that flows in my dad’s veins is also flowing in me. I’ve witnessed some things, so I’ll try my best to put a brake on it, but… who knows. I might end up just worrying mom like my dad did.”

Yoonseok put down the soondae on the table. As this place was right next to the cafeteria, they were allowed to eat.

Just as he was about to rip the packaging open and grab a fork, he stopped. After all that talking, he didn’t feel like eating.

“Weren’t you worried?”

“When I decided to quit school to become an actor?”

“Yeah.”

“I was worried. But I was worried that I might not be successful as an actor, not about making a living.”

“You can be like that? If you slip up during your acting career, there won’t be any places that will acknowledge your career experience.”

“I can be like that,” Maru said without a hint of a smile.

“I would’ve laughed about it if it was someone else, but seeing you say that makes it like you have something.”

“I do have something. Among the two things – what seems plausible and what is possible – I was preparing something that was possible.”

“So you had a backup plan?”

“Being an actor is good and all, but looking after my family is my top priority. As you said before, I even imagined that I would just do acting as a hobby. Only when I assume the worst will the shock be less.”

“But you were successful. I’m envious.”

“If you could understand what kind of situation I was in, you wouldn’t be entirely envious.”

Situation? That felt like it meant something, but seeing Maru chuckle, it seemed to be a joke.

“But it looks like you’re forgetting something.”

“What?” Yoonseok blinked a few times.

He was missing something?

“The possibility that I will not be working with you.”

“Oh yeah, there’s that. Looks like I was getting way too ahead of myself.”

He had forgotten about it because he was so overjoyed to see Maru. This person in front of him was no longer an actor who worked on chump change and was now someone whose standards must have gotten higher than before.

“Give it to me.”

Maru put out his hand. Yoonseok suddenly felt nervous when he saw that hand.

He took out a plastic folder from the bag he was carrying. He found the scenario that he put inside and gave it to Maru.

“While I read, eat some soondae. It’ll be pretty good even if it’s not hot anymore.”

“I suddenly lost my appetite.”

“Eat it anyway. Don’t you think you should get something out of this meeting?”

“You’re firing rapidly at this little brother’s heart, you know?”

“I haven’t shot anything yet. I’ll tell you after I read it.”

Yoonseok put some soondae in his mouth. Regardless of his brain almost being overloaded with worries, his tongue did its job. The soondae was delicious.

While he was eating, he looked to the side. He suddenly felt that the rest area had become much quieter. The student eating instant noodles at the next table over was looking at Maru. So was the person opposite him.

Yoonseok looked around. Students were gathering around.

“Uhm, hyung.”

“Just eat that for a while.”

“No, it’s not that.”

Everyone’s looking at you — despite telling him, Maru didn’t seem to care. Yoonseok smiled awkwardly and looked at the people who had come over.

“He is, right?” someone asked.

The question was without any context, but there was no difficulty understanding.

“Yes, he probably is,” he said as he looked at Maru, who was still absorbed in reading.

After Story 214

How many will visit today? No, will I have any visitors at all?

A leaf wet from the morning dew got stuck on the broom. I tried to shake it off, but the leaf was stuck between the strands of plastic and did not come off.

That looked like me. Me, who foolishly stayed in this bookstore without closing down.

I put the broom against the wall, brought a chair, and sat in front of the store. From some time onwards, I liked being outside more than inside.

Perhaps it wasn’t that I liked being outside, but that I hated being inside.

In any case, the opposite of hate was like, so being outside was good.

But is like really the opposite of hate?

I opened an independently published book that came in yesterday. The book talked about a few stories the author had with a cat. Perhaps due to cost issues, there weren’t that many illustrations.

It was a good book to read without thinking. These kinds of books, which didn’t have any topic, criticisms of an issue, or incredible writing just allowed the brain to rest.

A group of three people, who were clearly not from around here, walked past the store. I could feel their stares, but I did not respond.

To the left was a franchise café and to the right was a franchise patisserie.

It was perhaps a given that they would look at the old bookstore between the two with curiosity, or maybe pity.

“Big brother Goosung says he’s pulling out next month,” said the man who ran the laundry shop opposite me.

I received the coffee he gave me gratefully and asked, “Didn’t he say he’ll keep doing it?”

“It’s not like real estate is something you can hold on against. He was told he would have to pay double the rent as soon as his lease was over, so there was no way he could hold on, was there? He had to pull out and leave. But he’s actually better off. His rent was fixed for five years without rising.”

“Back then, the neighborhood was quiet.”

“That’s true.”

It might be somewhat weird for me to say this as a resident here, but this place was a worn-out neighborhood. After the old marketplace went out of business and the bustling commercial buildings became empty, only a handful of stores continued their business.

It was around three years ago when the commercial buildings, which were intermittently empty like a three-year-old’s row of teeth, started being filled again.

I didn’t know what exactly it was that triggered it, but around the start, some young crafters rented a shop for cheap and opened a workshop.

It was around that time that I inherited this bookstore from my grandfather.

“How is it on your side?”

How is it — this phrase was equivalent to ‘how are you’ in this area. It was a question that asked how their neighbors were faring and also measured the danger level of their own abode.

“I don’t know.”

“Nothing from the landlord?”

“He told me to get ready, but didn’t say for what.”

“Prepare for what, bullshit.”

“How is it on your side?”

“I, well…”

There was a sense of forfeit contained in the awkward smile. So this person was leaving as well. Yet another person was leaving this neighborhood.

“You’re better off than me. My kids are going to college next month, so this is driving me crazy. Don’t you ever get married. And even if you do, don’t have babies.”

“With your skill, I’m sure you’ll be able to scrape in all the work wherever you go. I mean, it’s computer luxury cleaning. Computer luxury!”

I pointed at the sign for the laundry store across the road. On it was a neat sign made with red and blue tape that said computed luxury cleaning, with parts of the d ripped off to make it look like an r.

“Let’s eat together tonight.”

“Okay.”

We’d probably end up eating at the pork rib restaurant next to the laundry store.

6,000 won per portion — even that restaurant, which was the go-to place for meetings of the store owners around here would disappear in two months. From what I could hear, a franchise café was taking its place.

I stood up from the chair and had a look at the neighborhood. There were cafés placed throughout the stores that were decorated prettily.

One, two, three, four.

“Did a bunch of people die because they didn’t have coffee or something?”

Even as I said so, I was holding a coffee in my hand. After drinking the canned coffee, I went back in the store.

Will I have any customers today? Will there be a tomorrow? Will the landlord increase the rent? Will he increase the deposit?

I organized the books amidst a wave of questions.

Will I be pushed out as well?

* * *

Maru opened his eyes. He tried drawing a few pictures in his mind based on the impressions he had while reading the scenario.

A changing neighborhood, an old bookstore, and a young owner of the bookstore.

It was a scenario that contained Yoonseok’s worries. He could picture Yoonseok writing down one word after another under the dim lighting.

A neighborhood in the middle of a change was an inevitable facet of society, and the young owner of the bookstore was pretty much Yoonseok’s avatar.

If ‘Form of Love’ focused extremely on the character’s internal change, this scenario focused on the things that happened around the character.

He also found it not so bad that Yoonseok decided to focus on a social phenomenon for the theme.

Maru put down the scenario and looked next to him. Only now were the gazes he had forgotten about felt all over his body.

Around fifty or so people were circling him. The interesting thing was that no one was saying a word.

Maru smiled and stood up.

“Sorry about that. I don’t pay attention to my surroundings when I read. Also, let me ask just in case I’m misunderstanding, but you are all here to see me, right?”

Only then did the people start to speak. The rest area became noisy in an instant. The quiet phones started making shutter noises.

Maru took photos with the people in front of him one by one.

“I really enjoyed the drama. When are you doing your next work?”

“I’m also trying my best so that you will see me. That’s why I’m here today as well.”

“Are you shooting anything here?”

“I’m not entirely sure. If the director here decides on a place nearby for the shoot, I’ll probably shoot here, right?” he said as he pointed at Yoonseok.

Hearing the title ‘director,’ the people around looked at Yoonseok with different eyes than before.

“When will season 2 of the drama start?”

“I don’t know. But with so many of you dearly anticipating it, I’m sure it’ll happen pretty soon?”

Even as he talked, he could see people gathering around. It seemed word had spread.

“We should leave for now,” Maru said to Yoonseok before leaving the library.

All the students who didn’t have classes seemed to have flocked over as it was crowded like a bustling marketplace.

“Uhm, excuse me, but did you talk to the university staff about this? Having a huge crowd here can be dangerous and it hinders passage.”

“I’m sorry, I’ll leave now.”

Hearing the guard say that to him in confusion, Maru walked to the gates of the college first.

On his way there, he repeatedly told the students that they should stop following this uninteresting actor and go study or drinking.

“Are you buying us drinks?”

“I finished my classes for today!”

“Where are you going?”

“Are you on a tour around campus?”

Said the girls around him while giggling. There were even more people than when they left the library.

This was why celebrities always moved in cars to and from event venues.

“You’re like the pied piper. Hyung, were you always this popular?”

“It’s not my popularity. It’s just the crowd attracting even more people. It’s the same psychology as people lining up in front of a store if they see a line, even if they don’t know what the store sells.”

“But they all know who you are. Stop being so humble, Mr. popular actor.”

“Such nice words to say to someone who came to cheer you up.”

Maru turned around at the entrance of the college. A crowd of over a hundred people were eagerly looking at him in anticipation.

“Tell me what I have to do for all of you to go back.”

“I saw you singing in a video!”

People started talking about the concert. Maru smiled before speaking,

“Once I sing a song, you all have to turn around and walk right back inside, okay? If you stay here, I’m going to sue you. I’m not kidding.”

When he said that with strength in his eyes, the people laughed even louder than before.

“Before I start, does anyone know director Lee Yoonseok in front of me?”

A group of boys and girls on the right raised their hands. Some of them helped with the shoot for ‘The Form of Love’ and the others were people he had never seen before.

“Director Lee over here says ‘don’t look down on me.’ Also, I’m close to him. Director, that’s what I’m supposed to say, right?”

Yoonseok smiled awkwardly and tried to get away from him. It seemed that he was so embarrassed that he became beet red all the way to his ears.

Maru grabbed Yoonseok to stop him from running away and put him next to him.

“He’s a returning student who just got out of the military, so look after him well. Even if he says ‘Sergeant Lee Yoonseok’ during roll call, look at him with warm eyes. And even if he boasts about what happened in the military, be understanding, okay?”

Everyone responded positively.

Still grabbing Yoonseok, who was rolling his eyes everywhere, he took out his phone. He looked for the instrumental track of a song he liked and played it.

“If anyone wants to take a video, please shoot from my right. I look better from the right, you see.”

He spoke half-jokingly and half-seriously before singing. He sang about halfway before shouting to the crowd in the front during the high-pitched notes in the chorus,

“Together!”

The people laughing started singing along. He used his phone as a conducting baton and from the second verse onwards, he raised his voice like he was preparing for a performance and sang out loud.

After the song ended with a round of applause, Maru waved at the people to go their ways.

“The world is so unfair,” Yoonseok said as he watched the majority of the students leave.

“How?”

“You know, people can make a living if they can do one thing well, but you have two talents. Were you always so good at singing?”

“Where can you find someone who was always good at something? Everyone starts with baby steps.”

He said hello to Yoonseok’s friends who stayed behind. Even Yoonseok, who stayed frozen in front of a crowd, looked bold in front of his friends, saying that he wasn’t lying.

“Hyung, are you going to shoot with Yoonseok again?” asked one of Yoonseok’s friends, who was also a production staff member before.

Maru spoke as though he was hesitating,

“I will if the scenario is good.”

“Then I guess the members from before should come together again.”

“That sounds good. But I don’t see Jiseon around.”

“She has a part-time job today. I sent her a message that you are here, and she told me she wanted to see you too.”

“Really? Then I should see her while I’m here. There’s no way Jiseon can be absent from Yoonseok’s work.”

“She works at a café about ten minutes from here.”

“I guess I could talk to her there.”

Other than Yoonseok, they all left saying that they had lectures to go to. He went to the café where Jiseon worked with Yoonseok.

“And you two are dating well?”

“Did I tell you that we were dating?”

“It was obvious. It looks like Jiseon waited for you throughout your military service. Treat her well.”

“I am treating her well. Also, when it comes to relationships, I’m probably ahead of you, you know? In fact, I should be giving you advice.”

“I’m not sure about anything else, but that’s not true.”

Yoonseok, who was laughing, suddenly became nervous.

“How was the scenario?”

“How do you think it was?”

“I was pretty confident, but having you say that makes me feel uneasy. Do you not like it?”

“I read through all of it, and the result… is that it’s good. It’s the type of acting I was doing until now too.”

“Then are you doing it?”

Maru nodded. Yoonseok clenched his fist and exclaimed ‘yes.’

“But before that, show it to Jiseon as well. Show it to her and listen to what she has to say. You did that for The Form of Love as well. I resolved the technical things that you were insufficient in, but Jiseon should’ve been more helpful in regards to the emotional stuff.”

“Okay.”

“Also, I’m not going to touch the script at all this time. Even during the editing, I’m only going to say my impressions during the final edit. You know what I mean, right?”

“I have to work properly as the director, right? I’ll do it properly. This concerns my own future as well, so I can’t have anyone else do it.”

“But don’t do everything by yourself. A director is someone who directs other people to do things, not someone who does everything himself.”

Maru went into a café with Yoonseok. Jiseon, whom he hadn’t seen in a long time, greeted him warmly.

After Story 215

-I talked to Jiseon about it. I felt something from our talk, so I’m going to go over the scenario for a bit more. Also, starting next week, I’m going to look into locations for the shoot. I know it won’t be easy since it’s set in a commercial building. I’m also planning to go to the bank as well.

Maru turned off the vacuum cleaner and had a look at the message that Yoonseok sent. He thought this yesterday during a phone call with him, but Yoonseok’s hesitation seemed to have decreased quite a bit. Maru knew how much driving force this guy had, so the progress should be pretty fast.

“What should we do about this?” Haneul came out from the bedroom, holding a large rabbit doll that she got as a gift.

“What do you want to hear?”

“I just want to hear your opinion, sweetie.”

“Are you going to throw it away if I tell you to?”

“How can you say such a thing!”

Haneul’s eyes twitched. Maru shook his head and turned on the vacuum. He didn’t know about anything else, but his wife’s greed for dolls was increasing with every life.

“The day after tomorrow is the last performance, so you have to come. Everyone’s looking forward to your visit,” Haneul said as she stuffed the rabbit doll into a plastic bag. It was one of those vacuum-sealed bags that used a vacuum cleaner.

“I’ll make sure to bring everyone bouquets, so don’t worry. Rather than that, how is everyone? Since they’ve done an extra month of performances, I’m sure some of them are rather disappointed that they have to quit.”

The play they were doing at the small theater, which they were originally going to do for only a month, was extended by a month, and they also moved to a larger theater thanks to the help of president Lee Junmin.

Thanks to President Lee’s and Director Na’s active and secretive advertising, the seats were always sold out, and apparently, some of the others who got on stage managed to receive business cards from some agencies.

“You know how it is with people. It’s all over now, I have no more regrets, this is it — even if you think like that, you still want to grab the tail of opportunity if you see a hint of one.”

Haneul put her hand out, probably asking for the vacuum. Maru pulled out the head module and handed it over to her.

Attaching the vacuum cleaner to the tip of the plastic bag, Haneul turned the power on. Along with a loud motor noise, the enormous rabbit shriveled up.

“Jungah, Sinhye, and Joohwan are all the more happy because they were originally going to continue down this path. The people who are commuting to work are happy that they had a blast of an ending. Some of them even had some coworkers come over and give them bouquets.”

“I guess it’s the ones getting ready for employment that are feeling complicated right now.”

Haneul nodded. She placed the shriveled rabbit doll next to the sofa.

Maru squinted and looked at the pile of shriveled-up dolls. It seemed that they would have to have a room exclusively for dolls in the new house.

“The ones who decided to quit for real have already shaken things off and are starting to get employment, but those who still have attachments seem to feel complicated. I told you, right? About how some of them even received business cards. I’m sure they want to do it again now that they see the possibility.”

“Isn’t there anyone you want?”

Haneul stopped as she was about to go into the room. Her eyes looked up as though she was thinking for a moment. She then put on a faint smile.

“They’re good kids. I can see why you wanted to look out for them. But putting that aside, is there anyone I can guarantee success as an actor…? Honestly, I’m not sure. Of course, Joohwan, Sinhye, and Jungah are exceptions. They’ll do well on their own.”

“Tell them nicely so that they don’t get shaken.”

“I’m not going to stop anyone that wants to do it, and as for those who want help, I’m going to help them out. It’s their own life. We both know all too well that you can take responsibility for your own life unless you’re born rich.”

She was entirely right. She went into the room again and this time, brought out a penguin doll. Then, she repeated the same question again — what should I do with this?

Maru just shrugged. It was bound to get put in a plastic bag before being compressed.

“How is Yoonseok? It’s been about a week since you met him.”

“We had a phone call yesterday and he sent me a message just now. He seems to have grabbed onto a lead and he told me he wants to show me a more polished scenario.”

“That’s good. You and Yoonseok have good synergy. Don’t you think you need to increase the production scale this time? I’m opposed to doing a small one like last time.”

“He seems to be looking into it. There’s a program that provides about 10 million won at college, and he says he’s going to apply for it.”

“But Yoonseok is not in the theater department, nor is anyone else on the team.”

Maru nodded.

“He’s just trying it out. The condition to apply is to be a student there. But I’m sure it’ll get taken by someone from the theater department during the judging process.”

“What about other things? There are culture and art promotion fund programs and independent film production funds.”

“I told him about them, so he should be looking into them. He applied for the 50 million won fund support that the City of Seoul has. The condition is having directed a film once, and Yoonseok has that. He also has a grand prize from the Short Film Festival.”

“Do you think he can get it? You know that getting those funds is like reaching for the stars.”

Maru spoke as he pulled out the dust container for the vacuum cleaner,

“It’ll be pretty hard. All indie filmmakers will be applying for it, and they’ll be picking only a handful. Even under the assumption that the judging is done fairly, it’s incredibly unlikely that he’ll win it.”

“Does Yoonseok have any money saved up?” Haneul asked.

“He just got out of the military. If he has money saved up, that would be strange. His household is ordinary, no, even if he was well-off, he shouldn’t be able to ask them for help. Apparently, his mother is opposed to him doing any sort of art.”

“If you think about it, the people who want to become directors are always quite poor. Their passion and willpower are really high too. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a new director with a thick wallet even in all those lives.”

“You know what they say, art is fueled by hunger.”

His wife brewed him some coffee. Maru sipped on the stick coffee while standing up.

“Did you ask him what he’s going to do if he can’t get the funds?”

“It’s the most important problem, so I did.”

“What did he say?”

“He said he’d get a loan.”

Haneul flinched. She put down the cup that she was about to drink and asked,

“A loan? Did he consult the bank about it?”

“Probably not. If he went to the bank and talked to them about it, he wouldn’t even have brought up a loan to me. He’ll probably realize soon that the only sort of loan a college student can get from the first financial sector is a student loan for tuition. He talked to me really seriously about it last time, saying that he was going to apply for about 50 million won loan from the bank if he fails to make all the funding applications.”

“50 million? My word, he watched too many dramas. But still, I like that he has big dreams.”

“I’m sure he’ll get dejected after being rejected by almost every option. Then he’ll realize that the most important thing in his decision to become a director is money.”

His wife drank the coffee without a word for a while before looking at the clock.

“Are you going to let him get broken like that for a while?”

“Yeah.”

“He might give up and leave.”

“Maybe.”

“You’re not going to help him?”

“I am willing to. The production costs are something I can handle on my end. Also, I don’t find investment in that work a waste. Instead, I want to look into how tenacious the person known as Lee Yoonseok is and whether he can keep moving after his passion runs out.”

“Don’t give a young guy too much pressure. You’re an adult, sweetie.”

After taking care of the dolls, his wife changed clothes. She was in a casual jersey.

“Going to practice?” he asked.

“It’s about time I get going. Do you want to go as well?”

Maru pointed at various places throughout the kitchen with the vacuum cleaner. It was rather messy with all the moving preparations.

“Can I leave these behind and go?”

“No, good luck with cleaning.”

His wife waved her hand and opened the door.

“Get some tofu on the way back. We also ran out of eggs, get a dozen.”

“Okay. If it’s too much work for you, then let’s clean together tomorrow. Also, we’re going to buy new things for the most part, so we should call a recycling company, right?”

“It’s great having a business owner as a wife. You’re a big spender.”

“Are you happy that you have a rich girl as your wife?”

“Overjoyed to death.”

“Don’t actually die though. You died too many times, sweetie.”

“Okay.”

His wife left, saying that they should meet in the evening. When the electric ringtone of the doorlock rang, the cat hiding in the smaller room peeked out. He was about to turn on the vacuum but stopped. The cat would get startled and go into hiding again if he did so.

“Ricebun, it’s you I’m most nervous around.”

Maru petted the cat that came over before picking up a bunch of the dolls that his wife piled up.

He went to the parking lot and opened the car door before putting them inside. When he made about two rounds, the passenger seat was totally filled with dolls that were compressed flat.

“Were there so many?”

When he thought about it now, he felt like he would see a pile of dolls in the morning when he woke up rather than his wife’s face.

He went to the new house with the army of dolls and brought them to the house he had already filed the moving-in notification for. The house was also under his wife’s name.

Rather than hiring movers, they decided to move the things they needed themselves and buy everything anew, especially the furniture.

He and his wife came to an agreement on a final interior design after days of squabble, and the construction was finished last week.

Maru smiled in satisfaction as he looked at the living room and kitchen that was just to his liking. It would be perfect if the new coffee machine and the pressure rice cooker were here.

He was told to make a call if the interior construction had any defects, but he couldn’t see anything for the time being. The company that director Na introduced was very competent.

When he was looking outside the window, he got a call. It was from Yang Ganghwan.

-Where are you?

“At home.”

-If you don’t have anything to do right now, then let’s meet up. There’s someone who wants to meet you here too.

“Now?”

-You can’t make it?

“I can. Where should I go?”

-I’ll go pick you up. Where are you right now?

Maru set the meeting place somewhere near Yeouido station. He left the house and walked to the station.

Not long later, he saw Ganghwan’s car. When he opened the passenger seat of the car that had thick tinted windows, he saw someone familiar. It was Suyeon.

“Get in the back,” Ganghwan said.

Maru sat in the back seat.

“What brings the two of you together?”

“We were talking and you came to mind. Also, the one we’re going to pick up now says he wants to see you.”

“It wasn’t Suyeon-noona who wanted to see me?”

Suyeon turned her head around and spoke, “We see each other often on the radio, so we can’t see too often in private.”

She smiled before turning around again. The car set off.

Ganghwan really talked without stopping. Suyeon, sitting next to him, was just quietly reading a book, not minding what he said. Sometimes, she would smile and nod in reply.

Maru watched them from the back and asked about his suspicions. He thought back to the times when Suyeon brought up Ganghwan as well.

“I might be mistaken, but you two don’t have a special relationship, do you?”

“Does it look like we don’t?”

The answer didn’t come from the chatty Ganghwan, but Suyeon. Ganghwan didn’t say anything and just smiled.

“Do you?” Maru asked again.

These two weren’t a special combination. There were multiple times in his previous lives when these two got married.

However, he thought that they would be close friends at most in this life. They were too different to be dating.

“We do.”

“How long has it been?”

“Us? I think about eight years? Of course, not many people know about it. Only a handful who we can call family?”

“…You can handle his endless talking?”

“Well, I like listening, and I don’t bother talking that much. If you think that he does a lot of what I don’t bother to do, don’t you think it’s a good combo?”

Hearing Suyeon’s words, Maru nodded. She had a point. Suyeon became chattier than ever during broadcasts, but otherwise, she was usually quiet.

“Don’t go telling other people about it though,” Ganghwan said.

“I’ll think about it if you treat me to something nice. So who’s the person that we’re going to pick up?”

“You’ll see soon. He lives nearby too.”

After driving for a while, Ganghwan started slowing down at the side of the road. As he looked outside, a man of celebrity proportions caught his eyes.

That man walked over in large strides and opened the door. Maru spoke as he looked at the person that got in,

“Senior Hong Geunsoo?”

“I kept thinking that I should meet you, but it really was hard to get the time right. I guess this is our first meeting since the Film Festival, right?”

Hong Geunsoo reached his hand out, mentioning what happened at the Short Film Festival.

After Story 216

“Geunsoo, you met Maru before?” Ganghwan asked.

“Didn’t I tell you before? I met him when I went to present the awards at the Short Film Festival. We didn’t exactly have a talk, but I did meet him,” Geunsoo replied as he put his seatbelt on.

“I thought you wouldn’t remember me. We only met for a brief moment on the stage,” Maru said.

“If it was just that, I wouldn’t have remembered you. The Form of Love, wasn’t it? When I was invited to be one of the honorary judges, that was one of the works I watched. It had a lot of unnecessary stuff, but I gave it my vote because it felt good. I didn’t know it’d get the grand prize though.”

“So I guess I got the grand prize thanks to you, then, senior.”

“If we’re going to talk about direct influence, Sir Yoon definitely had a lot more than me. Sir Yoon Moonjoong said that he found it impressive. He wasn’t appointed as a judge, but it’s more than obvious what kind of effect his words would’ve had.”

“I see. He didn’t tell me about such things, so I didn’t know that at all.”

“He’s not someone who would say things like that. Actually, he talked to me about you a lot. He said that you and he get along pretty well. He also told me that you’re quite slow-witted in that you got caught with the alcohol by the madam just like I did.”

“I got an earful from her as well. She told me she’d throw me out in the middle of the night like she did with Geunsoo if I didn’t give her the rice wine I hid. Oh, did you really get thrown out?”

“I had to stand outside for about five minutes before being allowed back in again. The madam keeps her word. She is pretty affectionate, though, and is easily forgiving.”

Although it had been less than five minutes since they met, they had no problems conversing thanks to the shared topic that was the elder.

Maru thought about the numerous Hong Geunsoos that lived.

A serious Hong Geunsoo, a chatty Hong Geunsoo, a cold-headed Hong Geunsoo, a spiteful Hong Geunsoo — there were many Hong Geunsoos with different personalities, but there were two things that never changed:

Hong Geunsoo is crazy about acting. And Hong Geunsoo respects the elder.

“Don’t just talk among yourselves and let us join. What are you talking about with so much interest?” Ganghwan said when the car stopped in front of a traffic light.

“Please leave me out of that ‘us.’ I’m fine with listening.”

Suyeon faintly smiled before focusing on her book again. I don’t have anyone on my side? — Ganghwan grumbled before stepping on the pedal again.

“Where are we going?” Maru asked.

The car, which was driving on the Olympic highway, had now exited the highway in the direction of Hanam.

“I’m planning to earn some money by kidnapping you. Got a problem?” Ganghwan said as he turned on the radio.

“Rather than me, the one sitting next to me will sell at a much higher price.”

“I’m going to sell him as well. Geunsoo for 5 million won, and you, 500 thousand.”

Suyeon, who was listening, said that their destination was a private house on the outskirts of the city of Hanam.

“It’s a place we go to when we want to play by ourselves. It’s a shared private house under our president’s name.”

“Can we go anytime we want?”

“There’s someone who manages it, so we can go anytime. However, it’s not a good idea to go there when the president is there.”

“No matter how close you are to the president, is it too much to rest in the same area as him?”

Suyeon, who had been replying with her eyes fixed on her book, turned around. She looked more serious than ever.

“No, if we go there when the president is already there, we become toys.”

“Toys?”

“Toys for the dogs. I can still remember being buried under ten puppy retrievers. It wasn’t a bad memory. They were cute and adorable. It was just that I lacked the stamina to play with all those dogs.”

Having said that, Suyeon became quiet and went back to her book, looking slightly worn out. It looked like she became more fatigued with every word she said. Just how someone like her became a chatterbox during her radio program… Maru wanted to just applaud her professional mindset.

“You know that the president like dogs, right?” Geunsoo asked.

Maru talked about how he shot a public service advertisement about abandoned dogs and met president Lee Junmin through that.

“So I guess you can meet him that way too. This country is pretty small, alright.”

“Rather than the country being small, don’t you think he just has connections to too many things?”

“That’s true as well. But still, it’s good that you like dogs. Because he likes dogs so much, there was once a rumor that you have to adopt a dog if you want to join JA as an actor or an employee.”

Ganghwan, who was driving, started laughing. The car, which was driving on a highway, exited onto a road that led to a mountain. There were private houses built along the stream. When they stopped, they were in front of a white-colored house.

“Let’s eat first. Maru, you follow me.”

He followed Ganghwan to the back of the house. When he lifted the blue tarpaulin, he saw a bunch of firewood.

“We’re eating outside?”

“Winter’s past us, so we should have a barbecue outside.”

“These are all wet, so it’ll take a long time to set them on fire.”

“It’s just to place on top of the charcoal for the fragrance.”

Ganghwan picked up a bunch of firewood and placed them on top of Maru’s arms.

“Take that to Geunsoo. It’s for the stove.”

“There’s a wood burner stove here?”

“There’s one that was brought here when the boiler for the house was broken. Since then, we’ve been using it a lot; it sets a good mood too.”

He went inside the building with the firewood. Suyeon was preparing something in the kitchen, and Geunsoo was washing the barbecue grill next to her.

Everyone looked proficient as though they were proving that this wasn’t the first or second time they came here.

“Senior, Ganghwan-hyung gave me these, but should I put them in the stove? They’re wet, so they won’t burn well.”

Geunsoo had a look at the firewood.

“They’re all wet from the spring rain. It looks like water seeped underneath the tarpaulin.”

“We can’t use them, can we?”

“For now, place them next to the stove. We’ll use them as dry firewood the next time we come here.”

Maru put down the firewood and approached Suyeon.

“Do you need any help?”

“Do you know how to get the taste right for doenjang-jjigae? We’re going to put it on the grill.”

“I’m good at that.”

He took the ceramic pot that Suyeon was holding. When he opened the fridge, he saw a bunch of seasonings and condiments. Those that could be stored long-term seemed to be stored in the fridge constantly.

After chopping up some vegetables, he sliced some of the meat they were going to grill and put them in the ceramic pot. He first stir-fried the meat a little before adding some doenjang, ssamjang, pepper flakes, and spicy peppers.

“Do you cook often?”

He stopped as he was chopping up some zucchini and looked at Suyeon. Geunsoo was watching next to her as well.

“It’s a hobby.”

“That’s a good hobby. Mr. Yang over there is usually busy eating.”

As soon as Suyeon said those words, the door opened.

“You weren’t talking bad about me, were you?”

It was Ganghwan. Suyeon spoke in a soft voice with her eyes round.

“He’s a stupid guy, but he’s quick to catch on.”

“Right.”

Suyeon smiled and put some rice into the rice pot. With four adults perfectly distributing the jobs, meal preparations were finished in no time.

They went outside with the food that just needed heating. Charcoal was burning red hot under the grill.

After putting some seafood and meat on the grill, they put some mushrooms in the space left over. The meat was fully cooked by the time the jjigae started boiling as well.

Maru snatched the tongs from Ganghwan, who insisted that he wanted to grill the meat, and cooked the meat himself.

“It’s a champagne from a region in France called Cramant. I had an opportunity to try it out, and it was good, so I brought some,” Suyeon said as she raised a bottle of champagne.

Maru cut up the meat into bite-size pieces and distributed them to people’s plates.

“Whether it’s the way you hold a knife or the way you cut up meat, I don’t think cooking is simply a hobby for you,” Geunsoo said before eating.

Maru smiled and urged the seniors to quickly try the meat. Suyeon, who was chewing quietly, spoke in a soft voice,

“I think we should bring Maru every time from now on.”

“I thought that too.”

Ganghwan held out his plate. Maru cut some of the tenderloin that he grilled fully on the outside and put it on the plate. The three of them all ate with happy faces.

“You need to drink at a time like this.”

Ganghwan poured the champagne that Suyeon brought. The champagne gave rise to white foam as it was poured into the glasses. Maru tilted the glass to drink some.

The champagne had a soft texture and was pretty acidic. Maru thought that the opinions were going to be really split on this, and as he had expected, Ganghwan tilted his head.

“It tastes too sour at the end.”

“I like it though.”

Suyeon poured herself another glass and appreciated it slowly.

“Aren’t you going to drink, senior?” Maru asked Geunsoo, who was not drinking.

“I have to go back to Seoul. You should drink comfortably.”

“I also have to go home after chatting for a bit. I actually came out without thinking much when he told me that we should eat out together, and then I was kidnapped and brought here.”

“Ganghwan, that guy, is pretty reckless. Then we should go back together after dinner. Those two are planning to stay here for the night,” Geunsoo said as he looked at Ganghwan and Suyeon.

The two of them were “talking” as they looked at each other. One was talking, and one would smile every once in a while with a nod.

“I thought they didn’t suit each other, but they actually go together quite well.”

“People often say that opposites attract, but you find that people with the same wavelength get along more, right? But those two aren’t like that. They’re totally different, but they suit each other.”

They were almost done with the meal.

Ganghwan and Suyeon stood up, saying that they were going to go for a walk. The way they walked while holding hands made them look like husband and wife without a doubt.

“Wouldn’t they be in trouble if they got photographed while walking around like that?”

“I guess they just don’t care since they’ll get married soon.”

“Did they decide on a date?” Maru asked back in surprise.

“I’m not sure about the details, but I’m pretty sure they’re getting married next year at the latest. From what I know, they had their family greetings a long time ago.”

“Looks like entertainment journalists will be busy for a while.”

“I’m sure it’ll be noisy.”

Maru asked Geunsoo if he was going to eat more while looking at the remaining meat. Geunsoo nodded without hesitation. Now that he thought about it, Geunsoo was quite a big eater.

“What are you doing these days?” Geunsoo asked as he ate a piece of sirloin.

“Resting wholeheartedly.”

“Not getting ready to do work?”

“And that too. A director close to me just got discharged from the military. Oh, he’s the director of ‘The Form of Love’ that we talked about in the car.”

“Really?”

“So I’m going to work with him again. He’s passionate enough to write a scenario in the military.”

“If he’s dedicated enough to prepare something in the military, then he’ll be successful. Did the president allow it?”

“I reported to him about it for now. I’m sure you know better than me, but the president doesn’t stop actors from doing what they want.”

“He’ll give you support unless it’s something totally weird. But since you said he just got discharged from the military, he must be still in college, huh.”

“Yes.”

“Can he handle your pay?”

“I’m planning to get paid in passion. It’s something I want to do. I have high hopes because I feel like I can show the masses that the actor Han Maru has a side like this.”

“So you like acting, huh?”

“Of course.”

“Me too. Money is good and all, but I have to find the fun in it. How can I act well when it’s no fun?”

Geunsoo held out an empty plate. Maru looked at him in wonder. Geunsoo told him to give him some more.

Maru looked at the grill. It was totally empty.

“I saw some seasoned ribs, so should I cook that?”

“Sounds good.”

“I didn’t know you could eat so much.”

“I sometimes marvel at myself for having such a big stomach.”

Geunsoo’s eyes as he saw the meat sizzling looked like those of a child. Maru cut up the cooked ribs and put them on the plate. Geunsoo, who had served another bowl of rice for himself before Maru even realized, placed a piece of meat on top of the rice.

“Then I guess you must be pretty busy, huh.”

“Busy? I’m not really sure. I think I’ll be doing a drama too, but if I have to do both at the same time, the schedule is going to be pretty tight.”

“Really? Then would it be too hard to work with me?”

“What?”

Geunsoo continued as he ate some more rice,

“I’m going to start a historical drama soon, and there’s a role that hasn’t been cast yet. I was thinking that you were suited for that role and told the director about it.”

After Story 217

“A historical drama?” Maru asked as he looked at Geunsoo before turning his head around when he heard the meat sizzling.

While he flipped over the ribs, Geunsoo spoke,

“If you are willing, I can make an appointment with the director. If you think it’s too much, then it’s okay if you don’t take me up on it.”

“No, it’s not that. It’s just a little sudden.”

“The other main actors are almost all decided, but the director kept thinking about the role that I want you to play. We were talking about the cast during a private meeting, and we talked about actors your age, so I recommended you. You were really good in Depths of Evil.”

“Did the director say anything about me?”

“He said he wanted to meet you. That’s why I’m bringing it up. It seemed like he found you good too. Depths of Evil has a good reputation among film producers.”

Maru drank the last sip of the champagne from his glass.

An opportunity to work with Hong Geunsoo? He’d love to do it as long as the conditions were right.

“Is it okay to ask what the work is?”

“It’s not actually based on historical events. The story is based on an era, but it has no historical relation. Rather than focusing on political struggles like long-running historical dramas, it focuses more on action. It’s a cheerful drama that doesn’t require much energy to watch.”

“Action, huh.”

Geunsoo spoke, “I saw your drama, and you were good at using your body without using a body double. I think you’ve learned how to make yourself look cool too.”

“They’re all things I’ve learned on the job. It’s nothing worth boasting about.”

“In any case, I thought you’d do well, so I’m telling you about it. I can’t tell you the details like what scenes you have or what kind of importance you have for now, but I can guarantee that it won’t be small. Consider it lead-level support.”

“I don’t mind how many appearances I have. Even if it’s just one cut, I’ll do it if it leaves a deep impression.”

Geunsoo stopped eating and looked at Maru. Maru stayed still for a while before asking if there was something wrong.

“I was just reminded of something. I told the senior, so, the president, the same words you said word for word.”

“That’s an interesting coincidence.”

Geunsoo nodded.

“Would you like to meet the director and hear him out? I can’t guarantee that you’ll get the role even if you do.”

“In fact, I should be the one begging you to please allow me to meet him. I’m fine anytime, just give me a call.”

“Then I’ll tell you about it after telling the director. It probably won’t take that long. The director likes to take care of what he has to do as soon as possible. Oh, I didn’t even tell you who he is. He’s director Nam Goonghun.”

“The director for Heavenly Paradise, right?”

“Looks like you’ve seen it.”

Heavenly Paradise was a movie about the story of Yi Seonggye[1] before his rise to the throne.

While it wasn’t hugely successful financially, the actor who played Yi Seonggye as well as the extreme attention to historical detail was talked about among those in the industry for a long time.

“He likes historical dramas, so he went with a historical action drama that the masses can accept more easily. Director Kwon Joohyuk, the action director, turned down all the other offers because of this work as well. He’s passionate enough to play a role himself.”

“I’ve heard about director Kwon Joohyuk as well. I heard that the stuntmen working under him will all become first-rate.”

“It’s just as taxing though. There are many actors who run away after boldly stepping forward and saying that they don’t need a body double.”

“It’s fun to work with someone like that.”

“So you’re quite perverse in your own way, huh?”

“Oh, please. I just place a lot of importance on making things look perfect.”

Geunsoo smiled. The sun was setting now.

They took out the potatoes and sweet potatoes that they buried under the charcoal. Maru peeled the charred foil around a sweet potato and put it in his mouth.

“You know, I’ve been thinking about this for a while, but you feel strangely familiar to me. There’s a sense of déjà vu as well. I feel like this happened many times before,” Geunsoo said.

“I do?” Maru smiled. “Who knows? Maybe I talked to you like this in a previous life.”

“Previous? You believed in things like that?”

“I do. Previous lives, the soul, and the afterlife. I believe all of them exist.”

“You seemed quite detached from things like that. That was unexpected.”

“You don’t believe in them?”

Geunsoo looked at the sweet potato that he had eaten half of.

“I’m on the side that wants to believe it. I don’t believe it entirely, but I think that it’d be better if those things exist. It’d be a pity if I ended as a one-off movie. There should be a sequel, a spinoff, and a remake.”

“You never know. You might have lost all the memories of your previous life and reincarnated into the person you are now. It’s a splendid remake.”

“I don’t like that. My memories are what makes me, me.” Geunsoo tapped on his head with his index finger.

Maru shrugged. “Memories might not be everything. Things beyond your recognition will connect you to the people important to you. Also, remembering everything might not exactly be a good thing.”

“For example?”

“If you keep compiling memories without being able to forget the events you want to forget, that will be a neat punishment, don’t you think? Think about it. You confessed to a girl when you were a child, but you got turned down on the spot. Imagine having to remember that every morning.”

“That sounds terrible.”

“You’ll probably kick your duvet in shame to oblivion, right?”

The two of them looked at each other and smiled. When the joke died down, Geunsoo spoke again,

“As you say, if I ever undergo something like reincarnation, I should start over after forgetting everything. It’d be great if I can selectively remember a few things though.”

“Like stocks and real estate information?” Maru asked.

Geunsoo shook his head. “The memory that I loved acting. I want to take that with me at least.”

“Usually, people would start memorizing lottery numbers.”

“If I have the room for that, then I’ll memorize one. If you were to reincarnate with a single memory, what would you like to remember?”

“Me? Just a single name. That’s enough for me.”

Geunsoo grinned and waved the sweet potato in his hand.

“I won’t ask what that name is. But introduce that person to me later.”

“I will.”

“On a side note, I should start looking to date someone as well.”

“You know you can do it if you are willing.”

“You see, it doesn’t really go the way I want it to.”

“You shouldn’t come to a place for couples and go somewhere else.”

“If you want to give me advice, then do it after you introduce me to someone.”

“Should I really? If you’re willing, I’ll set you up.”

“My personality is quite eccentric, so I wonder if anyone would be willing.”

“The person I know is quite eccentric too. Her name is pretty though.”

“What’s the name of this eccentric person?”

“Miso.”

“That’s a pretty name.”

“If you’re willing, you should meet her once.”

Geunsoo shook the ash from his hands. “If I have the opportunity later, sure. Oh yeah, let’s get going now. We just have to clean up a little around here and leave the rest to the couple that disappeared without a word.”

They cleaned up the surroundings and brought the dishes to the kitchen sink. Geunsoo gave Ganghwan a call, saying that they were going to go.

“Let’s come together again next time.”

They got in the car, being seen out by Ganghwan and Suyeon who returned.

Maru spoke as he looked at the house that was becoming distant,

“It doesn’t look like a taxi would come here. How are those two going to leave?”

“Jaecheol will drive them home, so don’t worry about it.”

“He’s going to have a hard time.”

Maru smiled as he thought about Ganghwan’s manager. The car entered Seoul. Getting off in front of Yeouido station, Maru said goodbye to Geunsoo.

“Drive safe.”

“Keep your eye on that phone. You might get something as early as tonight.”

“Yes.”

“Thank you for helping out today.”

“Don’t be. I had a good time eating and listening to good things.”

“Like Ganghwan said, let’s meet up again sometime.”

“I’ll go anytime. Oh, please think about that blind date seriously.”

Geunsoo waved and drove off. There was something that Miso said to him every time they contacted each other. She would ask if there were any decent men around him. She was probably saying that half as a joke, but after hearing it so many times, Maru felt obligated to introduce her to one person at least.

Though, if he told Miso about it, it was likely that Miso would be taken aback and become flustered.

“Yeah, it’s me. I’m outside because I had something to do. I’ll do the groceries so you should come home right away. Okay, good luck with practice.”

He finished the call with his wife before going to the supermarket. He said hello to the granny watching a small TV and picked up some things. Just then, he got a call from an unknown number.

“Hello?”

-Maru, it’s me. Geunsoo.

“Yes, senior.”

-I realized I hadn’t told you my number. I got your number from Ganghwan. Save this, okay?

“Okay.”

-Also, can you make time tomorrow?

“Tomorrow?”

He thought about the last performance that his wife was going to do.

“I have somewhere I have to go.”

-At what time?

“Five in the afternoon.”

-Are you okay before that? Do you think you can meet the director during lunch?

Maru put down the eggs he was holding.

“You asked already?”

-It’s better to do things like this as fast as possible. How is it?

“I can do lunch.”

-Then I’ll call you again tomorrow morning. Oh, and also, don’t suit up when you come. He doesn’t like being all formal.

“I’ll wear casual clothes.”

He hung up and looked at his phone that had gone to standby. He was resting, but work was rolling his way. Maybe this was what it felt like to be ‘blessed with work.’

* * *

“I’ll be there in time,” Maru said.

His wife, who was putting on her trainers on the porch, raised her head and replied,

“You should think about leaving a good impression on the director instead. If the director tells you to have a drink, then you do what he says.”

“I wonder where the person who told me to come to the last performance went.”

“Your work is on the line, sweetie, so how important is celebrating? Just wrap things up well over there and come over if you have the time. I’ll tell the others about it.”

“I don’t plan to become a cold-hearted senior, so I’ll definitely visit with a bouquet. I need to see you crying.”

“Me? You think I’d cry after all the uncountable number of performances I did?”

“You know you cry easily.”

Haneul tilted her head and frowned, but she eventually smiled.

“I’ll probably cry. I don’t want to, but I always end up crying for some reason after my last performance. Anyway, good luck with the director. It’s an opportunity to work with senior Geunsoo.”

“Okay. I’ll take care of my own work, so you focus on your stage.”

After sending her off, Maru also got ready to leave. He put on a t-shirt, a casual-style shirt on top, and put on a pair of loafers.

He brought a hat with him and got in his car. When he arrived at the place that Geunsoo told him, it was 12. There were about 30 minutes until the appointed time.

Just as he was planning to wait inside the car while reading a book, Geunsoo messaged him saying that he had arrived. Maru got out of the car and made a call. The director seemed more early than punctual.

“I’m here as well. Where should I go?”

-There should be a restaurant named Beef Village nearby. We booked a room so you should go there as well.

“Okay, I’ll be there soon.”

Maru hung up and started walking.

[1] A general in the late era of Goryeo and the founding King of Chosun.

After Story 218

“Allow me to guide you.”

Maru followed the waitress to a room, in front of which were three pairs of shoes. One pair of white sneakers, a pair of black canvas shoes, and a pair of green running trainers.

There seemed to be one more person aside from director Nam Goonghun and Hong Geunsoo.

He took his shoes off and slid the door sideways to open it. The three people seated around a sitting table turned around to look at him. He put on a relaxed smile and spoke,

“I hope I’m not too late.”

“You definitely aren’t.” Geunsoo pointed at the seat next to him.

Maru sat down after bowing towards the two people sitting opposite him.

“On your left is director Nam Goonghun, and on your right, the person who’s slightly more handsome than director Nam is the action director, director Kwon Joohyuk.”

After Geunsoo’s introduction, Goonghun reached his hand out.

I’m Nam Goonghun, I’m Han Maru — after a brief round of introductions, Maru said hello to Joohyuk as well.

“You must’ve been surprised since I asked to see you all of a sudden,” Goonghun said.

“I did hear from senior Geunsoo that I might get contacted soon, but I didn’t know it would be this fast.”

“I just have a rash personality. Especially when it comes to casting.”

There was a knock on the door before it opened slightly.

“May I help with your order?”

“Can you wait just a little? We’ll call you when we’re ready,” Goonghun said.

The employee put down the menu softly and closed the door.

“I tend to have an upset stomach when I talk about work during a meal. Is it okay to eat a little later?”

“Of course.”

After answering, Maru took a sip of water.

“I’m sure you’ve heard the general outline from Geunsoo, especially about what we’re working on.”

“Yes, I’ve heard that it’s a historical drama focused on action.”

Goonghun exchanged gazes with Jooyuk sitting next to him before continuing,

“There will be a lot of action. With the rising popularity of thrillers these days, action was only used as a device to increase tension. What we’re trying to do is to produce a movie that’s action-first, from the beginning to the end.”

“Like the movie Delousse?”

It was a movie that came to his mind as soon as he heard Goonghun’s words. It was a movie released in America in 1990, and more than half of the movie consisted of ‘physical’ communication.

It was an action movie under the mask of a buddy movie where the characters let their fists do the talking instead of words.

“You’ve watched Delousse?” Joohyuk said.

“I stumbled across it while I was looking for materials to learn about how to use my body. I heard that it’s like a textbook for those wanting to produce or learn action.”

Joohyuk’s expression, which had been stiff since the moment he came into the room, became relaxed for the first time. He even looked overjoyed like he had seen someone he knew in a foreign place.

“Look at you all smug. Mr. Maru, as you see, the action director is really crazy about action. Whenever we do spin-kicks, he always steps in and shows a demonstration. He’s so crazy about action that he eats into the overall schedule with demonstrations alone. What you’re about to do is shoot an action movie with such a person. Is that okay with you?”

“I never boast about my acting skills. It’s embarrassing. But, there’s one thing I can say with confidence. I have great stamina. Even with a series of action scenes one after the other, I will not fall down. Also, I like using my body.”

“For now, your nature seems to fall in line with ours. Joohyuk, what do you say?”

“I lost all my complaints from the moment he mentioned Delousse. I’m okay as long as you’re okay. But Mr. Maru. Have you ever done any action sports?”

Hearing Joohyuk’s question, Maru replied that there were a few things he learned as a hobby. In his head was knowledge pertaining to many different sports that he had learned in his previous lives, but there was a limit to how much he could recreate with his current body.

“I’m doing jiujitsu and boxing regularly, and while I don’t do as much Judo and Kendo anymore, I do it from time to time.”

“So you weren’t all talk. You should come to our acting school later. I’ll teach you properly,” Joohyuk said.

“Definitely.”

After that, he continued talking to the director. The director mentioned what kind of character he would be playing, as well as the details like the estimated number and location of the shoots.

“As for payment, I don’t think I can decide it here because I’m sure your agency has its own rules, but I’ll talk to them about it. I’m slightly worried that we might not be able to pay you since you’re a rising star these days, and the production company has enough of a headache paying Geunsoo.”

“Director, I’m still here. Aren’t you giving me too much flack?” Geunsoo said.

“I’m saying so that you can hear it.”

From how they were joking around about money, their relationship had to be pretty close. It seemed that Geunsoo and director Nam had trust in each other.

“It’s an opportunity to be cast in a good work, so I can’t miss it just because I’ll get paid less. It’s fine even if you shave off a lot, so allow me to be in it,” Maru said to Goonghun and Joohyuk.

He was getting to work with Hong Geunsoo, so money was of no importance. There would be thousands of actors wanting to join this movie based on that alone.

“It seems like we’re almost done talking, so why don’t we get to eating? I’m almost starving to death.”

Geunsoo called for a waiter. He gave the order as he looked at the menu, and the way he ordered was rather peculiar. He did not pick dishes according to the number of people present. He just asked for all the menu items on one page.

“Please give us all the dishes on this page, as well as one of each of the noodle dishes. Directors, you’re going to eat a bowl of cold noodles each, right?”

The waiter, who received the order, asked for confirmation. It was definitely a lot for just four people, so it wasn’t surprising.

“Yes, give us all of those.”

Geunsoo smiled and opened a pack of wet wipes.

Maru felt this back at the barbecue, but the amount he ate was on a marvelous level. He would probably make it big as a food fighter even if he quit being an actor.

“Mr. Maru,” Goonghun called him.

“Whenever Geunsoo asks to eat out, you should ask him who’s going to pay. Don’t even dream about splitting the bill. You definitely cannot pay for anything that he’s eating.”

“Yeah, I can see that.”

“Today, it’s on me, so eat to your heart’s content, Mr. Maru. Geunsoo, you eat moderately. You eat so much, but you never gain weight. It’s a strange phenomenon indeed.”

Geunsoo picked up his chopsticks, tilting his head.

After the side dishes were laid out, the employee started grilling the meat. When the meat was almost fully cooked, the owner of the restaurant opened the door and came inside. He held out an autograph paper and spoke,

“I’m a huge fan of yours. If it’s okay with you, can you both give me an autograph each? The entrance of the restaurant looks rather empty right now, so it’d look great if I could hang autographs of the two of you.”

“Of course. An autograph is nothing.”

The owner approached with glee and placed an autograph paper and a pen in front of both Maru and Geunsoo.

“There was an actor who visited last time, but when I asked him for an autograph, he snapped out and told me not to bother him. I was so ashamed. On TV, he was known to have a great personality.”

“That must’ve been disappointing,” Geunsoo said.

The owner explained the displeased feelings he had that day, saying that he felt wronged.

“Don’t take it to heart. Actors are only people. I’m sure that person must’ve experienced something bad that day to be like that.”

“Well, sure.”

“Next time, I’m sure he’ll smile kindly and do it for you. If he knows what he lives off of, that is.”

There was a bone behind the seemingly warm words. The owner seemed to have taken Geunsoo’s words as a joke.

Maru signaled the owner, who was smiling with the two autographs, that this man here was just as professional at eating as he was at acting, so he should be careful.

“Please eat to your heart’s content. You’ve given me an autograph like this, so this much is nothing. Instead, please come again next time.”

The owner left the room after leaving behind those words.

“After he said that, I’ll have to take up his offer,” Geunsoo said as he placed some of the cooked meat on his plate.

It wasn’t that he ate like a brute, and in fact, it looked like he was eating moderately while participating in the conversation, but the meat disappeared from his plate in no time.

At this point, he was an expert. Geunsoo ate a lot, but he also ate elegantly.

The waiter visited their room a few times. His expression changed slightly every time he brought meat, and he seemed to be wondering how much more Geunsoo could eat. No, rather than curiosity, it was more like anticipation.

Geunsoo put down his chopsticks, saying that he was full. There was no leftover food. Goonghun clapped as though to pay respects for Geunsoo’s appetite, muttering that he was incredible.

Leaving the room and going to the counter, Geunsoo took out his credit card. It seemed that he had no intention of letting director Nam pay. The owner, who was in the distance, quickly walked over.

“It’s fine, you don’t have to pay.”

“No, I really should.”

“It’s okay, it’s okay.”

“I’m not okay with it.”

Please don’t — the owner waved his hand in the air and told them to go. Geunsoo, who was holding on, took out his wallet again and asked one final time if it was really okay.

“I hate going back on my word. You don’t have to pay today, so please come again next time.”

“Then I’ll come next time.”

The director and Geunsoo left the restaurant. Maru followed them out before turning around to get a toothpick. Just then, he saw the owner printing the receipt. He was all smiles when he saw the group out, but his eyes were twitching now that he was looking at the long list of items on the receipt.

Maru quietly pulled out a toothpick and quickly turned around. He could feel the owner’s gaze on the back of his head.

You should’ve definitely gotten that payment — Maru said inwardly before leaving the restaurant.

“It looks like you should come again and help him sell a lot.”

When he told Geunsoo about the sad expression that the owner had, Geunsoo laughed.

“Looks like we should hold an all-out get-together here once.”

“I’m sure the owner didn’t know that you’d eat so much. Honestly, it was an inhumane amount.”

“It’s you who doesn’t eat a lot, director. Everyone eats this much.”

They moved places to a café. Sitting down with a hat deeply pressed to cover their faces, no one recognized the two of them.

They talked about personal things for a while, and when they were about to get up, director Nam spoke,

“Let’s have a camera test in two days. Also, I’m sure there will be no problems with the casting since I have a lot of influence over the company.”

“Okay.”

“It was nice meeting you today. See you in two days.”

“I’ll see you then.”

After parting with the directors and Geunsoo, he returned to his car.

“I called you yesterday, and I’m planning to go get the flowers now. Yes, okay.”

He drove the car to the florist. Among the rows of florists, he went to the one he had ordered from. From there, he brought a large bouquet for his wife and some presents for the juniors.

-Don’t forget to get a big present for unni.

That was a text from Bada. Despite being his blood sister, she looked out for his wife more than him.

Bada also wanted to come watch the last performance, but she couldn’t because she was participating as a minor actor in a movie.

He parked the car in the parking lot and took out the bouquet and the gifts. Rather than giving it to them in the waiting room, he felt like it would be better to give it to them right after the curtain call.

He sat down on his designated seat while holding the gifts. As this was a decently-sized theater, there were some vacant seats.

Not long later, the lights dimmed. Then his wife’s stage began. She instantly put the entire stage under her grasp with her acting.

He had seen it many times already, but it felt new every time. He very much enjoyed the performance as a fan of the actress known as Han Haneul.

After Story 219

The curtain call began. He wanted to stand up and applaud them, but there was no palace to put down the bouquet. After the lights came over the stage and the audience seats came on, relaxing background music started flowing out.

Some of the audience members left with their bags, while those who were close to the actors on stage went on the stage.

Maru also stood up with the bouquet and gifts for the juniors.

“Thank you for coming.”

“You look totally different from when you’re at the company.”

He heard the conversations happening on stage. Maru stood at the border between the audience seats and the stage. He quietly looked at Haneul, who was talking to the juniors. He saw Sinhye notice him and point at him.

His wife came over. Standing at the edge of the stage, she bent down. Only then were they at eye level.

His wife wiped the sweat on her forehead and smiled.

“Did you enjoy it?” she asked.

Maru responded by giving her the bouquet.

“Isn’t it too big?” she said as she received the bouquet.

“I was going to go with a bigger one but held back because you would be buried under it. Thankfully, mine’s the biggest.”

“Anything bigger than this wouldn’t be called a bouquet. You’d need a vase.”

His wife put her hand out. He grabbed her hand and went on stage. Not to mention the juniors, even the members of the audience who were talking were slowly gathering towards him.

“Say it honestly so that I can give up quickly. You two aren’t just friends, are you?” Sinhye asked with a smile.

The juniors practicing with his wife should have noticed it ages ago. They might have called each other friends, but they acted like lovers after all.

“I’ll leave that up to your judgment. But don’t try to hit on him,” Haneul said.

Maru just smiled.

“Senior, what’s that in your hand?” Sinhye pointed at the presents in Maru’s hand.

“You know what it is. You did well until the last moment. You were all good. I really wish I could give you a big bouquet each, but you see, I needed to differentiate.”

He gave the bouquets he got from the florist to the juniors. They were smaller than the ones he gave his wife, but he looked out for the composition of the flowers and even hand-wrote a card for them each.

“I was going to be disappointed if you didn’t give us anything.”

“Senior, I’ll dry them out well and hang them up at our house.”

The juniors opened the cards on the bouquets. Some of them said out loud that it was cheesy, some of them smiled quietly, and some of them sniffled. While each had different expressions of their emotions, they all said the same thing at the end – thank you.

Some members of the audience, who had been keeping their distance until now, walked over. The juniors stepped up and introduced them. Company colleagues, close friends, family members… Maru took some time for those that asked to take a photo with him.

“It’s about time now. We have to clean up the resting area too,” Jungah said.

The disorderly atmosphere subsided. The members of the audience left through the exit, while the actors turned around to go to the resting area.

“I’ll erase the makeup at home.”

“You want to get on the bus with a face like that? You have great courage.”

“I can’t be bothered to do anything. I put in too much energy because it was the last time.”

The juniors talked about the things they couldn’t in front of their acquaintances.

“Pass me a towel.”

They put a towel around their necks and started taking off their stage costumes. Some of them, who had makeup smeared on the costumes, lamented that the washing costs must be even more expensive than the payment they got. Everyone laughed in agreement.

“Is there anyone who needs to go early?” Haneul said while taking out her credit card.

Everyone replied that they had no such things.

“I booked a restaurant nearby so let’s quickly clean things up and go. Joonho, you check the items we have to return. The rest of you, clean up the resting area properly. This place was sponsored to us, so if we use it messily, it won’t look good for us.”

“Don’t worry. I’ll have it cleaner than my own room.”

Maru was going to help, but he was told that guests should leave. He returned to the stage after passing through the short corridor. The employees of the theater were cleaning up.

He stared at the stage that his wife had been playing around on until just a while ago before leaving. Embracing the rather cool air of early summer night, he waited for his wife and the juniors.

About ten-something minutes later, everyone left the theater, following his wife. They were all wearing black t-shirts.

“When did you order uniforms?” he asked as he looked at the t-shirts that had the hanja character for love (愛). The character was sewn, not printed, so it looked rather unique.

“Around the time we moved locations?” his wife replied.

He pointed at his own face. “What about mine?”

“It’s only for the members of the theater troupe. We don’t have one for an outsider.”

“Outsider, you say. Guys, am I an outsider?”

Maru took his eyes off Haneul and looked at the juniors. The juniors all rushed behind Haneul. The tides had already turned, so there was no point in starting a fight.

“The troupe leader is Haneul-unni, and the producer is Jungah. As for you, senior Maru, you’re… just an errand boy?”

“The ancestors weren’t wrong when they said you should not take in black-haired animals.”

“I have blond hair right now, though?” Sinhye said as she pinched a strand of her hair.

When Maru shook his head with a sigh, everyone started laughing.

“You want one?” his wife asked.

“If you don’t want a grown-up man to throw a tantrum, then give me one quickly.”

“Now I don’t want to give it to you all of a sudden. It’s interesting to see you mad, sweetie.”

“So you want to see me bawl my eyes out in the middle of the street?”

Maru stuck his butt out, about to sit down. When he did, Jungah said that she couldn’t bear to watch and gave him a t-shirt.

“Senior, an adult shouldn’t do that. It’s unsightly.”

When he looked at the hem of the t-shirt, it said ‘Han Maru’ on it. Next to it was the title: ‘Money Lord.’

“That’s not a title I really like.”

“You know you like it.”

His wife smelled the bouquet and walked forward. The others followed suit.

“Senior Maru, come quickly.”

He put on the t-shirt on top of what he was wearing and started walking.

“Order as much as you want without considering the price. Excuse me, we’re ready to order.”

His wife’s permission came. The juniors ordered a load of gopchang as though they had lost all shame.

On each table, a pot of gopchang with a lot of cheese was placed. There were just as many sounds of beer bottles popping open as there was laughter.

They stayed in the gopchang restaurant for about an hour and a half before moving to a seafood restaurant that specialized in grilled clams. Not a single one went home during that time.

Jungah left for a moment and when she came back, she came back with hangover relief drinks and digestive medicine.

“It’s our last time, so don’t you think I need to burn everything too?”

Even Jungah, who was always the one to hold back and send everyone home at the end, had unleashed herself.

Eating, drinking… they decided to care about tomorrow’s problems tomorrow and just stuffed themselves until the end of today.

Even the ones who had held back from drinking because they had work tomorrow ended up drinking and fell flat on the table about four hours into the afterparty.

Gopchang restaurant, grilled clams, a bar… they topped it off with going to the noraebang.

Everyone grabbed the mic under the grand calling that they had to expel their alcohol energy. When they realized it, it was already nearing midnight.

“We’ll leave now. Be safe on your way home!”

“Bye. There’s no practice now, so don’t come to the practice room tomorrow.”

“If you didn’t tell me that, I would probably get on the bus tomorrow morning.”

The juniors parted ways while laughing. Maru barely managed to take Joohwan off him and had him get into a taxi. Jungah and Sinhye hopped in next to him.

“Careful on your way home. From the looks of him, you gotta take Joohwan right to his house. Well, if you don’t want to, then just toss him in front of the station.”

“I’ll think about it.”

Before the taxi departed, Jungah poked her head out of the window. Sinhye did the same.

“Senior Maru, senior Haneul. Thank you so, so much.”

“We had a blast acting thanks to you! Watch out on your way home!”

The taxi left. Maru looked at Haneul. She was looking at the taxi that was going into the distance with her arms crossed.

“They’re good kids. That’s why I’m even more worried. The play might have gone well, but for them, it’s just the start,” she said.

“I’m sure they’ll do well by themselves. You know kids these days are smarter and more persistent than we imagine them to be, don’t you?”

“Going by appearances, we’re in the group of ‘kids these days’ too.”

Maru then responded that they might look like one on the surface, but what was under the hood was way past the expiry date.

“It didn’t rot, did it?” his wife asked with a smile.

“We’ll have to look after ourselves so that we don’t rot. I’ll look out for you, and you look out for me. We’re still rather young to be called old-fashioned.”

He took the bouquet that his wife was holding and grabbed her hand. Walking down a commercial street filled with sparking lights, he asked,

“How does it feel to have finished a play after a long time?”

“Better than I expected. There are an endless number of such memories in my mind, but they can’t be compared to this vivid moment where I am feeling everything.”

“Your camera acting is good, but you might be better on stage.”

“The president told me too. He suggested that I prepare for a musical. He knows me so well.”

“You’re going to do it?”

“Daemyung is doing well with the scenario, and I don’t have much to help with, so I’m going to try. But I’m slightly worried too. The musical will have a double cast, but what if I’m insufficient?”

“That won’t happen.”

Haneul smiled and bumped his shoulder.

“Right. How was the meeting with the director?”

Maru briefly explained what happened during the day.

“Senior Geunsoo is a big eater? That’s peculiar.”

“You’ll be surprised when you meet him later.”

“I want to get close to everyone quickly. A relationship that only I know is too lonely.”

Walking through a park, he talked to Haneul about a lot of things. Despite the long years they’d lived together, they still had a lot to talk about, whether it was trivial talk or the camera test in two days.

They left the park and grabbed a taxi. When they got home, it was past 1 a.m. While Haneul washed up first, he sat down on the sofa to check his messages.

The juniors sent over a message in the group chat that they didn’t have time to talk in before.

“What are you doing?” His wife came over as she dried her hair.

He responded that he was writing to the juniors.

“And you said they’d do well by themselves.”

There were many who were still thinking. There were some who even said that they wanted to quit work and try acting again. Maru responded to them that they’ll have regrets no matter what decision they make. A decision that doesn’t leave behind regret was truly rare after all.

Even he, who had walked down the same path numerous times, had to think over and over again. As it was the first time for them, they would have a hard time no matter what they chose to do. Whether it be living as an actor, or as a salaryman.

He only hoped that they chose something that left them with less regret.

After he took a shower and went to the room, he saw that Haneul had already sunk deep into the world of dreams.

He carefully snuck into the duvet so that Haneul didn’t wake up. Just as he closed his eyes and calmed his breathing, she muttered,

“You can do it. I’m sure you’ll do well.”

She seemed to be consulting the juniors in her dream. Maru looked at her with a smile as she sleep-talked before closing his eyes again.

After Story 220

It was an office building that could be rented short term. Maru followed the logo of the production company up to the 3rd floor. When he walked past the corridor and went inside, he saw people waiting. They seemed to be actors.

He approached the semi-open beige door.

“You’re here.”

Director Nam Goonghun, who was inside, welcomed him. Next to him was a man around the same age as him, and he seemed to be someone from the production company.

“Please introduce yourselves. This is president Yoo Jaechul, and this is actor Han Maru.”

Yoo Jaechul held his hand out. Maru greeted him as he grabbed that hand. Jaechul spoke as they shook hands,

“The director told me a lot about you. My ears hurt from all the times he emphasized that I had to bring you on the moment he saw me.”

“I didn’t say it that many times. So sit down.”

Maru sat down on the chair director Nam gave him.

“You look much better in real life. And you have a bigger physique than when I saw you on screen,” Jaechul said.

Maru faintly smiled before looking at the door. “The people outside seem to be waiting for an audition, am I right?”

“We finished casting the lead and supporting roles, so we have to select the minor actors. As we’ll have to do a lot of physically taxing and potentially violent action scenes, I think the casting process will be a lot different from usual,” director Nam explained.

Maru thought about the actors he saw on the way in. They were all quite burly. Perhaps the audition announcement stated that physical education graduates would be given extra points.

“You came early.”

The action director, Kwon Joohyuk, came into the room. He was wearing a black jersey. Maru could guess how the audition was going to go.

“There’s still some time until we start looking at the people outside, so let’s have a look at you first. We’ll see how much you can learn on the fly, as well as how much you can keep up intuitively.”

Joohyuk put down the drink bottle he was holding.

“Mr. Maru. Is that okay with you?” Goonghun asked.

Mrau replied yes. Doing the camera test as early as possible was good for him.

He took off his watch and placed it on his chair along with his phone. Director Nam controlled the camera directly. Maru’s figure could be seen on the large TV on the wall.

“Can you try standing on the line we marked on the floor?”

Maru stepped on the red tape. He was placed in the middle of the TV screen.

“Can you turn around once to your left?”

Maru spun around on the spot according to Goonghun’s request. After that, he smiled, frowned, and laughed heartily to the point that the inside of his mouth could be seen.

“Nice character. I think a beard would suit you as well,” Jaechul said.

“I think a rough image will suit him. It’s good to have a proven actor.”

Maru waved his hand in the air in embarrassment at Goonghun’s compliment. After the basic camera test, it seemed that both the production company and the director were satisfied.

“Let’s have a small bout. Well then, I’m going to punch out like this.”

He stood face-to-face with Joohyuk and did some basic action acting. He would snap his head to the side according to the hit point when Joohyuk punched with his right hand.

“Try reacting after seeing the punch as much as possible. It might be too hard to do on your first try.”

Joohyuk slowly thrust his right fist forward. Maru tilted his head when Joohyuk’s punch brushed past his cheek.

Joohyuk repeatedly swung his hands slowly, and Maru snapped his head to the sides whenever that happened.

“You see how it goes, right?”

“Yes.”

“Then I’ll now punch seriously just like the real deal, so do that again.”

Joohyuk signaled with his eyes. Maru placed his fists near his chin.

“It won’t look good to get hit standing still.”

“I like it.”

Saying that, Joohyuk punched out. Just like someone who dedicated his life to action acting, his movements were neat. When Joohyuk’s fist reached an imaginary hit point, Maru raised his chin as though he got hit and took a step back. He didn’t forget to put his shoulder forward around the part he got hit.

Joohyuk twitched one eye and smiled. He looked impressed.

“How did that look?” Joohyuk asked director Nam.

“It’s pretty realistic. If Mr. Maru brings out the feeling of being hit more, it’d be even better.”

“Should I try?” Maru said.

The director and the president both nodded. Maru came back to the center of the camera frame again and faced Joohyuk.

“You weren’t kidding when you said you studied.”

“Was it not bad?”

“I think you’re better than those that have studied two or three years under me. This time, let’s continue. When I punch with my left, dodge to the left, and then my right, dodge to the right. Then I’ll do a hook and you’ll duck.”

Joohyuk moved slowly as he explained. Maru also dodged the punches according to the slow tempo.

After three or four rounds of practice, he got into position.

“Should I get hit like an extra?”

“Wanna try?”

Seemingly enjoying himself, Joohyuk’s tone of words became a lot more informal. It was proof that their sense of distance was shrinking.

Maru exchanged eyes with Joohyuk and started acting.

“Then don’t dodge the last hook and get hit.”

Joohyuk threw a jab as he said so. Just like they practiced, Maru dodge to the left once, then right once, before waiting for the hook. It was a proper hook that made use of the waist.

Maru faltered backward according to the motion. He staggered without being able to balance himself before barely managing to turn his body to Joohyuk.

“There’s no extra that holds on like that,” Joohyuk said with a smile.

Maru raised his fist and spoke,

“You see, I’m a tenacious extra.”

Joohyuk told him to throw some punches. They decided to do the same thing but in reverse. Joohyuk would have to dodge to the left, and then to the right, and then get hit by the hook.

After just one round of practice, they started acting. Two jabs and one left hook. Maru tilted his left foot slightly to hit the imaginary hit point. It was a hit that stemmed from the rotation of the waist.

Joohyuk semi-spun his body in the air and flew away. It was the prime example of an extra who got done in by a protagonist.

“He really is good at getting hit,” said director Nam.

He played back the footage they just got on the TV. Considering that the action was something they tried on the spot, it was pretty good.

“I can see from your posture. You did learn boxing properly.”

“Any professional boxer would call me awkward.”

“That’s because they’re professionals. For action acting, this is more than adequate. You’re especially good at setting the hit point. Your posture is quite good for something you didn’t learn properly. Is it talent?”

“Thank you for looking at me in a good light. I still have a lot to learn.”

“I tend to find humble folks like you the most frightening. People like you say that you’re bad and grow rapidly. You’re going to put all the other actors to shame.”

Joohyuk crossed his arms and watched the screen. He nodded before saying that Maru may as well be immediately useful if he could produce that amount of vividness on the fly.

“As expected of someone Geunsoo recommended. Director, you have to bring Mr. Maru. You don't object to that, do you?”

“I was never planning to object in the first place. I only wanted to see how he felt in front of the camera. Mr. Maru, you were above my expectations.”

Maru put on his watch again and asked,

“So I just need to wait for a contract?”

“The president is here, so why don’t you ask him for a good payment?”

The president laughed.

“The payment negotiation is up to our casting manager, not me, so I can’t give you a concrete answer, but I’ll tell him that he should listen to your opinions as much as possible.”

“Hear that? Don’t think about doing something else and go all in on this.”

When director Nam said those words, a man in his early thirties came into the room. The director introduced that man as the assistant director.

“Director, we should begin now,” said the assistant director.

It seemed that the audition was starting.

* * *

Yoo Youngsun, you’ll do well – Youngsun whispered to himself so that only he could hear it. When he looked at the audition announcement that appeared on the internet community, he had confidence that he would be cast. That was because the notice stated that the qualifications were a good build or athletic.

He was able to make use of his history as a youth Taekwondo athlete. He wasn’t sure about anything else, but he had the confidence to do action pretty well.

“The person that went in just now, it was Han Maru, right?”

“Yes, I’m pretty sure.”

“Is he here for an interview?”

“Seeing as he went in without even waiting, don’t you think he got cast already?”

He heard voices murmuring from behind.

Youngsun smiled bitterly. The name Hong Geunsoo was written on the list of lead actors. And now, Han Maru, someone from the same agency, was visiting the audition venue. What could this signify? Clearly, JA, a colossus in the industry, was doing a tie-in sale.

No, even if it wasn’t a tie-in sale, Han Maru should’ve gotten a role through his connections.

Contrary to himself, who didn’t have a decent agency, or any connections for that matter, the casting process for him would’ve been smooth and fast.

He had no intention of criticizing the actor known as Han Maru. He must have put in a lot of effort after all. He just found actors of famous agencies envious and unsightly because they were clearly compensated more for their efforts.

If I also had a good backing… Youngsun stopped thinking. It was a useless assumption. The world was busy enough as is, focusing on reality. If he lost his concentration because of some trivial thoughts, it would influence the audition as well.

There were 15 minutes until the audition. His number was towards the front, so he had to prepare soon.

He went to the bathroom and had a look at his figure in the mirror. As the audition notice placed emphasis on stamina and action, this movie was clearly something rough or violent. He styled his hair and eyebrows so that he looked strong.

“Good, I can do it.”

He left the bathroom after resolving himself. On his way out, he walked past the room where the audition was going to occur.

The door was slightly open, so he had a look inside. People were conversing amidst a good atmosphere. Kwon Joohyuk, an action director he respected, was playfully exchanging punches with Maru.

From a glance, they didn’t look all that amazing. Han Maru’s act was something that he could do.

It didn’t look like anything much, but director Nam Goonghun praised him, saying it was good. It seemed that actors belonging to good agencies were treated well.

Youngsun returned to his seat. Han Maru was Han Maru and, he was he. He decided not to mind.

That guy was probably a lead or a supporting role, while he was here to audition for a minor role that might appear once or twice.

“We’ll begin the audition now. Number 1, Mr. Hwang Taejin, please come inside.”

The audition began. Youngsun pictured the short free-acting skit he prepared in his head and calmed his breathing.

Not long later, his name was called out. He went inside and showed off the skit he prepared.

As the movie had a lot of action, he showed off a skit that made use of the space as much as possible rather than staying still. After running out of breath, he stopped moving.

“Mr. Yoo Youngsun.”

“Yes.”

“Your kicks are very good. But I don’t think we can show any kicks because we’re doing a historical drama with weapons and armor.”

“I can do anything.”

“I like that attitude,” said director Kwon Joohyuk.

He felt proud.

Joohyuk, who was looking at his profile, spoke, “I’ll take him. Mr. Youngsun. You’ll be contacted soon, so please wait.”

“Thank you! I’ll do my best.”

“Alright, let us both do our best.”

He received acknowledgment from Kwon Joohyuk, an action director! Youngsun clenched his fist and left the audition venue. Unlike a certain someone, he got the role purely through his skill.

He left the audition venue and contacted his friends saying that he got the role. After drinking with his friends, he looked at his phone all night.

After around a week, he was contacted. They were about what he needed to bring as well as the payment.

After Story 221

“I’m Han Maru, and I’ll be playing Dooho. Please take care of me.”

Maru stood up from his seat and introduced himself to everyone. The actors participating in the read-through applauded.

After the actors seated alongside him introduced themselves, the director spoke,

“From this time onwards, it would be very rare for all of us to sit down and say our lines like this. You’ll be running and running again. I will prioritize everyone’s safety, but there will be actors who get hurt. It won’t be an easy shoot. I am very grateful to all of you for participating despite knowing all the risks.”

Director Nam looked at the crowd before continuing,

“For this movie, our action director, director Kwon Joohyuk, will have a very big influence. Even the storyline will be mainly composed of action. Throughout the entire shoot, I’m sure you’ll talk about a lot of things as you all work together. I do not think that that process will be so harmonious. There will be big and small scuffles. However, I believe that those series of events are what will contribute to the completion of the movie.”

Please take care of me — director Nam finished his greeting speech before sitting down.

He had emphasized that the shoot won’t be easy since the casting stage. The actors here must’ve resolved themselves to some extent.

“If I fall down, please call for an ambulance,” Geunsoo said.

Some laughter resounded. After some trivial talk, the read-through began.

“A man rushes past the tall grass. Sounds of metal can be heard in the distance. The screen that framed the man’s back figure goes over the horizon. There are screams from a small village with just a few thatched-roof houses. A burly man swings an ax at a man who has fallen over. There is yet another scream. The camera becomes distant, and then, title screen.”

Director Nam read the passage in a calm voice. Maru scanned the script according to the director’s reading speed.

A group of bandits had raided a mountainside village surrounded by large trees. The heads of the men roll off in no time, and the women who watch try to struggle, but they would get captured by those ruffian hands.

Merciless pillaging, voices of plea, the ground being dyed in red.

He pictured the scene depicted by the text in his head.

“Nothing has been resolved. The drought is continuing, and the regional lords have locked down their warehouses and are holding on. It will not be strange even if there is an uprising tomorrow,” a senior actor said his line.

Whenever he spoke, his body jerked and his hands moved as well.

“I have already said that the distribution of power is the division of military might. Not only that, the Park royal family and the Lee family clan are only looking at their own gardens without looking outside. Omens of ruin have come to our nation of Silla.”

Another senior receiving the line on the other side spoke with his back straight up. As expected of veteran actors, they had already set their character in the read-through session.

“You bastard!”

“Gee, mind yer language. Let’s see if yer sword is as strong as yer mouth, shall we?”

Following that, Geunsoo let out the swear words in the script. His tone and pronunciation were so good that even some of the actors who were focusing relaxed and were laughing silently.

The person with them was a modern man wearing neat clothes, but whenever he spoke he turned into a foul-mouthed general from the Three Kingdoms era of Korea.

The way he spotted and emphasized the main points in his lines was phenomenal as well. It could only be attributed to talent. That wasn’t something practice could get him.

“What… did you say just now?” Maru elongated the ‘what’ to make it sound more like ‘whaaat.’

The character he was playing was rash and easily angered. He would speak normally, but once anger got to the top of his head and he could no longer think properly, he would just silently swing his sword around.

“Are ye growing potatoes from ye ears? Did ye not hear that?”

“You mongrel!”

He clenched his teeth after the last line. His body shook like it was going to shoot forward.

The long desk shook and the water bottle he placed on it swayed before falling down. However, no one even gave that a glance.

“Hey, ye prick. Stop yer bullshit and open yer eyes.”

Geunsoo finished off the page with his line. Only the sound of paper rustling as the actors went to the next page could be heard. Everyone was in a state of extreme focus.

As this was the only time when all the actors gathered together to say their lines, they maintained a sense of tension as much as possible.

They could make jokes midway and laugh, but when the story reached its climax, they had to focus on the lines like it was during the real shoot.

Intense emotions were expressed through lines and clashed in midair. Cannonballs of words erupted from everywhere in the venue.

It was tiring just to shout those lines, so what would it be like to say them while fully armored and holding weapons and even fighting? It felt like there would be some parts in this movie where the actors wouldn’t be able to bring out their full acting skills because of their lack of stamina.

“Good job, everyone.” Director Nam applauded.

The actors all leaned back against their chairs and sighed.

“I think some people might die if we do this for real,” said a senior.

“I have it good since my role doesn’t have any action. You guys are so dead. And the shoot is in August too. What a double whammy,” said a senior in his sixties while stroking his unshaven beard.

Director Nam spoke to the old senior,

“Senior, you should get on a horse once too. I heard that you shot an archery scene on top of a horse in your prime.”

“Tell me to die instead. If I ride a horse at my age, I’ll break my back. The young ones are the ones who should suffer. But are you really going to bring a horse?”

“Every actor that can do it will do it.”

“Looks like the production budget will go there, huh.”

“I’ll have to make full use of the horse on the day we rent one.”

“Anyway, I’ll do the shoot in a set with the AC on, so you guys can suffer all you want.”

The read-through ended alongside the joke of an old senior. The journalists and people from the production companies, who were filming for promotion purposes, left the meeting room.

The actors went to the ritual room next to the meeting room and held a ritual.

“Mr. Maru.”

A marketer for the movie and a man holding a camera approached him. They told him that they were creating a making film and asked for his opinions about the read-through.

“As you probably saw from the read-through, only the finest actors are here. I feel nervous when I think that I’m going to have to act among those people. Still, though, I’m quite young, aren’t I? I’ll try my best to not lose out on stamina even if I can’t keep up with them in terms of acting.”

Maru smiled and raised a fist.

“I’m quite good with stamina too.”

He heard a voice behind him. When he turned around, he saw Geunsoo say those words before walking by. The marketer smiled and said that he was done.

“I saw that the news is finally out,” Maru said next to Geunsoo.

Yesterday, a news article talking about Ganghwan and Suyeon going out was finally leaked.

“They’re going to get married next year, so there’s no real need to hide it at this point. But it sure feels different reading it on the news, huh? They’re finally getting married.”

“You should get married too, senior.”

“Only if I have a partner.”

“How about the blind date I mentioned before? I talked to the person about it, and she showed interest.”

“Did you say it was me?” Geunsoo asked as he gave him a glance.

“No, I just said it was an actor.”

“And she’s still interested?”

“Yes.”

“What does she do?”

“For now, you should know that she teaches acting.”

“Someone in the same industry, huh.”

“You don’t like it?”

“No, it’s not that I don’t like it. It’s just that I don’t think I’ll have the physical or psychological room for a while.”

“That’s true. Then I won’t mention it for the time being. Once the shoot ends and if the two of you are still willing, I’ll try to make an occasion.”

“Alright, let’s talk about it again after the shoot.”

Geunsoo, who was walking ahead, stopped and turned around.

“Don’t you have anything you want from me?”

“So suddenly?”

“I’m grateful that a junior is willing to help out with my romantic business, so I was planning to give you a gift.”

“If things go well and I see you in the wedding hall, give me something then.”

“What do you want?”

“The latest-model cordless vacuum cleaner?”

“Don’t people normally ask for shoes, watches, or a suit?”

“I’m drawn more towards vacuum cleaners.”

“Alright. If things go well, I’ll buy you a full suite.”

In the distance, another senior actor looked for Geunsoo. Geunsoo walked over after his reply. Maru thought as he looked at Geunsoo’s back figure – that person probably didn’t know how much teaching and help he had given.

“Maru, come over and help out this old man.”

“Yes, sir. Right away.”

He moved after replying.

* * *

A month had passed since the audition. The crank-in for the movie was announced. The movie did not flop and was progressing.

Videos of the read-through also circulated around the internet. Youngsun put on his headphones and focused on the video. Although it was a short, edited video, he could get a glimpse of the actors’ experience and skills.

As the lead character, Hong Geunsoo’s acting was absolutely first-rate. Even though they were all sitting down, he could feel the force from him. He could picture Geunsoo shouting the lines with a sword or a spear in his hands. How great would it be to see him up close?

The other actors also said their lines with immersion as well. They shouted properly when they needed to, and when it was a calm scene, they used provocative tones.

How could they act like that?

Putting aside his impressions, Youngsun imitated their short acts and learned their breathing and emotional expressions.

This was pure acting that did not contain any of the instructions from the director. There was no better textbook than this.

He paused and replayed the video multiple times when Han Maru came up on screen. Youngsun watched Maru’s acting with focus.

After Maru read his line and a new actor came out, Youngsun thought: he’s pretty good.

Like the actors before him, he tried imitating Maru’s act as well. The more he repeated himself, the more slightly off it felt.

It was a simple shout, but when he tried saying it himself, it didn’t sound as good.

“Is that what you call talent?”

He watched the video repeatedly before going to lie down on his bed. Suddenly, he felt nervous. He couldn’t sleep properly thinking that he was going to shoot with those actors soon.

Not long later, the production company contacted him again. He was notified that as there was a lot of action in the movie, the actors would be split into teams.

Youngsun left his house with some luggage that he would use during his time in Yongin. On the bumpy bus ride, he got carsick. It seemed that his nervousness had reached its peak.

Still, he felt better when he arrived at the shooting location and set his foot down on the ground. The nervousness that made his nerves taut had also disappeared.

What replaced the nervousness was excitement. It was finally the start.

He was guided by a staff member in a historical village. As he was waiting in front of a pavilion, people started gathering one by one. From how they gathered in different places, they seemed to be grouping in the ‘teams’ that they were notified of beforehand.

“I’m Yoo Youngsun.”

I’m Oh Joonhyuk; Jung Sungmin; Kim Youngho – just by introducing themselves, they formed a sense of kinship.

They got to know each other, asking where they were from and how long they had been actors.

“I heard that this was going to be really taxing. How hard do you think it is?”

“Well, first of all, doing a historical movie in the middle of summer is hell.”

“I don’t care if it’s taxing. I just want my face to appear on the screen. I was always part of a crowd whenever I shot a historical movie or a drama, so my face never appeared properly.”

“Me too.”

While they were laughing and chatting, Youngsun saw someone approaching. When that person got closer, he immediately realized who it was.

“I heard that this is team 4, am I right?”

It was Han Maru who spoke with a big smile.

After Story 222

The one who spoke first to break the awkward silence was Youngsun.

“Yes, we should be. I heard that I was on team 4 before I came here. Right, everyone?” Youngsun asked the people around him.

Everyone nodded in agreement.

“Hello, then, everyone. I’m Han Maru. I believe we’re all around the same age.” Maru held out his hand.

Youngsun looked at the hand in front of him for a moment before grabbing it. Unlike when he saw him through the small gap in the door, Maru felt different when looking at him from up front.

What should he call this… he looked… sturdy? Even from the hand he was holding, he could feel strength.

The sneaky impression that he had, like a predisposed bias, disappeared in an instant. The first meeting left just that deep of an impression on him.

“What’s your name?”

“Me?”

He was rather taken aback by the different impression. He calmed down his slightly excited voice before saying that he was Yoo Youngsun.

“Mr. Youngsun. I do have a decent memory, but I sometimes forget. I probably won’t do this, but even if I ask for your name again, please don’t take offense.”

It was a kind smile. Youngsun had rarely talked to an actor in a shooting location like this.

Maru then went on to get to know the others.

“In the upcoming shoot, I will be working with you all the most. That’s why I’m here to say hello today. I’m sure the weather will be hot and the shoot will be hard, but let’s power through this together.”

Maru, who was about to talk to them some more, was called by one of the staff and left. Before leaving, he asked them to not pretend like they didn’t know each other the next time he greeted them.

“He’s actually quite bright. I thought he would be more indifferent when I saw him through the screen,” said Oh Joonhyuk, to which the others agreed.

His face made him seem like he would be quite petty if he stayed quiet, but he smiled pleasantly throughout the whole time he talked. As they say, the smile was the biggest weapon in a conversation, and indeed, Maru looked like a pretty decent guy.

“I thought he looked quite awkward when I watched Case Number 0, but he was really good towards the end. After watching the last episode, I went back to watch the first one, and when I looked at him again, his acting looked really clean. If I look back, maybe I was biased because he was a new actor around the same age as us.”

Hearing Jung Sungmin’s words, Youngsun nodded subconsciously. Perhaps what he saw in the audition venue was just him being mistaken out of jealousy.

“He was just here to say hello, so don’t put too much meaning into it. I’ve seen plenty of actors coming over to say hello like that in my acting career, but they’re only like that at first. All of you know already, right? Once the shoot begins, minor actors like us rarely get to work with someone like him,” said a man who had been listening this whole time.

He did introduce himself, but Youngsun couldn’t remember his name. While he sounded rather cold, he was also right.

“That’s true,” Youngsun replied.

Stars weren’t called stars for nothing. They were really like the stars in the night sky, so unless the shoot happened to overlap, it was merely a dream to approach them.

Once, he had seen a minor actor approach an actor with a smile and ask for an autograph. That actor smiled and signed an autograph, but that minor actor was then hugely scolded by the assistant director, who was in charge of controlling the scene.

“Still, what’s good is good. He seems to have a decent personality from how he came here to say hello at all. I had an opportunity to work with actor Yeon Sungjoon before.”

“You mean the actor who became popular last year?”

“Yes. I thought he had a good personality because he really smiled a lot in front of his fans, but he’s absolutely terrible. He thinks he’s the king when there are no other senior actors around. He’s really pretentious.”

“They say even a humble person would change once they become famous. Honestly, I feel like I would be like that too. People’s treatment of you becomes different, and you’re given good treatment wherever you go. It’s not surprising that you start to feel proud.”

“This is why becoming famous is important. Only if you make yourself known and have a high body price will you be treated like a human being.”

While they were spending time talking about some episodes that they experienced during their shoots, Youngsun found himself starting to sweat like crazy. The sun above his head was really spiteful.

“I guess waiting hell has started. Let’s look for some shade.”

“But we were told to stay close by.”

“We should stay alive first.”

Youngsun wiped his forehead before starting to walk. He had heard that the heatwave was starting at the end of July, and indeed, the weather felt like someone could have a heat stroke.

Minor actors all lined up in the shade created by a rock fence. Everyone took out sunscreen and applied it on their faces. They had to protect their skin, even if it was just until the shoot.

“I did a historical drama shoot last year and my skin ended up peeling off. That was when I realized the greatness of sunscreens,” said someone from the team.

Behind the fence, there seemed to be a shoot as the voices of the actors could be heard. The minor actors who were waiting started dressing up as well.

Youngsun put on a historical wig and attached a mustache and a beard. He didn’t get the props that the main actors got, where each part was attached with care, and just got some patches of hair that he could stick around his mouth.

There was no need for any delicate work, so it didn’t look that pretty. There were many minor actors who went to the bathroom to touch it up.

“Looks like they’re using cheap ones here. You’re going to get pimples once you take these off,” Oh Jonhyuk said while touching the beard.

After putting on their clothes as well, they entered the shooting location. Youngsun was slightly uncomfortable because his straw shoes weren’t his size, but he couldn’t complain. He had to get them changed later on.

“I think we’re better off.”

Some background actors wearing armor could be seen where Oh Joonhyuk was pointing. Under the orders to wait, dozens of background actors were waiting under the scorching sun.

“Those things are like steamers. It’s big, heavy, and unwieldy.”

“Summer is hell, but winter is hell too. I had frostbite when I wore that in winter once. Sweat pooled under my feet and froze.”

“No matter how I think about it, being an extra in a historical drama is not something a human should do. Especially in the summer and the winter.”

They were minor actors whose names would go up on the ending credits, so the staff did look out for them to an extent. However, there shouldn’t be anyone on the staff that was looking out for the background actors who just treated this as a one-off part-time job.

As Youngsun clicked his tongue and watched the people being grilled under the heat, someone walked out from under the parasol installed for the main actors to rest under. He realized that it was Han Maru the moment he saw the red armband around his left arm.

Maru walked over to the background actors and said a few things. He also talked to the production crew nearby, and the background actors moved.

“A young actor stepping out like that usually causes trouble,” said someone from the team.

Contrary to his words, however, nothing much went on. Maru could be seen laughing and chatting with director Nam and someone that seemed to be the leader. He was young, but he seemed to be able to read the atmosphere of the scene incredibly well.

Above all, it was curious that he looked out for the background actors. This was really unexpected, so much so that using the word ‘curious’ was not unsuitable. Leading and supporting roles waited in a totally different place from the background actors. Unless they specifically looked, they would naturally not know what kind of sufferings the background actors went through.

No, that wasn’t true. They were actors too, so they should know about it. However, it wasn’t the actors that decided the overall atmosphere at a scene, but the leaders of various parts.

The problems related to background actors were supposed to be taken care of by the leader. That was the rule.

“That’s a type of person I haven’t seen before,” said someone next to him.

Youngsun nodded as well. It wasn’t that there weren’t any actors who did not think of the background actors, but he could swear that there was not a single young actor who stepped out like that.

After the procession of the officials, the background actors, who were waiting, stepped in. The marketplace street was filled with soldiers wearing armor.

The rows of soldiers moved according to the signal of the assistant director.

“Over there, don’t look at the ground!” a shout burst out.

As it was a crowd scene that was supposed to look orderly, they seemed to be doing the shoot over and over again.

An hour had passed since the nearly one hundred people began moving in unison until they were finally given the okay sign.

“Those people must be dying.”

“I’m sure they’re all regretting coming here now. They should’ve come here thinking that they’re going to earn money while watching some celebrities, but rather than a celebrity, they just see a middle-aged man shouting at them.”

Youngsun laughed and waited for his turn to come. He didn’t just fool around while he was waiting. Unlike background actors, the minor actors in teams had a lot of action to digest.

“In a moment, you’re going to shoot near the wall over there. It’s a scattered fight scene, and the main cuts will be handled by professional action actors. We won’t ask you to do a lot of action, but you have to do some of the movements.”

The action director, Kwon Joohyuk, gathered all the teams and calmly gave an explanation. He mainly explained what each of the teams had to do, which actors they had to be next to, and the like.

“We’re going to see how the cuts go and pick some out. As you heard during the audition, this film places a lot of emphasis on action. Those that do well will have a lot of appearances.”

Those words made his eyes flash. While he wouldn’t be as good as professional stuntmen studying in action schools, he should be able to do pretty decently if he clenched his teeth.

If he somehow managed to catch the action director’s eyes, he might get placed next to the lead or supporting actors, making himself known to them.

“Please get ready.”

After the crowd scene, the background actors left the shooting location.

The faces of the actors, who couldn’t be seen behind the crowd, could be seen now. The minor actors in teams started gathering in front of the camera.

“Listen well. Using your body isn’t something you can do if you aren’t smart enough. I’m going to go over the big fight scene and then look at the details. Keep your focus. If you make a mistake here, you won’t hurt yourself, but you’ll hurt others. Okay?”

“Yes.”

“And once we start the rehearsal, I might not be as polite. I’ll say this beforehand.”

The action director’s eyes changed. It seemed that he wasn’t lying when he said that he was going to put everything he had into this film. If Youngsun stayed out of it, he would probably get insulted.

“Mr. Youngsun. We meet again after meeting in the morning.”

Maru was next to him.

“Let’s get along as members of the Red Tiger Troops,” Maru said as he pointed at the red armband.

Red Tiger Troops. That was the role that Youngsun and team 4 were going to play for a while.

While the action director was going through the actions of each of the lead and supporting roles, the minor actors learned their movement paths from the stunt team.

This was going to be a messy fighting scene involving dozens of people across a narrow alleyway.

First, he had to learn where he was going. If the teams ended up crossing paths, it wouldn’t be a cool fight scene, but a fight between a bunch of kids.

“Okay, we’ll start this slowly. Starting from team 1, move as I told you to, and then team 2 should follow immediately. Teams 3, 4, and 5 follow up right away.”

The rehearsal began. Youngsun walked around everywhere while wearing the uncomfortable straw shoes.

The action director sped up, seemingly judging that everyone had adapted to an extent. In a narrow space, dozens of people started charging forward.

“Over there! I told you to come in! If you zone out, you’re going to get into an accident with the people next to you.”

As the scene contained risks of injuries, the action director’s words became a lot sharper. Youngsun also collected himself and moved. He had to go to the ceramic pot, twist his body around, jump over the wall, and…

He memorized his movement path like he was studying for a test. Meanwhile, the main actors joined the group. They stood in a spot slightly away from the paths that the minor actors were going to run around.

To the camera, it would look like the actors were moving busily, but the ones actually suffering would be the minor actors.

“Block here, turn around, and parry. Got that?”

Youngsun was given a sword right after he got used to moving as a team. It was a light, plastic mockup. Team 4 went over their fight with team 3.

“If you swing your sword like you’re going to stop right at the end, it’ll look awkward. Push forward. Your opponent will push against you as well. Later, you might need skills like cutting an action short, but you just need to do this for now, okay?” said the action director while showing a demonstration.

Youngsun immediately understood how it was supposed to go after watching it.

The action director was probably teaching some neat tricks since he was teaching minor actors who would be shown only in the background. Once the shoot began and the minor actors looked ‘cool,’ they might be given an opportunity to do some real action.

“Maru, shall we go over it here?”

Hearing Joohyuk’s call, Maru stepped forward, holding a short spear.

A sword at least looked cool when swinging it around, but that thing… it would be hard to make things look cool with that.

Youngsun tapped on his knees with the sword in his hand and watched.

Would he be awkward? Or would he be pretty good?

“I’m not sure if it’ll go as well as I practiced,” Maru said as he quickly snapped his wrist holding the short spear.

The short spear flew up into the sky vertically, drawing circles.

Youngsun’s head went up as well. The short spear, which went straight up and fell right back down again, spun around Maru’s arm once before entering his hand.

Youngsun’s jaws slacked a little. That looked a little extraordinary.

After Story 223

When he was young, a circus troupe once visited his neighborhood. The large tent that was set up in a clearing was the most perfect building to knock the soul out of a child.

He picked up a flier for the circus and ran to his mom. He could only go watch the circus after promising her that he’d be a good boy.

When he went inside, it wasn’t as big as he had expected. Still, though, the performance was impressive. Even though he was all grown up now, he could clearly picture it in his mind if he closed his eyes.

The sparkly clothes of the members, the tall man jumping to and fro between swings in the air, and the small woman who freely played around with sticks that were on fire.

“One, two, three! Jump, land, kick.”

Seeing the action director and Maru’s combat, he was reminded of the circus performance that day. The short spear and the sword clashed at rapid speeds. They twisted, turned, and jumped… the fight scene was on the level of acrobatics.

When Maru struck out his spear like he was fencing, the action director ducked underneath the spear and pushed him back with his shoulder.

Maru was jolted backward and rolled across the ground. Youngsun exclaimed when Maru jumped like there was a mattress on the ground. Wasn’t he scared at all?

Having rolled on the dirt, causing a cloud of dust, Maru pushed against the ground to stand up. The way he sprung up using his back made him look like a martial artist in a movie he saw as a child.

“Director, you’re going to break my ribs.” Maru walked over, swinging around the short spear.

Although there was some dirt on his clothes, he didn’t look injured.

“You’re overreacting. Also, you’re more energetic than during practice.”

“It was the real deal after all. Fighting scenes are just that exciting.”

Joohyuk smiled brightly. He looked really pleased.

Youngsun thought about the audition that happened a month ago and smiled bitterly. Han Maru wasn’t here because JA pushed him. Director Kwon Joohyuk must’ve selected him.

“When he and I are fighting, maintain your distance. As I said before, three paces from the wall. Don’t cross that line I just drew. If your teams properly continue your action, you won’t be able to cross it even if you want to. Focus. The moment anyone gets hurt while trying to stand out is the moment I’m going to send them home.”

Although they were plastic mock-ups, there was a risk of injury when getting hit. This was especially the case with swords because using a sword contained a lot of big motions and could hit someone outside of the user’s vision. On the off chance that a plastic sword poked someone’s eye… that would be terrible.

The rehearsal continued, centered around Maru and the action director. Youngsun focused on each of his actions. The more he practiced, the quicker he became and the fewer mistakes he made.

By the time team 4 and team 3 were almost perfectly in sync, the camera came over. The camera director, holding a steady cam, checked movement paths with the action director. The first camera also ran around busily.

Not to mention the actors doing action acting, even the director had to move at just the right speed down the right path, so it was a picky shoot.

It seemed like they were going to take a long take starting from the end of the alleyway, and if a minor actor happened to make a mistake, the director would get angry.

“This is the first shoot, but it’s so hard already,” said someone from the team.

Youngsun had similar sentiments.

The final rehearsal began. The camera director also moved as well.

When teams 1 and 2 clashed and fell down, the camera director walked right in between the two groups.

Han Maru quickly came out from the left alley. The action director blocked his path and the two entered the combat scene from before.

The wooden short spear and the mock-up sword clashed, creating a crisp sound.

That sound was a trigger for team 4 to jump in as well. They were careful not to get in the way of the other Red Tiger Troops and charged against the soldiers of team 3.

Youngsun dodged a sword that went past his face and spun around. As agreed before, he was attacked at an angle from the left.

Left, left, spin, fall back.

He proceeded with the actions he had memorized without making a mistake and stepped backward. When he was a certain distance away from the wall, Han Maru jumped in.

Even though it wasn’t the real shoot, Han Maru swung around the short spear with a shout. That energy made his body jerk. He watched Han Maru, the captain, as though he was really a member of the Red Tiger Troops.

There was another bout with Joohyuk. As this was the final rehearsal, neither of them held back. The sword and the short spear clashed, making the onlookers worried that one of them might get hurt.

Whether it was Maru swinging the short spear with large leg movements or Joohyuk precariously parrying the short spear, they both looked amazing.

As he had watched this a few times, their movements looked familiar to him. Three clashes later, Maru would let go of the spear.

One above the shoulder, one on the right, and one while defending the shin.

Huff

The action director clenched his teeth and drew his sword upwards. Maru’s short spear flew up and fell down on the ground.

“Everyone get back!”

That line dug into his ears. Youngsun glared at the soldiers opposite him before turning around and running. He did not slow down until he ran past where the staff were standing.

“I think that should do it. But it’s really hard,” said a member of his team, frowning.

The heat was really bad. It was hard to just stay standing, but they had to focus and move violently in a tense scene.

His clothes were already drenched in sweat. Some people had their mustaches fall off and had to stick them on again.

After hearing that the shoot was going to start in ten minutes, Youngsun looked for the staff that handed out the straw shoes.

He didn’t realize when he was practicing, but his toes were not in great shape. It seemed that running around in a pair of straw shoes that weren’t his size had caused blisters.

He went to the van that had all the props, but he couldn’t see anyone there. The doors were locked as well, not that he would be able to rummage through anything even if it was open.

“Excuse me.”

“Yes?”

He grabbed a staff member passing by.

“I need to change my shoes; they don’t fit me.”

“I’m not in charge of that. The items handed out are checked as well.”

“I know, but it’s hard to keep working in these. Do you know where the person in charge is?”

“I don’t. I’m not sure about the details since I was externally contracted just for this project.”

“Ah, okay.”

He waited in front of the van for a while before heading back to the shooting location. When he frowned in pain, someone next to him spoke,

“What is it?”

“The shoes aren’t my size. I thought it would be okay if I kept wearing them, but I guess it’s not.”

“I think they’re going to start the shoot soon.”

It was a shoot that involved over a hundred people. If a minor actor delayed everything, then he would get a lot of resentful glares. Perhaps he might be scolded for not being able to endure and sent home.

“I’ll have to endure just for this scene then. It’s not serious.”

The shoot began. When he stood in front of the camera, the pain from his toes became numb. He felt like he could endure.

He stomped on the ground once. It pricked a little, but it was okay.

“Focus, everyone.”

After the words from the action director, the director’s sign fell. Along with the word action, the members of the team, who were getting ready, stepped forward.

The teams that were shouting moderately during the rehearsal were now shouting for real.

After seeing Maru enter, team 4 also shouted and charged forward. They fought perfectly in sync with team 3 to create a space.

The action director and Han Maru entered the space formed in the middle of the battle.

“If the lord can only endure by extorting the people, what use is that!” Han Maru shouted.

It wasn’t the calm voice he made during his introduction. A sense of frustration could be felt from his shout. He was showing that he wasn’t just an actor who could use his body well.

“Having a mouth does not mean you can say whatever you want.”

“You see, I’m not that educated. I’m different from you lot who get fed by the nation, so excuse me.”

“You lowlife!”

Joohyuk, who was an actor as well as the action director, shouted furiously before charging towards Han Maru.

As a soldier, the action director wielded his sword in a neat and restrained manner, while Han Maru looked very rough, rolling on the ground everywhere.

Seeing the two battling, Youngsun felt his morale going up as though he was actually in battle. His body jerked. He felt like he had to rush forward and fight those soldiers.

Just as the battle between Han Maru and Kwon Joohyuk was finishing up, a bad sound could be heard.

It was a vehicle.

A truck could be seen driving past right behind the shooting location. It probably was caught by the camera as well.

“Oh really, now.”

Everyone stopped. The director started shouting.

Are you not controlling the passage properly, did you not tell the administration here, et cetera.

A young man quickly rushed over to where the truck was.

“I was just thinking that we might be able to finish in one go.”

A team member laughed in a daze. There seemed to be construction within the traditional village as some more trucks went by. There seemed to have been a miscommunication in the process of asking for permission for the shoot.

The shoot was delayed. The talks with the administration of the village seemed to have been finished as the assistant director said that they would start again in ten minutes.

Youngsun looked at his feet while sweating. He couldn’t see because of the shoes, but he could tell that he was bleeding.

He frowned whenever his toes hurt. He felt like he could endure during the shoot, but now that he lost his tension, the pain was several times more intense.

It would’ve been much easier if he was wearing the shoes worn by the soldiers.

He took off his hat and sat down on the ground. He carefully took off his shoes and looked at his toes. His pinky toe had turned red because a blister had popped.

“Goddammit.”

It was a really vague wound. It didn’t hurt like hell, but it was enough to make him frown during the shoot. The shoot was already delayed as it was due to the trucks, so he didn’t want to delay it any longer by saying that he was hurt.

Having no choice, he put on the shoes again and stood up. He thought that he just had to clench his teeth and last.

Just then,

“Are you unwell?”

Han Maru was standing in front of him.

“What?”

“I saw that your expression wasn’t good during the last bit of the shoot. You were slower to react than when we first practiced. Is there a problem with your toes?”

“I just got blisters. It’s nothing serious.”

“The shoes are too small, right?”

“Yeah.”

He felt awkward and spoke while looking at the ground,

“I can endure this much,” he added just in case.

“Even if you endure with your willpower, I can tell from the side that you’re flinching. The camera will go past you as well. Don’t cause trouble later and change them out now. Also, get a band-aid for that.”

“Don’t do that. You’re putting me in a difficult position.”

“Don’t worry. I have to get them changed too,” Maru said as he pointed at his own shoes.

His left shoe had ripped. It seemed that some of the straws had snapped during the violent action.

Maru walked over to the assistant director before saying something. The staff in charge of props, who couldn’t be seen anywhere until now, showed up in no time.

“Let’s go.”

He went to the props vehicle with Maru. He received a band-aid there and put it on his toes. When he put on three layers so that his toes wouldn’t rub against the shoe, it didn’t hurt either.

“Can you walk?” Maru asked.

“Yes, I’m okay now.”

“That’s good. Act cool like how you did during the rehearsal. Your expression looked really good right after I went in, so you might want to bring more of that in. Your eyes looked good.”

He had the time to look around in that chaos?

Youngsun replied yes before going back to the shoot.

“Where have you been?” said a member of the team.

“I changed out my shoes. I feel a lot better now.”

“That’s good.”

“Yes, it’s good.”

Youngsun looked at Han Maru who was waiting nearby.

He looked out for the background actors as well. Was he kind by nature? Or was he being overly kind for the sake of his reputation?

Whatever the case may be, it was true that he received help. It was also true that hearing Maru compliment him made him proud.

Aside from the desire to get noticed, he thought that he should do his best as a member of the team.

“Let’s do this,” Youngsun said to his team before grabbing the mockup sword.

Energy returned to his body. He felt like the heat had subsided as well. He felt like he should enjoy himself and a smile appeared on his face.

“Let’s go again.”

He tightened his grip on the sword.

Then action.

He shouted until his skull started ringing and charged forward.

After Story 224

“Lord big boss, what do we do with that bunch?”

Dooho pointed at a group of people blocking their way in the middle of the night with his torch. They clearly seemed to be remnant forces of the Gaya tribe. If they could talk to these people calmly, they would be reassuring comrades in usurping the Silla monarchy, but if their intentions were different, they had to be killed right here.

“Dooho.”

“Yes, lord.”

“From which direction do you think they are coming from?”

Dooho thought about the path that the Gaya tribe must have taken as he listened to big boss Park Chan-gam’s words. His eyes followed the line lit up by the torch fire. From the looks of it, they seemed to be coming over from Gangmegol.

“Do you know who resides in Gangmegol right now?”

“What would a fool like me know?”

“Use that foolish head of yours a little.”

“From the way you’re puttin’ it, it doesn’t sound good fer sure.”

The big boss’ lips curved upwards.

“The Park royal clan is there. What kind of business do you think the descendants of the king and the general of the old Gaya tribe had?”

Dooho spat on the ground. He was an uneducated fool, but he could still understand what that meant. He signaled to the Red Tiger Troops behind him. He could see the sheen of their weapons under the moonlight.

“Just give the orders, lord, and I’ll bring back their heads.”

“When have I ever driven you to your death? If there is any danger, I shall be the first one to step forward.”

The big boss reached his hand out. The sword boy that carried the big boss’ sword placed the sword in his hand.

“I will first talk to them. If I can get through, there is no need to shed blood.”

“Whatcha gonna do if they’re a petty bunch?”

The big boss pulled out the sword from the scabbard. That was enough of an answer. Dooho picked three of his reliable subordinates and pointed at the tail end of the group of Gaya tribe people. Once there was battle, these three would attack their tail.

“Let’s go, Dooho, Sukchoon.”

“Yes, lord.”

Dooho pulled out his short spear, his partner weapon. Ever since he suffered a defeat to a soldier he did not know the name of at the castle, he had intensified his training. He resolved to not let anyone point a sword at his lord as long as his eyes were open.

He lit up the torch with some tinder. He could see the Gaya tribe stop walking.

Dooho walked forward, lighting up the lord’s way. He kicked away any rocks in their path and cut all tall grass short with his spear.

“I seem to have met you once before. Aren’t you a famous general of the Geumgwan state[1]?” said lord big boss.

“Park Chan-gam,” said the general riding a horse. Dooho glared at the man.

How dare he speak without getting down from the horse first? If the negotiations fell through, he decided to kill this man first.

“What did the king promise you? Did he say he will return the former lands of the Geumgwan state? Or did he promise to help rebuild the Gaya Federation?”

“Gaya has long fallen. New wine has to be stored in a new wineskin.”

“So you decided to give up resisting and offer your southern lands?”

“The federation has disbanded and Silla has formed the foundation as a new monarchy. Going against the irresistible flow is foolish. You must ride on it.”

“And what did you get in return?”

“A promise of posthumous honor.”

“You mean, that man wants to be king?”

“Anyone can become king. Isn’t that the current state of Silla?”

Dooho looked at lord big boss’ sword. The sword was swaying from left to right. A battle should break out soon.

Dooho glared at the head of the enemy general. Although the Red Tiger Troops did not know how to lose, there would be injuries in this battle. To minimize them, he had to get the enemy general’s head as soon as possible.

“Then why not join hands with me? I too am of the Park royal clan.”

“Does the great cause lie with an abandoned child?”

A heavy silence fell. Dooho snapped out and stepped forward.

“Yer should watch yer mouth. And get down from that horse while at it.”

“You have a ruffian that does not know when to interrupt or stay quiet by your side. Park Chan-gam. I can see your level from just that.”

Dooho took half a step forward, about to throw the short spear, but then had a look at the lord big boss’ face. If he fell for the provocation here, he would be bringing shame to the person he served.

“This man’s name is Dooho. As you say, he doesn’t have the greatest judgment. However, I know that all of his actions are for my sake. Even if hell unfolds before me, this one will jump forward without hesitation. He is a man who told me he would give up on his life with a smile if it is for the sake of me and our great cause.”

Lord big boss’ hand was placed on Dooho’s shoulder.

“He’s a headache to deal with, but I believe in him. It’s not just him. I believe in everyone behind me. How about you, good sir? I’m not sure if you can see the faces of your subordinates from such a high position. Why do you not come down and check? See whether they are those that are willing to walk the path of fire for you or not.”

Lord big boss swung his sword. That was the signal.

Dooho exchanged gazes with Sukchoon. As a master archer, Sukchoon grabbed the bow on his back and stood next to lord big boss.

“Those in our way, listen! Should you put down your weapons and leave this place, I shall not cause you any harm. However! Should you choose to go against us, we will cut you down without hesitation. Choose! Either serve the man selling off his tribe for the sake of his own safety or save your own lives!”

“Enough of your nonsense! I do not abandon my family!” said the general from the Gaya tribe.

Lord big boss spoke again,

“When you say family, you must be referring to those four or so people on horses like you, are you? Once the current king suppresses the regional lords and gains power, the first thing he will do is subjugate the South[2]! The man calling himself your ruler is trying to become the monarch of Silla on the condition of keeping quiet![3]”

The soldiers of the Gaya tribe in the group started murmuring.

“Where are your families? Are they in the cities of Silla? Or the South where the Silla intends to subjugate? If you wish to survive at the cost of the lives of your own families, then do not run and pick up your swords. I shall personally cut your heads off,” said lord big boss firmly.

Dooho knew nothing about the state of affairs, and even less about strategy, but he could tell that lord big boss’ words were shaking them up. Soldiers without morale were easy prey.

“Block the snout of that evil schemer!” said the Gaya general while pulling on his horse’s reins.

The horse pulled back and the nearby Gaya soldiers were pushed forward.

Dooho snatched a torch that his subordinate was holding and raised it up high. Orange light reflected off the Gaya general’s face.

“You ignorant lots! Look at ’im! Your guys’ leader is a coward who’s all talk. A general that pulls back right before battle. I woulda slit my neck in shame!”

“I woulda bit my tongue and died too,” Sukchoon chimed in.

The soldiers of the Gaya tribe started looking at each other at the words that were meant to be a mockery. The first ones to move were soldiers far away from the general. They put down their weapons and were falling back.

“You imbeciles!” the general shouted.

The general gave orders to kill the allies that ran away.

“Look at that! Is it the leader’s job to kill the family you must look after? I woulda killed that guy already and become boss,” Dooho shouted.

He didn’t know how to decrease enemy morale in a cool fashion like the lord did, but he had confidence in dividing his enemies. Other than the soldiers around the general, people started leaving formation one by one.

The general shouted that he was going to kill all that left formation, but it was only a shout into the void.

“Imbeciles!”

A man looking like the general’s close aide grabbed a soldier and stabbed him. The soldier spurted out blood before falling down.

“R-run!”

“Save me!”

Chaos ensued. Lord big boss took out his sword and stepped forward.

“Dooho, make sure those people can return safely to their homeland.”

“Aye, aye.”

He grouped up with the members of the Red Tiger Troops that had split off and helped the soldiers that ran away.

“Go on, run!”

“We’ll watch your back, so run like your life depends on it!”

Some of them even picked up their weapons and joined the Red Tiger Troops.

“Hey, is it possible for me to join you?”

Dooho looked at the fear-stricken soldier and spoke,

“That’s up fer lord big boss to decide, but if yer willing to fight, he’ll probably let ya.”

The Red Tiger Troops was founded by the lord big boss when he took in a bunch of aimless people. Street performers, slaves, foreigners… they were a group of people excluded by others for being ‘lowly’.

“I shall believe your words.”

The soldier pointed his spear at the general.

Dooho nodded before looking around. Everyone that needed to run seemed to have run away. The only thing left right now was to finish up the fight.

He rushed over to lord big boss who was fighting. Unlike his appearance, which was more suited to holding a brush, lord big boss was good with the sword. Dooho had also never won against him in combat.

“Let the bosses fight each other, and clean up the rest,” Sukchoon said.

Dooho shook off the blood from his short spear and charged toward the Gaya soldiers.

“You lots! Come play with me!”

* * *

Maru swung his short spear, conscious of the camera that was following right behind him. Team 2, who were soldiers of Silla until just yesterday, had become soldiers of the Gaya tribe today. After working with them so much, they could do some basic communication with their eyes alone.

He stepped on the actor that shouted in pain and fell sideways. Youngsun, who moved to his right, called out to him, saying “Brother Dooho!” and threw a long spear.

They had practiced throwing and catching the spear throughout the whole afternoon. Thanks to that, he could smoothly catch it.

He struck out with the spear in his left hand. That actor, who let the spear go past his flank, fell down sideways.

Maru gasped and looked at Youngsun once before charging forward again.

He could feel the members of the Red Tiger Troops following behind him. They were in sync.

“Wipe them all out!”

Although there were lights, it was still nighttime. Because of the grass that had grown to ankle height, the rocks hidden among it couldn’t be seen properly. He had already fallen over a few times because he made a wrong step.

Everyone acted without holding themselves back. It was to the point that the smell of pain relief patches was stronger than the smell of sweat.

Maru stabbed the short spear into the last soldier.

“Okay!”

“Good job, everyone.”

Dooho’s part was over now. Maru reached his hand out to an actor on the ground.

“Good job.”

“You too.”

“I think I stabbed a little too hard during that last bit. Are you okay?”

“This is nothing.”

Thanks to the arduous shoot, the actors had become exhausted. Maru picked up the short spear prop and went over to the Red Tiger Troops that were still in a group.

“Youngsun, how’s your ankle?”

“I thought I twisted it for good, but I think it’s okay now.”

“Don’t hold back and say if it hurts. You know our team can’t do without you, right? We’ll be in big trouble if your injuries become worse.”

“I’m really okay. Rather than me, wasn’t Sungmin-hyung more injured?”

Maru looked at Sungmin.

“I got injured so many times that the little things don’t even hurt me anymore.”

“You should still be careful.”

“Maru, how about you?”

“You know me. I’m quite agile and sturdy.”

He sat down next to Youngsun. It had been two weeks since the shoot had started properly. As they had been working together through thick and thin for the past two weeks, they had become close like friends.

“Senior Hong Geunsoo is still continuing with his shoot.”

“Our lord big boss seems like he’s going to shoot late into the night.”

“The team over there must be dying too.”

Geunsoo, who played the character of lord big boss, stood under the lights again.

A large-scale battle scene was being shot in units of teams. Geunsoo, who showed up in every one of them, had to participate in every single shoot.

“Good job today. You should wrap things up and go back,” a member of the production staff came over and said.

It seemed that team 4’s shoot was going to end here.

“How about you?” Youngsun asked as he picked up his costume.

Maru also stood up.

“I’m done for the day too. Since we finished at the same time, let’s go drink together. We can talk a bit too.”

“Sounds good. I’ll treat everyone today.”

As he had been hanging around with team 4 whenever he had the time, they would always eat together on days when they finished the shoot at the same time. Some people at the shoot said that they were the real-life Red Tiger Troops.

“Alright. Let’s have Cha-woong pay for it today.”

He called Youngsun by his character name in the movie and put his arm around his shoulder. Youngsun laughed and started walking.

[1] Known to be one of the dominant states of the Gaya Federation.

[2] Gaya was located in the southern end of the Korean peninsula

[3] Park Chan-gam (aka lord big boss) is saying that the current ruler of the Geumgwan state wants to go down in history as a former monarch of the Silla dynasty (posthumous honor) even if it means letting his people die under the hands of the Silla subjugation force.

After Story 225

“And that was when I first saw you,” Youngsun said as he picked up the can.

He thought he had some beer left, but it was an empty can.

When he looked for more to drink, Maru handed him a canned beer.

“You saw me during my audition? Why don’t I remember?” Maru asked.

“I just saw you talking to the director inside the room while I was passing by. Of course you didn’t see me. And to tell you the truth, my first impression of you wasn’t that great.”

“I was so bad that just a glimpse of me left you a bad impression?” Maru ripped some dried squid.

“It was an inferiority complex. Everyone was tense waiting for the audition, so what would they think if they saw an actor on close terms with the director? Oh! I don’t have any connections so I won’t make it this time either! That actor is going to get cast because of his or her good connections.”

“Youngsun, this guy. He’s actually quite petty despite his looks,” Sungmin said with a laugh.

“Yes, I was quite petty back then. But don’t you all have a similar experience? Joonhyuk, what about you?”

Joonhyuk spoke as he picked up a squid leg,

“Who doesn’t? There have been plenty of times when I’ve thought that someone was worse than me but was doing better just because he belonged to a good agency. I thought many times that I would’ve done several times better.”

He smiled bitterly before sighing.

“Of course, that was when I just started working as an actor. I know that the world isn’t so easy. I learned that the reason I didn’t get the role is that I was insufficient and that there is no guarantee that I would be able to do better even if I was playing that role. Once you start blaming someone, there’s no end to it. It leaves a bad aftertaste too.”

“Once you start looking for reasons apart from yourself, you can’t even quit easily,” Sungmin said.

Youngsun took a couple sips before looking at Maru.

“Anyway, I really didn’t like you back then, but now I know that you’re a man of great character.”

“Feeding people is the best way to get to a person’s heart alright. I hear so many pleasant things just because I buy you food,” Maru said as he picked up an almond.

Youngsun opened his mouth wide. The almond that Maru tossed went right into his mouth.

“The shoot is hard, but we’re having an easier time thanks to you,” Sungmin said.

Maru waved his hand in denial.

“I didn’t do anything much.”

“Of course you did a lot of things. The production staff doesn’t say things to us because they know that you’re looking out for us. Had it been anywhere else, an NG from a minor actor would turn the atmosphere stiff.”

“That’s thanks to director Kwon. You know he looks out for the action actors a lot. Director Nam looks out for the production staff as well.”

“That’s true, but from what I see, you play a bigger role.”

Youngsun nodded. At the shoot, Maru was like salt. The shooting team, the production team, the lighting team, the arts team… he was close to everyone. Whenever a problem occurred and people started raising their voices, Maru appeared without fail. He had never seen a mediator more perfect than him before.

Not only that, but Hong Geunsoo would also show up as well whenever Maru made a move. With the support of someone who can basically go head-to-head with the director, most troublesome matters were resolved in no time.

The first thing that was improved was the waiting place for the extras. They originally had to wait under the sun due to ease of control, but thanks to Geunsoo and Maru speaking out, they were moved to the shade. That alone stopped the background actors from frowning during the shoot.

“How much do you want from me to keep praising me like that? My wallet is pretty tight these days, you know?”

“Really? Then I’ll stop!”

Everyone laughed at Sungmin’s words.

“But it really is curious whenever we meet up like this. Honestly, I thought I’d never get to talk to the main actors at the shoot,” Youngsun said.

“That’s because Maru-hyung is special. The other actors are all in the hotel right now.”

Joonhyuk raised his thumb. Maru shrugged.

“I’m also going to go to the hotel to sleep comfortably once I’m done drinking here.”

“Don’t say that and sleep here like shrimps with us.”

“I like comfy beds.”

“You’re so ruthless, turning down this little brother’s request.”

They talked about the lunchbox that they had for dinner. Most of it was about how the side dishes were lacking and them theorizing if someone had taken some of the money midway.

“How was the shoot today?” Maru said as he put down the glass. Youngsun also put down his glass.

Wherever Maru talked about the shoot, everyone focused. Even the relaxed atmosphere would contain a hint of tension.

“I think the sync was not as good when we were shooting the last scene,” Joonhyuk spoke first.

“I felt that too. You’re talking about when we were up against the Gaya people, right?”

“Yes. I think people are running out of stamina. The past few days have been hot even at night.”

“Maybe it’s because of that.”

“I feel like my body can’t keep up even though I want to increase the pace.”

“Maru, the director didn’t say anything much when he said okay, did he?”

Joonhyuk, Sungmin, and Maru exchanged opinions. Youngsun also joined in the middle and said what he felt. The others did the same.

Ever since the shoot began, they had a session like this nearly every day. They would sometimes realize what they didn’t know if they exchanged their experiences and thus would be able to fix their mistakes.

The sync between team members was more important than an individual’s acting skills, so they needed some time to talk, and thanks to their drinking sessions, that was resolved naturally.

Thinking about it now, even this occasion was created thanks to Maru’s suggestion.

Youngsun looked at Maru talking about acting with a serious expression. He didn’t look like he was here to teach or preach, just that he wanted to make up for each other’s insufficiencies.

What a great fortune was it that he managed to meet this person? — Youngsun thought as he listened to Maru’s words.

* * *

“Go back inside. I’ll get going as well.”

“Watch out on your way back!”

It became noisy in front of the building. He looked, wondering what was happening. Han Maru and some minor actors were saying goodbye to each other. This wasn’t the first or second time it happened, so there was nothing surprising about that.

“I think they’re meeting up practically every single day.”

“The Red Tiger Troops get their own meetings. Don’t we get anything?”

“I’m envious. Actor Han will pay for all their drinks, wouldn’t he? I wish I was in team 4 too.”

Gyungho looked at his teammate who spoke. Everyone was envious, but they were forgetting the important thing. Why was actor Han Maru keeping a good relationship with the minor actors? He had to find the answer to this question.

“It seems like Han Maru has a good character. He looks out for a lot of people.”

“It just shows his nature. From how he’s not boasting just because he rose to stardom while young, he is just destined to do well,” his team members said.

Gyungho looked at Han Maru walking away and spoke,

“You think he’s doing that because he has a good nature?”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean, think about it. How many actors look out for minor actors like that in the movie scene? He’s a young actor who must have his hands full looking out for himself.”

“I’m saying that he has a good character for helping others even in his situation.”

“No, no. The fact that he seems like a good person is a result. What’s important is the process.”

“What do you mean?”

“I’m saying that we can’t tell for sure whether he’s splitting his time meeting insignificant actors because he’s kind or because he wants everyone to see him as a kind person. The result of both of them is that he’s kind, but the nature of it is very different.”

“Whether he’s pretentious or genuine, what matters is that he is looking out for minor actors. What does his thoughts have anything to do with it? What’s important is what we can see. I mean, even pretentiously, it’d be better if he treats us well.”

Gyungho nodded. “You’re right. I’m not insulting him for being a hypocrite. I just thought that I could benefit as well.”

“Benefit? How?”

“Just wait a little. If what I’m thinking is right, we might get something out of this too.”

“Don’t do it by yourself and let us in too. What do you mean by that?”

“I told you to wait. If things go well, I’ll suck out the sweet juice from him and give everyone a share.”

Gyungho spoke to the team member that tilted his head in confusion,

“Do you know what Nice Guy Syndrome is?”

“What’s that?”

“You’ve probably come across some of them in your life. Someone who helps others even at the cost of their own possessions. We sometimes call them gullible, but apparently, it’s not because they’re idiots that are helping others out and acting kind. They enjoy people praising them. And they get uneasy if they don’t get that treatment.”

“There was a guy like that when I went to school. Whenever there was something bothersome, people would go to him. Then he would smile and listen to all of them. I once asked him because I was curious: Are you being bullied? Why can’t you refuse? Then he told me that it wasn’t anything much and that it was a good thing that he could help them out and make them happy.”

Gyungho clapped and pointed at the person that just spoke.

“That’s exactly it. They’re bound by the stereotype that they have to be kind. They have to refuse what they don’t want to do, but they can’t because they’re afraid that the image they have in the minds of others would shatter.”

He lowered his voice a little.

“Now think again. How is Han Maru acting? Don’t you think he’s being uselessly kind? Look at how he treats team 4.”

“Really? I’m not really sure. Isn’t he helping them out because he’s working with them?”

“That’s possible, but I feel like he’s managing his image.”

“I get what you’re saying. So you want to ask actor Han a favor?”

“Yes. We ask him something trivial to benefit, and Han Maru gains satisfaction from his ego.”

“There’s nothing to lose. Should we ask him to buy us drinks?” said someone from the team with a smile.

The next day.

He was resting after his morning shoot, looking around for someone. He found the person he was looking for.

“Mr. Maru.”

Gyungho smiled and approached Han Maru. He may not know his name, but he should know his face as they had clashed multiple times.

“Yes.”

“You know me, right? I’m from team 1 and I get beaten up by you all the time.”

“I do. You were really good at acting.”

“So you remember me. Have you had lunch?” he asked while looking at Maru’s empty hand.

“No, I was just about to.”

“Are you going with the director and the other actors?”

“They told me there’s a good sashimi cold noodles restaurant nearby.”

“That’s a pity. I wanted to talk to you over some food if you had some time.”

“Talk?”

“Nothing much. I just wanted to ask a few things. You hang around with the members of team 4 a lot, don’t you? I’m envious, seeing actors around the same age being so close.”

Maru did not say anything.

Was his estimation wrong? — just as he thought so,

“There’s nothing to be envious about. We just meet up and talk about acting or trivial stuff.”

“That’s what I’m envious about.”

Gyungho took a glance at Maru. A moment of silence later, Maru spoke,

“Then let’s have lunch together today. I also like hanging around actors around the same age.”

Good, he fell for it — Gyungho smiled brightly before speaking,

“Then let’s go over to where my team is.”

After Story 226

“Well, then. Here comes actor Han Maru. Give him a round of applause!”

Gyungho introduced Maru to his team, who were waiting. The members of his team, who were semi-doubtful that Gyungho would successfully bring Maru over, all cheered when they saw him.

“Please sit down.”

Maru sat down on the bench. “The people I’ve met a lot during the shoot are all here. If I remember correctly, you’re someone I crashed into a while ago.”

“You remember that? I rolled backward back then.”

“I do. You were so realistic that I was worried that you were hurt.”

“I’m pretty good at that.”

The atmosphere was good. They opened their lunch boxes while laughing.

Gyungho did not make haste. Today, he was just going to talk to him lightly. He didn’t know whether Maru was pretending to be kind or was genuinely so, but Maru would definitely be wary if he acted so obviously from the get-go.

“Everyone here is having a hard time, aren’t you?” Maru said.

“There’s no one who isn’t, is there? And rather than us, you have it harder. You had to run around all morning, didn’t you?”

“The weather really isn’t helping. I’d ask the director for a break if there’s a heat wave warning or something, but it just barely isn’t hot enough.”

“Right. If it was gonna be hot, then it should be really hot or not hot at all. It’s on an iffy level so I can’t even use heat stroke as an excuse.”

They continued talking about the difficulties they had during the shoot. For now, Maru seemed like an easy person to talk to. He listened seriously and sympathized with everyone as well. 99 out of 100 people would see Han Maru in a good light if they talked to him.

“But Mr. Han, aren’t you tired? I mean, you were hanging out with the members of team 4 after the shoot every time,” Gyungho said.

“I’d rest if I was really tired, but you know how that little bit of stamina comes back to you right after the shoot ends? Don’t you get that?”

“I know that feeling. It’s like studying. You can’t concentrate at all when you’re studying, but the moment you take a break, your mind suddenly becomes clear. Anyone who lives in Korea should have had this experience.”

Maru ate some of the side dishes and spoke,

“That’s how I chat with others after the shoot. As we talk, we share what we lacked during the shoot and give opinions about what we could improve upon in the next shoot. Well, most of the time though, it’s just exchanging jokes.”

“I’m envious of team 4. We are passionate about acting too.”

“You should ask your senior actors about it. Most of them should listen to your story seriously. They’re all good people.”

“I know that, but there’s still a sense of distance. I don’t want to risk getting an earful from them.”

Gyungho looked around asking for agreement. The team members all chimed in. They all said that it was hard to talk to the main actors.

“You should see how they’re doing during break time and ask them questions. There might be people who outright tell you that they can’t be bothered, but even those people should answer your questions.”

“I’ll try it later. Rather than that, talking to you like this makes me feel so refreshed. Talking to a successful actor sure is different. Isn’t that right? I feel like I’m learning something from just talking like this.”

Everyone nodded. As he had said his plan yesterday, they were all following along nicely.

Maru smiled and told them to make another occasion if there was time.

“Since you ask, I will of course try to arrange things. As a token of our friendship, I’ll buy you some coffee.”

“No, I’ll buy it.”

“It’s okay. You came here giving up on sashimi cold noodles, so I should at least do this much. Of course, it’ll be canned coffee.”

“Vending machine coffee or canned coffee is the best after a meal.”

Gyungho put a cigarette in his mouth as he held a canned coffee. He asked whether Maru smoked and got the reply that he had quit.

“How did you manage to quit something good like this?”

“I could feel my stamina deteriorating.”

“How old are you again?”

“It’s 2011, so that makes me 25.”

“You’re much younger than me, yet you can still tell that your stamina is deteriorating?”

“You should quit smoking as well. You’ll feel that the mornings are different.”

“I don’t think I can quit even if I die. Maybe I’ll quit right before I die.”

After exchanging jokes, it was already time for the shoot again. Maru crushed the can in his hands and spoke,

“I should go and get ready.”

“Let’s try our hardest in the afternoon too.”

“Yes, don’t get injured. Let’s do our best.”

Gyungho pushed the cigarette to the corner of his mouth and puffed deeply. Only after seeing Maru becoming distant in his vision did he throw away the cigarette butt on the ground.

“He’s such an innocent guy.”

“Yeah. He’s a man of character alright.”

“I don’t think it’s that nice guy-whatever you talked about. He genuinely seems like a good person.”

Gyungho listened to the opinions of his team and stomped on the glowing cigarette to put it out.

“That’s not the important thing. It doesn’t matter whether he’s actually a kind person or is just being pretentious. What matters is that he showed us his good side. People like him can’t look over small debts. Do you think I bought him coffee for no reason?”

One of the team members, who was listening, spoke, “I think we should just continue like this without asking him for anything. Let’s not take advantage of an earnest person like him.”

Gyungho frowned.

“You’re putting it strangely. Who’s taking advantage of who? We’re both benefiting from each other. You saw him, didn’t you? He liked it. He smiled when we called him a good person. That’s what feeds his ego. To put it nicely, we were doing counseling. Not that we’re experts, but still.”

“I don’t get it. I just want to stay on good terms with him.”

“We’re not fighting him, are we? I’m going to be on good terms with him as well. He’s such a good person so why would I want to be his enemy? It’s just that, he is someone with a lot of things, right? I’m providing him with the opportunity to share some of it with us.”

Gyungho said that he would take care of it himself and that they should not give Maru any hints. Other than the one person who didn’t seem to like it, everyone nodded. It would be strange if they disliked it when he was saying that he was going to handle everything.

He put on his costume when he heard that they should get ready. When he arrived at the shoot, Maru was right in front of him. When he smiled, Maru smiled back.

Gyungho looked at the team member that looked rather unwilling. That fellow was really too inflexible. It wasn’t that he was committing a crime. How was it a crime to receive help from someone who wants to help others?

“People have to be flexible in life,” Gyungho muttered loudly enough for that opposing member to hear.

The other members of the team didn’t say anything much. He did warn them, so they shouldn’t tell Maru anything weird.

Moderately taking advantage of others and getting taken advantage of. That was how to live in the world. There was an extreme minority who could benefit just by walking down the right path, and normally, such people were referred to as geniuses.

Ordinary people like him had to get whatever the geniuses spilled.

Even if he did take advantage of Han Maru, would that harm him in any way? He wasn’t asking for money, just a small opportunity. There was no problem with that.

“Don’t come thanking me later.”

The shoot began. It was just as hard as before. He rolled on the ground and got injured. While he applied some pain relief patches on his butt and took a rest, he watched Maru’s acting.

“Lord big boss, I think this place is exposed.”

‘Dooho,’ who always boasted a foul mouth, spoke with a serious expression. On the other side, Hong Geunsoo, who was listening to the line, also had a dark complexion as though he was placed in the middle of a real crisis.

“They’re on a totally different level alright.”

Gyungho respected those two people. The amount of energy they poured into acting was on a whole other level. He imagined himself acting in place of those two. It wasn’t a great scene for sure. That was his limit. Maybe in the future, he might be able to act on the same level as those two, but that time wasn’t now.

The amount of talent they were born with was just different. He just had to let those two geniuses rush ahead. The moment he tried to speed up to catch those two, his lungs would rip.

Rather than watching the geniuses get farther and farther in despair, just jogging while looking at the ground was a much better option. That was how ordinary people lived.

The skies turned dark before it started raining. The shoot was temporarily on hold. The production crew dismantled the equipment while getting wet, while the actors got under a shelter.

“It doesn’t look like a short shower, does it?” said a member of the team.

“From the looks of it, it’s going to rain into the night.”

Gyungho looked for a cigarette from his costume pocket. What he grabbed was only an empty pack. He clicked his tongue and squeezed it.

“From the looks of it, someone was going to die in that scene.”

“It must be Han Maru, right?”

“Probably. Putting that aside though, those two are really good. I thought Han Maru was just good at action, but he was really good in that emotional scene as well. I couldn’t hear his voice that well, but I could feel the emotions from just looking at his expression.”

“That’s why he’s a main actor. You have to admit that his acting skills are good, right?”

“What was I doing at his age again? Was I studying in an acting school?”

“I think I was.”

“Is there anyone here who wasn’t?”

They were in their mid-20s to early 30s. It wasn’t just team 1. The majority of the teams consisted of members around this age. As stamina mattered a lot, the production team simply didn’t cast any older actors.

There were numerous actors here who were younger than Hong Geunsoo, but older than Han Maru. Most of these people must be thinking the same thing: what was I doing when I was his age? I think I tried hard, but why am I still stuck here?

“It’s a difference in talent. That’s why people like us are more desperate for opportunities. Just you wait, I’ll get that opportunity off him. Who knows? I might be able to get in touch with JA.”

“I would have no other wish if that came true.”

“Actually, I was just saying that. I don’t even wish for JA. I’d be satisfied as long as I get a named role in another work or get to say hello to a director.”

Gyungho raised his hand and waved at Maru who was getting shelter from the rain. Maru also greeted back.

“See that? He doesn’t ignore me. He’s a good guy. I’m sure he’ll help me out as well with that good personality of his.”

The production crew retracted all the equipment as though they judged that the rain wasn’t going to stop anytime soon.

“We’ll notify you when you have to prepare by teams, so you should come out at the right time. Thank you for your work today.”

The shoot ended. Gyungho looked around before heading to Maru, who was walking with his manager.

“Mr. Maru,” he said as though he found him due to a coincidence, “It’s raining all of a sudden.”

“Yeah.”

“The shoot ended early and the weather’s like this, so why not have some rice wine with us?”

Maru exchanged looks with his manager. He handed his umbrella to his manager before walking over to Gyungho.

“Hyung, you should go back and get some rest first. I’ll go back after I drink a little with these people.”

“Drink in moderation. The shoot might resume early in the morning if the rain stops.”

The manager left. Gyungho headed to the residence with Maru. On their way there, he called his team members and told them that Maru was coming with him. When they arrived, there was a simple drinking table set up.

“I ordered some side dishes through delivery. They should be here soon.”

“You treated me to coffee during the day, so I’ll pay for those.”

“An important person has come, so I should naturally be the one to treat you,” Gyungho said as he sat Maru down.

After the side dishes arrived, some drinks were exchanged. The men emptied bottle after bottle of rice wine while chatting loudly.

Maru fit in with them better than he had thought. The way he spoke was kind, and above all, he did not put a wall around him. He was a really open person.

It was likely that he would nod even if Gyungho brought up the request, even more so if that request was something that wasn’t easy to refuse, and refusing would make him look petty.

Gyungho did not dream of reversing his life with opportunity. He just needed a small trigger, a minor one that didn’t see the light of day because they were one of many at the feet of the genius.

“You must have it good.”

Gyungho started.

After Story 227

“Me?” Maru responded.

“You are playing a lead character in your mid-twenties already. I’m envious. You’re both skilled and good-natured. I can’t find a flaw in you.”

“I was just lucky.”

“And you’re humble too. How can luck be responsible for everything? It’s all talent. An actor without skill like me won’t be able to do what you did even if I am given the opportunity.”

“That, you never know.”

Gyungho took a sip of rice wine before speaking,

“I don’t even want that big of a role. I wish I could play a small character that just has a name. I’ll start from an insignificant role and become bigger over time. Isn’t that what acting is about?”

Maru did not speak and kept smiling.

“But I can’t seem to find an opportunity like that. I don’t have enough connections so I’m kinda sad.”

Having come this far, he could take out his actual agenda naturally like he was just joking. Gyungho looked at Maru.

“Mr. Han. Don’t you have a director that you know? Please introduce me to one.”

It was just words he threw out there, but Maru shouldn’t be able to refuse easily. Maru was still smiling. Regardless of how he felt on the inside, he should look kind on the outside, and he probably didn’t want to let down those expectations.

After a while, Maru spoke,

“Introduce you? Well, sure. You’re a good actor, so there’s no reason for me not to.”

Gyungho smiled pleasantly. That was exactly the kind of answer he was expecting. The members of his team started showing interest as well. Anticipation colored their faces.

“Delivery.”

Gyungho quickly stood up to get to the door. When they were halfway through the food that they ordered at the beginning, he called another restaurant to order. He put down the gamja-tang inside a big plastic container on the floor.

“That came at just the right time. Well then, let’s continue drinking.”

“This will be my last cup.” Maru raised the paper cup that was about half full of rice wine.

“I want to offer you some more, but I’m sure you’ll have a hard shoot tomorrow, so I guess we should drink by ourselves.”

“Drink to your heart’s content.”

Gyungho used a spoon to drink the soup of the gamja-tang and looked at Maru. He had brought up the topic of asking to be introduced to a director, but he had yet to get his answer. If they separated without a clear answer like this, it would be awkward to bring it up again.

“I’ll make a call for a bit.”

“Okay, go ahead.”

Maru left. Gyungho spoke after checking that the door was fully shut,

“See that? I told you.”

“Would he really set you up?”

“There’s all the things he said, so he should try to keep those up. Even if he doesn’t, he should feel sorry for me, so I just have to try again later.”

He gulped down the cool rice wine. The sweetness was just right. The taste was great and his work was going well too.

“I’ll try urging him. I’ll ask him to set us all up instead of just me. So don’t ask him to introduce you to someone before I do that. If the atmosphere turns strange, he might just leave us.”

“We’ll just follow along, so make sure you do it well. Also, from looking at him, I feel like he’s an innocent man who’ll listen to everything.”

“Right. Did you see that? He enjoys being a good person. If we humble ourselves and ask for a favor, he’ll listen to it. He’s a good person, isn’t he?”

Gyungho looked at the team member that was eating quietly this whole time. He was the one who had been against it since yesterday.

Everyone was getting on the bandwagon, while he was the only one acting proud. In some ways, it felt pitiful.

“People get tired if they try to stay away from others the whole time.”

He spoke quite loudly, but that person didn’t show much of a reaction.

What an inflexible person. It wasn’t that he disliked people with a firm faith, but it was quite frustrating that he couldn’t read the mood.

Gyungho was trying to spoon-feed him, but he wouldn’t open his mouth. What could he do about that?

“The rain has subsided a lot now. I don’t think there will be a problem with the shoot tomorrow,” Maru said as he came into the room. The rain hitting the window had died down a little.

“Your cups are empty, huh? I’ll pour a cup for everyone one last time.”

“That’s great. When else would I have a lead actor pour rice wine for me?” Gyungho said as he picked up his paper cup.

Maru picked up the bottle of rice wine and poured everyone a cup each.

“I’ll pour my own. Please give me the bottle.”

Maru raised the tilted bottle. The person that held his hand out instead of his cup was the one who stayed aloof from the conversation until now.

Gyungho clicked his tongue. That man didn’t change until the end.

“But I’d like to pour you a cup.”

“It’s okay.”

“Don’t say that and let me.”

He thought Maru would smile and hand the bottle over, but Maru stood right in front of that team member.

After twitching his eyes, that person eventually raised his paper cup.

“You look like the youngest in team 1,” Maru said after pouring some rice wine.

Gyungho replied instead of the team member who stayed quiet,

“He looks young, but he’s actually the same age as me. He’s twenty-seven, so that would make him two years older than you.”

“Really? That’s peculiar.”

“There’s nothing peculiar about it. He can be a frustrating fellow at times, but he’s a good person. I do wish he would get closer to us sometimes, but he doesn’t seem to want that, so I can’t help it.”

Maru looked at Gyungho and that team member alternately.

“You all belong to the same team, so why do you act distant?”

Despite being questioned, that team member kept drinking as though it was none of his business. Gyungho quickly stepped in.

“Mr. Han. That’s just how that fellow is. He doesn’t have any malicious intentions so don’t think of him too badly. You just have to let him do his own thing.”

Maru went back to his position with a smile as though he understood. For a while, they praised Maru’s acting skills and his discerning eyes for good work. Flattery was given to the person who was hungry for it.

Now that the car had been fueled again, he needed to start it.

“Erm, Mr. Han.”

“Yes?”

“I’m quite shy, so I’ll ask again, but you didn’t forget to introduce me to a director, did you?”

He mentioned the topic at the height of laughter.

“Of course I remember. I was calling a director because of that too. Since we’re at it, should I call him now?”

Gyungho gulped dryly and watched Maru’s fingers. His thumb tapped on the screen a few times.

“You’re on speaker mode. Introduce yourself to everyone,” Maru said as he put down the phone.

-Hello. I’m honored to introduce myself like this.

The voice sounded quite young. From the way Maru talked to him, this director seemed to be in his early twenties. Among the directors Gyungho knew, there was no one so young. He put aside his questions and introduced himself for now,

“Hello, director. I begged Mr. Han to introduce me to you.”

-Oh, really? I’m no one that great.

“Yes you are, you’re a film director. I’m not that good at acting, but I can tell you that I’m hardworking. Of course, I guess skill matters more than effort.”

-No. I place a lot of importance on effort. I also lack skill, so I have nothing but my passion to put forward.

The director paused for a moment before continuing.

-I heard from Maru-hyung that you wish to participate in my work.

“Yes, of course. I’m totally free once I’m done with this movie. If you call me, I can run all the way to the end of the country.”

-The plan is to shoot near Seoul, so you don’t have to go that far. But are you really okay with it?

“With what?”

-Working with me. I’d be honored if you do. It means I can work with people who have appeared in commercial movies.

Gyungho rolled his eyes. The conversation was heading in a strange direction.

“Don’t mention it. But director, what are you working on? If you can’t tell me the details, then just tell me what production company you’re working with.”

-There’s nothing grand like that. I’m just a student so where would I get support from?

“What? A student?”

It wasn’t that he had heard wrong. Gyungho looked at Maru, who was still smiling brightly.

He got himself together and waited for an answer from the director.

-Yes. I’m still in college.

“Are you shooting your graduation piece then?”

-No, I’m not a theater major, so I don’t shoot things like that. When I graduate, I’ll help out with a few of the experiments in my department and take a graduation test.

“You’re not a theater major?”

-That’s right.

The back of his head felt numb. He wanted to complain to Maru and ask if he was just teasing. This director wasn’t even a famous indie director and was just a student. There was nothing to gain from participating in his work.

-Also, I’m worried about your payment if we get to work together. I’m looking into loans right now, but I didn’t know that bank loans were so tricky. I also applied for support programs for independent movie productions that the city arranges, but I don’t think the possibility of getting those is high either.

“…That sounds tough,” he barely managed to speak.

Loan? Support program? This wasn’t even funny. If he uploaded his profile to film production internet cafés, he’d get tons of calls. Directors on this level were a dime a dozen.

He didn’t ask Maru for a favor just to get to call with a student director like this. He couldn’t tell whether Maru couldn’t read the mood or whether he was just acting gullible until now.

Without being able to reveal what he was thinking, Gyungho groaned. The young director started talking about the thing he was working on. In truth, he had long since lost interest, so he couldn’t hear any of it.

He just pretended to listen while drinking rice wine. The other members of the team looked bitter just like him.

Gyungho reevaluated Maru in his head. He thought Maru was just an innocent lamb, but he was a devious snake. Even though he must have realized that the atmosphere of the room had turned frosty, he did not say anything.

-And like that, I plan to depict the feelings of a man chased out from the neighborhood.

“That’s a great story.”

-Thank you.

“But I’m sorry to tell you this, but I don’t think it’s right for me. I really don’t have any confidence in that kind of acting. It’s such a pity.”

The student director paused for a moment before laughing.

-Then let’s work together if there’s an opportunity next time.

“Of course. I’ll be your fan starting today, director.”

Maru, who had been listening quietly, spoke,

“Mr. Gyungho here says he can’t do it. What about the others?”

The members of the team who made eye contact with Maru all smiled awkwardly. That reassured Gyungho. Maru wasn’t just kind. The fact that he was introducing a student director was basically his way of screwing with them.

There were numerous directors working on their graduation pieces, and there was no actor here who would want to dedicate their time to a student who was shooting a film as a hobby.

Gyungho was angry and bitter, but he did not show it on the surface. He had to end things on a good note to try again next time.

“If you’re a student and looking into loans, then the payment will be almost none, right?”

The team member who had been staying quiet this whole time spoke. He was on his own island until now, so Gyungho was curious about why that guy suddenly showed interest.

-Yes. I’ll do my best to give you proper payment, but it’ll probably be hard.

“Can you handle transportation and food costs at least?”

-Of course I can.

“Then can I contact you separately? I like the content.”

-Yes! But you’re a different person from the person before, right?

“Yes. My name is Ahn Bangjoo, and I’m twenty-three this year. I’m probably around the same age as you, director. Though, I may be wrong.”

Gyungho indifferently listened to that person speak before his eyes widened.

Twenty-three? – he looked at that person with a frown.

“Then Mr. Bangjoo here will talk to you later. Director, see you later.” Maru hung up.

Gyungho immediately talked to that team member, Ahn Bangjoo.

“Twenty-three?”

“Yeah.”

“Then why are you so rude? You kept using informal speech.”

“That’s because you talked to me with informal speech from the get-go.”

“You’re crazy.”

“If you treated me with respect, I would’ve done so too. But why would I use formal speech to someone who ordered me around from our first meeting?”

“Then you should’ve asked my age.”

“It’s you who misunderstood me for being twenty-seven, so it’s your mistake.”

“Wow, were you living in America? This is the first time I’ve seen someone like this.”

“I saw plenty of people like you in my lifetime, so I’m used to it.”

“You crazy punk.”

When he tried to stand up, the other members of the team grabbed him. In truth, Gyungho had no intentions of fighting either. From what he heard, Ahn Bangjoo had been doing a lot of sports since he was young. Even his arm was quite thick compared to his physique. He didn’t want to get into an unsightly fight either.

In many ways, he felt terrible. The sweet rice wine tasted bitter as well. Now that the fun was lost, it was time to wrap up. Maru also stood up, looking like he had no more intentions to stay.

“Please call me again next time. I’ll be the one buying at that time.”

“Yes, okay.”

After smiling, Maru looked at Ahn Bangjoo.

“And Mr. Bangjoo. I look forward to working with you in our next work.”

While throwing away the trash, Gyungho turned around to look at Maru. What did that mean? Next work?

“I decided to work with that director I just called. He’s really skilled. Apparently, no one has gotten the grand prize from the Short Film Festival after he did. I’m sure he must’ve improved since then, whether it’s the story or the production skills, so I have high hopes.”

“You’re in it? In that director’s drama? You were cast?” Gyungho asked in a hurry.

The other members of the team looked at him in surprise.

“I asked him to. There are many people taking interest as well. Anyway, Mr. Bangjoo. It’s been a long time, but please take care of me. Oh, I misspoke when I said it’s been a long time.”

Maru waved his hand before leaving the room.

Gyungho looked at Bangjoo who quietly cleaned up. The opportunity he wanted so much was flying away right in front of his eyes.

After Story 228

At first, he didn’t recognize him. It was about four days ago that he became aware. There was a scene where he went against the soldiers of Baekje’s army, and his eyes caught a minor actor who was practicing for it.

He felt like he saw that person somewhere, but he couldn’t remember right away. Only around the end of the shoot did he realize that it was Ahn Bangjoo.

In the previous life, Ahn Bangjoo was someone with a big voice. Someone so cheerful that he would smile even in the face of the hardest trials. Although he had met some Ahn Bangjoos of different personalities, the image from his previous life remained the strongest.

Having met Bangjoo again, he was someone who preferred silence over chatting and indifference over a smile. Just looking at him from a distance was enough to tell just how much of a quiet person he was.

Perhaps Bangjoo’s personality was originally like that. After all, in the previous life, he was someone who smiled subconsciously for the sake of his sister who had a hard time.

“Senior.” Maru wiped his sweat and approached Geunsoo, “Can I ask you something?”

“What is it?”

“I was wondering if you knew senior Ahn Joohyun personally.”

“What about Joohyun-noona?”

“You see, I’m a fan of hers. I was wondering when she would start working again.”

“I guess more than half of the men in this country are her fans. It’s been more than two years since she took a break, huh? I’m not sure about the details, but I did hear that she would be making a comeback through a drama.”

“I’m looking forward to that.”

“Would you like to have a phone call with her?”

Maru waved his hand in the air in denial.

“It’d be rude to call her suddenly.”

“No, she actually likes meeting people a lot. How should I put this… she’s a bright woman. Among the actors I know, there is no one as cheerful as her,” Geunsoo said as he crossed his arms.

“If you spend a long enough time in the entertainment industry, there’s bound to be some rumors about you, but she had none of those. She’s such a consistent person on both private and public occasions that the journalists just gave up. She’s someone you can’t nitpick with.”

“Sounds like a cool person.”

“She is a cool person.”

Geunsoo stood up with the prop sword. It seemed that the preparations for the shoot were done.

“Good luck with the shoot.”

Geunsoo went in front of the camera after saying that they should talk later. With each step, he turned from Hong Geunsoo to lord big boss. His concentration made Maru marvel every time.

Maru watched the shoot for a while before turning around. There was no difference between what he knew about Ahn Joohyun through news articles and what Geunsoo told him. It seemed she hadn’t suffered the terrible event that happened in the previous life. He was glad about that.

He walked around the shooting location looking for team 1. One of the production staff members that he was close to came over and asked him if his shoot was done for the day.

“Yes, I’m done for the day. I’m just walking around because I’m bored.”

“I would’ve gone home immediately. It’s so hot out here. It’s like this even with the sun down.”

“I know. Watch out to not get heat stroke.”

“Yes.”

While he was saying goodbye to the staff, he saw team 1 in the distance. They were all sweaty as though they just finished shooting an action scene. Maru approached Bangjoo with a semi-frozen water bottle.

“The weather’s dreadful again today.”

He ignored the other members of team 1 who just stared at him from afar and said hello to Bangjoo. Bangjoo glanced at the water bottle.

“My arms are aching. Take it.”

“Why are you…”

“Aren’t you thirsty?”

“I am.”

“Then take it.” He waved the water bottle.

Bangjoo slowly reached his hand out and grabbed the water bottle.

“Thank you.”

“You won’t use informal speech with me?”

“I treat people with respect when they know respect. I’ve completed compulsory education too. I only use informal speech with people who can’t remember basic morals.”

“That’s quite direct of you.”

“That’s just how I am. If you don’t like it, then just don’t talk to me.”

“No, I quite like that actually. People like you, Mr. Bangjoo, are much more comfortable to me than people who try to use their sneaky heads.”

The faces of team 1, especially Gyungho, were quite a spectacle. Gyungho, who had been listening quietly, quickly left the place with a face of shame. The other members of the team pretended to not notice.

“Isn’t it uncomfortable to keep living in the same room as them?” Maru said as he sat down next to Bangjoo.

Bangjoo took off the leather outfit from his body. Heat radiated from his body.

“There’s nothing to be uncomfortable about. We just don’t talk to each other. It was quite annoying that they kept talking to me up until a few days ago, but starting yesterday, it became pretty quiet. I’m thankful to you for that.”

“I feel happy today, having you say thanks to me.”

Bangjoo drank from the water bottle. He squashed the water bottle and drank the whole bottle in one shot before letting out a big breath. He looked like he was feeling much better.

“Thanks for the drink.”

“Don’t mention it. How’s the shoot? Doable?”

“What kind of work is doable in this world? It’s hard, but you do it if it’s fun.”

“So it’s fun then?”

Bangjoo did not reply and just looked at him. He seemed to be asking for an explanation for this situation.

“Are you displeased with me asking questions like this?”

“No, not really, but I’m curious. Why does this person ask me all these things? – I can’t arrive at an answer no matter how much I think.”

“Is there a reason for curiosity? I just want to get to know the person known as Ahn Bangjoo. We’re going to be shooting a film together, so don’t you think it’s better to know each other a little rather than being total strangers?”

Bangjoo nodded. He looked stubborn, but he was actually quite quick to acknowledge. Maru could see a slightly airheaded part of him as well, and he was pleased because it felt like a part of Ahn Bangjoo from his previous life.

“It is fun, I guess. I like acting.”

“You seem to enjoy action acting?”

Bangjoo replied yes.

“You like Jackie Chan and Bruce Lee, right?”

“How did you…”

“Is there anyone who likes action but doesn’t like those two? I respect them too.”

“That’s true.”

The expressionless Bangjoo smiled for the first time.

“So you do smile, huh? I thought you were a Terminator.”

“I usually smile a lot. It’s just that people tend to look down on me if I keep smiling. Peculiar, isn’t it?”

“There are people like that, but there are just as many people who don’t do that. There should be more people who smile with you when you smile, you know?”

“Looks like I was quite unlucky then. The people around me all look down on me if I smile. Or, they try to take advantage of me.”

“Apparently, there’s a total sum of everything. Just like how if you add all the happy and sad things, it approaches zero, if you’ve only met shitty people until now, I’m sure you’ll only meet good people starting today.”

“Like you?”

“Do I look like a good person?”

“I don’t know. But at least you look better than that person.” Bangjoo pointed at Gyungho sitting down in the distance.

“That, I’m not sure if I can accept as a compliment.”

Maru dusted his pants and stood up.

“You won’t be so rejective when I say hello next time, right?”

“I’ll see how things go.”

Maru held his hand out to Bangjoo who smiled. He shook hands lightly when Bangjoo suddenly tightened his grip. Maru frowned and gripped back but soon gave up. He said as he waved his numb hand,

“Why don’t you go to Taeneung[1] instead of being an actor?”

“I did dream of it before, but that place is really full of physical geniuses. You really need something more than just effort in that place, so I gave up.”

“Well, that’s a place full of people born with both talent and effort. Anyway, let’s eat together sometime. I’ll say this beforehand: I don’t make empty promises.”

Maru asked Bangjoo for his phone number. After hesitating for a moment, Bangjoo told him his number.

He pressed the call button after entering the number. Classical music that he heard somewhere before came out as the ringtone.

“Did your phone come with that ringtone as default?”

“No, I changed it because I like it. It calms me down when I listen to it after working out.”

Maru smiled and hung up.

“Pick up when I call you. We’ll have to make an appointment if we’re going to eat together.”

As he turned around to leave, Bangjoo stopped him.

“Hey.”

“Yes?”

“Do you really not want anything from me?”

“Do I have to want something from you?”

Bangjoo looked at him without a word before shaking his head.

“Good luck with the rest of the shoot. See you tomorrow.”

Maru waved his hand.

* * *

Although he had fallen down with skill, he couldn’t avoid hurting his forearm.

Bangjoo stood up and returned to his original position. He was starting to get tired. It would be good if they got an okay this time.

“Okay, we’re done.”

Bangjoo put down the long spear. This prop was quite heavy as it was made of wood. His palms felt numb after carrying it around all day.

“Good work today, everyone, and we’re taking a break tomorrow. But hold onto your phones. We might reach out if someone’s unable to continue.”

The lead and supporting roles moved according to schedule, but the minor actors didn’t have any of that. If one team lacked a person and needed a substitute, that person would be picked from another team.

The production company was still on the good side so they would get paid as well.

It wasn’t a loss since they would get paid as much as they worked. While they would cover up their faces with a mask, they would appear on screen as well.

Gyungho walked past him. They hadn’t made any eye contact since the drinking session last night. Gyungho would turn his head away like he had been touched by something scalding hot whenever they made eye contact. It would’ve been a pain if he used his age to his advantage and picked a fight, so this was a good thing.

The other members were in a similar situation. Thanks to that, he could have some quiet at the lodging. When he came out of the bathroom after getting washed, he saw a watermelon in the middle of the room. It seemed to be from the production crew.

They weren’t willing to increase the pay, and this was the substitute? Well, at least it was better than nothing.

Bangjoo cut up the watermelon. The team members leaning against the wall were all staying away from him. They sure lived a tiresome life.

He put a slice in his mouth and picked up his phone. He had a call from his sister.

He slid the screen to the left to reject the call. He got a call again 3 seconds later.

He rejected, rejected, and rejected again. After 10 rounds of that, Bangjoo sighed and left the room with his phone.

“What is it?”

-Why not reject again?

“I picked up.”

-Your great sister is calling you. What were you doing, not picking it up immedi…

Bangjoo hung up. He soon got a call again.

-I’ll kill you.

“Tell me what you want.”

-There’s nothing for me to tell you, you should be the one telling me. How’s the shoot? Are they treating you well? Do they treat you harshly?

“Shoots are just shoots.”

-You should obtain your own rights in that place.

“That’s only possible for a successful actor. A minor actor like me has to do what I’m told so that I don’t get fired.”

-Should I go and say a word or two?

“Don’t say something so terrible.”

-How about money?

“The money you gave me last time is still there, untouched. Take it later.”

-Use it.

“I don’t have a use for it. I earn my own money too.”

-Other people like to benefit off of their family if someone’s doing well, so why are you like this?

“Because that’s your money, not mine.”

-Arguing with you seems like a pain.

After grumbling, his sister asked in a small voice,

-You’re not hurt, are you?

“I’m not. Do you think this is a dangerous place? I’m just shooting a movie.”

-Still, though. You should watch out. The news says there are dozens of people getting heat stroke every day.

“Okay, anything else?”

-You know that mom’s birthday is coming up, right? We have to celebrate so don’t forget to come.

“Okay.”

-Work hard. Call me if you find it too hard.

“That’s not happening.”

Bangjoo was about to hang up, but Maru’s face came to his mind.

“Noona.”

-What?

“Do you know Han Maru?”

-I do. He’s an actor.

“Do you know him personally? I mean, does he know that I’m your brother?”

-I haven’t even met him before. Why?

“Because he acts kindly to me.”

His sister fell silent. Bangjoo realized his mistake. He quickly followed up,

“He looks like a good person, but having someone treat me kindly in this field made me suspicious. It’s not like I have a great personality too.”

-Bangjoo, the people working there aren’t all bad people. Not everyone wants to take advantage of you.

“I know. Sorry for saying something weird.”

-If you’re sorry, should we go see a movie together?

“I’ll pretend I didn’t hear that.”

Bangjoo hung up. He then thought back to Maru who gave him a bottle of water during the day, as well as his smile that made him seem like he didn’t have any ulterior motives.

“Is he a decent guy?” he muttered as he returned to the room.

[1] The place where most Olympic athletes are trained. Maru is suggesting to Bangjoo that he should aim to be an Olympic athlete.

After Story 229

-Tuesday will mark the 10th day of the continuous heatwave. Many people are going to the seas due to the heat that is going above 30 degrees…

It was August. There was no rain and only the sunlight was getting stronger. The weather was hot enough to kill, and the situation at the shoot wasn’t that good either. There were many members of the staff who were feeling dizzy, so the shoot was put on hold temporarily at times as well.

“Drink water at all times, and if you feel anything strange, then tell me immediately.”

The assistant director was briefing the production team. The temperature was forecasted to peak at 35 degrees during the day, so it wasn’t surprising that he was concerned.

It wasn’t just the production crew that was losing energy to the scorching heat. The actors had a hard time as well.

“I’ll be right back after I fix the makeup.”

Maru closed his eyes and calmed his breathing. He had to fix his makeup constantly because he was sweating like crazy. Even water-resistant makeup helplessly dripped down in the presence of oil produced by the skin.

“I’ll put this on your neck.”

His manager placed a frozen water bottle against his neck.

“Yeonjin-hyung.”

“What?”

“Any news of rain?”

“Don’t you think any clouds would evaporate in this weather? It’ll be sunny for a while. Motivating, isn’t it?”

Yeonjin cheered him on, telling him to last just a little longer. The frozen water bottle melted down in no time under the heat. Maru drank the water from it and picked up his script. Although he used his body to do acting for the past few months, he had to use his expressions and mouth to do it today.

“Lord big boss, you get on with the work. I’ll go back and rest first.”

He said the line multiple times over and appreciated the line with the heart of ‘Dooho,’ Han Maru, and as a viewer. Dooho was a rough and heroic character. Even then, he was quite humorous. He had to laugh on his way to his death as well. He dusted his body and polished his emotions. He repeated the line numerous times until he felt that he had it just right, feeling like a photographer taking hundreds and thousands of photos of a scene to get the perfect landscape photo.

“If you’re holding a ritual for rain, then let me help out as well.”

He opened his eyes. Geunsoo was in front of him, having changed his clothes to those of lord big boss.

His hair, which was neat other than in action scenes, was messy today. The area around his eyes had turned black and there were clots of blood around his mouth.

“That makeup took you a long time.”

“Don’t even get me started. Additional skin, scratches, then beard patches… this is why I didn’t want to do historical stuff. I wonder why I’m doing it.” Geunsoo smiled.

“I’m refreshed because today will be my last day of the shoot.”

“Where are you going without me?”

“I was listening to the news this morning, and apparently, everyone is going to the seas. I’ll join them.”

“You have it good. I want to die and go to the sea too.”

“You can’t do that when you’re the main character. If you’re so envious, why not play a supporting role instead?”

“I really should.”

Geunsoo twisted his waist. He seemed to be feeling sore after sitting down for so long.

“Should we go over the lines together?” Geunsoo said, opening the script.

Geunsoo said his lines plainly without adding emotions. Despite that, his words contained power. He had nearly perfectly understood the lord big boss character. The more they exchanged lines, the more Maru could feel the pressure and authority of a ruler from him. He also followed along with Geunsoo’s format and said his lines lightly. The two continued, just like they were practicing before an action scene.

“I feel good today,” Geunsoo said. “I was going to buy you food if the shoot ends early to celebrate you finishing up the shoot, but I think I’ll be held up here until late into the night.”

“We can eat together anytime. Also, senior, I think they’re looking for you,” Maru said as he looked at director Nam approaching.

“Looks like they’re starting. Is scene 30 starting around sunset?”

“Yes.”

“And there are a few more cuts before that?”

“I think I’ll shoot a couple scenes on the horse too. In about an hour or two.”

“It’s hot, so wait at the hotel. Don’t sweat for nothing.”

“I won't be here tomorrow, so I might as well embrace the heat today.”

“You have quite the talent in teasing people, you know that?”

Geunsoo turned around, saying that they should meet again in the evening. He lightly climbed onto the horse that was waiting. As they refused to use any mockup horses, the main characters were now able to climb onto a horse without help. Although there were a few precarious incidents where they fell off, none of them were injured seriously. Everyone went about the shoot accepting that there was the risk of getting hurt.

Maru hoped that the final product would be just as good as the big resolutions everyone was making.

When the actors snapped the reins, the horses all stopped at once. Geunsoo, who was watching the vast expanse in front of him with a grave expression, lowered his posture again.

“Cut, we’ll do that again.”

It looked good in Maru’s eyes, but it seemed that director Nam wasn’t satisfied with it.

The shoot was repeated multiple times. Not to mention people, even the horses were suffering under the heat as the shoot went on.

Maru remembered what director Nam said on the day of the read-through: we’ll make the most out of the horses on the day we rent them.

“Okay.”

The actors came down from the horses. Geunsoo sat down on a nearby chair with an exhausted expression.

“See if my tailbone isn’t broken.”

“It’s perfectly intact.”

Maru handed a portable electric fan to Geunsoo.

“I’ll be right back as well.”

“Watch out for Browny. I don’t know if it’s the heat, but he’s much more sensitive than yesterday. He shakes like crazy as if he wants to kill the person on his back, so I was really having a hard time.”

That was the horse that Geunsoo was riding on. He had a lot of appearances as lord big boss’ horse in the movie that it was to the point that it was more than most minor characters. As it had fur that was a much thicker brown than most other horses, the actors called him ‘Browny.’

Although the trainer introduced him as ‘Dawnbreaker,’ the name Browny stuck with the actors.

“Browny. I heard you were quite picky today,” Maru said as he stroked the horse on the underside of its chin, neck, and back, all the way to the saddle.

Browny was a professional horse that had appeared on many shooting sets. As such, he deserved great treatment. Maru fed it plenty of water and food and communed with him before getting on. The horse that was rolling his eyes everywhere neighed slightly. Rather than out of annoyance, it seemed to be a sign of pleasure. Maru tapped him on the neck and lightly tapped him on the waist with his feet in the stirrup.

He walked around the set once with the horse’s trainer.

“This one likes you quite a lot, Mr. Han.”

“I fawned over him a lot, you see, so that he doesn’t throw me off. Browny, isn’t that right?” Maru said as he patted the horse on the neck.

“Everyone calls him Browny now, so maybe I should rename him. At this point, he won’t listen if I call him Dawnbreaker.”

“I inadvertently ended up contributing to his name changing, huh? Still, it’s good that he seems to like it.”

They stayed under the shade until they started the shoot. He combed the horse alongside the trainer. The horse seemed to have calmed down a little as well, from being sensitive like Geunsoo said, as his steps were pretty light.

“Are you really okay with that?”

“Catch me if you feel like I’m going to be thrown off,” Maru said as he got the bow.

Before the start of the shoot, the director suggested to him that they should use a stuntman for this. He said that it was better to have a professional actor do this because it was a dangerous scene. As dangerous as it was, it was also a scene that Maru wanted to do.

Although he had plenty of knowledge regarding horse riding in his head, he didn’t know whether his body would be able to keep up. He was intending to give up if he felt like he couldn’t do it after getting on the horse. Fortunately, however, he got used to it pretty soon.

At one point in time, he had even done a scene where he was clinging onto a horse. When he regained his skill, firing an arrow on horseback became doable.

He tensed his thighs moderately. If he put too much strength in his legs in fear, he would only be shaken off. He let his body sync with the rhythm that the horse’s movement made. When he had the confidence that he could let go of the reins, he picked up the bow and arrow. He pulled the arrow back on top of the galloping horse and fired it toward an invisible enemy.

The arrow flew to a place much farther than the place he had expected. If this was an archery competition, he would score zero.

Fortunately, this was a movie set and there was no target.

He returned to the camera along with the horse that had become warmer. Director Nam stood up in front of the monitor and came over.

“How are you so good?”

“It’s thanks to Browny. He was being good today.”

“Geunsoo was complaining about back pains, you know?”

“Maybe he dislikes people who are too good-looking.”

“Is that why he likes me too?”

Maru got off the horse while exchanging jokes with director Nam. He got an okay in one go.

He walked over to the monitor and had a look at the footage they just shot. The camera angle was nigh artistic, splitting the earth and sky in half. Even if there was no actor on the back of the horse, it would’ve been a great picture.

“I think I didn’t have to act all that out.”

“You did well though.”

Maru returned to the place where Geunsoo was resting. He didn’t realize when he was getting down from the horse, but the insides of his thighs were hurting. It seemed that the cotton clothes had scraped against his body because of the sweat.

“That ended early.”

Maru received the portable electric fan back.

“Browny was pretty docile.”

“Maybe he hates just me.”

“When’s your next shoot?”

“I’m waiting for now. Looking at the time, I think they’re going to shoot your death scene immediately.”

“I should die quickly and go get a good cold shower.”

Geunsoo lowered his voice and spoke,

“Dooho, I will not let you die.”

Geunsoo was using his acting skills for something useless. Maru frowned and spoke.

“Lord big boss, I must die and embrace the AC.”

“Dooho. Have you forgotten that we promised to die at the same time on the same day!”

“I did forget.”

Maru smiled and leaned back in the chair. He could hear actors shouting in the distance. They were probably shooting a large-scale battle scene with the horses.

If the scenes including the main actors were inserted in that cut, it would complete a hair-raising fighting scene.

As the rental fee of the horses topped the human resources fees, the shoot continued without rest.

Today, even the director ate all his meals at the shooting location. The timeline was just that tight.

The long daylight was subsiding and the generator cars started working. They moved inside the traditional village where the lighting was all set up.

There was hay on the ground and a map on top of the wooden table. Finding a makeshift bed, Geunsoo lay down. Breathing slowly, Geunsoo seemed to have finished his preparations to become lord big boss.

Maru looked around. After having his last conversation with lord big boss, Dooho would run to his death. Sacrificing his own life for the sake of the person he served was a cliché that movies like this all had. The important thing was how to express it so that it didn’t look out of fashion or too childish.

Maru looked at the script before the shoot. Geunsoo, who was laying down next to him, sat up.

“Dooho.”

His words didn’t contain any playfulness. Maru also said his line.

“Yes, lord.”

“You must not die.”

“But of course. Who am I? I survived against dozens of those Baekje lots. I have a thicker life than you do, so don’t worry.”

“Then why do I feel like you are lying to me?”

“You must be tired. Get some sleep. We should talk later.”

* * *

“Dooho.”

Nam Goonghun looked at the two actors under the faint lighting. Geunsoo was exhausted and Maru was replying cheerfully. However, the shade was on Maru’s face.

They adjusted the lighting multiple times just for this. The contrast in lighting emphasized the acting a lot more.

“Yes, lord.”

“I shall meet Chundong right now.”

“Leave it for tomorrow. You should rest fer the day.”

Maru, Dooho, said as he lowered his head. The minute change in tone was very good. It was foreshadowing the unfortunate event that was coming up.

After Story 230

“No, I shall see him today. I have to get word from him. Only then will there be a possibility of winning for us.”

Geunsoo stood up. He let out a soft sigh with his pale lips. His body had deteriorated, but his eyes were full of vitality. The biggest charm of the actor known as Hong Geunsoo was probably those eyes. The windows to emotions and impressions were stronger than a hundred words.

His body may have broken down a lot, but his eyes had not changed from before. Geunsoo expressed too well what kind of character lord big boss was.

“If ye go now, he’ll happily slash yer neck,” Maru said.

Goonghun paid attention to Maru’s lips. Fury, forfeit, and an unwilling smile all crossed each other in a complicated fashion.

If lord big boss was a character that spoke with his eyes, Dooho was someone who used his mouth to genuinely portray everything. He was unable to hide what he was thinking on the inside; everything showed up on his lips. Maru also understood the character Dooho very deeply.

“If I die, there are many things to benefit from. My life is worth that much. At least, that man will take the Red Tiger Troops under his wing. Bide your time under him. Going against the heavens is something that can happen anytime as long as the one that harbors the cause is alive.”

“Don’t ye give me that nonsense!”

Maru stood up and swung his arm. The map on top of the table as well as the wooden pieces indicating the important figures on it scattered into the air.

Geunsoo looked at the map falling to the ground with bitter eyes.

“The reason I said I’m willing to go through hell’n back is because it’s you. The reason I said I can happily offer up my life is cuz you are behind me.”

“Dooho.”

“Yeah, sure. Yer smart, lord, so that must be the right answer. But I can’t follow you this time.”

“Only if I die will the Red Tiger Troops survive. No, I am not dying. You all will succeed my will, so that is not death. A man is not made of flesh and blood. He is made of his will and the cause to…”

“It’s over when people die! I may be a goddamn fool, but I still know that much!”

“There are times when you must not cling onto life, but die for the sake of the greater cause, nay, the will of the people. I am sure you know what this means since you’ve been by my side for the longest time.”

Maru stood up from his seat. There was a rope in his hands.

“Dooho.” Geunsoo frowned. Fury radiated from his eyes.

“I’m gonna be rude fer a while, so bear with me.”

Maru tied Geunsoo’s arms with the rope. Geunsoo struggled with his whole body, but it was of no use as his body was not in great shape.

Goonghun looked at Geunsoo who shouted while glaring at Dooho. He struggled hard with his teeth clenched. When he wrote this scene, he decided to let the actors decide how it should go. He didn’t have the confidence to write better lines than the improvisations that two actors at the peak of their emotions would say. He did make guidelines since he had to write the script, but he also told them during the rehearsal that they shouldn’t focus on the lines too much.

The result was shown right in front of his eyes. Geunsoo and Maru were showing exceptional emotions and saying lines suitable for the historical background and the situation at hand.

“Please hold on fer a while. Once the sun rises, my men will find you.”

“Dooho, Dooho!”

Geunsoo twisted his body with his arms and legs tied. Maru used both of his arms to suppress Geunsoo rampaging on the small makeshift bed.

“Ye told me before, eh? People are not made of flesh and blood. Yer right about that. They’re made of something much more important than lumps of blood and flesh.”

Maru slowly took off his clothes. Instead of tight-fitting clothes, he put on loose-fitting clothes that were easier to move in.

Goonghun looked at Geunsoo’s expression. His rage was gradually turning into intense sadness. The eyes that were aglare with fury had already turned red.

Maru put on the belt. His outfit was of the same style as lord big boss.

“No, you can’t do this, Dooho.”

After all the emotions left him, the only thing remaining behind was a plea. Geunsoo tearfully begged Maru to stop. He begged him to come back.

* * *

God definitely exists. He didn’t know whether the one he saw was the sole God or one of many, but it was the definite truth that god exists.

“Don’t do this to me, Dooho.”

Maru looked at Geunsoo who was crying right in front of him. That person must be looked after by the god of acting. How else would it be possible to act like that?

The moment Dooho, someone who was basically his brother at this point, said that he was going to die in his stead, lord big boss cried in grief when he had never cried before.

Hong Geunsoo had disappeared, and the only one left was lord big boss. The eyes that contained fury sank into sadness after foreseeing the death of his brother. There was no loud voice that commanded his soldiers, only the desperate pleading of a weak man.

Just looking at him made something warm rise up in his chest. His eyes automatically felt hot. Geunsoo’s acting was so good that it influenced the emotions of the actors around him.

Maru felt like he was helplessly watching a typhoon approach him. A pathetic man could only try to run away, despite being incomparably slower, only to get swallowed up in the storm. Wave after wave of emotions overwhelmed him. That acting was really ruthless.

If he were to react moderately, it would look like a pathetic reaction. He could imagine the director shouting cut in dissatisfaction.

He was really stuck in a tight spot. The person that was acting in front of him was practically a monster, a huge monster who poured out emotion after emotion. It was a difficult task to counteract that to create a suitable scene.

It was even harder because the person looked like a real-life figure, not an imaginary figure created by a script.

He felt like no matter what he did, his actions would look dim in comparison to Geunsoo who was in front of him, just like how lies would be totally useless in front of the truth. He even felt quite tragic as an actor.

He had lived an incomparably long life that couldn't be described in words or written in the form of a book. While he had never become conceited, he never thought that he was bad at acting.

However, he felt slightly sad when he looked at Geunsoo pouring out emotions in the outfit of lord big boss.

So that is the difference in talent that no amount of time could make up for — this filled his mind.

Just like how it was difficult to win against a boxer of a different weight class no matter how one polished their techniques, Geunsoo possessed something that couldn’t be obtained by time. As a person, he felt jealous. Any actor looking at Geunsoo right now would be impressed, but at the same time, regretful.

Knowing it is not as good as loving it; loving it is not as good as delighting in it. People of the modern day interpreted ‘knowing it’ as ‘a genius’ and took Confucious’ words as a method to win against a genius.

Whenever he listened to those words that Confucious said, he asked himself: then how am I to win against a genius who delights in it?

“That man does not know how ye look, lord. There was never a wanted portrait of you, so not many people know how ye look either. Thank god for that.”

“I must be the one to die! I must be the one to go!”

Geunsoo’s eyes became bloodshot. The storm of emotions once again overwhelmed Maru’s body. It would be much easier to ride on the wave and say his lines according to Geunsoo’s emotions. That should be sufficient for the movie as well.

He had that urge several times. He whispered to himself that it would be much easier to just let his body go rather than going against it and being overwhelmed by a sense of shame; that he should not go against the roaring genius in front of him and take it easy.

“Lord, take yer time. I’ll be going ahead.”

“No, you can’t do this. Dooho!”

Maru looked straight at Geunsoo who cried in desperation. A little hummingbird could not walk at the same pace as a stork; trying to do so would only result in their legs ripping. No matter how hard he tried and endured the pain, the distance between him and a genius would continue to widen.

Maru bowed to Geunsoo. It must be hard to catch up. It must look insufficient. Despite that, his method was to not stop.

That was the tenacity and persistence that Maru had obtained throughout his numerous lives, as well as his attitude toward life.

Sure, the hummingbird might never catch up to the stork. The stork might get far ahead while he was on the ground gasping for breath, but Maru was too used to facing unreasonable situations like that. So, he decided to take one more step in the time he had to grumble.

The gap would probably never shorten. He would probably live his whole life looking at a wall he could not surpass, a back he could not catch up to.

However, on the day all journeys come to an end, the hummingbird would rest with a smile. If lucky, he might get to touch the back of the genius too.

“Don’t regret. Don’t think that this is yer fault. This is strictly my will. Today’s the first day this fool is going against ya, so ye should smile.”

He once again said goodbye to Geunsoo, who hoarsely responded in a groan, and turned around. There was no intense action in this scene, but his legs were shaking. It was really exhausting to keep up with emotions, not movements.

Maru turned around to look at Geunsoo, with the emotions of Dooho. The picture he had in his head beforehand was a Dooho who left indifferently after saying goodbye. However, the air in the set and the emotions that Geunsoo transmitted to him caused a swirl of emotions inside him.

He frowned and put on an expression that looked as though he was about to cry. He had already cried a little on the inside. He felt like it would be satisfactory to end it just like this, but he decided to take one step further.

He barely managed to order his facial muscles that were about to go out of control, to smile.

He didn’t know what kind of expression he was making right now. However, he could say with confidence that this was his best.

He did not get swayed by Geunsoo’s acting and put a spoonful of his own emotions on top of it to express what was his.

He clawed together his emotions and turned around. Geunsoo’s groaning voice climbed up his feet.

He started walking with difficulty and went outside. He could see the expressions of the staff in front of him. They were all looking at him in a daze. Although he was outside the camera frame now, he couldn’t wrap up his emotions.

Maru sat on the ground and rubbed his face dryly. Geunsoo was still acting.

After this master shot, they would divide up the cuts and shoot the same scene again. He had to look back at the acting he just did and prepare.

A bottle of water appeared in front of him. It was Yeonjin. He had his thumbs up and looked all excited with his mouth still shut.

Only after seeing his manager was Maru relieved. At least, it seemed he didn’t do terribly.

“Okay,” director Nam said in a very small voice.

The shooting location, which would usually become noisy in no time, was still quiet.

Only after someone’s sigh was heard did director Nam clap loudly.

“This is it, this… is it. This is good.”

Maru tilted his head back and let out the breath he was holding back. The minute trembling that started from his hand climbed up all the way to his chin.

He quickly opened the bottle of water to drink. His head felt numb. His scalding-hot body cooled down in no time.

“Hyung, was I okay?” he asked Yeonjin.

“You should have a look at it later. It’s not just okay, it was really…”

Yeonjin opened and closed his mouth for a while but just eventually told him to watch it himself.

Maru stood up and went to the monitor. The scripter that always talked to him first was staring at him.

“What is it?”

“I knew you were good, but you feel different today. It was good, really good.”

Geunsoo, who had been laying down, also stood in front of the monitor. Geunsoo looked at him without a word before raising his thumb up with a smile.

“Well, have a look first. But are you two sure you can pull this off again?”

The director smiled and played back the video. Maru looked at the whole thing from beginning to end without taking his eyes off.

The moment the screen stopped, he could say with a smile.

“It’s good.”

No other words were necessary to describe that acting.

After Story 231

The first thing he thought was that it was unfair. He watched with tension, but every once in a while, his body would cool down while watching the two people who were in a totally different league. It even felt aggravating as though he just woke up from a wonderful dream.

“They’re different alright,” said someone from his team.

He could smell something stinky that he couldn’t smell until just moments before. Gyungho looked at himself and his team that were drenched in sweat. Why were they in such different situations despite being in the same shooting location? The stink from his body felt disgusting.

He went to the bathroom to wash his hands and face.

His shoot for the day had ended a long time ago. He was going back to the residence when he caught sight of Han Maru and Hong Geunsoo. They seemed to be shooting a serious scene as even the director was watching with a grave face. He watched while wondering what the scene was about. Like that, he ended up watching for ten-something minutes in a daze.

This was the first time he felt so bad after seeing someone else’s acting. He would’ve felt better if he went back to the residence.

Gyungho rinsed his mouth with some tap water. Watching Han Maru’s acting reminded him of their drinking session a few days ago. He recalled how he missed an opportunity right in front of his eyes. If he wasn’t disappointed by the fact that the director was a student back then and agreed to join… if at least he said that they should talk about it after meeting up…

“I’m unlucky and unskilled.”

Gyungho rubbed the moisture on his hands on his clothes. It was impossible to win against someone with talent or someone with luck. Han Maru probably had both. He probably started off in a place that he would never be able to reach even if he put in a hundred days of effort.

It was such a harsh life. While someone managed to win lead roles and supporting roles thanks to great innate talent, someone else had to roll in the dirt with stinky clothes because they didn’t possess anything. The lottery was probably the only exit.

“He could’ve mentioned that first, petty prick.”

Maru’s figure as he said goodbye kept coming to his head. That guy didn’t mention the important details on purpose, just to toy with all of them. He hid the fact that he was going to be in the film and just put the student director forward.

Who would want to join something that a student director is working on? Not to mention, that director wasn’t even a theater major. It was natural to refuse. Han Maru must have aimed for that as well.

He must have been laughing on the inside. He might have clicked his tongue seeing Gyungho kick away that opportunity.

In that sense, Ahn Bangjoo was one lucky bastard. He was the only one that accepted the casting when everyone else refused.

A lucky man would find money even if they fall backward. Ahn Bangjoo was exactly like that.

He spat on the ground while thinking about the two people he didn’t want to see. Just then, a door in the bathroom opened. It was Han Maru with a haggard face.

“It’s been a while.”

Maru greeted first. Gyungho nodded bitterly. There was not a shred of good feelings for Maru in him anymore, nor was he shameless enough to greet back with a smile.

Maru looked at the mirror while washing his hands. The underside of his eyes was trembling slightly. Seeing that, he thought back to Han Maru and Hong Geunsoo’s act from just a while ago. The acting was intense and he felt like he would never be able to do something like that.

That act of passion was displayed by two lucky men with acting talent. This man in front of him probably didn’t know the hardships of ordinary people. Just like how winged creatures would fly into the skies with only a few practice flaps of their wings, that guy must have obtained what ordinary people would never be able to obtain with minimal effort.

Your acting is thanks to your innate talent – if he said something like this, then that guy would probably retort that effort that overcomes talent is more important than talent itself.

Just thinking about it made him retch. That man’s thought process should be structured completely differently. Just like how a creature with wings would never be able to understand the pains of one without.

“If there’s anything you want to say, then say it,” Maru said as he shook the water off his hands.

Only then did Gyungho realize that he was staring holes at Maru. He was slightly flustered, but he calmed down soon. It wasn’t like he had sinned, so there was no need to avoid him.

“I was just feeling envious,” Gyungho said as he stood next to Maru. He had washed his hands already, but he put his hand under running water again.

“You said something similar when we were drinking last time,” Maru said with a smile.

“Well, take it as me venting my frustration as someone who doesn’t own anything. I saw your acting just now. It gave me the chills. What I saw was messy with dozens of staff members and various equipment everywhere, but I could only see the two of you acting. I was surprised. So that’s what acting is; so that’s how far you can go; stars are really born stars.”

Gyungho said all that calmly before shaking his hands dry. A drop of water fell down from the faucet he just shut off.

“So I couldn’t help but be envious. If I had such talent, no, if I had a shred of that talent, then how different would things be? Don’t you think I would’ve gotten a supporting character role at least? I would’ve gotten it even with a fraction of your talent. The important thing these days is to be born with talent. I mean, you know what they say. DNA is everything.”

The more he spoke, the more sarcastic his tone became. He knew that he didn’t need to respond emotionally, but his mouth went off on its own when he saw Maru in front of him. Perhaps it was out of disappointment. Maybe he would’ve acted differently if Maru suggested to him that they should work together on the film.

“Do I have great talent in your eyes, Mr. Gyungho?”

“Why do you say that? You don’t like the word talent?”

Maru shook his head.

“No, I was just grateful that you saw me that way. There’s no need to feel bad when someone’s complimenting you, is there?”

“It’s not really a compliment. It’s not the result of effort but a product of pure coincidence. You can’t really call it a compliment when it’s something natural for them.”

“I guess that’s one way of looking at it.”

Maru responded leisurely. Gyungho was dissatisfied with that. He couldn’t help but smile in ridicule when he saw Maru acting all high and lofty, acting like he didn’t need to respond to someone like him.

“Honestly, you have to admit it too, don’t you? You know how important talent is in arts and athletics.”

“Of course.”

“We live in an era where even studying, which was thought to be a result of effort, is largely determined by genes, so it naturally applies to acting as well. I’m really envious that you were born with that talent. Having good parents sure is good.”

“You really seem to place a lot of importance on talent.”

“Because there’s living proof in front of me. Actor Hong Geunsoo and you. I’m sure the two of you have put in a lot of effort, but would it have been possible to display an act like that without talent?”

Maru pulled out a paper towel and wiped his hand. When the wet paper towel was tossed into the trash, Maru spoke,

“I can tell what you’re thinking. I’m like that too. The difference in talent, innate talent, is important. I don’t plan to deny that. It’s not something I can deny either.” Maru looked at his hands before continuing, “That person has a higher talent than me, more luck than me – I think about this many times a day too. If I look around during the shoot, I can see dozens of people who are more talented than me. But then again, it makes me think – so what?”

Maru took off the costume he was wearing on top of his clothes. He folded the clothes and continued in a calm voice,

“It’s something I already started. I wanted to become an actor, and I tried my best to become one. I don’t know if I’m going in the right direction, but what I can say for sure is that I’m now far from the starting point. There is no going back. If I were to realize that I’m going in the wrong direction, then I shouldn’t be going back but starting anew at that spot.”

Maru took a step closer to him. Gyungho subconsciously took a step back.

“What is it that you want to do, Mr. Gyungho? If what you want is to stand still and grab anyone passing by and lament about your situation, then, sure, do just that. There’s no problem if you gain satisfaction from doing it and enjoy your life that way.”

Gyungho looked at Maru’s nose with his lips firmly sealed. The eyes he had no problems looking at felt so burdensome right now.

“If not, then…” Maru did not finish those words off and smiled, “Do your best, whether it’s acting or whatever else.”

Maru turned around and left the bathroom.

Gyungho told him to wait and grabbed him. He wanted to listen to what he had to say until the end. Although he found it unpleasant to listen to, he felt like something would change if he could listen to it until the end.

“Anything you want?”

“If not then – what were you going to say after that?”

“Oh, that? It’s nothing much, so don’t mind.”

“Say it. I’ll be the judge of whether it’s nothing much or not.”

However, Maru did not say anything. Gyungho had a bad omen like the time he missed an opportunity right in front of his eyes. He felt like something would change inside him if he realized the true intentions of what Maru was going to say.

The man in front of him possessed great talent. He must look at the world with a different pair of eyes than ordinary people. Any advice from someone like him would definitely be helpful.

“Mr. Maru.”

When Gyungho was about to take a step closer, Maru put his hand in front of him. It was a gesture telling him to not come any closer or to talk to him.

“I’m sure you have your own answer, Mr. Gyungho. I don’t know what that is, but don’t you think you will gain something from it if you put in a lot of effort?”

“There are things you can’t obtain with just effort.”

“If that’s how you think, then I can’t help that. What am I supposed to say in response to something that you’re saying you can’t do?”

“No, what I meant to say is…”

He tried to speak again in haste, but Maru just smiled and left the bathroom.

Mr. Maru, Mr. Maru — he called him several times, but Maru did not turn around.

The people nearby started looking at him. Gyungho almost sprinted to catch up to Maru.

“If what I said in the bathroom displeased you, then I’ll apologize. I said it because things just didn’t work out for me. I had no intention of blaming you. I was just frustrated. Actors younger than me are going past me, while I am on the same spot.”

Maru did not slow down. Gyungho hurriedly continued,

“I’m sure you understand it too. You must know how hasty people can get if they lack something. They struggle in order to get even something small. If my words made you feel unpleasant, then I’ll apologize again. So can you please just tell me what you were…”

“Mr. Gyungho.”

Maru stopped. Gyungho swallowed a breath in joy and looked at Maru. His eyes were smiling, but the eyes within were frosty.

“I’ll cheer for you wherever I am. I’m sure you’ll do well in whatever you do. That’s all I have to say to you.”

Maru reached his hand out. Gyungho grabbed that hand, feeling empty. After the handshake, he watched Maru in a daze as he walked away.

Maru stopped and turned around,

“If you believe that talent decides everything, then you don’t have to do anything. You just have to live the way you want and become successful if you find a type of work that you have talent in. But does the world really work like that? I’m going to put in the effort today and even tomorrow. Oh, I guess you might think that even putting in effort requires talent. It might be true too. But does it change anything even if you know the truth?”

Maru looked at him quietly for a while before reaching his hand out. Gyungho didn’t know what that meant and stared back when Maru told him to give him his phone. He quickly handed over his phone.

“Try calling that number. You’ll be able to participate in the new actor audition carried out by JA.”

“R-really?”

“If you don’t believe me, then you can just erase that number.”

“No! I believe you. Thank you so much. Mr. Maru. Thank you so much.”

Gyungho was touched as he looked at that number. Any negative opinions he had about Maru disappeared in an instant. An audition for JA? Even top-tier acting schools only told this number to a handful of their students.

“No, don’t thank me. You won’t be thanking me.”

He raised his head at Maru’s voice. Maru had turned around and was walking away.

He thought about the words Maru left behind. I won’t be thanking him? — after a moment though, he looked at the number with a joyful smile.

An opportunity had finally come to him. The second act of his life was going to start now. Gyungho rushed to the residence while hugging his phone like it was his treasure.

After Story 232

“Thank you for your work,” Bangjoo said as he took off his headband.

He slapped away the bug flying around his eyes and left the set. He couldn’t remember the number of mosquitoes he ate during the night shoot. He ate so many when he was just a minor actor who just had to shout, so the supporting actors who had lines must have eaten dozens.

“Good work.”

He met Maru on his way to the residence. He was wearing a short-sleeved shirt instead of the costume for the shoot.

“I’m here to say goodbye on my way home. I’m done with my shoot.”

“I did hear that you had your last shoot. I didn’t see it though, because I was resting.”

Bangjoo thought about the conversation his team had and spoke,

“How’s working with director Kwon? Doable?”

“I had confidence in my motor skills, but it was really hard to move as the director asked me to. I still have a long way to go until I get used to them.”

“Try your best. It looks like director Kwon seems to like you as well.”

Bangjoo nodded before asking. “I heard from the director. You were the one who recommended me, right?”

“Yes.”

“Why did you do that?”

“The director said before the shoot that he wants to raise some action actors, but there isn’t anyone who wants to do it or is good. That’s why I introduced you to him. It’s natural to place the necessary people in the right places. Above all, the overall quality of the movie would increase if you can help director Kwon out by his side, so it would be a win-win for both sides. Right?”

Place the necessary people in the right place, he said. Bangjoo accepted it, but on the other hand, he felt suspicious. He couldn’t accept other people’s goodwill for what it was.

“Are you displeased that I referred you to director Kwon without even asking for your opinion?”

“No, it’s not that. It’s something I always wanted to do, and I’m grateful that you referred me to him. I just want to know why you did such a thing without any compensation.”

Maru smiled faintly. “It seems you’ve been hurt by a lot of people.”

Bangjoo became quiet at the direct words. He couldn’t deny that.

He was proud of his sister. Not to mention the movie industry, his sister was also an actress loved by many in TV dramas.

He liked talking about his sister when he was young. He would tell his friends whenever his sister was on TV — my sister will be on the drama tonight; she’s really good at acting, and you should watch it.

He thought that it would be great if more people watched her and liked her. It was the thoughts of an immature boy. He grew up watching his sister’s acting at the house, so it was only natural that he wanted to do acting in the future.

There was someone who set fire to his wishes before he graduated primary school. The man who came to visit him on his way home from school told him that he was looking for a talented child actor and asked if he wished to do it.

What would a young child know? He liked it. He rushed to his mother after taking the paper business card that he had received for the first time in his life. He nagged his hesitant mother to set up the meeting. When they met the man at the café, the man said this before he even said his greetings:

It seems Miss Ahn Joohyun isn’t coming?

That was when he first realized that the young boy known as Ahn Bangjoo, whose dream was to become a scientist, then a fireman, and then an actor, was merely a bridge for other people to meet his sister.

He experienced similar events many times until he graduated high school. The moment people found out that his sister was Ahn Joohyun, people started looking at him differently. The people in front of him did not look at Ahn Bangjoo, but at his sister, who they couldn’t even catch the shadow of.

After primary school, he had never revealed that his sister was Ahn Joohyun. Despite that, people still found out one way or the other.

What those people demanded from him was just one thing. No, there were multiple requests, but they all came down to one thing: to let them meet his sister.

After so many of such events, he got used to them and reached a point where he no longer became angry at those gazes and that treatment. Although he found the shadow of his sister resentful when he went to audition for an acting agency, he still understood that. After all, he was able to smile and had a plentiful life thanks to her. He thought that it was up to him to remove the shadow of his sister that was cast over him and kept putting in the effort.

Then, an accident happened when he was least expecting it. It was during the winter he graduated high school. He went to his sister’s house, who was living by herself in Seoul. Although he was originally going to go with his mother, he ended up arriving first due to some circumstances.

The moment he got out of the elevator, he made eye contact with a woman standing on his left. The woman, wearing a hat, was visibly flustered. He asked immediately if anything was up. The woman did not say anything for a while and hesitated before putting her hand out. She gave him a bottle, which seemed to be filled with orange juice.

“You are Joohyun-unni’s brother, right?”

There was no way a fan who came all the way to her house would accept his words if he denied it. Bangjoo sighed and nodded.

“I made this myself. Please tell her that I’m rooting for her.”

“Okay, I will relay that to her.”

“Please have it with your sister.”

His sister had moved houses multiple times to get away from such extreme fans. For some strange reason, she had a lot more female stalkers than men that came all the way to her house, confessing their love for her.

He opened the door and went inside. He put down the luggage and flipped over a cup on the table. He then poured the drink he received from the fan in the cup. She did tell him to have it with his sister, so she shouldn’t be angry that he was drinking some.

The moment he drank from the cup, a foul stench rose up immediately. He found it strange and immediately went to the sink to spit it out, but the smell of chemicals lingered around his mouth.

His uvula felt extremely prickly. When he explained the circumstances to his mother who came later, she freaked out and immediately took him to a hospital. At the hospital, he had his stomach rinsed and got a checkup. Thankfully, there was no big problem.

The incident was resolved in an extremely short time and very quietly. The woman who gave him that chemical was a fan of a male idol and confessed that she committed the crime because she was angry that the guy she was stanning had a romantic scandal with Joohyun.

The agency suppressed the news since it involved the family member of one of their actors, so there weren’t many articles written about it.

Bangjoo said that he was okay to his sister who apologized to him in tears. However, he couldn’t help but start treating other people differently since then. He turned defensive and wary. He smiled less often and suspected others more often. The influence that one criminal had on him was teeth-gnashingly deep.

Still, he became quite a bit better after serving in the military. He had built some form of immunity after spending many hours with all sorts of weirdos from all over the country.

Bangjoo looked at Maru in front of him. When Maru said that Bangjoo must’ve been hurt by other people, he couldn’t help but remember the drink incident, as well as that chemical taste, that he tried his best to forget until now.

“Is there anyone who doesn’t get hurt by other people?”

“You’re right. They say you have to deal with people your whole life. I don’t plan to ask you to open your heart and start trusting people. If you don’t like how close I am to you, then I will step back any time. So please act as you please. I’ll conform to however you act.”

Bangjoo scratched the back of his head. This man in front of him had given him two great opportunities. He couldn't believe that he acted so pickily towards someone he should be thanking.

He knew that in his head, but his heart shriveled up instead. He found it unfortunate that he couldn’t put his hand out so willingly.

“Mr. Bangjoo.”

“Yes.”

“I like the actor known as Ahn Bangjoo. I like your genuine attitude towards acting, and I liked how you chose what you wanted to work on depending on the contents of the work rather than the authority of the director. That’s the sole reason I’m treating you with goodwill. To be more honest, I think that the price-to-performance ratio of the person known as Ahn Bangjoo in terms of acting is really good. That’s why I’m pushing you to work so that you don’t stray off to another path, even if it means making you feel indebted about receiving an opportunity.”

“Is that really it?”

“If you need any other reason to feel at ease, please tell me. I’ll give you any reason you want.”

He smiled when he looked at Maru smile so nonchalantly. It was strange. The fact that he couldn’t tell what this man in front of him was thinking made him feel more relaxed instead.

The people that talked to him ultimately showed their motives, even if they were implicit at first.

However, Maru was different. It wouldn’t be strange even if he displayed his ulterior motives at this point, but there was none of that. He truly looked like he was helping out just because he wanted to, as though they were long-time friends.

Bangjoo said something that he never said ever since high school,

“Do you know that my sister is Ahn Joohyun? The actress Ahn Joohyun, I mean.”

“Yes, I do.”

Maru admitted it so easily. Bangjoo thought that it wasn’t surprising, but he still felt rather disappointed.

“Do you want to contact her?”

“You mean senior Ahn Joohyun?”

“Yes.”

“I’m not sure.”

“If you need to, then tell me. Like you said, I’m indebted to you, so I should give something back.”

“I don’t want to be compensated with merely something like that.”

Merely something like that – these were words that he found rather new. Everyone else that talked to him wished to talk to his sister.

“Rather than something like that, give me something else. You know we’ll be working together in the next film, right? I guess I want you to do your best there.”

“That’s enough?”

His voice was losing power. His suspicion was dying down as well. Bangjoo found himself smiling comfortably.

“If you want to give me something more, then you can pay for the food. The people I’m shooting with have great appetites. You eat a lot too, don’t you?”

“Without a doubt.”

“Then you should pay for the food. That is multiple times better than having a call with senior Ahn Joohyun.”

“Don’t you want to meet her?”

“I do, sure. But is it really necessary to go through you? Mr. Bangjoo. I want to talk to the actor Ahn Bangjoo, not senior Ahn Joohyun.”

“If you say so.”

Maru came closer. He entered his comfort zone, but he didn’t feel displeased at all.

“Why don’t we clear up our addresses the next time we meet? I’m old-fashioned and can’t use polite speech to people younger than me that well,” Maru said as he reached his hand out.

“I’ll call you hyung the next time I see you.”

“That sounds good. Be careful with the rest of the shoot. It’d be terrible if you got hurt when we have to work together immediately in the next film. Even if director Kwon doesn’t like it, make sure to watch out for yourself.”

“I can’t do that.”

Maru smiled and let go of his hand.

“Good luck with the shoot.”

“Thank you. Good work with the shoot, have a safe trip home.”

Bangjoo lowered his head at Maru who became distant.

He felt refreshed. At the same time, the lingering chemical taste in his mouth disappeared. What remained was the sense of sourness from the exhaustion.

He looked down at his hand that shook hands with Maru. It had been a long time since he found the warmth of someone other than a member of his family or his friends nice.

“Oh, right. Mr. Bangjoo.”

Maru, who was walking away, turned around and called out to him. Bangjoo responded yes.

“Are you perhaps willing to audition for JA?”

“When is it?”

“I think it was next week.”

“Is it a public audition?”

“No, it’ll be held in private. There will be a few acting schools, some people that the president found, and some people recommended by the people at the company that will be attending.”

Bangjoo thought about it before shaking his head.

“Maybe next time. I have my hands tied preparing for the shoot in this place. I don’t have any room to prepare for an audition.”

“But I think it’d be great to try at least.”

“I don’t want to do something moderately. I also don’t like using connections. Tell me if there’s a public audition later. I’ll try it out then.”

“JA rarely holds an audition to recruit new actors.”

“Then I guess I can’t help it.”

He could see Maru nod. Although he couldn’t make out the expression because he was too far away, he could see a glimpse of his white teeth, so he was probably smiling.

“See you next time.”

“Yes.”

“Don’t forget to call me hyung next time. I’m introverted and care about those things a lot.”

“You’re both introverted and old-fashioned.”

“That’s just how you become when you get old.”

Maru waved his hand before turning around. Bangjoo also walked to his residence.

He met Gyungho who was jumping around in joy. He was rejoicing, saying that he was going to audition for JA.

Bangjoo put his earbuds on. He had to think about the acting he had to do tomorrow.

After Story 233

“You won’t have any schedule for a while. I’ve also postponed everything that’s coming in, so get some good rest. Tell me if you’re uncomfortable anywhere. You know that you’ll suffer your whole life if you get hurt the wrong way when you’re young, right? Or should I just book an orthopedist?” Yeonjin said as he poked his head out the window of the driver’s seat.

Maru waved his hand in denial. “It’s not that bad. I’ll recover fully if I rest at home for a while, so don’t worry. I’m sure the bruises will subside in a few days.”

“Don’t try to hold it in thinking that a man should endure that much. Tell me as soon as you feel something off. I’ll take you to the hospital.”

“Hyung, I’m halfway through my twenties right now. I’m not a kid anymore, so you should be rest assured and go do your work.”

“My work consists of looking after you. Anyway, give me a call if anything comes up.”

“Okay. Stop nagging and get going already. Good work driving me home today.”

“Not as much as you. Have a warm shower and get some sleep.”

Maru watched the van leave before going inside a convenience store. As he had spent the past few weeks at the set, he hadn’t been at home. His wife must have also been busy practicing for the musical, so the refrigerator was probably totally empty.

“Hello.”

The part-timer he had gotten pretty close to greeted him. It was a girl, which was rare to see working at night. He responded with a smile and grabbed some instant noodles, instant rice, a pack of salad, and some ready-cut fruits.

“Have you been traveling?”

“I haven’t been able to visit because I had a shoot in the countryside for a while.”

“For a movie? Or for a drama?”

“A movie.”

The part-timer stopped asking any further questions and proceeded with the payment. Maru was grateful that she knew when to stop.

He took the plastic bag and headed home. He heard a sound inside the house as soon as he started typing in the passcode. It was the sound of the cat scratching at the floor.

When he opened the door and went inside, he found the cat staring at him.

Ricebun — he tried calling out. The cat brushed her tail against the floor a few times before turning around to go inside the room.

“Fine, it’s my fault for expecting you to welcome me.”

There was a faint smell of cypress trees in the house. A diffuser he had not seen before was placed in front of the TV.

He placed his nose against the brown lead stick in the long ceramic bottle.

His nose stung from the pretty intense smell. It seemed that it hadn’t been long since it was opened.

He walked past the robot vacuum crawling across the floor of the living room and went to the bedroom.

The neatly laid out duvet, the neatly organized makeup table, and even the book placed under the bed lamp next to the table were the same as before he left for the movie shoot.

He could picture what kind of lifestyle Haneul must have had during the past while. She was probably doing her business alongside practicing for her musical and barely came home to get some sleep. He could picture her burying her face in the pillow and snoring softly.

“I just got home. Where are you now?”

-I’m at the office. The samples for the new product were thrown away, so I’m making them again in a hurry.

“I wonder who made my wife suffer.”

-It’s one of our new guys on the R&D team. He mixed up the sample and the scraps and threw them all away.

“That new guy must be feeling terrible right now.”

-He said he was okay, but I’m sure he’s feeling complicated inside. The manager seems to have scolded him separately as well.

“He should get scolded if he’s done something wrong. So, do you think you’re going to be late?”

-The manufacturing starts tomorrow, so I have to do this tonight. Everything else, I can hand the work to other people, but developing trial products needs me. I have practice for the musical tomorrow morning too.

“You should eat some vitamins and tonics.”

-Everyone has been eating that for a while now. Are you done with the shoot, sweetie?

He could hear someone call out ‘director’ amidst Haneul’s voice. It seemed they were really busy.

“Should I call you later if you’re busy?”

-No, she was just asking what I was going to eat. We have to eat to get some energy.

“That’s true. I’m done with the shoot. I don’t know if the director was considerate of me or not, but my death scene was the last one.”

-How was working with Geunsoo-oppa after a long time?

“It’s semi-joyful and semi-regretful. Looking at him act made me think that maybe he’s chosen by the God of Acting.”

-He might as well be.

“I can tell where I’m lacking wherever I act with him. Thanks to that, I had to gnash my teeth the whole time. I have no other choice if I don’t want to lag behind, right?”

-Your biggest advantage is your persistence. How about your injuries? You told me you twisted your wrist the last time we called.

“It wasn’t anything big. It healed in a short period of time.”

-Any other injuries?

“Nothing. I’m totally fine.”

He asked about the diffuser in the living room. His wife replied to him that it was a product that would go on sale.

-How’s the concentration of the fragrance? There are opinions that it’s too strong, but I think it’s okay.

“It stung my nose when I smelled it up close, but no one’s buying diffusers to do that, so I think it should be fine?”

-If it’s like that, then I guess a warning label should do it. Oh, how about dinner? There shouldn’t be anything to eat at home.

“I thought about that and got something to eat at the convenience store. Don’t worry about me and just focus on your work.”

-Okay. Also, I think Ricebun’s been feeling lonely these days. She should have gotten adjusted to the new house after we moved in, but she still looks somewhat depressed. Should we get her a friend since we have a bigger house now?

“I’ll look into adopting abandoned cats.”

His wife shouted ‘I’ll be right there.’ It seemed that someone was looking for her.

“Be on your way then.”

-Okay. See you later.

“I’ll be sleeping though.”

-It’s okay, I’m going to wake you up.

“I guess I have to lock the door then.”

-If you wish to hear me wail in front of the door, then sure.

He hung up and then went out to the kitchen. The cat, which was looking at what he was doing from her own abode, came to the living room. The way she glared at him looked like a native resident looking at a foreigner.

He cooked some instant noodles and warmed up the instant rice. Inside the refrigerator, which they bought a new one when they moved, was just a single box of kimchi that he brought from his own house. If his mother saw this, then she would scold him, asking if this place was inhabited at all.

He took some of the kimchi out onto a plate. Rice, instant noodles, and kimchi — he ate a meal with the food loved by all people living alone in South Korea.

He then turned on the TV and picked up his phone.

“Park Daemyung. You still alive?”

-I’m half alive, I guess.

Daemyung responded in an exhausted voice.

“Where are you right now?”

-The office. The lonely office where I’m by myself. The office where no one comes to visit. The office where Haneul only occasionally visits to toss some food at me.

“Sounds like half of your soul has left you. How’s the writing coming along?”

-The scenario is done, and I’m polishing the script. The writing is going well, but I don’t think I’m well. It wasn’t this bad when I was working at the shipyard. Home, work, home, work… even modern-day slaves would cry at the sight of my schedule.

“It’s you who keeps coming to work even though we told you to rest.”

-That’s because it’s fun. I’m also writing my own novel while I’m at it.

“Now you sound like you have some time to do other things, huh? Let me have a look once you’re done with the draft.”

-I’m still far from done. I think I’ll only be able to get a firm grasp on it after I’m done with the script.

Maru laughed and asked, “What’s it going to be about?”

-The life story of a full-time writer who met a quiet death in a small room somewhere.

“And the writer’s named Park Daemyung?”

-Should I go with that?

Daemyung giggled but said that he hadn’t decided on anything concrete yet. Apparently, there was nothing he could tell Maru because he had only put the first dot on a piece of blank paper.

“Then I hope you can write some great lines in that script. Don’t forget that I’ll be acting based on that.”

-Don’t give me so much pressure. It’s enough as it is already. It would’ve been better if you let me do this when you were moderately famous. There’s a lot of pressure on me when I think that I’ll be writing something that Han Maru will be doing.

“That’s the point. I’ll visit you tomorrow or the day after.”

-You finished your shoot?

“Yeah. I’m back at home right now.”

-Good work. Come over and buy me some meat.

“That’ll depend on how good the script is.”

-You two really are a match made in heaven. You’re both quite vicious. Haneul nags me like that too.

Daemyung hung up. After all he said, he seemed to be enjoying writing.

Maru called the next man. He originally should’ve gotten a call during the day, but from how there was nothing, it seemed things didn’t go according to plan.

“Yoonseok.”

He called out his name after the calling beeps ended, but Yoonseok did not reply. Maru once again called out to him in a soft voice.

-Uhm, hyung.

“You don’t sound energetic. Were you sleeping?”

-No.

“According to my memory, you were supposed to call me earlier today.”

Yoonseok fell silent again. Maru sat down on the sofa and waited for Yoonseok’s answer.

-Uhm, hyung. I received an email and I checked it… and I didn’t get the support program. Someone else was chosen instead.

His sighs were very loud. Maru did not say anything and kept listening.

-I looked into banks as well, but even the 2nd financial sector seems difficult. I saw a few posts on the internet about loans for college students, but all of them are shady with phone loans and fake employment loans or whatever.

“Really?”

-I’m out of options now. I can’t just rent a single camera like before and shoot with that. It’ll take money to rent out that store too.

“There are no other options?”

-There isn’t anything I can choose right now.

“Then what do you plan to do?”

-I’m really sorry about this, but I don’t think I can do the shoot.

“Are you giving up?”

-No, I’m not giving up. I think we need to delay it a little. I did earn some money through part-time jobs throughout summer vacation, but it’s nowhere near enough. That’s why I plan to apply for a gap year and earn money properly.

“Your family will find out if you apply for a gap year.”

-I’ll gloss it over just once. I’ll tell them that I feel insufficient after getting discharged and that I need to study before going back. Of course, I’ll do my studies as well. If I earn money for a full year, I think I’ll manage to scrape together 20 million won.

“20 million? That’s going to be hard.”

-I just have to keep up what I’m doing now. I’m doing part-time jobs on weekdays and weekends. Also, I’m running chauffeur service whenever I have time. The earnings are pretty decent. Though I have to admit, it’s quite taxing.

“If you spend a year like that, you’ll ruin your body.”

-There are people who provide for their families like this, so I can do it when I’m in my prime. Hyung, so can you just wait one more year? With 20 million, that should be sufficient for a minimum production budget.

“Minimum production budget,” Maru repeated Yoonseok’s words.

“The city-funded support programs for indie movies was 500 million, right? How many minutes of the final film do you think you can make with that?”

Yoonseok did not reply.

“And how many minutes can you make with 20 million? You’ll use half of it for rental fees like cameras, lights, and the building.”

-Will it be too difficult after all?

“You’re at the stage where it’s no longer a hobby anymore. There is one reason why directors who have shot a good work take years to start on their next work. It’s money, so, the production budget. I’ll just conform to whatever payment you’ll give me, but what are you going to do for the other people like the production staff? Is 20 million really going to cut it?”

-No, it won’t.

“I’ll ask again. What are you going to do?”

-There’s no option. Finding an investor is no good, and me earning money is no good either.

“Have you looked for investors?”

-Where would you find people to invest in someone like me? I mean, I didn’t make the support program, so there’s that. I actually knew that I wouldn’t make it. That’s why I couldn’t call you even though I knew I had to. No, I guess I didn’t call you. I was afraid of having you tell me that there is no answer.

Yoonseok laughed before continuing.

-If there’s another opportunity later, then you can listen to me then. I don’t know if I will ever get one though.

“Are you giving up?”

-For now, I don’t have a choice. If one year isn’t enough, then I just have to bide my time for two or three years and try again at that time. I’m still in my early twenties, aren’t I? I’m still too young to blame the world. If there’s a problem, I guess it’s that your payment will have gone up even more by then. I know I’m being shameless, but can I ask you next time too?

“I don’t think I can do it next time.”

-Then I guess I can’t help it. Working with you once felt like a dream to me. I’ve realized reality now, so I have to get ready. I’ll hang up now. I’m working right now too.

“Alright then. Good luck with work.”

Yoonseok, who said he was going to hang up, did not end the call for a long while. Maru waited patiently.

-Uhm, hyung.

“Speak.”

-I know I’m being crazy, but can I ask you for something even more shameless than before?

“What is it?”

-Are you perhaps interested in investing in me?

His voice was shaking like crazy. He must have gone through a lot of hurdles just to say those words. Shame, guilt… despite all those feelings, his persistence and his desire to work on film must have overcome everything to ask that question.

“Of course, the answer is yes.”

-… What?

“I said I’ll invest in you.”

-Really?

“If you asked me for an investment at the beginning, I would’ve taken care of it right away. Why go through so much trouble?” Maru said while laughing.

On the other side of the phone, Yoonseok huffed and puffed for a while before turning silent, then ended up chuckling.

-How could I say that? I'm a nobody.

His voice sounded tearful.

“Don’t cry. The person next to you will look at you strangely.”

-I’m not crying!

“Let’s talk about the details once we meet up. Cut some slack on the part-time work and watch out for your stamina. You’ll be having the hardest time once the shoot starts.”

Yoonseok muttered something intelligible for a while before thanking him and hanging up. Maru smiled and put down his phone.

After Story 234

She lifted her left leg and touched around her achilles’ heel. She could feel her rough skin instead of the bandaid she put on during the day.

No wonder it hurt. Haneul took off her heels and picked them up. Maybe she should get them fixed.

She got off the elevator. She inputted the passcode for the door and went inside. An unfamiliar pair of trainers was there. Haneul put her heels next to those trainers and set foot in the living room.

The first thing she saw was the neatly cleaned table. The living room sofa and table had been neatly cleaned as well.

He really was quite obsessed with cleanliness, alright. She took a sip of water before going inside the bedroom.

Her husband had fallen asleep with a book in his hand. It seemed he had been dragged to dreamland while he was reading a book while in bed. She put the book on the bedside table and changed her clothes.

After she took a shower and came back, she saw her husband greet her with a sleepy face.

“You’re here.”

“I came back a while ago. You should get some sleep, you must be tired.”

She sat down at the makeup desk and sprayed some facial mist. She could see the reflection of her husband through the mirror. He was blinking as though he was tired.

“I was going to wait because I had to talk to you about something, but I guess I ended up falling asleep.”

“You got to cleaning as soon as you came home without even resting, so there’s no way you’d have enough energy, is there? You could’ve left cleaning for tomorrow.”

“I couldn’t just ignore what I saw. How about your work?”

“I finished things up. The sample will arrive at the factory tomorrow. We’re back on schedule, so I think I can take a breather.”

“Good work.”

Haneul applied some moisture cream on her face before going to bed. Her husband shifted to the left to make some space for her.

“What did you want to talk about?”

“It’s related to money. I should talk to you about it first before proceeding, right?”

“Is it a large amount of money?”

“I’m thinking around 200 million won maximum.”

“Are you buying a car?”

“No, I plan to invest in Yoonseok.”

Haneul nodded. She heard the circumstances before, so she wasn’t that surprised.

“200 million isn’t an amount you should be using for a short film. You won’t be getting paid for it.”

“I expect it to be around an hour and thirty minutes. Well, the production budget will increase a lot depending on how the shoot goes.”

“Well, I guess 200 million is nothing if you want to pay proper human resources prices.”

Haneul looked into his eyes and spoke,

“Use it. It’s money you need to spend. It’s for times like this that we earned earnestly.”

“It might be money I’m throwing into the void.”

“I guess you’ll have to shoot a few more commercials then.”

Haneul covered herself with the thin duvet. 200 million – while it wasn’t a small sum, it wasn’t something they couldn’t afford to use either. It wasn’t like he was saying he was going into debt and was using his own money, so there was no need to hold him back.

Whether it was her or her husband, they were earning enough so that there shouldn’t be any problems with everyday life.

The house they moved into increased in price, and the stocks, American government bonds, and Chinese-related ETFs were making a profit as well. She had also looked into a few good real estate places.

“Now that I think about it, we reached this point in just three years. I was worried when we just started after gaining our memories, but we managed to gain financial stability quite quickly.”

“You were just that good at business.”

“Most of it was luck.”

“Grabbing that luck is also skill.”

She smiled as she felt her husband stroke her cheek.

“Did you tell Yoonseok you’d be investing in him?”

“I did, but I didn’t tell him how much.”

“He would definitely be surprised if he found out you’re thinking about 200 million.”

“Who knows? He might ask for more.”

Haneul pushed a pillow under her neck. Sleep overwhelmed her.

She wanted to talk more, but she had musical practice in the morning. If she didn’t get any sleep now, she would be singing drowsily in the morning.

“You must be tired. Get some sleep,” Maru said.

She yawned softly before closing her eyes.

“Let’s go get something delicious once I finish practice tomorrow.”

“What would you like?”

“I want sushi.”

“Then we should go eat sushi and clam hotpot.”

She turned around to face her husband and calmed down her breathing. The body heat she could feel next to her made her calm down. She didn’t know how much time passed, but she opened her eyes when she heard some snoring.

Haneul groaned and sat up slightly before looking next to her. Her husband was snoring with his mouth open.

She looked at him for a while before twisting his nose slightly.

“…Sheesh.”

The snoring stopped. Haneul fell on her pillow again and closed her eyes. Thankfully, she fell asleep soon.

* * *

“You aren’t kidding me, are you?” Yoonseok asked back in a daze.

Maru sipped some coffee and replied, “Do you think I’d be joking about money? It’s my own money too.”

“You’re really going to invest 200 million won in me?”

“That’s the maximum. It’d be great if I could do less.”

“It’s such a large amount of money that it feels unreal.”

“You’ll realize it’s not that big once you start shooting. Once you sign official work contracts and start shooting, money will melt away like snow.”

“Contracts?”

“You have to write work contracts with the people you’re hiring.”

“I heard they don’t do that most of the time.”

“Normally, yeah. That’s why there are people who end up dying from overwork. I want to conform to standard labor laws for the movie I’m investing in at least.”

Yoonseok nodded.

“What you need to do now is to plan a detailed roadmap. If the production budget isn’t that high and you want to give people proper treatment, then you must waste as little money as possible. The most ideal situation would be to finish the shoot within the number of shots that you’re expecting, but that’ll probably be hard. If you want to have a plan on that level, your design must really be perfect.”

“I’ll try my best so that you won’t waste any of the money you invest in me.”

Yoonseok made a resolute face, and Maru told him to listen while drinking. Yoonseok didn’t have a single sip of the coffee while the ice was melting.

“Despite being the investor, I don’t plan to interfere with the contents of the film. I’ll say a few things if I think it really isn’t right, but the plot will be entirely up to you.”

“Okay.”

“If you keep working as a film director, this kind of experience won’t be that common. Normally, both the production companies and distribution companies are bound to interfere. Of course, they say the director has the strongest say in movies, but the more investment money you receive, the more things you’ll have to yield. Right now, try everything you want as a director when you can.”

“My heart is racing already. I thought I was mostly ready, but now that you’re telling me that I’m getting money, it’s making my head spin.”

“You should talk to Jiseon a lot about the scheduling. It should help out a lot. You should set a schedule based on when you’re renting the shooting location and then adjust to the actors’ schedules. I’ll adjust mine to yours as much as possible, so don’t worry about that.”

“You don’t have anything in your schedule?”

“Not for quite a while. I plan to take a break until I finish shooting this film.”

“I really should do my utmost best, huh.”

“You have to do your best, but you also have to do well. You know that, right?”

“Ever since I heard that you were giving me money, whatever you say puts me on a rollercoaster. I don’t want to be swayed by what you say, but I keep getting swayed anyway.”

Maru smiled and looked at his phone. It was about time he got up.

“Are you going to be holding the camera?”

“No, I’m going to look for a cameraman in internet communities. I saw that there were many people who worked on films. I’ll try contacting them. I don’t know how the payment would go though.”

“Good. Once the scale of a film becomes big, the director can’t be the one handling everything. You can write that you cast me when you put up the notice.”

“Can I do that?”

“You have to. What else would a professional see in you to draw them to participate? It’s the same when you recruit actors. If you find it necessary, hold an audition as well.”

“Okay.”

Maru drank the rest of the coffee and stood up.

“You won’t have any time to rest for a while. You have to do a lot of the groundwork before the shoot in order to reduce the production fee and increase the quality of the final film. Give me a call if you’re stuck on anything.”

“I’ll call you only when it’s absolutely necessary. You solved the biggest problem, so I’d be shameless to ask for more.”

“As you wish. I have an appointment, so I’ll get going now. Also, call me when you’re looking into commercial buildings. I’ll give you some of my impressions as well.”

“I will.”

They left the café.

Yoonseok got on his bike with a flushed face. After telling him things like “I won’t disappoint you”, “I’ll do my best”, “I’ll make the best film” and whatnot, he pedaled off.

Maru was filled half with worry and half with anticipation to see how well the young director would do. He liked the scenario, but writing and producing a film was an entirely different story.

There were numerous directors who shot a disappointing film with a great scenario and script. This film should be a great opportunity to grasp Yoonseok’s skills.

Maru drove to the office where Daemyung should be working. He bought some dumplings on the way.

He opened the door.

“Are things going well?” he asked Daemyung, who was sitting in front of a laptop.

“No, I can’t write any of the lines.”

“Don’t keep holding onto what you can’t do and eat first. You’re okay with dumplings, right?”

Maru looked at Daemyung who ate a bunch of dumplings in a flash. He had gained some weight in just a few months. It seemed he was relieving his stress by eating.

“You see this? I’m gaining a lot of weight sitting at a desk all day after doing manual labor.”

“It’s about time you start managing your weight then.”

“Haneul told me that too. She said she’d forcefully send me to the gym if I gain any more weight.”

“It’s free exercise, so it’s a good thing.”

Maru picked up the script on the desk. The story that Haneul plotted out was assuming a shape in the form of a script.

“I need to polish it more.”

“I’ll just skim through it.”

Maru slowly flipped over the pages. It was the story of time and of a man and a woman. It was her story as well as his story. A fantasy, that was not a fantasy for the two people.

“Would Groundhog Day feel like this from another angle? No, there are so many differences, so it can’t be just explained with a difference in perspective.”

He closed the script as he listened to Daemyung’s words.

“The lines are good. It portrays the personality of the characters.”

“It still feels somewhat lacking though. I want to make it stand out more. At the base, I’m thinking about the two of you as I write the lines before adding some spice of film on top of it. This was my first time working on a script, so I was pretty nervous, but when I actually tried, I could write something.”

“You’re bound to get used to whatever you do.”

He went to the rooftop of the building they were in. The sunlight was scorching, but the breeze was pretty cool.

“This is something I’ve been feeling as I’m writing, but I think Haneul decided the male protagonist would be you from the first time she started writing. When I look at the script she wrote before, I can picture you saying the lines clearly in my head,” Daemyung said.

Having returned to the office, Daemyung said that he needed to write and that they should have a drink next time.

“Don’t push yourself. There’s still time.”

“This is something I felt while writing, but you’re bound to forget if you don’t write when you think of something. You need to write when it’s time to write.”

“Work hard.”

Maru closed the door and left. The things that started off small grew big and started taking shape.

It seemed that he was going to get busy in a while.

He waved his car keys as he went down the stairs.

After Story 235

-Director Kwon was looking for you. He said he was having fun with you around, but he’s bored now that you’re gone.

“You should hang out with him for me then, senior.”

-I’m good at everything else, but not action acting.

“If that’s not good, then everyone learning in action schools should quit. How’s the atmosphere at the set? I’ve seen a lot of heat warnings since the start of August.”

-Big brother Kwak passed out once. Apparently, he got dizzy while carrying the camera. The shoot stopped there. It was a total mess.

“Director Kwak has really good stamina though. If he passed out, then it must be really bad.”

-He pushed himself. He was away for a few days because someone couldn’t make the job for team B, and when he got back, he got to shooting right away. I heard he had less than four hours of sleep in three days.

With all that work under this weather, it wasn’t surprising that he passed out. If even the camera director was having a hard time, the rest of the production team must be having an even worse time.

“You should watch out too. They say there’s no set order for going to the afterlife.”

-Thanks so much for the encouragement. If there’s ever a funeral for me, then you can eat three bowls of yukgaejang[1]. I’ll allow it.

Geunsoo told him to wait before talking to someone else. From what Maru could hear over the phone, he seemed to be talking to his manager.

-The shoot’s resuming.

“Have a good time.”

-I will. Oh yeah, how’s it going with what you were doing?

“I’m going to be looking at potential shooting locations now.”

-You’re already investing in production at that age, huh? It’s good to see you living a busy life.

“I should try many things out while I’m still young. Only then will I be able to catch up to people like you.”

-What’s so great about me? Also, Suyeon said we should meet up once. Let’s go to the sea before the summer ends.

“I’ll call Suyeon-noona and Ganghwan-hyung about the schedule. When does your shoot end?”

-I’ve been told I have two shoots left. If things go the way I think they will, I should have time next week.

“Then let’s meet up next week. Eating sashimi and fish stew while feeling the sea breeze. Just thinking about it makes me feel good.”

-It sure does.

Geunsoo hung up, saying that they should meet next time. Maru checked the time before calling Yoonseok. It was almost time, but he couldn’t see him around.

-I was just about to call you too. I’m waiting in front of exit 3.

“Exit 3? So you haven’t seen the message. I messaged you to come to exit 8 at the very last moment. It’s easier to turn the car around there.”

-Oh, you’re right. I’ll go to exit 8 right now. It’ll take a minute.

“Is Jiseon next to you?”

-She’s with me.

Not long later, Yoonseok and Jiseon came out of exit 8. Maru raised his hand to notify his position to the two of them.

“It’s a car driven by a celebrity,” said Jiseon, whom he hadn’t seen in a long time, as she got in the car.

He handed the two of them some drinks that he had bought while waiting.

“I typed the location into the GPS, but check if it’s the right place,” Maru said as he pointed at the address displayed on the screen. Yoonseok looked between his phone and the GPS and nodded.

“That’s the place. We need to visit about three more places after that.”

“Put your seatbelts on for now. Let’s talk as we go.”

He started the car. Apparently, Yoonseok had looked into about twenty places. He said that he had about four or five after picking suitable locations.

“The place we are going to right now should be easy to shoot in because all the stores around it have pulled out. The landlord said that it’s okay to use it for one or two months without any upfront deposit.”

“How’s the size?”

“It does feel a little big. I was originally planning for an old bookstore with piles of books throughout, but I thought it wouldn’t be bad to have cozy-looking places like independent bookstores these days.”

“It’s supposed to be a bookstore inherited from the character’s grandfather, so think about it some more. Also, the location is just as important as the character, so think about it until the end.”

“That’s why I asked you to scout out the places with me. I couldn’t fully trust myself.”

Jiseon, who was sitting in the back seat, poked her head to the front towards the passenger seat.

“Don’t forget that there’s someone behind you. If you two talk by yourselves, I’ll get mad.”

“Okay,” Yoonseok said as he pressed Jiseon on the forehead.

Maru looked at the two of them and spoke, “Nice times. There’s a sense of sweetness when you first start a relationship.”

Yoonseok and Jiseon both laughed at the same time.

“You’re still dating Haneul-unni, right?” Jiseon asked.

“That we are.”

“Are you going to go public about it?”

“We don’t plan to keep it under tight wrap, but we don’t plan to blurt it out everywhere either.”

“Don’t do it if possible. I’ve rarely seen good responses about celebrities dating. Everyone congratulates when a couple is getting married, but they’re really naggy if it’s just dating.”

“Then I guess it’s not a big problem.”

Jiseon widened her eyes and asked back, “Are you going to marry her?”

“I am.”

“Really?”

“You two are going to do it too, aren’t you?”

He looked at the two with a mysterious smile. Yoonseok tilted his head, while Jiseon twitched her nose while looking at Yoonseok tilting his head.

“You never know how things will go. You might think that you’re just dating and won’t get married, but you’ll be in a tuxedo and a wedding dress before you know it,” Maru said, “So you should treat each other well.”

“Oppa, you sounded like my grandpa just now. He says something very similar when I go talk to him during festive seasons.”

“I am quite old you see.”

He smiled and turned the driving wheel. He stopped the car after hearing the GPS tell him that they were at their destination. There were commercial buildings lined up on either side of a narrow road that was slanted upwards to a hill.

The only people he saw around were those that seemed to be local residents. If there were this few people moving around at lunchtime on a weekend, it could be considered dead as a commercial area.

There were more shops that had banner notices for lease than there were shops actually running businesses.

“I feel really sorry for the people working here, but this place suits our film a lot.”

“If we shoot the appearance before gentrification and then cast some people to be tourists, it should look pretty decent, right?”

Yoonseok told him to follow and walked ahead. They walked past the rice cake shop that had a display outside, an independent café, and a barber shop that looked at least thirty years old before standing in front of an empty shop.

“It’s this place.”

Yoonseok pushed open the glass door. Jiseon grabbed Yoonseok’s arm and spoke, “Is it okay to just barge in here?”

“I got permission beforehand. We’re allowed to go inside and have a look so don’t worry.”

As it was an empty space without anything at all, there was no lock on the door. When they went inside, Maru could smell moist concrete. He could see electrical lines on the wall that had the wallpaper removed, and there were flyers on the ground.

“This place must have been a pork cutlet restaurant before,” Jiseon said as she picked up a flyer.

The flyer, which had lost most of its color, had the menu of the shop as well as some promotional words for the restaurant.

Delicious, high-quality pork cutlets.

“Looks like running a business really is hard,” Yoonseok said as he threw away the flyer.

Maru walked along the walls of the shop. The shop was around 33 square meters. Placing a bookshelf on the left wall, a round table to display some books in the middle, and a counter on the right… it looked like it would look good.

“What do you think? Do you think we should pile up books against the walls like old bookstores or have some simple decorations instead?”

“I think it’d look better to imitate some of the well-known independent bookstores and decorate it, but if we’re to portray the complex feelings of Daejoo, then I think it should look messy…”

Yoo Daejoo. That was the name of the main character.

Yoonseok touched the wall and spoke, “It’s going to be set sometime after he inherits it from his grandfather. Only then will there be a reason for him to be attached to the bookstore thinking that it’s his and the fear that he might be asked to move out will be justified.”

“Is Daejoo someone who does his best for the bookstore? Or someone who just operates with whatever he has?”

“He should have tried to decorate it at first. Then he should have eventually just let the force of habit take over.”

“Should have? If the director is having uncertainties when we’re starting the shoot soon, there will be big trouble.”

Hearing that, Yoonseok crossed his arms. He thought for a long while before speaking again,

“Daejoo put a lot of effort into the interior design. He would’ve been like that. I think I can come up with how to decorate this place. Jiseon, come here for a sec.”

The two juniors looked around the shop and had a conversation.

Maru pushed open the glass door and left before walking around the street. There wasn’t a single customer even at the restaurant where it should be full of people.

He entered a café on the opposite side of the street. There was only one customer, a woman with a stroller. He went to the counter and ordered three cups of coffee.

“Are you planning on opening a shop?” asked the store owner as she gave him three cups of coffee.

It seemed that he was seen as a young man trying to open a business here.

“No, I’m looking for a location for a shoot.”

“Oh, a shoot?”

The owner, who was giving him the straws, flinched and looked at him closely.

“Aren’t you Han Maru?”

“What do you think?”

“You are him. I’m a huge fan. I mean it.”

The owner covered her mouth in surprise and ducked down below the counter. She came back up with three cookies.

“You should take these as well. I baked them myself, so they should be pretty good.”

“If they’re good, I can’t take them for free. I’ll pay for them as well.”

“No, it’s okay. I’m giving them to you because I’m a fan, so just take them.”

The owner packaged the cookies into a plastic zipper bag and carefully handed them to him. He found it hard to refuse and accepted them for now.

“Are you really going to shoot over there?”

“Nothing’s set in stone yet. We’re still looking for locations.”

“You should shoot here. That way, I’ll see you a lot more often. Also, if word gets out that a film’s being shot here, people will visit too.”

The owner loudly said goodbye to the customer that left. Maru could feel that each and every customer was precious.

“As you know, this place is pretty much dead. I thought I would be okay with not having people around since the rent is cheap, but I was wrong. Money calls for more money and people call for more people. After the stores around started pulling out, the entire area just collapsed.”

“It’s a hard time to do business.”

“So don’t you ever run your own business, Mr. Han. Even celebrities fail their businesses even if they use their fame.”

“That’s true.”

Maru quietly said goodbye and left the café with the three cups of coffee. He stood in the middle of the street and looked at the café for a while.

The book of his memories started flapping. There were numerous times when he shot a film in a sparsely populated neighborhood. Among them, there were cases where the movie gained popularity and the neighborhood ended up booming as a result.

However, rather than a happy ending where the movie and the neighborhood do well, it only resulted in increased rent due to the onslaught of visitors and the true original owners of the shops being pushed out. What would happen with this film?

It was quite ironic. A movie that uses gentrification as a topic could cause gentrification.

Though, it was still unknown how much attention this work would receive.

“Hyung! I think we should go with this place,” Yoonseok said as he left the shop.

“What about the other places?”

“The landlord here said he can do 300 thousand a month.”

“The monthly rent is directly related to the price of the real estate… it seems that the landlord is having a hard time paying for the rent.”

“It’s a pity, but for us, it’s better because we can save up money. Anyway, we decided to go with this place. I talked to Jiseon about it, and I think the interior design should be finalized soon.”

Maru handed two cups of coffee to Yoonseok who seemed excited.

“Give one to Jiseon.”

Yoonseok returned to the shop after receiving the coffee.

Maru thought as he drank the coffee. If the film did well and people started flocking to this place, would the café owner smile, or would she end up crying?

“Hyung! Come quick.”

Hearing Yoonseok’s call, Maru bit on the straw and walked off.

[1] Food typically served to visitors when they come to pay respects to the deceased at a funeral.

After Story 236

“It sure is good because it’s newly built,” Choi Mina muttered as she looked at the glossy floor and the walls.

The facilities and interior design of this place were easily distinguishable from other places as though to prove the slogan “the cutting edge cultural facility” that was on their main website.

She was taking some photos of the interior with her camera when she found a photo zone. The faces of the musical actors were framed in photos.

In front of the photo frames was a black cloth in the figure of a person. Mina took photos in the photo zone.

“Don’t run.”

She heard that there was an event in the kid zone, and indeed, there were many children around. Mina walked around the children who lined up in front of the photo zone and headed to the wall where full-body photos of the actors were hung up on the wall.

“Han Haneul. She sure is pretty.”

Haneul was looking up at the sky with a face of liberation while wearing a torn black dress. Chin raised wasn’t an angle that actresses preferred, but it looked good for Han Haneul.

Mina pressed the shutter from a distance so that all the actors were in the frame.

-Lady Lune will now be starting. Visitors, please go to…

An announcement sounded. Mina put away the camera and took out her ticket. The audience which was scattered throughout the hall flocked towards the entrance. Mina entered the theater under the guidance of an employee.

The ceiling was high and the dark red seats were laid out in a semi-circular fashion. A faint citrus smell tickled her nose.

She thought back to the aromatic system introduced on the website. It mentioned that perfumes that went with the scenes of the musical would be sprayed intermittently throughout the performance.

The very attempt of giving a new feeling to the performance was good, but whether the results were good or not was up to question. From what she could remember, a similar attempt was made in the movie industry, but the responses weren’t the best.

When she sat down, she could see a small display on the back of the seat in front of her. It let her know that there were five minutes left until the performance began.

She turned her phone on silent and laid back against the backrest. There was almost no height difference between the front and back seats. If she sat upright, she would be blocking the view of the person behind her. It was not surprising that the employee told everyone to lean back when they came in.

The seats were packed to the point that she couldn’t see any empty seats. It really was a performance that became a hot topic online.

Mina had also gotten her ticket because her blogger friends who watched the first performance were all praising it.

The weekend performances where Han Haneul was playing the lead female were hot enough that getting a ticket was hard.

She had a look at the program book before the lights turned off. She always bought the program books of whatever musical she watched. She also went to the merch booth to buy merchandise if she liked the performance. Thanks to that, there were a lot of mugs, coasters, and various diaries that she hadn’t even used.

The lights slowly dimmed. Mina closed the program book and looked in front of her with slight nervousness.

It cost 100 thousand won to watch the performance. As a salarywoman who earned 2.4 million a month, it wasn’t a small amount. She was watching this musical after having endured the craving to eat at night and the urge to buy new cosmetics.

It was natural that she was worried that the performance was bad or wasn’t to her liking. Then there was the fact that the last musical she watched was so terrible that it was one of the worst ones she ever watched. She had bought a ticket for it because she liked the composition of the performance despite the fact that the theater was rather notorious for not having good acoustics.

However, her expectations were betrayed. It had been a long time since she found the lead characters’ acting to be sloppy. The production quality was also terrible to the point that they used low-quality speakers that ripped high-pitched notes, and the background was just a single computer-generated image. She couldn’t feel any of the emotional changes that the lines and songs were supposed to convey. She ended up just closing her eyes shut.

The program book she bought that day was stored in a box underneath her bed. It was like a graveyard of sorts. A place to honor musicals that did terribly.

For today though, she had recommendations from multiple people and the evaluations of it on blogs were overwhelmingly positive, so she was looking forward to it. The sound system was also known to not lose out to Sejong Center of Performing Arts, so her ears would be relaxed as well.

As she was thinking about various things, the stage darkened. It took about three seconds for light to appear in the pitch-black darkness.

Light from a beam projector decorated the screen. Strange purple symbols adorned the stage.

The sound of horse hooves and carriage wheels could be heard on top of a dreamy song. The opening led the audience into a world of fantasy, away from the modern world.

Mina was satisfied with the sounds that could be clearly distinguished as well as the light that filled the whole stage. The facility was better than she had expected. What was left now was the story and the acting. If these two things were satisfied, the program book for this musical would be displayed in the display case next to her bed.

If under her bed was a graveyard, the display case was an art gallery. The works that made her feel happy just by thinking about them were placed there.

The sound of horse hooves stopped. It was then followed by the sound of something crashing. From how the sound of the wheels had disappeared, it seemed that the carriage had been overturned.

The screams of a man and a woman came out from either side of the stage. The screams continued until the eerie sound of the wind came out.

The light messily adorning the stage had disappeared as well. Dark brown lighting came on, and the actors came on stage.

The one who appeared with clothes looking messy from dirt and dust was Han Haneul.

Mina recalled the photo she saw in the hall as soon as she saw Haneul on stage. She thought the photo was good, but now that she saw the actress for real, it turned out the photo didn’t do enough justice.

“Zess, Zess! Can you hear me? Zess!”

Haneul floundered as she ran across the stage. Her name in the musical was Fiana.

Haneul, who was looking around for Zess like crazy with messy hair, eventually stopped in the middle of the stage. Her eyes which were drenched in sorrow became murky for a while before they widened rapidly.

Even though Mina was seated quite a distance away from the stage, Haneul’s emotions were clearly conveyed to her. The way she used her body to express her emotions showed she was very skilled. Of course, her distinct facial features played a role in that as well.

Light descended upon the dark stage. There was a man laying on the ground all bloody. He was actor Choi Dongwon, presumably playing the role of Zess.

Haneul stiffly went over before falling down. Haneul threw her body forward so harshly that it startled Mina. The actors really increased the immersion from the beginning.

“Zess. Zess, open your eyes,” Fiana said desperately with her head against Zess’ lap. However, there was no reply. He seemed to be dead.

“Please, don’t do this to me. Please.”

The moment Fiana’s line ended, an actor clad in black cloth came out from the left of the stage. Mina couldn’t tell what kind of devices were attached to the cloth, but the cloth wobbled around like a living creature.

While the black cloth moved toward the center, the music began.

“Fiana, Fiana, pitiful is your name.”

It was an eerie voice. The actor’s voice topped the music that had a fast rhythm showing the urgency of the situation.

The way it turned from plain lines into a song was rather smooth. The black cloth, who revealed himself as the devil who liked to play pranks, kept circling around Fiana and sang,

“Meaningless life, meaningless man, meaningless death. But I can reverse this. How about it? Should I bring your loved one back to life?”

“Please, save him. I’ll do anything,” Fiana said, walking over to the devil on her knees.

The devil crouched down.

The cloth was taken off, revealing the actor’s face. It was just a blank face with no eyes, nose, or ears. The disguise was creepy.

At the same time, it made Mina wonder how he was looking in front of him.

The condition the devil offered Fiana was rather simple.

“I don’t expect great things from you. You just need to love Zess, that’s all.”

“Is that really all I need?”

“Of course. There might be a problem if your love towards him changes, but you two are going to love each other for all of eternity, aren’t you? Isn’t that a great condition?”

“Okay, I’ll do it.”

“Remember my words. You have to love him unconditionally.”

The stage darkened for a moment before the devil disappeared. Mina could feel that a lot of effort went into staging the performance. As for Han Haneul’s performance, she liked it from the get-go. It had been a long time since she came across an actress like this. An actress that made her forget that this was a performance and made her absorbed with a single change in expression.

Following that, the love of the revived Zess and Fiana continued for a while. Although the stage was adorned with beautiful music and bright lights, it felt strangely ominous.

The reason behind the bad omen was revealed soon enough. This musical was not about a harmonious, beautiful love story, just as the program book indicated.

“Nelly, you’re the only love in my eyes.”

“Don’t do this. You have Fiana. Fiana and I are long-time friends.”

“I know, but I can’t help it. These emotions of mine aren’t momentary. I truly…”

Nelly, who was refusing at first, eventually fell in love with Zess as well. Warm light enveloped the two of them.

A melody tickled her ears, blessing the new meeting. Meanwhile, the light moved to the corner of the stage, where Fiana was watching.

Mina clenched her fist. Yeah, now that’s some drama.

Zess eventually went off stage, and Fiana was left alone. Fiana optimistically told herself that Zess was just playing around for a moment and would return to her soon.

However, the more the story progressed, the more isolated she became. Zess no longer whispered his love for her. All of his interest and affections were directed at Nelly.

The music indicated that ruin was nigh. It was just as Fiana reached her limits and was about to tell Zess that the devil appeared again.

“O, Fiana. Pitiful is your name. You must not forget our contract. You must love him, even if he wants you no longer.”

“How can I do that? I can’t hold on anymore. He doesn’t love me. I don’t know how I feel anymore.”

“What you feel is not important. The contract is. Bear in mind. You must love him. The moment you hate him, you will die. No, you will suffer in a place worse than death.”

Fiana shouted in despair that she didn’t want that. The fast-paced music that increased the tension started coming out, mixed with the horse hooves that could be heard during the opening.

“Then shall I take care of this problem for you? You just need to watch. I will take care of everything.”

“Okay, I’ll go with that.”

Before the stage darkened, the black cloth enveloped Fiana. A stifled scream like they were screaming underwater filled the stage.

Fiana, who was floundering under the black cloth, suddenly stood upright. Taking the black cloth off herself, Fiana looked into the audience seats emotionlessly and spoke,

“O, Fiana. Foolish is your name.”

* * *

Mina left the building in a daze before she looked at the paper bag in her hands. She had a whole lot of merch in both of her hands.

A brochure, a handkerchief, a mug, a photo book, the original book, a brooch, stickers, etc.

She bought all the products that Han Haneul modeled for. It wasn’t just her. All the people who came to the merch booth looked for Han Haneul’s photos. If she hadn’t bought them during the intermission, they would’ve run out of stock. Though thinking back now, she really should’ve just visited the bathroom during the intermission.

She ended up buying too much.

“How much is all this…”

It was good that the musical got her excited and she bought the souvenirs, but she felt stifled when she thought about the credit card expenses she would have to pay next month.

She combed through her memories before taking out her phone. 210 thousand won. That was the amount that left her credit card.

She made a teary face and looked behind her. Han Haneul’s face could be seen on the outer wall of the building.

“Geez, what am I gonna do now?”

If it was just a decent musical, no, if the actors did just a little more moderately, she would’ve bought just a mug or something.

Han Haneul’s acting, after having offered her body to the devil in Act 1, could only be described as crazy.

If Act 1 consisted of Fiana, who was pure and gentle, but frustrating, the Fiana of Act 2 was someone of passion and coquetry.

She whispered false love in front of Zess and threatened Nelly.

She laid out deceits and traps to make Zess suspect Nelly and eventually had him kill her.

Han Haneul’s acting when she laughed like a lunatic while witnessing the death of Nelly was truly exhilarating. It was eerie and yet strangely cathartic.

She played two dramatically different characters extremely well. The devil and Fiana, any other actor wouldn’t have done it as well as her.

Ultimately, Fiana was deprived of everything by the devil and died tragically, and Han Haneul showed everything through her performance on stage.

Mina wiggled her toes and looked back at the entrance. If she ran over there now, she could get a refund. If she got a refund, then her life would be more plentiful during the next month.

However, she could not take that step.

“I’ll just starve. I just have to starve, right?”

The merch was so good that she couldn’t bear to refund them.

On her way back home, she was glued to her phone. The moment she left behind a short review on the blog, comments started appearing.

The most asked question was if the play was good.

She replied to those comments without hesitation.

-Everything’s good, but just going there to watch Han Haneul is worth the price of the ticket. No, it’s more than sufficient.

After Story 237

“I think the number of believers in Han Haneul has increased again today,” said Kang Anna, Haneul’s manager.

“Don’t start on that again.”

“Why should I not? It’s a good thing that more and more people like you. I’ve been to the merch booth, and all your products are out of stock. The popularity of Fiana is increasing by the day. I’ve heard that they’re going to start increasing production. If the responses are this good even though it hasn’t been that long since the musical started, it’s pretty much guaranteed that you’ll be cast for the rerun.”

“You never know what will happen.”

Haneul let Chaejoo, her stylist, take care of her face. Chaejoo, who used to drop the makeup cotton a few months ago out of nervousness, now had confidence in her hands.

“Unni, would you like to erase the makeup around your eyes yourself? There’s makeup right next to your eyes.”

“Okay. Have you two had dinner?” Haneul asked Anna and Chaejoo.

The two of them looked at the corner of the makeup table. There were two sets of convenience store lunch boxes.

“That again?” Haneul said as she tilted her head.

“We like convenient things. Both Chaejoo and I do well with convenience store food.”

“There’s a restaurant right nearby. Heck, I told you that a roll of kimbap from a bunsik restaurant is better. No matter how good convenience store food has gotten, if you eat just that, the nutritional balance of your diet is…”

Haneul stopped talking after seeing Anna block her ears and shake her head. Chaejoo handed her her clothes and spoke,

“At times like this, Haneul-unni is scarily like my mom. Isn’t that right, Anna-unni?”

“Exactly. Do you think people know that our unni is a naggy woman? My friends think of her as a cool but kind person, but all she does is nag and nag and…”

“Fine. I’m sorry. But you have to eat proper food,” Haneul said, waving her hand in the air.

These two girls were with her ever since she signed a contract with JA, so she had gotten close to them almost immediately. They belonged to JA, not some external company, so as long as there weren’t any big problems, she would be working with them for a long time.

“Right, unni.”

Anna brought a chair over and sat next to her.

“What is it?”

“You’re close to Maru-oppa, aren’t you?”

“Why do you ask?”

“Can’t you call him to our drinking session just once? I mean, we’re in the same company, so it wouldn’t be strange to meet him.”

“What are you going to do when you meet him?” Haneul asked as she put cleansing wipes against her eyes.

“What else? I’ll say hello, we’ll have a talk, have a drink, and then… the you-know-what?”

“Anna.”

“Yes?”

“You asked if I knew senior Ganghwan’s manager before, didn’t you?”

“I did.”

“And before that, you asked me if I knew someone from JA Commerce, who has nothing to do with us other than the fact that they work in the same building as us, right?”

“Did I now?”

“And I set you up for both of them. What was the result?”

Anna laughed. “We became close drinking friends.”

“Do you want to date someone or do you just need drinking friends? Just decide on one. If you really want to date someone, I’ll look into some of my friends.”

“Hearing you say that makes me nervous all of a sudden. Should I date for real? What kind of person is Maru-oppa?”

Haneul put down the cleansing wipe gently. The cleansing wipe fluttered and fell into the trash can.

“Can’t do him.”

“Why?”

“Why do you think?”

Instead of Anna, who kept frowning, Chaejoo spoke,

“Is there something between you two?”

“Who knows?”

Haneul smiled and stood up. Chaejoo and Anna stood up as well.

“I have an appointment today. You two should go first.”

“What the, I was planning to go out with the three of us today. We should have a drinking party.”

“I’ll buy you those drinks at a nice place next time, so let me go for the day. Alright, watch out on your way home. Chaejoo, don’t forget to check the list of sponsored products and return them. I’m not going to say this anymore. Get ready to be broken by the team leader if you make any mistakes.”

Haneul waved her hand at Chaejoo, who became dejected, before leaving the building. Anna poked her head out of the makeup room and shouted,

“Unni! I’ll give you a ride!”

“It’s okay.”

“You know you have a schedule tomorrow, right? Don’t drink too much.”

“Do you think I’m you?”

“That’s true.”

Watch out on your way home – Anna added loudly. Haneul left through the staff-only exit and went to the underground parking lot. She got in her car and made a phone call.

“I just finished so I’m heading home. What about you, sweetie?”

-Making food at home.

“When did you say the seniors are coming again?”

-In thirty minutes.

“Is there anything I should buy on my way home?”

-Get some sliced cheese, tomatoes, and crackers. Oh, and some cat snacks.

“The list keeps increasing.”

-I think our new family member has finally passed the adaptation period. He keeps asking for snacks.

“What about Ricebun?”

-Coco beat her up so she’s watching from a distance. She’s several times larger too.

“That’s because Ricebun is so kind. Coco’s still a baby. I’ll head back after doing some groceries.”

-Watch out when you’re driving.

She put on her hat deeply and went around the grocery store. She bought the necessary items and arrived at home. She could smell something savory right at the door.

“Getting delivery food is usually the way to go for a house visit,” said her husband, flipping the tofu on the frying pan.

“There’s a skilled chef at home so why bother? I’ll help after I get washed.”

After having a shower, she went to the kitchen. She put the food cooked by Maru onto plates.

She wondered how many times they had worked together at a restaurant they set up together.

“This reminds me of the old times.”

“Can it be called old times?” Haneul replied.

Her husband replied ‘that’s true’ and laughed.

Starting with fried tofu and kimchi, various dishes were laid out on the table, starting from those that were good when cooled, to those that were best eaten warm.

Just then, the bell rang. Haneul took off her apron and went to the porch.

The small kitten that moved here a while ago, Coco, followed her out. He was someone with a lot of curiosity and would rush out if she opened the door. She picked him up and turned the doorknob.

“A cat is welcoming us.”

“It’s cute.”

It was Ganghwan and Suyeon.

“You’re here at the perfect time. We just finished setting the table.”

“You made so much,” Ganghwan said while looking at the table.

Hnaeul received a long paper bag from Suyeon. It seemed to be wine.

“I brought something that can be drunk lightly. It’s sparkling wine.”

“Thank you.”

Suyeon smiled and looked around the house. Unlike Ganghwan, who commented on everything in the house, like how the TV was big or how the wallpapers were done nicely, she quietly appreciated everything.

“That couple didn’t happen many times,” Haneul said next to Maru.

“Whatever the case may be, the two of them do suit each other. It’d be great if senior Ganghwan was more quiet, but I don’t think that’s possible.”

Her husband smiled and went to the living room with the last dish. Haneul took out some champagne glasses from the cupboard, including one for Geunsoo who should be here soon.

“Nice location. Should I move here as well?” Ganghwan said as he looked outside the window.

“Have you two looked into what house you’ll move into once you’re married?” Haneul asked as she put down the glasses.

Suyeon responded, “Not yet.”

Ganghwan added, “We were originally looking into the outer perimeter of Seoul or one of the new cities, but this area is pretty good. I thought Seoul was all noisy, so I can’t believe a place with the Han River view is so quiet.”

“This place is gold. There’s no need to go outside during fireworks festivals. Just open the window and you have VIP seats.”

Haneul poured the sparkling wine that Suyeon brought into the champagne glasses.

After handing one over to Ganghwan, who was on the veranda, she approached Suyeon who was standing still in front of the bedroom.

“Here.” Haneul gave her a glass.

Suyeon received it after thanking her.

“Aren’t you curious about what’s in the bedroom?”

Suyeon nodded, saying that she was a little interested. When she did, Ganghwan came over and spoke,

“Let’s keep our manners here.”

“It’s nothing special, so it’s fine. Also, it’s better to look into a lot of things if you want to decorate your newlywed house. It’s not something I can boast about, but we have a pretty neat room,” Haneul said as she opened the bedroom.

Suyeon went inside first, and Ganghwan followed suit.

“The duvet has a nice color.”

“Maru hand-picked both the outer cover and the inner material and had them custom-made.”

“Really? So he could do things like that, huh.”

“You should try sitting on it. If it’s okay with you, I’ll tell Maru about it.”

“I can’t ask for so much.”

“There’s no need to feel sorry. It’s something I want to do for you, unni. Of course, the real work will be done by the person out there.”

Suyeon rubbed her hand against the duvet before sitting down on the bed.

Her expression brightened up. She seemed to have taken a liking to the touch. Haneul felt proud as though she was praised herself.

“Can you help us out when we buy things for the new house? If she and I are the only ones buying things, I’m sure the house will turn out awful.”

“Why of course.”

Just as they started talking about the furniture, the bell rang once again. She left the bedroom and looked towards the porch. Maru was opening the door and greeting Geunsoo.

“Nice house.”

Haneul focused on the thing that Geunsoo brought. A long paper bag. It was yet another alcoholic drink. She smiled.

Ganghwan and Suyeon came out to the living room. Everyone that needed to be here was here, so it was time to eat and chat.

As soon as they sat down, Ganghwan went on like a machine gun. She had experienced this a few times before, yet she couldn’t help but be surprised nonetheless.

It wasn’t easy to keep talking without going on about repeated topics, and yet Ganghwan kept going on and on. Thanks to that, there was not a single quiet moment throughout their meal.

“I’ll get some more food,” Maru stood up.

Haneul made a glance at the empty plates once and then at Geunsoo who was smiling. She did hear that he ate a lot, but this was a lot more than she had imagined.

Until now, they had only met a few times in a café or at a drinking party, so she hadn’t seen him eat for real. Her husband wasn’t kidding when he said that Geunsoo might become successful as a food fighter.

“What part of Maru do you find the sexiest?” Suyeon suddenly asked.

The questions she tossed out every once in a while from out of nowhere were all difficult to answer. She especially liked to make lewd jokes like it was nothing when she was drunk, and the age rating of whatever she said even made Ganghwan speechless.

This was something that even Maru didn’t know before, so these members actually had quite some trouble during their last drinking session.

“Unni.”

“Yeah?”

“You should stop drinking.”

“Why?”

“You’re slowly revving up. Anyway, you’re forbidden from drinking from now on.”

“I’m starting to feel sad all of a sudden.”

Suyeon sighed and rested her chin on her hands. These members were all very unique. Haneul had fun just watching the three in front of her.

After the meal, she got some fruit for the three people who sat side by side on the sofa. After about thirty minutes, Suyeon spoke,

“It’s about time we leave, but I strangely don’t want to leave.”

“Yeah, me too.”

“It’s someone else’s house, but it feels like my own. How curious.”

Seeing the three people mutter, Haneul smiled.

“Have a good rest.”

While she put away the plates, she could hear the three of them chat. They were mostly talking about moving into this neighborhood.

“This really is a tenacious fate alright,” said her husband while wiping the moisture on the dishes that were washed.

She nodded and looked at the three people in the living room.

After Story 238

“Hyung, when did you learn things like this?”

“When I had free time.”

Maru marked the plastered wall using a pen with a thread in his mouth. After marking at regular intervals, he stepped back and had a look at how it turned out. It had been a long time since he did this, but nothing was off.

He took out the packaged tiles from the box. When he laid out the beige tiles, two of them were broken.

“Are these broken ones unusable?” Yoonseok asked with a pitying tone.

“Put the broken ones to the side. I’m going to use a tile cutter to cut them and use them for the corners.”

“Tile cutter?”

“There’s a blue cutting device in the trunk of the car. Go get that one for me. And bring the scraper as well.”

Yoonseok, who was about to go outside, stopped and asked back,

“What’s a scraper?”

“It’s something that’s used for plastering walls. There’s one made of rubber and one made of plastic. Bring both of them. You’ll know what they are once you see them.”

“I think I know what it is.”

Maru dissolved some tile glue in some water and stirred it around. He stopped stirring when the liquid became viscous and the stirring became difficult. He asked Yoonseok to pass him the scraper. He used the plastic scraper to scoop some of the glue and toss it onto the wall.

The clumped glue made a splat sound and got stuck on the wall. Maru threw the glue across regular intervals.

“When you told me that you could do it, I honestly thought that we were going to have a hard time, but you’re a total expert. Should I try as well?”

Yoonseok dipped another scraper into the glue and threw some on the wall. The glue, which was supposed to get stuck on the wall, rolled straight down to the floor.

“Keep going if you want to make more work. If you really want to help, look for something else to do. I think cleaning, or very thorough cleaning will be helpful,” Maru said with a smile.

“It’s not easy, huh? Okay, I’ll clean things up. Tell me if you need anything.”

While Yoonseok threw away the trash, Maru spread out the glue on the wall evenly with the scraper. After spreading the glue without any gaps, he plastered the tiles. After filling the gaps with grout, it was almost time for lunch.

“That looks clean,” Yoonseok said while waving around a bowl of black soybean noodles.

He looked really impressed with the wall and eventually started taking photos.

“If you don’t have anything to do in the future, work with me on doing interiors like this. If I learn some skills from you, I don’t think I’ll have a problem making a living.”

“Skills like this are good, but they will decline in popularity in the future. DIY interiors will become much more accessible.”

Maru looked at the wall that he didn’t tile. They were going to hang up a couple of photo frames in order to make the most out of the stuffy and rough concrete texture.

A decorated wall and a raw wall. It seemed to be a pretty decent device to portray Yoo Daejoo’s feelings.

Yoonseok spoke as he ate some fried pork,

“The furniture and books will arrive tomorrow. For the books, I looked into second-hand bookstores. I’m also planning to donate those books to the local library afterward. What do you think?”

“Sounds good.”

“I wonder if it will be donated under the name of the movie, not a person. Anyway, the books turned out to be a pretty big expenditure from the props budget. For the interior construction, we saved a lot thanks to you. I’m saving up as much as possible in many areas, but it’s not easy.”

Maru spoke as he picked up a piece of pickled radish,

“Have you looked for a cameraman?”

“Yes. When I pushed your name forward, I got contacted by quite a lot of people. I picked someone I thought I could get along with and met up with him.”

“Any experience?”

“He worked in camera teams for several works, including a commercial film. There were two indie films where he was the main cameraperson. There were many people with amazing experiences, but this person was not that far apart from me in age.”

“Did you have a look at what he worked on?”

Yoonseok took out his phone. He went to Youtube and showed him a video. It was a video that only used natural lighting.

The subject of the camera was a woman and the sky. The video, which was taken with different compositions at different times, was fresh and rather sensational.

“Here. I liked this composition a lot. I’ll frame you and the wall from a low angle and hang a light above. The light will look like it’s crushing down on you.”

“It’s okay as long as you think he’ll work well with you. How about lighting?”

“I asked a director I got to know during the Short Film Festival. When I told him where I would be shooting, he told me that he would send one person. He sounded so professional.”

“What about payment?”

“He said 50 thousand per shoot will suffice. I asked again if that wasn’t too little, but he said that I should buy him some good food. I felt so grateful. Apparently, he’s helping me out because he has some room until he participates in a movie in October and November. This is why connections are important,” Yoonseok said as he raised his thumb.

Right now, Yoonseok was involved in both directing the movie and procurement. He was probably busier with more things outside of the scope of film creation than inside.

“If Jiseon didn’t help me out, I would’ve collapsed a long time ago.”

“Don’t forget to thank her, and treat her well.”

“I will.”

“Have you looked into equipment rental costs? You’ll be losing a bunch of money for every single mistake you make.”

“That’s why I’m praying. Everything would be for naught if I rented everything and it started raining all of a sudden. I decided to rent the lighting equipment after consulting the lighting director, and as for the camera, I’m deciding between two manufacturers. I don’t plan to do a lot of post-edits.”

“Choose carefully. If there’s anything you don’t know, ask the directors of the respective areas for their opinions.”

“I’ve been asking them questions non-stop these days. It turns out there are so many things I don’t know.”

“That’s how everyone is at first. The first time is always the hardest.”

“This is my second time, though?”

“Comparing a film you shot with just a single camera to this situation is ridiculous. You formed the production crew right?”

“I gathered some of the members from last time and some others who showed interest in the work to create the Lee Yoonseok crew. They’ll get passion pay, but this is what friends are good for, right?”

“You should give them minimum wage at least.”

“If there's a budget left, sure. I’ll go with a standard contract for outside resources, and for my friends, I’ll decide when the time comes. I did promise to treat them to a good meal if it goes well, so there’s that too!”

Yoonseok put down the chopsticks. He rubbed the floor of the store with his two hands before speaking,

“It’s going to start next week, huh? I still can’t believe it. I didn’t know things would go this smoothly.”

“It’s still too early to feel emotional. There is still a mountain load of things to do. Once we’re done with the interior design, we have to do the outside. The signboard construction comes tomorrow, right?”

“Yes. Once we remove the sticky stuff from the glass wall, bring the furniture in, and display the books, I think that will be the end of it. As for the rest, we have to fill it with the passionate acting of our main actor.”

Yoonseok put away the empty plates. Maru drank some coffee before doing some finishing touches.

“You’re done already? Oppa, when did you learn something like this?”

6 p.m. Jison came after finishing her part-time work.

“I asked him that as well, and his answer was ‘when he had time.’ It’s a magical word really. I think he has hundreds of hours of spare time,” Yoonseok said.

“This feels like a café. I think it’ll look really good once the books are in and we display them.”

Jiseon put down the eco bag she was holding. Maru took out two picture frames from it. It looked better than when he looked at the photos of them.

“Yoonseok, I’m going to hang them up over there. Are you okay with that?” Maru said as he placed the sunflower photo against the concrete wall.

Yoonseok watched with his arms crossed before nodding. When he started looking for a hammer to nail it in, they got a package.

“Oppa, what’s this? It’s pretty heavy,” Jiseon said as she put down the box.

“Some lights. Yoonseok picked them.”

Maru cut the tape with a box cutter and opened the box. He took out the LED light strip rail inside.

“We should do this quickly before the sun sets. Jiseon, bring me a chair.”

He turned off the circuit breaker and ripped open the ceiling. He got some lead lines from his right and put them through a PVC pipe to install the LED rail on the wall.

“Can you pass me the electrical tape?”

“Here.”

He extended the lines and wrapped them up in insulating electrical tape before setting up the main light in the middle of the store. When he lined them at just the right angle, it looked neat without having to bury the lead lines.

“You really can do anything huh.”

“Yoonseok should be able to do it as well.”

Yoonseok cut in after he finished hammering a nail into the wall – I could never do something like that. Maru turned on the circuit breaker again and tried turning the lights on. The orange light shone down on the interior of the store, making things look cozy.

“Tell the director the color of the interior lighting.”

“Okay.”

Maru dusted his hands and looked around the store.

They had allocated three whole days for this, so it ended pretty early. Once the furniture and the books arrived, it would complete a set for a middle-length movie.

“It feels totally different to when we shot that film 3 years ago. We’re preparing a lot of things.”

“Even after all this preparation, you never know what problems may occur once we start the shoot. Yoonseok will have to be prepared to take on a challenge.”

“I’m sure he’ll do well. He’s shooting a film with someone else’s money. If he isn’t snappy, he’s not even human, is he?” Jiseon said as he looked at Yoonseok.

“I’m preparing everything snappily so don’t worry.”

Yoonseok walked around the inside and outside of the store to take photos. He seemed to be wanting to add some detail to the storyboard that he wrote.

“Let’s split up after dinner. My body’s aching after spending the whole day here. I wouldn’t have put in this much effort even if this was setting up my own store,” Maru said with a smile.

For this film, he was participating from the very bottom. Youth and passion, which were two things that existed in a very lukewarm state at the very bottom of his heart, started rising up.

He was rather worried because he had a lot of memories where a movie flopped midway, but he couldn’t help but put trust in it and push forward with it. That was the best he could do at this stage.

“You’re coming to the audition tomorrow, right?”

“I will.”

Maru asked as he left the store,

“So how many people applied for it?”

Yoonseok quietly put up three fingers.

“Thirty people?”

“Three hundred people. This was the first time I got so many emails that weren’t spam mail. People sent their profiles in like crazy when they found out that Han Maru was cast as the main actor.”

“I’m sure you didn’t have all of them come. How many did you filter out?”

“Around twenty people will be coming. It was quite a task sending three hundred notification emails. I felt sorry writing ‘maybe next time’ emails too.”

“It can’t be helped,” Jiseon said.

“Anyway, tomorrow will be the most important. The movie will only do well if I meet the right actors. But I’m quite nervous because I haven’t assessed any actors before. What do you say I just let you take care of everything?”

“Should I be the director as well?” Maru said as he twitched his eyes.

Yoonseok shook his head, saying that he was just joking.

“Think about it while eating: what are you going to focus on and what additional points you’re going to focus on if there are two people with similar vibes.”

“I guess I’m not going to eat well,” Yoonseok said as he opened the door to the barbecue restaurant.

* * *

“Yes, please write your name here. We’re going to do the audition in order of arrival, so please line up.”

Hearing Jiseon’s words, the actors who came for the audition lined up against the wall. Seeing that, Yoonseok felt unbelievably nervous. He knew that they were attracted by the name ‘Han Maru’ rather than the charm of the movie itself, but he was excited that so many people came here nonetheless.

“But why isn’t he coming?” Yoonseok muttered hastily and checked the time on his phone.

There were thirty minutes until the appointment.

He called Maru.

“Hyung, where are you?”

-On my way.

“Come quickly.”

-There’s still time. Why?

“I’m nervous.”

-Take it easy and go inside the audition room. Don’t walk around greeting the actors. If you talk to any one of them, you’ll make them feel like the audition is unfair. Just sit down quietly and go through their profiles.

“Oh, right, the profiles.”

Yoonseok hung up. He could feel the gazes of the actors on the back of his head. They seemed to have realized that he was the director.

He quietly opened the door to the audition room and went inside. This was no time to be nervous.

He had to get himself together and do some pre-work to bring a good actor to the team.

After Story 239

It was noisy outside. Yoonseok put down the profiles and opened the door slightly. What he saw was the actors waiting in the hallway all looking in the same direction.

Maru was coming towards the audition room.

“I almost thought you were going to be late,” Yoonseok said with a sigh of relief after Maru came into the room.

“Calm down and have some leisure. The actors will imagine things if they see you all nervous.”

Maru was right. Even if he was feeling incredibly nervous inside, he had to feign calmness on the outside.

He sat down and leaned against the chair before breathing regularly. His agitated mood calmed down after he spent some time in a comfortable position.

“I thought giving a presentation was the most nerve-racking thing in the world, but watching a presentation is no less nerve-racking.”

“You’re going to have to get used to that if you want to keep working as a director. But don’t get too loose. Be polite. You have to respect the actors while also rationally assessing them.”

Yoonseok looked at Maru through the corner of his eyes. Maru felt different from usual today. Instead of his amicable smile and words, his tone was a level deeper and made people nervous.

“Among the people outside, there’s probably not a single one who’s participating in this audition lightly. On the contrary, there should be a lot of people who came here in desperation, thinking that this is their last chance. Watch every single one of them carefully. If you have any questions, ask them clearly.”

“Okay.”

Yoonseok sat up. He felt like he knew why Maru was different from usual. Whether he liked it or not, this was a place of evaluation. Some would pass and some would fail.

When Maru told him to watch every single one of them carefully, it touched something deep inside his heart. He really would have to look at them properly to judge them properly.

“Are you ready?” Jiseon asked after opening the door.

Yoonseok drank half a cup of water before nodding.

“I’ll be next to the camera. Once an actor comes in, do a brief self-introduction and watch their acting. If you can feel the image you want from them or you can’t feel anything at all, ask them to do something else. We’re not doing this on a tight schedule, so I hope you can give each of the actors enough time.”

“I’ll bear that in mind. Don’t you have anything to say to the actors?”

Maru, who was standing next to the camera, thought for a little before shaking his head.

“I’ll be staying quiet unless it’s absolutely necessary. You choose who you want to work with.”

Yoonseok shut his eyes for a moment before opening them again. Maru was giving him his full trust. He had to go into this audition with a cautious heart instead of with one that was wavering around.

The door opened and the first actor came in.

“Hello,” the actor greeted.

Yoonseok shifted around in his chair a little before asking,

“What is your name?”

“I’m Lee Youngji.”

“Miss Lee Youngji, please wait a moment.”

He looked for the name Lee Youngji among the profiles. At the same time, he thought that he should organize the profiles a little.

He quickly scanned the profile in front of him. She had experience as a fitting model, an advert model, and was cast in a web drama.

Yoonseok raised his head after reading it. He didn’t realize when she said hello, but the person in front of him was very nervous. She was smiling, but her shoulders were constricted. He felt sorry after seeing that. He hurriedly asked her to show him her acting.

The actress brought a chair, which was prepared on the side, and sat down. She put her phone against her ear and started talking.

“Yes, okay. No, Mom. I still have plenty of money left. How’s dad?”

The actress calmly acted with an everyday tone. However, thanks to being stiff, her acting looked unnatural. The contrast between her head and the rest of the body was not great.

“Thank you for the performance.”

Yoonseok felt like he had made a mistake after saying those words. He felt like he had displayed too much of his disappointment. The actress quietly stood up from the chair.

What was he supposed to do now? Thank her and send her out?

The actress in front of him clearly looked disappointed and shut her mouth. She looked like she was wanting one more opportunity.

At that time, he thought back to what Maru said – look at another act if it was really good or really bad.

“You prepared another one, right? We wrote two free skits when we posted the announcement.”

“Yes. I have another one.”

“Can we have a look?”

Yoonseok kept the actress’ style in one corner of his mind and had a look at her next skit. This time, the actress walked circles around the audition room as she acted.

She definitely looked a lot better than when she was doing something still. She also looked to have shaken off her nervousness as she moved around. However, he felt that the second skit too was rather unnatural.

“Thank you. We’ll reach out to you as soon as possible.”

“Is it over?”

“Yes.”

“Oh, okay.”

The actress, who was about to leave after saying goodbye, flinched and looked toward the camera. Her eyes widened before she covered her mouth sightly. It seemed she just found Maru.

“Good work today,” Maru said.

The actress looked overjoyed.

After the door closed, Yoonseok spoke, “I think it’d be better if you sat here instead. Did you see how happy she was?”

“She wasn’t happy. She just found me curious. Also, don’t you need to organize the profiles?”

“Oh, right. I thought that too.”

Maru opened the door and called for Jiseon. Yoonseok sorted the profiles in order.

“Hyung. Am I doing this properly?”

“I wouldn’t know. I don’t know what your standards for actors are.”

“I kept watching that person, and it made me keep thinking that maybe I lack the discernment for people with good acting.”

“You can’t know everything just through an audition. The best thing you can do is to get a feel for who that person is. Try substituting that person into the role you think that person is fit for and then mark them down if you deem that they’re suitable. If you come across two people with similar impressions, you have to cross-check the two of them closely.”

Maru’s words cleared up his head in an instant.

“You’re like an internet search bar. You get me an answer no matter what I ask.”

“Don’t take what I say for what it is, and keep reminding yourself who the director is. They’re the people who would turn into reality the things in your mind. You have to think harder than any other time.”

Yoonseok picked up a blue pen as he listened to Maru’s words. He marked the first actor’s profile with an X at the top.

Her appearance was not inadequate. After all, she had worked as a model before, but she wasn’t appropriate for the role he wanted.

“Please let the next person in,” Yoonseok said to Jiseon, who opened the door.

Maru said a word before the door closed,

“Jiseon. If no one says anything, send the next participant around 30 seconds after the previous actor leaves. You should only hold off if we specifically tell you to wait.”

“Okay, got it.”

The next actor came into the room. He was a man in his 30s with curly hair and a messy beard. They mentioned on the audition notice that the store owner was a man in his middle thirties that was about to close down his business, and based on image alone, he passed.

“Hello,” said the actor.

Unlike his undecorated appearance, his voice was very good.

“I came here looking messy because the notice said the role is someone who is about to close down their business. I thought that person wouldn’t spend a long time caring about his looks since he must be having a hard time.”

“So you didn’t shave on purpose. I was surprised because you had just the image I was thinking of.”

“Thank you for your good impressions.”

Yoonseok checked the profile. Moon Seokjin.

“Mr. Moon Seokjin. Please show us your skit.”

If he was a good actor, then the laundry shop’s owner would go to this person.

* * *

“Jiseon, wait a sec,” Yoonseok said as he stood up.

He had a sore back after sitting down with nervousness for so long. He didn’t know that it was such a hard thing to watch a person intently.

“You held around seven camera tests, so I’m guessing there must be one or two actors you have in mind at least,” Maru said as he stood next to him.

Yoonseok showed him three profiles.

“I’m thinking of these three. What do you think?”

“Your thought matters more than my opinion.”

“Tell me anyway. It’s a movie we’re making together. I want you to tell me how my discernment is, not as an actor participating in the film but as an investor.”

Maru picked up those three profiles. He carefully looked through each one of them and spoke,

“Two out of these three people caught my eye.”

“Who’s the one you didn’t choose?”

“I won’t tell you.”

Maru returned the profiles. Two out of three. It was a number he could be relieved about.

“There’s not many left now, huh? It’s really exhausting going through dozens of people. I wonder how judges who go through hundreds of people cope.”

Yoonseok stretched his arms out and sat down. He told Jiseon to send the next person in.

“Hello!”

Her greeting was very energetic. From how her cheerful voice and smile looked natural, it seemed to be just her nature. Feeling energized, Yoonseok also greeted back.

“Hello. You’ve waited for a long time, haven’t you?”

At this point, he had gotten more leeway and was able to converse a little with the actors aside from just greeting them.

“I don’t care that I have to wait when it’s an opportunity to play a role in a good work. Also, senior Han Maru. I’m a fan of yours!”

The woman in her early twenties talked to Maru as well. Maru nodded with a smile.

“Miss Ahn Haeun.”

“Yes!”

She responded immediately like a student. Yoonseok held back his smile and told her to show them what she had.

“I’ll start now then.”

It would definitely feel good to have an energetic person like that on set – thinking such things, he watched her skit.

“5 thousand won. Fine, I’m feeling generous today. Just give me 4 thousand. Hey, if I gave you such a discount and spent so much of my time on you, shouldn’t you be buying it?”

The notice for actresses had no particular requirements except age, so the free skits were quite varied.

The actress in front of him played a pushy saleswoman. It fit her cheerful image.

Just as he was thinking that she was pretty good, the actress flinched. It seemed she had forgotten her line. Some of the actors before her had made similar mistakes before.

Just as he was going to tell her that it was okay and that she should take her time to try again, she spoke,

“Dammit, I’ll do that again.”

He didn’t know whether she was mad at herself or at the situation, but the actress vented her frustration audibly before starting her act again.

Yoonseok made an awkward expression and straightened his face before watching the skit.

Just as he was thinking that it was just a human error, the actress stopped again, at the same spot in the skit even.

“I wasn’t like this before, ah, really. I’m sorry. Can I try again?” the actress said to Maru.

Yoonseok was about to speak but ended up staying quiet. He felt awkward, but at the same time, thought that it couldn’t be helped. Maru was an actor whose popularity was increasing by the day, while he was a director who couldn’t even fund his own work properly. He could understand that the participants looked to Maru for permission instead of him.

“Miss Ahn Haeun.”

“Yes!” replied the actress with a bright smile.

“Why are you trying to get permission from me? Shouldn’t you be asking the person seated in front of you?”

Maru sounded like an office worker here on business. His tone was very flat and contained minimal emotions.

Hearing Maru’s words, the actress’ bright face turned into stone in an instant.

“I’d like to say a few words to Miss Haeun, is that okay, director?”

Yoonseok immediately responded with a yes.

“An actor should be displaying their themes through acting. Miss Haeun. Do you always smile like that? Outside and in front of other people?”

“N-no.”

“Then why did you do that? You can’t guarantee that you’ll pass even if you focus on your acting alone, yet you were making up a character that had nothing to do with the role you were acting out.”

“I just wanted to look good…”

“If you wanted to look good, then you should have focused on your acting. You should have studied your own skits if you had the time to work on ridiculous roleplay like that.”

The actress’ eyes dropped down. The cheerfulness in her shoulders calmed down as well. She admitted through her silence that her cheerful image was just an act.

“I can understand that you’re nervous. I can understand that you want to do well. But if you plan to take acting seriously, if you aren’t here as a joke, then show us what you have after you perfect what you have to do. And also, keep your manners.”

“I’m sorry.”

Maru gestured to Yoonseok again. It seemed that he finished what he was going to talk about. Yoonseok coughed softly before speaking,

“Uhm, Miss Haeun.”

“Yes?”

“Calm down a little and show us what you prepared. Don’t be nervous. I actually liked your act just now.”

After saying that, Yoonseok turned around to Maru.

Maru smiled and nodded, as though to indicate that Yoonseok didn’t need to be so mindful of him since it was Yoonseok himself who had the right to decide.

“Proceed when you’re ready,” Yoonseok said as he picked up a pen.

After Story 240

“Thank you for your performance. We’ll notify you of the result as soon as possible.”

The actress who finished acting, let out a small breath. She maintained her emotion well until the end of her act. Her tone and her expressivity were good. Overall she was an actress with talent.

“Miss Haeun,” Maru called out to the actress who stepped back while flinching. She shriveled her neck inwards and firmly sealed her lips like she had done something wrong.

“How did you feel when I said the things I said before?”

“I just… thought that I made a huge mistake. As you said, this was supposed to be a place where I was supposed to show my acting, but I focused on other things. To tell you the truth, I was so nervous. I wanted to say hello calmly, but I felt like I wouldn’t be able to do anything out of nervousness, so I played a cheerful character.”

“Do you not have confidence in your acting, Miss Haeun?”

The actress stroked down the back of her hair before speaking, “I’m not sure. The acting school tells me I’m good, but I failed every single audition. After that happened a few times, I started to lose whatever confidence I had.”

“What about now? Are you nervous?”

The actress shook her head. “I’m not really nervous. I just feel slightly bitter.”

“Do you think you finished off your acting well?”

“I made mistakes at first, but I don’t have any complaints in regard to anything I did after that.”

Maru looked the actress in the eyes. “I can’t tell you to keep trying. I dare not say that you will pass this time. However, I can tell you that your acting was good. Believe in the things you have done until now. Stop thinking things like ‘how do I lighten up the mood at the audition? What do I have to do in order to get attention?’ Anyone who sees your acting for what it is will remember you as an actress.”

“Thank you.”

“I’m sorry for telling you all this after I scolded you earlier. I just felt a little angry when I saw someone who can do well go off on a tangent.”

“Not at all, it was me who made a mistake.” The actress looked at Yoonseok before continuing, “Director, I’m really sorry for what happened before. I was definitely not looking down on you or anything. I was just flustered and happened to catch sight of senior Han Maru first. That’s why I inadvertently asked him for permission. I really had no intention of ignoring you.”

Yoonseok replied with a smile, “You can ignore someone like me. It’s true that I’m a no-name director who doesn’t have much to give you. He was overreacting.”

“Yes. I was overreacting,” Maru said with a smile.

The actress, who looked around nervously, eventually smiled.

“Then I’ll take my leave.”

The actress quietly opened the door and left.

“She must’ve been surprised. You know, you can scare people off if you get angry for real. I feel like I’m getting scolded too.”

“I could see that she was frozen up for something totally weird. I went a little strong because she looked like the type of person who would pull herself together if she was scolded properly. She had a solid foundation, so I did want to see her do things properly too.”

He wouldn’t have said anything if she was below his standards. He could simply erase her from his memory altogether whether she was polite or not. He said all he said because he saw that she could do better. He had seen many people like her when he was a professor in theater. There were those that put too much energy into other things because they were unable to fully trust in the acting skills they had prepared.

“You can see things like that?”

“You can see things like that when you’re my age.”

“You shouldn’t be doing acting, but doing supernatural things. I heard that a foreigner is willing to give 1 million dollars if you can prove supernatural things are real. I think your discernment of people should be sufficient to get that.”

“I’ll try if I have the time.”

Yoonseok wrote some words on the actress’ profile. Maru couldn’t see what he was writing, but whatever he was writing, it was pretty long.

“Hyung, I know I have the right to decide, but you can give me some advice, right?”

“What do you want to ask?”

“If you can choose just one person out of everyone we saw until now, who are you going to pick?”

“That person just now.”

“You didn’t hesitate.”

“It’s because she’s good.”

“Okay. I’ll reflect the investor’s opinion.”

Maru opened the door slightly and looked outside. There weren’t many people waiting anymore.

“I guess we should be done soon. I know there’s more time to decide, but you’d better start thinking about who you’re going to pick if you want to start the shoot as soon as possible.”

“I made my pick already. If there’s no one suitable among the people left, these will be the people I’ll be picking,” Yoonseok said as he put forward a few of the profiles. Maru looked at the photos and the names on the profiles and nodded. They were exactly the people he had in mind.

“Hello!”

The next actor came in. Maru looked back at the viewfinder again.

* * *

“Please give me one of each,” said Na Baekhoon as he pointed at the products on display.

“All of them?” the employee asked for confirmation.

“Yes. All of them. Oh, and about this photo book,” Baekhoon said as he picked up a photo book with Han Haneul as the cover.

“Are there other covers as well? With Miss Haneul as the model, I mean.”

“Wait a moment, sir. Miss Hayoung, can take over for a sec?”

Another employee took over the sales front for a moment. Baekhoon locked his hands behind his back and looked around the other souvenirs.

Not long later, the employee from before came back. In her hands was a plastic box.

“There are ten different photo books.”

“Then give me all ten of them.”

“The ones with Han Haneul as the cover, right?”

“Yes,” Baekhoon said, handing over his credit card.

These were goods he could easily get his hands on from home through his connections, but wasn’t merch all about going to the place and lining up?

He cautiously picked up the shopping bags that were overflowing with goods. He could feel the people waiting outside the booth give him a glance. A man nearly forty walking with his hands full of celebrity merch was quite a sight to see even in his opinion.

“I really enjoyed the performance.”

Haneul, whom he met in the makeup room, seemed more interested in the souvenirs he was holding instead of greeting back.

“Did you buy all of them?”

“No one bought them for me, so I did buy all of them.”

“How much did you buy?”

“I asked for everything, so it’s probably everything. These days, the people selling merch are cunning, provoking people’s aesthetics and whatnot. They release the same content just with a different cover. When a friend of mine complained that her daughter was obsessed with collecting idol photos, I just laughed it over, but now it’s me who’s like this.”

“What are you going to do with all of those?” Haneul said as she picked up one of the photo books.

“I’ll put some on display and store away the rest. Tell me if you need any of them later.”

“Would there ever come a day when I need these?”

“You never know. You might use them when you reminisce about old memories on TV when you’re older. Rather than that, I quite like this photographer. Whoever it is, they’re skilled. I should contact them and work with them.”

“Seems like that person stimulated your aesthetic possessive desire.”

“It’s not to that extent. They just seem skilled at their work?”

Baekhoon talked to Haenul over some drinks. He asked about what she was doing recently and then switched topics to the film she was preparing.

“Is the scenario you told me you had a reliable writer take care of going well?”

“The speed is slow, but the outcome is satisfactory. I think I’ll be able to show you the completed script before the end of the year.”

“You aren’t someone to give empty promises, so I guess I’ll be looking forward to that. If it’s possible, I’d like to be able to talk to that writer in person. As meager as it may be, I do have the title of investor.”

“Do you not trust me?” Haneul smiled.

Baekhoon slowly shook his head. “If that’s how it sounded to you, then allow me to retract what I said. I was simply curious like a child not being able to wait for a Christmas present.”

“I was just joking. I’ll tell him about it. It might not happen for a while since he’s on the edge these days because of writing.”

“That’s enough for me. Oh, does the writer write at home? Or does he have a workshop?”

“I got a workshop for him.”

“Please tell me the address then. I’m not planning to visit him. I just wish to send him a small gift. I’ll just write a few messages as encouragement.”

“He likes food, so you can send him some food.”

“I know a very good oriental doctor, so I’ll send him some invigorating tonics.”

Baekhoon wrote down the address. His life was filled with joy ever since he got to know about Haneul. She was a person he felt satisfaction from just by looking. How joyful was that?

He then asked about his other joy in life,

“Is Mr. Maru doing well these days? I was busy with work, so I even feel guilty that I paid less attention to you two.”

“Maru’s doing well.”

“I heard the news that he finished the movie shoot. He must be resting right now, huh?”

Haneul shrugged.

“He’s someone who just can’t stay still. He’s working on something else right now.”

“Really? That’s peculiar. It turns out there’s a project in Chungmuro that’s so secret that it’s not even known to me.”

“It’s not surprising that you don’t know about it. It’s not in Chungmuro after all.”

“Then…”

Baekhoon looked at Haneul’s mouth. An actor who was gaining rapid fame and must be getting called from all sorts of places, was preparing for something else aside from a movie?

“Hollywood?”

“You went too far.”

“I believe it’s a plausible possibility.”

“Even if there’s an opportunity, that person won’t go overseas so easily, unless it’s going to an overseas film festival through a domestic film.”

“Well, I too like Mr. Maru shooting movies that are in line with the Korean sentiments. High-budget blockbuster movies aren’t my cup of tea either. Then what is he shooting? An indie movie?”

“Yes, it is.”

An indie movie. Baekhoon thought about stories that were filled with uniqueness. It would be great if the subject of the movie didn’t contain any entertainment and went frowningly deep into a topic.

There was no movie that made him uneasy recently, so he quite looked forward to it.

“Who’s the director he’s working with?”

Haneul smiled and told him that it’d be better if he got the answer from the person himself.

Baekhoon accepted that advice. He separated from Haneul and returned to his car. He cautiously put the bag of souvenirs in the passenger seat and picked up his phone.

“Mr. Maru. It’s been a long time.”

He felt pleased as soon as he heard Maru’s soothing voice. Haneul and Maru. It was a great fortune to be able to watch this couple from the side.

After saying that he was on his way back from meeting Haneul, he asked about the indie movie. He waited for an answer with great anticipation about who the director was.

-It’s director Lee Yoonseok.

“Director Lee Yoonseok?”

He rolled his eyes up and down and probed his memories. Unfortunately, that name wasn’t on his list of ‘decent directors’ in his head.

Though, it wasn’t that he knew all the directors in the country, so he asked again.

“What kind of person is he? He must be quite talented if you’re putting off a commercial movie to work with him.”

Maru calmly explained to him what kind of person the director was.

Until just a moment ago, he thought that Maru’s voice had a soothing effect on a person’s heart. However, the more he spoke, the more Baekhoon’s mind became chaotic and the more his eyes frowned.

“A director who just got out of the military and released an indie film before?”

-That’s a great summary.

“Mr. Maru. I have not been able to hide my admiration for you when I looked at your previous works. I thought you were a great actor when I saw you trying out new characters at a stage where you should be digging into one type of image to gain fame. Whether it’s the works you were in or the popularity of them, they were all great.”

-It puts a lot of pressure on me whenever you praise me like that, director. I’m not that good.

“Even if you deny it, I believe you are, so it doesn’t matter. Anyway, I always applauded your decisions, and at the same time, anticipated what your next work would be.”

Baekhoon leaned back against the seat.

“But your decision this time is baffling me. It’s not that I don’t trust you, but… a director who just got out of the military and is someone who is neither a major nor has any experiences in real movie shoots…”

After Story 241

-Are you worried?

“If I am to be honest, yes. People cannot be perfect, just like how there is no baseball player who hits perfect home runs every time and no pitcher who always throws three strikeouts. Even the most discerning men are bound to slip. I do not expect your filmography to be perfect. Your acting may be perfect, but the elements that make up your career can have one or two imperfections.”

People were made up of their successes and failures. There was bound to be a path downhill if there was an uphill, and the opposite was true. The movie that Haneul participated in as a minor character did not receive good evaluations nor did it see economic success. While Haneul’s acting was flawless, a movie was not made up of one person’s act.

That one slip put a flaw in Haneul’s filmography. However, no one would give her a low assessment just because of that. That was a variable that no individual could control.

Maru would also one day shoot a piece that the masses would turn their back on. A work that had no commercial or artistic value.

That was fate. It was something that all actors experienced.

However, Na Baekhoon did not want Maru’s filmography to slip up here. If he shot with a director who had proven his skills alongside the best possible production crew and still did not see success, then sure. He would understand that.

But a film with a nameless student director and a bunch of new actors that they recruited through an audition? That was no different from asking for failure.

“I appreciate your challenging mindset. I also know that I am in no position to give you advice. However, as a fan, as someone who roots for your actions more than anyone else, I can’t help but feel worried.”

-It’s not just you, director. I’m sure many other people think the same thing. I understand that. I also appreciate that you’re worried about me.

“Does… does president Lee know about this as well?”

-Yes. He does.

“Well, I guessed so. That person encourages actors to do what they want wholeheartedly as long as it does not cause any problems socially.”

-The president isn’t just letting me do this out of his respect for the freedom of choice of the actor.

There was something aside from just a form of respect? Baekhoon asked back what that was about.

-The president saw the potential in this work. To be precise, he saw the potential in the director. He even went as far as to say that he’d like to invest personally if the budget is insufficient.

“President Lee said that? He brought up that he’s willing to invest his own money?”

Now that was a surprise. What kind of person was president Lee Junmin? He was someone who would be very cautious when using the word ‘investment,’ especially when it came to his own money. He was so notorious for it that as soon as rumors spread around that president Lee had personally invested in something, cash would flow in like crazy.

The fact that he brought up investment for a mere student director and not even a commercial film was very significant.

“That raises my expectations a lot. Mr. Maru. If it’s okay with you, may I have a look at the indie film that you shot before?”

-If it’s that, I’ll send you a URL for the cloud drive. You can download it from there.

“I guess I must go home quickly then. I’ll talk to you again once I watch it.”

Baekhoon drove the car home. He was originally planning to visit the gallery, but right now, watching the film took priority. Having arrived home, he went to the URL that Maru told him. When he inputted the download password, the name of the file appeared on the screen.

“So this is it.”

The film that took the grand prize of the Short Film Festival. This was the identity of the indie film. This was something that happened before he got to know Maru, so he put it in one corner of his heart without watching it.

So it turned out that Maru was working together with the director he worked with four years ago. Baekhoon calmed down his agitation and poured some wine into a glass.

He closed the curtains, pulled down a screen, and turned on the beam projector. Although the video wasn’t that high definition, it wasn’t to the point of being unwatchable.

He watched the film while sipping some wine.

The film had one other face that he was delighted to see. It was Han Haneul.

The dead lover, a man looking at illusions, and a man eventually falling in love with that illusion.

The story was very far from mainstream. At the same time, the message it conveyed was clear as well. While the composition of the screen was rather weak, that was a matter of money.

The angle of the camera, the background, the lines, the change in time… all these elements, which required thinking instead of money, displayed the charm of the film in full bore.

It was hard to believe that a student who hadn’t studied anything about film properly had shot this work. It was no surprise that they managed to win the grand prize of the Short Film Festival, which hadn’t happened for years.

Baekhoon searched on the internet. After the film that Maru was in, the grand prize of the Short Film Festival remained unawarded ever since. This film was the only one that managed to gain the honor of winning that prize in the past 7 years.

He changed his opinion. This was no longer a reckless challenge, but a challenge with potential. Both Maru and the director must have become a lot more proficient over the course of time.

This time, there was even some investment. The quality would definitely go up compared to what they submitted for the Short Film Festival.

“But still…”

It could be a one-hit-wonder. The skills displayed through the film for the Short Film Festival may be a product of chance. How skilled would that young director be? That was still a mystery. The movie scene was a place where even veteran directors would fail miserably after a huge success. Would they be able to create something good this time too?

Baekhoon watched the screen that had blacked out for a while before picking up his phone.

“Mr. Maru. I’ve watched the film. I now also know why you wish to work with him.”

-And yet you still sound uneasy.

“I know it’s strange for someone of my caliber to express my dissatisfaction in something that even president Lee showed interest in, but I still have a doubt in a corner of my heart. With that being the case, can I go watch the shoot once? If it’s possible, I’d like to talk to the director too. Of course, I will not go empty-handed.”

-I welcome you anytime. I’ll tell director Lee about it as well.

“When’s the nearest shoot?”

-It’ll start in two days in the morning.

“Then I’ll see you then. Please tell me the location of the shoot.”

Baekhoon called for a delivery buffet business after getting the address.

“President Choi, it’s been a long time. I’m calling you since you did such a wonderful job during our last meeting. But the time is a little short this time. It’ll be the day after tomorrow. Do you think you can do it? There shouldn’t be that many people. Also, I hope you can make them into lunch boxes.”

* * *

Getting out of the car, Baekhoon walked down the narrow street. He could see a shop bustling with people amongst a row of stores that were out for rent. There were lights, reflectors, as well as various shooting equipment.

“We’ll do that again!”

When someone shouted, the people walking in the street changed directions. A member of the staff who was holding back the onlookers approached Baekhoon.

“I’m sorry. We’re currently doing a shoot right now. We would appreciate it if you could go around to the left.”

“Yes, of course. Good work on a hot day like this.”

Baekhoon locked his hands behind his back and quietly appreciated the shoot.

He saw Maru behind the monitor that the director was sitting in front of. He was sitting in a daze on a chair in front of his store.

Baekhoon couldn’t begin to grasp what the character was like. What kind of story was being created in an unpopulated place like this?

A man and a woman in school uniform walked by and looked at Maru before entering the store. Maru stood up, welcoming them with a greeting. However, he did not look delighted that he had customers.

Baekhoon moved a little to look through the glass window. He could see books lined up inside. It was a rather small independent bookstore.

One wall was cleanly lined up with tiles, while the other side still had the rough concrete exposed.

The man and the woman in uniform started going through the books lined up under the pretty lighting. They took selfies with the books in the background and also took photos of each other.

All the while, Maru kept watching them with a fatigued expression.

“Cut!”

“It’s a cut.”

The young director stood up and went inside the store. Baekhoon watched as the director talked to Maru. After displaying an act himself while walking around the store, he returned to his seat. The way he made requests to the actors was rather decent. Baekhoon thought Maru would be the one leading everything, but the shoot was happening more normally than he had thought.

“What’s that?”

“I think they’re shooting a drama here. Or is it a movie?”

Even though this was a dead commercial area, there were still people passing by. People started flocking around the shooting location.

“That’s Han Maru. Are they shooting the second season of Case Number 0 here?”

Someone who recognized Maru took out their phone. Someone from the staff quickly came over and stopped them, but it was no use. There were numerous people taking photos from a distance.

In an era where even little kids used social media, rumors would soon spread around.

Right now, it was easier to control the onlookers because there were not many people here, but once people started flocking, proceeding with the shoot would become difficult.

Movie production companies didn’t create movie sets in unpopulated places for nothing. Just one or two people walking by in front of the camera would screw up the whole atmosphere at a set.

“Okay.”

“It’s an okay.”

“Good work today.”

The staff, who were working under the sun, went to the shade. Only a few people remained behind to look after the equipment.

Baekhoon slowly walked towards the store. When someone from the staff blocked his way, he smiled and pointed behind that person.

“You’re here.” Maru came out to meet him.

“The weather is steaming. It must be difficult to shoot.”

“The AC is on inside the store so it’s bearable. Did you arrive just now?”

“No. I came here a little earlier and have been watching since then. I was trying to guess what it was about, but nothing came to my mind.”

“It’d be strange if you found out from that scene alone. Come here. I’ll introduce you to the director.”

Baekhoon followed Maru. The production crew was sitting together in the bookstore. Everyone was looking at the air conditioner.

“I’ve heard a lot about you from Maru-hyung. I’m Lee Yoonseok.”

“Nice to meet you. I’m Na Baekhoon.”

He had a look at Yoonseok’s face as they shook hands. While he had heard that this young man had finished his military service, he could still see the youth on his face. This film was designed almost entirely by someone like him, huh?

“Let’s eat for now. I’m sure all of you must be tired.”

Baekhoon left the store and looked at the end of the street. He could see a white truck entering the street. He expected this much from president Choi’s business, which was famous for being punctual.

After saying hello to the employee who got out of the truck, he opened the cargo. Chilled storage boxes were laid out on the floor one by one. Looking at the contents inside the box, Maru came over and spoke,

“Director, please visit us a lot more in the future.”

“You’re happier to see the lunch boxes than me, aren’t you?”

The members of the staff inside the store came out while wondering what it was about. Baekhoon picked up one of the lunch boxes and gave it to a member of the staff in front of him. This fellow had been standing under the scorching sun holding a boom mic.

When that person went back with the lunch box, he could hear him exclaim loudly in admiration.

“Today’s lunch was brought to us by director Na Baekhoon over here. Everyone, please give him a round of applause.”

When Maru said so, people raised their hands above their heads and started applauding.

“Have a good meal and please create something good. If you need more, you can take more. There’s plenty for everyone.”

Baekhoon also picked up one of the boxes before going inside the store. Maru and Yoonseok sat next to him.

Yoonseok opened the lunch box. After looking around for a while, he spoke carefully,

“This looks really expensive. With a bit of exaggeration, the shrimp tempura is about the size of my forearm.”

“People must feel full to create something good, don’t you think? If it helps make the final film better, I can do this much every single day.”

“No, that’s too much for me. If I eat something expensive like this every day, I’ll run out of any hungry spirit I have.”

Yoonseok stared at him while holding his chopsticks. Please start eating so I can start mine – he seemed to say with his stare.

Baekhoon opened the lid of the lunch box and spoke,

“Let’s talk in more detail as we eat, but before that, can I have a look at the script? If you’re worried about security, I can write up an oath for you.”

“You don’t have to. You can look at it.”

Yoonseok brought a script and gave it to him. Baekhoon spoke to the two people,

“Please start eating, both of you. I’ll start eating once I’m done reading. Actually, I want to read this more than I want to eat, so I can’t hold back.”

Baekhoon read the script rapidly. First of all, he liked the scenery and the vivid lines that the script created. The content also contained a clear message like the previous work.

“The story… is good,” Baekhoon said as he put down the script.

If a director with a decent name value displayed this script, then actors with fame would all make a call wanting to participate.

“Do you understand a little about why I want to do this work and why I want to work with this director?” Maru asked with a smile.

Baekhoon nodded without hesitation. While writing and film were different fields, the writing itself was very good. Even if the film was made normally, it would do above average.

“I now have a lot of questions about director Lee,” Baekhoon said as he looked at Yoonseok.

“M-me?”

“Let’s eat first. There’s plenty of time.”

After Story 242

Going with the flow, getting pushed if pushed; I had lived my whole life as a main character of a monochromatic life drama.

I was born with around average weight, received compulsory education, and took the CSAT exams. I then went to a university to contribute to the 80% college enrollment rate statistic.

My major was biology. I didn’t have any interest in biology or even science for that matter, but I aimed for that department because my scores allowed me to and I managed to pass. After I enrolled, I heard a rumor that the university was lacking so many students that someone who was number 20 on the waiting list managed to pass.

I didn’t know whether that was true or not, but I did think that it was plausible. The university campus was old, the funding was precarious, and departments were being abolished or combined with others. Perhaps the wise decision would be to run away.

I played around a lot in my freshman year, following advice that I had heard many times before. When I felt guilty about playing around, I shook off my guilt with the peculiar logic that ‘it’s okay because I’m the one getting into debt to go to college.’

That didn’t mean, however, that I was playing around ‘like crazy’ to the point I was in the mouths of many students on campus. I just played around moderately as a gray particle, neither black nor white.

The best thing I had ever done was vomit behind some restaurant after drinking like crazy.

Even for my military service, I got discharged after doing just as much as the others. I did extreme cold training, guerilla training, and all sorts of other training that all others did. I suffered as much as the others and had just as many enjoyable memories as others.

Nothing changed even after I was discharged from the military, well, aside from getting older and getting a slight tan on my face.

This kind of life isn’t so bad – I told myself whenever I felt a sudden sense of jealousy. That kind of jealousy usually came to me when I looked at my friends.

There were things I could never do. For example, studying until I start bleeding from my nose or picking a fight with someone and punching them. When I saw my friends do things like that like it was nothing, I found myself extremely pathetic and was very envious of them.

Having lived as a gray particle my whole life, I admired their brilliant, perhaps brilliantly stupid, actions.

Of course, should there come an opportunity for me to partake in those actions, I would take a step back while saying this chant: a moderate life like this isn’t so bad.

Like that, I neither became able to fly nor crawled on the ground, just walking like everyone else did.

Just moderately.

That was my motto and the only pride I had. At the same time, it was a unique characteristic of mine that I wanted to abandon.

Maybe that was the reason.

I ended up accepting my grandfather’s words, his will, so to speak.

-Daejoo, I’d like you to continue the bookstore. What do you think?

On the day I said I’d succeed the store, grandfather was finally able to rest. That day, my family members told me that he had peace of mind thanks to me.

Yoo Wonjoong, my grandfather, was someone who was the polar opposite of me. He single-handedly formed our Yoo family after having lost every single family member in the war. He voluntarily took up dangerous jobs to feed the family, and from what I had heard, he had once become rich enough to not be envious of anyone through running a business.

Of course, having lived a rather roller coaster of a life, grandfather had screwed up and ruined his business in his later years.

Gaining massively and losing massively – grandfather’s chronicle was the dynamic life I had always yearned for. The bookstore was the one he set up after losing everything. As a gray particle, the bookstore that was suddenly given to me felt like a sparkling glass marble. It was an irresistible offer, and I became the next owner of the bookstore in grandfather’s stead.

After grandfather’s funeral, I went to the bookstore alone. I inserted the rusty key into the keyhole at the top of the glass door and rotated it. When I went inside, I could smell old books as well as a trace of grandfather.

This was the first time I had come to my grandfather’s bookstore since I was in middle school. Seeing the bookstore that was just as I remembered, I felt a sense of exhilaration. I felt like my monotone life had finally encountered a turning point.

I was excited like a child reading an adventure story. It became my everyday life to rush to the bookstore after lectures and clean up.

Whenever my friends asked me where I was going, I would pretend to hesitate before speaking in excitement: I was going to the bookstore I am going to run.

For months, I lived a really busy life. I was so passionate about it that I skipped multiple assignments and focused on the bookstore. I changed the interior design of the shop from the floor to the ceiling.

I didn’t even feel any fatigue because of the satisfaction that I was doing something different from everyone else, and all by myself even. I stripped the bookstore of the ‘old books’ image and decorated it in a coffee shop style, dreaming of becoming a famous indie book shop that seemed to exist intermittently.

I didn’t know that my straightforward life would encounter such a big change. Every single day was filled with joy. I especially felt an unspeakable sense of exhilaration when I talked about the bookstore to my friends.

The fact that I had escaped being a gray particle made me happy. I finally had something special of my own, just like the special people I had always admired.

On the first day I started the business, I kept staring at the door in breathtaking anticipation; I walked around the store in excitement and worry all day, checking if any dust had settled on the books, or if the signboard I put outside faded.

Then it became nighttime. Not a single person visited on the first day.

As a gray particle, my personality wasn’t so great as to be happy and sad over little things. I closed the store, thinking, ‘sure, that’s not unreasonable, maybe people will come tomorrow or the day after.’

My first customers were my friends. When I talked to them in a roundabout way that I started running a business, they came to visit. They were surprised when they visited and praised me for the interior design.

I put on an embarrassed face, but inwardly, I asked them to praise me more.

“You’re already a business owner at that age, huh? Yoo Daejoo, that’s great.”

“I’m just taking over my grandfather’s work, that’s all.”

“But I heard you did all of the interior design yourself. That’s amazing.”

Goodbye, gray particle. I will now live a colorful life as a young business owner.

When my friends left and I was alone again, I cheered silently and jumped around. Yoo Daejoo! This is the life you’re living!

The next day, I had more customers. They were girls around my age. I greeted them politely before indifferently putting away some books. That was the image I was trying to go with as the owner of the shop. Someone who’s kind but indifferent.

I sold two books. They were books that my grandfather had left behind. I just started off but had already raised sales. Maybe this would one day become a big franchise?

Even while telling myself not to be happy with such a little thing, my thoughts swam into the sea of optimism. Everything was going well, and it felt like it would continue to go well. The monotone life until now felt like the time to accumulate energy.

I took a gap year at the start of the holidays. I wanted to go ‘all in.’ My life was turning more proactive. I felt like I was the true owner of my life.

Yes, perhaps this was my true self.

The number of customers visiting the bookstore increased. Apparently, a blogger introduced my bookstore as a pretty bookstore on social media.

Luck was following me as well. Perhaps thanks to my grandfather’s bloodline, I seemed to have talent in business as well.

Everything was smooth sailing. Everything was heading towards happiness.

At least, I felt that way.

Two months had passed since I opened the shop. The number of customers dropped rapidly. Even those who came to admire the pretty interior stopped altogether.

There were many new pretty shops, and people didn’t have a reason to come to this remote place where transportation was not good, so it was only a matter of time.

Something infiltrated the seemingly rose-colored business. At first, I didn’t know what it was. It was when I started talking to the landlord and the book distributor that I found out its identity.

The companion of life, money.

I was severely lacking money. After changing the contract to my name, I could see the thorns beneath the pretty roses.

As soon as I felt the need for money, I stopped like a robot that ran out of fuel. That was when I realized that it wasn’t satisfaction that fed men, but food.

A drop of gray ink known as money fell onto the life I thought had changed. That was enough for me to return to being a gray particle.

The bookstore was a product of labor. Strictly speaking, it was work. However, I had to start taking up part-time jobs in order to maintain that bookstore.

It was quite funny even if I thought about it to myself. What kind of contradiction was this? I was working in order to work.

After my part-time jobs, I would sit down in the empty bookstore and look outside in a daze. I still had no customers. I started to wonder what it was that I was doing.

I heard the news from my friends. Busy with assignments, busy with exams, busy drinking, busy dating… the life that looked monotonous to me once looked to be sparkling more brilliantly than ever.

The life of a brilliantly shining bookstore owner had turned even more grayish than ever when I pulled myself together.

At this point, it made me think like this: Oh, a gray particle would always be gray.

The unfunny situation of having to work in order to run a bookstore without visitors continued for about four months.

Around six months after opening the bookstore, I felt a change in the neighborhood. More people started visiting the unpopulated and quiet neighborhoods. With more visitors, the bookstore naturally received more customers.

I walked around the area looking for the starting point of the change. A bakery opened up in one of the empty stores. It was a place that had become famous through social media.

On one hand, I wondered when such a place came to be, and on another hand, I felt grateful. Thanks to that, I had some customers thanks to them.

As the days passed, more and more people started visiting the neighborhood. Some handicraft workshops that were chased out of a famous street had all come to this place.

A few months later, the neighborhood became famous enough to be introduced on TV, as the livelihood of young business owners. People flocked like a herd of sheep. Thanks to that, the bookstore also enjoyed a boom.

I could more boldly order new books from the person from the book distributor and act more arrogantly in front of independent authors of books.

Rose-colored light was shining once again.

Just like my grandfather’s life, which was like a wave, the waves were coming for me, the son of the Yoo family.

This wave was one that would take me high up into the skies. I proactively promoted the shop on social media and held small events. Numerous people said that the bookstore was decent.

Yes! – I thought.

I managed to ride the wave of opportunity properly.

“Either pull out or I raise the deposit and the monthly rent. Choose one. I’m not negotiating.”

Shit.

I thought the wave would take me high up into the skies, but instead, it drove me into the endless depths of the sea.

* * *

“Sir, please be generous. The business just started getting on track,” Maru said as he looked at the actor in front of him.

He tried his best to convey the complex feelings that Daejoo must be feeling.

“I have already been generous. Look at those other places. They raised the rent a long time ago. I held back in consideration of the old relationship with the hyung-nim that ran the bookstore, but I need to make a living too. Taxes aren’t free.”

“But sir, if you raise it so suddenly like this…”

“If you don’t want to pull out, then try changing your line of business. It’s not like a bookstore even earns that much. Look at the other places. They’re raking in money running cafés.”

The actor playing the role of the landlord clicked his tongue and left the store. Maru pulled his hair out and smacked his head into the table. He slowly breathed in, out, and then in again.

He wanted to vent out his frustrations, but Daejoo was not that kind of person. The only thing he could do was swear at the wall.

“Son of a bitch. He’s so greedy, god dammit.”

He huffed and puffed and looked outside the window. He slowly started walking according to the plan while taking into account the distance between him and the camera.

Being conscious of the camera shooting from behind him, he straightened his back before opening the door powerlessly.

He left and started walking without any energy. He could hear the word ‘cut’ next to him.

“Hyung, that was good, but let’s do that again.”

“You’ve become a full-fledged director, Yoonseok. Good but again. That’s what all directors like to say.”

Maru laughed as he looked at Yoonseok. Two weeks into the shoot, the atmosphere at the set was still pretty good.

After Story 243

“Hyung, you come to this spot.”

Maru walked in the direction Yoonseok was walking. The path circled around the round table in the middle of the store to the bookshelves and then to the displays near the glass wall.

“Hyung-nim. I want to follow Maru-hyung with a high angle, but it would be hard to do so here, right?” Yoonseok asked Jung Namsoo, the camera director.

“Not looking down from a fixed position, but actually following from behind?”

“Yes, like that.”

“That’s gonna be hard. We don’t have the equipment. If someone can give me a ride on their shoulders and walk perfectly straight, then it would work. The ceiling is low here and we can’t install rails either, so that’s gonna be the best option.”

Maru had the same opinion.

They weren’t using an open-style set, but a real shop with all four walls and a ceiling. They had trouble setting up the lights because of the low ceiling, so something heavy like a camera was out of the question.

“I’m sorry. I should’ve thought about this beforehand.” Yoonseok tugged on his hair.

Maru could understand that. No matter how good the storyboard was, its insufficiency was bound to be revealed during the shoot.

Maru called director Jung and Yoonseok.

“Namsoo-hyung. Should we bring a shopping cart from a nearby supermarket and shoot it that way? I think it’d be okay if we can deal with the sound of the wheels,” Maru said.

“I thought about that too. I even tried it last time. But we won’t have any space because of the placement of the furniture. This table, that drawer, and that shelf need to be gone. The bigger problem is that if we want to shoot according to the path director Lee wants, we’ll have to remove the table when the camera goes past and put it back in there when turning around, so I don’t think we can do that in a cramped space like this.”

With the camera director describing the difficulties, it was time for the producer to collect the opinions and make a decision.

Maru looked at Yoonseok.

“I think this cut will be very important. If we can get a cut of Daejoo from behind on the ceiling, it will feel really stifled. I want to mix some music and the actor’s monologue afterward as well.”

“I see what you’re trying to do.”

Director Jung scratched his hair and looked around, seemingly looking for another method.

“What is it?”

Yoon Hojin, the lighting director, came over after finishing his work.

“Hey, give us some ideas, can you?”

He explained the situation and asked for advice from director Yoon, who had a lot of experience with shoots.

“Namsoo’s right. Namsoo, how much do you weigh?”

“Me? About 65 kilos.”

“I think that should be light enough? Hey, Bangjoo!”

Director Yoon called for Bangjoo, who was leaving with a bunch of light fixtures. Maru clicked his fingers as he looked at Bangjoo who came over after replying.

“Why didn’t I think of Bangjoo?”

“He’s pretty quiet, so people don’t know that he exists until he starts acting. Bangjoo, do you think you can give Namsoo a ride on your shoulders?”

Hearing director Yoon’s question, Bangjoo stood in front of director Jung.

“I can, but he’ll have to balance himself up there. It’d be better if someone could help him from the side.”

Bangjoo bent down. Director Jung cautiously got on Bangjoo’s shoulders. Bangjoo stood up without much difficulty.

“What were we going to do without you?” Maru said as he looked at Bangjoo.

Bangjoo smiled timidly.

“Try giving me the camera. Mr. Bangjoo here is reassuring. I think this is going to be easier than I expected.”

Namsoo received the camera and put it on his shoulder.

“This, I don’t think I can change the focus like this. Director Lee, this is a continuous shot without any change in distance, right?”

“Yes. There shouldn’t be a need to change the focus at all.”

“Then instead of changing the focus… Mr. Daejung, please hold my waist. I might start shaking the camera once we start moving.”

The focus puller grabbed director Jung’s waist. Bangjoo, who was holding on below, waited without batting an eyelid.

“Are you okay?” Maru asked Bangjoo.

“I’m okay. It turns out all that working out is useful, huh.”

“You’re a godsend. I know we called you here as an actor, but you’re doing all sorts of things aside from that too.”

“It’s something I like doing. Also, I get along with director Yoon Hojin quite well. I’m learning quite a lot of things.”

Director Yoon, who was listening, laughed loudly. As a man with a rowdy personality, director Yoon seemed to have taken a liking to the manly and quiet Bangjoo and taught him various things starting on the first day.

“Director Yoon, Bangjoo is a junior I care a lot for, so please look out for him.”

“Even if you didn’t tell me that, I look out for him a lot. Do you know how hard it is to come across smart youngsters like him these days? So Bangjoo, quit being an actor and learn lighting from me. You’ll start earning money in no time.”

“No, I’m going to be an actor.”

“What an upright lad. I’m always open, so come to me whenever you change your mind.”

Director Yoon tried poaching Bangjoo every single day, and Bangjoo refused every single time. The two of them got along pretty well.

“We’re starting the shoot,” Jiseon shouted.

She was working also as the scripter and came over to Maru to check for double-action scenes.

“Maru-oppa, you were holding a book in your left hand.”

“Thanks. Were my clothes like this?”

“Undo the top one.”

Maru undid one button. The stylist came over to touch up his hair and fix his makeup.

“You sweat quite a lot,” said the stylist as she rubbed the powder with her thumb.

“That’s why I’m getting a lot of help from you.”

Maru shook his wrist to collect his mind into one place.

“I’m going to stop here for about five seconds and then turn around to start.”

He listened to Yoonseok’s explanation and drew out the movements in his head.

“I know you’re very good at acting with your back, so I’ll leave that to you.”

“Leave the flattery for later. I feel like you’re going to do the shoot again.”

“I’m not an again-man, saying again all the time. I keep things to one shot when it’s good. I just thinking that you could show me more and that I could shoot more of you when I shoot again. Anyway, please do a great job, actor Han.”

Yoonseok made a circle with his fingers before going over to the monitor.

Maru winked at Bangjoo, who was carrying the camera director on his shoulders, and then turned around. He calmed his breathing. When he was about done with his internal check, he could hear a voice.

“Camera.”

“8 dash 2 dash 1.”

The clap of the slate dissipated. Maru waited for the director’s voice that would push his back.

“Action.”

He was given the instruction, so it was time to move. He put thought into each of his steps and walked around the store.

This cut did not require a subjective interpretation on the actor’s part at all. It was entirely the director’s message that had to be conveyed.

He moved his feet according to the path that he had learned during the rehearsal. He moved his gaze from right to left and turned his head slightly as well.

While his expression would not be caught on camera, the body was interconnected. If he missed the trivial things, it was bound to show on everything else.

He picked up the book that the director pointed out before and turned the hardcover. He heavily flipped over the rather weighty-feeling book cover and expressed the stifling and pressuring feeling as much as possible.

A glance outside the glass wall and then a glance at the bookshelf. He acted out the movements that were predetermined for him without making a mistake.

He knew perfectly where he had to go and what he had to do, so his body couldn’t respond to any stimulation. It had to look natural. He had to convey the feeling that his heavy heart was leading his actions.

He put his left hand on the table and let out a deep sigh, imbuing a lump of his feelings of forfeit inside it.

He felt a sense of resistance every time he took a step as though his lower body was submerged in water.

Emotions ruled his body. This was a good signal. It should look pretty decent on the camera.

“If I get chased out of here…”

He became the Yoo Daejoo from the film and looked at the ceiling with empty eyes while being careful not to look at the camera lens that was right next to him. He slowly raised his hands to rub his face.

Ring~

The glass door opened. It was just the right time.

“Uhm, I’m here to look at some books,” said the actress who came in through the door with a look of confusion.

That actress had decent skills. She couldn’t show her skills properly during the rehearsal due to nervousness, but it seemed that she had gotten herself together while waiting for the shoot.

“Ah, okay. Come in and take a look around,” he said with a smile.

Even the stifling reality was an afterthought in the face of a customer. When the actress playing the customer came inside the store, a ‘cut’ sound hit his ears.

Maru shook his head once and spun his shoulders around until it made a cracking sound. After focusing on walking in a stiff posture all this time, he was feeling sore all over his body.

“What did I tell you? Didn’t I tell you it’ll end in one go?”

Yoonseok created a heart with his two hands. Maru walked over to the monitor to have a look at the scene they just shot. Not to mention the camera director, even Bangjoo stood next to him.

“The slight glimpse of your side right here perfectly matches what I had in mind. No, it’s even better. Also, Miss Yaeun! You were much better than during the rehearsal. You aren’t pretending to be bad to tease me, right?”

“No way.”

Calling out the minor actress’ name, Yoonseok tried to liven up the atmosphere.

On the first day of the shoot, he was very timid in front of the staff and the actors, but now, he seemed to have enough leisure to look around him more. It was a positive change.

“Hello, I’m here.”

Moon Seokjin said hello and came in. Maru said as he looked at Seokjin, “You’re here.”

“I’m not late, am I?”

“You’re early every time.”

Yoonseok also welcomed Seokjin. Seokjin had an easygoing personality and smiled a lot, so he got along with the staff members as well. From what he saw, Seokjin would buy some coffee and talk to anyone who seemed to be having a hard time. In many ways, he was like lubricating oil.

Thanks to that, Maru was able to focus on being the character. A film was truly an art created by multiple people.

“Hello!”

“Haeun’s here.”

Following that, Ahn Haeun came in. Although not as much as how she acted during the rehearsal, she was a cheerful person by nature, so many people burst into laughter on the days Haeun came for the shoot.

He said hello to Haeun before looking at Seokjin.

Seokjin looked at Haeun for a moment before nodding as a greeting. Haeun also nodded back without saying anything.

“Shall we take a small break?” Maru said after looking at the two.

Yoonseok also coughed slightly and said that they should rest for a bit.

“Bangjoo, about this thing you told me last time.”

Seokjin called Bangjoo and left the store. Seokjin met Haeun on his way out, and the two of them avoided each other excessively.

“Oh my lord,” Yoonseok despaired quietly.

“Looks like those two will stay like that. This is going to be uncomfortable.”

“Why don’t you try meditating if you’re not good with it?”

He said to Yoonseok, “I talked to them about it and both of them are willing to keep going as things are now. They’re more comfortable acting like they don’t know each other. They’re bright people, but they’re so frosty towards each other. I feel like there’s a tundra being made whenever those two meet.”

Maru looked at Haeun, who was talking to another actor, and Seokjin, who was outside. There was only one problem in this shoot that didn’t seem to have any problems. If equipment broke, they could fix it or replace it, but handling human relationships was delicate.

“Hyung, any good ideas?”

“What am I to you? An almighty tool?”

“You aren’t?”

Maru tapped on Yoonseok’s arm.

“I’m not.”

He leaned against the wall with the script.

After Story 244

“Reminds me of a close friend I had in school.”

Maru took his eyes off the script. Seokjin, who was looking at his script, smiled and looked directly at him.

“That guy had really good handwriting. And he was good at taking notes too. He was so good at it that he became famous in our year. Everyone tried to get notes from him. Your script feels exactly like that.”

Seokjin asked if he could have a look at it. Maru handed over the script.

“You wrote every little thing down.”

“It became a habit of mine. It makes me uneasy if I don’t write them down because I feel like I’m going to miss them later.”

“I guess that meticulousness of yours is reflected in your acting too. I really like your acting. There are no flaws in it, and even then it doesn’t feel stiff. I should strive to become like you too.”

Seokjin returned the script. He was an honest person who respected others regardless of age and strived to learn. Maru liked that honest part of Seokjin.

“You’re doing plenty well yourself.”

“But I want to do better. Have I told you this before? Back when I first started acting, I always wanted to play supporting characters. I know that lead characters are too much for me and beyond my league. Instead, it became my objective to play supporting roles that add spice to the story and help the story progress.”

“I think you achieved your goal already.”

Seokjin chuckled.

“I do feel satisfied, but as I got older, I started getting greedy for money. Lee Dongseok, Park Junghan, Yoo Ul, Lim Jinseo — I’ll become high-class supporting actors like those people and get paid a lot. I wanna get married, but a single-room basement apartment is not good, is it?”

“You’re getting married?”

“Hopefully.”

“What the heck? Is there someone you’re seeing?”

“Maybe sometime in the future.”

Seokjin smiled with a mischievous expression. The way he used himself as a topic of his jokes was one of his specialties. Being someone who was considerate and good at talking, it was natural that people flocked to him.

Well, except one person.

Maru sipped some of his coffee before speaking,

“Are you still in a cold war with Haeun?”

“It’s not really a cold war. We just pretend we don’t know each other.”

“Personally, I don’t mind whether the two of you get along well or stay enemies as long as you don’t cause problems, but it seems our director Lee is quite concerned about it.”

“That’s because Yoonseok is too good for his own good.”

“You see, this is his second work, and for his first, his friends helped out as members of the staff. Sure, there were quarrels, but generally, they were harmonious throughout the whole thing since they were friends.”

“That kind of atmosphere is good, but it’s only possible when you’re doing a project with friends. This isn’t a place to reaffirm friendship, but a place where people get paid to do work. I know that’s a bit too extreme, but it’s the truth.”

“My words exactly. It’d be great if everyone got along, but even if it doesn’t, it should be okay as long as the project is going well.”

Seokjin rubbed the back of his neck.

“Looks like I’ve been causing trouble for our director. Geez.”

“Hyung-nim,” Maru said as he looked at Seokjin, “What happened between the two of you? I thought something must’ve happened the moment I saw you two say hello at the first get-together. I’m not a kid, so it wouldn’t be funny if I asked every little detail, so I’ve been staying still until now, but I think I’m starting to see a few things.”

“What do you see?”

“You’re both consuming your emotions because you’re conscious of each other. You don’t really have a problem, but Haeun does. Her acting is all over the place on days you’re here. I’m honestly worried because she has talent, but her skills are diminishing as time goes on.”

“If other people can spot it, then I guess it is a problem.”

“I’m sorry I’m telling you something like this, but I want to finish off this film well. As much as director Lee.”

“Me too. No, I’m sure everyone here feels the same. Who wants a work under their own name to do badly?”

Seokjin reached his hand out, asking for some coffee. Maru handed over the coffee he was drinking. Seokjin emptied the cup in one go before standing up.

“I’ll go ask her now. It’s not something I can decide by myself.”

“If it’s something too difficult to talk about, you don’t have to.”

“No, actually, this is the perfect opportunity.”

Seokjin looked around before moving. He was heading over to Haeun. The two had a conversation.

Maru looked at the two people for a while. Both of them spoke awkwardly before finishing things off with apologetic smiles.

Seokjin returned and spoke,

“For now, I hope only Yoonseok and you know about this. It’s not something we’re really proud of.”

“Of course.”

“And also, I might be overstepping my boundaries here, but I hope you can tell director Lee to adjust the schedule a little so that Haeun and I don’t overlap. I think that’ll be better for both of us.”

Maru nodded. That was the easiest solution, so there was no problem with that. Seokjin coughed wryly before speaking.

“I used to date Haeun.”

“…What?”

That was an answer he didn’t expect at all.

“Everyone reacted the same way. We’re pretty far apart in age, I mean, 12 years is quite a lot.”

Seokjin looked at the floor.

“A nameless actor who’s old enough but doesn’t have a stable income and an actress just starting off with her lessons. If I think about it now, we should never have started our relationship in the first place.”

Seokjin spoke quite plainly. He said that he rejected Haeun’s confession and that later they ended up dating. Then, once the affection cooled down, they were hit with a realistic problem until they broke up.

“If it was some amazing story instead, I would make it sound really cool, but it’s just a typical relationship between a man and a woman, so it was hard to bring it up. I heard that people in America maintain good relationships with ex-spouses, but that’s kinda amazing. I don’t think Haeun and I can ever be like that.”

“This is the first time you’re seeing each other after you broke up?”

Seokjin nodded. “I almost freaked out when I went to the get-together. I mean, I was like this, so what would it be like for her? Something bad happened between us when we broke up, so I just pretended I didn’t know her. I had forgotten her number as well, so I hadn’t even contacted her after that. When I saw her face at the first shoot, I told her that this is work we have to do, so we should pretend to not know each other.”

“I guess Haeun couldn’t do that.”

“That’s because she’s a kind girl. She should just ignore someone like me and focus on work… Anyway, that’s how it is. It feels really embarrassing after saying everything.”

Seokjin stood up after thanking him for the coffee.

“You tell director Lee about this. I feel too embarrassed and ashamed to talk about this all over again. As for the schedule, please adjust according to Haeun’s… no, Miss Haeun’s schedule. I have all the time in the world, don’t I?”

“I’ll tell Jiseon to adjust the schedule so that neither of you will feel uncomfortable. If it doesn’t work out, I’ll try to make some time on my own, so don’t worry about it.”

“I can’t be asking the main character to take the risks. Don’t worry about me and just schedule me in the middle of the night or whenever.”

Seokjin turned around with his unique, hearty laughter.

Dating someone a dozen years apart, huh? That was such a big age gap that Maru hadn’t even thought about the possibility. They were probably unbelievably uncomfortable. Seokjin said something bad happened between them when they broke up, so they were probably reminded of that every time they met at the shoot.

Fortunately, scenes that included both of them were all shot last week. As long as their schedules were adjusted, they shouldn’t ever have to meet at the shoot again.

“Excuse me.”

Just as he was thinking about what to say to Yoonseok, he found the other person involved standing next to him.

“Do you have something to tell me?” he asked Haeun.

“You’ve heard, right?”

“If it’s what happened between the two of you, then I’ve heard the gist of it from Seokjin hyung-nim. There was nothing sensitive, so don’t worry about that. Only I and director Lee will be the ones in the know about this. We have to know the circumstances if we want to change the schedule.”

Haeun sighed.

“Can I sit down next to you for a second?”

He pointed down next to him. Haeun sat down.

“He still resents me a lot, doesn’t he?”

“If you’re thinking about consulting your worries with me, then you’d better stop. Like I said before, he only said what was necessary, just enough so that I could understand why you two are acting like you do. So you should stop at that level as well. I’m not the slightest bit interested in what happened in the past between you two nor about what led you two to break up.” He then looked at Haeun and continued, “Making sure that there is no problem with the shoot, and if there is, fixing the cause of it. We managed to resolve these two problems, so the rest is up to the two adults involved. Am I right?”

“Yes, that’s true.”

“I’m going to adjust your schedules so that you don’t come on the same day. That way, you can focus on acting. There’s no choice for get-togethers, so you’re on your own when it comes to that.”

“Yes. I’m sorry for making you concerned. Also, for the schedule, adjust it to whatever time Seokjin-oppa is comfortable with. I don’t mind when I shoot.”

“Okay, I’ll do that.”

Haeun left. Maru picked up his script and looked for Yoonseok. He found him eating a lunch box in front of the bookstore.

“Let’s have a little talk.”

He called Yoonseok out separately and explained the situation. Yoonseok widened his eyes in surprise.

“The two of them used to be in a relationship? How many years apart are they?”

“It doesn’t matter to us what kind of history those two had, so don’t take interest and just adjust their schedules. You don’t have any scenes with changes, do you?”

“No. The two of them won’t be facing each other either. But can’t they just let things go and shoot like normal?”

“You think they can do that when even you reacted like how you did when you heard the story?”

Yoonseok nodded in agreement.

“I’ll tell Jiseon to adjust the schedule. The two of them shouldn’t have that many scenes left, so it shouldn’t be that hard.”

“Change Miss Haeun’s schedule. Leave Seokjin hyung-nim’s as is.”

“If I change hers, she’ll have to come only on the weekends.”

“Go with that then.”

“Is there a reason?”

“Respect for the elderly, duh.”

Maru didn’t know the exact details of what happened between the two of them, but he could tell that Haeun was the one feeling more guilt. Changing her schedule would lessen her sense of guilt, and only then would her wavering acting skills return to normal.

“Well, I’ll do that for now. Man, that’s such a weird thing to happen. Having heard you tell me that, I can understand that awkward smile and that awkward gaze. If I think about it now, those two must have felt really uncomfortable,” Yoonseok said.

“Don’t show it and act like usual. And watch out for your mouth.”

“I can think for myself. I feel responsible as the director too. One thing that I deeply realized while shooting with people I don’t know is that not everyone needs to become close. I can finally understand why you told me the things you did before we started the shoot. Is this how people feel when they go to work every day?”

“That’s why everyone’s first goal is to quit the company when they join one.”

“You haven’t worked normal jobs, don’t act like you know.”

“You might not know, but I actually worked a ‘normal job’ for a long time.”

“When? You had the time?”

“In a previous life.”

“…Then I was the CEO of a huge company in my previous life.”

Yoonseok called out to Seokjin in the distance and ran over.

Maru shrugged and turned around before he made eye contact with Haeun. Haeun put on a more comfortable smile than in the morning before walking into the shade with a lunch box.

Just as Maru was about to get a lunch box of his own and go inside the bookstore, his eyes caught a customer sitting down in the café on the other side of the road. A woman in a jersey, wearing glasses with thick rims kept glancing their way.

For someone watching a shoot, her actions were rather cautious. She made glances, turned around, and then would make glances again.

He looked at the place where the woman was looking. It was where the lighting director was eating with the others.

Just what was she looking at so intently? — as soon as that thought came to mind, he suddenly found the side of her face rather familiar.

If she lost some weight from her face…

“Oh.”

He smiled and looked at the woman.

After Story 245

After opening the door and entering the café, Maru greeted the owner who welcomed him warmly. The owner told him that she wished they’d do the shoot for longer because she had more customers now.

“I’ll put your coffee on the house. It’s a secret from the others.”

“Can’t you give some to the other people doing the shoot?”

“I’d love to, but if I give a free cup to everyone, I’d have a glaring hole in my accounting book.”

The owner made a dejected expression before smirking.

“Or what, should I do it? I’m actually known to be a big spender around here.”

“I was kidding, you know that. I’ll be here to buy 40 cups of black coffee around 3. I’ll bring it out in a large container like last time, so please be prepared for it.”

“I have it in the fridge already. I used some good coffee beans for it, so I’m sure it’ll taste good.”

“Thanks every time.”

“Don’t thank me. I’m getting paid for it. I’m grateful that you’re buying.”

But still, try out a latte from time to time – the owner added.

“Since you mentioned it, I should get a latte this time.”

“Isn’t your manager here today?”

“He had some work to do. But you asked me that last time too. Are you perhaps interested?”

“I wouldn’t go as far as to say interested, but how old is he this year?”

“From what I remember, Yeonjin-hyung is 30 this year?”

“Oh, my. He’s two years younger than me.”

“Two years? That’s perfect.”

The owner made a mysterious smile and went to prepare the coffee. Meanwhile, Maru crossed his arms and looked at the woman sitting by the glass wall.

He was sure of it now that he had gotten closer. That person was looking outside nervously before looking at her phone and then outside again repeatedly.

“Mr. Maru. Here. I put extra syrup.”

“Thank you.”

Maru turned around with the cup. As a consequence of quitting smoking, he became addicted to coffee. Well, maybe it was better than cigarettes which were all harm and no good.

As he sipped on the latte, he walked over to the window seat. The woman didn’t even notice him approaching because she was looking outside.

He cautiously scrutinized the side of the woman’s face. Now, there was no more room for doubt. It was definitely Ahn Joohyun.

“Hello, senior,” Maru said in a low voice.

Joohyun, who was looking outside, flinched and turned her head around.

“Pleased to meet you. I’m Han Maru.”

“Uh, okay. Yeah.”

Joohyun lifted her sunglasses. Her lips were twitching, and her eyes were moving left and right. How did he notice? – her eyes seemed to say.

“If I was bothering you, I’ll leave quietly. I won’t tell Bangjoo about it either.”

“Wait.” Joohyun quickly turned around.

He wondered what she was doing and looked outside. Bangjoo, who was next to the lighting director, was staring intently towards the café. Making eye contact with him, Maru waved his hand. Bangjoo tilted his head and looked at him before turning around.

“Bangjoo went elsewhere now. You can turn around.”

“Really? You’re sure, right?”

“I wouldn’t lie to you, senior.”

Joohyun coughed faintly before cautiously looking outside the window. Only after she saw that Bangjoo was no longer in sight did she sigh in relief.

“Sheesh, his intuition is too good.”

Joohyun stood up from her seat. She walked to the entrance of the café with the plastic cup that had about half of the coffee left.

“Aren’t you following me?” Joohyun said as she opened the door about halfway.

Maru followed Joohyun after saying goodbye to the owner of the café. Joohyun took off her sunglasses after walking to the back of the building.

“How did you recognize me?”

“Is there a man around my age who doesn’t?”

“That’s true, but look at me now. It wouldn’t be strange if people didn’t recognize me since I put on a lot of weight. No one recognized me on my way here either.”

“I was also rather perplexed at first, but I could tell from up close. Your facial shape, the neckline, and especially your eyes.”

“Hey, you have a knack for pleasing people, huh?”

“I’d love to score points with you.”

Joohyun smiled. Whether she found him cocky or cute, he couldn’t tell, but it wasn’t indifference, so that was good.

“You’re more peculiar than what I heard from Bangjoo.”

“Did he talk about me?”

“He did. Apparently, you told him you don’t need to meet up with me and that he should just do well with his acting.”

Maru nodded and confirmed her statement.

“No matter how old I am, isn’t it excessive to say that it’s not necessary for you to meet me?”

“Well, I can just ask others for that. We might meet each other if we keep working too. Above all, right now, there’s no benefit for me to meet you. On the other hand, Bangjoo is a very useful junior. Having him do acting for me is a lot more beneficial.”

“That hurts my pride. I’ll take back what I said about how you’re good at pleasing others.”

Despite this being their first meeting, Joohyun was talking to Maru without any formalities. Maru didn’t dislike that.

“But were you planning to stay hiding?”

“Would I have been there if I was going to say hello? Even though he’s my brother, he almost freaks out when I try to talk to him in public. I have no choice.”

“That’s unexpected.”

“What’s unexpected?”

“You’re a lot different than how you are on TV. I thought you’d go say hello to him without minding the others.”

“You know how TV works, and yet you believe that TV personalities are real? I mean, sure, that is how I usually act, but I can’t do the same with Bangjoo.”

“Sounds like something happened.”

“Are you curious? Do you want me to tell you?”

“Are you okay with telling someone you’re meeting for the first time something so sensitive? I wouldn’t do it if I were you.”

Joohyun tilted her head crookedly and spoke,

“It’s okay. It was Bangjoo who said that Han Maru is a good person. A person who’s good to my brother is a good person to me. I usually distrust others, but someone Bangjoo trusts, I trust.”

“Being a good person isn’t the same as being trustworthy. I might have put on a pretense in front of Bangjoo.”

“Then, I guess I can’t help it. If I end up receiving harm because of it, then that too, is just inevitable. Actually, something like that is trivial. For me, it’s a bigger problem that I can’t trust someone that my brother trusts.”

“You seem to cherish him a lot.”

Joohyun raised her chin a little. Her eyes were looking at the sky.

“I do. I can’t help but cherish him. He suffered so much because of a bad sister like me, so how can I not? I feel sorry, guilty, and regretful… combined, that’s the meaning that Bangjoo holds for me. Though, more than those emotions, I love and cherish him more.”

A sad smile flashed across Joohyun’s face before disappearing.

“Is he doing well?”

“He is. Both in acting and other work. The person sitting next to Bangjoo is the lighting director, and he treats Bangjoo like his own brother. He’s trying to poach him every day to come to his lighting team.”

“He’s smart so he can do anything.”

“That’s a generous evaluation from you.”

“Why, you don’t like it?”

Maru smiled and shook his head.

“Try calling Bangjoo. You came all the way here, so you should see his face at least.”

“He’ll tell me to stay away, you know? He’s someone who tells me that he can take care of himself and that I should stay out of it. Also, I don’t want to see him separately on set either. I won’t be able to help him at all. Bangjoo has been hurt a lot ever since he was young because of me. There were too many people who tried to reach out to me through that young child. He went to the emergency room once because of some crazy bitch too.”

It still makes my stomach churn to this day – Joohyun added as she stroked down her hair. The tips of her eyes were raised as if to indicate her anger.

“Anyway, too many things happened.”

“None of them are your fault.”

“Right, it’s those bastards that are at fault. But ultimately, I gave them the cause,” she said as she looked at the ground.

“I can see why Bangjoo tells you not to come to the set.”

“What do you mean?”

“There’s no one who likes being treated like a child. As you said, Bangjoo is a smart fellow. He’s neither so pathetic nor so immature to hate his sister unconditionally without thinking about what caused those incidents. But you keep treating him like a kid. Even I would rather not see someone like that at work.”

“When have I treated him like a kid?”

“Everything you said to me indicates that. Did Bangjoo ever say that he resents you with his own mouth?”

“I can tell even without having him tell me that.”

“Looks like you can read other people’s minds. I can’t do that. I can’t read what a snot-nosed brat is thinking, much less a fully-grown adult. Don’t you think it’s impossible unless you hear that from the person himself?”

He looked at Joohyun who seemed to be in thought and added, “Aren’t you afraid that Bangjoo might blame you?”

Joohyun crossed her arms after listening to his words. Her expression slowly turned into one of indifference.

“After saying that you can’t read what a fully-grown adult is thinking, you’re actually pretty good at it.”

“Well, I have seen and heard a lot of things you see. You can’t exactly ignore a massive amount of data.”

“It might be as you say. I might be afraid. That’s why I always try to sound cheerful whenever I call him. I’d tell him a lot of things. Do you want to go out together? Do you want to eat out with me? Do you want me to buy you something? – I don’t really talk about what’s deep inside.”

Joohyun put on his sunglasses again. Her eyes, which told a lot of things, were covered up.

“As you say, I might be treating him like a child because I’m afraid. It pains my heart to imagine him telling me words of clear resentment in adult language. I might become sick just from that.”

Joohyun, who was speaking slowly, put on a faint smile.

“I really said all sorts of things to someone I’m seeing for the first time. Forget what we said here, will you? It’s nothing interesting. It looks like things will get more uncomfortable with me staying here. Good luck with the shoot, and please take care of Ba… actually no. He’ll do fine by himself so use him as you wish.”

“Senior.” He stopped Joohyun from turning around. “Would you like to call him?”

“Call Bangjoo?”

“I know that feeling. The volume of that fear becomes so big and eventually becomes difficult to even look at. That’s why you turn your head away from it and forget about it, thinking about someone saying that time is the medicine. Then you realize, fear does not subside and time can never be a medicine.”

He looked for Bangjoo’s number in his contacts list.

“Try talking to him. Be it resentment or whatever, try listening to what he has to say. This is just my prediction, but it might actually be resolved ridiculously easily. Fear usually stems from not knowing. The moment you look at it directly, the massive volume that looked like it was about to engulf you becomes smaller than a fingernail. So small that you can blow it away.”

Maru asked if he should call him with his finger right above the call button. Joohyun watched for a while before taking off her sunglasses.

“Look at me, losing my composure in front of a junior. I’m so uncool.”

“Running away at this point would be even more uncool.”

Joohyun received the phone.

“But hey, were you always this mindful of others’ businesses?”

“No. I don’t trust people. I calculate my benefits and losses too. But I put away the calculator for people I think are important. I graduated from that a long time ago.”

“What if Bangjoo still resents me?” Joohyun said without hiding her unease.

“What else? Scold him for not being able to discern what’s right and wrong despite being an adult.”

“Hey, now that I look at you, you’re pretty nasty.”

“I learned this from you.”

“From me?”

Joohyun, who scanned him up and down in puzzlement, calmed down her breathing and raised the phone.

She tapped on the phone and put it against her ear. A moment later, she started speaking,

“It’s not your senior, but your sister. Why am I using this number? I’ll explain in just a moment. But first… there’s something I want to, no, I have to talk about with you.”

After Story 246

-I used to resent you when I was still in school. I knew it wasn’t your fault, but just the fact that such things were happening to me was too much for me. But I don’t think like that at all now.

“I see.”

-I think both of us were too late to bring this up. We should have had this talk ages ago. Though I’m glad that we’re doing this now.

“It was me who was avoiding it all the time, not you.”

-It’s neither my fault nor yours. It’s just… what it is.

“Had I come to terms with it earlier, I would’ve talked to you about a lot of things.”

-Forget it. Even if you don’t look out for me, I can live my own life.

“Yeah, being you, I’m sure you’ll do well.”

Joohyun let out a long sigh. The clumped-up emotions dissolved away too easily. She felt refreshed as though she was walking in the forest after a rainfall. She hoped Bangjoo felt the same.

-Is senior Maru next to you?

“Yeah. He’s watching with indecent eyes next to me.”

-Indecent?

“He’s like a wily snake even though he’s around your age. I’m not saying I hate it.”

-I guess he does have that side to him.

“Anyway, do well at the shoot. See you at home later. Let’s eat with the three of us, you, me and mom.”

-You’re leaving?

“Huh?”

-Since you’re here, you should come see me. You can see how my acting is. Tell me if I’m lacking in anything. I mean, you’re an actress. An actress with really good acting.

“Can I do that? People will find out.”

-I don’t care. I’m not at the age where I’d be swayed by things like that anymore. Also… I want to boast that Ahn Joohyun is my sister. You’re an actor I admire after all.

Joohyun clutched the phone with both of her hands.

Her voice was getting excited.

“What did you say just now?”

-What do you mean?

“Boast, admire… you said things like that. I couldn’t hear it properly. Tell me that again.”

-It was nothing, so forget it. Just leave if you’re going to be naggy about it.

“No, no, no. I’ll go there right now and tell everyone in a loud voice that I’m Ahn Joohyun who my brother Bangjoo admires and likes the most.”

-You’re being excessive again. Just don’t come.

“No, I am going!”

Haha – Joohyun laughed loudly as she crouched down slightly. Her brother on the other side muttered something before hanging up.

She remembered when she was still in her early twenties. She was taking a break at home after a shoot and her mother came over and showed her a piece of paper, telling her to have a look at it.

On that paper, it was written – My dream is to become a great actor like my sister – in crooked letters.

“He’ll probably freak out if I show him that.”

Joohyun wiped her eyes, which had become teary after laughing so much, before returning the phone back to Maru.

“Show him what?”

“A gift my cute brother gave me.”

“Something that will freak Bangjoo out if he sees it, huh?”

“He’ll probably jump in joy, you know? With his face all red and everything.”

Maru put his phone in his pocket.

“Sounds like things went well with your brother.”

“Yeah. It was ridiculously easy. It was hard to bring it up, but once I brought it up, I kept talking without stopping. Just what was I so afraid of, do you think?”

Maru smiled and responded,

“It’s not surprising that you’re scared. I also told you to try it without thinking much, saying that nothing bad would happen, but I would actually be really hesitant if it was my own matter. There are things you can’t tell your family precisely because you’re close to them.”

“That’s true, but what were you planning to do if the relationship between me and Bangjoo got worse?”

“The responsibility lies with the one who makes the decision. I only told you the method, so I would’ve quietly run away.”

“You’re such a bad guy.”

“Don’t you think it’s excessive to ask me to take responsibility?”

Joohyun stared at Maru before smiling softly.

“You’re right. The responsibility should lie with the person in question. Anyway, I cleared up all the pent-up emotions thanks to you. I think I’ll be able to see Bangjoo like before again.”

“Treat him comfortably. Don’t try to give him so much though. You know that a sense of distance is important too, right?”

“I do. No, perhaps I didn’t know about it. I became more knowledgeable about theory as I got older, but I didn’t have any practical experience. In the first place, I tried my best to not create such problems.”

“That’s how adults are. Clashing and learning through failures is a privilege for the young. If a fully grown adult lives like that, they’ll run out; whether it is their money, health, or reputation.”

Joohyun nodded. When she was young, she always had this thought when she looked at the adults around her: I will not live like that when I’m an adult. Isn’t it embarrassing to live with such a conservative mindset?

However, as she got older, became more experienced, and saw for herself what she had achieved, she had also become someone who made conservative decisions.

She realized when she became an adult that older people didn’t make such decisions just because they were foolish and selfish.

“Then shall I get going?” Joohyun said as she turned around.

“Go where?”

“Where else, the shoot, of course. I have permission from my brother now, so I should go say hello. If possible, I’ll promote him too, saying that I’m his sister.”

“Bangjoo might be so happy that he might run away from the shoot.”

“Sounds interesting, doesn’t it?”

She didn’t stop laughing. She walked towards the shoot with bold steps.

* * *

“What did the landlord say?”

“Either I pull out or pay more rent. I was even advised to change the line of business.”

“Well, I guess it is pretty hard to earn money through a bookstore. I saw on my way here that two more cafés are coming in. I saw that the interior construction was underway.”

“There are four cafés in this cramped space, and there’s even more coming? This isn’t a democratic country. It’s a coffeecratic one,” Maru said his line as he sat down.

The way he looked outside the window with an indifferent expression while resting his chin on his hand was precisely what Yoonseok wanted.

‘As expected of Maru, he’s good.’

Bangjoo, who was rummaging through some books, sat opposite Maru. Even Bangjoo, who looked rather awkward during the first shoot, was completely assimilated with the atmosphere now. The more he acted with Maru, the greater the charm of his acting became. Having a good synergy should be used for situations like this.

“Are you going to keep running the bookstore?”

“I definitely can’t with the rent that the landlord wants from me. It feels like yesterday that I was so overjoyed that more people were coming, but now, I guess I’m going to get pushed out by those same people.”

“Why don’t you change the line of business like the landlord says? I saw that the café owners were all young. If you buy roasted beans and make coffee with them, you’ll be doing the basics at least. The location is good here, so don’t you think there will be some profit if more and more people keep coming?”

“I thought about that too. I did, but this is a bookstore.”

“Like I said, if you change it…”

Bangjoo stopped talking midway and looked at Maru before sighing. The way he distributed his breaths and silences was good.

“It’s not something I should be advising you about. Anyway, do your best. Give me a call if you need help. That’s what is so good about friends, right?”

“Alright, I’ll call you if I need some help. Thanks for coming today.”

“Don’t mention it. Then see you next time.”

Bangjoo opened the door and left, and Maru kept staring at the door which swayed back and forth until it eventually stopped.

Futility, unease, precariousness — these emotions were displayed in the middle of the screen.

Yoonseok did not shout cut and kept stalling for time. The act they had rehearsed was finished. It wouldn’t be bad if they cut the master shot here and moved over to the detail cuts to be used as inserts.

However, he had a sense of anticipation when he saw Maru dragging it for so long. Yoonseok tossed the actor into a space without lines or instructions, just the background and the nature of the character.

Maru started wiping the covers of books with a cloth. One, two, three… When he picked up a thick novel, Maru lowered his head. His lips, which were clenched shut, trembled. The emotions he swallowed up in despair spread around his face. His emotions were quite blatant to see.

Yoonseok thought about himself as he watched Maru’s acting.

The vanity of having to go to the military without being able to achieve anything after the Short Film Festival.

The despair of not seeing any improvements in his scenario when he was in the military.

And lastly… the regret of not being able to let go and continuing to hang on to it.

Right now, he knew that those emotions had become good nutrients that contributed to the final outcome, but back then, he had such a hard time that he had nightmares.

No training exercises and no bullying from his military seniors could compare to the fright of facing pure white paper.

“This is it? Just like that?” Maru said in a slightly sunken voice.

Those were words that expressed Yoo Daejoo’s feelings, and also words that summarized his past. Maru really dug deeply into the character. Yoonseok shouted cut in admiration of the occupation known as actors.

Only after he shouted did he realize that his own voice was sunken like Maru’s.

He quickly drank some water, blowing away the rattling sadness inside him. If he suddenly started crying, he wouldn’t be able to continue the shoot because of embarrassment.

He quickly calmed down, but just as he was about to compliment Maru’s acting, the voice he had forgotten about during the shoot could be heard,

“The director is very emotional, huh? I really like this style.”

“Huh, what?”

Yoonseok turned around.

The first on his list of male actors that he wanted to work with if he were to become a famous director was Hong Geunsoo. For actresses, it was Ahn Joohyun.

When he recalled that the actress of his dreams was watching his own work right behind him, his face became flushed.

“It’s a lot easier to act with a director who can express himself. It’s easier to understand what the characters are supposed to be like.”

“I-I see.”

Yoonseok looked at Joohyun before turning around.

When Joohyun first appeared at the set, the atmosphere became silent for a moment before erupting into an uproar. It was surprising that she appeared at all, but when she revealed that Bangjoo was her brother, it became almost impossible to shoot for a while.

When he barely calmed everyone down and was about to continue the shoot, Joohyun started watching from behind him. He had no choice but to look at the monitor with several times more nervousness than when he did the audition.

Thankfully, he was able to forget Joohyun’s presence and focus on producing the film when the shoot began, but he would come to a realization every single break time.

…That one of the top actresses in the country was watching from behind.

Moreover, he was personally a fan of hers, so he couldn’t make eye contact with her. It was driving him crazy.

“Director, what do you think about using me as a cameo?” Joohyun said.

Yoonseok was surprised out of his wits, but then eventually replied,

“As a personal fan, I’d love to do so, but I don’t think I can do it this time.”

“Why?”

“Because… you’re too eye-catching.”

“Not because I’m fat right now?”

Yoonseok shook his head.

“Not at all! You’re really charming even now!”

When he said it, he realized how embarrassing those words were.

Maru came over with some coffee.

“Looks like our director’s not in the right mind right now. Senior, please go easy on him.”

“I will. But he’s so innocent that it’s worth teasing him.”

“That’s true. Director Lee is definitely worth teasing.”

The two actors smirked.

Yoonseok stood up after pulling himself together. It was time to give feedback on the cut he shot just now and prepare for the next one.

After Story 247

“Pile up the sacks neatly and organize the wooden planks.”

Bangjoo sat down as he rolled up the sleeves of his work outfit. The only downside to this work was that he couldn’t roll up his sleeves no matter how hot the weather was. Although sweating was much better than scraping his skin, on a hot steamy day like this, he wanted to forget about safety and throw everything away.

“Hey, let’s go eat.”

“Yes.”

He put on his trainers, which had lost their color, and went to the cheap restaurant in front of the construction site. The technicians sat separately, while the temporary workers sat at one table.

“There are a lot of young people these days. Are you in college?”

When a man in his forties asked, Bangjoo replied yes.

“Is it for tuition?”

“Something like that.”

“Then work moderately. Don’t overwork yourself and get injured. I saw that you were working too hard. It’s your loss if you get hurt.”

Another man sitting next to him agreed to that. For a while, the men talked about how they got injured during construction work.

The stories included things like how someone’s construction helmet got smashed by a steel beam, how a pile of construction materials fell over, or how a truck went over them. It was a miracle that they were still alive.

After the meal, they left. The workers went into the shade.

There were some who slept with a sitting mat as a pillow, some who curled up and used their phones, and some who looked up at the sky while swearing.

“Today’s really hot.”

Bangjoo looked next to him. He was a man who quietly ate next to him during the meal. They seemed to be around the same age.

“It is.”

“I originally wanted to switch to something more comfortable after earning enough money for academies, but when I actually worked, I couldn’t find anywhere that’s as comfortable as this. I thought manual labor was always really dangerous and taxing, but they keep having me clean stuff and carry stuff instead.”

“It’ll be big trouble if some accident occurs while doing that.”

The man rested his head against his hands locked behind him.

“I wondered if this is the right job for me, but then I think that it isn’t something you can do all your life. I went to a drawing school because I didn’t have any of the basics down while preparing to become a webtoon artist, but there are middle schoolers and high schoolers everywhere. They’re all better at drawing than me too.”

Rather than someone to talk to, he seemed like he needed someone to listen to him.

“If I had some leeway, I would be drawing sketches all day and coming up with stories, but I need money if I want to breathe and eat.”

“That’s how it is with everyone.”

The man sat up with a laugh. He went into the convenience store nearby before coming out with a can of coffee in each hand.

“Sorry for talking to you like that all of a sudden. I haven’t been meeting anyone these days, so I haven’t had anyone to talk to which is why I ended up telling you all sorts of things. Actually, it’s hard to tell your close friends this. It’s like talking into the bamboo forest about how the king has donkey ears.”

Bangjoo stared at the coffee before accepting it. He was no longer afraid of accepting food and drinks from others. Ever since he talked it out with his sister, his fears had subsided completely.

“Anyway, thanks for listening.”

The man turned around.

Bangjoo looked at the coffee the man gave him. If he had some leeway, he would be drawing sketches all day and coming up with stories – those words kept reverberating in his ears.

The work resumed. He kept doing menial labor while people sometimes told him to take it easy.

Veteran workers started cleaning away the equipment. It was time to finish up the job.

He took off his work outfit and changed into his jersey. Just as he was about to look into the bus schedule to go home, he thought about the shoot.

There was a shoot today too. He got on the bus that led to the shooting location. It wasn’t that he had anything to do there, but his thoughts kept leading there.

After getting off the bus, he entered the familiar alley. Although the entrance was dark, the middle was bright with lights. There were many people gathered around as well.

Ever since his sister made a visit last week, there were many people who visited the set. Even though all she did was post a photo on social media saying that she came to visit her brother’s shoot, her fans used the map service of internet portals to find the location of the shoot. Their persistence and interest were incredible.

He could see a jimmy jib at the set. From what he heard, it cost 300 thousand won per day to rent it. It got a better hourly wage than a person.

The lighting was also different from the usual color. It was a pale blue light.

He saw senior Maru sitting down in front of the store on a seat. As everyone around was following the staff controlling them, there seemed to be no difficulties with the shoot.

“I thought you were going to work today.”

The lighting director, who discovered him, came over and spoke to him.

“This place crossed my mind when I finished work, so I came over.”

“You should’ve gone home if you finished work.”

“That was the plan, but something kept pulling me here, so I came.”

“Something pulled you here? What did?”

“Actually, I don’t know either. I don’t know what I’m so concerned about.”

“That’s boring.”

Bangjoo faintly smiled before looking at Maru. He went through the script with director Lee and talked to him about something.

“Standby.”

The shooting location became quiet. Moon Sukjin came over to Maru as he sat under the lighting. In his hand was a cigarette. Sukjin spoke while slowly exhaling some smoke. Although Bangjoo couldn’t hear anything because he was too far away, he knew what it was about.

This was the scene where Sukjin said farewell after pulling out of his store.

Although the original owners of the stores along the street had been running their business for the longest time, they were helplessly chased out when they were told to.

“This place was really good. I’d hold out just a little more if I had some more money in my bank account.”

He could hear Sukjin’s line like it was aimed at his ears.

“You should hold out as much as possible.”

“Do you think I can?”

Maru stayed silent. Sukjin puffed deeply before throwing the cigarette butt on the ground. The cigarette butt glowed orange on top of the asphalt before dimming.

Sukjin didn’t say anything and turned around. It was just as the script was written.

After Sukjin disappeared, Maru picked up his chair and went inside the store. When the lights in the store turned off, the lighting fixtures also dimmed. It felt like the entire street had sunken into darkness all of a sudden.

“Okay, let’s stop there. We’ll go to the insert shot right away. Jiseon, you told the other store owners, right?”

“Yeah. I told them to turn off the lights for just a moment. I’ll go tell them now.”

Bangjoo saw Jiseon go to the nearby stores. A moment later, not to mention the lights around the store, all the stores in front of the camera had their lights turned off.

The jimmy jib looked down at the street from above, shooting the intermittent street lights.

For a moment, all the occasional noise in the set, the weight of the work outfit in his hands, his exhaustion… all the sense inside and outside his body disappeared.

Why am I here? – he stayed until the end of the shoot amidst the staff members. He tried to help them put away the light fixtures, but the lighting director stopped him.

“Don’t stand there like some anxious dog and go home and sleep. When you feel complicated, the best thing you can do is to sleep.”

That seemed to be correct. Also, he had to sleep in order to work tomorrow. Just as he was about to go home with his luggage,

“Ahn Bangjoo,” Maru called out to him.

“Director Yoon told me you were here. Aren’t you off-shoot today?”

“This place came to my mind after I finished work.”

“Work?”

Bangjoo lifted the shopping bag that had his work outfit.

“Manual labor. I do menial chores at a construction site.”

“Really? That must’ve been hard. Today was pretty hot too.”

“I got used to the work after working for a while.”

He could see Yoonseok approaching behind Maru. It seemed he had something to talk about with Maru.

When Yoonseok came closer, he tried to say goodbye and leave.

“Yoonseok, give me a moment. I’ll talk to Bangjoo for a bit.”

Maru sent Yoonseok back. Talk? – as he stood in a daze, Maru called out to him. He followed Maru to the back of the store.

“Here, drink.”

He gulped down the drink that Maru gave him in one go. Now that he thought about it, he hadn’t had any water for hours since he came here. He could feel that his thirst was quenched.

“You look like you have something to say.”

“Me?”

“You don’t? Then forget it. You looked stifled, so I thought you had some worries or something.”

“Do I look like that?”

“From how director Yoon thinks the same as me, I can be sure that you’re different from usual.”

Bangjoo wordlessly looked at the shopping bag in his hands.

“When did you start that work?”

“Right after I left the military. I couldn’t do part-time jobs with set schedules, so I continued doing it.”

“So that you can earn living expenses and tuition?”

“Yes. I don’t want to rely on my parents.”

While he spoke, his frustration became increasingly worse. The words he heard during the day kept echoing in his mind: I would have done the things I wanted if I had the leeway.

“I think that your acting isn’t bad. But it’s not on the level of good either. For action work, you’re doing really well, but when it comes to lines, it feels like you just got the hang of it.”

“I know I’m insufficient. I also know that I was really bad during the first shoot.”

“Haven’t you ever thought about learning?”

“I think about it all the time. I’m lacking after all.”

“How much do you work in a week?”

“It’s not a live-in work so there’s no set schedule, but I do it about four days a week. It’s the holidays after all.”

“Adding the shoot on top of that, I guess you have a really busy week. If you meet up with others during breaks, you really won’t have any rest.”

“Yes.”

Maru tossed the empty can in the trash and spoke,

“It’s not easy to go to academies to learn while doing manual labor. No matter how good you become, it’s something that taxes your body. If you want to go to acting classes after that at night, ordinary mental power won’t cut it. Even if you do, it’ll be hard to keep that up in the long run.”

Bangjoo wordlessly nodded.

“Moreover, if you want to go to a decent acting school, the money you’ll have to spend won’t be small either. It’ll be difficult to take care of your living expenses, tuition, and acting school fees at the same time, right?”

“Definitely. I won’t be working all the time.”

“So why aren’t you reaching out to your sister for help?”

The moment he heard those words, his chest tightened before loosening again. He felt like he finally knew why the words he heard during the day kept echoing in his mind.

“It’s good to do everything by yourself. If you are up to the task, then I’d recommend that too. But you aren’t, are you? Then reach out for help. Ask your sister to help you out a little.”

“That’s…”

“If you don’t have any regrets or have attachments to your current lifestyle, then forget what I said. Being an actor isn’t a sprint. But if you feel like you’re lacking something, if you have the desire to learn something, then quit your work.”

“I feel like it’s not good to do things like that. People work hard to take care of themselves.”

“I understand how independent you want to be, and how upright of a person you are. I understand that fully too. But not everyone starts on the same starting point. If you can receive support, then get it. That’s not an embarrassing thing to do.”

Maru tapped on his shoulder before turning around. Bangjoo sighed after looking at the work outfit in his hand. He did need some time, time to consolidate his foundations.

Just learning from college was not enough. There was a reason why many of his colleagues went to acting schools or participated in extracurricular acting activities.

If it was before, he wouldn’t have even imagined reaching out to his sister for help.

He hesitated before taking out his phone. He was about to make a phone call, but he eventually left behind a text instead. It was the first time he sent a long message to his sister.

He sighed after sending it. It felt like he kept receiving help from senior Maru.

Just as he shook off his complicated feelings and left the alley, he heard a notification from the banking app. It indicated that someone deposited money into his account. There was no way he was paid for his work earlier today already, so he opened the banking app wondering what it was.

“Oh geez, isn’t that too much?”

There was enough money to pay for ten years worth of acting lessons.

After Story 248

“Even if you look at me like that, you won’t get anything from me.”

A pair of round eyes followed him. It was a golden ball of fluff that kept following him with an expression that said ‘play with me.’ He told him multiple times to rest, but he didn’t even pretend to listen. He was a smart dog, so he should’ve understood what he said, but he still wagged his tail, wanting to play with him.

“Okay, fine.”

He eventually raised the white flag and threw the ragged ball into the dog pool. The golden retriever flapped his large ears and jumped into the pool.

“Good work attending to the dogs.”

“Sure. They’re important.”

He looked at Haneul standing behind him. She was wearing a light blue dress, just like her name[1].

“I was thinking about eating now,” Haneul said.

“Do you think we can eat now? I think that one’s gearing up right now. If I say that we should stop playing, he’ll become dejected.”

“It’s garlic shrimp, so we can eat here. I should come out and eat here too. Wait a moment, I’ll bring it out.”

After Haneul went back into the holiday house, the dog returned with the ball in his mouth. After shaking off the water from his body, he placed the ball right at his feet.

“Again?”

He really didn’t get tired. Maru looked down at the dog collar that was reflecting the sunlight. Doochil. That was his name. Maru thought that the name was rather Korean-like for a foreign breed.

He threw the ball and the dog ran into the pool, creating a large splash. The third time it happened, his wife brought some food. It was shrimp on top of olive oil. He placed the garlic-seasoned shrimp on a baguette and took a bite.

“He hasn’t changed how he can’t let other people take care of his dogs,” Haneul said.

“There was an accident in this life, so I think he’s looking out for them even more.”

“An accident?”

“One of his acquaintances left a dog with a dog hotel and that dog ended up crossing the rainbow bridge because of neglect. I think he hasn’t trusted any businesses since that instance.”

“He cherishes them like his own children. I can see why.”

Haneul hugged Doochil, who came over all wet. Doochil looked at his wife with his unique Golden Retriever smile before rubbing his nose against her, like how typical dogs would say hello.

“Wait.”

He took out his phone and took a photo of his wife hugging the dog.

“I think it would look better if the dress was a little wetter.”

“Are you talking from an artistic standpoint or a personal preference standpoint?”

“Probably both?”

Haneul laughed and threw the ball. While the golden ball of fluff swam in the pool again, they had their meal.

“Now that I think about it, it’s been a really long time since the two of us came outside like this.”

“We planned to go to the sea together, then we got work, so we said we should go watch the winter sea, then we became busy again… The timing was rather off,” said his wife while handing him a slice of watermelon.

Maru looked inside the holiday house while eating the watermelon. The two cats that played around the cage had widened their territory to the sofa.

Their steps were light as though they thought that it was a safe area.

“How’s the shoot? You’re almost in the last stages.”

He smiled at his wife’s question.

“I was full of worries when I started off, but unexpectedly, we didn’t hit any blocks. The chemistry between the people is good, and while I thought we’d have some trouble renting equipment because we couldn’t borrow anything from the Creative Content Agency, director Na resolved that problem for us. I didn’t refuse because I thought it’d be okay to receive that much help.”

“I think that person really likes making connections here and there. He’s been sending all sorts of gifts to Daemyung, asking him to write something good.”

“That kind of life is fun. You can focus on what you like. Isn’t it great?”

Haneul nodded.

“You said you had a few offers for work, right?” Maru asked.

“It looks like people liked my musical. The sudden influx surprised me.”

“Those people have eyes too. In the first place, anyone who watched your first movie properly should’ve taken an interest in you.”

Maru only pitied the producers, directors, and casting managers who failed to recognize a gem that wasn’t even a source stone, but a fully polished one. If he was one of them, he would’ve done anything to sign a contract with her before she managed to join JA.

Now that she started working with JA, her value would skyrocket without end.

“The musical’s over now, so I should get some rest before I start working again.”

“A drama? Or a movie?”

“I had a miserable failure because of a movie, so I’m doing a movie again. You know I hate losing.”

“I hope you get a good scenario.”

“The scenario was good last time too. The shoot was fun as well. I didn’t know that the final piece would turn out like that though. That’s why I plan to send a love call to a director I trust. I had a look at his filmography in this life, and his skills hadn’t changed. From what I hear, there’s already a script going around, so I’ll rush over the moment there’s a talk about auditions. I like doing interesting pieces, but I am quite concerned about my career as an actress. Maybe there’s still a long way to go before I mature.”

“If you aren’t mature, then who is?”

The dog, which was playing around in the water, seemed to have run out of energy and lay down under the parasol. He panted with his head resting on his two front paws before lying down on the side.

Haneul stroked the dog on the stomach.

“Oh, right. I got a rather difficult advert,” she said.

“A difficult advert?”

“A perfume advert. They seemed to think that I’m just an exclusive model for Friendly Aroma. They told me if I broke the contract and signed one with them, they’d pay me above the standard payment in the industry. Pretty funny, isn’t it?”

“The advertiser would definitely feel rather weird if they find out you work in the same industry.”

“Should I pretend not to know anything and sign the contract? I think it’ll be interesting.”

“That’s business malpractice, you know?”

Maru went back into the house with the empty plates. He wiped the oil with some paper towels and washed the dishes.

“Would you like to go outside too?”

He picked up the two cats looking outside from the sofa. When he tried to open the door and take them out, they struggled and turned around. They really hated going outside.

“I think the dog owner is coming,” Haneul said as she walked over.

Maru saw a car entering the parking lot. He checked the license plate on the black sedan. It was indeed president Lee Junmin’s car.

“He’s early. Maybe his work ended earlier?”

He walked to the parking lot. The dog, which had been lying down, was following him before he knew it. He wagged his tail as though he realized that his owner had arrived and rushed to the car.

“Hey, hey! Wait.”

As soon as he got out of the car, Junmin was assaulted by the living fur generator. He lifted the large Retriever up in the air as though he didn’t care that his expensive suit was getting wet.

“That’s curious. You didn’t even get out of the car, but he realized you were coming.”

“He’s like this at home too. I’m not sure if he can differentiate engine noises, but he always comes to the yard and causes a fuss whenever my car goes into the parking space.”

“He seems to like you a lot.”

“Maybe it’s this he likes, not me.”

The president struggled and put his hand in his pocket. What came out was a dog snack that dogs went crazy for. The dog went back down on the ground after putting the snack in his mouth.

“You must’ve worked hard looking after this one.”

“I almost dislocated my arm throwing the ball all the time.”

He went inside the house with Junmin. Haneul, who was inside, brought out some cooled tea. While they drank, the two cats approached Junmin. Even though the cats would always start off by hiding whenever there was a guest at home, they dug into Junmin’s embrace.

“This is my first time seeing them act like that,” said his wife.

“Really? They look really docile.”

“Not at all. Whenever we had guests at home, they would run away first before quietly coming over and scratching them. But they aren’t wary of you in the slightest.”

The two cats hogged one of Junmin’s legs each and yawned. Junmin, who was drinking tea, carefully put down the teacup and patted their heads.

“Whenever I meet people after interacting with these creatures, I feel stifled. Both are the same in the regard that they’re true to their desires, but one of them keeps trying to hide that, which makes me tired. I can see it in their eyes anyway.”

“I think the people you talk to also feel stifled when they talk to you, you know?” Haneul said with a smile.

The president laughed.

“I’ll go take a walk with Doochil. You two can have a talk.”

Haneul went outside with the dog. Junmin looked at Haneul, who was on the other side of the glass wall.

“She’s such a quick-witted fellow. I see you’ll never be able to lie to her all your life.”

“I can’t even dream of it. Whatever it is, I’ll tell her everything honestly.”

“In some aspects, that makes life easier. A life dominated by your wife isn’t so bad.”

“I guess your wife does have a solid grip on you too.”

They talked about trivial stuff for a while before silence pervaded. Junmin changed his expression slightly.

Maru took a sip of water. What was about to follow was probably about work.

“I heard from head manager Choi that you’re in the final stages.”

“Yes. We shot all the important scenes, and only a few supplementary cuts are left.”

“What about the rough cut editing?”

“It just came out. We all watched it together yesterday.”

“Do you think it’s good?”

“I’m not entirely sure yet. It has the feels down, but there are still a lot of things to remove and add.”

Junmin nodded.

“Even if you received help from other experts for the shoot, it shouldn’t be easy using video editing tools.”

“I think director Lee knows and is thinking about it.”

“Have you looked into video editors?”

“Yes. We have scouted one.”

“Is it someone that I might know?”

“No, he’s in the process of learning just like director Lee. He’s a young video editor who has experience with indie film editing and a video editing office.”

“A young director and a young video editor. That sounds like a combination that could lead to ruin. There’s no influence from the production company or the distributor, so that’s all the more reason it might not turn out well.”

“Maybe.”

Maru realized Junmin’s intentions. He was not someone who would bring this up without reason.

“I can ask video editor Kim Cheongsoo for help with the editing.”

“I see. He’s someone who takes on a lot of big-budget projects in Chungmuro.”

“He’s working on a few right now. The number of works going through his hand will continue to increase next year, and even the year after that.”

A movie that a director shoots and a movie that was fully edited by a professional editor were two completely different movies, even if they were created from the same source.

With one of the highest-level video editors in the industry working on the job, the composition and the flow of the story would become incomparably better than the rough cut they had right now.

“He can only make time for a few days. Even if it’s me asking him for help, I can’t do anything about any of the appointments he made beforehand.”

“Director Lee would be floored if he heard that.”

“You should know well that producing a good video source and editing that well are two different talents.”

“Yes. That person should be able to perfect the composition of the film.”

“Say it if you need help. I can set up an appointment with him right now.”

Maru shook his head softly.

“I am really grateful for your offer, but we’ll have to find a next opportunity for director Lee to work with him. What he needs right now is not a completed map, but a path to find his own color even if that means stumbling.”

“You know I do not offer twice, right?”

“Yes, I do.”

“You might regret it. If a film that you participated in as a lead character and even paid for the production goes out to the world in a terrible state, your reputation will plummet. Even if you did not participate at all in the production, people will not think that way.”

“I started this after taking that into account. Doing what the actors want. Isn’t that the philosophy of JA that you have founded, president?” he replied with a question.

[1] “Haneul” means sky.

After Story 249

Junmin looked down at the empty teacup before moving his gaze over to Maru. He was someone who looked over all sorts of criteria when picking an actor to offer a contract to, but ultimately, he signed the contract based on one condition: How much the actor loves acting.

Most of his contracts were done that way. The prime examples of this would be Geunsoo and Ganghwan. As someone running an entertainment business, those two were practically duds. Being good at acting and becoming a popular actor that brings benefits to the company were separate matters.

If he ran JA with a businessman’s mindset, Geunsoo and Ganghwan would be working for other agencies right now.

Because of his unique contract conditions, the company ended up full of eccentric people. Among them, there were some who would never take up a role that was similar to one they did before and some who were polar opposites, doing only similar roles time after time.

There was no right answer to their methods. The former wanted to raise their acting skills in a variety of ways by experiencing many things, while the latter’s goal was to become a symbolic actor in certain fields.

There may be a difference in form, but both of those sides were always serious with their attitude to acting. They were those that were worth offering a contract to.

In that sense, Maru was slightly different. Before Junmin proceeded with any contract, he would use the people around him to gather information about them. As people were creatures that leaked information, it was possible to know multiple facets of that actor by investigating just a little.

However, with Maru, he didn’t go through that process. The reason was simple: he found talent immense enough to prioritize over his personality.

If Geunsoo, Ganghwan, and Suyeon were growth stocks that had the potential to become blue-chip stocks in the future, Maru felt like a lottery that had been checked already, one that was a huge jackpot.

There were numerous actors of whom he could glimpse their talent, but Han Maru was the first person he felt was complete as an actor despite being in his early 20s.

After signing the contract, he talked to Maru and judged that before being an actor, he had plenty of growth as a human being and was in some ways, better than himself. It was a satisfactory contract overall.

Having entered JA, Maru allowed himself to play different roles every time and most of his challenges brought good results. It seemed as though he was showing what steady growth was like.

No, ‘growth’ wasn’t the right word for it. He was already perfected as an actor, so it was just the process of revealing himself to the masses.

If the historical film that he shot with Geunsoo this time were to be released, Han Maru’s value would skyrocket even further.

While the success and failure of movies were something hard to predict, with a special case like South Korea, it was somewhat predictable. It was a movie that would be distributed by a huge company and would be shown in the majority of movie theaters.

It would practically take over the prime hours with proven actors, and the marketing would be massive as well. As long as the content was above decent, then there would be millions of people flocking to watch.

Maru was running on top of a track without stumbling even once.

Whenever Junmin looked at Maru running towards the top of the industry without a single failure despite playing the roles he wanted, his greed, which he thought had let go of before, kept poking its head up.

An unprecedented actor without a flaw in his career — he knew how absurd that was and how ridiculous it was just to talk about such an actor, but he couldn’t help but think of it when he looked at Maru.

Wouldn’t he be able to do it?

He knew that it was a foolish thought. He was the one who said that actors who haven’t experienced failure aren’t qualified to be true actors. It was just that, Maru’s talent was so great that it made him put aside those ideals for a moment.

When Maru said he was going to work with director Lee Yoonseok, Jumin felt more anticipation than worry; what kind of incredible facet of him would he show this time?

As he had expected, director Lee had extraordinary talent in production despite being young. He couldn’t exactly comment on whether it had commercial value, but it was full of originality. It even made him think that the director may one day be one of the cores of the artistic film industry.

That was why he brought up the matter of personal investment, but he got an unexpected answer back: Maru had stepped in as an investor in the film.

More than half of the actors affiliated with JA had the dream of producing their own work in the future. No, most actors should have the desire to create their own worlds, just that they didn’t say it out loud.

If Geunsoo or Ganghwan expressed the will to become a director, Junmin would’ve given them his full support. He would’ve provided them opportunities to learn things they needed as directors and even helped them out with the shoot.

However, for Maru, it felt like it was too early. Right now, he had to consolidate his position as an actor rather than show interest in producing or creating content.

If a film he participated in as an investor received terrible reviews from critics and even ordinary viewers, journalists would flock like wolves to sheep.

Actor Han Maru – a terrible film called forth by excessive greed.

The state of an actor who could not stay faithful to his original work.

A young producer’s ridiculous challenge.

He could already see the titles of such articles. The comments under those articles would be even more terrible. It was quite easy to please the masses, but they could just as easily become unimaginably cruel.

If he wasn’t good as an actor, then the only comment would be that he had terrible acting, but if a film he invested in did terrible, then he would receive unbearable criticism.

There was precedent for this as well. A few years ago, a young actor who was gaining popularity had once taken the role of director and ended up ruining the film. Back then, that actor received tons of ridicule and criticism.

Even if Maru only invested the money and did not have any involvement with the production direction, the masses would not care about that. In fact, they might think that Han Maru’s excessive involvement as an investor ruined the film.

If this film failed, Maru’s reputation would take a big hit. That was why Junmin was trying to get him a professional video editor, but Maru refused even that. If Maru looked like he didn’t know what was in store for him, then he would’ve explained calmly, but Maru looked like he knew everything already.

“Honestly speaking, I’d like to remove your name from the investor list. If you’re just participating as an actor, then the ones who would attack you even if the film fails to gain popularity will be reduced.”

“It’ll go well. Don’t worry too much.”

“I’m worried because it’s you. If it was anyone else, I wouldn’t have said much because failing is also a form of experience. But for you, there’s too much to lose.”

“It was you who said that I just need to not fail.”

“I am aware. But my greed does not wish for your failure. I know how absurd an actor without flaws is, but it still makes me anticipate. This is a result of my attachments and your greatness.”

“I didn’t know you cherished me that much, president.”

Junmin laughed.

“I know well that you will not retract your decision, so I’ll stop persuading you and ask just one thing: why do you give that director so much support? You have plenty of ways to reduce your risks, so I’m curious why you’re stepping forward.”

Maru smiled.

“I don’t think you need to ask me that. You know that better than anyone else.”

“Me?”

“Yes.”

He knows that better than anyone else… he ruminated on Maru’s words before laughing emptily.

“You want to raise your own people?”

“If you omit all the details, that might be the crux of it. Just like how you don’t hold back from using your own assets for the sake of good actors, I am also investing in people who show potential. And as you know, the riskier the investment, the higher the returns are. No, actually, returns are secondary. I just wanted to tell him that there’s someone who’s giving him full support, so he should try out what he wants.”

“You believe that that fellow is worth the risk of you receiving criticism from the masses?”

“Yes, I believe so. And even if the film turns out terrible and people point fingers at me, it doesn’t matter. He’ll do well next time. Isn’t opinion something that can be flipped over in due time?”

“Aren’t you worried? Your popularity might disappear overnight and you may never recover from it.”

“As long as I don’t commit a crime, I will continue to show myself on TV and in film, and as long as I can do that, I have the confidence to make a living.”

Maru turned around, his gaze on Han Haneul outside.

“Actually, it’s only possible thanks to her. She told me I should do whatever I wanted because she would feed me, so don’t you think I should do it? My goal is to become an obedient spouse.”

“So you are earning enough money so you want to do something you want?”

Maru nodded softly before asking back, “President. If someone lived a near-eternal life, tried out all sorts of things during those lifetimes, and realized that it was about time to die, what would that person do? What would you do if you were that person?”

“I don’t like what ifs, but… if it was up to me, I would do the thing that I enjoyed the most in that near eternal life. Don’t you think you need to be happy before you die?”

“And?”

Junmin thought about it a little before replying,

“If I have achieved my personal desires, then I would do something that would leave a trace of myself behind.”

He realized what Maru was trying to say. At the same time, he laughed.

“Don’t you think you’re too young to think like that?”

“You see, I’m much older than I look,” Maru joked.

Junmin thought Maru was someone who wouldn’t say ridiculous things like that, but it turned out there was an eccentric side to him as well.

“I am not sure about other things, but I thought that I was quite adept at looking into other people’s true intentions. I was surprisingly good at getting it right too. But with you, I can’t tell no matter how much I look. Maybe that’s why I’m looking out for you more.”

“Don’t look out for me too much. It’s too much for me to bear.”

“Keep on thinking like that. That way, you’ll do well.”

Junmin lifted the cats that had fallen asleep on his lap and placed them on the sofa.

“You’re leaving?”

“I will. I don’t plan to stay for long where young fellas are playing around. I also need to take that one home.”

He opened the door and left. The dog, which was playing with Haneul, panted as he came over.

Junmin opened the door and gestured to the dog. After staring at Maru and Haneul for a long time, the dog got in the car. He seemed to feel disappointed about separating.

“Could I ask you to take care of him again in the future?” he asked.

Haneul was the one who responded,

“Why don’t I take him to our house instead? I think he likes me more than you.”

“I don’t think I can cope with that.”

Junmin smiled and got in the car. He opened the window before leaving.

“Thanks for today. My wife would like to say that to you.”

“If you’re thankful, can you be the officiant for our wedding?” Haneul said.

Junmin looked at the two people before speaking,

“An ordinary present won’t cut it if you want me to be the officiant.”

“How about a box of red ginseng?” Haneul asked back with an innocent expression.

Junmin laughed loudly before saying yes.

“If we hold a preview, I’ll invite you first.”

“Yes, I’ll look forward to that.”

Junmin closed the window and turned the driving wheel.

He suddenly recalled something in the past, a time when he was filled with hopes and dreams when he met Geunsoo and Ganghwan for the first time.

After Story 250

-She scolded me again today. I did think I was a little insufficient as I was preparing for the assignment, and the instructor realized it right away. She asked me if I came here just to do an act on that level and said that I should get my act together.

“It’s fortunate that Miso noo-nim is shouting at you. It means that she recognized your efforts. If she truly thought that you were no good, she would kindly return your money and suggest that you quit.”

-I can’t imagine her being kind.

“It’s definitely true that it’s hard to see her like that. Try asking her out for a drink later. She’s more interesting than most people on private occasions.”

-I will. How are things at the shoot? It’s been over two weeks since I haven’t been there, and I have no news about it.

“Today will be the last day of the shoot; we just need to shoot some supplementary scenes and some edits. I told you to visit multiple times. How could you not come even once?”

-I really had no time. I’m studying with my sister’s money, so I should practice in my spare time.

“Don’t push yourself too hard though. Also, keep in touch with the lighting director. He’s starting to pester other people because he’s bored now that you aren’t around. Okay?”

-Yes.

Maru raised his head. Yeonjin was tapping on his watch and pointing with his chin. It meant that he was going to be on standby soon.

“Bangjoo, I have a shoot now.”

-Please go. I’ll call you again next time.

“Don’t bother, we’ll see each other at the after-party in two days. Good luck with studying. If you do badly, I’ll be the one being scolded by Miso noo-nim for introducing someone strange.”

He hung up and stood up. He headed to the bookstore with a rolled-up script. Today was his last day coming to this place, which he had been commuting to like he was a businessman going to work for two months. The shoot would’ve ended a lot earlier if it wasn’t for the late rainy season that came in the middle of August, but well, the skies told them to push back the schedule, so they couldn’t do anything about that.

“I feel like there are more people here.”

Maru looked at the people watching from a distance. There were so many people that it was hard to walk through this pretty wide street.

“Who do you think caused that?” Yoonseok said as he looked at him.

“It’s because of me?”

“To be precise, it’s thanks to the great seniors who came to see you.”

“Right, I forgot about that.”

Ganghwan made a visit two days ago. As he was someone who thought that one of the joys in life was to upload photos on social media, the location of this place was made known pretty far and wide.

“Senior Ahn Joohyun just uploaded a photo without saying anything much, so there weren’t that many rumors being made… but look at this. This is what senior Yang Ganghwan uploaded.”

Yoonseok showed him his phone. He could see Ganghwan taking a selfie with the set in the background. He even kindly described what it was about: the shoot of a junior I like and cherish. The film will be great. You should encourage them too.

“How many hashtags did this guy put on here?”

“That’s how people around his age do it. Do you see the number of hearts there? It’s 240 thousand. Huge, isn’t it?”

“People are being fooled. I guarantee that if they go out drinking with this man, at least half of his followers would unsubscribe.”

“Well, he was kinda full of energy.” Yoonseok shook his head.

“The setup’s done!” Jiseon shouted.

Maru entered the store under Yoonseok’s gaze. As today was a day where they were just shooting all the insert cuts, there was a lot less mental pressure. They were just going to shoot some supplementary cuts like simple actions, walking, hand gestures, and picking up an item.

After getting some extreme close-up shots, the additional shoot of the other actors began. Maru watched Haeun’s shoot before talking to her,

“It shows on your face too much. The next line is this, so I should do this — It’s good that you’re thinking that, but if it shows too much on the outside, the balance of your acting collapses.”

“I was being mindful about it, but I see I keep doing it. I tried to watch out for it after you told me that last time.”

“Everyone would be actors if they could improve overnight. Think carefully about what you need to do and about what suits you more.”

Going into the reshoot, Haeun finished up her act with a better expression than before.

The shoot, which began in the morning, continued after lunch and until sunset. Yoonseok tried his best not to miss even the little details. He would check and go over his work again and again.

“Thank you, everyone!”

“Good job, everyone!”

15 minutes past 10. Every shoot was finished. Each team got ready to pull out.

“Senior, I’ll be leaving now.”

“Good job until now. See you again next time.”

Haeun bowed before leaving. Maru went over to Yoonseok who was putting away the monitor.

“The director’s true suffering begins now, huh?”

“I was almost too happy because it was all over, and then it came to me. Ah, I have to do the editing now… Still, it’s good that there’s no deadline.”

“Don’t drag it out for too long though. Also, get along with the video editor.”

“I’ll accept his opinions as long as it doesn’t harm the image I have in mind. He should have better techniques than me, but the overall responsibility lies with me after all. I’ll finish it up well.”

Maru smiled and helped out with packing up. Everything was insufficient throughout the shoot, whether it be people, equipment, or time. Despite that though, the level of completion was something to look forward to. While he could not predict how the video would change after it was cut up and reattached, he believed in Yoonseok’s senses and persistence.

“It’s going to be hard to see me after the afterparty. I’ll be holing myself up in the editing room.”

“I’ll visit from time to time.”

Everyone got ready to pull out. Maru could overhear people rejoicing that they were going to go home. Yoonseok’s friends remained behind until the very end to clean up.

“Let’s take a photo before we turn the lights off,” Jiseon said as she picked up a camera.

“Senior Maru, you stand at the front, and the rest should stand behind him. No, wait. Senior, try lying down on that table. It’s our last time, so it’s no fun to just stay standing.”

Maru got onto the table that had a pile of books and laid down sideways. The staff members gathered around him.

“Try posing. A funny photo is the best for something like this.”

Hearing Jiseon’s words, everyone got into weird poses. Jiseon installed the camera on a tripod and quickly joined them. Shutter sounds could be heard repeatedly.

“Thanks, everyone. And good job,” Yoonseok said.

“Don’t just thank us in words. Buy us something.”

“That’s right. You’re just the director in name since you never treated us to anything. Hey, why don’t we empty Yoonseok’s credit card today?”

Yoonseok’s friends dragged Yoonseok away as he shouted no.

Maru went over to the camera left behind. The photo they took just now could be seen on the screen.

“Senior! Come with us after you put that away! We should eat something by ourselves before the after-party!” Jiseon shouted outside.

Maru nodded before putting away the camera. He opened the door and looked behind him. The set was something that contained his own handiwork from the beginning of the construction, and today was his last day in it.

Maru pressed each of the light switches one by one. The lights turned off and the interior of the shop became dark.

Faint light from the street lamps outside shone inside the store. He took a photo of the shop for one last time with his phone.

“I hope it turns out good.”

He closed the door and locked it.

* * *

-Give it up now and close it down. How long are you going to hold on to it? You should give up early when it comes to something that’s hopeless. Sheesh, father-in-law asked for something too much.

The words mom said to me felt sticky like the humidity during the rainy season. It was her complaint about grandfather who passed away without giving them any inheritance, as well as her criticism of me for foolishly wasting money by taking up the bookstore.

But mom, didn’t you like it when I first took over the store?

The sign for the laundry store in front of my store fell down today. The store was dismantled in no time by professionals and soon turned into a cozy fried chicken store. It was one of those fried chicken chains that all neighborhoods had at least two or three of.

The rib barbecue restaurant that had been running for generations turned into a café with a modern interior design, the only barber shop in the street turned into a cosmetics store, and the rice cake store was taken over by a clothing brand.

What would their original owners be doing right now? No, this wasn’t the time to be worried about them. I would be joining their ranks today after all.

“Sir, do we take all of these?”

“Yes.”

I sold all the books I could to the second-hand market, and the rest were sold as scrap paper. The value of the books that were hauled onto the truck was embarrassing to say the least. The books I had maintained so earnestly had turned into a weight lighter than a single 10 thousand won bill.

Another truck came to the store. They were a business that dealt with unused furniture.

“You have it better off. Say you were running a restaurant. The value of a refrigerator you used millions of won to buy would end up less than a tenth of that value. There are many businesses who say they want to take it for free too. Wooden tables and shelves are relatively better off.”

I couldn’t tell whether he was consoling me or teasing me. I looked at the furniture that was being hauled onto the back of the truck.

The last moments of a gray particle were lukewarm at best.

I looked at the empty store. The store that I thought would decorate a page in my youth, ended up writing just a couple lines, much less a whole page.

What do I do now? Go back to college, do some part-time jobs, graduate, and jump into the frontlines of employment?

I was only twenty-four, and I was a kid who hadn’t even graduated college. Maybe some would say that I was too young to talk about life. However, being a kid didn’t mean I didn’t know the fear of failure. In fact, I was even more afraid of failure precisely because I was a kid.

I lost the store grandfather passed down to me. My best efforts paled in the face of the result that was failure.

It’s nothing much; shake it off; it’s not like your life is over, is it? You just need to prepare something else – no matter how much I tried to console myself, I couldn’t help but feel remorse.

“Look at that. It’s really pretty.”

“Should we go inside?”

People flocked to the street. They walked to the stores that were decorated nicely. I stood in the middle of the street and looked at the people walking past me.

Would they know? Would they know that there was a laundry store with a great owner here? That there was a barbecue restaurant with great food? That there was a rice cake shop emitting a savory smell?

…and that there was a bookstore that an immature young man dedicated his whole life to?

“Looks like this place went out of business.”

“This is a really popular place, so if they went out of business there must’ve been an issue with the owner,” said the two people passing by as they looked at the empty bookstore and went into the café on the opposite side.

I closed the bookstore and locked it up. I got a call on the way home. It was the landlord.

-Yes. Good decision. This is good for you too, you know? I’ll make an exception and pay you the deposit right away. You know that it’s usually paid after I get the next leaseholder, right?

“Yes, thank you.”

I turned around after hanging up. I looked at the populated street for a long while. What do I do tomorrow morning? It was frustrating and stifling.

“What a boatload of crap.”

The only thing I could do was to swear.

* * *

By the time the swear was buried by white noise, the ending credits rolled up.

Maru crossed his arms and watched the screen.

“How is it?” Yoonseok asked, his voice full of confidence.

“It ended earlier than I thought.”

“I had a gut feeling the moment I entered the editing office: this won’t take long. I felt like I could play back the completed video in my head. That’s why it was smooth working with the video editor.”

Maru nodded. Unlike his confident voice, Yoonseok was looking at him with a nervous expression. It seemed he was curious about Maru’s assessment.

“It’s… better than I thought,” Maru said honestly.

Yoonseok stood up from his chair and shouted ‘yes.’

After Story 251

“A formal screening session will now take place. Everyone, please sit down,” Jiseon said exaggeratedly.

The people gathered in the party room applauded.

“Then before the makeshift screening session, we’ll hear a word from our director. Please make it as short as possible.”

Jiseon sat down. Yoonseok put on an awkward smile and started speaking,

“First of all, thank you for gathering when you must all be busy.”

“I’m here because I’m unemployed!” Haeun said, making other people laugh.

“Anyway, thank you for taking the time to participate. I have prepared this event because I wanted to report to you the results as soon as they were out. I’d appreciate it if you could give me your opinions after watching it.”

“Can we diss it?” Jung Namsoo, the camera director, said as he raised his hand.

Yoonseok coughed awkwardly before continuing,

“I don’t have good immunity to criticism, so I’d like it if you could praise it, but I’ll be waiting for harsh criticism for the sake of my next work. Please don’t swear though.”

He rubbed his hands. He felt even more nervous because these were people he worked with. What would their responses be after seeing the result?

“Please watch at ease while eating and drinking.”

Yoonseok reached out to the laptop that he connected to a beam projector. When he clicked on the movie file, a black box appeared on the screen. White noise started flowing out of the speakers installed on either side.

“Then I’ll start,” he said as he pressed the spacebar.

* * *

“If I had to say anything based on extremely personal preferences, it honestly wasn’t that interesting.”

Yoonseok raised his head slightly. Was the AC off? He was sweating.

“Should I go on?” Haeun said.

“Shake my soul out,” Yoonseok said as he grabbed his shirt and shook it.

There were only two people who had watched the completed film: the video editor and Maru. Both of them praised the film, so he was quite at ease, but it seemed like he had to change his mind.

“The acting was good. I was bad, but I couldn’t find anything to nitpick from any of the actors in how they conveyed their emotions. But I don’t like the story. In the end, Yoo Daejoo just gets deprived of his shop and returns to ordinary like before, right? Ending the story there makes it feel like it wasn’t finished off properly.” Haeun then added, “I know that it’s what you were aiming for, director, but understanding and entertaining are two separate elements.”

“Thanks for saying that. If I could make an excuse as the one who wrote the story, then I just wanted to convey the feeling of being tossed out. Daejoo thought he finally achieved something, but he lost all of that in a single moment. I wanted to display the loss, the fear, and whatever else as is.”

Yoonseok took a breather and scratched his forehead.

“Of course, if that didn’t happen, then that would be my mistake.”

“It’s not a mistake, I’m just speaking based on my preferences. You aren’t hurt, are you?”

“I am. It’s gonna take 8 weeks to recover. I was actually quite proud because it turned out to be good, but you halved my confidence.”

Yoonseok looked at Haeun for a while before smiling and saying that it was just a joke. A hundred people would have a hundred different preferences. There couldn’t be a movie that was loved by all. Even people known as masters of film couldn’t receive love from both the critics and the ordinary masses, so that wasn’t something he should aim for when he just took his first step as a director.

But still, he became very slightly dejected.

He looked to his left and made eye contact with Maru, who was sipping some beer. Maru smiled at him. He had a lot of expectations because Maru had praised it, but… did he praise it just to make him feel good?

Just then, he saw someone raise their hand. It was Bangjoo, who was next to Haeun.

“I liked the story.”

Yoonseok became visibly delighted and waited for his following words.

“Director, aren’t you showing too much of your expressions on your face? I thought you were expecting criticism,” Haeun said.

“I’m only human, so I can’t help it. I got scolded once, so don’t you think it’s okay if I got praised once too?”

Yoonseok looked at Bangjoo. He looked forward to what Bangjoo had to say next.

“Miss Haeun said that she didn’t like how the story was cut off, but I liked it instead. I prefer more realistic stories over happily-ever-after stories like fairy tales. In that sense, I think it’s quite decent that we never get to know what happened to Daejoo who experienced something bad.”

“I feel like my wound is getting healed. Thanks, Bangjoo.”

It was a mistake thanking him. Bangjoo immediately continued,

“But I didn’t like that it was stifling all the time. I think it would’ve been better if there was some time to take a breather midway. If this was a short film, then density like this would be good, but this is over an hour long. Focusing on Yoo Daejoo all the time also makes it slightly boring.”

Yoonseok rubbed his face as he listened to Bangjoo’s words. That was honestly the part he was worried about the most.

His first creation was a short film. Back then, he had a hard time putting all the things he wanted into the story, but the circumstances were different for this film.

It wasn’t that there were any unnecessary parts, but it still felt prolonged. It seemed to be a weak point created by the insufficient number of characters and the cramped space.

No, even that was just an excuse. There were many directors who could create dynamic films inside a cramped phone booth with just a single actor.

“I can’t say I agree with that. At first, it feels like it would be better if there was a refresher scene of sorts, but then, if it does have those in it, I don’t think it suits the film,” said Moon Seokjin.

Following that, other people gave a short comment as well. As they were all film lovers who participated in this film that wouldn’t make any money, their criticism was serious and deep.

“There really are all sorts of opinions, huh,” Yoonseok said after gathering opinions from multiple people.

The opinions were split half-half; half of them liked it and half of them disliked it. The reasons for each were all different as well. If this was before he edited the film, then he would’ve had a headache accepting opinions from all of them.

“The composition is good,” Maru said after staying quiet all the time.

Everyone’s eyes were shifted to him.

“As many of you said here, you may like or dislike the film. I don’t think it’s a big problem that the opinions are split. In fact, I would be more worried if everyone liked it or everyone disliked it.”

Maru looked at Seokjin.

“As Bangjoo said, It would be better if there were refreshers, and as Haeun said, it might be better to add some more story at the end. I don’t think there’s a wrong opinion here at all. However, just because they’re right doesn’t mean that we can gather all of them and reflect on them. Time is limited and we have a lot of ingredients. What the chef needs to do is to pick the ones he needs.”

Everyone nodded at Maru’s words. He had a point. They couldn’t choose everything. If they could pick one, they had to give up on another. In that sense, creating a film had a lot of common ground with cooking.

“I think that director Lee’s edition has properly removed the necessary parts. I’m sure he had a lot of things he wanted to add. I’m sure there were a lot of cuts he really wanted to get in there. But he managed to shake that temptation off well. I can tell because I watched the rough cut before. He has put a lot of thought into this. That’s why I could really appreciate it when I saw the final piece. He polished it well. He really carved it well. It must’ve been hard, but he really finished things up properly.”

Maru’s voice had the effect of making people calm down. Yoonseok inadvertently nodded as he listened. More so than anyone else, he was grateful for the fact that Maru had recognized his work, so he felt satisfied.

He felt proud, embarrassed, and even then, slightly excited, so he looked at Maru while holding back a smile. Maru, who stopped for a moment, spoke again,

“But still, it’s a pity. There were a few cuts I would like to have in there.”

The finisher was a light slap of the stick instead of a carrot. Yoonseok smiled.

“You could’ve ended it on a good note. You just had to ruin everything at the end.”

“I don’t want to see you all smug, okay?”

“I only have enemies around me, huh? But it’s not like everyone’s wrong. But please know, I really did my best. I know that ‘doing your best’ is kinda useless these days, but that’s the only thing I can say,” Yoonseok said as he scratched the back of his head.

“Did anyone say otherwise? You did well. I mean it,” Haeun said as she applauded.

The others applauded as well.

“I guess this is why people like to get on stage or want to get to higher positions. Getting attention and being applauded is exciting. I couldn’t see anything when I was at the award ceremony before, but now I have some leisure.”

Yoonseok turned off the laptop. They were also running out of time for the rental period for this room, so it was about time they cleaned up.

“But did you see everyone’s faces when senior Maru was speaking? I looked next to me, and I saw that everyone was looking at him in a daze,” Haeun said as she looked at Maru with slightly dreamy eyes.

The others chimed in.

“He has a good voice.”

“There’s a reason he did that narration, you know?”

“Narration?”

“Didn’t you know? Senior Maru did a narration for a documentary before. That was all the rage on the internet.”

People who didn’t know took out their phones and checked. Jiseon, who was next to her, raised something above her head and shouted. Looking closer, it was a microphone.

“Uhm, I found something like this. Ah-ah!” Jiseon spoke into the microphone.

“We have some time left over, so why don’t we get an impression from our main actor and a song from him too?”

Finishing those words, Jiseon handed the mic over to Maru. Maru flinched and caught the mic that was tossed to him.

“Isn’t the mood just right to have the director finish things up?” Maru said into the mic.

“We’ll listen to you and then have the director sing as well. We have 15 minutes, so it’s perfect.”

Jiseon clapped in rhythm. Everyone else started to urge him to sing as well. Maru, who looked hesitant, soon changed his expression.

“I guess the wrapper for a festival is always a song. I’ll sing, so everyone please sing along.”

The ‘formal screening’ was gone and a short, but crazed party began.

* * *

“Watch out on your way home!”

People took taxis and left one by one.

Yoonseok felt like things were finally ending. It felt different from when he was leaving the editing room.

“It’s all over!”

“No, it’s not.”

“Oh! That startled me.”

Yoonseok turned around. Maru was there.

“You should be getting ready to submit it.”

“Submit it?”

“Do you think I invested just so some close friends would watch it together? We’re going to submit it to all the film festivals that we can this year.”

“As far as I know, there aren’t many film festivals for independently published films, so there’s not much to prepare. I just need to know the format and submit it within the deadline. Did you think I didn’t even prepare for that?”

Yoonseok raised his chin, feeling smug.

“That’s limited to domestic film festivals.”

“What?”

“We have to submit it to global film festivals too. You’ll have to pick a few film festivals because you can’t submit it to every single one of them. You’ll have to translate the script to English, and if a film festival wants it in their own language, you have to prepare for that as well. It’d be good to create a poster beforehand too. For now, upload it to YouTube and set it to private.”

Global film festivals? That was an idea he was only thinking about in his head, wondering if it was actually possible.

“I didn’t look into that.”

“I won’t tell you to do everything by yourself. I’ll be helping you.”

“Global film festivals, huh? Cannes?”

“That one’s already over.”

“I see.”

“There are other film festivals so look into them for now. You have to keep them in mind so that it’ll be easier to submit your work to A-tier festivals through the committee.”

“Okay. But do you think there’s anyone overseas who would watch my film?”

“You never know, and that’s why we’re doing it.”

Yoonseok nodded. Of course, he didn’t expect much out of it. His goal was to get a few movie theaters to screen it domestically

“You really never know,” Maru said as he tapped on his back.

After Story 252

“Cut. Okay.”

Haneul, who was crouching down under the dining table, stretched her legs out when she heard the director’s voice. She massaged her legs a little before approaching the director.

“How is it?”

“What do you think? It’s really good.”

“I feel like I couldn’t maintain my expression well when it started. Did it look okay?”

“If you’re so worried, then have a look yourself.”

The director showed her the just-taken footage. She looked at her own expression right after the action sign.

“I’m not sure about anything else, but there’s nothing to pick on with your acting. If the movie does terribly, then it’s my fault, so you just keep going like this,” said the director.

“Don’t jinx it. I believe that the film will go well.”

“Right, right. My mouth is the problem.”

Haneul said goodbye to the director and the staff before getting the script she placed on the chair.

“Going home?” asked actor Cheon.

“Yes, home sweet home. What about you, oppa?”

“I’m also done here.”

“Didn’t you have some scenes left? I thought you did because you were waiting.”

“I’m waiting for the others because we said we’d go out drinking together.”

She could see two actors and actor Cheon’s manager walk over.

“Since I’m here, how about you?”

“Me?”

“If you don’t have anything, you should join us. Apparently, there’s a really good grilled lamb place, so we’re going to go over there.”

Another actress grabbed her arm and spoke,

“Haneul, this unni is buying, so you should join us.”

“I’d love to, but I have something to do. I’ll join you next time.”

“You said that last time too. Aren’t you too busy?”

“Tell me about it. I don’t know why I’m so busy either. I’ll definitely join you the next time we gather up.”

“Right. I’ll be inconveniencing you if I hold you back any further, so I’ll let you go this time. Instead, you have to drink with us next time.”

“Yes, senior.”

Haneul said goodbye to the actors and walked to the parking lot. Her manager, who followed her out with her luggage, spoke as she got in the car,

“Unni, you should get some sleep. You look tired.”

“It shows?”

“It was okay at the shoot, but it’s obvious now that you’re in the car. Are you not feeling well?”

“I’m not really feeling unwell. I just have a lot of things to take care of.”

“I guess that you do. I’ll drive the car gently so get some sleep. I’ll wake you up once we get there.”

“Okay, please.”

Haneul grabbed the sleep shades she hung on the door. Since the start of November, she had a bunch of work to do. She had the film she was getting ready to produce, her company work, and even a film shoot.

On days with a terrible schedule, she had to work until late into the morning of the next day.

She questioned herself several times whether she was being greedy. It was a waste of time to cling to something she couldn’t do after all. Fortunately, it was still within her limits. She was grateful for her body for being in her mid-twenties. If she was fifty, she would’ve run out of physical strength before her mind couldn’t handle it anymore.

“Unni, we’re here.”

She felt like she had just gotten some shuteye, but she had to take her shades off while waking up from a dreamy state. She could see the front gates of her apartment complex, and she couldn’t feel happier.

“Good work today.”

“You too, unni. Go home quickly and get washed and sleep.”

“Okay. You drive back carefully too.”

Haneul yawned as she stood in front of the elevator. As she was waiting after pressing the button, she had a rush of sleepiness. Her vision felt blurry for a moment. She stretched her arms out, saying that she should pull herself together when two hands suddenly grabbed her flank.

Startled, she turned around. Her husband was blinking at her.

“You surprised?”

“Anyone would be, you know?”

She sighed before leaning against Maru.

“Wait a sec, you’re heavy.”

“I’m too tired today. Hold on for a second. Also, I’m not that heavy.”

“Seeing your mouth so lively, I don’t think you’re tired to the point of passing out.”

“Should I pass out for you?”

Haneul smiled and loosened her entire body. From her legs to her arms, she let go of the minimum energy to maintain standing. She felt like she was floating for a moment before she was grabbed firmly.

“You’re heavy, I mean it.”

“Work hard.”

Haneul smiled before leaning against her husband fully.

The elevator opened. He put strength into the arm wrapped around her stomach and lifted her up.

“What were you going to do if someone was on the elevator?”

“It’s fine, we can cover your face up, sweetie.”

She flailed her arm towards her back and touched her husband’s face.

His chin, lips, cheeks, eyelids… she fondled him for a while before spreading her hands and covering his whole face.

“Now, no one will recognize you, right?”

“This woman’s completely bonkers. Did you have a hard time today?”

“Not just today. It’s been several days. I’ve been barely holding out, and thanks to a certain someone startling me from behind, I’ve completely lost strength. How’s that? Not my fault, is it?”

“I guess it’s that guy’s bad for startling you. But are you going to keep standing like this?”

Haneul turned around. She stared at her husband’s unshaven beard for a long time before hanging her arms around his neck. Slowly, she turned around to her husband’s back like a sloth.

“Yes, I guess having you on my back will be better.”

She got a piggyback from him, and that couldn’t feel better. Maru opened the door to the apartment. She flung her feet left and right. Her sneakers, which she didn’t wear properly and just crumpled the heels, fell off from her feet.

“You totally out today?”

With her still on his back, her husband crouched down and neatened the sneakers.

“Maybe this is why men work out.”

“I’m not working out to do this, but sure, I’ll give you this from time to time.”

She slapped her husband’s back, telling him to go to the bed.

“I think you have energy now.”

“Shh. Go to the bed.”

Climbing down from her husband’s back, she lay down on the bed.

“You should get washed first.”

“Yeah.”

Although she responded, she didn’t have the energy to get back up. Now that she was lying down, she found everything bothersome. Maru sat down next to her.

“I can do everything else besides washing in your stead.”

“When will that technology get developed? Washing for other people?”

“I can tell you for sure that it won’t appear until I’m forty-five.”

“You never know in this life. Some genius might come along and develop it.”

“Seeing as how you keep talking nonsense, it looks like you really had a hard time.”

She reached her hand out to her husband with her palm facing up.

He massaged her palms without saying a word. Whenever she didn’t have any energy or had a bad stomach, she always had him massage her hands.

“I suddenly got a lot of work because of exports. I can’t stay out of it because there are many things that require my decision. There are many makers over there that have a similar product lineup to ours, so I couldn’t let my brain get any rest because I had to analyze our strategy.”

“And you had the shoot and checking Daemyung’s writing on top of that.”

“Still, once this is done, I won’t have any work at the company for a while, so I can get a breather.”

“Don’t push yourself too hard. You’re doing plenty well.”

“You’re right, sweetie. It’s plenty as it is now. I know that I can’t be greedy and that I should be satisfied with the happiness in front of my eyes than in the distant future. I really do, but when work comes my way, I can’t let go of any of them. Maybe it’s because I know a lot of things?”

“It’s true that knowing a lot of things increases your worry. But still, the first thing you have to think about is your body. You know that firsthand, don’t you?”

“Nothing can replace health. For our sake, and for Gaeul’s sake.”

She sat up.

“Did you know? When you massage me like this, it relieves my fatigue a lot?”

“Should I switch jobs then?”

“That’s a no. I want a monopoly on it.”

They grabbed hands, and she stood up thanks to Maru’s help.

“Go and get washed. Let’s eat something.”

“Is there anything to eat?”

“There’s pizza in the freezer. Three pieces left over from last time.”

“I’ll eat two of them then. I need some carbs today.”

She went to the bathroom and washed her body with some hot water.

She wiped the steamy mirror with her palm. A fatigued face could be seen in the foggy mirror. It was a miracle that it didn’t show up during the shoot.

After her shower, she left the bathroom. She grabbed a bite of the pizza that her husband had warmed up and drank some beer. Her brain, which had come to a halt as soon as she left the shoot, seemed to be reactivating again.

She talked to her husband about the things that happened today; what happened at the company in the morning, her lunch, and then the shoot.

“I would’ve attended that gathering today if I had a little more energy,” she said as she opened her laptop.

There were a few emails sent to her from her company. They were reports she had to look through without a deadline. It wasn’t an urgent problem, so she just checked them for now.

“How was it for you today, sweetie?”

Haneul looked at her husband with her chin resting on her arms. Having finished his shoot in the summer, her husband had been busy outside of creating content.

Advert shoots, photo shoots, and above all, he had a fan meetup to prepare for. As he was multi-talented, there were many things to prepare, such as singing and dancing.

He said he might as well do it properly and ended up spending even more time than when he was working on Yoonseok’s film, which eventually turned the fan meetup into a full-on concert. For a while, his fan meetup videos took over the popular video charts.

“Well, I’ve been playing around to my heart’s content,” he said as he rubbed his belly.

She frowned and pinched his belly. The sleek abs had disappeared without a trace. Though, the sensation was better this way.

“You’ve become more weighty in the past few months.”

“I should get some good rest when I can.”

Haneul fondled his belly for a while before letting go.

“They’re becoming more and more like you.”

She looked at the two cats on the sofa. They had become as chubby as her husband.

“I heard you start working again in January, right? You should start losing weight then.”

“I can never get used to losing weight no matter how many times I do it.”

He tried to take the remaining piece of pizza and put it in his mouth, but she snatched his hand before he could do so. Then she brought her face over and ate it.

“You had to steal that?”

“I’m not stealing anything. I was just helping you with your diet.”

When she smiled, Maru pouted before smiling.

“Should I make you something? You still look hungry.”

“No, I like it just the way I am now. I do want to eat more, but I have a shoot tomorrow as well. You know I get bloated easily.”

She took a sip of some beer and put down the can. Just then, her husband’s phone rang for a moment.

It seemed he got a message. It then rang several times as though he received several messages in a row.

“What could that be? I turned off the notifications for the group chat.”

He checked his phone. As he did so, his expression became brighter and brighter.

“What is it?”

Instead of replying, Maru showed her his phone. Yoonseok kept sending messages.

-We got a judge’s award at the Monte Brè Film Festival!

Following that was a series of cheerful emojis from Yoonseok.

“Looks like Yoonseok won’t get any sleep tonight.”

Congratulations – she added as she returned the phone.

“Monte Brè, so Switzerland?”

“Yeah. A judge’s award, huh? That’s a much better reception than I was expecting.”

“If it’s good enough to get a judge’s award at Monte Brè, you might get invited to other Film Festivals too, huh?”

“That’s likely. For now, the start is good.”

She quietly watched as her husband let out a sigh of relief.

“I told you this before, but don’t go too far ahead.”

“I’ll think about it,” he said with a smile.

Even during that time, the notifications did not cease.

After Story 253

Yoonseok looked at the laptop screen over and over again. He still couldn’t believe it; he got the judges’ award.

He received the email two days ago. An email with an English title was at the top of his inbox. Just as he was about to trash it thinking that it was a scam, he found the sender’s address rather familiar. Even as someone who had lived a life far removed from learning English, he had no problems reading it:

Monte Brè.

Three months ago, he submitted his film to various film festivals through various online platforms, and one of them was Monte Brè, a film festival with an illustrious history that was held in Switzerland.

He clicked on the title of the email quickly. He copied the slew of English text and pasted them into a machine translator. Although some of the ‘translations’ were jaggy at best, he had no problem understanding the meaning.

At the end was a line that said that they were happy to screen a good film at their festival and congratulated him for getting the award.

He immediately sent the whole email to a friend of his who was good at English. He said he would treat him out later in compensation for an accurate translation. The contents that his friend translated into Korean for him weren’t that much different from what a translator gave him. After two rounds of checks, he could finally cheer loudly.

“It’s snowing quite a lot.”

He heard a voice he was waiting for. Yoonseok turned his head around to look behind him. Maru was dusting off his hat.

“Hyung, have a look at this.”

Before Maru could even sit down, Yoonseok grabbed him and showed him the laptop.

“But you gave me a screenshot of this yesterday.”

“Seeing the real deal is different from a screenshot.”

Although it was rather weird to call a simple email the ‘real deal,’ he said whatever came out of his mouth because he couldn’t hold back his excitement. Maru received the laptop.

“It is indeed the judge’s award. You have it good, director Lee.”

“Hyung, you could read that?”

“Somewhat.”

“You said you could ‘somewhat’ do Japanese and Chinese last time, and you ended up being almost at a native level.”

“Everyone does that much.”

Maru’s definition of ‘somewhat’ had to be different from what was said in the dictionary. Yoonseok received the laptop back from Maru.

“Had I known that, I would’ve gone when I was invited.”

He did get an invitation email about a month ago.

An invitation from an overseas film festival! He was excited and looked into flights to Switzerland, then flinched at the questions that popped up in his mind. It was good that he was invited, but who was going to pay for the flights, lodging, and other expenses? There was no one around him that he thought would know, so he ended up asking Maru. Maru’s answer was simple: usually, the lodging was provided, and everything else was at the expense of the visitor.

“If I knew I was going to get a prize, I would’ve visited even if I had to go into debt. If I did, I would’ve taken a photo on a Swiss stage.”

“You know that’s being greedy, right?”

He smiled awkwardly and nodded.

Had he been financially well off enough to participate in all the film festivals he was invited to, Maru would not have had to invest in him in the first place. Being happy was one thing and reality was another.

“But a judge’s award, huh? What level is that on? It must be lower than the grand prize, but not by much, right?”

“It’s a non-competitive field, so it’s difficult to talk about superiority. But the award is proof that the judges liked your film, so there’s no need to feel disappointed.”

“That’s true. I guess it’s more important that people saw my film and liked it than receiving a prize. So, the judges liked it, but what about the ordinary people? If I was there, it would’ve been great to see what the responses were like.”

“That’s the kind of atmosphere you look forward to when you participate in a film festival.”

Yoonseok looked up the Monte Brè Film Festival on a web portal. As it was a pretty famous film festival, there were films that were awarded prizes sorted by year at the top.

“Soon, the films that got awards for 2011 will be put on here.”

“So it’s your second one after the Short Film Festival. Congratulations.”

“You too, hyung. If you look at it like this, I think the two of us have really good synergy.”

Yoonseok took Maru to the counter. He had always been the one being treated, so he said he would treat Maru out this time.

The part-timer at the counter didn’t seem to recognize Maru as she was busy looking at the screen because of the orders. Though, not many people would recognize him since he had a baseball cap on and a messy beard.

They went back to their table after receiving a vibration alarm bell.

“Since it’s like this, I’ll make you my persona.”

“I can refuse that, right?”

“No, you have to accept it.”

“I feel like I’m making a losing trade.”

“Don’t say that and do it. Lee Yoonseok’s persona. Isn’t it great?”

While they were talking, the alarm bell started vibrating. Yoonseok brought the coffee and put it in front of Maru.

“But hey, it really is snowing a lot. It feels like yesterday when we were shooting under the scorching sun, but it’ll be the new year soon.”

“Time flies, doesn’t it?”

“Yeah. Summer went by so quickly. Wasn’t it like that for you too?”

“Well, every moment goes by too quickly for me. That’s why it’s a pity.”

Yoonseok faintly smiled while listening to Maru.

“Someone might think that we’re middle-aged men if they hear our conversation. You know, I feel this from time to time, but when I’m talking with you, it feels like I’m getting older.”

“That doesn’t sound like a compliment to me.”

“It is. It feels like I’m getting older in a good way. I’m maturing in a way, so to speak. I met my middle school friends a while back, and they asked me what happened to the old me. It looks like you really influenced me a lot.”

Yoonseok started thinking; if he had not done a film together with Maru, if he had not sent that first email to Maru, what would’ve happened to him now?

He would probably have a totally different lifestyle right now. Perhaps he might have given up his dream as a filmmaker and was having an ordinary college life.

“You should probably start getting ready.”

Maru’s voice cut his thoughts off.

Yoonseok put his cup down and asked,

“Get ready for what?”

“While Monte Brè is meaningful on its own, there’s another reason why film industry people pay attention to it.”

“What is it?”

“A bridge. Monte Brè is a film festival that starts at the end of December and ends early January the year after. Once the film assessment is finished, there is a week to evaluate music and art, and when all of that finishes, The Belgian Film Festival begins. There’s an unwritten rule that those who get good responses from Monte Brè will get invited to the Belgian Film Festival. It’s not like there’s a concrete rule, but that’s what usually happens.”

“Then will our film also…”

“It’s highly likely that you’ll get an invitation, even if you don’t submit it.”

“Should I work a part-time job? I’ll work hard and pay for your flight at least. No wait, I guess I shouldn’t even think about that if I want to pay back 200 million won.”

“It’s not 200 million, but 120 million. Also, you’re planning to pay back the production fees?”

“I will.”

“Well, I don’t plan on accepting it though.”

The production cost was something that got on Yoonseok’s mind even after the shoot. While Maru said that it was an investment, Yoonseok thought that it was debt. He was no idiot to just keep laughing after spending other people’s money.

“I’m pretty serious. I think that it’s money that I have to pay back. Nothing’s free in this world.”

“Nothing is free in this world, and that’s why I said it’s an investment. Investment inherently contains risks of losing all of it. You do not use the word investment for something that has no risk of making losses.”

“But how can I stay still?”

“Yoonseok. 100 million is definitely a big amount of money. However, depending on the person, it might not actually be that big. Above all, I do not think that spending that amount of money to create this film was a loss of money. That’s why you are not obligated to pay it back.”

Maru took a sip of coffee and added that he should start writing an even better film if he was so concerned about it.

“I’m not sure if you’re being too calm about it or if you’re confident because of something else.”

“I invested in you because I judged that there’s something that’s worth more than money in what you do, so don’t think about anything else. Also, you didn’t get contacted by any of the independent film publishers, right?”

Yoonseok nodded.

“Yeah. Like you said, I wasn’t contacted by any of them.”

“Once it goes around the internet that you got a prize, you’ll get an interview request.”

“For me?”

An interview? It was a word he wasn’t even thinking of, so he was rather taken aback.

A global film festival award winner who’s not even a major; a director who has won the grand prize in the Short Film Festival before. If they can flesh this out, there’s no better thing to write about.

“Would I get a request though?”

“There are a lot of journalists who work in places you don’t know about. You’ll probably be reached out by someone who is not from a major media outlet. You should decide which one to accept and which one to refuse.”

Hearing Maru’s words, he refreshed the email inbox.

“Hyung. I really got an email.”

He rotated the laptop around to show it to Maru. There was an interview request from an internet media outlet he had never heard of before. Maru checked the email.

“An interview that’s done through the mail huh? You should read the form attached to the email and send it back according to the format. It’s quite simple, so give them one. If you do, they’ll write up things on their own.”

“So people do things this way too huh? I thought everything would be face-to-face.”

“Once you become more well-known, there will be places that want to meet you. Don’t sound too excited though.”

“I’ll be formal so that I don’t tarnish a certain someone’s name. I can be formal too, you know?”

Yoonseok read the email and gave Maru a glance in front of him.

He always became curious at times like these. They say professional Go players could predict dozens of moves in the future, but maybe Maru had similar skills regarding life?

“Huh? I got another one.”

“Go on the internet. The award history should’ve been updated.”

He put up the web portal he searched for the film festival on just a moment ago. When he looked it up again, the 2011 awards were listed. The names of the directors were written underneath the titles.

“It’s here.”

“You’ll probably receive a lot of attention. It’s a prize you got via independent submission.”

“My heart’s beating fast again.”

“Also, you might be reached out to by some distributors. If you are contacted, then tell them that nothing’s decided yet and that they should wait. Who knows? You might be contacted by a large distributor who might put it up in some big multiplex movie theaters.”

“If that happens, would hundreds of people watch it?”

“Forget hundreds. It might be thousands. Maybe even ten thousand.”

“Ten thousand? Do you think that’s possible?”

“I can’t guarantee it. There aren’t many cases where independent films became popular other than a few rare cases.”

“I don’t even wish for ten thousand. Honestly, I think a few thousand is being greedy already, though, I do want them to watch it.”

Yoonseok looked outside the window. The falling snow looked like people going to the cinemas.

* * *

His nose felt numb. Going for a jog at the Han River was not something good to do in winter. When he opened the door and came inside, he felt like the frosty sweat had melted down a little.

He took a light shower and ate breakfast. His wife had passed out. It was no surprise since she was shooting until 3 a.m.

He took down the laundry hung up on the drying rack and put them down on the ground. Cats appeared from somewhere and started rolling around on top of the towels. After he folded away the laundry, he opened the laptop.

As he was browsing through some news articles, he got a phone call from Yeonjin.

-I’ll pick you up soon so get ready. Also, it’ll be a casual outfit during the press announcement.

“Yes.”

He opened the door to the bedroom slightly. He could see his wife’s silhouette flinching in the darkness.

“I’ll be leaving now. There’s rice in the fridge that you can eat.”

“Good luck,” his wife said in a sleepy voice.

Maru closed the door and put on his trainers.

After Story 254

“I’m Han Maru, who’s playing the character Dooho. I had to carry our lord big boss, Senior Hong Geunsoo around.”

As soon as he put down the mic, camera shutter noises could be heard. He made a plain smile toward the journalists who were filling up half the hotel hall.

Following that, the actors seated next to him also introduced themselves along with the role they were playing.

"Hello. I'm Nam Goonghun, the director of the film. I'm also a lucky man who had the opportunity to work with such great actors."

After the director's greeting, the person in charge of processions for this press release spoke,

"Director. Many people have shown a big interest in this film, especially due to the fact that it's a historical film based on action. Considering your previous works, an action historical film sounds like a very fresh theme."

Director Nam picked up the mic.

"I have been thinking a lot since I was in the plotting stage. Can I really do this? I wouldn't dare dream of it if I was by myself, but I was able to give this a go thanks to the actors gathered here as well as our action director Kwon Joohyuk."

"Action director Kwon Joohyuk is well-known for being meticulous and his preference for violent action. I wonder if his good points will be displayed in this film."

"I'd like to reserve my words as much as possible because of a jinx of mine that says boasting before the release would lead to trouble, but in regards to action at least, I'd like to say that the results are near perfect thanks to director Kwon's guidance."

"Perfection? I can't wait for it."

The emcee, who was talking about the film, handed over the mic to Geunsoo this time.

"Mr. Hong Geunsoo. First of all, congratulations on getting the lead male actor award."

"Thank you."

The emcee started off by mentioning the award he received at the end-of-the-year ceremonies.

"I was told you had to digest some violent action that you never showed us before."

"Thanks to that, I had a great workout."

"That must've been hard. What action scene troubled you the most during the shoot?"

"I'll have to go with the one where I had to shoot with a horse. I have ridden a horse before in another film, but this was my first time doing a lot of things while riding one. I genuinely thought about going to the director and grabbing his collar," Geunsoo said as he looked at director Nam.

The journalists and people in the audience laughed out loud.

"Sounds like the director gave you difficult requests."

"Remember how the director just said something about the action being perfect?"

"Yes. He did say that."

"As it turns out, that perfection isn't easy to come by. Once, I seriously asked him whether the focus of this film was acrobatics, not history and action."

"It was that bad?"

"From what I know, a teaser video should've been released, and if you watch it and then think that it's some good CG, it probably isn't."

Geunsoo's attitude during the press release was quite leisurely, mixing in jokes from time to time.

The emcee then talked to another actor. It was Ahn Sojin, who just turned twelve and received lots of love during the shoot.

Maru looked at the nervous Sojin with a smile. The other actors were also looking at her with affection.

"Miss Sojin, I believe this is your first film. How do you feel now that you have finished it?"

"Err…”

It seemed she had blanked out due to the numerous journalists present as well as the flurry of shutter noises.

Maru reached his hand out behind the seats and poked the back of Sojin's head. When the journalists in front all smiled and pointed at him, Sojin looked at him and spoke,

"Senior Han Maru teased me like that even at the set. He would tap me and pretend it didn't happen, and he would make funny expressions in front of me when I'm practicing."

"Sojin is such a teasable girl," Maru said into the microphone.

Sojin twitched her lips before chuckling.

"Including senior Maru, many seniors looked out for me a lot. They would pull pranks so that I didn't get nervous and would consult me whenever I had trouble with acting. That's why I could do the shoot really enjoyably."

After saying a bunch of things in one go, Sojin put down the mic and heaved a sigh of relief.

Seeing that, not just the actors sitting next to her, but the journalists and people in the audience all also smiled.

"Looks like Miss Sojin had a great time working with good seniors. Well then, Mr. Han Maru, bully of Miss Sojin, please pick up the mic."

"I didn't bully her. I only teased her slightly. Sojin shows some great reactions you see," Maru said as he turned his head to the emcee.

"I think I can see that too. Miss Sojin's expressions are just so plentiful."

"Right?"

He had some relationship with the emcee, so they exchanged jokes lightly.

"You said you play the role of Dooho. What kind of character is Dooho?"

"He's someone who's upright and never thinks about the consequences."

"So like a boar that never stops charging once it has its eyes set on a target?"

"That sounds like an apt analogy. A boar. He really does crash everywhere and gets tangled into a mess."

"Among those crashes, what scene is the most memorable for you?"

"I can think of two scenes off my head right now, but one of them is a spoiler, so I should say the other one. Dooho has a favorite weapon, and the scene where I polished that weapon still remains in my mind to this day."

"Is there a story behind that?"

"There is. That day the temperature at the shoot hit 36 degrees and 80% humidity. I thought I was going to die. Remember how senior Geunsoo said he thought about grabbing the director's collars, right? I almost did that that day."

The emcee smiled and looked at the director.

"Director. It sounds like there are a lot of complaints from the actors."

"If they didn't like it then they should be the director."

"So you aren't gonna lose to them."

"If you want to work with those headstrong actors, no ordinary willpower is going to cut it. Just look at Mr. Maru. He looks like he'll swallow you whole if he has the chance."

Maru responded to director Nam's words,

"Right. The director is also no ordinary person so I couldn't win against him. That's why I laid low throughout the whole shoot."

The emcee spoke,

"I have emceed numerous press releases in my life, but I have to say, this is my first one where everyone's attacking each other like this. Still, it sounds like you're all on close terms. It's good to see."

The emcee went to the next cue card before speaking,

"Mr. Maru. You have played truly diverse roles in your acting career. This character, Dooho, is a man who speaks with his actions, not his words, right? Did you have any difficulties with that?"

"I thought a lot about how I should be expressing emotions. I shout more than I speak in the film. Although he is a boar-like character, he won't have any charm if he's too one-dimensional. Even a man with a personality like that of a bulldozer must have a different psychology on the inside. I had a pretty hard time showing that in between the dynamic action scenes."

"In your eyes, director, how was Mr. Maru's acting? Do you think his charm has been drawn out?"

Director Nam spoke,

"Maru, no, Mr. Maru."

"You can drop the formalities, director."

"Then I'll just say your name. I was anticipating that part of him when I first recruited Maru. In his previous works, Maru showed incredible talent in expressing delicate emotions. I was also curious as to what the results would be like if an actor who controls emotions in detail does action. The result was that Maru did well enough and then some, more than enough to satisfy my expectations.”

Maru looked at director Nam’s face.

“Thank you, director. I’ll visit you with a pair of new shoes in due time.”

“Haha, don’t say that.”

The emcee, who smiled a little, spoke again,

“Miss Sojin is smiling as she’s looking at you again, Mr. Maru.”

“I always think of something funny when I look at him.”

“Was the atmosphere like this at the shoot as well?”

“Yes. Senior Maru and senior Geunsoo always told me funny stories every day. They made me laugh when I was tired.”

Maru picked up the mic immediately.

“Sojin has already learned how to fawn over people. Kids these days are scary.”

“Senior!”

Following that, the questions prepared by the emcee were relayed to the actors and the director. They were good questions that were a mix of movie-related things and some personal things about the actors.

“We’ll now accept questions from the journalists from various media outlets in our audience as well. First of all, the one who just made eye contact with me over there.”

The woman who received a mic started speaking,

“Hello. I’m Kang Danbi from Daily Chowon. I have a question for actor Han Maru.”

“Yes.” Maru sat up straight.

“I’ve heard good news about you outside this film. Apparently, a film you participated in as an investor got an award from Monte Brè.”

“It was unexpected good news. I was taken aback when I first heard about it.”

“You participated in it both as an investor and as an actor. It must’ve been touching.”

The journalist continued to mention things about Monte Brè. Maru listened for a while before speaking,

“Excuse me, journalist. I hope that you can ask me questions about this film rather than news from the distant Monte Brè. You can look up Monte Brè and there should be plenty of articles about it.”

He got that she wanted to get something from an official occasion like this, but she was going overboard.

The journalist, who was shamelessly asking question after question, smiled awkwardly before apologizing.

“I’m sorry.”

“Not at all. I’m grateful that you’re taking interest.”

She seemed to be an experienced journalist as she soon changed her expression and continued asking other questions. Like that, the journalists had their session and the end of the press release was reached.

“Unfortunately, we’ll have to end things here for today. I’d love to talk all day, but everyone has appointments to attend to.”

The emcee stood up and waved his hand. As they had been notified beforehand, the actors all stood up and stood in the middle of the stage.

“Then we’ll wrap things up after a final greeting. Please give a round of applause to our actors and the director.”

He smiled and stood on the spot for a moment for the journalists to take photos. After that, the members of the staff started coming up to the stage and pulling out the equipment.

Maru tried to leave the hall along with everyone else when he saw someone desperately waving her hand. It was that journalist who kept bringing up Monte Brè throughout the Q&A session.

Maru went down the stage and approached the journalist.

“Sorry about that before. I tried to reach out to director Lee Yoonseok, but he seemed so busy that he didn’t reply to me, so I ended up asking you in person, even knowing that I shouldn’t be doing it.”

“I understand how you feel. I’m sure someone above you must’ve scolded you to bring something.”

“You know a lot.”

The journalist looked really stiff. He looked down at his watch before speaking,

“I’m free for about 10 minutes.”

“What?”

“The interview. If it’s under 10 minutes, I can do it.”

“Really?”

“As thanks, please write a good one. Actually, I’m quite itching to talk about it myself. Please wait in the lobby on the 1st floor. I’ll get there once I finish things around here.”

“Yes! I’ll be waiting.”

The Daily Chowon was something worth investing his time in. It seemed that Yoonseok had missed the email from Chowon because there were so many interview requests flooding his inbox.

He sent a message to Yoonseok to classify the media outlet's emails better.

“Maru!”

Geunsoo called from the exit. He started walking again after replying ‘coming.’

After Story 255

When he first received an email invitation for the press premiere, he thought nothing of it. While he liked both historical and action genres, the combination of both sounded very fishy.

It was probably because of the seven terrible action movies and three poor-at-best historical movies he watched last year.

If he had an appointment that day, no, had he been feeling slightly tired that day, he would not have participated in the press premiere.

He was strangely feeling good that day and the weather was good as well. Thanks to that, he decided to attend and watch the film.

After the film finished, Choi Taehoon refused his acquaintance’s suggestion to eat out together and rushed straight to a café. It was a non-franchise café he always visited whenever he wrote a column for a magazine. As it was a space related to work, he rarely came to this place, but there was a reason behind why he came here today.

His fingers were itching. The desire to write pervaded his entire body.

He opened his laptop and opened a word processor. He looked at the blinking cursor for a moment before closing his eyes. He rewound the time to about 3 hours ago, back when he just sat down after talking to some of the journalists he knew at the press premiere.

The motor sounds could be heard from the screen, and the speaker started producing white noise. It was a sign that the movie was about to start.

Loud shouts filled the screen from the get-go and blood scattered everywhere. A group of bandits raided a village. Before the story even started, the whole screen was filled with violence.

That was when Taehoon started becoming curious. This wasn’t the usual style of director Nam Goonghun. The director who focused more on the story than the image was just displaying one image after another in what could be called a bold move.

The background seemed to be the three kingdoms of the Korean peninsula, but nearly all historical facts were thrown out the window. He basically removed everything that might become a hindrance so that all the energy could be focused on the action. Taehoon thought it was a splendid decision.

Even after that, the director showed that the historical theme was only a tool to display the action. If he tried to be historically accurate and tied that into the movie, the plot would’ve become a mess, and the action would’ve lost its power as well.

Taehoon placed his hands on the keyboard and started writing. The unique characteristics of each character, the content of the film, and what remained the most impressive in his memory.

He typed everything he could think of on the piece of blank document. Then, he stopped typing at the word ‘martial art.’

He thought back to another scene in the film. The latest trend in action films was to split each scene into second-long cuts shot by a handheld camera. That way, the screen would be so shaky that it would be hard to follow with the eyes, the background would be dark, and the action would be like a cut from a comic book. Adding the messy sound effects to that, it was hard to tell who was hitting who and who was getting hit.

Although veteran directors used handheld shooting methods in order to bring out a sense of intensity to spice things out, the action films he saw last year were counterfeits that just imitated the method, not the essence. The reason the scenes were split up into less-than-a-second-long cuts was to bring about a sense of rhythm, but some producers were busy focusing on splitting and joining the cuts instead. It felt like looking at an awkwardly built toy, with the leg on the head and the arm where the leg is supposed to be.

Director Nam Goonghun, on the other hand, put down that trend for a moment. It wasn’t that there weren’t any handheld scenes at all, he just minimized the use of it to the point that the handheld scenes were rather memorable. The rest of the action scenes were all shot from a fixed camera angle. The actors all did their combat scenes in one single take. It was a type of production method that old films tended to use.

That was why, however, it was nice to see it. Although the sense of speed would decrease since there are a lot of things happening all at once, the sense of dynamic was multiplied. Not only that, the actors were very precise in carrying out big motions.

It was not the result of a production technique, but the achievements of physical prowess. Taehoon couldn’t help but be impressed by the movie that contained such an insistence on such methods.

Taehoon looked at the word ‘martial art’ right in front of his cursor for a while before erasing it. Then, he wrote it again at the top of the page. Every word below that line combined felt lighter than a single ‘martial art’ term.

Then he went to a web portal. He logged in and went to the ‘movies’ section. He went to the critics' review section that the web portal had provided for him. For now, no one had left behind a review.

Taehoon wrote a one-line review and pressed the confirm button.

-An action title that is not boring. 7/10

* * *

“Everyone, it’s been a week. I’m Lee Minyoung, who will be carrying out the pocha interview today.”

Reporter Lee Minyoung waved her hand at the fans waiting outside the pojang-macha. Maru looked at the people gathered before letting out a deep breath. There were so many people that it looked dangerous.

“Do you see that? Many fans have gathered despite the cold weather. That just goes to show the popularity of the person inside today. Before we meet him, however, I’ll ask a few questions to the fans.”

Minyoung held her mic out to a woman right behind the security guard.

“Hello. You look like a student.”

“Yes! I’m a high school senior who just finished CSATs!”

“Congratulations. Did you do well on the CSATs?”

“No!”

People around laughed at her bold response. The reporter continued,

“What would you say if you had to express the character of the pocha interview today in one phrase?”

“A sexy man?”

“A sexy man, you say?”

“Yes.”

The reporter then held the mic to the person next to her.

“Are you two friends?”

“Yes! And I screwed up my CSATs too! But it’s okay! I can see Maru-oppa!”

The student shouted loudly before creating a heart shape above her head.

Maru, who was waiting at his seat, also raised his hands above his head to create a heart. The students screeched in joy.

“I think I’ll get in trouble if I delay things any further, so I should get to meeting our character of the day. A sexy actor, an actor viewed by ten million people, an actor who always gets questioned when his next drama is going to be. It’s Mr. Han Maru.”

Maru stood up and said hello to the people surrounding the pojang-macha.

“Hello, would you like to introduce yourself?”

He coughed before speaking,

“Hello. Sexy, charming, handsome. I’m actor Han Maru.”

The reporter called for a round of applause. An ear-piercing applause could be heard.

“But isn’t everyone cold out here?” Maru said to the fans.

It’s okay, we’re not cold, hug me… all sorts of responses came back. He smiled and sat down while looking at the fans.

The camera staff told the fans to quieten down. Soon, the noise subsided.

“Mr. Maru. It’s been a long time.”

“It has. It’s been nearly a year, hasn’t it?”

“Yes. I said hello to you last year for a drama, so it’s been almost exactly a year.”

“I really like this program, so I wanted to come, but you never contacted me,” he said as he looked towards the producer.

The producer made an unjustified expression before laughing.

“Just joking. Our schedules didn’t match, so I was only able to come now. Have you been doing well, Miss Minyoung?”

“Well, I’ve been holding on as the main caster for this program. This is my only fixed schedule, so I’ll be in big trouble if I get kicked out.”

The reporter looked at the writer’s hand gesture. They seemed to have predetermined signals as the reporter started asking questions for real.

“Mr. Maru. First of all, congratulations on getting ten million views.”

“Thank you.”

“The responses are amazing. You managed to get ten million views within a month of release, and that’s a record for a historical film.”

“I’m still taken aback even now because it’s receiving a lot of love. It’s become my daily routine to check the news first thing in the morning. I worry it’s an error in the data that produced the ten million figure and wonder if this is a candid camera just for me.”

“A candid camera of this scale sounds like it would require a colossal budget.”

“That’s true.”

He laughed at the reporter’s laughter as well.

“Ten million views. Did you expect that?”

“Not at all. Actually, the director said something like this before the first shoot: I will open a restaurant if I screw this up. It’s true that the genre of historical action had bad responses.”

“But ‘Turbulence’ renewed all previous records and became massively popular. What do you think the secret behind that is?”

“The secret, huh? Maybe my looks?”

That’s not right — said one of the fans who was quietly listening to the interview. She was a young woman who looked mischievous. When everyone’s gaze fell on her, she seemed to feel embarrassed and lowered her head while covering her mouth.

“The lady who just shouted that, it looks like you need a one-on-one talking session with me. You can’t say facts like that outright. Here, shout with me. Han Maru is an actor with a splendid appearance.”

When he said that, many people said that it wasn’t true. Maru’s lips twitched before laughing out loud.

“It looks like it’s not because of my looks. Then the only thing left is a splendid producer, splendid actors, and a splendid production crew.”

“Well, I guess it’s true that there is no bigger secret than everyone doing their job to the fullest.”

“Oh! If I have to mention something outside of the production, then I think a review from one critic was really helpful. He’s known to leave bad reviews and terrible scores, but he gave us a really generous score. I believe that became a huge topic on the internet.”

“The movie was good, so it’s somewhat of a given that the reviews of critics are good as well.” The reporter nodded.

For a while, they exchanged questions and answers about ‘Turbulence,’ before the reporter changed topics.

“I heard that you were invited to a global film festival in Belgium, not for Turbulence, but for another film.”

“Yes. I was invited because of a full-length film that I shot with director Lee Yoonseok.”

“You have things to attend to both domestically and overseas. You must be very busy.”

“I didn’t know it would become like this, so I had a hard time scheduling everything.”

“How is it? Do you think you’ll get anything like what happened in Monte Brè?”

“If I do get an award, it would be an honor and I would be really happy, but honestly, I’m not that confident. That’s why I’m going to be going to Belgium with the mindset that I’m just going there to sightsee. If I have my hopes up and end up not getting anything from the competitive section, I think I’ll be dejected.”

“It sounds like you’re quite greedy for awards.”

“I’m quite greedy for everything actually, not just awards.”

A signal came from the writer again. The reporter flipped over the cue sheet and spoke,

“An appropriate amount of greed can result in better achievements. I’m sure there’ll be good news overseas.”

“Thank you.”

“It’d be great if we can continue talking like this, but there’s something we prepared beforehand. It seems you made a promise before the release of the movie that if Turbulence hits ten million views, you’ll be dancing in the middle of the street without any music.”

As soon as the reporter’s words ended, the fans cheered out loudly.

“It’s something I said in the spur of the moment during a fan meetup…”

“So you’re not going to keep it? Everyone! You know that Mr. Han Maru is not someone like that, right?”

Everyone said ‘yes’ as though they were instructed to do so. Maru pretended to smile awkwardly. Actually, the producer asked him before the show if he could do it.

There was no reason to refuse. It would also be a small gift to the fans who made their time to come here after all.

Since he was doing it, it would be better to do it for real, so he took off the thick padded coat he was wearing. He was good at dancing, terrible dancing that livened things up during a company get-together.

“I’ll only do this once.”

He smiled awkwardly before shaking his body.

After Story 256

It had been a while since she woke up early in the morning. She looked at the sleeping Maru’s face that was in front of her for a while before quietly leaving the bed. She put on the hoodie she hung on the chair and then the socks that had fallen off the bed while she was sleeping.

“Shh.”

She left the bedroom with the two cats that had woken up from her presence. Her body shook because of the chilly air in the living room. She raised the temperature on the boiler and also turned off the air conditioner.

It was 6:20 and was rather quiet. Haneul looked at the door to the bedroom before boiling some water in the coffee pot. Worried that he may wake up from the sound of boiling water, she powered off the coffee pot the moment air bubbles started appearing in the water.

She put some black tea leaves that Suyeon gifted them in a mug before pouring the water. A warm smell wafted up, driving away the chilly air.

She stood in front of the curtain in the living room while holding the mug. She could see the cars moving along the side of the Han River. After watching the rows of cars rushing through the early morning air, she sat down on the sofa. The mug that had warmed up just the right amount made her feel pleasant.

She turned on the TV, put her legs on the sofa, and watched the news with her legs curled up.

The things she mainly watched were about what the stock market was like, what the current situation was with the FTA, real estate, and whatever else. She inputted the fragmented information the news gave her and looked them up.

If she had Gaeul, she would definitely have her study finances, even if she didn’t like studying. There were too many things in this country that would take your stuff if you didn’t know better. It was especially worse when it came to money.

Gaeul. She thought about her young daughter staring at her with those cute eyes. She thought about the daughter who chased her around everywhere, saying that mommy was the best. She thought about the girl who holed herself up in her room, saying that mom doesn’t know anything about me.

How would she be this time? Haneul smiled as she sipped on the moderately cooled tea.

“You woke up early.”

Her husband opened the door and came out. There was a huge mess above his head. She pressed down on her own head as a gesture. Maru smiled and scratched his head.

“I happened to wake up.”

“You excited to go to a wedding?”

“I’ve been to too many weddings to be excited about going to someone else’s wedding.”

Her husband nodded, saying that she was right.

“Tea?” she asked as she stood up from the sofa.

“I’ll have one once I come back,” he said as he put on his jersey. “Wanna go together?”

She looked outside the window, which was still not completely bright, and shook her head.

“It’s cold.”

“You really hate the cold, alright.”

“It’s just like how you hate heat, sweetie. Going to the gym?”

“No, I’ll just be going for a lap around the park.”

“Your snot will freeze, you know? The news mentioned a cold wave warning.”

“There’s a pretty lady who jogs around this hour. That’s more than enough of a reason to go to the park.”

“While you’re there, you should get her number and introduce her to me too.”

He put on his trainers and opened the door. Cold air seeped inside through the opening.

She crossed her arms and waved her hand, not forgetting to tell him to close the door quickly.

“Should I leave it open for a little more?” Maru said as he opened the door widely.

That guy… she walked over to the entrance and pushed her husband’s back. Then, she quickly closed the door.

She turned the TV volume up and went into the bathroom. She took a shower and wrapped her wet hair with a towel.

She went inside the bedroom and neatened the duvet before putting on her pajama pants. She also put on a thin vest.

When she opened the window, eye-opening chilly air came inside. She also opened the window in the veranda. The cats inside the living room snuck into the small room.

While she was ventilating, she prepared breakfast. She cut up some dried pollack with scissors and dipped them in some whisked eggs before adding some salt. She put the ingredients inside a pot of water and started boiling it. She also took out some side dishes and warmed up the rice.

Meanwhile, her husband came back.

“You should get washed. Let’s eat.”

He got washed in no time and she ate with him. It had been a long time since they ate breakfast together.

Her husband was a morning person deep into the bones, and she was innately a night owl.

Normally, actors would usually turn into night owls after spending a long time in their careers, so in that sense, her husband’s lifestyle was rather shocking.

“I’ll go to the laundromat for a bit.”

She put on her hood and left the house. She went to the laundromat in front of the apartment complex and received some clothes that she left for dry-cleaning. It was her husband’s suit and her blazer.

“It looks like it’s going to snow soon,” she said as she came inside the house.

The sky was cloudy, and it wouldn’t be strange if they spat out snow at any moment.

“The forecast just said it’s sunny, though,” her husband said as he washed the dishes.

She hung the clothes she got from the laundromat on the chair at the dining table and sat down on the sofa.

It was time for the morning drama that she always downloaded because she couldn’t watch the original airing.

“The stepmother is definitely up to something.”

“Honey, that’s too old-fashioned. In this situation, it’s more likely that the daughter is the one behind the curtain.”

“You know that morning dramas are better the clearer they are.”

“But it’s more stimulating for the daughter to be the culprit.”

She watched the drama while talking to Maru. She looked outside around the time the drama ended, and the cloudy sky was beginning to clear up.

“That’s good. I was wondering if they were going to have a wedding in cloudy weather.”

She stood up as she stretched her arms out. While her husband used the vacuum cleaner, she called Daemyung.

“How was the meeting with director Na yesterday?”

-I’m not sure. It was the first time I heard compliments like that.

“That’s good. It means he acknowledged you. How long do you think it’ll take to finish up the script?”

-I just have to polish two more scenes. There are a few lines that are still on my mind, but this can be changed by the actors throughout the shoot.

“Good work. I guess you don’t have many days left to come to the office.”

-That’s true.

“If it’s okay with you, you can continue using it. I have some things to do there from time to time, too.”

-Can I? The rent here should be pretty considerable.

“I had some help from director Na with that, so it’s not that big of a burden. Also, if you can focus there and write a good scenario, then that’s more beneficial for me.”

-Director Na also asked me if I had any thoughts about writing a drama. He told me I should definitely try if I can do it alongside writing my novel.

“You know that dramas and films are different, right? There are many cases where you just write the plot beforehand and write last-minute scripts. The types of investors are very different.”

-It’s not like it’ll be adapted into a drama for sure, so I’ll just take it as practice. Thanks to privately owned channels, there are a lot more places accepting scripts lately.

“Try anything you want.”

-Okay. But are you cleaning right now?

“Maru’s using the vacuum machine next to me.”

-I still can’t believe that his personality changed to be a clean freak. It surprises me even more than the fact that he became an actor.

“People are bound to change. Oh, right. You can make the time to visit once the shoot starts, right? I want to listen to your opinion on the set.”

-But you’re the director.

“And you’re the one who wrote the script. It’s been a long time since I last did this, so rather than trusting my senses entirely, I want to do it while listening to other people’s opinions.”

-I don’t mind. I wanted to visit and watch as well. But when you say it’s been a long time, does that mean that you were a director before?

“Don’t pay attention to that. Anyway, see you in the afternoon. Maru will be coming too.”

-Buy something on your way here.

“Now you are making us run errands, huh? I’m your boss, you know?”

-I’m only making fair demands as an employee.

Haneul smiled and hung up.

“Looks like we should buy something to eat when we visit Daemyung later today.”

“Sounds like the person who said he was going on a diet is nowhere to be seen.”

“My words exactly.”

She looked at the clock in the living room. It was about time they got ready.

She dried her hair and sat in front of the makeup table. She put on her foundation and put some emphasis points with a lighter tone. Today, she had to be a guest.

“I think it’s a little tight because I gained weight,” Maru said as he stood in front of the door.

She scanned her husband, who was wearing a semi-formal suit, up and down.

“Looks okay.”

She finished up her makeup and put on her accessories. As she didn’t need to decorate too much, she didn’t put too much thought into her outfit. She just put on beige slacks and a checkered blazer.

“There might be journalists there,” her husband said as he got in the car.

“That can’t be helped,” she said as she pulled the seatbelt.

Although it was a quiet wedding, it was a marriage between two superstars, so it was possible that information was leaked somewhere. It wouldn’t be strange if some crazy journalists formed a fortress around the wedding venue.

When they arrived at the wedding venue in Sejong City, they couldn’t spot any journalists. She went to the wedding hall with her husband. As they had only called for close acquaintances, there weren’t many people here.

“We’re here.”

She called out to Ganghwan who had just finished welcoming some elders. Ganghwan welcomed them with a big smile.

“Thank you for coming.”

“It’s your wedding, so of course we had to. But oppa, it looks like you’re nervous.”

“I thought I wouldn’t feel anything, but I guess I am.”

Ganghwan and her husband started talking. The two of them talked and laughed together like real brothers.

“Where’s the bride’s waiting room”

“Over there.”

“I’ll go see unni for a second.”

Haneul walked to the bride’s waiting room by herself. She saw that there were visitors inside and waited for a moment. She went inside only after she saw that the elders inside had left.

“Unni.”

Suyeon, clad in a wedding dress, greeted her with a bright smile.

“You’re here. Wasn’t the traffic bad?”

“There was no traffic at all. Unni, the wedding dress suits you a lot.”

“Thanks. It was worth going through all the trouble choosing it.”

Haneul sat down next to Suyeon and took a photo together. Suyeon, who had a soft blush on her face, looked cute even to a woman like her.

“But didn’t you say you were going to get married around April? I was surprised when I heard that you were getting married in January.”

“That was the plan, but we got one.”

“What?”

Suyeon, who had a slightly indifferent expression before, smiled and told her to come closer. From how Suyeon, who liked to put things simply, was so hesitant, this had to be no ordinary matter.

“A baby.”

Hearing that word, Haneul put on a dazed expression before grabbing her hands.

“Really?”

“It’s been a month. When I got pregnant, I thought that we had to hold the wedding as soon as possible. It’s not that we’re wary of the gazes of the people around us, I just wanted to hold one early.”

“First of all, congratulations. Second of all, Ganghwan-oppa needs a beating.”

Suyeon laughed while covering her mouth and said that it wasn’t his fault.

“I just wanted to meet one early; a child that looks like me. The child won’t hate me for being a hasty mother, will they?”

“If the kid ever throws a tantrum, tell me about it. I’ll give them a solid scolding.” Haneul grabbed Suyeon’s hands. “Congratulations, unni. I’m glad to see you happy.”

See you later — she added before leaving.

A child that looks like me — when she heard those words, her heart tightened. Haneul went over to Ganghwan, who was talking to Maru, and poked him on the side. Ganghwan made a dazed expression before grinning as though in understanding.

“You should treat her well your whole life.”

“I’ll bear that in mind.”

Haneul took her husband, who looked puzzled, and went inside the venue.

Not long later, the ceremony started. The emcee was Geunsoo. As a long-time friend, he asked a lot of nasty questions to Ganghwan.

“I’m off.”

Maru stood up. He was going to sing a song to congratulate them. She looked at the two people being congratulated as well as her husband and applauded.

After Story 257

“I’m good with everything else, but when I think about how I have to get on a plane tomorrow, I feel dizzy again. I’m sleepy yet I can’t sleep.”

“I’m like that too,” Yoonseok said to director Yoon who was sitting next to him.

Director Yoon, someone they met in Brussels, was someone who he got along with very well, whether it came to character or preferences.

“Mr. Yoonseok, can I try holding the trophy?”

“Oh, please, go ahead.”

Yoonseok lifted the case and handed it over to director Yoon. Inside the case was the trophy that was in the shape of a chick that raised its head up high.

“I think it looks cute up close,” said director Yoon.

“But why do you think it is a chick? There are many other animals.”

“I know the answer to that. You see, the Brussels Film Festival began in 1984. Back then, the film festival was not held by the city, but by a small group of locals. The members of that group gathered funds for the film festival, and apparently, someone who was running a chick farm contributed the most to the funds.”

“That’s how the film festival’s symbol became a chick?”

“Supposedly. It also symbolizes potential, but then again, the meaning isn’t that important. Being cute is the best.”

Yoonseok received director Yoon’s camera and took a photo. The other Korean film directors nearby also gathered around and not long later, there was a commemorative photo shoot session.

“Where is Mr. Maru? I thought he would be here since it’s the film night event.”

“He should be here soon. He said he had something to buy and left for a bit with the guide,” Yoonseok said as he looked at the entrance of the venue.

Just then, Maru came in.

“There he is.”

Yoonseok raised his hand and waved it. Maru, who was wearing casual clothes instead of a suit, walked over to the table.

Some foreign film directors smiled in Maru’s direction.

“Where did you go when you are the main character?” Yoonseok said to Maru, who sat down.

“The main character is you, who got the prize. Hello, there are a lot of new faces here.”

Maru introduced himself to the nearby film directors.

“Congratulations Mr. Han. I heard the head judge mention your name during the closing ceremony. He said that you very delicately expressed depression.”

“The director was good.”

Maru smiled and grabbed a glass. Yoonseok gave the case with the trophy in it over to Maru.

“Try holding it. I’ll take a photo.”

Maru smiled brightly while holding the trophy. For some reason, Yoonseok felt more proud than when he received the award during the award ceremony.

“I didn’t tell you properly because I was so out of it when I received the award at the closing ceremony, but I got this prize thanks to you, hyung. Thank you.”

“If you’re thankful, can I take this home? I think it’ll look really good.”

“Being grateful is one thing, but that’s not happening.”

Maru smiled and returned the case back to him. Yoonseok recalled back to the moment when his film was called out during the award ceremony. The words of the interpreter tickled his ears, and he floundered a little thinking that he had heard wrong, but eventually, he stood up while shouting hurray.

He did hear beforehand in the middle of the film festival that he should stay until the closing ceremony. Although he had a lot of anticipation, he really did not know that he would receive the award for best picture.

He gave Maru, who was sitting next to him, a big hug before going up to the stage. He received the trophy with shaky hands and had to say his commentary in front of numerous film directors. It was dizzying and blissful at the same time.

When he came down from the stage, he rushed over to Maru and lifted him up. Although his form looked terrible due to the difference in height, in his heart at least, he lifted Maru all the way up to the sky.

This is the actor in that film, the actor I trust the most – he barely held himself back from shouting those words

“Mr. Han, you should work with me next time. I heard that you already worked twice with director Lee.”

“Shall I?”

“Can I do one after that?”

The film directors at the table all spoke. Although they were semi-joking, there was a portion of seriousness in all of their words.

Yoonseok coughed awkwardly before speaking,

“I’m sorry, but can you go through me? Mr. Han Maru is such a busy man, you see. He decided to work with me for his next work. Isn’t that right?”

“Did I?” Maru replied in puzzlement.

Yoonseok rubbed his eyes and grinned.

“Director Lee Yoonseok, I think they’re looking for you.”

Someone was looking for him on the small stage next to the main venue. An interpreter came over and explained to him that it was just a small session to talk about the film. He also added that there was no need to be nervous because it was not a formal place.

“I’m not good at stuff like this.”

“Take things easy and go.”

Maru pushed his back. Yoonseok made an awkward smile and walked over to the stage. The film directors and actors who participated applauded him.

When he got on the stage, he finally got to see the man in his forties who was sitting on a long bench. He wondered who that was before making him out to be the film director Shadley. He was a Belgian director whom he liked. They sat down after greeting each other.

Just as the interpreter said, it was an informal place. As it was an event held by members of the film industry after the closing ceremony, the atmosphere was very liberal when they talked. Yoonseok also relaxed soon enough and said what he wanted.

“What surprised me the most was the atmosphere at the screening. It was refreshing and interesting to see so many people actively talking about the film without watching it quietly. I was rather taken aback at first, but eventually, I found myself shouting just like everyone else.”

“That’s the good point about this film festival. You’ll never know how many times your film made me exclaim, director Lee. That was especially the case when I watched Mr. Han’s acting. I’m sure the majority of us here felt something along those lines. The acting was very impressive, and so was the directing.”

He was on cloud nine when a director he liked praised the actor he admired and his own work.

Yoonseok stood up and pointed at the table where Maru was sitting.

“Mr. Han Maru over there is the actor I really admire and like. I learned a lot of things over the course of the shoot. I really like him to the point that I want to give him a public marriage proposal.”

He said random things out of excitement. Maru, who heard him from a distance, raised his hands above his head to create an X.

Seemingly having just heard the interpreter’s words, director Shadley laughed out loud.

“Let’s call Mr. Han over and listen to him talk as well. We have a lot we want to hear from director Lee’s film.”

Maru came on stage amidst the applause of the people around.

* * *

“I wanna eat rice,” Yoonseok said as he left Incheon international airport.

“You were totally fine with the food over there though,” Maru said.

Throughout the entire festival, Yoonseok was not picky with food at all. He would say that it was salty and whatnot, but his plates were always clean.

As they talked, they entered the airport bus.

“I feel like the past few days were a dream. Especially yesterday. I couldn’t believe I could talk about film to so many people.”

“A good experience, wasn’t it?”

“Yeah. It’s amazing how we can talk about a common topic in an unfamiliar place with unfamiliar people. But hey, you were totally on a roll there. How could you speak like you were on a talk show? I was never able to speak properly because I was in front of foreigners even after I shook off my nervousness.”

“Are foreigners not people? They just look slightly different and speak a different language. They mostly prefer the same stuff as us. Didn’t you see their eyes all sparkling when you talked about some of your scenes?”

“That I did. Everyone listened carefully to me. Thanks to that, I had a lot of fun. But do you think I got my meaning across properly?”

“Sometimes, the difficulty of communication can be helpful. Only the people who really want to focus and listen to you are left by your side. Those people focus on your gestures as well, so I’m sure they understood most of it.”

“That’s true.”

Maru called Haneul on his phone.

“I just arrived.”

-Good work getting on a plane. Did you finish up the schedule well?

“There were no problems. How about you?”

-Rolling around in bed all day. Maybe because I just finished the shoot, but I’m really tired these days.

He imagined his wife rolling around with the two cats at home. One big cat and two small cats. He inadvertently smiled.

“Noona, I’m here too,” Yoonseo said.

-Tell Yoonseok good work as well. Watch out on your way here. See you later.

Okay – he replied before finishing up the call.

“I should report to Jiseon too.”

While Yoonseok made a call, the bus departed. Yoonseok, who had been awake throughout the entire plane ride, soon fell asleep as though fatigue swept over him.

Maru looked at the news articles of what happened in the past week in Korea. There didn’t seem to be anything he had to be particularly aware of.

Following that, he checked his schedule. He then combined the schedule sent to him by his manager and his own schedule to calculate which days he could rest on.

A global film festival in Yeosu, a few events, and a few shoots for commercials. Other than that, he should have around ten days to rest.

His wife was also resting after shooting a movie, so it should be okay to plan for a trip.

Just as he was moving his sore neck left and right, he got a call from head manager Choi.

“Yes, head manager.”

-You arrived in Korea, right?

“Just now.”

-I’m sorry to talk about work as soon as you arrived, but I think you two need to clear up your relationship.

“Clear up what?”

Head manager Choi calmly spoke,

-We were contacted. They sent over photos of you and Haneul going grocery shopping and even walking to the apartment complex together. Quite meticulous, I must say.

“Really?”

-I told them to wait for a while, but we can’t delay it forever. We have to decide whether you clear up your relationship for the public and allow them to release the photos or prevent them.

“Can I talk to you about this after talking to Haneul about it?”

-Go ahead. Regardless of your choice, the president plans to take care of this, so don’t worry too much. It’s not a big flaw for actors around your age to be dating anyway.

“I’m really glad I’m not an idol.”

-I wouldn’t be this calm if you were an idol. Also, congratulations on the award.

“You got the news already?”

-It’s a film festival that one of our actors is participating in, so we should keep an ear open at least. We added that to your actor’s profile, so you can check it later. Good work.

He looked down at his phone after the call. They had been living together for years now, and they had finally been caught. Maybe it was luck or maybe it could be attributed to his rise in fame. He did talk about this with Haneul a while ago too, about how they would respond when it was exposed.

“Alright, goodbye.”

“I’ll call you on the weekend. I’m going to call everyone and have a drink. You can come too, right?”

“I’ll try to make the time.”

“Okay. Bye!”

After parting from Yoonseok in Seoul, he headed home. He entered the pin code on the door and went inside. He saw his wife curled up and sleeping on the sofa. She woke up due to his presence and put aside the blanket that covered her.

“You’re here?” Haneul welcomed him with a sunken voice.

Maru sat down on the sofa and told her about what he heard from the head manager.

His wife yawned before falling back down again. He looked at Haneul who lay on his lap.

“Either we’re in a good relationship or we will get married soon. We should choose one of these two.”

Haneul licked her lips before closing her eyes. It seemed that she couldn’t be bothered about anything.

He shrugged before leaning against the sofa. He had experienced this thousands of times, so he was actually rather calm about it.

“How long are you going to sleep?”

“Shh.”

He smiled as he looked down at his wife, who had closed his eyes. It seemed that he would have to stay still for a while.

After Story 258

-Oppa, have you seen the news?

“I was wondering why you were calling. So, after months of nothing, the reason you’re calling is because of the news?”

-Why else would I call you? No news is good news, and I get your boring stories from time to time from unni so it doesn’t matter.

Bada kept asking what happened. Maru explained simply,

“Those articles were released after negotiation, so there are no problems.”

-So you are declaring that you’re dating to the public?

“There’s no reason to hide it.”

-Haneul-unni’s fans won’t stay still, you know? Even as a family member, I think that she’s wasted on you.

“Can’t you put it more nicely?”

-Anyway, you should carry yourself well. Don’t be an inconvenience to unni. You know that people will swear at both of you if one of you does something wrong, right?

“Does it ever come across your mind that Haneul might do something wrong?”

-What do you think the chances of the sun rising from the west are?

“Forget it, bye.”

He put down his phone and looked at the kitchen. Haneul was staring at him while holding a ladle.

“It’s my sister. She called because she’s worried about you. But wait, she could have called you directly if she was worried… why would she come grumbling at me?”

“She has a delicate side to her.”

“Be delicate twice and she might kill a man.”

“What did Bada say?”

“That I should carry myself well so that I don’t tarnish Miss Han Haneul’s reputation.”

“She’s not wrong, is she?”

Maru shook his head.

“No one’s on my side. Not to mention friends, even my family prioritize you over me.”

“That’s why I’m on your side. Come and taste test this. I tasted it so many times that I can’t tell whether it’s plain or salty.”

He had a taste of the jangjorim[1].

“It’s good. It’s perfect as it is now.”

“Your mother will like it too then.”

“I’m sure she will.”

His wife turned off the stove and spoke,

“My mom asked me when we’re setting the date as soon as she saw the news.”

“Mother-in-law said that?”

“She actually seems to be looking forward to it. Dad also messaged me about it too.”

“I guess it doesn’t look good in the eyes of the adults that we have been living together for a long time without getting married.”

“What do you think, sweetie?”

“About what?”

“Marriage.”

She closed the lid to the side dish case. The loud snap cut off their conversation for a moment. He stared at her for a while before speaking,

“Back when we just reunited, I thought that marriage would be in the far distant future. We were both planning to build a solid foundation and environment so that Gaeul could grow up without any insufficiencies before marriage. Not only that, both of us wanted to become actors, so it seemed like a far-fetched matter for both of us at the time.”

“I thought the same.”

“But looking at things now, we obtained a lot more things than we expected in a short period of time. It looks like experience is the best asset after all. I was prepared to slip up a few times, but things went better than ever.”

“There was also some luck involved as well.”

He nodded in agreement. Not everything they achieved until now was purely thanks to their skills. If the social trends had been different, if they hadn’t gotten suitable opportunities at suitable times, if there were anomalies in their health… all of those elements would have led to a different outcome.

“I think we have formed a baseline at least. One of the things we realized throughout our lives is that there is no satisfaction. A house that doesn’t have a loan, a company that produces steady income, enough saved-up money that wouldn’t run out for a while even if we play around, as well as investments that are producing meaningful profit — with this much, both you and I should be able to be at ease even while providing everything our daughter needs in her growth.”

Haneul, who was listening to the story, reached her hand out and hung her arms around his neck. The sensation of the slender fingers that touched the back of his neck felt good.

“Then you have no objections to becoming my husband?”

“That’s how it is for me. How about you? Isn’t there anything you still want to do?”

“I thought about that. If I was an ordinary company employee, I wouldn’t have even talked about marriage. There aren’t many companies that are generous enough to let someone return after maternity leave, and even if there is, I wouldn’t do it because I don’t want to stay away from Gaeul.”

“Spending time that could be spent with baby Gaeul to earn money is definitely a waste.”

“My words exactly.”

He reached his hand out and stroked his wife’s hair upwards. He saw the black eyes hidden behind the light brown hair. Despite having seen it for so long, he kept wanting to look into those eyes.

“As you said, sweetie, satisfaction is always out of reach. It can’t exist.”

His wife’s gaze looked over the living room, then the veranda, then the bedroom, and then the cats roaming around.

“We were originally planning to move to a bigger neighborhood, but I don’t think this place is bad. There’s a school nearby too.”

“What about the plan to go to a more study-focused area?”

“I’ll see how things go. If she looks like she wants to study more, we should think about it then.”

“She’ll definitely say no.”

“If she says no, then it’s a no. It’s not like studying hard will feed you. At the current development rate, you know what will happen in the next 20 years, don’t you?”

“It definitely is an era where you just have to be good at one thing. There are a variety of platforms to display that too.”

“In some ways, I think this is the best era yet. It’s a really hard era if you don’t have money, but if you do, there’s no better time period.”

His wife, who swayed left and right, eventually smiled and let go of his neck.

“Since we’re at it, should we get it out of the way first?” Haneul said.

“I’m fine with whenever, so just tell me about it beforehand. Just don’t tell me to wear a tuxedo right after I wake up.”

That sounds fun too – she said while twitching her eyes.

He sighed because she looked serious.

* * *

“Yoo Daejoo is director Lee Yoonseok, me, and he can also be you. Ordinary worries, ordinary pains, ordinary breakups… he’s a character I thought a lot about as I acted. That’s why I’m more attached to him than usual.”

Maru finished his reply. The member of the audience that asked nodded with a satisfied expression. The mic was then handed over to the next person.

“Yes, the person next to him. Please ask,” the emcee said as he pointed at that person.

“First of all, I really enjoyed the film. It was almost as interesting as ‘Turbulence,’ that you appeared in recently.”

“Thank you,” Maru replied with a smile.

“I have a question for you. After I watched the film, it left me feeling… iffy, should I call it? There’s no refreshing ending. What were you feeling when you shot the last scene?”

“I didn’t feel refreshed either. When we finished shooting the last scene on the last day of the shoot, it felt like something had to follow up. Yoo Daejoo had tried his best but ended up returning to where he was originally. A sparkling gem that was tossed into his life — that is, his grandfather’s bookstore — only gave him a sense of emptiness after he was done running it.”

He looked at the broader audience.

“Yoo Daejoo wasn’t a special person but an individual that can be commonly seen around us. I inwardly hoped for a happy ending, but the director finished things off by just giving us what was happening. That’s why I felt depressed. I’m sure those who watched the film must have felt something similar.”

“I have a question for the director as well. What is the reason behind making the ending like that? You could’ve added a scene to relieve it.”

Yoonseok, who was next to him, picked up the mic,

“I wanted to show that things just continue, even after it’s all said and done. Of course, if I knew the perfect answer to life, then I wouldn’t have ended it like that. However, I do not know what will happen to Yoo Daejoo, so I had no choice but to leave it as ‘and so, life goes on.’ That’s just how it is.”

The emcee said that it was time to wrap things up and brought Maru and Yoonseok to the center of the stage. After a bit of time to take photos, the Q&A session with the audience ended.

“Now you’ve become used to talking in front of an audience,” Maru said as they left the stage.

“I’ve done the same thing over and over again, so I was bound to improve. But were there so many film festivals in Korea? There’s one every month and I’m invited to every single one of them.”

“There are many, big and small. Also, the reviews are good from the critics, so they find it worthwhile to invite you, and above all, you keep going to every single one of them, so don’t you think they’d send you an invitation at least?”

“I always thought it was strange why some directors refused to participate in film festivals, but with a schedule like this, I have no choice but to refuse some unless I have two bodies.”

They left through the door installed at the back of the stage and had some drinks in the corridor that were only used by the festival staff.

“Hyung. How are things right now?”

“What do you mean?”

“I’m asking what the atmosphere is like ever since you decided to reveal that you’re dating Haneul-noona.”

“What do you think it would be like?”

Yoonseok thought about it with his arms crossed before speaking,

“If it was me, I would be worried and be having a hard time. There were tons of articles talking about it. And the comments on them were…”

“Why are you looking at the comments when I’m not? There’s nothing good from looking at them.”

“Because it worries me. I wouldn’t care if it was anyone else, but you’re involved so I’m concerned. But hey, there were all sorts of crazy people. There are really a lot of people who say horrible things like it’s nothing. You should sue all of them.”

“Don’t get angry. Life is short even if you spend all of it looking at good things. Being concerned about each and every little thing that other people say about you is not worth it.”

“I would’ve filed a report right away. I think I’ll only be able to sleep if I can see what they look like.”

“It won’t do you any good, you know? They all look perfectly normal.”

Yoonseok nodded.

“Also, there’s a way to make all those people who don’t like me just because I’m dating quiet down.”

“What is it?”

“What do you think?”

He bumped Yoonseok and walked forward. Yoonseok, who was behind him, quickly followed up.

“Marriage? You’re getting married?”

“Isn’t it interesting? They would criticize idols like crazy if they were in a relationship, but when the idol announces their marriage, they become quiet after a while. In the entertainment industry, marriage is something like a pardon.”

“That’s because it feels like it turns from pure enjoyment to love. No, before that, are you really getting married?”

“Don’t be so surprised. It was going to happen sometime. We just needed to adjust the timing, and we judged that it was okay to pull it forward. It’s also better to go around boldly in public after declaring. It’s kind of a hassle to hide it too.”

“Holy shit. I found this out first, right?”

“Probably not.”

“What? That’s disappointing. If it’s something so important, you should’ve told this little brother about it first.”

“That’s why I’m telling you now.”

Yoonseok’s eyes twitched.

“Looks like I should buy a suit if I want to go to a celebrity wedding. Other celebrities will be there too, right? I should look neat.”

“Well, not many will come since we’re planning to have a small one. Just the people who would wholeheartedly congratulate us and the ones we’re really grateful to.”

“I’m not on the list?” Yoonseok asked without hiding his disappointment. He smiled and spoke,

“I’ll give you the invitation so just make sure to come.”

Maru smiled and walked off.

* * *

Haneul pushed the ground with her feet with all her power. The wheeled chair made dragging noises before starting to roll.

“What are you doing in someone else’s office? It’s irksome,” Daemyung said as he took his hands off the laptop.

“Since when was this place your office?”

“I work in it, so it’s my office.”

“Then why don’t you pay all the fees and taxes starting next month?”

“That’s one cruel response to a joke. Anyway, what happened for you to be here like this?”

Haneul put her feet on the ground and stopped the chair.

“I met an unexpected enemy. No, I did expect it, but I didn’t expect things to be this bad.”

“Enemy? What enemy?”

“My mom.”

“What did your mother do?”

“She’s opposed to having a small wedding.”

“What the heck does that mean?”

Haneul shook her head. Daemyung shrugged before picking up his phone.

“Hey, Han Maru. Your GF is causing a ruckus here. Please take her home. And buy me some dumplings on the way here. The ones you brought last time were good.”

Haneul looked at Daemyung after he finished the call.

“Hey, you want to eat dumplings when your friend is worried?”

“Your worries don’t feed me. Above all else, it’s unsightly. Are both of you making fun of a single like me or what?”

Daemyung glared at her. Haneul coughed awkwardly before looking away.

[1] Soy-braised beef, usually with boiled quail eggs.

After Story 259

“You two want to hold a small wedding, but your parents are opposed to it?” Daemyung asked as he dipped some dumplings into soy sauce.

“My mom is the only one opposed at the moment, and with that, dad is being neutral,” Haneul said.

“Why not just hold a big one like everyone else does? It’s not like you don’t have any money or don’t have many people to invite.”

He wasn’t putting them on a pedestal or anything. Han Maru and Han Haneul. These two were actors known by most of the population, so they could easily hold a grand wedding.

“I don’t want it to be crowded. It’s better in many ways to invite just the people who would congratulate us wholeheartedly.”

“That’s true, the wedding culture in our country is more like an exchange than an event. When my cousin got married, I was the one accepting congratulatory gift money at the front desk, and it felt really weird. There were many people who gave me an envelope and immediately asked for a meal ticket and then went straight to the restaurant without watching the wedding. They were mostly company coworkers or acquaintances of parents.”

Daemyung thought about his cousin’s wedding. People were flocking and the groom was dragged to the wedding venue after greeting various people with a smile.

During the meal after the wedding, the bride and the groom went around the tables giving their thanks, but because there were so many people, they didn’t even get to say a lot of things. The wedding really looked like it was quick just for the sake of it.

“I don’t want to conform to the schedule of the wedding venue, where you aren’t given a lot of time. That’s why I’m looking into venues that have much longer time periods or outside venues even if it takes some money, but mom says she doesn’t like it.”

Haneul sighed. Even she, who was good at handling most things, seemed to have trouble resolving the conflict between her and her mother.

Daemyung swallowed the dumpling before speaking,

“What are you going to do if you can’t persuade her until the end?”

“I have to persuade her somehow.”

“That’s some stubbornness. Maru, what are you planning to do?”

Maru looked at Haneul.

“I am going with whatever she’s going with. If she decides to fight, I’ll be supporting her until mother-in-law is convinced.”

“Marriage is such a difficult problem. Even if the couple getting married is good with it, things would become messy if their houses start objecting. But they aren’t opposed to your marriage as a whole, are they?”

“We got permission a long time ago. We’re planning to find a good date as soon as the wedding venue problem is solved.” Maru crossed his arms.

“What if they don’t give you permission? I mean, where do you think Haneul’s stubbornness came from? Haneul’s mother must be quite a stubborn person, too, isn’t she? If both of them won’t relent, I don’t think you’ll get an answer.”

Daemyung had seen a few people worried about their wedding at work. Things that seemed trivial at first ended up being major enough that some of them almost broke up as a result. Two different people, two different houses forming a union was just that difficult.

Marriage felt like something far in the distant future, but now that the two friends in front of him were getting married, Daemyung also had a renewed interest. It would be helpful later if he watched carefully how these two responded to it.

“There’s no negotiation. This is our marriage. I love mom and I respect her, but there are things you can’t yield even between parent and child,” Haneul said firmly.

Her words sounded like her resolve wouldn’t waver at all.

Haneul stood up and opened the fridge.

“There’s nothing to drink here.”

“I was meaning to buy some. I totally forgot about it.”

“I’ll go down and get something to drink. Black coffee for you sweetie, and Daemyug, yours is cappuccino, right?”

“With a lot of syrup.”

Haneul opened the door and left. Daemyung spoke after seeing the door close,

“I don’t think she’ll yield.”

“She wouldn’t be Haneul if she did.”

“What are you really going to do? I’m no marriage expert, but isn’t it you who’ll receive all the hate if things stay like this? You’ll be in for a bad time if your mother-in-law doesn’t like you before you even get married.”

My dear son-in-law, aren’t you going to persuade Haneul? — Daemyung said in a dramatic tone.

Maru smiled and spoke,

“That’s why I have to balance the tug of war well so that both Haneul and mother-in-law like me.”

“From what Haneul says, it looks like she’ll hold the wedding without her mother’s consent.”

“She won’t do that. She’s a perfectionist. She’ll think about resolving this problem perfectly to hold a harmonious wedding and won’t just push forward with things recklessly.”

“Someone said to me that there’s no wedding that goes well after buying a parent’s ire. I know it shouldn't always be correct, but it does sound plausible. They’re your parents after all, unless you plan on not seeing them for the rest of your life.”

“That’s why Haneul is concerned about it. If anyone else advised us to hold a grand wedding, she would’ve smashed her head against that person right on the spot. It’s because it’s her mother that she’s thinking of a way to resolve it.”

Daemyung split apart the remaining dumplings in half. He pushed one-half over to Maru’s side.

“What about you? Do you prefer a small wedding too?”

“I also want to hold a small one. Haneul and I have frighteningly similar preferences. No, it was practically inevitable that it became like that.”

He smiled deeply with some mysterious words. It was one of those inexplicable expressions that Maru showed despite being someone who was clear-cut most of the time.

Whenever it happened, Daemyung was curious about what the meaning behind that smile was and what the heck had happened, but he never questioned it. The reason was that first, he felt like he shouldn't ask, and second was that he felt like he wouldn’t understand even if he listened to the answer.

If there was an opportunity in the future, he might ask what that vague smile meant, but he felt like that moment wouldn’t come for a long time.

“So there’s no other way out of this than persuading her mother, right?”

“We know the reason for her opposition so it’s hard to bring it up. But still, we’ll have to talk to her slowly about it.”

Haneul came back. She, who sipped on some coffee without a word, suddenly stood up.

“We should clear this up as quickly as possible. Dragging things out doesn’t sit right with me.”

Haneul looked at Maru and gestured. Maru stood up after picking up their luggage.

“You’re leaving?”

“We should.”

Daemyung saw the two of them out of the office and to their cars. He watched as the car went into the distance before speaking,

“It’s not my turn to be worried about those two.”

He rubbed his rather lonely flank and turned around. Those two would do well, so there was no need to worry.

* * *

Maru exchanged gazes with his father-in-law. Father-in-law smiled bitterly and looked away. Where his eyes stopped was where his wife and his mother-in-law had entered the state of a cold war.

The two women were sitting at the dining table, face to face. In front of them were some water and some fruits. The slices of apples, which were prepared about 30 minutes ago, looked pitiful, with their flesh turning brown.

“When do you think that would end?”

“It would end once one side yields, but I don’t think it won’t happen, so it should take a pretty long time.”

“I have the same opinion. They are mother and daughter alright. Even their stubbornness is the same. Haneul looks like she has changed a lot, but her stubbornness hasn’t changed at all.”

“She really takes after mother-in-law.”

“You’ll have a hard time once you get married. Haneul, she’s no ordinary character either.”

“Whenever that happens, I’ll come over and ask for advice.”

“Hey, do you like fishing?”

“You can consider me a master. I like fishing in rivers and also in the sea. Oh, and I also like indoor fishing where I can listen to the radio.”

“Haha, sounds like you’ll get along with me.”

“Since that’s the case, can’t you give some support fire?”

“For who?”

“Haneul.”

“If I do that, I’ll get nagged for life. Why don’t you side with your mother-in-law for once?”

“If I do that, Haneul will bring this up every single night for the rest of my life.”

“That’s true.”

Maru carefully spoke,

“Do you know the reason she’s opposed?”

“There should be multiple reasons. She’s really innocent and doesn’t have a lot of greed, but how many people in this world don’t like to boast? She must be looking forward to having her child hold a big wedding, getting congratulated by many people, and all that.”

“I’m sure she does.”

“And at our age, what else do we have to boast about? In the end, it comes down to our children. Also, if not for things like this, there aren’t many occasions where the whole family would gather. I can think of multiple reasons off the top of my head. But if I had to pick just one…”

With each start of a new life, many things had changed, and the lives of his in-laws had changed a lot as well. Maru listened to his father-in-law’s words.

While the men had a secret conversation, the women’s side was still at a stalemate.

Maru had a look at his mother-in-law’s complexion but then made eye contact with her. He slowly lowered his head. Even after having experienced all sorts of things, this was still too much for him.

“Sweetie, can you come over for a second?” Haneul called him.

Maru suppressed his smile and stood in front of the two people.

“We were wondering if we could listen to your opinion. How do you want to hold this wedding?” asked his mother-in-law.

His beating heart came to a halt for a moment. The fire was on him now. It was natural that she came to him for help after having failed to persuade her own daughter.

Maru looked at Haneul and his mother-in-law alternately before speaking. The story that his father-in-law told him felt like it could become a clue,

“Father-in-law has told me about you, ma’am. To be precise, when the two of you got married.”

His mother-in-law looked at his father-in-law. His father-in-law started coughing.

“Mom’s wedding?”

Haneul looked at her mother. She was really insightful and knowledgeable about many things, but she shouldn’t know what kind of life her mother had lived. After all, she hadn’t talked to her parents at all before her memories returned, and after that, she was very busy with all sorts of matters.

Maru closed his mouth and looked at his mother-in-law. The one who had some explaining to do was not him, but her. Having understood his intent, she spoke with a soft sigh,

“I’m sure I told you that I was raised alone under my grandmother. I had no parents and no relatives either. I have not resented my environment even once. But just once, I felt sad at my wedding. For the bride’s side, I barely managed to contact a few coworkers and a few of my friends from high school that I stayed in touch with. That was it. On the other hand, your dad’s side had many people. When we all took a photo together, it was so empty behind me. That’s why some people from your dad’s side came over and filled the gaps. That’s how the wedding photo in the bedroom came to be.”

His mother-in-law continued with a softer face,

“I know that it’s nothing to be sad about, but it remains in my memory to this day. That’s why I thought that I would have all the people in the world stand behind my daughter when she gets married. So that she doesn’t feel sad or lonely.”

Haneul, who was listening to those words, frowned before speaking,

“Mom, I don’t need anyone else I know standing behind me. I just need you by my side. Other people? I don’t need them. You’re the most important to me.”

Mother-in-law sighed softly before smiling.

“You might regret this later, thinking that you held a small wedding while everyone else had big ones.”

“Mom, just because it’s called a small wedding doesn’t mean that it’ll look empty. I’m going to spend tons of money. Should I get some of your favorite fireworks in too? I’m good as long as mom’s good.”

“What are you going to do about the adults who will be left disappointed? I’m sure they’ll be disappointed if they find out they can’t go to your wedding after having looked after you, you know?”

“I will be the one to handle that. I’ll visit each one of them after the wedding and greet them. If there’s anyone who reprimands me for being rude, then I just have to not see them for life.”

“Who do you take after to be like that?”

“Who else? It’s you, mom.”

No parent can win against a child, and eventually, mother-in-law declared ‘do what you want.’

His mother-in-law looked at him.

“To be honest with you, I was going to hold on if you didn’t come. But she brought you here and made things uncomfortable, so how could I hold on?”

“Haneul will do a lot better in the future. You lost to her wishes once, so if she’s smart, she’ll treat you better.”

“That’s right, you’re on my side, aren’t you, Mr. Han?”

“Eh? Yes, well. I’m on your side, and her side.”

Maru smiled. It seemed that the tug of war had ended successfully, with neither side losing.

After Story 260

“We do not mind if you hold a big one or a small one, so please take care of that baggage for us.”

“Hey, you can’t just call me bag…”

Maru tried to stand up for himself but stopped when his mother’s eyes were directed his way.

This is not your place to butt in so stay still – she insisted with her eyes.

“Ma’am, do you have a date in mind?” Haneul spoke in a gentle voice.

Her voice was incomparably sweet compared to the rough ‘sweetie’ that she called him with. Her transformation made him feel every time like he was getting scammed a little.

“We’ll leave it all up to you, so you two decide that without minding us. I will agree to everything that our new daughter wants to do.”

“Ma’am, I’m delighted to hear you call me your daughter.”

Haneul smiled while holding his mother’s arms. It seemed that the plans to get her on her side were over.

Maru looked at his own family seated in front of the sofa. His father and his sister — both of them were giving total support to Haneul as well.

“When she came before and asked us to give her Maru, she looked like a general at war, but she is so kind and gentle today. My son has been blessed.”

“Unni is wasted on him. Oppa should really live a devoted life his whole life.”

He was chased out to the kitchen after listening to all sorts of nagging. Maru peeked into the living room while getting some food ready. The four people aside from him were having a total blast talking.

“Maybe I’m really the only one on your side, sweetie.”

His wife came over when he was serving the soup.

“This isn’t the first or the second time.”

“Are you disappointed?”

“I’m grateful instead. I can see that they care for you. Rather than that, why did you come here? You should’ve just stayed seated.”

“You looked lonely serving the food by yourself so I came to your rescue. I rejected your mother’s words to just let you be, so be grateful.”

“I’m so grateful that I’m about to cry. Take out the side dishes from the fridge. You just have to take out the one with the orange lid in the middle compartment.”

“You mean this one?” Haneul asked as she took out the side dish container.

Maru nodded.

They laid out a big table in the living room and moved the side dishes around. Bada helped out.

“What’s gotten into you?”

“Trying to score some points with unni, of course.” Bada smiled as she took out a bunch of spoons and chopsticks.

“We decided not to do any of the wedding gifts[1]. We’ll just introduce you to each other before the ceremony,” Maru said as he picked up his chopsticks.

“What about your house?” Bada asked.

His father and mother, who said they would leave everything to them, also seemed to be concerned about housing and stared at him.

“We don’t plan to ask for help when we’re the ones persuading both families to hold the wedding. For the house, the one we’re living in is plenty right now. We also have all the furniture.”

“Do you not need anything?” his father asked.

Maru smiled and replied,

“No, we are not lacking anything right now.”

“Did you get a loan for the house?”

“No, she was very tactful in earning money, you see,” he said as he looked at Haneul’s face.

“I am sorry for our daughter-in-law. I wish I could do something for you.”

“Sir, please don’t say that. I’m grateful that you’re welcoming me like this. Also, everything I’m doing only happened thanks to your son being by my side.”

“Was my son somewhat useful?”

“Of course. He’s your son, so he was very useful.”

His father smiled in satisfaction. After the meal, they decided on a date to introduce their families to each other.

“Yes, yes. Of course. No, not at all. Yes, then see you then.”

His mother, who was talking on the phone in her ‘kind voice,’ put down her phone.

“Your parents are so full of culture.”

His mother laughed while his wife responded in kind.

After drinking some coffee over some fruits, he checked the time. It was about time to get up.

“We’ll get going now.”

“You’re leaving already?”

“We should. We have things to do too.”

“Then go by yourself and leave her here for the night.”

Haneul spoke with a bright smile,

“Shall I, ma’am?”

“You might really end up staying the night here if you say that.”

He opened the door. He tried to hold back his mother from putting on her shoes and following them out, but it was of no use. He walked over to the car he parked in front of the house and started it up. Haneul was talking to his mother on the stairs.

“Ma’am, we’ll be leaving now. We’ll visit again soon, so please welcome me at that time.”

“Alright. Watch out on your way home and come again.”

His father, who had also come out while holding his hands behind his back, also waved his hand left and right next to his mother. His wife looked at his father and giggled.

“Father-in-law is so cute.”

“Father definitely can be quite cute.”

He pressed on the gas pedal. The car left the residential area and got on the road.

“What were you talking about just now?”

“What do you mean?”

“With my mother. You seemed to be talking on the stairs.”

“Oh, that?” His wife loosened the hair band that tied up her hair neatly. “She told me to tell her our bank account. I saw it coming, so I tried to leave as soon as possible, but your mother’s grip strength is something else.”

“My mother’s hand definitely can be quite spicy.”

Just then, an alarm notification sounded from his wife’s bag. She took out her phone and looked intently at the screen.

“She sent it already.”

Haneul showed him her phone when the car was stopped by traffic lights. 50 million won had entered the bank account.

“Just leave it there for now. If you return it to her, she’ll probably withdraw that money and come visit us. Is mother-in-law’s money in that account as well?”

“Yes. Combined, it’s exactly 100 million won.”

“Let’s buy some decent government bonds or stocks with dividends and return it to them a few years later. That way, they’ll have no choice but to accept it.”

“Or, it’s not a bad idea to apply for a pension for both of them.”

Maru nodded.

“Maybe it’s the nature of parents not being able to send their children off empty-handed no matter how well their children do.”

“You know that feeling too, don’t you, sweetie? How would you feel if Gaeul told you ‘I’m okay, so you can use that money’?”

“I’ll be extremely grateful and extremely sorry.”

Haneul fidgeted on her phone.

“Where should we go for our honeymoon?”

“Where do you want to go?”

“I asked you first.”

Maru gave his wife a glance before speaking,

“Then shall we say it together after a count of three?”

“Okay.”

“Three, two, one.”

He said home, and his wife also said home.

“Are there any places we haven’t been to?”

“We’ve even been a part of war relief as a part of Doctors Without Borders.”

“Right, we’ve been to those places too,” his wife said with a smile.

Right now, they could say it with a smile, but back when it happened, things were really precarious.

“But we can’t exactly spend our honeymoon at home, so we need to go somewhere.”

“Sweetie, what do you think about doing that again? Going to Busan and back on a bike.”

“You want to do that again? Riding the whole day and passing out at a jjimjilbang at night looking all messy?”

“I had fun though. It’ll be really funny if we put action cams on the front and back and watch it later.”

“Obviously, you’re going to depart on the day of the wedding right after the wedding, right?”

“Of course. I’m looking forward to it already.”

“Don’t you come whining to me that you want to rest or that you want to go to a hotel. If we start it, we’ll see it through to the end.”

“Who’s telling that to whom?”

His wife hummed and started looking into bicycles.

* * *

“Senior, over here.” Bangjoo raised his hand from the inside of the store.

Maru walked over to the table while waving his hand.

“Our big star’s here, so make some room for him,” Seokjin, whom he hadn’t seen in a long time, said as he made some space for him.

“Yes, yes. I’m the big star and also the one paying for all the food that you’ve been waiting for,” Maru said as he sat down.

The main actors and staff had gathered nearly half a year after the last shoot for the film. Everyone seemed to be doing well as their expressions were good.

“Are you doing anything these days, hyung-nim?” Maru asked Seokjin.

“I was lucky enough to get a supporting role in a morning drama. It’s thanks to the film.”

“Then shouldn’t you be the one buying today?”

“Do I have to after all?”

“I was just joking. But if you get your pay, you have to treat us out.”

“Naturally. If I get my payment, I’ll gather everyone here today and treat all of you out.”

Moon-Seok-jin! Moon-Seok-jin! People started shouting his name. No one would refuse when he said he would buy food.

“Alright then, please take out your phones.” Yoonseok stood up from his seat.

Maru took out his phone and held it in his hand.

“Please look up the film and have a look at the number of viewers.”

When he looked it up on the web portal, he saw the movie poster and some information about it. Below that was the number of ticket sales in blue.

“As of yesterday, all the movie theaters in the country took down the film, and the number you’re seeing now is the final number. 150 thousand. It’s an unbelievable number.”

“150 thousand,” Bangjoo quietly repeated to himself.

“When I first started, my greatest wish was to have one thousand viewers, but so many people have watched it. It’s all thanks to you. Here, please raise your glasses!”

Yoonseok swung his glass in the air.

“Then how much did you earn?” asked one of Yoonseok’s friends, who worked in the production crew.

Everyone’s attention gathered on Yonseok’s mouth.

Before Yoonseok replied he looked towards Maru. He seemed to be asking if it was okay to reveal it. Maru nodded.

“I’m not entirely sure because the payment hasn’t happened yet… but even if we take out all the fees to the distributors, movie theaters, the Korean Film Council, and all sorts of expenses, we earned more than the investment. That’s a great relief since I can pay back to our investor.”

Everyone’s eyes shifted to Maru at the word ‘investor.’

“I managed to profit off of something I started off thinking that it was natural to lose money. I’m very grateful.”

“Don’t say that. If things didn’t go well, then you would be the only one making a loss. Investment is about getting just as much as you risk, isn’t it? But hey… if you earned back all the investment, shouldn’t you be treating us to something much bigger?” one of the juniors said with an awkward cough.

Everyone nodded in agreement.

“Don’t worry about that. This occasion is just to check the final score and report it to everyone, so you just need to enjoy it. I’ll be treating everyone out to something more expensive next time.”

“Geez, if we get treated once by Seokjin hyung-nim once, and then once by you, senior Maru, our stomachs will explode.”

“I’ll buy enough for it to happen, so don’t forget to bring digestive medicine.”

People cheered and applauded. Everyone had come this far for the sake of the film alone. It wasn’t a waste to use all of the money he earned to hold a party. In the first place, he started off this film to fuel his career experience. He didn’t even wish for monetary benefits, but thanks to riding the trend, he managed to get profits.

When the film was first released, the film’s responses weren’t all that good. However, after the news that it got awards from global film festivals spread around, as well as the mouth-to-mouth rumors between indie film fans, the number of movie theaters it was screened in increased over time.

The result of that was 150 thousand tickets being sold. This was the eighth independent film in Korean film history to sell over 100 thousand.

The responses seemed to be good on the IPTV side as well, so there were secondary profits to look forward to.

“Uhm, hello.”

Maru turned around. Some people from another table had come over.

“Could you take a photo with us? We’re huge fans of yours. We watched the film yesterday too.”

“Really?”

“Yes. I heard it was a really unique film so our friend group watched it together.”

“How was it?” he asked.

The noisy people at the table all became quiet. Everyone’s focus shifted to the woman who said she watched the film.

“Honestly speaking, I don’t know what it was trying to say. The ending was stuffy too. Was that too honest?”

“No, not at all. Rather than that, you should take the photo.”

Maru stood up and took photos with the fans. The fans then left after a handshake.

He looked at the table which had become quiet.

“It wasn’t exactly an entertainment movie.”

“That’s true.”

“Director Lee. Let’s go with something more cheerful next time so that the people watching it like what they’re seeing.”

“His ideologies are pretty depressing so I don’t think it’ll happen.”

Yoonseok, who had been listening this whole time, spoke,

“I’ll shoot a really hot-blooded entertainment film. If I have the opportunity to.”

“I don’t think you can, you know?” he said with a laugh.

The meat sizzled and drinks went around. While all sorts of conversations were going around, someone spoke,

“But senior Maru. Are you really dating Miss Han Haneul?”

“You don’t think I am?”

“Can you bring her here? I’m a huge fan of hers.”

“I’m not sure. She should be sleeping around this time. She was sleeping when I left too.”

“…What?”

Maru poured some drinks for the junior who kept blinking.

“I’ll ask the next time we meet up so just drink up for today.”

“That’s not the important part, you just said when you left…”

“The glass is overflowing. Drink it quickly.”

Maru laughed and tilted the bottle.

[1] In Korea, gifts are given to the families of each side as a ‘thank you’ for giving them their son/daughter. Over time, people started comparing these ‘gifts’ and using them as a measure of financial success, so there are many people who refuse to give gifts in this form.

After Story 261

“You are going to choose strawberry milk and then this bread. Aside from that, it’ll be either this chocolate bar or this caramel. So? I’m right, aren’t I?”

I pushed aside Han Maru who was talking shamelessly in front of me and grabbed a piece of bread. I also grabbed a chocolate bar.

“I’d recommend you go for the one next to that rather than that one. The sticker of the character you want is probably in there.”

“How would you know that?”

“I do. Because I’m a time traveler.”

“You lunatic. You should hold back on watching those movies!”

I headed to the counter with the items in my hand.

Please let there be one today. I bought the chocolate bar every single day hoping for the character I wanted, but I seem to have had no luck over the past few weeks as I didn’t get what I wanted.

“That will be 3,000 won.”

Just as I was about to hand over my card, a hand cut in. It was Han Maru’s hand holding strawberry milk and a chocolate bar.

“What are you doing?”

“You should buy these as well.”

I looked at the strawberry milk and the chocolate bar before sighing. I’ll pay for that as well – I said to the clerk.

“If you want to eat it, then buy it for yourself. Don’t shamelessly ask other people to buy it for you.”

“I’m not buying them because I need them, but because you might need them.”

The way he followed me reminded me of our puppy at home. The way he kept asking for attention was the same too. Maru was the most peculiar guy I met in college. I can still remember what he said to me during the college orientation: This may be your first time seeing me, but I have been watching over you for a long time.

Who would not call him crazy after he said all that? He looked totally fine on the outside too.

“Open it quickly. Let’s see if it comes out or not,” Maru said.

“Don’t you have any friends? Why do you keep following me every day?”

“I have friends. A lot of friends, in fact. But I’m putting them all behind so that I can cling to you. How is it? Isn’t that romantic?”

“Forget it. You aren’t my type. You don’t seem like a man to me in the slightest. Give it up already.”

“I hear that every time, but it still manages to break my heart every time.”

“When did I ever say that? Are you going to bring up time travel again? Geez, that’s a weird shtick you have.”

There was bound to be one crazy fellow in a group of friends, and even among them, Maru was the craziest one of them all. Of course, aside from his unfunny jokes, his character was decent. No, he was actually pretty good. Many people looked for him when something came up.

I had yet to see a senior who hated Han Maru after all. Even the picky professor in the department was very generous to Han Maru.

That made me wonder even more: Why was he so obsessed with me?

“It didn’t come out,” I muttered as I looked at the picture of a white cow. What I wanted was a round piggy.

Just as I was feeling disappointed, Maru handed me his chocolate bar.

“Open it.”

“I don’t want to eat two.”

“I’ll eat it so just take the sticker inside. You want the piggy, don’t you?”

“There’s no way this is the one.”

I opened the packaging with the faintest of hopes. I gave the chocolate bar inside to Maru and took out the sticker hidden inside.

“…It came out.”

It was the piggy sticker I wanted so much. The round piggy wearing a fedora and holding a cane.

I looked at the sticker and Maru alternately. It actually came out?

“Wow, it really came out,” Maru said as though he found it curious.

I smiled and looked at him.

“You were so sure about the piggy sticker being in here, but you’re actually surprised that it is?”

Maru just smiled without saying a word. I took out my diary from my bag. I flipped through the pages to where I put all the stickers. I saw a blank on the rows of neat stickers. It was the space for the piggy.

I took off the sticker and plastered it on the empty spot. The row of characters made me feel good. Now, I had finished all the characters and the diary felt like it had become slightly heavier.

“You happy?” Maru asked.

My lips twitched, but I eventually smiled. I was happy and not in the mood to grumble.

“I am.”

“That’s good then.”

Maru stood up, saying that they should get going quickly. The classroom for the next lecture was halfway up the mountain.

“How much of the assignment did you do?” I asked as I opened the packaging for the bread.

Maru said that he had finished it without a moment of hesitation.

“You did all of it? All of that? One of the seniors told me it would take over a week to prepare for that assignment without help from them.”

“There are methods around it. I’ve seen numerous pasts. That kind of assignment is nothing for me.”

Did he really do all of it? It didn’t sound like he was joking. Oh yeah, this guy was quite smart too. He was at the top of the major with a full scholarship, so I had to admit he was pretty good. A smart guy could finish assignments in no time, noted.

“Do you want me to show you?” he said.

The assignment of the top student. I did feel quite greedy. I would be able to finish every annoying thing in an instant and go hang out with my friends or spend that time rolling around in bed. If I told that smiling guy ‘show me,’ then he would show me his work, without wanting anything or any compensation. It just felt like that.

“No, I’m going to do it myself.”

I took a big bite of the bread after saying that. It would be easy if I copied the assignment off him, but I wouldn’t have anything left that way. Also, it would hurt my pride. I would probably rip my hair out and swear at the professor while suffering by myself as I saw the approaching deadline, but that was for the better.

“You never changed that answer even once,” he said again.

Just as I was about to say that he was saying nonsense again, the thick corn cream got stuck in my throat. When I got momentarily startled and coughed, Maru held something out in front of him. It was the strawberry milk he bought in the convenience store. There was a straw in it as well.

I bit on the straw and started drinking. The stuffy bread and cream went down my throat. I felt like I could breathe again, and my coughing stopped as well.

“I told you, didn’t I? That I bought it because you needed it, not me,” Maru said as he tapped on my back.

That was absurd, but that series of coincidences was pretty funny.

I pulled the straw out and drank the rest in one go.

“Did it go down now?”

“Yeah.”

“What would you have done without me? Now notice my importance?”

“Stop saying something so cheesy. If you keep saying things like that, I’ll ignore you.”

“Fine, fine. Close friends can’t even take a joke.”

We went inside the classroom and sat down. Some of my friends who had arrived first, waved their hands at me to come.

“Hey, don’t you need to admit to being a couple at this point?” one of them said.

I took out my textbook and looked at her.

“How many times do I have to say it? He’s not my type.”

“Yet you’re always walking around together?”

“He’s the one following me. I find it curious too. I never tell him where I am, but he just pops out of nowhere,” I said as I looked at Maru who was sitting with the other boys.

When we made eye contact, he warmly smiled and waved his hand.

There he goes again.

“You’re still denying it? After seeing what he’s doing?”

“He’s just teasing me. This isn’t his first or second day doing something strange, is it?” I said as I thought back to all the things he did.

He was one eccentric fellow who introduced himself as a time traveler from the past to tease her.

“But he only does that to you.”

“That’s what drives me even crazier. He looks totally fine, but he speaks nonsense.”

“So you know that he looks fine?”

“Who says I hate him? I just don’t want to hear that we’re a couple or anything. He’s just playing around as well. It’s something he would stop once he gets a girlfriend.”

“Well, true. What Maru is doing is not really trying to date you. When I look at him, he looks like he has an interest in Eunyoung. I can see a strange air between the two.”

Eunyoung, who had been listening, smiled in embarrassment.

Oh, you aren’t denying it, huh? – I said with a giggle.

“So please stop making people tired. I’m one thing, but I’m sure he doesn’t like it either.”

“You think so?”

Her friend nodded and opened the book. The professor came in and a boring lecture began. The lecture being boring was one thing, but she had to be attentive. She had paid a lot of money to come to college, so she didn’t want to waste it.

“Don’t just copy and paste from the internet. You’re way past that age. The assignment is due next week, so prepare it well. It’ll replace the exams so don’t just do it half-assedly.”

The lecture ended. I woke myself up from a drowsy state by stretching my arms out.

“You have an empty period, don’t you?” asked a friend.

“Yes.”

“Some soju and sweet’n’sour pork, wanna go?”

“I like that combo.”

“I saw people looking for people to go bowling with, so let’s go after we eat.”

“Sounds good. Rolling a bowling ball while tipsy is really fun. But hey, did you guys finish the assignment?”

“I don’t think anyone has at this point in time. Everyone is grabbing their favorite seniors and asking for help.”

“Maru said he was done though.”

“Really? Smart kids are different alright. Should we ask him to show us? He’s at the top of the department. If we can copy his assignment without making it too obvious, we’d get a B at least.”

As she said so, she tapped on my shoulder before pointing behind me. I turned around to look behind me to see Maru standing there.

“Take this with you.”

It was a cuboidal cardboard box the size of a palm. When I had a closer look at it, it was a box of band-aids. I accepted it without thinking. I tried to ask what he meant by giving this to me, but Maru had already turned around.

“Hey, what do you think this means?” I asked as I showed it to my friends.

This was a complete mystery to me.

“Are you injured?”

“Do I look injured? I told you he’s strange.”

I stood up while putting the band-aids in my bag. One of them looked at me and said,

“But you’re taking them with you, huh?”

“It’s a waste to throw them away. Also… there’s something weird today. There was the piggy too.”

“Piggy?”

“Something like that.”

I gestured to my friends who were looking at me in puzzlement before leaving the classroom.

* * *

Na Baekhoon flipped over to the last page.

“It started off as a high teen movie, then sci-fi, but it ends in a romance, huh?”

“Looking at your expression, you seem to like the script,” Haneul said.

While her confident expression looked quite cocky today, Baekhoon had no choice but to nod.

“I like how the female protagonist goes over each of the male protagonist’s actions one by one and eventually comes to a realization. A man and a woman meeting each other after numerous repeated lives is actually quite classic and there’s a sense of catharsis to it. But are you really not planning to use any CG?”

“Other than some tone corrections, I don’t plan on using any. Are you uneasy?”

“No, in fact, I like it this way. With you two acting, it should be better than any graphical post process. But are you going to go with the names like this?”

“Yes. Han Maru and Han Haneul.”

“It’s not bad, but it might give the audience a sense of disparity. As you know, the audience does not consider the actors and the character the same.”

“I know that, but I don’t want to change it.”

“There must be some special meaning, I assume?” Baekhoon asked as he looked into Haneul’s eyes.

If she was insistent on pushing forward with what could become a downside, there should be a reason for it.

“Is it okay that I say that it’s an extremely personal matter?”

“If you say so, Miss Haneul, I don’t plan on prying you further. My only hope is to see this script in its true form.”

“It might not have good results.”

“I wouldn’t have asked you to do this if I started it for money. This is for my own pleasure. You should know that well, but the fact that you bring it up…”

“I’m just saying it so that you can’t say otherwise later,” Haneul said with a smile

Baekhoon returned the script.

“When are you going to start the shoot? I’m ready to give you my full support so just decide on the date.”

“I’ll tell you later. There’s something we had to prepare for all of a sudden.”

“Marriage is definitely important. Please tell me if you need anything.”

“I’m not that shameless.”

Haneul stood up with the script. Baekhoon walked over to the door and saw Haneul out.

“Miss Haneul. I haven’t asked the important question. This film, have you decided on a title?”

“It’s not decided yet, but I do have a tentative title.”

“What is it?”

Haneul faintly smiled. It was the most complex and most wonderful expression that he had seen from Han Haneul until now.

“Thank You For Finding Me. That’s the tentative title.”

“Sounds good.”

“You’re going to say that even if I screw this film up, aren’t you?”

“Probably.”

Baekhoon told her to watch out on her way home as he saw her out.

After Story 262

He walked cautiously along the field covered in a plastic sheet. He walked alongside the spring onions before stopping after finding a squiggly vine. He could see a large watermelon through the stems that looked like curly hair.

“Elder! Why don’t you give me one of these?” Maru turned around and said to Moonjoong, who was picking some cherry tomatoes.

“Hey, that one’s more expensive than you are.”

“Don’t say that and give me one. It looks perfectly ripe and ready to be split.”

“I sent you over there to get some chives and spring onions, but you set your eyes on something else. Just get those chives and spring onions!”

“You’re so cruel.”

He tried tapping on the watermelon with his palm. Based on his experience running dozens of fruit vendors, this was perfectly ripe.

“Come over here now.”

“Yes, I’m coming.”

He left the field with the spring onions and chives in a basket by his waist.

“Isn’t it hot?”

“Isn’t field work better done when it’s hot? That way, the food tastes more delicious.”

The elder laughed before saying that he was right. They walked along a narrow road next to a ditch. Not long later, the elder’s house could be seen.

“Why did you invite an important guest to make him work,” said the madam who was cleaning up some green plums in the garden.

“Isn’t the one in front of you not a guest?”

“Haneul is such a sweet girl that she’s helping me out even if I tell her not to.”

“This guy also followed me to the field because he has a good nature.”

“He looked at me like a cow being dragged for slaughter though?”

Maru only smiled awkwardly at the madam who looked towards him, looking for an agreement.

“Stop making people work and you come here. Haneul, Maru, you two can go for a walk. Behind our house is a path that leads up to the entrance of the mountain, and it’s nice and cool there. There’s a stream too.”

“I’ll go once I’m done with this,” Haneul said.

The madam frowned and snatched the plum from Haneul’s hand.

“Now.”

His wife stood up with a smile.

“Then we’ll go take a look around. Actually, I was curious about what was around here.”

“This one looks like he wants to go for a walk too. Should we take him?” Maru asked as he picked up a puppy that hung around his feet. It was a small pup with yellow fur. According to what the elder said, he hung around the house back when they moved here, so they took him in.

“Yes, you can take him too.”

They left the house with the puppy on a leash. The pup, who had left the house, rejoiced and sniffed the ground for a while before hiding in the shade.

“The ground must be hot. I should pick him up.”

The ground, scorched by the sun, was just as hot as asphalt. Maru picked up the pup. As though used to having someone carry him around, the puppy stayed still.

“I’m glad to see both of them doing well,” Haneul said.

“Yeah.”

“But when did you change your way of addressing him? You called him sir when we visited them by ourselves last winter.”

“I had a chance to drink with the elder a while back. I called him ‘elder’ out of habit like before, and he told me to call him that in the future, saying that it was much easier on the ears.”

“That’s good. You must have gotten used to that way of calling him. It was like that just in the last life too.”

His wife seemed to have recalled the previous life as she spoke with a smile.

“This place definitely is cooler,” he said as he entered the foot of the mountain. Trees with a lot of leaves were blocking out the sun.

He put down the puppy in his arms. The puppy ran around with his short legs and sniffed around the nearby trees. He really liked sniffing.

“Living in the city makes me long for these sceneries while living here makes me miss the conveniences of the city.”

His wife gestured to him and left the mountain path. When he followed her, he saw some mugwort there.

“Should we pick some and make some soup?”

“Summer mugworts are too bitter and can’t be eaten. You know that.”

“Who knows? It might actually be good if you try it out.” his wife said with a smile.

They moved along the mountain path until they eventually smelled some water. It was the stream that the madam talked about. This place seemed to be a popular resting spot in the neighborhood as many kids were dipping their feet in and playing around.

She took off her sandals and walked over to the stream.

“It’s not as cold as I thought.”

Haneul sat down on top of a rock. Maru watched her for a while before taking out his phone. The sunlight that broke down through the leaves was reflected off the surface of the water, and that light hit her face. This place was practically a studio with natural lighting.

“What are you doing?” his wife turned around and asked.

“Don’t look here and look in front of you. The side of your face is prettier.”

“But I don’t want to.”

She stared at the camera lens.

He smiled and kept tapping on the button. His wife, who had been staying still, also changed her pose as though she was posing for a photo shoot.

“It doesn’t look all that good. This one’s lacking too,” Haneul said as she looked at the photos taken.

“This is the limit of what phone cameras can do. It’ll be better if it’s touched up though.”

“It’s not a problem with the photographer?”

“How many years of experience do you think I have?”

His wife, who grumbled about not liking the photos, eventually picked a few of them. He sent them over to her phone.

“People are asking if I’m here with you,” his wife said as she showed him her phone screen.

Comments were coming up as soon as she uploaded the photo on social media. Half of them said that she was pretty, and the other half said that they should take a photo together if they were there together.

“Try standing next to me,” Haneul said as she raised her phone up high.

He stood side by side with her before pulling his head backward.

“Why are you going back?”

“Because my head looks too big when I’m next to you.”

He picked up the puppy and took a photo with the puppy between them. They left the stream and took a stroll around the mountain before heading back to the elder’s house.

On their way there, his wife said that she was hungry. She said she was eating little these days and had a hard time. While Maru thought that it wasn’t something that someone would say after eating two bowls of rice for breakfast, he didn’t say anything and stayed still.

“People are all saying the same thing after seeing the photo I uploaded,” said his wife.

“What are they saying?”

“That your head looks big.”

“See? I should’ve pulled back a little more. They don’t know that your head is abnormally small. I’m the normal one, you know?”

As they walked while having a conversation, they arrived in no time. Maru could see a low wooden platform over the fence.

And on it was a watermelon. He went inside feeling delighted.

“You said you wanted to eat a watermelon, didn’t you?” said the madam.

“You’re the best, ma’am.”

“I didn’t bring it here. My husband did. That one is the watermelon he told me not to touch because it had to be picked in a week, but he brought it here when you said you wanted to eat it. Geez, you gotta acknowledge his love towards his student.”

“But he told me not to even dream about it.”

“That’s just what he says on the outside.”

Maru picked up a slice of watermelon and shouted to the inside of the house.

“Elder! You should have some watermelon.”

“He went to the supermarket.” The madam pointed at a spot in the garden. The scooter that was there before could not be seen. “He’ll be back soon, so don’t mind him and just eat it. Haneul, you should have some as well. It’s really sweet.”

His wife made a soft smile and received the watermelon. The madam looked at Haneul who took a big bite out of the watermelon and complimented her for eating so deliciously.

Fruit juices seeped out of her lips as she smiled. She was a total kid in front of the madam. Maru pulled out some napkins and wiped her.

“Sounds like he’s here.”

The scooter’s sound could be heard. Over the fence, the elder could be seen wearing a helmet.

“You should’ve asked me to do it,” Maru said as he approached the elder.

The elder smiled and shook his head.

“The supermarket is nearby. Also, take these.” The elder lifted the seat of the scooter. Inside were various foods that he bought from the supermarket.

The first thing that caught his eye was some thick pork belly.

“Didn’t Haneul say she wanted to eat pork belly? That’s why I bought some right away.”

“But I said I liked ribs better…”

“You eat whatever’s given to you.”

“Did you know that your treatment of me has gotten a lot stingier ever since Haneul started coming with me?”

“That’s very good of you to know that.”

He smiled and picked up the luggage. He went to the kitchen and started washing the vegetables he picked in the field. Halfway through, the madam came in and told him to just leave them be.

“Us two men will prepare dinner so get some rest.”

The madam said to the elder, “Don’t order Maru around too much.”

“I don’t order him around, it’s the other way round.”

The madam smiled and left the kitchen. The elder, who was peeling some onions next to him, spoke,

“I thought this when I first met you two, but the two of you suit each other.”

“She’s too good for the likes of me.”

“You two are saying the same thing there too. Yes, that’s what’s good. The small arrogance that comes from thinking you’re better than your partner will bring about irreparable problems later on in life. I hope you two can wisely spend your lives.”

“We will. Just like you and the madam.”

“That will be difficult. We are no ordinary husband and wife.”

The elder, who was laughing, suddenly teared up. He ended up touching around his eyes with the hands he was peeling the onions with.

“I’ll do it.”

He took over preparing the vegetables and finished them off. He put the ceramic pot on the stove and fried some meat before pouring water and doenjang.

The elder, who was watching by his side, spoke,

“I heard that these days, men have to be good at cooking. I see that they were right when I see you.”

“It’s fun if you get the hang of it. You should try learning it too.”

“My wife will let me do anything besides stuff in the kitchen. I just don’t have the dexterity.”

He nodded before putting some ssam vegetables[1] in a bowl.

“That script of yours.”

“Have you read it?”

“I went through it a little last night.”

When they arrived here yesterday, his wife gave the elder a scenario. Casting the elder in her work was one of the reasons for visiting.

“If you don’t like it, then you can refuse. Haneul will be very disappointed and she might even cry, but that can’t be helped.”

“Why don’t you just outright threaten me instead?”

“I also hope that you can do it, elder.”

The elder smiled.

“It is a principle of mine to not do a cameo appearance unless it’s a special occasion. I did that a couple times in the past and had multiple people tell me they were disappointed I didn’t accept their offer. I would normally refuse, but…”

As the elder was speaking, his wife poked her head inside the kitchen.

“I’ll help out as well.”

“No. It’s almost over, so go play around in the garden.”

“I’ve been playing around too much. You’re going to grill the meat on the pot lid, right? I’ll light the fire in the garden.”

“You know how to?”

“Of course, I’m good at it.”

His wife came inside the kitchen and gave them some bite-sized pieces of watermelon.

The elder smiled and thanked her. Maru also received the watermelon with his mouth.

After Haneul left, the elder continued where he left off.

“I’ve got the watermelon now, so I can’t refuse.”

“Haneul will be very happy to hear that. She really likes you.”

“I’m grateful that she likes an old actor like me.”

The elder put the side dish containers from the fridge onto a tray.

“Haneul must be getting hungry. Let’s set up and get to eating.”

“You should think about me too.”

“You’re just a sidekick for her.”

Maru smiled faintly and followed the elder.

[1] Vegetables that are used for ‘ssam’ (wrap). Usually, lettuce and sesame leaves.

After Story 263

“Mr. Maru. That was so clean that it felt off instead. You were really good, but can you cover the label of the beer with one hand slightly? Even if you cover up the letters, everyone can recognize the brand,” said producer Seok to Maru, who was sitting down and leaning on the sofa.

“Is this good enough?” Maru asked as he wrapped the middle of the can with his pinky.

The producer nodded seeing that it looked natural. The advertisement planner, who was also present, said that it was okay.

Before they began the shoot again, he went over the storyboard again. Although he was shooting according to the design that was given to him, he wanted to make a few changes now that he saw the model on the scene.

“It’s really good with Mr. Maru on the set, so don’t you think it’ll be better to have him as the background and insert the product rather than putting the product forward?”

“I think that will be better too, but there’s a design that had already received confirmation, so why don’t we go with an additional shoot instead? We can’t adjust it now, so I think we should suggest the change when we display the outcome.”

“That sounds good.”

Producer Seok crossed his arms and looked at Maru. Maru, the model, showed what it meant to drink appetizingly. Once this commercial went on air during prime hours, people would pick up their wallets and go to the nearby convenience store.

“Mr. Maru. Let’s fill it up with water and do that again,” producer Seok said as he looked at the row of empty beer cans outside the studio.

Maru had been drinking beer nonstop saying that only then would it feel real and had drunk over ten cans already.

“I can’t make the right expression if I drink water.”

“Are you sure you don’t just like beer?”

“There you have it,” Maru said with a smile.

The model said he was okay with it, so he had no reason to refuse. After spraying some water on the surface of the can to make it look chillier, the staff gave a can to Maru.

“Okay, we’ll continue where we left off. Mr. Maru, please exaggerate the chilliness of the drink this time. It was good last time, but I want to see how it looks if you go overboard a little.”

“Okay.”

Maru made various expressions even before the camera started rolling.

Producer Seok had shot numerous commercials until now, but this was the first time he had such an easy time. He got whatever atmosphere he wanted as long as he gave the orders, so there was no easier shoot than this.

“Okay, then, we’ll start now,” he shouted.

* * *

“In my opinion, you have a liver and a kidney that’s three times stronger than other people. That’s why you don’t feel anything after drinking beer throughout the whole shoot,” Yeonjin said as he looked at Maru who was in the back seat.

“Who gets drunk from beer?”

“Well, I do. Even people who can drink a lot will feel tipsy if they drink so much in a short period of time like you did.”

He handed over a strawberry milk that he bought from the convenience store. It was something that Maru always looked for after drinking.

“But don’t you feel sick if you drink milk after drinking alcohol?”

“I used to, but I got used to it after drinking this all the time. At this point, strawberry milk works better than most hangover drinks for me.”

“That’s a strange habit there, relieving your hangover with strawberry milk.”

“I thought the same at first.”

Maru drank the milk while shrugging. Yeonjin started the car and asked,

“You’re going to go back home, right?”

“No, there’s a place I have to visit.”

“Where are you going?”

He inputted the address that Maru said into the GPS navigation. While driving, he checked Maru’s state from time to time. Despite having drunk beer throughout the whole shoot, he was sitting upright in the back seat, reading a book.

“You look like you read at least ten books a month. I can barely read one every year.”

“There’s no better hobby than this. It doesn’t use that much money, it kills time, and it’s easy on the body. You should read some books sometime too. Once you get the hang of it, you’ll start reading out of habit.”

“I think habit means different things for you and me. In my case, habit refers to drinking, smoking, and playing games. I think even the most studious people will rarely say that they read books out of habit.”

“I’m very studious, you see.”

Yeonjin turned the driving wheel and spoke,

“Any books you want to recommend?”

“What’s been your interest lately?”

“Well, it hasn’t changed at all. How to buy real estate for cheap. How to buy stocks that rise. How to found a successful business.”

“You’re interested in the most difficult things in this world, huh.”

“Isn’t everyone like that? They take interest in other things because they feel insecure about the things they’re doing now.”

“Are you quitting your job?”

Yeonjin looked through the rearview mirror and spoke,

“Why does the conversation go there?”

“Because that’s what I felt. Or are you preparing for something else?”

“It’s not exactly something I should keep secret from you, so… actually, I’m planning to set up my own shop. Once you start working in this industry, you realize that you only have two paths ahead of you. One is to leave JA and create your own agency, and the other is to get promoted to team leader level and above. But I don’t like either of them. Though, rather than not liking it, I don’t have the confidence to do it.”

“What kind of business item are you thinking about?”

“For now, a café. I’m not saying that I’ll go all in. I just looked for something that I can do alongside my job, and a café seemed to be the best choice.”

“It should be okay as long as you find a good place, but you should look into it carefully.”

Yeonjin nodded and responded,

“That’s why I plan to receive some consulting. Rather than preparing everything from scratch, I think it would be better to buy an existing one and manage that one. I looked at various websites, and the investment-to-profit ratio isn’t so bad.”

“You received a consultation already?”

“The earlier I prepare, the better. They told me that good items get sold out quickly, so it’s better to proceed as soon as possible.”

“You are saying that after doing your research, right?”

“Someone reliable recommended it to me.”

Maru closed the book he was reading.

“It might sound unpleasant, but normally, you get swindled by the people you know.”

“No way. He’s not someone who would do that. Also, I had a close look at the contents, and there shouldn’t be a problem.”

The GPS navigation notified them that they were at the destination. It was Daechi-dong, a place full of cram schools and academies. Just as he was about to tell Maru that they were here, his phone made a sound. When he had a look, he saw that he had received a message. It was from team leader Park, whom he had gotten to know through the business consultation company.

The content was about how there was a better place than the café they were originally talking about.

“Maybe I’m getting lucky.”

“What is it?”

“I just got told that there’s a better café out for sale.”

“Hyung, can I have a look at your phone?”

Yeonjin handed his phone to Maru. Maru, who had a look at that text message, spoke,

“Don’t sign this contract right away and bring me with you.”

“Bring you?”

“I’m okay with it, so bring me with you before you sign that contract. You should make use of a celebrity acquaintance at a time like this.”

“I’d be grateful if you do, but…”

Maru got out of the car and told him to delay the meeting with team leader Park by just one day.

Yeonjin said okay. Delaying the meeting by a day wasn’t a problem.

“Be careful on your way back.”

He drove off after seeing Maru enter the building.

* * *

“The beginning part was good, but I think the emotions got too out of hand toward the end. With that, the pronunciation was mangled as well. I get what he’s trying to do, but it wasn’t conveyed properly.”

“That’s what he says. Jooyoung, what do you say?”

Bangjoo looked at Jooyoung who was standing in the middle of the practice room. He was just moving his eyes without saying anything as though he was thinking about Jungho’s opinion just now.

After about ten seconds of silence, Jooyoung spoke.

“The exaggeration of emotions was something I intended. I thought that acting that’s too clean doesn’t have any charm. Anyone would lose reason to some extent if they become angry, and that loss of reason would affect their speech as well. I pursue natural-looking acting, so I’m satisfied with it,” Jooyoung said.

“Any other opinions?” instructor Miso asked as she crossed her legs. Both Jungho’s opinion and Jooyoung’s counter-opinion made sense, so Bangjoo didn’t say anything.

“Didn’t I tell all of you before we started? Today, you should be prepared to bite each other’s necks off. Are you going to keep acting like gentlemen?”

“I don’t have anything to retort to Jooyoung,” said another student

Miso tied her loosened hair and stood up.

“You don’t mean that you don’t have anything to retort to, but that you need some…”

Knock, knock

There was a knock on the door. Bangjoo looked at the door to the practice room. If it was any other instructor from the school, they would’ve opened the door without knocking. Instructor Miso also found it strange and called out,

“Who is it?”

The door opened slightly. Bangjoo stared at the person who poked his head inside the door and stood up abruptly in surprise.

“Han Maru, what brings you here so suddenly?” Miso said first.

Hearing the name Han Maru, everyone present slacked their jaws before screeching. Regardless of gender, everyone stood up and rushed towards the door.

“Hello. Yes, hello, there. Nice to meet you too,” Maru greeted the students as he came inside.

“I came here to see Miso noo-nim, but Bangjoo’s here too, huh?”

Maru put out the plastic bags he held in both hands. It was fried chicken.

“You should eat before continuing with class. Noo-nim, can we do that?”

“If I don’t let them eat here, they will probably kill me. Everyone, get ready to eat.”

A bottle of beer and fried chicken were laid out on top of the acting school’s calendar. Everyone, who would start off by grabbing their chickens, was looking at Maru and not the chicken.

“Stop looking at me and get to eating. It’s not like looking at me will feed you.”

“No, I feel really satisfied. I honestly didn’t believe instructor Miso when she said she knew you. I never thought I’d see you for real like this.”

“I didn’t know Miso noo-nim’s credibility was so low.”

Miso, who was listening, spoke,

“If you know that, then visit from time to time. Seungah comes often, you know?”

“I’m a busy person, you see.”

“That sounds cocky, but I can’t really refute that.”

The students, who were awkward at first, all became at ease when Maru treated them comfortably. Just as they were eating and drinking, Maru asked,

“Are you learning well?”

Bangjoo confidently responded with a yes. Miso fitted him with the basics that he had always lacked. He could say with confidence that his breathing and pronunciation had become better compared to last year.

“Uhm, senior! Can’t you show us a short act? We were just in a lesson where we were criticizing other people’s acting.”

“That’s fun. I used to do that a lot too.”

Miso wiped her hands and spoke,

“Since we’re on the topic, we should just tell Maru to show us that. Jooyoung, do the act you did before.”

“Right now?”

“A celebrity actor will look at your acting. You don’t want that?”

“Of course I do! No one can take it from me.”

Jooyoung stood up. He displayed the act he had shown off before. He got angry and the act finished off with him screaming.

“That’s very energetic,” Maru said.

Jooyoung grinned at the compliment.

“But the transmission leaves room to be desired.”

Maru pointed out similar things. Jooyoung soon stood up for himself, saying that it was a natural phenomenon from the emotions being amplified.

“You’re right about that. However, actors need to ‘act’ what is natural, not just let go of themselves because that is what’s natural. What is natural and what looks natural definitely have their differences.”

Maru stood up. He repeated Jooyoung’s lines and showed the same emotions. While it looked similar until about halfway through, the latter part was different, where the emotions burst out. His pronunciation was clear and his breathing didn’t feel forced. It was neat and yet stuck to realism.

“That’s what I was trying to get at. Okay?” instructor Miso said as she twitched one eye.

Maru smiled and sat down.

After Story 264

“That was good,” Maru said to the student who just displayed her act.

“Senior, you keep saying that we were good. Are you sure we really are?” asked a student who finished her act a while ago.

“I can lie very well when it’s really necessary, but when I don’t need to, I usually tell the truth. Right now, there’s nothing for me to gain by lying to you all here, so everything I’m saying is the truth.”

“Really?”

“You said your name was Miss Ijin, right?”

“Yes.”

“Miss Ijin, your acting has a sharp taste to it. It’s splendid that you know your strong points and chose a story that can bring out those strong points. Of course, if I want to find a weak point, then I can do that too. If it was a critique session like before, I would have talked about them, but we’re not doing that now.”

“Rather than my strong suits, I want to improve on my weak points. I think it’ll be really helpful if you can tell me about them.”

“I get what you’re worried about. In terms of tests, you are getting a D in one subject while getting a B in the rest so you want to improve the scores for that subject, right? But I believe that actors should bring out their strong points rather than be moderately good at everything.”

He looked around at the students sitting around him.

“There’s no one in this class who’s doing acting as a hobby, right?”

Yes – the students replied all at once.

“In the end, you should all be aiming to act on top of a stage or in front of a camera and to consolidate your positions as actors. You must also be thinking about the financial benefits that would come along with it. If this was a meeting of those who purely enjoyed acting, then I would have told you to practice your weak points and improve on them. But that’s not the case for everyone here, is it?”

He put up nine fingers, equivalent to the number of students here.

“There are nine people who want to become actors. Among these people, how many do you think will achieve success? No, forget success. How many of these people will be able to make a living with a single occupation known as an actor?”

No one spoke. It should be hard to say anything. If they were in Miso’s class, they should know what kind of place the entertainment industry was.

Maru folded all the fingers.

“I am talking about the reality that you all know about. I’m sure you’ve all visited the various agencies and production companies with your profiles. You must have thought about all sorts of things while putting your profile in the plastic container they provide for you. Each and every agency and production company gets hundreds if not thousands of profiles. Who here has passed an audition for a commercial film?”

Only Bangjoo raised his hand.

“Bangjoo managed to pass because the requirement was being able to do action and stunts, not ordinary acting. It was a minor role, but despite that, the competition was fierce. But being a minor actor in a film doesn’t resolve the everyday needs issue. It would if you keep getting work, but those actors are extremely rare.”

“What do we do, then?” asked a student wearing glasses.

“That’s why the first thing you should be doing is improving on your strong points. Becoming an actor who can do everything is something you should think about once you get on the stage. If you haven’t even climbed onto a stage, thinking about improving your weak points is just inefficient. I’ll say this again, but I’m only saying this to you because you are all people who want to make their livelihood on acting.”

He stood up from his seat. He held his hands politely and spoke,

“Hello. I have somewhat decent pronunciation and breathing, and my acting is moderately good too. I can also digest stunts to some extent.”

He then unfolded his arms.

“There are too many actors like this. Acting is not a single category. A spiteful character, a character who’s quick to cry, a character who smiles a lot, a character who can look vicious, a character who can sound cold — characters who need various emotions are only the lead and supporting characters that the camera focuses on. Aside from them, all other characters will have just one emotion stand out. Now, you should all know what I’m trying to get at after I told you this much.”

“Isn’t it a big minus to have your image conform to one specific type of character as an actor?”

Maru nodded to that student’s question.

“It is a big minus. But for an actor who isn’t even on the starting line, there is no such thing as a minus. The artistic facet of acting is important, but if you want to make a living as an actor, if you want to live as an actor, you must think about the realistic side as well. Bringing out the true taste and coolness of acting is something you should be thinking about once you have your name in the credits.”

Miso clapped once before speaking,

“You should all talk about what he said among yourselves. Talk about what your strong suits are that you should be emphasizing.”

“What about you, instructor?”

“He came here to see me, so don’t you think we should talk at least?”

“Leave senior Maru here,” said the students mischievously.

Miso frowned and told them to discuss before signaling towards him. He left the practice room with Miso.

“I’m sure the words you told them will be helpful. Advice from a real actor should hold a completely different weight.”

He followed Miso up to the rooftop. When she placed the key card on the door of the rooftop, the door opened.

“It’s nice and breezy here.”

“It’s the resting spot for the people working in this building. They smoke and drink coffee here. Since we’re at it, would you like some coffee? The vending machine coffee here is better than most cafés.”

“If it’s popular, then I should have some.”

Miso bought some vending machine coffee that cost 300 won. It was a stereotypical vending machine coffee that had a lot of sugar.

“These days, it’s hard to find vending machine coffee because there are more cafés than vending machines.”

Miso walked up to the railing with the paper cup. He put his arms on the safety railing that was higher than his waist level. Even though it was past 9 in the evening, the street was still bright.

“It doesn’t look like you have business for me. What made you visit?”

“It’s not that I don’t have any business, but I mainly just came here to see you.”

“That’s so cheesy.”

“People are all cheesy depending on the situation.”

Maru sipped some coffee before speaking,

“I’m going to get married soon, so I’ve been going around telling people I’ve been indebted to.”

“I had a hunch. When I saw the news, I thought that you two had made up your mind. Did you propose to Haneul?”

“That’s a bit difficult. We’ve proposed to each other countless times.”

“You were very successful if you were trying to get a single mad,” Miso said as she glared at him.

He smiled softly.

“I came here because I felt like I’d only be able to get you to come if I told you about it before I gave you the invitation to the wedding.”

“Do I have to go no matter what?”

“Yes, you have to come no matter what.”

“Aren’t there other people you should be calling, not me?”

“We’re going to hold a small one outdoors.”

“That’s even more of a reason to invite people closer to you.”

“To me, you are one of those people. I’ve been indebted to you a lot too.”

“You’ve been saying things about being indebted for a while now, but it’s not like I helped you much.”

“You did. A lot.”

She looked at him.

“Well, if you say so.”

“You’re coming, right?”

“Just tell me once the wedding invitation is ready. I’ll go if I don’t die.”

He smiled and nodded.

“Oh, how are things going with Geunsoo hyung-nim?”

“We’re total duds as members of the opposite sex, but as friends, there’s no one better than him. Thanks to you, I got a good friend. It looks like I’m destined to live by myself. It’s just too comfortable. Geunsoo said that too.”

“Being alone isn’t always a bad thing.”

“I feel like you’re teasing me since you’re about to get married. I’m being paranoid, right?”

“Probably?”

Miso lightly slapped him on the back of his head.

“Live a good life. I liked Haneul the moment I saw her for the first time. It’s like we’ve known each other since before.”

“That’s why I’m having a hard time. Everyone around me looks out for her. It makes me sad, you know?”

“If you’re sad, then give Haneul to me. I’ll feed her well.”

“Haneul and I are a combo, you see.”

“Then live well by yourselves.”

Miso spread her hand and slapped him on the back. Maru frowned at the pain before smiling.

* * *

“You saw it, right? You’ll be hard-pressed to find anything better. The location is good and there’s a large moving population here. As you saw during lunch, there is a decent number of customers as well. If you grab this now, you’ll be able to earn 6 million a month on pure profits alone. You see the profits on the contract, right?”

Yeonjin looked at the materials attached to the contract.

“If it’s really like this, then this is really good.”

“Something as good as this only appears once or twice a year. And that’s why I’m saying that you’re very lucky. Isn’t it really hard to do investment these days? And there’s a shop that has already proven its business at this cost? You can just hire some part-timers and go traveling overseas. It’ll change your life. If I could take out another loan right now, I would’ve taken this place for myself.”

“It definitely looks good.”

Team leader Park rolled his pen around and spoke,

“You met us through someone who’s acquainted with our company.”

“Yes, that’s true. Woojin hyung-nim told me this company was upright and good.”

“That’s why I’m giving you such a great place. If someone came here without connections, I wouldn’t even bother introducing them to this place.”

Yeonjin nodded and had another look at the contract. He subconsciously smiled because of the profits that looked better than he expected. It was a pretty easy job for him because running the café could be left to part-timers and he just had to take care of the inventory.

“Uhm, but sir. I think we need to proceed with the contract as soon as possible,” said team leader Park as he put down his phone.

“There’s another person who wants to buy this place, even going as far as to pay more for it.”

“Really?”

“I’m holding him back for now, but I can’t hold him back for long. As you can see, it’s a very good item.”

Yeonjin looked at the clock. There were about 30 minutes left for Maru to come.

“Uhm, can’t you wait for just 30 minutes…?”

“It’ll be difficult. They want this item very much.”

He started becoming nervous. It was outside of his expectations that he had to get more loans, but even then, this place looked good enough to undertake those risks. He felt like he couldn’t miss this opportunity. Just as he was hesitating,

“If you don’t plan on accepting it, I’ll take this contract back. You saw this, didn’t you? They’re very desperate on the other side.”

Team leader Park showed him his phone which was vibrating like crazy. One message after the other was being received. It really looked urgent.

“Wait, I’ll sign the contract.”

He had a look at the store in person and saw that they had a lot of customers. It was a bit of a pity that he couldn’t meet the owner in person because the deal was through an agent, but that couldn’t be helped.

Yeonjin took out his stamp. Just as he was about to stamp the contract that team leader Park laid out for him, a knock could be heard from the other side of the window. When he turned around, he saw Maru outside. He had a mask and a baseball cap on.

“Who?” team leader Park asked.

“Someone I know. I called him because this is a first for me.”

“Oh, okay. You should stamp the contract first.”

Hearing those words, he lifted up the stamp subconsciously. The endlessly buzzing phone, team leader Park’s urging, and the customers at the café moved his hand.

Just as the stamp was about to touch the paper,

“Hello.”

Maru, who had entered the store, grabbed his arm and greeted them. Team leader Park smiled and greeted Maru.

“Yes, hello there. I heard, our good sir over here knows you.”

“This is the first time my brother’s done something like this. I plan to participate as well, is that okay with you?”

“Of course, but I’ve explained things well and our good sir was just about to stamp the papers after accepting it. This is a really good place, so everyone wants it.”

“That must be one great item then.”

Maru naturally sat down and picked up the contract. Team leader Prak looked at Maru before tilting his head. He couldn’t tell because of the mask, but he seemed to think that it was a face he had seen before.

Maru didn’t even look at the first page and had a look at the benefits page. What was he trying to look at? Team leader Park spoke to Maru, who was looking alternately at the front and back pages,

“Uhm, sir brother, we’re not scammers. We even have a business registration and are the first in this industry. You don’t need to worry.”

“Yes, of course. What world do we live in for you to scam us so outright? I know that too.”

Team leader Park started acting up again.

“Uhm, sir, I’m really sorry but they’re really desperate right now. Are you not going to sign the contract?”

“Wait a second.”

Yeonjin also looked at Maru. It was good that he was worried for him, but he became uneasy about missing this good place because of it. Just then, Maru put down the contract.

“Just as I thought. No matter how the times change, the schemes don’t change. Isn’t that right, team leader?”

After Story 265

“What do you mean, a scheme?” team leader Park asked.

Yeonjin also looked at Maru. It didn’t look like he said it with good intentions. The documents seemed to have no problems at all, so why was Maru saying this?

“It’s really hard to go through a contract carefully. It’s difficult to understand what the blind spot is even if you do read it.”

Maru laid out the contract. It was the page that had the materials about the estimated income.

“The estimated income may be different from real income. This document cannot be used as official evidence.”

He read out the sentence written on the contract. Team leader Park laughed and spoke,

“You have a really smart younger brother. Does it make you suspicious since it’s written like that? Of course, it may look like that, but I only wrote the obvious on the document. An estimation is ultimately just an estimation. But sir, you just saw the place for yourself. You saw that there were many customers.”

Yeonjin nodded as he listened to team leader Park’s words. The sales report of the café also seemed similar to the estimated income. The place didn’t seem to have any downsides either.

“Sir, are you not going to sign the contract? I can’t hold on anymore. Actually, if I proceed with the person calling me right now instead of you, the commission I get is a lot more. The reason I’m talking to you despite that is because of trust. I prepared such a good item for you, but if you’re suspicious, then you can stop here. I can just proceed with the contract with another person.”

Yeonjin had a look at the signature page of the contract. If he stamped that page, then he would be able to become a café owner.

“Uhm, Maru,” he called Maru in a small voice.

He was really grateful that Maru was willing to help him, but he was worried that he might lose a very good business item just like this. This person was a top-tier actor who pretty much had a guaranteed good life, but that wasn’t the case for him. He was looking into running a business because he felt insecure about his senior years.

“Then I’ll take it that you won’t do it.”

Team leader Park reached out to the contract. Yeonjin told him to wait and tried to grab the contract. Just then, however, Maru tapped on his thigh, signaling him with his eyes that he should stay still.

“This item is really good. Are you really going to give up on it?” asked the team leader as he put the pages together.

Yeonjin really wanted to talk, but he held back. He would’ve spoken out if it was anyone else, but the person sitting next to him wasn’t someone who would act without reason.

“Can I talk to the café owner?” Maru asked team leader Park.

“That’ll be difficult. There are many people who want to purchase a good item like this. If I connect each and every one of them to the café owner, then that will inconvenience the café owner. Since this matter involves big money, it’s much safer and more efficient for a company like ours to meditate. There are cases where the people involved in the contract get into a fight if they meet each other, so the contract must be done through me.”

“Would it be difficult to just have a short phone call?”

“I just told you there are multiple people who are like you. This is really getting frustrating. Sir, are you sure this brother of yours is here to help you? He looks like he doesn’t know how the world works.”

“You say that, but you look around the same age as me, team leader Park. Your position in the company must be manager, right? Your position on the outside is team leader. And for some peculiar reason, there isn’t a single staff member in the company.”

Team leader Park’s face, which had been filled with leisure this whole time, had a new emotion for the first time. It was nervousness and wariness. As soon as Yeonjin saw that expression, he pushed his stamp deep inside his pocket. He had been receiving a salary for handling people for nearly a decade now. He knew from experience how dangerous it was to work with people who made that expression.

It felt like he could finally see the true identity of team leader Park which was hidden behind the charming contract paper and materials.

“What are you trying to do here? If you aren’t going to proceed with the contract, then just don’t. This is ridiculous. Do you think you can run a business treating people like this? I’ve seen numerous people like you. They start a business with the meager knowledge they have and ruin everything and are thrown out to the streets. People like us are the ones who try to give them good items at a suitable price without getting scammed. Sheesh… I can’t believe I’m getting this kind of treatment.”

After nervousness and insecurity came aggressiveness. Yeonjin completely retracted his goodwill towards team leader Park and the contract.

“And Mr. Woojin, who introduced you to our company. Don’t you feel sorry for him? I tried my best to find you a good place, but you stopped recognizing my efforts and became suspicious of me because of this little brother who came at the last minute.”

After speaking, team leader Park stayed quiet for a moment. Maru, who had been listening, spoke,

“A good item will get a good price tag to match. Suitable prices only apply to mass-produced items, and it’s not the right word to use for a contract that involves big money like this. Good items are sold for very expensive prices, while not-so-good items are sold for moderately expensive prices. That’s the basics of a mediator. If you have the power to sell good items at a suitable price, then you need to change the profit model of the company. You have a way to earn easy money, so why would you even bother contacting individual investors to tell them that there’s a good item out for sale?”

Team leader Park widened his eyes in surprise. This was his turn to retort or make excuses, but he seemed at a loss because what Maru said was right.

“Is it really that difficult to have a phone call with the owner of the café? The owner must want to tune the details with the buyer if they put up their business for sale. It’s not like we’re asking to meet them, just a phone call.”

“As I explained to you before…”

“Then as shameless as we might be, let’s go pay a visit directly.”

Maru stood up from his seat. Team leader Park looked at him in a daze before standing up in a rush.

“That’s very rude. You must proceed with the contract through us! If you do things like that-!”

“Then what?” Maru stopped and said.

He had pulled down the mask as well. Team leader Park looked at Maru in a daze. Yeonjin could see his eyes widening.

“Han Maru…”

“That’s me. This ‘sir’ you’ve been calling is my manager. I think that’s enough explanation, so shall we go to the café together?”

“U-uhm, like I said.”

“Even if you want to block us, you can’t. You have no right to. After all, for contracts that proceed as fast as this, you explain the details on the day of the contract and have the papers stamped. If it’s a proper contract, there shouldn’t be anything to talk about on the day of the contract.”

Maru opened the door and left. Yeonjin also followed suit. The café that he was originally going to buy was about 10 minutes away on foot.

“Hey, hey!”

Team leader Park quickly followed. The envelope with the contract was crumpled. How hurried must he have been? Yeonjin found the situation more and more interesting.

“You can’t do this.”

“And why is that?”

“Proceeding with things like this is against company policies.”

“Unfortunately, I don’t belong to your company, team leader Park. Or what, can your company enforce its policies on outsiders too?”

“That’s not what I meant.”

Maru stopped walking.

“I know why you’re acting like this. If the parties involved in the contract meet directly, there’s nothing much to gain as the middleman. There must also be things you don’t want to reveal.”

Team leader Park rolled his eyes left and right before picking up his phone. Maru smiled and started walking again.

Yeonjin moved as he watched team leader Park whisper into his phone.

Not long later, they arrived at the café Yeonjin was originally going to sign a contract for. Yeonjin asked as Maru opened the door,

“How did you know it was here?”

“You messaged me last night about it. That’s why I made a visit before I went to look for you.”

“You came here already?”

“Checking it first is the right thing to do.”

As soon as they opened the door and went inside, a lady who looked to be in her mid-forties greeted Maru. Team leader Park, who entered the café afterward, froze after seeing the lady.

“Oh, Mr. Maru. You’re really good-looking now that I am looking at you in real life. I was almost doubtful when you called me before, but it really is you.”

“I look better than I do on screen, right?”

“Sure. Much better.”

The lady looked at Yeonjin.

“Is this person perhaps…”

“Yes. He’s the potential owner who wants to buy this place.”

The lady brightened up and approached him.

“Nice to meet you.”

Yeonjin grabbed the hand that the lady held out. From the look of things, she seemed to be the owner of the café.

“Hello.”

“Team leader Park is behind you as well. Did you come together?”

When the owner acted like she knew him, team leader Park licked his lips before turning around. He kept his hand on his phone as though he was calling his superior.

“He seems like he’s busy, so let us talk by ourselves for a while.”

They talked about buying the café with Maru present. Most of the materials were the same as what Team leader Park told him. However, there was one very crucial difference.

“I like to be upfront about things. I’ll give you the sales report of our café.”

The owner printed the sales report. Yeonjin checked two things, the profit for last year and this year, and then glared at team leader Park who was making a phone call outside.

“The sales were especially good for July and August.”

“There’s a festival nearby. The sales rise during that period. But on average, it’s about 3 million a month?”

“So not 6 million a month, huh?”

“If pure profits are that good, then I wouldn’t put it out for sale. I’m actually satisfied with the current sales, but there are various pains that come with running a business. That’s why I plan to sell it off and get some rest.”

“I see.”

Yeonjin chuckled powerlessly. 6 million vs. 3 million. 3 million was a big amount of money, sure, but that was only half of the promised 6 million.

Next to him, Maru spoke,

“It’s true that this place is good. There’s an office-tel nearby, and there are also quite a lot of offices and a college. The owner was really good at management, so the interior design and the facilities are good as well.”

“You know your stuff, Mr. Maru.” the owner laughed in delight.

Yeonjin looked around the store and then at Maru. He must have been busy working as an actor, so where did he acquire such discerning eyes? It was a total surprise.

“The sales are consistent to the point that the owner is willing to be upfront about it, and if you keep the suppliers, then management will be a lot easier.”

“Right, right.”

The owner was all smiles.

“But where did team leader Park go? We have to proceed with the contract.”

Team leader Park, who had been calling someone outside the café, could no longer be seen.

“He probably went to take care of the aftermath. More than that, ma’am, what did you tell team leader Park that you’d sell the premium[1] for?”

“The premium? He told me that the economy was bad and that there weren’t many people looking to buy, so I lowered it as much as I could. I don’t want people to hand each other hot potatoes, so I just thought I should just reclaim as much as I paid at the beginning.”

“How much is that?”

“100 million.”

Hearing 100 million, Yeonjin doubted his ears for a moment.

“100 million premium?” he asked for confirmation.

“Yes, but why do you ask? Didn’t team leader Park tell you about it?”

“I heard that it was 300 million.”

“300 million? What kind of nonsense is that?”

Yeonjin chuckled powerlessly. 100 million premium and 3 million monthly profits were still very decent.

“Then let’s talk about it calmly, shall we?”

Maru smiled and pointed at a chair.

* * *

“Thanks. I almost got swindled out of a huge amount of money,” Yeonjin said as he poured some soju.

“It’s a pretty common practice.”

“But isn’t that a total scam? Should I sue him?”

“Don’t bother. I told you, didn’t I? They push the contract verbally and whiz through the contract on the day itself. There’s no contract that states everything, so even if you do sue, you won’t get much from it. Even if you do, you can’t sue the company and would have to sue team leader Park the individual, but that’s just a pain.”

“It’s more ridiculous the more I think about it. He tried to eat 200 million in the middle.”

“That’s just how premiums work. It’s a rubber band that’s easy to stretch.”

Yeonjin drank some soju and spoke,

“Hey, let’s order some premium-grade beef. I saved 200 million thanks to you, so I should treat you.”

“Save it up and use it later. I’m fine with pork.”

They drank while talking about the things that happened during the day. Yeonjin got pretty drunk and spoke with a grin on his face,

“Thanks a bunch. I really didn’t do much for you.”

“I had an easier time in this life thanks to you, so you did do a lot for me.”

“In this life? What, is there a previous one?”

“Maybe. Anyway, congratulations on becoming a café owner,” Maru said as he toasted with him.

[1] This doesn’t seem to exist in the west. A ‘premium’ in this context means extra payment for taking over existing business practices (including suppliers, existing machines, furniture, etc) and customers.

After Story 266

Phew-

The weather was horrific. Would the popsicle in her hands even last until she arrived home? The sun had already set, but it was still so hot.

Bada clicked her tongue. Why was it that she was sweating even more than when she was performing?

She quickly made her way home. She missed the air conditioner more than ever. She went up the stairs and stood in front of the front door. She typed in the pin code and opened the door. The cool breeze from the air conditioner enveloped her.

It was only for a moment that she was smiling. Something was off. Her mother and father were supposed to be on Jeju island right now, so who turned on the air conditioner? Did she actually just leave it on when she left in the morning?

She took her shoes off and went inside to see a pair of shoes she had not seen before. It was a pair of trainers that she was seeing for the first time.

As she was tilting her head, she heard water being flushed down the toilet.

“You’re back?”

“What, it was you?” Bada said as she looked at Maru who came out of the bathroom.

“What brings you here all of a sudden?”

“Mother said I should take some side dishes home.”

“Where’s unni?”

“Working.”

“That’s a good life you have there. What are you doing when she’s working?”

“Coming here to pick up side dishes, of course.”

Bada shook her head and opened the freezer. She put the popsicle she bought inside and went into the bathroom with the clothes she was going to get changed to.

She washed her sweaty body with some cold water before leaving.

“What are you doing?”

Her brother was eating a popsicle on the sofa. It was her favorite milk-flavored one.

“What do you mean? Eating a popsicle of course.”

“You know I like that one, right?”

“I do.”

“And you’re eating that one? Han Maru, you’ve become audacious.”

“I can’t eat it?”

“Obviously!”

She was slightly angry, but she felt better when the breeze from the air conditioner hit her neck.

The people of this country put him on a pedestal saying that he was a good actor, but to her, he was still the mischievous elder brother.

“I’ll be nice and hold back.”

If she had known this, she would’ve bought two. She opened the refrigerator and took out some sikhye. She poured a cup and took a sip. Sikhye wasn’t so bad either.

“Aren’t you going to eat popsicle?”

Bada glared at her brother while holding the cup. She saw him holding the popsicle that had almost turned sharp after he licked it so much. He was telling her to eat that?

“You can eat it all you want.”

She walked over to the sofa with the cup. She tapped on her brother’s legs to make space. Her brother went down to the floor and turned on the TV.

“You said you were here to take side dishes home. Why aren’t you going already?”

“I was going to eat dinner here.”

“Eat? Are you treating me out?”

“There are plenty of things to eat at home, so why bother?”

“You earn a lot of money, so treat me out for once. Can’t you do that for your only sister?”

“You only look for your brother when you need something.”

“That’s just how siblings are designed.”

She snatched the remote control away from him and switched the channel. A drama that just started yesterday was on replay.

The main actor was Hong Geunsoo. In the drama, he was a single father, and the airheaded father image suited the actor a lot.

She even talked about it with the theater troupe members during break time.

“Oppa.”

“What?”

“Actor Hong Geunsoo. How’s he in real life?”

“Which part of him specifically?”

“Just various things. ”

“He actually has a similar character to the one he’s playing in the drama. He smiles a lot, listens to others, and eats a lot.”

“Eats a lot?”

“Yep. He eats a surprising amount. Then he works out like crazy to get rid of those calories.”

“That’s unexpected. I thought he wouldn’t like eating that much.”

She sipped on the sikhye and watched the drama. Then she glanced at her brother. She still couldn’t believe that this man managed to appear in the same movie as senior Hong Geunsoo.

Objectively speaking, her brother was gaining career experience at a speed that could be called unprecedented. His name would often come up on the list of actors she and other members of the troupe ‘respected’ and not ‘liked,’ so there was that.

“This is pretty good.”

Her brother licked the remaining part of the popsicle on the stick. That was an actor with ten million views? That was an actor who got a prize at a global film festival? That?

“Maybe something’s wrong with everyone’s eyes.”

“What do you mean?”

“Just talking to myself.”

She focused on the drama again. There was a funny scene that made her laugh. She looked at the clock. It was 7 in the evening.

“Aren’t you going to eat?” her brother asked.

She looked at the wooden stick in her brother’s hand. That was supposed to be her dinner today.

“Go and make some,” she said while tapping on him with her foot.

If it was before, he would’ve sworn at her, but he just went to the kitchen obediently. He still pulled pranks like usual, but the brother that made her mad and annoyed all the time had disappeared.

Having become an actor, her brother seemed to have changed into a different person. She got used to him now, but she sometimes found him unfamiliar. ‘Unfamiliar,’ she might say, but she didn’t hate him. In fact, she was afraid that he would revert to before.

She didn’t even think about talking about her brother to her friends before, but she sometimes brought it up these days. After all, after all that’s said and done, it was true that he was an incredible person.

“Since you’re here, you should sign some autographs before you go. There are a couple friends of mine who are fans of yours. Oh, and sign some for the members of the troupe as well.”

“Did you go around boasting to others that I’m your brother?”

“Are you crazy? Why would I do that? My friends found out through coincidence, while the people at the troupe don’t know about it. I’m just going to tell them that I got it through coincidence.”

She heard something being stir-fried in the pan. He prepared dinner the last time he came here as well, and his cooking skills were pretty decent. Maybe he had learned cooking in the time he was living by himself.

“Fully cooked? Or soft-boiled?”

“Soft-boiled.”

She watched the TV for a while before going to the kitchen. When she did, she found that the food actually looked quite decent. He seemed to have made food that their mother had prepared.

“How’s working at the theater troupe? Isn’t it difficult?” he asked as he picked up a spoon.

“It is hard. I have to run around all day in a mascot costume.”

“That’s a hard job you’re doing in this weather.”

“Right. I didn’t even imagine I would have to wear a huge costume when I first joined the city theater troupe.”

She was an actress who was being paid by the city. She was in a better environment than most other theater troupes who had to work other jobs to make their living because they couldn’t get a single dime from their troupes.

However, recently, the city theater troupe went to various children’s centers and held their performances there, but it wasn’t that easy. Dancing according to a preset choreography in a mascot costume was no ordinary work.

“But still… it’s enjoyable.”

Bada thought about what happened during the day. It was as she was saying goodbye to the children after finishing her performance on the makeshift stage.

A child about five years old cut a popsicle in half and gave it to her. She found that so grateful and cute.

She thought about the child’s clear eyes before her brother eating the popsicle came to her mind. She glared at him.

“What now?”

“You’re worse than a kid.”

“Tell me something I can understand, will you? Don’t you think I should know why you’re doing this to me?”

“It’s a bigger problem that you don’t know.”

Bada collected the empty plates and went to the sink. Her brother made the food, so she had to do the dishes. She spoke as she started washing them,

“The food was good.”

“Who do you think made it? Of course it’s good.”

Her brother opened the fridge. She could see him take out some side dish containers.

“You’re going now?”

“I should. A certain someone wouldn’t want me here any longer.”

“You have the wits to notice that, huh?”

She poured some sikhye for her brother.

“Mom made it. It’s a little plain, but it’s pretty decent.”

“Our missus is good at everything, but her sikhye leaves room to be desired.”

Her brother took a sip before speaking,

“But it should be perfect for that person.”

“That person?”

“Your new unni.”

“What the heck is that? You should call her name sweetly like ‘Haneul~’. What the heck is ‘that person’? You’re like dad.”

“It just gets embarrassing over time.”

“What? What’s there to be embarrassed about? Isn’t it the hottest period right now? You should call each other ‘dear Maru’ and ‘dear Haneul’ and sound all cheesy.”

“You can be cheesy to your boyfriend.”

Her brother piled the side dish containers inside a reusable bag. Meanwhile, she poured some sikhye into an empty plastic bottle.

“Give some to unni.”

“She’ll like it, saying that sister-in-law is the best.”

“Would she call me sister-in-law once you get married? She won’t, right? I would really hate it if she does.”

“She’ll call you Bada, don’t worry.”

“If she calls me sister-in-law, I’m going to run away.”

“If you do that, that person will call you sister-in-law just to make fun of you, you know?”

“You’re calling her like that again. You should use her name. Don’t tell me you don’t use her name when you are with her and call her something like ‘hun’, do you? You haven’t even gotten married yet.”

Her brother’s eyes skimmed along the ceiling. Maru really didn’t get embarrassed a lot, but he was embarrassed about stuff like this. She really couldn’t bring herself to understand him.

“Did you set the date for the wedding?” she asked her brother who put on his shoes.

“Not yet. There are a few things we have left to do, so we’re going to decide on a date after that.”

“I still can’t believe that Han Maru is getting married.”

Her brother opened the door. A wave of heat assaulted the interior.

“Watch out on your way home. Tell unni I gave her the sikhye.”

“Okay.”

Right before he left, he stopped before closing the door and told her,

“If you want to eat popsicles, you should. There are some underneath the ice container.”

Ice container? When she stared at him in wonder, he closed the door with a smile.

She tilted her head and opened the door to the freezer. The black plastic bag she brought from the convenience store entered her eyes first. She then lowered her level of sight and spotted a white plastic bottle.

She first had a look at the black one. The milk popsicle she bought from the convenience store was still there, untouched.

What the heck? – she checked the white plastic bag as well. There was an assortment of popsicles that she enjoyed.

“He didn’t eat the one I bought but…”

She chuckled powerlessly. He should’ve told her about it if that was the case… no, he did tell her multiple times to eat the popsicle. He should have noticed that she was misunderstanding him, but from how he shamelessly didn’t tell her anything, he was clearly teasing her.

She almost felt sorry for grumbling at him but decided to think that he brought it on himself since it was him who pulled one over her first.

She went to her room with the milk popsicle. She pulled out the chair at her desk when she found a box that she hadn’t seen before. There was a logo of a trainer brand on it.

-Congratulations on your first anniversary of entering the troupe.

It had been a year since she had entered the city theater troupe. She opened the box. There was a pair of trainers. She was just thinking that the trainers she was wearing were starting to wear out and that she should buy a new one…

“He’s pretty sensible.”

She wondered what Haneul-unni found good in him, but maybe it was this side. She put on the trainers happily.

“Dammit.”

It didn’t fit. She couldn’t even fit the soles of her feet in, much less her ankle. Just then, she heard a ring from her phone in the living room. She went to the living room and checked.

-I was thinking about what size to buy and just ended up going with her size, but now that I think about it, it might not fit you. You have pretty big feet. I’ve put the receipt in there as well, so you should go get them changed. Bye.

“If he was gonna do it, he might as well have gone the extra step, couldn’t he?”

Bada smiled and looked at the message. Then she moved her fingers to type.

-Thaaaanks. I’ll wear it well.

She took a photo of the shoes that she squeezed on before sending it to her brother and Haneul-unni.

After Story 267

He was watching a movie with his headphones on and glanced over at the time. It was 2 a.m.

Maru felt around next to him and stood up from the bed. The other owner of the bed seemed to be in the kitchen.

He opened the door and poked his head outside. The first thing he noticed was the wind from the air conditioner in breeze mode, followed by his wife sitting at the dining table. She was watching something under the desk lamp lights.

She rubbed her creased forehead and was spinning a pen in her hand.

He watched her agonizing for a while before walking over. On the table was the storyboard she was creating and the script that Daemyung had written.

“Is it not going well?” he asked as he sat on the other side of the table.

“It’s something I’ve done numerous times, but it’s hard now that I have to do this again. Maybe it’s a problem that there are too many things in my head. I draw a few scenes on the storyboard and then design the cuts, but I keep erasing them because I feel like they’re duplicates.”

“You are a perfectionist after all.”

“Are you nagging me?”

“If you heard it like that, it means that you’re tired. I feel lonely on the bed, so when are you going to come in?”

“I’m not sure. I kept telling myself just one more hour, but the skies became dark before I knew it. What’s the time right now?”

“What do you think it is?”

“Around 11?”

“It’s 2 am, lady.”

“Already? I didn’t notice at all. Being young has its perks alright. With enough stamina, you don’t know if you’re getting tired even if you’ve sat for a long time,” Haneul said as she spun her shoulders around.

He got up and stood behind his wife. He started massaging her shoulders carefully.

“You should have some leisure for now. You know that time spent and quality isn’t always directly proportional.”

“Greed is something you can’t give up on even if you know it. My greed is telling me that I’ll get something better if I think about it a little more, so I can’t give up on it.”

Maru put a lot of strength into his thumb and pressed. Haneul turned her head around with an ouch.

“It hurts.”

“It’s supposed to.”

“You’re like a kid even if you get old.”

“There’s a great way to console a kid, and that’s to put him to sleep, what do you think?”

Haneul shook her head.

“I’ll hold onto this for a little longer. You know I like doing this even if I suffer from it.”

“Then I can’t help it. I have no choice but to use the wide bed by myself.”

He put some water in the coffee pot.

“Coffee isn’t good at this hour. Buckwheat tea? Or corn tea?”

“Buckwheat tea.”

He poured some tea into the mug with his wife’s name on it. His wife, who smelled the savory buckwheat, smiled.

“Being like this reminds me of that time. Both of us were starving with the goal of becoming writers and spent our days in a single-room apartment until we had no choice but to go find work.”

Maru nodded before replying,

“It’s vague, but we did that about a dozen times, huh? In a few of them, I died by slipping to my death because of malnutrition.”

He fell to death from a pedestrian bridge because of dizziness, fell sideways on the road because of dizziness and then got caught in a traffic accident, going to the mountains to clear his head then slipped to his death — many different deaths flashed through his mind.

“It’s somewhat funny to talk about death with a laugh,” his wife said as she lifted her mug.

“Whether it’s you or me, neither of us is normal.”

“If you experience something like that, you should be abnormal. There’s no way a sane mind would be able to endure all that.”

His wife pushed the mug to the side and spoke,

“We’ve lived for such a long time, but there’s one thing that each of us doesn’t know about.”

“What is it?”

“I haven’t experienced death, and you haven’t seen me die.”

“They’re both things I want to delay as much as possible in this life.”

“Since we’re on the topic, promise me one thing,” his wife said with force.

She looked completely serious. He looked at his wife’s lips.

“You have to live longer than me. That’s the one thing I want from you, sweetie. I don’t want to be the watching side anymore.”

“That doesn’t go the way I want.”

“So watch out for anything. Watch out for cars, watch out for people, watch out for airplanes. I half-wish I could just make you stay still at home. Locking you up doesn’t sound half-bad either.”

She relaxed her expression and spoke in a joking tone. However, he could feel the worry in her voice. Just as she said, he had experienced countless deaths but had never seen the last moments of his wife, while on the contrary, his wife had seen his death just as many times.

Dying and watching your beloved die. They were both terrible things.

“It’s really over now, huh.”

“Good work spending all these years in marriages with me. In the next life, you should meet a better man and live a comfortable life.”

“Next life? Even if I’m given something like that, I’m going to refuse. I’ve lived as much as I want. I lived too much, even. You know how hopeless it feels to watch a drama that doesn’t end.”

He took a sip of the buckwheat tea before asking,

“What do you think will be waiting for us this time if our hearts stop beating?”

“I’m not sure. Maybe there’s unexpectedly nothing. Our souls will escape our bodies and have a talk with god before going poof. We won’t be born as livestock or people. There’s just nothing.”

“That doesn’t sound so bad either.”

His wife put down her pen. Her gaze was looking outside the veranda. Maru also turned around to look outside the veranda.

“Do you think god is still watching us?”

“Maybe he found a new set of toys and doesn’t have interest in us anymore.”

His wife nodded before turning off the desk lamp.

“Are you going to sleep?” he asked.

“I feel sleepy after drinking that tea.”

“I am awake now after all that talking.”

“Then you should design some cuts in my stead. I’ll sleep your worth as well.”

Haneul went into the bedroom. He turned on the desk lamp, brought the storyboard in front of him, and laid them out. Just as he was flipping through the pages while drinking the rest of the buckwheat tea, he heard the door to the bedroom opening.

“Aren’t you coming in?” his wife said while frowning. “The bed is too wide. It’s lonely by myself.”

“I said that before.”

“So come quickly.”

“You know you’re very selfish at times, right?”

“You should be understanding as the selfless one.”

He turned off the desk lamp and went into the bedroom. Lying on the bed, his wife put her arms out, saying – come quickly and hug me.

He approached slowly into her embrace.

After hugging him for a while, his wife loosened her arm and lay on her side. He brushed up her draping hair and covered her shoulder with his hand.

Their eyes met at eye level. She looked at him for a while with her mouth closed before speaking,

“Sweetie.”

“Yes?”

“You need to trim your eyebrows.”

“That’s not the right thing to say in this mood.”

“You’re not supposed to do that between family. Rather than that, your eyebrows grow really quickly. Should we shave half of it off and microblade it?”

His wife mischievously stroked his eyebrows. He let her have his face for a while before grabbing the back of her neck with the hand that covered her shoulder. Their lips made contact before falling apart.

“Am I still charming?” his wife asked.

He did not reply. That was a question he didn’t need to answer.

* * *

“Unni, did you not sleep well last night?”

Haneul, who was yawning, smiled and shook her head.

“I did have a good sleep. But I was doing something else.”

“Something else?”

She winked towards her manager who was tilting her head. The manager, who looked at her in puzzlement, picked up her phone.

“Yes, okay. We’ll head to the parking lot right now.”

The manager hung up and spoke,

“You just need to go up and go straight to the event venue. The start is in 20 minutes.”

“Do I look really tired?” Haneul asked as she touched her earrings.

“No. I asked because you were yawning.”

The manager started the car. When they went to the underground parking lot, people from the event host team were waiting.

“The crowd is huge. Everyone is eager to see you.”

“Sounds like many people came.”

“You’ll be surprised once you get up there. We did expect it to be crowded, but I didn’t think it would be this bad. Thanks to that, we had to mobilize all the safety guards from the company.”

“Please watch out not to inconvenience or endanger the visitors.”

“Of course.”

She was guided to the 3rd floor of the event venue. When they left the staircase made for staff only, she could see the people filling up the event venue.

Cameras that she had modeled for were lined up and next to them was a desk for her fan signing event.

The emcee was interacting with the audience while giving them a few quizzes.

“How many people are there in the hall?”

“Around two hundred. If we let any more people in, there will be problems with safety, so we’re controlling them for now.”

“An hour won’t be enough then. Do we have to finish the event in an hour?”

“For that, we’ll have to talk with the management of the facility here.”

“Then please inquire if we can have more time.”

Haneul checked her attire before walking into the venue. The people waiting there cheered and reached their hands out towards her.

She grabbed the hands of the people who were near her before walking over to the desk. She greeted the emcee before getting the mic.

“Hello.”

The fans who had gathered responded to her – hello you’re pretty, I love you, etc.

She smiled and spoke.

“Today’s pretty hot, isn’t it?”

“Yes, it’s really hot!” someone replied in a loud voice.

“Thank you for coming even in weather like this. But I didn’t know so many people would be here. I thought this would be a really small fan signing event, but looking at things now, I think I’ll be spending the whole time giving autographs.”

She chatted for a bit with the fans before sitting down.

The procession was similar to most fan-signing events. She answered questions that she had received from the fans beforehand, talked about what was going on recently, and then talked about the camera she modeled for from time to time.

If it was a stuck-up company, they would’ve asked her to say prepared advertising lines, but this company didn’t have any of that.

“Then let us begin the fan signing event. Please come up starting from the front. We don’t want you to get hurt, so come slowly. Also, since we have limited time, be considerate of others and have a short and fulfilling chat with Miss Haneul.”

After the emcee’s commentary, the people approached the desk. The person who was receiving the first autograph was a girl who looked to be in high school.

“Unni, can’t you lock hands once?”

“Why not?”

She locked her hands and looked at the fan in front of her. The fan made a teary face and stomped her feet.

“Not like that, with me.”

“Alright, here, your hand.”

She grabbed her fan’s hand.

“I’m a huge fan of yours.”

“Thanks. What’s your name?”

“Kang Eunha.”

“Eunha. Your name is really pretty.”

“You too.”

With love – she wrote on the paper before writing the name of the fan below it as well. She returned the autograph paper and was about to say goodbye, but the fan spoke first,

“Unni, if you break up with Maru-oppa, you should come to me.”

She responded with a smile.

“No, I’m not going to break up.”

The first fan waved her hand and went down the platform.

After Story 268

“Did you get the burner?”

“I got that first. It’s underneath the canteen,” Daemyung said as he closed the trunk.

Maru nodded and got in the car.

“What’s my boss doing?” Daemyung asked as he sat in the passenger seat.

“Preparing for her fan signing.”

“Didn’t you say she held one last time?”

“That was for a different company.”

“A famous person sure is different alright. Don’t you have any of that?”

“I don’t. That’s why I can go camping with you like this.”

Maru started the car and drove off. He put on some familiar pop music and drove onto the highway.

“How long does it take to get to Yeosu?”

“I think we should be there before lunch.”

“I guess we should be able to have food with the sea breeze, huh?”

Daemyung reached his hand toward the back seat. He rummaged through the bags before taking out some dried squid.

“When did you get that?” Maru asked.

“Squid, popped rice, and boiled eggs. I have every snack for the highway, so just tell me what you need.”

Daemyung pulled out a squid leg and stuffed it in Maru’s mouth.

“What have you been doing these days? You should have some time left over since you’re done with the script, right?” Maru asked as he chewed on the squid.

“Have you heard about burnout syndrome? I’m suffering from that right now. When I was working on the script, I thought I would go back to polishing my own work once I was done with it, but now that I’m actually done, I lost all motivation. I feel like I’m mentally exhausted.”

“It’s not surprising. You were focusing on that script for months.”

Daemyung leaned his chair backward and spoke,

“That’s why I was really glad when you invited me camping. What I need right now is some time to eat, drink, and poop without thinking about anything like a total idiot.”

“That’s why you’re planning to sleep?”

“Wake me up in 2 hours, I’ll change with you. I didn’t have a good sleep last night, so I’m dizzy right now.”

“Why? Were you working on something?”

“No, I just couldn’t sleep like a kid on the night before a picnic. This is the first time I’m going somewhere since I was in high school.”

“The one-day trip to Busan with the others was the last one?”

Daemyung closed his eyes and nodded.

“Yeah, that was the last one. I started working right after I graduated and then went to the military, and ever since I got discharged, I was in the shipyard. I was under the mindset that resting was not good and that I should earn a lot while I was still young. Then I had a breather thanks to Haneul. But now that I had some rest, it feels like all the accumulated fatigue is assaulting me at once.”

“You worked hard, working and acting like a good son.”

“Like hell I’m a good son. I only gave her money and never even got to act like a good son.”

I’m gonna sleep – Daemyung said as he put his eye shades on.

“That’s some good preparation.”

“It’s one of the necessities when you live with others.”

“Alright. Get some sleep. I’ll wake you up later.”

“Wake me up in two hours. I’d love to talk to you, but I’m too sleepy right now. Sorry.”

“Don’t be sorry about that. Get some sleep.”

Daemyung dozed off and soon he started snoring. Maru lowered the volume of the music and focused on driving.

After a few hours of humming along to some songs, he arrived at the camping site near Cheongang Mountain in Yeosu.

“Mr. Park Daemyung. Wakey-wakey,” he said as he tapped on Daemyung.

Daemyung groaned and flipped around a few times before taking his eyeshades off.

“What, where are we? A highway fuel stop?”

“We’re way past the highway. We’re in Yeosu now.”

“We’re in Yeosu?”

“You didn’t even wake up once, huh? It looks like you were really tired.”

Daemyung yawned and undid his seatbelt.

“You should’ve woken me up. I told you I’d drive.”

“I’d rather drive myself than have someone half-asleep take the wheel.”

He got out of the car and stepped foot onto the gravel. As this was a camping site that wasn’t well-known, there weren’t that many cars. They picked up their luggage and went to the camping site management office next to the parking lot. There, they bought some firewood and then started roaming around for a suitable place to camp.

“I think it smells a little like the sea.”

“The sea’s right nearby, so.”

“But hey, we got a burner, so why do we need firewood?”

“Cooking meat on a pan will take ages. Also, we’re outside. We should grill the meat directly on the fire. Daemyung. This place looks good.”

Maru cleared out some rocks with his feet and put up a tent.

“This is the first time I’m putting up a tent since I was in the military,” Daemyung said as he connected some poles.

“But hey, grilling meat in this weather is going to be hard.”

“That’s what’s fun about camping. It’s inconvenient and uncomfortable.”

“If I knew that things were going to be like this, I should’ve said that we should just go to a hotel when you asked me out to go camping.”

“A ho-cation[1] is different from camping.”

“Hocation? What’s that?”

Maru just glossed it over by saying that it was a term that was going to be used in the future before putting some dirt in a plastic container. He poured the dirt on top of the tent peg and flattened it before piling up some flat rocks.

“If we light up the firewood and place a grill on it, we’ll have a barbecue spot to spend the next two days at.”

“That’s crude. Are you sure it’s not going to get flipped over while cooking?”

“That’s why we have to be careful if we don’t want to eat meat covered in dirt.”

After fiddling around, it was already almost five in the evening. The sun was still above them. As they had only eaten instant noodles for lunch, they started getting hungry.

“The summer sun sure is freakishly long,” Daemyung said as he looked at the sky, “Lighting a fire will make it even worse.”

“You have to fight heat with heat. Daemyung, bring me the firestarter.”

Maru piled up the firewood like he was stacking up matches before putting the firestarter in the middle. It seemed to be a good one as it didn’t take long until the fire started. Smoke rose from the dried firewood for a long while before it turned into a fire.

“You gotta eat well even if you die. That way your body will look better than ones that starved.”

Daemyung put the meat they brought on top of the grill. The meat started sizzling with an appetizing sound.

Maru took out some beer and soju from the chiller box.

“It’s warm for some reason.”

Even the chiller box couldn’t win against the summer heat. He tossed a lukewarm can of beer over to Daemyung. Daemyung chuckled powerlessly as soon as he received the can before drinking the beer.

“Was beer always like this?”

“How is it?”

“I don’t know how I should describe it. It turns out I’ve been drinking beer for the chill, not the barley in it.”

Daemyung giggled and finished the rest of the beer.

“But it’s not half-bad.”

“That’s the fun of lukewarm beer. It’s a little better if you mix some soju in it.”

“Let’s drink later. I need to eat something. If I drink in this heat with an empty stomach, I’ll probably collapse.”

Maru put some vegetables, ssam-jang, and the rice he cooked on a canteen on top of the foldable table.

“The rice turned out really good.”

“How many years of experience do you think I have with cooking rice in a pot?”

While he scooped out the rice and plated the meat he sliced up, the sun started setting. He could see other people gathered around their own fires in front of tents installed throughout the site intermittently, seemingly preparing their own dinner.

“It’s hot even with the sun gone.”

“It’s the time when the heat from the ground comes up. If you lie down inside the tent right now, it’ll feel really warm.”

“That sounds terrible.”

They had a dinner table with some lukewarm beer. Daemyung wolfed away the meat at a frightening speed. Maru also busily moved his chopsticks.

“I thought I wouldn’t have any appetite in this weather, but I can’t stop once I started.”

“There’s a lot of meat, so eat to your heart’s content.”

He handed over some packs of meat. They had pork now, so it was time for beef.

“Look at the price tag on this thing. I got to eat such good meat like this thanks to having a good friend, huh? But hey, isn’t this expensive? I think it’s ten times as expensive as the pork we just ate.”

“I want to feed you something more expensive, but there wasn’t anything else.”

“That was the most touching line I’ve heard all this year. I should use it as a line somewhere. What’s unfortunate is that it’s a man who said that to me. If a girl my type said that to me, I would’ve proposed on the spot.”

“Use that line when you date someone. Tell her you prepared it for her.”

Daemyung spoke as he made some ssam.

“That is if I date someone.”

“Do you feel like dating now that you have some leeway?”

“I’ve always wanted to date someone. But I’m not in the right environment, so I have no choice but to delay it.”

He poured some soju for Daemyung who smiled awkwardly.

“Did you tell your mother that you’re writing?”

“I told her ever since I started commuting to the office that Haneul prepared for me.”

“What did she say?”

“My mom always encourages me in whatever I do, and she always says sorry. My mom is sorry about everything in this world for me.”

“How’s her health?”

“When I ask, she always says she’s okay. When the shipyard team disbanded and I came back to the house, I told her that we should get her checked up. When I did, she caused a fuss saying that medical expenses are expensive. The hardest thing in this world is to use money on mom.”

“How are her knees?”

“She became a lot better ever since she stopped working. But who knows? Maybe she’s acting like she’s okay in front of me.”

Daemyung held out his paper cup. The soju Maru just poured for him couldn’t be seen.

“Don’t drink too fast. If you get drunk and pass out, I won’t be able to handle it.”

“I guess I’m pretty heavy.”

Daemyung drank some water before continuing,

“When I worked on the script for the film this time, I had a lot of fun. Maybe that’s what it means to have fun even if it’s hard. Of course, towards the end, I was gnashing my teeth. But ever since I got acknowledged by you and Haneul after I finished it, and got praised by director Na, I couldn’t feel happier.”

“The script is just that well-written. The emotions that Haneul wants are in there. I was impressed when I read it as well.”

“But you know, after I finished the script, I felt dejected again. Haneul told me I could keep using the office, but even if I write something there, it doesn’t mean I’ll earn money immediately. I can’t ask Haneul for more money so shamelessly when I’m done writing the script.”

The smiling Daemyung started sighing. He seemed to be drunk because of the heat and the alcohol.

“I got a call a few days ago. It was the team leader from the shipyard, and he told me he opened up an office in Seoul and wanted me to come. He said I should work for a while and that he’ll put me in a managerial position once I’m old enough.”

“So you’re going there?”

“I haven’t replied to him yet. But I was tempted the moment I heard that. Writing is an insecure future, but that line of work will earn me money immediately.”

Maru drank some as he listened to Daemyung’s words. Then he spoke,

“You should write. I’ll help you out with it.”

“I don’t have the face to keep receiving help from you.”

“I wouldn’t say this to just anyone. I would’ve told them to think about the reality and then make their judgment. But for you, I want to look out for you. So don’t give up on writing.”

“If I end up becoming a NEET that can’t do anything, I might end up continually leeching off you.”

“You can do that. I am capable enough to feed one friend. Or, I’ll just set you up with a shop later.”

“I’ll get confused if you joke with a serious expression like that.”

“You’ll see if I’m joking or not. But you probably won’t need my help. You are someone who’ll do well.”

“I am?”

“Yes.”

“I’m not so sure though.”

“If you aren’t, then try believing in this friend of yours for once. I’ll make sure that you won’t lose anything from it.”

Daemyung grinned and spoke,

“Don’t you regret this later. You’re gonna have a hard time if you want to feed a NEET friend who can’t do anything in his forties.”

“I don’t think society will let you be a NEET until you’re forty, you know? So don’t worry and keep writing.”

“Hey, Han Maru. How are you going to survive in this society when you’re too kind for your own good? You should be a little more cold-hearted. I think scammers will drool over you.”

“I’m not that kind-hearted though.”

“Like hell you aren’t.”

Daemyung smiled before leaning back and lying down.

“Thanks. I didn’t know that having someone trust me would give me so much strength. Words are a curious thing.”

“If you wanna lie down, then go inside the tent. Don’t lay down on top of the dirt.”

“Hey, isn’t this what camping is about? You lie down and look at the stars. Look at that. There’s a bright star over there.”

“That’s a satellite.”

“You’re so unromantic.”

Maru smiled and took his phone out. He took a selfie with Daemyung in the background.

Two men, tanned by the fire from the bonfire, were on the screen.

“Looking good.”

“Two total beggars, alright.”

Daemyung laughed out loud.

[1] Hotel+vacation

After Story 269

The float, which was moving along with the waves, suddenly jerked up and down. Daemyung started reeling when he felt resistance from the end of the fishing rod.

He finally thought that he was going to put a fish into the empty water bucket, however, the elastic resistance from the fishing rod soon disappeared, and there was nothing on the end of the fishing line.

He looked at Maru, who looked like a dot in the distance, and made a call.

“I got nothing here. How is it on your side?”

-How is it here, you ask?

Maru hung up and came over with his equipment. Daemyung had a look at the bucket in Maru’s hand. It was a clean bucket without a single strand of seaweed.

“It’s empty?”

“It’s empty.”

“Where’s Mr. God-at-fishing-Maru, and why is there only an empty bucket?”

“It looks like the fish have gotten smarter these days. It’s not like before. They won’t give me any opportunity to reel and just flee, and I can’t do anything about it.”

Maru smiled awkwardly. The confident look on his face from three hours ago couldn’t be seen anywhere. It seemed that Mr. Good-at-anything was helpless in front of whimsical fish.

“I looked it up and saw that there’s a really good spicy fish stew restaurant nearby. Let’s go and eat there.”

“I thought it would come to this.”

Daemyung smiled and packed up his equipment. They went back to the tent and cleaned up before loading everything into the car.

“Hey, my clothes stink.”

His whole body smelled terrible because he slept outside while sweating like mad. Maru also smelled his own sleeves before chuckling.

“Let’s eat and get washed.”

“Go camping twice and I might have fungi growing on my body.”

“But wasn’t it fun?”

Daemyung nodded at Maru’s question.

“Sure, it was fun. If camping with a friend you get along with isn’t fun, that would be strange instead. But let’s go somewhere nicer next time. Or let’s come back in autumn.”

“How about a day trip in winter?”

“Don’t you think we’re too young to freeze to death?”

Maru started the car. The restaurant that was known to be good wasn’t that far away from the camping site.

When they went inside, they saw a few of the faces they came across during camping. It seemed that it was a tradition of sorts to eat spicy fish stew after camping.

“People don’t recognize you, huh?”

“I look like this, so I would find it strange if people do recognize me.”

“Well, I guess we don’t exactly look like humans right now.”

They grilled meat on a bonfire in the middle of summer and went fishing at the sea early in the morning. Their hair was pushed down because they were wearing hats, their faces were haggard, and they both stank like crazy.

“It’s hot, so be careful. If you need any more side dishes, then tell me.”

The lady at the restaurant brought over some boiling hot spicy fish stew. Maru thanked the lady while receiving a bowl of rice.

“Coming from camping?” asked the lady as she took away the food tray.

Daemyung picked up his chopsticks and replied,

“Yes. We look terrible, don’t we?”

“It’s normal around here. Half of the customers I get are coming from the campground.”

“We saw on the internet that this place has really good spicy fish stew, so we came over on the way home.”

“That’s correct. The fish in the stew at our restaurant is really thick and flavorful because we catch them right off the shore. Come over again next time when you come camping here. I’ll give you lots of service.”

He predicted that she was the owner of this restaurant because of how she was so nice. Daemyung talked with the owner lady for a while before looking at Maru.

“Uhm, auntie. Don’t you think you’ve seen this fellow somewhere before?”

The owner lady’s gaze was directed at Maru. Maru smiled as he ate.

“Well, I feel like I saw him somewhere before.”

“He’s good-looking, isn’t he?”

“Both of you look very nice. This one’s tall, and you look buff.”

The owner lady left, saying that they should ask for more if they needed any. Daemyung spoke as he scooped up some stew,

“She didn’t recognize you even from up close.”

“That’s how it is.”

They stood up after finishing their meal. Daemyung bought some vending machine coffee and handed one over to Maru.

“I’ll buy lunch.”

“Whoa, Daemyung. You’re a big spender. Thanks for the food.”

“Like hell it’s a lot of money.”

Daemyung took out his credit card from his wallet and handed it over to a girl who was overseeing the counter. The girl who received the counter tried to proceed with the transaction a few times, but she eventually tilted her head in confusion.

“Please wait a moment. Mom! This doesn’t work!”

The owner lady came out of the kitchen. She opened the terminal and swapped out the roll of receipt paper.

“I told you this before, and you forgot already?”

“You didn’t tell me this.”

The girl grumbled and swiped the credit card again. There was a sound of the receipt being printed.

“That’s done. Please come again next time.”

Just as Daemyung received the credit card and the receipt and was about to put them in his wallet, the girl at the counter tilted her head and looked past his shoulder. Daemyung turned around. He saw Maru sipping on some coffee.

“Uhm, is that…”

“Do you recognize him?" Daemyung asked back, getting all excited.

Maru was someone who everyone would recognize if he looked clean, but ever since they started camping, not a single person recognized him. He was rather disappointed that this was the case when that girl suddenly gave Maru a gaze of suspicion.

“I think it’s him, but then, not…”

“Look at him closely. Don’t you think you’ve seen him somewhere?”

Seemingly having heard his voice, Maru made an awkward smile and waved his hand in denial. He seemed to be asking him to stop. Daemyung wanted to take the joke a little further because he liked seeing his friend in a predicament, but he decided to stop since Maru might find it unpleasant. His ideology was that the more comfortable he was with a friend, the more he should watch out for them.

“Han Maru, right?”

Maru’s name popped out from the girl’s mouth first.

Daemyung made a satisfactory smile and stepped back. The girl stepped out from behind the counter and stood in front of Maru, jumping around. Seeing that made him feel proud for some reason. It wasn’t even about him, but he felt pleased. He said to the girl who took out her phone,

“I’ll take a photo for you.”

“Could you? Thank you so much.”

He captured the girl and Maru standing side by side and pressed the shutter button.

“I didn’t recognize you at first. You look different from when you’re on screen.”

“I look terrible, don’t I?”

“A little?” the girl said with a pinching gesture. “I was just joking with you. It’s good to see you being so liberal and different from how you’re on TV. Are you here camping?”

“Yes. I heard that there aren’t many people here and that it was pretty good, so I tried visiting.”

“This place is perfect for camping. I hang out a lot with my friends, setting tents and all.”

“Really?”

The two of them conversed naturally. A celebrity is a celebrity alright – Daemyung thought as he looked at Maru handling a fan. The fellow who was talking about nonsensical things while eating fish stew just ten minutes ago had changed completely in front of a fan, whether it was the words he used or the way he treated her with respect so that she didn’t feel emotionally hurt.

There should be many things he should watch out for since he had an occupation that was loved by many, but Maru seemed to know where the suitable line was incredibly well.

Despite having become a young actor who could be considered to be at the top of the actors in their 20s due to a series of successes in various dramas and movies, he didn’t have a single scandal related to him.

In fact, there were only good stories about him, saying that he looked out for members of the production crew and background actors. He was someone who could be endlessly mischievous on private occasions, but he was a professional with meticulous self-management at work.

“Hey, it’s Han Maru.”

“What? Really?”

With them taking a photo right at the entrance, the people at the store soon recognized Maru as well. Everyone took out their phones and came over.

Those who were middle-aged and above were putting their distance, wondering who he was, but the younger generation all recognized Maru.

“Please stand in line. I’ll take photos for all of you.”

Just why was it so fun taking photos for his friend… he used dozens of phone cameras and took photos earnestly.

“Dad, he’s the main character of the drama you keenly watched.”

“You’re right, he is. I don’t know your name, but I really enjoyed your drama.”

The last ones to take a photo seemed to be a dad and his daughter.

“Okay then, here it goes.”

Daemyung checked the photo he had just taken and handed the phone back to the woman.

“Mr. Han Maru, was it? It must be fate that brought us here, so why don’t you receive a glass from me? This is some fruit wine my daughter made, and it has a really good scent.”

“I don’t think I can drink alcohol. I came here in a car.”

“A car? Isn’t that manager fellow over there going to drive? I’m not asking you to drink a lot. It’s just one glass. When else would I get to offer a celebrity a glass of wine?”

“Right. Oppa, it’s just one glass. I sell this wine online, and the reviews are really good.”

Daemyung turned into a manager all of a sudden, but he didn’t care. He was planning to tell Maru to accept it. After all, public opinion of him would go up even more if he accepted the goodwill of a fan. When Maru refused once more, the man frowned. Looking at him again, he seemed to be pretty drunk.

“Geez, you’re such a tightass when it’s just a glass of wine. Hey, is it so hard to receive a glass of wine from an elder? That manager over there can drive, can’t he?”

His tone suddenly became rude. The daughter, who was talking with excitement, started pulling on her father’s arm looking apologetic. It looked like things would become chillier.

It was just as Daemyung was about to step in,

“You seem to be very drunk.”

“What, I can’t be drunk?”

“Getting drunk is up to you, sir, so I don’t see why not. But you can’t just treat other people like they’re below you just because you’re drunk.”

Maru spoke politely. He did not use a single offensive word and his tone was very soft, but for some strange reason, there was a sense of tension. Daemyung could feel this when he was watching from the side, so what would it be like for the man talking to him?

Whether he sobered up in that brief moment or was dispirited by the fierce gazes of those around him, the man turned around.

“Also, he’s not my manager, but a friend. He’s definitely not someone you can point fingers at and be rude to.”

The fans around also glared at the drunk man and whispered. Some even spoke out loud. The daughter kept apologizing and took her father back to their seats.

“He really doesn’t have manners. Mr. Maru, don’t worry about him.”

“Celebrities aren’t pets.”

“It’s people like him who always leave bad reviews on the internet. He doesn’t even remember what he did wrong.”

The fans all sided with Maru.

“He did it because he was drunk, so that couldn’t be helped. It looks like I made the atmosphere bad here. Please enjoy your meals and have a nice day.”

After saying goodbye, Maru and Daemyung left the store together.

Daemyung got in the car and spoke,

“Why didn’t you just accept it? The atmosphere was good and rowdy.”

“Accepting people’s good will is good and all, but I don’t want to deal with people who don’t know respect.”

“Actors don’t have it easy huh? There should be a lot of people like that, right?”

“The bodyguards during events aren’t there for nothing. In fact, that much is nothing.”

“If it was nothing, then you should’ve accepted it. Someone said that it’s people like him who leave bad reviews online.”

“If I was going to fall because of some bad online comments, I would’ve quit a long time ago.”

Daemyung nodded.

“But a manager, huh? Do I look like a manager?”

“Did that make you feel bad?”

“No. It’s not really an insult. I was just thinking that maybe I should become your manager if I fail all the writing I’m preparing.”

“If you fail everything, I’ll have the manager spot open for you, so you can come.”

“I can’t talk because you’re so serious about it.”

He looked outside the window before speaking.

“But having you say that I’m a friend and not a manager made me feel good.”

Maru smiled and spoke.

“Once we get back to Seoul, we should get washed and go see your mother.”

“You’re coming over?”

“It’s been a long time, so let me go over. We can talk about the medical checkup as well.”

“Mom is stubborn and will never do it.”

“Just lie to her by saying that it’s free. I’ll pay for all the expenses.”

“Why are you treating me so well? Are you going to extort me later?”

“I’ll extort you to death. Why?”

Daemyung smiled and looked forward, thinking that putting everything aside, he had made a really good friend.

After Story 270

“This place looks good.”

Haneul stopped halfway up the stairs. It was a narrow and steep staircase that led up to the old town. Maru took photos of the scenery around him with the camera he had around his neck.

The broken walls, the old shack roofs, flyers that had turned yellow from time, as well as the fat cat that seemed to be the boss around her…

His wife sat down on the stairs and took out the storyboard. She also took out her pen and started writing something.

“It’ll be hard to bring proper equipment here, so let’s make the cuts short… or maybe we should just use it as a background shot without any actors. Sweetie, let’s come here again at night. I want to see the night scenery too.”

“The number of places we have to go to keep increasing.”

“I decided not to use a team of people for this, so I should be prepared for that much.”

His wife had refused all the works that were offered to her through the company and prepared for her own. This was only possible thanks to president Lee Junmin’s full support.

“Director Choi sent me some concept art as well as the modeling.”

Haneul tossed her phone over. Maru caught the phone and had a look at the screen. ‘Han Haneul’s room’ in the film was made into a picture.

He scrolled down and had a look at the structure of the room as well as the feel he got from it.

“It feels okay.”

“I should find props that are close to the things in there or have them custom-made.”

His wife opened a diary on top of the storyboard and started writing. Her method of writing was to write everything that came to her mind in the diary and then organize them later and put them into her phone.

“Have some water.”

Maru opened the water bottle and gave it to her. Although the heat had subsided a lot in the wake of September, it was still rather hot in the middle of the day.

Haneul tilted the water bottle and drank it. The water that was full was soon emptied out.

“That’s better. I was feeling a little stifled, but it turns out it was thirst.”

“You tend to forget about what your body wants when you’re focused.”

Maru crumpled the empty plastic bottle and put it in his bag.

“Let’s go to the backside as well. We should be able to see a site that’s just started redevelopment. I should see if I can use it as ‘Han Haneul’s commute.’

His wife’s face seemed to be filled with vitality after drinking that water. She took large strides as she walked across the old town.

“Here. How is it looking up from this angle?”

“Try standing.”

His wife stood in the middle of the steep road. He put his back against the wall and picked up the camera. Standing on the slanted road, his wife looked precarious, but also like she might run off somewhere at any moment.

“Try walking up.”

Maru captured his wife’s movements on camera and showed it to her when she came over.

“I think the mood will be good if we use the lights well. It shouldn't be a bad idea to use blue as a key light.”

His wife started muttering and taking memos. Maru captured that on the camera as well.

Having realized what he was doing, his wife raised her head and blinked.

“What are you doing?”

“I was just thinking that we should make a making film.”

“But we aren’t in the making stage.”

“Let’s just call it a making for the making.”

His wife shrugged and smiled.

They went to a convenience store after they finished exploring the old town. They went back to the car after buying some snacks and lunch boxes.

“Why are we getting lunch boxes all of a sudden? There are good restaurants around,” Maru asked as he snapped the wooden chopsticks apart.

“I wanted to feel like a student again. I also wanted to eat it too. It’s been a long time since we have eaten any convenience store lunch boxes.”

She opened the lid to the lunch box with a delightful expression. It was one that had pink sausages in it.

Maru offered her a quail egg that was braised in soy sauce.

“How about we trade with your sausage?”

“That’s the highlight though.”

“That’s why I’m giving you the only quail egg in here. It’s a much higher class ingredient than ham, which is a processed food that contains flour.”

“But the taste is probably better, you know?”

“Don’t say that and give me one.”

He put the quail egg on top of his wife’s rice and grabbed a sausage. The taste he was familiar with spread around in his mouth.

“Do you want one more?” Haneul asked.

He nodded. As his wife had said, a convenience store lunch box was a rather decent meal after not having one in a long time.

After eating lunch in the car, Maru drove to Seojin University. It was the college that his wife had dropped out of.

“Many things have changed already,” she said as they went past the front gates.

“What has changed?”

“There used to be a resting spot here. It was the norm to get really drunk and sit down on the grassy resting area and daze out, but it’s been covered with concrete now.”

“Do you find it a pity?”

“A little, I guess? The memories of this life are the most intense after all.”

“Looks like you used to drink a lot.”

“Not really. I was too wary of others.”

He parked the car in the parking lot and they went to the building that had the campus managerial office. His wife opened the door and went inside. The woman right at the front flinched and looked at her.

“Hello.”

“Ah, yes. Hello,” the woman replied hesitantly.

“We came here to ask since we wanted to have a shoot within campus grounds. I was wondering if it was possible to shoot a film and whether there is another event in that time period.”

“If you’re a student, you don’t have to submit any applications for things like shooting within campus. You can do so freely and…”

The woman tilted her head as she said so. This time, her gaze was directed at Maru. She slowly looked left and right between the two.

“Uhm, are you two who I think you are?”

“Who are we?” his wife asked back mischievously.

I must be right, I must be right – the muttered to herself as she slowly stood up from the spot.

The way she expressed herself was rather unique. His wife also seemed to have found the woman’s response interesting as she kept watching.

“Right, am I right?”

“I’m not sure what you’re right about.”

“Aren’t you Miss Han Haneul? And the one behind you is Mr. Han Maru. I saw on the internet that the two of you are dating.”

“Yes, we are. But you’re really calm. There used to be a professor who spoke really softly when I was still here, and you remind me of him. I think his name was professor Jung Daeho?”

“I work under him as an assistant.”

“Really?”

They exchanged a short conversation before coming back to talking about work.

“Usually, people do this through email, but you came here yourself.”

“It’s to have a look around the campus. Also, there is the shallow thought that perhaps you might look at us in a better light if we came here directly,” said Haneul.

The woman told them to wait a moment before calling somewhere.

“The people in the office are out for lunch. They’re coming over right now, so please wait a little longer. If you aren’t students but outsiders, I don’t have the authority to give you permission to shoot.”

“Then we’ll wait. The air conditioner is good here, so I see no reason why not.”

His wife sat down on a chair against the wall. Maru also sat down next to her.

“Would you like anything to drink?”

“We’d love something.”

The woman took out some drinks from the refrigerator. Having handed over some drinks, the woman went to her desk and brought back pen and paper.”

“Uhm, can I ask you for an autograph?”

“You know how to strike a deal. You gave us drinks, so I can’t say no,” Haneul said with a smile.

After giving her autographs, people flooded into the office. There were over twenty people at a glance.

“We came over quickly after hearing the news that we have actors in the office.”

“Miss Haneul, your face is really small.”

“Mr. Maru, you are actually more burly than I thought.”

The people flocked over and took photos of them.

“Stop bothering busy people and go do your work,” said a man who had some flocks of white hair.

The man, who revealed himself to be the head of the office, said that it was okay the moment he heard Haneul’s request.

“As long as it doesn’t hinder people’s passage a lot, you’re allowed to shoot here. If it’s being used for commercial purposes, you have to put the name of our university in the credits.”

“I was worried that it wasn’t allowed, but that’s fortunate.”

“Miss Haneul, a former student, wants to do it, so we would change the rules if we have to. Also, Mr. Maru. I really don’t like movies that much, but I watched the historical movie that you were in twice. It was really good.”

The head of the office put out his hand. Maru shook hands with him lightly.

“I’m grateful that you watched it twice.”

They took one last photo with the people in the office and left. They didn’t know when they were walking in the corridor, but when they left the building, they saw quite a lot of people gathered around. It seemed that rumors had spread already.

The students all exclaimed and started closing their distance. Fortunately, no one acted out of line.

“Hello. Do you know who I am?”

Hearing Haneul’s question, the students answered like little chicks answering the mother hen: I know, I saw the movie, you’re pretty, etc.

Two weeks ago, the movie featuring his wife as the lead character was released. Unlike the first film, the responses were so good that there were many people who recognized Han Haneul as a film actor instead of just a musical actor.

People who had a keen interest in cosmetics would also think of her as a model too.

One of the girls raised her lipstick up high.

“Unni! This one has really good color! I’m telling all my friends about it!”

“Thank you. I really tried hard to come up with that formula in the lab.”

“You made it?”

“Yes. So please use it well in the future.”

She made a heart with her hand as she said so, and the girl, as well as the girls around her, all started screeching. The way she played around with the hearts of fans was nigh artistic.

“Who here knows that I used to be a student here?”

“Me!”

One of the students shouted loudly and raised their hand. When his wife told her to come forward, she hesitantly came out unlike her bold shout.

“Are you in your freshman year?”

“No, I’m a sophomore.”

“Then can I ask you a favor? You see I’m going to do a shoot inside the college. That’s why I hope you can guide me around some of the unique places or a special place that only you know. The campus is pretty big, isn’t it? The only places I’ve been to is the central building and the East-2 building, so I’m clueless about the other places.

“I know places like that.”

The other students also raised their hands, saying that they knew some popular spots.

“Are you okay on time?”

“I have plenty of time.”

Haneul walked over and grabbed the girl by the wrist. The girl screeched in joy before walking forward, saying that she’d guide them.

“Oppa, can I take a photo of you?”

Students flocked over to Maru as well. The students who only recognized Haneul also recognized him who had a hat on and screeched again.

“Shall we get moving for now?”

His wife walked off. Students followed in their trail like it was a street interview. Even the people who were watching from afar joined them wondering what it was, and the number of students increased dramatically.

“Watch out not to cause an accident. Also, we’re here to work today, so it won’t be that fun.”

Even the students that showed interest at first mostly scattered after 30 minutes. Despite that, there were still around 30 people.

“Thanks for the food.”

During break time, they bought something to eat for the students and handed them out.

“Hey, I thought you were a fan of mine.”

“Hyung. I’m a fan of yours, but also of hers.”

They had a makeshift fan meetup while eating as well. Maru took photos of them with the camera. The students smiled and asked him to protect their portrait rights.

“So when did you two have your first kiss?”

“Isn’t that too cliché to ask?”

“Cliché is good though.”

He gave a short smooch on his wife’s cheek in front of the students watching. His wife rubbed her cheek and glared at him. The students watching all screeched.

“Okay, we had enough rest so let’s get moving again. We don’t have any time to play around.”

Maru urged the students and they went to the next location.

After Story 271

“Have you seen this?”

Head manager Choi turned his laptop around and showed him the screen. The title of the article in a large font caught his eye: Bold display of affection – We are really dating.

“How are the responses?” Junmin asked as he took off his glasses.

“As they went public with the relationship early on, there’s no one who sees them in a bad light. Well, the malicious comments were always there, so we don’t need to worry about that, and looking at the fans of each person, they’re all saying that they suit each other.”

“After all that about hiding it, they’re the ones making it easy for people to start rumors.”

“I’d say they’re being smart. If you watch them closely, they act like they already know what the public’s reactions are going to be like. Usually, people around their age need care from agencies like us, but these two do everything by themselves. It’s been a while since I have seen kids who don’t cause problems when left alone.”

Junmin took out his phone. As these two had already declared their relationship to the public, the media did not ask about the opinion of the agency and were pouring out one article after another.

“Contact the ones who are posting bad rumors and tell them to take it down. I can see some that have crossed the line.”

In an era where anyone could become a journalist online, there were all sorts of useless trashy articles everywhere. He had to root these problems out early on so that his cherished actors did not get hurt.

“I already sent an email around under the company name. There are a lot of fellas who became a lot more daring these days, seeing as how they want to toy around with actors under you.”

Head manager Choi closed the laptop and stood up.

“Oh, and also, there is a flood of advertisement requests. They want Haneul and Maru as a set. One’s a travel agency and the other is a theme park. I thought they both suited their images and was thinking about proceeding with them. What do you think?”

“If they’re similar to the ads they had shot until now, then they shouldn’t be bad. Ask for their opinions and set a date.”

“Okay.”

Head manager Choi closed the door and left. Junmin leaned back against the chair and had a look at the faces of the two people.

“Interesting lives you’re living there.”

He felt good seeing the two people smile. Junmin put down his phone and took out his notepad.

He put on his glasses and licked the tip of his pen before flipping the page over. The words he wrote down as an officiating message entered his eyes.

“That was a bad decision to accept that.”

He scratched his head before adding some lines, thinking that writing this was harder than most company work.

* * *

“There should be one that’s a little thinner than this. Can you have a look?”

“Please wait a moment.”

While Haneul was browsing through other fabrics while waiting, the owner of the store brought two more samples. Haneul had a close look at the fabric of the samples.

“I’ll go with this.”

The store owner nodded and closed the sample book.

“But are you really going to hand-make it?”

“Yes. I did see a few dresses to my liking, but there were a few parts I didn’t like. That’s why I was going to try my hand at it after a long time.”

“It’ll be very difficult. For a dressing, fitting it will be very hard. It’ll be better if you just order it from us. I’ll pay close attention to it.”

“I’ll come back and ask you if I can’t do it myself.”

That probably won’t happen though — she smiled before leaving the store. She opened the door and got in, but she couldn’t see Maru. She wondered where he went when he said he was going to be waiting in the car.

She turned her head around when she heard a knock. Maru was knocking on the window of the passenger seat with his elbow. Both of his hands were holding a cup of coffee.

“I searched around while waiting, and apparently, the café here is famous,” Maru said as he handed her a coffee.

“We should’ve gone together.”

“No, if you came with me, things would’ve become noisier.”

Her husband sat in the driver’s seat and stirred the coffee a few times with the straw before taking a sip. She also took a sniff before drinking it. She could detect a faint taste of cocoa after the thick coffee.

“This is pretty good.”

The coffee was just to her taste.

“Is it okay?”

“Yeah. We should come again and try out some other things on the menu.”

“Looks like this place is really good seeing as how our picky mistress is satisfied. There were so many customers that I didn’t even get to buy any of the bread on the menu.”

“You should have,” she said as she gave him a glance.

“I’ll buy some next time, so don’t look at me like that. It makes my heart sink whenever you give me that look.”

“Maybe you’ve sinned a lot in the past life? Seeing as how just me looking at you makes you feel like that.”

Her husband smiled and started the car. She sneakily took the coffee he was drinking and had a sip. It was coffee with a thick caramel scent.

“That’s mine.”

“What’s yours is mine, and what’s mine is mine.”

She placed the mocha she was drinking in her husband’s mouth. Her husband grabbed the straw with his mouth before drinking the coffee like he was testing his lung capacity. Before she realized it, half of the coffee had disappeared.

“This is why you get scolded by Gaeul every time, honey. You act naggy about taking just one sip or having just one bite, but then you eat all of it, so it’s no wonder that she sulks.”

“I couldn’t help it because Gaeul staring at me is so cute. She’s so cute when she glares at me with her round eyes like that.”

“That’s how you get a smack on the nose and tear up.”

“Gaeul’s punches are pretty spicy, thanks to getting it from a certain someone.”

She shrugged under her husband’s gaze.

“The photos we took at the university are floating around a lot,” Haneul said as she looked at her phone.

The photos that spread around on social media kept being shared and spread around everywhere.

“Here, have a look at this. They blurred your face.”

Her husband’s face was mosaiced, while her own face was photoshopped to look prettier. When the car stopped at a traffic light, Maru had a look at the photo.

“They must have censored it because I looked too handsome. I understand.”

“Gaeul’s uselessly high self-confidence and egoism must’ve come from you.”

“I don’t think that’s the whole story, you know?”

She went to the fan café and checked the latest posts. The photos that were taken with her husband were filling up the majority of the posts.

Thankfully, no one seemed to hate it. In fact, many of them were telling them to get married.

“They want us to get married quickly.”

“Who does?”

“The members of my fan café.”

“People are kind over there, huh.”

“What are people saying on your side?”

“If you’re curious, you can have a look.”

She visited her husband’s fan café. The banner at the top was totally different from before. It was supposed to be Han Maru’s fan café, but the photo on it was of her. She giggled before having a look at the latest posts.

“They’re opposed to the marriage?”

“They can support the actor Han Maru, but not the husband Han Maru. They say you’re wasted on me. How could they say that? Are they really my fans?”

“They’re your true fans. Wait a sec.”

Haneul lifted up her phone and captured her own face and her husband’s driving face. After taking the photo, she started a new post on the café. Thanks to having certified her identity before, she could use the ‘notification’ category that only her husband could use.

She quickly tapped away to write a title — Hello, I’ve got some photos of the landlord here.

She attached the photo she just took before writing some things down. She started off by thanking everyone for their support of the relationship and then wrote that she hoped they’d continue supporting her husband in the future.

She read what she wrote out loud so that her husband could hear it. Maru responded immediately,

“If you post that, I think they’ll say something to me again.”

“That’s the whole point. I’ll make Han Maru’s fan café members into my fan café members.”

As soon as she posted it, there were numerous notifications of comments. Half of them were cheering on their relationship, and the other half were joking comments, such as Our sister-in-law, please run away; Our big brother shines when he’s an actor who’s single.

“They’re telling me to run away.”

“I knew what they were like since the fan meeting. Their joy in life is to tease me.”

She laughed and checked the comments that were being uploaded in real-time. The tendency of the members in her husband’s café was that the actor treated them comfortably, so the fans did so as well. As long as that was maintained well, they would last a really long time as fans.

“Now that I think about it, many of your fans were like this. Kind and mischievous.”

“That’s one of the few blessings I have, having good people support me.”

“I want my fan café to be like this as well. I’m too much of a goddess in my café.”

“I almost blurted out a swear word.”

“Why? Did I say something wrong?”

Her husband twitched his eyes. He displayed that he was suppressing what he wanted to say. She teased him until they went home.

“Maybe this is why I’m living with you, sweetie,” she said as she got out of the car.

Her husband laughed before standing next to her.

“Fine, tease me all your life. While you’re caught up with teasing me, I’ll have Gaeul join my side. I’ll have her say daddy instead of mommy first in this life.”

“That probably won’t happen.”

Her husband twitched his nose, saying that he would definitely make it happen. She watched him walk ahead at a fast pace before laughing loudly and quickly catching up and grabbing his arm. He grumbled but did not pull his arm away.

* * *

“Senior, have you seen this?”

“I have.”

“If you add up what you have to pay for all the actors in the appearing friends list, it’ll probably be the budget of most movies, huh?”

The senior looked at him indifferently.

“It’s just a rumor. Do you think all those actors will really appear in it? They’re all lead actors.”

“You never know. JA might be giving them support.”

“It looks like you don’t know how things work around here. The actors in JA are known to have high pride. Do you know how hard it is for lead actors to appear in other works as special appearances? Above all, the CEO there doesn’t do that sort of thing.”

“Really?”

“To that guy, the agency is just a hobby and because it’s a hobby, it’s really cleanly operated. Above all, do you think it makes sense that Sir Yoon Moonjoong is appearing? Numerous famous film directors visited him in Cheongjoo to do that, but he rejected all of them, yet is making a special appearance? It’s just not true.”

“So it’s just a rumor after all?”

“It’s a crude rumor too. It’s just clickbait. Don’t you get it after working for so long in this industry?”

The senior, who was looking at the monitor, tapped on his watch.

“We should get ready now. Get the camera and let’s go.”

Journalist Ahn picked up the camera and followed his senior out. The place they went to was a film festival in Busan. Before getting out of the car, he got his jacket. The October nights in Busan were chilly after all.

After sunset, journalists with cameras flocked to the red carpet photo zone. Actors started appearing one by one as well.

Popular actors were given a flood of questions. Many journalists shouted at the top of their lungs in order to get a single commentary, but there were very few who managed to get a response.

Journalist Ahn also shouted like crazy but didn’t get any responses. His senior had no luck either.

As he was pressing the shutter, the two hottest actors stepped onto the red carpet. They were Han Maru and Han Haneul, who were leisurely strolling their way across the red carpet with their arms hooked.

“Mr. Maru! Miss Haneul! Is it true that Sir Yoon is appearing in the film you’re preparing to make?”

It wasn’t just him. Many journalists asked a similar question. Going past journalist Ahn, Han Haneul stopped in front of him. Journalist Ahn had seen many celebrities up close until now, but he had never seen someone with such charming facial features.

“I’m not sure.”

Han Haneul smiled before walking past him. Journalist Ahn stood in a daze before ripping his hair out.

“I… should’ve taken photos.”

He muttered to himself in pity and zoomed in his lens towards Haneul, who had become distant.

After Story 272

“Mr. Dongho there should be a cup that’s the same as this but orange, please bring me that.”

“Yes.”

“Miss Jiyeon. Please go over the list of books here again. According to my memory, there should be books titled ‘A Night in July’ and ‘Timefall’ on the shelf, but I don’t see them.”

“I’ll check.”

Director Han Haneul’s love for detail was the same as always today. Director Seok sipped on some vending machine coffee as he looked at director Han, who was making the set. There seemed to be a lot of things crammed into that small head.

“Director,” director Han called for him.

Director Seok finished his coffee before entering the set.

“If I don’t want the top of the bookshelf to show up when we shoot from above, we should lower the camera a little, right?”

“I think it should be okay even now.”

“How does it look in your eyes? I mean this room.”

“It feels complex even though the owner tried to make it simple? It feels like I’m back to when I was living by myself.”

“That’s good then.”

The crew brought some props. Director Han decorated the set herself along with the art team. Usually, most film directors would appoint a director for the art team and then do a final check, but director Han did everything herself. The art director looked rather annoyed at first, but now, he was on director Han’s side more than anyone else.

Director Seok stepped down from the set which was slightly elevated and stood next to the camera. Director Han, who was conducting everything from the middle of the set, seemed to be a veteran of the film industry who had been one for decades.

He thought back to when he was offered this job when he met director Na.

* * *

Director Na, who hadn’t contacted him in a while, told him that there was some good work to do and that he wanted him to be the camera director. At first, Director Seok decided to postpone all film work until later and just attend lectures until the start of the next year, but he decided to listen because it was director Na’s request.

“As this is a film where the entire investment comes from me, the production environment will be better than most other films.”

“That sounds good. Then there is no production company?”

“I’ve decided to form a production company for this one piece as a project of sorts and then disband it later.”

“Seeing how deep you’re going into this, you seem pretty confident.”

“To be honest with you, success or failure does not matter. What matters is that this film is being made and can be watched.”

Director Na’s mind was hard for ordinary people to understand. Success and failure were not important for a business that involved billions of won? He just decided to ignore what he said.

The person in front of him was someone who would use money like firewood if it was to satiate his desires. There was no need to try to understand him. It was better to just let it slide, thinking that it was his nature.

“Just what kind of director managed to receive your full support? There was no news in this regard in our industry.”

“It’s just the starting phase and there aren’t many people involved, so there’s nothing that rumors can be made about. Plus, there’s no need to make back the investment, so it’s been even more quiet.”

Director Na added with an expression that looked very proud and needed all sorts of other descriptive words to describe his face.

“The director is Han Haneul and the lead actor is Han Maru. Oh, Miss Haneul is both the director and an actor.”

“Who? Han Haneul?”

“Do you not know her?”

When he asked back after hearing the name Han Haneul, director Na expressed his disappointment without hiding it. Director Seok spoke immediately,

“I do. Isn’t she an actress? A really pretty one?”

“She’s not just pretty. She’s good at acting too.”

“Yes, that too.”

He flinched when director Na responded aggressively.

“That actress is going to be a director?”

“That’s right.”

“You see, I’m not really picky with the work I do, but I cannot handle uncontrollable shooting environments.”

“That I know. But it will be okay.”

“Even if you say it’s okay, a young girl as a director on set would ruin the mood entirely for sure.”

Film director — the title itself seemed to require artistic senses and creativity, but what a film director actually needed was stamina and persuasive power. Time waited for no one, so people needed to be on time, and as such, people needed to work whether it was night or day.

The working conditions were even worse than manual labor. For manual labor, there was a designated finishing time, but there was no ‘finish for the day’ in this industry.

‘Let’s take a break in some nearby jjimjilbang’ were the words closest to going home from work. There were some places that weren’t like this, but most of the shooting scene was hellish. There was a reason why some members of the production crew died from overwork.

Under such an environment, the people working there would naturally become sensitive and aggressive over time. That was why stamina, persuasive power, and charisma were a must for a director. If the environment at the set became uncontrollable, there were times when some teams would just quit on the spot.

A film shoot was rough, conservative, barely paid, and had no end to it. That environment only led to more ‘evil’ being born. The director’s job was to control that ‘evilness.’

Yet, an actress, who had never worked as a film director before and must have received the care of a lot of people as a star, wanted to hold the megaphone? Just imagining it made him feel grim. Unless the payment was ridiculously high, a shoot like that was bound to fall apart.

“It’ll be okay,” said director Na.

“Do you really think so? In a scene that doesn’t follow a standard contract, where the industry is dominated by sweaty men, do you think that actress will succeed? I am honestly worried.”

“I understand your concern. Of course. Anyone who works in this industry would be worried. So how about you decide for yourself after watching it? Oh, and also, we’ll sign a standard work contract with everyone throughout the shoot.”

Not long later, he met Han Haneul herself. It was an occasion where other people who needed to produce the film were present as well.

Director Seok accepted the offer to become the camera director at that time. Having met Han Haneul in real life, she was more decent than he originally thought, a lot more, in fact.

And ever since the shoot began, director Han displayed a surprising amount of leadership and put to rest all noise. Unlike her pretty face, her powerful voice was reminiscent of a decades-old veteran.

The power struggle usually seen on set never even began. There would be trouble if she pushed onward relentlessly, but director Han let them be loose in areas that were necessary so that there were no complaints.

It wasn’t just that, either. Her stamina showed no signs of running out. She moved with the production crew and left the scene later than any one. As everyone signed the standard contract, the work environment was better than most other places, but it was still taxing regardless. Despite that, director Han did not allow herself to loosen up.

Above all, though, director Seok fell for director Han’s talent. Director Han noticed things that only people who had been holding a camera for a long time would know and was considerate of him. When he asked the others, they all acknowledged director Han’s expertise.

While it was true that the overall film director had to know a lot of things, there was no need for them to dig deep into the expert’s field. They needed to know a lot, but just shallowly, just enough to give orders to the various groups.

However, director Han mentioned things that even they, as professionals, missed sometimes and surprised them. There was one time during a night shoot when a generator car malfunctioned and almost delayed the whole shoot, but director Han came in and fixed the problem. He could still remember the dazed faces of the lighting team and the manager of the generator car.

-I had an opportunity to learn about it.

That was what she said whenever she fixed a problem that popped out of nowhere.

Not only was her work skill exceptional, she was good at handling people. With that, there was no one who had a complaint towards her, at least, to his knowledge.

“It has gotten pretty cool now.”

“You’re here?” director Seok said as he looked next to him.

Han Maru was standing there holding a script.

“She’s doing a good job as always today, our director, I mean.”

“She’s more earnest than anyone on set. It puts pressure on me even. I can’t even rest properly.”

“Right. Let’s all gather up and tell her to take things easy,” Han Maru said with a smile.

“Mr. Maru. Come over here for a second.”

Director Han called Maru. Maru shook his head from side to side to resist but eventually went over when she gestured to him.

“Good luck,” said director Seok to Maru’s back.

Those two were a couple that suited each other, in a good way. One of them managed to surprise everyone as a director and the other managed to do so as an actor.

Han Maru’s acting skills were something he was well aware of. He won all sorts of awards and prizes in various film festivals, so that proved his skills to the public as well.

He was young but good. That was director Seok’s first impression of the actor Han Maru. However, having witnessed Han Maru’s acting in person, ‘good’ wasn’t the end of his skills.

How many actors of his age had that much depth to their acting?

As this was a fantasy film that dealt with repeated time, the actor’s acting was very crucial. The film could easily lose a sense of realism and make everything look bad, but Maru acted out everything perfectly as though he had experienced it himself.

The scenes where he expressed the weathering of his emotions across the repeated time seemed possible just because it was Maru. The reason why the character in the film was named ‘Han Maru’ probably wasn’t out of laziness, but a declaration that only Han Maru could digest such a role.

After set maintenance, the shoot began. After talking to director Han a lot, he grabbed the camera.

Usually, the director would be in front of the monitor, but director Han was also the actor in this film, so she was on camera.

Maru stood next to director Han, who sat on her bed in her room. The two of them said their lines as they looked at each other.

“We’ll start now,” said director Han.

The assistant director, who was sitting in front of the monitor, put the headphones on.

He sent a signal after the first camera came into focus. Camera, audio, slate. Along with the assistant director’s signal, the acting began.

A man and a woman smiling at each other. The woman’s eyes were filled with the comfort from being in her own room as well as goodwill. The man’s eyes were the same as he looked at her as well. However, the moment their gazes were no longer looking at each other, the man’s eyes were filled with a void.

Having spent nearly an eternity in the hamster wheel of time, just feeling despair was too much for the man. It was frustrating, pitiful, and yet flawless.

Despite that,

“Wait.”

Director Han raised her hand. The members of the crew, who were immersed in watching them, let out sighs and relaxed.

Director Seok took his hands off the camera. From the look on director Han’s face, that was going to start again.

“Mr. Maru, that’s not good. You can do better.”

“No wait, director. Wasn’t that really good just now?”

“It was good, sure, but the Han Maru I know can do better. You can twitch below your eyes a little more. And your tone here. It’s okay to put more emotions into it.”

“I thought that was just enough.”

“That’s not true at all. Mr. Maru. Listen to me.”

Director Seok shook his head and sat down on the chair next to him. The scriptor also came over and sat down.

“There they go again.”

“Yeah.”

“Everyone else thinks it’s good, but maybe that’s not enough in their eyes.”

“There are a lot of things that director Han wants from Maru.”

“The opposite is true also.”

“That’s true.”

Director Han crossed his arms. That was an indication that she was going to chat for more than ten minutes at least.

“Minseong, let’s make a bet with bread. Those two are at it again.”

Director Seok called for the lighting director. While the lighting director retracted a ladder, the voices of Han Maru and Han Haneul quarreling could be heard.

“That’s not it, Mr. Han Maru.”

“But it is, director. You don’t understand.”

It seemed they were unrelenting as always today.

After Story 273

“Get down a little.”

Maru lowered his head at Haneul’s instruction. His wife’s fingers rustled through his hair.

“This looks better.”

“Done?”

“No, I should let it rise naturally. Go lie down on the sofa. You have weak hair, sweetie, so a hair dryer won’t work.”

He lay down with his neck against the armrest. His head jerked backward and his vision flipped upside down. Meanwhile, his wife put some water in the coffee pot.

“I can get this done at a hair shop.”

“I wanted to do it for today. Why? You don’t like it?”

“Of course I like it. I’d love it if you do my hair. There’s no one who knows me better than you do. It’s just that it’s somewhat uncomfo…”

Maru swallowed the rest of his sentence. His wife was standing in front of him with a pot of boiling water.

“What was that?”

“No, I said it was good. It’s perfect.”

His wife smiled and turned around. The dog and the cat walking around the living room came over to him. They seemed to be concerned about their owner who was lying down with his head upside down and tapped on him.

“That should be good. Now I just have to spray your hair and press down the sides.”

He was dragged by his wife to sit down in front of the makeup desk. After Haneul’s fingers swept past him, his hair styling was finished. Maru turned his head left and right to check his wife’s work. He couldn’t find anything to do to it to make it better.

“This and this, which one do you think is better?”

His wife, whom he could see through the mirror, held a one-piece dress in each hand.

One was a deep indigo dress with bright-colored buttons for contrast and the other one was a white dress with a platinum buckle.

“I like the indigo one.”

“Isn’t it too dark?”

“You’re going as a director as well as an actor. Don’t you think you should look a little more conservative?”

“Is a bright director not charming?”

“Of course you’ll be charming even in the white one. But if this is how you’re going to ask, you don’t really need my opinion, do you?”

His wife shrugged before putting the white one-piece dress back on the hanger. She took off the baggy pajamas before putting on the indigo dress.

After touching her sleeves, which slightly covered her shoulder line, she turned around and spoke,

“Zip it up for me.”

She was flexible enough to reach the zipper and then some, but he smiled and grabbed the zipper tab. He slowly pulled up the teardrop-shaped pull tab before stopping where the shoulder blades faced each other.

“It’s not going up anymore.”

“No way.”

He appreciated his wife’s flustered face which he hadn’t seen in a long time. Haneul shrunk her shoulders inward and let out a short sigh. He slightly poked his head out to see the side of his wife’s face. Her lips were pouting. She seemed to be in disbelief.

“I guess you went too loose with yourself during the shoot.”

“Still, it shouldn’t be bad to the point that I can’t wear this. It doesn’t feel like it’s tight either. Are you sure it’s not going up?”

Let’s see – he muttered before pulling up the tab. Along with a smooth gliding sound, the zipper slid up.

His wife sighed in relief before frowning.

“You did that on purpose, didn’t you?”

“You thought your body was bloated, but it actually wasn’t. Doesn’t that make you feel good?”

She nodded before poking his flank. Her move contained her emotions. Maru rubbed his aching flank and put on his shirt.

“Go with this for the watch.”

He put on the watch that Haneul gave him. He then put his jacket on and checked the time. It was 2 p.m. About time to depart.

“The others are already there. There seems to be some journalists who have arrived already too.”

“They’re in quite a hurry. There’s plenty of time left.”

He put on his shoes and got his car keys. His wife got her glasses case before leaving the house. It was a pair of non-prescription glasses with just a silver frame. It was one of Haneul’s favorite items.

As soon as he got in the car, he got a call from his manager.

“Yes, hyung. We’re just setting off.”

-Will you be here soon?

“It’ll take about 20 minutes.”

-Then go through the questions with me when you arrive. There are a few changes from the original one, and I’ll have them removed if you don’t like them.

“Okay.”

He hung up and grabbed the driving wheel. His wife, sitting on the passenger seat, was checking her phone with her eyes thinned. She seemed to be going over the questions again.

“How does it feel to go to the production announcement of your debut film?” he asked.

“Slightly nervous. I’ve done it so many times to the point that I don’t remember them all, but it makes me nervous to think that it’s my last one.”

“It’s not bad to slip up a couple times for the journalists to write something. Noise marketing isn’t really a bad thing.”

“I’d rather stay silent than slip up.”

That was a really Haneul-like answer. They soon crossed a bridge and arrived at the movie theater where the production announcement was going to be held. He parked the car in the parking lot and was about to go to the staff-only staircase that they were notified of beforehand when his wife gestured to him.

“Hey, let’s go to the lobby instead.”

“With the elevator?”

His wife nodded. She was someone who disliked being in crowded places, so this was unexpected, but since she had a smile on her face, there was no reason to refuse.

They stood in front of the elevator that led up to the multiplex. People who were using the shopping mall on the first floor and the people going up to the movie theater flocked toward the elevator. At first, they didn’t notice, but thanks to someone’s shout, people started recognizing them.

They waved and said hello to the people before getting into the elevator.

“I’m on my way to the production announcement. I’m a supporter!”

“Me too!”

His wife locked hands with the women standing in front of her and thanked them. Maru also thanked them as well.

“Unni, you should really destroy those TV station cameras. You look awesome in real life.”

“I also lament that the current TV station technology cannot capture my beauty in its entirety.”

As his wife joked around, the elevator opened again. He pulled her behind his back gently.

“Oppa, please look over here!”

“Noona, I love you!”

It was filled with people. It seemed that word had gotten out already. He could see Yeonjin and Haneul’s manager rushing over from a distance.

“Why are you coming this way, you’re going to run into an accident,” Yeonjin said in a small voice right against his ears.

Maru just smiled faintly.

“Let’s go inside for now. There are too many people here.”

“Wait a moment.”

He looked at Haneul. There should be a reason why she said they should come to the lobby. His wife took off. The people around them moved out of the way for them.

“Cute, isn’t it?” his wife said when she stopped.

There was a photo, a large congratulatory wreath, and a bag of rice. Next to those was a congratulatory wreathe under Han Maru’s name as well. These were things that the two fan cafes prepared.

“This will be the first and last time, so I wanted to see it for myself,” said Haneul as she stroked the flower wreathe.

“They seemed to have tried hard to prepare this, so we should take a commemorative photo at least. Here, stand next to me, sweetie.”

When he hooked arms with her and stood in front of the wreathe, the fans surrounding them booed at first until they started cheering.

“Please take photos and upload them on the internet. I’ll download them as well. I’d be even more grateful if you could photoshop me a little.”

“You’re pretty without it!”

“But I’ll look better with it.”

After taking a photo with the flower wreaths and the bag of rice as the background, they went to the event venue. The seats prepared for various media outlets were already full.

He was guided by Yeonjin and moved to the waiting room. He said hello to the emcee who was in charge of the processions and sat down.

“It’ll start in twenty minutes, so go through the questions and tell me if you need anything.”

Yeonjin gave him the question paper before leaving the waiting room. The two of them were left by themselves in the quiet waiting room.

“We’re here again,” he said.

“I thought we would be taking a longer path or a different path entirely, but as you said, we’re here again. It was quicker than we expected, right?”

“I thought I’d be lucky to get a lead role in my thirties. Things went too well.”

His wife agreed before smiling.

“But I’m a little worried after achieving our short-term objective so quickly,” she said as she raised her head a little.

“What are you worried about?”

“I’m worried that things are going too well. It doesn’t make sense for life to only have ups and no downs, so there should be a crisis, but a crisis after things turn out so well like this is bound to be a hard one to deal with.”

He wordlessly grabbed her hand. His wife tickled the back of his hand before chuckling.

“We overcame all that time, so there shouldn’t be anything that we can’t overcome now, right?”

“At least we won’t have to worry about money, so I’m grateful for that. If a problem arises because of something other than money, then I’ll just tank a few hits. I mean, both of us have tenacious lives, don’t we?”

“It’s definitely not ordinary.”

As she replied, the door opened. Yeonjin, who came inside, flinched before pointing at the door.

“Should I have knocked? Or should I come again ten minutes later?”

He grabbed Haneul’s hand even tighter, as though to show off. Yeonjin frowned.

“You know, what you two are doing is violence. To a lonely person like me, that’s no different from stabbing me and shooting me in the heart.”

Yeonjin rolled his eyes left and right before loosening up.

“Mr. Gyungho arrived. It’s now time to go up. Are there any questions that I should get removed?”

“No, it’s okay to proceed like this.”

“You know you two are under a ton of attention right? Whether you like it or not, there will be journalists asking unrelated questions. Don’t get caught up in their pace and calm down, okay?”

“This isn’t the first or second time that’s happening. Also, a question that can catch Haneul in their pace is amazing in its own way.”

“True, what problems could you two possibly have? Go and break a leg.”

Yeonjin opened the door and gestured them outside. He stood up first and held his hand out to Haneul.

“Since someone took photos of us already, should we just show them everything?”

“There are already people that don’t like a young girl like me holding the megaphone, and you want to pour oil on top of that?”

“Wouldn’t that make things hotter and better?”

“Who do you take after to come up with childish things like this?”

While she said that, she grabbed his hand. He left the waiting room with his wife. After walking through a short hallway leading to the venue, he saw people waiting for him.

“Congratulations once again on your debut, director Han.”

“It’s all thanks to you, actor Han.”

The two of them went up to the platform while holding hands.

* * *

-You two are pretty amazing.

“What’s amazing now?”

-You are definitely amazing. I honestly thought you were joking, but I realized the moment I saw the two bikes outside the building. These guys are really gonna do it.

Ganghwan chuckled, finding it rather ridiculous.

-So where are you two now?

“Us? We just entered Choongjoo.”

-I swear that you are the only ones who change into riding suits on your wedding day and start riding. It’s in the middle of November too. I’m surprised both of your parents permitted that.

“There aren’t any parents who can win against their children. Oh, and how’s Suyeon-noona?”

-I think she’s due soon. I’m all nervous.

“Stay around her. It’s common for the estimated due date to be off.”

-You know all sorts of stuff huh?

“I guess you’ll have a new family member by the time we’re back from Busan.”

-Yeah. There’ll be a smart one just like me.

“That’s a bit of a pity. I want the baby to take after more of the mother.”

-Actually, I wish for that too. Anyway, don’t push yourselves too hard, and just come back in a car if you’re exhausted.

Maru hung up and looked next to him. His wife was putting on her helmet. She seemed to be getting ready to depart now that she had enough rest.

“Who was it?”

“Ganghwan hyung-nim.”

“Is senior Suyeon okay?”

“He said she’s almost due.”

“We should visit them right after we return. I’m sure the baby’s unimaginably cute.”

His wife pedaled off on the bike. Watching her go off into the distance, he also got on his bike.

“Missus, wait for me!”

“Hurry up!”

She shouted as she pedaled with glee.

After Story 274

“I really can’t cope with you three. There’s a limit to letting you go. How many times did mom tell you not to scratch this? Huh? Don’t turn away and look at mom properly.”

His wife’s voice could be heard from the living room.

Maru stroked down his face and got out of bed. He had such a deep sleep for a mid-day nap.

“Again! Again!”

Hearing his wife’s angry voice, he smiled and opened the door of the bedroom. A dog and two cats were being rebuked. It seemed the mischievous duo had scratched the new sofa they just got.

“They’re kids. Just let them be,” Maru said as he sat down at the table.

The Shiba-inu with a limp leg hurriedly came over to him. The cats went up the sofa and started licking their fur.

“They won’t listen to me.”

“It’d be strange if they did.”

He stroked the head of the dog sitting by his feet. His wife sighed softly before opening the refrigerator.

“How’s your stomach?” his wife asked.

“Somewhat okay,” he said as he received the cup of barley tea that his wife gave him.

“If you of all people can’t pull yourself together, just how much did you drink?”

“I went around all the tables and accepted everything they were giving me.”

Maru grinned before drinking the tea again. His wife nagged him from the side.

“Don’t accept everything they give you and learn to refuse. You’re so good at refusing everything else.”

“The mood was just that good. The shoot this time was pretty hard too.”

Maru handed his empty cup to Haneul, telling her that he wanted another cup. His wife poured the barley tea and spoke,

“Suyeon-unni just sent me a video, and…”

His wife put her phone down on the table. When she tapped on it a few times, the screen changed. A baby wearing a honey bee outfit was sitting on the floor.

“Just look at that baby.”

The video started. The baby on the screen looked at the lens in a daze before struggling to stand up.

Suyeon, come over, hurry! – Ganghwan’s voice flowed out of the speakers.

He rested his chin on his hands and watched the baby on the screen. The baby, who struggled to get up, swayed around before walking over to Ganghwan, who was taking the video.

Suyeon, who belatedly entered the video, was colored in surprise as though she was a pioneer who just discovered a new continent.

“He walks well.”

“Suyeon-unni was slightly worried that he was too late in walking because he couldn’t even walk after turning one year old.”

“One year old isn’t that late.”

“That’s why I told her not to worry about it too much because he’ll walk in due time. There are infants who only manage to start walking at 17 months.”

The baby bee trodding over toppled down on his butt. He looked at his dad before laughing.

“His eyes take after Suyeon-noona. Looks like he’ll have a pretty face once he grows up.”

The proportions of his facial features were pretty. He would probably be called handsome once he grows up a little more and walks around the neighborhood, holding his mother’s hand.

“The boy’s pretty brave. He didn’t even cry once during his one-year birthday. He was smiling in front of the guests too.”

“Compared to that, our Gaeul cried all the time. She’ll be a crybaby this time too, right?”

“Han Gaeul will always be a crybaby.”

He put his hand on his wife’s stomach and spoke,

“Miss Han crybaby, are you listening?”

“She probably is.”

“If you’re listening, remember daddy’s words. If you cry too much, I won’t give you chocolate almonds. You might not know a lot about daddy, but I know a lot about you. So you better listen to daddy’s words. I’ll understand if it’s puberty though.”

He went to the bathroom and took a shower. His wife had changed her clothes to go out and was sitting on the sofa.

“Let’s have dinner on the way back from the hospital. Anything you have in mind?”

“Gaeul says she wants braised mackerels.”

“Are you sure it’s Gaeul who wants it?”

“Probably?”

He went to the OB/GYN with his wife. It was the clinic that Suyeon had introduced them to.

While his wife went through a checkup, he browsed through some women’s magazines in the waiting room. They seemed to have come at a good time as there weren’t that many people present.

“I’ll go register at the counter.”

A seemingly young married couple came into the clinic. The man had a fully pregnant woman sit down on the sofa before walking over to the counter. Even as he registered, the man kept glancing at the woman. He was probably uneasy and worried. Maru was like that at first too. The inflated stomach inflated the size of worries as well.

Having finished registering, the man quickly went and sat down next to the woman. It was nice to look at them grab each other’s hands and ask about many things.

“Uhm…”

He looked at them and ended up making eye contact with the woman. He took off his hat and smiled. The man next to her also looked at him and said hello.

“Mr. Han Maru, right? We’ve heard a few times that you go to this clinic,” said the woman.

“Is it that well-known already?”

“Of course. Actually, we came here because we heard that a lot of famous people come here. It definitely is good. The facility is good and the doctors are kind.”

“That’s good.”

The woman looked at the doctor’s office and spoke,

“Mrs. Haneul is getting a checkup, I see.”

“Yes. I heard that both of them are healthy, but we come here regularly just in case.”

“You came here with her. How sweet of you.”

“I think your husband next to you is just as sweet.”

Hearing that, the husband smiled innocently. The wife also looked at the husband and smiled. They were a nice couple.

“It seems like you’re due soon?”

“Yes. It’s next week.”

“So you’ll meet your baby soon. What’s the baby’s name?”

“Tultul.”

The woman placed her hand on the stomach. At that moment, the door to the doctor’s office opened and his wife came out. The couple sitting in front of him greeted her with a nod. Haneul came over and sat down next to him.

For a while, they talked to the young couple. As they had a lot of things in common, the conversation never seemed to stop.

“Mrs. Park Yoojung, please come to room 2.”

The woman said ‘yes’ and stood up.

“Uhm, can you take a photo with us?” asked the man while fiddling with his phone.

“Of course.”

They asked the nurse at the counter and took a photo together. The young couple thanked them before going into the room.

“Those people just now. They were really kind. I’m sure their baby will take after them and be really kind,” Haneul said as she got in the car.

Maru nodded before asking,

“How was the checkup?”

“She’s healthy and stable now.”

“I’m glad that she never made her mother suffer.”

“True.”

“You said you wanted braised mackerel, right? How about the place we went to last time? You seemed to like it.”

“I was thinking about that place as well.”

He started the car and left the parking lot. On the way to the restaurant, he got a call from Ganghwan.

-If you haven’t eaten yet, come over and eat at our place. Geunsoo is here as well.

“What’s on the menu?”

-Various things.

“Wait a moment.”

He asked his wife. Haneul smiled and said that they should go. He turned the car around, headed home, and went to Ganghwan’s house, which was in the next complex over.

He pressed the bell and waited for a moment. Geunsoo, holding a baby, opened the door for them.

“You’re a nanny today too?”

“Don’t even start. I think this every time I come here, but I think he likes me better than his real parents.”

The baby in his arms giggled while drooling. Geunsoo wiped the baby’s mouth with a handkerchief. Maru stretched the baby’s cheeks once before going inside.

“We’re here.”

“You’re here?”

He saw Ganghwan and Suyeon preparing food in the kitchen. There was quite a lot of food on the table.

“What’s the festive event today?” Maru asked as he grabbed a jeon with his hand.

Suyeon glared at him quietly and shook her head.

“You should get permission before you eat.”

“You’re being too harsh on a guest. Anything I can help with?”

“Yes. Actually, we’re in dire need of your cooking skills.”

“So you called me here for that then.”

“And to have dinner together.”

He took over the knife that Suyeon was holding and spoke,

“Please go over and hang out with Haneul.”

He took over the cooking that the two had started.

“Do you have mackerels?”

“There should be some in the groceries we bought today. What do you need them for?”

“Haneul wants to eat them.”

He opened the freezer and took out some semi-frozen mackerels and braised them. He put the food on the table and called for the people playing around in the living room.

“Look at him,” Haneul said.

The baby walked over to the kitchen.

“Don’t you think he’ll win the gold medal if he does track and field?” Ganghwan said.

Haneul picked up the baby and sat him on her lap. She fondled with the baby’s hand and cheek looking like she found him cute to death.

“You said you went to the clinic. There aren’t any problems, are there?” Suyeon asked.

He replied that both the baby and the mother were healthy. The baby in Haneul’s arms reached out to Geunsoo.

Geunsoo, who was eating, put his spoon down and picked up the baby. Seeing that, Haneul spoke,

“I think you should look after our child too. I think it’s your calling.”

“Stop giving your child to a man who hasn’t even gotten married!”

Geunsoo frowned but then looked at the baby and smiled. Everyone laughed when they saw that.

“Oh, right. Isn’t it the first episode today?” Suyeon asked, probably referring to Haneul’s drama.

“It is today.”

“We can watch it together then. We can have some beer too. Haneul can drink water.”

Everyone agreed with Ganghwan. After dinner, Suyeon and Haneul remained at the table and talked, while the men switched places to the veranda.

“Geunsoo hyung-nim, is your single life fun?”

“Why do you ask? Feel envious after you got married?”

“Sometimes?”

“It’s only sometimes for you, huh? Ganghwan, this guy, he tells me he’s envious of me every single day.”

They laughed while looking at each other before sitting down in front of the TV.

“Missuses over there, come quick. The drama is starting.”

Hearing Geunsoo’s call, Haneul and Suyeon came over and sat down. Once the drama began, they were all so focused on it that they didn’t say anything. Maru smiled as he looked at the people watching the TV seriously. This was why paranoia from work was scary.

“At this opportunity, you should move nearby as well. That way we can meet up often like this.”

“That’s your roundabout way of saying I should look after the kids, huh?”

“You noticed?”

Just as everyone was laughing together,

“Dada!” said the baby in Geunsoo’s arm.

The pronunciation was really clear. It made Ganghwan make a teary face.

“What? He never said that to me…”

“That’s right. I’m your daddy,” Geunsoo said as he picked up the baby.

The giggle of the baby filled the room. Maru watched that scene for a while before grabbing his wife’s hand.

“Gaeul will say daddy first.”

“I said she won’t.”

Haneul was firm about it.

* * *

“Dada!”

“Yes. It’s daddy.”

“Dada!”

“That’s right. It’s daddy.”

“Dadadadada.”

“Yeeeees. It’s daddyyyyyyy.”

If the word ‘impossible’ didn’t exist in Napoleon’s dictionary, the word that didn’t exist in Gaeul’s dictionary was fatigue. She had unlimited stamina, and she was his daughter.

“You must be happy, she keeps looking for daddy,” Haneul said next to him, drinking tea leisurely.

“Gaeul, mommy’s over there.”

“Dada!”

“Won’t you play with mommy?”

“Dada!”

“Okay.”

Maru picked Gaeul up and stood up. While he was really grateful and touched that she called ‘dada’ during her first birthday, the problem was that she kept looking for daddy after that.

“I’m so envious, honey,” said Haneul.

He twitched his nose and looked at his wife before clenching his eyes shut due to pain. Gaeul had slapped down on his nose with her palm. Despite having such a short arm, she was really accurate.

“Dada!”

“That’s right, it’s daddy,” he said, shaking his daughter up and down.

After Story 275

She couldn’t get a single wink of sleep. Aside from passing out a few times throughout the night, she had her eyes open the whole night. Her head was in a daze and her body felt heavy like it was soaked in water.

“Dahae, are you up?”

“I’m up.”

Choi Dahae sat on her bed and rubbed her face before opening the door. She could hear the TV and saw her mom preparing breakfast in the kitchen.

“Where’s dad?”

“He left early in the morning for work.”

“Oh, so that was dad leaving. I heard the door close. I thought it was the next door over.”

“You have sensitive ears.”

“It’s not that. I just didn’t get good sleep.”

Her mother put down the doenjang soup and asked,

“What is it? Are you not feeling well?”

“No, I’m just nervous. I won’t see anyone I know when I go to school.”

“You truly are introverted like your mother. It’s okay. I’m sure they’re all good kids.”

“You don’t know how I feel, mom.”

After having lived in Gwangju all her life, Dahae and her family moved to Seoul when she graduated middle school. She cried for two days after hearing that they were moving. All of her friends were going to a high school in Gwangju, but she had to go to Seoul all by herself and had to make friends from scratch.

She came up to Seoul after her last goodbyes and spent her time at home ever since then. What was she supposed to do in a neighborhood where she didn’t have any friends? It was bad to the point that she had gotten into a habit of reading books when she had rarely read before, so there was that.

“Once you are in the same class for long enough, you’re bound to get close.”

“Easy for you to say.”

Dahae went to the sofa with her phone. The morning news was on TV.

-On the 27th, there was an experiment using the 6th generation gene editing technology in the Jiefang Hospital of China. However, moral problems with indiscriminate embryonic modification keep being raised, leading to worries and criticisms from various parts of the world.

Dahae spoke to her mother as she listened to the news,

“Mom, apparently, it’s become possible to treat genetic diseases with things you can apply to the skin. It’s become easy to change your hair and eye colors too.”

“Why, you wanna change them?”

“No, just saying.”

Dahae switched channels. This time, it was a morning information program. A lady she had seen many times but did not know the name of announced some news about the entertainment industry.

-How high will this married couple go? In the Naine Film Festival, which has become one of the largest film conventions hosted by a platform, Han Maru and Han Haneul have achieved the feat of winning the best male and female lead actor awards respectively. The festival this time, hosted in Los Gatos, California, was…

After a brief explanation, the screen changed. It was the two actors getting their awards. An elderly man with a silver beard spoke into the mic, “Han Maru.” He seemed to be an American, but he had a pretty good Korean pronunciation. Maybe he had practiced?

Receiving the applause of numerous people wearing suits, Han Maru walked over to the platform. On his way there, he hugged a few foreign actors, and among them were some that Dahae really liked.

“I’m envious. I wish I could see her from up close too.”

While she was muttering, Han Maru got on stage. He smiled after receiving the prize as he looked around.

“Oppa got a prize, huh?”

“Oppa?”

Dahae chuckled and looked at her mother.

“He’s the actor I liked the most when I was still single. I even bought a camera which I never used before, just to go to his fan signing event to take a photo.”

“You also had a time like that?”

“Sure. He was cool back then, but he’s even cooler now.”

“I say he must be scamming everyone. How’s he in his forties with that face? That means he’s around dad’s age, doesn’t it?”

“That’s true.”

“Is it gene editing technology?”

“It’s just the source that’s different. Your father leaves a little room to be desired and that oppa is simply too amazing.”

“Dad will be very disappointed to hear that.”

“Don’t tell him. Your dad is such a downer so he’ll sulk if he hears something like that.”

“A downer? Which era is that word from?”

While talking to her mother, the screen changed once again. This time, Han Haneul, wearing a light brown dress, was giving her speech. Dahae exclaimed as she looked at the screen.

“Mom. Don’t you think Han Haneul isn’t just pretty but like high-class?”

“That’s why all the expensive ads are shot by her.”

“What do you think it feels like to live with that face?”

“Why do you say that? My girl, you don’t lose out to anyone.”

“Mom, you lack objectiveness. I’m on the ordinary side.”

“If you take after your mother, you are pretty.”

“Where does your confidence come from?”

“You just haven’t seen your mother in her prime. There are photos of it on mom’s Instagram.”

“Who the heck uses Instagram these days?”

“Mom’s friends still do.”

“That’s because they’re your friends.”

She giggled with her mother before going to the table to have breakfast. She then changed her clothes. The nervousness she had forgotten about came back to her.

“Watch out for cars.”

“Mom, these days, if you get into a traffic accident in the middle of a city, you should buy a lottery ticket. Anyway, I’m off now.”

She left the house after putting on her smart band. When she saw the alarm that notified her that there were three minutes until the bus arrived, she pulled her bag strap tight and started running. Thankfully, she managed to get on the bus.

Half of the people there were wearing school uniforms, while the other half weren’t. From what she heard, school uniforms were falling out of trend starting a decade ago, but there were still many schools that had uniforms.

She saw the school as soon as she got off: Eunsung High School.

Her footsteps were heavy when she thought that she didn’t have anyone she knew here. She walked past the school gates and went inside the entrance which was on the right.

She changed into her slippers and walked up the stairs. As soon as she stepped into the corridor, she saw her classroom.

Year 1 Class 1.

She calmed her breathing and stood in front of the door. She thought that everyone must be awkward with each other as she carefully opened the door and went inside.

“Really? Then we should go together.”

“I told you not to worry.”

“Did you watch the show yesterday?”

The classroom was bustling. Classroom assignment only came out a few days ago, but it seemed people had gotten close already as groups had already formed.

Dahae looked around before sitting in an empty spot. Wasn’t there anyone else sitting by themself?

She looked around and saw a few people. The first thought that came to her mind was that she was fortunate.

Just as she was thinking that she should get close to those people, even the ones she thought to be solitary islands turned out to belong to groups. Her classmates, laughing together and chatting, looked like a sturdy castle. She didn’t have the confidence to join any of them.

It was strange. She was one of the noisiest kids in class during middle school and was scolded a lot by the teachers, but she found it hard to speak here.

She rolled her eyes around before taking out her earbuds. She put them in her ears and put on a song. She pretended to be okay and indifferent and browsed through the school introduction on the tablet supplied by the school.

As the tablet was an old model, the speed was slow. It didn’t support AR either.

She turned off the tablet and tapped on the desk for a while before raising her head up. There wasn’t a single person who showed interest in her. They were all chatting in their own groups.

Having no choice, she took out a book. It was an old novel. Apparently, it was an old Russian classic, but it was hard to read because of the names of the characters. Despite that, she kept trying hard to read because she wanted to know what happened next.

She read for a while before raising her head at the sound of the door being opened. The girl who came in with a haggard breath soon sat down at the very front, a seat where no one sat even with more than ten students present in the classroom.

The classroom became quiet for a while before becoming noisy again. Like that, it turned 8:50 and the teacher came into the class.

Dahae looked at her classmates from the middle seat on the right row. There seemed to be around twenty people.

“Anyone who needs a paperback textbook should write up an application form on the school website. It’ll cost money per book so look at it carefully. But really, unless you really need it, you should just use the tablet. I’ve seen new books without a single mark on it get sent to recycling every year, and it’s really wasteful.”

After finishing her announcements, the homeroom teacher looked around and spoke,

“As for seats, you can just stay where you are seated now. I’ll explain this again in the afternoon, but I’ll be taking applications for self-study classes, so apply if you want to stay after school and study.”

“People going to cram schools don’t have to apply, right?”

“Those who want to go home can go home. It’s not mandatory, so it’s up to you to decide. When I was your age, we had a compulsory 0th period and whatnot, but it’s become such a good era to study.”

The homeroom teacher told them to prepare for class before leaving the classroom. It seemed that there were going to be lessons on the first day of school.

“Our teacher sounds like a pain to deal with.”

“I think she’s pretty decent.”

She could hear the kids next to her laugh and chat. Dahae glanced around before trying to join them, but she ended up failing. Ultimately, her eyes just went back to her book. It was when she tried hard to remember the Russian names and flipped the page over,

“Wow, you read books?” said a girl sitting next to her.

Dahae nodded, feeling glad.

“What type of book is it?”

“A novel.”

“So there are people who still read paperback, huh? That’s curious. Is that fun?”

“Somewhat? The names of the characters are hard, so it’s hard to read.”

Just as she was about to say a few words about the book, the girl who spoke to her chuckled before turning around, as though she had nothing more to talk about.

Dahae hesitated before closing the book. Well, it was a niche thing to read books in paperback. It was also a novel that wasn’t helpful towards grades.

Her teacher at the cram school also used to say that books were supposed to be read in elementary school and then once they were in society, they would ruin their grades if they invested their time in useless books during middle and high school.

Had she been still living in Gwangju surrounded by her friends, she wouldn’t have put her hands on books. In an era where videos replaced all forms of information communication, text, not to mention printed text, was out of fashion.

After break time, the teachers for various subjects came inside. Some teachers did classes while some teachers just joked around for the whole period.

-Freshman year, please come to the dining hall.

There was an announcement for lunch. The people in the class cheered before leaving the classroom. Dahae also cleaned her desk and stood up. She hadn’t gotten close to anyone here, but it was better to eat with her classmates.

Just as she was about to leave, she saw someone yawn and stand up slowly. It was the kid who slammed the door open in the morning.

She didn’t realize this when she saw her in the morning, but now that she had a closer look, that girl was really pretty. She would accept it if that girl said she was an aspiring idol.

She looked at that girl in a daze. Looking at her stretching her arms out like it was refreshing made her happy as well.

Then, she came to herself and looked outside the classroom. The people from her class had already disappeared. She went outside and saw a long line. The people from her class were already all the way toward the front. If she knew anyone, she would go up and stand with them, but Dahae had no choice but to stand with people from other classes.

She then thought about that girl from before and turned back. That girl was just coming out. She just stood at the back of the line like it was nothing. She looked to be bold with every action she took.

In that sense, she felt a little bitter because she couldn’t be like that. Dahae thought that she should try to get close to her classmates while eating.

She went to the dining hall and received food. She turned around with her food tray and looked for her classmates. She could see a few familiar faces gathered around one table. However, there were no empty seats.

She was standing still with the food tray when she felt a gaze. The girl who asked her about the book before was staring at her. She felt glad only for a moment, wondering if that girl would reach out to her, but Dahae felt her legs stiffen when she looked at the girl exchange looks with others and giggle. She could tell from this distance that they had teasing eyes.

For a moment, she was reminded of her middle school days. There was a kid who didn’t socialize. Some of the people who bullied that kid had expressions like that. Back then, she didn’t think much of it. There were people she was close to around her after all.

However, now that she received such a gaze when she was a loner, she felt her head spin. All sorts of negative thoughts came to her mind. As old-fashioned as the word may be, it shouldn’t be her fault for thinking of the word bullying, right?

“What are you doing?”

A voice woke her up from her thoughts. She turned around. It was that girl from before, looking at her with her big eyes.

Dahae blinked a few times before looking at that girl’s name tag. On top of the yellow name tag that signified the freshman year, the name ‘Han Gaeul’ was written on it.

“The food is going to turn cold.”

Gaeul left those words before walking past her.

Let’s eat together, let’s sit over there — there was none of this. Gaeul just sat down on an empty table that could hold ten people.

After Story 276

Gaeul’s eyes sparkled as she looked at the side dishes. She looked like she was focusing on the food in front of her, not caring about anything else around her.

Dahae looked at her classmates who gave her mocking smiles and then at Gaeul before moving to stand next to Gaeul.

“Uhm, can I sit next to you?”

“I didn’t reserve this place.”

“Huh?”

“It’s up to you to decide if you want to sit or not.”

Saying that, Gaeul pulled out a chair for her.

“Th-thanks.”

“If you’re thankful, can you buy me strawberry milk?”

“Strawberry… milk?”

“I like it a lot.”

Gaeul frowned slightly. She seemed to be looking at her name tag.

“Choi Dahae. I remember your name now.”

She seemed rather eccentric. Dahae ate her food before looking to the side. Gaeul had a happy expression on her face whenever she ate. This was the first time Dahae saw someone eating like they were on a TV show.

“Is it good?” she blurted out.

“It’s pretty okay. It’s not as good as the food I have at home, though. Especially this spicy salad. It lacks savoriness compared to what my mom makes at home. The fries are worse than what my dad makes.”

“Really? Sounds like your parents are good at cooking.”

“They say it’s a hobby, but in my eyes, they’re better at it than their real jobs.”

She nodded before continuing to eat. She put aside the spicy eggplant salad, which she didn’t eat, and ate all the rice. Maybe it was because there was someone eating so appetizingly next to her, but she ate more than usual.

“Are you not eating that?” Gaeul asked as she pointed at the eggplants.

“I’m not. I don’t like eggplants because of the texture.”

“That’s a pity. Eggplants are really good though. If you aren’t eating it, can I eat it?”

“Okay.”

She pushed the food tray to the side a little. Gaeul thanked her and grabbed the eggplants.

There’s no need for thanks when I gave you a side dish I don’t even eat — she inwardly smiled and watched as Gaeul ate. The way she chewed with that small mouth reminded her of a hamster she used to raise when she was young. Maybe they looked a little similar too.

She waited for Gaeul to empty the tray. After finishing her food, Gaeul looked at her and spoke,

“You waited for me?”

“Huh? Yeah. I was thinking we should go together.”

“Thanks for waiting then.”

“No, well…”

Was it a habit of hers to thank others for everything? — she wondered before standing up with the food tray. They drank some water from the water dispenser before leaving the dining hall.

“Lunch gets a pass. Going to school will be decent.”

Gaeul walked forward with a satisfied face. Her facial expressions were really colorful to the point that Dahae thought she wouldn’t be tired of looking at her all day.

On the way to the classroom, Gaeul turned around. Dahae stopped and looked at Gaeul who was heading to the school’s left entrance. Gaeul, who was walking ahead, turned around and spoke,

“You aren’t coming?”

“Huh?”

“Hurry up.”

Dahae tilted her head and followed Gaeul.

“The school convenience store?”

The place Gaeul went to was the school convenience store.

“If you give something, then you get something in return,” Gaeul said as she pulled her arm.

Dahae was startled. Her pulling strength was not ordinary. Considering her stature, it was abnormal.

“Do you do sports?” Dahae asked after pulling herself upright.

“I did try various things.”

“Various things?”

“Mom told me to try everything I wanted to do. I like sports, so I did various things.”

Gaeul grabbed a strawberry milk without hesitation. It seemed she really liked them. Dahae also grabbed one.

“Wait.”

Gaeul looked around before bringing some chocolates this time. It was the type that had almonds inside.

“This one’s really good.”

Gaeul had a smile as she said that.

They went back to the classroom with the snacks that Gaeul bought. Although Dahae only talked to her for a short time, Gaeul left a deep impression on her. She thought about a large dog she saw on the internet. A cool, large dog that’s innocent, smiles a lot, and yet still protects its turf properly.

She sat down and looked at Gaeul who was at the very front. She smiled when she saw Gaeul being happy while sipping strawberry milk.

“Hey, I heard you read books?” asked the one sitting to her left. She seemed to know the person sitting in front of her as those two exchanged gazes before smiling.

Dahae glanced at them before saying yes.

“What book is it? Let me have a look.”

“It’s just a novel.”

“So let me have a look. I’m curious.”

It was a clear mockery. Dahae looked around before taking out her book. The others came over and spoke,

“You must be very good at studying huh? You have time to spend on something like this.”

“Is your dream to become a novelist? Aren’t short novels being taken over by AI writers these days? It was like that in the old times, but I heard that it’s still hard to make a living out of it.”

“Hey, hey. Look at this. It’s a Russian novel.”

The girls who were giggling while going through the book eventually turned around after losing interest. Dahae stuffed the book she had on her desk into her desk drawer. She didn’t do anything wrong, but her face felt hot and she started feeling nervous.

Throughout all of the afternoon classes, the mockery of the others echoed in her ears. She had to think of it as nothing much, but she kept thinking about it. She looked around for anyone to talk to during break time, but everyone had their own partners already.

She looked toward Gaeul with hope, but she was deep asleep. She fell down instantly once the break bell rang, and it was curious how she fell asleep every time.

After the 8th period, the homeroom teacher came in.

“As I said in the morning, those who want to apply for self-study classes should do so. Also, numbers 1 through 12 are in charge of cleaning today. Tomorrow, the rest of you are in charge. Starting next week, a cleaning company will take over, so just bear with it for the rest of the week.”

“Yes.”

After class, the people who were in charge of cleaning were left in the classroom. Dahae also remained behind since she was number 11.

“Our area is the classroom, the hallway outside the classroom and the stairs.”

“Let’s just get it done quickly.”

The others talked to each other and decided on their areas. Dahae stood next to them stiffly. Of all people, everyone that teased her before was here.

“Dahae,” she looked at the girl who called out to her.

Nam Jungyeon. She was the girl who sat in front of her.

“We’ll do the classroom and the hallway, so you should do the stairs.”

“The stairs?”

“Yeah. It’ll be faster to split things up between us.”

“Okay.”

She felt like she was being swayed around, but she couldn’t say anything.

“But me alone?”

“The stairs aren’t even that big. Just do it by yourself. You just have to sweep each step with a broom and then wipe them with a mop. Easy, isn’t it? If you don’t get anything, just look it up in a book. You like books, don’t you?”

Hearing Jungyeon’s words, everyone laughed. Look at her face, it looks like she’s gonna cry — a boy even said that in a small voice as he looked at her.

Dahae quickly turned around. She didn’t have the confidence to keep a straight face while looking at them.

“Dahae, please.”

“Yes, Dahae. Let’s try our best. Or you can just do everything like your name says[1].”

“Wow, you’re a friend of mine, but you can come up with some terrible jokes. Dahae might be angry because that was so unfunny.”

“What? Do everything, Dahae. It’s funny, isn’t it?”

The words clearly contained a mocking tone.

Was it so easy to be bullied like this? Her knees started shaking. She started becoming a little afraid. What was she supposed to do if they kept treating her like this in the future?

Just then, she heard a series of claps.

“This is the first time I’m seeing something like this. Something as childish as this actually does happen, huh? Am I supposed to pay for a ticket?”

A clear voice could be heard. It was Gaeul. She was looking at the others while sitting on her desk.

Jungyeon looked at Gaeul and spoke,

“What?”

“Are you acting like that without knowing? That’s surprising in its own way.”

“If you want to say something, say it properly.”

Jungyeon frowned after she raised her voice. The people who seemed close to her gave Gaeul looks of hostility. The boys, who were just watching, kept looking as though it was fun.

“I’m saying I’ll go clean the stairs as well. Also, did something bad happen? Why are you so angry? If you make an angry face often, apparently you’ll regret it later on in life because it all remains on your face. An unni I know told me numerous times to watch out for wrinkles on the forehead.”

“What are you even saying?”

Gaeul, who came down from the desk, grabbed a mop.

“Just saying that you should do your best at cleaning. That way you can finish it off quickly and go home.”

Gaeul approached Dahae and tapped on her shoulder before leaving the classroom. Dahae escaped the frosty atmosphere in the classroom and followed Gaeul.

Having arrived at the stairs, Gaeul spoke,

“Mom used to say this to me: the fastest way to be taken advantage of is to stay quiet. Also, there’s another one: people should get angry when they need to be in order to be worth respecting. This is something my uncle said.”

Worth respecting. Dahae thought back to the novel she read during winter. She saw something like that in that book. It was a book that she liked a lot, and she remembered the author’s name as well: Park Daemyung.

“If you didn’t like me interrupting, then just tell me. I’ll apologize.”

“N-no, not at all. In fact, I’m thankful.”

“Really? Then buy me strawberry milk,” Gaeul winked and said.

For some reason, talking to Gaeul made her forget about all the tension and unease. Her worries felt insignificant as well.

Why did she stay still back then? — she even thought so. She didn’t do anything wrong, and if she didn’t like being bullied, then she should’ve just boldly said it.

When she calmed down, she smiled. This was not something to stiffen up about nor stay quiet about.

“I’ll sweep with the broom, so you can mop.”

“Wait a bit. I’ll go wash the mop.”

In an era where cleaning machines did almost all cleaning, wiping the floor with a mop with a wooden handle was something quite fun. In her middle school, there used to be a cleaning machine that cleaned the stairs with steam.

“Dad told me that they had wooden stairs in the old times and they had to wax everything. It was also common to get a wooden splinter stuck in your hand while wiping the floor with a dry rag.”

“That sounds like it’ll hurt.”

While they were cleaning, Gaeul kept bringing up episodes about cleaning.

Those stories that started with ‘dad’ were rather interesting. A cleaning exhibit that she didn’t even know about, drone-type cleaners, a towel made of advanced materials that specialize in removing stains, a cotton ball that perfectly removes all animal hair from furniture, etc.

“Does your father work at a cleaning company?” Dahae stopped mopping and asked.

“No, cleaning is a hobby for dad.”

“R-really? He cleans for a hobby?”

“From what I see, I’m sure he’s possessed by a ghost who died because they couldn’t clean. Thanks to that, I became a clean freak as well.”

For that to be true, though, she was perfectly fine sleeping with chocolate around her mouth. Dahae thought about what she saw during lunchtime and smiled.

“Do you talk to your dad a lot?”

“Yeah. Actually, up until elementary school, I thought everyone was like that. But I realized it when I went to middle school. It’s actually quite rare to talk about trivial things with your dad, huh? How is it in your house?”

“In my house? I think we’re pretty normal. I talk to mom a lot, but dad, not so much. He goes to work early and comes home late, so there’s no real time to talk either. He’s asleep most of the time on weekends.”

“My friends’ dads are similar. My dad is on the more eccentric side.”

“He sounds like a good person.”

Gaeul smiled instead of responding. Dahae could feel this while talking, but Gaeul looked like she was raised with lots of love. She was bold, upright and strong. Despite being the same age, she looked a lot more mature. Though, the way she acted in the school convenience store was like a kid.

“Would those guys from before hate it if I asked why they did that?” Gaeul asked as she swiped.

Dahae followed up with a mom and replied.

“It’s nothing much. They just seemed to have found the book I was reading interesting.”

“Book?”

“Yeah, a novel.”

“A book, huh.”

Gaeul leaned against the wall. Did she think that books were out of fashion as well?

“Books are good. I read them a lot. I personally prefer paperback. The feel of flipping over each page is really good. I like reading ebooks too, but they just lack something. Maybe it’s because I read books from the bookshelf since I was young.”

“Do you read books often? What books do you usually read?”

“Me? I don’t really have a preference; I read everything. If there’s a book on the sofa in the living room, I would have a look at the title first, then the table of contents, and skim through the first page and somewhere in the middle before deciding. If I like it, I’ll sit down and read, and I’ll pass if I don’t want to.”

“The sofa in the living room?”

Gaeul’s face twitched a little as she spoke.

“You see, I was brainwashed into this.”

“Brainwashed? What do you mean?”

“People’s environment, habits, and studies are really important when growing up, right? I was exposed to books from a young age. Okay, so, when I finish school and go home, there are times when mom and dad aren’t at home, but there are more times when they are. The moment I say I’m back, mom and dad would quietly go to the sofa and start reading. I grew up watching that, so at first, I must have imitated them without knowing anything. Then, before I realize it, I’m doing exactly that.”

“It sounds like your parents read a lot.”

“Reading is their hobby.”

“They have a lot of hobbies, huh.”

“I didn’t know this when I was young, but when I look at them now, both of them are very eccentric. Of course, I’m still young now.”

Dahae placed her chin on the tip of the mop. She wanted to listen to more of Gaeul’s stories.

“Did your parents say something if you didn’t read?”

“Not at all. Whether I read or not, they just let me be. But the thing is, there are so many interesting books that I couldn’t stop myself from reading. This is funny, but the thing is, during the weekends, when we all become sleepy after eating lunch, the three of us are all reading books in the living room. The only thing you can hear is the AC and the sound of rustling books. And if I look up, I see my mom and dad immersed in their books. It’s quite a fun experience to look at their dazed faces.”

“That’s not something I can imagine happening at my house. My parents told me numerous times to read when I was young, but I’ve never seen them actually read.”

“They are having a hard time, so it can’t be helped. My big uncle told me that people have the tendency to enforce what they lack on others. People who didn’t have an opportunity to study would tell others to study, while those who weren’t successful in life would preach to others that success is everything in life. That tendency is pronounced the most in parent-child relationships.”

“Is that how it is?”

“They want to do something for you hoping that you’d do well, but they say it in words because they can’t take action themselves. Sometimes, it becomes a problem when it’s excessive, but most of the time, it just comes in the form of nagging from your parents.”

“Hearing that makes me think that your parents are amazing. They’re showing you with actions instead of words, aren’t they?”

Gaeul frowned cutely and shook her head.

“Not really. My mom and dad just like reading.”

Just then, they heard people walking down the stairs from above. Dahae held her mop and stepped to the side. People who looked to be sophomores came down the stairs in groups.

“Hey, we’re gonna be late. The cram school van is already here.”

“Damn cram school van. Don’t they ever get into accidents?”

“Like hell they would.”

The figures of the shouting sophomores disappeared.

Dahae thought about the rows of cram school vehicles she saw from the classroom. As this school belonged to a pretty decent educational area, there should be many people who are earnestly studying.

“Gaeul, do you go to cram schools?”

“I guess I do.”

“Which one do you go to? English? Math? Or just general?”

“I go to art. No, that’s not right. I learn video editing and art too, so… let’s just say art.”

Dahae blinked and asked again,

“What about school subjects?”

“For now, that’s the only one I go to. It’s what I find fun. Before, I used to learn how to make pottery, but I lost interest after being able to make my own cup.”

“Aren’t you looking after your school grades?”

“I am. I’m studying a lot at school.”

“Isn’t that insufficient?”

“I thought about it, and studying is fun, but it’s not fun when I think about having to keep doing it. I just go through what’s in the textbook and dig deeper if I have an interest, but if not, then that’s it.”

“Aren’t you uneasy? It’s really hard to get into university these days.”

Gaeul nodded.

“University, huh? I honestly don’t plan to go to university. I’m pretty whimsical, so I might decide to go in my senior year, but for now, what I want to do isn’t related to an undergraduate degree at all.”

“Are you serious?”

In the late 2020s, the merger & closure of universities accelerated, consequently leading to the elevation of the positions of prestigious universities, while the rest became a university in name only by early 2030s. This was estimated to happen because of the low birth rate. These days, the times had changed and degrees from prestigious universities practically became a free pass for employment.

Dahae also thought about employment when she graduated middle school and prepared to get into university for the sake of employment. Everyone else lived like that as well.

Twenty or thirty years ago, people said that employment was something you prepared for in college, but times had changed. There were some high schools that ran employment classes.

In an era where studying was the foothold for employment, was it really okay to give up on going to university?

“If you’re having fun studying, then thinking like that is totally okay with me. But I’m not like that. I have things I’m better at compared to studying, and I want to improve on those. If that requires studying, I’ll do it to the point I start bleeding from my nose, but school subjects aren’t that. I want to maintain a moderate relationship with those subjects. If I become too close, it’s too much for me.”

“What if nothing comes out of that?”

“That’s why I’m trying out various things. There is bound to be something I can bring out my talent in. Definitely.”

Where was her confidence coming from? Dahae also once had a dream other than studying.

A nurse. That was her dream when she was in elementary school. Why a nurse, instead of a doctor, she couldn’t remember, but she told others that she wanted to be a nurse. A friend next to her said pianist, and the one next to them said artificial intelligence management. Someone next to that person then said president.

However, she graduated from that dream after graduating from elementary school. The moment she realized that becoming a nurse was hard and that the amount of work they had to do was extraordinary, she erased that from memory.

Now, her dream was to just go to a good university and get employed. That was the most realistic one after all.

“I’m not sure. I can’t be sure that there is anything other than studying I can do.”

“Sure? Well, can you be sure about anything in this world?”

“Studying gets you at least more than half the way.”

“Aren’t you saying that because that’s what everyone does?”

Gaeul, who was speaking, closed her eyes and shook her head.

“I’m not belittling studying. In fact, I think it’s quite amazing that people study like that. However, it’s not a bad idea to put down your studies if it’s not fun for you and try out something else. Mom always used to tell me this: It’s okay to waver. A path you found after wavering is a path of its own. That might become your own path.”

Gaeul put the broom on her shoulder and continued.

“Of course, the reason I can say this is thanks to my parents. It was my mom and dad who created an environment that let me think freely and support me. If they were having such a hard time that we were barely getting by, then I’m sure I would have turned out to be different now.”

“Are you rich?”

“I’m not sure about that. But I never thought that I was lacking anything. In that sense, I might be more than just rich.”

Saying that, Gaeul let out a sigh.

“But that’s just until high school. They said they’d pay for university if I go to one, but otherwise, I’ll have to do part-time jobs as soon as I graduate.”

“But you said you were well-off.”

“It’s my dad and my mom who are well off, not me. I don’t plan on being reliant on them either. Actually, I wanted to be independent when I went to high school, but dad was opposed to it until the end.”

“Independent? Isn’t that too early?”

“Whatever it is, the earlier you start, the better.”

“I’m not sure if that’s cool or strange.”

Dahae smiled and mopped the last stair.

It didn’t take that long when they were talking while doing it. She felt better too as she felt like she got to know Gaeul better.

This was how to make friends. There was no need to feel anxious, and just staying next to others would get you close to people who are on the same wavelength as you. That was what happened when she was in middle school as well.

“Can you tell me your number?” Dahae said as she took out her phone.

“Of course.”

They went back to the classroom together. They seemed done here as well as the boys were just about to leave with their bags. Some even thanked her for her work.

She saw Jungyeon and the other girls gathered around a window. The atmosphere was strange. It wasn’t just the ones who teased her about the book, as some that she had never spoken to before looked at her and gave her a mocking smile.

It was so blatant that she found it hard to ignore. The confidence she gained while talking to Gaeul disappeared instantly.

They smiled mockingly at Gaeul as well; Gaeul seemed completely unperturbed, however.

Dahae calmed her breathing and pretended to be calm. She got her bag and put her hand in her desk drawer.

The book that was supposed to be there wasn’t there.

[1] “Dahae” can sound like “Do everything”

After Story 277

She reflexively turned her head to face the girls sitting by the window. Jungyeon, who made eye contact with her, smiled faintly and turned around. There was a book in her hand.

Dahae stayed quiet and walked over to them.

“I believe that’s mine.”

“It is.”

“Why did you take it without permission?”

“Oh, don’t say that. I’m just having a look because I was curious.”

Jungyeon handed the book back to her. The moment she reached her hand out to take it, Jungyeon slightly pulled the book back.

“But what’s the reason you bothered to bring this all the way to school to read it? To show off?”

“No. I never even thought about that.”

Jungyeon looked at the people around her and spoke,

“I was just asking, yet you have to be so sassy. Well, I guess you were like that during the day too. I just asked out of curiosity, but you looked down on me. It’s like you were disdaining me for not reading.”

“Wh-what?”

“Look at her. Nayoung, didn’t you see it? I just asked out of curiosity, but Dahae shamed me.”

The one named Nayoung nodded while saying that she was right. Dahae was flabbergasted.

“When did I do that?”

“You didn’t? Then why did we feel like that? It’s not just me. The others felt the same.”

“What are you saying?”

She felt angry. At the same time, she thought that this girl was pretty incredible. What did she say to the others that made them look at her with hostility in such a short time?

“If you didn’t, then it’s you didn’t. There’s no need to snap out at us. I’m getting embarrassed again. Here, take it.”

Smiling, Jungyeon held out the book. When she tried to take it again, Jungyeon pulled it back again. She couldn’t help but bite her lower lip.

“Why aren’t you taking it? My arm hurts.”

When Jungyeon held out the book again, Dahae quickly reached out, grabbed the book, and pulled it with all her might.

“Ouch.”

Jungyeon rolled her hand and frowned. Along with a tick- sound, something fell on the floor. Dahae had a look at the floor. She caught sight of a pink fingernail tip. It seemed to have fallen off of Jungyeon’s finger when she pulled back the book.

“There was no need to go that far, was there?”

Jungyeon wrapped her hand and made a dejected expression. The girls next to her looked at her like she was being ridiculous as well. Dahae told them that she didn’t do it on purpose.

“You didn’t do it on purpose yet you snatched the book away like that? She broke her fingernail.”

“It’s not that.”

“Shouldn’t you be apologizing first? I really don’t like this girl. Hey, Choi Dahae. Is my friend a joke to you?”

Nayoung pushed Dahae on the shoulder with an index finger. Rather than ashamed, Dahae felt afraid. These girls probably knew how to be delinquents. Not just any delinquents, but those that never show it to the teachers and acted like model students.

“Nayoung, forget it. Maybe she doesn’t like us. Dahae, sorry for touching your book without permission.”

Jungyeon’s spiteful apology came out of nowhere. It felt like Dahae had become the bad girl for staying quiet.

“Someone who didn’t even do anything wrong apologized first yet she’s still like that. I looked that book up on the internet and saw that the main character of that book was a psychopath. Do you perhaps admire stuff like that? I’m scared now. Dahae, you aren’t going to stab me, are you? If you are, then please tell me about it beforehand,” Nayoung said with a smile.

Dahae rolled her eyes left and right before flinching a step back. Just as she took two steps back though,

“Hey, pick this up at least, will you? Jungyeon even apologized to you first,” someone else from the group said, pointing at the nail tip on the ground.

Dahae quietly looked at the girls before taking a step closer and bending down. She was about to stand up again when someone pressed down on the back of her neck strongly. She lost balance and toppled forward.

“Dahae, what is it?”

“Why did you fall over all by yourself?”

“Maybe she has a weak body.”

She could hear words reverberating above her head. Dahae held back her tears and stood up with the nail tip.

“Here.”

“Dahae, your eyes are really red. Are you crying?”

“Stop it now. I’m sorry. But I really didn’t do it on purpose.”

“Yes, I’m sure you didn’t do it on purpose. I understand.”

Jungyeon smiled brightly. Dahae tensed her strength because she felt like she was about to cry. She just had to breathe well and turn around.

“But Dahae, this is pretty expensive.”

“What?”

“This isn’t one mass-produced at a factory, but a custom-made one at a nail shop. The unni that makes this is really famous. I went to her workshop over the weekend and had the fake fingernail custom-made for the size of my fingers. It’s hand-made so it’s really expensive.”

“How… much is it?”

“If I want to do it again, I have to pay at least 400 thousand. That’s why I only did it on two fingers.”

“No way.”

“What are you saying? If you don’t believe it, you can look it up,” Jungyeon said boldly.

She didn’t look like she was saying a lie that would be exposed easily. Was it truly 400 thousand won? If true, she would have to save up her pocket money for four months straight.

“Did auntie Sora make that?”

A voice jumped in. Gaeul was next to her before she knew it.

“You know about it too?” Jungyeon said in agreement.

“I do. Auntie Sora is really good at crafts. I believe the price is about 400 thousand.”

“Dahae, did you hear that?”

Gaeul shouldn’t be lying. Was it truly 400 thousand won, then? She couldn’t help but sigh at the cost.

“But are you sure auntie Sora made this?” Gaeul spoke again.

Jungyeon frowned.

“If you don’t know that well, then you can stay out of it. Who are you to have been calling her auntie for a while now?”

“No, no. I just know her personally. I’ve seen this style before. But there aren’t many people that received it. Auntie gave them only to special people. Also, if it is what I think it is, then 400 thousand won isn’t nearly enough.”

“…What do you know?”

“Wait a sec.”

Gaeul took the nail tip and took a photo of it with her phone. She seemed to be looking it up. There were all sorts of related products on the internet.

“There are so many fakes like this. Whenever there’s a new release at her workshop, there’s a counterfeit produced the next day in China.”

“I really went to Sora-unni’s workshop and did it.”

“Really?”

“Yes!”

Jungyeon’s voice became higher. Nayoung, who was next to her, also chimed in,

“What are you doing? Choi Dahae was the one in the wrong, so why are you saying something to Jungyeon?”

“I’m not saying anything to her. I’m just saying we should check the facts. It’d be tiring for both parties to shout and fight.”

“Fight? Do you think we’re fighting here?”

Nayoung raised her index finger. It looked as though she was about to push Gaeul like how she pushed Dahae before. The moment her finger landed on Gaeul’s shoulder, however…

Dahae felt a breeze. Gaeul snatched Nayoung’s hand and twisted it above her head. It happened so quickly that it took some time for her to realize what exactly was happening even though it was happening right in front of her eyes.

Ack – Nayoung shouted. The girls next to her all flinched back.

“Gosh, that startled me. It shouldn’t hurt that much to shout like that.”

“Let me go!”

“Mom said something to me the first time we sparred. Those who know that it hurts to get hit don’t fight easily. But unexpectedly, there are many people who don’t know that it hurts to get hit. That’s why they hit others without restraint.”

“I get it, so let me go!”

“You’re acting so weak. I didn’t even put a lock on you properly. I didn’t stretch any ligament and it’s just slightly bent, but you’re making a fuss.”

When Gaeul let go, Nayoung frowned and backed off. Gaeul, who was looking at the group who were gathered up like a pack of meerkats, turned her head around to Dahae.

“I was going to keep watching if nothing special happened. You were trying to endure and overcome those people, but I felt like she was lying. That’s not something I could stand. You aren’t uncomfortable that I interrupted, are you?”

Dahae felt that it was very much like Gaeul to ask something like that in this situation. She shook her head. She felt a twinge on her nose, and she felt much more relaxed ever since Gaeul came over.

“Nam Jungyeon. Good, I remember you now. And also, wait a moment.”

Gaeul put her phone against her ear. She seemed to be calling someone.

“Auntie, I’m Gaeul. Are you okay with a video call? I need you to check something for me.”

Gaeul showed her the phone screen. A woman in her mid-thirties, no early forties, was yawning on the other side.

But who was that? — she tilted her head and looked at Jungyeon. Jungyeon seemed to know the person quite well. She was startled before shrinking her shoulder and covering her hand. She seemed to be hiding the rest of her fingers.

-What do you want me to have a look at?

“There’s a girl who says she has the nail tips that you made. But as far as I know, you only gave the nails with pink waves to mom.”

-Oh, those? There were many fakes that came out. Other than the one your mom has, everything else is fake. Especially the ones that say they came from my workshop.

“Then what about this one?”

Gaeul reached her hand out. Jungyeon’s hand was relentlessly pulled forward. Having experienced Gaeul’s strength for herself in the convenience store, Dahae thought that even boys wouldn’t be able to endure if Gaeul decided to use her strength.

-That’s crude. It’s hard to even call it a fake.

“I see.”

-But what is it?

“Nothing much, auntie. You should sleep now. Sorry for waking you up.”

-You woke me up and won’t even tell me what it’s about?

“I’m sorry. I love you.”

-You’re the same as your mom in glossing over things like that. Geez, you’re her daughter alright.

“I’ll go over to play later. Let’s talk then.”

-Alright, have fun at school.

The call ended. Jungyeon’s eyes turned uneasy.

“I… need to go to cram school.”

Jungyeon left the classroom. Nayoung and another girl quickly followed suit. The remaining girls looked at each other before coming over with a smile.

“There was something strange about her. Jungyeon, was it? She’s really funny.”

“Right. Dahae, are you okay?”

They talked for a while among themselves as though nothing had happened before they too left the classroom with their bags.

Dahae took a deep breath before uttering it out. She felt dizzy. If Gaeul didn’t step in at the right time, she would’ve suffered inwardly all by herself. Perhaps she might have handed money to Jungyeon. Just as she was about to thank her,

“Wow, my heart is fluttering.”

Gaeul fell to the ground. Dahae had a look at Gaeul, surprised.

“What is it? Are you hurt?”

“Not really. I just lost my tension.”

“Lost your tension?”

Gaeul let out an awkward smile.

“Of course I was scared. There were so many of them. I was having a hard time because my heart was thumping too hard while speaking. I thought they could hear it.”

Now that she looked at her again, Gaeul seemed to have turned slightly pale. Her lips looked parched as well. They were symptoms of being nervous.

“Can you pull me up? I think I lost strength in my legs.” Gaeul reached her hand out.

Dahae grabbed her hand. The hand was trembling like a phone on vibrate mode.

Feeling bad, she grabbed the hand tightly and pulled her up. Having stood up, Gaeul started breathing slowly.

“Were you really that scared? You didn’t look the part though. You twisted that girl’s arm and spoke boldly.”

“It was an act. It’s what I watched growing up, so I’m pretty confident.”

“That was an act?”

“Was that okay? Dad never got fooled even once, but my classmates were pretty easily fooled.”

Now I’m okay — Gaeul let out a big breath.

Dahae couldn’t help but smile. That was an act? She pretended and was holding back her fear?

“You’re a really strange kid.”

“I do be like that.”

Gaeul’s eyes then looked at the book in her hand.

“So it’s that one. I had fun reading it too.”

“You read this?”

“Yes, I did. It was one of the books in the pile when uncle was gathering materials for his next work. He said something about how classics were always helpful.”

Just why was it so relieving to hear that she enjoyed the book… Dahae felt her tension relax. Maybe because of that, the tears she was holding back despite her frustrations, anger, and fear started falling down.

“I guess my appearance was touching,” Gaeul said with a serious expression.

Dahae immediately burst into laughter and wiped her eyes.

“Gaeul.”

“Yeah?”

“Should I buy you strawberry milk?”

“Err… that’s really good, but it’s time to go home and eat dinner now. I don’t have an appetite if I eat something right before dinner.”

“So you keep things like that, huh?”

“Food is important.”

Gaeul looked at the clock in the classroom and spoke,

“Dahae, are you fine on time today?”

“Me? Yeah. I don’t have cram school today.”

“Then do you want to come over to my house?”

“Your house?”

“You should come and eat with us. I’ll lend you some books as well. I just thought of a book that’ll match your preferences.”

“Is it okay to visit so suddenly? Your parents will not be okay with it.”

Gaeul vigorously shook her head.

“You’ll definitely be welcomed. Absolutely. In fact, they’ll tell me off if I don’t bring you home.”

“Still…”

“If you don’t like it, then you don’t have to come. I’m not forcing you at all.”

Dahae immediately spoke,

“No, I want to go.”

“Then there’s no need to hesitate. Wait a sec.”

Gaeul called someone. She started off with ‘mom’ before handing her phone to Dahae halfway through the conversation.

“Mom wants to speak to you.”

“Me?”

Dahae cautiously received the phone.

-Are you Gaeul’s friend?

“Yes.”

-Hold Gaeul’s hand and come over. There’s no need to hold back at all, okay?

“Is it really okay?”

-I’ll be sad if you don’t. Okay?

“Yes, ma’am. I’ll go.”

Dahae thought as she returned the phone that she felt like she heard that voice a lot before. Where was it…?

“Let’s go.”

Gaeul smiled and started walking. Dahae got on the bus following Gaeul. Not long later, they got off. There was a high-rise apartment right in front of the bus stop.

Even Dahae, who was clueless when it came to real estate, knew how expensive this apartment was, which there were only two of.

“You live here?”

“Yeah.”

“Are you actually rich?”

Gaeul smiled and went inside. They were only able to get to the floor they wanted after passing two gates that required a resident’s pass, one before the elevator and one after getting on the elevator.

“Come on in.”

Gaeul opened the door. The moment she opened the front door, Dahae saw three cats and two dogs playing around on the other side of the transparent door to the porch.

“Your daughter and her friend are here,” Gaeul said as she took off her shoes.

Dahae also took off her shoes in a hurry before standing next to Gaeul.

There was space to wash their hands in the corridor that led to the living room. On the side were three places that looked to be dress rooms.

Just the corridor of this house seemed to be larger than her entire house.

“You’re here?”

It was the voice of the madam that she heard through the phone.

Dahae tried to stand upright and greet properly, but the moment she saw the madam’s face, she froze up on the spot.

After Story 278 (fin)

“You’re here?”

It was Han Haneul. She, someone who was several times, no, a hundred times more suited to be called a sister than a mother, was greeting her with a smile.

“Er, er… er…”

What should she say? She barely managed to speak while in a daze,

“I saw you a lot in ads.”

“That’s the most eccentric greeting I have received among the guests who visited our house. I like it.”

“Er, you are actress Han Haneul, right?”

Gaeul, who was next to her, laughed and slapped Dahae on the back.

“Mom, hear that? Actress Han Haneul, she says. Oh my word.”

“Just know that that’s how mom gets treated outside. Also, young miss, is it okay if I talk to you a little more comfortably?”

Dahae immediately replied “yes” in a loud voice.

Han Haneul came over. All she had in her mind was that a doll was walking.

“Once again, welcome.”

Dahae looked at Haneul grabbing her hands. Was this a dream?

“Where’s dad?” Gaeul asked.

The moment she heard that, Dahae widened her mouth. If Gaeul’s mother was Han Haneul, then she knew her dad as well.

“He’ll be a little late. We can eat dinner first. Uhm, what’s your name?”

“It’s Dahae. Choi Dahae.”

“Dahae, do you happen to dislike seafood?”

“No, I like it.”

“That’s a relief.”

Dahae sniffed. A spicy smell was flowing out of the kitchen. Her appetite was roused the moment she smelled that food. She could immediately understand Gaeul’s attitude towards non-home-made food.

“Should we wash our hands and eat?”

Dahae nodded. She still couldn’t discern if this was reality or a dream.

* * *

Maru put on the dinosaur costume that he placed on the passenger seat. It was something that had been briefly trending around ten years ago, and he managed to obtain it when he went to a shoot. He put on the dinosaur outfit made of vinyl and turned on the power for the motor that was attached to the inside. After a while, the costume puffed up and the dinosaur shape was made.

“What is it today?” asked the security officer.

Maru replied with a smile,

“A dinosaur.”

“You really bring some peculiar stuff home, Mr. Maru.”

“Isn’t it fun?”

“It’s fun, but can you tag your ID with that hand?”

“Ah, right.”

“I’ll do it for you so go up quickly. Everyone in the lobby is staring at you.”

“It’s okay since they can’t see my face.”

He waddled his way over to the elevator. A young child and his mother stood next to him. They were neighbors whom he often greeted.

“Mr. Han Maru… right?”

“Yes.”

“I think this every time, but there’s a big disparity between seeing you in real life and seeing you in a drama.”

“Aren’t I charming?”

The child’s mother faintly smiled before shaking her head. It turned out his neighbor had a very firm opinion on that.

“But I think my boy will like it. Eunseok, it’s a dinosaur. Your favorite dinosaur.”

A boy around the age of five stared at him before turning his head away as though to indicate that such a crude balloon outfit wasn’t his preference. It turned out that both the mother and the son had similar traits.

He got on the elevator. The security officer who came with him tagged the card and handed the card to the short arm of the costume.

“Thank you.”

The elevator opened again on the 13th floor. He got out of the elevator and stood in front of his house. Perhaps because of the dinosaur outfit, but the sensor on the door didn’t recognize him.

He took off the head of the dinosaur for a moment and stood in front of the sensor. Soon, his face was recognized and the door opened.

Going inside, he quickly rushed over to the kitchen to show his wife and daughter, who should be eating, his new outfit.

Kraar! – he shouted when he moved in front of the kitchen. That was when he discovered… a young girl looking at him with an extremely confused expression.

“Dahae.”

“Huh, yeah?”

“That’s my dad. He does that from time to time, but it’s okay. You don’t need to be scared.”

“Oh, okay.”

Maru rolled up the spread-out arms and turned off the motor inside the costume. The stiff dinosaur head deflated and soon sank down.

He took off the vinyl head that had rested on his head and spoke,

“So we had a guest.”

“She’s Choi Dahae, a friend of mine.”

“Hello.”

“Hello, and welcome.”

Maru smiled bitterly and fully took off the vinyl outfit. His wife, watching him, spoke,

“Sweetie, go and wash your hands. I’ll make you some food.”

“Alright. Er, Miss Dahae, was it?”

His daughter’s friend replied with a ‘yes,’ her voice lacking energy as though she was still taken aback.

“I don’t do this all the time. Please don’t misunderstand. I might not be as cool as I am in a movie, but still…”

“Honey, go and wash your hands.”

His wife told him to go to the bathroom. He collected the vinyl outfit, tossed it into the bedroom, and washed his hands in the bathroom.

He felt like he could see the face of his daughter’s friend in the mirror. What the heck is this dude doing? – her face seemed to say.

“That didn’t work, huh.”

He scratched his eyebrows and chuckled before leaving.

* * *

“You should’ve told me about it beforehand.”

“Who was it that didn’t answer my calls? I’m sure you didn’t even bother checking your phone because you were excited to come in wearing that dinosaur outfit,” said his wife.

He had nothing to say because she was entirely right.

“But dad, it was pretty cute.”

His daughter seemed to have taken a liking to the dinosaur outfit. She tried it on before Dahae went home, and she hadn’t taken it off even though it was nearly 9 p.m.

“I’m glad that you understand at least.”

“I should wear this to school one day.”

“I don’t think the teachers will be so happy.”

“They’ll forgive me once. And if I wear this, everyone will laugh. That makes a scolding worth it.”

His daughter left the house with the outfit on, saying that she wanted to try taking a walk in it. If the neighbors saw her, they would probably think ‘like father, like daughter.’

“Sheesh, I wonder whose daughter that is,” said his wife.

“Uhm, wasn’t it pretty cute?”

“Wasn’t what cute?”

“When I came in wearing a dinosaur costume.”

His wife gave him a side glance before speaking in a small voice,

“I guess you were cute.”

She smiled and sat down next to him.

“But where did you get it?”

“I saw it during a shoot. That’s why I got two of them.”

“Two of them?”

“There’s another one in the car. We should go around wearing it together.”

“You think I’ll wear something like that?”

“Probably?”

His wife crossed her arms. She seemed to think for a while before speaking,

“Color?”

“Orange.”

“Perfect.”

“Of course. I know your preferences.”

“But I feel like there are all sorts of events popping up prior to and after our wedding anniversary. Is it just me?”

“We should try various things while we’re still young. If we get old, we won’t be able to do things like that because of our knees hurting.”

Maru smiled and looked at a photo on the wall of the living room. It was a photo he took alongside Haneul in a large photo frame. It was the photo they took with the dress and tuxedo that Haneul had custom-made during their wedding.

Next to that were photos they took with Gaeul.

One when she was in elementary school, one when she was in middle school, and once she graduated high school, they would put another one there.

“Gaeul’s now in high school,” he said while holding his wife’s hand.

“Right,” Haneul replied, leaning her head against his shoulder.

“She grew up well, didn’t she?”

“That she did.”

Thankfully, their daughter grew up healthy. It was great that she grew up without suffering from a big sickness.

“It’d be great if Gaeul came home a little late,” he said to his wife.

“What are you doing?”

“Well, what do you think I’m doing?”

“I heard it’s not right to do it between family members.”

“Then let’s say we aren’t family for a moment.”

Just as he put his hand behind Haneul’s neck and slowly pulled her towards him, the door opened along with some sounds from the sensor. He twitched his eyes and let go.

“You should finish what you started.”

His wife’s lips came closer. Their lips brushed past each other. Even after all this time, she knew how to fire him up.

“I can’t have you displaying affection in the sacred living room,” said their daughter as she came in.

His wife winked at her before standing up.

“Dad, can you give this to me?”

“It’s mine.”

“Then where do I buy it? I’ll buy it with my allowance.”

“I can look into that for you. But what do you need it for?”

“I want to try shooting a video. It’ll be fun.”

His daughter grinned before going inside the room.

Their daughter was a personification of content creation. She had a talent for expressing what was inside her mind. As long as she was directed down the right path, she would become a good content creator.

“My girl, would you like some help?”

“No! I need to come up with the composition by myself.”

“Tell me if you need any help. Dad will help you out for cheap.”

“Don’t need it.”

He smiled and went into the study.

* * *

“Thank you for coming today.”

Maru smiled and sat down when the principal gestured to him.

“Not at all. In fact, thank you for inviting me today.”

“Actually, we were really hesitant to ask at first. We were wondering if it was really okay to ask you to do something like this and if you wouldn’t like it.”

“Not at all. I’m grateful that you’ve given me an opportunity to meet the children like this.”

He talked about a lot of things with the principal over some tea.

“It’s about time.”

“Oh, already?”

“The hall is right nearby, so let us go together. And before we go…”

The principal held out some autograph paper. They were pretty good quality.

“May I ask for a few autographs?”

“Of course.”

“My wife is an avid fan of yours. My children like you as well.”

“I’m happy to hear that. May I know the names of the recipients…”

After signing autographs, they left the principal’s office. He said hello to the teachers who were waiting for him and then moved to the hall next to the sports ground.

When they went inside, he saw hundreds of students. They seemed to have noticed him as they murmured for a while before cheering.

“Quiet, quieten down!” The teachers next to them shouted.

However, the fuss in the hall did not calm down.

“It’d be better if I go up now. Is that okay?”

“Of course, please do.”

Maru went up on the platform. Behind him was a banner that said “Guest Lecture at Eunsung High School.”

He stood in front of the mic and had a look around. He spotted his daughter in the distance, looking at him like she discovered something interesting.

“Hello. I’m Han Maru, an actor.”

As soon as he said his greetings, he heard a loud cheer erupt. He waited for the cheers to die down before continuing,

“I’m very happy to meet all of you like this today. Some of you might be wondering ‘why is that person here?’ and you’d be right to be confused. I’m no one special. I’m just an actor who does acting for a profession. That’s why doing a ‘lecture’ is a little awkward for me. Please relax and listen to me. It’s just some old man speaking in front of you.”

Maru eyed the person on the side. Some snacks that the students could eat were handed out.

“You can listen while you eat, and you can doze off if you’re tired. I asked the faculty beforehand to turn a blind eye to whatever you do for the next two hours.”

“Is it really okay to sleep?” shouted a boy sitting at the front.

He looked like he was a mischievous one. He spoke into the mic,

“Of course. I know how tiring it must be for all of you around this time. Everyone here goes to cram schools, right?”

Yeeees — a loud response came back.

“It’s illegal to open a cram school after midnight because of the law, but I know that people are circumventing that in various ways to study; I know that it’s hard to stay awake during a lecture like this. So you can sleep if you’re tired. That might instead be more beneficial for you.”

He paused for a moment before continuing,

“From what I hear, the school has supposedly invited a lot of famous people to give lectures. I think it’s a great policy on the school’s part.”

He gestured toward the students who quietly looked at him.

“You can listen while eating. If you aren’t feeling hungry, you’re welcome to put it away and eat it later.”

As soon as he spoke, everyone opened the plastic bags and started eating. Maru watched them for around two minutes.

“Alright, then. Now you’re free to listen to me or not listen to me while you eat. If you’re tired, you can sleep too. I’ve also heard a lot of lectures like this, but to be honest with you, you don’t get much out of it by the end. It’s quite obvious why if you think about it. It’s a really difficult thing to obtain something from someone else’s success story. After all, it’s a success story that’s specific to them.”

Hearing that, the students who were eating, stopped. He seemed to have piqued their interest.

“But, I’m not saying that all those lectures are worthless. I have heard that there are around 700 of you here. 700, that’s quite a lot. It’s impossible to give inspiration to every single one of you. That’s why I always say this on an occasion like this: If there’s one, two, or three people who encounter a change after listening to me, I’ll be very happy and satisfied.”

He pulled out the mic from the stand and walked around the platform. His steps were relaxed as though he was on a stage.

“I’ll lower the volume of my voice a little for the people who are going to sleep.”

The lower his voice became, the brighter the eyes of the students became.

Maru looked at where his daughter was sitting and then the people sitting around her. Among them, three of them had visited their house before.

He thought that it would be sufficient as long as his voice reached his daughter and those three.

“That’s some very good concentration. Then allow me to start.”

Maru stood at the edge of the platform and spoke,

“Before I talk about my experiences as an actor, I would like to ask you a question. If you had lived countless lives, so many that you got sick and tired of living, and then were finally faced with your last life, what kind of life would you live?”

Han Maru skimmed through the students before looking straight at his daughter. His daughter’s eyes were sparkling as though she had an answer already.

He spoke and continued,

“And so, if you were to live your life, once again, what would you be focusing on? Let us try to think about the answer to this question first.”

Table of Contents

Prologue
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Chapter 39
Chapter 40
Chapter 41
Chapter 42
Chapter 43
Chapter 44
Chapter 45
Chapter 46
Chapter 47
Chapter 48
Chapter 49
Chapter 50
Chapter 51
Chapter 52
Chapter 53
Chapter 54
Chapter 55
Chapter 56
Chapter 57
Chapter 58
Chapter 59
Chapter 60
Chapter 61
Chapter 62
Chapter 63
Chapter 64
Chapter 65
Chapter 66
Chapter 67
Chapter 68
Chapter 69
Chapter 70
Chapter 71
Chapter 72
Chapter 73
Chapter 74
Chapter 75
Chapter 76
Chapter 77
Chapter 78
Chapter 79
Chapter 80
Chapter 81
Chapter 82
Chapter 83
Chapter 84
Chapter 85
Chapter 86
Chapter 87
Chapter 88
Chapter 89
Chapter 90
Chapter 91
Chapter 92
Chapter 93
Chapter 94
Chapter 95
Chapter 96
Chapter 97
Chapter 98
Chapter 99
Chapter 100
Chapter 101
Chapter 102
Chapter 103
Chapter 104
Chapter 105
Chapter 106
Chapter 107
Chapter 108
Chapter 109
Chapter 110
Chapter 111
Chapter 112
Chapter 113
Chapter 114
Chapter 115
Chapter 116
Chapter 117
Chapter 118
Chapter 119
Chapter 120
Chapter 121
Chapter 122
Chapter 123
Chapter 124
Chapter 125
Chapter 126
Chapter 127
Chapter 128
Chapter 129
Chapter 130
Chapter 131
Chapter 132
Chapter 133
Chapter 134
Chapter 135
Chapter 136
Chapter 137
Chapter 138
Chapter 139
Chapter 140
Chapter 141
Chapter 142
Chapter 143
Chapter 144
Chapter 145
Chapter 146
Chapter 147
Chapter 148
Chapter 149
Chapter 150
Chapter 151
Chapter 152
Chapter 153
Chapter 154
Chapter 155
Chapter 156
Chapter 157
Chapter 158
Chapter 159
Chapter 160
Chapter 161
Chapter 162
Chapter 163
Chapter 164
Chapter 165
Chapter 166
Chapter 167
Chapter 168
Chapter 169
Chapter 170
Chapter 171
Chapter 172
Chapter 173
Chapter 174
Chapter 175
Chapter 176
Chapter 177
Chapter 178
Chapter 179
Chapter 180
Chapter 181
Chapter 182
Chapter 183
Chapter 184
Chapter 185
Chapter 186
Chapter 187
Chapter 188
Chapter 189
Chapter 190
Chapter 191
Chapter 192
Chapter 193
Chapter 194
Chapter 195
Chapter 196
Chapter 197
Chapter 198
Chapter 199
Chapter 200
Chapter 201
Chapter 202
Chapter 203
Chapter 204
Chapter 205
Chapter 206
Chapter 207
Chapter 208
Chapter 209
Chapter 210
Chapter 211
Chapter 212
Chapter 213
Chapter 214
Chapter 215
Chapter 216
Chapter 217
Chapter 218
Chapter 219
Chapter 220
Chapter 221
Chapter 222
Chapter 223
Chapter 224
Chapter 225
Chapter 226
Chapter 227
Chapter 228
Chapter 229
Chapter 230
Chapter 231
Chapter 232
Chapter 233
Chapter 234
Chapter 235
Chapter 236
Chapter 237
Chapter 238
Chapter 239
Chapter 240
Chapter 241
Chapter 242
Chapter 243
Chapter 244
Chapter 245
Chapter 246
Chapter 247
Chapter 248
Chapter 249
Chapter 250
Chapter 251
Chapter 252
Chapter 253
Chapter 254
Chapter 255
Chapter 256
Chapter 257
Chapter 258
Chapter 259
Chapter 260
Chapter 261
Chapter 262
Chapter 263
Chapter 264
Chapter 265
Chapter 266
Chapter 267
Chapter 268
Chapter 269
Chapter 270
Chapter 271
Chapter 272
Chapter 273
Chapter 274
Chapter 275
Chapter 276
Chapter 277
Chapter 278
Chapter 279
Chapter 280
Chapter 281
Chapter 282
Chapter 283
Chapter 284
Chapter 285
Chapter 286
Chapter 287
Chapter 288
Chapter 289
Chapter 290
Chapter 291
Chapter 292
Chapter 293
Chapter 294
Chapter 295
Chapter 296
Chapter 297
Chapter 298
Chapter 299
Chapter 300
Chapter 301
Chapter 302
Chapter 303
Chapter 304
Chapter 305
Chapter 306
Chapter 307
Chapter 308
Chapter 309
Chapter 310
Chapter 311
Chapter 312
Chapter 313
Chapter 314
Chapter 315
Chapter 316
Chapter 317
Chapter 318
Chapter 319
Chapter 320
Chapter 321
Chapter 322
Chapter 323
Chapter 324
Chapter 325
Chapter 326
Chapter 327
Chapter 328
Chapter 329
Chapter 330
Chapter 331
Chapter 332
Chapter 333
Chapter 334
Chapter 335
Chapter 336
Chapter 337
Chapter 338
Chapter 339
Chapter 340
Chapter 341
Chapter 342
Chapter 343
Chapter 344
Chapter 345
Chapter 346
Chapter 347
Chapter 348
Chapter 349
Chapter 350
Chapter 351
Chapter 352
Chapter 353
Chapter 354
Chapter 355
Chapter 356
Chapter 357
Chapter 358
Chapter 359
Chapter 360
Chapter 361
Chapter 362
Chapter 363
Chapter 364
Chapter 365
Chapter 366
Chapter 367
Chapter 368
Chapter 369
Chapter 370
Chapter 371
Chapter 372
Chapter 373
Chapter 374
Chapter 375
Chapter 376
Chapter 377
Chapter 378
Chapter 379
Chapter 380
Chapter 381
Chapter 382
Chapter 383
Chapter 384
Chapter 385
Chapter 386
Chapter 387
Chapter 388
Chapter 389
Chapter 390
Chapter 391
Chapter 392
Chapter 393
Chapter 394
Chapter 395
Chapter 396
Chapter 397
Chapter 398
Chapter 399
Chapter 400
Chapter 401
Chapter 402
Chapter 403
Chapter 404
Chapter 405
Chapter 406
Chapter 407
Chapter 408
Chapter 409
Chapter 410
Chapter 411
Chapter 412
Chapter 413
Chapter 414
Chapter 415
Chapter 416
Chapter 417
Chapter 418
Chapter 419
Chapter 420
Chapter 421
Chapter 422
Chapter 423
Chapter 424
Chapter 425
Chapter 426
Chapter 427
Chapter 428
Chapter 429
Chapter 430
Chapter 431
Chapter 432
Chapter 433
Chapter 434
Chapter 435
Chapter 436
Chapter 437
Chapter 438
Chapter 439
Chapter 440
Chapter 441
Chapter 442
Chapter 443
Chapter 444
Chapter 445
Chapter 446
Chapter 447
Chapter 448
Chapter 449
Chapter 450
Chapter 451
Chapter 452
Chapter 453
Chapter 454
Chapter 455
Chapter 456
Chapter 457
Chapter 458
Chapter 459
Chapter 460
Chapter 461
Chapter 462
Chapter 463
Chapter 464
Chapter 465
Chapter 466
Chapter 467
Chapter 468
Chapter 469
Chapter 470
Chapter 471
Chapter 472
Chapter 473
Chapter 474
Chapter 475
Chapter 476
Chapter 477
Chapter 478
Chapter 479
Chapter 480
Chapter 481
Chapter 482
Chapter 483
Chapter 484
Chapter 485
Chapter 486
Chapter 487
Chapter 488
Chapter 489
Chapter 490
Chapter 491
Chapter 492
Chapter 493
Chapter 494
Chapter 495
Chapter 496
Chapter 497
Chapter 498
Chapter 499
Chapter 500
Chapter 501
Chapter 502
Chapter 503
Chapter 504
Chapter 505
Chapter 506
Chapter 507
Chapter 508
Chapter 509
Chapter 510
Chapter 511
Chapter 512
Chapter 513
Chapter 514
Chapter 515
Chapter 516
Chapter 517
Chapter 518
Chapter 519
Chapter 520
Chapter 521
Chapter 522
Chapter 523
Chapter 524
Chapter 525
Chapter 526
Chapter 527
Chapter 528
Chapter 529
Chapter 530
Chapter 531
Chapter 532
Chapter 533
Chapter 534
Chapter 535
Chapter 536
Chapter 537
Chapter 538
Chapter 539
Chapter 540
Chapter 541
Chapter 542
Chapter 543
Chapter 544
Chapter 545
Chapter 546
Chapter 547
Chapter 548
Chapter 549
Chapter 550
Chapter 551
Chapter 552
Chapter 553
Chapter 554
Chapter 555
Chapter 556
Chapter 557
Chapter 558
Chapter 559
Chapter 560
Chapter 561
Chapter 562
Chapter 563
Chapter 564
Chapter 565
Chapter 566
Chapter 567
Chapter 568
Chapter 569
Chapter 570
Chapter 571
Chapter 572
Chapter 573
Chapter 574
Chapter 575
Chapter 576
Chapter 577
Chapter 578
Chapter 579
Chapter 580
Chapter 581
Chapter 582
Chapter 583
Chapter 584
Chapter 585
Chapter 586
Chapter 587
Chapter 588
Chapter 589
Chapter 590
Chapter 591
Chapter 592
Chapter 593
Chapter 594
Chapter 595
Chapter 596
Chapter 597
Chapter 598
Chapter 599
Chapter 600
Chapter 601
Chapter 602
Chapter 603
Chapter 604
Chapter 605
Chapter 606
Chapter 607
Chapter 608
Chapter 609
Chapter 610
Chapter 611
Chapter 612
Chapter 613
Chapter 614
Chapter 615
Chapter 616
Chapter 617
Chapter 618
Chapter 619
Chapter 620
Chapter 621
Chapter 622
Chapter 623
Chapter 624
Chapter 625
Chapter 626
Chapter 627
Chapter 628
Chapter 629
Chapter 630
Chapter 631
Chapter 632
Chapter 633
Chapter 634
Chapter 635
Chapter 636
Chapter 637
Chapter 638
Chapter 639
Chapter 640
Chapter 641
Chapter 642
Chapter 643
Chapter 644
Chapter 645
Chapter 646
Chapter 647
Chapter 648
Chapter 649
Chapter 650
Chapter 701
Chapter 702
Chapter 703
Chapter 704
Chapter 705
Chapter 706
Chapter 707
Chapter 708
Chapter 709
Chapter 710
Chapter 711
Chapter 712
Chapter 713
Chapter 714
Chapter 715
Chapter 716
Chapter 717
Chapter 718
Chapter 719
Chapter 720
Chapter 721
Chapter 722
Chapter 723
Chapter 724
Chapter 725
Chapter 726
Chapter 727
Chapter 728
Chapter 729
Chapter 730
Chapter 731
Chapter 732
Chapter 733
Chapter 734
Chapter 735
Chapter 736
Chapter 737
Chapter 738
Chapter 739
Chapter 740
Chapter 741
Chapter 742
Chapter 743
Chapter 744
Chapter 745
Chapter 746
Chapter 747
Chapter 748
Chapter 749
Chapter 750
Chapter 751 Sequence 1
Chapter 752 Sequence 1
Chapter 753 Sequence 1
Chapter 754 Sequence 1
Chapter 755 Sequence 1
Chapter 756 Sequence 1
Chapter 757 Sequence 1
Chapter 758 Sequence 2
Chapter 759 Sequence 2
Chapter 760 Sequence 2
Chapter 761 Sequence 2
Chapter 762 Sequence 2
Chapter 763 Sequence 2
Chapter 764 Sequence 3
Chapter 765 Sequence 3
Chapter 766 Sequence 3
Chapter 767 Sequence 3
Chapter 768 Sequence 3
Chapter 769 Sequence 4
Chapter 770 Sequence 4
Chapter 771 Sequence 4
Chapter 772 Sequence 4
Chapter 773 Sequence 4
Chapter 774 Sequence 4
Chapter 775 Sequence 4
Chapter 776 Sequence 5
Chapter 777 Sequence 5
Chapter 778 Sequence 5
Chapter 779 Sequence 5
Chapter 780 Sequence 5
Chapter 781 Sequence 5
Chapter 782 Sequence 5
Chapter 783 Sequence 5
Chapter 784 Sequence 5
Chapter 785 Sequence 5
Chapter 786 Sequence 6
Chapter 787 Sequence 6
Chapter 788 Sequence 6
Chapter 789 Sequence 6
Chapter 790 Sequence 6
Chapter 791 Sequence 6
Chapter 792 Sequence 6
Chapter 793 Sequence 6
Chapter 794 Sequence 7
Chapter 795 Sequence 7
Chapter 796 Sequence 7
Chapter 797 Sequence 7
Chapter 798 Sequence 7
Chapter 799 Sequence 7
Chapter 800 Sequence 7
Chapter 801 Sequence 7
Chapter 802 Sequence 7
Chapter 803 Sequence 7
Chapter 804 Sequence 7
Chapter 805 Sequence 7
Chapter 806 Sequence 7
Chapter 807 Sequence 7
Chapter 808 Sequence 8
Chapter 809 Sequence 8
Chapter 810 Sequence 8
Chapter 811 Sequence 8
Chapter 812 Sequence 8
Chapter 813 Sequence 8
Chapter 814 Sequence 8
Chapter 815 Sequence 8
Chapter 816 Sequence 8
Chapter 817 Sequence 9
Chapter 818 Sequence 9
Chapter 819 Sequence 9
Chapter 820 Sequence 9
Chapter 821 Sequence 9
Chapter 822 Sequence 9
Chapter 823 Sequence 9
Chapter 824 Sequence 9
Chapter 825 Sequence 9
Chapter 826 Sequence 10
Chapter 827 Sequence 10
Chapter 828 Sequence 10
Chapter 829 Sequence 10
Chapter 830 Sequence 10
Chapter 831 Sequence 10
Chapter 832 Sequence 10
Chapter 833 Sequence 10
Chapter 834 Sequence 11
Chapter 835 Sequence 11
Chapter 836 Sequence 11
Chapter 837 Sequence 11
Chapter 838 Sequence 11
Chapter 839 Sequence 11
Chapter 840 Sequence 11
Chapter 841 Sequence 11
Chapter 842 Sequence 11
Chapter 843 Sequence 12
Chapter 844 Sequence 11
Chapter 845 Sequence 12
Chapter 846 Sequence 12
Chapter 847 Sequence 12
Chapter 848 Sequence 12
Chapter 849 Sequence 12
Chapter 850 Sequence 12
Chapter 851 Seuqence 12
Chapter 852 Sequence 12
Chapter 853 Sequence 12
Chapter 854 Sequence 12
Chapter 855 Sequence 12
Chapter 856 Sequence 12
Chapter 857 Sequence 12
Chapter 858 Sequence 12
Chapter 859 Sequence 13
Chapter 860 Sequence 13
Chapter 861 Sequence 13
Chapter 862 Sequence 13
Chapter 863 Sequence 13
Chapter 864 Sequence 13
Chapter 865 Sequence 13
Chapter 866 Sequence 13
Chapter 867 Sequence 13
Chapter 868 Sequence 13
Chapter 869 Sequence 13
Chapter 870 Sequence 13
Chapter 871 Sequence 13
Chapter 872 Sequence 13
Chapter 873 Sequence 13
Chapter 874 Sequence 14
Chapter 875 Sequence 14
Chapter 876 Sequence 14
Chapter 877 Sequence 14
Chapter 878 Sequence 14
Chapter 879 Sequence 14
Chapter 880 Sequence 14
Chapter 881 Sequence 14
Chapter 882 Sequence 14
Chapter 883 Sequence 14
Chapter 884 Sequence 14
Chapter 885 Sequence 14
Chapter 886 Sequence 14
Chapter 887 Sequence 14
Chapter 888 Sequence 14
Chapter 889 Sequence 14
Chapter 890 Sequence 14
Chapter 891 Sequence 14
Chapter 892 Crank Up 1
Chapter 893 Crank Up 1
Chapter 894 Crank Up 1
Chapter 895 Crank Up 1
Chapter 896 Crank Up 1
Chapter 897 Crank Up 1
Chapter 898 Crank Up 1
Chapter 899 Crank Up 1
Chapter 900 Crank Up 2
Chapter 901 Crank Up 2
Chapter 902 Crank Up 2
Chapter 903 Crank Up 2
Chapter 904 Crank Up 2
Chapter 905 Crank Up 2
Chapter 906 Crank Up 2
Chapter 907 Crank Up 2
Chapter 908 Crank Up 2
Chapter 909 Crank Up 2
Chapter 910 Crank Up 3
Chapter 911 Crank Up 3
Chapter 912 Crank Up 3
Chapter 913 Crank Up 3
Chapter 914 Crank Up 3
Chapter 915 Crank Up 3
Chapter 916 Crank Up 3
Chapter 917 Crank Up 3
Chapter 918 Crank Up 3
Chapter 919 Crank Up 3
Chapter 920 Crank Up 3
Chapter 921 Crank Up 3
Chapter 922 Crank Up 3
Chapter 923 Crank Up 3
Chapter 924 Crank Up 3
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Chapter 1011 Crank Up 10
Chapter 1012 Crank Up 10
Chapter 1013 Han Haneul
Chapter 1014 Han Haneul
Chapter 1015 Han Haneul
Chapter 1016 Han Haneul
Chapter 1017 Han Haneul
Chapter 1018 Han Haneul
Chapter 1019 Han Haneul
Chapter 1020 Han Haneul
Chapter 1021 Han Haneul
Chapter 1022 Han Haneul
Chapter 1023 Han Haneul
Chapter 1024 Life, Once Again! + Afterword
After Story 1
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After Story 278 (fin)